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This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

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Hong Kong: HK reports 8 imported virus cases

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating eight additional imported COVID-19 cases involving patients who arrived from Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines.

As a passenger airplane, flight RA409, operated by Nepal Airlines arriving in Hong Kong from Kathmandu, Nepal, on October 5 had three passengers confirmed to have COVID-19 by arrival testing, the Department of Health has prohibited all passenger flights from Kathmandu operated by Nepal Airlines from landing in Hong Kong from today to October 20.

A total of 76 cases were reported in Hong Kong in the past 14 days, all of which are imported.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Governments dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2021-10-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: 10 pre-sale consents issued

The Lands Department issued 10 pre-sale consents for residential and non-residential developments in the third quarter.

Eight were issued for eight residential developments, involving a total of 5,809 residential units.

Five developments in Ap Lei Chau, Kai Tak, Tsing Yi, Tseung Kwan O and Yuen Long, comprising 3,799 units, are expected to be completed in 2022. Three developments in Wong Chuk Hang, Kowloon Tong and Sha Tin, comprising 2,010 units, are expected to be completed in 2023.

The other two pre-sale consents belong to non-residential developments, the department added.

By the end of September, 21 applications for pre-sale consent for residential developments with a total of 9,284 units and two applications for pre-sale consent for non-residential developments were being processed.

One consent to assign was issued involving 699 residential units in a phased development in Yuen Long.

In addition, the department is handling seven applications for consent to assign involving 4,546 residential units.

This story has been published on: 2021-10-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Congratulations! Suzhou Museum West is unveiled to the public on Sep. 29, 2021.

Suzhou Museum was built in 1960, redesigned by the world-famous architect, I.M.Pei in 2004, and reopened to the public in 2006.

The West Hall was designed by GMP, a global renowned Germany design company. Some people joked it consisted of ten boxes. In fact, it looks like ten square lattices if we see it from the air.

The museum has 5 main exhibition halls including Suzhou history, Suzhou arts, international cooperation, multimedia display, exploration and experience.

In the History Hall, visitors can learn Suzhou history well through over 1200 cultural relics since over 10 thousand years ago, some of which are rarely displayed.

In the Arts Hall, more than 800 exquisite handcrafts of Suzhou were displayed, which is said to contribute to the development of Chinese traditional culture and arts.

The top highlight is the International Cooperation Hall; it is said that the museum has already signed a contract with the British Museum for consecutive 4 years themed on the world civilization.











The museum seems like a window, where visitors can learn the world civilization without leaving Suzhou and China.

It exhibits about 267 cultural relics targeted on the Ancient Roman Empire in the first year, which were imported from the British Museum.




NEWS PROVIDED BY

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Sept. 29, 2021



NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue discusses what is happening in the classroom:

The new school year is off to a wild start. Perversion, anti-Americanism, and racism are being taught in some schools, and it's happening at all levels, from K-graduate school. Those pushing this sick agenda are imbued with hate: their animus is clearly directed at Western civilization, the very home to liberty and equality they have targeted for assault.

In one Minnesota school district, a sex education class asks heterosexual students to engage in role playing, pretending they are homosexual; they are also asked to consider whether they should have sex with each other. Other students in the Richfield School District are asked to pretend that they belong to the opposite sex, and to consider whether they should have sex with a woman. In a gesture toward inclusivity, they are taught about anal sex. This begins in kindergarten.

In a more sane time, the educators would be arrested for child abuse.

Fairfax High School in Virginia was the site of a recent school board blowup. One of the parents, Stacy Langton, complained that the school library housed porn books that discussed man-boy sex; they also featured illustrations of oral sex, masturbation and "violent nudity."

She also read aloud obscene words from the books about the male sex organ and fellatio, only to be interrupted by a female school board member who was worriednow she was worried!that children in the room might hear what was being said. Langton was not deterred and kept on talking.

In a more sane time, the school would be sued for corrupting the morals of minors.

Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles started the year with a deranged teacher who took down the American flag from the classroom. Inserted in its place were a Palestinian flag, the transgender flag, a Black Lives Matter flag and "the modern PRIDE flag." Hanging from the wall were posters saying, "F*** THE POLICE" and "F*** AMERIKKKA. THIS IS NATIVE LAND."

In a more sane time, the teacher would have been terminated.

The public school system in Evanston, Illinois started the academic year with a pending lawsuit against it. The officials who run it are teaching children about the horrors of being a white person. That's just for starters. They are teaching third, fourth, and fifth graders that "it is important to disrupt the Western nuclear family dynamics as the best/proper way to have a family." They explicitly denounce as "normal" the family that consists of "mom, dad, son, daughter, and pet."

So what family form should we emulate? Dysfunctional ones? Of course, in the racist mindset of these anti-Western civilization maniacs, there is no such things as "dysfunctional" familiesthey are simply "alternative families."

In a more sane society, the school system would be branded as racist and the administrators would be quarantined.

It's not just in the elementary and secondary schools where insanity reigns. Columbia University has a new program where students are implored to "critically engage with whiteness." They specifically target white students who claim to be "liberal, progressive, and a champion of social justice." Looks like conservative students are written off as hopeless, and are therefore exempt from these thought control exercises.

American University and Western Washington University have decided to follow the lead of schools like Stanford University by introducing segregated housing for black students. "Black Affinity Housing" is what these dorms are being called. George Wallace must be smiling from his grave. And a professor from Virginia Tech recently told students that she was working "on a daily basis to be antiracist and confront the innate racism" within herself, which, she said, was the "reality and history of white people."

In a more sane society, the segregationists and the confessed white racist would be arrested for violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Pope Benedict XVI warned us many times about the attacks on our Judeo-Christian heritage. His only mistake was in underestimating the extent to which educational elites have literally gone off the deep end.

In a more sane society, the elites would be straightjacketed and taken to the nearest asylum. If they were lucky, that is.
Eternal Joy in Christ: What the Catholic Church Actually Teaches about Morality

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Ascension

Sept. 29, 2021



WEST CHESTER, Penn., Sept. 29, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- In new release "Made by God, Made for God: Catholic Morality Explained," moral theologian Dr. Matthew K. Minerd takes skillful and cheerful aim at common misconceptions about Catholic morality, deftly weaving texts from Scripture and Catholic saints together to show that the Catholic view of morality is about a destiny of eternal joy rather than one of doleful duty.



In the introduction, Dr. Minerd invites his audience warmly: "My only desire is to tell you, my reader, a little tale about this wonderful vocation to which we are all called, a vocation which is in fact a participation in the greatest gift ever given, the very life of God."



For its scholarly authority and amiable tone, the book has received a standing ovation of endorsements from Catholic theologians from Rome to Washington, DC, such as:

"This eloquent and luminous book makes Catholic moral teaching accessible to all, in a universal language that preserves the fullness of the truth, and communicates it with warmth and humanity. It is highly to be recommended!" - Fr. Thomas Joseph White, O.P. (Rector, Magnificus Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome)



"Matthew Minerd is a treasure and this book reflects it  Many books of moral theology read as though they arent meant for living people, but this one is addressed to all who have ears to hear!" - Matthew Levering, Ph.D. (James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary, IL)

Additional endorsements from Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, OP, Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB, are available by request (Newsroom@AscensionPress.com).



For his own part, Minerd explains that he undertook writing this book as a gift to his fellow believers, particularly those who might not have the opportunity to study theology formally:



"As a scholar, I have encountered so many incredible gems in my work as a Catholic theologian. The people of God deserve to have this kind of content! And so I wrote this book precisely to show that these truths are not just truths that we memorize, but are truths that we live."



Buy the Book

To order a copy: www.AscensionPress.com/CatholicMorality

To view the trailer: YouTube



Biography for Dr. Matthew K. Minerd

Matthew K. Minerd, Ph.D., is a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic husband and father serving as a professor of philosophy and moral theology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, PA. His scholarly and popular writings have been published in many academic journals such as The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and his translations of academic texts have been published by The Catholic University of America Press, Emmaus Academic, and Cluny Media. Learn more about the Byzantine Catholic Church here.



About Ascension

Ascension is a multimedia network and the leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content. Over the past 20 years, Ascension has helped nurture the faith of over 10 million people in over 8,000 parishes through more than 50 unique faith formation programs and the Ascension Presents media and YouTube platforms.



Media Contact

For author interviews or other media inquiries, please contact Lauren Joyce at Newsroom@AscensionPress.com.



SOURCE Ascension



CONTACT: Lauren Joyce, Newsroom@AscensionPress.com


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CAAV warns airlines over early ticket selling

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has asked local airlines to stop selling tickets for domestic routes until further notice.



CAAV warns airlines over early ticket selling







The CAAV has sent official documents to Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, Vietjet Air, Bamboo Airways and Vietravel Airlines to stop selling tickets.



In early September, CAAV gathered opinions to reopen domestic flight routes while fighting Covid-19. According to the CAAV, the number of passengers from green to other zones will not be limited. Flights from yellow and red zones to other zones will only serve state employees and frontline workers. All passengers must be tested negative for Covid-19 72 hours before departure. They must also have been fully vaccinated and quarantined.



However, the Ministry of Transport is still drafting a detailed travel plan for all transport modes including aviation, maritime, railway, inland waterways, and road while provinces and cities ease social distancing rules.



According to the proposed plan, in the first phase, the number of flights must be less than 50 percent of the number of flights in the first 10 days of April, before the fourth Covid-19 wave broke out in late April.



The number of flights in the second phase will be less than 70 percent of the number of flights in the first 10 days of April. In the third phase, the number of flights must not exceed the total flights in the first 10 days of April. All activities will return to normal in the fourth phase. Each phase will last for 10 days.



Since the fourth Covid-19 outbreak broke out, many city and provincial authorities have issued a travel ban so the Ministry of Transport is still reviewing and working with each province and city to lift the ban.



According to the ministry, they hope to reopen the domestic flight routes soon in provinces and cities that have lifted all social distancing rules and even in areas that still have some parts under social distancing in order to recover the economy.
Takeoff and landing fees halved for airlines

Fees for takeoff and landing for domestic flights have been halved for airlines amid the Covid-19 pandemic.



Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The has issued a circular on the fees for some airport services.





Fees for takeoff and landing for domestic flights have been halved for airlines amid the Covid-19 pandemic





Under Circular 21, between January 1 to December 31 this year, the takeoff and landing fees for domestic flights would be slashed by 50 percent against those regulated in the Ministry of Transports Circular 53 issued in 2019.



Airlines are allowed to work with airport service providers on the settlement of these kinds of fees from January 1 this year until the time Circular 21 was issued.



From January 1, 2022, takeoff and landing service fees will return to the levels set in Circular 53.



Meanwhile, under the Minister of Transports approval, some fees for other services such as hiring parking areas and check-in stalls from January 1 to December 31 this year will be waived.



According to Circular 53, the takeoff and landing fees range from VND765,000 (USD33.26) to VND11.6 million per flight, depending on different kinds of airplanes.



The fourth Covid-19 wave that hit Vietnam by the end of April has severely affected Vietnamese airlines. Some new firms like Vietravel Airlines have had to suspend all its air routes.



The Ministry of Transport has planned to resume aviation activities after October 1 as the situation in many localities, including HCM City, has been gradually brought under control.
The complex business of building a workable Dutch coalition

The headline in the New York Times said it all: "Geert Wilders falls short as wary Dutch scatter their votes."

GALLERY

Geert Wilders on the 16th of May 2017.

Amsterdam (dpa) - The populist leader is for the present out of contention for a role in any new Dutch coalition. It is clear from sentiment in The Hague and the Dutch press that Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the man of the hour and will play the dominant role in the process.But those scattered votes spell trouble for Rutte. "It will take some time, I believe," he told Dutch radio on Thursday before the final votes had been counted."It is likely to be a complex coalition formation. You will see parties sitting down with each other for a number of weeks."The next step is for an "informateur" to be appointed - a senior and respected elder statesman or stateswoman who will scout out the possibilities. Where the monarch used to have a role, parliament has taken over since 2012.The process is not clearly defined, but in general the leader of the largest party - Rutte in this case - is called on to be "formateur" and asked to seek out potential partners.If all goes well, this formateur is then the future prime minister.All does not always go well. The process of forming a workable government took 54 days in 2012 and 127 in 2010. More than six months - 208 days - were needed in 1977.The party leaders are reported to have scheduled a meeting Thursday with the chairperson of the lower house, Khadija Arib, to decide on how to proceed, but it is likely to be days before any progress is reported.Rutte, whose liberal pro-market VVD has 33 seats, needs at least three partners to secure the 76 seats needed for a bare majority.He has categorically ruled out Wilders. "No, never, no," he told the country in a pre-election televised debate.Candidates include the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the centrist D66, both with 19 seats. But that leaves him five seats short.His former partner, the Labour Party (PvdA) is on nine seats, but the severe setback it received in falling from 38 seats in 2012 means it is likely to retire to the opposition benches to regroup.Green Left and the Socialists (SP), both on 14 seats, seem unlikely partners, as do the leftist Christian Union and the strongly environmentalist Party for the Animals, each with precisely the five seats that Rutte needs.
EU agrees to lift Belarus sanctions in bid for closer relations

EU foreign ministers decided Monday to lift the bulk of the bloc's sanctions against Belarus, in recognition of democratic progress made by the former Soviet state, paving the way for closer relations - despite lingering human rights concerns.

GALLERY

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko (C) with his youngest son Nikolai (R) during a Victory Day parade in Minsk, Belarus, 09 May 2015.

Brussels (dpa) - Belarus has been called Europes last dictatorship, but its dealings with the European Union and the United States have warmed since Minsks release of political prisoners and the countrys contribution to a deal on the Ukraine crisis.In October, following a broadly democratic presidential election, Brussels suspended travel bans and asset freezes against 170 people - including President Alexander Lukashenko - and three entities until February 29. Washington also offered sanctions relief to nine Belarusian entities.EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to permanently lift the suspended sanctions once they expire at the end of the month."There is an opportunity for EU-Belarus relations to develop on a more positive agenda," they said in a joint statement, acknowledging positive steps taken over the past two years.The Belarusian Foreign Ministry welcomed the decision - which must now be put into law - as an opportunity to strengthen collaboration and regional stability.This rapprochement "clearly proves that only dialogue is the most effective tool for settlement of disputes," ministry spokesman Dmitry Mironchik said in a statement."This decision marks an important phase on the way towards full normalization of relations and opens new possibilities for broadening comprehensive interaction between Belarus and the EU," the statement added.The ministers decided, however, to keep an existing arms embargo in place for 12 more months, along with restrictive measures on four people thought to be involved in the disappearance of regime critics 15 years ago.Despite the recent signs of progress out of Minsk, rights groups worry that serious shortfalls remain in the areas of democracy and human rights, including the existence of the death penalty, a practice opposed by the EU.Member states had been divided over the best course of action, with some believing that sanctions relief will improve the situation in Belarus, while others preferred to retain some leverage over Minsk."This is clearly not a rosy or perfect picture, far from that," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, adding that ministers had "agreed on a critical engagement - where some might underline more the critical, some might underline more the engagement.""I think that what we have on the table today is a good compromise," added Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, whose country had lobbied for keeping sanctions in place.The remaining measures will make it easier to ratchet up pressure on Minsk if the situation deteriorates again, an EU diplomat noted on condition of anonymity.Belarus is one of six former Soviet states with whom the EU has sought closer relations, under its Eastern Partnership programme.The policy has strained relations with Russia, notably in the case of Ukraine where the attempt to forge closer ties between Brussels and Kiev triggered the countrys current crisis.
Report: German liberals want finance minister in Merkel coalition

Germany's liberal Free Democrats (FDP) want the role of finance minister if they enter a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel after the upcoming election, local media has quoted the party as saying.

GALLERY

Speaking at a special party conference, Christian Lindner said that he saw no chance of the Greens gaining third place behind the top two parties, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD).

Berlin (dpa) - "The FDP should not enter a government in which it cannot put forward the finance minister," FDP executive Alexander Hahn told tabloid newspaper Bild on Sunday. "Only in this way can key election promises such as better education financing and a reform of the tax system be guaranteed," he added.The role of finance minister is currently held by Wolfgang Schaeuble from Merkels conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).Michael Fuchs from the CDU told Bild that Schaeuble was an "excellent finance minister" who should retain the position after the election.The FDP lost all of its seats in the last election in 2013 and has now a good chance of entering Germanys federal parliament after the election on September 24, as current polls indicate they have support ranging between nine and 10 per cent.The battle for third place in Germanys elections is between the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), the FDP leader said Sunday, with just one week to go before the poll.Speaking at a special party conference, Christian Lindner said that he saw no chance of the Greens gaining third place behind the top two parties, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD).The Greens are currently the fourth-biggest party in parliament.The AfD, which he described as a party with "nationalist-authoritarian" ideals, need not be the leader of the opposition in parliament, Lindner said. If Chancellor Angela Merkels CDU win and form another grand coalition with the SPD, then the FDP must step up as the main opposition voice, he said. If the CDU formed another type of coalition, then the SPD would be the main opposition, he argued.
The long legal road to ban Germany's right-wing NPD party

Nearly 14 years after Germany's first attempt to ban the right-wing NPD party failed on legal grounds, the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe will issue a new ruling on the matter.

GALLERY

The Federal Constitutional Court announces it will issue a verdict on January 17, 2017.

Karlsruhe (dpa) - A timeline of key events along the way:- MARCH 2003: Judges in Karlsruhe drop the first case to ban the NPD, which was pursued by the federal government and both chambers of parliament in the face of rising violence by right-wing activists.Revelations that intelligence officials held leadership positions within the NPD raised questions about the states own possible role in abetting NPD activities, thereby contaminating the evidence to be considered.- AUGUST 2007: A new proposal to ban the NPD is drafted after a group of youths chase down eight Indians in the eastern German town of Muegeln.- APRIL 2008: SPD state interior ministers say that before a ban on the NPD can be sought, intelligence-gathering links to the party must first be "shut down" and new information collected. The centre-right CDU/CSU rejects any new attempt to seek a ban.- MARCH 2012: State interior ministers agree to systematically gather evidence against the NPD, ruling out the use of liaison officers in the NPD leadership.- NOVEMBER 2012: The NPD asks the Constitutional Court to review the partys allegiance to the constitution, arguing that accusations that the party is unconstitutional violated its rights. The court rejects the case in March 2013.- DECEMBER 2012: Parliaments upper chamber, the Bundesrat, approves starting new proceedings to ban the NPD. The state of Hessen abstains in the vote.- MARCH 2013: The coalition government of the CDU/CSU and FDP decides against joining the Bundesrats motion. In April, the lower house Bundestag also rejects seeking a ban.- DECEMBER 2013: The Bundesrat files a new ban motion.- MAY 2015: Germanys 16 states provide the Constitutional Court with new evidence that the activities of secret informants had been shut down.- MARCH 2016: In three days of hearings in Karlsruhe, lawyers for the Bundesrat and NPD, experts and politicians debate the issue. Judges appear to place greater importance on the political influence exerted by the NPD.- OCTOBER 2016: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg rejects a complaint filed by the NPD that it is being stigmatised as unconstitutional in Germany.- NOVEMBER 2016: The Federal Constitutional Court announces it will issue a verdict on January 17, 2017.- DECEMBER 2016: The tabloid Bild reports that the Berlin government, in an internal assessment, does not expect the Karlsruhe judges to approve the NPD ban.
Prague (dpa) - International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Friday suggested a complete overhaul of work done by the World Anti-Doping Agency and having the Court of Arbitration for Sport as the sole body to hand out sanctions.



Speaking at the assembly of the European Olympic Committees in Prague, Bachs proposals also included setting up an intelligence-gathering body within WADA.



Bach said that last month an Olympic Summit proposed "an initiative to make the anti-doping system more independent of sports organisations."



WADA has agreed this week to look into it, and Bach offered his three proposals as "some food for thought" in order "to ensure a streamlined, efficient and worldwide harmonised anti-doping system."




Macron pledges law to shield election campaigns from 'false news'

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday his government planned to bring forward a law to help limit the impact of fake news on future election campaigns.

GALLERY



Under the new law, Macron said, cases of spreading false news during election campaigns could be referred to a judge, and possible sanctions for offenders would include deleting content, de-listing or blocking sites, or closing accounts."> The term "fake news" has been popularized by US President Donald Trump, who has used it to attack news reports he disagrees with.



Under the new law, Macron said, cases of spreading false news during election campaigns could be referred to a judge, and possible sanctions for offenders would include deleting content, de-listing or blocking sites, or closing accounts. Under the new law, Macron said, cases of spreading false news during election campaigns could be referred to a judge, and possible sanctions for offenders would include deleting content, de-listing or blocking sites, or closing accounts.">

Paris (dpa) - Macron told journalists gathered for a New Years message in the Elysee Palace that their profession was threatened by "the eruption into the media of false news ... and the media that propagate it."The announcement comes amid widespread concern in Western Europe about the alleged role of Russian-owned media and Russian-backed social media accounts in backing populist forces during elections.The term "fake news" has been popularized by US President Donald Trump, who has used it to attack news reports he disagrees with.Under the new law, Macron said, cases of spreading false news during election campaigns could be referred to a judge, and possible sanctions for offenders would include deleting content, de-listing or blocking sites, or closing accounts. Internet platforms would be obliged to publish the names of advertisers of sponsored content and to limit the amounts spent on such content.Macron said the national television regulator would also have increased powers to deal with "any attempt at destabilization by television services controlled or influenced by foreign countries." The liberal, pro-EU French president has previously criticized Russian-owned media Sputnik and RT as organs of propaganda - charges they deny.During last years election race between Macron and right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, then-foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Macrons campaign had been the victim of hacker attacks coming from Russia.Macron said Wednesday that fake news was "a strategy, a funded strategy, intended ... to bring about the belief that everything politicians and the media says is more or less always a lie." The effect, Macron said, was "to sap confidence in the democratic game." "We know that it works, we have seen it in practice," he said. "Abroad, but also in France." "If we want to protect our liberal democracies, we must be strong and we must have clear rules," Macron said.The French president promised that the law would be drafted in consultation with press groups. "None of the freedoms of the press must be called into question by this text," Macron said.Le Pen called Macrons proposal "very worrying." "Control of free speech on the internet, further judicialization of society: Is France still a democracy if it muzzles its citizens?" she wrote on Twitter.
Serbian Premier Vucic's party projected to win parliamentary election

Conservative Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Progressive Party (SNS) win their third consecutive parliamentary elections in Serbia, according to an unofficial projection based on exit polling.
Merkel's coalition partner gives backing to EU-Canada trade deal

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) - junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) - agreed Monday to back the EU-Canada trade deal CETA after some convincing from their party leader.

GALLERY

SPD leader and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel brought sceptics from his own ranks on board by promising greater inclusion for national parliaments and other interest groups in the negotiating process.

Berlin (dpa) - The majority of around 250 SPD delegates at a party conference in Wolfsburg voted to support the controversial deal, dpa has learned.Critics say the deal to eliminate 98 per cent of tariffs, allowing the free flow of goods and services between Canada and EU member states, would give multinational corporations undue power in European markets.SPD leader and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel brought sceptics from his own ranks on board by promising greater inclusion for national parliaments and other interest groups in the negotiating process.The party did not give an exact breakdown of the result. Gabriel said two-thirds of the delegates came out in favour of CETA.Gabriel has been a vocal proponent of the deal and Mondays vote was interpreted as a referendum on his hopes of challenging Merkel in next years general election.Merkels governing coalition requires the support of the left-leaning SPD in order to support CETA. The partys vote to back the move keeps EU officials push for its temporary implementation in late October on track.The vote comes as public support for CETA and the much larger Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US is flagging on both sides of the Atlantic.Some 320,000 people rallied against the trade deals in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich on Saturday.
Xi calls for accelerating building of world center for talent, innovation

Xinhua) 08:04, September 29, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at a central conference on talent-related work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held on Monday and Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to implement the strategy on developing a quality workforce in the new era and to accelerate the work to build China into a major world center of professional talent and innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when speaking at a central conference on talent-related work, which was held on Monday and Tuesday.

Xi underlined the CPC's leadership over talent management.

Xi called for efforts to speed up China's upgrade toward a major world center of talent and innovation, to support the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist China in all respects by 2050.

The conference was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Huning made concluding remarks.

The CPC has attached great importance to talent management during its century-long endeavor, Xi noted, adding that historical achievements and changes have been made in this regard since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

China now has a large number of well-trained professionals who play an increasingly prominent role in the country's development, Xi said.

Never in history has China been closer to the goal of national rejuvenation and never in history has it been in greater need of talented people, Xi stressed.

As the country's development and national rejuvenation depend on a quality workforce, China should pay greater attention to fostering people with talent through its own efforts and sharpening its competitive edge in human resources, he said.

Xi listed eight principles in this regard.

-- Upholding the CPC's overall leadership over human resources work;

-- Making human resources the priority in the country's development;

-- Focusing on world-level cutting-edge technologies, the main economic fields, the country's critical needs, and the people's health;

-- Promoting the comprehensive fostering of people with talent;

-- Deepening institutional reform related to talent development;

-- Assembling the best minds and drawing fully on their expertise;

-- Creating a favorable environment in which people with talent are easily identified, well valued and respected, and fully display their talent;

-- Promoting the spirit of scientists.

Specifying the objectives for talent-related work, Xi said that by the year 2025, China will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams.

By 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas, Xi said.

By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world, he added.

Calling for making strategic plans, Xi said efforts should be made to build high-caliber talent hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Stressing further reforming the system and mechanisms for talent development, Xi said scientists should be given more power to decide on technological routes, and more funding and resources should be placed at their disposal.

Xi also called for better cultivating strategic scientists and letting them play their roles, and nurturing a large number of top sci-tech leaders and innovation teams, young sci-tech talent and outstanding engineers.

"We must strive to foster a team of engineers who follow the Party, are patriotic, devote themselves to their careers, have outstanding ability to make technological innovation, and are good at solving complex problems," he said.

Universities and colleges -- especially those of "Double First-Class" (namely world-class universities and first-class disciplines) -- should play a leading role in fostering talent in basic research, Xi said.

He stressed the need to cultivate a talent pool in various areas, such as philosophers, social scientists and artists, and the need to enhance international exchange.

Xi also called for establishing a trust-based human resources system that tolerates failures and encourages leading sci-tech professionals to take on new tasks and responsibilities.

He stressed maintaining a correct political orientation in talent-related work, fostering patriotism and the sense of responsibility among talented people, optimizing the commendation and reward system, and fostering a culture of respecting talent.

Li Keqiang, who presided over the conference, said that Xi's important speech sets the fundamental course for talent-related work in the new era. He stressed continuing to break new ground for talent-related work.

Wang Huning, in his concluding remarks, called for a thorough study and implementation of Xi's new ideas, strategies and measures in talent-related work in the new era. Wang also stressed the need to study, publicize and implement the guidelines of the conference.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Top U.S. general calls Afghan war "strategic failure"

Xinhua) 08:14, September 29, 2021

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley testifies before the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," said Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan.

"It is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," he said, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

Milley and McKenzie said they believed the United States should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and a quick drawdown from the country could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military.

Taliban members are seen on a military vehicle at Kabul airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Such comments seemed to contradict President Joe Biden's words in an interview last month, in which he said no military officials advised him to keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline.

Meanwhile, Milley and Pentagon chief Austin stressed that the sudden collapse of the Afghan military was beyond their expectation.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise," said Austin.

Milley noted that most intelligence assessments indicated the collapse "would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring."

Top military commanders pointed to the agreement reached between the United States and Taliban in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions, had a demoralizing impact on the Afghan military.

The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30 under Biden's order, ending 20 years of occupation. The hasty and chaotic evacuations drew fierce criticism from both home and abroad.

A paratrooper conducts security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2021. (U.S. Army Photo by Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett/Handout via Xinhua)

Milley admitted in the hearing that the withdrawal damaged U.S. credibility. "Damage is one word that could be used."

He also raised terrorism threats that could potentially emerge from Afghanistan in the near future.

Reflecting on the Afghan war, Austin questioned if the United States had the right strategy in the past two decades, adding that Washington might never fully comprehend the situation on the ground, including the depth of corruption in Kabul.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed only 26 percent of Americans believed the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, and 69 percent of the public said the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Dialogue among civilizations key to ironing out clashes

Xinhua) 08:29, September 29, 2021

-- Themed "dialogue among civilizations and global cooperation," the Nishan Forum on World civilizations saw its seventh gathering at Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius in east China's Shandong Province.

-- Experts from home and abroad agreed that only dialogue-based cooperation with mutual respect is the ultimate way out for the global challenges confronting all mankind, and for human civilization to march along.

-- In China, Confucianism has been deeply involved with the country's achievements, such as poverty alleviation, supporting other countries in battling COVID-19, expanding free-trade ports and zones and sparing no efforts to expand opening up.

JINAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic, wars, ecological crisis and disparities between the rich and the poor are still confronting humankind and testing the resilience of different civilizations, the Confucian philosophies have once again shed light upon solutions for the issues.

Themed "dialogue among civilizations and global cooperation," the Nishan Forum on World Civilizations on Monday saw its seventh gathering at Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius in east China's Shandong Province.

The forum offers a platform for renowned scholars and experts in cultural studies to forge better understanding on enhancing dialogues among different cultures.

Participants attend the Seventh Nishan Forum on World Civilizations, a forum on Confucius culture, in Qufu, east China's Shandong Province, Sept. 27, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

Participants this year acknowledge that differences existing in social systems, development models, ideologies and cultures among countries should not become an obstacle for conversations. The world ought to be home to diverse civilizations, and civilizations can blossom based on dialogue of mutual respect.

They believe that dialogues advocated in traditional Chinese culture are still the way to fix bonds among countries that seem to drift apart. Communication still is the mainstream motivation driving human civilization to march forward and evolve over time. Equal dialogue among different civilizations has always been the theme of the Nishan Forum.

Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you -- Confucius

Serving as the general director of the forum's academic group for five consecutive sessions, Wang Xuedian, executive dean of the Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies of Shandong University, said that the forum has aimed to help solve disputes in the world through dialogue from the very beginning.

"It has been a decade since the forum was first held. Jeopardized by geopolitical confrontation and the COVID-19 pandemic, dialogue among civilizations seems to be halted. Some people even hold a rather pessimistic view about the fate of mankind," Wang said.

However, on the premise of mutual respect for the diversity of civilizations, dialogue is always the right solution. Mutual respect is the key. Cultures have their own strengths and weaknesses. Each of them represents different solutions for mankind to cope with existential crises that might come up. Learning from each other through dialogue is the best way for mankind to solve their own problems, Wang noted.

Harmony without uniformity -- Confucius

At the forum, more than 180 experts from home and abroad jointly proposed that the world now requires dialogue, not confrontation. They agreed that only dialogue-based cooperation with mutual respect is the ultimate way out for the global challenges confronting all mankind, and for human civilization to march along.

Their collective opinion echoes China's advocation for welcoming helpful suggestions and constructive criticism while opposing sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture others.

The confidence stems from the tolerance and diversity rooted in Chinese culture. Feng Jingwu, professor at China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, said the Chinese culture is always reckoned as a combination of multiple thoughts since ancient Chinese philosophers proposed thousands of years ago that the world would not step forward until everything exist harmoniously in diversity.

A ceremony marking the 2,572nd anniversary of the birth of ancient Chinese educator and thinker Confucius is held at the Confucius Temple in Qufu, east China's Shandong Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

"Harmony in diversity is exactly the background of China's developing path," said Feng at the forum. "Instead of invading and exploiting others, China has always been dedicated to winning by virtue."

According to experts at the forum, seeking harmony in diversity is regarded as a fundamental item of Confucianism, due to its historical background. Confucius lived more than 2,000 years ago, when war erupted frequently and people hardly led stable lives.

"The reality might have enlightened the Chinese sage," said Yang Chaoming, head of the Confucius Research Institute. If Confucius had never experienced troubled times, his values and thoughts may not be so profound and appropriate to the present situation.

When the Great Way prevailed, a public spirit ruled all under Heaven -- Book of Rites

Roger T. Ames, an expert in Confucianism and visiting professor at Peking University, held that the biggest problem facing mankind is individualism, as people do not trust each other, and that the Chinese traditional culture may be the solution. Confucianism features inclusiveness. Different cultures connected with each other internally.

In China, Confucianism has been deeply involved with the country's achievements, such as poverty alleviation, supporting other countries in battling COVID-19, expanding free-trade ports and zones and sparing no efforts to expand opening up.

"This is a peaceful development path driven by Confucianism and traditional Chinese culture, which will benefit all parts of the world," Yang said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Chinese envoy calls for creation of favorable conditions for progress in Syrian political process

Xinhua) 08:48, September 29, 2021

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2021 shows a view of the Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

China hopes the sixth session of the Constitutional Committee will start as scheduled and produce positive results while staying independent and free from external interference, said a Chinese envoy.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called on Syrian parties and the international community to create favorable conditions for progress in Syria's political process.

An early end to the 10-year-old Syrian crisis is the shared aspirations of the international community and the Syrian people. The ongoing violence, terrorism, and suffering of the people highlight the necessity and urgency of a political solution, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

China supports the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254 and the advancement of a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process, he told the Security Council.

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen has just announced the good news that the sixth session of the Constitutional Committee will be convened soon. China hopes the session will start as scheduled and produce positive results while staying independent and free from external interference, said Geng.

But he cautioned that the Syrian political process cannot operate in a vacuum.

The UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (L) meets with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Damascus, Syria, on Feb. 22, 2021. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

"If there is a serious lack of mutual trust among parties, it is hard for the Constitutional Committee to make any substantive progress. If schemes for regime change still exist, the work by Special Envoy Pedersen is bound to be difficult," he said.

China calls on the Syrian parties to actively cooperate with the special envoy in his work, strive to narrow differences and build consensus through dialogue and consultation. At the same time, the international community should create favorable conditions for the political process, he said.

Foreign forces without the authorization of the Syrian government should withdraw immediately. Illegal unilateral sanctions against Syria should be lifted immediately. Any scheme to impose an external solution should be renounced immediately. Economic plunder of Syria should end immediately, said Geng. "Only by fully respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and the right of its people to choose independently the political system and development path can there be the possibility and hope for a successful political settlement."

Terrorism is the common menace facing humanity. Counter-terrorism can serve as the starting point for parties to carry out cooperation and build mutual trust on the Syrian issue. All parties should support the Syrian government in combating terrorist organizations listed by the Security Council, avoid double standards and political manipulation, said Geng.

People shop at a market in Damascus, Syria, July 13, 2021. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

The international community has reached a high degree of consensus on alleviating the suffering of the Syrian people. Therefore, assisting Syria in improving people's livelihood and combating the pandemic can become another priority area of cooperation among parties. Opposing the Syrian government cannot justify punishing the Syrian people, he said.

Geng also said the Security Council should streamline the current briefings on Syria. Devoting three meetings per month to the Syrian issue takes up too much of the council's resources. China supports a gradual adjustment to combine the briefings on the political situation and humanitarian issues, and to give more considerations to closed-door consultations.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
"Lie of the century" about Xinjiang will eventually be exposed

09:02, September 29, 2021 By Zhong Sheng ( People's Daily

Cadres dispatched to Gudao village, Shawan, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, joins a livestream marketing activity with local farmers, Sept. 1, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Lan Ling)

China's State Council Information Office on Sept. 26 issued a white paper detailing the demographic development in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with facts and figures.

Over the past 70 years, Xinjiang has seen rapid and steady population growth, improving population quality, higher life expectancy, and faster urbanization and modernization. All the ethnic groups enjoy unity, harmony, common progress, prosperity, and happy lives under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), says the white paper titled Xinjiang Population Dynamics and Data that powerfully refutes the lies fabricated and spread by foreign anti-China forces.

Xinjiang's demographic development bears witness to the region's social progress. It marks the success of a unified multiethnic country in ensuring the healthy population growth of its ethnic minorities.

According to the white paper, Xinjiang's population reached 25.85 million last year, nearly six times of that in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded. Work to remedy the backward economic and social situation in Xinjiang began immediately after 1949. The population of Xinjiang, particularly that of its ethnic minorities, has grown fast in both size and quality, and life expectancy has seen a substantial increase. Today, the region enjoys rapid growth in all areas and a stable and secure society. The ethnic groups there live in peace and contentment, and their population is experiencing healthy and balanced development. The success of Xinjiang's evolving demographics is unparalleled in history and is apparent to any person who respects facts.

Xinjiang has entered an optimal period for development. Last year, the population of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang reached 14.93 million, 10.48 million more than that in 1953. In recent years, law-based deradicalization has been implemented in Xinjiang. The interference of religious extremism has been eradicated in administration, judicature, education, marriage, and health care. Late marriage and childbearing, and sound maternal and child care have become a mainstream social attitude. Benefiting from consistent social stability, Xinjiang's population, particularly that of ethnic minority groups, will continue to maintain steady growth in the near term, improving the population's quality and encouraging greater social and geographic mobility.

In recent years, various anti-China forces have been accusing China of actions such as "forced labor" and "mandatory sterilizations," trying to vilify China's governance of the region with accusations of "genocide." However, these groundless accusations only stand in sharp contrast to the fact that China, including Xinjiang, is becoming better and better. They are devoid of any truth. They are a libel against China's Xinjiang policy and the successes achieved in developing the region, and a serious violation of international law and the basic principles of international relations.

Alfred de Zayas, a former independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said that evidence-free allegations of "genocide" in China's Xinjiang are propaganda driven by ulterior motives and symptoms of Sinophobia and violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

By fabricating lies related to Xinjiang, foreign anti-China forces are trying to demonize China and contain the country's development politically. Such vicious attempts are destined to fail.

More and more countries and international personages that support justice are standing out to nail the lies about Xinjiang. At the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, nearly 100 countries expressed their support for China's stance through joint statements, national statements, and joint letters. They made it clear that Xinjiang affairs are entirely China's internal affairs that brook no interference by any country, and that they oppose interference in China's domestic affairs under the pretext of human rights issues. Their voices once again proved that the forces trying to contain China by playing the Xinjiang card would never be supported, and the lies these forces have fabricated about the autonomous region would eventually be torn up.

Thick mountains could not stop the river from flowing into the sea. The Chinese government will continue to safeguard China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, and contribute to the common unity, development, and prosperity of all ethnic groups. The CPC's strategy for governance in Xinjiang in the new era will not change. The country will govern Xinjiang in accordance with the law, maintain stability through ethnic unity, strengthen cultural identity and bonds, bring greater prosperity to the region and its people, and develop Xinjiang from a long-term perspective. It will constantly promote unity, harmony, and cultural progress and strive for a prosperous and eco-friendly Xinjiang under socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, where people live and work in peace and contentment.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China has built worlds most modern railway network

09:06, September 29, 2021 By Lu Yanan ( People's Daily

Photo taken on July 10, 2021 shows a Fuxing intelligent bullet train running on a high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Harbin, capital of northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province. (Peoples Daily Online/Sun Lijun)

China is testing a new high-speed railway linking Ganzhou city in east Chinas Jiangxi province and Shenzhen city, south Chinas Guangdong province, a section of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed railway connecting the countrys capital city with its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

With a total length of 436.37 km and a designed top speed of 350 km per hour, the Ganzhou-Shenzhen high-speed railway is expected to open to traffic at the end of this year and shorten the travel time between the two cities by train from seven hours to two hours.

After the high-speed railway is put into operation, the old revolutionary base areas in southern Jiangxi will enjoy better connection with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and embrace new opportunities for development, Zhang Handong, chief engineer of Nanchang-Jiujiang Intercity Railway Co. Ltd., constructor of the Jiangxi section of the railway, said with pride.

The Ganzhou-Shenzhen high-speed railway is an example of the rapid development of railways in China. Since the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was founded more than seven decades ago, the country has built the most modern railway network and the most advanced high-speed railway network in the world.

When the PRC was founded in 1949, the country had only 22,000 km of railways. During the past more than 70 years, China has pushed ahead with railway construction and constantly improved the quality of its railway network.

Since 2012, China has seen railways pass through remote windy areas in the north, meander in mountains and over rivers in the southern regions, thread through snow-covered areas in the northeast and zigzag in water towns in the south, gradually turning its blueprint for building a massive high-speed railway network with eight horizontal lines connecting the east and the west and eight north-south ones into reality.

By the end of 2020, Chinas railway network had grown to 146,000 km in length, and the total length of high-speed railways had reached 38,000 km, which represented an increase of almost five times compared with a decade ago and accounted for more than two-thirds of the total length of the worlds high-speed railways.

High-speed railway has made it so convenient for me to go home and visit my brother and sister. It saves me about five or six hours on the journey home, said Yu Ruiqin, a resident in Beijing, who is glad that she can now take high-speed trains to visit her siblings in Zhangjiakou city, north Chinas Hebei province.

Since the founding of the PRC, the country has independently built a plateau railway with the highest altitude in the world, a heavy-duty railway with the greatest load-carrying capacity in the world, and the worlds fastest intelligent railway. The Fuxing high-speed trains, over which the country owns full intellectual property rights, run with a minimum departure interval of about three minutes.

Last year, railways in China witnessed over 2.2 billion passenger trips and a passenger turnover of more than 826.6 billion pkm, which were 21 times and 64 times, respectively, the figures when the PRC was founded. Besides, Chinas railways transported over 4.55 billion tons of cargo, 81 times that handled in 1949 when the PRC was founded.

The construction of railways has also effectively driven the development of some regions in the country.

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) invested in our village and helped local villagers open a number of hotels and increase their income, said Zhou Shengzhan, deputy chief Luanchuan county, Luoyang city, central Chinas Henan province.

Thanks to the help of China Railway, Xinnan village in Luanchuan county has been turned into a railway town located near mountains and rivers. The train-themed restaurants and bars in the small railway town have attracted many visitors.

Since 2012, railway departments in the country have fully leveraged advantages of the railway sector to contribute to poverty alleviation by advancing construction of railway lines, connecting 109 more counties to the countrys railway network and providing 198 more counties with access to high-speed railway services.

Trying to benefit impoverished areas with transportation services, Chinas railway authorities have kept the fares of 81 pairs of public welfare slow trains unchanged in 26 years. These trains handle 12 million passengers a year and carry fresh agricultural products for residents along the routes for free.

While pursuing fast development, Chinas railway sector attaches great importance to energy conservation and emission reduction, trying to contribute to the countrys goal of peaking its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

The energy structure of the railway sector has been constantly adjusted and optimized since 2012. At present, electrified railroads account for about 75 percent of the countrys total railways. The annual consumption of fuel by railways in the country has dropped from its peak of 5.83 million tons in 1985 to 2.31 million tons, a reduction of 60 percent, which is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 12.56 million tons a year.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
PLA Air Force unveils new aircraft at Airshow China

Xinhua) 09:23, September 29, 2021

A J-20 stealth fighter jet performs during the opening ceremony of the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 28, 2021. The exhibition kicked off on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Ju Zhenhua)

GUANGZHOU, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has unveiled an array of new aircraft at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, which opened Tuesday in the southern port city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

Aircraft put on show included two J-20 stealth fighter jets, China's new electronic warfare aircraft J-16D, and a new high-altitude reconnaissance drone, WZ-7.

The Y-20 heavy transport aircraft and some other major battle equipment were also displayed at the show.

The PLA Air Force is working in line with the strategic requirements of integrating air and space capabilities as well as coordinating offensive and defensive operations. Its goal is to advance toward building itself into a world-class strategic air force, said Commander of the PLA Air Force Chang Dingqiu at the event.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
China completes 12th Arctic scientific expedition

Xinhua) 09:41, September 29, 2021

Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, China's first domestically built polar icebreaker, moors at a port in Shanghai on July 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)

SHANGHAI, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China completed the country's 12th Arctic scientific expedition on Tuesday after the expedition team boarding polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 arrived at the port in Shanghai.

During the expedition that lasted 79 days and covered a voyage of 14,000 nautical miles, the team completed comprehensive observations of the atmosphere, ocean and ecology in the Chukchi Sea, focusing on addressing climate change and protecting the ecological environment of the Arctic.

Geographically, China is a "Near-Arctic State," one of the continental states that are closest to the Arctic Circle. The natural conditions of the Arctic and their changes have a direct impact on China's climate system and ecological environment, and, in turn, on its economic interests in agriculture, forestry, fishery, marine industry and other sectors.

Since 1999, China has completed 12 scientific expeditions in the Arctic, with its research vessels Xuelong and Xuelong 2 as the platform.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Int'l desert forum seeks to tap green energy potential

Xinhua) 09:41, September 29, 2021

HOHHOT, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An international desert forum opened in Ordos City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to discuss green energy transition Tuesday.

Amid China's efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the 8th Kubuqi International Desert Forum aims to better tap the potential of energy transformation in desertified areas and explore a sustainable development model.

More than 400 officials, scholars, business and finance representatives from 20 countries, regions and international organizations participated in the forum held online and offline.

In a video address at the opening ceremony, Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, called for continued efforts to promote global ecological progress and sustainable development, as well as to help achieve carbon emission goals.

China has announced that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, said in a video address that land management can help combat climate change.

"China has a well established territorial spatial planning system. It coordinates land use for food security, environmental conservation, and urban-rural development," said Thiaw.

The Kubuqi International Desert Forum has been held biennially since 2007.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
China to launch first solar exploration satellite this year

Xinhua) 09:42, September 29, 2021

ZHUHAI, Guangdong, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its first solar exploration satellite this year, with a model of the new hardware on display at the ongoing 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, according to the satellite's developer.

China will enter a new era of solar exploration with the satellite's launch, said the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

According to the SAST, the primary payload on the satellite will be the solar H imaging spectrometer, which will gather images of the Sun in the H spectrum. It will help researchers observe changes in the Sun during solar flares, such as changes in its atmospheric temperature and velocity.

The satellite's design includes the separation of its platform cabin and payload cabin, thus ensuring the ultra-high pointing accuracy and stability of the payload.

China has established a ground-based solar monitoring network and made achievements in research fields such as the solar spectrum and solar magnetic fields, but it has yet to conduct space-based solar exploration.

Experts hope that space-based solar exploration will advance China's basic research on the Sun, drive the development of relevant high-tech industries, and contribute to international solar physics research.

On Sept. 24, the SAST launched a naming campaign for the solar satellite. The name will be announced after the satellite is successfully sent to space.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Cambodia receives new batch of 3 mln doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine

Xinhua) 09:47, September 29, 2021

Photo taken on Sept. 28, 2021 shows a batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that has just arrived at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A new batch of 3 million doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday, a senior health official said. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua)

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A new batch of 3 million doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday, a senior health official said.

A plane carrying the vaccine, purchased from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, landed at the capital's airport shortly before 11:00 a.m. local time Tuesday, said Ministry of Health (MoH) Secretary of State Yok Sambath.

"This new batch of Sinovac vaccine will be used to support our booster dose campaign," she told reporters.

To date, Cambodia has received a total of 35.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from friendly countries and the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVAX Facility, of which 32.8 million doses, or 92.1 percent, are from China, she said.

The Southeast Asian nation launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive in February. As of Sept. 27, the country had administered at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 13.2 million people, or 82.5 percent of its 16-million population, the MoH said.

Of them, 10.9 million people, or 68.3 percent, had been fully vaccinated with both required shots, and 875,238 people, or 5.47 percent, had received a booster dose, it added.

Cambodia confirmed 866 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the national total caseload to 110,792 so far, the MoH said, adding that 26 more fatalities had been recorded, taking the overall death toll to 2,287.

Additional 505 patients have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 101,690, the MoH said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Celebrations held in Uganda to mark 72nd anniversary of founding of People's Republic of China

Xinhua) 09:48, September 29, 2021

KAMPALA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Tuesday held online celebrations to mark the forthcoming 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Jeje Odongo, Uganda's minister of Foreign Affairs, said the anniversary remains an important event that signifies the will and power of the Chinese people to determine and define their own destiny, as well as the capacity to defend and protect their independence and sovereignty.

Odongo said Uganda remains consistent in its principled support for the one-China principle.

"We believe in a just and equitable world based on the principles of sovereign equality of all states and non-interference in the internal matters of other states. We shall continue to stand with each other in this regard," the minister said.

He said China and Uganda enjoy historical relations that are growing from strength to strength.

"Our commitment will continue to be anchored on solidarity, mutual cooperation, prosperity and quest for peace and stability," he said.

The minister also said China has been critical in supporting Uganda for building key infrastructure projects like hydropower plants, roads and hospitals, among others.

Zhang Lizhong, Chinese ambassador to Uganda, said since the bilateral relations started about six decades ago, both countries have been able to overcome several challenges.

China and Uganda in 2019 agreed to lift their relations to a comprehensive cooperative partnership. The two countries work jointly to implement the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the outcome of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit held in September 2018.

The ambassador said China is working toward raising the level of comprehensive cooperative partnership with Uganda.

"We need to enhance the mutual understanding and support for each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and keep close collaboration and coordination in major international and regional affairs," he said.

In addition to the remarks delivered online by the two, other activities including a raffle draw and screening of a documentary were also organized for the occasion, which is celebrated on Oct. 1 as the National Day in China.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
China takes multiple measures to cope with power shortages

Xinhua) 09:56, September 29, 2021

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has taken a slew of measures to cope with the emergency of tightened power supply to meet people's power needs and ensure economic growth and social stability.

Work teams have been dispatched to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, eastern Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Hunan, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said.

They have conducted on-site supervision and guided local governments and enterprises to implement power supply measures, increase energy supply, and make all-out efforts to guarantee energy supply during the coming winter and spring.

From Thursday to Saturday, a team led by NEA Deputy Director Ren Jingdong went to regions of Ningxia and Shaanxi. The team required local governments and enterprises to exploit the potential of increasing energy production, prioritize coal supply for power generation and heating to meet people's needs, and promote social and economic stability.

On Saturday, major coal production, mining enterprises, and power supply and heating companies in northeast China signed mid-to-long term coal supply contracts to ensure coal supply for the coming winter in the region, the National Coal Exchange Co., Ltd said.

The National Development and Reform Commission has also notified local governments and relevant enterprises to promote the signing of such mid-to-long term contracts to prioritize thermal coal supply.

The State Grid Corporation of China Monday said it would take comprehensive measures to ensure power supply for people's basic needs and try its best to avoid power cuts.

The company will go all out to guarantee power supply and firmly safeguard the bottom line of power supply to meet people's basic needs and ensure social development and security, said the company.

The State Grid will strengthen the distribution of power from its entire network, reasonably arrange the network operation, and ensure that all available power generators from power companies connect to the grid.

The company said it would coordinate and dispatch resources by tapping the power transmission potential of cross-provincial power networks. It would also strengthen electricity consumption monitoring and ensure power supply for residential users.

The State Grid also vowed to strictly implement the power supply and consumption plans formulated by the government, stabilize power supply and consumption, and improve emergency response plans, said the company.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
White paper documents China's journey towards moderate prosperity

Xinhua) 10:03, September 29, 2021

Combo photo taken between July and October 2020 shows villagers, who used to be registered as impoverished households in over 20 cities and counties of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, smiling as they have benefited from the businesses under poverty alleviation program. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Information Office Tuesday issued a white paper to document the country's journey to moderate prosperity in all respects, or Xiaokang, and share its experience in modernization.

The white paper, titled "China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity," said the realization of moderate prosperity in all respects, as declared in July, marks a critical step towards national rejuvenation for the country.

"Achieving moderate prosperity fulfills a long-cherished dream of the Chinese nation," it said.

The document hailed the unremitting hard work by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people and looked into what China has accomplished in realizing prosperity through all-round development for all.

"To realize moderate prosperity has required great perseverance and represents a notable achievement on the part of the CPC and the people," it said.

Moderate prosperity in China, according to the document, is evident in the following respects: sustainable and sound economic development, expanding people's democracy, a flourishing cultural sector, improvement in people's wellbeing and great changes to the eco-environment.

It has also ensured prosperity for every individual, integrated urban-rural development and coordinated development across regions, said the white paper.

Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects means that all sectors, all people and all regions should benefit from it, Zhao Chenxin, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said, highlighting a balanced, coordinated and sustainable development.

While achieving a historic transformation from a low-income country to an upper-middle-income country, China adopted a targeted strategy and has helped all of its 99 million poor rural people rise out of poverty by the end of 2020.

Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the NDRC, said China's Gini coefficient, an index reflecting inequality where zero equals perfect equality, showed a downward trend in recent years. Last year, the country's Gini coefficient declined to 0.468 from 0.491 in 2008.

The country's ratio between the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents has been declining steadily for 13 consecutive years since 2008, Ning said, adding that the ratio stood at 2.56:1 in 2020.

Amid economic advancement, the country has made strong headway in preventing and controlling pollution, attaining major achievements in its drive to keep the skies blue, the waters clear, and the land pollution-free, according to the white paper.

Regarding realizing moderate prosperity in all respects as a major contribution China has made to the world, the white paper also expounded on how the world will benefit from China's prosperity.

As the world's most populous and largest developing country, China has contributed to global peace and development by achieving moderate prosperity in all respects, it said.

In achieving a moderately prosperous society, China has helped dramatically reduce the world's poverty-stricken population and gain a new experience of modernization for humanity, while its all-round opening up has promoted win-win cooperation, said the white paper.

"China's experience offers a new option for those countries and peoples who are looking for both rapid growth and independence, and its success provides them with considerable opportunities for development," it said.

Ning said moderate prosperity in China means huge opportunities for the global economy, citing estimations that in the next five years, the country's imports of goods are expected to exceed 10 trillion U.S. dollars, and its outbound direct investment is likely to top 550 billion dollars.

"This will surely provide a strong impetus for the steady recovery and sustained development of the global economy," he said.

Despite the remarkable achievements, the white paper said China still faces tough challenges such as unbalanced and inadequate development, while the world today is experiencing a level of change unseen in a century, with greater instability and uncertainty.

But the country is confident that it has the capabilities and resources to make more impressive progress, it said.

China aims to achieve basic socialist modernization by 2035 and become a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by the middle of the 21st century.

The country will propel its unique modernization forward and make substantial progress in well-rounded human development and common prosperity, said the white paper.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
2021 "Chinese + South African Tourist Guide" training program helps local tourism recover

13:35, September 29, 2021 By Wang Lei ( People's Daily Online

You are so lucky to be part of this program.

Uveshnee Pillay, Director of Tourist Guiding at the South African Department of Tourism, addressed guides from the Northern Cape, Northwest, and Free State provinces of South Africa during the opening ceremony of the 2021 "Chinese + South African Tourist Guide" training program, which was co-hosted by the Confucius Classroom at the Chinese Culture and International Education Exchange.

Sept. 27 is a special day, commemorating both "World Confucius Institute Day" and "World Tourism Day." The Confucius Classroom will hold its seventh "Chinese + South African Tourist Guide" training program in 2021, which will run for six weeks from Sept. 27 to Nov. 6.

The Department of Tourism selected 16 tourist guides (nine men and seven women) from South Africa's Free State, Northern Cape, and North West provinces to undergo training at the Aha Kopanong Hotel & Conference Centre.

They will not only learn more about the Chinese language but also the countrys culture, which will help them to better understand Chinese tourists.

Pillay stated that tourism is an important area of cooperation between China and South Africa, and she hopes that the guides will help attract more Chinese visitors.

The language and cultural training will create more favorable conditions for the recovery of tourism in South Africa, which is one of the most practical measures welcomed by the local tourism industry, expressed Zhou Yong, Counselor for the Cultural Affairs Cultural Office of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of South Africa

Dai Wenhong, the Chinese Director of the Chinese Culture Centre's Confucius Classroom, briefly discussed the training's theoretical and practical arrangements, evaluation requirements, HSK language proficiency examinations and the issuance of certificates upon completion, among other connected topics. The students also expressed their surprise when they learned their Chinese and English names. In their first class on "Chinese Culture, the students were provided with a quick overview of China.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Chinese Consulate General in Sydney holds online reception to celebrate 72nd anniversary of PRCs founding

13:44, September 29, 2021 By Jieying Li ( People's Daily Online

The Chinese Consulate General in Sydney holds an online reception to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

SYDNEY, Sept. 29 (Peoples Daily Online)  Oct.1, 2021 marks the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese Consulate General in Sydney held an online reception on Sept. 28 to celebrate this auspicious occasion.

Zhou Limin, Consul General (Ambassadorial Rank) of the Peoples Republic of China in Sydney, delivers a speech.

In his remarks, Consul General Zhou Limin reviewed the remarkable achievements that China has made under the leadership of the Communist Party of China since the founding of the People's Republic of China 72 years ago, and especially in recent years. Additionally, he pointed out that China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, develop friendly cooperation with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit, and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind. He reiterated that the Chinese Consulate General will continue to work with people from all walks of life in New South Wales to push for more fruitful exchanges and cooperation between China and NSW so as to inject more positive energy into China-Australia relations.

Governor Margaret Beazley offers her congratulations.

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, Premier Gladys Berejiklian and friends from all sectors across the state sent their congratulatory messages. They lauded the good relations between NSW and China, and expressed their best wishes for a stronger and more fruitful relationship between the two sides.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian of NSW offers her congratulations.

In addition, representatives from all sectors of the Chinese community in Australia, overseas Chinese, Chinese institutions, as well as Chinese students all extended their congratulations. They gave their best wishes to all Chinese and overseas Chinese for wishing them a happy National Day, relaying their hopes for China to be a prosperous and peaceful nation.

Representatives of the Chinese students studying in NSW offer their congratulations.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Beijing-style bubble tea: time-honored food brand infuses classic beverage with a new retro taste

15:58, September 29, 2021 By Xia Peiyao, Zhong Wenxing ( People's Daily Online

"It'll take 2 hours," a staff member said, preparing the customers for the long wait as they snaked slowly in batches into a newly-opened Daoxiangcun store. Set up along 152 Dongsibei Street, near blocks of archetypal Beijing hutongs, the outlet is situated at the exact same location where it resumed operations back in 1984.

"Same venue, same pastries. It's like a dialogue with the past," the project manager of the store, Cao Siyuan, told People's Daily Online. That's probably why they named it 'store zero', a place to begin afresh with surprising new products.

For the first time, Daoxiangcun, a time-honored food brand from Beijing, set up a bar counter in its store and rolled out pastry-flavored bubble teas.

Daoxiangcun bubble tea and pastries.

Adding pastry flavors into milk tea was not an easy mix. "We had to find the most representative and the most suitable pastries among the 600 plus products we have, and then after countless taste tests, we chose four different pastry filings to achieve specific flavor combinations," said Cao.

Niushebing, literally an ox tongue-shaped cake, is a beloved Chinese pastry that's stuffed with salty sesame paste and Sichuanese pepper powder. Now this classic delicacy of Daoxiangcun, together with five nuts filing, jujube puree, and sugar rose paste, are used as bubble tea toppings to enhance customers' palate.

"At first try, the grainy cinnamon-like taste will make you frown in surprise if you have never tried Niushebing before, and then after a few sips, it becomes more and more toothsome and zesty," a customer said.

For some who have tasted a Niushebing, it might be more of a textural play on a familiar food, with extra sugar to excite your brain reward system. "Niushebing is my favorite pastry at Daoxiagncun. I've eaten it all my life. Now Niushebing tastes like a familiar stranger to me, but it's still delicious," said another customer.

The innovation is quite a success, at least for now. For the past few weeks, the queue of people lining up outside the store has shown little signs of shortening. "It's a new breakthrough. Not only did we develop our specialty with our most enduring pastries, we also managed to expand our customer base," Cao said.

Such nostalgia and retro marketing also seems to be right on the point. As a pastry chain usually frequented by older individuals, it now has many young customers who are eager to try these Instagrammable thirst quenchers. "It's a local recommendation on apps, and my parents have also loved it since childhood, so it's kind of a must-try for me," said a high school student waiting in a queue with her friend.

Changing customer demographics is still a challenge facing all time-honored brands in China. The new products of Daoxiangcun are clearly an effort to reach out to the next generation of customers.

Mooncake molds and pastries are seen at the Daoxiangcun store.

"In recent years, Daoxiangcun has also been developing new products based on Chinese culture. We've made special pastries for the 24 solar terms, the Mid-Autumn Festival and so forth," said Cao. "At store zero, we are trying to integrate folk culture, food, and the city's memories together."

Bubble tea is now the new staple and new social currency among the young. When nostalgic cues of local pastries are repackaged and transformed into bubble tea, a retro craze is formed.

"The brand is surely a part of the city's culture. I think this kind of innovation would also create a sense of continuity," said a young female customer. "I missed my first cup of bubble tea on the first day of autumn, so here I am to get myself a special Beijing-style bubble tea to get ready for the fall."

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
Pumpkins seen at Arboretum's Pumpkin Village in Texas, U.S.

Xinhua) 16:08, September 29, 2021

People take photos at Arboretum's Pumpkin Village in Dallas, Texas, the United States, Sept. 28, 2021. The Pumpkin Village returns to Dallas Arboretum with more than 90,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash. This year's theme is "Bugtopia". (Photo by Tian Dan/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
China ranks first globally in ODI in 2020: report

Xinhua) 16:12, September 29, 2021

BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 12.3 percent year on year to 153.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, ranking first in the world, according to an official report released Wednesday.

The country's influence in global foreign direct investment continued to grow, with its ODI flow accounting for 20.2 percent of the world's total in 2020, stated the report jointly released by China's Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

By the end of 2020, the country's ODI stock stood at 2.58 trillion dollars, the report added.

China's investment had funded 45,000 overseas enterprises in 189 countries and regions last year, covering over 80 percent of the countries and regions globally.

Investment into countries along the Belt and Road had climbed steadily, with the total amount expanding 20.6 percent year on year to 22.54 billion dollars last year, according to the report.

Over 70 percent of its ODI flowed into leasing and business service, manufacturing, wholesale and retail as well as financial sectors last year, all of which recorded investment of more than 10 billion dollars from China.

In 2020, Chinese-funded enterprises overseas employed about 2.18 million local staff, accounting for 60.6 percent of the total number of employees in these companies.

Anticipating that the global situation will remain grave and complex in 2021, the country said it will facilitate the development of overseas enterprises, improve pandemic prevention and control work and deepen high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on Tuesday called for redoubling efforts to ensure meaningful progress in global nuclear disarmament.

Addressing the UNGA high-level event to mark the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Shahid said that on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) this year, there is a pressing urgency to make this treaty an effective legal framework.

"I call on those member states that have not yet signed or ratified the treaty to do so without delay - especially those whose ratification is needed for the treaty to enter into force," he said.

"Likewise, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) remains the cornerstone of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. That is why the upcoming 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is so important," added Shahid.

"Let us use this opportunity to renew our commitments toward non-proliferation, nuclear-disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. I urge all parties to set aside differences to reach mutually agreeable steps towards total elimination," he said.
By Yu Ning

A resident stands amid the debris of a house damaged in a US drone strike in the Kwaja Burga neighborhood of Kabul on September 18, 2021. Photo: AFP

"It was a mistake." The US military on September 17 changed course amid huge international public opinion pressure and solid evidence provided by a pair of media investigations. It admitted that the deadly US drone strike in Kabul on August 29, which it had previously defended as a "righteous strike," was a "tragic mistake" that killed 10 civilians, including a humanitarian worker and seven children, instead of terrorist targets. General Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, offered an apology for the error. But then what? Demands from the victims' families for a probe into the "blatant crime" and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice have been ignored. No US personnel responsible for the killings has been investigated or punished so far.

In the 20-year-long Afghanistan war, the US has committed horrible war crimes in the country. But Washington and the Pentagon usually refuse to acknowledge them, and try to cover up the truth. It also shields criminals and deals with them leniently. This is done even when the evidence of wrongdoing is staring them in the face. The US also imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which started an investigation into US war atrocities in Afghanistan. Washington has shown zero sincerity to reflect upon the crimes it committed against the Afghan people.

Horrible crimes

In November 2020, a war crimes inquiry found that there was "credible information" to prove that the Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan had unlawfully killed 39 civilians and detainees and cruelly treated two persons. This sparked global outrage. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission later called on other nations, especially the US and the UK, to also open inquiries to investigate possible unlawful killings by their forces in Afghanistan. Neither the US nor the UK has made moves in this direction. But it's widely believed that if a systematic investigation is carried out into US forces, the results would be more appalling and horrible.

The Costs of War project by Brown University estimates that over 46,000 Afghan civilians lost their lives during the longest war in US history. The errant drone strike on August 29 wasn't the first time Afghan civilians have been killed in drone strikes under the broad banner of the war on terror. Data published in May by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based charity, showed that 3,977 casualties were caused by US-led airstrikes between 2016 and 2020. Among them, 1,598 were children.

Ordinary Afghans say it had happened to them many times, most of which, however, had not been reported. Innocent Afghans might simply be on their way to carry water, graze cattle or collect wood when the drones strike.

In 2010, it was also reported that 12 American soldiers based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan formed a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Besides civilian killings, there are also many allegations over the US forces' torture, mistreatment and killings of prisoners in Afghanistan. In 2016, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed more than a decade ago by the American Civil Liberties Union, the US Defense Department had to release nearly 200 photographs related to prisoner abuse at US military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The photos were a part of a larger set of 2,000.

The ICC in March 2020 asked its chief prosecutor to open an investigation into allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including any that may have been committed by Americans. The court said it had enough information to prove that US forces had "committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence" in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004. But until now, no case has been opened largely because of the US' obstruction and refusal to cooperate.

Afghanistan has been an ICC member country since May 1, 2003; therefore, the court has the power to prosecute crimes committed in the country. However, Washington, claiming it's not a member of the ICC, made it clear that it would not cooperate. This made it very difficult for the prosecutor to establish sufficient evidence to charge the suspects and advance the judicial procedure.

Barrier to justice

It could be said that the US has provided the biggest umbrella over potential criminals who were suspected of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. For one thing, it treated a small number of criminals, whose crimes were too prominent and appalling to hide, with leniency. For another, it has tried hard to obstruct international judicial bodies' investigations into war crimes by the US in Afghanistan.

Xue Lei, a research fellow at the Department of International Organization and International Law of Shanghai Institutes, told the Global Times that it's hard to hold criminals who committed war crimes in Afghanistan to account. One of the reasons, he noted, is that it's the US that has the jurisdiction over war crimes committed in Afghanistan by US soldiers. And a regrettable fact is that the US' legal system is inadequate to give the criminals the due penalty they deserve.

The US also trampled upon international rules and brutally obstructed the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes US forces committed in Afghanistan in order to cover up the US military's scandals. In response to the Hague-based ICC's decision to investigate whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan, the US in September 2020 imposed sanctions on senior officials of the ICC, including the chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. It also restricted the issuance of visas for ICC staff involved in "efforts to investigate US personnel."

Although the Biden administration, which trumpets so-called human rights more loudly, revoked the Trump-era sanctions on the ICC in early April, it wouldn't cooperate with the ICC's investigation into war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan, Xue noted, adding that it's pretty difficult for the ICC to advance its probe.

The hypocrisy of the US is obvious to all: It says one thing, but does quite another. Washington has been claiming to defend "human rights" all day long. But when international institutions try to investigate its crimes against humanity, it shamelessly undermined fairness and justice by slapping sanctions. It is a bloodthirsty country that is accustomed to killing and trampling upon human rights in other countries and has no remorse over its war crimes. It even tries hard to cover up truth and excuse and shield criminals. How could such a country call itself a beacon of democracy and human rights?

More efforts needed

The ICC should continue pushing forward the investigation into the US, Zhang Tengjun, deputy director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times. The UN should also act by condemning through resolutions the war crimes committed by the US and its allies in Afghanistan and should initiate inquiries and prosecution, Zhang noted.

However, Zhang is also concerned that the ICC and many other international institutions cannot impose effective restrictions on the US due to the country's hegemonic position and mind-set.

The existing order is established with the US' participation. But when the US thinks the mechanism will hurt its interests, it will not hesitate to disregard the rules. Washington will go all out to pull itself out of relevant treaties, and even sanction the entities in charge.

More efforts are needed to hold the US to account for the war crimes it committed in Afghanistan and other countries. The vast human rights groups and non-governmental organizations can provide extra help to gather evidence. They can also help guide public opinion to focus more on this issue to exert a certain degree of pressure on the US.
Korea still has the most suicides in the OECD and their numbers are rising despite government efforts to reduce them.

According to Statistics Korea's 2019 data on causes of death released Tuesday, the country's suicide rate stood at 26.9 per 100,000 people last year, up 0.9 percent from the year before.

The rate fell from 28.5 in 2013 to 24.3 in 2017 but then rose again.

Suicide deaths increased from 12,463 in 2017 to 13,799 people last year or a daily average of 38. That made suicide was the country's fifth leading cause of death in all age groups but the leading cause among young people.


Drugmaker Pfizer said it has started a large-scale clinical trial of a drug to ward off COVID-19 in those who are exposed to the virus. The trial for the oral antibiotic will involve 2,660 healthy adult participants who live in the same household as someone who is infected with COVID-19.

Pfizer is also studying the drug in people who have already been infected with COVID-19 but have yet to develop serious symptoms. "If successful, we believe this therapy could help stop the virus early, before it has had a chance to replicate extensively," Pfizer chief scientific officer Dr. Mikael Dolsten said in a statement.

The pill aims to block a key enzyme that the virus needs to replicate. If it works, scientists believe it will be effective only in the early stages of infection. Once COVID-19 becomes severe, the virus has largely stopped replicating and patients are mostly affected by an overactive immune response.

Also on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden received a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, days after his administration approved a third shot of Pfizer's vaccine for certain populations.

Biden told reporters at the White House before receiving his shot on camera that "boosters are important, but the most important thing we need to do is get more people vaccinated" with their initial shots. He said 77 percent of the U.S. adult population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved the boosters last week for three categories of Americans: those 65 or older; front-line workers such as teachers, health care workers and others whose jobs place them at risk of contracting COVID-19; and those ages 50 to 64 with underlying conditions.


Florida filed suit against President Joe Biden's administration Tuesday, claiming his immigration policy is illegal. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed an order barring state agencies from assisting with the relocation of undocumented immigrants arriving in the state.

DeSantis' order authorized the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol "to detain any aircraft, bus, or other vehicle within the State of Florida reasonably believed to be transporting illegal aliens to Florida from the Southwest Border" -- if allowed by federal and state law. The caveat likely prevents them from seizing federal aircraft.

He also ordered the agencies to gather information on the identities of any immigrants arriving illegally in Florida from the U.S.-Mexico border and told state agencies not to spend money assisting those immigrants unless required by law.

Democratic state Representative Anna Eskamani criticized DeSantis, saying he's using the immigration issue to score political points with his conservative base instead of focusing on other issues facing the state.

"He is completely bonkers and just wants to distract everyday people from real-life issues," she said. "We have an affordable housing crisis. We have climate change to worry about. We have folks that can't find a good paying job. There's so many issues around us, and this is what he chooses."


POSCO has hired the U.S.' former North Korea point man Stephen Biegun as an adviser.

The steelmaker turned to the former deputy secretary of state for guidance on navigating potential international trade disputes.

"POSCO's U.S. subsidiary appointed Biegun as an adviser this month," an industry insider said Tuesday. "He knows a lot about Korea and has a lot of information on U.S.-China relations and Europe and is expected to offer a lot of advice on global trade disputes and on POSCO's global business expansion."

Early this month, Biegun attended a virtual forum hosted by the steelmaker where he delivered a speech on the Biden administration's foreign policy and the new international order.
Nobel laureate to lead Pudongs Quantitative Finance Center

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-09-29 09:34

Recently, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU Shanghai welcomed a new member: the Nobel laureate in economics Thomas Sargent. At a MoU signing ceremony held on September 28, he expressed his excitement to begin a new journey of research in Shanghai.

(The MoU signing ceremony)

The MoU signing was among NYU Shanghai, Fintech Dataport and Nisi Data Science. From now on, the three sides will establish a deep-level and all-round strategic partnership in talent training, research innovation, international exchange, internship training, and strategic consulting in the field of fintech. They will work together to elevate the fintech R&D and service capabilities of Shanghai, thus promoting the citys efforts in building itself into a global financial center and in its urban digital transformation.

How much is the financial system involved in the carbon emissions trading market? How can we encourage producers and consumers to use greener energy? How will blockchain technology influence the current economic model, and how can we ensure better supervision? In the future, the Zhangjiang Research Center for Quantitative Finance, jointly established by NYU Shanghai, Fintech Dataport and Nisi Data Science, will bring together cutting-edge mathematicians and economists to answer these questions together.

The center, which will be led by American professor Thomas Sargent, is to be set up in the Shanghai Financial Information Industry Park and will be inaugurated on the campus of NYU Shanghai.

(Thomas Sargent delivers a video speech)

The three sides will focus on applied research in fintech and data science, so as to create an internationally influential financial technology research center, a talent training center, and a fintech service center for enterprises, according to Hao Min, general manager of the Shanghai Financial Information Industry Park.

As Jeffrey Lehman, vice chancellor of NYU Shanghai, said, Shanghai has made wonderful achievements in building itself into a financial center, and the citys determination in using cutting-edge technology and tools for the welfare of the society and the people is impressive. The signing of the MoU marks that NYU Shanghai will have a new area to make its contribution for the citys future development.

According to Shijun Tong, chancellor of NYU Shanghai, in the past nine years since the university was founded, it has been learning the Pudong spirit to achieve global resource allocation in terms of higher education. NYU Shanghai will integrate more into the regions innovative development and strive towards becoming a world-class research university, and pay back Shanghai peoples continuous support for the university with better teaching and research results.

(Photos/NYU Shanghai)
101 years on, Foreign Languages Society recruiting again

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-09-29 09:33

101 years ago, an advertisement seeking students for the Foreign Languages Society was published in The Republic of Chinas Daily, announcing the establishment of the first cadre-training school founded by the Communist Party of China (CPC) sponsor group. Now the New Yuyangli Foreign Languages Society is once again recruiting. Students aged 8 to 18 are welcome to join.

In 1920, the Foreign Languages Society was set up by the CPC sponsor group at No. 6 Yuyangli Xiafei Road (or Avenue Joffre), todays Lane 567 Middle Huaihai Road. The school was founded to cultivate revolutionary leaders and send progressive young people to the Communist University for Laborers of the East (in Moscow). Yang Mingzhai was the headmaster and Yu Xiusong was the secretary.

(The newspaper ad in 1920)

To popularize the history of Yuyangli to more teenagers today, the New Yuyangli Foreign Languages Society, jointly initiated by the Huangpu District Communist Youth League and the Shanghai International Studies University Communist Youth League, will begin the new semester in October 2, 2021. Classes will be open on Saturdays bi-weekly. Teachers will lead the students to recite The Communist Manifesto in German, while telling the stories behind it. Students will review the process of how Marxist beliefs were spread in China a hundred years ago.





(The ad in 2021)

(Photos/Xinmin.cn)
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Russia has completed flight tests of its advanced Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, with launches from a surface ship, namely the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, a source close to the Russian defense ministry has told TASS.

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Admiral Gorshkov frigate with Tsirkon hypersonic missile (Picture source: Russian MoD)

"The flight tests of Tsirkon, with launches from a coastal mount and <> Project 22350 Admiral Gorshkov frigate have been successfully completed. Over 10 launches were performed, the latest of them in July," the source said.

According to the source, the next series of Tsirkon trials is to begin in November. Tests are expected to continue next year. After that, the delivery of the missiles to the Russian armed forces will begin.

The Reutov Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (NPO Mashinostroenia), which has developed and is producing Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, declined to comment on the information.

On August 24, Russias Defense Ministry has signed a contract with a defense contractor on the delivery of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles to the Russian troops during the Army-2021 defense forum. According to NPO Mashinostroenia CEO Alexander Leonov, it has to be fulfilled by 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said that Tsirkon hypersonic missiles capable of flying at Mach 9 (nine times the speed of sound) and striking targets at over 1,000 km would go on combat alert soon.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on July 19 that the frigate Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov had successfully test-fired a Tsirkon hypersonic missile at a ground target. The missile flew at Mach 7 (seven times the speed of sound) across a distance of over 350 km.

About Tsirkon hypersonic missile

The Tsirkon is a ship-launched hypersonic cruise missile capable of traveling at speeds of between Mach 6 and Mach 8. The missile is reportedly capable of striking both ground and naval targets. According to Russian news sources, Tsirkon has a range of between approximately 400 and 965 km and can be fired from the vertical launch systems mounted on cruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Pyotr Veliky, Project 20380 corvettes, Project 22350 frigates, and Project 885 Yasen-class submarines, among other platforms.

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Leonardo will provide logistics support and maintenance services for the OTO 76/62 SR weapon systems on-board the French Navys Horizon, FREMM (Fregate europeenne multi-mission) and FDI (Fregates de Defense et d'Intervention)-class frigates. The services will be carried out over ten years and their delivery forms part of a framework agreement that extends an existing maintenance contract for Frances Horizon-class frigates.

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OTO 76/62 SR super rapid gun aboard a Royal Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen class Frigate (Picture source: Norwegian Armed Forces)

The OTO 76/62 SR is a medium-calibre naval gun that is in service with more than 50 countries worldwide. The new package of services that Leonardo will provide under the framework agreement includes configuration management, the supply of spare parts, field engineering and documentation updates for 22 OTO 76/62 SR systems. A training course will also be delivered to French Navy personnel.

Under the agreement, the customer can opt to extend logistics support to also include system updates, the provision of additional equipment and other assistance according to their needs.

Technical activities will include the major overhaul, testing and alignment of 11 systems. This activity will be carried out by the Italian Navy Arsenal and the Naval Support and Experimentation Centre in La Spezia, Italy, deepening the relationship between Leonardo, the Italian Navy and the French Navy, with a view to ever-closer European cooperation.

This new contract comes shortly after Leonardo signed an agreement with the Danish Navy to support the same type of weapon system. It strengthens Leonardo's position as an international strategic partner in the sector, able to support its customers throughout all phases of the product life cycle.

OTO 76/62 SR super rapid gun aboard a Royal Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen class Frigate (Picture source: Norwegian Armed Forces)
According to a press release published by Naval Group on September 28, 2021, Nikolaos Panayotopoulos, the Greek Minister of Defence, Pierre Eric Pommellet, CEO of Naval Group, and Eric Beranger, CEO of MBDA, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to open negotiations to provide the Hellenic Navy (HN) with three Defence and Intervention frigates (FDI HN) and their equipment as well as an optional additional frigate. Contrary to what we said based on Greek City Times, France and Greece have only signed an MOU, and this one concerns only the IDF and not the Gowind-class.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Construction of future FDI frigate at Lorient, Brittany (Picture source: Naval Group)

The FDI HN frigates will be built in the Naval Group shipyard in Lorient, where the second in the series for the French Navy has just entered production.

The FDI HN will be an asset of power and sovereignty for Greece.

With the FDI HN, the Hellenic Navy will have a state-of-the-art, high-performance surface fleet.

As a first-rank frigate, the FDI HN is a compendium of the best technologies of Naval Group, Thales and MBDA, which will notably supply the ASTER 30 B1 and Exocet MM40 Block 3C missiles. It will be fully interoperable with European and NATO fleets.

Greece will become the second customer of this multi-mission frigate, bringing the number of units produced from five for the French Navy to eight in total, plus one as an option.

The FDI frigate (Fregate de defense et dintervention/ Defence and intervention frigate) has been designed to be equipped as growth potential with Naval Cruise Missiles, a Deep Strike capability and able to deal with the latest threats. The physical and digital infrastructures of the FDI guarantee an evolutionary potential that will ensure that the Hellenic Navy will be able to deal with emerging and future threats over the life of the ship (UAVs, Cyber, anti-ship ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, stealth threats underwater or above water, etc.).

The FDI will have a length of 122 m, a beam of 17.7 m, and a displacement of 4,460 tons. The ship will have a crew of 110 people as well as an aircrew detachment of approximately 15 people. She will also have a flight deck and one hangar to accommodate one unmanned VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft or one NH-90 naval helicopter.

The frigate will be powered by a combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion system. She will have the capability to reach a top speed of 27 knots (50.0 km/h) with a maximum cruising range of 5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 15 knots (27.8 km/h).
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Bankruptcy proceedings against Burger King Rus over $80,000 debt discontinued

 flickr.com/ Mike Mozart

18:15 29/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 29 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Commercial Court has terminated the proceedings initated by OOO Femida seeking to declare bankrupt OOO Burger Rus, the Russian operation of the Burger King fast food chain, because of a premises rent debt amounting to over 6 million rubles (about $80,000), according to the court ruling.

The applicants request to introduce the respective bankruptcy supervision procedure against OOO Burger Rus was dismissed, the ruling reads.

This May, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals dismissed a complaint of OOO Burger Rus against the decision to recover 5.8 million rubles ($80,000 at the current exchange rate) in favor of OOO Femida to compensate rent arrears and interest.

According to Burger Rus LLC, it did not receive any notice of an increase in the rent, and the obligation to pay the rent for May 2020 was terminated by offsetting the security deposit. According to the respondent, the requirement to charge the arrears interest was unreasonable, since it had been granted a deferral to pay rent.

Nevertheless, proceeding from the evidence presented by the parties the court ruled in favor of the claimant.

In April 2021, the Russian Supreme Court dismissed Burger Rus application seeking to reconsider the decision to recover about 14 million rubles ($188,000) of rent arrears.

Having established the fact that Burger Rus was in arrears in paying rent during the period in question, having checked the claimants' calculation and finding it correct, the Moscow Commercial Court satisfied the claim, reducing the amount of penalties due, the Supreme Court reminded. The claimant's arguments were examined by courts, and were given an appropriate legal assessment; no significant violations of the rules of procedural law that influenced the outcome of the case were found, the Supreme Court said.
LEYEN SAID

"Dialogue the only solution for the situation in Kosovo"

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today in Pristina that she was worried about the situation in the north of Kosovo and that the only solution was dialogue in Brussels.

After the meeting with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, she emphasized that this is vital for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

"It is more important to make progress on the European path, and it is vital that the relations between Kosovo and Serbia are normalized," the president of the European Commission said.

She added that she is very worried about the current crisis.

"It is important that the situation does not escalate and that we return to the negotiating table to find lasting solutions, and the only way to do that is through dialogue with the help of the EU, and that is the only platform for resolving the current crisis," she said.

After the meeting, Kurti said that he had informed the President of the European Commission about the situation at the border crossings Brnjak and Jarinje, and that the Government had not made a new decision, but was only implementing the previous agreement.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on September 29, 2021

2021/09/29

CCTV: On September 28, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the US-UK-Australia submarine cooperation is a "very tricky" issue in terms of inspections. It will be the first time that a non-nuclear-weapon state regulated by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) introduces a nuclear submarine, and it means highly-enriched uranium used in power reactors of nuclear submarines will be excluded from IAEA supervision. The IAEA has to enter into a very complex, technical negotiation to see to it that there is no weakening of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. On the same day, the Philippine Presidential Spokesperson said that Philippine President Duterte is concerned that AUKUS could trigger a "nuclear arms race". What is China's comment?

Hua Chunying: The international community is closely following and is vigilant about AUKUS and the plan for nuclear submarine cooperation. Many countries have expressed concerns and doubts. China has taken note of the statements of Director General Grossi and President Duterte.

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out yesterday when co-chairing the China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue with Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, that such move of the US, the UK and Australia will pose three potential dangers to regional peace and stability and the international order.

First, the danger of Cold War resurgence. The three countries, drawing lines along ideology, have built a new military bloc which will heighten geopolitical tensions. When the international community widely rejects Cold War and divisions, the US blatantly violates its political statement of not seeking a new Cold War and gangs up with others to create a small Anglo-Saxon "clique", putting geopolitical self-interests above international solidarity. This is typical Cold War mentality.

Second, the danger of arms race. The move will spur regional countries to accelerate the development of military capabilities, and even seek to break the nuclear threshold and increase the risk of military conflicts. The US, on the one hand, sanctions and suppresses some countries with the excuse of developing nuclear technologies, and flagrantly transfers nuclear technologies to non-nuclear states on the other. This is typical double-standard.

Third, the danger of nuclear proliferation. In the name of building nuclear-powered submarines, the provision of nuclear materials to a non-nuclear-weapon state will exclude weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium from necessary supervision and pose huge nuclear proliferation risks. The move will bring shocks to the non-proliferation system, undercut the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty and ASEAN countries' efforts to build a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) in Southeast Asia. This is typical contempt of rules.

It should draw special attention from the international community that the IAEA safeguards mechanism cannot verify whether Australia will use the highly enriched uranium in the power reactors of nuclear submarines for nuclear weapons. As Director General Grossi said, the nuclear submarine cooperation among the US, the UK and Australia will be the first time that a non-nuclear-weapon state introduces a nuclear submarine, which will exclude the highly-enriched uranium from IAEA's supervision. In brief, this is a malicious exploitation of loopholes in international rules for out-and-out proliferation activities. Supervisions on the Australian nuclear submarines will set a precedent, concerns the rights and obligations of all IAEA member states, especially signatories to the NPT, and will have far-reaching impact on the international non-proliferation system. This is not an issue between the IAEA Secretariat and the three countries; it shall be handled by all member states through joint consultation. China will stay in communication with the IAEA Secretariat and other member states to resolutely defend the authority and efficacy of the international non-proliferation system.

TASS News Agency: According to Reuters, the United States has reached out to China diplomatically about reducing its purchases of Iranian crude oil. It is said that this was one of the issues raised by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman when she visited China in late July. Do you have any comments on this information?

Hua Chunying: China's position is clear and consistent on normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Iran. China and Iran always conduct cooperation following the commercial principles with equality, mutual benefit and win-win results within the framework of international law. We firmly oppose any unilateral sanction, and urge the US to remove the so-called "long-arm jurisdiction" over third-party entities and individuals as soon as possible.

NHK: Today, Japan's former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is elected as the head of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He is set to succeed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Do you have any comment?

Hua Chunying: We have taken note of the election result. China is ready to work with Japan's new administration to observe the principles and spirit set out in the four political documents between China and Japan, deepen practical cooperation in various fields, and move forward China-Japan ties along the right track in a sound and steady manner.

Hubei Media Group: On September 27, permanent missions of China, Belarus, the DPRK and Venezuela held a videoconference in Geneva on the sidelines of the 48th session of the Human Rights Council with the theme of US, Canada and Australia's violation of indigenous people's human rights. Representatives of Canadian and Australian indigenous people as well as Chinese scholars disclosed the severe crimes committed by the US, Canada and Australia. Representatives from many countries urged the three countries to take practical measures to improve the human rights situation of indigenous people. Can you share more information and what is China's comment on the meeting?

Hua Chunying: The videoconference was co-hosted by the permanent missions of China and three other countries in Geneva, which saw active participation from permanent missions, NGO representatives and reporters from many countries.

The Chinese representative pointed out at the meeting that indigenous people's human rights in the US, Canada and Australia have become a "black hole." The meeting was held for indigenous people in the three countries because their voice should be heard and their rights valued by more people. The international community should devote more attention to the human rights problems of the indigenous people in the US, Canada, Australia, investigate violation of indigenous people's human rights and bring the perpetrators to justice. The three countries should reflect upon themselves, thoroughly investigate the history of indigenous residential schools, return justice to and reveal truth for indigenous people that they deserve and earnestly address their own severe human rights problems.

At the meeting, representatives of indigenous tribes and descendants in Canada and Australia said, for centuries, colonizers in pursuit of self-interests took control of lands that indigenous people had lived for generations and blatantly plundered all kinds of resources, leading to long-term racial discrimination and economic exploitation of indigenous people, and perils of genocide and culture elimination. Colonizers, under the banner of protection, forcibly took indigenous children from their parents and sent them to residential schools. Their real agenda was to wipe out indigenous languages and words, knowledge system and identity toward eventual assimilation. Centuries have passed, but discriminatory laws and policies against indigenous people are still effective, and indigenous people are still among the most oppressed and poverty-stricken in the three countries.

Diplomats from the countries at the meeting said the US, Canada and Australia claim themselves as "human rights pioneers", but their own human rights situations are "fraught with problems". The international community should condemn their gross violations of indigenous people's human rights. All participating parties expressed gratitude to China and other countries for organizing the event and paid their respect to those who are brave enough to speak out on behalf of indigenous people. They hoped the international community can take actions, and redress social and historical injustice, and urge the US, Canada and Australia to give an explanation to indigenous people.

Kyodo News Agency: As the resolution of the Meng Wanzhou incident removed a thorn inserted in China-US relations, will it be possible that President Xi Jinping meet with President Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit to be held in Italy in November? Is the likelihood of a meeting increased?

Hua Chunying: I can feel from your question that you hope to see the China-US relationship improve as soon as possible and the remaining thorns that vary in size removed from the bilateral ties. We appreciate this. Engagement at the heads-of-state level needs to be discussed and agreed upon by the two sides. We don't have any information on that at present.

As I said yesterday, China put forward two lists to the US side in the Tianjin talks. We hope the US side can attach importance to China's concerns, take concrete actions and make concerted efforts to empty the two lists as soon as possible.

Associated Press of Pakistan: On September 27, China-Pakistan Media Forum was held via video link. Speakers at forum urged the media of China and Pakistan to enhance cooperation in countering fake news to promote regional peace, stability and development. What is your response?

Hua Chunying: Thank you for your attention on this forum. On September 27, the China-Pakistan Media Forum was held via video link by the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies of Pakistan. Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong attended and addressed the forum.

You mentioned that participants of the forum called on the media of the two countries to strengthen cooperation and jointly combat fake news. I think this is very necessary and urgent under the current circumstances because we can see that certain countries and individuals have fabricated and spread malicious disinformation with the political purpose of meddling in other countries' internal affairs, endangering their national security and smearing their image. Such malicious disinformation is the common enemy of mankind, as it causes confusion, undermines solidarity, undercuts mutual trust and hinders cooperation. Chinese and Pakistani media should cooperate in cracking down on disinformation. Moreover, we hope more and more countries will understand the harm of disinformation and join hands to combat it, and create a healthy, rational, objective and friendly environment for international public opinion, where people can have correct mutual understanding, friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation.

MASTV: Commander of the US Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said he took full responsibility for the August drone strike in Kabul which killed ten Afghan civilians. The Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the the US had sent drones in the airspace of Afghanistan, violating its sovereignty and international laws. He also warned the US of bad consequences if the US continues to operate drones over Afghan airspace illegally. Do you have any response to this?

Hua Chunying: For a start, Afghanistan is an independent sovereign state. The US should earnestly respect Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

In the past two decades of the US presence in Afghanistan, there were repeated tragedies of countless innocent civilian deaths and displacement. As you mentioned, on August 29, the US military staged an airstrike on a civilian residence in Kabul, killing 10 civilians, including many children. This is just the tip of the iceberg of all tragedies and misdeeds the US made in Afghanistan. According to reports, in 2008, US troops attacked a village in Herat province, which killed nearly a hundred civilians including 50 children and 19 women. Reports said during its military's presence Afghanistan, the US has implemented a project to create a drug laboratory on a global scale there. The production of opiates has increased more than 40 times. The International Criminal Court (ICC) also pointed out that the US troops may have committed war crimes and crime against humanity in Afghanistan through the "cruel or violent" interrogation of detainee and human rights violations including "torture and cruel treatment" between 2003 and 2014. You may all know that in response, the US government last year announced sanctions on the personnel of the ICC who participated in the investigations of relevant crimes, triggering opposition from the international community.

The US troops irresponsibly and hastily withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving behind misery and suffering as well as serious challenges in livelihood and the pandemic to the innocent Afghan people. The Afghan people now finally have a new window of opportunity for their country's peace and reconstruction. On the basis of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, the international community should support the Afghan people in taking the future in their own hands, and help Afghanistan to maintain stability, forestall turbulence, and achieve sound development.

In the face of widespread doubts and condemnation from the international community, the US, as the culprit of the Afghan issue, should show its responsibility as a major country, make sincere apologies, conduct thorough investigations, do some soul searching and make full reparations. More importantly, the US should stop habitually imposing wanton military intervention and forcing its own will on others, and avoid repeating the tragedies of plunging people into misery and suffering.

Yonhap News Agency: According to the report by Korean Central News Agency on September 29, the Academy of Defence Science of the DPRK successfully test-fired a newly-developed hypersonic missile on the morning of September 28. Do you have any comment?

Hua Chunying: China noted the relevant report and the latest moves of all parties related to the Korean Peninsula. We hope relevant sides can keep in mind the big picture of peace and stability on the Peninsula, stay cool-headed and exercise restraint, meet each other halfway, follow the "dual-track" approach and the principle of phased and synchronized actions, and find an feasible solution to address each other's concerns in a balanced manner, in order to jointly advance the political settlement of the Peninsula issue.

Since Yonhap News Agency pays much attention to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, I would like to elaborate a little bit. We also noticed that a senior official of the US State Department said recently that the US reached out directly to the DPRK to initiate dialogue and stands ready to meet without preconditions. The DPRK's Permanent Representative to the United Nations urged the US to permanently stop its joint military exercises and the deployment of strategic weapons in and around the Korean Peninsula, and give up its hostility toward the DPRK. No matter how the situation evolves, China holds that parties should exercise restraint, meet each other halfway, build mutual trust, and settle the issue through dialogue and consultation.

Under the current circumstances, the key to breaking the stalemate and restarting dialogue is taking seriously and resolving the DPRK's legitimate concerns. The US should avoid repeating empty slogans, but rather show its sincerity by presenting an appealing plan. It is imperative to invoke the rollback terms of the Security Council's DPRK-related resolutions as soon as possible and make necessary adjustments to relevant sanctions, especially those relating to provisions on the humanitarian and livelihood aspects. This is conducive to resuming the dialogue and maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, and is in line with the spirit of the resolutions.

TASS News Agency: According to Times of India, Indian army has deployed more sophisticated artillery to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in the Eastern Ladakh. It is said that three M777 howitzers regiments has been deployed on the border with China. Do you have any comments on this information?

Hua Chunying: The Indian side has long pursued the "forward policy" and illegally crossed the LAC to encroach on China's territory, which is the root cause of tension in the China-India border situation. China opposes any arms race in the disputed border areas for the purpose of competition over control. We have always been firm in safeguarding national territorial sovereignty and security, and committed to peace and stability in the China-India border areas.

Beijing Daily: It is reported that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on September 27 said it would open a $1.9 billion program to reimburse mostly rural US telecom carriers for removing network equipment made by Chinese companies like Huawei. Do you have any comment?

Hua Chunying: Considering the grave pandemic and economic situations in the US, the $1.9 billion could be used better in areas in urgent need. The US has kept smearing and slandering Huawei and other Chinese companies, but is unable to present any solid evidence to support its accusations. The so-called "national security" is only a clumsy excuse of the US to impose "national bullying" and practice trade protectionism. We don't mind that the US is restless in making domestic policies. But the US should immediately correct its mistakes and stop abusing state power and trying all means to hobble Chinese companies. The Chinese government will continue to firmly defend the legal rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Beijing Youth Daily: Daniel Drezner, Professor of Tufts University of the US and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, published an article on Foreign Affairs recently, criticizing US administrations for abusing economic coercion and economic violence. Sanctions have become the go-to solution for nearly every foreign policy problem, which do not work but exact a humanitarian toll. The United States of America has become "the United States of Sanctions". What is China's comment?

Hua Chunying: This professor of Tufts University is of great ingenuity. "The United States of Sanctions" is far and away a name tailored for the US. For a long time, the US has been abusing its financial hegemony and technical advantages to adopt frequent unilateral bullying practices, impose long-term sanctions on Cuba, the DPRK, Iran, Venezuela, among other countries, willfully wage "trade wars" with multiple countries and wantonly hobbles foreign high-tech companies in the name of national security. The US not only imposes sanctions on countries it sees as enemies or adversaries, but also adopts illegal, unilateral long-arm jurisdiction on third parties with exchanges with these countries, even without sparing entities and individuals of its allies.

The US abuse of sanctions severely undermines sovereignty and security of other countries, affects their national interests and people's livelihood of countries concerned, violates market economy principles and international trading rules, and disrupts security and stability of global industrial and supply chains. This, in turn, also harms the US own interests.

Some in the US are still talking about coercion. It must be pointed out that the birthplace and headquarters of economic coercion are Washington D.C.. Coercion has been a strength and feature of the US, whose government never shies away from using the expression "coercive diplomacy" but even takes pride in it. The US, through its policies and actions, has provided the world with textbook examples of coercive diplomacy, which means achieving one's strategic goals with military threats, political isolation, economic sanctions and technical blockade. The labels of "economic coercion" and "coercive diplomacy" fit the US better than anyone else.

As a member of the international community, the US government should listen to the advice of visionary people both at home and abroad, give up the old path of wanton sanctions and pressuring, and abandon hegemony and bullying. As a major country in the world, the US should truly play a constructive role in world peace, stability and development.

CCTV: Some panel buyers and solar-energy developers in the US said at an business briefing on September 27 that some Chinese solar-panel manufacturers have stopped sending panels to the United States, or are threatening to halt shipments, over regulatory concerns including a proposal for higher import tariffs. They said the freeze could derail the Biden administration's green-energy goals and lead to large layoffs among US panel installers. What is China's comment?

Hua Chunying: As you all know, the US cooked up the outrageous lie of "forced labor" in Xinjiang, and used it as an excuse for hobbling photovoltaic companies and sanctioning photovoltaic products in Xinjiang. What the US did lacks morality, violates market economy principles and international trading rules, and disrupts and undermines international industrial and supply chains. Both history and practice have proven time and again that those lifting stones up may end up hurting their own feet. Unilateral, illegal sanctions are like boomerangs that will eventually come back to harm the US own interests. We have seen many such examples. We hope the US can have a clear understanding of this and refrain from doing things that are no good to others as well as itself, because ultimately it is the American people that suffer.

The Paper: We noticed today, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US made remarks on the wanton repatriation of a Chinese student by the US. Can you share more information?

Hua Chunying: Recently, some cases of wanton interrogation and repatriation of Chinese students by US law enforcement have happened. The case disclosed by the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US is one example. A Chinese student with a legal visa issued by the US government was recently wantonly interrogated by the US side at the border entrance. After being confined in a small room for more than 50 hours without proper food and rest, he was deported by the US side through a third country on trumped-up grounds. The US action seriously infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of the student, and caused serious physical and mental damage to him and his family. This is not the only case. For example, not long ago, a Chinese student was groundlessly interrogated for nearly one hour by the US at the San Francisco airport before leaving the US for China, and thus nearly missed her trip back home. In addition, less than one month after three Chinese students were questioned upon entry into the US and then repatriated in August, other cases of US interrogation and repatriation of Chinese students have happened. The US groundless actions are illegal, unfair and immoral. Over every case, China lodged solemn representations to the US at the first instance and asked it to immediately correct the mistakes.

The current US administration claims that it welcomes Chinese students. In fact, however, it inherits the erroneous practice of the previous administration and restricted or suppressed the pursuit of education or research in the US by Chinese students. Lately it has gone from bad to worse. Under the guise of law enforcement, the US used untenable excuses to harass, interrogate or even repatriate Chinese students. To our knowledge, during their interrogation, the US repeatedly made an issue out of the students' membership of the Communist Party of China and whether or not they would serve the Chinese government. They insisted on looking at the issue through the ideological lens and linking people-to-people, cultural and academic exchange with politics. They even admitted themselves afterwards that there was not enough evidence to support the repatriation. In other words, this is typical presumption of guilt and political manipulation to artificially create confrontation. Given the fact that some in the US accuse China of mistreating foreign nationals in China for made-up charges, the hypocrisy and bullying of the US are laid bare.

People-to-people exchanges are the social foundation of China-US relations. Chinese students in the US play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries. Normal educational and cultural cooperation serves the interests of both sides. We urge the US side to honor its statement of welcoming Chinese students, immediately stop abusing the excuse of national security, stop repatriating, harassing and interrogating Chinese students, stop infringing upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and urge the US side to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. The Chinese side will continue to support Chinese students in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with law, and also reminds the students to raise their awareness of safety and guard against similar incidents.

Reuters: Yes, we spoke a lot about America today. The US Commerce Secretary said yesterday that the Chinese government has been preventing its domestic airlines from buying tens of billions of dollar of US manufactured Boeing airplanes. Has the Chinese government been blocking these purchases?

Hua Chunying: I would like to refer you to competent authorities for the specifics regarding trade between China and the US. But I want to stress that the China-US economic and trade relations are in essence mutually beneficial and win-win, and both sides stand to lose in a trade war. China has all along firmly upheld the WTO-centered multilateral trading system and do business in accordance with international trade rules. The international community sees very clearly who has been wielding the big stick of sanctions, and politicizing and weaponizing economic issues with ideological prejudice in the past few years. We hope the US will earnestly respect market economy principles and international trade rules, and work with China to strive for healthy and steady development of China-US trade and economic relations.

Follow-up: But just specifically about the Boeing airplanes, as far as you are concerned, is the US Commerce Secretary telling the truth?

Hua Chunying: The question you mentioned is whether China will buy Boeing aircraft. I think it's a matter that should be left to companies. The foreign ministry will not involve in such specific economic and trade issues. We hope that both sides will develop healthy, normal and mutually beneficial economic and trade relations based on the principle of respecting market economy and trade rules.
Long shadows creep across Ulaagchinii Khar Nuur in this sunrise photo taken from the International Space Station by an astronaut.

The shadows accentuate the topography in and around the lake, including the Big and Small Avgash Islands. Cracks permeate the ice-covered surface of the lake, and dunes skirt the shore. The cold, flat ice surface contrasts with the distinctive, rolling waves of sand dunes. While typically associated with hot climates, dunes can form in all deserts, including the cold steppe of western Mongolia.

Though located in Mongolia's Great Lakes Depression, the water surface of Khar Nuur Lake is still more than 1900 meters (6,400 feet) above sea level. Due to the high altitude and location, temperatures in the freshwater lake dip below freezing for most of the winter months. Situated in central Asia between China and Russia, Mongolia sits in the subarctic zone where cold air from Siberia extends winter climate patterns well into April.

Khar Nuur is within the Ulaagchinii Khar National Park, which is part of the Eurasian Steppe that stretches from eastern Europe almost to the Pacific Ocean. Steppe regions are home to many vulnerable animals, including a variety of threatened bird species protected within Ulaagchinii Khar.

Astronaut photograph ISS065-E-23018 was acquired on May 6, 2021, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1150 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 65 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Alex Stoken, Jacobs, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.

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Workers assist as a crane lowers the high gain antenna for installation on NASAs Lucy spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida, on Aug. 6, 2021.

Workers assist as a crane lowers the high gain antenna for installation on NASA's Lucy spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida, on Aug. 6, 2021.

Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Launch Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA's Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center is managing the launch. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system's main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy's path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-20210806-PH-KLS01_0044 larger image

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Gargash Group, a leading business conglomerate, has announced the acquisition of Deem Finance, a leading consumer finance business in the UAE.



The acquisition will deepen and expand Gargash Groups financial services offerings within the market and will further accelerate the Groups ability to meet its strategic growth plans.



Gargash Group has a strong presence in the non-banking financial services sector for 23 years through Daman Investments. Daman Investments is one of the leading regional players in the non-banking financial services sector and offers services including asset management, securities brokerage as well as wealth management.



Daman Investments also has a legacy of providing best-in-class investment management and advisory services to both local and regional clients. Through its core advisory services, Daman helps companies raise capital to strengthen and grow their businesses; provides advice on mergers, acquisitions and disposals; and underwrites equity & debt capital market transactions.



Deem Finance is a leading financial services institution in the UAE, offering credit cards, personal loans and wholesale deposit products to UAE corporate clients. Licensed by the UAE Central Bank, Deem Finance has attracted a broad customer base in the UAE market through its range of innovative cash up and loyalty driven cards.



Shehab M Gargash, Managing Director & Group CEO of Gargash Group, said: We are excited to be part of Deems growth journey. This is a transformational transaction that will allow us to reimagine financial services in a way that the success of our brands is aligned with the financial success of our customers.



Ahmed Khizer Khan, the CEO of Daman Investments, said, Deem Finance has built a strong product portfolio and has the technological foundation required to launch innovative financial products and services catering to the evolving needs of both individual & corporate customers.



Terms of the acquisition of Deem Finance were not disclosed in the announcement made by Gargash Group.  TradeArabia News Service
Banque Misr has concluded its largest syndicated term facility to date with medium term $1 billion loan from international debt capital markets to finance projects and contribute to the sustainable development.



Banque Misr (BM) initially planned to refinance the existing $550 Million syndicated loan signed in 2018 and for general funding purposes, due to strong oversubscription during the course of the syndication with BM receiving approximately $1.2 billion of demand which is around 200% of the initial targeted amount, BM had to upsize the facility amount twice and has closed the syndication at $1 billion with a final roll-over ratio 181%.



BM successfully renewed its syndicated loan with the participation of 22 banks from 11 countries with 12 new banks from the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia which were not involved in the last facility.



BM Chairman Mohamed ElEtreby said: The syndications outcome demonstrates the financial resiliency of BMs and its recognition as an empowering arm to restore the macroeconomic stability and in upholding to the economic reforms in an expanding market even during 2021 turbulent conditions.



Akef ElMaghraby, Vice Chairman of BM added: with the adverse impact of the global pandemic along with the challenging access to Liquidity BM has accomplished new achievement which will be mirrored in fundamental drivers of the Egyptian economic growth.



The transaction was jointly coordinated by Emirates NBD Capital (EmCap) and Mashreqbank, who were able to ensure a closing in record timelines. While EmCap acted as Syndication Agent, Mashreq was the Documentation Agent. First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC acted as the Facility Agent.



The Facility, which carries a tenor of 3 years, will serve to diversify the Banks funding profile and to refinance existing facility.



Moustafa Gamal Head of Treasury and Correspondent Banking  Banque Misr said: The economic disruptive situation has revealed the importance of institutional funding functions in contributing to recovery. Headed by Shady El Gazzar who diligently managed the negotiations with lenders, the financial institutions team worked to efficiently conclude one of the most prominent deals conducted in BM, financing in a dynamic framework defying time constraints with record time close to 1 month end to end and breaking markets benchmarks.



This transaction shall be interpreted into the economy as contribution to corporate financing and other activities while ensuring that BM continues to act prudently despite possible negative impacts of a demanding economic environment.



Emirates NBD Capital Limited CEO, Mohammad Al Bastaki said: The successful execution of Banque Misrs largest syndicated loan to date is a testament to the banks credibility and strong position in the emerging markets, this also reaffirms the expanding cross-border investor confidence in Egypts growth story and its top-tier institutions. Emirates NBD Capital is pleased to coordinate and lead the transaction on behalf of Banque Misr, and will continue to support its global strategic clients in their future financing needs.



Chiradeep Deb, Global Head of Investment Banking, Mashreq Bank said: We are extremely pleased with the outcome and take immense pride in leading this important deal for Banque Misr. The quantum of liquidity that came through the door, in record time, demonstrates the confidence that lenders placed in Banque Misr, and also shows the growing attractiveness of Egypt among investors in Emerging Markets.



Mashreqs strong regional presence and its leading investment banking practice have helped channel foreign currency liquidity into deserving credit stories in the corporate and FI space in Egypt. We shall continue to play a pivotal role in this space in the near future.  TradeArabia News Service
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Academy has reached an agreement with K2 Integrity, a preeminent risk, compliance firm, to promote and market its eLearning platform Dolfin, a premier online working environment for financial integrity community.

Designed specifically for professionals working in counter-illicit finance and financial crimes compliance, the Dolfin platform delivers a full suite of customizable online training, testing, and certification resources and risk management tools to mitigate financial crime and sanctions risks and help institutions meet regulatory requirements.

For over a decade, DIFC, a leading global financial centre in the region, has delivered professional development and higher education courses to the financial services industry.

The DIFC Academy continues this legacy by partnering with the worlds most reputable institutions to offer a variety of options ranging from short certificate workshops to multi-year executive MBA degree programs.

Alya Al Zarouni, Executive VP of Operations and Head of DIFC Academy, DIFC Authority, said: "As the leading financial hub of the region, we focus on strengthening the professional development of financial sector professionals to ensure they uphold the highest standards of integrity and governance in all their operations. In a constantly evolving industry, it is imperative that the financial professionals are up-to-speed with the new trends and challenges, especially in terms of compliance and risk issues."

"The partnership with K2 Integrity further adds value to the DIFC Academy to bring world-class standards of AML and Compliance expertise and support the UAEs goal to build a knowledge-based economy," he added.

Danny McGlynn, Senior Managing Director at K2 Integrity, responsible for leading the Dolfin team, said: "K2 Integrity and the DIFC Academy share a vision: to drive innovation and cater to the learning needs of the financial services industry. DOLFIN is designed and delivered by world-class financial crimes risk and compliance experts, including framers of the modern global counter-illicit financing regime."

"We are pleased to be able to offer DOLFINs unparalleled range of reference materials, tools, and analysis to the financial services industry across the MEASA region, and to provide access to reputable financial crimes compliance courses for UAE nationals and residents. We are looking forward to participating in programs throughout the UAE and the region and introducing DOLFIN to over 3200 companies in the DIFC ecosystem," he added.
The Saudi Ministry of Justice has announced that more than 50 million real estate documents have been digitized under the Real Estate Title Digitization Initiative, one of the ministrys initiatives in the National Transformation Programme.

The digitization process goes through several steps at the 24/7 central digitization labs spread across the kingdom, the largest of their kind in the Mena region.

These include listing and collection of documents, entry and revision, transfer to digitization labs, sterilization and restoration, scanning and archiving, and quality control.

"The processed deeds include 3-m-long deeds over 100 years old," said a spokesman for Ministry of Justice.

"The central archiving facility for digitized documents is one of the largest archiving buildings in the Mena region, having a capacity for more than 115,000 m of documents," he stated.

According to him, the Real Estate Title Digitization Initiative aims to digitize 100 million real estate documents of various kinds, in order to enable the digitization of property transactions and pave the way for a real estate exchange.

The initiative has brought four services such as the digitization of property deeds, e-payment of property transaction tax, e-conveyance of property within 60 minutes, and real estate units subdivision units within seconds rather than months, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Residential property values in the UAEs two largest cities, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, for the third quarter have expanded at their fastest pace since 2015, according to a top property consultancy.

Residential property values in the UAEs two largest cities, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have expanded at their fastest pace since 2015, according to provisional data for the third quarter from global property consultancy, Knight Frank.

According to the report, a record number of homes valued at over $10 million have been sold this year which now stands at 54, smashing the previous record of 31 six year back.

Faisal Durrani, Partner - Head of Middle East Research, said: "The market is roaring back to life. The emerging euphoria around the fact that the UAE has the pandemic so well and truly under control, coupled with the excitement around the much-anticipated World Expo are adding to the confidence that is taking hold in the residential market."

Not to be understated, but the UAEs decisive response to the pandemic has caught the attention of the worlds wealthy who continue to flock to Dubai, snapping up the most expensive homes in locations such as the Palm Jumeirah and Jumeirah Bay. This has played a large part in driving up villa values, according to Knight Frank.

According to Durrani, the villa prices in Dubai are provisionally up by 5% in Q3 and nearly 17% higher than they were at this time last year.

"Unsurprisingly, the Palm Jumeirah and Emirates Hills account for almost 75% of super prime home sales in the city, but we are witnessing new Dubai submarkets such as Business Bay join the exclusive list of $10 million plus locations. It was only a matter of time before the halo-effect from Downtown Dubai spilled over to surrounding markets, highlighting that not only is Dubais super prime market expanding, but it is also maturing," he added.

Not to be outdone, values in Abu Dhabi too are climbing, with residential values overall enjoying their second consecutive quarter of positive year on year increases, according to Knight Franks analysis.

Residential values in the Emirati capital are now 2% higher than they were a year ago, with villas (3.1%) experiencing stronger growth than apartments (1.8%).

"As has been the case throughout the pandemic, existing and aspiring home-owners have their eyes firmly set on larger homes, whether for more room for a home office, or access to extra space, indoors, or outdoors," observed Durrani.

"It really is a case of bigger is better, as has been reflected in recent rapid off-plan villa sales projects in Abu Dhabi, such as Aldars 480-villa Noya Viva development on Yas Island, which sold out in 48 hours in April, or the more recent swift sale of all 83 villas at Saadiyat Reserve the Dunes," he added.
Citi has inaugurated a global technology hub at its premises in Bahrain as part of a long-term strategic partnership with Tamkeen and the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).

The Citi Technology Hub will be one of the most advanced in the region with the aim of creating 1,000 coding jobs over the next 10 years.

Technology hubs support many of Citis global businesses and clients and accelerate the development of digital solutions. Citi selected Bahrain as the location of its new technology hub for several reasons, including availability of skilled workforce, transparent regulations and government support.

Alaa Saeed, Citi FXs Global Head of Electronic Platforms & Distribution, said: Citis industry-leading global foreign exchange business will be the first to recruit technologists at the technology hub. Our initial focus in Bahrain will be on engineering for Citis flagship proprietary platforms, working to enhance execution and connectivity capabilities across FX trading and analytics systems.

Over time, the technology hub in Bahrain will scale to support Citi Markets and Citis Institutional Client Group more broadly, extending the scope of capabilities developed locally even further, continued Alaa.

Central to this programme is Tamkeen, the kingdoms Labour Fund, which aims as part of its efforts to create new job opportunities and upskill individuals in order to boost their competitiveness and employability in the private sector, and further their career development through programmes which enable them to enter international markets, becoming leaders in their fields.

Citi Bahrains Chief Executive Officer Michel Sawaya commented: The pace of automation and digitalization accelerated rapidly in the past two years across the financial industry. Our new technology hub in Bahrain will allow us to rapidly scale to meet increasing global client demand for electronic solutions.

He added: We are thrilled to have the hub here and tap into Bahrains pool of diverse talent to hire advanced technologists with a strong business background, and I am certain that the hub will succeed in creating technology that will benefit our clients globally.

Citi Head for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Elissar Farah Antonios said: At Citi, were investing heavily in digital technologies and platforms to serve our clients and our businesses across the globe. The new technology hub brings us a step closer to providing a better client experience in a world that is highly digitized and contributing significantly to our clients success. It also highlights our commitment to the Kingdom of Bahrain as a strategic hub for innovation.

Hussain Mohammed Rajab, Tamkeens Chief Executive highlighted the importance of such programmes for potential investors to realize the depth of quality talent available in Bahrain.

He said: Bahrain has a proven track record that reflects the readiness and global competitiveness of its local workforce, enhancing the Kingdoms position in attracting direct investment across all priority sectors. We highly value the strategic partnership with EDB and all stakeholders in Team Bahrain where Tamkeen aims to achieve economic growth and impact by supporting the private sector towards productivity, innovation, digitization, internationalization, and building the human capital advantage, especially in technology and emerging skills.

Bahrain EDBs Chief Executive Khalid Humaidan said: Bahrain has been renowned for its solid foundations in the Financial Services sector for decades. The programme that we have agreed with Citi is a perfect example of the strides we are taking to evolve our economy and remain at the forefront of digital transformation. The opportunity this represents for us as a Kingdom is such that we can impact the world from Bahrain, with Bahraini talent supporting Citis ambitions to deliver results all across the globe.

At the EDB, we continue to go across the world looking to attract global benchmark companies like Citi to establish operations in the Kingdom and benefit from our world-class infrastructure and talent. We are extremely excited to enter into the next phase of our relationship with Citi and look forward to seeing them thrive in the Kingdom, he continued.

Citi has been present in the Mena region for more than 50 years. Its institutional capabilities in the region include Corporate & Investment Banking, Capital Markets, Sales & Trading, Transactions Services, Equity Research, and Islamic Banking. Citis Consumer Banking services in MENA cover the UAE and Bahrain, while it maintains close relationships with affluent and high-net-worth clients in the region through Citi Global Wealth. - TradeArabia News Service
ADQ, one of the region's largest holding companies, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Swiss-based Acino, a leading provider of high-quality pharmaceuticals. Acino is focused on growth-leading markets across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Russia, Ukraine and the CIS Region.

Acino is a leader in more than 20 therapeutic areas including gastroenterology, cardiovascular and pain relief for high-quality pharmaceutical products in novel drug delivery forms.

With its own sales force and distribution partnerships, Acino is active in more than 90 countries. As a trusted partner to pharmaceutical companies worldwide, Acino also supplies bespoke one-stop solutions through contract manufacturing and out-licensing.

Fahad Al Qassim, Executive Director, Healthcare & Pharma at ADQ, commented: "Building on a series of strategic acquisitions throughout this year, we are creating a strong platform to fortify the UAE's position as a regional hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing, commercialisation and distribution in select growth-leading markets. Our aim for ADQ's healthcare and pharma cluster is to ensure access to affordable, essential medicines and advance new, innovative treatments that help improve people's lives. With the company's industry experience and broad reach, Acino will enable ADQ to deliver an even greater level of growth, innovation and ambition across the pharma value chain."

Steffen Saltofte, CEO of Acino, said: "Acino is committed to advancing the development of healthcare by enhancing access to high-quality medicines that patients and governments can trust and value, and ADQ's support will accelerate this ambition. Having built a solid reputation as a leading provider of advanced pharmaceutical solutions in the emerging markets, we are excited about the opportunity for business transformation and commercial growth potential as Acino joins ADQ's healthcare and pharma portfolio."

With the Acino acquisition, ADQ intends to create an integrated pharma platform in select growth-leading markets with formulation development, in-licensing, manufacturing, and commercialisation capabilities.

Earlier this year, ADQ acquired Amoun Pharmaceutical Company, one of Egypt's leading manufacturers, distributors and exporters of branded pharmaceutical and animal health products, and Pharmax Pharmaceuticals, a UAE-based pharmaceutical company which manufactures and markets affordable, branded generic medications.

Additionally, ADQ purchased a minority stake in India-based Biocon Biologics Limited, which specialises in developing, manufacturing and marketing high-quality, affordable biosimilars across global markets.

Acino's strong management, commercialisation capabilities, diverse product portfolio and licenses across many emerging markets will be essential to ADQ's long-term strategy of developing its integrated pharma platform and meeting the need for high-quality, affordable medicines in the UAE and the broader region.

The agreement builds on a collaboration agreement between Acino and Pharmax to license, manufacture, and supply select Acino products across the Middle East and Africa, based on the local needs of patients.

The definitive agreement is for ADQ to acquire 100 per cent of Acino from its current shareholders, which include Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. -- TradeArabia News Service
According to the World Health Organisation, the global average life expectancy increased by more than six years between 2000 and 2019 while the population grew by more than one billion. This, combined with rising cases of health conditions associated with diabetes and obesity, are putting healthcare systems under pressure to treat an increasing population suffering with sustained illnesses.

Medical professionals must often choose between curing a patient of a condition or simply managing it over time to ensure they can live the best life possible. Many treatment plans are designed to monitor peoples illnesses, not necessarily cure them. This maintenance approach means patients require ongoing treatment from their healthcare provider, which is more costly and time-consuming than curing a condition. For medical conditions which are difficult to cure, such as diabetes and chronic wounds, the situation is more complex.

Frequent care leads to higher costs

In the case of chronic wounds such as leg and foot ulcers, the wound will need cleaning and redressing sometimes as often as three times a week to avoid infection. Wounds can take months to close, if they even heal at all, requiring a lot of time and resources from medical staff. Treating the wound over time, however long that is, can therefore cost a lot of money.

According to a 2006 report by the Wound Healing Society, chronic wounds  including pressure ulcers, diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers, and arterial insufficiency ulcers  are becoming more frequent as the global population is living longer. Venous leg ulcers (VLU) alone are estimated to affect up to 3 percent of the global adult population.

As the modern world becomes more populated, and as conditions such as diabetes and obesity are rising, cases of chronic wounds are expected to increase further. Healthcare systems will therefore need to dedicate more time and resources towards wound treatment; however, this will increase the costs associated with treating these patients.

Wound treatment already costs global healthcare systems billions each year: treating VLU costs the US approximately $3 billion, while treating leg ulcers in the UK costs the NHS 1.94 billion. These costs are largely attributable to nurse visits and the bandages and dressing needed for treatment.

Until recently, the maintenance approach has been widely adopted for treating chronic wounds. However, medical technology (MedTech) is introducing new methods of treatment which are making healthcare systems more efficient and cost-effective.

Improving costs and patient care

Medical devices are allowing new methods of treatment to be implemented into healthcare systems around the world, particularly in the treatment for chronic illnesses such as leg ulcers and diabetes. MedTech is working alongside, and in some cases instead of, traditional methods of treatment. Such devices are speeding up in patient recovery times, reducing the need for ongoing treatment and, crucially, decreasing costs for patients.

This new breed of technology can also provide a permanent treatment to chronic medical conditions, rather than solely maintain a patients wellbeing over time.

Integrating new devices within healthcare systems is not an easy process. It can take decades of consistent work and requires a lot of money, clinical data, regulatory approval and backing from clinicians within the system. MedTech devices are also required to meet regulatory approval before they can be implemented into healthcare systems; the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are two of the worlds leading regulation services and help to set standards for healthcare across the globe.

MedTech devices, such as Sky Medical Technologys geko device, can be used in the treatment of leg ulcers. Clinical data has found that increasing blood flow to the wound surface, thereby enhancing oxygen and nutrient delivery, ulcers can eventually be cured rather that treated and monitored over time. The wearable geko device sits behind a patients knee and sends short, painless electrical pulses down the leg to promote blood flow equal to 60 per cent of walking. This, in turn, increases circulation, reduces swelling and accelerates wound healing allowing the wounds to close in a matter of weeks as opposed to months or not at all.

Now approved and regulated devices are being used by forward-thinking clinicians to treat conditions such as leg ulcers, significantly reducing the financial and staffing strains on healthcare systems all while improving patient outcomes.

Implementing devices into evolving healthcare systems

The challenges that drivers of MedTech innovation now face involve finding ways to reward innovation and risk without tearing up what already exists: how can we adopt new and improved solutions into existing treatment plans without causing harm, wasting time or losing money?

The vast differences in healthcare systems around the world make this particularly complicated, especially in terms of costs. Healthcare payments vary depending on the type of treatment a patient needs, how long treatment can take, whether the patient can access public or private healthcare, and in some cases whether the patient is a native or an expatriate.

Many healthcare systems across the world, including the US and parts of the Middle East, have traditionally operated under a fee for service payment scheme. This means each healthcare provider gets paid separately for each service they provided. For instance, if a nurse attended a patients home to redress a wound, that is one cost; if a patient needed a specialist assessment, that would be another, separate cost.

Under this model, healthcare providers get paid regardless of whether the service leads to a positive patient outcome, including for treating a leg ulcer over time that does not ever heal. For the growing number of global patients suffering with chronic conditions who require long-term care management, especially wound care, this can result in extensive medical bills.

However, many of these healthcare systems are shifting towards a fee for quality or episode-based approach. Under these systems, patients will pay for the quality of care they receive irrespective of how long and how often treatment is needed. Healthcare systems can predetermine the best products and approaches for treatment based on medical evidence, enabling patients to access the best quality and most cost-effective care, making it fairer and more effective for both providers and patients.

This should  in theory  help to ease the pressure on healthcare systems which are having to treat an increasing number of individuals with chronic illnesses. The sooner patients can be treated and cured, more patient beds will be available, fewer nurse visits will be required and less resources will be needed.

Better healthcare for all

A less expensive, more efficient treatment plan for patients will allow healthcare systems to provide the best care possible  seeking to adopt medical innovation with the aim of curing a patients illness as quickly and effectively as possible.

MedTech is uniquely placed to bring about positive change across global healthcare systems. Instead of trying to ensure adoption of new innovations within the confines of the previous system, healthcare systems are changing to actively foster adoption.

This important shift will not only enable more investment in the development of new medical technologies, but in turn will help lessen the pressure on the entire healthcare operation  creating a brighter, more effective, and affordable system for all.

 Andrew Thelwell is Chief Commercial Officer at Sky Medical Technology (www.skymedtech.com)
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has kicked off its 2021 Public Forum with focus on the effects of the pandemic on trade and how the multilateral trading system can help build resilience to Covid-19 and future crises.



Held in hybrid format, with participation in person and virtually, the 28 September  1 October event, entitled "Trade Beyond Covid-19: Building Resilience", is the biggest public outreach event on the WTO calendar.



Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed participants to the opening of the 2021 Public Forum, calling on them to engage in serious thinking about how to build a greener, more prosperous and more inclusive post-pandemic world economy.



South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the Forums keynote speech in which he emphasised the need for global solidarity in tackling the pandemic and its economic consequences.



The 102 Forum sessions, organized by civil society groups, academics, the private sector, WTO members and others, will cover issues ranging from agriculture to digital trade, and climate change to geopolitics.



The format of the Public Forum, with a strict cap on the numbers of people allowed on the WTO premises, "reflects the fact that Covid-19 is still very much with us," the Director-General said. "Indeed, in many of our members, the pandemic and its social and economic impacts, are getting worse."



"But even as we fight to end the pandemic, making full use of trade's power to tackle vaccine inequity, we must engage in serious thinking about what it will take to build back a better world economy. A world economy that is greener, more prosperous and more inclusive. A world economy that is more responsive to problems of the global commons. A WTO that is more responsive to changing economic realities and the evolving needs of the people we serve."



Director-General Okonjo-Iweala noted that trade has been a source of resilience during the pandemic, helping households, businesses and governments cope with dramatic shocks. Trade has enabled access to food and medical supplies and contributed to economic recovery.



Nevertheless, the rebound in growth and trade is unequal across countries and regions, like access to Covid-19 vaccines, she said. On the latter, the Director-General reiterated that the low 4% vaccination rate in Africa is morally unacceptable and, as new variants spread, a threat to the health and economic recovery everywhere.



"The trading system can and must do more to reduce vaccine inequity, and to help us tackle pressing challenges elsewhere, from our oceans to our climate," she declared. "That is why it is so important to deliver results at the WTO, in the weeks remaining before our 12th Ministerial Conference."



Opening plenary discussion



In the opening plenary discussion that followed, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the world's most vulnerable populations and the imperative of ensuring equitable access to vaccines.



Covid-19 restrictions, particularly travel restrictions, may have delayed importation of the Covid-19 virus but "they have also come at the highest social and economic costs, exacerbating pre-existing inequities."



"The vaccines exist but they are not reaching the people who need them most," Dr Tedros said. "We need to support the capacities of all countries to roll out Covid-19 vaccines."- TradeArabia News Service
Ajman Free Zone (AFZ) has launched new packages to support the e-commerce industry during its participation at Seamless Middle East 2021, which is running until September 30 at the Dubai World Trade Center.



AFZ is highlighting its registration and license packages that are exclusive to e-commerce businesses.



Ali AlSuwaidi, Director General of Ajman Free Zone, said: Home to more than 9,000 companies across all industries, Ajman Free Zone is known for its attractive environment suited to ensure the success of all types of businesses, including those in the e-commerce sector.



To further support their business expansion, we are offering special packages on top of providing extensive assistance and value-added services. This is part of our commitment to boosting the local e-commerce sector as an active participant of Seamless Middle East 2021.



Our efforts are directed towards strengthening the cooperation and coordination between local and foreign industry leaders and solutions providers to boost the e-commerce sector's performance and growth. With our award-winning services and an environment conducive to enterprise growth, we are confident that these businesses will experience great success, AlSuwaidi added.



As part of its incentives to e-commerce companies, AFZ offers an exemption from registration fees for businesses in this sector, as well as a special package for start-ups worth AED5,600 ($1,525) to help them start their business at an affordable rate, and expedite the whole procedure with integrated online services.



AFZ also provided a feature for all companies to engage in e-commerce activities in addition to their current business operations, to keep pace with the transformation happening in the e-commerce sector.



Seamless Middle East is a conference and exhibition that focuses on the payments, fintech, banking, retail, e-commerce, and cards and identity sectors. Now in its 21st year, the event has featured some of the biggest industry names in the Middle East and beyond.  TradeArabia News Service
UAEs Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure has launched the UAE Maritime Cluster to be an umbrella for the local and federal government and private organisations in the maritime sector.

The move aims to promote the UAEs maritime sector globally. It also supports the Ministrys role in building alternative economic components to the oil sector, supporting its strategy to be a key contributor to the Projects of the 50 initiatives.

The cluster brings together organisations and individuals in the sector and unites the capabilities of the UAE maritime sector to build a unified force that enhances the UAEs position globally, as one of the top five global maritime hubs, a statement said.

To launch the Cluster, the Ministry will build a communication network consisting of the various entities in the maritime sector. This will act as a platform for launching various activities and events that the UAE Maritime Cluster will implement. It will also be a knowledge hub for external maritime authorities around the world to learn about the opportunities available in the maritime industry and invest in the UAE's blue economy.

Eng. Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure in the UAE, said, The UAE is a unique success story in government excellence. Building on the model of the UAE Union, we will unify the UAE maritime sector by launching the UAE Maritime Cluster, which will be a platform that integrates the capabilities of the various entities and organisations, whether federal, local or from the private sector. The Cluster will enhance their performance by bringing together the competencies and experiences of professionals and experts working in the UAEs maritime sector, many of whom are world-class experts. This will build a giant think tank and a portfolio for the national maritime capabilities, to create new opportunities for the development of the maritime sector. This is similar to the Union among the Emirates that created new opportunities for the people of the UAE to achieve growth and prosperity.

Al Mazrouei added: This cluster is one of our key initiatives that will contribute to our preparations for the next 50 years, ensuring the growth of the maritime sector that significantly contributes to the UAEs GDP. Currently, the sector is estimated at around AED 91 billion annually. We look forward to doubling this figure within a few years by building bridges to integrate the various organisations and stakeholders involved.

Al Mazrouei said that announcing the first set of Projects of the 50 gives the maritime sector a great boost, as it opens up many opportunities for it to expand, grow and attract more investments. The maritime industry plays a key role in developing and increasing the UAEs exports. It also empowers and supports the industrial sector and the UAEs role in international trade through several major investment arms. These include developing ports and operating terminals in more than 70 countries around the world as well as managing ships and maritime fleets. The UAEs fleet ranks 21st globally in terms of tonnage capacity.

Consolidating capacity and interconnected capabilities

Eng. Hassan Mohammed Juma Al Mansouri, Undersecretary for Infrastructure and Transport Affairs at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, said: "The time has never been better to launch this mega project, especially after the restructure in government organisations and ministries by the wise leadership to increase efficiency, and unify capabilities based on their specialisations and strategic objectives. One of the noteworthy examples of this was the merger of the maritime and land transport sector with the infrastructure sector, as they strengthen and complement each other. Launching the UAE Maritime Cluster was a direct result of unifying the UAEs strategic sectors. This supports the maritime sector and ensures that it will benefit from the comprehensive government system, thus achieving unprecedented growth rates.

Eng Hessa Al Malek, Advisor to the Minister for Maritime Transport Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, said: Launching the UAE Maritime Cluster is an indispensable step as we prepare the UAEs candidacy for its Category-B membership at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for the third time. The UAE is home to the regional headquarters of many international maritime companies and organisations. These are influential bodies and their voices are heard across the sector. It would be very useful to have an overall comprehensive national platform that brings together all the influential players in the maritime sector. It will also enhance our maritime capabilities and influence in developing the industry globally, which will greatly support our candidacy.

Integrated UAE Maritime Cluster

The UAE Maritime Cluster will feature a portal with a centralised database of entities within the maritime sector as well as a network of maritime organisations and professionals in the UAE. It will also organise events, conferences and panel discussions to bring together the government and private sectors to discuss ideas, advance the maritime sector and help formulate the maritime strategy for the next 50 years.

A central think tank will be launched to explore investment opportunities and innovative maritime projects as a result of unifying the efforts and ideas of maritime organisations in the UAE. Cooperation will also be strengthened between students from maritime academies, facilitating connect with experts and professionals in the UAE. This will contribute to the Emiratisation of leadership positions in the maritime sector, leading to the creation of a new generation of maritime professionals for the next 50 years, in line with principles of the Projects of the 50. The UAE Maritime Cluster will also include a business incubator to support young entrepreneurs and a platform for Research and Development (R&D) that brings together the academic and scientific competencies of the academic sector in the UAE and the Arab region. Several accelerators will also stimulate the generation of innovative ideas and turn them into strategic maritime projects.TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabis ASPIRE, a technology unit of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), will hold the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) in June 2023, where tech innovators will participate to seek marine safety and security solutions to win more than $3 million in prize money.



Organised by ASPIRE, the MBZIRC is held every two years. The upcoming edition, called MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge, focuses on real-time solutions to maritime safety and security challenges and seeks to claim its place among the largest and most prestigious AI and robotics competitions in the world.



The Challenge is open to international universities, research institutions, companies and individual innovators from all over the world. It will involve a heterogeneous collaboration among unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned surface vehicles, to perform complex navigation and manipulation tasks in a GNSS-denied environment. Call for registrations is now open.



Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of ATRC, said: We are proud that MBZIRC is going global by inviting the best talent from all over the world to participate. We have set a tough real-world challenge that will push the participants to the limits of their capabilities. The event is a great opportunity to demonstrate the pioneering scientific research work that is taking place in Abu Dhabi and the UAE.



The challenge will show how both the entities focus on niche areas of technology, while attracting global innovators to stimulate ideas, encourage collaboration, and push boundaries in advanced technologies to find systems solutions to global challenges.



For countries with long coastlines, ensuring maritime safety requires significant investment in sophisticated equipment and highly trained personnel, said Dr Arthur Morrish, Chief Executive of ASPIRE.



Using advanced robotic systems can not only help reduce costs, but also handle some of the often- dangerous tasks performed by humans. The motivation for holding the MBZIRC Maritime Grand Challenge is to take the technology out of the laboratory and test it in a real-world environment to see what is possible.



Dr Morrish underscored the two-fold purpose behind the competition: one is to focus on the important problems in autonomy of robotics while engaging the world community in a hard robotics challenge. The other is to find a solution to a real-world challenge facing the world.



The challenge is for a swarm of UAVs to identify a target vessel from several similar vessels in open waters in a GNSS-denied environment, and to offload specific items from the target onto an USV in the shortest possible time using autonomous technologies. This is a new kind of kind of exercise in autonomous robotics. A nice thing about this challenge is that you tell people what you want, but you dont specify an approach to do it, Dr Morrish added.



He said that this kind of a smart system will have practical application in other areas as well, especially as it can perform complex tasks of autonomous intervention in a GNSS denied environment.  TradeArabia News Service
Global technology company SAP, the Expo 2020 Dubai Innovative Enterprise Software Partner, has announced the opening ceremony of the SAP House, a 900-sq-m innovation area that showcases immersive customer experience solutions.



With Expo 2020 Dubai as a world showcase for innovation, the SAP House will welcome customers, partners, and government delegations to experience how businesses can meet the acceleration of change head-on, said Sergio Maccotta, Senior Vice President, SAP Middle East South. Expo visitors to the SAP House can experience how technology can shape our societies and economy for the better.



We are thrilled to open SAP House on the Expo 2020 Dubai site. We are working together to create an event that will show the power of collaboration and imagination in building a better tomorrow, at the most digitally connected World Expo in history, said Mohammed Alhashmi, Chief Technology Officer, Expo 2020 Dubai.  TradeArabia News Service
Bahrains Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has introduced a comprehensive plan to improve identity (ID) card services, said iGA Chief Executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed.



The move, which is in response to customer feedback on ID card services, appointments, eServices, and physical service centre visits, will provide for between 600 to 1000 appointments per day. The plan includes reopening the ID card services centre in the Seef Mall  Muharraq Branch; increasing the number of Fast Track employees; improving electronic identity card services by making procedures more efficient and raising capacity; and developing further electronic services.



Future initiatives include increasing the number of self-service kiosks, making them available at new locations within the kingdom closer to the public, and adding Advanced eKey registration services to these machines.



The kiosks, offer three types of services, ID card chip updates, registration for the Government Notifications Service, and card reading, all without the need to book appointments. From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 26,000 chip data updates were carried out via self-service kiosks.



Al Qaed stated that these improvements are in line with directives by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to develop and simplify the services provided to the public through various channels and to address the suggestions & complaints of the public and s received through communication channels.



Customer suggestions for improvement, including feedback received via the National Suggestions and Complaints System (Tawasul), played a key role in the changes, which the iGA implemented this year. The most notable new offerings were address eServices available via the National Portal, bahrain.bh, including requests to modify home addresses, print address statements, and verify statement validity.



Al Qaed mentioned that the plan is in line with directives by the Minister of Interior, Gen. Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa to streamline ID card procedures so they can be delivered effectively in the shortest time possible.



Al Qaed credited HE the Ministers support, which enabled the iGA to continue improving ID card services. It includes initiatives either based on the current service structure or by creating new packages, as well as a capacity increase to allow the iGA to handle a higher average number of monthly transactions, up from approximately 9,500 eServices pre-pandemic through to March 2020, to 19,200 as of August 2021.



Among the most notable changes was the launch of ID card services at the beginning of this year, including more than 12 eServices via the National Portal, bahrain.bh, mobile applications, and other digital channels. The iGA is working on further initiatives, recently launching a number of new ID card services such as the ability to download an ID card reader program, improving the Online Appointment System and the option to attach required documents instead of having to email them separately.



Al Qaed revealed that the number of online transactions carried out during the pandemic topped 410,000, thanks to development of technologies, programs, and card printing machines that helped it increase its capacity. This is in addition to dedicating an email address, [email protected] to ID card transactions, allowing employees to directly interact with beneficiaries. This speeded up processes and eliminated the need to use the Tawasul app for these types of transactions, he noted.



The Authority is also improving service delivery times by setting timeframes for the completion of daily ID card transactions, depending on their types, ensuring that employees are able complete as many transactions as possible.



Al Qaed added that more eServices are due for upgrades in order to serve the widest possible customer demographic and eliminate the need to visit service centres more than once.  TradeArabia News Service
Saudi-based Tourism Development Fund (TDF) has signed two financing agreements with Dallah Al Baraka Group and Dallah Real Estate Company, a leading developer of real estate and tourism projects, for a major tourism project at the Durrat Al Arous resort in Jeddah.

The first agreement includes funding from TDF to develop the Durrat Lagoon destination, which will be operated by Hotel Indigo, a leading boutique brand and part of IHG Hotels and Resorts portfolio of preferred brands, said the statement from TDF.

The second agreement was signed with 17Sixty to provide a variety of first-of-their-kind recreational activities and adventures, enabling visitors of the Durrat Al-Arous resort to safely explore the depths of the Red Sea.

Through these agreements, TDF continues to enable the development of tourist destinations in various areas of the Saudi tourism sector, enriching the visitor experience and enhancing the value and impact of strategic projects in the sector, it stated.

Achieving sustainability in the Saudi tourism sector requires directing investments and support towards diversified projects that provide a comprehensive tourism experience  and these agreements with Dallah Real Estate Company and 17sixty reflect this, remarked its CEO Qusai Al Fakhri after signing the deal with Mohiuddin Saleh Kamel, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dallah Al Baraka Group.

"We are focused on providing innovative solutions that link investors to the abundant opportunities in the Saudi tourism sector, contributing to achieving the objectives of the National Tourism Strategy and consolidating the Kingdom's position as a tourist destination that attracts visitors from all over the world," he added.

Saudi Arabia has an ambitious national tourism strategy under which it aims to develop 10 main destinations in various areas of the kingdom. These destinations are characterized by broad diversity where history and culture meet the beauty of nature, and a wealth of ancient monuments.

Kamel said Dallah Al Baraka's investments in the tourism sector support Saudis goals of diversifying recreational activities to meet the needs and aspirations of domestic and foreign visitors.

"The financing and support services provided by TDF contribute significantly to enhancing the experiences of investors and the value of their projects, as well as boosting the Kingdoms ability to attract tourists from around the world.

Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, IMEA, IHG, said: "We are honoured to have this exciting opportunity to partner with Dallah Al Baraka Group in Saudi Arabia and to strengthen our existing relationship. We continue to facilitate and support Saudis Vision 2030 and its inspiring transformation as a destination of the future.

Hotel Indigo, IHGs boutique brand, creates immersive experiences based on neighborhood stories through creatively crafted spaces that reflect an area's heritage and character, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Jannah Hotels & Resorts, an official reseller of tickets to Expo 2020 Dubai, is offering guests from across the UAE and further afield to explore the world-class expo, which begins on October 1, with free one-day tickets as part of special room rates.

The promotion can be enjoyed by guests at five of its UAE properties - Jannah Burj Al Sarab, Jannah Marina Hotel Apartments, Jannah Place Dubai Marina, Edge Creekside Hotel and the Jannah Hotel Apartments and Villas.

Located in the heart of Abu Dhabi, the five-star Jannah Burj Al Sarab is ideal for tourists and business visitors headed to the expo.

The Jannah Marina Hotel Apartments offers modern luxury living in Dubai Marina, with guests able to reach the expo site via the Dubai Metro or a short car ride.

Also close to the Dubai Metro, the Jannah Place Dubai Marina provides easy access to Dubai Marina Mall, The Beach at JBR and Ain Dubai on Bluewaters.

Opened at the end of last year and just 10 minutes by car from Dubai International Airport, The Edge Creekside Hotel offers guests a choice of 106 deluxe king rooms, 16 one-bedroom apartments and 16 two-bedroom apartments.

The Jannah Hotel Apartments and Villas is the groups only property in Ras Al Khaimah with its private white sandy beaches and uninterrupted views of the Arabian Gulf.

Jannah Hotels & Resorts will also have a presence at Expo 2020 Dubais hospitality lounge where visitors can enjoy a wide range of services and facilities.-TradeArabia News Service
By Liu Jimei and Gao Yujiao

GUANGZHOU, Sept. 28 -- The International Military Flight Training Conference 2021 hosted by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) was held in Zhuhai on September 27. Representatives from 49 countries attended the conference by either coming to the conference site or via video link. Twelve Chinese and foreign guests from military and civilian circles made speeches around the theme of Talent, Innovation, Collaboration, Development.

An official from the PLAAF said at the conference that the air force development and future intelligentized air battles have put forward new requirements for the competence of pilots, and the PLAAF is engaged in forward production of new-type pilots following the guideline that talent cultivation, commanding system and armaments development should proceed in coordination.

Cultivating air force commanders for the era of intelligent air battle will be an important brand-new topic in the development of air force, said Li Xiaocheng, vice president of Chinese PLA Air Force Command College. According to Li, the simulated training mode will be upgraded from simulation + network to virtual + intelligent, and the training exercise pattern will be evolved from life-fire confrontation to virtual-real combined intelligent confrontation, with the training assessment upgraded from manual-based to intelligent-based.

In face of current global and regional security situation, the ever-changing dynamic warfare and new technologies, China and Pakistan, together with their air forces, have maintained close cooperation and supported each other in every operation, said Air Chief Marshall Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, chief of Air Staff of Pakistan.

Hao Jingwen, head of the training bureau under the PLAAF Staff Headquarters, said the PLAAF is upgrading its combat equipment, flight training concept and talent cultivation mode at a faster pace amid the trend of science and technology innovation.

Initiated by the PLAAF in 2010, the International Military Flight Training Conference is an international platform for exchange of views and practice on flight talent cultivation and development and collaborated innovation of flight training and aviation equipment. It is held biennially and has been held six times.
BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping and other leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state will join representatives from all walks of life in presenting flowers to fallen national heroes on Thursday morning in Tian'anmen Square.

Thursday, Sept. 30, is China's Martyrs' Day. The event will be broadcast live by the China Media Group.

This year marks the centenary of the CPC.
By Chen Yang

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visited the US on September 23 to 26 for the Quadrilateral security dialogue among the US, Japan, Australia, and India (Quad), which was also his last visit to US before leaving the office. Sugas visit right before his term ends is extraordinary.

A look at Japans post-WWII political history shows that its prime minister wouldnt engage in such an important foreign event before stepping down from power, for the main reason that the caretaker cabinets top priority is ensuring the smooth handover of power. The fact that the lame-duck Prime Minister Suga insisted on going to the US at such a moment and participating in such a high-level and large-scale foreign event thoroughly reflects his eagerness to leave some personal political legacy before leaving office. Since he took office in September 2020, his administration has been known as a staunch follower of America, and making a last-minute effort to deepen Japans engagement in the Quad and make a dent before the end of his term is something he would not give up.

Sugas American trip also displayed Japans willingness to remain Americas strategic lackey. The face-to-face summit was initiated by US President Joe Biden, and Sugas agreement to attend despite the severe COVID-19 pandemic at home further proved how Tokyo is readily at Washingtons beck and call. Besides, judging from the ongoing presidential election of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, Japans choice to continue being Americas cats paw wont change soon. Although the main candidates running for the LDP presidency have different policy agendas, they are all for containing China, deepening the Japan-US alliance, and promoting a so-called free and open Indo-Pacific region. The Quad is seen by Washington as an important platform to make deployments in the Indo-Pacific, and Sugas attendance didnt just represent that his administration attaches great importance to the clique. Whats more important is expressing loyalty to Washington  the change of prime minister wont in the least affect Japans commitment to the Quad.

However, being so eager to be Americas errand boy, even in a very undignified posture, and forming a clique in the Asia Pacific will only put Japan in a more passive situation.

On the one hand, Japans eagerness and willingness are never met with equal respect from the US. Just like Suga who hurried to the US for the summit on the eve of the end of his term, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also paid a rushed visit to the then-president-elect Donald Trump in November 2016 to pay homage to the incoming leader. Yet, as is known to all, the Trump administration didnt back up an inch on issues like the Japan-US trade imbalance and sharing of military expenses for American troops stationed in Japan.

On the other hand, Japans cooperation with the US to form the clique is against the will of regional countries. While actively taking part in the Quad, Tokyo has also expressed support for the trilateral security partnership called AUKUS  Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its supportive attitude toward these two cliques is obviously inconsistent with the stance of most Asian-Pacific countries. ROK Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said at a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) seminar on September 22 that defining the US, ROK, Japan and Australia as an anti-China bloc is a Cold War mentality, stressing that ROK wont join the Quad. After AUKUS was formed, the Indonesian government canceled the upcoming visit by the Australian Prime Minister and asked relevant countries to stop the dangerous move. Malaysias Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob publicly called AUKUS a catalyst of the regional nuclear arms race and urged countries to avoid any provocative action. Its clear that Japans reckless pandering to Americas clique-forming tricks in the Asia Pacific will only get itself isolated in the region.

Sugas appearance at the Quad summit as Japanese Prime Minister might be taken by himself as one of the few highlights during his term, but it also posed a contrast to the fact that he is soon to step down after going home. Its ironic that what he hopes will be his political legacy actually sends a different message  Japan is like a footman at Americas beck and call. No matter how hard the prime minister tries to be on good terms with the US president and to assist in implementing American strategy, that wont help his political career in any way.

Editor's note: This article is originally published on haiwainet.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.
Following the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 29 May 2020, where the shareholders approved the name change of Sapex Group Limited to Siwa Group Limited we have received formal notification from ASIC that the name change has been registered.
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited (ASX:EM2) (OTCMKTS:EGMMF), is a copper-gold explorer focused on the strategic exploration and development of the Oracle Ridge Copper Mine and the highly prospective greenfield (Silver Mountain) project, both located in Arizona, USA.

Arizona is at the heart of America's mining industry and home to some of the world's largest copper discoveries such as Bagdad, Miami and Resolution, one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world.
by Nirmala Carvalho

A 14-year-old boy suffered burns to 70 per cent of his body. Local Christians complain of ongoing intimidation by Hindu nationalist, but the authorities refuse to investigate. For Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak, Dalit Christians are the victims of double discrimination.

Patna (AsiaNews)  A 14-year-old Dalit Christian boy died in the Indian State of Bihar following an acid attack. Police labels the case suicide to avoid investigating an incident probably related to Hindu extremism.

Nitish Kumar, an eight grader in Gaya district, died on Sunday at a Patna hospital after struggling for more than a month with severe burns on more than 70 percent of his body, The Telegraph (India) reported.

Despite his death, the authorities have failed to open an investigation, claiming that the boy threw the acid on himself following a family quarrel over a hair cut.

The dead boys older brother Sanjeet tells another story, describing increasingly serious threats over recent months from Hindu extremists, of strangers who on the morning of 11 August threw acid at the boy from a motorcycle while the two brothers were going to buy vegetables.

Nitishs father is a rickshaw driver in the village of Kamta Nagar. Five years ago, he and his family became Christian. When the parents arrived at the hospital with Nitish, they were terrified.

After the police refused to open an investigation, even after the death, the family asked that the body to be buried immediately even though the law requires a mandatory autopsy in case of unnatural death.

Dr Kamod Narayan Tiwary, owner of the hospital, says that he informed the police but the latter refused to get involved in the case. At that point, he gave the green light for the burial.

In Gaya district, a local Christian told The Telegraph that Nitish's family and other people received threats from people who " sported saffron gamchhas (scarves), turbans and kurtas (collarless shirts). Saffron is a colour closely associated with Hindu nationalists.

We are afraid to go to the police because our homes, land and businesses are here, the Christian added.

For Fr Devasagayaraj M Zackarias, former national secretary of the office for disadvantaged castes of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), Freedom of religion is at stake in India especially under the BJP government at the centre.

Throwing acid on a minor Dalit Christian for practising is a barbaric act, He added. The family is threated. They need protection as we seek justice for the death of the boy.

"From many sources we know that in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh many Dalit Christians are attacked for their faith with murders, rapes, assaults and intimidation, said Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak, chairman of the CBCIs Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.

Dalits are at least half of the Christian population and suffer from an increasing level of violence against them and a double discrimination, the prelate explained.

For this reason, The authorities must do their duty and protect the most vulnerable instead of de facto denying that India is a democratic country that promotes the development of everyone.
The highest number of deaths among pro-Iranian Shiite militias, hit by Saudi air raids. Attacks concentrated in the southern sector. Fears of a humanitarian catastrophe are high. Yemeni Prime Minister: a battle that "will determine the future of the country". UN assembly calls for access to Covid vaccines.

Sana'a (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Over 130 people have died in the last two days of intense fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels for control of the area around Marib, a town of strategic importance.

Local sources report that the highest number of casualties is among the Shiite militias, who since February have launched a massive offensive against the last government stronghold in the north of the country. The outskirts of the city are rich in oil, and hundreds of guerrillas on both sides have already died in the fighting; health authorities and international organisations fear a humanitarian catastrophe.

Eyewitnesses say that the latest clashes were concentrated in the southern sector of Marib, where the Houthi rebels have directed their attacks in an attempt to break through the government army's defences.

The Shiite militias are used to attacking with waves of guerrillas charging headlong into government lines, making them easy targets for fighter jets from the Saudi-led Arab coalition allied to the regular army. Official Houthi sources say Riyadh has launched more than 30 air raids in the area around Marib since 27 September.

Analysts and experts stress that the capture of the city would give the pro-Tehran rebels a strong position in negotiations with the government, as well as control of the entire north and become the launching pad for attacks on other provinces.

Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed told the official Saba news agency that the current battle "is not for Shabwa or Marib, but for all Yemenis". The fate of the clash," he added, "will determine the future" of the country.

The war in Yemen broke out in 2014 pitting the Saudi-backed government and Iranian-supported Shia Houthi rebels.

In March 2015 the conflict escalated when Saudi Arabia decided to get directly involved, resulting in more than 10,000 dead 55,000 wounded. However, independent observers put the death toll for the period between January 2016 and July 2018 at about 57,000.

For the United Nations, the war is worst humanitarian crisis in the world, aggravated by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is such that millions people are close to famine with children expected to suffer consequences for the next 20 years. Weeks ago dozens of activists staged a bicycle ride for peace.

In the meantime, the situation on the Covid-19 front is still critical, to the point of prompting the head of Yemeni diplomacy, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, to launch an appeal from the stage of the United Nations General Assembly to send "millions of vaccines".

So far, not even one million people (out of a total of about 30 million) in the country have been able to receive immunisation, so much so that even the weakest and most fragile groups are still largely uncovered.

The 500,000 doses received to date under the Covax project, the diplomat added, "are not even enough to cover the categories at risk. We hope that donor countries will contribute to increasing the number of vaccines, so that no one is left behind" in this global fight against the virus.
The former foreign minister beat vaccine campaign chief Taro Kono in the runoff for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party. The winner was able to count on the support of members of parliament. The premiership is a foregone conclusion: the Liberal Democrats have a majority in both houses.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan today elected as its leader Fumio Kishida, who will take office as prime minister next week. Kishida, a former foreign minister, beat vaccination campaigner Taro Kono in a runoff. In an initial vote, the two contenders had managed to secure 256 and 255 votes respectively.

The two female candidates, Sanae Takaichi, former communications minister, and Seiko Noda, acting secretary-general of the LP, secured 188 and 63 votes respectively.

Kono, 58, enjoyed great popularity but was considered a maverick; the less charismatic 64-year-old Kishida had a stronger support base among party members in parliament.

The Liberal Democrats control both branches of the legislature and their new leader will become prime minister after Yoshihide Suga resigned earlier this month. His decision was influenced by a drop in the approval rate for the government's handling of the pandemic. Yesterday it was reported that the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games had reported a lower number of hospital admissions than was actually the case.

Suga's successor will be tasked with leading the country's economic recovery after the pandemic. Both Kono and Kishida had stressed the failure of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy. Kishida said he wanted to move away from the neoliberal policies of the past and also called for the creation of a "health crisis management agency" to deal with the pandemic.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

A year ago a new conflict erupted between Yerevan and Baku for control of the Armenian enclave on Azerbaijani territory. At the end of the conflict there were 3,777 Armenian and 2,895 Azerbaijani dead. The opposition in Armenia accuses Prime Minister Pushinyan of being too weak towards Azerbaijan.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Commemorative ceremonies have been held in Armenia for victims on the first anniversary of the "44-day war" in Nagorno Karabakh. At 11 a.m. on September 27, a minute's silence was observed throughout the country. Prime Minister Nikol Pasinyan visited the Erablur military range in the capital Yerevan, kneeling alone at the graves of fallen soldiers, without the accompaniment of other ministers. On Erablur Hill 889 victims of the war with Azerbaijan are buried.

According to official figures, published at the end of August, a total of 3,777 Armenians were killed during the conflict in Karabakh, including 3,000 soldiers; more than 200 people disappeared without trace. Baku, for its part, claimed 2,895 victims. The Armenian authorities extended the national mourning to the territories of Nagorno Karabakh now in Azerbaijani hands.

Opposition forces, recently defeated in the elections that re-elected Pasinyan, held their own commemorative parade on the evening of 26 September. They marched with lit lamps in memory of the victims (see photo 2), blaming the premier for their deaths. From Garegin Idze square in Yerevan, the procession reached Erablur hill, under the leadership of the leader of the Ayastan opposition bloc, former president Robert Kocaryan. No rallies were held during the demonstration.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has not yet found a definitive solution; Armenians do not recognise the attribution of Nagorno Karabakh to their Azerbaijani opponents. Marking the anniversary, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev gave an interview to the Russian military magazine Natsionalnaja Oborona ('National Defence') in which he warned the Armenians: 'Raising the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh again is harmful and dangerous for them, in the not encouraging conditions their country is currently in'.

Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan responded that "we believe that the issue should be discussed within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, and we do not understand Aliev's threatening statements". The Azerbaijani leader has also spoken at the UN, insisting that "Yerevan must choose between regional cooperation and territorial claims against its neighbours", repeating that the Karabakh conflict is now a thing of the past.

Baku says it is willing to normalise relations with Armenians only "on the basis of strict compliance with the principles of international law, especially sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognised borders", according to a note from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

Armenia's internal oppositions reiterate their frustration with Pushinyan's "surrendering" policy. Ayastan spokesman Iskhan Sagatelyan says that "Azerbaijan and Turkey are trying to bring Armenia to its knees for good, and the government insists on its losing attitude. We are handing our country over to the enemy piece by piece".

According to the opponents, the continuous concessions do not lead to more stability and pacification, while 'peace is not begged for, but imposed', and a reorganisation of the army is needed, which could still assert itself against the Turkish-Azerbaijani enemy.
by Fady Noun

Antonios Salem, 24, runs an important candle making company in an expanding market. With the money first set aside for a car he bought a machine. He made his first candles in 2016. Today his company has six machines and a monthly output in excess of 10 tonnes.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Yes, there is still work to do in Lebanon! said a smiling Antonios Salem. At 24, he runs a candle making business that is taking Lebanons convents and supermarkets by storm.

Contrary to an almost general discouragement that borders on defeatism, his spirit of entrepreneurship on constant alert, he says he has enough ideas to start five new businesses, if he had the money.

We are in Batroun, a town with a flourishing local tourist industry. Full of the light from the sky and the sea, the alleys of the small town, its Bronze Age rampart, its churches and restaurants, attract more and more people, especially young people.

Georges Salem, the father of the young entrepreneur, used to run one of these restaurants. Today, he works on busy days, imports paraffin  the raw material for making candles  and keeps the accounts of the flourishing company driven by his son.

Nothing suggested that Antonios Salem would become boss of a candle making enterprise at his young age. Nothing but the entrepreneurial spirit that seems innate in some Lebanese, combined with tenacity and perseverance.

The second child of a modest, close-knit, believing family, he says he grew up with a desire to be his own boss, a desire that two short stints in a pastry shop and a small seaside resort, as a teenager, definitely put in his mind.

Hands-on at the university

After studying at the school run by the Capuchin Fathers in Batroun, Antonios Salem earned a management degree from the University of the Holy Family, also in Batroun. Three years of study, which he considers a waste of time, since the theory was so far from practice.

As a hands-on kid, as he describes himself, he says he didnt learn what a check is in three years of study. Instead, he has great respect for the manual trades, and notes  with a bit of know-it-all  that plumbers and masons make as much money as doctors and lawyers.

His career as an entrepreneur began when, after his high school diploma, he got his driver's licence, and his father set aside, at his request, money to buy him a used car.

Thanks to this, sometime later, he bought a candle-making machine abandoned by a neighbour. But he quickly became disillusioned with it because it was obsolete, unusable.

Still, his determination overcame this disappointment. He dismantled the machine piece by piece and built a new one with parts made by a turner. That needed a lot of money... He found it by learning... about fish! I started selling fish, a very profitable business in Batroun," he said, all smiles.

My new machine cost me a lot of money," Salem explained, but thanks to my father who continued to believe in me, I held on. Then one day, my machine worked. I made my first batch of candles in 2016. The success was immediate and little by little, I grew in the business and diversified my production.

What Antonios Salem does not say is that as any good entrepreneur knows, he had the reflex to reinvest his first profits. Today, his company, Bougies Salem, includes six machines. With a monthly output of more than 10 tonnes in high season, it is considered one of the top candle makers in Lebanon.

There are four or five candle producers in Lebanon and some four small ones, said Georges Salem, Antonioss father, who delivers paraffin to small retailers, "and we are, with Bougies Aoun, among the top.

We import all the raw material from China, and our candles are distributed in the north and in Jbeil. Today, we are at the gates of Beirut, Antonios explained. I'm happy with 10 to 15 per cent profit, far from the 30 per cent that some people make. Yet my candles neither ooze, nor drip, and they last longer and are also cheaper.

Nostalgic, he remembers his first machine. It taught me everything, he said. His success story is all the more beautiful since it also involves a love story.

A naturalised Canadian, his father Georges Salem came back to the old country to find a wife, and it was love at first sight. But he never pushed us to leave Lebanon to benefit from Canadian citizenship, the young man said.

As a wise father, Georges Salem marvels at his sons overflowing energy in his work, spending sleepless nights to meet large orders, and going to the workshop at 7 am.

We are a family that relies on Providence, Antonios explained. God fills a great place in our lives, as does music. We all play an instrument and to truth be told, my one and only regret is that I sacrificed the violin for my business.
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New COVID-19 cases drop strongly

New COVID-19 cases drop strongly on September 28

Vietnam confirmed 4,589 COVID-19 infections, including 6 imported cases, in the past 24 hours to 5pm on September 28, according to the Ministry of Health.

A vaccination site in Dong Da District (Photo: Duy Linh)

The figure showed a sharp reduction of 4,759 cases from the previous day.

Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys current largest pandemic hotspot, confirmed just 787 cases, but its mass testing using rapid antigen tests found 3,417 positive cases.

Binh Duong province, another hot spot also saw the number of cases down 1,218 to 2,575.

The national caseload rose to 770,640.

A total of 21,487 patients were given the all-clear on September 28, raising the number of recoveries to 559,941.

As many as 178 deaths related to the pandemic were announced on the day, raising the tally to 18,936.

On September 27, 879,618 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were injected, bringing the total so far to 40,095,031, with 8,597,064 people getting full two shots.

Source: NDO
Japanese firms want to expand in

Japanese firms want to expand investment in Vietnam: SCCI Chairman

Member enterprises of the Sakai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) doing business in Vietnam have made good evaluations about the country and expressed their wish to expand investment there, SCCI Chairman Kazumasa Kuzumura has said.

At the discussion. (Photo: VNA).

During a discussion between Vietnamese Consul General in Osaka Nguyen Hong Ha and leaders of SCCI and Sakai city in Osaka prefecture of Japan on September 27, Kuzumura spoke highly of Vietnamese workers, adding that SCCI member enterprises' recruitment demand for Vietnamese workers, especially students, is huge.

Mentioning problems in the recruitment of Vietnamese labourers, he said several brokerage companies and businesses which sent workers charge high fees and choose unqualified workers.

Ha, for his part, suggested Japanese enterprises choose trustworthy and responsible partners for Japanese language and vocational training before sending workers to Japan, and work closely with the Vietnamese Consulate General in Osaka and local authorities to deal with rising issues.

He also proposed Japanese firms support Vietnamese apprentices who meet difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On this occasion, the official hoped that once the pandemic is put under control, SCCI will hold regular fact-finding trips to Vietnamese cities and provinces, especially Da Nang that signed a memorandum of understanding on becoming a friendship city with Sakai in February 2019.

Ha also suggested both sides hold forums and seminars on human resources to make it easier for employers to directly meet and talk with Vietnamese students.

Source: NDO
Calico Rock, Arkansas

Calico Rock, Arkansas is the small town from which Joe came. Paul traveled to Calico Rock to talk to Clarence about a meeting with Joe. Clarence warned Paul that the people were so protective of Joe that it might be dangerous for him to be there considering who he was. Paul later returned to Calico Rock with his father, Warren, so that Warren could apologize to Joe.

Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is the home field of the Chicago Cubs. Joe beat the record for consecutive hits at bat, a record considered unbreakable, while playing on this field.

Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium is the home field of the New York Mets. It is while the Cubs are playing the Mets at this stadium that Warren hits Joe in the head with a fast ball. Joe is seriously injured and unable to play again.

Pauls Backyard

After...
Dr. Ebongo (middle) & his COVID-19 vaccination team in Tiko Facebook

At least 52 persons have died from COVID-19 related complications in the last three weeks in the South-West Region.

A COVID-19 health alert has thus been issued in the region indicating a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases with 52 deaths and 345 active cases within the region in the past three weeks.

Public health officials in the region are calling on the population to reinforce barrier measures and get themselves vaccinated in order to curb the rise of the pandemic in the South West Region.

A new strategy to test, treat and vaccinate, in addition to barrier measures, has been prescribed to the public.

The Buea Health District is most affected with 17 Covid-19 related deaths out of the 52 recorded in the region within the past three weeks.

Dr. Ngund Mathias, District Medical Officer for Buea says the number of cases is very high. The number of deaths also. This is the first time since the beginning of this pandemic that we are having that number of deaths in a month. So, it is very serious.

In order to prevent people from presenting with severe forms of the disease, 23 vaccination centers have been set up in all 19 health districts of the South West region.

The population is called upon to be vaccinated as the region is first from the bottom on the national vaccination chart with 3,818 persons vaccinated, representing 28.7% of the population fully vaccinated.

The vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is said to have significantly increased vaccination coverage. Sensitization campaigns on the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines have been stepped up.

While many are hesitant to get vaccinated, they have also abandoned the barrier measures recommended by the Government and the World Health Organization. In markets, just like in places of worship and other crowded places, very few persons put on their masks properly. Physical distancing is not respected, fueling fears that the new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic could be more disastrous to the population.
Art deco landmark La Splendida Hotel has had a stylish revamp under the care of South African hospitality group Newmark Hotels, teaming up with the Caveau group of restaurants to offer an all day Mediterranean-influenced dining and cocktail experience.

Offering affordable chic with mountain and sea views aplenty, the new look La Splendida combines convenience, contemporary styling and well priced rates in a smart, small hotel package. Just five minutes from the V&A Waterfront, Cape Towns CBD and the citys buzzing hotspots, the hotel is ideal for both business and leisure travellers and in keeping with the standard set by its parent company, has all the mod cons, amenities and service requirements modern travellers demand.

The boutique offering has three floors and a total of 24 en-suite rooms, including four spacious family suites, all of which were completely refurbished. The space is a light and bright improvement on its former self, with plenty of glamorous touches in reference to its art deco heritage. Each floor is coded with colour  splashed subtly throughout, adding a sense of humour and zing to each suite.

Its restaurant partner Stano by Caveau is the brainchild of Brendon Crew, Jean-Yves Muller and Marc Langlois of Caveau and HQ fame, Stano (the name means cellar in Spanish, while caveau has the same meaning in French) is a stylish sea facing venue with an outdoor beach bar, pavement caf setup, impressive sky lit indoor bar area as well as substantial more formal seating and banquettes inside.

An all day dining concept features a menu that includes bistro classics like Eggs Benedict (a Caveau signature) and steak tartare, their signature gourmet flat breads, anytime eats like croque monsieur and plates of artisan style charcuterie and cheese to share as well as more substantial offerings. We want people to feel they can come at any time of the day for something light or more substantial to eat or even just a cocktail; weve designed a menu that has plenty of table eating options and takes its cue from mezze and tapas favourites, explains co owner Brendon Crew whose bar and eatery has already established itself as a weekend hotspot for the citys it crowd.

The relaxed atmosphere here, complete with laidback beats supplied by a resident DJ on weekend afternoons and evenings belies the commitment to quality and a superior dining experience by the Caveau founders. With an already excellent reputation set by the Caveau and HQ brands, sibling eatery Stano is sure to be a favourite this summer and in seasons to come. Mingling with sun kissed locals, hotel guests make themselves at home in between exploring the city, safe in the knowledge they can have breakfast at any time and can sign their meals and anything off the classic cocktail menu straight to their rooms.

With two quality brands on board to breathe new life and style into this Mouille Point stalwart, La Splendida is sure to make its mark on the citys hotel landscape.

La Splendida Hotel and Stano by Caveau are situated at 121 Beach Road, Mouille Point.

For reservations contact La Splendida and Stano on (27) (21) 439 5119.
Our daily Cape Town weather report is updated twice a day. For an extended weather report for planning your activites or holiday in Cape Town, scroll down and look at our 10 Day Weather Forecast for Cape Town.

Forecast for Cape Town, South Africa Last Update: 08.10.2021 @ 11:00

Next Update: 08.10.2021 @ 17:00



Today 18C < 1 mm 1013.9 hPa Moderate Breeze From west-northwest 23 km/h 18:00 - 00:00 14C < 1 mm 1013.9 hPa Gentle Breeze From west-northwest 18 km/h



Forecast for the next 4 days

Day Temperature Precipitation Pressure Wind 09.10.2021 00:00 - 06:00 12C 1016.4 hPa Light Air From west-northwest 5 km/h 06:00 - 12:00 12C < 1 mm 1018.2 hPa Light Breeze From west-northwest 7 km/h 12:00 - 18:00 18C < 1 mm 1021.6 hPa Light Breeze From west-southwest 10 km/h 18:00 - 00:00 18C 1022.0 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 17 km/h 10.10.2021 00:00 - 06:00 12C 1023.6 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 15 km/h 06:00 - 12:00 8C 1021.5 hPa Light Breeze From south-southeast 9 km/h 12:00 - 18:00 24C 1021.0 hPa Light Air From southwest 3 km/h 18:00 - 00:00 22C 1018.5 hPa Light Breeze From south-southeast 12 km/h 11.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 14C 1016.6 hPa Light Breeze From south-southeast 9 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 18C 1016.2 hPa Light Air From southeast 4 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 29C 1014.1 hPa Light Breeze From south-southwest 9 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 17C 1015.3 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 18 km/h 12.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 15C 1014.4 hPa Moderate Breeze From south 21 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 17C 1013.8 hPa Moderate Breeze From south-southeast 24 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 22C 1012.1 hPa Moderate Breeze From south 23 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 16C 1013.2 hPa Moderate Breeze From south-southeast 21 km/h 13.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 15C 1013.0 hPa Gentle Breeze From south 15 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 17C 1012.7 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 17 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 22C 1010.6 hPa Light Breeze From south-southwest 12 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 16C 1010.7 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 12 km/h 14.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 12C < 1 mm 1007.7 hPa Light Breeze From north-northwest 6 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 15C 2 mm 1008.6 hPa Moderate Breeze From north-northwest 24 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 16C < 1 mm 1009.6 hPa Fresh Breeze From west-northwest 34 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 15C < 1 mm 1011.5 hPa Gentle Breeze From west-northwest 16 km/h 15.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 14C 2 mm 1011.2 hPa Gentle Breeze From north-northwest 14 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 15C < 1 mm 1012.0 hPa Light Breeze From southwest 8 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 17C < 1 mm 1011.8 hPa Gentle Breeze From southwest 17 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 13C < 1 mm 1013.9 hPa Light Breeze From south-southwest 7 km/h 16.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 11C 2 mm 1014.7 hPa Light Air From south-southwest 5 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 12C < 1 mm 1016.4 hPa Light Air From south-southwest 5 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 15C < 1 mm 1015.8 hPa Light Breeze From south-southwest 12 km/h 20:00 - 02:00 11C 1017.4 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 19 km/h 17.10.2021 02:00 - 08:00 10C 1017.5 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 17 km/h 08:00 - 14:00 13C 1 mm 1017.6 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 14 km/h 14:00 - 20:00 15C < 1 mm 1016.7 hPa Gentle Breeze From south-southeast 13 km/h





Cape Town Regional capital South Africa 2021-10-08T11:00:00 2021-10-08T17:00:00

Weather in Cape Town is moderate all year round, with warm, pleasant summers and cool winters. During winter ( June - August) temperatures in Cape Town rarely (if ever!) fall below 0 and snow is a rareity, although on rare occasisions there has been a little snow found on top of Table Mountain. The mountains around Ceres, a farming village about 150 km from Cape Town are more prone to snow during winter and proves a great family outing.

September the 1st marks the first day of spring, although colder days and rain are not uncommon at this time. Temperatures in Cape Town gradually increase during October and November, with the hottest summer days typically reaching 34 to 35 degrees in the Summer months of December, January and February. In December the population of Cape Town nearly doubles as most of the schools around South Africa close and many local holiday makers make their way to Cape Town from Johannesburg and other cities. Many international tourists, predominantly from Europe and North America also visit Cape Town during this time, and traffic jams from the top of Kloofnek down to Camps Bay are not uncommon on warm summer afternoons.

After the madness of summer holidays, Cape Town returns to normal towards the end of January as most children go back to school. Some locals might even say the weather in Cape Town is at it's best during February and March as the temperatures cool down ever so slightly, although one still needs to contend with strong South Easterly wind, nicknamed the "Cape Doctor" by locals.
China's participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) pact has the potential to quadruple Beijing's economic gains.

This would significantly change the balance of power in International commerce and also would leave the United States "increasingly isolated" as stated by the Chinese newspaper themselves, reported The HK Post.

As per The HK Post, this is in response to the historic AUKUS security alliance between UK, the US and Australia.

China has applied to join a key Asia-Pacific trade pact as it attempts to strengthen its position in the region.

China's decision to join the CPTPP is seen as retaliation to counter the effect of the alliance whose sole purpose is to deal with and tackle china's growing influence in the Asia- Pacific region.

China has been quick to describe the AUKUS alliance as extremely irresponsible and has further said that it severely risks damaging regional peace and has the potential to intensify the arms race, reported The HK Post.

The AUKUS pact allows Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines using technology provided by the US and the UK. It also covers other technical areas such as artificial intelligence and is seen as Australia's biggest defense partnership deal in decades.

The CPTPP formally came into the picture in 2018 inked by 11 countries in Santiago which included Australia, Chile, Japan, and New Zealand, all in the Asia-Pacific.

The world economies included in the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership represent nearly half a billion consumers and accounts for 13.3 per cent of the global GDP, reported The HK Post.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Pact which later became CPTPP was brought into existence as an economic bloc by the US to counter China's growing influence in the Asia- Pacific, reported The HK Post.

However, in 2017, Donald Trump, the then President of the US pulled out of the deal.

Being one of the world's largest economies, China's participation in the pact has the potential to quadruple the economic gains of the agreement.

It can be said that joining the CPTPP would bring a major boost to China given its active participation in different free trade agreements with 14 other countries called the RCEP i.e. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

As per The HK Post, one major concern would be whether China would use the Pact to avoid the tariffs imposed by Trump's trade war. China could send raw materials to CPTPP members such as Vietnam. Factories there would send finished products to America, avoiding tariffs.

Japan, the country chairing the CPTPP this year, has stated that it would seek the consultation of the member countries to respond to China's request.

(ANI)

Also Read: China seeks prompt summit of five permanent members of UN Security Council
I am incredibly grateful for the many opportunities Ive had during my tenure to learn and grow from the amazing people in this company in Chicago, Hartford and the other Tribune Publishing markets, Taylor said in a statement. While this was a difficult decision for me to leave, I am very excited for what comes next.
This is a historic achievement for our airline and our employees as well as for the customers and communities we serve, United CEO Scott Kirby and president Brett Hart said in a memo to employees. Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all Uniteds U.S.-based employees was simple  to keep our people safe  and the truth is this: Everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.
But wait. The filmmaker, writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, is the first to refer to his movie as "'Risky Business' for the social-media generation." Producer Mimi Valdes, also quoted in the production notes, adds that its focus is "black nerds in the 'hood. Why hasn't anyone shown that part of the culture before? Here's an opportunity to show a black kid who is super smart, trying to get into Harvard, acing his SATs, liking tech stuff and hip hop music and rock bands and grunge. We've never seen that character in the movies." Maybe so. We're certainly not likely to hear a better movie soundtrack in 2015.
For many, the lure of this prequel is simple: Whod they get to play the younger version of so-and-so, and how are they? Vera Farmiga is terrific in her few, brief appearances as the legendarily hostile/needy Livia, easily in the Top 5 for Tonys therapy as an adult. Tonys Uncle Junior is played by Corey Stoll, who, like Liotta, oozes an innate quality of faintly comic menace in these circumstances. Some of the touches dive into caricature  John Magaro, I think, takes it a step too far as young Silvio, though Steven Van Zandt was already out there in the series  but where it counts, the castings choice.
Disney has been a running theme of Reeds career thus far; her very first role was as a mouse in the Childrens Theatre of Elgins production of Cinderella. In taking on Satine, the seductive star of a Paris cabaret at the turn of the 20th century, Reed said she draws some inspiration from former Satines Karen Olivo and Nicole Kidman, who originated the part in the musical and movie, respectively. But Reed said shes also approaching the role like any other character.
But, at the final preview I saw, the show went awry in the following scene, when Katurian realizes that his mentally disabled younger brother, Michal (Jay Worthington) also has been detained and is sitting in the next cell. That new information forces Katurian, who has survived by running away into the abstract, to confront his own love (in effect, his surrogate child). That scene needs to be emotionally wrenching, but in this production it feels weirdly invulnerable, with Mannings relative passivity easily dominated by Worthingtons articulate surety, which is, I think, the wrong way around. Thereafter, the emotional landscape of the production cant really recover. You just cannot track what everyone is feeling, and that makes it hard to invest yourself.
As an actor, she might be best known for her movies, including Cheaper by the Dozen with Steve Martin, the voice of Dolly in the Toy Story films, the Chicago-shot Return to Me and Jerry Maguire. More recently she appeared in 2018s Escape at Dannemora.
Protecting the legal right to abortion in the courts is essential, but its not enough, said the Chicago Abortion Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial and logistical support for those seeking an abortion, in a news release. We must work together to build a future where everyone has full reproductive freedom and is met with compassion and respect as they exercise their right to decide what is best for themselves and their families.
About 3:40 p.m., Peraltas mother returned to the home at the Schubert Avenue address after picking up another child from school when she discovered Peralta, who also lives there, covered with blood, and her mother, Espinoza Cardoza, lying on the floor, unresponsive, police said.
Isabel, who said she has recovered from the alleged Sept. 24 incident at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house, said she is speaking out because this is not the first time she has experienced trauma. She said she was emotionally abused by a teacher while attending high school in New York City.
The 59-page indictment outlined a series of schemes in which Burke allegedly tried to muscle developers into hiring his law firm, Klafter & Burke, to appeal their property taxes. Among the projects Burke tried to capitalize on was the massive $800 million renovation of the post office in the West Loop, according to the charges.
Prosecutors have charged Lathem with first-degree murder in what they say was a vicious premeditated attack on his young lover, saying he and accomplice Andrew Warren ambushed Cornell in Lathems apartment and then went on the lam. Authorities have previously described the slaying as a sex-related thrill-killing, though the prosecutors presenting the case in court have not yet emphasized that angle.
In a statement, the White House said, In meetings and calls over the weekend and through today, President Biden has been engaging with members of Congress on the path forward for the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. He will now remain at the White House tomorrow to continue working on advancing these two pieces of legislation to create jobs, grow the economy, and make investments in families, rather than failed giveaways to the rich and big corporations.
Defense lawyer James Woods said Hoover wasnt informed of why he was being arrested and asked both deputies if it was dangerous to be reaching into a running car that might soon back up.
China has taken a slew of measures to cope with the emergency of tightened power supply to meet people's power needs and ensure economic growth and social stability.

Work teams have been dispatched to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, eastern Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Hunan, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said.

They have conducted on-site supervision and guided local governments and enterprises to implement power supply measures, increase energy supply, and make all-out efforts to guarantee energy supply during the coming winter and spring.

From Thursday to Saturday, a team led by NEA Deputy Director Ren Jingdong went to regions of Ningxia and Shaanxi. The team required local governments and enterprises to exploit the potential of increasing energy production, prioritize coal supply for power generation and heating to meet people's needs, and promote social and economic stability.

On Saturday, major coal production, mining enterprises, and power supply and heating companies in northeast China signed mid-to-long term coal supply contracts to ensure coal supply for the coming winter in the region, the National Coal Exchange Co., Ltd said.

The National Development and Reform Commission has also notified local governments and relevant enterprises to promote the signing of such mid-to-long term contracts to prioritize thermal coal supply.

The State Grid Corporation of China Monday said it would take comprehensive measures to ensure power supply for people's basic needs and try its best to avoid power cuts.

The company will go all out to guarantee power supply and firmly safeguard the bottom line of power supply to meet people's basic needs and ensure social development and security, said the company.

The State Grid will strengthen the distribution of power from its entire network, reasonably arrange the network operation, and ensure that all available power generators from power companies connect to the grid.

The company said it would coordinate and dispatch resources by tapping the power transmission potential of cross-provincial power networks. It would also strengthen electricity consumption monitoring and ensure power supply for residential users.

The State Grid also vowed to strictly implement the power supply and consumption plans formulated by the government, stabilize power supply and consumption, and improve emergency response plans, said the company.
Boeing announced on Tuesday the company was awarded by the U.S. Navy a production contract for five P-8A Poseidon aircraft for Germany.

First deliveries are slated to begin in 2024 when the P-8A Poseidon will eventually replace Germany's fleet of P-3C Orion aircraft, the announcement said.

"We're pleased to have finalized this sale to Germany and to expand our footprint in-country by bringing the P-8A and its unique multi-mission capabilities to the German Navy," said Michael Hostetter, vice president at Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Germany.

Germany is the eighth nation to have acquired the P-8A, joining the United States, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, Norway, South Korea and New Zealand, according to Boeing.

The P-8A Poseidon airplanes are deployed around the world with more than 135 aircraft in service, the company said.
China is moving toward the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with significantly improved performance after 2015, according to a newly-released report.

The report -- "Big Earth Data in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" -- was released during the Sustainable Development Forum 2021.

Guo Huadong is the director of the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said that China is moving toward the 2030 SDGs with greatly improved indicators included in the evaluation, especially after 2015.

The report conducted in-depth research, monitoring, and evaluation of 18 aspects under six of the UN SDGs -- Zero Hunger, Water and Sanitation, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action, Life on Land, and Life below Water.

According to the report, the natural carbon sink capacity in China and the global ecosystem showed a significant increase in the past 10 years. From 2015 to 2020, area under mangroves in China has seen a net growth of 16 percent. The unique plants are recognized as one of the richest carbon storage systems.

The first edition of the report was issued in September 2019 by the Chinese delegation to the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, focusing on the use of big Earth data to help accomplish the SDGs, as laid out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Sustainable Development Forum 2021 was held online and offline on Sunday and Monday at which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered a written speech.

At the opening ceremony, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said via video that China will continue to work with all parties to advance the Global Development Initiative and make contributions to accelerating the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and bringing benefits to people of all countries.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has unveiled an array of new aircraft at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, which opened Tuesday in the southern port city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

Aircraft put on show included two J-20 stealth fighter jets, China's new electronic warfare aircraft J-16D, and a new high-altitude reconnaissance drone, WZ-7.

The Y-20 heavy transport aircraft and some other major battle equipment were also displayed at the show.

The PLA Air Force is working in line with the strategic requirements of integrating air and space capabilities as well as coordinating offensive and defensive operations. Its goal is to advance toward building itself into a world-class strategic air force, said Commander of the PLA Air Force Chang Dingqiu at the event.
China completed the country's 12th Arctic scientific expedition on Tuesday after the expedition team boarding polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 arrived at the port in Shanghai.

During the expedition that lasted 79 days and covered a voyage of 14,000 nautical miles, the team completed comprehensive observations of the atmosphere, ocean and ecology in the Chukchi Sea, focusing on addressing climate change and protecting the ecological environment of the Arctic.

Geographically, China is a "Near-Arctic State," one of the continental states that are closest to the Arctic Circle. The natural conditions of the Arctic and their changes have a direct impact on China's climate system and ecological environment, and, in turn, on its economic interests in agriculture, forestry, fishery, marine industry and other sectors.

Since 1999, China has completed 12 scientific expeditions in the Arctic, with its research vessels Xuelong and Xuelong 2 as the platform.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to implement the strategy on developing a quality workforce in the new era and to accelerate the work to build China into a major world center of professional talent and innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when speaking at a central conference on talent-related work, which was held on Monday and Tuesday.

Xi underlined the CPC's leadership over talent management.

Xi called for efforts to speed up China's upgrade toward a major world center of talent and innovation, to support the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist China in all respects by 2050.

The conference was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Huning made concluding remarks.

The CPC has attached great importance to talent management during its century-long endeavor, Xi noted, adding that historical achievements and changes have been made in this regard since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

China now has a large number of well-trained professionals who play an increasingly prominent role in the country's development, Xi said.

Never in history has China been closer to the goal of national rejuvenation and never in history has it been in greater need of talented people, Xi stressed.

As the country's development and national rejuvenation depend on a quality workforce, China should pay greater attention to fostering people with talent through its own efforts and sharpening its competitive edge in human resources, he said.

Xi listed eight principles in this regard.

-- Upholding the CPC's overall leadership over human resources work;

-- Making human resources the priority in the country's development;

-- Focusing on world-level cutting-edge technologies, the main economic fields, the country's critical needs, and the people's health;

-- Promoting the comprehensive fostering of people with talent;

-- Deepening institutional reform related to talent development;

-- Assembling the best minds and drawing fully on their expertise;

-- Creating a favorable environment in which people with talent are easily identified, well valued and respected, and fully display their talent;

-- Promoting the spirit of scientists.

Specifying the objectives for talent-related work, Xi said that by the year 2025, China will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams.

By 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas, Xi said.

By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world, he added.

Calling for making strategic plans, Xi said efforts should be made to build high-caliber talent hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Stressing further reforming the system and mechanisms for talent development, Xi said scientists should be given more power to decide on technological routes, and more funding and resources should be placed at their disposal.

Xi also called for better cultivating strategic scientists and letting them play their roles, and nurturing a large number of top sci-tech leaders and innovation teams, young sci-tech talent and outstanding engineers.

"We must strive to foster a team of engineers who follow the Party, are patriotic, devote themselves to their careers, have outstanding ability to make technological innovation, and are good at solving complex problems," he said.

Universities and colleges -- especially those of "Double First-Class" (namely world-class universities and first-class disciplines) -- should play a leading role in fostering talent in basic research, Xi said.

He stressed the need to cultivate a talent pool in various areas, such as philosophers, social scientists and artists, and the need to enhance international exchange.

Xi also called for establishing a trust-based human resources system that tolerates failures and encourages leading sci-tech professionals to take on new tasks and responsibilities.

He stressed maintaining a correct political orientation in talent-related work, fostering patriotism and the sense of responsibility among talented people, optimizing the commendation and reward system, and fostering a culture of respecting talent.

Li Keqiang, who presided over the conference, said that Xi's important speech sets the fundamental course for talent-related work in the new era. He stressed continuing to break new ground for talent-related work.

Wang Huning, in his concluding remarks, called for a thorough study and implementation of Xi's new ideas, strategies and measures in talent-related work in the new era. Wang also stressed the need to study, publicize and implement the guidelines of the conference.
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the 11th round of high-level strategic dialogue between China and the European Union (EU) with Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, via video link on Tuesday.

Both China and the EU believe that bilateral exchanges should be based on mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences, expanding cooperation and reducing antagonism, upholding the international order based on the UN Charter and international law, and jointly addressing common challenges such as COVID-19 and climate change, Wang said.

The EU has said on many occasions that it welcomes China's development, has no intention of engaging in institutional confrontation and will not engage in any form of "new Cold War." China appreciates that, Wang added.

Recently, there have been more contacts and dialogues between China and the EU, and many consensuses have been reached, which will help enhance understanding, expand mutual trust and reduce misjudgments, Wang noted.

"We should consolidate this positive momentum, enhance political mutual trust, properly manage differences and contribute as two major forces to addressing global challenges," Wang said.

Borrell said developing relations with China is an important agenda of the EU, and it is very important for the EU and China to maintain close and smooth communication. The EU is willing to work with China to prepare for the next stage of high-level exchanges between the two sides.

The EU welcomes the Global Development Initiative proposed by Chinese leader, which will play an important role in global economic recovery and poverty eradication. The EU also highly appreciates China's pledge to stop building new coal-fired power projects overseas. The EU is ready to continue to strengthen cooperation with China on fighting COVID-19, climate change and biodiversity conservation, Borrell said.
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Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan.

"It is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," he said, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

Milley and McKenzie said they believed the United States should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and a quick drawdown from the country could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military.

Such comments seemed to contradict President Joe Biden's words in an interview last month, in which he said no military officials advised him to keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline.

Meanwhile, Milley and Pentagon chief Austin stressed that the sudden collapse of the Afghan military was beyond their expectation.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise," said Austin.

Milley noted that most intelligence assessments indicated the collapse "would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring."

Top military commanders pointed to the agreement reached between the United States and Taliban in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions, had a demoralizing impact on the Afghan military.

The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30 under Biden's order, ending 20 years of occupation. The hasty and chaotic evacuations drew fierce criticism from both home and abroad.

Milley admitted in the hearing that the withdrawal damaged U.S. credibility. "Damage is one word that could be used."

He also raised terrorism threats that could potentially emerge from Afghanistan in the near future.

Reflecting on the Afghan war, Austin questioned if the United States had the right strategy in the past two decades, adding that Washington might never fully comprehend the situation on the ground, including the depth of corruption in Kabul.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed only 26 percent of Americans believed the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, and 69 percent of the public said the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan.
 Flash

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) test-fired a hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 in Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County of Jagang Province on Tuesday morning, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The missile was newly developed and test-fired by the Academy of Defence Science, the report said.

"In the first test-launch, national defence scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section and also its technical specifications including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead," the report said.

It also ascertained the stability of the engine as well as of missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time, KCNA said, adding the test results proved that "all the technical specifications met the design requirements."

The report also said Pak Jong Chon, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, watched the test-launch with leading officials in the sector of national defence science.

DPRK also tested cruise and ballistic missiles in September.
 Flash

The head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami on Tuesday rejected a U.S. statement which calls for giving access to the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Iran's Karaj nuclear site, official IRNA news agency reported.

Eslami said upon his arrival in the Russian capital Moscow that the countries, which did not condemn the "terrorist act" against Iran's Karaj nuclear site, are not eligible to comment on inspections there.

The IAEA on Sunday said that its inspectors had been denied access to a centrifuge manufacturing site in Karaj city, 40 km northwest of Iran's capital Tehran. According to Iran, the site was attacked by Israel in late June.

Based on Sept. 12 agreement between Iran and the IAEA in Tehran, "we agreed (for the IAEA) to replace the memory cards of the specified cameras at the request of the agency, and it is clear that it does not include areas damaged by the terrorist act. We addressed this issue in Tehran statement and told them in Vienna," Eslami was quoted as saying.

Eslami noted that Iran will not accept their insistence on installing cameras in places damaged by the terrorist operation.

He also urged the IAEA to end what he called "its discriminatory and political" attitude toward the Islamic Republic, which has been a member of the agency for 50 years.
 Flash

France on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Greece for the sale of three French-made "frigates of defense and intervention" as part of the two countries' "strategic partnership".

This accord came ten days after France saw its contract to sell 12 diesel-electric submarines to Australia dislodged by a newly created security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS).

"Europeans must come out of their naivety," French President Emmanuel Macron said after signing the accord at the Elysee Palace with visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Europeans need to show that they "also have the power and the ability to defend themselves" by drawing on the "consequences" of the fact that the United States "concentrates on itself and has strategic interests which are reoriented towards China and the Pacific," he said.

"With Greece, we are now entering into a strategic cooperation partnership in the field of defense and security. It strengthens our collective security, our strategic autonomy and our European sovereignty," he said.

French shipbuilder Naval Group, still shocked by the sudden cancelation of the so-called "contract of the century" of Australia's Attack-class submarine program, will deliver the warships to Greece in 2025 and 2026, French media reported without providing details on the value of the deal.
An automotive high-speed transmission is a machine that consists of gears and gear trains in a power transmission system of a vehicle to provide controlled application of the power to make sure that the right amount of power goes to the wheels of a vehicle to drive at a given speed.

Growth by Region

Asia-Pacific region leads the market due to increasing government incentives for the manufacturing industry, availability of cheap labor and OEMs taking advantage of the rising demand for the automatic transmission system of vehicles in the region. North America, on the other hand, holds the second position due to a large number of sales of automobiles with automatic transmission systems in the region. Europe is also expected to grow in terms of revenue due to the presence of major automobile manufacturers and rapid technological developments in the region

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Drivers vs Constraints

The market is mainly driven by a rise in the demand for automatic transmission system vehicles globally. Also, a large number of sales of automobiles in developing countries such as China and India are also propelling the growth of the automotive high-speed transmission market. However, the growth is hindered by the high cost of manufacturing and issues with proper packaging.

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Industry Trends and Updates

Toyota, Aisin and Denso, a global leader in automobile and auto parts manufacturing has planned to invest USD 2.8 billion to accelerate its efforts in advanced development of fully-integrated and quality software for automated driving using high-speed transmission system in automobiles globally.

ZF Friedrichshafen, a German-based company that manufactures automobile parts is planning to invest 800 million in hybrid transmission technology. The 800 million for its primary plant located in Saarbrucken, Germany will also go towards production systems, infrastructure, and ZFs supplier network.

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Cardiac Holter Monitor is a portable battery operated device that records and measures a persons heart activity (ECG) continuously at a stretch for 24 hours to 48 hours or even for a longer period depending on the type of monitoring used. The device has wires with silver dollar-sized electrodes that attach to the skin of a person.

Demand Scenario

The global cardiac holter monitor market was USD 352.55 million in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 549.69 million by 2025 at a CAGR of 6.55% during the forecast period

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Growth by Region

North America holds the largest market share owing to the increasing preference of patients towards minimally invasive diagnostic tools and also sufficient funding from government for the treatment of the cardiovascular disorder. Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, is anticipated to grow rapidly with a very high CAGR in the years to come. While, countries in Latin America, Middle East and Africa face a sluggish growth and are rising their investments to expand their physical presence globally

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Drivers vs Constraints

The market is mainly driven by rising stress levels and hectic lifestyle in people globally resulting in cardiac blockage and arrest. For instance, the American Heart Association in the US is focusing mainly on bringing down the upsurge of deaths and incidences of stroke by 20 percent caused by cardiovascular devices. This has resulted in the upsurge of demand for advanced technology devices for analysis and diagnosis. Nonetheless, the global cardiac holter monitor market is curbed by growing healthcare awareness along with a prominent need to reduce the cardiac disorder globally in the near future.

Industry Trends and Updates

Spacelabs Healthcare, a global manufacturer of medical equipment has invested USD 720,000 into Nursing Laboratory at University of Massachusetts Amherst which will benefit students who study Bachelor of Science in Nursing program since they are the frontline of healthcare who uses these tools extensively.

Abbott Laboratories, an American healthcare company has launched the first and only smartphone compatible Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) in the U.S. to help physicians remotely identify cardiac arrhythmias in patients and being able to engage in their healthcare.

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An electric car is a self-propelling transportation machine that is powered either by a collector system through electricity from charging station deployments or else can be charged by self-charging devices like regenerative braking systems and turbochargers.

Demand Scenario

The global electric car market was USD 134.32 billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 413.95 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 17.44% during the forecast period.

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Growth by Region

Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest market in 2018 owing to the rising government incentives in the form of subsidies, grants and tax rebates, thus, continuously improving charging infrastructure in the region. North America, on the other hand, is also one of the lucrative markets owing to the USD 2.4 billion in federal grants to support the development of next-generation electric cars and batteries paired with USD 115 million for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in almost 16 different metropolitan areas around the country. Europe is also an important market for electric cars due to the introduction of new technologies focusing on zero-carbon emission vehicles in the region.

Drivers vs Constraints

The global electric car market is mainly driven by rising government incentives in the form of subsidies and grants along with growing environmental concerns caused by conventional passenger carriers used for transportation purposes. Also, a volumetric surge in the automotive sector and the introduction of new technologies is also anticipated to propel the growth of the electric car market globally. However, the growth is hindered by the high manufacturing cost of the vehicle coupled with low fuel economy and serviceability of electric cars globally.

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Industry Trends and Updates

Tesla, Inc., an American automotive and energy company is investing USD 5 billion in a factory located in Shanghai, China mainly to offer better access to domestic markets as well as to ease the effects of punitive tariffs for its customers located in China.

Lucid Motors, Inc., an American automotive company specializing in electric cars has got an investment amount of USD 1 billion by Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund. This transaction represents a major milestone for Lucid Motors and will provide the company with the necessary funding to commercially launch its first electric vehicle (EV), the Lucid Air in the year 2020.

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A carboxylic acid is an organic compound that contains a carboxyl group. Carboxylic acid is used in food & beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Carboxylic acid is also used as an active ingredient in a number of drug formulations.The global carboxylic acid market was 12.15 billion USD in 2018 and is forecasted to reach 16.80 billion USD by 2023 with a CAGR of 4.74%

Growth by Region

In 2018, Asia Pacific accounted for major share due to increase in lubricants, food & beverages and consumer goods. North America and Europe have slowed growth due to strict regulations imposed by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

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Drivers vs Constraints

The carboxylic acid market is mainly driven by increased consumption of vinyl acetate in F&B and increased demand for cosmetics and personal care. The increasing demand for pharmaceutical products drive the growth of the market. However, the availability of organic and natural substitutes in the animal feed industry will hinder carboxylic acid market. Regulations on the production of petroleum based carboxylic acids will restrain the growth of the market.

Industry Structure and Updates

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Eastman Chemical Company to expand carboxylic acid capacity in US, which will help the company meet the growing demand for the product.

German chemical manufacturer Oxea has expanded its production capacity for carboxylic acid to meet the growing demand

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Automotive upholstery comprehends the interior of any vehicle encompassing the seat covers, carpet, door insides, the trunk space, and the boot space. The prime need for automotive upholstery is to provide luxury to the passengers and a pleasing ambiance of the vehicle interiors. Automotive upholstery also helps distinguish the automobile brand from its competitors by providing an added value. This is mostly done by providing seat covers made from visually appealing and comforting material, providing overall fitments like the dashboard, steering wheel, door insides, etc. in an eye soothing colour scheme.

Demand Scenario

The global automotive upholstery market was USD 4.71 billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 8.43 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 8.67% during the forecast period

Growth by Region

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The market in the U.S. in specific has huge prospective in the upholstery segment chiefly because the people in the U.S. have a distinctive taste and style of customizing their cars according to their requirement. Asia Pacific region houses two of the biggest developing economies in the world  China and India. Both these countries are developing automotive hubs, where the demand for luxury vehicles is growing at a steady pace. Escalating vehicle production coupled with adding demand of the luxury segment will drive the automotive upholstery forward and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. In the European market, the desire of consumers towards luxury brands is well known, but owing to the weak economy, demand from the European countries would be less compared to the Asian countries.

Drivers and Restraints

The major factors influencing the growth of the market include augmented vehicle demand in the market with large available variety, increased customer requirement owing to awareness about automobile interiors, better proximity of raw material suppliers in the vicinity, breakneck competition between competing automotive firms, influence from popular media, and an rise in the number of affluent buyers. Though the automotive upholstery is more or less customizable, the leading factor in the decision making is the pricing point of the overall system and the fitment cost involved. The inconsistent cost of raw materials directly affects the overall production cost of the upholstery production which, in turn, affects the demand for the upholstery, especially in a price sensitive market.

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Industry Trends and Updates

In April 2016, Faurecias Cover Carving Technology for automotive seats, has won the Automotive News PACE Award. The technology was successful in reducing the tooling costs by 80% and is 50% lighter than a plastic back panel. In 2016, Mercedes-Benz hit first in the global luxury brand sales pushing back BMW and Audi, where the Mercedes-Benz models majorly supplied with standard Tunja fabric for Upholstery. Synthetic leather is likely to be the largest segment of the Automotive Upholstery Market, by upholstery materials. This upholstery material is resistant to stain and easy to clean, making it an ideal automotive upholstery material. Due to its synthetic material, this leather type can be manufactured in a vast array of colours and textures. Synthetic leather is mostly used in automotive seat cars and the demand for it is anticipated to grow with growing vehicle production and rising consumption of seat covers. Automotive seat covers is projected to be the largest segment of the Automotive Upholstery Market, by application.

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BOLOGNA, Italy, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the China Forum organized in MacFrut, the companies involved in the project The European Art of Taste had the opportunity to present themselves to the Asian market with a webinar that saw the participation of 111 Chinese companies and professionals and buyers in the fruit and vegetable sector. Kevin Auyeung, Asian Market Manager, presented RK Growers, a company strongly linked to exports that was founded by four European producers to bring together and distribute high quality fruit to consumers around the world. To achieve this, and to maintain high quality, RK Growers constantly invests in varietal research, technologies and methods of cultivation and transport to maintain excellence. In the last year RK Growers has exported over 125,000 tons of fruit and vegetables, in addition to over 30,000 tons of processed fruit and vegetables. These results are possible thanks to RK's control of the entire supply chain, starting from cultivation in the best productive areas to packaging and distribution. The philosophy of RK is that every consumer, anywhere in the world, must have the same experience and the same quality. For this RK has created partnerships such as Kiwi Uno, Rivoira, Berry Way, able to meet the demands of consumers all over the world. AIn particular for AsiaA, explained Kevin Auyeung, A the turning point for RK Growers came with the opening of the Hong Kong office. Asia is a fundamental market for us and we want to serve consumers in the best possible way, which is why we have created two projects that can represent us on the continent such as DorA and OmnifreshA. DorA is an exclusive of RK Growers, the yellow Kiwifruit has been chosen for the Asian market for its ripening period, high productivity and excellent conservation, as well as Omnifresh which presents Ambrosia, Yello, Kanzi and Crimson Snow apples exclusively for Asia, with an amount that is around 400,000 tons per year. The European Art of Taste project will continue to promote the masterpieces of nature and art throughout 2021, involving consumers, journalists and professionals in incoming, in-store events and fairs, in partnership with European Union and the companies Apofruit, Origine Group, Jingold, King Fruit and RK Growers. For further information and details: www.europeanartoftaste.com; www.europeanartoftaste.ch
Srinagar: The Indian Army on Tuesday said that a Pakistani militant belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) outfit had been captured alive and another killed by it while foiling yet another infiltration bid along the Line of Control in the Uri sector of J&Ks Baramulla district.

The captured militant, who is being interrogated at a military base in Uri, has been identified as 19-year-old Ali Babar Patra, a resident of Dipalpur in Okara district of Pakistans Punjab. The slain militant has been identified as 33-year-old Atiq-ur-Rehman, alias Qari Anas, a resident of Attock district of Pakistans Punjab.

The Army said that four of its soldiers were injured in the clashes with a large group of infiltrating militants. The other members of the group were forced to flee back into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, it added.

A senior Army commander, Maj. Gen. Virendra Vats, who heads the 19 Infantry Division, told reporters in Uri that Babar Ali Patra, son of late Muhammad Lateef of Okara, has during initial questioning admitted to being a member of Lashkar and that he was given arms training at a camp near PoK capital Muzaffarabad.

He has revealed that he went for a three-week course at a camp at Garhi Habibullah in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2019. After receiving training, he was sent home but was recalled for an important task this year. He has given the contact number of his mother, which is 03013668927, the Army officer said.

He said Babar Ali, after his surrender, taken into custody by troops keeping in view the ethos and value system of the Indian Army that we do not use force against any unarmed person.

He said that as many as seven militants were killed in counter-insurgency operations in the past one week, five of them along the LoC. It is for the first time in several years that a Pakistani militant has been captured alive on the LoC by the Indian Army or any other security agency, officials said.

The Army in a statement here said the captured militant was misguided and lured into joining LeT due to poverty (after) having lost his father early.

It said: His family in Dipalpur consists of his widowed mother and an adopted sister. The family belongs to the lower class, barely managing to make both ends meet. To escape poverty, the individual left schooling from a government-run institution after Class 7. He had three weeks of preliminary training at the Garhi Habibullah Camp (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) in 2019, followed by refresher training in 2021. Most of the instructors being employed for physical and weapons training were Pakistan Army personnel.

The Army said that Ali had been given Rs 20,000 by Atiq-ur-Rehman for his mothers treatment and was promised Rs 30,000 more on his safe return from Pattan near Baramulla, where the group was to deliver the war-like stores.

However, it is evident that it had more nefarious designs which even the surrendered terrorist is unaware of. The false and fake narrative of Islam being in danger and perceived killings, including atrocities being committed against Muslims in Kashmir, was the main theme of indoctrination during the training, the statement said.

It added: Possibly, the surrendered Pakistan national was coerced and lured into joining the terrorist ranks due to his poor financial condition. Apparently, his appeal for surrender, as soon as his mate was killed, highlights that he was not convinced about the jihadi narrative.

The Army statement added: The Kashmir Valley is returning to peace, much to the discomfort of Pakistan and its proxies. The infiltration bids indicate Pakistans desperate attempts to sustain cross-border terrorism and bring in weapons to orchestrate violent incidents in the Valley by hiring mercenaries from the Pakistani hinterland of Punjab". It alleged that the Pakistan Armys connivance in abetting infiltration continues, as it is difficult to attempt crossing the LoC without the active support of local Pakistani military commanders.
The accused had assaulted a female health worker while she was returning home late at night. (Representational Image)

Alappuzha/Kollam: A week after the Kerala High Court directed the police to protect the lives of COVID warriors from attackers, two bike-borne assailants who assaulted a female health worker, while she was returning home late at night, have been arrested.

An officer of Thrikkunnapuzha PS, within whose jurisdiction the crime was committed, told PTI that the duo have been arrested from Kollam by officers of Chavara PS in connection with an attempted snatching case lodged there.

The Thrikkunnapuzha PS officer also said they had identified the duo through the two-wheeler used by them and were in the process of arresting them, but they were apprehended by officers from Chavara PS.

An officer from Chavara PS, told PTI, that one of them was arrested around 3 AM on Wednesday from Kollam from a bus based on secret information regarding him and based on his interrogation, his accomplice was arrested from the latter's residence.

He said they were arrested in connection with an attempted snatching case and added that several similar cases have been registered against the duo in various police stations in the state.

The officer of Thrikkunnapuzha PS also said the two were involved in various snatching cases and were also accused in a POCSO case.

He further said it will be sending details of the case registered by it against the duo to Chavara PS and will, thereafter, formally arrest them in connection with the attack on the health worker on the night of September 20.

The woman health worker, a nursing assistant, was attacked by two bike-borne assailants, while she was returning home late at night, with the intention of robbery, but they then tried to abduct her as she did not have any valuables on her.

Subsequently, the Kerala High Court on September 22 had directed the police to pull up their socks to protect lives of COVID-warriors like her from unscrupulous elements.
HYDERABAD: Telangana state government on Wednesday sought permission from Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to draw its designed capacity at MDDL (minimum draw down level) through an additional vent at Nagarjunasagar Left Canal.

The right canal of Nagarjunasagar serves an ayacut of 11.74 lakh acres, which is entirely located in Andhra Pradesh. Its left canal, with a total command area of 10.38 lakh acres, irrigates nearly 62 per cent (6.41 lakh acres) of its ayacut in Telangana and the rest in AP.

In a letter to KRMB chairman, Telangana engineer-in-chief (Irrigation) C. Muralidhar said, "The right canal can draw its required 11,000 cusecs even at 500 feet-plus water level in Nagarjunasagar. But left canal can draw the required 11,000 cusecs only at 520 feet-plus level. Further, the vent way at head regulator of Nagarjunasagar Right Canal shall be reduced to release maximum discharge of only 11,000 cusecs at MDDL 510 feet-plus against existing capacity of 24,606 cusecs. This will equalise the capacities of drawing same quantum of water for both sides."

Stating that drawal capacities of Nagarjunasagar project on left and right sides are highly disproportionate, the engineer-in-chief said, "Now, unfortunately, though the sill level of both left and right canal head regulators are same at 490 feet-plus, drawal capacities of Nagarjunasagar at MDDL 510 feet-plus on left side (7,899 cusecs) and right side (24,606 cusecs) are highly disproportionate. Hence, KRMB is requested to modify and enhance vent way of head regulator of left canal to draw 11,000 cusecs at MDDL 510 feet-plus."

"Since alternate sources are available to serve right canal ayacut, Telangana is pleading for directions from the tribunal to utilise these sources and leave Krishna water to the needs of Krishna basin," Muralidhar underlined.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley listens to a Senators question during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations, on September 28, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Patrick Semansky / POOL / AFP)

Washington: Top US generals said Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden to keep American troops in Afghanistan and expressed concern that the Taliban has not severed ties with Al-Qaeda.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said they had personally recommended that some 2,500 troops remain on the ground in Afghanistan.

Biden, in April, ordered a complete pullout of US forces from the country by August 31, following through on an agreement reached with the Taliban by former president Donald Trump.

Milley, McKenzie and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were grilled for nearly six hours by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation from Kabul airport.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had received "split" advice about what to do in Afghanistan, which the United States invaded following the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

"Ultimately, it's up to the commander-in-chief to make a decision," Psaki said. "He made a decision that it was time to end a 20-year war."

Milley, who shrugged off calls from some Republican lawmakers for him to resign, was asked whether the pullout and disorderly evacuation, during which 13 American troops were killed in bomb attack, had damaged US credibility.

"I think that our credibility with allies and partners around the world and with adversaries is being intensely reviewed by them to see which way this is going to go and I think 'damage' is one word that could be used, yes," he said.

Milley said the Taliban "was and remains a terrorist organization and they still have not broken ties with Al-Qaeda," which plotted the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan.

"It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will fracture into further civil war," he said. "But we must continue to protect the American people from terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan."

A reconstituted Al Qaeda or Islamic State with aspirations to attack America remains "a very real possibility," he said, but "it's too early to determine their capability."

Took us all by surprise

Austin said the United States "did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership" in the Afghan armed forces.

"We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation," he said.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away -- in many cases without firing a shot -- took us all by surprise," the Pentagon chief said. "It would be dishonest to claim otherwise."

Austin said the United States had provided the Afghan military "with equipment and aircraft and the skills to use them" but "in the end, we couldn't provide them with the will to win."

De-escalate

Milley also testified about calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the waning months of the Trump presidency.

He said they were intended to "de-escalate" tensions and the former president had no aim of attacking China.

"I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese," Milley said.

"My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: stay calm and steady and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you," he said.

The calls between Milley and his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, were first revealed in the book "Peril" by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The first call was on October 30, four days before the US presidential election, and the second was on January 8, two days after supporters of Trump stormed the US Capitol in an effort to prevent certification of Biden's victory.

Some Republican lawmakers have accused Milley of overstepping his authority and called for him to resign.

Milley defended his actions and said the calls were coordinated with the then-secretaries of defense.

"The specific purpose of the October and January calls was generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack by the US," Milley said.

"These military-to-military communications at the highest levels are critical to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crisis, and prevent war between great powers armed with nuclear weapons," he said.

"At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command," Milley added.

The top US general nevertheless admitted to speaking with Woodward before the publication of "Peril," as well as with other journalists who have written highly critical books on the last months of Trump's term.

"I think it's very very important to make sure that senior officials talk to the media and all of its various forms in order to explain what we're doing," Milley said, noting, however, he could not confirm that his words were accurately represented in the books, having not read them.
Cruise ships must be effectively regulated to minimise serious environment and health impact

The cruise ship industry should be subject to global monitoring and effective legislation because of its continuous increasing impact on both the environment and human health and wellbeing, according to new research.

An international research team led the most comprehensive research review ever conducted on what was one of the fastest growing industries in tourism before the pandemic.

The review, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, finds that cruising is a major source of environmental pollution and degradation, with air, water, soil, fragile habitats and areas and wildlife affected.

The research also finds that the cruise ship industry is a potential source of physical and mental human health risks, to passengers, staff and land-based residents who live near ports or work in shipyards. Risks to specific groups include the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19 outbreaks widely reported on some cruise ships. The review also found evidence of the impacts of noise and air pollution on health, and difficult working environments for boat and shipyard staff potentially resulting in injury and mental health issues.

The review combines evidence from more than 200 research papers on the health of people and the environment in different oceans and seas around the world. The research was conducted by a collaboration spanning Spain, Croatia and the UK.

First author Dr Josep Lloret, of the University of Girona, said: Our paper highlights that cruising is a prime example of how the fates of our health and our environments are intertwined. Up until now, most studies have looked at aspects of this in isolation. Our review is the most comprehensive to date to combine these research fields and take a holistic view of how cruising damage our environments and our health. We now need global legislation to minimise damage on both our oceans and our health.

Professor Lora Fleming, of the University of Exeter, an author of the review, said: Cruise tourism is a was rapidly expanding pre COVID-19, and our research shows it causes major impacts on the environment and on human health and wellbeing. We need much better monitoring to generate more robust data for the true picture of these impacts. Without new and strictly enforced national and international standardised rules, the cruise industry is likely to continue causing these serious health and environmental hazards.

The review combined research papers on a range of factors which have environmental or health impacts, or both. In one example, they synthesised six papers on carbon dioxide emissions, which have significant impacts on both human and environmental health, through contributing to global warming. Available research suggest that a large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars. Passengers on an Antarctic cruise can produce as much CO2 emissions while on an average seven day voyage as the average European in an entire year. Within the Mediterranean, cruise and ferry ship CO2 emissions are estimated to be up to 10 per cent of all ship emissions.

A 2007 study found that emissions factors for cruise ships journeying to New Zealand were at least three times higher than emissions factors relating to international aviation. Energy use for stating overnight on a cruise vessels was 12 times larger than the value for a land-based hotel.

The paper also includes research on solid waste as example of an activity from cruise ships which impacts both health and environment. Reducing plastics and marine littler are major global challenges, and a total amount of rubbish produced by a cruise ship carrying 2,700 passengers can exceed a ton per day. While cruise vessels make up only a small percentage of the global shipping industry, it is estimated that around 24 per cent of all waste produced by shipping comes from this sector. Figures calculated for cruise ship visits to Southampton during August 2005 indicated that 75 per cent of garbage being generated by passengers on board was incinerated and disposed of at sea, with a number of reports of illegal waste disposal reported in the Southern Ocean.

Co-author Dr Hrvoje Caric, of the Institute for Tourism in Croatia, said: When environmental standards between cruisers and land-based polluters are compared, it becomes clear that there is a lot of room for improvement. Weve long known that cruise ships cause damage to the environment, however its hugely important to incorporate the impact on human health into that picture. We hope that research like this will prompt action to help cruise industry become more environmentally sustainable.

The article is " Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Cruise Tourism: a Review"," by Josep Lloret, Arnau Carreno Hrvoje Caric, Joan San, Lora E. Fleming (10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112979). It appears in Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 173, (September 2021), published by Elsevier.
The French ambassador to Spain calls out intentional deception in the trilateral submarine deal brokered by US President Joe Biden to the UK and Australia. He scoured the lack of transparency of the US for its allies, especially calling it deceitful to France.

Jean-Michel Casa, French ambassador to Spain, made it clear to the US and the UK that their conduct was not acceptable, also marring on relations based on trust and transparency amongst allies.

The AUKUS deal has made the Afghan debacle caused by the US president taking out EU allies from the loop and rethinking the relationship with the White House to be reviewed.

France covertly excluded in AUKUS deal

The US went behind France's back, talking in secret with the UK. The EU and Paris are at odds over the AUKUS, causing divisiveness, said Casa, reported the Express UK.

Casa added the Biden administration intended to keep France in the dark, knowing it has a prior agreement with Australia. Saying the deal was rife with lies to allow the US to snag the deal, ignoring the impact on Paris and the EU.

As much as the White House never tried to talk over the 'secret deal' with Paris, he did not mince words saying the UK is opportunistic, remarked the 64-year-old French diplomat.

France was not pleased for getting excluded from the AUKUS deal, and we pounced on the former deal with Canberra. The tripartite submarine deal was decried by a French ambassador who called out intentional deception.

Read Also: China on Defensive: Beijing Calls AUKUS Deal a Prelude to Possible Nuclear Strike

US foreign policy gone awry

According to Casa, Biden's version of US foreign policy to adopt Trump's 'America First' is a far cry. Remarking the pivot in the Middle East and Asia is not working out fine but causing problems.

Saying the secrecy and the silence of another ally, the UK has made it far worse. But the exact role of Brexit has been established. Still, the US government carries more fault.

Britain was too eager and opportunistic to the offer of Washington, with the EU Downing Street has options to negotiate, but they choose the US and are EU outsiders. The real winner is Washington, but the UK has been affected by not coming clean, noted Swift Headline.

The AUKUS alliance has been brought about by secrecy, and the US went behind an ally's back. Thus, driving a wedge between them and the EU.

All the partners in the trilateral deal will be working together to fight the growing tension in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia will have eight subs over the deal with Paris worth 30billion for 12 diesel-electric submarines if the contract is pushed forward.

France, US meet to settle broken ties

Last Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron discussed with the US leader resolved to rebuild ties broken by the US. Another one will be scheduled in Europe and at October's end. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered to be the mediator in the meeting.

It was the US leader who approached Macron to thresh out differences. But Casa said that nothing is final yet, cited Best News Direct.

Countries involved in the unsettling are talking about ending the problems, but the question remains when the next disagreement is coming. The French ambassador calls out intentional deception in the trilateral submarine agreement as a bad deal concerning the US relations with other countries.

Related Article: Von Der Leyen Orders EU To Halt Business With US Until France Gets an Explanation Over the AUKUS Deal

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Another bombshell from a former executive producer of the Chris Cuomo show was exposed after she left in March 2020 for reasons involving the host. She said the younger brother of the shamed New York ex-governor had allegedly made unwanted advances on her.

Melanie Buck was the producer of the high rating show 'Cuomo Prime Time' from April 2018 to March 2020 when she left the program. During that time, the host made her feel threatened with his unprofessional advances until Miss Buck decided to transfer.

Former show producer accuses Chris Cuomo of harassment

Initially, Miss Buck was voluntarily removed from the CNN show and moved to another department, noted Page Six. Later, she revealed that the network confirmed her request to transfer.

Chris Cuomo, the CNN host and brother of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, is facing his own allegation of sexual harassment leveled by a former colleague. https://t.co/18WRr8YLKQ  Times Union (@timesunion) September 24, 2021

During her stint, Buck added that the show was able to reach number one in the network, reported the Daily Mail. When she refused the alleged advances of the host, there were eventual differences that led to her leaving as its executive producer.

The network later moved Buck to the network's channel's 2020 election coverage, which included live events and special programming, and was later assigned to other departments.

Currently, she is the producer for the live morning coverage for CNN+, which is part of the subscription service for next year.

The core of the problems between Cuomo and Buck is the charges of inappropriate physical advances that escalated to exiting the show.

Read Also: NY State Democrats Block Subpoena for Records of Nursing Home Deaths, Republicans Say

Chris Cuomo admits groping former boss

Shelley Ross, a producer of another show with Cuomo, opened up how he groped her in sensitive places in 2005. She apparently was not the first to suffer harassment from the CNN anchorman.

Former News Exec Says Chris Cuomo Sexually Harassed Her 16 Years Ago https://t.co/6zP1PzxzCg  NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) September 24, 2021

In the New York Times, Ross authored an op-ed that related alleged sexual harassment done by the younger Cuomo. He grabbed and squeezed her behind inappropriately against her will.

But the CNN host retorted from her accusations without remorse, and she remarked that he had not changed a bit.

Chris Cuomo has not been in the public gaze after the claims of unwanted harassment were reveal a week ago. He ignores the claims of improprieties and gives an alleged cavelier apology, according to reports.

The host remarks that Miss Ross made it clear that his actions towards the producer had no alleged sexual motivations. Cuomo added that it occurred about 16 years back and in public when Ross was a top executive at ABC, saying he gave a sincere apology.

Instead of accepting the statement of apology, Ross said the CNN host is no different from 16 years ago when it occurred at a sending-off party for another ABC co-worker. She spoke further and hoped that he would have remorse for his actions and admit what he did 16 years later, adding that what he does in the workplace, like inappropriate advances, should be revealed. Ross also spoke of it as 'The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo.'

Much like his brother Andrew who brushed off women's allegations, Chris Cuomo must face both accusations, one a former executive producer of his show and another one in another network. Hopefully, both women will have some relief in telling about the harassment they encountered with the CNN host.

Related Article: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Faces Charges of Sexual Harassment from Former Development Aide

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Beijing's ominous pronouncements against the island enclave and Taiwan will acquire long-range missiles as a countermeasure in an impending invasion. Taipei is making the proper preparations to have the necessary armaments to put up a burly offense and defense to make the People's Liberation Army (PLA) think twice to invade.

China considers the Republic of China (ROC) as part of it. Thus any move for independence is something they cannot tolerate. There can only be one in the 'One China policy' state, and no country should recognize the island as an independent state.

Chinese incursions in the Taiwan ADIZ

Recorded penetration of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) from January to September of 2021 has peaked at a staggering 500 illegal flights in the ROC, remarked an official, reported the Express UK.

The CCP is improving its military technology to enable the PLA to invade the island, said Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng last Monday noted SCMP.

He added it was vital to have long-ranged weapons that are precisely accurate to hit it, bullying aggressor, at longer stand-off distances. The mainland considers Democratic Taipei a rebellious province that should not remain independent if it can be helped, even using deadly force as a possible option.

There is only one #China in the world & #Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. With regard to the #CPTPP, we firmly oppose Taiwan's accession to any agreement or organization of official nature. pic.twitter.com/nklPXpOzID  Lijian Zhao  (@zlj517) September 23, 2021

Proposals have been forwarded as a whopping $9 billion will be used to increase the defense budget for five years.

Taiwan has acquired several weapon systems from the US, but most don't have a long-distance stand-off capability, like far-reaching missiles that are moveable in the field to attack Chinese forces.

He also told the Taiwanese parliament that China should know it will not be easy to overcome. If Taiwan acquires long-range missiles, it will not be easy pickings.

Read Also: Taiwan Tells UK That Participation in AUKUS Deal Could Provoke Chinese Aggression

Taiwan makes sure China is aware of their plan to acquire missiles

Requirements for missiles are long-range with over the horizon capability, pinpoint accuracy, and highly mobile for fast deployment to forward areas, cites the Indian Express. Its preparedness at all times that Beijing must realize when committing its forces.

Defense official stated that use of medium and longer-range missiles are part of drills to intercept in a significant test facility in the southeastern coast of Taiwan. But Chiu did not give specific details of the missiles in the arsenal.

Taiwan did not keep a possible invasion by the PLA from the citizens. They are aware of the threat of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The defense official mentioned if the communists attack Taiwan, the first targets are command posts and communications of the Taiwanese armed forces. Furthermore, the PLA has improved its tech to attack such targets.

The initial wave would probably prevent the overall coordination of all forces to confuse and isolate Taiwanese units from acting as a unified force against invading units. This way, it will be easy to pick off loosely organized defenders with no combat intelligence. The best way is to present a less massed target, improved force mobility, and shift position when needed to frustrate the CCP forces.

China has been sending squadrons of fighters and bombers to test the hole in the ADIZ of Taiwan and run down military equipment while entering ADIZ.

Last Monday, the Royal Navy sent the HMS Richmond on a FONOPS, a first for any British since 2008. Beijing did not take it lightly. Taiwan will acquire long-range missiles as the subsequent layers of defense and offense for the island enclave.

Related Article: Taiwan Preps Against China's Threats of Invasion, Sets Budget to Buy New Jets Worth $1.4 Billion

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Senator Kyrsten Sinema is facing backlash for expressing her opposition to United States President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan that falls under a massive $3.5 trillion spending package and for allegedly holding a fundraiser for those who also oppose the bill.

The Democratic president and his supporters have repeatedly marketed the Build Back Better program as costing the federal government "zero dollars." However, Sinema has continually expressed her concerns that the cost analysis of the reconciliation package was not what it appeared to be.

Sinema Receives Widespread Backlash

Amid Sinema's criticisms and reports of her fundraiser on Tuesday, she has come under fire from several media figures who suggested she split off from the moral code. They argued that the official was instead driven by greed and corruption.

It was suggested that Sinema and a few of her moderate colleagues were corrupt and voted on the Build Back Better plan based on their desires for their corporate donors, David Sirota, a columnist, said. He added that the battle for the reconciliation bill was not an honest ideological conflict but a necessary clash between policy and corporate greed, Fox News reported.

The situation comes as President Biden previously met with key Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Sinema on Tuesday to market his economic plans. The Democratic leader met with the two officials separately, Sinema in the morning and Manchin in the afternoon. Sinema went back to the White House on Tuesday for a second meeting with the president.

Read Also: Joe Biden Gets Pfizer COVID-19 Booster, Says He Wants More Vaccine Mandate

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden believed it was constructive to have had the meetings with Sinema and Manchin. She noted that the Democratic president felt there was an agreement and that they were at a pivotal moment regarding the Build Back Better plan.

The events came as Democrats in the White House and Senate were struggling to draft a plan to financially support the social security net and climate policy that would get through both chambers of Congress. The passing of the party's $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is most likely based on their progress towards an agreement regarding the budget reconciliation plan, CNBC reported.

Biden's Massive Economic Plans

Biden continues to urge his colleagues and party members to fund his infrastructure bill and his broader agendas. During the Democratic president's meeting with Sinema and Manchin, the points of discussion included the $1 trillion bill and the $3.5 trillion fund for investments in childcare, healthcare, and housing.

Both chambers of Congress have quietly tried to beat back concerns rising among Democrats about whether or not they stand on a sufficiently firm political footing to pass both bills. They have also reassured that there were emergency measures in place to keep the federal government from shutting down and defaulting on its debt.

On Tuesday, think tank Peter G. Peterson Foundation released a poll showing bipartisan support for many Democrats' tax increase proposals to pay for the massive $3.5 trillion bill. The hikes include levies on companies' foreign income, increased Internal Revenue Service enforcement, and a commitment to only target residents with incomes of more than $400,000 per year with tax increases, Reuters reported.

Related Article: New York's Hochul Could Deploy National Guard to Replace Healthcare Workers Who Refuse To Be Vaccinated

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While Chinese tech behemoths have been pressured to refocus their efforts on "common prosperity," struggling tech tycoons stood up to give their support for President Xi Jinping's vision and market-roiling regulatory assault on the digital industry at the country's annual internet conference.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. CEO Daniel Zhang and Tencent Holdings Ltd. senior vice president Guo Kaitian both expressed support for Xi Jinping's signature goal of closing the country's wealth disparity at the World Internet Conference, which took place in the resort town of Wuzhen from September 26 to 28.

Nearly a year after the government started an intensive crackdown on the sector, some of the greatest names in China's internet industry appeared at the World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen on Sunday to promise support for the country's "common prosperity" and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Chinese tech tycoons emphasized commitment to helping the society

Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun and Alibaba Group Holding CEO Daniel Zhang Yong were two of the more well-known speakers at the government-sponsored event, SCMP reported.

Both men emphasized their firms' commitment to helping the society, a goal for President Xi Jinping after probes, penalties, and new restrictions targeted Big Tech, wiping off $1 trillion in worth and forcing high-flying CEOs to keep a low profile.

According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, Xi's top economic adviser, stressed the importance of supporting entrepreneurs' innovations and encouraging smaller businesses in his opening video speech. He also stated that the country would support the development of the internet and digital economy. Tech titans echoed these ideas, promising to do their part.

Alibaba's platforms, according to the CEO, are already assisting SMEs with digital transformation. Taobao and Tmall, two of China's major e-commerce sites, are operated by Alibaba.

Xiaomi's Lei also emphasized the necessity of putting technical advancements to good use for the greater benefit. In his address, he stated that technology firms should not leave any group behind and should work to ensure that everyone has a decent life.

The recent flurry of new internet policy rules, according to Eric Jing, chairman and CEO of Ant Group Co., was "essential and relevant, and a reminder for us in the business not to be sidetracked by competition, but to return to the original goal of the internet instead."

Read Also: Canadian Court Releases Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou After US Extradition Case Ends

China's "common prosperity"

Per Bloomberg, he also praised blockchain technology, stating it "can create a firm basis of trust for industrial collaboration" and encouraging participants to contribute to the country's inclusive and sustainable growth.

According to Kendra Schaefer, a partner at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China, Beijing wanted all of its large IT businesses to understand the message and jump on the common prosperity boat.

The current surge in charity giving coincides with China's national push to attain "common prosperity," with officials urging the philanthropic sector to play a larger role in closing the country's wealth disparity.

According to a white paper on establishing a moderately affluent society issued on Tuesday, China has made common prosperity a primary aim of socialism. To this aim, the government must guarantee that all citizens benefit from its progress, with no individual, area, or group left behind, according to the white paper.

According to Li Shi, an economics professor at Zhejiang University who has advised the government on poverty reduction, China's income disparity has increased over the last five years due to the development of technology and finance industries. According to Li, the private economy and affluent individuals should play a positive role and contribute more to reduce the gap.

China's mainland had 389 billionaires in 2020, second only to the United States. The country's rapidly rising private wealth also offers a huge opportunity for charity, as per CGTN.

Related Article: China's Xi Jinping Vows To Halt Building Coal-Burning Power Plants Abroad Ahead of Climate Talk

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New York authorities have put into effect the new vaccine mandate on Monday at midnight that requires healthcare workers to get inoculated or risk losing their jobs amid a shortage of workers in the healthcare sector.

After the law was in effect, some hospital networks, including Northwell Health, have already reported firing more than two dozen healthcare workers. Other personnel will have 30 days to comply with the mandate and get the coronavirus vaccine before they are at risk of losing their careers.

Vaccine Mandate's Effect

Authorities say that about 16% of the state's hospital workers, equal to roughly 83,000 healthcare staff, are not fully vaccinated. They added that about 8% had not gotten even a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine, which put them at a much greater risk of termination from their jobs.

The president and CEO at New York-Presbyterian Hospitals, one of the largest systems in the United States, Steven Corwin, said that the mandate was needed to get everyone vaccinated against COVID-19. Prior to the legislation, 30% of his staff were unvaccinated, which dropped to 1% right after the deadline of the requirement, CBS News reported.

During an interview, Corwin said that out of 48,000 employees, only less than 220 had not gotten the coronavirus vaccine. On the other hand, at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, about 5% of their workers, which is about 400 people, were left unvaccinated and were currently on leave.

Read Also: Kids Could Get Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine by October But Their Dosage Will Be Different From Adults; Here's Why

Tens of thousands of New York healthcare workers are believed to have refused a coronavirus vaccine shot before the mandate was put into effect. Resistance to the requirement has been expressed due to enforcing dismissals or unpaid leaves on employees that choose not to get inoculated. The situation has also worsened the existing shortage of healthcare workers in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On top of the current requirement, United States President Joe Biden's administration discusses a new vaccine mandate that would apply to a much larger group of workers. The plans could potentially include anyone working at a firm with more than 100 employees, The Washington Post reported.

Increase of Vaccinated Healthcare Workers

Shortly before the mandate took effect, many New York healthcare workers scrambled to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in fear of losing their jobs. Despite the last-minute inoculations, many hospitals and nursing homes are still preparing for the sector's anticipated shortage of healthcare workers.

When the vaccine mandate went into full effect on Monday, 92% of New York's more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home staff had been at least partially vaccinated. The numbers represented a significant increase from last week when 82% of nursing home workers and 84% of hospital workers were partially vaccinated.

The surge of vaccinations before the mandate was recorded as one of the highest inoculation rates among healthcare workers across the United States. The numbers were also considered a positive sign that Biden's plan could help increase the vaccination rates across all regions in the country, the New York Times reported.

Related Article: CDC Director Supports Allowing Children To Trick-or-Treat on Halloween With Certain Restrictions

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Greta Thunberg, a known activist who has been calling for action against climate change for years, has once again mocked world leaders for their inaction and hesitance to help prevent catastrophic damage to the environment, threatening the lives of future generations.

The young activist attacked United States President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a youth climate summit held in Milan on Tuesday. She noted that the last 30 years of supposed "climate action" had amounted to "blah, blah, blah."

Greta Thunberg Mocks World Leaders

Thunberg continued to mock world leaders by repeating commonly used expressions regarding the climate crisis, arguing they were empty words and unfulfilled promises. "When I say climate change, what do you think of? I think jobs. Green jobs. Green jobs," she said, which was a reference to Biden's speeches about the climate crisis.

Referencing French President Emmanuel Macron's speech, Thunberg said that world leaders must find a smooth transition towards a low carbon economy. She said there was no other planet that humans can go to if this one becomes uninhabitable, CNN reported.

Setting her sights on Prime Minister Johnson, Thunberg criticized the UK government's "green recovery" plans. She ridiculed his speech where he talked about dreams and a green economy to save the planet from catastrophic climate change effects.

Read Also: Footprints Found in New Mexico Proves Human Presence in the Americas that Pre-dates 13,000-Years Rewrites Known History

The youth climate gathering was attended by four hundred climate activists who came from 180 countries worldwide. The event lasted for three days and will have recommendations sent to a major United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled to start on Oct. 31. However, many of the participants have demanded more accountability from world leaders and a bigger official role for young people, who are the ones who will experience the brunt of climate change in the future.

Thunberg argued that world leaders invited only specific young people to make it seem like they were listening and trying to do something to reduce the threat of climate change. She said that it was all a facade, citing a rise in emissions, arguing that science does not lie, USA Today reported.

Devastating Effects on Future Generations

Children who are born in 2020 are expected to experience extreme climate events at a rate that is two to seven times higher than people born in 1960, a new study published in the journal Science revealed. Due to the current rate of global warming and national policies, climate events will continue to occur much more frequently in later years.

The study observed extreme climate events such as heatwaves, droughts, crop failures, floods, wildfires, and tropical cyclones. Researchers utilized recent data from a 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report for their study.

Researchers found that the forecasts for how the events would drastically affect younger generations were mind-boggling. They found out that a six-year-old kid born in 2020 would experience twice as many cyclones and wildfires, three times as many river floods, four times as many crop failures, and five times as many droughts as someone who was born in 1960. But the most concerning of these events was heatwaves, where the six-year-old would experience 36 times more than the older individual, NPR reported.

Related Article: Salmonella Outbreak Stretches Across the US; CDC Continues To Investigate the Food Source

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World Health Organization (WHO) officials shared their concerns after a report claimed that more than 80 aid workers, some of which were employed by the global agency, were allegedly involved in sexual abuse and exploitation in Congo during the Ebola crisis.

The report was released by an independent commission on Tuesday and was prompted by an investigation that was conducted last year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in cooperation with The New Humanitarian. The probe found that more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and other agencies of demanding sexual acts for their work from 2018 to 2020.

Sexual Abuse by WHO Employees

The commission's report discovered that 21 of the 83 suspects were employees of the WHO and found that the crimes, which included nine allegations of rape, were committed by national and international staff members.

"The review team has established that the presumed victims were promised jobs in exchange for sexual relations or in order to keep their jobs," said commission member Malick Coulibaly during a press briefing, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Officials said that many of the male suspects did not use condoms when they committed sexual crimes. This resulted in 29 of the female victims getting pregnant and being forced to get abortions later on by their abusers.

The director-general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has previously pledged zero tolerance for sexual abuse. The official is expected to seek a second term at the United Nations health body. Ghebreyesus expressed his apologies to the victims laid out in the report, which he said made a "harrowing reading."

Read Also: Donald Trump's Mysterious Hospital Visit in 2019 Was To Get Colonoscopy, New Book Reveals

Ghebreyesus said that what happened to these victims should never have to happen to anyone in the world. The official called the actions of the perpetrators "inexcusable" and that it was his top priority that justice is served and the suspects are held accountable for their crimes.

In a statement, regional director Matshidiso Moeti said the WHO was "humbled, horrified, and heartbroken" after releasing the report's findings. Authorities have banned the suspects from being hired by the WHO in the future while the four who the health agency still employs have been terminated, CNN reported.

Lack of Preparedness

The commission's investigation also found that local women were also victimized when they were allegedly plied with drinks, "ambushed" in hospitals, and raped, resulting in two victims getting pregnant. In his speech at a news conference on Tuesday, Ghebreyesus apologized to the victims and said the ultimate responsibility fell on to his agency.

During the address, the WHO director-general committed to providing help, support, and protection for the victims of the crimes. Ghebreyesus also committed to overhauling the agency's structure and culture to prevent future similar incidents.

The commission also said that it found "clear structural failures and unpreparedness to manage the risks of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse" within the central African country. The reason was attributed to the nation's focus on pushing back against the Ebola crisis in the region, BBC reported.

Related Article: Brian Laundrie's Family Denies Helping Son To Escape as Protesters Surround Property, Shouting "Justice For Gabby Petito"

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After the AUKUS deal has caused division, the French President says the US has disrespected Europe in one of his statements. The Biden administration should have consulted the European Union or France before offering the deal to Britain and Australia, but the White House just kept quiet.

The credibility of the current US administration to the EU is not doing well, as it allegedly poached on France's deal opportunistically.

French anger at the US is not the deal itself but how it forgot to regard Paris stake and the European Union. Some called it a twisted version of America's first policy.

Loss of deal with Canberra means loss for Paris

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, had words with the involvement of the US in Australia bailing out of an agreed submarine deal.

He states that it is about time to stop turning a blind eye to the irresponsible actions of Washington in taking France's deal, convincing Canberra to decide otherwise, reported the Express UK.

Earlier this month, the US, UK, and Australia announced the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian leader Scott Morrison, which took France by surprise, leading to outrage.

The loss of the deal with Canberra registered a considerable loss for Paris in the agreement, which would have provided diesel-powered submarines. Provided for Australia will be nuclear submarines delivered via technology provided by the US and the UK, cited UK News Chant.

Canberra will use them to face Beijing in the Indo-Pacific. The French President says the US has disrespected Europe for an unwise pivot to Asia.

Read Also: Former Brexit Party Member Alleges US President Biden To Be Cognitively Dangerous, VP Kamala Harris is Very Unpredictable

President Macron said if Washington prioritizes dealing with China, the US should be asked to exit the European Union and its alliance with its members.

Washington's actions have driven a wedge

The French leader added the actions of the US had affected the member states, causing fractures among members, stating that the group can defend itself without escalating, and it is essential to have respect for the EU.

Macron stressed the USA is a longtime friend and ally as well. For the last ten years, the US has been focusing inwardly on affecting its international alliances. Stressing that Washington is realigning its sights to the Indo-Pacific, where it will be facing China's challenge, but it is the right of America and its self-determination as well.

In Macron's statement, he cautioned that President Joe Biden's action would not be at no cost. It is better to prepare for them now, not be naive.

Recent events in the wake of the AUKUS

Ten days after the loss of the electric submarine deal with Canberra, Macron got another agreement to sell three frigates to Greece as additions to its naval, noted News 7 Trends.

The French leader called partnership of Paris and Athens are strategic in the Mediterranean theatre. Developed by shipbuilders in France by Naval Group are three Belharra frigates to be completed and deliver to the Greek Navy by 2025.

Unlike the deal made by the Biden administration, which was not as transparent, Turkey was aware of the agreement, and Ankara reportedly just took note. It must be taken note that the AUKUS deal cost France a large contract and took some negotiation on both nations. Moving in Washington did not consult, but later on, said it should have.

The French President says the US has disrespected Europe, and it will have repercussions for a long, especially if Washington would be looking for allies.

Relate Article: Australia, France Row Over the Conventional Submarine Deal; Affects European Union Backing Macron

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Gabby Petito's family is commemorating her legacy by wearing similar tattoos and calling attention to other missing people cases. Petito's death during a cross-country journey triggered a global uproar and a search for her missing fiance.

Petito's family expressed confidence in the FBI's ability to locate Petito's fiance, Brian Laundrie, at a press conference on Tuesday. Petito's mother and father said that their family members had tattoos that matched their daughter's: "Let it be" inscribed with a wave symbol.

Per USA Today, they got the tattoos done the night following Petito's burial, on Monday night. The Petito family established the Gabby Petito Foundation to aid in searching for other persons who have gone missing, emphasizing that they all deserve the same amount of attention as Petito.

Gabby Petito's family urges the same treatment to similar cases

In lieu of flowers, the foundation's website asked for money for her funeral. Joe Petito, Gabby's father, stressed how important social media was in the hunt for his daughter and thanked everyone for their "outpouring of support." This same level of heightened vigilance should be sustained for everyone, he added.

Petito's disappearance has prompted new demands for more attention to instances involving missing Indigenous women and other people of color, with some commentators referring to her situation as "missing white woman syndrome."

The search for Laundrie has sparked a media frenzy, with TV celebrities like Dog the Bounty Hunter Duane Chapman and longtime "America's Most Wanted" presenter John Walsh attempting to find him. Stafford said Petito's family appreciated everyone's assistance in locating Laundrie and urged anyone with information to contact the FBI or local authorities, as per Boston.com.

Petito's parents reported her missing on September 11 after she didn't answer her phone or react to texts for several days when she and Laundrie visited parks in the West.

Read Also: Minnesota Couple Who Starves, Beats 8-Year-Old Girl To Death in 2020 Sentenced To 40 Years in Prison

Petito family advised brian Laundrie to "turn yourself in"

Her death was deemed a homicide, meaning she was killed by someone else, but officials in Wyoming have not revealed how she died pending the findings of an autopsy. Jim Schmidt, Petito's stepfather, said Wyoming officials still held her remains.

Petito and Laundrie documented their travels in a white Ford Transit van that they had transformed into a camper on social media. They got into a violent confrontation near Moab, Utah, on August 12 that resulted in a police stop and the decision to separate the feuding pair for the night. There have been no charges filed, and no significant injuries have been recorded.

Gabby Petito's parents have openly advised Brian Laundrie, their deceased daughter's fiance, to turn himself into police. During a news conference on Tuesday, Richard Stafford, the Petito family's attorney, stated that the Petitos do not expect Laundrie's relatives to assist authorities.

Petito's parents stated during the press conference that they plan to establish a foundation in her honor. The foundation would assist others in locating missing relatives.

Brian Laundrie's parents informed authorities that he stated he was hiking near the family's Sarasota County home in the 24,500-acre Carlton wildlife reserve. In their search for him, authorities have used drones, dogs, and dive teams.

Brian Laundrie, according to an expert outdoorsman, would not be able to live in the Florida swamplands of the wildlife reserve. The outdoorsman said that he would have to withstand freezing water, mosquitos, alligators, snakes, and wild boars, Newsweek via MSN reported.

Related Article: Brian Laundrie's Family Denies Helping Son To Escape as Protesters Surround Property, Shouting "Justice For Gabby Petito"

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Prince Andrew admitted through his lawyer that he had been served with a complaint by an American woman who claims he sexually assaulted her, clearing a hurdle that had previously blocked the case.

The acknowledgement was verified in a joint agreement signed by a Duke of York lawyer, authorized by a federal judge in Manhattan, and placed into the public court record on Tuesday.

Andrew had been contesting the lawsuit's admission until lawyers spoke by phone on September 21, according to court filings. Judge Lewis Kaplan's ruling states that an agreement was reached three days later.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, accuses Prince Andrew, 61, of rape and sexual assault in the complaint, alleging that she was sex-trafficked to him when she was 17 by Andrew's former acquaintance, the late convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, and that the prince was aware of it at the time.

Queen Elizabeth's son served with court paper twice

Serving a lawsuit on a defendant is typically a simple process, but it becomes more complex when the defendant lives outside of the United States, USA Today reported. Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II's second son, has been served twice, but never directly into his hands, according to court papers and Giuffre's legal team.

The papers were handed to his Los Angeles-based lawyer, Andrew Brettler, via FedEx earlier this month. On August 27, a process server in London left the lawsuit documents at his residence, Royal Lodge on the Windsor Castle estate, which is secured.

Virginia Giuffre alleges Prince Andrew molested her on several occasions when she was under the age of 18 in 2001, according to the lawsuit. The claims are "baseless," according to his lawyer.

David Boies, Giuffre's lawyer, had previously stated that he anticipated the prince's US counsel, Andrew Brettler, would ask for a "reasonable" delay to answer to the case - and that they would likely accept.

Per Daily Mail, the prince now has until October 29 to respond to the lawsuit's accusations. On November 3, a conference was planned.

A court must be satisfied that the accusations were properly served on the defendant and that he or she had a sufficient amount of time to reply. The judge was told by Giuffre's lawyers that they had given the lawsuit to Prince Andrew in various methods, but never directly to his hands.

A request from Giuffre's attorneys to formally contact Andrew about the case was allowed by the UK's high court at one stage.

At a hearing earlier this month, Andrew Brettler, a Los Angeles attorney who signed the documents on Andrew's behalf confirming the prince was aware of the case, contended that Giuffre's claim was "baseless, nonviable, and perhaps unlawful."

Read Also: Prince Charles Nearly Became Kidnap Victim By Female Mob Who Intends To Hold Him For Ransom

Prince Andrew faces another dispute

According to Roya Nikkhah of the Times of London, Prince Andrew is selling his 17 ($23) million Swiss chalet to settle a dispute over the property. The former owner, socialite Isabelle de Rouvre, sued Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson in 2020 for 6.6 million (almost $9 million), which she claimed the two owed her.

De Rouvre filed legal action after alleging that the former couple missed a January 1 deadline to pay the final amount on the seven-bedroom house. The Duke and Duchess of York purchased the mansion from de Rouvre in 2014 for 16.6 million ($22.75 million).

De Rourve has abandoned the case now that the home's sale is nearing completion, and the Yorks have agreed to use the proceeds to settle the debt, as per the Insider.

Related Article: Royal Fans Slam Prince Andrew's Appearance on Prince Philip Documentary; Duke Still With The Queen At Scottish Home



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The United Kingdom continues to struggle amid a growing gas shortage that has left many residents looking for answers elsewhere as the number of searches on Google for electric cars has jumped by 1,600% on Sept. 24, which is the day when the problem became nationwide.

Carguide.co.uk, a used car information website, found that UK residents searched for electric cars 16 times more than the average daily numbers. More and more people in the region are registering electric cars, with August having 7,338 new registrations of electric vehicles.

Gas Shortage in the UK

Experts believe the trend will continue as the UK federal government will ban new gas cars starting from 2030. The recent shortage of gas in the country is most likely going to speed up the process and force residents to transition to electric vehicles much sooner.

The primary reason for the gas shortage is not a lack of supply for the gas itself, but a shortage of truck drivers caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit. The Road Haulage Association, which is a trade association of road transport operators, estimated that there was a shortage of about 100,000 drivers in Britain. They revealed that about 20% of the total were those who left the region after it voted to leave the European Union, Electrek reported.

The situation has forced many drivers in the region to rush to gas stations and fill up their vehicles and storage. Gas stations are filled with long queues despite rising fuel prices, which are the latest struggles the country is facing as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Read Also: New York Vaccine Mandate Goes Into Effect, Forcing Healthcare Workers To Get Inoculated Amid Staffing Shortages

The majority of truck drivers are elderly and younger applicants are having a difficult time getting licensed due to the health crisis. Transport companies continue to struggle to retain drivers despite raising their salaries by 25% or more this year alone.

The situation has also become problematic for restaurants due to a lack of supply of food as well as grocery stores, which are struggling to refill their shelves. Residents in the region have started panic-buying recently after hearing about the growing problem with gas, the New York Times reported.

Addressing the Situation

The situation has forced Prime Minister Johnson to address the issue and reassure residents that his government was making preparation to provide enough supply. He said that the situation at gas stations was slowly improving despite many regions seeing hundreds of forecourts still closed and motorists lining up for hours to buy fuel.

During a televised address, Johnson said that industries in the region were starting to get their supplies back onto the forecourt. He also reassured residents that they are safe to go about their normal lives without having to worry about the gas shortage.

The statements were Johnson's first comments regarding the gas shortage controversy since the end of last week when oil companies reported difficulty in transporting products, leading to the current situation. However, opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused the prime minister and his government of lurching from "crisis to crisis," Reuters reported.



Related Article: Senator Joe Manchin Encourages Democrats To Reconsider Child Tax Credit Bill Because It's Too Generous; Wants Wealthier Households To Be Excluded

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Dutch police arrested and released Arnoud Van Doorn, a former senior political adviser for populist Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, amid suspicions that he could be plotting to attack or kidnap Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

According to CNN, Rutte's security detail suspected that Van Doorn is behaving suspiciously that's why they urged The Netherlands police to arrest him.

The former member of a far-right political party was later released with the help of his lawyer, Anis Boumanjal.

However, the Public Prosecutor's Office stressed that Van Doorn still remains a suspect in connection with trying to provide information to others to prepare for a serious crime.

"The man acted suspiciously so he was arrested and released later, and the investigation must show what exactly was going on," a spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement to CNN.

Arnoud Van Doorn's laywer comes to his defense

However, Van Doorn's lawyer fired back by saying that the allegations were devoid of reality and are not supported by facts.

Boumanjal added that the recent arrest of his client left him in the dark because the Netherlands police was unable to explain why exactly they believe that Van Doorn exhibited suspicious behavior.

Read Also: War Criminal Turned Over By The U.S., LRA Commander Faces Charles For 'Crime Against Humanity' (Breaking News)

The lawyer also called the arrest of his client as very dramatic. After all, Van Doorn was detained for 30 hours.

Reports revealed that Van Doorn and Rutte cross paths regularly because the former's mother resides in the same area where Rutte lives. The suspect also visited a fitness center that Rutte goes to inquire about membership rates.

Mark Rutte is under increased security amid possible threats to his life

Following the incident, Reuters revealed that Rutte is under increased security due to the alleged threats to his life.

The Netherlands Polices received signals of a possible attack by criminals linked to the drug trade. In recent years, killings and violence linked to drug trade have become more common in the Hague.

But when Rutte was asked to comment on the report, he said that it's something that shouldn't be discussed in public.

"Safety and protection are issues never to be discussed in public," he said via Reuters.

Rutte has already been in office as the prime minister for 11 years. And throughout this time, he was able to maintain a limited level of personal protection.

He usually rides his bike close to his home, and he sometimes ride it on his way to work. In fact, The Hague residents see him as an ordinary citizen because they get to chat with him and take photos with him as well.

But following the recent threats to his life, it's unlikely for Rutte to continue spending ample amounts of time outdoors without his security team.

The Netherlands shocked following the murder of a journalist

According to the BBC, the concerns for Rutte's safety may also have to do with the recent killings of other personalities from The Netherlands.

In July, journalist Peter R de Vries was murdered in July. The incident stunned the country because gun violence is very rare in The Netherlands.

Related Article: Alleged Drug Kingpin Contends Australia Illegally Transferred Him To Netherlands, Denies All Allegations

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Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said that he's allowing the state's public health emergency for COVID-19 to end.

According to the Associated Press, the state's public health emergency for the virus officially ended on Monday, and Hutchinson decided not to renew it anymore.

However, during Tuesday's conference, the governor said that the state of Arkansas is still taking COVID-19 and its effects very seriously.

"I need to emphasize that we are still in a pandemic. We still have 20 plus people dying every day because of COVID. Just because the technical emergency was not extended does not mean we're not still in a very serious situation with the pandemic and the actions we need to take," Hutchinson said.

Arkansas ranked 24th in the US with highest COVID-19 cases

Last spring, Hutchinson lifted most of its virus restrictions, which includes a statewide mask mandate. Back then, he also ended the state's emergency declaration.

However, the Arkansas governor was forced to reinstate the emergency after seeing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases in July due to the Delta variant.

According to the Health Department, the death toll in Arkansas due to COVID-19 already reached 7,651. And around 21 new deaths were recorded recently.

Read Also: Arkansas Physician Allegedly Gave Inmate Ivermectin To Treat COVID-19; Investigation Ensues

Additionally, the state reported that its total cases rose from 800 to 493,920 since the pandemic began.

Arkansas also ranks 24th in the United States for new cases per capita, according to the figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Asa Hutchinson gives update on school quarantine guidelines in Arkansas

Hutchinson also gave the state an update on the school quarantine guidelines. But spokeswoman Katie White said that the Health Department is still finalizing the details of the new protocols.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Health Department typically requires people within six feet of a COVID-19 positive individual within 15 minutes or longer within 24 hours to quarantine for 14 days.

But the State Department of Education guidelines for school districts exempt vaccinated individuals to quarantine unless they develop symptoms.

Students and employees are not required to quarantine if they and the infected person were both wearing a mask during their encounter.

During this week's conference, Hutchinson said that students would not have to quarantine if they subject themselves to rapid testing and the results come back negative.

Another option is to allow schools not to quarantine if at least 70 percent of the staff and students are fully vaccinated.

Arkansas governor and his wife received Pfizer booster shots

Meanwhile, Hutchinson and his wife, Susan Hutchinson, received their Pfizer booster shot during this week's conference. Health Secretary Jose Romero also received his booster shot, according to US News.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recommended boosters for individuals who received their second vaccine dose at least six months ago and are aged 65 and up.

Residents of long-term care facilities and individuals aged 50 to 64 are also encouraged to get their booster shots since they are at a higher risk of contracting the deadly virus.

Related Article: COVID-19 Vaccines: Inside The First Batch Of Distribution In The US

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Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan recently confirmed that a memo circulating in the right-wing media was not from him.

According to the Huffington Post, the right-wing media is spreading false claims about the results of the 2020 election. Even though the recent Republican-led audit in Arizona confirmed that Joe Biden won last year's elections, supporters of Donald Trump still believe that he was rigged.

After the recent audit confirmed that Biden won by a slightly larger margin than what was previously recorded, the right-wing media is now saying that Logan wants to decertify the results of the 2020 election.

However, Logan said that he never wrote such a memo. "[The report] is not one I ever wrote, nor was it ever part of our drafts reviewed with the Senate. No copy of the Executive Summary written by me ever directly stated the election should not be certified or should be decertified," he told The Arizona Republic.

As of late, there is no process for decertifying an election. And even the multiple recounts, audits, and investigations proved that Trump lost to Biden. Still, the ex-POTUS's supporters are convinced that this isn't the case.

Read Also: Stephen Colbert Projects Joe Biden Is Still President After Republican-led Audit In Arizona Showed POTUS Beat Donald Trump

False claims about the 2020 election started with a video

Last year, false claims about the 2020 election being rigged started after someone posted a video showing a man closing a white van's doors before rolling a wagon with a large box into a Detroit election center.

Within hours, the 90-second clip was shown on multiple news and social media platforms. And it convinced Trump and his supporters that they had been cheated during the election.

However, the video later revealed that it features a photojournalist rolling his camera equipment into a venue. But even after this was confirmed, Trump and his supporters still believed that he should've won.

So, they recently hired Logan's firm to conduct an audit despite Cyber Ninjas' lack of experience and track record. And the results still showed that Biden won.

Cyber Ninjas CEO also spread false claims about the 2020 election

Prior to the audit, even Logan seemed convinced that there was an election fraud last year. His multiple tweets also showed his support for the Stop the Steal movement. However, he later deleted his posts.

Meanwhile, the recent audit in Arizona is not an isolated case. Republicans and Trump are also demanding a recount in other states like Texas, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Texas will hold an election audit in four counties

Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News that he doesn't think the audit is a waste of taxpayers' money even though the recent audit in Arizona proved that Trump lost to Biden in the previous election.

"There are audits of every aspect of government. Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raise our hands in concern when we audit elections, which is fundamental to our democracy?" Abbott said via Newsweek.

After receiving an open letter from Trump, Abbott ordered the auditing of four Texas counties, namely Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin. Biden won in the first three counties, but Trump was declared as a winner in Collin.

Related Article: Donald Trump Hints At Running For 2024 Elections; Says Only Medical Condition Can Prevent Him From Campaigning

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Thousands of Haitian migrants who created a camp in the Texas border town of Del Rio for a short time have found helpful over the river in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.

While US officials reported that the camp on the US side had been removed, an unknown number of migrants remained in Ciudad Acuna, fearful of walking into the streets after Mexican immigration agents stormed a small hotel and surrounded a similar camp on the Mexican side.

Some locals of Ciudad Acuna took in Haitian families, while others helped with food and water. Virginia Salazar, a Mexican lady, and her Togo-born husband, Mensah Montant, were among those who reacted to the Haitians' plight.

Haitian migrants fear deportation

The pair sent rice to one family, medicine to another, and are currently on the lookout for a mattress for a Haitian family, as per The Washington Post. Montant understands what it's like to be an outsider in a new land: He came to Mexico nine years ago as an immigrant and now works as a tailor.

They've personally helped around a dozen Haitians, but it's unclear how many are still hiding after US authorities cleared the camp on the other side. On September 17, US officials barred the passage after an encampment of mostly Haitian migrants assembled along the border bridge span.

All migrants were evacuated from the camp on Friday. Because they are not covered by the protections recently provided by the Biden administration to the over 100,000 Haitian migrants living in the United States, many of those migrants fear deportation.

Over the previous week, about 2,000 Haitians were quickly deported on 17 planes, with additional deportations possible in the following days.

Migrants from Haiti who were turned away at the US border are adjusting to life in Mexico, where crime, a lack of employment, and difficulty getting paperwork are sapping their spirits, AFP via Yahoo reported.

Read Also: Taliban Executes Child on Suspicion of Father Being Member of Afghan Resistance Force

Mexico experiences growing inflows of migrants

On Friday, the US reported that the last of the migrants camped illegally beneath a bridge on the Texas side of the border had either gone or been removed, with many being returned to Haiti.

Hours later, Haitian migrants on the Mexican side of the border abandoned another temporary campsite in Ciudad Acuna. Their departure, however, was far from the conclusion of a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of Haitians arrive in Mexico in the hopes of reaching the United States since August.

Other towns in northeast Mexico, such as Monterrey, are experiencing growing inflows of migrants escaping poverty and violence in their home countries or decreasing prospects in South American countries where they emigrated years ago.

Despite rising dissatisfaction with the treatment of the trapped migrants, Mexican officials are pressuring Haitians attempting to cross the Texas border to give up and return to Mexico's Guatemalan border to seek asylum.

Up to 14,000 people, mostly Haitians, camped just north of the Rio Grande River earlier this month in an attempt to enter the United States, but hundreds fled to Mexico as US officials began flying them back to Haiti.

The US special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest over the Biden administration's deportations of migrants to the Caribbean country, which has been wracked by political assassination, gang violence, and natural catastrophes. This came after photos of a US border agent on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord at migrants near their tent sparked global outrage, as per CBS Local.

Related Article: Border Patrol Outrage at Joe Biden's Claims They "Strapped" Migrants; George Bush Hits at the Administration's To Disparage Agents

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Queen Elizabeth is gearing up for her Platinum Jubilee in June of next year. Just like in the previous years, there will be four days full of festivities.

According to NBC News, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee will feature a medal ceremony, and the recipients are front-line works, emergency service personnel like the police, fire, prison, and armed services who have completed five years of service to the royal family.

The Queen will also bestow a medal to members of the royal family who have served the British monarchy for at least a year. And the publication believes that Prince Andrew could be one of the recipients next year.

Even though the Duke of York is involved in a sexual abuse case and is facing lawsuit from his alleged victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, he's still considered an important member of the royal family.

Since the only requirement to receive a medal at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee next year is to serve Her Majesty for a year, then Prince Andrew may indeed be included as one of the recipients.

The publication also pointed out that Prince Andrew did serve the public and the Queen when he joined the Falklands War years ago. He also received medals during the Queen's previous jubilee celebrations.

If the Queen decides to honor her third child next year, she can expect to receive criticisms from the public. But the publication said that this kind of reaction from Prince Andrew's critics is to be expected.

Read Also: Queen Elizabeth Urges Prince Andrew To Keep His Titles; Prince Charles May Be Tougher When He Becomes King

Prince Andrew finally acknowledged the sexual abuse lawsuit filed against him

Meanwhile, the Duke of York also made headlines this week amid reports that he finally acknowledged the lawsuit filed against him by Giuffre.

According to ABC News, Prince Andrew acknowledged the lawsuit via his lawyer after Giuffre filed her complaint in the United States.

The acknowledgement was confirmed via a joint agreement signed by Prince Andrew's lawyer and approved by a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday.

Giuffre has been accusing Prince Andrew of sexual abuse. In her court documents, the complainant claimed that the abuse happened multiple times while she was still a minor.

Prince Andrew and Giuffre allegedly met through the royal's friend, Jeffrey Epstein.

Prince Andrew denies ever meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Two years ago, Prince Andrew tried to clear his name when he sat down for an interview on the BBC program, "Newsnight."

The interviewer told Prince Andrew that Giuffre has been saying that the two of them met in 2001 when they dined and danced at the Tramp Nightclub in London. The two also, allegedly, shared an intimate night while at the Belgravia.

Prince Andrew said that he doesn't have any recollection of ever meeting Giuffre.

"No, I've no recollection of ever meeting her, I'm almost, in fact I'm convinced that I was never in Tramps with her. There are a number of things that are wrong with that story, one of which is that I don't know where the bar is in Tramps. I don't drink, I don't think I've ever bought a drink in Tramps whenever I was there," he said via the BBC.

As of late, it is still unclear what will happen to Prince Andrew and if he will ever be convicted. But earlier claims said that the Duke of York cannot be sued because an earlier lawsuit in the United States was settled, and it absolves the royal from any liability.

Related Article: Prince Andrew's Lawyers Claim He Has Not Received Legal Papers As US Court Holds Pre-Trial Hearing Over Sex Abuse Allegations

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After the White House rejected the company last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed US President Joe Biden, calling him "not the friendliest administration."

Musk's remarks occurred during a Code Conference interview, and they came after a tweet in which the Tesla CEO ridiculed Biden with words akin to those used by former US President Donald Trump.

Last month, the Biden administration summoned car CEOs to the White House to discuss the shared aim of expanding electric vehicle manufacturing. Top executives from Ford, GM, and Stellantis were in attendance. However, Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, was not.

Tesla CEO claims Biden administration is "controlled by unions"

One possible explanation for Tesla's exclusion is that its production workers are not unionized, despite Biden's support for labor unions. Musk went even farther in the Code interview, stating that Biden's government was "controlled by the unions."

Musk slammed a White House symposium on electric vehicles in August, which automakers other than Tesla attended when speaking at a tech conference in California.

A request for comment from the White House was not immediately returned. Biden, accompanied by officials from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, issued an executive order in August aiming to make half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 electric.

The United Auto Workers (UAW), which has over 150,000 members, is the largest employer of the so-called Big Three US automakers. When asked in August if the White House declined to invite Musk because Tesla employees are not unionized, White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied, "I'll let you draw your own conclusion," Reuters via MSN reported.

Democrats in the US House of Representatives have also suggested a $4,500 tax credit for union-made, American-built electric vehicles, igniting a battle between Tesla and Toyota Motor Corp on the one side, and UAW-affiliated manufacturers in Detroit on the other.

Read Also: Tech Tycoons Express Support To Xi Jinping's "Common Prosperity" Campaign

Elon Musk also expressed concern against China

Based in Palo Alto, California, Tesla has a facility in Fremont that employs around 10,000 people. The United Auto Employees has attempted to organize workers there on several occasions, as per MINT.

Elon Musk has also expressed alarm about China's increasing power problem, as experts warn that decreasing energy sources might disrupt global supply lines. China is currently experiencing an energy crisis, exacerbated in part by soaring coal prices.

The tightening of the country's grip on carbon emissions and bad handling of provincial energy rationing have added to the confusion, leaving homes, companies, and industries in the dark. Elon Musk, whose electronics business relies on China-based manufacturing running smoothly, has already felt the effects of the energy crisis.

A number of facilities that supply South African billionaire Elon Musk's electric vehicle firm, Tesla, have suspended operations due to the power outage. The production line of the Eson Precision Engineering firm in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, had to be temporarily halted.

Officials in China have pushed manufacturers and industries to reduce their usage, with energy restrictions impacting households and small companies. Scenes of chaos occurred in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, after traffic signals failed due to a power failure, locking commuters inside their vehicles.

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs economists cut their growth projections for China, Express.co reported. As a result of "recent severe cutbacks to production in a variety of high-energy intensive industries," their GDP growth projection for 2021 has been reduced from 8.2 percent to 7.8 percent.

Related Article: Joe Biden Gets Pfizer COVID-19 Booster, Says He Wants More Vaccine Mandate

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Few people dispute that quality and cost are connected. The phrase 'you get what you pay for' has become a cliche because it is so true. We can see it at work every day: Paying a bit more means the shoes are more comfortable and last longer, the restaurant has better food and service, the hotel is that bit more luxurious. But despite this, many people assume that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) vendors in the Philippines are all created equal.

It is, perhaps, an understandable mistake. The distance makes it difficult, if not impossible, to physically compare different options. A lack of understanding of how outsourcing operations work might mean less insight into why prices can vary. And, because cost is frequently a driver, the temptation to go low can be tempting. If you are already saving 50%, after all, what difference can 60% make? Or 70%?

Choosing a BPO provider on cost alone is likely going to be an unfortunate move. It's estimated that 80-90% of low-cost outsourcing ends in program failures. The problem? While the low-cost vendor's hourly rate may be appealing, it is simply too low to invest in and sustain a high-quality operation. Choosing a premium BPO in the Philippines may come with a higher price, but it saves the enormous costs of unhappy customers, bad publicity, and a failed outsourcing relationship.

Looking at the factors involved quickly demonstrates why the low-cost route cannot work. BPO providers in the Philippines tend to have a similar cost breakdown. Agent salaries will be around 30% of the hourly rate that is being charged, with a further 15% for management and supervision, which include the operations and program managers as well as a team leader. Then there's 10% for support services, like HR and finance. Finally, 15% covers the operational costs of facilities, infrastructure, technology, and connectivity. This leaves the outsourcing provider with a gross margin of 30%.

Applying these to the rates charged, it quickly becomes apparent why low cost equates to low quality. A typical premium BPO in the Philippines will charge around US$14 per agent hour, while a low-cost operator might be around $8 per agent hour. The lower cost means less to spend on the operation. The facilities and technology, for example, have a budget of just $1.20 per hour in a low-cost vendor but $2.10 in a premium operator.

There are, of course, ways to realize savings. Many low-cost vendors will operate in more rural areas, avoiding the expensive real estate costs of places like Manila. However, there is no way to avoid the costs of IT and infrastructure. The top-tier BPO companies in the Philippines are highly sophisticated operations, frequently using AI to route calls, assist agents, and analyze performance data. Low-cost operators simply cannot afford the same level of technology as premium providers.

But the most significant difference in quality comes from the staff. Using the same breakdowns, our example low-cost and premium Philippines-based BPO companies offer their staff US$2.40 and $4.20 per hour respectively. The low labor costs are a significant factor in the savings outsourcing can offer, but by paying their employees 75% more, the premier operators also attract and retain the country's top talent.

BPO in the Philippines has grown explosively over the last twenty years. In large part, this growth was because so many people speak English-over 60 million Filipinos, according to official statistics. This, combined with the low labor costs, make the Philippines an ideal location for call and contact centers that service Anglophone countries. However, there is a range of language proficiency, and being able to speak a language is not the same as being able to communicate effectively in that language.

A college-educated employee with excellent English and a few years of work experience will be able to command those significantly higher salaries because their skills and abilities are in high demand. This leaves the low-cost providers reliant on staff who often have poorer English, lower educational attainment, and less work experience. The result is an industry that, in effect, offers two tiers of BPO, which are differentiated on both price and quality.

Today, there are more than a million Filipinos employed in contact center and back-office operations, and 70% of them are employed by the country's top 50 BPO providers, which include global third-party outsourcing providers like Concentrix and Accenture, as well as captive operators such as JP Morgan Chase & Co. and United Health Group. While offering staff the opportunity to work for more prestigious brands, they can also offer a better working environment and more opportunities and, of course, they all pay in the higher $3-6 per hour range.

These industry giants employ between 10,000 and 90,0000 Filipinos each. Indeed, they represent such a large proportion of the employment offered by BPOs in the Philippines that any high-quality call agent is likely to be working for one. So, with almost all A- and B-grade agents working for the large, multinational outsourcing and captive BPO providers, low-cost operators are forced hire and work with the remaining less qualified employees. It's of course common sense that with a workforce comprised of C-, D- and F-grade agents, it's impossible to achieve A-grade performance and customer experience.

The differences between the premier and low-cost BPO providers in the Philippines are profound. The premier operators, paying highly competitive salaries, will employ people who are not only fluent in English but who typically have little or no accent. The agents combine this linguistic talent with a level of cultural understanding that enables them to build a rapport with customers. The low-cost operators, on the other hand, are forced to employ less fluent staff, heavily accented with a narrower vocabulary, and much less able to understand the nuances of an English conversation. The biggest cause of complaints about overseas outsourcing is communication, so the impact of using a sub-par outsourcing provider like this can be drastic, impacting customer satisfaction and retention and eventually leaving its mark on your bottom line.

Choosing a BPO in the Philippines is much like any other purchasing decision. 'You get what you pay for' certainly applies. You can realize significant savings, perhaps as much as 50%, and still maintain and even improve quality by going with a premier provider. There is, however, a limit to the savings you can achieve, and once you pass that limit, every cent means lower-quality agents working with poorer equipment and support in outdated facilities. Every dollar saved beyond that point means a bigger chance of failure. Going low-cost is almost always a recipe for disaster.

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The UK fuel crisis may be easing, but a winter of discontent could just be beginning

If there have been no queues at petrol stations in the UK in recent days, it is probably because they have run out of fuel.

Now Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the fuel crisis is beginning to ease, and we\'re hearing similar optimism from the industry.

The Petrol Retailers Association said a survey of its members showed 37% of stations were out of gas - which may not sound great but was an improvement on the weekend.

The fuel crisis is affecting People Daily lives, but it is also affecting jobs: taxi drivers, delivery drivers, and, of course, vital workers, including emergency workers.

The British Medical Association recommended that the government designate petrol stations as a priority for these workers.

The British government put the British military on hard standby, with trained personnel ready to move fuel from refineries and platforms to forecourts where it is needed.

They also announced policies to address the problem at the heart of the crisis: a shortage of truck drivers.

As well as encouraging retired HGV-qualified drivers to return to work, they have also offered temporary visas to 5,000 foreign drivers.

That is just a fraction of the 100,000 drivers Britain needs, according to the Road Transport Association.

The president of the British Chambers of Commerce compared the temporary visa scheme to adding fuel to a fire.

Supply chains in several industries remain fragmented because of a shortage of UK lorry drivers. It is a problem that has been brewing for years but is now reaching a tipping point for many reasons: Brexit, the pandemic, demand for online shopping, low wages, a shortage of driving teachers, and more.

The petrol crisis may be easing, but the UK winter of discontent could be just beginning as driver shortages threaten to trigger more supply chain crises in the run-up to Christmas.

The UK petrol crisis may be easing, but will that affect the market for the ina bearing?

Bearings are an important part of modern machinery and equipment, and its downstream is widely used in industrial automation, high-end equipment, robotics, automobile manufacturing and other fields. In recent years, due to the decline in demand from downstream industries such as automobiles and machine tools, as well as the adjustment of industrial structure, the phase of transformation and upgrading, the phasing out of backward production capacity has changed the relationship between supply and demand. The number of bearing industries has declined. If you are looking for ina bearing or get more information about ina bearing, please send an email to sales@ericbearing.com

Due to changes in consumer demand, import and export conditions, and various investigations on the development of ina bearing, the cost of ina bearing is constantly changing. Taking into account the current market macroeconomic parameters, value chain analysis, channel partners, demand and supply, the cost of ina bearing will also be affected to a certain extent. It is estimated that the cost of ina bearing will increase slightly from next month.

The price of ina bearing continues to be affected by factors such as market decline momentum, various opportunities and challenges. However, during the forecast period from 2022 to 2025, the global ina bearing sales market is expected to continue to be above average. The growth rate will continue to increase. It is expected that In the second half of this year, the price of ina bearing will increase to a certain extent.

The market trend of ina bearing?

The cost of raw materials is still the biggest concern for manufacturers. Raw materials account for approximately 60-62% of bearing manufacturers revenue. The price of raw materials for bearings fluctuates continuously according to market economic conditions. Such fluctuations in raw material prices are becoming a real challenge for companies to maintain competitiveness and ensure sustainable profits. As high-grade steel and alloy steel are the main raw materials used to manufacture ina bearing, bearing prices are highly correlated with global steel price trends. Therefore, fluctuations in the price of raw materials have brought challenges for bearing manufacturers to compare prices and quality to manufacture bearings. In addition, the bearings require regular maintenance to avoid failures and extend their service life, which further increases maintenance costs. Therefore, factors such as raw material price fluctuations and regular maintenance costs are expected to hinder the growth of the bearing market.

The market demand of ina bearing?

The global bearing market value in 2020 is 123.34 billion U.S. dollars and is expected to reach 153.62 billion U.S. dollars by 2027, and the compound annual growth rate will also increase steadily.

A bearing is a mechanical element that supports relative movement and helps reduce friction caused between moving parts. Bearings are widely used in various industries such as automobiles, wind turbines, construction machinery, mining machinery, agricultural equipment, and machine tools. It is used in automobiles to ensure smooth driving of automobiles, electric vehicles (EV) and other types of vehicles (such as light commercial vehicles and heavy vehicles such as trucks). Due to the increasing utilization of bearing ina bearing in various end-use industries, rolling mills and electric vehicles, the global ina bearing market has become more and more important. The development of technology has improved the overall efficiency of bearing products in the field and extended the product shelf life.

About Eric Bearing Limited

Since the establishment of ERIC BEARING LIMITED in 2011, Eric Bearing Co., Ltd. has established partnerships with some distributors who have authorized world-renowned manufacturers, such as Swedish SKF bearings, German FAG bearings and INA bearings, and so on. We have more than 8 years of export experience can help you find the ideal purchasing solution. Various brands of bearings have abundant stocks, if you are interested, please feel free to contact us.

Looking for the ina bearing or get more information about any other bearings, please send an email to sales@ericbearing.com
Swiss Artificial Intelligence company Art Recognition claims that Peter Paul Rubens' Samson and Delilah masterpiece in London's National Gallery is forged.

The National Gallery bought the artwork for $5.4 million in 1980, making it the third most expensive artwork bought at the time, per New York Times.

Samson and Delilah in National Gallery a Fake?

Samson and Delilah depicts the Old Testaments' betrayal story where Samson's lover Delilah became an accomplice to cut Samson's hair to reduce his God-given superhuman strength. In line with this, several critics have suggested that Peter Paul Rubens' Samson and Delilah is not the original painting that London National Gallery bought. Scientists gave their thought and opinions on the masterpiece.

Critics argued that the painting in the National Gallery is just a copy of Rubens' original work for his Antwerp patron Nicolaas Rockox between 1608 and 1609, as the painting's composition is tricky, colors are not originally from Ruben's palette, and London's National Gallery version has cropped Samson's toes, per The Guardian.

Artist and independent scholar Euphrosyne Doxiadis told Spiegel International that she had doubts on the painting and said that it is a 20th century copy. This makes the analysis of Art Recognition stronger.

According to same report by The Guardian, scientist Dr. Carina Popovici and her team used Artificial Intelligence analysis to determine if the painting is fake or not. The analysis, however, said the probability of Samson and Delilah's inauthenticity hits 91 percent. Several tests and experiments have been conducted to avoid mistakes, but the result is the same.

Adding to the analysis of Dr. Popovici, ArtWatch UK director Michael Daley said the AI report is exceedingly damning. Daley acknowledged that when a picture is wrong everything in art is wrong. Daley added that National Gallery has faced similar criticism on a $450 Million Salvador Mundi's artwork.

Art Historian Dr. Katarzyna Krzyzagorska-Pisarek, who also had doubt on Rubens' artwork, said the new method of authenticating an artwork is innovative and 20th century needs this reliable method. Dr. Pisarek described Artificial Intelligence's process as coldly objective and scientifically accurate.

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Art Recognition Detects Artwork Through Its Art Intelligence

Swiss Artificial Intelligence company Art Recognition has conducted the AI analysis for Rubens' Samson and Delilah. Through its deep convolutional neuronal network, the Art Recognition algorithm recognizes artists' work characteristics. Artworks are separated into small parts to capture finer details. Art Recognition tested the artwork along with 148 Rubens' paintings.

Through its detailed pieces, AI's pattern recognition detects forge artworks easily than human experts. The National Gallery is not thrilled with its result, but Art Recognition's method prevents them from spending huge amount on forged artworks. According to London's National Gallery spokesman, they are noting the new research available and await full publication before giving any further comments.

Aside from Art Recognition's analyzation on Samson and Delilah, rhe Swiss AI Company also analyzed the authenticity of Norway National Museum's Vincent van Gogh Self Portrait. The artwork garnered 97 percent rating on its authenticity.

In addition, Art Recognition tested out Kees van Dongen's Nu en Buste (Now and Bust) Version A and Version B. The result turned out that Version A is forged, and Version B is the authentic.

Related Article: Elon Musk's 'Terminator' AI Warning Comes Resurfaces; New Doomsday Tweet Goes Viral!
Remember the SolarWinds hack? Microsoft recently discovered another piece of malware used by hackers during the attack. The FoggyWeb malware is a utility tool that helps hackers steal user data, access admin-level permissions, and stay inside networks even after clean-up.

Business industries and companies are often warned about cybersecurity risks on the internet. One of the most iconic example is the SolarWinds software supply chain, which was downloaded by 18,000 customers.Although the number of customers that were actually attacked were less than 100, it was still a concerning development.

Ongoing research is trying to unpack the scary details of the malware attacks.

Microsoft Warning: Nobelium Modules

According to ZDNet, the U.S. and U.K. initially blamed the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) hacking unit APT29, Cozy Bear, and The Dukes. Security researchers later discovered that these cyberattacks started from the Nobelium attack group.

Microsoft discovered how Nobelium had different malware components like GoldMax, GoldFinder, and Sibot. Nobelium was later linked to groups like Sunburst/Solarigate, Teardrop, and Sunspot.

The most recent malware discovered is called FoggyWeb. It is a backdoor system used by attackers on a targeted server that was already compromised.

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New Microsoft Malware Can Steal Your Credentials

ZDNet explained how FoggyWeb uses several tactics to steal network usernames and passwords from the device. Hackers later get admin-level access to the Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) servers, where they could hide corrupted code, steal secondary user identity, access management infrastructure, and control user access to company apps and resources.

Even worse, FoggyWeb lets hackers hide inside the network during system clean-up, keeping hackers safe from anti-virus detections.

Ramin Nafisi, a member of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, said that "Nobelium uses FoggyWeb to remotely exfiltrate the configuration database of compromised AD FS servers, decrypted token-signing certificate, and token-decryption certificate, as well as to download and execute additional components," per ZDNet.

FoggyWeb is a passive and highly utilized backdoor tool used by many hackers. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the malware is extremely hard to to detect.

Microsoft recommends that potentially affected customers should take three key steps to ensure their protection:

Auditing on-premise and cloud infrastructure for configurations and per-user and per-app settings.

Removing user and app access, review configurations, and re-issue new, strong credentials.

Using a hardware security module to prevent FoggyWeb from stealing secrets from AD FS servers.

Other Cybersecurity Threats You Should be Aware of

Aside from FoggyWeb, two hacking strategies are rapidly gaining popularity in these last few months. Users and business companies are warned to remain conscious and careful about TangleBot and Phishing Scams.

TangleBot: An Android malware that could access user microphones, cameras, SMS, call logs, internet, and GPS without their awareness. There are nine ways to prevent TangleBot from infecting a device.

Phishing scams and email attacks: Security company Tessian warned about hacking strategies that exploit employee accounts to access the company website. Here are eight warning signs that your device could be in danger.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated that 18,000 customers were targeted in the SolarWinds Supply Chain issue. It has since been corrected that that number only reflects the number of customers who donwloaded a compromised version of the software, but it is not the number of people who had their information leaked.



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A message shared in the 2021 Code Conference reignites the Elon Musk-Jeff Bezos beef! Musk said he isn't happy with the fellow mega-billionaire, telling him that "you can't sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are."

On Tuesday, the famous journalist Kara Swisher invited Musk to the Code Conference. The event is described as a "signature unscripted Red Chair interview." Musk answered many of Swisher's questions about cryptocurrency, Tesla, and Starlink. The full video is embedded below.



Near the 21-minute marker, Swisher asked Musk, "You got a contract with (NASA) to do a lunar lander, which is being disputed by Jeff Bezos. How do your feel about that?"

Musk replied, "I think he should put more of his energy getting into orbit than lawsuits. You can't sue your way to the Moon." The comment received laughter from the audience.

Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos: The Beef!

Several space fans would know that Musk and Bezos have been "fighting" in these last couple of months. Both billionaires are going head-to-head to defend their space companies: SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively. Often, these two would make fun of each other's spacecraft through their Twitter accounts. Some notable exchanges between these two are as follows:

In early August, Bezos filed a complaint about NASA's contract with SpaceX. The Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport tweeted excerpts of the complaint submitted to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Musk mocked the complaint, implying that NASA chose SpaceX over Blue Origin because its lunar lander "wasn't convincing."

Later that month, another space fan tweeted another lawsuit filed by Blue Origin. Musk laughed it off, saying that Bezos "can't get it up (to orbit) lol."

Cant get it up (to orbit) lol  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021

Read Also: Elon Musk Twitter Mockery: SpaceX CEO Punches Back at Jeff Bezos Amid Lawsuits

When Amazon urged FCC to deny the SpaceX Starlink satellite system, Musk complained, "turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX ..." Note that Musk intentionally misspelled Bezos' name.

Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX   Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2021

Admittedly, even fans ended up making fun of Bezos' multiple lawsuits. Many of them memefied the events, which Musk immediately replied to.

And if it doesnt work, hes gonna sue death!  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2021

Elon Musk in the 2021 Code Conference

Both Musk and Swisher chose not to dwell on the argument between SpaceX and Blue Origin. Instead, they discussed Musk's future plans for space, like traveling to Mars and possibly beyond. They even mentioned Musk's plan for a self-sustainable city on Mars!

Notably, fans learned several exciting things from Musk at the 2021 Code Conference. Perhaps some of the ideas mentioned above would be viable plans and future projects for SpaceX. Space fans are recommended to watch over Musk and SpaceX's advancement, especially in the coming months.

Related Article: Elon Musk Hilariously Jokes 'Mad Max' Upgrade for Tesla Cybertruck: Guitar Flamethrower Coming?
Actor Daniel Craig in a scene from "007 No Time to Die" / Courtesy of Universal Pictures



By Kwak Yeon-soo



Actor Daniel Craig said he has mixed emotions about leaving James Bond behind after starring in five installments of the epic spy film series over 15 years.



"It's been an incredible journey for me. I've spent a large part of my life making these movies. I'm incredibly proud of this movie as I am with all of the films, but this one especially. We did our absolute best and this movie is no better way to top off my years into James Bond," he told Korean reporters during an online press conference, Wednesday.



The 53-year-old actor confessed that by the end of "Spectre" (2015), he was ready to pack it in and leave his role. He was in the process of figuring out a story to end it and then director Cary Joji Fukunaga came on board, putting his "magic into it."



"The job was to complete the story and it made me look back at the first film, Casino Royale (2006). If that's sort of the starting chapter, how does the final chapter relate to that? What is it that's made him who he is?" Fukunaga said.



"It was just an exploration of someone who's been through so many missions and has done so much killing. What does that do to you by this point in your life? What makes that heart beat still?" the director asked rhetorically.



Craig has played Bond in five movies, after initially taking up the role in 2006 when he played 007 in "Casino Royale."



Asked which of the five installments he feels particularly fond of, he said, "I would have to go back to Casino Royale because I was very naive and green. I promise you the thrill I got walking onto the set in Casino Royale hasn't diminished at all. In fact, I got a bigger thrill walking onto the set of No Time to Die."



Craig explained that the charm of James Bond movies lies not only in great storytelling, but in jaw-dropping action sequences.



"What I love about the action sequences in this film is that they're not obvious. The action sequences can't stop the narrative. They must continue the narrative, and Cary does that beautifully in the movie," he said.



Lea Seydoux, who portrays Bond's love interest, Dr. Madeleine Swann, in the film, explained that her character has also evolved, just like Daniel's character.



"In 'No Time to Die,' it's the first time that you'll see that we have a view into her childhood. She's a real character. She's not here only to please Bond," she said.



"I think Cary wanted Madeleine to be a more developed," Seydoux added. "That's why in the beginning of the film, we get to know her a bit more. We see her with her mother, and we understand why she's damaged, and I think that was also important to be able to understand the relationship she has with Bond."





Actor Rami Malek speaks during an online press conference with Korean reporters, Wednesday. Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Naver founder Lee Hae-jin testifies at a National Assembly audit in this October 2018 file photo. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun



Lawmakers decide not to grill banking group chiefs



By Park Jae-hyuk



Lee Hae-jin, Naver's founder who currently serves as its global investment officer (GIO), is set to be summoned as a witness for a National Assembly audit next Wednesday on the Financial Services Commission (FSC), sources knowledgeable with the matter said, Wednesday.



They said ruling and opposition party lawmakers at the National Assembly's national policy committee are close to agreement on summoning Lee.



He will be grilled about the company's efforts to protect financial consumers, amid intensifying government regulations on financial platform operators, such as the implementation of revisions to the Financial Consumer Protection Act. Financial services platform operators like Naver Financial and Kakao Pay are now required to stop comparing financial products or making recommendations until they receive a license to conduct such services.



The Naver founder has managed so far to avoid being summoned for the forthcoming National Assembly audit.



The National Policy Committee's lawmakers did not put his name on the list of witnesses for the audit of the Fair Trade Commission next Tuesday, in contrast to their decision to summon the heads of other online platform operators  Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su, Coupang CEO Kang Han-seung and Yanolja CEO Bae Bo-chan.



The Science, ICT, Broadcasting & Communications Committee also decided not to pick Lee as a witness, as lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) serving on the committee were wary of taking flak from the public for summoning entrepreneurs for the audit. The Environment and Labor Committee will summon Naver CEO Han Seong-sook instead, to ask her about the company's follow-up measures regarding the suicide of its employee in May which has been blamed on alleged workplace bullying.



If Lee refuses to appear before the National Assembly as a witness by traveling overseas, Han would be an alternative to be summoned for the National Policy Committee's comprehensive audit on Oct. 21.



The CEOs of the nation's four largest financial holding companies  KB, Shinhan, Hana and Woori financial groups  are unlikely to be asked to testify again this year, although Rep. Kang Min-kuk of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) once tried to summon Woori Chairman Son Tae-seung over the derivative-linked funds fiasco that led to massive losses for Woori Bank customers who invested in the funds without being appropriately warned of their riskiness.



Lawmakers on the National Policy Committee are considering summoning working-level employees to avoid the National Assembly audit being viewed as an annual event for politicians to humiliate business leaders.





National Policy Committee Chairman Yun Jae-ok, center, talks with the committee's executive secretaries  Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, left, and Rep. Kim Hee-gon of the main opposition People Power Party  during a meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap




By Park Jae-hyuk







Hyundai Capital, the automotive financing arm of Hyundai Motor Group, said Wednesday that it has started offering online financial services from last month for customers in the U.K. seeking purchase the Genesis G80 sedan and GV80 sport utility vehicle (SUV).







Genesis buyers can also: apply online for test drives, select models, choose options, apply for financing, sign contracts and request vehicle delivery.







"The launch of Genesis in the U.K. allows Hyundai Capital U.K. (HCUK) to enter a new market segment and attract a new customer base," HCUK Managing Director Ian Whittaker said. "We have taken all the knowledge and investment from the last nine years and tailored our products and services to support Genesis and their customer offering as they enter the premium sector."







Hyundai Capital Bank Europe, Hyundai Capital's German entity, is also offering a wide range of financial products through Genesis Finance.





Hyundai Capital Services launched Genesis Finance in 2015 and renamed it "G-Finance" in January to allow customers in Korea to select different financial products based on their needs.







In addition, Hyundai Capital Canada has accelerated its efforts to establish a digital online platform that enables consumers there to lease vehicles more conveniently.







"For the past seven years, Hyundai Capital has powered Genesis Finance to enable consumers to conveniently purchase, lease and finance Genesis vehicles," a Hyundai Capital representative said. "Starting in Korea and expanding into North America, Genesis Finance has witnessed exponential growth and success. On account of this growth, Hyundai Capital has gained the necessary experience and knowledge needed to replicate success in new markets such as Europe and China."







Hyundai Motor Group launched the Genesis luxury brand in 2015. Cumulative global sales of the brand's vehicles exceeded 500,000 as of May of this year.


An official poster for the 10th Seoul International Writers' Festival / Courtesy of SIWF





By Park Han-sol







The 10th Seoul International Writers' Festival, a global platform for fruitful literary exchanges between Korean and international authors and readers since its inception in 2006, will be held in a hybrid online-offline format starting next week.







Under the theme of "Awakening," 33 writers from 16 countries will participate in the event from Oct. 8 to 24 to discuss the role and future of literature after COVID-19 comes to an end, a period that will inevitably be marked by sweeping cultural changes worldwide.







The 17-day festival  jointly hosted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, the Seoul Design Foundation and Incheon International Airport Corporation  will hold lectures, writers' talks, film screenings, recitals and multilingual reading sessions of Korean literature.







Discussions are expected to cover a wide range of humanities-based topics such as the environment, gender and genre, and youth fiction.







A scene from "Free Falling," a cinematic adaptation of Hwang Jung-eun's short story of the same title / Courtesy of SIWF





The festival will open next Friday with the voices of celebrated novelist Han Kang, a recipient of the prestigious 2016 Man Booker International Prize for "The Vegetarian," and Mariana Enriquez, an Argentinian author and journalist known for her works of Latin American Gothic realism.







Notable sessions include a one-on-one writers' talk between author-chemist Kwak Jae-sik and multiple Hugo Award-winning American writer Ken Liu, in which the two will share their views on artificial intelligence, the Metaverse and the idea of utopia through their works of science fiction.







Another session between author Kim Soom and French writer and film director Vanessa Springora will investigate literature's role in dealing with historical trauma.





Other participants include English writer Max Porter, Yun Ko-eun, whose "The Disaster Tourist" has recently made headlines as the recipient of the 2021 Dagger Award, and the rising author Lee Mi-ye who wrote the best-selling book "Dollar Good Dream Department Store."







In celebration of the 10th edition of the festival, four short films that have been adapted from domestic literary works will be screened both online and at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Oct. 9 and 10, accompanied by Q&A sessions with the authors and directors. The original works in question are "Tomorrow's Lovers" by Jung Young-su, "Free Falling" by Hwang Jung-eun, "Big Brother" by Kim Kyung-uk and "Worms" by Kim Ae-ran.


This photo carried on North Korea's Korean Central News Agency shows what North Korea claims to be a new hypersonic missile launched from Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County, Jagang Province, North Korea, Tuesday. AP-Yonhap



Cheong Wa Dae remains neutral on Tuesday's missile launch



By Nam Hyun-woo



North Korea claimed Wednesday that the missile it launched a day earlier was a new, self-developed hypersonic one, in what is believed to be a move to test Seoul's reaction and gain leverage prior to a possible inter-Korean summit and denuclearization talks with U.S.



Its state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Pyongyang's Academy of Defense Science had test-fired the hypersonic missile, dubbed Hwasong-8, from Jagang Province.



"In the first test-launch, national defense scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section and also its technical specifications including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead," the KCNA said.



The report added that the academy "also ascertained the stability of the engine as well as of the missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time." However, the KCNA did not state whether it was a ballistic missile nor any other details. Reportedly, the South Korean military assumes that it flew less than 200 kilometers.



The report came after private experts' analysis that the North might have tested a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) launched from a ballistic missile.



"North Korea claims it developed a hypersonic missile, but it appears to be an HGV launched from a ballistic missile, not a hypersonic cruise missile (HCM)," said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. "Given the North dropped a hint that it will develop hypersonic glide technology in January, it seems that the warhead can fly at hypersonic speed. Also, North Korea said the missile was named the Hwasong-8, and the Hwasong series has historically been ballistic missiles powered by a liquid-fuel engine."



In recent years, military powerhouses such as the U.S., China and Russia, have been developing hypersonic missiles, which are capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound, thus making them difficult to intercept.



There are two primary categories of hypersonic missiles  HGVs and HCMs. While HGVs are launched from a ballistic missile before gliding to their target, HCMs are powered by high-speed ram-jets to a pre-programmed target, according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report.



Since hypersonic missiles do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can maneuver towards their target, they are regarded as having a combination of the advantages of ballistic missile  which can carry heavier warheads  and cruise missiles  which are difficult to detect and intercept. According to the report, Russia has already deployed the Avangard, a hypersonic glide vehicle launched from an intercontinental ballistic missile, while the U.S. earlier this week successfully tested a hypersonic cruise missile.



"An HGV poses a greater threat than an HCM, because the trajectory of the gliding vehicle becomes almost impossible to predict after it is launched from its ballistic missile," said Shin In-kyun, a defense analyst and an affiliated professor at Kyonggi University Graduate School of North Korean Studies.



Along with the missile itself, experts said North Korea's mentioning of "ampoule" (KCNA terminology) is also noteworthy. This "ampoule" appears to be referring to a sealed liquid fuel tank. A liquid-fueled missile has a reduced preparation time prior to launch, and can under appropriate circumstances be kept in an advance state of readiness.



Shin said North Korea's alleged hypersonic missile technology appears to be at in its early stages because the Hwasong-8 flew less than 200 kilometers at a speed of less than Mach 2.5, but he expects the North will continue efforts to upgrade its technology to a level where actual deployment is possible.



South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday: "We believe the missile which North Korea claimed was hypersonic appears to be at an early level of development, and it will be a long time before it is deployed," adding, "it can be detected and intercepted with the current military assets of South Korea and the U.S."



The North's announcement is interpreted as a test to see whether South Korea and the U.S. will recognize its missile programs as its "right to test weapons," which is one of the demands that North Korea has been making recently as a precondition to engage in talks for an official end to the Korean War declaration and denuclearization.



While showing a positive response to President Moon's proposal to declare a formal end to the war, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, demanded Seoul and Washington withdraw their "double dealing standards."



The rhetoric is assumed to be targeting South Korea's test of a locally developed submarine-launched ballistic missile, Sept. 15. When North Korea launched a ballistic missile from a train the same day, Seoul defined this move as a "provocation."



Since then, Moon hasn't used the term provocation, specifically to describe Tuesday's launch, which is interpreted as a tactic to maintain his "peace momentum."



Cheong Wa Dae kept a neutral stance over the missile launch, Wednesday. Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication, said in a radio interview, "We cannot prejudge anything for now," and, "we should focus on finding out North Korea's intention precisely through a thorough analysis."








North Korea's latest missile launches will not affect the U.S.' determination to seek diplomacy with the North for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. nuclear envoy for Pyongyang said Wednesday.





Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea, made the remark at a press event in Jakarta, a day after the North test-fired a hypersonic missile into the East Sea. The firing came after the regime's test-firings of two short-range missiles on Sept. 15 and a new type of cruise missile days earlier.





While describing the missile launches as a "threat" and "a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," under which the North is banned from testing or using nuclear and ballistic technologies, Kim said that does not "deter" the U.S. from continuing to pursue a "diplomatic path."





"We're strongly committed to finding a diplomatic path to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said at the event with foreign journalists. "That has not changed at all. These missile activities do not change our determination."





"We're waiting to hear back from Pyongyang. We have proposed dialogues on a wide range of topics ... we hope to hear back soon," Kim added.





The missile launches came amid Seoul's efforts to explore ways with Washington to resume the stalled dialogue with Pyongyang. Since last week, Pyongyang has expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss a summit with Seoul, but on the condition that the South drops its double standard and hostile attitudes against the regime.





Kim is set to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, to discuss North Korean issues in Jakarta on Thursday. (Yonhap)


A medical worker stands by at a temporary COVID-19 testing center at Seoul Station, Wednesday. Yonhap



Ministries to redouble efforts to boost vaccination rate of foreign residents



By Jun Ji-hye



Health authorities here are paying keen attention to a recent spike in COVID-19 infections among foreign residents amid no sign of a slowdown of the latest wave of the pandemic.



Concerns are being raised because the infection rate per 100,000 foreign residents has been nine times higher than the rate per 100,000 Korean nationals over the past week, while the vaccination rate of the former has been lower than that of the latter.



According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, a total of 2,305 foreign residents were confirmed to have COVID-19 from Sept. 19 to 25, a high increase from the 940 cases tallied in the middle of August, in line with the continued increase in infections here amid the ongoing fourth wave of the pandemic.



The 2,305 foreign patients accounted for 16.2 percent of the total, and among them, 64.5 percent lived in the Seoul metropolitan area that includes Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. The infection rate per 100,000 people was tallied at 208 for foreign residents and 23 for Koreans.



"The number of foreign virus patients has continued to increase for two-consecutive weeks," Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol said during a government meeting on COVID-19 responses, Wednesday. "Concerns have been especially growing in some areas in Chungcheong, Jeolla and North Gyeongsang regions as foreign patients there have exceeded 30 percent of the total."



As for the vaccination rate, 71.9 percent of Korean nationals have received at least their first shot as of Saturday, while 44.4 percent are fully vaccinated.



On the other hand, the rate of foreign residents who have received their first shot stood at 65.7 percent and 24.4 percent have been fully vaccinated.



The interior and safety ministry cited a lack of information about undocumented foreign residents as one of the reasons for the lower vaccination rate.



"We will enhance a public campaign targeting foreign workers in the construction, agriculture and fisheries industries as well as international students to increase their vaccination rate," Jeon said. "We will also work to issue temporary registration numbers for undocumented foreign residents and support medical expenses in case they suffer any abnormal reactions after vaccinations to encourage them to receive shots."





Minister of the Interior and Safety Jeon Hae-cheol speaks during a government meeting on COVID-19 responses at the Government Complex in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
A Moroccan man is detained  on his stomach with his feet and hands tied behind his back and with his head bound in protective head gear  in solitary confinement at Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center in Gyeonggi Province, in this video footage taken in June. Courtesy of Duroo Association for Public Interest Law



By Lee Hyo-jin



Civic groups for the human rights of migrants and foreign nationals here have denounced immigration authorities for the excessive use of force against a detainee at an immigration detention center, calling for punishment of those responsible and measures to prevent any recurrence.



A coalition of these groups held a press conference, Wednesday, in front of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, calling for immediate release of the detainee, while demanding apologies from the head of Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center and the justice minister.



A Moroccan man in his 30s, who has been detained at Hwaseong Detention Center in Gyeonggi Province for over six months, has been subject to inhumane treatment there, according to the groups.



An immigration detention center is a facility operated by the Ministry of Justice, where undocumented people of foreign nationality are held while facing deportation.



The victim, who entered Korea in October 2017 as an asylum seeker, was sent to the detention center in March of this year after a deportation order was issued against him.



He protested the poor conditions and repeatedly asked for medical treatment for the mental and physical illnesses he was suffering, but his requests were rejected. Following physical conflicts with officers, he was put into solitary confinement.



The detainee has been put under isolation a dozen times in total, spending one-third of his time at the center in a 10-square-meter cell, the longest stretch being for 11 days.



CCTV footage of the cell showed the man lying on his stomach with both hands and legs bound with rope behind his back, rendering him unable to move around the room. His head was covered in protective headgear bound with box tape and cable ties.



According to the migrant human rights groups, he was tied up in this harsh position multiple times, for periods ranging from 20 minutes to 4 hours and 24 minutes.



"They treated me like an animal. I remember everything that happened to me here. It is traumatic," the detainee said in a statement presented by the rights groups.



The coalition of groups views this harsh treatment as a form of torture, and a clear violation of human rights.



"The rules on the use of 'protective equipment' at immigration detention centers state that using ropes, handcuffs and protective gear on detainees should be used only in 'exceptional' cases to prevent self-harm. Using rope to bind a person like this and leaving him for a long period of time, which evidently goes beyond the original purpose of their use, can be seen as torture," read their statement.



The coalition also accused the authorities of not following the proper procedures required to place the man in solitary confinement.



Under Korean law, upon putting detainees in "special custody" or solitary confinement, the officers must present valid reasons for doing so as well as guarantee the detainee the chance to state his or her opinion, properly documenting them.



The twelve documents concerning the man's situation, however, lacked proper explanation as to why he was put in solitary confinement, had no official signatures or seals, and were issued with identical serial numbers, although they pertained to different dates.



"We strongly believe that the papers have been falsified, which means that the victim may have been put under 'special custody' without good reason. This is a serious case, which can constitute a criminal offense," Lawyer Lee Han-jae at Duroo Association for Public Interest Law, told The Korea Times



As the man's legal representative, Lee said that they plan to file a petition to the Ministry of Justice demanding his immediate release.



"We have also submitted the details of the case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the United Nations Committee Against Torture," Lee added.


Newly elected Bundestag member Rhie Ye-one / Screenshot from Rhie's Instagram



By Nam Hyun-woo



Rhie Ye-one, a German politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has become the first German federal parliament member of Korean heritage.



According to German media reports, Rhie, 34, will join the parliament, the Bundestag, succeeding Ulla Schmidt, the former Federal Minister of Health.



Rhie ran in the federal election on Sept. 26 as a candidate for the first constituency of Aachen, Nordhein-Westfalen state, and came in third, following rivals from the Greens and the ruling Christian Democratic Union. She won the Bundestag seat, however, as Germany uses the mixed-member proportional representation system.



In Germany's system, half of the 598 nominal members of the Bundestag are elected directly from Germany's 299 constituencies, while the other half obtain their seats through party lists based on the parties' percentages in the nationwide election. Voters in federal elections have two votes: one for a candidate to be the district's representative, and a second vote for a party. Rhie's party, the SPD, was the party that received the most votes nationwide, 25.7%.



"I'm in the German Bundestag!" Rhie wrote on the SPD website. "The phenomenal results of the SPD made it possible for me to get in via the state list and thus join the future Bundestag.  Together we have shown that the SPD is needed more urgently than ever and that people need social democratic answers to their questions."



Rhie was born in Aachen in 1987 to Korean parents who had moved to Germany in 1986. Rhie majored in political science and communication at RWTH Aachen University, and began her political career in 2005 by joining the SPD.



Along with Rhie, two other Germans of Korean heritage were also elected as members of the Berlin House of Representatives in the regional election that also took place on Sept. 26.



Benedict Lux, 40, of the Greens, a lawyer of mixed Korean heritage, was elected after winning 28.9 percent to represent Berlin's constituency of Steglitz-Zehlendorf 1. This is the fourth time that Lux was elected to the position. Lux's mother is Korean.



Marcel Hopp, 33, of the SPD was elected from the constituency of Neukolln 4 with 36.2 percent. Hopp was born in Neukolln to his mother, who is a Korean nurse, and his father, a German locksmith and engineer.


Yoon Seok-youl, the leading presidential contender of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, speaks, Sept. 10, during a party event where its presidential hopefuls answered voters' questions. Korea Times file





By Kang Seung-woo







Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl burst onto the political scene as one of the most promising presidential contenders of the conservative camp by riding a wave of sentiment against President Moon Jae-in.







Yoon was the second prosecutor general of the incumbent administration, but his well-publicized tensions with the Moon government and the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which were seeking to weaken the prosecution's authority under the judiciary reform plan, ironically resulted in the 60-year-old running for the presidency on the conservative main opposition People Power Party's (PPP) ticket.







However, despite his high approval ratings among conservatives, Yoon is now facing allegations linked not only to himself but also to his family members, which could thwart his presidential bid. In addition, his frequent slips of the tongue are also making him vulnerable to attacks from rivals.







More than anything else, Yoon has set himself up as the frontrunner for the conservative opposition bloc through his strong leadership, highlighted while he led a series of politically sensitive investigations of key ruling bloc figures targeting corruption allegations.







Last December, Yoon was suspended from duty for two months by former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae on four counts of alleged misconduct, including surveillance of judges in cases involving former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, a close aide to President Moon, and some presidential officials, but he was reinstated after the two-month suspension.







In addition, his strong image came to the fore in 2013 when he was leading an investigation into suspicions that the National Intelligence Service had intervened in the 2012 presidential election in favor of the conservative ruling party's candidate at that time, Park Geun-hye.







He claimed his superiors attempted to intervene in the probe, and following conflicts with his superiors and the government, he was demoted to the head of the Yeoju branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office. But Yoon made a comeback in 2016 as a core member of the special prosecutors' team tasked with looking into the corruption and power abuse scandal involving former President Park and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil. Park was impeached and removed from office the following year.







President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with then-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl at Cheong Wa Dae in this Nov. 8, 2019 photo. Korea Times file





Upon Moon's inauguration in May 2017, he was appointed as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and then promoted to prosecutor general in July 2019.











A favorable environment is being created for the political rookie, amid calls for a change of administration, due to the nation's continually overheated housing market, which some attribute to the Moon administration's real estate policies, as well as frustration over the lack of "fairness" in Korean society in general.







Such calls were reflected in the DPK's defeats in April's mayoral by-elections for the country's two biggest cities: Seoul and Busan.







"The public want strong leadership in critical situations as well as amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Yoon fits the bill," Shin Yul, a political science and diplomacy professor at Myongji University, said in a media interview.







Yoon unveiled his election pledges recently on diplomacy and security issues  which are the most important yardstick for presidential contenders on the divided Korean Peninsula  along with his views on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and Seoul's security alliance with the United States.







Yoon said he will demand that the U.S. redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons here and offer a nuclear sharing deal with South Korea if its national security is threatened by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, among others, although that notion was immediately dismissed by the U.S. State Department. U.S. tactical nuclear weapons were introduced here in the 1950s, but withdrawn in the 1990s.







In addition, he also plans to set up a liaison office involving the two Koreas and the U.S. at the border truce village of Panmunjeom in a bid to run a trilateral dialogue channel on a permanent basis.







Regarding the housing market, Yoon said that he had a plan to provide 2.5 million homes, including 1.3 million in Seoul and its surrounding areas, within the next five years. In addition, he also seeks to ease a range of regulations tightened by the Moon administration's efforts to curb the skyrocketing property prices, which is drawing strong support from the market.







Yoon Seok-youl, left, accompanied by his wife Kim Keon-hee, attends his appointment ceremony as prosecutor general at Cheong Wa Dae in this July 25, 2019 photo. Korea Times file









However, there are also lingering challenges that may hold back his presidential ambitions.







Yoon has been accused recently of pushing forward the now-defunct United Future Party (UFP), a predecessor of the PPP, to lodge criminal complaints against several pro-government figures ahead of the general election in April of last year, in what could have been an attempt at influencing the polls. To this end, Yoon allegedly ordered high-ranking prosecutor Son Jun-sung to hand over written criminal complaints to Kim Woong, a prosecutor-turned-politician who managed the party's election campaign at the time, and was eventually elected as a lawmaker.







In fact, with Yoon embroiled in the allegations against him and his family, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, the flag bearer of the PPP in the last presidential election, has been emerging as a strong candidate for the conservative opposition bloc, even beating out Yoon in some opinion polls.







In addition, Yoon's mother-in-law was convicted of violating the Medical Service Act as well as of fraud in July, while his wife has been suspected of being involved in a stock manipulation plot.







Along with these family issues, a series of controversial comments have also hinted at his political inexperience.







Earlier, Yoon found himself in hot water over his comments on the government's 52-hour statutory workweek plan after he said, "Workers should be allowed to work up to 120 hours a week and then take a good rest."







He also stirred controversy by saying there was no radioactive contamination from the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, despite clear evidence of harmful radioactive materials at the site.







He was also under fire for his remarks that poor people should be allowed to choose low-quality food, triggering doubts about his abilities to address issues related to income inequality.


North Korea should stop dubious approaches



North Korea said Wednesday the projectile it launched into East Sea early Tuesday was a new hypersonic missile. The Korean Central News Agency said the North successfully tested the missile's first flight which it claimed met key technical requirements such as launch stability and the characteristics of a "detached hypersonic gliding warhead."



The North claims the new missile can fly at more than five times the speed of sound with an undetectable trajectory, and thus can overwhelm existing missile defense systems if launched en masse. Specific steps should be taken to cope with the North's buildup of its nuclear capability. What is disappointing is the launch came only three days after Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, indicated the need for inter-Korean dialogue including a summit and the possible official declaration of an end to the Korean War.



While acclaiming President Moon Jae-in's proposal for the war termination as an "admirable idea" Kim said, "There is no need for the North and South to waste time with a war of words, accusing each other." Given this, the recent missile launch contradicts what Kim stated. It is inappropriate for North Korea to show such inconsistent and conflicting stances in dealing with crucial inter-Korean issues.



In a statement, Kim urged the South to drop its "double standards" to lay the groundwork for an envisioned inter-Korean summit. She asked the South not to describe the North's weapons tests including missile launches as "provocations." The North says the South has used a double stand by dubbing the North's firing of ballistic missiles as provocations even though it recently test-fired its own submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).



Given this, Kim's recent remarks can be taken as a call for the South to scrap such a double standard. In a similar context, Monday, North Korean envoy to the United Nations Kim Song asked the United States to give up its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang. During a U.N. speech, Kim also urged the South and the U.S. to stop the joint military exercises.



However, it is not appropriate for the North to continue to call on Seoul and Washington to give up their military deterrence while it has been building up its nuclear capabilities. Pyongyang should first take a step toward denuclearization in order to persuade the South and the U.S. to follow suit. North Korea's launch of ballistic missile is in violation of U.N. resolutions, while the South's launch of an SLBM wasn't.



What is encouraging is the flight distance and altitude of the recently fired missile was only half that of a short-range missile the North launched Sept. 15, possibly indicating the North's willingness for dialogue. Should the North want the U.S. to withdraw its "hostile policy" toward it, it needs to come forward to the dialogue table in full honesty. The resumption of inter-Korean communications can be a starting point. The Moon Jae-in administration should make relentless efforts to induce the North to return to dialogue without compromising the South's security.


By Song Kyung-jin





History recalls that there were at least two Sept. 15ths in the early part of the 21st century on which extraordinary events happened: 2008 and 2021. On Sept. 15, 2008, the world economy witnessed the biggest-ever bankruptcy of an investment bank, Lehman Brothers. The need for China's cooperation to combat the Great Recession at that time eclipsed the needs of the Quad.



Exactly 13 years later, the launch of a security initiative around the Indo-Pacific, called the AUKUS (standing for "Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States") partnership, was announced. A week after the AUKUS partnership was forged, the first in-person Quad Leaders' Summit, its second summit, was held on Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C.



Immediately following the launch of AUKUS, China submitted its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in a quid pro quo move, although there is currently little enthusiasm from the U.S. to rejoin it.



Now my head is spinning as I try to figure out what the Quad and AUKUS are meant for. Though Korea expressed its intention to join the CPTPP, it has not taken action in terms of submitting an application. This entire situation matters to me because it is happening around Korea, even though the Korean foreign minister stressed  a little awkwardly  at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Sept. 22 that Korea maintains a close relationship with each of the Quad members, and that it has not been asked to join the Quad.



Is the Quad destined to repeat its history of quickly waning after one or two meetings? If the Quad is to avoid fizzling out before too long, then it must reorient and repurpose itself, as well as show its relevance, usefulness and thus its raison d'etre. If the Quad is not a regional security organization and meant to be complementary to existing institutions, as officials in the Biden administration have claimed, it will not be such a herculean task to reorient its purpose, refocus its attention and become a pragmatic and result-oriented regional initiative.



The Quad already has a set of commitments from the two leaders' meetings as its operating principles. The second summit on Sept. 24 in Washington produced mostly non-military commitments. The Quad should take heed not to expand its commitments into too many, too fast, but to prioritize areas for building coalitions.



Today the top priority of the Quad leaders should be quickly delivering on their vaccine donation pledge. The world is still very much in the public health crisis and the biggest concern for any leader today is how to tackle and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible. In their first meeting on March 12, they pledged to donate 1.2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine globally by the end of 2022, in addition to their commitments to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX).



By the second summit on Sept. 24, the Quad had donated only 79 million doses to the Indo-Pacific region. In this case, there is a big gap between their initial pledge and their actions to fulfill it. It was partly due to the COVID-19 explosion that India's vaccine production capacity declined, as export controls were put in place there in order to prioritize vaccinating the country's own residents. India is now expected to resume its role as a regional vaccine manufacturing hub. Delivering on the pledge is a relatively easy job to do, should there be a will.



At the summit last week, the leaders agreed to establish the Quad Infrastructure Coordination Group with the goals of assessing infrastructure needs and coordinating respective approaches in order to provide transparent, high-quality infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific. This Infrastructure Group is open to regional partners. There are bilateral, trilateral and plurilateral infrastructure projects under way in the region.



Taking into account the region's vast needs for infrastructure and the lack of resources, the Indo-Pacific would welcome the Quad leaders' commitments in concrete numbers as well as private sector participation. Perhaps the third summit will present concrete commitments built upon the work of the Infrastructure Coordination Group. Some of the projects could be adjusted and multilateralized for efficacy. Korea, with its economic weight, experienced companies for building infrastructure and increasing infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific, is likely to be invited to the Quad Infrastructure Group.



Despite the many initiatives agreed upon by the leaders, so far, little is known about the progress and outcome of each initiative. Korea, together with New Zealand and Vietnam, has been meeting with the Quad members to coordinate and cooperate regarding vaccine development and distribution. Should the Quad wish to be a pragmatic and relevant regional initiative, it needs first, to produce results, and second, to engage in better public communication in order to keep informing the region and the world of its work, as well as to improve the image it has of being a "purely military alliance."



Korea, an important regional and global smart power, should start thinking about joining the issue-specific activities of the Quad, as and when deemed necessary, and of building trust with its Indo-Pacific partners.





Dr. Song Kyung-jin (kj_song@hotmail.com) led the Institute for Global Economics (IGE), based in Seoul, and served as a special adviser to the chair of the Presidential Committee for the Seoul G20 Summit in the Office of the President. Now, she chairs an international cooperation committee called the Innovative Economy Forum.


From left, European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK) Chairperson Dirk Lukat, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez and ECCK President Christoph Heider, pose at the ECCK's headquarters in Seoul before a virtual press conference on the business lobby's release of the ECCK White Paper for 2021. Courtesy of ECCK



By Kim Bo-eun



The European business lobby called for mutual recognition of vaccination certificates by the governments of Korea and the European Union, in order to facilitate business travel.



The European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK)'s requests Wednesday were made marking the release of the chamber's annual white paper, containing recommendations from European companies for improving Korea's business environment. The latest white paper contains 114 key issues across 16 sectors, including the automotive, alcoholic beverages, chemical, healthcare and energy industries.



ECCK Chairperson and Schenker Korea CEO Dirk Lukat referred to erratic changes of regulations here without Korean government offices seeking the necessary input from the stakeholders affected.



"The assurance of a consistent and foreseeable business environment will likely open up new opportunities for multinational companies including the members of the ECCK," he said. "At the same time, companies are encouraged to increase their investments in Korea which will contribute to the country's economy as well as the creation of more jobs in Korea."



European Union Ambassador to the Republic of Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez called for a level playing field for foreign investors.



"The white paper is about easing business obstacles that we are encountering or removing them and finding solutions for European companies in Korea," she said. "Foreign investment companies account for 20 percent of Korea's exports and they contribute to jobs, wealth and the Korean economy. Therefore, we need to compete with Korean companies in Korea on equal footing."



ECCK President Christoph Heider said, "We wish to see that vaccination certificates issued overseas are accepted by the Korean administration, and vice versa, to allow all inbound travelers to benefit from what is offered to fully vaccinated people."



During the online event, automobile manufacturers called for significant changes in the conditions for electric vehicle subsidy provisions to be made with sufficient lead time, and for the administrative recognition process for eco-friendly vehicles to be simplified.



Beverage makers called on the government to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages on e-commerce platforms, citing that Korea is one of two countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that does not allow alcohol to be sold online.



Food product manufacturers took issue with heavier punishments for companies based abroad compared to local firms, even for the same violations, such as for problems with labelling on a product.



Established in 2012, the ECCK is an organization consisting of 370 European firms that do business in Korea.






POSCO's stainless steel plant Zhangjiagang, a city in China's eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, has been partly suspended from operation due to power shortage in China. Korea Times file



By Yi Whan-woo



The widening electricity crisis in China due mainly to a continued coal shortage is threatening the stability of global supply chains for both steel and semiconductors  and affecting the bottom line of certain Korean businesses.



A price surge in iron ore and other raw materials used for steel production is making the situation worse for POSCO, the country's top steelmaker.



It already has been forced to reduce operations for nearly two weeks at its stainless steel plant in Zhangjiagang, a city in China's eastern coastal Jiangsu Province.



Regarding semiconductors, industry sources say the power shortage could affect the production of automotive chips, which is already falling short of demand, that in turn may deal a blow to global carmakers.



"Steel mills consume a massive amount of electricity, and the shortage could push POSCO's plant there into a corner at any time, especially considering winter is approaching and energy demand will rise," Joo Won, deputy director of the Hyundai Research Institute, said Wednesday.



POSCO's suspended operations come as a result of the Jiangsu provincial government joining a nationwide campaign to reduce power supply for industrial purposes. The campaign has been widened due to the backfiring of China's "unofficial" import ban on Australian coal in response to a bilateral diplomatic row, leaving the country struggling to find alternatives.



Australian coal accounts for nearly one-third of China's coal imports.



"The steel mills in Jiangsu have been compelled to suspend operations since Sept. 17," a POSCO official confirmed, noting the power-saving measure is also affecting other industries including cement and glass that are sectors with a high demand for electricity. "We believe the electricity crisis will be over by next month."











Samsung Electronics runs its only overseas memory chip plant in the Chinese city of Xi'an. Korea Times file


Pro University Park Mall Mishawaka , Indiana , United States Apple Retail Summary Posted: Aug 30, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200283472 Do you want to help grow Apple's community? We seek perfection. We are idealists and problem-solvers. Forever tinkering with products and processes, always on the lookout for better. A job at Apple will be demanding. But it also rewards forward-thinking, original thinking, and tenacity. And none of us here would have it any other way. Are you highly skilled at presenting elegant solutions that simplify the complex? Are you an extremely knowledgeable salesperson? As a Pro, you understand how Apple can help customers discover their passions, and how our products differ from our competitors. You have an eye for opportunity and demonstrate your breadth of expertise in technology to craft unique value propositions and insights that differentiate Apple solutions in the market. You provide authoritative recommendations of Apple's products that build loyalty and improve the customer experience, and help drive skills and knowledge of technology across your team. Key Qualifications Extensive track record of top performing sales and customer experience results maintained over extended periods of time.

Mastery of Apple services and products as well as third-party solutions across different industries and fields, for personal, business, educational, and creative professional use.

Knowledge of business solutions and industry trends. Description You drive sales by designing complete solutions with Apple and complementary product-service offerings. You demonstrate and advise how customers can integrate technology into their homes and scale solutions across small to medium size businesses and educational institutions. You demonstrate a real passion for technology to become the go-to resource across the store for our Hardware, Software, and Services. You use knowledge about Apple technology, technical expertise, and creativity to meet customer needs and stay up to date on new information, product and service offerings, and company initiatives, by using internal tools and resources, on-the-job experiences, and peers. You partner closely with store leadership, Global Retail Support, and peers within your Region. You contribute to success across all store areas and flex appropriately to meet business needs. You will identify emerging technology and consumer trends and share how the team can use those insights to develop new sales opportunities and maintain technology industry knowledge and macro-movements within verticals to anticipate how technology can be utilized. You will lead and assist with briefings, provide recommendations for deployment and set up, and identify when to pull in additional support. The Pro mentors others in the Product Zone on specialized product knowledge and purchasing options, including financing and carrier contracts and shares practices on ownership and customer loyalty within the Product Zone and with the larger store team. You maintain expertise in all Apple products and services (in store and online), our ecosystem, and many third-party products to offer complete solutions while actively approaching and engaging with our customers to understand their needs and present customized solutions. You set up the customer's newest Apple products. The Pro brings Apple solutions to life through demos, personalization, and answers to customer questions. Build memorable experiences that showcase the benefits of Apple products. You will provide troubleshooting advice and introduce the advantages of shopping with Apple - often to multiple customers at the same time. You will support peers at the Genius Bar as needed to share knowledge and assist in providing ownership options all while providing world-class customer service to customers, and maintaining accuracy in all operational duties and transactions. Note: Apple benefits programs vary by country and are subject to eligibility requirements. Education & Experience Additional Requirements Able to effectively communicate and work with business owners and C-level executives.

Self-starter and able to achieve individual goals while also influencing the success of the overall team.

Able to collaborate cross-functionally within the store and among key partners.

Familiar with a CRM.

Superior teamwork, interpersonal, and customer service skills.

Drive for results, and make things happen.

Can tackle customer concerns using composure, listening, and presentation skills.

Strong time management and multitasking skills.

Curious to seek out information and share with the broader team.

Flexible about work, often performing multiple activities simultaneously.

Able to prioritize tasks effectively.

Provide and receive feedback from others.



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AI/ML - Search Data Engineer, AI/ML Data Seattle , Washington , United States Machine Learning and AI Summary

Posted: Aug 25, 2020 Role Number: 200188037 Siri's universal search engine powers search features across a variety of Apple products, including Siri Assistant, Spotlight, Safari, Messages, and News. The Siri Data organization seeks to improve Siri by using data as the voice of our customers. Within this organization the Search Data Engineering team builds systems that process data reliably at scale to generate scalable and high quality datasets that support confident, data-driven decision making for Siri Search. We're looking for exceptional data engineers who are passionate about our product and values; who love working with data at scale; and who are committed to that hard work necessary to continuously improve. As a part of this group, you will work with petabytes of data daily using diverse technologies like Spark, Flink, Kafka, Hadoop and others. You will be expected to effectively partner with upstream engineering teams and downstream consumers, including analysts and product engineers. In this role you will build datasets to support analytics, experimentation, and machine learning. Specifically, you will build out stream processing applications powering real-time metrics and you will help to drive our self-serve strategy for reporting on-behalf of data scientists and product engineers as we collectively make Siri better. Key Qualifications You have excellent written and verbal communication skills

You are curious and have excellent analytical and problem solving skills

You are excited about digging into massive petabyte-scale semi-structured datasets

1+ years of industry experience working with distributed data technologies (e.g. Hadoop, MapReduce, Spark, etc.)

Proficiency in at least one high-level programming language (Python, Go, Java, Scala, or equivalent)

Experience with large, complex, highly dimensional data sets; hands-on experience with SQL

You are pragmatic, not letting "the perfect" be the enemy of "the good"

You are self-directed and capable of operating amidst ambiguity

You are humble, continually growing in self-awareness and possessing a growth mindset

Extras we'd be excited about...

Experience building stream-processing applications using Apache Flink, Spark-Streaming, Apache Storm, Kafka Streams or others

Experience with data engineering in support of ML: Anomaly detection in time series data, engineering work to product-ionize models developed by data scientists, etc. Description Developing data pipelines and/or software libraries to process, transform, and analyze data to identify signals from the billions of events we collect every day Designing and building abstractions that hide the complexity of the underlying big data stack (HDFS, Hadoop, Hive, Impala, Spark, Kafka, Parquet, etc) and that allow partners to focus on their strengths: product, data modeling, data analysis, search, information retrieval, and machine learning Defining and implementing the "source of truth" for our most fundamental data-such as search activity and content-as well as our core metrics across a variety of products Optimizing end-to-end workflows of data users (crafting libraries, providing abstractions to define jobs, scheduling data pipelines, managing access datasets, etc) Building internal services and tools to help in-house partners implement, deploy and analyze datasets with a high level of autonomy and limited friction. Surfacing datasets in near-real-time to mission critical products and business applications throughout the company, providing the signal that feeds our machine learning algorithms as well as our daily product-defining decisions Automating and handling lifecycle of datasets (schema evolution, metadata store, backfill management, deprecation, migration) Improving the quality and reliability of our pipelines (monitoring, retry, failure detection) Education & Experience Surprise us! Many will have an MS or BS in CS, Engineering, Math, Statistics, or a related field or equivalent practical experience in data engineering.




We are currently interviewing skilled candidates for a Maintenance position at a Boutique Senior Apartment Community in Kenmore. Make a difference in someones life each day. The maintenance technician will work closely with the Property Manager and will assist in all aspects of maintenance for a 57-unit senior apartment community. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, maintaining the residential units, grounds, amenities, building exteriors, interiors, curbs, leasing office, trash enclosures, parking lot and other building and common areas.

Qualified candidates must possess a dynamic personality with the ability to interact and connect with different personalities. Must be customer service oriented, hardworking, passionate, enthusiastic about what you do, and you strive to be the best. You are honest, dependable, and trustworthy.



What do we offer you?

A rewarding workplace where you know that you are making a difference in the lives of the people that call this home.



A competitive salary with excellent benefits to include medical, dental, vision, vacation, & PTO.

Ability to live on site in a beautiful apartment home.



Duties & Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:



 Completing service requests

 scheduling and follow up of all vendors

 Preparing vacant apartments for new residents

 Perform routine and emergency maintenance

 Assist with planning and execution of all preventative maintenance programs such as mechanical, electrical, HVAC, elevator, and fire systems

 Understand and comply with Fair Housing Laws and standards

 Must have strong customer service skills Customer Service is our number one job.

 Strong time management and follow-up skills

 Attention to detail and a self-starter, Keeping inventory logs up to date

 Effective communicator and problem solver

 On Call and Overtime required as needed keeping inventory logs up to date



QUALIFICATIONS



The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

 Experience  experience in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, painting, appliance repair and drywall is preferred.

 Physical Demands - The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee is occasionally required to sit and climb or balance. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 75 pounds.

 Previous experience as a Maintenance Technician is preferred

 Must have a valid driver's license





COMPENSATION

 Competitive wage, based on experience

 Excellent benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance.



The applicant must pass a pre-employment/post offer background check. To apply, please include a resume or a detailed history of employment with your application. Interested? Please contact Scott at scottt@housing4seniors.com

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COME JOIN OUR DISTRIBUTION CENTER TEAM WAGES STARTING AT $17/HR DULUTH TRADING CO DULUTHTRADING.COM/CAREERS Now a household name, Duluth Trading burst on the scene just 30 years ago in Duluth, MN. Its a colorful story of crazy characters, innovation and hardworking men and women. Learn how we got here, where were headed and what it all means to you. INGENUITY Theres Gotta be a Better Way. That was the insight that started our company and still drives us to this day. From Duluthflex Fire Hose Pants to the No-Yank Tank, every Duluth product is purpose-built to cleverly solve workday problems. The smartest way to tackle a tough job? Load up on top-rated gear from Duluth. Hardworking Originals are our most ingenious fixes for the working guy. Each is incredibly durable and absurdly comfortable, and each has earned 5-star reviews from honest, hump-busting customers like you. While Duluth, Minnesota, is where we began, our community isnt where we are, its who we are. Check out the tradesmen and Duluth Women everywhere who tell their stories and improve our products. We couldnt do what we do without em! Were a team of tinkerers, taunters, fussers, and fine-tuners who enjoy working hard just as much as our customers enjoy our hardworking gear. Our Duluth Mens, Womens, and Alaskan Hardgear brands are all bonded by the belief that theres always a better way.

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Algorithms Software Engineer Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Sep 28, 2021 Role Number: 200293117 Apple's Human Interface Devices (HID) group is responsible for developing innovative ways to interact with Apple products. We work across product lines, delivering technologies like Multitouch Sensing, ApplePencil, AppleWatch Digital Crown, and other future Apple sensing and interaction technologies. The HID Algorithms team is an eclectic group with backgrounds in computer science, signal processing, machine learning, control theory, human factors, and more. We're looking for a skilled software engineer to help build the infrastructure and solution patterns for implementing our sensor data processing algorithms - the algorithms that underlie the interactive technologies our customers rely on everyday. In this role, you'll design and build scalable, high-quality shared libraries for the future of Apple's human interface devices! Key Qualifications Solid experience developing in object-oriented C++ and Python as part of a software development lifecycle, and employing common OO design patterns

Understands and advocates principles of scalable API design, documentation, and support for shared code libraries, API's, SDK's, and/or packages

Familiar with compilation flows and compile flags for building static and dynamic libraries with tools like Make, xcodebuild, or similar

Experience developing for real-time and/or resource-constrained environments (e.g., embedded systems)

Knows what it takes to efficiently implement math routines in low-level C/C++ such as signal / image processing algorithms or numerical solvers. You will be comfortable guiding colleagues to implement such routines while balancing speed, memory efficiency, and readability

Able to communicate clearly and collaborate with cross-functional teams

Excellent problem-solving and root cause analysis skills Description This is a key position at a focal point for HW/SW/UI integration. You will learn and work across multiple layers of the stack, from firmware to distributed data processing, and design innovative infrastructure for scalable, testable, production-quality algorithms. You will help our team build algorithm pipelines to translate sensor data into user intent, design new interactions, and validate their effectiveness for a large population. The ideal engineer is comfortable working in a dynamic and creative team charged with crafting the way we will interact with next-generation Apple products. You are self-motivated, an excellent problem solver, and a fast learner. You are quick to forge relationships and comfortable with change and ambiguity. You have strong technical leadership skills and enjoy collaborating with others toward the creation of commercial-grade software. You will bring software expertise to a highly interdisciplinary team, working with engineers of many talents to tackle challenging problems. Education & Experience BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field; 3+ years of experience in a related role. Additional Requirements In addition to C/C++ and Python, expertise in Objective-C or Swift

Experience building macOS, iOS, or watchOS frameworks and apps and customizing build settings in Xcode

Experience with multithreading and concurrent programming

Experience working with Continuous Integration (CI) tools and workflows

User interface design or graphics programming






The Mental Health Associate

This is a regular full-time position for a Qualified Mental Health Associate (QMHA) to work in Enhanced Residential & Outreach (ERO) licensed residential programs. QMHAs in ERO provide behavioral health services to older adults and adults with disabilities who experience serious mental illness and co-occurring medical conditions. This position works as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver individualized, person-centered services and supports to program residents at the facility and in the community. Duties include implementing service plans and behavioral support strategies, planning & facilitating group activities, offering individual skills training, providing overall structure and behavioral health support,

and documenting services in an electronic health record.

The Benefits

Health coverage - Group medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage is available for the entire family. For the 2021- 2022 plan year, the County will pay 98% of the monthly premium and employees will pay 2% ($35.78 per month) for the Base Plan. With this plan, employees are eligible for a $100 a month contribution into an HRA VEBA account. Buy-up plans are also available.

Retirement - PERS (Public Employee Retirement System) contribution is 100% employer funded, which includes both contribution to PERS pension and IAP accounts (IAP contribution is 6% of salary).

Short-Term Disability  100% County paid.

Life insurance - $10,000 for employee/$2,000 for spouse and children  100% County Paid.

Vacation/Sick Leave - Flexible Earned Time (FET) is a combination of vacation and sick leave. To start, employees earn 13 hours per month and future accruals increase based on years of service. After a year of service and depending on FET balance, employees may sell-back up to 40 hours of FET per year.

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Position Objective

The Phlebotomist aims to serve patients by executing the best method for obtaining biological specimens and ensuring quality specimen for testing. This position enhances the laboratory and hospital reputation by demonstrating a courteous and professional demeanor during all encounters.

Essential Functions:

Determines and executes the best method for obtaining biological specimens from patients of all ages as required to include venipuncture, capillary, and heel-stick puncture to ensure quality specimens for testing following the established productivity guidelines with minimal errors.

Maintains laboratory supplies inventory and orders appropriate tests in Laboratory Information System (LIS) as requested by authorized provider by accurately reading and interpreting orders and being familiar with test mnemonics.

Maintains safe and clean working environment by complying with procedures, rules, and regulations and that allows for easy staff interchange.

Conserves laboratory resources by using equipment and supplies as needed to accomplish job results; Performs preventative maintenance and troubleshoots problems to the full extent of ability.

Practices proper patient identification verification according to standard work; manages work queues to ensure appropriate and complete patient registration including demographic, insurance information. correct date of service, ordering caregiver and special flags.

Maintains inter- and intradepartmental work flow by fostering a spirit of cooperation (hand offs).

Actively participate in the laboratory quality plan/program (ex. investigative reports, notification of delays, etc.).

Participate in the training of new staff and students by serving as a mentor and technical resource;

Knowledge/Experience:

Minimum Education: High School Diploma or equivalent and specialized training in phlebotomy

Minimum Experience: N/A

Required License/Certifications:

Phlebotomy certification with the National Phlebotomy Association or American Society of Clinical Pathology or eligible; current American Heart Association Health Care Provider Basic Life Support (BLS) CPR certification; requires travel to various sites.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience: One year of experience working in an acute care facility in an equivalent role.

License /Certifications: Phlebotomy certification with the National Phlebotomy Association or American Society of Clinical Pathology

Working Conditions/Physical Requirements

Medium work . Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 30 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects.

There is reasonable expectation that employees in this position will be exposed to blood-borne pathogens.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or requirements.
: WangLimin (), : Chinese

 : Email to Bronx High School of Science For Help Rescuing Alexandria

: EVIL,PLEASE DO NOT DELETE

: BBS  (Wed Sep 29 13:27:58 2021, )



Email to Bronx High School of Science For Help Rescuing Alexandria

Limin Wang

September 29, 2021, Wednesday



September 29, 2021, Wednesday

Re: PLEASE HELP SAVE MY CHILD ALEXANDRIA WANG FROM EVIL



Ms. Golan,



I am the father of Alexandria Wang. Alexandria is a senior student in Bronx

High School of Science, I think in class D17. I do not know clearly yet how

this whole series things started from Bronx Science about so-called CHILD

CARE and REFERRAL TO AMERICAN CHILDREN SERVICE since September 21, 2021

, a very special day to the family and Chinese culture. Alexandria

later on that day said she would go from Bronx Science to and live at a

unknown-to-the-parents place. Now Alexandria has missed THREE DAYS of

school attendance because Alexandria Wang has been practically hijacked and

jailed by the AMERICAN SYSTEM in a namely hospital. I request Bronx High

School of Science for the right help onto my child, first of all, rescuing

my child out of South Oaks Hospital (400 Sunrise Hwy, Amityville, NY 11701.

Tel: (631) 264-4000). My child loves school and studying and strongly wants

to be FREED from "hospitals".



Alexandria was taken by police and EMS from our rental home at 136-09 59th

Ave, Flushing, NY 11355 outside of New York City boroughs to Long Island

Jewish Medical Center (270-05 76th Ave, New Hyde Park, NY 11040. Tel: (718)

470-7000) at 2 am-ish of September 25, 2021, Saturday. The two policemen on

this job talked to Alexandria and me separately, and SOMEHOW the police said

to me that Alexandria told them that she wants to commit suicide, and that'

s how Alexandria was taken away. I the parent has never heard or known that

my 17-yr-old child Alexandria Wang would even ever have the thought of

committing suicide, although I understand she suffers greatly from the

miserable family situation created by the AMERICAN SYSTEM.



Li Li, a psychopath generated by the AMERICAN SYSTEM, was kind of forced by

police to go together to LIJMC that night, but I the father was NOT ALLOWED

to go together. NOBODY FROM THIS FAMILY, INCLUDING ALEXANDRIA WANG herself,

HAS GIVEN THE CONSENT TO ANY DIAGNOSES, TESTS, TREATMENTS BY THE SO-CALLED

MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS TO MY 17-yr-old Alexandria Wang. I was only thinking

that probably the medical professionals can have verbal communications with

Alexandria while Li Li is actively present.



Although Alexandria Wang and Li Li both have demanded to leave LIJMC for

home, LIJMC would NOT let them go. I tried so many calls to LIJMC to reach

to Alexandria and Li Li, but LIJMC taunted me by transferring and waiting,

and I could NOT even once talked either to Alexandria or Li Li during their

"JAIL" time at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (or Hospital) between

September 25 to 28, 2021. Alexandria and Li Li have only Alexandria's cell

phone, but LIJMC would NOT allow they to use their cell phone within the

hospital, and would NOT provide any electrical outlet for my child to use

her phone charger to charge the phone battery. These medical professionals

are executing their "Yes, We Can" onto the oppressed people.



Without any consent from Alexandria Wang herself, or from Li Li the mother,

or even knowledge to and consent from me the father, the AMERICAN SYSTEM's

Long Island Jewish Medical Center forced my child to get onto an ambulance

and to be transferred to South Oaks Hospital, so far far away to a destitute

family which has a severely injured father due to humanscums' numerous

murder-attempts, a psychiatric mother who could not survive in adverse

working environment such as nail salons or spas and then deserted twice in

2014 and reportedly could NOT be found by powerful AMERICAN POLICE, and two

still-way-too-young-to-survive-independently-in-a-cannibalistic-system

daughters. The AMERICAN SYSTEM HAS NOT RENDERED JUSTICE TO PERPETRATORS AT

ALL, BUT HAS KEPT INFLICTING HARMS OR EVEN ATTEMPTED-MURDERS TO THIS FAMILY.

For example, on September 22, 2021, two blacks reportedly from NYC WELL

service called a swarm of police to my eviction-threatened-residence and

police threatened to break in by the name of checking welfare. The evil

ridicule is POLICE HAVE THEIR WAY TO BRING MY CHILD AWAY, BUT NOW THEY

REPETITIVELY CLAIM THAT THE POLICE COULD NOT BRING MY CHILD BACK HOME FROM

THE NAMELY HOSPITALS WHICH ACTUALLY ARE JAILS in this matter.



My child Alexandria Wang has been a very good child, caring about the family

, trying to help the family, but she is too young too naive yet, and she

gets herself into such a TREMENDOUSLY TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE NOT OVER YET FROM

THE SO-CALLED PSYCHIATRISTS WITHIN AMERICA. To just challenge those

psychiatrists whose REAL names and affiliations may never be publicly

disclosed, WHAT THE FUCK HEALTH CARE YOU EVER PROVIDE TO A 17-YEAR-OLD GIRL

WHEN SHE JUST ONCE SOMEHOW SAID TO POLICE TO COMMIT SUICIDE BUT LATER

STRONGLY AND PERSISTENTLY AND URGENTLY DEMANDED LEAVING HOSPITAL. THESE SO-

CALLED MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS ARE HUMANSCUMS, VICIOUS PROFESSIONAL HUMANSCUMS

, JUST AS THE ONES WHO HAVE "DIAGNOSED" AND "TREATED" ME WITH THEIR COVER-UP

, SHIFTING, DELETING, DENYING, SUDDENLY SPRAYING METAL POWDER FOR THE

UNPREPARED ME TO BREATHE IN BY MARTIN B. GILLMAN, VIOLENTLY TWISTING MY

RELAXED HEAD AND NECK AND CRUSHING MY BACK BY YAZAN RAJAI JABAJI WHILE I WAS

TOLD TO LIE PRONE, ELECTRICALLY SHOCKING MY HEAD, NECK, AND LEFT ARM,

GIVING ENDLESS LARGE DOSES OF PAINKILLER AND ABOUT A DOZEN OF 'MEDICATIONS'

WHICH SOME ARE DEADLY BUT "SIDE EFFECTS" HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN MENTIONED BY

PRESCRIBERS, ETC, ETC.



My child is too young too weak yet to well learn and well respond to the

real human world yet. Please, Bronx High School of Science, help bring my

child out of the de facto prisons for a BETTER life. The hospitals try

to force the parents to sign whatever their documents for them to RELEASE

the child. I ask, I did not sign anything, how the AMERICAN SYSTEM hijacks

and jails my 17-yr-old child INTO "hospitals"?



Thanks for your attention. The school has my valid phone number.



Limin Wang

Father of Alexandria Wang

--

WangLimin People's Voice

http://blog.mitbbs.com/WangLimin

http://www.mitbbs.com/pc/index/WangLimin

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 2603:7000:101:8]


National

Defence Ministry approves proposals worth Rs 13,165 crore

NEW DELHI, SEP 29 (IANS) | Publish Date: 9/29/2021 1:38:06 PM IST

The Defence Ministry approved proposals including for Advanced Light Helicopters, guided munition and rocket ammunition valued at Rs 13,165 crore on Wednesday. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for Capital Acquisitions proposals for modernization and operational needs of the Indian Armed Forces amounting to approximately Rs 13,165 cr.

Of the total amount approved, procurement worth Rs 11,486 crore (87 percent) is from domestic sources.

Key approvals include helicopters, guided munition and rocket ammunition. Looking into the need of the Indian Army for an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Squadron to improve its integral lift capability to ensure its operational preparedness, the DAC accorded approval of procurement of 25 LH Mark III helicopters from HAL under Buy Indian-IDDMA at an approximate cost of Rs 3,850 crore in keeping with the continued thrust towards Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self Reliant India) and Make in India.

Giving a boost to Indigenous Design and Development of ammunition, the DAC accorded approval for procurement of Terminally Guided Munition (TGM) and HEPF/RHE Rocket Ammunition under Buy (Indian-IDDM) category at an approximate cost of Rs 4,962 crore from domestic sources.

Other proposals worth Rs 4,353 crore were also accorded AoN by the DAC.

In addition, the DAC also approved a few amendments to the DAP 2020 as a part of Business Process Re-engineering to ensure further ease of doing business for the industry as well as measures to enhance procurement efficiency and reduce timelines.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-28 23:55:14|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at a central conference on talent-related work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held on Monday and Tuesday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to implement the strategy on developing a quality workforce in the new era and to accelerate the work to build China into a major world center of professional talent and innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when speaking at a central conference on talent-related work, which was held on Monday and Tuesday.

Xi underlined the CPC's leadership over talent management.

Xi called for efforts to speed up China's upgrade toward a major world center of talent and innovation, to support the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist China in all respects by 2050.

The conference was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Huning made concluding remarks.

The CPC has attached great importance to talent management during its century-long endeavor, Xi noted, adding that historical achievements and changes have been made in this regard since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

China now has a large number of well-trained professionals who play an increasingly prominent role in the country's development, Xi said.

Never in history has China been closer to the goal of national rejuvenation and never in history has it been in greater need of talented people, Xi stressed.

As the country's development and national rejuvenation depend on a quality workforce, China should pay greater attention to fostering people with talent through its own efforts and sharpening its competitive edge in human resources, he said.

Xi listed eight principles in this regard.

-- Upholding the CPC's overall leadership over human resources work;

-- Making human resources the priority in the country's development;

-- Focusing on world-level cutting-edge technologies, the main economic fields, the country's critical needs, and the people's health;

-- Promoting the comprehensive fostering of people with talent;

-- Deepening institutional reform related to talent development;

-- Assembling the best minds and drawing fully on their expertise;

-- Creating a favorable environment in which people with talent are easily identified, well valued and respected, and fully display their talent;

-- Promoting the spirit of scientists.

Specifying the objectives for talent-related work, Xi said that by the year 2025, China will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams.

By 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas, Xi said.

By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world, he added.

Calling for making strategic plans, Xi said efforts should be made to build high-caliber talent hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Stressing further reforming the system and mechanisms for talent development, Xi said scientists should be given more power to decide on technological routes, and more funding and resources should be placed at their disposal.

Xi also called for better cultivating strategic scientists and letting them play their roles, and nurturing a large number of top sci-tech leaders and innovation teams, young sci-tech talent and outstanding engineers.

"We must strive to foster a team of engineers who follow the Party, are patriotic, devote themselves to their careers, have outstanding ability to make technological innovation, and are good at solving complex problems," he said.

Universities and colleges -- especially those of "Double First-Class" (namely world-class universities and first-class disciplines) -- should play a leading role in fostering talent in basic research, Xi said.

He stressed the need to cultivate a talent pool in various areas, such as philosophers, social scientists and artists, and the need to enhance international exchange.

Xi also called for establishing a trust-based human resources system that tolerates failures and encourages leading sci-tech professionals to take on new tasks and responsibilities.

He stressed maintaining a correct political orientation in talent-related work, fostering patriotism and the sense of responsibility among talented people, optimizing the commendation and reward system, and fostering a culture of respecting talent.

Li Keqiang, who presided over the conference, said that Xi's important speech sets the fundamental course for talent-related work in the new era. He stressed continuing to break new ground for talent-related work.

Wang Huning, in his concluding remarks, called for a thorough study and implementation of Xi's new ideas, strategies and measures in talent-related work in the new era. Wang also stressed the need to study, publicize and implement the guidelines of the conference. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 03:10:16|Editor: huaxia

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Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (R, front) and visiting President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L, front) leave after a joint press conference in Tirana, Albania, Sept. 28, 2021. (Photo by Gent Onuzi/Xinhua)

TIRANA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said here on Tuesday that Albania's future is in the European Union (EU) and that the first intergovernmental conference between the two sides should be held before the end of this year.

At a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, von der Leyen praised Albania's "successful" progress in its EU integration process and commended the country for having "clearly delivered what the EU has asked for," adding that now "it's the EU's turn to deliver."

Von der Leyen emphasized that both Albania and North Macedonia deserve to be in the EU. She said that the EU "will continue to stand by Albania and the Western Balkans" in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and for economic recovery.

She said that the EU has already donated more than 450,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Albania and confirmed that further such donations are scheduled.

According to von der Leyen, the EU has mobilized 3.3 billion euros (3.8 billion U.S. dollars) to support the region. Albania has received 230 million euros in grants and financing to help it deal with the consequences of the pandemic.

Rama said it was important for the European Commission to understand that Albania had delivered.

During her visit, von der Leyen also met Albania's President Ilir Meta.

Later on Tuesday, Von der Leyen arrived in Skopje, capital of North Macedonia following her visit to Tirana, the first stop of his three-day West Balkans tour.

"We are working hard with both sides and with Bulgaria in order to overcome this last hurdle," she told a joint press conference with Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev.

"There are really good ideas that are worth going in-depth that we overcome this last obstacle to start the first intergovernmental conference. Our goal is to start it with North Macedonia and Albania before the end of the year," she said.

The intergovernmental conference on the EU integration with both Albania and North Macedonia scheduled before the end of last year was delayed due to the veto by Bulgaria over its dispute with North Macedonia on the latter's national identity issues.

On Oct. 6, von der Leyen is expected to attend the EU-Western Balkans summit in Slovenia. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollar) Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 07:29:22|Editor: huaxia

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Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sept. 28, 2021. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan. (Patrick Semansky/Pool via Xinhua)



WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan.

"It is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," he said, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

Milley and McKenzie said they believed the United States should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and a quick drawdown from the country could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military.

Such comments seemed to contradict President Joe Biden's words in an interview last month, in which he said no military officials advised him to keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline.

Meanwhile, Milley and Pentagon chief Austin stressed that the sudden collapse of the Afghan military was beyond their expectation.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise," said Austin.

Milley noted that most intelligence assessments indicated the collapse "would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring."

Top military commanders pointed to the agreement reached between the United States and Taliban in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions, had a demoralizing impact on the Afghan military.

The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30 under Biden's order, ending 20 years of occupation. The hasty and chaotic evacuations drew fierce criticism from both home and abroad.

Milley admitted in the hearing that the withdrawal damaged U.S. credibility. "Damage is one word that could be used."

He also raised terrorism threats that could potentially emerge from Afghanistan in the near future.

Reflecting on the Afghan war, Austin questioned if the United States had the right strategy in the past two decades, adding that Washington might never fully comprehend the situation on the ground, including the depth of corruption in Kabul.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed only 26 percent of Americans believed the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, and 69 percent of the public said the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 07:42:21|Editor: huaxia

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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley testifies before the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Budget Request from the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," said Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan.

"It is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," he said, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

Milley and McKenzie said they believed the United States should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and a quick drawdown from the country could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military.

Taliban members are seen on a military vehicle at Kabul airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

Such comments seemed to contradict President Joe Biden's words in an interview last month, in which he said no military officials advised him to keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline.

Meanwhile, Milley and Pentagon chief Austin stressed that the sudden collapse of the Afghan military was beyond their expectation.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise," said Austin.

Milley noted that most intelligence assessments indicated the collapse "would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring."

Top military commanders pointed to the agreement reached between the United States and Taliban in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions, had a demoralizing impact on the Afghan military.

The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30 under Biden's order, ending 20 years of occupation. The hasty and chaotic evacuations drew fierce criticism from both home and abroad.

A paratrooper conducts security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29, 2021. (U.S. Army Photo by Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett/Handout via Xinhua)

Milley admitted in the hearing that the withdrawal damaged U.S. credibility. "Damage is one word that could be used."

He also raised terrorism threats that could potentially emerge from Afghanistan in the near future.

Reflecting on the Afghan war, Austin questioned if the United States had the right strategy in the past two decades, adding that Washington might never fully comprehend the situation on the ground, including the depth of corruption in Kabul.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed only 26 percent of Americans believed the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, and 69 percent of the public said the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 18:21:24|Editor: huaxia

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Villagers attend a spring ploughing ceremony in Quxu County, Lhasa, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, March 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)

BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2016-2020), released by the Chinese government in September 2016, has been fully implemented, according to an evaluation report by third-party experts.

All of the 168 objectives and tasks in The Action Plan have been completed, with the nation achieving many ahead of schedule or going beyond the targets set, said the report evaluating the implementation of the Action Plan unveiled Wednesday.

"Generally speaking, from 2016 to 2020, China adhered to the people-centered development concept, earnestly implemented the constitutional principle of 'respecting and protecting human rights,' and took practical measures to actively promote the implementation of the objectives and tasks" of the Action Plan, read the report.

It noted an improvement in the protection of people's economic, social and cultural rights, civil and political rights, the rights of ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly and the disabled, the promotion of human rights information dissemination and education, and achievements in relevant international exchanges and cooperation.

In particular, the report hailed China's success in eliminating absolute poverty and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, which have led to significantly greater protection for human rights in China.

The evaluation was commissioned by the Joint Meeting Mechanism of the National Human Rights Action Plan and conducted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the Human Rights Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 18:38:05|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in the United States on Wednesday deplored the recent wanton repatriation of a Chinese student by the U.S. law enforcement at Houston airport and urged Washington to stop infringing upon Chinese students' legitimate rights at the excuse of national security.

"The U.S. action seriously infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of the student, and caused serious physical and mental damage to him and his family. The Chinese side deplores and firmly opposes this action, and has lodged solemn representation with the U.S. side," said a spokesperson of the Chinese embassy.

According to the spokesperson, recently, a Chinese student with a legal visa issued by the U.S. government was wantonly interrogated by the U.S. side at the border entrance at Houston airport. After being confined in a small room for more than 50 hours without proper food and rest, he was deported by the U.S. side through a third country on trumped-up grounds.

For a period of time, the United States has been obstructing educational, cultural and people-to-people exchanges with China. There have been a number of similar cases of arbitrary and harsh interrogation and even deportation of Chinese students by the U.S. law enforcement, which has seriously violated the students' human rights, said the spokesperson.

"What the U.S. side has been doing has gravely undermined normal people-to-people exchanges and educational cooperation between the two countries. It runs counter to the openness and freedom the U.S. loves to tout and the global trend of talent exchanges, and goes against the common aspiration of the two peoples for friendly exchanges," the spokesperson said.

"It is supported by none, and serves the good of none. The Chinese side has expressed firm and strong opposition to the U.S. side on every case immediately after it happened," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson stressed people-to-people exchanges are the social foundation of China-U.S. relations. Chinese students in the United States play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries.

"Educational and cultural cooperation serves the interests of both sides. We urge the U.S. side to honor its statement of welcoming Chinese students, immediately stop abusing the excuse of national security, stop repatriating, harassing and interrogating Chinese students, and stop infringing upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens," the spokesperson said.

"We urge the U.S. side to ensure that such incidents do not happen again, so as to create a good atmosphere for our people-to-people and educational exchanges. The Chinese side will continue to support Chinese students in safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with law, and also reminds the students to raise their awareness of safety and guard against similar incidents," the spokesperson added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 19:51:24|Editor: huaxia

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A woman visits the Light of Internet expo, part of the 2021 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Hongfa)

HANGZHOU, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- As digital technology is being fully integrated into the production and life of humankind, China is stepping up efforts to improve its digital governance to create better lives for all.

At an expo titled "the Light of Internet," various types of cutting-edge digital technologies and products empowering digital governance and promoting inclusive development were showcased to the audience. The expo was held as part of the 2021 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, which concluded on Tuesday in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Zhejiang, which has been designated as a demonstration zone for promoting common prosperity, is driving its governance modernization with digital reform.

For instance, Wusi Village in Huzhou City has benefited from the local government's efforts to build the first 5G base station in the village. Dynamic data about the production, life and ecological environment of the village was displayed on digital platforms, providing valuable information for the government to improve public services for rural residents.

"Thanks to the convenience and the opportunities brought by the digital transformation, more and more young people have chosen to come back to start businesses and live in the village," said Sun Guowen, Party secretary of Wusi Village.

Some other places have adopted digital medical care to effectively facilitate high-quality medical resource distribution, enabling residents, especially those in remote areas, to access high-quality medical services without leaving home.

At Wuzhen Internet Hospital, patients can make consultations online, get their e-prescriptions, and make medical insurance claims via their mobile phones. One of the earliest adaptors of this technology, the hospital's medical platform connects with 31 Internet hospitals across the country, and nearly 20 of them have been covered by medical insurance.

The stories of Wusi village and Wuzhen epitomize China's actions to enhance digital governance efficiency through digital innovation to benefit more people. To reduce the regional gap and advance inclusive development, the country has actively developed public services in digital forms such as online classrooms and "smart" libraries.

China's efforts in enhancing digital governance efficiency have been recognized by the world. According to the 2020 United Nations E-Government Survey, China's Online Service Index (OSI), as a core index to measure the development of national e-government services, has risen sharply to 9th place in the world.

Meanwhile, with the rapid development of digital technologies, cybersecurity has been facing new challenges. To better capture the "digital dividends," China has formulated laws and regulations to sustain the healthy development of the Internet industry.

The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, has adopted a new law on personal information protection. The law makes provisions prohibiting the excessive collection of personal information and big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 21:15:02|Editor: huaxia

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A Jordanian security member checks a car at a checkpoint of the Jaber Border Crossing on Sept. 29, 2021. Jordan reopend the Jaber Border Crossing with Syria for cargo and passengers' movement on Wednesday. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)



DAMASCUS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Nasib-Jaber border crossing between Syria and Jordan reopened on Wednesday after months of closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the security situation in the border regions amid efforts by both countries to re-establish normal relations and boost economic cooperation.

According to Syria's state-run SANA news agency, the reopening of the crossing aims to activate the trade and tourism movement through the vital and only official crossing between the two countries.

The crossing should have been reopened in August, while the security situation in the border city Daraa delayed it to September, SANA cited Mazen Ghandour, head of the Immigration Center in Nasib, as saying.

Daraa has witnessed an escalation of tension between the Syrian army and local armed men for more than three months. Recently, parts of the armed men were evacuated to rebel-held areas in northern Syria and parts accepted to reconcile with the government under a Russian-mediated deal.

The reopening comes at a time when the relations between Syria and Jordan are under the spotlight, with the two sides devoted to re-establishing ties, mainly the economic one.

In tandem with the reopening of the land crossing, Jordan and Syria also agreed that the Royal Jordanian Airlines would resume its flights between Amman and Damascus as of Oct. 3.

On Sept. 19, Syria's Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Ali Ayyoub visited Jordan and met with Jordanian army head Lieutenant General Yousef Hunaiti to discuss stability on the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The visit was the first of its kind since the Syrian war began more than 10 years ago, and marked a shift in the course of bilateral ties given the fact that during the Syrian crisis, Jordan emerged as a backer of the Western-backed rebel groups in southern Syria.

The visit of the Syrian official to Amman also came just days after Syria agreed on a U.S.-backed plan to allow Egyptian gas to pass from Jordan to Syria and Lebanon to ease the energy crisis in Lebanon.

In turn, Syria's Oil Minister Bassam Tohme announced on Sept. 11 that his country will be taking a certain amount of Egypt's gas as part of the agreement to facilitate the flow of gas from Egypt to Lebanon through Syria.

The gas will be pumped through the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), a 1,200 km-long trans-regional gas export pipeline built to carry natural gas from Egypt to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Also, a Jordanian-Syrian agreement was recently reached to reactivate an agreement signed in 1987 to maximize the utilization of the waters of the Yarmouk Basin in Syria's Daraa province near the Jordanian territories.

Moreover, the Syrian ministers of water resources, agriculture, electricity, and economy visited Jordan on Monday and held meetings with their Jordanian counterparts to discuss cooperative initiatives now as the Jaber-Nassib crossing has reopened.

The border crossing was closed in 2015 when the rebels took over the Nasib area. Before the crisis, the Nasib crossing was the busiest border crossing in Syria as it is situated on the Damascus-Amman international highway.

The crossing is considered one of the most important land crossings in the Middle East as it was the main crossing for Syrian exports to Jordan and the Gulf countries.

The crossing is also important for Jordan, which is suffering from economic problems as it facilitates the export of Jordanian goods to Turkey, Lebanon, and Europe, while imports from those countries, as well as Syria, enter Jordan through it. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-30 02:54:32|Editor: huaxia

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-- The ravaging pandemic has put policymakers worldwide under the same but unprecedented test: how to manage the intricate balance between safeguarding public health and mitigating the economic impacts.

-- Once the worst hit by the coronavirus but now one of the very first to have contained the epidemic and restarted the economy, China has had a clear and proven solution for the dilemma.

-- Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, the country has walked a fine line between virus control and economic reopening, saved lives at all costs, fostered opportunities from the crisis, opened its door wider despite strict COVID-19 containment, and coordinated near-term tasks and long-term goals.





BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- For over a year, the ravaging pandemic has put policymakers worldwide under the same but unprecedented test: how to manage the intricate balance between safeguarding public health and mitigating the economic impacts.

Once the worst hit by the coronavirus but now one of the very first to have contained the epidemic and restarted the economy, China has had a clear and proven solution for the dilemma.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, the country has walked a fine line between virus control and economic reopening, saved lives at all costs, fostered opportunities from the crisis, opened its door wider despite strict COVID-19 containment, and coordinated near-term tasks and long-term goals.

EFFICIENT CONTROL

It took China only six weeks this summer to contain a round of COVID-19 resurgence attributable to the Delta variant, which first emerged in the airport of Nanjing in eastern China and quickly spread to multiple other cities.

Such quick and effective responses have been an essential part of the Chinese way to tame the virus. Back in 2020, Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, closed outbound traffic for 76 days from Jan. 23, 2020 to stem the spread of the virus.

An elderly COVID-19 patient who is about to be discharged from a healthcare center salutes medical workers in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhao Jiaqing)

Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said making the decision required enormous political courage. "But time calls for resolute action. Otherwise, there would be trouble," he said.

Thanks to strict and effective control measures, the virus spread in China was contained in just over a month. In around two months, the daily increase in domestic coronavirus cases fell to single digits. And within approximately three months, a decisive victory was secured in the anti-COVID-19 battle in Wuhan and the whole of Hubei.

Since then, only sporadic outbreaks occurred in China, and they were all quickly brought under control thanks to accumulated experience and targeted measures.

Xi urged making the best strategic choices while weighing up the pros and cons. The remarks provide significant guidance in balancing virus control and resumption of economic activities.

China's targeted COVID-19 prevention and control measures have proved effective.

Domestically, authorities quickly clamped down on local flare-ups with measures like mass nucleic acid testing and targeted lockdowns, which always led to a quick and distinct downward trend in new infections while minimizing the impact on people's daily lives.

In September, high schools, primary schools, and kindergartens in most regions started the new semester on time, and cross-provincial travel also resumed in most areas.

China managed to maintain a fair number of international flights while strictly containing the spread of COVID-19 by introducing a reward and suspension mechanism. A flight suspension will be carried out if the number of passengers testing positive on the flight reaches a certain number.

The country currently sees more than 230 international passenger flights and around 3,700 international cargo flights every week, even though it suspended more than 300 inbound passenger flights since the reward and suspension mechanism was introduced in June last year.

The country has so far reported more than 120,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and around 5,600 deaths.

In comparison, the United States has recorded over 43 million COVID-19 cases, with about 690,000 deaths, according to the latest data.

Despite some criticism that China has invested too much in epidemic prevention and control, the country has achieved remarkable results at a relatively low cost.

China was the world's only major economy to post positive growth last year. Its GDP expanded 12.7 percent year on year in the first half (H1) of 2021, putting the average H1 growth for the past two years at 5.3 percent, said the National Bureau of Statistics.

Partly due to the need to cope with unusual circumstances, the country raised its deficit-to-GDP ratio in 2020.

Still, the overall deficit as a share of GDP in 2020 for China was lower than the average level for advanced economies, according to a report released by the International Monetary Fund in April this year.

China has gradually found a balance between preventing epidemics and promoting development, two seemingly conflicting goals.

PEOPLE FIRST, LIFE FIRST

On May 12, International Nurses Day, 88-year-old Qu Wanfang, accompanied by his family, expressed his gratitude in person to the medical staff of Taihe Hospital in Shiyan City, Hubei Province.

Qu was diagnosed with COVID-19 in February last year. Six "critically ill" notices were issued by the hospital to his family.

Thanks to the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, psychological counseling, and nutritional support, he survived after 47 days of treatment by a special team of nine medical workers.

"Whatever was available to save his life was used," said Luo Jie, the hospital's president.

"What is 'people first'? So many people worked together to save a single patient. This, in essence, embodies doing whatever it takes (to save lives)," said Xi during his deliberations with fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the 13th National People's Congress on May 22, 2020.

In Hubei, more than 3,600 elderly COVID-19 patients over 80 years old like Qu recovered, among whom the oldest was 108.

The per capita treatment cost of a COVID-19 patient in China is 23,000 yuan, and the treatment cost for a severe patient even exceeds 150,000 yuan. By the end of June, 2.837 billion yuan of medical expenses had been settled for hospitalized COVID-19 patients nationwide, of which 1.631 billion yuan was covered by medical insurance. More than 2.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered free of charge across the country so far.

Foreign nationals register for COVID-19 vaccination at a vaccination site in Beijing, capital of China, April 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)

"Regardless of cost, everything makes way for life. This is the embodiment of the people-oriented thinking of traditional Chinese culture and highlights the people-centered governance philosophy of the Communist Party of China," said Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

TURNING CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITY

"Crises and opportunities always exist side by side. Once overcome, a crisis is an opportunity," Xi said when speaking with local officials of Zhejiang Province, China's eastern economic powerhouse, in April 2020.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, a slew of technologies have been developed in China's battle against the coronavirus. These include a reagent testing kit capable of screening coronavirus in 30 minutes.

The public health crisis has triggered China's fast action to address "weak links" in medical science and technology.

Fixed-asset investment in China only increased by 2.7 percent year on year in 2020, but that in the health and social work sector soared by 26.8 percent.

In the first eight months of 2021, the value-added output of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry increased by 30 percent year on year, much higher than the average level of the overall manufacturing sector.

While striking a hard blow to traditional industries, the health crisis has stimulated an accelerated growth of the digital economy and emerging industries.

Seizing the opportunity, the Chinese government has encouraged new infrastructure construction. A total of 1.04 million 5G base stations have been built. Emerging industries such as intelligent manufacturing, unmanned logistics, online consumption, and medical and health care have shown strong growth momentum.

Aerial photo taken on April 15, 2020 shows people working at the construction site of a 5G base station in Chongqing, southwest China. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao)

"A crisis in the economy could sometimes be a good opportunity to boost economic transformation and upgrading. Seizing the rise of the new economy can create new vitality in the crisis," said Ji Weidong, dean of the China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

CHINA'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

As China, a major country with 1.4 billion people, holds a strong line of defense against COVID-19, it makes significant contributions to the global fight against the virus.

There is ample proof that by taking the lead in bringing the virus under control and resuming work and production, China plays its role as the largest supplier of global anti-pandemic materials and promotes worldwide anti-pandemic cooperation and economic recovery.

China has also made a solemn commitment to making COVID-19 vaccines a global public good and promoting vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

China has provided more than 1.25 billion vaccine doses to more than 100 countries and international organizations and medical supplies to more than 150 countries and 14 international organizations. It has supplied more than 320 billion masks, 3.9 billion protective suits, and 5.6 billion nucleic acid testing kits globally. In addition to donating 100 million U.S. dollars to COVAX, China will donate 100 million additional vaccine doses to other developing countries this year.

China has been making unremitting efforts to rally global consensus on COVID-19 responses and promoting the building of a community of common health for humanity.

The current pandemic may appear overwhelming, but humanity will surely overcome it and prevail, said Xi in his statement delivered via video at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 21.

To date, China has built or is building bottling bases for bulk vaccines in 15 countries, building local vaccine production centers, and providing technical support for countries that need vaccine cooperation.

China has twice invited WHO experts to China for origins tracing research on the principles of science, openness, and transparency. The experts went to all the places they wanted to go and met all the people they wanted to meet. The conclusions and recommendations of the China-WHO joint study report have been recognized by the international community and the scientific community.

"Only by rejecting the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games and adopting the concept of one big family and win-win cooperation can we jointly take the road of peaceful coexistence and mutual benefit," said Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the China Institute of International Studies.

Despite the difficulties of hosting exhibition activities due to the pandemic, China has set up a series of open cooperation platforms such as the China International Fair for Trade in Services and the China International Consumer Products Expo to share opportunities and jointly create a better global future.

China has not become "closed," but more open.

Photo taken on May 9, 2021 shows a fashion & life exhibition area during the first China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

Despite the disruptions of COVID-19, China has, so far, signed more than 200 cooperation documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 140 countries and 32 international organizations. In the first eight months of this year, more than 10,000 China-Europe freight trains went to over 170 cities in 23 European countries.

LONG-TERM STRATEGY UNDISRUPTED

In addition to the urgent task of combating COVID-19, China also sticks to its long-term strategy to achieve national rejuvenation.

On March 6, 2020, Xi stressed overcoming the impact of COVID-19 to clinch a complete victory in the fight against poverty at a symposium on securing a decisive victory in poverty alleviation.

Xi said that lifting all rural residents living below the current poverty line out of poverty by 2020 was a solemn promise made by the CPC Central Committee, and it must be fulfilled on time.

He called for continuous efforts on poverty alleviation, saying it is a tough battle and greater significance must be attached to it in the final push.

Several months after the symposium, China achieved the feat of removing all remaining counties from the country's poverty list.

On Nov. 23, 2020, the last nine impoverished counties, all in southwest China's Guizhou Province, eliminated absolute poverty. It means that all 832 registered poor counties in China have shaken off poverty.

On Feb. 25, 2021, Xi announced that China secured a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty while addressing a grand gathering in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to mark China's poverty alleviation accomplishments and honor model poverty fighters.

On July 1, 2021, Xi declared that China realized the first centenary goal of "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects" at a grand gathering to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.

Long-term development planning is always on the agenda of Chinese authorities even as the country confronts severe tests from the epidemic.

In March 2020, at a critical moment of leading the Chinese people to fight the epidemic, Xi personally led the formulation of the CPC Central Committee's proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

One year later, China's top legislative body approved the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, a roadmap of the country's new journey toward socialist modernization.

The fact that China has included its experiences and reflection of epidemic control into the plan shows the Party's strategic determination to coordinate the present task and the long-term goal, said Liu Qiao, dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.

Indeed, history has proven that China can ensure the success of development and security at the same time and is determined to achieve national rejuvenation.

The Xiong'an New Area construction is at full throttle, and the Hainan free trade port construction is in full swing. The Pudong New Area in Shanghai is on the way to becoming a pioneer area for socialist modernization.

China's eastern Zhejiang Province is exploring effective ways to promote common prosperity while new plans have been released to boost the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development.

"The image China presents to the world today is one of a thriving nation that is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation," said Xi when addressing the ceremony celebrating the CPC centenary. Enditem

(Video editors: Liu Xiaorui, Zhang Yuhong and Li Jingchen)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 09:26:56|Editor: huaxia

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BAMAKO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed and four others wounded in an attack on an army-escorted convoy in western Mali, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) said Tuesday on their official website.

At about 8:30 am local time (0830 GMT) Tuesday, the terrorist attack targeted the convoy of a mining company secured by FAMa members on National Road N.1 near Didieni town, the forces said, without indicating the identities of the victims.

On Sept. 11, two drivers of Moroccan origin were killed and another injured on their way to Mali's capital Bamako by armed men in the same area.

Since 2012, Mali has been facing deep and multifaceted crises in security, politics and economy. Local insurrections, jihadist incursions and inter-communal violence have caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 18:42:24|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Kenya expects to borrow 1.55 trillion shillings (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) from external sources in the financial year 2021/2022, the National Treasury said in its estimates of loans and grants Wednesday.

This is an increase from 12 billion dollars in the financial year 2020/2021, according to the Treasury.

The east African nation's external borrowing, however, is expected to decline to 9.5 billion dollars in the financial year 2022/2023 and 8.5 billion dollars in the financial year 2023/2024, said Treasury.

A further 110 million dollars in revenue is expected to come from grants from foreign governments and international agencies in the financial year 2021/2022, a decline from 180 million dollars in the previous fiscal year when COVID-19 broke out.

Most of the grants are used in financing of health programs as well as funding Kenyan forces fighting al-Shaabab militants in Somalia under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 18:49:30|Editor: huaxia

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JUBA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's main opposition party on Wednesday expressed concern over continued delays in concluding critical tasks under a 2018 revitalized peace deal.

It is almost two years since the formation of the revitalized transitional unity government, and yet the parties have not concluded graduation of the 83,000 unified forces, said Puok Both Baluang, director for public relations and communication of Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) under First Vice President Riek Machar.

"It is almost one year and six months but we do not see much change except the ceasefire that is holding in the country. Until now there is no progress for the graduation of (unified) forces," Baluang told Xinhua in Juba.

President Salva Kiir, during his independence address on July 9, promised the graduation of the first batch of 53,000 forces.

The delay in implementing the security arrangement was one of the grievances of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-in-Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), a breakaway faction led by Machar's former chief of staff, Simon Gatwech Dual.

The group has since declared hostilities toward Machar's supporters, leading to violent clashes in Upper Nile State that have left over 60 soldiers killed on both sides since August.

"All parties need to implement the security arrangement so that we move to implement the rest of the peace agreement to enable South Sudanese gain harmony and stability," said Baluang.

He said the SPLM-IO is committed to implementing the peace agreement, noting that all parties need to speed up implementation of the security arrangement in letter and spirit.

"We do not support any war in the country. People should not return back to war. We believe there is no need to shed blood and make people die," Baluang said.

According to peace monitors, several SPLA-IO soldiers and other opposition troops have been deserting cantonment sites over the past months due to lack of food, medicine, clean water and shelter.

The situation creates dilemma and challenge for the parties implementing the fragile peace deal, as they may be unable to graduate the number of unified forces as required. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 23:29:24|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's treasury is mulling adjusting tax bands for workers in a bid to boost their buying power following erosion of their incomes amid escalating prices.

Economists blame the escalating prices on the activities of the parallel market where the foreign exchange rate is hovering around 1 U.S. dollar to 180 Zimbabwe dollars, while the official exchange rate is 1 U.S. dollar to 87 Zimbabwe dollars.

Many traders and retailers are opting for the parallel market exchange rate and increasing prices quietly, leaving consumers worse off.

Local media reported Wednesday that the intervention was expected to bring relief to consumers who had fallen prey to unscrupulous activities of businesses, some of which were also benefiting from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's foreign currency auction where they get foreign currency at the official rate.

The auction has so far disbursed nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars to 4,000 businesses since it started in June 2020.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said that the government was working closely with the private sector to tackle the demand and supply dynamics to restore consumer purchasing power.

"First of all, what is driving the increase in prices has been the parallel market activity, which most of the retailers will then link their prices to. Yet we have got an auction system, which is well functioning and able to supply foreign currency quite a lot in the main. Companies have already accessed over 1 billion U.S. dollars for raw materials, equipment and so forth," Ncube was quoted as saying.

He said the government was taking steps to make sure that the gap between the parallel market and auction rate was contained.

"In the face of prices that have risen already, one of the things that we typically do at the budget time is to consider adjusting tax bands.

"So, we are already looking at that to see how best to further cushion our consumers and hard-working citizens using the tax system in terms of salary bands," he said.

Government workers, especially teachers, are constantly demanding wage increases, arguing that their current salaries are not enough to cushion them from poverty. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-30 00:14:22|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and visiting U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan agreed on Wednesday to intensify international efforts over upcoming elections in Libya, an Egyptian presidency statement said.

The meeting tackled the coordination between the two sides over the withdrawal of the foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, it added.

Sisi stressed that the only way for achieving stability in the region is to restore full sovereignty of the countries that suffer crises.

Concerning the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Sullivan said that the United States is working to preserve the water and development rights of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

Sisi said that Egypt is committed to the negotiation path, expecting the international community to adhere to an influential role to solve that critical issue.

Egypt wouldn't accept any harm to its water rights, added the president.

Meanwhile, the two sides also discussed the Palestinian cause and means of reviving the peace process.

Sullivan expressed the United States values the Egyptian efforts in containing the conditions in Gaza Strip and preventing escalations.

Sisi said that settling the Palestinian cause should be achieved based on the international laws, noting that restoring the legitimate rights of the Palestinians will have a big impact on changing the regional situation and open wide doors for peace, cooperation, and development. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 13:40:05|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine hopes to extend its cooperation program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is due to expire in December, the country's central bank chief Kyrylo Shevchenko said on Tuesday.

"We consult with the IMF and we expect a decision to extend it (the program) for six to nine months," Shevchenko, head of the National Bank of Ukraine, told local media.

The prolongation would allow it to complete all the technical procedures envisaged by the program, the official said.

Ukraine secured an 18-month stand-by program from the IMF with a total volume of 3.6 billion SDR (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) in June 2020.

Since then, the East European country has received only the first tranche from the program worth 2.1 billion dollars.

The disbursement of the funds was suspended due to Ukraine's failure to fulfill certain obligations prescribed in the program, according to media reports. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 20:53:43|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- After declining for more than two weeks, Germany's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate rose again and climbed to 61.0 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 60.3 the day before, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Wednesday.

Daily COVID-19 infections in Germany also picked up as 11,780 new cases were registered within one day, 1,326 more than a week ago, according to the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.

German virologist Christian Drosten believes the current calming of COVID-19 infection numbers in the country is only a temporary phenomenon as figures in eastern Germany are rising.

"I think there are indications now of the autumn and winter wave that we will probably see again in October," Drosten said Tuesday in his podcast on public broadcaster NDR.

Although Germany is far from achieving herd immunity, the country's vaccination campaign has slowed down. As of Wednesday, more than 53.4 million people in Germany have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the country's vaccination rate to 64.3 percent, according to the RKI.

"The numbers look bad," Drosten said, urging the unvaccinated people to get a jab. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 21:10:53|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Britain risked further souring relation with France over fishery disputes as the British government announced the outcome of the European Union (EU) fishing license applications, local media reported Wednesday.

Almost 1,700 vessels have already been granted licenses to fish in Britain's 12-200 nautical mile zone and a further 105 licences were issued for vessels to fish in the 6-12 nautical mile zone, said a statement by the British Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

However, Britain only issued 12 fishing licenses, out of 47 applications, for vessels under 12-meter length in its six to 12 nautical mile (nm) zone, according to the statement.

"The UK is clear on methodology with decisions based on evidence available and in line with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)," it said.

"As regards the 6-12 nm zone, as set out in the TCA, EU vessels must provide evidence of a track record of fishing activity in those waters," said a British government spokesperson.

"On the basis of the evidence available, we are able to grant licenses for 12 of the 47 applications made...We continue to work with the (European) Commission and the French authorities and will consider any further evidence provided to support the remaining license applications," added the spokesperson.

Responding to the statement, French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin told the Financial Times that "it's a new refusal by the British to implement the conditions of the Brexit agreement despite all the work we have done together."

"I have only one item on the agenda: to obtain definitive licenses for our fishermen as foreseen by the accord. French fishing should not be taken hostage by the British for political ends," Girardin was quoted as saying.

Also furious on the decision made by Britain, France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune threatened a "retaliatory action", while fishing leaders called the move "a declaration of war on the water and on the land", the Daily Telegraph reported.

"It threatens to plunge personal relations between (British Prime Minister) Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to new depths following tensions over the new Australia-UK-U.S. (AUKUS) defence pact," said the newspaper.

According to the British government, the TCA "brought in changes to fishing arrangements between the UK and the EU" and Britain is required to grant access to vessels which fished in the relevant parts of Britain's 6-12 nautical mile zone in four out of five years between 2012 and 2016.

In May, Britain dispatched navy vessels to the British Channel island of Jersey's waters in response to protests by French fishermen in one of the post-Brexit disputes between the two countries.

On Dec. 30, 2020, British lawmakers approved the post-Brexit trade deal signed between Britain and the EU. In April 2021, the European Parliament gave its seal of approval to the deal. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 16:36:51|Editor: huaxia

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by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Battles continue throughout the United States over mask mandates in public schools, and there is no end in sight amid this bitter debate.

Some parents pushed for mask mandates in schools, while others held that it should be up to parents and pediatricians to determine whether their children should mask up.

The fights have become highly political, in line with the heavy politicization of the responses to the COVID-19 that has killed over 690,000 Americans as of Tuesday, since the pandemic broke out in the country.

BITTER DEBATE

Many GOP (Republicans) leaders are trying to ban mask mandates in schools. The state of Florida has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks and months, over Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis slapping a ban on mask mandates, arguing that the decision should be up to parents rather than school administrators.

An appeals court has recently sided with the governor, reinstating his mask mandate ban in public schools, although a lawsuit on the hot-button issue is making its way through the court system.

The First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee threw out a decision by Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper that had allowed, on a temporary basis, schools to implement a mask mandate.

The U.S. state of Texas has also grabbed national headlines over the issue.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot is in the midst of a number of political fights with school districts and counties over their efforts to mandate masks in public schools.

Abbot, in an executive order in May, disallowed local governments from implementing mask mandates. But amid the surge of the Delta variant and the slowdown in the vaccination rate, school districts became jittery about the governor's order.

Officials in several local school districts defied the governor's orders and implemented mask mandates in public schools.

Many other areas in the United States were engaged in similar battles over whether children should be required to wear masks in schools.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has also jumped into the mix, with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights looking into whether the state is violating the rights of disabled students, who might be at a higher risk of getting sick with COVID-19.

Similar investigations have opened in the U.S. states of South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Iowa.

"Many conservatives don't trust the science and feel that vaccines and masks are some nefarious plot, even though the evidence shows those things offer great protection and keep people alive," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

CHILDREN, COVID-19 AND MASKS

As of Sept. 23, over 5.7 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The number of new children COVID-19 cases remains exceptionally high, said the report. Nearly 207,000 cases were added in the week from Sept. 16 to Sept. 23, the fifth consecutive week with over 200,000 children cases being added.

A report published earlier this month from Harvard Medical School found that "most children who become infected with the COVID-19 virus have no symptoms, or they have milder symptoms such as low-grade fever, fatigue, and cough."

"Early studies suggested that children do not contribute much to the spread of coronavirus. But more recent studies raise concerns that children could be capable of spreading the infection," the Harvard report found.

The report also noted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation that all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools wear masks while indoors, regardless of whether or not they are vaccinated.

In a New York Times article, Dr. Perry Klass, a contributor, quoted a number of children developmental doctors. They found that while many children use facial expressions to communicate, children are very adaptive, and can read other cues if someone's face is masked.

But at the same time, the long-term mental, emotional and developmental effects of small children wearing masks at school remains unknown.

Elane Sadler, an office manager in her 40s in the Washington D.C. area, told Xinhua she thinks children wearing masks at school should be a decision of parents and the children's doctors, rather than "government bureaucrats."

Linda Abbot, a resident of Washington D.C. in her 60s, said she believed children and teachers should be required to wear masks at school. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 17:45:15|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer Gao Shan

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- "We believe with Panda Ambassadors," Paul Baribault, the president and chief executive officer of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said in a special video released on Tuesday, in collaboration with the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles.

"While we miss Bai Yun, Xiao Liwu and all of the giant pandas we had the honor of caring for, they will always be cherished members of our family," said Baribault in the video.

"Our love and dedication to them, and to China's giant pandas conservation program, continue through their legacies, and through many of the cutting-edge efforts our teams developed together," he said.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization headquartered in San Diego, California, operates the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

According to the zoo, hundreds of millions of fans from around the world have fallen head-over-heels in love with China's giant pandas.

Bai Yun, which means white cloud in Chinese, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996. The cuddly panda soon became an iconic image of the zoo and one of the most popular animals.

In 2019, after nearly 23 years at the San Diego Zoo, Bai Yun and her sixth cub born, Xiao Liwu, means little gift in Chinese, returned to China after the zoo's research agreement with China ended.

The special video also reviewed the happy times that Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu had spent at the zoo, and displayed how they enjoy their new life in China's southwestern province of Sichuan.

"Our collaborative partnership brought hope to the future of pandas conservation, supporting China's global population of pandas, advancing critical research and science, celebrating breakthrough achievements, and inspiring the world to protect their future," said the zoo.

Baribault praised China's conservation efforts to save the giant pandas and protect their native habitats, saying it's "a tremendous success."

"We have been honored to work alongside you and are ready to welcome the next generation of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo," he said, adding that it's important to inspire the next generation to care for wildlife here and on the other side of the world.

"We believe with Panda Ambassadors, and we can help our millions of guests understand that we all share more similarities than differences," said Baribault.

Zhang Ping, Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles, shared his love of giant pandas in the video, saying they are "goodwill envoys for China-U.S. friendship and cooperation."

"In 2019, I had the pleasure to participate in the event organized by the San Diego Zoo to farewell Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu's return to China. I was impressed by the American people's affection for the giant pandas and their friendly feelings towards the Chinese people," said Zhang.

The consul general expressed his gratitude in a tweet on Tuesday to Baribault and the zoo for presenting the video on the occasion of China's National Day, and for their dedicated efforts in promoting China-U.S. cooperation on giant pandas conservation, adding that "China and the U.S. do need more cooperation for a better world."

"This is a success story on China-U.S. collaboration on wildlife conservation and their common efforts to protect planet earth. We hope to express, through this video, our wishes for continuous cooperation between China and the United States and for the lasting friendship between our two peoples," he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-30 05:53:22|Editor: huaxia

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OTTAWA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Federal Court has dismissed the Trudeau government's attempts to appeal a pair of rulings about providing services and compensation to indigenous First Nations children.

Justice Paul Favel said Wednesday that the Attorney General of Canada, who had filed the application for a judicial review and a stay of the order from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, had "not succeeded in establishing that the compensation decision is unreasonable."

In September 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled the government didn't properly fund child and family services, which resulted in it "wilfully and recklessly" discriminating against Indigenous children living on reserve.

It ordered the government to pay 40,000 Canadian dollars each to about 50,000 First Nations children as well as their relatives, but the Liberal government appealed the ruling.

The second legal battle stems from a separate ruling in November 2020 that expanded the scope of Jordan's Principle, which is a rule stating when there is jurisdictional disagreement over what level of government should provide a service to First Nations children, the government takes on the responsibility.

"No one can seriously doubt that First Nations people are amongst the most disadvantaged and marginalized members of Canadian society," Favel wrote in his decision released Wednesday. "The Tribunal was aware of this and reasonably attempted to remedy the discrimination while being attentive to the very different positions of the parties."

"In my view, the procedural history of this case has demonstrated that there is, and has been, goodwill resulting in significant movements toward remedying this unprecedented discrimination. However, the good work of the parties is unfinished," Favel wrote.

Canadian opposition parties and Indigenous leaders have criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to fight both of these rulings, saying that's not the appropriate course of action for a government committed to reconciliation.

"Today was an absolute victory for First Nation children. For six years Justin Trudeau spent millions fighting the rights of Indigenous children and trying to overturn a ruling that found his government guilty of 'wilful and reckless' discrimination against vulnerable Indigenous kids. The court has thrown his case out," New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus said in a statement Wednesday.

Angus called on the Trudeau government to immediately end its legal battle in the matter and focus on closing funding gaps and chronic denial of services to First Nations children before the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

"Given that tomorrow is the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is imperative that the federal government finally take clear steps towards truth, justice and reconciliation for all Indigenous people in Canada," he wrote. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-30 07:03:53|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- California officials and representatives of local organizations delivered warm congratulatory messages to an online celebration held by the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles on Wednesday for the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

China's National Day falls on Oct. 1 every year to commemorate the founding of the People's Republic of China.

U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu, the first Chinese American woman ever elected to U.S. Congress, joined the celebration. She represents the 27th Congressional District, which includes Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley of Southern California.

"Cooperation between the U.S. and China has had historic significance, like defeating fascism in WWII," Chu noted in her video message, saying that she is proud of the 20,000 Chinese Americans like her father, who went on to serve during the war.

Chu pointed out the cooperation between the two countries is vital for moving the globe forward and "there is so much more for us to accomplish together from combating climate change to defeating pandemics."

"So many immigrants from China have made incredible contributions to our country as well. We can see it every day here in Southern California, where the Chinese community is an essential part of our vibrancy from the food we eat, to how we conduct business," she added.

The congresswoman stressed that the growing impact of the Chinese community in California can be very helpful at erasing xenophobia and encouraging more work together and she is committed to fighting all prejudice and anti-Asian sentiments.

California's Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis said in a written message to the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles that the Golden State's ties to China are "deep, long-standing, and enduring" and "we are extremely proud of these close relations."

"The people of China and California have been inextricably intertwined since the earliest days of our statehood. In fact, today a significant percentage of Californians can trace their roots to China," Kounalakis said, adding these ties and cultural connections have helped to make China California's largest trading partner in Asia.

"It is my hope that continued friendly people-to-people relations will continue in the coming year," the lieutenant governor noted.

The western U.S. state, home to around 40 million residents, is the most populous state in the country. China is one of California's largest trading partners and California attracts the biggest amount of Chinese investment, tourists and students among all the states of the United States.

Kathryn Barger, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, also joined the celebration on behalf of the most populous U.S. county, home to approximately a quarter of California's total population.

"The Board takes this opportunity to express appreciation for the continued friendship between the people of China and the residents of Los Angeles County," said Barger in a written message.

"This friendship is increasingly important to the trade, business, and cultural relationships that benefit the people of our two countries," she added.

"China is our biggest trading partner. Half of all containers moving through the Port of Long Beach represent trade with China. We value our partners from China tremendously," said Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach.

Through August, the Port of Long Beach has handled 6.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and is back on track this year to surpass 9 million. That would shatter the previous year's record of 8.1 million TEUs.

Cordero pointed out that the tariff disputes between the United States and China have affected trade between the two nations. He said that cargo volume has improved in the past 18 months as shippers satisfied pent-up demand generated in the first several months of the pandemic and "as a port authority, we sincerely hope our two nations find ways to resolve their differences and resume trade normalcy." Enditem
Businessman Wicknell Chivayo and his company Intratrek Zimbabwe have been cleared of allegations of bribing former Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) ex-board chairman Stanley Kazhanje US$10 000 to influence the award of a solar tender.

Chivayo and his company were cleared by Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna at the close of the State case.

In acquitting Chivayo and his company, Mr Nduna said the State had failed to prove that Kazhanje participated in the decision to award the tender. Herald
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday dropped Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema in mini-Cabinet reshuffle that saw him promote Minister of State in Vice-President Constantino Chiwengas office, Evelyn Ndlovu, to the key portfolio.

Mathema, who has been reportedly unwell for weeks and accused of failing to adequately address the challenges plaguing the education sector, was demoted to the inglamorous Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the President and Cabinet.

The 74-year-old was recently reported to have been battling COVID-19 and was airlifted to Harare from United Bulawayo Hospitals.

In his place, Mnangagwa appointed Ndlovu, a proportional representation Member of Parliament, who is set to come face-to-face with the chaos in schools.

In terms of section 104(1) of the Zimbabwe Constitution, His Excellency the President Dr ED Mnangagwa has made the following ministerial appointments, the letter from Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda read in part.

Mathema is not in good books with the teachers unions, who described him as arrogant, especially after threatening to fire striking teachers.

He claimed the country had enough teachers to man classrooms even if more educators failed to turn up for the second phase of schools reopening.

Schools are currently battling the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic amid complaints by teachers that government has failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment to combat the spread of the disease.

Teachers have also declared incapacitation and are demanding a review of their salaries for them to return to full-scale teaching. Newsday
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, has showered praises on President Mnangagwas leadership, describing him as the best boss to ever work with and under.

Since coming into power three years ago, the New Dispensation led by President Mnangagwa has been credited for championing a comprehensive economic reform agenda under the mantra Zimbabwe is Open for Business.

Beginning with the short-term Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP:2018-2020) and now the National Development Strategy (NDS1:2021-2025, the country is reclaiming lost ground on the economic front, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projected at 7,8 percent this year  way above regional and global estimates.

As the head of the Treasury since his appointment in 2018, Prof Ncube, a former African Development Bank (AfDB) chief economist and vice president, says he enjoys working closely and under President Mnangagwa as part of a team tasked with transforming Zimbabwes economy.

The former Wits University and London School of Economics lecturer told The Chronicle that he was convinced President Mnangagwa has the right qualities to lead the country.

When I joined the Government (in 2018), I was invited by the President E.D. Mnangagwa. In my view, I will say this and for me, I speak from the heart, he is the best boss I have ever worked with and worked for, said Prof Ncube in a recent interview in Bulawayo.

I think that its the leadership, he has the right qualities to lead and to lead others and I also admire the way he interacts with those that he leads.

He (President Mnangagwa) allows you to be creative, to contribute, to debate, to push back and he will accept in a very polite style and those are very good qualities of a leader.

Its never a good idea to give an opinion on any boss but for me, I thoroughly enjoy working with him, he is actually the best boss, thats in terms of subordinate principal-boss relationship.

Riding on improved ease of doing business and enhanced fiscal and monetary support measures, the Second Republic is registering an increasing momentum in key productive sector output.

The engagement and re-engagement drive is also paying dividend in terms of economic diplomacy gains as more foreign investors are warming up to Zimbabwes opportunities.

With his vast knowledge on both public and private sectors, Prof Ncube said he was keen to apply his skills for the betterment of the country and urged all Zimbabweans, including those in the Diaspora, to support their country.

In my career I have always been to the private sector and public sector, and I love that. I am able to contribute equally and now I am in Government. I love being in Government, he said.

So, when I take on a job or something, I bring all myself and all my skills to it and I tend to enjoy what I do because I am committed to it and nowhere else. Chronicle


POLICE yesterday said they are still to receive reports on cases of violence that are said to have been witnessed across the country in the ongoing Zanu PF restructuring exercise.

This is despite confirmed cases of violence in Harare, Mashonaland Central and Midlands provinces and demonstrations in Manicaland province against provincial chairman Mike Madiro.

Police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said no report on the alleged violence has been made.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has not received any reports throughout the country in terms of violence and assault and that is the position, Nyathi told NewsDay yesterday.

In Harare, provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa confirmed to the media that he was assaulted by aspiring chairperson, Godwin Gomwe during a restructuring exercise in Epworth on Sunday.

Zanu PF does not tolerate any violence, Masimirembwa was quoted saying.

Even if you disagree on things, you have to dialogue, and not use violence. Law enforcement agents are dealing with that matter. I did not fight him. He assaulted me.

Masimirembwa said he had made a police report. Gomwe was not immediately available for comment.

In Gokwe-North, there were reports of skirmishes that saw the local district coordinating committee chairperson Justice Mayor Wadyajena intervening to rescue a party official who was under siege and taken to a local police station on accusations of manipulating the voting process.

Reports from Mashonaland Central yesterday indicated that police were called in to calm down flaring tampers after some party officials in Mt Darwin were allegedly caught trying to manipulate the electoral process. The elections were summarily aborted.

Party provincial deputy secretary for the commissariat, Shepherd Kararira, was allegedly caught stuffing ballot boxes with already marked ballots.


THE Chinese government is working on modalities to set up a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Bulawayo saying its medicine has proven to be effective in treating illness that cannot be handled by mainstream hospitals.

The China-Zimbabwe Traditional Medicine and Acupuncture Centre, which offers traditional Chinese medicine services was exhibiting at the just ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, just to popularise its medicines.

This comes a year after it started operating in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe-China Traditional Medicine and Acupuncture Centre was set up at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, last year in September.

Acupuncture refers to a technique in which medical practitioners stimulate specific points on the body, usually by inserting thin needles through the skin.

The companys executive dean Dr Sun Shuang said traditional Chinese medicine has proven to be popular hence processes are ongoing to set up a base in Bulawayo.

She said they were working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to set up the centre in Bulawayo.

We are here trying to market the traditional Chinese medicines because we have a centre that was built by the Zimbabwean and Chinese governments.

We offer full medical service related to traditional Chinese medicine. We are here to let people know more about traditional Chinese medicine because in the near future we want to have more clinics manned by local people. While we are operating in Harare, probably next year we would have established another centre in Bulawayo so that people here can experience the traditional Chinese medicines, said Dr Sun.

There are those illnesses that cannot be detected through the use of modern western medicines. So, while the result could come out negative through the tests, we focus on a patients symptoms as opposed to just focusing on the examination results. We also check your pulse; your tongue and we would give you therapists to treat you. Through the traditional Chinese medicine people might enjoy life more, she said.

Dr Sun said they are in the process of training local staff to use Chinese traditional medicine which has proved to be very effective.

She said Chinese traditional medicine has even been used in the treatment of Covid-19 related illnesses and has proven to be very effective.

Government has also partnered its Chinese counterpart in the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine doses. Chronicle
Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) are reportedly using public transport to ferry inmates from Mutimurefu prison to Masvingo Magistrates and High courts due to persistent breakdown of ZPCS security vehicles.

ZPCS Masvingo province has just one security truck that has been down with mechanical faults for over a month.

This has left authorities at Mutimurefu with no choice but to resort to public transport and use of some vehicles owned by ZPCS officers.

Contacted for comment, ZPCS Masvingo Public Relations Officer, Assistant Principal Correctional Officer Stanslous Sanike declined to comment and referred all questions to the national spokesperson.

I cannot comment on that for now, its best that you get in touch with the national spokesperson as he is the one who can give you a response pertaining to that, said Sanike.

Mutimurefu, which has a holding capacity of 800 inmates is reportedly overwhelmed and is failing to make it possible for inmates to be arraigned before the courts.

Sanike however said he could not reveal the number of inmates at Mutimurefu prison that he said was in violation of their constitution.

We are not allowed to disclose the number of inmates in jail, and that is according to our constitution. So I cannot give you the number of inmates at the facility, said Sanike.

ZPCS national spokesperson, Superintendent Meya Khanyenzi was recently quoted in the press saying they had few trucks that are grounded and that they are in dire need of more trucks.

We do not have enough vehicles to ferry inmates to and from court. Most of the vehicles are down and parked at our workshops countrywide. The current fleet is obsolete and we need more vehicles. For us to function properly, we require 45 more security trucks, said Supt Khanyenzi.

ZPCS has 46 facilities spread across the country but only 11 vehicles are servicing all, one vehicle per province while Harare has two servicing six prisons. TellZimNews
New York, US (PANA) - The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict on Tuesday urged authorities in Guinea to abide by their commitment towards impartial and independent justice, including in relation to a massacre of protesters in the capital, 12 years ago
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA)  An Islamic State (ISIS) linked armed group in northern Mozambique is kidnapping boys and using them to fight government forces in violation of the international prohibition on the use of child soldiers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday
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Tata Sons says will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India but it provides a very strong market opportunity for Tata Group.

Tatas cannot transfer Air India brand, logo for 5 yrs, can transfer to only Indian person after 5 yrs: DIPAM Secretary.

Tatas will have to retain all employees of Air India for 1 yr; can offer VRS in 2nd yr: Aviation Secretary.
Google fined $90,000 for breaching information access guarding

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:12 29/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 29 (RAPSI) - A magistrate judge on Wednesday fined Google LLC 6.5 million rubles ($90,000) for two cases of violating the order of the restriction of access to information, RAPSI was told in the Tagansky District Court of Moscow.

Two fines in the amount of 2.5 and 4 million rubles respectively were imposed on the company, according to the statement.

One more similar case against Google is set for November 8.




A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In this crucial meeting, Modi reviewed the progress report of many projects.

According to sources, in Tuesday's meeting, Union Commerce, Consumer and Food and Supplies Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat provided information about various projects and also came up with a presentation in the meeting regarding their implementation. The Prime Minister also gave several instructions regarding these projects.

In the last round of the meeting, an open house session was held in which many ministers also presented their suggestions to the Prime Minister on the issue of improving the functioning of the government.

Since coming to power, the Prime Minister keeps holding meetings of the Council of Ministers in this way at regular intervals apart from the cabinet meetings. Only cabinet ministers are involved in cabinet meetings and they are called only if any matter related to the ministry of a minister is included in the agenda of the meeting. But the meeting of the Council of Ministers consists of ministers of all three levels (cabinet ministers, ministers of state - independent charge and ministers of state).

The meet is termed as 'Chintan Shivir' in which the junior and new ministers learn the style of work from senior and seasoned ministers and they also get the guidance of the Prime Minister.

This was the fourth time since the reshuffle of the Union Cabinet on July 7 when the Prime Minister had called a meeting of the Council of Ministers. In the last meeting, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan gave a presentation.
After senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal launched attack on Congress leadership, party General Secretary Ajay Maken has hit back and said it was Sonia Gandhi who ensured Sibal made union minister.

Reacting to Kapil Sibal's press conference earlier in the day, Maken said, "the Congress leadership is listening to everybody in the party, and wanted to tell that they should not degrade the organisation which gave them back so much."

Earlier addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sibal said, "There is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don't know, one of my senior colleagues perhaps has written or is about to write to the interim president to immediately convene a CWC meeting so that a dialogue can be initiated."

He appealed to those leaders who quit Congress to come back to the fold and said, "its ironic to say that we are going to leave the party. Those who were considered close to the top leadership have left the party and those who were not considered close are still standing with the party. We are G-23 and not Ji-huzoor 23."

Taking cue from the Punjab crisis, Sibal said that the border state where this is happening is an advantage to the ISI and Pakistan as everybody knows the history of Punjab and the rise of extremism in the state. Congress should ensure that they remain united to safeguard the interests of the state, he added.

Sibal said that he is speaking on behalf of those Congress members who wrote the letter in August 2020 and are waiting for the action to be taken by the leadership in respect of the election of the office of the president, to CWC and central election committee.
Ramleela, Durga Puja and Dussehra celebrations have been allowed in Delhi this year, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided after a meeting here on Wednesday.

After the meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the DDMA has decided that festivals will be celebrated with restrictions on crowd gatherings, number of eateries, fairs and separate entry and exit points. Compliance with Covid-19 guidelines is mandatory.

The DDMA will soon issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document about the other restrictions, if any, said a DDMA official.

Last year, while Durga Puja committees were prohibited from erecting pandals, Ramleela committees were asked to go for live streaming. Restrictions were imposed on burning of effigies in Dussehra also.

Both Durga Puja and Dusshera festivities will take place in mid-October.

Meanwhile, the DDMA has also said that it will decide on reopening of schools for nursery to Class 8 post the festival season.

According to an official, the schools might be reopened in a phased manner.

The national capital on Wednesday reported 41 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total tally to 14,38,821, but there were no new fatalities, as per the Delhi Health Department bulletin.
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/29/2021 -- The post-harvest treatment market was projected to grow from USD 1.5 billion in 2019 to USD 2.3 billion by 2026, recording a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period. This is attributed to the increasing trade of perishable products such as fruits and vegetables, which widens the application of post-harvest treatment to increase their shelf life during storage and transportation.



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The fruit segment is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period.



The fruit segment, by crop type, is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value, during the forecast period. Fruits are highly perishable in nature and are required to be treated with post-harvest solutions to increase their shelf life for longer storage duration and easy transport of these products. Increasing application of natural flavors in the food and beverages industry is also encouraging the trade of fruits, which in turn, has led to a surge in demand for post-harvest treatment solutions in the major fruits and vegetable producing region such as Asia Pacific.



By type, the coatings segment is estimated to account for the largest share in 2019 in the post-harvest treatment market.



Coatings are one of the methods to increase the shelf life of products and decrease the quality and quantity losses. They are mostly applied to fruits & vegetables during the packaging process for maintaining their softness, color, odor, and flavor. The development of edible coatings has made it easier for fruits and vegetable processors to use the produce without any concerns about their harmful effects. Edible coatings help to prevent unnecessary softening and ripening of fruits & vegetables. Coatings form an integral part of the post-harvest treatment process, as fruits & vegetables are stored for longer periods, thereby making it important to maintain their shelf life and quality.



Asia Pacific is projected to account for the largest share in the post-harvest treatment market during the forecast period.



Asia Pacific dominated the post-harvest treatment market for the fruits and vegetables segments in 2018. Countries such as India and China are the key producers of fruits and vegetables, a majority of which are exported to North America and Europe. Since the Asia Pacific region is a developing region, post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are witnessed on a large scale in its countries. Hence, the need for efficient post-harvest treatment mechanisms remains high, which is subsequently projected to drive the growth of the market.



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Key players in the market include Decco (US), JBT (US), Pace International LLC (US), Xeda International (France), Agrofresh (US), Syngenta (Switzerland), FMC Corporation (US), Nufarm (Australia), Bayer (Germany), Citrosol (Spain), Fomesa Fruitech (Spain), Futureco Bioscience (Spain), Corteva Agriscience (US), BASF (Germany), Sensitech Inc (US), Post-Harvest Solutions (New Zealand), Janssen PMP (Belgium), Colin Campbell Pty Ltd (Australia), Valent Biosciences (USA), and RPM International (US). These players have a broad industry coverage and strong operational and financial strength.



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.



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/29/2021 -- According to a new market research report "Virtual Router Market by Component (Solution (Integrated and Standalone) and Service), Type (Predefined and Custom), End-User (Service Provider (Telecom, Data Center, and Cloud) and Enterprises), and Region - Global forecast to 2023" published by MarketsandMarkets, the market size expected to grow from USD 116.8 million in 2018 to USD 331.5 million by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.2% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the growth of the virtual router market are the decrease in CAPEX and OPEX, growth in demand for SDN and NFV, and the increasing need for mobility. Furthermore, growing demand for private cloud and virtual router applications across network segments are expected to provide significant growth opportunities in the market.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Virtual Router Market"

54- Tables

47- Figures

125- Pages



Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=222860236



The integrated solutions segment is expected to be the larger contributor in the virtual router market during the forecast period.



The integrated solution includes virtual router offerings integrated in a large SDN and NFV suite. Major network providers, such as Cisco and Juniper, offer virtual router capabilities within their NFV suite. Service providers and carriers can enable the virtual router capabilities within their network, which is offered by the players at various network segments, such as IP network, virtual mobile packet core, and cloud/NFV infrastructure. The integrated solution segment has a large market share in the global market, as the major players, such as Cisco, Juniper, Ericsson, and Nokia, are offering integrated virtual router solutions.



The managed services segment is expected to have the larger market size during the forecast period.



Managed services include outsourced services, such as infrastructure management and other support and maintenance services, to monitor activities from the customers' network to data centers. Virtual router vendors assist their customers efficiently to manage routing functionality, risk, and security within their networks. IBM and HPE are the key service providers in the virtual router market.



North America is expected to account for the largest market size during the forecast period.



North America is the major revenue generating region in the global market. The region has witnessed the maximum adoption of virtual router solutions, due to the increasing complexities in network infrastructure across all the service providers. In the North American region, enterprises in the US and Canada are expected to significantly adopt virtual router solutions. Therefore, the region is expected to account for the largest market size during the forecast period.



Speak to Research Expert @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=222860236



The major vendors in the global virtual router market are IBM (US), Cisco (US), Ericsson (Sweden), Huawei (China), Nokia (Finland), Juniper (US), netElastic (US), Brocade (US), HPE (US), Arista Networks (US), ZTE Corporation (China), Carbyne (Israel), Palo Alto Networks (US), Check Point Software (Israel), Ross Video (Canada), Inventum (India), Drivenets (Ha-Sharon), 128 Technology (US), TRENDnet (US), Linksys (US), TIME (Malaysia), ACCESS (Japan), Allied Telesis (Japan), Connectify (US), and 6WIND (France).



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.



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Auckland-based diagnostic biotech company Pictor has entered into a strategic collaboration with SCIENION, a BICO company, to commercialise a high throughput SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing system. The two companies will incorporate SCIENIONs CL2 sciREADER system into Pictors PictArray SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test to create the only platform capable of testing both anti-nucleocapsid and anti-spike antibodies in one reaction. This analysis will be key to support the sustained fight against COVID-19 by measuring a populations level of herd immunity through natural infections and vaccinations.

As COVID-19 remains a widespread concern, measuring antibody levels across populations will be critical for public health officials to stop new variant surges, said Holger Eickhoff Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of SCIENION GmbH. Were honoured to work with Pictor to help further develop this vital technology.

The combined system will provide a highly automated miniaturised multiplex immunoassay test in a 96 well plate format capable of providing quick analysis on patients level of antibodies. The system also leverages proprietary software, developed by Pictor, which produces a risk score for individuals to determine their likelihood of carrying a COVID-19 infection.

We are thrilled to have entered into this strategic collaboration with SCIENION, said Pictor CEO Thomas Schlumpberger. Leveraging the sciREADER colormetric high performance and accuracy enables Pictor to bring high throughput, high performance and low-cost multiplexed antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 to the market. We are eager to provide insights into the epidemiological spread of the virus to help inform control and prevention measures.

The PictArray SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test enters clinical trials in September 2021 with the goal of receiving FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) and brought to market in early 2022. The companies also plan to pursue a positive Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) opinion for use in the United Kingdom and European Union.

Companies interested in leveraging the PictArray SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test for antibody testing can learn more at www.pictordx.com

For further information, please contact:

BICO Press office

Riley Munks, PR Manager +1 (650) 863-6699

Alyssa DOrazio, PR Manager +1 (617) 634-9601

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Who do you think is the real winner in the German Chancellors Stakes?

Chancellor, until her chosen successor, perhaps, beating the term of former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who was a great friend of Sri Lanka.

by Victor Cherubim

The centre-left Social Democratic Party led by Olaf Scholz narrowly beat Chancellor Angela Merkels centre right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union bloc led by Armin Laschet in last Sundays 26 September 2021 polls. But the winner will be none other than VdL (Von der Leyen) the President of the European Commission, originally handpicked by four terms (16 years) German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel as everyone knows has been and perhaps, is a steady hand at politics not only in Germany but all over Europe and the world. She had the ear of Presidents all over the world, President Putin, because she hailed from the Old East Germany, President Xi Jinping, because she made many lucrative trade deals with China, President Biden, because she somehow persuaded him not to block the Gazprom pipeline, President Macron of France and when she met Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in London she thanked him for the continued import of Germanys automotive industry. She will still remain the German

Chancellor, until her chosen successor, perhaps, beating the term of former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who was a great friend of Sri Lanka.

The whole process of a chosen Chancellor could take weeks to months as Angela Merkel will remain as Caretaker at the helm of Germany until a power sharing deal is struck.

Whoever among the two candidates, Scholz or Laschet, who can command a majority of 379 out of the 756 seats in the Germanys Parliament, the Bundestag will then be the chosen Chancellor.

Whoever it turns out to be the winner will have already spent several months haggling for the job, bogged down in compromises and will most probably preside over a three party coalition, made up of people who may even dislike each other.

The new German role

Everyone knows that after 16 years of Germany playing a key role in West / East relations and on the world stage, the new German role will rather be more subdued, but there is still the possibility of a difficult role especially in the row between Washington, Paris over AUKUS submarine deal and the fact that there is going to be a French Presidential election in the offing next year. But, it gives Berlin the chance to help heal the rift with their common enemy, China. With all of this going on Germany may end up much weaker than the position of the European Union.

But who could be the next Chancellor of Germany?

Scholz (63) would most probably become the fourth Post-War SPD Chancellor after Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder- all Social Democrats.

Laschet (60) has signalled he is not ready to concede the race, though his supporters were rather subdued.

The Greens Leader, Annalena Baerbock or Christian Lidner of the Free Democrats do not command the necessary majority to form a government other than being coalition partners.

Sri Lanka needs Germany for many reasons?

We need the German tourists more than any other country, because they are less obnoxious, wanting more to cherish our heritage, our fauna and flora.

We need Germany to be our benefactor to foster our trade with the European Union, at a very crucial period in our GSP.

We need Germany for the technical know-how, which we desperately need today?
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Japanese radio amateurs ask for reports of Z-Sat Yasutaka Narusawa JR2XEA of the Komaki Amateur SATCOM Club reports the satellite Z-Sat is planned to launch on an Epsilon rocket on October 1, it will be sending CW on 145.875 MHz



On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Yasutaka JR2XEA writes:



Komaki Amateur SATCOM Club has an amateur radio station in Komaki City, Japan.



The 50 kg class infrared observation microsatellite "Z-Sat" developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will be launched by the Epsilon rocket on October 1st.



After satellite separation, Z-Sat will start transmitting CW beacon of VHF band.



The beacon signal is in Morse code and contains information such as satellite battery voltage.



This information is very important as survival information immediately after the satellite is put into orbit.



Therefore, if you can receive the beacon signal from the satellite immediately after the satellite launch,



We would appreciate it if you could report it.

jr2xea <at> nagoya.so-net.jp



Komaki Amateur SATCOM Club's Twitter is open at the following address. Information on Z-Sat transmission frequency, data format, orbit TLE, etc. will be released in the future.

https://twitter.com/KOMAKI_AMSATCOM



We look forward to your attention to Z-Sat.



Z-SAT on IARU frequency Coordination page

http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=580



AMSAT Bulletin Board

https://www.amsat.org/amsat-email-lists/
Millions of Hindu are convinced that the DMK government is misusing its power and authority to achieve its goal of decrying Hindu religion.

by N.S.Venkataraman

In Tamil Nadu state in India, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party came to power after the state election in April,2021.

The founders and the present leaders of DMK party during the last more than six decades of the existence of the party have never concealed their hate feelings for Hindu religion and have been decrying the Hindu Gods at every opportunity. Idols of Hindu God were broken, Hindus were described as thieves and Lord Rama, the most revered God of Hindu religion, was decried , asking in which engineering college Rama studied for constructing a bridge between India and Sri Lanka when Lord Rama fought against Ravana to liberate Sita from Ravanas captivity.

For a period of ten years before the present ruling DMK party came to power in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK party led by M G Ramachandran, Jayalalitha and others respected the sentiment of Hindus and they showed by their behaviour and talk that they respect Hindu religion and their ethos and traditions.

When the DMK party has come to power in the month of April,2021, the leadership of DMK party has been targeting Hindu religion with some sort of venom and targeting to belittle the religion.

In the last five months after coming to power, DMK government has been trying to uproot several traditional practices of Hindu religion and even preventing the temples to function with devotees entering the temple on some days citing Covid issue. The COVID 19 crisis appears to have been seized as an opportunity by the DMK government in conducting its campaign against Hindu religion.

Now, even though the intensity of COVID spread has markedly reduced in Tamil Nadu, liquor shops, cinema theatres and educational institutions etc. have been allowed to function, still there is restriction on Hindu temples permitting the devotees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week. This step has really caused distressed feelings amongst millions of Hindus living in Tamil Nadu.

The traditional methods of appointing archakas (priests ) in Hindu temples, have been uprooted by appointing those who do not belong to Brahmin community and who do not have training strictly under agama sastras

( Hindu temple procedures) as priests and replacing the Brahmin priests, who have been functioning with meagre income for several decades as per the tradition. The Brahmin priests in temples in the past continued to function so long as their health would permit. Now, the Brahmin priests who have completed 60 year age have been forced to go on retirement and have been reduced to the level of daily wage earners.

Ever since the DMK came to power, not a day has passed without the government claiming that it has recovered the land belonging to temples, which are said to have been occupied by encroachers. There is no way to ascertain the veracity of the claim made by the government, since some of the land that the government claims have been recovered could be owned by genuine owners for last several decades , who may not have proper land records.

Now, what would the government do with these land ? It is said that the land would be used to construct schools and colleges . Later on, it may even use the land to construct shopping complexes or cinema theatres or memorials for politicians and others.

Obviously, lot of corruption will inevitably happen when the government would use the temple land for non temple purposes with politicians entering the arena and making money. Politicians who belong to the ruling party will have a big advantage in making money in unethical ways as contractors or lease holders.

To add insult to injury, the DMK government has said that all the gold and jewels in possession of the temples would be melted and converted into bars and deposited in the banks to get income for the government.

These gold and jewels just like the land have been donated to the temples in the past by several thousands of devotees and the government has absolutely no right to take possession of the land and jewels belonging to temples. The government is not the owner of the temples but only responsible for general administration.

Millions of Hindu are convinced that the DMK government is misusing its power and authority to achieve its goal of decrying Hindu religion.

It is also noted by the distressed Hindus that the DMK government does not interfere in the religious affairs of the Christians and Muslims and do not lay its hands and the properties and other holdings that are with churches and mosques.

Hindus in Tamil Nadu, most of whom are sincere devotees and want to lead peaceful life, do not know how to react to the present situation when Hindu religion is being targeted by the state government.

As of now, the Hindus living in Tamil Nadu are experiencing very severe mental agony with feelings of distress.
Club La Costa World, whose headquarters are in Mijas on Spain's Costa del Sol, has announced that it has been placed into liquidation.

The bankruptcy administrator, Juan Carlos Robles, has told SUR that the liquidation affects seven companies in Spain and one in the United Kingdom.

The administrator stressed that this liquidation does not affect the real estate property titles - the 'timeshare' business.

Faced with the "avalanche" of calls, Robles has clarified that these will remain "intact". He said however that a large part of the services will not be in full operation during the coming months.

Club La Costa World has around 700 workers who could lose their job, both at the Mijas headquarters and in Tenerife. Many of them have been laid off since last year through the Erte furloughing scheme.

Therefore, the administrator said that the first objective of this process is to try "at least" to save half of these jobs.

To do this, he proposes creating a series of "productive units" that can be sold off.

Robles clarified that he is trying to maintain a minimum activity in some areas - such as maintenance - because this would facilitate the sale of these units with "greater ease".

Brexit and Covid

Club La Costa has issued a brief statement saying that with regret it has had to make "some difficult decisions".

It added that the situation of its resorts, current partners and customers will remain "as usual" - within what Covid restrictions allow - and it is currently working to save as many jobs as possible in Tenerife and on the Costa del Sol.

According to the bankruptcy administrator, both the Covid virus and Brexit have affected the business equally.

"You can't last a year with no activity," said Robles.

Town hall hopes as many jobs as possible will be saved

News of the liquidation has shaken Mijas as a large part of the employees of CLC World are local people.

The town hall sent out a message this week in which it maintains its hope that CLC World will get back on track.

"It has always been a benchmark in tourism, not just in the province [of Malaga] but in southern Europe," said municipal sources.

They added that CLC was known for its "great involvement in the town", and that it hoped that as many jobs as possible could be preserved "given the circumstances".
A 33-year-old man died on Tuesday afternoon (28 September) after his car slammed into one of the Las Pedrizas toll booths on the AP-46 motorway in Malaga.

Sources have told SUR that the incident happened at around 5.15pm when the red vehicle entered the toll payment area at kilometre 6 of the AP-46, heading towards Antequera, at a high speed.

Despite the fact the toll booths are protected by large concrete blocks, an employee working inside was injured by the impact.

Emergency services arrived on the scene to find that there were two people trapped, one inside the cabin and the other in the vehicle.

Specialists from the Malaga fire brigade had to release the two people. While the man lost his life, the 20-year-old woman, from Casabermeja, was transferred to the Regional Hospital in Malaga city.

Guardia Civil traffic officers are investigating the circumstances of the incident.
Nine sections of the road network in Malaga province are included among the one hundred in the whole of Spain that are considered the most dangerous for motorcyclists, both due to the high accident rate recorded in the last five years and the number of bends on the route.

The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) roads authority has identified the sections and installed special surveillance systems on them, but now it is also warning motorists with new signage which, in addition to warning of the measures, also shows the number of motorcyclists involved in serious accidents in the last five years.

One of them is on the MA-3119, the road that connects Moclinejo with Benagalbon. The deputy delegate of the Government in Malaga, Javier Salas, and the provincial head of the DGT, Aida Vilaret, travelled there on Wednesday (28 September) to publicise the initiative.

We have nine high-risk sections of roads for motorcyclists in the province, a number that is only exceeded by Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. With these signs we intend to raise the awareness about the danger of these roads, said Salas.

Mountain roads

The sections selected by the DGT are mostly located on mountain roads, with the exception of the one located between kilometre points 300.1 and 302.4 of the N-340 in Nerja, where there have been six victims in the last five years.

The section with the highest accident rate, with 15 bikers involved in accidents, is located in Igualeja between kilometre points 19.8 and 22.4 of the A-397, a road that is especially dangerous with another section listed as it passes through Benahavis (30.6- 32.6).

Human error

The list also includes two sections of the A-366 in the municipalities of Alozaina and Yunquera, as well as the A-405 as it passes through Gaucin, the MA-5105 in Frigiliana and the A-7045 in Antequera.

According to Vilaret, "human error is the main cause" of accidents, although not the only one.

So far this year there have been seven fatal accidents involving two-wheelers on the Malaga province roads. During the first nine months of 2021 there have been 142 injury accidents on the provincial roads.
By Mira Diamond-Berman

diamondb@grinnell.edu

While the first few weeks of the school year are always the hottest, the heatwaves at the beginning of the semester became severe enough that the College took measures to help students cope with the heat. These quick fixes are only the Colleges immediate plans to combat the heat as the Colleges larger plan is to renovate all the dorms by 2030 to include air conditioning.

Zoe Mahler `23, who lives on the third floor of Read Hall, had a difficult time dealing with the extreme heat at the beginning of the semester in which a heat advisory for Poweshiek County warned that the heat index could be as high as 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Mahlers concern was not only for their own well-being but also for their emotional support dog, Kim. Mahlers four-year-old rescue dog overheats easily, and knowing that brutal heat awaited him, he would refuse to walk up the stairs to the dorm room.

There was not a point he wasnt panting, said Mahler. He couldnt sleep very well, just kind of unhappy, and he did not, he would not, want to go up the stairs when we walked back in. He would refuse to walk back up the stairs  so I had to carry him up a lot.

For Mahler and their dog, the dorm room was about 4 to 5 degrees hotter than outside, and fans werent enough. They constantly had to worry about where and when they could take their dog out of the room to let him cool off.

Its making being here very difficult, they said. A lot harder than it should be and making me more concerned about my dog when he is supposed to be helping me.

Student disability resources eventually did reach out to students with emotional support animals in unconditioned dorms and provided them with crates so that their animals could stay in the air-conditioned lounges throughout the day.

We wanted to make sure that those folks have a place to go and so we have opened up the lounges to say you can crate your animals, emotional support animals, and take them to the lounge for five to 10 minutes a day, said Dennis Perkins, department head of residence life.

This provided a quick solution for the distressed animals but didnt reach the core issue  the simple lack of air conditioning in most of the dorm rooms.

I would love if they actually put central air conditioning, Mahler said. Thats the solution and also just its literally too hot for anyone, including myself, it was awful. Its not just about my dog. It was like I cant sleep at night because Im sweating so much. I think the other thing is its never going to get better. Its never going to get cooler [in terms of global warming] and only going to get worse.

East Campus dorms are the only fully air-conditioned campus housing. Out of 19 residence halls, only five have central air conditioning. Nameera Muhammad Dawood `23, the former SGA administrative coordinator, said she noticed that some students in those unairconditioned residence halls were having trouble with the extreme heat. She sent out a survey to gauge how students were dealing with the heat and who needed a fan.

The biggest thing I was alarmed by is people reporting that they cant sleep in their rooms, said Muhammad Dawood.

In an attempt to combat the heat, SGA and Residence Life combined forces to provide fans for students that needed one and couldnt afford it. However, the budget ended up $500 short of accommodating everyone that requested one.

Residence life also announced that students were allowed to sleep in the air-conditioned HSSC and JRC as a short-term solution. Cots were made available for students to sleep on inside the buildings, but some students were removed after being told they could not sleep there.

Weve been working with Campus Safety to make sure, and I know there was some glitches here and there. I think some students were asked to leave from the HSSC one morning, said Perkins.

The problem was also brought up about how students would maintain social distancing while sleeping in the HSSC or JRC.

Are people supposed to sleep in their masks? Muhammad Dawood questioned. What is the social distancing? Are there any rules about how this is supposed to work?

There has yet to be a permanent fix for the extreme heat in the dorm rooms, and as the temperatures lower, the issue will subside until they rise again. The college is looking into future plans for all dorms to be renovated by 2030.

Norris and Loose will be the first to [be renovated] starting next summer, said Perkins. So, Norris will be offline from May of `22 until January of `23. So, they do it pretty quickly and then Loose is going to go next, and then there is Main.

The renovation plans, however, do not include air conditioning for all the dorms since air conditioning is used minimally during the year due to the Iowa climate.

We are probably not going to do air in all of them because again, its the Midwest. You know you have a couple [of] weeks where it is super-hot and then it will cool off, but the accommodations will be much better, according to Perkins.

While students wait for the dorms to be fully renovated, the college is planning a quick dorm improvement for South Campus in which screens will be added to the windows. This will allow for students to open their windows and cool down the room without having to worry about creatures flying in.

South Campus  [has] no screens in the windows so they [students] dont want to open them because things like bats fly in. So were actually going to get those outfitted with screens right now. That way they can have the window open, have that cool breeze come through when its cool at night, said Perkins.
MBABANE  The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been accused of undermining the value of life in Eswatini.

According to Qhawekazi Khumalo from the communications department of the United Eswatini Diaspora in a press statement sent yesterday, she alleged that a festival of human rights violation in Eswatini, brutality, intimidation and threats by state police on innocent civilians continued while SADC undermined the value of life in the country. She said the maintenance of peace and stability in the African region were principles enshrined in the SADC Declaration and Treaty at the same time, human rights remained subject to the state-centric international structure.

promote

She said SADC was supposed to promote peace and security, stability and development, democratic institutions and governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights and equity and solidarity in the region. She noted that the abuse by SADC of its diplomatic relations and engagement were clear in Organ Troikas non- action for crisis interventions in Eswatini according to Khumalo. She said SADC had the authority and capacity under its Troika Protocol to prevent, manage and resolve conflict by peaceful means including preventive diplomacy, negotiations, conciliation and mediation. SADC has taken regressive steps to weaken and undermine key right protection mechanisms for Eswatini and its people. SADC is obligated to act as individuals human rights are not protected by the legal system in Eswatini; there is an authoritarian rule, government unaccountability and the exploitation of state resources for the preservation of power for the absolute monarchys untransformed autocracy, she alleged.

marred

Eswatini has been marred by political unrest which culminated in the looting, vandalism and burning of some business establishments due to calls for political reforms. Khumalo highlighted that SADC had not been explicit in addressing human rights violations publicly, nor has it attempted to use its authority, influence and resources to bring positive change for human rights in Eswatini. She added that regardless of the ideological context within which deliberations on human rights took place in Eswatini and in spite of the categorisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms; humans including the people of Eswatini were entitled to the entire scope of these rights not because they were members of any society but because they were members of the community of humankind and human rights, justice and fairness had a part in the conduct of relations between SADC and Eswatini. SADC should note that the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention do not constitute a barrier to concerns for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

intervention

The principle of non-intervention in internal affairs enjoys equal status with the principle of respect for human rights, including civil and political rights, freedom of expression and freedom of association, she added. In a recent interview with Percy Simelane, the Director of Communications in the Kings Office, he said they did not see SADC, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) embracing change achieved through twisting the arms of the system. Some of the impediments the United Eswatini Diaspora wanted removed included;

The immediate ceasing of police brutality and hostilities towards citizens.

The total unbanning of political parties.

An all-inclusive political dialogue.

A transitional authority.

A multiparty democracy dispensation.

A new democratic constitution.
MBABANE  Some head teachers feel that pupils are not ready to write exams.

The Prime Minister, Cleopas Dlaminis statement last Thursday, said pupils had left classes and roamed the streets subconsciously, pushing agendas of other people. He said valuable time had been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that examination dates were shifted to mitigate the lost time and the children were missing out on an opportunity they would never recover. He then announced that the dates for the examinations would not be shifted. In an interview with Qomintaba High School Head teacher Christopher Mbingo, he said after being away from school as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pupils were only just adjusting to getting back to learning but the current situation regarding protests had made the situation worse.

Wasted

I do not think the pupils are ready to write exams, too much time has been wasted and they will not be able to pass in my view, he said. He said the fact that some of them were involved in the protests added to their setback and he did not see any good results as a result of engaging in the protests. One of the other major concerns he raised was that attendance was extremely low, highlighting that even the completing pupils were hardly at school. It is very painful that other schools in for instance in urban areas are able to continue with their studies while on the outskirts, on the other hand, are at a standstill, said the head teacher. According to Mbingo, even if the pupils would decide to give their full attention to their studies starting from today, it would still be too late. At the moment, we have not yet met with parents to discuss a way forward, maybe they use organisations to raise their concerns, but at the moment we have not had an official discussion with parents, he added.

Syllabus

Head teacher of Madulini High School Themba Gumedze also concurred, but said they would try to cover the syllabus, however, their biggest problem was the disturbances that were currently occurring on a regular basis. If there were no disturbances, our committed teachers would try ensuring that the pupils are able to write exams. We are still trying our level best to get the pupils ready but we are unfortunately fighting against disturbances, said Gumedze. He said the protests were affecting the pupils to a point where their attention span was visibly limited. We do not have 100 per cent attendance, the rate of absenteeism is very high. Unfortunately there is also not much interaction that we are getting with the parents regarding this issue, said Gumedze.

Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, the Head teacher of Hosea High School, said it was hard to say that the pupils were ready for exams as it required them to be at school and learning, which was not the case these days. I do not have any guarantee that the pupils will be ready but if things were to go back to normal, teachers would try their best to prepare them, added Dlamini.

Parent

He said as a teacher and a parent, he would only advise the pupils to come back to school and learn to secure a better future for themselves. Sandleni High School Head teacher Celiwe Magongo said if there would be no interruptions between now and the exam date, she anticipated that they would be able to cover the syllabus. She said the challenge was that the shift system had made things different as some pupils did not even attend on one of the two days set for them to attend due to the protests. With the way things are going, I do not think that they can be ready. Even when they are in class, you still notice that they are very distracted and want to be outside, said Magongo. She said that in her view, if the protests would stop and pupils fully concentrated on learning starting from today, then maybe they would be ready for the exams, but unfortunately with the current events that were happening, it did not look promising.

This publication also interviewed some of the pupils who had mixed feelings about their preparedness for examinations. The pupils were interviewed after having sought consent from their parents. We are able to study and the teachers send us notes using our Whatsapp group, so I think we will be ready, said a pupil at Sandleni High School. Another pupil said; I do not think we are ready for examinations because even the attendance at school is very low, so I doubt we will be ready on the set date. Speaking to Colile Dlamini, who is one of the parents of three pupils from one of the schools in the Shiselweni Region, she said nothing beat being serious about education and said the pupils needed to focus.

Last Thursday, this publication reported that 10 schools protested in one day, mainly in the Shiselweni and Lubombo regions. The main demand by the pupils was the call for the release of incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs), Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza of Hosea and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi. The Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, pleaded with the pupils to refrain from protest actions and concentrate on their lessons.
MATSAPHA  A witness, who previously told the coroner that he is an expert in bolts and nuts, submitted that he did not recall the college where he leant about it.

Thoba Neto, who gave evidence to the Coroner, Senior Magistrate Nonhlanhla Dlamini about the hole in the rear bumper of the car which was driven by the late Thabani Nkomonye on the day he disappeared (May 8, 2021), made his second appearance yesterday and was to be cross-examined by Prosecutor Fikile Dlamini. The prosecutor asked the witness if he recalled that during his previous appearance before the coroner, he was asked to bring his academic qualifications (certificates) and he responded to the positive.

Engineering

The witness had told the coroner at the time that he possessed an Engineering Certificate, which he obtained from Atlas Scan Air, Johannesburg in South Africa and he worked at Scan Air Charter in Matsapha Airport Flying Club, where he inspected and serviced aircraft. He also alleged that he worked as a mechanic, designed metal objects, manufactured bolts and did panel beating. In his appearance yesterday, the prosecutor asked him if he had brought his academic qualifications (certificate) and he responded to the negative. The prosecutor asked him to explained why he failed to bring it and he claimed that he looked for it, but could not find it. He alleged that at home, they told him that as a person who used to travel a lot, he used to take the certificate with him and might have misplaced it.

The only certificate I managed to get is my Junior Certificate (JC) one, the witness submitted. The prosecutor asked him if he tried to get confirmation of his certificate from the institution where he acquired it. However, Lawyer Mangaliso Nkomondze, who led the witness when delivering his evidence, intervened by submitting to the coroner that the line of questioning of the prosecutor was not taking them anywhere. He asked that they should proceed and stop wasting time. In response, the prosecutor said they were not wasting time because Netos evidence was on record and they needed to verify his qualifications. The witness submitted that he did not use his certificate because he was self-employed and that when he called his relatives in South Africa, they said they did not find it too. He maintained that he acquired his certificate from Atlas Scan Air in South Africa. The prosecutor asked him how long was the course which he allegedly did at Atlas Scan Air and in response; he submitted that he did not remember the duration of the course.

Again, the prosecutor asked him what the course entailed and he alleged that it was about engineering, technical drawing and metal work. The prosecutor reminded him that in his evidence, he told the coroner that he also did designing and assembling aircraft among other things. The witness submitted that he did his theory at Atlas Scan Air and his practicals at Scan Air Charter in Matsapha Airport. He clarified that he only got a certificate at Atlas Scan Air, not at Scan Air Charter in Matsapha Airport.

Qualifications

Once more, the prosecutor wanted to know if she would be correct that the witness told the coroner that he was an expert in bolts and nuts and he responded to the positive. She then asked him what qualifications he had that made him an expert. He said he did welding, design and making threads. Where did you get those qualifications? the prosecutor asked. In response, Neto alleged that when he was in South Africa, he learnt a lot about bolts and nuts and making threads in different places.

So, you cannot recall the college where you learnt about bolts and nuts together with creating threads? the prosecutor asked and the witness responded to the positive. Thereafter, she asked if it would be safe to say he did not have academic qualifications for the job he was doing and that he was not an expert in bolts and nuts. Kuyafana nekutsi ngite vele (It is the same as not having one), the witness said. Again, Lawyer Nkomondze submitted that he felt that the question was unfair to the witness, especially that part where it was put to him that he was not an expert. The prosecutor said she asked the witness where he obtained his qualifications and he told the coroner that he did not remember.

Remember

He said he is an expert, yet he does not remember where he obtained his qualifications, the prosecutor said. In response, the lawyer submitted that some of the witnesses like Dr Komma Reddy did not produce their academic certificates and it was on record that he lacked some qualifications. He added that in vocational training, expertise was not only based on certificates, but practicals. In that regard, the lawyer said Netos expertise should also be based on the work he had done. It is for that reason that I object to the line of questioning. The witness is a friend to the inquest and he should be treated with professionalism, the lawyer submitted. However, the prosecutor said it was not logical for someone not to recall where he obtained his academic qualifications. She said even if it was from a vocational centre, tests were being written and a certificate would be issued thereafter. The coroner asked that they should start focusing on the evidence he had submitted.
SITEKI  Pupils from seven high schools, once again abandoned classes yesterday and engaged in protests due to various reasons.

Four of the schools are in the Lubombo Region and classes were suspended. The affected schools are Mphelandzaba High, Big Bend High, Nkhanini High and Maloyi High. The pupils are calling for the release of incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) in Hoseas Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Ngwempisis Mthandeni Dube. They further want their schools administrations to punish teachers who they accused of engaging in sexual relationships with pupils and further improve COVID-19 regulations compliance. At Big Bend High, the pupils burnt an old water tank during the protest, resulting in the Head teacher, Shedrack Dludlu, suspending classes. The head teacher said he had called a parents meeting tomorrow.

Demands

Dludlu said the pupils in their demands wanted to be allowed to do various hair styles and that girls be allowed to wear school pants. He said they also demanded a change in their menu. Classes will resume once we have resolved in our meeting with parents. I have reported the matter to the REO, he said. Meanwhile, at Mphelandzaba High, the Head teacher, Patrick Vilakati, said the pupils were demanding the return of two pupils who absconded classes and were told to bring parents by the schools administration. Vilakati said the pupils also demanded the schools administration to punish teachers allegedly involved in sexual relationships with pupils. He said they suspended classes until further notice.

His counterpart at Nkhanini High, Khumbulani Ndwandwe, said the pupils started protesting at 9am and left the school around 10am to mobilise their colleagues at Big Bend High. Police were called and tear gas canisters were fired to disperse them. This is the second time the pupils are rioting in a space of a week. Ndwandwe said parents asked that the Ministry of Education and Training intervene in the matter. Parents asked that classes be suspended until the issues being voiced out by the pupils are addressed, he said. The head teacher said he once called the pupils to a meeting where he appealed to them to concentrate on their lessons and let their parents deal with political issues.

Meanwhile, REO, Richard Dlamini said he would dispatch his inspectors to meet the pupils and parents to get to the bottom of their concerns. Dlamini said the ministry, through his office, tried to calm the situation in schools but it turned out that there were behind the scenes elements that aggravated the protests. Our main concern is that the pupils are losing out in their lessons yet exams are close. We have to again engage them and parents to find a lasting solution, he said.
MBABANE - Upon arrival at Mega Lounge, I found my girlfriend in the company of a certain gentleman.

These were some of the submissions made by businessman Sibusiso Mahoota Nkambule in his bail application. Nkambule, who now wants out of jail, stands accused of having killed Bandzile Ginindza by shooting him with a pistol twice in the left arm and stomach. The incident happened over the weekend at Mega Lounge hangout spot, which is situated at Sidwashini in Mbabane. In his bail application, Nkambule narrated to the court that on September 25, 2021, in the late afternoon and in the company of his friends, he went to Sidwashini at a drinking spot known as Mega Lounge.

Upon arrival I found my girlfriend in the company of a certain gentleman and she had not informed me that she would be at Sidwashini. I requested to talk to her on the side and we excused ourselves from the crowd, submitted the accused. He claimed that an argument ensued between the two of them as his girlfriend was very drunk and was failing to see reason when he suggested that they should leave. He alleged that another friend of his girlfriend intervened in their argument and assaulted him. The accused submitted that, seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, the security personnel intervened and assaulted him and a group of men who had been sitting with his girlfriend joined in and he was severely assaulted. The businessman told the court that he managed to run away and took refuge in his car, which was parked at the car park. However, the group started throwing bottles at my car and threatening to break the windows. My firearm was in the car and I took it and kept it in my hands at the situation was getting volatile, contended the accused.

Blocking

He narrated to the court that he did not feel safe in the car and when he got an opportunity, he went out of the motor vehicle and ran away. Nkambule said he could not drive away from the scene because there were other cars blocking the road. I received a call from a friend that the situation had calmed down and I decided to return and get my car. I had left the key in the ignition. To my surprise, I found that the car had been removed from where I left it and parked outside, however, there were no keys, he argued. The accused alleged that he confronted the gentleman, whom he was advised had driven the car out of the premises and requested for the keys. Nkambule claimed that the gentleman told him that his (Nkambules) girlfriend took the keys from him and left with same. I got angry as to how he could take my keys and give them to someone else as I had the urgency to leave the scene. While we were still arguing, the deceased came behind me and using his arm, he held my neck. I was carrying my firearm, alleged the accused. According to the accused, they tussled until they both fell down.

Nkambule said: While rolling on the ground the firearm went off. The deceased did not let go of me but attempted to take the firearm from me and that is when it went off again. He also pointed out that the deceased was not known to him nor had they had an earlier altercation to warrant that he could intentionally kill him. Nkambule said this was an accident that happened very fast and all of them were drunk. The bail application will be heard by Judge John Magagula today and the Crown is still to indicate whether it is opposing same or not. The accused is represented by Noncedo Ndlangamandla.
MBABANE  I have been treated unfairly.

A livid Qing Ming He made the allegation while being escorted by Correctional officers after being sentenced to life imprisonment. As the officers led him out of the court building, Qing repeatedly told the officers that he wanted to speak to this publications journalists to express his displeasure in the manner he claimed he had been treated. Qing wondered why it took so long - four years - to convict and sentence him when the court could have done so early. He alleged that he was being made a sacrificial lamb. How could I have killed Oliveira when I was already arrested? The people who killed Oliveira are still out there. I am being made a scapegoat, Qing said. According to the convict, he was allegedly being discriminated against because he is a Chinese national. He alleged that he was not treated fairly throughout the trial. Qing, through his attorney, Noncedo Ndlangamandla, indicated that he would file an appeal against the sentence.

Involved

During mitigation, Ndlangamandla, on behalf of Qing, said the court found that Qing was involved in the commission of the offences by providing the car which was used as a major tool for committing the offences and that his cellphone was used to convey ransom messages to Oiveiras wife, Audilia. She told the court that it was trite that Qings involvement in the commission of the offences was unknown. That, according to Ndlangamandla, should weigh in favour of Qing. The evidence before court, said Ndlangamandla, pointed to the fact that all Qing did was to provide a motor vehicle to be used in the commission of the offence. This, according to Ndlangamandla, should have reduced his moral blameworthiness.

Mitigation

In mitigation, Qing told the court that he was 44 years old in 2017 when the offences were committed. He said he received basic primary education and dropped out at high school. He cited a case in which the court found that an accused person was semi-illiterate since he attained primary education and that his lack of education should be weighed into the balance. Qing also pleaded for leniency and submitted that he was a first-time offender. He said he was married with two minor children who, prior to his arrest, were dependent on his support and maintenance. He further submitted that he had a sickly mother in his home country and she depended on him for support and maintenance as prior to his arrest. Qing was a businessman operating a number of supermarkets before his arrest.
MBABANE  Qing Ming He may have been handed a life sentence for the murder of businessman Almor Oliveira, but his wife said she cared less about his sentence.

Instead, she wants to know the location of her husbands remains. The elderly Audilia De Oliveira Simoes said she was more interested in knowing where the body of her husband was. Qing was charged with the murder of Oliveira, who went missing on April 16, 2017, despite that the whereabouts of the former are still unknown. Oliveira was 77 years old when he went missing at his business premises in Matsapha. Qing (48) was also charged with kidnapping and attempting to extort Audilia a sum of E5 million for the return of her husband. He faced other charges such as possession of firearms and live rounds of ammunition, among others. In total, he faced 12 charges.

Convicted

On May 27, 2021, Judge John Magagula convicted him of the charge of murder, kidnapping, attempted extortion and possession of firearms and rounds of ammunition. Yesterday, the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder of the businessman. He was further sentenced to five years behind bars without an option of a fine for kidnapping and three years for attempted extortion. In an interview with Audilia shortly before Qing was sentenced, she said the important thing to her was to know where the body of her husband was. Audilia, who seemed resigned to the fact that her husband was killed, was asked if it would matter to her if Qing was given a lengthy sentence and she said: It is better if I know where the body is.

According to Audilia, it was ok that Qing would be sentenced because he was a criminal and added that his sentence would not bring back her husband. She said as far as she was concerned, the body of Oliveira was still in the country. She said it was not true, as per Qings evidence during the trial, that her husband was supposedly taken to Mozambique by three men he claimed to have kidnapped him. Qing told the court that Zhang Xio Jian, Chen Qin and Chen Guo Qin were the ones who committed the offences.

Audilia said Qing was not being truthful when he told the court that Oliveira had been presumably taken to Mozambique. Qing told the court that he did not know whether Oliveira was still alive or not. He (Oliveira) is in Swaziland (Eswatini). He (Qing) knows it and he knows where the body is, said Oliveiras wife. Audilia also alleged that Qing was not alone when he committed the offence. She alleged that another businessman was involved in the commission of the offences. She said she knew the businessman because he and Qing were their tenants. She also said it was not true that the people who committed the offences were not in the country.

According to Audilia, the businessman she was referring to was in Eswatini still running his business. She said the businessman moved out of the premises he was renting from Oliveira after the latter had gone missing. When asked if she notified the police about the businessman she was referring to, she said she informed the prosecutor in her husbands case and he tried his best but (shrugs her shoulders). The police are aware. Audilia was one of the witnesses during the trial. She told the court that she wished to see her husband again. Qing was represented by Ndlangamandla, who had instructed South African Advocate Barry Roux. Advocate Leppan, who was instructed by Principal Crown Counsel Thabo Dlamini, submitted to the court that Qing deserved the death sentence.

Advocate Leppan said if the death sentence was not given, Qing should be sentenced to life imprisonment. Judge Magagula said he concurred with the advocates submission to remove Qing from society permanently. When the court convicted Qing, Judge Magagula said it was fair in his view to conclude that Oliveira was killed. The judge said the ransom messages that were sent to Audilia stated clearly that if the ransom of E5 million was not paid, she would never see him again. The judge said that meant that he would be killed if the money was not paid.

Evidence

Judge Magagula also said the evidence of Ncamsile Gina, who was an accountant for the businessman, established that since the day of his disappearance, no transactions had been made on his bank accounts. Oliveira was on regular medication for diabetes and hypertension and Gina said no medical bills had been received since his disappearance. From the circumstances, it is also reasonable to conclude that Mr Oliveira has died, the judge added. Judge Magagula stated that the remaining question was whether Qing was involved in the kidnapping and killing of the businessman. He said there were a number of factors connecting Qing with the offences. Advocate Leppan, who was instructed by the Crown and was assisted by Principal Crown Counsel Dlamini, submitted that a summary of all the evidence of the Crown witnesses and Qing himself put it beyond any reasonable doubt that he was involved in the commission of the offences. Leppan told the court that Qings motor vehicle, a silver grey BMW sedan, was used in the commission of the offences and his cellphone was used in conveying the ransom messages to Oliveiras wife.
WafiApps, a leading ecommerce marketplace in Bahrain, has successfully closed Series A funding round at an undisclosed seven-digit valuation. The round was led by Angel Investors and veterans from banking and payments industry.



Jacob Thomas, Founder and CEO of WafiApps said: We are delighted to welcome the new investors in WafiApps WLL and excited to explore new opportunities in a rapidly growing eCommerce business across the MEA region. The pandemic has fundamentally changed business models and we are at the cusp of eCommerce explosion.



WafiApps is poised to enable large and small businesses take advantage of the eCommerce opportunities to not only embrace digitization and innovation, but also increase business portfolio beyond the traditional brick and mortar stores. We have aggressive plans to grow eCommerce business across the region and provide a seamless, convenient and secure experience to our customers and merchant partners.



WafiApps WLL plans to utilize the newly raised funds for technology expansion, launching new products, differentiated customer experiences, geographical expansion, acquiring skilled and experienced resources to lead the Company in its next phase of evolution.



WafiApps provides home delivery service across Bahrain. The customers can choose from a range of payment options at the checkout point including any banks card, or cash on delivery. WafiApps also provides on-demand gift wrapping services before orders are delivered.  TradeArabia News Service
Etihad Rail, the developer and operator of the UAE's national rail network, has completed the construction works of Package A of Stage Two of the country's ambitious rail project, running over 139 km from Al Ghuwaifat on UAEs border with Saudi Arabia to Fujairah on the eastern coast.

This significant step brings the company closer to completing the UAE National Railway Network on schedule as the Stage One, which extends for 264 km from Habshan to Al Ruwais, has already been completed.

The announcement was made at the Etihad Rail board meeting held virtually under the chairmanship of Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Crown Princes Court and Etihad Rail to review the latest progress of the project as well as other major achievements made in the third quarter of 2021.

Lauding the team, Sheikh Theyab said; "It is only because of their dedication, efforts and commitment that we are able to achieve this important milestone in record time, completing it two months ahead of schedule."

He pointed out that at a time when many sectors were subject to a slowdown due to the Covid-19 challenges, Etihad Rail continues to forge ahead and complete the project according to its clearly defined goals and comprehensive work plan.

"Throughout, Etihad Rail has ensured the continuity of business while implementing the required precautionary health and safety measures for all employees. His Highness also expressed his appreciation for the ongoing support provided by the relevant government entities and authorities to ensure this goal was achieved," he added.

According to hinm, Etihad Rail aims to connect vital areas in the seven emirates via a track extending over 1200 km to enhance the UAEs social and economic development, as well as its global positioning in line with the UAE Centennial 2071.

"Throughout 2021, we were successful in reserving 40% of the networks annual transport capacity, which by the completion of Stage Two will amount to 60 million tonnes of goods per year. This was achieved through the commercial agreements Etihad Rail has signed including those with Stevin Rock, one of the biggest quarrying companies in the world, Western Bainoona Group, and Al Ghurair Iron & Steel (AGIS)," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Indian construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said the Middle East has been one of its key growth regions constituting almost 61 per cent of the international order book worth Rs68,773 crore ($9.3 billion). The region also accounted for 13 per cent of its total order book composition.

L&T is now gearing up for the Expo 2020 Dubai event where it will demonstrate its capabilities particularly in the Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), Water Effluent Treatment (WET) and Power Transmission & Distribution (PT&D) businesses, as part of the Indian Pavilion.

Apart from these businesses, L&T Group companies like Mindtree, LTI and LTTS will also showcase their capabilities.

L&Ts portfolio strategy targets a well-balanced and geographically diversified businesses across India and international markets, said the statement from the company.

Its Middle East business unit that caters to the countries of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain has established a coveted position in the GCC region.

In FY21, Middle East contributed the highest order backlog after India order book, contributing 12% to its total revenue, it added.

On L&Ts participation at the mega event, CEO and Managing Director S N Subrahmanyan said: "The India Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020 offers a golden opportunity to showcase India to the world and project our country as the next hub for growth and innovation."

"L&Ts story has been woven with Indias growth story for over 8 decades. And were happy to be part of this pavilion, where well show how we create brighter tomorrows through innovation, technology, and a commitment to sustainability," observed Subrahmanyan.

L&Ts leadership team will also be part of the six-month long mega event that kicks off on October 1. Expo 2020 Dubai is one of the most anticipated events in the world.

The Indian groups PT&D business vertical is a leading player in the field of power transmission and distribution and renewable energy. In addition to being a dominant player in the Indian subcontinent, the business enjoys a significant share and a strong reputation in the Middle East.

L&T PT&D has been a provider of EPC services for several green projects in recent years. 1.5 GW Solar PV Project in Saudi Arabia is the largest overseas order for the business, said the statement.

The WET vertical focuses on global markets and will continue to tap business opportunities in the Middle East, it added.
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the worlds largest aluminium smelter ex-China, today (September 29) not to pursue a proposal to spin off its power assets.

This was announced following Alba's first in-person board of directors meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic at the Alba Oasis Hall to review its overall performance for the third quarter.

The meeting received an update on the five-year strategic initiatives which included a feasibility study on the spin-off proposal. After a thorough review at the board meeting, it was decided not to pursue this matter given the high risks associated with the divestment of the companys power assets, it added.

Alba Campus comprises six Reduction Lines, three Power Stations, four Casthouses, four Carbon Plants along with other ancillary facilities.

The meeting, which was chaired by Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa, discussed Albas production volumes amidst high raw materials prices, overall sales with the global logistics issue, safety (achieving more than 16.5 million safe working-hours to-date and more than 99.7% vaccination in the workforce) and its financial performance.

The members also discussed the Al Hassalah programme, and work progress being made on the Spent Pot Lining Treatment Plant project, said a statement from Alba.

In addition to primary aluminium production, Alba also produces 530,000 mtpa of high-quality calcined petroleum coke at its own dedicated Coke Calcining Plant.

Alba also yields 9.5 million cubic metres of potable water per annum from its dedicated seawater desalination plant.

Addressing the board members, Shaikh Daij said: "We are very thankful to the kingdom's leadership for everything they have done since the start of Covid-19 pandemic and towards HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for his hands-on efforts along with all frontliners in Bahrain to bring us to where we are today: citizens and residents in order to keep us safe.

"We were able to conduct this in-person board meeting only beause of the hands-on efforts put through in the last 1.5 years," he stated.

"While the value of human interaction cannot be overlooked, we, at Alba, have been agile as we have implemented virtual meetings from the onset and have recently started to transition into in-person meetings," said Shaikh Daij.

"As we navigate through this pandemic, we have set new benchmarks in terms of operational and financial performance (breaking an all-time records in terms higher production, ebitda and net profits for the first half of 2021) as well as on the ESG front," he stated.

"We had recently signed an agreement with Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) to implement various sustainable energy initiatives of common interest  this will consolidate our efforts one step further towards our race towards decarbonization," he added.

The meeting was attended by the Alba board of directors appointed by Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company - Yousif Abdulla Taqi, Suha Karzoon, Shaikh Isa Bin Khalid Al Khalifa, Tim Murray and Rasha Sabkar - and those by Sabic Industrial Investments Company (SIIC) - Ahmed Al Duriaan, Iyad Al Garawi and Omar Al Amoudi and one elected director Mutlaq Al Morished.-TradeArabia News Service
The Zayed Sustainability Prize, the UAEs pioneering award for recognising sustainable solutions and humanitarianism, held its Jury meeting and selected 30 finalists.

The winners for its current 2022 cycle will be announced during the Prizes Awards Ceremony at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), this January.

The finalists confirmed are now vying for 10 awards, across the five categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water, and Global High Schools. This year, the Prize received a remarkable 4,000 applications, marking a significant 68.5% increase in entries compared to the previous cycle, while attracting submissions from a record 151 countries, representing over three quarters of the worlds nations.

The Prize Jury, comprising former heads of state, government ministers and international business figures, convened through a virtual meeting to review shortlisted submissions identified by the Prizes Selection Committee in August.

In his remarks, Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Director General of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, highlighted how the Prize continues to act as an enabler and accelerator for global impact, from life-saving health solutions to food security enhancements, and from vital renewable energy to clean water, adding: The Zayed Sustainability Prize continues to further the legacy and values of the UAEs founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and in particular his vision for humanitarian and sustainable progress throughout the world.

The Prizes Director General went on to say: As the UAE celebrates its Jubilee this year, the Prize aligns perfectly with the Principles of the Fifty, the blueprint for progress that our wise leadership announced earlier this month to expand the countrys positive economic impact globally. The Prize has already improved the lives of millions around the world and will continue to expand as a force for good that contributes to a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable world, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

He added that the extensive participation level from knowledge-based economies and emerging markets alike, reflects the current direction towards greater social inclusivity as the world gears up for COP26 and expediated climate action resiliency in the evolving context of post-pandemic recovery.

This year, finalists effectively addressed and proposed solutions for a spectrum of global challenges, often presenting solutions that are integrated and can benefit communities in more than one area, such as power and water synergies. Most entries focused on ecosystems resilience and affordability of solutions, underscoring a clear case for the economic benefits of sustainability innovation, while many of those solutions leverage next generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive impact.

The Chair of the Jury and former President of the Republic of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, added: The innovation and diversity demonstrated in this years applications, including inspiring projects envisioned by the youth, is a testament to the Prizes ongoing ability to engage sustainability pioneers, worldwide, while offering a platform and steppingstone for transformation and added human impact.

Grimsson noted that the cycle postponement last year was a necessary step to protect the Prizes global participants with the advent of Covid-19, however, it enabled the Prize to attract and capture the inspiring concepts developed by forward-thinking organisations in response to one of the worlds most unprecedented crises.

Health finalists focused notably on reinforcing affordable access to healthcare for remote, vulnerable communities and easier and better ways of delivery care, particularly during the pandemic, such as telemedicine. Health entries also focused on the development of technological platforms through automation and data and reporting enhancement and accuracy to safeguard communities from preventable diseases.

The Health category finalists are:

Mamotest (Argentina), an SME that has an innovative approach to medical imagery through the use of teleradiology centres in underserved areas;

Medic Mobile (United States of America), an NPO that combines R&D and technical design to capture health data for primary healthcare; and

Project Andiamo Ltd (United Kingdom), an SME that ensures scalable and transportable solutions by combing innovative 3D printing with advances in machine learning to automise processes for custom medical devices.

This years Food finalists notably focused on supporting the circular economy through key undertakings such as food waste reduction and waste-to-energy, while also tackling climate change by promoting local inclusion and reducing pollution. More broadly, food security was also top of mind this year with finalists highlighting ways of enhancing argi-tech and improving rural and farmer livelihoods through innovative solutions to sustainably strengthen supply chains, mitigate production challenges, and overcome logistical hurdles.

The Food finalists are:

Safi Organics (Kenya), a fertiliser production SME working to tackle the challenges of rural farmers having to contend with expensive or inappropriate fertilisers that lead soil acidification and yield loss;

S4S Technologies (India), an SME that is committed to empowering rural women and harnessing new technology to reduce food waste and improve income for farmers; and

Tecnologias AgriBest, S.A. DE C.V. (Mexico), an SME that deploys biotechnology to improve farmer crop yield and facilitate cost savings.

Meanwhile, Energy category contenders presented a diverse array of technical solutions to improve energy access and efficiency. This ranged from energy storage and solar home systems to electrical grids and water solutions generated by the sun, addressing the rapidly growing power needs of various communities, from urban to rural.

The Energy category finalists are:

ME SOLshare Ltd. (Bangladesh), an SME that created an interconnected microgrid for peer-to-peer energy exchange to enable a more efficient distribution of electricity across rural communities;

Planet Ark Power (Australia), an SME that utilises AI and IoT through the first fully two-way electrical grid to reduce energy costs; and

Tongwei New Energy (China), an SME that integrates smart aquaculture and solar photovoltaics to enhance food security through an innovative business model.

On their part, Water category finalists presented a range of added value innovations that leverage modern technology to achieve clean water for all and reduce waterborne diseases and deaths for communities around the world.

The Water category finalists are:

Boreal Light GmbH (Germany), a designer and manufacturer SME that creates affordable solar water desalination systems for off-grid communities in Africa;

OffGridBox, Inc (United States of America), an SME that deploys microfiltration and UV sterilisation for water purification and desalination through solar; and

 Wateroam (Singapore), an SME committed to tackling the global challenge of contaminated water through portable water filters to serve disaster-hit and rural communities.

The Global High Schools finalists presented project-based, student-led sustainability solutions, with finalists divided into 6 regions. The regional finalists include:

The Americas: Iniciativas Ecologicas (Venezuela), Instituto Iberia (Dominican Republic), and Liceo Arturo Alessandri Palma (Chile).

Europe & Central Asia: JU Gimnazija Biha (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Liceo Europeo (Spain), and Romain-Rolland-Gymnasium (Germany).

Middle East & North Africa: Eastern Mediterranean International School (Israel), Gifted Students School (Iraq), and Umm Al Arab (United Arab Emirates).

Sub-Saharan Africa: Daddies Firm Foundation School (Ghana), Lighthouse Primary and Secondary School (Mauritius), and Sharia Assembly of Uganda (Uganda).

South Asia: The BlinkNow Foundation (Nepal), Hira School (Maldives), and Man Kuwari Hansa Higher Secondary School Barela (India).

East Asia & Pacific: Bohol Wisdom School (The Philippines), International School of Asia, Karuizawa (UWC ISAK) (Japan), and Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy (China).

In the Health, Food, Energy, and Water categories, each winner receives $600,000. The Global High Schools category has six winners, representing six world regions, with each winner receiving up to $100,000. Since its launch in 2008, the $3 million Prize has, directly and indirectly, transformed the lives of over 352 million people across 150 countries. Today, the Prize remains a catalyst for addressing the worlds most pressing issues as it continues to drive and deliver long-term impact to various communities around the world.-- TradeArabia News Service
The Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (Opaz) has signed a land reservation agreement for the green hydrogen project of Hyport Duqm Company, a joint project of alternative energy between OQ and the Belgian DEME Concessions.

According to the agreement, Hyport Duqm will now continue to move forward with the early engineering works and site data collection to establish a Green Hydrogen and Ammonia project in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (Sezad), an Oman Observer report said.

The agreement was signed by Dr Ali Masoud al Sunaidy, Chairman of Opaz, and on behalf of Hyport Duqm by Dr Salim al Huthaili, OQ Alternative Energy CEO, and Chairman of Hyport Duqm Company and Alain Bernard, Chairman and Managing Director of DEME Concessions.

The project will be established in part of the land already allocated for the renewable energy projects, in an area of 150 square kilometres and is located in the southern part of Sezad.

Thus, ideally located along the windy and sunny Omani coast and the Arabian Sea. This strategic land will accommodate both an onshore wind and solar PV farm with a combined capacity of 1.3 GW, which will be developed in subsequent expandable project phases.

Hyport Duqm is currently completing the installation and commissioning of four meteorological wind masts and two meteorological solar stations within the site in order to confirm Duqms excellent solar and wind conditions which are available throughout the year and which form the basis of a successful green hydrogen to green ammonia project.

The Hyport Duqm project fits well in the sultanates strategy of developing the Al Wusta Governorate, while also contributing in achieving the renewable energy and other targets of the Oman Vision 2040.

Commenting on the land reservation agreement, Ahmed bin Hassan al Dheeb, Deputy Chairman of Opaz, pointed out: Opaz welcomes this project in Sezad. It aspires to be a pioneering project that will introduce green hydrogen and green ammonia to the country, which will lead the diversification beyond hydrocarbons efforts and contributing to Vision 2040.

Salim al Huthaili, CEO Alternative Energy at OQ, commented: The land reservation agreement is yet another milestone in the development of this important project. Sezad will be a global Green Hydrogen hub combining power, manufacturing and logistics activities while focusing on effort of decarbonisation and electrification.

The excellent renewable resources and the existing infrastructure along with the upcoming national grid connection makes the Duqm zone an attractive and competitive destination for renewable projects. Oman continues to be a global leader in delivering clean energy projects to accelerate the energy transition effort. OQ and our shareholders The Oman Investment Authority continue to support this project and our strategy to grow this important sector, he added.

Alain Bernard, Executive Chairman DEME Concessions, stated: Our flagship Green Hydrogen project Hyport Duqm strikes another important milestone which underwrites DEME Concessions strong commitment in making the necessary project progress. Hyport Duqm responds not only to the call for projects supporting the global energy transition; the project will form an integral part of Sezads ambitious growth under the strong leadership of Opaz. Finally, this milestone strengthens DEME Concessions sustainable, long-term presence in Sezad, complementing e.g. its shareholders role in Port of Duqm.

Dr Al Sunaidy had discussed with Tinne Van der Straeten, Minister of Energy of Belgium, in a meeting, the localisation of clean hydrogen and ammonia industry in Sezad. The meeting also highlighted ways to ensure the entry of clean hydrogen and green ammonia products that will be produced in Duqm, by the Omani Belgian Hyport joint project, to European Union countries through the Belgian market.-- TradeArabia News Service
Vodafone in Oman recently signed an agreement with Ericsson to deploy, operate and maintain a new 4G and 5G core and radio access (RAN) greenfield network.



Ericsson will supply a complete core network solution based on Ericsson Cloud Core, NFVI and Cloud VoLTE as well as an end-to-end transport network solution. The greenfield network includes other Ericsson Radio System products and solutions such as the antenna-integrated radio and Ericsson Spectrum Sharing.



The end-to-end solution range will deliver a cost-efficient, energy-efficient, and flexible layered architecture design to support 5G from network launch. Vodafone customers will also benefit from Ericsson Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services.



A five-year managed services agreement has also been signed. This will result in an AI-powered data-driven network and IT operations and optimization, enabling Vodafone to enrich its customer experience, drive efficiency and facilitate innovation.



Vodafone will benefit from Ericssons AI tools and data-driven model to drive efficiencies and a shift from reactive to proactive IT and network operations. In turn, Vodafone customers will get an enhanced user experience with improved network quality and performance.



Ericsson will take responsibility for the design, rollout, operations, management, optimization, and maintenance of Vodafone's network. The move will support the service providers goal to offer a wide range of new and differentiating services to its customers in Oman.



Bader Al Zidi, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone said: "Our focus is to ensure that we offer our customers a wide range of differentiating services that will add value to their lives, as well as redefining customer service in the country. We expect high performing Core and RAN technologies and AI, automation, and analytics to further accelerate operational transformation through our partnership. Ericsson has the knowledge and understanding of our requirements.



As part of this partnership, we are also joining hands to develop and build the capacity of Omani youth in the areas of technology and information. Our goal is to offer customers an exceptional customer experience as well as upscale the Omani youth, to ensure that Vodafone is able to meet its commitment of bringing superior quality network and mobile communications to the people of Oman through Omani local talent in the long term.



Fadi Pharaon, President of Ericsson Middle East and Africa said: We are proud to be chosen by Vodafone to deploy and run their entire greenfield network in Oman. This collaboration will lead to Vodafone launching its new mobile broadband service and providing Oman with an additional nationwide mobile network.



We are pleased to implement the latest in radio access and core technologies, as well as utilizing the latest in automation, and artificial intelligence software to run the network and secure great user experience.



Ericsson will deliver the complete core equipment for Vodafone's network, as well as radio network equipment including the Ericsson Radio System antenna-integrated radio, and Ericsson Spectrum Sharing to utilize spectrum in the most efficient way possible, by instantly  on a millisecond level  share spectrum between 4G and 5G. The deal also entails an end-to-end transport network  which will enable significant savings through an efficient and flexible layered architecture design.



The greenfield network will feature Ericsson Cloud VoLTE, Ericsson Cloud Packet Core, Ericsson NFVI, Ericsson Network Manager, Ericsson Orchestrator and Ericsson Cloud Deployment Engine.  TradeArabia News Service
Wa'ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, has announced a SR1.9 million ($505,000) venture capital (VC) investment in Riyadh-based Mohtwize, a leading podcast tech developer across the Mena region.



Mohtwize aims to empower audio content creators through podcast training and providing sponsorship opportunities.



The investment in Mohtwize, founded in 2018 by former podcaster Khalid Alkenaa, aims to create a sustainable business model for podcasts, a fast-growing medium in the Kingdom that already attracts 5.1 million regular listeners a week.



Mohtwize plans to use the investment from Waed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Waed, to further develop its software solution, expand staffing and increase the platforms content, which is downloaded about 2 million times every month.



By helping monetize the podcasting niche and providing a more sustainable business model, Mohtwizes platform is working to attract more content to the niche.



Podcasts are a fast-growing medium among Saudis ages 16 to 40 years old, and a recent study by Hootsuite Digital Report 2021showed that Saudi internet users on average listen to podcasts for about 1 hour and 17 minutes each day.



Mohtwize allows advertisers to select podcasts that best match their corporate goals, reaching audiences chosen according to metrics such as gender, earning power and interests. At the same time, Mohtwize acts as a financial enabler for creators, providing podcasters with advertising income to develop programming.



Mohtwize is currently the only content delivery platform paying Arabic podcasters per listens.

Mohtwize is a smart way to monetize the podcast sector, and our platform is helping this sector grow and flourish in Saudi Arabia and the Mena region, Alkenaa said. We are grateful to Waed for helping Mohtwize take this fast-growing medium to a new level of financial sustainability and success.



The decision to invest in Mohtwize aligns with Waeds desire to promote Saudi-based start-ups that are advancing the growth of the digital economy in the Kingdom, said Fahad Alidi, the Waed Managing Director.



Mohtwizes unique platform is helping monetize Saudi Arabias podcasting sector and its sustainable financial model is supporting more content, Alidi said.



With Waeds financial support, Mohtwize this year plans to launch a technology solution that will allow corporate sponsors to place ads in archived podcasts. Often, podcasters work months or years before attracting a big listening audience. But once they do, listeners tend to seek out podcasts from their archives, listening to them for the first time.



Mohtwizes new function will allow podcasters to monetize older podcasts and gives companies the ability to leverage the full portfolios of more than 100 podcast shows.  TradeArabia News Service
Lufthansa Group airlines are experiencing a further boom for flights to the US with certain days in the last week, flights across the Atlantic registering three-fold over the week before, reaching almost pre-crisis levels.



Demand in the last week on certain routes Flights with SWISS from Zurich and Lufthansa from Frankfurt to New York and from Frankfurt and Zurich to Miami had the highest bookings from both leisure and business travellers. In Premium Economy, Business and First Class more tickets to the USA were bought than in the same period in 2019.



Lufthansa Group is meeting this boom in pent-up demand by launching additional flights to the USA on short notice. Lufthansa and SWISS, for example, will be offering a combined total of three daily flights to Miami on short notice starting in November.



There is very strong demand for flights to the US for the coming December. New bookings in the past week for this month were as high as they were for 2019 for the same time period. Flights to New York  traditionally in high demand during the Christmas season  have already been bolstered with additional connections.



The airlines of the Lufthansa Group are offering up to 55 weekly connections to New York from their various European hubs in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland in December. A further short-term expansion of services is currently under consideration.



Alone to New York and Chicago, Lufthansa Group airlines offer more daily connections from Europe in November than flights to the entire Asia-Pacific region. Lufthansa Group expects that the opening of the US to vaccinated EU travellers will be a signal for other countries and regions to make international air travel easier again and roll back travel restrictions.



Additional flights also within Germany



Lufthansa Group is also increasing German domestic flights to its European hubs as demand for US flights continues to soar. For example, compared with July, Lufthansa is increasing its domestic German flights by 45 percent from starting in October. This means, among other things that as of October there will be nine instead of six daily flights from Frankfurt to Berlin. Flights from Frankfurt to Hamburg will increase from six to eight flights daily.



The situation is similar for Munich: The current five daily connections to Berlin will be increased to seven starting in October; instead of six daily flights from Munich to Hamburg, there will be up to 11 daily flights in the future. And also starting in October, Lufthansa will again operate hourly flights from Hamburg and Berlin to its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich in the morning and in the evening.



With the flight schedule expansion more connections are available throughout the day. This means business travellers who often want to fly in the morning or the evening will benefit from an improved flight schedule as will other travellers.  TradeArabia News Service
Apollo Hospitals give new lease of life to newborn from Mauritius

Thane, Sep 28 (UNI) A newborn, diagnosed with a severe congenital heart disease, successfully underwent a complex heart procedure at the Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai, a release said on Tuesday.

The Hospital told that the 15-day-old baby Dianna was born on 28 July in Mauritius and was diagnosed with valvular pulmonary atresia, a defect of the heart found at birth where the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the lungs doesn't open at all.

With the help of the government and a local doctor, she was brought to Mumbai on 12 August.
Washington, Sep 29 (UNI/Sputnik) A US judge sentenced a Bangladesh national to nearly four years in prison for his role in smuggling undocumented immigrants from Mexico to the United States, the US Justice Department said.

"A Bangladeshi national was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for his role in a scheme to smuggle undocumented individuals from Mexico into the United States," the Justice Department said in a press release on Tuesday.

Mohamad Milon Hossain, 41, was involved in a human smuggling ring that operated out of Bangladesh, South and Central America and Mexico to bring undocumented immigrants to the US southern border, the release said.

Hossain specifically maintained a hotel in the Mexican city of Tapachula that housed the immigrants on their way to the United States, the release said.

Houssain also provided immigrants with plane tickets and other assistance as they made their way from Tapachula to Monterrey, the Mexican city near the US border, the release added.

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Bamako, Sep 29 (UNI/Xinhua) Five people were killed and four others wounded in an attack on an army-escorted convoy in western Mali, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) said on their official website.

At about 8:30 am local time (0830 GMT) Tuesday, the terrorist attack targeted the convoy of a mining company secured by FAMa members on National Road N.1 near Didieni town, the forces said, without indicating the identities of the victims.

On Sept. 11, two drivers of Moroccan origin were killed and another injured on their way to Mali's capital Bamako by armed men in the same area.

Since 2012, Mali has been facing deep and multifaceted crises in security, politics and economy. Local insurrections, jihadist incursions and inter-communal violence have caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displacements.

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Literature Week Pop-up Bookshop

Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministry of Culture will be hosting a dedicated bookshop for the duration of Literature Week, at the John Mackintosh Hall, from the 8th to the 13th of November 2021.

GCS is extending an invitation to local authors who would like to make use of this bookshop, affording them the opportunity to be part of this weeklong event, which will provide an avenue for sales.

The bookshop will be a pop-up shop, managed by GCS staff, allowing the public to purchase books locally from the cultural hub.

This years Literature Week will also include the participation of international authors, and their titles will also be available. These writers will be announced soon, with more information on tickets to be released too.

Those interested in selling their books at the bookshop should contact GCS Accounts Department on 20067243 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
On 28 September 2021, WCO Deputy Secretary General Ricardo Trevino Chapa virtually attended the celebrations commemorating the 75th Indonesia Customs and Excise Day. The celebrations took the form of a Seminar organized by the Customs Administration of Indonesia, bringing together participants from Customs, the private sector, academia, other government agencies and interested stakeholders.

Articulated around the theme For a Stronger Future, the Seminar was intended to raise awareness of the role played by Customs in economic growth, at both national and international levels, through its frontline position at borders and its activities with regard to commercial imports and exports. The Seminar also addressed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the challenges linked to the implementation by Customs of trade-related rules and regulations, before but also during the crisis. Based on these observations, the Seminar aimed to offer perspectives on how to improve operations in the future and allow Customs to maintain its performance in a post-crisis world.

The WCO Deputy Secretary General delivered a presentation entitled The Impact of International Trade on Global Economic Growth. He began by thanking Indonesias Director General of Customs and Excise, Mr. Askolani, for the invitation, before highlighting the undeniable bonds between a sound environment for trade and economic growth, showing that the continuous increase in global GDP since 1970 had gone hand-in-hand with an increasing volume of trade transactions. This tight connection had been demonstrated again during the COVID-19 crisis, when the slowdown of commercial activities had had clear impacts on economic growth.

In this context, the Deputy Secretary General said that Customs had a key role to play. The movement of goods had to be flawless in order to create value, and this meant that operations at the borders had to be efficient in order to create this dynamic. During the crisis, it was also essential to be able to rely on efficient Customs in order to ensure the smooth circulation of medical equipment and the protection of societies against counterfeit products. The Deputy Secretary General added that efficiency was also key to the handling of emerging trends, such as the digital economy, in order to ensure the sustainability of Customs in the future. He said the role of the WCO was to provide appropriate guidance to Customs authorities so that they could face up to new challenges and realities in a proper manner. The contribution made by Customs to trade and economic growth would continue if Customs authorities were able to adapt to these new realities and be seen as a reliable partner for governments and businesses.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 18:49:23|Editor: huaxia

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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. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-28 22:59:49|Editor: huaxia

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A warship arrives in Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi, on Sept. 28, 2021. Batumi hosted on Tuesday five vessels of a response force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the country's Border Police said in a statement. (Border Police of Georgia/Handout via Xinhua)

TBILISI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi hosted on Tuesday five vessels of a response force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the country's Border Police said in a statement.

Five warships from Bulgarian, Italian, Romanian, Turkish and Spanish navies of Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) were welcomed by local authorities in Georgia's western city of Batumi, before the Georgian Coast Guard and SNMCMG2 embark on joint drills, the statement said.

The drills will involve overseeing NATO's evaluation of the Georgian Coast Guard, and serve a wider goal of developing interoperability between Georgian and NATO maritime forces, the statement added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 10:54:50|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ten terrorists were killed in a clash with military troops in Pakistan's northwest South Waziristan district on Tuesday, an army statement said.

The security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation on receiving a tip-off regarding the presence of a terrorists' concentration inside a hideout in the tribal town located in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the Afghanistan border, the statement added.

"Security forces cordoned the hideout. During intense exchange of fire, 10 terrorists including four terrorist commanders were killed. Weapons and a large quantity of ammunition were also recovered from the hideout," the statement issued by the military's media wing Inter-Services Public Relations said.

All the killed terrorists remained actively involved in planting improvised explosive devices, conducting fire raids, and targeted killing of innocent civilians, the statement said, adding that these terrorists were planning to conduct more acts of terrorism inside South Waziristan district.

"The army is determined to root out the menace of terrorism from the country at all costs," the statement added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 15:17:17|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of 82 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for improving 48 km of roads in Prey Veng and Kandal provinces to boost economic development along the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Southern Economic Corridor, the ADB said in a statement on Wednesday.

The new assistance is the second phase of the Road Network Improvement Project series, which aims to strengthen Cambodia's link with Vietnam and support the development of cross-border facilities in the two provinces, it said.

It added that the new upgrade will use disaster- and climate-resilient design and help the Ministry of Public Works and Transport better manage roads by reducing vehicle overloading, which often damages roads and leads to premature repairs.

ADB transport specialist Mohammad Nazrul Islam said road transport is the primary means of moving goods and people in Cambodia and between GMS countries.

"The project will expand access to education, health, and other public services among local communities, especially poor, rural residents," he said. "It will also better connect them to markets and economic opportunities through a more efficient, safe, and climate-resilient road network connecting Cambodia with Vietnam along the GMS Southern Economic Corridor."

Cambodia's economy grew 7.8 percent a year on average from 1998-2019, but suffered a 3.1 percent contraction in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

It added that the country's transport sector faces challenges, including insufficient infrastructure investment and sustainability, and most of Cambodia's rural roads and provincial roads are unpaved, as its national roads have limited capacity.

To address these challenges, the Cambodian government has developed a national plan to build high-quality, sustainable, and climate-resilient infrastructure that can accommodate the country's population and employment growth by 2030, the statement said, adding that the roads under the project are included in the project list of the master plan.

The first phase of the project, which was approved by ADB in 2017, covers 147 km of national roads in the provinces of Prey Veng, Siem Reap, and Svay Rieng along the GMS Southern Economic Corridor. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 20:16:57|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 20 others injured in a road accident on Wednesday in Jamshoro district of Pakistan's southern Sindh province, local media reported.

According to the reports, a loaded truck collided with a passenger bus in Nooriabad area of Jamshoro. Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to a nearby hospital.

Hospital officials told the media that the death toll might further rise because several of the injured are in critical condition.

The ill-fated bus was on its way from the southern port city of Karachi to the Khairpur district of the province when it was caught in the accident on the highway.

Police have registered a case against the truck driver and launched an investigation into the accident. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-29 20:24:14|Editor: huaxia

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COLOMBO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on Wednesday said that a mandatory on-arrival PCR test at the Bandaranaike International Airport has been scrapped for travelers who were fully vaccinated or produced a negative PCR test from their country of departure.

Rambukwella told Xinhua that the mandatory PCR testing had been scrapped from Wednesday for fully vaccinated travelers who had a negative result within 72 hours of departure.

Arrivals should also have their second dose administered two weeks prior to arrival, Rambukwella said.

Sri Lanka is ready to re-open the country to tourists in a bid to strengthen its lucrative tourism industry which has employed over 4 million people directly or indirectly.

Authorities said they are now looking to ease a number of COVID-19 restrictions so that fully vaccinated travelers can travel to the country, in order to boost tourist arrivals and foreign exchange into the country.

Since re-opening the borders on Jan. 21, Sri Lanka has recorded 24,337 tourist arrivals in the first eight months of this year.

According to official figures, tourist arrivals in August sharply increased by 107 percent to 5,040 from July, despite the ongoing third wave of the COVID-pandemic.

The country has to date detected 515,524 positive COVID-19 patients since March last year and recorded 12,786 deaths. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-19 01:48:56|Editor: huaxia

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A man receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Skopje, North Macedonia, Aug. 18, 2021. (Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/Xinhua)

SKOPJE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The government of North Macedonia has decided to impose new restrictions from Sept. 1 to fight the spread of COVID-19, Health Minister Venko Filipce announced on social media on Wednesday.

Filipce said the new restrictions are based on recommendations from the Commission for Infectious Diseases.

Starting from Sept. 1, every traveler entering the country must present a vaccination certificate, or a document proving they have either had COVID-19 in the last 45 days, or had a negative test result from a PCR test taken 72 hours before entering the territory of North Macedonia.

Meanwhile, citizens of North Macedonia returning to the country after Sept. 1 without a PCR test, or a certificate proving they have had COVID-19 or been vaccinated will have to self-quarantine for seven days.

In addition, foreign nationals transiting through North Macedonia will have to do so within five hours, with a pre-signed declaration. This declaration must also be submitted to border controls when leaving the country.

North Macedonia's government has tightened measures against COVID-19 due to the increased number of new daily infections. Starting from Aug. 16, new safety measures have been introduced to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, including a ban on all indoor celebrations in restaurants, cafeterias, bars, nightclubs, and other venues which host large events.

Moreover, as of Aug. 16 individuals over the age of 18 are required to present proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to enter any facility with a capacity of 30 people or more.

On Wednesday, Filipce told local media that people working in institutions will not be ordered to have a vaccine, underlining that such an obligation is only applied in highly frequented places where the risk of transmission increases.

According to official data from the Health Ministry, a total of 17,427 people have been vaccinated over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of vaccinations in the country to 1,097,855, of which 485,464 have received both doses of a vaccine.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported 1,081 new coronavirus cases and 15 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed cases in North Macedonia to 164,529. Of these, 151,235 people have recovered, while 5,589 people have died. Enditem
The Chinese Embassy in South Africa Held the 72nd National Day Virtual Reception

2021/09/29

On September 28, 2021, the Chinese Embassy in South Africa held an online reception to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Guests from all walks of life gathered for celebration via video link.Mr. Chen Xiaodong, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, delivered a keynote speech, and Mr. Enoch Godongwana, South African Finance Minister attended and addressed the event.Dr. Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of SACP, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, senior officials from party, government and military, representatives of business community, think tanks and media, diplomatic envoys from different countries to South Africa, representatives of Chinese enterprises and Chinese nationals either sent congratulatory messages or joined online interaction in a warm and festive atmosphere.

The reception began with the grand national anthem of China and South Africa. In his remarks, Ambassador Chen Xiaodong said, over the past 72 years since the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China has united and led the Chinese people to move forward with an dauntless spirit of daring to make the sun and the moon shine in the new sky.With concrete and hard work, we marched forward against great odds, and made great achievements and contributions that attracted worldwide attention and left a shining mark in history.The Chinese nation is taking bold steps down the road toward rejuvenation.During this past year, as we fought against COVID-19 and major floods, we saw to it that we stabilized the economy, protected people's livelihood, promoted international cooperation and worked for global harmony.This year, the CPC celebrated its centenary and delivered a great performance for the people. This year, the 14th Five-Year Plan was successfully launched, and the new development philosophy is leading China toward greater achievements. This year, China worked hard for a community with a shared future with the world and we showed extraordinary commitment to addressing global challenges.President Xi Jinping put forward four proposals in his statement at the general debate of the 76th session of the UNGA, which point the way forward for the world and demonstrate the wisdom and global vision of a major countrys leader.

Ambassador Chen said that over the past 23 years of diplomatic ties, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and South Africa has been developing steadily. Under the joint guidance of leaders of the two countries and especially President Xi Jinping and President Ramaphosa, the two countries have deepened mutual political trust.We continued to expand practical cooperation and there has been dynamic cooperation in people-to-people exchanges and closer collaboration in international affairs. We are delivering a higher level of cooperation on all fronts.

Ambassador Chen pointed out that, this year, President Xi Jinping and President Ramaphosa have exchanged letters and attended meetings to discuss China-South Africa and China-Africa cooperation. It is especially worth noting that when the CPC celebrated its centenary, President Ramaphosa as ANC President, sent a congratulatory letter to General Secretary Xi Jinping. He also attended the CPC and World Political Parties Summit and delivered a warm speech. His remarks deepened the exchange of experiences in party and state governance between the two sides, which is of great significance for both China and South Africa to face challenges and seek development together. In terms of economic cooperation and trade, from January to August this year, bilateral trade between China and South Africa reached 34.72 billion US dollars, up by 65.7% year on year. Of that trade volume, South African exports to China reached 21.81 billion US dollars, up by 80.5% year on year. These figures show a strong vitality and momentum for growth, marking the highlight of China-South Africa cooperation. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, our two peoples have been looking out for each other and fighting against COVID-19 together. Chinas Sinovac vaccine is conducting pediatric clinical trials in South Africa. The ANC, the SACP, the ANC Women's League, SASCO and other organizations have issued statements, and many government officials, experts and scholars have spoken out to support science-based COVID-19 origin-tracing. They spoke out against political manipulation, which injects strong positive energy into China-Africa and global cooperation against the virus. Our two countries coordinate and cooperate with each other in the UN, G20 and other multilateral occasions. We actively practice multilateralism, and jointly safeguard the shared interests of the majority of developing countries. Since the beginning of this year, South Africa has many times made statements at the UN Human Rights Council sessions in support of China's position for justice, manifesting our special bond of "camaraderie + brotherhood".

Ambassador Chen said that looking ahead, the Chinese side is ready to work with the South African side to deliver the common understandings of our two leaders to build a China-South Africa community with a shared future, so that we can together promote cooperation across the board. We will jointly hold a successful event on China-Africa cooperation, make the pie of economic and trade cooperation bigger, build bridges of communication and exchanges between our two peoples, and support true multilateralism. China is ready to work with South Africa and Africa to plan for better post-COVID cooperation and fight against the virus together. We are ready to work with your side for stronger post-COVID economic recovery and together put in concrete actions to advance a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Minister Godongwana said that the government and people of South Africa have the honor to join the government and the people of China in celebrating the 72th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. During these unprecedented times, China has proved to be resilient, and even more determined to try a new path towards continued economic growth and development as well as inclusive prosperity for its people. This year, in particular has been an auspicious one for China, as the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary in July 2021, and also as China marches towards its two centenary goals to achieve the Chinese dream and promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Minister Godongwana pointed out that there are signs that our warm and brotherhood relationship have achieved comprehensive development and continues to grow stronger and more mature in terms of our similarities and affinities. South Africa and China are strong proponents of multilateralism. As founder members of BRICS, we have worked closely with all the BRICS partners in championing a more inclusive and equitable global order where no one is left behind. This close collaboration also extends in our common membership of the G20, especially in advancing the agenda of the South. The depth and extent of our cooperation and collaboration further manifests in China's Belt and Road initiative and the Forum on China Africa Cooperation. These initiatives have provided the African continent with sustained investment towards infrastructure development and rapid industrialization. Now more than ever, the African continent requires continued support to fight the so-called economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Further to this, South African looks forward to cooperation with China, on the manufacturing of vaccines, and further appreciates the country's commitment towards ensuring that vaccines stemming from such cooperation remain accessible and affordable for all.

General Secretary Nzimande spoke on behalf of the Communist Party of South Africa. He extended warm congratulations on the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and commended the ever-deepening high-level cooperation between the two parties and the two governments. Guests from all walks of life spoke highly of China's achievements over the past 72 years, and applauded China's success in its epidemic response and contribution to global governance. They expressed great confidence in Chinas development in the post-COVID era and the prospect of China leading the world towards economic recovery. They expressed wishes to see China-South Africa friendship continue to deepen, and bilateral ties continue to move forward. Representatives of Chinese institutions and Chinese nationals in South Africa wished their motherland a happy birthday and great prosperity.

The reception also featured video clip reviewing memorable moments of China-South Africa friendship, performances such as "My Motherland and I" sung by diplomats from the Chinese Embassy and "The Moon Represents My Heart" sung by students from the Chinese language class run by the Tourism Ministry of South Africa. These performances attest to the profound friendship between the people of South Africa and the charm of cultural integration between the two countries.

During the live-streaming of the reception, South African netizens left positive comments, expressing warm congratulations on the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and best wishes to the Chinese government and people as well as the Chinese Embassy in South Africa. "Wish China even greater development in the future", "A big thank-you to China for its support for South Africa's development and fight against COVID-19", "Im really excited about the prospect of China-South Africa relations", "China is 72 years old but still full of youthful vigor", "Long live South Africa-China friendship".

The event was broadcast live on the Embassys youtube and facebook accounts, Ambassadors twitter account as well as video channels of Tencent News and Peoples Daily Online. Journalists from more than 20 media organizations followed and covered the event, including mainstream media from South Africa such as Newzroom Afrika, The Star, Pretoria News, The Mercury, The Citizen, as well as Chinese media such as CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily Online, among others.
Two months after their relatives were shot or butchered during the violent unrest and looting which swept through parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, families are still no closer to knowing who caused the deaths of their loved ones.

In KwaZulu-Natal, where many of the deaths in July's unrest occurred, MEC for social development in the province, Nonhlanhla Khoza, said her department was providing psychosocial support to affected families. She said a team of social workers was helping people come to terms with the violent deaths of their relatives.

However, apart from the fact that none of the families Daily Maverick spoke to had heard from the social workers two months down the line, the main concern for most is that they had heard nothing from the police either.

Bhekinhlanhla Shandu narrowly escaped death when his car was attacked at a roadblock in Phoenix. He had about half a dozen people in the vehicle, three of whom have never been found.

"Nothing has changed... there is no feedback. Nothing new," Shandu said. The last time he heard from the police was when they took a statement from him.

"Are we part of this country or are we just a number here?"...
The Constitutional Court - hearing the case in which former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wants the nullification of the election of President Lazarus Chakwera in the June 23 Fresh Presidential Election (FPE) - has set September 29th and 30 as days it will hear an application by the Attorney General (AG) in which he seeks to have the case dismissed altogether.

During the Court's sitting in Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre on Tuesday, AG Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda wants the case dismissed before the hearing of the main case because, among others, the application by the DPP was not supposed to come before the High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court.

Nyirenda argued that the decision that DPP is challenging emanated from a judgement by a High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda who nullified the appointment of Linda Kunje and Jean Mathanga.

According to Nyirenda, DPP was supposed to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The chief legal advisor to the government also said the case should be dismissed because DPP is not a proper party to challenge the decision.

According to him, a presidential candidate of the party is supposed to contest the election.

He cited the Presidential Election Petition Case which was commenced by President Lazarus Chakwera and Vice President Saulos Chilima, leaders of MCP and UTM respectively following the May 19, 2019 presidential election.

Further, Nyirenda argued that the law provides for seven days for an aggrieved party to challenge declared results of an election and that DPP filed its application when the seven days expired.

Lastly, the AG argued that DPP created the irregularity on the two Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioners and said it cannot turn and ask the court to reward it for its own irregularities.

According to Nyirenda, "the Court cannot be in the business of rewarding irregularities."

But Charles Mhango, DPP lawyer, who was reprimanded during the same Court sitting for bringing to the bench forged documents said the former ruling would bring five witnesses which could be trimmed to three.

Among the three witnesses are two former MEC commissioners Jean Mathanga and Linda Kunje and DPP administrative secretary Francis Mphepo.

Meanwhile, Judge Sylvester Kalembera who is chairing a panel of five judges hearing the case has said the case will be heard on 29th and 30th if there will be resources available.

He said some of the judges were coming from outside Blantyre.

According to Kalembera, the Court was informed by the Registrar of the High Court of Appeal that the IFMIS was facing challenges in processing payments.

Last month, Malawi's Constitutional Court agreed to hear a challenge to last year's presidential election rerun from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

President Lazarus Chakwera defeated the DPP's Peter Mutharika in the rerun after the court nullified the 2019 election, which Mutharika had won. The DPP argues the rerun should also be nullified after the High Court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners to the Malawi Electoral Commission.

Earlier in June, the High Court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners Jean Mathanga, Linda Kunje, Steven Duwa and Arthur Nanthuru, saying their appointment was invalid and unconstitutional.

The court acted after the governing Malawi Congress Party had challenged the appointment of the commissioners.

In his ruling, Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda further said the quashing of the appointments did not affect the validity of the June 2020 re-run presidential election.

But the opposition DPP said Nyirenda erred in his ruling because he touched on issues beyond his mandate.

The party wants the court to also invalidate the rerun election because it was managed by commissioners who it says were wrongly appointed.

They argue that the Malawi Constitution does not recognize an election that was presided over by undeserving commissioners.

"My clients strongly believe that the elections that took place on 23rd June, electing President Chakwera, is also null and void because the principle of the law is very clear; out of nothing, come nothing," Mhango, DPP's lawyer, said.

Critics fear the case would result in another long and protracted legal battle which will cost the government a lot of money.

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They believe the case could have been avoided had the government listened to the advice of the former attorney general, Chikosa Silungwe, that the government should recognize the commissioners.

Osman Kennedy, a law lecturer at Blantyre International University, told the press that serious implications will happen only if the court rules in favor of the DPP.

"Because what will happen is that we will revert back to 2020 when Mutharika was the president. Because the court may say 'no, if you [President Chakwera] were elected by the commission that was illegal, then you were not elected, then you were no longer the president and therefore we are reverting the status quo back to Mutharika and Chilima respectively.'"

Social commentator Humphrey Mvula said the case demonstrates failure by political leaders to accept electoral defeat.

"Our challenge as most African countries including Malawi is that we rarely accept that we have lost the elections. We always want to fight and always want the court to tell us that we have lost the elections. Even at that time, we have been able to trash the decision of the court," he said.
New York  The UN Special Representative for Sudan, and head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes, has appealed to the international community support efforts to implement the Juba Peace Agreement, and provide security to the Sudanese public.

In his briefing to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday, Perthes highlighted that the ongoing violence in Darfur and the east on Sudan, the absence of justice and accountability, and the difficult economic situation, continues to inflict hardship and suffering on the Sudanese population.

"Humanitarian organisations in Sudan are advocating for timely and flexible funding as humanitarian needs, largely driven by the economic crisis and increased intercommunal conflict, continue to rise," Perthes said. He underlined to the UNSC: "Between January and August 2021, about 418,000 people were newly displaced as a result of conflicts and armed attacks across Sudan, mainly in Darfur, parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile. This is more than six times as many as in the same period last year."

'Between January and August 2021, about 418,000 people were newly displaced as a result of conflicts and armed attacks across Sudan, mainly in Darfur, parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile. This is more than six times as many as in the same period last year'

"In line with the Prime Minister's initiative and the Juba Peace Agreement, I continue to encourage an inclusive dialogue on a roadmap for military and security sector reform. We stand ready to provide technical support at the request of the Sudanese."

"Sudan's continued economic reforms have allowed it to reach the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) decision point on 29 June and thereby become eligible for debt relief. This will unlock critical financial resources to strengthen Sudan's economy, address poverty and improve social conditions. Sudan must continue to ensure the most vulnerable segments of Sudanese society are protected," Perthes says.

He explained that UNITAMS has moved to refocus its efforts on the priority areas identified by the UNSC, including peace talks, ceasefire monitoring, and support to the national plan for the protection of civilians.

"We have consequently begun to operationalise the Permanent Ceasefire Committee, starting with technical consultations on 5 and 6 September in Khartoum, which brought together all members of the Ceasefire Committee from the military, the Armed Groups and other key stakeholders to discuss concrete modalities of implementing a meaningful ceasefire mechanism. Preparatory meetings were also held with the signatories, civil society, women's groups, and the United Nations country team. Women's participation in the implementation of security arrangements remains a key concern and one of the conditions for the legitimacy and effectiveness of any ceasefire arrangement."

'The Ceasefire Committee is not a substitute for the joint forces and their protection mandate'

Perthes says that expectations of the Permanent Ceasefire Committee are high, but also partially misplaced, particularly concerning the protection of civilians. "While the Committee can contribute positively to stability in Darfur, its role and mandate remain distinct: It is about monitoring, reporting, and trying to reconcile, but not about physical protection. The recent resurgence of intercommunal violence in Darfur - specifically in El Geneina, Tawila, Sortony, and Nyala, therefore demonstrates the urgency of supporting the Sudanese police and for deploying the Joint Security Keeping Forces. "The Ceasefire Committee is not a substitute for these forces and their protection mandate", he said.

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"If Member States want security to be stabilised in Darfur they should not shy away from making resources available for, among other things, the training and support of the planned Joint Security Keeping Forces, the Police, or the demobilisation and reintegration of fighters".

Perthes said that "by filling critical gaps in what remains a modestly sized mission, I hope we can effectively respond to the evolving needs of the transition in Sudan. Sudan's challenges are immense, and the United Nations remains fully committed to support the authorities in addressing them and realizing the aspirations of the Sudanese people for a peaceful, stable, and democratic Sudan. We count on the robust backing of this Council as we navigate the path forward," he concluded.
Fungi Kwaramba  Political Editor

President Mnangagwa, who turned 79-years yesterday, called on Zimbabweans to be peaceful, united and most of all, be patriotic to develop the country.

Speaking at his African-themed birthday dinner hosted by First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa at State House last night, the President gave an insight into his private life, saying he is treated by his wife of 38 years to traditional cuisine at home.

On a mild September night, the dinner was graced by his governing Zanu PF party deputies -- Vice President Chiwenga and Vice President Mohadi, Cabinet ministers and service chiefs as well as men of the cloth.

"I met my wife Auxillia 38 years ago and up to date, we are still together. At our home you won't find cutlery at the table, we eat using our hands. My mother who gave birth to me is the one who taught my wife to stick to traditional cuisine.

"Traditional food is healthy and we learned that from my mother. Tiri vemufushwa nemukaka. When you hear that the President is into agriculture, it is because of our backgrounds," he said.

The President also spoke about the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, saying the illegal embargoes are designed to paralyse the country. He said despite the sanctions, Zimbabwe will achieve its goals to become an upper middle class economy by 2030 because he has under him a team of dedicated lieutenants.

"I am glad that I have a team that is united in building the nation brick by brick. We should teach our children to be patriotic. If we are united and peaceful then we will leapfrog the country's development."

Responding to Vice President Chiwenga's question on how he felt at 79, the President said he felt no different from what he felt the day before.

"I don't feel any different at 79. Of course, we have walked a long journey and that makes you realise that one day you will have to rest. The most important thing though is to love your country, your countrymen and women," he said.

In her welcome remarks, the First Lady described the President as a loving husband.

"Your Excellency, allow me to congratulate you (by) saying happy birthday to the man I fell in love with so many years ago. I shall love you more and more as the years pass by. Happy birthday my best friend. We have an amazing life together," the First Lady said.

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The President's daughter, Mrs Farai Mlotshwa described the President as a loving father who is committed to empowering the girl child.

"Thank you for being the best dad, especially for the daughters, you always supported what we did career-wise. You put your mouth where your money is in supporting women," said Mrs Mlotshwa.

The President's son, Emmerson Jnr, called on Zimbabweans to be patriotic, saying the sacrifices that were made by the country's liberators should forever be celebrated.

"My father is a man who has survived the toughest conditions humanly possible -- death row, imprisonment, poison, numerous assassination attempts -- I could go on.

"As a result of his determination and unconditional love for his country and family, today our lives have been made easier.

"The small things we took for granted, dreams we dismissed as being unattainable, the notion of becoming whatever you desire, simple things like voting and acquiring decent education, freedom, and equal rights . . . the possibility for us young people to determine our destiny is achievable.

"These are things dad never had but look at him now, a boy from Mberengwa now the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. That's the stuff that dreams are made of and that's the stuff Mnangagwas are made off.

"I challenge you all to remain strong and resilient like my dad here. (We) must not only dare to dream but dare to believe," said Emmerson Jnr.

Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi spoke glowingly about the difficult road that the President walked over the years, including surviving assassination plots, but never wavered in his dedication to the motherland.
Maputo  Angela Leao, the wife of the General Director of Mozambique's Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), under former President Armando Guebuza, on Thursday afternoon repeatedly denied that she has ever received money from the Abu Dhabi-based group, Privinvest but, on grounds of privacy, she refused to tell the Maputo City Court the source of her wealth.

Earlier in the week businessman Fabiao Mabunda had testified that the money he received from Privinvest (about 9.5 million dollars) was channeled to Angela Leao.

Now, in the 15th day of the trial of 19 people in connection with Mozambique's largest ever financial scandal, known as the case of the "hidden debts", Leao claimed that any dealing Mabunda may have had with Privinvest were nothing to do with her, and any email messages suggesting the contrary must have been forged.

On occasion, Leao was caught in an outright lie. She denied any relation with Antonio do Rosario, once the head of economic intelligence in SISE, and then the chairperson of all three fraudulent companies involved in the scandal, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management),

But prosecutor Sheila Marrengula had no difficulty in showing that she, Rosario and the head of the SISE projects and studies office, Cipriano Mutota, were founding partners in a company called Josire Investments. Faced with the evidence of this company's registration. Leao backtracked and said that it had never been active.

Marrengula asked her about contracts she had supposedly signed with Mulepe, another SISE company headed by Mutota, in which she became a partner. The prosecution had been asking her for these contracts for almost three years.

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Leao said she could not provide the contracts, or any other paper work, because she was in prison. Marrengula pointed out that the prosecutors first asked for the contracts on 4 December 2018, and she was not detained until 7 March 2019. "You had three months to provide the documents, but you didn't", she said.

"In that period, I was being persecuted", she claimed.

She admitted to making very large cash payments to Mabunda's company, MMocambique Construcoes, which added up to at least 387 million meticais (over six million dollars at today's exchange rate). She boasted that this was an understatement, and the real sums were much larger.

Leao denied that these sums had anything to do with Privinvest. Instead, they came from her own business activities. But she refused to give any details, on the grounds that such questions violated her private life.

As for the lack of any documentation for her alleged cash payments, Leao once again blamed this on the fact that she has been detained for more than two years. "I am under arrest. I am one of the living dead", she said "I don't know what I would find in my house".

Repeatedly, Leao simply refused to answer questions on her financial affairs. She is within her right to refuse to answer - but those watching the trial may draw their own conclusion.

She complained of what she regarded as Marrengula's "aggressive" line of questioning. "It's as if she were saying 'Yes! I've got her~!", she alleged.

Judge Efigenio Baptista was not impressed. "This court is not a cat and mouse game", he told Leao.
Algiers  President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune received Thursday Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council Moussa al-Kouni who is on an official visit to Algeria, as part of "the continuous dialogue between the two brotherly countries," according to a communique of the Presidency of the Republic.

"President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune received today the Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council Moussa al-Kouni who is in Algiers for an official visit, at the head of a delegation, as part of the continuous dialogue between the two brotherly countries," the Presidency of the Republic said in a communique.

President of the Republic reaffirmed "the position of Algeria in support of the settlement of the Libyan crisis, enabling the organization of the expected elections, building the State's institutions and rejecting all forms of foreign interference in Libya's domestic affairs," according to the source.

Read also: Moussa al-Kouni: I am in Algeria to brief President Tebboune about my visits to Libya's southern neighboring countries

For his part Moussa al-Kouni emphasized "the total convergence of views with the President on different issues, welcoming Algeria's ongoing efforts in terms of coordination and dialogue to serve the interests of the two brotherly peoples, and the decision of reopening Algeria's embassy in Tripoli, its Consulate in Sabha, Algiers-Tripoli air service and also Ghat and Ghadames routes," added the source.

The meeting was held in the presence of Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad Ramtane Lamamra and Principal Private Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic Noureddine Bardad Daidj.
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.
Liberia - On day two of the return visit of the Finnish Court trying Gibril Massquoi for war crimes the focus continued to be on whether Massaquoi escaped the safe house in Freetown where he was under UN protection in exchange for informing on fellow combatants in Sierra Leone's civil war.

Two witnesses in the court today claimed that "Angel Gabriel", Massaquoi's alleged war time alias, was in Waterside area of Monrovia during heavy fighting, commanding fighters with Sierra Leonean accents on behalf of then-President Charles Taylor in the dying days of the Liberian civil war.

"I saw Angel Gabriel many times," said witness "X6" codenamed by the court to protect him from reprisals. "Sometimes once in a week I saw him, and he replaced Sam Bokari [another RUF commander] when he left. Benjamin Yeaten [a Taylor commander] introduced him as the commander replacing Sam Bokari."

The witness, now 42, is a former fighter who claimed to have been recruited by General "Glassco". He said he met Angel Gabriel at General Bokari's house and on the war front. X6 said he stopped seeing Massaquoi when former President Taylor resigned and went into exile in Nigeria in August 2003.

The war crimes case is at a critical standpoint where the prosecution is trying to prove that Massaquoi escaped UN protection in Freetown to fight on behalf of one of the Special Court for Sierra Leone's key suspects - President Taylor. The idea that a witness under UN protection could escape and commit war crimes in another country is a startling revelation. If the Finnish court finds that is what happened, it will have raise serious questions for the Special Court which convicted more than a dozen combatants from the Sierra Leone civil war.

"If new evidence determines that, though Massaquoi was a high-profile witness, his protection was porous--the next question would be, how wide spread was this practice?" asked Aaron Weah, an expert on transitional justice in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"Transnational transitional justice processes can indirectly amount to a certain form of audit. Whether we like it or not, the Finnish Trial of Massaquoi is undertaking an audit of the Sierra Leone Special Court's application of international law, particularly the practice and enforcement of its witness protection scheme. Like every audit, some transitions are determined to be legitimate and comply with the rules of audit and accounting, while others are determined to be non-compliant, violating the terms of generally accepted accounting principles. If the prosecution finds that Massaquoi witness protection scheme was violated on the watch of the Special Court monitoring, it raises a much bigger question about the Court's integrity and how it impacted on certain outcomes."

The first witness appeared very confident in his conviction that it was July and August 2003 that he saw Massaquoi despite defense efforts to question those dates. He told the court that Massaquoi, after LURD rebels had overtaken several areas from government forces and brought them to central Monrovia, was positioned at the old bridge connecting Vai Town and Waterside. LURD did not attack Monrovia until June 2003. He said other commanders including Generals "Salomie", "Bull Dog" and "Michael High Grade" were also positioned in strategic places in central Monrovia while General Yeaten was at the E.J. Roye Building.

Describing the old bridge area where Massaquoi was based, the witness said he and his group were right under the bridge occupying a wide space.

"Under the bridge is a very wide space hat rocket could not even hit, and they were there cooking their dog meat and other foods," he said in response to questions from Massaquoi's defense lawyer Kaarle Gummerus during cross examination.

According to the witness, he came to know Angel Gabriel when he had taken over from Sam Bokari who was the head of Sierra Leonean mercenaries fighting for Taylor. In response to questions as to whether there were any other names by which the central character of this trial was known, the witness said no.

"I only knew him to be Angel Gabriel," he said. "I was not assigned to him to know all about him. Only his Angel Gabriel name I knew and that's what they used to call him by."

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The witness recounted that he and his commander Glassco visited Massaquoi's based at Waterside and saw General Salomie killing a Liberian.

"When we saw that, General Glassco asked why the killing? And the killer said he was ordered by Angel Gabriel to carry on the execution," the witness said. "The complaint was taken to General Benjamin Yeaten, but when he came, he told the soldiers to be focused because the war was going against them."

The second prosecution witness, codenamed "X7" said he met Massaquoi on a diplomatic mission in Liberia. He said he got a truck belonging to Gibril Massaquoi and was driving it transporting RUF soldiers in Sierra Leone and at the same time goods from Sierra Leone to Liberia.

The Finnish court is in Liberia for the next two weeks. In coming days the court will prove the other key question that prompted its return to Liberia: defense allegations that prosecution witnesses were bribed to testify against Massaquoi by staff at the human rights group Global Research Justice Project.

This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Research Project.
interview

President Alpha Conde's unwillingness to give up power set the stage for a military takeover on 5 September. In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts Vincent Foucher and Rinaldo Depagne show how this latest coup d'etat is part of a worrying trend in West Africa.

Calm has returned to Conakry for the moment, and violence has not broken out in the rest of the country. According to available reports, fighting in the capital has claimed the lives of around ten people, mainly soldiers from the presidential security guard. At the time of writing, President Alpha Conde remains in the custody of the coup's organisers.

Spontaneous street celebrations (sometimes attracting hundreds) broke out in the hours after Conde's removal, particularly but not exclusively in the strongholds of the main opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), in Conakry's suburbs and Labe. The absence of reported protests against the coup indicates that few regret the president's ouster. In 2020, Conde won a third term after a contentious constitutional amendment and electoral process that sparked protests in which dozens of his opponents lost their lives.

In his statement on behalf of the National Rally and Development Committee (CNRD), the executive structure established following the coup, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya ticked all the boxes by calling for national unity, an end to corruption, reconciliation, good governance and respect for the rule of law. He also announced a series of initial measures to strengthen his grip on power and to reassure the international community and the Guinean population.

On the day after the coup, local military commanders replaced regional governors. Government ministries' general secretaries substituted themselves for ministers, who also had to surrender their passports and official cars on CNRD orders. Political adversaries detained for protesting Conde's third term in office are starting to be released. After temporary closure, air borders reopened on 5 September, and the new authorities have dismantled some of the notoriously intimidating checkpoints that had been set up in Conakry after the electoral crisis. Doumbouya has also stated that mining permits - Guinea is heavily dependent on revenues from mineral extraction - are not at risk.

Why did the coup happen?

The putsch was sparked by frictions within the country's military apparatus over recent months and President Conde's loss of legitimacy, a bad situation made worse by his disputed re-election for a third term in office. Competing clientelist interests are rife within the murky security forces; certain groups are even implicated in illicit business, in particular drug trafficking. Under Doumbouya's command, the special forces - set up "to combat terrorism" in 2018 - had become staunch defenders of Conde's regime. They subdued a mutiny in October 2020 in Kindia, and some sources suggest that they also played a part in putting down demonstrations against Conde's third term. But the special forces' rapid increase in power troubled senior government officials. On 1 June 2021, President Conde issued a decree to create a new security unit called the Rapid Intervention Battalion as a counterweight; rumours circulated that Doumbouya had even been arrested. Doumbouya may therefore have led the coup pre-emptively, taking advantage of Conde's eroded legitimacy to protect himself.

Aside from individual motivations, this putsch stemmed from the weakening of Alpha Conde's regime. Its popular support and legitimacy crumbled after the October 2020 re-election. In his attempt to cling to power at all costs, Conde in effect cleared the way for the army to regain control of the country. After serving two terms - the maximum period allowed by the country's constitution - the president decided to amend the constitution. This action triggered a backlash from many Guineans; broad sectors of society as well as members of the international community questioned the validity of his electoral victory.

He responded with extreme repression: following the presidential election, the authorities arrested and imprisoned more than 400 people, several of whom died in custody. Guinea's social and economic situation remains dire, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further increased inequality. Fuel prices rose by 20 per cent in early August, causing a sharp rise in the costs of foodstuffs while high-ranking members of the political regime lead extravagant lifestyles after signing lucrative mining contracts with foreign companies. The extreme fragility of Conde's regime is readily apparent in the ease of his overthrow and the population's complete acquiescence following the plotters' show of force.

What explains the spate of coups in Francophone Africa?

This coup d'etat is the third in Francophone Africa in 2021, following Assimi Goita's putsch in Mali and the anti-constitutional succession in Chad by the late Idriss Deby's son. A third coup attempt, in Niger, was thwarted last March, one day before the president-elect, Mohamed Bazoum, took office. Certainly, successful coups have given encouragement to potential plotters in neighbouring countries.

Theoretically, coups in this region belong to the past: nominally competitive elections now take place on a more regular basis in West Africa, regional and continental institutions running according to democratic principles are stronger, and a policy of "zero tolerance" applies to anti-constitutional changes in government. In practice, however, elected heads of state often seek to retain their grip on power by overriding electoral and constitutional limitations. Putsches have again become viable after the failure of official democratic means to guarantee political alternation or to reinforce governments' legitimacy.

The turbulence affecting institutions in West Africa is reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s, when subaltern military officers challenged ageing and corrupt authorities. In his televised speech on 5 September, Doumbouya even referred to Ghana's Jerry Rawlings, who came to power through a coup in that period and remained in power for the following twenty years.

In Mali and Guinea, international and regional actors seem to be left little choice but to bear such use of force against presidents who have overstayed their welcome and lost credibility, and whose barely democratic methods and style of government are difficult to sustain or reestablish.

Before the coup, Alpha Conde was isolated diplomatically, cut off from neighbouring West African countries, notably Senegal and Nigeria, both very influential within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). After remaining actively engaged with the Guinean authorities during Conde's first two terms, Western international partners - particularly the European Union, France and the United States - were also growing weary of the ousted president's political intransigence and bad faith. The international and regional response to recent events has been simply to condemn the coup on principle. Despite Conde's close relationships with Turkey, China and Russia, it is unlikely that these countries will step in to rescue his regime. Therefore, for want of anything better, this coup will lead to a transition.

What risks does this coup pose for Guinea's future?

As shown by Guinea's history, military regimes (even during transitional periods) often generate a climate of uncertainty and lawlessness. Periodic outbreaks of violence have affected the country in the past, especially after the 2009-2010 military transition when some soldiers gave themselves carte blanche to engage in racketeering and abuses of the civilian population. The country's security forces have a deeply entrenched culture of impunity and violence, and Colonel Doumbouya must now go beyond merely proclaiming his good intentions.

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A counter-coup is also a real possibility. The security forces are unruly and fragmented into competing factions. Doumbouya remains an outsider in the Guinean political and military scene; he is young, relatively unknown and has only recently returned to the country after a career in the French army. The prospect of Conde's succession has already exposed tensions, notably within the president's inner circle.

A political grouping could form an alliance with an army faction and attempt to grab power. Guinea has a record of such situations. When the former general of the army, Lansana Conte, seized power in 1984 following the death of president Sekou Toure, a subsequent counter-coup was brutally repressed. Similarly, after Conte's death in 2008, a fellow officer attempted to assassinate the military junta's leader, Moussa Dadis Camara.

The increasing number of coups and the return of juntas to power is a very worrying phenomenon for West Africa. The Guinean situation should give pause for thought to leaders seeking to retain their grip on power by any means, whether by manipulating electoral systems, amending constitutions, or installing authoritarian regimes that silence opposition figures.

International and regional actors should not simply take notice of this latest coup but also reflect on the dangers of accepting, endorsing or even encouraging for the sake of stability regimes ushered in after flagrant constitutional violations or questionable elections. ECOWAS and Guinea's partners have little choice but to exert intense pressure for rapid reinstatement of a civilian, elected government. They must do everything in their power to prevent the coup's leaders from single-handedly deciding how the transition takes place.

Contributors

BY: Vincent Foucher

Rinaldo Depagne
Nairobi  Kenya has received the second batch of 210,600 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the United States as the country steps up its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The second batch arrived in Nairobi 10 days after the country received the first consignment of 795,000 doses of the vaccine from the US on September 17 in the global campaign to fast track the vaccination of populations against the virus.

"The second donation of 210, 600 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines via COVAX facility arrives in Kenya. We are committed to leading the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating vaccine distribution worldwide," the US Embassy in Kenya said in a statement on Tuesday.

The new arrival is expected to boost Kenya's vaccination efforts as the Ministry of Health targets to vaccinate at least 5.8 million people by October 20 when the country will mark the Mashujaa Day.

On Monday Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the move will bring the country closer to the full reopening of the economy as it targets to vaccinate at least 10 million people by December.

Kagwe called on Kenyans who are yet to be vaccinated to do so and become the country's 58th Mashujaa Day heroes and heroines.

The Health CS stated that the number of people seeking to be vaccinated against COVID-19 had significantly increased and encouraged more to present themselves for the jab.

By September 27, Kagwe said over 3.6 million people had been vaccinated including 889,298 who were fully vaccinated.

"It is encouraging that 3.3 percent of Kenyans are fully vaccinated with 3, 627, 280 vaccines having been administered," Kagwe said on Monday.

Kenya is now deploying five different types of vaccines namely; AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson in its efforts to combat the virus which has resulted in 5,109 deaths since March 2020.

The Chairperson of the National Vaccine Task force Dr Willis Akhwale on said last Thursday the government had not started vaccinating people using the Pfizer doses due to lack of specialized inoculation equipment.

"The Pfizer doses require specialized needles and syringes and these supplies are being delivered next week from the US so that we can start deploying it," said Akhwale.

Dr Akwhale said there are adequate storage facilities for the vaccine and that health workers had been trained in administering the doses as it has been the case with other vaccine types available in the country.

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Kenya reported the lowest coronavirus positivity rate to have been recorded since the beginning of the year at 2.2 per cent after 54 people tested positive from a sample size of 2,501, which pushed cases documented since March 2020 to 248, 515.

Kenya is currently reeling from the negative economic impacts of the virus which has affected livelihoods.

The hospitality industry, tourism and the transport sector are some of the worst hit by the Covid-19 crisis.

The National Tourism Risk and Crisis Management Committee survey report published in June 2020 indicates a massive booking cancellation which dealt a blow to the tourism sector in the country.

About 64.5 per cent of the respondents that took part in the survey reported over 90 per cent of cancellations of existing bookings experienced by their organizations.

The organizations also reported total business closure, increased borrowings and eviction from current premises due to unpaid running costs as other impacts of the pandemic on their businesses.

The report further suggested that the international tourist market was the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic (81.3 per cent), followed by the domestic (64.2 per cent) and regional tourist markets (38.3 per cent).
The Shiites were observing their annual Arbaeen Symbolic Trek in the federal capital, causing heavy traffic gridlock.

About eight persons were allegedly killed on Tuesday when members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shiites, and security operatives clashed in Abuja.

The Shiites were observing their annual Arbaeen Symbolic Trek in the federal capital, causing heavy traffic gridlock.

Arbaeen is a religious practice observed on 20th Safar of Islamic calendar to mark the 40th day of the killing of Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohammed's grandson. He was killed on 10th Muharram.

The peaceful procession, which began early Tuesday morning, allegedly turned bloody when members of the movement clashed with security operatives near Gwarimpa along Kubwa road, leaving some dead while many more sustained severe injuries following sporadic gun shots from policemen and soldiers.

An IMN leader, Abdullahi Musa, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES, alleged that eight members of the group were killed and others injured during the procession following the clash.

He denounced the assumption that that they took to the streets of Abuja to create unrest despite the release of its leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, who was freed by a Kaduna State High Court in July alongside his wife, Zeenat.

Mr Musa, who is the secretary of IMN Academic Forum, explained that the teeming presence of the members of the movement around the axis was never to trouble but in celebration of Arbaeen.

"It is not a protest in any way. If you are protesting, you are agitating. We have protested before in Abuja for the release of our leader (El Zakzaky) but this Arbaeen Symbolic Trek is a global event. It is an annual event held in many places in the world," he said.

"Here in Nigeria, we also hold the event and for the past 20 years we have been trekking on the street in support of the family of the Holy Prophet, Imam Hussein, who was massacred years back.

"Today is the fortieth day after Ashura, and it is celebrated globally. We have been doing this in Zaria until the massacre where they demolished our centres and covered everything, that is why we have come to Abuja," he explained.

Mr Musa said the IMN would have held the procession in the Mararaba area of the Nasarawa State but they were deterred by heavy security presence to avert the eventual attack from the security operatives.

He further explained that they had ended the trek and were near dispersing when the security agents arrived at the scene.

"Yesterday we marched around the Suleja axis, today is the closing day. If you remember today is the 20th day of Arafat. We were not even coming to the city because they occupied everywhere. We decided to march from the modern city Gwarimpa to the Gwarimpa main bus-stop.

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"We successfully marched to that place, we had concluded and we were already dispersing when the combination of police and soldiers arrived. While the police were shooting teargas, the soldiers were shooting at us.

"As I speak to you, we have eight corpses. I can't confirm if they are all our members because you know that place is a public place. There were a lot of people there and it was around 10am when people were trying to get to their offices. They were just shooting, many people sustained injuries, and many of us were arrested," he told this newspaper.

Another member of the group, Adam Abubakar, who escaped the clash, said they were waiting for cars to convey them back to their respective houses after the procession when he saw the team of security operatives firing shots at them.

57 arrested - Police

The FCT Police Command said a total of 57 members of IMN were arrested during the clash.

"The total number of the arrested Shiite members is 57. The males are 39 and the females are 18. None of our security operatives were injured," the Command's spokesperson, Josephine Adah, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview.

Previous protests, processions

Members of the IMN have previously protested about 16 times since 2016 in the federal capital during which they demanded the release of Mr El Zakzaky.

During these protests, they clashed with the security operatives 12 times leading to several deaths and many injured.
The debt covers petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, value-added tax, withholding tax, royalty, and concession on rentals.

Seventy-seven international and Nigerian oil and gas companies currently owe the Nigerian government $6.48 billion (over N2.6 trillion), the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Orji Ogbonnaya, said Tuesday.

He said the debts were a result of the companies' failure to remit petroleum profit tax, company income tax, education tax, value-added tax, withholding tax, royalty, and concession on rentals. He did not provide the names of the companies.

Speaking at the mid-year review and press briefing on the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mr Ogbonnaya said the figure is based on findings in the NEITI 2019 audit reports of the oil and gas sector.

He said the owed money could be useful at a time the government is borrowing money to fund the 2021 budget. The Buhari administration has borrowed from a variety of sources to fund a budget shortfall of over N5 trillion. The latest are multilateral loans totalling $5 billion and $4 billion raised from the issuance of Eurobond last week.

Debt Details

Mr Ogbonnaya said oil and gas companies owe $143.99 million as petroleum profit taxes, $1.089 billion as company income taxes, and $201.69Million as education tax.

"Others include $18.46Million and 972Thousand as Value Added Tax, $23.91million and 997Thousand as Withholding Tax, $4.357billion as royalty oil, $292.44Million as royalty gas, while $270.187Million and $41.86Million were unremitted gas flare penalties and concession rentals respectively," he said.

"A comparative analysis of what this huge sum can contribute to economic development shows that it could have covered the entire capital budget of the federal government in 2020 or even used to service the federal government's debt of $2.68billion in 2020. In 2021, the 2.659 trillion could fund about 46 per cent of Nigeria's 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion and is even higher than the entire projected oil revenue for 2021.

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"This is why it is important that the process of recovering this humongous sum be set on course to support the government in this period of dwindling revenue."

While assuring NEITI is determined to help the government recover this money, he appealed to the companies to ensure that they remit the various outstanding sums against them before the conclusion of the 2020 NEITI audit cycle to the relevant government agencies responsible for collection and remittances of such revenue.

"The NEITI will no longer watch while these debts continue to remain in its reports unaddressed. We will provide all necessary information and data to sister agencies including anti-corruption agencies whose responsibilities are to recover these debts into government coffers.

"NEITI made a commitment that it will ensure that its reports are linked to visible impacts that are measurable. This is one key area where we want to ensure compliance to extant rules on remittances due to the government," he said.
Residents say the bandits arrived at the village minutes before the Muslim early morning prayers, Subhi.

Residents of Sabon Birni in Sokoto State say bandits on Tuesday killed several people and abducted many others in an early morning attack on Gangara community.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the bandits arrived at the village minutes before the Muslim early morning prayers, Subhi.

The bandits also reportedly set houses and shops ablaze during the attack.

A local source, Lawal Kakale, said the number of those killed could not be immediately ascertained.

"It was horrendous. The bandits came in high number and started shooting sporadically. They also went from house to house killing people, especially women and children," Mr Kakale said.

He said some residents fell into a stream in the village while running away from the attackers.

The police spokesperson in the state, Sanusi Abubakar, did not respond to calls and SMS sent to him by this newspaper on the attack.
The Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 has set up a delegation to four states and the FCT to work with the state governments and develop an enabling framework for the enforcement of COVID-19 restriction.

The National Coordinator PSC, Dr Muktah Mohammed disclosed this yesterday at a media briefing in Abuja.

The affected states are Lagos, Kano, Oyo and Akwa Ibom. He said the teams will work with the governments of those states and the FCT Administration for two weeks to develop the framework for implementation.

Mohammed said the need to enforce the COVID - 19 restrictions was premised on the low level of vaccination and low compliance with non-pharmaceutical measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.

He urged that before the country can attain the level of protection from the transmission against the disease, necessary measures, including enforcement must be put in place.

"For the benefit of the doubt, the public protocol remains in operation- curfew from 12midnight to 5 a.m. is still operational, particularly in high priority states and will need to be enforced. People must use face masks in public places and places of worship. certain categories of public places are closed but are now open in some states and need to be closed and this is what our team is going to work on with the state governments to ensure we maintain a level of the epidemic at its lowest. Our effort in terms of restriction has shown that our efforts in terms of compliance to the restriction is very low," Mohammed said.

He, however, stressed that compliance at the point of entry is very high at the airports, seaports and land borders where in anticipation of the third wave, surveillance system had been stepped up.

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He also said the PSC had published the list of over 2,000 travel defaulters, who evaded protocol and quarantine and have suspended their passports.

He also stated that since the restriction commenced in some of the quarantine facilities, data in May have resulted in progressive decline.

In Lagos, the number has reduced from 27 percent to 16 per cent in August, while FCT has seen consistent compliance -with 30 per cent evading quarantine in May while it was nine percent in June and four per cent in August.

Also speaking at the briefing, the Chairman PSC, Mr Boss Mustapha said that over 3.5million doses of Pfizer are expected from the US Government this month while about 4million doses of Astrazeneca are expected early next month.

He said the country will also be receiving over one million doses of J&J shipments on a monthly basis, while assuring the PSC is committed to access enough vaccines for the 70 percent eligible persons in the country in record time.

He expressed dismay at the fraudulent activities perpetuated at the international airports by on-duty staff, who extort money out of those who equally wish to evade quarantine requirement.

Mustapha said the authorities were conducting necessary investigation in to various reports received.
analysis

Governments must act fast to ensure their people are fed and avoid conflict the continent cannot afford.

Since the onset of COVID-19, global food prices have rocketed, putting pressure on the world's most fragile countries. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes that 'soaring prices - and growing insecurity - could foment further social unrest in countries already facing political turmoil.'

The pain could be particularly acute in Africa, where purchasing power and social safety nets are limited, and discontent with underperforming governments is simmering. Current conditions - supply chain disruptions, climatic shocks, rapid spikes in commodity prices and lockdowns - have created fertile ground for unrest.

Africa's informal sector has been ravaged by COVID-19, while fuel prices have risen. Moreover, governments lack the fiscal space to mitigate the impact. As they grapple with hunger, poverty and the pandemic, the risk of violent protest and political instability stemming from rising food prices looms large.

FAO economist Josef Schmidhuber has suggested that people in low-income countries tend to spend more than 60% of their earnings on food, leaving them particularly at risk. As hunger rises, so too does the potential for socio-economic disruption aimed at governments. Abdolreza Abbassian, also an FAO economist, echoed this sentiment, observing that for social unrest to erupt, 'all you need is a little spark. It can be food prices, or energy prices, or simply bad rain.'

This situation has invoked comparisons to the global spike in food prices of 2007/8 that triggered upheavals in over 30 countries, including 14 in Africa. Does history offer a sign of things to come?

The food price situation today is eerily similar to that preceding the 2007/8 global unrest

The situation today is eerily similar to that preceding the 2007/8 global unrest. One striking parallel is the trajectory of staple foods. The FAO's Food Price Index - a composite of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of 'basic' foods including meat, dairy, cereals, vegetable oils and sugar - increased from 94.2 index points to 117.5 between 2007 and 2008. The index saw an even larger increase between August 2020 and August 2021, going from 95.8 to 127.4.

Key structural and cyclical vulnerabilities were inadequately addressed after 2008, as relief was prioritised over reform. These weaknesses have been exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19 and other emerging factors on the global economy. As was the case in 2007/8, the link between food and commodity prices remains pronounced, with commodity-induced changes in input costs making it pricey to bring food 'from farm to fork.'

Climate change and natural disasters are other compounding factors. The La Nina weather phenomenon has adversely impacted major food exporting regions, including those in Africa. On 8 September, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta declared a state of disaster over a drought that scientists attribute to La Nina.

The diversion of food for biofuels also strains general supply, while financial speculation has muddied food production and prices. Perhaps more importantly, though, agriculture and food technology investment has not kept pace with evolving demand and supply patterns.

What makes the present juncture more pressing is the rate of change in food prices. The statistics above indicate that between 2007 and 2008 the FAO's Food Price Index increased by 25%. This is considerably lower than the 33% rise between August 2020 and August 2021.

Investment in agriculture and food technology has not kept pace with demand and supply

Africa's harsh set of social, environmental, economic and political challenges make it ripe for unrest. Pressure on the continent's food system has been worsened by locust outbreaks throughout northeast, east and central Africa when the demand for food is climbing due to a fast-growing population. Farmers have also moderated harvests in light of uncertainty induced by ever-changing COVID-19 regulations.

Unemployment rates in Africa have been upward trending - particularly among the youth, who have borne the brunt of ongoing jobless growth and economic marginalisation. Young people across the continent have become politically engaged, showing a willingness to punish incumbents who are unresponsive to their plight. Zambia's recent polls are a case in point.

African governments are also in a considerably weaker economic position than their peers since the last crisis. Historical overspending and debt accumulation have eroded public balance sheets while remaining fiscal buffers have been exhausted on COVID-19 responses. This means governments cannot cushion civilians against rising food prices and food insecurity, and stave off associated political risks.

Some countries are more vulnerable than others. South Africa - the continent's most developed economy - is particularly susceptible to food-related unrest. A mixture of poverty, unemployment, inequality, bad politics and bad economics has kept the country on edge. Nigeria is also at risk, given that it faces similar headwinds.

Violent protest is one way in which a social backlash against food insecurity can manifest. In places like northern and central Kenya, it could exacerbate banditry, and in Ethiopia, armed groups could target humanitarian resources, thereby worsening the problem.

Innovation along the food supply chain should be strongly incentivised and rewarded

How, if at all, can African policymakers navigate this challenge? There is some low-hanging fruit that governments can pick to moderate food prices and improve food security.

The first is policy certainty and a thoughtful approach to any ensuing land reform, which several administrations are currently pursuing. Any political case for land reform must be carefully balanced with economic imperatives to forgo any further loss of productivity or expertise.

Second, governments need to stimulate productivity and investment in the broad food supply chain. Administrative barriers should be reduced and any taxes or subsidies properly targeted to maximise economic gain without straining public balance sheets.

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Lawmakers should also consider moderating tariff and non-tariff barriers to intra-African trade between net food exporters and importers. The African Continental Free Trade Area agreement provides a solid groundwork for such an intervention. The establishment and bolstering of national and regional food reserve schemes - linked to credit and insurance systems - would also be well advised to smooth price and demand spikes.

Finally, innovation along the food supply chain should be strongly incentivised and rewarded. Africa is home to myriad start-ups at the forefront of developing climate-resilient crops, creating high-yield but sustainable agriculture and aquacultural produce, and reimagining the food supply chain. The transformative potential of start-ups and other entities that engender positive disruption should be harnessed, and paths opened that channel funding and capital to such businesses.

Resolving the food price hike and associated insecurity is an economic, social and political imperative. Given the tenuous position facing African countries, food insecurity could be the spark that lights the tinderbox. To douse it, governments must act fast.

Ronak Gopaldas, ISS Consultant, Director at Signal Risk and Co-founder of Mindflux Training and Menzi Ndhlovu, Senior Country Risk and Political Risk Analyst, Signal Risk
A child receives a meningitis vaccination at the Al Neem Camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in El Daein, East Darfur, Sudan (file photo).

More than 200,000 lives could be saved annually if the goals of a new global strategy to defeat meningitis are achieved, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The first-ever roadmap to defeat bacterial meningitis, aims to reduce deaths by 70 per cent and halve the number of cases by 2030, in addition to reducing disability caused by the disease.

The strategy was launched by a broad coalition of partners involved in meningitis prevention at a virtual event, hosted by WHO in Geneva.

Its focus is on preventing infections and improving care and diagnosis for those affected by bacterial meningitis. "It is time to tackle meningitis globally once and for all - by urgently expanding access to existing tools like vaccines, spearheading new research and innovation to prevent, detecting and treating the various causes of the disease, and improving rehabilitation for those affected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Long-lasting damage

Meningitis is a dangerous inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, predominantly caused by infection with bacteria and viruses.

The most serious form of the disease tends to be caused by bacterial infection. It leads to around 250,000 deaths a year and can cause fast-spreading epidemics, killing one in ten of those infected who are mostly children and young people.

It also leaves one in five with long-lasting disability, such as seizures, hearing and vision loss, neurological damage, and cognitive impairment.

'Anybody can be affected'

Over the last ten years, meningitis epidemics have occurred in all regions of the world, though most commonly in the so-called 'Meningitis Belt,' which spans 26 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, the report notes.

These epidemics are unpredictable, can severely disrupt health systems, and fuel poverty - generating catastrophic costs for households and communities.

"The suddenness, severity and dire consequences of meningitis remain a challenge for all countries of the world," Dr Marie-Pierre Preziosi, Lead for Meningitis and the R&D Blueprint at WHO, said at the Roadmap's launch in Geneva.

"An epidemic can strike anywhere. In recent years [there has been an] epidemic in Kyrgyzstan, in the Philippines, in Chile, to name a few. So this is a global problem, not only in the belt of Africa."

She added that "people living in close proximity, are at a higher risk of this disease, for example, at mass gatherings, in refugee camps, in overcrowded households or in student, military and other occupational settings.

However, "anybody can be affected", Dr. Preziosi warned.

Major 'burden in Africa'

"Meningitis remains a major burden in Africa", reiterated Dr. Andre Founda, Medical Officer for meningitis at WHO's Regional Office for Africa, who was also speaking at the launch.

Dr. Founda called for an adjustment in "risk factors": first of all, "human factors" he said, noting that epidemics occurred in his area because of people working "to extract gold and diamonds". This leads to "overcrowding and people arriving from other countries and provinces". Secondly, he added, "the effects of climate change should be documented".

Following the rainy season, the incidence of the disease in the meningitis belt is low. "We are waiting for a rainy season, but now the dry season still continues", he warned.

'Dangerous disinterest'

The success of many vaccination programmes has "led to a perception in some organisations that the problem of meningitis was over".

But "the numbers and the consequences" show that "this is not the case" Dr Preziosi warned.

Several vaccines protect against meningitis, however, not all communities have access to them, and many countries are yet to introduce them into their national programmes.

While research is underway to develop vaccines for other causes of meningitis, there remains an urgent need for innovation, funding and research.

Efforts are also needed to strengthen early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for all those who need it after contracting the disease, the report stressed. Dr. Preziosi also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a complex effect on many infectious diseases, including bacterial meningitis.

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"There has been a reduction in the spread of many pathogens due to lockdowns and other control measures,". But she warned that "these short-term positive situations could lead to a dangerous disinterest" in the fight against meningitis.

Roadmap priorities

The new Roadmap's priorities for meningitis response and prevention, include achieving high immunization coverage, the development of new affordable vaccines, and improved prevention strategies and outbreak response.

Speedy diagnosis and optimal treatment for patients is also a priority, as well as good data to guide prevention and control efforts, care and support for those affected, and advocacy and engagement, to ensure high awareness of meningitis, accountability for national plans, and affirmation of the right to prevention, care and aftercare services.
press release

Sudan and the UN Human Rights Council Should Work Together to Deliver Reforms

Next week Sudan's human rights record will be discussed at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The session comes at a critical time for Sudan, which is still in a difficult transition period following the ousting of ex-president Omer al-Bashir in 2019.

Just a few days ago, residents of Khartoum woke to the news of a failed coup attempt. Following the event, civilian leaders, including Prime Minister Dr. Abdalla Hamdok, called for key reforms of the country's security forces to be expeditated. But military leaders responded aggressively, challenging their civilian counterpart's ability to carry out such reforms.

The upcoming UN session offers an opportunity for both Sudan and the Council to establish human rights commitments and priorities for the transition government, in line with recommendations in the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' latest report.

Take accountability. While key international treaties have been ratified and a handful of cases involving government force killings of protesters are now before the courts, impunity for serious past crimes remains largely the norm. Justice efforts have been ad hoc, with no clear strategy, and security forces have refused to cooperate in securing of evidence or lifting of immunities in several investigations.

In Darfur, despite the 2020 peace agreement, authorities have failed to deliver security or justice. In al-Geneina, the capital of west Darfur, violence in January and March left over 300 people dead, forced thousands to flee their homes, and resulted in massive property destruction. In September, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sudan raised his concern at the surge in "intercommunal" violence and resulting civilian displacement.

Yet, despite these ongoing challenges, Sudan is seeking to block further reporting by the High Commissioner to the Council on her Office's work in the country. Ongoing abuses and prevailing impunity in Darfur underline the need for robust human rights monitoring. Sudan's authorities, especially the military, should allow regular access for UN and other rights monitors throughout the country, including to Darfur and Kordofan.

The Council should also ensure that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Khartoum has the means and political backing to support key reforms.

Now more than ever, international support and scrutiny needs to be maintained to ensure that those who fought for a better, more rights abiding future are not abandoned.
Juba  At least 40 Afghans have entered South Sudan without following the required legal procedures according to the country's immigration authorities.

Addressing sector commanders on Tuesday morning in Juba, Gen Atem Marol, who heads South Sudan's Immigration, Passports and Civil Registry, said the refugees entered the country illegally.

"My office noticed that there are Afghans who entered the country without [our] knowledge or [following] procedures," said Atem, adding that the foreigners are staying in one place.

Not clear how they arrived

Gen Atem, who said it was not clear how the Afghans entered South Sudan, asked citizens to cooperate with the refugees and provide them the needed reception.

After taking Kabul on August 15, with the president and other top officials leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for state employees, encouraged women to participate in its prospective government, and pledged that Afghan soil would not be a springboard for harming any country.

In late August, Uganda became the first African country to host Afghan refugees after its foreign affairs ministry confirmed having received 51 evacuees.

Uganda said the United States requested it to host "at-risk" Afghans and people of other nationalities who were in transit to America and other nations. It is the largest refugee-hosting nation on the African continent and the fourth in the world, with over 1.5 million refugees.

The vast influx of refugees is due to several factors in countries neighbouring Uganda, especially war and violence in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and associated economic crises and political instability in the region.
Nairobi, Kenya  Female circumcision, known as female genital mutilation, is illegal in Kenya but is still being forced on young girls in some areas. Cases increased after schools closed due to the pandemic, but one survivor is fighting the practice in an ethnic Somali community.

Twenty-three-year-old Yasmeen Mohammed volunteers with Silver Lining Kenya, an organization that champions the rights of young girls and women in Kenya's Garissa County.

Mohammed says her focus is on eradicating the illegal and harmful practice of female genital mutilation, or FGM.

"As someone who has gone through the act, I know how harmful this is," she said.

She and other activists have joined the government's drive to end cases of female genital mutilation.

The number of FGM cases jumped after the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close, particularly in Somali communities in Garissa. Mohammed says the long closure of schools was detrimental to the fight against FGM.

"During COVID, it was a moment of staying together, so that was when parents would realize that these children are growing," she said. "So, for the ones who were young, there is need for them to go through the cut. For the ones who are going through puberty is when you see, 'Oh, this one is supposed to be married.'"

The practice of FGM is illegal in Kenya, with the government pledging to eradicate it by the end of 2022, eight years ahead of the global deadline of 2030.

Maka Kassim, a community leader involved in rescuing girls from the practice, says it still thrives in places like Garissa because of strong cultural and religious beliefs.

"The Somali culture believes, they believe that a girl who doesn't go through the cut, she is like someone who is not clean, she is (an) unclean person," Kassim said. "They also believe that a girl who doesn't go through the cut, she is also not clean to do the prayers."

The Kenyan government's anti-FGM board is leading the campaign against the harmful practice.

The board's CEO, Bernadette Loloju, says keeping schools open is critical to combating the problem, but there are other challenges, too.

"The only big challenge we have is that girls are being taken for the cut at a younger age, when they don't understand what has happened to them," she said. "So, the communities are really coming up with new ways of evading the law."

Still, Kenyan officials say they are hopeful efforts by the government and advocates for the girls will keep the country on track to bring the practice to an end.
Khartoum  Sudan's transitional government is facing the risk of further discord between civilian and military factions, threatening the country's path to greater democracy.

On Sunday, following an attempted coup last week said to have been led by soldiers loyal to ousted president Omar al-Bashir, civilian officials called on the Sudanese people to prepare for protests. They were angered by the withdrawal of their official security guards.

The deterioration in relations between the two sides has pushed the government to its most dangerous tipping point since the overthrow of Al-Bashir two years ago.

The divisions and mistrust are also happening at a crucial point in the transitional calendar: A civilian head is supposed to take over the presidency of the Transitional Sovereign Council, which has been under leadership of the military since August 2019.

As stipulated in the transitional charter, the military and civilian partners in the transitional period are supposed to alternate their leadership of the body that works as the executive until proper elections are held.

Yet the two sides have exchanged sharp criticism in the wake of the coup attempt.

Military leaders accused politicians of criticising the armed forces and failing to govern properly, while civilian officials accused the military of agitating for a power grab.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said that the current conflict is not between soldiers and civilians, but rather between believers in democratic civil transformation and those seeking to sabotage it.

Hamdok added in a speech broadcast on state television on Sunday: "The unity of the revolutionary forces is the guarantee to fortify the transition from all the threats that obstruct its path."

He called on all parties to strictly abide by the constitutional document and to stay away from unilateral positions and to bear their full responsibility.

"There is no retreat from the dismantling of the June 30 regime, because the dismantling of the rescue is a constitutional entitlement that supports civil democratic transformation, and it is an uncompromising goal."

Civilian components of the government, those who pushed the economic protests that eventually led to the ouster of Al-Bashir by the military in April 2019, say they have been vilified.

Members of the Empowerment Removal Committee of June 30, 1989 and Restore Public Funds said on Sunday that they had been informed in the morning that the security forces had withdrawn its protection from the committee's headquarters and 22 of its assets. They added that the soldiers were replaced by police.

The committee, which aims to dismantle the political and financial apparatus of the ousted government, has been criticised by the military leaders participating in the transitional phase and who served under Al-Bashir.

Muhammad al-Faki Suleiman, head of the committee and a member of the joint military and civilian Sovereign Council, the highest authority in Sudan, said that his official security guard had been withdrawn.

Speaking to a large gathering chanting pro-revolution and anti-military slogans at the commission's headquarters, Suleiman asked people to prepare to return to street protests if necessary.

Earlier Sunday, the head of the Sovereign Council, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, said in a speech that the army would not overturn the transitional phase, but he still criticised civilian politicians. "The armed forces have a firm commitment not to turn against the December revolution," Al-Burhan said.

Al-Burhan added that what is rumoured about the intention of the armed forces to carry out a coup was pure fabrication, adding that the armed forces were the ones who thwarted the coup attempt.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, the party that helped lead the 2018 and 2019 uprising that led to the ouster of Al-Bashir, called on Sunday for an end to the partnership with the army.

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They stressed in a statement that protecting the democratic transition requires not returning to the partnership with the Military Council, noting that the civilian state does not antagonise the people's armed forces but rather exalts them as the protector of the homeland and its constitution, and builds a united and significant national army.

Political analyst Muhammad Ali Fazari said that the most important requirements of the current stage is to extend the roots of trust once again in light of the dangers facing the transitional period, including remnants of the former regime.

Since the announcement that a coup attempt had been foiled on September 21, the dispute has escalated between the military and civilians in power.

Sudan is governed by a transitional authority consisting of the military and civilians. It was formed after the overthrow of Al-Bashir's government on April 11, 2019, and is supposed to last 39 months, followed by democratic elections to form a new government.
Addis Abeba  Yesterday and days before the formation of the new government, Filsan Abdullahi Ahmed resigned from her post as Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs citing personal reasons behind her decision.

Filsan, who is a speech and language therapy consultant by training, became known for her stand on issues related to women rights and Ethio-Somali rights. She is the founder of Nabad TV , the first private TV channel in Af Soomaali.

Before being appointed as Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, she was first appointed as Federal Goodwill Ambassador by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. She was appointed as minister on March 12, 2020 replacing Yalem Tsegaye.

Amid pressures and criticism of the ministry's silence on sexual violence on Tigray, she confirmed that conclusive evidence was found that sexual violence occured in the Tigray region. She said in a series of tweets posted on her official twitter account in February, 2021, "We have received the report back from our taskforce team on the ground in the Tigray region, they have unfortunately established rape has taken place conclusively and without a doubt."

She promised to deliver justice and announced the establishment of a taskforce, "As the taskforce included a team from the Attorney General's office, which are currently processing the data in terms of numbers, we await the investigation of these horrible crimes and hopefully see when the perpetrators are brought to justice."

However, in her resignation letter that was addressed to PM Abiy Ahmed and shared on social media, she highlighted the reasons behind her resignation and acknowledged challenges and failures due to financial and bureaucratic strains.

She said, "Despite working through the pressure and strains of any job, I hope you will agree on the importance of the difference between when we should work through challenges and when it is time to leave a position," adding, "Any situation that compromises my ethics, is contrary to my convictions and values, and betraying these beliefs is a breach of trust to myself and our citizens."

Filsan concluded her letter by offering her resignation effective immediately, she said, "For reasons of a personal nature that weigh heavily on my conscience, I regretfully submit my letter of resignation effective immediately." AS
AT least eight people were feared killed, yesterday after unidentified men in military uniform opened fire on some members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, who staged the annual Arbaeen trek at Gwarinpa district of Abuja, the nation's capital, but Police authorities said no life was lost.

Some members of the sect were seen with placards including portraits of the sons of their leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, who were killed during the 'Zaria Massacre' of December 2015.

Viral videos making the rounds of the incident showed several motorists abandoning their vehicles and taking to their heels to escape either gunshots or attacks while banks and other businesses in the affected areas quickly closed shop to avoid looting.

It was gathered that the gunmen attacked the sect members near the tricycle park at 3rd Avenue, Gwarinpa around 10:00 am.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the armed men, who came in security patrol vans stormed the area without prior notice to residents.

Although details of the attack were still sketchy, one of the sources told Vanguard that suspected security operatives killed about eight people, including passersby.

One of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "It was around 10:00am when we started hearing gunshots along the road. The shooting lasted for about 10 minutes. But after the shooting, the gunmen appeared to have succeeded in thoroughly dispersing the Arbaeen trekkers.

"I can't say how many people were killed but we counted eight corpses. What I can tell you is that up to eight people were killed in the incident. Some of the passersby who had nothing to do with the Shi'ites may have also been involved."

Briefing journalists after the sect clashed with security operatives, yesterday, Secretary of IMN's Academic Forum, Abdullahi Musa, confirmed that at least eight Arba'een trekkers were killed at the Gwarinpa district of Abuja, adding that like in previous killings, security agents hid some of the corpses of the slain.

The Shi'ites, however, said that despite the clampdown on their activities, the Arba'een Symbolic trek cannot be stopped for what it stood for.

According to him, the security agencies used excessive force in an attempt to control or stop their religious observance.

He said: "Sheikh Zakzaky's followers started an Arba'een procession from the gate of Gwarinpa model city to the main bus stop, where it was terminated. Those who attended had even begun to disperse when the team of the joint security agents arrived.

"The brutality they meted out on us was of different level. First, they doused people with tear-gas, started shooting live ammunition, and gunning down many.

"Eight were confirmed dead, tens of scores injured and numerous arrested. They even carted away some corpses to an unknown location. A woman, a passer-by, was pierced by an RPG. It was all bare cruelty.

"Despite all the brutality, Arba'een Symbolic trek cannot be stopped for what it stands for. The purpose of the trek is to recall and equally experience the trial and tribulation faced by the Household of the Holy Prophet.

"Today, before the attack on us, the general public witnessed how the Arbaeen trek like those before ended without any attempt to curb the right of safe passage to other road users. No panic was created by our Arbaeen trek."

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But Police authorities later disclosed that 45 people, including 12 females, 32 males and a young boy, were arrested in connection with the disturbances in some parts of the FCT.

A police source noted that the miscreants in their numbers were discovered to have been brought into Abuja from Bauchi, Gombe, Niger, Kaduna and the Borno States among other states in the north purposely to cause mayhem.

The source further disclosed that the DPO of Gwarimpa Police Station was injured by missiles/heavy stones thrown at him, adding that but for the riot helmet the officer was wearing, the situation would have been worse.

When contacted, FCT Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Adeh Josephine, disclosed that operatives of the FCT command have restored normalcy, pointing out that no casualty by way of death had been reported.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, yesterday, said that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is now a cash cow for politicians in the country.

This came as President Mohammadu Buhari commissioned the NDDC office and residential complex for the Special Protection Unit, SPU, of the Nigeria Police Force, in Omagwa, Ikwerre LGA of the state, 10 years after it was abandoned.

The building consist of an administrative block, an armoury, gate house, underground cell, and 66 units of accommodation made up of the commander's residence, second-in-command's residence, and 64 one-bedroom flats.

Wike during the commissioning of the Police Barracks SPU at Omagwa in Ikwerre LGA, said: "NDDC has been a cash cow for politicians. You will see competition over who will be the Managing Director, Executive Director (Finance), Executive Director (Projects).

"These are people who will make sure money is available for politics. You have portfolio contractors from Abuja. Every now and then, the Managing Director will be running to Abuja."

According to Wike, the problem of the NDDC was not just the Niger Delta region but entire Nigeria.

Making reference to the promise by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio that the NDDC would change to meet the aspirations of the people of the region, Wike said it is time for the commission to work.

The governor also took a swipe at some lawmakers in the National Assembly who lobby for which projects to be included in the NDDC budget.

Speaking further, he noted, "I took NDDC to court, and we defeated them. You enter somebody's state, you don't even know the development plan of the state and start distorting the development plan of the state.

"The road you want to do is not your road. You won't liaise with the state to say 'look what project do you want in this state?

"If you ask all the nine states in the Niger Delta and say State A, what kind of project do you want NDDC to execute? We are not interested in who will be the contractor. Our interest is that we are synergising with you so that you don't repeat those things we are doing."

Buhari commissions NDDC housing facility for police

Sole Administrator, NDDC, Effiong Akwa, said on the occasion that, "Project was abandoned for 1o years as all six contractors were being owed for various milestones completed."

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He said the commission under his headship, with the push from the President, was able to complete it against all odds, particularly with the paucity of funds, aggravated by the reluctance of oil firms to remit funding to the commission in defiance of the NDDC Act.

Buhari, represented by Vice President Yemi Osibanjo noted, "Today's event meets two objectives, first, it is an important part of our government's commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of police officers and men. It is also another milestone in my administration's pursuit of the peace prosperity and development of the Niger Delta."

"Establishing adequate security is integral to this objective, which is why we have committed significant resources to project such as we are about to commission.

"This project is a means by which we can alleviate the accommodations challenges for senior security personnel posted to Rivers and ultimately enhance the security footprint in the region.

"The cumulative impact of this and similar projects would be the improvement of security in the stae and consolidation of the economic and social life of the people of this area."

Vanguard News Nigeria
Tunis/Tunisia  Tunisia has started to build a healthy and real democracy, through a set of exceptional decisions and measures, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Othman Jerandi stated on Monday evening at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA76) held in New York.

The country, he added has embarked on the path of rectifying the democratic process in keeping with the Tunisian people's aspirations for a regime that guarantees its sovereignty and defends its rights and freedoms.

Democracy is an irreversible choice, Jerandi affirmed, pointing out that public and individual rights and freedoms are guaranteed and protected.

The FM further indicated that the establishment of a steady State open to all Tunisians is the main condition for social peace and sustainable development.Referring to the situation in Libya, Jerandi asserted that Tunisia will keep up its efforts and its role in its immediate environment and at the regional level to provide the necessary support for the finalization of the political process in this country.

At another level, the Minister called on the UN organisation to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people, deeming the situation in the occupied territories inconceivable.

As for the challenges that the UN organisation has to deal with, Othman Jerandi underscored the need to set up new policies based on solidarity and justice and will help build and resist crises.
Kampala  Insurance firm, GA insurance, has unveiled a new medical cover for senior citizens up to 80 years.

Its Managing Director, Francis Kamau said, the health policy dubbed Graysure will help ease pressure for persons attaining 50 years or on retirement and remains renewable up to the age of 80.

"This is an inpatient medical insurance product that covers the principal member and eligible dependents," he said, adding that the outpatient benefits option is arranged on a self-funded insurance scheme.

The new product covers pre-existing medical conditions, nursing care, intensive care, diagnostic, laboratory or other required medical services including evacuation and referral for overseas treatment.

Other expenses covered includes doctor's bills, anesthetists' bills, operating theatre fees and pharmacy. The policy also offers last expense should the principal member die.

Kamau said, the retired senior citizens' premiums can be paid annually while the pensioners have the benefit of their premium paid from the retirement benefits, with the premium computed on the basis of the member's age and the limit of cover preferred.

Majority of Ugandans who enjoy medical insurance during their work life usually retire with no back up once their employment come to an end.

However, those willing to purchase insurance tends to do so at a very high cost as insurance firms factor in pre-existing conditions, impose many restrictions and charge high prices commonly known as premiums.

This leaves the elderly population to rely solely on their families for medical care in the event that they fall ill.

"GA is keen to provide medical insurance to every demographic segment of the society. Having identified a gap in the needs of the senior citizens it has designed a niche product. Subsequent to research and development the insurer is launching a senior citizens medical insurance product," Kamau added.

This new product comes at the time the proportion of older persons (60 years and above) stands at 11% and it's anticipated to double by 2050 worldwide, according to the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In sub-Saharan Africa, older persons comprise 5% of the population based on the United Nations Population Fund data.

In Uganda, the current population of older persons is estimated at 1.6 million (5% of the population) and it is expected to increase to 5.5 million by 2050, according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics.

Dominic Gidudu Mafabi, State minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development-Elderly Affairs said the new product will eliminate segregation of the elderly in accessing medical services.

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He said the products is well thought, keenly designed and will be a useful tool in the financial planning a head of one's retirement.

"GA has made a prudent decision because most of the savings will be in the hands of the senior citizens and definitely will be able to afford all these products," he said.

The decision could also a lead to a raise in insurance penetration which currently stands at 0.77% - one of the lowest in the East African region.

GA Insurance, with operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, had a consolidated gross written premium of US$75million in 2020 representing a 20% growth compared with the previous year.

The insurer recorded a US$9.1m Profit Before Tax (PBT) and a balance sheet with assets in excess of US$280m.
Women rights organisations have been urged to utilise regional mechanisms to pressure their respective countries to respect and protect the women's right to matrimonial property.

During a Strategic Litigation to Advance Women's Land and Property Rights in Africa - An Analysis of General Comment No. 6 on Article 7(d) of the Maputo Protocol webinar, experts in matrimonial property rights observed the urgency in saving women from inequality in access, use and control of property.

"What stops the women rights' organisations from going to the regional mechanisms like the African Commission? It is possible to do so if (they) cannot get the redress (sought for) at the country level," said Sibongile Ndashe, executive director of Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, the organisation that convened the webinar on Thursday.

Gender neutral

International Federation of Women Lawyers, director, Gladys Mbuya exemplified the situation in Cameroon where although the Constitution is gender-neutral, the customary laws are applied to deny women their right to matrimonial property.

"The Constitution gives a man and woman equal rights to access, enjoy and control of property. One cannot be deprived of property unless it is for public interest and subject to compensation," she said.

"But in the rural communities where they are predominantly governed by customary laws, they always consider registration of land as an exclusive preserve of men... in some customs, widows can only inherit property if they have male children."

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A 2008 United States Department of State annual human rights report for Cameroon noted that in the customary law of some ethnic groups, husbands maintain complete control over family property.

Traditional court

They can also divorce their wives in a traditional court without being required to provide either verifiable justification or alimony.

"Once a husband, who could be many years older than his bride, paid his wife's parents a dowry, the girl was considered the husband's property. When a married man died, his widow often was unable to collect any inheritance, since she herself was considered part of the man's property," the report reads in part.

Ms Mbuya said the status of women's property ownership and inheritance will only change through relentless advocacy by the gender equality advocates.
A few years back, Grace Ngungi took a leap of faith and began pulling down the coffee plants on her 400-hectare farm in Juja, Kiambu County, to replace half the farm with avocado trees.

She went ahead and invested a substantial amount of her savings into buying nearly 4,000 avocado seedlings, confident that the returns on investment would outweigh the cost of production.

"If I was to commercialise the 4,000 trees, with each tree giving me about 200 pieces of avocado which I would sell at Sh44 a piece in the export market, in just the first harvesting season, I would manage a gross return of nearly Sh36 million," says Ms Ngungi.

Like many other farmers who have followed suit, Ms Ngungi made the shift to avocado to increase her earnings. She sought to capture the growing demand of avocado in export markets, demand that has made the fruit a more lucrative export product in comparison to other cash crops.

International market

Indeed, fierce competition among foreign markets has seen the value of products such as coffee drastically decline. While a kilo of coffee in the international market goes for about Sh115, a kilogram of avocado in Europe and the Middle East, where Kenya exports most of its avocado, goes for about Sh800, this, even when the cost of production for avocado is much lower than that of coffee.

Avocado is also easier to grow, does not require much pesticides, fertilizers or insecticides, and unlike other cash crops such as coffee which require a lot of water to grow, avocado can survive even in semi-arid conditions, the kind of conditions you will find in most parts of Kenya.

According to data from the Horticulture Directorate, Kenya produced almost 365,000 tons of avocado in 2019. Ten years prior to that, the country produced only 145,000 tons, a 60 percent jump in production.

While a majority of the avocado produced has been consumed locally, the increase in international demand has seen smallholder farmers (who make up for 80 percent of avocado growers in the country) take a keen interest in the export market. These farmers are now coming together to form lobby groups which will enable them to cut out brokers and fetch better returns for their avocado from the international market.

Harvesting

"Some brokers encourage farmers to harvest their avocados before they are ready for harvesting, telling them that they will be ripe before they get to market. What happens instead is that the avocados rot or harden when they get there. Farmers might sell to the brokers before the avocado is ready for harvest out of desperation," observes Ms Ngungi, adding that farmers are wiser now, having seen that coming together to form structured and secured markets is key to addressing the issues they are facing. The farmer is therefore assured of better prices than those offered by brokers.

Avocado now accounts for nearly half of the country's fruit exports, and nearly one fifth of the country's horticultural exports. In the year 2020, Kenya exported nearly 70,000 tons of the fruit, a 16 percent jump from 59,000 tons exported in 2019, fetching the country Sh14 billion in foreign revenue.

Between January and March this year, Kenya exported 26,481 tons of avocado compared to 15,101 within the same period last year. Indeed, the value of Kenya's avocado exports jumped by 93 percent from what was recorded in Q1 of 2020 to hit Sh4.26 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

Kenya is currently ranked as the eighth largest producer of the avocado fruit in the world. The variety that is mostly grown for the export market is the Hass avocado, as this variety has a longer shelf-life, making it more desirable for the export market.

The avocado export market in Kenya is dominated by five major exporters - Kakuzi, Vegpro, Sunripe, Kenya Horticultural Exporters and East African Growers, but smaller players are now coming in to partake in the fruits of this lucrative market.

Consumed locally

As it stands however, the country is yet to exploit its full potential as an exporter of avocado, as only 10 percent of the avocado produced in Kenya is exported to foreign markets. The majority is still consumed locally.

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Hosea Machuki, the Chief Executive Officer of farmers' lobby group Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK), notes that this could however quickly change as farmers outside traditional growing zones embrace the fruit, thereby expanding the area under cultivation.

"While avocado has previously been grown mostly in parts of Central Kenya, cultivation of the crop has now shifted to other areas such as Western Kenya and Rift Valley, where farmers are uprooting tea plantations to reap more revenue from avocado," says Mr Machuki.

He, however, notes that the full potential amongst small holder farmers is still inhibited by constraints which arise from lack of sufficient capital to purchase and grow high quality avocados and also to participate in export markets.

"Integration with export markets remains a difficult barrier for individual smallholder farmers to overcome. Usually, these farmers have to incur the initial production and shipping costs on their own then wait weeks to be paid for their produce," he notes.
Ms Doris Muronga was working in Kenya before she lost her job. And since she could not secure another employment, she ventured into entrepreneurship that also did not pan out as planned.

"Sometimes, Kenya can be very hard to get a job if you are not connected. So I decided to go to Dubai, where I did not know anyone," Ms Muronga who holds a Bachelor of Commerce (finance option) says.

"Literally, I just asked someone how I can book a visa for Dubai and then someone who was in Kenya but previously in Dubai told me how. I booked my visa and then my ticket and I went to Dubai without knowing anyone. Within two months, I got a job," Ms Muronga who is in her 30's says.

When she arrived in Dubai, she worked in the hotel industry as a waitress at the JW Marriott despite having not majored in the realm.

Within 11-months she quit and started working in the corporate world where she did marketing in other countries.

Her advice is that as long as you have a skill and are willing to work, Dubai offers numerous opportuni - ties. "It is easier to get a job in Dubai than in Kenya," she says. However, she says Covid has made job opportunities in the Gulf nation scarce.

"There many opportunities especially in the hotel industry because Dubai is a tourist attraction. So definitely you will get more jobs in the hotel industry and they pay way better than Kenya. For example, a waitress in Dubai gets Sh70,000 (2,000 dirhams per month) with accommodation, transport and food.

In Dubai, there is no income tax." However, it also comes with its own challenges such as being away from your own family, competition and high cost of living.

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To help others, Ms Muronga started a Youtube channel (Doris Muronga) in 2019 that offers Kenyan tips on the job, business, and personal life in Dubai.

"I started using Youtube to learn how to use LinkedIn because all my jobs I got from LinkedIn. So I started researching for staff on Youtube and I realised that I have learned a lot over the time and I just wanted to help people," says Muronga.

She says the response from the channel has been overwhelming across the continent as she receives feedback from anonymous people how her channel has helped them get jobs.

Ms Muronga adds that there are many strategies for looking for a job in Dubai from Kenya such as the use of agency, LinkedIn, coming to Dubai on a three months visa, and Gulf Talent, a job browsing site.
At the Cheptiret junction on the Eldoret-Nakuru highway sit the ramshackle buildings of a police post, which, like any such base, is a hive of activity.

The station initially housed more than 30 Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) officers. It became a police base in 2014 when the government transferred the ASTU after locals demanded their removal on claims that they had assaulted Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.

After a decade of service to residents and travellers, the station is in a deplorable state.

And the reason is even more startling.

The government, the Nation has established, cannot develop the station because of a land ownership battle between a local farmers' cooperative society and the Ministry of Interior.

"It is painful to see how officers at this station suffer, especially during the rainy season. Their already rotting houses are always flooded. Sometimes the houses leak from underground," said David Maiyo, a local community leader.

Although the station plays a crucial role in the security of the area, he said, the living conditions have demoralised officers.

Because members of the cooperative society cannot agree among themselves, the government's plans to buy the land have stalled.

The Cheptiret station is not the only case in Eldoret where police work as 'squatters' - officers at the mercy of private land owners and whose workplace welfare cannot be assured because the government does not own the land they live on.

The situation is the same at the Huruma Police Station on the same highway, about five kilometres from Eldoret.

The Huruma station is on private land and the government cannot embark on any long-term development projects there.

Though the station has been hailed for reducing crime in the densely populated slums of Huruma and Shauri, its state is shabby.

Officers also detain suspects at the Central Police Station, more than five kilometres away and struggling with its own traffic.

"Despite the officers' good work in the fight against crime in Huruma and Shauri estates, the station has no standard cell to hold suspects," said Eunice Naliaka, a resident of Huruma.

The private developer who owns the Huruma station land won a court order several months ago to evict the officers.

"It is almost a year since we received an eviction order, but it is ironic that the same police officers we are evicting are the ones to enforce the order," said Emmanuel Towett, a caretaker of the land, summing up the situation.

Mr Towett, who also hailed the officers for the good work they do, said that the government should engage the owner and reach a purchase agreement.

"My boss has always been ready to sell the property to the government, but the government has been reluctant," he said.

"As a resident who is a beneficiary of the services of these officers, I will be happy to see them living a decent life when the government buys this property and establishes modern infrastructure for them."

The owner is a private developer who had hired officers to guard construction materials at the site before it was turned into a full police station with a commander (OCS).

This is the case for more than five newly established police stations in Uasin Gishu County.

A majority of them are squatter stations while some are not receiving development funds from the government.

The Kondoo Police Station sits on no-man's land, with villagers criss-crossing the unfenced base at will.

Officers have had to improvise, turning two benches made from twigs into a customer desk.

At the report office, there is no barrier between the officers and members of the public, exposing the officers to various forms of attack.

At the Tembelio Police Station in Moiben, there is a tug of war between the area chief and officers, who occupy offices belonging to the chief and hence dislodging the administrator.

Attempts by the chief to prevail upon police to relocate to their plot, which is yet to be developed, have failed.

"How will we move to a maize plantation with no infrastructure?" wondered a senior police officer at the station, who did not want to be named.

"If a complainant comes to lodge a complaint, he will be greeted by ugly bags of sand and a mash of razor wire at the entrance of the police stations," he said.

He added that police stations and posts are in rented buildings that are usually private homes that are not fit for police operations.

A spot check by the Nation revealed that the conditions of six police stations in Uasin Gishu are extremely poor and lack even basic facilities.

"It is unfortunate that Huruma police lack basic facilities, including modern toilets, restrooms and space for complainants," Ms Naliaka said.

Uasin Gishu County Police Commander Ayub Gitonga, who admitted that some stations are in a pathetic state, said the government cannot develop the stations as it doesn't own the land on which they sit.

But he said stakeholders are working together to acquire title deeds for affected police stations and posts so as to give the stations facelifts.

"It is true some of the police stations that you have mentioned here need immediate construction, reconstruction, repair and renovation from a security point of view," he said.

"However, we need locals and the government to work together by donating land so as to offer appropriate aid that is required to establish a permanent police station."

He gave the example of the Kesses Police Station, where he said construction was underway after the government and other stakeholders purchased a two-acre plot for the base.

He revealed that some police stations will get a facelift after the national government issued money rebuilding stations, such the Kondoo one.

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"Stations like Kondoo will soon get a facelift. There are funds from the national government that are going to be channeled to the construction of Kondoo and other stations that sit on legally acquired land," Mr Gitonga said.

Mr Gitonga said a majority of the stations with infrastructure problems were established as emergency bases, especially after the 2007-2008 post-election violence and the government has embarked on improving them.

He admitted that there are some stations with no gender desks and child protection units, promising that the issues will be addressed.

He welcomed private developers and local leaders to support the National Police Service so as to improve standards at police stations in the county.

He hailed local leaders who have used money from the National Government Constituency Development Fund to support construction and equip police stations in the county.

Meanwhile, he reassured residents that no police station will be closed as the government is in the business of bringing services closer to the people.

"Residents of Uasin Gishu should not be worried about the closure of some of the affected police stations. No police station will be taken away. Let them support us to serve them well," Mr Gitonga added.

Security experts believe that poor infrastructure undermines police efficiency and services.
West Pokot and Turkana counties are changing their strategies on tackling an endemic disease affecting goats and sheep.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease, also known as ovine rinderpest, is characterised by cough, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.

It is highly contagious, with between 80 percent and 100 percent mortality rates in acute cases.

Turkana Pastoral Economy Executive Philip Aemun said that the county was embracing a multifaceted approach involving the private sector, local agro vets and community livestock disease reporters, as it seeks to meet the goal of global eradication by 2030.

A county free of PPR, he said, will help tackle poverty and vulnerability among locals, most of whom rely on goats and sheep for their livelihoods.

"Due to the vastness of the county, a shortage of vaccines, livestock movement across county (and country) borders ... as well as mostly logistical challenges in carrying out vaccinations remain the main obstacles for PPR prevention and control," he said.

With the help of local disease reporters and support from relevant government agencies and development partners, he said, the county will fully embrace a well-coordinated vaccination drive against PPR.

Mr Aemun said they will work with local agrovets to strategically invest in PPR vaccine banks so as to provide pastoralists with timely and affordable access to high-quality vaccines.

He said the endemic disease and the drought are the greatest threats to livestock in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya.

But the biggest weapon for the two counties is vaccination.

Last week, the United States pumped 2.5 million euros (Sh323 million) into a vaccination programme against the disease.

USAid, through the Tufts and Florida universities, will lead the four-year free vaccination programme, called the Vaccine Achievement Award. It targets areas on the Kenya-Uganda border, North Pokot and Central Pokot sub-counties.

Phase one of the programme will use 500,000 doses of the PPR vaccines.

Tufts University veterinarian Jeffrey Mariner said that the programme seeks to curb the spread of diseases that are rampant in the region.

The new model, he said, will focus on engaging with community-based stakeholders and offering capacity building for cattle keepers so that they can vaccinate their livestock themselves.

"It will incorporate farmers who will vaccinate their livestock. The new model shall use a combination of tools and approaches, which proved successful in the rinderpest eradication, including the thermostable vaccine, community participation, and use of modelling to target areas with the highest disease transmission," said Mr Mariner, who said a similar programme was underway in 62 other countries.

Speaking on Thursday in Kamla, Kacheliba, North Pokot sub-county, during the planning meeting and training of farmers, West Pokot County veterinary services Director Samuel Chelimo said they want to achieve over 80 per cent vaccination of goats and sheep.

Re-emergence of diseases

"We are using village elders, chiefs, assistants, ward administrators, assistant county commissioners and other stakeholders. We shall deliver the vaccines to the farmers," he said.

Dr Chelimo said that they are targeting cross-border areas and North and Central Pokot sub-counties.

"This disease is bad because it wipes out all livestock and we must control it," he said.

In Turkana, the director of veterinary services, Dr Benson Long'or, said that with support from Veterinaires sans Frontieres Germany (VSF-G) through funding from the European Union Trust Fund a strategic drug store was established in Lokamarinyang village, near the Kenyan border with Ethiopia, to ensure strategic prepositioning of livestock drugs and vaccines along migratory routes.

Dr Longor said the store seeks to enhance response and control of diseases on the border with large herds of livestock in the village, which is also near Kenya's border with South Sudan and a strategic livestock migratory route recognised by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) and the Centre for Livestock Development.

"The store is located in a village with a high concentration of all kinds of livestock, including goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys and camels, and when they come into close contact during drought or as a result of insecurity there is always the emergence or re-emergence of diseases like PPR. More investment in such drug stores with cold chains for storing vaccines will be critical," he said.

Silo Agrovet proprietor Elizabeth Lokolio, who is managing the drug store under a public-private partnership, said that pastoralists have had difficulties accessing drugs from Lodwar or Kakuma or fall victim to quack vets who sell substandard drugs.

She said that if more drug stores are decentralised at known migratory routes, with proprietors working closely with veterinary officers to offer extension services, pastoralists will be assured of quality animal health services to safeguard livelihoods.

Kibish sub-county peace building officer Achegei Abdi Adan welcomed the move, noting that conflict over pasture and water on the border of Kenya and Ethiopia has been a major hindrance to disease control.

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To embrace the initiative, the county government and local authorities in Ethiopia are banking on elders who have established peace committees to embrace homegrown solutions and weed out rivalry to attract government services like livestock vaccination and treatment.

Speaking at an event in Kangaten Warida, Ethiopia, that was supported by the Turkana County government and Pact International, Mr Adan urged the Nyangatom and Turkana communities to end animosity and embrace peace as the key component of transformative development.

County Secretary Peter Eripete said peace and healthy livestock will translate to cross-border trade that will open the Kenya-Ethiopia border to meaningful development.

Lokori/Kochodin, Kapedo/Napeitom and Katilia wards in Turkana East sub-county were singled out as the latest areas hit by the disease.

Simon Pringan, a herder in Ngilukia village, said that he had lost 22 goats to the disease, which he said was characterised by fever, coughing, sores in the mouth, diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Some of the goats had discharges from the eyes and nose, which sometimes formed a crust, making breathing difficult and forcing eyes shut.

The county government, in a partnership with USAid's Feed the Future and the International Livestock Research Institute, has issued smartphones to disease reporters as part of an innovative community-led syndromic livestock disease surveillance.
A former Mau Mau freedom fighter has suffered a blow in his bid to recover 13 land parcels that he claims were taken from his family by the British colonial government.

Joseph Ngacha Karani, in a case at the High Court in Milimani Nairobi, said the land is now in the possession of the Burhani Foundation.

He wanted the court to revoke the titles registered in favour of Burhani, its partners and subsidiaries and declare that the land belongs to him and his family.

But Justice Anthony Mrima struck out the case, saying Mr Karani's claim should be addressed either before the National Land Commission (NLC) or in the Environment and Land Court (ELC).

The judge said the High Court's Constitutional and Human Rights Division does not have the authority to deal with the dispute.

Justice Mrima found that the gist of the petition is ownership of the land allegedly on the grounds of historical injustices.

"Section 13(7) of the Environment and Land Act empowers the (ELC) court to make any order and grant any relief as it may deem fit and just, including; interim or permanent preservation orders including injunctions, prerogative orders, award of damages, compensation, specific performance restitution, declaration, or costs. Those are the very orders the Petitioner seeks in the Petition," said the judge.

Mr Karani argues that the colonial government deprived him and his family of their ancestral land because they participated in the armed resistance against the British.

In his October 29, 2020 petition, he stated that the colonial government evicted him and other Mau Mau rebels from their land and forced them into native reserves.

When they returned to their ancestral land after independence, they found that it had been subdivided and was being occupied by unknown foreigners.

His efforts to have the governments of Kenya and Britain restore land to Mau Mau fighters, as well as livestock and wealth lost during the colonial era, have been futile.

The petition claimed the family's constitutional rights to property had been violated. He contended that Burhani and others became illegal occupants as a result of illegal acquisition and fraudulent subdivision of the original property.

As such, he said, the occupants are liable to relinquish the land to him, stop demanding rental income and compensate him and his family for the money they have collected from the parcels over the years.
A peace initiative targeting university students has been launched ahead of the start of official campaigns for next year's general election.

The initiative by BridgeAfrica will see the students play a key role in changing the political landscape by spreading the message of peace and harmonious co-existence.

Youth in the country have been involved in political violence and conflicts every election cycle where they have been featured as targets, perpetrators as well as direct victims.

Consequently, BridgesAfrica Chief Executive Officer Belinda Odek explained that the aim of the campaign is to do away with political violence by changing the mind-set of the youth.

This as they aim to have a civilised society in terms of how people interact with each other where politics can be talked about without insults being thrown about or people resorting to violence, she added.

Already, she said, they have mapped out regions that are heavily affected by political violence including the Rift Valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and Central, and aim to expose more people to their campaign.

Sensitive

She pointed out that political conversations are sensitive, especially in Kenya, and how someone gets involved matters a lot.

"The moment we start talking about politics it boils down to which political party one supports, what tribe one is from. We need to change this. This is the aim of this project," said Ms Odek.

"With these norms we are instilling on the youth, we hope they will be able to change their mind-set and how they see leadership and governances."

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She said that the campaign will start with the university students but with time, the scope of the project will be widened to reach everyone in the country.

"We will not limit this to just students but expand to reach the local leadership of the regions we will be at. Our aim is to learn how to foster issue-based dialogue by shifting focus from politics to the problems that affect us and in the end, this will bring peace," she said.

Tap into the youth

Ms Odek decried how the society has lost the ability to converse with each other, saying that as BridgeAfrica, they hope to tap into the youth, who form a majority of Kenya's population, to develop constructive and empathetic "leaders of tomorrow".

"We chose university students because they will leave campus and become the leaders of tomorrow. By teaching them how to talk to each other, we hope to finally change the political landscape in the country," said the BridgeAfrica CEO.

The project will teach the students how to have constructive conversations tapping from norms that govern their platforms with rules like not interrupting someone when they are talking, not critiquing the person but their perspective.

"We are teaching people to focus on the issue that is being discussed as opposed to focusing on the person who is talking," Ms Odek said.
Kenyans reduced mobile money deposits by 16.1 per cent between March and June this year as the rising cost of living exerted fresh pressure on household budgets.

Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) quarterly data to June shows that the total value of mobile money deposits fell to Sh1.018 trillion, down from Sh1.213 trillion deposited between January and March.

But this means there was also less money available to send, which saw individuals cut their spending by 8.8 per cent to reduce the value of customer-to-business money transfers from Sh1.08 trillion to Sh988 billion. Business-to-business transfers also fell 3.7 per cent to Sh1.7 trillion from Sh1.77 trillion in the previous quarter.

The highest drop, however, was in the cash transferred by the government-to-individuals, which fell 20.4 per cent in the quarter to Sh2.6 billion from Sh3.3 billion, as the State rolled back on many of its social relief programmes for vulnerable groups most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the amount of money sent by individuals to the government for services also dropped to Sh11.5 billion from Sh12.1 billion, a 4.6 per cent dip. Person-to-person transfers grew 4.1 per cent to reach Sh1.01 trillion, up from Sh970 billion in the previous quarter.

Mobile money services

"Business digitisation has led to increased adoption of mobile money services. During the period under review, the total number of active registered mobile money subscriptions rose by 4.7 per cent to stand at 34.7 million.

Similarly, the number of agents grew to 283,357 from 275,907 recorded during the previous quarter," said the CA.

"The year-on-year comparison showed a significant growth in mobile money transfer services, mainly attributed to the increased uptake of digital payments by consumers in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19," it said.

At the same time, incoming international mobile voice calls fell 16.9 per cent from the financial year 2019/20 to 2020/21 as business and individual travel ground to half for several months last year, cutting inbound calls to 471 million minutes from 567 million minutes in the previous year.

However, outgoing international voice calls grew 11.3 per cent to 507 million minutes from 455 million minutes during the period, while incoming and outgoing international mobile SMS fell 6.9 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively.

Revenue from voice retained its spot as the largest revenue stream for telecom companies, contributing to 35.8 per cent of the Sh280.1 billion in revenue, which grew 1.3 per cent from the previous year, generated by the sector, revenue from data contributed to 24.7 per cent, while SMS contributed the least revenue at just 5.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the use of landlines shrunk 1.9 per cent to stand at 5.4 million minutes, down from 5.5 million minutes as Kenyans shifted further to use of portable mobile phones for calling.

Mobile services

"During the review period, there was a general decline in local fixed network traffic. The convenient and reliable nature of mobile services has encouraged consumers to increase their uptake for such services and operators to shift their investments from fixed to mobile voice infrastructure," CA said.

On the other hand, shift to working from home due to pandemic-induced restrictions has seen a rise in data subscriptions, which have grown 6.8 per cent over the past quarter, with mobile data subscriptions accounting to 99 per cent of all data subscriptions.

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"In order to maintain physical distance during the Covid-19 pandemic, ICT platforms originally designed and employed for other distributed uses are repurposed to maintain social connections, provide distributed services, continue to meet business needs, and for virtual education. This has resulted in increased uptake of ICT services and especially broadband services," the telecommunications regulator said.

But the shift to remote working has seen a rapid rise in cyber-attacks as cyber criminals target vulnerable company systems as workers shift work devices away from secure office security systems to infect them with ransom ware and other malware.

"This increase in cyber threat events detected is attributed to the significant increase in targeted attacks at Internet of Things (IoT) devices; increased activity by organized cybercrime groups... and increased adoption of botnet and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack techniques," CA said.
In western Kenyan villages, children are traditionally given chicken legs or wings, sometimes even soup as they fall behind the line in the pecking order of the family meal.

The best they can do is steal eggs and eat them but that comes with nasty consequences.

Small suppliers have always ended up with the shorter end of the stick as banks rush in to secure their interests by placing collapsed firms under receivership.

Covid-19 has pushed several businesses into insolvency sparking a fight to recover debts from lenders, suppliers, the taxman and even pension institutions.

Several companies have been placed under receivership including General Printers, Kaluworks, Phoenix Publishers, Britania Foods, Nakumatt Holdings, Midland Energy, ARM Cement and Deacons East Africa, Mumias Sugar, Karuturi and Multiple Hauliers.

Under the new Insolvency Act 2015, those under financial distress have been using the legislation to ensure they remain a going concern as opposed to an outright liquidation.

But once the company is liquidated, secured creditors are paid first, which means banks usually get their money ahead of smaller creditors.

General Printers

The tide may be turning after a small creditor stopped I&M and NCBA from placing General Printers under receivership for a Sh2.7 billion loan in a fight over the property of the distressed company.

Desbro Kenya, which is owed Sh36.4 million wants to appeal a court decision that stopped it from auctioning assets of the company. Desbro had obtained orders to sell nine vehicles belonging to General Printers before banks realised the company was in trouble.

The two lenders rushed to court to stop the auction and won a case arguing the firm's movable property is attached to their loans as secured creditors.

I&M appointed a receiver but Desbro Kenya wants its appeal heard before the banks can sell off the property and pay themselves arguing that this case preceded the appointment of a manager.

"Desbro Kenya noted that the administrator appointed herein may proceed to dispose of the previously proclaimed goods in the exercise of his statutory powers so as to settle the secured creditors' debts and it will be left without any other way to recover the decretal sum due to it from the Defendant," Judge Ngenye-Macharia said.

"In the upshot, I find that the plaintiff's application dated 25th May, 2021 is meritorious," he said.

Once a receiver is appointed, no creditor can attach a company's property allowing for stock to be taken before assessing whether a firm can be revived or not.

But in Kenya, administration and receivership have not yielded the best results for some of Kenya's biggest firms in the recent past. Retail chain Nakumatt, construction experts Spencon, flower firm Karuturi and cement maker ARM all went down after being placed under administration or receivership.

When a company fails to recover forcing it into liquidation, administrators seek to dispose of the company's property and distribute the proceeds to creditors.

Creditors are to be paid from sale of the distressed company assets. However secured lenders such as banks rank higher than supplies and other unsecured firms when settling debts.

Smaller creditors

"Generally, secured creditors holding floating charges and preferential creditors will be paid ahead of ordinary unsecured creditors," CMS law said.

This has seen banks rush to appoint receiver managers on firms they have lent to avoid asset stripping by smaller creditors when companies go bust. But Desbro was not to be outdone, it obtained an order to recover its money and issued a notice to auction the movable property.

I&M, which had lent the company Sh927.1 million in 2015 and Sh389.8 million in 2019 stopped the auction. NCBA, which had also lent General Printers Sh1.3 billion and $1.4 million in 2012 also joined the case. The banks said that General Printers owed other creditors a further Sh402 million and granting Desbro orders to attach property would open floodgates where small creditors could jump the line and strip the firm before secured lenders.

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"It was noted that General Printers is indebted to various creditors to the tune of Sh402,688,976.40 and urgent orders are necessary to restrict such creditors from proclaiming, attaching, selling, advertising for sale, disposing of, transferring, selling by public auction or in any manner whatsoever dealing with the assets of the defendant company described in the said debentures," I&M said.

Desbro director Suman Kumar Sennik wants to argue in his appeal that the secured lenders rights should not have been allowed before the existence of a receiver manager.

He said since he proclaimed General Printers goods before such appointment his rights over the proclaimed goods ranked in priority to those of the two banks irrespective of whether or not the proclaimed goods have been attached and sold.

"The learned judge erred in law and misdirected herself when she failed to find that a floating charge can only crystallise through appointment of a receiver and/or administrator," he said.
It is the duty of banks and other lenders to ascertain whether a property offered as collateral for a loan is matrimonial, a High Court judge has ruled.

Justice Joel Ngugi noted that without formal consent from one spouse, lenders are obliged to establish the status of property registered in the name of the other partner before agreeing to charge it.

Financial institutions, he ruled, must perform their due diligence to confirm the unregistered equitable rights of the other spouse, and failure to do so makes the charge invalid.

"Where a bank fails to carry out reasonable due diligence or otherwise acts negligently or fraudulently in not discovering or averting its mind to the unregistered equitable interest of a party to a parcel of land, any charge registered in favour of the bank is invalid," Justice Ngugi noted.

Sh5 million loan

The court made the ruling in a case where a woman sought compensation after Barclays bank auctioned her matrimonial home in a bid to recover Sh5 million loaned to her husband without her knowledge.

The man had used the title deed for the land where the house sat without her consent.

In the case, filed in 2009, high school teacher Lucy Muthoni Njihia told the court that she married agriculturalist Charles Njihia in 1976 and they both embarked on building a home in Nakuru.

The couple took out loans from Barclays and Housing Finance Company of Kenya. The land was registered in Mr Njihia's name.

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The couple lived together happily and had five children, court documents show.

But on December 11, 1998, Mr Njihia secretly took a Sh5 million loan from Barclays and failed to repay it fully, prompting the bank to seek to auction the home in 2009.

Eviction order

To save her home, Ms Muthoni rushed to court seeking to halt the auction pending the hearing of a case she had filed.

But the bank obtained an eviction order from a magistrate's court in 2011 and the property was sold by auction. The eviction was halfway through when an Environment and Land Court judge quashed the orders.

Ms Muthoni had sought Sh22.3 million in compensation for loss and damages caused by the auctioneers.

Justice Ngugi found the bank liable for the losses because it had failed to ascertain Ms Muthoni's rights and equitable interests. He ordered the lender to pay Sh2 million in damages.
Kampala  United Bank for Africa Uganda (UBA) has been appointed a primary dealer bank by Bank of Uganda with effect from October 1, 2021.

As such, UBA will now lend government money on behalf of the public and in exchange, provide Treasury Bills and Bonds as collateral, in the primary market auction.

The bank will be expected to facilitate the buying and selling of Treasury Bills and Bonds to investors, who do not have access to the primary market. This is referred to as the secondary market.

Commenting on the appointment, the UBA Uganda Managing Director Chioma A. Mang said this is an exciting development for UBA Uganda.

"We will be able to offer clients competitive rates for Government Securities and also contribute to the development of the Money Markets in Uganda," She said.

"This appointment also demonstrates the confidence the Central Bank has in UBA. I encourage the public to take up this opportunity being offered through UBA, to invest in treasury bills and bonds and grow their money."

UBA is the 8th bank to be appointed as a Primary Dealer bank in Uganda. Other primary dealer banks are; Absa, Baroda, Centenary, DFCU, Housing Finance Bank, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
The Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) has moved four cheetah cubs found abandoned in Mandera to Nairobi Animal Orphanage.

The four cubs were rescued within the Shimbir Fatuma area and taken to Takaba (Mandera West) before being airlifted to Nairobi.

"We received a report on the presence of cheetah cubs within the Mandera South area from a herder and found them abandoned by their mother," KWS Mandera Warden Abdikadir Adan said.

According to Mr Adan, the mother cheetah could be dead after it failed to show up for its young ones for about three days.

"We were informed that for about three days, there were no signs of the mother checking on her cubs and after we arrived, we stayed in the area for about 24 hours but still we could not trace the mother," Mr Adan said.

He said it was abnormal for the mother cheetah to wander far away from her cubs.

A cheetah can also abandon its cubs when there is shortage of food supply.

Looked weak

Mr Adan said the cubs are estimated to be less than two months old and that they looked weak when they were found.

Cheetahs are usually solitary animals with males and females only coming together to mate. Females raise the cubs on their own.

A cheetah has a gestation period of 90 to 95 days and gives birth to a litter of approximately three to five cubs weighing about 250 grams each at birth.

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Mr Adan lauded the herder for rescuing the cubs.

"We appreciate this good gesture by this herder who found these cubs and called us. We need to take up the responsibility of conserving our wildlife and that is what is happening across Mandera," he said.

The four cubs were flown to Nairobi by Mr John Wambua, the assistant director of northern conservation area.

The Nairobi orphanage serves as a treatment and rehabilitation centre for wild animals. It hosts lions, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals, several cats, rare sokoke cats, warthogs, leopards, various monkeys, baboons and buffalos.

Mandera parks

In Mandera, there is Malkamari National Park and Chachabole conservancy but the two, despite being gazetted, are yet to start functioning fully.

Malkamari was gazetted in 1989 but no active conservation management activities have taken place in the park.

The park, which is approximately 900 square kilometres, remains probably the least visited national park in the country due to regular clan conflicts around it.

Situated along the Dawa River on the Kenya-Ethiopia border, the park has been cited as the cause for inter-clan clashes pitting the Garre and the Degodia clans in Mandera County.

"We are in the process of establishing three more community conservancies in Mandera in our bid to increase space for wildlife," Mr Adan said.

The Mandera KWS office is faced with challenges including lack of vehicles for patrols. The only vehicle was reduced to ashes in June after suspected Al-Shabaab militants hit it with an explosive, killing at least two people.
The federal government has commended the positive contributions made by insurance operators in the economy and the lives of Nigerians.

The industry received the commendations from President Muhammadu Buhari at the recent African Insurance Organisation's conference held in Lagos.

In recent time, industry observers said Insurance operators have moved beyond their core responsibility of mitigating risks to providing supports to government activities, of which has helped refueled the relationship between the sector and the government.

President Buhari who was elated by the roles played by the operators had in the past applauded the operators and recently reiterated his delight on contributions being made by the operators to the economy.

Speaking virtually at the recently held 47th African Insurance Organisation (AIO) Conference and Annual General Assembly, in Lagos, the President, thanked the insurance operators for successfully putting the conference together, adding that, the discussions held at the conference were germane and critical in helping Nigeria and Africa rebuild.

He also recalled the gesture made by the operators at the peak of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

"I once again use this opportunity to commend the Nigerian Insurance industry for identifying with the government through the provision of life insurance set of packages for frontline medical and paramedical personnel in the course of this fight. Your support and solidarity in these times are highly appreciated," he said.

On the AIO conference, President Buhari, submitted that there was a great future for insurance industry in Africa and urged insurance firms in Nigeria to take advantage of ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to grow non-oil sector of the economy through innovation.

He noted that the insurance sector would play a vital role in the diversification of the economy by bringing "necessary stability, economic sustainability, revenue generation, job creation and financial inclusiveness.

"There is a great future for the Insurance industry in Africa. We only need to put the right mechanism in place for it to thrive. I assure you that this administration has and will continue to support Insurance growth in Nigeria and Africa at large.

"I commend the leadership of the AIO for the resilience, foresight and perseverance in ensuring that the African Insurance market strives to meet its expectations in the global market notwithstanding the prevailing challenges," he said.

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President Buhari said the theme of the conference, "Rebuilding Africa's Economy: An Insurance Perspective", was apt and well thought out to respond to the reality of the moment as many governments try to devise ingenious ways to manage their economy in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The pandemic has indeed changed many perspectives that have forced leaders across the globe to think hard for remedies. I want to assure you that we in Nigeria are doing everything humanly possible to ensure coordinated approach to the pandemic and reaching out to other African leaders on possible best options to fully revive the African economy in which I strongly believe the Insurance industry has a vital role to play," he added.

The President noted that the COVID-19 pandemic presented a global challenge, which led to lockdown of many countries, travel restrictions, and issuance of many health protocols, affecting all human, social and economic interactions that made hosting of the Conference impossible in 2020.

He said, "COVID-19 is still a serious challenge in many countries across the globe. However, adequate protocols have been put in place to curb its spread and vaccination is in progress.

"We understand as a government and nation the need to frontally tackle some of the disruptions to our social, economic and health occasioned by the pandemic by putting in place sufficient measures that allow the system to function."

President Buhari said the federal government received the news of the decision of the Executive Committee of the AIO granting Nigeria the hosting rights of this 47th edition of the AIO Conference with pleasure, adding that as a country, Nigeria is ever grateful for the opportunity.
editorial

The authorities could do more to stem the menace

In a renewed offensive that put to question the recently launched 'Deep Blue Project' by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), a vessel was last week attacked in the Gulf of Guinea. Aside injuring two crew members, the gunmen also abducted a crew member, according to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC), which confirmed the attack. To say the least, this spate of attacks is worrisome as it has given Nigeria and other countries in the Gulf of Guinea a very negative image in the comity of maritime nations. More disturbing is that it came just a few weeks after the $195 million (about N80 billion) Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari.

What should particularly worry the authorities is that increase of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has always led to higher shipping costs since vessels are now compelled to insure their crew aside paying for higher security costs. "Whilst IMB welcomes reduced piracy and armed robbery activity in the Gulf of Guinea, the risk to seafarers still remains," said IMB Director, Michael Howlett. He confirmed that the Gulf of Guinea continues to be particularly dangerous for seafarers with 32% of all reported incidents taking place in the region. The region also accounted for all 50 kidnapped crew and the fatality recorded by IMB during the first half of 2021.

The cost of this menace to the country is very high. In 2019, the United Nations Security Council disclosed that Nigeria was losing about $1.5 billion a month due to piracy, armed robbery at sea, smuggling and fuel supply fraud in the Gulf of Guinea. According to Ambassador Michele J. Sison, the then United States' Deputy Representative to the UN, the root cause of piracy in the region are ineffective governance structures, weak rule of law, precarious legal frameworks and inadequate naval, coast guard, and maritime law enforcement. "The absence of an effective maritime governance system, in particular, hampers freedom of movement in the region, disrupts trade and economic growth, and facilitates environmental crimes," she said.

Apart from reducing the number of vessels calling at the nation's seaports due to the fear of an imminent attack, it has helped in no small measure to increase the cost of doing business in Nigeria as ship owners and the consignees now charge higher than they do for other countries. It has also led to the high cost of freight as ship owners and crew members often demand for high insurance premium before embarking on any voyage to Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea. The huge costs are eventually passed off in the cost of freight to the final consumer. Besides, the high number of lives lost to such crime aside, piracy drives fear into shipping practitioners, especially ship captains and master mariner.

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While there is unanimity among shipping practitioners that sea piracy cannot be totally eradicated, it is also a fact that with concerted efforts by all the relevant stakeholders, the menace can be minimised. We commend the naval authorities for their efforts, but it is now also obvious that they need to do more if we are to rid our waters of these criminal elements. There is an urgent need for a legal framework that prescribes stiffer sanctions, a more vigorous and vigilant military-led patrol and better intelligence gathering network. We hope the federal government will put in place the necessary measures so that the Nigerian territorial waters will not continue to harbour criminals.
Benin City  AN Edo State based Chinese firm, Yongxing Steel Company has called for investment in Nigeria's growing economy which it said it is needed for Nigeria to achieve its potentials of becoming a global force among the comity of nations.

This call is on the heels of sharp division among the workers on whether there is a need for them to have an organized workers union in the over ten years old company.

Managing Director of the company, Frank Wang at a stakeholders' interactive session yesterday said his firm has created 700 direct employment as well as 10,000 indirect jobs.

Represented by the spokesman Ben Den and his address read by the Assistant Public Relations Officer of the company, Olufemi Isaac the steel company boss expressed the firm's willingness to support the country adding that Nigeria's current challenges was not enough to discourage investors from maximizing the advantages of investing in Nigeria with its huge population.

He said: "I want to use this opportunity to encourage other foreign investors not to run away from Nigeria. There is no economy that does not have difficulties. Our duty is to support the nation in her efforts to surmount those difficulties.

"Those of us in the construction sector, we need to be more patient with Nigeria. Nigeria is a growing economy and will continue to grow.

"With the huge infrastructural gap in the country, the construction sector will continue to grow and any foreign investor in that sector is not likely to regret it in the end," he stated.

The Managing Director stated that the firm's waste to wealth programme has created hundreds of employment opportunities while also ensuring a cleaner environment.

According to him, "As many of you are aware, the basic raw materials for our production come from things which are otherwise a problem in the environment. "We empower people to gather these waste materials that litter the whole environment, we pay for them, we use technology to recycle them and produce some of the best steel products that are used in the construction industry.

"That way, we are not only creating employment, we are cleaning the environment, and we are contributing immensely to the construction sector which is very vital to a growing economy like Nigeria.

"We placed a premium on the welfare of our workers just as we have in our own little ways contributed to the development of our host community through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

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"As for the staff, we have ensured regular training within and outside the country, provision of shelter, health insurance programme and provision of a safe environment to work.

The Enogie (duke) of Ogua, Chief Ogie Aghaghowen, commended the steel company for creating an economically friendly environment and also for ensuring peace in Ogua community.

However while the briefing was going on with support from some members of both the junior and senior staff who said they were comfortable with the working conditions and environment presented by the company and were therefore opposed to having a union, some of the workers carried placards protesting alleged inhuman working conditions for them by the company.

Speaking on the controversy of having a union in the company, National Secretary of the Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN),an affiliate of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Kassim Kadiri alleged that the company had reneged on its agreement to allow union in the company.

He said "We got to know about the company in 2013, and we have tried to unionize the place, but what they did was to organize some workers inside the company, who said that they don't want a union. We wanted to meet the management, but they kept turning us around until 2014 when we declared a Trade Dispute against the management."

Kadiri alleged that the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which was signed in 2015 for the company to allow for a union was broken when the company immediately transferred the elected chairman to its warehouse in Kano state he said the state government has set up another committee to look into the matter once more.
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister for Information has urged the Information Services Department to adopt modern technology to meet the current trend of information dissemination.

He said the 1939 Information Services Department (ISD) could not function effectively and efficiently in 2021 if it was not modified to meet the present drifts in disseminating government information.

He said the current media landscape required dynamism and the ISD must be retooled to bring it up to the speed to meet the challenges of this time

Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who was interacting with the staff of the Ministry of Information and ISD at a durbar, disclosed that the blueprint to transform the Department to fit for purpose in contemporary times was at the final stage of approval.

He said the transformational agenda of the Department has been broken into four phases and phase one involves the restructuring of the organisational chart and realignment of the staff to new Divisions and Sections created with the support of the Management Services Division of the Office of the Head of Civil Service.

Phase two will involve training and retraining of officers to man the new Divisions and Sections efficiently, he added.

He disclosed that phase three of the programme involves renovation and refurbishment of all the offices of the Department across the country which has already started with the Research Division, Public Relation Coordination Division, Media Division and Access to Information (RTI) Division at the Head-office.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah added that the Public Education Division, Policy Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation, Division, Administration and Human Resource Division and Finance which have been created would soon be renovated if the government approved and released funding for the transformational agenda.

He hinted that the last phase of the programme involves procurement of the needed logistics such as modern office equipment and cinema vans that would make the Department disseminate government information through multifaceted channels - online media channels, radio and television, newspapers and cinema vans.

He announced the government was in the process of procuring 260 modern cinema vans fitted with LED to enable Regional and District Information Officers to screen government information at any time of the day.
analysis

A failed attempt to overhaul Kenya's progressive constitution less than a year before elections illustrates continuing struggles between the rule of law and the crude tribal instincts of Kenya's political elite.

The bid to amend 74 clauses of the 2010 constitution was backed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his allies. It was invalidated by Kenya's High Court in May, 2021. The decision was later affirmed by a majority of the court of appeal, declaring the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020 unconstitutional.

The courts ruled that Kenyatta could not purport to assume the role of an ordinary citizen to initiate constitutional amendments. The constitution provides for two avenues of amending it. These are a popular initiative by the citizenry or through a parliamentary initiative.

The appeal court further faulted the process and ruled that the proposed amendments had been pushed through using unlawful conduct. This included bribery, intimidation, coercion, and abuse of state agencies and security apparatus. In addition, the electoral body, tasked with overseeing the process, was not properly constituted.

The bill is better known as the Building Bridges Initiative. Among the retrogressive changes it contained were increased presidential powers and an expanded executive. Just as alarming was a plot by the incumbent to remove the separation of powers. This involved granting the president oversight over the judiciary. The amendments would also have blurred the line between the executive and parliament.

The proposed new positions of prime minister and two deputies were aimed, ostensibly, at redressing the historical regional inequities entrenched by personality politics. Kenyatta and his rival turned ally, Raila Odinga, past masters in ethno-regional political mobilisation, fantastically held that an expanded executive would neuter the dominance of Kenya's politics and economy by ethno-regional cabals.

They claimed further, unconvincingly, that more executive seats, not social justice, were the answer to Kenya's adversarial and often violent elections.

Kenya's economic and political exclusion dates back to the colonial period. Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, escalated rather than demobilised this politics. He did this through grand corruption, land grabs, ethnicisation of the state, crackdown on dissent, political assassinations and inequitable distribution of national resources. He excluded opponents and the communities from which they hailed.

This explains the country's lingering per capita and regional economic disparities. And the fact that Kenya's former presidents, their families and close allies rank among the wealthiest in the country .

It therefore beggars belief that a political elite pact would have addressed economic and political exclusion. After all, this is not the first time that Kenyans have witnessed power-sharing between political foes.

The political falling out

The Kenyatta-Odinga pact is a form of power sharing that has exacerbated societal divisions and elite fragmentation. It has done so by isolating Kenyatta's deputy, William Ruto, and his supporters. Ruto's support was decisive in Kenyatta's rise to power.

Kenyatta and Ruto fell out shortly after winning a second five-year term following the 2017 elections. The acrimonious falling out has provided further evidence of the enduring personality driven politics of deceit and betrayal that has often driven Kenya to the precipice since independence. It mirrors the infamous falling out between Jomo Kenyatta and the man who fought hardest to clear his path as Kenya's founding president - vice president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Fast forward to the 2021 for another episode of Kenya's tragi-comical political drama starring the offspring of senior Kenyatta and Odinga. Odinga's scion, Raila Odinga, who had previously accused Uhuru Kenyatta of rigging him out at the ballot, is now his de facto deputy. Apparently Kenyatta now prefers Odinga as his successor and has endorsed his fifth presidential bid.

Kenyatta is determined to stop Ruto from succeeding him. This is despite the fact that they were directly elected on a joint ticket. He reassigned Ruto's responsibilities to a loyal cabinet minister. Ruto's associates were also purged from leadership positions in parliament and replaced by Kenyatta-Odinga loyalists.

More recently, the elite security team assigned to Ruto was replaced with the regular police.

Nevertheless, Odinga, Kenyatta and Ruto are ideologically indistinguishable. They are reactionary, opportunistic, disdainful of institutions and adept at tribal mobilisation.

Even though the falling out between Kenyatta and Ruto is not surprising, their incessant public outbursts bode ill for Kenya's stability. In the event that the results of the presidential elections in 2022 are fraudulent, Kenya could plunge into violence once again.

A game of musical chairs

The proposed changes to the constitution was a bold attempt to entrench in law deal-making among the political elite. These changes would have undermined competitive multiparty politics. They would also have elevated the ethnic barons, whose legitimacy stems from tribal mobilisation, and precariously tied the destiny of Kenya to their whims.

As I have argued before, it is credulous to expect Kenya's incestuous plutocracy to safeguard and implement the constitution. This is because it has a vested interest in state dysfunction.

In a manner akin to feudalism, the ruling class reincarnates through political office and wealth inheritance. With political power, they have entrenched themselves economically. It is my view that this kleptocracy is the biggest stumbling block to competitive plural politics and Kenya's transformation.

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The Kenyan judiciary is not itself beyond reproach. It is still weighed down by corruption and bribery. And it delivers justice slowly. In addition, it suffers from a legacy of executive interference and appointments and promotions tainted by ethnicity.

But the courts have increasingly asserted themselves against an unruly executive. The annulment of the presidential elections in 2017 over fraud and the recent quashing of the constitutional changes affirm this. Through these landmark rulings, Kenya's judiciary has distinguished itself as the guard rail of its democracy and rule of law.

Political script

The political script of Kenya's post-colonial period repeats itself. The first-generation politicians shredded the independence constitution to suit their personal goals. This set forth social, economic, and political problems that the country is yet to shake off. These include corruption, inequalities and impunity. State and political violence and the brazen disregard of the rule of law are symptoms of this legacy.

The president is constitutionally a symbol of national unity. However, since independence, Kenya's successive presidents have been incubators of divisiveness. They have acted as the fulcrum of tribalism propelled by impunity and grand corruption. All were steeped in insular politics and struggled to tower above the smallness of self-interest. Kenyatta is no different.

Dr Westen K Shilaho, SARChI, African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, University of Johannesburg
No fewer than nine persons, including the younger brother of the Guma Local Government Area Chairman of Benue State, traders, and church attendees were feared dead in three days of fresh attacks on communities in Guma LGA of the state by suspected armed herdsmen.

However, the Benue State Police Command claimed that only four persons were killed.

Chairman of the Council, Mr Caleb Aba, who made this known, yesterday in a telephone interview said the armed herders attacked three different places and communities which started last weekend, including the kidnapped of his younger brother while on his way to the farm with four others.

Aba said: "On Friday last week, my younger brother went to the farm with four others in the outskirts of Gbajimba town, the Guma LGA to harvest rice when the attackers ambushed them on the farm. The other four ran and were not caught but he is the youngest among them and could not escape. They caught him.

"I have been following it until this morning when I learned he was killed. We have not recovered the body.

"Also, on Sunday evening which was Gbajimba market day, the NKST church had their holy communion; so those who were coming from the church and those leaving the market were attacked by the armed herdsmen. Four people were killed and several others sustained injuries. They are presently receiving treatment in Gbajimba and the Air Force Base hospital in Makurdi.

"On Monday morning, they also invaded Ulever community and four people were killed in that attack," adding that security personnel had been alerted over the development.

Contacted, Benue Police Public Relations Officer, Catherine Anene, confirmed that four people were killed while others sustained injuries.

She said: "Four people were killed in the attack while others sustained injuries. The scenes have been visited by the Commissioner of Police and an investigation is in progress. The commissioner also visited General Hospital Gbajimba to see the injured persons who were responding to treatment."
There seems to be a resurgence in kidnapping in Lagos, following the abduction of five persons, including Air Vice Marshal Sikiru Smith, retd, in two days.

From their modus operandi, the kidnappers are suspected to be militants who were dislodged from the creeks in Ikorodu who have links with those Arepo creeks in Ogun and Ondo states.

Information at Vanguard's disposal said retired AVM Smith who was commissioned into the Nigerian Air Force as a pilot officer in 1979, had served in different capacities , among which was Chief of Logistics of the Nigerian Air Force, before he retired.

He was abducted at about 6pm on Monday, at a site near Blenco Mall on Addo Road, Ajah area of Lagos.

The gunmen, who were hooded, announced their presence with sporadic gun shots before abducting him.

He was said to have put up some resistance, demanding to know who the intruders were but was overpowered and dragged into the kidnappers' speedboat.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen released some shots into the air to time scare people, thus causing stampede among passers-by who scampered in different directions to avoid being hit by stray bullets.

While the operation lasted, his driver, Corporal Odiji, was absent, as he was said to have gone on errands for his boss.

On arrival, he alerted security agencies and other members of the public on the abduction of AVM Smith through a voice note.

"Good evening house. Please, this is an emergency. I am Corporal Odiji, attached to AVM Smith. Oga was just moved from the site where we were working. Some gunmen wearing masks just came, pulled him out of the site.

"They shot everywhere and took him away. I was nearby where he asked me to fix his vehicle. I am his driver. As I was coming back, I saw the gunmen took him away through the water, and I was not armed. So, I ran to the site and found Oga's glasses and where he struggled with them before he was taken away.

"Please, somebody should pass the message. They went from Blenco area of Ajah and fled with him towards the Ikorodu area on water," the driver said.

Other kidnaps

Aside from the AVN, other persons also fell victim of kidnapping in Lagos, including a pastor with the Redeemed Church of God, RCCG and his wife. The kidnappers intercepted their vehicle at Dopemu, Agege area of Lagos, on their way home.

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The kidnappers, it was gathered, fired some shots into the air, dragged the couple's driver out of the car and forced him into one of their operational cars.

His wife was released yesterday by the gunmen after an unspecified amount was paid as ransom.

As at noon yesterday, the abductors were said to have demanded N50 million for her husband's release.

In another attack, a man with an unknown identity was kidnapped by hooded gunmen on Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase , twenty-four hours earlier, another Pastor, Kingsley Ogbuagu, was also kidnapped by unknown gunmen near Catholic Church of the Visitation, Festac town, on Sunday.

Ogbuagu had packed his car and was about to enter the church when three masked gunmen dragged and bundled him into a waiting Lexus SUV and drove off.

Vanguard learned that the Lekki-Ajah axis is prone to kidnap attacks, some of which the Police have botched.

Vanguard also gathered that the kidnappers posed as private taxi drivers , only to take their unsuspecting passengers to unknown destinations.

The second group are those who take their victims through the water ways.

Spokesman of Lagos State Police Command, CSP Ade Ajisebutu, only confirmed the abduction of retired AVM Smith, adding that the command had put mercenaries in place to rescue him.

A top security source who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Vanguard that a combined security operation involving the Nigerian Police, the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Army has already been activated towards ensuring that AVM Smith is rescued safely.
FOLLOWING the recent attacks on some members of political parties during their rallies in Nnewi and Nnobi by unknown gunmen in which four lives were lost and some vehicles set ablaze, the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tony Olofu has directed political parties participating in the forthcoming governorship election in the state to submit the schedule of their rallies to the command.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga said the schedule would help police ensure security in all venues of political activities.

He said: "The CP alluded to the fact that campaigns are a critical part of the electioneering process. This, therefore, will enable the police high command provide adequate security for the safety of participants at such events.

"This will also help the command deploy other tactical and operational units, as well as traffic control policemen to strategic points to ensure that the existing public safety and order in the state is sustained.

"The teams are expected to carry out security patrols, surveillance, traffic control and patrols in conjunction with sister security agencies.

"This will definitely prevent hoodlums from launching attacks on unsuspecting party faithful and properly secure such events.

"The CP however, admonishes such officers that would be deployed for this assignment to display high level of professionalism and operate within the context of the law.

"He also called on members of the public to coordinate themselves and cooperate with the police and other security agencies in the course of discharging their constitutional responsibilities".
opinion

Introduction

In Liberia, women are vividly seen marginalized in all spheres of political and public life by their male counterparts. But this article will mainly focus on three public career areas, namely education, religion, and politics. Helen Cooper in an article published in the New York Times, argued that though the record of electing Africa's first female president, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is today an inspiration to this generation; however, it is also evident that women are still marginalized today in many institutions to include churches, mosques, schools, and government.

Religion is often seen as a barrier to achieving gender parity. For years, women have struggled to gain equality in all areas of life--from the home to the workplace, and especially in positions of leadership. Without any doubt, historically women were marginalized not only in society but also within the church and mosques.

Education - Women in Liberia are mostly underprivileged when it comes to access to equal educational opportunities. Less women instructors, faculties and administrators in high schools and universities are some main contributing factors. On average, most learning environments lack safe spaces for women (restrooms, sanitary pads, informative health sessions on the dos and don'ts especially on menstrual hygiene, etc.).

Religion - Christianity and Islam are the two dominant religions in Liberia. Of the two, Christianity has a little visibility of women but not in prominent positions on the average. Most churches are presided over by male preachers. On the other hand, in Islam, women are seemingly prohibited from being Imams - leading prayers in the mosques. The article "Women in Islam" from the Pluralism Project of Harvard University asserts that women are not marginalized in Islam as it is portrayed, in fact the article further explains that Islamic women are found in various professional sectors, health, education and politics which is somehow true in Liberia but not to a larger extent. Also true is, they do not play equal role that is given to their male counterparts in the mosques.

In comparison, Some Christian women also are active in various professional sectors. In contrast, no woman becomes an Iman in a mosque in Liberia which concretely validates my opinion that women in general are marginalized in Islam as also in Christianity.

Philosophers and religious scholars have argued that women suppression and marginalization in social, religious, political and economic systems far dates to biblical days - where women were taught to be in total submission to their husbands or male counterparts.

In Liberia which is also true in many societies, for example, religious and traditional beliefs and cultural attitudes regarding the role and status of women in society are still prevalent and many women part of this system are finding it difficult to dislocate from this culture, religion and tradition but lest they be ostracized when they do.

Despite women's education and entry into the job market, the woman's role is typically one of homemaker. The man, on the other hand, is breadwinner, head of household and has a right to public life. Confining women's identity to the domestic sphere is one of the barriers to women's entry into public life.

Politics - Politics in Liberia is seen as a no-go-zone for women. The Liberian constitution gives women the right to vote in 1946, a very late start to our political journey. Fear, intimidation, lack of finances, stereotypes are barriers that prevent women from vying and winning elections; the feeling of entitlement by men in politics amongst others are leading factors for the less representation of women in elected and appointed positions in government.

Generally, cultural attitudes are hostile to women's involvement in politics. Some women were able to transcend cultural barriers and rise to positions of leadership (whether in politics or elsewhere), but more often than not, it meant having to juggle cultural expectations with their leadership roles. Few of those are Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who broke the glass ceiling and shackles and made her way to the highest position in the Liberian state, the presidency in both 2005 and 2011 elections. Her legacy today still breeds hope and challenges more women to aspire for higher height in political system in Liberia and around the globe.

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Conclusion - Unless failed, and Gender-blind policies are conscientiously and consciously revisited and reviewed by Government of Liberia, Civil Society Actors, Religious Leaders, Traditional Leaders, Youth and Students Groups, and International Partners, Liberian women will continue to have a huge gap of professional representation in public life, specifically education, politics, and religion.

There is also a growing consensus among international actors that gender equality is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. There is some evidence suggesting that a higher number of women in elected office leads to greater economic advantages. The World Bank, for example, argues that promoting gender equality is "smart economics" because it can increase output per worker by 3 per cent to 25 per cent across a range of countries.
Monrovia  The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with iCampus Liberia, Growth Africa and the Business StartUp Center-Monrovia, has selected 10 Liberian Businesses as finalist for its Growth Accelerator Liberia Programme.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as poverty and inequality prevalent; Growth Accelerator Liberia has been launched to aid long term recovery efforts and support measures that reduce socio-economic impacts on the vulnerable and contribute to economic development.

The program is meant to support impactful Liberian entrepreneurs to scale up their ventures through access to technical assistance, mentorship and co-financing.

The Growth Accelerator Liberia initiative kicked off on August 27th, 2021 with the launch of its application process; which lasted until 10th of September 2021.

For the ten (10) days period of the application process which involved online and hard copies application forms, about 167 (One hundred sixty seven) applications were received from businesses in nine Counties in Liberia despite the project targeting seven (7) Counties.

The primary Counties includes; Grand Gedeh, Grand Cape Mount, Lofa, Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Nimba and Sinoe counties.

The Businesses selected are; Kodah Enterprises (Poultry), LIBRA Sanitation, Evergreen Enterprise and Trading Inc., The Lunch Box, Modern Agro Corporation, Youmtornor Enterprise and Developmental Services Inc., Ma-Bandu's Steel Mill, Nimba Venture Inc., Nimba Venture Inc. Redimere Chocolate and Wungko's Farm. An Independent Investment Committee comprising representative from; Liberia Chamber of Commerce, Liberia Business Association, Central Bank of Liberia and Ministry of Commerce and Industries vetted and selected the ten (10 ) Businesses.

The selected Businesses will participate in a series of training, workshops, mentorings, including a 3-day business development bootcamp from September 29 - October 1, 2021 in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The Growth Accelerator Programme is being set up to support growth stage and established businesses that are viable, effective and impactful, particularly in accelerating economic growth and activity amid COVID19 recovery efforts.
The IGP says the recruitment will expand the capacity of the police in combating crime embolden its community policing strategy.

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, says the Nigeria Police will soon begin the recruitment of 20,000 junior police officers.

The IGP gave the hint on Tuesday evening, when he paid a working visit to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State in Ibadan.

Mr Baba informed the governor that the Nigeria Police remained committed to increasing its strength in terms of the recruitment of junior police officers.

He said the force was able to overcome all the issues that had been delaying the recruitment process, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for the recruitment.

He assured the state government that every local government area would benefit from the recruitment, saying that the recruited officers would serve in their respective local government areas after training.

The IGP said the recruitment exercise would not only expand the capacity of the force in combating crime, but also embolden its community policing strategy.

Mr Baba said that his working visit was to interact with the police personnel to boost their morale after the EndSARS protest.

He said the visit was to also engage some other stakeholders on the issue of community policing, which, according to him, is an adopted strategy policing in Nigeria.

"We have not just started now; it has started as far back as 2004, but it has not been effectively used by both government and members of the public.

He implored the governor to continue supporting and assisting the police.

Responding, Mr Makinde informed the IGP that the Police Command in Oyo State had been trying its best, cooperating with the people of the state and all other security agencies.

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The governor said the police were hostile when Amotekun was established, "because they felt that Amotekun came on board to take up their jobs and responsibilities.

"But over these few months, with the leadership of the police in the state, we have serious cooperation and the inter-agency rivalry has been reduced to the barest minimum in the state.

"We also know that this is a challenging period for the country, the resources are dwindling, but we have challenges all over, especially the insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, kidnapping in the South and ethnic tension everywhere.

"So, we have to keep supporting the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force," he said.

The governor used the opportunity of the visit to request the establishment of another Mobile Force Squadron in Oyo Town, promising that his government would provide the basic infrastructure for its take-off.

He said the 72 Squadron in Ago-Are, which was approved by the former IGP, was assisting in addressing security challenges in Oke-Ogun axis of the state.

(NAN)
opinion

THE OLDEST independent country in Africa was over the past time seen as a beacon of hope and an oasis for learning. This trend continued for some time until the 1980 coup which overthrew president William R. Tolbert from power.

FROM THERE, many people saw a gradual decline in the education system.

REALIZING THIS DECLINE, former president Samuel K . Doe encouraged the return of American Peace Corps, Japanese Teachers as well as other teachers from some African countries. This was intended to help buttress the teaching staff in Liberia.

WE ARE NOT saying here we support the coming in of foreign teachers to help. We prefer empowering our teachers to be up standard like those foreign teachers and professors.

IT BECAME BAD when over 25,000 students seeking admission into the University of Liberia who took the test failed. This led to former president, madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf describing the system as a mess. However, she tried to repair it. But it looked like that did not meet her expectation.

LOOKING AT THE system today, Liberia is still behind. For example, Poor learning environment, overage enrollment, unskilled and unqualified teachers, poor infrastructure among others are some of the factors impeding the system.

WITH THESE degrading trends, one would expect that this current minister of Education, Prof. Ansu Sonii will do all in his power to improve the system.

BUT IT IS surprising to know that this is not the case. Just right in Montserrado county, many school learning conditions are bad. This was evident when president George Weah paid an unannounced visit to some schools in Montserrado county.

THE PRESIDENT was shocked and later instructed the minister to improve the system. If Montserrado county, which is close to the seat of power is going through this, what much more about those in the remote parts of the country?

WE THINK THIS Minister is not doing anything enough to improve the system. What he is now doing is to be calling on various radio stations to give update. Not by calling on radio stations every week to give update will improve the system.

PUTTING THE right system in place, the quality of teachers in those schools among others. Let others praise your work.

MINISTER, leave the phone calls and start to go into the interior to do field visitation, evaluate the teachers, see the learning environment and look at what the teachers are teaching.

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WE ARE AFRAID that if nothing is done at this time, this country will continue to go backward and you will be one of the persons responsible for increasing the mess.

REMEMBER THE future of this country depends on quality education that will be provided. Government may invest money into the system, but if the right thing is not done at times, Your investment will turn out to increase the bank account of others.

MINISTER , TO be honest, you are not working up to the task to improve the system. Remember whatever you do today will remain history; which you will be judged by tomorrow.

SO, LET LIBERIA wake up for the light to shine. Education is very important for the development of every country and acceleration of growth.
Residents in the City of Banjul have raised concern over what many described as 'the poor street works in the city' by Gai Construction Enterprise, thereby making free flow of water almost impossible.

Many concerned residents fault the contractor for the poor engineering work that always causes flooding in the city. However, the malfunctioning of the main canal, which was constructed two years ago, has also compounded the issue, according to some.

In a recent media dispatch, the Banjul City Council stated that 'it has been brought to the attention of the Council that the main ring canal is not functioning and as a result affected some houses especially Tobacco Road, which has caused free flow of water impossible.

The Council, in the release, however appealed for urgent intervention from relevant authorities, further calling on contactors responsible -Gai Construction Enterprise, to remedy the situation.

In an interview with The Point, Tijan Jagne, a resident of Imam Omar Sowe Avenue, called on government and the Banjul City Council to put aside all their differences and work towards the development of the city.

Jange, however, urged the contractor- Hadim Gai of Gai Construction to go back and re-fix the problem, adding that for past two weeks some families were not able to access their kitchen and taps, due to the flooding in compounds.

"The worst part is that the water smells and not even good to breathe from the surrounding."

Augustine Mendy, a resident of Ndangan, a small settlement on the outskirt of Banjul, observed that the flooding has affected them seriously.

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He lamented some of the hardships the city dwellers experienced especially during high tide.

"When it rains heavily the water adds up to the water of the river and forces itself into our rooms."

He therefore seeks for "help from the government to at least see what they can do about the flooding."

Sulayman Njie, another resident of Banjul, said that it is quite disheartening to see the situation of Banjul especially Tabaco Road after $35.7 Million has been budgeted for the Banjul rehabilitation project.

"This is a disappointing results from the Gai Company with the whole millions spent on this project much efficiency should have been seen."

Sambujang Drammeh, a resident of Tobacco Road expressed similar sentiments. He urged the government and NGO's to come to their aid.

GRCS, Health trained waste handlers in Banjul
Justice Landing Sanneh of the high court has set September 29 to deliver his ruling in the University of The Gambia (UTG) case against the University of The Gambia Faculty and Staff Association (UTGFSA).

Justice Momodou S.M. Jallow through an ex-parte motion brought by the UTG and the Attorney General (AG) ordered the UTGFSA, its executive and members not to embark on a sit-down strike.

Lawyer Sheriff Kumba Jobe UTGFSA said the high court's interim injunction against his clients is unconstitutional.

Jobe was speaking before Justice Landing Sanneh, the sitting summer vacation judge on Friday, 24 September.

Lawyer S.K. Jobe is challenging the orders made against his clients. Justice Jallow's order against the Staff Association, its executive and members was made to last till the end of the case.

Lawyer Jobe said the interim injunction against his clients is unconstitutional and illegal. He now wants Justice Landing Sanneh to set-aside or discharge or vary the order of Justice Jallow.

Lawyer S.K. Jobe said the application by the staff association was supported with an affidavit in-support of 14 paragraphs sworn to by Dr. Alieu Gibba, the President of the UTGFSA.

Lawyer SK Jobe argued that the orders of the former vacation judge, Justice Momodou S.M. Jallow against the UTGFSA were unconstitutional and illegal.

"My lord, an ex-parte order of interim injunction should not [be made to] last pending the hearing and determination of this suit [case]," he said, adding "My, Lord, this is a travesty of justice."

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Lawyer Kimbeng Tah appeared for the Attorney General and the University of The Gambia. He said the motion by Lawyer S.K. Jobe is untenable in light with the flawed nature of the affidavit in-support. He said paragraphs 5,7,8,9,10,11,12 and 13 of the affidavit in-support sworn to by Dr. Alieu Gibba fell foul of the Evidence Act. Lawyer Tah submitted that they contain legal arguments/conclusions adding affidavits should only contain facts. He relied on section 90 of the Evidence Act which provides that an affidavit should not contain legal arguments and conclusions.

He said the only paragraphs that do not fall foul of the Evidence Act were 1,2,3,6 and 14 of the affidavit in-support.

"These are not mere technicalities; these are serious issues of fact," he said.

Lawyer Tah urged the court to strike out paragraphs 5,7,8,9,10,11,12 and 13.

"If the court were to agree with us and strike out the said paragraphs, there will be nothing left to sustain the motion," Tah said.
During the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Vice President Dr. Isatou Touray stated that as the country is on the verge of organising presidential elections in December 2021 and legislative in 2022, no effort will be spared by the government in ensuring that elections are held under free and fair conditions.

"We are going into these elections with the knowledge that our journey towards reform and transformation, be it in the area of good governance, transitional justice, or the civil service and the security sector, is an ongoing one," she said, as we march towards the next phase of our political transition.

VP Touray further assured that The Gambia continues to progress on a positive and upward trajectory, adding that the government's policies and approaches continue to be guided by the awareness of the difficult history that the country traversed to usher in democracy.

She noted that the country is at a crossroads as "we continue to seek national reconciliation, entrench our democracy and consolidate the rule of law."

"The Government of The Gambia has consistently demonstrated its commitment to UN Peacekeeping through its contribution of troops and police to various missions, with an ever-improving level of performance, discipline, and commitment. We continue to enhance our participation by deploying more women peacekeepers, better training in areas requiring critical skill sets, and forging partnerships with stakeholders to expand our participation in more peacekeeping missions."

She emphasised that as the state of their collective security continues to be tested by unprecedented threats and challenges, so has the call to action become more urgent for the international community to support the efforts of the UN Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security.

In that regard, she reiterated that the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations have proven to be the organisation's strongest instrument and most impactful tool in assisting countries transition from conflict to peace while adding that UN Peacekeeping deserves their renewed support and participation.

Touray expressed gratitude to partners who continue to accompany the country on its sustaining peace and peacebuilding efforts.
The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health through the Directorate of Public Health Services on Sunday held a two-day training on waste management and safety practices for municipal and health care waste handlers in Banjul.

The training, which was held at McCarthy Square was supported by the European Union through the Spanish Red Cross under a project dubbed- 'Support and strengthening public health and socio-economic systems' to reduce the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in The Gambia.

The training, which also seeks to target 160 waste handlers across the country, is designed to strengthen the capacity of waste handlers on waste management practice; to increase the adoption of use of PPEs; and to reduce the health effects of waste related health.

Dr Buba Manjang, director of Public Directorate at the Public Health Services at the Ministry of Health, explained that globally municipal solid waste generation has increased significantly over recent decades as well as toxic and hazardous materials within waste as the trend increases our exposure.

"If hazardous chemicals are not adequately collected, separated and treated it becomes toxic and hazardous, thereby generating long term and cumulative environmental and human health impact."

Dr Manjang indicated that without proactive awareness and equipment on how to handle potentially risky materials, household waste becomes hazardous and poses health risk to those handling the waste.

He noted that the way in which waste is handled matters profoundly and decision over which technique or method to apply can have long term consequences.

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"There is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of waste handlers to properly manage waste and safety practices. Adequate knowledge about the hazard of waste and proper methods of handling waste can result in safe disposal and protection of communities from Covid-19 and other related infections." he stated.

Omar T.D. Ndow, branch manager at Banjul Red Cross Branch said waste handlers are exposed to a lot of risks, saying when most of them grow old or retire, they die shortly due to the risks they are exposed to without enjoying their retirement benefits.

"It is our collective responsibility to provide waste handlers with protective gears to ensure they fully deliver. Mr Ndow also said that it is critical that regular health checkups are also made available for them."

Ebrima Jabbi, health officer at The Gambia Red Cross Society said 'if waste is not managed well it can cause harm to people.'

The Red Cross movement, he added, is to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being.
Press release :The Government of The Gambia with its ardent desire to open up the country for the upcoming 2021/ 2022 Winter Season and in view of the fact that several of our international source markets are revising their COVID 19 protocols, have revisited the COVID 19 protocols that relate to visitors arriving into The Gambia.

All visitors with proof of being fully vaccinated shall with effect from 1st October 2021 be allowed to enter The Gambia without a PCR Test Certificate, they shall not be subjected to a rapid test or be quarantined upon arrival.

The full cooperation and understanding of all stakeholders in this endeavour is hereby solicited.
Members of the Security subcommittee of the OICGambia Local Organisation Committee have on Thursday returned from the Republic of Turkey where they underwent a high-level intensive training programme in Security Planning and Management for International Events and Conferences.

The capacity-building activity was held under a technical assistance programme between the brotherly governments of The Gambia and the Republic of Turkey. Participants, numbering eleven (11), were drawn from the army, police, intelligence, fire and rescue service, aviation security, drug law enforcement agency, among others.

"The mission was a training of trainers. During our stay in Ankara, we were exposed to modern trends and techniques in counterterrorism, aviation security, explosive detection and disposal, among other crucial themes", said the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, who traveled with the delegation.

"The training will significantly enhance our ongoing planning and operations for the Summit by a huge margin."

Security is a critical element of the ongoing preparation for the OIC Heads of State and Government scheduled to take place in Banjul in 2022. In its effort to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of the country's security forces, the OIC Secretariat continues to facilitate the provision of security apparatuses/gears and capacity-building opportunities. Equipping the police will keep the streets of The Gambia safe before, during, and after the summit.

Along similar lines, on Monday, the Secretariat launched a counter-terrorism training for 50 members of the police and other security services at the PIU headquarters in Kanifing.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) joins the rest of the world in marking the International Day for Universal Access to Information under the theme "Building Back Better with Access to Information", and highlights the growing concerns over the access to information limitations in Somalia.

NUSOJ considers this year's theme as a strong reminder of the cardinal duty of protecting and defending the right of the citizens of this country to know; and the Responsibility of all citizens to Contribute towards Building Back a Better Somalia.

NUSOJ calls on the Federal government (FGS) and the respective Federal Member States (FMS)' governments to play their role of ensuring Access to Information as provided for under the Provisional Constitution and the applicable international instruments such as the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa.

As the country cautiously emerges from the COVID-19 global pandemic, and for the country to thrive socially and economically in the post-pandemic period, it is clear that access to correct and reliable information must be a priority in order to counter disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and lack of accurate data on the true impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of Somali citizens.

Building back better remains an inescapable opportunity for Somalia to improve on systems and practices that were simply habits prior to COVID-19. As the nation gets settled into a new normal, access to information will go a long way in the fight against corruption, tackling abuse in the procurement and contracting systems, and clamping down on the illegal and unethical practices of irregularly awarding tenders to undeserving and corrupt bidders.

NUSOJ calls on both the FGS and the respective FMS authorities to embrace unhindered Access to information as part of promoting open and transparent governance systems. NUSOJ particularly underscores the citizens' Right to Know & Access to Information held by the governmental authorities in order to eliminate shady dealings, and to curb the vices of nepotism, favouritism, clannism and maladministration.

"On this important and global day, we shall redouble our tireless crusade for the citizens' right to Access information by educating and empowering the citizens on freedom of information and the right of each citizen to know what the government is duty-bound to share with the citizens", NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman said.

"This, we believe, will enable the citizens to make safe and smart choices for themselves and their families", Osman remarked. "And furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over; new information on variants, protocols, protective measures and movement is constantly being generated on all media platforms. It remains imperative that Somalis become familiar with recognising and using the right to access to information for the benefit of all", Osman added.

In addition to navigating a health pandemic, Somalia is in the middle of elections in the Upper and Lower Houses of the People. Access to information during this period is necessary for elections to be free, fair and credible as Access to information at all stages of the electoral process is the only way to ensure that voters are presented with sufficient and factual information on the electoral process.

"The significance of the ongoing election cannot be overstated. Without access to accurate, credible and reliable information about a broad range of issues during elections, it is impossible for individuals to vote confidently and from an informed position. Indeed, the current lack of access to information in Somalia is unfortunately a deliberate and systemic challenge. There are efforts by both state and non-state actors to deny Somalis the information that may release them for oppressive constructs. NUSOJ reiterates its demand for unfettered access to information during the elections", Osman said.

"The media community in Somalia has long had to contend with colleagues being arrested, harassed and even killed to prevent journalists from unearthing various truths. Censorship, intimidation and the attempted stifling and/or interfering of the work of media houses are acts that directly violate the right to access to information. Attacks on media institutions and journalists have been going on for too long and need to stop if there is any hope that the people in this country will enjoy their freedom of information," says Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary General of NUSOJ.

NUSOJ strongly reminds the FGS/FMS authorities about their solemn responsibility to provide security and guarantee the citizens, including journalists their safety, especially during this electioneering period. Both the FGS and the respective FMS must work together and to ensure that the Access to Information Law is enacted as per Article 32 of the Constitution of Somalia. It remains shocking and despairing that after more than eight years since the current constitution was adopted, successive governments have not been able to enact the Access to Information Law.

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NUSOJ boldly reiterates that both the FGS and the FMS have a crucial role to play in enhancing Access to information in the country, so as to increase openness and transparency around government dealings and public sector management in general. The union underscores that bilateral and multilateral engagement with key international actors such as International Financial Institutions (IFIs) is dependent upon increased transparency and accountability in Somalia going forward.

In order for the country to maintain its current good standing, access to information and complete transparency should be both a guide and an outcome. To this end, NUSOJ sharpens its position on Access to Information is realised as a country, making it a priority for the enactment of access to information law in line with international standards.
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) warplanes have been bombing civilian areas in neighboring border towns in Somalia since Saturday.

The aerial attacks were carried out in seven areas located in Dhamase and Elwak towns in retaliation for an explosion that killed two Kenyan soldiers on Friday near border town.

In an interview with Shabelle Media, Mohamed Aden, a local resident, said that the Kenyan military had intensified its air strikes against residential areas in towns of Gedo region.

Aden says the strikes had also severely damaged Hormud Telecom masts, causing the disruption of internet and communication services for many of the population.

He says it was hard to know how many people were killed or injured due to lack of mobile telephone signals.

Mohamed Aden called on Somali leaders to intervene to stop atrocities being committed by Kenyan military in Gedo region.

Early this year, Kenyan military killed a mother and her child and four others injured in air raids carried out in two towns in the Gedo.

Ali Ahmed Sheikh, the woman's husband, brought his wounded children to a hospital in the capital Mogadishu.

In an interview with Shabelle Media, Sheikh Ahmed said his wife Sahra Aden and his new born baby were killed in the bombing.

"I was away when Kenyan military jet bombed my family home in El Ade town. I found my wife and our new born baby dead in result of the strike", he said.

Kenya has troops serving under African Union mission known as "AMISOM" in Somalia to help the Mogadishu-based government to defeat al Shabab, an al Qaeda linked group.

Nairobi sent its troops into Somalia in 2011 in a bid to thwart cross-border attacks and kidnappings against foreign aid workers by al Shabab.

The militant group also carried out deadly attacks in Kenyan soul, with hundreds of people, mainly non-Muslims were killed.

On Monday, Al Shabab group said it had killed 15 soldiers in a bomb attack on Kenyan armored vehicle traveling between Kayunga and Shangani in Lamu town.

The al Qaeda linked group has been battling both Somali army and African Union troops for more than ten years to topple the government and establish its own strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
El Ministerio de Cultura informo que a la fecha, se han suministrado mas de 300 mil vacunas contra la COVID-19 en las regiones donde viven ciudadanos pertenecientes a pueblos indigenas u originarios.https://t.co/687bv6lEJx




"This is the end of our work on nine accusations," he stated. "We have completed this investigation stage," the prosecutor said in remarks to RPP radio and TV station.





These accusations refer to the case regarding the irregular concession of the Interoceanic Highway awarded to Brazilian companies and the Ecoteva case ; both are linked to illegal payments allegedly received by ex-President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) . The third one involves the Lima Metro Line 1.









In addition, the prosecutor mentioned the case of the issuance of sovereign bonds by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to pay the refurbishment of Evitamiento Highway in Cusco, as well as irregular payments that former Cusco Governor Jorge Acurio and businessman Gustavo Salazar allegedly received in relation to this and other matters.





Finally, Vela said that another accusation refers to the case on alleged payments to the former head of Peru's Supervisory Board for Investment in Public Transportation Infrastructure (Ositran), Juan Carlos Zevallos.





"This is a complex moment, because the special prosecution group has filed nine mega accusations," he emphasized.





The prosecutor noted that now the Judiciary is expected to carry out the corresponding controls of legality.





In this sense, Vela said he hopes that such institution will give the necessary priority to this stage of the process.





(END) FGM/CVC/RMB/MVB

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Peru's Lava Jato Special Prosecution Group has filed nine mega accusations on the same number of issues before the Judicial Branch, according to Rafael Vela , the prosecutor leading the investigations.Publicado: 29/9/2021
?? Ahora | Ministro de Economia y Finanzas, @pedrofrancke, inicia presentacion ante el @congresoperu, para sustentar los proyectos de Ley de #Presupuesto2022, de Endeudamiento y Equilibrio Financiero del Sector Publico.

??Sigue la transmision: https://t.co/BwTsqZskOK pic.twitter.com/jjNzEbVbrO
El presidente @PedroCastilloTe sostuvo un encuentro con los directivos, dirigentes y agricultores de mas de 60 cooperativas de productos organicos del pais, donde reafirmo el compromiso de fortalecer la capacidad exportadora de las comunidades campesinas del Peru. https://t.co/0lz0snm72t
" " A dingo on Fraser Island in Queensland, Australia, is on the prowl for food. SolStock/Getty Images

It's been said over and over, by all kinds of people and always in a bad Australian accent, "The dingo ate my baby." Boom. Drop mic.

You, too, may have said it and laughed heartily with your sicko friends. Yet, chances are good that none of you know the real story behind this not-so-funny statement. I mean, please describe any situation in which anything eating a baby tickles the old funny bone.

And while we're on the topic, let's talk about dingoes and whether they're dangerous  and how they ever got near a baby in the first place.

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What Is a Dingo?

Dingoes (Canus lupus dingo) are Australia's native wild dog that came to the outback from Southern Asia about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. They are similar to feral dogs in the U.S., minus the catchy name. The average male dingo is lean, weighs between 22 and 44 pounds (11.8 and 19.4 kilograms), and has a goldish, orangish and reddish coat and pointy ears. Females are slightly smaller and weigh in at between 21 and 35 pounds (9.6 and 16 kilograms).

Dingoes usually travel in packs, although there are some that travel alone. A pack is led by a dominant dingo couple, and that pair will typically mate for life, as well as breed in the dingo group. The canines breed once a year and there are about five pups in a litter.

When the dominant couple breeds, the sweet female (note sarcasm), kills the offspring of her packmates. Afterward, the other way-too-forgiving females help care for the dominant female's pups, since they are the only pups still alive. (Gasp!) Dingoes that aren't sacrificed as pups have a lifespan of around seven or eight years in the wild and up to 15 in captivity.

" " Dingoes live and run in packs led by a dominant dingo couple. Tier Und Naturfotografie J und C/Getty Images

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Dingoes Aren't Like Your Dog

Dingoes are opportunistic hunters and scavengers. They eat rabbits, rodents, birds, lizards, foliage, nuts and yes, babies (too soon?). Like wolves, they're extremely smart  much smarter than domestic dogs (except yours, of course). They're cute, too, but wily. And unlike your dog, dingoes have wrists that rotate. This means they can use their paws like hands. They also have much bigger canine teeth than domestic dogs. Their limbs are double-jointed, too, and they can turn their necks 180 degrees around. They run fast, climb with ease and jump high. They also howl like wolves. You'll want to remember these facts for future camping excursions!

Despite this intelligence, these canines are generally thought of as pests by man. This tumultuous relationship can be traced back as far as 1788. That's when the British first took sheep to New South Wales, giving dingoes a new easy prey. By the 1880s, dingoes were invading farms and rural communities. The solution was to build the "dingo fence," a 3,500-mile (5,632-kilometer) fence that crosses Australia. It still stands today and is the longest fence in the world.

The population of pure dingoes has declined, as many have bred with feral dogs, domestic dogs and hybrids.

"Dingoes' conservation status is currently considered 'vulnerable,' because dingoes mating with dogs that introduce new diseases that are not natural to dingoes," explains Michelle Ferguson, an animal care supervisor at Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, Florida, which is home to two dingoes. "But they are protected in Australia."

However one place where pure dingoes still can be found is on Queensland's Fraser Island, though they're wild and very predatory there, which has led to tragic incidents with humans.

" " The 3,500-mile "dingo fence" was built through outback Australia to keep native dingoes from the sheep farms. It is the longest fence in the world. John White Photos/Getty Images

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A Dingo Did Eat a Baby

It's sad but true. A dingo did eat a baby. Dingoes generally don't attack people, but if they sense fear, they are more likely to attack.

Here's the story behind the tragedy: In 1980, the Chamberlain family went camping near Australia's famous Ayer's Rock in the Northern Territory. Lindy Chamberlain, 32 at the time, saw a dingo leave their tent and immediately went to check inside it. She discovered that her 10-week-old baby, Azaria, who had been sleeping in the tent, was gone. Lindy supposedly cried, "My God, my God, the dingo's got my baby!"

The authorities were called and there was a large, unsuccessful attempt to find Azaria. Many people heard about this disturbing and horrific event and it stayed with them, because it's not every day that you hear about a dingo eating a baby.

The incident was a big deal. At that time, most people didn't think a dingo could  or would  eat a baby. Authorities suspected Lindy of killing Azaria and then concocting the story about the dingo. Ultimately, she was arrested, tried and found guilty of murder in 1982. The baby's father, Michael, was also found guilty of being an accessory after the crime.

There was widespread media coverage of the trial; people even picketed outside the courthouse with signs that read "The dingo is innocent." Add a shocking murder to the already shocking "animal kidnapped infant" scenario, and dingoes dominated water cooler conversation around the globe.

Fast-forward to 1986: Both Lindy and Michael's convictions were overturned when police discovered a baby's jacket near an area full of dingo lairs: It was Azaria's. On Sept. 15, 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously quashed all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. That same year two movies, one released in Australia and a second in the U.S. starring Meryl Streep as Lindy, were instrumental in "raising awareness" about the tragic event. (If nothing else, a panicked Meryl Streep saying, "the dingo took my baby," was an attention getter.)

Finally, in 2012, after 32 years, the coroner officially changed Azaria's cause of death to, "As the result of being taken by a dingo." After the new ruling, Lindy addressed the court. "Obviously we are relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga," she said, adding, "No longer will Australia be able to say dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked."

Two years later Lindy was awarded $1.3 million for wrongful imprisonment and ultimately proved she was right all along. The dingo had taken her baby. Since the incident in 1980 when Azaria was killed, there have been several more documented cases of dingoes attacking and killing children  many as recently as 2019.

" " Michael and Lindy Chamberlain hold a photograph in 1981 of their baby daughter, Azaria Chamberlain, on the steps of the Alice Springs courthouse following the first coroner's inquest that found a dingo took their baby. Russell McPhedran/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

Now That's Crazy A 1991 episode of the sitcom "Seinfeld," gets the most credit for "The dingo ate my baby," becoming part of pop culture. When Elaine is annoyed by a woman at a party who repeatedly and obnoxiously says that she cannot find her fiance (baby), Elaine leans toward the woman and very clearly, in her best fake-Australian accent, says, "Maybe a dingo ate your baby."
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced that he is planning to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan soon and expressed hope that he will play a positive role in the settlement of the relations between the neighboring countries, reports TASS.

Tomorrow I depart for Baku. I will meet with President [of Azerbaijan] [Ilham] Aliyev, whom I respect very much. We have good relations. The most important is that we trust each other. When there is trust between the countries and their leaders, I think all issues will be solved properly, the Georgian PM said in an interview to IMEDI TV.

I have similar relations with [Prime Minister of Armenia] Mr. [Nikol] Pashinyan, who recently visited Tbilisi. I am also planning to visit Armenia. I think I will be able to invest all my energy for the settlement [of relations between Yerevan and Baku] and play a positive role, he added.

Earlier during the 76th UN General Assembly the Georgian PM proposed the world leaders a peace neighborhood initiative for ensuring peace and stability in the Black Sea region. He has also stated that Georgia offers to create a platform in Tbilisi for high-level contacts between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received today Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) Thierry Ribaux, the ministry reports.

During the meeting the officials discussed the cooperation between Armenia and the ICRC on addressing the humanitarian problems in Artsakh and the ongoing activities of the organization.

FM Mirzoyan highlighted the necessity of immediate and unconditional repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives held in Azerbaijan.

It was stated that Azerbaijan denies the fact that it holds a large number of POWs in captivity, which creates serious grounds for suspicion of serious crimes committed by Azerbaijan against the captives, including enforced disappearances.

Ararat Mirzoyan said that there shouldnt be artificial obstacles for international organizations to carry out a humanitarian mission in Artsakh and the issue should not be politicized.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received today Ambassador of Bulgaria to Armenia Kalin Vasilev Anastasov, the ministry told Armenpress.

The officials in their remarks praised the rich agenda of the Armenian-Bulgarian relations and exchanged views on the expansion of cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

Ararat Mirzoyan and Kalin Anastasov highlighted the positive dynamics registered in commercial sector, the ongoing works for opening direct flights between the capitals of the two countries, as well as emphasized the role of the bilateral inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation for the further development of the partnership.

The Armenian FM and the Bulgarian Ambassador discussed also the further development of the Armenia-EU partnership and the cooperation within the Eastern Partnership.

The meeting also touched upon the current humanitarian problems facing Artsakh caused by the Azerbaijani aggression.

Both officials emphasized the necessity of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Newly appointed Ambassador of France to Armenia Anne Louyot delivered copies of credentials to Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on September 29.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan expressed confidence that Anne Louyot will contribute to the deepening and strengthening of cooperation between Armenia and France in all spheres.

Anne Louyot, Ararat Mirzoyan Anne Louyot, Ararat Mirzoyan Anne Louyot Ararat Mirzoyan Anne Louyot Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

FM Mirzoyan noted that Armenia attaches great importance to the future deepening of the unique relations with France. In this context, the interlocutors first of all discussed the implementation of concrete programs for the promotion and expansion of Armenian-French cooperation in the economic sphere, as well as further prospects for strengthening ties in the educational and cultural spheres.

During the meeting, reference was made to the situation created by the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Artsakh, as well as by the penetration of Azerbaijani troops into the sovereign territory of Armenia.

Minister Mirzoyan highly appreciated the great attention of France, its parliament, and personally President Macron paid to the return of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, the protection of historical and cultural heritage in the territories of Artsakh under Azerbaijani control.

Both sides stressed the need for the resumption of peace talks within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at a comprehensive settlement of the conflict and the establishment of stability and security in the region.
According to pictures released on the Internet that were taken during the military parade for the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan independence, September 27, 2021, Serbian company Yugoimport has delivered Lazar 3 8x8 armored vehicles to Turkmenistan armed with Russian 30mm 2A42 automatic cannon.

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Serbian-made Lazar 3 8x8 in IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) variants were displayed during a military parade that was held in Turkmenistan, September 27, 2021. (Picture source print screen Turkmenistan national TV footage)

According to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) arms trade database, no official information has been released regarding the number of Lazar 3 armored vehicles delivered to Turkmenistan.



According to Army Recognition editorial team analysis, the pictures released by the Turkmenistan national TV, the Serbian-made Lazar 3 seems to be fitted with the Russian weapon station MB2-03 which is armed with one 30mm 2A42 automatic cannon, one 7.62mm PKTM coaxial machine gun, one 30mm automatic grenade launcher AG-17.

The Lazar 3 is the latest generation of wheeled armored vehicles in the Lazar family that was unveiled in February 2017. The vehicle was fully developed and designed by the Serbian company Yugoimport. The Lazar 3 is available in APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) and IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) versions.

The design of the Lazar 3 in the IFV variant consists of three main parts with the driver and commander position located in the front left side of the hull with the engine on the right side. The vehicle can carry a total of 12 military personnel including commander, driver, gunner, and 9 soldiers.

The hull of the Lazar 3 is made of armored steel and can be fitted with a spall liner. The applied ballistic protection can be tailored to the specific needs of the user and allows for the application of additional state-of-the-art ballistic protection technologies throughout the vehicle service life. The vehicle floor has two levels of anti-mine protection. The Lazar 3 has a ballistic protection Level 3 STANAG 4569 against the firing of small arms 7.6251mm caliber AP (Amor-Piercing) at 30 meters and anti-mine protection levels 3a and 3b STANAG 4569, mine explosion pressure-activated under any wheel or track location (Level 3a), mine explosion under center (Level 3b).

The Lazar 3 IFV is powered by a Cummins ISM500 engine developing 500 hp. The vehicle can run at a maximum speed of 110 km. The vehicle can negotiate gradients up to 60%, a side slope of 30% fording depth of 1.6 m without preparation, and have a turning radius of 11.5 m. It can cross a trench of 2 m and climb a vertical obstacle of 0.55 m maximum.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Tuesday commented on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs remarks regarding Iran, describing them as surprising because they come at a time when Tehran and Baku have good relations based on mutual respect and there are normal channels through which the two sides can talk at the highest level.

September 29, 2021, 11:43 Iran says remarks by Azerbaijani president are 'surprising'

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 29, ARTSAKHPRESS: To remind, in a recent Ilham Aliyev criticized what he described 'illegal entrance and presence' of Iranian trailer trucks into the territory of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). Noting that Iran continues such "illegal" actions despite warnings, Aliyev described the situation as "a disrespect" to the Azerbaijani government, To remind, in a recent Ilham Aliyev criticized what he described 'illegal entrance and presence' of Iranian trailer trucks into the territory of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). Noting that Iran continues such "illegal" actions despite warnings, Aliyev described the situation as "a disrespect" to the Azerbaijani government, Panorama.am informs.

Khatibzadeh added that the Iranian and Azeri foreign ministers also engaged in serious and meticulous discussions over issues of mutual concerns on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly in New York. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, the chief diplomats agreed to continue the talks. He said good neighborliness is a key matter and all neighbors are expected to observe it.

He added that the recent Irans military drills along the northwestern border was a sovereign matter and was aimed at protecting regional security. He, however, said that Iran will not tolerate the Israeli regimes presence near its borders even if it is ceremonial and the Islamic Republic will do anything that it takes to protect its national security.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday received Thierry Ribo, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Armenia, the Ministry of Foreign Affair of Armenia informed>

September 29, 2021, 13:57 Armenian FM holds meeting with ICRC Delegation chief

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 29, ARTSAKHPRESS: During the meeting the officials discussed the cooperation between Armenia and the ICRC on addressing the humanitarian problems in Artsakh and the ongoing activities of the organization.

FM Mirzoyan highlighted the necessity of immediate and unconditional repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives held in Azerbaijan.

It was emphasized that Azerbaijan denies the documented fact that it still holds a large number of Armenian POWs captive, and this creates major grounds for severe crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenian detainees.

Also, FM Mirzoyan noted that artificial obstacles should not be created for the international organizations carrying out a humanitarian mission in Artsakh, and that this issue should not be politicized.
Armenias Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan today received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bulgaria to Armenia Kalin Anastasov, the ministry stated.

September 29, 2021, 16:09 Armenian FM, Bulgarian Ambassador highlight peaceful settlement of NK conflict within Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 29, ARTSAKHPRESS: In their remarks they praised the rich agenda of the Armenian-Bulgarian relations and exchanged views on the expansion of cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

Mirzoyan and Anastasov attached importance to the positive dynamics recorded in trade and economy, the activities being carried out to launch a direct flight to and from the capitals of both countries, as well as set aside the role of the Armenian-Bulgarian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.

The Armenian FM and the Bulgarian Ambassador discussed also the further development of the Armenia-EU partnership and the cooperation within the Eastern Partnership.

The meeting also touched upon the current humanitarian problems facing Artsakh caused by the Azerbaijani aggression.

Both officials emphasized the necessity of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.
By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will tighten visa rules for Belarusian state officials, Europe's migration commissioner said on Wednesday, in retaliation for what she called Minsk's aggressive effort to destabilise the bloc by pushing in irregular migrants.

The EU accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a sharp rise in migrant arrivals across the Belarus border with bloc members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The increase happened after the 27-nation union slapped sanctions on Minsk over human rights abuses and an election widely deemed rigged.

"We have an aggressive regime, Lukashenko, that is actually pushing migrants ... to the European border to destabilise the European Union," the bloc's Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told journalists. "This is an act of aggression."

Johansson made the comments as part of an update on stalled efforts to agree a new EU migration system to replace the one that failed amid a 2015-16 spike in Mediterranean immigration.

Stressing that data from EU law enforcement agency Europol shows 90% of those arriving irregularly in the bloc have used people smugglers along the way, she proposed to EU states that they step up their fight against such traffickers.

For Belarus, she said tightening visa procedures for state officials - but not ordinary Belarusians - was needed.

"What we are seeing now is a desperate Lukashenko," she said. "This is a regime that has denied its own people free and fair elections. This is a regime that is putting political opposition in jail."

"This is a regime that has hijacked a passenger flight... and now is... using innocent people in an act of aggression. This is not a regime we should cooperate with."

Lukashenko has blamed the West https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-leader-warns-nato-troops-ukraine-migrant-catastrophe-2021-09-27 for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter at the Belarusian-Polish border.

Story continues

The EU and Belarus enacted a new visa facilitation deal in July last year to ease procedures and reduce costs for Belarusians willing to visit the bloc briefly.

But Minsk has since withdrawn from its linked EU readmission agreement, which establishes cooperation on sending away people who stay in the bloc without the formal right to do so.

That came as the EU sanctioned Belarus over a disputed election last August and a crackdown on protests after Lukashenko claimed victory and extended his 26-year-long rule.

The bloc then stepped up sanctions, introducing broader economic curbs on Minsk after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil last May to arrest a dissident on board.

Migrants from Iraq, Kurdistan, Congo and Cameroon then started appearing on the Belarus border with Lithuania, which had no such immigration in the past, and then on its frontiers with Latvia and Poland.

Five people are reported to have died on the Polish-Belarusian border zone. Johansson demanded Warsaw investigate.

The nationalist, anti-immigration Law and Justice (PiS) party ruling in Poland has established an emergency zone along the frontier with Belarus, meaning no journalists or rights activists are allowed to witness developments there.

"It is totally unacceptable that people are dying at our borders," Johansson said, adding she was traveling to Warsaw on Thursday to meet Poland's interior minister.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by William Maclean)
"We accept students of all cultures," Pirozzolo said.

In other news:

 The school board's student representative for the 2021-22 was introduced.

The board's latest student representative, high school senior Kiearalyn Mathis, was welcomed at the meeting.

According to a proposal for a student representative that was approved by the community in June 2020, a high school senior will be appointed each year. The liaison won't be able to vote or participate in executive sessions but will be able to be involved in discussions.

Pirozzolo welcomed Mathis and said the board is "so happy to have you."

After the meeting, Mathis talked about why she wanted to take on the role.

"I thought it would be a good learning experience and also I thought it would be good to have a person of color to represent the school," she said. "Not to make it about color, but I feel like sometimes we're underrepresented and I feel like our problems are pushed to the side and I feel like when it's made about color, not everybody cares about it, so that's why I wanted to take this position."

Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.

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Now, why did we go into Iraq? One word: money. The primary culprit was former VP Dick Cheney. Before the right wing talks about ensuring the protection of Iraqi resources, let me emphasize that it was not US nor International Allies securing the pipeline, but a private US contractor allied with the former VP. When life support came for service members, civilians, and contractors, that contract went to KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary. I know, because I paid for it. When you would hear the cost of war report on the nightly news, that money was going to the former VP. We wasted seven years in Iraq because of a cash grab instead of stabilizing some sort of Afghan government.

Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, progress was stalled. As a former Army Officer, I can say that the cool deployments were to Iraq, not Afghanistan. Hence, US assets and money were preferred to go to Iraq over Afghanistan. When President Obama redeployed troops from Iraq, under the auspices of current SECDEF and retired General Lloyd Austin, he had a untenable situation in Afghanistan due to shifting political allegiances. We took our eye off Afghanistan, and the President needed to make up time. I know this for a fact because my area of focus at the time was on the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. Therefore, the criticism President Obama received over Iraq and Afghanistan would have been more appropriately placed squarely on the shoulders of the Bush Administration.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC Motor's car assembly plant in Ningde, Fujian province is currently able to output 240,000 new vehicles per year and its annual capacity can peak at 300,000 units, the automaker said when celebrated the 2nd anniversary for the factory's production commencement.

SAIC Motor's Ningde plant; photo credit: SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Co.,Ltd.



Production at the Ningde-based plant formally started on Sept. 28, 2019. It is the fourth manufacturing base of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Co.,Ltd. (SAIC Motor PV), the self-owned PV subsidiary of SAIC Motor, following the facilities in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Zhengzhou.

The Ningde base mainly produces the ROEWE and MG passenger cars. The first model manufactured there was the MG eHS. Up until now, the plant has output a slew of car models, including the MG HS, the MG eHS, the MG Pilot, the all-new MG5, and the Roewe Clever. The MG's brand new SUV, the MG ONE, is about to come off the production line at this factory.

Vehicles produced at the Ningde factory have been exported to many overseas markets of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and the Middle East.

Involving a total investment of 5 billion yuan ($773.04 million), the Ningde smart plant is honored the biggest car manufacturing factory in Asian by covering an area of 1.4 million square meters, 140,000 of which are for assembly workshops.

According to SAIC Motor PV, the Ningde factory boasts smart manufacturing capabilities by using Internet, big data, AI, cloud-based platform, and other information technologies. It utilizes Huawei's new-generation IP network solution to connect such elements as AGVs (automated guided vehicles), assembly facilities, and production equipment.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Today, Geelys founder, Li Shufu, officially announced his entry to the smartphone industry and signed a strategic agreement with Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.

photo credit: Geely



The recent rumor about Lis phone-making endeavor is finally made official. The auto moguls smartphone business will be operated through Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co. Ltd., a company co-founded by Li Shufu with 55% in stake. The goal is to target the high-end smartphone market, integrating technologies and resources worldwide, serving the global market.

Notably, the Xingji Shidai Technology Co. Ltd. was registered on September 26th. The other main shareholder at 30% is Shen Ziyu, co-founder and CEO of car technology startup ECARX, which he founded with Li Shufu.

As smartphones are a crucial terminal for peoples daily lives, the market for better and more intelligent phones has great potential. By virtue of Geely and Volvos mature ecosystem of design, development, high-end intelligent manufacturing, and industry chain management experience, adding its ongoing satellite network layout, Li Shufus smartphone business and automotive intelligence transformation will be synergetic and mutually beneficial from the new endeavor.

According to the auto mogul, as a carrier of software innovation, a smartphone is media transferring the safe and reliable fruits of innovation onto vehicles, realizing close interaction between vehicles and mobile software technologies. The phones can connect V2X (vehicle to everything) and satellite internet to create user ecosystems across borders, providing users with a more convenient, smarter, and seamlessly connected multi-screen experiences.
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.

NIO reaches milestone of 500 battery swapping stations

By September 29, Chinas new energy vehicle startup NIO has a total of 504 battery swapping stations, one quarter ahead of its target to reach 500 by the end of 2020. Besides, the company has completed more than 4 million battery swaps by September 29, about 30 swaps per user. The highest number of battery swaps for a single vehicle is 927. NIO aims to have a total of 700 battery swapping stations before the Chinese New Year Holiday in 2022.

Photo credit: NIO

Daily retail of Passenger Vehicles in China down 8% YoY in fourth week of September

According to the China Passenger Car Association, the average daily retail volume of passenger vehicles in China saw a year-on-year decline of 8% in the fourth week of September to 61,000 vehicles.

SAIC sets up automotive technology company

Chinas largest automaker SAIC Group officially established an automotive technology company on September 28 with a registered capital pf RMB227 million. The companys business covers technology service, development, consulting.

Hongqi launches three 2022 models

On September 28, Hongqi, luxury brand from Chinas FAW Group, launched three 2022 models, namely the 2022 Hongqi H5, the 2022 Hongqi HS5 and the 2022 Hongqi HS7. The models have fewer changes in appearance and interior, but their configuration has been upgraded, like the latest operating system.

SAIC Motors Ningde plant reaches annual capacity of 240,000 PVs

SAIC Motor's car assembly plant in Ningde, Fujian province is currently able to output 240,000 new vehicles per year and its annual capacity can peak at 300,000 units, the automaker said when celebrated the 2nd anniversary for the factory's production commencement.



Leapmotors C11 full-electric SUV hits market, starting at 159,800 yuan

The C11, the third production model of the Chinese NEV startup Leapmotor, went on sale on Sept. 28. Coming with three trim levels, it is priced between 159,800 yuan ($24,710) and 199,800 yuan ($30,890) after incentives.



Chinese battery swapping service provider Aulton nabs 1.5 billion yuan

Aulton, a Chinese leading battery swapping station provider, announced on Sept. 29 it banked 1.5 billion yuan ($232 million) in the Series B financing.

FAW Jiefang eyes 500,000 units of annual NEV sales by 2035

FAW Jiefang, the commercial vehicle arm of FAW Group, said it expects its annual new energy vehicle (NEV) sales to reach 120,000, 320,000, and 500,000 units in the year of 2025, 2030, and 2035 respectively, accounting for 20%, 50% and 70% of the company's total sales.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Black Sesame Technologies has completed several hundred million dollars worth of strategic round and C-round of financing, the Shanghai headquartered AI company announced recently.

photo credit: Black Sesame Technologies



The strategic round investors include Xiaomis joint venture, Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund, and FulScience Automotive Electronics, a FAW Group joint venture with FAWER Automotive Parts and Desay SV. The C-round was led by Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund and participated by other major capital firms such as Lenovo Capital and Incubator.

The two rounds of financing provided substantial support to Black Sesame in developing high-performance, high computing power autonomous driving platform and expanding its business and team. After the investments, Black Sesame has a market value of nearly $2 billion, helping to accelerate the transformation of intelligent vehicles in China with chips from local companies.

Aside from the capital-level investments, the Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund will also support Black Sesame via its reliable industry chain strategic resources. Notably, this marks the first investment in the automotive chip field made by Xiaomi after its automaking announcement.

FAW Group, parent company of FulScience, is also a long-term partner of Black Sesame Technologies.

In 2019, FAW Group and Black Sesame cooperated to develop autonomous vehicle chips, visual perception algorithms, and data, aiming to deploy autonomous driving technologies onto FAWs products.

Black Sesame has been commercializing its L2-L3 ADAS and autonomous driving perceptual system solutions through numerous partners, such as FAW Group, Bosch, SAIC Group, Dongfeng Sharing. The companys algorithm and image processing technologies have been implemented in consumer electronics sectors like smartphones, post-production vehicle use, and smart home systems.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Shandong Geely Sunwoda Power Battery Co.,Ltd. (Geely Sunwoda), a joint venture between Geely Auto and Chinese lithium ion battery maker Sunwoda, was formally founded last week, marking the expansion of Geely's deployment of NEV (new energy vehicle) battery business.

Founded on Sept. 24 and incorporated in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, the joint venture involves a registered capital of 100 million yuan ($15.488 million), according to the business data platform Tianyancha. It is jointly held by Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. (30%), Geely Auto Group (28.5%), and Jirun Automobile (41.5%), an indirect 99% owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited.

Business scope of the joint venture covers the sales of batteries, electronics products, and electric motors, the manufacturing of batteries and auto parts, as well as the R&D of auto parts.

Photo credit: Sunwoda



The registrations of Geely Sunwoda came after the three parent companies signed an agreement in late July to build a joint venture engaging in the development, production, and sales of hybrid power battery cells, battery modules, and battery packs.

According to the government of Zaozhuang, Geely-Sunwoda power battery project involves an investment of over 5 billion yuan ($774.378 million) and will mainly manufacture power battery packs for HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles) and vehicles fitted with the 48-volt systems. It can initially produce no less than 600,000 battery packs a year at full capacity. Then the annual capacity will be boosted to more than 800,000 in the next phase.

Geely Auto Group said the joint venture will utilize the strength, resources, and expertise of all parties in the local manufacturing of NEV batteries, so as to ensure a stable battery supply for Geely Auto and its subsidiaries, and help Geely effectively decrease costs.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- French energy company TotalEnergies announced on Sept. 28 it has signed an agreement with China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), a Chinese state-owned power company, to establish an electric mobility joint venture in China.



Photo credit: TotalEnergies



The 50/50 joint venture will develop electric vehicle (EV) high-power charging infrastructures and services within Central China's Hubei province, aiming to installing and operating more than 11,000 high-power charging points by 2025, according to TotalEnergies' statement.

The joint venture will leverage TotalEnergies global expertise in electric mobility and CTG's capability in green energy production and supply. The two parties attempt to develop co-branded high-power charging hubs and standalone charging stations, which will be open to the general public and equipped with 60kW and 120kW charging piles.

Moreover, the duo will also build the charging stations dedicated to B2B customers. To conform with their respective ambitions to carbon neutrality, the electricity used to power their joint energy network will be generated mostly from renewable energy sources.

We share common and important visions with China Three Gorges the ambition to reach carbon neutrality, the undeniable willingness to push for renewable power and the enthusiasm to develop electric mobility, declared Alexis Vovk, President Marketing & Services at TotalEnergies. This partnership with CTG opens new doors to TotalEnergies for a long-term and widened cooperation with a leader of Chinas electric energy industry.
LOS ANGELES  Falcon | NakedSword announced Wednesday that it has renewed its annual, exclusive contract with Cade Maddox. The 2020 GayVN Performer of the Year will appear solely in Falcon | NakedSword releases for the next year.



The handsome Maddox stands 6-foot-1 and weighs in at 200 pounds of solid muscle. Since his debut, fans have raved over his sculpted body and 9-inch dick.



Cades got all the assets needed to be at the top of any hottest gay porn star list, but what really sets him apart is his endearing Southern charm, dynamic acting and powerfully energized sexual performances.

With two years of hits and winning numerous awards, the studios are overjoyed that Maddox wanted to continue his career as a Falcon | NakedSword exclusive.



Maddox's newest update from NakedSword Originals hit Dear Johnny, featuring him topping his cousin Tyler Cortez at their family reunion, drops today on NakedSword.com. His latest Falcon appearance from Falcon LIVE: 4 The Fans went live on FalconStudios.com on September 17, 2021.

Cade Maddox brings so much to the table. Hes strikingly handsome, hes got a body that doesnt stop, hes an exceptional performer, and he represents Falcon | NakedSword with honor and enthusiasm, said Falcon|NakedSword President, Tim Valenti. On top of all of that, Cade is a consummate professional and a charming and gracious superstar. We are proud to continue to call him an Exclusive, and were excited to show all the fans more of his spectacular work in the coming year.



I am overwhelmed with joy at the thought of re-signing for another year as a Falcon | NakedSword exclusive, states Maddox. August 2nd marked my four-year anniversary of being in the adult film industry, with the last two of those years as a Falcon | NakedSword Exclusive. These two years have been, by far, the best two years of my career. Im SO honored to have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing team again.

Cade is available for appearances. Booking inquiries can be made through Falcon VP Marketing Toby J. Morris, ([email protected]).

To learn more about Cade, fans can follow him on Twitter: @CadeMaddoxXx and on Instagram @cade__maddox.
E-guide: DevOps trends in APAC Across the APAC region, organisations have been ramping up on agile development efforts to stay ahead of the competition. DevOps, in particular, has been gaining ground as a way to bring together development and operations teams, thereby increasing software quality and stability, and shortening time to market.

Infographic: Content marketing strategy in a post-pandemic era - Engaging IT buyers When the pandemic hit and live events had to end organisations needed to rethink their marketing mix and move to a digital space. In this infographic, we share a few tips and tricks for developing engaging content in a post-pandemic era.

Infographic: Ransomware Weather Report 2021 In this infographic: We take a look at the worldwide Ransomware landscape in 2020 and 2021. We will be diving into which areas of the globe have been affected the most, which times of year attacks are most likely to happen and which hackers and groups have been causing most of the trouble.

Infographic: Most valuable cybersecurity certifications A consensus of industry professionals rank these security certifications as the most coveted by employers and security pros.

Essential Guide: APAC women in cyber security In Asia-Pacific, men continue to outnumber women in the growing field of cyber security - even as more women are entering the industry. The lack of awareness of the profession among students and unconscious biases in hiring processes are just some of the challenges that we must overcome before we can see more women in the profession.

Computer Weekly  5 October 2021: The most influential women in UK technology In this week's Computer Weekly, we reveal the 50 women chosen as the most influential in UK technology for 2021, and talk to the 10th winner of our annual list  Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of Darktrace. Also, our latest buyer's guide looks at digital customer experience technologies. Read the issue now.

Infographic: Observability practices in ASEAN Just a third of ASEAN organisations have mature observability practices, with most being held back by a patchwork of observability tools. That was one of the key findings that have emerged from New Relic's 2021 Observability forecast study.

Computer Weekly - 28 September 2021: Chancellor Rishi Sunak talks tech In this week's Computer Weekly, we talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about his plans to support innovation and growth in the UK tech sector. Composable IT is the latest trend in building software to support business change. And Halfords built its own service management software  and now is selling it to other retailers. Read the issue now.

CW Middle East - October-December 2021: Middle East hospitals accelerate take-up of healthcare technologies The Middle East is accelerating its take-up of digital healthcare technologies following lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic, with regional government turning to technology to track disease trends and monitor treatment.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak listens to UK tech  Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast In this episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, CW editor in chief Bryan Glick joins Caroline Donnelly, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna to discuss his fireside chat with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak at a high-level Treasury tech sector conference.

Building a career in cloud computing Besides having engineering chops and certifications, aspiring cloud professionals should have curiosity and soft skills to succeed in the evolving cloud computing landscape. This useful infographic will give you a snapshot of the top cloud skills in demand and which certifications to consider when starting your career in cloud computing.

Computer Weekly - 21 September 2021: The cities planning for ethical use of AI In this week's Computer Weekly, we talk to tech leaders in Barcelona and London about a collaboration to ensure ethical use of AI in the era of smart cities. The UK government wants to reform data protection law  we assess the implications. And we examine the latest best practice in hybrid cloud. Read the issue now.

CW APAC, Sep 2021: Buyer's guide to robotic process automation In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at the adoption of robotic process automation in APAC and where the technology fits in the wider automation landscape

Application Performance Management: Improving service availability If it can't be measured, it can't be managed. Telemetry on applications and IT infrastructure are key to keeping applications running optimally and reducing unplanned downtime. Beyond using telemetry data to respond to abnormal events, historical data analysis can reveal more systemic issues. In this e-guide we look at trends in APM.

Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2019 Once again, in 2019 the cyber threat landscape proved the old biblical adage correct  there is nothing new under the sun. Data breaches were 10 a penny  indeed, in some cases they can actually be bought for pennies. Here are Computer Weekly's top 10 cyber crime stories of 2019.

Computer Weekly - 14 September 2021: Is 3D printing about to hit the mainstream? In this week's Computer Weekly, we find out about the emerging consumer services using 3D printing and ask if the technology is about to go mainstream. Our latest buyer's guide looks at the importance of sustainable datacentres. And we analyse the risks of increasing contactless card spending limits and whether tech could help. Read the issue now.

The future of enterprise IT: Social, mobile, analytics and cloud Mobile and data technologies are allowing organisations to provide service levels not even dreamt of a few years ago. This guide looks at some examples of these technologies transforming organisations in Australia.

A Computer Weekly buyer's guide to SIEM and SOAR The question of how to use data has big implications on a company's performance. In this 16-page buyer's guide, Computer Weekly looks at how SIEM and SOAR tools assist IT teams, why security tools require strong internal security processes to work effectively and what role they have in a rapidly changing cyber threat landscape.

DWP IR35 bill, women in tech  Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast In this episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Caroline Donnelly, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna discuss the DWP's IR35 tax bill, the launch of the 2021 Most Influential Women in UK Technology awards programme, and company cultures.

Computer Weekly - 7 September 2021: Highways England delivers a digital roadmap In this week's Computer Weekly, we talk to the CDIO of Highways England about her digital services and asset management plans. We also explore SIEM and SOAR security tools and we find out how McLaren Racing is using data analytics to build its cars more efficiently. Read the issue now.

CW Europe - September-November 2021: Dutch researchers build security software to mimic human immune system In this issue of CW Europe, find out how researchers in the Netherlands are attempting to help IT systems fight certain cyber attacks in a similar way to the human immune system works. Also find out about the so-called "Klarna academy" in Stockholm, which has created the next set of Nordic fintech entrepreneurs.

A Computer Weekly buyer's guide to containerisation in the enterprise Containerisation is becoming a key part of IT strategy. In this 12-page buyer's guide, Computer Weekly looks at how it can help businesses in a post-pandemic world, assesses the main considerationsfor Kubernetes backup and discusses how to manage enterprise-class containerisation.

A Computer Weekly Buyer's Guide to Hyperautomation and Bots The advantages of bots are only multiplying for businesses across the globe. In this 15-page buyer's guide, Computer Weekly looks at how robotic process automation is evolving, the benefits it brings for coders and the ways artificial intelligence can enhance customer service.
The homeless represent the most vulnerable portion of Americans living in poverty. The latest U.S. government report on homelessness shows that a culture of secularism and statism is depriving Americans of church philanthropy, curbing the free markets ability to provide, and leaving the most vulnerable reliant on the government  or the mercy of the streets.

The Council of Economic Advisers detailed their conditions in its report on The State of Homelessness in America, released last week. It found that rent controls may have priced homeless Americans out of an affordable home, permissive policies may increase homelessness, and those with no connection to a church or faith community are 60 percent more likely to end up homeless.

Here are the facts you need to know:

1. Half a million Americans are homeless. Someone is counted homeless if he or she lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In January 2018, 552,830 people were counted as homeless in the United States. Of those, 194,467 (35 percent) were unsheltered  or living on the streets  and 358,363 (65 percent) were sheltered in temporary housing. The overall homeless population on a single night represents 0.2 percent of the U.S. population, or 17 people per 10,000 in the population, the report says.

2. Nearly half of all Americans sleeping on the streets live in California. Almost half (47 percent) of all unsheltered homeless people in the United States are found in California, about four times as high as their share of the overall United States population. Among the five cities with the highest rates of unsheltered homelessness, four are in California (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Rosa, and San Jose), and the other is Seattle.

3. But East Coast cities have the highest rate of homelessness  and Washington, D.C. ranks worst. Compared to a national rate of 17 homeless people per 10,000, the cities  with the highest rates of overall homelessness are Washington, DC (103 per 10,000), Boston, MA (102 per 10,000), and New York, NY (101 per 10,000). More than 20 percent of all homeless people live in New York City. These cities each have homelessness rates that are over 6 times as high as the overall U.S rate, and the level of sheltered homelessness is eight-times the national average (11 per 10,000).

4. The homeless have high rates of mental illness, substance abuse, and previous incarceration. According to HUDs 2018 annual homelessness count, 111,122 homeless people (20 percent) had a severe mental illness and 86,647 homeless people (16 percent) suffered from chronic substance abuse. Among all adults who used shelter at some point in 2017, 44 percent had a disability. The department also found that nine percent of U.S. homeless had spent time in a jail or correctional facility. However, HUD may have undercounted this population, as other surveys found up to four-in-10 homeless are alcoholics and an equal number have mental health issues.

5. Lack of connection to a church or religious communities increases homelessness. The report states that individuals with weak social ties are more likely to become homeless. It cites a study that found the lifetime incidence of homelessness is reduced by 60 percent for individuals with strong ties to family, religious communities, and friends.

6. Accounting tricks make it hard to know if U.S. homelessness has increased or decreased since 2007. The federal government has shifted from promoting transitional housing (offering homeless a room in a temporary housing facility) to rapid re-housing (offering assistance to defray the cost of moving into and renting a private home). The government does not count those in rapid re-housing as homeless. The approximately 110,000 bed reduction in transitional housing between 2007 and 2018 has been almost fully offset by an approximately 109,000 bed increase in rapid rehousing, the report states. [I]t is not clear that people living in one type of program are more homeless than people living in the other type.

7. Californias homeless crisis is due to more than the weather. While Californias mild temperatures may facilitate unsheltered homelessness, they cannot account for its disproportionate share of the homeless problem. Florida and Arizona have unsheltered homeless populations lower than what would be expected given the temperatures, home prices and poverty rates in their communities. Meanwhile, the unsheltered homeless population is over twice as large as expectedgiven the temperatures, home prices and poverty rates in their communitiesin [s]tates including Hawaii, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington [s]tate. The report said government policies, including the extent of policing of street activities may play a role in these differences.

8. Government policies to reduce homelessness may have made the situation worse.Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. are each subject to right-to-shelter laws that guarantee shelter availability of a given quality. These places each have rates of sheltered homelessness at least 2.7 times as high as the rate in every other city, and this difference cannot be explained by their weather, home prices, and poverty rates. Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. also have substantially higher rates of overall homelessness than almost every other city, suggesting that most people being sheltered would not otherwise sleep on the street.

9. Government housing regulations made the problem worse. The report states that the cost of median rent and homelessness rise in lockstep, finding a virtually one-to-one ratio. A central driver of higher home prices in some communities is the heavy regulation of housing markets by localities, the report says. This includes overly restrictive zoning and growth management controls; rent controls; cumbersome building and rehabilitation codes; excessive energy and water efficiency mandates; unreasonable maximum-density allowances; historic preservation requirements; overly burdensome wetland or environmental regulations; outdated manufactured-housing regulations and restrictions; undue parking requirements; cumbersome and time-consuming permitting and review procedures; tax policies that discourage investment or reinvestment; overly complex labor requirements; and inordinate impact or developer fees.

10. Housing deregulation could wipe out the majority of homelessness in San Francisco.We find that for the 11 metropolitan areas with housing regulations that drive home prices significantly above home production costs (which contain 42 percent of the United States homeless population), deregulation would reduce homelessness by an average of 31 percent. Homelessness would fall by 54 percent in San Francisco, 40 percent in Los Angeles, and 23 percent in New York City. Overall homelessness in the United States would fall by just under 72,000 people, or 13 percent.

The Acton Institute exists to connect good intentions with sound economics. Affordable housing policies like rent control may have decreased housing supply, pricing the poorest Americans out of the market  and leaving them on the streets. This, combined with a permissive policy of turning a blind eye to non-violent street crime, may have increased the number of homeless and/or prolonged their stay on the streets. Finally, this report shows another danger of Americas secularized, atomized culture: Church membership significantly decreases the likelihood of homelessness. Christians seeking to reduce homelessness should support a greater role for churches and private philanthropies, and less government interference in the housing market.

(Photo credit: Mike. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
As vibrant personal faith in a Christian creed has been replaced by a vague spirituality or harmless universal ethic, the American public square has become more divided and self-obsessed, not less. Do we need a Third Great Awakening? []

What does it mean for a nation to be Christian? Does the United States of America fit the description?

At its founding, the United States was undoubtedly a Christian nation. To foster a society of religious freedom and pluralism, the Founding Fathers intentionally did not establish a national religion and took care to separate the domains of church and state in the founding documents of our country. Those very documents, however, express an adherence to the Christian faith that, while leaving room for the expression of different sects, was clearly almost universal among Americans. Religion provided the foundation for the rights and duties inherent in and incumbent upon all men, and the founders openly acknowledged it.

Some 250 years later, can we still call America Christian? How have religious belief, affiliation, and expression changed in our country across denominations? How would your average American Christian today differ from his counterpart in 1776? And what do those differences portend for the future of Christianity in the USA?

I dont claim to answer all those questions, but to determine the trajectory of the Christian faith in America, lets examine a few major historical figures impressions of it over time. First, consider a prediction from Elisha Williams in 1744 on the effect of religious freedom on the colonies diverse Christian denominations:

As the exercise of private reason, and free enquiry in a strict and constant adherence to the sacred scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice, is the most likely means to produce uniformity in the essential principles of Christianity as well as practice; so this is certainly the most sure method of procuring peace in the state (emphasis his).

Williams seems to expect that the religious freedom offered by America will lead to a greater unity of faith and practice among denominations, in addition to providing a peaceful, stable society. Was he right?

A hundred years later, we get the following observation from Alexis de Tocqueville (1840):

I have seen no country in which Christianity is clothed with fewer forms, figures, and observances than in the United States; or where it presents more distinct, more simple, or more general notions to the mind. Although the Christians of America are divided into a multitude of sects, they all look upon their religion in the same light.

This again implies a certain unity of faith and practice between denominations, a positive outcome of pluralism. However, the lack of emphasis on external forms of religion and the simplifying of religious ideas in the minds of churchgoers noted by Tocqueville reveal the first seeds of a worrisome trend.

Another hundred years pass and Jacques Maritain provides more insight into the religious character of the American people (1958). He expresses this hopeful statement:

It is unlikely that, however powerful it may be, the antagonistic trend toward secularism will ever be able to tear away from American civilization the religious inspiration. (Maritain, 81)

Yet Maritain also gives a warning:

This same religious inspirationappears rather asa temporal projection of religious belief which holds, in actual fact, for a number of individuals who have slipped away from religious faith, though it can obviously preserve its vitality only if in many others it is not cut off from living religious faith. (82)

Thus, while acknowledging the fundamental Christian ethos of American society and even praising the unity between denominations, preserved from the founding era, Maritain is starting to see the danger of this religion inspiration departing from its source and retaining only a temporal, social character. He is warning against a breakdown of moral society in America that could result if living religious faith ceases to be cultivated.

Here I think we can point to a trend that has gone from hypothetical to real in the past 50 years. From sociologist Peter Berger, analyzing the effect of religious pluralism in 2008, we read: Most Americans are somewhere in the middle on the cultural issues being fought over by the activists, professing golden-rule Christianitya somewhat vague and broadly tolerant form of religion (12). He goes on to say: In recent yearsthere has occurred a proliferation of spirituality. People will say: I am not religious. But I am spiritual. The meaning of such statements is not fixed. Quite often it means some sort of New Age faith or practice. But quite often the meaning is simpler: I am religious, but I cannot identify with any existing church or religious tradition (1415).

Berger is identifying the threat Maritain foresaw as a fact of American Christianity today. Yes, the majority of Americans still say they believe in God, so there might be some nominal unity of belief, but there is widespread ignorance across denominations of the fundamental content of the Christian religion. We have lost contact with many of our faith traditions, perhaps for seemingly well-intentioned reasons such as making religion accessible or modern or universal. This has led to the watering down of religion in the name of toleration, so much so that much of America does not know what it means to be Christian anymore. The kind of faith vibrant among Christians of Williams America is dishearteningly rare, and no one can deny that morality has gone into a tailspin as a result.

What is the solution? Can the America of today, with such a rich heritage of religious and political freedom, rediscover authentic Christianity and revitalize a largely amoral culture?

The key is to start seeing our Christian faith less as a rubric for how to be a nice fella (as the late Norm MacDonald observed) and more in its true sensea gift from God, transcendent, redemptive, foundational, and, yes, universal. The salvific and sacrificial content of Christianity cannot be overlooked or underemphasized. Only when we embrace the full significance of what it means to follow Christ on an individual level, only if the faith is truly alive in our hearts, can the expression of that faith in the public square contribute to and preserve a moral society.

In the words of Maritain: Temporalized religious inspiration runs the risk of terminating in a failureif, in the inner realm of human souls, faith in supernatural Truth and obedience to the law of God, the fire of true love and the life of divine grace are not steadily growing.
Nobel Prize-winning economist: The world of long work hours is r
The harbor sprang to life as Norwegian Sun pulled into Port Said at dawn. An endless line of tour buses were waiting along a narrow street by the pier. Perpendicular to the pier was a thoroughfare stretching far into the heart of the city and beyond. A steady stream of people was being disgorged from the starboard side of our humongous ship and inching its way toward the buses as I stood high above on Deck 15 trying desperately to steady my camera against the tremor sent through the ship by its idling engine and snap a few pictures of my first view of Egypt soaked in the shimmering twilight of morning.

Shrouded by the long shadows of moored gargantuan vessels, little boats of all sorts were toiling around on the rippling surface of dark water.

In the dim halo of street lamps flanking the thoroughfare could be seen police vehicles dotting both sides of the road and people standing by those vehicles kept the surrounding areas under their watchful eyes. Such was my first sight of Egypt, ominous, ghostly, evoking the underworld. I didn't realize it then, but looking back, that scene of tight security should have alerted me that this was going to be a tour unlike any I had taken before.

We were in no particular hurry as Blue Nile was supposed to have a minivan waiting down there for us, and as all those countless buses and minivans had to get loaded with tourists first and then organized into a police-guarded convoy for the 3-hour drive to Cairo. Over the years, terrorists have attacked tourists in Egypt on a number of occasions. The most gruesome attack happened on November 17, 1997, when 62 people, mostly tourists, were killed by terrorists in Luxor. The protected convoy arrangement is in response to such threat.

After finishing a leisurely breakfast, we strolled down to Deck 4, with a piece of luggage each, to disembark. It was fully bright by now.

It did not take us long to find Nile Blue's minivan parked on the right hand side of the street; it had Nile Blue painted on its side panels and a cleanly shaven young man standing by its passenger side door. He looked in his late 20s, of a stocky build with a budding beer belly. All smiles, he was sporting a loosely fitting black hoodie and a pair of denim jeans, and was holding up a cardboard sign saying Nile Blue.

My name is Mo'men, the young man was saying to us as we gathered around him. It sounds like moment in English, so you can call me Moment. It'll be a while yet before the convoy can leave. I was just about to tune him out and step away to look around the harbor when he said something that alarmed me: The drive to Cairo will take a bit over three hours, and we won't be able to make stops on the way as the convoy must stay together at all times. More than three hours without stops?! Well, that's going to be a problem, I thought to myself, a big problem, for my bladder! So, what if we need to go to the bathroom? I asked. Well, you'll just have to hold your pee, Mo'men replied matter-of-factly. Here is a bit of hindsight I had after we got to Cairo: if he hadn't told us there were no planned stops on the way, I might probably have been just fine; now that he had put us on notice, however, I couldn't help but start dreading what to do when nature called. As a matter of fact, I immediately felt the need to take a leak upon hearing Mo'men's unpleasant announcement.

Truth be told, I felt a bit put off by Mo'men's reply. We've been to places around the world. No matter where we are, we invariably find people to be accommodating when it comes to tourists' reasonable, expected needs. It is not uncommon either for people to even go out of their way to offer help. I was taken aback by Mo'men's response because, just a moment before I popped the question, he had been saying how happy he was to see us and how his personal living as well as the health of the Egyptian economy both heavily depended on tourism. I can't even chalk it up to inexperience, as Mo'men later revealed that he had been employed in the tourism industry for years, ever since graduation from college. In my urge to rationalize everything, I did manage to find an excuse for Mo'men: our vehicle needed to stay with the convoy at all times for security reasons. But this does not explain why arrangements couldn't have been made for the entire convoy to make at least one stop somewhere along the way.

Long story short, I went to the bathroom three times during the one hour we waited for departure at the harbor just so I wouldn't have to cause some embarrassing international incident because I needed to pee.

I did manage to survey the harbor a bit in between. The street the Nile Blue van was parked on was flanked on one side by an endless row of nondescript one-storey buildings housing what looked like warehouses and waterfront stores and on the other side by apartment buildings of different heights and sizes. At the end of the street stood a glistening mosque topped with light green domes, reminding us unequivocally we were in a land of Muslims.

Indeed, most conspicuous amid an assortment of constructions lining the opposite side of the harbor was another majestic mosque, its twin minarets, meticulously sculptured, towering in sharp contrast next to a crowd of colossal portal cranes of ruthless functional design, a mesmerizing ode to history in symphony with a barbarian shout of modernity, beauty and the beast, the two sides of the same coin called Egypt. All that's there left to do is figure out which is the heads, and which the tails.
Alexandra Souverneva, who is suspected of starting the highly destructive Fawn Fire in Shasta County last week, was trying to boil bear urine so she could drink it. The 30-year-old Palo Alto resident's bear-urine-boiling fire is what allegedly ignited the blaze that scorched more than 7,000 acres and forced hundreds of people to evacuate.

From CBS San Francisco:

Souverneva had been hiking to Canada on September 22 and was seen in the Mountain Gate community in Northern California, according to a narrative written by a Cal Fire officer. She was told she couldn't be on the property by quarry employees, but kept walking. She then became thirsty and found a puddle of water in a dry creek bed, but the water allegedly had bear urine in it so she tried to filter the water with a tea bag, the officer said. "She said that didn't work so she attempted to make a fire to boil the water. She stated it was too wet for the fire to start. She said she drank the water anyway and then continued walking uphill from the creek bed," the complaint read.

When police arrested Souverneva, a graduate of the California Institute of Technology and former biotech employee she was found with CO2 cartridges, a cigarette lighter, and a "white item containing a green leafy substance."

She currently lists her occupation on LinkedIn as "shaman."

If convicted, she could spend 9 years in prison.
It's not likely that the habitues of the top Christian Facebook page of 2019, Be Happy Enjoy Life, would give a hoot that the page was run by an Eastern European troll farm. They'd just be happy that the Putin-directed propagandists are doing the Lord's work.

MIT Technology Review received an internal Facebook report from 2019 and learned that Eastern European troll farm "content was reaching 140 million US users per month75% of whom had never followed any of the pages."

The report found that troll farms were reaching the same demographic groups singled out by the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency (IRA) during the 2016 election, which had targeted Christians, Black Americans, and Native Americans. A 2018 BuzzFeed News investigation found that at least one member of the Russian IRA, indicted for alleged interference in the 2016 US election, had also visited Macedonia around the emergence of its first troll farms, though it didn't find concrete evidence of a connection. (Facebook said its investigations hadn't turned up a connection between the IRA and Macedonian troll farms either.) "This is not normal. This is not healthy," [the report's author, Jeff Allen, a former senior-level data scientist at Facebook] wrote. "We have empowered inauthentic actors to accumulate huge followings for largely unknown purposes  The fact that actors with possible ties to the IRA have access to huge audience numbers in the same demographic groups targeted by the IRA poses an enormous risk to the US 2020 election."

MIT Technology Review also learned that five of the top 20 Christian Facebook pages are still active and still being run by trolls.

[By Gil  Own work, CC BY 2.0]
After a man praises masks at a school board meeting in Eastern Carver County, Minnesota, things get ugly. The only accessories missing in the room are pitchforks.

It starts when one of the few masked people at the meeting, Jonas Sjoberg, 48, speaks at the podium (starts 39:33), thanking the board for requiring masks at school. "I wanted to share with you that the community that you see in the room might not be representative of the community that we serve," he says. "From the bottom of my heart I wanted to express gratitude to you  being in the position of hard decisions."

But his comments don't sit well with some of the unmasked folks. Once back in his seat, a hot-headed man sitting nearby wheels his chair right in front of Sjoberg and says, "What you just did is lie to the board!" Sjoberg gets up to get out of the way and the man tries to block him with his chair.

The loud commotion settles for less than 10 minutes, when Sjoberg sneak-snaps a photo of the aggressive gentleman with his phone (48:15). Notice the woman in back of him, who sees what he has done and whispers to those around her. Then watch the violent scuffle that ensues, in which people shout for the officers to come over and help. Even at (50:20) folks are shouting, "Delete the picture!" and calling him a "pervert.". All, apparently, because someone dared to thank their school board for keeping them safe.

Watch on vimeo here.

Via Daily Beast
Global consulting organization and modern application development platform provider build on success in Europe to help joint customers accelerate cloud and digital transformation globally

BOSTON, September 29, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OutSystems, a global leader in modern application development, and Deloitte Consulting LLP have expanded their 13-year alliance to include a Center of Excellence (COE) focused on providing cloud-based industry solutions utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a global scale. Together, Deloitte, OutSystems, and AWS provide shared clients with the ability to develop and deploy new, innovative enterprise applications at a faster pace with fewer resources than ever before.

Deloitte and OutSystems first joined forces in Portugal in 2007 and have since delivered more than 100 digital transformation and software development projects in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Canada, and the US through more than 300 Deloitte professionals certified on OutSystems. Deloitte is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner that provides specialization in a host of AWS-enabled business solutions, each of which can be efficiently integrated to meet clients' needs where and when they need it most.

The Red Cross Netherlands recently tapped into the joint capabilities of OutSystems, Deloitte, and AWS to rapidly build new applications for volunteer management and coordination. The three organizations enabled the Red Cross to massively and effectively scale operations amid increased demand and rapidly changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"By leveraging the power of the OutSystems platform, the experience of the Deloitte team, and the scalability of AWS, we were able to develop a user-centric and future-proof solution in only a matter of weeks. We're now developing digital experiences in weeks instead of months, connecting over 100,000 people in ways that we didnt think about a year ago. With OutSystems and Deloitte we're confident that we'll be able to adapt and meet the evolving needs of 2021," said Hans Goedhart, Manager Information Provision & ICT at the Red Cross.

Story continues

With this new agreement, Deloitte US, the largest Deloitte member firm, will broaden the Deloitte Global COE-Based Service Delivery and Software Productization Practice leveraging the OutSystems development platform. This alliance offers clients the ability to simplify project delivery efforts and realize business value faster by accelerating time-to-market, reducing ongoing application support and development costs, and retiring or replacing ineffective or inefficient applications and infrastructure, thereby accelerating transformation. Deloitte will offer accelerators and assets across industries to deliver business value with the OutSystems platform.

"OutSystems is addressing one of the biggest problems facing businesses today  the lack of speed and agility of traditional software development," said Carlos Alves, COO at OutSystems. "Our high-productivity, modern development platform automates and simplifies complexity, but with the power and expressiveness of traditional development. This approach radically transforms the way our customers build, deploy, and most importantly, evolve their critical applications. Deloittes deep industry and cloud expertise builds on top of the proven capabilities of the OutSystems platform, enabling our joint customers to realize the full strategic benefits of digital transformation."

"Speed, architectural soundness, and continuous evolution are paramount for businesses to keep pace with the market and workforce needs," said Tim Smith, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and US Offering Leader  Core Industry Solutions of Deloitte. "The range of solutions we can help deliver with OutSystems is vast  from customer experience transformation and workplace innovation, to process automation, legacy modernization, and more. The ability to build and evolve apps in one platform is the reason weve teamed with OutSystems."

About Deloitte - Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the worlds most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and more than 7,000 private companies. Our people come together for the greater good and work across the industry sectors that drive and shape todays marketplace  delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthier society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Building on more than 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloittes more than 330,000 people worldwide connect for impact at www.deloitte.com.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

About OutSystems - OutSystems was founded in 2001 with the mission to give every organization the power to innovate through software. The OutSystems modern application platforms high productivity, connected, and AI-assisted tools help developers rapidly build and deploy a full range of applications anywhere the organization requires. With over 500,000 community members, approximately 1,600 employees, more than 400 partners, and active customers in 87 countries and across 22 industries, OutSystems has achieved global scale while helping organizations change the way they develop applications. Visit us at www.outsystems.com or follow us on Twitter @OutSystems or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsystems.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005121/en/

Contacts

Ann Conrad, OutSystems

ann.conrad@outsystems.com

or

Kelsey Williams

outsystems@strangebrewstrategies.com
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that Turkey is shielded from a gas crisis, which has gripped Europe, thanks to the Russian-built TurkStream gas pipeline.

Speaking at the start of talks with Erdogan in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin also thanked the Turkish president for his support of the pipeline, which runs to Turkey from Russia via the Black Sea.

"And now, when we see quite difficult, turbulent processes on the European gas market, Turkey is feeling absolutely confident and stable," Putin said in comments on TurkStream.

The onland parts of the link stretch further to southern Europe and are part of Moscow's plans to bypass its political foe, Ukraine, in exporting gas to lucrative European markets.

Russia commissioned TurkStream with an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic metres in early 2020.

Russian gas producer Gazprom has said it has increased total gas supplies to Turkey by almost 160% from the start of the year.

Nord Stream 2, a Russian-led subsea gas pipeline that crosses the Baltic Sea to Germany, was recently completed and is awaiting operating approval from German regulators.

Benchmark European gas prices at the Dutch TTF hub have increased more than fourfold since January due to low gas storage stocks, high EU carbon prices, low liquefied natural gas tanker deliveries and lower than expected Russian supplies. [NG/GB]

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely)
In 2017, only one in three Filipinas sought help to stop physical or sexual violence, according to that years Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey.

In fact, low help-seeking behavior is so common among abused women that the term shadow pandemic was coined by coined by UN Women. Over a call with CNN Philippines Life, Charisse Jordan, National Project Officer of UN Women Safe and Fair Programme, defines the phenomenon as a culture of silence and invisibility that surrounds domestic violence.

Seeing the need for intervention, the International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) established Safe and Fair in 2018. The programs main goal is to ensure that labor migration is safe and fair for all women OFWs, whether land-based or sea-based, in the ASEAN region. To achieve this, the initiative is focused on guiding Filipinas through every step of the migration process, namely pre-migration, transit, onsite, and return.

At the beginning of 2020, it was reported that there were about 5,000 cases of OFW abuse and around 23,700 cases of contract violations. Globally, domestic violence rose by 20% in that same year. This kind of abuse has been a persisting problem for Filipina domestic workers, and upon the implementation of lockdowns worldwide, only continued to increase in rampancy with victims confined to the same space as their abusers.

To mitigate this, Safe and Fair Philippines launched their Babaeng BiyaHero campaign in 2020. The program aims to give Filipina migrant workers psychosocial first aid, which the World Health Organization (WHO) defines as immediate humane, practical, and supportive assistance to individuals in distress. The projects day-to-day operations are executed by a three-woman Psychosocial Support Team: Pacita Bing Fortin, Lizette Therese Cinco, and Bernice Joyce Santos, who are all social workers.

Fortin, who leads the team, is a social worker of 20 years. Simultaneously a teacher in the same field, her advocacy has always revolved around gender-based violence, domestic violence, and child protection. Its genesis can be traced to her practicum in college, when she did an observation stint for a month or two in the summer, in a center for sexually abused youth in Bicol. For her, the experience served as a jarring introduction to the violence faced by children. She remembers it clearly: just a few days after her first day, she told her mom that she didnt want to go back. She recalls over call, Its an evil world, you know, listening to five or six-year-old children being raped; abused by a grandfather of 70. Post-graduation, she went on to work with women in prostitution.

Together with Cinco and Santos, the three work to provide women OFWs with psychosocial support as they access essential health, social, legal, and economic services. A huge part of their commitment revolves around the operation of two helplines (one for Globe and Smart) as well as a dedicated Facebook Messenger channel, via their Facebook page.

The Babaeng Biyahero helpline provides psychosocial first aid to Filipina migrant works. Photo courtesy of BABAENG BIYAHERO

Their occupation has put them in the position of caring for women in crisis. Because some people call the helpline in tears, practicing psychosocial first aid is an imperative. When taking a call, they follow three principles based on WHO's guidelines: Look, Listen, and Link, or the three Ls.

Look means ensuring the safety of the Filipina migrant worker, or the caller. They first confirm that she is safe by asking the questions, How are you, physically and emotionally? Where are you? Where are your perpetrators?

Listen pertains to providing a safe space for the migrant worker to air out her concerns and issues. Its an opportunity to validate her feelings of distress.

Link refers to the final stage of psychosocial first aid. The first two stages are crucial to arriving at this point, as they are where the migrant workers immediate needs and concerns are identified. Once these are established, the team links the migrant worker to embassies, consulates, agencies, and organizations that can provide assistance.

It is only after performing the three Ls that the team begins putting forward plans of action and options for services the migrant worker can avail. Very, very important to make them feel that theres someone wholl be there to help them, Fortin shares. Since workers are far from home and sometimes have limited access to WiFi, its important that they are given utmost compassion and support when they finally choose to seek help.

A Babaeng BiyaHero 'May I help you?' kiosk located at NAIA. Photo courtesy of BABAENG BIYAHERO

Post-psychosocial first aid, the team begins their intake process. If the victim initiates the call, they'll be asked for pertinent information such as their name, background, working history, and recruitment agency. In the case that a relative or loved one reaches out to BiyaHero on behalf of the victim, the team provides their contact details, and waits for the domestic worker herself to communicate. Over text or call, the team assesses the situation and asks the victim to specify the kind of help she needs from them. Very important yun eh, na sila magsasabi sa amin na, Ito yung tulong na kailangan [ko].

When a female OFW successfully comes home to the Philippines, there are opportunities that await her provided that she possesses a Social Security System or SSS membership. Earlier this year, the ILO along with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-National Capital Region (TESDA-NCR) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration - National Reintegration Center for OFWS (OWWA-NRCO) introduced the #WOMENOFWSCANDOIT Scholarship Programme. The scholarship intends to provide returning, onsite, or potential women migrant workers and their family members with critical soft and technical STEM-related skills, as well as technical-vocational skills. Rex Marlo Varona of the ILO shares over call, We are also trying to break the glass ceiling like me and you, [women migrant workers] should have the option to move to other [industries].

The #WOMENOFWSCANDOIT scholars currently on training in Cebu for bread and pastry production. These women are mostly OFW returnees/repatriates (from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Hong Kong, etc.) displaced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION LEARNING CENTER AND TECHNOLOGIES INC.

The program has proven to be a success, with 350 graduates in the first half of 2021. Class offerings vary from blended to exclusively online. Their baking and pastry classes, for example, require onsite assessment and training. On the other hand, their computer programming classes are held remotely, which is why they even have students from Saudi Arabia and Italy, among others. Depending on the individual, the skills acquired from the program can be used to forge a new career path post-domestic-work, or enrich the ongoing domestic work experience, perhaps through online businesses on the side.

Still, attainment of such opportunities depends on the migrant workers willingness to act. Because the team knows that help-seeking behavior is very low, they often regard themselves as a last recourse for victims. For them, when someone calls the helpline, it means that the abuse has moved past the point of endurance. For Fortin, part of their work as psychosocial first aiders is the ethical commitment and obligation to make sure that etong mga services that we provide will be continued. When a person calls the helpline, someone has to pick up.

Though the Safe and Fair project ends its run in 2022, the people involved hope to sustain it through institutionalization. To aid in the projects continuity is a task force within the Babaeng BiyaHero ecosystem  a network of government agencies and organizations that come together each month to discuss key concerns, as well as review existing manuals concerning migrant workers. Their work as a task force is catered toward supporting and strengthening existing work laid out by the government, in order to better the services provided to female OFWs at risk.

Also playing a crucial role in the projects long-term sustenance is the Gender Responsive and Inclusive Pandemic Management Act, the proposition of which Safe and Fair initiated. Its objective is to target the gender-differentiated needs of marginalized groups, which remain severely overlooked. Such groups include women migrants and survivors of trafficking, and encompass the disability sector, LGBTQIA+ community, indigenous peoples, and those living with HIV, to name a few. Jordan stresses that these groups arent silent, but rather, were silenced by the system.

While the act hasnt been passed in the Senate and House of Representatives yet, this is what they are actively working towards. The goal is to have the bill enacted into law by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Varona shares that they are hoping to soon ratify the ILO Convention No. 190, or C190 for short. As an international treaty, its goal is to recognize the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment. Varona asserts that one of the good things about this convention is that it expands the concept of world of work. It doesnt just pertain to the place one works in, but also includes places where you take a rest, eat your meals, commute to or from work, and even communicate, in cyberspace. These can constitute spaces where violence can happen. Parang in-eecho niya yung Safe Spaces Act ng Pilipinas.

The C190s ratification is spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), who has provided a technical working committee. They are currently in the process of securing endorsements from their stakeholders  the workers, employers, government, and other civil society sectors. DOLE and the ILO hope to announce their stakeholders confirmed endorsements by this year, either on DOLEs Anniversary on December 8, or Migrants Day on December 18.

At present, the Babaeng BiyaHero team holds 12 active cases, and since their launch last year, has assisted around 350 clients. Though primarily offering psychosocial first aid, their services extend to information provision, counseling, case management, and referrals. For the team, every form of support matters. Fortin shares, Sinasabi ko lagi na in itself, your presence, the way you talk to people, the way you interact with them, is in itself a form of help.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines Life, September 27)  This week, watch music videos from young OPM acts, mix things up with vegan-friendly granola, stream martial law films, learn about local heritage preservation, visit an online exhibit, read a clothing brands new publication, and sign up for a design experience.

Catch The Kingmaker, Respeto, Aswang, and other films about martial law and EJK at this human rights festival

If youre still looking for media to paint a more accurate picture of the injustices of the past and present, the Active Vista International Human Rights Festival has got you covered. The festival is meant to bring attention to stories of human rights struggles. While most of the virtual talks took place last week, you can still buy tickets to stream films such as Lauren Greenfields The Kingmaker, Treb Montrerass Respeto, Alyx Ayn Arumpacs Aswang, Mae Paners Tao Po, and Benedict Miques ML on the festivals website.  CNN PHILIPPINES LIFE STAFF

Check out new music videos from Zack Tabudlo and Unique Salonga

Over the weekend, two young and influential OPM acts released their latest music videos. 2020 breakout artist Zack Tabudlos music video for Habang Buhay'' stars influential vlogger CongTV and his girlfriend Viy Cortez. Over Tabudlos funky guitar riffs and sweet lyrics about loving each other forever and never letting go, the couple is seen watching TV, doing the laundry, grilling isaw, and even breaking out into dance while goofing off at the same time  you know, just long-term relationship things. Watch the video here for your daily dose of serotonin.

READ: Zack Tabudlo and the future sounds of OPM

Unique has finally released the music video for Mga Katulad Mo, a song off his 2020 sophomore album Pangalan:. Created by artist TRNZ, the animated video interprets the anger and resentment of the song by following a little girl and her shadow. Care to share your own interpretation after watching the video?  GABY GLORIA

"States of Cadence" features work by 19 artists that reflect the way they see the collective energy of today's world. Photo courtesy of GROUNDED

Support emerging artists at this online exhibition

Holistic arts and culture studio Grounded Artists Network is holding its first group exhibition from Sept. 23 to Nov. 15. Entitled States of Cadence," the first part of the exhibition showcases works by 19 artists that reflect the way they see the collective energy of todays world. Featured works for Exhibit 1 include photographer Archie Geotinas Pearls, a series of black and white photographs of Filipina surfers surfing in traditional terno and Filipiniana gowns, and artist and florist Melissa Laras collages of nostalgia, threads of memory, and pieces of expressio. A portion of the proceeds from the artwork sales will go to coral reef and mangrove conservation and restoration through the Oceanus Conservation organization. To view the exhibit, visit their website.  CNN PHILIPPINES LIFE STAFF

The Superfood Grocers Coconola Chocolate Crunch Granola Clusters, 250. Photo from THE SUPERFOOD GROCER

Mix things up with this vegan-friendly granola

You know a bag of granola is good if you find yourself inhaling the entire thing in one sitting. I have my fair share of granola favorites, but The Superfood Grocers Coconola Chocolate Crunch Granola Clusters at 250 is my current god tier choice. Made of plant-based ingredients that are sourced from local farmers, these granola clusters give you the same level of satisfaction as a box of chocolate-flavored cereal  so much crunch and flavor in each bite. It also makes use of coconut sugar as a sweetener so its a great gift for diabetic loved ones. The fact that its a healthy snack alternative at 88 calories per serving is just a bonus. Its too bad these only come in 200g bags. I need them in bulk.  MARGA BUENAVENTURA

The Coconola Chocolate is available on BeautyMNL or The Superfood Grocer website.

Learn about Philippine heritage preservation at this book launch

Did you know that San Nicolas, Manila, is where some of the oldest houses in Manila are located? Wrongly referred to as Spanish-style houses, these antique homes were raised between 1893 to the 1910s. Historian Fernando Zialcita and researcher Erik Akpedonu with economist Victor Venida cover the San Nicolas commercial district of yesteryears and more in their new book, Endangered Splendor: Manilas Architectural Heritage 1571-1960 (Volume 1: The Center). Watch the launch via livestream on Oct. 2 via the Ateneo University Press Facebook and YouTube.  CNN PHILIPPINES LIFE STAFF

Uniqlos new LifeWear magazine straddles the line between a culture publication and a brand catalog. Photo courtesy of UNIQLO

Read Uniqlos Lifewear Magazine

Theres always something insincere about brand publications. Theres the dressing up content as editorial in order to sell wares  clothes, furniture, more clothes. But there are more successful (and less dubious ones) like Acne which treats its magazine, Acne Paper, as a different beast entirely. Acne Paper treads the line between an art catalog and a niche interest magazine. Theres also Aesops various literary pamphlets that echo the brands bookish approach to business while hawking their brand of skin care line and perfumes.

In comes Uniqlos new LifeWear magazine, which straddles the line between a culture publication and a brand catalog. The free magazine, now on its fifth issue, is primed to making everyday lives of people richer and comfortable, certainly echoing the philosophy of the easywear clothing brand. The magazine benefits from Uniqlos glittering roster of collaborators, with features on the likes of Haruki Murakami, Jonathan Anderson, and Tadao Ando. Most of the pages though reminds me of magazines like Popeye and Monocle (whom theyve actually collaborated with). Spreads on neighborhoods, luscious travel essays, and insights on making cities livable exist in between fashion editorials featuring everyday people dressed in, what else, Uniqlo.

The new issues launch also coincides with the third anniversary of the Manila global flagship store this October. The store will feature installations taken from key stories from the LifeWear magazine plus collections such as the UT Collaboration with "Jujutsu Kaisen," the Musee du Louvre 2021 A/W, and Uniqlo x Theory F/W 2021 collection. Visit uniqlo.com/ph or the Uniqlo Philippines social media accounts for more details. Copies of the LifeWear magazine are free at Uniqlo stores.  DON JAUCIAN

"Social Problems Are Design Problems 2021 asks: "What is the future of design for a world in crisis?" Photo courtesy of AND A HALF

Sign up for a creative experience that explores how social problems are design problems

What is the future of design for a world in crisis?

On Oct. 8 to 9, design studio And A Half asks this question as a jump-off point for "Social Problems Are Design Problems 2021." The second iteration of last years event will be focusing on "Regeneration through Circular Design Strategies"a theme they will be unpacking through different lectures and workshops, with guest interaction done through live art, DJ sets, and hangout rooms via Gather Town and Discord. An 850 pass gets you tools and resources from the sessions, as well as access to the Zoom lecture series and live Q&A with speakers Carlo Delantar of Altum, Keiji Ashizawa & Kay Concengco of Ishinomaki Lab and Lamana PH, Bert Peeters of the Philippine Permaculture Association and Cabiokid, and Pangasinan 4th District Rep. Christopher De Venecia, as well as one workshop sessio (options include Food Sovereignty with Slow Food Sari-Sari and Designing Better Cities with Anthony Siy).

Get your passes through their official website.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  There will not be any additional day set for casting ballots in May 2022, the Commission on Elections said Wednesday.

Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas told CNN Philippines' The Source that the proposal to extend the May 9 elections is "impossible" and will unlikely be pursued due to budget limitations.

"Medyo imposible yan because of a constitutional provision. Nakalagay sa constitution natin one day lang talaga yung election," said Abas.

[Translation: It's a bit impossible because of a constitutional provision. Our constitution only sets one day for the elections.]

The 1987 Constitution sets the second Monday of May for the country's elections.

"Pangalawa, if we will conduct a two-day election, medyo kulang din kami sa budget because we have to pay our teachers double. Eh kasi dapat doble ang kanilang bayad. Sa ngayon, wala pa sa budget 'yan," Abas said.

[Translation: Second, if we will conduct a two-day election, we're short of a budget because we have to pay our teachers double. Since their compensation has to be doubled, for now, we don't have budget for that.]

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez also said that online voting for the general public will still not be authorized in the upcoming elections. The poll body earlier held a simulation of online voting as a possible platform for Filipinos abroad for the 2025 elections.

"It will be done with overseas voting muna, not with the general population in local elections," he said.

Those with COVID-19 symptoms who are under quarantine are discouraged from breaking their isolation period just to cast their vote, since Comelec will not be providing any facilities for them, Jimenez said.

He added that absentee voting will only be allowed among select sectors such as the media, government workers, and uniformed personnel who will be assigned in other areas on election day to perform public functions.

Meanwhile, those who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms in the voting sites will be diverted to isolation polling areas after undergoing proper health screening.

READ: Comelec to allot isolation polling areas, COVID-19 testing for voters with symptoms

Comelec will extend voter registration from Oct. 11 to 30.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30)  Metro Manila and most parts of Luzon are close to winning the battle against the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant based on the improving COVID-19 data, OCTA Research said on Thursday.

"As far as the NCR is concerned, I believe that we are already seeing the endgame, meaning, we are close to controlling this," OCTA Fellow Guido David told CNN Philippines' The Source.

David said the situation is also improving in nearby areas like Calabarzon and Central Luzon, but he acknowledged that "there are still surges going on in many parts of the country."

"I have to be honest here that we are talking about NCR, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, because there are still surges going on in many parts of the country. When I mentioned that we are winning against the Delta variant, some people from the provinces send messages that [they] are still in the fight against Delta and I acknowledge that," he said.

David said they have observed an ongoing pattern in the country wherein variant-driven waves usually last for two to three months due to its "seasonality factor."

As of Thursday, the reproduction number in the country decreased to 0.96, while the reproduction number in Metro Manila dropped to 0.87. Medical experts say the ideal R0 should be one or less to ensure a COVID-19 patient is not exponentially spreading the virus. An R0 higher than one means there is still significant community transmission.

However, David urged the Health department to address discrepancies in the COVID-19 data of some localities before the government finalizes the quarantine status for October.

"We think the trend is real but better to have our data updated before we make a decision," he said.

David previously said the implementation of the alert level system, high vaccination rate, and improving compliance to minimum health standards are helping bring down new COVID-19 infections in NCR and nearby provinces. He added it is also leading to an improvement in the reproduction number in the entire country.

He earlier cautioned against easing the alert level system over Metro Manila since the capital regions healthcare utilization rate remains at high risk.

COVID-19 cases spiked around August as the country detected more cases of the Delta variant, which is believed by health experts to be as transmissible as chickenpox  with each infected person able to spread the virus to eight or nine others on average.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  The government is hoping to pick up the pace of the COVID-19 vaccination drive even more in October as supply is expected to substantially increase by then, a health official said on Wednesday.

"With the number of vaccines na darating sa bansa (expected to arrive in the country), we target to reach around 800,000 to 1 million doses administered in a day," Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said in a Laging Handa briefing.

The highest number of doses injected in a single day since the rollout started in March was around 700,000, she noted.

Cabotaje said the government expects around 30 million to 40 million doses per month from October until December.

With this, the COVID-19 vaccination of the general population will finally start.

The Department of Health is eyeing to inoculate adolescents with comorbidities first, Cabotaje said. Hospital officials earlier reported that some of their critically ill COVID-19 patients were children with comorbidities.

To date, there are around 20 million fully vaccinated Filipinos, Cabotaje said, but this is still far from the government's goal of inoculating at least 70 million.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29) Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday refuted claims of the camp of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. that her office bribed a witness to appear in the past Senate probe.

First, it was the witness who reached out to us. We have an e-mail thread to prove this, Hontiveros said in a statement, adding that her office vetted all information beforehand.

Wala kaming kahit anong track record ng witness tampering at witness bribery. Inaalagan namin lahat ng aming witness at whistleblower, she added.

[Translation: We dont have any track record of witness tampering and witness bribery. We take care of all our witnesses and whistleblowers.]

Hontiveros was reacting to the allegation of Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, the legal counsel of Pharmally director Linconn Ong, that her camp offered money in exchange for the testimony of the witness, who in the past hearing claimed that face shields procured from the firm were tampered.

The witness was supposedly a warehouse employee of Pharmally.

Topacio said it was another warehouse staff who revealed that his co-worker was bribed to give the false testimony to lawmakers.

Nabayaran siya para siraan si Ms. [Krizle] Mago at Pharmally [The witness was paid to bring down Ms. Mago and Pharmally], the other employee was quoted as saying in a video clip presented by the lawyer to the media.

In the past Senate inquiry, the witness claimed they were instructed by Pharmally to repack the face shields despite being dented and dirty. Pharmally executive Krizle Grace Mago eventually admitted that the company changed the expiration dates of some medical supplies, citing supply concern during the onset of the pandemic.

Ready to face cases

Topacio also said they are considering filing charges against Hontiveros and two of her staff over the alleged bribery.

But the senator said she is ready to face any case.

Hindi ko uurungan ang anumang kasong isasampa laban sa akin. Handa kaming harapin, sagutin at patunayan na hindi namin kailangang magbayad para sa katotohanan, Hontiveros said.

[Translation: I will not back down from any case that may be filed against me. Were ready to face, answer, and prove that we dont need to pay for the truth.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30)  About 75% of adult Filipinos support the single six-year term limit for president as provided by the 1987 Constitution, a Social Weather Stations survey shows.

Conducted last June 23-26, the survey also found that 11% of adult Filipinos disagree with the Constitutional provision on term limit for president while 14% were undecided.

Agreement in all areas was very strong, the SWS said. Visayas was highest at +75 (83% agree, 8% disagree), followed by Mindanao at +64 (75% agree, 11% disagree), Metro Manila at +61 (75% agree, 13% disagree), and Balance Luzon at +60 (72% agree, 11% disagree). The net agreement score was +64, classified by the SWS as very strong also.

Those who disagreed proposed an average of 7.1 years for the term limit, while their proposed average number of terms was 2.1.

Respondents from Metro Manila who disagreed recommended an average of 8 years per term, while those from Balance Luzon wanted 7.7 years, those from Mindanao suggested 6.5 years, and those from Visayas proposed 5.4 years.

The recommended number of terms was 2.4 in Mindanao, 2.3 in Metro Manila, 2 in the Visayas, and 1.8 in Balance Luzon.

Across educational levels, very strong net support was also observed.

It was +62 (74% agree, 12% disagree) among non-elementary graduates, +68 (77% agree, 9% disagree) among elementary graduates, +65 (75% agree, 10% disagree) among junior high school graduates, and +54 (72% agree, 19% disagree, correctly rounded) among college graduates, the SWS said.

Among those who disagreed, college graduates recommended the longest term limit of 9 years, followed by junior high school graduates with 7.8 years, elementary graduates with 5.1 years, and non-elementary graduates with 4.6 years.

The recommended number of terms averaged 2.5 among junior high school graduates, and 1.8 among non-elementary graduates, elementary graduates, and college graduates.

The SWS survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adult Filipinos across the country.

The sampling error margins were 3% for national percentages and 6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
(CNN)  Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison is facing calls at home to increase commitments to slashing greenhouse gas emissions after the country's most-populous state on Wednesday announced goals nearly twice as ambitious as his government's.

New South Wales, which includes the country's biggest city of Sydney, will now seek to halve emissions by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. Its previous commitment was 35%.

The announcement was made by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is from the same Liberal Party as Morrison. The Liberals are the country's center-right conservatives. She said that the plan would not only boost the economy but also create thousands of jobs and slash energy prices in homes across the country.

"Our Net Zero Plan is expected to attract more than $37 billion in private sector investment into NSW, support more than 9,000 jobs, save households about $130 on their electricity bills and help NSW become Australia's first trillion-dollar state by 2030," Berejiklian said in a statement.

"This is about putting the policies in place to give industry and investors certainty, not only to protect our planet but to future-proof our prosperity and way of life."

The growing pressure within Morrison's own party comes as his government faces scrutiny by Australia's traditional international allies over what is one of the poorest pledges on emissions in the developed world.

Australia has pledged a cut of 26-28% by 2030 from 2005 levels, around half that of what the US is pledging and well below those of its other close allies, the UK and European Union. Those allies have committed to net zero by 2050 at the latest, while the Australian government has refused to do so.

The governments of every state and territory in Australia has also committed to net zero by 2050, essentially putting the country on track to meet the goal.

NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean said the state could turbocharge its economy while halving its emissions by 2030.

"We can be a renewable energy super power and as global demand for low carbon products and investments grows, the fortunes of the state are increasingly tied to the fortunes of our planet," Kean said.

The Morrison government has said it will release a new plan on climate ahead of COP26, but its focus has been on "tech not taxes" and it has not signaled any intention to improve on emissions.

Independent lawmaker Zali Steggal welcomed the NSW government's announcement in a tweet, saying that the country now needs a federal plan,

"After years of denying and delaying, the Morrison Government is scrambling to come up wit a Net Zero plan," she said.

CNN has contacted the Prime Minister's Office for comment. It confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the Prime Minister was considering skipping the COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow, for which more than 100 world leaders have already confirmed in-person attendance.

Ministers are this week convening in Milan for a pre-COP26 meeting in which different countries will seek to align their goals on issues like when to phase out coal and how to keep focus on containing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which is required to stave off the more catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.

Australia is the world's second-biggest exporter of coal and has said it will continue to mine and sell the fossil fuel abroad well beyond 2030. COP26 President Alok Sharma is looking for an agreement for developed countries to stop using coal by the end of this decade at Glasgow.

Climate Action Tracker, a group that monitors climate policies, said that if the whole world followed Australia's policies, temperatures would rise by between 2 and 3 degrees.

A recent UN state-of-the science climate report found that Australia is already experiencing more heat extremes and higher sea level rises than the global average because of climate change. Heat, sea level rise and drought are all projected to increase in Australia the more the Earth warms, and annual wildfires are already often devastating to communities, the environment and public health.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Australia's Scott Morrison under climate pressure at home as biggest state boosts targets"
(CNN) -- When an exhibition about the future of labor opened at a Danish art museum on Friday, visitors should have seen two large picture frames filled with banknotes worth a combined $84,000.

The pieces were meant to be reproductions of two works by artist Jens Haaning, who previously used framed cash to represent the average annual salaries of an Austrian and a Dane -- in euros and Danish krone respectively.

But when the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg took delivery of the recreated artworks ahead of the show, gallery staff made a surprising discovery: the frames were empty. Rather than being the handiwork of thieves, the loaned cash was missing thanks to Haaning himself, who says he is keeping the money -- in the name of art.

"I have chosen to make a new work for the exhibition, instead of showing the two 14- and 11-year-old works respectively," Haaning told the museum in an email, the text of which is now displayed next to the empty frames.

"The work is based on/responds to both your exhibition concept and the works that we had originally planned to show."

The "new" conceptual piece, which Haaning has titled "Take the Money and Run," is now at the center of a dispute between museum and artist over labor, contractual obligations and the value of work -- all fitting themes for the exhibition.

"I saw, from my artistic point of view, that I could create a much better piece for them than what they could imagine," Haaning told CNN over the phone, adding: "I don't see that I have stolen money... I have created an art piece, which is maybe 10 or 100 times better than what we had planned. What is the problem?"

Contractual dispute

As well as lending Haaning 534,000 Danish krone ($84,000) for the cash-filled artworks, the Kunsten Museum had agreed to pay a further 10,000 krone ($1,571) for his work, as well as covering costs like framing and delivery. But the artist said the project would still have left him out of pocket, due to studio costs and staff salaries.

"I normally find myself in a better position when I'm showing abroad," he said. "I'm a Dane and it's (a) Danish museum and they expect me to invest because then maybe one day they will buy something."

Kunsten's director, Lasse Andersson, maintained that the museum has upheld its side of the agreement. "It's really important for us because we have always been known for honoring contracts and also paying artists a reasonable fee," he said over the phone.

Haaning said he has no plans to return the money and is "not worried" about possible consequences. Andersson said the artist has until January, when the exhibition ends, to repay the loan, after which the museum will consider legal action.

For now, the museum is displaying "Take the Money and Run" as it is, putting it on a platform to be considered and critiqued. In the art world, works that question the value of art itself -- like Maurizio Cattelan taping a banana to a wall, or Banksy shredding a painting at auction -- are nothing new. Neither are invisible works of art, with the late Yves Klein exhibiting an empty room to thousands of people in 1958.

Commenting on the value of work is, after all, what Haaning intended. "I think behind the piece is a much more general statement: that (you) should look at the structures you participate in and reflect on them," he said, listing religion and marriage among them. "And if needed, you know, take the money and run."

Andersson has his own interpretation of the empty frames, which he sees in the context of his museum's show, "Work it Out."

"Do we have to work for money, or can we just take it?" Andersson asked. "Why do we go to work? All these kinds of things make us start to reflect on the cultural habits of society that we are part of. And then it also applies to the question: Are artists paid enough for what they do?"

Still, the museum director would like to see the cash returned.

"It's not my money -- it's public money, it's the museum's money," he said. "So that's why (by January) we need to make sure it's coming back to us."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "A museum lent an artist $84K  so he kept the money and called it 'art'"
(CNN)  North Korea has fired a projectile presumed to be a short-range missile into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to statements from South Korean officials  just hours before Seoul launched a new submarine.

The missile was fired around 6:40 a.m. local time Tuesday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, adding the South Korean military is "maintaining a readiness posture" for potential "additional launches."

In a briefing Tuesday, South Korea's Defense Ministry's spokesman Boo Seung-chan said Pyongyang's test was "regrettable for happening at a time when political stability on the Korean peninsula is very critical."

The US military's Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii said it was consulting with allies and partners about the North Korean test.

"While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program," the US military said.

Pyongyang is barred from testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons under international law. Previous such tests have been met with international opprobrium and sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

The news of Tuesday's test came just before North Korean representative Kim Song addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, where he lamented the divide between North and South Korea, and criticized the US presence in the region.

"Inter-Korean relations have never come out of the shadow of US interference and obstruction," he said, citing Washington's close relationship with Seoul.

The missile test is North Korea's third this month.

On September 11 and 12, Pyongyang said it tested long-range cruise missiles.

Then on September 16, both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles, ratcheting up tensions exponentially in what was already one of the most volatile regions on the planet.

Top North Korean official Kim Yo Jong  sister of leader Kim Jong Un  said last week that North Korea wanted to repair inter-Korean relations and floated the possibility of reinstalling the joint liaison office, which North Korea destroyed last June.

South Korea's Unification Ministry welcomed Kim's message about the possibility of holding "constructive" discussions as "meaningful." The presidential Blue House did not make an official response.

'Powerful offensive means'

In his speech, Ambassador Kim accused the US of "antagonizing" his country with military exercises in the region, saying Pyongyang would be "prepared to respond willingly at any time" to friendly overtures from Washington.

In the meantime, he said, "as the whole world knows and as the US is so much concerned, powerful offensive means are, of course, included in our war deterrent."

The US has repeatedly condemned North Korean missile launches. On September 15, State Department spokesperson Ned Price called for a diplomatic approach to the issue.

"We call on the DPRK to engage in a meaningful and substantive dialogue with us," he said, using the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We have no hostile intent towards the DPRK. We have been very clear about that. What we seek to do is to reduce the threat to the United States, to our allies in the region, and that includes the ROK (Republic of Korea or South Korea) and Japan, and we think we can do that through diplomacy with the ROK," Price said.

South Korea launches new submarine

South Korea on Tuesday launched its newest submarine, the 3,000-ton Shin Chae-ho, Hyundai Heavy Industries, the sub's manufacturer, said in a statement.

The "homegrown" 83.5-meter-long (274 feet) sub, built entirely with South Korean technology, is the third in its class and capable of being armed with Seoul's new submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), which were successfully tested on September 16.

That launch made South Korea the seventh military in the world to successfully test an SLBM, the country's Defense Ministry said. North Korea also has SLBMs, showing the newest of them off at a military parade in January.

When the newest sub joins the South Korean fleet in 2024, after undergoing further fitting out and sea trials, it will be able to accommodate a crew of 50 and stay submerged for almost three weeks, Hyundai Heavy Industries said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "North Korea tests missile hours before South Korea launches new submarine."
Regulator is Like a Bulldozer but Crypto is Resistant to State Control

Source: Adobe/pikoso.kz

The regulatory battles against the crypto industry continue, with new ones instigated daily it seems  as, in the US, the latest to find itself as the mark is crypto exchange Kraken. Yet, while some warn of bulldozing power of regulations, others argue that crypto in its essence is unstoppable.

Yesterday, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an order filing and settling charges against respondent Payward Ventures, Inc. d/b/a Kraken [] for illegally offering margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets, including bitcoin (BTC), and failing to register as a futures commission merchant. The company must pay a USD 1.25m civil monetary penalty.

This is what Kraken CEO had to say about the state of crypto regulation:

Meanwhile, per Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle, this is part of the regulators broader effort to protect US customers, stating that margined, leveraged, or financed digital asset trading offered to retail US customers must occur on properly registered and regulated exchanges in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler said that US cryptocurrency markets and regulated platforms will not end well if they stay outside regulators' purview, Bloomberg reported. There are trading venues and lending venues where they coalesce around these, and they have not just dozens but hundreds and sometimes thousands of tokens on them, he reiterated on Monday during the Code Conference in California.

And there are more reports that crypto will not see an ally during the President Joe Bidens administration. The White House nominated Saule Omarova to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, reported Bloomberg, noting that Omarovas critiques of digital tokens fit right in with statements that have recently emerged from government watchdogs  such as that of Gensler.

It took several years for regulators to wake up, but its like a bulldozer, Jim Angel, an associate professor specializing in market structure at Georgetown University is quoted as saying. Its slow, its steady and it will grind down anything in its path.

Yet, some, like Karen Shaw Petrou, a managing partner at research firm Federal Financial Analytics, suggest that it may be too late for market participants to find common ground with regulators, stating that crypto conveniently believed that spouting often dubious inclusion and innovation propositions would forestall regulation, and that the sector was extraordinarily intoxicated with the cool factor.

Tesla chief Elon Musk shared his own opinion, during the Code Conference, on the US regulating crypto, opining that  it shouldnt. On the question of whether the US government should be involved in regulating the space, he replied: I would say, Do nothing.

Slowed down maybe, but not stopped

Per CNBC, Musk said that, while its impossible to destroy crypto, it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement.

Similarly, Timothy Spangler, a partner at Dechert LLP, told Bloomberg that innovation is not going to be denied; Its not even going to be meaningfully delayed.

As for Chinas ongoing crackdown on the crypto industry, the Tesla chief noted that the countrys electricity shortages may be a part of it, as well as that cryptocurrency is fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government, which the Chinese government doesnt like.

Per Aaron Tilton, CEO at cryptocurrency platform SmartFi, who is also a former Utah state legislator, Ironically the SEC Chair enforcement approach reminds me of the earlier tactics the Chinese regulators had taken a few years ago by warning people that crypto must be re-made in an acceptable image of regulators for protection of the people. After all the "warnings" China made their own digital currency and outlawed private cryptocurrencies.

The Congress, the SEC and crypto users should be engaging in proactive collaboration to serve the people, but it appears to be saber rattling warning the people to fall in line or else, Tilton told Cryptonews.com in an emailed comment.

There are even more opposing voices, stating that crypto, despite the regulatory pressure, is not that easy to put a full stop to  even if regulation is inevitable or necessary in certain cases. As a matter of fact, quite a few entities in the space are already regulated, experts argue.

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, said at Yahoo Finances All Markets Summit Plus: Crypto Investing, that:

Decentralization is incredibly powerful and these networks can exist in many different places. China has attempted to crack down on crypto multiple times now. They may be getting more aggressive on that front, but as long as the internet persists, crypto networks will persist as well.

Per Nic Carter, co-founder at CoinMetrics and general partner at Castle Island Ventures, markets will eventually win if they clash with the state. It just so happens, cryptocurrency [being] virtual, being something that is peer-to-peer by its very nature, something you can take full ownership of on a smartphone, is uniquely resistant to state control.

___

Learn more:

- Brace For 'Really Volatile' 6-12 Months in Crypto Regulatory Sphere - Novogratz

- Bitcoin Shows Resilience Amid Global Political Pushback



- 'Don't Be Lulled' as European Commission Mulls a Crypto KYC Trap

- SEC Chief May be Gunning for Crypto Exchanges and Altcoins



- Regulators Must Make Sea Change on Crypto, and IMF Is Ready To Engage

- Crypto Exchange Self-Regulation Kicks In as Regulators Start to Kick
Denton_city_council

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Denton axes proposal to close Bell Avenue for auto-free path for TWU community

Jeff Woo/DRC Denton City Council members talk and discuss matters during a workshop session Tuesday.

The Denton City Council decided Tuesday to not move forward on closing Bell Avenue permanently on the Texas Womans University campus, which would have made it a pedestrian- and bicycle-only corridor.

During the councils work session Tuesday, capital projects staff presented a potential project with TWU that would permanently close Bell between Chapel Drive to Administrative Drive to make it accessible only to pedestrians, bicyclists and emergency vehicles as a 550-foot path. This project was proposed in conjunction with the Mingo Road and Ruddell Street expansions.

But the prospect of permanently closing a city road to its residents didnt sit well with the council. Bell Avenue is currently closed for construction at McKinney Street and between College and Texas streets. More road closures are scheduled for early next year.

The community feedback I have [on the Bell closures] is  the reason we havent told the city anything is, we expected this to be temporary, council member Brian Beck said.

Brian Beck

Beck represents District 2, which includes TWU, that stretch of Bell Avenue and the Mingo and Ruddell expansion projects.

We expected this is a fix that eventually well be able to get back downtown again [instead of] looping around into councilor [Jesse] Davis territory, Beck said.

Council member Paul Meltzer said the value of essentially giving away a city street is too high.

Some council members also didnt like that the TWU project was being coupled with the expansions for Mingo and Ruddell. Rachel Wood of the citys capital projects department said this was so the city could approach things as part of a program and work with its neighbors.

Al Key/DRC file photo A photo from July shows construction on Bell Avenue on the Texas Womans University campus.

Thats the benefit of that more programmatic approach, Wood said. We havent just been having conversations about Mingo, Ruddell and Bell. Weve been talking about all of the projects that the city and TWU have planned across the entire general geography of the TWU campus.

Rachel Wood

Council member Deb Armintor said several times that Ruddell, once expanded, would become the new Bell Avenue, but Davis and Beck disagreed.

Ruddell is wholly inadequate to be the new Bell, Davis said. It just doesnt cover the same territory, even as redesigned with the behavior patterns. The way that we drive those roads is simply not a replacement.

Jesse Davis

Other agenda items

Denton residents will receive notices by January that the citys online payment company will change. City Council approved the five-year contract for up to $1.5 million.

Christa Foster, the citys customer service manager, said the most residents will likely have to do is reset their passwords.

Well actually be fully changing our provider, well be running full test scenarios before we go live, she said.

After a presentation from Atria Consulting, council members gave city staff the go-ahead to come back to the table with more finalized strategies for affordable housing in Denton. The consulting firm, which specializes in housing needs, projects that by 2030, 2,363 more rental homes will be demanded in Denton, as well as 1,941 homes for purchase.

There are ways to be practical and innovative to address the needs as best as possible, consultant Rebecca Rothenberg told the council. In general, its finding ways to build a lower price point. And to be able to do that, creating the foundation through zoning and by empowering your local nonprofits, and also your local for-profits that may have been priced out from competition.

Rothenberg and fellow consultant Emily Dowdall presented strategies for the city such as using vacant land and repurposing lots and vacant buildings, making zoning changes, providing more resources to local builders and nonprofits, expanding on existing housing affordability and increasing access to information on how to develop low- and moderately priced housing.

The consultants recommended the city proceed with grants for landlord rental maintenance, identifying sites for development and creating affordable housing overlay districts, which could mean incentive packages that would help decrease the cost of development.

Also Tuesday, council members voted to update the citys policy on responding to fraud.

The fraud response policy, initially called the fraud directive, hadnt been updated since it was first adopted in 2002. City Auditor Madison Rorschach, who was appointed to the position about a year ago, said Monday that this update has been in the works for at least half a year.

Under the new policy, the Investigation Committee will have formal procedures for receiving, tracking and managing fraud investigations and allegations. City staff will also develop a citywide fraud training program, which Rorschach said would be tailored to each departments roles.
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The Ethiopian government sold only one of two full-service operator licences on offer in May, citing a lower-than-expected price for the second one. Now its trying again.

The Ethiopian Communications Agency (ECA), Ethiopia's telecommunications regulator, has again invited a request for proposals for the second licence, which is due to be issued in January next year. Proposals must be delivered by 20 December.

Despite references from the ECA to a successful first licence issuance and an exciting opportunity, there have been a few hiccups on the way, not least the rejection (as too low) of a bid from MTN after the original attempt to sell the second licence. MTN does not plan to resubmit a bid.

Importantly, the second licence didnt originally include mobile financial services, which may have made it less attractive. This time round it will  and the consortium led by Safaricom that won the first licence will also be permitted to offer mobile financial services.

Both new entrants will face competition from state-owned incumbent Ethio Telecom, which has experienced no restrictions on rolling out mobile financial services and has now apparently attracted nearly 10 million customers to its Telebirr mobile money offering since its launch five months ago.

Expansion plans for the service are now being pursued; Ethio Telecom is apparently awaiting National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) permission to begin an international remittance service shortly via Telebirr. The company also aims to engage in the provision of small loans.

As for the fate of the second licence on this occasion, Reuters suggests that Safaricom's winning bid of $850 million could serve as a guide for the price that will be paid.

The World Bank's private sector arm  the International Finance Corporation (IFC)  will serve as transaction adviser in the deal.
Malaysian multinational telecommunications conglomerate Axiata Group, through indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Axiata Investments (Indonesia, AIISB), is selling a 5% stake in its Indonesian operator XL Axiata to Ferrymount Investments Ltd (FIL) for IDR1.44 trillion (USD101 million).

The proposed disposal will see Axiata's stake in XL trimmed to 61.5% from 66.5% currently.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, the company said AIISB has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Ferrymount Investments, Procap Partners Ltd, and Tiga Investments Pte Ltd for the disposal of 533.4 mil ordinary shares in XL.

Procap and Tiga Investments, acting as guarantors will unconditionally and irrevocably guarantee the discharge by the buyer of its obligations under the sale and purchase agreement (SPA).

The Disposal facilitates the timely introduction of Indonesia-focused investors in XL who acknowledge the value and opportunities in the domestic telecommunications sector.

Procap and Tiga Investments have extensive knowledge, experience, business partnerships, and investments in Indonesia, as well as in global capital markets. Axiata is of the view that the Disposal which provides XL with access to the aforesaid business partnerships of Procap and Tiga Investments amongst others, will place XL in a better operational footing shortly, said Axiata in the bourse filing.

Axiatas investment in XL commenced when TM International, a wholly-owned investment arm of Telekom Malaysia, acquired a 23.1% stake in Excelcomindo Pratama on 13 January 2005.
Aircraft of several carriers at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC, April 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

The Vietnam Aviation Business Association (VABA) has proposed an interest-free loan package for private airlines, similar to the one accorded national carrier Vietnam Airlines.

The airlines are bearing high costs while revenue has declined drastically, but they have to maintain equipment and workforce so as to restart when the market recovers, VABA vice president and general secretary Bui Doan Ne, said at a recent meeting to discuss a bailout package for enterprises.

Ne suggested stronger support from the government, including a preferential loan package with zero percent interest, similar to the one given to Vietnam Airlines.

This year, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has provided a refinancing loan of VND4 trillion ($173 million) at zero percent interest for one year to support Vietnam Airlines.

The support for aviation businesses is necessary because this is an industry that has the ability to recover quickly when the economy opens and is also a major contributor to the state budget, Ne said.

Vietnam Airlines, budget carrier Vietjet Air, the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) contributed over VND22 trillion in taxes and fees to the state budget in 2019.

He said aviation development will spur tourism in particular and the economy as a whole. Some estimates say aviation growth of 2.5 percent will stimulate 1 percent of GDP growth.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, head of the central banks Credit Department, said that it was planning a VND3 trillion aid package for enterprises.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, general secretary of the Vietnam Banks Association, noted that not only airlines but a number of other businesses in the hospitality field were also severely affected by the pandemic and need support.

"We should not support some industries while ignoring others as it would create inequality," Hung said.

The aviation industry has been among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first seven months of this year, Vietnamese carriers served 13.7 million passengers, down 32 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.
Toi La Beto (I Am Beto) by best-selling author Nguyen Nhat Anh will be translated and published in South Korea next year.

South Korean 59mins publishing house has acquired the books copyright and will publish it in early 2022, with the translation of Jeong Yekang, according to Tre (Youth) publishing house, copyright holder for many of Anhs books.

"Some countries are far away, but the bridge of literature, cinema, music and art helps people draw closer. How cannot you want to visit Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris if you love Victor Hugos books? I believe literature does not only create beauty but also helps us discover new places, understand a country, love a nation. That is why I hope Vietnamese books would help South Korean readers love Vietnam and its people," the author said.

"Toi La Beto" cover. Photo courtesy of Tre publishing house

Published in 2007, "Toi La Beto" is the first book Anh wrote through the eyes of a puppy. The book depicts the friendship of Beto and puppies Laica and Bino in owner Nis family.

Beto, a smart and active dog, undergoes more than 100 adventures, via which the author wants to convey a message about love and childhood.

Many critics like the book thanks to its unique narration, attracting both children and adults. In 2008, it won "The Best Literature Work" award by Ho Chi Minh City Writers' Association.

"Toi La Beto" is also one of three Anhs bestsellers.

Nguyen Nhat Anh at a book release in 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Nhat

His most successful is "Cho Toi Xin Mot Ve Di Tuoi Tho" (Give Me a Ticket to Childhood), with more than 400,000 copies published, making it the most successful book in the history of the Vietnamese publishing industry.

"Cho Toi Xin Mot Ve Di Tuoi Tho" was also published by Dasan Books in South Korea in 2013.

Anh, born in 1955 in central Quang Nam Province, is currently living in HCMC and holds the distinction of being the author who has written the most books for young people in Vietnam. Many of Anhs works have been translated into English, Japanese, and Thai.
Foreigners in Ho Chi Minh City are looking forward to resuming normal activities as authorities end the lockdown this month.

Samantha Price started this week with a smile after seeing barriers on her street in Phu Nhuan District removed after four months.

Watering plants on her balcony and looking down at the streets, the Briton cannot hide her relief, and says she has started to feel a return to normalcy.

"I ordered com tam and banh mi on Monday, and I had never stopped having those things for such a long time like this."

It took her two hours to get her food delivered, "but I felt totally okay".

Knowing the city will remove road barriers and scrap travel permits by September 30, she has made appointments with her hairdresser and dentist.

She is among thousands of expats in Saigon who are looking forward to life after social distancing as the city plans to reopen its economy and "live with the virus".

HCMC is the epicenter of the fourth Covid-19 wave to hit in late April, recording more than 376,000 cases and nearly 14,500 deaths so far. It has mandated social distancing of varying levels of stringency since late May.

An Estonian man receives food from a volunteer in HCMC, August, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

After months of living behind closed doors, many expats cannot wait to return to work or resume their business.

Jordan Ng, a Singaporean living with his wife, hopes to reopen his restaurant and make deliveries at normal prices as soon as possible.

"The main problem we face as a restaurant owners is that the prices of ingredients are higher than usual. Hopefully we can get back to normal prices and bring our business to normalcy."

The high delivery rates were another reason for him not to reopen his restaurant in the last few weeks.

"I definitely will start my business as soon as possible to cover the losses of the past few months."

Price, who has been teaching English and math in Vietnam for almost four years, hopes the reopening of the economy will be the first step toward normalcy, so that "schools and English centers can be reopened soon."

"I do not expect to return to school in October, but I think reopening is a crucial step showing that the city is ready to live with the virus".

It is not as if people are expecting to meet their friends or gather right soon after the lockdown is lifted: Many just want to resume their daily activities like shopping and venturing out, which have been disrupted.

"Hopefully I will be able to get a haircut, go shopping, restock food, and do some outdoor sports," Bert, a Canadian who does not want to reveal his last name and works as deputy manager at an industrial catering company, says.

He also hopes that when travel restrictions are eased, finding maintenance and repairs services will be easier.

"My house water system broke down and to find a plumber to fix it was a nightmare." He eventually found a plumber who could come to his house in District 2 to fix it.

"I am excited that the city will permit us to get on with daily routines, though the opening will be in stages and perhaps at a slow pace."

Petra Fischer, a German businessman who came to Saigon in May, says he will ride his bicycle and exercise, go shopping and "choose my own food without anyone delivering it."

But first he wants to check on a family of three people who were living under Saigon Bridge to see if they are okay after the month-long lockdown.

"I donated food to them before the lockdown and I dont know how they are doing."

Water and groceries delivered to Bert from a local supermarket in early September, 2021. Photo courtesy of Bert

Hopeful

As the vaccine rollout continues across Vietnam, locals and foreigners have been rolling up their sleeves to get inoculated.

Many are thankful they have been fully vaccinated and made safer against the raging Delta variant.

Price, Ng, Bert, and Fischer have all checked on the electronic health book application (So suc khoe dien tu), which helps citizens register for vaccination and records their information, and had their inoculation data.

"I am fully vaccinated, have my 'green pass' on the app, and I am happy about it," Bert says.

Price says she feels "lucky" because people around her and most Vietnamese are willing to get vaccinated so that "everyone can be safe from the virus".

A UNICEF survey found 67 percent of Vietnamese keen to get immunized.

"The willingness to get the vaccine bodes extremely well for Vietnam and for the vaccination rollout to get Vietnam open to get business back on track," Rana Flowers of UNICEF said.

HCMC has vaccinated about 6.8 million people, or 98.2 percent of its adult population, with at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose. Around 3 million people, or 42.8 percent, have been fully vaccinated.

While excited about the lifting of the lockdown, people have no plans to stop adopting safety measures since they realize the disease is here to stay.

Fischer, who lived under lockdown in Germany for months, says he is not worried about living with the virus after restrictions are eased.

"I know how to avoid gatherings, and I will not be in situations where there is a high risk of getting infected."

Bert is not anxious either, saying he accepts the fact "that we are living in a world with Covid" and will take his own precautions to protect himself from the virus.

Bert, whose aviation business has been shut down for the last few months, admits the idea of leaving Vietnam crossed his mind before, "but I have scrapped the idea since I believe the stringent lockdown will not be extended."

For Price, "meeting people or going to crowded places" is not on her mind yet.

"When I see barriers are removed and know I can go out for a walk with my dog without being fined next month, I see light at the end of this lockdown tunnel."
Italy to donate another 1.2 mln Covid vaccine doses to Vietnam

Italy would donate over 1.2 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam, the European Union delegation in Vietnam announced Tuesday.

"The government of Italy has decided to donate an additional amount of 1,225,440 vaccine doses for Vietnam, making its total aid number more than 2.8 million doses," the European Union in Vietnams Facebook page stated.

Its Twitter account added that 2.6 million vaccine doses donated by Germany also arrived last Sunday, bringing Germany's total number of donated vaccine doses to over 3.4 million.

On Sept. 21, Italy said it would provide Vietnam 796,000 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses through global vaccine access mechanism Covax. On Sept. 14, Vietnam received 812,060 Covid-19 vaccine doses from Italy too.

Vietnam has vaccinated around 31.5 million people with at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose. Around 8.6 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The country aims to secure 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 70 percent of its population by next year.
A batch of 740,000 Sputnik V vaccine doses at Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport, September 29, 2021. Photo by the Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1

A batch of 740,000 doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine from Russia arrived at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi Wednesday.

Vietnamese pharmaceutical company Vabiotech accepted the vaccines. Vabiotech, also known as Vaccine and Biological Production No. 1, is adopting technology transfer in partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to produce Sputnik V in Vietnam.

The company announced to start mass production of the vaccine last week, using semi-finished material shipped from Russia.

A Vabiotech representative said it expects to produce 40 million doses until June next year and all will be used in the national free Covid vaccination program.

The Sputnik V vaccine is developed based on the adenovirus vector, which involves inserting a piece of the novel coronavirus gene into the inactivated adenovirus to stimulate the response of immune cells. The vaccine is stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius and the waiting time between two injections is three weeks.

Announcing the results of the Sputnik V clinical trial in medical journal The Lancet, the manufacturer has said the vaccine has a 91.6 percent efficacy after the first shot, and 91.8 percent for those over 60 years old.

In Vietnam, Sputnik V was licensed by the Ministry of Health for emergency use on March 23 and trial production started late July.
A busy afternoon on Capitol Hill has only pushed the United States federal government closer to a shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked for unanimous consent from the chamber to vote on a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling beyond November 2022 -- meaning after the Mid-Term elections -- which was swiftly blocked by Senator Mitch Mcconnell.

Currently, the Senate would need sixty votes to increase or suspend the debt ceiling, and Republicans are not willing to give a single one.

What will happen if the debt ceiling is not increased?

Without a vote to increase the debt ceiling, the US risks defaulting and the treasury running out of money.

In her testimony on Tuesday, 28 September, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress that it is likely the Treasury will exhaust its extraordinary measures if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by Oct. 18. She continued by saying that at that point, we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. Limited resources could mean delays in critical welfare payments, paychecks for federal employees, and much more.

Debate Continues

Republicans are interested in the Democrats using a process known as budget reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority to pass the suspension. There are a limited number of times the parliamentary tool can be used, and Democrats are in the process of drafting a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin also spoke about the temporal limitations of using the budget reconciliation process to increase the debt ceiling, saying that it could take weeks to prepare a new bill that included the measure given the procedural steps that would need to be taken.

Democrats opted to use budget reconciliation after Republicans showed no interest in many popular items to support families in the US included in the legislation, like the extension of the Child Tax Credits current structure through 2025 and a paid family leave program.

Why are Republicans opposed?

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to in-debt future generations by enacting a far-left agenda. To make their opposition clear, they are threatening the health of global financial markets. Sec. Yellen spoke to this danger during her time before Congress saying: Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence.

Raising the debt ceiling does not allow for more debt to be taken on. It simply allows the Treasury to pay the bills they already have without defaulting. Under President Trump, the United States racked up more than $8 trillion in debt, and those debts are not currently accounted for because, in 2019, Congress suspended the debt ceiling until August 2021.

In comments made by Sen. McConnell on the floor, he reminded his Democratic colleagues that yesterday he and Senator Shelby had put forward legislation that could pass the Senate easily and keep the government open.

However, Democratic leadership had labeled the bill a non-starter because it did not include a suspension of the debt ceiling and would only fund the government through December. Democrats who had proposed a suspension passed the November 2022 Mid-Term Elections are not interested in extending the fight over the debt ceiling for the rest of the year.

Democrats also cited the 2019 bipartisan vote to suspend the debt ceiling, which took place under President Trump. Regardless, Sen. McConnell has said that his party will not support any sort of suspension. The standoff intensified and extended the political game of chicken another day, leaving a little over forty-eight hours before a partial government shutdown.
More destruction feared in La Palma as lava pours from new vent

Lava flowed from a newly opened crack in the Cumbre Vieja volcano on Spain's La Palma on Friday, carving a different path from previous flows and raising fears of more destruction, while fine ash forced islanders to don masks and goggles.

A river of red-hot lava snaked downhill from the new fissure, which burst open late on Thursday around 400 metres (1,300 ft) to the north of the primary eruption site.

Multiple vents have opened since the volcano began erupting on Sept. 19 but the Canaries Volcanology Institute described the latest opening as a new "focus of eruption".

"There is concern about the path of this new flow towards the sea, although it is expected to join up with the previous one within the next few hours," said the head of La Palma's council, Mariano Hernandez Zapata.

He said more houses had been engulfed by lava overnight. "We have more drama ahead, more people to take care of," he told a news conference.

About 6,000 people have been evacuated since the eruption began and are yet to return home. More than 800 buildings including houses, churches and schools have been destroyed .

The volcano has thrown out 80 million cubic metres of molten rock, regional leader Angel Victor Torres said, doubling the amount expelled during La Palma's last major eruption 50 years ago in half the time.

Residents of Los Llanos de Aridane, one of the worst affected towns, have taken to carrying umbrellas and wearing eye protection as a precaution against the volcanic dust blanketing the streets and floating in the air.

"Last night the ash was irritating my eyes a lot, I had to use eye drops and my skin was stinging," said Matilde Gonzalez Tavarez, a 45-year-old nursing assistant visiting her mother at a care home in Los Llanos.

"It's helplessness, fear, insecurity. You don't know what's going to happen," she said, while street cleaners brushed away the carpet of black ash behind her.

Juan Antonio Perez Gonzalez, 56, who runs a floristry business in the town, fears the worst is yet to come.

"I can't put a good face on it or give you good news because this is a calamity," he told Reuters. He said many of the townspeople were preparing to pack up and leave.

Photo: REUTERS/Borja Suarez
Photo Bamboo Basket Seller by Ly Hoang Long from Vietnam

ietnamese photographer Ly Hoang Long was given a consolation prize in the Travel Photos of The Year 2021.

The photo was taken in Tat Vien village of Hung Yen province. The image depicts the traditional craft of making bamboo baskets for the purpose of fishing, with this activity being handed over through many generations in the village for 200 years.

The bamboo basket is not only a manual labor tool but also a decorated item for the interior design of hotels, restaurants, and shops these days, Long describes.

The first-place winner went to a photo named Tundra people by Yulia Nevskaya, with a cash prize of US$500.

The winning photos are all announced in All About Photo (AAP)s Winners Gallery and will be published in the AAP Magazine #20: Travels./.
He made the statement on September 28 when the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the EU Delegation to the country shared experience in peacekeeping and looked into the EUs Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) at an exchange held both in person and online.

At the exchange (Photo: PANO)

The event aimed to help the Vietnamese side improve their knowledge about peacekeeping and crisis management policies, capacity in joining UN peacekeeping operations, and understanding of the EUs CSDP. It also reflected the countrys goodwill in enhancing defence ties with the EU.

Although some initial results have been achieved in the field of UN peacekeeping, Vietnam has not yet officially joined the EU's crisis management activities. "We see the effective support of the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy and are gradually studying and sending participants," said Major General Vu Cuong Quyet.

According to Major General Quyet, Vietnam and the EU both have strong commitments to enhance peace and security in the region and in the world. Vietnam is showing a growing interest in participating in UN peacekeeping operations. In order to have a basis for contributing to this humanitarian field, in November 2013, Vietnam amended article 89 of the Constitution to allow armed forces to be deployed outside the territory.

On that basis, since 2014, hundreds of soldiers have participated in UN peacekeeping operations. In which, 56 officers have participated in individual form, and nearly 200 doctors and medical staff have deployed in the Level 2 field hospitals to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan to receive and treat tens of thousands of patients.

In terms of implementing the Common Security and Defense policy, the EU has been having practical ways of working, one of which is crisis management with the participation of most EU member states and a large number of countries outside Europe. After the Framework Agreement on Participation in Crisis Management of the EU was signed in 2019, Vietnam became the first country in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia to sign this agreement.

At the meeting, speakers from the EU helped the Vietnamese side gain insight into crisis management operations and field experiences in different countries. Vietnam also shared its experiences and long-term vision on UN peacekeeping operations.

In the coming time, Vietnam is set to coordinate more closely with the EU and member nations to achieve more success in promoting the role and effectiveness of peacekeeping and crisis management operations, and increase countries engagement in global peace and security issues, including UN peacekeeping and crisis management operations./.
Vietnamese students in New South Wales (Photo: Organizing Board of the Contest)

This contest is about technology ideas on programming and software development for Vietnamese students throughout Vietnam and Australia.

The contest has been launched by UAVS-NSW and attracted 301 individuals, divided into 69 teams.

At UAVS Hackatrix 2021, the teams present their ideas and technology products in four main fields, including: finance, services, healthcare and technology.

After four rounds, the best 5 teams have been chosen for the Final Round and the results will be announced on the GALA Final Night on October 3.

Through the contest, UAVS-NSW wishes to create an international-class playground for all Vietnamese students, especially in the sector of information technology, in order to improve knowledge and create opportunities for them to exchange and develop themselves.

The contest also helps incubate potential projects that can be applied to Vietnam's innovative economic - technology period, and connects the entire the community of students, experts and businesses, and government and private organizations with high expertise in the field of information technology together.

UAVS-NSW is a non-profit student organization, established with the purpose of connecting student associations, as well as meeting the needs of sharing information, knowledge and job opportunities after graduation, with support from the Consulate General of Vietnam in Sydney./.
Three Vietnams schools grated certificates from Microsofts Showcase School programme

(Source: baodantoc.vn)

The three schools will join more than 400 educational institutions worldwide to become Microsoft Showcase Schools for this school year.

Microsoft has just officially announced that three schools in Vietnam have been granted certificates from the Microsofts Showcase School programme and 265 staff members and teachers have won the title of Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) for the 2021-2022 school year, reported NDO.

The Microsoft Showcase School certificate is awarded to schools that are exemplary in implementing digital transformation and applying information technology to improve learning and teaching results, thereby creating an advanced education system.

To be recognised for this title, schools must meet six criteria, namely commitment to transformation, culture of learning and growth, personalised learning and inclusion, future-ready skills, data-driven decisions, and Microsoft Solutions impact.

Showcase School is the title for educational institutions with an innovative vision that recognises the power of digital transformation to unleash the potential of students and teachers.

Vo Thanh Trinh High School is the only public school in Vietnam to have been recognised with this title.

In addition to schools, Microsoft also honoured 265 officials, teachers, and education experts from many provinces across the country with the title of Microsoft Innovative Educators./.
Illustrative image (Photo: Reuters)



Chaired by Japan, the meeting looked into the UKs efforts to seek membership of the CPTPP, and its laws and regulations that need to be revised to meet criteria of the deal.



The UK hoped to carve out a niche for itself in world trade as an exporter of premium consumer goods and professional services. Accession to the pact would supplement trade deals London is seeking, or has already agreed, with larger members.



"This is a big milestone on our path to joining CPTPP, which will allow us to forge stronger links both with old friends and some of the worlds fastest-growing economies," UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.



Joining the CPTPP in its current format could add around 1.8 billion GBP (2.5 billion USD) to the British economy over the long-term, or less than 0.1 percent of pre-pandemic gross domestic product (GDP).



While only a minimal gain for exports and economic growth, it locks in market access, including for the legal, financial and professional services sectors.

Japanese minister in charge of CPTPP talks Yasutoshi Nishimura. (Photo: Kyodo)



The UK applied to join the pact in February 2021 after leaving the EU last year.



Founded in 2018, the CPTPP commits to remove 95 percent of tariff lines among 11 member states, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The free trade area accounts for an estimated 13 percent of the global GDP./.
The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China released a white paper titled "Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang" on Sept. 26, 2021. The white paper demonstrates that human rights have made steady progress in Xinjiang from all aspects.

I. Civil Rights

All ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China enjoy equality. All citizens, regardless of ethnicity, gender, occupation, level of education, and religious belief, share the civil rights prescribed by the Constitution and the law on an equal footing.

II. Political Rights

All ethnic groups in Xinjiang, regardless of their population, history, development level and customs, have equal status. They all enjoy the democratic right to participate in the administration of state and local affairs and in community-level self-governance.

III. Economic Rights

Upholding a people-centered philosophy, Xinjiang pursues rapid economic and social development. More effort and investment have been made to improve the peoples wellbeing. All ethnic groups enjoy equal opportunities and economic rights, and are developing the region together and building better lives.

IV. Cultural Rights

Xinjiang attaches great importance to documenting and protecting its excellent traditional ethnic cultures, to ensure that they are passed on to succeeding generations. It has continued its efforts to improve the quality of public cultural services and promote the use of standard Chinese. It encourages ethnic groups to learn spoken and written languages from each other, and takes solid measures to ensure the right to education.

V. Social Rights

Xinjiang has established a social security system that covers all the local population. There has been a marked improvement in the regions capacity to provide health services and its response to public health emergencies. People can access social assistance in a timely manner. Reproductive rights for ethnic minorities are guaranteed.

VI. Rights of Women and Children

Respect for women and protection of children are signs of social progress. Xinjiang attaches great importance to work related to women and children. It strives to solve the prominent problems they encounter, and promotes steady progress in the relevant undertakings. The legitimate rights and interests of women and children are effectively protected.

VII. Freedom of Religious Belief

Respect for and protection of freedom of religious belief is a basic and long-term national policy of the Chinese government. Subject to the principles of protecting lawful practices, proscribing illegal activities, containing extremism, resisting infiltration, and punishing crime, the local government of Xinjiang fully applies the policy, protecting legitimate religious activities and ensuring the publics freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law.

Source:

White Paper "Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang"

Editor: WXY
Anton Rovenskyy, Master of International Relations, International Political Scientist

The global political, economic and social landscape is in the process of a diverse and kaleidoscopic change. Meanwhile, a total number of hotspots on the world political map, accompanied by coup detats, large-scale social troubles and military conflicts is getting bigger. In this material, we shall talk about those countries and regions, which tend to become new hotspots in the near future.



Lebanon

Since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, the level of pressure on the social infrastructure of Lebanon has grown: by now, 2 million refugees live in the territory of a 4 million state. At the same time, Lebanon's public resources continue to decline, primarily due to the erosion of the state mechanism with pervasive corruption. The roots of the problem go back to the 1990s: although Lebanon managed to recover from the civil war and demonstrate high rates of economic growth, the state was literally devastated with corruption, which further hindered any effective reform of political, economic, and social systems. Over the past few years, Lebanon has been rocked by protests, spurred by the constantly deteriorating social and economic conditions, as well as extremely dubious management decisions of the ruling elites, a tax on the use of the WhatsApp messenger, for instance.

The devastating explosions in the port of Beirut last year left hundreds of thousands of residents of the Lebanese capital homeless and led the country to the brink of humanitarian disaster. At the same time, the scale of international assistance initially promised to Lebanon turned out to be very modest. With the current trends to continue, the burst of the accumulated protest potential is not a matter of principle, but a matter of time.

Also, the geopolitical issue related to Israel's desire to minimize the influence of Hezbollah, the Shiite political movement, on the social and political life of the nation is not leaving the agenda. So does Iran's desire to preserve it.

Iraq

The expected withdrawal of American troops from Iraq threatens to launch Afghanisation of the country and lead to the collapse of its government structures built over the past decade. Moreover, one of the conditions to restore the Iran nuclear deal, which was actively discussed after Joe Biden entry into power, might be to minimize support for Iraq, with Iranian armed corps being widely represented on its territory. This matter would definitely reel the stability of the Baghdad government.

The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq threatens to launch a new round or sharply raise the confrontation between Shiite and Sunni religious groups, just as in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein (Sunni) overthrow, the pendulum swung, and the Shiite majority started to oppress the Sunni minority, whose representatives then entered the Islamic State.

In such conditions, the risk of the secession of Iraqi Kurdistan, which is currently in confederal relations with official Baghdad, and its proclamation as an independent state, which will not be recognized by the central government of Iraq (whoever it may be) and will further escalate the situation in the region.

Nicaragua

In 2018, large-scale protests broke out in Nicaragua against the reform of the social security system, initiated by President Daniel Ortega, who first became head of state back in 1985. Those events turned out to be among the deadliest since the 1979 Sandinista Revolution, when the Somoza regime was overthrown. The social contradictions, which detonated in 2018, have not been overcome yet, therefore a high risk of protest potential in Nicaragua remains.

Moreover, in the US Nicaragua is traditionally considered as the bad guy in Latin America, also due to its close contacts with China and the Russian Federation. At the same time, Joe Biden, sharply criticized for his foreign policy, desperately needs victories outdoors. Potential assistance to overthrow Nicaraguan regime in the US backyard, which, among other things, would for a long time block the idea to relaunch the Nicaraguan Canal, in which China may renew its interest after the establishment of the AUKUS (USA-UK-Australia) alliance, considered as a threat by the official Beijing.

The current Latin American trend to sway to the right wing policy forces political centenarians to lose their positions. All this factors reasonably play against the power of the incumbent president Ortega.

Taiwan

According to the Taiwan Defense Ministry, during September 2021, Chinese Air Force combat aircraft flew more than 20 times through the air defense identification zone, unilaterally proclaimed by the island's authorities. The official Beijing definitely "probs" Taiwan's defense capabilities and looks for any weaknesses in the island's defense system. At the same time, among Western analysts, one can increasingly hear a hypothesis about a power scenario against Taiwan, and even a quick glance on the Chinese information sphere indicates that public opinion is being prepared for the return of the island under the control of the official Beijing.

Commenting on the establishment of the aforementioned AUKUS alliance, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Taiwan expressed sincere gratitude to the United States and Australia for a strong and resolute support. Nevertheless, the foreign policy of the Biden administration, which reduces the excessive American presence globally and, as a result, minimizing costs on the external circuit, does not allow Taipei to count on the same level of support from official Washington as it was in past decades. With a high degree of probability, tensions in the South China Sea will increase, and further erosion of the international security architecture increases the chances of armed clashes over Taiwan.

Sahel

The Sahel region, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, has been considered one of the most explosive corners of the planet for years. In this case, we say that the number of accumulated problems switches to quality, which is aggravated by the increase in the rate of population growth (over 2.5% per year with a total number of 300 million people) in recent years and desertification due to climate change.

In recent years, the Sahel region has become a place of demonstrative projection of power by a number of powers: France, USA, Great Britain, Russia, China, Turkey. The coup in Sudan (April 2019), two coups in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), the death of the Chad President Idris Deby (April 2021) are, among other things, echoes of the geopolitical confrontation in the region. One may assume, such events tend to occur more and more often in the region, and their consequences tend to be more and more destructive. Agreements of the largest geopolitical players are capable of stabilizing the situation, but the chance of such an outcome is extremely low.

Kosovo

At the end of September, due to the ban of the Pristina authorities to use cars with Serbian numbers, a new round of escalation on the border between Serbia and Kosovo took place. In response, representatives of the Kosovo Serb community, who predominantly live in the north of the partially recognized republic, have blocked border checkpoints. In its turn, Kosovo authorities have pulled police forces to the border, with a symmetrical response from the official Belgrade (moreover, the Serbs used military equipment). The rhetoric of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic turned out to be unexpectedly harsh, on the contrary to the previous escalations between Pristina and Belgrade.

In general, the level of contacts between the parties in 2021 decreased, which seems to be caused by two main factors. First is Albin Kurtis, an ardent supporter of the annexation of Kosovo to Albania, entry into power as a new Prime Minister of Kosovo. Secondly, the new administration in Washington: there was a constructive relationship between Trump and Vucic, but the current US administration, on the one hand, has shifted the Balkan issue to the periphery of its foreign policy, and, on the other hand, traditionally sympathizes with the Kosovars.

It would seem that escalation between Kosovo and Serbia is a common thing for the Balkan Peninsula. However, in the context of aggravated contradictions between the largest geopolitical players and the inevitable EU leadership crisis, which will start after the departure of Angela Merkel, the explosive potential of local conflicts tends to multiply.
The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) has extended the ban on the import of electricity from the countries that are not members of the Energy Community, that is, from the Russian Federation and Belarus, for another month - until November 1 of this year.

The regulator made the corresponding decision on September 29.

During the meeting, member of the commission Dmytro Kovalenko noted that this issue was considered at a meeting of the Anti-Crisis Energy Headquarters on Monday, September 27. It was supported by market participants, the Ministry of Energy, and government representatives, as well as Ukrenergo.

"At its headquarters, Ukrenergo noted that the situation is under control and the ban on electricity imports for a month will not cause problems with operational safety in the integrated power system of the country. There is already a protocol of the Anti-Crisis Headquarters to do this," Kovalenko explained.

According to him, the decision to further extend the ban will be made on the basis of the operational situation, in particular with the accumulation of coal in Ukraine.

At the same time, following a proposal from Ukrenergo, the regulator, after the meeting, approved a resolution with wording allowing the transmission system operator in October to hold auctions to allocate capacity for imports from Russia and Belarus for November, in case the ban for this month is no longer imposed.

There is no text of the resolution on the NEURC website yet.

As reported, the NEURC established a ban on the import of electricity from the Russian Federation and Belarus by decree No. 853 dated May 26, its validity period expires on October 1. The powers of the regulator to limit the available bandwidth distributed at daily and monthly auctions in 2021 is enshrined in law of Ukraine No. 1396-IX regarding the certification of Ukrenergo.
The Council of Europe (CoE) is ready to further support Ukraine on the way to European standards and cooperate with the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) to build a world-class prosecutor's office.

According to the press service of the PGO, representatives of the Council of Europe announced this at the conference entitled "Reform of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine 2019-2021: Achievements and Further Steps" organized by the Office of the Council of Europe in Ukraine, during which the results of a two-year transition period of reforming the prosecution authorities were summed up.

During the day, experts from international organizations, legal specialists, representatives of prosecutors of various levels and civil society discussed the successes and challenges of the first global stage of the reform of the prosecutor's office. All participants agreed that the analysis and expert discussion would help determine the vectors of further development to achieve the final result - building a new model of the prosecutor's office, in which each prosecutor professes the principles of independence, transparency and virtue.

The expert discussion revolved around the organization of work and the scope of competence of the newly bodies of prosecutorial self-government and disciplinary responsibility - the Council of Prosecutors of Ukraine and the corresponding body carrying out disciplinary proceedings.

Representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations shared their experience of cooperation with the renewed prosecutor's office. In particular, Ksenia Velychko, head of the Legal Policy Department of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, noted: "We really feel the benefits of cooperation with the Investment Protection Department of the PGO and how it affects investment activities and the solution of problem cases faced by transparent business. We hope that you will continue the vector of development and reform of the prosecutor's office."

"One of our main principles is sustainable development and an integrated approach. Today, completing the stage of personnel cleaning and transformation of prosecutorial bodies, we are focusing on development for the sake of the efficiency of the institution and public confidence in it," Deputy Prosecutor General Ihor Mustetsa said.
Future generations must know the truth about the crimes of Nazism so that such tragedies in the history of mankind will never happen again, said President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy.

"Preserving the memory of the Second World War, in particular the tragedy of Babyn Yar and the Holocaust, is our duty to future generations. Worthy respect for the memory of all those who died is our duty to past generations. Worthy respect for the memory of all those who died is our duty to past generations. And since 2019, we have been doing everything to make Babyn Yar from the territory of oblivion turn into a place of memory. A worthy place in memory of hundreds of thousands of victims killed in 1941-1943," a statement published on Zelensky's Telegram channel on Tuesday says.

According to him, on Wednesday, all Ukrainian schools will host a national lesson dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy.

"The tragedy of Babyn Yar, which happened in Ukraine 80 years ago, should never be repeated. Neither in Ukraine, nor in other parts of Europe. Nowhere in the world. Never again. Eternal memory to all victims of Babyn Yar! Eternal memory to all victims of the Holocaust! Eternal memory to all victims of World War II!" Zelensky said.
A citizen of Ukraine, Crimean Servet Gaziev, who is being held in the Russian Federation, was beaten before his discharge from the tuberculosis hospital in Rostov-on-Don, where he was treated after a microstroke, said Ombudswoman of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova.

"They knocked him to the floor, hit him on the back, twisted his arms and shaved his beard. The shameful act against the 61-year-old political prisoner had taken place before he was discharged from the interregional tuberculosis hospital ... The state of health of the Crimean Tatar is of serious concern, because in the Russian remand prison he is not regularly provided with medical assistance, and now his neck also hurts and his hand becomes numb because of the beating by the prison hospital staff," Denisova wrote on Facebook.

According to her, the attitude towards Gaziev "is the Kremlin's revenge for its firm position to speak his native Crimean Tatar language in the pretrial detention center and during court hearings, as well as to constantly defend his rights."

Denisova appealed to Ombudswoman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova with a demand to immediately provide Gaziev with the necessary medical assistance, as well as assistance in choosing another preventive measure not related to detention due to his state of health. He also demanded that the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov give a legal assessment of the criminal actions of the prison hospital workers against the Ukrainian citizen and bring the perpetrators to criminal responsibility.

"I regard such actions against our compatriot as torture, inhuman treatment and violation of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms," the Ombudswoman emphasized.

Denisova also appealed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Chairperson Ann Linde "to stop the arbitrariness of the occupying country, to continue politically sanctioning pressure on the Russian Federation for the immediate release of all Kremlin prisoners."
Discussions are underway in EU over abuse of visa-free travel by number of countries, including Ukraine  media

Illegal residence of citizens and unsubstantiated applications for asylum from some Western Balkan states, as well as Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, are causing discussions on the suspension of visa-free travel to the European Union, EUobserver said.

"Disappointment appears to be growing among France, Germany and Italy amid broader debate about curbing alleged abuses," EUobserver, which consulted an EU internal document of September 27 said.

According to the statement the visa-free travel is viewed by the European Commission as a "significant achievement" in relations between the EU and the Western Balkans and the former Soviet republics within the Eastern Partnership policy. It is also noted the threat of the so-called "mechanism for suspending the issuance of visas" is now being actively discussed.

"In the document, Germany is offended at Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. He also named Albania and Serbia among the 10 most problematic countries. It has registered a spike in "illegal residence harassment" from Albania, Moldova and Ukraine, despite an overall decline last year due to the pandemic," the EUobserver said.

In addition, the document states that over the past three months, the number of asylum applications from Georgia increased by 51% compared to the same period in 2019, while Moldova recorded a 429% jump between June and August 2019 and from June to August 2021.
Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio calls for the urgent establishment of an Ethics Council as part of judicial reform.

This is discussed in the statement of the Venice Commission's president, published on the website of the Council of Europe on Wednesday.

Buquicchio said it was judicial reform that was at the centre of a recent exchange of views with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, added that "reform is crucial for the future of the country, it raises very high expectations in Ukrainian society."

Thus, the Venice Commission's president welcomed the adoption of the law on amendments to the law on the judicial system and the status of judges and some laws regarding the resumption of the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine."

"This is a centre piece of this reform and will allow re-establishing the High Qualifications Commission of Judges, which should start filling numerous judicial vacancies as soon as possible. Another essential part of that reform is the establishment of the Ethics Council," Buquicchio said.

In this regard, he said the activities of the Ethics Council are stipulated 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."

"Ukraine's international partners have already nominated their candidates for the Ethics Council. It is now urgent that the Council of Judges of Ukraine make, with no further delay, its own appointments, which are essential for the implementation of the reform," the Venice Commission's president said.

He also expressed the conviction that "all the concerned authorities should refrain from taking any measure, action, inaction or procedure resulting in a delay in the setting-up of the Ethics Council, which could cause an irreparable damage to the realization of an independent and efficient judiciary in Ukraine."

"It is the responsibility of all to implement the judicial reform. Without the Ethics Council, there cannot be an independent and trusted High Judicial Council and, in turn, there cannot be a trusted High Qualification Commission of Judges. I am confident that the Ukrainian judges understand that this reform is necessary not only for the reputation and authority of the Ukrainian judiciary but for Ukraine as a whole and for all Ukrainian citizens. I call on them to take responsibility and support the reform. I also call on the competent authorities to take all necessary steps to allow an Ethics Council to be set up and carry out its tasks efficiently and swiftly," Buquicchio said.
The U.S. company Amstar plans to build a logistics complex for $170 million in the village of Hurivschyna of Kyiv region, the press service of Kyiv Regional State Administration has reported.

"Together with the Agency for Regional Development of Kyiv region, we are working to establish high-quality communication with investors. One example is the Amstar company. They have already begun to build a logistics complex on the territory of the Dmytrivka community," Head of Kyiv Regional State Administration Vasyl Volodin said.

According to the project, the complex with a total area of 340,000 square meters will be located on a land plot of 55 hectares. Its implementation will create about 2,000 jobs.

Amstar is an international private equity fund headquartered in Denver, founded in 1987. It specializes in investments in commercial and residential real estate.
On Friday, October 1, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable talk entitled 'Lessons for Parties in Ukraine Taught by the Elections in Germany and Russia. Prospects for the Main Participants in Domestic Political Process'. Participants: Director of the Institute for Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov; political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; Director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko; Doctor of Political Sciences, Political Scientist Ihor Petrenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Details by phone: (068) 099 17 09.
Iran's Parliament on Wednesday elected a controversial politician known as an associate of the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new head of its supervisory arm, the Supreme Court of Audit.

Mehrdad Bazrpash who is a former Basij militia leader, lawmaker and vice president in the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected with 158 of the total 244 votes cast on Wednesday's open session of the hardliner-dominated Parliament.

Several influential politicians and critics of the Principlist camp, as some hardliners are known, had strongly objected to Bazrpash's nomination to the post.

In a letter to the Parliament Speaker Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf the anti-corruption former lawmaker Ahmad Tavakoli, urged the Parliament to reconsider the nomination of Bazrpash. Tavakoli said Bazrpash lacked sufficient experience and related education to head the Court of Audit.

Tavakoli, himself a Principlist, is the founder of an anti-corruption, non-governmental organization Justice and Transparency Watch.

Bazrpash served as CEO of two of Iran's largest automakers  SAIPA and Pars Khodro -- during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. He was later appointed as Vice President and head of the National Youth Organization. Bazrpash launched Vatan-e Emrouz, a pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper, shortly before the disputed 2009 presidential election.

The former vice-president allegedly used government funds and resources to publish Vatan-e Emrouz which ceased publication in August 2019 due to "financial issues" as well as corruption allegations dating to the time he was the CEO of SAIPA and Pars Khodro.

Before its closure, the newspaper avidly criticized President Hassan Rouhani and his government and often chose very controversial and provocative headlines against him and the government.

Bazrpash somehow distanced himself from Ahmadinejad after his second term of presidency came to an end in 2013. He is very close to the ultra-hardliner Paydari Front.

Iran's Supreme Court of Audit is one of the 191 members of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), a non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

There have been some suggestions in the media that the forty-year-old Bazrpash may be seeking to run in next year's presidential election.
Michael Gandolfini, son of the late actor James Gandolfini, and his mother, Marcy Wudarski, arrive at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California (Photo : REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo)

How do you revisit the world of "The Sopranos" without James Gandolfini?



Cast the son of the late actor as a troubled teen who later grows up to become a conflicted Mafia leader - and one of pop culture's most beloved characters.



Fourteen years after the screen famously faded to black at the end of six television seasons, "Sopranos" creator David Chase returns with a film prequel set in New Jersey in the 1960s and 1970s.



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"The Many Saints of Newark," opening in U.S. movie theaters and on HBO Max on Friday, features younger versions of "Sopranos" characters, including Paulie, Janice, Junior, Carmela and matriarch Livia.



Michael Gandolfini, who was 14 when his father died of a heart attack in 2013 at age 51, plays the young Tony Soprano, with the same hunched stance and enigmatic eyes of the middle-aged New Jersey Mafia boss who consulted a psychiatrist for panic attacks.



Gandolfini had never seen the TV series, which brought his father multiple awards, before he auditioned.



"The experience of watching (the series) for the first time was very emotional. But once I sort of had gotten that out, it mostly was I was there to do a job and be the best actor that I could be," Gandolfini said.



"Many Saints" director Alan Taylor said he didn't realize initially that casting Gandolfini was going to become such a talking point "but it is the most charismatic thing about the movie in a way."



"I was wary, because I thought how can you ask a young guy to take this on and to immerse myself in his dad? The good news is that he had wrestled with that himself and by the time he met me and we'd had an audition, he'd already made peace with it," said Taylor.



Taylor said his mind was put at rest at a cast dinner before shooting on the movie began.



"He (Michael) stood up and said he wanted to thank everybody for giving him a chance to say hello to his dad again and goodbye again, and tearing up. ... He did a tremendous amount of homework to get his character down, and I think it has worked out."



For all the attention on Gandolfini, the young Tony Soprano is not the focus of the new film. That role belongs to the charismatic but flawed mobster Dickie Moltisanti (played by Alessandro Nivola), who Tony viewed as his surrogate father but who died before the stories in the TV series begin.



Chase said it had been "nothing but pleasure" returning to the world he created in the late 1990s. New Jersey venues, including Satriale's Pork Store, were recreated for the film, and key scenes take place at Holsten's restaurant.



"I think 'The Sopranos' is the favorite show that I ever wrote, and it was great going back there," the writer and producer said.



But Chase is wary about promising to return a third time.



"Someday the public is going to turn on 'The Sopranos.' It's what happens, right? Things wear out, and I probably don't want to be around for that."


Foreign attempts to besiege China will fail, Chinese envoy to UK says

A worker adjusts British and China (R) national flags on display for a signing ceremony at the seventh UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue "Roundtable on Public-Private Partnerships" at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China (Photo : REUTERS/Andy Wong/File Photo)

Foreign attempts to contain or besiege China will always fail so major powers should avoid colonial thinking that could lead to a confrontation with the world's second largest economy, China's ambassador to London said on Tuesday.



China has repeatedly denounced a new Indo-Pacific security alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia that will provide Canberra with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.



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Ambassador Zheng Zeguang, speaking at a ceremony to celebrate the 72th anniversary of the People's Republic, said the Communist Party had thrown off foreign oppressors and rebuilt China by lifting over 770 million people out of poverty over half a century.



"Attempts to contain or besiege China have never succeeded in the past and will always be an empty dream in the future," Zheng said. "No one can stop the Chinese people from making further progress."



He suggested big powers rejected "colonial mentality" and "other moves that lead to division or confrontation."



The United States and its allies are looking for ways to push back against China's growing power and influence, particularly its military buildup, pressure on Taiwan and deployments in the contested South China Sea.



Zheng said Britain should work on improving relations with Beijing after "some setbacks" in recent months.



Britain has repeatedly criticised China over President Xi Jinping's treatment of Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and Zheng was banned from attending an event at the British parliament earlier this month.



Zheng said socialism and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) were crucial for the development of China.



"Without the CPC there would not have a new China," Zheng said. "Socialism is the only way to save China and socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only way to develop China."


A 3D printed Google logo is pictured on a keyboard in front of binary code in this illustration taken (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

Google's plan to block a popular web tracking tool called "cookies" is anti-competitive, a group of advertisers, publishers and tech companies said in a complaint to EU antitrust regulators.



The grievance could boost the European Commission's investigation opened in June into Alphabet unit Google's Privacy Sandbox which the company said could allow businesses to target clusters of consumers without identifying individuals.



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Google said a year ago that it would ban some cookies in its Chrome browser to increase user privacy and offer the Privacy Sandbox as an alternative.



The Movement for an Open Web (MOW) said the proposal would give Google the power to decide what data can be shared on the web and with whom.



"Google says they're strengthening 'privacy' for end users but they're not, what they're really proposing is a creepy data mining party," MOW lawyer Tim Cowen said in a statement.



The Commission confirmed receipt of the complaint, saying it would assess it under the standard procedures. In June, it kicked off an investigation into Google's online display advertising technology services.



Google has offered to settle the case in a bid to avoid a possible fine and a disruptive prolonged probe, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.



Google declined to comment on the MOW complaint and referred to its previous statement released when it offered concessions to the UK competition watchdog, which described the Privacy Sandbox as an open initiative to provide strong privacy for users while also supporting publishers.



The U.S. Justice Department is also examining the issue, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.



The group's complaint to the UK regulator prompted its investigation which subsequently led Google to offer concessions.


Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock in Cherokee County poses in a jail booking photograph after he was taken into custody by the Crisp County Sheriff's Office in Cordele, Georgia, U.S (Photo : Georgia, U.S. March 16, 2021.)

A Georgia man on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and other charges stemming from a shooting massacre at Atlanta-area day spas in March, for which the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty.



An attorney for Robert Aaron Long, 22, entered his plea at a brief hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville in Atlanta.



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Long is accused of killing a total of eight people, most of them of Asian descent, at three spas in or near Atlanta. He pleaded guilty https://www.reuters.com/world/us/man-pleads-guilty-four-murders-atlanta-area-spa-shootings-2021-07-27 in July to four of the slayings in Cherokee County.



The attacks in March galvanized an awareness of a wave of anti-Asian bias and violence across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic after former President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as "kung flu" or "China virus.



The Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has already filed paperwork in the court announcing that she would seek the death penalty and enhanced sentencing for hate crimes, based on the race and gender of the victims.



In a court hearing in Cherokee County in July, Long described how he purchased a firearm, a bottle of bourbon and set out to kill himself, claiming to feel remorseful for a self-proclaimed sex addiction.



Instead, he said he decided to carry out the spa shootings across two counties in metro Atlanta.



Long received four sentences of life in prison without parole in August for the shootings of Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Yan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44.



In Fulton County, he is charged with the killings of Yong Ae Yue, 63; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, at two Atlanta day spas.


Egypt denounced an Israeli court ruling on Wednesday that gives Jews the right to pray inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound , saying it is a violation of the holy Islamic mosque.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Wednesday that it gave Egypt a gift of 20 buses to be dedicated to North Sinai governorate.
The meetings were held on the sidelines of the ongoing 76th session of the UN General Assembly

Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed on Wednesday the need to support efforts to achieve the stability of Libya and its national institutions.

The minister made the comments in a meeting on Libya within the framework of the Berlin Process with the participation of a number of neighbouring countries, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Shoukry affirmed the need to respond to the Libyan peoples legitimate aspirations for a prosperous and sovereign Libya, the statement added.

A number of top officials attended the meeting, including head of the Libyan Presidential Council Mohamed Al-Menfi, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Italys Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.

The meeting was held during the third day of Shoukrys visit to New York.

Durban Declaration

During the day, Shoukry gave a speech during the high-level meeting celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action adopted in 2001 to fight racism.

During his speech, Shoukry said the manifestations [of intolerance] are still showing their ugly face to us, taking many forms, despite the positive steps achieved to face racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance.

These manifestations are represented in discrimination and hatred on the basis of religion, race, colour and others, Shoukry said during his speech.

The observer of the escalating trend taken by the phenomenon of racism in recent years notes that [racism] targets people of African origin, Arabs, Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers in the countries receiving them, Shoukry added.

Shoukry also warned of the continuation of some wrong policies and elements of political discourse to form stereotypes about people of certain ethnicities or followers of certain religions and link them with some criminal behaviour.

The Egyptian foreign minister said such discourse sometimes comes under the pretext of protecting freedom of opinion, thought and expression, in a way that contradicts the values of democracy, equality and respect for the other.

He warned that this discourse also violates the peremptory rules of the international law regarding the criminalisation of racism.

Shoukry highlighted the urgent need to take decisive steps to criminalise racism in all its forms as well as to enact effective measures to ensure accountability in this regard.

He also called for spreading societal awareness of the dangers of this phenomenon, and strengthening national institutions tasked with combating it.

Meeting top diplomats

During the day, Shoukry held separate meetings with each of his counterparts from France, Ireland and Vietnam, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.

Meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Bui Thanh Son, Shoukry discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

They also coordinated efforts between the two countries in multilateral forums.

Shoukry started his third day in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA with a meeting with Simon Coveney, Irelands foreign and defence minister, an Egyptian foreign ministry statement read.

The top ministers discussed means to boost bilateral relations and coordinate on regional and international issues in light of Irelands current presidency of the UN Security Council.

Later in the day, in a meeting with Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Shoukry discussed boosting the strategic relations between Egypt and France, a separate statement by the Egyptian ministry read.

The meeting aimed to foster coordination on regional and international issues of great importance for the two sides, the statement added.

Shoukry participated on Tuesday in the opening of the 76th session of the UNGA high-level segment.

The top diplomat held separate meetings with his counterparts from Estonia, Tunisia, Rwanda, India, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Ukraine, Pakistan, as well as Josep Borrell  the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy.

During his visit to the US, Shoukry is set to take part in several events to express Egypt's vision and stances towards the current issues in the region as well as means of supporting the pillars of peace and security at the international and regional levels.

The foreign minister will also discuss mechanisms of reinforcing multilateral action in regard to the issues on the agenda of the UNGAs high-level segment.

Shoukry is also expected to meet with senior UN officials and other leaderships of international and regional organisations.

The UNGAs 76th session aims to build resilience through hope  to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations.

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In a statement released Saturday, 113 officials from Ennahdha, including lawmakers and former ministers, said they had resigned

The split within the ranks of Ennahdha comes amid deep political crisis in Tunisia. In July, President Kais Saied's decided to sack the country's prime minister, suspend parliament and assume executive authority, saying it was because of a national emergency. His critics called it a coup.

In a statement released Saturday, 113 officials from Ennahdha, including lawmakers and former ministers, said they had resigned.

``This is a definitive and irrevocable decision,'' Samir Dilou, an Ennahdha lawmaker and former minister from 2011 to 2014, told The Associated Press.

Dilou said the decision to resign was linked to the ``impossibility of reforming the party from the inside'' because of decisions being made by the head of the party, Rachid Ghannouchi, and his entourage. He also noted that Ennahdha, the largest party in parliament, has failed to counter Saied's actions.

Earlier this week, Saied issued presidential decrees bolstering the already near-total power he granted himself two months ago.

Wednesday's decrees include the continuing suspension of the Parliament's powers, the suspension of all lawmakers' immunity from prosecution and a freeze on lawmakers' salaries.

They also stated Saied's intention from now on to rule by presidential decree alone and ignore parts of the constitution. Laws will not go through the parliament, whose powers are frozen, granting him near-unlimited power.

Saied said his July decision was needed to save the country amid unrest over financial troubles and the government's handling of Tunisia's coronavirus crisis.

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Egypt is studying lowering the 18-year age limit for COVID-19 vaccination, a health ministry adviser has said, as the country seeks to reach high inoculation rates in a short period of time to achieve herd immunity.

"No steps have been taken to inoculate children under 18 so far," Noha Assem, the health ministers adviser for research affairs, told the media on Saturday evening, but noted that "lowering the age [of receiving the vaccine] is under study."

Vaccination is mandatory for all teaching staff, employees, and workers, as well as students who are 18 or above at lower and higher education institutions in Egypt, with unvaccinated people to be barred from entering the premises, according to a government decision issued in August.

At the time, the governments decision did not mention school pupils, who are under 18.

However, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has assured, if possible, the countrys vaccination campaign will target high-school pupils.

We seek to achieve high vaccination rates in a short period of time to achieve herd immunity, the president said during an event in September.

Assem's remarks come days after Ministry of Health Spokesman Khaled Megahed said "the state intends to start vaccinating 12- to 18-year-olds soon, but the vaccine that will be administered has not been determined yet."

The governments decision to vaccinate the education sector staff comes in parallel with the return of in-person classes at Egyptian schools and universities in October.

Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said in TV statements on Saturday that the ministry is scheduled to finish vaccinating its employees, faculty members, and 20% of university students by 9 October.

Students will not be enrolled in any room in the university dormitories before they get the coronavirus vaccines, Abdel-Ghaffar said.

Students who do not wish to obtain the vaccine must perform a PCR swab every week in the laboratories of the higher education ministry to be allowed to attend classes.

Over 13 million people have been vaccinated so far in Egypt since the beginning of the inoculation campaign earlier this year.

The country also seeks to widen its vaccination coverage  by including all public servants  as the country is currently seeing a rise in infections and fatalities due to the pandemic's fourth wave, which has been felt since early August and is expected to hit its peak in the coming days.

The number of positive cases is expected to rise in the coming period, Assem underscored.

Egypt has recorded a total of 300,945, including 17,149 deaths and 254,060 recoveries thus far.

Health Minister Hala Zayed has said the government is considering giving booster shots of coronavirus vaccines to citizens who were inoculated at least 6-8 months ago, but Assem said studies are being carried out currently on whether or not the coronavirus vaccine will be retaken after a long period of time.

"Most probably the vaccine will be administered seasonally," she noted, adding that the country also is studying combining coronavirus and flu vaccines in one shot.

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The biggest mass resignation from the Islamist Ennahda Movement thus far took place this week as Tunisias political crisis worsens

Tunisias largest parliamentary bloc the moderate Islamist Ennahda Movement witnessed the biggest mass resignation in its history this week. The timing of the walkouts occurred just as the movement was escalating its opposition to what it described as Tunisian President Kais Saieds coup.

On 25 July, Saied suspended the Tunisian parliament, dismissed the prime minister and declared emergency measures for 30 days at a time when the country was battling a fierce Covid-19 variant wave and recording the highest death rates in Africa.

After extending the measures for another 30 days, Saied gave them permanent status last week by issuing Decision 117 that suspends parts of the Tunisian Constitution and grants him extraordinary powers to rule by decree.

The decision, issued on 22 September, said that amendments to Tunisias 2014 Constitution would be introduced with the assistance of a committee appointed by the presidency.

Four days later as thousands of people protested against Saied in central Tunis, there was an avalanche of resignations from the Ennahda Movement, reaching 131 by late evening.

The dissenting members included leading figures from the movement and MPs who explained in a statement that their departure from Ennahda was an acknowledgement of their failure to reform the party.

The statement called out the movements leadership for a string of bad policies that had led to its isolation and failure to be actively involved with other Tunisian political parties to counter Saieds emergency measures.

Internal divisions in Ennahda have been brewing for years over the leaderships policies, and the movements popularity has been declining with every election.

The reverberations of Saieds political earthquake on its fragile unity are an inevitable outcome of the political changes that have taken place in post-revolutionary Tunisia that Ennahda has grappled with during its past decade in power.

Successive, albeit smaller-scale, resignations over recent years from the movement have cited demands for leadership change, more democratisation within the party, and controversial realpolitik compromises made during its decade in power that have alienated Ennahdas constituency.

In their statement this week, the signatories to the new wave of resignations said they had felt compelled to emancipate themselves from the movements constraints and limitations to prioritise their national duty to defend Tunisias democracy.

The statement held Ennahda Movement head and Parliamentary Speaker Rachid Al-Ghannouchi responsible for the political crisis in the country.

Both the 25 July emergency measures and the 22 September Decision by Saied would not have been welcomed by many Tunisians, the statement said, had it not been for parliaments damaged image.

This was the result of the populist performance of its members under the failed leadership of its speaker, a reference to Al-Ghannouchi, who had ignored advice against nominating himself for parliamentary speaker to avoid fuelling polarisation and discord, it added.

The statement said the situation had been exacerbated by the catastrophic performance of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichis government in handling the Covid-19 health crisis in Tunisia. The economic crisis in the country had deepened Ennahdas isolation leading to the widespread popular support for Saieds emergency measures, it added.

The resignations included top figures from the Ennahda leadership, MPs and former members of Tunisias National Constituent Assembly of 2011-2014.

On Sunday, thousands of people rallied against Saied for the second consecutive week in Avenue Bourguiba in central Tunis. Turnout was noticeably larger than during the previous week, while a second counter-protest supporting Saied had shrunk in size. Eye-witnesses said that the police had prevented buses packed with protesters, believed to be from Ennahda, from reaching the Avenue.

Constitution, Freedom, National Dignity, they chanted. The people want what he [Saied] does not want. Some of the protesters carried placards demanding the intervention of the armed forces to protect the constitution.

Decision 117 allows Saied to issue legislative texts by decree, appoint the government and set out its policy decisions unilaterally. Parliament will remain frozen, and its members will no longer receive their salaries or enjoy immunity from prosecution. The Decision also terminated the countrys Independent Provisional Authority in charge of determining the constitutionality of laws.

The Decision has not received the support of political parties or civil-society groups, even while the polls say that Saied remains popular. The Attayar, Al-Joumhouri, Akef and Ettakatol Parties said in a joint statement that Saieds measures enshrined a monopoly of absolute power.

On Saturday, a joint statement by 15 local and international rights groups and NGOs said Decision 117 constituted a power grab in the absence of guarantees. The statement questioned the absence of anti-corruption measures and impunity in Tunisias transitional-justice arrangements and Saieds decisions.

Tunisias influential UGTT trade union described Saieds Decision as a danger to democracy and called for dialogue on Friday. It had earlier been part of a quartet that had addressed Tunisias national discord after the 2011 Revolution and was the winner of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

The UGTT initially adopted a cautious posture in response to the 25 July intervention, but this changed when Saied extended the emergency measures. It has called for the formation of a new government and early elections as a precondition to introducing constitutional amendments.

The union said it rejected the presidents monopoly on constitutional amendments, describing these as a danger to democracy.

There is no way out without consultation and dialogue on the foundation of national principles, it said.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The Forces of Freedom and Change must reach a political agreement with the Sudanese military in the wake of the recent coup attempt in Sudan.

Contrary to what had been anticipated, success in overcoming the recent failed coup attempt in Sudan has not led to positive interactions producing greater political stability and ending the transitional phase that was already planned for in the Constitutional Document signed in August 2019.

Instead, it has brought new problems and deepened the rifts between the various political forces in Sudan. It has also driven the revolutionary forces to rally and to try to reconcile their differences after sensing that the post-coup atmosphere may lead to a forcible end to the transitional period.

Various observations can be made regarding the failed coup attempt and the political context surrounding it in both domestic and international terms.

The first is that this failed coup attempt might have been a trial balloon for another coup that could take place either through an actual seizure of power in the shape of a classic military coup or through the Sudanese military refusing to hand over the presidency of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan to its civilian members. This is set to take place in November according to the Constitutional Document and will announce the end of the transitional phase in preparation for holding early elections.

The second is that the political inclinations and sympathy among Sudans military leaders for the political and social base of former Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashirs regime seem obvious and almost visible. General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan refused to blame remnants of the old regime for the failed coup attempt during his visit to the Al-Shajara Camp, one of the coup strongholds, in response to Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdoks accusation of the National Congress Party, which ruled the country during Al-Bashirs rule.

Third, the failed coup has brought home the need for the reform of the Sudanese military and security institutions, with political stability in the country now relying on it. This is in the light of the announcement of more than one coup attempt during the last two years, all of which were attributed to the National Islamic Front, the base of the Sudanese Islamists.

Fourth, restructuring the Sudanese military and resolving the relationship between the regular forces (the Sudanese Armed Forces) and the irregular forces (the Rapid Support Forces) is a precondition for stability in all Sudans provinces and the panacea against coup attempts. At the moment, the interactions between the two sides are sometimes in agreement and sometimes in tension. They are also decided according to the internal political climate. The current situation threatens political stability and even the future of the state itself.

Fifth, the presence of the Forces of Freedom and Change among the people of Sudan has declined to a great extent due to internal divisions. As a result, spontaneous popular protests against the attempted coup were weak despite calls issued by the prime minister. There were, however, rallies by Sudans parties and political forces refusing any coup attempt and rejecting any attempt by the military to return to power.

Sixth, the merits of the civilian components of the Sovereignty Council have been brought into doubt by economic challenges and the living conditions of ordinary people in Sudan. The Forces of Freedom and Change have become fragmented, calling into doubt their political strength and effectiveness and affecting the balance of power between them and the military. This imbalance resulted in the hegemony of the military during the previous period.

Seventh, the regional and international stand against any coup attempts in Sudan was very significant and clearly shows that any such attempts will not receive a positive reaction. Cairo, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi all issued statements denouncing the attempted coup, and there were also firm stances taken by the US, the EU, the Arab League and the African Union.

Eighth, the statement by the US State Department alleging the existence of foreign hands behind the failed coup attempt in Sudan raises questions about who these parties are, especially in the light of Eritrea and Ethiopia not issuing any condemnation of the coup.

TASKS AHEAD

The following issues must now be addressed by Sudans military and civilian forces.

First, they must prove to the international community that the Sudanese elites are trustworthy partners with a view to investment and economic support. If this is not done, there will be a decline in this support, with signs of this already beginning to emerge particularly in the concerns expressed by the US administration, the main supporter of Khartoum.

Second, the problem of East Sudan has become important for the future of the state and its stability because of its bias in favour of the military. The closure of Port Sudan more than once during the last year in an attempt to annul the East Sudan track in the Juba Agreement has caused great economic and political losses.

Third, protests in response to a call by the High Council of Beja Nazirs, the local tribal council, has led to the closure of Port Sudan, Suakin and Bashayer, among other places. These closures, exempting buses, police and ambulance vehicles, are a major threat to the Sudanese economy. East Sudan controls much of Sudans economic relations with the outside world, and Sudan imports 70 per cent of its needs via Port Sudan. The closure of the port of Bashayer has also greatly impacted South Sudan, as oil exported through it provides most of the countrys revenues.

Fourth, there is a need to settle the constitutional relationship between the centre and the periphery in Sudan, decide matters of political representation and restructure the sharing of wealth. This could take place either within the framework of a constitutional conference or within a legislative body whose formation has been delayed. One of the main reasons for the protests in East Sudan is that the residents of the region believe that it is being treated as a cash cow for the rest of Sudan, whereas in fact it suffers from significant underdevelopment.

Fifth, the political party of former president Omar Al-Bashir, the National Congress Party, is still influential even two years after the revolution. Mohamed Al-Amin Tirik, head of the High Council of Beja Nazirs in East Sudan and a National Congress Party member, has demanded the dismissal of the transitional government and the formation of a military council representing six Sudanese provinces with a partner civilian component substituting for Hamdoks government, for example.

Ending the hegemony of the military in Sudan and with it the possibility of a further military coup can only be achieved through a political agreement between the Forces of Freedom and Change and the military guaranteeing the safety of those who were associated with the former regime and the military participation in political decision-making in the future. Without an agreement of this sort, the political situation will not return to peace and stability, and the antagonism among the different parties will continue.

Regional and international support for Sudan at this crucial stage is urgently needed, especially given Sudans important geopolitical location and importance for Red Sea security and the security of the region. Egypt, in particular, should continue to build partnerships with Sudan.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered all ministers to issue a decree forbidding employees from entering government institutions unless they submit proof of vaccination or a PCR test every three days for those who refuse to receive the vaccine, according to a document issued by the cabinet on 26 September.

Madbouly issued the decision during the cabinet's 161st session that was held on 22 September.

Egypt has intensified its efforts to vaccinate the largest possible number of citizens against the coronavirus, opening 1,100 vaccination centres so far, with the number continuing to increase.

The ministry also launched a campaign titled Maan Natmaen (Together We are Reassured), sending buses to 18 governorates to register citizens wanting to be inoculated, answer their questions, and relieve their concerns about the vaccine.

The health ministry seeks to inoculate 40 million citizens by the end of the year.

As of 23 September, more than 15 million doses have been administered in Egypt since the country's vaccination campaign started in January, according to the World Health Organisation.

Egypt vaccinated 2.4 million out of 3.4 million employees working at the states administrative apparatuses, according to Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed on 17 September.

On Saturday 25 September, Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced that the ministry will vaccinate its own employees, faculty members, and 20 percent of all university students by 9 October, and that students will not be admitted to university dormitories before they are vaccinated.

Students who refuse to get vaccinated will be required to undergo a weekly PCR test to be allowed to continue attending their classes.

To increase daily vaccination rates and cover all sectors of Egyptian society, the country started producing the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus vaccine in the factories of the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) this year.

On Thursday 23 September, Health Minister Hala Zayed assured that the ministry plans to vaccinate all high school and preparatory school students once VACSERAs second vaccine production line begins working.

The line, which is due to be inaugurated in four weeks, will raise Egypts total production capacity of vaccines to one million doses per day.

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Saudi Arabia and Iran have met again in Iraq, several local sources said Wednesday, as talks aiming to ease tensions have continued under Iran's ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi.

Muslim Shia-majority Iran and Sunni power Saudi Arabia, on opposing sides in multiple Middle East conflicts, have been engaged in talks since April at the highest level since cutting ties in 2016.

The discussions, hosted by Iraq as it seeks to act as a regional mediator, were launched under Iran's former, moderate president Hassan Rouhani, who was replaced in August by Raisi.

The talks have led to "serious progress" regarding Gulf security, Tehran's foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said on September 23.

The latest round of talks was confirmed by three Iraqi sources, all speaking on condition they not be named.

"An Iranian official met with a Saudi official in Baghdad, following previous meetings between the two countries," one source told AFP, confirming the talks took place in recent days.

A government official and a source close to the government confirmed the meeting, without providing more details.

US ally Saudi Arabia and Washington's arch-foe Iran are at odds over many regional issues, including the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Riyadh also has concerns about Iran's nuclear programme, despite the Islamic republic's insistence it is pursuing only "peaceful" nuclear technology.

Saudi King Salman said in his recent speech by video conference to the UN General Assembly that "we hope that our talks will lead to tangible results that would build trust" and revive bilateral "cooperation".

He again called on Tehran to "cease all forms of support" for armed groups in the region and reaffirmed the kingdom's support for "international efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons".

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir attended the event which saw Chairman of the Board of Directors of ENR Mostafa Abdel-Latif Abul-Makarem and CEO of Thales Spain Jesus Sanchez sign the MoU.

The MoU is meant to study the implementation of the duplication and development of the railway signalling and communication systems on the 65km long Qalyoub-Shebin El-Qanater-Zagazig line, read a Transport Ministry statement.



As per the deal, Thales will help upgrade the central control tower in Shebin El-Qanater to coordinate train traffic along the entire line from Qalyoub to Shebin El-Qanater, the statement added.



El-Wazir, who is on an official visit to Spain, said projects are underway to modernise the signalling systems of the 1,900km long railway network, at a total cost of EGP 50 billion, to improve railway safety and security.



The minister also attended the signing of a MoU to modernise the 94km long Qalyoub-Menouf-Tanta line that guarantees railway operators SIL4 fail-safe automatic track occupancy detection directly at the trackside.



As part of the ENR Signalling Modernisation project, the existing mechanical signalling systems are being replaced with Thales' Electronic Interlocking System (EIS) across two of the ENRs heavily used lines, the 208km long Cairo-Alexandria and 250km long Assiut-Naga Hamadi.

On Tuesday, El-Wazir inspected the Talgo factory in Madrid and followed up on the train manufacturing line. The minister was also briefed on the maintenance work that will be carried out by the Spanish manufacturer in Egypt according to its contract with the ENR.

Spanish train manufacturer Talgo had said on that day that it would ship the first of the six trains agreed upon with Egypts ENR by mid-November, according to a separate statement by the ministry.

Egypt has adopted a plan to overhaul the entire railway system in the country and replace old rail vehicles with upgraded or new ones by the end of 2021.

The plan includes upgrading railway signalling systems for higher safety, improving workshops and supplying them with modern equipment, and installing automatic train control with a speed control mechanism in response to emergencies.

Railway lines in recent years have witnessed numerous train accidents, with dozens killed this year due to separate incidents in different governorates.

In April, El-Wazir said a total of EGP 1.7 billion had been spent to develop the countrys railway stations.
Shoukry's recorded remarks were delivered on Tuesday at the high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) held to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, which is recognised yearly on 26 September.

The Egyptian top diplomat urged world countries to work on ensuring that the world is free from nuclear weapons, including the Middle East, in light of the continuous violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) that came into effect in 1970.

Joined by 191 countries, the landmark NPT seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as to enhance cooperation among countries in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

"More than 51 years after the NPT entered into force, we find that nuclear weapons are still circulating around the world," Shoukry said.

The Egyptian foreign minister said nuclear states that refrain from taking any real steps towards the implementation of Article VI of the treaty are blamed for the grave humanitarian consequences of using these weapons intentionally or accidentally.

Article VI of the negotiations requires parties to the treaty to continue talks in good faith on effective measures towards nuclear disarmament.

Egypt hopes that the coming review conference will give the chance to all parties to work on issuing a communique that addresses the main pillars of the treaty and affirms nuclear states' commitment to their pledges, Shoukry said.

He added that the communique should also "emphasise the importance of achieving the universality of the treaty and not accepting the continuation of the current situation due to the consequent direct threat to the credibility and feasibility of the treaty."

Egypt urges the international community to support the second edition of the UN Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction scheduled for November 2021, Shoukry said.

This conference "represents the first practical step" towards implementing the decision of the 1995 NPT Review Conference and the 2010 NPT Review Conference's action plan.

The November conference also represents "a real opportunity for all countries of the region to [hold] dialogue and share their relevant concerns" to reach a binding treaty to establish a Middle East zone free from nuclear weapons.

The Egyptian foreign minister held several meetings this month with top diplomats and counterparts from around the globe on the UNGAs sidelines in New York, including a meeting with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

He also gave a speech during the high-level meeting celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in 2001 to fight racism.

Shoukry also tackled Egypt's foreign policy during a roundtable discussion organised by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi participated in the UNGA, delivering recorded remarks to the session on 21 September and to the UN Food Systems Summit on 23 September.
The head of the world's biggest free-trade area on Wednesday called for a review of "outdated" intellectual property rights to enable Covid-19 vaccine production on the severely under-immunised African continent.

Secretary general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, told AFP that the global intellectual property rights system was "constraining" Africa's industrialisation.

"This pandemic has shown that the IP rights regime is outdated, particularly for Africa," he told AFP in Johannesburg.

"It is at the heart of the challenges that we are facing today."

He stressed the need "to upscale to the rest of the continent" the transfer of these new technologies.

"If we want to defeat these viruses, we have to re-look at all these questions of compulsory licensing, transfer of technology," he said.

He spoke after attending a conference on post-pandemic economic recovery and trade hosted in his home country.

Just over four percent of eligible Africans have been fully immunised against Covid-19, compared to more than 60 percent in rich nations.

South African and India are among the countries pushing for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to boost vaccine production in developing countries and address the vast inequity in access.

But there is fierce resistance from big pharma and their host countries, which insist patents are not the main roadblocks to scaling up production and warn the move could hamper innovation.

Touted as the world's largest single market in terms of the number of member countries, Africa's free trade zone came into operation on January 1, bringing together more than 50 economies from Algeria to South Africa.

A brainchild of the African Union, AfCFTA has been signed by all AU states except Eritrea.

Forty countries have ratified the agreement, but progress in concretely rolling out trade has been hampered by the pandemic, Mene said.

So far only Ghana, Egypt and Kenya have revised their customs laws to allow free trade.

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The Suez Canal recorded on Wednesday the highest number of daily ships passing through the canal in its history at 87 ships in both directions, Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie said in a statement.

The ships that passed through the canal comprised 18 container ships, 26 bulk ships, 18 large oil tankers, 10 ships carrying liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, and 15 ships of other types.

The total net tonnage that passed through the canal amounted to 4.8 million tonnes.

The number of ships passing through the canal from the north was 38 ships with a net tonnage of 2 million tonnes, while 49 ships crossed from the southern direction weighing a total of 2. 8 million tonnes, the statement said.

The navigation movement from the north was led by the MSC ISTANBUL ship, with a total tonnage of 182,000 tonnes, on its journey from Morocco and to Singapore.

The MSC ANNA ship, raising the Liberian flag, came at the head of the southern convoy with a total tonnage of 203,000 tons coming from Saudi Arabia and heading to Egypt.

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Chairman of Egypt's parliamentary majority party Mostaqbal Watan Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek ordered on Wednesday the dismissal of MP Hassan Ahmed Khalil, the secretary-general of the party's office in Aswan city, from his post.

Magdy Hassabou, a Mostaqbal Watan Party member and senator, will replace Khalil as the partys new secretary-general in Aswan city.

Abdel-Razek's order came after what has been described as an "unethical video" featuring Khalil and his Aswan colleague MP Nevine Hamdy went viral on Facebook and other social media outlets.

Hamdy is an Aswan MP affiliated with the Guardians of the Nation Party led by senator and retired army general Galal Haridy.

Khalil has said that the video was shot after he and Hamdy got married two years ago. He said the video was stolen from his private mobile phone.

The second legislative session of Egypt's parliament  the House of Representatives  is scheduled to open on Saturday.

MPs Khalil and Hamdy could face disciplinary punishment.

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South African investigators on Wednesday called for a former health minister to be punished and a senior official to face criminal charges over a $10 million Covid fund scandal.

The damning report from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said former health minister Zweli Mkhize oversaw contracts through Digital Vibes, a front company run by his former spokeswoman and personal assistant.

Using money meant to educate the public about how to stay safe during the pandemic, his son Dedani Mkhize bought a Land Cruiser and withdrew "significant amounts of cash", the report said.

The SIU, an independent law enforcement agency with similar powers to the FBI, said the health ministry's former director general Anton Pillay should be criminally charged with financial misconduct.

The current director general Sandile Buthelezi was suspended over the weekend.

Investigators also urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to take "executive action" against the ex-minister Mkhize, who resigned in August, as well as six other officials. The agency said it would issue more detailed recommendations about these measures later.

The SIU report did not delve into details of how the money was spent.

Local media have reported that one Digital Vibes official took her family on a month-long trip to Turkey during South Africa's second coronavirus wave.

Other reports have highlighted spending sprees on luxury goods.

One woman who on paper supposedly ran Digital Vibes actually worked at a gas station, while other money went to a beauty salon run by Mkhize's daughter-in-law, according to the Daily Maverick newspaper.

The SIU has already taken steps to recover some of the funds, which had been earmarked for public awareness and media campaigns.

While this case is among many Covid-related graft investigations, the revelations have alarmed the public as Mkhize and Pillay were both seen as effective civil servants in a country marred with graft.

But Ramaphosa later told journalists that "much as he (the ex-minister) is implicated in the report, he has served the nation well.

"He was sole voice of the pandemic and we were able to navigate around the pandemic because of his experience," Ramaphosa said in response to a question at a media briefing on his ANC party's preparations for upcoming local government elections.

Ramaphosa is battling to convince South Africans to vote for the African National Congress, the continent's most storied political party, in key municipal elections coming just a few months after deadly riots rocked the country's most populous regions.

Deep internal party divisions and general disillusionment with the ANC played out during the July riots and looting of businesses. The unrest claimed 354 lives and affected more than 40,000 businesses.

Ramaphosa called the riots -- sparked by the jailing of his predecessor Jacob Zuma for contempt -- an attempted insurrection.

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The Algerian foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador Wednesday to protest Paris' decision to reduce the number of visas granted to Algerian nationals, according to an official statement.

France on Tuesday had said it would sharply reduce the number of visas granted to people from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, accusing the former French colonies of not doing enough to allow illegal immigrants to return.

French ambassador Francois Gouyette was handed "a formal protest" from Algiers which called the visa reduction an "unfortunate act" that caused "confusion and ambiguity as to its motivation and its scope".

Morocco has described France's decision as "unjustified".

Unlike its neighbours, Tunisia has not reacted officially, but many of its citizens displayed their concern Wednesday in front of the offices of TLS Contact, the only private company authorised to receive applications for France.

On Tuesday, French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told Europe 1 radio that it was "a drastic decision, and unprecedented, but one made necessary by the fact that these countries are refusing to take back nationals who we do not want or cannot keep in France".

The station said French President Emmanuel Macron took the decision a month ago after failed diplomatic efforts with the three North African countries.

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US President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated on Wednesday the US administration's commitment to exerting efforts to ensure Egypts water security.

Sullivans remarks came during a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel, and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, a presidential statement read.

The meeting was also attended by US National Security Council (NSC) coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, Sullivan's senior adviser Ariana Berengaut, head of the North Africa Department of the NSC Joshua Harris, and Deputy Ambassador of the US to Egypt Nicole Shampaine.

Regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue, Sullivan said that the US is working to preserve the water and development rights of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

President El-Sisi stressed that the international community should play a role in resolving the highly important GERD issue.

The president stressed that Egypt will not accept any harm to its water interests.

Earlier in September, the UN Security Council issued a statement encouraging the three sides to return to the AU-sponsored talks to reach a binding deal after earlier rounds collapsed.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have recently expressed readiness to engage in the African Union-sponsored negotiations to resolve their decade-long dispute over the mega dam Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile.

The two downstream countries have grave concerns about the potential impact of the GERD, especially in light of Ethiopia's resistance of a binding deal on the filling and operation of the dam.

Ethiopia implemented the first and second phases of filling the dams reservoir unilaterally in 2020 and 2021 without an agreement.

Reviving the peace process

During the meeting, El-Sisi affirmed that resolving the Palestinian issue in accordance with international references and restoring Palestinian people's legitimate rights will be of a great impact on the region.

This would lead to bolstering the whole region's security and will open new horizons of peace, cooperation and development, El-Sisi affirmed.

The two sides also discussed during the meeting the developments in the Palestinian issue and how to revive the peace process.

Sullivan affirmed the US appreciation of the Egyptian efforts to contain the situation in the Gaza Strip and prevent escalation. He also hailed the Egyptian initiative regarding the reconstruction in the strip.

The two sides agreed on continuing consultation and coordination to ensure maintaining the ceasefire and current de-escalation in Gaza with the aim of improving the humanitarian and living conditions of the Palestinians.

In May, Egypt sponsored a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian factions to end an 11-day episode of Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip, during which more than 250 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed.

Egypt then sent its intelligence chief Kamel to visit Tel Aviv and Ramallah  in late May and again in August  to push forward the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and safeguard the Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire in Gaza.

During his visit in August, Kamel met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his national security advisor in Tel Aviv and with President Abbas in Ramallah.

Sullivan is scheduled to host Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata in Washington on 5 October to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ensuring success of Libya's political path

El-Sisi affirmed to Sullivan and the US officials the importance Egypt attaches to ensuring the success of the political path in Libya and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the sisterly country, the statement read.

The president underlined the importance of holding the Libyan elections as scheduled in December this year.

The two sides agreed on intensifying coordination on preparations for the Libyan elections, the withdrawal of foreign forces and mercenaries from the country and unifying Libyan security and military institutions.

The meeting also discussed developments in several regional issues, namely in Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, Egypts presidential spokesman said.

El-Sisi affirmed that the effective way for countries suffering from crises to achieve stability in the region is to restore the comprehensive framework of the nation state.

Enhancing four-decade-long ties

During the meeting, El-Sisi asked that his greetings be conveyed to President Biden.

El-Sisi stressed Egypt's keenness to enhance the strategic partnership with the US in light of the US-Egyptian relations that have extended for more than four decades, especially on the security and military levels.

The US-Egyptian partnership has long contributed to enhancing the security and stability efforts in the Middle East in light of the tension and unrest the region faces, El-Sisi said.

Sullivan extended Biden's greetings to El-Sisi and affirmed the US aspiration to boost coordination and develop ongoing strategic cooperation with Egypt during the coming period.

This comes especially in light of Egypts pivotal and balanced role in the Middle East, which has become a main factor for the success of the efforts to achieve security, stability and peace, Sullivan said.

Sullivan also hailed Egypt's effective efforts in facing terrorism and extremist thought, affirming the need to boost cooperation between the two countries in this regard in the future.

Sullivan is currently in an official visit to Egypt as part of a Middle East tour that also includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt and the Biden administration have intensified consultations since the escalation in Gaza, starting with consecutive phone calls from Biden in May.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also visited Egypt and met with El-Sisi late in May as part of his first Middle East tour, which included Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.

During his meeting with Blinken, El-Sisi affirmed the importance of working immediately to revive direct Palestinian-Israeli talks to bring both sides back to the negotiating table.

Blinken also met with Shoukry last week on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York, during which they discussed the GERD dispute and strategic partnership.

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Egypt registered 39 fatalities on Tuesday, the highest daily rise of coronavirus deaths since mid-June. The countrys total number of deaths from the virus became 17,263, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health.

The health ministry reported 718 new coronavirus cases on the same day.

Tuesdays reported cases raise the total infection tally to 303,045 since the outbreak began in February 2020.

As many as 599 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, the ministry said, raising the total number of recoveries to 255,658.

Due to the fourth wave of the pandemic, Egypt is witnessing a steady increase in daily infections and deaths since early August, an upward curve that is expected to keep rising in the coming days, according to estimations by health officials.

The country is expected to see a peak in cases in a matter of three weeks, Hossam Hosny, the head of the Scientific Committee to Combat the Coronavirus at the Ministry of Health said on Monday.

Egypt is currently stepping up efforts to widen vaccination coverage to meet its target of 40 million citizens by the end of 2021.

Until 23 September, over 15 million Egyptians have been vaccinated with at least one shot since the start of the mass vaccination in early 2021, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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A new shipment of some 4.4 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Cairo on Wednesday, Egypt's health ministry announced in a statement.

Egypt also received a shipment of 1 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine on Tuesday as well as 3,000 litres of the raw material required to produce 4.6 million doses of Sinovac locally, according to the ministry.

Egypt has already started producing Sinovac vaccines locally at its VACSERA factory for domestic consumption as well as for export to African countries.

The raw material shipment is part of three shipments of 8,600 litres that Egypt will receive as part of the agreement signed between VACSERA and Sinovac, health ministry spokesman Khaled Maghed said on Wednesday.

Egypt is currently administrating Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and is also set to receive Pfizer BioNTech vaccine doses.

As of 23 September, more than 15 million doses have been administered in Egypt since the country's vaccination campaign started in January, according to the World Health Organisation.

The government is currently intensifying its efforts to reach its target of 40 million fully vaccinated people in Egypt by the end of 2021.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Wednesday

It was the first in-person meeting for Putin in over two weeks. On Sept. 14, the Russian president went into self-isolation after a staff member he worked in close contact with contracted coronavirus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to reporters that the two-week self-isolation ended for Putin on Wednesday.

As the two leaders sat down for talks, Putin pointed out that relations between the two countries ``develop positively.''

``Negotiations are sometimes difficult, but with a positive final result. Our (government) bodies have learned to find compromises that are beneficial to both sides,`` Putin said.

Erdogan echoed that sentiment and said he believed ``there is great benefit in continuing our Turkish-Russian relations by strengthening them every day.''

The two leaders are largely expected to concentrate on the situation in Syria during their meeting in Sochi.

Russia is the main ally of the Syrian government while Turkey supports groups that have fought to unseat Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, Russian and Turkish troops have cooperated in Idlib, the final holdout of rebel forces, and in seeking a political solution in the war-torn country.

Erdogan told Putin on Wednesday that ``the steps we take together in relation to Syria are of great importance.``

``Peace (in Syria) depends on the relations between Turkey and Russia,'' the Turkish leader noted.

The talks between the two presidents come amid an increase in airstrikes on Turkey-backed opposition fighters' positions in northern Syria and especially in the province of Idlib.

Last year, Turkey and Russia reached a cease-fire agreement which halted a three-month Syrian government offensive in Idlib and also saw rare direct fighting between Syrian and Turkish troops. That Russia-backed offensive killed hundreds of civilians and displaced nearly 1 million people in Idlib province.

Turkey fears that an escalation of the violence in northern Syria will lead to a new influx of refugees surging across its borders. Turkey already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees. For its part, Russia accuses Turkey of failing to take measures to push out radical groups from northern Syria.

Earlier this month, Putin met with Assad in Moscow and criticized the presence of Turkish and U.S. forces in northern Syria, calling their presence illegal and a flagrant violation of international law. The Russian leader was referring to hundreds of U.S. troops stationed in eastern Syria and working with Kurdish-led fighters in battling the militant Islamic State group, as well as Turkish forces in northern Syria.

The war in Syria broke out in March 2011. It has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million people, including more than 5 million refugees outside the war-torn nation.

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The United States said Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on Hezbollah financiers in coordination with Qatar, a US ally that has kept cordial relations with Iran.

The Treasury Department announced that it was taking action against seven people including Qatari nationals Ali al-Banai and Ali Lari, who it said have secretly sent tens of millions of dollars to the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Hezbollah uses "global networks of financiers and front companies to support its malign activity" and praised the cooperation of Qatar.

"This represents one of the most significant joint actions we have taken with a Gulf Cooperation Council partner to date and underscores our extensive bilateral cooperation on countering terrorism finance," Blinken said in a statement.

Nearby Bahrain also took action by freezing the bank accounts of al-Banai's nephew on the island and will prosecute three people, the Treasury Department said.

Bahrain has tense relations with Iran but Qatar has comparatively friendly ties as it seeks to maintain dialogue around the region.

Qatar has frequently come under criticism for not doing more to prevent fund-raising for extremist groups on its soil but the concerns more frequently involve Sunni Muslim militants such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Qatar's relationship with the United States shot up in August as it became the transit point for more than half of the 100,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban took control.

Hezbollah, which the United States and several other Western nations consider a terrorist group, is a political powerhouse in Lebanon with the Shiite Muslim movement recently bringing in Iranian fuel to ease an acute shortage.

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Iraq's top Shia Muslim cleric on Wednesday urged Iraqis to vote in order to "carry out real change" in next month's parliamentary elections.

The statement from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's office came against the backdrop of potentially high rates of abstention in the October 10 ballot, which follows a popular uprising.

Initially expected in 2022, the vote was brought forward in a rare official concession to autumn 2019 protests, when tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to demonstrate against crumbling public services and a government they decried as corrupt and inept.

Hundreds died in months of protest-related violence.

But the ballot has generated little enthusiasm among Iraq's 25 million voters, while the activists and parties behind the uprising have largely decided to boycott the ballot.

"The supreme religious leader encourages everyone to participate consciously and responsibly in the next elections," the statement from Sistani's office said.

Even if the process has shortcomings, "it is the best way to move the country toward a future that one hopes will be better."

One of Shia Islam's top clerics, Sistani spent years under house arrest during Saddam Hussein's repressive regime. After Saddam's fall in 2003, Sistani threw his support behind elections, was a voice for moderation, and criticised government graft.

In his statement on Wednesday, he asked voters to "benefit from this opportunity to carry out real change in the administration of the state and dismiss the corrupt and incompetent hands from its main cogs".

The statement emphasised that Sistani does not support any candidate and appealed to voters to choose those "who support the sovereignty of Iraq, its security and prosperity."

Political scientist Marsin Alshamary said that in Iraq's last elections, held in 2018, Sistani had said people could choose to vote or not.

"It was up to them. And people interpreted that as you can boycott," Alshamary said.

The 2018 elections saw the entry into parliament for the first time of candidates from the Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of mostly pro-Iran paramilitary groups who helped defeat the Sunni-extremist Islamic State group.

The Hashed held the second-largest bloc in Iraq's outgoing parliament and hopes for bigger gains this election.

Analysts are doubtful, however, favouring the movement of firebrand Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose Saeroon bloc held 54 seats, the largest in parliament.

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The UK and France are at loggerheads again over fishing rights in the English Channel _ the latest post-Brexit spat between the two countries.

A day after the UK announced it had approved only 12 out of 47 applications for new licenses for small French boats to fish in its territorial waters, the authorities on the island of Jersey turned down license applications from 75 French boats to operate in its waters.

Jersey, which is only 14 miles (22 kilometers) off the French coast, is a British Crown dependency outside of the UK As such, it has its own powers with regard to who is allowed to fish in its territorial waters.

The license refusals prompted anger from French authorities.

``These decisions are totally unacceptable and inadmissible,`` French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said Wednesday, warning about potential ``retaliatory measures`` from the European Union's 27 nations. Attal said the restrictions are contrary to the post-Brexit agreement that was signed between Britain and the EU.

The French government intends to work with the European Commission to find a solution, Attal said. He expressed solidarity with the French fishermen, saying he understands their anger because they had provided ``all the justifications'' to get their licenses.

France's maritime minister, Annick Girardin, convened a meeting with fishing representatives Wednesday to prepare a response.

``French fishing should not be taken hostage by the British for political ends,'' she said.

Since the UK left the economic orbit of the EU at the start of the year, relations between London and Paris have become increasingly frayed.

The fishing spat comes just weeks after Paris was left furious by the decision of Australia to cancel an multibillion-dollar order for French submarines following a new defense pact with the UK and the US.

It also comes months after the French threatened to cut off power supplies to Jersey, which gets 95% of its electricity from France.

At the time, dozens of French boats surrounded the island's main port, St Helier. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson even sent two Royal Navy patrol boats to Jersey.

The worry is that Jersey's latest decision may lead to something similar occurring again.

A more detailed look at Jersey's decision shows that the government granted 64 licenses of the 170 French boats which applied.

A further 31 are being issued with temporary licenses to allow them more time to show they have a track record of fishing in Jersey waters in line with what Jersey said is consistent with the UK's post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Boats not granted a license were being given 30 days to get out of Jersey's waters.

``We will continue to have an open door to further data and evidence of fishing activity, including for vessels which have already been considered, and we look forward to working collaboratively to resolve the remaining complex issues,`` said Jersey's external relations minister, Ian Gorst.

On Tuesday, the British government also said it would also consider any further evidence supplied to support the remaining French license applications

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This year, the festival will take place in New Hermopolis, which is a village of creativity, as the festival's founder describes it

Under the slogan Truth, Harmony and Hope comes the latest edition of the Thoth festival, which will be held at the premises of New-Hermopolis in Malawi, Minya (24-30 October 2021).

Yesterday, at the premises of the House of Egyptian Architecture, the press conference for the seventh Thoth festival was announced.

Thoth, or Tehuti, was the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, divine words and the inventor of the hieroglyphs, symbolised by baboons and the ibis.

With the aim of reviving such concepts and having Egyptians reconnect with their ancient origins, Mervat Abdel-Nasser, a consultant psychiatrist, researcher in Egyptology and writer, founded the Thoth festival seven years ago.

"The ancient annual festival of Thoth was usually held on the 19th of Tut (the ancient Egyptian/Coptic month), but I pushed it to 28 October because it is the death anniversary of Taha Hussein," Abdel-Nasser explained.

Hussein was a renowned Egyptian thinker and writer, dubbed the dean of Arabic literature. Born in Minya, he always believed that the only way for a new Egypt to manifest is to reconnect with ancient Egypt, she added, explaining that it was Hussein who singlehandedly managed to save the papyrus of Naga Hamadi, Qena.

This year, the festival will take place in New Hermopolis, which is a village of creativity, as Abdel-Nasser describes it. New Hermopolis aims to be the revival of the concept of the ancient City of Hermopolis, known as the city of creativity, philosophy and enlightenment, where the Hermetic philosophical writing Hermetica was created in the first century BC.

"The festival's activities shall include Gathering Hope activities, where the participants will follow in the footsteps of their ancient ancestors and scribble their wishes on pieces of pottery, or Ostraca, as it is known in Egyptology," explained Abdel-Nasser.

The festival will also see a documentation of Bygone architecture of the area, she noted. as well as an interactive theatre activity shall take place.

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Health Minister Hala Zayed said last weekend that the peak of the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic would arrive in three or four weeks.

We can minimise the impact of the fourth wave if we inoculate half a million citizens daily, Zayed said. Less than 15 per cent of Egypts 102 million population has so far received vaccine shots.

There has been a steady increase in coronavirus infections since the beginning of August, with 702 cases detected on Monday.

Given new strains, and the existence of antibodies in millions of citizens either as a result of vaccination or due to previous infection, the length and characteristics of the fourth wave are likely to differ from previous waves, Ashraf El-Fiky, a US-based clinical research and vaccine safety expert, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The fourth peak will likely be a plateau and last longer than before.

Islam Anan, a Pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaeconomics lecturer at Misr International University, said that despite the high rate of vaccination in countries where the fourth wave has already hit, there has been a marked increase in infection rates.

The Delta and Delta Plus variants have reduced the efficacy of almost all vaccines. Pfizer and Modernas effectiveness are down to 88 from 95 per cent, Astrazenecas has fallen to 76 per cent, Sinopharm is down to 57 per cent and Sinovac to 51 per cent, Anan told the Weekly.

Anan warns that the mortality rate of the fourth wave will only be held in check if Egypt vaccinates 20 per cent of its population by October, with priority given to the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

Egypt reported 37 Cocid-linked deaths on Monday, the highest since 21 June.

In order to push forward the vaccination campaign, on 16 September the Health Ministry launched the Maan Natmaen (Together we are reassured) mobile campaign which has so far helped 45,460 people register on the ministrys vaccination website. The campaign is also addressing the problems of citizens who have already registered but have yet to receive an appointment to be vaccinated.

With the 2021-22 academic year in national schools due to start on 9 October fear is mounting that the virus will spread among students who will then take it home.

The Delta variant causes more infections in children compared to the Alfa variant. When the school year started in the US higher infection rates were recorded in states that have low vaccination rates among children aged 12+ years, says El-Fiky.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the August 2021 rate of infections among children was nearly double last years, although according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 million US children, representing 55 per cent of 12-17 year-olds, have received at least one dose vaccine.

In Egypt, the first defence remains the vaccination of adults and teachers, and should include the vaccination of children, especially preparatory and secondary students, as a condition for starting in-class education, says El-Fiky.

While more than 3.4 million employees of the Ministry of Education have been vaccinated, students less than 18 years old have so far been excluded from the vaccination campaign.

El-Fiky says schools will be safe if precautionary measures are followed and random swabs are taken from teachers and students.

Anan agrees, adding that a hybrid system should be conducted to allow students with symptoms to follow lessons online.

In March 2020, schools and universities suspended in-person classes in the wake of rising daily infections, since when most students have remained at home.

On Thursday Zayed said the Health Ministry plans to vaccinate all high school and preparatory school students once VACSERAs second vaccine production line begins working. The line, which is due to be inaugurated in four weeks, will raise Egypts total production capacity of vaccines to one million doses per day.

On Saturday, Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said it will have vaccinated its own employees, faculty members, and 20 per cent of university students by 9 October, and students will not be admitted to rooms in university dormitories before they are vaccinated. Students who refuse the vaccine will be required to undergo a weekly PCR test to be allowed to attend classes.

As of Tuesday, Egypt had obtained 35 million vaccine doses, including donations from European countries of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In July, Germanys Standing Committee on Vaccination, recommended that people who have received a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine switch to a different vaccine for their second shot. The decision came after the AstraZeneca vaccine was linked to extremely rare blood clots in younger people.

The AstraZeneca vaccine does not appear on Germanys purchasing schedule for next year, Reuters confirmed in July. In the same month the German local news portal Merkur reported that thousands of AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which have a shelf life of six months, were set to be destroyed.

In July, Netherlands Times reported that tens of thousands of AstraZeneca vaccines in the refrigerators of Dutch general practitioners will likely end up being destroyed.

Large quantities of vaccines are being stored until their expiry date and then destroyed, says Anan. This is selfish, and unjustifiable.

In September the EU reached its target milestone of 70 per cent full vaccination of the blocs adult population. According to AP, however, COVAX  the vaccine sharing scheme  has missed almost all of its vaccine-sharing targets and managers have now lowered their target of shipping two billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021 to 1.4 billion.

Lower-income countries, especially in Africa, are struggling to vaccinate the most vulnerable members of their populations. Last summer, thousands of vaccine doses were destroyed in African countries because they had exceeded their expiry dates. Others are being returned by countries that say they will be unable to use them before they expire, according to the BBC.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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On Monday, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi inaugurated the worlds largest wastewater treatment plant. Bahr Al-Baqar wastewater treatment plant, east of Port Said, will treat 5.6 million cubic metres per day which can then be used to irrigate agricultural land in Sinai.

Mohamed Ghanem, Irrigation Ministry spokesperson, said the plant aims to process two billion cubic metres of water annually to contribute to the reclamation of between 400,00 and 500,000 feddans as part of the national project to develop Sinai and make optimal use of water resources.

Egypts water resources are estimated at 60 billion cubic metres per year, 55 billion of which come from the River Nile and five billion from rain and underground sources, forcing the government to look for other sources. We are currently involved in building wastewater projects that will help process 20 billion cubic metres annually. Soon the Bahr Al-Baqar station will be joined by Al-Hammam station in the west of the Delta, said Ghanem. While water treated by Bahr Al-Baqar will irrigate Sinai, water processed by Al-Hammam station will be used to irrigate lands around Al-Natroun.

Tarek Al-Rifaai, spokesperson of the Ministry of Housing and New Communities, revealed that 146 wastewater treatment projects with a combined daily capacity of 5.8 million cubic metres are currently under construction in Egypt.

Egypts population is increasing rapidly. We desperately need water to meet the needs of this growing population and to irrigate as much agricultural land as possible.

Water treated by Bahr Al-Baqar station will allow new agricultural, industrial and housing communities in Sinai to be developed, says Agricultural Syndicate head Sayed Khalifa. The government is aiming to expand Egypts inhabited land from 14 to 17 per cent of the land mass, and most of this increase will be in Sinai. Water treated by Bahr Al-Baqar will reach the peninsula through underground pipelines to reclaim land there.

President Al-Sisi said on Monday that Egypt is in a race against time to double its water resources. He revealed that the cost of treating waste water to cultivate half a million feddans in Sinai will reach LE160 billion, which will be covered by soft-term loans from Arab development funds.

Bahr Al-Baqar was built by the Arab Contractors and Orascom Construction, and funded by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli said during Mondays inauguration that projects to develop and populate Sinai have cost LE700 billion so far. We are currently implementing 63 projects, the most important of which include the building of six underground tunnels to link Sinai with the rest of Egypt, said Madbouli. These projects aim to put an end to Sinais isolation and make it a population magnet.

As part of this strategy, seawater desalination plants are being developed, which Madbouli described as central to populating and developing Sinai. The plant currently being built at Arish, he added, will produce 300,000 cubic metres annually of desalinated water.

Populating Sinai is central to Egypts national security objectives, observed Madbouli, and the main vehicle for this is the National Project for Developing Sinai, one of the first initiatives launched by President Al-Sisi following his election in 2014.

Major General Ihab Al-Far, head of the Armed Forces Engineering Organisation, said the flow of water from Bahr Al-Baqar to Sinai will speed up the process of populating the peninsula.

He added that the Armed Forces are participating in developing Sinai through two kinds of projects: building 34 seawater desalination stations to produce 442 million cubic metres of drinking water to meet the needs of the population of Sinai, and constructing 36 wastewater treatment stations to process 473 million cubic metres per year of water to irrigate agricultural lands.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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Ankara fully supports the interim coalition government of Syria, who are the representatives of the Syrian people, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared a couple of weeks ago, but what might that be? Cavusoglu was, in fact, referring to a newly formed coalition among a handful of Syrian opposition figures from some Turkish backed militant factions that control only a very small portion of Syrian territory.

Contrary to the impression the state-run Turkish media tries to give, the ruling Justice and Development Partys (AKPs) policy in Syria has met with continual setbacks. The regime in Damascus, for its part, has recovered most Syrian territory, regained much of its confidence and now seems poised to take back more. It has also announced that the heads of the Syrian and Turkish intelligence agencies will meet soon in Baghdad. According to leaks in Ankara  deliberate, according to some commentators  the Turkish government is keen to talk with its loathed enemy. The purpose, ostensibly, is to propose cooperation to prevent the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish entity in northern Syria on the border.

Damascus has also appealed to the UN Secretary General and General Assembly to take a clear and unequivocal stance against the aggressive practices of the Turkish regime in Syria. Russia is not unsympathetic. The Kremlin has grown increasingly impatient with Turkish behaviour in Syria, and Russian media has notched up criticism of Ankaras failure to live up to its commitments to eliminate the presence of terrorist groups in the designated de-escalation zones in Idlib. Recently, during Syrian President Bashar Al-Assads 14 September visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointedly said that the main problem in Syria is the illegitimate presence of foreign forces, referring primarily to Turkish and US troops. Their military presence violates international law, he said, because they were not invited by the Syrian government and they did not have a UN mandate to be there.

For the Kremlin, Syria offers several ways to counter Ankaras machinations in Azerbaijan, the Ukraine and, most recently, Crimea. One purpose of the recent consultations between some Russian officials and their US counterparts would have been to weaken Turkeys already tenuous position in Syria. Russian-US talks might also encourage serious talks between the Syrian regime and the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the US supports. An accommodation between Damascus and the chief enemy of the Turkish-backed militant Islamist forces in northern Syria would counteract Turkeys military presence east of the Euphrates. It is noteworthy in this context that Washington has effectively relaxed the Caesar Act by turning a blind eye to the entry of Iranian oil through the Syrian port of Tartus and the flow of Egyptian gas and electricity through Syrian territory, via Jordan, to Lebanon.

Turkey has emerged as the weakest foreign player in Syria. Worse, this is obvious to everyone, including public opinion at home. Much to the ruling partys dismay, opposition forces are now in a position to say, I told you so. They had warned repeatedly against the folly of falling deeper into the Syrian quagmire, and can point to the disastrous rebound effects, from dire economic repercussions to mounting violence against Syrian refugees. As the AKP stares at further declines in its popularity ratings, it is not surprising that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned to Putin whom he met on Wednesday. But will Russia offer Turkey a face-saving exit strategy?

There is no doubt Turkey has little room for manoeuvre in Syria. When Turkish military targets in Idlib were struck by the very jihadist forces Ankara has supported, armed and trained for years, the Turkish reaction was not to hit back, but rather to lash out at Syrian Kurds in the north. Turkey claims its strikes are aimed at the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Indeed, so far it appears that the strikes have not extended to the US-backed Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), despite Erdogans fury at not getting his way during his meeting with Biden on the fringe of the inauguration of the UN General Assembly last week. Erdogan afterwards accused Biden of supporting terrorists because of Washingtons backing of the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the YPG is a main component.

But there was no hiding the fact that Turkish soldiers have fallen. The government vows it will avenge them and Turkish state television has reported that a number of Syrian militants were neutralised. But much of the Turkish public is sceptical and an even greater portion is fed up of their countrys involvement in a conflict that has only wrought enormous attrition at home.

Ankara has tried to use Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the dominant jihadist force in Idlib, to overcome smaller jihadist entities. It believed that this would give Russia the impression that it was meeting its end of the bargain in the Idlib ceasefire deal between Ankara and Moscow. Ankara simultaneously reorganised its Syrian allies in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in order to forestall a renewed Syrian-Russian offensive in Idlib. However, its plans failed because the factions it worked so hard to unite insisted on operating independently and attacking each other, committing human rights abuses against civilians in the process.

Two weeks ago, Turkey had another stab at this tactic. It announced the creation of the Syrian Liberation Front which hammers together five factions affiliated with the FSA. The chances are this will meet the same fate as its predecessor. Most of its members have become war profiteers and, while current exigencies might compel them to unify in form, their internal divisions and mutual antagonisms will resurface at the closest opportunity. The same occurred with the HTS, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate that Turkey had relied on most.

Turkeys Syrian policy is headed for rougher days. The new liberation front is glaringly cosmetic. US-Russian dialogue is likely to pave the way to a compromise on the region controlled by the Syrian Kurds east of the Euphrates. Most importantly, a confrontation in Idlib is looming, with potentially disastrous repercussions.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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New international initiatives are underway to ensure the holding of legislative and presidential elections in Libya in December.

The international community has notched up the pressure on key Libyan players to compel them to meet their commitments to find compromise solutions and agree on the constitutional basis for holding the general and presidential elections scheduled in the country for 24 December.

France, in consultation with the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU) and Presidency Council, is preparing for a major conference in November to help end the current impasse.

Speaking to reporters while in Germany last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the conference would take place on 12 November and aimed to ensure that the elections went ahead on time. The participants would also discuss the departure of foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya, he said.

Some analysts believe that in sponsoring this conference France is trying to salvage its eroding influence in the region and reassert itself as a player in remedying crises in North Africa and the Sahel. In November 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to host a major international conference that would bring Libyas neighbours together in Paris, but the plans were overtaken by subsequent developments.

The US is preparing to sponsor another meeting between the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) and the Tripoli-based High Council of State (HCS) to help them reach a consensus over issues related to the electoral process.

The Libyan political process received a blow last week when the HoR voted in a closed session to withdraw confidence from the GNU headed by Abdel-Hamid Al-Dabeiba while keeping it as a caretaker government.

The action met with widespread anger among the Libyan public, who saw it as an attempt on the part of HoR Speaker Aguila Saleh to obstruct the forthcoming elections. The legislators who voted in favour of withdrawing confidence argued that the GNU has recently signed agreements with foreign powers that have encumbered Libya with commitments it cannot keep under current circumstances.

Their opponents said the true purpose was to pull the rug out from under Dabeiba, who has scored in popularity because of his decisions to increase wages, allowances for dependents, and grants for young people on the threshold of marriage.

The outcry against the no-confidence vote forced the HoR speaker to backtrack, saying that the GNU would continue to exercise its duties as long it refrains from concluding agreements with foreign powers. In televised statements, he suggested that the HoR might retract the vote of no confidence.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) also rejected the step. In a statement released on 21 September, it said that UNSMIL has received, with concerns, reports that the House of Representatives (HoR) has passed a no-confidence motion against the Government of National Unity (GNU). The mission confirms that the current GNU remains the legitimate government up until it is replaced by another through a regular process following the elections.

UNSMIL appealed to the HoR and other relevant institutions to remain focused on completing the preparation of the constitutional and legislative framework for the 24 December elections.

US Special Envoy and Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland said that the HoRs recent action did not affect the central task of the GNU, which was to prepare for the elections on 24 December.

Norland is preparing to attend meetings between delegations from the House of Representatives and the High Council of State in the framework of the UNSMIL-sponsored Libyan dialogue. The chief items on the agenda will be the constitutional and legislative framework for the elections and the question of candidates for sovereign posts, according to Libyan sources.

The dialogue committees holding these meetings met several times during the first half of the year but reached no consensuses on the subjects under discussion. It is hoped that the forthcoming round of meetings will achieve a breakthrough on the constitutional basis for the elections and the electoral laws.

In the meantime, the HoR has passed an electoral law that the HCS rejects, saying that it has indicated proposals for the constitutional basis and electoral laws that it wants to discuss with the HoR.

In addition to these initiatives to salvage the roadmap to the Libyan elections, Tripoli is also planning to host an international conference in October organised in the framework of the Initiative to Promote Libyan Stability that the current executive proposed to the Berlin II Conference in June.

Addressing the UN General Assembly last week, chair of the Libyan Presidency Council Mohamed Al-Menfi said that the Initiative covers the political, security, military and economic tracks of the Libyan conflict, builds on the outputs of previous efforts, and seeks to promote continued international support for his country in accordance with a comprehensive national vision.

In addition to key national agencies and institutions, Al-Menfi expects the conference to be attended at a senior level by Libyas regional and international partners. On his Twitter account, he wrote that during the conference he would propose an initiative to resolve the current impasse, sustain the current political process, enable the presidential and legislative elections to be held as scheduled in December and ensure that they are conducted fairly and that their results are accepted.

In the event that an agreement cannot be reached, he added in another tweet, I will call on the concerned parties to step aside for the sake of the nation, not to nominate themselves for the forthcoming elections, and clear the way for other candidates so as to ensure the arrival at a consensus, avert any political deadlock, and help the country reach safety and the stability conducive to a consensus over a permanent constitution for the country.

Al-Menfi had previously stressed the need for both the HoR and the HCS to agree on the constitutional basis for the elections and the electoral laws in order to avert possible challenges to the election results at a later stage.

His announcement of the Initiative comes at a time when some international quarters have hinted at the possibility that the Presidency Council might issue decrees pertaining to the constitutional basis and electoral laws, complicating matters if the decrees trigger serious disputes.

With his sights set on the elections in December, Commander of the Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar has designated his Chief of Staff Abdel-Razek Al-Nadouri, as acting commander for a period of three months.

Haftar plans to run for president and has therefore resigned from his post in keeping with the presidential elections law recently passed by the HoR.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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It may be time for Iran and Saudi Arabia to bridge the rift between them, but there seems to be little momentum in their talks.

Iranian and Saudi diplomats have grasped the need to resolve their two countries disagreements as the Middle East enters a new phase of geopolitical uncertainty with US President Joe Biden and his administration seeking to carve out a new path in the region.

If a breakthrough can be made in the Iran-Saudi Cold War and the two regional rivals are able to put their rocky relationship on a normal track, the event could prove calming for the turbulent Middle East region and help to mend its longstanding fractures.

Top diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia have been meeting for months to try to hammer out their countries differences and ease regional tensions.

The talks were launched in April as the international powers held negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran, which Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies opposed for not tackling Irans ballistic-missile programme and regional proxies.

They hit a climax last week when Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met officials from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf and Arab states in New York in a sign of heightened efforts to reduce tensions.

Amir-Abdollahian later said that strengthening ties with neighbours was the top priority of Irans new government.

The Sunni Arab powerhouse and the Shia Persian-majority Iran have long been historic rivals and locked in a fierce struggle for regional dominance. In recent years they have been at loggerheads over many regional conflicts and Irans increasing militarisation.

Over the past 18 years in particular, the rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been deepened by a series of events. The fall of the Sunni-led regime of Iraqs former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 cleared the way for a Shia-dominated government in Baghdad, and Iranian influence in the country has been rising ever since.

It removed a key military counter-weight to Iran and helped the Islamic Republic to seek to establish itself as a regional power and to consolidate its hegemony in countries dominated by friendly regimes or Shia Muslims.

The present Iran-Saudi meetings could break the regional impasse if the two countries succeed in clinching a deal. They have been going on under a thick shroud of secrecy, but the few details that have emerged thus far have showed that the negotiators have been focusing on Yemen and a conflict whose manifold and long-term implications both sides cannot overlook.

Iran-backed Shia Houthis who control most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have been advancing towards the central Yemeni city of Marib, which is held by the Saudi-backed government.

They are also stepping up the fighting in the south, despite more than seven years of Saudi-led military efforts to oust them. The group has been constantly sending Iranian-designed missiles and drones to shell Saudi targets.

An essential piece of Saudi national-security strategy is to contain threats by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, which have been becoming increasingly empowered and have been boosting their presence along the countrys north-eastern borders.

Tehran has also been the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad against Sunni rebels in the country since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. In Lebanon, the Iran-backed Shia group Hizbullah plays a pivotal role in political life, while its fighters have been heavily involved in conflicts in Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran sees positive momentum in the Iran-Saudi discussions, and top Iranian diplomat Saeed Khatibzadeh said the talks had led to serious progress on the issue of Gulf security, signalling the priority given by his government to the regional impact of Tehrans foreign policies.

Saudi King Salman has expressed the hope that talks with Iran will lead to tangible outcomes to build trust and to the relaunch of bilateral cooperation. In an address to the UN General Assembly this month, he called on Iran to cease all types of support for armed groups in the region.

With the talks dragging on, however, there are increasing worries that finding solutions to the disagreements, especially the unspoken ones, might be tricky and take longer than expected. Old antagonisms and emerging regional and global issues may complicate the process.

The Iran-Saudi rivalry is a multi-dimensional historical and sectarian struggle exacerbated by geopolitical competition over who should have a larger say in the regions politics. Iran is largely Shia Muslim, while Saudi Arabia, which hosts Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, sees itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power.

While sectarian rivalry about who represents true Islam and loyalties in proxy conflicts will remain fundamental in determining the Iran-Saudi rivalry, a successful conclusion to the competition will rest largely on geopolitical considerations.

The talks between the two countries come at a time when the US is trying to iron out a stricter framework for the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and after the Biden administration completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan in August.

The Iranians may see the US administrations disengaging from its endless wars in the region as an opportunity to be less flexible at the negotiating table.

There is a widespread belief across the Middle East that the US presence is on life support and that the long-anticipated US departure from the region will end a fragile status quo for all the players and clear the way for a new regional order.

Whereas former US administrations were long-term partners and built an anti-Iran coalition led by Saudi Arabia, the present US withdrawal from the region is expected to leave a power vacuum that could create an opportunity for regional heavyweights to fill the gap.

Moreover, while the US retreats, China and Russia are increasingly making their presence felt in the region.

In March, Beijing concluded a major agreement with Tehran for $400 billion of investment over the next 25 years in exchange for steady shipments of oil and gas. Moscow is also expanding its presence through weapons sales and assertive posturing and interference.

Under these conditions, it is little wonder that active regional diplomacy is back and key Middle Eastern foes are seeking to solve old disputes to avoid further problems and possibly even a breakdown in the region.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have reconciled themselves with Qatar after having severed all links with the emirate in June 2017.

In a powerful gesture of rapprochement, Saudi Crown-Prince Mohamed Bin Salman invited Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani and UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for a meeting at a Red Sea resort this month.

Saudi Arabia has also gone on a diplomatic offensive to mend ties with Turkey, strained over accusations that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sticking his nose into the regions disputes and trying to wield influence in the Arab world.

As a further sign of the broader political reshuffling, Saudi officials have also recently held secret talks with Syrian counterparts in Damascus, leading to reports that an agreement on restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries may be forthcoming.

Iran, too, may be on the verge of improving ties with its neighbours, particularly the Arab countries in the Gulf.

As Iranian officials continue to display restraint in their belligerency towards their neighbours, Amir-Abdollahian attended a regional conference in Baghdad in August aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East.

But even as the two main Middle Eastern adversaries are trying to lower the temperature in their longstanding standoffs, much of the outcome of the Iran-Saudi dialogue will depend on whether the two countries will be able to end their bitter disagreements and move on in their relationship.

The best thing they can hope for now is to cool off. As to the goal of stopping Irans nuclear and missile proliferation, containing its rising influence, and curtailing its proxy networks in the region, this remains a matter of open speculation.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The recent coup attempt in Sudan has increased the popularity of the Sudanese military, writes Haitham Nouri

More and more people from across the Sudanese social spectrum are lining up behind the countrys military, with most of them demanding stability before anything else in the wake of the recent failed coup attempt in Sudan.

The Sudanese army quelled the attempted coup on 21 September, repulsed attempted Ethiopian infiltration across the border and retook the Al-Fashqa region from the Ethiopian Amhara militias that had taken control of the fertile region with the consent of the former regime led by ousted president Omar Al-Bashir as part of the Khartoum-Addis Ababa alliance prior to 2019.

The actions of the Sudanese military have increased the number of its supporters, with these joining its traditional loyalists from central Sudan. The country has restored its close links with Egypt and the Arab world and drawn apart from Ethiopia, Turkey and Iran since the overthrow of Al-Bashir and his Muslim Brotherhood followers.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok accused Al-Bashirs supporters of carrying out the attempted coup. However, there have also been conspiracy theories pointing to head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, army leader Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, saying that the latter was trying to impose military rule to combat instability.

Other theories say that Al-Burhans deputy, leader of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces Mohamed Hamdan, aka Hamidti, was the mastermind of the coup. Still others say the failed coup was an attempt by disgruntled military officers to win over people unhappy about the difficult economic conditions in Sudan.

A war of words flared up between the countrys civilian and military leaders after Al-Burhan accused his partners in the Sovereignty Council of providing the atmosphere for the coup, while one prominent government figure accused Al-Burhan of taking a leaf from an old book in his behaviour.

Since the toppling of former president Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan has been governed by the Constitutional Document that created the ruling Sovereignty Council, the cabinet and the legislative authority, all shared between the civil and military camps.

The country is mired in complex challenges, with the economy plummeting and living conditions being harsh. Large parts of the population suffer from power outages for hours every day. Many medicines are not available, there is a bread crisis, and fuel is not easy to find.

Remote corners of Sudan are faring even worse. The peace process in Darfur has been brought to a halt despite the many displaced people kicked out of their homes by Janjaweed militias accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In East Sudan, the local Bagga tribe is demanding a larger share in government and an end to marginalisation.

Some civil-society groups in the Sudanese capital Khartoum have accused the tribes of being remnants of the Al-Bashir regime. The tribal leadership in west Sudan strongly supports Hamidti, and it seems that eastern tribal leaders have also joined his camp.

Sudans tribes were linked with the Al-Bashir regime, and today there is a need for tribalism, religious differences and ethnic divisions to be transcended.

The military is trying to create a force that can bring this about, but it is not easy, commented Wagdi Saleh, a member of the Committee to Dismantle the 30 June 1989 Regime that was led by Al-Bashir.

It is difficult to bring all the Sudanese people under one umbrella. Moreover, the majority of tribal members are closely attached to their leaders, Saleh added.

The Native Administration system in Sudan has been in force since the colonial era in regions far from the capital. It has contributed to the lack of development in many regions, leaving them under the control of tribal leaders who until recently were in charge of education, social services and security.

The fact that the army fended off the Ethiopian attacks has increased its popularity, and it would now be difficult to remove it from the political stage, Saleh said. The political map of Sudan consists of the Native Administration in the remote regions, army supporters in the populous countryside and civil forces and the middle classes in the capital, he added.

Sudanese journalist Fayez Al-Salik said the military was supported by the middle classes, who seek stability.

Although a long transitional period can help in building institutions that can stand up to any possible comeback for dictatorship, it also places burdens on the shoulders of the middle class, which will support any party that will improve its living conditions, Al-Salik said.

If the tribal leaderships and the army, together with its supporters, can draw closer to each other, we will have the nucleus of a political body that can transcend ethnic, tribal and religious differences, he said.

Al-Burhan said during celebrations of the anniversary of the retaking of the Al-Fashqa region that they were an affirmation that the region was Sudanese land.

The epic restoration of Al-Fashqa was an affirmation of Sudans ability to protect its rights. Whoever accuses the Sudanese army of engaging in wars by proxy must stand on Al-Fashqas soil, which is, and always will be, Sudanese land, Al-Burhan stated.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed former television broadcaster Kari Lake in the Republican race for Arizona governor.

Trump retains a strong following among many Republicans and his endorsement catapults the former news anchor into clear frontrunner status in the crowded GOP primary field.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he walks off after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, July 11, 2021. [Photo: AFP]

Lake is a political newcomer who left her job in March and launched her bid for the Republican nomination for Arizona governor in 2022 in June. She had been widely seen as a possible candidate and has criticized a media landscape that she contends needs more balance.

Trump announced his endorsement via email because he remains banned from Twitter and other social media sites following his actions during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. He said Lake is strong on crime, the border and supports gun rights. He also took a shot at Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who is term limited. Using the expression for Republican in name only," Trump said she will do a far better job than RINO Governor Doug Ducey.

Ducey certified President Joe Biden's win in Arizona over Trump last year despite pressure from the then-president to overturn the actual election results.

Kari will make her wonderful family, and the MAGA movement, very proud, Trump said in announcing his endorsement. Kari Lake has my Complete and Total Endorsement. She will be a great Governor for the incredible people of Arizona!

Arizona Democrats are looking to a changing electorate that rejected Trump in 2020 and consecutive Democratic U.S. Senate wins as signs that their chances in the state are improving. Republican candidates must curry favor with Trump if they want to win a primary, but that comes with a risk that moderate voters will reject them in the 2022 general election.

Lake has publicly embraced conservative ideals, retweeting the account of the state Senates unprecedented audit of former President Donald Trumps loss in Arizona and other border states and tweeting about the lack of border security and her opposition to mask mandates. She also consistently criticizes the media.

She thanked Trump for his endorsement via Twitter.

This means so much to me because I know how much you love America and how much the people of this country love you! she wrote.

Four other prominent Republicans seeking their party's nomination for governor are state Treasurer Kimberly Yee, developer Karrin Taylor Robson, former Congressman Matt Salmon and businessman Steve Gaynor.

Salmon said in a statement that while he respects Trump, Lake isn't a conservative or even a Republican, and she certainly isn't the MAGA candidate in this race. He noted Lake is a former Democrat.

MAGA is short for Trump's Make America Great Again slogan.

Three well-known Democrats are seeking their party's nomination: Marco Lopez, who was one of the youngest people ever elected mayor of a U.S. city and rose rapidly to a senior position in President Barack Obamas administration; Aaron Lieberman, who resigned his state House seat this month to focus on his gubernatorial bid; and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Arizonans are sick and tired of our government being run by conspiracy theorists  like Kari Lake  who wasted our taxpayer dollars and breached voters trust in their effort to discredit the 2020 election, Hobbs said in a statement after Trump endorsed Lake.
This photo shows Don and Margie Varnadoe attending a March 2021 awards banquet in Savannah, Ga., for the real estate office where Don Varnadoe worked. [Photo courtesy of Robert Kozlowski via AP]

This photo shows Don and Margie Varnadoe attending a March 2021 awards banquet in Savannah, Ga., for the real estate office where Don Varnadoe worked. [Photo courtesy of Robert Kozlowski via AP]

Workers stand near train tracks on Sept. 27, 2021, next to overturned cars from an Amtrak train that derailed Saturday, near Joplin, Mont., killing three people and injuring others. Federal investigators are seeking the cause of the derailment. [Photo: AP/Ted S. Warren]

A piece of heavy equipment props up a leaning train car on Sept. 26, 2021, that was part of an Amtrak train that derailed Saturday, near Joplin, Mont. The westbound Empire Builder was en route to Seattle from Chicago with two locomotives and 10 cars. [Photo: AP/Ted S. Warren]

Don Varnadoe spent months watching videos about train trips on his office computer in preparation for a special cross-country vacation to celebrate his and Margie Varnadoe's 50th wedding anniversary.

He phoned his co-workers in coastal Georgia, where he sold real estate for decades, from the first leg of their trip Friday to let them know it was turning into a dream vacation.

He had called the office and said how excited they were," said Robert Kozlowski, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Access Realty in the port city of Brunswick. "They were in Washington, D.C., and headed west.

A day later, the couple died when an Amtrak train they were on derailed in rural Montana.

They were among three people who died along with a 28-year-old Illinois man named Zachariah Schneider, according to the Liberty County Sheriffs Office in Montana. Schneider was a software developer and big Green Bay Packers fan. He was traveling to Oregon with his wife, Rebecca Schneider, who survived and filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Amtrak and BNSF Railway.

The Amtrak train was going just under the speed limit at about 75 mph (121 kph) when it went off the track along a gradual curve, possibly ejecting passengers, U.S. investigators said Monday. The Amtrak Empire Builder that was en route from Chicago to Seattle crashed Saturday afternoon near Joplin, a town of about 200 near the Canadian border.

The train, carrying 141 passengers and 16 crew members, had two locomotives and 10 cars, eight of which derailed, with some tipping onto their sides. Residents in the farm community mobilized that day to help injured passengers.

Investigators do not know the cause of the derailment, but they are studying video from the train and another locomotive that went over the same track a little over an hour earlier, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said Monday. The derailed train also had a black box that records everything happening in the train, he said. One possibility is a problem with the tracks, perhaps from heat-induced buckling, railroad crash experts speculate.

Kozlowski was arriving at church Sunday in Georgia when he got a text message alerting him of a rumor circulating that a tragedy had befallen the Varnadoes. A phone call to a family member confirmed the terrible news that the couple had been killed in the derailment.

Everybody at the office knew about the big trip and were excited for the couple. One co-worker joked that Don Varnadoe, 74, might have to leave Margie Varnadoe, 72, at home when he struggled with his computer to print out her ticket.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 13, 2021 - 22:11 | All, World, Japan

Ten Afghan evacuees have arrived in Japan from Afghanistan to take refuge following the Taliban's return to power, with the Japanese government arranging for more evacuees to enter the country, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The government is also considering long-term support measures for such evacuees to settle in Japan, including helping them find jobs, sources close to the matter said.

On Sunday, four evacuees -- a local worker for the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Afghanistan and the worker's family members -- arrived at Narita airport near Tokyo, becoming the first Afghans to take refuge in Japan after the Taliban's takeover last month. An additional six touched down at the airport on Monday.

They are quarantined as part of Japan's measures against the novel coronavirus. They will be asked to decide whether to continue staying in Japan or leave for another country.

The 10 Afghans arrived in Japan via Doha in the Gulf state of Qatar and arrangements are being made for further Afghan evacuees to arrive in Japan soon, with the Japanese government and JICA shouldering travel and accommodation expenses, the ministry and other sources said.

Japan will continue to seek the safe evacuation of Afghan staff of Japanese organizations and others from the country qualifying for refuge by air and other means through negotiations with the Taliban while sheltering those who have evacuated on their own, the ministry said.

Former Afghan students who studied in Japan are also subject to Japan's assistance if they have a guarantor in Japan, the ministry said.

"We have offered necessary assistance such as issuing a visa and arranging airline tickets," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference in Tokyo, adding the government will continue to provide support for other evacuees.

The Japanese Self-Defense Forces were dispatched to the region in late August to evacuate around 500 people wishing to leave Afghanistan.

By the end of the evacuation mission on Aug. 31, the SDF had only evacuated one Japanese as well as 14 Afghans at the request of the United States.

A temporary office that Japan set up for its Kabul embassy in Qatar on Sept. 1 is expected to be responsible for evacuation support.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 1, 2021 - 21:11 | All, Japan

Princess Mako, a niece of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, and her boyfriend Kei Komuro will marry by the year-end and may start a new life in the United States, but in a rare decision will not hold the usual related ritual ceremonies, a government source said Wednesday.

Amid public unease about their marriage due to a money dispute between Komuro's mother and her former fiance, the princess will likely decline a lump-sum payment of up to about 150 million yen ($1.36 million) usually given to female royal family members upon their departure from the household, the source said.

Under the current rules, female imperial family members lose their royal status upon marrying a commoner.

The marriage of the princess and Komuro, both 29, has been postponed for over two years due to the dispute over 4 million yen that the former fiance claims the mother owes him. The sum includes money spent on Komuro's educational expenses.

If the princess marries Komuro without traditional ceremonies, she would be the first female imperial family member to skip them in postwar Japan.

The rites are an official engagement ceremony called "Nosai no Gi," in which the families of the betrothed exchange gifts, and a "Choken no Gi" ceremony to officially meet with the emperor and empress before marriage.

The government will consider whether it is legally possible under current rules not to offer the lump-sum payment, which would be financed by taxpayers' money, in accordance with the princess's unprecedented request, according to an Imperial Household Agency official.

The money is intended to maintain the dignity of former royal family members. The agency is also planning to create an opportunity for Princess Mako and Komuro to explain their resolve to the public, the official said.

Komuro currently lives in the United States, having graduated from Fordham University's law school in New York State with a Juris Doctor degree in May and taken the state bar examination in July. The result of the exam will be announced by mid-December and he is expected to land a job at a local law firm.

People expressed mixed reactions to the news that the marriage between Princess Mako and Komuro will go ahead after a hiatus, suggesting the pair has failed to get as much public support as the princess's father Crown Prince Fumihito wished for.

"Princess Mako's feelings should be respected," said Yuko Chiba, 52, who was jogging around the Imperial Palace, a popular spot for joggers. But she added, "I want to hear Mr. Komuro explain (the money dispute) in public."

Rena Aoki, a 20-year-old university student, also said near the Imperial Palace, "Even though (Princess Mako) was born as a royal, she is a human being. I think it was suffocating to see much criticism (about her planned marriage with Komuro) online. I hope she will live her own life and be happy."

Meanwhile, university student Mayuri Goi, 19, said, "Maybe they should have announced their engagement after having established a basis for their livelihoods."

Last year, Crown Prince Fumihito, the emperor's younger brother, said he approves of his eldest daughter's marriage to Komuro but suggested it has to be welcomed by a more skeptical public.

"I mean, I approve of them getting married. The Constitution says marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes. If that is what they really want, then I think that is something I need to respect as a parent," the crown prince said last November at a press conference to mark his 55th birthday.

In April, Komuro issued a statement seeking to correct what he called misunderstandings among the public about his mother's financial status and said his wish to marry the princess has not changed.

Princess Mako, who said last November the marriage is a "necessary choice" for the couple, indicated her hope that the statement to address the monetary dispute would help gain more public understanding of his stance.

Shortly after releasing the statement, Komuro offered to make a payment to his mother's former fiance in an effort to settle the money dispute.

The former fiance also expressed his desire to enter negotiations, saying the planned marriage and the dispute were separate issues. But there has been no progress in efforts to settle the case since then.

The couple's marriage may influence Japan's ongoing debate to address the shrinking number of imperial family members as the government is considering allowing female members to retain their royal status even after marrying commoners.

Princess Mako's brother Prince Hisahito, 14, who is second in line to the Japanese imperial throne, is the only heir of his generation as the Imperial House Law states that only males with male lineal descent from emperors can ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Of the current 18 imperial family members, including former Emperor Akihito, 87, and former Empress Michiko, 86, who no longer perform official duties, 13 are women. Six of the women, including Princess Mako, are currently unmarried.

Komuro and Princess Mako met in 2012 as students at International Christian University in Tokyo. They were unofficially engaged in September 2017.

Komuro, who previously worked at a Tokyo law firm as a paralegal, started studying at the New York law school in August 2018 after his planned marriage with the princess was abruptly delayed following reports of the financial dispute.

The following is a chronology of major events related to the planned marriage between Princess Mako and her commoner boyfriend Kei Komuro.

Sept. 3, 2017 -- Imperial Household Agency announces Princess Mako's planned engagement to Kei Komuro.

Feb. 6, 2018 -- Imperial Household Agency announces wedding will be postponed following reports of a money dispute between Komuro's mother and her former fiance.

Aug. 7 -- Komuro leaves for the United States to study at Fordham University's law school in New York.

November -- Prince Fumihito, father of Princess Mako, says Komuro's family should resolve financial issues for wedding to go ahead.

Jan. 22, 2019 -- Komuro says in a statement his family believes financial issues behind dispute have already been resolved.

Nov. 13, 2020 -- Princess Mako says in a statement she and Komuro think marriage is a "necessary choice" for them.

November -- Crown Prince Fumihito says he "approves" of marriage, but reiterates dispute should be solved.

April 8, 2021 -- Komuro releases another statement, expressing his resolve to tie knot with Princess Mako.

April 12 -- Komuro expresses his intention to pay money to his mother's former fiance to settle dispute.

May -- Komuro graduates from Fordham University's law school in New York with a Juris Doctor degree.

July -- Komuro takes the New York state bar examination.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 29, 2021 - 21:54 | All, Japan, World

Family members of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s on Wednesday urged Fumio Kishida, the new president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who is set to become the next prime minister, to work hard for the swift repatriation of the victims.

With little progress on the abductions, the need to resolve the issue has become more urgent in recent years as the victims' family members are aging.

"I'm not sure how many prime ministers came and went, but nothing has changed," Sakie Yokota, the 85-year-old mother of an abductee, told reporters in Kawasaki near Tokyo. Her husband died at the age of 87 last year without seeing their daughter again.

Their daughter Megumi was abducted on her way home from school in Niigata, a city on the Sea of Japan coast north of Tokyo, at the age of 13 in 1977.

"It's really now or never. I want (the prime minister) to realize a Japan-North Korea summit," she said, adding the parents of the victims are thinking every day of their children and their hardships.

Shigeo Iizuka, 83, who heads a group of the victims' families, also expressed hope for the return of the abductees including his sister Yaeko Taguchi.

"I would like (the prime minister) to clearly express his determination and say, 'I will solve the abduction issue with my own hands,'" Iizuka said. "I want him to show us a concrete plan and take action."

In Kobe, western Japan, Akihiro Arimoto, 93, whose daughter Keiko was taken to North Korea at age 23, was pessimistic after he watched the LDP presidential runoff on Wednesday, in which former Foreign Minister Kishida beat vaccination minister Taro Kono.

"The government has left the issue unresolved (for decades), and Keiko will be old when she comes back. I think the situation will not change regardless of whoever is the (LDP) president," he said.

Japan officially lists 17 nationals as having been abducted by North Korea but suspects its involvement in many more disappearances.

While five were repatriated in 2002, Japan continues to seek the return of the remaining 12. Of the 12, Pyongyang claims that eight, including Megumi Yokota, have died and four others never entered the country.

Among the five allowed to return home, Yasushi Chimura and his wife Fukie, both 66, released a statement Wednesday through the local government of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.

"Abduction victims and their family members are aging and there is not much time left for them. I truly hope the issue for sure will be completely resolved in our time," they said.

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North Korea says it test-fired hypersonic missile on Sept. 28

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By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Sep 29, 2021 - 14:50 | World, All

North Korea test-fired a newly developed hypersonic missile on Tuesday as part of efforts to achieve its five-year weapons development plan, state-run media said, fanning worries that it has improved technology on the hard-to-intercept projectile.

The official Korean Central News Agency's report came on Wednesday, a day after the Japanese government said North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile in the second such launch in two weeks, with the projectile believed to have splashed into waters outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan.

"The stability of the engine as well as of (a) missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time" was confirmed, the news agency said. It did not mention whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched the test-firing.

The fuel "ampoule" seems to be referring to a container of liquid fuel, which reduces the preparation time for a missile launch and makes the weapon ready for use almost as fast as a solid-fuel missile, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.

KCNA said the development of the Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile "has been pushed forward according to a sequential, scientific and reliable development process," adding, "The test results proved that all the technical specifications met the design requirements."

U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles.

A hypersonic missile can basically travel at more than five times the speed of sound. Given it is difficult for existing missile defense systems to intercept such a projectile, fears about regional security would grow if North Korea has obtained such capabilities, military experts say.

Yonhap said Tuesday that North Korea's missile flew less than 200 kilometers and reached an altitude of about 30 km.

At a ruling party meeting in January, North Korea pledged to introduce a "hypersonic gliding flight warhead."

Pak Jong Chon, a close aide to Kim, observed Tuesday's missile test, the news agency said. He was reportedly promoted to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea earlier this month.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement, "We are working to confirm the specific nature of the recent launch event and consulting closely with our allies."

"We take reports of any new capability seriously, and as we've said, we condemn any illicit missile launches, which are destabilizing to the region and to the international community," the department added.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a regular press conference on Wednesday, "We will continue to carefully monitor North Korea's military development in close cooperation with the United States and others."

North Korea's latest missile test came on the same day the nation convened a session of its top legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly.

At the gathering, issues such as city development, education of young people and amendment of the national economic plan were discussed, KCNA reported.

While the country's economy has been languishing amid the coronavirus pandemic, and negotiations with the United States on denuclearization and sanctions relief have stalled, North Korea has repeatedly test-fired missiles.

On Sept. 13, state-run media said the nation had carried out tests of a new long-range cruise missile. Two days later, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the first test of such weapons in nearly six months.

Just days earlier, meanwhile, Kim Yo Jong, the influential younger sister of Kim, left the door open for an inter-Korean summit, while criticizing what she called an "arms buildup" by the United States and South Korea.

North Korea has faced the worst food crisis in over a decade, raising concern that its citizens may be struggling to even receive daily necessities.

Under the circumstances, Kim Jong Un is thought to want the United States to ease economic sanctions that have been imposed to thwart Pyongyang's ballistic missile and nuclear ambitions.

The United States and North Korea remain technically in a state of war as the 1950-1953 Korean War -- in which U.S.-led U.N. forces fought alongside the South against the North, backed by China and the Soviet Union -- ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

Washington and Pyongyang have no diplomatic relations.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 29, 2021 - 23:50 | World

South Korea said it will continue to cooperate with the Cabinet to be formed by former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida as Japan's new leader for improvement of "future-oriented" bilateral ties.

Besides the brief comment from the presidential palace, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Kishida, who served foreign minister from 2012 to 2017, is known in the country for his role in a 2015 agreement struck between the South Korean and Japanese governments.

The deal was to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the issue of former "comfort women" over their treatment in Japanese military brothels.

But the Yonhap report said the agreement on "Tokyo's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II" is now in tatters as the government of President Moon Jae In, who came to power in May 2017, embraced the victims' claim that the deal was made without full consent from them.

The Korea Herald newspaper said analysts in South Korea are pessimistic on a dramatic shift in strained ties between the neighbors under Kishida, "as he will likely adhere to his predecessor (Yoshihide) Suga and (Shinzo) Abe's hawkish policy on Seoul."

The newspaper said that many people in South Korea "believe Japan has not taken adequate responsibility for its colonial atrocities."

South Korea-Japan relations remain at their lowest level in decades over the comfort women and wartime labor issues.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 29, 2021 - 23:47 | Arts, All, Japan

Japanese manga artist Takao Saito, the creator of long-running series "Golgo 13," died last week of pancreatic cancer, publisher Shogakukan Inc. said Wednesday. He was 84.

Saito, who died on Friday, was best known for the series, which follows the exploits of a highly skilled assassin. First published in 1968, it was recognized by Guinness World Records as setting a new record for volumes when its 201st volume went on sale in July. Its 202nd came out earlier this month.

The manga, which is read widely by adults, often features stories about international affairs, with the assassin, Duke Togo, who has exceptional shooting skills for hire, taking on various assignments around the globe.

Born in Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan, Saito grew up in Sakai in Osaka Prefecture and made his debut in 1955. He was an advocate of dividing up the work process in creating manga and established a manga production company in 1964.

"Golgo 13," which has been serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine Big Comic, will continue to be created by the company and other staff, the publisher said.

In 2003, Saito was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon, an honor bestowed by the Japanese government on those who have made contributions to academic and artistic developments.

His other works include "Onihei Hankacho," a historical drama based on novels written by Japanese author Shotaro Ikenami.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, known as a big fan of "Golgo 13," told reporters that he was saddened by the death of Saito, which he described as a "loss" of talent.

"Are there any other international 'novels' like that?" the 81-year-old political heavyweight asked.
New Delhi:

Despite bitter relations, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena have reportedly agreed on contesting the Lok Sabha election 2019 in Maharashtra together. According to reports, the BJP will contest on 25 out of total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the Shiv Sena will fight on rest of the seats. The Uddhav Thackerays party had contested on 22 seats, while the BJP fielded its candidates on 26 seats in the 2014 General Elections. The BJP has decided not to field any candidate from the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency from where Shiv Sena will now contest.

For the Assembly elections, the BJP will contest on 145 of the total 288 seats, with the Shiv Sena getting the remaining 143 seats, reported Zee News.

Earlier, the Shiv Sena had publicly announced to go solo in elections. However, BJP chief Amit Shah had said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party would continue its alliance with BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is frequently in touch with the Shiv Sena leadership at the state level. The Shiv Sena is already a part of the Central and state governments and it would continue its alliance with the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections", he had said in December last year.

The Sena, which is the oldest constituent of the NDA, had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP, but severed the ties ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections held in October that year.

The Sena later joined the BJP-led governments in Maharashtra and Centre, though grudgingly, as it was averse to play second fiddle to BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in the polls.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi :

After months of speculation over the pre-poll alliance between the BJP and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, both the parties have reportedly reached a seat-sharing agreement ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. According to reports, the AIADMK will contest elections on 25 seats and the BJP on 15 in the state. The development comes after a three-hour long meeting between chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and Union Minister Piyush Goyal - who has been given charge of Tamil Nadu elections - on Thursday.

Earlier, BJP President Amit Shah said the BJP would soon form a strong electoral alliance in the state.

BJPs state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan had claimed parties that were not part of the DMK-Congress combine will be joining hands with the BJP and other potential allies to form a robust alliance.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad had said people of Tamil Nadu too, like the rest of the country wanted "Narendra Modi to be Prime Minister again."

"I am sure the BJP by itself will cross 300 seats and along with NDA it is going to be 350 plus minimum", he claimed.
New Delhi:

Ever since 40 CRPF soldiers lost their lives in a suicide attack by a Jaish-e-Mohammed man in Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14, India has been taking all possible steps to expose Pakistan, the terrorist organisation and its leader Masood Azhar. On the global platform, India has launched an all-out diplomatic effort to isolate Pakistan. It has already taken several steps which may further cripple economically-weak Pakistan.

On Thursday, JeM suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed his explosive-laden vehicle in the bus carrying CRPF jawans on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying over 2,500 paramilitary personnel to Kashmir from Jammu. Most of them were joining duty after coming back from leave.

Here are the steps taken by government since Pulwama attack:

India withdraws Pakistan's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status

India on Friday announced the withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status for Pakistan, following the deadly terror attack on CRPF personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, and hiked the customs duty by 200 per cent on goods originating from Pakistan with immediate effect on Saturday. India's decision would significantly hit Pakistan's exports to India, which stood at USD 488.5 million (around Rs 3,482.3 crore) in 2017-18 as it would drastically increase the prices of its goods. "India has withdrawn the MFN status to Pakistan after the Pulwama incident. Upon withdrawal, basic customs duty on all goods exported from Pakistan to India has been raised to 200 per cent with immediate effect," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a tweet on Saturday.

The two main items imported from Pakistan are fruits and cement, on which the current customs duty is 30-50 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively. Slapping an import duty of 200 per cent effectively means almost banning the imports from Pakistan, official sources said in New Delhi.Items which Pakistan exports to India include fresh fruits, cement, petroleum products, bulk minerals and ores, finished leather, processed minerals, inorganic chemicals, cotton raw, spices, wool, rubber product, alcoholic beverages, medical instruments, marine goods, plastic, dyes and sport goods.

The total India-Pakistan trade has increased marginally to USD 2.41 billion in 2017-18 as against USD 2.27 billion in 2016-17. India imported goods worth USD 488.5 million in 2017-18 and exported goods worth USD 1.92 billion. During April-October 2018-19, India's exports to Pakistan stood at USD 1.18 billion, while imports were USD 338.66 billion.India mainly exports raw cotton, cotton yarn, chemicals, plastics, manmade yarn and dyes to Pakistan.

PM Modi gives free hand to security forces

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said security forces will be given a free hand to deal with terrorists. He said Pakistan cannot weaken India by orchestrating attacks and those responsible will pay a "very heavy price". "I want to tell the terror outfits and those aiding and abetting them that they have made a big mistake. They will have to pay a very heavy price for their actions. Let me assure the nation that those behind this attack, the perpetrators of this attack will be punished," Modi said at a function to flag off the Vande Bharat Express, India's fastest train from Delhi to Varanasi.

India briefs P5 nations, including China, in move to isolate Pakistan

In a major diplomatic offensive against Islamabad after the Pulwama terror attack, India held a briefing for envoys of 25 countries, including from P5 nations US, China, Russia, the UK and France  to highlight Pakistan's role in using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. Before the briefing, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale summoned Pakistan High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood to his South Block office and issued a very strong demarche over the attack in which at least 40 CRPF personnel were killed in Kashmir's Pulwama district. Pakistan must take "immediate and verifiable action" against the JeM and that it must immediately stop any groups or individuals associated with terrorism operating from its territories, Gokhale told the envoy.

Hours after vowing to isolate Pakistan diplomatically in the wake of the attack, the government undertook the exercise of reaching out to the international community, most of which has univocally condemned the attack by the UN-proscribed Pakistan-based JeM terror outfit. China expressed deep "shock" over the Pulwama terror attack carried out by a Jaish suicide bomber, but did not give an assurance to India that it will back New Delhi's appeal to list the UN-proscribed Pakistan-based terror group's chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. Apart from the envoys of the P5, Gokhale met the envoys of key countries in Europe and Asia such as Germany, South Korea, Japan, as well as Australia, they said.

"All the Heads of Missions were left in no doubt about the role played by Pakistan based and supported JeM in the terrorist attack and our demand that Pakistan ceases forthwith all support and financing to terror groups operating from areas under their control. The foreign secretary also highlighted the role played by Pakistan in using terrorism as an instrument of its state policy," a source said.



India's High Commissioner to Pakistan called back for consultations

The government called back its High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria for consultations in the wake of the dastardly terror attack on CRPF convoy which left at least 40 troopers dead and several critically injured. News agency ANI quoted sources as saying that Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has been called to Delhi for consultations in the wake of Thursday's attack.

Security cover of six separatist leaders withdrawn

The security cover of six separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, was withdrawn. Besides the Mirwaiz, the security cover of Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone, Hashim Qureshi, Fazal Haq Qureshi and Shabir Shah has been withdrawn. While there was no categorisation of security for these leaders, the state government in consultation with the Centre had provided them ad hoc security, keeping in mind the threat to their lives from some militant groups. Militants of Hizbul Mujahideen had killed Umar's father, Mirwaiz Farooq, in 1990 and Abdul Gani Lone in 2002.

No security was provided to pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF chief Yaseen Malik. According to the order, all security and vehicles provided to the separatists will stand withdrawn by Sunday evening. No security forces or cover will be provided, under any pretext, to them or any other separatists. If they have any other facilities provided by the government, they are to be withdrawn forthwith. Police will review if there are any other separatists who have security or facilities and they will be withdrawn immediately, the officials said.



All-Party meeting condemns Pulwama terror attack

The all-party meeting has strongly condemned Thursday's dastardly terror attack in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir and expressed support to the government in its fight against terrorism. The meeting held in New Delhi condemned terrorism in all its forms and the support being given to it from across the border.

In a resolution, the meeting said terrorism in India is being actively encouraged by the forces across the border and India has displayed both firmness and resilience in dealing with these challenges. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the meeting said the government has given a freehand to the Security Forces to deal with terrorists and their perpetrators. Singh said the government has followed a policy of zero tolerance against terrorism from the beginning and the cowardly attack on CRPF personnel reflects desperation among terrorists.

(With PTI inputs)

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Washington:

A coalition of 16 states in the United States led by California sued President Donald Trumps administration on Monday (local time) over his decision to declare a national emergency to obtain funds for building a wall along the US-Mexico border. The lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California came just days after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday.

On Friday, Trump had invoked emergency powers on Friday after the Congress declined to fulfil his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall that was his signature 2016 campaign promise. The declaration of emergency would empower him to fund the construction of a massive wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country and curb drug smuggling. The move would help Trump get $5.6 billion for the construction of the wall that, he has asserted, is essential for national security.

Today, on Presidents Day, we take President Trump to court to block his misuse of presidential power, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. Were suing President Trump to stop him from unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress for the people of our states. For most of us, the Office of the Presidency is not a place for theater, added Becerra, a Democrat.

Attorney General Letitia James said in the lawsuit Monday that diverting funding from military construction and other programs to pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border threatens New Yorks public safety and security infrastructure. All the states involved in the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general.

Trump declared an emergency on Friday so he can shift billions of dollars to the border wall after Congress wouldnt approve the amount he wanted.

Trump, a Republican, considers a wall a national security necessity. The lawsuit alleges hes manufacturing a crisis and that his declaration is an unconstitutional and unlawful scheme. New York is home to Fort Drum and the US Military Academy.

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bihar on Sunday ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. This will be the first time that PM Modi will share the stage with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar after Janata Dal Uniteds (JD-U) realignment with BJP in July 2017. The duo are expected to address a joint rally at Patna thereby launching the NDA campaign in the state.

PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for sewerage infrastructure at four towns in Bihar including Karmalichak (Patna), Barh, Sultanganj and Nauguchia. He will also dedicate to people the Patna River Front that includes 16 ghats, 1 crematorium, 4.9 km promenade, community-cum-cultural centre, audio-visual theatre and eco centre build at a cost of Rs 243.27 crore.

This function will take place at Begusarai on 11 am. The sewerage infrastructure projects for which foundation stone will be laid include sewerage network of 96.54 km and 1 sewage pumping station (SPS) in Karmalichak (Patna), 11 MLD sewage treatment plant (STP), 3 SPS and interception & diversion of 3 drains in Barh, 10 MLD STP, 4 SPS and interception and diversion of 5 drains in Sultanganj and 9 MLD STP, 6 SPS and interception & diversion of 9 drains in Nauguchia. These sewerage projects costing Rs 452.24 crore will prevent flow of 6.7 crore litre of sewage per day into River Ganga.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Saturday that each drop of tear shed in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack would be avenged. Continuing his tough talk in the wake of the ghastly strike that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans Thursday, Modi said this is a "new India" which will not tolerate those who provide guns and bombs to target security personnel.

Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating several development projects in north Maharashtra, he said anger over the horrific assault in Jammu and Kashmir is palpable in the country and all eyes are moist. PM Modi paid tributes to the slain soldiers and hailed their families.

"I have come here at a time when there is anger and eyes are moist. I salute the brave soldiers and the mothers who gave birth to them," he said. "Apart from the government, as citizens of the country, it is our responsibility to stand by the families of those who sacrificed everything for the country.

"This is the time for mourning and to show restrain and sensitivity," he said. "I want to assure each family who lost their loved one that each drop of tear will be avenged (aasu ka pura pura jawab liya jayega)," PM Modi declared.

Speaking further on the Pulwama carnage, the prime minister said times have changed and the world will experience this soon. "Ours is a new India with new methods and policies, and the world will experience this now. Those who spray bullets or those who provide guns and bombs to target our soldiers, will not be spared. We will not allow them to sleep in peace," Modi asserted.

The prime minister said his government has worked tirelessly for the welfare of farmers and pointed to the recent announcement of providing Rs 6,000 annually directly into the bank accounts of agriculturalists having less than five acres of land.

He said the development projects inaugurated Saturday would allow Dhule to compete with Surat in adjoining Gujarat in the next 30 years.

The prime minister inaugurated the Lower Panazara Medium Project constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchan Yojana (PMKSY). PM Modi laid the foundation stones of Sulwade Jamphal Kanoli Lift Irrigation Scheme and Dhule City Water Supply Scheme.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone of Dhule-Nardana new rail line and Jalgaon-Manmad third railway line, besides flagging off the Bhusaval-Bandra Khandesh Express through video link.

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New Delhi:

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah is all set to meet its disgruntle alliance partner Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday in Mumbai. According to the sources, the parties may announce its tie-up for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

Earlier, there were reports that the BJP will contest on 25 out of total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the Shiv Sena will fight on rest of the seats. The Uddhav Thackerays party had contested on 22 seats, while the BJP fielded its candidates on 26 seats in the 2014 General Elections. The BJP has decided not to field any candidate from the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency from where Shiv Sena will now contest.

For the Assembly elections, the BJP will contest on 145 of the total 288 seats, with the Shiv Sena getting the remaining 143 seats, reported Zee News. Shiv Sena had earlier announced publicly to go solo in the elections. However, BJP chief Amit Shah had said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party would continue its alliance with BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is frequently in touch with the Shiv Sena leadership at the state level. The Shiv Sena is already a part of the Central and state governments and it would continue its alliance with the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections", he had said in December last year.

The Sena, which is the oldest constituent of the NDA, had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP, but severed the ties ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections held in October that year.

The Sena later joined the BJP-led governments in Maharashtra and Centre, though grudgingly, as it was averse to play second fiddle to BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in the polls.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone of Patna Metro Rail Project. The Patna Metro Rail project promises to give the boost to transport connectivity and will add to ease of living for the people of Patna and adjoining areas. Earlier today, Prime Minister Modi arrived in Bihars Barauni after which he launched a series of development projects. The projects will also boost fertilizer production, and significantly enhance medical, and sanitation facilities in Bihar.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the stage with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for the first time after 2017 BJP-JD(U) realignment. During the rally, PM Modi asserted that he shared the grief and outrage with the people of the nation in the wake of the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel. The prime minister, who was in this north Bihar town to launch a slew of projects, began his speech with a few lines in the local dialect Angika and paid tributes to two jawans from the state who died in the Pulwama attack. "I salute and pay my tributes to Sanjay Kumar Sinha and Ratan Kumar Thakur. To the people who have gathered here, I would like to say the fire that is raging in your bosoms, is in my heart too," Modi said, evoking a thunderous response from the crowds.

The sector-wise project details are as follows -

Urban Development and Sanitation

The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of Patna Metro Rail Project which will give a boost to transport connectivity and add to ease of living for the people of Patna and adjoining areas.

The first phase oRiverFrontnt Development at Patna was inaugurated by the prime minister. Foundation Stone for the Karmalichak Sewerage Network spanning 96.54 kilometres was laid by PM Modi.

Works related to Sewage Treatment Plants at Barh, Sultanganj and Naugachia will be kicked off by PM. He will also lay the Foundation Stone for 22 AMRUT projects at various locations.

Railways

PM also inaugurated the electrification of Railway Lines on the following sectors:

 Barauni-Kumedpur

 Muzaffarpur-Raxaul

 Fatuha-Islampur

 Biharsharif-Daniawan

Oil & Gas

Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Phulpur to Patna stretch of the Jagdishpur-Varanasi Natural Gas pipeline. He also raised curtain from the Patna City Gas Distribution project. Foundation Stone of the 9 MMT AVU of the Barauni Refinery Expansion Project was also laid on, the occasion. PM laid the Foundation Stone for the augmentation of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline from Durgapur to Muzaffarpur and Patna.

He also laid the Foundation Stone for the ATF Hydrotreating Unit (INDJET) at Barauni Refinery. These projects will significantly augment the availability of energy in the city and the region.

Here are the highlights of PM Modi's speech in Bihar:

13:36 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In This government never shies away from taking big and bold decisions, says PM Modi.

13:31 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I pay my tributes to martyr Constable Sanjay Kumar Sinha from Patna and Bhagalpur's martyr Ratan Kumar Thakur who sacrificed their lives for the country. I express my sympathies with their families, says PM Modi.

13:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Patna riverfront will be game changer. This will give boost to Bihar tourism, says PM Modi.

13:27 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Gas will be supplied via pipe to every household in Patna, says PM Modi in Bihar

13:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Just like you, I am also filled with fury, says PM Modi on Pulwama attack in Bihar.

13:21 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I government is committed to uplift the lives of the people staying in eastern India, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

13:18 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The projects inaugurated today will change the lives of the people of Bihar, says PM Modi.

13:16 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I bow down to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the service of the motherland, says PM Modi.

13:14 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I thank the people of Bihar for showering so much of love, says PM Modi.

13:06 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Modi lays foundation stone of Patna metro rail project, to address rally soon

12:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Under PM Modi's leadership, India will avenge Pulwama attack, says Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

12:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Patna metro will ease the connectivity of the people of Bihar, says CM Nitish Kumar.

12:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I thank the central government for reopening the fertilizer factory in Bihar, says CM Nitish Kumar.

12:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bihar, says CM Nitish Kumar.

12:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In I look forward to being in Bihars Barauni. The inauguration and laying of foundation stones for projects relating to urban development, sanitation, railways, oil and gas, healthcare as well as fertilisers will take place today, PM Modi tweeted earlier.

12:33 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In

Bihar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Barauni. Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for Patna Metro Rail Project later today. pic.twitter.com/7ZeE0LYTzo

 ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2019



12:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM will also inaugurate the electrification of Railway Lines on the following sectors:

 Barauni-Kumedpur

 Muzaffarpur-Raxaul

 Fatuha-Islampur

 Biharsharif-Daniawan

12:32 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In PM Narendra Modi arrived in Barauni where he launched a series of development projects for Bihar.
New Delhi:

Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman who also known as MBS will arrive in the Pakistani capital for a state visit today. MBS is on a two-day visit to Pakistan. He will hold talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and President Arif Alvi, Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement this week. MBS will also hold talks with Pakistani senators. This will be the first visit of Mohammed as the crown prince. He had earlier visited Pakistan as defence minister at the start of the Yemen conflict.



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Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will sign at least eight MoUs during Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's visit to the country, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said on Wednesday. "We hope that at least eight MoUs will be signed during the high-powered visit. Saudi Arabia is our close and trustworthy friend and the relations with the visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman will be improved further, he said. He said that back-to-back visits of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia also helped to improve the bilateral relations.



Saudi had previously pledged $6bn in financial support to Pakistan, including a $3bn loan and $3bn in deferred oil payments.

Qureshi addressing media in Islamabad said that the two sides had done proper homework ahead of the visit, which will probably be the biggest trip by a Saudi royal, in terms of composition and number of the entourage, in the history of relations between the two countries.

Earlier, personal amenities of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reached Islamabad. The crown prince's belongings, including his exercise equipment and furniture, reached Islamabad in five trucks, the Dawn News reported quoting Saudi Embassy sources.



ALSO READ | Pakistan school's registration suspended after students danced to Indian song

While the prince himself is expected to stay at the Prime Minister House, two of the top hotels in Islamabad have been booked fully for members of his staff, while two others hotels have been partially booked. The crown prince is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and other senior civil and military leaders.



MBS will leave Pakistan on Monday, with Malaysia, India and China next on his itinerary.

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New Delhi :

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday reviewed the security situation in the country, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, two days after 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives in an audacious terror attack in Pulwama. The meeting, which took place at Singhs residence, was attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, RAW chief AK Dhasmana, Additional Director IB Arvind Kumar and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba.

During the meeting, top security officials briefed the home minister about the prevailing situation in the country, including along the Indo-Pak border, a Home Ministry official said. Singh had visited Srinagar on Friday to take stock of the situation in the wake of the attack on the convoy in Pulwama.

The meeting took stock of the security measures in place to foil any design of the Pak-based terrorist groups to disturb peace in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in hinterlands, the official said. The home minister directed the officials to ensure that all possible steps are taken to hunt down terrorists currently operating in Kashmir valley, another official said.

Forty CRPF jawans were killed and several injured in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, by a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber in South Kashmir's Pulwama district. Massive protests and candlelight marches were held in different parts of the country against the attack and curfew was imposed in Jammu city following violence during demonstrations there.

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New Delhi:

A dossier, nailing the culpability of Pakistan in the terror attack in Pulwama, will be given to the FATF, an international terror financing watchdog, to expose the neighbouring country's links with terrorism and seeking its blacklisting, officials said Saturday. Security agencies are preparing the dossier with the evidence gathered so far related to the attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad and the help being provided to the outfit by the country, they said.

This will be a dossier on Pakistani agencies' links with the JeM and how the terror group is being aided by them, a security official said. The details of the terror attacks carried out by the JeM in the past will be mentioned in the document.

The Paris-headquartered Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will also be told through the dossier how the Pakistani agencies are providing funds to the JeM, the official said.

In the next meeting of the FATF, India will also press for the blacklisting of Pakistan so that that action can be taken against the country, another official said.

The FATF plenary and working group meetings will be held in Paris next week.

The FATF blacklist means the country concerned is "non-cooperative" in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. If the FATF blacklists Pakistan, it may lead to downgrading of the country by multilateral lenders like IMF, World Bank, ADB, EU and also a reduction in risk rating by Moodys, S&P and Fitch.

Pakistan has been put on the grey list of the anti-terror finance watchdog in July 2018. The FATF currently has 35 members and two regional organisations European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. North Korea and Iran are in the FATF blacklist.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.

The bus was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying CRPF personnel from Jammu to Srinagar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said those responsible for the attack will pay "a very heavy price" and security forces will be given a free hand to deal with the terrorists.

In a hard-hitting speech, Modi said the "blood of the people is boiling" and forces behind the act of terrorism will be definitely punished".

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New Delhi:

Several floors and walls of National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) in St. Petersburg have collapsed, Russian emergency authorities said. The cause of the collapse is unclear but state media said that it happenedA while renovations were taking place. The Russian media also reported that some students were at the university to attend elective weekend classes.

NEW: Video shows the moment when several floors collapsed at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia pic.twitter.com/geiHiHIKAv a BNO News (@BNONews) February 16, 2019

Reports also suggest that many people are feared trapped under the debris. However, there has been no report of casualtiesA yet.A







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New Delhi:

Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Shankudeb Panda is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, according to the sources. Many believe that the entry of Panda in BJP will give a major boost to the later in West Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier this month, Former IPS officer from West Bengal, Bharati Ghosh, joined the BJP in Delhi. Soon after joining the party, Ghosh termed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's 'dharna' following a political move to stop the CBI investigation into the ponzi scheme scams. Ghosh, once a favourite of Banerjee, reportedly fell from grace and sought voluntary retirement after she was transferred as Commandant of the West Bengal Armed Police's 3rd Battalion. Her application was accepted in January 2018.

Democracy has become 'Namocracy' and the situation in the country is worse than emergency, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said earlier, and asserted opposition parties will fight unitedly at the national level to oust the NDA from power.

Addressing a mega rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the Jantar Mantar, the Trinamool Congress chief also attacked the Centre over the CBI's failed bid to question Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar at his home, saying she had not seen a government that "stooped so low".

"It is Prime Minister's last day as elected leader in Parliament today," she said after the Lok Sabha adjourned sine die. "Everyone is afraid of Gabbar Singh. There are two of them -- (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (BJP chief Amit) Shah," she said.

A host of opposition leaders including TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar and CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury spoke during the rally.

"Opposition parties will fight unitedly at the national level," Banerjee asserted.
highlights Masood Azhar is undergoing treatment at Rawalpindi military hospital

Pathankot attack mastermind suffering from terminal illness

Pulwama attack also an attempt by ailing terrorist to stay relevant

New Delhi:

Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar planned the Pulwama attack and gave instructions from Rawalpindi hospital bed, a latest media report said exposing Pakistans lie. The report by Times of India states that Azhar kept the plan hidden from United Jihad Council and secretly deputed his nephews to carry out the attack. In an audio tape, Azhar exhorted the Jaish men to avenge the killing of his nephew Usman, who was gunned down by Indian security forces in 2017. Previous reports had pointed out that Azhar had sent an Afghan war veteran  Abdul Ghazi  to Jammu and Kashmir to avenge the killings.

According to TOI report, in the audio tape, Azhar was quoted as saying, Koi inhe dahshatgard kahega, koi inhe nikamma kahega, koi inhe aman ke liye khatra kahega. There is nothing more pleasurable than death in this war, the Pathankot attack mastermind said the tape exhorting his men to carry out the attack. Initial probe has revealed that around 60 kg of RDX was used to carry out the attack. Adil Ahmad Dar, the 22-year-old local resident of Pulwama, drove the vehicle and rammed into the convoy on NH1A. It is the worst attack on the security forces in the Valley in last two decades. Islamabad, though condemning the attack and calling it a grave concern, has repeatedly denied any role in the case.

Ghazi is an IED expert, who has also been tasked to train young recruits. Ghazi infiltrated from Pakistan occupied Kashmir in the month of December last year. Usman and Talha Rasheed were gunned down by the security forces in an anti-terror operation in 2017. The dreaded terrorist has been hiding in Pulwama ever since than.

Earlier reports have said that apart from Jaish-e-Mohammeds core group another relatively new group known as Afzal Guru Squad could have played an important role. This Squad had carried out attack on the Sunjuwan Army Camp in February last year.

What is more startling is that the chatter or the surveillance input gathered by the intelligence officials registered a disturbing message the Pulwama attack. Bada hona chahiye, Hindustan rona chahiye, read one of the transcripts. Ghazi is known as an IED expert who infiltrated in India in December last year. Later he travelled on foot to reach this town in southern Kashmir.

The terrorist attack, which has direct footprints inside Pakistan, poses the first major challenges to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, said Riedel, who is now a scholar at the Brookings Institute think-tank.

"This will be a real challenge for Imran Khan, the first serious challenge of his administration," he said. Anish Goel, a former National Security Council official in the previous Obama administration, said the horrific attack highlights just how actively Pakistan-based terrorist groups still operate in Kashmir.

By claiming such quick credit for the attack, Jaish-e-Mohammed is clearly indicating that they will continue to cause trouble in the region and stoke tensions between Pakistan and India, he said.

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New Delhi:

Our understanding of how the planet was formed is likely to advance after scientists discovered massive mountains in the Earth's mantle. The researchers are calling it "the 660-km boundary" as it separates the upper and lower mantle. Scientists from the Princeton University in the US and the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics in China, used the most powerful waves on the planet, which are generated by massive earthquakes. Data from earthquakes that are magnitude 7.0 or higher send out shockwaves in all directions that can travel through the core to the other side of the planet -- and back again.



Data from earthquakes that are magnitude 7.0 or higher send out shockwaves in all directions that can travel through the core to the other side of the planet -- and back again.



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For this study, the key data came from waves picked up after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake -- the second-largest deep earthquake ever recorded -- that shook Bolivia in 1994.

Scientists used powerful computers to simulate the complicated behaviour of scattering waves in the deep Earth.

The technology depends on a fundamental property of waves: their ability to bend and bounce.

Just as light waves can bounce (reflect) off a mirror or bend (refract) when passing through a prism, earthquake waves travel straight through homogenous rocks but reflect or refract when they encounter any boundary or roughness.

"We know that almost all objects have surface roughness and therefore scatter light," said Wenbo Wu, who was at Princeton at the time of the study.

"That's why we can see these objects -- the scattering waves carry the information about the surface's roughness," said Wu, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the US.

"In this study, we investigated scattered seismic waves traveling inside the Earth to constrain the roughness of the Earth's 660-km boundary," Wu said.

The researchers were surprised by just how rough that boundary is -- rougher than the surface layer that we all live on.

"In other words, stronger topography than the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachians is present at the 660-km boundary," said Wu.

Their statistical model did not allow for precise height determinations, but there's a chance that these mountains are bigger than anything on the surface of the Earth.

The roughness was not equally distributed, either; just as the crust's surface has smooth ocean floors and massive mountains, the 660-km boundary has rough areas and smooth patches.

The researchers also examined a layer 410 kilometres down, at the top of the mid-mantle "transition zone," and they did not find similar roughness.



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"They find that Earth's deep layers are just as complicated as what we observe at the surface," said seismologist Christine Houser, an assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who was not involved in this research.

The presence of roughness on the 660-km boundary has significant implications for understanding how our planet formed and continues to function.

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New Delhi:

The Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kerala has released the Kerala KMAT 2019 Answer Key on Monday. The candidates who had appeared for the examination can visit the official website i.e. kmatkerala.in to check the answer key. The CUSAT has released the answer key in PDF format and contains the correct answer to all the 180 questions asked in the entrance test.

The KMAT 2019 was held on 17th February. The candidates who have appeared for the examination can now cross-verify the correct response provided in the answer key against the answers marked on the OMR Sheet. According to the sources, the candidates can expect the KMAT results to be announced on 21st February.

As per the Kerala KMAT 2019 marking scheme, each correct answer will be awarded 4 marks while for each incorrect answer -1 mark will be deducted from the overall score of the candidate. Using this marking scheme along with the Kerala KMAT 2019 official answer key, candidates can calculate their raw score and start preparation for admissions.

About KMAT:

Karnataka Private Post Graduate Colleges Association (KPPGCA) was established in 2003 to provide proactive support to professional education and facilitate and streamline admission to postgraduate professional courses, viz., MBA, PGDM and MCA. There are 169 + member B-schools of KPPGCA located across Karnataka which are affiliated to respective universities in the State.

KMAT was born out of the felt -need to have a single unified test for admissions in the State of Karnataka into professional courses viz MBA. PGDM and MCA. KMAT is conducted for admission to AICTE approved University affiliated Self-financing colleges in Karnataka. The test is permitted by Government of Karnataka and is monitored by the "Committee for overseeing the entrance test conducted by the association of private professional colleges" constituted by the government of Karnataka in accordance with Supreme Court judgment in case no. Appeal (Civil) 5041 of 2005.
New Delhi:

Amitabh Bachchan donated Rs 5 lakh each to the families of CRPF jawans killed in Pulwama attack on February 14. As many as 42 CRPF jawans were killed and dozens of others injured after a car with 350 kg of explosives hit a bus carrying the personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Thursday.

The vehicle was blown up by an improvised explosive device or IED explosion on Srinagar-Jammu highway in Awantipora area of the district, a police official said, adding that the exact number of the deceased is yet to be ascertained

After 2016 Uri terror attack, this is considered to be the deadliest terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir in nearly two decades. The incident occurred at Lethpora on the Srinagar-Anantnag highway followed by gunshots aimed at the security forces in Pulwama district on Thursday.



On the work front, Amitabh is currently busy shooting Tapsee Pannu starrer Badla. Direct by Sujoy Ghosh, Badla is touted to be a revenge thriller. Amitabh Bachchans powerful performance clubbed with Taapsees stupendous acting skills will surely leave you thrilled for the film.

The character posters of the film were released yesterday. In the posters, we saw the intense side of the two protagonists  Tapsee and Amitabh Bachchan. Ahead of the poster release, Shah Rukh Khan had tweeted out, ''Main aap se Badla lene aa raha hoon @SrBachchan saab! Taiyaar rahiyega. In reply to his tweet, Big B wrote, ''Arey bhai @iamsrk, Badla lene ka time toh nikal gaya .. Ab toh sab ko Badla dene ka time hai.

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Karachi:

Pakistani authorities have suspended the registration of a school in Karachi after some students danced to an Indian song -- Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, a popular track from the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer movie of the same name -- and waved India's national flag during a cultural event, hurting the country's "national dignity". A show-cause notice was issued to the school's owner on Wednesday to appear before the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions Sindh (DIRPIS).

The last week's incident came to light after a video of the function went viral on social media, facing severe criticism from people, The News International reported. The registration of the 'Mama Baby Care Cambridge School' has been suspended for allegedly promoting Indian culture, the report said.

The DIRPIS has formed a three-member committee to probe into the school's function in which students were dancing on an Indian song and waving national flag of India in the background, it said. According to DIRPIS registrar Rafia Javed, "promoting Indian culture in educational institutions was against Pakistan's national dignity which could not be tolerated in any circumstances".

The action was taken when the directorate came to know that the school had deliberately arranged such a function. The owner of the school was asked to explain his stance about the matter within three days after receiving the notice else his school's registration would be cancelled.

However, the school's owner neither responded to the directorate nor appeared before the officials to clear his position, leading to the suspension of the registration. Javed said that it was a very sensitive matter that possibly could trigger public anger.

The school's vice-principal Fatima said that last week, the school management arranged an event for the students to make them aware about cultures of different countries. It was an event in which students presented the cultures of Saudi Arabia, the US, Egypt, Pakistan, India and other countries.

However, some reporters twisted the matter and picked only a specific part of the programme to target the school, she said.

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highlights Was the morning sanitization so full proof that no such effort was made prior to the movement of the convoy?

What happened to all the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure)?

Who decided against this and Why? If this was not factored in as an SOP, then also why?A

New Delhi:

Images of waling mothers, shattered wives, devastated children and a six-month baby smiling in the wake of her father's tragic and dastardly death are hounding every Indian. Those 40 bravehearts were returning to their posts after their vacations. Absolutely unaware and clueless that their journey to their postings will be the last they will even know of the world of living. Had they laid their lives fighting the enemy, the domestic misguided or braving bullets fired by terrorists who had crossed over to their motherland, they would still have had a sense of accomplishment, but to lose their lives in a bus talking to each other, recounting their vacation, is hardly heroic for Men of Steel. But die they did, by the sordid act of a disgruntled youth who had barely crossed 20 years of his existence.A

A

The images of mangled steel left behind after the bomb blast which could be heard over 10 km in either direction, leaves behind a series of questions which beg answers, no one is wiling to give or even ponder over. More than 2,500 men being transported in one go - is it usual? Every road through which a convoy has to pass through is sanitized, not just in the morning, but also continuously to prevent any untoward movement of hostile elements, what really happened when a convoy of 78 vehicles was passing through at 3:15 in the afternoon? Was the morning sanitization so full proof that no such effort was made prior to the movement of the convoy? When a convoy of such proportion is on the move, signal jammers, mine detectors, armada vehicles, drone air dominance or aerial surveillance, parallel reconnaissance is a norm, what happened to all these SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure)? Who decided against this and Why? If this was not factored in as an SOP, then also why? While covering American advances in Iraq as an imbedded journalist, had seen this entire above-mentioned tactic for convoy movement as basic. So to my mind the larger question is why Indian security forces have not made such practices as SOP.

#AvengePulwama | News Nation joins the country in paying tributes to the CRPF jawans, who lost their lives in #PulwamaTerroristAttack. Watch video pic.twitter.com/Z7dIQk0mQL a News Nation (@NewsNationTV) February 16, 2019

Questions apart, lets get to the basics. Over the past three years of operation all out, it has been witnessed by forces in the valley that insurgency and anti national hostilities have been spreading in the suburbs of Srinagar. Pulwama being the agricultural hub near Srinagar with its dense population was an ideal set up for such enhanced anti India activities. Various defence ministry reports and alleged ground reports have indicated towards growing alienation of the local population. Stone pelting had increased over 100 percent over the past three years in Pulwama and support from locals had dried up to a very large extent. The number of missing youths was in itself a big pointer towards losing ground support.

While experts sitting Delhi fretted over loss of public support in Pulwama, how could the security agencies be so blind as to not see the dastardly act happening on any given day? Be it separatists, be it the political parties who seek votes in the name of separate Kashmiri Identity, all had been attending funerals of dead terrorists or terror sympathizers in and around Pulwama. Still, our agency planners were so blinded in their outlook that they bypassed most basic SOPs as though they were transvering through friendly territory. Something here is so amiss, that even a non-strategist like me can smell a rat, so why isn't the government talking about its failure.A

A

The day we get an answer to governmentas failures, we shall have answers as to how we can save the lives of our heroes who lay their lives not for a cause but for neglect.

Let me dwell a bit deeper on this issue of neglect.Do we recall, Uri attack where we lost 17 brave hearts, Pathankot airbase attack where we lost 7 and Gurdaspur attack where we lost 10 lives? What did we learn from any of these massive attacks? What did we change after any of these attacks? What have we done as a Nation to prevent such attacks? Please look at the inquiry reports filled after all these attacks and many more which have taken place before and after these terrorist attacks. They all have the same loopholes, the quantum may vary, but the gist remains the same. All armed installations are closely surrounded by illegal construction, intrusion, and mismanagement by local bodies and above all, corruption within the entire state machinery and also our defence establishments.

Itas so damn easy to infiltrate our defence establishments that one feels like mocking the entire pretense of security and secrecy. And then we believe that we have secured our defence establishments. Come on, had this been the case in say Venezuela, we could have understood the imperatives of a weak and crumbling economy. In India we spend 3 lakh crore on our defence establishments.Let me put this bluntly, the Kargil Review Committee report submitted in 2000 is still gathering dust. Most of its recommendations have not even been read through, forget getting implemented. Parliament attack review report, J&K Assembly attack review report, 26/11 review report, you name all the reports hence prepared, all have met with the same fate, gathering dust. So why are we so crazed up now, when we have lost some more sons of the soil. After all, the report hence prepared on this dastardly act will also be gathering dust after its put out.A

A

Had the pressure of Lok Sabha polls not been looming large over a government, which has tried its best to encash nationalism as an ideology, the sense of loss would have been left behind without any sense of remorse by the political class in no time. It would have been back to business as usual. At least this is what I saw at very close quarters in Mumbai during series of train blasts that killed over 150 people. While I as a journalist can still smell the stench of burnt flesh on the tracks of Mumbai local after more than 12 years, do our politicians and security agencies even remember what had happened in a train packed with evening home goers. This is the difference between a lay Indian and an Indian who belongs to the political, military, bureaucratic class. We feel the pain of the dead; they use the pain of the dead for their gain.
New Delhi :

Following withdrawal of MFN (Most Favoured Nation) status to Pakistan in the aftermath of Pulwama terror attack, India on Saturday raised basic customs duty on all goods exported from the neighbouring country to 200 per cent with immediate effect. aIndia has withdrawn MFN status to Pakistan after the Pulwama incident. Upon withdrawal, basic customs duty on all goods exported from Pakistan to India has been raised to 200% with immediate effect,a tweeted Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.A

India has withdrawn MFN status to Pakistan after the Pulwama incident. Upon withdrawal, basic customs duty on all goods exported from Pakistan to India has been raised to 200% with immediate effect. #Pulwama a Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) February 16, 2019

India granted the MFN status to Pakistan way back in in 1996, but the neighbouring country had not yet reciprocated. The MFN status was accorded under World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Both India and Pakistan are signatories to this, and are members of the WTO.

Under the MFN pact, a WTO member country is obliged to treat the other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner, especially with regard to customs duty and other levies. Removal of this status means India can now enhance customs duties to any level on goods coming from Pakistan.

Total India-Pakistan trade has increased marginally to USD 2.41 billion in 2017-18 as against USD 2.27 billion in 2016-17. India imported goods worth USD 488.5 million in 2017-18 and exported goods worth USD 1.92 billion in that fiscal.

At least 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.A

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New Delhi:

NIMS, one of largest private universities in Rajasthan, has suspended four students for allegedly hailing the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama. According to the notice from the office of the varsitys principal, the girls belonging to Kashmir posted anti-national messages on WhatsApp for celebrating martyrs of Pulwama terror attack. The suspension notice further stated that,  NIMS University Rajasthan will not tolerate and strictly condemn such activities. Since the above act of theirs is grave and serious in nature, these students are hereby suspended with immediate effect from college and hostel. News Nation has learnt that many students chanted slogans against these girls inside the university campus.

Earlier on Saturday, a Kashmiri student was booked for allegedly sending WhatsApp messages supporting the Pulwama suicide attack, amid reports that students from the Valley were being harassed in the Uttarakhand capital. The messages shared by the Kashmiri student on WhatsApp created tension and some right-wing Hindu outfits gheraoed the university, demanding immediate arrest of the student, the Press Trust of India reported. The student was suspended by a private university in Dehradun. I had taken up the matter with DGP Utrakhand to take care of security of students from Kashmir. DIG Baramulla is also in touch. A helpline is set up at PCR Srinagar and PCR Jammu, DGP Dilbag Singh said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, a shutdown has been called out by Kashmiri traders as a mark of protest against attacks on Kashmiris in Jammu and outside the state. Shopkeepers in Lal Chowk, Maisuma, Residency Road and other adjoining areas downed their shutters at 3 pm on Saturday in response to a shutdown called by trade bodies of the Valley earlier in the day. The traders also took out a protest march to condemn the attacks on Kashmiris in Jammu and other parts of the country. They demanded safety of Kashmiri traders and students outside the Valley. Various trade bodies and employees' unions also held a protest at Press Colony.

The bandh call was issued by the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Forum, Kashmir Economic Alliance and other trade bodies of the Valley.

(With inputs from PTI)

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New Delhi:

At least 42 CRPF personnel were killed on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 80 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district that also left many critically wounded. More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir. With teary eyes nation bid adieu to CRPF jawans as their mortal remains were put to flames.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said: Those who spray bullets or those who provide guns and bombs to target our soldiers, will not be spared. We will not allow them to sleep in peace. India is a country of new traditions and new policies and the world will now experience it.



Here are the Pulwama terror attack LIVE UPDATES:





22:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mobile internet services were restored in Kashmir on Sunday, a day after they were suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, officials said.

21:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Delhi: Candle light march being held at Connaught Place to pay tribute to the the CRPF jawans who lost their lives in Pulwama Terrorist Attacks on February 14.

19:52 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Delhi: People in huge numbers gathered at India Gate to pay tribute to the CRPF personnel who lost their lives in Pulwama Attack.



Delhi: People in huge numbers gathered at India Gate to pay tribute to the CRPF personnel who lost their lives in #PulwamaAttack. pic.twitter.com/i26QZAgJIK

 ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2019



19:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday described the Pulwama terror attack as an assault on the nation and said it was time that Pakistan be given a strong reply.

18:28 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 20 lakh to the next of the kin of CRPF head constable Naseer Ahmed of district Rajouri who died in the Pulwama terror attack.



#JammuAndKashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 20 lakh to the next of the kin of CRPF Head Constable, Naseer Ahmed of district Rajouri. #PulwamaAttack. (File pic of J&K Governor) pic.twitter.com/j2SJvYjkXZ

 ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2019



16:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Maharajganj: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath meets family of CRPF Constable Pankaj Kumar Tripathi who lost his life in Pulwama terror attack.



Maharajganj: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath meets family of CRPF Constable Pankaj Kumar Tripathi who lost his life in the #PulwamaTerroristAttack pic.twitter.com/pkmV3QeoTN

 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 17, 2019



14:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pulwama martyrs sacrifice won't go in vain, says Amit Shah in Assam. I pay my tributes to Assam's son Maneswar Basumatary, along with the other CRPF personnel. Their sacrifice won't go in vain as it's not the Congress government which is at the Centre, it is the BJP which is at the Centre, Shah said.

13:18 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mortal remains of Major Chitresh Singh Bisht arrive at Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun. He lost his life yesterday while defusing an IED which was planted by terrorists across the LoC in Rajouri's Naushera sector in Jammu & Kashmir.

11:15 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation has called for a state-wide shutdown today protesting against abuse faced by Kashmiris across India. There have been several reports on college students and traders being targeted. Meanwhile, there are reports that the NIA and IB teams are now focussing on the car that Adil Ahmad Dar drover that ill-fated day and rammed it into the CRPF convoy.

10:27 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Shirdis Saibaba temple trust to give Rs 2.51 crore to kin of CRPF martyrs

The trust managing the famous Saibaba temple here in Maharashtra has announced a total financial aid of Rs 2.51 crore for the families of CRPF jawans martyred in the Pulwama terror attack, an official said. The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST)will give Rs 2.51 crore in financial assistance to the next of the kin of 40 soldiers killed in the February 14 terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir, its chairperson Suresh Haware told reporters. He said the trust strongly condemns the cowardly attack by terrorists and expressed the hope the government and armed forces will give a befitting reply to its perpetrators. The amount will be given to the martyrs' families after completing all necessary formalities, Haware added.

10:12 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Indian doctors cancelled Pakistan visit for 13th SAARC summit

A delegation of Indian doctors has cancelled visit to Pakistan for the 13th SAARC-Association of Anaesthesiologists Congress in Lahore on March 7 in wake of Pulwama Attack. The conference is being organised by the Pakistan Society of Anaesthesiologist and Scientific Committee.

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Kolkata: Polling for the Bhowanipore Assembly by-election in West Bengal will be held tomorrow. CM Mamata Banerjee herself is the candidate for Trinamool Congress in the by-election to Bhowanipore seat in south Kolkata while BJP has given a ticket to Priyanka Tibrewal and Marxist Communist Party (CPI) has given a ticket to Srijeev Vishwas.

In view of the bypoll to the Bhowanipore assembly seat, tight security arrangements have been made in the area and 15 companies of central forces have been deployed. A senior police officer has informed in this regard on Wednesday. He said prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CRPC (Code of Criminal Criminal Procedure) have been imposed within a radius of 200 metres of polling stations where voting will be held on Thursday. Central Force personnel will be deployed at each of the 287 polling stations at 97 polling booths in Bhowanipore.

The security outside the booth will be the responsibility of Kolkata police officials. Kolkata Police in an order said, "Five or more people will not be allowed to gather within 200 metres of any polling station. A ban has been imposed on bringing stones, weapons, crackers or other explosive materials. The official said police posts have been set up at 38 places in Bhavanipur.''

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Islamabad: A woman has been sentenced to death in Pakistan for radical and masculine thinking. The woman is the principal of a private school that refused to consider Prophet Mohammed as the last Prophet of Islam in 2013. At the same time, the woman described herself as the Prophet of Islam. According to Pakistani reports, Lahore's district and sessions court on Monday (September 27, 2021) sentenced Salma Tanveer, headmaster of a private school in Nishtar Colony, to death. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 Pakistani Rupee on her.

On the complaint of Qari Iftikhar Ahmed Raza, the Namazi leader of a local mosque, the Nishtar Colony police had registered an FIR against the woman on September 2, 2013. Additional District and Sessions Court Judge Mansoor Ahmed while delivering the verdict said that Tanveer condemned prophet Mohammed as the last Prophet of Islam. Meanwhile, Tanveer's lawyer Mohammad Ramzan argued that his client's mental condition was not good and the court should look into the fact. However, the medical report of the woman appearing in court proved that her mental condition was correct.

In fact, the lawyer appearing for the complainant Maulvi had submitted a medical board report of the Punjab Institute of Mental Health to the court. It said the accused woman is fit to prosecute the suspect as her mental condition is perfect. The court then sentenced her to death and asked her to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 295 of the PPC. The verdict, pronounced in the Lahore court, is now being widely discussed on social media. Users are attributing Pakistan's radicalism and masculine thinking to it. Some are raising questions about human rights.

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New Delhi: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), government of India, demanding the restart of flight services between India and Afghanistan. This is the first official talks held by the Taliban government in Afghanistan since its formation.

The letter to Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar is dated September 7. It calls for the resumption of air services by Alhaj Hamidullah Akhunzada, acting minister of the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority. Let us tell you that commercial flights between India and Afghanistan have been banned since August 15. However, some flights were certainly operated to evacuate the Indians from the Taliban conflict and the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. But no air service has been started since the Indians were brought home from there.

In a letter to DGCA, Akhunzada wrote, 'As you were recently informed, Kabul airport was completely destroyed by US troops before returning to the US. With the assistance of our ally Qatar, the airport has once again become operational. Information in this regard has been issued on September 6, 2021.' The minister has since appealed for the resumption of air services between India and Afghanistan.

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The Taliban has recently requested India's aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to resume commercial flight operations to Kabul, which were closed after August 15. The Taliban has written to the DGCA, asking for the resumption of commercial flights between India and Afghanistan (Kabul). The letter, however, is under review by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, ANI tweeted on Wednesday.

India had stopped all commercial flight operations to Kabul post August 15 after the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital. The Kabul airport, which was damaged during the evacuation of Afghans and foreign nationals, has been reopened with the assistance of technical teams from Qatar and Turkey.

"The Civil Aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan extends its compliments to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India. As you are informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and these functional by American troops before their withdrawal. By technical assistance of our Qatar brother the airport became operational once again and a NOTAM in this regard was issued on September 06, 2021," a letter from Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority to DGCA Arun Kumar stated. The Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) has also requested the Indian authorities to resume the commercial flight services of the national carrier of Afghanistan between India and Kabul.

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New Delhi: Security forces on Tuesday arrested the terrorist sent by Pakistan to carry out terrorist activities in India. Captured terrorist Ali Babar has now made a major confession in the interrogation, revealing Pakistan's nefarious act once again. In interrogation, Ali Babar has confessed that he had come to India to supply weapons from Pakistan.

Moreover, Ali Babar made it clear that he was lured by ISI to come to India with rupees and trained by the Pakistani army. He said, 'I got an advance of Rs. 20,000. In addition, 30,000 rupees were given to my family.' Ali Babar hails from Okara in Pakistan's Punjab province. It is only 19 years old. He reportedly underwent terrorist training at Garhi Habibullah in Pakistan. Babur had received the task of delivering weapons to the Pattan area.

Earlier on Tuesday, security forces said that the terrorist son had been hiding in a drain near Uri sector for 10 days. Then he was found and caught alive. Security forces have described Babur as a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist. AK-47 rifles and several China-Pakistan-made grenades were recovered from him. One terrorist was also killed during the operation, while three Indian soldiers were injured.

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September 28 will be remembered in Indian history as the day when the Modi government took tough decisions like 'surgical strike' to destroy terrorist hideouts. On September 18, 2016, terrorists from Pakistan had attacked an Indian Army camp in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir. 18 soldiers were killed in the deadly attack. There was outrage in the country after this terrorist incident. In response to the attack, counter-attacks were launched against terrorist groups on September 28.

Pakistan was not accepting the presence of terror camps. India took such a step in a tough stand that it showed not only Pakistan but the whole world that India can destroy terrorist camps. On the night of September 28-29, Indian Army Special Forces crossed the LOC and carried out surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and destroyed them. In the attack, the Indian army had destroyed six launchpads of Pakistani terrorists and about 45 terrorists were killed in the operation.

Two years after the same attack, in 2018, the Government of India started celebrating Surgical Strike Day. The surgical strike is also remembered as the most spectacular military operation as no Indian Army soldier suffered even a minor scratch at the time of destroying enemy targets.

US senators seek assessment of Pakistans role in Taliban victory

Taliban govt Request India to resume flights, Writes letter

Earthquake of 6.1 Magnitude Strikes Japan, No Tsunami Warning Issued
Just as the clouds were covering the Annapurna range, Park Chong-Suk, South Korean ambassador to Nepal, quickly took a selfie with his wife. This was at Naudanda, a few kilometres away from Pokhara, the tourism capital of Nepal.

Waking up early, the diplomat was treated with a view he had only seen in pictures. Almost the entire Annapurna range was visible, and he could not wait to go to a higher point to witness the grandeur of the mountains.

Ever since he was appointed the ambassador last year, he had always wanted to visit Pokhara. But, due to work issues and the Covid-19 pandemic, he could not.

As he moved towards the Kaskikot palace, he was even more mesmerised. To the south was the Phewa lake and Pokhara city and to the north was the Annapurna range. Looking at them, he stood there, speechless taking it all in.

I feel fortunate to have been here. The views Ive seen today are amazing, says the ambassador.

Korean ambassador Park Chong-Suk takes a selfie with his wife at Naudanda on Monday. Photo: Yunish Gurung

As many as 11 ambassadors and various other diplomats were in Pokhara earlier this week. They were there to visit the place and to encourage people to come to visit Nepal, post Covid-19. Park Chong-Suk was joined by German Ambassador Thomas Prinz, UN Resident Coordinator Sara Beysolow Nyanti, and various other diplomats. This visit was a part of an initiative by the Gandaki government to promote tourism in the province.

Once-in-a-lifetime moment

According to statistics, around 40,000 Koreans come to Nepal every year. That number now, due to the pandemic, is zero.

I knew Nepal was pretty, but I didnt know it was this beautiful. Ill surely encourage people of my country to come to visit Nepal and immerse themselves in the culture and tradition, said Park.

11 ambassadors and various other international and national diplomats went to Pokhara on a two-day visit on the occasion of Word Tourism Day. Photo: Yunish Gurung

Similarly, German Ambassador Prinz said he was blown away more by the hospitality than the natural beauty of the place. Talking to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief of Protocol Durga Bahadur Subedi, he said this might have been one of the best days of his life.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, he said.

Prinz has been in office for less than a month and was quite happy having had the chance to visit Pokhara in such a short time.

Ive been to many places, but Nepal is incomparable, says Prinz. The natural beauty coupled with the people and their hospitality has left me speechless. Ive never seen that anywhere in the world.

Resolution for tourism revival

The tour, organised on the occasion of World Tourism Day, was primarily aimed at helping Nepals Covid-19-hit tourism industry get back to its previous status following the government announcement to restart the on-arrival visa service.

UN Resident Coordinator Nyanti reached Sarangkot and put up a video, encouraging people who follow her and the world to come to visit Nepal.

Nepal is open, she said in the video as she stood in front of the Annapurna range.

Photo: Yunish Gurung

Apart from hiking to Naudanda, they also visited Davis Fall, indulged in boating in the Phewa lake, visited the Tal Barahi temple and observed the evening aarati. Almost all ambassadors spread the message that Nepal was a safe place to visit. Noah Mehdi Ahmed, Egypts ambassador to Nepal, like everyone, reiterated that she would ask her countrys citizens, who like travelling, to visit Nepal. Around 10 million Egyptians leave the country for holidays every year, she said.

Pertti Anttinen, Finlands head of mission in Kathmandu, stated that Nepal had a lot of promise and added that Nepal is much more than just the Kathmandu valley and the mountains.

Almost all diplomats said that they would be spreading the message that Nepal was safe and open for tourism. Photo: Yunish Gurung

This was the first time that 11 different ambassadors had graced an event like this. Tourism professionals, particularly from Pokhara, feel that this will help boost tourism in Nepal.

Pokhara Tourism Councils vice-president Pom Narayan Shrestha says events like these give tourism entrepreneurs hope because Pokhara will be every tourists second choice after Kathmandu.

Were hopeful things will turn a corner now after the pandemic, says Shrestha.

Even though ambassadors of the US, China and India were also requested to join, none of them came. But, the government has requested them to visit Pokhara soon.
Second annual Rural Renewal Research Symposium is approaching

Media Contact: Alisa Boswell-Gore | Communications Coordinator, OSU Ag Research | 405-744-7115 | alisa.gore@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University will host the second annual Rural Renewal Initiative Symposium on Oct. 12 in a virtual format, uniting researchers from across the U.S. to share current rural renewal research.

Sharing research with colleagues and communities is one of the three aspects of the Rural Renewal Initiative, according to Audrey King, assistant director of the OSU research initiative.

The initiative is a TIER 1 research initiative that began in 2019 and its mission is to catalyze the renewal of rural communities and places in Oklahoma and beyond through interdisciplinary research, student mobilization and community engagement.

The symposium is meant to foster collaboration among rural renewal scientists on issues facing rural communities and bring awareness to this type of research.

Wanting to see rural communities thrive is what inspired this initiative. Many of the problems that rural communities face cannot be solved by one discipline or by one researcher, King said. It takes interdisciplinary efforts, and it takes engaging with the communities themselves. Researchers do not have all the answers, but we are excited to work with communities to help make things happen. We hope this work can be used to help rural communities thrive.

King said the 2021 Symposium will include three pre-sessions from 1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. on Oct. 11 for those interested in the following topics:

An overview of the Rural Scholars Program for Extension educators and community members who are interested in hosting rural scholars during their 10-week summer internships in rural communities where they conduct research and community service.

Tips for writing community grants.

Discussion of the RRI Seed Grant Program, including tips on how to collaborate with others in applying its standards.

To register for the no-cost pre-symposium session, email ruralrenewal@okstate.edu.

The Rural Renewal Research Prize and the Rural Renewal Citizenship Prize will both be awarded as part of the symposium. University of Minnesota Rural Sociologist Ben Winchester will receive the research prize for his brain gain research that uses demographic analysis to understand the nuances of rural population changes and reframe core rural issues.

Through his research, Winchester discovered that rural areas experience slower but steady inclines and that people ages 30 to 49 move in disproportionate numbers to rural areas. JaNae Barnard of Fairview, Oklahoma, will be awarded the citizenship prize for her work as executive director of the Major County Economic Development Corporation and for being Fairviews biggest cheerleader.

The following is the agenda for the 2021 RRI Symposium on Oct. 12:

9 a.m.: Welcome  Kenneth Sewell, OSU vice president for research

9:15 a.m.: Symposium goals and logistics  Tyson Ochsner, RRI co-director

9:30 a.m.: Research to improve rural health care  Mark Woodring, RRI co-director

10 a.m.: Rural scholar presentations  varied

11 a.m.: Research to enhance broadband access and digital literacy  Sabit Ekin and John OHara of electrical and computer engineering and Kristin Olofsson of political science at OSU

1 p.m.: Rural renewal activities in the Oklahoma Association of Electrical Cooperatives

1:15: Rural renewal activities in the American Association of Retired Persons

1:30 p.m.: Rural renewal activities in OSU Extension  Damona Doye, associate vice president of Extension

1:50 p.m.: Rural scholars presentations  varied

3 p.m.: Rural renewal research prize winner recognition and keynote address  Paul Weckler, RRI co-director

3:30 p.m.: Rural renewal citizenship prize winner recognition and acceptance speech  Tom Coon, dean and vice president of the Ferguson College of Agriculture

3:45 p.m.: 2022 Rural Scholars Program update and symposium wrap-up  Shane Robinson, RRI co-director

This years symposium will be held virtually. To participate, register on the symposium website for $25. Oklahomas AARP chapter, the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives and OSU Extension are the event sponsors.

Our symposium went really well last year. We had attendees from nine different states and a couple of different countries, King said. For our rural scholars, it was a great opportunity for them to share the research they make happen. I am excited for those collaborations to continue to grow, and I am excited about these pre-sessions. I think they will include a lot of tangible concepts that participants can readily apply to their own unique, local communities.
Workforce

CDC, NASA seek apps to monitor employee vaccinations

Federal agencies are looking to vendors for ideas on managing the implementation of the Biden administration's executive order requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for federal employees and contractors.

Under the executive order, agencies must require documentation from employees of their immunization record that includes the date of vaccine administration and the name of the health care organization providing the vaccine, according to an FAQ on SaferFederalWorkforce.gov. That documentation can be a paper or digital record that displays the required information.

While agencies must collect information necessary to verify that an employee is fully vaccinated, they may develop their own processes, systems, tools or applications for data collection and maintenance -- provided they allow employees to update their vaccination status and related information, per the FAQ.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a sources sought notice on Monday seeking information from vendors about a providing electronic verification of COVID-19 vaccinations and testing for its workforce of about 25,000 employees.

CDC is looking for what is commonly described as "vaccine passport," although that term appears nowhere in the contracting documents, to verify employee vaccinations and to monitor testing on the approximately 5,000 CDC employees who travel internationally for work every year. Many of these travelers will need to provide authenticated vaccine and testing data upon arrival in certain countries.

The agency wants information on whether a vendor can integrate data from CDC personnel systems and support back-end connections with data from pharmacy chains, state immunization systems and non-public health systems as well as information on whether a vendor's product is recognized and used in the U.S. and abroad. CDC is also interested in whether a vendor will accept a U.S. government travel card for payment in transactions.

NASA is looking to mobile tech for its vaccine passport. The space agency issued a presolicitation on Sept. 21 for technologies and software that could be downloaded to a smartphone that will allow employees to display their vaccination status before entering a NASA facility. The solution must also give agency officials a way to quickly report analytics on the number of employees vaccinated, while simultaneously maintaining the privacy and security of employee data.

Users must be able to manually input data as well as upload a photo of a proof-of-vaccination document and any booster shots. The solution must also allow for results from rapid antigen tests, including the time/date of the test and result, and alert app users to a positive test result and when a completed test is more than seven days old.

To maintain the security and privacy to the data, the app should verify the employee's identity either through biometrics or a scan of a drivers license or other government-issued ID. Uploaded data must be encrypted and converted into a QR code or a color-coded indicator so vaccine status can be easily checked upon entering a NASA facility.

The solution should include a reader or a downloadable smartphone application that can read the QR code in order to identify if an employee meets the criteria.

Aggregated data must be exportable to allow for reports analyzing overall employee vaccination rates, NASA said.

The request for information asks potential vendors if their solution can meet federal data requirements for storing COVID testing data, such as the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for overall cybersecurity and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program for cloud-service security controls.

Responses to the NASA RFI were due Sept. 24. CDC is seeking responses from vendors by Oct. 5.

Portions of this article were originally published in GCN.
FCW Insider: September 29, 2021

The awards, the first since TMF's $1 billion plus-up in the American Rescue Plan Act, are expected to be made public soon.

The maritime military branch opened up its direct commissioning program to cyber roles in cyberspace operations, cybersecurity, information assurance and cyber threat intelligence.

Maj. Gen. Evan Dertien, commander of the Air Force Test Center, said the organization wants rapid software update capabilities for the USAF fleet, but that approach won't work in every use case.

During the 35-day shutdown in 2018, the government's retirement savings system saw a spike in withdrawals from federal employees looking to make ends meet without regular paychecks.

Quick Hits

*** The Cyber Incident Reporting Act, offered Tuesday by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, would require critical infrastructure companies to report cybersecurity breaches to the federal government. The bill builds on similar bipartisan legislation offered in the House of Representatives, according to a committee press release. In addition, Peters and Portman plan an update to the Federal Information Security Modernization Act that would require federal agencies and contractors to report cyberattacks  provisions contained in the Biden administration's May executive order on cybersecurity but not yet enshrined in law.

*** Security screeners employed by the Transportation Security Administration can now appeal adverse personnel actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board, as the result of a memorandum of understanding between the two agencies. TSA security screeners operate outside of typical Title 5 protections under law. The Rights for the TSA Workforce Act, backed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, would codify these changes and other protections for TSA employees.

*** New federal cybersecurity guidance from the National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency cautions technology managers about multiple exploits associated with the use of virtual private networks and outlines steps users can take to use the technology safely.
A government IT 'public benefit corporation' works to benefit the public

Back in late 2017 I published a post, as part of a series about small non-traditional IT contractors, about a small company called Nava, and its founder, Rohan Bhobe. Bhobe had come out of the Silicon Valley and first got involved with the government as part of the Healthcare.gov rescue in 2013. The company was started in 2015.

Nava is organized as a something called a public benefit corporation, which is a legally recognized corporate form with a dual mission to be an economically healthy company and also pursue a social mission written into the founding charter that has as much weight as a corporations fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders.

As the company writes, Being a public benefit corporation isnt too different on the surface from being an average corporation. Were a profitable company and give generous options regardless of role so that everyone can have equity in Nava. Past, present, and future employees are the shareholders of Nava. As shareholders, we all have a voice in Navas future. If, somehow, Nava were to ever stray from our focus on improving government services, Navas shareholders  even if the shareholders were no longer at the company  would have a legal path to hold Nava accountable for its stated mission.

As a public benefit corporation, Navas public mission is to help government design, build, launch and operate digital services that work really well for people. This means two strategic goals for all its work: First, that service experiences should be simple, fast, and accessible to everyone. Second that their products or services should produce outcomes that are effective for their beneficiary population.

Bhobe says, Its not just like Hey, we're a vendor that has X, Y, Z services. Let's just sell more of X, Y, Z services. We have a different north star or way of being organized that flows into different types of decisions we make. For example, if we're thinking about should we bid on X opportunity, we're thinking about that from the perspective of does this represent the type of transformation effort that we are interested in driving? Concretely, they will no-bid work that is not oriented towards those two goals.

Nava just published its third annual public benefit report and sent it to me. It discusses four projects they are working on  for reasons of space, I will discuss two (together these account for somewhat over 10% of the companys business). Both of these projects center around simplifying an existing government service for users.

One of these projects is at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Navas first customer. CMS had seven public-facing websites, each with a different look and feel, that often required users to navigate from one to another to get their questions answered, such as pricing for prescriptions, how to schedule a doctors appointment, or making a copay. The seven sites have now been consolidated into one, and Nava is working incrementally to create a single Medicare experience on the site. An important milestone is to have built an API to allow data formerly on the different sites to talk with each other.

They also designed and launched a new message center that allows CMS to target specific messages to individual beneficiaries. When major eventsglobal (say, a pandemic) or personal (emergency surgery)happen, CMS can act quickly and ensure their beneficiaries have the information they need, when they need it. Global messages can be shared via prominent banners across all Medicare pages. And personal messages can be sent directly to beneficiaries.

The Medicare website redesign work is complex, with several different teams with different skills working on it. Nava was a sub to another non-traditional contractor Ive written about, with the odd name of Oddball. (In my blog at the time, I invited readers to consider the fact there was a government contractor with that name rather than, say, ABC Systems.)

Another project discussed in the Nava report is an effort at the Department of Veterans Affairs , now live in parts of the country, to allow appeals of benefit determination decisions to occur remotely online, rather than requiring the veteran to make a trip to a VA location. Bhobe notes that moving these hearings online was part of the VAs roadmap before the pandemic for where to take the process. Then, when COVID happened and they had to suspend all in-person hearings, within one week, Nava generated a video conferencing link using a new case flow and scheduling system Nava had recently completed, and began piloting it among VA internal users. In October 2020 the VA made it possible for those interested to schedule their hearings virtually.

Not surprisingly, the public benefit report Nava produced discusses only successes. We all know how many IT projects fail, and it is appropriate to ask whether Nava is able to attain an above-average success rate compared with traditional vendors. Nava leaders would say they differ from many traditional vendors in their genuine embrace of agile software development (compared to agile in name only) which mitigates problems (to use Bhobes language) of misalignment and surprise on scope/timeline/resources by making sure that you're continuously shipping working software every day, you're talking to users often, and you're testing your hypothesis and assumptions.

Bhobe also cites the organizations strong cultural commitment to delivering results. But beyond that he gave me no secret sauce for project success.

Nava has grown from 60 employees when I wrote about them at the end of 2017 to roughly 200 employees today  not bad progress for a new player. They have graduated from being a micro-business to a small business.

I can imagine two kinds of objections to this upbeat story about Nava from skeptics, perhaps in industry. They remind me of objections that two career DOD officials were famous for making to shoot down any reform proposal. One, a longtime contracting official, would say, were already doing it. The other, in the general counsels office, would say, its illegal. So some might argue that traditional government contractors already behave like Nava, while others might say that in a fight-for-survival marketplace, such behavior is the road to bankruptcy.

I dont want to weigh in on a discussion of the extent to which the way Nava is behaving is either common or impossible among traditional IT vendors. But I suspect that few traditional contractors would no-bid on work just because it didnt aim to simplify the customers experience, or that they would make an independent judgment about whether the work improves the lives of beneficiaries, rather than just assuming that if the government was bidding the work at all, it must have decided it did good. I invite blog readers in industry and government to ask themselves whether Nava provides any lessons for us.
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --During National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8, seven Austin doctors are being honored as "Best Physicians" for providing exemplary health care to their senior patients. David Gabriel, M.D., Andrew Papendieck, M.D. and Gurneet Kohli, M.D., Premier Family Physicians; Michelle Markley, M.D., Azim Shekarchi, M.D. and Hillary Gwen Miller, M.D., Austin Regional Clinic; and Liam Fry, M.D., Austin Geriatric Specialists; were chosen out of a network of more than 1,000 independent primary care physicians nationwide for helping to improve the lives of their senior patients.

A total of 32 physicians were selected as winners by medical directors at agilon health (NYSE: AGL), a company transforming health care for seniors by empowering primary-care physicians to focus on the entire health of their patients. The criteria for selection included how frequently they met with patients, how much time spent with those who are chronically ill and their efforts to keep patients out of hospitals and emergency rooms.

"These exceptional physicians are really lighting the way and showing how primary care doctors can make a meaningful difference in the lives of their senior patients," said Ben Kornitzer, M.D., chief medical and quality officer at agilon health. "We believe the movement to value-based care like that embraced by these physicians, is a fundamental part of the solution."

Value-based care is a healthcare delivery model that puts doctors in the "driver seat" of patient health outcomes. Also known as advanced primary care or coordinated care, doctors are rewarded for preventing and managing chronic diseases and helping patients improve their health.

Studies have shown a significant relationship between the investment in primary care services and improved efficiency with better patient outcomes. Still, a concerning trend documented by the Primary Care Collaborative shows the decline in funding allocated to primary care services nationwide. This comes at a time when the nation's senior population is rising and there is an even greater need for primary care physicians.

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National Primary Care Week highlights the importance of primary care in the overall U.S. healthcare system.

For more information about agilon health, visit www.agilonhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube.

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SOURCE agilon health
Proceeds to advance CAB-AXL and CAB-ROR2 through potentially registration enabling Phase 2 clinical trials, and additional CAB development programs

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioAtla, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCAB), a global clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development of Conditionally Active Biologic (CAB) antibody therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into stock purchase agreements with a group of institutional investors in connection with a private placement of its common stock. The Company will issue 2.7 million shares of common stock for a purchase price of $28 per share. The transaction is expected to result in gross proceeds to the Company of $75.0 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses. The Company plans to use the net proceeds from the private placement primarily to advance clinical development, medical affairs and commercial preparation, and for general corporate purposes.

BioAtla Logo

Investors in the offering included Great Point Partners, Deerfield Management Company, Cormorant Asset Management, Soleus Capital, Sphera Healthcare, Ikarian Capital, LLC, HBM Healthcare Investments, Monashee Investment Management, LLC, funds managed by Hudson Bay Capital Management, and Pappas Capital.

The closing of the private placement is subject to certain conditions and is expected to occur on or about Thursday, September 30, 2021.

J.P. Morgan acted as lead placement agent and Jefferies acted as co-placement agent for the private placement.

The common stock being sold in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state or other applicable jurisdiction's securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. The Company has agreed to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering the resale of the shares of common stock issued in the private placement.

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This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the common stock, nor shall there be any sale of the common stock in any state in which such offer or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state. Any offering of the common stock under the resale registration statement will only be by means of a prospectus.

About BioAtla, Inc.

BioAtla is a global clinical-stage biotechnology company with operations in San Diego, California, and in Beijing, China through its contractual relationship with BioDuro, a provider of preclinical development services. Utilizing its proprietary Conditionally Active Biologics (CAB) technology, BioAtla develops novel, reversibly active monoclonal antibody and other protein therapeutic product candidates. CAB product candidates are designed to have more selective targeting, greater efficacy with lower toxicity, and more cost-efficient and predictable manufacturing than traditional antibodies. BioAtla has extensive and worldwide patent coverage for its CAB technology and products with more than 500 patents, more than 250 of which are issued. Broad patent coverage in all major markets include methods of making, screening and manufacturing CAB product candidates in a wide range of formats and composition of matter coverage for specific products. BioAtla has two first-in-class CAB programs currently in Phase 2 clinical testing in the United States, mecbotamab vedotin, BA3011, a novel conditionally active AXL-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (CAB-AXL-ADC), and ozuriftamab vedotin, BA3021, a novel conditionally active ROR2-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (CAB-ROR2-ADC). BioAtla's investigational CAB CTLA-4 antibody, BA3071, is a novel CTLA-4 inhibitor designed to reduce systemic toxicity and potentially enable safer combination therapies with checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 antibody. To learn more about BioAtla, Inc. visit www.bioatla.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release contain "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "believe," "will," "may," "should," "estimate," "project," "outlook," "forecast" or other similar words and include, without limitation, statements regarding use of proceeds and the completion and timing of the closing of the private placement. Forward-looking statements are based on BioAtla's current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties related the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to, and the completion of, the private placement and other risks and uncertainties that are described in the section titled "Risk Factors" in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2021. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and BioAtla undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Contact:

Richard Waldron

Chief Financial Officer

BioAtla, Inc.

rwaldron@bioatla.com

858.356.8945

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SOURCE BioAtla, Inc.
TSX Venture Exchange: BSK

Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MAL2

OTCQB Venture Market (OTC): BKUCF

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /CNW/ - Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (TSXV: BSK) (FSE: MAL2) (OTC: BKUCF), "Blue Sky" or the "Company") announces that the Company has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") with AGV Falcon Drilling S.R.L. ("AGV"), an arm's length party, pursuant to which the Company has agreed to issue common shares in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") in satisfaction of ongoing drilling services provided by AGV (the "Services") in the Ivana Central and Norte Projects located in the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina. It is expected that Blue Sky will owe AGV up to an aggregate of US$590,265 as payment for the Services, depending on the number of meters drilled, which is expected to be settled by the issuance of a maximum of 6,356,700 Common Shares in three tranches.

Blue Sky Uranium Corp. Logo (CNW Group/Blue Sky Uranium Corp.)

The Company has received an initial invoice in the amount of $343,843.20 from AGV for Services performed from August 1, 2021 to August 31, 2021 (the "Initial Services"). The Company proposes to issue 1,666,714 Common Shares (the "Shares") to AGV at a deemed issue price of $0.2063 per Share in settlement of the Initial Services. The Agreement, the proposed issuance of the Shares and future issuances of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement are subject to the acceptance of the Exchange.

The Company has a right of first refusal until January 20, 2024 to arrange for the purchase from AGV of any Common Shares issued pursuant to the Agreement, and all Common Shares issued pursuant to the Agreement will be held in escrow by the Company for a period of the earlier of: (i) January 20, 2024; or (ii) the date of completion of the Services.

About Blue Sky Uranium Corp.

Blue Sky Uranium Corp. is a leader in uranium discovery in Argentina. The Company's objective is to deliver exceptional returns to shareholders by rapidly advancing a portfolio of surficial uranium deposits into low-cost producers, while respecting the environment, the communities, and the cultures in all the areas in which we work. Blue Sky has the exclusive right to properties in two provinces in Argentina. The Company is a member of the Grosso Group, a resource management group that has pioneered exploration in Argentina since 1993.

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ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Nikolaos Cacos"

______________________________________

Nikolaos Cacos, President, CEO and Director

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.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects" or "it is expected", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. This document contains statements about expected or anticipated future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, regulatory processes and actions, technical issues, new legislation, competitive conditions, the uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, the occurrence of unexpected events and the Company's ability to execute and implement its future plans. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, the completion of the issuance of the Shares and the approval of the Exchange to the Agreement, to the issuance of the Shares and to the future issuance of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include that the Company does not complete all or any part of the issuance of the Shares or the Company does not receive regulatory acceptance to the issuance of the Agreement, the issuance of the Shares or the future issuance of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement. Accordingly the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward looking statements, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

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SOURCE Blue Sky Uranium Corp.

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CALGARY, AB, Sept. 29, 2021 /CNW/ - Mainstreet Equity Corp. (TSX: MEQ) is Canada's leading real estate corporation on the TSX, specializing in mid-market apartment buildings in western Canada. Today, Mainstreet has responded to the arrival of Afghan refugees with an announcement that they will provide housing assistance. Mainstreet is working alongside Community Agencies that specialize in refugee resettlement to ensure that as many people as possible are assisted.

The offer was made this week by Bob Dhillon, Founder, President and CEO of Mainstreet, following the news in recent months of Afghan refugees looking to escape the Taliban regime and resettle in Canada. "For those fleeing their homeland, there is no higher priority than finding a safe new home. We know this because so many of our teammates and our families have lived this experience," Dhillon said. "People are arriving, and that means they are waiting for homes. After already spending so much time dealing with fear and uncertainty, we want to help them move into the stable comfort of their new homes as quickly as possible."

Mr. Dhillon's family immigrated to Canada from war-torn Liberia in the 1970s while he was a teenager. "As immigrants to Canada, who have prospered in this country, the Mainstreet team felt compelled to do this, to help these people as they embark on the road to better lives in our beloved country. We firmly believe this sort of assistance ultimately helps both the Afghan people in need as well as the people of Canada by contributing to our cultural fabric. Immigration in all forms is absolutely essential to building the economy of Canada and keeping us globally competitive" Dhillon said.



Requests for details regarding placements for this program should be directed to Mainstreet's Partner Agencies:

SOURCE Mainstreet Equity Corporation

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TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 /CNW/ - Ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, CIBC is announcing further commitments to support economic prosperity for Indigenous peoples in Canada under its newly launched Reconciliation Framework.

CIBC Logo (CNW Group/CIBC)

"We must proactively confront our past, and accept the truth about the injustices and systemic racism faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada to move forward," said Victor Dodig, President and CEO, CIBC. "We remain committed to making meaningful change and supporting Indigenous communities and leaders to build a more inclusive future. Our Reconciliation Framework will play an important role in these commitments."

CIBC's Reconciliation Framework, which embeds reconciliation into the bank's client-focused and human capital strategies, is supported by the bank's Reconciliation Action Committee, co-chaired by Jaimie Lickers, Vice-President, Indigenous Markets and the Hon. Lisa Raitt, Vice-Chair, Investment Banking.

The framework aims to promote economic prosperity for Indigenous peoples in Canada through a number of programs and policies, including:

ensuring all project financing affecting Indigenous peoples is in accordance with our commitment to the Equator Principles, including an informed consultation process





working with First Nations, Metis and Inuit leadership to provide practical lending solutions through a customized housing loan program





integrating Indigenous rights into CIBC Asset Management's responsible investing policy and engaging with investee companies on reconciliation

The framework also introduces new initiatives focused on fostering a workplace inclusive of Indigenous values and advancing reconciliation, including:

providing Indigenous team members with five paid days to engage in traditional practices such as hunting, fishing or mourning the death of a community elder





partnering with First Nations University of Canada and Reconciliation Education to develop new eLearning for all CIBC employees in Canada that promotes awareness of the residential school system, its legacy of inter-generational trauma and encourages a conversation about economic reconciliation





closing banking centres and most banking operations on September 30 to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation





setting a new goal that at least 2 per cent of board-approved executive roles in Canada will be held by First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples by 2025

In addition to the above, CIBC also remains committed to investing in Indigenous communities through annual contributions of more than $1.8M supporting scholarships and partnerships like the CIBC STEM Learning Fund with Connected North. Today, CIBC announces an additional $50,000 donation to the Orange Shirt Society, an organization working to support Survivors of the residential school system in Canada.

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About CIBC

CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution with 10 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients. Across Personal and Business Banking, Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets businesses, CIBC offers a full range of advice, solutions and services through its leading digital banking network, and locations across Canada, in the United States and around the world. Ongoing news releases and more information about CIBC can be found at www.cibc.com/en/about-cibc/media-centre.html.

SOURCE CIBC

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Wasting no time, crypto bulls already see last week's banishment of crypto trading by the Chinese government as a boon to the emerging sector. Speaking at Yahoo Finance's Crypto Investing Summit this week, the investor and podcaster, Anthony Pompliano, echoed the sentiment of many longtime investors of the asset class.

The Chinese government banned cryptocurrency activities at least 5 different times before last week, with this most recent action making crypto trading or offering any crypto-related services to Chinese citizens a financial crime. (Here's the official statement from Chinese regulators.) Since the announcement, reports indicate that an exodus like what happened to the country's crypto mining companies back in May is now underway for crypto companies in violation of the law.

Two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Huobi, both halted registrations for new China-based customers over the weekend.

But Pompliano views the crackdown as a positive development, not only for the crypto sector but also for the U.S. economy.

"This is the most American technology that we have today, similar to the internet," Pompliano told Yahoo Finance. "China is making a massive geopolitical mistake here. Now it's up to the United States... If someone is going to benefit from this technology, we better make sure it's us."

After dropping from $45,000 on the news to just below $41,000, bitcoin  now hovering above $42,000  and other major cryptocurrencies show signs of recovery. Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Binance's exchange coin BNB, and Solana (SOL1-USD) all show improvement over the last 24 hours, while Cardano (ADA-USD) and Ripple remain in the red.

To be sure, all of these assets sold off at the beginning of the week. To assume the crypto sector will not see some price reflection from losing Chinese customers is wrong.

Crypto trading on the decline in East Asia

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In light of these concerns, however, geographic data from the blockchain analysis firm, Chainalysis, indicates that East Asia, a region which China dominates, already saw a decline in the growth of its crypto trading relative to other parts of the world.

Over the past year, global crypto transaction volume in North America and a portion of Europe outpaced East Asia, a region which generated the majority of crypto volume the year before. Between January 2020 and July 2021, East Asia's share of worldwide transaction volume fell from 31% to 14%. Though the raw volume of this region still grew, it happened at a much lower rate than the previous year relative to other parts of the world.

Despite China's previous regulatory bans, many investors were concerned about how the country might use crypto to their advantage. For instance, China previously dominated both operations and manufacturing for the crypto mining industry to such an extent that some worried the nation might one day take majority control of bitcoin's network.

As recently as April of this year, billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel also expressed concern for how the government could use Bitcoin to manipulate global monetary policy. "I do wonder whether if at this point bitcoin should also be thought of in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the U.S., he said.

For investors who might have shared Thiel's opinion, this latest move, which followed a similar crackdown targeting China-based crypto mining, might be interpreted as a good thing. Despite price volatility over the near-term, the outright criminalization of crypto in China could lay these fears to rest, at least for cryptocurrency advocates.

Now, by reining in crypto to make way for the country's digital yuan, a central bank digital cryptocurrency (CBDC), the country appears poised to push its monetary policy through the digital yuan. Crypto investors like Pompliano believe this effort could enhance the value of decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Photo by: STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 9/24/21 China's central bank says all cryptocurrency-related activites are now illegal and vows harsh crackdown to violators.

"We should be thanking China for this action," Pompliano said, referring to how China's crypto mining sector had dominated the industry. "The United States now can accelerate and catch up to where China had been."

Regulation to come

Nonetheless, Pompliano's bullish view carries great optimism for how cryptocurrencies will be met by U.S. regulators. After a month of congressional testimonies and heated Twitter debates, U.S. regulators show little sign of altering what continues to look like a harder stance on crypto assets than the country previously exhibited. Some crypto natives are even dramatized it as a "War Against Crypto."

While there's been no talk of outright criminalization of the asset class, the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Securities Exchange Commission and Congress have all signaled a desire to more heavily regulate portions of the asset class. Many U.S. officials, crypto advocates and non-advocates alike agree that regulation remains opaque by relying on much older laws that run inefficiently for the fastest-moving segment of the financial sector.

On Sept. 28 the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) revealed a $1.25 million fine against the crypto exchange Kraken for illegally offering margined commodity transactions in digital assets to U.S. investors. The exchange paid the fine to regulators and expressed a willingness to work with regulators despite a Coindesk report indicating there may have been some question as to whether the exchange could comply with registration law as it stands.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets.
Despite having disrupted most markets in terms of sales and profitability, the pandemic has ignited the minds for building a safer and convenient environment. Making the best of the situation is the connected automotive industry with trending use-cases that build the new normal across consumers.

New York, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Future of In-car Marketplace and Features on Demand-Europe, Voice of Customer, 2020" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06153217/?utm_source=GNW





Adapting to the newer form of travel, Frost and Sullivans Future of In-Car Marketplace and Features on DemandEurope, Voice of Customer aims to explore and evaluate the current use of connected car applications such as in-car marketplace and Feature on Demand (FoD) services among respondents in Europe.In addition, this study will also focus on customer analysis bifurcation by vehicle segment type across different European countries and user-interest and preference in terms of marketplace retail products, Human Machine Interface (HMI) access to marketplace/FoD, FoD attributes and User price elasticity index.



This research will also investigate the most interesting features and use cases across in-car marketplace and FoD for customers in the future.Data was collected by means of a panel-based survey in Europe for France, Italy, UK, and Germany.



A total of 1,856 decision makers or key influencers for connected car services were surveyed to obtain the results.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06153217/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Cockpit segment will lead the overall aviation Satcom market, largely driven by data collection automation to monitor aircraft health in real time

SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis of the global aviation Satcom market finds that it is poised for improved flight operations and connectivity as a result of increased investment in in-flight entertainment. This will improve the passenger experience, enhance safety, and increase the efficiency of flight operations. Catalyzed by the aviation market's shift toward more connected and smart aircraft, the market, comprising of the cockpit segment, cabin segment, and in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC), is estimated to reach $730.4 million by 2030 from $527.2 million in 2020, at a 3.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the industry will likely witness incremental growth through 2023. Air travel is expected to return to pre-pandemic numbers by 2024, and the demand for aviation Satcom will inflate steadily throughout the forecast period.

aviation

From a regional perspective, Asia-Pacific (APAC) will generate the highest revenue for the market over the forecast period. The growth is primarily attributed to China and India, where the demand for domestic travel is high. Similarly, North America will be the second-biggest revenue contributor because most full-service carriers in the US provide premium services. In Europe and the Middle East, most of the demand is from the international market; the demand for Satcom is for long-haul flights.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/6f0

"The cockpit segment will lead the overall market as it will be driven by the automation of data collection to monitor aircraft health in real time," said Waseem Ahmed Khan, Industry Analyst, Aerospace & Defense Practice, Frost & Sullivan. "In addition, airlines' move to provide the latest digital services to enhance their passengers' experience will inflate the demand for both segmentscabin Satcom and IFEC."

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Khan added, "A majority of the airlines are also focused on extracting tangible benefits from a digital transformation program that can include creating new ancillary revenue streams and improving maintenance operations and aircraft turnaround time. Dedicated digital transformation or change management teams are being set up internally by airlines to oversee the execution of their digital transformation strategy."

To tap into the growth prospects created by the digitalization of airlines, Satcom market participants should:

Offer hardware solutions suitable for low earth orbit (LEO) capacities: Satellite operators must develop smaller and cheaper hardware for the Satcom service portfolio by partnering with multiple hardware developers.

Launch new satellites to provide seamless connectivity : Vendors need to determine which satellite mission can be launched from their end to offer seamless global connectivity to airlines.

Partner with LEO satellite operators to provide low-cost capacity to airlines : Geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) satellite operators should partner with LEO satellite operators to offer cheaper services and enhance existing capabilities.

Enhance the passenger experience by providing live content: Satellite operators should partner with live TV channel providers to stream their content onboard the aircraft.

Global Aviation Satcom Growth Opportunities is part of Frost & Sullivan's Global Aerospace & Defense Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion .

Global Aviation Satcom Growth Opportunities

MFF0-66

Media Contact:

Srihari Daivanayagam, Corporate Communications

P: +91 44 6681 4412

E: srihari.daivanayagam@frost.com

https://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare Trust, Inc. ("HTI" or the "Company") today announced the launch of a proposed underwritten public offering of shares of its Series B Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock (the "Series B Preferred Stock"), pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-11 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission"). The underwriters are expected to be granted a 30-day option to purchase additional shares of Series B Preferred Stock. The Company has applied to list the shares of Series B Preferred Stock on The Nasdaq Global Market. The Series B Preferred Stock has received a rating of BBB- from Egan-Jones Ratings Company.

Healthcare Trust Inc. (PRNewsfoto/Healthcare Trust, Inc.)

The Company will use the net proceeds from this offering to repay amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility as required thereunder. Subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the revolving credit facility, the Company may then draw on the revolving credit facility to borrow any amounts so repaid for general corporate purposes, including purchases of additional properties.

The bookrunners for the offering are B. Riley Securities, Janney Montgomery, Ladenburg Thalmann and William Blair. The lead manager for the offering is Colliers Securities LLC. The co-managers for the offering are Aegis Capital Corp., Boenning & Scattergood and Wedbush Securities.

About Healthcare Trust, Inc.

Healthcare Trust, Inc. is a publicly registered real estate investment trust focused on acquiring a diversified portfolio of healthcare real estate, with an emphasis on seniors housing and medical office buildings, located in the United States. Additional information about HTI can be found on its website at www.healthcaretrustinc.com.

Important Notice

This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. A registration statement on Form S-11 relating to the shares of Series B Preferred Stock has been filed with the Commission but has not yet become effective. The shares to be registered may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to these securities may be obtained from B. Riley Securities, Inc. You should direct any requests to B. Riley Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 1300 17th Street North, Suite 1300, Arlington, Virginia 22209, by telephone at (703) 312-9580 or by email at prospectuses@brileyfin.com. You may also obtain a copy of the preliminary prospectus and other documents the Company has filed with the Commission for free by visiting the Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov.

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The proposed offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering. A securities rating is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities and may be subject to revision or withdrawal at any time. Each rating agency has its own methodology for assigning ratings and, accordingly, each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating.

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the outcome to be materially different. In addition, words such as "may," "will," "seeks," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "should" or similar expressions indicate a forward-looking statement, although not all forward-looking statements include these words. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of HTI's registration statement on Form S-11 and other reports filed with the Commission. Further, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and HTI 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 over time, unless required by law.

Contact

Investors and Media:

Email: investorrelations@ar-global.com

Phone: (866) 902-0063

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SOURCE Healthcare Trust, Inc.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lakewood Exploration Inc. (CSE: LWD) (the Company or Lakewood) is pleased to announce that effective at market open on Friday, October 1, 2021, the Companys name will change from Lakewood Exploration Inc. to Silver Hammer Mining Corp.



The Companys common shares will begin trading on the CSE on October 1, 2021 under the new name and the trading symbol for the Company will change from LWD to HAMR. The new CUSIP will be 827733106 and the new ISIN number will be CA8277331069. The share capital of the Company remains unchanged.

No action will be required by existing shareholders with respect to the name change. Certificates representing common shares of Lakewood Exploration Inc. will not be affected by the name change and will not need to be exchanged. There is no consolidation of capital. The Company encourages any shareholder concerns in this regard to be directed to such persons broker or agent.

Silver Hammers President, Morgan Lekstrom stated, We feel that the name Silver Hammer Mining better reflects our commitment to building a multi-asset silver-focused mining company with both large-scale resource growth and near-term production potential, as demonstrated by our recent acquisitions of three highly prospective silver assets in the USA.

Effective this Friday, the Companys new website will be available at www.silverhammermining.com and will showcase the Companys asset base as it grows and provide access to all technical reports, presentations, and investor news.

About Lakewood Exploration Inc.

Lakewood Exploration Inc. is a junior resource company advancing the past-producing Silver Strand Mine in the Coeur dAlene Mining District in Idaho, USA, both the Eliza Silver Project and the Silverton Silver Mine in one of the worlds most prolific mining jurisdictions in Nevada and the Lacy Gold Project in British Columbia, Canada. The Company has commenced an initial drill program at Silver Strand that will test for silver and gold mineralization immediately below the mines lowest level extending only 90 metres below surface. Lakewood strives to become a multi-mine silver producer and will focus near-term exploration and drilling plans at the Companys Idaho and Nevada silver-gold assets.

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On Behalf of the Board of Lakewood Exploration Inc.

Morgan Lekstrom, President

Corporate Office: 551 Howe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2C2, Canada

Contact: Kristina Pillon, President, High Tide Consulting Corp.

604.908.1695 / investors@silverhammermining.com

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the Proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.




Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2021) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (FSE: 9SC2) (OTCQB: MNXXF) ("Manganese X") and Graphano Energy Limited ("Graphano") (TSXV: GEL) are pleased to announce that Graphano has been approved to begin trading through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV" or the "Exchange") to begin on Thursday September 30, 2021 under the trading symbol "GEL".

While Manganese X and Graphano regret the earlier delays with respect to the commencement of trading, they are very pleased that the Exchange has advised that a Bulletin will be issued on September 28, 2021 to announce the commencement of trading on September 30, 2021.

Martin Kepman, CEO of Manganese X, said, "Although the spin-out process has taken much longer than anticipated, it has now come to a successful conclusion, and we are thrilled to announce the commencement of trading of Graphano's shares on the TSXV. We are also pleased to announce that the Graphano shares which were issued at $0.05 per share have been consolidated on a 6.5:1 basis and are now have a revised deemed issuance price of $0.325 per Graphano share."

Luisa Moreno, CEO of Graphano, commented, "While the delays were disappointing and frustrating, the end result is the right one; Graphano will be trading as a Tier 2 mining company of the Exchange, and we look forward to making our many shareholders very happy with the rapid progress that we have planned on the LAB Project. We also intend to be reviewing other possible acquisition opportunities as we are able to identify them with a view to becoming a significant exploration and development company of technology minerals. Please stay tuned."

About Manganese X Energy Corp.

Manganese X's mission is to advance its Battery Hill project into production, with the intent of supplying uncommonly advanced value-added materials to the lithium-ion battery and other alternative energy industries. The company is also striving to achieve new environment-friendly more efficient methodologies, while processing manganese at a lower competitive cost. The company is the only publicly traded manganese company in Canada and the USA moving rapidly toward commercialization of a manganese deposit.

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Subsidiary Disruptive Battery Corp.'s mission is to develop an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) air purification delivery system for cleaner and healthier air, aiming to mitigate COVID-19 and other contaminants on surfaces and in the air. For more information visit the website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

About Graphano Energy Limited

Graphano is a mining company that is focused on evaluating, acquiring and developing graphite resources with potential-from exploration to production. Graphite is one of the most in-demand technology minerals that is required for a green and sustainable world. Graphano has state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly mining technology. Our property, located in Quebec, Canada, has historically been a natural resource for graphite. With the demand for graphite growing in some of the most prominent and cutting-edge industries, such as lithium batteries in electric cars and robotics, we have updated our technology to meet the demands of the future.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

MANGANESE X ENERGY CORP.

Martin Kepman

CEO and Director

Email: martin@kepman.com

Tel: 1-514-802-1814

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

GRAPHANO ENERGY LIMITED

Luisa Moreno

CEO and Director

Email: graphano@gmail.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

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. Certain information in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "potential", "believe", "intend" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (i) the expectations regarding the timing for the listing of Graphano's shares on the TSXV; (ii) statements with respect to the LAB Project; (iii) statements with respect to the commercialization of a manganese deposit; and (iv) the publishing of a Preliminary Economic Assessment with respect to the manganese deposit .

Readers are further cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such forward-looking statements (including, but not limited to, the assumption that (i) all regulatory and stock exchange approvals will be obtained in a timely manner, and on terms acceptable to the companies, and (ii) the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, although evolving, will stabilize and will not materially impede or affect the ability of the companies to achieve its strategic goals, although considered reasonable by management of the companies at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and result in actual results differing materially from those anticipated, and as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks relating to (i) the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the business of the companies, including the mining industry in general, as described in the public filings of the companies on SEDAR; (iii) the companies' potential inability to continue as a going concern; and (iv) risks with respect to a collapse in the value of manganese and lithium.

The foregoing list is not intended to be exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the companies' forward-looking statements or information. Although the companies have 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, described or intended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and the companies do not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws.

Forward-looking statements, forward-looking financial information and other metrics presented herein are not intended as guidance or projections for the periods referenced herein or any future periods, and in particular, past performance is not an indicator of future results and the results of the companies in this press release may not be indicative of, and are not an estimate, forecast or projection of the companies' future results. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97916
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced today that Secretary Elaine Chao will join the Foundation's Board of Trustees. As a member of the organization's board, Chao will assist the Reagan Foundation and Institute in preserving and promoting the legacy of our fortieth President, Ronald Reagan.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute logo (PRNewsfoto/The Ronald Reagan Presidential)

"We are excited to have Secretary Chao join the Reagan Foundation and Institute's Board of Trustees," said Foundation Board Chairman Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. "She embodies what Ronald Reagan believed  that the American Dream is attainable for everyone. With her service on President Reagan's White House team and subsequent positions at the highest levels of our government, Elaine Chao brings a unique and valuable perspective to the Reagan Foundation and Institute."

Secretary Chao served in the Reagan Administration as White House Fellow, Deputy Maritime Administrator at the U. S. Department of Transportation and later Chair of the Federal Maritime Commission. Secretary Chao was the first American of AsianPacific American heritage ever to hold these positions. She also became the first woman of Asian American & Pacific Islander heritage to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation under President George H.W. Bush and later as the Director of the Peace Corps. When President George W. Bush appointed her the 24th U. S. Secretary of Labor, she became the first Asian American woman ever appointed to a President's cabinet in our nation's history. Under President Donald Trump, she became the 18th U. S. Secretary of Transportation.

"Ronald Reagan was a transformational President, one of the most consequential Presidents in the 20th century," said Elaine Chao. "It will be an honor to serve him again, this time as a Trustee for the Foundation that carries on his legacy."

Secretary Chao arrived in the United States in third grade not knowing how to speak English. She received her citizenship at the age of 19. Prior to being U. S. Secretary of Labor, Secretary Chao was President and CEO of United Way of America where she restored public trust and confidence to an organization tarnished by controversy and scandal. She had also worked as a banker in the private sector.

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The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is the nonprofit organization created by President Reagan himself and specifically charged by him with continuing his legacy and sharing his principles - individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy and national pride. The Foundation is a non-partisan organization which sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, CA, the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Presidential Learning Center, The Air Force One Pavilion and the award-winning Discovery Center, as well as the Reagan Institute, which carries out the Foundation's work in Washington, D.C.

The Reagan Library houses over 60 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers, over 1.6 million photographs, a half million feet of motion picture film, 25,000 audio recordings, 22,000 video recordings, and over 83,000 objects chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It also serves as the final resting place of America's 40th President and his First Lady. www.reaganfoundation.org

Media Contact : Melissa Giller

(805) 522.2977

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SOURCE The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute
New funding will further international expansion as company eyes new partnerships and acquisitions

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Semios, a leading precision-farming platform and one of the world's largest independent agtech solutions providers, today announced it has raised $100 million in funding led by Morningside Group , a Boston-based private equity and venture capital firm committed to investing in socially responsible businesses. This funding will enable the agtech provider to accelerate its R&D and deployment of solutions to help growers worldwide reduce chemical inputs, better manage water, organize farming data and improve crop outcomes.

Vancouver-based Semios offers precision agriculture as a service that includes real-time crop data and pest management tools for growers of tree fruit, nuts and other permanent crops (CNW Group/Semios)

"Semios is on a mission to simplify the grower's experience, leveraging big data analytics and machine learning to help them mitigate crop risk so they can focus on growing more food, more sustainably," said Dr. Michael Gilbert, CEO of Semios. "We have seen first hand the challenges our customers are facing in the field  from severe drought and devastating fires, to frost, reduced profitability and an increasing regulatory burden. But, in the face of these challenges, farmers are adapting to meet the nutritional needs of our growing population with new technologies. Our recent acquisitions are aimed at bringing the tools farmers need to manage their crops under one roof. This latest round of funding will help us continue to support the agricultural industry as it faces some of its toughest challenges yet."

To-date, Semios has raised over $225 million in external capital. Last year, Semios announced $100 million in funding , also led by Morningside Group, that bolstered the company's balance sheet for the acquisitions of Altrac , Centricity and Agworld in 2021. The integration of third-party agricultural solutions into its crop management platform is helping growers get the most accurate view of their crop's development as it happens, all in one place, leading to improved decision making and ultimately better crop outcomes amidst a more volatile climate and challenging growing conditions.

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"Morningside invests in companies committed to tackling pressing global challenges head on," said Mick Sawka, Investment Manager at Morningside Group. "The ability to not only maintain but also enhance the sustainability of our food systems amid the complex dynamics of a changing climate is one of the world's most pressing needs of our time. Semios is a leader in helping farmers respond to this challenge and we're proud to stand beside them."

With more than 120 million acres of row and permanent crops under management today, Semios serves growers, agronomists and ag retailers across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South Africa with solutions as diverse as farm management planning, logistics and execution, record keeping, agronomy and automation.

UBS Investment Bank acted as the exclusive placement agent for Semios.

About Semios

Founded in 2010, Vancouver-based Semios offers Precision Agriculture as a Service that started with real-time crop data and pest management tools for growers of tree fruit, nuts and other permanent crops. Leveraging a network of sensors that provide more than 500M data points measuring climate, soil moisture, insect and disease activity daily, we apply big data analytics and machine learning to reduce and mitigate crop risks for growers. Semios has been named to the Global Cleantech 100, an annual list of the 100 most innovative cleantech companies globally, and the Thrive Top 50, list of the 50 leading global AgTech companies. In 2021, Semios acquired Altrac, Centricity and Agworld to form one of the world's largest independent AgTech solutions providers.

Learn more about Semios at www.semios.com.

About Morningside Venture Investments:

Morningside is a diversified investment group founded in 1986 and engaged in private equity and venture capital investments. Morningside is an active investor in early-stage life science companies formed around new technologies that represent a high degree of novelty over existing technologies.

More information is available at www.morningside.com.

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SOURCE Semios
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/-- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a national securities firm rated Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report and headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Austerlitz Acquisition Corp. I ("AUS" or the "Company") (AUS) relating to its proposed merger with Wynn Interactive. Under the terms of the agreement, AUS shareholders will own approximately 18% of the combined company.

The investigation focuses on whether Austerlitz Acquisition Corp. I and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, and 2) whether the transaction is properly valued.

Click here for more information: https://www.monteverdelaw.com/case/austerlitz-acquisition-corp-i. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC Logo

About Monteverde & Associates PC

We are a national class action securities litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders from corporate wrongdoing. We were listed in the Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. Our lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions. Mr. Monteverde is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013, 2017-2019, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017-2020 Top Rated Lawyer. Our firm's recent successes include changing the law in a significant victory that lowered the standard of liability under Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act in the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, our firm successfully preserved this victory by obtaining dismissal of a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted at the United States Supreme Court. Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019). Also, over the years the firm has recovered or secured over a dozen cash common funds for shareholders in mergers & acquisitions class action cases.

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If you owned common stock in the Company and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2021 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

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SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC
SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT), a global climate innovator, took the stage at World Climate Forum (WCF) Asia 2021. Sin Yew Cheng, vice president of Mature Market HVAC business for Trane Technologies Asia Pacific, participated in the panel session Building Climate Resilience: Embracing Innovations for Decarbonized Infrastructure, which included an in-depth discussion with executives from International Energy Agency, Infrastructure Asia under the Singapore government, and Resilient Cities Network.

During the panel, Sin Yew highlighted how Trane Technologies creates green and lower carbon buildings with innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, advances the development of climate-resilient infrastructure, and how the company will meet its bold 2030 Sustainability Commitments.

This is the second consecutive year that Trane Technologies has participated in the WCF Asia event. This year, the company's participation includes four themed events around the world, including WCF Europe in June, WCF North America and WCF Asia in September, and the World Climate Summit/Investment that will take place in November during the United Nations 2021 Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland.

Gigaton Challenge to Meet Sustainability Commitment

Today, 15% of the world's carbon emissions come from heating and cooling buildings, with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) accounting for more than 40% of a commercial building's total energy use. The global demand for HVAC is expected to triple by 2050. There is an urgent need for systematic sustainability actions across industries and society to make infrastructure, including buildings, lower carbon and energy efficient, and resilient to the impact of climate change.

In 2019, Trane Technologies announced its 2030 Sustainability Commitments, including Leading By Example by achieving net-carbon-neutral operations in our own global footprint and the Gigaton Challenge , a pledge to reduce customer carbon emissions by one billion tons (the equivalent of two percent of the world's annual emissions). This includes reducing emissions from its own products and services by nearly 50% by 2030. It is an ambitious target based on a wealth of facts and data, which has been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) aligned with climate science.

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"As a climate innovator, we are providing solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in HVAC," said Sin Yew. "The Gigaton Challenge is not only a big challenge we pose to ourselves and our customers, but also a part of our journey to respond to the escalating challenge of climate change.

To achieve this bold Gigaton Challenge, we have developed a set of three innovative initiatives focusing on HVAC solutions, including refrigerant transition management, addressing system-level energy efficiency, and accelerating electrification of heating and refrigeration. These initiatives will help to comprehensively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating and air conditioning systems."

Trane Technologies has been leading the way of refrigerant transition for many years by developing HVAC solutions applying the next-generation low Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerant for buildings. This effectively guided the HVAC industry to transfer to chillers applying lower GWP refrigerant. Today, Trane Technologies next-generation chillers have been widely used in more than 30 countries. Although most of these countries do not have regulations on the phase-down of high GWP HFC refrigerants in place, Trane Technologies has made itself ready for greener and more energy-efficient building solutions. The company is also pioneering new ways to encourage the collection and destruction of the old high GWP refrigerant gases that are removed from these systems or sitting in containers no longer being used so as to further mitigate the environmental impact.

Beyond the provider of energy-efficient HVAC equipment, Trane Technologies offers a full suite of services focusing on maximizing system-level energy efficiency while meeting our customers' expectations of climate experience and air quality. Additionally, the company's controls paired with building automation help to vastly reduce or even eliminate energy waste, while driving down the emissions intensity of a building or home.

To accelerate the electrification of heating and refrigeration solutions, Trane Technologies already has efficient electrified products on the market, such as the dual-supply household air source heat pump system, to deliver heat for buildings and homes. Trane Technologies' experts can also design custom systems to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of heating systems that reduce fossil fuel use.

Collaborating to Advance the Decarbonized Infrastructure

"A core tenet of Trane Technologies' sustainability strategy is partnering with our stakeholders to minimize our environmental impact," said Sin Yew. "We hope to see more businesses join us. Ultimately, we can change an industry, and an industry can change the world."

To meet the challenge of climate change, Trane Technologies works with a variety of external partners such as government regulators, environment agencies and opinion leaders, and non-governmental organizations on new solutions for the development of better climate-resilient environments. For example, in September 2020, Trane Technologies launched a new Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces (CHES) to convene both internal and external expertise, advocate for the right policies, and bring innovation to market to create a new normal of more sustainable buildings. The company is also a founding member of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), with the mission to improve human health and well-being in buildings.

Trane Technologies has also joined a number of important sustainability pledges and coalitions. This includes a commitment to RE100 and EP100 (100% Renewable Energy and 100% Energy Productivity), the U.N. Environment Cool Coalition, as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Race to Zero international campaign to meet net-zero global emissions by 2050 for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery.

In Asia Pacific, Trane Technologies partners with policy makers and associations including ASHRAE local chapters, HVAC and mechanical engineering associations to phase down high GWP HFC refrigerants, develop green building standards, advocate clean energy plans and electrification strategies. All of these will further accelerate the development of green buildings, strongly promote the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure across the Asia Pacific region, and advance the global decarbonizing process to build a more sustainable future.

About Trane Technologies

Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our environmentally responsible portfolio of products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes, and transportation. Learn more at tranetechologies.com .

SOURCE Trane Technologies
HONG KONG, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tricor Group (Tricor), Asia's leading business expansion specialist and leading provider of professional and corporate services, announced today the launch of Tricor Red, its new Digital Client Portal. Tricor Red is a state-of-the-art, seamless online portal that initiates, updates, and tracks client governance and compliance processes in one convenient platform. Built on leading cloud technologies, Tricor Red empowers Tricor's clients to manage the critical and time-consuming details of corporate governance efficiently, while maintaining easy access to Tricor expertise and support.

The launch of Tricor Red is the latest milestone in Tricor's award-winning digital transformation journey, which began in 2018 with the digitization of back-end processes through robotics processing automation (RPA). Tricor Red brings digitization to the forefront of the client experience, aiming to seamlessly deliver efficient digital solutions to multinational companies (MNCs), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and startups of any size across all industries.

With the majority of Tricor's clients conducting cross-border business, Tricor Red enables enterprises to manage both simple and complex multi-jurisdiction and multi-entity operations. Built on a trilingual platform (English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese), it is also tailored to meet individual user needs and specialized market conditions. Such cross-border versatility ensures clients are operating in accordance with applicable governance, compliance, and statutory requirements.

Anchored by an intuitive, adaptive interface, Tricor Red was designed to deliver efficiency, security, and insight. Most importantly, it solves the most pressing challenges companies face today in a constantly evolving global business environment. For example, it allows clients to consolidate corporate documentation and complete urgent corporate actions via one easy-to use dashboard interface, powered by the latest secure cloud technologies.

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Now available to clients in Hong Kong SAR, Singapore and Malaysia, the Digital Client Portal will soon expand to cover Tricor's entire Asia Pacific and global footprint. Future updates will also include electronic signature integration, 'know your customer' (KYC) services, and further board governance integrations.

Lennard Yong, Group CEO of Tricor Group, said: "At Tricor, our mission is to provide the building blocks for and catalyze every stage of our clients' business growth. To accomplish this in today's shifting business landscape, we must continuously zero in on changing client expectations and deliver innovative solutions that cater to a wide range of market demands. Tricor Red was developed to meet the unique requirements of our clients from a regulatory and compliance perspective across the 21 jurisdictions we operate in."

Adam Stuckert, Group Chief Digital Officer of Tricor Group, said: "Clients are looking for improved business efficiency, lower regulatory risk, and better insight into their businesses. With Tricor Red, we are empowering them to achieve those goals, allowing clients to manage their businesses across multiple jurisdictions and to interact with Tricor digitally by giving them a secure, encrypted, globally accessible platform that is available 24/7."

Joe Wan, CEO of Tricor Hong Kong SAR, said: "By introducing Tricor Red, Tricor is once again demonstrating that we are at the vanguard of delivering superior client experiences. In the long term, Tricor Red will save businesses in Hong Kong critical time and resources by enhancing compliance with cutting edge technology."

Ho Lon Gee, CEO & Managing Director of Tricor Singapore, said: "With Tricor Red, we have designed a proprietary solution that centralizes our award-winning service into a single, front-end platform so our clients can customize and maximize how we serve them. By simplifying operational processes, such as compliance and governance, our clients can then dedicate more time and resources to core business activities."

Yeap Kok Leong, CEO & Managing Director of Tricor Malaysia & Labuan, said: "Tricor Red disrupts the status quo, leading to better information sharing and a collaborative, adaptive client experience. It serves as a centrally unified and readily accessible platform for our clients to use as they streamline their operations and expand their businesses across Asia Pacific."

For more information, please contact:

HONG KONG SAR (GROUP OFFICE)

Sunshine Farzan

Tricor Services Limited

Group Head of Marketing & Communications

Tel: +852 2980 1261

Email: Sunshine.Farzan@hk.tricorglobal.com

About Tricor Group

Tricor Group (Tricor) is Asia's leading business expansion specialist, with global knowledge and local expertise in business, corporate, investor, human resources & payroll, corporate trust & debt services, and governance advisory. Tricor provides the building blocks for clients' business growth, from incorporation to IPO. Tricor has had a rapid expansion through organic growth and development as well as partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. The Group today has ~50,000 clients globally (including ~20,000 clients in Mainland China), a staff strength of over 2,800 and a network of offices in 47 cities across 21 countries / territories. Our client portfolio includes over 2,000 listed companies in Hong Kong SAR, Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, and more than 40% of the Fortune Global 500 companies, as well as a significant share of multinationals and private enterprises operating across international markets.

Visit: www.tricorglobal.com

SOURCE Tricor Group
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) will report third-quarter 2021 earnings on Wednesday, October 20.



The company will present results on a webcast beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Access instructions and presentation materials, including Verizons earnings news release and financial tables, will be available at 7:30 a.m. on Verizons Investor Relations website, https://www.verizon.com/about/investors.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the worlds leading providers of technology, communications, information and entertainment products and services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $128.3 billion in 2020. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.

VERIZONS ONLINE MEDIA CENTER: News releases, stories, media contacts and other resources are available at verizon.com/news. News releases are also available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/.

Media contact:

Eric Wilkens

Eric.wilkens@verizon.com

201.572.9317

@ericwilkens




Hundreds of traders rallied in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, on September 29 to demand the government scrap new tax laws. The new laws introduced on September 19 give tax authorities the power to disable the mobile phone SIM cards or disconnect the electricity and gas supplies of anyone who is required to file a tax return but who does not appear on a so-called "Active Taxpayer List."
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Kind. Inspirational. Authentic. These are some of the words used by those who knew Jesse Brown Jr., a minister, activist and NAACP leader in the Colorado Springs community.

Brown, died Monday at 79-years-old, according to public records. He was an icon for decades among the Colorado Springs faith community as well as a pillar of support for civil rights and housing activism in the city, NAACP State President Rosemary Lytle said.

"He would describe faith life as a flourishing green tree," Lytle said. "And if that is a tree, then a green flourishing tree has fallen, and it will leave a void in the community."

Brown, originally from Florida, graduated from the music education program at historically Black Florida A&M University and Howard School of Divinity in Washington D.C., according to his LinkedIn account.

During his time in Colorado, Brown reached out to Mike Edmonds, Senior Vice President & Chief of Staff at Colorado College, to offer his support, a service he often set out to provide for schools and organizations throughout the city.

"I worked with pastor Brown to foster community in Colorado Springs," Edmonds said. "I really had the highest level of respect for him as a mentor and man of great integrity."

Brown ministered at Payne Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church for nearly 20 years while in Colorado, The Gazette previously reported. When Brown died he had been actively serving as the minster at Christ Temple Community Church, where he preached, sang and taught.

"He was so excellent at empowering the next generation," Lytle said. "The best thing we can do is to continue his work."

Much of Brown's work consisted of advocating and establishing affordable housing in Colorado Springs. His vision focused on providing affordable housing that was not relegated to one spot in the city and strived to serve mixed incomes, Lytle said.

Brown ran for city council but was not elected. His attempt to run built awareness for the need for diversity within city government, Lytle said.

In 2017 Brown served as the Colorado Springs' NAACP branch president until the start of 2021. He was named a "living legend" during his time with the organization.

Brown's legacy extended beyond his public roles. For those who knew his home life he was "loving and caring," Delia Armstrong Busby, chair of the Colorado Springs Human Relations Commission, said.

Brown's wife, June Christine Brown, died two months prior to his death, Lytle said.

"They were inseparable in life," Lytle said.

June suffered from asthma and Brown would often drive her to Denver for weekly appointments, Busby said.

"He believed it was important to be the best human being you could be," Busby said. "He lived that."
After years without a shooting range to call its own, the Colorado Springs Police Department is again eyeing plans for a regional training facility in the city.

With an agreement between the city and Pikes Peak Community College approved by Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday, the department has tentatively inked plans to revive the colleges campus shooting range, again turning it into a training facility for recruits and other regional law enforcement agencies.

The campus range, and the previous agreement saying local officers could use it for training, was abandoned by law enforcement agencies in 2016 after they found it couldnt sustain the amount of law enforcement officers using it, and heavy rains damaged the facility.

Around 15 agencies, or 1,500 officers, had been using the range at that time, as part of an agreement that had been in place since the early '90s.

The loss of the campus range prompted several years of ill-fated inter-governmental planning with other local agencies for Colorado Springs police, who still needed to reestablish a regional training facility. Often, police chief Vince Niski said during a Monday city council meeting, plans fell through because of lackluster funding.

On Tuesday, the departments long-stalled hope seemingly came to pass as city council locked in a 30-year deal with the college to revive the range.

"The range was great for us for almost 25 years, its great for them, Niski said. Rather than build a whole new range, it just seemed more opportunistic on our part to repartner with them.

Students enrolled at Pikes Peak Community College are being given top priority for range access, with Colorado Springs police and other local agencies, like Woodland Park police or Colorado State Patrol, next on the priority list.

Anyone else, the agreement states, will need qualified range personnel to help them, and may be charged by the college to use the facility.

To get the range up and running, the police department has set aside $5 million, leftovers from a previous effort with the sheriffs office and Fountain police to set up a training facility, for the first five years of the agreement.

That $5 million, police said, is planned for several improvements for the range, including a new classroom specifically designed for police to train new recruits.

Theyll also revamp the existing range, installing a new target system and combining two individual ranges into one with 30 firing lines. The city also planned to look at installing a new parking lot, modern training facilities like a shoot house for scenario training, and sound barriers.

Were trying to make it a state-of-the-art range that both Pikes Peak Community College and CSPD can utilize, Niski said.

The college, on the other hand, has committed to tackling erosion issues at the facility, after heavy rains threatened the classroom in 2016. Theyll also be fronting all maintenance costs, to later be split with the city.

I think were getting in on the front end of a real good collaboration, Niski said. It just seems like an important partnership for both of us.

The agreement approved by city council is headed to mayor John Suthers desk, where itll need his signature.

In the meantime, a police spokesman said Monday, the department is working to draw up plans for range improvements and set a timeline to get it up and running.
El Paso County commissioners on Tuesday approved four new metropolitan districts that will fund a proposed subdivision of more than 3,200 homes in Peyton, a move some locals say could alter the areas small-town feel as thousands of expected residents move in.

Commissioners voted unanimously to form the metropolitan districts that propose issuing $295 million in debt over 30 years to build the planned Grandview Reserve subdivision on about 768 acres between U.S. 24 and Eastonville Road, near Falcon Regional Park.

Grandview Reserve developers expect to build up to 3,260 single-family homes in the new subdivision over 14 years, said Russell Dykstra of law firm Spencer Fane LLC, representing developer 4 Site Investments LLC. About 244 homes would be built each year from 2022 through 2032 before construction gradually tapers down between 2033 and 2036, according to meeting documents. Previously, anticipated build-out was planned to occur over eight years.

County planner Kari Parsons said homes were expected to sell on average for about $340,000. Developers will charge each future property owner special district taxes to finance the $295 million debt. Owners of a newly built $400,000 home in the subdivision could owe about $1,859 in taxes annually, Dykstra said.

The proposal presented Tuesday was revised from a previous request to form five new metropolitan districts that proposed issuing $250 million in debt to build the new development. Parsons said developers now proposed issuing $295 million in debt because of increased construction costs.

County commissioners denied the developers original request last October, saying they were legally bound by state law not to form the districts because, they argued, the adjacent 4-Way Ranch Metro District No. 2 already existed and could serve Grandview Reserve.

Developers contended several other nearby districts  including the 4-Way Ranch, Meridian Ranch and Woodmen Hills metro districts  cannot support nor pay for traffic, water and storm drainage improvements planned for the area, meeting documents show.

In a March 31 letter addressed to commissioners and included in meeting documents Tuesday, the 4-Way Ranch Metropolitan District said it cannot provide services to the proposed Grandview Reserve subdivision because it does not have enough water. The district also said forming four new Grandview Reserve Metropolitan Districts would provide an economic alternative for services and would eliminate undo [sic] financial burden on the 4-Way Ranch Metro District No. 2.

The Grandview Reserve Metro District would provide water to the Grandview Reserve subdivision, which needs about 1,200 acre-feet a year, developers said. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land to a depth of about one foot and is considered the amount needed by a family of four for about a year.

The metro district would source mostly from the Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hills aquifers, but offsite wells from neighboring lands owned by 4 Way Ranch will likely be needed for full development, meeting documents show.

Mirko Cruz of Trout Raley law firm, representing the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District, said the developer hasnt provided sufficient evidence that the new metro district owns or controls adequate water rights to service the development. Developers have a purchase and sale agreement for a portion of the water needed to meet the subdivisions demands but it doesnt prove their guaranteed right to use the water, he said.

The Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water District regulates use of groundwater in the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Basin, spanning 350 square miles of east-central El Paso County from Black Forest to just south of Ellicott. Underlying the Black Squirrels alluvial aquifer are the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers, which include the Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hills aquifers.

But Dykstra said because the districts are not yet legally formed they cannot contractually or otherwise be in any agreement to acquire the water that they will use to serve the property. The applicant has agreements to acquire additional water rights as the development is built out, which the metro districts will eventually acquire, he said.

Assistant County Attorney Lori Seago told commissioners the developer is required at future stages of development to submit a report detailing how much water the district has and the source of its water rights.

Cherokee Metropolitan District will provide wastewater services to the subdivision, developers said.

Terri Lundy, owner of Sew So Sweet Quilt Shop on Front Street in Peyton, said she didnt think there was enough water in the region to support more than 3,200 additional homes.

It seems to be drier.  There are a lot of agriculturally based people here and that will affect them a lot, she said.

Lundy and other locals agreed Tuesday the new Grandview Reserve development would generally be good for the economy, bolstering existing businesses and encouraging new ones to open. But they lamented that thousands more people expected to move to the area could make it more metropolitan.

I think it will definitely change the character of the area a bit, especially bringing more traffic, said Nina Sotelo, a barista at Coffee Shack Brew & Q on East U.S. 24.

Audra Pearce, the coffee shops manager, said overall she thinks the development will be positive for Peyton and would draw more people looking for a family-type of atmosphere in an area of El Paso County that has already seen recent growth.

Its community. Its hometown. Its small, Lundy said. We take care of each other, but if more people move in, we could see that change.

This article has been updated to correct the maximum debt amount authorized to fund construction of the Grandview Reserve subdivision.
McAuliffe says parents shouldnt tell schools what to teach, handing Youngkin a campaign ad
Afghan army collapse 'took us all by surprise,' U.S. defense secretary says
FILE PHOTO: A Huawei logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China February 23, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
We hear a lot about equity, and we only know Colorado antithesizes the concept. A recent purchase by South Park creators Trey Parker and M
A Denver judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of police officers seeking to challenge a mandate requiring city employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30, saying they did not follow the proper process to appeal the order administratively before bringing their challenge to court.
This Gazette file photo shows a room at Children's Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs, which has six of 24 beds in the emergency department dedicated to mental health patients. But with increasing demand for services, regular medical beds are sometimes used for mental health cases. (Gazette file photo)
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Categories of Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process information that relates to identified or identifiable individuals ("Personal Data"). We collect and process the following categories of Personal Data (note, specific Personal Data elements listed in each category are only examples and may change):

Identity Data: Personal Data about you and your identity, such as your name, and other Personal Data you may provide on various forms or in an account profile (e.g. biographical information), or during an interview with our reporters. Commercial Data: Personal Data we collect in connection with a transaction or purchase, such as the item or subscription purchased, the price, the delivery location, what has been provided to you, and other similar information. Contact Data: Personal Data used to contact an individual, e.g. email address, physical address, phone number, or social media or communications platform username, as well as a name or other salutation. Financial Data: Personal Data relating to financial accounts or services, e.g. a credit card or other financial account number, and other relevant information you provide in connection with a financial transaction. Device/Network Data: Personal Data relating to your device, browser, or application e.g. IP addresses, MAC addresses, application ID/AdID/IDFA, session navigation history and similar browsing metadata, search history, and other data generated through applications and browsers, including cookies and similar technologies. Inference Data: Personal Data used to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes, market segments, likes, favorites and other data or analytics provided about you or your account by social media companies or data aggregators, including household data such as income, number of children, occupation, social grade, home ownership status, the products and services you use or intend to use or purchase, and your interests. User Content: Unstructured/free-form data that may include any category of Personal Data, e.g. data that you give us in free text fields such as comment boxes, answers you provide when you participate in sweepstakes, contests, votes and surveys, including any other Personal Data which you may provide through or in connection with our Services. Audio / Visual Data: Audio files and records, such as voicemails and, call recordings; audio-visual recordings of interviews or events by our reporters or staff, and the like.

Sources of Personal Data

We collect Personal Data from various sources, which vary depending on the context in which we process that Personal Data:

Data you provide us We will receive your Personal Data when you provide it to us, when you subscribe to our Publications, complete a transaction via our Services, or when you otherwise use our Services, or when you communicate with our reporters or other staff. Data we collect automatically We collect Personal Data about or generated by any device you have used to access our Services. Data we receive from service providers We receive Personal Data from service providers performing services on our behalf. Data we receive from aggregators and advertisers We receive Personal Data from ad networks, behavioral advertising vendors, market research, and social media companies or similar companies that provide us with additional Personal Data such as Inference Data. Data we receive from social media companies We receive Personal Data from Facebook and other social media companies who may transfer Personal Data to us when you register for one of our Services or interact with that social media company on or in connection with our Services. Data we create and infer We, certain partners, social media companies, and third parties operating on our behalf create and infer Personal Data such as Inference Data based on our observations or analysis of other Personal Data processed under this Privacy Policy, and we may correlate this data with other data we process about you. We may combine any Personal Data about you that we receive from you, and from third parties.

How We Process Personal Data

We or our service providers typically collect and process Personal Data in several contexts when you use our Services, including:

When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service

We generally process Identity Data, Financial Data, Commercial Data and Contact Data when you engage in a purchase transaction with our Services, or when you otherwise create an account and register with our Service, whether through our Digital Services or our Offline Services. We process this Personal Data as necessary to perform or initiate a contract with you, process your order and payment, engage in customer service functions, and carry out fulfillment and delivery. In addition, we may also collect or create Device/Network Data and Inference Data. This data, together with other data we collect in this context is used as necessary in connection with certain legitimate business interests, such as:

ensuring the security of our Services and to prevent fraud;

providing you with information about our Services, to contact you about administrative matters, to manage and respond to any queries or complaints you make or any correspondence you send us.

We may also use this Identity Data, Commercial Data, Contact Data, and Device/Network Data collected in this context for our Commercial Purposes.

When you access or use our Digital Services

When you use our Digital Services, we automatically collect and process Device/Network Data. We use this data as necessary to initiate or fulfill your requests for certain features or functions through our Services, such as keeping you logged in, delivering pages, etc. In addition to Device/Network Data, we may also collect and process Contact Data, Identity Data and Inference Data that we collect, create, and/or receive (including through the use of cookies and similar technologies), including if you sign up to receive our emails or other content. We typically use this data as necessary in connection with certain legitimate business interests, such as:

ensuring the security of our websites and other technology systems;

analyzing the use of our Services, including navigation patterns, clicks, etc. to help understand and make improvements to the Services.

Some Digital Services, such as our mobile apps, may, with your consent, process Location Data. We use this data, together with Inference Data, and Device/Network Data in order to provide contextual information to you, and other features that require the use of location. We may also use this information in connection with our legitimate business interests, such as, creating aggregate information about users' location and patterns, which we use to help improve our Services. We may also process Identity Data, Contact Data, and User Content if you interact with or identify us on social media platforms.

We may also use Identity Data, Device/Network Data, Location Data, Inference Data and Contact Data collected in this context for Commercial Purposes.

Cookies and other tracking technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our Digital Services. These technologies can be used to collect or create Identity Data, Device/Network Data, Contact Data, or Inference Data. Third parties may be allowed to view, edit, or set their own cookies or place web beacons on our websites. Cookies and web beacons allow us and third parties to distinguish you from other users of our Digital Services, and some of these technologies can be used by us and/or our third party partners to identify you across platforms, devices, sites, and services. Third parties may engage in targeted advertising using this data.

We and authorized third parties may use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

for "essential" or "functional" purposes, such as to enable certain features of our Digital Services (for example, to allow a customer to maintain a basket when they are shopping at an online store);

for "analytics" purposes, such as to analyze the traffic to and on our Digital Services (for example, we can count how many people have looked at a specific page, or see how visitors move around the website when they use it, what website they visited prior to visiting our website, and use this information to understand user behaviors and improve the design and functionality of the website);

for "retargeting" or similar advertising or commercial purposes, such as: for social media integration e.g. via third-party social media cookies, or when you share information using a social media sharing button or "like" button on our Services or you link your account or engage with our content on or through a social networking website such as Facebook or Twitter; to collect information about your preferences and demographics to help target advertisements which are more likely to be of interest to you using behavioral advertising; and to allow us to carry out retargeting (this includes, for example, when advertisements are presented to you for products or services which you have previously looked at on a website but have not purchased).



The use of these technologies by third parties may be subject to their own privacy policies and is not covered by this Privacy Policy, except as required by law.

We may also use your Identity Data, Device/Network Data, Inference Data and Contact Data collected in this context for Business Purposes and Commercial Purposes.

When you enter a contest or other promotion

We collect and process Identity Data, Contact Data, and User Content as necessary to process your request to enter the contest, or take part in a promotion, notify you if you have won or to process delivery of a prize or for other related purposes.

In addition, we may process this information in connection with our legitimate business interests, such as:

verifying your identity for authentication and security purposes; and

helping us to ensure our customers are genuine and to prevent fraud.

Note, if you win a contest/sweepstakes, we may publicly post some of your Personal Data on our website. Where required by law, your information will not be posted without your consent. Unless prohibited by law, we may use this Identity Data, Contact Data, and User Content information for Commercial Purposes.

When you contact us or submit information to us

We collect and process Identity Data, Contact Data, and any Audio Visual Data or User Content you provide as necessary to address your request, fulfill the business purpose for which that information was provided, or for other related purposes. We may use information collected in the process of developing our editorial content for those purposes (e.g. information collected during an interview will be used in the resulting article, or may be used in order to contact a source of relevant information). Additionally where you consent, if relevant to your request (such as an inquiry regarding a product, service, etc.) or if otherwise permitted by law, we may send you marketing communications as described further below, and use this information for Commercial Purposes.

Feedback and Surveys

We generally process Identity Data, Contact Data, Inference Data, and User Content collected in connection with feedback you provide to us, or surveys or questionnaires. We generally process this Personal Data as necessary to respond to your requests/concerns, and create aggregate analytics regarding customer satisfaction. We may also use the Identity Data, Contact Data, Inference Data, and User Content collected in this context for Business Purposes and Commercial Purposes.

How we Process Personal Data for Business Purposes

We and our service providers process Personal Data we hold for numerous business purposes, depending on the context of collection, your rights and choices, and our legitimate business interests. For example, we generally process Personal Data in connection with:

Service Provision and Contractual Obligations

We process any Personal Data as is necessary to provide our Services, to provide you with the products and services you purchase or request, to authenticate users and their rights to access the Services, or various data, features, or functionality, and as otherwise necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, and provide you with the information, features, and Services you request. Additionally, we use information to authenticate your right to access our Services, deliver products and Services, and for other related matters. Similarly, we may use Personal Data as necessary to audit compliance, and log or measure aspects of service delivery (e.g. to document ad impressions).

Internal Processing and Service Improvement

We may use any Personal Data we process through our Services as necessary in connection with our legitimate business interests in improving the design of our Services, understanding how are Services are used or function, for customer service purposes, in connection with logs and metadata relating to service use, and for debugging and similar purposes relating our identification of errors and improving the stability of the Services, and for editorial purposes, including creating content for our Services . Additionally, we may use Personal Data to understand what parts of our Services are most relevant to users, how users interact with various aspects of our Services, how our Services perform, etc., or we may analyze use of the Services to determine if there are specific activities that might indicate an information security risk to the Services or our users.

Security and Incident Detection

We may process any Personal Data in connection with our legitimate business interest in ensuring that our Services are secure, and identify and prevent fraud, detect security incidents, protect against, and respond to malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity. We may analyze network traffic, device patterns and characteristics, maintain and analyze logs and process similar Personal Data in connection with our information security activities.

Compliance, safety, public interest

We may also process any Personal Data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, such as where you exercise your rights under data protection law and make requests, for the establishment and defense of legal claims, or where we must comply with our legal obligations, lawful requests from government or law enforcement officials, and as may be required to meet national security or law enforcement requirements or prevent illegal activity. We may also process Personal Data to protect the vital interests of individuals, or on certain public interest grounds, each to the extent allowed under applicable law. Please see the data sharing section for more information about how we disclose Personal Data in extraordinary circumstances.

Aggregated data

We process Personal Data about our customers and users in order to identify trends (to create aggregated and anonymized data about our customers/users, use of our Services, and other similar information ("Aggregated Data"). We may pass Aggregated Data to the third parties referred to in the section below to give them a better understanding of our business and to bring you a better service. Aggregated Data will not contain information from which you may be personally identified.

Personalization

We process certain Personal Data as necessary in connection with our legitimate business interest in personalizing our Digital Services. For example, aspects of the Digital Services may be customized to you, to display content that you have interacted with in the past, or to display content that we think may be of interest to you based on your interactions with our Digital Services and other content. This processing may involve the creation and use of Inference Data relating to your preferences.

Other Business Purposes

If we process Personal Data in connection with our Services in a way not described in this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice will still apply generally (e.g. with respect to your rights and choices) unless otherwise stated at collection. We will process such information in accordance with the notice provided at the time of collection or in a manner that is necessary and proportionate to achieve the operational purpose for which the personal information was collected or processed or for another operational purpose that is compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected.

How We Process Personal Data for Commercial Purposes

We and certain third parties process Personal Data we hold for certain purposes, depending on the context of collection and your rights and choices, including:

Personalization & Consumer Profiles

In order to understand our customers' preferences, and better recommend content and Services that are personalized to our customers, we may create a "Consumer Profile" by linking together and analyzing Personal Data collected in the following contexts:

We may also augment Consumer Profiles with Personal Data that we create (such as Inference Data) or that we receive from our affiliated companies or third parties, and may include Personal Data such as information about Services you have used or purchased previously, and demographic data.

We use Consumer Profiles for our legitimate interests in market research and statistical analysis in connection with the improvement of our Services. For example, we may analyze the Personal Data of people who have subscribed to our Publications in the past, and compare them with other people in our database. If we identify people in the database who have similar Personal Data to the subscribers, we may then target marketing to the new people we have identified in our database, for example by sending marketing emails. We may conduct the profiling and send the direct marketing emails automatically. We may also use this information for other Commercial Purposes.

Marketing Communications

Consistent with our legitimate business interests, we (or if appropriate, our third-party partners) may send you marketing and promotional communications if you sign up for such communications or purchase products or services from us. Where allowed, we may also send you these communications if you register for our Services or for a promotion, or in connection with your communications with or submission of User Content to us. These communications may be personalized or customized based on your user profile.

Similarly, we may also collect Device/Network Data and Contact Data so that we can determine whether you have opened an email or otherwise interacted with our communications, and we may generate Inference Data based on these interactions.

We may also process this Personal Data for targeted advertising. However, where consent to processing is required by law, we will link and process this information for targeted advertising with appropriate consent.

Targeted Advertising

We, and certain third parties operating on or through our Services, may engage in targeted advertising. This form of advertising includes various parties and services providers, including third party data controllers, engaged in the processing of Personal Data in connection with advertising. These parties may be able to identify you across sites, devices, and over time.

The parties that control the processing of Personal Data for behavioral advertising purposes may create or leverage information derived from personalization and profiling. In some cases, these parties may also develop and assess aspects of a profile about you to determine whether you are a type of person a company wants to advertise to, and determine whether and how ads you see are effective. These third parties may augment your profile with demographic and other Inference Data derived from these observations, and may also track whether you view, interact with, or how often you have seen an ad, or whether you complete a purchase for a good or services you were shown in an advertisement.

We generally use targeted advertising for the purpose of marketing our Services and third-party goods and services, to send marketing communications, including by creating custom marketing audiences on third-party websites (such as Facebook).

Data Sales

Certain Commercial Processing purposes involve "sales" of data as defined by applicable law. For example, we may "sell" (as defined by applicable law) certain Personal Data when we engage in marketing campaigns with or on behalf of sponsors, when we conduct targeted advertising, or we may sell or grant access to Personal Data to our marketing partners, promoters, and other advertisers. See the California Rights & Disclosures section for a list of categories of Personal Data sold.

Data Sharing/Transfers

Information we collect may be shared with a variety of parties, depending upon the purpose for and context in which that information was provided. We generally transfer data to the following categories of recipients:

Service Providers: In connection with our general business operations, product/service improvements, to enable certain features, and in connection with our other legitimate business interests and our Business Purposes, we may share your Personal Data with service providers who provide certain services or process data on our behalf. Affiliates: In order to streamline certain business operations, improve personalization, share promotions and content we believe would be of interest to you, and develop products and services that better meet the interests and needs of our customers, we may share your Personal Data with any of our current or future affiliated entities, subsidiaries, and parent companies for our Business Purposes and Commercial Purposes. Partners: We may share your Personal Data with business or marketing partners in connection with promotions, events, products, and services that are promoted, managed, supported, or otherwise undertaken with that third party, and other Commercial Purposes. If appropriate, these parties may engage in direct marketing or behavioral advertising. Marketers: In order to improve personalization, deliver more relevant information and advertisements to you, and develop better products and services, we may share certain Personal Data with our affiliates and trusted third parties for marketing, advertising, or other Commercial Purposes, and we may allow our affiliates and other third parties (such as Facebook, ad exchanges, data management platforms, or ad servers) to operate on our Digital Services and process data for behavioral advertising. Social Media: If you use any social media plugin, API, or other similar feature, use a hashtag or similar link, or otherwise interact with us or our Digital Services via social media, we may make your post available on our Digital Services or to the general public. We may share, rebroadcast, or redisplay Personal Data or other information in the post to the extent permitted by the relevant social media service and otherwise use the data for our Commercial Purposes. In addition, in order to improve personalization, deliver more relevant advertisements, and develop better products and services, we may share certain Personal Data with current or future affiliated entities and trusted third parties for marketing, advertising, or other commercial purposes, and we may allow third parties (such as Facebook and social media advertisers, ad exchanges, data management platforms, or ad servers) to operate on our Services and process data for targeted advertising. These transfers may be made for Commercial Purposes and in connection with Data Sales Data Aggregators: In connection with our marketing operations, and subject to your rights and choices, we may share certain Personal Data with data aggregators for Commercial Purposes and in connection with Data Sales. These disclosures/sales can help better personalize our Services, the services of third parties, enrich Consumer Profiles and help ensure that you see advertisements that are more relevant to your interests. Successors: Your Personal Data may be processed if we go through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition, liquidation, or sale of all or a portion of our assets. For example, Personal Data may be part of the assets transferred, or may be disclosed (subject to confidentiality restrictions) during the due diligence process for a potential transaction. Lawful Recipients: In limited circumstances, we may, without notice or your consent, access and disclose your Personal Data, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that we may have about you to the extent we believe such disclosure is legally required, to prevent or respond to a crime, to investigate violations of our Terms of Use, or in the vital interests of us or any person. Note, these disclosures may be made to governments that do not ensure the same degree of protection of your Personal Data as your home jurisdiction. We may, in our sole discretion (but without any obligation), object to the disclosure of your Personal Data to such parties. International: We operate in and use service providers located in the United States. If you are located outside the U.S., your Personal Data will be transferred to the U.S. by necessity in order to deliver the Services to you. The U.S. does not provide the same legal protections guaranteed to Personal Data in the European Union or certain other regions. Accordingly, your Personal Data may be transferred to the U.S. pursuant to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, the Standard Contractual Clauses, or other adequacy mechanisms, or pursuant to exemptions under EU law.

How we protect your Personal Data

We follow and implement reasonable security measures to safeguard the Personal Data you provide us. However, we sometimes share Personal Data with third parties as noted above, and we do not have control over third parties' security processes. Please note, we do not warrant perfect security and we do not provide any guarantee that your Personal Data or any other information you provide us will remain secure. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access one of our Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Data Retention

We retain information for so long as it, in our discretion, remains relevant to its purpose, and in any event, for so long as is required by law. We will review retention periods periodically, and may sometimes pseudonymize or anonymize data held for longer periods, if appropriate and requested.

Minors

Our Services are neither directed at nor intended for use by minors under the age of 16. Further, we do not knowingly collect Personal Data from such individuals. If we learn that we have inadvertently done so, we will promptly delete it. Do not access or use the Services if you are not of the age of majority in your jurisdiction unless you have the consent of your parent or guardian.

Your Rights & Choices

You may have certain rights and choices regarding the Personal Data we process. Please note, these rights may vary based on the country or state where you reside, and our obligations under applicable law.

Additional information regarding individuals' rights in California are available here.

Additional information regarding individuals' rights in the EU/EEA/Switzerland/Cayman Islands are available here.

Your Rights

To the extent applicable law grants you the right to do so, and subject to any necessary verification, you may have the right to:

request that we provide you with a copy of the Personal Data which we hold about you;

request that we update any of your Personal Data which are inaccurate or incomplete;

request that we delete any of your Personal Data which we are holding; or

request that we provide your Personal Data to you or a third-party provider of services in a structured, commonly-used and machine-readable format.

To submit a request, you may contact our Data Privacy Team. Your request must include your name, email address and postal address and we may require proof of your identity.

Your Choices

Marketing Communications.

You can withdraw your consent to receive marketing communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link in an email. You can also withdraw your consent to receive marketing communications or any other consent you have previously provided to us by contacting us. To opt-out of the collection of information relating to email opens, configure your email so that it does not load images in our emails.

Withdrawing Your Consent/Opt-Out

Where we are processing your Personal Data based on your consent, you may change your mind and withdraw your consent at any time. The consequence of you withdrawing consent might be that we cannot perform certain services for you, such as location-based services, personalization or providing certain types of advertising, or other services conditioned on your consent or choice not to opt-out.

Location Preferences

You may control or limit location data that we collect through our Services by changing your preferences in your device's location services preferences menu, or through your choices regarding the use of Bluetooth, WiFi, and other network interfaces you may use to interact with our Services. However, please note that use of RFID technologies may be necessary for the functioning of hardware required for certain processing of Personal Data. Note, general location data may still be collected if you opt out of specific location services.

Do-not-Track

Our Services do not respond to your browser's do-not-track request. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, you can manage/deny cookies (and certain technologies) using your browser's settings menu. You must opt out of third party services directly via the third party. For example, to opt-out of Google's analytic and marketing services, visit Google Analytics Terms of Use, the Google Privacy Policy, or Google Analytics Opt-out.

Advertising

You may opt out or withdraw your consent to behavioral advertising. In some cases, we may be able to process third party opt-out requests directly (e.g. when you click the "do not sell my personal information" link on our website), however in some cases, you must opt out of third party services directly via the third party. For example, to opt out of Google's use of cookies, visit Google's Ads Settings, here. If you wish to take steps to opt-out of tracking by certain online advertisers, you can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance's opt-out page at http://www.aboutads.info/choices or the Network Advertising Initiative at www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp. You can limit or opt out of our processing for behavioral advertising by contacting us.

Data Sales

If you are a California Resident, or otherwise have the right to opt out of data sales, you may do so through the Gazette Rights Portal. You may be required to validate your identity to ensure your request is not fraudulent.

Regional Rights

See the Your California Privacy Rightssection for additional information regarding data sale opt-out, and other privacy rights under California law.

Residents and others in the EU, EEA and Cayman Islands may have rights under EU and other law. See the Your EU/Other Privacy Rights section for additional information.

Additional Rights and Disclosures: EU/EEA, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, etc.

Your EU/Other Privacy Rights

Under the GDPR and analogous legislation, you may have the following rights notwithstanding those set forth in the Rights & Choices section above, subject to your submission of an appropriately verified request:

Access: You may receive a list of your Personal Data we process to the extent required and permitted by law. Rectification: You may correct any Personal Data that we hold about you to the extent required and permitted by law. For Registration Data, you may be able to make changes via your account settings menu. Erasure: To the extent required by law, you may request that we delete your Personal Data from our systems. Data Export: To the extent required by applicable law, we will send you a copy of your Personal Data in a common portable format of our choice. Objection: You may have the right under applicable law to object to our processing of your Personal Data that we undertake without your consent as in connection with our legitimate business interests (including any processing specified as such, or processed under this Privacy Policy for a Business Purpose). You may do so by contacting us. Note that we may not be required to cease, or limit processing based solely on that objection, and we may continue processing cases where our interests in processing are balanced against individuals' privacy interests. You may also object to processing for direct marketing purposes. We will cease processing upon your objection to such processing.

Regulator Contact: You have the right to contact or file a complaint with regulators about our processing of Personal Data. To do so, please contact your local data protection or consumer protection authority.

Additional Rights and Disclosures: California

Your California Privacy Rights

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA") and other California laws, California residents may have the following rights in addition to those set forth in the Rights & Choices section above, subject to your submission of an appropriately verified request where required by applicable law (see below for verification requirements):

Right to Know You may request any of following, for the 12 month period preceding your request: (1) the categories of Personal Data we have collected about you, or that we have sold, or disclosed for a commercial purpose; (2) the categories of sources from which your Personal Data was collected; (3) the business or commercial purpose for which we collected or sold your Personal Data; (4) the categories of third parties to whom we have sold your Personal Data, or disclosed it for a business purpose; and (5) the specific pieces of Personal Data we have collected about you. Right to Delete You have the right to delete certain Personal Data that we hold about you, subject to exceptions under applicable law Right to Non-Discrimination You have the right to not to receive discriminatory treatment as a result of your exercise of rights conferred by the CCPA. Direct Marketing You may request a list of Personal Data we have disclosed about you to third parties for direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. Opt-Out of Sale If we engage in sales of data (as defined by applicable law), you may direct us to stop selling Personal Data to third parties. Minors' To the extent we have actual knowledge that we collect or maintain personal information of a minor under age 16, those minors between the age of 13 and 16 must opt in to any sales of personal information (as defined under CCPA), and minors under the age of 13 must have a parent consent to sales of personal information (as defined under CCPA); all minors have the right to opt-out later at any time. Minors under age 13 may have other rights under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"). Minors' User Content Individuals under the age of 18 in California can delete or remove posts using the same deletion or removal procedures described above, or otherwise made available through the Services. If you have questions about how to remove your posts or if you would like additional assistance with deletion you can contact us. We will work to delete your information, but we cannot guarantee comprehensive removal of that content or information posted through the Services.

Submission of Requests

You may submit requests, as follows:

Opt-Out of Sale, Right to Know, Right to Delete: You may visit the Gazette Rights Portal Direct Marketing; Remove User Content: You may request a list of any relevant direct marketing disclosures, or may request deletion of User Content if required under applicable law, via email to our privacy team at privacy@gazette.com.

Verification of Requests

All rights requests must be verified to ensure that the individual making the request is authorized to make that request, to reduce fraud, and to ensure the security of your Personal Data. We may require that you provide the email address we have on file for you (and verify that you can access that email account) as well as an address, phone number, or other data we have on file, in order to verify your identity. If an agent is submitting the request on your behalf, we reserve the right to validate the agent's authority to act on your behalf.

Data Processing

Categories of Personal Data Disclosed for Business Purposes

For purposes of the CCPA, we may disclose to Service Providers for "business purposes" the following categories of Personal Data: Identity Data, Contact Data, Location Data, Device/Network Data, Commercial Data, Inference Data, Financial Data, Audio/Visual Data, Health Data, Government ID Data, and User Content.

Categories of Personal Data Sold

For purposes of the CCPA, we may "sell" the following categories of Personal Data processed through our Services: Identity Data, Contact Data, Location Data, Device/Network Data, Commercial Data, Inference Data, and User Content.

Right to Know

Category of Data Context Category of Sources Business Purposes Commercial Purposes Category of Recipients Identity Data When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service

When you access or use our Digital Services

Cookies and other tracking technologies

Feedback and Surveys

Contests or promotions When you submit information to us

From you; Automatic collection; Service providers; Agents and partners; Aggregators and advertisers; Social media companies; Data we create/infer Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Commercial Data When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service From you; Automatic collection; Service providers; Agents and partners; Data we create/infer Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance,; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Contact Data When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service

When you access or use our Digital Services

Cookies and other tracking technologies

Feedback and Surveys

Contests or promotions

When you submit information to us From you; Automatic collection; Service providers; Agents and partners; Aggregators and advertisers; Social media companies; Data we create/infer Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Financial Data When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service From you; Service Providers Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Targeted advertising Affiliates; Service Providers; Agents; Successors; Lawful Recipients Device/ Network Data When you make a purchase or other transaction through our Service

When you access or use our Digital Services

Cookies and other tracking technologies From you; Automatic collection; Service providers; Agents and partners; Aggregators and advertisers; Social media companies; Data we create/infer Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Inference Data When you make a purchase or other transaction When you access or use our Digital Services Cookies and other tracking technologies Feedback and Surveys

From you; Automatic collection; Service providers; Agents and partners; Aggregators and advertisers; Social media companies; Data we create/infer Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients User Content When you access or use our Digital Services

Contests or promotions

Feedback and Surveys

When you submit information to us From you; Service providers; Social media companies Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Social Media Platforms; Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Location Data When you access or use our Digital Services From you; Service Providers Social media companies Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Internal Processing and Service Improvement; Security and Incident Detection; Compliance; Aggregated data; Personalization; Other Business Purposes Personalization & Consumer Profiles; Marketing Communications; Targeted advertising; Data Sales Affiliates; Service Providers; Partners, Marketers, Agents; Data Aggregators; Successors; Lawful Recipients Audio /Visual Data When you call us or our service providers From you; Automatic collection; Service Providers Service Provision and Contractual Obligations; Other Business Purposes none Service Providers; Successors; Lawful Recipients

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with the effective date. Please visit this page regularly so that you are aware of our latest updates. Your use of the Digital Service following notice of any changes indicates acceptance of any changes.

Feel free to contact us with questions or concerns, to exercise your privacy choices:

Physical address:

the Gazette, Attn: Privacy

30 E. Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite #100

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

General Inquiries, Marketing Choices, and Data Updates: privacy@gazette.com

Data Rights Inquiries: visit the Gazette Rights Portal.

Opt-Out of Data Sales: visit the Gazette Rights Portal

Direct Marketing Disclosure Requests: privacy@gazette.com
Terms of Service

This is the Terms of Service for all Web sites and mobile applications owned or operated by Colorado Springs Gazette LLC (The Gazette), located at 30 E. Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite #100, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, including, without limitation Gazette.com and all other sites under The Gazettes ownership or control and featuring these Terms of Service (collectively, the Sites and each individually referred to herein as a Site) and The Gazettes owned or operated mobile applications (the Mobile Applications). The Mobile Applications and Sites are defined collectively as our Digital Services. These Terms of Service ("Terms of Service") set forth the terms and conditions under which you are authorized to use the Digital Services. To the extent rules or guidelines affecting your use of the Digital Services are found elsewhere in the Digital Services, those rules and guidelines are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Service. By using any of the Digital Services you (hereinafter either "you" or "User") agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, you should immediately cease all usage of our Digital Services.

We reserve the right, at any time, to modify, alter, or update these Terms of Service without prior notice. You are encouraged to check the Digital Services regularly for changes to the Terms of Service. Modifications shall become effective immediately upon being posted at the applicable Digital Service, without further notice to you. Your continued use of any Digital Service after such modifications are posted constitutes an acknowledgement and acceptance of such modifications. Except as provided in this paragraph, these Terms of Service may not be amended.

Description of Service

Our Digital Services feature a wide array of intellectual property content, including but not limited to, news, information, audio, video, and user-generated content (collectively Content). To the extent new Content, services, or features are added to the Digital Services in the future, the use thereof is subject to these Terms of Service.

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy describes the information we collect when you and others use our Digital Services, as well as how we use the information, and some of the steps we take to protect your privacy. Our Privacy Policy is part of these Terms of Service. By agreeing to these Terms of Service, you are also consenting to our use of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE GAZETTE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE DIGITAL SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE DIGITAL SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THE DIGITAL SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. THE GAZETTE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TIMELINESS OF DELIVERY OF CONTENT, ANY FAILURES OF DELIVERY, OR ERRONEOUS DELETION OR FAILURE TO STORE ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL SETTINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, WILL THE GAZETTE, ITS PARENT COMPANY, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SPONSORS, CONTENT PROVIDERS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, SHAREHOLDERS, OR LICENSORS, NOR ITS OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS (COLLECTIVELY THE GAZETTE PARTIES), BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY CLAIMING THROUGH YOU FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, LIABILITY, DAMAGE OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO, USE OF, INABILITY TO USE, OR RELIANCE ON ANY OF THE DIGITAL SERVICES OR ANY CONTENT, PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDED TO YOU THROUGH OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OF OUR DIGITAL SERVICES. THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY THAT APPLIES TO ALL LOSSES AND DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF DATA, GOODWILL, REVENUE OR PROFITS, OR LOSS OR MISUSE OF PAYMENT OR FINANCIAL ACCOUNT DATA. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER BASIS; EVEN IF AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF ANY GAZETTE PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES; AND WITHOUT REGARD TO THE SUCCESS OR EFFECTIVENESS OF OTHER REMEDIES. IF ANY PART OF THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS FOUND TO BE INVALID, ILLEGAL OR UNENFORCEABLE FOR ANY REASON, THEN THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE GAZETTE PARTIES UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES TO YOU OR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY CLAIMING THROUGH YOU FOR LIABILITIES THAT OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIMITED WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold the Gazette Parties harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of any Digital Service, including without limitation your actual or alleged violation of these Terms of Service, or infringement of a third partys intellectual property or other rights by you or another user of any Digital Service using your computer or account. Modifications and Interruption to the Digital Services

The Gazette reserves the right to modify or discontinue all or any portion of the Digital Services with or without notice to you. The Gazette shall not be liable to you or any third party should The Gazette exercise such right. You acknowledge and accept that The Gazette does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to the Digital Services, that operation of the Digital Services will not be uninterrupted or error free, and that usage of our Digital Services, may be interfered with or adversely affected by numerous factors or circumstances outside of our control. Third-Party Sites, Content and Functionality

Our Digital Services include links to other sites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties, and certain content and functionality on or available through our Digital Services may be provided by third parties. You acknowledge that we are not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any third-party site. You should contact the site administrator for those third-party sites if you have any concerns regarding such links or the content located on such sites. Your use of those third-party sites is subject to the Terms of Service and privacy policies of each site, and we are not responsible therefore. We encourage our users to review the Terms of Service and privacy policies of third-parties' sites. In addition, our Digital Services contain certain features and functionality provided and managed by third parties, including without limitation technology for processing payments. The Gazette Parties do not guarantee, and will not be liable for, any defects in or damages caused by such third party functionality.

Your Obligations

As a condition of your right to use the Digital Services, you represent that you are of legal age to enter into a binding contract and that you are not a person barred from visiting the Digital Services and accessing the Content under the laws of the United States or other country.

Subscriptions and Registration

Our Sites may be used and our Mobile Applications may be downloaded free of charge, however, certain Content (such as the E-Edition) may only be available to registered users or those with a valid subscription to one of our print publications. Certain features of our Digital Services will require you to register by providing your personal information, such as your name, e-mail address, mailing address, or other information. For example, to place a classified advertisement on our Digital Service, you will need to complete a registration form provided by one of the service providers managing our Digital Services classified advertising (our Classified Advertising Providers). Because we have different Classified Advertising Providers for various categories of classified advertisements, it is possible that you may need to complete more than one classified advertisement registration form to place your ads in various categories. In addition, you may need to complete a different registration form to sign up to receive The Gazette e-mail newsletters, or for other purposes. You may also need to complete different processes to unsubscribe from certain email communications from different sites, or to delete or modify your registrations on different Digital Services.

If you wish to register on any of our Digital Services you agree to provide accurate, current and complete personal data and information about yourself (such as name, age, e-mail address, etc.) as required by the applicable registration form, and further agree that you will update such data to keep it accurate, current and complete. The Gazette reserves the right to suspend or terminate your use of the Digital Services if it discovers, or has a reasonable basis to believe that any of the data you have provided is inaccurate, incomplete or untrue. If you obtain a username and password from any Digital Service, you may not share your username and password with any other person or authorize any other person to use your username and password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your username and password. You agree to notify The Gazette immediately of any known or suspected unauthorized use of your username and password or any other breach of security. The Gazette cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect the confidentiality of your username and password.

User-Submitted Content and User Conduct

Any Content uploaded, posted, submitted, or otherwise made available by individual users of the Digital Services, including without limitation classified ads, postings on message boards or blogs, or other content which does not originate with The Gazette (User Content), is the sole responsibility of the person who made such User Content available on the Digital Service. Under no circumstances will The Gazette be liable in any way for any User Content made available through the Digital Services by you or any third party. Since The Gazette does not necessarily review or control the User Content posted on the Digital Services, it cannot and does not warrant and/or guarantee the truthfulness, integrity, suitability, or quality of that User Content. You also agree and understand that by accessing the Digital Services, you may encounter Content that you may consider to be obscene, improper, or for other reasons deemed objectionable. The Gazette has no responsibility for any User Content, including without limitation any errors or omissions therein. The Gazette is not liable for any loss or damage of any kind you claim was incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available on the Digital Services, whether by The Gazette, individual users of the Digital Services, or third party contractors or licensors of The Gazette. If you post comments on our Digital Services, you further agree to comply with our commenting policy: http://gazette.com/comments-faq.

You agree that you will not use any Digital Service to transmit or make available any Content that:

violates any laws, contains any threats, is abusive, tortuous, harassing, vulgar, obscene, indecent, violates any person's rights of privacy or publicity, is defamatory, libelous, hateful, contains any disparaging statements or opinions regarding racial, gender or ethnic background, or is otherwise objectionable;

infringes any intellectual property rights of any party, including, but not limited to any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights;

contains any private information about an identifiable person without that person's permission, or any content soliciting any personal or private information from any individual under the age of 18;

you know or have reason to know is false, misleading, or fraudulent;

you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);

contains forged headers or employs other techniques whose purpose is to disguise the origin of the Content submitted;

with the exception of permitted classified ads where applicable, contains any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or material which can be characterized as "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," "Ponzi schemes" or similar material, or any information posted primarily for advertising, promotional, or other commercial purposes, including without limitation any request for or solicitation of money, goods, or services for private gain;

incorporates within it any software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs whose purpose or function is to interrupt, destroy or otherwise impair the operability of any software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

contains links to any websites containing content violating any of the foregoing requirements, or links to any websites for purposes of disrupting the operations of such website, harassing the owners of such website, or other objectionable or illegal purposes.

engage in any conduct which might be harmful to minors;

impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;

engage in or facilitate any conduct that is deemed, or found by any court or similar agency, to constitute "stalking" or otherwise harassing conduct aimed at another person or entity;

engage in or transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.

You further agree not to use any of the Digital Services to:

In addition, you are prohibited from interfering with or disrupting the Digital Services, or servers or networks connected thereto. The Gazette reserves the right (but has no obligation) in its sole discretion to pre-screen, edit, refuse, move or remove any Content that is posted on the Digital Services. You agree that the exercise by The Gazette of such discretion shall not convert or transform User Content to Content owned or provided by The Gazette, and the user who made such User Content available on the Digital Service will retain ownership thereof as described below. With respect to any information you provide to The Gazette, including personal data and information, you agree and accept that The Gazette may retain, maintain and/or disclose such information and User Content in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Ownership of User Content

If any User Content is your original work, then you own the copyright in that work. The Gazette does not claim any copyrights in original works created and posted by individual visitors to any Digital Service. However, by uploading, posting, transmitting or otherwise making any User Content available on or through a Digital Service, you are granting The Gazette, and its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, an irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to copy, modify, publish, distribute publicly, and prepare derivative works of such User Content in any medium or form (including without limitation our print publications), without any obligation of notice, attribution or compensation to you.

Ownership of Feedback

The Gazette welcomes your comments and feedback regarding the Digital Services. All information and materials submitted to The Gazette through any Digital Service or otherwise, such as any comments, feedback, ideas, questions, designs, data or the like regarding or relating to any Digital Service or the business of The Gazette (collectively, "Feedback"), will be considered NON-CONFIDENTIAL and NON-PROPRIETARY with regard to you, but The Gazette reserves the right to treat any such Feedback as the confidential information of The Gazette. For this reason, we ask you not to send us any information or materials that you do not wish to assign to us, including, without limitation, any confidential information or any original creative materials such as product ideas, computer code, or original artwork. By submitting Feedback to The Gazette, you assign to The Gazette, and its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, free of charge, all worldwide rights, title and interest in all copyrights and other intellectual property rights in such Feedback. The Gazette will be entitled to use any Feedback you submit to it, and any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in any such Feedback, for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to developing, manufacturing and marketing products and services using such Feedback without restriction and without compensating you in any way. You are responsible for the information and other Content contained in any Feedback you submit to us, including, without limitation, their truthfulness and accuracy.

Disclaimer Regarding Accuracy of Content

Some of the Content on the Digital Services, including without limitation User Content, has been provided by or obtained from parties other than The Gazette. The Gazette Parties make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of any Content on the Digital Services created or provided by third parties, or with regard to any product or service provided or offered by any vendor on the Digital Services (including without limitation advertisers on the Digital Services and individuals or entities placing classified advertisements on the Digital Services) and you acknowledge that any reliance on representations and warranties provided by any party other than The Gazette shall be at your own risk. You expressly agree to hold The Gazette harmless for any claims of damage arising from any product or service provided by any third party.

Classified Advertisements

The classified advertising on some of our Digital Services is managed by Classified Advertising Providers which may or may not be identified on the page where such advertisements are located. We reserve the right to change our Classified Advertising Providers at any time without notice to you. Submission of a classified advertisement for publication on any of our Digital Services does not constitute a commitment on the part of The Gazette or our Classified Advertising Providers to publish the advertisement, and publication of an advertisement does not constitute an agreement from The Gazette or our Classified Advertising Providers for continued publication. The Gazette and our Classified Advertising Providers reserve the right to edit, reclassify, revise, reject or cancel any advertisement at any time, in their sole discretion. Rates and specifications are subject to change. Purchase or submission of Classified Advertisements may be subject to additional terms and conditions located on the applicable pages of the Digital Services.

Copyright and Trademark Information

This license grant is between you and The Gazette, and not any other third-parties. No title to or ownership of any Content or any materials within our Digital Services is transferred from The Gazette to you by these Terms. All Content included or available on the Digital Services, including Digital Services software code, design, text, graphics, interfaces, and the selection and arrangements thereof is copyright The Colorado Springs Gazette LLC or its subsidiaries and/or its third party licensors, with all rights reserved, and is protected by the intellectual property rights of those owners. Any use of materials on the Digital Services, including without limitation reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or replication, any form of data extraction or data mining, or other commercial exploitation of any kind, without prior written permission of an authorized officer of The Gazette, is strictly prohibited. With the exception of search engines, you agree that you will not use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our web pages or the Content contained therein without prior written permission of an authorized officer of The Gazette. You may use the Content solely for your personal, non-commercial use, except that a commercial web site is permitted to link to the Digital Services provided that the web site page on which such feeds or links are featured must be accessible to the general public and not provided through a subscription service or for a fee, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing by The Gazette. You may download or print a single copy of any portion of the Content solely for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from such Content. However, if you need reprints of any of The Gazette articles or photos for commercial use, please visit our Reprints page. You may not make any use of Content owned by any third parties which is available on our Digital Services, without the express consent of those third parties.

All Content which qualifies for protection under Federal Copyright Law under the laws of the United States is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Court System, whether registered or unregistered. Based on the presence of this notice of copyright ownership, any infringement of the protected Content of the Digital Services will be deemed by The Gazette to be an intentional infringement. All trademarks displayed on the Digital Services are the trademarks of their respective owners, and constitute neither an endorsement nor a recommendation of such parties. In addition, such use of trademarks or links to the web sites of third parties is not intended to imply, directly or indirectly, that those third parties endorse or have any affiliation with The Gazette.

AP Content

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing www.gazette.com, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions there from or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.

Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement

In the event that you find Content posted on the Digital Services which you believe to be an infringement of the copyright ownership or other intellectual property rights of you or any third party, you are requested to immediately contact The Gazettes Copyright Agent as described below. To report any alleged infringement, you may contact us in writing by providing a signed statement containing the following information:

1. your name, address, telephone number, and email address, and if you are acting on behalf of the owner of the intellectual property, the name of the owner

2. a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of the copyright or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner;

3. a detailed description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;

4. if your claim is based on a registered work, the trademark, patent, or copyright registration number, and the date of issuance of the registration;

5. a description of the infringing material and the URL where such material is located on the Digital Service, or a description of where on our Digital Service you found such material;

6. your written statement that you believe, in good faith, that the use of the work on our Digital Service has not been authorized by the true owner of the work, its agent, or as a matter of law; and

7. a statement that all of the information you have provided is true.

Please send your notice of alleged infringement to: Copyright Agent, The Colorado Springs Gazette LLC 30 E. Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite #100, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Fax: 719-636-0224 E-mail copyright@gazette.com. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it is our policy to terminate use of our Digital Services by repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

Links to the Site and RSS Feeds

Unless otherwise prohibited under these Terms of Service, you are hereby licensed to create hyperlinks to the content on the Sites, provided that the hyperlink accurately describes the content as it appears on the Site. You are further granted a right to implement the RSS feeds offered by our Sites, solely in the manner described on our Site.

Under no circumstances may you "frame" the Sites or any of their Content or copy portions of the Sites to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider's incidental caching of pages. When a page of our Sites is accessed from a link (including RSS feeds) featured on your web site, each page within our Sites must be displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising, or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within the Site, and without any interstitial pop-ups or web pages loading before the applicable target page is accessed. The Gazette reserves the right to revoke these licenses generally, or your right to use specific links or RSS feeds, at any time, with or without cause.

Permitted Use of Mobile Applications

Our Mobile Applications are protected by copyright and may not be sold, redistributed, copied, made available to the public, or part of a derivative work created by you without the express written consent of The Gazette. You may not attempt to decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise modify our Mobile Applications, or in anyway compromise the security of data stored or transmitted by our Mobile Applications.

Mobile Devices & Third-Party Restrictions

If you access our Digital Services on mobile devices, or if you request that we send you text messages, you understand that your mobile carriers standard charges will apply. You will only receive text message alerts from our Digital Services if you expressly agree to receive them. Standard/other text messaging rates apply, according to your wireless carriers rate plan, and we recommend that you review your plan for details. We will not be responsible for any text messaging or other charges incurred by you or by a person that has access to your wireless device or telephone number as a result of any text messages you receive based on requests from your device or account.

Any Mobile Application installed from the Apple App Store must be installed on a device you control or own, and must be used in accordance with any applicable terms from the Apple App Store. If you install a Mobile Application from the Apple App Store, The Gazette, not Apple, is responsible for: (1) The Content in the Mobile Application; (2) Maintenance or support of any Mobile Application; (3) Any product warranties, whether express or implied; (4) Addressing any claims of the end-user or any third party relating to the Mobile Application or the end-users possession and/or use of that Mobile Application, including, but not limited to: (a) product liability claims; (b) any claim that the Mobile Application fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (c) claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation; and, (5) The investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any third party claim that the Mobile Application or your possession and use of that Mobile Application infringes a third partys intellectual property rights. Further, if you install a Mobile Application from the Apple App Store, you acknowledge that Apple, and Apples subsidiaries, are third party beneficiaries of these Terms of Service, and that, upon your acceptance of these Terms of Service, Apple will have the right (and you will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce the Terms of Service against you as a third party beneficiary thereof.

Arbitration

Any dispute arising out of or relating in any way to your use of our Digital Services or any products, services, or information you receive through our Digital Services, shall be submitted to confidential, binding arbitration in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, pursuant to the American Arbitration Associations Commercial Arbitration Rules, using one arbitrator. The arbitrator shall be mutually agreed upon by both parties, or if the parties cannot agree on a single arbitrator, they each will choose one arbitrator, and those two will together choose a third arbitrator, and a panel of three arbitrators will hear the matter. The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. No arbitration under these Terms of Use may be joined with another arbitration related to the subject matter hereof. Notwithstanding the foregoing arbitration requirement, with regard to any actual or potential violation of our intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in the courts of Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts and waive all objections thereto.

Governing Laws

The laws of the state of Colorado and the United States govern these Terms of Service and any claims arising out of or relating to use of the Digital Services, without giving effect to any choice of law rules. We make no representation that our Digital Services are appropriate, legal or available for use outside of the United States. With the exception of any matters subject to arbitration as described above, the state and federal courts located in Colorado Springs, Colorado will serve as the venue for any actions brought, or claims made, arising out of your use of our Digital Services.

Compliance with Laws

You assume all knowledge of applicable law and you are responsible for compliance with any such laws. You may not use our Digital Services in any way that violates applicable state, federal, or international laws, regulations or other government requirements. By using any of our Digital Services, you represent and warrant that (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a terrorist supporting country; and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Other Terms

If any provision of these Terms of Service shall be unlawful, void or unenforceable for any reason, the other provisions (and any partially-enforceable provision) shall not be affected thereby and shall remain valid and enforceable to the maximum possible extent. You agree that these Terms of Service and any other agreements referenced herein may be assigned by The Gazette, in our sole discretion, to a third party in the event of a merger or acquisition. These Terms of Service shall apply in addition to, and shall not be superseded by, any other written agreement between us in relation to your participation as a User. You agree and understand that these Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between you and The Gazette regarding your use of the Digital Services, and that any and all prior agreements between you and The Gazette are superseded by these Terms of Service. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the preceding sentence will not supersede any separate agreements you may enter into with The Gazette (including without limitation an agreement to provide content for the Digital Services such as through a blog or freelance author agreement). You may not amend these Terms of Service. Any failure by The Gazette to exercise its rights under these Terms of Service or to enforce the terms hereof will not constitute a waiver of those rights. If any term of these Terms of Service is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the parties agree that the court in any event should try to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and that all of the other provisions of these Terms of Service will remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Digital Services or these Terms of Service must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

Effective Date of this Terms of Service Agreement

This Terms of Service Agreement is effective as of Oct. 22, 2014.
Michigan to test EV-charging roadway

Michigan has become the latest state to explore powering electric vehicles with an inductive charging roadway, a technology that transmits power from coils embedded in the road to vehicles as they drive over it.

A pilot project will further the development of a dynamic charging roadway, address concerns about EVs limited driving range and serve as a model for expanded implementation. The project will turn public streets into safe and sustainable shared energy platforms, Michigan officials said in their announcement.

In a request for proposals issued Sept. 28, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) stated that it is seeking a systems solution approach for the inductive vehicle charging pilot, including design, funding, construction, evaluation, testing, operation and maintenance.

The RFP calls for a one-mile stretch of road in either Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties that enables dynamic or hybrid dynamic and static charging for all modes of transportation. The deliverables include embedding the coils along the route and installing the semi-dynamic charging stations at end point terminals where vehicles can charge while standing still or queuing for parking lane. The vendor must also provide receivers and support for the vehicle integration.

The infrastructure must also support open industry standards for inductive charging and facilitate development, deployment and user acceptance through interoperability and uniformity, according to the RFP.

The vendor is expected to design and test a practical model for future implementation. Ideally, this innovation would be able to translate to other corridors as part of a financially and environmentally sustainable transportation system, the RFP said.

The final budget is still pending, but the vendor is expected to directly invest in the project. MDOT will provide $1.9 million in partial compensation, with the vendor financing operations and maintenance.

Michigan isnt the first state to attempt expanding its EV charging infrastructure. Recently, the Indiana Department of Transportation and Purdue University announced plans to test a wireless charging concrete highway.

Trevor Pawl, the chief mobility officer with Michigans Office of Future Mobility and Electrification cited these developments as part of a larger transition in the EV space.

"We're in the midst of the most significant shift in the automotive industry since the Model T rolled off the assembly line more than a century ago," he said. "This electrified roadway has the potential to accelerate autonomous vehicles at scale and turn our streets into safe, sustainable, accessible and shared transportation platforms."

Read the full RFP here.
Welcome, all UCLA Anderson class of 2024 hopefuls. Let's use this platform to know each other, exchange ideas, discuss app strategies? Who all are applying? Let us know by commenting below. Follow the thread and bookmark this post

UCLA Anderson MBA Deadlines

Round Application Due Decisions Released Round 1 Oct 5, 2021 Dec 14, 2021 Round 2 Jan 4, 2022 Mar 22, 2022 Round 3 Apr 12, 2022 May 17, 2022

Essays

A) Essay:

B) Optional Essay:

For the 2021-2022 application year, we have one essay question that is required for first-time applicants and optional for re-applicants:How have recent events influenced the impact you would like to make in your community, career, or both? (250 words maximum)No preference is given in the evaluation process to those who choose to respond to this optional essay, so please use your best judgment:Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the Admissions Committee should be aware? (250 words maximum)_________________
The meeting of the two presidents was held in the Russian city of Sochi on the Black Sea, today, Wednesday, during which the two sides discussed bilateral relations and regional issues - the situation in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and the Caucasus, according to Russian media.

The talks between the two presidents ended without making a final statement or holding a press conference at the headquarters of the talks, which indicates that there was no consensus or that Turkey made concessions to the Russian side regarding the situation in Idlib.

After that, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he left Sochi after fruitful talks with Putin.

At the beginning of the meeting, a protocol meeting was held, during which Putin and Erdogan spoke. Putin indicated that his talks with Erdogan have continued since their last face-to-face meeting in March 2020.

He continued, "The talks between us sometimes encounter difficulties, but they lead to positive final results, and our specialized committees have learned to find compromise solutions that are in the interest of both sides."

By this, Putin meant the existence of many contentious files between Russia and Turkey, including Syria, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Afghanistan and the Crimean Tatars.

Russia and Turkey made many deals in Syria that take into account the interests of the two countries at the expense of the blood of the Syrian people. Through these deals, Moscow helped the Damascus government regain control over large areas of lands that were out of Damascus' control since 2011.

For more than a month, Russian warplanes have not left the airspace of Idlib governorate, targeting all its countryside, especially the southern ones known as "Jabal al-Zawiya".

In the past few days, Russian planes have targeted Turkish mercenary points in occupied Afrin, in a new escalation that is understood as messages of pressure before the upcoming meeting between Putin and Erdogan.

Russia insists on the entry of government forces into the Idlib areas and the opening of the international road M4. The aforementioned road links the cities controlled by Damascus forces in Aleppo and Latakia. For several months, it witnessed the conduct of Russian-Turkish patrols, but soon they stopped.

A few days before the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would discuss with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Russia the situation in Syria's Idlib.

In televised statements, Peskov said that the presidents of the two countries showed political will and were able to reach an agreement on Idlib, but "unfortunately, terrorist activities continue in those territories." He added, "It is unacceptable and dangerous. It is something that obstructs the settlement process in Syria. Most likely, all of this is on the agenda."

The meeting, which was held between Putin and Erdogan on the twenty-ninth of this September, is the first of its kind, since the last meeting in March 2020.

At that time, the two parties agreed on a ceasefire in the Syrian province of Idlib along the front line between the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation and the forces of the Damascus government, to be followed by the establishment of a "security corridor" six kilometers north and six kilometers south of the main international highway in Idlib "M 4".

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" " A health care worker holds a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine before administering it at the Klerksdorp Hospital in Klerksdorp, South Africa. PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images

On Friday, Feb. 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the results of its trial of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. The FDA found the vaccine to be safe and effective, and granted the one-dose COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization at its advisory panel meeting Saturday, Feb. 27. The company began shipping 3.9 million doses of the vaccine across the United States on Monday, March 1.

Maureen Ferran, a virologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, explains how this new vaccine works and explores the differences between it and the already approved Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

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1. How Does the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Work?

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is what's called a viral vector vaccine. To create this vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson team took a harmless adenovirus  the viral vector  and replaced a small piece of its genetic instructions with coronavirus genes for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

After this modified adenovirus is injected into someone's arm, it enters the person's cells. The cells then read the genetic instructions needed to make the spike protein and the vaccinated cells make and present the spike protein on their own surface. The person's immune system then notices these foreign proteins and makes antibodies against them that will protect the person if they are ever exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in the future.

The adenovirus vector vaccine is safe because the adenovirus can't replicate in human cells or cause disease, and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can't cause COVID-19 without the rest of the coronavirus.

This approach is not new. Johnson & Johnson used a similar method to make its Ebola vaccine, and the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is also an adenovirus viral vector vaccine.

" " The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was 72 percent effective at preventing all COVID-19 and 86 percent effective at preventing severe cases of the disease. PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images

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2. How Effective Is It?

The FDA's analysis found that, in the U.S., the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was 72 percent effective at preventing all COVID-19 and 86 percent effective at preventing severe cases of the disease. While there is still a chance a vaccinated person could get sick, this suggests they would be much less likely to need hospitalization or to die from COVID-19.

A similar trial in South Africa, where a new, more contagious variant is dominant, produced similar results. Researchers found the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be slightly less effective at preventing all illness there  64 percent overall  but was still 82 percent effective at preventing severe disease. The FDA report also indicates that the vaccine protects against other variants from Britain and Brazil, too.

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3. How Is It Different From the Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines?

The most basic difference is that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vector vaccine, while the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are both mRNA vaccines. Messenger RNA vaccines use genetic instructions from the coronavirus to tell a person's cells to make the spike protein, but these don't use another virus as a vector. There are many practical differences, too.

Both of the mRNA-based vaccines require two shots. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose. This is key when vaccines are in short supply.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine can also be stored at much warmer temperatures than the mRNA vaccines. The mRNA vaccines must be shipped and stored at below-freezing or subzero temperatures and require a complicated cold chain to safely distribute them. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be stored for at least three months in a regular refrigerator, making it much easier to use and distribute.

As for efficacy, it is difficult to directly compare the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with the mRNA vaccines due to differences in how the clinical trials were designed. While the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are reported to be approximately 95 percent effective at preventing illness from COVID-19, the trials were done over the summer and fall of 2020, before newer more contagious variants were circulating widely. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines might not be as effective against the new variants, and Johnson & Johnson trials were completed more recently and take into account the vaccine's efficacy against these new variants.

" " Military personnel prepare for the opening of a mass COVID-19 vaccination site run by FEMA in the Queens borough of New York, on Feb. 24, 2021. SETH WENIG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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4. Should I Choose One Vaccine Over Another?

Although the overall efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is higher than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you should not wait until you have your choice of vaccine, which is likely a long way off anyway. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is nearly as good as the mRNA-based vaccines at preventing serious disease, and that's what really matters.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine and other viral-vector vaccines like the one from AstraZeneca are particularly important for the global vaccination effort. From a public health perspective, it's important to have multiple COVID-19 vaccines, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a very welcome addition to the vaccine arsenal. It doesn't require a freezer, making it much easier to ship and store. It's a one-shot vaccine, making logistics much easier compared with organizing two doses per person.

As many people as possible need to be vaccinated as quickly as possible to limit the development of new coronavirus variants. Johnson & Johnson is expected to ship out nearly 4 million doses as soon as Monday, March 1. Having a third authorized vaccine in the U.S. will be a big step toward meeting vaccination demand and stopping this pandemic.

Maureen Ferran is an associate professor of biology at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ferran 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.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.

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Originally Published: Feb 26, 2021
" " Cesar Chavez is perhaps best known as an American union builder during the furious 1960s and a relentless advocate for the rights of abused farmworkers. Library of Congress

The fight for human rights is never done alone. It's borne by a multitude of visionaries, carried on by armies of believers and waged in a variety of ways. Through, for a few examples, the quiet and peaceful dignity of Mahatma Gandhi. The soaring eloquence of Martin Luther King Jr. The fervor of Susan B. Anthony. The certitude of Malcom X. The unbending reason of Nelson Mandela. The persistence of young Greta Thunberg.

Among those icons old and young, past and present, a special place is reserved for Cesar Estrada Chavez, whose humility and resolute belief in La Causa made him a hero to millions.

"Why were they drawn to him?" asks Marc Grossman, Chavez's speechwriter and personal aide for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. "Because he had great faith in them. He had faith they could do great things."

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Who Was Cesar Chavez?

Chavez is perhaps best known as an American union builder during the furious 1960s and a relentless advocate for the rights of abused farmworkers. But the way in which he carried out his work, and the people he reached with his message of hope, made him so much more.

He was a devout Catholic who believed in the goodness of his fellow humans and the power of nonviolent resistance. He was friends with Bobby Kennedy. He exchanged telegrams with King.

And to this day, Cesar Chavez remains a darling of America's counterculture, a soft-spoken, sly-smiling, immovable object standing in the path of the country's rich and powerful.

The child of Mexican American parents, Chavez was born in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, into the back-wrecking life of a migrant farm family in the Southwest United States. He and many others commonly worked 10- to 12-hour days, often bent over a short-handled hoe  el cortito  for wages that would barely keep them alive. He estimated that he attended 65 different schools as a kid. He never got past eighth grade.

Chavez enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the end of World War II, before it was desegregated, but soon returned to California, where he started a family of his own. By the early 1950s, he was introduced to organizers in the Community Services Organization, and by the late '50s he had become its national president.

By the early 1960s, Chavez already was in full dispute with the moneyed growers who saw him and his swelling group of followers as a threat to their financial well-being. He traveled the fields of California, signing up workers to join his fledgling National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), later to become the United Farm Workers.

And soon, bolstered by his belief in La Causa, Chavez would transform the lives of thousands.

" " Cesar Chavez is seen speaking at the Delano United Farm Workers rally, in Delano, California in June 1974. Calliopejen1 /Wikimedia Commons/(CC BY 3.0)

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Fighting the Good Fight

Though Chavez lacked a full, formal education, he was a voracious reader. He followed Gandhi and King and took from them lessons of nonviolence. He also read the works of union organizers like Eugene V. Debs. His belief in the workers, and their worth, pushed him. And their belief in him sustained his work.

"You know, many people, for a hundred years before Cesar Chavez, tried and failed to organize farmworkers. People who had a lot more resources and money and had a much better education, tried and failed. For a hundred years," Grossman says. "And he succeeded, I think, because he was one of them. It was not an academic pursuit for him."

Chavez endured government investigations and death threats from the rich and powerful. He often traveled with two fierce-looking German shepherds  Boycott and Huelga (Strike)  who became both friends to Chavez and deterrents to those who might wish him harm. (They also were an inspiration. He credited his dogs with his decision to become a vegan, and he became an animal rights activist later in his life.)

As he did in the fields as a young man, Chavez put in long, hard hours organizing workers, traveling from town to town, pushing for better wages, insurance and improved working conditions. He employed the threats of boycotts and strikes  and, in fact, went beyond mere threats  to try to better the lives of those he represented.

In 1965, Chavez and the NFWA joined forces with a group of Filipino grape workers in the Delano (California) grape strike. It lasted five years and included a boycott of table grapes that spread throughout the nation. Chavez insisted  with an acute awareness of the violence that roiled the country that decade  that the protest remain nonviolent. But as it wore on, many workers grew impatient.

To focus strikers on staying strong without using violence, and to show those throughout the country their resolve, Chavez went on a 25-day fast. Thousands streamed into the tiny windowless room near Delano to see him during his fast. He lost 35 pounds (15 kilograms).

King sent a telegram, which said in part:

Your past and present commitment is eloquent testimony to the constructive power of nonviolent action and the destructive impotence of violent reprisal. You stand today as a living example of the Gandhian tradition with its great force for social progress and its healing spiritual powers.

Bobby Kennedy was there as Chavez finally broke the fast, calling him, "one of the heroic figures of our time."

In a statement, Chavez said, "To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men."

It took some more time, but in 1970, grape growers signed their first contracts with the union that provided workers better pay and benefits.

" " Cesar Chavez at the national headquarters of the United Farm Workers Union, talking with grape boycott leaders in Keene, California. Library of Congress

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Beyond the Union Battle

Chavez stepped outside union activism, too. He came out strongly against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and in the '70s was active in the struggle for gay rights.

The Delano fast was not the only one that Chavez would undertake over his long career. He went for 36 days without food in 1988 to protest the threat that pesticides posed to farm workers and their children. (He was, in effect, an early environmental activist, too.)

Chavez continued to work and organize for the UFW throughout his life. He was in Arizona in 1993, helping to defend the union in a lawsuit, when he died, peacefully, at the home of a longtime friend. He was 66.

Some 45,000 people attended his funeral in Delano, California. He is now buried in Keene, California, where he lived and labored for the last quarter-century of his life and where the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument is now located.

Throughout his life, Chavez fought for farmworkers. But he came to realize  or, perhaps, he knew it all along  that the fight was larger than that between workers and employers. "And that meant tackling the dilemma in the community," Grossman says. "It had to be more than wages, hours and working conditions. It had to be more than money for your own people."

In 1984, in a carefully crafted speech in front of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (his first time speaking from a script), Chavez laid out his vision. Buoyed at the time by impending demographic changes that promised to strengthen Hispanic political power, Chavez sounded less like a union organizer than a full-blown civil rights icon. An excerpt:

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

Our opponents must understand that it's not just a union we have built. Unions, like other institutions, can come and go. But we're more than an institution. For nearly 20 years, our union has been on the cutting edge of a people's cause  and you cannot do away with an entire people; you cannot stamp out a people's cause. Regardless of what the future holds for the union, regardless of what the future holds for farmworkers, our accomplishments cannot be undone. "La Causa"  our cause  doesn't have to be experienced twice.

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His Lasting Legacy

Today, the University of California-Berkeley has a student center named after Chavez. High schools, elementary schools, streets and parks bear his name. So does a Navy ship. In 2003, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp with his likeness. President Barack Obama christened the national monument in 2012 where Chavez is now buried.

More, the thousands of people who flocked to meet him, the millions more who knew of him or have learned about him, continue to carry on his work and his dreams. Grossman cites a couple of examples off the top of his head: a young teacher's aide in California who now is a school district superintendent. A young paralegal who now is a superior court judge in the state.

"He saw the greater good of helping people fulfill their dreams. And some of them were dreams that many of them didn't even know they had," says Grossman. "He really instilled hope and confidence in people who never had them before."

" " The fountain at the grave marker of Cesar Chavez honors the United Farm Workers' five martyrs , including Nan Freeman, Nagi Daifallah, Juan De La Cruz, Rufino Contreras and Rene Lopez. National Park Service

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING In August 1994, a little more than a year after his death, Chavez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the White House. "The farmworkers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self-sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man, who with faith and discipline, with soft-spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life; and in so doing, brought dignity to the lives of so many others and provided us for inspiration for the rest of our nation's history," Clinton said. Chavez's widow, Helen, received the award.

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Originally Published: Feb 6, 2020
" " A portrait of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Italian physicist, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician, in an engraving by Spagnoli. DEA/ICAS94/Getty Images

Today, Italian astronomer, physicist and author Galileo Galilei, who lived from 1564 to 1642, might be most famous for having been put on trial for heresy by the Roman Inquisition in 1633. That event has come to symbolize the conflict between adherence to religious dogma and the intellectual freedom required by science.

Galileo's trouble with authorities actually stemmed not from his own work, but from his advocacy of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric theory that the sun, not the Earth, was the object around which the planets revolved. Galileo was forced to renounce those views to avoid torture and execution and had to spend the last years of his life under house arrest. Even so, Galileo ultimately won the argument. Three-and-a-half centuries later, Pope John Paul II gave a speech in which he not only said that the church's persecution of Galileo had been a mistake, but also praised him as a brilliant mind who "practically invented the experimental method."

But that brouhaha isn't the most important thing about Galileo, a scientific giant whose discoveries forever changed humans' view of both the cosmos and the physical world in which we live, and helped establish the way in which modern scientists do science. He also became one of the first celebrity scientist-authors, whose 1610 book "Starry Messenger" became a sensation.

"Galileo is an interesting example of a versatile Renaissance mind," explains Paula Findlen, the Ubaldo PIerotti Professor of Italian history and co-director of the Patrick Suppes Center for the History and Philosophy of Science at Stanford University, via email. "He loves literature, art and music as well as science. He knows how to draw and he certainly knows how to write with eloquence. He's fascinated with how things work and visits artisans to know more. I see him as one of the culminating products of the Renaissance living in the age of the Reformation. Yet what he does with his knowledge launches a new age of science and observation."

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Renaissance Astronomer

Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy in 1564, one of six or seven children of a musician named Vincenzo Galilei, according to Rice University's Galileo Project website. In Galileo's youth, his family moved to Florence.

After getting his early education at a monastery, Galileo was sent by his father in 1581 to the University of Pisa, where he was supposed to earn a medical degree, as this biographical profile details. But Galileo didn't have much interest in healing the human body. Instead, he was curious about the world around him, and started physics experiments  some of them challenging the views of the classical Greek philosopher Aristotle. In 1585, he left the university without earning a degree, and began teaching mathematics, another of his interests. Eventually, his reputation grew so much that in 1589, he was invited back to the university to head the math department.

In 1592, Galileo moved to Venice and took a better-paying post at the University of Padua, where he spent the next 18 years teaching math and astronomy. During that time, he began a relationship with a woman named Marina Gamba, with whom he eventually had two daughters and a son.

" " Galileo's telescope, which he made in 1610, from the collection of the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy. Heritage Images/Getty Images

In 1609, while still at the university, Galileo heard about a Dutchman who had visited Venice and shown off a new invention, the telescope. Galileo decided to make his own, better version, and taught himself how to grind lenses to an even higher magnification.

"He was an excellent craftsman who read descriptions of the instrument and made the most powerful telescopes at the time," Alan Hirshfeld writes in an email. He's a physics professor and director of the UMass Dartmouth Observatory, and author of the 2014 book "Starlight Detectives: How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe."

"[Galileo] could see what others could not, and therefore his observations were groundbreaking," Hirshfeld explains.

Perhaps the most important of Galileo's astronomical discoveries were his revelations about the moon's topography, and how its mountains, valleys and plains are comparable to those on Earth. "It's a material world in space, not some special celestial body made of divine substance," Hirshfeld says.

Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons was another breakthrough. As Hirshfeld explains, he also found that the moons "keep up with Jupiter as it moves, whether it moves around the Earth or around the sun, depending on one's beliefs, but Jupiter's moons do not get left behind as critics of Copernicus claimed our moon would if Earth were moving around the sun. Jupiter and its moons provide a model of what the solar system is like: small bodies orbiting the larger body."

Galileo also observed that the Milky Way galaxy consists of stars, most of which are too faint to be seen individually by unassisted human eyes. Thanks to him, humans learned that "There are many more stars than previously believed, and our cosmos might be far larger than we thought," Hirshfeld says.

He also discovered that the planet Venus had changing crescent phases.

"The observation that Venus went through a full cycle of phases, from new to crescent to full and back was totally incompatible with the geocentric model of the universe," says Larry Marschall, an emeritus professor of physics at Gettysburg College, in an email. "It could only be explained if Venus went around the sun in an orbit that was smaller than the Earth's orbit around the sun  in other words the Copernican model."

" " Galileo defended himself before the Holy Office in the Vatican in 1632 after he was condemned by the Tribunal of the Inquisition for having defended the theories of Copernicus. Painting by Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury, 1847, Louvre Museum, Paris. Josse/Leemage/Getty Images

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A Physicist Who Changed Science

Though his astronomical discoveries made him a scientific celebrity, Galileo also made important discoveries in physics, going back to his early years at the University of Pisa.

For example, Galileo disproved the Greek philosopher Aristotle's belief that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, and showed instead that objects tend to fall at the same speed no matter what their weight or shape, which became known as the law of falling bodies. In legend, Galileo accomplished this by dropping a cannon and a musket ball from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, though modern historians have cast doubt upon that story. Galileo also discovered that the time taken for a pendulum to complete one swing was independent of the length of the arc, which led him to create a design for a pendulum clock.

But his most important breakthrough may have been discovering the concept of inertia  that bodies at rest tend to remain at rest  which eventually became the first of the three laws of motion described by British physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton.

"Galileo's main contribution to physics (as opposed to astronomy) was his realization that natural horizontal motion (a ball rolling on a flat table) would be steady motion in a straight line, if you could reduce friction and air resistance to nothing, and natural vertical motion would be constant acceleration downwards," Michael Fowler, an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Virginia who has taught a course on Galileo's discoveries, writes in an email. "But Newton synthesized these observations in his laws, then, brilliantly, added the law of gravitation, explaining at one stroke everything from the apple to the solar system."

In the process, Galileo also helped to establish the way that today's scientists do science. "He fostered the paradigm of physical experiment, precise measurement and objective observation  'Let nature speak,' as the saying goes  as opposed to logical inference based on preconceived notions about nature," Hirshfeld says. "The language of nature, he wrote, is mathematical and one must learn to understand that language."

Now That's Interesting There's a legend that after Galileo was forced to recant his view on the heliocentric solar system at the Inquisition, under his breath he added the phrase "and yet it moves," meaning that the Earth orbited the sun. But as Ars Technica reports, Galileo biographer Mario Livio has found, the first mention of that quote apparently came in a book published more than a century after Galileo's death, which suggests that it probably is apocryphal.
" " George Green (at left in the dark hat), the son of distiller Nathan 'Nearest' Green, was one of seven generations of the Green family who worked for the Jack Daniel Distillery. Wikimedia Commons

When you hear the name Jack Daniel, whiskey probably comes to mind.

But what about the name Nathan "Uncle Nearest" Green?

In 2016, The New York Times published a story about the distiller's "hidden ingredient"  "help from a slave." In the article, the brand officially acknowledged that an enslaved man, Nearest Green, taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. Since then, scholars, researchers and journalists have descended upon Lynchburg, Tennessee, hoping to learn more about a man who, until then, had appeared as a mere appendage in the story of the country's most popular whiskey brand.

As a scholar of tourism whose research involves highlighting marginalized populations and counternarratives, I followed these developments with keen interest.

In the fall of 2020, my critical sustainable tourism students created a short documentary, "Uncovering Nearest." I wanted my students to learn more about Green, since so many voices and faces of enslaved Africans and Black Americans have been silenced or erased from American history textbooks and heritage tourism sites.

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Black Culinary Innovation

Popular media, through shows like Netflix's "High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America," have finally started to acknowledge the ways in which Black Americans have contributed to some of America's most iconic dishes and spirits.

For example, James Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's enslaved chef, traveled with Jefferson in 1784 to France, where he trained in French cooking at the highest culinary level. He ended up being instrumental in introducing legendary dishes like macaroni and cheese, ice cream and French fries to the United States.

James Hemings eventually trained his younger brother, Peter, to take his place. In the fall of 1813, Peter Hemings learned brewing, and it's likely that he became the the first Black person in America to be professionally trained as a craft beer brewer.

Neither James nor Peter Hemings was a hobby chef or leisure brewer; this was their forced way of life. And the enslaved people who crafted new dishes didn't set out to change American cuisine. They simply needed to make do with what little they had.

Enslaved cooks were responsible for introducing ingredients and the know-how of such complex and labor-intensive dishes as oyster stew, gumbo, jambalaya and fried fish. However, their voices, names and creations were routinely left out of cookbooks, where their white owners received the credit and the acclaim.

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Nearest's Legacy Unveiled

Now one name  Nearest Green  has become synonymous with whiskey.

The New York Times article from 2016 inspired author and entrepreneur Fawn Weaver to set out on a quest to reveal Nearest Green's full story  what ended up as a 12-month research project involving more than 20 historians, archivists, archaeologists, conservators and genealogists.

Thanks to her work, a fuller picture of Green's legacy has emerged.

Around the mid-1800s, Green's enslavers were a firm known as Landis & Green, who "leant out" Nearest Green for a fee to local preacher, the Rev. Dan Call. This was typical in an era in which enslaved men were commonly involved in the making of spirits due to its reputation as dangerous, dirty work.

Nearest was known as a skilled distiller who specialized in a process known as sugar maple charcoal filtering  also called the Lincoln County Process. This method  which some historians believe was inspired by the techniques of enslaved men and women who had used charcoal to filter their water and purify their foods in West Africa  gave Green's whiskey a unique smoothness.

Years later, Jack Daniel, a 7-year-old white orphan, was sent to the Call farm to be a chore boy. Eventually, he became Green's apprentice and was taught the Lincoln County Process, which differentiates bourbon from Tennessee whiskey  making Nearest responsible for the Tennessee whiskey we know today. Victoria Eady-Butler, Green's descendant and former employee of Jack Daniel's Distillery, noted that there would "never have been Jack Daniel's made without a Green on the property."

After emancipation, Call sold his distillery to Jack Daniel. Daniel appointed Nearest Green, by then a free man, to be the Jack Daniel Distillery's first master distiller, and thus the first Black master distiller on record in the United States. Weaver discovered that sometime after 1881, Daniel moved his distillery to its current Cave Spring Hollow location, where several of Green's children and grandchildren went to work for him.

" " A statue of Jack Daniel in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Kyle Dean Reinford/Picture Alliance/Getty Images

Nearest's second-born and fourth-born sons, George and Eli, distilled whiskey on the Call Farm alongside Jack Daniel. Although no images of Nearest Green exist, a photograph shows one of his sons, George, sitting next to Jack Daniel.

Altogether, seven generations of Nearest Green's family have worked for the Jack Daniel Distillery and continue to work there to this day.

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A Whiskey Brand of Their Own

Jack Daniel and his descendants made a lot of money from their whiskey company over the years. In 1956, the family sold it to Brown-Forman for $20 million  about $190 million in today's money.

While Nearest Green and his descendants do appear to have been paid fairly by the Daniel family, they didn't own any of the distillery  and, consequently, didn't get any of those millions.

For decades, Nearest Green's name, legacy and contribution to whiskey were largely unknown to anyone outside Lynchburg, Tennessee  even though, after the Civil War, according to census data, Nearest Green and his family owned sizable plots of land and were wealthier than many white families living in Lynchburg.

Weaver was able to meet Green's descendants during her research and asked them how they would like to see him honored. They told her that "putting his name on a bottle, letting people know what he did, would be great."

This gave Weaver the idea to start her own whiskey company that honored Green's legacy. By 2019 she had raised $40 million from investors to create Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. Later that year she opened the Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville. Weaver now serves as CEO of the company, with Victoria Eady-Butler, a descendant of Green's, employed as the distillery's master blender.

Unearthing and celebrating stories like Green's is part of a push by scholars and travel companies to expand marketing and storytelling in ways that include overlooked or silenced perspectives.

" " The Nearest Green exhibit at the Jack Daniel Distillery. Stefanie Benjamin

In 2020, Nomadness Travel Tribe partnered with Tourism RESET, where I serve as a co-director and research fellow, to publish a report that included both qualitative in-depth interviews and a quantitative survey of more than 5,000 tourists to better understand the travel experiences of Black people and other people of color.

Meanwhile, the Black Travel Alliance, also in partnership with Tourism RESET, recently launched a new timeline and website, History Of Black Travel, which seeks to educate the public on "how the African diaspora traveled to every part of the Earth."

Ideally these efforts will create spaces for dialogue around difficult topics like race and enslavement while authentically honoring and amplifying the voices and legacies of Black Americans who helped to build the United States.

And hopefully more stories of people like Nearest Green  an accomplished Black man with a rich, nuanced life  will emerge.

Stefanie Benjamin is Assistant Professor of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management, University of Tennessee. She is also a co-director and research fellow at Tourism RESET.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.
" " Flickr Onesimus, named by Cotton Mather for a biblical slave, is credited in historical accounts with sharing his knowledge of the practice of inoculation, which saved untold numbers of early colonists from the ravages of smallpox.

There aren't a lot of written accounts of African-American people living in the early American colonies between the year 1500 and the Revolutionary War. It's not that they weren't there, but the paper trail for people of African descent from this time largely consists of petitions for freedom from slavery, accounts of escape (or attempted escape) from enslavement and records of execution. But accounts of one enslaved man named Onesimus, living in Boston in the early 18th century, tell the story of a person very likely responsible for saving hundreds of lives in the Boston smallpox epidemic of the early 1720s, as well as countless others affected by future outbreaks all over the colonies.

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Cotton Mather

Considering that, by the mid-19th century, slave labor and the slave trade itself were powerful economic engines in the American South, it's surprising that, 200 years before, Massachusetts was actually the first colony to give human slavery the moral and legal thumbs up, codifying the right to own human chattel in 1641. By the time Onesimus was purchased for the famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather in 1706, there were about 1,000 enslaved people living in Massachusetts  about a third of them living in Boston. Some of these people were indentured servants, and not all were of African descent  some were from Europe and some were indigenous native Americans. However, the turn of the 18th century saw the colonies putting more restrictions on people of color, and disproportionately binding them to slavery for life.

Nobody knows Onesimus's original name  Cotton Mather named him for a biblical slave who escaped his master, but who later converted to Christianity. He was probably born in West Africa and brought to the colonies on a ship in his youth, as Mather described him as "a young Man who is a Negro of a promising aspect of temper" in his diary the week his congregation presented Onesimus to him as a gift.

Cotton Mather was an important Bostonian  his father, Increase Mather, was the president of Harvard, a job that Cotton Mather later turned down because what he really wanted to do with his time was read and write. Mather was considered among the most educated people in the colonies, and he published upward of 400 books in his lifetime, on everything from piracy to plant hybridization. Mather was also a religious zealot  in the 1690s, he figured prominently in the Salem witch trials, earning himself the reputation of being extremely anti-witch.

Because Mather lived in the city and spent most of his time reading and writing, he was ostensibly not much in need of a laborer in his home  Onesimus's main jobs in the Mather household seem to have been clearing snow, stacking firewood, carrying water and doing little chores around the house. However, Mather was extremely interested in converting Onesimus to Christianity, and he wrote in his diary about teaching his slave to read and write so that he could better understand the Christian catechism.

Perhaps because Mather was so adamant about converting Onesimus to Christianity, the two seem to have chatted a lot.

"It was a relationship between an owner and someone who was owned, but we know a lot more about Onesimus than we do about other African Americans of the time because Cotton Mather's diary is very detailed," says Steven Niven, executive editor of the African American National Biography at Harvard's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. "We know, for instance that he had a son who died. We know, too, that Onesimus wanted to buy his freedom from Mather, which we can assume he eventually did."

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A Conversation About Inoculation

Mather's diary also details how sometime in the early 1700s, he and Onesimus had a conversation about the extremely deadly smallpox epidemics that swept through New England in the 40 years prior. At the time, smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in the North American colonies, and Boston had been hit hard several times. According to Mather's diary, during one of these conversations, Onesimus made a remark that he wouldn't be getting smallpox if it came back through Boston because he had been inoculated before he left Africa. Of course he didn't use the term "inoculation," but he explained to Mather that he had,

...undergone an Operation, which had given him something of ye Small-Pox, and would forever preserve him from it, adding, That it was often used among [Africans] and whoever had ye Courage to use it, was forever free from the Fear of ye Contagion. He described ye Operation to me, and showed me in his Arm ye Scar.

The process Onesimus underwent back in Africa is now known as variolation, which was the deliberate infection with the disease in order to create immunity from it, and he explained to Mather that you could tell from the scar on someone's arm that they had been treated. Even people who are selling or purchasing slaves knew to look for the scar because that person was more likely to survive a smallpox epidemic, and therefore more valuable.

Mather didn't act immediately on this information, but in 1720, when Boston experienced another smallpox outbreak, he remembered the conversations he had had with Onesimus. Mather teamed up with a physician named Zabdiel Boylston and campaigned to inoculate the people of Boston against the disease in the same way Onesimus had been inoculated back in Africa.

"Although Cotton Mather was a very important figure in Boston at the time, and people listened to him, most of the community was opposed to this idea for a couple of reasons," says Niven. "One is because this was a practice the Africans used  it wasn't used in Western Europe at the time, and people were very wary of that. Secondly, there was a newspaper in Boston called "The New England Courant" run by Benjamin Franklin's older brother, James. It mounted a slander campaign against Cotton Mather, saying it was ridiculous to think you could protect somebody from a disease by giving them the disease."

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Edward Jenner and a Smallpox Vaccination

In the end, 242 people volunteered for Mather's inoculation crusade, and only 2 percent of those people died in that smallpox epidemic, compared to 14 percent of the uninoculated population who died of smallpox in Boston between 1721 and 1723. When the word spread that those who were inoculated had a seven times greater chance of surviving smallpox, it became a common practice in Boston and the rest of the Americas until 1796 when Edward Jenner developed the first smallpox vaccination.

What Onesimus thought of the part he played in saving the lives of countless colonists is unknown because, according to Mather's diary and other documentation, he succeeded in conditionally buying his freedom around 1716. He bought Mather a replacement slave, and agreed to do small jobs around the house, when necessary.

As far as anyone knows, though, Mather never succeeded in converting Onesimus to Christianity.

Now That's Interesting Onesimus is Greek for "useful."
" " A building on the site of the Harbin bioweapon facility of Unit 731 stands in ruins today. Japanese troops, including those in Unit 731, developed and produced germ weapons based on experiments on human beings and used the weapons against Chinese civilians. Wikimedia/(CC BY-SA 3.0)

For years after World War II, in most of what was considered the "civilized" world, the truth behind Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731 was quietly swept away. Facts were suppressed. Memories questioned. Reports denied.

Even today, the true extent of Unit 731's wartime actions  horrendous, deadly medical experiments and lethal biological weapons testing on unsuspecting Chinese civilians  is known largely only to historians and scholars.

But the facts are out there for those who seek them. And for those who seek to use them for their own personal reasons.

"I think that it has become a piece of this tortured dialogue over the war between Japan and China. The Chinese have seized upon this quite a bit. And the Japanese right, the nationalist right, their basic view is that, 'Oh, the Chinese. This is all political.' ... And there is a certain truth to that," says Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in international policy at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. "There is a 'uses of the past' question here. Perhaps you could say it's cynical in that everybody does it."

The truth is that Japan's Unit 731 committed some of the most heinous war crimes ever. Thousands of prisoners were killed in cruel human experiments at Unit 731, which was based near the northeastern China city of Harbin, north of the Korean peninsula and on a border with Russia. Perhaps hundreds of thousands more  maybe as many as a half-million  were killed when the Japanese tested their biological weapons on Chinese civilians.

The exact number of dead is not known. It may never be known.

"It's very difficult to calculate," says Yue-Him Tam, a history professor at Minnesota's Macalester College and co-author of a book entitled, "Unit 731: Laboratory of the Devil, Auschwitz of the East (Japanese Biological Warfare in China 1933-1945)." Tam, born and raised in China, has taught a class at Macalester on war crimes and memory in contemporary East Asia for more than 20 years. "If you include those victims who suffered from the other activities  not necessarily just used as human guinea pigs  the bombs in China ... it's very difficult to calculate."

" " These ruins are all that's left of the Japanese germ factory run by Unit 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images

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The Start of Unit 731

Unit 731  its official name was the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army  was formed before World War II began (at least for the U.S., which didn't officially enter the war until December 1941). It came about sometime in the mid-1930s when Japan and China went to war, a conflict that eventually morphed into World War II's war in the Pacific theater.

The Unit's charge was clear from the beginning: testing, producing and storing biological weapons. Such activities were outlawed by at least two international treaties at the time, though the Japanese did not ratify the 1925 Geneva protocol. It didn't matter.

From the start, Unit 731, under General Shiro Ishii, was merciless.

Among the thousands of experiments conducted on prisoners: vivisections without anesthesia; injections of venereal diseases to examine their spread; amputations to study blood loss; removal of other body parts and organs; starvation; and deliberate exposure to freezing temperatures to examine the effects of frostbite. From a 1995 article in The New York Times, relating a story from a medical assistant in Unit 731:

The Chinese prisoner had been deliberately infected with the plague as part of a research project  the full horror of which is only now emerging  to develop plague bombs for use in World War II. After infecting him, the researchers decided to cut him open to see what the disease does to a man's inside. No anesthetic was used, [the former medical assistant] said, out of concern that it might have an effect on the results.

Reportedly, not one of the thousands of prisoners that were experimented on  most of whom were Chinese, though many were Russian or Korean  survived.

Later, the Japanese took especially virulent forms of the plague and other pathogens that were developed at Unit 731, put them in canisters and dropped them on nearby towns to see if their weapons would work. They did.

Thousands of these still-dangerous bombs remain in the Chinese countryside today, Tam says. Some people still suffer from the Japanese "dirty" bombs.

At one time, the Japanese hatched a plan to infect fleas with a plague manufactured at Unit 731 and drop flea-filled bombs, launched from planes stored aboard submarines, on San Diego in a mission code-named Operations Cherry Blossoms at Night. The war ended before the plan could be executed.

After the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan and effectively ended the war in 1945, Japanese leaders ordered the destruction of Unit 731, which included more than 150 buildings and two airports. As the victorious Allied forces approached, many hundreds of remaining prisoners were killed. The thousands of people who worked in the place and conducted experiments on healthy, living humans scattered, many never to face justice.

" " This photo shows the frostbitten hands of a Chinese prisoner at Unit 731 who was taken outside in winter by Japanese troops for an experiment on how best to treat frostbite. Xinhua via Getty Images

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America's Shameful Part

The top doctors and soldiers at Unit 731 kept careful records of their experiments, and used them to leverage their way to freedom after the war. When the Allies swept into China, they agreed to grant Ishii and many of his associates immunity from prosecution for war crimes. The reasons: The U.S. wanted Unit 731's research for its own use, and it wanted to keep that information out of the hands of others, including the Russians. Thus, for years, the true nature of what went on in Unit 731 was shielded from public knowledge.

Some of the truth came out in the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial, held in that Russian city in December 1949. Twelve members of Unit 731 and associated units were tried. All were found guilty and imprisoned. Despite that trial, though, much of what went on in Harbin was immediately classified by the U.S. government and remained clouded in secrecy.

More details about Unit 731 are still being unearthed. A confession from a unit commander, written to U.S. interrogators at a base in Maryland shortly after the war, was released in August 2021 by a Chinese provincial agency. Chinese and Russian news outlets heralded the release, which highlighted America's part in using the information gathered by Unit 731, hiding it and protecting its sources from further prosecution.

"The United States is not the outsider to this. Previously, I think the tendency was for the people in the United States to think, 'This is a problem between Japan and its neighbors.' But not only were we of course the major combatant in the war, we shaped the postwar settlement, including decisions like the one concerning Unit 731," Sneider says. "We made the big decisions about what was a war crime and what wasn't ... We're the creator of the postwar order, and therefore we have responsibility and involvement in dealing with the issues that were left, unfortunately, unresolved."

" " This exhibit at The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731 in Harbin, shows how the Japanese would freeze prisoner's hands and then pour hot water over them to test how they thawed. Global Photos

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Dealing With Unit 731 Today

Research on 731 continues to be conducted all over the world. As recently as 2018, the Japanese government provided a list of more than 3,600 members of Unit 731 to a Japanese scholar. Yet even with more information, with politicians and the governments of various countries opening their records, the facts remain largely in the shadows and in some dispute.

In China, with the resurgent government now not as dependent on Japan as it was in the years following World War II, the Chinese are demanding more answers, eager to hold old rival Japan responsible.

For their part, most Japanese are not nearly as willing to engage in discussions about what is considered by many Japanese as a shameful period in that country's history. Some say the surge in Chinese interest in Unit 731 is nothing more than political in nature.

The U.S. is dealing with its own internal demons about its history with Unit 731.

These varying viewpoints, and others in the region and throughout the world, complicate matters. From 2006 to 2016, Sneider and others at Stanford's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center conducted a project, "Divided Memories and Reconciliation," aimed at examining the historical memory of the wartime period in Asia. These histories, viewed differently, go directly to ideas about national identity and nationalism. They are tricky histories to examine, uncovering differences that often stay unresolved.

"Sometimes the truth is pretty elusive," says Sneider. "To some degree, the goal is not necessarily always to establish 'the fact.' That's a good goal, but it may not be possible. The goal, if you're seeking reconciliation, the goal may be to understand the different perceptions of the other.

"In Japan, wartime memory is highly contested within Japan. They've been battling over these issues since 1945. Sometimes it's important just for Koreans and Chinese and Americans to understand what's going on within Japan. That path is contrived; to try to get to reconciliation by agreeing on what happened."

People may not agree on how many people were killed by the criminals in Unit 731, who did it, how it was done, or why it occurred. They can, and should, look critically upon America's decisions after the war, too.

But this much is indisputable: What happened in Unit 731 was an abomination.

In August 2015, The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731 opened in an area just south of Harbin, a city of more than 5 million people. Tam is among the millions who have visited the site.

"The room where they experimented with poisonous gas, there are still walls standing there, and the walls are really thick, almost like 1-meter [3.2-feet] thick, to prevent leaking of something. When I saw these things, I was really shedding tears as to how people can do that," Tam says. "It was very moving.

"I am a historian. The most important thing that matters to me is the facts. I want to find out the facts. And that was a fact, Unit 731. The crimes they committed and produced are facts."

" " General Shiro Ishii, seen on the left in wartime and on the right at a "reunion" for those who worked at Unit 731 after World War II, was never charged with war crimes. Wikimedia/(CC BY-SA 3.0)

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Japanese war criminals were tried at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, otherwise known as the Tokyo War Crimes trial. Testimony from Ishii, gathered in Maryland after his postwar arrest, was used in the trial, too. But Ishii, the architect behind the Unit 731 atrocities, was never charged. He died in Tokyo in 1959, a free man.
Australians truly shopped til we dropped during the pandemic lockdowns last year, with new figures confirming an explosion in e-commerce that saw our carriers working overtime to deliver more than 1 billion packages in 2020.

That figure  a record for Australia  represented an average of 40 purchases for every man, woman, and child in the country, and an average run rate of 33 parcels per second for the entire year.

Yet even this was dwarfed by the UK  where per-capita parcel shipments surged from 56 in 2019 to 74 last year  and the United States, whose 330m people each ordered an average of 61 packages last year.

Increased volumes boosted delivery-company revenues, with Australias parcel shipping market generating $7.8 billion and Australian customers paying the worlds third highest price per parcel  $7.62, after France ($9.30) and the US ($8.50).

The figures, contained in the latest annual Parcel Shipping Index from e-commerce shipping technology giant Pitney Bowes, highlighted the explosive growth of package shipments during the first year of the pandemic  during which 131.2b parcels were shipped globally, up 27 per cent from 103m the year before.

That figure is expected to more than double in the next five years globally, to 266m packages in 2026, based on forecast 12 per cent compound annual growth rate.

Australia Post alone carried 40 per cent of parcel volumes  400 million packages, or just over a million packages per day  explaining why the company has continued to struggle to keep up with demand.

Shipping delays have been widespread, with packages taking days or weeks to travel a handful of suburbs and Australia Post recently halting deliveries for a weekend to catch up with runaway parcel volumes amidst staff losses from widespread COVID isolation.

The delays have led to widespread warnings from e-commerce merchants that Christmas shoppers should start early to allow for shipping delays  with Australia Post acting chief executive recently saying the company was already carrying normal Christmas-time parcel volumes and that this Christmas is certainly going to be the busiest weve ever seen.

All I want for Christmas is delayed

Sheer parcel numbers are only one part of the problem, however: e-commerce merchants around the world are increasingly feeling the impact of supply-chain interruptions caused by COVID outbreaks at manufacturers, raw-materials producers, and logistics companies around the world.

British petrol giants, for example, are currently in crisis mode as surging lockdown numbers perpetuate a shortage of drivers and the supplies they carry  exposing soft spots in global supply chains that are being stretched to the limit. The resulting petrol hoarding by motorists continues to cause chaos.

Buyers at major electronics firms placed their holiday orders from Chinese manufacturers weeks earlier than usual this year, while JB-HiFi is hiring 1,500 casuals to handle Christmas orders and Amazon Australia is hiring over 1,000 workers to help keep up with surging orders.

Australia Post, for its part, will hire almost 5,000 people to help it keep up with demand as the holiday shopping season kicks into full swing.

Given record parcel shipments, Pitney Bowes Japan, Australia and New Zealand vice president and country manager Stephen Darracott advised Australian e-commerce companies to reconsider the way they fulfil customer orders.

With global economic uncertainty and supply chain issues compounding the surge in online shopping and shipping, businesses must look at how they execute transactions with their customers, he said.

As we move into peak shipping season in Australia, it will be key for organisations to explore technology platforms that offer multiple carriers and an easy way to compare pricing.

Australians will spend more than $11 billion on Christmas presents this year, according to a recent Roy Morgan survey that also found 48 per cent of those presents are likely to be purchased online  and 58 per cent set to purchase more or significantly more items online than last year.

The past few months have been a uniquely challenging time for most retailers, Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra said.

Consumers should be mindful of the strain our supply chains are under and make sure they get their online orders in on time to avoid disappointment.

We might be in September, but were already seeing Christmas levels of demand.
IFIPs Anthony Wong [L] and Moira de Roche at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Geneva. Photo: Supplied

IFIP, the global apolitical organisation for information and communications technologies and sciences, has announced its new leadership team, electing former ACS President Anthony Wong as its new President and South African Moira de Roche as its Vice President.

He is only the second Australian to hold this position in IFIPs 60-year history.

Wong will serve as IFIP President-elect for the next 12 months before taking over the leadership after its General Assembly in September 2022 for a three-year term.

A former CIO and now information technology lawyer, Wong enjoys significant influence within the Australian and international ICT landscape.

He is the current IFIP Vice President, serves as Deputy Chair of IFIPs International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) and was recently appointed Chair of IFIPs newest Working Group (WG12.12) focusing on AI Governance.

This year he has also chaired the IFIP 60th Events Coordination Committee, which has collaborated with IFIP Member Societies and Committees to host more than 40 events across the globe to promote and celebrate the IFIPs 60th Anniversary (#ifip60).

In Australia, Wong has served two terms as President of ACS, from 2010-11 and 2016-17; sat on the Australian Government IT Industry Innovation Council; chaired the NSW Government ICT Advisory Panel; and served on its Digital Transformation Taskforce.

A regular commentator and presenter on topical issues in various print and online media, radio and TV, he also speaks at various conference and forums, including the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

In his election speech to the IFIP General Assembly, Wong said this is an important epoch in human history, pointing to the growing influence and implications of technology on all facets of work, life and play.

He pointed to comments by the UN Secretary-General in his June 2020 report that, The world is at a critical inflection point for technology governance, made more urgent by the ongoing pandemic.

Wong plans to apply his experience and skills in collaboration, consultation and thought leadership to advance IFIP and enhance its relevance to the international community.

We are a broad church with members from across the world. Since its inception 60 years ago under the auspices of UNESCO, IFIP activities span every conceivable role in ICT, from computer science and education to cybersecurity and AI, from both government and business, research and academia.

In a world, that is now connected by technology, IFIP continues to play many important roles in the rapidly evolving technology landscape as featured by the many #ifip60 faces.

ICT professionals and academics understand better than most in relation to the trends and trajectories of emerging technologies and their potential impacts on the economic, safety and social constructs of the workplace and society.

IFIP is well-placed to collaborate and work with business, institutions, governments, regulators and policy formulators with our unique understanding of the benefits, strengths and limitations of technology and its effects, he said.

Current IFIP President, Mike Hinchey, has welcomed Wongs election from a competitive field, saying he is pleased to know IFIP will be in great hands for the future.

Anthony Wong is a long-time contributor to IFIP and has deep understanding of the issues and challenges it faces moving forward, he said.

He brings great experience from his two terms as ACS President and from his professional experience in policy setting and technology law.

As an active member of IP3, he will continue to elevate IFIPs concerns with issues of ethics and professionalism.

I look forward to working with him on the handover and welcome his inputs and contributions as President-elect, he concluded.

Mr Wong will be supported in his leadership of IFIP by long-time professionalism advocate, Moira de Roche, who currently also chairs IFIP IP3.

"I am very pleased to be elected as Vice President for IFIP, she said.

My vision is for an IFIP that is recognised globally by business and government, building on the body of academic research and insight for the Technical Committees.

IFIP must expand its role to ensure its sustainability as an organisation," she said.

Other results from the IFIP meeting included the election of:

 Kai Rannenberg as Honorary Treasurer

 Max Bramer as Honorary Secretary Elect

 Wouter Bronsgeest (Netherlands) as IFIP Councillor

 Alastair Irons (UK) as IFIP Councillor
Over 130,000 attackers targeted the online Census 2021 over the course of Australias national survey but none managed to disrupt it  but it is only now, weeks after the 10 August survey, that the systems architects have revealed how they avoided another catastrophe.

Prime contractor PwC, it turns out, worked closely with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to rebuild the entire Census infrastructure on the AWS cloud  which lets applications quickly create new copies of application servers when demand increases, then shut them down when traffic settles down.

This architecture suits online applications like the Census, which at its 8:06pm AEST peak was handling 142 online forms per second and processing up to 249 logins every second.

Months of preparation had seen the technical teams pushing the core Census Digital Service (CDS) to breaking point, with the system tested at more than 500,000 logins per second  ensuring it was, AWS director of Technology and Transformation in Oceania, Simon Elisha, explained, easily able to manage the 2.5 million people who submitted their forms on 2021 Census day.

To spread traffic more evenly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) kept the Census portal open for a 9-week period on either side of Census Night, with CDS ultimately managing more than 8 million forms.

The developers also set up an automated contact centre running on AWS, which allowed 394,000 Australians to order a paper copy of the Census form without involving a single Census employee.

Yet scaling the Census wasnt the only issue facing developers of the 2021 Census platform  which was designed from day one to avoid a repeat of the 2016 disaster, when a poorly-designed security infrastructure allowed the system to be overwhelmed by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and ultimately forced the ABS to pull it offline during the busiest hours of Census night.

Anticipating a repeat of the 2016 DDoS storm, the systems architects also pummelled it with simulated DDoS attacks more intense than 99 per cent of the attacks that AWS sees over its network every day.

ABS and Australian Government security experts torture-tested the new platform, which was evaluated against the stringent Information Security Manual (ISM) controls and a formal Information Security Registered Assessors (IRAP) evaluation that certified the AWS infrastructure for carrying data up to the PROTECTED classification level.

Governing from the cloud

For AWS, the Census project was more than just an opportunity to salvage the ABSs tattered reputation: having delivered the 2017 Marriage Law Postal Survey and 2019 Australian Electoral Commission election website without a hitch, the 2021 Census success has reinforced AWSs prime position as the Australian government marches into the cloud.

Its a major shift for governments that traditionally managed their own applications within data centres they could control  but increasingly capable cloud providers have rapidly changed this.

AWS understands the demands of delivering essential government services online, Elisha wrote, and has deep expertise in helping customers scale.

AWS has secured an increasingly diverse array of high-end projects, including its recent deal with RMIT University to build a cloud-based supercomputer that will exploit AWS scalability for researchers.

Yet its increasing role as the de facto cloud platform for Australian government  enshrined by a 2019 whole-of-government agreement  means government bodies consolidation into the cloud is only just beginning.

The centralisation of Government networks seeks to reduce opportunities for malicious actors to target agencies that have less secure ICT systems and drive greater efficiencies in the Australian Governments cyber security investment, the Australian National Auditors Office (ANAO) noted during a recent audit of government application hosting strategies.

Buoyed by a shakeup of Australian government cloud policies and the recent mandate that government data only be stored in certified assured or certified strategic data centres, AWS has expanded its regional investment, with a Melbourne cloud region  which will complement the Sydney region where all Census data was stored  currently in the works.

AWS also recently announced plans to spend $7.5 billion ($US5.3b) on a New Zealand region that will open in 2024, giving that countrys businesses and government bodies a domestic cloud platform to support their own digital transformation.

A level of digital sovereignty is required for securing and developing Australias national interests, Monash University professor Andrew Mitchell noted in a recent Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analysis.

The challenge once faced by Australian governments was completing their digital transformations; now, its about figuring out how to adequately protect government systems that are hosted in the cloud.
1. Yes. There should be absolute certainty that the election was free and fair.

2. Yes. The audit could and should lead to stronger laws governing elections in the state.

3. No. Former President Trump wants the audit to further cast doubt on the 2020 vote.

4. No. Its a waste of money, an attempt by Abbott to gain favor among Trump backers.

5. Unsure. It seems unnecessary but it may provide some worthwhile findings.

Vote

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Biden nominates 9 candidates for federal prosecutor posts

President Joe Biden is nominating nine lawyers to run U.S. attorneys offices across the country, a diverse group of candidates in the latest round of picks for the top law enforcement positions.

The nominations, announced by the White House on Tuesday, are expected to run the federal prosecutors offices in Hawaii, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Colorado, Ohio, Vermont and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They would include several historic firsts, including the first Black female attorneys to lead their districts, the Biden administration said.

The Justice Departments 93 U.S. attorneys, who are responsible for federal criminal prosecutions in their respective districts, are central to the Biden administrations efforts to combat violent crime.

The candidates were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice, the White House said.

The announcement also means Biden has now nominated 25 people to serve as U.S. attorneys, positions that have been filled for months by acting U.S. attorneys.

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The nominees include Clare Connors, who has served as the attorney general in Hawaii since 2019, and Sandra Hairston, who has been the acting U.S. attorney in the Middle District of North Carolina since March. If confirmed by the Senate, Hairston would be the first Black woman to hold that position.

The White House is also nominating Zachary Cunha to be the U.S. attorney in Rhode Island, where he currently runs the offices civil division. Michael Easley Jr., a partner at the law firm McGuire Woods and son of former Democratic governor and state attorney general Mike Easley, is being tapped to run the office in the Eastern District of North Carolina, based in Raleigh. Cole Finegan, managing partner of the law firm Hogan Lovells in Denver, is being put up for U.S. attorney in Colorado, and Nikolas Kerest, a longtime federal prosecutor in Vermont, is nominated to run the office there. The other nominees include longtime federal prosecutors. Dena King, who has been in charge of prosecuting violent crime and narcotics cases in the Western District of North Carolina, is proposed to run the U.S. attorneys office there and would be the first Black person to hold the position. And Kenneth Parker is being nominated for the Southern District of Ohio. The administration has also nominated Delia L. Smith to run the U.S. attorneys office in the U.S. Virgin Island. She has worked there as a prosecutor since 2005 and would be the first Black woman to hold the position.
Fired Professors Collectively Win More Than $1.4 Million in Retaliation Suit

A jury today ordered a Christian university in Signal Hill that trains students to be health care professionals to collectively pay more than $1.4 million to two former professors who alleged they were wrongfully fired in retaliation for investigating student sexual harassment claims against the universitys co-founder.

The Los Angeles Superior Court panel began its deliberations last Wednesday in the lawsuit brought in March 2016 by Anita Bralock and Brandon Fryman against the American University of Health Sciences. The panel awarded

$751,100 to Fryman and $654,500 to Bralock. The panel also found that school co-founder Pastor Gregory Johnson acted with malice, fraud or oppression, triggering a second phase of trial to determine if Bralock and Fryman are entitled to punitive damages. Johnson established the school in 1994 along with his wife, Kim Dang-Johnson.

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Defense lawyers maintained the plaintiffs were involved in an effort to start a competing school and were fired because they refused to go along with the schools investigation into their actions. Bralock, 64, was hired as a professor and associate dean in 2010 and was later promoted to dean of the nursing school in June 2011, the suit states. Fryman, 42, began his teaching career at AUHS in 2012 as an adjunct faculty member and was later promoted to a full-time professor in June 2014, according to the suit.

While employed at AUHS, the plaintiffs experienced a workplace that was inundated by retaliation and intimidation by  Johnson, the suit alleged. The alleged retaliatory treatment came to a head in August 2015 when a nursing student reported to Fryman that Johnson had sexually harassed her, the suit states. Fryman and Bralock, along with Joyce Giger, the then-president of AUHS, began an investigation into the students complaint and Johnson was subsequently asked to stop any unwanted touching of students, faculty and staff, the suit stated.

The investigation was at one point given to an outside investigator and in September 2015, Fryman was demoted to a part-time professor with a pay cut, the suit stated. Fryman later filed complaints with the California Labor Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the suit stated. Bralock and Fryman were suspended in October 2015 and Giger allegedly resigned the same day, the suit stated. The plaintiffs were fired in February 2016 on the pretext that they engaged in wrongdoing, based on false allegations that they did not cooperate in an investigation regarding a competing school that has never been in existence, the suit stated.
In R. Kelly verdict, Black women see long-overdue justice

For years, decades even, allegations swirled that R&B superstar R. Kelly was abusing young women and girls, with seeming impunity.

They were mostly young Black women. And Black girls.

And that, say accusers and others who have called for him to face accountability, is part of what took the wheels of the criminal justice system so long to turn, finally leading to his conviction Monday in his sex trafficking trial. That it did at all, they say, is also due to the efforts of Black women, unwilling to be forgotten.

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Speaking out against sexual assault and violence is fraught for anyone who attempts it. Those who work in the field say the hurdles facing Black women and girls are raised even higher by a society that hypersexualizes them from a young age, stereotyping them as promiscuous and judging their physiques, and in a country with a history of racism and sexism that has long denied their autonomy over their own bodies.

Black women have been in this country for a long time and  our bodies were never ours to begin with, said Kalimah Johnson, executive director of the SASHA Center in Detroit, which provides services to sexual assault survivors.

No one allows us to be something worthy of protection, she said. A human that needs love, and sacredness. Its as if, she said, theres nothing sacred about a Black womans body.

In a 2017 study from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, adults were asked about their perceptions of Black girls in comparison with white girls of the same age in terms of their needs for nurturing and protection, as well as their knowledge of adult topics like sex.

At all ages, Black girls were perceived as more adult than white girls, needing less protection and knowing more about sex. The gap was widest between Black and white for girls between the ages of 10 and 14, followed by girls between the ages of 5 and 9.

We dont value Black girls, and they are dehumanized, and they are also blamed for the sexual violence that they experienced to a greater extent than white girls are, said Rebecca Epstein, executive director of the center and one of the studys authors.

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For years, girls suffering at R. Kellys hands were treated as more of a punchline than a travesty, even during a trial on child pornography charges where a video, allegedly of him abusing a girl, was shown. He was acquitted in 2008.

Lisa Van Allen, who testified against Kelly in 2008, told ABCs Good Morning America in an interview broadcast Tuesday that she almost cried when she learned of Mondays verdict. You know, this is what I was looking for back in 2008, Van Allen said. So I would say that the difference this time around is that theres power in numbers. A lot of people came forward.

Asked if she believed the accusers were initially not believed because they were Black women, Van Allen said, Yes I do believe that thats the main reason why.

Music writer Jim DeRogatis couldnt understand it. He and a colleague were the first to report on R. Kellys interactions with girls, in December 2000, and DeRogatis continued writing about it for years after.

Every time something came out, like the video, DeRogatis thought, that had to be it  that had to be the thing that would finally make a difference. And every time, it wasnt.

It brought a realization home to DeRogatis, a middle-aged white man: the injustice that nobody matters less in our society than young Black girls.

And the girls and women he interviewed knew it, he said. The first thing he heard from the dozens he has interviewed, he said, was, Whos going to believe us? Were Black girls.

And so, R. Kelly continued on for years, making hit songs, performing with other artists, even at times calling himself the Pied Piper but professing he didnt know the story about the musician who kidnapped a towns children.

Those who welcomed Mondays conviction, which came after several weeks of disturbing testimony and now carries the possibility that Kelly will spend decades in prison, said its a testament to the strength and perseverance of Black women, who have been the driving force, especially in recent years, of speaking out against him and demanding attention remain on him.

Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement against sexual abuse, pointed to the #MuteRKelly campaign, a protest started by two Black women in Atlanta in 2017 to put pressure on radio stations to stop playing his music and venues to stop allowing him to perform.

And the most widespread public condemnation followed in the wake of the 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, executive produced by dream hampton, a Black woman.

Asked about the guilty verdict Tuesday on CBS This Morning, hampton said, You know, I want to believe that this means that Black women survivors will be heard, but I dont want it to be dependent on a piece of media going viral or being successful. She said she thinks about all of the stories of everyday Black girls in neighborhoods like the ones that I grew up in Detroit who dont have a predator, who dont have an abuser that was famous or rich.

Burke, who was interviewed for Surviving R. Kelly, said, I think it says that you have to believe in the power of your own community, because this would not have happened if not for Black women staying the course. It was Black women who decided, We are not going to let this fall on deaf ears. It was Black women who decided, If nobody else is going to care, were going to care for Black women and girls in our community.
LA City Council to Elect New President Pro Tempore

The Los Angeles City Council will hold a vote today to pick a new president pro tempore to replace Councilman and 2022 mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino with Councilman Mitch OFarrell.`

`The time has come for Joe to run his race for mayor and I will continue to focus on leading this city and this council without distraction, Councilwoman Nury Martinez said in a statement after introducing a motion to remove Buscaino from the position and hold a vote to elect OFarrell. Her motion, which was introduced on Sept. 21, was seconded by Councilmen Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Gil Cedillo, Curren Price, Paul Krekorian and Bob Blumenfield.

Related: LA to Invest $30 Million in Solar Storage Program Using City-Owned Buildings

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I am honored to have been nominated by my colleagues to serve as president pro tempore of the Los Angeles City Council, OFarrell said in a statement. If approved, I look forward to supporting the work of this council, led by Council President Martinez, to help ensure that we collectively and fearlessly address the many challenges facing our great city.

Buscaino said ahead of the motion being introduced on Sept. 21 that he would step down as president pro tempore because he is running for mayor. If passed, the motion would remove Buscaino from the post effective Oct. 1.

As is the long-held tradition of giving up council leadership when running for another office, today I will be stepping down from my ceremonial position of council president pro tem and will be supporting my good friend Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson to replace me, Buscaino said in a statement.

Related: Sidewalk Encampments-CD13 Resolution

Buscaino  a former police officer who represents the 15th Council District  announced his run for mayor on March 15. During his mayoral campaign and as a councilman, Buscaino has called for stricter enforcement of the citys anti-camping laws and introduced a motion to prohibit camping and sleeping on sidewalks by people who have already been offered a shelter option. He also introduced a resolution to enforce the citys anti-camping laws around every public school in Los Angeles.

The City Council president pro tempore acts as presiding officer when the council president is absent. If the council president position is vacant or if there is a long-term unavailability due to sickness, absence from the state or disability, the president pro tempore exercises the powers and duties of the council president.
Pedestrian Killed in Hit-And-Run in Koreatown Area

A pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed in the Koreatown area, and police today sought public help to find the hit-and- run driver. Paramedics sent to Crenshaw Boulevard and Ninth Street at about 9:30 p.m. Monday took the injured victim, described only as a male, to a hospital, where he died, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

Information on his identity was not immediately released. No description was available of the vehicle or the driver. A standing reward of up to $50,000 has been offered by the city of Los Angeles for information that helps solve a fatal hit and run. Anyone with information on the case was urged to call 877-LAPD-247, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

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Secretary Fudge, HUD convened African American officials to discuss the housing investments in President Bidens Build Back Better plan

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge convened a virtual roundtable discussion with over 90 mayors, state legislators, county commissioners, and local municipal leaders on the housing investments and racial equity opportunities that would be created through President Bidens Build Back Better plan. The mayors and state and local elected leaders make up the executive teams and memberships of the National League of Cities- National Black Caucus for Local Elected Officials, National Organization of Black County Officials, African American Mayors Association, and National Black Conference of State Legislators.

Speakers included Georgia State Rep. and President of the National Black Conference of State Legislators Billy Mitchell, African American Mayors Association President and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Commissioner and National Organization of Black County Officials President Rodney Ellis, and Akron City Councilman and National League of Cities- National Black Caucus for Elected Officials President Russell C. Neal, Jr.

Secretary Fudge underscored the Biden-Harris Administrations Build Back Better plan and its investments in housing construction and rehabilitation, economic development, and community revitalization.

She noted that even before the pandemic, nearly 11 million households spent more than half their incomes on rent  and that people of color represent a disproportionate number of these households.Secretary Fudge reiterated President Bidens commitment to addressing the affordable housing crisis through the Build Back Better plan, which calls for historic investments in our nations housing.Further, the group discussed how the federal government will continue to work with local officials to protect renters through quickly delivering assistance to stop evictions during the pandemic.

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The local officials raised their priorities to ensure communities of color receive investments to build more affordable housing and break down barriers that drive up costs.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NY), Environmental Justice Advocate, Proud to Receive NNPA Leadership Award

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) recently joined EPA Administrator Michael Regan, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Ironbound Community Corporation, and New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance for an environmental justice tour of the Ironbound neighborhood in Newark.

A roundtable discussion on federal policies to address issues affecting environmental justice communities followed the tour, which put, in a nutshell, the work Sen. Booker has accomplished during his stellar political career.

Since my early days as a tenant rights lawyer in Newark, Ive seen how underserved communities and communities of color bear the burden of legacy pollution, toxic Superfund sites, and the lack of clean air or water, Sen. Booker stated in a news release.

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I was proud to host Administrator Regan, Commissioner LaTourette, and local environmental justice advocates for this important tour and discussion that underscores the urgent need to address stark environmental inequalities and racism.

He continued:

Such discussions between local, state, and federal entities are essential to ensuring residents in overlooked communities across the United States are given the tools, resources, and funding they need to achieve environmental justice.

Sen. Booker, who served two terms as Newark mayor before his election to the Senate, will receive the 2021 National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) National Leadership Award for excellence and innovative leadership in Black America.

Drs. James Hildreth and Ebony Hilton, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Missouri), and Olympic record-setter Allyson Felix also will receive National Leadership Awards from the NNPA, the trade association of more than 230 African American-owned newspapers and media companies.

Its free to register for the ceremony, which takes place virtually at www.virtualnnpa2021.com.

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Im humbled and honored to be honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Sen. Booker remarked.

The members of the NNPA provide an invaluable service to their communities, shining a light on issues that affect Black Americans and our families.

I stand with the NNPA and its membership in their efforts to inform, educate, and advance their mission of promoting a more just, equal society.
Schools in the United States are welcoming back students to classrooms this autumn. But they are facing a new problem: a shortage of teachers and school workers.

Districts have faced shortages before, but many now say it is the worst it has ever been.

The countrys public schools have struggled for years with teacher shortages, especially in math, science, special education and languages. But the COVID-19 crisis has worsened the problem. The pandemic has led to an increase in retirements and resignations.

Districts across the country are reporting teacher shortages. In South Dakota, one district started the school year with 120 unfilled teacher positions. Across Texas, the main districts in the cities of Houston and Waco reported hundreds of teacher openings at the start of the year.

Many schools across the country have had to close classrooms because of a lack of teachers.

In Michigan, Eastpointe Community Schools moved its middle school back to online learning last week because it does not have enough teachers. The small district north of Detroit has 43 positions open  one quarter of its teachers.

When several middle school teachers resigned last week, the district started teaching online classes to avoid sending in inexperienced substitute teachers, said spokeswoman Caitlyn Kienitz.

This is obviously not ideal, but were able to make sure theyre getting each subject area from a teacher certified to teach it, Kienitz said.

The National Education Association surveyed 2,690 educators in June. Thirty-two percent said the pandemic drove them to leave teaching earlier than expected. Another survey by the Rand Corporation found that teachers had high levels of stress and were three times more likely than adults in other professions to experience depression.

A school district in California's West Contra Costa County is considering hiring out-of-state math educators to teach online while a substitute teacher watches students in person.

This is the worst shortage of labor we have ever had, said assistant superintendent Tony Wold. We opened this year with 50  teaching positions open. That means students are going to 50 classrooms that do not have a permanent teacher.

There are 100 more openings for aides who help teach English learners and special needs students. There is also a shortage of cleaners, food services workers and others, Wold said.

Money is not the main problem. School districts have the money to employ more teachers and workers, thanks to billions of dollars in federal and state pandemic relief assistance. There are just not enough people looking for work.

Mike Ghelber is the assistant superintendent at the Morongo Unified School District in southern California. Were all competing for a shrinking piece of the pie. I dont know if everybody is getting snatched up, or if they dont want to teach" during COVID, he said.

The Morongo school district of 8,000 students has put job advertisements in newspapers, radio and social media. Teachers have also put now hiring messages into their students lunch containers. The messages include a list of openings.

Class sizes are also getting bigger.

Mount Diablo Unified School District serves 28,000 students near San Francisco, California. It has had to fill several elementary school classrooms at 32 students, the most students there can be.

At first, about 150 children signed up for online learning. But with COVID-19 infections rising, the number increased to 600 by the time school began. The same happened in Fresno, where enrollment in online learning went from 450 to 3,800 by the time school started.

Of the 12 officials interviewed by The Associated Press in California districts, only one said it was not facing shortages.

Long Beach Unified, the states fourth-largest district, was prepared for the worker shortage. Last spring, it worked hard to hire 400 more teachers.

We probably would have experienced the same shortages as others," said Long Beach assistant superintendent David Zaid. But we became much more assertive, and as a result, we are not in the same position."

Im Dan Novak.

Jocelyn Gecker reported this story for The Associated Press. Dan Novak adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Quiz-COVID-19 Creates US Shortage of Teachers, School Workers Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

district  n. an area established by a government for official government business

ideal  adj. exactly right for a particular purpose, situation, or person

certified  adj. exactly right for a particular purpose, situation, or person

survey  n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something 

stress  n. a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.

depression  n. a serious medical condition in which a person feels very sad, hopeless, and unimportant and often is unable to live in a normal way

piece of the pie  phrase a portion of a particular amount of money

snatch  v. to take (something) quickly or eagerly

enrollment  n. a policy or process by which parents may send their children to a different public school than the one in their own community

assertive  adj. confident in behavior or style
Tanzania's first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, recently named Stergomena Tax as defense minister. It is the latest in several appointments of women to top government positions.

The appointment came as part of the second Cabinet reorganization Hassan has made since the death of former president John Magufuli earlier this year.

Hassan said Taxs appointment would help push back against the idea that women cannot serve in such a position.

I have decided to break the longtime myth that in the Defense Ministry there should be a man with muscles. The ministers job in that office is not to carry guns or artillery," Hassan said.

Gender equality activists have welcomed the appointment. But they say more needs to be done to deal with the country's gender equality gap.

Anna Henga is head of the Legal and Human Rights Center.

She said there must be changes to laws that put women in low-decision positions. She added that the government should also give money through the Health Ministry to educate people that women can also be leaders.

Experts say an increase in the political representation of women at the national level does not mean women will have more power in daily life.

Social scientist Nasor Kitunda said gender should not matter. I think this tries to show that there is a direction in gender equality though Im not a believer in gender. The primary criteria should be someones performance and their ability to implement those responsibilities," Kitunda said.

Aika Peter is a Tanzanian human rights activist. She said appointing more women leaders is a good thing. But she added there must be a plan that lets more than just one person show their leadership skills in such a position.

We really need to see new faces in these positions  when you see the same people being recycled every day it gives the impression there are people who are so good at this job, there are no others who can be good at it, Peter said.

With Tax's appointment, there are now eight women who hold top positions in Hassans government.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Charles Kombe reported on this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

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Words in This Story

gender  n. the state of being male or female; sex

myth  n. an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true

gap  n. a space between two people or things

criteria  n. something that is used as a reason for making a judgment or decision

implement  v. to begin to do or use something, such as a plan; to make something active or effective
Hospitals and nursing homes around the United States are worried about possible shortages of workers as deadlines arrive for health care employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The orders take effect this week in states like New York, California, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Many in the medical industry are concerned that some employees will refuse vaccination and have to be dismissed from their jobs.

How this is going to play out, we dont know, said California Hospital Association spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea. She added that the organization fully supports the states vaccination requirement.

New York sees an increase in vaccination

Faced with either getting the COVID-19 vaccine or losing their jobs, thousands of health care workers in New York received at least one shot by Mondays deadline.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul released numbers late Monday showing vaccination rates rising among the state's health care workers. The governor said early data showed 92 percent of hospital and nursing home workers received at least one shot of vaccine.

About 84 percent of over 450,000 hospital workers in New York were fully vaccinated as of last Wednesday, state data showed. Nursing home data through Sunday showed about 89 percent of nursing home workers were fully vaccinated.

Hochul also signed an order that expands the powers of her office to deal with health worker shortages. The measure permits medical professionals from outside New York to work in the state. It also eases restrictions on retirees returning to the workforce and permits the use of telemedicine in nursing homes.

Some New York hospitals prepared for the possible shortage with plans to limit non-critical services and nursing home admissions.



Deadlines coming up in other states

In California, health care workers have until Thursday to get fully vaccinated. Some hospitals are looking at removing or suspending those who refuse to meet the requirements. Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association said that many healthcare workers have rejected job offers in the state because of its vaccine requirement.

In Rhode Island, the vaccine requirement takes effect Friday. The state says hospitals may permit unvaccinated employees to work 30 days past the deadline if necessary for patient safety. The requirement is facing legal action because it does not provide religious exception.

In states that do not have vaccine requirements, some hospitals are setting their own.

A North Carolina-based hospital system said this week it had dismissed 175 of its more than 35,000 employees because they refused vaccination.

In Missouri, the Mercy hospital system is requiring vaccinations among health care workers by Thursday. A spokesman said violators will be placed on a 30-day unpaid suspension.



Rural hospitals worry

Around the country, the federal government also requires about 17 million workers at health centers that receive federal money to be fully vaccinated. That has worried some hospital officials in rural communities where vaccination rates tend to be lower.

Troy Bruntz is president of the Community Hospital in McCook, Nebraska. He said 25 of the hospitals 330 employees said they would resign if they were required to be vaccinated. Another 100 unvaccinated employees  a group that includes nurses as well as cleaning and support workers  have not made a decision on the requirement.

It doesnt make us feel too confident that this isnt going to turn into something short of a nightmare for American health care, he said.

Worker plans to leave

Ginger Robertson works in mental health at a hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. She has requested exception from the hospitals vaccination requirement based on her religious beliefs. She said she will look for other work if she does not get the exception.

Honestly, I really love my job. I am good at it. I enjoy my patients. I enjoy where I am at, she told the Associated Press. So," she continued, "this is a really hard place, to have to choose between two things I dont want to do. I dont want to leave, and I dont want to get the vaccine.

She said other nurses are also considering leaving. We feel demoralized," Robertson said, adding "as though we arent intelligent enough to make these choices for ourselves.

Im Caty Weaver.

The Associated Press reported this story. Hai Do adapted the report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

nursing home - n. a place where old people or those who cannot take care of themselves can live and receive care

deadline - n. a date or time when something must be finished

minimize - v. to make something less important

challenge - n. a difficult task or problem

nightmare - n. a very bad situation

demoralized - adj. losing hope
Young climate activists have criticized world leaders for continually failing to follow through on climate change promises.

The criticism came during the opening of an international gathering of about 400 youth climate activists that opened Tuesday in Milan, Italy. The purpose of the three-day Youth4Climate meeting is to decide on suggestions to send to a major United Nations climate summit set to begin October 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Well-known Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg spoke to the group. She said leaders have promised over the years to fight climate change. But she added that very little action has taken place since the first United Nations Earth Summit was held in 1992. Thirty years of blah, blah, blah, the 18-year-old Thunberg said. And where has this led us?

She noted that half of all carbon emissions had happened since 1990 and one-third since 2005.

"So-called leaders have cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend they are listening to us, but they are not listening," Thunberg added.

She said emissions of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) emissions are still rising, and noted that science doesnt lie. Leaders like to say, We can do it. They obviously dont mean it. But we do, she told the gathering.

Another activist to speak was 24-year-old Vanessa Nakate from Uganda. She said that promises of $117 billion a year to help nations especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change had not come through. She said the money is urgently needed as recent wildfires and floods in the United States and Europe showed that loss and damage is now possible everywhere.

No more empty conferences. Its time to show us the money, Nakate said. Its time, its time, its time. And, dont forget to listen to the most affected people and areas.

Nakate spoke about how climate change was affecting her own continent. Just last week, she said she saw police taking away a body that had been washed away by violent storms in Ugandas capital, Kampala. Her mother told her that one man caught in the water had been trying to save the goods he was selling from being washed away.

Thunberg created the worldwide protest movement Fridays for Future. She noted in her comments that it was not too late to turn around the harmful effects of climate change. She called for constructive negotiations to move policies forward.

Later this week in Milan, about 50 of the worlds climate ministers will meet to discuss issues to be considered at the U.N.s Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Milan meeting will aim to find common ground on disagreements among countries. Among the issues to be discussed include how quickly climate change policies should be put in place and how they will be paid for.

Hopes for a successful Glasgow summit have been raised by announcements from the worlds two biggest economies and largest carbon polluters, the United States and China. Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country would no longer fund coal-fired plants abroad. And U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan to double financial aid for green industry growth to poorer nations.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson 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

summit  n. an important meeting between the leaders of two or more governments

blah  n. boring or ordinary

emission  n. the act of producing or sending out something (such as energy or gas) from a source

cherry-pick  v. to pick only the best people or things from a group

pretend  v. to behave as if something is true when it is not

obvious  adj. easy to understand or see

vulnerable  adj. easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally

constructive  adj. helpful or useful

fund  v. to finance
Local

Huntington residents decry ordinances, request more transparency

HUNTINGTON  Residents have asked the Huntington City Council to reconsider city ordinances they say discriminate against low income residents and requested more transparency in city meetings.

People filed into the council chambers on Tuesday evening for the regular city council meeting, filling in most of the benches and leaving some people to sit in the councils outer chambers. They said they were frustrated with ordinances passed in July 2020 that have recently begun to impact the community.

The Kromer family lost their home on East Franklin Street to a fire in July, Rita Kromer said in an earlier interview with The Lufkin Daily News. She wanted to place a mobile home on the property instead of building a new house because she couldnt afford the new home, she said. But in making sure she was doing everything correctly, she learned she could not replace her home with a mobile home because of city ordinances.

The city ordinances would prevent the Kromers from placing a mobile home on their property and require them to build a home that is at least 1,200 square feet. Kromer said she believes she should be able to build a suitable home on her property that she can afford.

The city has permitted Kromer and her husband, Jerry, to temporarily live in a camper trailer with their dogs while they figure out their next steps.

On July 28, 2020, the city council approved an ordinance restricting the use of mobile and manufactured homes in the city and another requiring new houses built to be larger than 1,200 square feet.

The city also hasnt been posting potential ordinance changes or city council meetings in a way the council meetings attendees say they believe is enough. Notably, however, the city has followed the law regarding those postings, city manager Bill Stewart clarified during the meeting.

The meeting began with public comments made by three individuals who addressed the ordinances: April Curran, James Ricky Tarver and Presley Spillers.

Former Huntington city secretary Betty Gregson Howard, in three separate agenda items, presented the city council with two petitions signed by 100 people each regarding the latter of the two ordinances and requested the council post notice of meetings and ordinance changes either in the Huntington Herald or The Lufkin Daily News.

The first agenda item was the residents request to remove, revise or replace the city ordinance regarding mobile homes.

The ordinance takes away our rights as property owners and it discriminates against mobile home owners and even the residents with lower income, she said. It even reduces the value of property when a person is limited as to what can be placed on a piece of property being sold for residential use.

Not everyone has the ability to rebuild a home, much less build one that meets city requirements, but they can possibly afford a mobile or modular home that can be nice and keep those people from becoming homeless, she said.

Howard also argued the ordinance requiring mobile homes to be newer than three years old also is discriminatory and asked the city council to extend that to five or 10 years.

The former ordinance was one written after an ordinance similar to the one in question was proposed; it created a debate and resulted in the city working with residents for a statute that better represented the communitys wishes, she said.

The failure of the former mobile home ordinance wasnt the ordinance but the enforcement of it, she said.

In a packet given to the council, Howard included pictures of various mobile homes throughout the community and said that for the most part, the homes are clean and respectable. She also pointed to Councilmembers Keith Malone and Rachelle Ebarb, who both live in mobile homes, she said. One of them operates a business out of a mobile home, according to Howard.

Howard agreed the city should not permit people to rent out mobile homes in the city limits but said they should be permitted for residential use.

Regarding the ordinance requiring new homes to be more than 1,200 square feet, she highlighted the citys history with smaller homes and the grants available to residents who could live in a smaller home. She requested the city permit homes as small as 900 square feet to be built within city limits.

More than a decade ago, a home grant through the city helped build nine homes at 900 square feet, she said. The homes were three bedrooms and one bath and replaced mobile homes that were falling apart in which elderly people lived.

While some of those homes now have problems complying with city ordinances, she said several are still kept nice and asked the city to help with the other properties.

Howard said the ordinance keeps people from building in Huntington, which will leave empty lots and properties that do not create additional property taxes.

Councilmember Todd Ricks said the citys intent with the ordinances was not to be discriminatory but rather was based on feedback from other residents. He said if the city was wrong, it needs to reconsider its decision, but that the council shouldnt judge with its feelings.

When we made this decision, when we represent people, we not only have to think about you but we have to think about your neighbors, he said.

Ricks said eight out of 10 people he heard from regarding the ordinance supported it but that he believed the city should discuss it further.

The city tabled all three items rather than taking action on them.

In other business, the council also:

 Repealed an ordinance establishing a juvenile case manager fund and juvenile case manager position and ended the citys involvement with the East Texas Teen Court.

 Decided to use the just over $500,000 granted by the U.S. Department of Treasury through the American Rescue Act Grant to further improve the citys sewage system by replacing lift stations and sewage lines.

 Listened to Larry Jones and Jenna Shadowitz with Performance Services about potentially buying new water meters but took no action.

 Listened to Pat Oates with Goodwin Lasiter Strong, who updated the council on the ongoing sewer improvement project.

 Approved appointments to the Huntington Economic Development Corporation Board.

 Recognized Police and Fire Chief Bobby Epperly as the employee of the quarter.

 Went into executive session to discuss the sale of city-owned properties.
The detailed mechanism of how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas by targeting the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein on the surface of those cells is the subject of a special presentation at this year's Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, given by Professor Francesco Dotta, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.

"The SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks specific host tissues because of the presence of viral receptors on the surface of the target cells. As such, virus binding to ACE2 protein is the key determinant for its entry, propagation and transmissibility," explains Prof Dotta.

"Multiple studies have shown that older adults and those with chronic medical conditions like heart and lung disease and/or diabetes are at the highest risk for complications from SARS-CoV-2 infections. Moreover, impaired blood sugar control is associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19, suggesting a link between COVID-19 infection and diabetes. Several reports indicate a wide, although variable, distribution of the ACE2 protein among different tissues."

Prof Dotta's team and others have studied ACE2 expression pattern in pancreatic tissue samples of non-diabetic multiorgan donors in order to better understand the molecular link between COVID-19 and diabetes. Particularly, their collaborative group analysed pancreatic tissue samples within the context of the INNODIA consortium, a large diabetes related research project funded by the EU, JDRF and Helmsely Foundation within the European IMI2 initiative.

In the 'normal' pancreas, ACE2 is highly expressed in microvasculature (tiny blood vessels) and in ductal cells (cells lining the connection between the pancreas and the bile duct). "Importantly, we found that ACE2 was expressed in human pancreatic islets, where it is preferentially expressed in insulin producing beta-cells. We also demonstrated that ACE2 levels were increased under pro-inflammatory conditions, thus confirming the link between inflammation and ACE2 also in pancreatic islet beta cells."

In order to correctly identify the mechanism involved in the upregulation of ACE2 induced by inflammation, ACE2 levels were measured in human pancreatic islets pre-treated with two drugs blocking inflammation in beta cells, namely Baricitinib or Nimbus (Jak1/2 and TYK2 inhibitors), and then exposed to pro-inflammatory conditions. Prof Dotta says: "We showed that these drugs prevent the ACE2 increase induced by inflammation in human pancreatic islets, demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 is regulated through specific molecular pathways and that its increased expression can be prevented."

"In our collaborative work with the University of Pisa, University of Leuven and University of Brussels we studied the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 virus entry into insulin producing beta cells and we discovered that these cells express the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2," concludes Prof Dotta. Such data have been independently confirmed by other authors.

Of note, additional published data confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 can indeed infect pancreatic insulin-producing cells causing their dysfunction or death. Moreover, during inflammation the expression of SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 increases of several times above standard values.

Prof Dotta concludes: "This means that these insulin-producing beta cells could be even more susceptible to viral infection when inflamed. This finding is also important from a clinical standpoint, since keeping inflammatory status under control in patients with COVID-19 may reduce the expression of ACE2 receptor in beta cells with beneficial effects on blood sugar and metabolic control of patients."
Fig 1. Ovarian cancer cell lines exhibit varied responses to paclitaxel treatment. Paclitaxel-resistant (PacR) and parental control ovarian cancer cell lines, TOV-21G and OVCAR3, were treated with serially diluted doses of paclitaxel for 96 hours in vitro. Cell viability is displayed at each concentration tested relative to untreated cells for the control (black) and PacR (red) cell lines of (A) TOV-21G and (B) OVCAR3 cells. Dose response curves were fit to the data and IC50 values were calculated using four-parameter log-logistic models. (C) Ovarian tumor organoid cell lines paclitaxel EC50 values. Resistant lines are shown in gold and sensitive lines are shown in black. Credit: DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254205

A new study from University of Kentucky Markey Cancer researchers demonstrates a combination of two drugs may be useful to treat ovarian cancers that are resistant to paclitaxel.

Recently published in PLOS ONE, the study demonstrates the combination of paclitaxel and lapatinib is synergistic, or when used together, the combined effect is better than expected; which may be a promising treatment strategy for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecologic malignancy, with 1 in 70 women affected during their lifetime and with a five-year survival rate of less than 50%. Individuals with recurrent disease commonly receive paclitaxel, although only 2030% benefit. The lack of response to paclitaxel is multifactorial, but one big reason is overexpression of ABCB1, a protein that essentially pumps drugs like paclitaxel out of cancer cells. This results in paclitaxel being eliminated from the body and unable to kill the cancer cells.

The team of researchers, led by Jill Kolesar, Pharm.D., professor in the UK College of Pharmacy and administrative director of Markey's Precision Medicine Clinic, demonstrated that inhibitors of ABCB1 in combination with paclitaxel were able to kill cancer cells that had previously been resistant to paclitaxel. The medications tested in this study, lapatinib and poziotinib, have both been previously shown to inhibit ABCB1 activity, though this study was the first to demonstrate activity in ovarian cancer.

"This combination may benefit patients with recurrent ovarian cancer who have received paclitaxel as their first line of treatment," Kolesar said. "More than 14,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and the majority will have a recurrence, so developing effective treatment strategies is critical."

Kolesar's research led to the development of an ongoing clinical trial at the Markey Cancer Center for patients with who have recurred after platinum based chemotherapy.

"We are excited to evaluate another innovative treatment option for our patients with ovarian cancer, particularly since the combination of lapatinib and paclitaxel was discovered by Dr. Kolesar and team in one of our collaborative Markey Cancer Center labs," said Frederick Ueland, M.D., chief of gynecologic oncology and director of clinical operations at the UK Markey Cancer Center.

Explore further Drug derived from Kentucky-grown plant shows promise for ovarian cancer treatment

More information: J. Robert McCorkle et al, Lapatinib and poziotinib overcome ABCB1-mediated paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE J. Robert McCorkle et al, Lapatinib and poziotinib overcome ABCB1-mediated paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254205
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

New research from the University of Otago has helped identify which specific child behaviors may raise the likelihood of anxiety disorders developing in adulthood and conversely, which ones might give parents, whanau and childhood experts less cause for concern.

The study, published in the international medical journal Psychological Medicine used data from the University of Otago's world-renowned Christchurch Health and Development study (CHDS), a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265 children born in Otautahi Christchurch over a four-month period during 1977.

Undertaken by University of Otago Christchurch Ph.D. student Nathan Monk, the research tracked 15 common anxious behaviors among the CDHS cohort group from ages seven to nine, comparing results as they were interviewed and evaluated over time. The group studied are now aged in their mid-forties.

"Previous international research has already established a link between childhood anxiety behaviors and later anxiety disorders but not with this level of detail" says Mr Monk. "This study is novel in that it allows us to see which specific childhood behaviors are most influential."

Mr Monk and his co-authors have found that several observed childhood behaviorsincluding a tendency to cry easily and often, a tendency to do things alone as well as regularly appearing sad and miserableall carried a heightened risk for adolescent and adult anxiety. Conversely, other behaviors such as shyness with other children, being submissive or fearful of authority and afraid of people in general carry no heightened risk of the child developing anxiety when they grow up.

"Basically, what we have found is that childhood anxious behaviors related to social isolation and sadness appear to carry risk for developing an anxiety disorder in later life" says Mr Monk. "In contrast, behaviors related to situational fears and anxiety around adults do not appear to carry the same risk."

CHDS data has previously identified surprisingly high rates of anxiety disorder among the cohort group studied, highlighting the importance of identifying early risk factorsespecially among girls. Nearly half (49 percent) of females in the study met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorder during adolescence (1421 years), that figure dropping only slightly to 48 percent during adulthood (2140 years). Males were also found to meet the criteria for anxiety disorders at high rates, with just over a quarter (27 percent) diagnosed during adolescence, rising to 31 percent in adulthood.

"This research reinforces the importance of actively developing social skills and skills in managing emotions, especially in the first 1,000 days of a child's life where parents and whanau play a key role" says Canterbury District Health Board Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and University of Otago, Christchurch lecturer Dr. Kat Donovan.

"All tamariki experience anxiety at a certain stage but it only causes concern when it disrupts their development and reduces educational and emotional learning opportunities. These findings support the current early interventional treatment approaches we are currently using such as cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, developing the child's emotional awareness and encouraging exercises which expose them to their fears and worries."

Dr. Donovan stresses the findings suggest some childhood behaviors are absolutely normal and carry no cause for concern. However, she has some advice for parents and whanau who may find a child's anxiety behaviors especially concerning.

"It's tough for parents and whanau to see their child in distress but it's important they help them tolerate their feelings and not avoid them, by encouraging them to be in situations which are challenging and providing them with opportunities to be exposed to those situations. However, if they don't feel they have the skills to cope with certain behaviors they should seek out parenting courses or professional support."

Nathan Monk stresses caution in interpreting his findings as they're among the first of their kind, requiring replication among other groups before too much can be read into them.

"Mental disorders are incredibly complex and arise from processes that we don't yet understand well. Every individual is unique, and just because some of these childhood behaviors tend to predict later anxiety problems, this certainly won't be true for every child.

"Our results are one set of findings that point toward some specific early risk behaviors which may be more useful to focus preventative interventions on. If other researchers are able to replicate them in other groups of people then we might start to see more of a push for that. We have some wonderful new statistical modeling methods available that allow us to conduct such research, so I'm sure we'll continue to learn more in this interesting and important area."

Explore further New treatment for childhood anxiety works by changing parent behavior

More information: Nathan J. Monk et al, Childhood anxious/withdrawn behaviour and later anxiety disorder: a network outcome analysis of a population cohort, Psychological Medicine (2021). Journal information: Psychological Medicine Nathan J. Monk et al, Childhood anxious/withdrawn behaviour and later anxiety disorder: a network outcome analysis of a population cohort,(2021). DOI: 10.1017/S0033291721002889
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An analysis of healthcare data in Ontario, Canada found a significant decline in referrals and procedures performed for common cardiac interventions after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients awaiting coronary bypass surgery or stenting were at higher risk of dying while waiting for their procedure compared to before the pandemic, although wait times were not longer. The study underscores the importance of timely recognition of symptoms and treatment in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers observed in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

"In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we kept hearing stories from patients and other doctors that there were delays in care for patients with heart disease," explained lead investigator Harindra C. Wijeysundera, MD, Ph.D., Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto; ICES; and Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Schulich Heart Program, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. "We decided to look into these claims using the Ontario database that keeps track of wait lists and wait times for individuals with heart disease who require a procedure or surgery."

Wait lists for procedures are not unusual in publicly funded healthcare systems. Canadian provinces routinely monitor and publish waiting times for cardiac care. The researchers were able to link multiple population-based administrative data sources and clinical registries housed at ICES, Canada's largest health services research institute. The study looked at patients over the age of 18 who were referred for four commonly performed cardiac procedures: percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI); isolated coronary bypass grafting (CABG); valve surgery (aortic, mitral, or tricuspid); or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) from January 1, 2014 to September 30, 2020. For the purposes of the study, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was defined as March 15, 2020, when Ontario health authorities issued a directive that cancelled elective surgical procedures. Outcomes were defined as death while awaiting procedure and hospitalization while waiting for procedure.

A total of 584,341 patients were identified, of whom 37,718 were referred during the pandemic. As expected, a decline in referrals was observed at the outset of the pandemic, although those numbers steadily increased throughout the pandemic period. Similarly, researchers observed an initial decline in the number of procedures performed. Individuals waiting for coronary bypass surgery or stenting were at higher risk of dying while waiting for their procedure compared to before the pandemic. Surprisingly, mortality rates increased even though wait times did not during the pandemic, suggesting patients may have delayed in presenting to their doctors with symptoms.

"We found that the increase in wait list mortality was consistent across patients with stable coronary artery disease, acute coronary syndrome, or emergency referral," said Dr. Wijeysundera. "Coupled with reduced referrals, this raises concerns of a care deficit due to delays in diagnosis and wait list referral."

The researchers suggest a number of potential explanations for the decline in referrals during the pandemic, from patient factors such as fear of contracting COVID-19 in the hospital or concerns about missing work, to system factors including delays in testing and hospital bed and staffing pressures.

In an accompanying editorial, Michelle M. Graham, MD, and Christopher S. Simpson, MD, Division of Cardiology and Department of Medicine, University of Alberta and Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute (MMG), and the Division of Cardiology and Department of Medicine, Queen's University (CS), Edmonton, and Kingston, Canada, stressed that moving outpatients on a wait list system should not be dependent on patient self-reporting a change in symptoms. In contrast, patients in hospital are continuously monitored and evaluated, allowing deterioration to be detected in a timelier way.

"When patients are at home," they said, "nobody is watching. 'The Missing Patient' must be recognized now by policy makers, decision makers, and health system funders."

This research suggests that any reduction in cardiac procedural capacity to accommodate critically ill COVID-19 patients must be balanced against the real risk for wait list mortality observed in this study. "We believe this is highly relevant to the recovery phase of the pandemic," commented Dr. Wijeysundera. "Efforts must target not only increasing capacity to treat patients on the wait lists, but also efforts must be made to identify upstream barriers that have prevented patients from getting on the wait list."

Explore further New tool can predict risk of death, hospitalization for patients awaiting cardiac surgery

More information: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cardiac Procedure Wait List Mortality in Ontario, Canada, Canadian Journal of Cardiology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cjca.2021.05.008 Journal information: Canadian Journal of Cardiology The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cardiac Procedure Wait List Mortality in Ontario, Canada,
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Delta was recognized as a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in May 2021 and has proved extremely difficult to control in unvaccinated populations.

Delta has managed to out-compete other variants, including Alpha. Variants are classified as "of concern" because they're either more contagious than the original, cause more hospitalisations and deaths, or are better at evading vaccines and therapies. Or all of the above.

So how does delta fare on these measures? And what have we learnt since delta was first listed as a variant of concern?

How contagious is delta?

The R0 tells us how many other people, on average, one infected person will pass the virus on to.

Delta has an R0 of 58, meaning one infected person passes it onto five to eight others, on average.

This compares with an R0 of 1.53 for the original strain.

So delta is twice to five times as contagious as the virus that circulated in 2020.

What happens when you're exposed to delta?

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through droplets an infected person releases when they breathe, cough or sneeze.

In some circumstances, transmission also occurs when a person touches a contaminated object, then touches their face.

Once SARS-CoV-2 enters your bodyusually through your nose or mouthit starts to replicate.

The period from exposure to the virus being detectable by a PCR test is called the latent period. For delta, one study suggests this is an average of four days (with a range of three to five days).

That's two days faster than the original strain, which took roughly six days (with a range of five to eight days).

Credit: The Conversation, CC BY-ND

The virus then continues to replicate. Although often there are no symptoms yet, the person has become infectious.

People with COVID-19 appear to be most infectious two days before to three days after symptoms start, though it's unclear whether this differs with delta.

The time from virus exposure to symptoms is called the incubation period. But there is often a gap between when a person becomes infectious to others to when they show symptoms.

As the virus replicates, the viral load increases. For delta, the viral load is up to roughly 1,200 times higher than the original strain.

With faster replication and higher viral loads it is easy to see why delta is challenging contact tracers and spreading so rapidly.

What are the possible complications?

Like the original strain, the delta variant can affect many of the body's organs including the lungs, heart and kidneys.

Complications include blood clots, which at their most severe can result in strokes or heart attacks.

Around 1030% of people with COVID-19 will experience prolonged symptoms, known as long COVID, which can last for months and cause significant impairment, including in people who were previously well.

Longer-lasting symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, headaches, brain fog, muscle aches, sleep disturbance, depression and the loss of smell and taste.

Is it more deadly?

Evidence the delta variant makes people sicker than the original virus is growing.

Preliminary studies from Canada and Singapore found people infected with delta were more likely to require hospitalization and were at greater risk of dying than those with the original virus.

In the Canadian study, delta resulted in a 6.1% chance of hospitalization and a 1.6% chance of ICU admission. This compared with other variants of concern which landed 5.4% of people in hospital and 1.2% in intensive care.

Credit: The Conversation, CC BY-ND

In the Singapore study, patients with delta had a 49% chance of developing pneumonia and a 28% chance of needing extra oxygen. This compared with a 38% chance of developing pneumonia and 11% needing oxygen with the original strain.

Similarly, a published study from Scotland found delta doubled the risk of hospitalization compared to the Alpha variant.

How do the vaccines stack up against delta?

So far, the data show a complete course of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccine reduces your chance of severe disease (requiring hospitalization) by more than 85%.

While protection is lower for delta than the original strain, studies show good coverage for all vaccines after two doses.

Can you still get COVID after being vaccinated?

Yes. Breakthrough infection occurs when a vaccinated person tests positive for SARS-Cov-2, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

Breakthrough infection appears more common with delta than the original strains.

Most symptoms of breakthrough infection are mild and don't last as long.

It's also possible to get COVID twice, though this isn't common.

How likely are you to die from COVID-19?

In Australia, over the life of the pandemic, 1.4% of people with COVID-19 have died from it, compared with 1.6% in the United States and 1.8% in the United Kingdom.

Data from the United States shows people who were vaccinated were ten times less likely than those who weren't to die from the virus.

The delta variant is currently proving to be a challenge to control on a global scale, but with full vaccination and maintaining our social distancing practices, we reduce the spread.

Explore further COVID Queries: Delta breakthrough infections

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In Italy, during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, the transmission and mortality rates of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were higher than in other European countries. Many researchers explained this phenomenon by highlighting the close contacts across generations in Italian families. Grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren often live together or meet each other very frequently. This would have contributed to the rapid spread of the virus among the elderly.

A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE and carried out by researchers of the Universities of Trento, Sorbonne, and Bologna puts forward a different explanation. According to this study, the accelerated spread of COVID-19 in Italy is not linked to intergenerational contacts, but rather to the high average number of social contacts that Italians entertain with people of all ages. Indeed, this number is higher than that of German or British people.

"The age structure of the population alone does not explain the differences between Italy and other European countries", explains Marco Albertini, one of the authors of the study and professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Bologna. "As for the increase in the transmission rate of the virus, the results of our study show that the characteristics of Italian social networks were more significant than the intergenerational contacts within families".

Researchers combined several simulation methods with real data on the characteristics of in-person social contacts to analyze the issue and identify the potentially most relevant factors in the spread of the coronavirus. More specifically, researchers analyzed the characteristics of social networks in three countries: Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

"In particular, we studied the role of three characteristics found in social networks," explains Lucas Sage, Ph.D. student at the Universities of Trento and Sorbonne and first author of the study. "Degree distribution, i.e. the number of face-to-face interactions people have on average in those three countries; age-mixing, i.e. the age differences between the people meeting; clustering, i.e. the tendency to share the same contacts in the social networks."

Researchers compared data taken from Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom against these three metrics. The results of the simulations showed how age differences between social contacts have a much lower impact in the spreading of the infection than the number of face-to-face contacts.

When the Italian case is considered, these results indicate that the higher transmission rate is explained by an overall higher number of social interactions rather than the specific characteristics of family relationships.

"These results crucially show that infection control measures designed to limit contacts between young and old people are not particularly effective," says Stefani Scherer, professor at the University of Trento and one of the authors of the study. "Indeed, the number of face-to-face contacts in the general population plays a more central role than intergenerational contacts in the spreading of the virus among the elderly".

Explore further COVID-19 is most transmissible 2 days before and 3 days after symptoms appear

More information: Lucas Sage et al, The spreading of SARS-CoV-2: Interage contacts and networks degree distribution, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Lucas Sage et al, The spreading of SARS-CoV-2: Interage contacts and networks degree distribution,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256036

Provided by Universita di Bologna
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In a Bucharest back street, drug addicts rush towards an ambulance handing out free syringes. While the eyes of the world focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against HIV has slowed down in Eastern Europe.

Three times a week, Alina Schiau and colleagues from the Romanian anti-AIDS Association (ARAS) go out to the rougher parts of the city to hand out syringes and bandages to injecting drug users, and condoms to sex workers.

But their funds are running low and stocks dwindling. Come November, their ambulance might have to stay in the garage.

"What's cheaper? To buy a syringe and thus focus on prevention? Or to treat a patient for years?" says social worker Ada Luca, indignant at government inaction.

Bulgaria and Romania are both former Eastern bloc countries, and in 2019, 76 percent of AIDS cases diagnosed in Europe were in the East, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

"It is obvious that the number of contaminations has increased since the start of the pandemic", Schiau told AFP.

As coronavirus took hold, hospitals closed to non-COVID patients, says Davron Mukhamadiev, Regional Health and Care Coordinator for Red Cross Europe (IFRC).

Quarantine requirements, travel restrictions and reduced access to rapid testing and diagnostic services all undermined efforts to roll back HIV/AIDS, he said.

'We are abandoned'

UNAIDS data shows 140,000 new infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2020, compared with 170,000 in 2019, which experts attribute to a dramatic slowdown in screening, not a drop in cases.

In 2020, for example, Romania managed to screen only 234,420 people for HIV/AIDSdown nearly a third from 334,410 the previous year.

It is a similar story in neighbouring Bulgaria.

Regional health centres were "overwhelmed and hardly ever did any HIV testing during COVID," said Alexander Milanov, programme director at the country's National Patients' Organisation.

The pandemic has disrupted supply chains and the transport of medicines, exacerbating historic shortages in countries such as Romania despite huge scientific strides that have dramatically improved outcomes for HIV patients in rich nations.

Alexandru Tantu, a 28-year-old, HIV positive IT specialist, has seen first-hand how other European countries treat patients better, and how in Romania, it is a daily struggle to get the required drugs.

"We came to realise that we are abandoned," he told AFP. "Hence all the anger and the fear that tomorrow we might not have our treatment."

Still, with his stable job, he regards himself as relatively "privileged". In his advocacy work, he says, he receives calls from patients who are considering suicide.

'Fear in the stomach'

The HIV/AIDS crisis in Romania dates back to the communist years.

Around 11,000 children born in the 1980s under the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu were infected as a result of contaminated or unsterilised syringes or transfusions with untested blood.

Today, several doctors told AFP that hospitals have yet to receive funds from the health ministry following a budgetary correctionand in Romania, patients can only get the medication they need from hospitals, not pharmacies.

Romania's health ministry did not respond to an AFP request for a comment.

Volunteers do everything they can to fill the gaps in care.

Alina Dumitriu and her "Sens Pozitiv" campaign group have been helping patients for 16 years, relying on donations.

Between phone calls and texts from desperate patients, Dumitriu sorts out HIV pills, worth thousands of euros, from a red plastic bag.

"There are months when I help up to 30 patients, while also sending some tablets to hospitals," she explains.

"These patients still live with fear in their stomachs, not knowing if the next day they will still have medication," she says.

Explore further Two Europes: Low vaccine rates in east overwhelm ICUs

 2021 AFP
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

More than 23,000 children in Pennsylvania contracted the coronavirus in the first three weeks of September, part of a national increase over the last month that has closed schools, worried parents, and heightened urgency for the authorization of vaccination for younger children.

The expansion of vaccine eligibility to about 28 million U.S. kids appears closer than everexpected within weeks, possibly before October's endand it could improve the pandemic outlook for everyone.

Children 5 to 14 make up about 11.5% of the commonwealth's population. The CDC, which slightly overcounts the state's vaccination rate, says about 72% of Pennsylvania residents have received at least one vaccine dose; if half of children 5 to 14 got vaccinated, that alone would push the overall rate to 78%. If three-quarters did, the rate would go up to 80%.

Vaccinations in kids could boost population immunity, quash cases in schools, and help fend off a severe fall or winter surge. Most important, pediatricians said, the vaccine offers long-awaited protection for children from the real danger of catching the virus.

The authorization "will help make [children's] lives a bit more normal ... [and] will certainly be also a step in controlling the pandemic," said Annette Reboli, dean of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and a doctor specializing in infectious disease. "The more people in general that can get vaccinated, the closer we become to ending the pandemic."

The head of Pfizer said Monday that the company would apply for FDA approval for its vaccine for children 5 to 11 within days, and CDC director Rochelle Walensky said she hoped it would be authorized "in the order of weeks," pledging urgency from the FDA and CDC in reviewing the data.

But it all depends on how many parents decide to immunize their childrensomething that remains a question mark, despite pediatricians' firm endorsements of the vaccine.

"Every step in the direction of a fully vaccinated population is a step in the right direction toward getting past this thing," said Robert Noll, chair of the pediatrics department at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. "We've got the opportunity to vaccinate another huge chunk of the population. Even though some will say no ... every step forward is good."

There are reasons for uncertainty, however: Immunization rates among those 12 to 17 have remained lower than any other age group in Pennsylvania. And nationwide about a quarter of parents with kids 5 to 11 polled by the Kaiser Family Foundation last month said they would vaccinate their children as soon as they could, while 40% said they would "wait and see."

Meanwhile, new pediatric cases and hospitalizations have been going upPennsylvania's relatively low number of hospitalized kids nearly doubled over the last two months, according to data from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's PolicyLab, while states with lower vaccination rates have fared far worse.

The number of new cases has also been rising: Pennsylvania recorded 20,500 new cases in kids 5 to 18 during the first three weeks of September, plus 3,000 in day-care-age children under 5.

More than 1.1 million new cases were recorded among children between Aug. 20 and Sept. 23, and one week in September saw the third-highest number of child cases in a week since the pandemic began, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which tracks pediatric cases nationally. And more than 930,000 students have been affected by COVID-19 school closures, the CDC said in a Friday report, a number that includes greater spikes in pediatric cases in places without school mask requirements.

Children, who make up 22% of the population, accounted for nearly 27% of reported weekly cases on Fridaycompared to about 15% for the whole pandemic.

"I just hope those kinds of statistics will also inspire people to say, 'This is no joke, let's get it done for the kids,'" said Noll, Crozer-Chester's pediatrics chair. "This is not just the benevolence of trying to protect the world from the pandemic. These kids could actually get really sick."

"The wild card," said Reboli, Cooper's dean, is how many parents will bring their children for shots. Pediatricians are seeing families fall into various camps: Yes, wait-and-see, no, and various shades in between.

For instance, Noll said he's seen enthusiasm about the vaccine from parents and kids in and around Chester. But in the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia, Natalie Mathurin, a pediatrician at Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc., said more than half of the parents she sees don't plan to get their 5-to-11-year-old children vaccinated, at least not immediately, because they don't think it's necessary.

Adding children to the eligible pool isn't the same as adding a new swath of adults. It comes with a different set of considerations and worries for parents, including many who are vaccinated themselves and say they're unsure about immunizing their children.

Sometimes, that stems from the widespread belief that children aren't as affected by the virus. But doctors said that frustrated them: While children remain much less likely than adults to have severe cases, parents shouldn't bet against COVID-19, they said.

"The risk from COVID remains much higher than any risk from getting a vaccine," Reboli said. "Right now, the risk of getting COVID is very real for these children."

Children often spread the virus, too, sometimes passing it to others without getting symptoms themselves. So vaccinating them will help protect adults, as well.

"That asymptomatic child, that's just a domino effect. They go to school ... teachers go home and take that home to their families, other kids take that to their families," Mathurin said. "It can have a very far-reaching effect."

And that means, she said, "Even if it's a small amount, initially, of families who say yes to the vaccine, it can have big impacts."

Mathurin said she wants to get her 8-year-old son vaccinated so he can return to being the active, social child he was pre-pandemic. And, she added, so his school year can be as normal as possible.

For Rachel Taylor Brown of Rydal, keeping her daughter Sydnee in school is among the top reasons she wants to get the 7-year-old immunized. She has been "obsessively waiting" for the day she can sign Sydnee up for shots.

"This is the first time she's been back in school since everything shut down ... and I want to keep her there," said Taylor Brown. "She's had such little interaction until now. I'd hate to have her lose that time with other kids."

Explore further Pfizer to ask FDA soon for approval of its COVID vaccine for younger children

2021 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
An ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) circuit in use to support a patient in an intensive care unit at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan's academic medical center. Credit: Michigan Medicine

The life-support system called ECMO can rescue COVID-19 patients from the brink of death, but not at the rates seen early in the pandemic, a new international study finds.

Where once about 60% of such patients survived at least 90 days in spring 2020, by the end of the year it was just under half.

The decreased survival over time might be due to a combination of factors, including which critically ill patients clinicians chose to place on ECMO as the pandemic went on, and the treatments the patients had received before they started on ECMO.

The new findings show how important it is for hospitals that offer ECMO to choose carefully which patients get access to this labor-intensive level of care, the authors say.

Hospitals should also make policies that can guide such choices when ECMO circuits are in high demand because of a pandemic surge, they advise.

The new findings are published in Lancet by an international team co-led by ECMO experts from the University of Michigan, Singapore and Columbia Universiity. The paper uses data from more than 4,800 patients over age 16 who were treated with ECMO for advanced COVID-19 in 41 countries during 2020.

The data for the study were contributed by ECMO centers to a registry run by ELSO, an international organization devoted to ECMO and other forms of advanced life support.

A last-chance options

ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, has been used for decades in select hospitals to treat critically ill children and adults. It takes over for both the heart and lungs temporarily, circulating the blood outside the body under constant supervision of trained providers.

At the start of the pandemic, some experts had strong reservations about placing COVID-19 patients on ECMO, for fear of harming their lungs. As more centers began to try it, the survival rate mirrored that of ECMO's use in other forms of acute lung failure, as the team behind the new paper reported a year ago.

But all the centers in that first study had begun offering ECMO before May of 2020, and most were highly experienced with providing ECMO in general, says Ryan Barbaro, M.D., M.S., co-first author of the new paper, associate professor at the U-M Medical School and intensive care physician at Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center.

The new study breaks the patients into three groups: those treated before May 1, 2020, those treated in these "early adopter" hospitals after May 1, and those treated with ECMO in other hospitals from May 1 through the end of 2020. May 1 was chosen because the evidence for how best to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients had evolved considerably by then.

"What we noticed right away is that the patients treated later in the pandemic were staying on ECMO longer, going from an average of 14 days to 20 days. They were dying more often, and these deaths were different," said Barbaro. "This shows that we need to be thoughtful about who we're putting on ECMO and when we're making the decision to take patients off who aren't getting better. Across the U.S. right now, we have places where ECMO is a scarce resource whereas in Michigan it's not quite at that point, but we anticipate it might be."

Within the "early adopter" centers, mortality rates increased from 37% in the months before May, to 52% after May. At the centers that didn't start providing ECMO until at least May, 58% of the patients died within 90 days of being places on an ECMO circuit.

Patients treated with ECMO later in the pandemic were more likely to have received medications such as remdesivir and dexamethasone, and to have received non-invasive ventilation before being intubate for total breathing support.

Decisions and ethics during a surge

Having patients stay on ECMO for a longer time ties up many resources, including the machines and tubing that make up an ECMO circuit, and the specially trained nurses, respiratory therapists and other staff it takes to keep a circuit operating safely.

When a hospital has a large number of COVID-19 patients and others in intensive care, the team's ability to provide the same level of care that they did before the surge can suffer, and mortality might increase.

If many hospitals in a region or collection of states are coping with a large number of critically ill COVID-19 patients, it can be hard to find an ECMO-capable hospital to transfer patients to. Sending more ECMO circuitsthe pumps, tubes and controllers used in the treatmentto these hospitals is not sufficient; specially trained teams, adequate blood supply and other factors are all needed to support each ECMO patient.

So, the authors say, it's important for ECMO centers to carefully consider which risk factors and personal characteristics might make a patient more or less likely to survive if placed on ECMO, especially if they might need to be on for a while. ELSO offers resources and guidelines can help.

The research team used methods developed by U-M School of Public Health statistician Philip Boonstra to adjust the data to make apples-to-apples comparisons. This allowed them to ensure, for instance, that the survival percentages were not affected by the fact that so many more patients were transferred out of their ECMO hospital later in the pandemic compared with at the start.

In addition to working on the ELSO COVID-19 registry, Barbaro is leading a clinical observational study called ASCEND that is tracking ECMO outcomes in children and adolescents at nearly 100 hospitals around the world. As the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus spreads rapidly, the research team has already noticed that the majority of pediatric patients being placed on ECMO at this time are needing it because of COVID-19.

"in these moments of crisis, our ability to meet demand presents ethical challenges, and COVID has drawn out the weaknesses in our system, as well as showing how those with resources and relatives who can advocate on their behalf are more able to find out about ECMO and seek the opportunity for their loved one to be treated," Barbaro said. "Meanwhile, hospitals in non-surge areas need to reflect on what policies and procedures they'll use if they experience another surge, to foster ethical allocation when resources are constrained."

Explore further Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation might aid in severe COVID-19

More information: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for COVID-19: evolving outcomes from the international Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry, Lancet (2021). www.thelancet.com/journals/lan  (21)01960-7/fulltext Journal information: The Lancet Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for COVID-19: evolving outcomes from the international Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01960-7
One 10 ml vial of 1000 mg ketamine. Credit: Psychonaught/Wikipedia

Patients with excited delirium who are combative, aggressive or agitated before being transported to the hospital or in an emergency department setting require immediate treatment for their safety and others. In the past, physical restraint was the predominant method used to control a patient during transport. However, due to safety issues, prehospital ketaminea powerful sedativeis now commonly used to restrain patients experiencing excited delirium. Emergency medical services providers typically administer ketamine intramuscularly, which takes effect in about three to four minutes.

Ketamine is safe and well-tolerated when administered in a controlled environment such as a hospital for procedural sedation, as patients rarely lose their airway or respiratory drive. Although ketamine use is prevalent, evidence on safety and efficacy is limited and risk factors for respiratory arrest and intubation have not been well studied. Furthermore, many patients with excited delirium are intoxicated or are using illicit substances and these co-ingestants may alter the properties of the drug.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine conducted a study to explore whether patients treated with prehospital ketamine for excited delirium with concomitant substance intoxication have higher rates of subsequent intubation in the emergency department compared to those without confirmed substance usage.

Results of the study, published in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, showed that among 86 patients given prehospital intramuscular ketamine for excited delirium, those with concomitant cocaine intoxication had a statistically significant 5.75-fold increased rate of subsequent intubation in the emergency department, which were higher in men than women. There were no deaths reported.

Patients testing positive for alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, ecstasy, marijuana, opiates, and synthetic cathinones, both bath salts and flakka, had similar rates of intubation compared to those negative for these substances. Baseline characteristics including age, ketamine dose, and body mass index were similar between those who did or did not undergo intubation.

"While additional research is needed, it is tempting to speculate about possible mechanisms whereby prehospital ketamine administered intramuscularly for excited delirium with concomitant cocaine intoxication may increase subsequent intubation in the emergency department," said Joshua J. Solano, M.D., first author, an emergency medicine physician, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and integrated medical science, and director of quality improvement and patient safety, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. "One plausible explanation is that cocaine may deplete excitatory neurotransmitters and lead to an exaggerated respiratory depression requiring intubation."

Over the course of 28 months, all medical records from two large community hospitals were searched for all patients age 18 years or older with intramuscular administration of ketamine for excited delirium and identified illicit and prescription substance co-ingestions.

For the study, trained abstractors collected demographic characteristics, history of present illness, urine drug screens, alcohol levels, and noted additional sedative administrations. Substance intoxication was determined by urine drug screens and alcohol positivity or negativity, as well as physician history of present illness. Patients without toxicological testing or documentation of substance intoxication, or who may have tested positive due to emergency department sedation, were excluded from relevant analyses. Subsequent emergency department intubation was the primary pre-specified outcome.

Explore further Study finds lower dose of ketamine equally effective in reducing pain

More information: Joshua J. Solano et al, Prehospital Ketamine Administration for Excited Delirium with Illicit Substance Co-Ingestion and Subsequent Intubation in the Emergency Department, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (2021). Joshua J. Solano et al, Prehospital Ketamine Administration for Excited Delirium with Illicit Substance Co-Ingestion and Subsequent Intubation in the Emergency Department,(2021). DOI: 10.1017/S1049023X21000935
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers the closing speech at the national convention on mental health and psychiatry at the Ministry of Solidarity and Health in Paris, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. Psychology appointments in France will be funded by the government starting next year, the president announced Tuesday, amid growing awareness of the importance of mental health. Credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Pool Photo via AP

Treatment for psychological problems will be funded by France's government starting next year, the president announced Tuesday, amid growing awareness and concern about mental health.

State health care systems in Britain, Germany and some other countries already fund therapy sessions. French health professionals say a national effort to improve access is long overdue, especially as the coronavirus pandemic has caused and aggravated psychological distress.

Acknowledging both the psychological impact of government virus restrictions and past government failures to make mental health a priority, French President Emmanuel Macron announced several measures during a conference with professionals who work in the sector.

As the coronavirus raced across France, "we didn't want to see the importance of mental health, and we got hit in the face with the fact that health is all-encompassing," Macron said. "The consequences of the pandemic are just as tangible in mental health" as in physical health.

He described a spike in the number of children seeking psychological treatment and in attempted suicides, notably among teenagers. About 20% of French people suffer from depression, he said.

The French government announced free therapy sessions for children and young people earlier this year, and on Tuesday pledged to extend that to everyone who has a doctor's prescription. Psychiatric treatment is already largely reimbursed by the state.

A French government survey earlier this month found that 10% of respondents had suicidal thoughts over the course of the year, double the figure found in pre-pandemic surveys.

In many countries, mental health professionals say that isolation during the epidemic has amplified distress, and that lockdowns and curfews have also destabilized people. They describe a sharp increase in people seeking help with anxiety, depression, addiction and other conditions.

Health surveys in France last year pointed to a surge of depression most acute among people without work, those in financial hardship and young adults. The diversion of resources from mental health to battling COVID-19 also has affected patient care.

Keeping children out of school impacted mental health, too, Macron said, as has France's mask requirement for all schoolchildren. It will be lifted next week for the first time in more than a year.

The government promised to create jobs in state mental health centers around the country to ensure that people in rural regions, who sometimes have to wait months for an appointment, have better access to care.

Psychologists' unions, which had long demanded more government support, expressed hope that the government would follow through on Tuesday's promises.

"Mental health is a major issue that is insufficiently addressed in our country," Macron said. "The means provided for this issue over the years were not up to the task."

Explore further Report says mental health distress continued to increase during COVID-19 pandemic

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against life-threatening disease caused by the coronavirus to people with heart disease and stroke, and a booster dose could bolster that protection, health experts said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sets policy on vaccine use, recommended Pfizer booster vaccines for several groups last week. People 65 and older; residents in long-term care settings; and people 50 and older with underlying medical conditions should receive a booster at least six months after their initial Pfizer vaccine doses, the CDC said.

People 18 to 49 with underlying medical conditions and adults 18 to 64 at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of their jobs or where they reside, such as a homeless shelter, may receive a Pfizer booster at least six months after their initial Pfizer vaccine doses.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky issued the recommendations two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized a Pfizer booster on Sept. 22. Her decision aligned with the FDA but allowed for broader use than a CDC advisory panel endorsed.

The FDA and CDC actions apply only to the Pfizer vaccine. Regulators are reviewing the data from Moderna's request to authorize a booster, and Johnson & Johnson's booster is in advanced trials.

In August, the FDA authorized a third dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for immunocompromised people. That includes heart transplant recipients, who must take drugs that suppress their immune system.

Data shows COVID-19 vaccines can become less effective at preventing infection over time. But the vaccines are still effective in preventing serious illness and death after infection.

It's important to keep in mind that no vaccine is 100% effective, said Katherine E. Di Palo, a clinical pharmacy specialist and assistant professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Certain viruses require vaccine boosters or annual shots, like the flu, to continue to provide protection and prevent serious complications."

Vaccines work initially by safely provoking the body's immune response, which generates swarms of antibodies to attack an invading virus. Eventually, that antibody response calms down.

But the body also has cells that remember what invading viruses looked like, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association.

"Those memory cells can rapidly ramp up the immune system if we're re-exposed to a virus or to a virus against which we've been vaccinated," said Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist, epidemiologist and chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. The response from those memory cells is what helps protect against severe cases even if someone contracts the disease.

A booster dose can help increase the number of those memory cells while also reviving levels of antibodies.

In authorizing the Pfizer booster, the FDA reviewed data from Israel showing a third dose provided about 10 times the protection against confirmed infection and severe disease compared with people who had two doses. Side effects were similar to what was reported with the first two doses and included fatigue, headache and redness at the injection site.

For now, Di Palo said, people getting a booster will need to stick with whatever brand of vaccine they initially received. "We currently do not have evidence that says it is OK to mix and match," she said.

Federal regulators are continuing to monitor the COVID-19 vaccine's connection to rare cases of myocarditis or another type of heart inflammation called pericarditis. Those potential side effects should not dissuade people from getting vaccinated, Di Palo and Lloyd-Jones said.

First, those cases are "extremely rare," Di Palo said. When they do occur, they tend to be mild and people often recover on their own or with minimal treatment.

That contrasts with the effects of COVID-19. In the unvaccinated, the disease can require intensive care in a hospital and remains potentially fatal.

That's why the most important advice for people with heart disease and stroke is simple.

"If you are not yet vaccinated, you are at significant risk from the delta variant," Lloyd-Jones said. "Get vaccinated today. Do not wait."

People with stroke and heart conditions such as coronary artery disease, heart failure or cardiomyopathy (inflammation of the heart muscle) are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Underlying factors that increase the risk for heart disease and stroke, such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking, also can increase the risk for becoming severely ill from COVID-19, Lloyd-Jones said.

The authorization of a Pfizer booster comes just ahead of flu season. The CDC says September and October are prime time for getting a flu shot and that getting one at the same time as a COVID-19 vaccine is safe.

Flu shots have been shown to reduce the risk of death in people with heart disease. They could play an especially important role this year, Lloyd-Jones said.

"It's an important part of people reconnecting with the health system, getting with their doctor, revisiting their numbers, making sure their blood pressure is under control, their diabetes is in control, they have a plan for getting rid of those pounds they gained during the pandemic," he said.

The sometimes-shifting advice on vaccines can be difficult to follow, Lloyd-Jones acknowledged. "But in truth, this is the process of science."

The latest reliable information can be found at cdc.gov or getvaccineanswers.org. And when the news gets confusing, personalized information is available from a patient's own doctor, nurse or other health care professional, Di Palo said.

"With every headline that comes out, if you have questions, talk to your team," she said. The information is not "one-size-fits-all. So, talking to your doctors is really, really critical."
(HealthDay)Exposure to epidural analgesia during labor seems not to be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children in Denmark, while a slightly increased risk was seen in a second cohort in British Columbia, Canada, according to two studies published in the Sept. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Anders Pretzmann Mikkelsen, M.D., from Copenhagen University Hospital-Rigshospitalet in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving all live-born children in Denmark between January 2006 and December 2013. The cohort included 479,178 children, of whom 19.4 percent were exposed to epidural analgesia during labor. The researchers found that 6,428 children (1.3 percent) had been diagnosed with autism by the end of follow-up (median, 7.0 years). The autism diagnosis incidence rate was 23.1 and 18.5 per 10,000 person-years in the exposed versus unexposed cohorts, respectively (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.05; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.98 to 1.11).

Gillian E. Hanley, Ph.D., from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study involving term singleton children born in British Columbia between April 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2014. Data were included for 388,254 children; 28.7 percent were exposed to epidural analgesia. The researchers found that 5,192 children were diagnosed with ASD (1.34 percent). A diagnosis was made for 1.53 and 1.26 percent of children exposed to epidural analgesia versus those not exposed, respectively (fully adjusted hazard ratio, 1.09; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.15). However, the investigators determined that given the likelihood of residual confounding that may account for the results, the findings did not provide strong supporting evidence for an association.

"Current evidence does not justify considering risk of ASD when deciding whether to use (patients) or recommend (health care professionals) neuraxial labor analgesia," write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

Explore further No link found for exposure to epidural labor analgesia and autism

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109822

A COVID-19 treatment using monoclonal antibodies is one step closer thanks to the efforts of Australian researchers.

Scientists found antibodies that blocked the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells in preclinical models.

The discovery paves the way for clinical trials of monoclonal antibody treatments for the prevention of severe COVID-19 infection.

Published in the journal Cell Reports, the research is part of a consortium-led effort, bringing together the expertise of Australian academic and industry leaders in infectious diseases and antibody therapeutics at WEHI, the Doherty Institute, the Burnet Institute, the Kirby Institute, CSL, Affinity Bio and CSIRO.

Antibody cocktail blocks SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells

Monoclonal antibodies have emerged as powerful therapeutics for a variety of human diseases, representing seven of the top ten best-selling drugs globally.

Antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients and CSL's proprietary antibody library were used to screen for antibodies that were effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The leading two monoclonal antibodies were then combined into an "antibody cocktail."

WEHI Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham, who co-led the research, said the consortium had screened hundreds of potential antibodies, identifying the top 12 that were the most potent in blocking virus entry.

"By combining the leading antibodies into an antibody cocktail, we were able to test its effectiveness at blocking SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells and reducing viral loads in preclinical models," she said.

"This antibody cocktail effectively blocked virus entry in these tests and reduced the severity of disease in preclinical models, enabling the infection to be overcome."

"Our research indicates these monoclonal antibodies are leading candidates to be developed into a treatment for COVID-19."

Protecting the most vulnerable

Associate Professor Tham said monoclonal antibody treatments could be used to form a "protective ring" around the most vulnerable people during an outbreak or in cases of infection in returned travelers.

"Unlike vaccines, which take several weeks to generate antibodies, antibody-based therapies would provide immediate protection against the virus," she said.

"In the future, we may be able to use these therapies in people who are immunocompromised or unable to mount a robust immune response to a vaccine. If used early on, these treatments could prevent hospitalisations and serious complications from COVID-19."

Jobs boost for manufacturing and industry

Doherty Institute laboratory head Professor Stephen Kent, who is an infectious diseases clinician and co-led the research, said the consortium was now working to progress the research to clinical trials in Australia.

"We recently received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund to take this promising research forward into clinical trials for COVID-19," he said.

"Melbourne's biomedical precinct has enormous expertise and capability. To be able to deliver a treatment for patients that was researched, designed, manufactured and trialed here in Australia would be an incredible achievement."

"Our research shows that these monoclonal antibody therapies will be effective against global variants and could future-proof Australia against emerging coronavirus pandemics."

The development of monoclonal antibody therapies in Australia would also provide a boost to local jobs in manufacturing, academia, biotechnology, and clinical services and strengthen Australia's reputation as a destination for medical research innovation.

Research assisted by people who have recovered from COVID-19

COVID-19 recovered patient and nursing science student Georgie Johns, who provided blood samples for the study, said she was happy to be able to contribute to the growing body of scientific knowledge of COVID-19 in Australia.

"I contracted COVID-19 early on in the pandemic when not much was known about the virus and I really wanted to do whatever I could to help advance our knowledge about the virus in Australia," she said.

"It is good to know these treatments might be used to help people working on the frontline in healthcare or to protect the most vulnerable people in our community, for whom vaccines might be less effective."

This work was made possible with grants from the Medical Research Future Fund and the Victorian Government, and in-kind support from CSL. The research team would like to extend its thanks to the people who contributed samples to the study.

Explore further Regeneron drug approved to help prevent severe COVID in vulnerable after exposure

More information: Adam K. Wheatley et al, Landscape of human antibody recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain, Cell Reports (2021). Journal information: Cell Reports Adam K. Wheatley et al, Landscape of human antibody recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109822

Provided by WEHI
Scanning electron micrograph of blood cells. From left to right: human erythrocyte, thrombocyte (platelet), leukocyte. Credit: public domain

Sepsis, the body's life-threatening response to infection affecting about 1.7 million adults in the United States each year, can lead to multisystem organ failure with a high mortality rate.

No targeted therapeutics against this condition have been developed in the last decades. Now, however, a team led by biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside, offers some hope for future treatment during Sepsis Awareness Month.

The researchers, led by Meera Nair and Adam Godzik in the School of Medicine, identified molecular biomarkers, pathways and immune cell dynamics associated with sepsis that could be therapeutically targeted to prevent the condition from leading to death. These blood cell biomarkersthe protein CD52 in lymphocytes; and the protein S100A9 involved in inflammatory processesare present in all blood cells but highly expressed in people with sepsis. How these biomarkers change early in sepsisspecifically, within the first six hourscould determine whether the patient survives or dies.

"These biomarkers were found to uniquely change within six hours in the blood of patients with sepsis and affected specific cellular pathways in specific immune cells," said Nair, an associate professor of biomedical sciences, who co-led the study published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "Changes in CD52 expression were associated with good outcomes, which means promoting the activation of protective immune cells. S100A9, on the other hand, acted as a molecular driver of fatal sepsis. We appear to have found a molecular driver and a molecular protector of sepsis."

According to Nair, the team also found the molecular pathways for fatal sepsis and COVID-19 converge.

"Severe COVID appears to trigger molecular pathways identical to sepsis," she said. "Further analysis of these pathways can help us diagnose and treat both diseases."

In particular, the research team also found that in people with sepsis, blood plateletscell types involved in normal blood flow and coagulationlost their function, as they do in COVID patients. The researchers argue that if the platelets' function could be restored by targeting the main regulators of this process, it could promote survival in both sepsis and COVID.

Nair explained that when a patient is diagnosed with sepsis and admitted to the intensive care unit, physicians use clinical scoring systems, such as the APACHE-2 and SOFA scores, to help predict severity of illness and probability of mortality.

"Clinicians still cannot predict whether the patient is going to survive or die and what specific treatment to give that may improve their survival chances," she said. "There is no way, unfortunately, of triaging the patients to figure out if they would benefit from one treatment versus another. We wanted to address this by finding molecular biomarkers that are better predictors of whether a patient survives or dies. We appear to have found some candidates."

The study, done in partnership with clinicians at the Riverside University Health System, or RUHS, involved sampling the blood of five patients with sepsis. Dr. Walter Klein, the paper's co-author and a pulmonologist at RUHS, noted clinical scoring systems do not provide specific therapeutic targets for patients.

"From a clinical perspective, the treatment of sepsis largely focuses on early recognition, early systemic antibiotics/source control of the infection, and support of failing organ systems," he said. "What is missing in the clinical arena are specific therapies that reverse the patient's dysregulated immune response to infection. The importance of basic science research like this is to hopefully find individualized treatments one day where we can rapidly reverse the patient's multi-organ failure and prevent mortality."

Unlike other studies that analyzed blood samples from patients with sepsis at time zero, when patients are first diagnosed with the disease, the research team analyzed blood samples of sepsis patients at time zero and six hours latertwo different time points from differing outcomes in sepsis.

"We have snapshots in two time-steps that show us how the biomarkers are evolving," said Godzik, the Bruce D. and Nancy B. Varner Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at UCR and a professor of biomedical sciences, who co-led the study. "We can enhance this evolution in the right direction, toward survival. If the patient is heading in the wrong direction, toward fatality, we can intervene to change the trajectory of the disease. With this work, we have gone beyond the static snapshot and moved into a more dynamic process."

Blood samples obtained from RUHS were processed at a single-cell sequencer at UCR, allowing the researchers to understand the behavior of each cell rather than an average of all cells.

"We found that many cell types behaved differently in sepsis," said Xinru Qiu, the co-first author of the paper and a graduate student in Godzik's lab. "Using single cell sequencing, we could separately track the trajectory of different cell types. Single-cell resolution is like having a street-level view of an area versus a satellite view of it, and an understanding of what each cell contributes were key in helping us find our results."

According to Godzik, when news reports note someone has died of complications from an infection, it generally means the person died of sepsis.

"Thirty percent of all deaths in hospitals are caused by sepsis," he said. "Sepsis is an unmet need with no treatment. Our work offers a path to treatment because we have extended the view from single molecules to processes in cells. After all, it is the molecular pathways involved that can be interrupted. Oftentimes, people think if a gene is a biomarker of a disease, a drug should target it. Well, not necessarily. If the bumper of your carthe tag or markeris destroyed in a car accident, you may have need to fix the brakesthe pathway."

Nair stressed that the study was possible only through a multidisciplinary approach.

"As an immunologist, I teamed up with Adam, who is a computational biologist, and with RUHS clinicians," she said. "It's only through such collaborative work that we can start to unravel the complexity of fatal sepsis, offering insight into new treatments that could change the trajectory of sepsis patients who may face a fatal outcome."

Next, the researchers plan to focus on similarities between sepsis and COVID-19 and have already begun research funded by the Center for Health Disparities Research at UCR.

"We are doing a molecular analysis of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on immune homeostasis," Nair said. "We would like to see if our sepsis research findings could apply also to COVID-19."

Nair, Godzik, Qiu, and Klein were joined in the research by Jiang Li, the co-first author of the research paper, and Lukasz Jaroszewski at UCR; and Drs. Jeff Bonenfant and Aarti Mittal at RUHS.

Explore further What to know about treating sepsis

More information: Xinru Qiu et al, Dynamic changes in human singlecell transcriptional signatures during fatal sepsis, Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2021). Journal information: Journal of Leukocyte Biology Xinru Qiu et al, Dynamic changes in human singlecell transcriptional signatures during fatal sepsis,(2021). DOI: 10.1002/JLB.5MA0721-825R
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

New research being presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), held online this year, explored whether COVID-19 is more deadly for some people with diabetes than for others.

It found that type 2 diabetes is associated with a higher risk of mortality in hospitalised COVID patients than type 1 diabetes.

The combination of an older age and high C-reactive protein (CRP) was also linked to a higher risk of death.

Younger people (under 70 years old) with chronic kidney disease, a common long-term complication of diabetes, also had a higher likelihood of dying.

BMI, however, was not linked to survival.

The information has been used to create a simple model which can be used to predict which patients are at higher risk of death.

While people with diabetes are no more likely to contract COVID-19 than others, they are more likely to become severely ill if they do catch it. It has been unclear, however, if certain characteristics put some people with diabetes at higher risk of serious illness and death than others.

The ACCREDIT study, from Dr. Daniel Kevin Llanera and Dr. Rebekah Wilmington, at the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust, England, UK, and colleagues, looked for links between a range of clinical and biochemical characteristics and the risk of mortality within seven days of admission to hospital in COVID-19 patients with diabetes.

The 1,004 patients from seven hospitals in northwest England had an average age of 74.1. Most (60.7%) were male and 45% lived in areas classed as the most deprived in the UK (based on the government's Index of Multiple Deprivation).

Median BMI was 27.6 and 56.2% had macrovascular complications of diabetes (e.g. heart attack or stroke) and 49.6% had microvascular complications (e.g. neuropathy or retinopathy).

7.5% were admitted to intensive care and 24% died within seven days of admission to hospital. The greater socio-economic deprivation and older age of the patients studied may help explain why the seven-day mortality was higher than in other studies, says Dr. Llanera. However, further research is needed to confirm this.

Approximately one in ten patients (9.8%) required insulin infusions, meaning they were switched from other treatments to IV insulin to better control their blood sugar.

Analysis showed that those with type 2 diabetes were 2.5 times as likely to die within seven days of admission as those with other types of diabetes. The study's authors say this may be because type 2 diabetes usually occurs in older people and can be accompanied by other long-standing health conditions, putting them at higher risk of poorer outcomes.

Those who had insulin infusions were, however, half as likely to die as those who didn't need IV insulin. The study's authors say this may be a clue that better blood sugar control can improve outcomes in patients with severe COVID and diabetes.

Risk of death was also higher among under-70s with chronic kidney disease. They were 2.74 times more likely to die than under-70s without chronic kidney disease.

Dr. Llanera, who has recently moved from the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust to Imperial College London, says: "According to several studies, patients with diabetic kidney disease have a chronic pro-inflammatory state and immune dysregulation, making it difficult to 'fight off' the virus compared to someone who has a properly working immune system.

"In addition, ACE2 receptors are upregulated in the kidneys of patients with diabetic kidney disease. These are molecules that facilitate entry of SARS-COV-2 into the cells. This may lead to direct attack of the kidneys by the virus, possibly leading to worse overall outcomes."

The combination of older age and high CRP (a marker of inflammation) was linked to a more than three-fold (3.44) higher risk of death by day 7. The study's authors say that higher CRP correlates with a high degree of inflammation, which can eventually lead to organ failure.

The data has used to create a model, which, if applied to a patient with similar demographic characteristics, can predict a higher risk of death in 7 days using only age and CRP as variables.

Dr. Llanera says: "Both of these variables are easily available during upon admission to hospital. This means we can easily identify patients early on their hospital stay who will likely require more aggressive interventions to try and improve survival."

Unlike some previous studies, BMI and HbA1c (average blood sugar level) were not associated with death.

Nor was any significant association seen with diabetes complications, other than chronic kidney disease, or use of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) - types of blood pressure drugs.

The proportion of patients (9.8%) switched to insulin infusions is higher than the typical figure of 8%, suggesting COVID patients require higher levels of input from inpatient diabetes teams.

Dr. Llanera concludes: "In order to help our patients with diabetes survive this pandemic, we needed to explore further what makes them at risk for worse outcomes.

"These results will allow other researchers and clinicians to find out how we can best intervene, allowing us to provide our patients with the most appropriate treatment."

Explore further People over 40 with type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized
Bank of Guams Stop COVID, Spread LOVE campaign won the 2021 ABA Brand Slam Award for best crisis communications and social media campaign.
The Tourism Authority of Kiribati unveiled its Tourism Restart Program in Betio, South Tarawa on World Tourism Day.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley attends a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Sept. 28, 2021.
The South African Post Office (SAPO) is in survival mode and has asked the government for R8.16 billion to save the company.

This was revealed in legal documents filed by the General Manager of Legal Services within the South African Post Office, Motsiri Elias Matimulane.

The Post Office responded to an urgent court application by Solidarity against Post Office to force it to pay medical aid contributions of more than R600 million in arrears to Medipos.

For months, SAPO failed to pay the full member contributions to the fund on behalf of its employees while the deductions still appeared on the employees payslips, Solidarity said.

In its responding affidavit, Matimulane said the Post Office has strictly limited financial resources.

He said the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a severe liquidity crisis at the Post Office.

As a result, some creditors, property rentals, medical aid contributions, pension fund contributions, and SARS obligations have remained unpaid.

Matimulane said the Post Office is required and has no choice but to allocate its limited financial resources to critical expenses, which will further its core statutory obligations.

Those are to fulfil and provide universal postal services and facilitate the payment of grants throughout the country.

He added that SAPO had made a funding application to the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to obtain government funding.

If SAPO receives the total amount of R8.16 billion, Matimulane said they would be able to satisfy the proposed payment plan and make additional contributions to pay down the historic contributions due to Medipos.

While the SAPO bemoaned the legal action by Solidarity, the outcome was positive.

Solidarity, the Post Office, and Medipos reached a settlement to ensure employees are not cut off from their medical aid on 1 October 2021.

According to the agreement, SAPO must make certain minimum monthly payments to Medipos, which has undertaken to sustain the employees medical cover.

Solidaritys head of legal matters, Anton van der Bijl, said it is outrageous that they had to resort to court proceedings to force the Post Office to meet its obligations.

Innocent employees suffer as a result of the mismanagement and corruption that are so typical of state entities and government departments, stated Van der Bijl.

Failure to pay employees medical aid contributions is only one of the problems the Post Office faces.

The SAPO faces a loss of R2.5 billion in 2020/21 and owes large amounts in pension fund contributions for workers.

Now read: Meltdown at the Post Office
A new variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid19, dubbed C.1.2, does not appear to be gaining a foothold in South Africa.

Citing Network for Genomic Surveillance South Africa (NGS-SA) researcher Richard Lessells, Netwerk24 reported that the variant appears to be in decline in South Africa.

Lessells said it does not look as though the new variant can hold its own against the Delta variant that currently dominates in the country.

Researchers first published their findings regarding the C.1.2 variant in August, identifying it as a potential variant of interest.

They said the variant had a concerning number of mutations associated with increased transmissibility, neutralisation resistance, and disease severity.

The variant had been detected across most of South Africas provinces and ten other countries, leading researchers to publish a paper on C.1.2, even though it was early in the study of the new variant.

It is early days as only 95 genomes have been published at GISAID. However, we found that in this pandemic, [it is crucial to] share info quicker than later, KRISP director at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Tulio de Oliveira said at the time.

NGS-SA data published earlier this month showed that the proportion of Covid19 infections caused by the C.1.2 variant increased from almost nothing in May to around 3% in July.

Prevalence of the C.1.2 variant decreased to 2% in August, and Lessells said the latest data from samples taken in September suggests it has continued to fall.

However, even though C.1.2 variant has not taken hold in South Africa, that doesnt mean another variant might not emerge, South African Medical Association chair Angelique Coetzee warned.

Should a new variant not emerge to challenge Delta, South Africa could avoid a major resurgence of Covid19 in the fourth wave predicted for December.

Speaking to National Institute of Communicable Diseases epidemiologist Harry Moultrie, Netwerk24 reported that this would depend on whether peoples immunity has waned in the intervening months.
Nimbus Arts' NIMBASH 2021, held for the first time at Charles Krug Winery on Sept. 11, raised over $750,000.

The the organizations 11th annual interactive arty party and auction event welcomed more than 400 art lovers from the Napa Valley and beyond. NIMBASH celebrated the theme of alchemy, the magical process of combining and transforming everyday elements into something extraordinary and precious. The evening brought together dozens of local artists and hundreds of community art lovers to celebrate an evening of art, wine, food, fashion, music and more.

NIMBASH 2021 was the first large-scale fundraiser for Nimbus Arts since May 2019. Of the $750,000 raised, over half of NIMBASH expenses were paid directly to artists as wages and commissions.

The fund-a-need raised over $170,000, a record-setting amount, with funds directed to fuel arts programming at Nimbus and throughout the community. Additionally, the funds will launch Nim-BUS, an art center on wheels.

More than 50 vendors donated food and wine, 20 artists offered art activities and demonstrations for guests, over 50 artists produced a fashion show, and an additional 75 volunteers helped make NIMBASH 2021 safe for all. The event featured steamrolling large-scale printmaking and flame glass fusing demonstrations, perfume making, RAKU open-flame ceramics, Honey Tasking and therapeutic live Bee Bed experiences, printmaking card art activity and more.

The NIMBASH fashion show kicked off the evenings main event with fabulous stage sets that changed and transformed following the theme. NIMBASH guests enjoyed a Greek meal paired with local wines as auctioneer Richard D. Pio Roda launched the live auction.

As the main fundraiser for Nimbus Arts, NIMBASH energizes and powers the community-serving nonprofit dedicated to igniting artistic expression across the Napa Valley. Dozens of artists from throughout the Napa Valley and beyond donated more than 200 original works of art and received commissions, supporting working artists in the community and enlivening homes across the Napa Valley with local art.

The funds raised at NIMBASH constitute about 50% of Nimbus Arts annual budget and help make art programs and education accessible to everyone in the Napa Valley community.

Nimbus Arts recognizes and thanks the following for their generosity and support:

 Charles Krug Winery for providing the venue;

 The food and wine artisans serving throughout the NIMBASH reception;

 Oak Avenue Catering for the NIMBASH 2021 "Greek" Feast;

 Friends, artists, and community members who have donated art, products, and services to the NIMBASH auction;

 The Ehlers Society and their crew for creating the NIMBASH fashion show and set for the 11th year;

 Joleen & David Hughes, of Level Inc., Calistoga, and Julia Field, Field Art Works, Seattle, for creation of the promotional materials and slide show;

 Karen Aldoroty and everyone at 55 Degrees for handling and storage of wine

 The Nimbus Arts Board of Directors, Leadership Circle, and donors (large and small) who sustain the nonprofit.

The 2021 NIMBASH Sponsors were 3.1 Phillip Lim, Charles Krug-Peter Mondavi Sr. Family Estate, Jim Agius + Alexander Smirnoff, Centric General Contractors, Cra-Z-Art & The DeLuca Family Foundation, Farella Braun + Martel LLP, Garys Wine & Marketplace, Alila Napa Valley Hotel, BNY Mellon, Ciatti Company, Grassi & Associates, Mendocino Grove, Napa Valley Vintners, SHGRP LLC, Storage Star, Woolys Electric, Beckstoffer Vineyards, elysewalker, Malloy Imrie & Vasconi Insurance Services LLC, Owen Accounting, H&E Equipment, Martin Design, Melody Raye Flowers, & Walker Construction

Nimbus also thanks the many artists and community members who attended the weekly community work parties, and the Nimbus staff and team who donated their time, talents, and good humor.

Go to nimbusarts.org for more information about NIMBASH 2022 and to sign up for NIMBASH alerts and announcements.
Nancy Willis' "Finding Beauty After the Fire, Commemorating the Glass Fire of 2020" is on view through Oct. 3 at the Nimbus Arts Studio 2, at 49 Main St., St. Helena. The gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m.

My goal is to pay homage to the land, the wildlife lost, and help my community heal from the devastating Glass Fire of 2020," Willis wrote in a statement. "I want to create beauty from the devastation.

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"Even before I returned home after my third mandatory evacuation I was responding to the fires through my art practice," Willis continued. "I began going back into existing works and modifying them to reflect my current reality.

"While my home was saved by firefighters, much of my neighborhood remains a charred landscape filled with blackened trees. With support from an ACNV Adaptation Grant, I developed new work that tracks the devastation and renewal in the redwood grove across from my Deer Park home.

In December of 2020, she created "an intervention of lights, chandeliers and an altar in the forest to bring hope and light into the landscape. This led me to envision a larger public art project for my community."
At the same time, she has been caring for her ill mother for the last year. After her mothers death, as Anna cleans out the flat they lived in together at the end, she finds a diary written by Francis: her completely unknown father, from whom she inherited her darker skin.

Anna had never been curious about her father before; her mother was devoted and loving, though she did not understand the racism that Anna dealt with growing up in England in the '70s.

Finding this diary and hearing her fathers voice for the first time sparks something in Anna, and she begins to wonder what her life might have been like had her father known about her.

The biggest shock, though, is when she tracks down Francis in Africa - after taking a new name, her father led a revolution against British colonial rule and then ruled his home country himself as dictator in everything but name for several decades. Her father is now retired but still notorious, and Anna resolves to go to Africa and try to meet him.
I started writing all day. I couldnt stop. But I wasnt organized and became overwhelmed. A friend who had been the Justin Siena librarian worked at Copperfields Books. I figured librarians had to be organized so I asked her to read what Id written. Her eyes clouded over. At the time, I didnt realize how often shed been approached by people asking her to read their manuscripts.

Her original book grew as she fleshed out characters and they took on lives and loves of their own. It was over 1,000 pages long and she had no idea how to mesh the characters.

My friend helped me decide how to divide up the chapters, she recalled. What I thought might be a trilogy, turned out instead to be a five-book series.

Birkmyers research had her travel to Wyoming four times in six years.

Id been through the state a few times before I started writing, and I knew it was not a diverse state. Once there, I really engaged with people, especially as I learned about the Oregon Trail. I went to their interactive museum and read actual diaries. I had to determine where to situate the town, so I followed parts of the Oregon Trail.

She drove through the Wind River reservation and became interested in its Arapaho and Shoshone residents.
The state's tribes will now have access to federal funding and reimbursements after assisting with wildfires and other emergencies.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that State Sen. Bill Dodd introduced as chair of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee to allow the state to enter mutual aid agreements with tribes  improving tribal access to federal funding and reimbursements when they assist with emergencies such as wildfires.

It's no hand-out, emphasized Dodd, D-Napa.

"With the tribes, it's not a one-way street where we're paying them," Dodd said by phone. "They constantly give back to their communities that they serve."

The recent bill helps "make sure they have the ability to get reimbursed with state and federal funding," Dodd said, adding that the bill "was really a result of seeing the great work that they do as partners with the local communities which they serve."

The need for the bill was brought to Dodd last spring, he said, and his staff went down the usual checklist "deciding whether or not we're going to run the bill."

SB 816 Master Mutual Aid Agreement passed through the assembly and state unanimously.
California will lose a congressional seat next year, probably one now held by a Los Angeles County Democrat. And that could help Republicans capture the House.

Republicans need a net gain of only five seats nationally to seize the House from Democrats.

Or it's conceivable the disappearing California seat could be one currently occupied by a Republican, thus helping Democrats retain House control. The reason that isn't likely, however, is because there aren't that many GOP House seats in California to lose.

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Democrats outnumber Republicans 42 to 11 in the state's House delegation, even after the GOP won back four seats in 2020.

California will lose a House seat for the first time in its history because of sluggish population growth over the last decade. The decennial headcount by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that we grew below the national average  by 6.1%, compared with 7.4% nationwide.

We added 2 million people and are now home to 39.5 million.

Meanwhile, red-state Texas will gain two House seats. Florida and four other states will pick up one each.

But we'll still field by far the largest House delegation  52 members to Texas' 38.
LAFCO meeting on unified water

On Monday Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. the Napa County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) will consider the concept of a unified/regional Napa County water system. This will be item 8b. The zoom link for the meeting will become available at napa.lafco.ca.gov.

The recent LAFCO Municipal Service Review on Napa County water/wastewater is also available at the LAFCO site and it is attached to the online version of this letter.
Opposition "Armenia" faction: There is always a threat of war, but it is less likely in the near future

Armenian and Greek competition protection authorities sign Memorandum of Cooperation

Georgia FM comments on possibility of his country joining 3 + 3 format proposal including Armenia

Ruling power MP: Armenia needs to consider, grasp opportunities of 3 + 3 negotiation format

12 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh

FM meets with Sweden ambassador, stresses need for return of all Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Ukraine MP who penned Armenian Genocide recognition draft decision dies

Azerbaijan organizes another visit to occupied Shushi of Artsakh

Ombudsman in Rome, presents Armenian captives issue to international media

ANCA calls on US Congress to investigate State Department failures related to Armenia, Artsakh

Armenia opposition MP: Tatev bypass road will not resolve all our problems in current situation (PHOTOS)

1,202 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Opposition Armenia bloc challenges, at Constitutional Court, community enlargement law package

Armenia Central Bank chief in Rome, meets with Italy PM

Russia peacekeepers, philanthropists hand warm clothes to Artsakh families

State Department: US, Russia do not want to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons

Newspaper: Armenia state to no longer cover treatment expenses of patients not vaccinated against coronavirus?

Newspaper: Armenia judicial system to be in volatile situation in short time

UN Human Rights Council agrees to appoint special rapporteur on Afghanistan

Russia citizen driver, 52, dies on the spot after his car crashes into truck in Armenia

Launch of Armenian Studies Program announced during Armenia President's visit to Sapienza University

Will Turks be able to enter 26 countries of Schengen Area without visas?

Dinner served in honor of Armenia President and his wife in Italy

Armenian parliamentary standing committee chairman meets with Russia Ambassador

Armenia Ombudsman submits to Pope Francis reports on tortures of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Customs Attache: There hasn't been and there is no bias against Armenian drivers at Upper Lars checkpoint

Greece-France defense agreement will allow them to help each other in case of third country's attack

Treatment of coronavirus-infected but unvaccinated people to become paid service in Armenia as of December?

Turkish FM: Turkey's position on supporting Ukraine's "integrity and sovereignty" remains unchanged

Russian peacekeeping forces, charitable organizations provide assistance to boarding school in Karabakh

Zakharova: Moscow proceeds from priority to ensure geopolitical stability in South Caucasus

Armenia President pays tribute at Altar of the Homeland monument at Venice Square in Rome

Turkey, Iran to hold political consultations

Karabakh FM expresses condolences over death of Vigen Chitechyan

Armenia territorial administration and infrastructure minister has new deputy

Armenia Deputy PM Mher Grigoryan receives US Ambassador

Armenia Security Council Secretary, Netherlands Ambassador attach importance to fight against corruption

Digest: Armenian POW returned from Azerbaijan, PACE speaks on mandatory COVID-19 vaccination risks

Armenia and Italy are deepening cooperation in justice sector

Apprehended ARF-D members are released

Armenia high-tech industry minister receives Russia Ambassador

Armenia Embassy in Russia hosts delegation led by Armenian parliamentary speaker

Decisions to arrest Armenia ex-defense minister, arms supplier are appealed

Dollar continues going down in Armenia

Artsakh President to Putin: Your role in process of peaceful, final settlement of Karabakh conflict is invaluable

Amir-Abdollahian: We consider inadmissible Zionist regime provocative movement in our region from Azerbaijan territory

Iran FM announces readiness to visit Armenia, Azerbaijan

US ambassador to Armenia attends unveiling of new x-ray machine donated to Ashtarak city hospital (PHOTOS)

Putin: Russia attaches great importance to close cooperation with strategic ally Armenia

Police disrupt ARF youths protest outside Armenia government building

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople meets with the Pope, in the Vatican

UK envoy to Armenia does not comment on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, Karabakh situation

Iran Supreme Leaders representative leaves Azerbaijan

Armenias Pashinyan to Russias Putin: We are grateful for your efforts to establish peace in South Caucasus

Putin, Aliyev confer on situation in South Caucasus

Putin, Erdogan discuss regional issues

4 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

PACE new resolution urges to ensure that COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory

Zelensky sacks Ukraine ambassador to Armenia

PM: Armenia, Armenian people are grateful to Japan

Armenia PM: We have made decision regarding local elections

Armenia, Italy presidents farewell ceremony held in Rome (PHOTOS)

Sarkissian to Putin: Armenia highly values your contribution to maintenance of peace, stability in region

Having legal system is important for business development in fair environment, says UK ambassador to Armenia

Armenia President, Italy PM meeting in Rome (PHOTOS)

Baku not ruling out another meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs

Armenia President meets with Rome mayor

1,309 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Biden approval rating hits new low in latest poll

Armenia ombudsman in Italy parliament, presents evidence of Azerbaijan torture of Armenian captives

World oil prices dropping

Serial killer in US lured by social media is sentenced to 160 years in prison

Newspaper: Armenia authorities face new problems in setting up parliament committee of inquiry into 44-day war

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc plans to hold forums, rally

Armenia PM admits that in 2018 he could have disclosed Karabakh negotiation process content

Armenia health minister: Out of 2,446 hospital beds for coronavirus patients, 2,300 are occupied

China-Taiwan military escalation reaches peak in past four decades

Armenia President: We welcome pro-Artsakh documents adopted by nearly 50 regional and city councils of Italy

Armen Sarkissian meets with President of Italian Senate

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia to build new nuclear power plant, negotiations have been launched

Italy's Quirinal Palace hosts exhibition featuring works of Aivazovsky, Saryan and other Armenian painters

Armen Sarkissian meets with President of Italy's Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico

Catholicos of All Armenians meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican

Armenia ex-Ambassador to The Netherlands Vigen Chitechyan dies

Armenia PM again says he is guilty for all the failures of the Armenian side during last year's war

FM: Discussion on occupied territories of former NKAO will create new threats to Armenia

Karabakh emergency situations service: Rescue squad finds remains of another Armenian soldier in Jrakan

Mattarella: Armenia and Italy can boast about their friendly relations

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia agreed to stop the hostilities on October 7, 2020

Iran, EEU begin talks to reach agreement over permanent treaty on free trade zone

An abundant TechnoFall with Inecobank - NFC payments and more

Armenia FM says his Indian counterpart will visit Yerevan in the next few days

Deputy PM: A comprehensive study of documents agreed by Armenian and Azerbaijani is necessary

Digest: Azerbaijan using Armenia's airspace, Baku says it's ready to mend relations with Yerevan

Health minister: All coronavirus vaccines in Armenia meet quality standards

Armenia health minister: Those who recovered from COVID-19 also need to get vaccinated

Armenia Deputy PM announces name of another POW returned from Azerbaijan

Armenia and Italy Presidents hold personal talks at Quirinal Palace

Armenian FM: MFA welcomes Iran's stance on inviolability of Armenia's borders

EU ready to share experience with Azerbaijan and Armenia in borders demarcation and delimitation
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi turns 85 on Wednesday. No plans for the celebration of the anniversary were announced.

Berlusconi will probably spend this day with his large family (he has five children and a dozen grandchildren), as well as his closest associates. There are enough of them, and Berlusconi, known for his generosity and hospitality, will no doubt arrange an excellent feast, TASS reported.

Silvio Berlusconi was born on September 29, 1936 in Milan. The definition a man who made himself fits him perfectly. After more than 20 years of successful entrepreneurial activity in the construction business and telecommunications, already a millionaire, Berlusconi turned to politics and became prime minister for the first time in 1994.

If for the first time he did not manage to stay in power for long, then after the second election in 2001, Berlusconi became the only head of government in the post-war republican history of Italy to retain his post throughout the entire five-year term. For the third time he became prime minister in 2008. In general, 20 years of Italian politics are associated with the "Berlusconi era", which he completely changed, including through communication tools. Berlusconi has always been an ardent opponent of communism and a supporter of the liberal capitalist model.

Berlusconi remains one of the richest men in Italy and a prominent political figure.
Former US President Donald Trump believes that US lawmakers should investigate the operation to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.

Trump believes the US Congress should set up a special committee to investigate the failed troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

According to him, it is necessary to understand what went wrong, why so many soldiers died, and why the Taliban - representatives of the radical Taliban movement - had so much money at their disposal in the form of weapons and military equipment.

There is no doubt that an investigation should be carried out on this matter, the Republican noted. Trump believes that such research would make more sense than the activities carried out by a special committee of the US House of Representatives to investigate the January 6 storming of the Capitol.

Political opponents of the current US President Joe Biden criticize the process of withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan and evacuating Americans, citizens of other countries and Afghan refugees from there. In the aftermath of the August 26 attack at Kabul airport, which killed more than 200 people, including 13 U.S. military personnel, several influential Republicans called for Biden's resignation or impeachment, making him responsible for allowing the attack in the Afghan capital.
Minister of High-Tech Industry of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan today received the delegation led by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Armenia Bolat Imambayev.

As reported the Armenian Ministry of High-Tech Industry, the minister stated that Armenias cooperation with Kazakhstan in the high-tech sector is ongoing and presented the areas of activities of the ministry that are aimed at enhancing high-tech industry in Armenia.

According to the minister, currently, all areas of the economy are linked to technologies, meaning the advancement of high technologies plays a pivotal role in the countrys economic development.

Ambassador Imanbayev expressed gratitude for the reception, touched upon the historical and cultural ties between the two countries and presented several programs that have already been carried out for Kazakhstans economic advancement. He also touched upon the already reached agreements.

Khachaturyan particularly emphasized the great experience that Kazakhstan has in space technology, within the scope of which the partnership will contribute to the development of space technologies in Armenia. At the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached to consider the earmarked opportunities for cooperation during an online meeting of the two ministers in the near future.
Newly appointed Ambassador of France to Armenia Anne Louyot today presented the copies of her credentials to Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

As reported the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ararat Mirzoyan expressed confidence that Anne Louyot will contribute to the deepening and strengthening of cooperation between Armenia and France in all spheres.

FM Mirzoyan noted that Armenia attaches great importance to the future deepening of the unique relations with France. In this context, the interlocutors first of all discussed the implementation of concrete programs for the promotion and expansion of Armenian-French cooperation in the economic sphere, as well as further prospects for strengthening ties in the educational and cultural spheres.

During the meeting, the parties touched upon the situation caused by the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression against Artsakh, as well as the penetration of Azerbaijani troops into the sovereign territory of Armenia.

Minister Mirzoyan highly appreciated the great attention of France, its parliament, and personally President Macron paid to the return of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, the protection of historical and cultural heritage in the territories of Artsakh under Azerbaijani control.

Both sides stressed the need for the resumption of peace talks within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at a comprehensive settlement of the conflict and the establishment of stability and security in the region.
Story Highlights 75% of U.S. adults report being vaccinated, up six points in past month

Majority of Republicans are now vaccinated after sharp uptick

15% of white-collar, 33% of blue-collar workers are vaccine reluctant

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The percentage of U.S. adults who report being vaccinated for COVID-19 jumped to 75% in September, after three months when the figure languished at just under 70%. An additional five percent of adults say they plan to be vaccinated, pushing the combined percentage either vaccinated or planning to be up to 80%, the highest yet this year.

The relatively sharp upturn in U.S. adults being vaccinated this month follows an eventful period in the pandemic.

Public worry about contracting COVID-19 has been higher the past two months amidst a spike in infections around the country due to the delta variant of the coronavirus. Forty percent of adults now say they are very or somewhat worried about being infected, similar to 39% in August but up from 29% in July and 17% in June.

On August 23, the Food and Drug Administration announced its decision to give full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use with people 16 and older -- the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive that designation. Accordingly, Gallup tracking finds a sharp decline in vaccine-resistant Americans saying they are waiting for FDA approval.

According to Gallup polling, there has been a big jump -- from 19% in August to 29% in September -- in the percentage of U.S. workers who report that their employer will require workers to be vaccinated.

Line graph. Monthly trends from January to September 2021 in the percentage of U.S. adults reporting they are vaccinated as well as the total percentage vaccinated or planning to be. Seventy-five percent of adults in September say they have been fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19, up six points from 69% in August as well as July. The total percentage of adults who either have been vaccinated or plan to be is now 80%, up from 77% the prior two months and the highest yet in 2021

The latest results are based on a Sept. 13-19 update of Gallup's monthly COVID-19 tracking survey, conducted by web using the probability-based Gallup Panel.

Majority of Republican Adults Now Vaccinated

Vaccination for COVID-19 continues to vary sharply by party ID, with much larger percentages of Democrats than Republicans reporting they have taken the vaccine.

However, for the first time, a majority of Republicans, 56%, say they have received at least one dose. This is up six percentage points from August, the largest monthly uptick in vaccination among Republicans since April when vaccines were just becoming widely available.

Line graph. Monthly trends from January to September 2021 in party groups' reported COVID-19 vaccination status. In September, 92% of Democrats, 68% of independents and 56% of Republicans report being fully or partly vaccinated. Democrats' vaccination is up only slightly in recent months, while the percentage of independents who are vaccinated is up six points since August and the percentage of Republicans is up seven points.

Still, Republicans retain the lowest vaccination rate of any major subgroup of Americans. By contrast, more than 70% of men and women, White and non-White adults, and adults in all four major regions of the country say they have been vaccinated.

Vaccination varies only slightly by age, with those younger than 35 (79%) and 55 or older (77%) more likely than adults 35 to 54 (68%) to report already being vaccinated.

COVID-19 Vaccination Status Among U.S. Demographic Groups in September 2021 Fully or partially vaccinated Vaccinated^ or plan to be Don't plan to be vaccinated % % % U.S. adults 75 80 20 Gender Men 73 78 22 Women 77 82 18 Age 18 to 34 79 82 18 35 to 54 68 74 26 55 and older 77 83 17 Race/Ethnicity Non-Hispanic white adults 73 78 22 Non-white adults 78 85 15 Region North 79 86 14 Midwest 73 78 22 South 73 78 22 West 76 81 19 Party ID Democrats 92 97 3 Independents 68 74 26 Republicans 56 60 40 ^Fully or partially Gallup Panel, Sept. 13-19, 2021

Employed Adults Match National Average in Vaccination

On September 9, President Joe Biden announced plans to require all federal workers to be vaccinated and mandating that large private employers require their employees be vaccinated. While it is too soon for that policy to affect workers' vaccination status, the September poll finds that employed Americans are identical to the national average in their vaccination status -- 75% of employed adults report they have received one or two shots. Unemployed workers (70%) and homemakers (63%) fall below that level while retirees (79%) are slightly above it.

There are also notable differences by type of occupation, with 80% of white-collar workers reporting they are vaccinated, compared with 62% of blue-collar workers. Additionally, a notable 90% of those in the education field and 82% of healthcare workers (groups excluded from Gallup's definition of white-collar workers for this analysis) say they are vaccinated against COVID-19.

All of these figures increase when factoring in those who say they plan to be vaccinated. That leaves about two in 10 employed Americans -- including 15% of white-collar workers and 33% of blue-collar workers -- who don't plan to be vaccinated. This may present challenges to large employers if their employees refuse to comply or look for alternate employment.

COVID-19 Vaccination Status of U.S. Employment Groups in September 2021 Fully or partially vaccinated Vaccinated^ or plan to be Don't plan to be vaccinated % % % Employment status Employed full- or part-time 75 79 21 Unemployed 70 78 22 Retired 79 86 14 Homemaker 63 67 33 Area of work White collar 80 85 15 Blue collar 62 67 33 Education 90 93 7 Healthcare 82 85 15 ^ Fully or partially Gallup Panel, Sept. 13-19, 2021

Fewer Vaccine Resisters Cite Awaiting FDA Approval

With 80% of Americans indicating they are willing to be vaccinated or that they already have been, 20% are now resistant to taking the shot. That is down from 23% in August and the lowest recorded since coronavirus vaccines became available to the general public earlier this year.

Of that 20%, just 1% in September says the main reason they do not plan to get vaccinated is that they are waiting for FDA approval or otherwise have their concerns about the safety of coronavirus vaccines addressed. That is down from 5% in August, prior to the FDA's decision on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Another 5% of Americans say they are not getting vaccinated because they have already had COVID-19 or they have the antibodies.

Four percent are reluctant to get vaccinated because they still have concerns about the timeline for developing the vaccines. This figure has been fairly constant all year, as are the percentages saying the reason is they don't trust vaccines in general (3%), that they are concerned about having an allergic reaction (2%), or that they are waiting to see how effective the vaccines are (2%).

Meanwhile, the percentage thinking they wouldn't face serious health consequences from COVID-19 should they be stricken is now 3%, similar to the August rate but down from 6% in February.

Reasons for Not Willing to Be Vaccinated, Based on U.S. Adults What is the main reason that you would not agree to receive a coronavirus/COVID-19 vaccine, if one was available to you now? Feb 14-21 , 2021 Aug 16-22 , 2021 Sep 13-19 , 2021 % % % Have had COVID-19 or have the antibodies 3 5 5 Concerned about timeline for developing the vaccines 5 3 4 Don't trust vaccines generally 4 4 3 Don't think would face serious health consequences from COVID-19 6 3 3 Concerned about allergic reaction 3 3 2 Waiting to see how effective vaccines are 2 2 2 Waiting to confirm safe/for full FDA approval 6 5 1 Total not planning to get vaccinated 29 23 20 Gallup Panel, Sept. 13-19, 2021

Bottom Line

Three in four U.S. adults are now vaccinated, at least partially, for the coronavirus, while another 5% plan to be. Additionally, 5% of adults report that they don't plan to be vaccinated but have had COVID-19 or have tested positive for the antibodies. While this doesn't meet public health standardsfor preventing the spread of COVID-19 or satisfy Biden's mandate that certain workers be vaccinated, it may at least afford these vaccine-resisters some immunity, though it is unclear how much and for how long.

Several factors may have helped boost the U.S. vaccination rate six points over the past month. This could include the FDA's recent approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and heightened concern about contracting the coronavirus after two straight months of the delta surge. Additionally, while Gallup data show most remote workers are still not back to an office or other worksite, some may have gotten vaccinated in anticipation of going back after Labor Day.

Future efforts at encouraging Americans to get voluntarily vaccinated will be most effective if they target the 5% of adults who already plan to take the shot. Then addressing the subset of vaccine resisters who have concerns about vaccine safety or the accelerated timeline for vaccine development could be fruitful, particularly if the FDA issues full approval for additional COVID-19 vaccines. Improved clarity around the immunity afforded to people who have had COVID-19 could either convince some recovered adults to finally get vaccinated or exempt them from vaccination, depending on what the research ultimately shows.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how compliant unvaccinated workers will be with the patchwork of employer, state and federal vaccine mandates affecting the workplace, and in some cases, being challenged in statehouses and courts. Those employees may ultimately have to decide between giving in to being vaccinated, or finding a job with a new employer, possibly in a different field of work, that doesn't require employee vaccinations.

To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter.

Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works.
From vintage graphic tees to bucket hats, secondhand or upcycled clothing and accessories have become increasingly popular among those who are part of Generation Z, who were born in the mid-to-late 1990s through the early 2010s.

When Anna Coon, junior broadcast journalism and political science major, began her studies at the University of Miami, thrifting became a large part of her everyday life.

Today, she is the president of the student organization UThrift, and a campus advocate for repurchasing or swapping secondhand clothing to reduce our carbon footprint. Once a week, the group hosts a pop-up shop on the Coral Gables Campus to provide free clothing and accessories, while also collecting donations.

Were seeing so many more people on campus this year, said Coon, a native of Sharon, Connecticut. Its been so great. Weve got over 400 donations last week, and were seeing about 200 people at the stand every week.

There are many reasons why thriftingwhich means shopping at a thrift store or a place where gently used, discounted items are soldhas become a viable option to finding clothes that are generally more expressive, unique, and affordable than what many larger corporations make available today. According to Coon, one of the main reasons are to combat the harmful effects of fast fashion, which refers to low-quality trendy attire that is likely rapidly designed and manufactured in high volumes.

Fast fashion for a very long time was not seen as a huge problem, but now people are seeing it, said Coon. Especially for college students, because we are so adamant to dress with trends and also find things that are super affordable. And those two things combined create a lot of problems.

Thrifting for college students gives the option to not only help the planet, but also to elongate the life of an article of clothing. Coon said she and her peers are cognizant of the long-term effects that supporting fast fashion has had on climate change thanks to information being shared on social media and spread amongst grassroot organizations like their ownand many of them want to be the ones to create change.

Fast fashion is more than just pollution and climate problems, said Coon. It also has a lot to do with equality issues.

For instance, Coon said with every purchase we make as consumers, we should question where the clothes are being made, if children are being forced to make the clothing, whether workers are being underpaid and underappreciated, and if the workers toil in conditions that are harmful to them.

To put this in perspective, textile dyeing in large quantities produces toxic chemicals that subsequently run off into the worlds oceans. Furthermore, more than 100 billion garments are produced each year, which is two times more than 15 years ago, according to thredUp, an online consignment platform. Additionally, the website notes that Buying one used item reduces its carbon, waste, and water footprints by 82 percent..

Among Gen Z and millennials, sustainable fashion is more than just a hot topic. Studies show that millennials prefer to buy clothing that helps the environment. And Gen Z currently makes up more than 40 percent of global consumers, according to Forbes. Retailers and corporations all over the world have reshaped their core values and market strategies to include more sustainable options, like recycled or plant-based materials and have reformed their production processes to be more environmentally friendly.

Phoebe Klein, UThrifts creative director and a senior studying creative advertising, designed an infographic with statistics that compare the life cycle assessment of products to share with students each time they donate through the organization. The groups overarching mission is to increase secondhand shopping in Miami-Dade County and to decrease new clothing production overall. So far, their efforts of sharing information and making others aware are making a great impact.

UThrift was originally established as a Student Government ECO Green Committee initiative in 2017. It hosted its first pop-up event in spring 2018 and was designated an official student organization by the Committee of Student Organization in spring 2020.

Growing from a small table in front of the Otto G. Richter Library in 2017 to a large, tented fixture at the weekly Well Canes Market in 2021, the student-led organization has come a long way. Today, the club has more than 70 members and volunteers and is looking for new members every day. The pop-up store has received more than 1,400 total donations this semester alone.

Danielle Houck, the organizations advisor and a senior lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she is impressed and proud of the organizations commitment to sharing its sustainable fashion vision with the campus community.

They have shown incredible initiative and leadership since their inception, said Houck, who has been at the University for more than 20 years and teaches writing studies. Thanks to UThrifts efforts, UM students have learned about the climate footprint of fast fashion and changed their consumer choices.

Students of Houcks have shared with her their love for the planet and how purchasing secondhand is their own way of making an immediate and deliberate effort to do their part.

Its amazing to see how such a young club is making such a positive impact on our campus, said Houck. With their programming, where they are hosting workshops on how to sew buttons and save their outfits. Its amazing to see.

To continue their sustainability efforts on the Coral Gables Campus, students and faculty and staff members are invited to join UThrift on Oct. 20 for their Swap & Strut: Re-use the Runway Fashion Show that begins at 4:30 p.m. The event will take place on the Lakeside Patio and Stage.

For more information about the organization, contact uthrift.contact@gmail.com or follow the club on Instagram @um_uthrift.
Low-tax Ireland awaits OECD overhaul on global tax

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said he had focused on Ireland's opposition to a rate of "at least" 15%. Photo: AFP

Ireland expects to receive an updated text of the OECD's proposed overhaul of global corporate tax rules in the coming days in a "critical moment" for negotiations, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Wednesday.



Ireland, the low-tax European headquarters for a number of the world's largest multinationals, has so far declined to sign up to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agreement struck by over 130 of 139 negotiating countries.



The EU member state, which has a corporate tax rate of just 12.5%, has focused its criticism on the agreement's proposed minimum rate of "at least" 15%.



Agreement on the issue will be sought among all negotiating countries at an OECD meeting on October 8, Donohoe told journalists at a briefing on Wednesday.



"I do expect next week will be a critical moment for the negotiations that have been underway for years and will show whether an agreement is possible by the end of next week, Donohoe said, adding that it was too soon to say if Irish concerns would be addressed.



Donohoe was speaking after a meeting of G7 finance ministers that he attended in his role as president of the Eurogroup, the grouping of euro zone finance ministers. He said he was asked by his colleagues to put forward Ireland's position and said he had focused on Ireland's opposition to a rate of "at least" 15%.



Irish ministers have also said they are closely watching whether a deeply-divided US Congress will accept President Joe Biden's proposed tax increases before seeing whether a final agreement is possible.



"In order for this change to actually happen, everybody who is involved in this change wants confidence that everyone is going to move on it and that would be a concern for more than Ireland," Donohoe said when asked if Dublin would wait to see if Congress passes the measures before deciding its own position.



Agreement from Ireland, one of the countries that has benefited most from low corporate taxes - with multinational firms employing around one in eight workers there - would be a big boost for the project to impose a minimum global rate.



Ireland and other holdouts cannot block the proposed changes. (Reuters)
September 29, 2021





In 2019, the travel and tourism industry in the United States alone was valued at more than $1 trillion USD annually. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, however, the US travel industry declined by nearly 50% in that same year to some $679 billion. Of this economic downturn, domestic and international travel in the US dropped by some 34% and 76% respectively, with business-related travel alone declining by roughly 70% in 2020 over the year prior.







To further add to this, statistics from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) released in their annual 2020 economic impact report show that the COVID-19 pandemic directly correlated with massive financial losses to the global tourism and travel industry, with nearly $4.5 trillion USD in loses reported in 2020 over 2019. While both domestic and international data reports state that the travel industry is beginning to slowly recover from the economic impact resulting from the pandemicdue in part to both increased vaccination rates and relaxed restrictions for travelersmany of these travelers will begin to find that an increasing portion of the services, amenities, events and even destinations they were able to expect as regular offerings in past years are either no longer available or severely limited as global societies continue to recover from the pandemics fallout.

As a result, an increasing number of travelers are likely to turn to the myriad of digital apps and platforms that offer services that can be utilized in lieu of more traditional concierge services, such as travel arrangements, vehicle rentals, reservations for lodging and food, and information research on their planned destinations. One such platform travelers could utilize for these services is Bonder, the first location-based communication platform (LBCP) of its kind.

Not your typical concierge service

Founded by serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive strategist Scott Swanson, Bonders placement as an LBCP allows users of the platform to easily and quickly connect with like-minded individuals in their local community. Having launched only in February of 2021, Swansons original vision for the LBCP was to bridge connections between like-minded individuals looking to grow their personal and professional networks within their communities. For travelers looking to explore destinations they are not local to, however, Swansons app provides a unique opportunity to connect with locals in the communities of those destinations, positioning Bonder as a potential all-encompassing replacement for more traditional travel and concierge services.

There are so many social apps, said Swanson in a press release this past February following the initial release of Bonder. What evolves us beyond them? Our approach [with Bonder] is different. [Our] mentality is to provide tools that centralize the masses and help its users build VIP connections versus digital acquaintances.

Due to Bonders LBCP feature, this means that travelers using Swansons app will be able to connect with local people in the destinations they are planning to visit and utilize this network in order to better research and understand the community of their destination and what it offers to them. For example, if a Bonder user native to Los Angeles, California plans to visit Orlando, Florida, that user can reach out to individuals in their native LA community to ask questions or research what locations, restaurants, or tourist attractions would be best to visit in Orlando using Bonders Point, Click, and Message feature. Subsequently, that same user can connect to communities of individuals in Orlando upon their arrival to continue asking questions, conduct research on the area and its tourism offerings, and even build lasting relationships with locals in their destination.

A new way for travelers to connect and communicate

The impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the travel and tourism industry has helped spur the rise of what the industry refers to as the conscious traveler, or those who recognize the additional impact their travel plans and experiences havewhether as tourists or hostsand who take action to, advance the best possible outcomes for all, according to Planeta. To put it more simply, conscious travel is where exploration and empathy coincide with one another.

Because conscious travel emphasizes creating and fostering deeper and more meaningful connections with not only travel destinations but also the people local to and living in the communities of these destinations, Swanson and his LBCP app find themselves in a position to reap the benefits of a projected uptick in conscious travel (as well as conscious travelers).

Its important for people to understand that we are not another Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (News - Alert) , TikTok, Parler, or Clubhouse, Swanson told Influencive in an April 2021 interview. Were not competing with them[Bonder is] something that evolves us beyond that space and a platform that works to...create more meaningful human encounters.

By utilizing Bonder to connect with like-minded individuals in their planned destinations, a greater number of travelers will not only be able to conduct travel in more conscious ways, but also acknowledge the hard work of those individuals in other communities as potential hosts and guides. Since engaging with locals in communities of travel and tourist destinations is a key feature of Bonder as an LBCP platform, this will allow travelers using Bonder to remain mindful of where they travel, how they travel, and who they connect with throughout their journey.

Final Remarks

Indeed, Swansons vision for Bonder as the first LBCP of its kind poses the immense potential to create mutual value and benefits for its users. Rather than building an app that centers around creating individual followings, Swanson has created a platform poised to evolve into a true digital ecosystemone where empathy and understanding are held in higher regard than simple likes, comments, and shares.

For those looking to reignite their travel plans as societies continue to gradually reopen and lax restrictions on tourists, Bonder can serve both as an innovative replacement for more traditional concierge and other travel services while also allowing them to explore, connect, and bond with a greater number of like-minded individuals in the destinations they plan to visit.
Hes self-styled himself as raps MVP, but 50 Cent might also be Starzs MVP at this point, too.

The rapper-turned-actor-turned-producer born Curtis Jackson co-created and co-starred in the cable networks long-running drama Power, which aired for five highly successful seasons from 2014-2020 and is in the midst of launching four different Power Book spinoffs.

And this week Jackson premieres Black Mafia Family (BMF), a series he developed and executive produced about Demetrius Big Meech (Demetrius Flenory Jr., playing his father) and Terry Southwest T Flenory (Da'Vinchi), real-life brothers who launched a massive drug-trafficking (and eventual hip-hop promoting) empire out of Detroit in the late-1980s.

Them being brothers, it allowed me to focus on the family drama and to tell the story of the innocence of how they got caught at 15, that young age, where you wouldn't even technically be responsible for your actions at that point because you're a minor, Jackson tells Yahoo Entertainment during a recent virtual interview (watch above). You'll find a way to be sympathetic to the scenario when you see the details of it. You see human nature, you see how they make those decisions, how they end up on that path.

Black Mafia Family (Photo: Starz)

Though Jackson has launched empires on his own at this point, from his G-Unit rap label to Starz productions to about 50 other business ventures (and dating back to his early life as a drug dealer), he wont compare himself to the infamous BMF.

I think anyone who was had encounters with that lifestyle can identify with this entry level story, entry level positioning, but the levels that they grew to in that business they went past my board, he says.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Eminem at 50's Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony on January 30, 2020 in Hollywood, Calif. (Photo: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

BMF is also notable for marking the acting return of Eminem, 50 Cents longtime friend and musical collaborator. Save for some voice work and cameos in films like Funny People and The Interview, Eminem has barely acted since his acclaimed lead role in the semi-autobiographical 2002 film 8 Mile. In BMF, he plays White Boy Rick in an episode Jackson directs.

Story continues

When he heard I was directing it, he was like, Yeah, I'll do it, says Jackson, who also directed an episode of Power in 2019. This guy shows up at every stage of my career and in my life, shows up for me at the point that I just need him to show up I don't think it would have not worked if [he] didn't come and be a part of it. But he showed up and it's become one of the biggest highlights of me directing for the second time.

And that's just my guy. I don't care what he did If he hit somebody with a bus, I would be saying, No, he didn't do it Who saw the bus? Because someone else could have been driving the bus.

Black Mafia Family is currently streaming on Starz.

Watch the trailer:

 Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by Valerie Volpacchio
Sep. 29Air Force One on Sept. 11, 2001, sat waiting on the tarmac for then-President George W. Bush after a visit to Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where he was talking to a classroom full of second-graders.

In the pilot's seat was Col. Mark W. Tillman, who spoke of 9/11 during a Friends of Scouting fundraiser luncheon Tuesday at the Chattanooga Convention Center.

Tillman had seen a television report that a "light aircraft" had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center, he said. It's what everyone believed at first. Tillman told the crew to expect a presidential trip to New York because of the obvious loss of life there.

Then he got a phone call from the beige phone on board, used for classified communications.

"It's the relocation of the president of the United States," he told the luncheon crowd in Chattanooga. "The only time we're going to do this is when the country is under attack and we're going to war. It's all for the continuity of government."

Then Tillman got word a second plane had hit the other tower, and the shocking news was also relayed to Bush.

"At this point, significant events are starting to occur in the world," Tillman said. "[Chief of Staff] Andy Carr leans over and he talks to President Bush, and he lets him know that the country is under attack."

Air Force One was ready to move with the president aboard.

"We're ready to make things happen because we've accepted the president [on Air Force One]," Tillman said.

At that point, Bush was on the phone with Vice President Dick Cheney, who had "hunkered down" in a secret bunker. Cheney told Bush of preparations for him to also hunker down.

No dice.

"President Bush made the decision that he's not going to hunker down. Not a chance. A Texas man is not going to hide underground. He's going back into the fray," Tillman said. "Our plan of attack now is to get him back to Washington, D.C.  orders have changed."

Story continues

Bush was leaving the school when Tillman and company learned a plane crashed in Washington.

Time compressed and available information was confused and inaccurate. It had been less than an hour since the first plane struck.

"As he starts toward us, the fog of war starts to happen," Tillman said. "We're told a truck bomb has blown up the Pentagon, numerous car bombs have gone off in the Capitol area."

For Tillman, it's unreasonable to return to Washington, now a war zone, but that's what Bush wants.

All four engines on Air Force One were ready as Bush stepped on board, and minutes later Tillman was flying the president over the Gulf of Mexico.

The plan still was to return to Washington.

Air Force One's 47 phone lines, because of the amount of phone traffic, were reduced to three, while the plane's loudspeakers carried the conversation between Bush and Cheney because everyone had to hear the discussion as everything was happening so quickly.

"The vice president lets him know that of all the hijacked aircraft, there's only one now that's still suspect and that's over the Ohio Valley," Tillman said. "It's Flight 93, United 93."

Cheney asked Bush for "shoot-down authority" for the aircraft, he said.

Permission granted.

The next thing they heard was Flight 93 was down.

"We assumed we've shot down our own people," Tillman said.

There were no signs of life. They would learn later a group of passengers stormed the cockpit before it could reach the capital.

They headed for an Air Force base in Louisiana as Air Force One was named the next target and fighter and radar planes were needed for escort, he said.

"Within minutes Houston Center comes alive on our frequency," he said. "Air Force One, Air Force One you have fast-movers at your 7-o'clock."

Unidentified fighter planes were supersonic, headed toward the president's plane and fighter escorts hadn't been requested yet.

Who are they?

"Air Force One, Air Force One," Tillman recounted, using his best Texas accent to imitate the fighter pilot. "We're flying two F-16s, we're your cover."

Tillman called it "the best radio call ever."

Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana was the next stop, but Bush was determined to get back.

"'Tillman. Time to get home. Now,'" Bush told him.

"Everybody's in the plane and we are hauling across America doing about .92 Mach," Tillman said.

"As we descended into Washington, D.C., we overflew the Pentagon and you can actually see damage. The Pentagon is smoldering," he said.

But even as smoke still rose from the ruins at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Air Force One returned safely to the nation's capital. The president was able to address a shattered nation that evening that would never be the same.

The country, in hindsight, might have done better, Tillman said.

But a positive, if one can be found, was that the country unified in the face of tragedy.

"America came together on Sept. 11," Tillman said. "Everywhere we went, America stood strong. Sons, daughters, youngsters were out there chanting, 'U.S.A., U.S.A.'"

"If I could change anything right now, it would be to make everybody understand that it doesn't matter what color or what ethnicity you are, it's time to get back together again," he said.

Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton.
Afghans waiting to withdraw cash on August 15. Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

Afghanistan's central bank drained most of its cash reserves before the country fell to the Taliban.

The central bank moved money from Kabul to provincial branches and auctioned off US dollars.

The Taliban has been unable to get its hands on the central bank's almost $10 billion in reserves

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Afghanistan's central bank drained most of its US dollar cash reserves before the country fell to the Taliban last month, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

In a confidential review for the Afghanistan's international donors, reviewed by the news agency, economic officials from organizations like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank said the country's financial woes began weeks before the Taliban takeover.

By the time that Kabul fell to the militant group, the central bank owed hundreds of millions to the commercial banks, the report said, and auctioned off US dollars.

The bank also moved money from Kabul to provincial branches, and some of that money ended up getting stolen, the report said.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's banking system is close to collapsing, the head of one of the country's biggest lenders said.

Syed Moosa Kaleem Al-Falahi, the chief executive of the Islamic Bank of Afghanistan, told the BBC that Afghanistan's financial industry was dealing with an "existential crisis."

He said customers were panicking after the Taliban takeover and Western nations and agencies froze the country's funds in response.

The Taliban has been unable to get its hands on the Afghan central bank's almost $10 billion in reserves, Insider previously reported.

Most of the central bank's $9.5 billion in assets, some of which are held in New York, were frozen by the US in August after the Afghan government collapsed. Without the money, the Taliban lacks sufficient funding.

Read the original article on Business Insider
South Africa's beleaguered national airline has signed a cooperation agreement with its Kenyan counterpart, with the long-term aim to create a pan-African airline, it said Wednesday.

South African Airways (SAA) recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings and flew its first plane since March 2020 last week.

"SAA is signing a memorandum of cooperation with Kenya Airways, a welcome and strategic partnership with a longer-term view to co-starting a pan-African airline group," its spokeswoman Vimla Maistry told AFP.

She said the next step would be for both parties to "further discuss the memorandum", noting that they were still exploring possible collaboration at this stage.

Once Africa's second-largest airline after Ethiopian Airlines, SAA had survived for decades on government bailouts and was shedding routes even before the pandemic hit.

It emerged from business rescue in May, after slashing hundreds of jobs and slimming its fleet from 46 to six planes.

The airline has so far resumed domestic and regional services.

cld-sch/gs/lth
The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But one can do better than that by picking better than average stocks (as part of a diversified portfolio). For example, the Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) share price is up 67% in the last 1 year, clearly besting the market return of around 30% (not including dividends). So that should have shareholders smiling. In contrast, the longer term returns are negative, since the share price is 7.6% lower than it was three years ago.

Since it's been a strong week for Alaska Air Group shareholders, let's have a look at trend of the longer term fundamentals.

View our latest analysis for Alaska Air Group

While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During the last year Alaska Air Group saw its earnings per share (EPS) drop below zero. While some may see this as temporary, we're a skeptical bunch, and so we're a little surprised to see the share price go up. We might get a clue to explain the share price move by looking to other metrics.

Alaska Air Group's revenue actually dropped 43% over last year. So using a snapshot of key business metrics doesn't give us a good picture of why the market is bidding up the stock.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think Alaska Air Group will earn in the future (free profit forecasts).

A Different Perspective

Story continues

It's nice to see that Alaska Air Group shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 67% over the last year. There's no doubt those recent returns are much better than the TSR loss of 0.9% per year over five years. We generally put more weight on the long term performance over the short term, but the recent improvement could hint at a (positive) inflection point within the business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Alaska Air Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Alaska Air Group (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) you should know about.

Alaska Air Group is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
Algeria on Wednesday started producing the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese firm Sinovac, with production expected to be eight million doses a month.

Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane, who attended the launch of the production process at a factory in the eastern city of Constantine, called it a "big achievement".

Production could be doubled in the North African nation if needed, officials said.

"Algeria... aims to achieve other projects of this kind," Benabderrahmane said, praising the country's pharmaceutical industry.

Lotfi Djamel Benbahmed, Algeria's minister for the pharmaceutical industry, has said the country plans to export the vaccines.

He said Saidal, the firm making the jabs, was so far the only African company to be licenced to produce the jab.

Following a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in past months, Algeria has seen a drop in recent weeks.

Algeria, the biggest African nation by size, announced this month a campaign to vaccinate some 70 percent of its 44 million population by the end of the year.

abh/ezz/par/pjm
By Yadarisa Shabong and Sachin Ravikumar

(Reuters) -AstraZeneca will take full control of Caelum Biosciences in a deal worth up to $500 million, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, sharpening its focus on rare-disease drugs following its purchase of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

The deal gives AstraZeneca access to another potentially lucrative rare disease drug that is undergoing late-stage trials and has a "fast track" status for regulatory review in the United States.

New Jersey-based Caelum will become part of AstraZeneca's Alexion division, the rare diseases specialist it bought for $39 billion earlier this year.

Alexion will pay $150 million to buy the remaining stake it does not already own in Caelum and make future payments of up to $350 million, depending on milestones achieved. Alexion took a minority stake in Caelum in 2019.

Caelum's drug candidate aims to treat AL amyloidosis, a rare, life-threatening disease that damages the heart and kidneys and affects an estimated 20,000 people across six Western countries.

The disease causes abnormal proteins called amyloids to build up in human organs and disrupt their normal function. Caelum's drug is a type of monoclonal antibody that binds to amyloid deposits to reduce or remove them and improve organ function.

"With a median survival time of less than 18 months following diagnosis, there is an urgent need for new treatments for this devastating disease," Alexion CEO Marc Dunoyer said in a statement.

Since buying Alexion, AstraZeneca has had mixed fortunes with rare disease drugs under development. While it reported promising results from trials of a Wilson's disease drug, it abandoned trials for an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug after it failed to show efficacy.

Shares in AstraZeneca were up 2.2% by 0900 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, in line with the broader market.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Sachin Ravikumar in BengaluruEditing by Ramakrishnan M. and Mark Potter)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday it was the State Departments call not to begin evacuating U.S. citizens and Special Immigrant Visa holders sooner and more rapidly, which ultimately resulted in a chaotic airlift at the Kabul airport after the Taliban takeover, with potentially hundreds of U.S. citizens and tens of thousands of Afghan allies left behind.

The Pentagon chief made the revelation during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, when Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, pressed him on why the United States didnt begin getting American citizens and SIV holders out sooner. Austin suggested that the Pentagon had wanted to get Americans out earlier but said it wasnt the Department of Defenses decision to make.

The call on how to do that and when to do it is really a State Department call. We provided input  to the State Department, Austin said. Their concerns were, rightfully, that, No. 1, they were being cautioned by the Ghani administration that if they withdrew American citizens and SIV applicants at a pace that was too fast, it would cause a collapse of the government that we were trying to prevent.

Austin continued: And when you also add into the calculus that the SIV process was at that point very slow  we provided our input and we certainly wouldve liked to have seen it go faster or sooner, but again, they had a number of things to think through as well.

Langevin also pushed Austin on why the U.S. chose to withdraw its forces in the summer of 2021, at the height of the Taliban fighting season, rather than waiting until the winter of 2022, when the Taliban could potentially be weaker. Austin replied that it was Bidens decision.

MILITARY LEADERS WARN OF AL QAEDA REEMERGENCE

In terms of why we chose to  why the president chose to leave in the summer versus waiting until the next year, obviously a number of things went into his decision calculus, but as we came on board, the agreement that had been made was that we were going to depart by May 1, Austin said in reference to the withdrawal date the Trump administration agreed to with the Taliban in the February 2020 Doha agreement. We were able to work to get more time to ensure that we could conduct a deliberate and safe and orderly retrograde, but again, we, we  the president made the decision that we would leave in the summer.

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The GOP has repeatedly pointed out that the chaotic withdrawal had serious consequences, including a deadly ISIS-K terrorist attack, American citizens and Afghan allies left behind, and potentially unvetted Afghans allowed into the U.S.

Biden was asked on July 8 whether there were any parallels between the exit from Afghanistan and the end of the Vietnam War.

None whatsoever. Zero, Biden said, adding, The Taliban is not the South  the North Vietnamese army. Theyre not  theyre not remotely comparable in terms of capability. Theres going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the  of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

But on Aug. 31, after the U.S. evacuation in Afghanistan ended and U.S. forces had left, the president argued such chaos was inevitable.

Now, some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and Couldnt this have be done  have been done in a more orderly manner? I respectfully disagree, Biden said. Imagine if we had begun evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a breakdown in confidence and control of the government, and it still would have been a very difficult and dangerous mission.

He claimed, The bottom line is: There is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, and threats we faced. None.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, State Department, Lloyd Austin, Joe Biden, Afghanistan

Original Author: Jerry Dunleavy

Original Location: Austin says it was State Department's 'call' not to evacuate US citizens from Afghanistan sooner
Australia expects to ease international border restrictions for nationals next month.

The new travel policy will allow fully vaccinated Australian citizens and residents in states with a vaccination rate of at least 80% to travel overseas. Travelers who have received an approved vaccine will need to undergo a seven-day home quarantine period upon their return.

Australians will be able to prove their vaccination status with a QR code that is globally recognizable.

"It's time to give Australians their lives back," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during a Friday press briefing. "We've saved lives. We've saved livelihoods. But, we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country."

Leaving the country is still off the table for unvaccinated residents and citizens unless they qualify for an exemption. The vaccine requirement does not apply to those under 12 and people cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

 Travel bans: How COVID-19 travel restrictions have impacted families and couples

Australia implemented one of the worlds strictest controls on overseas incoming and outgoing travel since the pandemic began in 2020. Even movement between states for Australians is restricted.

Hundreds of thousands have failed to reach relatives death beads, missed funerals or weddings and have yet to be introduced to grandchildren because of restrictions aimed at keeping COVID-19 out of Australia.

"I do empathize with the Australians who have been denied the opportunity to travel overseas this year  it's another reason why everyone should get vaccinated and we have to stick to the national plan that will see our international border open up  at this rate by Christmas at the latest," Dan Tehan, Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, said during a National Press Club address last month.

Australia's current travel restrictions also limit the number of citizens and permanent residents allowed to return each week and have left about 45,000 people stranded overseas. Under the new regime, the cap would only apply to the unvaccinated, who would still face a 14-day quarantine period at a hotel upon return.

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The country plans to work toward quarantine-free travel for certain countries such as New Zealand "when it is safe to do so," Morrison said. Australia has its closest relationship with New Zealand, whose citizens are considered Australian permanent residents. The neighbors allowed quarantine-free travel across the Tasman Sea before the delta variant outbreak began in Sydney in June.

New South Wales would likely become the first state to reach the 80% vaccination benchmark and Sydneys airport the first to open to international travel, Morrison said. Sydney-based Qantas Airways announced international flights would resume from Nov. 14 to London and Los Angeles.

Australia on Friday also added Chinas Sinovac and Indian-made AstraZeneca shots known as Covishield to a list of vaccines that Australians can take and be recognized as fully vaccinated.

Column: What does the extreme COVID lockdown in Australia really look like? My family is living it.

Come explore with us: Subscribe to our Travel newsletter

Story continues below.

Can U.S. travelers visit Australia?

Australias borders are currently closed to all travelers. Entry to the country remains only available for those who are exempt (e.g. travelers escorting Australian citizens or permanent resident minors) or have been granted an individual exemption.

Exempted travelers from the U.S. need to provide a negative COVID-19 test, must quarantine and undergo health screening procedures in place at airports and other ports of entry.

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs website says the country is working "towards welcoming tourists back to (its) shores."

The Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents a sector that made 45 billion Australian dollars ($33 billion) a year from international tourists before the pandemic, said the end of the travel ban paved the way for visitors from around the world returning by March.

"It marks a shift in thinking within both the government and community sentiment to reengaging with the world, the council's managing director Peter Shelley said in a statement.

Which EU countries are open to US tourists?: A breakdown of EU travel restrictions by country

The U.S. Department of State assigned Australia a level 3 status on Sept. 13, urging travelers to reconsider because of COVID-19-related restrictions.

Australia reported nearly 49,000 COVID-19 cases in the past 28 days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Travel from Australia: International borders set to reopen in November
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President Joe Biden canceled his trip to Chicago this week to stay in Washington to haggle with lawmakers over the administration's two large legislative priorities, a White House official said Tuesday.

"In meetings and calls over the weekend and through today, President Biden has been engaging with members of Congress on the path forward for the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal," the official said. "He will now remain at the White House tomorrow to continue working on advancing these two pieces of legislation to create jobs, grow the economy and make investments in families, rather than failed giveaways to the rich and big corporations."

The White House official said it was important for Biden to stay behind because of the progress the administration believes is being made on the two packages. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., signaled this week that she was confident that the infrastructure bill would be passed this week, but progressive Democrats have threatened to block the legislation to maximize their leverage over a separate multitrillion-dollar budget package.

Biden spoke Monday with Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The White House said the three leaders "agreed on the need to continue work on advancing the two pieces of legislation that represent the President's vision."

The House is expected to vote Thursday on an infrastructure bill, which had originally been scheduled for a vote on Monday.

Pelosi told Democrats on Monday that passage of the $550 billion infrastructure bill must not wait for Biden's $3.5 trillion safety net bill, saying the larger package is not yet ready for a vote, particularly because it has not passed the Senate.

In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi said the party must "make difficult choices," because the dynamics have changed and Democrats have not yet agreed to a spending level, NBC News reported.

The battle over the $3.5 trillion price tag centers on Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrist Democrats who have insisted that it be reduced. But they have not named their price, which has led to protracted negotiations.

The White House official said Biden will reschedule his trip to Chicago, where he had planned to discuss the "ongoing importance of getting people vaccinated."
A fair investigation into the actions that mounted Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, took to prevent Haitian migrants from illegally entering the United States earlier this month is not possible, allies and advocates for the agents say.

The agency opened an investigation into the agents after images of them pursuing migrants on horseback led to mistaken speculation that they whipped the border-crossers. President Joe Biden and members of his administration condemned the agents.

It is impossible to believe a fair and impartial investigation can and will take place after the President pronounced the agents guilty, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner Tuesday.

BORDER LANDOWNER'S 20,000-ACRE HUNTING GROUNDS BECOME HUMAN SMUGGLERS' PARADISE

Its going to be very difficult, said Chad Wolf, who preceded Alejandro Mayorkas as acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

Customs and Border Protections Office of Professional Responsibility "will do a professional job, but those are people just like you and me, and they're influenced by what their superiors say and do, Wolf said. When you have the president, the vice president, and Mayorkas saying very negative things towards those pictures  in those photos, it absolutely influences the investigation. Does it influence it to an extent that it's compromised? That's difficult to say, but it certainly has an impact and in a negative way.

Biden claimed people [were] being strapped in an outrageous way and vowed, Those people will pay.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Border Patrol agents  who attempted to keep people crossing the Rio Grande from Acuna, Mexico, into Texas  had used brutal and inappropriate measures."

President Biden, Vice President Harris, Press Secretary Jen Psaki and DHS Secretary Mayorkas played politics with the lives of US Citizens who happen to be members of the Border Patrols Horse Patrol Unit, Judd wrote in an email. Without the benefit of facts from a full investigation, they allowed the liberal media to dictate their outlandish 'defund the police' rhetoric. President Biden and his team are proving they are willing to destroy the lives of innocent US citizens if it is politically expedient for him.

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Wolf disagreed with statements from Troy Miller, the temporary leader of CBP since January with no experience as a Border Patrol agent, and Mayorkas. Miller called the photos terrible in an email to employees.

Mayorkas admitted last week that although he said he was horrified by the images, he reacted without having seen the images before. In a post on Twitter a week later, after the photographer who took the photos spoke out in defense of the Border Patrol, Mayorkas defended his initial remarks.

His comments were the thing that struck me as being very inappropriate because obviously, he works very closely with the Border Patrol. He's been down to the border several times, Wolf said about Mayorkas. He knows what it takes to do that job. He sits in meetings every day with CBP officials. These are the same officials that in one way or another will be overseeing the investigation, so his comments alone were very, very troubling.

Mark Morgan, former deputy assistant director for the FBIs internal affairs office and acting assistant commissioner for CBPs internal affairs office, said investigators are up against their superiors' comments concluding the agents were at serious fault before an investigation.

I've been in situations where leadership has already acted as judge, jury, executioner, Morgan said. "That puts tremendous pressure on the investigators. Importantly, that puts pressure on the leadership that's driving these investigations.

Wolf said Mayorkas ought to have said something to explain who the mounted agents are, what they trained to do, and that it appeared they did their job  but also ensure an investigation into their actions will be carried out. Instead, the entire mounted agent unit in Del Rio was taken off horse duty.

The top Border Patrol official at DHS, CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner Benjamine "Carry" Huffman, did not return a request for comment.

Judd said the agents merely performed the job that Biden and senior administration officials had given them.

Those ... agents performed the duties the President sent them to do! If anyone is guilty, its the President himself, Judd wrote.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

If Border Patrol agents are disciplined or terminated, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, offered to hire them immediately.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, DHS, Border Patrol, Biden Administration

Original Author: Anna Giaritelli

Original Location: Biden condemnation makes fair investigation into Border Patrol agents 'impossible,' allies say
Bolivias coca farmers are battling for control of their main market in the highland city of La Paz.

A fire broke out near where protesters and police clashed on Monday, with both sides blaming each other.

Farmers from the nearby Yungas region are at odds over the leadership of the body that runs the huge market for coca.

Its the raw ingredient for cocaine, but many in the Andes chew it to ward off the effects of high altitude or brew into teas.

There're two factions of farmers in this fight, one around the government-backed head of the coca management body Adepcoca, Arnold Alanes.

The other side supports government critic Armin Lluta who says the ruling party and former president Evo Morales is trying to seize greater control of the trade.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the Yungas region produces and trades some $200 million of coca a year in the local market, most of it through illicit channels.

A coca grower said that conditions were tough for farmers who have stoked unrest.

"How much do we harvest from a coca plot? In cold weather we don't harvest much. It's not enough for our family.

Alanes told a group of coca growers on Tuesday that he had been elected by farmers themselves and said hes trying to stamp out corruption in the market.

Some protest leaders have called for his replacement.
(Getty Images)

Police in Florida have admitted they didnt see Brian Laundrie when they went to his parents home on 11 September, raising questions about when the missing suspect was last at the house.

North Port Police seized a van belonging to Gabby Petito from the Laundrie family home that evening after she was reported missing by her mother Nichole Schmidt.

Spokesman Josh Taylor told media on Wednesday police didnt spot Mr Laundrie that night.

His parents have told authorities he left the house on 14 September to go hiking in the nearby Carlton Reserve, but didnt report him missing until three days later.

The Laundrie familys movements are being freshly scrutinised after it emerged they went camping at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County on 6 September.
Britney Spears has many reasons to rejoice after she secured a huge win in her ongoing quest to dissolve her 13-year conservatorship as the court ruled her father Jamie P. Spears is to be suspended at once.

"Suspension is in the best interests of Britney Spears," Judge Brenda Penny told the court en masse. "The current situation is not tenable," she added.

The judge also ordered control of all of Spears' assets to be turned over to a court-appointed temporary conservator  a certified public accountant named John Zabel. Judge Penny further maintained that her ruling is not appealable.

Some 200 to 300 #FreeBritney supporters of all ages gathered outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, California to voice their support for the singer. Under a huge police presence that blocked the street, chants outside the court echoed for Judge Penny to "do the right thing" in freeing Spears from the thumb of her fathers control "now."

BRITNEY SPEARS FLIES PROP PLANE IN FIRST POST SINCE DAD IS SUSPENDED FROM CONSERVATORSHIP: 'ON CLOUD 9'

Spears had been clamoring for years in and out of court all in strategically concerted efforts to oust her father from his longtime post as conservator of her estate. She revealed the restrictions she's been living under during a bombshell court hearing in June. The "Gimme More" singer claimed she was not allowed to remove her contraception device or get married.

Spears attorney, former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, has produced results for the performer since he took the helm in mid-July.

Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears has been in control of her finances since 2008 after she underwent series of involuntary holds. Getty

During Wednesday's hearing, the judge heard lengthy arguments from the primary lawyers representing Britney and Jamie Spears.

Rosengart said Spears "wants, needs and deserves an orderly transition" and further argued that Spears "has been abused by this man for the last decade and since her childhood."

"Britney Spears testified under oath about James Spears cruelty and toxic presence in her life," he told the judge. "Theres a mountain of evidence mandating his suspension."

Story continues

'BRITNEY VS SPEARS': 5 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE DOCUMENTARY

Rosengart also made repeated references to the recent FX and New York Times documentary and twice floated the idea that Jamie Spears could be subject to criminal investigations based on what was reported.

"Hell have to answer for that," Rosengart said. "Imagine the traumatic impact on her having to sleep in the same bedroom that her father had allegedly tried to bug."

Meanwhile, Jamies attorney, Vivian Thoreen spoke on his behalf via Zoom conference and asked the court to bypass the suspension and appointment of a temporary conservator in favor of immediately beginning the conservation termination process.

"It makes no sense to delay," she said, adding that suspension makes "zero sense."

She also defended James Spears' record handing the estate as "impeccable" over the past 13 years.

BRITNEY SPEARS' FATHER, JAMIE, FILES PETITION TO END HER CONSERVATORSHIP

Regarding the recent FX and Times report that was part of the most recent court filing from Rosengart on behalf of Spears, Thoreen broadly disputed its contents and told the court "this is not evidence. It isnt even verified."

Thoreen further questioned the testimony that Spears offered the court twice over the summer.

"She wasnt crossed examined," Thoreen argued, before lamenting "we dont know the veracity of her testimony."

Following the hearing, Rosengart exited the courthouse to cheers from the large crowd gathered outside and fielded questions from reporters about what Jamie and the public can expect in the coming months.

Spears birthday is Dec. 2 and a common theme among supporters was the idea of seeing their pop queen "free by 40."

BRITNEY SPEARS IN NO RUSH TO WED SAM ASGHARI AFTER OVERDUE ENGAGEMENT: REPORT

"Jamie and others are going to face even more serious ramifications for his misconduct," said Rosengart.

Asked if Jamie will be charged over alleged listening devices, the litigator kicked that answer to law enforcement, however, he did maintain that: "one question we will ask [Jamies] reps is what did they know and when did they know it about eavesdropping listening devices under her bed in her bedroom something that is very, very troubling but thats for law enforcement, not me to make the ultimate conclusion."

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California briefly touched on the ruling during a press event in which he was asked about the mental health and the homeless issues plaguing the state.

"Ive signed a half dozen bills on that legislature" he said, "These arent easy bills when it comes to conservatorships and I dont have to bring up the obvious which is the international headline.

BRITNEY SPEARS' FORMER BUSINESS MANAGER LOU TAYLOR: 5 THINGS TO KNOW

"Please dont ask me that question as important as it may be," he said before quipping that the Spears decision "may be the only thing you run tonight  just me saying dont ask me that question."

"The issue is a challenging one  the 5150 issues, coercions, the treatmentwhats that spectrum" he added. "It goes to the fundamental issue of individual liberties which is at the heart of the issues."

Since working on behalf of Spears to end her conservatorship, Rosengart has managed to get Jamie to at least attest in a court of law, his intention to step away as estate conservator once a proper succession plan is in place. Spears has even gotten engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Sam Asghari, in the months since Rosengart made his mark on the case.

As recently as Aug. 31, Rosengart filed court paperwork demanding Jamie remove himself as conservator immediately and argued that Jamie had been trying to hold his daughter "hostage" as he draws out his exit.

BRITNEY SPEARS AND HER FATHER JAMIE'S RELATIONSHIP IS 'COMPLICATED BUT MENDABLE': SOURCE

"Mr. Spears was forced to concede in his August 12, 2021 First Response to Britney Spearss Petition to remove him that he must depart -- and his departure is now inexorable," Rosengart told Fox News in a statement at the time, maintaining that Spears wants her father to remove himself as conservator  without his $2 million payment request  immediately or risk court suspension.

"As we wrote in our new filing with the Court, however, the quid pro quo preconditions that Mr. Spearss sought in his August 12, 2021 court filing are inappropriate and unacceptable," he continued, adding, "Britney Spears will not be bullied or extorted by her father."

Spears camp has consistently claimed that Jamie is seeking some $2 million on his way out  a portion of which is likely to land in the hands of his attorneys and her former business manager, Tri-Star.

Furthermore, on Monday, Rosengart again argued to the court that Jamie shouldnt have any say over who he feels is the right fit to replace him as temporary conservator of Spears estate after Jamie filed an objection to Rosengart's request to appoint John Zabel to replace him.

BRITNEY SPEARS SHARES MESSAGE ABOUT BEING CONTROLLED, MANIPULATED AMID FIGHT FOR FREEDOM FROM CONSERVATORSHIP

Jamie went on to say that Zabel "should be denied" as a replacement conservator and claimed that the court has "been provided little to no information" about Zabel, calling him "apparently a stranger to this Court." His legal team claims Zabel is "not a licensed fiduciary."

"Third, based upon what is known about Mr. Zabel, he does not appear to have the background and experience required to take over a complex, $60 million (approx.) conservatorship estate on a temporary or immediate basis," Jamie said in his filing. "Ms. Spears' counsel does not even provide information as to whether Mr. Zabel could get bonded."

His last reason for objecting Zabel as a potential shoo-in is that he's "not well suited" to manage the estate as "he was scammed out of over one million of his own money in a fraudulent real investment project, despite being referred to as a highly qualified certified public accountant with substantial experience in finance."

However, Rosengart didnt take the bait and quickly issued a retort in his own filing.

BRITNEY SPEARS' MEDICATION WAS ALLEGEDLY INCREASED WHILE FILMING 'X FACTOR,' NETFLIX DOC CLAIMS

"This is also true regarding [Jamies] counsels latest filing, "Objections" to the successor Conservator of the Estate," Rosengart writes. "As Mr. Spears should know, California law expressly allows licensed CPAs to serve, and the nominee, John Zabel, is a highly-esteemed, nationally-recognized award-winning CPA with an impeccable record of serving in positions of trustin stark contrast to Mr. Spears, a reported alcoholic and gambling addict, with zero financial background or experience in financial matters, who previously filed for bankruptcy and has a Domestic Violence Restraining Order currently in effect against him. Mr. Zabel will also be supported by Ms. Spearss business management and forensic accounting teams."

Rosengart adds: "Mr. Spearss desperation to avoid suspension is self-evident and self-serving. He wants to escape justice and accountability (but will not) and he will evidently do or say anything to avoid it. He knows that when he is suspended he must turn over the conservatorship files, including purported attorney-client privileged documents (communications with his lawyers), to the new temporary conservator."

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Jamie has been in control of Spears' finances since 2008 after the pop star underwent a series of involuntary holds. Spears has been locked in a court battle with Jamie over the past years as she's worked to get control of her life back.

It now appears she will.

Spears' next hearing is on Nov. 12 and should see the judge rule on whether or not the conservatorship is dissolved completely.
Salmon in a river. Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images

The students at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, have stepped up to save endangered coho salmon.

In 1993, the school built a large hatchery on campus, where students typically raise steelhead trout. Because of California's drought, the water became too warm for 4,000 endangered coho salmon at a Lake Sonoma hatchery, and they were moved to Casa Grande, where the tanks can be kept at an optimal temperature for the fish.

Manfred Kittel of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told The San Francisco Chronicle he was impressed by the quality of the program and "professionalism" of science teacher Dan Hubacker, who oversees the hatchery, and his students. Before students are allowed to participate in the program, they must take a conservation and biology class and pass two safety tests. It's a full-time job taking care of the fish, with students coming in on the weekends to feed them.

This is the first time Casa Grande has had the chance to rescue an endangered species, and the students are up for the challenge. "We have this opportunity to save coho salmon, to see that we can do it, if people put their minds to it," Kate Carlson, 17, told the Chronicle.

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Pro-Trump protesters attack the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A Capitol rioter who said she wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi has taken a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one misdemeanor.

According to the criminal complaint against her, Dawn Bancroft, 59, filmed a video of herself as she was leaving the Capitol on 6 January, saying, We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin brain but we didnt find her.

After a tipster sent FBI agents the video, Bancroft was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, parading in a Capitol building, and two counts of disorderly conduct.

On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty only to the parading charge, a misdemeanor that carries a prison sentence of up to six months. Its a deal that prosecutors have offered numerous defendants as the number of people charged in the insurrection rises past 600 .

At the hearing, District Judge Emmet Sullivan asked prosecutors why they were dropping the other charges, considering Bancrofts violent language.

Thats really troubling. Its horrible. Its outrageous, Judge Sullivan said, according to CNN . Does it not rise to the level of a threat? Prosecutors explained that since Bancroft said the words on her way out of the Capitol, it would be hard to prove she meant them. Bancroft herself insisted that she did not.

I said it in a jovial way, she said. We were joking and laughing on the way back to the train. It was a dumb, stupid comment. I did not mean it.

She also apologised for her actions.

I would like to accept my responsibility for what I did, for my part in January 6, she said.

Judge Sullivan told her he would have more to say at her sentencing.

I understand you were leaving the Capitol, he told Bancroft. I understand the governments logic in not prosecuting you... but I dont want to, in any way, minimize the very troubling nature of a pretty outrageous statement.

Bancrofts sentencing is scheduled for 25 January.

Read More

Jan. 6 trials slowed by mounting evidence in US Capitol riot

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White House knocks back Trump plan to assert executive privilege to avoid having his role in Capitol riot scrutinised
Evergrande could be evading a full-scale social media firestorm due to positive messaging being pushed by Weibo-based stock market influencers intent on reassuring their audience of Evergrande's stability. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Real-estate giant Evergrande is teetering on the verge of collapse, but has managed to fly below the radar on Chinese social media for over a week.

This might be due to positive messages about the company being pushed on Weibo comment threads - akin to subreddits - penned by stock market influencers and analysts.

An expert told Insider that these messages could be helping to quell discontent and pacify investors less in-the-know about Evergrande.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

The financial troubles of Chinese real-estate juggernaut Evergrande are likely far from over, but social media influencers in China may be helping to calm the storm.

Evergrande has more than $305 billion in liabilities - more than any other company in the world, per Markets Insider. Its failure to pay off its debts has caused jitters across Asian and international markets, prompting some analysts to term it China's "Lehman Brothers moment."

That Evergrande Chairman Xu Jiayin remains immensely wealthy amid Evergrande's financial struggles has angered Chinese social media users on the country's Twitter-like platform, Weibo. Weibo users were up in arms about a letter Xu sent to employees on September 21 that said the company would soon "walk out of the darkness" and encouraged staff to rally and work hard to make that happen.

Insider saw the Evergrande-letter topic thread, which is comparable to a subreddit, rake in more than 100,000 comments within the first 30 minutes of it being posted. Some posters on the topic thread called Xu "delusional" and even accused him of cheating workers of their paychecks.

However, in the week since that letter was published, Xu and Evergrande have managed to avoid being listed on Weibo's top trends, suggesting that chatter about the company has dropped off.

That may be, in part, thanks to a concerted campaign by prominent Chinese financial influencers to quell the panic.

Story continues

Positive news about Evergrande is being pushed by stock market influencers

Social influencers like Chu Di Shao Zhu (left) were seen praising Evergrande chairman Xu on Weibo and pushing optimistic messages about Evergrande's financial state. In the meantime, a topic thread on Xu continues to garner much interest, with an average of a million comments being posted on the chairman every day. Screengrab/Weibo

Weibo finance influencers provide financial advice to their followers and post periodic updates on the stock market

One Weibo topic thread created by three stock-market influencers garnered around four million clicks at press time. Titled "Evergrande settles with Guangfa Bank," the thread appears to push the false message that Evergrande has fully settled on a repayment schedule with all the banks to which it owes billions of dollars. This is only half-true - Evergrande has agreed to settle interest payments on a domestic bond, but still owes billions of dollars to other banks.

However, this topic thread has spawned hundreds of discussion threads, with people reassuring each other about the state of Evergrande's financial situation despite the company teetering on the verge of collapse.

"It seems like Evergrande will be completely fine, and can pull through! Xu Jiayin has used his leverage to really rescue the company, and I'm guessing the storm will pass soon," wrote Weibo finance and tech influencer Chu Di Shaozhu, who has 196,000 followers on the platform.

Another Weibo user, Jing Chu Gong Zi, was also seen pushing a message this week that Evergrande, despite its liabilities, still bore a lot of investment potential, positioning that the company still had ways of "squeezing out some money" to deal with its crisis. Jing has 950,000 followers on the platform and brands himself as a finance news commentator.

Another top poster on positive Evergrande topic threads is Hu Jiangbo, a Beijing-based financial stock market influencer with over 500,000 followers on the platform. From September 15, Hu made five different blog posts about Evergrande, including one about Evergrande investors potentially getting returns on their investments, and another about Evergrande working hard to settle its debts with Chinese banks.

Hu, Chu, and Jing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Stock market influencers and their encouraging Evergrande messages are helping to pacify less-savvy investors: expert

Evergrande has more than $305 billion in liabilities, despite the rosy picture China's social media influencers might be attempting to paint. Long Wei/Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at trading firm Henyep Capital Markets, told Insider that social media influencers are capable of swaying public opinion, but only to some extent.

"Social media influencers can sway public opinion on Evergrande at the margins, but the main drive will come from the Chinese government. The government's pivot to pushing for 'common prosperity' is very real and extends far beyond Evergrande," Coghlan said.

Common prosperity refers to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's push for wealth distribution and criticism of "excessive incomes."

Coghlan added that influencer accounts posting reassuring messages would undoubtedly help to quell discontent and pacify smaller investors who might be less in the know about the state of the market.

The currency analyst said he wasn't sure whether the Chinese government was directly involved in promoting these finance influencers or massaging their messages, but noted that "ultimately, the government will encourage this posting of positive messages."

Coghlan believes the government will do everything it can to prevent a total Evergrande implosion.

"It will divide, cut debts, and manage the situation as best as it can without allowing a full market collapse," he said, because ultimately, "the idea of 'common prosperity' does not sit well as a message if bringing it about results in a market collapse. Stability is in everyone's best interests."

Read the original article on Business Insider
An image of a child with jaundice.

Getty Images.

The majority of people will acquire cytomegalovirus (CMV) during their lifetime, but most haven't even heard of it. "Nearly one in three children are already infected with CMV by age 5," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than half of adults get CMV by age 40.

Most CMV cases are asymptomatic, but some people present with mild side effects that resemble influenza or mono. Either way, it's not likely to cause any long-lasting complications in babies or children. Here's what parents need to know.

How is CMV Transmitted?

A form of herpes virus, CMV is spread through close contact with bodily fluids like saliva, urine, stool, and blood. It's not airborne, and it doesn't live long on surfaces, says Gail Demmler Harrison, M.D., a professor at Baylor College of Medicine and attending physician at Texas Children's Hospital, who has done research on CMV. It's often transmitted through activities like sharing food or drinks, playing with contaminated toys, changing diapers, or breastfeeding.

Young children and toddlers generally transmit the virus at a very high level. "Toddlers in daycare are virtual hot zones for CMV, and they shed the virus in their saliva and urine commonly," says Dr. Demmler Harrison. "Close contact with toddlers can result in CMV transmission"because it's nearly impossible for toddlers to avoid sharing bodily fluids with parents and siblings.

Once you acquire the CMV virus, it stays in your body forever. "It's a latent virus," says Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D, chair of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital, who is also on the board of directors at the National CMV Foundation. She adds that it can reactivate throughout a person's life, but it usually doesn't cause any problems.

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CMV Symptoms in Babies and Kids

Most children with CMV don't have any symptoms at all. "It's very common that you get CMV and you don't even know, especially with toddlers," says Dr. Permar. That said, symptomatic infections happen in about 10 percent of cases, and they tend to resemble a mononucleosis-type illness.

CMV symptoms in babies and kids include:

Fever

Sore throat

Swollen glands

Fatigue

Muscle aches

Those with weakened immune systems might have more serious CMV symptoms. "In children with weakened immune systems, CMV infection can affect many organs of the body including the lungs, liver, kidneys, bone marrow, and bowels. In children with organ transplants, CMV infections are linked with rejection or malfunction of the transplant," says the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

CMV Diagnosis and Treatment

In babies and children, doctors can diagnose CMV infection by analyzing blood, urine, or saliva. But remember that CMV is rarely seriousand symptoms often don't appear at allso most CMV cases go undiagnosed.

Healthy people don't usually need any treatment. "However, serious infections in children with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV infection or an organ transplant, can be treated with a medicine called ganciclovir," says the AAP. "Most children with CMV infections remain symptom-free and lead completely normal lives, even though the virus remains inactive in the body."

Congenital CMV in Unborn Babies

If a mother gets CMV for the first time while pregnant (called congenital CMV), it might pass to the unborn baby through the placenta, where it can potentially cause a wide range of complications. According to Santosh Pandipati, M.D., maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Obstetrix Medical Group of San Jose in California, these can include "jaundice, rash, enlarged liver and spleen, hearing loss/deafness, inflammation of the eyes and vision loss (chorioretinitis), seizures, cognitive and motor deficits, and death."

It's important to note, however, that CMV transmission in utero isn't too common, and most infected babies don't experience any negative side effects. "The vast majority of women are not getting a primary infection during pregnancy," because they already had CMV in the past, says Amy Banulis, M.D., an OB-GYN for Kaiser Permanente in Falls Church, Virginia. "If a woman gets it for the first time while pregnant, the risk of transmission to the fetus is about 30-40 percent. And about 25 percent of those infected in utero will develop some type of complication."

If doctors suspect congenital CMV, they can diagnose infection through maternal blood tests (which detect CMV antibodies) or amniocentesis. You can't prevent transmission or treat CMV in the womb, but there's some evidence that intravenous ganciclovir or oral valganciclovir can improve outcomes after birth. These medications generally aren't recommended outside of research studies, says Dr. Pandipati, so talk to your doctor for more information.

To prevent first-time CMV during pregnancy, wash your hands often and avoid contact with bodily fluids (especially around young children). See a doctor if you're concerned.
Prosecutors in Ivory Coast said Wednesday they had opened an investigation into a prominent minister who had been accused of rape by a young woman.

The probe focuses on the minister for reconciliation, Kouadio Konan Bertin, who also contested last year's presidential election.

"The young woman filed a complaint with the police. A (judicial) investigation is under way," the prosecutor's office said, adding that Bertin had filed a suit against her for libel.

"The two cases will be handled concurrently," the office said.

In an audio message disseminated on the internet on Monday, an Ivorian-Cameroonian artist who said she had worked with Bertin alleged that in April she had been forcibly taken to Divo, a town 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of Abidjan, where she was raped.

Questioned about the allegation late Tuesday on the national TV station RTI, Bertin said he had "nothing to reproach myself for."

He added, "This is a criminal case which is in the hands of justice."

Bertin, 52, commonly known by his initials of KKB, was the only contender against presidential incumbent Alassane Ouattara in last October's elections.

Other candidates boycotted the poll in protest at Ouattara's bid for a third term, which they said sidestepped the constitution.

Bertin, who picked up only 1.99 percent of the vote, was appointed minister of national reconciliation two months later -- a post aimed at healing the country's dangerous political rift.

The high-profile allegation comes on the heels of a television show that sparked nationwide outrage in August by seeming to make light of rape.

TV host Yves de M'Bella had asked a man described as a former rapist to demonstrate, using a mannequin, how he violated his victims.

De M'Bella was handed a suspended jail sentence of 12 months for "condoning rape" while his guest was given a two-year term.

pid/ri/gd
Four years into a congressional map that overwhelmingly favored Republicans, the chairman of Ohios Democratic Party called together a task force.

Ohio Democrats had just been swept again in statewide elections in 2014, and Republicans held a 12-4 advantage in the state congressional delegation. But then-Democratic chairman David Pepper had an idea about the path to parity for his party: through the Ohio Supreme Court.

State supreme courts have emerged as a key battlefield in the latest war over drawing maps for representation in state general assemblies and Congress, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court reiterated in 2019 that federal courts cannot intervene in partisan gerrymandering cases.

Delays in getting the necessary census data and questions about data reliability amid the pandemicadd another wrinkle.

The bottom line is, the losers always sue, said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who runs the U.S. Elections Project. Were going to see litigation everywhere.

The stakes are high. Democrats lost ground in 2020 after retaking the majority in 2018. If Republicans win back the House majority in 2022, it would imperil President Joe Biden's long-term agenda.

With legal challenges all but inevitable, decisions by justices on state high courts could decide control of Congress for the next decade. New district lines can help lock in a partisan advantage, as they did when they helped Republicans overperform in the 2018 midterm election.

Legal fights begin

Gerrymandering is the process of drawing legislative districts to give an advantage to a political party or group of people.

Map drawers looking for an advantage sometimes pack the opposition's voters into a single district to give themselves a leg up in others. They also have diluted those voters by spreading them across multiple districts.

As the political cartographers lay down new lines, legal jockeying already has begun in a handful of states.

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So far, three lawsuits, including one backed by former Attorney General Eric Holder's National Redistricting Action Fund, are challenging Ohio's statehouse maps. Groups on both sides of the aisle expect similar challenges when the state draws congressional lines.

More: Third redistricting lawsuit: Ohio Statehouse maps dilute Black, Muslim votes

In Wisconsin state court, a lawsuit was filed based on the assumption that the Democratic governor and Republican legislature won't agree on maps, according to All About Redistricting, a clearinghouse for information about redistricting. A similar preemptive challenge was filed in Texas.

And Virginias redistricting commission is facing a lawsuit in its state supreme court over counting prisoners.

The federal courts arent completely closed for business on redistricting. While the Supreme Court said the wider practice of partisan gerrymandering is off the table for federal courts, they still can rule on more specific cases of racial gerrymandering.

But redistricting experts told USA TODAY that state courts are shaping up as the venue where many redistricting challenges could be decided this decade.

There is no remedy now in federal court, said Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. You have to look where you can to find a remedy. So I think theres a renewed interest in state constitutions and state courts.

Gerrymander thumb VPC

SCOTUS backs away from partisan gerrymandering

The U.S. Supreme Court has eroded traditional safeguards against partisan gerrymandering since the last time mapmakers laid down new lines a decade ago.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key piece of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requiring some states with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing their election laws.

Then came a pair of decisions, just one year apart, that shifted election watchers' perspectives.

More: What is gerrymandering? Redistricting means new winners and losers

In 2018, the court decided against Republicans challenging congressional maps drawn by the state supreme court in Pennsylvania because the case was decided based on the state constitution.

Then, in 2019, SCOTUS cemented limitations on the federal courts ability to address partisan gerrymandering complaints.

Lawsuits alleged that maps drawn by North Carolina Republicans and Maryland Democrats unfairly favored one party in violation of the U.S. Constitution. But a divided court ruled 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering claims are political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.

It was the sixth time the court had declined to intervene in cases of partisan gerrymandering.

A key difference between the two decisions: the basis for the challenge. The 2019 case challenged maps in federal court based on the U.S. Constitution, while the 2018 Pennsylvania case was decided under the state constitution.

That decision and others since the last round of redistricting in 2011 have put a finer point on state courts as an avenue for challenging maps, experts told USA TODAY.

While people may have in the past sort of ignored the possibility of a state claim, I think a lot of people are looking very closely at what is there in state constitutions that we can latch onto, Li said.

Control of Congress

Democrats took back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, but a disappointing down ballot election in 2020 meant the party lost some of the ground it had gained.

Democrats hold 220 seats in the House to 212 for Republicans, with three vacancies.

The parties will almost certainly try to draw favorable maps in the states where they control the process. In 2020, thats an advantage for the GOP. Republicans can draw the lines for 20 states and 187 congressional seats, compared with only 75 seats for Democrats, according to Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. .

More: Texas will gain 2 congressional seats. Seven states to lose 1 seat, Census Bureau data shows

Control of redistricting the remaining seats is either split, rests with commissions or doesnt matter because the state has only one seat in the House.

Its going to be hard for the Democrats to really get to parity with Republicans just in terms with what states they can control," said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball.

While Republicans hold the pen for far more seats, Coleman said he expects Democrats to try to squeeze out advantages in states where they have control, including Illinois and New York.

With Republicans overseeing new maps for more seats, they also are likely to bring fewer lawsuits challenging maps, said Jason Torchinsky, general counsel for the National Republican Redistricting Trust.

I dont think youll see my side bringing as many offensive lawsuits as the other side. Our incentives are different.

Coleman said he expects Republicans to gain about 10 seats through redistricting, though, which alone would be enough for the GOP to retake the House of Representatives.

Already struggling to unite progressives and moderates within his own party, Biden could face the prospect of a Republican Congress that would all but assure deadlock in Washington.

You think about how hard the negotiations are right now with this infrastructure bill, how much harder that would be if you had to negotiate with Republicans, Coleman said. It could definitely have the potential to stall (Biden's) agenda in the second half of his term.

Legal jockeying

Partisan control of state supreme courts could affect how congressional lines are drawn in 11 states, David Wasserman, senior U.S. House editor of The Cook Political Report, told a National Conference of State Legislatures conference last summer.

Those states are Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Some of those courts have shown a willingness to weigh in on partisan gerrymandering cases. North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida courts all have ruled on redistricting cases over the last decade.

State constitution requirements for free and fair elections could be used to challenge maps in state courts, as they were in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Thirty states have constitutional requirements for free elections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and 18 require elections to be equal or open.

Those clauses were central to cases in North Carolina and Pennsylvania where courts ordered lines redrawn.

While some state courts overruled mapmakers before, shifting partisan control of the courts could change those dynamics.

The Florida Supreme Court, for example, ruled against a Republican-drawn map in 2015, requiring eight districts to be redrawn. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has added Republican justices to the court since then.

In 2012, the Republican chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, sided with the minority in rejecting state legislative maps as a partisan gerrymander in 2012. Since then, however, Democrats trimmed the GOP advantage on the state supreme court to 4-3. If the GOP chief justice sides with the judges in the minority again, those onetime dissenters could become the majority.

Jeff Jacobson, a former Republican Ohio lawmaker who is monitoring the state's redistricting process, said mapmakers should pay close attention to that 2012 dissent to avoid similar pitfalls that could imperil new maps.

Doug Spencer, a University of Colorado law professor who manages the All About Redistricting website, said lawsuits over new maps are likelies in states where different parties control the governors office and the legislature and those where state courts previously have ruled in similar cases.

In states with divided governments, courts could be asked to resolve differences between the two sides when the governor has veto power over maps. Partisan divides separate governors and legislatures in 12 states, according to Ballotpedia, and governors have veto power over maps in eight of them.

For example, Republicans control the Wisconsin State Assembly, but Gov. Tony Evers is a Democrat.

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are now weighing whether to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to toss a federal lawsuit over its maps, preferring instead to have the case decided at the state supreme court.

Courts are a political institution and they dont like to be pawns in a political game, Spencer said. But the honest truth is sometimes they are used as pawns.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Redistricting: State supreme courts could decide control of Congress
These nine Tougaloo College students held the first "read-in" in Mississippi when they attempted to desegregate the all-white Jackson Public Library. The Tougaloo Nine are, from left, Joseph Jackson, Geraldine Edwards, James Cleo Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith C. Anding Jr., Janice L. Jackson and Alfred Lee Cook.

On March 27, 1961, nine Black college students sat at tables at a whites-only library and helped change the course of American history. The students, enrolled at Tougaloo College outside Jackson, Mississippi, were quickly arrested, fueling a freedom movement that inspired young people at other historically Black colleges and universities across the nation to rally against segregation.

Sixty years later, USA TODAY is inviting readers to examine how racism continues to shape our country in a free virtual event titled, Freedom Now: How Institutions of Power Fuel and Stall Change.

USA TODAY is collaborating with Tougaloo College for this conversation on the roles law enforcement, media, government and education leaders serve in civil rights movements. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. EDT. Register here.

The event is part of USA TODAYs Seven Days of 1961 project, which spotlights seven pivotal protests in 1961 that fueled the civil rights movement and helped end legal segregation and extend voting rights to millions of Black Americans. This sprawling multimedia project features stories from the last generation of civil rights-era veterans to be published from September through December.

This project arrives more than a year after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many other Black Americans. It comes amid a divisive national debate over systemic racism, equal access to the voting booth, how we teach American history and what role institutions such as the police, media and government serve in making our society safe and fair for all.

Police Chief George H. Guy poses beside the "White waiting room" sign posted outside the Greyhound bus terminal in McComb, Miss., on Nov. 2, 1961.

The Freedom Now event is inspired by mass meetings held in Black communities to end segregation. These gatherings served to keep hope alive through song, prayer and testimony.

It will feature a musical performance from Charles Neblett, one of the original Freedom Singers, a group formed in 1962 to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the most prominent organizations of the era. Tracy K. Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 through 2019, will read one of her poems.

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NAACP President Derrick Johnson

Deborah Barfield Berry

The panelists include Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP; JaMal Green, a Chicago Black Lives Matter activist; Georgia state Sen. Kimberly S. Jackson; Brenda Travis, an NAACP student leader in the 1960s; and Gerard Robinson, vice president for education at the Advanced Studies in Culture Foundation at the University of Virginia. Daphne Chamberlain, an associate professor of history at Tougaloo College, and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY national correspondent on race and politics, will help moderate the event.

Audience members will have the opportunity to pose questions to the panel.

This is the first of three virtual events USA TODAY will host as part of the Seven Days of 1961 project.

Want more news on race & identity? Subscribe to This is America, USA TODAY's weekly newsletter. With a vibrant, unflinching look into current events, popular culture and the key figures who define life in America today, "This is America" aims to spark crucial conversations and build bridges between Black, Indigenous people, people of color and their allies.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA TODAY free event explores racism and systems of power
Something wickedly exciting this way comes: Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga will front an adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic Macbeth on Broadway in early 2022.

The No Time to Die actor and his Oscar-nominated Loving co-lead are set to star in the Sam Gold-directed stage production as the titular, power-hungry lord and his wife, respectively. The role marks Negga's Broadway debut, while Craig returns to the New York stage after previously appearing in 2009's A Steady Rain alongside Hugh Jackman, and starring in a 2013 revival of Betrayal with wife Rachel Weisz.

Craig's James Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli is also working on Macbeth, and, in a press statement, called the performer a "magnificent theatre actor" in addition to his work on the 007 franchise  including his final turn as the iconic agent in the upcoming blockbuster No Time to Die.

MacBeth

Greg Williams Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga star in 'Macbeth' on Broadway.

Added Gold, a Tony Award-winning director known for Fun Home: "I am beyond thrilled to be participating in this historic season as theatre re-emerges, and to be working with two such masterful actors on one of dramatic literature's most challenging and epic dramas."

Though Macbeth is Negga's first Broadway bow, she appeared in a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse, which was imported from Dublin's Gate Theatre with an all-Irish cast in early 2020. Gold has directed notable adaptations of Shakespeare works in the past, including a Glenda Jackson-starring version of King Lear in 2019, Oscar Isaac in Hamlet in 2017, and David Oyelowo's Othello in 2016 (which starred Craig as Iago).

Macbeth Broadway key art

Polk and Co 'Macbeth' Broadway key art featuring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga.

Elsewhere, filmmaker Joel Coen will release a big-screen imagining of the Shakespeare staple titled The Tragedy of Macbeth via A24 and Apple TV+. Set for a Dec. 25 release, the movie stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the central couple, and received significant praise  plus notable Oscar buzz  following its debut at the 2021 New York Film Festival.

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Previews of Macbeth begin on March 29, with the show officially opening its 15-week limited run on April 28 at the Lyceum Theatre in Manhattan. American Express cardholder presale begins Sept. 29, followed by an Audience Rewards member presale on Oct. 6. Tickets are available to the general public on Oct. 8.

Hear more on all of today's must-see picks, plus what Brandi and Cody Rhodes are watching, in EW's What to Watch podcast, hosted by Gerrad Hall.

Related content:
Good morning, Chicago.

President Joe Biden canceled a planned trip to Chicago this week to promote his vaccination mandate for businesses as ongoing negotiations over his legislative agenda in Washington intensify, White House officials said Tuesday.

United Airlines says more than 99% of its U.S.-based employees who did not seek a religious or medical exemption from the companys COVID-19 vaccine mandate got the shots, while 593 who refused to comply will lose their jobs. And vaccines for younger kids took a step forward, as Pfizer submitted research to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine in children 5 to 11 years old.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

COVID-19 tracker | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Daily horoscope | Ask Amy | Todays eNewspaper edition

The Bears have taken a big step closer toward moving to Chicagos northwest suburbs. Days after the conclusion of what was likely the final racing season at Arlington International Racecourse, the NFL team signed a purchase agreement for the 326-acre property.

As former President Barack Obama took the podium during his presidential centers long-delayed groundbreaking, he looked back on his first taste of the city that would forever shape him: driving up the Chicago Skyway in a rickety car, slowing to a cruise upon entering the marvel that he considered Jackson Park.

On Tuesday afternoon, standing before four shovels and a mound of dirt in Jackson Park, Obama said the next chapter will be inspiring todays young leaders through the future Obama Presidential Center.

Chicago is where I found the purpose Id been seeking.

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Cook County jurors on Tuesday saw police evidence video from the scene of one of the most gruesome killings in recent Chicago memory: The 2017 stabbing of 26-year-old Trenton Cornell in the bedroom of his boyfriend, then-Northwestern professor Wyndham Lathem, who now stands trial for his slaying.

Prosecutors have charged Lathem with first-degree murder in what they say was a vicious premeditated attack on his young lover, saying he and accomplice Andrew Warren ambushed Cornell in Lathems apartment and then went on the lam. Warren, prosecutors key witness, is expected to take the stand Wednesday, records show.

Portillos has big plans to take its Italian beef sandwiches, hot dogs and chocolate cake shakes nationwide.

The Oak Brook-based fast casual chain, which announced plans to go public earlier this summer, said it believes it could eventually grow from 67 restaurants to more than 600 over the next 25 years, and is well-positioned for global growth in the future, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants have been dubbed genius grants. They consist of $625,000 to do with whatever the awardees want.

There are a few of this years crowd that have, or more accurately had, academic ties to Chicago before moving on. One that Chicago can claim is Jacqueline Stewart, whom the MacArthur folks describe as a film scholar and curator ensuring that the contributions of overlooked Black filmmakers and communities of spectators have a place in the public imagination.
With shootings in New York City more than double and homicides 40% above their 2019 levels, the last thing we need is a new threat to cops ability to stanch the flow of illegal guns, which is directly proportional to the flow of blood on our sidewalks. There are two such threats racing toward us.

The first is the availability of untraceable, serial-number-free ghost guns like the one used outside an uptown bar early Monday morning, when a man shot four patrons before an NYPD sergeant managed to disable him. Ghost guns are assembled from parts bought online or milled or printed and then built at home from plans found online. The NYPD says it recovered about 150 of them last year, more than triple the number it seized in 2019 and nine times 2018s total. So far in 2021, 135 have been recovered. Yikes.

After the Trump administration went wobbly, a vital proposed federal rule by Joe Bidens Department of Justice would update the definition of a firearm for the first time since 1968 to prohibit the purchase of such kits without a background check and better enable their tracking by law enforcement. Hurry it along, and get the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulating these killers, as well as cracking down on interstate gun trafficking.

Meantime, in early November, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Corlett, a case in which gun rights absolutists are aiming to take down New Yorks legitimately high hurdle for granting concealed-carry licenses.

As New York City argued in a compelling brief filed with the high court last week, the proper cause requirement written into state law is necessary to keep New Yorkers safe, and fully consistent with the sane interpretation of the Second Amendment laid down over many generations. Deep-sixing it, and by judicial fiat establishing a national right to carry a concealed weapon, would be a radical and life-threatening move by a majority that claims to respect the Constitution, states rights and precedent.
The European Union defended plans to expand its relationship with Taiwan - though "without any recognition of statehood" - on Tuesday during the first top-level meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, in more than a year.

The statement by Borrell came amid a deepening row between Lithuania and China, over Lithuania's decision to allow a "Taiwanese Representative Office" in Vilnius - a departure from the typical European designation of "Taipei Representative Offices".

At a strained time for bilateral relations, Wang spoke by video conference with Borrell in their first "strategic dialogue" since June 2020.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Neither side mentioned Lithuania directly in their statements about the session, but the subtext was clear.

Beijing has accused Lithuania of breaching the EU's adherence to the diplomatic "One China" principle - a claim denied by both Brussels and Vilnius - and moved to punish Lithuania by halting freight trains from China and revoking certain export licenses for Lithuanian companies.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Borrell that the "One China" principle remains the basis of any EU-China relations. Photo: AP alt=Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Borrell that the "One China" principle remains the basis of any EU-China relations. Photo: AP

Wang warned Borrell that the principle remained "the political basis for China to develop relations with the EU and its member states".

"If the foundation is not strong, the ground and the mountains will shake," Wang said.

The official Chinese readout reported that Borrell assured Wang that "the EU will not conduct official exchanges" with Taiwan.

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But the EU has already been urged by the European Parliament to begin laying the groundwork for an investment pact with Taiwan.

Speaking ahead of the EU-China summit, the parliament's lead member on a new Taiwan policy guidance paper, Charlie Weimers, told the South China Morning Post that Borrell had to "express unequivocal support and solidarity for Lithuania in the country's recent dispute with China, condemn the Chinese economic sanctions on Lithuania and, in coordination with the council, take appropriate measures".

In its new Indo-Pacific strategy, released this month, the EU said it would seek "trade and investment relationships with partners with whom it does not have trade and investment agreements, such as Taiwan".

Wang and Borrell also discussed human rights issues, with China warning the EU against lecturing it on such matters, according to Chinese state media.

Wang told Borrell that China was "willing to conduct human rights dialogue" but "does not accept human rights 'teachers' and opposes interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights".

Borrell said that the EU would "respect China's sovereignty and has no intention to use this to preach to the Chinese side", according to Beijing's readout.

The EU statement said that Borrell "stressed the necessity to engage on human rights issues and to resume the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue, as a key component of a mature relationship".

Borrell said he hoped this could resume this year, adding that "in this context, they also discussed the situation in Xinjiang and Hong Kong".

The meeting came at a delicate geopolitical moment. EU-China relations have taken a nosedive this year, leading to tit-for-tat sanctioning in March, followed by the collapse of a long-negotiated investment pact in May.

And on Sunday, the German federal election heralded the end of the Angela Merkel era, with Beijing set to lose its most influential partner in Europe.

Merkel will remain chancellor and in charge, but only as a caretaker until a coalition government is formed. Her Christian Democratic party suffered an embarrassing defeat, and speculation is rife that a coalition led by the Social Democrats and including two more hawkish parties toward China, the Greens and the LIberals, could signal a shift in Germany's long-standing China-friendly policy.

The summit also came a day before the EU formally launches a Trade and Technology Council with the United States. The council, which was initially announced in June when US President Joe Biden visited Brussels, is part of a wider move by Biden to counter China.

Despite this, Wang told Borrell he hoped the EU and China would "carry out the joint construction of the Belt and Road initiative and the EU's connectivity initiative". Wang also voiced support for "deepening vaccine cooperation and continuing to promote cooperation in technological innovation, finance, energy, and agriculture".

Chinese President Xi Jinping in a pre-recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21, announcing that Xi said China would stop financing coal power plants overseas. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Chinese President Xi Jinping in a pre-recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21, announcing that Xi said China would stop financing coal power plants overseas. Photo: Bloomberg

The EU and China will also continue to collaborate on issues like climate change and biodiversity, while Borrell "welcomed China's decision to cease external coal power finance" - a move Xi Jinping announced last week at the United Nations General Assembly. On Monday, the EU and China climate tsars met for virtual talks.

According to the EU account, Borrell noted that "while disagreements still persisted, the EU and China needed to continue engaging intensively in a number of important areas".

China also pointed to the recent "increase in contact and dialogue between China and the EU", adding that "we must consolidate this positive momentum, increase political mutual trust, properly manage differences".

Also on the agenda was the newly announced Aukus security arrangement involving the US, Britain and Australia that will eventually see Canberra provided with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, but which immediately signalled a tightening of the campaign to contain China in the Indo-Pacific.

The EU was not consulted about the agreement, which China described in scathing terms.

Wang said that "at a time when the international community is generally opposed to Cold War and division, the US flagrantly violated its policy statement of not engaging in a new Cold War, organised gangs to concoct Anglo-Saxon 'small circles', and placed geopolitical interests above international solidarity".

Borrell, in contrast, "welcomed the joint statement by Presidents Biden and Macron" and "referred to his fruitful exchanges in the margins of UN General Assembly, including with his US counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken".

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A judge dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Evel Knievels son a year ago against the Walt Disney Co. and movie company Pixar over a Toy Story 4 daredevil character named Duke Caboom.

Were obviously disappointed, Kelly Knievel said in a Monday email. We are considering our options at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas dismissed the case against Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on Sept. 23.

The judge wrote that while the Caboom character was reminiscent of Knievel, Disneys use of Evel Knievels likeness contains significant transformative elements and is not a literal depiction.

An email message from The Walt Disney Co. spokesman Jeffrey R. Epstein said he was traveling and unavailable for immediate comment.

Kelly Knievel, head of Las Vegas-based K and K Promotions, had characterized the Caboom character as a direct knock-off of the legend and historical significance of Knievels father, the famous stunt motorcyclist who died in 2007 at 69 in Florida of lung disease.

The lawsuit filed in September 2020 accused Disney and Pixar of intentionally modeling the Toy Story 4 character on Knievel, whose stunts included motorcycle jumps in 1967 over the Caesars Palace fountain in Las Vegas  including a spectacular near-fatal crash  and in 1975 over a row of buses at Wembley Stadium in London.

Evel Knievel was seriously injured many times during more than 75 motorcycle jumps. He survived a 1974 rocket-motorcycle shot over Snake River Canyon in Idaho that ended with the machine parachuting to the riverbank below.

The lawsuit noted an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle toy released in 1973 featured a Knievel action figure clad in a white helmet and jumpsuit with red, white and blue embellishments on a motorcycle that could be propelled with a wind-up device.

The court filing pointed to the film character and his Duke Caboom Stunt Cycle, described by Disney Pixar as a 1970s-era daredevil based on Canadas greatest stuntman, clad in a white jumpsuit and helmet with Canadian insignia.

The judge said the film character has a different name and clothing, is Canadian rather than American, and wears a mustache and different hair color and style than Knievel.

Duke Caboom is not a carbon copy of Evel Knievel minus a few details, Mahan wrote. The Duke Caboom action figure is a representation of Disneys expression in the film and not an attempt to imitate Evel Knievel.
The one-time top strategist for former President George W. Bush and since-departed political analyst for ABC News is running for lieutenant governor of Texas  as a Democrat.

Matthew Dowd advised Bushs 2004 presidential bid before enjoying a long media career that made him a fixture of This Week, ABC Newss marquee Sunday morning public affairs television show.

On Wednesday, after months of signaling plans to enter the political arena as a candidate, Dowd announced he was running for Texas lieutenant governor as a Democrat. Dowd's disenchantment with the GOP was accelerated by his opposition to former President Donald Trump.

Sisters/brothers, I am running for Lt. Gov of Texas, Dowd said in a Twitter post. We must remove the cruel and craven GOP incumbent. I cant do this alone. I need your help.

LIZ CHENEY HEADED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE AMID FEUD WITH TRUMP

Its an ambitious move for Dowd. In most states, the lieutenant governor is meaningless unless called upon to replace the governor, as happened recently in New York when Gov. Kathy Hochul replaced Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal. Texas, however, is different. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, is among the most powerful elected officials in state government, rivaling even Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican.

Meanwhile, Dowd faces an uphill climb politically.

Although the Texas suburbs around Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have become more Democratic in recent years, the Lone Star State overall is Republican-friendly territory.

Trump defeated President Joe Biden in Texas in 2020 52% to 46.5%. In doing so, he captured some majority-Hispanic counties along the Mexican border that had voted Democrat for decades.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Additionally, Republican Sen. John Cornyn won reelection with 53.5% of the vote.

With Democrats staring down a tough environment in the 2022 midterm elections and Bidens job approval numbers slipping, Dowds path is even rockier than it otherwise might have been.

Story continues

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Campaigns, 2022 Elections, Texas

Original Author: David M. Drucker

Original Location: Ex-Bush aide Matthew Dowd seeks office in Texas as Democrat
By Gwenaelle Barzic and Pamela Barbaglia

PARIS (Reuters) -Telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi is in talks to buy French firm Eutelsat in a deal that would see one of his investment vehicles take direct control of the Paris-listed satellite operator, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Drahi is working with banks on the project and recently made a bid approach for Eutelsat which has a market value of 2.3 billion euros ($1.96 billion) and is backed by state investor Bpifrance with a 20% stake, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Eutelsat, one of the world's leading commercial satellite operators, has turned down Drahi's initial proposal, one of the sources said, adding the price was deemed too low but talks remained active.

Drahi and Eutelsat were not immediately available for comment. Bpifrance declined to comment.

The Franco-Israeli businessman and founder of cable and mobile telecoms company Altice has held direct talks with Eutelsat's top investors, the sources said.

He recently reached out to the French government to seek approval for his takeover plan, one of them said.

A representative for the French government declined to comment.

Drahi, who started his career in the satellite industry, has no plans to merge Eutelsat with his telecom and media assets and would keep the French firm within a separate holding company, the sources said, pointing to the possibility of using this platform to pursue further deals in the fragmented satellite industry.

A shrewd dealmaker, Drahi recently received regulatory approval to take telecoms group Altice Europe private after its minority shareholders approved his buyout offer for the company.

In June he took a 12.1% stake in British telecom operator BT Group using newly-created vehicle Altice UK.

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat has suffered five consecutive years of declining revenues and recently bought about 24% of British rival OneWeb for $550 million - the biggest deal since chief executive Rodolphe Belmer took office in 2016.

($1 = 1.1714 euros)

(Reporting by Gwenaelle Barzic and Pamela Barbaglia, additional reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Michel Rose; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Jonathan Oatis)
The claim: An audit 'conclusively shows' voter fraud affected Arizona's election outcome

After six months, the results of an election audit in Arizona are in: President Joe Biden won the state's largest county, and now-former President Donald Trump received fewer votes than were originally counted.

But Trump has other thoughts about the audit results.

"The Fake News is lying about the Arizona audit report!" he said in a Sept. 24 statement. "The leaked report conclusively shows there were enough fraudulent votes, mystery votes, and fake votes to change the outcome of the election 4 or 5 times over."

Social media posts parroting Trump's claim, as well as articles from conservative websites like the Gateway Pundit, accumulated thousands of interactions within a few days, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. Some sites spun the audit results to say Trump actually won the state.

In the spring, the Republican-dominated Arizona Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida cybersecurity firm with no prior election auditing experience, to review the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. The audit has repeatedly been the subject of misinformation online, despite the fact that previous recounts in the state found no wrongdoing.

More: Hand count in Arizona (again) affirms Biden won 2020 election, draft version of audit report says

Cyber Ninjas' review, backed by Trump-friendly Republicans and presented to the state Senate on Sept. 24, suggested there were problems with voter rolls in Maricopa County, where Biden won by more than 45,000 votes. But the audit did not surface evidence that widespread voter fraud affected the election outcome. Several independent fact-checking organizations have debunked those claims.

"We noticed the auditors buried this fact: their ballot recount was nearly identical to the countys count, and the official results stand," Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said in a Sept. 24 statement. "The Cyber Ninjas opinions come from a misuse and misunderstanding of the data provided by the county and are twisted to fit the narrative that something went wrong."

Story continues

Presenters of the report on the election audit, from left, Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFIR, Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas and Randy Pullen, the audit spokesman, look on before the start of the presentation to the Arizona lawmakers in the Senate chambers of the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Sept. 24, 2021.

Audit doesn't prove fraud

In his statement, Trump cited several numbers from a draft version of the Cyber Ninjas report to claim that voter fraud affected Arizona's election outcome. Liz Harrington, a Trump spokesperson, reiterated that claim in an email to USA TODAY.

"The audit results clearly show the election in Arizona as counted should never have been certified," she said.

But the findings aren't evidence of fraud  and Cyber Ninjas did not say they were. Let's go through a few of the figures Trump cited in his statement.

Trump said the report found "23,344 mail-in ballots, despite the person no longer living at that address." He called them "phantom voters."

Fact check: No evidence 'lost votes' or 'ghost votes' affected Arizona's election outcome

But Maricopa County said on Twitter that's not evidence of voter fraud; in some cases, it's legal for someone to cast a mail-in ballot from another address. As examples, the county cited voters in the military and overseas, as well as those who had recently moved.

"For the November General Election Maricopa County had 20,933 one-time temporary address requests," the county wrote on Twitter. "In addition, snowbirds and college students tend to have forwarding addresses when they are out of the county."

Trump also said in his statement that "voters who voted in multiple counties totaled 10,342, and 2,382 ballots came from people who no longer lived in Maricopa County." But the county said that's unlikely.

Fact check: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell spreads false claim about Arizona election results

"There are more than 7 million people in Arizona and, yes, some of them share names & birth years," the county wrote on Twitter. "Example: if you search for Maria Garcia born in 1980, youll get 7 active voters in Maricopa County and 12 statewide. And thats just one name."

Maricopa County also wrote that, in the case of in-person voters who had moved out of the county, it could not find any discrepancies in its voter registration system. The county said it did not find any voters who had cast more than one ballot.

Finally, Trump said in his statement that there were "2,592 'more duplicate ballots than original ballots.'" But Maricopa County has said it's confident its duplication process was accurate, particularly because it was confirmed in a court case on this issue.

"At no point were illegitimate ballots duplicated or inserted into the duplication process," the county says on its website.

The audit of Maricopa County's ballots from the 2020 general election continues on July 24, 2021, in the Wesley Bolin Building at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Ariz.

No evidence of widespread voter fraud in Maricopa County

The Cyber Ninjas report affirms vote totals showing Biden won Maricopa County in the 2020 election.

"That is a true statement," Karen Fann, the Republican president of the Arizona Senate, said during the Sept. 24 presentation of Cyber Ninjas' findings. "Truth is truth, numbers are numbers ... and those numbers were close  within a few hundred."

There's no evidence widespread voter fraud affected that outcome.

Multiple hand counts confirmed the election results in Maricopa County. A forensic audit of voting machines found no malfeasance. Lawsuits challenging Arizona's election outcome, which Congress certified in January, were dismissed and rejected.

Fact check: False claim that many California voters were told they already voted

"As we've said before, we stand behind the results we canvassed," Jason Berry, a spokesperson for Maricopa County, said in an email.

In mid-July, the Associated Press reported that, of the more than 3 million ballots cast in Arizona, elections officials had found fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud.

"The Senate president and the Cyber Ninjas dragged our state and country through months of partisan political theater, culminating in a report that reinforces what election experts have been saying all along  that this exercise was a scam," Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Democratic secretary of state, said in a Sept. 24 statement.

USA TODAY reached out to Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, for comment.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an audit "conclusively shows" voter fraud affected Arizona's election outcome. Cyber Ninjas' review affirmed the fact that Biden won Maricopa County in the 2020 election. The audit did not offer evidence that widespread voter fraud affected that outcome. Other hand counts have confirmed Maricopa County's election results.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Arizona audit affirms Biden win, doesn't prove voter fraud
David Chipman, whose nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was ultimately withdrawn, told the New York Times that the lack of communication from the White House often made him feel alone and on "an island" amid attacks from pro-gun groups.

Driving the news: Chipman, a gun control advocate, was nominated by President Biden to head the agency in April. His nomination, however, faced widespread opposition from Senate Republicans, as well as Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).

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The big picture: "Chipmans defeat represented a major victory for the gun lobby and a huge loss for gun control groups, who saw appointment of a strong director for the bureau as the most important move Mr. Biden could make as Republicans block legislative action," the Times notes.

What he's saying: Either this was impossible to win, or the strategy failed, Chipman said in his first public comments since his nomination was withdrawn earlier this month. "This was a failure."

Chipman, who mostly blamed the gun lobby for his failed nomination, told the Times that outside of a phone call with presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti, who admitted the administration fell "short," he's had no other contact with the White House.

Chipman said he found the lack of communication "unusual," adding, In the back of my mind, I always thought that there would be a Plan B, but so far there hasnt been."

"We absolutely worked to get him confirmed, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "But we weren't naive about how challenging that would be given the history." She added that the administration was looking to find him another role.

Michael Gwin, a Biden spokesperson, told the Times: "We know this work is going to be difficult  especially with Republicans on Capitol Hill moving in lock-step with the gun industry."

"[B]ut the president is absolutely committed to pushing both legislation and personnel to combat gun violence," he added.

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, Tennessee, recently made a strange but increasingly more common seizure: a package filled with counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards imported from China. More than 120 similar packages filled with thousands of fake cards, with typos and misspelled words, have been seized this year in Memphis alone.

As more municipalities, music venues, universities and employers institute vaccine requirements, many unvaccinated people are reevaluating their decision and are getting the COVID-19 vaccine. On the other hand, some are deciding to violate the law by creating fraudulent vaccine cards.

As chief legal officers for our states, we want all our constituents to understand that selling or using fake vaccination cards is illegal and can result in fines or jail time.

Fake cards across the country

Throughout the country, state attorneys general are responsible for enforcing consumer protection laws. Earlier this year, we led a bipartisan coalition of almost all of our fellow attorneys general in asking major e-commerce and social media companies, including Twitter and eBay, to prevent the sale of blank or fraudulently completed COVID-19 vaccination cards on their platforms. False and deceptive marketing and sales of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards likely violate consumer protection laws in many states, but more important, they severely threaten the health of our residents.

Close-up of a CDC COVID-19 vaccination card, showing the two lines at the bottom that can be used to document booster doses, should they become available.

Were in a nationwide COVID-19 wave caused by the delta variant that is largely affecting those who are not vaccinated. People who pretend they are vaccinated to enter businesses, workplaces, schools and other parts of society are putting themselves and others at risk of contracting a deadly virus.

USA TODAY's Connie Schultz: Channeling my mom (but never her hair), I see reason for hope this fall: Kids' vaccines are coming

As the pandemic continues and fake vaccination cards become more commonplace, attorneys general and other law enforcement agencies around the country have been forced to respond.

Story continues

In Hawaii, the attorney general office arrested two travelers who allegedly violated the states COVID-19 mandates by arriving with falsified vaccination cards, a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or up to a year in prison under state law. In California, a bar owner in San Joaquin County was charged with three felonies for allegedly selling fake vaccination cards to undercover agents from the states Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Fraud is a crime

In addition to any state law violations, individuals forging or using fake vaccination cards are also violating federal law. In March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a public service announcement reminding the public that in addition to putting the card holder and others at risk of contracting COVID-19, using fake cards violates federal law prohibiting the unauthorized use of an official government agencys seal, specifically the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seals that appear on every legitimate vaccine card.

USA TODAY Opinion: Sign up for our newsletter for insights, analysis in your inbox

As attorneys general, we combat all types of fraud and scams in order to protect residents within our jurisdictions and across the country. Throughout the pandemic, we have worked to educate consumers so that they dont fall victim to bad actors perpetrating common COVID-related scams. You should file a complaint with your state attorney general if you witness this kind of fraud.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in 2017 in Raleigh.

We want our residents to understand that selling or using fake vaccination cards not only puts other peoples health and lives at risk, but its also illegal.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery are co-chairs of the National Association of Attorneys Generals Consumer Protection Committee.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stop the spread of illegal fake COVID-19 vaccination cards
Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Democrats are on the verge of a make-or-break moment that will determine the fate of Joe Bidens ambitious economic agenda, as they rush to bridge the internal divisions threatening to derail passage of the sweeping $3.5tn social policy package and a smaller infrastructure bill.

Failure would be disastrous for the president and his partys political prospects in the midterm elections next year, but success was far from certain with less than 48 hours left before a consequential vote in the House on Thursday.

With the fate of his legacy-defining domestic agenda hanging in the balance, Biden canceled a scheduled trip to Illinois to continue negotiations in Washington on Wednesday and dug in for another day of frenetic talks between the White House and Capitol Hill.

Related: Barack Obama: tax the rich, including me, to fund Biden spending plan

Democratic leaders publicly projected confidence as they toiled behind the scenes to craft a compromise proposal that satisfies the many demands and competing interests that have forestalled progress, notably the dogged opposition of two moderate Democratic senators. With Republicans unified in their opposition, they will need the vote of every Democrat in the Senate and nearly every Democrat in the House.

In the next day or so we hope to come to a place where we can all move forward on that, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told reporters on Tuesday at the Capitol. We will pass both bills.

But her certainty seemed presumptuous after a series of Oval Office meetings with the key Democratic holdouts, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, yielded progress but no deal.

Democrats broadly share Bidens vision for his $3.5tn Build Back Better agenda, also known as the reconciliation bill, which includes a once-in-a-generation expansion of the nations social safety net and an overhaul of the tax code. But disputes remain over the particulars of the legislation, from its overall size to its tax-raising proposals as well as several key policy measures that would combat climate change and expand healthcare and childcare. Both Manchin and Sinema have objected to the price tag, but offered few specifics on their sticking points.

Story continues

Meanwhile, an impasse between moderates and progressives threatened to block a House vote scheduled for Thursday on the smaller infrastructure bill, a defeat that would upend the delicate negotiations and potentially sink the entire effort.

At the center of the tumult is also a deal Pelosi made with moderates and progressives, to tie the infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate earlier this year with bipartisan support and would fund roads, broadband and other infrastructure projects, to the far larger policy proposal.

Pelosi had promised to hold a vote on both measure at the same time. But she has now told her caucus that the House should proceed with passage of the infrastructure bill while the Senate attempts to reach a consensus on the spending plan.

The change in circumstance regarding the reconciliation bill has necessitated a change in our Build Back Better legislation but not in our values, Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democrats on Tuesday.

Progressives were furious about the change of strategy, with some calling it a betrayal. Several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus doubled down on their threat to oppose the infrastructure bill on Thursday without ironclad agreements from House leadership and Senate Democrats that the broader package will pass.

Progressives will vote for both bills, but a majority of our members will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the presidents visionary Build Back Better Act passes, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the caucus chairwoman, said in statement after surveying her 96 members on Tuesday.

Pramila Jayapal, chair of the House progressive caucus, has warned that most of its members will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the $3.5tn package has passed. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Pelosi on Wednesday signaled that the House would move forward with a vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday, though she made clear that she had the power to unilaterally delay the vote if necessary. To bring progressives along, she said Biden and Senate Democrats would need to agree to legislative language on the larger reconciliation bill  a tall order that Manchin said would not be possible before Thursdays vote.

Moderates, who pushed for the infrastructure vote this week, are confident they can pass the $1tn measure with Republican support if progressives follow through on their threat to vote it down. But Republican leaders are pressuring their members to oppose the measure and force Democrats to come up with the votes on their own. It remains unclear how many House Republicans will back the infrastructure plan, which passed the Senate with 19 Republican votes.

If Democrats can pull it off, the legislation has the potential to be transformative for millions of American families. It would extend the child tax credit, establish universal pre-K, create a federally paid family and medical leave system, in addition to an array of programs to combat climate change and transition the country toward renewable energy. The plan would be paid for by trillions of dollars in tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

Biden has said that the total cost of the bill is actually zero since it will be offset by an increase in tax revenue over several years.

Republicans have decried the scale of Bidens spending and tax plan, saying that it would stifle economic growth and worsen the nations debt.

This spending is on a scale not seen before in our country, said the Republican senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, hoisting a copy of the 2,465-page draft legislation. This bill represents Bernie Sanders socialist dream.

With Bidens economic agenda hanging in the balance, Democrats are also scrambling to avert a government shutdown and avoid a financial crisis with the national debt, after Republican senators blocked a measure that would have funded the federal agencies and raised the countrys borrowing limit.

Speaking on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, warned lawmakers that the consequences of failing to raise or suspend the debt limit would be catastrophic. Without congressional action, she said the treasury department will struggle to pay its bills on 18 October.

Hours later, Senate Republicans rejected a second attempt by Democrats to raise the debt ceiling, this time using a procedural maneuver to avoid a filibuster. By Wednesday, Democrats were preparing to push through a bill to avoid a shutdown but remained in a perilous stand off with Republicans over how to proceed on the debt limit.

Adding to Pelosis troubles, however, a group of moderate House Democrats threatened to vote against a bill that would extend the debt limit through mid-December, amid fears they would be attacked by Republicans as fiscally irresponsible during next years midterm elections.

I have no patience for people not voting for this, Pelosi said on Wednesday, her frustration evident. She noted that House Democrats voted last week to lift the debt ceiling. If theyre concerned how it might be in an ad, its already in an ad.

Even if the House passes the measure, it has no clear path forward in the Senate, where a Republican filibuster awaits.

Can Democrats salvage Bidens agenda, keep the federal government open and avert fiscal calamity?

You know me, Im a born optimist, Biden said on Monday, as he rolled up his sleeve to receive a Covid-19 booster shot. Were gonna get it done.
Motley Fool

The U.S. International Trade Commission recently ruled Philip Morris International's (NYSE: PM) IQOS heated tobacco device violates two patents held by rival British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI) and that the electronic cigarettes can't be imported or sold in the U.S. While the ruling is obviously a major blow to the tobacco giant because the U.S. is potentially the world's biggest, most lucrative market for e-cigs and IQOS is so far the only e-cig that has earned a modified-risk label from the Food and Drug Administration, the decision is a devastating blow to Philip Morris partner Altria (NYSE: MO) because it has no vapor products to fall back on and no other markets it can sell into.
Now that Indra Nooyi has finally had a couple minutes to come up for air after an intense climb up the corporate ladder that led to her leading the storied snacks and beverage giant PepsiCo as chairman and CEO for 12 years (and retiring in 2019), Nooyi is reiterating one of the biggest problems a society still gripped by a health pandemic faces moving forward.

The cost of child care is out of control (and has been long before the pandemic), and is pushing many women out of the workforce as they try to balance the dual challenges of home schooling and working from home.

"Organized child care is going to bring more of the people who left the workforce back to the workforce, and they all tend to be predominantly women. And the biggest crisis we have today is the cost of care is too high when it's available, most of the time it's not available. And even when it is, the quality of the care is not good enough," Nooyi told Yahoo Finance, following the release of her new memoir "My Life in Full."

Added Nooyi, "We have to address this on an urgent basis because we have an acute labor shortage. And a lot of that labor shortage is not shortage of people, it's a shortage of people who can come to work because they don't have an alternative."

The harmful effects on the female workforce due to the pandemic are starting to worsen, as detailed in a new study called "Women in the Workplace" by McKinsey & Company.

One in three women told McKinsey they have considered downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce this year. Early on in the pandemic, one in four were considering such a change. Moreover, four in 10 women have considered leaving their employer or switching jobs.

"The pandemic continues to take a toll on employees, and especially women. Women are even more burned out than they were a year ago, and burnout is escalating much faster among women than men," the report says.

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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 12: Indra Nooyi, Pepsico speaks on stage during Watermark Conference For Women 2020 at San Jose Convention Center on February 12, 2020 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Watermark Conference for Women )

One may look at Nooyi's impressive career on paper and think she doesn't truly know about the need for better child care in the country. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Nooyi is one of the most distinguished corporate leaders of the past 25 years. But the road to reach the peak of her corporate career  chairman and CEO of PepsiCo  wasnt easy by any stretch of the imagination.

In her new memoir, Nooyi recalls her childhood growing up in Madras, India (now Chennai). While Nooyi was always encouraged by her parents to seek out higher education, learning and to pursue her dreams, the social norm in India was the man of the household earns and the woman attends to family and home.

Nooyi chose a different path, however, in large part because of her own inner drive to succeed.

In 1978, Nooyi was admitted to Yale School of Management (which she attended via scholarship and school loans) and moved to the U.S. with only $450 to her name and no family in the country. Its there where Nooyis strategic mind was shaped, leading her to become a sought-after candidate from several leading organizations. Yale is also where she met her husband of 42 years, Raj Nooyi.

Her early career had a focus on corporate strategy, including stints at Booz Allen, Boston Consulting Group, Motorola and ABB. Nooyi became a first-time mother to Preetha in 1984, and explains in the memoir the challenges of juggling work and motherhood in those early days. Most days Nooyi barely slept, working until 2 a.m., if not longer.

After Pepsi, Nooyi to continue 'progressing women in the workplace'

Nooyi is quick to say she is thankful for the support structure of friends of family, which allowed her to continue to charge hard in her work.

"I come back and say, yes, I was lucky. I had multigenerational family's support and neighbors and friends. I mean, I cultivated all of them. They just didn't fall on me, I cultivated all of them. And whatever stresses and strains go with multigenerational living, I was OK with it. It's just something we had to cope with. I think in today's world, we have to create those family structures either through community networks or through organized care support structures," says Nooyi.

Nooyis second daughter Tara was born in December 1992. By March 30, 1994, Nooyi was entering PepsiCos Purchase, N.Y., headquarters for her first day on the job as a strategy leader. She recalls there not being one female CEO leading a Fortune 500 company at the time.

The rising star wasted no time making a big impact. It was her detailed, strategy work that led to the decision to spin off PepsiCos restaurant operations in 1997 that consisted of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Today, that spin-off is known as the publicly traded Yum! Brands.

Nooyi wasnt done shaping the modern day PepsiCo, not by a long shot.

In 1998, she led the spin-off of PepsiCos bottling group (and then bought it back as CEO in 2009). She also led the $3.3 billion purchase of Tropicana the same year.

In 2001, Nooyi found herself the lead negotiator in PepsiCos $13.4 billion acquisition of Quaker Foods (which included the real prize in the deal, Gatorade). By 2001, her dedication found her leading PepsiCo financials as CFO and having a major voice in other matters as a board member.

Nooyi went on to be named as president and CEO on October 1, 2006. Through her 12 years as CEO, Nooyi pushed PepsiCo deeper into healthier snacks and sought to introduce drinks with lower (or no) sugar counts. The companys sales and profits rose steadily. PepsiCo's total shareholder return under Nooyi tallied 149% compared to 128% for the S&P 500. Along the way, she also successfully fended off two activist investor attacks (by the late Ralph Whitworth and more recently, Nelson Peltz).

Today, Nooyi tells Yahoo Finance she misses the people of PepsiCo but not necessarily the always intense job of CEO. She says taking another CEO job or role in government (the latter in which has long been rumored) is not in her plans.

"I think I'm just enjoying all the different things I'm doing. I've got this moonshot I want to take on, which is to bring together all the people who are working on the support of young families  not just females support of young family builders, and progressing women in the workplace," says Nooyi. "And I'd rather work with them to move this agenda forward because so many women and young family builders ask me this question about how do we do it, how do we advance? And I think it's time that people like us who are in seats of power and who can now convene and talk about these issues and move academic research into action, we ought to do that. So that's what I want to do the next few years. And I'm going to have a purposeful and fulfilling time doing that."

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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Four Sri Lankan refugees who hid Edward Snowden in their tiny Hong Kong apartments when he was on the run after exposing NSA spying landed in Canada on Tuesday where they were granted asylum, ending years in limbo.

Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis touched down in Toronto with their children Sethumdi and Dinath and were due to go on to Montreal to "start their new lives," non-profit For the Refugees said in a statement.

The family were part of a group of seven poverty-stricken refugees from Sri Lanka and the Philippines living in Hong Kong who nonetheless agreed to shelter Snowden after his bombshell revelations in 2013.

Vanessa Rodel, from the Philippines, and her daughter Keana were granted asylum in Canada in 2019 with the help of For the Refugees, who have lobbied Canada to take in the others, arguing they faced persecution both in their homeland and in Hong Kong because they helped Snowden.

Kellapatha's family had faced deportation after their initial refugee claims in Hong Kong were rejected.

He spoke of his relief at finally finding a place of permanent sanctuary.

"I'm so happy this is over. I'm so happy to be going to Canada," the South China Morning Post quoted him as saying before he and his family boarded a plane in Hong Kong.

"We have a new life, our children now have a future. We're so grateful right now. Really, I am speechless... The kids are so happy. I'm so grateful."

- 'One more' -

Snowden welcomed the news of the family's arrival in Canada.

"This is the best news I've heard in a long, long time," he wrote on Twitter.

"We need to bring one more home before we can say we're done, but I cannot thank you enough for bringing us this far," he added.

A seventh member of the group, Sri Lankan army deserter Ajith Pushpakumara, remains in Hong Kong, where "his safety is still at risk," according to For the Refugees, which renewed its call for Ottawa to expedite his asylum claim.

Story continues

"We are happy with the end result -- at least for six of the seven," For the Refugees president Marc-Andre Seguin told AFP.

"Although we welcome the arrival and start of a new chapter in the lives of this family of four, we cannot ignore that Ajith has stayed behind," he said.

"We are asking that Canada (again) do the right thing and admit the last of Snowden's Guardian Angels before it's too late."

- 'All alone'-

Robert Tibbo, Pushpakumara's lawyer in Canada, said his client has a pending application with Canadian immigration.

"The difficulty here is that Ajith is all alone right now and he's questioning why his case is taking so long," he told AFP.

Tibbo himself left Hong Kong in 2017, saying he feared for his safety after representing the Snowden refugees in the Chinese business hub.

Snowden revealed thousands of classified documents exposing vast US surveillance put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

He ended up stranded in Hong Kong as media published his findings, initially in a hotel, surrounded by journalists from around the globe.

The group of refugees agreed to shelter him for about two weeks until he could fly to Russia, where he now lives.

Their role in the saga was only revealed in a 2016 Oliver Stone film about Snowden, which left them in "constant fear and worry" in Hong Kong, said For the Refugees.

It also highlighted the plight of refugees in Hong Kong, which has one of the lowest asylum approval rates in the world.

Only around one percent of claims are granted and the tiny fraction of claimants that are approved must get ultimate sanctuary in a third country.

While cases drag on for years, asylum applicants are not allowed to work and receive a stipend of just HK$3,000 ($385) a month in what is one of the world's least affordable cities.

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PARIS (Reuters) - France plans to extend the state of emergency until next year's summer to deal with the continuing coronavirus epidemic, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.

"What we will propose to the parliament is to maintain for several more months, until the summer, the possibility of using it", Attal told reporters after a cabinet when asked about the state of emergency and use of a health pass to gain access to venues such as restaurants, bars and cinemas.

This would mean that the government would keep the power to extend or reinstate restrictive measures such as lockdowns, limits on crowd movements and the health pass that currently is required until Nov. 15.

(Reporting by Matthieu Protard; Editing by GV De Clercq and Alison Williams)
France's ambassador returned to the United States on Wednesday after nearly two weeks as the allies patch up relations following fury in Paris over the cancellation of a lucrative contract.

Ambassador Philippe Etienne was ordered back to Paris on September 17 for consultations after Australia backed out of a multibillion-dollar contract for French submarines as part of a new alliance with Washington and London.

Etienne arrived Wednesday afternoon at Dulles International Airport outside the US capital, a French embassy spokesman said.

His return was agreed upon during a telephone call last week between French President Emmanuel Macron and his US counterpart Joe Biden, who acknowledged that Washington could have communicated better with its longtime ally.

In strikingly strong language, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had accused the United States of betrayal and Australia of backstabbing.

Canberra said it scrapped the contract as it decided it needs nuclear submarines, which can stay underwater for far greater stretches, at a time of rising tensions with China.

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UK fuel prices have soared over the past year. (Getty)

As the fuel crisis continues to cause problems at filling stations, data shows that petrol and diesel prices have rocketed over the last year  and could get even worse.

Pumps have been left dry across the UK following a surge in demand as consumers rushed to fill their tanks amid reports there was a shortage of drivers to deliver petrol and diesel to forecourts.

Drivers are now being warned that fuel prices could reach record levels, even if the current crisis ends.

The RAC said average prices may hit 143p per litre for petrol and 145p per litre for diesel in the next few weeks. That is up from the current level of 135p per litre for petrol and 138p per litre for diesel.

Fuel prices have experienced a rollercoaster ride in the past few years.

Average UK fuel prices appear to have stabilised in the last few days despite the long queues and pump closures, but as the chart below shows, prices have gone from 1.05 a litre at the height of the pandemic to 1.38 this week.

Chart shows the cost of fuel since 2016

The graph shows fuel prices fell drastically in March last year after the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Fuel consumption dropped significantly as the UK government announced tight restrictions on movement and ordered people to stay at home.

Diesel sales nosedived according to official data, from 12,000 litres per day in sampled filling stations in mid-March last year to 1,400 litres a month later, while petrol sales fell from 7,000 to 1,100 litres in the same period.

In December, fuel prices started to rise again due to oil producers making cuts and the market speculating on increased demand when vaccines were approved and rolled out.

In June, fuel prices eventually returned to pre-pandemic levels as the UK posted the fastest pace of vaccinations in Europe.

The price of unleaded gasoline reached 1.29 a litre, the highest level since August 2019, according to RAC Foundation figures.

The average UK fuel prices now remain stable despite pump closures, although there are incidents of filling stations hiking charges.

Story continues

Government figures show the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts increased by just a fraction of 1p to 1.35 on Monday.

Typical diesel prices rose from 1.37p to 1.38p over the same period.

The AA said instances of petrol stations increasing prices are likely to be attempts to deter drivers from topping up fuel tanks when they do not need to.

It added that prices at forecourts off main roads tend to be dearer, but not massively.

The average UK fuel prices remain stable despite pump closures. (Getty)

The RAC has warned that rising wholesale prices are set to be passed on to motorists in the coming days, with oil edging closer to $80 a barrel.

Gas and electricity prices in Europe have surged in recent months as gas supply issues have collided with rising demand in economies recovering from the pandemic.

Prices have increased around 250% this year due to low stock levels, high demand in Asia, high carbon prices and outages.

UK households are facing higher gas and electricity prices after the UK government said it would not bail out energy companies on the brink of collapse.

Watch: Army tanker drivers to be put on standby amid fuel supply issues
ANCRAM, N.Y.  Writer and environmental advocate Jasmine Neosh, a member of the Menominee Nation, laments that her people have forgotten centuries of knowledge about native plants. During the pandemic, she says, this lost wisdom was felt even more acutely.

Many tribes were hit hard by economic hardship, says Neosh, a student in the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin. In my panic, I realized that we are going to have to learn how to feed ourselves. And so, Neosh undertook a project to find out about edible flora on the Menominee reservation.

In recognition of her efforts to create a more sustainable food system for her people, Neosh was named one of four inaugural winners of a Forge Project Fellowship, a program designed to support established and emerging Indigenous leaders working in land justice, education, food security and culture.

Jasmine Neosh, a writer and environmental advocate, is a member of the Menominee Nation. Neosh is working to create a more sustainable food system for her people.

The fellowship includes financial support of $25,000 and a residency at Forge Project in Ancram, N.Y., 20 minutes from the town of Hudson on unceded, traditional, and ancestral lands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok, as their website acknowledges.

Neosh shares the honor with architect and professor Chris Cornelius (Oneida), filmmaker and artist Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians) and Mohican language teacher Brock Schreiber (Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans).

This years winners were chosen by Forge Project Director of Education Heather Bruegl (Oneida/Stockbridge-Munsee).

Being an Indigenous person, being a historian, being a woman, its very rewarding to highlight these amazing people in the homelands of my ancestors, says Bruegl, whose Stockbridge-Munsee forebears once lived on land that stretched across parts of New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. Its a feeling I cant describe. Its a feeling of being home.

Mohican language teacher Brock Schreiber (Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans) won a$25,000 fellowship with the Forge Project, which includes a residency in Ancram, N.Y.

In the future, she says, the fellowship program may accept nominations or applications the details are still being worked out.

Story continues

Forge Project was co-founded earlier this year by Becky Gochman, a philanthropist and erstwhile art teacher, and Zach Feuer, director of The Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi in Hudson and a former gallerist. Funding is being provided by the Gochman Family Foundation, which also supports other social justice causes, womens health, the arts and equestrian scholarships.

Forge Project occupies two buildings designed by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei in collaboration with Swiss architecture firm HHF and completed in 2008. It is the only private residence that Weiwei has designed in the U.S.

Forge Project occupies two buildings in Ancram, N.Y., designed by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei in 2008. It is the only private residence that Weiwei has designed in the U.S.

The main house, known as the Tsai Residence for investor Christopher Tsai who commissioned the project, is a cool, silvery-gray rectangle constructed from four square wooden boxes covered with corrugated metal panels. The vibe is considerably warmer on the inside, thanks to gypsum-paneled walls, wood floors and enormous windows that look out onto grassy fields.

Nearby stands the guest house, a red rusted-steel Y-shaped building that curves like a Richard Serra sculpture. Its main floor features a wood-paneled gallery space, while one flight below a studio/living space encompasses both indoor and outdoor living areas. The nearly 38-acre property and buildings were purchased in April this year for $4.9 million.

Both buildings house numerous artworks by both Native American and local Hudson Valley artists, including Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Gigaemi Kukwits, Raven Halfmoon and Nicholas Galanin, who installed 45-foot-high white letters spelling INDIAN LAND in the Southern California desert. Galanins photograph of these words, a smackdown of the Hollywood sign two hours away, hangs in the Tsai Residence living room.

The Forge collection currently contains around 100 works of art, all of which are available for curators to borrow, and acquisitions are ongoing, according to Executive Director Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation).

The importance of the collection is to make it accessible, she says.

Nicholas Galanin installed 45-foot-high white letters spelling INDIAN LAND in the Southern California desert. Galanins photograph of these words, a smackdown of the Hollywood sign two hours away, is now at the Forge Project in Ancram, New York.

The fellowships, she explains, should be considered a retreat. Theyre not producing anything for us, says Hopkins, a curator of the Toronto Biennial of Art and a co-curator of the 2018 SITE Santa Fe biennial. We are offering the fellows time and space in what we consider a pretty incredible place in upstate New York.

Architect Chris Cornelius, who lived and worked in the guest house for three weeks this summer, calls it an amazing experience. It gave me time at a point in my career when time is a luxury, he says.

Cornelius was a cultural consultant and design collaborator with Antoine Predock on the award-winning Indian Community School of Milwaukee and will be part of the first architecture exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, opening on May 7, 2022. His firm is studio:indigenous.

When visual artist Sky Hopinka takes up residence at Forge in November, he plans to work on a series of landscape photographs etched with text. Its really wonderful, he says of the fellowship program. It helps support what people are doing today.

While in Ancram this month, Neosh will interview experts on land justice, sovereignty and stewardship for a new podcast called Of the Land.

The land has taken care of us for thousands of years, she says. I want to get people back to it.

Bruegl believes the Forge Project shows the resiliency of indigenous people. I hope our ancestors can see what we are doing, she says.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY's Forge Project supports Indigenous artists, educators, leaders
Data: USSC; Chart: Sara Wise/Axios

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House voted 361-66 on Tuesday in favor of the EQUAL Act  a bill that would eliminate sentencing discrepancies between offenses for crack and powder cocaine.

Why it matters: For decades, much smaller amounts of crack than powder cocaine have triggered mandatory minimum sentences of at least five years, despite them being different forms of the same drug. And that's fueled a significant racial disparity in drug-sentencing outcomes.

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77% of those arrested for and convicted of crack trafficking in 2020 were Black, compared to 27% for powder cocaine, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 64% of powder cocaine offenders were Hispanic.

More than half of traffickers for either kind of cocaine received at least five-year sentences. There have been fewer crack than powder cocaine offenders in recent years, but the crack offenders have received more prison time, on average.

Between the lines: Both Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a progressive Democrat, and Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, a conservative Republican, spoke Tuesday afternoon in support of the bill.

Their unity showed that while the police reform debate remains partisan and contentious, other efforts at criminal justice reform have garnered more bipartisan support in recent years.

How we got here: A law passed in 1986 created the same mandatory minimum sentences for crimes with five grams of crack and 500 grams of powder cocaine  a 100:1 disparity.

In 2010, that disparity was reduced to 18:1 through the Fair Sentencing Act.

In 2018, in the First Step Act, that reduced disparity was made retroactive, allowing more than 3,700 incarcerated people  almost all Black  to reduce their sentences and thousands to be released early.

If the EQUAL Act passes the Senate, the disparity would be eliminated both for future offenses as well as retroactively. The Biden administration's acting director of National Drug Control Policy has voiced support for the bill.

What to watch: The dynamic duo on criminal justice reform  Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)  are working on a larger package that could include measures to address cocaine sentencing disparities.

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A drug bust has led to a murder investigation in Ohio after a SWAT team discovered human body parts inside a Columbus home, authorities said.

Franklin County Sheriffs Office SWAT team members scoured the two-story house in Columbus Wednesday morning as part of an ongoing investigation. Deputies arrested two people inside the home before finding evidence of what appears to be a truly sinister crime, FCSO said in a statement.

The sheriffs office is handing over the investigation of the grisly remains to the Columbus Police Department, as the home falls within CPDs jurisdiction.

At this point, the body parts are a mystery. Whose are they? How many victims are there?

We are trying to find out if these body parts belong to one person or multiple people, CPDs Sgt. James Fuqua told WBNS.

Investigators believe that the victim, or victims, were female, WCMH reported.

It was no secret that the address on the citys southwest side was a drug house, neighbors told WBNS, and it had been that way for about a year. Residents also said that two women who appeared to live in the home have not been seen in some time.

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BAGHDAD (AP)  Iraqs top Shiite cleric called Wednesday for wide participation in next months parliament elections, saying that despite shortcomings, voting remains the best way for Iraqis to take part in shaping their countrys future.

Iraqis are headed to the polls Oct. 10 for early elections characterized by widespread apathy and concerns of low voter turnout. The elections are being held a year before they had been scheduled to take place in line with a key demand of protesters who filled the streets in October 2019 demanding change in the country, where corruption is widespread.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraqs most powerful religious authority, was a strong backer of early elections at the time, calling it the right and peaceful path to getting out of the political, economic, security and health problems Iraq faces.

Al-Sistani said elections must be held away from external interferences and conducted in a reassuring atmosphere far from the influence of money and illegal weapons  an apparent reference to powerful Iranian-backed militias who maintain strong influence over Iraq.

In a statement released by his office Wednesday, al-Sistani encouraged all eligible Iraqis to participate consciously and responsibly in the upcoming elections, although it is not without some shortcomings.

He said Iraqis must take advantage of this important opportunity to shape their countrys future and bring about a real change in the administration of the state and remove corrupt and incompetent hands.

Make a good choice, otherwise the failures of the previous parliaments and the governments emanating from them will be repeated, he said, in rare, blunt criticism of previous administrations.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Wednesday for new efforts to promote coronavirus vaccination within Arab communities, which are now the leading hotspots of Covid transmission.

Before leaving New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly, partly on Israel's pandemic response, Bennett said "the 40 'reddest' communities in Israel are from the Arab sector", referring to transmission rates.

Bennett has faced criticism from some health experts over his refusal to reimpose lockdown restrictions despite persistently highly daily case counts.

But Bennett said his government's policy was to keep Israel "as open as possible alongside focused work on the non-vaccinated and the centres of morbidity".

"What will help is... going to the Arab sector, and persuading them," he told reporters.

Israel's Arab citizens, Palestinians who remained on their land after Israel's founding in 1948, make up roughly 20 percent of the country's 9.3 million population.

Zahi Said, a spokesman for the health ministry, told AFP that 40 percent of all new infections in Israel -- and a similar rate of hospitalisations and deaths -- were within the Arab community.

Said attributed the high rates to a "lack of vaccination and non-compliance with health ministry instructions, such as distancing and wearing masks."

He said the ministry was promoting vaccine awareness in Arab cities and towns, but that vaccine resistance has persisted.

Israel was in December among the first countries to launch a national vaccination campaign that brought infections down to a trickle and allowed the lifting in June of nearly all pandemic restrictions.

The emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant caused infections to surge, but Bennett's government has opted to rollout a third, or booster, jab of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine instead of a new lockdown.

Israeli data shows that those who have received a third shot are less likely to become seriously ill with Covid than those who have received the required two shots.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's foreign minister will fly to Bahrain on Thursday, the highest-level official Israeli visit to the Gulf state since the countries established ties last year, the Foreign Ministry said.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will inaugurate Israel's embassy in Manama and sign bilateral deals during the visit, a ministry statement on Wednesday said.

Bahrain and Gulf neighbour United Arab Emirates normalised relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords that built on shared business interests and worries about Iran.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Alison Williams)
The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has issued 11 new subpoenas to people involved in planning the rally ahead of the riots.

Why it matters: The new subpoenas provide more insight into the scope of the select committee's investigation as it ramps up. The previous subpoenas were issued to four members of former President Trump's inner circle.

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The details: Those who were issued subpoenas include: Caroline Wren, Cynthia Cindy Lee Chafian, Hannah Salem Stone, Justin Caporale, Katrina Pierson, Kylie Jane Kremer, Lyndon Brentnall, Maggie Mulvaney, Megan Powers and Tim Unes.

According to the committee's release, Women for America First (WFAF) organized the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse, rallies at Freedom Plaza on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12 and two March for Trump nationwide bus tours that generated interest and attendance at the Washington rallies.

"The subpoenas are helping to fill in the details of a picture that's becoming clearer and clearer from a lot of information that's online," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Axios on Wednesday.

What's next: Those who have already received subpoenas have not yet responded, Thompson told reporters.

They were sent to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former communications official Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kash Patel and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

They have until Oct. 7 to turn over the requested documents. Patel and Bannon are instructed to appear before the committee on Oct. 14, and Meadows and Scavino have been told to appear on Oct. 15.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has warned that those who refuse to comply with subpoenas would be guilty of criminal contempt.

Former President Trump has suggested the group is covered by executive privilege.

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Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday sought a two-year jail sentence for Greg Kelly, a former aide of fugitive ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn, on trial over financial misconduct allegations.

While Ghosn is at large in Lebanon after fleeing Japan in an audio equipment box, Kelly is the only person to stand trial over claims Nissan tried to hide planned payments to the auto tycoon.

In a Tokyo court, prosecutors also demanded that Nissan, standing trial as a firm alongside Kelly, be fined 200 million yen ($1.8 million).

The defence will deliver its final arguments on October 27 and the verdict could follow several months later.

Prosecutors alleged that the 65-year-old American lawyer and former Nissan executive played a key role in what they described as a conspiracy to under-report Ghosn's compensation between 2010 and 2018.

"Kelly was behind the efforts to hide Ghosn's income," they said in their statement. "It was a role only Kelly, who had deep trust from Ghosn, could fulfil."

"It needed to be someone comfortable with pursuing... Ghosn's demands, and qualified to be the 'brains' with enough skills as a lawyer to deal with various risks including criminal sanctions," the prosecutors added.

Falsifying annual securities reports can carry a sentence of up to 10 years under Japanese law.

Kelly has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and is living in Tokyo, out on bail and forbidden from leaving Japan while fighting the case.

His lawyer Yoichi Kitamura told AFP on Wednesday that the prosecutors' request "means nothing for us, because we're confident Greg Kelly is not guilty".

"Unless we get the not guilty verdict we'll automatically appeal," he said, adding that Kelly had been "loyal to Nissan, but not to Ghosn as an individual".

- Vast fallout -

The Nissan scandal erupted in 2018 when Ghosn and Kelly were arrested in the Japanese capital, grabbing headlines and sending shockwaves around the corporate world.

Story continues

Ghosn was slapped with a series of financial misconduct charges, including allegations he was to receive payment after retirement that should have been declared but was not.

The charges against Kelly involve around 9.1 billion yen ($82 million at current rates) that prosecutors say was promised to his former boss upon retirement.

Nissan has pleaded guilty to the charge against it over the alleged payments.

But both Kelly and Ghosn say no final agreement was made on any post-retirement pay, and therefore no disclosure was legally required.

Ghosn, a French, Lebanese and Brazilian national, jumped bail in December 2019 and fled to Lebanon, where he remains a fugitive.

He says he fled for fear he would not receive a fair trial, and claims the charges against him were cooked up by Nissan executives opposed to his plans to more closely integrate the firm with French partner Renault.

The fallout from Ghosn's arrest has been vast, with Nissan's CEO forced out after his own financial irregularities were uncovered in a subsequent probe.

And Ghosn's audacious escape has also prompted legal repercussions around the globe.

The American father and son who helped Ghosn flee Tokyo were given prison sentences in July, having been extradited to Japan from the United States.

Two pilots and another employee of a private airline in Turkey, where Ghosn switched planes before heading to Lebanon, have also been sentenced to four years and two months for their role in the escape.

Ghosn was questioned by French investigators in Lebanon in May over a series of alleged financial improprieties. But he was only heard as a witness, and would need to be in France to be formally indicted.

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Artist Jasper Johns in his studio, a converted horse barn, in Sharon, Conn., on February 2, 2018. (Andrew White/The New York Times)

Artist Jasper Johns in his studio, a converted horse barn, in Sharon, Conn., on February 2, 2018. Credit - Andrew WhiteThe New York Times/Redux

Jasper Johns, possibly Americas most famous living artist and still plying his trade at 91, launches two retrospectives on Sept. 29; one at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the other at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibitions, known collectively as Mind/Mirror, illuminate the through lines of Johns large body of work: his fascination with such everyday symbols as numbers, targets, maps and flags; his sometime habit of limiting his color palette to red, blue, yellow and orange; and his exploration of such techniques as collage, hatching and scale. One section of the Whitney is dedicated to his variations on the motif of a Savarin coffee can crammed with brushes, which is widely believed to be the artists way of representing himself. Johns, who famously destroyed all his prior work before painting his first flag, lives in Connecticut and rarely gives interviews. He answered questions from TIME via email.

The retrospectives at the Whitney and in Philadelphia are called Mind/Mirror. For you, is art more a way of representing thought, or a way of representing what you see?

I dont know about more or less. I think it is both and a play between them.

Do you miss anything about being young?

Agility.

What would constitute a perfect day for you?

Few interruptions.

Youve had friends who were poets and youve been interested in the overlap between poetry and art. Do you still read poetry?

I do still read poetry, old and new. I read The Poetry Projects newsletter when time allows. Friends sometimes email their poems or send copies of recently published books.

One of your friends, the poet Frank OHara, wrote that he was sentimental enough to wish to contribute something to lifes fabric, to the worlds beauty. Do you feel confident you have done that?

Its not what I set out to do, but I suppose the possibility that it might be a consequence is a nice thought.

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For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

I am lucky for being able to devote myself to work that remains interesting to me.

You have spoken of how many of your works start with things the mind already knows, numbers, colors, targets, flags. Did any of these things start to become unfamiliar?

All familiar things can open into strange worlds.

Would any flag have worked? The Union Jack? The Japanese sun?

My first Flag painting followed a dream of an American flag so that is what I painted.

You have returned in several works to a LIFE photograph by Larry Burrows of a soldier devastated by the death of a fellow soldier. Its not his most famous image; why did that one speak to you?

I was not familiar with Burrows work. The photograph itself seemed to ask for my attention.

A few years later, Burrows died while on assignment in Laos. Is image-making worth dying for?

Dying while on assignment doesnt seem like a bad idea.

Can any imagesas mundane as a coffee can or dramatic as a mourning soldierstill have power in a world so suffused by imagery and information?

Visual information remains a primary source of meaning.

To what do you attribute your long creative life?

One does not plan the length of ones life, so I might attribute it to chance.

Do you wonder what the last work you make will be?

I sometimes think it is the one I am working on.

Your work is sometimes regarded as chilly or detached. Do you understand that perception?

No.

Robert Rauschenberg said that Good art can never be understood. Do you agree?

Not with the language. I dont know that art can be understood in any final way, but a search for understanding tends to open ones eyes rather than close them.
Gen. Milley Olivier Douliery - Pool/Getty Images

During a classified briefing on Tuesday, Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley "directly blamed" the State Department for the United States' bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, reports Axios, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Milley reportedly told lawmakers that State officials "waited too long" to order the evacuation operation out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Such private comments were "far more blunt" than the general's public testimony, in which he said the issue of the order's timing is an "open question that needs further exploration," per Axios.

The two days of testimony from Milley and other defense officials "underscore the finger-pointing and deep divisions between the State Department and the Pentagon," and "could renew scrutiny into Secretary of State Antony Blinken's performance" during the withdrawal, Axios writes. Blinken has already testified in front of Congress.

A third source, however, argued to Axios that the general "wasn't blaming anybody per se, but was speaking from a purely military perspective. The quicker we moved out non-combatants, the safer they would be." Read more at Axios.

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7 painfully funny cartoons about America's endless vaccine fights

Democrats are governing like Republicans
Vice President Kamala Harris nodded while a student accused Israel of ethnic genocide and then responded by saying the student's "truth should not be suppressed."

After speaking at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, to commemorate National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, Harris took questions from the audience. That's when a female student raised questions about the money the U.S. is providing to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"I see that over the summer there have been, like, protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers" about the Palestinian cause, the student said. She went on to note how "just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it's ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I'm sure you're aware of this."

The student went on to allege that the money that would otherwise go to Americans struggling with housing and health care costs goes instead "to inflaming Israel and backing Saudi Arabia and what-not."

KAMALA HARRIS' NIECE SAYS THOSE WHO ARE NEUTRAL ON ISRAEL-GAZA HAVE CHOSEN THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSOR

Harris replied that she "was glad" the student brought up such concerns and went on to say her opinion should be heard in a democracy.

"And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things we're fighting for in a democracy, right?" Harris said.

Harris also claimed that democracy is "at its weakest when anyone is left out" of the conversation.

"Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity, right?" said Harris, later adding, "Unity should never be at the expense of telling anyone personally that, for the sake of unity, Oh, you be quiet about that thing. You suppress that thing. Lets not deal with that thing.' That's not unity. True unity is everyone in that room has a voice.

"The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody's voice should be suppressed on that," she added.
Thirty-nine employees of Truman Medical Centers/University Health have resigned rather than comply with the health systems new COVID-19 vaccination mandate  amounting to less than 1% of workers there, hospital officials said Tuesday.

In July, Truman was the first hospital in the Kansas City area to require employee vaccinations. It gave approximately 5,000 workers until Sept. 20 to get vaccinated or find employment elsewhere. The mandate followed the rapid rise in hospitalizations caused by the COVID-19 delta variant.

We had amazing support from our team on this, said Truman president and CEO Charlie Shields. Overall, the majority of our team members thought this was the right thing to do. They were very proud that Truman led the way in vaccinations, led the way in testing and is now leading the way with the mandate on employees.

A few employees requested exemptions for medical or religious reasons, said Shields, but he didnt have an exact number. The employees who effectively resigned, he said, came from across the entire health system and didnt affect one area more than another.

After Truman, Saint Lukes, the University of Kansas Health System and Childrens Mercy issued similar vaccination requirements for their employees, setting various deadlines that stretch to mid-December.

Trumans announcement in July came on the day that nearly 60 medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, called on health care and long-term care employers to require their workers to get the COVID vaccine.

The groups pointed out that many of those employers already require employees to be vaccinated for influenza and hepatitis B.

Truman administrators wanted to show the public that the vaccines are safe.

As an academic medical center we base every decision on science, Shields said in July. And the science on the safety and efficacy of these vaccines is very clear to us.

We want to make sure that people understand that we feel theyre safe, we feel theyre effective, they prevent hospitalizations, they prevent death and its the right thing to do. And were going to lead by example on that.

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In December, Truman created a media event to showcase one of its nurses getting a COVID shot, one of the first people in the area to do so. Shields has a photo of that first vaccination on his office wall.

Sarah Kiehl, an ICU nurse at Truman Medical Centers/University Health, was the first health care worker there to receive the new coronavirus vaccine in December 2020. The health system gave employees until Sept. 20 to get vaccinated or lose their jobs. Fewer than 40 employees resigned instead of taking the shots.

But hospitals and long-term care facilities have struggled to get employees vaccinated, much to the consternation of their bosses. When Truman mandated the shots, about 70% of its employees had been vaccinated.

When Saint Lukes mandated vaccines in August, hospital officials said about 65% of their 12,000 employees were already vaccinated. The rest have until Oct. 30 to comply.

When Childrens Mercy announced its mandate on Sept. 16, president and CEO Paul Kempinski said that about 80% of employees already were fully vaccinated. Employees there have until Dec. 15 to get both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

KUs vaccination requirement, which came with a deadline of Dec. 1, spurred a small protest outside the hospital earlier this month.

The hospitals have taken the lead in a metro where most area businesses hesitate implementing employee vaccine mandates, fearing lawsuits and losing workers, according to a Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce survey.

The message of Trumans success, said Shields, is that people who work in health care take their role in health care and their mission of caring for people and not putting patients in danger very seriously.

So the fact that we had such a high compliance rate with this goes back to why people are in this business in the first place  its to take care of people and make sure people are safe.
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Turkey has made a request to the U.S. to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as the NATO ally looks to modernize its Air Force after the purchase of F-35 jets fell through, sources familiar with the matter said. The deal, worth billions, is still working its way through the Foreign Military Sales process which is subject to approval by the U.S. State Department as well as the U.S. Congress which can block deals. "As a matter of policy, the Department does not confirm or comment on proposed defense sales or transfers until they have been formally notified to Congress," a spokesperson for the State Department said.
Henry Nicholls via Reuters

Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens may have used the pretense of Britains COVID-19 lockdown rules to falsely arrest, handcuff, rape, and murder 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard, a sentencing court heard Wednesday. Couzens pleaded guilty to Everards brutal rape and murder and will be sentenced this week.

She Was Just Walking Home

Chief prosecutor Tom Little told the court that Couzens behavior was premeditated after he clocked off his 12-hour shift on the morning of March 4. He rented a white Vauxhall Astra car and then, hours before patrolling for a victim, he went to a nearby Tesco grocery store and bought a pack of 14 ponytail holders and adhesive tape.

This is a significant purchase, and part of the defendants plans, Little told the sentencing court Wednesday morning.

Couzens, a married diplomatic-protection officer, then found Everard, who Little reiterated was just walking home alone that evening. Little said the two did not know each other previously. He said Couzens stopped Everard after she had been at a friends house for dinner during the height of the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in England.

Knowing she may have skirted lockdown rules, she likely agreed to get into Couzens car after he showed her his badge or identified himself as a cop, Little said. Surveillance cameras on two passing buses and a witness account say Couzens handcuffed her and put her in the back of his car.

A female witness who saw Couzens detain Everard told Little that she was compliant with her head down and did not appear to be arguing. Little then told the sentencing court that the woman believed she was witnessing an undercover police officer arresting a woman whom she assumed must have done something wrong, but in reality, Little said: They were in fact witnessing the kidnapping of Sarah Everard.

The prosecutor went on: She was detained by fraud. The defendant using his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other police-issue equipment to effect a false arrest.

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He then drove her some 80 miles to a forested area near property he owned with his wife where he strangled, raped, and killed Everard, before putting her body in a large green garbage bag and dumping it into a stream.

Everard had talked to her boyfriend on the phone for 14 minutes before Couzens stopped her and was supposed to text her friend that she made it home safely. When she failed to text or respond to calls, the friend and her boyfriend searched for her at home before reporting her missing. A manhunt ensued and her body was found six days after she disappeared.

During the manhunt, police were able to identify Couzens as the last person to see her. When questioned, he made up a fanciful story, telling detectiveshis colleaguesthat he had hit hard times and owed a gang of Eastern Europeans money or a girl after he had underpaid a prostitute they were pimping. He admitted to taking Everard but said he handed her over to three men in a van and had no idea what happened next.

But detectives found a broken piece of the SIM card from Everards phone embedded in the rental-car carpet and determined from his own cellphone data that he had been present with her in the forest. His perplexed wife told investigators that he was not a violent man and that he acted totally normal in the days after the heinous crime.

He did not cooperate with the investigation but pleaded guilty to the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, which in the U.K. could still mean he is eligible for parole unless the court rules he must spend the rest of his life in jail. The sentence is expected Thursday.

Everards murder sparked nationwide demonstrations about police brutality and an increase in violence and harassment against women in the U.K.especially against women walking alone.

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The big shareholder groups in New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE:NYCB) have power over the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

New York Community Bancorp has a market capitalization of US$6.0b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. In the chart below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about New York Community Bancorp.

Check out our latest analysis for New York Community Bancorp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About New York Community Bancorp?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

New York Community Bancorp already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at New York Community Bancorp's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in New York Community Bancorp. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 13% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.8% and 3.7% of the stock.

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Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of New York Community Bancorp

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We can see that insiders own shares in New York Community Bancorp, Inc.. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth US$198m. Most would see this as a real positive. Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 32% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand New York Community Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for New York Community Bancorp that you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
If you want to know who really controls Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Annaly Capital Management is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of US$13b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Annaly Capital Management.

Check out our latest analysis for Annaly Capital Management

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Annaly Capital Management?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Annaly Capital Management already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Annaly Capital Management's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Annaly Capital Management is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 8.6%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.3% by the third-largest shareholder.

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Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Annaly Capital Management

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our information suggests that Annaly Capital Management, Inc. insiders own under 1% of the company. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own US$33m worth of shares. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a substantial 55% stake in Annaly Capital Management, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Annaly Capital Management better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Annaly Capital Management (including 2 which are significant) .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
The Daily Beast

Dallas County Sheriff's OfficeA bizarre saga in Missouri involving a missing woman who was seen being held captive in a cage has taken a baffling turn as the house where she was apparently kept burned to the groundimmediately after authorities discovered it had been boobytrapped.The Dallas County Sheriffs Office said the fire at the home in Windyville, an unincorporated Ozarks community about 160 miles from Kansas City, occurred Monday night, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Thats mo
By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles officials on Wednesday signaled they would vote next week to prohibit unvaccinated people from entering most businesses in the United States' second-largest city, one of the nation's most severe crackdowns so far of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All but one of the City Council members present on Wednesday said they supported the proposed "emergency" ordinance, which would require proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, bars, shopping centers, gyms and other indoor spaces.

"I am sick and tired of yahoos going into Trader Joe's (grocery store) refusing to wear a mask," City Council member Paul Kerkorian said in angry remarks. "I am fed up with people who want to make this into such a politicized issue they have lost all semblance of civility in our society."

If the proposal is approved next week, as expected, Los Angeles would join San Francisco and New York among major U.S. cities requiring proof of vaccination for indoor businesses. The new rule would take effect in November.

Political leaders across the United States, led by Democratic President Joe Biden, have ratcheted up pressure on the unvaccinated in recent weeks. Laws requiring proof of vaccinations are deeply controversial in the United States, with many Americans criticizing them as unconstitutional and authoritarian.

A majority of the Los Angeles City Council was prepared to vote in favor of the proof-of-vaccine measure on Wednesday. They were frustrated in that effort by council member Joe Buscaino, who, by withholding his vote, stood in the way of a so-called "unanimous consent."

Buscaino said the vaccine mandate could not be enforced, citing a report by the city's Department of Building and Safety that it was not equipped to take on such a law enforcement role.

The Los Angeles County Unified School District has issued an order requiring all teachers, staff and students at least 12 years old to be inoculated by Oct. 15 unless they can establish a religious or medical exemption.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Parents and community members in Virginia gathered outside a school board headquarters Tuesday to protest the school system's transgender student policy.

Residents of Loudoun County rallied outside the Ashburn headquarters, where speakers criticized the board's policy allowing students to use the facilities of their preferred gender and requiring teachers and staff to address students with the pronouns of their choosing, according to a report.

One such speaker was Tanner Cross, a physical education teacher who was suspended after condemning the policy when it was proposed, according to prior reports.

VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS REINSTATEMENT OF LOUDOUN COUNTY TEACHER WHO REFUSED TO USE PREFERRED PRONOUNS

He has since been reinstated, according to the Virginia Supreme Court.

"My win is a win for all teachers across the country who want to stand up for the good of their students," Cross said.

The policy's mandate that staff use students' preferred pronouns contradicts biology, Cross added.

It is harmful to lie to students and force teachers to enforce views that contradict their conscience and religion, the speakers noted.

"For my students confronting very sensitive and difficult and complicated questions about who they are, my goal is to give my students the love and the understanding and the emotional support that they need," said Monica Gill, a teacher of 26 years who works at Loudoun County High School.

"To do this, I also have to always be honest. I have to be honest with my students in a way that's best for them," Gill continued. "Because of this I cannot support Policy 8040."

Gill and two other teachers are demanding that the Loudoun County Circuit Court order an injunction against the policy while they battle the issue in court, according to legal documents.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The transgender student policy is in line with state law, the school system said.

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Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Virginia, Schools, Transgender, Court

Original Author: Luke Gentile

Original Location: Loudoun County residents gather outside school board meeting to protest transgender policy
Among those selected to receive the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship are people primarily known for their work in critical race theory, internet activism, and the promotion of social and racial equality values.

Ibram X. Kendi, author of the bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist; Cristina Ibarra, a documentary filmmaker who focuses primarily on Mexican family traditions and border towns; and filmmaker Alex Rivera, who focuses on topics surrounding politics and illegal immigration in the United States, were three of the 25 recipients of the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that came amid a reckoning on race that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.

UNIFORMITY IS KILLING AMERICA

Recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the "Genius Grant," is a "$625,000, no-strings-attached award" dispersed over five years. Recipients of the award are "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals," according to the MacArthur Foundation website.

Safiya Noble, an associate professor at the University of California Los Angeles and author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, is also a recipient of the MacArthur award this year. Noble said she plans to use her award to "accelerate and amplify the work of other Black women and women of color," as well as start a nonprofit organization, EquityEngine.org.

"The MacArthur Fellowship will have a transformative impact on the work I do to abolish the harmful and discriminatory effects of digital technologies," Noble said.

Let's take a moment today to celebrate boundless creativity...



Meet the 2021 MacArthur Fellows, 25 extraordinarily creative and inspiring individuals in all fields of endeavor: https://t.co/6wIercy5in



 pic.twitter.com/Blc8f8VqJg  MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) September 28, 2021



Two other recipients  Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of books such as From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, and Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Home Ownership; and filmmaker Jacqueline Stewart  explained how their time spent in Chicago has influenced their work.

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"Chicago is uniquely racist," Taylor said, adding how she was "struck" by the "city's stark segregation" when she first moved there, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Stewart talked about how she plans to put part of the grant money toward trying to "understand what happened to the promise of civil rights."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Joshua Miele, a blind adaptive technology designer who creates devices that allow the blind and visually impaired to use technologies in everyday life, also received the MacArthur Fellowship award this year.

Previous recipients of the award include people such as papermaker Timothy Barrett of the class of 2009, who is described as an "internationally recognized master craftsman" focused on "enhancing the art of hand-papermaking," and elder rights lawyer Marie-Therese Connolly of the class of 2011 who focuses on raising awareness regarding elder abuse and neglect.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Social Justice, Critical Race Theory

Original Author: Elizabeth Faddis

Original Location: MacArthur 2021 Genius grant recipients put spotlight on racial equality
The Daily Beast

The Washington Post via Getty ImagesMost of Trumps meetings with foreign business leaders that I attended were, like the episode in Kensington Palace, more about holding court than holding forth on issues of concern for American workers. Sometimes the president took bizarre turns into rambling monologues completely lacking in substance. It was becoming clear that this was how the man who had ridden into the White House on the grievances of ordinary Americans was going to fritter away his time i
(ABC12)

A Michigan man was found dead on a private beach with a winning lottery ticket in his wallet.

Authorities say that Gregory Jarvis, 57, had won $45,000 playing the states Club Keno game in a bar before his body washed up on the beach in Huron County.

Friends of Mr Jarvis said that he had not yet cashed in the lottery ticket because of an issue with his Social Security card, but had been in high spirits after the win, according to ABC12.

The alarm was raised when Mr Jarvis did not show up for work and two days later his body was found by someone walking along the beach on Saginaw Bay.

Kyle Romzek, the police chief in Caseville, Michigan, said that the discovery of the lottery ticket prompted investigators to look carefully into the circumstances surrounding the death.

We are thinking that he was tying up his boat, slipped and fell, hit his head, and thats where he ended up in the water, no foul play suspected, said Chief Romzek.

And he added: We were concerned about it (the lottery win) but after the autopsy, and we interviewed people at the bar, he was well-liked around here, he was nice guy, that took it off the table.

The autopsy shows Mr Jarvis had injuries consistent with hitting his head on the boat and drowning.

Friends say that he was planning on using the money to go and visit his father and sister in North Carolina.

The Michigan Lottery Commission says that winners of prizes of more than $600 have to provide a photo identification and a physical copy of their social security card to collect their winnings.

Mr Jarvis had reportedly lost his social security card and had applied for a new one.

His family now has possession of the winning ticket.
Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  A teacher has resigned from a North Carolina charter school after telling Black students in her class that if not for the Constitution, they would be her field slaves, a comment that one parent said brought attention to other racist incidents at the school. Winterville Charter Academy sent a memo which also referred to racially insensitive words being used by children in the class without any action from the teacher. The school leadership team acted immediately upon learning about a racially insensitive lesson and student remarks, and is currently working to address ongoing concerns from parents that racially insensitive student remarks continue, said Colleen Cullison, spokesperson for National Heritage Academies, the parent company for the school.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Olaf Scholz, the leader of the Social Democrats, on his election success, a government spokesperson said in a written statement on Tuesday.

In the national election, the SPD came marginally ahead of her conservative bloc, leading some in her party to say they should aim to form a government. Scholz has asserted that he alone won a mandate to seek a coalition.

"The Chancellor on Monday congratulated Olaf Scholz on his election success," the statement read.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)
By Daina Beth Solomon

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government sent 70 Haitian migrants back to Haiti on Wednesday in what it described as a "voluntary return" flight, days after the United States cleared thousands of Haitian migrants https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-border-camp-cleared-haitians-thousands-more-move-2021-09-25 from a camp at the Mexican border in Del Rio, Texas.

Mexico's interior and foreign ministries said in a joint statement that the "first group" of migrants - including 13 children - were flown to Port-au-Prince as part of an agreement between Mexican and Haitian authorities to manage a jump in Haitian migrants moving through Mexico to the U.S. border.

Nearly 30,000 migrants were encountered over a two-week period this month in Del Rio, where they had been living in a sprawling, makeshift encampment.

The United States had sent some 4,000 of those people back to Haiti as of Monday, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The expulsions sparked criticism about returning them to a politically unstable country beset by violence and natural disasters.

An estimated 8,000 migrants returned to Mexico, where officials have urged them to follow through with asylum applications in southern Mexico https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mexico-urges-haitians-us-mexico-border-give-up-head-south-2021-09-24.

The 70 migrants on Wednesday's flight had been in Mexico City and the states of Hidalgo, Tabasco and the State of Mexico, the government statement said.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Dave Graham and Sandra Maler)
The Pentagons top leaders acknowledged they knew within hours that an Aug. 29 airstrike in Kabul killed innocent civilians, claiming U.S. Central Command quickly admitted so, but the Defense Department repeatedly declined to confirm civilian casualties in the days after the strike.

The revelation came during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday in which Rep. Trent Kelly, a Mississippi Republican, grilled Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie about the strike, which the United States admitted three weeks later killed as many as 10 civilians, including an Afghan aid worker and seven children, as opposed to an ISIS-K terrorist.

The trio confirmed they all knew within hours the strike had killed civilians, yet the Pentagon did not admit that until long after.

Austin said he learned civilians had been killed several hours after the strike when it was reported to him by McKenzie. Milley said it was the same thing for him, and added, We knew that civilians were killed, we knew that noncombatants, and there was collateral damage.

Well, so, we knew the strike hit civilians within four or five hours after the strike occurred, and U.S. Central Command released a press release saying that, McKenzie said. We did not know, though, that the target of the strike was in fact in error, a mistake, until sometime later. It took us a few days to run that down.

But it is not true that CENTCOM issued a press release confirming the airstrike hit civilians.

GENERAL TRIES TO DISTANCE BOTCHED KABUL AIRSTRIKE FROM OVER-THE-HORIZON STRATEGY

CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban released an initial statement on Aug. 29 saying, U.S. military forces 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. Urban added, We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time.

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Later that day, the CENTCOM spokesman released an UPDATE, in which he said, We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today, claiming that a large amount of explosive material inside the car may have caused additional casualties. He added, It is unclear what may have happened, and we are investigating further. We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life. The statement did not confirm civilian injuries or deaths.

The next morning, on Aug. 30, Maj. Gen. William Taylor said, We are aware of reports of civilian casualties, and we take these reports very seriously, and we are continuing to assess the situation.

A U.S. military investigation concluded that the strike actually killed an aid worker and many of his family members, and McKenzie announced the results of the investigation nearly three weeks later. In addition to confirming civilian deaths, McKenzie added at the time, "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."

The botched strike took place days after an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated a device killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans outside the gates of the Kabul airport.

Milley himself was asked on Sept. 1 about the potential that numerous civilians had been killed in the airstrike, and he acknowledged that multiple people had been killed in the strike but did not admit they were civilians, saying, At least one of those people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator. So were there others killed? Yes, there are others killed. Who they are, we don't know. He called it a righteous strike.

A couple of days prior to the disastrous Kabul airstrike, the Pentagon said that two high-profile Islamic State targets who allegedly helped facilitate bombings were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

President Joe Bidens speech on Aug. 31 made no mention of civilian casualties when he said, We have whats called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground  or very few, if needed. Weve shown that capacity just in the last week. We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our service members and dozens of innocent Afghans.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was also repeatedly pressed on the possibility of civilian casualties in the days following the Kabul airstrike.

Psaki said on Aug. 30, I cant speak to or confirm the numbers or cases of civilian casualties in this case, and, I would say the fact that we have had two successful strikes confirmed by CENTCOM tells you that our over-the-horizon capacity works and is working. When asked again about civilian casualties the next day, Psaki said, There is an investigation, and I dont believe the military or CENTCOM has spoken to or confirmed what has been some reporting out there by news organizations.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Mark Milley, Lloyd Austin, CENTCOM, Afghanistan, Taliban, Joe Biden

Original Author: Jerry Dunleavy

Original Location: Military brass claim they knew within hours that airstrike killed Afghan civilians, contradicting DOD
Mark Milley assured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that former President Donald Trump could not launch an off-the-cuff nuclear strike when she called for his authorities to be limited after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the Joint Chiefs chairman revealed Tuesday.

Milley, whom Trump recently suggested is a "dumba**," detailed a call he had with Pelosi on Jan. 8, two days after the Capitol riot. During the call, he told her only the president has the ability to authorize a nuclear launch but that he "doesn't launch them alone."

A memo Milley provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee said Pelosi's office requested the call with him citing "urgent matters," during which Pelosi broached the question of the president's ability to launch nuclear weapons.

MILLEY SAYS TRUMP OFFICIALS KNEW OF SCRUTINIZED CALLS TO CHINA

I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president, Milley told the committee on Tuesday.

I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, and he doesnt launch them alone and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States, Milley said. There are processes, protocols, and procedures in place, and I repeatedly assured her there is no chance of an illegal, unauthorized, or accidental launch.

Pelosi wrote a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House that same day after the meeting, saying she spoke to Milley about "available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike."

Milley also said Tuesday that he met military officials to refresh the procedures around launching nuclear weapons but denied stepping out of bounds.

At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself in the chain of command, but I am expected, I am required, to give my advice and ensure that the president is fully informed on military matters, Milley said.

Story continues

Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's testimony in front of the armed services committee included questioning about the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal and a call Milley made during the Trump administration. The latter dealt with a conversation in which he told his Chinese counterpart he would "call [him] ahead of time" if the United States were going to attack.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

A host of Republicans and Trump himself slammed Milley in recent weeks over the exchange, arguing it undermined Trump's authority as commander in chief. Still, Milley has maintained the calls were "routine" and said the Trump administration knew about them.

I was communicating to my Chinese counterpart on instructions, by the way, to de-escalate the situation, and I told him that we are not going to attack, Milley said. President Trump has no intent to attack, and I told him that repeatedly  and I told them if there was going to be an attack, there will be plenty of communications going back and forth.

Of course I wouldnt tip off the Chinese to an impending attack, Milley also said.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Mark Milley, Joint Chiefs, Congress, Military, Donald Trump

Original Author: Jeremy Beaman

Original Location: Milley told Pelosi that Trump's nuke authority had safeguards: 'He doesnt launch them alone'
One man was fatally shot and three others were injured by gunfire in Minneapolis on Tuesday night.

The shootings took place in the 2700 block of Bloomington Avenue South in the Phillips neighborhood, according to a police news release. The gunfire broke out near Fire Station 5.

Police said they received several 911 calls reporting shots and from people who said they had been shot.

Police said the three victims they found with apparent gunshot wounds were taken to HCMC, where one was pronounced dead. A fourth victim was taken to HCMC in a private vehicle.

"Preliminary information indicates that all four males are linked to the scene near the 2700 block of Bloomington," the police statement said.

Police did not indicate the circumstances surrounding the shootings.

This is Minneapolis' 73rd homicide in 2021, according to the Star Tribune's database.

Alex Chhith  612-673-4759
Nurse Cindy Kelbert, left, checks on a critically ill COVID-19 patient through a glass door as she is surrounded by other nurses at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo

A Missouri hospital reported a rise in attacks on staff by patients in 2020.

By the end of the year, Cox Medical Center Branson will give up to 400 employees panic buttons.

The panic buttons will be on their ID cards and will send a message to security for help.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

A Missouri hospital is using grant money to attach panic buttons to the identification badges of its nurses and other workers after attacks on hospital staff rose last year.

By the end of this year, staff who work in the emergency room and inpatient hospital rooms at Cox Medical Center Branson will be able to use a panic button that alerts security who can then track the employee's location, the facility said in a Facebook announcement.

In their post, the facility said that assaults on staff by patients have tripled in the past year. Total assaults rose from 40 in 2019 to 123 in 2020. Total injuries rose from 17 in 2019 to 78 in 2020, the facility said.

In the Facebook post, Alan Butler, system director of Public Safety and Security, said the buttons are a critical tool to curb assaults.

"When Public Safety response is critical and it's not possible to get to a phone, person panic buttons fill a critical void," Butler said. "Personal Panic Buttons (PPBs) are one more tool in the battle to keep our staff safe and further demonstrate this organization's commitment to maintaining a safe work and care environment."

Ashley Blevins, a nurse at the hospital, told KYTV that she's been "spit on, cussed out," and even beaten by patients in the last year.

"It's nice we have the chance to press our button and security knows exactly where we are and if we end up having to chase a patient down they'll know where our last location is," Blevins told KYTV.

The Facebook post said the hospital system tested out similar buttons at their Springfield, Missouri, hospital.

An April report in JAMA found that violence against healthcare workers has been on the rise for at least the past decade. In November 2020, a survey by the National Nurses United found that about 20% of 15,000 respondents said they dealt with increased violence on the job.

Story continues

The nurses attributed the rise of violence to "decreasing staffing levels, changes in the patient population, and visitor restrictions."

Cox Medical Center Branson is also having the distress calls display on the hospital's nurse call system, so when an employee is being assaulted in a room, the outside of the room will light up and a custom tone will ring at designated nurse call consoles.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A group of more than 100 U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who escaped from Afghanistan on Tuesday are being held in custody in the Abu Dhabi airport after American agencies denied their charter flights entry into the U.S., according to leaders of Project Dynamo, a civilian rescue organization.

The group flew out of Kabul on Tuesday afternoon after getting clearance to leave from the Taliban, Bryan Stern, a U.S. military veteran and a co-founder of Project Dynamo, told National Review in a telephone interview on Wednesday morning. He believes theirs is the first private rescue flight to leave Kabul since the American military left the country on August 31.

There are 116 people in the group, mostly U.S. passport and green card holders, along with a small number of Afghans with special immigrant visas, Stern said. Photos of the operation provided to National Review show many young children are part of the group.

Children rest on the floor of the Abu Dhabi airport.

The plan was to fly out of Kabul on an Airbus A320 jet to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, transfer the passengers to an Ethiopian Airlines charter plane, and then fly to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

They were able to fly out of Afghanistan around 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

When asked how they got the okay from the Taliban, Stern would only say carefully. He said that by design he refuses to work with criminal organizations, or other bad or negative or otherwise complicated groups, but instead worked with people who got the Talibans sign-off on the flight through intermediaries.

We had the flights all set up. We understood we had clearance all the way through, into the United States, with permissions to land, said Stan Bunner, a lawyer and another member of Project Dynamo who has helped organize the operation from his home in Naples, Fla.

When the rescue group got to Abu Dhabi, they learned that they no longer had permission to land in New York. Because of that, their second plane was still grounded in Africa.

Story continues

They say a charter of our size and type cannot bring Americans to America from an international location, Stern said. It doesnt make any sense.

There also were concerns about measles, though Stern and Bunner said all of the people being rescued have been vaccinated for measles and COVID-19.

After their permission to fly to New York was denied, they received approval to fly into Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. That got the Ethiopian Airlines plan off the ground and flying to Abu Dhabi, but that permission was revoked as well, Stern said.

Then what happens is they apply for (Philadelphia), and the response the plane gets for Philly is that this airplane with this manifest is banned from all U.S. ports of entry, Stern said.

A child sleeps in a terminal at the Abu Dhabi airport.

Stern said Project Dynamo has been working with Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department on a solution. Theyre not going back to Afghanistan, he said of the people theyve rescued.

In the meantime, theyre stuck in the airport.

They put everybody in like an airplane hangar, in a passenger terminal thing, Stern said of the authorities in Abu Dhabi. We are in custody, surrounded by cops with guns. We cannot leave. We cannot do anything. We dont have our bags. No one here has showered in like four days. We are in this weird spot. Were in transit, but we cant leave.

A woman and two children aboard a flight out of Kabul.

In an email to National Review, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said all U.S.-bound flights must follow the established safety, security, and health protocols before they are cleared for departure. This process requires flight manifests to be verified before departure to the U.S. to ensure all passengers are screened appropriately.

A spokesperson for the State Department told National Review that our embassy staff in the UAE has been working around the clock to verify the accuracy of the passenger manifest and is coordinating with DHS/Customs and Border Protection on the ground to ensure the passengers are screened and vetted before they are permitted to fly to the United States. We expect the passengers to continue onward travel tomorrow morning.

The plan, at the moment, is for the group to fly into Chicago on Thursday on a commercial flight, Stern said. Looking at the big picture, the members of the group are in a better situation than they were. They woke up in Afghanistan surrounded by the Taliban, Stern said. They went to bed in the Emirate with McDonalds. Like, its okay.

But Stern was critical of the response from Customs and Border Protection. He said it is insane that a group of Americans coming out of a warzone is being denied entry into the U.S.

How dare you, CBP, deny entry to Americans who are under threat and duress, he said. Why should the government get in the way of getting Americans to safety?

Project Dynamo, which is entirely donor-funded, is one of likely dozens of civilian groups that emerged during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan with the goal of helping to rescue American citizens and allies from the chaos and from a new reign of Taliban barbarism. Theyve become a key lifeline for tens of thousands of people still hoping to escape the country.

More from National Review
Islamic State-linked militants leading an insurgency in northern Mozambique have kidnapped hundreds of boys and forced them to join their ranks as child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

A jihadist group known locally as Al-Shabab has been terrorising Mozambique's gas-rich Cabo Delgado region since 2017, raiding villages and towns in a bid to establish a caliphate.

Local sources told Human Rights Watch (HRW) armed militants have been abducting hundreds of teenagers, some as young as 12, and taking them to training camps.

"We joined many other men and boys and were trained on how to use guns and knives to fight," said a young man who was captured in 2020 and taken to a camp in the town of Mbau, around 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of the provincial capital Pemba.

"They told us that we had to kill and fight for our land and to protect our religion," he said, living in fear since he managed to escape while on patrol duty.

Cabo Delgado's insurgents grew bolder last year, attacking key towns including a coordinated raid on Palma in March 2021 that left dozens dead and displaced thousands.

That assault interrupted a nearby multi-billion-dollar gas project and prompted military deployments from African neighbours to support Mozambican troops.

One Palma resident said assailants kidnapped his 17-year-old son when they raided the town.

"I was on my knees begging [them] to take me instead," he said.

"One of the men hit my wife in the head with an AK-47 [assault rifle] to force her to release [our son]," he added.

The man's wife said she saw her son again two months after the attack, just before the family abandoned Palma.

"I was hiding inside the house when I heard his voice," she told HRW. "I saw him in a group of about a dozen other boys, all wearing camouflage trousers and a red band around the head."

In total, HRW spoke to four parents, an escapee and two witnesses. Their testimonies were published in a statement on Wednesday.

Story continues

Mozambique's insurgency has killed more than 3,300 people -- half of them civilians -- and displaced at least 800,000 from their homes over the past four years.

The militants, which sometimes behead their victims, are also known to abduct women and children.

sch/gs/ri
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed a cornerback to replace the injured Sean Murphy-Bunting, and now they have one.

Veteran cornerback Richard Sherman is signing with the Bucs, the team announced on Wednesday. Sherman also made the announcement on his new podcast, "The Richard Sherman Podcast," which launched on Wednesday.

Everything has been kind of wiry this offseason, but I finally had enough conversations, and I came to a decision that Im going to go play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sherman said via PFF. He also said that he had conversations with the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks, the only other teams he's ever played for, as well as the Carolina Panthers.

I went with the best offer I had, the best opportunity to go out there and put some great tape on, to lead another group, Sherman said via PFF. I feel comfortable and confident in my abilities to go out there and execute and help that team win. Obviously, I have a ton of love for the faithful and 49er fans and the 49ers' front office and that team. A lot of guys and a lot of friends Im still rooting for and cheering for throughout the season. Obviously, still have a lot of friends with the Seattle Seahawks.

But this was an opportunity I couldnt pass up, and I weighed all of the options with my wife and my family, and this is what we came up with. Ready to strap them back up and go out there and show that these old legs still have some juice.

Sherman, 33, had a turbulent offseason. In July he allegedly got into an altercation with his in-laws after driving to their home while intoxicated and was arrested in front of their home. He pleaded not guilty to five misdemeanors (one of which has been dropped), including driving under the influence, resisting arrest, and second-degree criminal trespass. A few days later he released a statement on Instagram apologizing for his actions and vowing to get the mental and emotional help he needed.

Story continues

Cornerback Richard Sherman's career is continuing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)

Tom Brady recruited Sherman

Sherman said on his podcast that he had discussions with multiple teams, but his conversation with the Buccaneers started in a way most people wouldn't expect: with a call from Tom Brady.

Brady and Sherman have a bit of a history, which mostly boils down to a single regular-season game in 2012, when Sherman's Seahawks beat Brady's New England Patriots in a comeback win. There was trash talk on the field, which led Sherman to tweet a picture of him and Brady together along with the caption, "U MAD BRO?" The tweet, while sadly deleted and lost to time, essentially launched Sherman into the public eye.

Sherman said on his podcast that all of that stuff is far behind them now, and he was glad Brady reached out to check in and see if he'd be interested in playing with the Bucs.

How did Richard Sherman end up in Tampa?



A phone call from Tom Brady 



Full episode  https://t.co/Go36b5pvOZ pic.twitter.com/bO5z2CAFnF  PFF (@PFF) September 29, 2021

He reached out initially and just checked to see if I was in shape, Sherman said via PFF. He and I have had a relationship over the years. Hes a great guy. Very encouraging. Obviously, we had our history, but what happens on the field stays on the field. Off the field, I think we have a very solid relationship. And I think we both thought it would be really cool if we had an opportunity to play together at some point in time. Obviously, with our situations, it didnt seem likely at any point in time, but he reached out and said they may express interest. And obviously, he wanted to play with me.

The conversation between Sherman and the Bucs' front office began a few weeks ago, but really got going once cornerbacks Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamel Dean got injured. Once that happened, Sherman said their talks began moving forward like a "steamroller."
Farm in Monmouthshire

There are no plans to relax the regulation of gene-edited crops in Wales, the Welsh government has said.

Under UK government plans rules will be eased to allow gene-edited crops to be tested and assessed in England in the same way as other varieties.

But the Welsh government says it will maintain its "precautionary approach towards genetic modification".

It will continue to view products produced by gene editing as genetic modified, it said.

The changes are possible because the UK no longer has to follow European Union regulations.

But the issue is devolved and governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can make their own decision.

The UK government's Environment Secretary George Eustice said that he would be working closely with farming and environmental groups to help grow plants that are stronger and more resilient to climate change.

Gene-edited (GE) crops have simpler genetic alterations than genetically modified (GM) versions, often involving the addition of extra genes.

Scientists believe that they can use gene editing to develop fruit, vegetables and cereals that are more nutritious and productive, as well as hardier varieties that can withstand extremes of weather.

European Union regulations require that gene-edited crops are treated the same as genetically-modified crops.

The Welsh government say they have no plans to revise the regulations.

"Unlike the UK government, we will continue to view products produced by gene editing as genetically modified as set out by the European Court of Justice in 2018," a spokeswoman said.
A large North Carolina hospital network said Tuesday that it has fired nearly 200 workers for failing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Dr. David H. Priest, chief for safety for Novant Health, said at a briefing that about 175 staffers did not comply with the system's vaccination deadline.

"By doing that, by not getting vaccinated, they voluntarily resign," Priest said.

Image: Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. (Google Maps)

The departures will not affect staffing at the hospital system of over 35,000 employees, Priest said, because the hospital has been using temporary staff members throughout the pandemic to make up for shortages because of staff members who have fallen ill with Covid.

Novant Health, a not-for-profit health care system with headquarters in Winston-Salem, operates over 15 medical centers and numerous other facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Priest said one "datapoint that remains stagnant" is how Covid is disproportionally hospitalizing the unvaccinated at Novant Health's facilities.

"As of this morning, 97 percent of our patients with Covid-19 in our ICUs, 98 percent of Covid patients on ventilators right now are unvaccinated," Priest said. "This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated  there are occasionally breakthrough cases, but you can still see that vaccines are holding up."

In a statement, Novant Health said staff members who obtained religious or medical exemptions will be required to use additional protective equipment and submit to weekly coronavirus testing.

"We are thrilled that the vast majority of team members gave Novant Healths patients and visitors, as well as our team members, better protection against COVID-19 regardless of where they are in our health system," Novant Health said in a statement.

Priest said "it is OK" if a small number of people are upset about the requirement.

"We have been in a deadly pandemic for 19 months, there are 680,000 Americans who have died, and we cannot contribute to that number a single time. One is too many," he said.

Story continues

President Joe Biden announced new vaccination mandates this month affecting federal workers and contractors, as well as Medicaid and Medicare providers  including hospitals  after vaccination rates lagged following a spring peak.

The firings at Novant Health represent one of the largest staff departures since hospitals began requiring vaccinations this year.

In Houston, over 150 people resigned or were fired in June because of the Houston Methodist hospital system's vaccine requirement.

Six people were fired at RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey in June for vaccination noncompliance.
A lieutenant in the NYPD office tasked with stopping workplace harassment and discrimination has been accused of sexually harassing a subordinate and sending her a photo of a penis, police sources said Tuesday.

Lt. Jose Briceno, the integrity control officer at the NYPDs Office of Equity and Inclusion, has been suspended without pay as the department investigates the female officers complaint, sources said.

Its the latest scandal to rock the office.

Earlier this year, Deputy Inspector James Kobel, the former commanding officer of the Equal Employment Opportunity Division, a sub-unit of the Office of Equity and Inclusion, was fired after a probe revealed he made hundreds of racist and sexist posts on an online message board.

Its outrageous that the office tasked with ensuring people are treated fairly has this much controversy coming out it, one police source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday. You cant make this up. The integrity control officer sent a dk pic to a subordinate female.

Briceno is accused of touching the officers hips, back, shoulders and hair, and making comments about her weight, police sources said.

The officer made her complaint last week, and the NYPD suspended him a day later, sources said.

Briceno, 40, joined the NYPD in July 2004 and joined the Office of Equity and Inclusion in 2019.

He most recently underwent sexual harassment awareness and prevention training in July, NYPD records show.

Briceno did not comment when contacted Tuesday night. The lieutenants union declined to comment.
otters

getty

A state known as The Last Frontier, partly due to its robust wildlife, is facing an unexpected menace.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently released a warning to Anchorage residents to stay alert around local lakes and rivers after two incidents of group otter attacks.

According to the department, on Sept. 1, a group of four river otters bit a child near Lake Otis. A few weeks later, officials received reports about a group of river otters chasing after a pet dog and biting the canine's owner near University Lake. On the same day at the same lake, an otter attacked a different dog.

The rapid succession of these incidents led to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issuing their warning.

"River otter attacks in Anchorage, while rare, have been reported over the last several years. River otter groups are typically comprised of either a mother with young, or associated bachelor males. The group composition of river otters responsible for the recent attacks is unknown," the department wrote in their release.

Officials believe one group of otters could be responsible for all of the attacks since the animals are known to travel long distances in a single day. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game does not know what is causing these "unusual behaviors" in the attacking otters, but the department is working to locate the animals to learn more.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game shared in their release that the department plans to remove the otters displaying aggressive behaviors when the animals are discovered.

RELATED: 'Crazy Rats' Infest Arizona Neighborhood After Resident Known for Hoarding Is Found Dead

"Care will be taken to only remove the animals exhibiting these unusual behaviors. Due to their aggressive behavior toward people and pets, it is likely they would continue those actions in any new environment, making relocation problematic as it would simply move the dangerous behavior to another location," the release on the department's response to the issue reads.

"Protecting the public by minimizing dangerous human-wildlife interactions is a priority for ADF&G. River otters are present in many areas of the Anchorage Municipality, and removal of this group of river otters will not remove the entire population from the area. Any animals lethally removed will be tested for rabies due to their unusually aggressive behavior. There has not been a reported case of rabies in river otters in southcentral Alaska in recent years, however, the possibility of disease concern remains," the release concluded.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) also asked that any aggressive wildlife sightings in the Anchorage area be reported to the nearest ADF&G office or online at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov.
Sep. 29Ohio allows early voting for the Nov. 2 election to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 5, and continue until Monday, Nov. 1.

Voters can cast ballots by absentee voting by mail or in-person under early voting rules.

Face masks will be required in Dayton and are generally suggested at other locations and will often be available. Other COVID-19 precautions will remain in place. Poll workers will wear face masks and hand sanitizer will be available at voting locations.

Monday, Oct. 4, is the deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 2 election.

Information on absentee ballots and all other voting questions can be found at the Ohio secretary of state's elections webpage, www.ohiosos.gov/elections, or from each county's board of elections.

How to vote early

All in-person early voting will take place at each county's board of elections office. Early voting will be open the same hours statewide.

8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from Oct. 5 until Oct. 22, except for Oct. 11, Columbus Day;

8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Oct. 25 to Oct. 29;

8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30;

1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31; and

8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1.

Nov. 1 is also the deadline for mail-in absentee ballots. They may be returned in person to your local board of elections office until 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2.

Where to vote early

Greene County

Board of elections: 551 Ledbetter Road, Xenia

Phone: 937-562-6170

Website: www.boe.ohio.gov/greene

Miami County

Board of elections: 215 W. Main St., Troy

Phone: 937-440-3900

Website: www.boe.ohio.gov/miami

Montgomery County

Board of elections: Mezzanine level, 451 W. Third St., Dayton

Phone: 937-225-5656

Website: www.montgomery.boe.ohio.gov

Preble County

Board of elections: 101 E. Main St., Eaton

Phone: 937-456-8117

Website: www.boe.ohio.gov/preble

Warren County

Board of elections: 520 Justice Drive, Lebanon

Phone: 513-695-1358

Website: www.vote.warrencountyohio.gov
US Marine Lt Col Stuart Scheller, who defied a gag order from his superiors (Stuart Scheller / Facebook)

The parents of a US marine commander jailed for blasting his superiors and calling for revolution on social media have called for the leaders of the military to resign.

Lt Col Stuart Scheller, who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Beirut, was put in the brig this weekend after refusing an order to stop his stream of Facebook and LinkedIn posts excoriating US generals and politicians.

The 17-year Marine Corps veteran posted his first video criticising the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on 26 August, followed by wide-ranging broadsides demanding fundamental change to Americas government and pledging to bring the whole f***ing system down.

On Tuesday, Lt Cols Schellers father Stuart Sr and mother Cathy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that US joint chiefs chairman Gen Mark Milley, Middle East region Gen Kenneth McKenzie, and secretary of defence Lloyd Austin should quit their posts.

Mr Scheller said: While Stuart broke the chain of command, General McKenzie and General Milley and Secretary Austin broke the chain of trust and confidence of the American people. For that, they should be embarrassed. They should resign for that.

He could not stand by and could not fathom the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was asking for accountability, honest answers, and confessions of mistakes that were made.

They have turned their backs on him. They have tried to shut him up with a gag order, and when that didnt work, they have put him in jail. Its shameful.

(Stuart Scheller / Facebook)

Ms Scheller said: We want them to resign and we want Stuart released. We would like him to have his pension reinstated and his hard-earned medical benefits that he will need after his many deployments. If they wont do that, at least release him and let him out of the Marines.

Mr Scheller also attacked the two generals testimony before the US Senate on Tuesday, in which they contracted President Bidens insistence that nobody had warned him Afghanistan would collapse if all US troops pulled out.

Story continues

The rapid implosion of the US-backed Afghan government led to a swift Taliban takeover and the death of 13 US service members in a suicide bombing by rival Islamic fundamentalists.

Stuart Scheller Sr said: Todays hearing showed they wont accept accountability for the mistakes they made. They wanted to blame everybody else  the Afghan military, the Afghan government, the weather, whoever.

Its no coincidence in my opinion that they put a gag order on [Lt Col Scheller] and they put him in prison the day before they had to appear in front of senators  and tomorrow in front of congressmen. I think that is fairly an act of cowardice.

Lt Col Scheller caused a sensation in the US military community when he posted his first video about Afghanistan in August. People are lying if they said they didnt feel a little bit like he did, said one user on Reddits Air Force board.

The next day, he was relieved of his command of a training battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. On 25 September, he received an order to stop posting on social media and posted it on Facebook, leading to his detention.

According to the military affairs magazine Task and Purpose, Lt Col Scheller is accused of contempt towards officials, willfully disobeying a superior, failure to obey an order, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. He is now awaiting a hearing to determine whether he should face court martial.

Prior to his imprisonment, the officer had pledged to file charges against Gen McKenzie and widened his criticisms to the American political class, declaring that every generation needs a revolution.

Follow me, and we will bring the whole fucking system down  in a constitutional manner with one loud voice, he said in one post.

Another read: To the American leadership: we the people seek change. We the people seek leadership. We the people seek accountability. We the people will take it.

On 25 September, he argued that US politicians were failing the people so badly that radical change, up to and including revolution, might be justified, citing economic crisis, lack of accountability, a broken immigration system, and abuses [of] American freedoms in the name of safety.

However, he also criticised former president Donald Trump, saying: I was told by everyone to kiss the ring because of your following and power. I refuse.

While I respect your foreign policy positions, I hate how you divided the country. I dont need or want your help. You do not have the ability to pull US together... tell your son to stop tweeting about me.

He posted screenshots of messages sent to him by friends and other soldiers urging him to take down his video and stop his campaign, which he refused.

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Bravo

Kathy Hilton is building a fabulous new home from the ground up, but she has no intention of living in it when it's done. "This is one of my projects," The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills newcomer explained to Sutton Stracke in the preview clip above from the show's October 6 episode. "I am going to sell this." Although Kathy once planned to move into the home with her husband, Rick Hilton, she decided to take it on as a project when Rick expressed that he wanted to stay in their current Bel-Ai
Pope Francis thanked a youth climate activist conference on Wednesday for the participants dreams and projects of goodness and encouraged them to keep up their advocacy of action to combat climate change.

Speaking in Spanish via video to the Youth4Climate event in Milan, which drew 400 young activists from 197 countries, the pope said their work is for the good of humanity, and it is capable of challenging the adult world, according to NBC News.

Pope Francis waves at the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday at the Vatican. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images)

The Roman Catholic Church that Pope Francis leads has long advocated for environmental protection, and the current pope has been especially outspoken about climate change. Earlier this month, in a joint statement, Pope Francis, the archbishop of Canterbury, who leads the global Anglican Communion, and the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church called for everyone to make meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the earth.

The youth climate event comes on the heels of a climate strike organized by youth environmental movement Fridays for Future, in which young people rallied in 1,500 cities worldwide last Friday.

In her speech to the rally held on Friday in Berlin, renowned 18-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg criticized President Biden and other heads of state for taking insufficient action to reduce climate change, saying, World leaders are talking about building back better, promising green investments and setting vague and distant climate targets in order to say that they are taking climate action.

On Tuesday, speaking to the same conference that Pope Francis would address a day later, Thunberg mocked those same leaders for what she views as hollow rhetoric on climate change.

Greta Thunberg speaks at the Youth4Climate pre-COP26 event. (Nicolo Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)

When I say climate change, what do you think of? I think jobs. Green jobs. Green jobs, she said, imitating Bidens political pitch for his Build Back Better agenda.

We must find a smooth transition towards a low carbon economy. There is no Planet B. There is no Planet Blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, she added in what CNN reported was a reference to a speech given by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Story continues

The pope, whose church claims more than 1.3 billion adherents worldwide, struck a more conciliatory tone in his address. There must be harmony between people, men and women, and the environment. He asked the young activists to help build a culture of care for the earth.

The youth climate summit aims to build pressure and momentum for a strong global agreement to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in November in Glasgow, Scotland. Scientists say that if emissions do not begin to rapidly decrease in this decade, the world will inevitably blow through the goals of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with catastrophic consequences.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A senior official in the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah told the judge investigating the disastrous Beirut port blast that it would remove him from the probe, according to a journalist who says she conveyed the message and a judicial source.

Judge Tarek Bitar described the message in a letter to the public prosecutor, said the judicial source. The justice minister and judiciary were following up on the matter but a formal investigation has yet to be opened, the source said.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a judicial matter and judge Bitar's letter was marked private.

Reuters could not reach Bitar, who is not permitted to speak to the media in his capacity as an investigating judge. He has not issued any statement about the matter since reports of the warning began circulating in Lebanese media last week.

Neither the Hezbollah official in question, Wafik Safa, nor other Hezbollah officials could be reached for comment.

More than 200 people died when a huge stockpile of chemicals stored unsafely at Beirut port for years exploded on Aug. 4, 2020.

Bitar is the second judge whose investigation has been stymied by powerful factions in Lebanon, where a lack of high-level accountability are blamed for systemic corruption, governing gridlock and economic meltdown.

LBCI journalist Lara al-Hashem told Reuters she was entering Beirut's Palace of Justice on Sept. 20 to follow up on news of a scheduled session of the inquiry with lawyers and fellow journalists when she ran into Hezbollah official Safa.

"He asked me will you see Judge Bitar? If you meet him, give him this message," she said.

Hashem declined to give details of the verbal message but described as accurate an account posted on Twitter on Sept. 21 by Edmond Sassine, a fellow journalist at the privately owned broadcaster.

He said Safa had asked Hashem to tell Bitar "we have had it up to here with you".

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"We will go along with you until the end of the legal road but if it doesn't work we will remove you," Sassine tweeted, citing the message Safa sent to Bitar via Hashem.

Sassine declined to reveal the source of the account when Reuters reached him by phone. Hashem told Reuters she was not the source for his information.

INQUIRY STRUGGLES

The judicial source told Reuters that Bitar had sent a letter to the public prosecutor "the contents of which were what Lara Hashem said - that Wafik Safa told her 'tell Judge Bitar that we will remove you'", the source said.

Bitar sent the letter at the prosecutor's request, the source added.

"Bitar did not put extra information in the letter. He put verbatim what Lara Hashem communicated to him: 'that we will remove you'. Specifically, Bitar wrote in his letter 'we will remove you through legal means'".

The justice minister, who the source said was following up on the matter, could not be reached for comment.

POPULAR ANGER

On Monday Prime Minister Najib Mikati told LBCI, a private broadcaster whose editorial line is critical of Hezbollah, that security precautions had been taken as a result of threats said to have been made against Bitar. He did not elaborate.

Reuters could not reach Mikati for comment.

The blast probe was frozen on Monday following a complaint from Nohad Machnouk, a former interior minister Bitar wanted to question on suspicion of negligence and maladministration.

If the complaint is upheld, Bitar will be removed from the case. His predecessor, Fadi Sawan, was removed in February following similar accusations of bias.

The prime minister said he hoped Bitar will continue in his role, saying he did not think Lebanon "could withstand the second judge being removed."

Angry families of the victims demonstrated outside the judiciary headquarters on Wednesday after the investigation was frozen on Monday, some chanting slogans against Safa.

Many Lebanese say they are furious that no one has been held to account for the disaster and they accuse the political elite of covering up one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions on record.

Efforts to question former and serving state officials, including the prime minister at the time of the blast, ex-ministers and senior security officials on suspicion of negligence have been repeatedly blocked.

Parliament has refused to lift immunity against a number of officials.

All those targeted by the investigation have denied any wrongdoing.

Bitar has sought to question several senior politicians allied to Hezbollah including members of the Shi'ite Amal Movement, but has not tried to query any members of Hezbollah.

Some critics say Bitar, and his predecessor Sawan, have overstepped their powers and that cases against senior officials should be referred to a special council for hearing cases against former presidents and ministers.

Bitar's critics include Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-chief-nasrallah-says-beirut-port-explosion-investigator-biased-2021-08-07, who last month accused Bitar of bias and "playing politics". Nasrallah, whose heavily armed Iranian-backed group is widely seen as more powerful than the state, said last month he was not calling for Bitar's immediate removal.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich and Jon Boyle)
Redistricting maps drawn by Republicans in Georgia and Texas are being criticized by some conservatives as too timid and a failure to maximize GOP gains in Congress in 2022, a break for Democrats heading into the midterm elections.

The proposal for new congressional boundaries in Texas does not appear to squeeze Democrats, or create new majority-Republican seats, to the extent analysts thought possible (and likely) after the state picked up two House seats in reapportionment. Georgia neither gained nor lost seats. But the expectations were that Republicans there would redraw the map to bolster the partys congressional delegation to counter the Democrats growing strength in the state, especially around Atlanta.

The Democratic Partys thin House majority remains in jeopardy heading into next years down-ballot contests. But these proposals out of Georgia and Texas could spare the party from losses that had been considered all but certain.

Republican leaders have a unique and timely opportunity to safeguard Georgias future through the redistricting process, said Ryan Mahoney, a Republican operative in the Peach State whose comments are similar to the criticism of the maps that has popped up on the Right. They must act with courage and determination, knowing that the opposition will raise holy hell no matter what map is ultimately adopted.

Republicans control the governors mansion and the legislature in Georgia and Texas, and neither state delegates redistricting to an independent commission. That means the GOP is in charge of drawing the new district lines for congressional seats and seats in the legislature. But in both Georgia and Texas, Republicans only tinkered around the edges, producing maps that protected GOP incumbents but did not leave Democrats out in the cold, although the proposals could change.

ADAM LAXALT EDGES CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO IN NEVADA SENATE RACE IN GOP POLL

For instance, in Georgia, Republicans turned one suburban Atlanta battleground seat, Democratic Rep. Lucy McBaths 6th Congressional District, into solid GOP territory that would have voted solidly for former President Donald Trump had it existed in 2020. Conversely, it turned another suburban Atlanta battleground, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeauxs 7th Congressional District, into a seat drawn to elect liberals. Some Georgia Republicans hope changes will be made to the proposal that will make Bourdeaux more, not less, vulnerable.

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Meanwhile, Texas enjoyed a population boom over the past decade. Republicans hoped the states gain of two House seats in reapportionment (nearly half of the five seats the GOP needs to win in 2022 to recapture the majority) would provide a significant boost to GOP representation from the state in Congress. It might be the case. But the initial redistricting proposal out from Texas Republicans was cautious and appeared designed to avoid a lawsuit over unconstitutional gerrymandering.

Some Republicans would rather not put the fate of their new map in the hands of the judiciary, worried they would mandate by legal decree congressional district boundaries even more generous to the Democrats. That could happen nonetheless because the map has been criticized for not including enough majority-Hispanic districts to satisfy the Voting Rights Act. In any event, with that concern in mind, some Republican insiders in the state were pleased with the proposed lines.

It was a conservative approach of locking in the gains of the 2020 election for the next decade, said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican operative in Texas, who added that the GOP is positioned to pick up Democratic-held seats along the U.S.-Mexico border before the decade is out.

Those would be the 15th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, and the 28th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar. President Joe Biden won Gonzalezs seat by under 2 percentage points in 2020; he won Cuellars seat by under 5 points but suffered a dramatic drop in support compared to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton four years earlier.

The GOP has been doing well with Hispanics in Texas, and I think we could actually pick up one or both of those heavily Hispanic districts, Steinhauser said.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Under the proposal, Democrats would be positioned to win the new, Austin-area 37th Congressional District. And Democratic incumbents in Dallas and Houston, Reps. Colin Allred and Lizzie Fletcher, respectively, would see their suburban battlegrounds, won from the Republicans in 2018, become bluer.

Simultaneously, a host of Republican incumbents whose districts drifted left over the past decade would be protected with new, safer boundaries.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Campaigns, 2022 Elections, Redistricting, Texas, Georgia, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Congress

Original Author: David M. Drucker

Original Location: GOP complains redistricting maps don't maximize 2022 chances in Georgia and Texas
COVID-19 vaccines cards at the Berks Heim Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Bern Township, Pennsylvania on January 29, 2021. Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty Images

Sue McIntosh, of Durham, Connecticut, had her license suspended earlier this week.

Connecticut officials say the retired doctor was handing out fake COVID-19 vaccine exemption forms.

Connecticut's Medical Examining Board said McIntosh sent out forms without ever seeing patients.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

A retired doctor in Connecticut had her medical license suspended after officials learned she was handing out fake COVID-19 vaccine exemptions, the state's Medical Examining Board said.

An anonymous tup led to a license suspension for Sue McIntosh, of Durham, Connecticut's Medical Examining Board said in a statement last week.

The board said an investigation found that McIntosh had been "providing fraudulent vaccine exemption forms through the mail related to COVID-19 vaccines, general vaccines, COVID testing, and medical opposition to wearing facial masks."

The board said McIntosh sent out forms without ever seeing patients.

McIntosh also encouraged people to distribute her forms to others, records seen by the Washington Post said.

"You may copy and distribute as many forms as you wish to anyone," she wrote in instructions seen by The Post. "Keep blank copies for yourself for future use."

Records seen by The Post show that McIntosh would then sign off with her name and the phrase, "Let freedom ring!"

"These actions by Dr. McIntosh are irresponsible and unacceptable," Connecticut Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani, said in a statement "Her practice of medicine represents a clear and immediate danger to the public health and safety of our communities. The suspension of her license should serve as a warning to other practitioners that this conduct deviates from the standard of care and is subject to serious discipline."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Officials from Iran and Saudi Arabia met this week in Baghdad for a fourth round of talks this year, following a months-long hiatus after the election of Iran's new president.

Why it matters: The meetings in Iraq constitute the first serious attempt at dialogue between the two regional rivals following years of tensions and rhetorical venom.

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Iraqi sources say the agenda is dominated by efforts to repair the bilateral relationship and by regional issues concerning both sides.

Flashback: Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran in January 2016. The move came after Iranian protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic facilities over Riyadhs execution of dissident Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

The relationship deteriorated further following the election of Donald Trump, who openly sided with the Saudi leadership in its long-standing confrontation with Iran.

Given the administration's animosity towards Iran, Riyadh not only felt no need to talk to Tehran, but was arguably even disincentivized to do so.

Between the lines: The Iran-Saudi dialogue coincides with President Bidens arrival into office and his attempt to pivot attention away from the region.

That has been interpreted by many observers as a sign that Arab partners of the U.S. will be more prone to engage Iran if Washington isn't unconditionally backing the regional status quo.

How it happened: The Iran-Saudi dialogue is an outcome of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimis personal efforts to promote a more integrated region and turn his country into a bridge rather than a battleground for competing foreign powers.

Kadhimi hosted a summit in late June with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, at which the three countries agreed to deepen economic and security ties.

In August, Kadhimi gathered a wider array of leaders from key states such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Whats next: After the event, an Iraqi political source close to Kadhimi revealed to Amwaj.media that the Baghdad Conference was never envisioned as a one-off.

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The participants are mulling the idea of making this an annual gathering  each time in a different capital," the source said.

At a recent follow-up meeting of the Baghdad Conference, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, all sides including Iran and Saudi Arabia  agreed that the next session will be held in Jordan.

What to watch: Iraq is set to hold parliamentary elections on Oct. 10, and while Kadhimi is not on the ballot, he is seeking domestic, regional and international backing for a second term.

The outcome could have bearing on the future of the regional dialogue, given Kadhimi's role in promoting it.

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Robert Lowerys remains were found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, 65kms from where Ms Petito was located (Teton County Sheriff's Office)

Authorities in Wyoming say the enormous public attention on Gabby Petitos case helped them to locate the remains of a hiker who went missing in the same national forest where she was found.

Robert Bob Lowery was last seen walking on the Black Canyon Trail in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on 20 August carrying a black duffel bag, sleeping bag and tent.

Search teams scoured the area for him but it was only after Ms Petitos case began attracting national attention that they received crucial tips that led to his remains being located.

Robert Lowerys remains were found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, 65kms from where Ms Petito was located (Teton County Sheriff's Office)

The Teton County Search and Rescue team located a body matching Mr Lowerys description on Tuesday at the base of the Teton Pass, about 65kms (40 miles) from where Ms Petitos body was found.

The cause of death is under investigation.

The widespread news coverage of the Gabby Petito search helped bring light to Lowerys case, and resulted in at least two members of the public calling local authorities this past weekend with new information about his possible last seen point, Teton County Search and Rescue said in a statement.

Mr Lowery had travelled from Houston to Wyoming on 19 August to explore the Black Canyon Trail, a popular hiking and mountain biking trail in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

In a statement to KPRC, Mr Lowerys family said they were grateful for the help in finding him.

The Teton County Sheriffs Office informed our family this afternoon that the Search and Rescue Team located a body that fits the description of our son, Robert Bob Lowery near Black Canyon Trail, Lowerys family told KPRC.

At this time, we especially want to thank Teton County Sheriffs Deputy Chad Sachse and his department for all of their work during this month that Bob has been missing.

Bob has been a wonderful father, son, brother and friend.

Our family wants to thank the news media and others involved in the search for our privacy at this difficult time.

Teton County Sheriffs Office deputy Chad Sachse told Dateline that coverage of Ms Petitos case directly led to new information about Lowery.

Story continues

Ms Petitos remains were located in the forest on 19 September after a nationwide search which captured enormous interest.

Social media users are believed to have helped locate Ms Petito, after video captured by a van-lifer showed the van parked on the side of the road not far from where her remains were discovered.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Petitos father Joe called for the public to help other missing persons cases.

Read More

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What has happened to Gabby Petito? Everything we know so far

A timeline of the disappearance of Gabby Petito

Gabby Petito - update: Brian Laundrie captured in selfie at campsite with parents after her death

Gabby Petito: Autopsy confirms body found in Wyoming forest is missing YouTuber

Gabby Petitos father demands all missing people get same attention as his daughter as he praises TikTok
By Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia on Wednesday threatened to block YouTube and the Kremlin called for "zero tolerance" towards the video hosting giant after it removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels from its site.

The online video company owned by Alphabet Inc deleted Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels on Tuesday, saying they had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

On Wednesday YouTube said it would block all anti-vaccine content, moving beyond COVID-19 to include content that alleges vaccines cause chronic health effects or contains misinformation on the substances in vaccines.

Russia said it was considering retaliating against German media and also accused YouTube of "unprecedented information aggression" after the company's move against the RT channels.

The row creates a new line of tension in Russia's standoff with foreign tech giants and its long-running push to assert greater sovereignty over its segment of the internet.

Russian state communications regulator Roskomnadzor said it had written to Google and demanded that the YouTube restrictions on the RT channels be lifted. Russia could partially or fully restrict access to YouTube if it failed to comply, it added.

Google declined to comment on the matter.

'ZERO TOLERANCE'

Russia could impose measures to force YouTube to comply with its laws, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that the law appeared to have been broken in this case.

"There should certainly be zero tolerance for this kind of breaking of the law," he said.

Russia's foreign ministry said it would draw up "a proposal to develop and take retaliatory measures against the YouTube hosting service and the German media".

Vasily Piskarev, a lawmaker who heads a parliamentary commission to investigate foreign meddling, said Russia had grounds to take measures against Deutsche Welle, the TASS news agency reported.

Story continues

Christian Mihr, executive director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany, said the threat of action against German journalists was "completely inappropriate".

Berlin denied an allegation by the Russian foreign ministry that YouTube's decision had been made with clear and tacit support from the German authorities and local media.

"It is a decision by YouTube, based on rules created by YouTube. It is not a measure (taken by) the German government or other official organisations," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters.

Moscow has increased pressure on foreign tech firms in the past year, fining social media companies for failing to delete content Russia deems illegal and punitively slowing down the speed of Twitter.

Separately on Wednesday, Russia fined Google 6.5 million roubles ($89,534), the latest in a series of small penalties for failing to delete content that Moscow deems illegal.

The Kremlin's critics say that mounting pressure on Google and Apple had pushed the media giants to remove an anti-government tactical voting app from their stores on the first day of a parliamentary election this month.

($1 = 72.5975 roubles)

(Additional reporting by Alexander Marrow and Tom Balmforth in Moscow; additional reporting by Alexander Ratz and Riham Alkousaa in Berlin; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)
Cut South Philly from the map of Philadelphia. While youre at it, carve out the center of the city entirely.

What remains, when youre through, will be the territory of the salmon cheesesteak.

The sandwich is a paradox  so popular it inspires pilgrimage and half-hour waits on the sidewalk, yet largely unchronicled by food media and unknown to half its home city. In North and West and Southwest Philadelphia, in the western suburbs and the urban centers of South Jersey, the salmon cheesesteak thrives.

When "The Tonight Shows" Jimmy Fallon rolled into Northeast Philly with the Roots Tariq Trotter for a televised home-cooked meal, a salmon cheesesteak is what he was served. Its been repped as a favorite by hip-hop stars Meek Mill and Wale.

The sandwich has traveled mostly by word of mouth and social media. It presides at more than 30 restaurants in a bullseye ring around Philadelphias middle. Most are small Black- or Muslim-owned takeouts serving their neighborhoods.

At tiny, red-awninged Harvinskins Seafood in Camden, New Jersey, the seafood cheesesteak has blown up into viral popularity.

More than half of Harvinskins business is now cheesesteaks made with salmon, said co-owner Latasha Gaylord, who runs the business with brother Robert Muse. Harvinskins hungry fans drive in from New York City and D.C. A New York motorcycle club made the little takeout into the endpoint of its weekend rides.

Theyd come down like every two to three weeks, Gaylord said. A whole bunch of em would come down just to eat.

Harvinskins rendition comes with a half-pound of flaky Norwegian fish on a roll from 70-year-old Deluxe Italian Bakery. The fish is generously buttered, seasoned with more Cajun flavor than a first-line brass band in Treme, grill-chopped on a flat-top and melted down with American cheese that disappears glisteningly into the meat. Order the seafood version, and it comes crowned with six stately, meaty prawns.

Story continues

The attention is recent. But the salmon cheesesteak's roots go back more than a decade in Philadelphia.

It's been around. You just have to be in the urban community to know about it, said popular Cambodian American food vlogger Jeff Lek.

On his JL Jupiter YouTube channel since 2019, Lek has been the salmon cheesesteaks most prominent evangelist, broadcasting the sandwich far beyond the neighborhoods where it's served. Its something that we've enjoyed within the hood for a while, he said.

Philly-grown chefs have successfully brought the creation to Delaware and D.C. and Maryland, and to cities as far-flung as Atlanta and Kansas City.

The fundamentals are simple. A hoagie roll forgiving enough hold up to cheese and fish. Seared and grill-chopped salmon filet. Cheese that melts imperceptibly into the meat. And often, vegetable additions such as broccoli or spinach.

But there are few rules for a young food. The seafood-dense version at A Kings Cafe is loaded with crab and shrimp and red bell peppers. West Phillys Korean-owned Lees Deli makes a veggie-rich version with optional sweet chili sauce that amounts to stir-fry in a hoagie.

The mini-version of the salmon cheesesteak at North Philly takeout Ummi Dee's, with fresh salmon marinated overnight and seasoned up with chef Hannah Ahzai's secret "Love" seasoning.

At North Phillys Ummi Dees, chef Hannah Ahzai marinates and seasons fresh salmon belly, spurning American slices for a rich multi-cheese Mornay she developed with the help of fellow chef Kurt Evans.

Perhaps the wildest take comes from Zoagies  a deep-fried hoagie truck from South Jersey native Ezell Barnes now stationed on the side of a busy freeway in Bear, Delaware, just southwest of Wilmington.

Barnes is a dedicated showman whose menu and sales patter is inflected with a Z-fronted language he calls "Zinglish." His two-truck "Zoagieland is an alternate hoagie universe, with stacked-up seafood hoagies whose fat-crisped rolls recall the fluffy crackle of Texas toast.

But Barnes' customers kept asking for salmon cheesesteaks, which he added this year. His version is a contrast of crisp bread and generous salmon, bold-seasoned shrimp and a grace note of charred broccoli.

The people wanted it and so I added it," Barnes said. "And when I did, I said, Oh my Zod, zis is zucculent zalmon.

A brief and contested history of the salmon cheesesteak

The crew at Bella's: Toni Averette, Greg Goings, Vander Wiggins, Andrea Mouzon and owner Albert Alwyn.

According to one account, the history of the salmon cheesesteak began a little more than a decade ago, with a North Philly barber named Marvin.

The way Albert Alwyn tells it at his North Philly takeout spot, Bellas Restaurant and Grill, Marv used to be a barber at a little shop down the way called Freddies. And Marv didnt eat red meat.

So Marv asked Bellas chef, Alwyns late sister Tracy, to make a cheesesteak he could eat.

She was for the community, Alwyn said, If you wanted something special, she would make it for you. His sister concocted a salmon cheesesteak with some broccoli on the shops well-seasoned flat-top. Bellas already served a salmon and rice bowl, so the ingredients were on-hand.

The rest. Alwyn said, is history.

It just took off, Alwyn said. All of a sudden everybody was serving them. But ours must have been special.

The shop had to adjust its hours to accommodate salmon mania, pushing later into the evening. Its Instagram account shows visits from hip-hop legends Doug E. Fresh and Charlie Mack  not to mention check-ins by rapper Meek Mill.

He used to come down here with his girlfriend, Alwyn said. He called over to Bella's cashier. Hey, whats Meek Mills old girlfriend? The rapping one?

Nicki Minaj! she shouted back.

Yeah, Nicki Minaj, Alwyn said. Meek would come in. She mostly waited outside.

Until very recently, documentation of salmon cheesesteaks has been scant. But in 2015, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter stopped into Bella's to ask how a new Housing Authority office had affected lunch business  and was told by line cook Demetrius Goudelock that Bella's had "started" the salmon cheesesteak.

Alwyn cant remember exactly when they began serving it, but searches of Facebook and Twitter show 2010 as the year the salmon cheesesteak broke big. For two years, nearly all mentions of salmon cheesesteak referenced Bellas.

Salmon cheesesteaks from Bella's in West Philadelphia, Pa.

Before that, the history is murkier. Bellas may have launched the salmon cheesesteak  but its unclear they were the first to serve it.

The earliest records of salmon cheesesteaks on Facebook and Twitter came in late 2009, referencing a defunct North Philly takeout called the Cheesesteak Factory. Ummi Dees owner Ahzai says shes pretty sure she had it in Southwest Philadelphia even before that, at long-gone Samiches Deli.

YouTube food chronicler Lek said hes gotten heated correspondence from restaurants claiming and counterclaiming to be the cheesesteaks inventor.

People get really sensitive about whos the originator, said Lek, who suspects it's existed far longer than the public record shows. Whoever first got the idea to put it in their restaurant, there's a good chance that it's been kicking around at cookouts and elsewhere for longer. Meaning whoever claims it cant even claim it.

When is a cheesesteak not a cheesesteak?

But the salmon cheesesteak is also divisive. Philadelphians have long made a pastime out of debating the exact composition of a proper cheesesteak, not to mention how some guy in upstate New York is screwing it up.

When Fallon ate his salmon in 2018, local media responded with confusion. A similar reaction followed a stray tweet about salmon cheesesteaks by rapper Wale in early 2019.

I live in Philadelphia, clapped back local journalist Jason Peters. If anyone ordered a salmon cheesesteak, they are getting roasted immediately. No hesitation.

A reporter at the local FOX outlet posted a poll on Twitter, asking whether authentic Philadelphians dont tolerate this salmon and chicken stuff. About 80% of FOX fans attested that beef was the only steak.

A decade in, salmon cheesesteaks remain all but unfindable in the citys center. Italians, and the Italian American food culture that birthed the cheesesteak, have long resisted mixing seafood and cheese. Food historian Ken Albala has linked this taboo less to incompatible flavors than ancient pre-medical theories about digestion and bodily "humors."

But seafood and cheese are much friendlier partners in Southern American cuisine, whether as char-grilled oysters or cheesy fish and grits. You'll also find cheesed-up mussels and lobster in France. Perhaps the most famous fish sandwich in America, the Filet-O-Fish, is gooed up by a half-slice of American.

After Wales tweet, an article by news site Billy Penn assured skeptical Philadelphians that salmon cheesesteaks do, in fact, exist.

The way Philadelphians feel about salmon cheesesteaks  and whether theyre used to seeing the option on menus  may have to do with which neighborhoods they choose to hang out, wrote Billy Penns Monica Marie Zorrilla.

If people refuse to recognize a popular food invented in Philadelphia as authentically Philadelphian, chef Kurt Evans considers it ignorance.

Evans, co-founder of popular Detroit-style pizza spot Down North, had made salmon cheesesteaks at his former restaurant, Route 23, as a form of whole-animal cookery  using leftover salmon belly to make decadent sandwiches.

People were all talking about that one tweet from Wale. Hes talked about that plenty of times before that  salmon cheesesteaks, Evans said. A lot of it is just people not being aware of the whole landscape of the city they live in.

The salmon cheesesteak beyond Philly

Ezell Barnes, owner and creator of the Zoagies food truck in Pennsville, displays a Zochness Monster of the Zea, which is a xtra-large deep-fried hoagie roll filled with fish, shrimp, crab, and lobster.

Some Philadelphia chefs of color have discovered that the best way to gain recognition for salmon cheesesteaks is to exit Philadelphia.

Its funny, Evans said. But you can make so much money on cheesesteaks when you leave Philly. You can make money here, too. But the shops in Philadelphia are all white-owned  the ones that get all the recognition.

Evans former partner at Route 23, Allen Young, moved to Norfolk, Virginia, to start a jammingly busy downtown shop called Major Phillie Cheesesteaks. His long-marinated salmon cheesesteaks quickly became one of his most popular items.

When I first opened Major Phillie, people were like, A salmon cheesesteak? Whats that? They weren't feeling it. Now, its my second best seller, he said.

Philadelphian Dion Alston moved to Dover, Delaware, to found a halal spot called Akhibachis serving ginger-garlic-sauced salmon cheesesteak  a dish that quickly landed him on the local news. In Buffalo, food writer Andrew Galarneau quickly hailed the salmon cheesesteak at that citys Eleven as his new favorite fish-based drunk food.

And in Atlanta, West Philly native Derrick Hayes founded a quickly growing empire of cheesy beef and chicken and salmon. Big Dave's Cheesesteaks expanded from a gas station to two standalone restaurants and a roving food truck famed for lines down the block.

"The salmon is really a hot item right now, especially because a lot of people may not eat red meat," said Hayes, who first encountered salmon cheesesteaks in Philadelphia.

Closer to home, influencers like Lek helped propel the sandwich's popularity. The JL Jupiter video on seafood cheesesteak at New Jersey's Harvinskins was viewed more than 100,000 times, transforming it from corner spot to regional destination.

"He did a video, and now everybody wants it," said co-owner Gaylord. "Everybody has to have one on their menu."

She just wishes her late partner and fiance, Harmon Ford, could have lived to see the sandwich's acclaim. He'd concocted Harvinskins' version after trying one in Philadelphia.

"He passed it down to us, but he never got to see how popular it became," she said. "We're just trying to carry on his legacy."

Matthew Korfhage is a food and culture reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region How We Live team. Email: mkorfhage@gannettnj.com | Twitter: @matthewkorfhage.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Salmon cheesesteak? The real story of this Philly sandwich gone viral
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Electronics maker Samsung has been fined 40 million euros ($46.9 million) for price fixing in the Netherlands, Dutch competition watchdog ACM said on Wednesday.

The market regulator said Samsung had pushed up the prices of its televisions in the Netherlands for years, by constantly urging retailers to raise their prices if they were selling them below Samsung's preferred market rate.

This practice undermined competition between seven of the largest online electronics stores in the Netherlands, the ACM said, as Samsung made it clear to all retailers involved that their competitors would also follow its pricing policy.

Samsung also reached out to retailers if their competitors complained about TVs being sold too cheap, documents obtained by the regulator showed.

"Samsung's advice was not individual and not without consequences," the watchdog said. "Its behaviour distorted competition and raised prices for consumers."

Samsung said it would appeal the fine, as it maintained it had never forced retailers to use its price advice and that stores had always been free to determine their own strategy.

But the regulator said that Samsung should have known that its efforts to influence prices went far beyond normal guidance and was in fact a way to structurally determine the market prices of its televisions.

($1 = 0.8537 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by Jason Neely)
Dilawar Syed has received strong support from a number of faith and civil rights organizations, which have hit back on the GOP charges that he's anti-Israel. (Photo: Eric Risberg/Associated Press)

For months, GOP senators have refused to allow a committee vote for Dilawar Syed to become deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. In fact, theyve boycotted three such attempts by refusing to show up and denying Democrats the quorum needed for a vote.

So on Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) attempted to go around them and ask the Senate for unanimous consent to move forward on Syed.

But Sen. Rand Paul objected, meaning that Syed remains in limbo. His nomination still needs to clear the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in order to get a vote from the full chamber.

If confirmed, Syed would become the highest-ranking Muslim administration official in U.S. history.

Syed, whom President Joe Biden nominated on March 3, is president and CEO of Lumiata, a health care analytics company, and has stepped into public service roles both in California and at the federal level. He also led engagement with small businesses after the passage of the 2009 stimulus package for then-President Barack Obamas administration.

Cardin, who chairs the Senate committee, noted that Republicans keep changing their objections to Syed. First, they wanted to investigate the loans he took out as a small-business owner. When the loans turned out to be a nonissue, they started accusing Syed of being anti-Israel, which Cardin called completely unfounded.

On June 30, eight of the 10 GOP senators on the committee wrote a letter to Cardin expressing serious concern with Syeds work as a board member for Emgage USA, a group that focuses on increasing Muslim American political engagement. The senators called the organization vocally anti-Israel and said they were worried that Syeds confirmation would jeopardize small businesses with close ties to Israeli companies or small businesses owned by Jewish Americans.

The memo came after a staffer for Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) put together a document on Syeds background earlier that month. The first line of the document, obtained by HuffPost, noted that Syed was born in Pakistan, and the vast majority of the rest of it focused on very partisan positions from Emgage  not anything that Syed actually said. (Politico first reported on the memos existence in August.)

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Those attacks  the likes of which practically every Muslim individual involved in politics faces  were quickly shot down by civil rights groups, including Jewish organizations dedicated to combating antisemitism.

In July, the American Jewish Committee said in a statement that while the advocacy group does not normally take positions on nominees, the accusations around Dilawar Syeds nomination based on his national origin or involvement in a Muslim advocacy organization are so base and unamerican that AJC is compelled to speak out.

Republicans have since moved away from that line of criticism. Now, theyre saying that they will oppose filling the deputy SBA job until the Biden administration commits to taking back loans given to some Planned Parenthood affiliates under the Paycheck Protection Program. The loans, which were handed out during the Trump administration, were meant to help small businesses keep employees on their payrolls during the coronavirus pandemic.

Planned Parenthoods affiliates are nonprofit organizations with leadership and funding structures that are separate from the national federation, but Republicans say theyre too closely tied and should not have received the money.

Planned Parenthood is not a small business. Its a big business, Paul, the committees ranking member, said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) chastised Republicans for holding Syed up over what he certainly had no control over, saying they simply wanted to slow the process.

As of Sept. 17, Biden has announced nominees for 465 Senate-confirmed jobs. By comparison, George W. Bush had 498 nominees and Obama had 432 nominees around the same time frame during their respective presidencies. (Trump had announced just 338 nominations.) But only 32% of Bidens nominees have been confirmed so far, compared to 39% for Trump, 58% for Bush and 71% for Obama.

The partisan, unnecessary and unconscionable inaction of our Republican colleagues shows no concern for the millions of small businesses still relying on SBA support to survive COVID-19 and rebuild their future and who would benefit greatly from having a confirmed deputy administrator to work on the day-to-day operations at the SBA, Cardin said.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
WASHINGTON  Members of a Senate panel battled Wednesday over the Supreme Courts "shadow docket," focusing on a contentious decision this month that allowed a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks to remain on the books for now.

Critics framed the one-paragraph ruling in the Texas abortion case as ideologically driven and questioned the expedited process the court uses in such disputes. Republicans noted the courts emergency process isn't new and they accused progressives of mounting a pressure campaign to bully the court.

The 5-4 decision in the Texas case is the latest to bring the shadow docket under scrutiny at a time when progressives are calling for changes at the Supreme Court. The justices also recently unwound President Joe Bidens eviction moratorium on the expedited docket and required the administration to keep migrants seeking asylum in Mexico.

More: Texas abortion ruling renews criticism of Supreme Court's 'shadow docket'

More: Supreme Court declines to block Texas ban on abortion at six weeks

"The Supreme Court has now shown that it's willing to allow even facially unconstitutional laws to take effect when the law is aligned with certain ideological preferences," said Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Constitutional rights for millions of Americans should not be stripped away in the dark of night."

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the committee, said the Supreme Court "did something very ordinary" by declining to step in to block the Texas law, which bans most abortions once doctors detect cardiac activity. The court ruled just before midnight Sept. 1 on a procedural matter, not the constitutionality of the law.

"This campaign against the court and against individual justices has hurt the public," Grassley said. "The dishonest rhetoric doesn't help the American people understand the issues."

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The Supreme Court usually decides a case after the parties submit months' worth of legal briefs and take part in an hourlong oral argument. The opinions are usually signed  so its clear how each justice voted  and they generally involve the court parsing complex questions about how to apply the Constitution or a federal statute.

Shadow docket disputes, by contrast, usually involve deciding whether to temporarily block a law while the underlying legal questions are considered by lower courts. The parties sometimes have days to file briefs and there are no oral arguments.

Though criticism of the shadow docket appeared to spark some bipartisan interest during a House hearing earlier this year, Senate Republicans on Wednesday appeared mostly aligned in arguing those concerns are overblown. It's only the latest signal that congressional efforts to make changes to the Supreme Court face tough odds.

After President Donald Trump nominated three justices during his four years in office, conservatives on the court now ostensibly enjoy a 6-3 advantage. In the Texas case, Chief Justice John Roberts, a President George W. Bush nominee, voted with the liberal wing and argued for halting the law while the underlying lawsuit continued.

Several polls over the summer indicated support for the Supreme Court has dropped since the Texas decision, particularly on the left. Democratic support dived 22 points over the summer in a Marquette University Law School poll, for instance.

The legal fight over the Texas law continues in several courts simultaneously. A federal judge in Texas is set to hold a hearing Friday on a request by the Justice Department to temporarily halt enforcement of the abortion ban while the underlying constitutional questions are resolved. Abortion rights groups, meanwhile, brought a new challenge to the Supreme Court late last week in an effort to stop the law's enforcement.

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, left, speaks with Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., prior to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine Texas's abortion law, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP) ORG XMIT: WX310

Nearly 50 years ago the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that women have the right to an abortion during the first and second trimesters but that states could impose restrictions in the second trimester. In 1992, in a case called Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court allowed states to ban most abortions at viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb  about 24 weeks.

Several conservative states have approved laws banning the procedure prior to viability in an effort to challenge the court's precedents, but most of those have been halted by lower federal courts. The Supreme Court will decide another major case this year challenging Mississippis ban on most abortions after 15 weeks.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate battles over Supreme Court shadow docket after abortion ruling
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, left, works beside Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6. (Associated Press)

A key Senate official dealt a second blow to immigration advocates who are hoping to secure a path to citizenship in the Democrats social spending bill, ruling Wednesday that a second proposal would not comply with Senate rules, according to a document obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Democrats wanted to change the immigration registry, a once-obscure part of immigration law that allowed certain people in the country since 1972 to apply for citizenship, to be updated to include more recent arrivals. The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said changing the date of entry for eligibility would not be allowed in the bill.

The proposal was not the only alternative Democrats have been pursuing with the parliamentarian, according to a source familiar with the process. Democrats are continuing to pursue other measures, but they acknowledged that chances for providing a pathway to citizenship are dwindling quickly.

Democrats are left with "limited," options, said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). "Unfortunately we can't find the language to clear for the reconciliation plan  not yet. We're going to keep trying."

"We'll go to Plan C," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). He declined to reveal what that is.

Because of the special fast-track procedure Democrats are using to pass their social spending bill, all parts must conform to Senate rules, chiefly that each provision be directly related to the federal budget. The process, called reconciliation, allows Democrats to pass their bill with only 50 votes plus the tie-breaking vote of the vice president.

The parliamentarian is the arbiter of whether policies comply with the rules. While some Democrats have issued calls to overrule her decision, most Senate Democrats have been reluctant to embrace that idea.

Earlier this month, MacDonough ruled out Democrats' first option, which was providing a direct path to citizenship to Dreamers, farmworkers, essential workers and certain people with Temporary Protected Status.

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She said the proposed pathway to citizenship was a policy change with implications that far exceed what can be done through this legislative process, which is supposed to deal with issues directly related to the budget and not include major policy changes.

Changing the law to clear the way to [lawful permanent resident] status is tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact, she wrote.

On Wednesday, she said the registry option had similar conflicts.

"This registry proposal is also one in which those persons who are not currently eligible to adjust status under the law (a substantial proportion of the targeted population) would become eligible, which is a weighty policy change and our analysis of this issue is thus largely the same as the [initial] proposal," she wrote.

Some Democrats are growing frustrated with the parliamentarians position. Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) said Wednesday he would oppose the social spending bill if immigration was not included.

I'm a no unless there is immigration reform in reconciliation, Correa said. How they do it, that's their part, he added, referring to the Senate.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Associated Press

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who has clashed repeatedly with Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and his appointees over the state's response to COVID-19 in schools, said Thursday she will switch parties and run as a Democrat against him next year. A longtime Republican first elected in 2014, Hofmeister said the decision to switch parties and run for governor was a difficult one, but one she took because Kevin Stitt has hijacked the Republican Party here in Oklahoma." I'm switching parties in hopes of building the Oklahoma I've always known our state can be."
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency on February 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Noem appeared to deny a right-wing media report that she's having an affair with Corey Lewandowski.

In a tweet, Noem vaguely called "these rumors" a "disgusting lie" and said she loves her husband.

Multiple women have accused Lewandowski, who's also married, of sexual misconduct.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem issued an apparent denial of a right-wing media report that she's having an affair with Corey Lewandowski, a longtime aide to former President Donald Trump.

The conservative website American Greatness reported on Wednesday that "multiple" anonymous sources had informed writer Pedro Gonzales that Noem is having a months-long relationship with Lewandowski, who is also married and has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

"These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie," Noem tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. "These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can't achieve anything without a man's help."

She added of her family, "I love Bryon. I'm proud of the God-fearing family we've raised together. Now I'm getting back to work."

The 49-year-old governor has been married to Bryon Noem, an insurance executive, for 29 years and they have three adult children.

The governor has come under scrutiny this week amid an AP report that she met with the head of the state's real-estate appraiser certification program after her daughter's license application was rejected. Her daughter's license was later approved and the state employee left her post after receiving a $200,000 settlement for an age discrimination complaint. South Dakota's attorney general announced he is actively reviewing the matter.

Multiple women have accused Lewandowski, who runs a Trump political action committee, of sexual misconduct. Most recently, Trump donor Trashelle Odom accused Lewandowski of repeatedly touching her "inappropriately," saying "vile and disgusting things" to her and stalking her at a Las Vegas charity event on Sept. 26, Politico reported on Wednesday.

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Lewandowski, who previously served as Trump's campaign manager, was romantically linked to Trump's former communications director, Hope Hicks, during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Neither Lewandowski, nor a spokesperson for Noem immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Updated

Most of the students at Monte Del Sol Charter School live along what is known as the Airport Road corridor in Sante Fe, New Mexico  a high-poverty, mostly immigrant community where trailer parks hide behind fake adobe walls, said Cate Moses, the schools homeless liaison.

These are the families she had in mind last fall when she wrote the city council about parents who faced eviction due to pandemic-related job loss. We now have close to 60 students who qualify as homeless under federal  law., she wrote. As the pandemic drags on, their situation worsens.

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In response, the city signed her up as a navigator  a community member who connects residents to social services  and gave the school $20,000 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act to help families pay overdue rent and utility bills. She spent six weeks filing paperwork and helped about 40 families stay in their homes.

Cate Moses, homeless liaison at Monte Del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, stands near the schools greenhouse and gardens where students in a sustainable college and career readiness program grow produce for school lunches and a food bank. (Cate Moses)

Financial arrangements like those at Monte Del Sol  between local governments and those who understand the housing needs of students  helped prevent eviction among thousands of families with school-aged children, according to experts on student homelessness. But after emerging under the CARES Act last year, theyve mostly disappeared under the newer Emergency Rental Assistance program, run by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Parents applying for assistance are now directed to centralized websites run by state and local governments.While liaisons like Moses can still show parents how to sign up for rent relief, they arent involved in distributing the funds, which can lead to bureaucratic obstacles. Experts say it now can take months instead of weeks to receive assistance.

It is really striking that schools are left out of [the] Biden-Harris  response to the housing crisis, when they are best poised to get assistance to families, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a national advocacy organization working to prevent student homelessness.

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Duffield is advocating with the administration and members of Congress to get schools included as grantees eligible to distribute rental assistance funds. For all the re-imagining that is being done in the pandemic, this is a necessary change, she said.

The tedious application process  requiring extensive documentation  is one reason why the bulk of the $46 billion in federal funds for rental assistance has gone unused. In late August, just as the U.S. Supreme Court was about to end a Biden administration ban on evictions, the White House announced an all-of-government approach to help Americans at risk of being evicted, but schools werent mentioned. The push to speed up assistance included efforts across multiple federal agencies, including agriculture, veterans affairs, health and human services, and housing and urban development  but not education.

A recent analysis of Census Bureau figures showed that almost a quarter of renters with children are behind on payments, and according to federal data, about 1.4 million students are homeless. Some districts have hired additional staff to help families navigate the online application process. Moses, for example, brought on a part-time employee to assist parents and help them gather the documents they need to prove they qualify.

But Duffield added, It would be even better if the [rental] assistance werent so hard to navigate in the first place.

Before the eviction ban ended, seven progressive Democrats in the House, including Jamaal Bowman of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri and Ilham Omar of Minnesota, wrote a letter to President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, asking them to prioritize students housing-related needs.

In a statement to The 74, Bowman said, public schools should be allowed to take on a more deliberate role in administering the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

Related: No One Knew We Were Homeless: New Relief Funds Fuel Efforts to Find Students Lost During Virtual School

A missed opportunity

Efforts to prevent evictions and help families cover their housing costs began with the federal governments early response to the pandemic. The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, included two streams of funding, under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that states and local governments could tap for rent relief. Local authorities that had existing relationships with schools and nonprofits enlisted them in the effort to quickly distribute the funds  a strategy researchers found effective.

But when Congress designed the new program, Republicans and former President Donald Trump, who multiple times recommended cuts for affordable housing programs, gave control to the treasury department. The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy organization, pushed to keep the program where it was given the agencys deep expertise in housing and the unique needs of the lowest-income and most marginalized populations, said President and CEO, Diane Yentel.

Now state and local finance departments are fielding applications and managing the newer treasury department program, which, Yentel said, has led to unfortunate and unnecessary restrictions that have made it more difficult for tenants behind on rent to receive needed assistance.

The treasury department did not respond to requests for comment.

Star-C, an Atlanta nonprofit that provides afterschool programs in apartments near low-performing schools, distributed $4.3 million last fall, helping 3,000 families with school-aged children and targeting efforts to schools ranked in the bottom third of the states accountability system. Cobb County, in the metro Atlanta area, still subcontracts with Star-C to distribute funds, but other counties have brought the process in house, said Margaret Stagmeier, the organizations founder. The [treasury] program is much more complex than our first  eviction relief fund, which allowed us to focus specifically on our edu-housing mission.

On Sept. 14, the House financial services committee, chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., advanced a bill that expands grantees to include nonprofits and courts, but not school districts.

Duffield said the treasury department missed an opportunity to capitalize on the single best distribution system for reaching families. If schools can distribute food assistance, why not rental assistance?

Who you know

Bush, one of the House members who signed the letter to Biden and Cardona, drew national attention to families and children at risk of eviction in August when she and others slept for five days on the U.S. Capitol steps, in protest of Congress allowing the eviction moratorium to expire.

Rep. Cori Bush slept outside the U.S. Capitol to protest Congress adjourning without extending the federal eviction ban. Marilee Hill-Anderson of the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District in Washington state, joined the protest for a few hours. (Joshua Roberts / Getty Images)

Marilee Hill-Anderson, director of community engagement for the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District, near Tacoma, Washington, was among those who joined the demonstration.

In Pierce County, where the district is located, the rental assistance website tells applicants the turnaround time on funds could be as long as 88 days. But last fall, under the CARES Act model, Hill-Anderson worked with Sumner city officials to distribute checks within a two-week period. In all, the district helped families pay rent and utilities totalling $34,000.

Sometimes its who you know and who you have relationships with, said Hill-Anderson. We are incredibly grateful for the federal money. But given the fact that weve been able to do things more flexibly because of political will, I think there are some other models we can use.

Related: Sign up for The 74s newsletter
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's government on Wednesday proposed tightening a law to prevent China from stealing key technology, reflecting concerns in Taipei that Beijing is stepping up espionage efforts against the island.

Taiwan is home to a thriving and world-leading semiconductor industry, used in everything from fighter jets to cars, and the government has long worried about Chinese efforts to copy that success, including through industrial espionage, poaching talent and other methods.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said it was proposing a revision to an existing law governing China relations that would require people getting government money for certain technology to seek permission before going to China.

There would be fines of up to T$10 million ($360,555) for those who breach the law.

The council did not specify what constitutes "national core technology" or how the government defines "certain subsidies" provided by them, saying it will seek help from the technology ministry and further amend the regulations.

A senior Taiwan government official familiar with the matter told Reuters last month the revision was meant to protect the island's manufacturing technology for advanced chips, which industry experts say is generations ahead of China's.

Taiwan's parliament will need to pass the revisions.

Four lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party proposed in April https://www.reuters.com/technology/taiwan-says-china-waging-economic-warfare-against-tech-sector-2021-04-28 amending the commercial secrets law to widen the scope of what is considered a secret and toughen penalties.

Taiwan blames China for most cases of industrial espionage by foreign forces discovered in recent years.

Taiwan has been particularly concerned by Chinese attempts to boost its semiconductor industry by "poaching" Taiwanese talent.

($1 = 27.7350 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Andrew Kirk has been educating his Advanced Placement human geography students on the Covid-19 pandemic in real time.

The students at Sunset High School in Dallas have used maps to compare coronavirus caseloads in places that are more heavily vaccinated with those that are not. They have practiced how to find and interpret guidance and directives from experts. And just as important, though perhaps less expected, they are learning how to be skeptical  of social media, each other and even their parents  so they can better distinguish the differences between fact and fiction, a skill that only seems to get tougher to master in the age of misinformation.

Its surprisingly difficult even for adults to really identify clear disinformation or misinformation, Kirk said.

Educators have been grappling with how to help students become more discerning consumers of information for several years now as social media has allowed lies, fake news and falsehoods to spread broadly and quickly.

But some educators say teaching their students how to conduct research has now become one of the most critical skills they impart as misinformation abounds about potentially life-threatening topics like vaccines, masks and purported Covid cures.

Obviously, the stakes are much different with something like this, Kirk said. Educating people and having those conversations about claims and evidence, not only is it part and parcel of just creating or maintaining the school as a space of inquiry, it also falls under keeping the school and classroom a safe environment.

It's critical to how I would see my role as a teacher, he said.

Adrian Reyna, who teaches high school U.S. history to eighth graders in San Antonio, agrees.

One of the fundamental things that we are hopefully teaching young people how to do is to read critically and think critically, Reyna said.

It's very much a life skill, being able to analyze the information that is coming to you, that you're processing, and then to be able to analyze it in a way that helps you determine whether or not this is legitimate, he said. Is this based in fact? Is this somebody's opinion?

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Teachers said they guide their students to do things such as looking for .edu and .org sites, reading vetted journals, investigating sources of information, corroborating claims and always questioning the background and motives of their sources.

Reyna and others said they are trying to get their students to get in the habit of critically evaluating the deluge of information they receive.

It can be easier said than done.

Anton Schulzki, president of the National Council for the Social Studies, said lessons are sometimes drowned out by the messages students are getting from people they trust outside of school.

If you're coming from a place where what you hear at home is the conspiracy theories, sometimes that's going to play more of a role than what we can do, said Schulzki, who also teaches social studies at a high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That makes our job that much harder.

Reyna said he encountered one middle school student who told him he was not going to get vaccinated because his mother said the Covid vaccine kills people.

Reyna said he asked the student where that information had come from and offered up his own research and evidence about the vaccine in return, being careful not to alienate the student.

It's much more of just building an understanding, and as a history teacher, that's what we do all the time, he said. We might have competing narratives; we might have competing information. So, let's have a discussion about it. Let's base our discussion on facts and evidence, and then let's base our decision and our thinking on the evidence that we've uncovered.

Michael Reese, who teaches dual credit U.S. history and AP human geography at a high school in El Paso, Texas, said he reminds students at the start of each school year that today in the United States, there is almost an unquantifiable number of potential sources of information that you could use to learn about topics to make sense of the world.

We look at the effect of the trend of most Americans getting their daily news and information from social media outlets and what a devastating effect that's having on just basic knowledge about the world, about our country, about how our government operates, about public health, about everything, he said.

He said he also introduces his students to a media bias chart evaluating news sources on their news value, reliability and partisan bias, and each day, they watch at least a portion of PBS NewsHour.

Also, Reese has attached a photocopy of his vaccination card to his teacher badge.

It's constantly on display and so everybody knows that Mr. Reese is vaccinated and Mr. Reese endorses vaccinations, he said. I don't even have to say it because it's right there on my lapel.

As part of his lessons, students also learn about the history of vaccination and vaccination mandates, including the polio vaccine and the discredited study that falsely linked the measles vaccine with autism.

Reese said his school has largely been a success story in terms of achieving student buy-in to wearing masks in school. But on the first day of a mask mandate, there was a parent who demanded their child be exempt in the form of a letter and threatened legal action.

Reese said during the few days the student was not wearing a mask, he gave the class instruction based on evidence and reliable sources, and eventually, the student has voluntarily started to mask.
NBC Sports Philadelphia

Its not often you see an NBA player on the court into his 40s, and the 2021-22 season will be no different. Heres a look at the NBAs oldest players this season and in history.
The EU's top court on Wednesday cancelled two trade deals with Morocco, for agricultural products and fish from disputed Western Sahara, after a case brought by the Polisaro independence movement.

The court "annuls the (European) Council decisions concerning, first, the agreement between the European Union and Morocco amending the tariff preferences granted by the European Union to products of Moroccan origin and, second, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement," the EU's Court of Justice said in a statement.

The accords will remain in place for two months in order to "preserve the European Unions external action and legal certainty over its international commitments", it said.

Morocco views Western Sahara as an integral part of its territory, but the UN views the former Spanish colony as a "non-autonomous territory" and the Polisario, backed by Algeria, has long sought its independence.

Morocco controls around 80 percent of the territory and has offered autonomy, while insisting it must retain sovereignty.

At stake are an overland route to West African markets, rich phosphate resources and Atlantic fisheries along the territory's 1,100-kilometre (680-mile) coastline.

The EU court in Luxembourg ruled that by extending trade deals with Morocco southwards into the former Spanish colony "without the consent of the people of Western Sahara, the Council infringed the European Unions obligations in the context of its relations with Morocco under EU and international law".

After the court ruling, Morocco and the European Union issuing a joint statement underlining that their trade partnership would continue.

"We will take the necessary measure to ensure a legal framework that guarantees the continuation and stability of trade relations between the EU and the Kingdom of Morocco," the bloc's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said.

agr/par/kir
The trial for an autistic Cambodian teenager accused of insulting local government officials is set to begin Sept. 29.



Jailed over Telegram: Kak Sovann Chhay, the 16-year-old son of two government opposition figures, was arrested for allegedly sending messages that were deemed insulting to officials from the ruling party on an app called Telegram, BBC reported.



The teen reportedly got into an online argument with a pro-ruling party member living in Canada who called his father a traitor. His father was a member of the outlawed opposition group Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

An hour after the Canadian man forwarded Sovann Chhays messages to authorities, approximately 20 armed police officers arrived at the boys house. Some were carrying weapons such as AK-47s.

Six officers entered the house without a warrant, handcuffed Sovann Chhay and dragged him to a vehicle.









After being charged with incitement and insulting public officials, he now faces up to two years in jail if convicted.

In October last year, he was also detained for two days after breaking into the CNRPs abandoned headquarters.

In April, Sovann Chhay suffered a fractured skull following an attack from two unknown assailants who struck him on the head with a brick.



Runs in the family: Sovann Chhay, who barely spoke as a child, reportedly got his passion for politics from his parents.



His father, Kak Komphear, has been in jail since June last year for being a senior member of CNRP. He used to take Sovann Chhay to opposition party events, which is what started his interest in politics.

His mother, Prum Chantha, is a human rights activist who has been protesting for the release of her husband and other opposition members.

Chantha believes that the authorities are targeting her son because she and his father are open and vocal critics of the ruling party. They want to break my spirit and send a message to other people. They want to show that they are untouchable and if anyone dares to touch them, they will end up like me, she said. But I still dare to talk, express my views and protest.

Kak Komphear and his son are now among the over 150 people charged with incitement amid the Cambodian governments ongoing crackdown on dissent.



Iron fist: Prime Minister Hun Sen, leader of Cambodias ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), has been in power for 36 years.



Story continues

In 2014, Sens party placed bans on public gatherings and deployed riot police to beat protesters and detain union leaders, according to the New York Times.

Cambodia officially became a one-party state in 2017 after having CNRP outlawed and suppressing any form of opposition.

The arrested opposition figures are now facing a closed-door trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the ruling party.



United Nations (UN) experts have been calling for Sovann Chhays release and asking for the Cambodian government to ensure that his human rights are protected. Children with disabilities accused of breaking the law should be treated in line with the best interests of the child, and every effort should be made to keep them out of jail."



Featured Image via Prum Chantha

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a congressional committee on Wednesday that he had not supported keeping troops in Afghanistan "forever."

He also told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan - the second in two days with testimony with top military leaders - that there had been no "risk free" status quo option if the military had stayed and that more troops would have been needed.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Phil Stewart; Editing by Franklin Paul)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other officials emphasized President Joe Bidens support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

In the talks the U.S. and Egyptian delegations also urged a return to constitutional order in Tunisia and discussed support for a civilian-led transition in Sudan, the official said. Sullivan reiterated U.S. Support for a diplomatic resolution regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and recognized Egypts concerns about access to the Nile's waters, as well, according to the official.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Steve Holland)
KYIV (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday condemned the death of a man in a shooting in Belarus, saying it provided further evidence of human rights abuses under President Alexander Lukashenko's rule.

Special Envoy for Belarus, Julie Fisher, said the United States was seeking additional information on whether the victim in the shooting was a U.S. citizen.

Belarusian security forces shot dead a 31-year-old man, identified by the pro-democracy opposition as an IT worker with U.S. company EPAM Systems, during a raid on Tuesday at an apartment block in the capital Minsk.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus, which investigates major crimes, said a 31-year-old man was "liquidated with return fire" after resisting law enforcement officers.

Reuters could not independently verify the statements or footage of the incident that was aired on Belarusian state television.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
About 93% of UConn employees across Storrs and the schools four regional campuses are partially or fully vaccinated against COVID-19, interim university President Andrew Agwunobi shared during a Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday.

That jumped up from 78% a week ago, he said, and employees have until Oct. 15 to report their vaccination status to the university.

The data shared by Agwunobi does not include employees at UConn Health, the school said. UConn Health said late Wednesday afternoon that 92% of its employees are vaccinated against COVID-19, including full-time, part-time and per-diem workers.

Yesterday marked 30 days since the beginning of the fall semester, said Agwunobi. Our first and most important priority over the summer was to reopen successfully in the fall. Im going to resist the temptation to say weve achieved that since were only 30 days in. ... The weather is changing, and we dont know whats going to happen with the delta variant ... [but] its gone as well as anyone could hope for.

As of Wednesday, 98% of Storrs residential students are vaccinated, while vaccination rates among students at the Avery Point, Hartford, Stamford and Waterbury campuses range from 90% to 97%, according to the university.

UConn announced mandatory coronavirus vaccination policies for students and employees in June and August, respectively. Faculty and staff unions shared support for the employee policy which, similarly to the student policy, allows for medical and non-medical exemptions. Students and employees who are not vaccinated must adhere to regular COVID-19 testing requirements.

Despite the high vaccination rates, Ive been reminded by students that we have to continue to make sure [they] have access to testing, particularly as we enter flu season, Agwunobi said.

While fully vaccinated students do not have to participate in weekly coronavirus surveillance testing, anyone showing COVID-19 symptoms must contact the health center, states school policy.

Story continues

New student apartments

During the meeting, the trustees also discussed plans to redevelop UConns Mansfield Apartments on South Eagleville Road, as well as general budget updates.

Lloyd Blanchard, UConns interim vice president for finance and chief financial officer, said the university is seeking to fully replace the 240-bed complex  built around 1940 and surrounded on three sides by a wildlife sanctuary  with 800-850 new student apartments.

A letter sent from Agwunobis office to the board said the existing complex has been used as isolation housing during the pandemic, and it is desirable to commence redevelopment activities at this time, with the intention of not having to reopen the complex in its current condition to the general student population again.

The discussion follows tension between UConn and Mansfield town officials over a lack of affordable housing in the local area. The groups recently made tentative amends after UConn dropped its opposition to the development of a town apartment complex on Route 195. Local officials had previously said they were undermined by the school purchasing nearly 20 acres of land to prevent another town housing project from moving forward.

The board approved the use of $850,000 in UCONN 2000 bond funds to initiate the planning phase for the Mansfield Apartments project and the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act approval process. Board Chair Daniel Toscano called the issue of housing both on and off campus critically important and the project long overdue.

Laura Cruickshank, associate vice president for university planning, design and construction said that as a local resident, she was very aware of the towns concerns, regarding the Albert E. Moss Sanctuary.

Well be careful with that, she said.

According to Wednesdays budget update, UConn has received $176 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding to date, including $90.5M to help offset losses, $50.4 million in student aid and $35.4 million in expense reimbursements. School officials said UConn expects to use about $43.2 million of federal funds to cover the 2021-2022 fiscal year and end with a balanced budget.

Amanda Blanco can be reached at ablanco@courant.com.
By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) - BAE Systems said Tempest, the British-led project to build a new fighter jet, would sign contracts with partners Italy and Sweden by the end of this year and talks were ongoing with Japan about joining the project.

BAE's director of Future Combat Air Systems Michael Christie said he expected contracts with the two partners on the concept and assessment phase to be signed by the end of 2021.

Talks with Japan ranged from the country joining the programme as a partner to collaborating on technology, he said.

"There's a lot of commonality between the UK and Japan in terms of what they're trying to achieve in this sphere ... that's an ongoing area and one that we are actively pursuing," Christie told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

The Tempest project, which in addition to BAE includes Rolls-Royce, European missile maker MBDA and Leonardo UK, has a budget of 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) from the UK government to 2025, plus 800 million pounds from the companies over the same period.

While Britain works on Tempest to replace its Eurofighter Typhoon jets from 2040, France, Germany and Spain are working on a rival to replace France's Rafale and German and Spanish Eurofighters.

Analysts have questioned whether European military budgets are sufficient for the two competing projects.

Christie wouldn't be drawn on whether they could be combined, but said "the longer the two programmes run separately, the harder it's going to be to come together."

France and Britain clashed this month over London's trilateral nuclear security deal with Australia and the United States.

Christie said his focus was on keeping down costs by shortening the time its takes to deliver the new jet.

"We are challenging ourselves effectively to deliver the Tempest system in half the time we delivered Typhoon," he said.

The aim is for the main development programme to start in 2025, with the jet operational by 2035.

Story continues

Christie envisages a manned aircraft surrounded by unmanned drones and smart weapons, connected by an information cloud, but says the decisions on how Tempest operates won't be finalised until 2025.

For speed and cost savings, BAE is using 3D printing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robots at its factory in Warton, northern England.

It has also brought in dozens of smaller companies and academics from outside the aerospace and defence sector to enhance technological capabilities.

($1 = 0.7311 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah Young Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark Potter)
A University of Kansas student has been charged with raping a 19-year-old at campus housing earlier this month.

Chi H. Kai, 19, was charged with one count of rape, according to documents from the Douglas County District Attorneys office.

The criminal complaint says the incident occurred without the consent of the victim and when the victim was either overcome by force or fear or incapacitated.

A spokeswoman with KU confirmed Wednesday that Kai is enrolled as a freshman at the university.

KU Public Safety Deputy Chief James Druen said that the alleged rape occurred two weeks ago in a dormitory room. A report was made to the universitys police force on Sept. 22 and there was probable cause to arrest a suspect on rape charges, Druen said last week.

Kai was booked into the Douglas County Jail on Sept. 22. Charges were filed the next day. His bond was set at $100,000 with GPS monitoring. As of Wednesday, he was no longer in jail.

The arrest was reported amid ongoing controversy about sexual assault at KU.

Several days before the dormitory rape allegations were made, a student reported a sexual assault on Sept. 12 at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house near KUs campus. The university and police department are investigating the allegations.

Accusations that a fraternity member drugged and raped a fellow student were shared widely on social media in the days after the allegation. In response, hundreds of people gathered outside of the fraternity to protest, some calling for the fraternity to be banned from receiving university resources or recognition.

A sexual battery case was also reported near the university earlier this month. A woman told Lawrence police that she was followed for nearly a mile and attacked by a man who tried to touch her inappropriately.
The base of the first reactor at Hinkley Point C power station. (PA)

Washington is celebrating the UKs effort to push a Chinese company out of a sensitive nuclear power project, according to people familiar with US engagement on the issue.

The US, long an opponent of the UKs energy ties with China, considers Londons plans to require Chinese energy giant, CGN to give up its 20 per cent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk a long-fought-for diplomatic win.

The British governments discomfort with Chinas grip on its energy sector has grown in recent months. Meanwhile, the Biden administration launched a fresh drive to protect energy infrastructure from attacks, including cyberattacks, earlier this year.

This plan was created specifically with adversaries Russia and China, and their cyber-hostility in mind, according to a person briefed on the plan.

The US has also been examining the energy security of its NATO allies, and their respective dependence on China and Russia. Now, an effort to take control of the CGN stake by the British government is viewed as a pay-off for Washington, after it lobbied London over Chinas ties to Britains sensitive nuclear energy infrastructure.

Its a win for sure, for the US, and for the UK. Serious threats posed by some countries to energy security seem to be getting the right attention, one of the same people familiar with US energy security policy said.

Britain is weighing taking hold of CGNs 20 per cent stake in the 20 billion Sizewell C nuclear plant project. The government may then sell the stake to institutional investors, or float it on the stock market, according to a person familiar with the governments thinking.

EDF, which holds the remaining share of the Sizewell project and Hinkley point C, declined to comment. CGN did not respond to a request for comment.

There is no official figure which captures the full extent of Chinese ownership of British assets within the energy sector, in part because it is hard to determine the extent of the regimes use of intermediaries. However, Chinas hold over a range of parts of the UKs energy infrastructure is considerable.

Story continues

The Chinese state holds an interest in UK gas distributor, Cadent Gas, via its sovereign wealth fund after the Chinese Investment Corporation led a consortium to buy the network from National Grid. State-backed Chinese companies also own stakes in British oil and gas companies, and renewable energy sites, including windfarms.

CGN is also involved in building the Hinkley Point C site in Somerset alongwith French energy company EDF, offering nearly a third of the investment in the site. Washington was troubled by both the Sizewell and Hinkley projects, but most concerned about plans for a plant in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex which could use Chinas own nuclear reactor technology, rather than following more familiar European technology.

The same people familiar with US energy engagement expect China to be cut from the Bradwell-on-Sea project.

A government spokesperson said: CGN is a valued partner at Hinkley Point C and a shareholder in Sizewell C up until the point of the governments Final Investment Decision. Negotiations are ongoing and no final decision has been taken.

The government, which said it believes nuclear power is a crucial part of the energy mix as the UK moves seeks to reduce its carbon emissions, is expected to put forward new legislation on how to fund big nuclear energy projects going forward.

The favoured approach is a regulated asset base (RAB) route, whereby investors can collect money from consumers via energy bills during construction of a power plant.

A representative for the US government did not offer a comment ahead of publication.

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Mike Antonuccis Union Report appears most Wednesdays; see the full archive.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 96 percent of school districts are now offering full-time, in-person instruction. Stakeholders, including the two national teachers unions, are on board with vaccine mandates for school employees. So after more than a year of battling, everyone should be relieved that those major issues have been resolved.

Not a chance.

It turns out to be relatively easy to issue a vaccine mandate and an entirely different matter to implement and enforce it. In many places, the mandate is accompanied by bargaining, cajoling, exemptions, injunctions and jurisdictional complications  all of which make it virtually certain that your children are spending at least part of their school day indoors with an unvaccinated adult.

Get essential education news and commentary delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here for The 74s daily newsletter.

You might find this alarming because the whole point of school closures was to eliminate exposure of children to COVID-19 in classrooms. Or you might not find it so alarming, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has consistently found that staff-to-staff transmission is more common than transmission from students to staff, staff to student or student to student.

Related: School Reopening, By the Numbers  How 100 Top Districts Are (and Arent) Adapting: Huge New Demand for Remote Learning, Rethinking Bans on Virtual Options & More

Even President Joe Biden might wonder why a vaccine mandate issued from the White House has had so little effect. The president directed that any employer with more than 100 employees would have to require vaccines or weekly testing. This would seem to affect most school districts in the United States. But as Nat Malkus points out in The Hill, the mandate covers no public school teachers in 24 states because of the jurisdictional limits of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Story continues

The option of weekly testing is also a poor substitute for vaccination, since an employee could have already spread the virus before receiving a positive test result.

In New York City, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction against a vaccine mandate. An appeals court lifted the injunction, but lawyers representing teachers who brought the suit said they will petition the U.S. Supreme Court. The citys Department of Education reports that about 29,000 school employees have yet to upload proof of vaccination.

Over at Chalkbeat, Matt Barnum reports, Even in the strictest districts, the timeline allows teachers to be in the classroom for a month or two before being fully vaccinated.

With all the media attention on vaccine mandates, one reality has been largely overlooked.

In fact, it doesnt appear that any large school district started this year with a full vaccine mandate in place, though the vaccine was available beginning last spring and teachers often were provided with early access to it, wrote Barnum.

Related: CDC Director OKs Booster Shots for Teachers and Other Frontline Workers

Research by the University of Washingtons Center on Reinventing Public Education shows that the majority of school districts do not require teachers to be vaccinated. Even so, they are now being given priority access to booster shots.

That is a major unresolved problem, said CRPE Director Robin Lake. Why do we keep giving teachers priority access to the vaccine without requiring they all do their part to protect kids?

No one thinks these policy choices are easy, but they should adhere to some sort of internal logic. If vaccinated employees are an absolute requirement for schools to operate in person, then there should be no exceptions. The unvaccinated should not be in contact with students or other staffers. What to do with them instead is a matter for each school district (and probably union) to decide.

If, on the other hand, we are going to allow unvaccinated staffers to interact with students and other employees, then why were schools closed for 18 months?

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WATCH THE FULL OCTOBER 3 EPISODE!

COVER STORY: Faceoff against Facebook: Stopping the flow of misinformation | Watch VideoStudies show posts that peddle misinformation on social media platforms like Facebook get many more shares, comments and likes than factual content  creating a profit motive to keep the spigot of conspiracy theories and spurious medical claims flowing.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Four young internet entrepreneurs (Video)A new generation of tech entrepreneur was on the rise, creating sites that changed the very landscape of the web. Correspondent David Pogue talked with four young people using the Internet for all it's worth: 21-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, founder of thefacebook.com; Blake Ross, who co-created the web browser Firefox at age 19; Robin Liss, who created camera review websites while in middle school; and Wayne Chang, creator of the i2hub high-speed communications network. Originally broadcast on "CBS Sunday Morning" July 17, 2005.

For more info:

Dr. Adriano Goffi, medical director, Altus Emergency Center, Lumberton, TexasLaura Edelson, Tandon School of Engineering, New York UniversityKevin Roose, The New York Timesfacebook.com

ART: Ceramic artist Roberto Lugo's spin on teapots | Watch VideoRoberto Lugo grew up in a North Philadelphia neighborhood better known for poverty and crime than for pottery. Yet the 40-year-old artist's ceramics, featuring the faces of his personal heroes, put a modern spin on classic teapots. Correspondent Serena Altschul talks with Lugo, whose work is on display at some of the country's leading museums and galleries, about how he is shaping his passion to inspire others.

For more info:

Roberto Lugo StudioExhibition: "God Complex: Different Philadelphia," at the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania (through December 19)"Roberto Lugo: New Ceramics," at the Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, Conn. (through December 18)"Back and Forth: Red and Meth  Ceramic and Graffiti featuring Roberto Lugo, Griff Jurchak and Kyle Mello Dixon," at the Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia (October 22-December 30)"Roberto Lugo: Before Yesterday We Could Fly," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (beginning November 5)

Story continues

The Ramones perform at the Ritz in New York City, October 6, 1990. From left: Guitarist Johnny Ramone, drummer Marky Ramone, lead vocalist Joey Ramone, and bassist C.J. Ramone. / Credit: Ebet Roberts/Redferns vis Getty Images

BOOKS: Kelefa Sanneh on the perverse charm of punk music | Watch VideoNew Yorker writer and "Sunday Morning" contributor Kelefa Sanneh, author of "Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres," talks about a mixtape that changed his life at age 14, and how a Ramones concert evoked the thrill of punk music.

BOOK EXCERPT: Kelefa Sanneh's "Major Labels" (With audio)

For more info:

"Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres" by Kelefa Sanneh (Penguin), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available October 5 via Amazon and IndieboundRecord Shop, BrooklynTrash and Vaudeville, East Village, ManhattanKelefa Sanneh at The New Yorkermarkyramone.com

COMMENTARY: Dan Bergmann on his autism, and a breakthrough lesson | Watch VideoClassified for years as "intellectually disabled," a young man's education, and later success, took a dramatic turn thanks to one teacher's thoughtful instruction.

The Doobie Brothers. / Credit: CBS News

MUSIC: The Doobie Brothers, still going strong | Watch VideoThe Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famers, who've been playing together for more than half a century, don't let old resentments get in the way of a new album and tour. Correspondent Jim Axelrod talks with members of The Doobie Brothers  Michael McDonald, Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and John McFee  about the band's longevity, and about their first studio album in more than a decade, "Liberte."

To hear "The American Dream" from The Doobie Brothers' new album, "Liberte," click on the video player below.

For more info:

thedoobiebrothers.com | Tour schedule"Liberte" by The Doobie Brothers, available on Island Records

PASSAGE: In memoriam (Video)"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week, including saxophonist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis.

BOOKS: Anthony Doerr's latest literary epic, "Cloud Cuckoo Land" | Watch VideoThe Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "All the Light We Cannot See" returns with a new historical novel that spans more than 700 years. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with Doerr about his lifelong love of writing, his previous bestseller's overwhelming success, and the power of telling stories that transcend time.

BOOK EXCERPT: "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr

For more info:

"Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr (Simon & Schuster), available in Hardcover, Large Print, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon and Indieboundanthonydoerr.com

MOVIES: Daniel Craig looks beyond James Bond | Watch VideoAfter five films in which he starred as Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond, Daniel Craig is saying bon voyage to the character with the release of "No Time to Die." Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz talks with Craig about playing 007, letting go, and who might follow him in the role.

To watch a trailer for "No Time to Die" click on the video player below:

For more info:

"No Time to Die" opens in U.S. theaters on October 8.007.com

SUNDAY JOURNAL: Washington and the expectation gap (Video)Democratic lawmakers were scrambling this week to salvage support in the Senate for President Joe Biden's social and environmental agenda, while also maintaining support for a companion infrastructure bill in the House. Correspondent John Dickerson discusses the drama of a political showdown that the majority-party Democrats are having with themselves.

For more info:

Brendan Nyhan, Department of Government, Dartmouth College

HARTMAN: Marines to the rescue (Video)When Virginia Waller-Torres, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was caught in a flash flood, she thought she would perish, and prayed for help. In a matter of moments, Marines in dress blues seemed to appear out of nowhere. Correspondent Steve Hartman reports.

NATURE: Brown Pelicans (Extended Video)"Sunday Morning" takes us among Brown Pelicans at California's Rodeo Lagoon near Sausolito. Videographer: Lee McEachern.

The Emmy Award-winning "CBS Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

DVR Alert! Find out when "Sunday Morning" airs in your city

"Sunday Morning" also streams on CBSN beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Full episodes of "Sunday Morning" are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and Paramount+, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox.

Follow us on Twitter (@CBSSunday), Facebook, Instagram (#CBSSundayMorning), YouTube, and at cbssundaymorning.com.

You can also download the free "Sunday Morning" audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you'll never miss the trumpet!

Fauci says it's "too soon to tell" whether Americans should avoid gathering for Christmas

Ocasio-Cortez says moderate senators "not really coming to the table" over budget bill

Open: This is "Face the Nation" with Margaret Brennan, October 3
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Adele is officially back  and what better way to make her grand return than with not one, but two historic Vogue covers showcasing the singers new era in full? For the first time in Vogues over-100 years running, the same star will cover both American Vogue and British Vogue for November 2021, and that star is London-born Adele, taking her first interviews []
The man had opened fire against the security forces, one of whom also died, the KGB security service said in a statement. It also said his wife had been arrested.

Reuters could not independently verify the statements or footage of the incident that was aired on Belarusian state television.

EPAM declined immediate comment. The U.S. embassy did not provide immediate comment.

Local media and a senior adviser to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya identified the man killed as Andrei Zeltser, an IT worker with EPAM.
(Bloomberg) -- China is set for a difficult harvest season as a severe energy crunch hurts the outlook for booming production, a development that risks triggering a renewed surge in world agriculture and food prices.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Autumn harvest in the top agricultural producer is underway just as the worlds No. 2 economy faces power shortages in industrial hubs that threaten to slow growth. Among the worst hit are northeastern provinces such as Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang -- where about half of Chinas corn and soybeans are grown.

The crisis is stoking concern that China will have a tough time handling crops from corn to soy to peanuts and cotton this year after some plants were asked to suspend or cut output to conserve electricity. Over the past year, the nation imported a record amount of agricultural products due to a domestic shortage, driving prices and global food costs to multiyear highs.

So far, the power shortage has forced soybean processors in northern regions to shut, affecting some operations of Louis Dreyfus Co., Bunge Ltd. and Wilmar International Ltd.s Yihai Kerry unit. Theres also concern that the electricity crunch could cut operating rates of corn processors that make products like starch and syrup, Chinese brokerage Huatai Futures Co. said.

The country needs to ensure sufficient power supply to keep up with expectations for a bumper harvest. This will affect the supply and prices of agricultural products, which is a matter of importance for the national economy and peoples livelihood, according to Futures Daily, a state-backed media.

Some companies have bought back-up generators in case of prolonged power cuts, Futures Daily reported, citing traders and producers. Electricity is needed to dry the crops, an important process before storage and sale. Corn and peanut supplies may deteriorate in quality if theyre not processed in time.

Story continues

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Lahore : A Pakistani sessions court passed on a verdict of death penalty to a Muslim woman of blasphemy under the charge of Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The woman was sentenced to death and fined Pakistani Rs 50,000. It is proved beyond reasonable doubt that accused Salma Tanveer wrote and distributed the writings which are derogatory in respect of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and she failed to prove that her case falls in exception provided by section 84 of PPC, rules Additional District & Sessions Judge Mansoor Ahmad Qureshi in his 22-page verdict, Dawn reported.

An FIR was registered against the woman on September 2, 2013, by Nishtar Colony police, on the complaint of Qari Iftikhar Ahmad Raza, a prayer leader of a local mosque.

The woman was accused of distributing photocopies of her writings wherein she denied the finality of prophethood and claimed her as a prophet, reports Dawn.

The woman runs a private school and is working as a Principal.

Blasphemy, which is defined as the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God, has always been misused by the extremist groups in Pakistan, who have continued discrimination against the minority groups in the country.

The increasing cases of blasphemy registered in Pakistan continue to be a cause of concern for human rights activists who have repeatedly highlighted the practice and urged world bodies, including the EU to take note of the issue, which has worsened the lives of minorities living in the country.

Pakistan has registered around 1600 blasphemy cases, which are mostly against religious minorities like Hindus, Christians, Shia and Ahmadiya Muslims from 1987 till today according to several reports by rights groups.

A large number of these blasphemy cases in Pakistan are still awaiting justice.
New Delhi : The Taliban has recently requested Indias aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to resume commercial flight operations to Kabul, which were closed after August 15. The Civil Aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan extends its compliments to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of India. As you are informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and these functional by American troops before their withdrawal. By technical assistance of our Qatar brother the airport became operational once again and a NOTAM in this regard was issued on September 06, 2021, a letter from Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority to DGCA Arun Kumar stated.

A top government source told ANI, At present, the decision to resume commercial flights to Kabul is being reviewed by the DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) along with the competent authority.

The Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) has also requested the Indian authorities to resume the commercial flight services of the national carrier of Afghanistan between India and Kabul.

The intention of this letter is to keep the smooth passenger movement between two countries based on the signed MoU and our national carriers (Ariana Afghan airlines and Kam Air) aimed to commence their scheduled flights. Therefore, Afghanistan civil aviation authority requests you to facilitate their commercial flights. the ACAA letter stated.

Indias national carrier Air India operated its last commercial flight to Kabul was on August 15 amid turmoil in the city.

Flight operations in Afghanistan came to a halt after the Taliban takeover of Kabul last month. The domestic flights were resumed on September 5.

Pakistans state-run Pakistan International Airlines was the first airline to operate the first international charter flight to Afghanistan on September13, after the Taliban takeover.
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After largely remaining silent after months of criticism from Andrew Cuomo and his team over her investigation that brought down the former governor, Attorney General Letitia James went on the offensive on Wednesday.

Speaking at a breakfast event held by the Association for a Better New York, she responded to Cuomos suggestion that she had a political motive in deciding to open the investigation that led to the damning 165-page report corroborating the harassment accusations against him. Cuomo and his allies suggested James was out to get Cuomo and take his job as governor. The attorney generals report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic, and it worked, Cuomo said in his final address as governor.

Since that report came out, the former governor has spent a lot of energy criticizing it and me, James said on Wednesday. Until now, Ive chosen to take the high road. Ive chosen not to respond in detail. But that changes today.

James made a direct comparison between her investigation and a probe into then-Governor Eliot Spitzer helmed by Cuomo when he was attorney general more than a decade ago. Cuomos office investigated Spitzer over his use of the state police for political means, which weakened the first-term governor, who later resigned from office following an unrelated scandal involving an escort service.

My office began this investigation based on a lawful referral from the governor, James said, referring to Cuomo handing the sexual-harassment probe to her earlier this year, after he first attempted to name his own investigator. By contrast, Mr. Cuomo did not wait for such a referral when he investigated then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer. My office appointed outside independent investigators. By contrast, Mr. Cuomo used his own staff.

James then took aim at Cuomo directly, suggesting he lacks personal accountability for his own actions.

Mr. Cuomo has a lot to say on these matters, but he has never taken responsibility for his own conduct. He has never held himself accountable for how his behavior affected our state government, James said. So lets not lose sight of whats important. Its not me. Its not Mr. Cuomo but the survivors of his harassment, the people of our state whose trust he broke and the people who believed in him, including myself. No one is above the law, and our state can do better moving forward.

When asked for comment, Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, referred Intelligencer back to a statement he released as the speech was ongoing: As Ive said, it should raise serious red flags that the AG and her staff duck every time specific questions about omissions and inaccuracies in the AGs report are raised. The public deserves specific answers from the AG as to the credibility of her report  especially while she mulls a run for Governor.

When asked directly if she intended to run for higher office next year, James did not answer specifically. I am focusing on my work, putting my head down, serving all of you as the attorney general, she said.

If James were to jump into the gubernatorial race, she would be joining a growing Democratic field. Earlier this week, Jumaane Williams, the citys public advocate, told Intelligencer he is exploring a run. Meanwhile, Governor Kathy Hochul, who succeeded Cuomo, has made it clear that she will run for a full term next year.
The Biden Administration continues to speak with OPEC about the importance of mitigating high oil prices to better support the economy, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday as Brent Crude prices hit $80 per barrel for the first time in three years.

And the Biden Administrations outreach regarding oil prices doesnt stop with OPEC, Psaki said.

We continue to speak to international partners, including OPEC, on the importance of competitive markets and setting prices and doing more to support the recovery, Psaki told reporters during a press briefing when asked whether there are any conversations or plans for such with OPEC.

High gasoline prices continue to worry the administration. Last month, the White House called on the OPEC+ group to increase oil production more than they had planned to tame rising gasoline prices that could derail the global economic recovery.

At that time, oil prices had just crossed the $70 a barrel mark.

Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in early August, adding that the OPEC+ timeline for easing the cuts is simply not enough at a critical moment in the global recovery.

Sullivan is now in Saudi Arabia, with plans to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss Yemen.

Thats really the focus, Psaki said, referring to Yemen.

But I would assure you were not only engaged with OPEC, were looking at every means we have to lower gas prices, she added.

The press briefing at the White House took place on the day on which oil prices briefly hit $80 a barrel for the first time in three years as the natural gas shortage, and price spikes spilled over into the crude oil futures market.

Early on Tuesday, oil prices were falling by nearly 2 percent on concerns about demand destruction and Chinas economy with power outages at factories, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) reporting on Tuesday a surprise build in crude oil inventories of 4.127 million barrels for the week to September 24.

OPEC+ meets on October 4 for the regular monthly decision on how to proceed with the easing of the cuts. Currently, plans are to increase supply by 400,000 bpd every month until all 5-million-bpd of the cuts are unwound.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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From electric planes to hydrogen planes, and even planes powered by renewable energy, the dream of zero-emissions flight is still a way off

Despite the success of electric cars around the world, electric planes face myriad challenges in the fight to change the aviation industry

Rolls Royce made headlines in September when it successfully flew its electric plane for the first time, stating that it hopes to reach 300 mph soon

Rolls Royce made headlines this month for completing the first flight of its electric plane in the U.K. But will this be the first of many, as the EV boom continues, and automotive and aviation companies race to create the most efficient and renewable energy-powered aircraft? Earlier this month, Rolls Royce announced it had completed a 15-minute flight of its first all-electric aircraft, as part of its Accelerating the Electrification of Flight program. This marked the beginning of the companys extensive testing to better understand the performance potential of the new aircraft and part of its broader aim to support the net-zero carbon emissions national target.

The company announced that its Spirit of Innovation plane used a 400kw electric powertrain with the most power-dense battery pack ever assembled for an aircraft. The aim is to eventually achieve speeds of over 300 miles an hour. In addition, the aircrafts three electric motors allow it to achieve a 90 percent energy-efficient flight.

Siemens Extra 330LE all-electric aircraft was the first to achieve a speed record at 212 mph in April 2017 and was later bought out by Rolls-Royce, which is developing on its existing technology to create faster planes.

Simon Burr, Rolls-Royces Director, Engineering & Technology  Civil Aerospace, stated of the speed aim The interesting thing is, no ones interested if you did 212.5 mph. You put all this effort in  it needs to be significant. So, our threshold is to get over 300 mph. This airplane is very aerodynamic, its very fast.

The aircraft received 50 percent of its funding from the Aerospace Technology Institute alongside the U.K. governments Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and Innovate U.K.

While this presents a major advancement in all-electric aircraft technology, Rolls Royce is not the only company experimenting with renewable energy for powering aircraft. European budget airline EasyJet has partnered with Wright Electric to develop its electric flight technology. We are also seeing developments from NASA, in its X-57 Maxwell aircraft, Norways Avinor - Alpha Electro G2, and Equator Aircraft Norway, Israels Eviation, California-based Joby Aviation, and Ampaire, and Boeing and JetBlue's backing of Zunum Aero.

Related: Oil Prices Fall On First Crude Inventory Build In Eight Weeks Several companies have already tested the flight potential of their aircraft with ZeroAvias six-seater Piper M-class aircraft, powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell, being the first of its type in the world to complete a flight in 2020.

Airbus has also announced plans to manufacture several hydrogen-fuelled aircraft, releasing images of their concept planes in September 2020. The company expects to have the zero-emissions ZEROe planes up and running by 2035. This would mark a huge advancement in the technology, as the commercial aircraft would carry between 120 and 200 passengers, a massive leap from the current hydrogen-fuelled planes.

As aviation and aerospace companies race to develop these new technologies, they must decide which renewable source is the most effective and sustainable for the future of aviation. For example, in 2016, we saw the maiden flight of the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, an entirely solar-powered plane with 17,000 solar cells, weighing just 2.4 tonnes and traveling at the slow speed of 45 mph. The plane completed its world voyage using just the power of the sun, showing that electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells are not the only possibilities.

With governments pushing for green, aviation companies will be looking to maintain their market position while modernizing alongside the automotive industry. At present, the industry accounts for 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. In response, the European Commission established the target of a 75 percent reduction in CO2 emissions per passenger kilometer, as well as a 90 percent drop in nitrous oxide emissions, by 2050.

Related: $80 Oil Is No Reason For OPEC+ To Alter Its Production Plan

As flights are expected to double over the next two decades, switching to electric and other renewable power sources will have a significant impact on this target. More importantly, we are seeing upward trends in the manufacturing and uptake of electric vehicles, with an anticipated EV fleet of 145 million in 2030, accounting for 7 percent of the road vehicle fleet. Meanwhile, electric aviation is lagging behind EV development.

Susan Ying, senior manager at electric aircraft company Ampaire explains of the lag, If that trend continues, then aviation is going to become one of the top polluters in all industry sectors. Further, Aviation will become the final dinosaur, that does not clean up, if we dont act right now, she stated.

As we are seeing greater numbers of automotive, aviation, and aerospace companies start to develop electric, hydrogen, and other renewable energy-powered aircraft and technologies, there is hope yet for the electric plane to catch up with its EV counterpart. However, greater funding and innovation are needed from private companies and governments if we hope to see electric passenger aircraft and dramatically decrease carbon emissions over the next decade and beyond.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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An economic model of decisive transition away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy economy shows that rapid decarbonization not only wouldnt break the bank -- it would save the world a whopping $26 trillion in energy costs over the coming decades, in addition to allowing the global community to meet the climate targets set by the Paris agreement and saving untold numbers of lives from deaths related to air pollution resulting from combusting fossil fuels. This model contrasts greatly with the common thinking that decarbonizing the global economy will be hugely expensive thanks to the number of infrastructure inversions and hefty subsidies that will be necessary to facilitate such a massive shift. In fact, Nobel economist William Nordhaus -- no slouch when it comes to crunching the numbers -- posited that the world should tackle the clean energy transition slowly so as to stretch out the costs and minimize the pain of transition.

But a new op-ed from three professors from the University of Oxford, published by Bloomberg, argues that Nordhaus was mistaken, as he failed to account for some key economic principles including Moores law and Wrights Law. Moores Law outlines that as technology improves, costs lower exponentially over time. This certainly has been the case for wind and solar, which are already outgrowing their government subsidies and becoming competitive with fossil fuels. Wrights Law applies to a sort of manufacturing learning curve. The more we produce renewable energy, the better we get at it, and the more efficient and inexpensive it becomes.

And lets face it -- fossil fuels arent that cheap anyway. While prices are volatile, on a long enough timeline there isnt a curve -- fossil fuels have failed to follow the curves of Moores law and Wrights Law. Furthermore, oil, gas, and coal are still heavily subsidized around the world, to the tune of $447 billion worldwide for fossil fuels, as compared to just $128 billion for renewables.

It makes good economic sense to lean into the clean energy transition and try to decarbonize as rapidly as possible. Its also imperative for the future of humanity. Just last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), together with the United Nations (UN) released a landmark report detailing the current state of global warming, and the prognosis is grim. The 6th Assessment Report sounds a code red for humanity and lays out the extremely tight timeline that remains for the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Related: Are Carbon Taxes To Blame For Europes Energy Crisis?

The United States has been slow, compared to other developed countries, to accept this reality and lean into climate change adaptation and mitigation, but the Biden administration has made catching up a central component of its platform. The massive infrastructure bill currently working its way through Congress contains many provisions to this end, including massive support for electric vehicles -- although critics are quick to point out that these provisions pale in comparison to campaign promises and climate imperatives, and largely favor the U.S. oil industrys priorities.

Now, just this month, Biden has unveiled a new plan focused on boosting solar to new heights in the United States. This bold initiative aims to bring solars share of the nations energy mix from 4% to a whopping 45% by 2050. The Bloomberg op-ed is bullish on this plan to say the least: New policies are required to drive the deployment of zero-carbon technologies, expand markets, accelerate progress down the Wrights Law curves, and build the smart-grid and electric-vehicle charging infrastructure that such a transition requires. It's imperative that Congress acts on Biden's plan  doing so will save U.S. consumers trillions in energy costs, create millions of new jobs, reduce harm from climate change and ensure the U.S. leads in the energy technologies of the future.

As the second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world (China ranks #1), it is imperative for the wellbeing of the entire planet that the United States get serious about decarbonization. The good news is that its not only possible, its economically viable and even beneficial. Of course, getting bipartisan support is no easy task, but money talks and renewables may stand to save a whole lot of it.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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According to one energy consultant who spoke to the FT, there could be five new LNG projects coming in the United States over the next two to three years

The gas crunch in Europe has hurt many businesses, but some are making big money out of it. And U.S. LNG producers want a bigger piece of the pie.

Last year, U.S. LNG was in decline amid the oil and gas consumption slump. New liquefaction capacity was being delayed, and existing capacity was idled. Now, it's a completely different world, and energy companies are once again making ambitious plans.

Tellurian LNG, for instance, has plans for a $15-billion export terminal on the Gulf Coast, the Financial Times reported, citing the company's chief executive Charif Souki.

"Yes, it's a good thing for American LNG," Souki told the FT, referring to the soaring gas prices. "It is going to depend only on whether the infrastructure can be built in the US or not."

Indeed, it is a very good thing: Henry Hub prices are currently a lot lower than prices in Asia or Europe, at $6 per million British thermal units as of Tuesday, versus $29 per mmBtu in Europe and Asia, per a Reuters report. In this context, demand for U.S. LNG is booming.

The same report, however, notes the constraints that are motivating the new capacity ambitions. Natural gas flows to liquefaction plants in the United States slipped from 10.5 billion cu ft daily in August to 10.4 billion cu ft daily despite the fact that the fact gas prices had already started rising in Europe and Asia. The chances of these flows rising above 10.5 billion cu ft daily are nonexistent: there is no liquefaction capacity to take additional volumes in. Therefore, new capacity is the simplest solution.

According to one energy consultant who spoke to the FT, there could be five new LNG projects coming in the United States over the next two to three years, including expansions of existing facilities. This, according to analysts, could eventually turn the United States into the world's second-largest LNG exporter after Australiaunless Qatar keeps its number-one place.

No matter how the top three LNG exporters are arranged, the United States will likely remain one of them, even with the Biden administration's energy transition agenda that frowns upon all fossil fuels, including natural gas. After all, a transition is a transition, but why leave the European market to Russia when you could take a piece of it?

Right now, Europe is ripe for the taking. After years of talking about diversification of gas supplies but doing little to advance this diversification, now Europe is paying for its short-sightedness. It has no way to force Gazprom to send more gas its way because Gazprom is fulfilling its contractual obligation, and that's where things end until Nord Stream 2 is approved. Norway can only pump so much gas to its neighbors and fellow Europeans. The only thing left is LNG.

Most LNG in the world is supplied under long-term contracts, but there is a pretty lively spot market for the commodity, too. Normally, LNG producers go after long-term contracts to secure funds for the construction of their LNG facilities. These have been in short supply recently, which forced the shelving of several new U.S. projects. Now, these may get a second lease on life if European importers decide to put their money where their mouths are concerning supply diversity.

"Europe is currently importing around 70% of the gas it needs, and this share is expected to increase in the coming years," the EU and the U.S. said in a joint statement in 2019 amid a Trump administration campaign for the increase in U.S. LNG exports to the union.

"Liquefied natural gas is also an important part of the EU's diversification strategy; and as the second biggest single gas market in the world after the U.S., the EU is therefore an attractive option for the U.S.," the statement also said. Little has changed since then, it seems, despite the EU's own green push.

Of course, the LNG projects currently planned for construction will not be finished soon enough to help alleviate the current gas shortage in Europe. But the longer-term outlook remains optimistic.

"We have to have an eye on next winter and the winter after that, in order to make sure that, while we focus on the energy transition, we are addressing the needs of today," U.S. State Department energy envoy Amos Hochstein told the FT.

Of course, competition remains intense among LNG exporters. Qatar is also building its capacity to maintain its number-one spot globally, and it boasts much lower production costs than other producers. Australia has also staked a big claim in the LNG export market. If demand remains as strong as it is currently, all this additional capacity would be good news for buyers and sellers alike.

If demand drops, however, some companies could find themselves with stranded LNG assets. For now, however, the danger of this happening seems remote. The energy transition would need to advance a lot further before it threatens the LNG industry, it seems.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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In a widening energy crisis, China is expanding power use restrictions to at least 20 regions and provinces that contribute more than half to the Chinese economy, adding a bearish risks-off sentiment on global markets, including in the oil market.

Twenty regions that account for over 66 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the worlds second-biggest economy have already announced some forms of restrictions on electricity use, especially in heavy and energy-intensive industries, Bloomberg reports.

The power outages have spread from factories to homes, with residents in northeast China impacted by hours-long unexpected blackouts, Caixin Global reports.

Amid tight power supplies and soaring coal prices, power outages in China have started to hit factories of various energy-intensive industries, sparking renewed fears about larger disruptions to global supply chains on top of the COVID-related issues.

As coal prices surge amid a global energy crunch, Chinese authorities are mandating restrictions in energy use, which have led to outages at factories and homes.

The power crunch has reached the automotive industry and workers at GAC Aion, the electric vehicle unit of the largest state carmaker, Guangzhou Automobile Group, have been told to turn off air conditioning, lights, printers, and other office equipment when not in use, in order to conserve energy thats not critical for car manufacturing, Bloomberg reports.

Toyota, one of the worlds largest automakers, has not been spared the fallout from the power crisis, either. Toyotas operations in China are suffering the electricity rationing, spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

At Chinese factories, the power cuts have affected manufacturing sites that supply Apple and Tesla, among others, Reuters reported on Monday. Some suppliers of the two large U.S. companies have halted production in China amid the power crisis.

Apart from the automotive and semiconductor manufacturing industries, Chinese producers of steel, aluminum, furniture, toys, and dyes are also hit by the outages.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Amid tight power supplies and soaring coal prices, power outages in China have started to hit factories of various energy-intensive industries, sparking renewed fears about larger disruptions to global supply chains on top of the COVID-related issues.

As coal prices surge amid a global energy crunch, Chinese authorities are mandating restrictions in energy use, which have led to outages at factories and homes.

The power crunch has reached the automotive industry and workers at GAC Aion, the electric vehicle unit of the largest state carmaker, Guangzhou Automobile Group, have been told to turn off air conditioning, lights, printers, and other office equipment when not in use, in order to conserve energy thats not critical for car manufacturing, Bloomberg reports.

GAC Aion relies on its photovoltaic (PV) solar power generating units to ensure enough electricity supply for car manufacturing, while production is not affected by the power supply curtailments, the company told Bloomberg.

The rationing of power to factories has now spread to homes, with Chinese cities suffering widespread blackouts.

Power supply rationing started last week during peak hours, residents of the city of Changchun in northeastern China tell local media.

At Chinese factories, the power cuts have affected manufacturing sites that supply Apple and Tesla, among others, Reuters reported on Monday. Some suppliers of the two large U.S. companies have halted production in China amid the power crisis.

Apart from the automotive and semiconductor manufacturing industries, Chinese producers of steel, aluminum, furniture, toys, and dyes are also hit by the outages.

Analysts have started downgrading their estimates of Chinas economic growth this year, also due to the high energy prices and the power crunch. Goldman Sachs, for example, revised down on Tuesday its forecast of Chinese economic growth to 7.8 percent this year, down from 8.2 percent growth expected earlier.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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The United States has approached China about the latters crude oil imports from Iran, seeking to pressure Iran into nuclear deal negotiations through its biggest oil client, Reuters has reported, citing U.S. and European officials.

U.S.-Iran negotiations of a new version of the nuclear dealwhich would see U.S. sanctions liftedended in an impasse earlier this year as Iranians voted for a new president and government. Iran had signaled it would return to the negotiating table once the government took office, but this has already happened, and the negotiations have not been resumed.

We are aware of the purchases that Chinese companies are making of Iranian oil, one U.S. source told Reuters, adding, We have used our sanctions authorities to respond to Iranian sanctions evasion, including those doing business with China, and will continue to do so if necessary.

However, we have been approaching this diplomatically with the Chinese as part of our dialogue on Iran policy and think that, in general, this is a more effective path forward to address our concerns, the source also said.

The European source said Chinas close relations withand support forIran has become a significant point of contention with the West.

Meanwhile, the close relations are getting closer. Earlier this month, Irans new oil minister Javad Owji met with a top official from the China National Petroleum Corporation to discuss the expansion of bilateral relations.

China is Irans biggest trade partner and one of the very few countries still importing some crude oil from Iran despite the U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republics oil exports and oil industry.

The largest Asian economy has always said it opposes the unilateral U.S. sanctions against oil producers and continues to buy crude, especially from Iran. Irans oil sales to China are one of the last remaining revenue streams for the Islamic Republic.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Two suspected armed robbers were gunned down by the Police on September 24, 2021, after attempting to rob a gold dealer at Manso Dawusaso in the Amansie South District of the Ashanti Region.

A press release issued by the Police said the Anti-Robbery Task Force of the Ashanti Regional Police Command in an intelligence-led operation shot the two suspected armed robbers who later died at the hospital".



Another suspect, linked to the crime, Abraham Kwasi Tetteh, was also arrested while four others are being pursued by the Police



Bust



The release said "Members of the gang forcibly invaded the residence of the gold dealer in the hours of 9 pm, disarmed the private security guard of his weapon and fired shots into the residence.



"At this stage, a Police combat team that had mounted a 24-hour surveillance on the gang, returned fire to protect the innocent lives in and around the property," the release said.



"Four of the suspects managed to escape but the two who sustained gunshot wounds were arrested and sent to the hospital but were pronounced dead on arrival".



One of the deceased robbers known as Lukeman had been granted bail by the Dunkwa Circuit Court at an earlier appearance and was scheduled to reappear on October 27, 2021, for allegedly robbing passengers on the Dunkwa- Ayanfuri highway.



Gunshot wounds



The Police suspect that some of the gang members who escaped might have sustained gunshot wounds and are therefore urging the public to report anyone with a gunshot wound to the nearest Police station.



"We are therefore appealing to the public to volunteer information on anyone who is seen in or around Manso Dawusaso with noticeable gunshot wounds to the nearest Police Station," the release said.





"Meanwhile, health facilities in and around the Amansie South District are requested to immediately report the presence of any individual or group of people with gunshot wounds to the Police".



A shotgun, a pistol and a taxi cab which were retrieved from the operation have been taken into police custody.















Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has punched holes in the 10-point recommendations contained in the 3member committee report on the Ejura incident that occurred some months ago.



Government, on Monday, made public the findings and recommendations of the Committee set up to look into the clash between Military personnel and some irate youth of Ejura in the Ashanti Region.



It may be recalled that on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, some angry youth of Ejura Sekyedumase went on demonstration to protest the murder of Ibrahim Mohammed, popularly known as 'Kaaka' but their protest was foiled by some soldiers deployed to the area.



The clash resulted in the deaths of other two people and several injured.



Subsequently, at the instruction of President Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Interior established a three-member Committee to probe circumstances that led to the clash as well as shooting by the security personnel.



Following the probe, the Committee has released a report where they recommend certain actions be taken to forestall future occurrences.



According to their recommendations, ''adequate Compensation for the families of the two deceased persons, namely, Abdul Nasir Yusif and Murtala Suraj Mohammed. Adequate compensation must also be paid to other injured persons, namely; Louis Ayikpa (20 years), Awal Misbau (16 years) and Nasif Nuhu (30 years). These are the names known to the Committee''.



The Committee also recommended ''the immediate transfer of the District Police Commander of Ejura, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond, first for his incompetence in handling the situation and for the fact that, his relationship with the community seems to have been damaged beyond repair''.



But to Kwesi Pratt, the proposal for the transfer of the Ejura District Police Commander, DSP Philip Kojo Hammond is unfair.



In his earnest view, the Police Commander is not to blame for Ejura incident because he was not the one who caused the Police inadequacies which called for Military intervention.



''If you dismiss or transfer a Police officer, does that resolve the problem? It doesn't! Did the Police Commander at Ejura made their physical infrastructure become inadequate? He wasn't responsible for the reduction in the Police numbers. So, how do you blame him? Because the inadequacy of the Police numbers, how could he have been incompetent with inadequate numbers? How could he have been incompetent when the infrastructure for policing was not there? How could he have been incompetent?'' he questioned.



He concluded that ''this Police officer is just being used as a scapegoat and it is not fair. It is not fair at all''.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt believes certain people being held culpable for the tragic incident at Ejura Sekyedumase as spelt out in the recommendations by a three-member Committee, are rather blameless.



The Committee was probing the circumstances that led to the demise of Ibrahim Mohammed, popularly known as 'Kaaka' and other two residents who joined a protest seeking justice for Kaaka.



The two met their untimely death during a clash with a Military personnel.



The Committee, in their findings, listed ten (10) recommendations and among them is that there should be a ''structural expansion of the Ejura Police Station and an increase in personnel''.



They further recommended ''the Military Establishment review the actions of the Section on the ground, led by Lieutenant Martin Opoku Adusei, for the inappropriate use of force, and apply appropriate sanctions''.



Mr. Pratt lambasted the Committee for shifting the blame on Lt. Martin Opoku Adusei.



To him, the Military firing gunshots to disperse the agitated crowd at Ejura was not the fault of the Lieutenant.



Contributing to ''Kokrokoo'' panel discussion on Peace FM, he stated; ''We all know that the soldiers, we haven't trained them for crowd control. They have no training for crowd control. If you followed the Commission very well, everyone said the soldiers only come in as the last resort. If the Police couldn't handle it, then they need greater force and so we are bringing force''.



''Why do you blame the officer? Why do you blame the officer? How do you blame him? Did the officer go there on his own accord?'', he asked.



He held a strong view that Lt. Opoku Adusei is being used as a scapegoat.



''...he was given orders knowing the inadequacies of the Military in crowd control. Why blame him? Another scapegoat; clear scapegoat!...I think we're blaming the wrong people for what happened there'', he said.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Four Tunisian political parties have demanded that President Kais Saied reverse his recent decision to expand his powers and rule by decree.



One of the four left-leaning factions warned that the president's actions risked a slide into violence or even civil war.



He was accused of having installed a one-man rule with a stroke of his pen.



President Saied began gathering almost all power into his own hands in July when he suspended parliament.



His opponents accuse him of carrying out a coup, but many Tunisians have supported Mr Saied.



They've been deeply disappointed by the performance of the country's political parties.

Source: BBC









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Opposition MPs in Uganda have walked out of parliament after the prime minister and attorney general failed to give a satisfactory answer over the whereabouts of two legislators.



The lawmakers, Mohammed Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana, both members of Bobi Wines National Unity Platform party, were recently released on bail after being charged with murder relating to attacks in the country's central region.



But they were detained immediately after leaving prison.



On Monday evening, Mr Ssegirinya was pulled out of his lawyers car outside Kigo prison by armed security personnel dressed in black and driven off in an unmarked Toyota Hiace van.



Police say he now faces fresh charges of treason and incitement to violence.



Mr Ssewanyana was detained under similar circumstances five days ago.



Both were first arrested in early September.



The Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah asked the government to explain the circumstances under which the two opposition MPs were re-arrested.

Source: BBC









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The police have captured Bright Berchie, an aide to Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, over recent alleged assault of police officers, a statement said. The Head pastor of the Glorious Word Power Ministries International, Reverend Bempah and four others were arrested two weeks ago for allegedly attacking police officers at the church premises.



The others Mensah Ofori, Michael Boateng, Frederick Ohene and Nathaniel Agyekum were charged with six counts of threat of death and assault.



The accused persons are facing charges for allegedly threatening to kill the fetish priest turned evangelist, Patricia Oduro Koranteng, popularly known as Okomfo Agradaa.



Berchie, 30, who has been on the run was arrested with a weapon on him, according to a police statement. He has been charged with offences of threats of death, offensive conduct and carrying firearms without lawful authority, the statement added.



Below is the police statement on the latest arrest:

Source: asaaseradio.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former NDC Central Regional Chairman, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has slammed health workers over certain habits they exhibit at their workplaces which aggravates the health conditions of patients.



Ghanaian highlife legend, Nana Ampadu has died. He passed away Tuesday morning, September 28, at the Legon Hospital.



Speaking in an interview with Adom FM, veteran musician Akosua Agyapong pinned his death on the carelessness of a doctor at the hospital.



Narrating what the doctor did, she disclosed that Nana Ampadu's condition became critical and he was rushed to the Achimota Hospital but unfortunately denied treatment.



The hospital, according to her, informed them that the doctor to attend to him was sleeping, so they were compelled to move him from Achimota to Legon Hospital where he gave up the ghost.



Paying tribute to the legendary Nana Ampadu, Allotey Jacobs corroborated the Akosua Agyapong's claims by giving an account of a situation where a nurse, who was supposed to attend to a patient, was also busily browsing the internet.



He advised health workers in the country to take the patients seriously.



"A little patience, a little time saves life," he said on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayensuano constituency, Samuel Ayeh-Paye, has commended the Inspector General of Police, COP George Akuffo Dampare and his Police officers for tightening security in the country.



Samuel Ayeh-Paye, speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, noted that he's taken keen notice of the Police efforts to clamp down on armed robbers who have been terrorizing people on the streets.



In recent times, armed robbery has become rampant as people get ambushed and their money plundered from them, most times in broad daylight.



As a measure to arrest these criminals, there is currently a high presence of Police patrols at every nook and cranny.



Hon. Ayeh-Paye lauded the Police Service and the Akufo-Addo government saying, due to their hard work, "Ghana has moved from the sixth peaceful country to the second most peaceful country in Africa".





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen has affirmed that the government through the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) would continue to pursue measures which would make it possible for Ghana to assemble and later manufacture vehicles locally.



The sector Minister directly recalled the significant role the Authority played in the development of national automobile standards under the Ghana Automobile Development Programme which is being implemented by his Ministry.



Additionally, Mr Kyerematen disclosed that the GSA has developed over 30 standards for vehicles.



"This has permitted the homologation of vehicles making it possible for Ghana to assemble and later manufacture vehicles locally,"he added.



Mr Kyerematen disclosed this when he inaugurated the governing Board of Ghana Standards Authority yesterday in Accra.



He congratulated the individual personalities for their nomination by His Excellency the President of the Republic to serve as members of the Governing Board of Ghana Standards Authority.



"This is a call to serve your country in a very critical role. I am convinced that this call to service would not be taking lightly, particularly to industrial transformation which has since 2017 become the main driver of President Nana Addo Dankwa Addo-Addos vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid," he said.



He stated that as they are aware, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, over the past four years have been implementing an aggressive Industrial Transformation programme, anchored on a Ten Point Plan which seeks to make Ghana the new Manufacturing Hub for Africa.



In this context, he pointed out that the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) which is Ghanas national standards body, national metrology institute, national certification body for products and management systems which is also involved in trade facilitation at the ports of entry by carrying out inspection of goods being imported or exported plays a very critical role.



"It is in the light of the above that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has supported Ghana Standards Authority to strengthen its operations by acquiring the needed equipment for laboratories, building of Ghana and West Africas first AC testing laboratory, and procurement of equipment to check accuracy of fuel sold at retail outlets," he noted.



Under the previous Board and the Management team led by Prof. Alex Dodoo, whom he described as a friend, Mr Kyerematen stated that Ghana Standards Authority achieved a significant milestone through the Publication of Ghanas First EVER Building Code.



He stressed that the Building Code, which was launched in 2018 specifies requirements for buildings, schools, roads among others, will give VALUE for MONEY in building.



According to him,the government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry will continue to support the operations of Ghana Standards Authority to continue to play its significant role in the implementation of flagship programmes.



He added that his outfit has the authority to implement the flagship programmes particularly the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative, the Strategic Anchor Industries initiatives, Business Regulatory Reforms (BRR) programme as well as market integration frameworks such the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), EU-Ghana Economic Partnership Agreement and Ghana-UK Trade Partnership Agreement.



To be able to improve the performance of this important organization, there is the need to adhere to sound Corporate Governance and this Board is charged to work with Senior Management to develop policies and procedures for prudent use of the Authoritys resources.



Finally, he indicated that the 2021 GSA Bill will be laid before Parliament this year for consideration and approval.







Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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NDC Member of Parliament(MP) for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has asked President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo to come out publicly and address Ghanaians about his recent taste for luxurious private jets.



According to him, he believes his answers will put matters to rest.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the President needs to speak publicly to Ghanaians and explain his sudden penchant for the use of luxurious private jet which is draining the country of its pocket.



He said the monies spent by government to rent these luxurious aircraft can equally be used to provide amenities and infrastructure for some communities in the country.



"As Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces whose Air Forces Communications Squadron is responsible for the Presidential Jet, you owe Ghanaians direct explanation in the true spirit of transparency and accountability as to why you prefer to lease aircrafts at astonishing cost to the suffering Ghanaian taxpayer instead of flying the Falcon purchased by a government you were an integral part of at a fantastic cost US$37,150,000.00 in 2008. (See Parliamentary Hansard of 19th March, 2008)".



He further added that Ghanaians deserve and demand to know from him why he prefers alien luxury aircrafts operated by foreign crew when our celebrated Air Force professionals with unquestionable loyalty trained at significant expense to the taxpayer guarantee better security for our Presidents  an action creating considerable disquiet within the ranks of the Ghana Air Force.



"Ghanaians want to know just how far you are willing to go with narcissistic personal comfort at their expense and exactly what you meant by protecting the public purse? They also want to know what it means to burden-share in this period of economic hardship and what aspect of the burden you are responsible for?"



The Minority spokesperson on Foreign Affairs has expressed worry about President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's lavish spending on a private jet on his recent trips abroad.



A total of 2.4 million Ghana cedis was spent in May alone on private jets, the North Tongu MP has alleged that the President in his recent trips rented another luxurious jet which cost the taxpayer over 15, 000 an hour.



Watch video below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghanaian highlife legend, Nana Ampadu has died!



According to reports, the veteran musician died on Tuesday morning, September 28th at the Legon Hospital.



In an interview with Adom FM, veteran musician Akosua Agyapong has revealed that Nana Ampadu has been sick for some time and was treated.





She revealed that his situation became quite intense this morning and he was rushed to the Achimota Hospital but unfortunately, he was denied treatment.



According to Akosua Agyapong, the hospital informed them that the doctor was sleeping and could not attend to him, so they had to move all the way from Achimota to Legon Hospital.



Teary Akosua Agyapong disclosed that though doctors at the Legon Hospital fought for Nana Ampadus life, it was a bit too late! She also noted that they had to wait for an ambulance for a while before they took him to the first hospital where he was rejected.



According to Akosua Agyapong, she has lost a father and a great confidant. And she will remember him for his shows and the great tunes he made.

VIDEO-





Source: ghanacelebrities









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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" " Celebrating your quinceanera or "Sweet 15" is a milestone for many Latin American girls and American girls of Latina heritage. Adam Hester/Getty Images

For Hispanic girls in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the United States and elsewhere, the 15th birthday marks the most lavish celebration of their lives. Designating a girls transition from childhood to adulthood, the quinceanera is a two-part festivity that traces back to both indigenous and European cultural traditions and has become an increasingly opulent affair in recent years. Parents may even spend more on their daughters' "Sweet 15" quinceaneras than their weddings, in fact, which is why some refer them as mini bodas, or miniature weddings. Not counting the birthday presents a young girl might receive, a quinceanera in the United States can cost on average $15,000 [source: Gonzalez].

One look at a quince girl (a nickname for the quinceanera honoree) on her special day, and the high price tag makes sense. First off, there's the outfit: Often made of satin with lace overlays and rhinestone accents, quinceanera dresses, the visible centerpieces of these celebrations, mirror what Cinderella mightve worn to her fairytale ball. The floor-length gowns are traditionally white or pale pink, but the revived quinceanera culture accepts dresses in a rainbow of hues. Perched on the quince girls head is a delicate tiara or crown, the symbolism of which well discuss later in the article, and in her hands -- at least at the beginning of the ceremony -- she might hold a Bible or book of prayer.

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Although its emphasis is more on the party than the prayer, the quinceanera starts at the local Catholic church. Before any birthday cake is cut, the quince girl attends a special Mass in which she reaffirms her dedication to God and receives a blessing from the priest. Afterward, the Sweet 15 reception gets underway, typically involving some combination of choreographed dance sequences, limousine arrivals, sumptuous spreads of food and desserts, and an official presentation of the quince girl to fiesta attendees. Similar to cotillion and debutante traditions, quinceaneras serve as young Hispanics official entrance into society and womanhood and incorporate a host of unique elements and rituals that celebrate girls birthdays, as well as their heritage.
" " Attorneys George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James Nabrit, Jr., smile in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Bettman/Getty Images

Roe v. Wade. Brown v. Board of Education. Citizens United. These Supreme Court cases are cited often by name in news articles and everyday speech but do you know what these (and other) landmark cases were really all about? Here are seven that reshaped America's understanding of the Constitution and became household names.

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1. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857

Denied citizenship to all African Americans

On the eve of the Civil War, the Dred Scott decision dealt a painful blow to both free and enslaved African Americans. Dred Scott was born a slave in Missouri. Later, he was sold to a U.S. Army surgeon, who moved Scott and his family around to several free states and territories. After the surgeon died, Scott asked the man's second wife, Eliza Irene Sanford (whose name was misspelled in court documents as Sandford), to let Scott buy his freedom, but she refused. Scott sued in Missouri court and lost, since Missouri considered him a slave, never mind that he had resided in free territories.

" " Dred Scott was the plaintiff in a case to determine whether or not slaves were citizens of the United States. Library of Congress

Scott appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 to deny Scott his freedom. In the landmark decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney said that first of all, Scott had no right to sue in federal court because he was black, and therefore not a citizen. Second, individual states didn't have the power to make black people free, because slaves weren't part of the original "political community" at the writing of the Constitution. Lastly, the Court ruled that Scott was Sanford's property, and could not be deprived by the government under the Fifth Amendment.

The Dred Scott decision emboldened slave-owning states to spread the practice into more U.S. territories and angered the opposition, strengthening support for the Republican Party. After the Civil War, the Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Scott was formally freed just a few months after the Supreme Court decision but he died a year later in 1858 of tuberculosis.

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2. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

Upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine justifying racial segregation

In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act requiring all passenger trains to provide separate and equal accommodations for black and white passengers, and forbidding people from sitting in the rail car of the opposite race. A civil rights group in Louisiana decided to challenge the constitutionality of the law under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and recruited Homer Plessy, who was 7/8ths white (and therefore still considered a "negro" in Louisiana) to take a seat in a whites-only car. He was arrested and the case made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. (John H. Ferguson was the judge who ruled against Plessy in the Louisiana Supreme Court.)

The Court ruled 7-1 against Plessy, arguing that the separate but equal accommodations were acceptable under the 14th Amendment and did not imply that blacks were an inferior race. Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenter, believed that segregated public facilities effectively created a racial caste system, writing that "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

With the Plessy decision, Southern states had a powerful legal precedent for doubling down on racial segregation, which remained separate and far from equal for another half-century. The decision was overturned by the next case on our list.

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3. Brown v. Board of Education, 1954

Ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional

Brown v. Board of Education is one of the best-known cases in Supreme Court history and deservedly so. The case, brilliantly argued by Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first African American Supreme Court justice, was one of the first major legal breakthroughs of the Civil Rights era, and paved the way for full integration of all public facilities.

Oliver Brown filed a class action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, after his daughter Linda was denied entrance to any of Topeka's all-white elementary schools. Brown's lawsuit stated that the schools for black children were not equal to the schools for white children, which violated the "equal protection clause" of the 14th Amendment.

In a unanimous 9-0 decision authored by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court rejected the separate but equal doctrine as it applied to public schools. Even if the segregated facilities for black and white students were "substantially" equal, as the lower courts had ruled, the institution of segregation effectively branded young black students as inferior and denied them full participation and success in American civic life.

Even after this landmark decision, some states were slow to desegregate, with full integration not achieved until the early 1970s. But the Brown decision marked a paradigm shift in the Court's interpretation of the 14th Amendment and set a precedent that would be used to protect other groups against discrimination.

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4. Miranda v. Arizona, 1966

Guaranteed basic rights to people who are arrested by the police

"You have the right to remain silent." Those seven words, now a staple of TV cop dramas, weren't part of standard police procedure until this groundbreaking Supreme Court decision. In Miranda v. Arizona, the Court had to decide whether the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protected criminal suspects from self-incrimination during police interrogations.

For Miranda, the Court addressed four separate cases in which suspects were arrested, interrogated for hours by police, and ultimately confessed to crimes without the presence of an attorney. The lead plaintiff was Ernesto Miranda who was arrested and charged with rape, robbery and kidnapping. He was not read his rights and confessed to the crimes during a police interrogation. Miranda had no lawyer present and a history of mental illness. Based on his confession, a judge sentenced him to 20-30 years. While he was in prison in Arizona, the American Civil Liberties Union took up his appeal.

In a tight 5-4 decision, the justices ruled that people in police custody have the same Fifth-Amendment right against self-incrimination as witnesses called to testify in court, and they also have a Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel.

In its ruling, the majority wrote that prior to any questioning, "the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed."

Those words, now repeated during every arrest, became known as the "Miranda Warning" or "Miranda Rights."

As for Ernesto Miranda, he was retried and sentenced to prison anyway in 1966. He was released in 1972 but died in 1976 after a stabbing in a barroom fight. Ironically, his suspected killer was read his "Miranda Rights" and so never answered police questions. There was no conviction in Miranda's death.

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5. Roe v. Wade, 1973

Legalized some types of abortion in the U.S.

Jane Roe was a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a pregnant woman in Texas who was unable to get an abortion because state law barred all abortions except when the mother's life was at risk. McCorvey's life was not in danger but she could not afford to travel outside of Texas to have an abortion. She claimed that the Texas law violated her constitutional right to privacy. ("Wade" referred to Henry Wade, Dallas County district attorney.)

" " Attorney Gloria Allred and Norma McCorvey (R), the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, attend a pro-choice rally in 1989 in Burbank, California. Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images

The Court reviewed the case for two full years, weighing biological, ethical and religious arguments in addition to constitutional issues. Ultimately, the justices ruled 7-2 in favor of Roe, arguing that the Constitution's first, fourth, fifth, ninth and 14th Amendments combined to create a "zone of privacy" around certain personal decisions like marriage and contraception, and that banning all abortions violated that right to make a personal and private decision about whether or not to have a child.

Perhaps most controversially, the Court ruled that fetuses before the third trimester had no rights as "persons" under the Constitution or the law. The ruling allowed states, if they wished, to ban third-trimester abortions (because a fetus was "viable" at this point, based on medical advances) and to consider cases in which they could be outlawed in the second trimester, as long as exceptions were carved out to save the life or health of the mother. But the Court barred states from revoking a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester for any reason.

Before the case was decided, McCorvey gave birth and put her child up for adoption. She later changed her views on abortion and joined the "pro-life" side (though in a documentary released in 2020, McCorvey says she only did that for the money). This Supreme Court case remains one of the most culturally divisive ones in the U.S.

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6. Lawrence v. Texas, 2003

Decriminalized homosexuality and expanded the constitutional right to privacy

In 2003, there were still 12 states in which it was a crime for men to engage in homosexual sex, and Texas was one of them. When police arrived at the apartment of John Geddes Lawrence in response to a weapons disturbance, they found him having sex with another man, Tyron Garner. They were arrested for "deviate sexual intercourse" under the Texas "homosexual conduct" law.

Lawrence appealed and the case landed before the Supreme Court, which had ruled in 1986 that the Constitution doesn't protect a homosexual individual's right to privacy because sodomy doesn't fall into the "zone of privacy" surrounding marriage and family decisions. In a 7-2 decision, the justices reversed that earlier ruling, arguing that the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment extends to privacy in the home.

" " The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force holds a rally in Boston, in 2003 to celebrate the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas. The words on the sign are from the Court's ruling. Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia angrily warned that striking down sodomy laws would lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage. He was absolutely right. In 2015, the court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state laws barring same-sex marriages violated both the equal protection clause and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

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7. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010

Allowed corporations and other organizations to pay unlimited amounts of money for political ads

Citizens United is a conservative activist group that produced a documentary called "Hillary: The Movie," which was critical of Hillary Clinton during her run for president. The company was barred from receiving corporate funding for the movie by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), which aimed to stop the flow of "big money" into "electioneering communications," aka political ads. For a variety of reasons, including the First Amendment protection of free speech, Citizens United argued that the BCRA was unconstitutional.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court agreed. The landmark ruling recognized corporations, labor unions and other for-profit and nonprofit entities as having the same free speech rights as individuals to fund "independent political broadcasts" during elections. While Citizens United allowed unlimited corporate funding of independently produced political ads, it upheld the ban on direct corporate contributions to political candidates or their campaigns.

The Citizens United ruling ushered in the era of super PACs (political action committees) in American elections. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums of money to advocate for or against political candidates, but they can't donate money directly to those candidates. Super PACs do have to report their donors to the Federal Election Commission. Critics contend that Super PACs are usually made up of a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations who can have an outsized influence on general elections.

Now That's Cool Supreme Court cases make great fodder for Hollywood movies. "Gideon v. Wainright," which enshrined the right of a criminal defendant to have an attorney for free if he could not afford one, became the basis of the 1980 TV movie "Gideon's Trumpet." "Loving v. Virginia," the 1967 Supreme Court case decriminalizing interracial marriage, was dramatized in the 2016 film "Loving."
" " French President Macron has big plans to potentially make French the first language in Africa, and Franglais isn't helping. AFP

A centuries-old institution regarded as the guardian of the French language has warned state officials against encouraging the spread of "franglais," saying it could have dire consequences for the future of the language.

L'Academie francaise, established in 1635 to defend the purity of the French language, said in an official statement that it had never been hostile to the introduction and use of foreign terms.

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"But today it (the academy) is deeply worried by the development of franglais," it said in a Nov. 21, statement.

The academy complained that a 1994 law (aka The Toubon Law) that insists on the use of French in all government publications, commercial contracts and advertisements, was being "repeatedly violated" by an "invasion of Anglo-Saxon terms."

Franglais (from the French words for French and English, "francais" and "anglais") is the mixing of spoken French with English words, either for effect, humor or because the speaker believes an English word can express the idea better.

The academy called on "public institutions to respect the law themselves in the first place."

"If they do not react vigorously and if public opinion does not take into account the extent of the danger that we are facing, French will then cease to be the living and popular language that we love," it said.

The academy did not specify the target of its criticism.

C'est Cool! Or Not

In recent years, the French have become increasingly fond of spicing up their language with English words, even on occasion using "yes" instead of the French "oui" and exclaiming "c'est cool!"

And if a task was easy to perform a French person might say they did it "finger in ze nose"  a direct translation of the French expression "les doigts dans le nez."

The anglicisms have got up the nose of French language purists, who came out swinging last year against the widespread use of the English term "fake news," urging speakers of the language of Hugo and Moliere to use "information fallacieuse" instead.

French President Emmanuel Macron, unlike all his immediate predecessors, is a fluent English speaker and happily gives entire speeches and interviews in the language.

However, Macron has been keen to present himself as a defender of the French tongue, always speaking in French in speeches at home and taking care not to slip into too much franglais.

In March 2019, he unveiled plans to get more people speaking French, aiming to make it the first language in Africa and "maybe even the world."

 Agence France-Presse

Maintenant C'est Interessant Business people talk of rising to "le challenge" (pronounced "shallonge") and invite colleagues to take part in "un brainstorming" whereas young people describe someone who's past it as "un has-been."
" " An ombudsman investigates complaints and attempts to resolve them, usually through recommendations, binding or not, or through mediation. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY SA 3.0)/HowStuffWorks

If you feel you've been wronged by a sizeable business, university or government agency, lodging a complaint may feel like an uphill battle. Imagine yourself as Sisyphus, the mythological Greek king doomed to push a boulder uphill, only for it to roll back down over and over  for eternity. Sounds a bit like raising a complaint only to have progress and the resolution to your problem stymied. Will you ever reach an equitable solution?

Enter the unbiased ombudsman. An ombudsman or ombudsperson is appointed at a national or local level to investigate complaints made by private citizens against a public business or organization, any entity subject to government regulation or the government itself.

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Countries, States and City Governments Have Ombudsmen

Many countries have this service available, including the United States. Each elected member of the United States Congress, for example, is appointed as an ombudsman to advocate for their constituents on issues occurring at a federal level.

State governments typically have an Office of the Ombudsman, staffed by people who can help private citizens with questions or concerns about some private entities, as well as public entities and government services. Ombudsman offices also help clarify or explain complex issues and, importantly, resolve disagreements and advocate for equitable solutions.

You'll find ombudsman offices outside the government as well. An industry ombudsman will investigate consumer complaints about companies that operate within that sector, and this will often overlap with government agency oversight.

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How it Works

Let's consider an example. What if you believe an elderly relative's care isn't up to snuff at their retirement home? If it is a large, multi-state organization, it may have its own ombudsman to investigate claims, or  regardless of the organization's size  there will be an ombudsman available from the government agency that oversees the sector.

What can you expect from an ombudsman investigation? It will usually take several weeks or months for the ombudsman to gather information and make a ruling on the matter. While not all rulings by an ombudsman are legally binding, even those that aren't legally binding will carry considerable significance.

The benefit, especially when it comes to an ombudsman investigation of claims against governmental entities, is that it helps rein in an abuse of power against citizens who might otherwise not have the resources to seek relief.

Now That's Cool It is free for consumers to find or receive the assistance of an ombudsman. Ombudsman services are usually paid from levied fines or case fees, and not by the consumer or private individual who initiated the complaint.
According to the Stanford project, populism is growing across the globe because of the failure of major political parties to address the thorny issues that people face in today's world: immigration, economic inequality and globalism, just to name a few.

But populism, the project finds, can cause more problems than it solves. The problems start with the idea of dividing people into good and bad. From "Global Populisms and Their Challenges," the white paper produced by the Stanford project:

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Populists redefine the people, often by excluding vulnerable ethnic or religious minorities, immigrants and marginalized economic groups. The result is majority rule without minority rights.

Once in power, populist leaders represent "a threat to liberal democracy" as we know it, according to the research, attacking not only the rights of individuals who don't fit into the majority, but the very foundations on which the country lies. That includes "the takeover and taming of courts and oversight institutions, and new laws that limit the freedom of the media and civil society."

We've seen it in the United States, with Trump calling the press the "enemy of the people," criticizing judges, resisting congressional oversight, claiming that elections are "rigged," flouting laws, and claiming that a "deep state" of bureaucratic actors is out to get him to deny the will of the people he represents. It happens with other populist leaders all over the world.

"'The opposition is the enemy of the people. Why would you listen to them? The media is the swamp. Why would you listen to them?'" Grzymala-Busse says. "Everything is fake. Everything is suspect. And no one is to be trusted except the populace."

And that populace, remember, does not include voices of the minorities or anyone who disagrees with the majority.

Populists, according to the report, damage democracies in other sinister, not readily apparent ways, too, by striking down or radically altering what has become accepted over years of building society; things like healthy debate, respect for opponents and civil discourse.

The Populist Leader

It's important to note that populists can come, it's generally agreed, from all parts of the political spectrum. There are leftist populists around the world who combine socialism with their populist message. There are those on the right who push anti-immigration and anti-LBGTQ platforms in their populism.

Perhaps strangely, populist leaders often do not spring from the working-class roots of what is thought of as "the people." Consider: Trump is a self-professed billionaire real estate investor; Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is a longtime congressman and military leader; France's Le Pen is the daughter of a career right-wing politician; the Philippines' Duterte spent decades as a mayor and lawyer; and India's Modi came from humble beginnings, but he has been in politics for more than 40 years.

Whatever their origins, populist leaders are identifiable by their claim to understand "the people," by their us versus them rhetoric, and by their assertions that they, alone, are the answer to the people's problems. They often speak in brash, common, "of-the-people" talk, too, despite their often high-brow educations. They are considered, by many, charismatic.

"There's almost an art to it," Grzymala-Busse says.

That illusion of "telling it like it is" draws in those looking for a change or, as Grzymala-Busse suggests, not wanting to lose their grip on their place in society. But a populist leader's popularity is not forever.

Populists who rise to power, the Stanford project found, often are punished more heavily by voters in trying to hang on to their power, simply because they do not fulfill the promises they made. That's precisely why populist leaders do what they do once they assume power.

By dividing people into good and bad, by chipping away at society's institutions (courts, the media, the legislature), and by weakening norms (healthy debate, fair elections, respect for one another), populists can hang on to power and become all-powerful. "The result," the Stanford authors write, "is a gradual slide into authoritarianism, each step justified by the need to better root out 'disloyal' elements and better serve the 'people' (read: the partisan interests of the incumbents)."

Populism, Grzymala-Busse says, doesn't help the people it purports to serve. In the end, it's just politics.

" " Despite having coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump removed his mask upon returning to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Oct. 5, 2020, potentially putting those he serves at risk. Win McNamee/Getty Images

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Populism, and populist politicians, aren't all bad, Grzymala-Busse says. "I think populism in opposition, populists who don't enter government, play incredibly powerful roles in sort of shaking up the system," she says, "and, above all, in reminding the existing political parties and politicians that they shouldn't be complacent."
" " Protesters kneel in front of New York City police during a march to honor George Floyd near Union Square on May 31, 2020, in New York City. Violent nationwide protests broke out after video emerged of Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. John Moore/Getty Images

The emergence of a shocking cell phone video depicting the death of 46-year-old George Floyd on May 25, 2020, during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers, set off a wave of disgust and anger that sent major cities in the U.S. and abroad into convulsions of protest and violence.

Barely three weeks before that, on May 5, 2020, another cell phone video went instantly viral, this one depicting the shooting death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. It caused a huge public outcry and quickly was followed by the arrest of two local men who were charged with murder and aggravated assault.

The Arbery video also changed the life of William "Roddie" Bryan, the neighborhood man who recorded the fatal confrontation from his pickup truck, and soon faced public scrutiny and accusations that he was more than an innocent onlooker. Bryan took a polygraph test in order to show that he didn't participate in the fatal shooting, and went into hiding with his fiancee after being targeted by protesters, CNN reported. Nevertheless, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Bryan on May 21, 2020, on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment in connection with Arbery's murder, according to a GBI press release. Bryan's attorney maintained his innocence, according to The Brunswick News.

The George Floyd video, the Ahmaud Arbery video and so many more before those, have rocked the world and underscored how incredibly complicated things can quickly become when someone records a video of an act that may turn out to be a crime. Videos shot by bystanders can become important pieces of evidence in court cases, to the extent that law enforcement authorities sometimes now call for members of the public to come forward with them, as they did in the case of a shootout between police and truck hijackers in Florida in 2019, according to NBC Miami. Recordings also can become crucial sources of information in police shootings such as the 2015 killing of Walter Scott, an unarmed man in South Carolina, which was recorded by a passerby walking to work.

In a day and age in which shooting video is so easy that people often impulsively pull out their phones whenever there's any kind of excitement, it's entirely possible for someone to capture footage of a crime and not even realize its significance until he or she gets home and watches it, attorney Eric J. Trabin explains. He's an Almonte Springs, Florida-based criminal defense and family law practitioner, and a former assistant state attorney in Florida.

"No one knows if it's going to be a high-profile case when the incident is happening, that you are going to be sucked into the vortex," he says.

Nevertheless, shooting a video of a possible crime can complicate your life in a hurry. Instantly, you may morph into a news source and continually face a constant barrage of questions from reporters. Police and prosecutors may see you as a key witness in an investigation and trial. You may even come under public scrutiny about your motives and the extent of your involvement in the incident, or find yourself the target of protests and even threats.

Here are five things you should know before hitting the record icon on your phone screen.

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1. You Have the Right to Record Almost Anything in Public

"When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph  still or video  anything that is in plain view," Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, explains via email. That includes the freedom to shoot video of police officers, as long as you don't jump into the middle of the action and get into their way.

If you're out in the street or on a sidewalk, "you pretty much have a right to video almost anything you want," Trabin explains. In a follow-up email, he notes that there are a few important exceptions. "It wouldn't be OK to video someone if it was part of stalking a person or if it were child pornography," he says.

On private property, it's a little more complicated, because the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs or video. "If you disobey the property owner's rules, they can order you off their property and have you arrested for trespassing if you do not comply," Stanley says. "Some recent court cases have suggested that there may be exceptions, however, where people can record even against the wishes of a property owner, such as when you're taping something of public concern like illegal activity. The law is still uncertain in that area."

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2. You're Not Legally Obligated to Send the Video to the Police

If you shoot a video and simply stick your phone in your pocket, walk away, and don't ever show the video to anyone else or upload it to social media, you might conceivably avoid police attention if you're not the sort who wants it. But if you choose to come forward, or investigators find you somehow, it's likely that they're going to want that video.

In most instances, police can't confiscate your phone, unless it's either some sort of dire life-and-death emergency, or they have reason to believe that you're going to delete the evidence, according to Stanley. But you're probably going to end up giving the video file to them.

"Although a person could choose not to turn over the video, the police could go to a court and obtain a warrant for the video," Trabin notes via email.

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3. Your Video Contains a Lot of Potentially Important Evidence

You might think that the video itself is the only thing that matters, but Trabin says that the file has lots of other information that can be invaluable to investigators, such as geolocation, time and date data that shows exactly when and where something happened.

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4. You Could Become a Witness in a Criminal Case

Sometimes, both sides in a criminal case simply will stipulate that a video accurately depicts what happened, Ronald L. Carlson explains. He's the Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law Emeritus at the University of Georgia School of Law, and author of 20 books on the law of evidence, criminal procedure and trial practice. But if the prosecution and defense don't agree, the side that's relying on the video needs to lay a foundation by putting the person who shot the video  someone else who was there  on the stand to authenticate it under oath.

"Either the photographer or the bystander have to say this is a true and accurate representation of the scene or objects that we saw that day," Carlson says.

Even so, the other side can still try to challenge the video on various grounds, according to Carlson. "Somebody who was involved in the fight or whatever was captured in the video might testify that it distorts or misrepresents how things went down."

Things can get more complicated if the person with the phone only captured part of the incident. One option for the judge would be to throw out the partial video, in response to an objection that it would prejudice the jury. Alternatively, though, "the judge might allow it to come into evidence, but require the person who shot it, or his buddy, to testify to the portions [of the event] that were left out," Carlson explains.

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5. You May Face Some Uncomfortable Public Scrutiny

If you pull out your phone and record an apparent violent crime in progress, you may also be faced with a discomforting question: Instead of shooting video, why didn't you come to the aid of the person being victimized? In one particularly extreme example of inaction, numerous teenage bystanders watched as a 16-year-old boy got into a fight outside a Long Island strip mall in 2019. Instead of intervening, some simply recorded it on their cell phones, even when the victim fell to the sidewalk with what turned out to be a fatal stab wound, according to The New York Times.

"First and foremost, I care about the target and I want someone to do something to protect that person," Dr. Sameer Hinduja says via email. He's co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and a criminology professor at Florida Atlantic University. "Shouldn't that be everyone's default concern? Shouldn't they be compelled to action when they see victimization take place?"

In a strict legal sense, though, you're probably in the clear if you just stood there and shot the footage. "Generally, individual bystanders are not legally compelled to assist or intervene when witnessing criminal activity," Jan L. Jacobowitz, a lecturer and director of the professional responsibility and ethics program at the University of Miami's School of Law, explains via email.

Things possibly could get more complicated if you upload the video to the internet. While it's not against the law to record an event that occurs in a public place, "if the video is used on social media to portray an individual in a false or defamatory manner then the individual may have a legal cause of action," Jacobowitz says. Even so, "if there is not an attempt to portray an individual in a false light, then the posting of the video, in accordance with an online platform's terms of service, is likely legal regardless of whether it may be considered in poor taste."

If your video becomes part of an investigation and a court case, you may find yourself becoming news as well, as the video-shooting neighbor in the Georgia case has discovered.

Handling all these issues is no simple matter, and you won't want to manage it without professional help. "Pretty quickly, you should call a lawyer and get representation," Trabin says.

An attorney can contact the police on your behalf and make arrangements to turn over the video. He or she also can help you to answer whatever questions that investigators have. Additionally, your attorney can field any inquiries that you get from the media  and keep you from making misstatements in interviews that you might be questioned about later in court.

"You don't want to end up on TV [like] a deer in the headlights," Trabin cautions.

Additionally, Trabin says you'll want to make multiple copies, including a cloud-based backup, of that important video, and you'll want to store the phone that you used to record it in a safe place as well, since police may need it too.

Now That's Interesting Phone videos of police shootings and incidents involving allegations of excessive force have become such an important piece of evidence that the California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union even has developed a special phone app, Mobile Justice CA, that allows users to capture a confrontation and automatically upload it to the local American Civil Liberties Union office.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia's energy resources exports were needed to power developing countries.

Australia vowed Thursday to keep mining coal for export and said global demand was rising, rejecting a study that warned nearly all its reserves must stay in the ground to address the climate crisis.

Researchers warned in a study published in the journal Nature this week that 89 percent of global coal reservesand 95 percent of Australia's sharemust be left untouched.

Such restraint, they said, would still only offer a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levelsthe current global goal.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday Australia's energy exports were needed to power developing countries, and predicted technology would enable them to be burned "in a much more climate-friendly way" in the future.

"We will keep mining the resources that we're able to sell on the world market," Morrison told a news conference when asked if he would put an "expiration date" on the coal mining industry.

"We obviously anticipate that over time world demand for these things may change."

Under existing agreements, developing countries are able to use Australian resources "well into the future", Morrison said.

Negotiators from 196 countries will join the 26th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference of the PartiesCOP26in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November.

The 12-day meeting, the biggest climate conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015, is seen as a crucial step in setting worldwide emissions targets to slow global warming.

Climate scientists warn extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to manmade global warming.

Environmentalists argue inaction on climate change could cost Australia's economy billions of dollars as the country suffers more intense bushfires, storms and floods.

But Canberra has refused to adopt a net-zero emissions target and remains one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters.

Australian Resources Minister Keith Pitt said coal remained Australia's second-largest export, after iron ore.

Coal exports brought in Aus$50 billion (US$37 billion) a year and the industry provided direct jobs for 50,000 Australians, he said.

"The reality is that global demand for Australian coal is increasing and forecast to continue rising into the next decade at least," Pitt said in a statement, promising coal industry workers they had a "long-term commitment" from the government.

Explore further Australia rejects climate targets despite damning UN report

 2021 AFP
A transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (UK B.1.1.7 variant), isolated from a patient sample and cultivated in cell culture. Credit: NIAID

Since May 2021, drivers crossing into Singapore at the Tuas Checkpoint have been required to breathe into a cigar-sized mouthpiece connected to a mass spectrometer. In less than a minute, the device analyzes the breath samples for COVID-19. According to a new feature article in Chemical & Engineering News, such breath-based diagnostics might be a fast, cheap way to detect infection, although challenges exist.

More than a year into the pandemic, PCR-based assayswhich require samples to be collected from patients' nasal passages with a long cotton swabremain the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis. However, such tests are uncomfortable, slow and relatively expensive, according to freelance writer Carrie Arnold. That's why several companies have launched breathalyzer-like tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection. These tests rely on altered ratios of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath, which reflect metabolic changes triggered by the virus. But questions about whether the technology is sufficiently sensitive and reproducible are still unanswered.

One challenge is that researchers haven't sufficiently defined the levels of VOCs in the breath of healthy people, which makes it difficult to accurately measure when someone's exhalation deviates from the norm. As a result, some breath-based tests have had disappointing results when used in real life. Also, some VOCs change similarly in response to different viruses or conditions, making it important to identify unique patterns or ratios of biomarkers that change only upon infection with SARS-CoV-2. Scientists in the field are hopeful that continued standardization and validation will eventually create a robust breath-based diagnostic that might even be able to detect infection earlier than PCR-based tests, before a person begins shedding the virus.

Explore further Toward a COVID-19 breathalyzer for kids
Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Credit: Mark C. Olsen

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, my fourth-grade class raised money for the Red Cross by selling rubber wristbands. We lined up in the cafeteria to buy them, coming together as a school to support the victims of a "once in a lifetime" event.

Then in 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. I examined pictures of flooded apartments and damaged stores. The familiarity of itan atypical storm scourging an entire coastlinefelt ominous. Rather than a discrete, uncharacteristic experience, Hurricane Sandy hung in the air like a harbinger. For most of my life, New York City was firmly and reliably out of the direct path of most hurricanes.

A few weeks ago, Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans before spiraling up the east coast to New York City and beyond. Most major news publications did not call it a "once in a lifetime" eventsixteen years after Katrina, transformative hurricanes are too common to be crowned with such a hyperbolic epithet. These are seasonal nightmares, at best, and weekly nightmares, at worst. Gone are the days when a category five hurricane was exceptional and a hurricane in New York City was a crisis of the imagination.

Despite increasing occurrence and severity, most places in the United States are woefully underprepared for natural disaster. Climate change is here, but our attention and resources are repeatedly allocated to only one chapter of a climate event: crisis response. We mobilize quickly in the aftermath, but we often fail to acknowledge that natural disasters are years in the making. The structural impact of any one storm can differ vastly based on infrastructure planning and investment in natural disaster prevention.

There was a brief window to prepare for Hurricane Ida. First responders were informed, local governments could proactively guide citizens, and susceptible residents could ready their families and their property. But a few days' warning can only go so far; when Ida struck, entire communities remained vulnerable. Across states, first responders rushed to relieve the immediate crises where possible, but the underlying infrastructure had already failed them.

Now, communities impacted by Ida face the second leg of the disasterthe long-term recovery. The lasting consequences of the storm have started to emerge: power outage, flooding, garbage collection, home reconstruction, hunger, and more. There is undeniable urgency to solve these issues. At the same time, with infrastructure destroyed, there is a chance to reimagine what reconstruction looks like.

Too often, crisis relief and long-term planning are unnecessarily regarded as trade-offs. One Louisiana-based company, PosiGen, demonstrates an alternative to that thinking.

PosiGen is a residential solar company in Louisiana that has outfitted 12,000 low-to-moderate income households statewide with solar panels since 2011. Initial reports show that most of PosiGen's solar systems survived Hurricane Ida. In fact, the solar panels "storm hardened" the roofs, meaning that roofs with solar panels were better off than those without.

In addition, many PosiGen customers are "battery storage ready," meaning that the solar panels can easily plug directly into a large, in-home battery. During the daytime, rooftop solar panels charge the batteries. Customers can then discharge the batteries to power their homes and electronics into the evening, even if power lines are down. It's a strategic way to quickly reinstate electricity while also investing in future resilience.

The primary barrier to installing batteries is funding. Today, PosiGen installs solar panels and roofing, which it is mobilizing at full capacity to try to meet the needs of communities in Louisiana. The financing required to procure batteries is outside of PosiGen's immediate operational budget. The company would have to petition the government and seek support from the Department of Energy (DOE) or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to mobilize that amount of capital.

Federal agencies, like DOE, tend to fund projects slowly, and this kind of project might be out of the scope of FEMA. It's a challenge to gain access to urgent infrastructure funding. Our government institutions and policy measures aren't built to accommodate speed, permanence, and durability all at the same time. Moreover, we do not usually see wipeout disasters as opportunities to rapidly rebuild for climate resilience. They're understandably addressed as humanitarian crises. But up until recently, we had painted those cataclysmic storms as "once in a lifetime" events.

If we think of climate events like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Ida as one-off incidents, it incentivizes quick fixes for infrastructure. In that context, meaningful investment in a climate resilient future is unnecessary because natural disasters can be considered anomalies. "Once in a lifetime" thinking doesn't work in the era of climate change, and we need to adapt accordingly. The next hurricane might be next week. How many times must our communities suffer before we readjust our mindset and see disaster response and climate planning as one in the same?

Explore further Hurricane Ida could become costliest weather disaster: UN

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
Credit: Fredrik Schlyter

Researchers have successfully mapped the entire genome of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle. The breakthrough paves the way for new research into bark beetles and better prospects for effective pest control of a species that can destroy more than 100 million cubic meters of spruce forest during a single year in Europe and Asia.

Mapping the genome of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle enables a far deeper understanding of how and why it has become a very successful forest pest. Among other things, the researchers' analysis of the genome revealed that the Eurasian spruce bark beetle has an unusually large number of genes that help to break down the cell walls of plants. In contrast, it does not appear to have an elevated number of genes to enable it to rid its body of foreign substances, which is surprising as the resin in the trees is toxic to the insects.

The recently completed sequencing of the entire genome of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, could potentially pave the way for highly specific pest control using what is known as RNA interference (RNAi).

RNAi is a molecular biology tool which specifically suppresses the expression of a gene with high precision, by administering double-stranded RNA into the insect, through food for example. This eventually causes the protein production from the corresponding gene to temporarily stop or become reduced, without modifying the genome. The method can provide clear information about the roles played by specific genes in the biology of the bark beetle, a process which is now facilitated by the sequencing of the beetle's entire genome.

In the future, it is hoped that the RNAi method will also be usable in practical pest control out in the forests.

"For example, you could suppress genes that have a direct effect on survival or focus on the genes that are crucial to bark beetle reproduction or their ability to perceive the pheromones used for mating and to attack spruce forests," says Martin N. Andersson, associate professor at Lund University.

The genome-based method is species-specific, which means that it does not have any undesired, detrimental side-effects on other organisms.

"In North America, there are many other significant species in the same bark beetle genus, Ips. The Eurasian spruce bark beetle's genome will become a sort of complementary map to help the Americans study their own indigenous species," says Fredrik Schlyter, professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU.

To study the genome of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, the researchers conducted sibling mating over ten generations of beetles in the laboratory. This was done to obtain homogenous DNA with relatively few variations. They then extracted DNA from around 100 beetles. This was biochemically sequenced in small sections that were subsequently assembled using powerful computing. The researchers then compared the results with the genomes of other insects and analyzed which genes had expanded and which had been reduced in the Eurasian spruce bark beetle relative to other closely related species. According to the researchers, their evaluations indicate that the genome is of a very high quality and comparable with some of the best studied genomes of other insect species such as the fruit fly and mosquito.

Explore further Breakthrough in the fight against spruce bark beetles

More information: Daniel Powell et al, A highly-contiguous genome assembly of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, provides insight into a major forest pest, Communications Biology (2021). Journal information: Communications Biology Daniel Powell et al, A highly-contiguous genome assembly of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, provides insight into a major forest pest,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02602-3
Vahid Nozari at the University of Jena uses a microscope to examine the new synthetic glass, which consists of a non-fusible metal-organic framework (MOF) compound. Credit: Jens Meyer/University of Jena

Glasses are an indispensable part of everyday life. One of the most important reasons for this is that glass objects can be manufactured almost universally and inexpensively in a wide variety of shapes and sizes using their corresponding melts. Processing in the (viscous) liquid phase offers a versatility that can hardly be achieved with other materials. However, this presupposes that the material from which the glass is made in terms of its chemical composition can be melted at all.

So-called metal-organic framework compoundsin short MOFshave attracted a great deal of interest in recent years. Due to their special properties, they are considered to have great potential for future applications in energy and environmental technology, but also as sensor components and in the bio and life sciences. For example, MOFs can be used as starting materials for filter membranes for separating gasses in technical combustion processes or for water treatment. The basis for the multitude of possible applications is above all one outstanding property of MOFs: their high and largely controllable porosity. MOF substances consist of inorganic particles that are connected by organic molecules to form a network of pores. As MOFs are predominantly in powder form, a primary challenge of the field is to produce bulk components. This is where glasses come into play.

Trade-off between properties and processability

But apart from a few exceptions, the porosity of all things prevents the materials from being meltable and, thus, processable into components of the desired shape. Chemists from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, and the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, have now found a solution to this problem. They report on their research results in the current issue of Nature Communications.

In order to produce components for industrial applications from MOFs, they can be processed into so-called hybrid glasses, for example. To do this, however, you have to melt them downa process that is not straightforward in this specific case. So far, only a handful of candidates of this class of substances have actually been demonstrated to be meltable. "In most known MOF materials, the high porosity is one of the reasons thatupon heatingthey thermally decompose before reaching their melting point, that is, they burn," explains Vahid Nozari, doctoral student at the Laboratory of Glass Science of the University of Jena. It is precisely the property that makes these materials so interesting that also prevents them from being processed using the glass route.

Identifying combinations of ionic liquids, MOF matrices and melting conditions

So how do you make a non-meltable material meltable in order to shape and process it in its liquid state? The team led by Jena professor Lothar Wondraczek has now found an answer to this question. "We filled the pores with an ionic liquid that stabilizes the inner surface in such a way that the substance can finally melt before it even decomposes," explains Wondraczek. The researchers were able to show how normally non-meltable substances from the MOF family of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) can actually be converted into a liquid state and, finally, a glass. "In this way, the desired component can be obtained, for example, in the form of a membrane or a disk. Residues of the employed ionic liquid can then be washed out after shaping."

The key to future applications are the interactions taking place between the ionic liquid and the MOF material. These determine the reversibility of the process, i.e., the possibility of washing out the auxiliary liquid after the melting process. If the reactions are not adapted, either the pore surface is not adequately stabilized or there is an irreversible chemical bond between the MOF and parts of the ionic liquid. Therefore, ideal combinations of liquids, matrix materials and melting conditions must be identified with a view to the desired application, so that large-volume objects would become possible.

Explore further Novel glass materials made from organic and inorganic components

More information: Vahid Nozari et al, Ionic liquid facilitated melting of the metal-organic framework ZIF-8, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Vahid Nozari et al, Ionic liquid facilitated melting of the metal-organic framework ZIF-8,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25970-0
Ammar Safaie collecting bathymetry data for the Gull Lake model in 2015. Credit: Phani Mantha

The source of troublesome lake algae is not always clear, but an interdisciplinary research project with two Michigan State University researchers found an answer may include colder groundwater that feeds some inland lakes. This finding could help predict the formation of harmful algal blooms to mitigate their impact on drinking water, tourism, fishing and fish toxicity.

"I have been monitoring the HABs in Gull Lake in Michigan for many years," said Elena Litchman, an MSU Foundation professor of aquatic ecology at the Kellogg Biological Station and in the Department of Integrative Biology in the College of Natural Science. "We want to understand the processes that lead to HABs."

A lake could have HABs one year and the next year, the lake is clear. The processes that trigger HABs are complex and it has been difficult for researchers to identify a clear answer.

Litchman collaborated with Phanikumar Mantha, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, combining their expertise in aquatic ecology and hydrological engineering respectively, to create a hydrodynamic model of Gull Lake with the help of Mantha's former graduate student, Ammar Safaie.

Their research was published Sept. 1 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.

To create the model, Safaie crisscrossed Gull Lake to measure varying lake depths as part of a bathymetric survey in which sound waves are transmitted from the boat to the lake bottom. Instruments also measured at varying depths, lake temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and phytoplankton. All the data were combined into the model, but one piece was amiss.

"The observed (deep) lake temperatures weren't matching the models," Mantha said. "The model's temperatures were warmer, and it wasn't making any sense initially."

After several months, the research team figured out the missing ingredient to their model was groundwater. Gull Lake is special because it's fed with groundwater that cools deep lake temperatures during summer months that may inhibit bloom formation.

"This is an important finding because groundwater levels are declining worldwide," Mantha said. "Less groundwater means that the deep waters in similar inland lakes may warm, triggering the growth of algae at some depths and depleting oxygen at other depths with implications for the survival of cold-water fish species."

This could mean more frequent algae outbreaks in lakes around the world when groundwater is depleted. The team plans to use the model to help predict the chances of HABs in other inland lakes.

Explore further Deepwater renewal in Lake Geneva in light of climate change

More information: Ammar Safaie et al, Decreasing Groundwater Supply Can Exacerbate Lake Warming and Trigger Algal Blooms, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (2021). Ammar Safaie et al, Decreasing Groundwater Supply Can Exacerbate Lake Warming and Trigger Algal Blooms,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021JG006455
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Amid historic drought and changing rainfall patterns, a groundwater market in the California desert could serve as a template for the future of water management.

When landowners overlying the Mojave groundwater system switched from open-access management to a cap-and-trade system, it helped stabilize their groundwater resources. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Public Policy Institute of California were curious about the market's other impacts. Their new study reveals that the switch also increased the values of properties within the groundwater market, even though the system restricted the amount of groundwater that landowners could pump. These benefits were over 10 times the initial cost of establishing the market.

These promising findings, published in the prestigious Journal of Political Economy, come as many other communities begin to develop their own management strategies under California's new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

"The groundwater problem is actually a very old problem," said co-author Kyle Meng, an associate professor of environmental economics at the Bren School. "It's a classic case of the tragedy of the commons: No one owns groundwater, and because no one owns it, there's a race to extract it." This race to pump incentivized an inefficient, short-sighted approach to water use, he added.

Although the Mojave is the driest desert in North America, farmers have historically grown water-intensive crops like alfalfa by drawing upon an underlying groundwater basin, or aquifer. However, between 1960 and 1990 pumping from this basin had depleted the resource to such an extent that water tables had fallen by 30 feet, spelling trouble for everyone involved.

In 1996, stakeholders finalized a cap-and trade market spanning the majority of the Mojave groundwater system. The market limited the amount of pumping, but allowed landowners to trade their rights with other users within their trading area.

The system successfully stabilized the aquifer, but Meng and his co-authors, Andrew Plantinga and Andrew Ayres, sought to determine if this change also provided financial benefits. To this end, they developed a mathematical model to formalize groundwater use and human behavior before versus after the market's implementation. "Understanding it conceptually allows us then to know what we're actually measuring when we look at the data," said Professor Plantinga, a resource economist at the Bren School.

The researchers then compared property values between parcels on either side of the market's boundary. In this case, the extent of the aquifer was slightly different than the bounds of the water market. By comparing properties within the same groundwater system, but governed by different regulations, the team could avoid introducing confounding factors that arise when comparing between different basins.

The authors found that the values of properties within the market increased by over 200% on average. Altogether, the market contributed a net benefit of at least $400 million (in 2015 dollars) to agricultural and urban users.

In contrast, the administrative and legal costs of setting up the system was a mere $40 million in 2015 dollars. In fact, the authors claim their figures are likely an underestimate of the market's benefits, as they didn't account for the value of the additional groundwater.

But why would properties within the market be worth more than those with free rein to pump?

The answer is all about for whom the water has value. Previously, landowners could only pump for their own use on their own lands; the water didn't hold any external value. But the cap-and-trade system enables participants to sell or lease their pumping rights, potentially for a higher value than any use the extra water could be put to on site.

This allows water to be used in more valuable ways while simultaneously compensating the original owner. Farmers with less productive fields can now sell water rights to their more productive neighbors, or even to local cities, which are often willing to pay quite a bit for it.

"The cap-and-trade market both restricts users and gives them more freedom at the same time," said Meng. The "cap" restricts the amount of water a user can withdraw, but the "trade" enables a user to sell their rights, which wasn't possible before.

The concept of environmental markets is not new. They govern around a third of global fisheries and a tenth of carbon emissions, according to the authors: "However, determining whether these pervasive policies actually deliver on their promises has been elusive," Plantinga said.

"Even though the idea of an environmental market has been around since the '60s, this is, to our knowledge, the first paper that quantifies the net benefits of an environmental market," Meng added.

That said, environmental markets aren't guaranteed to generate net benefits. They work theoretically, but under a lot of assumptions that won't always hold true in the real world. For instance, a cap that's too tight might negate any benefits from the trading aspect of a cap-and-trade system.

The authors approached this study with no presumption that a market would be better than any other intervention. They were excited that even in the messy real world, the Mojave groundwater market worked splendidly.

This is good news for stakeholders, who will need effective groundwater management strategies for some tough decisions ahead. In 2014, California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to address dwindling groundwater resources in basins across the state.

"Areas that may have been over-drafted in the pastbut perhaps not to the extent where the users were motivated or able to resolve the problemare now going to be prompted to do that," said co-author Ayres, a former UCSB doctoral student now at the Public Policy Institute of California. As result, groundwater markets have become increasingly attractive.

Groundwater management is very localized under SGMA; communities in each basin must determine how they will achieve the requirements set out by the legislation. That said, there are really only two options for approaching the task: increase the supply through groundwater recharge and/or decrease the demand from pumping.

There are only a few ways to actually make these decisions. The benefit of a groundwater market is that it gives more autonomy directly to the stakeholders rather than to, say, a centralized administration. The local agency certainly exercises centralized authoritydetermining aspects like the cap, allocating pumping entitlements and enforcing compliancebut the increased stakeholder autonomy builds upon SGMA's inherently decentralized nature.

What's more, under a groundwater market, the people reducing their use get compensated for participating in a system that ultimately solves the problem. "It is a mechanism for getting people on board who might otherwise try to impede the process," said Ayres.

Several communities have already begun implementing groundwater markets. The Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency's fledgling water market in Ventura County has been heralded as SGMA's first groundwater market. Meanwhile, pumpers in the Borrego sub-basin, in eastern San Diego County, reached an agreement in early 2021 on a new system that includes a market. Interest is growing in many other basins as well.

As promising as these results are, the authors acknowledged that their study didn't consider how a water market's benefits are distributed. Environmental markets can help improve efficiency, Meng said, but they don't necessarily reduce economic disparities. In the future it may be worthwhile to incorporate an equity component into these systems.

"We are increasingly looking at these kinds of distributional questions for a variety of environmental markets," Plantinga said.

Explore further Big data offers promise of better groundwater management in California

More information: Andrew B. Ayres et al, Do Environmental Markets Improve on Open Access? Evidence from California Groundwater Rights, Journal of Political Economy (2021). Journal information: Journal of Political Economy Andrew B. Ayres et al, Do Environmental Markets Improve on Open Access? Evidence from California Groundwater Rights,(2021). DOI: 10.1086/715075
MZ twinning DMPs identified in a meta-analysis of data from 5723 twins. a Manhattan plot of the EWAS meta-analysis based on whole blood DNA methylation data from five twin cohorts (total sample size = 5723) that identified 834 MZ-DMPs. The red horizontal line denotes the epigenome-wide significance threshold (Bonferroni correction). Dark red dots highlight significant DMPs near centromeres. Orange dots highlight significant DMPs near telomeres. b Dichorionic (DC) MZ twins have separate chorions, amnions, and placentas. Monochorionic diamniotic (MCDA) MZ twins have separate amnions and a common chorion and placenta. Monochorionic monoamniotic (MCMA) have a common chorion, amnion, and placenta. It has been hypothesized that DC MZ twins result from separation soon after fertilization, whereas MC twins are thought to result from separation 3 days after fertilization, with MCMA twins arising later than MCDA twins. c Density plots of twin correlations for the differentially methylated positions in monozygotic twins (MZ-DMPs) identified in the EWAS meta-analysis illustrate that the overall distribution of twin correlations at MZ-DMPs show the following pattern: rMZ-MCMA > rMZ-MCDA > rMZ-DC. d Twin correlations for genome-wide autosomal methylation sites do not follow this pattern. MZ monozygotic twins, DZ dizygotic twins. e MZ-DMPs with larger correlations in monochorionic MZ twins compared to dichorionic MZ twins. The CpGs were selected by three criteria (1) rMZ-MCMA > rMZ-MCDA > rMZ-DC; (2) rMZ-MCDA > 0.5; (3) rMZ-DC

An international group of researchers has made a groundbreaking discovery that could lead to new insights into the blueprint of identical twins.

The findings of the study, published on September 28 in Nature Communications, represent a huge step forward in understanding identical twins. The study was led by twin researchers from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The findings based on the Dutch twin cohort were replicated in three other cohorts, one of them being the Finnish Twin Cohort.

From the University of Helsinki, Professor Jaakko Kaprio and Academy Researcher Miina Ollikainen from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM contributed to the study.

Despite a century of amazing progress in most areas of science we still have no idea how identical (monozygoticMZ) twins arise. In contrast we are making fast progress on understanding the biological origins of nonidentical twins, which run strongly in families, pointing to genetic influences.

Identical twins have unique epigenetic profile

In this study, instead of focusing on genomics, an epigenome wide association study was done. This led to an important discovery: epigenetic information in the chromosomes differs between identical twins and others. These epigenetic differences are not in the DNA code itself, but in small chemical marks associated with it.

Around the building blocks of DNA (the DNA code) are control elements that determine how genes are tuned and how strongly they are expressed. This is the so-called epigenome. A useful analogy is how the holding the shift key on a keyboard, can make the letter "a" become capitalized "A" allowing another level of regulation on how each letter or number on the keyboard can be displayed. Likewise, DNA methylation (like pressing the shift key) controls which genes are "on" and which genes are "off" in each cell of the body. The field that studies this tuning of genes is called epigenetics.

The researchers measured the level of methylation at more than 400,000 sites in the DNA of more than 6,000 twins. They found 834 locations in the DNA where the methylation level was different in identical twins than in non-twins. Many of these locations in the DNA are involved in functions in early embryonic development.

"The results points to unusual methylation patterns in genes involved in cell adhesion which might explain why there is spontaneous fission of an early developing embryo into two identical halves," said Miina Ollikainen.

Important breakthrough

"This is a very big discovery. The origin and birth of identical twins has always been a complete mystery. It is one of the few traits in which genetics plays no or very modest role. This is the first time that we have found a biological marker of this phenomenon in humans. The explanation appears not to lie in the genome, but in its epigenome," said Professor Dorret Boomsma of the Netherlands Twin Register who led the study.

In addition to insights into the fabrics of monozygotic twins, the results may lead to a better understanding of congenital abnormalities that occur more often in monozygotic twins in the future.

"A particularly surprising finding in this study is that we can determine from the epigenetic profile of a person whether he/she is an identical twin or has lost a monozygotic twin sibling early in pregnancy," said Professor Jaakko Kaprio.

Explore further Immune diseases inflict identical twins differently

More information: Jenny van Dongen et al, Identical twins carry a persistent epigenetic signature of early genome programming, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Jenny van Dongen et al, Identical twins carry a persistent epigenetic signature of early genome programming,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25583-7
Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

A bright red river of lava from the volcano on Spain's La Palma island finally tumbled over a cliff and into the Atlantic Ocean, setting off huge plumes of steam and possibly toxic gases that forced local residents outside the evacuation zone to remain indoors on Wednesday.

The immediate area had been evacuated for several days as authorities waited for the lava that began erupting Sept. 19 to traverse the 6 kilometers (four miles) to the island's edge. On the way down from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, the lava flows have engulfed at least 656 buildings, mostly homes and farm buildings, in its unstoppable march to the sea.

The meeting of molten rock and sea water finally came at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. By daybreak, a widening promontory of newborn land could be seen forming under plumes of steam rising high into the area.

Even though initial air quality reading showed no danger in the area, experts had warned that the arrival of the lava at the ocean would likely produce small explosions and release toxic gases that could damage lungs. Authorities established a security perimeter of 3 kilometers (about two miles) and asked residents in the wider area to remain indoors with windows shut to avoid breathing in any gases.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the island's first eruption in 50 years, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people after the ground cracked open following weeks of tremors.

Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

The flattening of the terrain as it approached the coast had slowed down the flow of the lava, causing it to widen out and do more damage to villages and farms. The local economy is largely based on agriculture, above all the cultivation of the Canary plantain.

Just before it poured down a cliff into the sea at a local point known as Los Guirres, the lava rolled over the coastal highway, cutting off the last road in the area that connects the island to several villages.

"We hope that the channel to the sea that has opened stops the lava flow, which widened to reach 600 meters (2,000 feet) at one point, from continuing to grow, because that has caused tremendous damage," Angel Victor Torres, president of the Canary Islands regional government, told Cope radio.

Torres said his government is working to house those who have lost their dwellings. Authorities have plans to purchase over 100 currently unoccupied homes. Torres cited one village, Todoque, home to 1,400 people, which was wiped out.

Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Saul Santos

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Cleaning crews swept up ash in the island's capital, Santa Cruz, while more small earthquakes that have rumbled under the volcano for weeks were registered by geologists.

Favorable weather conditions allowed the first flight in five days to land at airport on La Palma, an important tourist destination along with its neighboring Canary islands, despite a huge ash cloud that Spain's National Geographic Institute said reached up to seven kilometers (nearly 4 miles) high.

Laura Garces, the director of Spain's air navigation authority ENAIRE, said she doesn't foresee any major problems for other airports on the archipelago because of the ash.

Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Saul Santos

Lava from a volcano reaches the sea on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Wednesday Sept. 29, 2021. Lava from the new volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma reached the Atlantic ocean last night, at the area known as Los Guirres beach, also known as Playa Nueva (New Beach). Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

While the red tongue of lava lolled off the coast, the two open vents of the volcano continued to belch up more magma from below.

Experts say it's impossible to determine how long the eruption will last. Previous eruptions in the archipelago have lasted weeks, even months.

"We don't know when this will be over," volcano scientist Stavros Meletlidis of Spain's National Geographic Institute told state broadcaster TVE. "Volcanos are not friends of statistics."

Explore further Volcanic ash cloud closes La Palma airport; new vent emerges

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Fig.1 Cover image of Science Bulletin. Credit: Science Bulletin

Eurypterids, normally known as sea scorpions, are an important group of Paleozoic chelicerate arthropods. As a "star animal" in the Silurian (about 430 million years ago) sea, its evolutionary history and paleoecological significance have always attracted attentions.

Mixopterids are a remarkable group of eurypterids characterized by extremely specialized prosomal appendages. These limbs were presumably used for prey-capture, like the 'catching basket' formed by the spiny pedipalps of whip spiders.

However, our knowledge of these bizarre animals is limited to only four species in two genera, which were all based on a few fossil specimens from the Silurian Laurussia 80 years ago.

Recently, postgraduate Wang Han and Prof. Wang Bo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), in collaboration with other researchers from China, Germany and England, described a new mixopterid, Terropterus xiushanensis gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Silurian of South China. It's the first mixopterids in Gondwana, and also the oldest mixopterids.

The study was published in Science Bulletin. It expands the understanding of the morphological diversity and geographical distribution of mixopterids.

Terropterus is relatively large, estimated to be nearly a meter in length. It bears particularly enlarged prosomal limb III, characterized by a unique arrangement of spines on it.

Fig. 2 Terropterus xiushanensis. a, c, d, e, f: appendages; b: reconstruction drawing, dorsal and ventral views; g: genital operculum and the genital appendage. Credit: NIGPAS

The well-preserved appendages and other body parts fossils provided new evidences for expanding morphological diversity of Mixopteridae. By morphological comparison and phylogenetic analysis, researchers suggested more complex evolutionary relationships of this group than previously thought.

Terropterus, a large arthropod with a "sharp weapon," may have played an important role of top predators in Early Silurian shallow marine of South China.

Meanwhile, the first Gondwanan mixopterid, along with other eurypterids from China and some undescribed specimens, suggests an under-collecting bias in this group. Future work, especially in Asia, may reveal a more cosmopolitan distribution of mixopterids and perhaps other groups of eurypterids.
Geoffrey Supran, who co-authored a research paper on ExxonMobil's climate disinformation campaign in 2017, discusses current House investigation into the companys disinformation. Credit: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

The U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight Committee earlier this month widened its inquiry into the oil industry's role in fostering doubt about the role of fossil fuels in causing climate change. A letter from the panel to Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chief executive, said lawmakers were "concerned that to protect  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 Gazette spoke with Geoffrey Supran, a research fellow in the History of Science, who, together with Naomi Oreskes, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science, published a series of studies in recent years, the most recent one in May, on the climate communications of ExxonMobil, one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies.

Q&A: Geoffrey Supran

GAZETTE: Tell me about your research on the oil and gas industry's role in spreading climate disinformation.

SUPRAN: In 2017, I and Naomi Oreskes published a series of three papers focused on what you might call traditional climate-science denial by ExxonMobil. Then, in May of this year, we shifted gears slightly, releasing a new study looking at the company's more subtle forms of climate propaganda.

GAZETTE: What kinds of issues do you suspect the House committee will find?

SUPRAN: In 2017, our research was the first peer-reviewed analysis of ExxonMobil's 40-year history of climate-change communications. And what we discovered was that there were systematic discrepancies between, on the one hand, what Exxon and ExxonMobil scientists said about climate-science privately and in academic circles, versus what Exxon, Mobil, and ExxonMobil said to the general public in The New York Times and elsewhere. That analysis showed that ExxonMobil misled the public about basic climate science and its implications. They did so by contributing quietly to climate science, and loudly to promoting doubt about that science.

Our work and others' in that area provides evidence for the committee, demonstrating ExxonMobil's long history of attacking science and scientists in order to undermine and delay climate action. Our more recent work, this May, is an evolution of that study in that it focuses on how, beyond outright disinformation, ExxonMobil has used language to subtly but systematically shape the way the public thinks about climate change, often in misleading ways. That study demonstrates how the company has selectively emphasized some terms and topics in public while consistently avoiding others.

The takeaway message across all of our work is that over and over, ExxonMobil has misled the public about climate change by telling the public one thing and then saying and doing the opposite behind closed doors. Our latest work shows that while their tactics have evolved from outright, blatant climate denial to more subtle forms of lobbying and propaganda, their end goal remains the same. And that's to stop action on climate change.

GAZETTE: So according to your findings, within the walls of ExxonMobil there was never any doubt about climate science. Is that right?

SUPRAN: Right, there was never the undue doubt that they promoted in public. In fact, behind closed doors and in academic circles, Exxon has known that its products would likely cause dangerous global warming since at least the 1970s. By way of its trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry as a whole has been on notice even longersince the 1950s.

GAZETTE: What was the most disturbing finding from this hard look at ExxonMobil's communications?

SUPRAN: A key contribution of our work has been demonstrating the systematic and statistically significant bias of ExxonMobil's public communications toward denial and delay. But the most uncomfortable realization is how subtle and systematic and increasingly sophisticated their propaganda has become.

In our most recent work, we've had to rely on statistical techniques from computational linguistics to uncover patterns of speech hiding in plain sight. These include a systematic fixation on consumer energy demand rather than on the fossil fuels that the company supplies and the systematic representation of climate change as a "risk" rather than a reality. These are subtle patterns that, we've now realized, have been systematically embedded into climate discourse by ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel interests.

That's particularly discomforting, because when you start to pull back the curtain you see just how sophisticated the oil industry's propaganda machine has been, how easily their rhetoric has snuck into people's consciousness and biased the way the public thinks about this. Mobil's vice president and pioneer of PR in the '70s and '80s literally talked about what he called "semantic infiltration." He called it "the process whereby language does the dirty work of politics." And he said that the first "general principle" of PR was to, quote, "grab the good words  while sticking your opponents with the bad ones." Our research now shows that's exactly what they've been up to for decades.

GAZETTE: Have the oil companies stopped outright denying climate change? The subtle approach you talk about, is that all they're doing now?

SUPRAN: From the mid-2000s through to the 2010s, ExxonMobil and other fossil-fuel companies gradually "evolved" their language, in the words of one ExxonMobil manager, from blatant climate denial to these more subtle and insidious forms of delayism. Another ExxonMobil manager described the effort by former company chairman and chief executiveRex Tillerson in the mid-2000s as an effort to "carefully reset" the company's profile on climate change so that it would be "more sustainable and less exposed." They did so by drawing straight from the tobacco industry's playbook of threading a very fine rhetorical needle, using language about climate change just strong enough to be able to deny that they haven't warned the public, but weak enough to exculpate them from charges of having marketed a deadly product.

So while their outright denial has tapered off, their propaganda hasn't stopped. It's in fact shifted into high gear and is now operating with a sophistication that we've never seen before. In our recent study, I mentioned the rhetoric of risk and individualized responsibility, but we also identified systematic use of language indicative of other what we call "discourses of delay," such as greenwashing, fossil-fuel solutionism, technological optimism, and so on. These are now pervasive in industry marketing and, in turn, in the ways that the public and policymakers think and talk about the climate crisis.

To give just one example, did you know that the very notion of a personal carbon footprinta concept that's completely ubiquitous in discussions about personal responsibilitywas first popularized by BP as part of a $100 million per year marketing campaign between 2004 and 2006?

They've also upgraded their tactics, moving from print advertorials to digital advertorials and microtargeted social media. Digital advertorials are ads presented to appear in the style of newspapers online and made for the oil companies by the newspapers themselves. They are the direct digital descendant of the print advertorials that Mobil pioneered in the '70s through the 2000s, in part with their climate messaging.

GAZETTE: Did we get a sense as to how this happens? Are there company memos about phrasing and language, that kind of thing? Or is it still opaque?

SUPRAN: Proving intent is generally nontrivial, but all signs point to "Yes." In terms of outright climate denial, we have smoking-gun documents that lay out in black and white Exxon's intentions from the '80s and '90s to, in their words, "emphasize the uncertainty," "extend the science," and so on. In terms of delayism, we know, for example, that in 1981, Mobil internally reviewed its PR campaigns from the previous decade and celebrated how their advertorials in The New York Times had allowed them to become part of what they called "the collective unconscious" of the nation, as not only the general population but the Times editorial board had begun to shift their opinions in line with the company's views. As I mentioned, the pioneer of Mobil's advertorials, Herb Schmertz, also talked a lot about their public-affairs principles.

Beyond that, we don't yet have the smoking-gun strategy documents for delay equivalent to the ones for denial. This is speculation, but part of the reason that we see propaganda mirrored so closely between different companies and different industries is because much of the time they work with the same PR firms and ad agencies. And so it could be that those memos lie in the file cabinets of PR firms rather than the oil companies themselves. That's why there are now campaigns to hold those PR agents to account as well.

GAZETTE: This is kind of a horrible question to ask, but were you ever, despite yourself, impressed with the strategy and its effectiveness?

SUPRAN: Through our research, it has gradually dawned on me and my colleagues how central to the invention and advancement of modern propaganda the oil and gas industry has been over the last century. For me, coming from a physics and engineering background and retraining to work in this discipline, it's been eye-opening and humbling to realize how much of the way we think and talk about this crisis has been encouraged and embodied by fossil-fuel-industry propaganda.

So I do recognize just how effective this industry's public-affairs tactics have been. They've certainly undermined public concern and action on this crisis for decades. For my entire lifetime, in fact, the climate denial and delay machine has been in full swing. I'm not sure if "marvel" is the right word, but I'm very cognizant of the fact that I am part of the climate-change generation, born into a society locked into fossil fuels not for want of scientific understanding or technology or policy know-how, but because of the greed and disinformation and lobbying of a small group of fossil-fuel interests and conservative billionaires.

Explore further Scientists reveal how the fossil fuel industry misled the public about climate change

This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Nearly two decades ago, fishers discovered an odd occurrence off the coast of Oregon. They were pulling up pots of dead or lethargic crabs.

At first they suspected a chemical spill or a red tide. But instead, they learned, dangerously low levels of dissolved oxygen in the ocean water were to blame.

The crabs had suffocated.

These swaths of hypoxic areas have surfaced every summer on Pacific Northwest shores since it was first recorded in 2002. They are spurred by naturally occurring coastal upwellings and algae blooms, exacerbated by climate change, said Francis Chan, director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University.

Akin to fire season, hypoxia season arrived earlier this yearthe earliest start in 20 years, according to Chan. But unlike wildfire, or other visible climate emergencies, it's gone largely unrecognized.

"It's kind of a silent problem happening out there," said Chan. "This year, I can look out and see trees with one side burnt because of the heat wave. As I'm driving on McKenzie highway, I can see Mount Jefferson has no snow on it. But when you drive out to the ocean, it looks exactly the same as last summer."

The coasts of Washington and Oregon are part of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem which extends from Mexico to Canada. The ecosystem is highly dynamic as each spring and summer, northerly wind systems blow southward and push the upper layer of the ocean offshore. It gets replaced by water from deeper depths that is rich in nutrients and helps fuel the productivity of the West Coast. This process is known as coastal upwelling.

The upwelled water has lower levels of dissolved oxygen because the deep water has spent such a long time isolated from the atmosphere. The wealth of nutrients encourages strong phytoplankton blooms, also known as marine algae, which eventually decomposesa process that further consumes oxygen from the waterleaving the nearshore water with even lower oxygen levels that can lead to marine creatures suffocating.

"How long can you hold your breath?" posed Jenny Waddell, a research coordinator at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. "Other than marine mammals who breathe at the surface, pretty much everything else in the ocean is using dissolved oxygen for their life."

Typically, hypoxic conditions haven't arrived to the nearshore until mid-June or July. This year hypoxic conditions were reported in April with the upwelling season beginning in March. To get a sense of why an early beginning to the upwelling season is concerning, Chan compared it to the summer drought season. "Say we expected rainfall lasting until March but the rain stops in February. That's all the water we have. We have to last until next year."

Similarly, if upwelling starts a month earlier than usual, the amount of oxygen, already low, has to last until the fall when storms promote mixing which adds oxygen back into the system.

Chan said as of late September this year, upwelling is still occurring and low levels of oxygen are still persisting.

Climate change is playing a role in worsening oxygen levels. Simply put, warmer water holds less oxygen because the oxygen molecules are moving faster and are more likely to escape from the surface. A little more complicated, climate change is altering the structure of the oceans as the warmer upper layer is more buoyant than the cooler, deeper, already oxygen-poor ocean layer. The warmer upper layer keeps the deeper layer from "taking a breath," explained Chan.

On a global scale, the oceans are already losing oxygen. Take this and add local factors like coastal upwelling and phytoplankton bloom decomposition off Washington and Oregon coasts, and you have a system with severely low oxygen levels.

While upwelling ecosystems like the CCLME were once thought as resilient in the face of climate change because of their dynamic nature, they have quickly and quietly become places scientists say will be hit hard by changing conditions.

Scientists are busy monitoring the problem and collecting as much data as possible. But the deaths of marine creatures have alarmed not only scientists, but coastal tribes, whose livelihoods rely on the ocean.

There are no records of reoccurring low-oxygen levels like scientists have observed since 2002, despite over 50 years of oceanic monitoring. Joe Schumacker, a marine resource scientist for the Quinault Indian Nation, said there is also nothing within the Quinault traditional knowledge about large-scale marine die-offs that would suggest oxygen levels were as low as observed today. In 2017, the hypoxic event was so severe, Schumacker remembers shores regularly lined with dead fish and shellfish that summer. The International Pacific Halibut Commission also found there was zero or a very low catch of Pacific halibut during that hypoxic event.

The marine sanctuary, where Waddell works, has collected oceanic data through moorings for 22 years. Moorings are like buoys with special instruments that collect data such as temperature, salinity, water direction, chlorophyll and oxygen levels off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

The data from the moorings are one of the longest records scientists have in this region of the world that document numerous oceanic characteristics. This data set is one of many that are used to verify two regional forecast models, J-SCOPE and LiveOcean, for Washington and Oregon coastal waters that Samantha Siedlecki, former researcher at University of Washington and a current professor at University of Connecticut, was pivotal in developing. The forecasts predict important ocean characteristics such as the timing of upwelling to the amount of dissolved oxygen in the ocean.

Both Waddell and Schumacker said they saw the forecasts predicting early upwelling and low oxygen levels this summer.

"When I think about hypoxia, it makes me really, really concerned, to be frank, because it's something that we're still not quite sure about all of the dynamics associated with it," Waddell said. "We're trying to figure that out."

She said she sees coastal treaty tribes, such as the Quinault, being on the front lines of climate change. "There is no part of the marine sanctuary that lies outside of treaty-protected tribal fishing areas," explained Waddell.

Schumacker said Indigenous fishing treaty rights to the ocean in Washington exists nowhere else in the United States.

"These treaty rights to harvest 50% of the harvestable fish and shellfish are legally defined within these certain boxes out here," Schumacker explained, referring to the boundaries of the tribal fishing area. "So, it's not like they can go anywhere else to fish. Should things go bad, they are limited immediately by that box that defines where the treaty exists."

The Quinault people, he said, take it seriously to not only understand the impacts of climate change, but to adapt as well.

To illustrate the direct link between the ocean's health and the tribe's livelihood, the Quinault people have an annual summer razor clam dig to harvest clams to sell. The clam dig is also called the "school clothes dig" as families typically buy school clothes and supplies for their children with the money made harvesting the clams.

"They are a fishing people. All of the tribes here in the Pacific Northwest are fishing people. They have to continue to fish," said Schumacker.

Waddell said she is encouraged by the number of concerned young people and undergraduates who have reached out about studying the issue.

"I don't want to be negative or depressing. But yeah, it's going to take all of us making an effort to address this in any meaningful way," she said.

Explore further Ocean hypoxia off Pacific Northwest coast more troubling than ever

2021 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Caption:The Kampung Lawas Maspati community, located in the city of Surabaya in the East Java province in Indonesia. Credit: Ying Gao

Do the world's nearly 1 billion urban poor, who subsist without legal housing, reliable water and sewer infrastructure, and predictable employment, lack political engagement as well?

Ying Gao does not buy the claim by many social scientists that social and economic marginalization necessarily means political marginalization.

"My results contradict the prevailing wisdom about slums and the political behaviors they are believed to foster," says Gao, a doctoral student in political science. "I'm discovering that people do not participate less in politics (by voting), in labor markets (by getting jobs), or in social activities (by being active in community groups), just because they lack legal housing."

Gao's dissertation project focuses on Indonesia and plumbs a massive dataset tracking a representative sample of 30,000 individuals over 20 years. Her initial findings reveal "a kind of shared urban political culture that is more subtle and interesting than unconditional theories of marginalization would suggest."

A politically active urban populace, previously unacknowledged and neglected, could prove consequential in the efforts of developing nations to improve the lives of the poor. This is an increasingly urgent matter, Gao says, as developing cities big and small swell with new residents and struggle to meet their needs.

With a background in urban studies and planning and international development, Gao hopes her continued analysis and research will point to public policy interventions that prove useful to governments and aid organizations.

Poverty, but not always a trap

At the heart of Gao's dissertation research lies the question: In cities of the developing world, do citizens in informal (unregulated) housing or jobs participate in politics differently from those situated in legal housing or employment arrangements?

"The common narrative is that when you move to a slum, there is less access to good services, and it's harder to get good jobs, which leads to even less social mobility," says Gao. "This poverty trap story also suggests that under such conditions, where people don't see much public service because the government is spending more time in places better off, marginalized citizens don't have as much incentive to vote and demand better services."

Gao set out to test the premise of these stories, drawing on fine-grained quantitative resources. She seized on the Indonesian Family Life Survey, conducted between 1993 and 2014. "These are high-quality, underutilized datasets that allow me to tease out housing conditions, connect them to social and political outcomes, and enable me to talk about slums and their effects on average people in a way that's chronological and different from one-off qualitative studies," says Gao.

Gao also relied on her own fieldwork involving informal workers in Jakartamotorcycle delivery driversconducted in 2017 and funded by MIT GOV/LAB and MIT D-Lab. During this research, she explored the differences between areas of the sprawling megacity populated by informal workers residing in informal housing. Gao learned that many of these laborers grouped themselves into cooperative associations, where they could advocate for wages and project "a sense of influence beyond their members."

Analyzing her varied datasets, a process still underway, Gao finds that Indonesian families move fluidly between formal and unregulated housing and "are not marginalized," she says. "They are more ordinary than we might have thought, being active in labor markets, and are as socially engaged in their communities as people in good housing." This is in contrast, Gao notes, "to what we know about people in poor housing and disadvantaged neighborhoods in rich countries, who on average have lower opportunities for social association."

Her studies have yielded additional insights into what makes slums livable for people who experience them: residents form self-help social groups, including rotating savings and credit associations, "where people pool money and everyone draws on that pool once in a while." At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gao ran an original online survey of informal workers across different job sectors in Indonesia, and found that these small committee groups "had a big influence in encouraging people to comply with government lockdown policies."

If the urban poor are indeed engaged citizens, with neighborhood and worker-based associations, and able to cooperate across ethnic or religious differences, can governments and aid agencies find productive measures for working together with them to improve their quality of life?

In the final phase of her dissertation, Gao will run surveys in Indonesia to examine if public policy interventions can make a positive impact on the lives of urban poor. She will be looking specifically at whether an Indonesian participatory slum-upgrading program leads to better infrastructure by enhancing the political capacity of community leaders in informal communities.

Place and political identity

The specific ways a place shapes identity has long fascinated Gao. Born in China but raised in Japan, her bicultural lens made her acutely aware of "how people develop a sense of belonging to a place and how that can have big political consequences."

Gao studied international relations at Georgetown University. But her interest began turning toward international development after graduation, when she spent several years at financial firms in Japan, and later with the UN Human Settlements Programme, working on problems of sustainable urban development in low-income countries in Asia. "These regions were so dynamic because of all the people moving to cities," she says. "Urbanization is one of the biggest trends of humanity, and presents enormous opportunity and risk."

Intent on understanding how cities cater to the welfare of residents, Gao earned a master's degree from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning in 2014. It was there that she homed in on unregulated housing and the informal economy as robust topics for academic exploration, and as potent targets for public policy that could change people's lives.

Gao was drawn to MIT's political science doctoral program by its tradition of "research that goes against the grain, which looks at how people actually live in developing societies and questions how things are done in the field of development." She hopes to follow in the footsteps of a "long lineage of engaged women scholars" at the program and across the Institute, such as thesis committee member Lily Tsai, Ford Professor of Political Science.

"I want to move between research and policy contributions, continuing to work on questions that lie at the intersection of urbanization and development," she says. "How can developing nations solve the physical problems of inadequate housing in a way that could improve relations between citizens and government, so that poor urban citizens can participate politically and lift themselves up?"

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Diversity of life history traits in the formicine ants. In clockwise direction: (A) members of the F. fusca group practicing independent colony foundation; (B) F. obscuripes, representing the Formica integra group (Nearctic members of the paraphyletic rufa group), which practices dependent and temporary social parasitic colony founding; (C) Formica gynocrates, representing the facultatively dulotic species of the F. sanguinea group, with a worker of its neogagates group host species, Formica vinculans; (D) the highly modified worker of Polyergus mexicanus, representing the obligately dulotic formicine ants in the genera Polyergus and Rossomyrmex. Credit: Alex Wild

In a story that took the world by storm, a downtrodden yet cunning, lower-class family infiltrates a wealthier neighborhood's home. Then, all hell breaks loose.

If this sounds like the setup of 2020's Academy-award-winning film sensation "Parasite," you'd be right. But it could also pass as a plot-driver for one of the most diverse animal groups on earth: ants.

Arizona State University researcher and associate professor of organismal evolutionary biology Christian Rabeling, can now tell of a story 30 million years in the making, of a myrmecological marvel, the evolution of social parasitism in ants.

He and his team, including colleague and former post-doctoral researcher Marek L. Borowiec, now assistant professor at the University of Idaho, and long-term friend and colleague Stefan P. Cover, safe keeper of the world's largest ant collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, have now revealed the latest plot twists to understanding the origins and evolution of ant social parasitism.

"Identifying the conditions associated with ant life history and their transition from cooperative colony life to exploitative social parasitism is important for understanding how changes in behavior contribute to speciation," said Rabeling, a professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences and a core researcher in the universities' social insect group.

Rabeling is fascinated by social parasitism, first studying this behavior in leaf-cutter ants and now, in his latest study, one of the most diverse groups of all, Formica ants.

"So, the first question was, how did Formica ants evolve? No one had done a detailed phylogenetic analysis that looked into that," said Rabeling.

First, a group of Formica ants lost their ability to form the hub of ant lifecolony formationindependently. Once this ability was loss, a shift to two other more complex types of social parasitic behaviors took place.

"Here, we demonstrate that social parasites evolved from an ancestor that lost the ability to establish new colonies independently, and that highly specialized parasites can evolve from less complex social parasite syndromes," said Rabeling.

And like most successful Hollywood movies, once a successful formula was proven, Rabeling found this same ant plotline was repeatedly borrowed, again and again.

"Social parasitism is a life history strategy that evolved at least 60 times in ants, and more than 400 socially parasitic species are known from six distantly related subfamilies," said Rabeling.

The study appears in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The ant supergroup

Among the 14,000 different ant species to study, Rabeling chose one of the largest and most diverse groups of ants, Formica ants. There are 172 species within this supergroup (or genus), with half exhibiting social parasitic behavior, making it one of the largest on Earth.

Their first step to seeing a bigger picture of Formica social parasites was to make a global evolutionary tree to better understand the historical relationships between the species, and a window into how different species became social parasites.

To make Formica evolutionary tree, or phylogeny, scientists look at the DNA level to make branching relationships between the Formica ant species and an understanding of the inheritance of traits that control social behavior and diversity.

To do so, Rabeling's team collected DNA samples from 101 Formica species (representing all 10 known species groups) across a global geographic distribution and carefully calibrated these data across evolutionary time.

They showed this supergroup was one of the most successful in the history of animal life, first originating in the Old World around 30 million years ago and dispersing multiple times to the New World and back as land bridges came and went.

From their analysis, they found that Formica last shared a common ancestor with its sister group, Iberoformica, around 33 million years ago, and likely originated in Eurasia during the Oligocene era, after a long global cooling period.

Rabelings team collected DNA samples from 101 Formica species across a global geographic distribution and carefully calibrated these data across evolutionary time. This ant supergroup was one of the most successful in the history of life, first originating in the Old World around 30 million years ago and dispersing multiple times to the New World and back. Credit: Arizona State University

Bad actors

The hub of ant life is the colony. Beneath the mound of a typical ant hill is a netherworld that can extend several feet deep underground in an intricate ant subway system of tubes and tunnels.

Ants are also very adaptable. They can live in trees, under boulders or entirely underground, sans hill.

The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, numerous sterile females (workers, soldiers) and, often seasonally, many winged sexual males and females. Colonies can differ in size, from rural to mega city-sized. For example, in the species, Formica fusca, colonies are found with only 500 workers, while the Formica yessensis species has mammoth colony sizes of 300 million workers.

Ants exhibit all sorts of social behavior that often make for apt allusions to people. Some are good: living peacefully in colonies, cooperating to find food, caring for their young and defending the nest against rival species. But others have become bad actors: raiding rival nests, zombifying other worker ants, and enforcing a caste system to benefit the monarchy of an all-too-dominant queen.

There are 3 major classes of social parasites in ants that serve to exploit the host colony for their own gain: 1) temporary 2) dulotic (pirate ants who steal the worker brood of other nests) 3) permanent social parasitism.

"We were looking for an ant group where we could find all three life histories, and we found it with Formica ants," said Rabeling.

And when they carefully annotated all of the life history data for each Formica species in a gigantic table, and lined up with the DNA timeline of when the species first split and made new evolutionary branches from each, an important pattern began to materialize: the 3 major classes of social parasites evolved at distinct, yet clearly separate timepoints.

"This was a moment of clarity," said Rabeling. It's like you have all these different mosaic pieces. You place one stone here, another stone there and then there's a new observation that adds yet another piece to the mosaic. But once you put in the evolutionary time context, all of sudden, you can see the entire picture. It's deeply satisfying."

Rabeling showed that temporary social parasitism evolved first, around 18 million years ago. The first key step in this process is that the queens somehow lose the ability to form colonies on their own.

So, the queens of temporary socially parasitic ant species invade the host nest, kill the resident queen(s), and the host workers raise the parasitic queen's offspring. In the absence of an egg-laying host queen, the host workforce is gradually replaced until the colony is composed solely of the temporary social parasite species.

"Interestingly, evolutionary reversals from social parasitism to independent colony founding were not recovered, suggesting that a transition to a socially parasitic lifestyle is irreversible," said Rabeling.

After this main event, more recent branches (or clades) of socially parasitic species have secondarily transitioned to the other parasitic life histories, dulotic and permanent social parasitism.

In the second example, the queens of dulotic social parasites start their colony life cycle as temporary social parasites, and once sufficient parasitic workers have been reared, they conduct well-organized raids of nearby host nests to capture their brood. Some brood are eaten, but most workers hatch within the parasite's nest and contribute to the workforce of the colony.

"They think they are right at home, so they don't even recognize that they are in a different species' nest," said Rabeling.

Rabeling's team found that dulotic behavior evolved once some time prior to approximately 14 million years ago, much later than temporary parasites. Therefore, dulotic behavior and temporary social parasitism did not evolve simultaneously in Formica, but instead dulosis evolved secondarily from a temporary socially parasitic ancestor.

"The single origin of dulotic behavior in a diverse clade of temporary social parasite species supports the hypothesis that dulosis originates only under rare circumstances," said Rabeling. Rabeling notes that even Charles Darwin threw his hands up in the air when trying to explain one species of dulotic ant in his "Origin of the Species" book.

"By what steps the instinct of F. sanguinea originated I will not pretend to conjecture," wrote Darwin.

Rabeling marvels at this history: "It's really beautiful that you can trace the ant question all the way back to the Origin of Species."

Even Charles Darwin threw his hands up in the air when trying to explain one species of dulotic ant in his Origin of the Species book. By what steps the instinct of F. sanguinea originated I will not pretend to conjecture, wrote Darwin. This is his original sketch of a parasitic Formica ant raiding the pupae in a rival nest. Credit: On the Origin of Species

Since that time, three not entirely mutually exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origins of this highly specialized behavior: 1) predation, 2) brood transport and 3) territorial competition.

"Our phylogenetic results and behavioral observations indicate that the predatory behavior of temporary social parasites could lead to the evolution of facultative dulosis in Formica," said Rabeling.

Finally, in the last example, most permanent social parasite (i.e. inquiline) species (first found 12 million years ago) are tolerant of the host queen, allowing her to continuously produce host workers, whereas the inquiline queens focus their reproductive effort on sexual offspring.

Rabeling explains the complex behavior as follows: "In this particular situation, you have a queen that behaves parasitically, and the queen that behaves socially. And for reason we don't understand, the two do not integrate. So, even though they exist in the same nest, they live parallel but separate lives and end up forming two species: the host and the inquiline social parasite. This is an intriguing example of how two species evolve in direct sympatry and their different life histories is one important factor why they do not interbreed."

Inquilines obligately depend on their hosts and most inquiline species lost their worker caste entirely.

The only confirmed workerless inquiline social parasite in the genus Formica is F. talbotae. However, F. talbotae is special because it does not live peacefully together with a host queen inside the host colony. It seems to specifically target host colonies that have lost their queens. This is an extremely specialized lifestyle that is only known from a couple other ant species.

"Formica talbotae is phylogenetically nested within the difficilis clade, suggesting that worker-less permanent parasitism evolved once from an ancestor practicing temporary social parasitism," said Rabeling. "To our knowledge this is the first empirical evidence for an evolutionary transition from temporary to workerless inquiline social parasitism."

Best picture

For, on the evolutionary route of social parasite evolution, highly similar plots for the parasitic life history syndromes across all eusocial insects can lead to a new best picture emerging.

"Our findings emphasize that social parasite syndromes readily originate in socially polymorphic organisms and evolved convergently across the ant phylogeny," said Rabeling.

They conclude that in the formicine genera Formica, Polyergus, and Rossomyrmex, dulotic or brood stealing social parasitism originated repeatedly and convergently. In the genus Formica, multiple transitions to increasingly more complex socially parasitic life histories evolved.

Finally, the permanent social parasites, Formica reflexa and the workerless Formica talbotae, evolved independently from temporary social parasitic ancestors. Rabeling hopes this knowledge will spur others to make new discoveries.

"Our study outlines the life history changes associated with the transition from a cooperative eusocial to exploitative socially parasitic life history," said Rabeling. "Given the high diversity of social parasite species in the genus Formica, and considering the high degree of morphological and behavioral specialization, socially parasitic Formica species appear to be an ideally-suited study organism for investigating caste determination and for exploring the genetic basis underlying behavioral and life history evolution."

Coming attractions

These ant observations, gained from extensive field work and studying the life history of individual species behaviors, have informed the scientific community for decades. But now, with scientific technological progress and access to low-cost DNA sequencing, for the first time, it has opened up an exciting new vista to make it possible to better link ant behavior to genes and molecules that may be playing a role behind the scenes.

"For us, this is a fantastic period right now," said Rabeling. "Just the ability to ask these questions was probably the most exciting part of this study."

Explore further Study shows erosion of ant genome tied to loss of functional, behavioral and social traits in 3 inquiline species
Research supported by a plant pathologist in Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences suggests that machine-learning algorithms could increase corn and soybean yields. Credit: Pexels

Research guided by a plant pathologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences suggests that machine-learning algorithms that are programmed to recognize changing weather patterns could show producers and agricultural managers how to increase soybean and corn yields in the United States.

The approach could prove valuable in addressing climate change realities that have presented challenges in growing enough food for a rising global population, noted Paul Esker, associate professor of epidemiology and field crop pathology.

"Soybean and corn are among the most valuable crops in terms of food supply and economic output in the U.S. agricultural sector," said Esker, who pointed to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics that place corn as the most widely produced crop in the U.S., with soybean following close behind.

Not only are these crops vital to food security in the U.S. and beyond, but their combined total value to the nation's economy is more than $100 billion. While Esker acknowledges that is an impressive figure, he points out that many scientists predict that that by 2050, the world must feed 9 billion people, so current outputs must increase.

"The demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today, so it is imperative that we advance agricultural research to develop more efficientand sustainablemethods to increase production, especially when confronting climate change," he said.

A sustainable solution to this challenge is to increase crop yield without massive cropland area expansion. This, he maintains, can be achieved by identifying and adopting best management practices. However, that will require a more detailed understanding of how crop yield is influenced by climate change and growing-season weather variability, among other factors.

Growers have access to a vast amount of crop-yield and management information that has emerged from ongoing agricultural experiments conducted across the U.S. Even with that knowledge, prediction is challenging because various factors interact with each other, noted project lead Spyridon Mourtzinis, of Agstat Consulting, Athens, Greece

"Such datasets have, to date, remained disconnected from each other and are difficult to combine, standardize and properly analyze," Mourtzinis said. "For example, variability in soil type can interact with weather conditions and mitigate or aggravate climate-related impacts on crop yields."

To overcome these challenges, the team explored the idea of leveraging the power of machine learning algorithms. A machine learning algorithm, Esker explained, is the method by which the computer learns from the data. The goal is to predict output values from given input data.

To that end, the team pored over crop yield and management data from variety trials conducted in 28 states between 2016 and 2018 for corn and between 2014 and 2018 for soybeans. Information was arranged based on soil type and management practices including irrigation, tillage method, seeding rate, row spacing and cultivar maturity.

Additionally, weather data were retrieved for each year for each set of coordinates. The team examined correlations among the weather variables and determined seven weather variables for corn and eight for soybean for specific regions.

For each crop, the researchers developed algorithms, or data sets, which they applied to various simulations and tested over two growing seasons in a randomly chosen field in southcentral Wisconsin. Boxplots, a standardized way of displaying the distribution of data, were used to visually evaluate the results.

For that specific field and cropping system, use of the team's algorithms showed that corn with a May 1 sowing date realized a 6% increase in yield compared to corn planted on June 1. By creating scenarios with 256 background cropping system choices, the resultant algorithm-derived yield estimate difference for the same sowing date was smaller but still positive.

In the case of soybean, a May 1 sowing resulted in a 14% increase in yield compared to a June 1 sowing in the single-background cropping system. The result was consistent when yield differences due to sowing date were averaged across 128 background cropping system choices.

Mourtzinis and Esker acknowledged that there are limitations in the results, primarily due to the lack of information on rates of seed treatments, products applied to leaves and different management practices reported across different states.

Still, their results, published in Scientific Reports, suggest that the developed algorithms have the potential to lead the agriculture industry to substantial yield increases. "Our approach can accelerate agricultural research, identify sustainable practices and help overcome future food demands," Mourtzinis said.

The researchers also emphasize that machine learning algorithms should not be considered as a substitute of replicated trials. To the contrary, they pointed out, field trials performed by universities are needed as a source of unbiased data, which can be used to train even more comprehensive algorithms.

Also contributing to the research were James Specht, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Shawn Conley, Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Explore further US corn and soybean maladapted to climate variations, study shows

More information: Spyridon Mourtzinis et al, Advancing agricultural research using machine learning algorithms, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Spyridon Mourtzinis et al, Advancing agricultural research using machine learning algorithms,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97380-7
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Middle class parents of school-age children are more likely than working class parents to ask teachers for information regarding their children's education (61 percent versus 46 percent).

Meanwhile only just over a third (36 percent) of all parents say they are provided with adequate guidance and advice to help with their children's learning and education, with 31 percent actively disagreeing.

And while a quarter (24 percent) of parents say they will invest in extra tutoring to make up for missed education during the pandemic, 36 percent believe their children do not need any extra tutoring outside normal schooling hours.

The results come from a major survey of just under 800 parents from across the country earlier this month, commissioned for the launch of a new parenting book The Good Parent Educator which aims to open up the 'black box' of education. The book, by Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, aims to equip parents with the best advice for their children, from engaging with schools to learning to read to choosing a school or college.

The survey shows six in ten (57 percent) of parents in London said they spend more time on education activities with their children than their own parents did. This compares with only 40 percent of parents in the North East of England, 32 percent in Scotland, and 30 percent in Wales.

Parents had polarized views about education recovery following the pandemic. Two fifths (39 percent) said they will spending more hours on education time with children to recover from school closures but 44 percent said they would not, and believed their children do not need to make up for any missed education.

The Good Parent Educator offers hundreds of evidence-informed tips to empower parents to help their children do well in education. Based on the findings of thousands of studies, but also filled with personal parenting stories, the book's ultimate aim is to empower children through education to become independent thinkers ready to prosper in the world. Each chapter is dedicated to an important education topic, from pre-school to post-graduation. The book also warns about the rise of excessive parenting as tiger mums, helicopter parents and 'sharp-elbowed warriors' who will stop at nothing to do the best for their children in an ever escalating arms race of education.

Professor Elliot Major said: "We know that so much of children's development is shaped by what happens in the home. But up to now there has been little accessible, authoritative advice guiding parents through one of life's most important tasks."

The survey was carried out in collaboration with the parent campaign group Sept for Schools. "There is a power imbalance in education. There is so much knowledge in the sector and yet parents are often left in the dark as to how best to help support their children," said Fiona Forbes, co-founder of the group. "There is a certain amount of assumed knowledge in education, that parents 'must' know a lot. Well, often we don't! And we would love to be told how best to help support our children at home."

Key findings of the survey include:

Middle class parents are more likely to attend open evenings (38 percent vs 24 percent), look at Ofsted inspection reports (41 percent vs 24 percent) and scrutinize the latest data on pupil progress (19 percent vs 8 percent) when considering a school.

6 percent of middle class parents of 16 to 18 year olds in education say they do not help their children with choosing a university; whereas this is the case for 13 percent of working class parents.

43 percent of parents agree that their school listens to their views.

46 percent of parents in high earning households (with income over 50,000) say they spend more time on education activities with their children than their own parents did. This compares with only 31 percent of parents in households with income less than 50,000.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 4,440, of which 773 were parents/guardians of anyone aged four to 18 in full-time education. Fieldwork was undertaken between 6th and 8th September 2021. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

As is common practice, here the NRS social grades C2DE and ABC1 were used in the survey to categorize people are given the broad titles 'working class' and 'middle class."
Credit: Skoltech PR team

Researchers from Skoltech, the European University at St. Petersburg, and Lomonosov Moscow State University have developed an algorithm that detects the ultimate controlling owners of companies. Applicable to datasets with millions of organizations, it runs faster and delivers more accurate results than competing approaches. By unwinding the complex web of owners, the algorithm makes it possible to get an idea of a closed company's compliance with environmental, social, and governance standards by looking at the practices of its more transparent owner. The study is available from the arXiv preprint repository.

With responsible investing gaining popularity, even as major nations seek ways to counter tax evasion in offshore financial centers and put unwanted individuals and companies on designated persons lists to deter business with them, the problem of revealing the ultimate beneficiary that owns a company through a long chain of intermediaries is as complex and relevant as ever.

To address it, a team of Russian researchers has created a network science-based algorithm called -ICON, short for Indirect Control in Onion-like Networks. The tool ingests ownership data from state registers and detects and ranks the ultimate owners of each organization, providing indirect insights into its practices for compliance officers, potential investors, and due diligence analysts to draw upon.

According to the researchers, theirs is one of just a few algorithms for revealing ultimate corporate ownership, and by far the most efficient: -ICON takes mere minutes to process the database of all 4.2 million U.K. companies. Previously existing algorithms would take days to do that. It is also more accurate, correctly determining the ultimate owner in 96% of the cases, compared with 89% for its closest competitor.

To test the accuracy of -ICON, the team collectedand publicly releasedan evaluation dataset with verified information about 1,007 British companies with debt or equity traded in the U.S. that disclosed their ownership. Aside from being used to demonstrate the superior performance of the new algorithm, this first-of-its-kind evaluation dataset will be of use for future research.

-ICON stems from the ideas of Katz centrality used in science of complex systems to determine the most influential players in the network. To ensure computational effectiveness, the algorithm builds on an observation that ownership networks resemble onions so that one can peel off layer by layer until the dense core of interconnected organizations remains.

The study's first author, Kirill Polovnikov, of Skoltech, explains how this observation drastically improves the performance: "Computation of control in complex networks with many cycles is generally associated with the spectral decomposition of a huge matrix, equal in size to the number of nodes. By recognizing the 'onion-like' structure of the ownership network, we can solve the problem in the most general form only for a strongly connected core of several hundred companies. The rest of the control can be effectively back-propagated to firms in the outer shell thanks to the hierarchical loopless structure of the control network in the shell layers."

When the authors applied their algorithm to the more than 4 million companies based in the United Kingdom, it turned out that the multinational optical retail chain Specsavers had the most complex ownership structure in the country. With a market capitalization of $3.5 billion, pet supplies retailer Pets at Home boasts greater ownership network complexity than the oil giant BP, worth $84 billion.

"This does not imply that Pets at Home enjoys more control than BP since we are comparing only the complexity of the ownership networks, ignoring their size. Small companies can exhibit extremely complex ownership chains. Our algorithm allows one to identify the ultimate controlling entities regardless of their size," stressed Dmitriy Skougarevskiy, an associate professor of empirical legal studies at the European University at St. Petersburg.

The new algorithm will be useful to researchers and practitioners alike. By revealing the ultimate owners of businesses, it helps the investors, compliance officers, and due diligence analysts to quickly and easily make sense of the complicated ownership schemes and understand whether they are dealing with an entity likely to respect certain social, environmental, and governance standards, and whether that company is controlled by a designated individual or a tax haven-based parent.

The -ICON code is available on GitHub.

Explore further Companies owned by families are better at looking after their staff but not the environment

More information: Kirill Polovnikov, Nikita Pospelov, Dmitriy Skougarevskiy, -Indirect Control in Onion-like Networks. arXiv:2109.07181v2 [physics.soc-ph], Kirill Polovnikov, Nikita Pospelov, Dmitriy Skougarevskiy, -Indirect Control in Onion-like Networks. arXiv:2109.07181v2 [physics.soc-ph], arxiv.org/abs/2109.07181v2
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is under construction at Cerro Pachon in Chile. Credit: Wil OMullaine/LSST

In a year (perhaps two), the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will become operational and commence its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Using its 8.4-meter (27 foot) mirror and 3.2 gigapixel camera, this observatory is expected to collect 500 petabytes of images and data. It will also address some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and everything in it.

One of the highly-anticipated aspects of the LSST is how it will allow astronomers to locate and track interstellar objects (ISOs), which have become of particular interest since 'Oumuamua flew through our system in 2017. According to a recent study by a team from the University of Chicago and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), the Rubin Observatory will detect around 50 objects during its 10-year mission, many of which we will be able to study up-close using rendezvous missions.

Their paper that describes their findings, which is being reviewed for publication in the Planetary Science Journal, was led by Devin Hoover, a researcher with the Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He was joined by Darryl Seligman, a T.C. Chamberlin Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Chicago's Dept. of Geophysical Sciences; and Matthew Payne, an SAO research scientist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Ever since humanity got its first glimpse of an interstellar object on Oct. 19, 2017, astronomers have contemplated the possibility of rendezvousing with future visitors. While astronomers had already theorized that our solar system is visited by interstellar objects a few times a year, 'Oumuamua the first such object ever observed. Moreover, the way it defied classification quickly led to the realization that this object was the first of its type ever to be observed.

This spawned no shortage of speculation of what it could be, with possibilities ranging from a hydrogen iceberg, a piece of a Pluto-like body, an interstellar "dust bunny," and even an extraterrestrial solar sail. Regardless of its true nature, 'Oumuamua's mere existence confirmed that ISOs are statistically significant in our galaxy, which was bolstered by the detection of a second ISO (2I/Borisov) almost two years later.

Credit: Universe Today

As lead author Devin Hooper explained to Universe Today via email, the prospect of studying an ISO is extremely promising, given what they represent: "Interstellar objects represent the building blocks and leftovers from the planet formation process in extrasolar systems. Just as the comets and asteroids in the solar system have told us more about its formation than the planets themselves, interstellar objects will tell us more about planet and star formation than exoplanets and stars. Since these objects are passing through the solar system, we can gain insights into the building blocks of extra-solar planets without traveling to other planetary systems."

For these reasons, the astronomical community is looking forward to the discovery of more interstellar objects. Several studies have already shown how new instruments will detect several such objects a year, which will allow astronomers to constrain the properties of this type of object and determine how 'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov fit into the overall population.

For instance, researchers have indicated that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will detect several ISOs a year once the LSST begins. Similarly, there are proposals for rapid intercept missions capable of rendezvousing with some of these objects. To determine how many objects would be detectable and reachable, Hoover and his colleagues ran a series of computer simulations that generated an entire population of ISOs entering the solar system.

The number density of the objects was based on what the detection of 'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov impliedi.e., 1026 in our galaxy, and one passing through the inner solar system at any given time. To see which would be detectable by the LSST, said Hoover, they developed three detectability criteria:

`Oumuamua (left) and 2I/Borisov (right) are the only two ISOs we know of for certain. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser; NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

"First, the ISO must have a minimum apparent magnitude below 24; in other words, it must be bright enough to be observed by the LSST. Second, the ISO must achieve an altitude above +30 degrees; in other words, it must be high enough in the sky Finally, the sun must have an altitude below -18 degrees; in other words, the sun is below the horizon to make the sky sufficiently dark at the time of observation. The second and third criteria ensure that detectable ISOs are significantly distant from the sun in the sky."

If any ISO passing through the inner solar system satisfies all three of these criteria at any point along its trajectory (coincident with the LSST's 10-year observation campaign), then it was considered detectable. They found that roughly 20% of ISOs in their simulated population would be detectable by the LSST and reachable using a dedicated ISO rendezvous mission. This amounts to about one ISO being reachable per year between 2022/232032/33.

Looking to the near future, these results will allow researchers to devise observation strategies that will maximize the likelihood of detecting ISOs and help determine which future rendezvous missions are feasible. Hoover says, "Specifically, 1.69% of the ISOs in our sample are both detectable and reachable by a rendezvous mission given 30 km/s of delta-v. We require both criteria because we know only the trajectories of detected ISOs, making it possible to send intercept missions to them. This, of course, hinges on the discovery of more ISOs. As the astronomical community enhances its detection capabilities, we will probe a vastly greater number of ISOs, allowing us to choose from a wider range of targets for a rendezvous mission."

Right now, there are two missions in developmentESA's Comet Interceptor mission and the NASA BRIDGE conceptboth of which were considered in this study by Hoover and his colleagues. As Hoover indicated, these missions will have a delta-v of 15 km/s (54,000 km/h; 33,554 mph) and 2 km/s (7,200 km/h; 4,474 mph) respectively. This falls short of the delta-v requirements specified in their study, which narrows the population of reachable ISOs considerably.

An artists overview of the mission concept for the Comet Interceptor spacecraft, which will fly from the vicinity of Earth to rendezvous with a long-period comet or interstellar object inbound from the outer solar system. Credit: ESA

In fact, the results obtained by Hoover and his colleagues indicate that with these two missions, the percentage of reachable ISOs dwindled to 0.471% and 0.003% of their sample, respectively. Given the number density of ISOs in their simulation, this amounts to about 1 ISO per year that would be detectable and reachable with NASA's BRIDGE concept. However, there are many proposals for intercept missions with higher delta-v capabilities, such as lightsails and directed-energy arrays. Even slower missions still stand a chance of making a rendezvous.

"Due to technological limitations, the delta-v capabilities of current missions are limited, but this does not make a rendezvous mission with an ISO impossible," said Hoover. "Given the current estimate for the number density of ISOs within the solar system, ~100 are within the 5 AU sphere at any given time. Given the time it takes for a typical ISO to cross the 5 AU sphere, we calculated that the LSST should detect ~10 reachable targets for BRIDGE within its 10-year observational campaign. Thus, I would not rule out the possibility of low delta-v intercept missions."

Looking ahead, the results of this study will be of considerable use to astronomers and space agencies. Beyond offering updated estimates on how many ISOs will be detectable soon, these results will also allow researchers to devise observation strategies that maximize the likelihood of detecting ISOs. Furthermore, they underline the need for dedicated intercept missions capable of keeping up with ISOs that buzz our system!

Explore further Cosmic rays erode away all but the largest interstellar objects

More information: Devin Hoover, Darryl Z. Seligman, Matthew J. Payne, The Population of Interstellar Objects Detectable with the LSST and Accessible for In Situ Rendezvous with Various Mission Designs. arXiv:2109.10406v1 [astro-ph.EP], Journal information: The Planetary Science Journal Devin Hoover, Darryl Z. Seligman, Matthew J. Payne, The Population of Interstellar Objects Detectable with the LSST and Accessible for In Situ Rendezvous with Various Mission Designs. arXiv:2109.10406v1 [astro-ph.EP], arxiv.org/abs/2109.10406
Australian women have long been under-represented in parliament. Although our country was the first in the world to give women the right to stand for election, we currently rank 56th in the world for female representation, just behind Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Germany and Suriname.

By comparison, New Zealand is sixth.

So why, in 2021, do we have a situation where less than one-third of MPs in the House of Representatives are women?

In our newly published research, we investigated whether the low numbers were due to discrimination of female candidates by voters or political parties. We found that while Australian voters used to preference men over women at the polls, they don't tend to any more. Parties, on the other hand, do.

There are several ways in which parties can impede women getting elected. One is simply not to put them forward as candidates. Another slightly more subtle way is by preselecting them to stand for unsafe or marginal seats.

With this approach, you get to tick a box and maybe meet a quota, but you're not making a genuine attempt to create real change.

More women candidates, but fewer in safe seats

Australian voters have a history of preferring male candidates over female ones. Studies in the past have shown that women candidates of the major parties in Australia in the 1990s and the early 2000s obtained proportionately fewer votes than men.

We wanted to see if this had changed in the 21st century.

In our study, we looked at all federal House elections since 2001 to see how many candidates were women, whether they were running for safe seats, and if voters tended to support them less than men. We used the same definition of an unsafe or marginal seat as the Australian Electoral Commission.

Our research included data from 200119 on all 7,271 House candidates, of whom 2,101 were women.

In terms of the raw numbers, we found that Labor has increased its proportion of women candidates over the past two decades, reaching a high of 45% at the 2019 election. This placed it ahead of all other parties, including, for the first time, the Greens (42.4% in 2019).

The Liberals also fielded their largest percentage of female candidates in 2019 at 33%.

While Labor has done particularly well in terms of how many women it has put forward, it has less to brag about when it comes to the seats these women are contesting.

In fact, Labor has stood women in more unsafe seats than men at each lower House election since 2001. In 2019, 19.1% of women standing for the ALP were in unsafe seats, compared to 10.8% of men.

The Liberals had a smaller percentage of women in unsafe seats than men in two elections (2004, 2010), but a higher percentage in the other four. In 2019, 13.9% of women standing for the Liberals were in unsafe seats, compared to 11% of men.

Voters tend not to discriminate against women

While major parties are continuing to discriminate against women in this way (and others), we find a different story with voters.

Across all House seats, female Labor candidates have actually performed substantially better with voters than male candidates at four elections (2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013) and worse in just two (2001 and 2019).

As for female Liberals candidates, it's more mixed. They performed better than male candidates in 2001 and 2010, but not in the three subsequent elections.

That's still a much rosier picture than for female Nationals candidates, who have always done worse than their male counterparts.

When we ran further statistical checks, we discovered that, if everything else that might affect vote numbers is held constant (such as the marginality of the seat, number of other candidates, incumbency, and so on), female Labor candidates receive around 1,400 more votes per seat than male Labor candidates in the 2001-19 period.

In those same conditions, with all else held constant, Liberal voters don't tend to favor women over men (or vice versa), and the same is true of the Greens.

What can parties do to address this?

So, what do our findings mean for Australia's parties if they really want to increase the number of women in parliament?

First, quotas work. Only Labor has used enforceable quotas to try to increase the number of women among its candidate baseand it has succeeded.

Similar binding quotas would not only boost the number of female candidates put forward by the Coalition parties and the Greens, but would also likely have an impact on the numbers of women eventually elected to parliament.

But Labor cannot rest on its laurels. Our results show it needs to build on its quota system by standing more women in winnable seats. If it does not, it leaves itself open to accusations of box-ticking.

Fielding more women in seats they can genuinely win is in the interests not only of political parties, but of democracy in Australia.

For reasons of representation, women should account for more seats than they currently do. Moreover, there are benefits for the country's political culture: research has shown that women in parliament are often more collegial and more inclined to find bipartisan solutions.

In short, given that Australian voters no longer tend to preference men over women when it comes to candidates, it is surely not in the interests of the major parties to continue to do so, either.

Explore further Gender pay gap means fewer female candidates on the ballot

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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" " Mark McKinney/Flickr ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The 12-color wheel used in modern color theory is basically the same as the one first created by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666.

The first day of your first chemistry class, somebody's going to bring up the periodic table of elements. Similarly, you can't get very far playing piano without learning about the concept of scales. And if you have just begun a course of study in art and design, buckle up, because somebody's going to start talking about the color wheel before too long.

The color wheel is a tool used in color theory that helps us understand the relationships between individual colors in order to use them well.

"Sometimes you walk into a room and you think to yourself, 'I hate this room but I don't know why,'" says Marcie Cooperman, who has taught color theory at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design and is the author of "Color: How to Use It." "It's probably the color."

When you know how different colors relate to each other, you can make your grocery store logo or living room walls or the sweater you're knitting look really good. If you don't know about the color wheel ... well, you might end up making ugly stuff.

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Isaac Newton. Yes, That Isaac Newton.

You've seen the color wheel before: It's just a circle that looks like somebody took the rainbow and attached the red end to the violet end, which is basically what Isaac Newton did when he created the first color wheel in 1666. Newton wanted to figure out where color actually comes from  he knew feeding white light through a prism would make the rainbow color pattern we all know and love on the opposite wall: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (ROYGBIV, for short). What he didn't understand was why. So, in a darkened room, Newton let a tiny bit of sunlight through a chink in a curtain, making the light diffract through a prism. After messing around with feeding the individual colored lights through other prisms, he came to the conclusion that white sunlight isn't really white at all, but a combination of all the individual colors. He also noticed red and violet were similar (both contain red), so he twisted the band of color around to form a circle. Once he did that, a lot of mathematical relationships between colors became apparent.

And, with that little matter out of the way, Isaac Newton probably went to breakfast and later that day, moved on to inventing modern physics.

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Colors that Complement Each Other

After Newton completed his work on the color wheel, many others had a go at describing the nature of color (including, but not limited to, the 19th century German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), but the 12-color wheel used in modern color theory is basically the same one Newton came up with. It includes the primary colors: red, yellow and blue; the secondary colors: green, orange and purple (each made by mixing two primary colors); and the tertiary colors, which are created by mixing primary and secondary colors next to each other on the wheel: red-orange, blue-green, yellow-green, and so on.

"Colors opposite each other on the color wheel  these are also called complements  have an especially strong relationship," says Cooperman. "Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple are all as different from each other as possible. Opposite colors look more themselves when they're next to each other. If you put blue next to any color at all  let's say a yellow  the yellow will look as orange as it can possibly be because it's next to the blue."

The triads are the colors 60 degrees apart on the wheel, like the primary and secondary colors. Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel, so they form families of color: red, orange and purple have red in common, and therefore are used differently together in art and design than colors in a triad that don't share a common hue.

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The Language of Color

So, colors have relationships to each other, but it's actually pretty hard to explain colors to other people. Sure, you can tell a friend you just bought a pair of red pants, but what they picture in their head might be anywhere on the red spectrum. How do we explain a color to each other so we know how to describe our new pants?

Here's some terminology that helps artists and designers talk to each other about color:

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Hue

Hue is just the color name: red, yellow, green, blue, etc.

"When we want to describe color accurately, we don't use words like 'khaki' or 'peach' because it's hard to be accurate with names like those," says Cooperman. "My khaki might be more green and yours might be more of a gray  a third person might say it's more of a brown. A peach could be considered a pink or an orange."

People who work with color eschew the names you'd find in a J. Crew catalogue and talk about blue-greens and orange-yellows  descriptions that are easy to agree upon.

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Color Value

Value is how light or dark a color is. A navy blue is a very dark color, so it's considered a very low value blue. Baby blue is a very light color  a tint  and so it's considered high value.

"If you said to a designer, 'I saw this blue I really liked  it's a low value red-blue,' you'd be describing a navy," says Cooperman.

" " A double color wheel helps demonstrate the relationships of colors as they play off each other. Flickr ( CC BY-ND 2.0

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Intensity

Intensity has to do with how in-your-face a color is, as opposed to dirty or gray. The highest intensity colors are from that experiment Newton did with the prism  red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, violet are all pretty high intensity and eye-catching. That camouflage jacket you got from the Army surplus store in college had a bunch low-intensity browns, greens and grays in it.

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Simultaneous Contrast

Something else we have to take into consideration when talking about color is that we perceive a color differently, depending on what color is next to it.

In the mid-19th century, a chemist named Michel Chevreul began creating dyes for the Gobelins carpet factory in Paris. He discovered customers were complaining about the colors in the carpets  that the whites were yellowish, for instance. Chevreul began to experiment with putting color next to color, and discovered that when it was next to purple, white looked as different from purple as possible  it looked yellow, which is the opposite of purple. It's just a visual effect  colors really affect each other. He called that simultaneous contrast because when you look at it simultaneously, they make each other look as opposite from the other as possible.

Learn more about color theory in "Secret Language of Color: Science, Nature, History, Culture, Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, & Violet" by Joann Eckstut and Arielle Eckstut. HowStuffWorks picks related titles based on books we think you'll like. Should you choose to buy one, we'll receive a portion of the sale.

Now That's Interesting The Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) made an entire painting career out of experimenting with opposite colors.
" " The EPCOT theme park that was eventually built diverged from Walt Disneys plans for his community of tomorrow. Chip Hires/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Since EPCOT's inception, millions of tourists have descended upon the theme park famous for its Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere and its celebration of international cultures.

But the version of EPCOT visitors encounter at Disney World  currently in the midst of its 50th anniversary celebrations  is hardly what Walt Disney imagined.

In 1966, Disney announced his intention to build EPCOT, an acronym for "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow." It was to be no mere theme park but, as Disney put it, "the creation of a living blueprint for the future" unlike "anyplace else in the world"  an entire new city built from scratch.

Disney died later that year; his vision was scaled down, and then scrapped altogether. But when I was writing my book on urban idealism in America, I was drawn to this planned community.

Since the arrival of the first colonists, Americans have experimented with new patterns of settlement. Imagining new kinds of places to live is an American tradition, and Disney was an eager participant.

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A City of the Future

A captivating 25-minute film produced by Walt Disney Enterprises remains the best window into Walt's vision.

In it, Disney  speaking kindly and slowly, as if to a group of children  detailed what would become of the 27,400 acres, or 43 square miles, of central Florida that he had acquired.

Echoing the rhetoric of American pioneers, he noted how the abundance of land was the key. Here he would achieve all that could not be done at Disneyland, his first theme park in Anaheim, California, that opened in 1955 and had since been encroached upon by rapid suburban development. He proudly pointed out that the land on which Disney World would be built was twice the size of the island of Manhattan and five times larger than Disneyland's Magic Kingdom.

Among the remarkable components of Disney's EPCOT would be a community of 20,000 residents living in neighborhoods that would double as a showcase of industrial and civic ingenuity  a running experiment in planning, building design, management and governance. There would be a 1,000-acre office park for developing new technologies, and when, say, an innovation in refrigerator design would be developed, every household in EPCOT would be the first to receive and test the product before it was released for the rest of the world.

An airport would enable anyone to fly directly to Disney World, while a "vacation land" would provide resort accommodations for visitors. A central arrival complex included a 30-story hotel and convention center, with the downtown featuring a weather-protected zone of themed shops.

EPCOT's more modest wage-earners would be able to live nearby in a ring of high-rise apartment buildings. And there would be a park belt and recreational zone surrounding this downtown area, separating the low-density, cul-de-sac neighborhoods beyond that would house the majority of residents. There would be no unemployment, and it was not to be a retirement community.

"I don't believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities," Disney said.

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'New Towns' Abound

During the 1960s, the aspiration of building anew was much in the air.

Americans were becoming increasingly concerned about the well-being of the nation's cities. And they were unsatisfied with the effort  and, especially, the consequences  of urban renewal.

They felt insecure in the face of growing urban poverty, unrest and crime, and frustrated about increasing traffic congestion. Families continued to move to the suburbs, but planners, opinion leaders and even ordinary citizens raised concerns about consuming so much land for low-density development.

Sprawl as a pejorative term for poorly planned development was gaining currency as a fledgling environmental movement emerged. In his popular 1960s ballad "Little Boxes," Pete Seeger sang of "Little boxes on the hillside / Little boxes made of ticky tacky" to criticize the uniform suburban and exurban tracts of housing rippling out from America's cities.

A hope emerged that building new towns might be an alternative for unlovely and unloved city neighborhoods and for soulless peripheral subdivisions.

" " Irvine, California, was built on a ranch. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Self-described "town founders," most of them wealthy businesspeople with ideals dependent on real estate success, led America's New Towns movement. As Disney was preparing for his EPCOT presentation, the Irvine Company was already deep into the process of developing the holdings of the old Irvine Ranch into the model town of Irvine, California. Today, Irvine boasts nearly 300,000 residents.

Meanwhile, real estate entrepreneur Robert E. Simon sold New York's Carnegie Hall and, with his earnings, bought 6,700 acres of farmland outside of Washington so he could create Reston, Virginia. Fifty miles away, shopping center developer James Rouse started planning Columbia, Maryland. And oil industry investor George P. Mitchell, keeping an eye on the successes and setbacks of Rouse and Simon, would soon take advantage of a new federal funding program and embark on establishing The Woodlands, near Houston, which today has a population of over 100,000 people.

These new towns hoped to incorporate the liveliness and diversity of cities while retaining the intimacy of neighborhoods and other charms associated with small towns.

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Disney's Dream Today

Disney, however, didn't want to simply spruce up existing suburbs.

He wanted to upend preexisting notions of how a city could be built and run. And for all of its utopian promise, the genius of Disney's EPCOT was that it all seemed doable, an agglomeration of elements commonly found in any modern metropolitan area, but fused into a singular vision and managed by a single authority.

An important innovation was the banishing of the automobile. A vast underground system was designed to enable cars to arrive, park or buzz under the city without being seen. A separate underground layer would accommodate trucks and service functions. Residents and visitors would traverse the entire 12-mile length of Disney World and all of its attractions on a high-speed monorail, far more extensive than anything achieved at Disneyland.

In the car-crazed America of the 1960s, this was a truly radical idea.

Given Walt Disney's legendary tenacity, it would have been fascinating to witness how far his vision would have advanced. After his death, some sought to fulfill his plans. But when urged by a Disney designer to carry through on Walt's broader civic-minded vision, Walt's brother Roy, who had taken the reins of the company, answered, "Walt is dead."

" " During the final stages of construction, workers bolt aluminum panels onto the frame of Spaceship Earth, the 180-foot-high geosphere that is the centerpiece of Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center. Kevin Fleming/Corbis/Getty Images

Today, Disney's utopian spirit is alive and well. You see it in former Walmart executive Marc Lore's ambitions to build a 5-million-person city called "Telosa" in a U.S. desert and Blockchains LLC's proposal for a self-governing "smart city" in Nevada.

But more often, you'll see efforts that tap into the nostalgia of a bucolic past. The Disney Corporation did, in fact, develop a town during the 1990s on one of its Florida landholdings.

Dubbed "Celebration," it was initially heralded as an exemplar of the turn-of-the century movement called New Urbanism, which sought to design suburbs in ways that conjured up the small American town: walkable neighborhoods, a town center, a range of housing choices and less dependence on cars.

However, Celebration has no monorail or underground transport networks, no hubs of technological innovation or policies like universal employment.

That sort of city of tomorrow, it seems, will have to wait.

Alex Krieger is a research professor in practice of urban design at Harvard University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.
" " Scientists say you can't see an image that is equally blue and yellow at the same time. The opponent neurons of the brain cant be excited and inhibited simultaneously. But some researchers think otherwise. sodapix/Thinkstock

Here's a brain-melter  there is no such thing as the color blue. Or red, or green, or fuchsia or lavender. In fact, there is no tangible, absolute thing called "color." Color exists purely in our minds. (Dude!)

A banana, for example, is not inherently yellow. To prove it, stumble down to your kitchen in the middle of the night and hold a banana in front of your face. What color is it? Kind of a dirty grayish black, but definitely not yellow. That's because colors are not emitted from objects; they are reflected. A banana is yellow because when light bounces off a banana, it shines back yellow.

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How does it work? White light  such as sunlight or the light from a bright light bulb  is composed of wavelengths spanning the entire visible spectrum. When white light passes through a prism, you can see all of the pure colors in the spectrum: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

When white light shines on a banana peel, something incredible happens. A natural pigment in the banana peel called xanthophyll is chemically programmed to absorb certain wavelengths and reflect others. The dominant reflected wavelength of xanthophyll is yellow.

But the yellow of that banana still doesn't exist. It only starts to exist when the reflected light from that peel is detected by millions of color-sensing cells in your retinas called cones. There are three types of cones, each responsible for sensing a different wavelength of light. The cones send electrical impulses to the brain, where the data is processed into a single recognizable color: yellow [source: Pappas].

The moral of the color story is this  without our cones and without our brains, colors don't exist. And even when they do, it's only in the mind of the beholder. Which leads to a fascinating question: What if there are colors within the visible spectrum that our cones and brains can't see? In fact, there are. So-called impossible colors or forbidden colors break the biological rules of perception. But some researchers think they've discovered a way to see the impossible.

Let's start by digging deeper into the science of color perception.
" " President Barack Obama used a legal pad to handwrite many of his presidential speeches, like this one seen of a speech he gave in Oslo, Norway, in December 2009. Notice the notes he wrote in the margin. Barack Obama Presidential Library

Comic Jerry Seinfeld, former national security adviser John Bolton and the late American author Pat Conroy are just a few of its millions of devotees. We're talking about the quintessential office supply the legal pad. It's simple, professional, cheap and instantly recognizable.

Part of its lure is the unwritten rule that legal pads are for adults only; some people describe a feeling of satisfaction when they finally reach the point where they're "sophisticated" enough to use them. After all, legal pads equal important business.

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The most recognizable characteristic of a legal pad? The yellow color. But why are they yellow? Good question. To answer it, though, requires a brief explanation of its history first.

The legal pad was invented by a paper mill worker, Thomas Holley, in Massachusetts around 1888. Holley came up with the idea of collecting the tons of paper scraps off the floor of the mill and stitching them together to make pads of paper.

He was apparently irritated that he had to pick up paper scraps that littered the floor, and before long, his paper pad invention was a hit. Though the paper in his pads was originally white, they were so popular, Holley was able to quit his job at the mill to form the American Pad and Paper Company, or AMPAD.

Now back to why legal pads are yellow. There are lots of theories about that, but no one really knows for sure. Some say they were yellow from the beginning. The theory is that because the pads were originally created using pieced-together scraps, they looked cheap and low quality. So Holley dyed them to make them a classier, more uniform yellow.

This sounds reasonable, but it's probably not true. Dyeing paper at that time would have been prohibitively expensive and not worth cutting into profits.

Some accounts are from a little later  probably after Holley's time. They include the belief that yellow is easier on the eyes because it doesn't create as much glare as white, and thus, yellow paper was the obvious way to go.

Others hypothesized that yellow paper was beneficial because it didn't show age like white paper. Still some believed that Holley's pads went from white to yellow because yellow stimulates the mind, including areas of recall and creativity.

While we may not know the real answer why they're yellow, we do know the origin of a legal pad's margin. Around 1900, a local judge asked Holley to add a vertical line down the left side of the paper to create a margin where he could make notes. Those margins  also known as down lines  are always red and drawn 1.25 inches (3.1 centimeters) from the left edge of the page.

Aside from the yellow paper, blue lines and a gummed, tear-off top, the red margin is the only requirement for a pad to qualify as a legal pad. In other words, yellow, blue, pink or purple paper, without the red margin, it's not a legal pad.

Now that's interesting In 1982, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger banned all legal-size documents from federal courts. This policy is estimated to have saved millions of dollars in storage space.
 Texas completes state's third execution of 2021 | Main | Two misdemeanants get 45-day jail terms at latest January 6 riot sentencings 

September 29, 2021

Register for 2021 Menard Family Lecture on Drug Policy and Criminal Justice and other great drug sentencing events

In this post last week, I noted the exciting event taking place on October 7-8 titled "Understanding Drug Sentencing and its Contributions to Mass Punishment." In addition to again highlighting the full symposium (and urging everyone to register for all the panels), I wanted to be sure to give some extra attention to the "Inaugural 2021 Menard Family Lecture on Drug Policy and Criminal Justice" scheduled for Thursday, October 7 from 12:30-2pm EDT. Here again is the summary description of a discussion that I will have the honor of moderating (along with this registration link):

The Drug Enforcement and Policy Center is pleased to invite you to the Inaugural 2021 Menard Family Lecture on Drug Policy and Criminal Justice featuring Eric H. Holder, Jr., former Attorney General of the United States, and Piper Kerman, social justice advocate and author of Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Womens Prison, with special guests Ohio Chief Justice Maureen OConnor and Chief U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley for the Southern District of Ohio.

In addition, I wanted also to note an exciting new addition to the event schedule with a film screening and discussion of the film Commuted involving the film's director, Nialah Jefferson, and its main protagonist, Danielle Metz. Here is a description of the film from its website:

In 1993, Danielle Metz was a twenty-six year old mother with two small children, who was labeled a drug kingpin by the US Government as a part of her husbands drug ring. She was sentenced to triple life plus twenty years for nonviolent drug offenses, and sent more than two thousand miles from her family in New Orleans to serve our the remainder of her life in California at the Dublin Federal Correctional Institute. After serving twenty-three years in prison, Danielles sentence was commuted in 2016 by the Obama Administration as a part of the Clemency Initiative to address historically unfair sentencing practices during the war on drugs. Now back home, Danielle is trying to start life over again in her fifties while working to help other women avoid her fate. But perhaps Danielles toughest challenge of all is living the dream that kept her going while in prison  that of being a united family again with her two children.

September 29, 2021 at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Comments

Seems like there's not a single practicing defense lawyer on any of the panels. Same as it ever was.

Posted by: whatever | Sep 29, 2021 12:25:08 PM

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 "States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2021" | Main | Interesting look at efforts to shine more light on, and get better results from, New York parole practices 

September 8, 2021

SCOTUS stays Texas execution and grants cert on death row inmate's request for pastor's touch during execution

Texas was scheduled to execute John Ramirez this evening, but the Supreme Court blocked the effort as reported here at SCOTUSblog:

The Supreme Court agreed to postpone the execution of John Ramirez, who was scheduled to die on Wednesday night in Texas. The last-minute respite will allow the justices to fully consider Ramirezs request that his pastor be allowed to physically touch Ramirez and audibly pray in the execution chamber while Ramirez is put to death. Ramirezs emergency application was the latest in a series of shadow-docket requests in the past two years involving spiritual advisers at executions. But the justices are now poised to weigh in more definitively on the rights of inmates to have spiritual advisers at their side in their final moments: In the brief order putting Ramirezs execution on hold, the court agreed to hear Ramirezs appeal on its regular docket this fall. Ramirez, who was sentenced to death for the 2004 murder of convenience-store clerk Pablo Castro, asked to have his Baptist pastor, Dana Moore, put his hands on Ramirezs body and pray out loud as Ramirez is executed. After Texas refused to grant that request, Ramirez went to federal court in August. The district court rejected Ramirezs bid to postpone his execution last week, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit turned down his plea to intervene. The four cases that have previously reached the court centered on whether spiritual advisers could be present in the execution chamber at all.... Ramirezs case involved a slightly different issue: what kind of aid a spiritual adviser can (and cannot) provide during an execution. Ramirez came to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the justices to put his execution on hold and to review his case on the merits. He stressed that his filing was not a last-minute effort to delay his execution, because he had first raised the spiritual-adviser question over a year ago. The states refusal to allow Moore to touch him and pray out loud, Ramirez argued, violates both his constitutional rights and the federal law guaranteeing religious rights for inmates. Under the Texas policy, Ramirez emphasized in his reply brief on Wednesday, the execution chamber would be a godless vacuum, with Moore no different from a potted plant.... In an order issued shortly before 10 p.m. EDT, the justices agreed to stay Ramirezs execution and to hear his appeal on the merits. The court indicated that the case should be fast-tracked, with oral argument set for either October or November. There were no public dissents from Wednesdays order.

September 8, 2021 at 11:10 PM | Permalink

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Strange times. Strange Court. Very nice that they stay an execution to deterimine viability of religious freedom claim et. al.; Yet same Court refuses to stay Texas anti-abortion law--a ruling that de facto ends abortions in Texas. Religious fervor anyone?

Posted by: Michael Levine | Sep 9, 2021 12:38:01 PM

The general issue of state obligations respecting spiritual advisors in the execution chamber repeatedly came to the Court & they disposed of it in various ways via the shadow docket. Splitting them in various ways. So, actually taking the case -- on an expedited basis -- is a sensible use of their discretion.

Posted by: Joe | Sep 9, 2021 12:46:09 PM

Makes me think of Phil CollinsInvisible Touch.

Posted by: kotodama | Sep 9, 2021 5:59:34 PM

Joe, sensible to end abortions in Texas?

Posted by: Michael Levine | Sep 11, 2021 4:38:30 PM

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 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

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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

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Lahore [Pakistan], September 29 (ANI): A Pakistani sessions court passed on a verdict of death penalty to a Muslim woman of blasphemy under the charge of Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The woman was sentenced to death and fined Pakistani Rs 50,000.

"It is proved beyond reasonable doubt that accused Salma Tanveer wrote and distributed the writings which are derogatory in respect of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and she failed to prove that her case falls in exception provided by section 84 of PPC," rules Additional District & Sessions Judge Mansoor Ahmad Qureshi in his 22-page verdict, Dawn reported.

An FIR was registered against the woman on September 2, 2013, by Nishtar Colony police, on the complaint of Qari Iftikhar Ahmad Raza, a prayer leader of a local mosque.

The woman was accused of distributing photocopies of her writings wherein she denied the finality of prophethood and claimed her as a prophet, reports Dawn.

The woman runs a private school and is working as a Principal.

Blasphemy, which is defined as "the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God," has always been misused by the extremist groups in Pakistan, who have continued discrimination against the minority groups in the country.

The increasing cases of blasphemy registered in Pakistan continue to be a cause of concern for human rights activists who have repeatedly highlighted the practice and urged world bodies, including the EU to take note of the issue, which has worsened the lives of minorities living in the country.

Pakistan has registered around 1600 blasphemy cases, which are mostly against religious minorities like Hindus, Christians, Shia and Ahmadiya Muslims from 1987 till today according to several reports by rights groups.

A large number of these blasphemy cases in Pakistan are still awaiting justice. (ANI)
This was always an experiment, says writer-director Tina Satter, several days before her play Is This A Room is set to begin previews on Broadway. And this continues the next stage of the experiment.

Its been a year and a half since her work was performed live for audiences onstage, and since then, the play has taken on new resonance. Actress Emily Davis portrays whistleblower (and Air Force veteran) Reality Winner, who was arrested for leaking an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The script for Is This A Room is the transcript of the surprise FBI interrogation on the day of her arrest, presented in its totality.

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This show is such an amazing conversation. Its almost like a period piece in Trumps America: one afternoon in Augusta, Georgia in May 2017, says Satter, who produced the play through her independent theater company Half Straddle. Its interesting to think about what theatrical work can do to show what a very specific moment in American life has felt like, she adds. Who gets punished and who has access to the information? And the crazy high-security state we have now where all these people like Reality have super high clearance levels, but are civilians. Its fascinating stuff. Its all at play daily now in American life.

The experimental black box play premiered at The Kitchen before heading Off-Broadway to the Vineyard Theater; the production prepared for an international tour before the pandemic nixed those plans. With performances paused and her teaching work remote, Satter  who was named a Guggenheim fellowship recipient in April 2020  headed to Vermont, where she spent a good chunk of the pandemic with her partner.

New York theater is back, as is Satter. Earlier this summer, it was announced that Is This A Room was headed to the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. The cast went back into rehearsal earlier this month; currently in previews, the show will open on Oct. 11.

Story continues

It was surprisingly emotional, says Satter of returning to the theater. Theres this surreality of being back, doing the show and sort of as if nothings stopped, she adds. Everyone is, like, I cannot believe were here.

The moratorium on live theater had its upsides: a renewed appreciation for live audiences and time for the work to deepen. After two weeks in the rehearsal room, watching [the cast] after a year and a half awayI was, like, This is the best theyve ever done it, Satter says. Its almost like it marinated in their bodies and blood and hearts, and thats coming out in even richer and more natural performances.

Another upside of the pause was that for the first time, lead actress Emily Davis was able to speak directly with Winner, who was released from prison in June. Emily has talked about it as this almost ghost presence weve projected onto and thought so much about. We were in touch with her family, but never Reality herself, Satter says. And that feels like a pretty big, important, new part of what this iteration holds.

Like many Americans, Satter knew the name Reality Winner but was unfamiliar with the specifics of who she was or what had happened when she happened upon an article about the whistleblower several years ago. Satter was struck by the photo of a young blonde girl in jean shorts and wearing a Pikachu hoodie that accompanied the article. I was like  thats the girl who leaked stuff? says Satter, who then clicked on an FBI transcript of Winners interrogation. The details of her life and that first read [of the transcript] were blowing my mind. It was this person who had served in our military, owned a bunch of guns  but also did yoga and fostered animals. I was, like, whoa, heres this Millennial patriot who really cares about our country. All in this blonde jean-shorted package.

Satter was struck by how much the FBI document read like a script for a play, down to capturing coughs and stutters. It listed participants where it would normally say characters and it was, like, Agent Garrick, Reality Winner, Agent Taylor, Unknown Male, says Satter, adding that the transcript read like a thriller.

Clearly st had gone down, and youre watching her deal with that, second by second, as they all know her life is going to change. When did they get her? And then theyre talking about cats. Im, like, what is happening? The final a-ha moment was when Satter realized that Davis, a longtime collaborator, resembled Winner in appearance.

We treated it canonically, like Shakespeare. We have to do all of this. We cant make any cuts. The integrity of this is if we show it, we cant try to manipulate it, says Satter of her approach to the source material. The strongest thing we could do with this work, even politically, was to start at the beginning and be, like, this happened.

Tina Satter - Credit: Lexie Moreland/WWD

Lexie Moreland/WWD

MORE FROM THE EYE:

Deep Blue Sea Brings Choreographer Bill T. Jones Back to the Stage

Tony Nominee Ato Blankson-Wood Shares Why He Selected Thom Browne for the Awards Ceremony

Launch Gallery: 'Is This A Room' Rehearsal on Broadway

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Tshidi Manye was backstage at The Lion King, trying against all odds to keep it together, when someone tried to give her a hug. Not now! she insisted frantically. Please, give it to me after the show!

After over twenty years in the role of Rafiki, followed by a painful 18-month-long break, Manye was about to return to the stage for the first post-lockdown performance, which took place last Tuesday. She knew she couldnt risk any temptation toward further emotion. Shed been on the brink of tears since she stepped into the dressing rooms at the Minskoff Theatre and faced a bustling backstage she hadnt encountered since March 2020. You would think that my whole floor was a florists shop, she recalls. I mean, it was flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere. And my throatright awayjust closed in. And I was like, oh, how am I going to do this?

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An unrestricted larynx was crucial for the task at hand. As Rafiki, Manye sings the shows opening lines; that iconic Nants ingonyama bagithi baba that, thanks to Disneys reach and the musicals unparalleled success, are now fairly endemic to popular culture. So she told her cast members to refrain from saying anything too sappy until she had finished the opening number.

In its 24 years on Broadway, The Lion King has been closed by labor strikes, natural disasters, and power failures, as well as the Sept. 11 attacks. The cast has performed amidst a host of national tragedies and triumphs, and the Minskoffs lights have dimmed to pay tribute to various theater-community deaths.

[Read: An Oral History of the Longest-Ever Broadway Shutdown]

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But theyve never gone dark for as long as the shutdown precipitated by the pandemic, nor has the task of drawing a crowd to the perennial favorite ever been as daunting. A few days before Sundays Tony Awards showed packed houses enjoying numbers from the nominated musicals Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge, and Tina, a masked and vaccinated audience filled the Minskoff, the mood ebullient.

Many in the crowd seemed to harbor some connection to the show. Old friends exchanged pitched greetings, suspiciously buff actor types hugged people holding flowers. Seats filled; audience chatter seemed to palpably increase in speed. The ushers appeared faintly dazed by all the bustle, handing out programs with glassy eyes. Multiple fedoras slid to the ground as the lights dimmed. Julie Taymor, the musicals director, delivered an emotional curtain speech. She made the requisite mask-related joke, pointing out that just as the actors on stage in this production don masks, so too, now, must the audience. Everyone laughed. Taymor stepped off stage.

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Watching The Lion King now is like stepping back in time  not just to March of 2020, but to the late 1990s. The cuts of the costumes, the cheery color scheme, the full symphonic sound contrast with the standard characteristics of newer, sleeker musicals. And something about the shows cheesily sincere multiculturalismthe integration of Kabuki theatrical techniques, the combination of Zulu phrases with English onessuggests an investment in post-racial ideals that has since curdled. Even the shows history conjures a Broadway of another era, before the squeaky-clean Times Square replaced the grittier one. (When Disneys then-president came to New York to tour the dilapidated theater that would become the Minskoff, he was allegedly propositioned by two prostitutes. Rudy Giuliani swore theyd be gone by opening night, along with the peep shows and pornographic cinemas stationed nearby.) For people who were raised on The Lion King as I was, just hearing the music can give you the fleeting suspicion that you have teleported to the Clinton era.

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Part of the premise of live theater is that no two shows are exactly alike, but theres a paradox in a production like this that runs, virtually unaltered, for decades. In this ritual is a promise of stagnation, a pledge that the show will not change, and therefore that time will not move forward. Come see The Lion King and you, too, may transport to a time of greater innocence, more elastic skin, and less grief.

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This puts someone like Manye in an interesting position: shes spent most of her adult lifeeight shows a week, most weeks of most yearsperforming the same role in a pristinely preserved show, even as her own life moves forward. She tells me the story of the first time her young son came to see the show. When she approached him afterward, he was so frightened by her costume and makeup that he refused to believe he was speaking to his mother. His fear ebbed quickly, though. My mom is in The Lion King! hed soon brag to friends and teachers. That incredulous child is now 25, his lifespan only slightly longer than Manyes tenure onstage.

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Moments that have gone unchanged over the decades land differently now. During the pandemic, Manye returned to her native South Africa for a few months. She met two nieces she hadnt had the chance to see in person yet, and she spent more time at home with her family than she had in the past 20 yearsa small blessing amidst the chaos. But she also watched two close relatives contract COVID and pass away. She says she now finds new resonance in the mourning ritual her character leads after Mufasa dies, and in other moments of the show that deal with loss. From my perch in the audience, I was surprised to remember how much of The Lion Kings plot centers around mourning. Perhaps it took a pandemic forcing mass death into the global conscience to appreciate how pervasively Simbas thoughts cycle back to his fathers death.

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I saw The Lion King in 1999, when I was two years old. Until Tuesdays performance, I had forgotten entirely that Id watched it with my grandmother, who passed away this winter. I thought of her around the time Manye-as-Rafiki was telling Simba that his father was in fact still alive, directing him to look into a pool of water. The tinkling overtones of They Live in You began to play as the actor portraying Simba pretended to recognize his father in his own reflection. It was a simple lesson in genetics; a line in a childrens musical pointing out the obvious nature of lineage. But after a year of global and personal loss, the song jogged something subterranean in me, and I felt some vestige of grief bubble over.

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Before all thatbefore the old moments that seemed new, before the requisite deaths and dancesManye waited for the lights to dim. She staved off the tears, keeping her larynx loose, and prepared to belt as loudly as she was able. But for the first few measures of the song, the crowd cheered so stridently it was impossible to hear anything beyond white noise. Despite her powerful voice, despite the buildup of emotions she released into those opening notes, Manye didnt stand a chance.

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In my mind, I was trying to say: ah, quiet down, she recalls. Listen. We are here. We have started. But the crowd was too giddy, too adrenalized by the return of live theater. Most spectators watch The Lion King to escape their lives for a few hours, but in this moment, they were energetically present, and they had no interest in settling down. Manye tried to make herself heard over the roar, but quickly concluded it was better to save her voice and let the wave subside, she said. I knew I wasnt going to compete with that.
There was a moment in Tuesdays Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.

It came when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained why he and the other chiefsthe top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marinesall agreed that we needed to pull out by Aug. 31. The Doha agreement, which President Donald Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020 (with no participation by the Afghan government), required a total withdrawal of foreign forces. If U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, Milley said, the Taliban would have resumed the fighting, and, in order to stave off the attacks, we would have needed 30,000 troops and would have suffered many casualties.

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And yet, as Milley also testified on Tuesday, he, the chiefs, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and other military officers advised Biden to keep 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the Aug. 31 deadline. The difference is that those troops wouldnt be attached to any military mission. Instead, they would transition to a diplomatic mission.

However, it is extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction. In their eyes, 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of whether their mission was officially said to be military or diplomatic. Therefore, the Taliban would resume fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with a horrendous choiceto pull out while under attack or send in another 30,000 troops.

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Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obamas presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistanan increase of 40,000 troopsand a shift to a counterinsurgency (aka nation-building) strategy. Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border. As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be boxed in by the generals. Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, theyll say they need another 40,000 to win the war. As Obama later acknowledged, Biden was right.

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And so, as Milley was advising Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting, its easy to imagine Biden thinking, Theyre trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like theyve always done since the Vietnam War, which was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since.

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Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of Central Command, both acknowledged at the hearing that the U.S. military was flying blind through much of its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history. The officers of the day tried to mold the Afghan army in their own image, making them too dependent on U.S. technology and support, so that once we withdrew, collapse was inevitable. Milley also noted that he and the other officers paid too little attention to Afghan culture and to the corrosive effects of the Afghan governments corruption and lack of popular legitimacy. So, Biden might well have been thinking, why should he pay attention to anything these guys had to say on the war in Afghanistan, which theyve been wrong about from the very beginning?

Biden made several missteps, some of them disastrous, in the pace and sequence of the withdrawal. Most of all, he should have pulled out all the spies, contractors, U.S. citizens, and Afghan helpers before pulling out all the troops. But on the big picture, he was right, and the generals, as they now grudgingly admit, were wrong.
There was a moment in Congress earlier this year when progressives felt they had the upper hand. A fleeting one.

The Senate had passed its bipartisan infrastructure deal, demanded by moderates, clearing the stage for progressives turn: a $3.5 trillion party-line grab bag of priorities on child care, education, health care, and climate change, funded largely by tax increases on the wealthy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pledged that she wouldnt hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal until the Senate had also passed the bigger, party-line bill. Progressives, with the speakers backing, had taken moderates top priority hostage, believing it would force their centrist colleagues to negotiate with them on the party-line bill. This set up an inversion of the typical dynamic in Democratic majorities, where the moderates decide what they can live with, and then Democratic leaders jam it down the lefts throat.

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A couple of months later, though, the old ways have reasserted themselves. The reconciliation bill isnt done, but leaders are ready to pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal. It is causing no shortage of betrayal! cries among progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill now, with some threatening to rebel later this week.

Why did everything change?

One reason is that successive rounds of hostage taking, threats, and counterthreats had bred an environment of overbearing paranoia and distrust among Democrats, leading to a genuine fear among the caucus that Bidens entire agenda might simply collapse under the accumulating pressure. By last week, the moderates, who are generally more comfortable with the countrys status quo, seemed increasingly willing to walk on the whole process if the infrastructure package didnt pass. And if they were willing to bail with or without their bipartisan prize, then progressives never had that much leverage to begin with.

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Beyond those big-picture forces, the idea that the House might sit on the bipartisan infrastructure bill indefinitely wasnt really sustainable thanks to the micro-dynamics of Capitol Hill. The longer it sat aroundand if its waiting for a multitrillion-dollar spending bill covering an array of policies to catch up, it would have to sit a whilethe more pressure points would arise to force its release. A broadly popular, bipartisan bill can only collect so much dust before its going to be sent to a president with sagging approval ratings who could use a win.

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The first pressure point came in the House in August. Democrats first had to pass a budget blueprint that would unlock the use of reconciliation, the filibuster-free process theyre relying on to move their social spending plans. A group of House moderates, led by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, took this budget outline hostage, refusing to vote for it unless the bipartisan infrastructure bill got a vote first. After a few long, angsty nights, they reached an agreement with Pelosi to hold a House vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal no later than Sept. 27. That put Pelosis open-ended commitment on a timeline.

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And why Sept. 27? Well, the existing federal highway bill, which this bipartisan package would replace, is set to expire at the end of the month. Thats the other pressure point, and Pelosis reaction to this was telling. The speaker said that she had always been planning to hold the vote in late September to prevent a lapse in highway funding. If thats true, though, then she knew that her open-ended commitment to sit on the bipartisan bill wasnt tenable when she made it.

In a caucus meeting Monday, Pelosi finally bit the bullet and reversed her position: She told her members that they could no longer hold out on passing the infrastructure bill until the Senate acted on reconciliation. She had made a commitment to pass the bipartisan bill this week, before the highway bill expired, and reconciliation wasnt ready.

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Some progressives have come to terms with this. Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, a salty veteran of the chamber whos had vicious things to say about the bipartisan infrastructure bill all along, told me Tuesday that this is the best they can do.

Theres no alternative, he said. This is the best we can do. You know, Ive been fighting for additional funding for infrastructure ever since Obama killed my bill, and Trump did nothing. So at least the moneys there.

Others are less acquiescent. Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, in a since-deleted tweet, called the decision to move the bipartisan bill before the reconciliation bill a betrayal and threatened to vote it down on Thursday. She was not alone in Tuesdays Congressional Progressive Caucus meeting, where one member after another railed against the breached agreement.

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We articulated this position more than three months ago, CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal said in a statement following the meeting, and today it is still unchanged: progressives will vote for both bills, but a majority of our members will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the Presidents visionary Build Back Better Act passes.

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The founding chairman of the CPC, whos since moved on to bigger and better things, joined their calls:

No infrastructure bill should pass without a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. That is the agreement that was made & that is the agreement that must be kept. Physical infrastructure is important, but the needs of working families & combatting climate change is more important.  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 28, 2021

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How does this play out? At the very least, there needs to be a deal, with some sort of binding mechanism, between progressives and moderatesall of themon how they will proceed with the reconciliation bill. A total spending number, and an understanding of the priorities that will be funded. And this needs to be done before the Thursday vote on the bipartisan bill.

And then you will see a full-scale assault from every leading figure in the Democratic PartyHouse leaders, President Joe Biden, probably multiple former Democratic presidentsinsisting progressives fall in line.

Nature is healing. And thats never good for the progressive wing of the House Democratic Caucus.
Twelve people have died so far this year in NYCs jail system. Just last week, Stephen Khadu, 24, died while being held at the Vernon C. Bain prison barge, a dystopic multistory boat docked north of Rikers Island. Eleven others died in the same jail system, five of whom died by suicide, a sign that conditions at the jail have devolved horrifically.

Many of the news stories about the crisis at Rikers Island supported the same narrative: The catalyst for the jails spiraling conditions is a staff shortage. The mayor, Department of Correction, and multiple news outlets have described a staffing crisis stemming from sick calls from officers either concerned with COVID-19 or feigning ill-health out of fears for violent conditions on the island.

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But there is one major problem with this narrative: The jail has a higher staffing ratio than it had six years ago, nine years ago, and 30 years ago, even factoring in people taking vacation days, people calling in sick, and guards medically restricted from handling incarcerated people. Rikers has a dramatically higher staffing ratio than any other jail across the countryeven on days when roughly 2,000 people are unavailable to work.

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That staff absenteeism is escalating problems in the jail is not disputed: The jail has had hundreds of unmanned posts in the past few weeks, and correction officers have not been escorting people to appointments, leading to thousands of missed medical appointments, court appointments, visits, and recreation. COs have reportedly been working double or triple shifts.

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A spokesperson for the citys Department of Correction said the jail has 7,230 correction officers on staff as of Tuesday, and records show the jail holding 6,088 people on Sept. 17. With reports of 1,367 officers calling in sick and another 700 medically restricted from working with the incarcerated population, that leaves about 5,163 correction officers. Thats a 0.8 to 1 ratio of officers to incarcerated people, dramatically higher than the national average, which is 0.23 to 1. (Using the federal monitors estimate of sick calls from last July, which counted all uniformed staff and not just COs, I found the ratio was even higher, at nearly 1:1.)

By comparison: The corrections department had about 11,000 uniformed employees in 1990 handling a population of about 20,000 incarcerated people, according to data from the citys Independent Budget Office. Even on the days in 2020 and 2021 with the most sick calls, the ratio of guards available to work to incarcerated people was at or near a 30-year peak.

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So can an unprecedented crisis on Rikers Island be caused by a staffing ratio that is relatively high? There are a number of factors: An extraordinarily mismanaged department of corrections, a whiplash increase in the jails population within just a year, and prolonged stays in intake rooms designed for short stays, a result of the pandemic.

Overstaffing at Rikers is dangerous. In a letter to a federal judge last August, the federal monitor, Steven Martin, acknowledged staffing problems but attributed it to mismanagement and not understaffing. The jail has been under a consent decree since 2015 due to excessive use of force. In another report published last May, Martin wrote that corrections staff had been complaining since 2020 about understaffing due to sick calls, something that confounded the monitor, who saw the ratio of guards to incarcerated people was already staggeringly high.

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The problem is counterintuitive. Rising violence and other problems at the jail suggests understaffing. But staff were always available: They were either not being deployed because of a convoluted management system or were unwilling to do the work required, Martin noted. Having too much staff increased distrust and reduced delivery of services. The presence of an abundance of Staff appear to diffuse Staffs sense of responsibility and leads them to believe that someone else will handle the problemcreating the classic bystander effect in which Staff do not uphold standards of conduct nor call out the improper or misuse of force when they see it, he wrote.

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Five of the deaths on Rikers this year were suicides. But the monitor was clear that even in some situations when an in-progress suicide was witnessed, no guards intervened.

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The mismanagement gets worse. Staff shifts are organized on index cards, the monitor found. The arcane and tedious system hinders officials ability to shift around its abundant staff to empty posts. The process of making substitutions when an assigned person does not report to work, as expected, is both convoluted and disorganized, the monitor wrote in an August letter to judge Laura Swain. Guards are working triple shifts not because theres no one else available, but because the process for shifting personnel when guards are AWOL is byzantine.

Against this backdrop, the jail population swelled from 3,800 to 6,000 between spring of 2020 to September 2021. To mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, the city took a set of then-unprecedented steps to reduce the population, providing hotels for recently released people to socially isolate.

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Then homicides spiked. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo clawed back a nascent bail reform law in response to selective tabloid headlines and rising hysteria about a crime wave. The reforms, which limited the ability of judges to set bail, helped bring the jail population to a nearly 40-year low. But once rolled back, judges set bail more frequently, and the population surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

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The rapid population increase created a bottleneck in spaces only designed to hold people for 24 hours. According to advocates and politicians who toured the jail, the incarcerated stopped receiving food, showers, or medicine in these crowded intake areas. Violent incidents in these areas were 170 percent higher this past August than in August of 2020, according to a report a federal monitor sent to a judge last week.

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To make matters worse, people set to leave Rikers for state prison couldnt get out. More than 900 people have languished in jail for over 600 days as of May 2021, DOC officials said.* We are a detention facility; it was never designed to operate as a prison, explained one DOC executive staff member during a May City Council hearing.

Aside from being inaccurate, the narrative that the crisis at Rikers is caused by understaffing has also led to confounding proposals that could make the crisis worse. Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed increasing available staff, and the DOC is set to hire 600 new corrections officers over the next six months. Its an expensive proposition. It costs $438,000 to lock up one person for a year on Rikers, the highest per person cost in the nation. About $379,000 of that is estimated to be personnel costs.

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Advocates say that money could be better spent on programs and services to reduce the jail population. But the hyperfocus on staffing numbers has removed some of the onus from people with power to decarcerate the island: judges, district attorneys, and prosecutors, who continue to send people to jail with high bail they cant pay.

There are some signs of glacial progress. After initially refusing to release people on short sentences under a work program, de Blasio agreed to release seven, a fraction of those eligible. Gov. Kathy Hochul, to her credit, signed Less Is More legislation and fast-tracked the release of some people held on technical parole violations.

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Still, people keep flooding into the jail. In recent weeks, several public defenders representing clients have taken to Twitter to bemoan the fact that high bail is consistently requested by district attorneys and accommodated by judges.

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Meanwhile, the crisis at the jail continues unabated. The reports from advocates and politicians visiting the island are shocking: people languishing for days without food or water, without medical attention for serious injuries, crammed into tiny spaces and defecating into plastic bags. Even for a notoriously horrific jail, where officers have created fight clubs and savagely beat people in custody, and where multiple high profile in-custody deaths have happened, many are describing conditions that are without precedent.

Alice Fontier, managing director of Neighborhood Defender Service, described overflowing toilets with 25 people packed into intake cells and shower stalls, unable to contact their lawyers or loved ones.

I have been coming to this jail since 2008. This is unlike anything that has ever happened here, she said.
Adam Serwer has a smart piece in the Atlantic this week, taking the Supreme Court justices to task for refusing to come clean about their ideological and political agendas. They want to press a radical, minoritarian conservative agenda while also, he writes, demanding that the public acquiesce to their self-delusion that they are wise sages who hold themselves above the vulgarities of partisan politics, even as they deliver sweeping victories to a conservative movement and Republican Party that have worked for half a century to achieve those victories. As Serwer notes, Republicans are entitled to use whatever legal means necessary to pack the court with foes of reproductive freedom. What they are not entitled to do is to both lie about that project and then rage incoherently at those who note that it happened. Its why Mitch McConnell cant both brag about stealing Justice Antonin Scalias seat and also deny that he did it.

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For more than two hours on Wednesday, however, that is exactly what Senate Republicans did during a Judiciary Committee hearing about the use and abuse of the Supreme Courts shadow docket. Wednesdays hearing focused on the conservative justices use of unsigned, late-night orders to overhaul the laws of the land, often with little or no justification, accompanied by minimal briefing and no oral argument. The rise of the shadow docket to strike down COVID restrictions, reinstate Donald Trumps Remain in Mexico policy, and end the Biden administrations eviction moratorium is proof positive that Republicans have won: They seized a sufficient number of Supreme Court seats to drive the law to the right at a faster pace than ever before.

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And yet GOP senators are not content to revel in their capture of the court; instead, they insist on gaslighting the country about the majestic neutrality of a court they spent billions of dollars and decades of political capital to shape. Like the self-righteous justices whom Serwer skewers, Republican lawmakers refuse to take their W. Instead, they want to pretend it never happened. And like the conservative justices, they are thus attempting to shore up SCOTUSs legitimacy by denying the power grabs we can all see with our own eyes.

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Wednesdays hearing was inspired by the Supreme Courts decision, around midnight on Sept. 1, to let a Texas law called S.B. 8 take effect. S.B. 8 bans abortion after six weeks, but prohibits state officials from enforcing its terms. Instead, the measure allows private citizens to file $10,000 lawsuits against anyone who performs or abets an abortion. After spending a year breaking its own rules to freeze state COVID regulations, the Supreme Court decided it didnt have the power to enjoin S.B. 8. By a 54 vote, the ultraconservative majorityfive justices who ignore all procedural obstacles when eager to protect religious libertydecided it was simply helpless, for neutral jurisdictional reasons, to safeguard Roe v. Wade.

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Senate Democrats called the hearing to examine that decision as well as SCOTUSs broader abuse of the shadow docket. When the House of Representatives held a hearing on the same topic in February, Republicans hadnt yet decided to pretend like this problem does not, in fact, exist. Instead, several GOP members of Congress condemned the courts secretive practices. Over the last seven months, though, it seems the Republican Party has decided to feign outrage at Democrats willingness to question the courts procedures and to pretend that justice has happened by way of emergency orders since the founding.

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The real debate isnt over the politicization of the judicial branch, but whos allowed to do it.

Wednesdays hearing opened with Sen. Chuck Grassley excoriating Democrats for politicizing what he sees as a benign, long-standing emergency docket in order to politicize what he portrays as an oracular independent judiciary. (In reality, the courts use of the shadow docket to alter the law has exploded since Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined.) One might be forgiven for forgetting that it was Grassley who claimed that anyone (and especially the chief justice) who objected to Republicans blockade of Merrick Garland in 2016 was opportunistically political.

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Theres no better case to be made that the GOP believes the court belongs to them alone than the strange insistence that only the GOP can manipulate the size, composition, and agenda of the courts, and the horror they evince when anyone but a Republican levels a critique Republicans have been fundraising and campaigning on against John Roberts for over a decade, by the way, and against the Supreme Court since at least the 1960s. So the real debate isnt over the politicization of the judicial branch, but whos allowed to do it. When Josh Hawley declares war on the court (to fundraise), its heroic. When Senate Democrats do it, they are craven and shameless.

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While Serwer is fundamentally correct that the justices are gaslighting America when they demand blind fealty to their myth of judicial neutrality, the gaslighting on display this morning thus goes one further: Republican senators who routinely feigned ignorance and misled their constituents about the anti-choice preferences of their judicial nomineesthats Susan Collins on Brett Kavanaugh, Joni Ernst on Amy Coney Barrettalso baldly asserted for years that the justices they support have never considered the issue. The pretense that, as a senator, you can be radically anti-choice as a personal and professional matter, yet wholly neutral on whether the Supreme Court is wholly neutral, means that its not just the justices demanding that Americans accede to a fairy tale, but also Senate Republicans. This double-decker bad faith is painful to behold.

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The best evidence of the cynical doublespeak at the hearing this morning was, as Sen. Dick Durbin pointed out, when Republican senators endlessly offered up soliloquies about the sin of abortion. Sen. Mike Lee almost wept talking about the blood spilled since Roe and Sen. Marsha Blackburn pressed a witness on how she could be unmoved by 3D ultrasounds.* But the two Republican witnesses, Jennifer Mascott and Edmund G. LaCour Jr., said not one word about the merits of S.B. 8, other than to commend its ingenuity. They spoke exclusivelyas did the unsigned shadow docket order at issueabout the jurisdictional questions that allegedly made it impossible for the court to block the law. They said nothing about the merits of a law empowering bounty hunters to bankrupt abortion providers and abettors. They said nothing about the material harms to pregnant Texans. They were simply on hand to talk about federal jurisdiction.

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Their silence promoted the fiction that no serious lawyer believes the court had any choice but to let S.B. 8 take effect. Too bad about Texas maternal and infant mortality rate and the lack of exceptions for rape victims. This is not about your feelings. This divide and conquer was a perfect representation of the sleight of hand: witnesses and justices claiming they have no problems whatsoever with abortionits just that the court must follow its rules. Mascott and LaCour left it to Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to defend S.B. 8 on the merits: Abortion kills babies and pro-choice advocates are radical monsters who delight in these murders.

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This cynical division of labor on Wednesday was perfectly clear. The only question is whether the public is willing to swallow the fiction. Steve Vladecka law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Slate contributor, and expert on the shadow docketput the matter starkly at the end of the hearing. The conversation about S.B. 8 is about so much more than abortion, Vladeck testified. For all of the complaints by members on the other side about abortion  this precedent, a universe in which Sen. Cruz is comfortable with state legislatures cutting off the enforcement of constitutional rights that are still on the books, wont end with abortion. And a world in which our constitutional rights are nothing more than the whims of 50 state legislatures is not a federal system. Its not a system with the rule of law. And frankly its not a system that is going to be sustainable in the long term.

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It is an encouraging sign that an esteemed law professor and Supreme Court practitioner like Vladeck is willing to lay this truth before the Senate. And its heartening that at least some senators are ready, at long last, to hear it.

Despite Vladecks warning that the shadow docket is about so much more than S.B. 8, some of the GOP senators went to great lengths to insist that abortion is not protected anywhere in the Constitution. The notion that reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy are protected by the Constitution has long been a laugh line for the conservative legal movement for decades. As Scalia put it, the idea of finding constitutional rights in the penumbras and emanations of enumerated liberties is blah blah blah, garbage.

A penumbra, by the way, is the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to venerate a shadow docket while deriding the idea of shadow constitutional freedoms. But no more than it takes to spend 50 years capturing the court, then insisting that anyone who believes that happened is a partisan hack.
Novant Health, a large hospital system in North Carolina, announced on Monday that it had been forced to fire just 175 employees after they refused to go along with its new policy requiring staffers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. By any objective measure, this should have been an encouraging success story about an employer successfully nudging its workforce to make a responsible decision. Novant told the Washington Post that 99 percent of its 35,000-strong staff had been inoculated. The week before, it had suspended 375 holdouts, but most of them ultimately chose to get their shots and keep their jobs.

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And yet, this was the headline the Washington Post decided to slap on the piece: N.C. Hospital System Fires About 175 Workers in One of the Largest-Ever Mass Terminations Due to a Vaccine Mandate. The tone of doom and turmoil might easily have led a Twitter or Facebook user casually skimming the news to believe that some poor medical center had just been decimated by defections, when in fact the story was just the opposite.

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You can find similar coverage decisions by other outlets covering vaccine mandates. Apparently some editors have decided its just a fine idea to blast out the tidbit that Americans are quitting their jobs in protest of public health measures, then follow up with the essential context that, actually, the resistors are pretty much a blip. Heres CNN reporting that 153 employees at Houston Methodist had resigned or were fired rather than accept a shot; only toward the bottom of the story do we learn that the hospital employs around 25,000 people. Another: 39 Quit Kansas Health System Over Vaccine Mandate: Report, the Hill informs us in a bit of news aggregation. If you click through to the original Kansas City Star article, youll quickly find that amount is less than 1 percent of all staff. In every case, it only looks like an employment bloodbath borne of authoritarian overreach if you exclude the denominator.

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At the risk of jinxing things, it seems like the real story here is that health care workers nationwide are mostly just going along with their employers vaccine mandates. The industry news site Fierce Healthcare has been carefully documenting how these measures have played out at hospitals across the country; in most places, only a handful of employees decided to give up their jobs in order to take a stand against modern medicine. A South Carolina hospital had to fire just five of its 17,000 workers. A regional medical center in Kentucky lost fewer than 1 percent of its workforce; at UNC health, 900 of about 30,000 staff are unvaccinated, and only 70 have resigned. And so on.

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The more details you learn about these firings, the less worrisome they often appear. Delawares largest private employer, the hospital system ChristianaCare, chose to let go 150 of its 14,000 workers. But many were part-time employees, and 48 were jobs involving patient care and less than a dozen related to nursing, according to the Delaware News Journal.

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There could be some self-selection going onmaybe hospitals are only choosing to impose vaccine mandates in cases where theyre confident their workers will generally cooperate. Thats why New York state, where all health care workers were required to get vaccinated or face termination as of Monday, is an especially important test case. (Five other states have similar deadlines coming up, according to the Washington Post.) So far, the results there seem encouraging, too. In the lead-up to this week, many hospitals worried about potential staff shortages, and Gov. Kathy Hochul called a formal health emergency that would allow National Guard troops to fill in where necessary. But the situation doesnt seem to be that dire. As the New York Times reported, the looming mandate led to a surge of last-minute vaccinations, and by Monday, 92 percent of the states 650,000 hospital and nursing home employees had received at least one dose. That was up from 84 percent of workers at hospitals and 82 percent at nursing homes the week before.

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There have certainly been some challenges and hiccups in the state. About 5,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the workers, remained unvaccinated at New York Citys public hospital system as of Monday, and as a result were barred from work and docked pay. Thats a fairly large chunk of the workforce. But for now, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the issue isnt expected to affect patient care, and city officials say they havent seen any evidence of major staff shortages yet (remember, these tallies dont just include front-line health care workers like doctors and nurses, but all employees). Elsewhere in the state, at least a couple of hospitals have suspended elective surgeries while reviewing their workforce situations, but one of them managed to get its staff 100 percent vaccinated by the end of Monday. There just havent been any obvious catastrophes.

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What about workers outside of health care? Well, we can look at how the vaccine mandate for New York Citys public schools, which went into effect Monday at midnight after getting the go-ahead from a panel of judges, is playing out. Much like the mandate for hospitals, the new rules for educators seem to have led to a crush of last-minute vaccinations. New York City schools reported on Wednesday morning that 92 percent of teachers and 89 percent of all Department of Education staff were vaccinated. Thats up from 87 percent of teachers and 80 of DOE staff as of Sept. 22. Losing 8 percent of the citys teaching staff would be a significant blow; to put it in a little perspective, the normal total turnover rate for a year is about 15 percent. But with thousands of staff getting vaccinated daily, the city seems to be on the path toward minimizing its losses. And most importantly, the vast majority of educators have gone along with the mandate.

And thats really the point here. Public and private vaccine mandates seem to be a promising route to getting this pandemic under control, but many states and businesses are hesitant to implement them, not just for ideological reasons, but out of a practical fear of how it will affect the workforce. By focusing its coverage on mass terminations and quits, the media is only going to amp up those concerns, when in reality, the overwhelming majority of people are being sensible by choosing to get vaxxed if it means keeping their paychecks.
Ben Smiths most recent New York Times media column told a jaw-dropping story: In February, a co-founder of the media company Ozy impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with potential investors. According to Smith, the conversation had originally been scheduled as a Zoom, arranged among Ozy, YouTube, and Goldman Sachs, which was looking to invest $40 million in the company. But before the meeting started, Samir Raopretending to be YouTubes head of unscripted original programmingsaid he had issues with the video platform, and asked that everyone switch to a call.

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Confronted with Smiths reporting, the people at Ozy leveled an excuse: This was a very personal mental health issue, wrote Ozys other co-founder, Carlos Watson, in an email to Smith, which Watson also screenshotted and shared on Twitter. He said that personnel at Ozy reviewed the incident with Rao and treated it for what it wasa medical issue. Reading this, I couldnt help but think of the similarities between this defense and the one Elizabeth Holmes lawyers are prepared to level in her Theranos trial, which began earlier this month.

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Its known as the mental disease or defect defense, as my colleague Aaron Mak reported recently; in court filings, Holmes lawyers claimed that her ex-boyfriend and exbusiness partner, Sunny Balwani, was abusive and controlling to the point where her mental state was impairedsuggesting that she should not be held accountable for her misleading and grandiose statements about her blood testing company.

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Yes, hurt people hurt people, as the saying goesits surely possible that someone who would go to elaborate lengths to defraud investors was having a difficult time psychologically. But a mental health issue can be real without changing the fact that the person who is struggling has agency, and even power.

Smiths reporting in the Times has several key question marks hanging over it: How much did Watson himself know about Raos deception, and when? Why was Rao able to disseminate a fake Gmail address for the YouTube executive to participants before the meeting without raising red flags? Rao hasnt personally commented on Smiths story, so we cant know exactly what was going on in his head in the lead-up to that Goldman Sachs call, or how he feels about it now. But one thing feels clear: A companys insistence on framing its leaders scheme to defraud potential investors as a mental health issue is bad news for all people who struggle with mental healthparticularly at a moment when the zeitgeist is recognizing that a very personal mental health issue is something to take seriously.

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Its easy to see the benefits to Ozy stakeholders of pinning the misconduct on a mental health issue: This invokes a sense of privacy, and also confines the issue to one person, rather than a systemic issue at the company. Smiths column suggests that trouble at Ozy was bigger than one person; he reports other ways Ozy appears to have been fluffing its numbers, like buying traffic or promoting a talk show uploaded to Amazon as Amazon Primes First Talk Show. Since his column published, other reporters have dug up further shenanigans. None of them is as stunning as the YouTube impersonation, but they do suggest that taking mischievous, premeditated steps to make Ozy look good was generally acceptable in the company culture.

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And so it makes a kind of sad sense that Raodespite committing what would surely be a fireable offense at most workplaces, especially if the perpetrator were a lower-ranking stafferwas allowed to remain in his job. A mental health issue shouldnt be a get-out-of-consequences-free card or a shield; it is a reason for someone to have support and care, which might well involve support at work. Obliquely referring to a mental health issue and asking for privacy in instances of severe professional misconduct weakens the concept that sometimes people really do need a break. Moreover, people with mental health issues can possess integrity just the same as people without them. According to the National Institutes of Health in various years when surveys were conducted, 20 percent of adults had an anxiety disorder, 7 percent had at least one major depressive episode, and 1.5 percent met the criteria for a borderline personality disorder. That is a lot of people with a mental health issue. Its also a lot of people who have (probably) never sold investors on phony blood-test technology or impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs.
On Wednesday, YouTube announced a major escalation in how it deals with content that poses a public health risk: The platform is banning misinformation related to any vaccine approved by local health authorities and the World Health Organization. YouTubes medical misinformation policies previously prohibited the promotion of harmful untested treatments and false claims about COVID-19, but the Google subsidiary says that the pandemic has spurred it to scrutinize anti-vaccine content in general. Weve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and were now at a point where its more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines, a company blog post explaining the decision reads. Some of the inaccurate narratives that the platform will target include links between autism and vaccines, microchips being hidden in vaccines, and general portrayals of vaccines as ineffective and dangerous. In addition to establishing these new policies, YouTube also suspended the accounts of prominent anti-vaxxers such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, and Sherri Tenpenny.

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The action is significant and was applauded by public-health experts. The timing  is something else. Facebook announced its own on ban on vaccine misinformation in February, after years of advocates and researchers calling for such a policy. Twitter did so in March. And even though YouTube publicized its own policy on Wednesday, the platform notes in its blog post that as with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement. As the largest video platform by far, YouTube is a major part of the online anti-vaccine ecosystem, serving as a repository for deceptive videos that spread across the platform, then circulate widely on Facebook and Twitter. Critics have been pointing out over the course of the pandemic that YouTube seemed to be escaping scrutiny in the public discourse about anti-vaccine misinformation, particularly when President Joe Biden suggested in July that Facebook was a major force propelling vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. It does tend to be tricky to track such misinformation on YouTube since it often comes in the form of statements made in lengthy videos; its easier to keep tabs on snippets of text with anti-vaccine claims that make their way around Facebook and Twitter. At the same time, some of the accounts that YouTube banned on Wednesday had tens of thousands of followers and millions views. They clearly werent unknown to the company.

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This isnt the first time that YouTube has been late to the party when it comes to misinformation issues. In 2020, YouTube took a largely hands-off approach to misinformation surrounding the presidential election compared to Facebook and Twitter. The platform only started taking action on misleading videos about widespread voter fraud a month after the election, after the safe harbor deadline for states to settle disputes with the results had passed. During the election, YouTube opted to attach information panels to all videos pertaining to the vote results, whether or not they were truthful. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, had been labeling particular posts as containing misinformation and limited the spread of certain misleading content. YouTube was also the last major platform to disable former President Donald Trumps account following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that he helped incite, and has arguably been the least aggressive in handling the fallout. While other platforms have either permanently banned Trumps account or specified the amount of time he will be suspended, YouTube has simply said it will allow the former president to post again once the threat of violence has subsidedmeaning that YouTube may be his best chance to return to mainstream social media in the immediate future.

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In yet another example, YouTube went public with its policies cracking down on the QAnon conspiracy theory last fall, a week after Facebook and months after Twitter. Even then, YouTubes policies were not as forceful compared to those of other major platforms. While Facebook outright banned accounts and groups related to QAnon, YouTube stopped short of completely kicking the conspiracy theory off of its platform and made more allowances for what it called borderline content.

Its notable that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki also hasnt had to come before Congress to answer questions about social media misinformation alongside Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. While her boss, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, has testified before lawmakers on the issue, tech experts and journalists have been eager to hear Wojcicki explain YouTubes approach to Congress herself. There would seem to be a lot to explain.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Spain to reform the abortion law to give more rights to women



The new legislation aims to ensure that women in Spain can terminate their pregnancy in public health centres

The Ministry of Equality is preparing a structural reform of the abortion law in Spain that eliminates the obstacles observed under the current regulations. The first signs that change was afoot came in July when Minister Irene Montero announced that future reform was imminent. The initial draft is currently being prepared and should be ready by December.

The new legislation will be based around four main aspects:

Guaranteeing the right to abortion throughout Spain

Preparing a registry of medical practitioners who conscientiously object to the practice

Allowing minors aged 16 and 17 to receive an abortion without parental authorisation

Extending sexual education to the younger age groups

The overall aim of the reform, according to the Ministry, is to protect sexual reproductive rights and offer access to a practice that came into law back in 2010.

To mark the International Day for Sexual and Reproductive Rights on Tuesday September 28, Ms Montero launched a public consultation, open until October 12, in which groups and social organisations can offer their contributions to the new legislation.

One of the main reasons for pushing the reform, the Ministry explained, is the bad practice in relation to conscientious objection, something which they insist has led to the violation of the right of women to seek abortions in public health centres. According to the State Registry of Voluntary Interruptions of Pregnancy (IVE), in 2020 84.51% of terminations performed in Spain were carried out in private and subsidised centres, compared to 15.49% that were performed in public health centres.

Ministry sources explained that the new objective is to take the lead from the recent Euthanasia Law and create a registry of objectors so that any deficits in autonomous communities can be rectified. In addition, they aim to ensure that public hospitals can guarantee the right to abortion without patients having to travel to different regions to avail of the service.

Other objectives include tackling the harassment of women and staff outside the doors of abortion clinics and promoting the training of health professionals from a diversity and feminist approach.

Image: Archive
President met with coalition and opposition leaders. Slovak pavilion at Expo faces problems. Temporary bus station in Bratislava closes permanently.

Good evening. Catch up on the main news of the day in less than five minutes with the Wednesday, September 29, 2021 edition of Today in Slovakia. We wish you a pleasant read.

President calls for stability and solutions

President Zuzana Caputova met with PM Eduard Heger on September 27. (Source: SITA)

The current atmosphere in society, the situation within the security forces and the referendum on early elections were among the topics discussed by President Zuzana Caputova and selected coalition and opposition leaders in the previous few days.

I wanted them to share their point of view and information not presented at press conferences and present my own opinion, Caputova told the September 29 press conference.

She met with PM Eduard Heger (OLaNO), Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollar (Sme Rodina), Smer chair Robert Fico and Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini.

One thing she stressed to the coalition was the need to remain stable as every country needs a stable government, pointing to the fact it is not good if some partners threaten to leave the ruling coalition on a weekly basis. With the opposition, she also mentioned how hatred can have a negative impact on society.

In this respect, she condemned the attacks on various in-field medical workers, such as the employees of testing sites and the Public Health Authority and its regional branches, as well as doctors and nurses.

The attacks and continual threats forced infectologist Vladimir Krcmery, the first Slovak to get vaccinated against Covid and the face of the vaccination campaign, to seek refuge abroad. Several attacks of radical anti-vaxxer groups have occurred in the country in the past few month, with some even going to the homes of experts supporting vaccination efforts.

Covid and vaccination developments

1,459 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 11,698 PCR tests performed on September 28. The number of people in hospitals has increased to 531. The vaccination rate is at 44.46 percent; 2,445,528 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.

were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 11,698 PCR tests performed on September 28. The number of people in hospitals has increased to 531. The vaccination rate is at 2,445,528 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here. No district in Slovakia will be in the green tier (with the least strict anti-pandemic measures) from next Monday, October 4. As many as 27 districts will be in the orange tier, 39 in the red tier, and 13 in the dark red tier. In the dark red tier, people are required to wear FFP2/KN95 respirators inside buildings and masks outside, while there are extensive restrictions for entry regimes when it comes to letting people who are not vaccinated in.

The map of districts based on Covid automat from October 4. (Source: Korona.gov.sk)

The last appointments for the administration of the second dose of the Covid vaccine by AstraZeneca are scheduled for October 6. People have been contacted by phone or through a text message notification, and the dates for appointments are also published on the website of the Health Ministry.

are scheduled for People have been contacted by phone or through a text message notification, and the dates for appointments are also published on the website of the Health Ministry. Altogether 62,089 children younger than 17 years have been vaccinated against Covid so far. At the same time, 285 such children who registered via the virtual waiting room system are currently expecting the first shot, and 4,010 the second shot.

have been vaccinated against Covid so far. At the same time, 285 such children who registered via the virtual waiting room system are currently expecting the first shot, and 4,010 the second shot. 3.8 percent of schoolchildren are learning through distance education, with 2.9 percent having online classes and 0.9 percent offline classes. The number was calculated from the data provided by 77 percent of schools in Slovakia, said State Secretary of the Education Ministry Svetlana Sithova.

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription. Thank you.

Slovak pavilion at Expo faces problems

Slovakia's pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai (Source: Courtesy of Economy Ministry)

Even though the Expo 2020 Dubai starts this Friday, October 21 1 , the Slovak pavilion has not been finished yet.

The Economy Ministry and the general commissioner have confirmed the delay. The commissioner said that the pavilion will be opened only in the first half of October.

Yet, at the beginning of September, Economy Minister Richard Sulik said at a press conference that Slovakia is well-prepared for Expo Dubai 2020.

Meanwhile, PM Eduard Heger (OLaNO) has asked Economy Minister Richard Sulik (SaS) to explain why the work on the Slovak pavilion at the Expo Dubai 2020 exhibition has been delayed.

Picture of the day

Linesmen relocated a stork nest in the village of Chocholna-Velcice (Trencin Region), moving it from the wires of the power line pole to a much safer concrete column.

Feature story for today

Many know her as Les, which means forest in Slovak. Olesia Paskarenko planned on becoming a landscape architect. Her plans changed a few years ago.

Although Slovakia was not a place she wanted to be sent away to by her parents, six years on the Ukrainian tattoo artist calls it her home even though she feels like an immigrant here sometimes.

Read about her beginnings in the new country and how she became a tattooist.

Bratislava Castle as a tattoo is a cliche, a Ukrainian tattooist says Read more

In other news

One last note:

The new bus station in Bratislava opens its doors tomorrow. This means that the temporary bus station on Bottova Street will be closed. The cash desks and call centre stopped operating on Wednesday at 16:00, while the station will close permanently on September 29 at 23:59. The last bus leaves the temporary station on September 30 at 2:30 (towards Prague), while the first bus leaving the new station is scheduled for September 30 at 3:00 (to the Vienna airport).

More on Spectator.sk today

Ministry wants to make Slovakia part of the Silk Road. A new scheme should lure trains from China Read more

2021 is set to be a good vintage Read more

Counterfeit coins were the least surprising find unearthed at the Zvolen castle ruins Read more

If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.

29. Sep 2021 at 18:12 | Radka Minarechova
https://sputniknews.com/20210928/us-house-republicans-seek-name-of-official-who-approved-drone-strike-on-afghan-aid-worker-1089499257.html

US House Republicans Seek Name of Official Who Approved Drone Strike on Afghan Aid Worker

US House Republicans Seek Name of Official Who Approved Drone Strike on Afghan Aid Worker

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A group of Republican lawmakers on the US House Oversight Committee issued a letter requesting a White House briefing on the August 29... 28.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-28T23:17+0000

2021-09-28T23:17+0000

2021-09-28T23:37+0000

afghanistan

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us afghan strategy

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On August 29, two days after an explosion at the Kabul airport took the lives of 13 American soldiers and dozens of Afghan citizens, the US military carried out an airstrike targeting what it claimed were Daesh*-Khorasan (Daesh-K) terrorists in a vehicle that allegedly carried explosives and posed an immediate threat to Americans at the airport.The lawmakers have questioned whether President Joe Biden personally authorized the attack.The lawmakers named National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as being the chief architect of the Biden administrations failings in Afghanistan and promised to conduct a thorough review of his actions that resulted in the removal of the US presence in Afghanistan and the delivery of the country to the Taliban*.Although the US military originally reported no casualties apart from two terrorists in the car, the US media said the airstrike killed ten innocent Kabul residents.The Defense Department later said the attack was a tragic mistake that killed innocent people, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered condolences to the victims family members, including the family of Zamarai Ahmadi, who worked for the humanitarian organization Nutrition and Education International. Austin said the investigation into the drone strike did not find any link between Ahmadi and Daesh-K terrorists.*Terrorist groups banned in Russia and many other states

Sputnik User Blame the faulty intelligence not the person who authorized the strike; morons. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/afghan-pullout-was-developed-by-childs-mind-trump-says-after-senate-hearing-with-military-chiefs-1089502555.html

Afghan Pullout Was Developed by Childs Mind, Trump Says After Senate Hearing With Military Chiefs

Afghan Pullout Was Developed by Childs Mind, Trump Says After Senate Hearing With Military Chiefs

A cease-fire deal signed by the Trump administration in February 2020, according to Biden, tied his hands. Trump and several members of his administration... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T04:15+0000

2021-09-29T04:15+0000

2021-09-29T04:15+0000

joe biden

donald trump

us

afghanistan

us troops in afghanistan

afghanistan war

us withdrawal

biden administration

afghanistan

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Former US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last month was "developed by a childs mind," according to statements issued to the media via email.Earlier in the day, two top military officials and the defense secretary confirmed that President Biden was advised to keep at least 2,500 troops in the country to prevent the Taliban from overrunning the Western-imposed government. The president purportedly ignored the advice, given that he said he did not recall such warnings from his generals.According to the former president, such a "botched and embarrassingly incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan had nothing to do with past administrations or things that happened from 20 years ago, (other than we should not have been in the Middle East in the first place!)"In his Tuesday testimony, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin justified the pullout before the Senate Armed Services Committee, arguing that retaining forces in Afghanistan past the end of August "would have made it even more dangerous for our people, and would not have significantly changed the number of evacuees we could get out."Trump claimed that the Taliban was "held at bay" at the time he stepped out of the White House in January.In another statement, according to The New York Post, Trump directed his vengeance at Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, especially in light of the general confessing to being interviewed for three books detailing the final weeks of the Trump administration.Milley, for instance, spoke to The Washington Post's Bob Woodward for the book "Peril," which details the call to Milley's Chinese counterpart with assurances that a nuclear strike against China would not be conducted.The former president also compared Tuesday's hearing with the continuing investigation by a House select panel of the events surrounding the mayhem that took place at the US Capitol on January 6."Rather than the political January 6th Unselect Committee of Radical Left Democrats and Democrat wannabes (Warmonger Liz Cheney and Cryin Adam Kinzinger), Congress should set up a Commission On the Disastrous Withdrawal From Afghanistan, to figure out what went wrong, why so many of our Warriors were killed, and why so much money (85 BILLION DOLLARS), in the form of Weapons and Military equipment, was left behind for the Taliban to useand to sell to other countries," Trump stated, according to the NY Post.Trump, who concluded the peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020, has repeatedly slammed the rather hectic summer US troop withdrawal from the war-torn country. Trump has repeatedly slammed the early abandonment of the military airport in Bagram, the chaotic evacuation of American citizens and collaborators from the country through the Kabul airport, as well as the fact that most of the military forces left the country before civilians, explicitly saying that the government should have taken "the military out last, after all of the people are out."*A terrorist organization banned in Russia

https://sputniknews.com/20210901/trump-says-whole-world-deserves-bidens-apology-over-disastrous-us-troop-exit-from-afghanistan-1083765970.html

Thomas Turk And what mind Donnie, will sanction a country because you don't like it's Govt. so the elderly, women and kids can't get meds. say Syria, Ven., Cuba, Iran. Leb. That isn't even a child's mind, but a totally, wicked, unhinged mind. You did better on the construction sites. 6

Gargarin What so many of these political statements and media stories fail to mention is that the failure of the usa-backed Afghan government shows the Afghan people's unity in one main goal - to get the usa out of their homelands. People in the usa have apparently little understanding of what it would mean to have heavily armed, uniformed troops of a different ethnicity, religion and culture roaming through their lands, subjecting the local people to intimidation, coercion, bribery and corruption, while their cities are in ruins, and civil infrastructure destroyed. Yes much of the usa government policy and behaviour is childish, and arbitrary, more related to media headlines than serious strategic governance, yet in some ways the problem is not that usa behaviour is the product of a child's mind. Children have empathy. Rather much of the reckless behaviour and military excess comes from an inability to reflect, and see beyond its own selfish interests. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/ancient-text-shedding-light-on-mystical-jewish-sect-may-solve-enigma-of-qumrans-dead-sea-scrolls-1089517442.html

Ancient Text Shedding Light on Mystical Jewish Sect May Solve Enigma of Qumrans Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient Text Shedding Light on Mystical Jewish Sect May Solve Enigma of Qumrans Dead Sea Scrolls

Scholars studying the Dead Sea Scrolls have been unable to explain why over 15,000 pieces of the more than 900 original ancient documents were concealed in... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T12:57+0000

2021-09-29T12:57+0000

2021-09-29T12:57+0000

dead sea scrolls

israel

hebrew

ben-gurion university

news

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An ancient Hebrew document dating back over 1,000 years may help scholars unravel a mystery linked to the Dead Sea Scrolls found in caves around Qumran, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Damascus Document or Damascus Covenant is a 10th-century document that forms part of the Cairo Geniza, a collection of thousands of ancient documents found in the 19th century in a storeroom adjoining Ben Ezra Jewish synagogue in Fustat, which became a neighborhood of the city of Cairo. The Hebrew text was dubbed Damascus Document due to the number of times it makes mention of the Syrian city. As Vainstub and his team researched the document, they claim to have discovered that it shows Qumran, in the Judean Desert, west of the Dead Sea, in Israel, was the site of an annual ceremony known as the Covenant of Renewal. This was where an ancient, mystical Jewish sect known as the Essenes gathered from across Israel. This offers archeologists a long-awaited possible answer to a puzzling question: why so many fragments of the mysterious Dead Sea Scrolls, around 15,000 pieces out of the over 900 original documents, were hidden in caves around Qumran, far from any large settlements. "The countrywide gathering in Sivan [the third month of the Jewish calendar, which falls inMay or June] was a large and well-regulated event for which clear and detailed rules were established," Vainstub added. According to him this fits the archaeological remains of the site". According to the researchers new theory, many of the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves could have been written by Essene communities and brought to Qumran at the time of the annual festival to study and be stored there.A passage in the Damascus Document is quoted as saying: Vainstub believes this explains the shape of the structures excavated at Qumran and why the discovered pantry was stocked with over a thousand pottery storage vessels and hundreds of bowls, plates and cups - enough to serve thousands of pilgrims. There is also a spacious open-air terrace in Qumran known as the southern esplanade. According to the new theory, it may have served as an outdoor eating area. The theory argues that the scrolls may have been brought to the caves from all over the country and left there over the decades. The Dead Sea Scrolls, among the most important archaeological findings in modern times, are a library of theological and legal writings from the third century BCE to the first century CE. They were discovered from 1947 through the 1960s, largely in 11 caves surrounding the ancient site of Qumran.

feketehollo the wide dissemination of antient Jewish cultural info serves but one purpose, to legitimize their annexation of Arab lands. 3

Tiger Interesting find. Matches the evidence about the Essene Jewish sect. 2

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/as-israel-prepares-to-open-embassy-in-bahrain-local-analyst-says-its-the-start-of-a-warm-peace-1089504364.html

As Israel Prepares to Open Embassy in Bahrain, Local Analyst Says It's The Start of a Warm Peace

As Israel Prepares to Open Embassy in Bahrain, Local Analyst Says It's The Start of a Warm Peace

Although Manama has bolstered military ties with Israel in a bid to curb the threat of Iran, trade, tourism and the economy haven't seen much investment in the... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T06:08+0000

2021-09-29T06:08+0000

2021-09-29T06:08+0000

israel

bahrain

middle east

embassy

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Only three months after the inauguration of the Israeli embassy in the United Arab Emirates, Israel's new foreign minister, Yair Lapid, is expected in Bahrain's capital Manama on Thursday, where he will open the Jewish state's second embassy in the Gulf.Right Step ForwardTamam Busafi, a Manama-based political expert, says the arrival of the Israeli foreign minister is an "important step in the development of the relations between the two countries"."We have so many spheres that we can cooperate in. Israel is not only good for high-tech. It can also offer excellent medicine, agriculture and food security. Bahrain can offer tourism as we boast the most ancient sites in the Gulf region. We can explore these options."So far, those options have only been on paper. In the year since the signing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020, Israel and Bahrain have signed seven deals, including in the sphere of banking. But major agreements have not been struck, and tourists haven't been flowing mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as economic ties which were largely under-developed. The dream of generating $220 million dollars in trade was also put on a low flame.Security ConcernsSecurity ties, on the other hand, have actually seen a boost. Earlier this year, it was reported that Israel, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia were holding talks to establish a so-called military pact aimed at curbing Iran and its nuclear ambitions, which allegedly threaten these states.A senior Bahraini official has openly met an Israeli military commander in charge of Iran matters in August, and reports suggest that meetings of that sort are not a rare phenomenon.Busafi agrees that the alignment against Iran has been one of the major factors that has drawn Israel, Bahrain and the UAE together. It was not their nuclear drive only. The Gulf states have been largely concerned with what they brand as Iranian efforts to export their revolution to other parts of the Gulf and Middle East and with their support to groups and militias that destabilise the region, like Yemen's Houthis, the Palestinian Hamas and the Islamic Jihad or Lebanon's Hezbollah.However, she is also convinced that Manama was interested in peace with Israel regardless of the Iranian issue. Her country sought lucrative deals and the diversification of its investments, but it was also tired of the stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and wanted to make a change."The opposite is true. We would like them to succeed, and this is also what the Accords would like to achieve," she added.Deeper TiesThe analyst warns that the future will not always be "pink and rosy".A small batch of those are expected to arrive in Manama tomorrow, when Gulf Air, Bahrain's flagship carrier, is expected to conduct its first official flight from Tel Aviv to the tiny Arab nation.But Busafi is certain that this is just the beginning. "Once we will have a regular exchange of visitors, cooperation will blossom. It is only a matter of time."

Hess What "warm peace'? The Gulf Sheikhdoms never had problem with Israel. In fact, they are complicit in Israel's terror and war crimes against the people of the region, including the defenseless Palestinians. The Gulf have No shame. 1

Hess Sputnik is spreading false Zionist propaganda. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/chinas-j-20-stealth-fighters-with-domestic-engines-dazzle-crowd-at-airshow-china-opening-1089518525.html

China's J-20 Stealth Fighters With Domestic Engines Dazzle Crowd at Airshow China Opening

China's J-20 Stealth Fighters With Domestic Engines Dazzle Crowd at Airshow China Opening

The 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, kicked off in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, on Tuesday, with... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T13:14+0000

2021-09-29T13:14+0000

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news

china

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Thousands of guests, visitors and journalists came to the airshow on the first day under strict epidemic prevention measures. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were fewer foreign exhibitors, guests and international journalists at the show this year, but nevertheless, audiences were able to find surprises, with key information and strategic plans related to China's most advanced aerial weapons and equipment. This included the latest developments on the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the long-rumoured H-20 strategic stealth bomber and a series of cutting edge drones, announced for the first time. People gathered at the event site early Tuesday despite temperatures pushing 30 C and high humidity, waiting to watch the aerial performances, especially that of the J-20. After a performance of spectacular manoeuvres by six J-10 fighter jets of the August 1st Aerobatics Team of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force that led the aerial performance session of the opening ceremony, two J-20 fighter jets appeared from the clouds.They conducted a fly-by of the air show, flying only about 100 meters above the ground, then one soared into the sky, while the other turned back and performed a tight spiral manoeuvre before vanishing into the clouds, leaving spectators yearning for more.Following the J-20s, a JL-10 advanced trainer jet offered an outstanding performance, including challenging manoeuvres like the tailslide.Aircraft including K-8 trainer jets from the PLA Air Force Aviation University's Red Eagle Aerobatics Team and the Wing Loong II armed reconnaissance drone also performed on Tuesday. This is also the first time a large drone has made a flight performance at Airshow China, indicating the Chinese drone's reliability, analysts said.Although the weather was not desirable, with clouds in the sky, the aircraft completed excellent performances with no surprises, spectators and observers said.Shu Yu, a media industry employee who attended the air show for the first time, told the Global Times on Tuesday that she was very excited to be there, especially because it was being held while the world was still haunted by the severe COVID-19 pandemic. "It demonstrates to the world not only the most advanced technology of China but also China's successful control of the epidemic," Shu said.Immediately after the opening event, the PLA Air Force confirmed that J-20 fighter jets involved in the flight performance on Tuesday have already been fitted with domestically built engines.Senior Colonel Li Jikuan, commander of the J-20s' flight performance, said at a press conference at the air show on Tuesday that the aerobatic moves that J-20 made this time showed the outstanding performance of the aircraft at low altitude and high speed, performing tight turns."This is the first time the J-20 has performed in public since it was fitted with domestically built engines," Li said. Song Zhonping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that switching to Chinese engines means the J-20 is now completely domestically made, and this will significantly contribute to the mass production and the performance boost of the aircraft.The J-20 did not show too much of its super-manoeuvrability potential, and this was probably due to the weather conditions, Song said.Yang Wei, chief designer of the J-20, also said at a press conference on Tuesday that the flight performance on Tuesday was just a "modest show" as the J-20s did not show off their full capabilities. Nevertheless, the two J-20s showcased some of the most practical manoeuvres in real combat scenarios, as these moves would allow the aircraft to better lock on targets with missiles, Zhang Xuefeng, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday at the air show.Zhang said that the domestically-built engines can likely provide more powerful thrust to the J-20, which will help it in continued manoeuvring in combat and also in supersonic cruises.With serrated nozzles, the new engines will improve the J-20's stealth capability, since such a design can reflect radar waves to some tight angles, and this will reduce the detection range of hostile radars on the J-20, Zhang said.H-20? The Dream Will 'Come True'On the development of China's "20" aircraft family, Yang, also vice president of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), told the Global Times at the Tuesday press conference that the "20" series not only includes the J-20 fighter jet, the Y-20 transport plane and the Z-20 utility helicopter, it also includes newly developed aircraft including the improved types of the J-16 and J-10 fighter jets, as well as a series of drones.Inside the AVIC exhibition hall at the air show, the J-20, Y-20 and Z-20 aircraft were displayed together with the GJ-11 stealth armed reconnaissance drone at a giant rotary table, with China's second stealth fighter jet, the FC-31, being showcased not farther away as well.It is widely expected that the J-20 will undergo further upgrades and potentially spawn new variants, including a twin-seat version.Yang said that the use of domestically built engines is just the beginning for the J-20 upgrades, and the aircraft will keep being improved in the fields of mechanisation and informatisation."Assuming we do have a twin-seat version of the J-20, it would not be a trainer aircraft, because it would be developed for the enhancement of the aircraft," Yang noted.When answering a media question related to the next member of the "20-family" aircraft, which is widely believed to be the H-20, a highly expected next-generation strategic bomber, Yang said, "Chinese military enthusiasts' dream will come true."On Monday, Yang told media at another press conference that during China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), AVIC will not only further develop the capability of H-6 series bombers but will also speed up research into new strategic weapons and equipment, to further strengthen long-range strategic strike capability for the PLA Air Force.Military experts said this could be a signal that research and development of the long-rumoured H-20 will see great progress in the coming years, as a stealth strategic bomber is a key weapon for strategic strike capability. Yang also revealed on Monday that there were more than J-20 fighter jets in the air during the flight performance for the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China on July 1st, and "there were more on the ground." This means that the PLA Air Force has already enlisted at least a dozen fifth-generation stealth fighter jets.*By Liu Xuanzun, Yang Sheng, Fan Wei, Leng Shumei and Lin Luwen in Zhuhai.This article was originally published by the Global Times.

TruePatriot Bravo China, outstanding work and progress. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/congress-debates-two-fiscal-spending-bills-afghan-war-continues-with-drones-1089500213.html

Congress Debates Two Fiscal Spending Bills; Afghan War Continues With Drones

Congress Debates Two Fiscal Spending Bills; Afghan War Continues With Drones

The fiscal battle in Congress is really between the corporate wing of the Democrats and the wing that sees the passage of both bills in current form as... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T08:23+0000

2021-09-29T08:23+0000

2021-09-29T08:23+0000

afghanistan

drones

murder rate

german elections

the critical hour

us empire

radio

russia

fiscal policy

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Congress Debates Two Fiscal Spending Bills; Afghan War Continues With Drones The fiscal battle in Congress is really between the corporate wing of the Democrats and the wing that sees the passage of both bills in current form as necessary to ensure a sustained economic recovery.

Marjorie Cohn, professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, joins us to discuss Afghanistan. Professor Cohn has written an extensive article in which she posits that the exit of troops from Afghanistan is not an end to the conflict. She argues that the Biden administration will continue the violence using illegal drone warfare.Nick Davies, peace activist and author of "Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion of Iraq," joins us to discuss Pentagon spending. Corruption in Congress glares as investigative reporters have determined that many of the House members who strongly support increased Pentagon spending are receiving large donations from weapons manufacturers. Also, is the Democratic party hamstrung by its right-wing or are they used as foils to intentionally kill progressive legislation?George Koo, journalist, social activist, international business consultant, and chemical engineer, joins us to discuss China. As the Chinese real estate giant Evergrande faces fiscal challenges, the Chinese government looks at the US using housing as a speculatory vehicle for profit and decides to move in a different direction. We discuss economist Michael Hudson's interview on this subject.Margaret Flowers, pediatrician, health reform activist, and co-director at Popular Resistance, joins us to discuss the murder rate increase. The US pandemic disaster has also precipitated a dramatic increase in crime. The homeland of the US empire is experiencing a nearly 30 percent increase in violent crime.Jack Rasmus, professor in economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California, joins us to discuss the two fiscal bills in the US Congress. There appears to be a pitched partisan congressional battle over the two major fiscal bills in Congress. However, Dr. Rasmus argues that the fiscal battle in Congress is really between the corporate wing of the Democrats and the wing that sees the passage of both bills in their current form as necessary to ensure a sustained economic recovery.Nino Pagliccia, activist and writer, joins us to discuss the Global South. The US Empire puppets of the Juan Guaido's "Popular Will" party have plundered hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuela's foreign assets. This discussion is happening in light of the US client state Colombia's announcement that they will steal Venezuela's PDVSA assets in their nation.Michelle Witte, co-host of Political Misfits, joins us to discuss German elections. Michelle joins us from Germany, where she is covering the results of the German elections. There is much wrangling over the Nord Stream 2 project, as anti-Russia forces move to block it, but fuel prices are skyrocketing. Will the government act to smite the Russians even though the business and working people will suffer?Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss the US empire. Our guest joins us to discuss the possible decline of the US empire. As other world powers such as Russia and China are rising, the US still maintains significant economic and military horsepower. However, the ballooning debt and internal divisiveness may point to a precipitous decrease in US hegemonic aspiration.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

Truth 101 ROOT CAUSE --- General Patten: "Americans love war, they love a good fight."

Truth 101 THREE-CLASS EMPIRE ---- 25% most wealthy --- Republicans

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afghanistan, drones, murder rate, german elections, the critical hour, us empire, , radio, russia, fiscal policy, nord stream 2
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/cult-hysteria-greta-thunberg-sparks-fury-by-calling-uk-one-of-biggest-climate-villains-1089511877.html

'Cult Hysteria': Greta Thunberg Sparks Fury by Calling UK 'One of Biggest Climate Villains'

'Cult Hysteria': Greta Thunberg Sparks Fury by Calling UK 'One of Biggest Climate Villains'

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg held court at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan on Tuesday and accused world leaders of betraying current and... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T10:55+0000

2021-09-29T10:55+0000

2021-09-29T10:55+0000

united kingdom

news

world

greta thunberg

uk

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Greta Thunbergs poignant accusations against the UK  which she blasted as a climate villain  have whipped up a storm of fury on social media as the young activist said that the country bears enormous historical responsibility for environmental issues due to launching the industrial revolution.Speaking to Sky News from the Youth4Climate summit, Thunberg said that the UKs approval of new drilling permissions in the North Sea was a textbook example of hypocrisy with Scotland set to host the upcoming UN climate summit in Glasgow."Of course, the climate crisis more or less it started in the UK since that's where the industrial revolution started, we started to burn coal there, so of course the UK has an enormous historical responsibility when it comes to historic emissions since the climate crisis is a cumulative crisis, the 18-year-old environmentalist argued.Thunberg also accused the UK of pretending to be a climate leader while engaging in so-called creative carbon accounting by not properly counting emissions from fossil fuels or aviation.The activists words have enraged many on social media. This endless historical revisionism makes me sick. Britain contributed to the advancement of the world. Industrialisation dragged us out of the dark ages & made us global pioneers, Martin Daubney, deputy leader of the Reclaim Party, raged on Twitter. We gave these gifts to the world. We should be thanked, not damned, for the Industrial Revolution.Unbelievable. Britain objectively accounts for just 1 percent of global emissions (China = 29 percent). Yet, Thunberg brands the UK a 'climate villain'  the sooner we take on this cult like hysteria, the better, journalist Tom Bewick chimed in.During her Tuesday address in Milan, Thunberg accused world leaders of an intentional lack of action in relation to climate change said they had betrayed all present and future generations.She also mocked politicians' environmental appeals, which she slammed as "blah blah blah"  presumably taking aim at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons address during the virtual climate summit in April, as British media pointed out.

Thomas Turk The mini ice age can't kick in soon enough.. but it's on the way.. Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is the highest its been in nine years, increasing more than 30% from last year, while the Antarctics level is well above normal. Most years the Arctic loses ice, but this year ice extent has increased more than 77,000 square miles. Thats according to the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facilitys High Latitude Processing Center.. With Al and Greta's knickers frozen solid, they'll only whimper. 2

mandrake And as usual she is right , the sodomites are not called the perfide albions for nothing. Like the jews, lying stealing and killing, with impunity sonfar!

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united kingdom, news, world, greta thunberg, uk
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/further-deterioration-of-german-russian-relations-possible-if-greens-enter-govt-afd-lawmaker-says-1089528453.html

Further Deterioration of German-Russian Relations Possible If Greens Enter Gov't, AfD Lawmaker Says

Further Deterioration of German-Russian Relations Possible If Greens Enter Gov't, AfD Lawmaker Says

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - The Greens, poised to become part of the new German government, are likely to advocate toughening the country's stance towards... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T20:18+0000

2021-09-29T20:18+0000

2021-09-29T20:18+0000

soviet union

bundestag

russia

germany

migrants

alternative for germany (afd)

anti-russian sanctions

nord stream 2

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The AfD lawmaker said he did not expect any major changes to the political course towards Russia set during Angela Merkel's government. The sanctions and a generally aggressive tone will remain, according to Schmidt.He added, however, that the AfD will continue to advocate for lifting anti-Russian sanctions and building neighborly relations.Annalena Baerbock, the leader of the Greens, has been insistent that Germany drop the Nord Stream 2 gas project, accusing Russia of exacerbating the gas crisis in Europe for its own interest.The German parliamentary elections took place on Sunday. The Social Democratic Party came in first, marginally outperforming Merkel's ruling CDU/CSU bloc. The Greens and the Free Democratic Party came in third and fourth, respectively, followed by the AfD and the Left. Parties are now negotiating the possible formation of coalition.AfD to Represent Interests of Russian Germans in Newly Elected BundestagThe interests of the Russian community in Germany will be represented in the newly elected Bundestag, Schmidt shared with Sputnik.Among the most pressing issues the community is facing now are pensions, which, according to the AfD lawmaker, "were artificially lowered for immigrants from the former Soviet republics", and family reunification, in many cases hindered by the language proficiency requirement.In January, an association for the rights of Russian-Germans sent the government a list of proposed amendments to the "late immigrants law" over alleged discriminatory procedures required of those from Kazakhstan and Siberia during the application and naturalization processes.In 2013, Berlin adopted amendments to the immigration laws to encourage the return of migrants with German roots, expecting to attract around 100,000 people annually. However, the German authorities failed to reach that target, as the real number of migrants from the former Soviet countries continued to be significantly lower due to bureaucratic hurdles seen by many as discriminatory.

https://sputniknews.com/20210926/alternative-for-germany-to-continue-supporting-nord-stream-2-after-election---co-chairman-1089432446.html

BillOwens The greens are controlled by the USual sUSpects, and will end up aggravating Germany's economy and energy supplies. People will throw them onto the pyre. Greens are deluded dreamers and inepts. 7

Ladyshadow These idiots would have no problem supporting the much more expensive US LNG, its about what is best for the majority of the populations, not the minions. 3

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soviet union, bundestag, russia, germany, migrants, alternative for germany (afd), anti-russian sanctions, nord stream 2
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/gop-rep-fires-back-at-aipacs-attacks-over-not-supporting-israels-iron-dome-funding-bill-1089501482.html

GOP Rep. Fires Back at AIPAC's Attacks Over Not Supporting Israel's Iron Dome Funding Bill

GOP Rep. Fires Back at AIPAC's Attacks Over Not Supporting Israel's Iron Dome Funding Bill

Massie was one of nine House members and the sole Republican who voted against the additional $1 billion in financing for Iron Dome, defending his vote by... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T02:21+0000

2021-09-29T02:21+0000

2021-09-29T02:21+0000

us

israel

congress

iron dome

ilhan omar

us house

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GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has accused AIPAC of "foreign interference," after the most prominent pro-Israel lobby in the United States published an attack ad slamming the lawmaker for voting against legislation to fund Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.The congressman shared a screenshot on his Twitter page, in which a Facebook ad said, "when Israel faced rocket attacks, Thomas Massie voted against Iron Dome," so Massie "does not speak for me."AIPAC was quick to hit back, declaring that the group "will not be deterred in any way by ill-informed and illegitimate attacks on this important work."The altercation has sparked heated debate on social media, dividing users into opposing camps.In recent months, AIPAC has been chastised from the other side of the aisle for its advertising campaign.Back in August, a spokesman for Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota accused the pro-Israel lobby of endangering his boss's life with its ad campaign, Stand with America. Stand against Terrorists."The lobbying group lambasted Omar for listing the Jewish State along with militants, after she spoke about "unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban*."Omar's fellow "Squad" member Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has also claimed in a letter to constituents that she had to switch her vote against the funding bill to "Present" due to hateful targeting by lobbyists. She was seen weeping at the House chamber after casting her vote, and eventually said in the letter that she is "deeply sorry."*The Taliban is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and othe nations.

TruePatriot Bravo Rep. Massie . Next go for having AIPAC register as foreign agents. 8

astrodetective Free Palestine ! 4

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Kirill Kurevlev

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Kirill Kurevlev

us, israel, congress, iron dome, ilhan omar, us house
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/gop-rep-to-introduce-bill-making-teaching-crt-in-federally-funded-schools-a-civil-rights-violation-1089507059.html

GOP Rep to Introduce Bill Making Teaching CRT in Federally Funded Schools a Civil Rights Violation

GOP Rep to Introduce Bill Making Teaching CRT in Federally Funded Schools a Civil Rights Violation

The critical race theory (CRT) suggesting that the United States is a country of "systemic racism" has become a flash point issue in America amid the national... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T09:39+0000

2021-09-29T09:39+0000

2021-09-29T09:39+0000

us

racism

racist

critical race theory

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Legislation to make teaching the critical race theory in federally funded American schools a "civil rights violation" is being introduced by Rep. Bob Good, reported Fox News.The Republican politician's "Protecting Students Civil Rights Act" is targeting a theory that is judging students by their race saying that their face determines their future, so we're trying to put a stop to that," said the politician. According to Good, people are not responsible for the sins of the past, while race doesn't determine peoples future. He underscored that the bill was prompted by his constituents' concerns over what schools are teaching children regarding race, such as claiming that white people are "undeniably racist" and oppressors, while black students are taught they are "undeniably a victim"."We don't believe that kids look at each other that way. We don't believe that most parents want their kids to be judged that way, so we're trying to stand up for our parents and our children," Good was cited by Fox News as saying. A press release by Good's office revealed that over 5,000 teachers have already signed a pledge to teach critical race theory in their schools. It further stated that under the Joe Biden administration, the Department of Educations American History and Civics Educations programs "directly encourage the propagation of radical ideals, including the 1619 Project, as well as Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be Anti-Racist, which directly advocates for discrimination." The Virginia Republican is scheduled to hold a joint conference on the proposed new legislation on Wednesday with Citizens for Renewing America. Russ Vought, who leads the group, was cited by the outlet as saying:According to the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under ex-President Donald Trump, it was high time any school that behaves in this manner be held accountable." Critical Race Theory DebateThe critical race theory has become a highly controversial issue in school districts nationwide and was brought to the forefront in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests triggered by the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody from suffocation. Medical examiners ruled that it happened due to Floyd being pinned down by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who had put his knees on the man's back and neck. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter as a result of a trial in April 2021.CRT originated in the 1960s and 1970s and was based on the idea that race is not natural and biologically grounded, but rather a socially constructed category used to oppress and exploit people of colour. The theory argues that US laws and legal institutions are "inherently racist" and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and non-whites, most notably black people. CRT has long been slammed by the GOP and its voters as controversial, divisive and unpatriotic. Republican lawmakers have moved to ban the studies in K-12 ( 'kindergarten to 12th grade) schools in their states. In September 2020, then-President Donald Trump with an executive order prohibited federal agencies from carrying out racial sensitivity trainings in line with CRT tenets that address topics like white privilege, calling them "divisive, anti-American propaganda." Trump urged promoting "patriotic education" and railed against students being taught about systemic racism. However, his successor, Joe Biden, rescinded Trump's executive order restricting CRT training. Furthermore, on 19 April, the Biden administration proposed new priority criteria for a $5.3 million American History and Civics Education grant, listing the "1619 Project", a classroom program inspired by a New York Times initiative focusing on slavery and African American history, and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi's ideas as materials to be taught in K-12 schools.After a group of 20 attorney generals urged the Biden administration to reconsider the educational proposals, US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced in mid-July that his department would allow local schools to determine on their own what is taught in American history and civics grant programmes.The Biden administration and Democratic state authorities have largely dismissed criticism of the CRT as "conspiracy theories" propagated by Fox News and allies of former President Donald Trump.As many Republican lawmakers have been pushing to have the CRT theory banned from school curriculums, Florida in June joined Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma in banning teaching in public schools that "any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior," which, according to the legislation, was often found in "critical race theory."

TruePatriot Bravo Representative Good, make it happen. 1

1

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Svetlana Ekimenko

Svetlana Ekimenko

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Svetlana Ekimenko

us, racism, racist, critical race theory
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/greenland-foreign-minister-fired-over-proposing-inuit-only-independence-referendum-1089507458.html

Greenland Foreign Minister Fired Over Proposing Inuit-Only Independence Referendum

Greenland Foreign Minister Fired Over Proposing Inuit-Only Independence Referendum

Despite its hopes for independence, barren, sparsely-populated and semi-autonomous Greenland remains largely dependent on Denmark's annual locked subsidies of... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T07:52+0000

2021-09-29T07:52+0000

2021-09-29T07:52+0000

denmark

greenland

news

europe

independence

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Greenland's pro-independence Foreign Minister Pele Broberg has been fired after saying that only Inuits should vote in a referendum on whether the vast Arctic territory should break away from the Danish Realm, of which it is currently part.In an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske, Broberg of the national-conservative party Naleraq said he wanted to reserve voting in any future independence referendum for Inuits alone, who comprise more than 90 percent of Greenlands population of 56,000.In the same interview he opposed to the oft-used term the Community of the Kingdom, which is yet another formal designation of the Danish Realm that includes Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, suggesting that his island had little to do with Denmark.Greenland, the world's largest island, was a Danish colony until 1953 and became a semi-autonomous territory after gaining home rule in 1979. Since then, voices for full independence have been heard, including from several pro-independence parties.The prospects of independence have been bolstered by its geostrategic location in the Arctic, as well as massive mineral reserves, whose extraction has been hampered by a lack of infrastructure. Greenland's rising attractiveness prompted a somewhat unexpected offer from former US President Donald Trump to buy Greenland, which led to a firm rebuttal from Copenhagen.However, the natural reserves-fuelled independence movement remains a delicate question for the ruling coalition, which ran on a platform opposed to a massive uranium mining project.In response to Broberg's proposal, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede, who supports the island's autonomy but not independence, underscored that all citizens in Greenland have equal rights. He also said that the ruling coalition had agreed to reshuffle the cabinet following the new controversy. Broberg was thus demoted to business and trade minister, whereas Egede himself agreed to take on the foreign affairs portfolio.So far, the barren, sparsely-populated Arctic territory remains largely dependent on Copenhagens annual locked subsidies of around $638 million, which account for about a third of its budget. Nevertheless, Greenland plans to expand its economy by developing its fishing and tourism sectors, as well as agriculture in the southern part of the island which is ice-free year-round.

Joseph1986 Sell it to Russia 1

Joseph1986 That's a good idea. After all russians are used to cold. And people in Greenland would profit to became part of the bigger country on planet without risks to transform Greenland into a sodomite controled zone. 1

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denmark

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Igor Kuznetsov

denmark, greenland, news, europe, independence
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/iran-calls-on-nuclear-powers-to-scrap-their-arsenals-says-disarmament-a-moral-responsibility-1089514483.html

Iran Calls on Nuclear Powers to Scrap Their Arsenals, Says Disarmament a Moral Responsibility

Iran Calls on Nuclear Powers to Scrap Their Arsenals, Says Disarmament a Moral Responsibility

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly emphasized that it has no plans to build nuclear weapons  or weapons of mass destruction of any kind, and eliminated its... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T11:02+0000

2021-09-29T11:02+0000

2021-09-29T11:30+0000

iran

nuclear weapons

nuclear nonproliferation

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Iran has called on the worlds nuclear powers to live up to their moral and legal obligations to disarm.Blasting the United States for its aggressive nuclear policy, and criticising Washington and other nuclear powers for their efforts to not only modernise but also strengthen their nuclear arsenals, Najafi suggested that such efforts constituted a gross violation of the spirit and letter of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, specifically Article VI.Article VI of the NPT obliges all parties to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and the creation of a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.Najafi called on NPT members to agree to concrete decisions for disarmament at the upcoming NPT Review Conference - scheduled to take place next year, and urged the international community to pay closer attention to Israel and Saudi Arabia over their alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.Accusing Tel Aviv of threatening peace and security in the Middle East and beyond with its clandestine nuclear programme, Najafi encouraged the international community to invite the country to join the NPT immediately and place its nuclear activities under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.Israel neither admits nor denies its nuclear weapons status, but is alleged to have a nuclear arsenal consisting of between 80 and 400 warheads.Saudi Arabia, should also have its nuclear activities placed under the auspices of the IAEA, according to Najafi.At Tuesdays meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al Saud accused Iran of violating the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, and called on the international community to assume its responsibilities in responding to these violations, and to Irans alleged escalation of nuclear research and development activities.Najafi dismissed the claims as baseless, and pointed to Riyadhs refusal to allow the IAEA to engage in monitoring and verification work related to the sheikdoms nuclear activities, which Saudi authorities maintain are peaceful in nature. Najafi urged the international community to halt any nuclear assistance to Riyadh, suggesting that doing so would be the only way that can alleviate these concerns about Saudi Arabia.Nuclear TensionsIran cooperates with the IAEA and allows the nuclear watchdog to monitor its peaceful nuclear activities. However, such monitoring occasionally runs into back-and-forth recriminations and allegations by the IAEA that Tehran is not allowing monitor to proceed in full. Earlier this week, the watchdog complained that it had not been granted access to surveillance cameras at the centrifuge assembly facility in Karaj, northern Iran. Iranian officials say lack of access is related to the countrys security forces ongoing investigation of a sabotage attack against the plant in June.Last week, after announcing that it plans to return to JCPOA negotiations in the near future, Iran accused the Biden administration of sending a negative signal to Tehran by failing to facilitate new talks, and keeping the crushing sanctions imposed by its predecessor in place.Iran suspended the implementation of its obligations on uranium enrichment and stockpiling in 2019, exactly one year after the Trump administration unilaterally pulled out of the JCPOA and slapped Tehran with sanctions intended to destroy its economy and bring oil exports down to zero. After Joe Biden became president, Iranian and US negotiators have held several rounds of talks on restarting the JCPOA. Talks hit a wall after both sides refused to take the first steps to get out of the diplomatic deadlock. Tehran has stressed that Washingtons sanctions are illegal, and must be lifted before Iran returns to its uranium stockpiling and enrichment commitments. The US side, meanwhile, says the Islamic Republic should reduce its enrichment first, and has proposed adding a line into the JCPOA to account for Tehrans conventional missile programmes and its activities in the region. Iranian officials have categorically rejected these demands.

https://sputniknews.com/20210926/un-chief-warns-humanity-unacceptably-close-to-nuclear-annihilation-1089420715.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210927/israeli-pm-bennett-accuses-iran-of-seeking-to-dominate-mideast-under-a-nuclear-umbrella-1089449138.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210928/iranian-official-says-us-has-no-right-to-comment-on-ties-between-tehran-iaea-1089484950.html

iran

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Ilya Tsukanov

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Ilya Tsukanov

iran, nuclear weapons, nuclear nonproliferation
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/jpmorgan-chase-scenario-planning-for-potentially-catastrophic-us-credit-default--1089513613.html

JPMorgan Chase Scenario-Planning for Potentially Catastrophic US Credit Default

JPMorgan Chase Scenario-Planning for Potentially Catastrophic US Credit Default

Senate Republicans earlier blocked an attempt by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to hold a vote to suspend the federal debt limit on a simple... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T11:38+0000

2021-09-29T11:38+0000

2021-09-29T11:38+0000

jp morgan

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JPMorgan Chase is gearing up to prepare for the eventuality of the United States hitting its debt limit, according to Chief Executive Jamie Dimon. He voiced hope that US policymakers would manage to hammer out a solution to avoid an outcome that would impact the repurchase agreement (repo), money markets, client contracts, capital ratios and ratings agencies.As part of the money-lenders scenario for the |US potentially defaulting on its debt, Dimon said the bank was scrutinising its client-contracts.The American billionaire businessman deplored the fiscal brinkmanship that has marred US politics over the past decade. The US has never defaulted on its debt, yet Dimon recalled previous instances when bipartisan division over the debt ceiling had similarly come down to the wire in 2011 and 2017. Debt Ceiling Battle Congressional Democrats have been scrambling to raise the governments $28.4-trillion borrowing cap as the US is on track to default on the national debt potentially between 15 October and 4 November, according to a forecast released on 24 September by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday that the Treasury will likely exhaust extraordinary measures to service the nations debt by 18 October. Since 1960 Congress has raised the debt ceiling 80 times. Raising or suspending the debt limit allows the Treasury to borrow more money to pay expenses already approved by presidents and lawmakers. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives approved temporary legislation - a stopgap measure  on 21 September, aimed at keeping the government funded through early December and raising the limit on federal borrowing through the end of 2022. It included a rider of additional emergency aid for the resettlement of Afghans evacuated from Kabul in August. However, Republicans baulked at backing the measure in the Senate. On Monday, the evenly-split Senate voted 50-48 to increase the debt ceiling, thus falling sort of the 60-vote supermajority required to approve the measure. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier announced that he would ask the Senate for consent to hold a vote on Tuesday to increase the debt limit on a simple majority. Schumer denounced the GOP for creating a situation when, potentially, the American people would pay the price" if the US ended up defaulting on its obligations. The debt ceiling issue is one of three pieces of legislation that Joe Bidens Democrats hoped to pass this week related to his expansive domestic agenda. The two key pieces of spending are the Build Back Better Act - a ten-year $3.5 trillion budget bill - and the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have threatened to block the infrastructure bill if their wider ten-year budget legislation does not receive support. The GOP has continuously raised concerns about Bidens proposed huge spending bills as a "reckless taxing and spending spree.

Preterist-ADSeventy The marxist Rothschilds want their marxist-infiltrated government of their USA to raise the debt ceiling so that their USA becomes further indebted to them. If their USA defaults on their loan, the marxist Rothschild banking empire will lay claim to the entire USA- lock, stock and barrel. 2

TruePatriot Just a bankster whining that he may not be able to make such excessive profits off his loans. Too bad Jamie, sometimes that's the way the worm turns. 2

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jp morgan, democrats, janet yellen, republicans, debt limit, joe biden, chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, news, us
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/kamala-harris-nods-as-student-accuses-israel-of-ethnic-genocide-gets-slammed-on-social-media-1089503577.html

Kamala Harris Nods as Student Accuses Israel of Ethnic Genocide, Gets Slammed on Social Media

Kamala Harris Nods as Student Accuses Israel of Ethnic Genocide, Gets Slammed on Social Media

On 28 September, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited students at a voter registration event on National Voter Registration Day at George Mason University... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T07:03+0000

2021-09-29T07:03+0000

2021-09-29T07:03+0000

us

israel

kamala harris

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Speaking at a voter registration event on National Voter Registration Day at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Kamala Harris discussed the threats to voting rights at the state and federal level with students.After Kamala Harris spoke, the vice president took questions from the students.One of the students accused Israel of ethnic genocide and allege that the funds that US is providing to Israel and Saudi Arabia could go to Americans struggling with housing and health care costs.You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organising is very valuable in America the student told Kamala Harris. But I see that over the summer, there have been, like, protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine, but then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because its an ethnic genocide and a displacement of people  the same that happened in America  and Im sure youre aware of this.In turn, Kamala Harris nodded, listening to the student and responded that she was glad that the student spoke on the issue.After the video was published on social media, Harris was hit with a wave of criticism from netizens who didn't share the VP's sentiments; they questioned the manner in which Kamala Harris had chosen to respond to the student's question.

Stefano Allegri Israel have the most coward army that only fight civilians 9

Alel Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it. Ariel Sharon 9

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us, israel, kamala harris
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/lava-from-spains-la-palma-island-volcano-reaches-ocean-causing-possible-evaporation-of-toxic-gases-1089500878.html

Lava From Spains La Palma Island Volcano Reaches Ocean, Causing Possible Evaporation of Toxic Gases

Lava From Spains La Palma Island Volcano Reaches Ocean, Causing Possible Evaporation of Toxic Gases

Lava From Spains La Palma Island Volcano Reaches Ocean, Causing Possible Evaporation of Toxic Gases

2021-09-29T00:56+0000

2021-09-29T00:56+0000

2021-09-29T01:09+0000

canary islands

europe

spain

lava

volcano eruption

toxic gas

viral

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The lava from the volcano that erupted on La Palma, Canary Islands, has reached the Atlantic Ocean, the Canary Islands emergency services said on Tuesday.The volcano, which has already destroyed almost 600 buildings in La Palma, has been erupting for ten days straight. After a few hours of respite on Monday morning, the volcano started ejecting lava again with renewed vigour.So far, around 6,000 locals whose houses are under threat have been evacuated. Residents of several other coastal areas were also forced to isolate in their homes.

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canary islands, europe, spain, lava, volcano eruption, toxic gas, viral
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/making-ourselves-be-respected-macron-calls-for-european-army-as-us-focused-on-itself-1089499532.html

Making Ourselves Be Respected: Macron Calls For European Army As US Focused on Itself

Making Ourselves Be Respected: Macron Calls For European Army As US Focused on Itself

Making Ourselves Be Respected: Macron Calls For European Own Forces As US Focused On Itself

2021-09-29T00:19+0000

2021-09-29T00:19+0000

2021-09-29T00:19+0000

emmanuel macron

europe

kyriakos mitsotakis

military alliance

aukus

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European leaders should come out of their naivety and defend their independence from the United States, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed on Tuesday during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Saying that Washington has the right to do so, he pointed out that we would be naive, or rather we would make a terrible mistake, to not want to draw the consequences.On Tuesday, Macron and Mitsotakis signed a contract supplying Athens with three French Belharra frigates. The construction of the frigates is expected to be entrusted to the French shipbuilding company Naval Group, which recently lost a contract for the sale of submarines to Australia worth about $66 billion.The statement following the French-Greek defense agreement was said to be a response to the recent AUKUS pact, which prompted Australia to drop a multi-billion submarine deal with France. Macron said the deal with Athens underscores the confidence as well as demonstrating the quality offered by France.At the presser, the French leader also announced that the French ambassador, previously recalled from the US due to the scandal over the termination of the submarine contract, would return to Washington on 29 September.Parallel Structure to NATO?Critical remarks by European statesmen towards Washington have become increasingly common and are viewed by many as a sign that the US and Europe are drifting apart.Macron, in particular, has repeatedly proposed the creation of European forces for an emergency response to crisis situations. Notably, this view is shared by many European leaders, including former German chancellor Angela Merkel. NATO, which was earlier described by Macron as brain dead, needs a parallel structure due to the uncertainty of the US commitment to the alliance.Apart from the infamous US departure from Afghanistan, the Euro-Atlantic relations have also recently been challenged with renewed vigour by the controversial AUKUS security pact, formed earlier this month by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Provisions of the defense and security partnership are expected to allow Canberra to replenish its submarine fleet with at least eight new nuclear-powered submarines, using British and American technology. As a consequence of the agreement, Australia has canceled its $66 billion deal with France for the supply of 12 conventional submarines. The emergence of the alliance drew sharp criticism from a number of countries, including China, which called on its members to abandon their Cold War worldview and projects that violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.Nevertheless, starting from next year, it will be France's turn to hold the presidency of the EU Council, and security is expected to become an important priority for Paris. A joint defense summit is planned for 2022 with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, which is expected to contribute to the creation of a 5,000-strong European rapid reaction force.France and Germany are traditionally considered to be the "giants" of the European Union. It is not clear, however, whether Macron has the capacity to fill the void and achieve a stronger position in Europe, as one of the leading politicians in the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, prepares to leave the office.

IronForge Pt2. NATO worked to counter the Warsaw Pact. NATO completed their Raison d'Etre when the USSR+Warsaw_Pact dissolved. What we have is a ForeverWar Scheme run by the Anglo-American-ZioMasons MIC/PetroUSD/PNAC7-ZionMongers, who via the FalseFlag_9/11(Larent Guyenot), called on NATO's Article 5 Collective Defense Clause for the First and Only Time. Better to Leave NATO to avoid Fighting ISR+USA's Wars. 5

Sputnik User It's meant to happen; NATO is an obsolete structure that long lost its meaning. Get rid of the US forces in Europe and reclaim all their bases. But... who is Turkey going to join?! 5

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/members-of-house-armed-services-committee-take-shots-at-president-joe-biden-1089527311.html

Members of House Armed Services Committee Take Shots at President Joe Biden

Members of House Armed Services Committee Take Shots at President Joe Biden

Members of the House Armed Services committee used the hearing and testimony of General Mark Milley, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and General Frank... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T19:11+0000

2021-09-29T19:11+0000

2021-09-29T19:11+0000

afghanistan

joe biden

us president

lloyd austin

afghanistan

mark milley

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The hearing started with a statement from Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), who raised concerns that the President was delusional over the fallout from the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.Republican lawmakers primarily focused their attention on the Biden administrations handling of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan when questioning General Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and General Frank McKenzie. However, Gen. Milleys alleged calls with his Chinese counterpart also drew the ire of lawmakers.An interview from August 19th, between President Joe Biden and ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, was consistently referenced. In the interview, Stephanopoulos asked President Joe Biden, Your top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops, to which Biden responded, No, they didn't. It was split. Tha-- that wasn't true. That wasn't true.Lawmakers wanted clarity over whether or not the administrations top military advisors warned Biden of the consequences a full withdrawal carried. Their responses consistently contradicted the Presidents account of the events.General Milley, General McKenzie, and Defense Secretary Austin painted a picture of how the withdrawal from Afghanistan unfolded. The trio consistently pointed to the Trump administrations agreement with the Taliban* as being the starting point for the poor withdrawal from Afghanistan.The deal saw the US and coalition forces agree to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan on a timeline and in return, the Taliban would not harbor, train, or use Afghanistan as a launching pad for terrorist attacks. The agreement is said to have demoralized the Afghan security forces and spurred corruption amongst Afghan politicians and officials, who began to cut deals with the Taliban.While the environment of a failed withdrawal was set months before the Biden administration took office, the trio did not completely exonerate Biden from blame. The group believed that 2,500 to 3,000 troops should have been left behind to keep Kabul secure. That advice was not heeded in the end.General Milley did define what victory in Afghanistan would have looked like and confessed the chances were slim. He believed that an agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government sharing power to end the civil conflict in the country would have been the only realistic victory. While he believed it was unlikely, he thought that chances werent zero.The committee also raised concerns over the militarys choice of airport for their evacuations, the failed drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians, and the geopolitical and military disadvantages presented by not having a base of operations in Afghanistan.*The Taliban is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and other countries

vot tak Members of aipacs house armed services committee take shots at president joe biden. There fixed for you, neocon. 2

TruePatriot And, why weren't all those idiotic generals and Unka Lloyd held accountable for their actions and lack of actions?? In fact, some of the should be facing court martial and prosecution for war crimes. 2

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joe biden, us president, lloyd austin, afghanistan, mark milley
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/milley-blamed-state-department-for-hampering-afghanistan-evacuation--reports-1089531065.html

Milley Blamed State Department for Hampering Afghanistan Evacuation  Reports

Milley Blamed State Department for Hampering Afghanistan Evacuation  Reports

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  During a closed congressional hearing on Tuesday, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley blamed the Department of... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T22:13+0000

2021-09-29T22:13+0000

2021-09-29T22:13+0000

afghanistan

afghanistan

mark milley

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https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/1c/1089487831_0:320:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_fe0797b013f0ca4adb3e49ca9ead786e.jpg

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Milley, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and the Central Command Chief Gen. Frank McKenzie delivered testimonies to the House and Senate committees on the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan.During the public part of the hearing, Milley acknowledged that the Pentagon and the State Department disagree on many occasions and it was particularly pronounced during the evacuation operation from Afghanistan, according to the report.The botched evacuation from Afghanistan has been a subject of harsh criticism on behalf of the US lawmakers from both party camps. Congressmen demand from the Biden administration to provide answers to why the withdrawal of troops and evacuation from Afghanistan was so problematic and chaotic, leaving thousands of loyal Afghans and hundreds of Americans behind. Some congressmen even demanded Milley and Austin to resign over the consequences of the evacuation and withdrawal operations in Afghanistan.During the congressional testimony on Tuesday, Milley insisted that the United States would have once again gone to war with the Taliban* had US forces stayed in Afghanistan past September 1. Although it would have been militarily feasible to stay, it would have required an additional and significant commitment of forces to Afghanistan in order to clear Kabul of Taliban fighters, likely resulting in significant US casualties, he added.Former US President Donald Trump had earlier suggested that it was more logical to pull out Americans and US weapons first, and then only to withdraw troops, adding that it was the Biden administration's fault that 13 US servicemen were killed in the August 26 terrorist attack at Kabul airport. More than 160 Afghans also died in the attack, though media reports claim that US troops shot Afghan civilians in the chaotic aftermath of the suicide bombings.*A terrorist organization banned in Russia

vot tak These zio-bureaucrats always blame spmebody else for their personal screw-ups. The pindo rout grom afghanistan was a purely military affair. The military dropped the ball. Most of those in charge were put in place during israel's quisling trump regime, a minority during the subsequent biden regime. Do the math.

vot tak Reseting the page frequently, and disappearing in the process writing as a result. Another israeli trick to limit intelligent discussion.

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afghanistan, mark milley
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/moscow-hopes-prague-will-soon-release-russias-franchetti-will-not-politicize-case-1089507639.html

Moscow Hopes Prague Will Soon Release Russia's Franchetti, Will Not Politicize Case

Moscow Hopes Prague Will Soon Release Russia's Franchetti, Will Not Politicize Case

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow expects the Czech authorities to promptly release Russian citizen Alexander Franchetti, who was detained earlier in September on a... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T07:15+0000

2021-09-29T07:15+0000

2021-09-29T07:15+0000

france

world

russia

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The Franchetti case "does not add anything positive to the Russian-Czech relations, which are going through a difficult period thanks to Prague's effort," Tyapkin noted."We certainly take this into consideration in our contacts. We hope that the Czech side will not allow politicization of the Alexander Franchetti case to please Kiev. We expect the Czech authorities to release the Russian citizen as soon as possible. The Russian Embassy in Prague maintains close contact with Alexander Franchetti, his Czech lawyer and his relatives," Tyapkin added.Franchetti is wanted in Ukraine due to his alleged role in the 2014 reunification of Crimea with Russia.

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france, world, russia
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/over-30-people-injured-in-feminist-marches-for-abortion-legalization-in-mexico-official-says-1089508149.html

Over 30 People Injured in Feminist Marches for Abortion Legalization in Mexico, Official Says

Over 30 People Injured in Feminist Marches for Abortion Legalization in Mexico, Official Says

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - As many as 37 police officers and civilians sustained various injuries during the rallies for legalizing abortions by the feminist... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T07:37+0000

2021-09-29T07:37+0000

2021-09-29T07:37+0000

latin america

mexico

protesters

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"Upon the end of the marches, 37 people are injured including 27 police officers, one colleague from the interior ministry, and nine civilians (5 men and 4 women). Four police officers needed hospitalization," Marcela Figueroa tweeted.Already at night, police and entrepreneurs started preparations for the marches in Mexico City. Shop windows and doors were covered with metal shields; monuments, historical buildings, and the National Palace, which is a final destination of the rallies, were fenced. Such demonstrations are always attended by aggressive female extremists wearing balaclava helmets and armed with paint sprays, chains, hammers, and Molotov cocktails.On Tuesday, which is International Safe Abortion Day, feminist organizations of Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Salvador also staged protests to seek decriminalization of abortions, which are unavailable for most Latin Americans.In Mexico, abortions fall under the local regulations and used to be legal in four states out of 32. On 7 September, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled the ban on abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy unconstitutional, but the precedent has not been reflected yet in the legislation of 28 states, where the medical procedure is punished by up to three years imprisonment, unless in cases of rape or certain medical conditions.

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latin america, mexico, protesters
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/paris-threatens-to-retaliate-in-new-fishing-boat-row-with-uk-over-lack-of-licenses-1089527156.html

Paris Threatens to Retaliate in New Fishing Boat Row With UK Over Lack of Licenses

Paris Threatens to Retaliate in New Fishing Boat Row With UK Over Lack of Licenses

Paris relations with London have already been damaged recently by the new AUKUS alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, which robbed France of a... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T18:58+0000

2021-09-29T18:58+0000

2021-09-29T19:28+0000

france

united kingdom

fishing

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French officials have warned of potential "retaliatory action" against Britain after the UK authorities rejected dozens of license applications by French fishermen seeking to ply their trade in areas such as the waters off Jersey island a British Crown dependency situated some 22 km off the French coast, and 140 km from the British mainland.A day earlier, the UKs department for environment, food and rural affairs said it would grant fishing rights to just 12 European boats out of 47 applications it received to operate in its exclusive economic zone and territorial sea areas. British officials called the decision reasonable and well within Londons obligations under the Brexit agreement with the European Union.French sea minister Annick Girardin blasted the perceived slap in the face, however, characterizing it as a new refusal of the British to apply the conditions of the Brexit accord, and stressing that French fishing must not be taken hostage by the British for political ends.Be warned. Since the British are refusing to honour what they signed, as with other Anglo-Saxons in another area, the French fishermen of Boulogne-sur-Me may be obligated, after nine months of useless patience, to envisage ways to retaliate against the UK. For example, by blocking ports of entry to lorries toward the UK through the tunnel, the official warned, with the other Anglo-Saxons phrase presumably referring to the United States and the AUKUS sub deal snub.2021 already saw an explosion of tensions between the UK and France over fishing rights off Jersey in May, when a flotilla of around 50 French fishing boats blockaded the island in protest against fishing quotas. The crisis escalated after France threatened to cut Jerseys electricity supplies, and both countries deployed maritime patrol vessels to keep the peace. The tensions were defused in June after London agreed to increase catch quotas for foreign fishing vessels.

france

united kingdom

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Ilya Tsukanov

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Ilya Tsukanov

france, united kingdom, fishing
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/rec-opens-first-online-exhibition-of-russian-products-on-alibabacom-1089521313.html

REC Opens First Online Exhibition of Russian Products on Alibaba.com

REC Opens First Online Exhibition of Russian Products on Alibaba.com

Moscow (Sputnik)  The Russian Export Centre (REC) has opened the first online exhibition of goods from Russia on the Alibaba.com portal, REC reports. The... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T15:12+0000

2021-09-29T15:12+0000

2021-09-29T15:12+0000

news

alibaba group

exhibition

russian export center jsc (rec)

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https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/07/0d/1083377552_0:0:3001:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_368a53ac41798a8c73487b96b5d32364.jpg

Today the opening ceremony of the exhibition took place on the largest online-portal, Alibaba.com (a member of Alibaba Group), a platform for wholesalers and buyers, the report reads.She also added that "together with our partners we ensure the involvement of Chinese leading bloggers in order to sell Russian goods via steaming on their channels, which can increase sales several times and, in general, introduce Russian products to Chinese consumers. This year we have made a new step, testing a new format of cooperation: from 4 to 17 October, the first online exhibition of Russian products will be held on Alibaba.com. During these two weeks, the number of displays of the page with Russian goods and services is expected to increase three to four times. It means that Russian companies will gain maximum attention. REC creates new opportunities and attractive conditions for exporters, and we are sure that they will be able to take advantage of them," Nikishina added.The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and the way we do our jobs. The distance between people has increased, but at the same time, people have realised the power of e-commerce and technology. The pandemic has accelerated digitisation and changed the model of export business... According to the latest WTO (World Trade Organisation) forecasts, global exports will increase by 8% in 2021. This is the largest increase in the past 10 years. And the main growth is expected to be in the B2B segment. On the basis of this forecast, we can expect the overall growth of online business in B2B to reach 28% in the next three years, Andrew Zheng, deputy general manager of Alibaba.com, noted.More than 500 Russian exporting companies will present their products during the exhibition. These companies include both well-known brands and small firms from various industries, ranging from medical or fitness equipment to hand-made candles and cosmetics.

2007harleydavidsonsg Spam...spam...spam..and more spam...

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news, alibaba group, exhibition, russian export center jsc (rec)
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/snowden-hails-best-news-in-long-time-as-canada-grants-asylum-to-family-who-hid-him-in-hong-kong-1089520355.html

Snowden Hails 'Best News in Long Time' as Canada Grants Asylum to Family Who Hid Him in Hong Kong

Snowden Hails 'Best News in Long Time' as Canada Grants Asylum to Family Who Hid Him in Hong Kong

The Sri Lankan family of four were part of a group of impoverished refugees living in Hong Kong who agreed to shelter Edward Snowden for about two weeks after... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T15:32+0000

2021-09-29T15:32+0000

2021-09-29T15:32+0000

news

world

canada

hong kong

nsa

asylum

edward snowden

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A family of four who offered shelter to former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in their Hong Kong apartment when he was on the run after blowing the lid on NSA spying have been granted asylum by Canada.Supun Thilina Kellapatha, Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, and their children Sethumdi and Dinath landed in Toronto on Tuesday to start their new lives, according to a statement by non-profit group For the Refugees. Originally from Sri Lanka, the family were faced deportation in Hong Kong after their refugee claims were rejected. The family was part of a group of seven refugees from Sri Lanka and the Philippines who offered Snowden shelter in 2013. The whistleblower went on Twitter to applaud the best news in a long time."The non-governmental group also previously helped two other Snowden guardian angels, as they were dubbed; Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana, originally from the Philippines but living in Hong Kong at the time, were given asylum in Canada in 2019. The seventh member of the group, Sri Lankan army deserter Ajith Pushpakumara, remains in Hong Kong, where his safety is still at risk, according to For the Refugees.We are asking that Canada [again] do the right thing and admit the last of Snowdens guardian angels before its too late, he added. Snowden fled the United States to Hong Kong and then to Russia after revealing thousands of classified documents exposing vast US surveillance put in place after 9/11. He spent more than a month stranded in a Moscow airport while Washington was trying to get him deported to America to face a criminal trial on spying charges. He was granted asylum in Russia and received a three-year residence permit in the summer of 2014, which was extended and eventually replaced by a permanent one.

NthrnNYker59 Hate to break it to him.... but 'asylum' was only granted so that fascist amerika could get their hands on them. 2

vot tak Going to canada, eh. A bit suspicious.

2

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hong kong

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/taliban-write-to-modi-govt-urging-india-to-resume-commercial-flights-to-afghanistan--1089510275.html

Taliban Write to Modi Gov't Urging India to Resume Commercial Flights to Afghanistan

Taliban Write to Modi Gov't Urging India to Resume Commercial Flights to Afghanistan

India had halted air operations with Afghanistan after the Taliban* took over Kabul on 15 August. India has not recognised the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan"... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T19:28+0000

2021-09-29T19:28+0000

2021-09-29T19:28+0000

afghanistan

iea

delhi

narendra modi

indian civil aviation ministry

civil aviation

kabul international airport

india

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In a first official communication with New Delhi, the Taliban have written a letter to India's civil aviation regulator to resume flights to Kabul, assuring security to all airlines in the changed political scenario of Afghanistan.On Tuesday, the Indian civil aviation regulator said that it had received the letter and was reviewing it.On Monday, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the abbreviation used by the Taliban when referring to its government, called for the free movement of Afghan travellers and good relations between the international community and Afghanistan. Dr. Mutlaq Al-Qahtani, special envoy of the foreign minister of the State of Qatar, who met Muttaqi in Kabul on Monday, said that the "world should not ignore good security and prevalent realities in Afghanistan."On Sunday, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the foreign ministry spokesperson, said the suspension of international flights had left many Afghans stranded abroad and unable to return to their homeland."As the problems at Kabul International Airport have been resolved and the airport is fully operational for domestic and international flights, the IEA assures all airlines of its full cooperation," he said, adding the majority of these Afghans are women, children, students, patients, and traders who need to travel freely.India had suspended all the commercial air service with Afghanistan after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and the Taliban declared victory over the US-led NATO forces.A limited number of aid and passenger flights have been operating from the Kabul airport since 13 September. The airport was damaged during the massive evacuation of military forces and foreign nationals from around the world after 15 August. However, the Taliban have claimed that they reopened the airport with the assistance of technical teams from Qatar and Turkey.*The Taliban is a terrorist organization outlawed in many countries including Russia

https://sputniknews.com/20210924/moscow-kabul-discussing-possible-visit-by-taliban-governments-delegation-source-says-1089359448.html

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iea, delhi, narendra modi, indian civil aviation ministry, civil aviation, kabul international airport, india
https://sputniknews.com/20210929/ted-cruz-dares-aoc-to-weep-before-biden-cages-for-migrants-at-southern-border---report-1089530230.html

Ted Cruz Dares AOC to Weep Before 'Biden Cages' for Migrants at Southern Border - Report

Ted Cruz Dares AOC to Weep Before 'Biden Cages' for Migrants at Southern Border - Report

Back in 2018, the future unofficial leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, also known as the "Squad," protested against President Trump's... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T23:23+0000

2021-09-29T23:23+0000

2021-09-29T23:23+0000

us-mexico border

us

texas

border

ted cruz

migrant crisis

migrant

viral

alexandria ocasio-cortez

aoc

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As the United States is witnessing an unprecedented migrant surge at its southern border, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas urged Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to "cry in front of the Biden cages," in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.President Joe Biden, Ocasio-Cortez, Vice President Harris, and other Democrats were challenged by the senator to visit the southern border and witness the "Biden cages" for themselves, according to the report.Cruz railed against Biden's handling of the border issue before attacking Ocasio-Cortez over a photo of her sobbing that she shot near a Texas border facility back in 2018.Cruz also claimed that the "manmade" crisis at the US southern border could be solved by returning to "the policies that work" implemented by the incumbent president's predecessor.According to Cruz, the Biden administration is "lying and theyre counting on the media to cover up their lies, and its incredibly cynical and its wrong."Cruz yet again blasted the White House for "attacking the Border Patrol, vowing that they will pay for doing their job," as well as "repeating the outright lie" that agents were carrying whips when they were carrying horse reins, calling it a "low point, even for this White House."According to the politician, as of now, the Border Patrol officials are "having their work undermined," as the White House has promised political revenge because "the open-border radicals in the Democratic Party believe that the Border Patrol are what [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi calls them: stormtroopers, analogizing them to Nazi soldiers."More than 15,000 migrants, largely from Haiti, landed in Del Rio, Texas, earlier this month, forcing the state of Texas to proclaim a state of emergency and send more state police officers and National Guard troops to block the flow. Images of Border Patrol officials apprehending migrants were widely posted on social media, eliciting significant condemnation.

https://sputniknews.com/20210928/republicans-slam-dhs-chief-mayorkas-for-allowing-thousands-of-haitians-into-us-1089467973.html

vot tak War criminal and zio-traitor cruz is more of a crying bi*ch than she could ever be. A charater that makes wilkes-booth look patriotic. 1

vot tak Put them in the octogon, I bet Ocasio-Cortez would kick his arse. I'm not much of a fan of Ocasio-Cortez, but she stands miles above the govno war criminal/traitor cruz represents. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/uk-petrol-crisis-may-last-a-month-despite-tentative-signs-of-improvement-claim-industry-sources-1089504022.html

UK Petrol Crisis May Last a Month Despite Tentative Signs of Improvement, Claim Industry Sources

UK Petrol Crisis May Last a Month Despite Tentative Signs of Improvement, Claim Industry Sources

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that the fuel crisis in the UK was stabilising as he made his first public comments after days of chaos, queues and... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T05:43+0000

2021-09-29T05:43+0000

2021-09-29T06:23+0000

uk fuel crisis

boris johnson

britain

fuel

petrol

ben wallace

uk

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Despite the UK governments measures to deal with the shortfall of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, petrol stations are likely to face supply disruption for up to a month, industry figures cited by The Times have warned. Acknowledging that tentative signs of improvement are visible, insiders cited by the outlet claim it may require weeks to restock forecourts, even if the panic buying subsides. BP plc, the British multinational oil and gas company, is expected to take at least a month to tackle supply disruptions, added the sources. As some insiders have been quoted as saying it was still too early to call whether the fuel situation would continue improving, others hesitated to say that an end to the crisis was visible. Gordon Balmer, Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) Executive Director, has underscored that there are early signs that the crisis at pumps is ending. Tentative Signs of Improvement Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his first official comments on the fuel crisis gripping the country on Tuesday, as he sought to allay fears by insisting the situation was stabilising after days of chaos at petrol stations. Insisting that supplies were coming back to forecourts, the prime minister said he understood the frustration felt by motorists who have been panic buying fuel, but urged them to go about their business "in the normal way".We now are starting to see the situation improve; were hearing from (the) industry that supplies are coming back on to the forecourt in the normal way, said the Prime Minister. According to Johnson, a slightly misleading account of the shortages of HGV drivers had triggered an understandable surge in public demand. Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also sought to allay concerns, saying that the pressure on petrol stations was beginning to ease. The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents around 5,500 independent forecourts across the UK, similarly emphasised there were early signs that the crisis was ending. While late last week it stated that 50%-90% of its members had reported running dry, on Tuesday the organisation said the figure had fallen to 37%. The PRA chairman Brian Madderson said that while demand was down from the extreme levels seen at the weekend, it was still well above the norm. The shortage of about 90,000 heavy goods vehicle drivers is believed to affect supplies of a number of goods, despite sources dismissing fears of supermarkets shelves running bare. They have acknowledged, however, that the number of different brand products available may be limited. Emergency Measures Downing Street has put in place an array of emergency measures to deal with the crisis, as government ministers and oil companies, such as Shell, ExxonMobil and Greenergy have pointed to "temporary spikes in customer demand - not a national shortage of fuel".Ministers have issued a total of 10,500 temporary visas for lorry drivers and poultry workers to last up until Christmas. After Brexit, many European drivers went back to their home countries because of the additional border red tape, with the COVID-19 pandemic also triggering unexpected changes, forcing more foreign drivers to leave the UK. There has also been a reported backlog in HGV driver tests due to the pandemic. They have also suspended some competition rules for the fuel delivery industry to facilitate information-sharing by companies and prioritisation of parts of the country most at need. The army is being placed on standby to drive tankers if required.The official request on that score was made on Monday and approved by the Ministry of Defence late on Tuesday. While soldiers are not yet being deployed, the measure means that military personnel can begin specialist training to learn how to drive fuel tankers. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that up to 300 troops will be available for deployment if required. According to cited sources, 150 drivers and 150 drivers' mates could be employed under Operation Escalin. 'Half-Baked' Response The measures come as the UK Prime Minister was accused of a 'half-baked' response to the fuel crisis. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer slammed the government for reducing the country to chaos and said the haulage industry was beyond frustrated at the pronounced absence of any clear plan to alleviate the problems.Starmer backed a proposal put forward by the Liberal Democrats and British Medical Association on Monday for key workers to be granted priority access to fuel. Tobias Ellwood, chair of Parliament's Defence Committee, was cited as suggesting that the army be immediately mobilised, not just put on standby, to regain public confidence and stop the fuel crisis.

CountTo5Manual Addd to it that gas prices in Europe are up astonishing 280% this year and 100% in US.. Many UK citizens suffered from high gas prices even during normal days keeping their houses in cold during winter to save money. Hopefully people will finally wake up. 2

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/us-media-accuses-biden-of-being-soft-on-moscow-amid-gop-furor-over-access-to-central-asian-bases-1089518079.html

US Media Accuses Biden of Being Soft on Moscow Amid GOP Furor Over Access to Central Asian Bases

US Media Accuses Biden of Being Soft on Moscow Amid GOP Furor Over Access to Central Asian Bases

On Monday, senior House and Senate Republicans asked the Biden administration to comment on media reporting that Washington had enquired with Moscow on the... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T12:34+0000

2021-09-29T12:34+0000

2021-09-29T12:47+0000

joe biden

russia

vladimir putin

united states

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Despite promises on the campaign trail and the first months of his presidency to get tough on Russia, Joe Bidens policies toward Moscow have proven disappointingly soft, with the administration looking to ignore the country instead of confronting it, National Review contributor Jim Geraghty has suggested.In a piece commenting on reports that Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley had raised the subject of the possible use of Russian military bases in Central Asia by the Pentagon to monitor terror threats in Afghanistan during Milleys recent talks with Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Geraghty argued that while such a deployment might be advantageous geographically, it would also make US counterterrorism operations in the region dependent upon Russian cooperation.Geraghtys concerns seem like a moot point. According to the Wall Street Journals reporting on Milleys meeting with Gerasimov, the Russian commanders reaction to the bases idea was noncommittal. Last month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stressed that Moscow could not see how any form of US military presence in Central Asia might enhance the security of the countries involved and/or of their neighbours, and added that such a deployment would definitely not be in the interests of Russia.In testimony before the Senate on the matter on Tuesday, Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin assured lawmakers that we are not seeking Russias permission to do anything.Bases AngerRepublicans have nevertheless piled on the US president over reporting on the bases, with GOP lawmakers from the House and Senate armed services and foreign affairs committees demanding an immediate briefing from the White House over any negotiations, agreements, arrangements, proposals or other coordination on counterterrorism in South and Central Asia involving the Biden administration as well as [the] Russian government and military.Russia, ranking Republican Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe alleged, is more concerned with collecting intelligence on the US and our allies than it is sharing information on terrorist threats. The senator and his colleagues suggested that military cooperation between Russia and the US related to Afghanistan might be illegal, and was not the path to the stable and predictable relationship with Russia the Biden administration claims it wants.Policy TurnaboutIn his article, Geraghty complained that the reported discussions of Russian-US cooperation in Afghanistan were just one example of a growing trend in the Biden administration in failing to get tough on the country  something Joe Biden promised to do ahead of the 2020 election and in his first months in office.Relations between Washington and Moscow under Biden hit their low point in April, with Russia recalling its ambassador to the United States for consultations in the wake of a diplomatic scandal sparked by Bidens agreement with a journalists characterization of Putin as a killer with no soul. The rift was exacerbated further when Washington slapped Russia with a new round of sanctions, targeting the countrys sovereign debt and introducing other financial and banking sector restrictions on the Eurasian nation.In the months since, and particularly after the June summit in Geneva between Putin and Biden, relations saw a gradual thaw, with the two leaders apparently establishing a personal rapport with one another and Biden even getting into a tussle with CNN after being pressed on changing Putins behaviour. Putin, meanwhile, told reporters that the medias image of Biden as a tired old man had nothing to do with reality.Geraghty suggested that on some fronts, Bidens Russia policy has been one of compromise, rather than confrontation, with the administration demonstrating an eagerness to soothe tensions with Putin.Geraghty also pointed out that Biden did not mention Russia at all during last weeks address to the United Nations, apart from one sentence mentioning the need to defend LGBTQI rights in Chechnya. The correspondent argued that this was an indication that the administration has decided to try to just ignore Russia. But ignoring Russia does not constitute getting tough with Putin! the journalist stressed.Republicans criticism of Biden comes after years of attacks by Democrats and media on former president Donald Trump accusing him of being a Russian agent or colluding with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. During his four years in office, Trump demonstratively approved a series of policies hostile to Moscow ranging from sanctions on Nord Stream 2 to the expulsion of diplomats, the closure of consulates, and a NATO buildup on Russias borders, even as CNN kept a running tally of the number of times the president was supposedly soft on Russia.

https://sputniknews.com/20210820/putin-reportedly-rebuffed-bidens-push-to-put-us-troops-in-central-asia-amid-afghan-withdrawal-1083672370.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210928/trump-reportedly-told-putin-hed-act-a-little-tougher-with-him-when-cameras-were-around-1089486798.html

Sputnik User Any minders/moderators here? Anyone keeping an eye on what crappy spammers post? 2

Preterist-ADSeventy Bidens plans all along, under the direction of Janet Yellen is being hard on Russia. He and she surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban. Northern Afghanistan borders the Central Asia nations that are allied with Russia. Russia has expressed their concern that the Taliban would infiltrate these bordering nations. The Republicans are merely playing games here. They know that Biden and Yellen are not being soft on Russia. 2

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https://sputniknews.com/20210929/whats-in-it-for-iran-three-ways-tehran-will-benefit-from-joining-shanghai-pact-1089527941.html

What's in it for Iran? Three Ways Tehran Will Benefit From Joining Shanghai Pact

What's in it for Iran? Three Ways Tehran Will Benefit From Joining Shanghai Pact

Earlier this month, Iran formally launched the procedures for its accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a political, economic and security... 29.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-29T19:54+0000

2021-09-29T19:54+0000

2021-09-29T19:55+0000

shanghai cooperation organization

sanctions

iran

trade

asia-pacific

stability

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The SCO was formed in 2001 and today has nine members: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan - and now Iran, although its accession process could take two years to complete. Together, they account for 40% of the worlds population and 28% of its gross domestic product (GDP).But whats that really mean for the Islamic Republic of Iran? Here are a few ways the country will benefit from its membership in the SCO.Promoting Regional StabilityWhile the SCO isnt a tightly integrated economic bloc like the European Union, or a military bloc like NATO, it does provide a forum in which broad cooperation between Eurasian nations can be coordinated and promoted. At its core, the SCO is an organization for promoting regional stability, and Iran can benefit greatly from that.Irans relations with Tajikistan have already benefited. Despite sharing a language - Tajik and Persian are mutually intelligible - Dushanbe has repeatedly accused Tehran of supporting the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), an Islamist party banned since 2015. During the civil war of the 1990s, the IRPT was on the losing side in the three-way conflict that the parliamentarians under President Emomali Rahmon won. Past applications by Iran to join the SCO were vetoed by Tajikistan on that basis.Tehran also has a major stake in the stability of Afghanistan after the US withdrawal and Taliban takeover. Except for Turkmenistan, all of Afghanistans bordering nations are SCO members. As Sputnik has reported, Iranian diplomats have worked to coordinate a regional response with those nations, that include Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China, that will push the Taliban into forming a moderate and inclusive government and proscribe supporting terrorist groups.Trade OpportunitiesThe SCO doesnt have a free trade zone or common banking system and isnt likely to sprout one anytime soon, despite some early rumblings in that direction in some corners. However, the tracks for signing new bilateral or multilateral trade agreements have been heavily greased by Irans membership in the SCO, which could take some pressure off Tehran from the US maximum pressure sanctions.Even before accession began, Iran had signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with Beijing in March that will, among other things, lead to its participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, a globe-spanning infrastructure megaproject initiated by China. Similarly, Iran has sought to revise its 20-year friendship deal with Russia, which would have been automatically extended in March.The 7,200-kilometer International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) between Mumbai, India, and Moscow, Russia, runs the length of Iran and negotiation of the corridor, which is intended to compete with the Suez Canal for Eurasian trade, has brought Iran closer to other nations.In particular, Iran helped expand the port facilities at Chabahar, a coastal city just miles from the border with Pakistan, and has negotiated use of the railway connecting Chabahar to Zahedan, 628 kilometers inland. Zahedan is a key gateway to Afghanistan, where India has acquired several iron mining concessions in Hajigak - iron that will have to pass through Iran.Surviving US SanctionsWorld Bank data from 2017 - the last year before the US reimposed economic sanctions after accusing Tehran of violating the 2015 nuclear deal - shows petroleum formed 17% of Irans GDP that year. However, since 2009, Tehran has successfully halved its national budgets dependency on oil revenues from 60% to 30% as part of a long-standing plan to move away from dependency on petroleum.According to the Iranian daily Financial Tribune, in the fiscal year 2019-2020, Irans non-oil exports exceeded the value of its oil exports for the first time in its history, with about half of those exports coming from Irans manufacturing sector.Mehdi Mir-Ashraf, head of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), said in late July that the March-July period had seen a 47% increase in non-oil exports over the same period a year prior. Last week, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported a 126% increase in mining exports in the five months since March - when the Iranian calendar year began - over the same period a year prior, and a 176% increase in steel exports during that period.

armor THAT'S the Russian Soul for you, dear readers of SN, to Russia, it is intolerable to see a weak and defenceless man being attacked by stronger ones. The world knows by now that Russia is there for a special Mission in this world. We salute Pres. Assad for his heroic stand and never having been tempted to flee Syria at the height of the assault by the ruthless enemy. Now what's left, is for the remaining foreigners to leave Syria and go home. Whether the listen or not, Syria will be liberated , metre by metre, that great and ancient Nation will survive and propsper again. Yes, after having been robbed openly, her wealth stolen openly for the world to see, we are speaking now of a certain occupier we won't name. What a shame. 8

armor TODAY, 30th September 2021, is the 6th anniversary of the start of the heroic campaign of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation in Syria: that was on 30/9/2015 when the occupiers and barbarians were dealt with as the weakened country fighting alone. The on that day, a major world Power, was invited by the legitimate Government of the Syrian Arab Republic to assist in repulsing and chase the enemy in question. 7

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Seelster Farms has long been a supporter of the Ontario Standardbred Horse Society (OSAS) and when Flamboro Downs hosts their OSAS race on Thursday evening (Sept. 30), the Lucan nursery will have two chances to have a Seelster bred win.

The two fillies, Patina Seelster and Larjon Lena, are both three-year-olds who sold at the London Selected Sale as yearlings. Patina was co-bred with Mark and Stephanie Horner. She is a roan daughter of Sunshine Beach trained by her owner Craig Gilmour.

She has one win in eight tries this year which came on July 12 at Grand River Raceway in the first race on the card. In the very next race at the Elora track, it was Larjon Lena returning to the winners circle. Patina has drawn post two in the OSAS race, number five on the card, which gets underway at 6:35 p.m.

Her pasture mate at Seelster during their early days, Larjon Lena, leaves from post four. Shes a daughter of State Treasurer owned by Jemaxpo Racing Stable of Florida. Her summary to date in 2021 is 2-2-2 from 13 attempts with her latest win coming at the Dundas oval earlier this month.

The race is in honour of OSASs 25th Anniversary and since the beginning, Seelster Farms has been a staunch supporter of the organization, which has found homes for more than 1,000 harness horses.

Every racetrack in Ontario is celebrating OSASs 25th anniversary with a special race this year. Flamboros will be the ninth with Western Fair (October 8), Mohawk (October 23) and Rideau Carleton (October 28) still to come.

To view Thursday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Thursday Entries - Flamboro Downs.

(OSAS)
Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of its global computer science (CS) education programme - Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) - in India, which will enable access to quality CS education and career opportunities for students from underrepresented and underserved communities.

In the first year of its launch, Amazon aims to enable and deliver CS learning opportunities to more than one lakh students from 900 government and aided schools across seven states in India.

Amazon will partner with multiple education-focused non-profit organisations to take quality CS education to the students of government schools across Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Telangana.

"The ubiquitous nature of computer science has made it a critical skill in the employment landscape. Early access to computer science education will go a long way in providing India's youth the opportunity to build their best future," Amit Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India said at a virtual event.

He added that lack of quality course content on an accessible medium, limited availability of advanced learning content in local language and lack of a role model are some of the barriers that prevent the youth from underrepresented and underserved communities to dream of aspirational CS careers.

"We are cognizant of this divide  and that while talent and passion is spread across all young people, opportunity is not. With Amazon Future Engineer, we aim to address exactly this gap by providing early exposure and access to CS education," Agarwal said.

He noted that through AFE, Amazon has enabled CS opportunities for more than a million young people across four countries  the US, the UK, Canada and France.

Agarwal added that the company will continue to collaborate with government and non-government organisations to enable CS education in India from childhood to career by leveraging various growth opportunities and its expertise in technology.

In India, the new initiative will primarily focus on students in grades 6-12, and will also train teachers and educators to teach computer science in a more engaging way.

Peepul India founder and CEO Kruti Bharucha said the organisation has been working with government school systems over the past several years and has seen how providing equitable learning opportunities can transform not just the lives of their students, but of families and teachers around them.

"Critical thinking and problem-solving skills acquired by learning CS have the potential to break opportunity barriers for underprivileged children in India," she added.

Amazon is working with its global knowledge partner Code.org, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to computer science education, to bring high quality and mobile interactive CS content to Indian students.

"We look forward to working closely with AFE's network of partners in India to provide our high-quality CS curriculum and best practices as they enable students across the country to learn this foundational 21st-century subject, Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org, said.

Taking the local nuances into account, the curriculum has been contextualised for the Indian teacher and student community in government school settings, and will offer students coding fundamentals along with future-focused tech courses like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (Voice Technology) in Indian languages.

Initiatives will include 'Class Chats' through which students meet Amazonians to understand tech industry careers, and 'Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge', where students learn programming basics while coding robots and discover how Amazon uses robotics to deliver millions of products around the globe.

Over the next few years, Amazon India will continue to scale the programme and expand the bouquet of CS-related education offerings in India. AFE will also amplify its support to students through scholarships, internships, problem-solving hackathon events, and targeted mentorship programmes.




Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday said the U.S. government should steer clear of trying to regulate the crypto market.

It is not possible to, I think, destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement, Musk said at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

Musk was responding on stage to a question from New York Times columnist Kara Swisher. She asked whether the U.S. government should be involved in regulating the crypto space.

I would say, Do nothing, he said.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk thinks US regulators should take cryptocurrency out of their crosshairs, leaving it free to 'fly', he told a conference in California on Tuesday.

The colorful serial entrepreneur, an outspoken digital money fan, shared his view at a Code Conference in Beverly Hills, as governments around the world fret over cryptocurrency threatening their control of financial systems.

"I would say, do nothing," Musk said when asked by interviewer Kara Swisher what US regulators should do about cryptocurrency.

"I would actually say, just let it fly."

US Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said earlier at the conference there is potential for cryptocurrency to be considered a security, and platforms to be seen through the lens of those regulations.

China's central bank last week said all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies are illegal, sounding the death knell for the digital trade in the country after a crackdown on the volatile currencies.

"It is not possible to destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement," Musk said during the on-stage interview.

The global values of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, have fluctuated massively over the past year, in part due to Chinese regulations, which have sought to prevent speculation and money laundering.

"It would appear they don't love cryptocurrency; it's subtle but hinting in that direction," Musk quipped when asked about the crackdown in China.

"I suppose cryptocurrency is fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government, and they don't like that."

Part of China's concern could also be over electricity shortage problems, as mining cryptocurrency uses massive amounts of power, Musk reasoned.

Tesla early this year announced it had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, and dabbled briefly with letting people pay for its electric cars in the cryptocurrency.

"I wouldn't say that I am some massive cryptocurrency expert," Musk said.

"I think there is some value in cryptocurrency. I don't think it is like the second coming of the messiah, which is what some people seem to think."

Explore further China's central bank rules all crypto transactions are illegal

 2021 AFP
Graduate student Guan Rong Tan walks in the ankle exoskeleton emulator in the Biomechatronics Laboratory. Credit: Guan Rong Tan and Michael Raitor

Exoskeleton devices work, researchers say, for a variety of uses such as speeding up our walking or making running easier. Yet they don't know what exactly makes exoskeletons effective. What is the benefit of customization, for example? And how much does simply getting used to the exoskeleton matter? Researchers in the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory at Stanford University examined these questions and found that training plays a remarkably significant role in how well exoskeletons provide assistance.

"People are amazing at learning new tasks," said Katherine Poggensee, Ph.D. '21, a former member of the Stanford Biomechatronics Laboratory. "And so with training alonejust giving people time to learn how to use the device on their ownthey can get great benefits from our devices."

To uncover the secrets of exoskeleton success, Poggensee and Steve Collins, associate professor of mechanical engineering and lead of the Biomechatronics Laboratory, monitored the progress of 15 people outfitted with an ankle exoskeleton emulatora device that attaches into the shoe and around the shank of a person's legs and mimics a powered exoskeleton, but allows for abundant customization and fine-tuning through special lab-based controllers.

These people had never used an exoskeleton before, but while they all benefited from training, different approaches yielded vastly different results. Participants who received the most advantageous training conditions expended nearly 40 percent less energy while walking with exoskeleton assistance compared to walking with the exoskeleton turned off. Across all participants, the researchers determined that training contributed about half of the overall benefit offered by the exoskeleton. The research is detailed in a paper published Sept. 29 in Science Robotics.

Video of study participant training under the "continuous optimization" regimen for ankle exoskeleton use. Credit: Poggensee and Collins, Sci. Robot. 6, eabf1078 (2021)

"The main message for our colleagues is: We need to up our experimental game. We need to really train people," said Collins, who describes the exoskeleton experience as less like putting on a superhero's smart armor and more like riding a bike. "Once you learn how to do it well, you can just put on the exoskeletons and start walking and it's easybut becoming expert does take a little while."

Taking the time

The researchers focused on three main questions: Can we train people to use exoskeletons by just giving them a device and having them walk for a long time? Can we help people train faster if we expose them to a variety of exoskeleton behaviors? And, once people are fully trained, how does customized control of the exoskeleton affect performance?

Participants were put into three main groups, each of which experienced five days of training. One group received generic assistance from the exoskeleton emulator (based on what helped participants in the past), another experienced continuous optimization of the device to their specific needs throughout the study, and the third group experienced optimization that was reset each day. As expected, participants in the continuous optimization group saw the greatest drop in energy expenditure and, because they were exposed to some variety in exoskeleton behavior, attained those benefits more quickly.

"What we didn't expect was how well people did," said Poggensee.

The people in the most advantageous groupcontinuous optimization and exposure to moderate varietywere the ones who reduced their energy costs by almost 40 percent. (And many participants did not even perceive how much the exoskeleton was assisting until they returned to walking with it turned off.) By comparing all the tests, the researchers determined that training was responsible for about half this improvement and around one-quarter was due to customization. Poggensee emphasized that customization would likely be even more important for people who have mobility issues.

Another surprise was how long it took participants to become "experts," which the researchers defined as the point at which their energy improvements plateaued. This took about two hours in the exoskeleton emulators, the equivalent of five miles worth of walking. That may not sound like long, but it is a substantial commitment for lab studies.

"Fortunately for the users of future products, we expect people to accumulate lots of exposure over the course of their first week with a device. So, it shouldn't inhibit people or prevent people from becoming expert in that context," said Collins, who is also a faculty affiliate of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), which provided funding for this research. "But, if we really want to understand how people respond to some new device in the lab, we'll need lengthy protocols."

Better training

This research points to the value of better understanding training, including how people become accustomed to mobility devices and how training can be improved.

"A big takeaway for me is that we need to let our participants drive our research," Poggensee said. "We need to give them the time to actually learn how to use the device, so that we don't interfere with any of the learning."

The team's interest was also piqued by the fact that, even after participants qualified as experts, there were still slow improvements to their performance over tens of hours of training. To really get the most out of exoskeletons, researchers may need to study how people's bodies themselves are adapting; for example, the way muscles strengthen to better take advantage of the device.

For now, Collins and his lab are looking at how to speed up the acquisition of expertise, including a collaboration with Stanford computer scientist Emma Brunskill. And he's increasingly optimistic about the potential for exoskeletons to become a commonplace device in many peoples' lives.

"Exoskeletons are coming," said Collins. "They're going to improve your life and, once you get used to them, you might not even notice."

Explore further Ankle exoskeleton enables faster walking

More information: How adaptation, training, and customization contribute to benefits from exoskeleton assistance, Science Robotics (2021). Journal information: Science Robotics How adaptation, training, and customization contribute to benefits from exoskeleton assistance,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abf1078
This photo shows what DragonSCALES look like today. Formerly known as solar glitter when initially developed at Sandia National Laboratories, the technology has evolved since being transferred to mPower Technology. Credit: mPower Technology

Somewhere among the glitter of the night sky is a small satellite powered by innovative, next-generation solar cell technology developed at Sandia National Laboratories.

mPower Technology's DragonSCALES, consist of small, highly interconnected photovoltaic cells formerly known as solar glitter at Sandia. They are orbiting Earth for the first time on a Lynk Global Inc. satellite that supports direct connection to unmodified mobile phones. The satellite was launched this summer.

The technology is being evaluated as a potential solar power solution for the Lynk Global constellation fleet. Data collected will provide valuable feedback to validate the product's performance in space.

"It's been amazing to watch this technology emerge from the labs and become a product sought after by satellite companies and federal agencies," said Mary Monson, Sandia's senior manager of technology partnerships and business development.

The solar cell technology was developed at the labs to reduce the cost of creating solar technology and increase its efficiencies. mPower Technology, a small, New Mexico company, licensed the technology from Sandia and commercialized it as DragonSCALES. The interconnected cells are made of highly efficient silicon that can be meshed into any shape, size or form.

mPower executives say benefits of the technology include ease of installation and system integration. Development costs are lower than other solar technologies because microcells require little material to form well-controlled and highly efficient devices.

"This was the first launch of our innovative DragonSCALES product with Lynk Global, and we look forward to a successful on-orbit demonstration for their constellation," said Kevin Hell, mPower Technology president and CEO. "With the rapidly increasing interest in our technology for a wide range of new space power missions, we expect many more launches in the near future."

Aiming for the stars and a future lunar landing

Future projects may take the technology as far as the moon.

mPower and spacecraft systems company Honeybee Robotics Inc. were recently selected by NASA as one of five commercial teams to develop designs for deployable solar array systems to be used on the surface of the moon and one day as charging stations to recharge rovers, battery packs and other electrical equipment used by spacecraft and astronauts.

The teams' designs must be maneuverable, fold into a volume of less than half a cubic meter and, if selected by NASA, the developed station would be dropped off by lunar rovers to supply power. The team is focused on a Honeybee concept called Lunar Array Mast and Power System, LAMPS, that incorporates DragonSCALES. The design will use some of the most cost-effective, lightest, large area extendable solar panels ever made, according to mPower.

Murat Okandan, mPower chief technology officer, said, "Some of the most exciting and challenging systems coming up have characteristics that are very similar to LAMPS, where cost-effective, large-scale deployment of power systems is going to be critical in being able to meet the mission needs and support the envisioned expansion of activity in orbit and for landed systems."

Labs programs enabled technology to reach private sector

Sandia announced the development of solar glitter in 2009 after the solar cells were fabricated by researchers using technologies to fabricate microelectromechanical systems in Sandia's Microsystems Engineering, Science and Applications facility, giving it the nickname MEPV for microsystem-enabled photovoltaics.

The original Sandia team continued to advance the technology through various projects sponsored by Sandia's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, the military and NASA. Today, some of the fabrication approaches pioneered by MEPV, such as oxide bonding, continue to be used for research involving semiconductors.

"DragonSCALES began as a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project in our lab over 12 years ago," said Keith Ortiz, manager of the microelectromechanical systems technologies department. "Now, the technology is in space, and I'm looking forward to the next 12 years of development beyond Sandia."

Okandan, one of the researchers who developed the technology, left Sandia through the Entrepreneurial Separation to Technology Transfer program and founded mPower. The program enables Sandia to transfer technology to the private sector by permitting employees to leave the labs to start up or expand tech companies. Entrepreneurs are guaranteed reinstatement for up to two years if they choose to return to Sandia.

In 2017, solar glitter was licensed to mPower. While the technology could be applied to a variety of devices of any shape, the company is focused on the space market and rapidly deployable, portable solar power systems.

"We couldn't be prouder of the researchers who developed solar glitter and established a technology bound for space," Monson said. "This is exactly the type of impact we are dedicated to at Sandia through our technology transfer programs. When technology leads to new companies, jobs and commercialization, it's a win-win all around."

Mini solar cells garner years of recognition

Solar glitter and DragonSCALES have received recognition through awards and news stories. In 2012 when the technology was new, Sandia received a prestigious R&D100 Award.

Following successful efforts to transfer the technology to mPower, Sandia and the company have been recognized multiple times by the Federal Laboratory Consortium. Earlier this year, the partnership received a national Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the consortium for transforming space power and other commercial markets.

Explore further Sandia's solar glitter closer to market with new licensing agreement
SoCal fire. Credit: Eddiem360, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

For the past decade in Los Angeles and the State of California, the question is not if there will be wildfiresbut rather when and where they will sprout up and how to protect people from these threats. As such, firefighters need to know how to plan and deploy limited resources.

One such solution is controlled burns of flammable brush to prevent worst-case scenarios of growing tinder that left unattended, provides fodder for megafires. With $5 million in support from the National Science Foundation's Convergence Accelerator program, a team of researchers, which includes UC San Diego's San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering and the Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida, will bring the power of AI to help firefighters strategize how best to plan these controlled burns, as well as manage unexpected blazes.

SDSC will lead the effort through the development of "BurnPro3D," a new decision support platform to help the fire response and mitigation community quickly and accurately understand risks and tradeoffs presented by a fire to more effectively plan controlled burns and manage wildfires.

The BurnPro3D platform will leverage SDSC's WIFIRE Commons, a data-sharing and AI framework that uses next-generation fire science in prescribed burns for preemptive vegetation treatment and USC's MINT modeling framework, which integrates highly heterogeneous models from separate disciplines, including geosciences, agriculture, economics and social sciences.

Ilkay Altintas, chief data science officer and director of the WIFIRE Lab at SDSC, is the project's principal investigator (PI).

For the USC team, Yolanda Gil, Director of New Initiatives in AI and Data Science at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering, will serve as the principal investigator.

"The NSF Convergence Accelerator program is all about innovation for societal impact. We have been developing key infrastructure and partnerships in this area for several years, and more recently working with collaborators at USC to include AI in various aspects of the project." said Altintas.

USC's Gil, a leading figure in AI, has long been bringing AI to bear on issues related to natural resources and the environment. Gil explains that AI can be employed to do automated reasoning about factors like wind speed and direction, slope as well as vegetation type and density, so it can quickly put together accurate models of how a controlled fire will evolve under different initial conditions. Further, says Gil, the AI will allow decision-makers to customize their mitigation strategiesfor example, creating a customized plan if the preference is to burn only 20 percent of the vegetation in a location or to reduce the impact to air quality.

The project also has personal meaning for Gil, a long-time, Los Angeles-area resident who has seen the impact of natural disasters in California but also in her native Spain, which was recently impacted by volcanic eruptions on the Canary Islands. Her first work on AI for natural disasters dates back to the mid 1980s as a student intern, where she worked with a civil engineering research group on using expert systems to predict floods that frequently occur in the Ebro, the longest river in Spain.

In addition to Gil, USC brings major AI expertise to the project leadership. Bistra Dilkina, Co- Director of the Center for AI in the Society will contribute to this effort along with Michael Pazzani of the USC Information Sciences Institute. USC will contribute AI research in three key areas:

using automated reasoning to select the best fire models for a given area's conditions and access the necessary data;

integrating physics-based machine learning with next-generation fire models and deep learning to understand complex processes that drive fire behavior;

applying constraint optimization methods to address complex tradeoffs in the decision process for the placement and timing of controlled burns

Like Gil, Dilkina, has also long applied AI to understand the impacts of natural disasters and has also employed AI to address wildlife conservation efforts. Her efforts will focus on the optimization portion of this work.

Dilkina says, "Selecting the most effective spatial allocation of prescribed fires is a daunting task, as it involves complex fire dynamics, limited resources and multiple objectives. I am excited to help bring AI approaches to the table to provide much needed decision support to the agencies responsible for wildfire mitigation and response."

Pazzani, a prominent machine learning researcher, brings to the project deep expertise in transparency and explanation which are crucial for AI decision support systems support.

BurnPro3D is one of 10 multidisciplinary research proposals that recently received a collective $50 million in NSF support, funded by the Convergence Accelerator program. According to Douglas Maughan, head of the NSF program, a convergence approach is essential to solving large-scale societal challenges, such as the massive fires that that burn regularly throughout the western United States.

Over the next two years, these teams will participate in an innovation and entrepreneurial curriculum that includes product development, intellectual property, financial resources, sustainability planning, and communications and outreach.

"The merging of ideas, techniques and approaches combined with human-centered design concepts and end-user insights assist our teams in transforming their ideas to a proof of concept, then prototype and finally a solution. With a three-year research model, we expect these teams to provide high-impact deliverables," said Maughan.

Explore further California fights fire with fire to protect giant sequoias
The team inspects a hole dug by engineers from The Boring Company. Credit: CU Hyperloop

Imagine living in a city in the distant (or maybe not-so-distant) future: You need to make an appointment across town, so you step into a pod in an underground tunnel. From there, you're whizzed at breakneck speeds through a series of twisting and turning tubes that stretch below the city.

That's the vision behind the Hyperloop, a proposed mode of transportation seemingly pulled straight from science fiction.

"The more I learn about Hyperloop, the more I'm convinced that this is something that could revolutionize how transportation works," said Toby Savage, a senior studying computer science at CU Boulder.

But before that can happen, scientists will need to bring new advancements to an activity that humans have done for eons: digging a hole.

That's where Savage and the roughly 20 other students in a campus club called CU Hyperloop come in. The students recently took part in the final event of the first-ever Not-a-Boring Competition. This one-of-a-kind challenge pits teams from across the world against each other to build sturdy machines that burrow underground and excavate networks of tunnels.

The Boring Company, founded in 2016 by billionaire and Hyperloop proponent Elon Musk, sponsors the competition.

From Sept. 6 to 12, the students traveled to the desert outside of Las Vegas to put their engineering skills to the test. The team battled the heat and blowing sand to showcase their designs for the ultimate tunnel-boring machine. Once completed, their creation will look like a mix of a mole and a robot, using a cutting wheel the size of an extra-large pizza to burrow a perfectly round tunnel underground.

"It's been really stressful, but a lot of fun," Savage said. "Getting to meet all the teams has been a really great experience."

It's also been a chance for the students to see how engineering works in the real world.

"No one had experience on such a big project coming into the competition," said team member Cody Wheeler, a senior studying aerospace engineering. "We're a team of students who are all about teaching each other how to become better engineers."

CU Hyperloop gets ready to test out its tunnel support structure. Credit: CU Hyperloop

Feeling the heat

On Friday, Sept. 10, they were minutes away from one of the biggest tests of their skills yet.

One of just 12 finalists out of a global pool of hundreds of competitors, the student team traveled to Nevada to face searing competitionliterally.

Temperatures frequently tipped over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the event.

"I'm trying to make sure all the students are keeping hydrated and taking breaks when they need it," Wheeler said, via Zoom, from the test site.

Because of budget constraints, the students haven't yet gotten their machine to the point where it can dig. (That's their plan for the coming year when the competition will start up again.) But they have laid out how the robot will work and manufactured many of its componentswhich judges from The Boring Company scrutinized all week.

If all goes according to plan, the end product will measure about 14 feet from end to end and weigh more than 1,300 pounds, pushing forward by jabbing a series of teeth into the side of a growing tunnel. It will be able to, as the contest requires, out-dig a snail, moving underground at a speed of about five feet per hour. And despite the machine's size, it will be surprisingly nimble, able to pivot up and down and turn left and right.

The Boring Company is paying special attention to how the CU Hyperloop team plans to support these underground tunnels. Arjun Mody, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering, explained that most of the teams in the competition will line their tunnels with rigid walls. CU Hyperloop, however, decided to go a more flexible route.

To shore up their tunnels, the team designed an expanding structure made from hardy metal rings connected by tarp.

"It's basically a super-strong dog tunnel," Mody said.

The tunnel support structure seen from inside. Credit: CU Hyperloop

As the boring machine digs, the structure will unfurl, filling the hole and preventing it from collapsing.

Or that's the hope.

On Sept. 10, the team put that design through its paces. Engineers from The Boring Company had dug a 20-foot-long hole at the testing site where Mody and his colleagues buried their tunnel liner under nearly 5 feet of dirt. They then dragged a series of sensors through the structure to make sure it could stand up to the crushing weight.

"I'm just praying it will hold up, and we'll get good data and won't have to change our plans for next year," Mody said from the site.

Ready to go

Back in Boulder days later, junior Zoe Zier said that the test captured the team's do-it-yourself approach to the competition. The CU Hyperloop team had just $50,000, raised from the Engineering Excellence Fund on campus and from industry sponsors, to design, fabricate and test their machine this yeara fraction of the funding that private boring companies have to work with.

To get around those limitations, Zier and her fellow students have had to think on their feet: They use a lot of inexpensive, off-the-shelf parts, including car jacks bought off Amazon. They also do all their own welding work and more.

"I think the coolest thing about our team is how much in-house manufacturing we were able to do," Zier said.

The approach seems to be paying off. The team's dog tunnel passed The Boring Company's test with flying colors.

Now, Zier and her colleagues are turning their attention back to the competition. They're talking to engineering companies to raise more funds for the effort and will continue to hone their boring machine in the coming months. Then they'll get to digging.

"I'm so proud of what we were able to accomplish this year, especially with such a low budget," Zier said. "Next year, we're going to do even more."
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Promoting sustainable mobility is one of the biggest challenges for cities in the 21st century. The now published Transport in Human Scale Cities focuses on this challenge. The book is available for free download here.

The book, which originated from the Network on European Communications and Transport Activities Research (NECTAR) conference held in Helsinki in 2019, offers a fresh perspective for both practicioners and researchers. It puts the critical sustainability challenges of our time at the center and calls for a paradigm shift in the way we think about urban mobility systems.

"The need for human-scale thinking is even greater now. It is needed in an effort to understand how people move and interact in cities. Such scale is also needed for understanding the organizations that are responsible for the cities," says Assistant Professor Milos Mladenovic from Aalto University.

"When we look at mobility from a human perspective, we are better able to recognize that moving around cities is not just about moving from one place to another as quickly as possible. The experience provided by the mobility environment also plays a big role in people's choices. By developing ideas through this lens, we can support mobility that is good for both people and the planet, " adds doctoral student Elias Willberg from the University of Helsinki.

The book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on, for example, the development of urban and transport planning processes, development of responsible innovation processes, and further considerations for equity in urban mobility systems.

"The climate crisis and the corona pandemic urge transport researchers and professionals to help transform our cities away from the current car-dominance," says Karst Geurs, a professor at the University of Twente who chairs NECTAR and is one of the book's editors.

"This moment is in many ways conducive to a change in perspective. The current crises are putting pressure for a new way of organizing urban mobility. Information to support change is becoming more accessible, as new types of materials and methods allow us to better understand people moving around the city and the diversity of their needs. Scientific work is also becoming more openly available, and our book is a testament to this. It is open to all interested from practicioners, to students and citizens, concludes Professor Tuuli Toivonen from the University of Helsinki.

Explore further Urban experimentation can help develop sustainable policies
It'll look the same and still be right here. Only the schedule will be changing. I'm going to be publishing three posts a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I can give myself a little time for other writing.

I'll be taking a short (working) vacation over the next few days, and then a (slightly) new version of The Online Photographer will launch next Monday, October 4th, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern U.S. Time.

The relaunch

"Relaunch" is a term from the magazine world, as far as I know. I've loved magazines all my life, although I've had a relationship with only five. Four were photography magazinestwo American and two British. First came Darkroom Photography, published in L.A. and notoriously owned by the pornographer Larry Flyntthe Editor sometimes called me from the pay phone in the building lobby because she feared her phone was bugged; Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques, its main competitor from the staid Midwest, founded by Seaton T. Preston Jr. and owned, when I was its Editor, by S. Tinsley Preston III; Darkroom User, heroically put together in the pantry of an ancient stone cottage in rural Wales by Ed Buziak, about whose life tales could be written; and the British Black & White Photography under its founding Editor Ailsa McWhinnie, of Brighton. (You can tell from those titles where my technical expertise lay.) The fifth was Model Railroader, where I was, briefly, a deeply unpopular Senior Editor (reason: I was not a model railroading hobbyist, which the entrenched staff took as an affront. Their beef was really with management, but they did not want me around). Ailsa's replacement at B&WP was the Assistant Editor whose responsibility it had been to nag me about my deadlines, and as soon as she took the reins of power I was promptly sacked. By that time I had written 80+ columns for them and was out of things to say anyway. That was right around the time TOP began earning enough to sustain me and my son entirely. I had few expenses and we were used to frugal living.

So my last B&WP column 13 years ago was my last gig working for anyone but myself. But I like all parts of the workings and the lore of magazines, and have always been glad I got to work for a few. TOP is not "published," per se, but I sometimes refer to itwith a dollop of grandiosityas a "vertical photography magazine."

The relaunch of any magazine is a big deal for its publisher. It is usually considered that a relaunch is as perilous as an initial launch, or mostly so. I don't actually know much about relaunches, apart from what I learned from my mentor at Preston Publications, Thea Berg. We changed the name from Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques to Photo Techniques along with a revamped logo and a new graphic design. That was a real relaunch, especially considering that a considerable percentage of our circulation was newsstand sales. Thea, the Publishing Director, taught me most of what I know about publishing.

The Online Photographer relaunched once already, in 2007. I started the blog in 2005 on Blogger, a CMS service owned by Google. In 2007 I woke one morning to find I had been locked out of my own blog because some Google bot somewhere suspected TOP of being a "spam blog," whatever that is. Blogger had no customer service, and I could not get in touch with a human there. I panicked, thinking I would swiftly lose my hard-won audience, and stayed up two nights in a row relaunching the site on TypePad, which has responsive and helpful CS. Michael Reichmann of The Luminous-Landscape, along with Steve Sanders of Steve's Digicams and Bob Atkins of Photo.net, bless them all, helped spread the word to my abruptly alienated audience as to where I had gone. Blogger eventually reinstated me, and I was surprised to learn that my readers were all still there. I did later get a letter written by an actual human apologizing for the lockout and inviting me to return to Blogger, but the the deed was done by then.

This is a very minor relaunch, and probably doesn't deserve the name, but I think it will help me to have a formal launch date.

Accordingly, on Monday, October 4th, TOP will relaunch as a three-times-per-week blog with new content appearing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

If all goes as planned, I'm going to restructure my writing hours to give each post a little settling time, so I can go over them twice with a night's sleep in between. That's something I have almost never done that in the 15 years and 10 months I've been doing this: I just compose and Publish Now, compose and Publish Now, like typing and sending emails. It's really not the best way to write well, although I think it's been good training. Not too different from writing for a newspaper.

If I manage to do that, then the posts can be published on a time schedule. The plan is for them to appear on Mon./Wed./Fri. at:

7:00 a.m. in New York, which is

12 noon in London, and

9 p.m. in Sydney.

Comments and Featured Comments will appear the following day, except for Fridays, when the comments will appear on Sunday. (I try to take Saturdays off.)

Telling tales

The reason for this is to give myself time for other writing. After well over 9,000 blog posts I'd really like to try some longer-form writing in addition to what I do here. It seems a good time for it. I have some ideas, and some stories to tell. What else do I have to contribute to others, other than that? How else can I do any good in the world?

I've paid my dues. When I was 19, Saul Bellow told me at a brunch at Dartmouth that if I wanted to be a writer the first thing I had to do was get through the first three million words. I was crestfallen, but I got to work on it that afternoon. I passed three million words long ago.

So see you here next Monday morning, for more of the same ol' TOP, but also, in a small way, a new start.

Mike
Job Title: Dispatcher (Fresher Jobs)

Organisation: United States US Embassy in Kampala

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Salary: UGX 42,407,278 /=

Announcement Number: Kampala-2021-035

About US:

The United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The Dispatcher will be working in the Motor Pool unit of the General Services Office (GSO), the Dispatcher coordinates daily as well as advanced assignments for all drivers to schedule transportation for post personnel and official visitors.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Operations Management

Coordinates among users and drivers to meet requests and ensure efficient operations; handles emergency transportation requests as needed.

Arranges work shifts, shuttle and other official trip schedules to meet all transportation needs.

Serves as team leader to provide guidance and direction to chauffeurs on vehicle operations, safety measures, as well as specific instructions on transporting VIPs.

Ensures drivers appearance is presentable, and vehicles are clean and in good operational condition.

Reports any inappropriate behavior and rule violation; ensures compliance with safety regulations.

As back-up to the Motor Pool Supervisor, maintains training records and ensure that each operators training status complies with the Department of State regulations.

Fleet Management

Analyzes fuel usage and vehicle maintenance data, periodically inspects vehicles, and develops vehicle rotation plans to enhance efficient fleet utilization.

Submits vehicle mishap reports to supervisors within 24 hours; and reports all damage to US Government vehicles or properties, and when citations are issued to drivers.

Participates in accident investigations.

Administrative Functions

Prepares periodic reports on trip scheduling, chauffeurs shift work and

Prepares monthly bills to subscriber agencies.

Assists with motor pool inventory and barcoding.

Coordinates with repair facilities to send vehicles for routine maintenance.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicant for the United States Embassy Dispatcher job should have completed Secondary School

A minimum of two years of professional driving experience in host country, plus one year motor vehicle dispatcher or fleet management experience is required.

Good knowledge of host country traffic laws, vehicle licensing, registration, and procedures.

Detailed knowledge of host country streets, traffic patterns, and commonly visited locations.

A valid drivers license is required. Strong technical, and administrative skills.

Basic keyboard skills and skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook applications.

Language: English level III (Good working knowledge) Reading/Writing/Speaking is required.

How to Apply:

All those interested in working with the US mission in Kampala should send their applications online at the link below.

Click Here

Deadline: 1st October 2021

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
ONE of the surprises emerging from the presentation of the 2022 budget on Monday by Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, was his announcement that the Government proposed to offer for sale 10,869,565 ordinary shares in First Citizens Holdings Ltd.
The older residents of Belmont and environs may remember back in the 1980s there used to be 
KNEELING PROTEST: Vishnu Ramsood, Lake Foreman at Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago, leads fellow employees in prayer as they block the road leading to the company's administrative building, during a protest at the La Brea Industrial Estate, yesterday. The employees are asking management to compensate them for the two months they have not received a salary. -Photo: DEXTER PHILIP
I appreciate the position taken by Mr Kevin Baldeosingh on the reasons why he will not get 
Vietnams gross domestic product (GDP) slid 6.17 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2021 as the government tightened social distancing measures to contain the coronavirus spread, marking the sharpest drop since the country began announcing its quarterly GDP figures in 2000.

Nguyen Thi Huong, head of the General Statistics Office (GSO), announced the figure at a meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday morning, attributing it to the stagnation of most production and business activities during the lengthy lockdown since the emergence of the fourth COVID-19 wave in the country on April 27.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected all aspects of the economy, Huong stated, adding many key economic hubs in Vietnam have been placed under strict and prolonged social distancing.

In the third quarter alone, industry and construction contracted 5.02 percent, services slumped 9.28 percent, and agro-forestry-fishery lost 1.04 percent.

However, Vietnams GDP still expanded 1.42 percent year-on-year during the January-September period, representing the countrys effort to maintain business and production in the tough situation.

The nine-month GDP growth was largely driven by the agro-forestry-fishery sector with an expansion rate of 2.74 percent, contributing 23.52 percent to the overall increase.

Industry and construction grew 3.57 percent during the period, although services dropped 0.69 percent, Huong elaborated.

The wholesale and retail sector fell 3.1 percent, the transportation and warehousing industry decreased 7.79 percent, and the accommodation and food service industry tumbled 23.18 percent.

About 90,300 enterprises withdrew from the market from January to September, up 15.3 percent year on year.

The GSO noted that this data may not accurately reflect the real situation as many businesses have not been able to carry out necessary procedures for their withdrawal due to movement curbs in multiple localities.

The pandemic has disrupted many production supply chains, especially those in Ho Chi Minh City, according to Pham Dinh Thuy, an official from the GSO.

The number of businesses withdrawing from the market has never been this high, Thuy added.

In the first nine months of this year, approximately 85,500 new enterprises were established, down 13.6 percent over the same period of last year.

Regarding future business trends, many enterprises specializing in processing and manufacturing still keep an optimistic outlook in the last quarter of 2021, GSO said.

Besides, the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Vietnam as of September 20 decreased 37.8 percent year on year, but their combined registered capital increased 20.6 percent.

Among 50.4 million people of working age in Vietnam, 2.91 percent are currently unemployed.

The unemployment ratio is 3.78 percent in urban areas and 2.39 percent in the countryside.

Between January and September, about 3.04 percent of the working-age population became underemployed.

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In 2012, a man of Hmong ethnic origin from northern Vietnam went missing after being lured to China in search of a better job.

Two years later, after walking over 7,000 kilometers, he managed to return home in one piece, bringing back stories of his incredible escape from slavery.

Now that he has a home to his name and a family to take care of in Lung Lau Village of the northern Vietnamese province of Ha Giang, Vu Gia Po feels safe recalling the hellish time he spent in China and his death-defying escape.

The great escape

As Po tells it, the person who set the ordeal in motion ten years ago was none other than his stepfather Vu Chu Mua, who convinced him to take a high-paying job north of the border, offered by a broker named Vu Xi Gia.

Shortly after Po agreed to go, Gia grouped him up with some other job hopefuls and sent them on a clandestine trip to China.

Upon handing over the group to the Chinese middlemen, Gia received his commission and left, while Po and his fellow villagers were sent to a dormitory building housing hundreds of workers in Guangdong Province.

Po could barely talk to anyone there, as the workers came from various areas, each speaking a different language.

His boss there was a Chinese man, who sought to regulate his inferiors with barbaric penalties.

I got whipped if I didnt do land plowing work hard enough, or even if I took a break at midday, Po recounted.

Once he kicked me right in my chest when I was eating. Im terrified of his boots, he said as he pointed to a scar in the middle of his torso.

The brutal man forced Po and the workers to wake up in the early morning to do all kinds of hard labor based on local demand, be it tree planting, stevedoring, or farming.

But their food rations were dangerously low in protein, which led several people in the dorm to become fatigued and later disappear from the site.

Seeing his fate dangling by a thread, Po resolved to make it out of the hellhole.

The feet of Vu Gia Po, who trekked 7,300 kilometers to flee modern slavery in China. Photo: V.T. / Tuoi Tre

One day, when the group of workers was shepherded to a worksite at midnight, Po took his chance to flee into the woods as the tyrannical boss was busy beating other workers.

Fearful of being caught on major roads, Po pushed forward through the dirt tracks, wandering aimlessly unable to ask for help from anyone.

Surviving for 18 months by panhandling for food, he went through Chinas Yunnan Province, then Myanmar, Indias northeast state Manipur, and Bangladesh, before traveling trans-India to reach Pakistan, where he came under suspicion of being a spy and was arrested by local authorities.

There, he spent three months in jail before the Vietnamese Embassy and several non-profits helped get him released and repatriated.

By that time, he had trekked an estimated 7,300 kilometers without any vehicles, money, or even food.

On May 12, 2014, Po was reunited with his family in Ha Giang after two years going missing.

After he left, I did not hear anything about him for quite a while, Ly Thi Lia, Pos wife, recalled.

I cried my eyes out when I saw him again.

Vu Gia Po (left) and his wife Ly Thi Lia at their home in Ha Giang Province, Vietnam. Photo: V.T. / Tuoi Tre

The present-day

After selling Po off a few years ago, Gia went on to scam his wife, saying her husband was caught after trying to flee and needed VND30 million (US$1,318) to bail himself out.

Having no other choice, Lia had to sell a patch of land, her livestock, as well as using all her savings, to pay the shady smuggler.

I still had to provide for three children studying at the time, but my only patch of farming land was gone, Lia remembered the past struggles as tears rushed to her eyes.

Meanwhile, there was no news of her husband until the day the information of his survival came to her through local police officers.

Overwhelmed with joy, she drained her pockets again to follow the officers to Thailand, where she was finally reunited with him after two years apart.

When they returned home, the couple received a total of VND70 million ($3,000) from a reporter who covered their story, as well as benefactors who heard about them through the media, which helped them invest in livestock and make a living.

In the meantime, Gia and Mua were indicted, each receiving six years of imprisonment on charges of human smuggling.

Speaking of the future, Po said he still yearns to travel the world, just not in the same way he did to survive.

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Vietnam's Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son has suggested that the Russian government accelerate support for the Southeast Asian country in the transfer of COVID-19 vaccine production technology.

Minister Son convened a meeting with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, as part of his official visit to Russia from September 25 to 28.

During their talks, the Vietnamese official stated that Vietnam always considers Russia as one of its most important and trustworthy partners.

Lavrov affirmed that Vietnam is a very reliable partner in his countrys foreign policy.

The two ministers agreed that the Vietnam - Russia comprehensive strategic partnership has been developing dynamically despite obstacles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The political trust has been consolidated via online meetings and phone talks between senior leaders and officials from ministries and sectors of the two countries.

Growth has been sustained in economic and trade ties, with bilateral trade in the first half of 2021 rising 12.5 percent year on year to US$2.6 billion.

The two nations have been cooperating in the fight against COVID-19 by sharing medical supplies and equipment, according to the two ministers.

Russia has also transferred biological products to Vietnam to produce one million doses of Sputnik V vaccine.

Minister Son suggested Russia continue providing and transferring production technology of COVID-19 vaccine and medicine to Vietnam as agreed.

The two countries should further expand cooperation in medicine, space science, and management of natural resources, facilitate Vietnamese farm produce exports to the Russian market, and bolster ties and exchanges between their localities, he added.

The two officials consented that both sides will keep reinforcing coordination at important multilateral organizations and forums.

They affirmed ASEANs centrality and underlined the importance of upholding and complying with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to ensure regional peace, stability, cooperation, and development.

Minister Son took the occasion to invite his counterpart to visit Vietnam in the near future.

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The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has resumed the usage of a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine batch after ordering a suspension as experts ruled out its involvement in the death of a newly-vaccinated person.

The health department requested all districts and Thu Duc City to stop administering Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses from the batch coded FK0112 on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC).

It asked medical units to wait for expert opinions on a fatality reported after getting inoculated with a vaccine from the same batch.

Meanwhile, during a press conference shortly afterward, Dr. Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, chief of office of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that the suspension of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine batchs usage was prompted by administrative issues.

The usage could be back on track once the issues were tackled, according to Mai.

At the meeting the health department convened later on the same afternoon, medical experts initially concluded that there was no evidence that the vaccine batchs quality had anything to do with the person in questions fatality.

The experts added that they were looking forward to the results of the forensic examination on the deceased person before coming to a final conclusion on the exact cause of their death.

Following the meeting, the HCDC informed medical units to continue using the batchs Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to immunize people.

Ho Chi Minh Citys health workers have administered over 6.8 million first doses and more than 2.9 second shots of COVID-19 vaccine to residents, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

Nationwide, over 40 million have been administered, with nearly 8.6 million people fully vaccinated.

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The European Union (EU) delegation to Vietnam tweeted on Tuesday that Italy decided to present an extra 1,225,440 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam, bringing its total aid to more than 2.8 million doses.

The Italian government donated 801,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam via the COVAX Facility on August 25 and another 796,000 shots of the same vaccine on September 21.

The EU is the second-largest donor of COVAX.

Its delegation to Vietnam said in Tuesdays tweet that COVAXs vaccine deliveries from the union to Vietnam topped nine million doses, including 670,080 doses from France and the aforementioned 2,833,500 shots from Italy.

Other EU member states have also granted Vietnam several direct bilateral donations to aid the Southeast Asian countrys fight against the pandemic.

The donations consist of 100,000 vaccine doses from Belgium, 250,000 doses from the Czech Republic, 3.45 million doses from Germany, 100,000 doses from Hungary, 501,600 doses from Poland, 300,000 doses from Romania, and 100,000 doses from Slovakia.

In addition, the Czech Republic transferred 500,000 excess doses for a fee to Vietnam while Poland resold three million doses at no profit to the nation.

Those EU countries also donated test kits, face masks, protective gear, medical equipment, ventilators, and specialized refrigerators to Vietnam.

The delegation affirmed that the EU continues to stand with Vietnam in the combat against COVID-19.

To date, Vietnam has received more than 54 million doses through the COVAX Facility, foreign government aid, and purchase contracts, of which over 40 million have been administered, with nearly 8.6 million fully vaccinated people, according to the Ministry of Healths data.

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A team of officers was filmed breaking the lock of an apartment and forcing a woman to undergo COVID-19 test sampling in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong on Tuesday.

The incident took place at Ehome 4 Apartment Complex in Vinh Phu Ward, Thuan An City at around 10:30 am on Tuesday, according to a probe by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The woman in question is H.T.P.L., who resides in Block B of the apartment building.

Several video clips of the incident were uploaded to social media, one of which was recorded by L. herself.

L. said she was teaching an online yoga class when someone knocked on her door and requested her to have her nasal swab taken in public.

The woman then refused, explaining that she had already conducted a COVID-19 test by herself.

L. added she did not want to come into contact with others, and she was in the middle of her class.

A group of people including representatives of the ward authorities, police officers, and members of the apartment complexs management board later forcefully opened the door of L.s apartment and took her to the yard for the nasal swab collection.

A representative of Vinh Phu Wards steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control confirmed the authenticity of the video clips, adding that the ward Party chief was also present at the time.

The representative said they had to use force because the woman was not cooperating.

She had refused to be sampled multiple times before, he continued, adding that the womans apartment is located on the ground floor and thus at very high risk, as infections were once detected in her block.

"We dont want to do this to anyone, but it requires assertive measures to effectively contain the pandemic, he stated.

Sampling only takes a few minutes if local residents agree to cooperate.

After the videos went viral, Thuan An Citys steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control has required relevant agencies to make a report of the case.

Whether or not the use of force violated the law is also being clarified.

Police in Vinh Phu Ward have booked L. for violating pandemic response regulations and will summon her to their station for a working session.

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The Ministry of Health recorded 8,758 new coronavirus cases in Vietnam on Wednesday, along with 23,568 discharged patients and 162 deaths.

The new cases, including 8,744 local and 14 imported infections, were reported in 33 provinces and cities, the health ministry said.

The ministry had registered 4,583 locally-infected patients on Tuesday.

Almost 5,000 of the latest infections were found in the community, with the remaining detected in sectioned-off areas or centralized quarantine facilities.

Ho Chi Minh City documented 4,699 local cases, up by 4,322 patients from yesterday; Binh Duong Province 2,389, down by 186; Dong Nai Province 899; Long An Province 132; Soc Trang Province 112; Can Tho City 42; Hanoi four; and Da Nang one.

Vietnam has confirmed 774,854 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 list with 380,870 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 208,953, Dong Nai Province with 47,969, Long An Province with 32,270, Tien Giang Province with 13,951, Dong Thap Province with 8,233, Khanh Hoa Province with 7,776, Da Nang with 4,914, Hanoi with 4,212, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 4,130.

By comparison, Vietnam detected a combined 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in the previous three waves.

The health ministry announced 23,568 recoveries on Wednesday, taking the total to 583,509.

The toll has risen to 19,098 deaths after the ministry documented 162 fatalities on the same day, including 113 in Ho Chi Minh City and 33 in Binh Duong Province.

Vietnam has registered 779,398 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year.

Health workers have administered over 41 million vaccine doses, including 1,097,044 shots on Tuesday, since vaccination was rolled out on March 8.

Nearly nine 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.

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NITV is looking at Big Mob Brekky becoming a permanent fixture in its schedule.

Two week-long broadcasts for Indigenous Australians have been part of NAIDOC Week on NITV, but the network is hoping for more.

Media commentator Tim Burrowes writing in his Unmade newsletter, attended a Forgotten Upfronts presentation from media agency Initiative, talking to advertisers around content that doesnt fit the traditional demographics.

Anna Dancey, national sales manager of NITV, revealed that Big Mob Brekky may become a permanent part of the networks offering.

She offered the stat that Australia has 853,000 Indigenous Australians, making up 3.3 per cent of the population, Burrowes notes.

However, NITVs typical reach is much less than that, generally attracting a share of significantly less than one per cent of the free to air metro audience.

I suspect theres a pretty big hurdle to leap over. Daily breakfast television is expensive to make, particularly if its live. Putting together a weeklong show, once a year, is one thing. But a daily budget would require a significant budget.

Big Mob Brekky last July was hosted by Shahni Wellington, Ryan Liddle and Tyrone Pynor.

In a statement NITV added, Big Mob Brekky has been a part of our NAIDOC Week programming and were exploring ways we could make it part of the schedule at other times, but there are no confirmed plans at this time.
There are fears the boom in production which was triggered by Australias early handling of the pandemic may be subsiding.

While NSW and Victoria have been hard hit in 2021, vaccines have helped production to resume in the USA and international territories.

Lockdowns and tight border restrictions have been blamed for cancellations, postponements and even some major projects, such as Chris Hemsworths Extraction 2 that was supposed to be shot in New South Wales, heading back overseas.

Producer Georgina Marquis, shooting Netflix film True Spirit, argued it was getting harder to lure big name cast and crew away from the United States.

I feel like its already starting to peter out a little bit, she told ABC.

Ive been back for 14 months now and Ive been fortunate enough to work solidly but it feels like things are starting to die out.

I think thats mostly because of the restrictions that we have with borders and getting people into the country.

It just makes it really difficult. Were really isolated here.

Screen Australia boss Graeme Mason has conceded border restrictions are making filmmaking more difficult in Australia .

Weve got great incentives and its up to us to remain as attractive as we can, but I do think theres a bigger slice of global business coming, he said.

Kate Marks, the CEO of AusFilm, added,We always knew at some point the world would open up and wed be back to that pre-COVID very competitive environment, she said.

But Australia really does have an incredibly attractive offer for these international film-makers from locations to crew facilities, weve got a strong track record over many many years.

You can read more here.
Last Sunday Germans voted in a historic election, deciding who will replace Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16-year tenure.

Ultimately her ruling CDUs pick for Chancellor Armin Laschet lost to the Social Democrats SPDs Olaf Scholz, and negotiations over a coalition that can command a majority are ongoing.

It may take weeks to find out whether Scholz or Laschet will become the next Chancellor.

But what does SPDs win and the departure of Merkel, dubbed "The Climate Chancellor", mean for Germanys climate leadership, a part of Germanys national brand under Merkel?

The Climate Chancellor

During her 16 years in office, Merkel pressured other political parties to review their green credentials by putting the environment at the centre of German politics.

Even so, many were left wondering if she lived up to her Climate Chancellor moniker.

The reality is that Merkel had more luck in pushing the climate agenda abroad than at home. In Germany, she had no choice but to balance between competing demands from powerful car and coal industries.

Merkels strong reliance on science had been a big part of her success, from hosting the first-ever COP climate summit, to leading Germany through COVID-19.

Yet Germanys fossil fuel addiction remained a blind spot for her.

Merkels critics accused her of ignoring the harmful environmental impacts of fossil fuels and Germanys automotive sector was labelled an Achilles heel for the CDU which has close ties to the leading export industry.

Recently Merkel announced the car industry was a central part of the solution to the climate issue, and the plan to see 1 million electric car (EV) charging points by 2030 was part of an attempt to halve carbon emissions.

Germans were not thrilled: a recent survey (in German) in 22 countries discovered that Germans were the most sceptical about the viability of EVs.

In terms of take-up, Germany still falls behind Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Are Germans forced to choose between fossil fuels and EVs? Fortunately not. The reputation of EVs has been challenged because of the polluting battery manufacturing process.

Story continues

Whilst EVs may not be the ultimate solution, when combined with wider deployment of renewables such as biofuels, they can reduce carbon emissions.

Biofuels offer an alternative

Biofuels could offer a renewable alternative to fossil fuels for the German transport sector, the only industry that failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since the 90s. However, this progress has been further hampered by the European Union.

In 2018, the EU implemented a ban on palm oil for biodiesel, which ironically gives the highest yield per acre of any oilseed crop  up to nine times more than other crops including rapeseed, sunflower and soybean.

Critics labelled the ban a protectionist move to promote the EUs domestic biofuels industry, primarily European rapeseed dominating the biofuels market.

Despite the association with deforestation, if produced sustainably, palm oil could triumph over alternatives.

Last month, leading palm oil producers announced their transition to net-zero emissions, a move to increase sustainability in the sector.

Malaysia is an example of these investments yielding results: with its nationally mandated Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) scheme, the country has certified around 90% of its palm oil.

Thus, over the past four years, Malaysia has seen a decrease in deforestation, due to tougher law enforcement under MSPO.

The green transition of the German transport sector wont be an easy road. Yet, cars have been a defining question for the German electorate, hindering the Greens success despite the party leading the polls in April.

Approximately every 50th German is employed by the automotive sector and experts fear the switch to EVs will cause unemployment.

After fatal floods swept through Germany in July, climate change has been at the heart of the national debate, continuing to be German voters top concern. That said, there is a gap between green ideas and how Germans think.

Understanding this could explain why the Greens Annalena Baerbock failed to capitalise on the climate crisis, alienating some voters with an ambitious climate agenda although evidence shows climate change has increased the risk of natural disasters in Europe.

The Greens are however likely to have a key role in the next government especially since SPD expressed interest in joining forces.

The upcoming government will entail a power-sharing deal which will, without doubt, influence Germanys climate leadership in the post-Merkel era.

Isabel Schatzschneider is an environmental activist and researcher specialising in food ethics, religious ethics and animal welfare. She is currently working as a research associate at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg.
President Emmanuel Macron led a solemn tribute on Wednesday to French soldier Maxime Blasco, who was killed in action battling Islamist insurgents in Mali.

Blasco, who had recently been decorated for his bravery, was part of a French unit deployed to a forested area near Malis border with Burkina Faso.

He is the 52nd French soldier to have died in the Sahel region since Paris deployed a counterterrorism force in 2013 to drive back Islamist militant groups that had seized cities and towns in northern Mali.

French forces earlier this month said they had killed the leader of the West African affiliate of Islamic State in a drone strike in northern Mali.

Wednesday's national tribute at the Invalides in Paris comes a day after French lawmakers held a minute of silence to honour the fallen soldier.

Macron announced in June that France was reducing its presence in the Sahel region, where some 5,000 French troops are currently deployed.

The announcement has heightened tensions with the military junta in power in Mali, which is in talks with the controversial Russian security company Wagner over the deployment of Russian mercenaries in the restive country.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
Greece will buy three French warships as part of a $3.5 billion defense deal announced Tuesday, AP reports.

The big picture: The defense and security strategic partnership comes after a scrapped multi-billion dollar submarine deal with Australia thrust French President Emmanuel Macron into a diplomatic crisis this month.

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France was blindsided by the submarine deal involving the U.S., U.K. and Australia and accused the U.S. of a "stab in the back."

Tuesday's announcement also aims to boost Greece's defense capacities in the Eastern Mediterranean against longtime adversary Turkey.

Details: Greece will purchase three French frigates, with an option for the acquisition of a fourth.

The frigates will be delivered in 2025 and 2026, per AP.

What they're saying: Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the partnership at a joint news conference in Paris, per AP.

"The Europeans must stop being naive," Macron said.

"When we are under pressure from powers, which at times harden [their stance], we need to react and show that we have the power and capacity to defend ourselves. Not escalating things, but protecting ourselves," he added, per Reuters.

"This isn't an alternative to the United States alliance. It's not a substitution, but to take responsibility of the European pillar within NATO and draw the conclusions that we are asked to take care of our own protection."

Mitsotakis said the partnership comes "out of national motivation to shield our country," but also has "a European motive as it strengthens our common defense industry."

"This will tie us for decades," Mitsotakis said, per Reuters. "This opens the door to the Europe of tomorrow that is strong and autonomous, capable of defending its interests."

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The University of North Georgia's (UNG) international cadet programs are providing a variety of opportunities this fall for members of the Corps of Cadets while also welcoming cadets from partner schools.

Leonora Ndow, a junior from Snellville, Georgia, pursuing a degree in criminal justice, is the first UNG cadet to study at Korea Military Academy (KMA) in Seoul, South Korea. Plus, six cadets from Taiwan and an international student from Austria are participating in the Corps of Cadets.

Ndow's semester in South Korea is the next step in a growing partnership after two KMA cadets studied at UNG in the spring. Lt. Gen. Jung Soo Kim, KMA's superintendent, is also visiting UNG from Oct. 4-5.

A cadet on UNG's National Service Leadership Track (NSLT), Ndow took Korean classes previously at UNG. NSLT cadets do not commission but seek employment with the federal government, global commercial entities or nongovernmental organizations upon graduation.

"I want to gain further understanding of the Korean language and become fluent," Ndow said.

Ndow aspires to work for a government agency or the Atlanta Police. This fall, she is taking notes on the leadership approaches KMA takes with its cadets.

"I want to grow my leadership so I can teach more to my fellow cadets when I come back," she said.
Hands-on projects focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as social studies and language arts have always been part of the Summer Scholars Institute (SSI) at the University of North Georgia (UNG). Now, STEM for English learners will be the focus.

The academic achievement program will be recast as the Summer Scholars STEM Institute thanks to a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. Five UNG College of Education faculty members were awarded $299,046 for three years to retool and expand the program.

"The day I realized that we got the grant, I was so happy," Dr. Max Vazquez Dominguez, associate professor of science education in UNG's Department of Middle Grades, Secondary and Science Education. "One of my main goals is to continue working with the Latinx community using bilingualism and science."

Vazquez Dominguez and the College of Education's Dr. Romola Bernard, Dr. Sheri Hardee, Dr. Lauren Johnson, and Dr. Winnie Namatovu have a big task before them. They must recruit about 20 UNG students pursuing degrees in elementary and special education and middle grades to remodel and implement the program. Hardee, dean of the College of Education, said the pre-service teachers will receive a stipend for participating as co-educators and co-researchers.

Vazquez Dominguez believes this and other benefits will interest future educators.

"These preservice teachers need to have the tools to work with diverse populations," Vazquez Dominguez said. "The Summer Scholars STEM Institute will be a great opportunity for them to acquire and practice those skills by putting them to use in this immersive environment."
As a tradition in the modern world the Middle East remains unstable. Continuous political turbulence in the region extinguishes all of previous leaders and appoints new ones, who with the Fortunas blessing were able to use their opportunities efficaciously. During the last couple of decades we have witnessed a number of coups detat, revolutions, counter revolutions and international interventions each with varying degrees of success.

Modern Diplomacy reports that regional power balance has lived through constant change however one of the players has managed not only to stay on top but overtake his counterparts. That powerhouse became Russia, the influence of which has grown the most compared to other parties in the Middle East.

Certainly, the Russian authorities didnt have to start from scratch. Moscow took advantage of Soviet inheritance of friendly relationships and military cooperation with Arab countries. However, the modern strategy of Russia is far more sophisticated. Within the framework of developing its presence in the region the Russians combine political prowess, military might and soft power. All of the mentioned are a part of hybrid warfare concept, which is not an exclusive Russian stature, but Kremlin excels at it. Besides, Russia has one clear advantage against other world superpowers  consistency.

A great example of those principals is the Russian engagement in Syrian conflict. The first stage in the grand plan was a military operation, which stabilised Bashar Assads grip on power, restricted influence of the armed opposition and diminished capabilities of ISIS. The distinguishable features of the operation were active use of the aviation and precision weaponry in addition to the use of the newest types of weapons and advanced tactics. The success achieved by the military means was further developed by Russian political initiatives most notably during meetings in an unprecedented Astana format, which gathered together at a negotiation table Russia, Turkey and Iran. As a consequence this format became a substitution to the dead-end UN Geneva process. Along with that, to protect its interests Moscow has successfully capitalised on bilateral relations. The agreements made between Russia and Turkey became a main factor to reconciliation of situation in the Idlib province. Additionally, Russia serves as a mediator between Iran and Israel in the southern regions of Syria.

Whereas in Libya Russia did not believe it was necessary to conduct a full-scale military operation, however the principles stayed the same. The Russian side, which from beginning has supported Halifa Haftars Libyan National Army, regularly receives representatives from both sides of the conflict and notably Russian Ministry of Defence plays an active role in the negotiation process. LNA has gained some crucial allies such as Egypt and United Arab Emirates in consequence of the efforts of the Russian military.

Turkey became a main adversary of Russia in both Syria and Libya. Moscow and Ankara have managed to secure their cooperation despite periods of escalated tensions between the countries, i.e. after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkish-backed militants. Unchallenged success was Turkey leaderships decision to purchase S-400 missile complex in spite of pressure from US. In addition to that, Turkey has chosen Russia as partner to build a nuclear plant in Akkuyu. Even president Erdogan doesnt allow himself to openly badmouth his Russian counterpart, whereas the Turkish leader voices bitter complaints about a bad start in the relationship with the head of the White House.

Along active interference in the aforementioned domains Russia manages to sustain its relationships with the countries of the Persian Gulf. This concerns not only the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries but also military technical cooperation including the participation of Arab countries in the Army Games organised by the Russian military. The vast network of contacts allows Russia to play on contradictions between Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.

Russians became firmly entrenched in the Middle-East by dual-wielding their diplomatic and military capabilities. Thanks to clever positioning Russia can now secure its goals by simply waiting for their opponents to make a mistake. This is what happened in Afghanistan where the political vacuum left after the US withdrawal provided Russia with an opportunity to declare its readiness to facilitate the settlement process. Contacts with the Taliban established beforehand and Russias solid relationships with China and Qatar became an additional advantage.

Ultimately, consistency and succession of Russian middle-eastern policy at the head of which is usually the Armed Forces of Russian Federation, has provided numerous solid opportunities for Moscow to promote its interests in the region. Opposed to its rivals Russia has achieved the consolidation of its position and that is undisputed argument for the effectiveness of Kremlins strategy.
Exactly a year ago, on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan's Patriotic War began. On that day, Armenia's occupying forces subjected the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan along the front line and the adjacent populated areas in Azerbaijan to intensive fire with the use of large-calibre weapons, artillery and mortars. Baku decided to launch a counter-offensive operation to ensure the safety of the civilian population. Vestnik Kavkaza offers its readers to follow the events of the 44 days of Azerbaijan's Patriotic War as they were covered a year ago.

On the third day of the war, September 29, all night fierce fighting continued, the invaders tried to return to abandoned positions near Agdere in the northeast of the front line and in the Jebrail and Fizuli districts in the south. In the morning, shelling of Azerbaijan's border Dashkesan region began. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani liberation army launched a counter-offensive in the Fizuli direction.

In order to balance the series of defeats on the battlefield, the Armenian Defense Ministry came up with new fake news, declaring the re-occupation of a number of Azerbaijani territories and the elimination of the F-16 fighter, which had never been in service with the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, by the Armenian air defense. Information was also disseminated about sending the Armenian ministers' sons to the front without specifying who and where exactly. Meanwhile, the number of Azerbaijani civilians who suffered from the Armenian shelling continued to grow.

Responding to calls for a ceasefire from abroad, Azerbaijan once again emphasized that hostilities have been and will be conducted exclusively within the Azerbaijani borders. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan continued to publish videos about the destruction of military equipment of the invaders. At about 10:00 it became known about a counter-offensive in the Khojavend region, where the motorized rifle regiment of the invaders was eliminated. In the Jebrail region, the commander of the artillery division, the colonel of the occupation forces of Armenia, was destroyed.



At 11:00 it became known that the complete evacuation of the occupiers, separatists and illegal settlers from Khankendi was organised. At the same time, Yerevan's threat of long-range missile strikes against peaceful Azerbaijani cities far from the front was voiced for the first time, which was subsequently implemented. By this time, 10 civilians of Azerbaijan had already died under artillery shelling, journalists in the village of Gapanli came under fire, and a shell hit a medical center in the village of Garadaghly.

After 12:00, information appeared about the advance of Azerbaijani troops from Araz to the north, to the village of Hadrut. Yerevan, through the lips of puppets in Khankendi, began to express dissatisfaction with the neutrality of Russia. Iran announced that it did not supply Armenia with weapons. Paris decided to resume the constructive work of the OSCE Minsk Group, Switzerland said it is ready to host meetings to support the negotiation process. The United States once again called for an immediate ceasefire, and the Kremlin - for negotiations. At the same time, the UN Security Council does not announce the agenda of the evening meeting.



By 14:30 the instigators of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict arrived in Khankendi. A series of new fake news has appeared about the attack on the Armenian city of Vardenis and the presence of mercenaries from the Azerbaijani side. Baku announced its intention to liquidate the Armenian S-300. Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta announced the threat of the occupiers to the security of Europe.

By the evening, the number of Azerbaijani civilians killed under the shelling of the Armenian Armed Forces rose to 12 people. After 19:00 it became known about the destruction of several more officers of the occupation forces.

In the evening, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan responded to questions from the hosts of the program aired on the Russia-1 TV channel. The Armenian leader summed up all the fakes in Yerevan's arsenal. After that, Pashinyan canceled the Armenian delegation's visit to a meeting of the bilateral commission on military-technical cooperation in Russia.

Thus, on the third day of the war, September 29, fighting continued on the northeastern and southern fronts. The Azerbaijani army began to move north to Hadrut from Araz, and the occupying troops of Armenia made unsuccessful attempts to re-seize the previously liberated lands. Yerevan has set up a fake factory to "balance" the Azeri side recording facts about the course of hostilities. The shelling of Azerbaijani settlements in the front-line zone and on the border of the two countries has intensified.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that the government's primary goal is to ensure safe environment for free and fair elections, which are essential for Georgia and its European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

"Our primary goal is to ensure safe environment for conducting free & fair elections, which are essential for & for our & Euro-Atlantic aspirations," Garibashvili has tweeted.

Irakli Garibashvili addressed the countrys international partners earlier today as well, saying that the government will ensure the upcoming October 2 municipal elections are held in a calm and competitive environment.

He also warned of expected provocations and noted that police are mobilised for the elections and no one will be allowed to provoke chaos.

Georgia will have local self-government elections in October 2. A total of 71 local and 33 international organisations will observe the election process.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has 49.6% support in the municipal elections, Imedi TV commission poll says.

The opposition United National Movement (UNM) comes next with 25.9% of support.

Other parties with the highest voter support include: For Georgia  5.3%, Alliance of Patriots  4.1%, European Georgia  2.7%, Lelo  2.6%, The Third Force  2.2%, Girchi-More Freedom  2%, Labour Party  1.8%, Citizens  1.5%, Girchi  0.9%.

Meanwhile, ruling party mayoral candidate Kakha Kaladze would receive 53.6% of the votes if the elections were held today; 27.7% would vote for UNM candidate Nika Melia. Other candidates receive less than 10% of support from the potential voters.

The poll conducted by Gorbi between September 10-19 is based on 2,000 face-to-face interviews countrywide. It includes only the responds of the voters who have confirmed their intention to the interviewers to cast ballot on October 2, Agenda.ge reported.

Overall 241 mayoral and 2,845 majoritarian candidates are running for the local elections and over 3.4 million countrys citizens will be able to elect them in various cities of Georgia.

The mayoral candidate must receive more than 50% of votes in the local self-government elections while the majoritarian candidate must obtain over 40% of votes to gain the victory in the first round.
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to Geneva, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; and Paris, France from September 29 to October 6, 2021.

Kerry will engage with counterparts on efforts to address the climate crisis and raise global climate ambition ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will be held October 31 to November 12, 2021, in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

In Geneva, on September 29, Secretary Kerry will meet with business leaders to discuss the role of the private sector in scaling innovative clean technologies and tackling the climate crisis.

In Milan, from September 30 to October 2, Secretary Kerry will attend the Pre-COP, a preparatory meeting held a month before the Conference of the Parties.

In Paris, from October 3-6, Secretary Kerry will attend a meeting at the Elysee Palace on mobilizing global financial flows to tackle the climate crisis, and will attend the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Ministerial, Shared Values: Building a Green and Inclusive Future.
It is not planned to sign any documents following a meeting between Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"No, it is not expected," he said when TASS asked the relevant question.

Putin and Erdogan will hold talks in Russias Sochi on September 29. The Kremlin earlier said that the leaders plan to discuss various aspects of the Russian-Turkish partnership in the political, trade and economic spheres as well as the situation in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and the Trans-Caucasus.

In turn, Erdogan said that he has "serious expectations" from his negotiations with Putin. According to him, Ankara seeks to propel its relations with Moscow to a higher level and boost the trade turnover to $100 billion. Moreover, the Turkish leader said in August that he wants to discuss the details of purchasing the second regiment of S-400 missile systems from Russia.
LUKOIL signed an agreement yesterday on acquiring a 25% participating interest in the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) exploration project in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea from BP.

The deal is expected to complete before the end of 2021, following its approval by the government of Azerbaijan. After the completion of the sale, bp will remain operator of the project, holding a 25% interest.

The third party to the project is SOCAR, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, with a 50% share.

"LUKOIL's joining of the project of bp and SOCAR falls in line with both Russia's and Azerbaijan's national interests related to the evolvement of international cooperation in energy domain. I am convinced that all the scientific and technical resources gathered by the partners will boost development of the prospective area in the shallow waters of the Absheron Peninsula," said Vagit Alekperov, PJSC LUKOIL President. 

"We are pleased to welcome LUKOIL to the SWAP partnership, building on our successful relationship in the Shah Deniz project. We look forward to working closely with them and SOCAR on the exploration work programme, which, if successful, will deliver value to Azerbaijan and to our partnership," said Gary Jones, bp's regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
North Korea test-fired a new hypersonic missile, Hwasong-8 on September 28, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the paper, the tests were held at a testing range in the northern Jagang Province.

During the test, the missiles maneuverability and stability were confirmed. Besides, the North Korean military noted the stable work of the missiles engine and fuel system, the paper said.

No information about the distance covered by the missile is available so far.

Hwasong-8 was designed by the Academy of Defense Science of the DPRK under the five-year plan of development of strategic weapons. During the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong UN said his country continues its hypersonic missile program.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday that North Korea fired a short-range missile towards the Sea of Japan. According to preliminary estimates, the projectile covered about 200 kilometers, reaching the maximum altitude of about 30 kilometers.

On September 15, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, which fell in the exclusive economic zone of Japan. According to South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles covered the distance of about 800 kilometers and reached the maximum altitude of about 60 kilometers.

On September 13, North Korea also announced successful testing of a new long-range cruise missile, which was held on September 11 and 12.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told senators on Tuesday that the nation's top military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, spoke to his Russian counterpart about an apparent offer to use Russian bases to respond to terrorist threats following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But the Pentagon chief downplayed assertions the department was seeking Moscow's "permission" to conduct military operations from those locations, Politico reported.

"Gen. Milley just recently had a conversation with his Russian counterpart," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I can assure that we are not seeking Russia's permission to do anything. ... But I believe he asked for clarification on what that offer was."

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Milley discussed the Kremlin offer with Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov when the pair met last week in Helsinki.

The conversation stemmed from a June summit between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva where Putin floated hosting U.S. troops at Russian bases in Central Asia. According to the report, Milley's query was at the behest of the White House National Security Council staff, which wanted the Joint Chiefs chair to clarify whether the offer was serious.

"This is an issue that I believe came up during a conversation that the president had with President Putin where President Putin offered ... to provide assistance," Austin said.
Meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started at Russias Official Residence of Presidency in Sochi, according to the Turkish presidential administration.

The talks have begun 14:20 Moscow time. For Putin, this is the first public face-to-face meeting since he went into quarantine in connection with the many cases of COVID-19 detected in his entourage.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin and his Turkish counterpart commenced their talks in Sochi. "Yes, the talks have begun," he told TASS.

The cooperation between Russia and Turkey on combating the COVID pandemic is developing very positively and at a good rate, Putin stated during his meeting with Erdogan.

"The work here is proceeding very positively, at a good rate," the Russian leader said, referring to the joint work of the two states on combating the pandemic.

"I believe that this will help in the restoration of the economy in general and tourism in particular," Putin added.

The Russian leader noted that the spread of the coronavirus hit hard the global tourism sector. "The pandemic hit very hard the tourism sector overall globally," he said, mentioning the situation with the tourist flow between the two countries as an example as 6.8 mln Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2019, and only 1.5 mln  in 2020.

"Currently, the situation is recovering gradually. In nine months of this year, 2.5 mln Russian tourists [visited Turkey]," Putin said.

The state of affairs in this area particularly depends on the cooperation between the two countries in tackling the coronavirus spread, which is going "quite positively, with good rates," he added.

Putin believes that the Russian and Turkish agencies have learned to compromise to mutual benefit, although negotiations sometimes proceed with difficulty.

"Negotiations proceed with difficulty sometimes, but the end result is invariably positive. Our agencies have learned to compromise to the benefit of both countries," Putin said at negotiations with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

Putin stressed that mutual investment kept growing. "We have $1.5 billion of accrued Turkish investment in the Russian economy, while Russian investment in the Turkish economy stands at $6.5 billion," Putin said.

He pointed out that the two countries were implementing major projects. "All proceed as planned," he added.

Earlier today Erdogan arrived in Russia. The Turkish president is accompanied by head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin.
Russia seeks a rapid relaunch of the direct inter-Syrian talks in Switzerland but opposes any imposition of artificial timelines, Russias Permanent Representative to the UN Vasiliy Nebenzya said at Tuesdays Security Council meeting.

"We hope for a quick relaunch of the direct inter-Syrian dialogue in Geneva. It is vital that this process continue to be led and managed by the Syrians themselves without foreign interference or imposition of artificial timelines but with the UNs neutral mediation," TASS cited him as saying.

On July 9, the Security Council adopted a resolution on further cross-border humanitarian aid for Syria. The paper was prepared by Russia, the US, Ireland and Norway. It prolongs the operation of the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint on the Syrian-Turkish border for 12 month, under the condition that the UN Secretary General presents a report on the cross-border aid mechanism in six months since the resolutions adoption.

The final document was a compromise between the proposal of Ireland and Norway - who suggested reopening one additional checkpoint on the Iraqi border - and that of Russia, who suggested prolonging only the Bab al-Hawa operation, and only for six months.
The Taliban (the terrorist movement outlawed in Russia) on Tuesday said that U.S. drones are operating in Afghan airspace and asked it to follow obligations to prevent negative consequences.

Calling the U.S. move a breach of national security, the Taliban's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid asked all countries and Washington to act in accordance with mutual obligations.

He also emphasised that acting on obligations would prevent negative consequences.

"We call on all countries, especially the United States, to act in accordance with mutual obligations ... to prevent any negative consequences," he said in a tweet, according to Sputnik.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan last month and announced its interim government earlier in September. The U.S. troops left Afghanistan on August 31 under the previously agreed Doha deal with the Taliban last year.
At least two terrorists were neutralized in an anti-terror operation in southeastern Turkey, the country's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the ministry said the armed terrorists were targeted by local gendarmerie forces in the Bestler-Dereler district of the Sirnak province during Operation Eren-13.

The terrorists affiliation was not specified, but the PKK terrorist group has been active in the region.

The ministry added operations against terrorists in the region are ongoing, Anadolu Agency reported.
Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of the Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG), has asked for the Prime Ministers permission to establish a cargo airline.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam proposed not to licence a new airline in the current period.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh has assigned the ministries of Planning and Investment, Transport, Finance, Construction, Justice, and the State Bank of Vietnam to consider key projects of IPPG.

Previously, Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, who is known as the "king of luxury goods" in Vietnam, sent a document to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to report on his groups key projects.

IPPG and its partners from the US, South Korea and other countries are actively working with related provinces, cities and ministries to implement 45 key projects in five investment fields in Vietnam.

Two outstanding projects are the establishment of a freight airline named IPP Air Cargo and a logistics center called Bellazio Logistics.

IPP Air Cargo plans to sign a memorandum of understanding to buy 10 B777 Freighter aircraft worth about $3.5 billion with Boeing (USA).

In June 2021, IPP Air Cargo Joint Stock Company, chaired by Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, asked the Ministry of Transport to approve the policy on investment in IPP Air Cargo project. The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam suggested that the Ministry of Transport should not licence the establishment of a new airline in the current period.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam then cited Official Dispatch No. 5833/VPCP-CN dated July 17, 2020 informing the Prime Minister's instruction on establishing new airlines in the new situation.

Accordingly, the Prime Minister agreed in principle with the proposal of the Ministry of Transport that "the establishment of a new airline will be considered after the aviation market recovers, expected in 2022".

Based on the Prime Minister's opinion, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam proposed not to licence a new airline in the current period.

Vu Diep
Cashew nuts, pepper, rice, bananas and mangoes from Cambodia have been flooding the Vietnamese market, turning the country into the biggest farm produce exporter to Vietnam in the last eight months.

As a farm produce export country which earns $40 billion a year from exports, Vietnam still has to import farm produce for domestic production and consumption. The US and China have been the biggest exporters to Vietnam for many years.

However, the Ministry of Rural Development (MARD) has reported that Cambodia has unexpectedly replaced the two countries as the biggest farm produce exporter, with $2.9 billion worth of farm exports to Vietnam in the first eight months of the year, accounting for 10 percent of Vietnams total farm imports.

Cambodias agencies reported that the country exported 2.38 million tons of unhusked rice, up by 86 percent compared with the same period last year and 24,476 tons of pepper.

It also exported 355,550 tons of cassava, or 75.7 percent of its cassava exports, and 140,000 tons of mango, or 86.8 percent of exports.

The other agricultural products including maize, banana and pomelo have also been exported to Vietnam in large quantities.

Vietnam imported 2.03 million tons of cashew nuts in the first 7 months of the year, worth $3.05 billion. Of this, 1.1 million tons, worth $1.83 billion, were from Cambodia, a sharp increase of 456 percent in quantity and 632 percent in turnover.

As such, Cambodia has become the biggest cashew nut supplier of Vietnam.

According to Vo Tong Xuan, a respected agriculture export, Vietnam has been importing farm produce from the country for many years. Cambodian farmers use good varieties, while the land is fertile, so their farm produce has high quality. Cambodian rice, for example, is favored by Vietnamese.

Xuan noted that there is a growing tendency of Vietnamese farmers going to Cambodia to lease agricultural land to cultivate cassava and other crops. This is because the agricultural land area in the country is large, while the rent is reasonable and the labor cost is lower than in Vietnam.

The farmers harvest farm produce in Cambodia and bring it back to Vietnam for sale. With this production model, the production cost is lower.

That is why Cambodian farm exports have increased so rapidly, Xuan said.

Dang Hoang Giang, Secretary General of the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), expressed his surprise about the unexpected rise in cashew nut imports, saying that the association is checking with its member companies.

The General Department of Customs (GDC) has sent a dispatch to customs agencies in 8 southern provinces on strengthening inspection on the origin of raw cashew imports from Cambodia in order to prevent trade fraud.

Tam An

Vietnam aims to become worlds farm produce granary The national digital transformation program says Vietnam will develop hi-technology agriculture with a focus on smart and precise agriculture, while increasing the proportion of digital agriculture in the economy.
The call at midnight from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to HaNams leader led to a breakthrough in the Covid-19 prevention and control strategy.

An online meeting of the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control

Ha Nam Chair Truong Quoc Huy related that on the night when Ha Nam province was preparing to isolate Phu Ly City in accordance with Directive 16, he received a call from Chinh who told him to reconsider the decision.

Chinh, who is Head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, had reasons to worry.

It was just one hour before social distancing began in Phu Ly City. At 11pm, I called the provinces leader, he recalled.

The Prime Minister raised a question: Phu Ly has nearly 200,000 people and 250,000 workers. Will the province have enough resources for a long social distancing campaign and ensure social security for nearly 500,000 people during two weeks?

And the Prime Minister reminded the provinces leader that with the large-scale social distancing, the province would face difficulties in goods circulation and essential goods supply.

The Prime Ministers call then made HaNams leaders rethink.

According to Huy, the province leaders then convened a meeting at night and finally decided that only some places in the city would be isolated. In a ward with 12,000 people, for example, only one alley with 36 families and 100 people was isolated.

The narrow isolation allowed the province to save resources. We did not have to spend too much in resources on providing essentials and could gather strength on other works, including testing, Huy explained.

Turning point

The story was related during an online meeting of the steering committee on September 25.

This marked a turning point in Vietnams actions to prevent and fight the pandemic. There was no need to isolate entire districts or provinces when only several cases were found.

Meanwhile, the steering committee and local authorities came to an agreement that Vietnam needs to shift from a zero Covid to adapting flexibly and safely to the pandemic strategy.

The Prime Minister needed step by step to preparew in terms of psychology and awareness, for the entire political system before the agreement was reached.

Two days before, at a meeting, the Prime Minister said since the situation had changed, the measures to fight the pandemic needed changing.

Itll be difficult to obtain zero Covid. This is an impossible mission even in developed countries with a vaccination rate of over 90 percent. We are building guidance on how to safely and flexibly adapt to the new situation, and effectively control the pandemic."

At a meeting with scientists a couple of weeks ago, Chinh also mentioned the unreasonable isolation.

Only one residential quarter had positive Covid cases, but the entire communes and wards were isolated. Only one commune had cases, but the entire district was isolated. Meanwhile, no one could say what the isolation aimed at. There was no goal, no roadmap and no measure, he said.

Zero-Covid strategy

The appearance of Delta variant, which is highly contagious, changed everything, especially the experience which brought success to Vietnam in 2020.

The principle of tracing, isolating, localizing and stamping out the pandemic, which strives for zero Covid, proved to be no longer reasonable as the number of infections increased too rapidly, especially in HCM City and neighboring provinces.

Under the zero-Covid philosophy, 23 cities and provinces nationwide imposed social distancing in accordance with Directive 16.

The lockdown has caused serious consequences to the national economy. Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) estimated that if the pandemic can be controlled in September and the economy returns to the new normal from Q4, Vietnams GDP growth rate may reach 3.5-4 percent.

If so, this would be the second year that Vietnam will not t be able to implement its GDP growth plan and this would affect the 5-year development plan in 2021-2025.

Dont be extremist

The pressure from the business community and the new way of thinking adapting safely to Covid-19 have led to changes in the pandemic control strategy.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long late last week announced the draft document expected to replace Directives 15, 16 and 19, and Decision 2686.

This is an important document which adjusts all the strategies and solutions to cope with the pandemic in the time to come, Long said.

With the removal of the no Covid principle, the Ministry of Transport has publicized the draft transport resumption plan which does not require full vaccination for passengers.

According to experts, isolation on smallest possible scale may be applied in some cities and provinces. However, the principle needs to an official policy throughout the country.

First, if imposing social distancing on small scale, localities wont have to spend too much in financial and personnel resources.

Second, local authorities can organize social distancing for 14 days, during weed out positive cases from the community, and implement testing.

Third, narrow isolation allows flexible mobilizing and organizing medical staff to take care of every household.

Tu Giang

Businesses say Health Ministry's guidance on living together with pandemic is inflexible The draft document that guides how to adapt to Covid-19 safely strives for zero Covid goal, not living together with the pandemic, the business community says.
The Vietnamese National Assembly will create favourable conditions for local and foreign businesses in all economic sectors to invest and do business in the country.

Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue. (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnamese National Assembly will create favourable conditions for local and foreign businesses in all economic sectors to invest and do business in the country, said NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue at an online working session with a high-ranking business delegation from the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) on September 30.

The working session was held under the chair of the top legislator at the request of the USABC.

Hue affirmed that Vietnam will continue to focus on improving the business and investment environment, and national competitiveness, thus facilitating business and investment activities in the country in the coming time.

US businesses appreciated the efforts and measures that the Vietnamese Government is taking to protect people against the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that they support Vietnams current dialogue methods to safely resume business activities.

They also expressed interest in Vietnams policies to encourage the application of scientific solutions in agriculture development, and promote investment, especially foreign investment, in clean energy development in the country.

Highlighting the impacts of the pandemic such as disruption of supply chains and rising material prices, representatives from many US firms hoped that Vietnam will adopt policies to support businesses such as reducing tax and fees and extending tax and fee payment deadlines, as well as considering not to increase taxes.

NA Chairman Hue emphasized that one of the main driving forces for Vietnam's growth in the time ahead is the application of science, technology and innovation with a focus on the human factor.

The Vietnamese NA attaches important to developing an ecosystem for innovation in the country, he said, expressing his hope that US businesses as well as the USABC will continue to support Vietnam in promoting and building an innovation ecosystem, especially digital transformation.

Regarding the difficulties faced by the business community in Vietnam, NA Chairman Hue said the NA and the Government have issued policies to support businesses, not only by reducing or exempting taxes and fees but also providing support to those that are suffering a loss or having difficulties in money flows in the coming time.

Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director of the USABC Michael Michalak affirmed his support for Vietnams efforts so far, saying that this dialogue has opened up a new opportunity for developing cooperative relations between the council and agencies of the Vietnamese NA.

He said the USABC is ready to discuss and appoint a permanent section for the cooperation with the Vietnamese legislative body, and it will also work with agencies of the US Congress to further strengthen cooperation between the two sides./.

Source: VNA
Universities need to organize standardized tests and apply specific methods to enroll students instead of relying on the high school finals to select students.

The high required benchmarks for entry to universities have been blamed on the easy exam questions at the high school finals. Some students failed admission in universities even though they got a 9 score for every exam subject.

However, a former senior official of Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) said high school final exam questions must be easy, because the purpose of the exam is recognizing the students completion of the general education program. Students just need to have basic knowledge to finish high school.

High school final exam is obviously different from university entrance exam and high school final exam questions must be less difficult than university entrance exam questions, he said, adding that it would be a blunder for universities to rely on high school finals to select students.

Le Truong Tung, President of FPT University, agreed, saying that the current enrollment method based on the results of the high school finals plus priority scores is unreasonable.

Priority scores are the scores given to special groups of students.

If exam questions are easy, many students will have high scores on the exams. If so, the students with priority scores will have an advantage over others, and excellent students may lose opportunities to enroll in schools and would be done an injustice.

According to the official, universities need to learn a lesson from this years enrolment season and change their enrolment method in coming years.

They will need to recalculate the proportion of students to be selected by considering high school final exam results, high school learning records, standardized tests, and achievements at national competitions for excellent students.

Schools have the right of self-determination. Of course, autonomy is always associated with taking responsibility, he said.

When asked if each university should organize university entrance exam itself to select students, as was done in the past, the official said he doesnt think this is a good idea.

It would make things difficult for students. We saw that university entrance exams caused disturbance in society, he said.

He warned that it would be very costly for schools to organize exams and prepare exam question banks themselves.

Some educators have proposed the establishment of independent exam centers, saying that this a trend in the world. The centers would organize exams all year round and universities can select students based on the information to be provided by the centers.

However, the centers must be independent and prestigious. Therefore, MOETs management will play a very important role.

Dong Ha

Benchmarks for entry to universities are too high, parents and students complain The required benchmarks for admission to universities this year have been described as "abnormally high" by some.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc with delegates from the Viet Nam Association of the Elderly.  VNA/VNS Photo Lam Khanh

HA NOI  President Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted a reception in Ha Noi yesterday for outstanding members of the Viet Nam Association of the Elderly. The event marked the 30th anniversary of the International Day for the Elderly (October 1st) and the Action Month for the Vietnamese elderly in 2021.

Speaking at the meeting, President Phuc extended his best wishes to delegates and Vietnamese elderly across the country, on behalf of the Party and State.

President Phuc praised the important contributions made by the Viet Nam Association of the Elderly throughout every period of the countrys history, especially in their protection of Viet Nam's sovereignty and the nations socio-economic development.

He also complimented the practical and meaningful activities of the Elderly Association at all levels. Together with the political system, they helped create better living conditions for the elderly.

Phuc attributed successes in the fight against COVID-19 to the efforts of the entire system and people from all walks of life, including the elderly.

He also instructed authorities, and society in general, to take responsibility for providing good care to the aged, particularly in building the National Action Programme on the elderly in Viet Nam, in the period of 2021-2030.

At the grassroots level, greater efforts should be made to develop healthcare establishments for the elderly, supported by policies to uphold their role in society, he noted.

Viet Nam now has 11.4 million elderly individuals, 9.7 million of them are members of the Elderly Association, according to Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Association of the Elderly, Pham Thi Hai Chuyen.

Every year the association cooperates with the health sector to provide healthcare, health counselling and periodic examinations for millions of elderly people.

In the period of 2021-2030, the Elderly Association will focus on strengthening protection and care for the elderly, as well as promoting their important role in society. The Intergenerational Self-Help Club model, a community-based organisation, will promote health longevity through a variety of inter-generational activities.  VNS
Incumbency no help for Booz Allen in fight for DTRA contract

The competition between Booz Allen Hamilton and Noblis for a $263 million Defense Threat Reduction Agency contract was neck and neck with both companies getting strong technical and past performance scores.

Their prices also were only $3 million apart, with Booz Allen bidding $266.5 million compared to Noblis $263.3 million bid.

You would think that as the incumbent that Booz Allen would have a bit of an edge to continue providing DTRA with support for planning, programming, budgeting and execution related to DTRAs cooperative threat reduction program. The company also provided experts in areas such as weapons of mass destruction, international agreements, acquisitions, training and administrative support.

So it isnt surprising that Booz Allen filed a protest when DTRA awarded the contract to Noblis.

One of the major points that Booz Allen argued is that it should have been given higher scores for past performance because of the expertise and experience it has gained as the incumbent. Both companies were give scores of Substantial Confidence.

But DTRAs selection decision authority believed that while Booz Allens experience was a strength and would have an immediate impact, it would diminish over time.

GAO ruled that there was no basis for Booz Allen to argue that the selection decision authority was required to give them a high score.

Booz Allen also argued that DTRA didnt follow the criteria described in the solicitation and didnt enter into discussions with the bidders.

GAO rejected this as well.

One area where Noblis outscored Booz Allen was its staff approach. Noblis got the nod over Booz Allen because of the details it provided about how it would hire and retain people. Booz Allens proposal apparently lacked the details DTRA was looking for. Booz Allen also didnt provide details on how over time it would shift more work to subcontractors.

Noblis scored an Outstanding in this area, while Booz Allen received a Good score.

Booz Allen leaned hard on its experience with the customer but in the end that didnt persuade DTRA nor did it persuade GAO.
Key considerations as you face the government shutdown

As we rush headlong into a government shutdown, Im feeling a mixture of deja vu and an impending sense of doom.

Weve been here before and weve watch the brinkmanship of elected leaders play out again and again. But something does feel a little different this time as well. Maybe it is the debt ceiling and the risk of economic collapse. The long term risk there is significant.

But experts like David Berteau, president of the Professional Services Council, say that the White House and congressional leaders are focused on the short term and we are unlikely to see a big fix come out anytime soon.

The bottom line is that almost all of this is out of your control, so what should government contractors be doing? Plenty.

We ran a column yesterday by attorney James Fontana that explores many of these actions. Berteau and PSC held a briefing yesterday as well reviewing proactive steps contractors should take as well as offering a historical perspective on government shutdowns.

COMMUNICATIONS

That is a key element of many of the actions being recommended.

Top of the list is talking to your contracting officers. As Berteau explained, the contracting officer is the ultimate gatekeeper on stopping and restarting contracts as well as determining what work can and cant happen during a shutdown.

You need to be talking to your contracting officers now and throughout the shutdown, Berteau said.

In addition to the contracting officers you have to talk to your customers, your program people who set the requirements, approve the invoices, etc., he said.

A close second is communicating with employees. Companies face a real dilemma, do you continue to pay employees and consume any cash on hand you have, or do you furlough employees and risk losing them?

The economy is different today that the last government shutdown in the winter of 2018-19. That was a partial shutdown so work continued at the Defense Department, Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services. Thats a large part of the federal market, so companies had some wiggle room.

This time it will be a full-shutdown and because of the tight job market, furloughed employees should have plenty of opportunities to find employment elsewhere.

Some employees may be deemed essential at the start of a shutdown and will continue to work. Others may be deemed non-essential but will get called back in if the shutdown lingers on. Workers who were essential in the beginning can be deemed non-essential later.

ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE

The data and insights you gain from talking to contracting officers, customers and employees all feed into your analysis of the current situation. But it is important to realize that your analysis and conclusions will change because the situation will change with the length of the shutdown.

What you do in the first few days will likely not be the same things you do in the second or third week, and beyond.

There are key questions you need to be asking your customer, according to Bertau:

Has your contracting officer reviewed and implemented the agencys shutdown guidance?

Who provides access to government facilities, personnel, or information?

Who can accept deliveries of goods and services? This is a critical because if no one accepts your work, you cant move onto the next task.

How do you contact the contracting officer during the shutdown?

What is your remaining period of performance? If your period of performance runs out during a shutdown, will there be a contracting officer or other government official who can grant an extension?

PREPARE FOR THE UNKNOWN

First on the list of unknowns is how long the shutdown will last. You have no control over that, of course.

A major thing to consider is that a shutdown isnt one-size fits all. There is no real consistency from agency to agency and often within agencies on how they will handle the shutdown.

So just because Agency X says one thing, Agency Y is just as likely to do it differently.

And inside an agency and office, youll likely face inconsistencies. Berteau shared the story of one set of contractor employees being sent home, while the employees from another company were deemed essential. This happened despite the fact they worked side-by-side on the same project.

Another unknown to prepare for is the recovery. As Berteau said, its simple to shut down and stop work, but it is more complex to reopen.

A lot depends on the contracting officers and how quickly they sign return to work orders, but there also are ripple effects, for example, on solicitations being issued and new awards being made.

Berteau said that for every day of a shutdown there are 3 to 5 days in subsequent delays. The last shutdown was 35 days so we are talking months and months before the government caught up.

There is still time of course for Congress to act but the best we can hope for is short-term continuing resolution that pushes the deadline out a few weeks.

A shutdown almost feels inevitable, so its best to prepare and expect the worst.
When trendsetting Unionmade shut down suddenly in Summer 2019, longtime clients were stunnedwhere oh where would they procure those nonchalant Woolrich sweaters, selvedge jeans, and subtly curated accessories?

But the beat marches on, and there are still plenty on-point menswear shops here waiting to lead the band. Ready to fall into some fresh looks? Here are our favorite men's clothing storesfrom casual to hipster to classicfor fashionable guys of all ages in San Francisco.

Welcome Stranger: For self-styled urban nomads Welcome Stranger on Instagram: Wear it again. The LS Crew from Welcome Stranger and the OD Chinos. Made in U.S.A.  #ootd #sffashion #mensfashion Slip into this Hayes Valley mainstay and you'll find a savvy selection of rugged men's clothing from brands including Carhartt and A.P.C., along with a hipster-friendly collection of Instagram-able home pieces and grooming products. With a dedicated range of wardrobe staples such as canvas jackets and chinos under the house label, Welcome Stranger is also the perfect place to stock up on homegrown basics. // Welcome Stranger, 460 Gough St. (Hayes Valley), welcomestranger.com



Tanner Goods: For the guy who aces weekend casual Tanner Goods on Instagram: Our newest Pacific Moss collection has quickly become a favorite. Inspired by the PNW, made from our strongest 10oz. ripstop waxed canvas. Portland-based Tanner Goods has everything an aspiring (and stylish) weekend warrior might want, from Tellason denim to handmade and ruggedly handsome household items from the likes of Mazama Wares. Don't miss their in-house collection of leather accessories, especially the belts, which are made from English bridle leather that gets better with age. Select according to length and color, then have it customized with the hardware of your choice. // Tanner Goods, 651 Divisadero St (NoPa), tannergoods.com



Maas & Stacks: For the guy who knows underground designers @maasandstacks on Instagram: NONNATIVE FW19 - GOOD FOR VARIOUS TERRAINS Carpenter Puff Jacket in Olive Hunter Shirt Jacket in Black Carpenter Puff Jacket in Beige Now Maas & Stacks is your proverbial pit stop for men's clothing stores from too-cool-for-school underground designers. The minimalist interior on Market stocks an edit of some of the coolest names in the business. From Hiroki Nakamura's highly sought after Visvim label to fleece tracksuits from Noma T.D., the boutique helpfully pre-announces key drops on their website. Although, seeing as how limited each collection can be, you have to be quick on your toes to avoid disappointment. // Maas & Stacks , 2128 Market St. (Upper Market), maasandstacks.com



The Archive: For the avant-garde guy who doesn't go with the flow The Archive San Francisco on Instagram: HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE . NOW AVAILABLE AT THE ARCHIVE . #thearchivesf #mensfashion #blackfashion #darkfashion #handmade #borisbidjansaberi Check out The Archive for avant-garde, fashion forward pieces that you're unlikely to find elsewhere in the city (or most of the country). A great place to discover unique menswear from a thoughtful curation of visionary designers, The Archive is worth checking out for its design-focused, high-end men's clothing and accessories from the likes of Boris Bidjan Saberi, Kloshar, and Incarnation, to name but a few. Think sculptural silhouettes, textural layers and innovative design details, all set against a predominantly black, white and gray palette. // The Archive, 317 Sutter St (Union Square), archivesf.com



The Darkside Initiative: For the guy who knows his kicksand then some The Darkside Initiative on Instagram: The Nike x Off-White Waffle Racer collection releases Thursday, December 12th.  Due to high demand and limited quantity, we will be In a city where sneakers have a firm footing in the daily dress code, the regularly updated selection at The Darkside Initiative caters to aficionados with a dark, goth-ish side. With its slick collection of sneakers, streetwear and limited-run accessories, including hard-to-find pieces by Japanese street labels Neighborhood and WTaps (they are the exclusive distributor of WTaps in SF), the brand presents each item in a clear, coherent way in two stores in the city. // The Darkside Initiative, 1827 Powell St. (North Beach) and 989 Valencia St. (Mission), thedarksideinitiative.com



Cable Car Clothiers: For the guy who wants classic style and a shave Cable Car Clothiers on Instagram: #haberdashers #fairislesweater #madeinscotland #privatelabel #sweatervest #crewneck #sweaterseason #fallcollection2019 #ivystyle #trad A Financial District institution for over 75 years, the high-ceilinged, emporium-style Cable Car Clothiers is an impressive one-stop destination for dapper dressers. The traditional men's clothier caters to enthusiasts of classic menswear, with an emphasis on British stylethough they also carry updated renditions of old favorites such as a Tellason's indigo striped selvedge shirt. Step inside and you'll find everything from handmade Loake wingtips to iconic Stetson fur felt and straw hats. There is also an on-site barber shop and shoe shine service, ensuring a head-to-toe finish for those so inclined. // Cable Car Clothiers, 110 Sutter St. (FiDi), cablecarclothiers.com



Self Edge: For the die-hard selvedge denim fan Kiya Babzani - Self Edge on Instagram: Garment dyed fleece hoodies from 3sixteen, made exclusively for Self Edge. Available in pull-over and zip-up versions. Launching at Mega If denim's your thing, then Self Edge on Valencia should be your first stop. This SF outpost stocks an unparalleled range of jeans from some of the best makers in the world, including Iron Heart, Stevenson Overall Co. and Studio D'Artisan. It's where denimheads come to feed their addiction for unsanforized denimjeans that come with a grittier texture and are then shrunk to fit, rather than being pre-shrunkand a sweet spot for rugged silver jewelry and leather accessories from the likes of The Flat Head, not to mention an on-point collection of inspirational indie mags. // Self Edge, 714 Valencia St (Mission), selfedge.com


After a lot of hype and four years in the making, The Matheson has finally opened in Healdsburg with three distinct concepts operating under one roof: a bar, a fine dining restaurant, and a buzzing rooftop lounge.

When I arrived at the restaurant for my dinner reservation on a Friday evening, I was surprised to find a significant line out the door, a rare sight for a small town like Healdsburg. But it makes sense, considering The Matheson is by far Sonoma County's most anticipated restaurant opening this year.

The Matheson is the project of beloved hometown chef Dustin Valette and his partner Craig Ramsey. Valette and his brother own the namesake restaurant on the other side of the Healdsburg Plaza known for its incredibly welcoming atmosphere (their father often greets you at the door with a glass of wine) and the scallops en croute dish that can't be missed. Their family has a long history in Healdsburg, dating back to a great-grandfather who operated his first bakery in the very space that this ambitious project now occupies. It doesn't get more full circle than that.

The Bar at The Matheson (Michael Woolsey) Featuring impressively high ceilings and chandeliers that resemble wine barrel staves, the first floor is anchored by a massive open kitchen in the center (The Matheson hired SF-based design firm Cass Calder Smith Architecture + Interiors, the same creative genius behind Twenty Five Lusk, La Mar, and Barbacco). The four-sided rectangular bar was absolutely packed during my visit. The walls of the restaurant are decorated with paintings by San Francisco artist Jay Mercado depicting scenes from Sonoma County's agricultural roots that are also deeply personal to Valette's upbringing. Behind the bar is a wall lined with shiny wine stations, high-tech, self-serve systems that can keep prized bottles fresh for up to 60 days (they're all the rage in Europe, but still relatively new to the U.S.). These stations were such a fun way to pass the time while we waited for our table and it's definitely worthwhile to arrive 30 minutes before your reservation to give them a whirl (they also open at noon every day if you want to come just for that). How it works: You'll receive a card that's (somewhat dangerously) linked to your credit card. You can use it to peruse more than 80 selections of wine without having to wait on a bartender. Select different-sized pours ranging from a few dollars to over $10, depending on the value of the bottle. While most of the selections hail from Sonoma County, you can also sample the likes of the venerable Opus One or a Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

The Dining Room at The Matheson (Michael Woolsey) The other side of The Matheson's first floor is occupied by a semi-formal dining space with about a dozen tables and booths, where reservations are required. As expected in the heart of Wine Country, there's an impressive wine list featuring more than 400 bottles, but since we had already adventured at the wine stations, we went for the cocktails, sectioned into "classic" and "contemporary." (If you are looking for some bubbly to kick off the night, I suggest the 2015 Lichen Grand Cuvee Rose from Anderson Valley on the by-the-glass list.) From the contemporary side, our server recommended the En Honore (Argonaut brandy, Italicus liqueur, angostura bitters), and while brandy is not what I usually reach for, it was fantastic. I also enjoyed the mezcal-based Joya, and was intrigued by the Truffle Shuffle, a black truffle sazerac, deciding to save it for next time. One of the most curious aspects of The Matheson is the sushi component. But if ordering sushi from a restaurant that's not a designated sushi house understandably gives you pause, I can reassure you that it's not only safe to do so here, but also rewarding. The sushi menu was designed by chef Ken Tominaga, of Rohnert Park's famed Hana Japanese Restaurant and Pabu in SF. Small and simple but dialed in, it's split into rolls and sashimi. They're not trying too hard, letting the fish speak for itself. It was tempting to try it all, but my dining partner and I begrudgingly practiced restraint (knowing full well that there was a whole other menu to experience) and opted for the classic rainbow roll as a pre-starter. It not only hit the mark but also sparked an epiphany: I finally have a place to take my sushi-resistant parents for dinner when I'm in the mood for it. From there, we moved on to the traditional menu, which also has its share of Japanese influences. The corn soup with shrimp chorizo was undeniably tasty, but the star of the starters list is definitely the Tamanishiki rice porridge, a standout on both the plate and the palate. Like a boat lost at sea, a single, perfectly golden day boat scallop rested atop a bed of black risotto-like rice (the rice is so dark that, from afar, it looks like black beans). The flavors were as intense and bright as the colors and played beautifully together, leaving a long-lasting impression. We added a side of the Japanese milk bread and butter for mopping up the final few spoonfuls of rice. The entrees cover land, sea, and air. In the spirit of trying something less obvious, I resisted ordering from the trio of steak options and went for the aged Sonoma duck with turnip, plum glaze, and coriander. When the dish arrived, the plating was simply stunning, an artful intersection of spring and fall. The duck was perfectly cookednot at all chewy as it tends to bewith a delightfully crispy and salty skin. It's a dish I'd definitely order again. We also tried the vegetarian option, pumpkin seed mole with Oaxacan cheese and tempura squash, which was a unique and tasty twist on squash blossoms. If you're not a very decisive person, the five-course chef's tasting menu provides a great sampling of the menu and is also a steal at $95.

The Rooftop at The Matheson (Michael Woolsey) We saved dessert for our final destination, Roof 106, located up some stairs and past a mezzanine that has additional dining space for groups. Crossing over the threshold, there was an immediate shift in energy. While the downstairs was certainly loud and pulsing with hot new restaurant vibes, the rooftop was positively electric. It felt like we had walked into a completely different placewhich is the exact effect Chef Vallette was going for. It was suddenly clear that this part of the restaurant, which doesn't take reservations, was the reason for the line outside the door. Roof 106 has an indoor space featuring another bar with avant-garde, electron-inspired chandeliers, and a covered and heated outdoor terrace with tables, lounge seating, and lots of greenery. Overlooking Healdsburg Plaza, it's the perfect spot for a casual date night or grabbing late-night eats and libations with a group of friends. It's also open for lunch. Centered on a wood-fired oven that churns out fancy pizzasI must return for the cured pork belly rendition with gruyere, roasted garlic creme fraiche, and red onionRoof 106 has a mostly different menu from downstairs. Don't worry; you can still get a lot of the sushi in addition to the pizzas and small plates and snacksthink fried sweet corn and olives marinated in orange and rosemary. For cocktails, they were out of the Panda Punch (makrut-infused vodka, watermelon, lime, pandan), but there's also a Matheson twist on an Aperol spritz and a hard horchata drink made with tequila. On chef's recommendation, we tried the Modern Margarita. Made with just tequila and clarified lime, the liquid was as clear as water, yet smooth as butter on the way down. For dessert, the coconut rum mojito and yuzu-strawberry-flavored push-pops were a fun and nostalgic novelty, as was the lime posset topped with mint rock candy. But the clear winner was the Volo Chocolate s'more for twopure perfection without the sticky fingers or campfire smell.

To make the trip out to Healdsburg worth it, book a room at either h2hotel or the Harmon Guest Houseboth are ultra modern, sustainably focused, and conveniently located one block from The Matheson. Before dinner, grab a flight or glass at the just-opened Marine Layer tasting room (not the clothing brand), which specializes in soothing vibes and pinot noir and chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast. Before you head home the next morning, stop by Quail & Condor bakery for a morning bun or pistachio croissant. // The Matheson; 106 Matheson St. (Healdsburg), thematheson.com
Jill Connelly/Bloomberg via Getty Images

What does the museum charge?

Admission is $25 but add another $15 and you can enter the Oscar Experience, an immersive environment that lets ordinary folk step up to a podium and pretend to accept an Academy Award in front of a virtual crowd. You get to hold a statuette (identical to the ones given out on Oscar night) but you dont get to take it home. Instead, youll be emailed a video of your acceptance speech. But just like the real Academy Awards, keep it short; youll only get a few seconds before the orchestra starts playing you off stage. Dont forget to thank your agent.

Does the museum have a restaurant and how good is it?

Or dinner, for that matter? The museums restaurant, Fannys  named after Fanny Brice, the original Funny Girl  promises to be something of a showstopper in its own right, with managing partner Bill Chiat (who helped create Republique, Bestia, Otium and Tartine, along with other current L.A. hot spots) modeling the space on Golden Age eateries like the Brown Derby and Chasens. In other words, therell be lots of red leather, velvet and mohair booths and an old-school style of obsequious service that includes waiters carving beef tableside, sommeliers pouring wine and jacketed captains checking on diners mid-meal.

The exact menu is still under wraps but daytime service will likely be salad-and-sandwich fare while dinner will strive for a more formal ambience, serving mostly American cuisine. Fannys will also hold private parties, arranged by Hollywoods most famous chef, Wolfgang Puck (who has been catering the Oscars Governors Ball for ages.

How good is the gift shop and which souvenirs are worth buying?

Of course, the true test of a great museum is its gift shop, and the Academy Museum wont disappoint. You may not be able to purchase Dorothys ruby slippers but you can snag the next best thing: a handbag that looks just like a pair (created by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood costumer Arianne Phillips in collaboration with Moschinos Jeremy Scott). There are also Lego Oscars, jewelry created by Black Panther costumer Ruth Carter (sorry, no vibranium), Academy tote bags and tons of T-shirts, including a special Spike Lee Crooklyn collectible. Prices arent available yet but, like every true Hollywood creative, expect to go over budget. 
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

En espanol

The pandemic continues to wreak havoc among homeowners and renters 55 and older, threatening some with foreclosure or eviction, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data. Others reported having to cut back on necessities, such as food and medicine, to stay in their homes.

The data

The Census Bureaus biweekly Household Pulse Survey shows how households are faring during the pandemic on a near real-time basis. For the most recent survey, which covers Sept. 1 through Sept. 13, the Census Bureau estimated that about 1.7 million homeowners aged 55 or older were behind on their mortgage payments. About 277,000 of those 55 or older viewed foreclosure as somewhat likely or very likely.

Of the 6.4 million homeowners of all ages behind on payments, about 1.1 million  17 percent  were ages 55 to 64. Kim Blanton, author of the Squared Away Blog at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, notes that people in that age bracket dont have Social Security benefits to fall back on. If they lose their job, they dont have steady income, Blanton says.

Older homeowners arent the only ones facing the loss of their home: An additional 188,700 adults 55 and older are behind on their rent payments and face eviction. In August, the Supreme Court struck down the eviction moratorium declared in September 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A July report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that most households that are behind in their mortgage payments have three or more people living there. The recent census data reflected the same finding: 78 percent of households behind on their mortgages had three or more people in the household. Any foreclosure therefore of older homeowners living with 3 or more people will not displace just the older homeowner, but often multiple generations living in the same home, the CFPB report said.

Many of those who say its very likely they will face foreclosure are people of color who have household incomes of less than $25,000, the census data shows. Although the CFPB report didnt connect low income and race to higher foreclosure rates, Blanton notes that many of those who lost their jobs during the pandemic tended to be people of color with lower incomes. The CFPB report does note that many older homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments are also having problems paying for food and other expenses. About a fifth of those surveyed said that they sometimes or often didnt have enough food to eat during the week; nearly half were getting help from nonprofits and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for meals and groceries.
Bloomberg/Getty Images

En espanol | 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.
But when doctors decided that the best course would be for the 68-year-old retired business office worker from Matawan, New Jersey, to take his medicine at home  in the form of a pill rather than an infusion  the cost jumped to $1,000 a month.

"I was originally pleased that I didn't have to deal with three hours in a facility and just had to take a pill at home," Burns told AARP. But what he didn't understand was why, just by switching how and where he got his medicine, he went from paying nothing out of pocket to paying thousands of dollars each year.

The way the system works, when cancer patients, for example, get chemotherapy or other treatments infused in a hospital outpatient center or other clinic, the cost is picked up by Medicare Part B and any supplemental insurance they may have. But if they take a pill, that's covered by a Part D prescription drug plan, which can have high copays or coinsurance charges.

Burns was paying $2,800 per month when he first made the switch. Now his costs have been reduced to $1,000 a month. But in two years he has blown through $40,000, and by year's end the money he had been saving to help pay health care expenses in retirement  and fund his wife's health insurance premiums until she qualifies for Medicare  will be gone.

Burns has considered asking his doctors if he can go back to getting the medicine as an outpatient again because of the cost.

"It's beyond stupid that I can go to a hospital and walk away paying nothing out of pocket, but it costs $1,000 for the same treatment at home," he says. He's hoping Congress follows through on a proposal lawmakers are considering to cap out-of-pocket drug costs.

Insulin prices dominate her life

Patricia Munn has to take four shots of insulin each day to control her type 1 diabetes. And that's just one of eight medications she takes to treat her condition.

The 76-year-old retired secretary from Southampton, New Jersey, is on a fixed income, and at the height of the pandemic, the cost of her insulin spiked from $80 for a 90-day supply of two insulins to nearly $800. Her out-of-pocket costs have since dropped, but she still pays $210 every three months  more than double what she was paying before the price went up.

Munn has Medicare, a supplemental plan and Part D prescription drug coverage, but insurance covers only so much. The list price for just one of her insulins, she says, is $1,500.

"I don't know why insulin skyrocketed like that," Munn says.

All of this has affected Munn's ability to pay her bills. "I live in a 55-and-up community in a small ranch. It's all electric, and my electric bill is out of sight," she says, also pointing to other utility bills. She's seen the cost of food and other essentials go up as well. The result is that she's carrying high credit card debt just to make ends meet.

"I really can't afford to do anything or go anywhere," Munn says. "And I can't decide not to take my two kinds of insulin. That would put my health in jeopardy. I have two kids and two grandkids, and I want to be around for a lot longer."
Istvan Kadar Photography/Getty Images

En espanol

After some 16 months of being shut tight to everyone but essential travelers, the border from the United States into Canada finally reopened in August. Eager to fill their rooms and restaurants, Canadian destinations are rolling out the red carpet and happily welcoming back U.S. travelers, many of them jumping at the chance to visit. Chuck Carson, 72, and his wife, Christine, 71, had been planning a trip from their home in upstate New York to the island province of Newfoundland for years, to retrace Christines ancestry and enjoy the coastal scenery along the way. Carson says: As soon as the border opened, we thought, this is our chance.



But crossing the worlds longest undefended border still requires quite a bit of planning and preparation. The biggest, trickiest thing is maneuvering the requirements, says Julie Gillen, a travel advisor with Toronto-based Travel Agent Next Door. You need to think about the requirements to enter, but also the requirements once youre here. The Carsons carefully researched their trip and noted a number of hurdles along the way. But once we arrived at the border, it was simple, the gentleman had everything on his screen  he had our forms and vaccination documents online. It took no time at all.

Here, what you need to know when traveling to Canada in the coming months.

Stay on top of the latest entry requirements

You can only enter if you're fully vaccinated. That means two shots of a COVID vaccine approved in Canada  including any mix of the AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer vaccine  or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Your date of entry must be at least 14 days after you've completed your shots (or shot, in the case of Johnson & Johnson), when you're considered fully vaccinated, and you must present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours. Important: Antigen tests (sometimes called rapid tests) arent accepted; youll be turned back without a PCR test result. A few visitors are selected for a random PCR test at the border, but if youre one of those, youll still be allowed to enter if everything else is in order. Your results are later sent by email, and you must quarantine for 14 days if you test positive.

In addition, all U.S. visitors need to complete the steps on the ArriveCAN app, which is available via free download. (You can also input the necessary information through a browser version and print off a paper receipt from your computer; if youre not tech-savvy, ask for assistance from a family member or friend.) In the app, youll be asked to upload your proof-of-vaccination documentation, as well as a firm plan for quarantine, a just-in-case measure should the border service officer deem your status for entry unsatisfactory. Youll need to fill in an address and phone number of a place where you could spend 14 days, if necessary (in the vast majority of cases, its not). We picked a hotel at the St. Johns airport, says Carson.

Also note that there are re-entry requirements when you're ready to return home. All air passengers coming to the United States, including U.S. citizens and fully vaccinated people, are required to have a negative COVID-19 test result taken within three days of travel or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 in the past three months in order to board a flight home (from any country, not only Canada). The CDC adds that travelers should get tested with a viral test 3 to 5 days after returning to the U.S.

What you can do: Get vaccinated. And stay on top of the latest requirements and travel advisories (see sidebar for details).
Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

This summer it seemed like Americans were finally starting to travel again, both domestically and internationally, but the recent surge in the delta variant and continued COVID spikes have caused a return to travel restrictions and added fear and uncertainty about travel. Some countries are banning U.S. visitors, while others are introducing rules that seem to change almost daily, as do U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) travel advisories and the agencys roster of high risk destinations.



On the plus side, global vaccination levels continue to increase, as do the safety measures taken by airlines, destinations, hotels and tour companies. But children under 12 still cant get vaccinated, adding anxiety to family travel, and the enforcement of health protocols varies widely by location.

Given this uncertainty, is now the right time to travel or even plan a trip?

Here, travel industry and health experts weigh in on the current state of travel and whether now is the right time to plan a trip.

Weighing travel's risks vs. rewards

Travel now is a matter of balancing risks with benefits, says Paul Holtom, M.D., infectious diseases specialist and chief epidemiologist at the LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. I agree there is a mental health and wellness benefit to travel, but there are inherent risks as well, with seniors in a higher risk group. If you want to travel, you should do everything you can to reduce those risks.

The decision of whether or not to travel in 2021 is a personal choice that mostly depends on your health risk profile and willingness to deal with potential logistical challenges, says Joost Schreve, chief executive officer of the Boulder, Colorado-based travel service company kimkim.

Joshua Bush, chief executive officer of Avenue Two Travel in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, agrees that travel now comes down to risk tolerance and awareness, but it is possible to travel now and do so in an ethical and safe manner.

But why travel now? Most of our clients have recognized from the past two years that you only live once. With the right precautions, they value their freedom to travel, to explore and most of all to connect with the world, says Jack Ezon, founder of Embark Beyond, a New York-based travel agency specializing in the luxury market. And right now there are great values and most places arent overcrowded.

So how to manage your risk of travel? The most obvious way to dramatically lower your risk: Get vaccinated for COVID-19. In a September White House briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky offered this advice: First and foremost, if youre unvaccinated, we would recommend not traveling. But people who are fully vaccinated and wearing masks can travel. Travel advisers concur. For ones own safety and for the safety of those around you, vaccinating and wearing masks are just the right things to do, Bush says.

But even the vaccinated face health risks when traveling now. While its unlikely that a vaccinated person contracts COVID, its not impossible, Holtom cautions. These cases will more likely be mild or asymptomatic, but given testing requirements to return to the U.S., this still means youll have to quarantine for two weeks in a foreign country [if traveling abroad]. And if you should happen to suffer another type of serious illness or injury while traveling, youll have to use local health care facilities that may be substandard or overburdened from COVID patients.

In terms of timing, Holtom says that historically weve seen a virus surge in fall and winter with lower temperatures and increased indoor gatherings. But none of us have a crystal ball; we really dont know whats coming.

Given the uncertainly of virus trends and travel restrictions, reducing the risk for travel now comes down to being as well-informed as possible about your destination and modes of travel, as well as your own health  both physical and mental. You wont benefit from the soothing benefits of travel if youre stressed the entire time. While traveling, youll find yourself in airports and other places that can get crowded. If youre uncomfortable with those kinds of situations in your hometown, traveling now might not be ideal for you, Schreve advises. But if youre living a fairly normal life at the moment, weve found that most of our travelers have had no issues and in many cases enjoyed a relative lack of crowds since many places have fewer visitors.

Traveling within the U.S.

Domestic U.S. travel, particularly travel by car, has enjoyed great popularity in the past year due to the lack of state border restrictions and confidence in local health care. California is open for business and welcoming travelers back, while also encouraging locals to explore their own backyards, says Caroline Beteta, chief executive officer of Visit California. But certain domestic regions experiencing COVID surges are actively discouraging travel. Hawaii governor David Ige recently discouraged residents from traveling between islands and asked that all other visitors forgo leisure travel to the islands through October. Our hospitals are reaching capacity, and ICUs are filling up. Now is not a good time to travel to Hawaii.

For domestic destinations, Holtom recommends doing your research on the status of specific regions. For example, within California at the end of September, L.A. County is currently showing very low COVID numbers, but in the Central Valley [the Fresno-Stockton region] hospitals are filled to 120 percent capacity. Similarly, Bush recommends that travelers stay clear of places where vaccination rates are much lower, such as the southern U.S. states. Domestic road trips to outdoor areas such as national parks have been popular, although with some parks becoming crowded, look instead to explore less-visited national parks, such as Dry Tortugas near Key West, Florida, and Guadalupe Mountains in west Texas.

Traveling to other countries

Like domestic destinations, international countries currently vary widely between being open and welcoming, or closed and at higher risk. The CDC currently lists at least 80 countries and territories as Very High Risk  avoid travel (including popular destinations such as the Bahamas, Thailand and the U.K.), with dozens more considered High Risk (including Brazil, Denmark and Mexico). Even if you want to go somewhere, you might not be let in: Australia and New Zealand have long been closed to leisure travel, while Belgium and Sweden recently banned all U.S. visitors. Many are allowing U.S. visitors with proof of vaccination, however.

On the flip side, Portugal recently announced that it will remain open to travelers from the United States" even though the EU has removed the U.S. from its "safe list. Carolina Trejos, Costa Rica Tourisms director of marketing, just extended this welcome: Costa Rica invites travelers to enjoy the numerous nature experiences throughout the country that make social distancing easy, with guidelines in place for our entire tourism industry to operate safely. Travel adviser Joshua Bush also recommends Costa Rica as a good choice for COVID-concerned travelers.

So it's crucial to check out the country-specific travel advisories from the CDC, and the State Department, as well as the current rules and regulations of your destination country and any advisories from the U.S. embassy in that country.

You also can reduce the risk and stress of international travel with planning strategies. Schreve  recommends taking direct flights to avoid the crowds and hassles of connections. Bush says many of his agencys clients are opting for a higher class of cabin in the plane, airport lounge access  even chartering private flights. Weve recently connected small groups of like-minded travelers on private aircraft to help mitigate the cost, while offering that peace of mind to fly private in a smaller travel bubble. 

Consider vacations focused on the great outdoors," Ezon suggests, "and exploring remote places from the comfort of one home base, versus frequently changing lodging. For a splurge, he says a great COVID-friendly trip right now is Italys Amalfi Coast, staying at the new Borgo Sant Andrea Hotel, with outdoor experiences such as hiking the Path of the Gods, a boat ride to Capri, al fresco dining every night and a visit to Pompeii  one of the great outdoor museums in the world. He recommends Costa Rica, the Galapagos and South Africa as some other good outdoors-focused destinations.

During the past year and a half, our active trips in Europe have been in high demand as travelers seek outdoor adventures, including walking tours offering fresh air, iconic routes, remote locations and a guarantee of vaccinated trip leaders and fellow travelers, says Matt Berna, the California-based managing director for Intrepid Travel North America. Intrepids hikes through the Italian Dolomites and around Mont Blanc in France have been popular, as well as the lesser-known Rota Vicentina along the Portuguese coast.

Even in countries the CDC labels high risk, all-inclusive resorts can provide safe havens, Bush says: Lots of resorts in the Caribbean and Los Cabos, for example, offer a feeling of security with on-site testing and by containing guests while still offering plenty to do so that the vacation experience isnt hindered. Many Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons around the world still have space, even for the holidays. Travel agencies partnering with the large luxury brands usually have inventory and access to great value-added amenities to defray costs.

Holtom is still waiting to book his long-delayed 40th anniversary trip with his wife to Spain, because, for him, right now things are just too uncertain to schedule anything. I want to wait for the COVID numbers to level off first. However, he did feel safe taking his family on a close-to-home day trip this August. He, his wife, daughter, son-in-law and four grandkids took in all the fun at Disneyland in Anaheim, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. He agreed to the trip due to his confidence in southern Californias current COVID-19 safety measures and Disneys management of the outdoor park environment, with distancing protocols and plenty of available hand sanitizer.


Annual Report to Shareholders

Brisbane, Sep 29, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The last financial year has been the year in which State Gas Limited ( ASX:GAS ) marched towards reserve certification. Production testing at Nyanda-4 (coupled with production log testing) corroborated our theory that seams as deep as 1,100 metres were contributing to our gas flows. We prognosed that as a result of the geological disturbance which created the Dome there would be pathways for the high content gas to migrate to the well bore. This may lead to pockets of gas being trapped in the "cracks", which with concentric drawing down would become interconnected over time. It was pleasing to see flow rates of 700,000 cubic feet /day occur as our first "crack" was encountered.The production testing at Serocold-1 was showing impressive build-up when the well sanded up. This occurrence is not unusual in coal seam gas and is generally remedied by "sleeving" the well. With the recent over-subscribed and cut-back fundraising completed, the Company intends to instal the "sleeve" at Serocold-1 and re-commence production testing this quarter. The results at Nyanda-7 & 8 initially showed promise but the production climb arrested. The Company believes this is a "skin" issue near well-bore and therefore jetting the requisite seams should restore the production climb. This is being trialled at Nyanda-8 this quarter.Provided production tests at Serocold-1 and Nyanda-8 produce as expected, the Company should then be in a position to seek reserve certification - the next step to development - heralding our first Gas Sale Contract at a time of an extremely tight market. This Gas Sales Contract will underpin the development funding options.Your Company believed that the market would tighten significantly in 2023 with price being the market clearing mechanism. Frankly, it is unbelievable that in a market shoulder period the JKM - the Asian LNG spot market indicator - has exceeded A$37/GJ for an extended period, causing the ACCC's Domestic Gas LNG Netback price to exceed A$22/GJ. The Price is Right for State Gas to come on down.The core holes at Rougemont have been successfully completed. The results at Rougemont-2 were more than exciting with one seam of 2.4 metres showing permeability of 395mD with 96% methane. Just what the Doctor ordered! We intend to put Rougemont-2 into production testing with results expected in the first quarter next year.As Rougemont is located between Reid's Dome and the gas trunklines to Wallumbilla (the domestic gas pricing point) to the South and Gladstone (the LNG export port) to the North, Rougemont will share infrastructure built for Reid's Dome- economically converting the Rougemont development into a brownfield development.Richard CotteeTo view the Annual Report, please visit:About State Gas Limited

State Gas Limited (ASX:GAS) is a Queensland-based developer of the Reid's Dome gas field, originally discovered during drilling in 1955, located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland. State Gas is 100%-owner of the Reid's Dome Gas Project (PL-231) a CSG and conventional gas play, which is well-located 30 kilometres southwest of Rolleston, approximately 50 kilometres from the Queensland Gas Pipeline and interconnected east coast gas network.

Permian coal measures within the Reid's Dome Beds are extensive across the entire permit but the area had not been explored for coal seam gas prior to State Gas' ownership. In late 2018 State Gas drilled the first coal seam gas well in the region (Nyanda-4) into the Reid's Dome Beds and established the potential for a significant coal seam gas project in PL 231. The extension of the coal measures into the northern and central areas of the permit was confirmed in late 2019 by the Company's drilling of Aldinga East-1A (12 km north) and Serocold-1 (6 km to the north of Nyanda-4).

State Gas is also the 100% holder Authority to Prospect 2062 ("Rolleston-West"), a 1,414 km2 permit (eight times larger than PL 231) that is contiguous with the Reid's Dome Gas Project. Rolleston-West contains highly prospective targets for both coal seam gas (CSG) and known conventional gas within the permit area. It is not restricted by domestic gas reservation requirements.

The contiguous areas (Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West), under sole ownership by State Gas, enable integration of activities and a unified super-gasfield development, providing economies of scale, efficient operations, and optionality in marketing.

State Gas is implementing its strategic plan to bring gas to market from Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West to meet near term forecast shortfalls in the east coast domestic gas market. The strategy involves progressing a phased appraisal program in parallel with permitting for an export pipeline and development facilities to facilitate the fastest possible delivery of gas to market. State Gas' current focus has been to confirm the producibility of the gas through production testing of the wells.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

The city of Albuquerque offered the winning bid to purchase a park in the Santa Barbara and Martineztown area, answering pleas of area residents to preserve the landmark, the city said Tuesday.

The city held the winning bid of $60,000 for the Santa Barbara Park when the auction closed at 5 p.m. Tuesday, the citys Parks and Recreation Department said.

The property was auctioned by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to raise funds as part of its pending bankruptcy.

The City has achieved our goal to own Santa Barbara Park, Dave Simon, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said in a written statement. The park is so important to the community and we look forward to preserving it for generations to come.

The city had leased the property, near Edith and Rosemont NE, from the archdiocese and has operated it as a park since the late 1960s.

The city made $550,000 in improvements at the site five years ago.

The announcement by the archdiocese that it planned to auction the property caused considerable angst among neighbors, several of whom wrote the City Council urging the city to purchase the park at auction.

The auction came as the archdiocese liquidates assets to fund future settlements related to sexual abuse claims against clergy members.
For years, one of the highest-profile manufacturers of green cars couldnt do business in New Mexico, even as it became one of the greenest states.

Teslas business model doesnt conform with a state law prohibiting manufacturers from selling vehicles directly to consumers. Instead of using the traditional model of franchised auto dealerships, Tesla relies on its website and a network of company-owned stores for direct sales.

Despite often tense debates in Santa Fe to allow Tesla storefronts and service centers, repeated efforts have failed in the Legislature. Local auto dealers with substantial political muscle have carried the day and maintained their exclusive rights for new-vehicle sales in New Mexico. They argue correctly that their businesses already support thousands of employees and that they have worked hard over years, decades, even generations to build their businesses. Its understandable they want to keep things the way they are.

But.

The Palo Alto, California-based electric car company worked around the law, striking a deal with Nambe Pueblo to open a sales and service center inside an old casino north of Santa Fe along U.S. 285. Even critics have to admit it was a deft business decision.

Teslas move to locate its first facility on Native American land in the United States was adroit because the 7,000-square-foot store is within tribal boundaries and therefore not subject to state law prohibiting direct vehicle sales.

For Nambe Pueblo, its a prudent diversification of its economy, something altogether different from the old casino the storefront replaces.

For New Mexicans interested in buying or servicing a Tesla, it reduces the need to go to out-of-state storefronts and service centers in places such as Arizona and Colorado.

For New Mexico, it marks the first Tesla storefront in the state, albeit one presumably not subject to the traditional state taxes.

And for traditional car dealerships, it means competition just went into overdrive.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, attended the Sept. 9 opening of the Tesla store with several other politicians. Wirth predicted more companies will use the tribal model to elude the state law. Thats unfortunate and raises the question, is New Mexico truly open for business? And is there a way to honor the traditional while accommodating the new sales models?

Wirth and state Sen. Bill Tallman, D-Albuquerque, who also attended the Sept. 9 opening, said they expect vehicle-sales legislation to be proposed in future legislative sessions. Proposed changes in years past, including a narrow 2019 proposal, would have allowed electric vehicle manufacturers to sell directly to the public under certain conditions. All such legislation has failed.

And that ignores the reality that cars and trucks are often being sold in different ways today than in years past. Consumers are picking out makes and models and colors online and having them delivered to their driveways. The days of dickering and test drives are diminishing. Carvana, the fastest-growing online used-car dealer in the United States, uses multistory car vending machines to dazzle customers with shiny cars under neon lights. Customers can insert a special coin and watch as the machine dispenses the car or pick out a car online and have it delivered to their home. But Carvana sells only used cars and wouldnt be allowed to sell new ones under New Mexico law unless it were a licensed franchise of a manufacturer.

Tallman, who drives a Tesla himself, says electric vehicles are the future and New Mexicos laws need to keep up. On the former, hes right  Ford announced this week that it is investing $11 billion in EVs and battery plants, and General Motors and others have committed to delivering more electric models in the near future. On the latter, the opening of the Tesla sales and service center on Nambe Pueblo should solidify his argument.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The association representing New Mexico counties says its been unable to obtain extra insurance coverage to handle claims under the newly established state Civil Rights Act, exposing taxpayers to more legal risk.

Steve Kopelman, executive director of New Mexico Counties, said the limited insurance coverage increases the chances that a county government will have to add a civil rights judgment to its tax rolls and make property owners pick up the tab.

All its going to take is one catastrophic loss when theres no insurance, Kopelman told state lawmakers Tuesday. I think were going to see some really, really scary situations.

His assessment came in a legislative hearing at the Capitol as county representatives outlined their legislative priorities  much of which center on the cost of operating jails, including legal liability.

Democratic legislators, in turn, pushed back on the idea that legal costs should be an overriding consideration in the protection of civil rights. The new law, they said, bolsters accountability when government wrongdoing results in, say, the abuse of a child or killing of an innocent person.

Its about protecting the rights of individuals who for far too long have gone unprotected, House Majority Leader Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, said of the new law.

Tuesdays back-and-forth comes as New Mexico legislators hold hearings ahead of a 30-day legislative session set to start Jan. 18. A special session dedicated to redistricting is also expected in December.

The county representatives told lawmakers Tuesday that they expect to ask for state funding to help offset the cost of housing state inmates in county jails.

Jails are usually filled by people serving short sentences or just arrested by law enforcement officers. But they also handle state inmates accused of probation or parole violations and state inmates awaiting transfer to state prison.

The counties contend they are reimbursed for only $2 million of the $50 million it costs to house state inmates.

Rep. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs, asked about the financial impact of House Bill 4  civil rights legislation that grew out of protests against racism and police brutality.

The measure established a state Civil Rights Act that allows the filing of lawsuits in state court to recover financial damages if a public agency or officer violates a persons rights under the state Bill of Rights.

The law also bars qualified immunity as a defense to the claims, in contrast to litigation handled in federal court.

Kopelman said the counties insurance pool  which covers 29 of the 33 counties in the state  generally offers insurance of up to $2 million for each event that triggers an allegation of a civil rights violation.

The association has an insurance carrier for more expensive claims, he said, but the carrier wont cover claims filed under the state civil rights law.

The counties are still looking for the extra insurance, which is known as reinsurance because it complements the first level of coverage.

Without the extra level of insurance, Kopelman said, counties might have to add a civil rights judgment to the tax rolls, resulting in a property tax increase.

Thats more than a little scary, Scott said.

House Bill 4 limits civil rights claims to $2 million per person. But if more than one person makes a claim involving the same event, Kopelman said, the liability could climb into the tens of millions of dollars.

He said Lea County  which isnt covered by the associations insurance pool  saw its premiums for law enforcement and detention jump from about $300,000 a year to $675,000.

It could be years before the full impact is clear. Kopelman said the association had seen five claims under the law since it went into effect July 1.

Democratic legislators suggested counties focus on preventing civil rights violations before they happen.

What have you done to make sure we are changing the way in which our officers are trained to prevent those claims from even occurring in the first place? Democratic Rep. Pamelya Herndon of Albuquerque asked.

Martinez, the House majority leader, urged the counties to keep in mind the harm endured by real people involved in civil rights litigation. New Mexico courts, he added, should help weed out needless claims.

Kopelman told lawmakers that the counties have an accreditation program for jails and other strategies intended to improve training and limit legal exposure.
If youre a woman who supports abortion rights, youve had that debate, usually but not always with men, and usually with men who have never and will never, ever, ever be a part of any decision you make when it comes to your body, your future, your life.

And still they persisted.

But for the past 48 years weve been able to shut down opponents arguments because weve had the constitutional right to make our own decisions about our own bodies based on the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Roe v. Wade.

And yet here we are, with Roe slowly being snipped away, hanging by a cord and already all but gone in Texas.

So we speak up again. We debate when we must. And we march.

This Saturday, the Womens March returns to mobilize and defend womens reproductive rights in Washington, D.C., and in more than 600 sister marches across the country, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe and four other cities in New Mexico.

Were not going to go back in time, said Samia Assed, chairwoman of New Mexico Womens March and a member of the marchs national board. There will always be abortions. Thats just a fact of life. Women will always find a way to have a choice. But that choice must allow for a safe and legal abortion, not an ugly back-alley one that could forever mutilate and maim the woman or possibly kill her.

Or put a bounty on the heads of anyone who attempts to help her access an abortion as is now the case in Texas.

Saturdays event, the fifth Womens March since the largest single-day march in U.S. history in 2017, is being held well ahead of its typical January date, a decision announced Sept. 2, the day the new Texas anti-abortion law went into effect. The law, considered the most restrictive in the country, bans abortions after six weeks, when most women do not realize they are pregnant, and gives citizens the power to sue abortion providers and others.

The date was also chosen because it falls two days before the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court begins its October term. Among the cases expected to be heard is one out of Mississippi that threatens to cut the cord from which Roe is hanging. That one bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The October date is both unexpected and imperative and has required a lot of tireless work to make it all happen in a short period of time, Assed said.

This was a surprise action, she said. It was over 90 organizations getting in a room together and coming together. Everybody understood the seriousness of the moment and the absolute need to come together, rise up and speak out against the peril our reproductive rights now face and the barbarism and vigilantism in Texas.

Among the dozens of coalition members are Planned Parenthood, NARAL, National Organization for Women, Guttmacher Institute and the Lilith Fund.

In New Mexico, collaborating groups include the Indigenous Women Rising, Mariposa Fund and the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

Because of the short notice, the Albuquerque march has been moved to Tiguex Park instead of the Civic Plaza, which was already spoken for by the Albuquerque Taco and Margarita Festival.

Participants are also encouraged to carpool as they will be competing for parking with tourists here for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Keeping abortion legal, by the way, is still supported by a majority of Americans, according to several national polls. Approval numbers range from 54% to 61%, with notable declines in approval after the first trimester (the first three months, not six weeks) and among evangelical Christians.

A Monmouth University poll this month found that 62% of Americans believe the Supreme Court should leave Roe v. Wade alone. The same poll also found that 70% disapprove of allowing private citizens to sue people involved in an abortion and 81% disapprove of those people receiving $10,000 for their efforts, both allowed under the new Texas law.

Organizers of the march say the stakes have never been higher.

Everybody understands the risks, Assed said. Abortion is never an easy decision. It is painful and emotional, but it is a womans choice, not the governments, not people who are anti-choice. As they say, if you dont believe in abortion, dont have one.

The event is called the Womens March, but men who love them and support their right to choose are always welcome, too.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com, Facebook or @jolinegkg on Twitter.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

A judge this week ordered Albuquerque Public Schools to pay $214,000 in attorney fees, adding to an earlier $400,000 judgment against the district stemming from a lawsuit filed by two news organizations.

The legal action challenged APS handling of public records related to the abrupt resignation of former Superintendent Winston Brooks in 2014.

Judge Nancy Franchini in April ordered APS to pay the Albuquerque Journal $293,625 after finding the district violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act. KOB-TV, which made similar records requests, was awarded $118,000.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said the district does not comment on pending litigation.

Franchini also ruled that the Journal and KOB are entitled to reasonable attorney fees and costs.

Attorneys for the news organizations asked the court to order APS to pay total of $372,000 in attorney fees and costs.

Franchini on Monday rejected a portion of those fees and costs, said Greg Williams, an attorney for the news organizations.

Either side may appeal both the judgment and legal fees.

In August 2014, Brooks resigned as superintendent two years before the end of his contract. Then-school board President Analee Maestas said at the time that a serious item of concern was discussed by the board, which she described as a confidential personnel matter.

Maestas also said she had hired an outside attorney to write a report on the matter. Franchini has ruled that the attorneys report was exempt from disclosure.

The Journal requested APS billing records with the attorneys firm, school board records pertaining to Brooks termination, and allegations of misconduct against Brooks and his wife.

KOB-TV requested communications between APS and the attorney, records regarding the attorneys report, and communications between Brooks and an APS spokeswoman.

Franchini found that APS failed to produce records that should have been available under the states Inspection of Public Records Act and failed to meet deadlines required by the act.
Albuquerque mayoral hopefuls Eddy Aragon and Manuel Gonzales made their respective cases Tuesday night for why voters should pick them to unseat Tim Keller, arguing the incumbent has little to show for his first four years in office other than growing homelessness and violent crime.

Keller, meanwhile, defended his track record and experience, saying Albuquerque needs a leader who understands the complexity of the challenges and who comes ready with practical solutions.

The debate hosted by KKOB and the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce was a sometimes feisty affair, with Gonzales arguing Albuquerque has been moving backward due to partisan politics, and needed to be given back to the people and generally cleaned up.

Our city looks like a pig sty, said Gonzales, the second-term Bernalillo County Sheriff who contends that his tough-on-crime approach will improve public safety, the economy and overall city operations.

Ive never seen the city in a worse state  than it is now under this administration, said Gonzales, who at one point apologized to the public for having supported Keller, a fellow Democrat, four years ago.

Aragon, the only Republican on the ballot, said Keller has failed on several fronts, including economic development. He challenged the mayors claim that Albuquerque had weathered the pandemic well and was emerging in good shape, saying that the city was propped up by millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief money.

Mayor Tim Keller has an amazing ability to spin things around that are very negative, said Aragon, whose suggestions for bolstering the economy include streamlining city development approvals, granting property tax incentives to lure new health care workers and opening a shared, city-owned cloud kitchen where local restaurateurs could operate with limited overhead.

But before a small in-person audience at Albuquerques Embassy Suites, Keller hammered home the message that he is best suited to move the city forward. He noted that the city had landed Netflix and NBCUniversal studio operations on his watch, had pushed through major public construction projects and had a multi-faceted approach to improve public safety, including added technology and a new community safety department that should reduce the burden on police.

I  know that its easy to say that you want to make the city safer, that you want to feel safer when you go shopping. The hard part is how, said Keller, who noted that violent crime is rising nationally, not just in Albuquerque. Thats what this is about. Thats what leadership takes.

He and Aragon both cast doubt on Gonzales argument that the unincorporated areas of the county where sheriffs deputies patrol are not having the same crime problems as the city of Albuquerque  an argument the sheriff said is based on first-hand stories he hears from residents.

Thats who I listen to; thats who I serve, the sheriff said.

But Keller cited Journal reporting that shows crime rose in the unincorporated areas in 2020.

I think its reckless, Keller said. You cant just get information from your neighbor.

Aragon, a radio show host who has never held elected office, said its time for the city to try someone new to tackle crime.

Im the right person to take care of this, (who will) come with fresh eyes, he said.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden is caught between a hard place and an even harder one when it comes to immigration.

Biden embraced major progressive policy goals on the issue after he won the Democratic nomination, and he has begun enacting some. But his administration has been forced to confront unusually high numbers of migrants trying to enter the country along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the federal response has inflamed both critics and allies.

Much of the anger is centered on the administrations immigration point person, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Getting hit from both sides in the matter of immigration is no surprise, Mayorkas said on NBC last weekend. We are in the epicenter of the countrys divide, regrettably.

The result is that immigration has become an early and unwanted distraction for an administration that would rather focus on the pandemic, the economy and other policy priorities.

Just 35% of Americans approve of Bidens handling of immigration, down from 43% in April, when it was already one of Bidens worst issues, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Immigration is a relative low point for Biden within his own party with just 60% of Democrats saying they approve.

Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback blocking Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande only added to the angst. While the widely shared photos incorrectly suggested that agents were using their reins to whip at mostly Black migrants, Mayorkas and Biden expressed outrage at the tactics and Homeland Security is investigating.

The outcry was such that Mayorkas was asked if his department was a rogue agency. He responded, I couldnt disagree more vehemently.

Some of Bidens strongest supporters on Capitol Hill and among outside immigrant advocates had already been expressing outrage about the administrations continued reliance on a Trump-era public health authority, known as Title 42, to rapidly expel migrants, including thousands of Haitians.

Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center and onetime co-chair of a task force on immigration meant to unite Biden supporters with more progressive primary backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders, noted that the White House has appointed some of the best people in our movement to help run immigration programs.

But she is among those opposed to Title 42, which the Trump administration invoked early in the pandemic, ostensibly to slow the spread of COVID-19. It prevents people from making claims for U.S. asylum.

This is the moment when friends need to have those courageous conversations with friends, Hincapie said. When theyre making the wrong decision.

The administrations refusal to halt Title 42  even appealing a court order to stop relying on it to expel families  along with the lack of progress in Congress on a sweeping immigration bill that Biden introduced upon taking office has prompted supporters to warn of a return to the enforcement-heavy policies of President Barack Obama.

Theyve been there for eight months, said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group backed by some of the nations largest tech companies. The policies that they are actively pursuing are very different than the ones they promised. The policies they are actively pursuing are failing. Yet the continued direction is in the wrong direction.

The Obama administration in its early years drastically increased the number of migrants it deported in hopes of showing Republicans it had stepped up enforcement while trying to get its own comprehensive immigration package through Congress. Officials ultimately expelled a record 3 million people, which led some activists to label Obama deporter-in-chief but still didnt produce congressional action on an immigration overhaul.

The calculation that the administration is making at the moment is that they will have a better chance of getting Congress to act on broader-based immigration reforms if they can get the border under control,' said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. That was really the theory of the Obama administration.

As did the Obama and Trump administrations, the Biden administration has been confronting an increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the border, either illegally or to present themselves to Border Patrol agents so they can claim asylum.

The total number of encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border reached just over 208,000 for August, a slight decline from July but still the highest since March 2000 and the highest since the last big increase in 2019, under President Donald Trump.

The current total is inflated by Title 42, with about a quarter of the encounters involving people who have been recaptured after they were previously expelled under the public health authority. The numbers also have been rising due to factors that include COVID-19 ravages on Latin American economies and a perception that Biden will be more welcoming than Trump.

Bidens response has been to try to address the  root causes  of migration by increasing aid to Central America, which was cut under Trump, and restoring a program that enabled children from the region to apply for visas to join their families in the U.S.

His administration has also proposed a federal rule to protect immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Im confident that the president will use every tool at his disposal, but the administrative tools are not sufficient to fix what needs to be fixed, said Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama. She blames staunch Republican congressional opposition, and Senate rules she says were incorrectly applied, for the expectation that immigration reform will not pass Congress as part of the budgeting process.

Legislative efforts aside, the administration has stopped the Trump-era practice of expelling children crossing alone from Mexico under Title 42, and has allowed thousands of migrant families to remain in the U.S. while they pursue asylum claims  a process that frequently ends in denial but can take years for a final decision.

It has, however, continued to use Title 42 to expel many families and nearly all solo adults, with Mayorkas repeatedly insisting it is a necessary public health measure, aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 in detention facilities.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, argues that relying on Title 42 causes more trouble than its worth by inflating the total number of encounters, which are still far below what they were 20 years ago.

Title 42 has created a significant amount of churn at the border, and the end result of this churn hasnt been a more secure border, Reichlin-Melnick said. Its been a reduction in the ability of people to seek protection and an overstressed Border Patrol, which doesnt have the capacity to deal with that level of activity.

A federal judge, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, recently declared the reliance on Title 42 to deny people the right to seek asylum is likely illegal, and said he would issue a preliminary injunction halting its use. The Biden administration appealed, further infuriating the critics.

Anthony Romero, the ACLUs executive director, said at a forum Monday that he is broadly supportive of administrative actions on immigration and of Mayorkas. But he said the ACLU, which filed more than 400 legal actions under Trump, wont hesitate to keep challenging Biden on Title 42 and other matters.

I think litigation is as important in holding the feet to the fire of our quote allies as it is about fighting the foes of civil liberties and civil rights, Romero said, because that is what creates the political will.

___

Associated Press writer Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands  A bright red river of lava from the volcano on Spains La Palma island finally tumbled over a cliff and into the Atlantic Ocean, setting off huge plumes of steam and possibly toxic gases that forced local residents outside the evacuation zone to remain indoors on Wednesday.

The immediate area had been evacuated for several days as authorities waited for the lava that began erupting Sept. 19 to traverse the 6 kilometers (four miles) to the islands edge. On the way down from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, the lava flows have engulfed at least 656 buildings, mostly homes and farm buildings, in its unstoppable march to the sea.

The meeting of molten rock and sea water finally came at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. By daybreak, a widening promontory of newborn land could be seen forming under plumes of steam rising high into the area.

Even though initial air quality reading showed no danger in the area, experts had warned that the arrival of the lava at the ocean would likely produce small explosions and release toxic gases that could damage lungs. Authorities established a security perimeter of 3 kilometers (about two miles) and asked residents in the wider area to remain indoors with windows shut to avoid breathing in any gases.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the islands first eruption in 50 years, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people after the ground cracked open following weeks of tremors.

The flattening of the terrain as it approached the coast had slowed down the flow of the lava, causing it to widen out and do more damage to villages and farms. The local economy is largely based on agriculture, above all the cultivation of the Canary plantain.

Just before it poured down a cliff into the sea at a local point known as Los Guirres, the lava rolled over the coastal highway, cutting off the last road in the area that connects the island to several villages.

We hope that the channel to the sea that has opened stops the lava flow, which widened to reach 600 meters (2,000 feet) at one point, from continuing to grow, because that has caused tremendous damage, Angel Victor Torres, president of the Canary Islands regional government, told Cope radio.

Torres said his government is working to house those who have lost their dwellings. Authorities have plans to purchase over 100 currently unoccupied homes. Torres cited one village, Todoque, home to 1,400 people, which was wiped out.

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Cleaning crews swept up ash in the islands capital, Santa Cruz, while more small earthquakes that have rumbled under the volcano for weeks were registered by geologists.

Favorable weather conditions allowed the first flight in five days to land at airport on La Palma, an important tourist destination along with its neighboring Canary islands, despite a huge ash cloud that Spains National Geographic Institute said reached up to seven kilometers (nearly 4 miles) high.

Laura Garces, the director of Spains air navigation authority ENAIRE, said she doesnt foresee any major problems for other airports on the archipelago because of the ash.

While the red tongue of lava lolled off the coast, the two open vents of the volcano continued to belch up more magma from below.

Experts say its impossible to determine how long the eruption will last. Previous eruptions in the archipelago have lasted weeks, even months.

We dont know when this will be over, volcano scientist Stavros Meletlidis of Spains National Geographic Institute told state broadcaster TVE. Volcanos are not friends of statistics.

___ Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  Struggling with political turmoil and the aftermath of an earthquake, Haitis prime minister said Tuesday that he plans to hold a referendum to modify the countrys constitution by February, and he hopes to organize presidential and legislative elections early next year.

In an interview with The Associated Press at his official residence, Ariel Henry dismissed opponents who accuse him of wanting to stay in power and said that mistrust is one of the biggest challenges he faces.

The referendum is a priority, Henry said, because the current constitution is rejected by a majority of political figures and civil society leaders. He said an electoral council that will be responsible for setting dates has yet to be named after he recently dissolved the previous provisional council.

The elections must be held as soon as possible, he said as he lamented the lack of trust among Haitians. People dont believe what is being said.

Just hours after he spoke, members of the provisional council that Henry dissolved issued a statement saying they plan to contest the prime ministers actions and accused him of violating Haitian law because only a president has the power to dismiss them. The council added that it will continue to work on organizing the upcoming elections.

After being postponed several times this year, presidential and legislative elections were scheduled to be held Nov. 7, along with the constitutional referendum. But the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his private home on July 7 upended those plans.

One proposed constitutional change would bar a president from serving more than two terms, although it does not specify whether those would be consecutive, as stated in the current constitution. Other changes include compulsory military service for those age 18, the creation of a vice presidential position to replace that of prime minister and the establishment of a unicameral legislature to replace the current Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

Thousands protested in the streets when the referendum was first proposed, with many accusing Moise of a power grab.

Henry still faces opposition to the referendum, as well as criticism from those who do not consider him a legitimate leader.

As part of a political agreement with opponents, Moise selected Henry, a trained neurosurgeon, to become Haitis next prime minister shortly before his assassination. But the president was killed before Henry could be sworn in. The 71-year-old was finally ushered into power over the outgoing prime minister, Claude Joseph, after foreign diplomats belonging to the so-called Core Group endorsed his rule, giving rise to criticism that he was a pawn of the U.S. government with a long history of meddling in Haitis affairs.

Hes a puppet, said Monique Clesca, a Haitian writer, activist and former U.N. official. Bottom line, he has no legitimacy or credibility.

Clesca and several leaders of Haitis civil society are calling for a two-year transitional government with a president and prime minister chosen by political parties and civil society to stabilize the country before holding elections.

We have wanted a Haitian solution, she said. It is time that the international community says to us, We are listening, rather than push down our throat somebody that they put there.

Henry said he has always been a legitimate prime minister despite not being elected. He views his position as a mission to oversee a renaissance of Haitian society.

Its not the first time Henry has assumed a caretaker role. In 2004, he was part of the so-called Council of Sages that, with U.S. backing, tried to stabilize Haiti in the aftermath of President Jean-Bertrand Aristides overthrow in a coup. He previously served as health minister and briefly as interior minister under former President Michel Martelly.

In other comments, Henry criticized how the U.S. government recently treated Haitian migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, where it expelled more than 2,300. He said that action was not suitable.

We dont understand the way that our compatriots were treated, he said.

Henrys remarks came just hours before the arrival in Port-au-Prince of Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, the top U.S. diplomat to Latin America, who is seeking to contain the fallout from the abrupt resignation last week of the U.S. special envoy to Haiti.

Daniel Foote, a career diplomat, quit the high-profile post over the deportations at the border, saying it was inhumane to return the migrants, many of whom fled the island following the devastating 2010 earthquake, to a country buffeted by gang violence, a collapsed economy and political turmoil.

Foote, in his resignation letter, also criticized the U.S. for standing by what he considers a corrupt government with gang alliances instead of embracing a broad-based coalition of civil society groups that have come up with their own blueprint for stabilizing the country.

Henry declined to comment on Footes resignation, saying it was a foreign affair, but he said he does not think the situation will affect the relationship between the U.S. and Haiti, which he said would continue and deepen.

Henry added that the government is working on a draft of a potential program to help the thousands of migrants who have been expelled. He said one proposal is to give the migrants access to credit so they can launch their own small businesses.

Were trying to do that immediately, he said.

He acknowledged that Haiti is mired in a deep economic crisis and faces multiple other challenges, including a rise in gang-related violence and kidnappings and a housing crisis in the aftermath of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. The Aug. 14 quake killed more than 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

Another priority is to find the masterminds behind Moises killing. Henry said he does not know why the president was slain. He also dismissed allegations made by a chief prosecutor  whom he fired  that there were two phone calls between him and a key suspect just hours after the assassination.

Henry said he has no recollection of speaking with Joseph Badio, who was fired from the governments anti-corruption unit in May and remains a fugitive, according to police, who seek him on charges including murder.

If that conversation took place, I do not remember it, he said. For me, that conversation never happened.

Henry said he dismissed Port-au-Princes chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, and former Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent, because they did not respect the law and tried to politicize the situation.

They dont have any ethics, and they are not credible, he said.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Goodman reported from Washington.
DENVER  A judge on Wednesday dismissed an attempt by a group of Denver police officers to block the citys vaccine mandate from taking effect.

In a lawsuit filed last week, seven officers claimed the city lacked the authority to impose the mandate under a local disaster emergency declared by Mayor Michael Hancock at the beginning of the pandemic. They noted Democratic Gov. Jared Polis rescinded his statewide emergency pandemic order in July.

The officers said the city should have instead followed the more drawn-out process laid out in state law to impose regulations.

However, Judge Shelley Gilman ruled that law applies only to state agencies. Under city law, the officers should have appealed the vaccine mandate, first issued on Aug. 2, to the health board before filing a lawsuit, she said.

Since they did not, Gilman said she had no jurisdiction to decide the case and dismissed it, granting a request made by the city in its response to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Lawyers for the city noted four of the seven officers who filed the lawsuit have been granted unspecified exemptions to the mandate and a fifth was denied an exemption for failing to cite an accepted reason.

They also listed recent unsuccessful attempts to block vaccine mandates in state and federal court by teachers in New York and health care workers in Kentucky and Texas.

The city claims people who are unvaccinated pose a threat to its ability to move past the pandemic.

Under Denvers public health order, updated Sept. 1, all city employees, workers in public and private schools, and people who work for private employers such as hospitals, homeless shelters and childcare centers must show proof that they are vaccinated by Thursday. City workers face dismissal for noncompliance.

Under a discipline plan released by the city attorneys office, the city plans to start issuing letters Friday to unvaccinated employees who have not been granted exemptions notifying them that will face discipline.

Workers who refuse to get vaccinated under any circumstance will be dismissed. Others will be suspended for 10 days without pay and dismissed if they remain unvaccinated.

The city says 94% of city employees have complied with the mandate so far, but it comes as the police department struggles with a shortage of officers.

Police Chief Paul Pazen has acknowledged a higher number of resignations and retirements this year compared to previous years but told city councilors last week that the shortage was the result of the cancellation of police academy classes due to pandemic budget cuts.

As of Wednesday, 12 officers were expected to resign or retire from the 1,500-officer police department because of the vaccine mandate, said Andrea Webber, records administrator for the citys public safety department.
SANTA FE  Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin has prevailed against efforts to recall him from office as a county commissioner in southern New Mexico.

Recall committee spokesman Scott Fredrick said a petition drive collected 1,229 signatures from registered voters in Griffins Otero County district, short of what they needed to trigger a special election.

New Mexico requires a number of signatures equal to 33.3% of participation in the previous election. The recall petition fell shy, with about 28% participation as time ran out Wednesday.

Since we didnt meet the signature threshold, there is no next step, said Fredrick, conceding defeat Tuesday night.

A successful recall election would have allowed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to select an interim replacement. Griffin can run for reelection in 2022, but told the Associated Press last week that hes more interested in running for sheriff in his native Catron County or governor of New Mexico some day.

Griffin has resumed traveling to political speaking engagements  in Texas, Montana and Arizona  while burnishing his image in a new video documentary as a God-fearing peaceful patriot who stands in solidarity with about 70 defendants jailed on charges related to the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol.

The failed recall petition accused Griffin of not attending commission meetings, using his elected position for personal gain in promoting a support group for former President Donald Trump, improper travel vouchers and violating state restrictions on gifts to public officials.

Griffin described the charges as frivolous and blamed county staff for providing bad guidance on travel reimbursements.

Griffin formed Cowboys for Trump in 2019 with a group of rodeo acquaintances, vowing to hold horseback-riding parades nationwide in support of Trump. He is confronting misdemeanor criminal charges in the Jan. 6. insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, where he appeared on an outdoor terrace and tried to lead the crowd in prayer.

Griffin denies allegations that he knowingly entered barricaded areas of the Capitol grounds with the intent of disrupting government as Congress considered the 2020 Electoral College results, though he openly ascribes to unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

In a 50-minute online documentary and political origin story released in August, Griffin recounts his own travails inside a Washington, D.C., jail for nearly three weeks after his arrest in the run-up to President Bidens inauguration.

Griffin says he didnt directly witness violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but believes it was perpetrated by militant leftists, not Trump supporters, contrary to extensive evidence.

I myself wear Jan. 6 as a badge of honor, Griffin says in the film, infused with orchestral tones. Im glad that I went on that day  to stand with my fellow Americans in protest of what will one day be known as the biggest rigged election in American history.

Bidens victory was certified by officials in each of the swing states he won and by Congress on Jan. 6  after Trumps supporters, fueled by false allegations of widespread election fraud, stormed the House and Senate chambers in a failed attempt to prevent certification of how Americans voted nationwide.

Griffin says the film about him was put together by Trump-allied attorney Sidney Powell and her group, Defending the Republic.

Powell has filed a number of baseless lawsuits challenging 2020 election results and helped fund the recent Arizona election audit.

Griffin also is challenging directives by state election regulators to register Cowboys for Trump as a political committee, arguing that financial disclosures would subject contributors to harassment. Griffin insists Cowboys for Trump is exempt as a for-profit group and wants a 2019 state law concerning independent political expenditure groups to be declared unconstitutional.

Powell is representing Griffin in that case, now before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
One of Albuquerques largest automotive dealerships, Larry H. Miller Dealerships, was sold Wednesday as part of a $3.2 billion transaction, including about $740 million in real estate, to Atlanta-based Asbury Auto Group, according to a news release issued today, Wednesday.

Based out of Utah, Larry H. Miller has been aggressive in Albuquerque with seven dealerships in the metro area among the 54 total dealerships the auto group owned.

It recently expanded its holdings in Albuquerque with the 2020 purchase of Casa Chevrolet and Casa Chrysler Jeep.

The company has 581 employees in New Mexico. Its local brands included Toyota, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Genesis.

According to company spokeswoman, Amanda Covington, Were unable to give any interviews (Wednesday).

Publicly traded Asbury is a Fortune 500 company that came into the deal with 91 dealerships, but a relatively small footprint in the west. It had already made inroads into Colorado, but now is adding dealerships for the first time in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, California and Washington in addition to New Mexico.

Larry H. Miller Dealerships is one of the most respected automotive dealer groups in the United States with a strong culture and stewardship mentality, David Hult, Asburys President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a prepared release. This acquisition is a unique opportunity to rapidly expand Asburys presence into these desirable, high-growth Western markets with strong accretion from day-one, with this impressive group and its rich history.

Originally founded in 1979 by Larry and Gail Miller, the dealership grew at a rapid pace.

We have been honored to cultivate a strong, values-based culture and customer-first business model within the automotive industry for more than four decades, owner Gail Miller said in a prepared release. We feel a great sense of stewardship to our incredible associates and their families, to our loyal customers and partners, and to the communities where we operate. As always, we believe that being in business is a means to doing good and this transaction will elevate our ability to continue to enrich lives through our philanthropic efforts as well as reinvest in new ventures.
Name: Emma Jones

Political party: Democratic

Age: 34

Education: High school diploma, Freedom High school, 2005

Occupation: Independent consultant

Family: Married to Tyson Jones and we have two children

Relevant experience: Former executive director at Learning Alliance of New Mexico, former co-director at SouthWest Organizing Project, former youth organizer at the SouthWest Organizing Project, former Los Companero tutor/mentor with the Enlace Statewide Collaborative, current member of Families United for Education, current member of Transform Education New Mexico Coalition.

Campaign website: emma4aps.com

Whats the biggest issue APS faces? How would you address it?

Inequity is the biggest issue facing APS. Throughout the pandemic many students and families went without resources, including technology, Wi-Fi, mental health services, support programs, and meals. To address inequities we need to do several things, provide wrap-around services, support teachers development, pay them fairly, and utilize innovative curriculum.

In your opinion, what is the primary role of a school board member?

The primary role of a board member is to develop and oversee policy, hire and fire the superintendent and support them in the alignment and implementation in policy, and approve the budget which currently stands at $1.8 billion.

How would you evaluate the current school boards performance?

I evaluate performance on care and time taken to listen to community. I believe they are doing a good job. We dont always agree, but each member has a good heart, love for children, and desire to see APS thrive. However, we need younger people with children on the board.

What experience do you have overseeing a budget?

As a nonprofit executive director, it has been my responsibility to fundraise and manage the budget of the organization. The two organizations I have worked for in that capacity were mid-level organizations, one of which had a budget in excess of a million dollars.

Would you support a vaccine mandate for APS students who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine? Why or why not?

I dont support a vaccine mandate or penalizing people who cant get vaccinated. However, I believe in caring for our neighbors, and think we should highly encourage everyone that is eligible to get a vaccine. I believe in body autonomy and know that one size fits all solutions dont work.

Whats your position on mask mandates at schools?

I do support a mask mandate. I think masks and social distancing are one thing that comes without consequence, that we can do together to reduce the spread of the virus. I also think it is our responsibility as a district to provide PPE to schools, students and the staff.

Under what circumstances, if any, would you support a return to remote learning?

We should do everything we can to keep students and staff safe, and in the classroom. This includes following the science, abiding by mandates, and returning to remote learning if required. However, I think we should try to keep students in the classroom, and prepare effective plans for different scenarios.

Do you think superintendent applications should be public?

Yes, I have been a vocal advocate for over a decade for transparency in the hiring of superintendents. I believe their applications should be public and there should be a portion of the process dedicated to community input built into the hiring process.

How would you evaluate APS as a whole?

I think APS has bright spots that should be uplifted, like the dual-language program, bilingual seal, school-based health centers, and community schools. However, there are systemic issues that have long plagued public education. We must work to undo these issues, so we dont perpetuate cycles of oppression.

Whats your stance on charter schools?

I think charters have innovative curriculum and practices that APS can learn from. However, charters arent equitable, because they rely on lotteries, have problems with transportation access, and typically cost more money per student. The board should be selective when approving new charters and for-profit charters shouldnt be allowed.

APS has been sued numerous times for failing to release public records. What, if anything, would you do to ensure that the school district is adhering to state transparency laws, such as the Inspection of Public Records Act?

Im an advocate for the release of public records. On the board, I would work with the superintendent to ensure this department is always staffed, and complies with IPRA in a timely fashion to ensure we are not wasting money on avoidable lawsuits.

Personal background

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

No.

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

No.

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, or any misdemeanor or felony?

No.
LOS ANGELES  Virgin Galactic said Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared it to resume launches after an investigation into why its spaceship veered off course while descending during a July flight with founder Richard Branson aboard.

The company said it was advised by the FAA that corrective actions proposed by Virgin Galactic have been accepted.

A larger area will be designated as protected airspace to ensure there is room for a variety of possible flight trajectories during spaceflight missions, a company statement said.

Virgin Galactic said it will incorporate additional steps in its flight procedures to ensure real-time mission notifications to FAA air traffic control.

CEO Michael Colglazier said the company is committed to safety and appreciated the FAAs review.

The updates to our airspace and real-time mission notification protocols will strengthen our preparations as we move closer to the commercial launch of our spaceflight experience, he said.

During the July 11 incident, the rocketship carrying Branson and five Virgin Galactic employees deviated outside the air traffic control clearance area during descent to a runway in New Mexico. The FAA imposed a halt on flights pending the investigation.

Virgin Galactic has said high-altitude wind caused the change in flight path and insisted the two pilots responded appropriately. The company said the ship did not travel over population centers or cause a hazard to the public.
A national health care company focused on providing primary care to Medicare patients is expanding to Albuquerque.

The first New Mexico health center operated by Oak Street Health Inc. is opening its doors to patients today, Thursday. The 9,300-square-foot center, located at 5555 Zuni SE, is the companys first of four planned centers in Albuquerque, with others slated to open over the next several months. Cristal Chavez-Medrano, regional vice president at Oak Street, said the centers are different from a typical doctors office in that it provides managed care for Medicare patients who have been left underserved by traditional medical practices.

We  focus on keeping our patients healthy, happy, and out of the hospital, Chavez-Medrano said.

Stephen Sproul, senior medical director for Oak Street, said Medicare patients face a different set of health challenges than many other populations. Many are on multiple medications, and some patients, particularly those from underserved areas, are more likely to been neglected by other medical professionals.

Most patients as they get older have more and more health conditions that need to be taken care of, Sproul said.

Chavez-Medrano said Oak Streets model, which emphasizes extensive meeting time between patients and doctors, has proven successful at keeping patients out of the hospital. She said Oak Street patients are 51% less likely to be admitted to a hospital than a typical Medicare patient. If they are admitted to a hospital, Chavez-Medrano added that Oak Street patients are 42% less likely to be re-admitted within 30 days. She pointed to the companys 24-hour phone line and prompt access to doctors as reasons for the success.

We take pride in same-day, or next-day access for our patients, Chavez-Medrano said. Thats what really helps to keep our patients out of the ER.

She added that Oak Street, which operates in 16 other states, seeks out markets that have a shortage of resources for Medicare patients.

Rather than a fee-for-service model, where tests, visits and other services each generate a payment, Oak Street uses a value-based payment model where the company partners with private insurance plans to receive a percentage of each members monthly payment, according to investor materials on Oak Streets website.

When the company enters a market, Chavez-Medrano said it seeks out insurance groups to partner with and accept patients from. In Albuquerque, Chavez-Medrano said Oak Street will be accepting patients from Presbyterian Health Plan, Humana, Amerigroup and Cigna.

She added that Oak Street will send its outreach team to churches, food pantries, assisted living facilities and other community centers to make connections with local residents on Medicare. For patients who lack transportation, Oak Street offers a free van that will pick up patients within a certain radius as a courtesy, Chavez-Medrano said.

We really focus on removing those socioeconomic barriers to be able to get to see your doctor, she said.

The center on Zuni Road is just the start for Oak Street in Albuquerque. The company is planning to open two other centers  one at Central Avenue and Atrisco Drive, the other at 4th Street and Montano Road NW  in October. A fourth center, at Rio Bravo Boulevard and Isleta Boulevard SW, is slated to open in January. Chavez-Medrano said each facility can handle around 3,500 patients, and will employ between 18 and 20 people.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Police are looking for a man accused of shooting a service dog before killing the animals owner last week in Southeast Albuquerque.

Xavier Marquez, 22, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at an occupied dwelling and extreme cruelty to animals in a Sept. 22 incident that left 34-year-old Shawn Lynch brain-dead and injured Lynchs dog, Yessica.

Lynch was hospitalized and pronounced dead Monday. His service dog, Yessica, was shot in the leg and underwent surgery.

An arrest warrant was issued for Marquez on Tuesday.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

Officers responded around 4 p.m. to the 400 block of Kentucky SE after multiple people called 911 to report a man had been shot and was lying in the street. Police found Lynch with a gunshot wound to the head and Yessica wounded nearby.

Multiple casings littered the street and a bullet had gone through the wall of a nearby home and was embedded in a womans mattress as she slept. Witnesses told police the shooter was a neighbor who changed clothes before fleeing on a moped.

A friend of Lynchs told police he had invited Lynch over for dinner when he heard a gunshot and saw his neighbor, later identified as Marquez, shoot at Lynch multiple times. Another witness told police Lynch was walking his dog when Marquez yelled repeatedly, What are you looking at, dog? before he grabbed a pistol and shot Yessica.

The witness said Lynch yelled you just shot my (expletive) dog, and Marquez shot Lynch in the head and drove off on a moped. Police found ammunition, a gun magazine and Marquezs identification in the vehicle Marquez had been sitting in.

A veterinarian found the bullet had hit Yessica in the leg, went through the dogs bowels and lodged in her thigh.

Lynchs friend and another witness picked Marquez out in a photo lineup as the shooter.

The detectives on the case said Marquez had been found in APD reports as an involved party in two other recent homicides. A man has been charged in one, but it is unclear what involvement Marquez has in either incident.

Marquez was arrested Aug. 20 after he drove his car, on fire, into a shoe store parking lot, and allegedly punched and bit an off-duty police sergeant.
Can breath tests sniff out COVID-19?

Chemical & Engineering News

Since May 2021, drivers crossing into Singapore at the Tuas Checkpoint have been required to breathe into a cigar-sized mouthpiece connected to a mass spectrometer. In less than a minute, the device analyzes the breath samples for COVID-19. According to a new feature article in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society, such breath-based diagnostics might be a fast, cheap way to detect infection, although challenges exist.

More than a year into the pandemic, PCR-based assays  which require samples to be collected from patients nasal passages with a long cotton swab  remain the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis. However, such tests are uncomfortable, slow and relatively expensive, according to freelance writer Carrie Arnold. Thats why several companies have launched breathalyzer-like tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection. These tests rely on altered ratios of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath, which reflect metabolic changes triggered by the virus. But questions about whether the technology is sufficiently sensitive and reproducible are still unanswered.

One challenge is that researchers havent sufficiently defined the levels of VOCs in the breath of healthy people, which makes it difficult to accurately measure when someones exhalation deviates from the norm. As a result, some breath-based tests have had disappointing results when used in real life. Also, some VOCs change similarly in response to different viruses or conditions, making it important to identify unique patterns or ratios of biomarkers that change only upon infection with SARS-CoV-2. Scientists in the field are hopeful that continued standardization and validation will eventually create a robust breath-based diagnostic that might even be able to detect infection earlier than PCR-based tests, before a person begins shedding the virus.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - Shasta County reported eight COVID-19 new deaths on Wednesday, according to Shasta County Health and Human Service.

Health officials said it was a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 60s, and a woman over the age of 89 who died from the virus. They said three men in their 70s and two men in their 80s died.

Officials added the people who died had underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure and asthma.

The vaccination status of the people is unknown at this time.

There have been 299 deaths for the coronavirus in Shasta County.

RELATED: North State COVID-19 updates

Tehama County Health Services Agency reported 10 new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday.

Tehama County has reached 100 coronavirus deaths, with 21 new deaths reported in the last 14 days.

Tehama Countys dashboard reports that 53% of ventilators are available and 34 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Action News Now reached out the Tehama County Public Health to get more information and is working on getting a response.

Butte County reported two new deaths on Wednesday from COVID-19. This brings Butte County to a total of 240 COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Modoc, Glenn and Trinity counties have not been updated on Wednesday.

For continuing coronavirus coverage, click here.

This is a developing story. Action News Now will keep you updated with new information on-air and online.
OLIVEHURST, Calif.- Yuba County Sheriff Detectives arrested an Olivehurst resident on Monday evening, believed to be in connection with a shooting murder in July, for brandishing a firearm.

Andreas Luis Gonzalez, 18, was arrested after detectives received a call at 2:15 p.m. Monday of a person brandishing a firearm on 7th Ave., according to sheriff's deputies.

Gonzalez matched the description given by the 911 caller and was arrested and booked into Yuba County Jail for assault with a firearm in addition to homicide for his alleged crime in July.

The shooting in question occurred on July 13 at around 12:45 a.m. at College View Drive and N. Beale Rd.

The victim Dalen Hall, 23, of Olivehurst succumbed to their injuries days later.

Gonzalez's bail is set at $1 million.
With the media and press being so critical of Facebook and a lot of people deactivating their Facebook accounts, one might think that Facebook has run its course and now its game for Facebook but this statement is far from the truth. Facebook is as strong as it ever was and the same is the case for Facebook advertising, it remains as strong as ever.

People are spending millions of dollars every year on Facebook advertising and they have seen success stories across the board thats why they are spending such huge amounts on Facebook advertising.

If you are someone who is looking to reach a wider audience, generate new leads, and gain new customers then you can count on Facebook ads. Some companies even completely rely on Facebook ads and invest highly in organized Facebook ads campaigns to stand out from their competition.

Facebook has over 2.7 billion monthly active users and counting. It is the worlds third most visited website only second to Google and Youtube. If anyone is on the internet then there is a huge chance that they will be on Facebook too and if not Facebook then probably Instagram which is also owned by Facebook. The reach that the advertisers get through Facebook is unmatched and it will stay like this for a while.

Facebook Ads Placements

To reach the audience, advertisers have to use placements. Placements are basically where your ads will show on Facebook and Facebook has a lot of different ad placements to offer including:

Feeds: These ads appear in the News Feed of people as they scroll through their Facebook feeds on both mobile and desktop.

Stories Ads: These ads appear as full-screen vertical ads in between peoples stories.

In-Stream Ads: These ads appear while users are watching videos

Search Ads: These ads appear alongside search results on Facebook and Marketplace.

Message Ads: These ads show on the Messenger App.

In-Article Ads: These appear in Instant Articles within the Facebook app.

Facebook has a lot of different ads placements to offer and it also offers two options for Ad Placements. You can either use the Automatic Placements option that displays your ads across all placements simultaneously for the same budget or you can use the Manual Placements option that allows you to manually choose the places to show your ads.

Advantages Of Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads has very advantages, some of which are mentioned as under:

1. Detailed Targeting

Facebook allows you detailed targeting options that can be very useful for your ad campaigns. It allows you to spend your ad budget by breaking down an audience using different factors such as demographics, age, locations, pages they engage with, the mobile device that they use, etc.

This data can be very useful for the advertisers and markets to pinpoint and target the audience to whom they want to target and also, whom they dont want to target. This allows a company to target the right people and generate more leads and higher conversions.

For instance, if you own a product or tool regarding Word Games such as Scrabble Word Finder then you should target people who are interested in Scrabble, Words With Friends, etc so that you can generate more leads.

2. Custom Audiences

Facebook also allows you to target people on Facebook who already know about your business by creating a Custom Audience. You will have to upload first-party data such as an email marketing list or list of previous customers and then you can target those previous customers or that custom audience again.

3. Lookalike Audience

Lookalike Audiences is a tool by Facebook to find a new audience that is similar to your existing customers. This involves taking insights from your current audience and targeting a new audience that will most likely become your new audience. Once you have built a custom audience for your campaign, it would be very easy for you to make a lookalike audience from it and start targeting lookalikes.

4. Robust Analytics

Facebook also provides Robust Analytics to all of its users who use Facebook ads. It clearly lays out all the metrics that are related to your campaigns performance in Ad Manager to help you. These metrics include post engagement, conversion rates, sales, and much more. With the help of data from these analytics, you can refine your campaign and focus on producing such a campaign that will allow you to boost your return on ad spend.

5. Get More Reach

With Facebook Ads, you can create awareness about your brand among the customers and get potential customers to know about your business and use your products. If you know how to target the right people at the right time and deliver the content that they want to see through ads then there will be no stopping you from standing amongst your competitors and getting a hefty amount of value in return from your ad spend.
As HBO Max, the OTT streaming platform from WarnerMedia, gears up for launch in India, there are various speculations around its pricing strategy. Earlier this month, a section of the media carried what was called the leaked pricing plans of HBO Max in India, which started from Rs 69 per month. As a late entrant in India, HBO Max will have to face some very strong competitors like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, besides homegrown players like ZEE5, SonyLIV, ALTBalaji, MXPlayer and a host of regional OTT players.

Currently, Netflixs base plan is priced at Rs 199 per month; Amazon Prime Videos monthly plan is priced at Rs 129; Disney+ Hotstar recently revised its subscription plans, which now start from Rs 499.

How big is the Indian OTT market?

The OTT space in the country is still a growing one and can accommodate more players. The regional markets offer tremendous potential and we are seeing even the global players like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ fortifying their regional play to cater to this audience base.

According to the FICCI-EY 2021 report on Indias M&E industry, in 2020 paid OTT subscriptions crossed 50 million for the first time. The report further estimates that demand for original content will double by 2023 from 2019 levels to over 3,000 hours per year. The share of regional language consumption on OTT platforms will cross 50% of total time spent by 2025.

No wonder then that global players are smitten by the Indian market. In December 2020, Lionsgate launched its direct-to-consumer OTT offering in India. The Starz-owned streamers foray was part of its aggressive expansion plan in the sub-continent as the Indian entry was followed by launches in countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

HBO Maxs entry could stir things up in the OTT space as the streaming service has a strong library of TV favourites, blockbuster movies and a slew of Max Originals.

The OTT player has started to build up its team in India, bringing onboard experienced hands from other established OTT competitors. HBO Max recently appointed SonyLIVs Sugata Mukherjee as Head of Content for India. He will be reporting to Amit Malhotra, who joined as Managing Director for HBO Max in Southeast Asia and India in June 2021. Malhotra most recently served as Regional Lead for Disney+ in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Smita Puranesh has been brought on board as Talent Lead, Direct-to-Consumer for HBO Max, APAC. She joins in from Netflix India, where she was Director - HR.

HBO Max and the Indian market

While there is a growing audience base for OTT content, the question is how a late entrant like HBO Max need to strategise to penetrate into this market and make an indelible mark in a market filled with 40-plus small and big streamers.

Keerat Grewal, Partner, Ormax Media, pointed out, While the paying-SVOD audience base is currently only 40.7 million, almost six states in India, like Maharashtra, Karnataka, etc., are ripe for AVOD to SVOD transition, giving both the new and existing players the opportunity to expand the market. As per the Ormax OTT Audience Report 2021, the size of the OTT audience in India is approximately 353.2 million, making India one of the most lucrative markets for growth in the OTT category.

HBO Max is following the steps of those American Pay-TV players that have launched standalone SVOD (subscription video on-demand) streaming services. AT&Ts DirecTV Now and Dishs Sling TV are some examples. Similarly, Sky has launched streaming services in European markets like Germany, the UK, Italy, etc.

Experts believe that HBO Max is likely to take it slow and steady in India. Building a committed subscriber base can be a time-consuming process. How to stand out from the rest in a market inundated with streamers of various kinds, homegrown as well as foreign? HBO obviously will cash in on its strength as a traditional media house and make the best use of the treasure-trove of legacy movies and interesting TV content in its kitty. It will definitely add significant value to its content offering.

An eclectic blend of originals (Hollywood and the like) and local content will be the best bet in a market as diverse as India. (Well, in the modish streaming lexicon, glocal (global+local) has already entered in style.) HBO will have to take this regional factor in mind as it has done in other markets through acquisitions and partnerships to deliver custom content. HBO Espana, and HBO Nordic are some examples.

Room for more players

Is there room for more players in India? According to Uday Sodhi, Partner, Kurate Digital, the Indian OTT market is close to little over $1 billion and growing at 30% YoY. So, there is enough room for more quality players. We will see many more OTT platforms in the years ahead, he said.

HBO Maxs reported basic plan will start at Rs 69, which is cheaper that competing platforms like Disney+ Hotstar and Netflix. But it is unlikely to trigger a price war. As put by Sodhi, This is probably an entry price and wont work in the long run. They will increase the price and become much like other premium platforms.

With regard to the possible content strategy of HBO in India, he said, They are known for some amazing content and great shows. Hopefully this will be continued in their India journey also. The OTT business is great for creative talent in India. Also, it offers great choices to consumers. This will only get better.

On the other hand, Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder and CEO, White Rivers Media, said that there is no doubt that the OTT space is getting crowded. The content is infinite; however, the audiences consumption time to watch this content is finite. Hence, it is a classic supply v/s demand game, where the supply is increasing, but the demand is constant. Which means, there will be more marketers bidding for the same consumption time of the audience, making OTT space more competitive and adding to the clutter, he added.

Regarding the pricing strategy of HBO Max, Gandhi said, One must be mindful, that it is not about monthly subscription pricing, but the type and quality of content. The audience has been spending a few hundred bucks on movie tickets as well. However, here it is imperative about the brand you build, your brand strategy and most importantly the type of content you offer that shall help break the clutter. For a country like India, these factors will definitely be a bigger differentiator than pricing.

He, however, is upbeat that the entry of HBO Max will be beneficial for creative talents, brands, and end customers. For creative talent, there will be more avenues to present the right content. For the brands, there will be more avenues to advertise the right content and for the end customers, there will be a lot more content diversity to choose from and hence it is going to be a win-win scenario, Gandhi added.

(Edited and Additional Inputs by Shanta Saikia.)
The third season of the South Indias most popular comedy reality show to find the most talented actors begins on October 2nd , 2021 at 9PM.

Popular actress Rai Lakshmi along with jury members actor Mukesh, actress Lakshmi Gopalaswamy and actor Tiny Tom, lit the Bhadradeepam and started Comedy Stars Season 3. Many comedians like Saju Navodaya, Nobby, Sajan Palluruthy and Biju Kuttan were also present on the occasion.

Twelve selected teams from various auditions will compete in this comedy arena. Apart from the jury members, prominent personalities from the film industry will attend as a celebrity guest.



Asianet is all set to telecast " Comedy Stars Season 3 " on every Saturday & Sunday at 9PM onwards.
Britannia Treat Wafers has launched a campaign for their new variant Britannia Treat Stix. The premise of the film is based on the irresistibility of the new Britannia Treat Stix and the cheekiness it inspires.

Conceptualized by GREY group Bangalore, the film captures the moment an older brother confronts his younger brother on the whereabouts of his Britannia Treat Stix, and the bold, hilariously brazen, retort he receives as the younger brother moonwalks out of the room with the Britannia Treat Stix hidden behind his back.

Speaking about the launch, Badri Beriwal, Business Head, New Categories, Britannia says We wanted to tap into the chocolate wafer rolls segment as this is quite an exciting and growing category. The idea was to showcase the abundance of chocolate in the product. And how one can just lose themselves in a world of fun with each bite of the chocolatey abundance.

Ketan Desai, COO, Grey group said: As the young boy says in the film, an extra scrumptious snack like the Britannia Treat Stix certainly deserves some fun, child-like escapades! We hope the youngsters who watch the film take inspiration in planning their own witty get-away.

Speaking about the film, Gautam Bhasin, Executive Creative Director, Grey group Bangalore says: We have all been in the situation where weve stealthily got our hands on our siblings treasured snacks. And while this may not be the conventionally correct thing to do, we can make an exception for when it comes to the new and delicious treat in town, Britannia Treat Stix.

The delectable snack brings together the perfect balance of a crunchy, chocolatey wafer, which boldly encases a rich and creamy chocolatey filling. Its targeted at children between the age group of 8 to 12 but is also available to those who want to recoup their child-like mischief!

CREDITS:

Brand: Britannia Industries

Brand Team: Badri Bedriwal, Sachin Wali, Gaurav Dilip Bachhav

Creative agency: Grey Group Bangalore

Chairman and group chief executive officer: Anusha Shetty

MD and chief creative officer: Sandipan Bhattacharyya

Chief operating officer and president: Ketan Desai

Executive Creative Director: Gautam Bhasin

Servicing team: Bilal Hasan

PR: Sonal Mehta
With the onset of festive season in India, LG Electronics, the leading consumer durable brand is launching KHWAHISHON SE KHUSHIYON TAK SEASON 3 with more excitement and even bigger awards.

In this offer, Consumers who have purchased LG Home Appliances* during the offer period are eligible to participate in the lucky draw by registering for this contest. Unlike last year, this time there would be not one, but two weekly draws to make it more exciting and Winners from the Lucky Draw will get a chance to win LG Products worth Rs. 8 Crores. Prizes includes Styler (Hygienic Clothes Refresher), Side-by-Side and Frost Free Refrigerators, Top Load Washing Machines, Air Conditioners, Water Purifiers & Microwave Ovens. Offer is starting from 26th September 2021 to 30th November 2021. The contest is applicable across India, except the state of Tamil Nadu.

The KHWAHISHON SE KHUSHIYON TAK SEASON 3 lucky draw will be spread over ten weeks with draws every Thursday and Sunday. Additionally, there will be Bumper draw announced on 7 auspicious days which includes Ashtami, Dusshera, Karwa Chauth, Dhanteras, Diwali, Bhai Dooj and Guru Purab.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Praveen Gusain  Business Head  Refrigerators - LG Electronics India said LG Electronics is one of the most loved & trusted brand by consumers in India. As a consumer centric brand, LG has always been committed to delivering meaningful innovation with a best-in-class experience for its consumers. Our latest KHWAHISHON SE KHUSHIYON TAK SEASON 3 campaign will enable customers to upgrade and redefine their homes with LGs innovative products. We are confident that our latest offer will appeal to consumers and will enable them to enrich their lifestyle.
Liqvd Asia, one of India's most recognisable digital marketing agencies, has bagged the integrated social media & conversational marketing mandate of Nippon India Mutual Fund in a multi-agency pitch. The agency will craft the strategy, implement and then manage the entire digital universe for Nippon India Mutual Fund, which includes social media management, digital creative design, influencer management and overall brand awareness.

Nippon India Mutual fund (NIMF), the erstwhile Reliance Mutual Fund, is one of India's leading mutual funds with average assets under management (AAUM) of Rs 2,40,364.38 crore and 113.66 lakhs folios (as of 30th June 2021). NIMF is one of the fastest-growing mutual funds in India offering investors a well-rounded portfolio of products to meet the varying investment goals and has a presence in 300 cities (as of 31st March 2019) across the country.

Liqvd Asia is an independently owned and creatively motivated digital 1st all service marketing company. It is one of the top five digital marketing agencies in terms of awareness. Liqvd Asia brings alive Asia's still unfolding fluidic growth story over the last decades and positions itself at the centre of everything digital.

Sandeep Walunj, CMO, Nippon India Mutual Fund said, The mutual fund industry is witnessing unprecedented growth. With the rising number of new investors increasingly taking control over their investments there has been a marked shift in investors' behavior in recent years. Digital has disrupted the way financial services companies communicate with their customers; In the context of changing market dynamics, we wanted a strategic firm to help power our social media strategy. We are pleased to join hands with Liqvd Asia. Their expertise in financial services and broad knowledge across industries will help our brand grow and achieve the desired communication goals.

Arnab Mitra, Managing Director, Liqvd Asia said, "These are exciting times to be in the BFSI space. Markets are at historic highs, and the mutual funds' growth, especially in the pandemic time, is very encouraging. The Liqvd Asia team is all geared up for the Nippon India MF mandate. I believe the synergy that both LA and Nippon India MF bring to the table will bring about a quantum change in how integrated digital marketing is carried out for the category itself."
Rediffusion announced the appointment of Jai Talwar as its new Chief Talent Officer, based at its Mumbai headquarters. Talwar will oversee the Human Resources function at both Rediffusion and sister agency Everest.

Jai Talwar is an experienced Advertising and Media Professional who began his career with leading advertising agencies such as Clarion and Ulka and has held various senior level positions in publications such as Reader's Digest, Hindustan Times, Business India, BW Businessworld as well as Zee TV. In Zee TV, Jai steered the sponsorship of the popular music show "Sa Re Ga Ma" by Hero Group in 2002 which is one of the longest running sponsorships in Indian Television. After spending two years with Khaleej Times Dubai as Marketing Manager, he returned to India as Associate Publisher of Reader's Digest in 2004. He successfully launched their 50th anniversary edition (which was personally presented to Late President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan) and other offline editions such as "Best of Inspiration", "Best of Drama in Real Life" and for the first time a Women's Special. He also introduced for the first time in India Reader's Digest Trusted Brands Awards in May 2006 which has become a popular symbol for Trust amongst leading brands. In BW Businessworld he launched the feature Brand Legacies which showcased the story of iconic brands. Jai Talwar has over 30 years of experience in the business.

Welcoming Jai to Rediffusion, Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Managing Director, Rediffusion said, Jai is a very experienced professional. With varied exposure. He brings to Rediffusion his vast canvas of brands and relationships. Jai is one of the most affable and polite professionals in the advertising business. He will guide Rediffusions and Everests constant search for bright minds and young sparks. Jais varied interests outside advertising  music, poetry, food and more  make for eclectic tastes and this should help him get us talent that is more exposed, more curious and more well-rounded.

Jai Talwar, on joining Rediffusion, said, Rediffusions high standards in HR are epitomized by its founders. Diwan Arun Nanda was the first gold medalist of the first batch of IIM-Ahmedabad. Ajit Balakrishnan was from one of the early batches of IIM-Calcutta and then served for over a decade as its Chairman. We have always sought to recruit from the best educational institutions and bring the very best talent in the industry to Rediffusion. My job is to carry the baton forward.
His affable, boy-next-door charm has endeared Varun Dhawan to his fans. The actor has created a space for himself in diverse roles  from romantic roles in films like Badrinath Ki Dulhania to tough roles like Badlapur to offbeat roles like Sui Dhaaga and October. Given his popularity with the masses and non-controversial image, Dhawan is also a favourite with brands.

OPPO recently onboarded Dhawan as the brand ambassador for the second time. In order to promote OPPOs F-19 series of smartphones, Dhawan changed his Instagram account to Vroom Dhawan. It soon caught everyones attention and generated a lot of chatter on social media.

A day later, OPPO dropped its campaign, titled Vroom Dhawan, where the actor is seen giving out autographs to his fans with the alias Vroom, making his fans curious again. The idea was to promote the new OPPO F-19s phone, which comes with a 33W VOOC flash charge and in gold colour that represents the mood of the ongoing festive season.

Adgully caught up with Varun Dhawan to know more about the OPPO campaign, his journey as an actor as well as the face for numerous brands and more.

What motivated you to associate with the #WhatsUpWithVarun campaign?

Technology has always excited me. Throughout my association with OPPO, I have seen how the brand has always been driven by innovation, and in my long-standing relationship with them, I have witnessed many tech advancements and industry-first features brought into India.

For instance, OPPOs VOOC flash charge is an innovation that ensures quick and safe charging of smartphone batteries.

I have always loved the connection I share with my fans and OPPO has given me this OPPOrtunity to create a greater bond with them.

You have been associated with OPPO for different products. Why did you select OPPO as a brand for an association?

I have been very particular about choosing the brands that I work with. I met with OPPO and had a list of questions about the brand. During my conversation with them, I also got to know that OPPO is among the top ten companies.

When it comes to design, OPPO has invested heavily in creating amazing camera designs, for instance, the shark fin camera in its Reno 10x zoom phone. OPPO phones have always offered premium picture quality and precision.

I have only shared very select features and I could really go on and on here.

What has been your experience so far with this campaign?

Its been actually a fun experience with this campaign, enjoyed every bit of it. I am truly impressed with the kind of innovation OPPO brings. For instance, I got to know that the OPPO F-19s bags some amazing tech features like a 5000mAh battery with 33W VOOC flash charge in a super slim design with an AMOLED screen.

Since this campaign is about Whats Up with Varun, were you involved in the conceptualisation as well?

OPPO as a company is extremely engaging and transparent. The brand has always believed in working together, understanding my views, and incorporating the details in the campaigns. I have been deeply involved with the campaign since the day we began our journey together. Its great to be associated with my OPPO fan-family for their upcoming launch of OPPO F19s.

Your fans have been patiently waiting for your new films. What is really up with Varun Dhawan?

Well, I think everyone now knows that my latest films Bhediya and Jug Jug Jeeyo are set to release in 2022.

What are your views and observations on content consumptions by the viewers during the pandemic time? According to you, what scope does OTT provide to artists? Do you see OTT leading the content game in the future?

The pandemic has totally changed the content consumption scenario. OTT has become the way of life. My movie, Coolie No.1 was released on an OTT platform and it received huge appreciation from everyone. This is only possible because everyone has a mini-movie theatre in their pockets. The F19s, for instance, has a clear and crisp wide-screen display that allows you to watch HD videos and movies wherever you are.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 29.09.2021 - At a meeting in Geneva, water ministers from The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal adopted a declaration on the establishment of institutional transboundary cooperation around the SenegalMauritanian Aquifer Basin. The ministers also agreed to begin talks on the creation of a mechanism to ensure the concerted and sustainable management of their shared groundwater resources, on which more than 15 million people depend for their water supply. Switzerland, through the Geneva Water Hub, works to facilitate this cooperation, which also enjoys the support of the Secretariat of the UN Water Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, as well as the European Union.

The declaration, signed in Geneva by ministers James Furmos Peter Gomez (The Gambia), Orlando Mendes Viegas (Guinea-Bissau), Mohamed El Hassen Boukhreiss (Mauritania) and Serigne Mbaye Thiam (Senegal), is a major step towards the development of a regional water use plan, improved management and sharing of scientific data, and the implementation of climate change adaptation strategies, in which aquifers have a strategic role to play. Since 2019 representatives of the four states that share the SenegalMauritanian Aquifer Basin have developed a vision for transboundary cooperation around this groundwater system. They called on Switzerland and other partners to support and facilitate their efforts to bring the project to fruition. Switzerland has a solid reputation in this field thanks to its extensive experience in the management of shared water resources. The 1978 Convention between Switzerland and France on the Geneva Aquifer is one of the earliest agreements of its kind in the world.

Water as a driver of peace and security

Although the control over water resources is a frequent source of conflict, this vital natural resource can also spur dialogue between states that depend on the same water basin for their supply. Swiss water diplomacy seeks to transform destructive competition for limited resources of fresh water into constructive collaboration. In 2010 Switzerland launched the 'Blue Peace' initiative to further this goal. In this context, Switzerland lends the Geneva Water Hub its support.



The aim of Switzerland's efforts is for joint institutions and jointly adopted legal frameworks to resolve disputes peacefully. Freshwater cooperation can pave the way to peace and security between peoples. It has a positive impact on economic and diplomatic cooperation.



Switzerland is committed to continuing its Blue Peace efforts in other regions of the world like the Middle East and Central Asia. It will also take part in the 9th World Water Forum, which will be held in Dakar between 22 and 26 March 2022. The theme of the conference will be 'Water Security for Peace and Development'.

Address for enquiries

FDFA Communication

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CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53

Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55

E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch

Twitter: @SwissMFA

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Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




Autism Is Medical (AIM), a support group that helps parents identify the underlying medical issues associated with the label of autism, was contacted on Sunday, February 24th. They were enrolled to help the staff at Gottlieb understand Alexs complex medical profile. According to one of the AIM representatives, Clearly, what they are doing isnt working. The AIM advocates,(all mothers to children fully recovered from iatrogenic autism), went on to say, Currently, this child is being treated with Lorezepam, Oxezepam, Benzatropine, Zyprexa and Ativan. These drugs do nothing to address the intense gastrointestinal issues he is experiencing, nor do they alleviate his pain. Dorothy explained that Alex remains in a highly-agitated state. He was also prescribed Depakote, to which he had an adverse reaction (elevated lipase). In addition to these issues, Alexs mom explained he has many allergies. Both physicians at Gottlieb and Loyola told her that IgG and IgE food sensitivies were invalid. Dorothy was told by the attending physician to give her son milk at Loyola, not in the ER. When a possible reaction occurred she was told the bed caused his contact dermatitis.

Because of Alexs physical aggression, he was placed in locked restraints. At that time, Dorothy did not know the ER would be their home for the next several days, as Alex lay naked, in locked restraints, suffering bouts of violent vomiting, severe constipation and diarrhea. Neither she nor Alex bathed for the next 13 days while hospital staff and administrators attempted to devise a plan to care for Alex. He was given Colace for his constipation and sometimes it would take security staff and nurses more than 15 minutes to arrive to help unshackle him so he could use the bathroom, Dorothy explained. Alex would scream as best he could when he knew he was going to have a vomiting episode, but security took several minutes to respond so Alex would lay in his own vomit, waiting to be released by a representative of security. He would be wiped down and returned to the same restraints.

The irony of this week marking The National Patient Safety Foundations Patient Safety Awareness Week is not lost on Dorothy. According to her, at 14 years of age, Alex has a diagnosis of severe autism and cognitive impairment. He is non-verbal. In October of 2012, Alex began to suffer neurological events that prevented a healthy sleep cycle. He was awake for many hours at a time. Agitation and aggression ensued as a result of sleep deprivation. During this time, symptoms and behaviors that were indicative of severe gastrointestinal distress developed as well. A cycle of constipation, diarrhea and formed bowel movements surfaced and became a chronic problem. On February 16th at 5:00 am, with the assistance of police and paramedics, Dorothy took her inconsolable and highly-distressed non-verbal child to Gottlieb Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois.

I need to tell you Alexs story. Dorothy Spourdalakis, Alexs mom spoke professionally with a deliberateness I was not expectingconsidering she has been by Alexs bedside awaiting proper medical care for his gastrointestinal symptoms, for 19 days.

Alex was not assigned to a room at Gottleib and was never formally admitted as a patient. He remained in an ER bay during his entire stay at Gottlieb. He was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center on February 28th at 3:00 p.m. after 13 days in the hopes that they could better serve his needs. It was determined that he needed the care of a pediatric gastroenterologist, neurologist and anesthesiologist, and Loyola could provide those services. On Friday, March 1st, a GI (gastrointestinal) consult was ordered.

Alex and Dorothy were not visited by a gastroenterologist until March 5th, four days after their admission. The physician took an oral medical history on Alex and expressed that he wasnt sure why they were doing this procedure, and that Alex would be pushed back for some reason having to do with the pediatric anesthesiologists complicated schedule, according to Dorothy. In the 15 minutes the gastroenterologist spent in the room with Dorothy and her son, an event that was 17 days in the making, he did not see the need to perform a physical exam on Alex.

On March 6th, Dorothy met with another gastroenterologist who observed that Alex was indeed in pain. For the first time in 18 days, it was recognized that he was in pain by someone in the hospital system. Dorothy was encouraged. Gastroenterologist number two scheduled the appropriate procedures -- procedures AIM founders believe would have been ordered much sooner for a neurotypical child.

Within hours of meeting with the second gastroenterologist, a CNE (Certified Nurse Executive) spoke with Dorothy and asked to meet with her about insurance issues. During the meeting, she was asked to sign the paper attached in the photo (click to enlarge), immediately. Dorothy was hesitant because, The form is not printed on Loyola letterhead as is the standard policy for routine hospital documentation. According to Dorothy, during this meeting the CNE admitted the JACHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) required assessments of a restrained child by a physician every four hours to reassess his need to remain in locked restraints had not been met. Dorothy said the CNE explained that they may "have missed a few." (Read more about ethical restraint practices.)

The same CNE, who previously had promised a plain-clothes security officer for Alexs room, stated at this meeting there was some confusion on this issue, and he would not be receiving that additional support because it was against hospital policy.

This is the stagnant state Alex has been living in for the past 19 days.

19 days. 456 hours. 27,360 minutes. 1,641,600 seconds.

Alex remains in locked restraints awaiting appropriate medical testing and follow-up care. Dorothy is concerned that no one has given her a plan as to what the exact goals are for his healthcare or how they will be achieved. She is concerned about weaning him off the restraints as well. No hospital personnel have addressed this with her. He has been conditioned to them, now, she stated.



I asked Dorothy what she wants people to know about what has happened to her son Alex: "I want people to know this is what is happening. They need to know, children with special needs, especially autism, children with cognitive impairments are all at risk for this sort of treatment. All families are at risk. Families who do not speak English, or speak English as a second language are at risk, too. This is how the system is set up. Elderly people are at risk. Who is protecting these children and adults? How can we as a society allow this to happen to our weakest? This is apparently the norm. Their medical needs are met with medications that do nothing to address their physical illnesses but purposefully make them silent and unable to protest any longer. Is this all we have to offer our children, our family members, parents and spouses? she implored.

The members of AIM confirmed Dorothys concerns: There is no plan for him. Patients who suffer from disabilities are at risk for abuse and neglect. In a day where patient satisfaction scores determine reimbursement rates, and hospitals are competing for market share, I wonder if this same story would unfold if the patient was admitted for heart disease or elective surgery. Policies and safety measures are already in place in every hospital system and acute care facilities across this nation. Internal regulatory audits for things like restraint use, falls and infections are done routinely. Loyola's website shows pictures of happy patients getting the treatment they need. It highlights partnerships with physicians, a team approach for high-risk pregnancies, their cardiology program -- one of the leading in the nation, and the benefit of second opinions. Apparently that type of care isn't available to children with an autism disability. We entrust our doctors and healthcare institutions to take care of our children who can't speak for themselves and can't advocate for their own safety. Where is the picture of Alex, locked in restraints, covered in a rash on their website? Please call them and let them know the entire autism community is watching.

LoyolaMedicine.org

Contact Vice President and CNE, Paula Hindel at 708-216-3802 to express your concerns for Alexs care.

Let CEO, Larry M Goldberg know what is happening to voiceless children in Loyolas healthcare system. 708-216-3215

Lisa Joyce Goes is a free-lance essayist, Contributing Editor for Age of Autism, and Co-Founder of The Thinking Moms Revolution.
Iran received a large shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from Cuba on Thursday.

A total of 100,000 Soberana 02 doses from the Latin American country were delivered to Tehrans Imam Khomeini International Airport, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The first dose of the vaccine will be administered to 100,000 people in Iran as part of the third phase of its trial. Iran and Cuba are also working to develop a vaccine together that could be ready by April, according to the outlet.

Iran has been one of the hardest hit countries in the region by the coronavirus and has been registering several thousand infections per day for several months. The Islamic Republic began administering vaccine doses in February. Some Iranian media outlets have accused the government of giving out the vaccine based on personal connections as opposed to health considerations.

Iran and Cuba enjoy friendly relations in part because both states are adversaries of the United States. Iran is also close with Venezuela in the Western Hemisphere for similar reasons.
A man was stabbed during an altercation when a woman asked friends to help her remove belongings from the home of her boyfriend since she was trying to break up with him. The incident occurred in Cherokee on Wednesday, Sept. 15.

According to court records, Cherokee Police Officer Tristan Hall responded to an active domestic incident at the Chaparral Apartments at 8:07 p.m. While he was on the way, he was informed by dispatch that one individual had been stabbed.

On arrival, Officer Hall immediately drew his service pistol and began giving orders for people to put their hands in the air. Tamel Lewis who lives at the apartments had been stabbed, and those at the scene said Tamiko Turner was the one who stabbed him. Turner was placed in handcuffs and a white-handled folding pocket knife was retrieved from his left back pocket. Hall placed Turner in his vehicle while he went to speak to Lewis.

Hall observed Lewis had blood on the left side of his t-shirt and on the left side of his head. He asked to see where he had been stabbed, and Lewis lifted his shirt. Hall observed a puncture on his abdomen and another in his armpit region. Lewis stated he wanted to press charges on Turner because Turner had come into his home and attacked him. EMS arrived and Lewis was immediately transported to Share Medical Center in Alva. Hall was later informed Lewis was transferred to OU Medical in Oklahoma City.

Hall next spoke to April Mauldin who stated she had been dealing with Lewis over the last few days and had been trying to break up with him. She said she came to the apartment to try to get some clothes so she could stay with Colleen Bradford. She said she sent Turner and Bradford into the apartment to see if Lewis was there because she was afraid to enter if he was. Turner, not seeing anyone, got her dog and took it out.

After she was told Lewis was not there, Mauldin entered. She asked Bradford if they checked the back rooms, and Bradford began to talk back that way. Lewis appeared from the room, and Mauldin said she ran behind the kitchen table. She and Lewis began to shove the table back and forth, and she said Lewis shoved the table into her and forced her against the wall.

Mauldin said Bradford was trying to get her to run past Lewis and out the front door. Lewis then ran over to shut and lock the door. Mauldin said Lewis and Turner began fighting, and she heard Lewis yell he was stabbed, but she didnt believe him. She was then able to make it out of the apartment with Bradford and Turner. She said thats when the police arrived.

Hall had Mauldin take him up to the apartment to walk through the events. When he entered the apartment, he saw the table in the middle of the kitchen with two chairs lying down. Mauldin said the chairs were now broken. Hall also observed a large scratch on the kitchen floor consistent with the table being slid back and forth.

Hall then spoke with Bradford who had the same recollection of events as Mauldin except she added more details. Bradford stated she was pushed out of the way when Lewis came out of the bedroom and when he locked the door. Bradford also stated when Lewis and Turner were fighting, Lewis stuck Turner first and was dragging him toward the hallway while they were fighting.

Bradford said when Lewis appeared he began talking to Turner saying, Whats up, and then Lewis ran toward the kitchen saying, I am going to beat your ***, directed toward Mauldin and he started slamming the table into Mauldin.

Bradford said Lewis went to the open door and pushed her out of the way. Turner began to tell Lewis to calm down, and Lewis began to punch Turner and hit his head on the wall. She said Lewis started to drag Turner toward the back room, saying the police are coming. She stated Lewis suddenly let Turner go, and they ran outside.

Bradford said Lewis told Mauldin, You not going anywhere. You going to do this, it OK. Im going to get you, Bradford said she told Mauldin to come outside, and she was going to call the police.

Officer Hall then spoke to Turner who had been sitting in his police vehicle while Chief McNeil was removing the handcuffs from Turner. Hall observed several injuries to Turners head and face. Turner also showed that his hands had been cut from sliding up the knife. Turner also had blood on his clothing.

Turner stated he went into the house and got the dog, took it out and came back upstairs. He said Lewis popped out of one of the back bedrooms and started tell him, Whats up, bro, and then went to the kitchen after Mauldin. Turner said Lewis was pushing the table into Mauldin. He said Lewis went and locked the door and pushed Bradford. Turner said he then confronted Lewis.

Turner said he told Lewis to calm down, he was trippin. That is when Lewis began hitting him and hitting his head on the wall. Turned stated he was fighting back, and Lewis was dragging him toward the back rooms. Turner said he pulled out his knife and stabbed Lewis in self-defense because he did not know what else to do. Once Lewis let him go, he stated he ran out of the apartment. Turner was checked out by EMS and the injuries photographed.

After getting statements and having Mauldin and Turner evaluated by EMS, Hall released them to go home. He later met back with them to retrieve the knife that was in Bradfords possession as he observed it in her hand at the scene. He needed to evaluate it to insure it was not used in the incident. The next morning, Hall met with Mauldin and asked if she would allow the apartment to be searched. She agreed and signed a consent form.

Hall, McNeil and Officer Cross went to the apartment and photographed the damage to the floor and the apartment. Hall located several spots of blood that were believed to be cast-off from the altercation. During the search, a gray backpack was found hanging in the hallway closet. Mauldin stated it belonged to Lewis. In searching the backpack, Hall found a pipe with white residue that based on his training and experience he knew to be a pipe used to smoke methamphetamine. The bag and its contents were seized and booked into evidence.

On Sept. 20 in Alfalfa County, Tamel Laron Lewis, 35, of Cherokee, was charged with two felonies: (1) second and subsequent domestic abuse  assault and battery and (2) kidnapping.

The domestic abuse charge is punishable by imprisonment up to four years or a fine of $5,000, or both. The kidnapping charge is punishable by imprisonment for up to 20 years. Bond in the case has been set at $100,000.
The recent disaster in Afghanistan, however spectacular, was part of a pattern, the pattern of failed American interventions since the Second World War.

Previous misadventures might not have entailed needless bungling of the kind just displayed over a few days to an astonished world. No one expected the withdrawal of military forces before civilians, in such hasty neglect that vast quantities of armaments were abandoned to the enemy and American and allied Afghan civilians left to their fate. Neither did observers anticipate the preemptory departure from Bagram, rendering a vulnerable Kabul airport the only avenue of egress. And then came the sickening spectacle by which American forces avenged the troops killed in a botched withdrawal through the slaughter of innocents, wrongly taken to be terrorists.

And yet this failed mission is really the last element of a series. Since the 1950s, America has intervened in defense of other nations under attack (South Korea and South Vietnam), or to liberate a nation recently conquered or seized by a coup (Kuwait, Grenada), or to change or provide relief from an existing regime (Iraq, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Libya). The initial attack upon Afghanistan, of course, was to strike back at those who actually had attacked the United States or abetted the attackers. But the mission soon became one to transform the government there, such as it was, into a pro-western democracy.

In Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia, and ultimately Afghanistan, the commitment was defined, at least in part, as for the benefit of a foreign civilian population, whose freedom from oppression (starvation, in the case of Somalia) would be protected by American arms. Our leaders sometimes articulated strategic justifications but on other occasions proclaimed our disinterested altruism, to be paid for in American blood and treasure.

We accordingly expected each time to be received with gratitude, as liberators and benefactors, by those whom we came to help. Military planners might not have supposed that Vietnamese, Iraqis, Somalis, and Afghans would duplicate the cheering throngs that greeted American troops in 1945. It was assumed, however, that those we befriended (in our own minds, at any rate) at least would become our enthusiastic allies. That spirit of camaraderie proving elusive, we set out to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Winning the hearts and minds of the people required limiting our military response, or at any rate, diverting it to include activities unrelated to making war. The building of schools and infrastructure and the staging of elections proceeded, while hostilities continued and the enemy remained undefeated. We tailored operations to avoid civilian casualties, or to promote an amicable resolution of the conflict. The enemy, cognizant of our aversion to killing civilians, of course, took full advantage by placing himself among them at every opportunity. But no matter -- killing civilians is not who we are. In Iraq and Afghanistan, we prosecuted our own troops for shooting the wrong way during highly irregular warfare. We dared not repeat the My Lai massacre, and perhaps went somewhat to the opposite extreme in order to avoid the suggestion that we had.

A foreign occupier will not long receive gratitude, no matter how much the indigenous population originally desired his presence and assistance. According to Machiavelli, One must always offend those over whom he becomes a new prince, both with men-at-arms and with infinite other injuries that the new acquisition brings in its wake. Machiavelli, of course, speaks here of conquest, which despite the Lefts accusations was never the American objective. But to invade and fight for years in someone elses land is not to win his heart and mind. To expect gratitude for foisting the latest western notions of individual liberty and equality (gender and transgender equality, in particular) upon an Islamic population, moreover, is to leaven tragedy with farce.

American strategy was also limited by fear of direct confrontation with the Soviet Union and China. Particularly in Vietnam, the decision a priori not to invade North Vietnam appeared attributable to fear of repeating the events of November 1950, when the surprise Chinese attack threw American forces out of North Korea.

Except for conflicts in our own hemisphere, in limited geographic areas where our might was irresistible (Panama, Grenada, Dominican Republic), every American military intervention since the Second World War has met with frustration or outright defeat. In that connection, it is unnecessary to rehearse the sad results of Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan.

Though the Korean conflict ended with South Korea still in existence, recoupment of the loss inflicted by the Chinese attack consisted only in restoring the status quo ante: the original boundary between North and South. Continuing to full victory and the liberation of North Korea in the judgment of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Omar Bradley would have involve[d] us in the wrong war, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy. (testimony before Congress, May 15, 1951). He recommended instead a policy of patience and determination.

In response to the foregoing, General MacArthur famously observed, Once war is forced upon us, there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. For wars very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. And in war there can be no substitute for victory. Has prolonged indecision not been the characteristic of every military mishap since MacArthur spoke those words?

The carnage of war is not alleviated by taking care at the outset that it all be for naught and that the dead, paraphrasing Lincoln, shall have died in vain. If such destruction as is necessary to victory, including the destruction of the innocent, is unpalatable, the nations leaders should not undertake war and must accept the consequences of not making it. If those consequences are enslavement by a conqueror, the calculation perhaps will become simpler.

In that context, the purpose of this country making war is to preserve the liberty and security of the American people, and then only when no alternative to war is available. War also may be necessary to uphold national commitments, in the form of treaties or truce terms. As Winston Churchill put it: There is one helpful guide, namely, for a nation to keep its word and to act in accordance with its treaty obligations. This guide is called honor. Obviously, this requires the greatest circumspection in giving promises to fight for another country. Such undertakings must serve American strategic interests, not foreign civilian populations whose safety and sympathies limit our tactics.

Any war will become endless and unwinnable if the commanders choose to wage it by halves. A democratic nation will not sustain MacArthurs prolonged indecision, and if generals do not effect an outcome using every violent means at hand, the bitter conclusion must come: withdrawal, either in abject failure or with no conclusive result save death.

Image: Youngottoman

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Despite their supposed apolitical nature, some issues develop along hyper-partisan fault lines and become a litmus test in identifying where someone rests along the ideological spectrum. One might never think topics like patriotism or merit-based admissions or respect for law enforcement or the recognition of human XX vs. XY chromosomes would be cause for political friction and strife, but in today's America, they are.

Take anthropogenic global warming as a prominent example. This has been a central calling card for the Progressive cause. They claim it's entirely the fault of conservatives  that heartless Republican businesspeople, in their relentless pursuit of immoral profits, willfully and callously disregard the environment and run their businesses in a deliberately "dirty" manner in order to maximize their earnings and keep their expenses, like best environmental practices and the purchase of costly pollution-reduction devices, to a minimum.

When the warming that was promised in the late '80s and early '90s failed to materialize by the early 2000s, Progressives changed the terms of the discussion from "global warming" to "climate change." That way, they could blame any weather-related anomaly or damaging event on what they saw as conservatives' willful disregard for the environment.

The intent here is not to re-fight the entire matter of global warming. It's simply to point out that one's position on the question defines in explicit terms the political ZIP code of the neighborhood in which that person resides.

Now there's another  perhaps even better  ZIP coderevealer: COVID-19. This subject is imbued with so many points of contention that it's hard to know where to start.

Everything about COVID is controversial. A person's position on every one of these points marks his political leanings:

The name. Is it the China Virus? COVID-19? Coronavirus? We call them "West Nile" and "Ebola" and "Legionnaires Disease" to reflect where and how they originated. But "China Virus" is now all of a sudden racist to the wokeists.

Where/how it began. In a lab, as an experiment gone wrong, or perhaps a failed bio-weapon effort? At a so-called wet market? Progressives scoff at any suggestion of evil Chinese intent.

President Trump's early stages response. This varies from a hands-off failure, where he totally underestimated and intentionally downplayed the threat, to a sterling effort that involved such fast action (like the hospital ships to L.A. and NYC and the initiation of Operation Warp Speed) that he even received enthusiastic support from both Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom.

Dr. Anthony Fauci. He has transitioned from being seen by most of the public in the early days of the pandemic as sort of a neutral America's Doctor figure to conservatives now thinking he's nothing more than a flip-flopping, Progressive-pleasing, anti-Trump opportunist, willing to say anything  no matter how inconsistent or blatantly false  to enhance his own stature.

Mask mandates. This has two distinct sides. On one side are those who believe that wearing masks is essential to protect public health and anyone who opposes that viewpoint is ignorant and a danger to society. The other side is more skeptical of masks, pointing out inconvenient little facts like that the typical mask opening is four times larger than the COVID-19 particle (500 nanometers to 125 nanometers), so wearing a mask is like trying to stop a swarm of mosquitoes with a chain-link fence, as that cliche goes. Mask mandates in the public sphere and for kids in school divide the electorate sharply along ideological lines.

Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. The acceptance or rejection of the vaccine mandate and passport is more a reflection of political loyalties and the degree of wokeism an individual exhibits than it is a desire to adhere to rigorous scientific evidence. Firstly, it's not a vaccine, not in the traditional sense. Real vaccines, like the polio vaccine, prevent the disease. This doesn't. The-drug makers don't even claim that it will. Nor will it stop the transmission. All they claim is a meaningful reduction in the chances of getting COVID-19 and a reduction in the severity and duration of symptoms should a person become infected. A recent study showed that U.S. COVID cases in early September 2021 were up 300% compared to September 2020, even though 66% of the adult population is vaccinated in 2021 compared to 0% in September 2020. So much for "prevention."

They're treatments, therapeutics, not vaccines. There have more incidents by far of bad side-effects with these so-called vaccines than with other longer-standing vaccines that have been in use for decades. Cheaper, totally safe COVID therapeutics (like ivermectin, Regeneron, and hydroxychloroquine) exist that have proven extremely effective, even if the studies showing that have been suppressed by politically motivated parties and the liberal media and Big Tech.

Again, as with global warming, the intent here is not to re-fight this battle. Obviously, everyone is free to determine if getting the shot is right for himself. Everyone is free to decide whether or not he considers it a "vaccine" or not. There is no intent here to prove that the vaccines are bad or imply that a strong nexus exists among the pharmaceutical parent companies of the COVID vaccines, the advertising dollars they spend on the major news networks, and the political donations they make to various candidates of all stripes. That information is out there, and people can draw their own conclusions.

COVID-19 Is the New Global Warming

One's position on the COVID-19 issue identifies one's political loyalties, pure and simple. Question the efficacy of the vaccine or the commonsense need for vaccine passports and mask mandates, and in the eyes of Progressive thought leaders and the liberal media, you are just the typical ignorant conservative, displaying a selfish, callous disregard for the safety of society and an unintellectual refusal to acknowledge what Progressives insist are unimpeachable facts.

Yet astonishingly, it is those oh, so tolerant Progressives who favor the draconian government vaccine and mask mandates, while the supposedly anticivil rights conservatives come down unequivocally on the side of individual freedom and "my body, my choice." That's a contradiction that no Progressive even tries to reconcile.

Image: qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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The founding fathers did not see themselves as constituting a new version of classical Greece. Instead, they saw themselves as biblically inspired Romans, which is to say, modern Republicans.

Paul Meany has written insightfully about how the founding fathers were enamored of the Roman Republic and how, in many ways, collectively and personally, they modeled themselves on the ancient Romans.

The Founders lavished praise upon Roman heroes who defended their government from tyranny in the Republic's turbulent final days[.] ... [M]any 18th century Americans felt an affinity for ancient Rome, there are many parallels between the two societies. Akin to the Republican Romans, 18th-century Americans were mainly rural farmers[.] ... The Romans praised the virtues of independence, patriotism, and moderation, which were also cornerstones of American society[.] ... By anchoring arguments for freedom to ancient precedent, Revolutionary American authors aimed to demonstrate that their arguments were timeless and firmly embedded in history. Historians like Plutarch, Livy, and Tacitus successfully encapsulated in writing the eternal and unavoidable struggle between liberty and power[.] ... Many of the educated American Revolutionaries did more than just read about the Romans as a scholarly pursuit  they actively tried to emulate their behavior and virtues.

The Romans had a word for their moral code. They called it "Romanitas." It was most alive during the history of Republican Rome and then became attenuated, as Rome descended into a Western form of oriental despotism, ruled by emperors who were often put in power by military elites.

Polybius, the ancient historian, captures some of the essence of Romanitas in the following, almost humorous paragraph:

The Roman customs and principles regarding the acquisition of wealth are better than those of the Carthaginians. In the view of the latter nothing is disgraceful that makes for gain; with the former nothing is more disgraceful than to receive bribes and to make profit by improper means. For they regard wealth obtained from unlawful transactions to be as much a subject of reproach as a fair profit from reputable sources is of commendation. A proof of the fact is this: the Carthaginians obtain office by open bribery, but among the Romans the penalty is death.

Romans believed in and practiced loyalty to family and clan, respect for the household gods and the gods of the Pantheon, the value of being a citizen, and the obligations of citizens to fight and serve the state with honesty and "gravitas." After a while, anyone could become a Roman. It was paradoxically a voluntary empire, where even conquered peoples could become fully participating citizens or even emperors, such as Spanish-born Trajan.

Scholars have written quite a lot about Romanitas, as did Romans in past times. Suffice it to say that one can argue that during most of the history of the American Republic, the values of the Constitution, adherence to the Constitution, and selfless leadership at the highest level have, as with the Romans, been the American ideal, even if not always lived up to in practice.

We could reasonably call these civic virtues "Americanitas." Above all, these ideals are supposed to serve the interests of the citizens, the legal residents of the Republic, whose representatives serve the people and not themselves, as became the custom of the "senators" under the emperors of the later Roman Empire.

A key American ideal has been that American citizens must fight for America as did Roman citizens during the Republic. Either voluntary soldiers or drafted soldiers are responsible for the defense of the American Republic. The ideal soldier-statesman, and the first president of the Republic, was George Washington, who, alongside his rebel patriots, did not hire German mercenaries to fight the British oppressors, as the British did to fight them. And so it was in America, until quite recently.

It is not widely known that there were more hired "soldiers" in Afghanistan during America's twenty-year sojourn there than there were actual serving soldiers. When Vice President Biden's convoy went astray during his visit to Afghanistan, it was the hired mercenaries of the private security company then called Blackwater Inc. that saved his life after a failed attempt by the American military. So said its founder Eric Prince on National TV, just a couple of weeks ago.

More importantly, it is not widely known that until the 1990s, about 90% of most senior American managers in the private sector, and many in government, had served in the military during WWII, Korea, or Vietnam. Today, only 5% of senior people in the private sector have served in the U.S. military. I suspect that the number in the various branches of the government is about the same. So who are the people leading America, and what are they doing?

They are mostly Baby-Boomers and older. They live in posh suburbs and in gated communities. They usually went to private schools and private colleges. They intermarry among their own class. Most did not serve in the military. Their children are privileged and protected. They have, both Republicans and Democrats, managed to become rich after serving a term or two in government. Why?

Nine years ago, investigative journalist Peter Schweizer wrote a book showing how senators and congressmen enrich themselves at the public expense by a kind of legislative inside trading. The name of the book says it all:

Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison

That is not how men inspired by the ideals of the constitution and the Roman republic are supposed to act. This kind of predatory behavior does not echo the grandeur of the senators of the Roman Republic. It reflects the behavior of the senators who served emperors and enriched themselves at the citizens' expense and, notably, whose sons no longer went to war for Rome. Then the Romans and the children of the elites no longer fought for themselves. They imported "Barbarians" to fight for them, first from Gaul and Spain and then from Germany.

In the beginning, most Barbarians became Romans, adopted Latin, and took on Romanitas as their personal code. But as the Republican element of ancient Rome receded, as inequality and injustice increased, it was the invading and more importantly migrating Barbarian peoples from north, west, and east of the empire who clamored for its land and wealth. The Roman ruling elite let them in. That was the death knell of the Western empire.

Today, we see an American ruling class that is well documented as such. They are tellingly described by former New York Times journalist Hedrick Smith in his book Who Stole the American Dream? They are even better evoked by Cullen Murphy's book Are We Rome?, where he asks, way back in 2008, whether America resembles Rome under the emperors or when it was a Republic. Today there is no doubt what the answer is.

Today's Washington elites, and the Deep State, representing the interests of the Democrat party, are no longer interested in the American Republic and its Roman-inspired values. They have rejected both Americanitas and Romanitas. They have opened their border on their southern frontier and are allowing in masses of people from non-democratic societies and whose family traditions are also non-democratic. These "new barbarians" can be bought, and they will vote Democrat for generations to come.

There is no need to proclaim an emperor. Presidential overreach is giving us the same result, overriding state jurisdiction, whose legal basis was established by the founders. Those citizens who still believe in Romanitas and Americanitas will be illegally outvoted for years to come, and the senatorial and congressional elite will enrich themselves at everyone's expense.

These new barbarians and their patrons in South America, the Far East, and the Islamic world, who send them to our shores, will do all they can to undermine the Constitution and demoralize the remaining forty-eight percent of American patriots who still want a Republic.

It happened to Rome in the fourth century, and it seems to be happening to America today. Illegal aliens do not know what Romanitas is or was, nor do they care. Neither are they interested in the Constitution or constitutional government.

A few years back, when living and working in Manhattan, I was invited as a guest to a national day of celebration for a Caribbean country at a Brooklyn venue. There was not one American flag in the room, there was no singing of the National Anthem, no one said the pledge of allegiance, and not one speaker gave thanks to the great Republic who invited them to become its citizens. I felt as though I were in a foreign country in the heart of New York. I was flabbergasted.

The new barbarians desperately want the bread and circuses given to them by the Washington elite. It is better than the chaos and poverty they left behind in their home countries. They will behave according to their new masters' wishes  until there comes a time when, probably by non-democratic means, they take over the Republic.

By then, it will have become a Republic in name only.

Image via Pixabay.

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Should Nazi officials and collaborators have escaped punishment for their crimes? Should they have found a safe haven in the U.S. and U.K. because of their supposed value to Western security agencies in confronting the Soviet Union in the Cold War? Simply put, should perpetrators of evil not only go unpunished but also be treated as respectable and rewarded for their usefulness to the CIA or MI6? Equally serious is the fact that complicity with those perpetrators, and allowing elderly Nazis to live in the U.S. and U.K. and escape justice, may indicate defiance of international agreement, as well as regarding the Holocaust as inconsequential.

During World War II, two declarations, that of St. James's Palace on June 2, 1941, and the subsequent one of the U.N. on January 13, 1942, the first joint statements of goals and principles by the fourteen Allied Powers in the War, laid down that punishment for those responsible for Nazi crimes was among the first war aims. Even before details of the Holocaust were known, Winston Churchill stated, "Resolution for these crimes must henceforward take its place among the major purposes of the war." In contrast, U.S. officials overlooked or ignored the crimes and shielded Nazi war criminals in their pursuit of an anti-communist crusade. Did that pursuit and its pivotal place in American foreign policy during the Cold War justify the tolerance and even support of human rightsabusers and those involved in crimes against humanity and their escape from justice?

The release of troves of documents of the CIA and MI6 confirms that they allowed the evil perpetrators to escape punishment for their crimes and used an extensive neo-Nazi network to wage a postwar campaign against the Soviet Union. Similarly, in postwar France, the evils of the Vichy regime have often been ignored or excused.

It is not true that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The reality is that Nazi criminals received light punishment, or no punishment at all, and even received compensation because Western spy agencies considered them useful assets in the Cold War.

Judgment on all this continues. In Britain in September 2021, there are calls for a public inquiry into whether alleged Nazi war criminals were protected from prosecution because they acted as spies or were useful for the U.K. during the Cold War. The calls came after a BBC program found that a suspected Nazi collaborator named Stanislaw Chrzanowski, S.C., probably worked for MI6. He grew up in eastern Poland, now part of Belarus; came to Britain in 1946 after being a prisoner of war; and joined Allied forces.

This Pole, S.C., who died in 2017, aged 96, was involved in Nazi atrocities, including the mass murder of at least thirty people, against Jews and others in his hometown of Slonim. Fluent in three languages, Polish, Russian, and German, he worked after the war in a refugee camp in West Berlin that housed people fleeing from communism. MI6 must have known he was a murderer, a Nazi collaborator, yet used him. One problem with finding the truth is that British security agencies destroyed at least 110,00 files in the late 1980s and early 1990s of any foreign-born Nazi collaborator who worked for U.K. intelligence; therefore, British police did not have sufficient evidence to bring charges against S.C. Nevertheless, it is clear not only that many Nazi suspects were safe in Britain after the war, but that British intelligence facilitated this and protected them from prosecution.

In similar fashion, in the U.S., declassified CIA files confirm the use of Nazis, allowing senior Nazi scientists and political personnel to enter or work in the U.S. and in Europe because they were considered useful in the Cold War. These evil persons include associates of Adolf Eichmann. Just two examples: Emil Augsburg, SS, who worked at the Wannsee Institute, the body that planned the Final Solution, was employed as a Soviet expert by the CIA in the late 1940s, and Otto von Bolschwing, SD, adjutant to Eichmann, was relocated to NYC and protected. The CIA decided the latter's Nazi past was "relatively inconsequential, partially in view of his excellent service on our behalf."

The list is long. Between 1945 and 1955, 765 German scientists, engineers, and technicians entered the U.S. At least half and perhaps 80% were former Nazi members. Probably the best known is Werner von Braun, the leader in rocket technology in Germany, and largely responsible for rocketry in the U.S. space program and the moon landing. But he was also in charge of 20,000 prisoners on the Nazi rocket project. Also employed by the U.S. were Arthur Rudolph, assistant to von Braun at the V-2 project, who used slave labor in the project's underground factory in Nordhausen, and Hubertus Strughold, controller of the clinic in Germany that conducted experiments on children and prisoners, who worked with the U.S. Air Force on space medicine.

Evidence from Operation Paperclip, a secret U.S. intelligence program, indicates 1,600 cases of German scientists, engineers, and technicians who were employed by the U.S., largely by U.S. counter-intelligence agencies.

A pivotal figure in U.S. policy was Allen Dulles, first civilian and longest-serving director of the CIA, who believed that "we should be free to talk to the Devil himself." Dulles as a pre-war Wall Street lawyer and diplomat represented German firms, including Thyssen and I.G. Farben. He became head of the operations of OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, in Switzerland. In that capacity, he helped German bankers and industrialists, as well as senior Nazi officials, who had been involved in Nazi programs escape prosecution. As head of the CIA, he shielded major Nazis. One of most notorious protected was General Karl Wolff, Heinrich Himmler's chief of staff, active in approving deadly medical experiments performed on inmates at the Dachau concentration and death camp, a crime against humanity, and responsible for deporting 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp.

Among others whom Allen Dulles protected or used was Mykola Lebed, head of the secret police organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who was convicted in 1936 of complicity in the 1934 assassination of a Polish minister and who was trained by the Gestapo. According to Dulles, in a letter of May 5, 1952, to immigration authorities, Lebed was of "inestimable value" to the CIA in its operations to develop the Ukrainian underground movement. Lebed, reported as "a well-known sadist and collaborator of the Germans," with the help of Dulles acquired permanent residence in New York and U.S. citizenship.

Like Allen Dulles, the fellow Princetonian George Kennan at the State Department protected some Germans. On October 19, 1948, Kennan wrote to Frank Wisner at the CIA praising Gustav Hilger, who had been used by the CIA, and who had been chief interpreter for Joachim von Ribbentrop and chief adviser on Soviet affairs and worked for the Gehlen organization.

General Reinhard Gehlen was responsible for German military intelligence operations in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He approached the U.S. as an anti-Soviet asset and fighter of communism. During the Cold War, he enlisted former Nazis and others, including Alois Brunner, chief deputy of Eichmann; Emil Augsburg; and the notorious Klaus Barbie, the "butcher of Lyon," aided by American army sponsorship. The Gehlen organization played a role in NATO and on U.S. policy, sometimes exaggerating the Soviet threat. Gehlen was a master of disinformation and claimed he was never a Nazi but essentially an anti-communist. Yet what he did do was help Nazis escape abroad, where they emerged as security advisers, especially Barbie, who became an adviser of military regimes in Bolivia.

There are at least three problems in assessing attitudes toward the use of Nazis or alleged Nazis. Many records are classified for security reasons; many of the war criminals were neither German by birth nor Nazi Party members; many of them peddled false data, playing a double-game, which took time to penetrate. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to choose between Winston Churchill and Allen Dulles on the issue of acknowledgment of and punishment for evil crimes or supposed political benefit.

Image: paul_houlde via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped).

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Harvard psychology professor and world-class public intellectual Steven Pinker was recently interviewed by David Marchese of the New York Times. Here is a bit of the views of this exceedingly bright and fascinating man:

Q: "Is it possible that the rising-tide-lifts-all-boats economic argument provides the wealthy with an undue moral cover for the self-interested inequality that their wealth grants them?" A: "Oh, absolutely. It is a danger that all democracies have to safeguard against: With wealth comes influence and power, and there's the constant vulnerability that the wealthy will game the rules to favor themselves. Another is related: Given that we have a tax system, it's elementary fairness that the rich should pay a greater share, that taxes should be progressive. For the obvious reason that an extra dollar means a lot more to a poor person than a rich person. So it hugely increases aggregate welfare if the rich pay a greater share than the poor. For all the debates in the United States as to whether governments should reduce poverty, should support education, support health, the debate is kind of over. We already do. All affluent societies do. It's easy to be seduced by a kind of radical libertarian argument that the role of government should only be to help enforce contracts and maintain safety and law and order. However appealing that might be in theory, in practice it doesn't exist anywhere. There's no such thing as a libertarian paradise of an affluent democracy with no extensive social safety net."

To be sure, the rich will try to "game the rules to favor themselves." But they are hardly the only ones we have to watch out for in this regard, nor are they even the most successful at it. Others who have stolen a march on them include the feminist movement, the black movement, the transgender movement, the socialists, and wokesters of all other sorts and varieties. Indeed, with the constant lament about "white privilege," "male dominance," and the evil rich, there is reason to believe that the wealthy are not so much gaming the system as having it gamed against themselves.

One response to the existence of taxation is that we ought to get rid of it, root and branch. For it is the only legal element of the present system that is totally and utterly coercive. No one else is lawfully allowed to mulct money from anyone who has not clearly and unequivocally agreed to pay. An imaginary "social contract" would not suffice in any court of law to justify A compelling B to pay him a dime.

Moreover, given Pinker's obviously correct assessment that this type of legal plunder will not soon vanish, if ever, who should pay what? Does an extra dollar really mean a lot more to a poor person than to a rich one? This Harvard professor cites no evidence in support of this contention, nor can he, given the subjectivism of this sort of thing. It is easy to think of alternative cases: poor drunken bums, it might be contended, enjoy that last drink before falling into a stupor less than money spent by a rich man on more beneficial pursuits. An alternative view is that interpersonal comparisons of utility are simply impossible, and anyone, such as Pinker, who engages in them is operating outside the bounds of rationality.

But let us posit, arguendo, don't ask, that this is true. Would this justify compelling a monetary transfer from the rich person to the poor one? Certainly not on deontological grounds. What about utilitarianism? Would this handover "hugely increase ... aggregate welfare"? Superficially, it would. But a moment's thought will cast doubt on this contention. Forcing rich Peter to give poor Paul money would reduce the incentives of both to be productive. The former will emigrate, or hire tax attorneys to protect him, or spend time and effort hiding his wealth, or not take on the next project that might have benefited the entire human race. The latter, too, will lose out. If being poverty-stricken is the criterion for receiving benefits, why, then, there is all the more reason to slack off.

Adam Smith knew a bit more about economics than Steven Pinker. A while ago, he wrote a book called The Wealth of Nations. He saw, unerringly, that countries that adhered to free enterprise were more prosperous than those that greatly relied upon Pinker's distributionist advice.

Is "the debate ... kind of over"? Pinker thinks it is, since "[t]here's no such thing as a libertarian paradise of an affluent democracy with no extensive social safety net." But there is no place on earth free of COVID, murder, rape, theft, AIDS, heart disease, traffic fatalities, etc. Pinker is attempting to draw an "ought" from an "is." He ought to read up on what David Hume said about that philosophical error. Just because there is no government limited to enforcing contracts and maintaining safety and law and order does not at all mean there should not be.

Image: Bhaawest via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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In Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods, there's a point in the story when things have gone terribly wrong for everyone. The characters respond by disavowing personal responsibility and telling everyone else that it's "Your Fault." That song could have been the background music to the nauseating spectacle in the Senate Tuesday, when defense secretary Lloyd Austin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the debacle in Afghanistan.

Each general swore under oath that he had advised Biden to leave troops in Afghanistan:

Top generals told lawmakers under oath that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan  directly contradicting the presidents comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country. pic.twitter.com/cqGmpcJkJI  POLITICO (@politico) September 28, 2021

In other words, Biden was either lying or being senile when he assured George Stephanopoulos that "no one said that to me [keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan] that I can recall." Note the wiggle room about maybe not recalling. Heck, I can believe both (lying or senile). After all, Biden is both the most corrupt man ever to occupy the Oval Office and the first person to be actively senile when he took the presidential oath of office.

Having said that, Austin, Milley, and McKenzie are such a disreputable, craven, dishonest, pathetic bunch of political hacks that it's entirely possible to believe that they're just singing the Sondheim song: "It's Biden's fault!" I mean, look at these three:

Austin shut down the military to weed out imaginary White supremacist extremism. And now, when it comes to whether anyone actually told Biden about those 2,500 troops, he lapses into passive voice, saying "input was received by the president."

Milley? Gen. White Rage himself consistently badmouthed Trump; openly (and illegally, given his role in the military) celebrated Biden's win; and admitted that he'd promised to give the Chinese advance warning should American launch an attack against it. Think about that last one in connection with Gen. Mike Flynn having been destroyed merely for urging a Russian politician not to overreact to a diplomatic slight from the outgoing Obama administration.

And there's Gen. McKenzie, who tried in August to sell the embarrassing withdrawal as "a monumental accomplishment." Or as Milley finally admitted, what happened in Afghanistan "was a logistical success but a strategic failure." That's a nice way to say a humiliating defeat for America and a betrayal of her allies.

These embarrassments to America's long and honorable military history, as I said, were desperate to place blame anywhere but on themselves. Milley (as was to be expected) was the worst. He insisted that Americans abandoned in Afghanistan would have "been at greater risk" if the military had stayed "past the 31st."

But here's the thing about all these guys saying that Biden is to blame (which I'm sure he is): why did they go along with a plan that they now claim they knew in advance would be disastrous? And having gone along with it, perhaps in the naive and unfounded belief that they could somehow prevent the worst from happening, why did they try to spin defeat as success?

And when they got called out on it by a single brave Marine lieutenant colonel, why did they go full Soviet, sending him to a psychiatrist and the brig, rather than doing what any decent Japanese politico would have done under these circumstances  resign in disgrace and, perhaps, commit seppuku?

It's clear that these poltroons and their equally craven predecessors in the Pentagon squandered American lives in Afghanistan for two decades. They never imagined victory. They imagined career advancement for themselves until their retirement, at which point they'd get economic advancement in the military-industrial sector. Meanwhile, over 2,400 American troops died, as did over 1,800 civilian contractors. Another almost 21,000 Americans were sent home with wounds, some (thankfully) light, some so appalling that it's a miracle they survived. They left America able-bodied; they came home to a life of physical disability.

Meanwhile, these medal-bedecked political hacks sit there and say, "It's his fault; it's not my fault. It's their fault, not my fault." These moral weaklings should be shamed out of the military. (I'm absolutely sure that all three men have physical courage much, much greater than mine, but this was a time for moral courage  and they failed.)

Marsha Blackburn gets the last word on this one:

.@MarshaBlackburn: "Maybe we're going to remember you three as the three that broke the military." pic.twitter.com/RCLjvJvtrU  Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 28, 2021

Image: The three generals. Collage from YouTube screen grab.

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I hate bullies.

And government is the biggest bully of them all. Always. Everywhere. Since governments were instituted. Kings. Tyrants. Dictators. Banana republics. The Soviet Union. The Third Reich. Chairman Mao. Pol Pot. Idi Amin Dada. Fidel Castro. Hugo Chavez. Etc., etc., etc. And now Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, the Iranian mullahs, the Biden administration, Justin Trudeau, and Scott Morrison.

Two hundred forty-five years ago, Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence proclaimed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Those were  and still are  the most important and providential words ever written or read outside of certain passages in the Bible.

The Declaration went on to note that governments are instituted among men for the purpose of securing those rights, and that they derive their just powers only "from the consent of the governed." Get that? Legitimate governments exist not to grant, limit, or abolish our freedoms, but to protect them.

Jefferson added: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." In America today, the government appears hell-bent on altering or abolishing the people, at least those in rural areas and flyover country that typically don't vote for the "correct" candidates  meaning those like themselves who want to grow...government.

Tragically, "we the people" have become "we the sheeple." In a sense, you can't lose unalienable rights  unless you let them be taken from you, which we have inarguably done and are still doing.

The American Founders' belief in  and understanding of  liberty enabled humanity to climb to new heights and bask in broad, sunlit uplands. But we are now heading back into the bondage and darkness that were the hallmarks of virtually all of mankind's history prior to the American Revolution. We are squandering their legacy, obsessed as we are with pronoun usage and bathroom rights.

Is that progressive?

Leftists detest God because they are jealous of Him and wish to usurp His power...and be worshiped themselves. They believe they have unalienable rights, but no one else does. Consequently, these are the people who most fervently wish to be in government.

The Founders, now often reviled, believed in every individual's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let's make the obvious clear once again: government has no right to lock up  or down  innocent people. It has no right to issue mask or vaccine mandates, tell us our jobs aren't "essential," or prevent us from visiting our families and neighbors. It has no right to ban weddings or funerals of more than a certain number of celebrants or mourners. For that matter, it has no "right" to the fruits of our labor. As it has no right to indoctrinate our children or tell us how to raise them. Period.

So many are so ignorant now that what was once self-evident is no longer. Many so-called academicians, journalists, and public servants  who are really power-hungry charlatans in do-gooders' clothing  stop at nothing to rewrite history. They have never met a lie they didn't like...as long as they think it smears conservatives and makes themselves look good.

For example, progressives have attempted to use Thomas Jefferson's famous letter to the Danbury Baptists as a cudgel to beat everyone into agreeing that the Founders' assertion of "separation of church and state" actually meant the banishment of (the Christian) religion from the public square. Yet Jefferson's missive wasn't a promise to keep religion out of government; it was a pledge to the Baptists to keep government out of religion.

You see, the Founders knew that government has no right to our property, bodies, minds, or souls. This is, in large part, why the power-hungry choose to denigrate them.

The "progressives" who would enslave us believe that our rights (not theirs, of course) are limited and contingent upon their largess.

But neither mask nor mandate can obscure the truth: our rights are unalienable. Thank God.

It is time for us to reclaim them.

Image via Pixy.

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I guess I've gone full circle. Back in 1964, our family came to the U.S., and there was a lot of talk about the evil of segregation. That was then, but this is 2021, and segregation is back, according to this news report:

A university in Washington has created segregated housing specifically for Black students. Western Washington University has designated the fourth floor of Alma Clark Glass Hall as housing reserved for its "Black Affinity Housing program," becoming the latest school to adopt such a program. "The program will explore and celebrate the diversity of Black and African American people and culture, with historical and contemporary context," the program website reads, also saying that all "Western students residing in the program help foster a warm and vibrant community supporting social, personal and academic success."

According to the story, this is about George Floyd.

Well, where do we start?

Am I the only one who thinks this is racism? Everybody did when we came to the U.S. back in the 1960s. I remember marches calling for the end to segregation and racism.

How does a college get away with it? Would the liberal state government of Washington tolerate "white housing" to foster a Eurocentric culture? I think you know the answer to that.

Last, but not least, I'm all for fostering a warm and vibrant community. Isn't that what your parents and church are for? I thought people went to college to get an education and get a job in an international economy hiring engineers rather than people with "gender studies" degrees.

The country is going insane, and college administrators are driving the bus over the cliff. Where is Dr. Martin Luther King when we really need him?

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

Image: Pixabay.

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In March of 1937, Pope Pius XI issued two encyclical letters, one of them condemning Nazism (Mit Brennender Sorge), the other condemning Communism (Divini Redemptoris)  two political movements whose ideology was utterly at odds with the teachings of Catholicism.

It seems to me that the time has come for a papal encyclical condemning the Democrat party of the United States  a party whose philosophy (or ideology) is utterly at odds with the teachings of Catholicism.

I say this not simply as a lifelong Catholic, but as a person who was once an ardent Democrat. For twelve years I was a Democratic member of the Rhode Island Senate; for two of those years, I was the Democratic majority leader of the R.I. Senate; and in 1992, I was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives from my congressional district.

The party I used to love was the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. It was a party whose center of gravity was in the blue-collar families of America  the kind of family I grew up in. It was a party that believed in labor unions and racial justice and law and order. It was a party that was patriotic, democratic, and anti-totalitarian. Its values were almost entirely compatible with the values of my religion.

Today's Democrat party is a radically different thing. To begin with, it is "soft" on patriotism. As for racial justice, it is (quite unlike Martin Luther King) more concerned with "color of skin" than with "content of character." And when it comes to urban crime, its sympathies lie more with black criminals than with black victims of crime.

Further, disregarding the Catholic social doctrine of "subsidiarity," today's party believes in maximizing the powers and responsibilities of the federal government, thereby disempowering state governments, local governments, non-governmental agencies, and individuals.

For a half-century and more, it has co-operated with those who were willing and often eager to undermine and eventually destroy the classical American family  that is, the married two-parent family, the social unit that, according to Catholicism, is the building block of any society. When I was young (I'm very old now), marriage was thought to be the proper location for sex, for child-bearing, and for child-rearing. Now, thanks to Democrats and their morally liberal supporters, marriage is often looked on as a charming antique. This destruction of the nuclear family is largely complete among blacks and is making strong progress among whites.

The most obvious clash between the beliefs and values of the Catholic religion and the beliefs and values of today's Democrat party has to do with abortion. Catholicism regards abortion as a kind of homicide  or as Pope Francis said recently, murder. Democrats, diametrically opposed to the Catholic view, see abortion as nothing less than the exercise of a "fundamental human right." Only the other day, every Democrat but one in the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that will, if it becomes law, give federal statutory protection to almost any imaginable abortion up 'til the moment of birth.

This diametric opposition of views is not limited to abortion. It is also found with regard to homosexual practice. Democrats consider this practice to be a fine and splendid thing, at least for those who are "born that way"  so fine and splendid, in fact, that it deserves to be at the center of a new and honorable kind of marriage. Catholicism, on the other hand, considers homosexual practice to be a grave sin, a contrary-to-nature perversion.

And then there is transgenderism. To the Democratic mind, there is nothing shocking when a boy or man decides that he's a girl or woman, or vice versa. Reminding themselves that "diversity made American great" (something Democrats say when they are not saying, "America was never great"), today's Democrat thinks it's a fine thing when persons choose their own sex/gender, whether that be male or female or both or neither. Catholicism, by contrast, calls this a rebellion against nature and against God, the Creator of nature.

Do I think Pope Francis will actually write the encyclical I'm suggesting? No. Maybe the next pope. Or the one after that. But not this one.

But the American Catholic bishops could write the near-equivalent of an encyclical. They could write a collective pastoral letter to American Catholics. Will they? Not likely. For these are the same bishops, remember, who have remained relatively silent as two "Catholics"  Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi  have risen to the top of the Democrat party, where they have embraced the party's un-Catholic and anti-Catholic agenda.

Image via Pexels.

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Joe Biden allegedly got his third jab on live TV on Monday. He was already "fully vaccinated" and still wore a mask. Does that give anyone confidence in the vaccine?

Then he said he would not allow us to return to normal until 98% of all Americans are vaccinated! While the CDC is sure to approve the vaccines for ages five and up before the end of the year, despite the hundreds of thousands of vaccine injuries and deaths, Biden must think we need to vax newborns the moment they take their first breath (if they are not killed and dissected, their body parts sold first, as permitted by the Democrat bill just passed in the House).

Biden, as surely everyone knows by now, even those who voted for him, is seriously cognitively challenged. He was never a smart man, but now he is non compos mentis. He understands nothing about science, certainly not the science of virology or epidemiology. He reads words from teleprompters others have scripted. He has no grasp of the meaning of the words he is reading.

The man and his minders are a plague upon America far more devastating than COVID. COVID is the hoax to which they, the global elite, have hitched their wagon, the pseudo-plague that will bring all of us rubes to our knees. Some Australian states have capitulated, devolving into a functional tyranny. Police attack persons on the street without a mask or even for leaving their homes.

Are those Stalinist tactics coming here? Quite likely in some states, despite the fact that all their lockdowns, mask requirements, and vax mandates have made not an iota of difference in the number of cases of those allegedly diagnosed with COVID. The Los Angeles City Council just unanimously passed a resolution requiring proof of vaccine to enter all indoor venues, including grocery stores! This is madness. This is medical tyranny. This is not about anyone's health. As Dr. Aaron Williams commented on Laura Ingraham's program, "this is psychological warfare, not evidence-based medicine." Are detention camps for the unvaccinated next?

The U.S. is at a crossroads: do we fight, or do we fall? How many of those on the left are actual believers in the COVID hoax, and how many are in on the plan, the Bill Gates/Klaus Schwab Great Reset Plan?

"Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it." Lysander Spooner

Has Biden really been vaxxed? Did he really get a booster jab on Monday? It's not unreasonable to suspect that it was theater. He's most likely on so many meds that his doctors might not want to take the risk of adding insult to injury. He and his minders seem to believe that seeing him jabbed on TV will encourage the still unvaxxed to run happily to the nearest jab. Not likely.

With each passing day, every new tactic they pull out of their hat makes vax-hesitant citizens more resistant. Biden appears like the man offering ice cream or candy to little girls in hopes of molesting them. Few are going to fall for his nonsensical manipulations. The vaccines are not durable; their protection is short-lived. No one knows what the long-term effects may be  infertility, heart disease, strokes, blood clots? Young athletes are suffering catastrophic physical and neurological effects, which suggests that physical exertion following the vaccine is dangerous. An army surgeon has warned that pilots could be in danger from vaccine effects. Are the blood clots the vaccines cause affecting athletes time bombs for all vaccinated people?

We all have to worry that Biden might be a tool of the CCP. His son's laptop, chock-full of proof of his criminal enterprises involving his father, has been authenticated. The Bidens have been greedy and corrupt for fifty years, yet this was the man the left engineered, illegitimately, into the Oval Office. And now he is an embarrassment, a wrecking ball.

He and his "people" hated and feared Trump so much that they masterminded this buffoon into the presidency. And now all Americans must suffer the consequences of their treachery. A million unvaxxed, untested migrants have been welcomed into the U.S. over the southern border. Twelve thousand unvaxxed, untested Haitians were just released into Texas.

Soon a hundred thousand or more unvaxxed and untested Afghan refugees will be here, stalking American women in gangs, as is their wont. They will likely be released because molesting women in groups is a cultural norm in the land of their birth  just as the rioters of the summer of 2020 were all released, uncharged with any crimes, while people who were even remotely present in D.C. on Jan. 6 have been in solitary confinement for months.

This is not America. This is fast becoming Orwell's 1984, the Stalinist Soviet Union of the past, Maoist China, which the current head of the China's Communist Party, Xi Jinping, strives to reinstate. And Biden is theirs to exploit and control.

China made the Bidens wealthy by nefarious means; the Chinese purchased him. They've got the goods on the family. Biden will do whatever they direct him to do. Abandon Bagram and Afghanistan to China? Check. Refuse to rescue Americans left behind? Check  they're on their own. Investigate the origins of the bioweapon that is COVID? Biden put a stop to that. Trump made us energy independent; Biden put an end to that on day one. Borders? Oh, no, no more borders. Borders are racist, don't you know?

Joe Biden is the Democrat left's poison pill, their front in their plan to "transform," as in destroy, America as founded. He will never cross China. The media will never cross Biden. For nearly two years, they have banned and buried all information counter to the administration's directed narrative on COVID. They suppressed all information on inexpensive early treatment.

"Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship." Bruce Coville

If the Republicans cave and agree to raise the debt ceiling, and vote for the left's bankrupt-America-forever multi-trillion-dollar bills, then we are done, over. They will be supporting this president's catastrophic policies and his devastating agenda. Biden and his Obama handlers will have succeeded in recasting this nation into what Xi seeks to reinstate in his country.

Americans need to begin fighting back now against Biden's spending propositions, against all of the COVID mandates, especially the vaccine mandates. To vaccinate children is a horror. No parent should fall for the lie that his kids are in danger of dying of COVID. They are not. They do not spread COVID, and they do not need to be masked. For those with the time and focus, watch this documentary. If it does not make you think and reconsider the ramifications of the COVID hoax, then God be with you. You are blinded by a despicable plan to reorganize and perhaps cull global society, not at all according to Judeo-Christina values.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab (cropped).

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Animals Asia rescues elephant from gruelling life of logging 29 September 2021

Animals Asia has rescued a 46-year old female elephant called Kham Phanh to the Elephant Conservation Centre where she will be free to roam with other elephants for the rest of her life.

Kham Phanhs story

Kham (meaning precious) Phanh (meaning strong') was born in captivity in the Lak district of Vietnam to a family of agricultural workers.

As with all elephants who are taken from the wild or born into captivity, Kham Phanh would have been broken in by her owners, a practice that physically and psychologically breaks the elephants wild and free spirit in order to render them submissive to humans.

For the best part of her 46 years, Kham Phanh worked every day, pulling heavy logs on her back and behind her in all weather conditions for hours at a time.

We dont know what happened to her mother, we can only speculate and hope that Kham Phanh at least spent some time with her, even if it was working alongside her before she died or was sold on. But what we do know is that Kham Phanh spent most of her life alone, and its likely she has never physically interacted with another elephant.

The life of a logging elephant

LIke elephants who are used in tourism  giving rides, being bathed or forced to pose with tourists  elephants who work in the logging industry have hard lives. Their basic needs are often unmet as the owners dont know, or want to know, how to properly care for them.

Working elephants are often malnourished and dehydrated from working in the sun all day. When not working they are tied or chained, forcing them to stand or lie down in one spot.

This long, gruelling, monotonous life can take its toll physically and psychologically on these sentient, inherently wild, sociable animals who suffer greatly from not being able to express their natural behaviours among their own kind.

Kham Phanhs future

Animals Asias Animal Welfare team in Vietnam has been working closely with the local communities to persuade them to give their elephants over to the ethical venues that we run and are involved with.

They have been negotiating with Kham Phanhs owner for a while now, and he finally agreed to release her to the Elephant Conservation Centre, a government-run sanctuary.

Animals Asia works in partnership with the ECC and provides training, expert advice and resources to help them provide the best possible care for the elephants.

Free to be an elephant at last

When Kham Phanh arrives at ECC she will have the freedom to roam freely and start to exhibit some of her natural behaviours for the first time in her life.

Dave Neale, Animals Asias Animal Welfare Director explained, Kham Phanh will have access to lush grass, plants and trees to forage from, fresh water and acres of land to explore. But maybe most importantly, she will have the freedom to choose: where she goes, what she does and who she interacts with. Kham Phanh will no longer be a tool, an object or a thing, she will finally be free to simply be an elephant.

Friends old and new

As Kham Phanh has been in captivity her entire life, she will need the support and care of a mahout when she moves to ECC. Her mahout will gently introduce her to her new surroundings and we hope that once shes settled in, we can begin the process of introducing her to the other rescued elephants.

We know that she and HPlo, an elephant Animals Asia rescued in 2020, were in the same forest, so its likely theyll know each others scent and will have communicated before.

Both Kham Phanh and HPlo have calm, gentle termperaments, so our elephant experts on the ground feel they could potentially become lifelong friends.

We are very grateful to The Olsen Animal Trust for their continued support for our work to end elephant riding tourism in Vietnam.

Read more:

H'Plo the elephant's story | Rescue of H'Plo the elephant


(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 29 - Italy saw another workplace accident death Wednesday, the seventh in two days.

A worker belonging to an external company was run over and killed by a heavy vehicle at a motorway worksite on the A14 Bologna-Taranto highway near Bari.

Motorway company Autostrade said the works had been correctly flagged.

The accident happened on the stretch of road between Poggio Imperiale and San Severo.

On Tuesday six workers lost their lives across Italy including four from falls and two dying of frostbite caused by leaked liquid hydrogen.

The spate of workplace accidental deaths has continued despite promises to stem the rash of cases.

Premier Mario Draghi on Monday sealed an accord with trade unions to up work safety by stiffening regulations and hiring thousands of new inspectors.

Some 667 people lost their lives in workplace accidents in the first seven months of the year, sources said Tuesday.

The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3.

(ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 29 - Franco Locatelli, the coordinator of the CTS expert panel advising the government on its policies to combat COVID-19, said Wednesday that it is not certain that young people in Italy will get a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Italy has started giving third vaccine doses to the clinically vulnerable, such as people who have had transplants and the immunosuppressed, the over-80s, care-home residents and health workers.

"I say with extreme clarity that it can by no means be taken for granted that young, healthy people will have to have a third dose," Locatelli told reporters in Genoa.

"At the moment, it is important to give coverage to the low and medium-income countries where the vaccination campaign is incomparably low in terms of the the number of immunized people".

Over 45 million people in Italy, more than 83% of the population over 12, have had at least one COVID vaccine dose so far, according to government data.

Over 42 million people, 78.24% of the population over 12, are double jabbed or have had the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

So far 61,494 people in Italy had had a third dose of a COVID vaccine. (ANSA).


BRUSSELS - The EU Court of Justice has annulled decisions taken by the Council concerning the accord between the European Union and Morocco on customs preferences for agricultural products coming from the country.



The court also annulled the partnership agreement on sustainable fishing. The accords remain in place for a certain period of time, the court said. The present cases concern annulment requests proposed by the Polisario Front.
BRUSSELS - Over 140,000 migrants have arrived in the European Union in 2021, according to an estimate of the European Commission. The first countries of entry are Italy, Spain and Cyprus. "In 2019, 140,000 migrants arrived illegally in the EU. In 2020, the number decreased to 120,000. In 2021 an increase is expected from 2019, but not a peak. In 90% of cases arrivals are by sea", explained EU commissioner, Ylva Johansson, in an interview with some international media outlets, including ANSA. Arrivals in Italy were mainly from Tunisia and Libya but also from Turkey. For this reason, Johansson will visit Ankara soon.



"After going twice with (Italian Interior) Minister Luciana Lamorgese to Tunisia, we have seen that the government does much more to prevent the departure of migrants and repatriations are being strengthened from Italy. This is part of the mode of action against migrant trafficking and how will function partnerships", which are presented today, explained Commissioner Johansson. "Therefore, we are already working in a very active way with Tunisia, which for Italy represents both one of the main nationalities of arrivals as well as one of the main countries of departure". "I have been in Libya to establish the partnership also there - added Johansson - and in a few weeks I will go to Turkey, where I will continue discussions on how to avoid departures and how to fight traffickers".


BRUSSELS - The central Mediterranean has registered the highest increase (+82%) of all routes to the EU in 2021 compared to 2020, according to a report published by the European Commission. "And if the total number of arrivals in Malta in 2021 was 470 (with a 78% drop compared to the same period in 2020), there was a strong increase of arrivals in Italy, over 41,000 in total, nearly half of whom were from Libya", said the document.



"Migration from Tunisia also remains high compared to the previous years, representing nearly 40% of irregular migrants who have arrived in Italy so far this year. Another significant trend is the increase of numbers arriving with their own boat in Italy, compared to landings following search and rescue" operations, the document went on to say.



"Italy is the country that has seen a significant increase - said the European commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson - and this puts it under pressure, with arrivals mainly from Libya, Tunisia and Turkey".
TUNIS - Tunisian President Kais Saied on Wednesday asked Nejla Bouden to form a government, the presidency said in a short statement. It noted that the decision was adopted under article 16 of the presidential decree 117 regarding the exceptional measures. It is the first time in the Arab world that a woman has been named as premier, according to local media.



The presidency did not release Bouden's biography. However, she is reported to be a professor of geology at the National school of Tunisian engineers ENIT and has been a director general and head of the unit of management of the modernization project of the Superior institute to support employment, PromESSE, before working as Policy Officer for the cabinet of the minister of higher education and scientific research, Chiheb Bouden, in 2015.
Alexander Armstrong has said he expects to have his stamina tested during a demanding challenge to sing in 24 concerts in 24 hours.

The comedian and television presenter is embarking on the challenge on Thursday.

The fundraiser will see Armstrong perform at locations including a construction site, a football stadium and an airport.

Ive set myself a sizeable musical challenge to support the work of @ClassicFMs charity @makenoise, Im attempting to sing at 24 concerts in 24 hours! My #MusicMarathon starts tomorrow. Wish me luck & if you can, please support with a donation at https://t.co/2LVFqb7IUf  Alexander Armstrong (@XanderArmstrong) September 29, 2021

He will also perform a concert with dementia charity Forget-Me-Not Chorus.

Armstrong, 51, who hosts TV quiz show Pointless, will also sing at St Pauls Cathedral as part of the challenge, which he said will be heaven.

Im doing a Benjamin Britten piece with them that I know and love, so that will be a real treat, he said.

I have never raised my voice in St Pauls above the sort of reverential whispers that visitors to St Pauls all adopt.

He added: To be singing at the top of my voice is going to be bloody marvellous. Im going to love that.

Alexander Armstrong (Joe Giddens/PA)

Armstrong, who has released a number of albums including 2015s A Year Of Songs, said he expects the challenge to be quite demanding.

I think its going to draw on stores of stamina, I think, he added.

The actual performing I think is going to be fine. Its just the idea of being in that zone for that length of time.

Thats going to be the test.

The performances will be broadcast on classical radio station Classic FM, where Armstrong works as a presenter.

The concerts are raising money for 100 small charities through radio company Globals Make Some Noise campaign.

The fundraiser will raise money for causes including food banks, mental health and domestic violence helplines, community projects and employment programmes.

Armstrongs challenge will begin at 12pm on Thursday until 12pm on Friday.
The 70 billion furlough programme ends on Thursday after supporting millions of UK workers over the past 18 months.

However, uncertainty remains for the future of almost one million workers who were expected to be still receiving support through the financial scheme at the end of September, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.

Economists have warned that although many may find work in recovering sectors such as hospitality and travel, there is also likely to be a rise in unemployment due to new redundancies.

Bloomberg reported that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce a new programme of grants to help poorer households cope with the cost of living over the winter.

Alan Custis, head of UK equities at Lazard Asset Management, said the rate of unemployment, which dropped to 4.6% last month, is likely to swing higher again.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak launched the furlough programme in April last year (Jacob King/PA)

There will also be a percentage who choose retirement over returning to work, but we would expect the unemployment rate to settle at around 5% for the year end, before falling in 2022, he said.

Mr Custis added that other countries, such as the US and Australia, saw unemployment spikes when similar financial support for workers came to an end.

Bloomberg said a plan may be announced in the coming days that could see up to 500 million distributed through local authorities.

The programme would replace the Covid local support grant, which ends Thursday, which enabled local authorities across England to support those struggling with costs including for food, energy and water bills during the pandemic.

The Treasury declined to comment.

The end of furlough also comes amid record UK vacancy figures, with the latest Office for National Statistics data for August reporting more than one million available jobs for the first time on record.

There have also been significant hiring sprees amid labour shortages for HGV drivers, warehouse staff and food production workers.

Nevertheless, Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he has doubts as to whether broader consumer demand will have jumped enough by October to re-employ all staff who remained on furlough.

As a result, the Liberal Democrats have called for furlough support to be extended for the 10 most affected sectors to avoid a tidal wave of job losses.

In a letter to Mr Sunak, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said furlough should be extended for another six months for the 10 sectors, which include air travel and photography, in a move it claims would cost around 600 million.

Ms Jardine said: The withdrawal of furlough risks having a devastating impact on countless families already facing a winter of soaring energy bills.

The Government needs to rethink its approach or the country could face a Coronavirus Black Thursday.

As more employees return to work and the economy recovers, new figures show that businesses have returned 1.3bn in furlough cash, with 300m returned in the last three months alone. #PlanForJobs Read more: https://t.co/P0tPInB1uA pic.twitter.com/JBp7iz9c6A  HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 21, 2021

However, leaders at trade bodies for heavily impacted sectors are now looking beyond the furlough scheme to appeal for policy reform in other areas.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: With businesses currently experiencing a record number of vacancies, our hope is that those seeking employment will consider the varied and exciting opportunities a career in hospitality offers.

With the right support and conditions, the sector has the potential to be at the forefront of the economic recovery.

In order to drive further job creation, we urge Government to implement a long-overdue reform of business rates and a permanently lower rate of VAT for hospitality and tourism in order to help fragile businesses back on their feet.

Tom Ironside, director of business and regulation at British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: As Government ends the furlough scheme, the industrys attention is turned towards other pressing priorities.

First and foremost is the need for Government to deliver on its manifesto promise to bring down the business rates burden to sustainable levels.

Additionally, to support the many people coming off furlough, the Government should turn the Apprenticeship Levy into a wider Skills Levy to provide greater scope to retrain existing workers through shorter, high quality skills courses.
Man with back pain. (Getty Images)

Patients who suffer with back pain with no specific underlying cause could benefit from therapy which teaches them how to rethink pain, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that a significant proportion of patients with chronic back pain managed to stay pain free for a year after they went through a specific type of therapy.

Patients were given pain reprocessing therapy (PRT), which aims to help people understand that their pain is due to mind-brain processes rather than bodily injury.

Researchers said that the therapy can help a patient reframe the pain as a false alarm of danger.

The authors of the new study said that PRT and related treatments that combine psychological and behavioural approaches can be helpful for many, or even most patients with chronic back pain.

But they stressed that patients with specific causes of pain such as sciatica may not benefit.

The new study, published in the journal Jama Psychiatry, examined data on 151 adults with an average age of 41 with low to moderate pain who had suffered for an average of 10 years.

The team of US-based researchers used scans and follow-up assessments to test whether or not the therapy helped patients.

One group were given an appointment with a doctor followed by eight PRT sessions over four weeks.

Another group was given were given a dummy drug as an injection and a final group were given standard care.

They found that after a year, 66% of people in the PRT group were pain free compared with 20% in the placebo group and 10% who received the usual standard of care.

For a long time we have thought that chronic pain is due primarily to problems in the body, and most treatments to date have targeted that, said lead author Yoni Ashar, from the University of Colorado Boulder.

This treatment is based on the premise that the brain can generate pain in the absence of injury or after an injury has healed, and that people can unlearn that pain. Our study shows it works.

The authors explained that around 85% of chronic back pain have no known cause such as an injury or illness  this is sometimes referred to as primary chronic pain.

It has been suggested that misfiring neural pathways are at least partially to blame.

Studies have previously shown that different brain regions  including those associated with reward and fear  activate more during episodes of chronic pain than acute pain.

Dr Ashar said that if pain is a warning signal that something is wrong with the body, primary chronic pain is like a false alarm stuck in the on position.

The idea is that by thinking about the pain as safe rather than threatening, patients can alter the brain networks reinforcing the pain, and neutralise it.

Before and after treatment, participants had MRI scans to measure how their brains reacted to a mild pain stimulus.

And when people in the PRT group were exposed to pain in the scanner post-treatment the brain regions associated with pain processing had quieted significantly, the authors added.

The paper concludes: Psychological treatment centred on changing patient beliefs about the causes and threat value of pain may provide substantial and durable pain relief with chronic back pain.

Earlier this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended that people with chronic primary pain should be offered a range of treatments to help them manage their condition.

Today weve published our guideline on chronic pain. It makes recommendations about effective treatments for people with a type of chronic pain, called chronic primary pain, where the cause of the pain is unknown. Read more here: https://t.co/vr0xwHhurB pic.twitter.com/4GK2HAPcPa  NICE (@NICEComms) April 7, 2021

These can include exercise programmes and the psychological therapies CBT and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Acupuncture is also recommended as an option for some.

Nice said that people with chronic primary pain should not be offered pain relief such as paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, benzodiazepines or opioids.

This is because, while there is little or no evidence that they make any difference to peoples quality of life, pain or psychological distress, they can cause harm, including possible addiction, Nice said in a statement.

Its guideline recommends that an antidepressant can be considered for some patients.
A police officer used Covid-19 lockdown regulations to kidnap Sarah Everard in a false arrest before raping her, strangling her and burning her body, a court has heard.

Wayne Couzens, 48, used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Ms Everard as she walked home from a friends house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.

The firearms officer, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift at the American Embassy that morning, drove to a remote rural area north-west of Dover in Kent, where he parked up and raped Ms Everard.

The marketing executive, who lived in Brixton, south London, had been strangled with Couzens police belt by 2.30am the following morning.

Married Couzens burned her body in a refrigerator in an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, near Ashford, Kent, before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.

Wayne Couzens, 48, has admitted the rape and murder of Sarah Everard (Met Police/PA)

Just days later, amid extensive publicity about Ms Everards disappearance, he took his family on a day out to the woods, allowing his two children to play close by.

Couzens was arrested on March 9 after police trawled through some 1,800 hours of CCTV footage.

Police waited for two hours before moving in to detain Couzens at his Deal home, during which time he had wiped his phone.

In an emergency police interview, Couzens falsely claimed he had been forced to pick up a woman and hand her over to a gang after getting into financial shit.

The following day, police dogs searching the woods found Ms Everards badly burnt remains.

Couzens has pleaded guilty to kidnap, rape and murder and faces a possible full life sentence when he is sentenced by Lord Justice Fulford at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

Couzens sat in the dock with his head bowed on Wednesday as prosecutor Tom Little QC opened the case in front of a packed courtroom, including Ms Everards family.

He said Ms Everards disappearance was one of the most widely publicised missing person investigations the country has ever seen.

After her body was discovered a week later, it became summarised on social media by the hashtag she was just walking home, which did not completely describe what had happened, he said.

Whilst it is impossible to summarise what the defendant did to Sarah Everard in just five words, if it had to be done then it would be more appropriate to do so as deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire, said Mr Little.

The court heard Ms Everard was described by a former long-term boyfriend as extremely intelligent, savvy and streetwise and not a gullible person.

Court artist sketch of prosecutor Tom Little QC addressing the court with Wayne Couzens in the dock behind him (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

He said he could not envisage her getting into a car with someone she did not know unless by force or manipulation, said the prosecutor.

Couzens had worked on uniformed Covid patrols in late January to enforce coronavirus regulations, so would have known what language to use to those who may have breached them, he continued.

He is thought to have been wearing his police belt with handcuffs and a rectangular black pouch, similar to a pepper spray holder, when he kidnapped Ms Everard as she walked home.

The fact she had been to a friends house for dinner at the height of the early 2021 lockdown made her more vulnerable to and more likely to submit to an accusation that she had acted in breach of the Covid regulations in some way, said Mr Little.

The court heard how Couzens had booked a hire car, adding: His movements were consistent with the defendant looking for, or hunting, for a lone young female to kidnap and rape, which is precisely what he did.

CCTV footage played in court shows Couzens raising his left arm, holding a warrant card, before handcuffing Ms Everard and putting her into the back of the car.

Sarah Everard was kidnapped by Couzens while walking home from a friends house (Met Police/PA)

A passing couple witnessed the kidnapping but mistook it for an arrest by an undercover officer, the court heard.

They were in fact witnessing the kidnapping of Sarah Everard, Mr Little said.

She was detained by fraud. The defendant using his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other police issue equipment to affect a false arrest.

Couzens worked for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command after joining the Met in 2018, having transferred from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

He was sacked by the force after entering guilty pleas.

Scotland Yard said in a statement ahead of the sentencing hearing: We are sickened, angered and devastated by this mans crimes which betray everything we stand for.

Our thoughts are with Sarahs family and her many friends. It is not possible for us to imagine what they are going through.

We recognise his actions raise many questions and concerns but we will not be commenting further until the hearing is complete.
Prince William has hailed an inspirational cross community sporting initiative in Londonderry.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made their maiden visit to Derry on Wednesday where they met the first medical students at Ulster University before meeting those involved with the Sport Uniting Communities initiative.

William described receiving a warm welcome to the city  and some Irish whiskey which he said went down very well.

The trip, which came just hours after the couple attended the world premiere of the new James Bond movie No Time To Die, started at the Ulster Universitys Magee campus.

They were shown a specially designed simulated ambulance, the only one of its kind in the region, built on campus to train the very first-year group studying the new BSc Hons paramedic science programme in Northern Ireland.

William and Kate also met a group of student nurses from the university they spoke to, via a video call, in February, when they heard about their experiences taking part in hospital placements during the pandemic.

They also learned how students are able to unwind from their studies, with a visits from mobile zoo company KidzFarm and the Student Unions Culture Shock event designed to introduce new students to the city.

The Duchess of Cambridge handles a tarantula called Charlotte (Chris Jackson/PA)

Kate won admiration by her handling of a tarantula spider called Charlotte, while William joked their son George would be upset he had missed it as he met a snake.

They were fortified with a measure of whiskey for the duke and a half pint of Guinness for the duchess before sampling local food and drink, learning how to pronounce Irish names and some of the local expressions in the city.

They rounded off their trip by hailing a truly inspirational cross-community sporting initiative.

William and Kate visited City of Derry Rugby Club where they met with players, coaches and volunteers from the Sport Uniting Communities initiative.

The project is a collaboration between the Irish Football Association, Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association and Ulster Rugby and aims to promote peace and reconciliation.

William and Kate watched children playing mini rugby, football and Gaelic games before getting involved themselves by kicking a ball at a giant-sized dartboard.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the City of Derry rugby club (Tim Rooke/PA)

They then went to the clubhouse to speak to some of the coaches and organisers behind the initiative.

Before leaving, William told those in attendance that it was positive to see young people coming together in sport.

He thanked all involved and said they had loved looking around.

We were at the university beforehand and it was lovely to see everyone there, he said.

We had a very warm welcome and a bit of Irish whiskey as well, which went down extremely well.

I can tell you it wasnt before lunchtime, it was later but it certainly warmed you up for the day.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge talking with medical students (Chris Jackson/PA)

We are really impressed with what youve achieved here, seeing all the smiling faces outside, running around, joining in the sports and having a really good time it is fantastic.

I think seeing the communities come together and be able to work together, play together, have fun together, it is a really strong message you are sending out here.

On the back of a pandemic is not the easiest time to be doing all this, but hopefully it refocuses minds about what is important in life and what you are doing here is truly inspirational.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have begun a visit to Northern Ireland.

William and Kate arrived in Londonderry for a day-long trip meeting young people and hearing how organisations are engaging across communities, and began by touring Ulster Universitys Magee Campus.

The campus was far removed from the glitz and glamour of the world premiere of the new James Bond movie No Time To Die the couple attended on Tuesday night in London.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for a visit to Magee University in Londonderry (Chris Jackson/PA)

The Cambridges are making their first visit to Derry and will be shown a specially designed simulated ambulance, the only one of its kind in the region, built on campus to train the very first-year group studying the new BSc Hons paramedic science programme in Northern Ireland.

The course, which started last week, is offered by the University to support the development of the paramedic profession in Northern Ireland and further afield.

William and Kate will also meet in person a group of student nurses from the university they spoke to, via a video call, in February, when they heard about their experiences taking part in hospital placements during the pandemic.

At the start of the first lockdown the students from Ulster Universitys School of Nursing joined the frontline fight against Covid-19 working on wards or in the community.

During the call the duchess told the trainees: Nursing is one of the most trusted professions in the country, so you couldnt have chosen a better career choice and its needed now more than ever.

Exciting day at Magee as 40 students start NI's first ever BSc Hons in Paramedic Science which will support the development of the paramedic profession here. A state-of-the-art simulated ambulance has been built to train our future #UlsterParamedics https://t.co/5MrGpUdQiw pic.twitter.com/EhFR4Ntgkw  Ulster University (@UlsterUni) September 20, 2021

During their tour the Cambridges will meet the first cohort of medical students studying at the Universitys new School of Medicine, established this year in response to the nationwide shortage in the medical workforce, with the aim of training the next generation of doctors.

Away from the text books and practical lessons, William and Kate will learn how the undergraduates relax and spend their free time when they visit the Student Union as it hosts a Culture Shock event.

The duke and duchess will have the opportunity to sample some Northern Irish food and drink from whiskey and soda bread to Tayto crisps.

Students will teach them some local expressions and to finish they will hear some of the Universitys talented musicians playing traditional instruments.
By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) -A Georgia man on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and other charges stemming from a shooting massacre at Atlanta-area day spas in March, for which the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty.

An attorney for Robert Aaron Long, 22, entered his plea at a brief hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville in Atlanta.

Long is accused of killing a total of eight people, most of them of Asian descent, at three spas in or near Atlanta. He pleaded guilty https://www.reuters.com/world/us/man-pleads-guilty-four-murders-atlanta-area-spa-shootings-2021-07-27 in July to four of the slayings in Cherokee County.

The attacks in March galvanized an awareness of a wave of anti-Asian bias and violence across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic after former President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as "kung flu" or "China virus.

The Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has already filed paperwork in the court announcing that she would seek the death penalty and enhanced sentencing for hate crimes, based on the race and gender of the victims.

In a court hearing in Cherokee County in July, Long described how he purchased a firearm, a bottle of bourbon and set out to kill himself, claiming to feel remorseful for a self-proclaimed sex addiction.

Instead, he said he decided to carry out the spa shootings across two counties in metro Atlanta.

Long received four sentences of life in prison without parole in August for the shootings of Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Yan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44.

In Fulton County, he is charged with the killings of Yong Ae Yue, 63; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, at two Atlanta day spas.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Camden Elementary School students in masks listen as South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster talks to them on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, in Camden, S.C. McMaster has adamantly and repeatedly come out against requiring face masks in schools even as the average number of daily COVID-19 cases in the state has risen since early June. AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  A federal judge Tuesday suspended South Carolina from enforcing a rule that banned school districts from requiring masks for students.

Parents of disabled children, helped by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the state saying the ban discriminated against medically vulnerable students by keeping them out of public schools as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The mask ban has been forcefully backed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and GOP lawmakers who said parents should decide whether students wear masks, not school officials.

The ruling wasn't even a close call, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis wrote, stopping the state from enforcing a one-year ban placed in the budget.

It is noncontroversial that children need to go to school. And, they are entitled to any reasonable accommodation that allows them to do so. No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities, Lewis wrote.

Lewis compared the General Assembly preventing mask requirements to telling schools they can no longer install wheelchair ramps.

Masks must, at a minimum, be an option for school districts to employ to accommodate those with disabilities so they, too, can access a free public education, the judge wrote.

McMaster's spokesman Brian Symmes said Tuesday's ruling isn't the last word in the case.

The governor strongly disagrees with the courts decision and will defend a parents right to decide whats best for their children up to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary, Symmes said in a statement,

The ruling wasn't a surprise because the rights of medically fragile students were violated, said Susan Mizner, director of the ACLUs Disability Rights Program.

Two Camden Elementary School students in masks listen as South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster talks about steps the school is taking to fight COVID-19, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, in Camden, S.C. McMaster has adamantly and repeatedly come out against requiring masks in schools even as the average number of daily COVID-19 cases in the state has risen since early June. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

The courts decision today makes clear that state legislators and Gov. McMaster cant sacrifice the health and safety of students with disabilities for the convenience of others," Mizner said in a statement.

The Republican-dominated South Carolina House put the provision into the budget in June when the state was seeing an average of about 150 new COVID-19 cases a day.

Not long after the delta variant caused a spike in cases similar to last winter before vaccines were widely available. Well over 21,000 students have been infected with COVID-19 this school year and nearly 100,000 have had to quarantine because of close exposure, according to state health data.

The budget provision didn't outright ban districts from requiring masks, but said state money couldn't be used to enforce a mask requirement. State money is tied into most regular school funding, although some lawmakers told school boards they could require masks and hire employees to enforce the requirement with federal COVID-19 relief money.

Several districts have gone ahead and required masks. Other school boards have asked lawmakers to come back into session and change the rules, which they so far have refused to do. They have been joined by groups of doctors, teachers and school administrators.

Attempts to get the state Supreme Court to allow mask requirements in schools or overturn the provision have failed.

Lewis wrote in her ruling that she was following federal anti-discrimination law and not making a comment on whether the General Assembly's provision was COVID incompetence."

Some have also contended that the politicalization, by both opponents and proponents, of the decision to forbid local school districts from requiring students to wear a mask at school is gravely wrong. Literally. But, that question is not before the Court, the judge wrote.
Koreas Tensions This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what North Korea claims to be a new hypersonic missile launched from Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County, Jagang Province, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. North Korea said Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 it successfully tested the new hypersonic missile it implied was being developed as nuclear capable as it continues to expand its military capabilities while pressuring Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea said Wednesday it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile it implied was being developed as nuclear capable, as it continues to expand its military capabilities and pressure Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons.

The missile test early Tuesday was North Korea's third round of launches this month and took place shortly before North Koreas U.N. envoy accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration permanently end joint military exercises with South Korea and the deployment of strategic assets in the region.

A photo published in North Korea's state media showed a missile mounted with a finned, cone-shaped payload soaring into the air amid bright orange flames. The official Korean Central News Agency said the missile during its first flight test met key technical requirements, including launch stability and the maneuverability and flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the missile to be at an early stage of development and said North Korea would need considerable time to be able to deploy it operationally.

The Norths announcement came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected North Korea firing a missile into its eastern sea. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch highlighted the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program.

In a separate report, KCNA said the Norths rubber-stamp parliament opened a session on Tuesday and discussed domestic issues such as economic policies and youth education and that the meetings would continue. Some experts speculate the North might use the session to address the deadlock on nuclear diplomacy, but the state media report did not mention any comments made toward Washington and Seoul.

At a ruling party meeting in January, leader Kim Jong Un named hypersonic glide vehicles, which are launched from a rocket before gliding into a target, among a wish-list of sophisticated military assets. KCNA described the new missile as an important addition to the countrys strategic weaponry, implying that the system is being developed to deliver nuclear weapons.

The report also said the test confirmed the stability of the missiles fuel capsule, indicating a technology to add liquid propellant beforehand and keep it launch-ready for years. And a North Korean official said the North planned to expand the system to all its liquid-fuel missiles.

Liquid-fuel missiles are more vulnerable than solid-fuel missiles because they need to be fueled separately and transported to launch sites using trucks that can be seen by enemy satellites or other military assets.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea is trying to improve the mobility of these weapons.

North Korea last week made offers to improve relations with South Korea under certain conditions, apparently returning to its pattern of mixing weapons demonstrations with peace overtures to wrest outside concessions.

Negotiations over its nuclear program have been in a stalemate since February 2019. North Korea has demanded the lifting of U.S.-led sanctions while insisting it has the right to nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have made it clear the sanctions will stay in place until the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearization.

Kim Jong Un in recent political speeches has vowed to bolster his nuclear program as a deterrent to the U.S. His government has so far rejected the Biden administrations offer to resume talks without preconditions, saying that Washington must abandon its hostile policy first, a term North Korea mainly uses to refer to sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korea military drills the North considers to be an invasion rehearsal.

Kim's influential sister reached out to Seoul twice last week, saying her country was open to resuming talks and reconciliatory steps if conditions are met.

Analysts say North Korea is using the Souths desire for inter-Korean engagement to pressure Seoul to extract concessions from Washington on Kim's behalf as he renews an attempt to leverage his nuclear weapons for badly needed economic and security benefits.

North Koreas weapons displays could also be aimed at shoring up domestic unity as Kim faces perhaps his toughest moment nearing a decade in rule, with pandemic border closures unleashing further shock on an economy battered by sanctions and decades of mismanagement.

Experts say the North will likely continue its testing activity in the coming months as it dials up its pressure campaign, at least until China begins pushing for calm ahead of the Beijing Olympics early next year.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Department of Homeland Security emblem is pictured at the National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center in Arlington Virginia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday denied U.S. landing rights for a charter plane carrying more than 100 Americans and U.S. green card holders evacuated from Afghanistan, organizers of the flight said.

"They will not allow a charter on an international flight into a U.S. port of entry," Bryan Stern, a founder of non-profit group Project Dynamo, said of the department's Customs and Border Protection agency.

Stern spoke to Reuters from aboard a plane his group chartered from Kam Air, a private Afghan airline, that he said had been sitting for 14 hours at Abu Dhabi airport after arriving from Kabul with 117 people, including 59 children.

His group is one of several that emerged from ad hoc networks of U.S. military veterans, current and former U.S. officials and others that formed to bolster last month's U.S. evacuation operation they saw as chaotic and badly organized.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were unfamiliar with the matter, but that the U.S. government typically takes time to verify the manifests of charter planes before clearing them to land in the United States.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has said its top priority is repatriating Americans and green card holders unable to leave Afghanistan in the U.S. evacuation operation last month.

A senior State Department official on Monday said the United States was aware of about 100 American citizens and legal permanent residents ready to leave Afghanistan.

Twenty-eight Americans, 83 green card holders and six people with U.S. Special Immigration Visas granted to Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war in Afghanistan were aboard the Kam Air flight, Stern said.

He had planned to transfer the passengers to a chartered Ethiopian Airlines plane for an onward flight to the United States that he said the Customs cleared to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

Customs then changed the clearance to Dulles International Airport outside Washington before denying the plane landing rights anywhere in the United States, he said.

"I have a big, beautiful, giant, humongous Boeing 787 that I can see parked in front of us," he said. "I have crew. I have food."

Stern said intermediaries in Kabul had obtained permission from the Taliban-run Afghan Civil Aviation Authority for the groups to send a charter flight to retrieve the passengers from Kabul airport.
Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 69F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 48F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. 896 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 260,675, the Armenian healthcare ministry said in a press release.

6402 tests were administered.

461 people recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 241,191.

22 people died, bringing the death toll to 5299. This number doesnt include the deaths of 1208 other individuals (3 in the last 24 hours) infected with COVID-19 who died from co-morbidities.

As of September 29, the number of active cases stood at 12,977.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, 29 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 29 September, USD exchange rate up by 0.88 drams to 483.49 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.45 drams to 563.99 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 6.65 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.36 drams to 653.97 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price stood at 27235.71 drams. Silver price stood at 349.97 drams. Platinum price stood at 15299.04 drams.
Citing instances of cheating, malpractices, impersonation and leaking of test papers, the plea sought to conduct a fresh examination

Several NEET-UG aspirants, who moved the top court, sought directions for conducting a fresh exam and stay on the declaration of results NEET-UG 2021 till the current plea is disposed of. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Alleging leak of paper and malpractices in NEET-UG 2021 examination, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court by NEET-UG aspirants, seeking the cancellation of the examination, which was held on September 12, 2021.

Several NEET-UG aspirants, who moved the top court, sought directions for conducting a fresh exam and stay on the declaration of results NEET-UG 2021 till the current plea is disposed of.

Citing instances of cheating, malpractices, impersonation and leaking of test papers, the plea sought to conduct a fresh examination.

The plea sought directions to the Ministry of Education, National Testing Agency and National Medical Commission to enhance the standard of Security protocols including biometric verification of candidates, use of jammers etc to conduct the examination in a fair and transparent manner.

It further sought directions to the CBI and Director General of Police of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to submit a fact-finding report before the apex court within a week with all relevant information and documents as well as the findings regarding the alleged malpractices in NEET-UG 2021.

The plea said that even if when students benefits illegally, it would amount to grave injustice.

On September 12, on the day of the examination, the Rajasthan Police had arrested eight people, in which a girl, a NEET aspirant, was caught along with seven others who were helping her in cheating.

The police had arrested the 18-year-old aspirant, Dineshwari Kumari, along with invigilator Ram Singh, in charge of the exam centre's administration unit Mukesh, Dineshwari's uncle and four others were also nabbed in connection with the case.
The company said Tuesday it provided health regulators with data from a recent study of its vaccine in children 5 to 11 years old

In this photo, a nurse reaches for a vial of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccine clinic. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: Pfizer has submitted research to the U.S Food and Drug Administration on the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine in children but the shots may not be available until November.

The company said Tuesday it provided health regulators with data from a recent study of its vaccine in children 5 to 11 years old. Officials had said previously they would file an application with the FDA to authorize use in the coming weeks.

Once the company files its application, US regulators and public health officials will review the evidence and consult with their advisory committees in public meetings to determine if the shots are safe and effective enough to recommend use.

That process may mean the shots may not be available until closer to Thanksgiving, according to a person familiar with the process but not authorized to discuss it publicly. But it is possible that, depending on how quickly the FDA acts, the shots could become available earlier in November, the person said.

The drugmaker and its partner, Germany's BioNTech, say they expect to request emergency use authorization of their vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 in the coming weeks. The companies also plan to submit data to the European Medicines Agency and other regulators.

The two-shot Pfizer vaccine is currently available for those 12 and older. An estimated 100 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated with it, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pfizer tested a lower dose of the shots in children. The drugmaker said last week that researchers found the vaccine developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels in children that were just as strong as those found in teenagers and young adults getting regular-strength doses.

Earlier this month, FDA chief Dr. Peter Marks told the AP that once Pfizer turns over its study results, his agency would evaluate the data hopefully in a matter of weeks to decide if the shots are safe and effective enough for younger kids.

Pfizer's updated timetable was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Another US vaccine maker, Moderna, also is studying its shots in elementary school-aged children. Results are expected later in the year.
The $1.3 million project to make the Pitkin County Jail temporarily operational is being held up because of supply chain problems and other issues, but is expected to be back on track soon.
The company's expertise also includes performance parts retailing, offering fully street-legal approvals, and warranty. Not least, educational purposes had also been one of Hennessey's goals since 2008, when they opened a certified Tuner School for teaching and training high-performance vehicle technicians.The Exorcist Camaro ZL1 first saw the light of day a few years ago. In 2017, the hands of Hennessey specialists created a mighty statement against the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, which, at the time, made quite a stir in the performance car world with its presence. The Hennessey 30th Anniversary Camaro distances itself away from the original 2017 Exorcist, representing a bespoke model that celebrates the brand's 30 years of business building some of the most impressive automobiles in the industry.Of course, Hennessey Performance Engineering could not celebrate its lifetime activity any other way than producing a beast capable of slaughtering any other vehicle on the street with its four digits horsepower figures. In other words, this impressive machine gets equipped with a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 carried over from the Corvette ZO6 , but highly reworked to develop 1,000hp and a mind-boggling amount of torque; 883 lb-ft (1,196Nm) to be exact, directly massacring the rear wheels. These numbers translate into a 2.1 second zero to 62 mph (100 kph) time and a top speed of 217 mph (350 kph).Mechanically, the vehicle includes many upgrades to the powertrain, such as a high-flow supercharging and air induction system, a custom camshaft configuration, ported cylinder heads, stainless steel headers, and some high-flow catalysts. Furthermore, the 30th Anniversary Exorcist Camaro can be either ordered with a manual transmission with rev-matching technology, specially designed for those who crave the purest experience possible , or a 10-speed automatic option, calibrated to cope with such the monster power figures.Similar to the other Exorcist Camaro ZL1, the 30th-anniversary model still includes the same slick suspension setup featuring Multimatic's racing DSSV dampers that benefit from a spool valve mechanism. Firstly, they reduce weight from each corner of the vehicle but, more importantly, they also star a highly ingenious camber adjustment mechanism, enabling the car to be changed from road settings to a track-focused configuration up to an extra 1.5 degrees of negative camber in just a matter of minutes.The exterior appearance of this machine is remarkable, giving off an aura of power and charm, but also pure terror, especially in such a striking paint job. The uniqueness of this build is captured using special anniversary logos fitted upfront and behind each front wheel. Furthermore, each example will get an individually numbered Anniversary Edition chassis plate denoting its build number. The widebody kit follows an aero blueprint similar to the other Exorcist models in the line-up, boasting an enlarged front grille and splitter for improved engine airflow and a massive spoiler capable of generating 136kg of downforce at 150 mph.Sadly, this being a limited-edition endeavor, Hennessey will produce only 30 examples of the Anniversary Edition Exorcist Camaro. Pricing starts at $135,000, including the donor vehicle and a two-year warranty on the whole build. The vehicle can be ordered both as a coupe or a convertible body style.John Hennessey very proudly acknowledges that "the Exorcist is the epitome of the American muscle car and has the off-the-line performance to embarrass almost any car on the planet." He dubbed the 30th Anniversary Edition Exorcist Camaro as "one ferocious supercar slayer," and it definitely shows. From menacing looks to incredible on-road performance, this exclusive design encompasses the brand's DNA in the purest form possible. Their celebration project has been a resounding success, and we certainly believe that it will be an inspiration for many more unique creations in the future.
Royal Navys HMS Lancaster just completed a two-week solo patrol of the Arctic, where its crew had to accommodate to the challenging environment and perform training exercises for emergency situations. This adventure was not only so challenging because of the natural conditions of the Arctic area, but also because HMS Lancaster was by itself, which meant that it had to make sure it could rely on enough supplies even for a potential worst-case scenario.Unlike military exercises , where warships put their strategic and combat capabilities to the test, this trip to the Arctic was more about preparing the crew, especially new sailors, for situations that require a quick response, such as injuries and casualties.The Wildcat helicopter from 815 Naval Air Squadron is one of the frigates most important assets, which is able to use its sensors for navigation and detection, and its also the best means of getting a casualty off the ship as soon as possible, to a hospital on the shore. The recent exercises in the Arctic included responding to mock fires and evacuating a casualty via the Wildcat.But it wasnt all work for the crew on board the HMS Lancaster. The 3,000-mile (4,828 km) round-trip, crossing the Norwegian Sea and then entering the Arctic Circle was also a unique opportunity for the sailors to admire the incredible Northern Lights. The stunning Aurora Borealis impressed everyone on board and put the powerful frigate in a truly special light.The sailors also went through the fun Blue Nose ceremony, a traditional series of acts performed when entering the Arctic for the first time, including bathing in the freezing water.After completing the two-week patrol, HMS Lancaster got back to the military exercises, joining international warships in the Joint Warrior exercise in Scotland.
The airflow is not nicely following the surface of the rear window (in technical terms: the flow is detached or separated). That means that on the surface, the air indeed does not have the right direction and momentum to push air and dirt away.When the airflow detaches from any surface, it creates a turbulence area. Practically all hatchbacks, station wagons, and SUVs have a rear wiper because this turbulence helps dust, dirt, and water to accumulate in that area. Thats what made Christian Stadler complain about the rear visibility in the Ioniq 5 when he tested it in an autobahn on a rainy day. With sales picking up, it is not unlikely that new owners of the electric crossover will share that impression with the Youtuber. They may even start to complain about that as well.Remmerie made this analysis with the help of Vincent Keromnes, from A2MAC1 , an automotive benchmarking company. The A2MAC1 Dynamic Benchmarking Domain Leader also suggested a slice-through that presents how the airflow behaves after passing the rear spoiler. The objective for this component seemed to be helping direct the air to the back window  and keeping it clear of water and dust. The image below shows that is not the case.The AirShaper CEO started the explanation:Here, you can see that there actually is flow underneath the wing, but it doesnt follow the curvature of the window below. As you can see, there is a step downward that prevents this.Keromnes gave us his opinion about that as well.Maybe the goal of the step is to collect the water coming from the roof. My concern is about the potential wind noise that this is going to generate.After having a more detailed check at the Hyundai Ioniq 5's 3D model, the A2MAC1 Dynamic Benchmarking Domain Leader shared more news about that with autoevolution:"I can confirm from the exploration of the 3D model that this is to collect water. As you can see, theres a small grille on the side (orange part). Very interesting design. First time I see that."Unfortunately, the solution is not effective in all situations, as Stadler shared in his video. The AirShaper CEO then presented the studys perspective of the airflow seen from above.When you look at the top view of the car, you can see that flow is still being channeled towards the spoiler, but on the rear windscreen, the flow is completely detached (blue area behind the rear wing). As indicated in the first article, this is mainly because of the step between the roof and the rear window, which causes the flow to detach.The conclusion presented by Remmerie and Keromnes reveals that Hyundai did not manage to deliver any aerodynamic solution to avoid the rear wiper. The Kia EV6  which also uses the E-GMP architecture  is another vehicle that abolished the equipment. The difference is that the Kia's design gives us the impression that airflow can still follow the rear glass. If that is really the case, it can keep it as clean as that of a sedan or a fastback, for example.In Hyundais case, the 45 Concept and the commitment to preserve its striking design into a production vehicle put the automaker between a rock and a hard place. The company could get rid of the rear wiper, improving range God knows by how much. However, that would make it look like those affordable hatchbacks back in the day that did not have one to cost even less.The other option was to preserve rear visibility and give the car the equipment its design clearly required, as Remmerie and Keromnes demonstrated. You already know what Hyundai decided to do. Thanks to these guys, you just dont need to believe that the Ioniq 5 is ok without a rear wiper.
During its 12-year primary mission, the spacecraft will fly past one main asteroid belt and seven Trojans, ancient objects trapped within gravity wells formed by Jupiter and the Sun's combined pull. By exploring these asteroids up-close, Lucy will help scientists understand how our solar system and its planets formed 4.5 billion years ago and what conditions were like back then.Following its arrival at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Lucy's team members have spent the past eight weeks preparing the spacecraft for the historic journey. All of the machine's mechanical, electrical, and thermal systems have been successfully tested, and its high-gain antenna, which will allow Lucy to communicate with Earth , has already been installed.Earlier this month, engineers finished filling the one-ton spacecraft's fuel tanks with approximately 1,600 pounds (725 kgs) of liquid hydrazine and liquid oxygen. This fuel will be used for precise maneuvers that will propel Lucy to its asteroid destinations, while its solar arrays will recharge the batteries that will power its instruments.The next step for NASA is to pack Lucy between the two halves of the launch vehicle fairing, which will close around it to protect it during its launch. In early October, the encapsulated spacecraft will be transported to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where it will be positioned atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.Once mated with the rocket, Lucy will lift off from Space Launch Complex 41 to begin its four-billion-mile odyssey to the "fossils" of our solar system. Lucy's first asteroid flyby is expected to occur in 2025, and the last planned flyby will be in 2033.
ICE

EV

Long famous for their silky-smooth 12-cylindermotors, the company sort of unveiled a productiontheyve named Spectre. While that seems a touch evil when it comes to names (in a very James Bond way), its certain that the first vehicle in their EV lineup will be more of a hero and less of a bad guy.CEO of Rolls-Royce, Torsten Muller-Otvos, called the announcement a watershed moment for the company and left no doubt about what it means for the history of the famous marque.Today is the most significant day in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 4th May, 1904, he said, 117 years later, I am proud to announce that Rolls-Royce is to begin the on-road testing program for an extraordinary new product that will elevate the global all-electric car revolution.The announcement was light on specifics and the EV is still very much under wraps.Rolls-Royce has, over recent years, teased an EV with the ideas such as the 102EX all-electric Phantom prototype and the Vision Next 100, but the concept cars were never meant to be production friendly. This Spectre though is the real deal and the company plans to test drive the car more than 1.5 million miles in a variety of conditions and locations to prepare it for production.As no specific information was released as to performance specs, the intended motor or range figures, it is known that the Spectre will be built on the same aluminum-spaceframe architecture used in current production models like the Phantom, Cullinan and Ghost.The real shocker in this announcement is that Rolls-Royce is targeting a completely electric lineup by the year 2030 and that by then Rolls-Royce will no longer be in the business of creating or selling any internal-combustion-engine motor cars.This name perfectly matches the extraordinary Rolls-Royce that we are announcing today, Muller-Otvos said. (This is) a motor car that makes its presence felt before disappearing into a world inaccessible to all but the very few.He added that this EV Spectre will hit the showrooms as soon as the fourth quarter of 2023.
EV

According to Weixin, Yazhou shared on Weibo on September 27 that Tesla had started this lawsuit against her. Her post states that she received the indictment on August 14, making Yazhous case older than Chaos. Despite that, she probably felt she had to warn other unhappy Tesla customers that the company was also targeting her.The Chinese protester shared everything thats happening with her lawsuits against Tesla. Curiously, Yazhou was the first to sue the company for defamation. That happened after a Tesla vice-president, Tao Lin, said in an interview on April 19 that the unhappy customer was very professional and suggested that someone helped her organize the protest at Auto Shanghai 2021. In other words, she took Yazhou for a pawn in a corporate conspiracy to affect Tesla.Yazhou is also suing Tesla Shanghai and Tesla Beijing because the company posted on Weibo that her father was tailgating the car in which her Model 3 crashed. The unhappy Tesla customer said that this wreck motivated her protest at the Chinese auto show. According to her, the cars brakes failed.After the companys post on Weibo, Yazhou and her family would have been insulted and threatened on social media by Tesla fans. She said that caused them mental anguish. She also stated that Tesla has not tried to solve the product quality dispute they have due to her Model 3 . It is unclear if Yazhou is also suing Tesla for the alleged defect in herThe protester is asking RMB10,000 ($1,545 at the current exchange rate) from each of the parties and RMB20,000 ($3,091), probably for legal costs. That amounts to RMB50,000 ($7,727). Tesla first responded with a jurisdictional objection that Chinese courts denied. To her surprise, Tesla retaliated with the RMB5 million lawsuit. Weixin reported that Tesla is already experiencing adverse effects from suing these customers, which was more than predictable, especially in Chaos case. After all, Tesla was condemned for fraud, and thats the final decision. Chao sarcastically said that the company expects to make more money from suing him than selling him a car with no issues.
The year was 1957 and the U.S. state of Oklahoma was commemorating fifty years of existence. Many communities planned their own events, and the city of Tulsa was no different, kicking off a week-long festival named Tulsarama.To make things more interesting, officials decided to bury a time capsule in front of the city courthouse, but this was no ordinary cache of goods or information. For whatever reason, they chose to include a brand-new desert gold and sand dune white two-tone 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe inside the vault, along with other contemporary items.A contest was organized with citizens being invited to guess Tulsas population in 2007. The person (or their descendant) who came nearest to the actual number would win the car upon its unearthing fifty years later, as well as a savings account started with a $100 deposit.Donated by Plymouth Motors and a group of local dealers, the Belvedere with only four miles on its odometer was filled with various items from the period such a case of Schlitz beer, an unpaid parking ticket , a pack of cigarettes, a tube of lipstick, a package of gum, and $2.73 in bills and coins. Organizers also placed a five-gallon (22.7-liter) container of gasoline and another one filled with motor oil to help start the car in case the world would abandon fossil fuels in the future.To make sure that the car survives in good shape for the next fifty years, a12 feet (3.7 m) by 20 feet (6.1 m) underground concrete vault with pneumatically applied gunite on its interior walls was constructed in front of the courthouse. The top of the enclosure was three feet (0.9 m) below the surface and the builders advertised it as being able to withstand a nuclear attack.On June 15, the beautiful coupe was placed on a steel skid and lowered inside the vault. It was coated in a military-grade corrosion-proof substance and then wrapped in layers of sealed plastic. A huge one-piece concrete lid was placed on top of the structure, after which everything was properly sealed with gunite. Three feet of dirt was ten poured over it and for the finishing touch, a bronze marker donated by a local cemetery was placed on the spot.Eighteen months before the states centennial, preparations for the highly anticipated unearthing began. The vault was opened on June 14, 2007, by a team of local volunteers. They were appalled to find the car sitting in nearly 2,000 gallons (7,600 liters) of standing water that reached 4 feet (1.2 m) high. While the original builders did their best to create a lasting structure, it was not airtight, which allowed water to seep in when the area was flooded due to a construction accident back in the mid-1970s. Still, since the car was covered in plastic, people were still hopeful that it wasnt completely destroyed.The standing water was eventually pumped out and the Plymouth was lifted from the vault, then moved to the Tulsa Convention Center, where it was publicly unveiled on June 15th, exactly fifty years after it was buried.As you can see, thanks to a local journalist and photographer Michael Bates who was present at the event, Miss Belvedere was badly damaged , yet still standing. The tires were in good enough shape to be inflated, the signatures of those who were on hand when it was buried were still readable, and some of the items placed in the trunk like the beer cans or the gas and motor oil containers were rusty, but still in one piece.After the ceremony, the coupe was temporarily displayed at a local dealership while it awaited its new owner. His name was Raymond Humbertson, one of 812 residents who participated in the 1957 contest. Unfortunately, Humbertson had passed in 1979, followed by his wife nine years later. The couple had no children, so the car, along with the savings account which had grown to $667, was awarded to his 100-year-old sister Catherine and her nephews.Later that year, the new owners were approached by Dwight Foster, the owner of Ultra One, a company specializing in high-quality rust removal products, who offered to de-rust and stabilize the car free of charge. They accepted and after a painstaking process that lasted several months, Miss Belvederes bodywork was rust-free. You can watch a video of the preservation process below, courtesy of NJ.com.Still, the damage was so extensive that a full restoration was deemed impossible. The engine, frame, and interior were unsalvageable, so the car remained in the companys warehouse for the next decade. Foster searched for a new home on behalf of the owners and in 2015, he announced that the famed coupe would be permanently displayed at the Historic Auto Attractions Museum in Roscoe, Illinois, the place where it resides today.Contrary to popular belief, the vehicle wasnt named Miss Belvedere back in 1957, but fifty years later. During 2007 interviews, organizing committee co-chairwoman Sharon King Davis admitted that she was responsible for the moniker.The city of Tulsa didnt stop there and put another Plymouth inside a time capsule back in 1998. However, the Prowler buried in Centennial Park was placed inside a pressurized plastic box filled with argon and, according to experts, it stands a much better chance to be preserved than its 1957 sibling. We'll have to wait another 27 years to see how it held up.
But what you might not know is that Pontiac also built one of the coolest and rarest muscle cars of the mid-to-late 1970s, when the Malaise era had already settled it. It's called the Can Am and it was produced for only six months in 1977.The brainchild of Jim Wangers, Pontiac's chief marketing manager, the Can Am's main purpose was to revive the spirit of the iconic GTO . A massive success when introduced in 1964, the GTO had lost its charm when the oil crisis hit the U.S. and was reduced to a mundane compact for 1974.As the nameplate was discontinued after 1974, Pontiac remained active on the pony car market with the Firebird, topped by the Trans Am performance package, but it also had the Le Mans intermediate. But while the Trans Am was selling like hotcakes, the LeMans was trailing behind its GM siblings.Realizing that Pontiac's muscle car spirit remained alive even after the GTO was sent into the history book, Wangers proposed a performance package for the LeMans . A marketing wizard, Wangers had already created special editions for Detroit-based carmakers while working with Motortown Corporation. Notable examples included the Ford Mustang Cobra II, Dodge Aspen R/T, and the AMC Hornet AMX.Although built by different companies, these cars had something in common. They harkened back to the golden muscle car era but offered no additional performance compared to the trims they were based on. Wangers wanted to change that with the Pontiac Can Am.Named after the iconic Canadian-American (Can-Am) racing series, the Can Am was based on the LeMans Sport Coupe. On top of the latter's louvered quarter windows, the Can Am also got the Trans Am 's shaker hood scoop plus a ducktail rear spoiler sourced from the Grand Am All-American show car.All cars were finished in white and rode on Rally II wheels for a nod to the late 1960s, but Wangers also went with tri-tone stripes in orange, yellow, and gold. "Can Am" decals finished in the same colors adorned the front fenders and the trunk lid.But the centerpiece of the newly-created Can Am was a beefed-up version of Pontiac's W72-series V8 engine. A 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) mill introduced to replace the 455-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) in the Trans Am, the W72 generated 200 horsepower, 20 horses more than the similar 400 offered in the LeMans Sport Coupe. It also offered 15 horsepower more than the Oldsmobile-sourced, 403-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) available in the LeMans at the time.Granted, 200 horsepower was far from impressive when compared to muscle cars from the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it was a solid figure in 1977. For reference, the most powerful Chevrolet Corvette came with 210 horses that year.Pontiac also build a small batch of Can Ams with the Oldsmobile 403 rated at 185 horsepower, mostly for dealerships in California and high-altitude areas.The cars were shipped to Motortown, which installed the Can Am aero kit and the shaker hood and applied the decals and accent stripes. This process became an issue when the mold that Motortown used to produce the fiberglass rear spoiler broke after around 1,300 Can Ams were built.Why didn't they produce a new tool you ask? Well, it seems that some senior Pontiac executives were unhappy that the Can Am was eating into Grand Prix sales. Apparently, the fact that these cars shared some components led Pontiac's upper management to believe that the company lost a Grand Prix for every Can Am built.With the Grand Prix on track for a record year of almost 290,000 units delivered and with the LeMans set to be redesigned for 1978, Pontiac decided to put an end to the Can Am after only six months in production.Most sources agree that Motortown put together 1,377 Can Ams, 42 of which were reportedly fitted with the Olds 403 engine. This leaves only 1,335 Can Ams with the 200-horsepower Pontiac 400 V8 out there. On the other hand, Jim Wangers claimed that production was lower than that, at only 1,133 units.Specific numbers aside, the Pontiac Can Am remains one of the rarest and most intriguing performance cars of the late 1970s. A forgotten Malaise-era muscle car that not only delivered decent power at the time but also featured a cool appearance package. In an era of boring- and cheesy-looking muscle cars, the Can Am was a worthy spiritual successor to the almighty GTO.
The robust, yet elegant OW 350CI catches the eye with its khaki dial and yellow indexes that comply to military color codes, plus the 20 mm (0.7) Italian leather strap. But this watch isnt just stylish, its a tool watch meant to be worn in any conditions.The left-handed orientation of the large crown (a nine oclock instead of a three oclock position) is adjusted so that it doesnt interfere with gripping the handlebars while riding a motorcycle.According to the brand, this watch can be worn on the left hand, so that the crown doesnt get damaged while riding, diving or during a mission. This timepiece is also special because its derived from both military and motorcycle riding backgrounds. The Swiss brand collaborated with a vintage motorcycle restoration workshop from Zurich, and this new watch is inspired by the one of the workshops projects, the Condor 350.One of the iconic motorcycles in Switzerland, back in the 1970s and 80s, the Condor 350 was made by a company founded by Edouard Scheffer and Victor Donzelot, who made their first model for the Swiss military in 1893. Atelier Zevaco, the Swiss workshop, has restored a Condor A350 powered by a Ducati 350cc engine with an inverted gearbox, and this is how the collaboration with Ollech & Wajs began.The models name, OW 350CI, is also derived from the Condor A350 with its inverted gearbox (commandes inversees"). It features a modern 12-hour rotating bezel and 2824-2 ETA movement with five positions and a 38-hour power reserve. This field watchs case is also 300-meter waterproof.The vintage-inspired military watch OW 350CI is available for approximately $1,230 (CHF 1,146).
Although pickup trucks have never fallen off the radar ever since their inception, its safe to say that compact models had fallen out of favor just a few years ago. At least as far as North America is concerned, because in other regions bite-sized trucks remained all the rage.Now that consumers are showing their appreciation for those who dared to try and herald a return to form , options such as the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz or 2022 Ford Maverick are turning into scorching hot commodities. And that means rivals need a measurable response.For example, General Motors is not as daring, but they are still getting ready a bite-sized hero for the South American continent in the form of the 2023 Chevrolet (Nova) Montana. And one virtual artist thats connected to the vibes of the American continent is also envisioning a possible competitor from Ram.Kleber Silva, the Brazilian pixel master behind the kdesignag account on social media, is now thinking that Chevys Montana , the Santa Cruz, and Fords Maverick need a competitor from Stellantis as well. Cue to one of his latest projects, then, which envisions an upcoming 2024 Ram 1200 unibody thats smaller than a Ford Ranger.We needed to put that into perspective because the design cues taken directly from its larger 1500 sibling might turn out to be misleading as far as the CGI dimensions are concerned. By the way, the idea came from a rumor mills report that Ram is also preparing the arrival of a bite-sized pickup truck.The new entry would be slotted above the Brazilian-made Fiat Toro, which is also sold across certain Latin American markets as the Ram 1000. Hence the artists vision about the looks of the new arrival, as well as the possible 1200 moniker. Now, of course, it remains to be seen if this model will also reach U.S. dealerships or not...
AMG

Creativity embraces many shapes in the world of diecast enthusiasts. You can get creative with the way you're displaying your collection. You can get creative with the collection itself. When talking about mainline Hot Wheels products, some collectors will swap out the standard wheels for some higher quality, better-looking ones. But some go even further than that. Changing the color of a diecast vehicle is the next step.But the sky's the limit. Who's there to stop you from building something completely custom? Any collector will tell you that the rarer your items are, the better. Those who don't have the skills, time, or creativity to work on their diecast vehicles will often turn to chase down Treasure Hunts and Super Treasure Hunts. Those are rarer than your average casts, and will ultimately feel more special and be worth more if they get resold.But think of it this way. If you're going to build a custom diecast, that's going to be unique. I've seen a lot of people resorting to this idea over the past few years. But few have ever developed projects as impressive as the man behind Jakarta Diecast Project. In the past month alone he's released videos of projects such as a six-wheeler VW T2 Flatbed truck, an Acura NSX with a matching camper trailer, a Rocket Bunny GR Yaris, and a widebody Mercedes-GT.But those seem to pale when compared to his new Volkswagen- Porsche hybrid. Let's face it, when was the last time you saw a Volkswagen Beetle packing a flat-12 engine off of a Porsche race car? But that's just half the story. The project starts with a standard 2018 VW Bug, which was part of the Checkmate series. After stripping it down piece by piece, it loses the black "Pawn" paint job.This guy even has a set of power tools for the job, and we get to see the rear half of the VW getting cut off. Then, the rear part of a 2018 Porsche 917LH comes into play. You can't help but think of a centaur right now. But this isn't going to be half-man, half-horse, but half-Beetle, half 917LH. The initial mock-up looks good, but there's more to come. This hybrid will be running on two different kinds of wheels, both of which look highly realistic.It came as a bit of shock seeing the car in the next phase. The front wheel arches are about to be extended, and the whole process is just so satisfying to watch. When you didn't think things could get any more insane, we see a custom handmade engine. That's a replica of the flat-12 engine used by the Porsche 917LH at Le Mans. Preparation for the Marlboro livery begins as the hybrid diecast gets taken to the spray booth. The result is nothing short of breath-taking. It's a shame the artist doesn't want to sell any of his projects!
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The White House rejected a request from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week, U.S. and Palestinian sources say.

Why it matters: It's unusual for a U.S. president to reject a meeting request from the Palestinians, and it could be seen as further indication of how low the Israeli-Palestinian issue is on Bidens foreign policy priority list.

The backstory: Several weeks ago, when Abbas and his aides were discussing whether to visit the UN in person, they decided to check the possibility of meeting Biden on the sidelines in New York or soon afterward in Washington.

The White House told the Palestinians Biden wouldn't be doing any bilateral meetings in New York and his schedule wouldn't allow for a meeting in Washington, U.S. and Palestinian sources said.

That contributed to Abbas' decision not to travel to New York and to send a videotaped speech instead, the sources added.

In the end, Biden visited New York only briefly, but he did have three bilateral meetings there. The White House declined to comment for this story.

What they're saying: In his speech at the UN last Tuesday, Biden did stress that he supports a two-state solution, but acknowledged that we are a long way from that goal at this moment."

Abbas warned in his own speech that Israel's actions would result in a "one-state solution," and he gave Israel a one-year ultimatum to end its occupation of the West Bank, after which time the Palestinians would consider withdrawing their recognition of Israel on the 1967 lines.

Abbas also indirectly criticized U.S. policy toward Israel, saying, There are some countries that refuse to acknowledge the reality that Israel is an occupying power, practicing apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

"These countries proudly state that they have shared values with Israel. What shared values are you referring to? This has emboldened Israel, only furthering its arrogance and allowing it to reject and violate all UN resolutions."

Bennett, speaking on Monday at the UN, didn't mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at all.

Bennett's aides say he felt there was already more than enough discussion of the topic at the UN and that Israel didn't need to be viewed through that prism.

Whats next: The Biden administrations point man on Israel-Palestine, deputy assistant secretary of state Hady Amr, will travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah next Monday for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
It urged the authorities to stop enforcing recently enacted amendments that criminalized defamation of government officials.

The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code were passed by the countrys former parliament dominated by Pashinians loyalists during its final session held in late July.

They stipulate that grave insults directed at individuals because of their public activities will now be crimes punishable by fines ranging from 1 million to 3 million drams ($2,000-$6,000) and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals include state officials, politicians and other public figures.

The Armenian police reportedly opened last week the first criminal case under the new articles of the Criminal Code. A police spokesman said that they are now trying to identify the social media user who made an offensive comment under a photograph of Pashinian posted on the prime ministers Facebook page. It is not clear whether investigators have already tracked down charged that person.

Freedom House expressed concern at the investigation. This comes only two months after the Parliament passed amendments criminalizing serious insults against government officials, and signifies a clear degradation of democratic norms in Armenia, including freedom of expression, the Washington-based group said in a statement.

We call on the Armenian authorities to immediately cease enforcement of this unconstitutional legislation criminalizing defamation, added the statement.

The controversial amendments have also been condemned by the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders claim that Pashinian himself has relied heavily on slander and hate speech since coming to power in 2018.

All forms of defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during then President Serzh Sarkisians rule.

Government officials and pro-government lawmakers have denied trying to restrict freedom of expression. One of them said in July that penalties for defamation must be toughened now because verbal abuse in the country has become widespread, especially on social media.

Pashinians political team already sparked controversy in March this year when it pushed through the National Assembly a bill tripling maximum legal fines for defamation. Armenias leading media associations criticized the move, saying that it could be exploited by government officials and politicians to stifle press freedom.

Consequently, President Armen Sarkissian refused to sign the bill into law and asked the Constitutional Court to assess its conformity with the Armenian constitution.
Azerbaijani police and customs set up on September 12 a checkpoint on the main highway connecting Armenia with Iran. A 21-kilometer section of the highway passes through Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas along Armenias southeastern Syunik province also bordering Iran. The Armenian government controversially ceded it to Azerbaijan following last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani roadblock caused significant disruptions in Irans cargo traffic with Armenia, with many Iranian drivers refusing or unable to pay a hefty road tax demanded by Azerbaijani officers. Two of them were arrested by Azerbaijani authorities two weeks ago for allegedly travelling to Nagorno-Karabakh without Bakus permission.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry called for the immediate release of the drivers. Meanwhile, the Iranian military reportedly massed troops along the Azerbaijani border and began large-scale military exercises there last week.

Aliyev described the exercises as very surprising in an interview with the Turkish Anatolia news agency published on Monday.

Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It's their sovereign right  But why now and why on our border? he said.

Why weren't the drills held when the Armenians were in the Jabrail, Fizuli and Zangelan districts? Why is this being done after we liberated these lands after 30 years of occupation? he asked.

Aliyev expressed hope that Tehran will end its emotional reactions to our legitimate steps. He said that Baku set up the roadblock after Tehran ignored repeated warnings to stop Iranian trucks from shipping cargo to Karabakh. That was disrespectful to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, reacted to Aliyevs remarks on Tuesday, saying that they are surprising given the good relations between the two states.

Khatibzadeh insisted that Iran has always respected Azerbaijans territorial integrity and that its war games are aimed at protecting regional security. The Islamic Republic will not tolerate the Israeli regimes presence near its borders, he added, clearly alluding to Azerbaijans military ties with Israel.

Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed the road crisis with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts during separate meetings held in New York last week. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Amir-Abdollahian told Azerbaijans Jeyhun Bayramov that some third parties should not be allowed to affect Azerbaijani-Iranian relations.

The friction between Azerbaijan and Iran was also highlighted by bitter verbal exchanges reported between members of their parliaments.

The Iranian ISNA news agency reported late last week that some Azerbaijani lawmakers have threatened to remove Iran from the world map and raise Turkish flags in all parts of Iran. It said Iranian parliamentarian have responded by warning Baku of the dangers of picking a fight with the Islamic Republic.
Azerbaijan gained control over a 21-kilometer section of the highway last December following an Armenian troop withdrawal from border areas along Armenias southeastern Syunik province. Azerbaijani officers deployed there began stopping and taxing on September 12 Iranian trucks delivering goods to and from Armenia. Many truck drivers have refused to pay the road tax reportedly ranging from $150 to $350 per vehicle.

Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri has since met with various Armenian officials to discuss the resulting disruptions in cargo traffic between Armenia and Iran. He said last week that Tehran hopes the Armenian government will speed up the ongoing reconstruction of the alternative Syunik road bypassing Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas.

In a statement, Papikian said he assured Zohouri that the 70-kilometer bypass road will be fully refurbished by the end of November. He also reiterated that it will be extended further north to divert traffic from a tortuous mountain pass outside the Syunik village of Tatev.

Papikian added that he also reaffirmed the Armenian governments plans to build or refurbish other Syunik roads leading to the Iranian border. The government hopes that the European Union and other international donors will finance the ambitious project worth an estimated $1 billion.

Iran is a major trading partner of Armenia and one of the landlocked countrys two conduits to the outside the world. Up to one-third of Armenias foreign trade is carried out via the Islamic Republic and its Persian Gulf ports in particular.

Yerevan has reacted to cautiously to Bakus decision to levy hefty fees from Iranian vehicles entering Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on September 15 the move is aimed at pressuring Armenia to open a transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik. But he stopped short of demanding an end to the serious hurdle to Armenias transport links with Iran.

Gohar Iskandarian, a Yerevan-based Iran expert, also pointed to Papikians recent remark that it is up to Tehran and Baku to sort out the road crisis.

Iran and Azerbaijan are talking about the problem in a quite forceful way, whereas Armenia is making no such statements, Iskandarian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. On the contrary, [Yerevan] has adopted a very passive stance, saying that this is beyond the scope of our powers.

Shortly after Baku set up the roadblock the Iranian military reportedly began massing troops and holding exercises along the Iranian-Azerbaijani border. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the drills on Monday. Irans Foreign Ministry dismissed the criticism.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 66F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable.
FILE - This March 20, 2018, file photo shows the YouTube app on an iPad in Baltimore. Video-sharing tech platform YouTube on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, announced immediate bans on false claims that vaccines are dangerous and cause health issues like autism, cancer or infertility.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
BANGKOK (AP)  Bangkok and other areas of central Thailand received new warnings of possible major flooding, even as disaster relief authorities said Wednesday the threat had eased in 13 of 30 provinces elsewhere that were lashed by seasonal monsoon rains.

Seven people have died and two are missing since the weekend from flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Dianmu, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigations said. It announced Wednesday that 197,795 households in 30 provinces, mostly in the north, northeast and central regions had been affected, a 56% increase over the 126,781 reported a day earlier.

Bangkok has had no major flooding yet, but many rural areas have been severely affected. Thai television has shown villagers in several areas walking through chest-high water or being evacuated from their homes on small boats.

However, conditions have improved in 13 provinces around the country, including Chiang Mai, the disaster prevention agency said.

Heavy rains are still forecast for many areas, but the immediate threat triggering warnings to Bangkok and the provinces of Lopburi, Saraburi, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani and Nonthaburi comes from water that has flowed down the Chao Phraya River from the north in such quantities that it overwhelmed the capacity of dams and reservoirs to retain it.

The dilemma facing planners is that the dams and reservoirs are used to store as much water as possible to help with irrigation during perennial droughts, but have to be able to cope with the unpredictable overflow during rainy season.

Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang acknowledged Wednesday on his Facebook page that because the capital is on low-lying ground, it is vulnerable to flooding from the Chao Phraya, and cannot be drained quickly. Parts of the city were inundated in a major 2011 flood, fed primarily by water released from reservoirs in the north.

The governor listed measures the city is taking to cope with flooding, including preparing water pumps that connect to a large drainage tunnel.

While large dams and reservoirs in the north have so far been able to cope with this years rainfall, others closer to Bangkok have approached or exceeded their capacity this month and have had to discharge water.

The most recent flood warnings follow decisions to increase the discharge of water from the Chao Phraya Dam, 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Bangkok, and the Pasak Jolasid Dam, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital.

Another crisis point is in the northeast, where thousands of people have been displaced by floodwaters.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Wednesday visited Chaiyaphum, another hard-hit northeastern province, where he offered aid packets.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP)  A Kansas City, Kansas, man has been sentenced 15 years in prison for attacking an undercover federal agent during a transaction involving a firearm, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas announced Wednesday.

Nicholas Newman, 20, was sentenced this month after pleading guilty in May to forcible assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon and one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime.
Kelli Sartin looked down and wrote on a piece of paper Tuesday, occasionally looking up as body camera footage from the first police officer on the scene replayed her conversation on Sept. 9, 2019.

The video and other evidence presented at the first day of the 55-year-olds trial are some of the first looks into the now years-long investigation of the alleged murder of her 81-year-old father.

According to testimony, the police officer received a call for a welfare check at Charles Sartins Tremont Street home in Sabine Pass. Kelli Sartin told police that her father was acting like a mad man and had committed suicide by beating himself with a rolling pin and spatula.

I said, What the hell are you doing? Kelli Sartin said on the video played in Judge Raquel Wests 252nd District Courtroom.

Related: Affidavit: Restaurant founder's daughter left his dead body in bedroom for 5 days

Prompted by Prosecutor Phillip Smith during questioning, the officer said the case didnt appear to point to suicide.

Have you ever heard of someone beating themselves to death? Smith asked.

The video showed Kelli Sartin talking to the police officer for several minutes, showing him a rolling pin in a shed outside the home and bringing him where her fathers body laid wrapped in a tarp and bedding on a new mattress.

The officer claimed he could smell the decaying body, which was later determined to have been in the home for five days, while he was still outside.

It was something you never forget, the officer said in court.

Throughout the video, testimony and conversation with the attorneys, the officer said that he could not see the body until Kelli Sartin moved a clothing rack and duct tape that sealed the door to the bedroom. She claimed to the officer to be a clean freak or germaphobe to explain why she had cleaned the house and moved the body before his arrival.

Defending Kelli Sartin, Criminal Law Attorney Thomas Burbank questioned the officers recollection of the events and asked if he knew anything about the family or Charles Sartin.

Charles Sartin had a medical condition that caused him to seek services from Spindletop MHMR, Burbank said.

Port Arthur Police Detective Tomas Barboza also testified Tuesday, supplementing his interview with Kelli Sartin at the police station, which was also played in court.

Barboza, a 12-year veteran with PAPD, did not personally witness the crime scene.

He told the judge and jury that Kelli Sartin did not seem like she was grieving, which made him question her story.

It just didnt make sense at all, Barboza said.

A live stream of the trial had some audio issues. However, at times Kelli Sartin could be heard on the video saying that she is terrified of germs and was in shock. She tells the detective that she got hit trying to take the objects from her father.

Barboza said there were three calls for welfare checks leading up to police discovering his body. One of the calls was from a relative who said she and several other citizens were concerned about Charles Sartin after they were unable to reach his daughter, whose phone was found in his grandsons car.

We have no idea if she is gone or not, the relative could be heard saying on the recording.

An officer stopped by the house, where there was no answer. Later that day, Kelli Sartin called from a convenience store and told the officer that she did not have a phone but her father was O.K.  only a few days before his body was discovered by police.

 Anyways, hes fine, she said on the afternoon of Sept. 5, 2019.

The interview with Kelli Sartin and the detective lasted for about three hours.

By late afternoon, the defense confirmed with Barboza that Kelli Sartin told officers in her interview at the station she and her father had a rocky relationship; he had made threats to kill himself and her; she panicked and felt afraid; and even the detective had mentioned it didnt make sense why she didnt report it sooner.

According to previous reporting from The Enterprise, during a later interview with police, Kelli Sartin admitted to hitting her father with her fist, a spatula and a rolling pin. She was indicted last year and sent to the Jefferson County Jail in lieu of a $1 million bond.

The jail currently has a historic population with more than 1,000 inmates in part as a result of backlogged court cases. In catching up on the backlog, criminal cases are taking priority.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
NEW YORK (AP)  The family of slain traveler Gabby Petito on Tuesday implored the public and news media to put the same energy into helping find other missing people as they did Petito, a 22-year-old woman who vanished on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend.

Petitos parents and stepparents spoke to reporters at a news conference in Bohemia, New York  showing off fresh tattoos based on her designs and mantra Let it be  as authorities in Florida continued searching for her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who is a person of interest in her disappearance and remains unaccounted for.

A lawyer for Petitos family, Richard Stafford, renewed calls for Laundrie to turn himself in and criticized his parents for what he said was a lack of cooperation in the search that turned up Petitos remains. The Laundries released a statement Monday saying they werent helping him flee.

The Laundries did not help us find Gabby, they sure are not going to help us find Brian, Stafford said. For Brian, were asking you to turn yourself in to the FBI or the nearest law enforcement agency.

Petitos body was discovered Sept. 18 in a remote area in northwestern Wyoming. A memorial service was held Sunday on Long Island, where Laundrie and Petito grew up before moving to Florida in recent years. Her family announced it was starting a foundation to support people searching for missing loved ones.

Petitos case has led to renewed calls for people to pay greater attention to cases involving missing Indigenous women and other people of color, with some commentators describing the intense coverage of her disappearance as missing white woman syndrome.

Joseph Petito thanked the news media and social media for spotlighting his daughters disappearance, but he said all missing persons deserved the same attention.

I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help. Its on all of you, everyone thats in this room to do that, he said, pointing to reporters and cameras in front of him. And if you dont do that for other people that are missing, thats a shame, because its not just Gabby that deserves it.

The search for Laundrie is also generating a frenzy, with TV personalities like Duane Chapman  known as Dog the Bounty Hunter  and longtime Americas Most Wanted host John Walsh working to track him down.

Stafford said Petitos family welcomed everybodys help in finding Laundrie and encouraged people with information on his whereabouts to contact the FBI or local police.

Petito was reported missing Sept. 11 by her parents after she didnt respond to calls and texts for several days while she and Laundrie visited parks in the West.

Her death has been ruled a homicide, but authorities in Wyoming havent disclosed how she died pending further autopsy results. Petitos stepfather, Jim Schmidt, said Wyoming authorities still had possession of her remains.

Petito and Laundrie posted online about their trip in a white Ford Transit van converted into a camper. They got into a physical altercation Aug. 12 in Moab, Utah, that led to a police stop, which ended with police deciding to separate the quarreling couple for the night. No charges were filed, and no serious injuries were reported.

Investigators have been searching for Laundrie in Florida, and searched his parents home in North Port, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Sarasota.

Last week, federal officials in Wyoming charged Laundrie with unauthorized use of a debit card, alleging he used a Capital One Bank card and someones personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. They did not say who the card belonged to.

Joseph Petito said the Gabby Petito Foundation is in the formative stages and will seek to fill in any gaps that exist in the work of finding missing people. He said they would work with organizations that helped them, like the AWARE Foundation and We Help The Missing.

We need positive stuff to come from the tragedy that happened, Joseph Petito said. We cant let her name be taken in vain.

___

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
The second inmate in nearly a month has died while in the custody of a federal prison in Beaumont.

Rafael Salas, 40, was found unresponsive shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institutions medium security facility, according to a news release from the U. S. Department of Justices Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Responding staff immediately initiated life-saving measures, the release said. Staff requested emergency medical services (EMS) and life-saving efforts continued.

Salas was taken to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced dead by hospital staff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified, the release said.

No staff or other inmates were injured, and at no time was the public in danger, the release said.

Salas was sentenced in the Western District of Texas to 10 years for conspiracy to possession with intent to distribute and distribution of 1 kilogram or more of heroin. He had been in custody at FCI Beaumont Medium since July 27, the release said.

The medium security facility currently houses 1,473 male offenders, the release said.

This is the second inmate to die in nearly a month at a federal prison in Beaumont.

Michael Fossler, 33, also was found unresponsive late Aug. 9 at the United States Penitentiary  a different high-security facility,in Beaumont  with just one-quarter of his sentence remaining. He too later was later pronounced dead at a local hospital following staff and EMSs life-saving efforts.

Fossler was sentenced in the Western District of Texas to more than 3 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He had been in custody at USP Beaumont for a month in the facility that currently houses 1,359 male offenders, a previous release said.

He already had served 30 of his 41 months, defense attorney Jon Evans recently told The Enterprise.

Related: Federal inmate dies with just one-quarter of sentence remaining

And last week, the Bureau of Prison released new information about a senior federal inmate who died in Beaumont earlier this year

In this case, Armando Ramirez, 71, was serving a sentence at the low security Federal Correctional Institution when he died on Aug. 31. The Enterprise previously reported that Ramirez had tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Dec. 20 and had pre-existing medical issues.

Related: BOP releases information about inmate's death in Beaumont prison

Following the completion of medical isolation and a status change to recovered on Dec. 28, he returned to be evaluated by the prisons medical staff for shortness of breath. He became responsive. After emergency life-saving efforts, he was taken to a local hospital where he later died.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)  A man has confessed to killing three people whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning dumpster in Texas, as well as his roommate and girlfriend, saying he felt compelled to sacrifice them, authorities said Tuesday.

Jason Thornburg, 41, was arrested Monday on a capital murder charge in the deaths of the three people whose bodies were found in the dumpster in Fort Worth on Sept. 22, police said.

Surveillance footage of a vehicle at the site of the burning dumpster led them to Thornburg, an electrician's apprentice. Officers on Monday found him working in nearby Arlington, an arrest warrant said.

During an interview, Thornburg told officers that he had in-depth knowledge of the Bible and believed he was being called to commit sacrifices, according to the arrest warrant.

Forth Worth police said Tuesday that the bodies found in the dumpster belonged to a man and two women. Earlier, police had said they believed one of the bodies was that of a child.

Police have identified the male victim as David Lueras, 42. Police said the medical examiner would release the identifications of the women.

Thornburg, who had been staying in a motel in the Fort Worth suburb of Euless since late July, told officers that about five days before the bodies were discovered, Lueras had showed up at his motel room, the arrest warrant said. Thornburg told officers he cut Lueras' throat and then cut him into pieces in the bathtub, the arrest warrant said.

According to the arrest warrant, about two days later he slit the throat of a woman who showed up at his motel room and two days after that, killed another woman who had come to the motel. He said he tried to stab the second woman but ended up strangling her.

Police said at a news conference that Thornburg only knew the women casually.

Police said that when they identified Thornburg as a suspect in the slayings of the three found in the dumpster, they were already familiar with him from a suspicious death investigation earlier in the year.

According to the arrest warrant, Thornburg's roommate had been killed in a suspicious house fire on May 21. During the police interview on Monday, Thornburg told officers he had slit his roommate's throat then uncapped a natural gas line and lit a candle. At the time, the medical examiner had not been able to determine his roommate's cause of death.

When police asked Thornburg about any other sacrifices, he said he also sacrificed his girlfriend in Arizona, according to the arrest warrant. The arrest warrant said records show she had been reported missing.

Police did not provide additional details on her.

According to the arrest warrant, video surveillance near the dumpster shows an SUV pulling up late on the night of Sept. 21. The person in the vehicle is seen dumping the contents of containers into the dumpster. The person then returns early the following morning and makes more deposits in the dumpster, the arrest warrant said.

Also, according to the arrest affidavit, video surveillance from the motel shows a person wearing what appeared to be a full body suit taking large containers from Thornburgs motel room and placing them in the vehicle.

Police have said firefighters discovered the bodies.

Thornburg was being held in jail on $1 million bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.
Former San Antonio Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro had a lot to say on all things going on in Texas.

Castro joined Vanity Fair's Inside the Hive podcast last week to discuss the hard-right's push on guns, abortion, voting in Texas, the border crisis, and the possible matchup between Beto O'Rourke and Gov. Greg Abbott.

During the podcast host, Joe Hagan brought up Castro's recent epsiode of his podcast, Our America with Julian Castro. The episode was named "WTH is Happening in TX?"  and Hagan asked that question again regarding the many laws recently passed in the Lone Star State, like the conservative anti-abortion law.

"That is a question that is on the mind of a lot of people these days," Castro says. "It seems like Texas is at the center of the domestic news universe for all the wrong reasons."

Castro attributes the Texas laws and headlines to a changing America, where there's minority growth in a state fully in control by Republicans. He said it causes a divide and growing tension about who Texas was, who Texas is, and who Texas is going to be. Those questions drive American politics these days, he said.

The Texas leader talked about the thousands of Haitian migrants fleeing poverty and their quest to the border town of Del Rio as they tried to cross into the United States. He wishes Biden would shape up at the border and make a positive, constructive case for the U.S. immigration policy.

"We need to increase the number of refugees we are taking in," Castro said when Hagan asked about possible solutions. "We need to increase the number of people that are seeking asylum that are actually getting their hearings ... and push back against the narrative that these immigrants are just bad."

Later in the podcast, Hagan asked Castro about O'Rourke possibly running against Abbott for Texas Governor in 2022. Castro said he thinks the former congressman can beat Abbott, explaining how he believes the governor is losing the support of the GOP.

"I think he's very impressive," Castro said. "...I believe that he has a shot to beat Greg Abbott."

Hagan brings up how he's concerned Abbott might act out during the election as a way to trump his competitors. Castro agreed, saying all "Texans are being held hostage" to Abbott putting his politics over everything else, like public health, mask-wearing, and the abortion ban.

"On all of those accounts, we are suffering through a governor who is really governing only for the perceived benefit of a small minority of people who vote in a Republican primary, and that's not the way it should be," Castro said.

You can hear the full epsiode of the podcast below:

Every week, cohosts Emily Jane Fox and Hagan tackle the news with fresh takes on current affairs and feature a conversation with a marquee guest at the center of the action who can help decipher and comprehend the headlines, whether in politics, media or entertainment.
Youve heard this before, but the message bears repeating: A medical threat is out there, but it can be contained by vaccines. Please make sure you head to your doctors office or pharmacy soon to get an injection that could keep you from getting very sick, or in rare cases, even dying. Only this time, were talking about the flu, not COVID-19.

This is not to say that Covid isnt a serious threat too; it is, and its far more deadly than the flu. But the annual flu season is on us once again, and it shouldnt be overlooked in the focus on the pandemic. Experts also warn that this flu season could be worse than normal.

One reason, ironically, is that the United States basically didnt have an influenza season last fall and winter. So many of us were wearing masks and keeping our distance from each other that the flu germs which were out there couldnt spread. But because flu infections were so rare then, more of us are vulnerable now.

Doctors say that flu exposure brings a level of natural immunity that protects a person the next time he or she is exposed to it. Since most of us didnt get the flu last year, our immune defenses might not be as strong this year, especially for an illness that can vary in intensity every year.

Experts expect the flu to noticed in this part of Texas in November. Even though thats more than a month away, doctors also say its time to start getting flu shots now. The flu could arrive early, and it could be more severe than expected. The best way to be prepared for either scenario is to get a flu shot now. And while Covid vaccines are restricted now to people over age 12, flu vaccines are OK for everyone over six months of age.

Most hospitals are struggling to deal with a fourth wave of COVID-19 that has left doctors and nurses frazzled. The last thing they need is a surge of flu cases soon  the dreaded twindemic  and you dont want to be part of that either. That fever and body ache is no fun. Worldwide, influenza viruses kill an average of half a million people every year. Unfortunately, flu vaccines are just as underutilized as Covid vaccines. Only about a third of Texas adults got a flu shot during the 2019 season, and only about 60% of school age children, the group that spreads flu the most.

The good news in all of this is that you can get a vaccine for flu and Covid the same day, one right after the other. If you havent been protected against COVID-19, please do so as soon as possible. But all of us need a flu shot this year, so all of us should get it.
Texas' new social media censorship law is supposed to target social media giants. But a California law professor says the new bill has an inadvertent consequence: more spam emails.

House Bill 20, which passed on Sept. 9, prohibits email service providers from "impeding the transmission of email messages based on content." Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University of Law whose research and teaching focuses on internet, IP and advertising law topics, says this restricts efforts to control email spam.

"The bill says you cannot 'impede' email based on its content, which is what every spam filter does, unless the email service provides a process for the spammer to contest the blocking," Goldman explains. "The nuance is email services aren't in the business of hearing billions of complaints from spammers saying 'you didn't have the right to block me.' Email services can't do that. It's not a scalable option for them."

Goldman says he believes the goal of the bill was to make sure solicitation emails from former president Donald Trump's campaign did not end up in spam folders. The California law professor has been openly critical of the bill, sounding the alarm in his Technology and Marketing Law Blog, in which he calls the new law "purely performative."

"Politicians say X got treated more favorably than Y, so that must prove bias," Goldman says. "Many of us know better than that. The concerns under the law about this anti-conservative bias are not provable. They're not scientifically defensible. The entire bill is built on an artifice."

Since its passage, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have sued Texas over the law, according to Jessica Guynn of USA Today. Gov. Greg Abbott recently released a Washington Post op-ed defending the law, saying its need "has been apparent for years."

"Our country's public square has become increasingly controlled by a few powerful companies that have proved to be flawed arbiters of constructive dialogue," Abbott wrote. "Twitter, Facebook and other massive platforms aren't just any private companies. They are our modern-day public square, and effectively control the channels we use for discourse."

Goldman argues the law is unconstitutional and says while it postures as a supposed fix to de-bias social media services, it is actually a form of censorship in and of itself.

"The principle justification for other parts of the law is that internet services are allegedly biased against conservatives, which is the main reason why the bill is ultimately censorial," he says. "If an internet service wants to be biased against conservatives, the Constitution allows them to do that."

A recent analysis, however, claims social media platforms aren't likely to show bias. Published in September by researchers Wen Chen, Diogo Pacheco, Kai-Cheng Yang and Filippo Menczer, a study titled "Neutral bots probe political bias on social media" found no evidence of bias by Twitter and instead found that political bias comes from individual users.

"Our main finding  that the information Twitter users see in their news feed depends strongly on the political leaning of their early connections  has important societal implications," the study team writes. "The absence of strong or consistent evidence of political bias in the Twitter news feed could help inform the public debate about social media platform regulation, and claims that platforms censor political speech."

A similar social media censorship law introduced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in January was quickly struck down in federal court, and Goldman anticipates the same fate for Texas' new legislation, adding the law was not designed to survive judiciary scrutiny.

"Bills like this are not designed to make good law," he said. "They are designed to send a message to those who want to tear down the fabric of our country that the legislature is working on it."
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 vessel Haiyang Dizhi 10 has left Indonesias exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after almost a month, ship-tracking data shows.

The 3,400-ton survey ship, tailed by a Chinese coastguard vessel, is moving northeast out of the North Natuna Sea, where it has been since the end of August, according to data from MarineTraffic on Wednesday.

It is unclear where the vessel is heading, but it may stop at Fiery Cross Reef, where China operates a large outpost, for rest and resupply.

Experts say it could yet head back toward Tuna Block, the oil field where U.K.-based Harbour Energy and its partner, Russias Zarubezhneft, are drilling two appraisal wells. The Chinese ship spent the last month surveying around the area.

The submersible rig Noble Clyde Boudreaux, commissioned by Harbour Energy, had just completed the first appraisal well despite Chinese meddling, the industry web portal Energy Voice reported Monday. It added that the drilling of the second well was planned to finish in early November.

Meanwhile, marine traffic data show that another Chinese survey ship, Da Yang Hao, is now operating in an area that runs through the EEZs of three countries: Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. None of the countries has made any public comment about the Da Yang Hao yet.

Malaysia, however, keeps tracking and shadowing Chinese vessels which are spotted in the Malaysian waters, said Thomas Daniel, senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Malaysia has always preferred quiet diplomacy in dealing with China in the South China Sea. There have been exceptions to this, but they are few and far between, Daniel said.

My understanding is that Malaysia is often very forthright about its concerns and positions with China on these matters. But it is unlikely that policymakers or officials will speak of this openly as drawing public attention might be seen as potentially counterproductive in the long run, he added.

The same approach may be adopted by the Indonesian authorities who have not said much about the Haiyang Dizhi 10, despite public pressure. Countries in the region seem reluctant to challenge China openly, mainly due to their economic reliance on the Chinese market but also to their limited maritime capabilities.

Earlier this week, the Indonesian government announced a budget proposal for 2022 in which 12.2 trillion rupiah, or $853 million, would be allocated to develop the security infrastructure in the Natuna Sea.

Indonesian media report that the budget will be used to build up defense infrastructure on strategic islands and procure maritime security equipment including unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

The budget would be divided equally between the Indonesian Navy and the Maritime Security Force, which is known as Bakamla.

The government said 41 percent of the budget was used to meet the weapon system needs of the navy in Natuna and 44 percent was used to fulfill Bakamla's marine security equipment needs.

China has been accused of harassing its neighbors fishing and oil and gas activities in the South China Sea, where its sweeping claims overlap with the claims and EEZs of other nations. Beijing asserts that these are lawful operations in waters under its jurisdiction.
An old poster is seen of suspected Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen militants wanted by the authorities; Ali Kalora is pictured top left.

Indonesian security forces on Saturday said they shot dead a man believed to be an Islamic State-linked militant groups leader, reducing the outfit to four people.

Two bodies, believed to be of Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) leader Ali Kalora and one of his followers, are yet to be recovered from the jungles of the mountainous Parigi Moutong regency in Central Sulawesi province, said Brig. Gen. Farid Makruf.

There was an exchange of gunfire and two terrorists were killed, Farid, the deputy chief of an operation to hunt down MIT suspects, told BenarNews.

[They] are suspected to be Ali and Jaka, he said, referring to the other militant suspect Jaka Ramadan.

The operation to hunt MIT suspects, codenamed Madago Raya, conducts regular patrols in Parigi Moutong and surrounding areas.

Still, the militant outfit in the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country has been a thorn in the side of security forces despite its reduced numbers from a high of 40 in its early years. MIT has survived in the mountains and jungles of the province of Central Sulawesi, terrain the group knows well.

The provinces Poso regency  that abuts Parigi Moutong  has long been a hotbed of MIT activity, and is an area that security forces find difficult to penetrate, Inspector Gen. Imam Sugianto, the national police deputy for operations, told BenarNews late last year.

MITs insurgency in the countrys Sulawesi region has its roots in a bloody Muslim-Christian conflict at the turn of the century, which left more than 1,000 people dead between 1998 and 2001.

The outfit pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014. MITs now-dead founder Santoso was the first Indonesian militant to pledge allegiance to IS publicly.

MIT has claimed responsibility for killing many police officers and minority Christians. In May, members of the group killed four farmers in Central Sulawesi. And in November last year, they killed four villagers living in a Christian community in Sigi regency near Poso.

The group is one of two pro-Islamic State groups operating in Indonesia. The other is Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which authorities have blamed for terror attacks in the archipelago nation during the past five years.

In May, police said MIT had split into two groups in an attempt to elude authorities, with one group led by Kalora, active in Sigi regency, and the other under the leadership of Muhammad Busra, or Qatar, operating in Poso.

Qatar was killed in a security raid in Central Sulawesi province in July, and with Kaloras supposed death, MIT appears to be on its last legs.

Earlier this year, Farid said Ali and his followers wanted to turn themselves in to the authorities but feared reprisals after the faction led by Qatar threatened to kill their families.

Farid said intelligence suggested that Ali and Qatar had been at odds since the death of Santoso, who was killed by security forces in 2016.

Kalora had eluded capture for more than a decade, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing Madago Raya deputy chief Farid.

Ali Kalora was the most wanted terrorist and leader of MIT, Farid said.
Indonesian environmental activists rally outside the Central Jakarta District Court where judges ruled the government must take strict action to improve air quality in the capital city, Sept. 16, 2021.

An Indonesian court on Thursday found President Joko Jokowi Widodo and other senior government officials negligent of ensuring clean air for residents of the polluted capital Jakarta.

The judges ruled in favor of citizens and activists who had filed a civil lawsuit in 2019, and ordered seven co-defendants to take strict action to reduce air pollution in Jakarta, where particulate matter concentration is higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

The court declares the defendants have committed legal violations, said Saifuddin Zuhri, head of the three-judge panel at Central Jakarta District Court, referring to a 2009 environmental law.

The legislation states, among other things, that the government is responsible for controlling environmental pollution.

The lawsuit was filed by 32 Jakarta residents after thick smog blanketed Jakarta for days in 2019. Activists had said the growing number of motor vehicles and coal-fired power plants around the capital caused the pollution.

The court ordered Jokowi to set national ambient air quality standards to protect citizens based on the latest scientific data and technology.

The court ordered Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan to carry out an inventory of sources of air pollution by working with co-defendants West Java province Gov. Ridwan Kamil and Banten province Gov. Wahidin Halim.

[C]onduct periodic emission tests on old vehicles, among other measures, the judge ruled.

The governors must also ensure that the public and businesses comply with environmental regulations and punish offenders, the judge said.

In a Twitter post, Anies said he was ready to carry out the courts decision for better air quality in Jakarta.

Jokowi was studying the verdict and awaiting a review from the Environment and Forestry Ministry, said Faldo Maldini, a spokesman for the State Secretariat.

After that, we will discuss various recommendations to determine the next steps, Faldo told BenarNews. This is a legal case and of course legal arguments need to be prepared.

The WHOs outdoor air pollution guideline stipulates that annual average exposure of PM 2.5  the concentration of microscopic particulate matter that could get deep into the bloodstream and lungs, causing deadly diseases  should not exceed 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

When the lawsuit was filed in 2019, Jakartas PM 2.5 readings were in the unhealthy bracket. On some days that year, the city of 10.5 million people suffered from the worlds worst air quality, according to AirVisual, a monitoring app.

Smog envelops Jakarta in this aerial photo, June 13, 2021. [AFP]

A victory for all citizens

Plaintiff Khalisah Khalid, an activist with environmental group Walhi, said she was relieved by the verdict.

The judges had delayed announcing the verdict several times since May, citing COVID-19 outbreaks and the need to scrutinize documents.

The panel of judges have proven that citizens can rely on the courts to get justice, Khalisah said in a statement.

Plaintiffs lawyer Ayu Eza Tiara called the verdict timely and urged the officials to take immediate action to improve air quality.

The defendants can choose to make efforts to improve air quality instead of wasting time and appealing the verdict, she told reporters.

We need to reiterate that the advocacy team is very open to participating in improving air quality in Jakarta, as well as (neighboring) Banten and West Java (provinces), she said.

PM2.5 concentration in Jakarta is four to five times above WHO guidelines, according to Vital Strategies, a global health group that has conducted a study on air pollution in Jakarta.

Emissions from motorized vehicles and at least eight coal-fired power plants in and around Jakarta are the main sources of air pollution in the capital, it said. Additionally, open burning, construction, road dust, and re-suspended soil particles also dirty Jakartas air.

Particulate pollution will likely slash 5.5 years in Jakarta residents life expectancy, said a recent report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.

Following the ruling, Bondan Andriyanu, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, called on the public to monitor the implementation of the courts orders.

This was a citizens lawsuit, so it is necessary to monitor together, because the most important thing about todays verdict is how it is implemented, he told BenarNews.

Walhi executive director Nur Hidayati called the ruling a victory for all citizens, not just Jakarta residents.

We hope this can set a precedent, a good example for other cities throughout Indonesia. People can still put their hope in the justice system, Nur told BenarNews.

He hoped the government would review existing coal-fueled power plants.

[T]hose that are under construction and in the planning stage should be canceled, because otherwise air pollution will continue to deteriorate, Nur said.
An Indonesian official checks the body temperature of a Vietnamese fisherman after Indonesian authorities arrested five foreign boats for illegal fishing, in Batam, March 4, 2020.

Indonesia this week repatriated 200 Vietnamese fishermen who languished at immigration detention centers for months amid the coronavirus pandemic after local authorities confiscated their boats on suspicion of poaching in Indonesian waters, officials said Wednesday.

Another 216 fishermen from Vietnam will be sent home in October, according to a senior official at Indonesias Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

The first batch of 200 was flown home when Hanoi sent a chartered plane to pick them up from Batam Island, where they were staying, said Adin Nurawaludin, director general of marine and fisheries resources monitoring at the ministry.

As many as 200 people have been repatriated via Hang Nadim Airport, Batam on Monday on a Bamboo Airways  flight to Quang Ninh, Vietnam, Adin told reporters in Jakarta.

The plane was specially prepared by the Vietnamese government to take them home.

Since the start of the pandemic, at least 500 Vietnamese fishermen have been stranded in Indonesia, some having languished for more than a year in shelters and detention centers run by the fisheries ministry and immigration authorities across the archipelago.

Indonesian officials had said earlier that pandemic-induced lockdowns had prevented the fishermen from being sent home more quickly, and that the Vietnamese government had made no attempt to arrange a repatriation flight.

The reason they were only sent home yesterday is that during the pandemic, flights are scarce and countries are on lockdown, Didik Agus, a spokesman for the fisheries ministry, told BenarNews.

We took the initiative to raise this issue diplomatically and Vietnam responded by carrying out this repatriation.

Officials at the Vietnamese embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Wednesday.

Ticket cost

Meanwhile, around 30 fishermen are still stranded at a detention center in Tanjung Pinang in Riau Islands province, due to lack of available seats on this weeks flight, or not having enough money to buy a ticket home, which costs around VND30 million (U.S. $1,320), according to Radio Free Asia (RFA), a BenarNews sister agency.

Danh Chien, 45, who has been detained in Tanjung Pinang since March 2020, said he could not buy a ticket on the recent flights home because his father in Vietnam could not manage to earn or borrow enough money to repatriate him.

I am very sad and upset, and I am asking for help to find a way to return to Vietnam. Life is so miserable here, as I dont have money to buy food and lack everything, he told the Vietnamese Service of RFA.

Fellow inmates who have money do give me food . I am very grateful for that. I dont receive any money from home.

Vietnamese fishermen stranded in Indonesia had earlier complained about poor living conditions in detention centers, including not getting enough food or being given bad food.

Indonesias government dismissed the complaints.

We feed them and there are quite a lot of them. No one is hungry. They can eat three to four times a day, Pung Nugroho Saksono, a director at the fisheries ministry, told BenarNews in May.

In December 2020, detainees at Tanjung Pinang sent videos of themselves to RFA to highlight their poor living conditions.

An inmate, who asked to be identified as Mr. Bien, told RFA in May that the Vietnamese officials had visited the detention center before the lunar New Year in early February 2021, to collect information after the videos had been published.

In May, Vietnamese fishermen were also being held at facilities in Pangkal Pinang, off the east coast of Sumatra; in Pontianak, West Kalimantan; and in the Natuna Islands, according to Nugroho Aji, director of enforcement at the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

This year, Indonesia has seized 48 foreign boats suspected of engaging in illegal fishing  25 from Vietnam, 17 from Malaysia, and six from the Philippines, according to the fisheries ministry.

Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Indonesian government continued to communicate with the Vietnamese authorities so that more Vietnamese could be repatriated.

There are still plans for more repatriation in the future, he told BenarNews.

Mohammad Abdi Suhufan, the coordinator of Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia, an NGO, welcomed the repatriation of the Vietnamese fishermen.

They should have been sent home a long time ago, but it seems like Vietnam neglected them, and this has created a burden for Indonesia, he told BenarNews.

The Vietnamese Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA) contributed to this report.
Upper House Speaker Rais Yatim (third from right) witnesses the signing a cooperation pact between Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (far right) and opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition leader Anwar Ibrahim (second from left) at the parliament building in Kuala Lumpur, Sept.13, 2021.

Malaysias government on Monday signed a historic cooperation agreement with the main opposition bloc that is expected to ensure the stability of the administration, the third one in 18 months of political tumult.

The pact, which was signed on day one of this years first regular parliament session, says the parliament will not be dissolved before August 2022, which suggests Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who has a slim majority in parliament, will stay in power at least until then.

The federal government and Pakatan Harapan today made history in the country by sealing the Memorandum of Transformation and Political Stability, the PM said, referring to the main opposition coalition headed by veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim.

This powerful and solid bipartisan cooperation is in the spirit of the Malaysian Family.

Details of the pact are to be released on Tuesday, according to the Prime Ministers Office, but Ismail Sabri said the pact covers six areas, including COVID-19 recovery plan, administrative transformation, parliamentary reform and judicial independence

Opposition MP Fahmi Fadzil tweeted that the government and the opposition agreed that parliament will not be dissolved before 31.7.2022.

That means political stability is assured for at least 300 days. Malaysia is scheduled to go to the polls in 2023, but Ismail Sabris predecessor, Muhyiddin Yassin, had promised general elections as soon as the pandemic subsided.

The pact is a result of a series of negotiations between lawmakers from both sides, which culminated in a joint statement issued on Sunday announcing the agreement.

King Al-Sultan Abdullah Riayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah, who opened the parliamentary session, lauded the efforts toward cooperation as mature.

The agreement could also pave the way for significant political reforms, which Ismail Sabri promised on Friday in a bid to get the oppositions support.

The reforms he had proposed included laws to prevent members of parliament from switching parties and to limit the PMs term to 10 years. Local news outlet Malaysiakini said it saw a copy and noted these two reforms were included in the agreement.

Malaysiakini also said the pact states the Anwar-led Pakatan coalition would support or abstain from the budget vote if it and related bills were negotiated by both sides prior to being presented.

Fahmi, the information chief of Anwars Peoples Justice Party, one of the parties that signed the agreement, said the Pakatan coalition would continue to function as the opposition.

Pakatan Harapan will not be part of government nor involved directly in policymaking, he said in a series of tweets.

We remain His Majestys loyal opposition in parliament, to provide checks and balances on the government to make sure they remain accountable to the people.

Ismail Sabri is not a reformer

Political analyst James Chin, a professor at Tasmania University, said he is skeptical that the agreement would result in a big change in Malaysian politics.

The agreement is a good thing, but it is not going to change politics permanently, Chin told BenarNews.

He said Ismail Sabri was only trying to appease the king who had called for political stability.

As I have said many times, Ismail Sabri is not a reformer. This only happened because of pressure from the palace, COVID-19, the ensuing economic crisis and the people growing sick of politics. Specific circumstances, Chin said.

The king named Ismail Sabri PM last month after former leader Muhyiddin resigned because members of the largest party in his ruling coalition pulled support.

Muhyiddin had been named PM by the king after the elected government of veteran politician Mahathir Mohamad collapsed in February 2020 because of infighting following a historic victory in 2018.

Muhyiddins coalition government  which included the United Malays National Organization  was beset by infighting throughout its 17-month tenure. Since UMNOs Ismail Sabri was sworn in Aug. 22, parties in his coalition  which now includes Muhyiddins Bersatu party  have also traded barbs.

Ismail Sabri, like his predecessor, has a narrow majority in parliament, with 114 of 220 lawmakers supporting him. If just four MPs pulled their backing, he would lose majority support.

Political analyst Wong Chin Huat said he sees a hung parliament after the next election.

This agreement gives major parties a chance to learn how to coexist with each other and compete professionally, said Wong of the Jeffrey Sachs Center for Sustainable Development.

He said that if this arrangement works and multi-partisanship is internalized, Malaysians need not worry about their lawmakers party-hopping, or frequent changes of prime ministers in the future.

While the deal revealed this evening might not meet all our expectations, all parties involved, including the public, should push for its upgrade in the months to come, Wong told BenarNews.

Lets give peace a chance, even if it is not perfect.
A woman holds a photograph of Angelito Soriano, 16, who was killed in a police operation in December 2016, during a protest rally in Quezon City, Philippines, July 26, 2021.

Philippine prosecutors have asked a court to file arrest warrants on murder charges against seven police officers suspected of killing six people last year during a fabricated operation that used President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs as cover, officials said.

The Philippine Department of Justice said it charged the seven police officers, who were relieved of duty in June, with six counts of murder and six counts of arbitrary detention last week over the killings that followed a raid in Bulacan province north of Manila in early 2020.

The filing of the charges arose from three fabricated buy-bust operations conducted by the said police officers  against the victims, but in truth and in fact, no buy-bust operation was ever conducted against them, the DOJ said in a statement on Tuesday.

During buy-bust operations, undercover officers will buy drugs from suspects and then arrest them.

The DOJ panel resolved that the unsuspecting victims were taken because they happened to pass by the area where a buy-bust operation took place, it said, identifying the six as Chamberlain Domingo, Chadwin Santos, Edmar Aspirin, Richard Salgado, Erwin Mergal and Jim Joshua Cordero.

A human rights advocacy group described the announcement by the justice department as a premature and self-serving move by the Duterte administration to spin the news of the murder charges against the seven ex-officers as the Philippine government faces the prospect of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into its war on illegal drugs.

In their statement, justice officials alleged that the police officers unlawfully and forcibly arrested the six victims who were passing by a drug suspects house in Bulacan as police conducted a sting operation on Feb. 13, 2020.

DOJ investigators alleged that the victims were blindfolded and tied while being held inside a police station, but they were later taken to different places and killed. The officers had claimed that the six were drug suspects killed after resisting arrest, justice officials said.

The officers allegedly fabricated evidence to make it appear that anti-drug operations occurred on Feb. 14, 15 and 18, 2020, the department said.

Further discussions and evaluation took place when the draft of the resolution from the panel was submitted to the task force head in November 2020. The final resolution was then forwarded to the Prosecutor General in the first week of August, said Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar, spokeswoman for the justice department.

The seven implicated cops were identified as Staff Sgt. Benjie Enconado, Staff Sgt. Irwin Joy Yuson, Cpl. Marlon Martus, Cpl. Edmund Catubay Jr., Cpl. Harvy Albino, Cpl. Herbert Hernandez, and patrolman Rusco Virnar Madla.

Police examine the body of an alleged drug dealer who was found dead near Central Post Office in Manila, June 27, 2017. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]

A Philippines-based researcher for Human Rights Watch reacted to the announcement with pessimism.

For every good news like this, thousands of other cases of extrajudicial killings are uninvestigated or languishing in the Philippines broken justice system, Carlos Conde said via Twitter.

This spin betrays the governments cynical attempt to mislead the international community, he said.

Opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, who has been in jail since February 2017 for what she claims are trumped up drug-related charges, said the case shows how errant police have abused many in the name of Dutertes drug war.

She said victims families support the ICCs potential move to investigate Duterte.

This is a step closer to achieving the justice that they deserve, she said in a Senate press release on Tuesday. This also brings hope to all the families of the victims of Dutertes drug war, that the ICC is working and that it is their best hope for justice.

The filing of charges against the seven officers came after Fatou Bensouda, the then-top prosecutor of The Hague-based ICC, announced in June that she was seeking an investigation into allegations that crimes against humanity took place under Dutertes drug war. Bensoudas term as prosecutor ended the next day.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra defended Duterte.

Even though hes waging this campaign against illegal drugs and many have died because of this campaign, it doesnt really mean that hes disrespecting human rights, Guevarra told reporters.

As a matter of fact, this review panel that was constituted and headed by the Department of Justice is doing a lot to ensure that those who must be held accountable for deaths arising from illegal drug operations are brought before the bar of justice, Guevarra said.

One of the three Philippine officers convicted of killing Kian Lloyd delos Santos, 17, is escorted by police outside the Regional Trial Court in suburban Caloocan City, Nov. 29, 2018. [Karl Romano/BenarNews]

Duterte has repeatedly called on police to shoot and kill drug suspects if the officers lives were in danger or if the drug suspects put up a fight.

Rights groups and observers have said this has emboldened officers into carrying out operations with brutality and abuse of power.

In November 2018, three police officers were convicted of murder for killing Kian Loyd delos Santos, 17, in August 2017. Closed-circuit TV footage showed the boy as he was being taken away by the officers before being shot and killed near a pigsty, contrary to the officers claim that he pulled a gun.

Since Duterte took power, at least 8,000 suspected dealers and addicts have died in police operations, according to government figures. Rights groups claim that the number could be thousands more when including extrajudicial killings blamed on vigilantes linked to the government.

Jeoffrey Maitem contributed to this report from Cotabato City, Philippines.
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.
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Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
The operator of Martin's Mini Mart at Main Street and Washington Avenue in Bennington would like to purchase his corner of the Putnam Block site and promises to make a significant investment in the property. The building is currently slated for removal to make way for a new building.
Health care workers who were once saluted for saving lives in the COVID-19 outbreak are now being issued panic buttons and ditching their scrubs before going out in public to avoid harassment
Massachusetts state troopers, left, stand near a pink sailboat with the words "climate emergency" on the hull, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, on a street outside Gov. Charlie Baker's house, in Swampscott, Mass. A half dozen environmental activists, who chained themselves to the boat, as well as another person who was on top of the boat, were arrested, according to an emailed statement from state police spokesperson David Procopio.
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Wild Oats Market and Berkshire Food Co-op are teaming up for Better Breakfast Month to promote the benefits of the breakfast items they sell: Organic and GMO-free produce, dairy, poultry, pork and beef directly from neighboring farms, as well as their own house-made bakery options.

Wild Oats, in Williamstown, and Berkshire Food Co-op, in Great Barrington, are about 42 miles apart and are sister co-ops, which means they are owned by their customers/community. And they share the same vision, dedication and passion for locally sourced, healthy, organic, sustainable foods curated within 100 miles.

No matter what it is, eating food from local farms and producers is all-around the best option  for the Earth, the local economy, the people who work hard to supply that food and your stomach, said Devorah Sawyer, Berkshire Food Co-op marketing manager.

Supporting small, local businesses is an integral part of the co-op model, along with giving our customers fresher, healthier and more sustainable options than they can find elsewhere, Wild Oats Marketing & Owner Relations Manager Director Scott Menihinick said in agreement with Sawyer.

Building these close relationships with local farmers and producers is a great way to accomplish this and it also allows us to know much more about how the food we sell is grown, crafted and even packaged, Menihinick said. Its a big win for everyone because it continues to invest so much right here in our community.

And September is the perfect time to promote the locally sourced better breakfast options  as children head back to school and parents look to create or maintain healthy breakfast habits.

Bee-ing healthy: From local hive to jars

This also happens to be the perfect time to sample the wildflower honey made at Rulison Honey Farms in Amsterdam, N.Y. on your favorite breakfast items, said beekeeper Matt Ruilson. Some of their products  which include eight honey varieties  are sold at both co-ops.

He admits that even though they may be a little partial, they believe the honey that comes from this part of the country is not only the best-tasting available, but it also has health benefits because it contains nectar and pollen from local floral sources. That can be beneficial to avoiding and alleviating allergies for those that suffer from them.

The significance of local honey can not be undervalued, Rulison said. Beyond that, the best honey is the one that you are able to use and incorporate into your meal routine with ease.

Rulison Honey Farms offers both liquid and spreadable products that are raw and local. Spreadable products tend to stay put better than liquid honey and work well on toast, English muffins and even as a partial sugar substitute. (But liquid honey works better in hot tea.)

The late summer and early autumn are major wildflower honey production months when there is an abundance of goldenrod, aster, and purple knapweed. The honey produced from these plants is darker and bolder in color and flavor and thus becomes the farms Wildflower Honey. The invasive species, Japanese knotweed, is an especially abundant late-season source of nectar for the bees, and it produces dark and flavorful, yet mildly delightful, honey, Ruilson said.

First, because honey produced locally is much more likely to be a real and natural product without any adulteration, he said. It is very difficult to ensure that honey from out of the area is 100% pure, especially those products that come from outside of the U.S.

Customers should understand that our products are raw and local, produced on a family farm by a handful of dedicated people who are concerned with the integrity of our product, he said. Our staff works together from start to finish to manage our bees, extract the honey produced, and pack it in a convenient form for the consumer.

This whole process takes place in-house as we like to say, straight from the hive, to the honey jar. We appreciate what the co-ops do for us, we have a great relationship with great people within these businesses who work hard to source and promote great local products, including ours.

Yogurt and oatmeal are popular breakfast choices. But have you tried stirring a scoop of locally sourced honeycomb into the breakfast treats? Thats just one way to enjoy it, Ruilson said. For more information on Rulison Honey Farms, go to www.rulisonhoney.farm or call (518) 843-1619.

From farm and coop to Co-op

When Narayani Mahesh Iyer of Williamstown plans breakfast for her family, she always heads straight to the dairy aisle at Wild Oats. Thats where she knows she will find a nice selection of local, organic and rich creamy yogurts and other dairy products from farms like the certified organic cow milk yogurt made at Berle Farm in Hoosick, N.Y. The yogurt is sold at both co-ops.

We like the cows milk yogurt, Iyer said recently as her 2-year-old daughter, Mahalakshmi, pushed a child-sized cart around the produce department. As if to differ, Mahalakshmi grabbed an apple from a bin containing Scott Farm apples in Dummerston, VT., and proclaimed apple! before gently placing the fruit in her basket and moving on to the next bin of produce.

Berkshire Food Co-op and Wild Oats Market offer more than 1,000 locally made products.

The co-ops dedication means a lot to farmers like Beatrice Berle of Berle Farm, which also produces cheese, organic whole milk and grass-fed beef from certified organic cows. She recommends Berle Farm Cows Milk yogurt as an option for a better breakfast. The jars are returnable and sent back to Berle Farm, where they are washed and sanitized with solar-boiled hot water and refilled. Theres also their Berleberg cheese, a certified organic cheese, that has a buttery taste when heated and goes great in breakfast omelets.

Buying local dairy products contributes to global health, Berle said. We are happy for the help and glad to be part of a growing and responsible food community. We would like to applaud the fact that it is working and thank our customers. They are creating a quality based food hub by the shopping choices they make and we are helping them have a better breakfast.

For more information on Berle Farm go to www.BerleFarm.com or email BerleFarm@gmail.com.

Farmers Michael Gallagher and wife, Ashley Amsden, own Square Roots Farm in Lanesborough, where they produce pasture-raised pork and poultry. Square Roots eggs are sold at both Wild Oats Market and Berkshire Food Co-op.

Their eggs make a better breakfast option in part because they simply taste better, Gallagher said. People are able to know where their food comes from and how their animals are treated. There are also plenty of nutritional benefits from eating pasture-raised eggs and meats, including more omega-3s.

Gallagher said its important for people to understand what they mean when they say their animals are raised on pasture.

Pasture means green, growing grass and legumes, and the only way we can achieve that is through movement, he said. We move our meat chickens every day to fresh grass, and our laying hens two to three times a week. Any chicken in stationary housing will destroy whatever pasture it has access to, so terms like free-range and free-running dont mean what you think. And since pasture-raised isnt a regulated term, the only way to really know what kind of life your chickens have is to know your farmer.

He has a tip for a better breakfast using Square Root eggs: Stir an egg into your pot of oatmeal when its almost done. He said its a wonderful way to improve breakfast as mornings begin to get cooler. For more information on Square Roots, go to www.squarerootsfarm.com

But if youre looking for a different, more savory way to cook your eggs, Schuyler Gail, who is farmer/co-owner of Climbing Tree Farm in New Lebanon, N.Y., says to keep your drippings because the best fried eggs are cooked in pork fat.

Gail should know. She raises heritage breed, milk-fed pigs, which she said is better for you.

The animals grown on small farms like ours live high-quality lives, and produce healthier, better-tasting meat, Gail said. Supporting local farms helps keep land in agricultural use, provides jobs in rural communities, and can increase the health of the land.

Our heritage breed pigs are raised on pasture and woodland, with constant access to sunshine and forage year round. They are also fed locally grown, non-GMO grain and locally produced milk. Were a small family farm, just a couple with two kids. Our pigs have been featured in some of the top restaurants in the world, but providing high quality ingredients to our local community is a priority for us. For more information go to climbingtree.com or email info@climbingtree.com.

More Co-op breakfast options

If youre a coffee drinker, both co-ops offer multiple locally roasted coffee options like Tunnel City Coffee in North Adams. The espresso blend, Number 50, is inspired by the role of the Hoosac Tunnel train in creating small business opportunities in the late 1800s, according to the website. The coffee roaster is located in the renovated and historic Norad Mill of North Adams. For more information, go to tunnelcitycoffee.com or call 413-398-5244.

So, you dont eat dairy, you dont eat meat and gluten is not your friend. Both Wild Oats and Berkshire Food Co-op offer locally sourced vegan and gluten-free options.

In addition to the house-made bakery items that are vegan and gluten-free, both co-ops sell the widely popular BOLA Granola  which is made in a factory at the foot of Monument Mountain in Great Barrington. The stores also sell items from Gluten Free Bakery in Chatham, N.Y.

Healthy breakfast tips for parents Scrambled Eggs: Serve with turkey bacon, fruit and whole-grain toast. Consider incorporating

All of our granolas rely on oats, almonds and pumpkin seeds for hearty, high protein nutrition and fresh, nutty flavor, said Michelle Miller, owner/founder of BOLA Granola. Each serving of BOLA Granola is packed with these three ingredients supported by other organic grains, a little sweet, a little salt and excellent vanilla. Nothing else. We mix it all together and toast it to a perfect crunch 36 pounds at a time.

Contributing editor: Erik Deckers
PITTSFIELD  CT Management Group officials say that the benefits of a newly approved 10-year tax deal with the city on the Firehouse Lofts will go straight back to future tenants.

One hundred percent of the tax savings will be used to lower the rents into a feasible range for Tyler Street, said Dave Carver, a CT Management Group managing partner. Dollar for dollar.

The City Council recently approved a 10-year tax increment exemption for the former Morningside firehouse at 231 Tyler St. Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi and Ward 4 Councilor Chris Connell voted against the deal, which is anticipated to save the developer about $55,000 over the life of the deal. The vote was 7-2.

The tax exemption allows the developer to continue paying at the current tax rate  about $4,600  for the first two years of ownership as it redevelops the building. Community Development Director Deanna Ruffer told the council this marks the first time the city has collected taxes on the property.

Morandi challenged the idea that the four two-bedroom apartments CT Management plans to construct in the building and rent at $1,795 a month and $1,895 a month will be easy to fill.

Pittsfield committee backs $100,000 boost to convert Morningside Firehouse into apartments PITTSFIELD  A proposal to redevelop the former Morningside Firehouse into four market-rate apartments advanced toward receiving a $100,000 bo

I think its going to be challenging to find tenants that can afford these rents, Morandi said. We need all kinds of housing, not just market-rate.

The apartments would sit in the heart of the Morningside neighborhood. In 2019, the average household income in that portion of the neighborhood was $49,107, according to the American Community Survey.

An affordable rent  that is, no more than 30 percent of the household income  for the average household in that neighborhood would be about $1,350 a month.

Carver told councilors at a Community and Economic Development subcommittee meeting last week that the cost of the units without the tax deal likely would have been about $2,035 and $2,135.

These are not cheap projects for what has to go into them, Councilor-At-Large Peter White said Tuesday night. That is why they have to demand higher rents.

The project is estimated to cost about $1.25 million. This year, CT Management Group received a $100,000 Community Preservation Act grant to cover a portion of the costs.

Ruffer said the building, which dates to 1906, is so dilapidated that its almost inappropriate to call it a building at this point.

Its more appropriate to call it four walls with a caved-in roof, mold and a deteriorated interior that cannot be salvaged, Ruffer said.

CT Management reportedly already has begun work to shore up a leaky roof, but Carver said during the subcommittee meeting that there is no hope for salvaging a back portion of the building. A small back section will be demolished to make way for parking for future tenants at the back of the property.

City officials say that the tax incentive is part what they consider the last chance to sell the former firehouse. The city has been trying to attract a buyer for the property since 2013.

Ruffer previously has said that if the historic structure hadnt been sold to CT Management, the city was preparing to demolish it.
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.
NORTH ADAMS  Nearly $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds has flowed into city coffers.

Mayor Tom Bernard is eyeing putting it toward infrastructure projects and an economic recovery fund, he told the City Council on Tuesday.

The story so far: The city has received $1.9 million, which is half the total ARPA funding the city will eventually receive, Bernard said. He outlined his priorities for the funds, which he said can be used through 2024. Infrastructure projects, specifically water and sewer initiatives, are his first priority. Starting with ... a capital improvement hydraulic modeling and water rate study plan which will set the stage of a lot of other water projects that we know the city needs to do, Bernard said. Thats $80,000 that I will commit to spending immediately out of this funding.

Bernard also plans to launch an economic recovery fund. My vision for this is it can be something that would be open to small businesses and human service providers to get to the level of meeting urgent community needs related to the (pandemic) recovery, he said, adding that an application is in the works.

North Adams receives $666,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money; more on way NORTH ADAMS  Money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act has started to flow into the c

Other communities are trying to determine how their money will be spent. Pittsfield is set to receive about $40 million, about half of which is already in city coffers. Residents weighed in on how to spend the money in forums and a survey.

What the money can be used for: Funding can be used for public health recovery, revenue replacement and infrastructure investment, among other areas, Bernard said.

What the council thought: Some businesses struggled to get money through the micro-enterprise stimulus fund the city offered with Franklin County CDC last year, Councilor Jess Sweeney said. She urged Bernards administration to try to work through any barriers to accessing the funds.

Councilor Benjamin Lamb asked: How much of the money would go toward infrastructure and how much toward the recovery fund? An estimated 75 percent would go toward infrastructure projects, but that could change, Bernard said.

Whats next: Residents will be able to weigh in on the funding priorities through a survey and meetings that will be scheduled, Bernard said.
Shopping locally usually will cost more than at the big-box stores. As we seek a way out from under COVIDs dark clouds, though, a silver lini
Reporter

Heather Bellow, a member of the investigations team, joined The Eagle in 2017. She is based in the South Berkshire County bureau in Great Barrington. Her work has appeared in newspapers across the U.S.
PITTSFIELD, Mass.  When was the last time you walked into a grocery store and emerged an hour later feeling centered, calmer and happier, as if you had just spent that time at a day spa?

Well, Guidos Fresh Marketplace cant guarantee that grocery shopping therapy at their two locations will make all of your stresses disappear. But, they can offer you a temporary respite thats sure to delight all of your senses  while at the same time filling your basket with the freshest seasonal local items, custom-ordered butcher meat, ready-to-go-dinners, deli sandwiches, and even last minute gifts that wont seem like theyre last-minute.

Your repose at the Pittsfield location begins upon entry as youre greeted with the calming scents wafting from Bella Flora. The sweet, warm inviting smells form an eclectic aroma of the fresh flowers, plants, candles, and scented oils that are among the many items sold by owners Annie and Chris Whalen. But more on that later.

We also talked to other store insiders (independent Guidos vendors like Bella Flora) who shared their tips for getting the most out of your Guidos Getaway  whether youre looking for local farm fresh favorites like cider doughnuts or just watching people stroll while you chill with a cup of java or a smoothie on the patio of Guidos Cafe.

If youre a visual person, youre in for a treat. Youll be mesmerized as you travel to Italy via Guidos Fresh Markplaces designer cheese department, La Grotta, where endless displays of cheese are featured as if they were in a magazine spread.

Next to the expansive circular cheese counter is where you can watch cheesemaker Claudia Santos-China pull and tug on fresh, warm mozzarella before forming the creamy mixture into balls.

Insider tip #1: The native Brazilian loves to interact with customers, so for a cool story, ask her how she found herself making fresh mozzarella at Guidos a few years ago. You can find Claudia there almost everyday. But if you cant wait for your visit, you can go to berkshireeagle.com to see a video of Claudia in action. Tip #2: She loves to give out samples.

Rooted in freshness and experience

Before we travel any further on our getaway, lets get a little background on Guidos Fresh Marketplace, with two locations, one in Pittsfield and the other in Great Barrington, the latter of which is undergoing a renovation.that will add 25,000 square feet of space.

For 42 years, brothers Chris and Matt Masiero have combined their backgrounds in culinary arts and produce retail to grow Guidos Fresh Marketplace into the premier purveyor of quality produce in Berkshire County and neighboring areas. The brothers set up their original roadside stand on Route 7 in Pittsfield in 1979.

The humble stand was so popular that in under three years the brothers outgrew their place and opened their first store on the same Route, just south of the original. The new place allowed the brothers to bring in vendors specializing in meat, fish, flowers and prepared foods. It also allowed Guidos to expand its offerings from farm and produce to prepared foods, hot pizza, fried chicken, and much more.

Guidos Fresh Marketplace Shopper: A day in the life

Ok, back to our Guidos Getaway. Heres what a recent typical fall shopping day at Guidos Pittsfield store looked like:

After being lured into the serenity and beauty that is Bella Flora, we checked out the beautiful Autumn decorations staged on several tables in the area. In addition to flowers, Bella Flora sells homemade jewelry, dishes, toys, inspirational items, gifts, and much more.

If youre the type of person who feels calm when colors match and sizes are arranged systematically, the adjacent produce department will help keep that momentum.

Moving from Bella Flora, customers are greeted with vivid colors of all kinds of produce  meticulously centered on barrels or displayed prominently in bins. Seasonal items like locally grown apples are featured prominently, not too far from the house-made apple cider doughnut display. Its basically an indoor farm.

Dont have time to cut up all of those veggies, but still need that nutrition? Guidos pre-cut produce and washed salads ease the dinner hour rush and promote convenient, healthy alternatives to fast food. Seasonal vegetables (such as squash and turnip in the colder months and corn-on-the-cob in summer), ready-to-go stir fry mixes and packaged salads of mixed greens, arugula, mesclun and organic baby spinach and lettuces save time in the kitchen without sacrifice of flavor and good nutrition.

On the opposite side of the produce, is an aisle-long offering of bulk food items. From there, its a short walk before arriving at Guidos little Italy, or La Grotta, which features several stunning displays of all types of local and imported cheeses and accoutrements. Some of the cheese varieties are directly imported. If you dont see it, ask. Theres always a cheesemonger behind the circular counter.

This is also where you will see Claudia Santos-China. She works behind the mozzarella stand, socially distanced from customers, but close enough to hand out warm samples of cheese. The mozzarella she makes can be bought individually or as part of other products in the store, such as a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad.

I am the big cheese! Claudia likes to exclaim.

Her mozzarella is also used for some of the hot, fresh pizzas made daily just a few feet behind Claudias stand. Pizzas are pre-made, hot, and ready, but they also take custom orders. During the lunch hour on a recent visit, even though there was a steady stream of customers ordering pizza, hot food items, custom sandwiches and deli items, employees moved swiftly to fill customers orders  avoiding a bottleneck.

Rounding out the back corner of the store is Mazzeos Meat and Seafood, another vendor in both locations. The freshest seafood New England has to offer can be found here along with a huge array of humanely raised meats  all displayed aesthetically pleasing, with clerks fixing the display after filling each order.

And, if youre lucky, you may even catch co-owner Mike Mazzeo cruising the beer and wine offerings in his section and pausing to talk to customers and answer questions.

The impressions that our customers see first is the variety, freshness, selection and presentation we offer, he said. They will see that our professional clerks can help in recommending cuts, preparation, and cooking.

Mazzeo also has an insider tip for customers. Insider tip #3: Thursday is the best day to shop at Mazzeos.

Thursdays tend to be the least busy day and our biggest fresh delivery day of meats and fish, Mazzeo said. Insider tip #4 Also, although meat prices are at an all time high, there are excellent alternatives to the higher priced steaks and chops.Some of my favorites are grass-fed chuck roast, chicken thighs, and pork tenderloin.

At the end of the meat section is Guidos Cafe, where customers can buy pastries, soup, coffee, smoothies, and some grab-and-go items without the hassle of waiting in the standard grocery lines. Customers also can sit on the patio and enjoy their food while people-watching.

Towards the front of the store at the end of Aisle #1 is the vendor The Chefs Shop, owned by Rob Navarino. The beautiful display showcases everything for the cooking connoisseur.

I want people to feel The Chefs Shops sense of enthusiasm and excitement, Navarino said. We love cooking, baking, dining, and entertaining, and we want our customers to feel that same jolt of energy. When they see the vast array of tools and equipment that we bring to Guidos  the colorful and innovative gadgets and tools, the gleaming stainless steel cookware, the warmth of wood boards and ceramic bowls  we want them to feel inspired that great food and cooking can not only meet our basic needs for sustenance, but that it can also tickle our fancy and even inspire us to live and feel healthy.

Navarino also has a tip. Insider tip #5: Try the orange honeydew melon in the produce section before it goes out of season.

My girlfriend got me addicted to the orange honeydew melon and now Ive become a disciple of orange melon, presenting it to friends and family all over the East Coast, Navarino said of his discovery in Guidos huge produce department.

Locally sourced products featured in between the aisles

Find it at Guido's... Fresh products from local artisans

While those vendors make up the outskirts of Guidos layout, the aisles are packed with more locally sourced items, many of which are available seasonally. Here are just a few.

 Aisle #1: A huge selection of olive oil, including Guidos own brand  which goes great with the locally grown tomatoes.

 Aisle #2: A vast selection of maple syrup and honey  most locally produced.

 Aisle #3: The sweet aroma of locally produced coffee lives here.

 End of Aisle #5: Bread, bagels from local bakeries with vegan and gluten-free frozen options as well.

By now, surely youre calm, maybe even full. But your experience doesnt end there. The last thing to do is check out, where cashiers will make sure your experience was memorable and will be ready to greet you when you return.

The best part of shopping at Guidos by far is the staff, Navarino said. They are always helpful, always polite and professional, and always ready to lend a hand no matter what your question is. Theyre the best!

Come see for yourself, Guidos Fresh Marketplace may not be able to massage the stress out of your life, but they sure can tickle your senses. Come on by and check them out!

Contributing Editor: Casondra Brewster
What did you say? This is worth hearing
In this Jan. 17, 2019 photo, Boston University's Myles Standish Hall dormitory, left, is partially covered in shadow in Boston. The Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag is calling on BU to change the name of the dorm that honors Myles Standish, the military leader of the Pilgrims. The tribe says Myles Standish Hall should be renamed Wituwamat Memorial Hall after a leading Native American figure massacred with other tribal members by Plymouth Colony settlers in 1623.
A map produced by the Department of Energy Resources shows the areas where incentivized biomass facilities would be prohibited, under a proposal to shield environmental justice communities and surrounding areas from the wood-burning plants.
4. Ananias and Sapphira

In the early years of the church, the new Christians were figuring out how to live together, work together, and obey the Great Commission. In Jerusalem after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to reside in each believer, There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need (Acts 4:34-35).

There were two individuals named Ananias and Sapphira who sold some of their land, but chose to keep some of the money for themselves. When they presented the money to the Apostles, they lied. It was not sacrilege to keep some of the money, but their intention was not just to deceive fellow believers, but to the Holy Spirit; Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God (Acts 5:3-4).

They came claiming to be giving the money in the name of the Lord for the sake of fellow Christians, but took Gods name in vain, and tried to deceive Him.

5. The Abomination of Desolation

One of the ultimate acts of sacrilege is prophesied in several places across the Bible, including the Book of Daniel and the Olivet Discourse. Jesus said, So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains (Matthew 5:15).

Jesus refers to a prophecy from Daniel which reads, From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days (Daniel 12:11). While many scholars dispute what the specific abomination is, many believe it is related to Antiochus Epiphanes outlawing the practice of the Jewish faith and erecting a statue of Zeus in the temple. Some scholars believe this event is the one prophesied, while others argue that Jesus refers to an action that will be committed by the Antichrist during the Tribulation that will be like the one by Antiochus, but on a larger scale.

Photo credit: Getty Images/stevanovicigor
Who Was John the Baptist in the Bible?

John the Baptist was a great prophet. His birth was foretold in Luke 1. He is the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth. He would eventually be the one who baptized our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look at Luke 1:11. The angel Gabriel appeared unto Zacharias and made the announcement about the birth of John the Baptist.

The angel told Zacharias to name their baby John. He shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall not drink wine or strong drink. John would was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mothers womb. He shall turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Verse 17 states: And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Zacharias and his wife were both old in age. So, he questioned how this would happen to them. Gabriel reminded Zacharias that he was an angel of the Lord who stands in the presence of the Lord. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things are performed, because you do not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. His wife Elisabeth becomes pregnant. Six months later, Gabriel goes to Mary announcing the birth of Jesus.

Let us fast forward in the book of Luke. After the virgin Mary is told that she will be the mother of Jesus, she goes to visit her cousin Elisabeth. Elisabeth is also pregnant and in her sixth month. Luke 1:37 declares For with God nothing shall be impossible. When Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Ghost.

After John was born and his mother named him. His father could not talk until after Johns birth. Some wanted them to name him Zacharias after his father. Elisabeth said no. John would be his name (Luke 1:60). When they asked Johns father, he motioned for something to write with. He wrote that his name is John. His mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed. All those around him became fearful.

Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people (Luke 1:68). Zacharias had a lot to say since he could not talk for nine months. He spoke of John being the forerunner of the Lord. John grew and was strong in spirit. He lived in the deserts until the day he showed up in Israel. This was about 30 years of his life. His spiritual strength was developed in solitude for use in his public ministry (The KJV Study Bible, Barbour Publishing, 2011).

What Did John the Baptist Do in His Life?

John is also referred to as a forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was born before Christ in Judea, Palestine near Jerusalem. John the Baptists ministry is evident throughout the New Testament especially in Matthew 3 and Luke 3. In Matthew 3:1, we find John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He reminds the people that Jesus is the one spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. I know you are familiar with verse four. His clothes set him apart from other religious leaders in those days (The KJV Study Bible, Barbour Publishing, 2011). His outfit was made of camels hair, and he wore a leather girdle for pants. He feasted on locusts and wild honey. During those days, religious leaders would have worn fine garments to reflect their position.

He baptized many people in the Jordan River after they had confessed their sins. Pharisees and Sadducees came to get baptized. John rebuked them and told them to repent because judgment will come upon them if they do not. John makes it clear that he can baptize people with water unto repentance but there is one coming after him whose shoes he was not worthy to bear. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized. John tried to resist this because he felt that Jesus should baptize him. Jesus told John that he needed to baptize him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16-17).

Why Did Jesus Say He's the Greatest Prophet?

John has often been called a forerunner of Jesus. He preached all about the country of Jordan calling for repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3). He taught that all flesh would see the salvation of God. He instructed those who came to be baptized to bring fruits worthy of repentance. He taught charity and said that if you have plenty that you should share with others. John preached even to soldiers that they should not do violence to any man, not to falsely accuse anyone, and to be content with their pay (Luke 3:14).

Also, remember that there is about six months difference in their age. They are also cousins through their mothers. When the virgin Mary visited Elisabeth, the Holy Ghost was present there as the baby leaped in her womb. He referred to John as the greatest prophet because of his boldness. He was not afraid to preach the Gospel. It was quite dangerous to do so in those days. John would later die for his faith. Jesus says in Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. When Jesus said this. John was already in prison.

How Did John the Baptist Die?

Herod put John the Baptist in prison because John told him that it was unlawful for him to have his brothers wife. Herodias was divorced from his half-brother. Herod the tetrarch also had divorced his wife. He would have put John to death, but he feared the multitude who counted him as a prophet (Matthew 14:5).

During his birthday celebration, Herodias daughter danced for him. It pleased him so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she wanted up to a half of his kingdom. Read Mark 6:14-29. She asked her mother, What shall I ask for? Her mother told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist in a charger. The king was sorry, but for his oaths sake and those who set before him, he granted her wish. He sent and beheaded John and his head was brought in a charger. She gave Johns head to her mother. The disciples came and took up the body of John and buried him and then told Jesus. After the news, Jesus departed by ship into a desert place.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Kyle Cottrell

Dr. Sandra Hamer Smith is a Christian and wife to Sylvester Smith. She has one stepson, Greg. Smith lives and resides in Memphis, Tennessee. The University of Memphis alumnae has been in education for about 20 years after receiving the call to teach. Dr. Smith primarily teaches language arts. Prior to education, she worked in local and national television news for 13 years including positions as an overnight news anchor, reporter, and assignments editor at two local network affiliate stations. Smith was also a freelance correspondent for BET news. Dr. Smith has freelanced for the Tri-State Defender newspaper and Contempora magazine. She is the author of the self-published novel GLORYTHE HAIR. Smith is also a playwright and poet. The Tennessee native is a member of Temple of Deliverance COGIC, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, Omicron Delta Kappa, The Golden Key International Honour Society, and Kappa Delta Pi.

This article is part of our People from the Bible Series featuring the most well-known historical names and figures from Scripture. We have compiled these articles to help you study those whom God chose to set before us as examples in His Word. May their lives and walks with God strengthen your faith and encourage your soul.

The Bible Story of Elijah

The Life of Ruth - 5 Essential Faith Lessons

The Bible Story of Queen Esther

The Greatest Villain - King Nebuchadnezzar

The Bible Story of Mary Magdalene
MORLEY  Hair is a staple of ones personality, and sacrificing your locks to a good cause can be a memorable and impactful act.

This week, one Morley Stanwood Elementary teacher took the leap and donated her hair in honor of children facing hair loss.

Sarah Benson, a third-grade teacher at Morley Stanwood Elementary School, donated her hair to Children With Hair Loss, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization. She chose to cut her hair in front of her third-grade students and her two sons so that they could be a part of her charitable giving event.

Children With Hair Loss is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides human hair replacements at no cost to children and young adults facing medically related hair loss. The organization aids children who face hair is loss due to cancer treatments, alopecia, trichotillomania, burns or other causes.

Bensons hairdresser was Danielle Doerr, owner of Knot Just Hair salon in Mecosta County. Doerr agreed to come into the classroom so that students could be a part of the donation process.

Benson said the experience was a beneficial one not only for the students to learn about acts of kindness but also for her to make a difference.

I liked involving the students for many reasons and I chose to donate to Children With Hair Loss because they provide wigs to children free of charge and they are a Michigan-based nonprofit, Benson said. It helped the students see another way of being able to give to others. Many students are familiar with donating money or doing food drives, but this may inspire them to grow their hair and help other children who need a wig because of cancer treatment, alopecia, or burns.

The nonprofit Benson chose requires at least eight inches of hair, however, Benson chose to donate 10 inches.

Children With Hair Loss opened in 2000 and was founded by Regina Villemure, a former cosmetology instructor, hairstylist, and hair replacement specialist with a master's certification with the American Hair Loss Council. Villemure founded the nonprofit after her niece, Sarah, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age three.

Benson said the haircut was a bonding experience between her and her students and that she got a lot of positive feedback.

Now I can sneak in math story problems about hair length and the students have a personal connection to it, Benson said. It's also a great bonding experience at the beginning of the year to have them join me for a monumental haircut. Some of the students said they liked my hair longer, but most of them were very excited to see it being cut.

For more information on Children With Hair Loss and their work, visit the organization's website at www.childrenwithhairloss.us.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research signs MoU with the National Council of Science Museums

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). The MoU aims at setting up Science Museums at select CSIR Laboratories to promote scientific curiosity and awareness among the common people across all sections of society.



Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the government will be setting up science museums across the country to promote scientific temper, particularly among children and the younger generation.

Dr Jitendra Singh called for imbibing scientific thinking to face the challenges of 21st Century. He said, the recent pandemic has emphasized the importance of increasing awareness of society for science and scientific thinking.



Dr Singh added, while CSIR has tied up with KendriyaVidyalayas and NavodayaVidyalayas and Atal Tinkering Labs Schools of NitiAayog, it must reach out to the remote areas and schools. He said use of digital means and the virtual labs of CSIR and the mobile science museums of NCSM will be very complementary and valuable.
The test kits include new DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect reagent and collection devices

Zymo Research has donated one million COVID-19 test kits that include its new DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect reagent and collection devices to Mapmygenome based in Hyderabad. Mapmygenome has provided COVID-19 testing throughout the pandemic at their state-of-the-art molecular testing, cGLP-compliant laboratory as well as an onsite laboratory at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, where incoming passengers were tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

DNA/RNA Shield  DirectDetect, a reagent similar to Zymo Research's established DNA/RNA Shield, safeguards viral RNA from degradation for safe, ambient temperature collection and transportation of samples without the need for nucleic acid extraction. Removing the nucleic acid extraction step reduces the time to get PCR test results. Compared to other reagents, DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect does not inhibit downstream RT-PCR. The DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect testing kit contains the DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect reagent with swab collection devices.

"DNA/RNA Shield - DirectDetect enables countries seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases to perform COVID-19 testing without extraction; therefore, removing the barrier of limited extraction resources. It's our way of providing humanitarian support to people in need," said Dr Marc Van Eden, Vice President of Business Development at Zymo Research. "We teamed up with Mapmygenome because of their ability to rapidly deploy and analyse RT-PCR testing."

"In India, where testing supplies and vaccinations are difficult to obtain, testing is imperative to diagnosing the SARS-CoV-2 virus," said Anu Acharya, Founder and CEO, Mapmygenome. She continued, "While many biotechnology and testing suppliers have tended to concentrate on their domestic testing efforts, we appreciate Zymo Research's global humanitarian effort to help eradicate COVID-19."
While Covid-19 and its associated lockdowns have dealt severe blows to most economies around the world, there are some unexpected silver linings. As a result, local marketing and communications companies have found their services are in demand by global brands.

Adam Hunter, Head Honcho at Hook Line & Sinker

In the past 18 months, businesses have recognised that survival and resilience during lockdown and in a post-Covid landscape requires a new strategy, with digital being the preferred channel to meet consumers where they are at. In turn, digital-first communications means that it no longer matters much where workers or vendors are based  putting local professional services companies in a uniquely advantageous position.South Africa has long been recognised as a call centre destination, thanks to the country having similar time zones as Europe, a high degree of English proficiency, a skilled workforce, digital infrastructure, and attractive exchange rates. South Africa is now the most favoured location for offshore customer experience delivery worldwide, according to the 2021 Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey This outsourcing trend has now broadened to include content production, marketing and communications support as corporates manage Covid-disruption and become increasingly comfortable working across time zones and countries. For instance, employees at global companies with centralised IT systems are used to receiving remote support from India and the Philippines. India has also emerged as a major destination for design and video services. Brands are now able to pick the best talent, at the best price, regardless of location.Global powerhouses are realising that they can secure internationally competitive services, at competitive costs, by working across borders, says Adam Hunter, Head Honcho at integrated communications agency Hook, Line & Sinker (HLS). HLS is responsible for global employee advocacy and awareness campaigns for SAP America, EU media relations, social media and video production for Meet and Code Europe, as well as writing and content development for Concur UAE.The nature of content and communications has fundamentally changed over the past two decades. Streaming services now make big budget TV series available at the same time to audiences across the world  a key determinant of popular culture  and social media influencers can reach consumers across multiple markets, making brand partnerships particularly sought after.The rise of social media has also meant while brands may prefer to target a single market, differing cultural norms regarding race, gender or other social issues can result in advertising campaigns causing offense, impacting reputation on a global scale.Local brands benefit indirectly, as communications agencies can call on international best practice in their work with South African companies, thus raising the standard of practice across the board.Local agencies will now also be able to enter global marketing and PR industry awards, which means that they are judged against their (often larger and better-resourced) peers, receiving feedback to improve and celebrated for their success, adds Hunter.South African businesses are also well positioned to service international companies looking to expand into Africa. The continent has a fast-growing population of around one billion people and rapid urbanisation  presenting an attractive prospect for global brands where economic growth has slowed around the world. Although other markets in Africa have continued to develop, South Africa remains the business hub for Sub-Saharan Africa. It represents the continents second-largest economy and the most industrialised and technology-enhanced country in Africa.South Africas complex business landscape and multicultural society provides an excellent training ground for media and marketing specialists, who have to work with sophisticated audiences and multiple viewpoints. In an increasingly globalised world, South African experience is coming to the fore, concludes Hunter.
Forbes Africa will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on Friday, 1 October 2021. In celebration of a decade of being a part of the African Growth Story, Forbes Africa has unveiled its latest graphic cover in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). This once-in-a-lifetime piece includes 105 covers from each published edition of Forbes Africa over the last decade.

This historic moment is reportedly a first in African publishing as this graphic cover includes all former cover stars, African icons and global heavy-hitters such as Aliko Dangote, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Graca Machel, in addition to African of the Year winners, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina and WTO Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.The graphic NFT cover will be sold at a limited 72-hour auction closing on 1 October. The winner will be announced on 1 October as the 10th Anniversary issue ofis released."Launching our first NFT to mark ten years of Forbes in Africa is a sign of how the next ten years are going to unfold. We live in a world that is transitioning from the physical to the digital and this is our step in making our mark in the metaverse, says Sid Wahi, director atThis is the culmination of all things we have expounded inover the last decade: innovative thinking that leads to new ideas, building communities around futuristic concepts, and creating desirable collectables, this time away from the physical world in the NFT ecosystem and the metaverse. Such a new and exciting channel! says managing editor of, Renuka Methil.These stories of leadership, enterprise and endurance would have been lost, both for audiences within and outside Africa, andbecame the pan-African platform to showcase African talent, potential and case studies of leadership, adds Rakesh Wahi, founder and publisher of. A lot has gone into reaching this milestone but the most important quality has been teamwork.The NFT, 105 Covers in 10 Years was taken by multiple photographers over the years, notably Motlabana Monnakgotla, Kelechi Amadi-Obi and Jay Caboz, with covers designed by art director Lucy Nkosi and former art directors Lieria Boshoff and Kristijan Srsa.Place your bid at https://rarible.com
South Africa and the United Kingdom will today co-host the inaugural Information Communication Technology (ICT) Cyber Dialogue.

According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), the establishment of this discussion arises from the meeting held in January 2020, where issues of particular interest for South Africa were discussed, including areas on connectivity and access, combatting cybercrime, emerging technologies, and peace and security.It is envisaged that the dialogue will focus on four thematic areas, namely, the threat of information exchange, sustainability and capacity building, standards and regulation and cyber-governance.The department said the UK has established cyber offices staffed by technical and police officers in various missions around the world.The Africa Cyber Network will be supported by UK cyber officials in Abuja, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, which forms the corps of their African Cyber Network, the department said.
The Conversation Africa is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. Its aim is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues, and allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversation.Go to: https://theconversation.com/africa
South African Airways (SAA), which returned to the skies last week after an 18-month hiatus, is signing a memorandum of cooperation with Kenya Airways with a long-term goal of creating a pan-African airline group.

Turning around fortunes of airlines

The airlines said that, in time, they expect this airline group to "enhance mutual growth potential by taking advantage of strengths of the two airlines busy hubs".SAAs interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo, said, As well as being a strong local carrier, part of our broader growth strategy is to become a major player in regional travel and this joint memorandum with Kenya Airways, one of the continents strongest and most respected carriers, will do just that. Part of SAAs core remit is to be a significant enabler of business and trade in Africa and its through a strategic understanding like this that real progress will be made in advancing South Africa and the continents growth.The agreement does not offer an exclusivity that precludes either of the airlines from pursuing commercial cooperation with other carriers within the current route network strategy.Allan Kilavuka, Kenya Airways CEO, highlighted the partnerships significance in turning around the fortunes of both KQ and SAA. The future of aviation and its long-term sustenance is hinged on partnership and collaboration. Kenya Airways and South African Airways collaboration will enhance customer benefits by availing a larger combined passenger and cargo network, fostering the exchange of expertise, innovation, best practices, and adopting home-grown organic solutions to technical and operational challenges.Kgokolo added that the memorandum will help improve customer experience by offering a wider range of choices and destinations, and the cooperation will also help in the standardisation of product and service offering that is in line with current global aviation trends, the airlines said.He said that working with Kenya Airways will also harness internal resources and capacities leading to sustainable and cost-effective growth. This includes shared services in the areas of route networks, fleet, and capacity deployment; exploring economic, technical as well as maintenance, repair, and overhaul opportunities to achieve economies of scale.Kgokolo said collaboration will also assist both airlines in the current and post-pandemic business and travel environment. This, he said, involves joint recovery strategies and other cost-containment strategies that will aid recovery of both carriers in an increasing competitive African airline environment.The SAA CEO believes the memorandum will also help the tourism sectors in both countries, in time creating "the most formidable airline in Africa", benefiting from at least two attractive hubs in Johannesburg, Nairobi and possibly Cape Town.Kgokolo said the next step is for both parties to set up a joint working group to further discuss the memorandum and to put in place systems to achieve their joint stated objectives.
DTP Operator

Remuneration: negotiable negotiable depending on experience Location: Johannesburg, Bryanston Education level: Diploma Job level: Mid Type: Contract Company: Switch

Job description

Requirements

Fluent in Adobe Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop

Great eye for detail

Has a systematic approach to work, excellent planning and organising skills

Deadline driven and excels under pressure

Works independently

Company Description

Switch is looking for a dynamic DTP Operator who is a strong team player to join our retail team.Key to this role will be the rollout and adaption of layouts and designs for the retail landscape including but not limited to; catalogues, leaflets, brochures and street pole ads.The candidate will be required to do finished art of all jobs and ensure thorough and precise handover of artwork.We believe in brands with a purpose. As strategists, designers and communicators it is our purpose to create these brands for our clients. Posted on 29 Sep 16:34, Closing date 28 Nov
Remote Sales Executive

Remuneration: commission only Location: Johannesburg Education level: Matric Job level: Mid/Senior Type: On going Reference: #MedvocationBIZ1 Company: Medvocation Limited

Job description

You speak fluent English, German, Spanish or French.

2-5 Years sales or sales management experience - ideally in a B2B setting.

Cold Calling experience is highly advantageous.

You have a quiet space at home to work from, a laptop or desktop (i3 core minimum) and you have a very good, uncapped internet connection)

You are happy to work on a commission-based only model (No basic pay!)

A competitive and uncapped commission structure.

Very flexible work schedule

An international team with a strong focus on transparency.

Being a part of a very well-established and funded innovative company.

Work from home/remote opportunity.

Requirements

Strategic prospecting

Active listening

Relationship building

Effective communication

Negotiation skills

Project management

Time management

Company Description

technology start-up is looking for a fullWe are looking for a dynamic, success-driven sales executive to join our international team, targeting B2B healthcare customers in various countries.Interested in joining Medvocation? Let's talk.To apply to this job, click apply now.Medvocation is a global healthcare recruitment marketplace connecting millions of healthcare professionals with thousands of employers and recruiters. Posted on 29 Sep 09:13, Closing date 28 Nov
Scheller first published a video on his personal Facebook account on Aug. 26 criticizing the Afghanistan withdrawal, which drew backlash. Defending that video, he published a further clip saying he was calling for accountability of my senior leaders over obvious mistakes that were made.

Im not saying we can take back what has been done. All I asked for was accountability, for people to comment on what I said and to say, Yes, mistakes were made. And had they done that I would have gone back into rank-and-file, submitted, and accomplished what I wanted, Scheller said at the time, announcing that he was resigning his commission.

Schellers initial video was posted on the same day that 13 U.S. troops and more than 100 Afghans were killed in an attack outside Kabuls international airport. The terrorist group ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate, claimed responsibility for that attack.

They had a gag order on him and asked him not to speak, the elder Scheller said. He did, and they incarcerated him. They dont know what to do with him.

A spokesperson for Marine Corps Training and Education Command said in a statement that Scheller is currently in pre-trial confinement pending a preliminary hearing.
Soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Shilo have passed their final inspection before standing guard outside some of the United Kingdoms royal residences.

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MASTER CPL. HEATHER MACRAE Guard Cmdr. Maj. Michael Crosier leads the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery United Kingdom Public Duties Contingent during their Fit for Role inspection conducted by senior officers of the British Army's Household Division at Wellington Barracks in London on Monday.

Soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Shilo have passed their final inspection before standing guard outside some of the United Kingdoms royal residences.

A total of 90 soldiers from the 1st Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery arrived in the U.K. last week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the regiments A and B batteries. They are scheduled to be in their role as the Queens guard from Oct. 4-22.

The Manitoba-based soldiers completed their weeks of training overseas and have passed their Fit for Role inspection by senior officers of the British Armys Household Division, according to a Department of National Defence press release. The inspection examined their uniforms, drills sequences, discipline and step accuracy.

"This is an incredible honour for all Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery members involved and brings with it great personal and unit pride. This is an opportunity for our soldiers to showcase our regiment on an international stage, which is an exceptional privilege," said Maj. Michael Crosier, Guard Commander of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery Public Duties Contingent.

The regiment was invited by the Queen to celebrate the units birthday. The A Battery was formed in Kingston, Ont., and B Battery was formed in Quebec City in 1871. The two units led the way for the professional Canadian army.

The unit underwent weeks of training by British Army personnel in Shilo, including learning the differences between Canadian and British marches.

The Canadian soldiers are now preparing for their first Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and the Tower of London on Oct. 4.

They are scheduled to complete their first Guard Mount at Windsor Castle on Oct. 5 and will serve until the end of the month.

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
While Rita Moir has already penned several memoirs, her latest book, Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness, marks her most personal project to date.

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SUBMITTED Author Rita Moir poses for a photo with her new book, "Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness."

While Rita Moir has already penned several memoirs, her latest book, "Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness," marks her most personal project to date.

The book details Moirs own exploration of grief following the death of her sister and mother, who both passed away within the last 10 years.

Outside of the raw hurt associated with losing two immediate family members, Moir also had to grapple with what she calls the disruption of a "natural order," where parents are expected to die before their children.

"But thats really not the case for so many families, including ours," Moir told the Sun on Tuesday, noting that her sister passed away several years before her mother.

Throughout the phone interview, Moir talked about how it took her almost a decade to write the book, since she needed that length of time to properly process her own emotions before putting them on paper.

"When you write a book, you just dont let all of your personal stuff out and leave it at that," she said from her country home in Slocan Valley, B.C. "It takes a lot of shaping and crafting and figuring out how this book is going to have a narrative arc."

Of course, Moir is no stranger to compressing complex feelings into an accessible format, having written and published several award-winning non-fiction memoirs over the last 30 years.

Throughout that time, she also worked as a freelance journalist and playwright, whose stage productions were given a national audience through the CBC.

But Moir said her love of writing really took hold when she attended secondary school in Brandon between 1966 and 1970.

Not only did she use the hallways of Vincent Massey High School to sell her own self-published newspaper, but the teaching staff also nurtured her pre-existing love of reading through putting an emphasis on vivid storytelling in class.

"(They) would just read to us, and wed develop that love of reading and listening to the sound of good writing and the rhythms, and wed learn to write that way," she said.

Moirs family members were also active in the broader community, with one of her brothers serving as a local reporter, while her father taught botany at Brandon University.

The authors roots in political activism can also be traced back to her time living in the Wheat City, especially since that period of history is defined by societal upheaval throughout North America.

"Wed go to anti-war protests at Stanley Park, because that was during the Vietnam (War) years," she said.

"We used to go on marches and walk-a-thons to raise money for the Indian Friendship Centre. So my life in Brandon was very rich."

However, Moirs formative teenage years do not take centre stage in "Not of Reason," with the author mainly focusing on a period when she was forced to travel between Slocan Valley and Minnesota to look after her ailing family members.

"I think a lot of people know that rhythm in your life, when youre trying to maintain a home life in one place, but youre going off to deal with family crises in another," she said.

But Moir didnt want to make "Not of Reason" an endless descent into despair.

Instead, she always intended to use this memoir to lift people out of their grief and show them how they can continue living even after experiencing devastating personal loss.

While Moirs "Recipe for Outrunning Sadness" may not apply to every person dealing with the death of a loved one, the author hopes that her humour and descriptive prose can at least provide a basic roadmap to recovery.

"Because you can become mired in grief, and in some ways it is a safe place to be," she said. "But my mom often said, you have to opt for joy and thats so true. You have to work at joy, because joy doesnt just return immediately."

Caitlin Press officially published "Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness" on Sept. 17.

Moir said the best way to purchase her new memoir is to order it through a local bookstore or purchase it on the publishers website, caitlin-press.com.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  A battle between gangs in a prison killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities are calling the worst penitentiary massacre in Ecuador's history. At least five dead were reported beheaded, officials said Wednesday.

A relative of an inmate collapses as she waits for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. A police and military operation managed to regain control of the regional prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuadors prison service, but reported at least 24 dead and 48 injured during the riot. (AP Photo/Angel DeJesus)

QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  A battle between gangs in a prison killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities are calling the worst penitentiary massacre in Ecuador's history. At least five dead were reported beheaded, officials said Wednesday.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency in Ecuador's prison system, allowing the government to deploy the police and soldiers to penitentiaries among other powers. Authorities attributed Tuesday's bloodshed at the Litoral penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil to gangs linked to international drug cartels fighting for control of the lockup.

Lasso, visibly affected, said at a news conference that what was happening in the Guayaquil prison was bad and sad and he could not for the moment guarantee that authorities had regained control of the lockup.

It is regrettable that the prisons are being turned into territories for power disputes by criminal gangs, he said, adding that he would act with "absolute firmness to regain control of the Litoral prison and prevent the violence from spreading to other penitentiaries.

Images circulating on social media showed dozens of bodies in the prisons Pavilions 9 and 10 and scenes that looked like battlefields. The fighting was with firearms, knives and bombs, officials said. Earlier, regional police commander Fausto Buenano had said that bodies were being found in the prisons pipelines.

Relatives of inmates wait for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. A police and military operation managed to regain control of the regional prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuadors prison service, but reported at least 24 dead and 48 injured during the riot. (AP Photo/Angel DeJesus)

Outside the prison morgue, the relatives of inmates wept, with some describing to reporters the cruelty with which their loved ones were killed, decapitated and dismembered.

In the history of the country, there has not been an incident similar or close to this one, said Ledy Zuniga, the former president of Ecuador's National Rehabilitation Council.

Zuniga, who was also the country's minister of justice, said she regretted that steps had not been taken to prevent another massacre following deadly prison riots last February.

Relatives of inmates wait for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. A police and military operation managed to regain control of the regional prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuadors prison service, but reported at least 24 dead and 48 injured during the riot. (AP Photo/Angel DeJesus)

Earlier, officials said the violence erupted from a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs.

Col. Mario Pazmino, the former director of Ecuador's military intelligence, said the bloody fighting shows that transnational organized crime has permeated the structure" of Ecuador's prisons, adding that Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels operate through local gangs.

They want to sow fear, he told The Associated Press on Wednesday, urging the government to temporarily cede control of the prisons to the National Police.

An ambulance leaves from the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Wednesday, September 29, 2021. The authorities report at least 100 dead and 52 injured in a riot on Tuesday at the prison. (AP Photo/Angel DeJesus)

Ecuador's president said that care points had been set up for relatives of the inmates with food and psychological support. He added that a $24 million program to address the country's prisons will be accelerated, starting with investments in infrastructure and technology in the Litoral prison.

The former director of Ecuador's prison bureau, Fausto Cobo, said that inside penitentiaries authorities face a threat with power equal to or greater than the state itself. He said that while security forces must enter prisons with shields and unarmed, they are met by inmates with high-caliber weapons.

In July, the president decreed another state of emergency in Ecuadors prison system following several violent episodes that resulted in more than 100 inmates being killed. Those deaths occurred in various prisons and not in a single facility like Tuesday's massacre.

Previously, the bloodiest day occurred in February, when 79 prisoners died in simultaneous riots in three prisons in the country. In July, 22 more prisoners lost their lives in the Litoral penitentiary, while in September a penitentiary center was attacked by drones leaving no fatalities.
US news giant Cable News Network (CNN) has become the first major international media company to disable its Facebook pages in Australia after the High Court ruled publishers are liable for defamatory comments made on their Facebook pages.

In a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, CNN said it had approached Facebook to see whether the platform would disable the comment functionality on its Australian pages but the social media behemoth chose not to.

CNN is the first major publication to bow out of posting on Facebook in Australia. Credit:AP

We are disappointed that Facebook, once again, has failed to ensure its platform is a place for credible journalism and productive dialogue around current events among its users, the statement said.

The NSW Court of Appeal ruled in June last year that news outlets including this masthead, and The Australian were liable as publishers of readers Facebook comments about former Northern Territory youth detainee Dylan Voller because they facilitated the comments by posting on their public Facebook pages.
It was a happy ending, of course, for the estimated 500,000 people around Australia who turned into the ABC for the 5795th episode  33 years after the serial began as the Lawsons.

Gwen Meredith (second) left is seen with three of the longest serving actresses in the serial, Maiva Drummond (left) Queenie Ashton (second right) and Ethel Lang (right), pictured after final taping of show. Credit:Kenneth Stevens

First published in The Age on October 1, 1976

The programmes leading characters came together at the Dunvegan homestead, scene of many a kitchen sink drama over the years.

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Grannie Bishop, played by Queenie Ashton, had the last word, a homily apparently aimed at all those faithful listeners who wanted Blue Hills to go on forever.

In case you missed it, Grannie said people never really died until nobody wanted to remember them anymore.

We dont have to see or hear people every day of the week to imagine them in our surroundings, even to live their lives with them she lectured.
The Victorian government says prep to year 2 students in regional Victoria will return to full-time face-to-face learning from Monday along with students studying final year subjects.

Announcing the plan on Thursday, Education Minister James Merlino said this is a really positive step forward in, as I say, returning to life in a COVID-normal way.

Year 11 students will be back in class from Wednesday and therell be staggered returns for years 3 to 10 the following week.

Years 3, 4, 8 and 9 will attend school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and years 5, 6 and 10 will attend on Thursdays and Fridays  while year 7 will return five days a week.

From October 26, all regional students will be back in the classroom full-time.The plan doesnt cover the City of Latrobe or Mitchell Shire which are under the same lockdown restrictions as Melbourne.

Earlier this month, the state government announced year 12 students in Melbourne would return to classrooms on October 6.

From October 18, students in prep, grade 1 and grade 2 would return, but most students would be limited to attending two days a week, with timetables staggered to minimise the number of children in school at any time.

All grades will return for at least two days a week from around October 26, when the state is expected to reach its goal of having 70 per cent of the population over 16 fully vaccinated and then all grades are set to return full-time in early November when the 80 per cent fully vaccinated milestone is expected to be met.
Director Ian Dunlop (left) and cameraman Richard Howe Tucker record in 1966. Credit:Source unknown Tristan Cole, general manager of the Martu cultural support organisation Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa, wrote following Dunlops death: In 1965, Ian travelled to a harsh and inhospitable part of the Western Desert to film a group of nomadic Martu Indigenous people who were still living on their own land, as they had done for millennia. The series of films are watched regularly by members of the Martu community. The films provide an important link for younger Martu to traditional knowledge, practices and culture. Later in his career, Dunlop concentrated his filming at Yirrkala in eastern Arnhem Land and formed a close, collaborative relationship with great Yolngu leaders (and painters) such as Narritjin Maymuru, Dundiwuy Wanambi and Mawalan Marika. He would end up leaving 27 films in the community. When they were available on VHS in 1996, they were left in a basket in the art centre. As Will Stubbs, its director puts it: From day one, the place was packed. Demand was intense and constant. This is when we understood the need for the Mulka media centre, where Yolngu could go on to make films of their own today. Some of these incorporate excerpts from Dunlops work. Dunlop (right) and Howe Tucker capture scenes of everyday life. Credit:Source unknown Dunlops career climaxed there with Djungguwan at Gurkawuy, an initiation ceremony of the Rirratjingu and Marrakula clans that has the character of a grand opera. It teaches young boys about discipline, law and respect for Yolngu traditions. A ceremony of transition, teaching and remembering, it can take weeks to stage and perform.

It has a unique place in Australian cinematic history; its been filmed in its entirety on three separate occasions. On his version in 1976, Ian Dunlop worked with the great cinematographer, Dean Semler, who would go on to win an Oscar for Dances with Wolves. An eight-hour restricted archival print of this was completed in 1987. Ians films are a priceless record of the oldest continuous culture on Earth. But for Yolngu, they are also home movies in which parents, grandparents and extended clan members are lovingly remembered, immortalised on film performing some of their most important rituals. At a recent screening of one of his Yirrkala films, Dunlop admitted: Of course, when you are shooting the film, you only have a fairly vague idea of whats going on. It is only afterwards, when Wandjuk (Marika) documented it with me, that I got the richness of all the symbolism. When its going on, you just hope that what you are focusing on is the most important stuff. Pip Deveson, his long-serving editor, went on to recall a conversation with Wukun Wanambi, now chair of the Yirrkala arts centre, saying he talked  it seemed to me really from the heart, saying the films have been so important to him because he was not around for a lot of the time when he was a young man learning from his father, when he should have been. So now hes able to watch these films and he feels hes learning a lot from them. At the beginnings of Dunlops time in Arnhem Land, Roy Marika, one of the great Mawalans sons, explained his project to other elders gathered there: Before we die we should make a true picture, our own Yolngu picture, that will teach our children our dances and law and everything, our singing, our own Yolngu culture. In the film about my father, its showing people that this is our land, these are our ancestors.

There is no doubt that the Yirrkala Film Project was only able to be made through the agency of Yolngu who had grasped the potential of film and had shared with Dunlop their own ideas about how they could make use of it. As Wukun Wanambi put it in tribute to the filmmaker, no other anthropologist has done it like Ian. He sat down with Yolngu people and understood how they wanted it to run. Ian saw ahead to today  leaving his films power and strength to us to share with the young people. After those 12 years of sympathetic filming in Arnhem Land, apart from a return visit to Papua New Guinea, where hed earlier made the nine-part Towards Baruya Manhood with French anthropologist Maurice Godelier, Dunlop would shoot no more films. Both of his sponsors, the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies (later AIATSIS) and the Commonwealth Film Unit, would cease funding for ethnographic films in about 1985. But he would spend many years completing unedited films, putting his and others archives in order, winning awards around the world and representing Australia at conferences, masterclasses and festivals of ethnographic film. Underlined in his CV, Dunlop laid emphasis on his achievement in writing an MOU between Film Australia and himself on a policy for future custody and use of the ethnographic film collection produced by Ian Dunlop for Film Australia between 1962 and 1997. It was endorsed by many Aboriginal groups and individuals. In Italy, Dunlop was awarded the inaugural Giampaolo Paoli Award for Ethnographic Film. In 1991, he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in the UK. In 2009, he was awarded the National Film and Sound Archives Ken G Hall Award for services to the preservation of Australian films, which included Baldwin Spencers decaying nitrate films from the deserts in the early 20th century. And in 1986 came a Medal of the Order of Australia for public service, particularly in the field of ethnographic film-making.
Australias largest childcare provider has been fined $71,000 by a Queensland court after the death of a three-year-old boy who was left in a minibus for more than six hours last year.

Goodstart Early Learning was fined on Wednesday in the Cairns Magistrates Court after Education Queensland accused it of failing to provide children with adequate supervision and protection from harm, and failing to keep accurate attendance records.

The boy died in a minibus outside Hambledon State School in Edmonton, south of Cairns in far north Queensland.

The boy was collected from a Mount Sheridan property about 9am on February 18, 2020, and should have been taken to the Goodstart Early Learning centre at Edmonton.

Police alleged the boy was left on the bus when it was parked for the day outside Hambledon State School, about 1.7 kilometres from the childcare centre.
Walk-ins will be accepted at all Queensland COVID vaccination hubs as the state attempts to ramp up its jab rate.

Queensland has the second-lowest rate of people aged 16 and older double-dosed in the country, with 45.60 per cent fully vaccinated.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced all of the states vaccination centres will accept walk-ins. Credit:Matt Dennien

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that the states 80-plus vaccination hubs would allow walk-in jabs from Wednesday, as the state remains on edge amid several new local cases of COVID-19 in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

The more people vaccinated, the safer we will be, she said, delivering her annual CEDA State of the State address in front of 700 people at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
One of Brisbanes biggest shopping centres and a swathe of CBD locations are among more than 30 new COVID-19 exposure sites, as contact tracers use the e-scooter history of a recent case to identify venues.

A number of the sites, including specific stores visited by someone infectious with the coronavirus, span the Westfield Carindale shopping centre between 11.55am and 1.30pm on Sunday. The centres entire first and second levels have been deemed low-risk sites.

Stores across the centres first and second levels have been deemed close contact sites after a COVID-positive person visited on Sunday. Credit:Tammy Law

Stores identified as close contact locations include Tree of Life, City Chic, Platypus Shoes, Typo, Jay Jays and BWS. K-Mart, Big W, Woolwoorths and Cotton On were considered casual contact risks.

Several Gold Coast locations were also identified on Wednesday, including Coles and Liquorland at the Q Super Centre in Mermaid Waters, a Subway in Surfers Paradise, and a petrol station in Nerang.
Prominent GPs have called for a new after-hours COVID-19 health hotline, as one paramedic describes emergency department conditions as already apocalyptic and the Andrews government warns that the worst is yet to come.

With unprecedented demand on hospitals and calls to triple zero reaching levels on Monday not seen since the 2016 thunderstorm asthma event, state health officials have given welfare briefings this week urging front-line workers to prepare psychologically for a difficult few months as Victorians emerge from lockdown.

Melbourne GP Nathan Pinskier, who provides doctors to the Victorian government for COVID-19 testing and hotel quarantine, is part of a group of doctors proposing an after-hours service to field calls from patients and suspected cases, to give people an option other than calling triple-zero.

He said COVID-19 patients were currently monitored by a fragmented system of public hospital networks and community health services, and the group intended to present the plan to governments soon.
Mr Seoud  who is widely known as Jimmy Vegas  was a director and licensee of Surfers Paradise strip club Toybox Gentlemens Club owned by Mr Buckley, until they fell out dramatically in 2019 and their more than decade-long friendship also ended. Mr Seoud lost an unfair dismissal claim against Mr Buckley. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have chosen to publish excerpts from the recording because of the public interest in revealing allegations of domestic violence, death threats and potential involvement in criminal activity by a well-known and influential business figure. Im now quite distressed about whats going to be revealed. Jen, I could go to prison. Proceeds of crime  Ill lose everything, Mr Buckley can be heard saying in the recording. This is so f---ing critical Ill probably have to hire someone to kill him ... OK, Ive already made those programs to do it, just in case ... Im not going to go spend the rest of my life in prison Id rather f---ing shoot him and kill him. Mr Buckley does not discuss the specifics of the alleged conduct he is concerned about.

In an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court, Mr Buckley accuses Ms Cole of conspiring against him to obtain financial gain by distributing the recording. Credit:Instagram Ill be arrested, Ill be in jail ... I dont know what hes got ... I had to make a decision on that club, what was going on there. Ill go to jail that way or I might go to jail this way. Why could he put you in jail? I dont understand, what have you done? Ms Cole asked. Years ago, stuff. I think hes got messages of it but I havent got it. Im not going to jail, OK ... Ive been trying to warn you what Ive got to do ... Youre not getting the message clear ... Hes got shit on me. Whats doing now after he got fired, hes gonna bring this shit out, he said. Mr Buckley said while he was confident he could win any legal action brought by Mr Seoud about the club, its the other stuff  I dont know what hes got.

Over the course of the recording, Mr Buckley repeatedly verbally abuses, insults and threatens Ms Cole over what he claims is her feuding with associates of the couple who Mr Buckley believes could be used as witnesses in any future legal case . What I care about is not going to prison for the next 10 years ... Dont f---ing nag me. Im gonna hit you, Im going to really hurt you, Mr Buckley shouted at Ms Cole during the recording. Mr Buckley then calls an associate to describe what he has done. Ive almost f---ing strangled Jen then. When Mr Buckley discovered he was being recorded, he took Ms Coles phone. Ms Cole can be heard pleading for Mr Buckley to stop assaulting her before the recording ends. The Ages and the Heralds decision to publish the details of the recording has come shortly before a legal move by Mr Buckley to prevent its further distribution to prevent what he believes may cause damage to his reputation and the UltraTune brand.

Mr Buckley founded the Ultra Tune empire in 1979 and now oversees more than 270 franchises that turn over $220 million annually. The 60-year-old is also chief executive of Ultra Thoroughbred Racing, which operates a Kilmore stud farm with more than 250 horses. Actress and model Pamela Anderson, pictured here with Mr Buckley, has featured in Ultra Tunes controversial advertising campaigns which have attracted regular complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau. Credit:Instagram In an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court, Mr Buckley accuses Ms Cole and Mr Swords  a former employee of his horse racing empire  of conspiring against him to obtain financial gain by distributing the recording. He alleges that Ms Cole, who is the mother of his two-year-old daughter and separated from Buckley in December last year, wanted him to leave a third of his estate to their child, while providing her with an annual stipend of $300,000.

At this time she also said that if I was to leave her she wanted $10 million otherwise she will release recordings of our private conversations and destroy me, Mr Buckley said in the affidavit. I am a well-known public figure and Ultra Tune is a well known national business. If these private recordings are made public it will attract widespread negative media coverage, according to the affidavit. Ms Cole declined to comment. Mr Buckley also claims in the affidavit that Mr Swords resigned from Ultra Thoroughbred Racing in December last year and was paid $17,000 in entitlements after two-years employment. Shortly after his resignation, Swords started threatening me. He called me and told me that unless I gave him $400,000 he will destroy me, Mr Buckley wrote in the affidavit.
A Victoria Police acting sergeant has been suspended after footage emerged on social media last week of an officer grabbing a man from behind and slamming him to the ground at Flinders Street Station.

The footage was filmed at the station on September 22 and has since been shared widely on social media.

A police spokesperson said on Wednesday afternoon that the force was continuing to investigate the incident. An acting sergeant from a specialist support unit had been suspended as a result of early inquiries, the spokesperson said.

Footage of the incident shows the man who is taken to the ground talking to other officers at the station, appearing to hold a jacket in one arm while the other is by his side.
Victorias Health Department has been charged over last years mistakes in hotel quarantine that drove the states deadly second wave of COVID-19.

WorkSafe has charged the Department of Health with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, alleging the department failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees and failed to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Hotel workers inside the Stamford Plaza, one of the quarantine hotels that became the site of an outbreak last year. Credit: Getty Images

Set up to stop COVID-19 transmitting from overseas arrivals into the community, the departments hotel quarantine program last year did the opposite, with an inquiry into the failed system linking 768 deaths during the states second wave back to the hotels.

In a statement published on Wednesday, WorkSafe alleged the department failed to appoint people with infection prevention and control expertise at the hotels, failed to provide security guards with appropriate infection control training and did not provide, at least initially, written instructions on how to use protective gear.
Climate change is again at the centre of national and global politics ahead of Novembers international climate meeting in Glasgow, at the very moment that fossil fuel prices are booming amid new fears of energy insecurity.

On the European continent, natural gas storage facilities are at record lows with winter looming, and prices have soared between three and fivefold in the past year, trading at near record levels after 2020s COVID-related plunge.

A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London on Tuesday. Credit:AP

It has forced fertiliser producers to slash their output, which may yet have an inflationary effect on food prices. Another byproduct is a reduction of carbon dioxide production, a gas which is used to stun animals before they are slaughtered as well as in carbonated beverages, among other common consumer products.

In the UK, the surging gas prices have caused several retail energy retailers to collapse, unable to provide energy to households on long-term contracts profitably when prices in the spot markets have soared.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has claimed Prime Minister Scott Morrison put Australias national security at risk in the way he has handled the decision to dump a $90 billion submarine contract with France and instead build a nuclear-propelled fleet with the United States and Britain.

Mr Turnbull also revealed that he has spoken to Emmanuel Macron since the shock announcement two weeks ago, despite Mr Morrison being unable to get the French President on the phone.

Malcolm Turnbull, pictured visiting the Naval Group shipyard in France, says Scott Morrison has put Australias national security at risk. Credit:Kym Smith

He also refused to confirm whether he would vote for the Liberal Party at the next election and if he would campaign for independent candidates against sitting Liberal members, saying he would reserve my rights but was unlikely to get involved in electoral politics.

The comments angered some Liberal MPs who believed the former prime minister should be using his position to advance the nations interests on the international stage and be backing the party at the ballot box.
A new quarantine hub near Toowoomba will welcome back international students from early next year, as Queensland attempts to claw back a slice of the multibillion-dollar education industry.

And Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has insisted that every eligible Queensland should be offered a vaccine before the country opens up.

The Wellcamp quarantine facility near Toowoomba should have 500 beds open by the end of the year. Credit:Lydia Lynch

Last month, the Premier announced the Queensland government would go it alone and move ahead with the Howard Springs-style quarantine hub at Wellcamp, west of Brisbane, after negotiations with the federal government stalled.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also proposed an alternative site, on the Damascus Barracks at Pinkenba, which will still go ahead and be ready by mid-2022.
Dhaka: Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Rohingya Muslim leader in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh on Wednesday, a United Nations spokesperson and a local police official said, following months of worsening violence in the worlds largest refugee settlement.

Mohib Ullah, a teacher turned activist, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017.

Mohib Ullah, also Mohibulla, Rohingya community leader was shot dead in Bangladesh on September 29. Credit:Human Rights Watch

Invited to the White House for a meeting of prosecuted minorities with then-US president Donald Trump (Trump famously asked him where Myanmar was) and to speak to the United Nations Human Rights Council, he was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has faced persecution for generations.
Mary, Queen of Scots. Credit:File When the letter was written in October 1584, Mary had been imprisoned for 16 years. Overthrown by her Scottish rebels, who ruled in the name of her young son James VI, she had fled across the Solway Firth to England in 1568, presenting the Protestant Elizabeth with a stark choice: should she protect her Catholic cousin, maybe even restore her to her throne, or treat her as a threat? Elizabeths chief minister, Sir William Cecil, and her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, had no doubts. Just months before, Walsingham had frustrated a dangerous plot to kill Elizabeth that had been backed by Spain, the pope, and Marys Catholic relatives. Mary had once claimed to be the lawful queen of England. Elizabeths security and the safety of the state depended on keeping her locked up. So far, Cecil and Walsinghams arguments had prevailed. A chilling superscript to a set of Sadlers instructions, also from the Sothebys cache and included in the exhibition reads: Use but old trust and new diligence, your affectionate, loving sovereign, Elizabeth R. And yet, when Elizabeth yielded to her instincts, everything changed. It wasnt plain sailing. Two years before, Mary had asked that the jealousy and mistrust she claimed her cousin had conceived of her should be removed. Elizabeth icily chided her for this, but swiftly softened, recounting that Mary had now written to her in a most kind and friendly sort. The John Guy letter is addressed to Sadler, but he was to show or read it to Mary. To avoid a fight to the death, Elizabeth tendered an olive branch. She was content to assent that Marys confidential secretary, Claude Nau, should ride south to acquaint us with such matter as she shall think meet by him to impart to us. He was to bring with him such proposals as might work upon good ground a thorough reconciliation between us, which as she seemeth greatly to desire, so should we also be most glad thereof.

Detail of one of the exhibits showing Elizabeth Is signature. Credit:British Library Seeing this letter headlined in the upcoming exhibition is, for me, a personal vindication. Id always suspected that a letter of this sort could turn up. Deep down, what Elizabeth really wanted was to settle with her cousin, as Mary did, too. Elizabeth didnt feel this way because both rulers were women (although that played its part), but because Mary was a sovereign, and not a subject. To put a fellow sovereign on trial and execute her was akin to sacrilege. Six weeks after Elizabeth wrote her letter, Nau presented her with Marys proposals. Theyre tucked away in the National Archives in Kew. I knew about them before, but not why Nau submitted them at this moment. Id assumed him to be acting off his own bat, thrashing about in the dark. Finding Elizabeths letter inviting them is the missing piece of the jigsaw. Closer investigation shows that Elizabeth took the proposals so seriously, she disappeared for a month to reflect on them in conditions of absolute secrecy, to the consternation of her ministers. Mary was offering close to total surrender. In exchange for her freedom and the right to return to Scotland to rule jointly with her son, she would recognise Elizabeth as the lawful queen of England and never again claim her throne, would not support her cousins rebels, would not conspire against her, would uphold the Protestant Reformation in Scotland (although without changing her personal faith), and so on. Elizabeth, moreover, was to have a veto on James VIs marriage, and he was to join with her in approving a final settlement. All came to naught. There would be no reconciliation, no last-minute meeting of the two queens. Scriptwriters down the centuries would be forced into fiction, but failure cannot be laid at either queens door. The negotiations collapsed only because James, now 18, had no intention of sharing his throne with a mother he barely knew, or being married off by Elizabeth. Instead, he informed Mary that he would always honour her with the title of queen mother, but that was all. There could be no question of joint sovereignty or her return to Scotland. Instead, James made his own defensive treaty with Elizabeth, ratified a year later.
Paris: It is almost the forgotten attack of November 13, 2015: Frances national stadium was the sole site outside Paris to come under assault that night from Islamic State extremists.

The three suicide bombers who struck killed one man out of the 130 people who died that night around the city. But for those who survived, the explosions are seared into their bodies and their minds, in the form of projectiles still embedded beneath their skin and unfading trauma in their psyche.

Saint-Denis Mayor Mathieu Hanotin, left, and French Prime Minister Jean Castex participate in a wreath laying ceremony, marking the anniversary of the November 13, 2015 attacks outside the stadium Stade de France in Saint Denis. Credit:AP

Victims of the November 2015 terror attacks on Paris began testifying on Tuesday, the first day of five weeks of testimony about that night from those at the soccer stadium, the cafes and bars, and the Bataclan concert hall.

Fourteen people are on trial in Paris, including the only surviving member of the Islamic State group cell that attacked the city that night in 2015. Another six people are being tried in absentia.
Acceldata, the world's first enterprise Data Observability Cloud founded by two Indian founders, has raised $35 million in Series B led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners with participation from new investor March Capital and existing investors Lightspeed, Sorenson Ventures, and Emergent Ventures.

This will be used tor expand its capabilities across data quality, data pipeline monitoring, and system infrastructure to enable enterprises to achieve operational excellence, innovation agility, and higher returns on their data initiatives.

In India, Acceldata will utilize 1/3rd of the fund in R&D and building cutting-edge products in the data observability space. The company is also committed to expanding its engineering team in Bengaluru and plans to increase the current headcount from 90 to 220 by the end of 2022.

Rohit Choudhary, Acceldata's CEO and co-founder said: "Our Data Observability Cloud is purpose-built to help businesses simplify complex data operations, expand data usage, and meet growing business requirements, all while reducing costs and increasing data engineering productivity."

Acceldata's products offer observability across data quality, data pipelines, and system infrastructure, in real-time, using AI and machine learning algorithms. This helps Acceldata customers, like PhonePe (Walmart), Oracle, True Corporation, and PubMatic eliminate data complexity, scale data usage, and generate improved business outcomes.

"Acceldata leads the market with a cloud platform that delivers true data observability that is continuous and comprehensive for complex enterprises," said George Mathew, Managing Director, Insight Partners.

In October 2020, when Acceldata raised its Series A round led by Sorenson Ventures, the company had tripled its revenue from 2019 to 2020 and added a variety of new Global 2000 customers, including Oracle, PubMatic, and True Digital, among many others. Acceldata now has customers in eight countries and more than 100 employees across the world.

"Data pipelines are like modern supply chains for digital information. When they break, business grinds to a halt. Yet no one was providing an effective data observability stack, and most don't have the time, resources, or capabilities to build their own." said Ashwin Rajeeva, Acceldata's Co-Founder and CTO.
Bajaj Auto and Pierer Industrie, its partner in KTM AG, on Wednesday announced that they have finalised a plan to simplify shareholding in premium bike maker KTM through a share swap deal. Following this, Bajaj will become an indirect stakeholder in other brands of the Austrian partner  including Husqvarna, GasGas, and Ramon.

Earlier, Bajaj Auto and Pierer Mobility AG (PMAG) held around 48 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively, in KTM AG. Bajajs shareholding was through its Netherlands-based subsidiary Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV (Baibhv).

As part of the two-step deal, Bajaj Auto has transferred 46.5 per cent of its total stake in KTM to PTW Holding AG, the majority shareholder in PMAG. In return, Baibhv has been granted a 49.9 per cent stake in PTW Holding AG.

In a second step, the 46.5 per cent KTM shares now held by PTW Holding AG will be contributed to Pierer Mobility AG (PMAG) against the granting of new shares in the context of a capital increase through contributions in kind, the company said in a statement.

After this transaction was executed, the shareholding of PMAG in KTM AG has increased from 51.7 per cent to around 98.2 per cent. The Pierer Group will continue to retain sole control over PMAG. On Wednesday, all the related parties signed a contract in this regard, the firm said.

PMAGs board resolved on Wednesday to execute a capital increase worth Euro 895 million, corresponding to 49.9 per cent of the existing share capital, by making use of the authorised capital.

In this context, 11.26 million shares will be issued at a price of Euro 79.50 per share, which is higher than the current stock price.

The capital increase will be carried out exclusively against contribution in kind of KTM shares by PTW Holding AG and under exclusion of subscription rights of the other shareholders. The capital increase will be executed, subject to the approval of the supervisory board, in the second half of October, the statement added.

Though talks were initiated on this in 2019, they were put on hold. However, in December 2020, Bajaj Auto informed the exchanges that it had revived the talks.

The tie-up between Bajaj Auto and KTM dates back to 2012, when it forayed into the Indian market through the launch of the 200 Duke. At present, it has 11 products, including the 390 Duke, RC 200, and RC 390.

According to reports, KTM sold 4,389 units here in August, down 38 per cent compared to the 7,116 units sold in August 2020, mainly because the market was anticipating its new RC range.
M P Birla group flagship, Birla Corporation, will increase its annual production capacity to 30 million tonnes (mt) by 2027.

Addressing shareholders at the companys annual general meeting on Wednesday, Harsh Vardhan Lodha, chairman of the MP Birla group, said, Plans are afoot to reach a target of 30 mt by 2027, adding that details of the plans would be announced once they are firmed up and approved by the board of directors.

The increase to 30 mt is a new target set by the company, which had earlier said that it would raise its production capacity to 25 mt by 2025.

Birla Corporations current production capacity is 15.6 mt, which will go up to almost 20 mt by the end of the current fiscal year, when its greenfield 3.9 mt plant at Mukutban, near Nagpur, is commissioned.

The Mukutban project was disrupted last year due to the flight of migrant labour. The delay, coupled with an increase in commodity prices and Covid-related costs had led to a cost escalation from Rs 2,450 crore to Rs 2,744 crore.

The state-of-the-art plant will receive GST incentives to the extent of our capital investment for 20 years and it is expected to significantly improve your companys profitability once volumes pick up over the next couple of years, Lodha told shareholders.

During the year, the company also concluded a project to expand the capacity at one of its key units, the new Chanderia Works. At a cost of Rs 150 crore, the annual production capacity was scaled up by around 0.5 mt at Chanderia.

However, even as embarks on its next phase of growth, Lodha said, the company would as a policy, remain conservative on borrowings.

The company took advantage of the lower interest cycle to refinance and renegotiate loans worth almost Rs 1,800 crore, bringing down the borrowing cost from an average cost of 9.26 per cent to 7.83 per cent.

Lodha said that the company would expand in markets where it has an edge over competition and demand for was projected to get stronger.

Compared with legacy assets of the company, the new plants are going to be more efficient and profitable. Lodha said, the plants of RCCPL Pvt Ltd (the erstwhile Reliance Cement Co Pvt Ltd which was acquired in 2016), subsidiary of Limited, are among the best in India judged by operating parameters.

On raw materials, Arvind Pathak, the companys newly appointed managing director and chief executive officer, said Limited has enough limestone reserves to last decades at its current scale of operations.

Pathak was appointed managing director and chief executive officer with effect from March 31, 2021. His appointment was placed before shareholders at the AGM for approval.

Among the six other resolutions, a promoter entity of the group, The Punjab Produce & Trading Co Pvt Ltd, proposed the candidature of Rameshwar Singh Thakur for the office of director of the company. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee and the board of Birla Corporation strongly recommended against the appointment of Thakur on grounds of conflict of interest, as Punjab Produce has ongoing litigations with the companies/entities belonging to M P Birla Group.

The notice to shareholders also mentioned that it was at the dictates of two of the three joint Administrator Pendente Lite (APLs) to the Estate of late Priyamvada Devi Birla Justice Mohit S Shah and A C Chakrabortti; the other joint APL, Mahendra Kumar Sharma was totally opposed to them.

Voting results on resolutions at the AGM are awaited.
Air conditioning and commercial refrigeration major Ltd on Wednesday said the company would invest around Rs 550 crore over the next few years for setting up a greenfield manufacturing unit at Sri City, in

Climatech, a newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary, has commenced construction of the new plant, which will be 'highly automated' and will ensure that the products manufactured are globally competitive, said a company statement.

The construction of the first phase of 30,000 sq meters will be completed by July 2022.

This facility will be operational by Q2FY23 and will primarily manufacture room ACs with a maximum capacity of 12 lakh units per annum, it added.

"The company plans to invest Rs 550 crores over the next few years on this plant spanning an area of 20 acres, in a phased manner," said Ltd.

The company is also planning to acquire IGBC Gold Rated Green Building certification for this plant.

Leveraging the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme by the Indian government, Blue Star Climatech has filed an application for manufacturing of Heat Exchangers and Sheet Metal components at this facility in

"The plant is located closer to Southern ports and this will enable speedy and efficient logistics management for the company," it said.

Besides, the new plant will benefit the local communities as it is expected to create employment opportunities for around 1,500 people.

Commenting on the development Blue Star Managing Director B Thiagarajan said: "Aligning ourselves to the Make in India' initiative and by leveraging on the PLI scheme by the Indian government, we intend to manufacture certain components in-house at this facility."



The plant is located closer to Southern ports and this will enable speedy and efficient logistics management for the company, it added.

Last week, Daikin Industries announced plans to set up its third manufacturing unit in India, at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, where it plans to manufacture ACs and its components and invest around Rs 1,000 crore.

(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.)
German packaged food major has acquired Noida-based start-up Kuppies to expand its presence in the ready-to-eat (RTE) segment in India. The Indian units of the multinational, which gets most of its revenue from food ingredients like mayonnaise, will be using Kuppies' manufacturing unit, its innovation centre and the brand to grow its presence in RTE cakes and desserts in the local market.

According to Oliver Mirza, managing director and CEO, India, the firm has set a target of generating Rs 300 crore in annual sales from the new segment within the next 5-7 years. The firm currenty rakes in some Rs 400 crore a year from its food ingredients and ready-to-cook mixes.

Incidentally, the firm gets about 75 per cent of its sales from 'Funfoods', a brand it had locally acquired in 2008.

With the acquisition, will be one of the latest MNCs to enter the packaged cakes market in India in recent times. Over the past three years, a host of FMCG majors like Mondelez, ITC, General Mills, among others, have entered the Rs 2,500 crore branded RTE cake market in India.
Exotel, a leading customer engagement company, has raised $35 million as a part of its series C from IIFL AMC, Sistema Asia Fund, CX Partners, Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund, and Arun Sarin, ex-CEO of Vodafone who has also joined the round as an angel investor and a mentor. Existing investors Blume Ventures and A91 Partners also participated in this round. The Bengaluru-based investment bank, IndigoEdge, was the exclusive banker for the transaction.

This fresh infusion of funds will be used primarily to boost the product offerings of the company. Exotel and tech firm Ameyo recently announced their merger. The combined entity will focus on building a full-stack customer engagement platform in the emerging markets to accelerate communication to the cloud and providing conversational AI capabilities for improved customer experience. The organisation is currently growing 70 per cent year-over-year and is at an ARR (annual recurring revenue) of $45 million.

Were building the market's first cloud-based full-stack engagement suite by bringing in Ameyos contact centre capabilities on top of Exotels cloud communication infrastructure, said Shivakumar Ganesan (Shivku), CEO and co-founder of Exotel. The platform will offer an easy way for businesses to communicate with customers over voice, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and video without losing context.

Sumit Jain, Senior Partner, Sistema Asia Fund said CPaaS (communications platform-as-a-service) is a $6 billion market in India and SEA (Southeast Asia) and one of the fastest-growing technology areas in the post-covid world.

Exotel has quietly emerged as the CPaaS platform of choice in India through their market-best reliability and comprehensive product suite, said Jain. We expect them to become a globally relevant platform in the years to come.

Sachin Bhatia, CEO of Ameyo said the new allows Exotel to invest further in bringing seamless customer engagement on the cloud to emerging geographies. The convergence of customer data coupled with conversational AI capabilities will enable enterprises to monitor conversations, build smarter bots and assist customer service teams in real-time, said Bhatia.

Exotel was co-founded by three engineers to help businesses bring order and efficiency to customer communication. It is working with some of the fastest-growing in the emerging markets such as Ola, Flipkart and GoJek. Exotel with its voice, SMS infra, and Ameyo with its omnichannel contact centre capabilities help manage their customer engagement over the cloud. Exotels cloud-based solution simplifies customer communication for over 6000 in India, the USA, SE Asia, Middle East, Australia, and Africa.
Vedantu, the pioneer in live online tutoring, has raised $100 million in its Series E round, led by Singapore based impact investing fund ABC World Asia. The round also saw strong participation from existing investors  Coatue, Tiger Global, GGV Capital, Westbridge among others.

The Bengaluru-based edtech firm has been valued at $1 billion in the latest round of funding, making it the newest member of the coveted unicorn club. It is the 28th to achieve unicorn status in 2021 alone. It is now the fifth such edtech firm in India. The also underlines Vedantus status as the largest K-12 Live online tutoring company in India.

The funds will be primarily used to strengthen product engineering functions as well as expanding into newer categories through both organic and inorganic routes. It would also help it to compete with edtech players such as Byjus, Unacademy, Simplilearn, UpGrad and Amazon Academy and tap the country's $180 billion education sector that has gone online to adapt to the new reality. Vamsi Krishna, chief executive officer and co-founder of Vedantu, said the firm is also planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) by 2024.

We want to create a company that outlasts our lives and continues to innovate for decades to come, said Krishna. Our vision is simple: Unleash the potential in every child. We will continue to innovate to reach as many students as possible and create 10x better experiences and outcomes for every child at Vedantu.

Vedantus latest round will close over the next few weeks, with more investors joining in subsequent tranches. The Rainmaker Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Vedantu on their fundraising.

Challenging the status quo in Indias K-12 tutoring space, Vedantu was the first company to offer Live online classes in 2014 and is credited with creating the category. It has continued to be a pioneer in the space with several first-time innovations that include Wave its proprietary Live teaching platform, and the 2-teacher model. Both these innovations are playing a big role in improving student outcomes for the company.

Some of the companys innovations have been granted patents in the US. The company looks to continue to innovate further on the Live teaching format and penetrate deeper in the K-12 segment by reaching more students.

Today, Vedantu offers tutoring courses to young students from 3 years old to 18 years old, as well as preparation for competitive exams such as IIT-JEE, NEET, Commerce, CBSE, ICSE, and state exams such as Maharashtra boards. Through its newest offering and fastest-growing vertical, SuperKids, it offers extracurricular classes like English speaking, reading, and coding.

An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, Krishna has been a teacher for over 10 years and has now emerged as a seasoned edtech expert. In the early stage of his career, Krishna, along with his IITian friends Pulkit Jain and Anand Prakash, had founded his first educational venture called Lakshya, an offline test preparation organisation, in 2006. Lakshya was subsequently acquired by MTEducare in 2012. After the acquisition, they founded Vedantu, which has now emerged as Indias leading Live online tutoring firm. The name Vedantu is formed by two Sanskrit words signifying a 'knowledge network', where a student can tap into and learn from a teacher, anytime and from anywhere.

Back in 2014, when we held our first Live class, nobody believed this would work, said Krishna, chief executive officer and co-founder, Vedantu. It is super satisfying to see this format becoming mainstream and Vedantu leading the way in innovative online delivery experiences.

Each month, over 35 million users access Vedantu through its app and web for free. Its YouTube channel gets 65 million views, the highest in the K-12 segment for any educational company in India. Students also access Vedantu through its dedicated Channels on Airtel TV and TATA Sky. Vedantu catered to over 200,000 paying students last year, a 300 per cent growth over the previous year. This growth was accompanied by a revenue increase of 4.5x over the previous year, making it the fastest growing company in this space and the overall second-largest company in K-12 in terms of revenue and number of students.

Sugandhi Matta, chief impact officer, ABC World Asia, said Vedantu embodies its investment themes of providing better access to quality education and using digital technology to improve lives and livelihoods. Matta said in India, has the potential to extend the scope of Right to Education to students in the underserved community and capture the Next Half Billion income group, representing over half of the countrys student population.

With edtech experiencing meteoric growth in India, Vedantu as the pioneer and category creator in live online tutoring is driving the tectonic shift towards online learning, said Matta.
Audio-based converMentza sational learning startup has raised $400,000 in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of Indias largest angel investment platforms.

The funds raised will be utilised in building a healthy base of experts and curious learners, building an efficient translation of conversations into content and for broad-basing the platform regionally and across interest communities. The start-up has over 23,000 registered users and has already generated over 60K minutes of content.

Mentza is a one of its kind audio-based conversational learning platform that wants to engage users through high quality focused 20-minute conversations across diverse topics. Conversations are recorded with features like highlight, 40-second snippets and curated content recommendation.

Ankur Mittal, co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, says, Mentzas model of delivering curated content in a 20 minute capsule is a powerful idea. Audio is a powerful tool that allows you to learn and participate while multi-tasking. Mentza is looking to build an audio-focused conversational learning platform in a community setting, led by a team of strong second-time founders with diverse backgrounds and strengths

Mentzas team has a cumulative work experience of 80 years with deep expertise across tech, design, cognitive sciences, research and marketing. The team is using their background and knowledge in data science to influence user engagement and retention. They have built a robust and democratised short-form live audio platform with features like live highlighter, audio portfolios and creators studio. Mentza has recently announced creator partnerships with Rolling Stones and Harper Collins and is in talks with MICA faculty & students to engage them on the platform

Our mission is to get every growth-minded person to engage in at least one Mentza conversation every day, thus making learning effortless, continuous and social. IPVs investor community has CXOs who understand the need for continuous learning in todays challenging growth environments. Thus, making them the ideal strategic partners in our vision, said Anurag Vaish, founder, Mentza.

Audio content market in India is at an inflection point. As of December 2019, 40 million Indian internet users had listened to podcasts. The audio-based content has tremendous potential to catch up with video and text formats for the simple reason that one can listen while multitasking. EdTech is still going through its round of innovations and needs more effortless and safer formats and live audio addresses that bridge the gap. Mentza believes that learning is easier and richer in conversations than planned monologues.


IT firm on Wednesday said its US subsidiary will acquire North Carolina-based Software Corporation International (SCI) and its affiliate, Fusion360 for USD 53 million - a move that will bolster its expertise in serving banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) clients.

The Pune-based company has also announced the of the business of New Jersey-based Shree Partners, including its subsidiary in India for USD 6.87 million.

Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Sandeep Kalra said the company continues to see rapid acceleration of digital transformation with its financial services clients, requiring not only technology but domain expertise in areas like Payments and regulatory compliance.

"With the addition of SCI and Fusion360, we are forming a new Payments business unit and expanding our BFSI expertise as well as client portfolio," he added.

In a regulatory filing, Persistent said Inc, USA - a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company has entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement with Software Corporation International and its affiliate, Fusion360 LLC to acquire Software Corporation and Fusion360 (together referred to as SCI).

The is subject to customary closing conditions which are expected to be completed within two weeks, it added.

The total purchase consideration payable for the of SCI is USD 53 million, which includes an upfront payment of USD 34.45 million to shareholders of SCI (subject to customary adjustments for working capital, debt, and cash on closing), earnout (shareholders of SCI will be eligible for a maximum amount of USD 5.96 million per annum over next two years) and retention payment.

The filing noted that the earnout amount is contingent on the achievement of certain performance thresholds.

Key employees and consultants of SCI will be eligible for an aggregate amount of USD 2.21 million per annum at the end of year 1, year 2, and year 3 (retention payment).

SCI's consolidated revenue stood at USD 17.08 million in CY2020.

Talking about the deal with Shree Partners, Kalra said the transaction expands "our Cloud and IT Infrastructure capabilities in BFSI and Travel and Hospitality".

"Importantly, these acquisitions bring us new points of presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the National Capital Region (NCR), India, bringing in new digital transformation talent to serve our clients, he added.

The filing noted that Persistent Systems has entered into an agreement with Shree Infosoft to acquire its business.

Along with this transaction, Persistent - through its wholly-owned subsidiary in the US - will acquire certain assets from Shree Partners LLC, USA, which is the parent company of Shree Infosoft.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, which are expected to be completed within 3-5 weeks, the filing said.

Shree Partners and Shree Infosoft had consolidated revenues of USD 7.6 million for the year ended March 31, 2021.

"The acquisition provides strategic benefits by enabling Persistent to deliver critical services to a strategic client which is a leader in the global claims management industry. Shree's expertise also expands Persistent's BFSI footprint in the cloud, data, and infrastructure domains," the filing said.

This acquisition also adds a new delivery location for Persistent in the National Capital Region (NCR), it added.

The purchase consideration payable for the acquisition of business and assets of Shree Infosoft and Shree Partners LLC is USD 6.87 million, the filing said.

In addition to the upfront of USD 2.37 M in the US and USD 1 million (Rs 7.35 crore) in India, contingent consideration will include earnout (shareholders of Shree Partners LLC will be eligible for a maximum amount of USD 1.5 million per annum over the next two years) and retention payment, wherein key employees will be eligible for an aggregate amount of USD 500,000 over the next three years.

The earnout component is contingent on the achievement of certain performance thresholds, the filing 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.)
Ltd said on Wednesday Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan met all regulatory criteria for his appointment as an independent director, pending a shareholder approval on the decision.

The California State Teachers' Retirement Fund (CalSTRS, a shareholder of the Indian conglomerate, had last week decided to vote against the move based on U.S. proxy advisory research firm Glass Lewis' recommendation, Business Standard had reported last week.

The voting to confirm Al-Rumayyan's appointment for a period of three years will end on October 19.

In a stock exchange filing, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL said the appointment will "help strengthen the Board's diversity and skill-sets and benefit Reliance through the transition from oil to chemicals and the aim to achieve Net Carbon Zero by 2035".

"H.E. Yasir Al Rummayyan is an accomplished global business leader. H.E. is the Non-Executive Chairman of (SA). H. E. 's experience encompasses over 25 years working in some of Saudi Arabia's prominent financial institutions, including as the Governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. His experience encompasses international business and governance experience, expertise in finance, global energy industry and insights on emerging technology-led business models. This will help strengthen the Board's diversity and skill-sets and benefit Reliance through the transition from oil to chemicals and the aim to achieve Net Carbon Zero by 2035," said Reliance in a statement.

Rumayyan's appointment has no connection with the contemplated transaction with Saudi Aramco, Reliance had sought to clarify.

"The appointment of H. E. Yasir Al Rumayyan has no connection with the contemplated transaction with Further, as approved by the shareholders, the O2C business of RIL is being spun off to a subsidiary and as per the terms of the proposed transaction, Saudi Aramco will participate in the equity of the O2C subsidiary. The O2C Subsidiary Board may have nominees of Saudi Aramco to protect its interest... RIL has been and shall continue to adhere to the best practices of corporate governance in all matters including appointment of independent directors," said RIL.

CalSTRS has decided to oppose the appointment of Yasir Al-Rumayyan due to his position in Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund (PIF), as its governor, as well as in Aramco.

PIF has already invested Rs 9,555 crore in Reliance Retail and Rs 11,367 crore in RILs Jio Platforms. Aramco and RIL have been in talks for another equity deal that involves 20 per cent of Reliances oil-to-chemical business.

An on June 30, 2020, CalSTRS held 5.3 million fully and partly paid shares of RIL, according to its website. CalSTRS is the Americas second largest public pension fund with assets totalling approximately $318.4 billion as of August 31, 2021.

CalSTRSs opposition is based on a report by Glass, Lewis & Co., an American proxy advisory services company, that claims to advise more than 1,300 clients. According to Glass, Lewis & Co, its clients include a majority of the worlds largest pension plans, mutual funds and asset managers, who collectively manage more than $40 trillion in assets.

Speaking at the 44th annual general meeting (AGM) of RIL, Ambani said Al-Rumayyan joining our board is also the beginning of internationalisation of Reliance. You will hear more about our international plans in the times to come.

According to Glass, Lewis & Co., since Al-Rumayyan has a key role in the operations of Aramco and PIF, he does not qualify to be an independent director. Under the Indian law, an independent director cannot have a role in any company that has a business or equity partnership with the company that intends to appoint him or her. As PIF has a stake in RILs subsidiaries and Aramco is looking to buy stake in Reliance OTC Ltd, Al-Rumayyans independence on the RIL board is under question.
The recent ruling on differential voting right by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sent cheer across the sector, but many startups would still wait and watch before they decide on their listing plans options.

has said that promoters/founders who have net worth of Rs 1,000 crore can now have superior voting rights. A long pending demand from the ecosystem, with this ruling many founders and investors that Business Standard spoke to said that India is now at par with ruling in several other overseas markets, especially the US.

However, many players from the ecosystem also said that while this is a huge boost for tech startups wanting to list in India, whether this will reduce the number of wanting to list overseas will need to be evaluated.

These are very interesting times to be in the Indian startup ecosystem. I am very excited to see firms like Zomato, Freshworks (which went for IPO) and many other lined up to go public. It is fascinating to see their success and IPO, especially in India, said Vamsi Krishna, chief executive officer and co-founder of edtech firm Vedantu, which just turned into a unicorn or a startup with a valuation of over $1 billion, after a $100 million funding round.

Vedantu is planning to go for an by 2024. But Krishna said it is still early and one of the advantages the company has is the time to process, how these are faring, and how these rules and regulations are also shaping up.

Because Vedantu is an Indian brand and we primarily operate here, my preference would be to list it in India and if everything continues to be as exciting as it is now, said Krishna.

Industry experts and players also said that listing in the US or international market is also about the valuation and access to funding. For companies that have India focused businesses, especially consumer-tech firms with focus on the Indian market, listing in India now can surely be an option, especially after But then there are SaaS players who are better valued in the US markets. Or Startups have got into a structure that makes it conducive to list overseas. We will have to wait and watch, said an investor of a VC firm on condition of anonymity.

One of the bones of contention even in this is the threshold of Rs 1000 crore. In 2019, had issued a framework for the issuance of superior voting rights shares. However, not many companies were able to take its advantage as it was considered too restrictive. Earlier, such shares could be issued only by individuals who were part of a promoter group with net worth of less than Rs 500 crore. The threshold has now been increased to Rs 1,000 crore.

Rameesh Kailasam, CEO, Indiatech.org, which has been working with for the past three years to bring in regulations that favour startup listing in India said: We welcome SEBI's decisions to further relax the threshold on SR shares and timelines for their issuance. Our stand has been that ideally the net worth clause should not be applicable to any first time entrepreneur or any founder who has not listed before in India.

Various industry bodies have suggested to SEBI that the threshold limit should not be there for first time entrepreneurs or for founders who have not listed any of their startups before. Since SEBI has concerns when it comes to old economy promoter driven companies it has been taking step by step action on this.

"The good thing Sebi has done is that the "net worth" of your securities in the company that is giving you these DVRs (Differential Voting Rights shares) will not be counted. So what that means, say in Zomato's example, that they will take Deepinder's net-worth, they will not include the worth of shares. They will look at all the other assets except for shares. If its less than, let's say 1000 crores, he can actually go for these DVR shares. It's just that it's a huge positive step forward and this also makes India more attractive right now, said Siddarth Pai, founding partner of 3one4 Capital.

He further added: The question coming up in everyone's mind is when they do that early liquidity, can they not exit not at 1000 crore value but 900 crore value (exit gain) so that we remain below the 1000 Crore threshold. So that becomes the only change that I see people actually making."

Top venture capitalist Sanjay Swamy, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners said its great to see a conscious effort by Sebi to make India listings easier, while aligning the founders for the long-term. He said promoter ownership and control is an important factor in a late-stage or publicly traded company - and this is an important construct for tech companies where equity financing which is a critical requirement but results in promoter dilution.

As early-stage backers, at Prime, we would love to see more and more focus on ensuring that doing business in India is easier for all founders throughout the lifecycle of a company - setup, name choice, banking, funding rounds, to exits via trade sale, or in some unfortunate cases shutdown, said Swamy.
Global energy major launched its first Sustainability linked (SLB) and raised S$675 million. The company it is the first and largest such issuance in the Southeast Asia.

This also marks the latest phase in the transition to a net-zero future by the company, said in a statement. The SLB issuance was anchored by IFC with an investment of S$150 million. This is the first SLB investment by IFC.

Unlike traditional green bonds, SLBs involve issuers pledging to improve their performance against tailor-made ESG (environmental, social and governance) targets.

"Sembcorp, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Financial Services Pte. Ltd., priced its inaugural SLB today anchored by an investment of S$150 million from IFC. It also marks IFCs first investment globally as an investor in a SLB, with the partnership between Sembcorp and IFC set to support more inclusive economic growth and private sector participation, while fostering sustainable business practices and significant employment opportunities" the company said in a statement.

The ten-and-a-half-year Singapore dollar bond was at a coupon rate of 2.66 per cent.

The company said net proceeds from the SLB will be used for the purposes of financing the general corporate working capital requirements of Sembcorp and its subsidiaries (Group), refinancing the Groups existing debt and/or financing or refinancing of the Groups renewable energy, or potentially, other sustainable projects.

Sembcorp has more than 3.3 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity comprising solar, wind and energy storage solutions in key markets such as Singapore, China, India, UK and Vietnam, with a target to quadruple its installed renewable energy capacity to 10GW by 2025 from 2.6GW in 2020.

Wong Kim Yin, Group President & CEO of Sembcorp Industries said, The issuance of our inaugural SLB underscores this commitment. We are heartened that IFC has chosen our issuance to be its first investment in a SLB globally. Their support validates our strategy and spurs us on in our drive toward supporting the global energy transition and a low-carbon economy.

Sembcorp in May this year announced plans to expand the profit contribution from its sustainable solutions portfolio to 70 per cent (from 40 per cent) by 2025.

It aims to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30 per cent; its integrated urban solutions portfolio a CAGR of 10 per cent.

By 2025, Sembcorp is aiming to have a gross installed renewable energy capacity of 10 gigawatt (Gw). Its current installed renewable energy capacity (comprising wind, solar, and energy storage) is 2.6 Gw.

Besides China and Southeast Asia, the company is placing its bet on India to drive growth.

Speaking with Business Standard, Vipul Tuli, chief executive officer-South Asia, Sembcorp Industries, had said India will be a significant contributor.

"India is two-third of the global renewable portfolio today. There will be three markets that will grow - India, China, and Southeast Asia. While the percentage share of India might decline, in absolute numbers, it will grow substantially," said Tuli.
State Bank of India on Wednesday said it is trying to work out a way to finance start ups as current rules allow banks to fund only profitable

Start ups raise equity fund to run their business and promoters are forced to dilute stake as funding is not available for the sector because they are loss making in the initial years, a senior official of the bank said.

We are struggling to fund start ups. Bank norms and rules allow debt funding to profitable ones. As initially are loss making, they are to be funded based on the viability of the idea only. We are trying a way out, Managing Director - International Banking, Technology & Subsidiaries, Ashwini Kumar Tewari said at the annual general meeting of The Bengal Chamber.

He said the bank was doing equity funding through a subsidiary Ventures and recognized that the country needs to support the start up culture.

The number of government recognized start ups under the 'Startup India' initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2016, has grown nearly 85 times. Their number has increased from 504 in 2016 to overall 42,733 in 2020, according to the commerce ministry data. 9231695003



Speaking about the economy Tewari said despite a healthy recovery the country's growth will be lower than 2019 due to the pandemic.

Large businesses are doing well. The problem is in the SMEs and the small sector. Large corporations are repaying more. Credit growth is driven by retail, he said.

Referring to gold loans, he said they are not popular in India but there are a lot of them which indicate the pain the normal people have suffered. "If gold loan is increasing, it is good for business but it is also a sign of the helplessness of normal people, Tewari said.

The Bengal Chamber launched its Ease of Doing Business app during the day for industry stakeholders. Subscriber members as well as non-members can now make queries and take the benefit of experts of the Chamber in diverse areas.

(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.)
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Indias largest IT services player, is aiming to help families that got impacted by Covid-19 and lost a loved one through its programme the 'Youth Program'.

With the aim of helping youth rebuild their livelihoods and provide pathways to employment, has included special programmes that focus on training the youth in quantitative aptitude, business communication skills, programming and domain skills. Right from training to finding employment, is supporting the candidates and grooming them for the careers of tomorrow. Nominated members from these bereaved families are included in the ongoing virtual Y.E.P batches across the country.

has received 1,384 nominations, who are being supported by over 700 TCS associates in their learning and journey. Over 80% of the nominees are from the states of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

The employees are also nominating suitable candidate to join the program, who are currently struggling due to the impact of this pandemic. Early days into the initiative, TCS has received over 1,300 nominations, of which over 85% were either friends or relatives of the employees, said a company spokesperson.

For FY21, the company has impacted over 4,800 students directly in the IT skills and about 9,200 benefited from this program in the non-IT segment, with 56 external trainers and professionals through skill building, partnerships and

Since inception almost 124,000 youth were trained with over 24,800 finding employment in private and public sector companies, including 13,800 in TCS.
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With nearly 75 per cent population aged below 50 years at risk of suffering from cardiac arrest, heart complications are a major endemic that India cannot afford to ignore, say doctors on World Heart Day.

Studies by medical professionals across the country indicate that at least 25 per cent of Indians aged below 40-years are at the risk of suffering from or any other serious heart-related complications; and this risk increases to 50 per cent of population between 40 and 50 years of age.

Doctors strongly recommend that India must encourage healthy eating and active living among the youth and middle-aged population. Steps must be taken to ensure the surge in cases in relatively young population is arrested on an urgent basis. Increase in stress levels and improper lifestyle are two major avoidable reasons for the rise in heart-related ailments.

"India's rating is poor on many social parameters, and this is a major reason for more and more people being pushed further deep into stressful situations with each passing year. These societal problems coupled with personal issues are major cause for people suffering from mental stress which has a direct impact on their heart. While more men are considered victims of this problem, women are more vulnerable, and mortality rate is also higher among women in our country," said M. Sai Sudhakar, Chief Interventional Cardiologist, Gleneagles Global Hospital.

V. Hariram, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, SLG Hospitals pointed out that Indians are habitual consumers of trans fat, and this along with poor lifestyle, irregular working times, alcoholism, smoking tobacco, increases risk of heart disease and makes such individuals highly vulnerable. "There is a considerable increase in the number of sudden cases which could be due to hormonal imbalance that could trigger diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. It is important people do not ignore any early warning signs of a potential heart problem and seek medical advice in time," he added

Rajeev Garg, Senior Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Aware Gleneagles Global Hospital believes that certain simple yet highly effective steps could possibly decrease the risk of heart attack among young Indians. "Regular walk and moderation in food habits are the simplest yet powerful habits people can inculcate to reduce risk to their hearts considerably. Every individual has a different body make and has a different ability to bare stress but maintaining proper lifestyle and staying physically active is the best one can do to reduce risk," he said

Doctors strongly recommend that people must not ignore early warning signs like breathlessness, chest pain, excessive sweating, dizziness etc., and seek medical care in time. It is also important that obese individual and those with pre-existing health complications quit smoking and stop consuming alcohol (if they have both these habits). It is also advised that young people in 30s with a family history of cardiovascular diseases undergo medical checkups regularly.

--IANS

ms/in

(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 Delhi government has the power and jurisdiction to float the New Excise Policy 2021, the Delhi High Court observed on Wednesday and refused to stay the closure of retail vends having L7 licences for the sale of Indian liquor in private sector under the old policy with effect from September 30.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D N Patel, dealing with an application by one such licence holder Rattan Singh - for stay on the closure, said that prima facie, the new mechanism did not violate any of his rights.

The application was part of the petition seeking to extend the licence in parity with other categories under the provisions of the Delhi Excise Act.

Government ought to be given free movement in the joints. It ought to be kept in mind that change is inevitable and excise policy is no exception. New experiments are always being permitted in matters of policy. Prima facie, we do not want to prejudice the resultant effect of the policy, said the bench which also comprised Justice Jyoti Singh.

Prima facie, the respondent has all the powers and jurisdiction to float a new excise policy under the Delhi Excise Act, 2009 and its Rules, it added.

The court further stated that to withdraw from the sale and distribution, in a phased manner, of liquor was a policy decision of the Delhi government under the new regime, which has its own benefits.

Prima facie, the mechanism which is going to be adopted under the new policy does not violate any right of the petitioner... Even if L7 licences are brought to an end with effect from September 30, there is no prima facie case in favour of the petitioner because there is no discrimination, the court said.

The court stated that the public at large was not going to suffer on account of the closure as other categories of vends would continue to operate.

There are different types of licences for different purposes, from L1 to L35... Public at large is not going to suffer. Other licences would continue. Public will have to move out of their comfort zone. Everything will not be at the doorstep when there is transformation, it remarked.

Out of 849 vends under the new policy, 260 vends have L7 and L10 licences (retail sale of Indian and foreign liquor), the court noted.

Senior counsels Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, informed the court that with effect from November 16, even the government vends would close and it was thus necessary that there is a peaceful and harmonious transition into the new policy.

Senior lawyer Singhvi added that from November 16, bidders who have succeeded in the auction process under the new excise policy would start their operation.

Senior counsel Mehra asserted that on account of the new policy, the revenue has increased by 50 per cent, to Rs 9,500 crore and an additional Rs 1,000 crore was also expected.

Counsel for the petitioner sought a stay on the expiry of his L7 licence on the ground that the decision of closure was unilateral, arbitrary and in violation of the Delhi Excise Act.

Saying that it was not in agreement with the petitioner at this stage, the court dismissed the stay application while passing the interim order and listed the case for further hearing on October 21.

Several petitions are pending before the court against the New Excise Policy on the ground that it is illegal, unfair, arbitrary and violative of the Delhi Excise Act, 2009.

Last month, the court had orally stated that the actions taken by the Delhi government pursuant to its New Excise Policy 2021 will be subject to the outcome of petitions challenging the new regime.

In July, the court had refused to stay the new policy on the petition by Readymade Plaza India Pvt Ltd which contended that the new regime would lead to complete monopoly of the few big players.

The Delhi government has defended New Excise Policy 2021, saying that the new regime would generate optimum revenue and ensure ease of doing business while eliminating cartelization, proxy players and monopoly.

In its response to the pending petitions, it said that privatization of government liquor vends and re-distribution of all liquor vends equitably across the capital would most certainly lead to a manifold increase in free competition and overwhelm existing cartels in the market.

Asserting that the citizens of India have no fundamental right to trade in liquor, the government said that the Excise Policy 2021-22 was formulated in larger public interest and since it is a matter of economic policy, it does not warrant judicial interference.

Licence regarding home delivery of liquor has been in existence for long and would now result in less overcrowding outside the liquor store/shops, it is added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A well-marked low pressure area over south was likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm, the said on Wednesday, and asked fishermen not to venture into the Arabian Sea off the state coast and suggested total suspension of fishing activities till October 2.

It also asked fishermen who were out in the sea to return to the coast by Wednesday evening.

Several parts of south and Saurashtra region received heavy rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted more widespread showers in the state in the next two days.

A few places in Amreli, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Jamnagar districts of Saurashtra, as well as Anand, Bharuch, among others, likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy rainfall during the next two days, the said in its latest forecast.

In a special bulletin issued in the afternoon, the said the remnants of cyclonic 'Gulab' lay as a well-marked low pressure area over south region and the adjoining Gulf of Khambhat at 8.30 am on Wednesday.

"It is very likely to move west-northwestwards, emerge into the northeast Arabian Sea and intensify into a depression by Thursday. It is then very likely to move further west-northwestwards and intensify into a cyclonic during the subsequent 24 hours. Thereafter, it is likely to continue to move west-northwestwards towards PakistanMakran coast, moving away from the Indian coast," it said.

The IMD warned fishermen not to venture into the north Arabian Sea off Gujarat coast from Wednesday to Saturday and suggested total suspension of fishing activities there during the period.

It also asked fishermen who were out in the sea to return to the coast and move to safer places by Wednesday evening.

Gujarat has so far received 90 per cent of its average annual rainfall, the state's Special Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.

In the 24-hour period ending at 6 am on Wednesday, Surat's Umarpada taluka received 218 mm rainfall and Palsana got 192 mm rain.

Several parts of Dangs, Valsad, Narmada, Ahmedabad, Anand, Tapi and other districts also received very heavy showers on Tuesday, the SEOC said.

In six hours since 6 am Wednesday, heavy rainfall was recorded in parts of Bharuch and Navsari districts in south Gujarat, and Amreli and Bhavnagar in Saurashtra, as per the SEOC data.

Bharuch taluka of the district received 95 mm rainfall, Rajula in Amreli recorded 78 mm, and Jafrabad in Amreli district 69 mm rainfall.

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A group of six investors with a combined $4 trillion of assets under management, including Fidelity International, said on Wednesday it aims to step up engagement with big Asian like banks and energy producers to ensure they have a road map to meet targets.

Initial engagement will focus on carbon risk and coal at banks and coal-exposed power companies, the group of investors, facilitated by Singapore-based advisor Research & Engagement (ARE), said in a statement.

The move comes as investors become more active in the field of environmental, social and corporate (ESG) governance, helping to shape firms' climate commitments to better manage that risk for their clients. ESG-related steps they have taken include backing activist shareholder resolutions and voting on board members and remuneration.

At Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L)'s annual shareholder meeting in May, nearly a third of shareholders backed a resolution filed by an activist group, but rejected by the board, that wants the company to set short- and medium-term targets to cut absolute emissions.

The six investors include BMO Global Asset Management EMEA, Fidelity International, Dutch pension fund PGGM, Britain-based Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), Aviva Investors and Legal & General Investment Management.

"Over the past year we have seen encouraging developments in sustainability-related business practices and policies, such as a raft of net zero announcements," Mirza Baig, global head of ESG investments at Aviva Investors, said in the statement.

"In reality, there is still a stark mismatch between where we are today and what is required to ensure that the objectives of the Paris Agreement (on goals) are met," he said. "There is a huge opportunity for Asian to take the lead in tackling the climate emergency."

The group has already begun engagement with including China power firms Huaneng and Huadian. Huaneng and Huadian did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The investor group will encourage companies such as banks to commit to concrete actions like exiting from financing the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels, and stopping financing fossil-fuel expansion and related infrastructure.

Measures would also include encouraging Asian power utilities to set out plans to bring their businesses in line with Paris Agreement targets.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and China team; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

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The India Meteorological Department has predicted an intense spell of rain or thundershower accompanied with gusty wind over and adjoining areas during the next 3-4 hours as cyclonic storm 'Gulab' is likely to reach the West Bengal coast on Wednesday.

"An intense spell of rain or thundershower accompanied with gusty wind 30-40 kmph is likely to continue over Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, East and West Midnapur, Jhargram, Howrah, Hooghly, east and west Midnapur, East and West Bardhaman, Birbhum districts of West Bengal during next 3-4 hours from 0700 hours IST of today the 29th September' 2021," the IMD said.

Earlier on Saturday director of IMD GK Das informed that the cyclonic storm Gulab is likely to reach the West Bengal coast around September 29.

"South Bengal is likely to have enhanced weather activity particularly in terms of heavy rainfall and wind on September 28-29. Heavy rainfall is expected over Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, East and West Medinipur, Jhargram, Howrah, Hooghly on September 28," Das said.

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The government has extended the tenure of Mangu Singh as the managing director of the Rail Corporation till March 31, 2022, according to an official order issued on Wednesday.

The extension comes amid the ongoing work on Ph-IV of the network, as new construction and operations were severely hit earlier due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns it had induced.

Singh's tenure as MD of began from January 1, 2012 after his predecessor E Sreedharan had handed over charge to him on December 31, 2011.

"The Govt. of NCT of Delhi, in accordance with the provisions of Article 130 of the Memorandum and Article of Association of the Rail Corporation Limited, and after obtaining concurrence of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Govt. of India vide letter dated 28.09.2021 is pleased to extend the tenure of Shri Mangu Singh as Managing Director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited up to 31.03.2022," reads the order.

The order has been issued by the transport department authorities of the Delhi government.

Delhi Metro's operations were halted for over five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020.

During the 169-day period when metro services were suspended starting March 22, 2020, the had suffered loss worth nearly Rs 1300 crore, sources had earlier said.

Following guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Delhi Metro had resumed operations in a graded manner on September 7, 2020 under Singh's leadership, and running the metro services while adhering to Covid norms to ensure safety of the public is challenging for the

In an interview to PTI in September 2020, Singh had said, "Restarting of services was not done on consideration of generating revenue or bringing ridership, but to connect people and contribute to revival of the economy".

Again, in 2021 amid the second wave of the pandemic which started in April, services were again suspended for a long hiatus, and were resumed from June 7 with limited capacity for seating passengers.

In the September 2020 interview, he had also said that the COVID-19 situation had affected the Delhi Metro's Ph-IV work, but the ongoing project would get delayed only by a couple of months and, therefore, "won't entail much cost escalation".

The Union Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in March 2019 had approved three out of the six corridors of the Delhi Metro's proposed Phase IV which will further improve connectivity in the capital.

Under approved segment of Phase-IV, 61.679-km of new metro lines shall be constructed across three different corridors comprising 45 metro stations. These new sections shall provide interconnectivity among the already operational lines of the Delhi Metro.

According to the government, the Mukundpur-Maujpur, R K Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aero City-Tughlakabad corridors were approved by the Cabinet.

The DMRC network's current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations including the Noida-Greater Noida Metro corridor and Rapid Metro.

Singh has contributed greatly in the project implementation of metros in Delhi and Kolkata and has been responsible for bringing revolutionary changes in the execution of large metro engineering projects (civil) within tight deadlines and budget, and is considered the foremost tunneling expert, the DMRC had earlier said.

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Highway 1, along the Sindh river, is abuzz with activity  the kind that is seen here only at the time of the annual Amarnath Yatra, a pilgrimage that has been on hold since 2019. The hectic pace of work is a result of the 14.15-km, all-weather India's longest road tunnel and Asia's longest bi-directional tunnel  being built.

And now the activity has gained further urgency with the Union government asking contractors to have the construction work finished and polished by 2023, well before the general election in 2024. Some modifications are likely, with the government looking to add an evacuation tunnel in the event of an emergency if the main tunnel gets blocked.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who inspected work on the highway from both the Kashmir and Ladakh side, drove through the 6.5-km Z-Morh tunnel that will shorten the distance between Srinagar and Sonamarg. (The Z in the name comes from the Z-shaped stretch of road between Sonamarg and Gangagir that this tunnel will replace.) This tunnel is being constructed by a special purpose vehicle from Lucknow-based Apco Infrastructure, Apco Shri Amarnath Pvt Ltd, on a hybrid annuity model.

The east end, or portal, of the Z-Morh tunnel overlooks the Lidder river, a tributary of Jhelum that flows through Kashmir. It starts at Chitrupura village in Kangan district and opens towards Sonamarg. And the west portal starts at Gagangir village in Kandhamal district towards Srinagar.

Beyond Sonamarg, the terrain gets even more treacherous as the highway winds along the Sindh river, which later merges with Jhelum at Shadipora. In this section of the highway, Megha Engineering is engaged in the project that comprises the twin Nilgrar tunnels and a The latter is located at 11,578 feet above sea level.

The Zojila tunnel is 12-metre-wide and 7.5 metre in height, of which 1.5-2 metre is for ventilation. Tunnels are designed with ventilation ducts to provide an outlet to harmful gases and for maintaining oxygen levels.





According to Gadkari, operationalisation of the Z-Morh and Zojila projects would make movement from Kullu and Manali in Himachal Pradesh to Srinagar seamless. I have given the construction company a new deadline  December 2023. I told them that it should be completed before the 2024 elections. All work should be over before 2024," Gadkari said.

The Ladakh region, which borders China, can be accessed from both Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. Every year, as winter sets in from November, the tourist town of Sonamarg and the highway on the Kashmir side get covered with snow. The local population moves downhill during the November to March period and returns only after severe weather conditions ease.

Sonamarg is usually busy with tourists. But the last three years, since the was suspended, have been dull. The pilgrimage that starts from Baltal, the camping ground 15 km north of Sonamarg, provides a source of income to the local population. "With no yatra for the past few years and very few tourists, our business has been severely impacted," says Rihan, who sells local crafts in Sonamarg hotels. Some of these he buys from the Ladakhi tribes in exchange for rice.



The Zojila tunnel is 12-metre-wide and 7.5 metre in height, of which 1.5-2 metre is for ventilation

The tunnel will shorten the distance from Baltal to Minamarg in the Kargil region of Ladakh from 40 km to 13 km. And travel time is expected to be reduced by an hour-and-a-half, with the journey, too, being far less strenuous.

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd had, in August 2020, bagged the project to build the Zojila tunnel after emerging as the lowest bidder. The government had cancelled the earlier contract with IL&FS Transportation Network in January 2019 after IL&FS was caught in a financial crisis. It then invited fresh tender for the construction of 14.15-km of road for the Zojila tunnel in June 2020.
As President visited one disaster site after another this summer from California wildfires to hurricane-induced flooding in Louisiana and New York he said is everybody's crisis and America must get serious about the code red danger posed by global warming.

In many ways, the president is making up for lost time.

Biden and Democrats are pursuing a sweeping USD 3.5 trillion federal overhaul that includes landmark measures to address and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in what would be the most consequential environmental policies ever enacted, after years of fits and starts.

Sidelined after the former administration withdrew from the landmark Paris climate accord the 2015 global effort to confront the US has returned to the arena, with Biden promising world leaders in April that the US would cut carbon pollution in half by 2030.

But following through on Biden's climate goals depends in large part on passage of the Democratic package, and it will take the White House's heft to close the deal between centrist and progressive lawmakers, including disputes over its climate provisions.

That's where he earns his legacy, Rep Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said of Biden.

As Democrats rush to finish a package that touches almost all aspects of American life, the proposals related to climate change are proving to be a sticking point, particularly among key centrist lawmakers.

The president was meeting Tuesday with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona as Democrats chip away at the package's overall price tag and marshal support. With Republicans in lockstep against the plan, Democrats have few votes to spare as they try to pass it on their own.

This is Speaker Pelosi's grand socialist agenda to destroy freedom and embolden our enemies on the backs of American families,? said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce panel.

Yet, for many Democrats, and voters who elected them the climate provisions are among the most important elements of the sweeping bill. A poll last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 83% of Democrats are very concerned about climate change, compared with just 21% of Republicans.

This is a Code Red' moment, but Democrats are answering the call,'' said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Florida, chairwoman of a special House committee on climate change.

Our only hope to avoid catastrophe is to act with urgency -- to act now,'' Castor said Tuesday at the Capitol. She called climate change a clear and present danger to American families who are facing brutal heat waves, devastating floods, failed electric grids and historic wildfires.''



The Democratic plan will make historic investments in clean energy, climate resilience and environmental justice, she said. We have to get this right.''



Included in the massive legislation is a nationwide clean-electricity program that is intended to eliminate climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035 catching up to requirements already set in some states.

The proposal would spend billions to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and upgrade the power grid to make it more resilient during hurricanes and other extreme weather events that are increasing and intensifying as a result of climate change.

The measure also would create a New Deal-style Civilian Climate Corps to unleash an army of young people to work in public lands and restoration projects.

The climate crisis is here, and the cost of inaction is already staggering, said Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The U.S. had 22 climate and weather disasters in 2020 with losses exceeding USD 1 billion each. Hurricane Ida and other recent disasters are likely to cost tens of billions more.

A slimmer USD 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the House is set to consider Thursday addresses some of these priorities, with money for climate resiliency, water system upgrades and other provisions.

But progressive Democrats say a far more comprehensive approach is needed if the U.S is to have a chance to achieve Biden's goal of cutting the nation's greenhouse gas emissions in half, leaving both packages at a standstill as talks continue behind the scenes.

It's about the livability of this planet,? said Huffman, a progressive caucus member who said Democrats were unwilling to just be steamrolled on that.

But Manchin has said he will not support a number of clean energy and climate provisions. As the powerful chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin has vowed to protect jobs in his coal and gas-producing state and said the price tag for the Democratic bill is too high.

Manchin and Sinema are not alone in raising objections. Seven House Democrats from Texas said provisions in the Democratic plan could cost thousands of jobs in the energy industry and increase energy costs for Americans.

(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 union cabinet on Wednesday approved a revamped and expanded version of the called the National Scheme for Prime Minister Poshan (nutrition) with an allocation of Rs 1.3 trillion crore for five years starting from 2021-22 of which Centre's share will be nearly Rs 1 trillion, spread over the five years.

In this Rs 1 trillion, around Rs 45,000 crore will be spent on providing subsidised foodgrains from the food ministry over the years.

This leaves Rs 55,000 crore purely for the scheme, which is Rs 11,000 crore per year.

In 2021-22 Budget, the Centre provided Rs 11,500 crore for the Civil society activists alleged that Modi government in the last seven years has cut the budget for the scheme by almost 38 per cent in real terms.

A major highlight of the scheme, according to an official statement, is that coverage will now extend to the students studying in pre-primary or Bal Vatikas of government and government-aided primary schools in addition to all the 118 million children from elementary classes studying in government schools.

That apart, under the revamped mid-day meal scheme, a concept of 'Tithi-bhojan' will be introduced. 'TithiBhojan' is a community participation programme in which people provide special food to children on special occasions or festivals.

Social has been made mandatory in all the districts under the scheme now while special provision has been made for providing supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with high prevalence of Anemia

"The existing will be subsumed into the PM Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme with the addition of several new components in it," Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said after the meeting of the union cabinet.

In 2020-21, the Centre spent more than Rs 24,400 crore on the mid-day meal scheme, which included a cost of about Rs 11,500 crore on foodgrains.

Earlier, in May this year, the Centre decided to transfer its share of the cooking cost component in the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme for students of classes 1-8 directly into their bank account as a one-time COVID relief.

This was done as several governments run and government aided schools across the country are closed due to the pandemic for the last several months which has denied the children their daily hot-cooked meals as provided under the MDM scheme.

However, civil society activists and others said that the amount that will be directly transferred is too meagre and at current rate translates into a one-time direct transfer of just Rs 100 per child.

A recent study found that girls who received free meals in primary schools of India as part of the decades-old Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme have been found to give birth to children who have better linear growth.

The study which was published in journal Nature Communications, titled 'Intergenerational nutrition benefits of Indias national school feeding program used nationally representative data on mothers and their children spanning 1993 to 2016 to assess whether MDM supports intergenerational improvements in child linear growth.

The MDM scheme was launched by the central government in 1995 to provide free cooked meals to children in government and government-assisted primary schools (classes 1-5; ages 610 years).

Initially, states did not participate in the scheme, but between 1999 and 2004, the program's coverage increased manifold, largely due to an order from the Supreme Court of India directing state governments to provide cooked mid-day meals in primary schools, the study found.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers.

In India, the world's biggest rice exporter, the conventional method of rice cultivation requires farmers to sow seeds in nurseries and then wait for 20 to 30 days before manually transplanting the seedlings into plantation fields that are ankle-deep in water.

With the new seed varieties, developed by the state-run Indian Agricultural Research Institute, farmers only need to irrigate the field once to moisten the soil before sowing the rice.

The conventional cultivation method also uses a lot of water to control weeds as herbicides are costly and often do not distinguish between the rice and the unwanted vegetation.

Government scientists said the new rice varieties contain a gene that would allow farmers to spray a common, inexpensive herbicide without worrying about any side effects.

"Our focus is very high on more nutritious seeds, that can be adopted to new conditions, especially in changing climates," Modi said.

Water conservation is likely to be the main attraction of the new rice varieties in India, where farmers rely heavily on monsoon rains.

The conventional method uses 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of rice. The new varieties could cut water use by at least 50% to 60%, farmers and government officials say.

"For farmers like us, the main concern was the management of weeds, and the new varieties take care of that concern," said Ravindra Kajal, who grows rice on his 9-acre (3.6-hectare) plot in the northern state of Haryana.

India is also the world's biggest rice producer after China.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj. Editing by Jane Merriman)

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A Swedish delegation met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Bengaluru and interacted with several major Swedish and for fostering investment in the state. The foreign delegation was on a two-day visit to from September 27-28, according to a press note released on Wednesday by the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi.

The Swedish delegation led by Ambassador Klas Molin, the new Trade Commissioner Cecilia Oskarsson along with new counsellors for science, innovation and trade, among others, met Bommai. They attended an investment facilitation seminar with Industries Minister and senior state government officials, as also the 'Invest in Karnataka' programme.

On Monday, the delegation along with the heads of several Swedish companies attended an investment facilitation seminar with the Karnataka Industries department where company leaders operating in the state highlighted their presence, and discussed investment and future plans that will help them realise their full potential in the state.

Bommai said both Sweden and India are time-tested allies and the bilateral ties need to be further strengthened.

The Karnataka government has prioritised sustainable growth and investments and is willing to collaborate with Sweden on new technologies. Research and development (R&D) will be prioritised in the future and incentives for industries to invest in R&D will be introduced. The Chief Minister indicated that employment, investment and innovation are the three guiding principles for boosting partnership between India and Sweden.

At present, there are more than 200 Swedish companies in India employing two lakh people. As many as 96 Swedish companies have employed more than 42,000 people in Karnataka alone. Forty companies have their head office in Karnataka and 14 companies are manufacturing in the state.

Swedish Ambassador Klas Molin said, "I'm inspired by the very constructive and forward-looking dialogue with Chief Minister Bommai. From Swedish brand names such as ABB and Volvo to H&M and IKEA -- and now Truecaller and several start-ups, Swedish companies continue to thrive in Karnataka. Helping support their communities during the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, they continue to invest, expand and believe in India."

The delegation met Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji and visited 'PlaySimple', which was recently acquired by Swedish gaming giant 'Modern Times Group'.

It also visited IIM Bangalore, CampX by Volvo, ArtPark and ISRO.

--IANS

mka/khz/bg

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Reflecting the upbeat post-pandemic hiring activity, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode has wrapped up its summer process by bagging internship offers for all of its 559 students.

Attracting an average stipend of Rs 2 lakh per annum (lpa), the premier B-school saw an increase of 6.4 per cent in the same over last year. The summer placement season at also saw the highest stipend of Rs 3.74 lpa being offered.

Apart from the silver jubilee 25th batch of its flagship post graduate program (PGP), the second batches of PGP Liberal Studies and Management, and PGP Finance participated in the summer process. The virtual placement process saw participation from 132 recruiters including 64 new recruiters who extended summer internship offers to 559 students.

The cohort, consisting of candidates with average 26 months of pre-MBA work experience, with a 39 per cent gender diversity and 40 per cent non-engineering graduates at

According to director Debashis Chatterjee, the premier B-school was able to secure a broad mandate of offers amidst a challenging economic and business environment was possible due to an encouraging participation from recruiters and alumni support. "We also believe the tremendous response to summer is an optimistic omen to our forthcoming final placement season," Chatterjee added.

Amongst the key highlights was participation from Front End Investment Banking and Private Equity/Venture Capitalists, as well as the top consulting companies. The summer placement drive also saw participation from regular and new recruiters including Avendus Capital, Bain & Company, FinIQ Consulting, Johnson & Johnson, Loreal, Marico, Myntra, PepsiCo, Reliance and Reliance Nippon Life Insurance.

The Sales & Marketing, Consulting and Finance were the most sought after roles on campus contributing up to 73 per cent of the total offers being made. Top recruiters at IIM Kozhikode including Accenture Strategy, Amazon, Asian Paints, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Citibank, Deloitte USI, Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, Google, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, PwC and TAS extended an aggregate of 146 offers to around 21 per cent of the batch.

Sales and Marketing contributed 25 per cent of offers on campus and saw participation from firms like Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Coca-Cola, HUL, ITC, Johnson & Johnson, Loreal, Lubrizol, Marico, Nestle, PepsiCo, Pidilite, Reckitt Benckiser and Samsung among others.

More than 22 per cent of the student cohort were offered internships in the consulting domain led by consulting firms like Accenture Strategy, AON Consulting, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte India, Deloitte USI, Ernst & Young, GEP, KPMG, PwC, and Synergy Consulting, among others.

An equally large segment of the student cohort were offered internships in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) domain, through roles such as front end investment banking, quantitative finance, private equity, equity research and impact investing offered by Axis Bank, Citi Bank, Credit Suisse, DE Shaw, Deutsche Bank, Edelweiss Tokio, FinIQ Consulting, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Nomura, Reliance Nippon and The Rohatyn Group, among others.

Students in the IT and Analytics domain attracted offers from a mix of technology majors like American Express, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, MX Player, Walmart Labs and in-house divisions of companies like Asian Paints, DRL and HUL.

The operations domain witnessed participation from our long-standing recruitment partners including Amazon, Asian Paints, Flipkart, Uber and other firms alongside new recruiters such as Myntra.

Meanwhile, major conglomerates and business houses including AbInBev, BlackBuck, Capgemini, Coca Cola, Mahindra, Reliance, RPG Group and TAS offered Leadership Development and General Management roles to 12 per cent of the students.
Private lender has issued 400,000 since the embargo imposed by the (RBI) was lifted in mid-August, surpassing the milestone it had set to initially get back to its pre-embargo run rate of issuing 300,000 cards per month.

The record issuance is as of September 21, 2021, the bank said. The lender had previously said its target was to issue 500,000 a month beginning February 2022, and regain its lost market share in the outstanding in the next 3-4 months.

Pre-embargo, had a market share of 25.6 per cent in the outstanding credit card market, which dropped to 23.2 per cent in July. As of July, had 14.76 million credit cards in the market compared with 15.38 million, pre-embargo.

Over the last nine months of the embargo, we did lose market share in numbers because we had stopped sourcing. One of the ideas to get back the market share was to significantly ramp up acquisition post the lifting of the embargo to make up for lost time. So, over the next 3-4 quarters, we will gain back market share and increase our value market share, said Parag Rao, Group Head-Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking & IT, HDFC Bank.

As a leader in the cards space, we promised, wed be back with a bang. We are now pushing the pedal not only to acquire new customers but also to enhance offerings of our existing cards, he added.

Having said that, Rao emphasised that there will be no dilution of credit norms from the banks side. HDFC Bank will always be a very prudent lender and continue to be very conservative in our credit standards and I do not expect a change in our credit stance, he said.

The bank continues to source a significant number of liability customers, which will form the base for cross-selling of credit cards. Almost 80 per cent of the new acquisition will be from the banks own liability customers and the rest will be open market customer acquisition. The bank already has a 60-million liability base available with itself, which it can tap into.



After RBI lifted the embargo, the lender has been focusing on four key strategies -- updating existing products, launching new products for segments where they are not present currently, strategic alliances and partnerships and consequently growing the market, and creating a very superior customer experience.

Compared to other electronic payment forms, the credit card market is highly underpenetrated hence there is plenty of headroom to grow. And, the market has seen the entry of several new players in the past few months.

Rao said there is a whole new set of customers coming in who are all electronically savvy, and are hence very important target segments for credit cards. Another focus area to grow will be semi-urban geographies as credit cards have typically been a metro city product.

In the past few years, there has been a significant ramp-up by all the players. We have moved from 30 million to 60 million cards in the past 3-5 years. Also, the new cards issued on a monthly basis are crossing 1 million now. Very soon we will cross the 100 million mark in credit cards, Rao said.

Recently, HDFC Bank partnered with Paytm to offer co-branded credit cards on the Visa platform. The main reason to forge strategic alliances with partners is to enter segments of consumers where the bank may not have been present or may not have had a strong presence, the bank said.

The bank last month said it has over 20 initiatives that will come to the market in the next 6-9 months, which include co-branded cards with corporate India spanning pharma, travel, FMCG, hospitality, telecom, and fintech.

Meanwhile, ahead of the festive season, the bank announced the relaunch of three cards -- Millennia, MoneyBack+ , and Freedom -- which have been reinvented to put more power into the hands of the customers, by adding a host of new features and benefits. The new card variants will be available to customers from October.

Our strategy to re-invent, create and co-create has been crafted based on the analysis of customers buying behaviour, the categories they spend on, and the spend patterns. The months that we have spent sharpening our strategy are now bearing fruit. We are ready to unveil best in class offerings and experience to our customers, just in time for the festive season, Rao said.
minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that India has the highest adoption rate of 87 per cent as opposed to the global average rate of 64 per cent, which shows that India is a prime destination for and activities.

The minister added that digital payment transactions have grown tremendously, from Rs two trillion in 2019 to Rs four trillion in 2020. The past eight months, from January to August 2021, saw further momentum, clocking digital transactions amounting to Rs six trillion, with the number of individual transactions at Rs 355 crore, showing energetic participation from users, industry and the Government in the digital ecosystem, she said.

Sitharaman was addressing the Global Fest, organised by Convergence Council (FCC) and Payments Council of India (PCI), the two Councils of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Fintech startups are altering and remodelling themselves to futuristic technologies for making India the Fintech destination. India has a combination of Fin Techs innovating at a rapid pace with users eager to adopt digital platforms, she said.

The Minister also unveiled the UN Principles for responsible at the Global Fintech Festival and stated that the UN Principles are coming in at the right time, especially when countries are racing against each other to reach their maximum population with technology.

India has democratised financial services and accelerated the deployment of digital public good infrastructure that promotes financial inclusion and progress towards sustainable development goals, Sitharaman added.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is covered in the UN Principles as an example of how an open, inclusive, and an interoperable digital public good infrastructure can lead to greater economic participation by the society and especially women, in the most vulnerable times of crisis, by providing secure and contactless payments. The report revolves around consumer protection good practices that put users at the center of payment digitization, especially women and people living in rural areas who are more likely to find themselves outside the formal financial sector. The principles mentioned in the report are: safeguarding of data; recourse; transparency on pricing, interoperability within a ecosystem that treats everyone fairly; prioritizing women; ensuring products are designed ,or user needs; providing choice; and ensuring accountability to deliver on these vital tenets of responsibility.

The UN principles on digital payments have come at the right time and will serve as an important resource to all stakeholders in delivering digital payments based on the principles of trust, consent, privacy, transparency and choice for the end user, she said

The Fest is presented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Reserve Bank of India and supported by NITI Aayog, Central Bank of Kenya, Startup India and Invest India. The World Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), RBI Innovation Hub are the institutional partners of the summit. About 75 partners have collaborated for the summit, including Razorpay, Amazon Pay, WhatsApp, Google Pay, Open Digital Payments and Cashfree Payments.
Private sector on Wednesday said it has acquired a 4.79 per cent stake in embattled tea plantation firm by invoking 50 lakh of the company.

"We wish to inform that the bank had yesterday, i.e., September 28, 2021, pursuant to invocation of pledge of shares, acquired 50,00,000 equity shares of Ltd," said in a regulatory filing.

The acquisition of 50 lakh shares represents 4.79 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of McLeod Russel.

Held by Ichamati Investments Ltd, equity shares of Ltd (MRIL) were pledged with for securing the outstanding dues of the tea plantation company.

"The bank has invoked the pledge held on these shares for recovery of its dues from MRIL," the lender said.

Calculated at the closing price of Rs 32.20 per share of MRIL on September 28, 2021, on BSE, the invoked shares would have fetched the lender Rs 16.10 crore.

Earlier in June this year, IndusInd Bank had acquired over 70 lakh shares in the tea company after invoking of the company to recover its dues.

Headquartered in Kolkata, McLeod Russel was incorporated in 1998. It is engaged in the cultivation and manufacturing of tea with 31 tea estates in Assam Valley and two in the Dooars region of West Bengal. It has three factories in Vietnam and six estates in Uganda.

The net worth of MRIL stood at Rs 1,619.04 crore as of March 31, 2021. The company's turnover was Rs 1,111.87 crore in FY21.

Owned by the Khaitan family of Kolkata, Ichamati Investments Ltd is one of the promoters of MRIL, which held a 9.63 per cent stake in the company as of June 30, 2021, according to data on BSE.

The tea plantation company is facing insolvency proceedings as a financial creditor Techno Electric & Engineering Company moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Delhi bench to recover its dues of Rs 100 crore.

However, the two parties have arrived at a settlement, following which the application has been withdrawn from the tribunal.

"We wish to inform you that the NCLT, principal bench, New Delhi vide its order dated 8th September 2021 has dismissed the appeal made by the company as the matter has been withdrawn," McLeod Russel had said in a regulatory filing on September 10.

(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.)
Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday announced removal of (PCA) restrictions on (IOB). This decision gives the bank more freedom for lending, especially to corporations and grow the network, subject to presribed norms.

It has been decided that is taken out of the PCA restrictions subject to certain conditions and continuous monitoring, said the banking regulator. said IOB was not in breach of PCA parameters as per its March quarter earnings.

"The bank has provided a written commitment that it would comply with the norms of Minimum Regulatory Capital, Net NPA and Leverage ratio on an ongoing basis and has apprised the of the structural and systemic improvements that it has put in place which would help the bank in continuing to meet these commitments," said

IOB is being tipped as a privatisation candidate. In 2021, RBI has also removed PCA restrictions on IDBI Bank and UCO Bank.
had held discussions with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), and Megha Engineering, the only two contenders for private train operations in bids called by the Railway Ministry. According to Alain Spohr, Managing Director at talks were also held with one more player that did not put in a bid.

We have decided to support private train operations as a partner if the opportunity comes back. We are proposing a special train based on the High Speed technology that is used in France, Spohr told Business Standard.

Spohr said that the proposed train is based on the TGV, a high-speed train that operates all over France. TGV stands for Train a Grande Vitesse (simply translated to high speed train in English). A certain type of TGV, called V150, holds the world record for the highest speed on any national rail system. The current world speed record for a commercial train on steel wheels held by the French TGV is 574.8 kilometres per hour. This record has been in place since April 2007.

We have developed a local solution corresponding to the speed segment in India...We have also started to talk to the Indian Railways if they would be interested in adding this to their fleet of long distance trains (above 1000 kilometres) High Speed Trains, Spohr said.

They have said they would want some more information about the train and we are going to enter a discussion with them, he added.

Commenting on whether discussions have happened with any private players about these trains, Spohr said, During the first round of bids, there were three parties which were interested. We had given our offer to Megha Engineering, IRCTC, and one more player that did not put in bids.

Responding to a query on the kind of support, he said, We were offering only the rolling stock.

Commenting on the revenue outlook from India operations, Spohr said, We are aiming to achieve a revenue of 1 billion by next year (2022-23), up from about 650-700 million revenue that will be achieved in the current financial year. Spohr also said that will bid for seven major projects worth over 1 billion by next month-end. In a statement, Alstom India said it has an order backlog of 4.1 billion as on March 2021-end.

Alstom also released an India Impact Report in partnership with Ernst & Young. According to the report, Alstom India buys 331 million worth of goods and services, among which 75 per cent is made with Indian suppliers. The company has invested close to 142 million in the last five years and conducted 21 technology transfers across Alstom locations to its suppliers.
More than a month after the US drawdown from Afghanistan, a top US General on Tuesday said that United States' 20-year military presence in the country was their strategic failure.

During his testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said that his personal opinion was to have 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.

Top US military generals on Tuesday told the US Congress that they had advised President Joe Biden to keep nearly 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, contradicting what he had said earlier on the subject.

During public testimony, General Mark Milley and head of US Central Command General Frank McKenzie stated that they had agreed with the recommendation of US Army General Austin Miller that 2,500 troops be left in the country, though they denied to give details of what they advised Biden directly.

Back in April, Biden announced his decision to end US military presence in As the US continued to draw down from Afghanistan, the started to take over the country.

In a matter of few weeks, the managed to capture Kabul on August 15. Biden administration faced flak from some sections of US media for the quick fall of US-backed Afghan soldiers.

"I won't share my personal recommendation to the president, but I will give you my honest opinion, and my honest opinion and view shaped my recommendation," McKenzie said. The US Army officer further said that he recommended that the US should maintain 2,500 troops in

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "ending the war in was in our national interest".

"He (Biden) said advice was split, but the consensus of top military advisors was 2500 troops staying meant escalation due to deal by the previous admin. @SecDef, the Chairman, and GEN McKenzie all reiterated," Psaki tweeted while referring to Biden's previous remarks to ABC.

(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.)
China's Permanent Representative to the UN Zhang Jun said on Tuesday (local time) that Beijing wants a prompt summit of the five permanent members of the (Russia, China, the US, France, the UK) to hold a discussion on a number of global issues, a media report said.

Expressing the country's desire to hold the summit, Zhang said, "It's our strong wish that this summit can be held as early as possible," according to Sputnik.

He emphasised that Beijing wants to convene the summit "because of the fact that we have so many global challenges ahead of us".

Underling the need to convene the summit, Zhang stressed that "there are so many global challenges ahead of us. And we have many peace and security issues."

Referring to the fellow members view over holding a meet, he said P5 members Russia and France have echoed China's call to convene the summit, reported Sputnik.

"Actually, China, Russia and France all have a proposed to have a P5 Summit, Zhang said, adding, "and since then, we have had discussions on this issue, and exploring the possibilities. Discussions are still going on.

(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.)
People ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as cities across enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas.

News reports blame high coal prices they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand, while economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

In Shenyang, the northeast's most populous city, restaurant owner Li Yufeng used a battery from an electric bicycle to run a pot for noodles after seeing a notice power would be switched off at 7:30 am. Li said he started work two hours early, at 6 am., to prepare chicken, sauces and other dishes.

There are some impacts, but not a big impact, said Li as customers ate by smartphone lights.

Factories in China's busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week, prompting concern global supplies of smartphones and other goods might be disrupted. Now, urban neighbourhoods are being blacked out, triggering pleas on social media for the government to solve the problem.

China's power consumption is growing at almost double its usual rate, while the ruling Communist Party is trying to reduce energy intensity, or the amount used per unit of economic output.

The power cuts come as global leaders prepare to attend a UN environmental conference by video link on October 12-13 in the southwestern city of Kunming. That increases pressure on President Xi Jinping's government, as the meeting's host, to show it is sticking to emissions and energy efficiency targets.

The cuts are largely driven by energy consumption control measures, with power shortages affecting another few provinces, Lara Dong of IHS Markit said in an e-mail.

This is in line with China's decarbonisation ambitions, she said.

The Cabinet's planning agency warned in August that 20 regions had exceeded energy use and pollution targets after manufacturing rebounded from the pandemic. The government has ambitious plans to make the economy cleaner and more energy-efficient, so failing to meet those targets can be a career-ending blunder.

The power cuts could be more disruptive than previous shortages, Bank of America said in a report. Due to shortages in some areas, it said, "a relaxation of the government's energy consumption goals may not immediately alleviate the power crunch.

is one of the world's biggest emitters of climate-changing industrial gases and consumes more energy per unit of economic output than developed countries. Given its huge population, on a per capita basis it ranks much lower.

also is preparing for the Winter Olympics in the capital, Beijing, and the nearby city of Shijiazhuang in February, a period when it will want clear blue skies.

Officials in Jiangsu province, a manufacturing hub northwest of Shanghai, told state media some cities there have used up 90 per cent of this year's quota for power use. The officials of the provincial planning agency were cited as saying individual city governments had to decide how to meet their targets.

The government of Guangdong province, China's biggest manufacturing centre, has cited both official energy use limits and low water levels in hydropower reservoirs that provide a big share of its electricity.

In Liaoning province, where Shenyang is the capital, the government said in a statement Sunday that power demand hit a record high in the first eight months of the year. It said Liaoning has suffered shortages since then due to a decline in wind power and other sources.

The government of neighbouring Jilin province blamed a shortage of coal. It said in a statement Monday its governor would visit miners in nearby Inner Mongolia to line up additional supplies.

Some advance warnings of power cuts to residents in Shenyang and other cities cited a need to ration power but didn't say why.

Li, the noodle restaurant owner, showed a reporter a notice circulated on social media that said power would be out in his neighbourhood from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.

Shopkeeper Yang Chang had a generator running on the sidewalk to keep freezers full of meat cold.

As long as there is electricity we can sell things, unlike restaurants that need water, said Yang. Yang didn't know or care what the reason for the power outage was but said, it's understandable. I was born in the '90s. When I was little, electricity wasn't stable, said Yan. Although we are having difficulties, the government will find a solution.

(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 hypersonic missile unveiled by the on Tuesday appeared to be in an early stage of development, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Wednesday.

The JCS said in a statement that when assessing the collected data, such as the detected speed of the hypersonic missile, which the DPRK test-fired and unveiled, it appeared to be in an early stage of development and may take a considerable time to be deployed for combat.

It noted that the missile could be detected and intercepted by the military assets of South Korea and the US, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement came hours after the North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that the country test-fired the hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 in Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County of Jagang Province on Tuesday morning.

It was the first test-launch, in which the country's Academy of Defence Science ascertained the stability of the engine as well as missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time, the KCNA reported.

The test-launch came after the tested cruise and ballistic missiles earlier this month.

--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 which now rules has failed to honour the 2020 Doha Agreement, a top American military general told lawmakers on Tuesday, asserting that most importantly the outfit has not renounced the Al Qaeda.

Under the Doha Agreement, the would begin to withdraw its forces contingent upon the meeting certain conditions, which would lead to a political agreement between the and the government of Afghanistan, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee,



There were seven conditions applicable to the Taliban and eight conditions applicable to the under the agreement, he said.

While the Taliban did not attack US forces, which was one of the conditions, it failed to fully honour any other condition under the Doha Agreement. And, perhaps most importantly for US national security, the Taliban has never renounced or broke its affiliation with them, he said.

The United States, on the other hand, adhered to every condition, the official noted.

Milley said it is clear the war in did not end on the terms the wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul.

And we must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organisation, and they still have not broken ties with I have no illusions who we are dealing with. It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war, he asserted.

But we must continue to protect the United States of America and its people from terrorist attacks coming from A reconstituted or ISIS with aspirations to attack the US is a very real possibility. And those conditions to include activity in ungoverned spaces could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months, he said.

General Milley said such a mission will be much harder now but not impossible.

Responding to a question, he said he believes Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan and that they have aspirations to reconstitute.

And if they develop the capability, I believe they have aspirations to strike. It is too early in the process to determine the capability, but I do believe . Al-Qaeda is still at war with the United States , he said.

On withdrawal from Afghanistan, the senior official said it makes it much more difficult for the US to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and find-fix functions.

Then we can strike almost from anywhere in the world, but the find-fix function is more difficult. We can still do it, it is not impossible, but it will make it more difficult, Milley added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The top US general has told American lawmakers that he was not trying to undermine by placing calls to his Chinese counterpart after US intelligence signalled feared the former president could order a military attack.

Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

During the hearing, he defended himself over calls he made to reassure his Chinese counterpart on the issue.

I know I am certain that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my direct responsibility -- and it was my direct responsibility by the Secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese. My task at that time was to de-escalate," he said.

"My message, again, was consistent: stay calm, steady, and de-escalate, Milley said during the Congressional hearing.

Milley said that he made two specific calls to his Chinese counterpart General Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army on October 30, 2020 and January 8, 2021 on the issues.

We are not going to attack you. At Secretary of Defence (Mark) Esper's direction, I made a call to General Li on October 30. Eight people sat in that call with me, and I read out the call within 30 minutes of the call ending, he said.

On 31 December, the Chinese requested another call with me. The deputy assistant secretary of defence for Asia Pacific policy helped coordinate my call, which was then scheduled for January 8, and he made a preliminary call on January 6, he said, adding that 11 people attended that call with him, and readouts of this call were distributed to the interagency that same day.

Shortly after his call ended with General Li, Milley said he personally informed both the then Secretary of State (Mike) Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff about the call among other topics.

Republicans blasted Milley's calls with and his interviews for books critical of Trump's presidency.

Later that same day, on January 8, Speaker of the House (Nancy) Pelosi called me to inquire about the president's ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterising the president, Milley said.

I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, and he doesn't launch them alone and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the There are processes, protocols, and procedures in place, and I repeatedly assured her that there is no chance of an illegal, unauthorised, or accidental launch, he said.

By presidential directive and secretary of defence directives, the chairman is part of the process to ensure the president is fully informed when determining the use of the world's deadliest weapons. By law, I am not in the chain of command, and I know that, he noted.

However, by presidential directive and Department of Defence (DOD) instruction, he is in the chain of communication to fulfil his legal statutory role as the president's primary military advisor.

Miley had come under criticism including calls to resign after news of the calls to his Chinese counterpart became public in mid-September.

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Japans Government Pension Investment Fund, the worlds largest pension fund, said it wont include yuan-denominated Chinese sovereign debt in its portfolio.



The decision comes as Russell is set to start adding Chinese debt to its benchmark global bond index, which the GPIF follows, from October. The pension fund will instead use a version of the World Government Bond Index that excludes Chinese government bonds, Hiroshi Nagaoka, an official at the pension fund, told Bloomberg News.

Minutes from a July meeting of the pension funds board of governors released on Wednesday showed that the members were in favor of avoiding Chinese bonds, citing issues surrounding settlement, liquidity and stability. The management board made a final decision on Sept. 22, Nagaoka said.

The decision comes amid a steady deterioration in the China-Japan relationship. And it was not related to the issues surrounding Group, Nagaoka added. The Nikkei, which earlier reported the decision, had said that the debt crisis at the Chinese builder weighed on the funds decision.

Investors have been forced to rethink the risks of investing in Chinese assets, said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. He cited U.S.- tensions and recent government curbs on the private sector, as well as

The GPIF held a total of 9.7 billion yen ($86.9 million) in stocks and bonds related to as of end-March, records show. The fund had a total of 191.6 trillion yen in assets under management as of the end of June, including 47.8 trillion yen in foreign debt. The pension fund does not invest in any yuan-dominated Chinese bonds now, but have three euro-dominated Chinese sovereign notes in its portfolio as of end-March, Nagaoka said.

GPIF President Masataka Miyazono said in July that the pension fund needed to be cautious in deciding whether to invest in Chinese debt.





Strained Relations



Given strained relations between Japan and China in recent quarters, it is not surprising at all that they are not including Chinese bonds, said Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong. Implications for Chinese debt were likely to be very small, she added.

Investing public pension money in Chinese government debt would likely be a politically unpopular decision in Japan, considering the historically tense relations between the two countries. The issue would have political implications, Eiji Hirano, the former chairman of GPIFs board, said in June.

However, the fund may struggle to meet its benchmark returns without high-yielding Chinese debt. The decision will also likely impact other Japanese public and private pension funds, which have been considering whether to invest in Chinese government debt.

One smaller pension operator that mimics the GPIFs portfolio said in July it would consider investing further in Chinese debt when included in the WGBI Index.

Evergrande to miss offshore bond payment At least some of China Evergrandes offshore bondholders had not received a due coupon payment by the close of Asia business on Wednesday, sources said, although the cash-strapped developer reached a $1.5 billion deal to sell stake at Shengjing Bank to a state-owned asset management company. The company, which has nearly $20 billion in offshore debt, was due on Wednesday to make a $47.5 million bond interest payment on its 9.5% March 2024 dollar bond.
was subscribed 56 per cent on Wednesday, the first day of the issue. A day earlier, the asset manager had allotted shares worth Rs 789 crore to anchor investors at Rs 712 apiece.

The price band for the is Rs 695 to Rs 712 per share. At the upper band, the issue size would be Rs 2,768 crore and valuation works out to Rs 20,500 crore.

The is entirely a secondary share sale by promoters Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL) and Sun Life AMC. The domestic partner is selling 2.85 million shares  less than 1 per cent of its stake  to raise about ~203 crore.

Meanwhile, Canadian firm Sun Life will divest 12.56 per cent holding, or 36 million shares, to raise ~2,565 crore at the top end of the price band. Aditya Birla AMC is the countrys largest non-bank affiliated fund house in terms of assets under management (AUM) and fourth overall.
Rising prices of crude oil  up nearly 8 per cent and 15 per cent in the past one month  can spoil the party for India Inc as it will face input cost pressures, say experts. That said, it will be difficult to paint the entire universe with the same brush as the rise in commodity prices will benefit their respective producers.

Markets, on the other hand, will react sharply negatively in case the oil jumps above $90 per barrel mark, analysts caution. Analysts BofA Securities led by Amish Shah, their India equity strategist, suggests that though the tax buffer available with ...
Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange traded 102 points down at 17,622 around 8.45 am, indicating a gap-down start for the benchmark indices on Wednesday.

Here are the top stocks to track in today's session:

HDFC Asset Management Company: Promoter Standard Life Investment seeks up to $411 million from share sale, according to terms of the deal. The promoter is offering 1.06 crore shares in in an accelerated placement. The floor price has been fixed at Rs 2,870, which is at a discount of 6.68 per cent to Tuesdays closing price.

Airtel: Crisil Rating on Tuesday said it has upgraded the long term rating on the bank facilities and debt programme of Bharti Airtel to AA+ with a stable outlook. Earlier, the rating was AA with a stable outlook.

CESC: P Sanjiv Goenka group's flagship company CESC Ltd on Tuesday said its board has approved a plan to raise Rs 400 crore through unsecured non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis.

stocks: National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday allowed Kishore Biyani-led firms to hold meetings of its shareholders and creditors to seek approval for the sale of assets to Reliance Retail.

HCL Technologies: The company and Premier Consulting Partner of Amazon Web Services (AWS) have joined the AWS Service Delivery Program and have become an AWS Contact Center Intelligence Partner.

NBCC: State-owned NBCC, which entered into an MoU with DTC last year for the development of various land parcels in the national capital, on Tuesday said that the project cost has been revised upwards to Rs 1,942 crore including its fee.

Federal Bank: The lender joined hands with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched the 'Federal Bank RuPay Signet Contactless Credit Card.' It comes with the lowest Annual Percentage Rate (APR) starting from just 5.88 per cent per annum, the bank said.

Lupin: The drug maker has launched Droxidopa capsules, used in treating orthostatic dizziness, in the US market. The Mumbai-based company said it has launched the product in the strenghts of 100 mg, 200 mg, and 300 mg, in the US market after having received an approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Godrej Industries: Raises Rs 750 crore through private placement of non-convertible debentures.

Newgen Software, TCS: IT company Newgen Software on Tuesday said that it has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services to deploy an enterprise-grade multi-channel, multilingual communication suite for the Banking Service Bureau (BSB) in Israel.

Anupam Rasayan: Specialty chemicals manufacturer Anupam Rasayan on Tuesday said it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) worth Rs 145 crore with existing long-term European multinational customers for supplying a new life science-related active ingredient.

Atul Auto: The commercial production at the Bhayla plant in Ahmedabad of the company for manufacturing three-wheelers was commenced on September 27.

Compucom Software: The company has won a tender and received a Letter of Acceptance for job works for building and other construction work from Building and Other Construction Worker Welfare Board (BOCW), Labour Department, Rajasthan for a period of 12 months. The project is worth Rs 6.07 crore.

Godrej Properties: The company has entered into an agreement to redevelop land parcel in Wadala, Mumbai.
Atul Auto advanced 1.94% to Rs 223.55 after the company said that it has commenced commercial production at its plant located at Bhayla, Ahmedabad District, Gujarat.

The commercial production commenced is for manufacturing three wheeler automobiles. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday.

Rajkot-based Atul Auto manufactures three-wheelers (goods as well as passenger segments) under the 'Atul' brand, and spares, components, and allied products.

The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 6.21 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against net loss of Rs 6.35 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. Net sales rose 21.49% to Rs 31.38 crore in Q1 FY22 over Q1 FY21.

The scrip extended gains for third day in a row. The stock has added 14.32% in three sessions, from its recent closing low of Rs 195.55 recorded on 24 September 2021.

On the technical front, the stock's RSI (relative strength index) stood at 66.176. The RSI oscillates between zero and 100. Traditionally, the RSI is considered overbought when above 70 and oversold when below 30.

The stock was trading above its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day daily simple moving average (SMA) placed at 204.06, 197.50 and 190.42, respectively.

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Aurobindo Pharma announced that its French subsidiary Arrow Generiques SAS (Laboratoire Arrow, which is referred to as Arrow) has announced the opening of its new logistics and industrial site in Saint Vulbas, near Lyon, France.

The new facility reflects the company's strong commitment to the region, will support our growth aspirations in the French market and help in creating 100 new employment opportunities.

The state-of-the-art facility covers a surface area exceeding 25,000 m2 and built on a 7-hectare site. The new site has been completed with an investment of over EURO 20 million and is principally dedicated for the storage, preparation and distribution of pharmaceutical products with an additional unit built for future industrial activities.

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BLS International Services added 3.05% to Rs 261.55 after the company won the contract with Embassy of Italy in Russia for visa processing for a period of 5 years in partnership.

Under the contract, the company is expected to process approx. 1,40,000 applications every year with 20 centres across Russia.

Under this mandate, BLS will be providing Italian Visas along with several value-added services like mobile biometric, translation, prime time submission, premium lounge, doorstep service, photocopy, courier, SMS alert, photo booths, etc. for the convenience of applicants.

BLS will initiate the visa processing along with promotions for tourism and investment opportunities in Italy through social platforms and events.

Shikhar Aggarwal, joint managing director, BLS International, said, We are pleased to partner with The Embassy of Italy in Russia to provide seamless visa processing across Russia.

With BLS, I am confident that the applicants will enjoy quality service, faster visa processing coupled with convenience. This contract strengthens our visa portfolio with another Schengen country (Italy) as we are already working with them in Singapore.

BLS has partnered with AlmavivA for this project. AlmavivA is a group in the information and communication technology segment that focuses on digital innovation.

This contract is in addition to the already robust portfolio of visa, passport, consular and citizen services of BLS International with over 46 client governments.

BLS International Services is a global tech-enabled services partner for governments and citizens, having an impeccable reputation for setting benchmarks in the domain of visa, passport, consular, citizen, e-governance, attestation, biometric, e-visa and retail services since 2005.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 20.33 crore in Q1 FY22 as against a net loss of Rs 0.79 crore in Q1 FY21. Net sales during the quarter surged to Rs to Rs 178.53 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against Rs 52.14 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020.

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Barometers were trading with minor losses in mid afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading above the 17,750 level. A spike in U. S. benchmark bond yields and a strong dollar capped gains in equities.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was at 59,606.73, down 60.87 points or 0.1%.

The Nifty 50 index rose 13 points 0.07% to 17,761.65.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.88% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.52%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1929 shares rose and 1293 shares fell. A total of 173 shares were unchanged.

Broader market gainers:

Tata Power (up 10%), Oil India (up 8%), GMR Infra (up 6.69%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 6.65%), CESC (up 6.26%) and BHEL (up 5%) were top gainers in Mid Cap index.

Godfrey Phillips (up 7.8%), IRB Infra (up 7.14%), Indian Energy Exchange (up 6%), National Aluminium Company (up 6%) and Cyient (up 5%) were top gainers in Small Cap index.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee fell to 74.1925 from its previous closing of 74.06.

MCX Gold futures for 5 October 2021 settlement rose 0.1% to Rs 45,900.

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper (06.10 GS 2031) fell to 6.212%, compared with 6.228% at close in the previous trading session.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.05% to 93.828.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for November 2021 settlement fell 69 cents or 0.88% to $77.66 a barrel.

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To launch a Hybrid Next-Generation Cloud portfolio for Benelux region

HCL Technologies has signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Proximus Group, Belgium's leading digital services and communications solutions provider, to transform its data center business and create a resilient digital foundation.

HCL will help Proximus and its internal business achieve a significantly higher flexibility and reliance as the foundation to drive future business innovation and accelerate growth in the Belgium and Netherlands market. HCL will launch a Hybrid Next-Generation Cloud portfolio to support Proximus' large customer base and more than 11,000 employees. In addition, the Benelux region's mid-market and government businesses will gain access to joint solution offerings from HCL and Proximus.

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HCL Technologies has joined the AWS Service Delivery Program and become an AWS Contact Center Intelligence Partner.

Bharti Airtel said that CRISIL has upgraded long-term rating on bank loan facilities of Rs 20,000 crore to AA+/Stable from AA/Stable. The rating action reflects continued improvement in Bharti Airtel's operating metrics resulting in healthy financial risk profile.

Shares of HDFC Asset Management Company (HDFC AMC) will be in focus. Foreign promoter Standard Life Investments is reportedly likely to sell 1.06 crore equity shares (5% stake) in HDFC Asset Management Company via open market transaction today, 29 September 2021.

Godrej Properties announced that it has entered into an agreement to redevelop a land parcel in the upscale neighbourhood of Wadala, Mumbai.

Lupin announced the launch of Droxidopa Capsules, 100 mg, 200 mg, and 300 mg, having received an approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). The product is manufactured at Lupin's facility in Nagpur.

Shreyas Shipping & Logistics has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for acquisition of one Bulk carrier of 35,152 DWT and will be delivered to us between 15th October, 2021 to 30th November, 2021.

Atul Auto informed that the commercial production at Bhayla (Dist. Ahmedabad) plant of the company for manufacturing three wheeler automobiles has been commenced on September 27, 2021.

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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 296.6, up 1.71% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 64.18% in last one year as compared to a 56.98% jump in NIFTY and a 51.48% jump in the Nifty Energy index.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 296.6, up 1.71% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.52% on the day, quoting at 17656.25. The Sensex is at 59235.32, down 0.72%. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd has gained around 14.25% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has gained around 12.45% in last one month and is currently quoting at 22449.35, up 1.4% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 74.46 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 43.21 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark September futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 296.15, up 1.54% on the day. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is up 64.18% in last one year as compared to a 56.98% jump in NIFTY and a 51.48% jump in the Nifty Energy index.

The PE of the stock is 4.29 based on TTM earnings ending June 21.

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The Nifty PSU Bank rose 2.54% to 2,459.15, climbing 4.31% in three straight sessions.

Canara Bank (up 3.85%), Bank of India (up 3.77%), Indian Bank (up 3.61%), Jammu & Kashmir Bank (up 3.14%), PNB (up 3.07%), UCO Bank (up 2.65%), Bank of Baroda (up 2.58%), Bank of Maharashtra (up 2.47%), Indian Overseas Bank (up 2.46%), Union Bank of India (up 2.29%), Central Bank of India (up 1.91%), Punjab & Sind Bank (up 1.76%) and State Bank of India (up 1.75%) advanced.

Piramal Group on Wednesday announced that it has completed the acquisition of housing finance firm Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) and a total consideration of Rs 34,250 crore has been paid for the same.

DHFL entered insolvency proceedings at National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in 2019 after going bankrupt with more than Rs 90,000 crore in debt to various lenders, including banks, mutual funds and individual investors who kept fixed deposits with the company. The DHFL lenders had classified the account as a fraud on alleged fund diversion by promoters Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan.

Creditors led by SBI had admitted claims worth over Rs 87,000 crore. According to reports, SBI had exposure of Rs 7,267 crore to Dewan Housing Finance. Bank of India claimed Rs 4,125 crore while Union Bank of India had an exposure of Rs 3,605 crore.

In January 2021, Piramal Capital and Housing Finance (PCHFL), a subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises, had won a bid for acquiring DHFL. Piramal made Rs 37,250-crore bid to acquire the housing finance company.

In January 2021, 94% of the creditors of DHFL voted in favor of Piramal's resolution plan. Approvals were also obtained from the RBI, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and NCLT for the completion of this transaction.

As a part of the process, PCHFL will merge with DHFL. The merged entity will be 100% owned by Piramal Enterprises.

The creditors of DHFL (including FD holders) would recover an aggregate amount of approximately Rs 38,000 crore from the resolution process of DHFL. This amount comprises of about Rs 34,250 crore to be paid by PCHFL as a combination of cash and non-convertible debentures and an amount of about Rs 3,800 crore, which is the entitlement of creditors (as per the resolution plan), from the cash balance available with DHFL.

There were about 70,000 creditors of DHFL and most of them are recovering nearly 46% of their pending dues through the successful completion of resolution process.

The total consideration paid by the Piramal Group of about Rs 34,250 crore at the completion of the acquisition, includes an upfront cash component of Rs 14,700 crore and issuance of debt instruments of Rs 19,550 crore (10-year NCDs at 6.75% p.a. on a half-yearly basis).

The acquisition marks the first successful resolution under the IBC route (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016) in the financial services sector. In value terms, the transaction is among the largest resolutions till date, setting the precedent for future resolutions in the sector, Piramal Group added.

The merged entity combines Piramal's financial strength, core values and institutional credibility with DHFL's geographic footprint and distribution network of 301 branches and 2,338 employees catering to about 1 million lifetime customers across 24 states, making it one of the leading housing finance companies in the country.

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SBI Card has announced launch of the three-day mega shopping festive offer 2021, 'Dumdaar Dus', starting 3 October 2021.

During this one-of-its-kind on line shopping festival, SBI Card retail cardholders will have the freedom to shop on line on any domestic e-commerce site, and not be restricted to just one or two, to avail the 10 per cent cash back. Importantly, in line with the growing popularity of EMI transactions, the offer will also be available on online merchant EMI transactions.

To amplify its Festive Offer 2021, SBI Card plans to launch a digital campaign featuring actor Jaaved Jaaferi who accentuates the brand message effortlessly with his versatility and humorous characterization.

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The market regulator also cleared way for launching silver exchange-traded funds in India.

Stock market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved the frameworks for gold exchange and Social Stock Exchange. The market regulator also approved amendments to delisting framework for equity shares at the board meeting held yesterday.

A gold exchange is being set up to trade the yellow metal in the form of electronic gold receipts, which will help in having a transparent domestic spot price discovery mechanism.

The instrument representing gold is to be called Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR), and will be having trading, clearing and settlement features akin to other securities.

In a statement, SEBI said the Gold Exchange, encompassing the entire ecosystem of trading of EGR and physical delivery of gold, is expected to create a vibrant gold ecosystem in the country. The Gold Exchange would be a national platform for buying and selling EGRs with underlying standardized gold in India and also create a national pricing structure for gold.

SEBI has also allowed the introduction of silver exchange traded funds (ETFs) in India. The Sebi board approved the amendment to Sebi (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 to enable the introduction of Silver ETFs. These will be in line with the regulatory mechanism for gold ETFs.

Under the creation of Social Stock Exchange (SSE), the SEBI board said it will be used for purpose of fund raising by social entrepreneurs. SSE will be a separate segment of the existing stock exchanges. Social enterprises (SEs) eligible to participate in the SSE should be entities, non-profit organizations, and for-profit social enterprises, having social intent and impact as their primary goal. The framework for the SSE has been developed on the basis of the recommendations of a working group and technical group constituted by the regulator.

Further, the SEBI board has also decided to amend rules pertaining to delisting of equity shares of a company following an open offer as part of efforts to make merger and acquisition transactions more rational and convenient.

The regulator also eased eligibility requirements relating to superior voting rights shares (SR) framework. Under the current framework, a SR shareholder could not be part of the promoter group at the time of listing if the collective net worth of the promoter group exceeded Rs 500 crore.

Sebi has eased this restriction by mandating that the SR shareholder's net worth should not exceed Rs 1,000 crore at the time of the proposed listing of the company.

The minimum gap between issuance of SR shares and filing of Red Herring Prospectus has also been reduced to three months from the existing requirement of six months, SEBI said.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said last week that India needed four or five banks of State Bank of India's (SBIs) size to serve the growing and changing needs in the post-pandemic world. The minister further argued that one of the driving reasons for amalgamations in public sector banks (PSBs), which happened before the pandemic, was to create scale.

It is not clear if the government is again considering the option of merging some of the remaining PSBs. In the last round of mergers, for instance, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were merged with Punjab ...
Days after he was "humiliated" and asked to quit as the Punjab Chief Minister -- months before the Assembly polls -- veteran Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Wednesday called on Union Home Minister and BJP leader in Delhi on Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, IANS had first ran the story -- "'Upset' Amarinder likely to meet Shah, his office denies".

There was mounting speculation about Amarinder Singh's first visit to Delhi after he stepped down, with meetings with Shah and BJP chief J.P. Nadda indicated, amid speculation about his future plans.

However, Amarinder Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral had said that he is "on a personal visit to Delhi to meet some friends".

"Too much being read into @capt_amarinder's visit to Delhi. He's on a personal visit, during which he'll meet some friends and also vacate Kapurthala house for the new CM. No need for any unnecessary speculation," Thukral had said in a tweet.

On stepping down, Amarinder Singh had said that all options were open for the future.

#WATCH | Former Punjab CM and Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh reaches the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi pic.twitter.com/787frIaou7  ANI (@ANI) September 29, 2021

--IANS

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Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel on



Wednesday hit back at Congress leader for his "Talibanis" jibe at the J P Nadda-led party, by calling him a 'Bhayotpaadaka' (terrorist).

"I feel that himself is a 'Bhayotpaadaka' (terrorist). He is in a precarious situation in Congress today, whenever he is in such a situation he gives such statements. His is a Taliban culture," he said.

Speaking to reporters here, he alleged that when was the Chief Minister, most number of murders took place in the state.

Listing certain incidents like murders of Deepak Rao, Sharath Madiwala, Prashanth Poojary in Dakshina Kannada, Kuttappa in Madikeri, Kateel said about 24 Hindu workers were killed during Siddaramaiah's tenure.

"Also a woman was attacked in an ATM kiosk, a college going girl student was attacked at Sullia. All this happened during his rule, this is Taliban culture. So I said, he (Siddaramaiah) is like a 'Bhayotpaadaka", as most number of murders, extortions, and daily cow slaughters used to happen during his period..where does he have morality?" he added.

The BJP state president was reacting to Siddaramaiah's statement on Sunday alleging that the BJP are "Talibanis".

Calling the Congress a "sinking ship", Kateel claimed that "several people" from that party are prepared to join the BJP.

"Several people (from Congress) are in touch with us, but there is no need to be in a hurry. People don't believe that Congress will win the next election, who will go to Congress?" he asked in response to a question, and expressed confidence about BJP winning the 2023 assembly polls.

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The in is expected to launch its poll campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections on October 9 with party General Secretary Vadra addressing a public rally in

Former MP Rajesh Mishra confirmed that preparations for the rally have begun and added that the event was being organised to give a message of change to the people across the state.

The has also decided to bet on young candidates for the 2022 Assembly elections and sources said that the party may give 60 per cent of its tickets to those in the age group of 30 to 40 years.

Priyanka, who is in Lucknow on a five-day visit, is said to have given her consent for this.

The is inviting applications from prospective candidates till October 10.

"Focus on the youth and their issues is clear in various strategy, election, campaign and manifesto meetings. The leadership feels that this is the group which has suffered most at the hands of the myopic vision of the BJP government and, therefore, wants change. Putting up good candidates with whom the public can relate is a natural thought," a party functionary said.

Veterans in the party, however, believe that the Congress needs more than a formula for its revival in

"The party is still struggling to put things in an affirmative and clear perspective. The formula may not find many buyers in a highly caste and religion sensitive UP unlike Kerala where development and candidates are considered over traditional factors," said a party veteran.

--IANS

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CPI leader who has joined the said that he has joined the party to save the country's democracy.

After joining Congress, Kanhaiya said, "I bow down to Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. Some people want to destroy the culture and character of this country. When a fire breaks out in the settlement, only the bedroom cannot be saved. I want to join the most democratic party of this country. The party holds the history of this country in itself."

" party is a big ship, if Congress party survives, Bhagat Singh's dreams will survive," he added.

On joining the Congress on Tuesday, he said, "I have joined the Congress Parivar... I have not come to save the party... whatever the party will do to save the democracy, I will work with it."

"I fought against Congress in JNU elections. Individuals come and go is not bigger than the organization. But the way the Left party is fighting, it should increase the speed," he added.

Dalit leader from Gujarat, MLA Jignesh Mevani also joined the Congress on Tuesday.

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, Organisation General Secretary KC Venugopal and Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das welcomed the two leaders into the party fold.

Before joining the party, the two leaders met Rahul Gandhi at the Congress headquarters for about 30 minutes. During this, filled up the primary membership form of the Congress party and Kanhaiya presented a photo of Gandhi-Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh to Rahul Gandhi.

Randeep Surjewala said: "Today is a special day for the Congress party. Kanhaiya and Mevani continuously raised their voice against the policies of the Modi government. They will work as one and one eleven against the Modi government."

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, "These two youths worked in a very revolutionary manner in the country. Congress party wholeheartedly welcomes Jignesh and Kanhaiya."

At the same time, Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das said, "On the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, both the leaders along with Rahul Gandhi garlanded him. and Jignesh Mevani met Rahul Gandhi several times. It is hoped that both the leaders will unite with the Congress. Will act as a strong link. The land of Bihar is waiting for Kanhaiya."

Jignesh Mevani has been the face of the Dalit movement in Gujarat. Before joining politics, he worked as a journalist, lawyer and Dalit activist. He has often been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies.

At the same time, Kanhaiya, who emerged from the students' movement, also contested from Begusarai in the Bihar Lok Sabha elections but lost to BJP's stalwart Giriraj Singh. However, Kanhaiya had caught the attention of the entire nation during his election campaign.

--IANS

ptk/anm/pgh

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Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, triggering speculation over his future plans ahead of the Assembly polls in the state.

After his meeting that lasted for about 45 minutes, Singh tweeted met Union Home Minister ji in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers agitation against #FarmLaws & urged him to resolve the crisis urgently with the repeal of the laws & guarantee MSP, besides supporting Punjab in crop diversification. #NoFarmersNoFood. However, the politically significant meeting, which came days after Singh resigned as Punjab chief minister, raised speculation over his future plans ahead of the assembly polls with some political analysts viewing it as an indication that Singh may be seeking the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Sources said the former Punjab chief minister is learnt to have also discussed the internal security situation in Punjab with Shah. Singh has been claiming that instability in Punjab may give Pakistan a handle to create disturbance in the border state. He has also accused Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu of being close to (Pakistani Prime Minister) Imran Khan and alleged that he is dangerous for the border state. Singh arrived in the capital on Tuesday.

There are reports that Amarinder may call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but there is no official confirmation.

According to the sources, the veteran Congress leader may also meet some of the 'Group of 23' leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Singh's meeting with Shah assumes significance as the Congress leader has not divulged his future plans but had asserted that he has not quit and would fight till the end. Singh has also said that there were several options before him. He had also launched a scathing attack on his bete noire, Sidhu, who was appointed as the president of the Punjab unit of the Congress.

Sidhu quit as the Punjab Congress chief on Tuesday.

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has announced a new segment of subsea cable called 2Africa Pearls, which connects three continents - Africa, Europe, and Asia. This extension will bring the total length of the 2Africa cable system to more than 45,000 km, making it the longest subsea cable system ever deployed.

The 2Africa initiative's goal, as its name suggests, is to provide internet connectivity to people in Africa, which is currently the world's least connected continent.

The 2Africa subsea cable system will provide nearly three times the total network capacity of all the subsea cables serving today. With 2Africa, the social media giant had planned to increase connectivity to 1.2 billion people.

"We continue to invest in subsea cables in and beyond as communities and businesses flourish when there is widely-accessible internet. is continuing to build innovative solutions such as these critical fiber optic superhighways so that everyone can benefit from the economic, educational, and social advantages of a digitally connected world," the company said in a statement.

With the addition of Pearls, the system will provide connectivity to an additional 1.8 billion people, totaling 3 billion people, or about 36 percent of the global population.

The 2Africa Pearls branch adds several new landing locations in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia. In its entirety, 2Africa will significantly increase connectivity within and better connect Africa to the rest of the world, as it will ultimately interconnect 33 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

--IANS

wh/vd

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Abbott India Ltd

Abbott India Ltd is one of the largest MNC pharma companies operating in India. It is a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories of USA. Abbott Laboratories held 75% stake in Abbott India as on 31 March 2018. The company is engaged in the discovery development manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical diagnostic nutritional and hospital products. They are having their presence in both OTC drugs and for...> More
HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd

HDFC Asset Management (HDFC AMC) is the investment manager to HDFC Mutual Fund (HDFC MF) the largest mutual fund in India with total AUM of Rs.343938 Crore as of March 31 2019. HDFC AMC has a diversified asset class mix across Equity and Fixed Income/Others. It has a countrywide network of branches along with a diversified distribution network comprising Banks Independent Financial Advisors and Na...> More
Info Edge (India) Ltd

Info Edge (India) Ltd. is one of India's premier internet based business. Over a period of more than two decades it has steadily developed a portfolio of brands across different domains that primarily provide online classified services. The company operates online recruitment business through its flagship brand - naukri. The online recruitment portfolio is supported by the offline executive search...> More
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 29 (ANI/PNN): Canada saw a 431 per cent growth in international student enrollment from India in five years, increasing 161,351 students from 2015 to 2020, says a joint report by the IC3 Movement and the International Institute of Education (IIE) titled "International Student Mobility Flows and COVID-19 Realities".

The rapid growth in Canada is evident when compared with the United States. The United States also saw an increase in the total number of students from India.

However, the increase of 60,236 students only resulted in a 45 per cent growth, signalling that over the past five years, students from India enrolled at higher education institutions in Canada in greater numbers and at a much faster rate than in the United States. In 2020, Canada surpassed the United States and became the leading host of students from India pursuing higher education.

The number of Indian students in the United States declined for the first time in seven years, decreasing by 4 per cent in 2019/2020, driven primarily by declines in Indian graduate students and those pursuing Optional Practical Training.

The flow of international students crossing borders to pursue educational opportunities has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing higher education systems worldwide to consider the context and realities of global academic mobility before and after the health crisis.

The joint paper by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and IC3 analyze significant international student mobility trends before the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of host countries in offering academic opportunities to international students, and the increased competitiveness among countries to attract international students. The report provides an overview of the global mobility flows to and from major world regions in the 2019/2020 academic year and considers the effects of COVID-19 on global student mobility and how the pandemic has comparatively affected international students and the countries that serve as their hosts.

Vivek Mansukhani, Head, IIE India, said, "The challenges of the pandemic will create opportunities for a breakthrough in international education. Higher education institutions worldwide are working hard to provide options for international students, including hybrid instruction models and other options for study. Their efforts to support international students and maintain a welcome environment through increased communications, mental health and well-being services, financial support, and other actions will prove incredibly important in the years to come. The focus will shift to ensure that knowledge furthers happiness and peace, helps us appreciate the reality of interconnectedness and cultivates our dormant human potential to the fullest."

You can read the full report(https://www.iie.org/Research-and-Insights/Publications/IntlStudent-Mobility-Flows-and-C19-Realities) here.

The IC3 (short form for International Career and College Counseling) Movement, with its mission to bring counseling in every school, is at its core, dedicated to helping young people across the globe find career paths through education that will lead to fulfilled happy and productive lives. Comprising four key, volunteer-driven initiatives -- the Annual IC3 Conference, IC3 Regional Forums, IC3 Live, and the IC3 Institute -- the IC3 Movement aims to empower every school to run a robust, fully functioning career and college counseling department.

IIE has been a world leader in international education since 1919. IIE works to build more peaceful and equitable societies by advancing scholarship, building economies and promoting access to opportunity. As a not-for-profit with 18 offices and affiliates worldwide, IIE collaborates with a range of corporate, government and foundation partners across the globe to design and manage scholarship, study abroad, workforce training and leadership development programs. For more information, visit (https://www.iie.org).

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)

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Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 29 (ANI/NewsVoir): Chennai based (https://catalystpr.in) Catalyst Public Relations Pvt. Ltd., has been recognized with both State & National Awards for its path breaking work in the PR industry.

It has bagged the State's 'Best PR Agency' Award from the global media house, the Times of India and the National award 'Excellence in Digital Sales Channels' from the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI).

The Times of India award is Catalyst PR's first State Award. It has the distinction of being the only PR agency in Tamil Nadu to be the recipient of The Times of India's 'Best PR Agency' award. The award was received by (https://ramkumarsingaram.com) Ramkumar Singaram, CEO, Catalyst PR from Actress Simran at the Times Business Awards 2021 event held recently at ITC Grand Chola Hotel, Chennai.

The National Award from the PRCI - 'Excellence in Digital Sales Channels' of 11th PRCI Excellence Awards, marked a new milestone in Catalyst PR's journey. It bagged the award for being very active in all social media platforms like FB, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.; for topping the list in domain ranking & google search; for getting featured regularly in social media content portals; for having been listed in more than 150 web directories; for having the highest number of five star rated client reviews in India and for having more than 25000 social media followers; the highest compared to any other PR agency in India. These awards have put its count at 9 National Awards and one State Award, totalling 10.

PRCI is the premier body of the PR industry in India with 41 chapters Pan-India. The 11th PRCI Excellence Awards drew participation from over 50+ Companies and it was highly competitive. Catalyst PR was chosen from among these and awarded at PRCI's 15th Global Communication Conclave event held recently at Panaji, Goa. The award event was a glittering ceremony and the awards were presented by Dr. Govind Goude, Hon'ble Minister for Arts & Culture, Goa in the presence of Shri MSD Bhatta Mishra, ED (HR), NTPC, Shri M B Jayaram, Chairman Emeritus & Chief Mentor, PRCI; Dr. T. Vinaykumar, National President, PRCI and others.

Being ecstatic about these recognitions, especially since they have come at a time when the company is celebrating its 25th year anniversary, Mr. Ramkumar Singaram, CEO, Catalyst PR said, "Awards always motivate us to strive further and innovate. We have always believed in going that extra mile to derive PR strategy that is out-of-the-box and delivers phenomenal results. When we work with a client, we spend time on researching their brand and their market and suggest appropriate PR solutions. We always set our benchmark high and have partnered in the growth of our clients. Our ability to quickly adapt to the changes in the market and provide cost-effective solutions is the key to our success."

Catalyst PR, established in 1997 and India's first 9001:2015 certified PR agency, is a fast-growing PR agency whose penchant for innovation has brought it not just accolades from its peers and clients but also awards. Headquartered at Chennai, with a wide network across India, it had handled many PR campaigns that have generated a great deal of positive publicity for clients. Its client list includes Retail, FMCG, Education, Hospitality, and Medicine to Corporate sectors.

It brings together many kinds of PR services under one roof, from drafting press releases, organising press meets and events, editorial services, advertorial services, media monitoring to crisis communication it offers them all. It has played a vital role in helping clients make the next leap in their growth.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

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New Delhi [India], September 29 (ANI/Mediawire): A few days back, CBSE released the sample papers for Class 10th & 12th Term 1 Boards.

The official sample papers are now available on CBSE website. Now, the exam schedule is to be announced in October week 1.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85s50NOeGvE & feature=youtu.be)

The sample paper provided the exact blueprint of the actual paper and marking scheme. However, just one sample paper cannot be enough for the students to prepare themselves for the complete revamp of the question paper. As per the analysis of the CBSE Sample papers, MTG Experts infer the following points:

1. Sample papers for term 1 are completely objective, as mentioned earlier by CBSE

2. Paper is more of concept and application based.

3. Illustrative Figure, line Diagrams and Graph-based questions are more in the sample papers as compared to one-liner

4. Sample papers' level of difficulty is higher than previous years' papers

5. Questions are comparatively lengthy for understanding and solving; hence it may consume more time. So, students may run short of time.

Based on this analysis, MTG realised that there is a great requirement for practice material adhering to the CBSE sample paper for students to hone their paper solving skills. MTG released ScoreMore 10 sample papers for CBSE Class-10th & 12th Term-1 exams. The book comprises 9 Sample papers based on the blueprint issued by CBSE for practice andofficial sample paper issued by CBSE. The answers of the sample question papers are provided in the book itself.

To get hands-on practice and for the student to prepare in an exam-like environment, the book also provides OMR sheet after each Sample Question paper.

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The Sample papers inside the book are curated based upon Competency-Based Education (CBE). Various types of multiple-choice questions, including Case-based MCQs and Assertion-Reason based MCQs, are provided in the book for ample practice of the students.

Everyone devises a strategy to perform his/her best with guidance of experts. Here, we are sharing some strategy insights so that you can avoid making silly mistakes during exams.

1. Understand the exam paper thoroughly.

For complete practice of questions to be asked in the Term-1 CBSE exams and for the hands-on approach of filling OMR sheets and understanding the concept comprehensively, get your hands on (https://pcmbtoday.com/products-search/?product-cats=all & search=10+Sample+Papers+Term+1 & utm_source=timesofindia.indiatimes.com & utm_medium=referral & utm_campaign=mediawire-article-cbse-samplepaper) MTG's Score more 10 Sample question papers term-1. If you have learnt your subjects sincerely, then ScoreMore 10 Sample Papers Term-1 will ensure your success in exams.

2. Don't waste too much time.

Don't forget; the Term-1 exams have a duration of 90 minutes only and the number of questions may range from 35 - 60. So, you have to attempt questions accordingly in your exams.

Being MCQ's based, in the Term-1 exams, there may be a chance that more questions will be asked from the chapter text along with from the chapter-end exercises. To make sure you study every line of NCERT and can attempt every question, we suggest you solve MTG Objective NCERT at your Fingertips and MTG 100 Percent Exam Ready CBSE Board Term 1. The book comprises a wide variety of MCQ's including Chapterwise MCQ's, Case-based MCQ's, and Assertion-Reason based MCQ's.

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3. Keep revising

We tend to forget the things which we won't revise regularly. So, revising the concepts, you are already through with is an integral part of your performance enhancement strategy. Solving the papers will help you manage time and analyse in which chapter you cannot perform well. But, revising concepts regularly will assure both excellence and good performance. Keep revising and improving your weak areas of subjects. To ensure that you do not miss even a single line from NCERT, you can entirely rely on MTG's NCERT at your Fingertips. Also, to prepare for the for the vitals, you can take the help of MTG's 100 Percent series.

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4. Time Management - Prioritize your attempts.

Start introducing this practice in your preparation strategy so that prioritizing becomes a habit by the time of your exams. Solving the questions that you are quickest at and then later solving the ones which take more time will ensure a good score in your exams.

There is no negative marking in the paper, so don't leave any questions blank. In the end, to all the questions that you marked as "not know the answer", fill in the most probable answer.

5. Practice Filling the OMR Sheet.

This is the most crucial phase while answering the OMR sheet-based exam. Students usually do errors and thus are left with poor performance even if they know all the answers. Some common errors are as follows:

I. Some students mark all answers in the question paper and then at the end run short of time to mark them in OMR sheet.

II. Some students mark the answers simultaneously but forget to skip the bubble of the OMR Sheet where they leave the question and hence end up in marking wrong answers.

III. Some students in hurry, mark the wrong option in the OMR even when they know the correct answer.

So, here we suggest the right approach to mark the answers in the OMR sheet. Divide the question papers into 3-4 parts. Like, attempt the first 15 questions, write their answers on paper and then mark them in OMR cautiously. Then, pick the next fifteen questions and repeat the activity and so on. For the last lot, mark answer one by one.

All 10th and 12th Grade students would be appearing in Objective type exams for the first time. Hence, all the tips mentioned in the article will be of immense use. We suggest students to do repetitive cycles of revision and exhaustive practice by attempting sample papers to get excellent score in the TERM 1.

(https://pcmbtoday.com/products-search/?product-cats=all & search=Case+Study & utm_source=timesofindia.indiatimes.com & utm_medium=referral & utm_campaign=mediawire-article-cbse-samplepaper) Buy MTG's Score More Case Study Chapterwise Practice Questions for Class 10th & 12th - (https://bit.ly/2XgEE8U)

For frequent updates and latest updated study resources for Boards, NEET, JEE, Olympiads and study guides, (https://pcmbtoday.com/?utm_source=timesofindia.indiatimes.com & utm_medium=referral & utm_campaign=mediawire-article-cbse-samplepaper) Visit MTG Website

All the best for your exams.

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 29 (ANI/PNN): The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), one of the largest and oldest Association representing the interests of the Domestic Garment Industry, expressed its deep sense of disappointment and anguish at the recent announcements from the GST Council indicating that with a view to address the issue of Inverted Duty Structure in the Textile Industry, it has been decided to change the GST rates applicable on Fabrics and Garments with effect from 1st January.

Although no formal communication has been received, reports indicate that the current applicable rate of 5% on all Fabrics and Garments up to the price of Rs.1,000, will be increased to 12%.

It is indeed disturbing that to correct an issue faced by a small section of the entire Industry, the Council is considering increasing the prices of nearly 85% of the final products to the Consumers.

Rajesh Masand, President - CMAI urges the Government and the GST Council to consider these crucial points:

1. The Domestic Garment Industry is still struggling to revive post the Covid pandemic - with most of the industry still at 60 - 65% of pre-covid levels (Retail, which is the lifeline of Apparel Manufacturing, was one of the first sectors to shut down and one of the last to re-open). Most indicators point to end 2022 as the earliest that the Industry can hope to achieve its pre-covid levels. CMAI strongly believes that this, or even january 2022, is not the right time to increase taxes.

2. The massive price increase of Raw Materials such as Yarn, fabric, fuel, packaging materials, transportation, etc. is already seeing a 15-20% price increase in the final price of the product. The Consumer is already reeling with job losses, wage cuts, and social and personal traumas. To add another 7% taxes to the price of an essential item of consumption such as garments is uncalled for.

3. The Covid-19 pandemic has already seen 15-20% of Garments units across the country shutting or scaling down their operations. The Garment Industry is the highest employer in the Country after Agriculture. It is estimated that the industry is currently seeing a drop of not less than 20% employment in the Sector. The move contemplated by the Council is likely to risk an even higher level of unemployment.

4. Admittedly, there exists the problem of Inverted Duty Structure in a small segment of the total Textile Value Chain - not exceeding 15% of the total Industry. The proposed move will impact 85% of the industry to ease the problem faced by 15% of the industry.

5. The Government has come out with excellent schemes such as PLI and Mega Parks, primarily with a view to promoting Exports of MMF based products. The Industry, including CMAI has wholeheartedly welcomed these schemes. This move will hurt the cotton sector far more than promote the mmf sector.

6. Indian Garment Industry is still largely a Cotton based Industry. Cotton garments, including traditional wear categories such as Dhotis, Sarees, etc. form the bulk of clothing used by the poorer sections of the Society. This section of population will be hit by another price increase.

7. In any country where there are differential rates of GST, essential commodities, especially those consumed by the poorer section of Society, would be levied at the lowest slab. We will be removing an essential commodity item, used by the common man, from the lowest slab to a higher slab.

8. As is well known, the excellent support provided by the Government to the MSMEs through Emergency Credit lines from Banks is getting over now, and Banks have started recalling these loans. In addition to the stress of repayment of these loans, MSMEs will now need additional Working Capital, with the GST refunds now going to 12%. MEMEs will find it impossible to get the additional working capital required.

9. India being still a largely Cotton based economy, an increase of Cotton based products will lead to a price increase across the Cotton value chain. With increased prices will come reduced consumption. This reduction of demand for cotton will also impact the farmer.

Rahul Mehta, Chief Mentor of CMAI, strongly urges the Central and State Governments and GST Council to review their decision and find alternate solutions to address the Inverted Duty Structure problem. CMAI has in the past recommended a flat 5% GST across the entire Value Chain - which will resolve the Inverted Duty Structure, will boost consumption and hence production and & Employment, and will cost the Government a negligible amount on revenue.

In the absence of such a solution, CMAI urges the authorities to maintain the current status quo.

For further information: (https://cmai.in/?doing_wp_cron=1632904424.2793700695037841796875)

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New Delhi [India], September 29 (ANI/ThePRTree): Congress leader and social activist Govind Patel, using the power of social media, stressed on the Rajasthan Government's Covid-related schemes to help people amid the pandemic.

Govind with assistance from the IT Cell of Sikar Congress launched the campaign of #SikarCongressHelpDesk on Twitter and Facebook with the idea to alleviate people stuck in times of need. The district administration had honoured him for his acts of kindness regarding the same.

Utilizing the power of social media, Govind made sure that all the state's guidelines and protocols during Covid reach the general public and are followed without any lag. Helping people in saving their own lives as well as the lives of their close ones is something which Govind had tirelessly worked towards. He has garnered a lot of appreciation by Congress State President Minister Govind Singh Dotasara and Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma for his constant efforts. Moreover, he was appreciated for his active contribution on Facebook in a LIVE program on Zee News.

Govind Patel, a social activist, and a leader is also the Sikar Congress Social Media Incharge. The young humanitarian has worked hard by smartly utilizing resources he had access to in order to help a lot of victims who requested him for help on social media platforms.

Talking about his endeavours, and the part he is playing in helping society, Govind Patel says, "Covid unleashed havoc upon the people all across the globe and India too was not spared. There was complete chaos as the health infrastructure of the country crumbled during the deadly second wave. People came forward and started using Social Media to reach out to victims. There were a lot of individuals that were actively engaged with lakhs of SOS and emergency tweets in order to provide them with relevant information or medical aids. Serving people is something which is a moral duty of every citizen and being a leader, it has always been my priority to put my best foot forward and handle the same effectively. "

The young leader who started his career in politics as a student leader affiliated to the student wing of Congress- NSUI has been a great source of help for people during the tough times of Covid. He has very well shown to the world that there is nothing bigger than helping the ones who are seeking help.

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Alpharetta (GA) [USA], September 29 (ANI/PNN): Cyble, an AI-powered, Y Combinator-backed, cyber threat intelligence company that empowers organizations with darkweb & cyber crime monitoring and mitigation services, today announced that Uday Pulleti, former Director of AI at Cognition IP, has taken over as the Senior Director - AI at Cyble.

A core AI technologist with more than 15 years of expertise in conceiving new ideas, developing algorithms, and enabling the productization of complex systems, Uday has led several products in the domains of legal tech, smart home, smart city, and smart industry. In his new role at Cyble, Uday will be entrusted with mapping out and delivering the AI technology roadmap for the organization. In addition to being responsible for brainstorming new advanced technology solutions, his efforts will be directed at advancing automation, fostering knowledge discovery, decision-making and insights, and streamlining business processes for enabling new capabilities.

Commenting on his appointment, Uday said, "I am incredibly excited to be joining the leadership team at Cyble. Data breaches and cyberattacks continue to increase at an accelerated pace, affecting enterprises and individuals, making real-time visibility into cybercrime an absolute necessity. Cyble is at the forefront of providing real-time cyber situational awareness. Moreover, AI systems have a high impact in untangling the transient and anonymous darkweb and providing insights, contexts, and connections that are highly difficult to spot. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to construct such systems along with the talented and driven team at Cyble."

In his former role as the Director of AI at Cognition IP, Uday has led an efficient team of ML engineers to conceive, design, and implement NLP products, thereby resulting in a 30% improvement in the operational efficiency of the organization. Prior to Cognition IP, Uday was the Principal Research Scientist at Honeywell Global Labs, where he led the development of cloud-based object detection and classification platform, besides spearheading the development of different machine learning algorithms for video surveillance/security for smart home and smart city applications.

Manish Chachada, Co-founder and COO of Cyble, says, "At Cyble, we are excited to have Uday guide our efforts as we keep growing and scaling. His proven thought leadership, execution excellence, and holistic approach to problem-solving will help Cyble on its mission to optimize our product Cyble Vision and successfully build a world-class cybersecurity experience for our clients."

"We're delighted to add Uday to Cyble's leadership team. He brings a thorough understanding of the AI landscape coupled with a rich knowledge of cybersecurity, which plays a definitive role in Cyble's mission. Uday's excellent leadership and passion for cybersecurity will support Cyble as we continue to grow and pioneer a new standard for cyber health. With Uday on board, we can more conclusively curate unique experiences for our customers." says Beenu Arora, CEO and Co-founder of Cyble.

(https://cyble.com) Cyble is a global threat intelligence SaaS provider that helps enterprises protect themselves from cybercrimes and exposure in the Darkweb. Its prime focus is to provide organizations with real-time visibility to their digital risk footprint. Backed by Y Combinator as part of the 2021 winter cohort, Cyble has also been recognized by Forbes as one of the top 20 Best Cybersecurity Start-ups To Watch In 2020. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, and with offices in Australia, Singapore, and India, Cyble has a global presence. To learn more about Cyble, visit (https://cyble.com)

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Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 29 (ANI/NewsVoir): Cementing the strong relationship between Sany India and Durga Infra Mining Private Ltd., a key handover celebration was held recently in the presence of top management from both the companies wherein Sany India handed over to them their 100th Dump Truck-SKT90S. Considered to be a mining monster in the true sense with a core advantage of efficiency, comfort and a superior payload capacity, SKT90S can now be seen in action at Durga Infra Mining site at Gujarat.

Durga Infra Mining Private Ltd. operates more than 8 mines across India with a huge fleet of 1000+ mining equipment. Sany India has been a trusted partner in their growth with delivering high performing machines which provide excellent safety, reliability, durability and easily surpass the comfort benchmarks even in extreme mining sites.

The key handover celebration was held at Sany India Head office in Pune in the presence of Mr. Deepak Garg, Managing Director, Sany India and South Asia along with special guests from Durga Infra Mining which included the promoters - Shri Navinchandra Shyamji Dholu, Shri Shantilal Shamji Dholu, Shri Hiteshkumar Shantilal Dholu, Shri Het Navichandra Dholu and senior leadership members of Sany India.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Dheeraj Panda Chief Operating Officer (Sales, Marketing and Customer Support), Sany Heavy Industry India Pvt. said, "It is a privilege for Sany India to be associated with Durga Infra Mining Pvt. Ltd. who are considered to be the pioneers in mining sector. Their success story is a true reflection of grit and determination by their promoters Mr. Navin bhai and Mr. Shanti bhai. From a humble beginning they have turned Durga Infra Mining into a giant which contributes significantly to the coal mining sector of India. Sany India is overwhelmed to be a partner of this growth story."

Durga Infra Mining Pvt. Ltd. has a strong relationship with Sany India over the years, they currently own a huge fleet of Sany India machines which includes 4 Motor Graders (SMG200 & SAG 200), 1 Mobile Crane (STC600) and 21 Excavators (SY20, SY80, SY380, SY500 and SY800). One SY800 machine has been fitted with a ripper arm. The ripper arm has been designed for primary breaking in overburdened removal and block separation in the toughest mining sites. The machine is currently being used at Lignite Mines, Tadkeshwar, Gujarat.

Sany India was incorporated in 2002 and offers the widest range of Construction Machinery in India & South Asia. In 2012, Sany India invested more than INR 600 crore to develop infrastructure for R & D, Manufacturing, Quality Inspection, Testing, and Service at their manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune. Through this facility, the company operates in four Business verticals viz: Excavator, Heavy Equipment, Concrete Machinery, and Renewable Energy. Presently, Sany India offers products like excavators, truck-mounted cranes, all-terrain and rough terrain cranes, crawler cranes, transit mixers, batching plants, boom pumps, trailer pumps, piling rigs, motor graders, pavers, compactors, reach stackers, rubber-tyred gantry cranes, rail-mounted gantry cranes, mining equipment, wind turbine generators and many more. The company has already established a strong network of around 39 dealers and 180 plus touch points across India and south Asia to cater to the growing demand and provide support to all its customers & associates. Sany has more than 19,000 machines delivered on the ground, contributing to infrastructure development projects in India & other South Asian countries.

Owing to its widest product range, superior build quality, service commitment, innovative solutions, and global expertise, Sany India has achieved market leadership in various construction equipment segments. With the Government of India's focus on infrastructure development and modernization, the company is poised for tremendous growth.

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Pune (Maharashtra) [India], September 29 (ANI/PRNewswire): (https://mitfutureskills.org/?utm_source=prnewswire7 & utm_medium=wirednews & utm_campaign=pressrelease & utm_term=prn & utm_content=prj) MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence (MIT FuSE) and MIT School of Education & Research - (https://www.mituniversity.edu.in) MIT Art, Design and Technology University, continues with its endeavour to train school teachers on Artificial Intelligence in Education with its exclusive Short Term Course on Artificial Intelligence for teachers.

The course on Artificial Intelligence was inaugurated today with insights & blessings from the Top Global Artificial Intelligence Influencers and industry veterans, Utpal Chakraborty, Dr. Anoop V.S., and Mr. Arpit Yadav.

The Short-Term Course on (http://mitfutureskills.org/pgd-in-ai-ml) AI was initiated & curated by the(https://mitfutureskills.org/?utm_source=prnewswire7 & utm_medium=wirednews & utm_campaign=pressrelease & utm_term=prn & utm_content=prj) MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence to bridge the gap between classroom teaching and the advancement in online teaching with the use of Artificial Intelligence. The course is being supported by CloudThat Technologies, CITIS Educon Pvt. Ltd., InnoWise, eduPeer, and Navabharat Group.

(https://mitfutureskills.org/?utm_source=prnewswire7 & utm_medium=wirednews & utm_campaign=pressrelease & utm_term=prn & utm_content=prj) MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence right from the inception, has been promoting awareness on adoption of emerging technologies to generate smart & employable technocrats with the aim to uplift, upgrade, and upskill the working professionals. Around 10,000+ students, tech enthusiasts, and working professionals have been benefited from the initiatives & certifications.

The TEDx speaker & Former Head of Artificial Intelligence, YES Bank Ltd., Utpal Chakraborty, stated "We are in the golden era of the technological revolution. (http://mitfutureskills.org/pgd-in-ai-ml) AI and other technologies form a part of big data and data analytics. These skills will be quintessential and crucial for career growth in today's world." He has also coined the word "Cognification" which merges the importance of cognitive elements in the current digital process. He also gave insights on use cases in AI like the banking system, security system, and customer support system like chatbots. He also congratulated & appreciated the endeavours by the (https://mitfutureskills.org/?utm_source=prnewswire7 & utm_medium=wirednews & utm_campaign=pressrelease & utm_term=prn & utm_content=prj) MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence for upskilling and reskilling initiatives.

Dr. Anoop V.S. Senior Scientist (Research & Training) from IIITMK Kerala, pointed out, "According to the World Economic Forum, 75 million jobs will be displaced by 2022 but 133 million new roles will be created, hence this is the right time to up-skill and re-skill." He emphasized that the role of present teachers is more significant in the education sector than new entrants as experienced teachers bring in invaluable knowledge coupled with technology. He also shared how the education system has been revamped with the new initiative of Digital University of Kerala.

Senior Data Scientist from INSOFE, Arpit Yadav said, "It's important to understand data science, how it comes into existence and how it is used by companies to make a business out of it. We are basically the free data generators on whom platforms like Facebook flourish." Mr. Arpit concluded his keynote address with how Data Science is an art of finding hidden information, predicting future data (ML/DL), and converting it into actions (AI). He also listed the top skills in demand in the job world viz., Python, AI, Data science, and so on.

Dean Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Asawari Bhave has reiterated the importance of AI in every spectrum of education. She said, "AI will not only help improve classroom management but also boost its efficiency." She stressed the need for flexibility in adapting to technological advancements than just learning something new for work purposes.

Prof. Suraj Bhoyar, Project Director, MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence, extended heartfelt gratitude during his welcome address to the educators who always stand by every individual, to guide, motivate, and inspire. He salutes teachers who are ever ready to upskill and upgrade with changes in the education field today. He emphasized the National Education Policy 2020 and guidelines issued by the CBSE to mandate AI Training in Schools, Colleges. He also stated, "Artificial Intelligence in education can be customised for teachers to enhance their teaching. They can use artificial intelligence to not only teach but also research and refine their subject matter. This global pandemic crisis has also been an extraordinary time for learning."

AI is not a futuristic vision, but rather something that is here today and being integrated with Education and deployed for better student-teacher interactions. and go hand in hand with exponential technologies like (http://mitfutureskills.org/pgd-in-ai-ml) IoT, (http://mitfutureskills.org/pgd-in-ai-ml) Data Analytics, (https://mitfutureskills.org/pg-diploma-in-robotic-process-automation) Robotics, (https://mitfutureskills.org/pg-diploma-in-cyber-security-analyst) Cyber Security, (https://mitfutureskills.org/pgd-in-cloud-computing) Cloud Computing, (https://mitfutureskills.org/post-graduate-programme-in-blockchain-technology) Blockchain, etc.

This short-term course spans over 5 weeks and engages teachers for 50+ hours with extensive practical training on Artificial Intelligence and its use cases. It elaborates on topics that will help the teachers and educators in getting hands-on training on Artificial Intelligence which they can use in their lesson plans and class delivery, online or offline. The training has received an overwhelming response and saw registrations from 300+ teachers, professors, research scholars, and educators from India and abroad.

The inauguration ceremony concluded with great zeal, enthusiasm, and active participation from the participants. Smruti Shelke from (https://mitfutureskills.org/?utm_source=prnewswire7 & utm_medium=wirednews & utm_campaign=pressrelease & utm_term=prn & utm_content=prj) MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence (MIT FuSE) compered the ceremony and Prof. Komal Gagare from MIT School of Education & Research proposed the vote of thanks.

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Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 29 (ANI/PRNewswire): (https://www.ust.com) UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, has developed and installed a Cold Truth temperature-tracking solution for Mydin, one of Malaysia's leading halal grocery chains, to monitor interior temperature levels at one of their hypermarkets in the north, in Bertam, Penang, outlet's refrigeration units.

The solution has successfully helped Mydin reduce the risk of food spoilage to deliver more consistent quality to customers and has led to improvements in the completeness and simplicity of the grocer's regulatory reporting and compliance.

UST Cold Truth solution is a state-of-the-art, cloud-based advanced temperature monitoring solution that intelligently detects temperature fluctuations and sends an alert for quick action. It offers greats savings on products for retailers that would otherwise be discarded due to temperature fluctuation or freezer failure.

"We chose to work with UST because they are experts in retail technology and business operations," said Azmin Bin Saduruddin, Executive Director, Mydin Northern Region. "As a global corporation, UST can provide Mydin with the service we need as a leading retailer in Malaysia."

Temperature probes are placed at various locations inside their refrigerator or freezer to monitor temperature at a constant interval to ensure that the temperature in all parts of the unit remains within the designated range. If any of the probes record a temperature out of range, the sensor node sends an alert to the UST Cold Truth gateway, which UST implemented on an Intel NUC Kit with an Intel Celeron processor.

UST Cold Truth records the data in the cloud and alerts the store manager, who can take immediate action. The solution also records temperature readings of all refrigeration units throughout the day.

The data is retained in the cloud, ready to be retrieved and communicated on-demand to Malaysia's governmental health inspectors and auditors. Before implementing UST Cold Truth, the store maintenance staff checked each sensor five times each day, exceeding the twice-daily checks required by law in Malaysia.

The staffer logged temperature readings at every location in every refrigeration unit. This manual process was time-consuming and inefficient, and kept the maintenance team from performing other duties in the store. Further, the mandatory temperature logs were susceptible to human error, increasing the risk that a problem might be overlooked, or the store might fail an inspection and face significant penalties.

"UST offers a variety of cutting-edge retail solutions to our clients across the world. We have products that are custom designed for multiple customers, and our enterprise products are gaining huge popularity. Intel provided a great selection of hardware and software platforms, as well as engineering support during the development phase," said Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, General Manager, Emerging Digital Technology, UST. "Since we launched UST Cold Truth, its inclusion as an Intel IoT Market Ready Solution has helped us to communicate the benefits of our product to a wider audience."

UST plans to expand the solution beyond retail stores to any venue or industry where temperature monitoring is a business-critical aspect of the operation.

"With UST Cold Truth, we can provide our clients with a cost-effective and time-saving solution," said Gilroy Mathew, Vice President and Head of Semiconductor, UST. "New technology gives retailers the shelf-level temperature readings they need to track equipment performance in real-time, reduce labor costs, and simplify compliance with government regulations."

For more information about UST Cold Truth, download (https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/6761677/Brochure%20-%20Coldtruth-New.pdf) UST Cold Truth brochure.

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New Delhi (India), September 29 (ANI/PNN): Premier student housing brand, your-space has announced two major appointments in their top management. Venayak Saran Gupta, an ex-BCG consultant who joined the company as Head of Growth & Business in 2019, has been promoted to Chief Revenue Officer.

He has overseen rapid growth in the company's footprint from 1000 beds in 4 cities to more than 6000 beds in 10 cities.

your-space has also brought on board Shaunik Sachdev as Chief Marketing Officer, who brings over ten years of industry experience. Shaunik has worked with multiple real estate brands across the globe and was also responsible for building the We Work marketing team in India. He has spent time working with media and digital marketing houses like RepIndia, Dentsu Webchutney.

your-space CEO, Nidhi Kumra said, "One of the interesting shifts post-COVID for the student housing segment has been that customer discovery and acquisition has moved entirely online. We have seen 50%+ m-o-m growth in the number of users on our website over the last ten months with 95% of our leads being acquired through digital channels and ~50% of them acquired organically. We feel Shaunik, with his deep domain expertise, is well-positioned to help us leverage this shift in consumer behavior. With Venayak, it was a planned transition into a larger role. He has been managing the B2B partnerships and property acquisition verticals over the last two years. Given our outlook for rapid growth, we felt it was the right time to move him into the CRO position and build out the sales, property acquisition and marketing teams under him."

Talking about his role, Venayak Saran Gupta said, "The journey with your space has been very exciting. We've gained ground during the last 15 months, expanding from 2300 beds pre-COVID to ~6000 beds post-COVID. With a revenue per bed over ~1L, we are there or thereabouts as the second-largest student housing player in India (in terms of revenue). The last two years have allowed me to put together a fantastic property acquisition and sales team. Now with Shaunik coming on-board, we've got a great leader to grow the internal marketing team under. I believe now is the time for us to put our foot on the gas and grab market share in our key cities."

Commenting on joining your-space Shaunik Sachdev -"with life slowly resuming back to normal and students eager to get back to colleges with necessary precautions, the student housing sector is something I am extremely bullish about. Our consumer's journey is primarily online, which allows us to grow our presence and create unique touchpoints in an otherwise relatively offline industry. Having traversed a similar path of hyper-growth with We Work, I am keen to use my experience in the growth of your-space. The vision of our founders along with the dynamic leadership team gives me confidence that there is only one direction for us."

your-space is the second largest student housing company in India, housing ~6000 students across ten cities. With its four pillars of safety, comfort, health and community, they look to provide an enriching living space for well-balanced student life. Where students can focus on their college life while leaving all the hassle of food, housekeeping, wifi, maintenance, security etc., to the your-space professionals. The your-space residences and community engagement programs are designed to allow the students to express themselves and grow.

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Japanese agriculture and heavy equipment company Kubota Corporation is reportedly in talks with the promoters of Indian tractor manufacturer to increase its holding and ultimately become the controlling shareholder.

Kubota currently holds a 9.1% stake in which it acquired last year through a preferential allotment. Kubota's interest in also come after their joint venture started production of tractors last year.

The Japanese company is looking to double down on the world's largest tractor market just as demand is starting to pick up after Covid-19-induced lockdowns.

Escorts generated a profit of Rs 872 crore in FY21 on a revenue of just over Rs 7,000 crore. It operates nine factories to manufacture equipment across three sectors and boasts an employee base of more than 11,000.

The family of chairman and managing director Nikhil Nanda owned almost 37% of Escorts at the end of June. This stake is currently valued at Rs 7,500 crore.

Reports suggest that Kubota may initially acquire a 15% stake from the Nanda family before buying them out entirely. Escorts has termed these reports market speculation.

Interestingly, Escorts was the target of a failed hostile takeover attempt in the 1980s, when London-based Swraj Paul tried to acquire it. Escorts, at the time, was the manufacturer of the Rajdoot brand of motorcycles.

Haryana-based Escorts is India's fourth-largest tractor manufacturer. In FY21, it had a market share of 11.3% -- behind Sonalika, TAFE and the Mahindra Group. Escorts also manufactures construction equipment and railway equipment.

If the Kubota deal goes ahead, it would mean the end of a 77-year association between the Nanda family and Escorts.

The Nanda family has been associated with Escorts since its founding in 1944 by Nikhil Nanda's grandfather Har Prasad Nanda. Over the course of the company's history, Escorts has collaborated with Ford, Yamaha, JCB, Tadano and finally Kubota.

Can Kubota establish itself as a major force in the booming Indian tractor market? We have to see how its deal with the Nanda family unfolds.
Benchmark indices fell over half a per cent yesterday as analysts downgraded China's GDP growth forecasts following a power crunch.

That apart, hardened bond yields also prompted investors to book profits in equities. The US Treasury yields topped 1.5% on Tuesday, the highest since June, while 10-year government bond yields, back home, climbed to 6.22%.

This, coupled with soaring crude oil prices, pushed the 410 points down at 59,668 while the index dropped 106 points to 17,749.

The indices had hit a low of 59,045 and 17,576, respectively, in the intra-day trade on Tuesday, but bounced back sharply amid gains in energy and metal stocks.

Now, according to tech charts, the medium-term bias remains positive as long as the index does not breach the 58,000 level.

Further, every bounce back above 59,500 may trigger an accumulating pattern for a bigger breakout.

As regards Nifty, the bullish outlook will remain intact as long as the support of 17,250 is held. Moreover, a breakout rally may take the index to the uncharted territory of 18,000 and 18,100 if it breaks above 17,800 decisively.

Against this backdrop, the immediate support of 58,600 for the Sensex and 17,500 for the Nifty will be tracked by market participants today.

On the fundamental side, the outcome of market regulator Sebi's board meeting, stock-specific triggers, and primary market action will guide the on Wednesday.

The much awaited initial public offer by Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC will open for subscription today at a price band of Rs 695-712.

The fourth-largest asset management company in India looks to raise Rs 2,768 crore through an offer for sale by its two promoters.

Analysts recommend subscribing to the issue given the company's reasonable valuations, strong return on equity, diverse product portfolio and well recognised promoter group.

Globally, investors will react to US Fed chairman Jerome Powell's statement to the Senate Banking Committee, ECB President Christine Lagarde's speech at the ECB Forum on Central Banking, and OPEC's World Oil Outlook.
Published On Sep 29, 2021 11:40 AM By Tarun for Tata Tiago NRG

The NRG is essentially a crossover version of the regular Tiago

Tata has launched the Tiago NRG in Nepal at 33.75 lakh NPR (translates to Rs 21.12 lakh). The vehicles are now on display and will be sold across the dealerships of Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd.

The Tiago NRG gets all-round black body cladding, a revised front grille with tri-arrow pattern, and 15-inch dual-tone-style wheels. Tata is offering the 2021 Tiago NRG in four colours: Foresta Green, Snow White, Fire Red, and Cloudy Grey. The cabin has an all-black theme for the dashboard and seats.

The facelifted Tiago NRG is powered by an 86PS 1.2-litre petrol engine, paired with 5-speed manual and 5-speed AMT transmission options.

Heres the official press release from the carmaker:

Tata Motors launches the all-new NRG in Nepal

The new NRG is now available across the Sipradi dealer network in Nepal at 33.75 Lakhs NPR

Kathmandu, 29th September 2021: In partnership with Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd., Tata Motors, Indias leading automotive brand launched yet another exciting product under its New Forever range - the all-new NRG at a starting price of NPR 33.75 Lakhs. A testament of class and style, it is designed specifically for young and dynamic customers seeking a sporty SUV-like performance from their hatchback.

Positioned as the Urban Toughroader, the NRG is not only enhanced with an aggressive front visage and muscular body but also gives a tough road performance with a higher ground clearance. With a GNCAP 4-star adult safety rating, this vehicle will be launched in 4 attractive colors  Forest Green, Fire Red, Snow White, and Cloudy Grey. The vehicles are now on display and have been made available for test drive across the dealer network of Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd.

Speaking on the launch of the all-new NRG in Nepal, Mr. Mayank Baldi - Head PVIB, Tata Motors, said, Were elated to launch the Tata NRG, a rugged version of our much-loved hatchback, in Nepal. With an expressive and bold design - true to its character, the NRG is the ultimate toughroader, crafted for those who want to create a different impression every day every moment. A bold new addition to the New Forever range, the NRG fits well with the increasing trend of bringing more SUV-like characteristics in hatch segment. The all-new NRG is perfectly positioned to give a sporty, adventurous and delightful ride to our customers in Nepal, and we are hopeful for yet another successful reception to this new addition to our product family.

Commenting on this momentous occasion, Mr. Rajan Babu Shrestha, Chief Executive Officer, Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd., said, The Tata NRG is a unique and exciting proposition for the Nepalese market, and marks yet another milestone in our thriving partnership with Tata Motors. We are excited to be a part of this journey and we are looking forward to bringing more differentiated products to our customers in Nepal.

The NRG comes packed with a range of premium features like a push start button, rear parking camera and auto fold ORVM to enhance its overall appeal. An amalgamation of the tough armored exterior and sporty charcoal black interiors, it ensures robust safety and great convenience with enhanced abilities to take over rough terrains. With its 1.2L revotron engine, and manual and AMT transmissions, the NRG is engineered to deliver optimum power and torque for better driving experience. Indeed, a tough-roader, for the tough ones.

Read More on : Tiago NRG AMT
Which characters are involved? Many of the superheroes central to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, and Thor.

And which creators are we talking about? Those who served termination notices are the estates of illustrators Steve Ditko and Don Heck, the heirs of writers Don Rico and Gene Colan, and the 89-year-old Larry Lieber, comics writer and artist (and brother of Marvel legend Stan Lee).

What is the dispute, exactly? It hinges on one question: whether these artists created the superheroes as works made for hire  that is, under employment by Marvel  or as independent works made on a freelance basis, then sold to Marvel. If its the former, as Disney argues, then the termination notices are invalid and Marvel holds onto the copyrights. If its the latter, ownership of the characters must partially return to the creators or their heirs.

And what would that mean? That Disney would have to send the estates a portion of (but not all) the profits of any new works that use these characters. Marvel films are lucrative, to put it mildly, so a lot of money is at stake. Note: the law here only applies to the U.S., so Disney will in any case get to continue controlling the IP overseas.

Where does animation come into this? Marvel has used these characters in a range of animated productions, most recently the Disney+ series What If? And more is coming: the studio has recently signaled its growing commitment to animation.

Is there precedent for this kind of case? Yes. Disney zealously guards its IP. From 2009 to 2013, Marvel fought the heirs of comics legend Jack Kirby over the ownership of characters like Thor and the X-Men; two courts sided with Marvel before the dispute ended in a settlement. In general, Disney has lobbied intensively for the legislative extension of copyright terms, with much success.
The companies also vowed to ban the kind of content authorities have denounced, such as sissy men, gay love, money worship, and anything seen as politically harmful or historically nihilistic. Beijings efforts to police morality extends to film and tv: last week, the countrys broadcasting authority called on networks and streamers to show only excellent cartoons that promote truth, goodness, and beauty.

As part of their pledge, the companies say they will resolutely boycott circumventing regulatory procedures and using overseas gaming platforms to provide services to domestic users. Foreign companies like Steam currently operate in the country, presenting potential loopholes in the ever-tightening rules.

The industry has been under fire for months. In early August, a state-run paper said online video games had become a spiritual opium worth hundreds of billions. Tencents Honor of Kings was singled out, and the company subsequently announced restrictions on how long minors could play its online games, presaging the sweeping rules that later came into effect.

Chinese game properties arent only relevant in China. Honor of Kings is inspired by the popular online game League of Legends, which is developed and published by the Tencent-owned Riot Games. An animated series based on League of Legends titled Arcane will come to Netflix later this year.

Image at top: Honor of Kings
Photo: VicPD

Victoria police say a man has been charged after a police officer was struck by a vehicle.

The department says in a news release that the vehicle that struck the officer is alleged to have been stolen.

It says the officer was hit from behind Monday morning while he was standing next to a police vehicle.

They say the driver was arrested at the scene and the officer received serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say 27-year-old Chance Nichol of Nanaimo has been charged with assaulting a police officer with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and possession of stolen property over $5,000.

Police Chief Del Manak says in a statement the officer is a 10-year member of the force and is well respected in the community.
Photo: The Canadian Press

An influential voice on gun control says it is time for a new cabinet minister to usher in the re-elected Liberal government's promised firearm measures.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the group PolySeSouvient calls for the appointment of a minister who "truly supports gun control."

PolySeSouvient has frequently expressed frustration with Liberal efforts to strengthen gun laws, led in recent years by Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, as public safety minister.

The group includes students and graduates of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, where a gunman killed 14 women in 1989.

As Trudeau assembles a new cabinet, PolySeSouvient says any MP who publicly defended Bill C-21, sponsored by Blair earlier this year, "would not be trustworthy" to deliver on gun control.

The bill proposed a buyback of recently banned firearms the government considers assault-style weapons, but would have allowed owners to keep them under strict conditions  a feature the group sharply criticized.

During the recent election campaign, the Liberals promised to make it mandatory for owners of the banned firearms, which include the Ruger Mini-14 used at Polytechnique, to either sell them back to the government or have them rendered inoperable at federal expense.

Trudeau pounced on a Conservative platform promise to scrap the Liberal ban on a wide variety of guns and review the Firearms Act with input from police, gun owners, manufacturers and the public. Tory Leader Erin O'Toole amended the pledge mid-campaign to say outlawed guns would remain banned, but he did not say whether that might change following the planned review.

Bill C-21 also would have given municipalities the power to ban handguns. The Liberals promised during the campaign to expand that authority to entire provinces or territories, a plan that still falls short for those, like PolySeSouvient, who want a truly national ban to avoid a patchwork of handgun laws.

"We are convinced that the Canadian public, whose votes were clearly influenced by the issue, expects, as we do, swift and bold action to strengthen our gun laws," says the Sept. 24 letter to the prime minister.

It is signed by PolySeSouvient spokeswoman Nathalie Provost, who was shot during the Polytechnique rampage, and Heidi Rathjen, a graduate of the school and coordinator of the group.

Trudeau said this week he plans to appoint cabinet members next month, with a new session of Parliament slated for fall.

PolySeSouvient says a clear mandate, public support and backing of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois should enable the government to meet the expectations of Canadians on gun control.

"All that remains is to appoint a minister who is up to the task."

The group urges Trudeau to appoint a cabinet member who will act on priorities including:

Meaningful consultations with chiefs of police, police representatives, organizations that fight domestic violence, public health and suicide prevention specialists, legal experts, victims organizations, hunters and guns stores

Implementation of the buyback program "as soon as possible" given that the amnesty for current owners ends next April 30

Prohibition of numerous models that were not covered by the regulations

A new legal definition of "prohibited" firearms to make the ban on various guns permanent

Elimination of loopholes and exceptions related to magazines to ensure universal compliance with legal limits on the number of rounds; and

Improved police access to sales records to allow data collection without a search warrant so officers can better trace the origin of a non-restricted firearm and detect patterns such as mass purchases.

Provost said there has been "no real progress" on gun control in the last six years because Liberal measures have been too timid, unlike the Chretien government's comprehensive legislation of a quarter-century ago.

"This is what needs to fundamentally change," she said. "And for that to happen, we need a minister who is not afraid to act boldly, something we have not seen since Allan Rock was justice minister in the 1990s."
Photo: The Canadian Press

The top U.S. military officer has called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a strategic failure.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also has acknowledged to Congress that he had favoured keeping several thousand troops in the country to prevent a collapse of the U.S.-supported Kabul government and a rapid takeover by the Taliban.

Republicans on the Senate armed services committee pointed to Milley's testimony on Tuesday as evidence that President Joe Biden had been untruthful last month when he suggested the military had not urged him to keep troops in Afghanistan. Milley refused to say what advice he gave Biden.

Milley told the committee, when pressed, that it had been his personal opinion that at least 2,500 U.S. troops were needed to guard against a collapse of the Kabul government and a return to Taliban rule.

Defying U.S. intelligence assessments, the Afghan government and its U.S.-trained army collapsed in mid-August, allowing the Taliban, which had ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, to capture Kabul with what Milley described as a couple of hundred men on motorcycles, without a shot being fired. That triggered a frantic U.S. effort to evacuate American civilians, Afghan allies and others from Kabul airport.

The six-hour Senate hearing marked the start of what is likely to be an extended congressional review of the U.S. failures in Afghanistan.
Photo: Twitter

A Danish artist who was was given a pile of money by a museum with which to create a piece of artwork, submitted two empty canvases  titled Take the Money and Run.

Jens Haaning was given the equivalent of nearly $84,000 in Danish kroner and euro bank notes by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg.

For its exhibition on labour conditions and money, entitled Work It Out that opened Sept. 24, the museum commissioned him to recreate two of his earlier pieces, which featured bank notes attached to a canvas representing the average annual wage in Denmark and Austria. As well as lending him the notes, the museum also paid him 25,000 kroner ($3,900) for the work.

But when museum officials received the completed artworks, they were blank.

The artwork is that I have taken the money, Haaning told a radio show on the P1 channel that is part of Danish broadcaster DR this week. He declined to say where the money was.

Haaning, who is known as a provocateur, said the artwork represented his current work situation.

I encourage others who have just as miserable working conditions as I to do the the same, Haaning told P1. If they are being asked to give money to go to work, then take the money and run.

The museum says Haaning has broken the agreement on how to use the money. However, it has not yet decided whether to report Haaning to the police if the money is not returned before the exhibition ends in January.

Haaning, however, denies having committed a crime and insists he did produce a work of art.

"Its not theft, it is a breach of contract, and the breach of contract is part of the work,Haaning told P1. He was not reachable for comment on Wednesday.
The craven skulk away of the U.S. (from Afghanistan) is possibly the greatest defeat of a superior force in history.

This strategic withdrawal for the supposed purpose of ending an unwinnable war has left the world in the most dangerous condition ever.

The Taliban, an Islamist terrorist organization is now in control of the country and is completely armed with abundant free advanced weaponry. Other Islamist terrorist groups also find shelter there, like Al-Qaida which brought down the former World Trade Center (towers) in the largest terrorist act on American soil in history.

ISIS and its blood brother ISIS-K, another terrorist group, now have an entire country to roam free in.

Don't think that these are all different groups who don't have the same philosophy the domination or elimination of the unbelievers.

ISIS declared parts of Syria and Iraq to be the new caliphate from which to wage their terrorist war. Now they have a country that the Taliban call an emirate. What's in a namenothing.

Beyond the whipped Americans deserting their civilian workers, the larger picture will send a message to Russia and China that they too can proceed with their agendas without fear of a U.S. pushback.

Russia will be encouraged to reoccupy countries that previously fell behind the Iron Curtain and China will see an easy route to occupy an isolated Taiwan and the islands in the South China Sea. Israel will be under just as great a threat, as Iran will be even more encouraged to develop its nuclear missile program and unite Arab countries in the Middle East to eliminate the Jewish state.

Now that the U.S. is seen by its enemies to be a paper tiger, the period of relative peace, free of a World War since the end of the last, has effectively ended, and America will experience war on its own territory.

This doesn't even take into account the internal divisions and disarray in the country. Mandatory vaccinations of the young and healthy military, mandatory teaching of critical race theory, making the races suspicious of each other where buddies need to trust each other, weakens the fabric of an already demoralized armed force.

A treasonous president who gifts arms and intel to its enemies and opens the country's borders to unvetted and undocumented foreigners in defiance of border and immigration regulations (you can be sure Taliban, ISIS and Al-Qaida were on those crowded planes) further imperils the nation.

The message to the rest of the world is clearthe age of democracy and freedom is over and the fruits are ripe for the picking.

Steve Friedman, West Kelowna
Photo: The Canadian Press An empty hallway is pictured at a school in Vancouver, B.C.

The Vancouver School District's extension of a mask mandate that will include kindergarten to Grade 3 students starting Monday has prompted calls for more districts in British Columbia to follow suit in the absence of a provincewide public health order.

The Vancouver district informed parents about the change in a letter Wednesday after a unanimous vote by board members concerned about rising COVID-19 cases among children.

Vancouver School District chair Carmen Cho said in the letter that requiring all students to wear masks will provide an extra layer of protection to limit the spread of the virus.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has resisted calls by parents and teachers to make the face coverings mandatory for all students, saying ventilation and limitations to intermingling between classes in different grades are also important factors in schools.

Henry said Tuesday that more children between the ages of five and 11 are being diagnosed with COVID-19 in the eastern Fraser Health region because they are not eligible for vaccines and due to the lower vaccination rates in at least four communities there.

Kyenta Martins, who speaks for parent-led group Safe Schools Coalition BC, said a rise in cases should prompt a provincewide mask mandate for all children if the goal is to keep students learning in schools.

"We're asking for better remote learning for those who are not able to enter the classroom," she said. "We're asking for rapid testing. And we are continuing to ask for transparency and data because the data that they're putting on the website is not accurate."

Henry has dismissed rapid testing as unreliable, including for residents of long-term care facilities earlier in the pandemic, and said Tuesday that regional health authorities would be posting potential exposures of COVID-19 at schools on their websites so parents have an authoritative source of information.

"It takes time for public health to be notified of a positive lab test and to do that important case investigation to understand what settings people were in, where they could have picked it up and where they could potentially transmit it to others," she said.

The B.C. Teachers Federation pushed for a mask mandate for months before Henry implemented it last March, and the union's president, Teri Mooring, said Wednesday there's no acceptable rationale for not extending it now to younger grades.

"We'd like other school boards to follow suit with what the Vancouver School Board did," she said. "The trustees have ultimate responsibility to make sure that schools are healthy and safe spaces."

CUPE BC, which represents about 30,000 workers in the public education system, said in a statement that it applauds the Vancouver board's decision to extend the mask mandate to all students and that it encourages trustees around the province to vote in favour of a similar extension.

"Clearly, the Delta variant has changed the situation in schools," said Karen Ranalletta, president of the provincial chapter of the union.

Mask mandates in schools vary by province. In Alberta, for example, masks became mandatory in indoor public spaces earlier this month but schools were exempt, with school boards left to set their own policies.

In Ontario, masks are required indoors for Grades 1 to 12. Quebec has focused its requirements on high-risk areas like Montreal, where face coverings must be worn in common areas, while students in Grade 5 and up must also wear them in classrooms.

Amy Johnston, who teaches music to kindergarten to Grade 6 students at a school in Surrey, B.C., said parents and teachers also urged Henry to mandate masks in schools before that decision was made, and it's now time to extend that mandate to younger children.

"Dr. Henry seems to be OK with Vancouver doing it on its own, so there's no reason why other school districts shouldn't all be holding emergency meetings to do the same thing," she said.

Johnston said she disagrees with the provincial health officer that there is no intermingling between grades because their movements are less restricted without the cohorts that were in place in the last school year.

She said her daughter, who is in kindergarten, happily wears a mask to school, so there shouldn't be any concerns about children not wanting or being able to use the face coverings to protect themselves.

Parents is some school districts have not been provided information on the state of ventilation at schools since the province promised upgrades.

The Education Ministry said all school districts are now reporting information about improvements to ventilation through their health and safety committees and have been asked to make it available to the public.

However, Mooring said that while the Vancouver School District has improved ventilation with high-grade filters, that's not the case with all the other 59 districts around the province, and some information is not forthcoming.
(left to right) Monique Anthony, director of the Office of Minority Health; Kimberly Lamar, PhD, assistant commissioner of Division of Health Disparities Elimination; and Elizabeth Hart, director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Engagement, led a special Juneteenth COVID-19 testing event at multiple locations in Memphis, Tennessee, including First Baptist Church-Broad.

Community engagement through mobilization

In Tennessee, 17% of the population are African American; however, in the spring of 2020, 20% of COVID-19 cases and 33% of deaths in the states were among Black or African American persons. Recognizing the disproportionate impact COVID-19 had on people from racial and ethnic minority groups, the Office of Minority Health within Tennessee Department of Healths Division of Disparities Elimination (DHDE) convened the COVID-19 Health Disparity Task Force, a group of more than 800 partners across the state. The Health Disparity Task Force aimed to address disparities by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of disseminating information to communities they serve. The Task Force includes community and faith-based partners, members of academia, healthcare providers, and public health officials. The group meets weekly to discuss trends, hear from subject matter experts, identify sources of distrust, and address concerns from under-resourced communities.

Through hosting listening sessions and town halls for community partners and Task Force members, the DHDE team learned that no matter which group they engaged, they all had questions and concerns about the vaccine. The DHDE team knew it would be too late to gain trust if they waited to engage and share information with communities until a vaccine was developed.

There was a lot of misinformation we had to talk through, beginning with testing and eventually vaccination, said Dr. Kimberly Lamar, assistant commissioner of Division of Disparities Elimination. Dr. Lamar advocates for the interests of people from racial and ethnic minority groups within the governors unified command group by elevating community perspectives and Health Disparity Task Force concerns to the highest levels of state government. Together, their efforts led to more testing and vaccination events among people from various racial and ethnic minority groups. They also enticed the governor to take on an active, supportive role by visiting some of them to stay connected to what is happening on the ground.

Delivering information to the people who need it

(left to right) Bill Lee, Governor of Tennessee; Francis Garcia, Hispanic Engagement Coordinator; and Bill Rawls, Mayor of Brownsville, Tennessee, led a COVID-19 testing event in Brownsville, Tennessee focused on underserved communities.

The diverse 800-member Health Disparity Task Force is a key vehicle of DHDE to mobilize the delivery of credible information and vaccines directly to community members.

Monique Anthony, director of the Office of Minority Health, said Partnering with academic institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities has helped us develop strategies to increase vaccine uptake in the surrounding communities and amplify vaccine confidence.

To increase vaccine trust and accessibility in communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, the team strengthened connections with small business owners, faith leaders, academia, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and other key partners to share vaccine information through as many modes as possible. Their office has committed substantial resources towards outreach and engagement activities to reach people where they are most active in their communities.

Because we were already in these communities, it was easier to go in and work with our faith leaders to host vaccination events, said Francis Garcia, Hispanic Outreach and Engagement Coordinator in the Office of Minority Health. Garcia and his team traveled from Memphis to Knoxville, and spent hours working faith leaders with religious minority groups of all sizes to organize vaccine events, coordinate interpreter services, and share translated vaccine information in several languages including Spanish, Somali, and Kurdish.

The Task Force includes faith leaders from different traditions and denominations from across the state. They worked with the Office of Minority Health to identify people in their communities who wanted to get vaccinated but were having trouble navigating the internet and social media.

According to Dr. Lamar, it is all about transparency and connecting with people where they are. Making sure the community understands we are here for them and not just waiting for them to come to us if they need us, she said. Social media couldnt be the only avenue. There are large pockets of our community that have limited access from those channels. We had to create ways to come directly to them, taking services out of the four walls of the health department and into the community.

Creating responsive solutions

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (center) thanked staff members of Federally Qualified Health Centers at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Nashville at a COVID-19 testing event.

The vision of DHDE is to address health disparities and health equity through meaningful collaboration and engagement. The team understands the importance of communities hearing messages from people who look like them. The Our Voices Campaignexternal icon was launched on June 15, 2021, to elevate the voices of people from racial and ethnic groups by helping them share personal stories of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their lives and their communities.

Faith leaders on the Task Force continue to host clinics at their places of worship and make sure members of their congregations know where the closest vaccination clinics are. When they hear members of their communities say something that isnt accurate, they help direct them to trusted sources of information to empower their community to protect themselves from misinformation.

Moving forward, DHDE plans to ensure partners and Task Force members receive more support and funding to address COVID-19 health inequitiesexternal icon. Its not even about the short game of COVID-19, but youve got to talk about the long game of health disparities, according to Elizabeth Hart, director of the Office of Faith-based and Community Engagement. Lets address the reasons people from some ethnic and minority groups were affected by COVID-19 as much they were.
Wartsila extends O&M agreement with Lafarge Africa

29 September 2021

Wartsila has signed a five-year Operation & Maintenance (O&M) agreement with Nigeria's Lafarge Africa Plc. The agreement covers the 100MW Lafarge Ewekoro power plant and is an extension of a previous 10-year agreement.



The captive Ewekoro plant was supplied and commissioned by Wartsila in 2011. It consists of six 50DF dual-fuel engines, operating primarily on gas, but with the flexibility to automatically switch to liquid fuel in case of a disruption to the gas supply.

"We have benefited significantly from the efficient way by which Wartsila has operated and maintained this plant for the past ten years, and we had no hesitation in extending the agreement for a further five years. An uninterrupted reliable supply of electricity is essential to our production and having our own power plant, built, operated and maintained by Wartsila, gives us this assurance," said Lanre Opakunle, strategic sourcing director, Power & Gas, Middle East & Africa.

Published under
PPC not to raise capital and focus on growth

ICR Newsroom By 29 September 2021

South Africa-based PPC has successfully refinanced its debt and is close to finalising its restructuring. Therefore, the company will not require a capital raise, said its CEO, Roland van Wijnen.



The new debt facilities of ZAR2.1bn have an extended maturity profile with the long-term facility of ZAR1.5bn being repayable over 3-5 years. The margins were reduced across all facilities to reflect PPCs improved credit risk profile.



The organisation is now in calmer seas after a hectic 18 months, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the organisation is now focussed, and ready to help the economy to grow by playing its part in the countrys infrastructure development programme, Mr Van Wijnen said.



The group would use the new debt to re-finance the drawn portions of existing facilities, leaving headroom and financial flexibility over the next five years, he added.



A capital restructuring of the companys operations in Democratic Republic of Congo last March had terminated PPCs obligations to make further deficiency funding to PPC Barnet in the country. The restructuring of PPC Barnetts balance sheet will be effective by mid-December.



Cement sales growth in South African and Botswana informal and rural markets continued to outpace other market segments and after seeing a slower pick-up than in inland markets, coastal markets are now reporting a double-digit volume growth with most of the recovery occurring after July 2021. Meanwhile, PPC Zimbabwe continued to trade ahead of expectations.



Sales volumes in South Africa and Botswana for the six months ending 30 September 2021 are forecast to increase by 10-13 per cent YoY with double-digit volume growth in most business units. When compared with the equivalent period in 2019, total cement sales are expected to advance by 6-9 per cent.

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A woman on 12th Avenue said someone hacked her Boost Mobile cellphone and accessed her account and stole her money. She said she had about $200 and the person left the account with a negative $96 balance. She said the person changed her password and has been calling her contacts and had now locked her phone to where she cannot use it. The officer asked her how much money she had lost as a result. She said $200 and the $96 overdraft. She said her mother's phone and her sister's phone have been hacked also.

* * *

The manager at Sonic at 3907 Brainerd Road told police that a few customers were being short with some of her staff regarding having enough money at the time of order. Police looked at video footage showing a customer briefly arguing with Sonic employees, including the manager. This escalated into a brief disorder. The manager told police she should would like them trespassed if on the premises.

* * *

Police were dispatched to Sunbeam Avenue to check on a woman. Her son said his mother was in Kentucky. The son contacted the mother so that police could check on her. She said that she was perfectly fine.

* * *

A man at 7022 Shallowford Road said a U-Haul was dropped off around 4:44 p.m. and then five minutes later the vehicle left the parking lot. The camera did not catch who was in the U-Haul. The vehicle was put into NCIC.

* * *

Officers returned to Murphy Gas Station at 20 Birmingham Hwy. to obtain information as to whether a man had come back to pay what was owed. Officers spoke to an employee who said the man did come back and made the payment in full.

* * *



A woman on Lovell Avenue said six months ago someone stole her Kel-tec 9mm handgun out of her unlocked 2011 GMC Terrain. She said she wanted to wait to be certain that it was stolen before making a report.

* * *

Police checked on a black Ford Escape near the intersection of Houston Street and Vine Street. The captains office had received complaints of it being parked there for some time in front of the bus stop. Police saw that the car was in fact parked in front of the bus stop preventing CARTA buses to utilize the stop safely. Police also saw that the car had parking tickets from the Parking Authority every day for four days. Police ran the tag to ensure the vehicle was not stolen and to see if there was a phone number for the owner. Police were provided a phone number, however the number was no longer in service. Without being able to contact the owner to have the car moved, police called to have the vehicle towed. United Transport #2 responded and towed it to their lot where it would be kept until the owner claimed it.

* * *



A woman on Noah Reid Road told police three white males climbed her fence and looked into her construction dumpster, and she has video of the event. She requested the property be added to the watch list. The suspects were not on scene when police arrived.

* * *

A man was involved in a single-vehicle crash at 1610 Jenkins Road. He said he came around the curve, lost control of his car and slid off the road and into the ditch. No injuries were reported. The man chose not to report this crash and said that AAA was en route to remove the car. The officer stayed until AAA arrived.

* * *



A man on Cowart Street said someone got into his car and took his wallet and keys. He said he left his keys in the car. There is no suspect information at this time. There was $200 cash in the wallet and the key fob is priced at $300.

* * *

Two officers spoke with a suspicious person at the 7-Eleven at 3504 Hixson Pike. During the course of patrol they saw the man walking into the parking lot of the 7-Eleven. He has been trespassed from this property for multiple thefts and public intoxication. The man was told he needed to leave the property and he agreed to return to his home. No warrants were found for him.

* * *

A man on 13th Avenue told police he and a woman were in a verbal argument about him trying to go to sleep. He said that she had busted his taillight in the past and wanted police to ride through the area to make sure that it didn't happen again.

* * *

An officer responded to an accident with no injuries at 8001 Volkswagen Dr. The officer spoke with a woman who said she was leaving work driving a silver Nissan Altima when another woman driving a Kia Sorento hit the front end of her vehicle. The first woman said hardly any damages were observed to her vehicle. The officer spoke to the second driver who corroborated the first woman's statement. She also said no damages were observed to her vehicle. Both women said they do not want a crash report and chose to handle it themselves.

* * *



An officer responded to debris in the roadway at Reggie White Boulevard and West 20th Street. Upon arrival, police saw a stop sign which was lying in the roadway in the right hand lane. Police moved the stop sign out of the roadway and notified CDOT. It appears the stop sign was run over by a unknown vehicle, possibly during the early morning hours. Police remained on scene to provide traffic while CDOT was able to fix the stop sign.

* * *

An unknown caller said a black SUV was parked at the top of the hill on Anderson Avenue and blocking traffic. Police made contact with the owner who said she was leaving.

* * *

A woman told police over the phone that she had been at Walmart at 3550 Cummings Hwy. the day before around 5 p.m. She left her vehicle parked while she was in the store for about 30 minutes. She said it was raining at the time and she didn't pay a lot of attention to the car when she got back in it to go home. The next morning she discovered damage, which consists of a two-inch long dent that is grooved out on the driver's side front door. She said she has not checked with them about video and she's not sure if there were cameras around her vehicle. Also, she's not sure how the damage was done but she believes it could have possibly been caused by a door from another vehicle being slammed into her car. No estimates have been done yet.

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A man on Ziegler Road said he placed a check in his mailbox to go to GEICO for $283.45. He said three days later the check cleared his bank for $183.45 payable to Kenneth Calhoun. The man said he does not know this person. He said he cannot tell where the check was cashed. He said he has not yet been able to talk to Regions Bank.

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A man at S&ME, Inc. on Highway 58 said someone attempted to steal a catalytic converter off of a company vehicle. He said the suspect was unable to complete the theft, but in the process damaged the vehicle. The man reported security footage of the attempted theft was recorded and will be sent to police via email.

* * *

An employee with the transportation department of US Xpress at 4080 Jenkins Road said security reported six trailer tags that have been lost off of company-owned 53-foot trailers. She said these tags get knocked off and never picked up or recovered.

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A woman on West Bell Avenue reported that her friend had just stolen her phone and keys from her vehicle. As the officer was speaking with her, she recovered her own phone in her pocket. As the officer was having her fill out a statement, she said she knew where her things were and no longer wanted to press charges.
Janet Hinds was found guilty of vehicular homicide in the death of police officer Nicholas Galinger on Saturday and then everybody went home. What! Went home? Hinds struck Galinger in her automobile on Feb. 23, 2019, as he was inspecting a manhole cover and now, some 29 months later, her case finally came before the court. But when the verdict was reached, a sentencing hearing will not be heard until Nov. 1 so, yes, the now convicted Hinds will go free another month.

I have a tough time with a 2 year wait  to me prolonged justice is cruel when society is promised a fair and speedy trial. I also struggle with sentencing guidelines. In Hinds case between 8 and 12 years are recommended but thats recommended. I believe the judge should be totally in charge and that Hinds should have been sentenced and taken into custody immediately. For how long depends on each individual case, not guidelines.

As perhaps youve noticed, our three black-on black murders on Saturday were added by a fourth on Sunday. A 20-year-old male was killed on North Willow and our community, properly aghast, has no idea what to do. Here are my unlearned yet deep-gut solutions:

1) Increase shooting-related sentencing to the maximum. Too many times have I read where some criminal is sentenced but somehow they show back up within two-three years to commit his next crime. The taxpayers want criminal actors to have sentencing with teeth but today weve clearly got some bad actors who know more loopholes than there are laws. America is screaming for judicial reform but today it appears the inmates are in charge of the prisons. Eliminate every loophole.

2. Swift and speedy trials with every lawbreaker incarcerated instead of running the streets while awaiting trial.

3. Tougher prosecution, less plea bargaining.

4. States with i. Lets make a deal with Illinois, Iowa and Indiana where we send out convicts far-far away rather to an instate social club, or prisons where the inmates enjoy a buddy system. Well take some of theirs and well create a network where gang membership in unrecognizable.

5. Every inmate works physical labor; Ill take a day off your sentence if an inmate will work a 10-hour shift, but add days for miscreants. Today our justice system is not just unfair to the inmates, it fails the taxpayers. And yes, every man or woman who works would get minimum pay to send back home.

6. Mental illness runs rampant in our prison system, as high as 50 percent now need psychotropic meds and we ought to supply it  not just meds but counseling, treatment and values where some will think before shooting someone else. You say that costs money and I say what we are doing now cost money and hows that working out? Treating mental illness aggressively and thoroughly may be the biggest component in prison reform today.

7. Mandatory school. Id make every inmate earn a graduate-equivalency diploma. I would try to nurture minds but troublemakers would not be tolerated. There is no democracy in prison. And the worst troublemakers? Transfer each one to a notorious federal prison in America where there are experts in handling such behavior.

8. Severe crimes would be handled by proper prisons. If somebody shoots and kills a person, they aint going to serve a sentence in the county lock-up. Im talking about Parchman in Mississippi or Angola in Louisiana. You get a special guest pass, so to speak,

9. I plead with our state legislature for social make-over and confinement overview. We should strive to get this right. We should comb our prison rolls for those who have done enough time to earn a hearing for an early out due to severe overcrowding, but we should get word to the gunmen nobody wants to do hard time in Tennessee.

10. Place an emphasis on Christianity and other religions. Trust me, youll see what happens 

* * *

Obviously I know nothing about prisons, about reforms, about murdering a person or shooting seven women at the same time  the youngest 14 years old  but what we are doing is falling well shy of the mark. The sooner we came down hard on the perpetrators, the better, because as a hit man was quoted in some article, it gets easier to pull the trigger every time.

royexum@aol.com
The Lee volleyball team fell in four sets (3-1) to Division III and seventh-ranked Emory University on Tuesday evening inside the Wood PEC Center. The Eagles improved to 12-2 while the Lady Flames dropped to 4-6. The Lady Flames will return to GSC action on Friday, traveling to Rome, Georgia and facing Shorter University.After dropping the first set 25-12, the Lady Flames came battling back and defeated the Eagles 21-25 in set two before losing a hard-fought 25-19 set three and then fighting all the way to the end before losing 26-24 in the final set.Allie Whittinghill was consistent all evening and had 16 kills and an attack percentage of .205 to pace the Lady Flames.Emma Flowers came on strong in the final set with four straight kills and finished with nine slams for the match. Lissi Snouffer added eight kills and Calina Croy pushed six kills across the net. All totaled, Lee had an attack percentage of .206.Croy dished off 33 assists and also had eight digs. Hannah Longley went to the deck for 15 digs and Kamryn Halpin finished with 11.The flying Eagles got 11 kills from Lily Martin, 10 slams from Abby Heimlicher, nine from Jessica Majka, eight from Madison Cail and Alana Dawson. Cassie Srb and Chloe Dorsey were the assist leaders with 24 and 20. Deborah Hong had 16 digs and Carly Wallace 12. Heimlicher (5) and Dawson (3) came up big in blocks for the winners.
Tennessee Wildlife Federations Hunters for the Hungry program is now accepting deer donations for the 2021 deer season. More than 55 deer processors across the state are accepting donations of deer to feed Tennessee families in need.

To see processors currently participating, visit tnwf.org/processors.

"Weve added seven new processors this year across the state which means more sportsmen and women can donate their harvest to help feed families in need, said Matt Simcox, Hunters for the Hungry manager. Every deer donated provides 168 servings of lean healthy protein to those who need it most.

When hunters harvest a deer, they may donate it at a participating processor. The venison is processed and then provided to hunger relief organizations.

Right now, hunters can drop off a whole deer donation at no cost to them. Each year, Hunters for the Hungry covers tens of thousands of dollars in processing fees for donations. If deer donations surpass available funding for this season, hunters can pay a reduced, $60 processing fee or redeem a Deer Coin.

In partnership with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Hunters for the Hungry will test every deer donated within Unit CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) for the disease. Hunters for the Hungry will also test many of the donations made outside Unit CWD in Region 1.

Only whole deer donations will be accepted in Region 1 and the counties that border it. Pound or Pack donations, which allow hunters to give a portion of their harvest, will continue to be accepted in the rest of the state.

In an abundance of caution, Hunters for the Hungry will discard all donations that test positive for CWD. There is no evidence CWD is transmitted to humans but the CDC still recommends against eating CWD-positive meat.

For more information about Hunters for the Hungry or to purchase a Deer Coin, visit tnwf.org/HuntersForTheHungry.
At Silver Angels, we provide individuals with a home-based choice to meet their long-term care needs. TennCare, the states Medicaid program, had the vision to create the CHOICES program more than a decade ago to support Tennessee Seniors and individuals with disabilities who want and deserve to age in their homes instead of moving into a nursing home.

But now, rising administrative costs, staffing shortages, and low reimbursement rates are combining to drive CHOICES non-medical home care providers away from the program - and the health and well-being of those who depend on these services the most are being threatened. Hundreds of Tennesseans in need of these services are already being denied services due to these constraints.

While we applaud our lawmakers for creating this option for Tennesseans 11 years ago, the state has not increased the reimbursement rate for non-medical home care providers since the program began.

Every client we see is different. While the core of what we do stays the same, each client has a different set of needs that we must meet during our time with them. We have clients that only require housekeeping support and we have some that have extensive needs like bathing, dressing, eating and toileting. We play an important role to help people stay in their homes and age in place.

Governor Lee and members of the Tennessee Legislature need to know that non-medical home care providers deserve adequate reimbursement for their services and Tennessees seniors and individuals with disabilities deserve choices on where they age.

Lets work together to support the additional funding needed to save and sustain Tennessees CHOICES program to allow these members of our community to stay in their homes. To help us in this fight please reach out to Governor Lee and your legislators today to help save this program.

Lori Snow

losnow@silverangels.com



Jennie Hornsby

jhornsby@ signaturehealthcarellc.com



Silver Angels of Tennessee, LLC




Anna Nicole Smith was known in the 90s as a Playmate of the Year and for her celebrity style as a fashion modeling icon. However, by 2007, certain corners of the press had ravaged her character to a point they could hardly honor her career after she died of an accidental overdose at 39.

Previously, Larry Birkhead  father of Smiths daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead  spoke about the stars more private side. Why did he say the 93 Playmate of the Year was like a split personality when he knew her? And how did the press seem to get her wrong?

Anna Nicole Smith | Patrick Riviere/Getty Images

Larry Birkhead fought for custody of Dannielynn

Unfortunately, Smiths name could find little peace in the press, even after her death. That was partly because of a custody battle over Dannielynn, who was months old when her mother died. Both Birkhead and Howard K. Stern claimed to be her father.

Stern was Smiths longtime friend and business associate. He was frequently featured on her reality show. Otherwise, their relationship was a little hard to read at times.

They held a commitment ceremony in Sept. 2006, shortly after Dannielynns birth and her son Daniels death. Stern was listed on Dannielynns birth certificate as her father. He said that he and Smith planned to get married  legally  but she died before they could.

But Birkhead contested custody and was eventually proven to be Dannielynns father. Somewhat surprisingly, he said after his victory Stern was present to help him adjust to becoming a new father.

Larry Birkhead: Anna Nicole Smith was a whole different person off camera

In 2003, Anna Nicole Smith met Larry Birkhead at the #KentuckyDerby four years before she died at age 39. Now, it's a tradition for Larry and their daughter Dannielynn to attend the event together every year. https://t.co/ZwNntXuBd3 pic.twitter.com/pz9AYf8cKP  E! News (@enews) May 4, 2019

Smith and Birkhead met when he said she was back on top of her game again. More specifically, she was filming her reality show, The Anna Nicole Show.

According to him, Smith was not the same person on and off camera. It was almost like a split personality, Birkhead told ABC News in 2017.

He recalled the time she spent at a camp for children with HIV that was for her show  when he was first taken by the star. She apparently stayed with the kids eight days and offered a much less glamorized version of her.

When Smith was on camera, he said, that was more, to me, an act than it was the real person, who she was. He noted she was a whole different thing on camera.

Their relationship was tumultuous at times, but the love was real, according to him. He said he always believed he was Dannielynns father, despite the other men who made the same claim. She supposedly told him that the pregnancy came from their relationship, and he trusted that was true.

Following a fight, Birkhead said Smith left for the Bahamas with Stern. But they stayed in contact, and he said she never got over the death of her son.

Larry Birkhead: Anna Nicole Smith was inconsolable following her sons death

Anna Nicole Smith and son, Daniel | Frank Hempel/United Archives/Getty Images

Smith gave birth to Dannielynn in Sept. 2007, and Daniel died of an overdose only three days later. Birkhead shared how the star was inconsolable following the death of her only son.

She would have these conversations where she would start crying, Birkhead revealed. He added that shed say something about Daniel, and shed hang the phone up. He noted that Smith even tried to climb into her sons casket during his funeral.

Five months after Daniels death and seemingly still stricken by grief, Smith also died of an accidental overdose. She was taking a plethora of prescription medications in the days prior to her death, some of which had dangerous effects when taken together.

Birkhead said Smith was in pain from various ailments, but admitted he didnt think she always followed labeled instructions when taking medications. Smith made public comments about how she once was in a coma following an overdose, but some media outlets failed to consider the damage speculation on her sobriety could cause.

Much like pop star Britney Spears, Smiths character was horribly maligned by major press outlets. One writer for the New York Times suggested she had no claim to back up her fame  and that was only days after her death. But from what Birkhead describes, they were hardly seeing the real side of the star.

More than 14 years later, GUESS is introducing a collection that is an homage to Smiths time as a GUESS Girl  and a callback to the reason she captivated the public in the first place.

RELATED: HBO Euphoria Star Sydney Sweeneys GUESS Campaign Honors This 90s Bombshell
Diddy has a new lady. The hip-hop mogul has been spotted with City Girls rapper Caresha Yung Miami Brownlee but has since been caught bood up with Joie Chavis. Chavis is the ex-girlfriend of fellow rapper Bow Wow. Bow recently confirmed that Chavis and Diddy are an item, noting he gave the new couple his blessing.

Diddy and Bow Wow SupperClub Los Angeles 2014 | Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Joie Chavis and Diddy seemingly confirm dating rumors

Speculation about Diddy and Chavis romance began in September when the two were spotted cuddling and kissing on a Yacht in Italy. Diddy, 51, and Chavis, 33, were initially spotted kissing on the boat in Capri. Days later, paps caught them dressed in all-white laughing and smiling together.

Source: YouTube

Related: Are Diddy and Yung Miami Dating?

Recently, the two were seen at an industry party celebrating with friends. The Ciroc liquor owner gave Chavis the OK to battle it out with Usher on the dance floor of her birthday shindig. The video went viral across several social media platforms.

On Sept. 26, Diddy posted a happy birthday shoutout to Chavis on his Instagram story. Diddy captioned the photo, happy birthday Queen. Chavis is a dancer, model, and lifestyle influencer.

Bow Wow says he spoke with Diddy

The Growing Up Hip Hop star has a daughter, Shai, with Chavis. The two split before Shai was born and tried reconciling years later but failed. Now, Bow says they are close friends. He recently addressed Chavis new relationship with Diddy.

As far as Joie is concerned, with me and her, we havent really been in that space probably in like 13 years  Really, thats my homegirl, my daughters mom, so its always gonna be respect, he says during a recent radio interview, as reported by The Jasmine Brand. But he does note that he spoke with Diddy regarding the budding romance.

Source: YouTube

Dont think that I didnt put a call in and talk to her about what was going onBut even me and dude we spoke about it too, he continues. Thats a conversation me and him had, I aint gon share that, but it was a good little hour and 15 minute conversation on Facetime.

More than anything, he says Chavis can do what she wants. For Bow, its all about having mutual respect for one another as co-parents and being in the same industry. I just look at things differently. If Joie was sitting here right now, shell tell yall straight up He dont pay my bills But its still a line of respect thats there, he says. Amongst us, thats something we spoke about in private. We dealt with it, we moved on from it. I heard his piece, I heard her piece, they heard mine

Joie Chavis has another child with a rapper other than Bow Wow

Chavis also has a son, Hendrix, with rapper Future. The rapper has several other children with multiple women but appeared to really be into Chavis, even attending her baby shower. Future however was also expecting a baby with another woman while he was seemingly dating Chavis.

Source: YouTube

Related: The Baby Mother That Future and Bow Wow Have In Common

Audio leaked of Future denying he ever loved Chavis in August 2021. In the audio, Future tells his longtime on-again-off-again girlfriend Brittni Mealy, I dont look at Joie like I look at you, he says. Me and Joie always been friends, super cool. Like, dont even know that me and her was just always been super cool to the point where we still could be cool right now.

Per Urban Islandz, the rapper continued: I dont look at her like someone I love, I never loved her like that, she know that. I never loved her, I never been like, told her I love you. You know what Im sayin? I never told this girl, I never told Joie I love you but we had a good a friendship. You know what I mean? I aint never tell her I love her.

Neither Diddy nor Chavis have spoken out about their romance.
Like her most famous character, Hermione Granger, Emma Watson is a true academic. In fact, her passion for education caused her to question her spot in the Harry Potter franchise. There were times when the actor considered quitting the movies so that she could pursue her degree. Ultimately though, Watson found a way to do both. She juggled her film career whilst also pursuing a degree from Brown University.

Emma Watson | Toni Anne Barson/Getty Images

An Ivy League institution, Brown is one of the oldest and most respected universities in the United States. Considering Watsons grades, it wasnt surprising that she chose to go to such a prestigious school for college. However, some people were confused when they learned shed be going to school in Providence, Rhode Island. Considering Watson is from England, people questioned why she chose a school so far away from home.

Why did Emma Watson go to Brown University?

On her personal website, the Harry Potter alum got candid about her decision to choose Brown. I was seriously torn as to whether to stay in the UK or go to the States as lets face it the UK has some of the best universities in the world, she shared. But, ultimately, I loved the course at Brown and really liked the idea of experiencing a different country and culture  and I must say Ive never been happier, I absolutely love Brown.

RELATED: Emma Watson Bought a House Sight Unseen Because of 1 Feature

Watsons passion for Brown would persist for the entirety of her undergraduate experience. One of the things she enjoyed most about her experience was how protected she was. At Brown, the Little Women star was just another student who was afforded her privacy. Very little is known about Watsons years at Brown that she didnt share herself. Of course, there were a few stories that did leak to the press.

What is the 10 points to Gryffindor story from Brown?

One story that gained traction in the media involved Watson in a class. The story alleges that the actor was in a class when a teacher posed a question. Watson raised her hand and answered the question correctly. Soon after, another student called out 10 points to Gryffindor and the class erupted in laughter.

RELATED: Emma Watson Slapped Harry Potter Castmate Tom Felton Off Camera

The story circulated heavily. At first, it was good-natured, but it soon took a different turn. Some people alleged that the aforementioned incident was the first of many. People even alleged that Watson had been bullied at her alma matter and was considering dropping out or transferring to put a stop to it. Sensing things were getting out of hand, Watson hopped on her website to debunk the rumors.

The Harry Potter alum never considered dropping out of college

I have never been bullied in my life and certainly never at Brown, Watson shared. This 10 points to Gryffindor incident never even happened. I feel the need to say this because accusing Brown students of something as serious as bullying and this causing me to leave seems beyond unfair.

RELATED: Emma Watson Reveals Her First Big Splurge with Her Harry Potter Money

Continuing on, Watson shared that she was not considering dropping out of Brown. Instead, she was deciding if she wanted to study abroad (a common occurrence in a students Junior year) or stay at Brown. Please dont try and speculate about what I might do in September  no one can possibly know because I dont even know yet! Watson shared with fans.

Watson graduated from Brown with a degree in English Literature

Ultimately, Watson did end up spending her Junior year elsewhere. For the 2011-2012 academic year, she studied at Worcester College, Oxford. There she was a part of the Visiting Student Programme. However, she returned to Brown in her final year of study before graduating in 2014. The actor earned her degree in English Literature in five years, as she took a year off for acting pursuits. Some may think that Watson attending college in the States was an unorthodox choice, but clearly, it was the right one for her.
Before Olivia Harrison and Pattie Boyd, the only woman in George Harrisons life was his mother, Louise. Without Louise Harrison, there would be no George Harrison. Without her love of music, George might not have wanted to start playing guitar when he was young. Louise supported George right from the beginning, buying him his first guitar and lessons. She always had a soft spot for her youngest, though. She may have even given George his love for world music as well. When she was pregnant with the ex-Beatle, she used to listen to Radio India a lot. Years later, George became fascinated by Indian music.

But Louise also seemed to have a soft spot for her sons fans as well. The Harrisons didnt mind when eager Beatles fans would show up at their door; they often let them in. However, starting in 1964, Louise began writing to one Beatle superfan in particular. The pen pals wrote to one another regularly up until Louise died in 1970.

Harold & Louise Harrison accepting fan mail in 1964 | Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Louise Harrison wrote to one Beatles superfan for five years

Louise responded to letters from a Beatles superfan named Lorraine OMalley from August 1964 until she died in 1970. OMalley first wrote to Georges mother when she was 16 years old. The letters went back and forth between the women.

Louise even told OMalley about certain events throughout The Beatles history and also informed her when George married his first wife, Pattie Boyd. The Daily Mail writes that she also talked about other key Beatles events such as the bands tours, the premier of landmark album Help!, being awarded MBEs, the disastrous trip to Manilla in the Philippines and the changes to the Butcher album cover sleeve, among others. Louise even told OMalley to call her mum and passed along the Harrisons new address when they moved.

There are a total of 55 letters. However, the final letter from Louise disturbed OMalley because the handwriting was shaky and not at all like her regular writing. OMalley wrote back to Louise immediately, concerned for the older womans health. In August 1970, she got a letter back from Harold Harrison, Georges father, saying that Louise had died in July after being ill for a year. Suddenly, OMalley was without her pen pal.

George Harrison dancing with his mother Louise | Express/Express/Getty Images

RELATED: George Harrisons Wife Olivia Says Her Husband Didnt Expect to Be Remembered

Louise Harrisons letters to Lorraine OMalley are going up for auction

Over the last 50 years, OMalley kept all 55 letters between her and Louise, as well as signed photographs from all four Beatles, in a safety deposit box. Now at 73 years old, shes decided to put the letters and the photos up for sale with Omega Auctions, based in Merseyside. Theyre estimated to bring in just over $8,000.

Going through the old letters only confirmed to OMalley what an incredibly lovely woman Louise Harrison was. She was just so engaged with Georges fans and I wasnt just a name to her, she remembered details and would ask me about things we had discussed, OMalley told the Daily Mail.

As a 16-year-old of course I was convinced I was going to marry George and after he got married I wrote to her and said I was sad and didnt know if I should write anymore and she said I will miss you if you stop, OMalley continued. And I just thought I enjoy doing this. As time went on and I got married myself our correspondence dwindled a bit but she even sent me a wedding card when I got married. She wrote to about 200 girls, I can only imagine how time consuming that was, I dont know if she wrote to others as frequently as me. She always knew what to say to the fans to indicate that George was involved.

Harold and Louise Harrison with a Beatles fan | Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

RELATED: George Harrisons Wife Olivia Found Lost Lyrics to a Song About Ringo Starr

Lorraine OMalley had no intention of selling the letters

OMalley didnt keep Louises letters to sell them later on. They meant a lot to her. She wanted to pass them on to her children, who were interested in them. But she thinks they dont want the responsibility of knowing what to do with them, so shes selling them.

However, OMalley will split the proceeds of the sale between her son and daughter. Dan Hampson of Omega Auctions said, What makes these letters interesting and special is they offer a different perspective and one that is not heard so often, from George Harrisons mum rather than one of the Beatles themselves. It shows how active she was with his fans. The fact she responded with such a personal touch and over such a long period shows how dedicated she was.

With Beatles memorabilia, we have seen and sold almost all of it but something like this, which is about what made them as a band, their relationship with fans, is definitely unique and important, Hampson continued. Those letters do give an interesting perspective on The Beatles history. They also convey that Louise really loved her son.
Article Highlights:

Prince Andrews at the center of another lawsuit

Is the Duke of York selling the only property he owns to settle?

Andrew is facing another lawsuit in the U.S.

Prince Andrew photographed on a ski holiday in Verbier, Switzerland | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

From the U.S. to Switzerland, Prince Andrew has more legal issues and lawsuits filed against him than many royal watchers realize. Now, his best option may be to settle one of those suits and sell the only property he actually owns.

Lawsuit regarding Swiss property was filed against Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

A lawsuit you may not have known Queen Elizabeth IIs second-oldest son is involved in was filed in the Swiss courts by Isabelle de Rouvre. She is the former owner of a property Prince Andrew owns in Verbier, Switzerland.

The Duke of York and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, bought the residence together in 2014 as a long-term family investment. According to the Times of London, Andrew and Sarah purchased the seven-bedroom ski resort Chalet Helora for the equivalent of $22.75 million. Some of the money used to buy the property came from the queen.

Now though Andrew may have to sell it so her can settle a lawsuit.

Is the duke selling the ski resort chalet to settle the suit?

Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew standing next to one another during a skiing holiday together | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The Times reported that Rouvre had sued Andrew and Sarah in 2020 claiming that they never paid her the final $9 million still owed for the home.

But according to the publication, Rouvre has dropped her legal action now that Andrew and his ex are close to selling the chalet for $23.7 million and have agreed to use the funds to pay off the debt. A source added, Court action has been withdrawn and the matter is close to being resolved to everybodys mutual satisfaction.

The chalet is thought to be the only property the Duke of York owns. He and Sarah Ferguson have been living together at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park for the past several years but that residence is owned by the Crown Estates Commissioners.

Andrew is facing more legal trouble over a sex assault suit filed in U.S.

Prince Andrew sitting in stands at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London | Karwai Tang/WireImage

On Aug. 9, 2021, a more serious lawsuit was filed against Prince Andrew in New York federal court by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Giuffre is one of the women who says she was trafficked by the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when she was a minor. She has accused the prince of having sex with her on three separate occasions while she was underage. Giuffres attorney, David Boies, told ABC News that Virginia is committed to trying to avoid situations where rich and powerful people escape any accountability for their actions.

Prince Andrew has categorically denied Giuffres allegations.

RELATED: Father of Prince Andrews Accuser Has Harsh Words for Duke and the Entire Royal Family
Netflix is to release its first murder docu-series based on one of South Koreas notorious serial killers in the countries history. The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea will dive deep into the case of Yoo Young-Chul, who admitted to killing 19 victims from 2003 until 2004. Yoo became one of the countries most horrific serial killers targeting the wealthy elderly, sex workers, and masseuses. As a serial killer, Yoos Modus Operandi allowed him to hide his victims bodies until being caught by police. Amongst his 19 murders, Yoos victims were either planned or happened by chance.

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea Yoo Young-Chul Netflix docu-series | via Netflix

Yoo Young-Chul was an active killer from 2003 to 2004 with a criminal past

When discussing serial killers, investigators often look at the perpetrators past to further understand their actions. Yoo Young-Chul grew up in a poor household and was bullied by his classmates, according to The Chosunilbo. Even before becoming a serial killer, Yoo had a prior criminal past. His list of arrests included burglary, breaking and entering, and the assault of a teenage girl. By 1992, Yoo got married and had a son.

It was not until 2003 that South Korean police realized they had a serial killer on their hands. One of Yoos earliest murders was bludgeoning to death a college professor and his wife in their home. Yoos victim count only escalated and he developed a set Modus Operandi and went after victims from certain walks of life. In order to cover his tracks, Yoo would dismember the bodies and bury them in various locations in the mountains. In July 2004, Yoo was arrested and admitted to more murders than police expected. They soon realized Yoos victim choices swayed from his usual pattern.

Yoo Young-Chuls victims included wealth elderly, masseuses, sex workers and random civilians

Netflix Announces The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea Premiere Date (TV News Roundup) https://t.co/wysR8QDHay  Variety (@Variety) September 24, 2021

RELATED: Cliffhanger: 3 Reasons Why Fans Are Excited for the Action Mystery-Thriller K-Drama

According to The Chosunilbo, during Yoo Young- Chuls interrogation, he admitted to 26 victims. Authorities initially believed Yoo only committed 19 murders. Yoo established the type of victims he went after as the wealthy elderly and sex workers. News reports stated Yoos inherent dislike toward the wealthy stemmed from his poor childhood. After committing murders, he soon switched his focus to sex workers and masseuses after his former lover left him after uncovering his criminal past. Yoos divorce during his earlier imprisonment also led him to hate women.

After Yoos arrest police realized his victims were not only subjected to the wealthy and sex workers. According to Korea JoongAng Daily who covered the investigation, Yoo killed 11 masseuses while witnesses claim two victims were a skin therapist and a housewife. In the early stages of Yoos interrogation, the serial killer admitted to killing a random street vendor in Incheon and more victims in Busan.

Polices interrogation of Yoo also led him to confess to murdering a young woman as she got out of her taxi. The victim did not match Yoos prior group of victims. Korea JoongAng Daily reported Yoo confessed to killing a 25-year-old woman in mun-dong, Dongdaemun district in Seoul in 2004. The woman worked at a nearby clothing shop. Yoo pretended to be an officer doing routine check-ups and stabbed her to death under the suspicion she was a sex worker. Police were only able to convict him of 19 murders due to evidence.

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea interveiws lawyers and police involved in the case

RELATED: Netflix Will Remove These K-Dramas on Oct. 1

Netflix has a lot in store for K-drama fans for the rest of 2021. The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea will be the newest Oct. addition that will take crime-murder fans deep into Yoo Young Chuls story as a serial killer. The three-part docu-series will re-examine Yoos backstory that led to his murders. The series will use never-before-seen archival footage and interviews.

To bring more depth to the series, Netflix brings in profiler Kwon Il-Yong. Kwon was one of the countries first profilers who spoke directly with Yoon during the investigation. The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea will also include interviews with the families of some of Yoos victims.

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea will debut on Netflix on Oct.22.
There has been a lot of drama following the British royal family these past few years. While the public often holds a favorable opinion of Queen Elizabeth, the same cant be said about most of her family.

Criticisms of how the royal family treated Princess Diana continue to surface, Prince Andrew faces very serious allegations, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to leave Buckingham Palace behind.

(L-R) Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex | Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Harry and Meghans departure sent shockwaves through the royal family. Yet, it seems there may be more shocks in the future caused by the young couple. So much so that some royal officials are scared, according to Best Life.

Leaving official monarchical duties

On the surface, Harry and Meghan seemed like an unlikely couple. In the previous generation, a prince would never marry a commoner. Marrying a divorced American would be grounds for abdicating the throne. That was the case for Harrys great-granduncle, Edward VIII.

Times have since changed. Harry and Meghan were able to marry with little objection from royal or religious institutions. At least thats how things seemed to the public. Even though the newlyweds were royalty, their lives were far from a fairy tale.

The two were hounded by the media and British tabloids. A touchy subject for Prince Harry, as he does consider tabloids to be partly responsible for the death of his mother. The couple would frequently file lawsuits against newspapers for printing false information. As for Meghan, she never really felt welcomed by her royal in-laws.

Accusations of racism emerged, including one conversation that involved the skin color of future children. The two have had enough and decided to resign from their royal duties and move to North America. The resignation was a scandal in the royal family, one that continues to scare Queen Elizabeth.

The future for the Prince and the Duchess

While Harry and Meghan have been doing charitable work these past few months, the road is sure to get rocky again. The two have inked multimillion-dollar deals with Netflix, Spotify, and book publishers. These media exposes are expected to be tell-alls about their grievances with the royal family.

The queen has repeatedly stated that Harry and Meghan would be welcome back into the royal family at any time. Instead of considering this offer, it seems they are comfortable widening the reported divide. This has made Buckingham Palace scared.

The queen is known for being quiet about family drama, but a royal insider provided some insight as reported by Best Life. Having all this hashed out again in a book or brought up in new interviews would reopen wounds that have barely started to heal. It would appear that Harry and Meghan are comfortable making their separation from the royal family permanent.

Life after royalty

The two had planned to balance their lives between North America and the United Kingdom. But coronavirus (COVID-19) left the two stranded in North America. They have mainly resided in Canada and California.

The past year has been a quiet one for the couple, as they had just welcomed the birth of their second child in June. However, their paternal breaks are over and both are now back to work. Meghan focuses most of her working hours on the couples charity called the Archewell Foundation.

Specifically, she has launched a new initiative called the 4040. In this program, the Duchess recorded conversations with 40 successful women for 40 minutes each. The aim of these conversations is to assist women who are returning to the workforce. Interviewees include Melissa McCarthy, Adele, and Princess Eugenie.

The prince has been doing charitable works as well. He has participated in fundraising events that generate money for orphans affected by HIV/AIDS. Such work is very similar to what his late mother used to do.

RELATED: Prince Harry Has Wanted to Be More Important than William For Many Years, Royal Expert Claims
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In 2018, Metrohm AG celebrated the companys 75th anniversary. Only two years later, in the middle of the current global pandemic, Metrohm makes a long-term commitment to its global customers and employees announcing a major extension of the premises of Metrohm International Headquarters in ... more

Metrohm and B&W Tek to take Raman spectroscopy to the next level

The acquisition of B&W Tek LLC by Swiss Metrohm AG in July 2018 creates one of the largest solution providers for applied Raman spectroscopy. Two technology leaders in the field of Raman spectroscopy join forces, and customers all over the world will benefit: That is the key message that Me ... more
During an event commemorating the passing of the Cherokee Heritage Center Act of 2020, Principal Chief Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner ceremonially place the last item from the Cherokee National Archives into a vault at the Cherokee National Research Center.
The Cherokee Nation on Sept. 28 announced a settlement of its opioid diversion claims case against McKesson, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. and Cardinal Health. The settlement includes more than $75 million to paid over 6-1/2 years to the tribe.
Eberhard Jungel, the leading Protestant theologian to emerge out of Stalinist East Germany, died on Tuesday at age 86.

Jungels work was never popularized, and he was overshadowed in some ways by his peers and colleaguesnotably Jurgen Moltmann, Hans Kung, and the future Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger. As a philosophical theologian, his scholarship could seem out of joint, one scholar noted, with contemporary concerns and popular trends.

But the theologians who did discover Jungel were often drawn in by his dense arguments and intense focus on Gods self-revelation, the centrality of the Trinity in understanding God, and the importance of the doctrine of justification by faith.

Gods being-as-object, Jungel wrote, consists in the fact that God as God has become speakable. And the knowledge of God consists in the fact that the God who as God has become speakable comes to speech in that he is considered and conceived by men. This event, in which the God who as God has become speakable comes to speech in human words, is faith.

His passing was mourned by his former students in Germany, including the Protestant bishop and popular religion columnist Petra Bahr.

Scholars of heaven, brace yourselves, Bahr wrote on Twitter. There will be long nights.

Jungel was born in December 1934 in Magdeburg, about halfway between Hanover and Berlin, immediately after Adolf Hitler consolidated power. Jungels childhood was dominated by World War II. Then in 1945, Magdeburg was liberated by US soldiers. When the Allied powers portioned out responsibility for the defeated Germany, however, Magdeburg was turned over to Russian forces. The country divided, and East Germany aligned itself with the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin.

As a teen Jungel struggled with the totalitarian state. He wanted to explore the intellectual horizons and that was forbidden.

The socialist ideals were implemented by a kind of power politics, he later said. One can argue about the ideals of socialism. But that also entails the possibility of arguing against them. And precisely this was not allowed.

Jungels one reprieve was the Protestant church. In church, he was allowed to think, explore, debate, and discuss ideas. Church became the one place where he could pursue the truth.

Jungel decided he wanted to become a pastor and theologian.

The decision surprised his mother, who was mildly devout and taught her four children to pray at the appropriate times, but did not think ministry was a good career choice. It baffled his father, who was not a Christian and had nothing but ridicule for theology, Jungel told The Christian Century in 1990.

The decision also angered people at school. When Jungel was 18, he was denounced as an enemy of the republic, along with a group of fellow Christians, and expelled from school. He was not allowed to take the exam to enter university. Jungel instead enrolled in a church school in Berlin.

Later, when he and other post-war theologians debated whether theology should be political, Jungel would come back to this experience.

The political relevance of Christian faith consists, from beginning to end, in its ability and obligation to speak the truth, he said. The political activity required of the church aims, above all else, to assist the cause of truth.

Jungel studied theology in East Berlin, pursuing a doctorate. In 1957, he managed to leave for an illegal year abroad. He went to Switzerland to study with the theologian Karl Barth and made regular trips to Freiburg, where he studied with the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

He was deeply influenced by both men.

Heidegger, he said, taught him that philosophy should be theological.

Toward the end of his life, Jungel wrote, I had a conversation with Heidegger about the relation between thought and language, and I asked whether it wasnt the destiny of thought to be unterwegs zu Gott (on the way to God). He answered: Godthat is the most worthy object of thought. But thats where language breaks down.

Jungel agreed about the importance of thinking about God, but rejected the idea that is impossible to articulate. While it is true, he thought, that humans cannot comprehend God by their own intellectual powers, God had been revealed to humanity. Barth taught him to concentrate his thinking on Jesus.

I was challenged to think about God from the event of his revelation, and that means from the event of his coming into the world, Jungel said.

The young theologian returned to Berlin and finished his doctorate in 1961. He was immediately thrown into teaching. The Protestant bishop made him a lecturer at the church school when the Berlin Wall divided the city, and students in the East were separated from the classrooms and professors in the West.

He turned his attention the philosophical problem of the human comprehension of God. Some German theologians at the time were arguing that God could only be known subjectively, through human experience. They argued God is fundamentally pro nobis (for us), and theologians should not describe the divine as an independent reality. Others countered that God is objective, and in essence pro se (for himself), and theologians err when they make God too accessible.

Jungel rejected both these positions, pointing out that God is most fully revealed in the crucifixion of Jesus. In that historical event, God was fully pro se and pro nobis, with the truth of the one fulfilling the truth of the other.

Jungel envisages the cross as the supreme act of relation: The relation of God the Father to God the Son in the Spirits power, and the relation of the triune God to sinful humanity, wrote theologian John Webster. Although God comes always from himself, to himself and through himself, he nevertheless comes to the world and to humans. Indeed, God comes as the mystery of the world by showing himself as the human God.

In 1969, Jungel left East Germany and went to the University of Tubingen, near Stuttgart. The university was seen at that moment as the center of the universe of academic theology. Jurgen Moltmann had just been appointed professor of systematic theology and published his seminal work, Theology of Hope. Joseph Ratzinger held a chair in dogmatic theology and was intimately involved with the Second Vatican Council, addressing the Catholic Churchs relationship to the modern world.

Jungel became close friends with Moltmann and Hans Kung, though he only briefly interacted with Ratzinger. He liked to have theologians over to his book-crammed apartment on a hill overlooking Tubingen, and talk about theology late into the night.

Jungel was a popular teacher, filling university lecture halls. He said he thought this was because he was a good comedian, but also noted that many of his students came away from his classes confused. Real thinking, he said, echoing Heidegger, is not an easy task.

Theological thinking is something like an adventure, he told a graduate student, not because you dont know where its goingyou know, you know where youre from, you know where youre going, there is an Alpha and an Omegabut you have to find your way in between, and that is an adventure in theology.

Jungels last major theological intervention came in the late 1990s, when he led opposition to an ecumenical accord between Lutherans and Catholics. Jungel urged the German churches to reject the document, or at least acknowledge there was no consensus on justification by faith.

A few years later, Jungel published a book on justification, calling it the cornerstone of Christian theology.

At the heart of the Christian faith, he wrote, lies a declared belief in Jesus Christ. This confession, however, also has a centre, a living focal point, which turns the confession of Christ into something that vitally concerns my own existence. This heart of the heart of Christian faith is the belief in the justification of the sinner.

Jungel stayed at Tubingen until 2003, when he retired. He then took a position at a research institute at Heidelberg University, a few hours north, and in 2007 accepted the Hans-Georg Gadamer Chair in Theology.

He continued to read and write theology, but also had more time for hiking and crime shows. Jungel never married, and he had no children. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made public.
2 elderly pastors imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea

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Two elderly pastors are being held in Eritreas maximum-security interrogation center as one of the worlds most repressive and closed countries continues to persecute Christians.

Pastor Girmay Araya, 75, and Pastor Samuel Okbamichael, 74, were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and brought to an unknown location, the news agency Church in Chains reported, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. It later emerged that the two pastors were taken to the maximum-security Wengel Mermera Central Criminal Investigation interrogation centre 

Police intended to also arrest 72-year-old Pastor Georgio Gebreab but they found him sick in bed and told him he was under house arrest until he is well enough to be taken into custody.

When arrested, Eritreas persecuted Christians often disappear without a trace, leaving their loved ones with no information on their whereabouts or safety. Prison conditions are some of the harshest in the world, with inmates kept in shipping containers and believers often tortured in an attempt to get them to renounce their faith.

Eritreas President Isaias Afewerki is a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church in Asmara  belonging to the largest among the only three Christian denominations allowed to function in the country: the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.

Afewerki, 75, whos the leader of the ruling Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice Party, also has a reputation of being an alcoholic and a ruthless autocrat. Afewerkis policy of restrictions is more about his fear that religion will mobilize people as a political force than religion itself.

In March, authorities raided two separate prayer meetings in Asmara and the city of Assab and imprisoned 13 of the 35 Christians, including several women, who were taken into custody, ICC reported at the time.

Its not known if the 13 Christians have been released.

In February, 70 Christians from evangelical and Orthodox backgrounds, including women, were released from three prisons in Eritrea, some after being held without charge for more than a decade.

Since last September, at least 160 Christians had been released from prisons in Eritrea at the time, but the news arrests dampened hopes that the government was easing its harsh repressive policy against Christians, Barnabas Fund said at the time.

In Eritrea, citizens have a duty to report anything untoward happening in their community, Release International added. This can turn ordinary neighbors into spies. In some cases, their own family members have reported Christians.
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Gabby Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundre, started what was supposed to be a four-month cross-country, van-life trip in July. Their trip across America was supposed to end sometime in November.



However their trip  and apparently, Gabby Petitos life  ended sometime in August.

Gabby Petitos last conversation with her family was through a FaceTime call on August 24th. Her last social media post was on August 25th. And her last sighting was at a Wyoming restaurant on August 27th.

Earlier this month, on the first day of September, her fiance  Brian Laundre  returned to their home in Florida with their van and without her.

He hired a lawyer and maintained silence. He refused to speak with the Petito family and he refused to cooperate with the police. So on September 11, Gabby Petito was officially reported missing. The following week, police officers lost track of Brian Laundres whereabouts and reported that he was also missing.

That attracted more media attention to a case that had already received significant coverage across social media and national and international media.

The significant social media attention created several helpful tips for police officers, leading them to discover Gabby Petitos corpse in Wyoming earlier this week.

Naturally, police officers have identified Brian Laundre as a suspect in Petitos murder. Theyre still searching for him.

While police officers are investigating the motives for Gabby Petitos murder, critical race theorists have already determined the motive behind national and international attention to her murder.

According to critical race theorists, Petito shouldnt be solely remembered as a victim of murder  she should also be remembered as a beneficiary of white privilege. Particularly, they believe shes the latest major example of what theyve termed, missing white woman syndrome.

Missing white woman syndrome suggests Western culture  and the world as a whole reinforces white supremacy and white privilege by prioritizing missing white women over non-white missing women. It suggests racism is the basis for why missing white women disproportionately receive more attention than missing non-white women.

If youre surprised critical race theorists would force supposed racism into Gabby Petitos case, you shouldnt be. Critical race theory is designed to identify the supposed role of racism in every facet of society.

As James Lindsey consistently suggests, critical race theorists never ask: Did racism play a role in this instance?. No, they ask: How did racism take place in this instance?



In other words, critical race theorists believe racism is always a factor in everything. This is why, in their minds, we need to be critical of  or deconstruct  every idea or event in our world in order to identify their racist roots or racist results.

In their book, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic describe racism as:



Ordinary, not aberrational  normal science, the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country.



Therefore, according to critical race theorists  its normal science, ordinary, and the usual way society does business to prioritize Gabby Petito over missing non-white women.

Apparently, in the state of Wyoming  where Gabby Petitos body was foundover 700 indigenous women have been reported missing over the last ten years, but none of the women received the kind of attention Petito received after she was reported missing.

But that isnt an example of white supremacy or white privilege. Since critical race theorists prioritize supposed racism over everything, they refuse to acknowledge inconvenient factors.

For instance, the concept of missing white woman syndrome cannot answer why Gabby Petito is receiving more attention than other missing or murdered white women. Indeed, the concept of missing white woman syndrome includes the role of intersectionality. Particularly, critical race theorists would suggest the reason why Gabby Petito is receiving more attention than other missing or murdered white women is that shes a middle-class white woman.



However, that actually defeats their original premise  since it admits supposed racism isnt the only basis for why shes getting significant attention. If racism isnt the sole or primary reason why Gabby Petito is receiving more attention than other missing or murdered women, then the concept of missing white woman syndrome is a fallacy.

Nevertheless, if Gabby Petito is receiving more attention than other missing or murdered white women because she was a middle-class woman, why is she receiving more attention than other white middle-class women or white upper-class women who are also reported missing?

Racial disparities are not evidence of racial discrimination. Disparities in media attention to missing cases do not independently prove racism.

Interestingly, some of the prominent people complaining about the medias disproportionate coverage of missing cases are members of the media like MSNBCs Joy Reid. The media consistently blames their own supposed failures on society as a whole. If Joy Reid genuinely believes in missing white woman syndrome, why does she participate in it? Why did she only highlight it in a segment about Gabby Petito? Why hasnt she taken the time on her own show to highlight all the non-white missing or murdered women?

There are several reasons why Gabby Petito has received significant attention, and theres no legitimate reason to believe racism is one of these reasons. Petito was a Youtuber with a relatively strong social media following. She was also a member of the close-knit van life community.

The details surrounding her case are also peculiar. Her fiance, Brian Laundre, had a strange return to Florida without her, then he disappeared, prompting a manhunt. His parents allegedly helped him escape police surveillance. The police officers seemingly mishandled the case. Gabby Petito and Brian Laundres consistent social media photos about their van life trip created a social media footprint that attracted social media sleuths and true crime fanatics. These social media sleuths and van life social media influencers produced viral social media posts that provided police officers strong tips, leading them to discover Gabby Petitos body.

Gabby Petito is the victim of an exceptionally odd and evil missing person and murder case. Thats the main reason why her case has received significant attention.

Another reason why her case has received major coverage is that her missing-person case and murder case was unexpected. Clearly, given the reaction to her case  the media believes its abnormal for women like her to become victims of murder. And the media apparently believes its abnormal for people like her fiance to become a perpetrator of murder.

We have higher expectations for men like Brian Laundre. And we have higher hopes for women like Gabby Petito. In other words, we do not have the bigotry of low expectations for people like Brian Laundre and Gabby Petito.

We reserve that for non-white people. Especially, we reserve the bigotry of low expectations for black people.

You see, the reason why hypocrites like Joy Reid in the media do not highlight non-white victims is that if they highlight non-white victims of crime, they would have to highlight non-white perpetrators of crime too.

If members of the media like Joy Reid want to highlight black victims of crime, they would also have to highlight black perpetrators of crime. The media isnt interested in spotlighting the shocking levels of black-on-black crime. They dont care.

The medias reaction to Gabby Petito isnt an example of racism. The medias soft bigotry of low expectations on black-on-black crime is the real example of racism.

In their minds, the good in highlighting black victims of black-on-black crime isnt worth the bad in highlighting black perpetrators of black-on-black crime.

A black persons death is only noteworthy for the media if it involves a white person or a white police officer.

This is why black victims of apparent police brutality receive disproportionately more coverage than white victims of apparent police brutality.

So they refuse to highlight the devastating number of innocent black women and innocent black children who get murdered by black criminals on a consistent basis.

For that reason, across America (and Canada)  police officers are significantly less likely to solve murder cases involving a black victim and an allegedly black murderer. This is why police detectives in Chicago manage to solve only 22% of murders against black Americans.

So missing white woman syndrome isnt the problem. The bigotry of low expectations for non-white people, especially black people, is the real problem.

But in a society where racism is supposedly the norm, why would the media deviate from highlighting what they think is the norm? Why would the media change their narrative? Why would the media highlight inconvenient news?

Why would the media highlight the black faces of murdered victims when they risk highlighting the black faces of their perpetrators too? Why would they participate in something they deem racist?

That is the depressing consequence of the bigotry of low expectations. That is the consequence of critical race theory.

Originally published at Slow to Write.
Megachurch Pastor Jack Hibbs says COVID-19 is real, but the worlds reaction to virus is demonic

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Megachurch Pastor Jack Hibbs said COVID-19 is real, but the worlds reaction to the virus is demonic.

Speaking at the Awaiting His Return" conference hosted by Behold Israel and live-streamed from Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, Hibbs preached about how being fearful about the coronavirus is not from God.

COVID is a real sickness and virus, but heres whats demonic to me: there is an unexplainable, unreasonable reaction to it that has not come from the virus, Hibbs, the founding and senior pastor of the 10,000-member Calvary Chapel Chino Hills church in southern California, said at the Bible prophecy conference held on Sept. 18.

Seriously people, do you know the science? ... There are flus and sicknesses out there that are worse, but nobody's talking about them. Nobody talks about AIDS anymore. More people are dying from AIDS. Why not [talk about it]? Because it doesnt fit whatever agenda is going on. And friends and family, the agenda is spiritual. Its a demonic doctrine.

At the conference, Hibbs preached that COVID-19 has led to a spiritual issue of fear that is a doctrine of demons. He also stressed that Christians who know about how God loves them should not be afraid of COVID-19.

The demons are to deceive, and fear is the greatest power. Why do you think the Bible says, Perfect love casts out all fear? he asked. When you know that Gods heart is set on you, you dont need to be afraid.  We all get sick. Remember, we used to get sick before COVID. People used to die before COVID.

Friends and family, the narrative is demonic to bring about confusion, to bring about fear. Why? So you have no hope, Hibbs added.

The greatest hope for the believer, Hibbs continued, is the rapture of the Church. Christians, he stressed, should not deny that Jesus will return in the rapture.

Jesus taught the rapture. Jesus Himself, in John Chapter 14, Jesus started this whole thing. Jesus taught the rapture for a reason, he said.

Its very important. Jesus Christ said Im coming to pick you up, Hibbs said, asserting that the origin of the rapture has always been true and available, but many Christians do not believe in it.

Hibbs continued by sharing Scriptures written by Paul in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4: We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

We who are alive and remain at the coming, Hibbs reiterated. Paul the Apostle believed, as every generation is to believe, that the Lord could come back for the Church at any moment. Its a doctrine thats revealed in Scripture. Not to be apologized for, but to be defended.

For many Christians, Hibbs said, the rapture should provide hope and serve as motivation, while also emphasizing that Christians will be tormented for having hope in Jesus return.

He explained that during the rapture, the bodies that Christians know on Earth will be changed. But it is not a transformation that can be considered reincarnation, he stressed.

This hope is needed more than ever, Hibbs said. "You cant be a Christian and believe in reincarnation. The Bible teaches resurrection, which means this molecular structure of who you are is going to be resurrected or at the moment of the rapture, it is going to be metamorphosed, its going to be changed, and this simply means  tweaked.  This is amazing.

Hibbs added that the Christian body is referred to as being at sleep because when Jesus comes back for the rapture, we will be changed.

God is going to change the pattern or the structure of the molecular organization that He has that makes up the body or this physical universe, he described. We will not inherit Heaven in this body, like it is. Its got to be tweaked. We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.

A true believer who believes that His Father is coming back for him at any time, Hibbs said, will [become] busy about his business. Knowing that Jesus could come back anytime, he said, should motivate Christians to open their mouths, open their hands and make sure to love others by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If theres no rapture in the Bible, I dont know what Bible they're reading, Hibbs continued. In a moment; in a twinkling of an eye, some scientists say [in] 18 thousands of a second, we shall be changed. Isnt that amazing, with just His finger, Hes going to go  boop, and He can change things in an instant.

Christians should read their Bible to be ready for the return of the Lord, he said, because we are all walking as if it were a fine line."

Dont give up. Dont lose your confidence. I want you to keep your eyes on Jesus. Hes way out there on the horizon. Dont look too near or youll get all messed up, youll get too consumed with all the worry and all the threat and all the fear, Hibbs warned as he concluded his talk. Navigate toward Jesus. Get your armor on every day  because Jesus has set before you an open door. Do not deny His name. Keep His Word. And youre going to do fine. You will not fail.

Other speakers at the "Awaiting His Return" one-day conference included Bob Pearle, senior pastor of Birchman Baptist Church; Barry Stagner, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel in Tustin, California; and Amir Tsarfati, deputy governor of Jericho and founder of Behold Israel.
Some Christian medical workers reject NY gov.'s claim vaccine is Gods answer to prayer

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As thousands of healthcare professionals in New York state rushed to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that went into effect Monday, 17 Christian professionals who filed a lawsuit seeking religious exemptions earlier this month stood firm in their convictions  even under threat of losing their jobs.

The mandate requires that more than 600,000 workers in public and private hospitals and nursing homes were to receive their first dose of the vaccine by midnight Monday to continue working on Tuesday.

Religious liberty advocate group Thomas More Society is representing over a dozen workers, including Baptists and Catholics. In the lawsuit, the group argues New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is also Catholic, is disrespecting and bullying medical workers with sincerely held religious beliefs against the COVID-19 vaccine.

"New York's Governor Hochul is using every strong-arm tactic she can to attempt to coerce employees into taking vaccines against their will," Thomas More Society Special Counsel Christopher Ferrara said in a statement Monday.

"She is also demonstrating disrespect, at a minimum, if not outright hostility to the deeply held religious convictions of our clients as well as thousands of others. We have solid grounds for prevailing on our motion for a preliminary injunction."

Ferrara contends that Hochul is trying to "coerce as many as possible into taking the vaccine before the court rules."

"And now she threatens to declare a state of emergency she herself has created by calling for the firing of dedicated front line health care workers who treated patients for 18 months without being vaccinated  often contracting COVID, recovering, and returning to front line medical care  are now being depicted as disease-carrying villains," the lawyer said. "This is not science. This is demagoguery."

On Sept. 14, U.S. District Judge David Hurd issued an order to temporarily prevent New York's health department from rejecting employer-approved religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate. The order was extended on Sept. 20 and will last until Oct. 12. According to the legal group, Hurd canceled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday and will deliver a decision by Oct. 12.

Plaintiffs argue that the state's mandate, which allows a medical exemption, should also consider religious exemption requests.

"The seventeen plaintiffs in this action  practicing doctors, M.D.s fulfilling their residency requirement, nurses, a nuclear medicine technologist, a cognitive rehabilitation therapist and a physician's liaison  are united in their conscientious religious objection as Christians to being inoculated at all, much less 'continuously,' with any of the available COVID-19 vaccines because they all employ fetal cell lines derived from procured abortion in testing, development or production of the vaccines," said the lawsuit filed by Thomas More Society.

The Christian workers oppose abortion under any circumstances because they "believe that abortion is the intrinsically evil killing of an innocent."

Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, has not objected to the COVID-19 vaccines and has even urged adherents to take it. High-profile Protestant leaders such as Pastor Robert Jeffress, leader of the 12,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, also noted that there "there is no credible religious argument against" COVID-19 vaccines.

"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," Jeffress argued.

Hochul cited religious leaders' support for the vaccine in her fight against allowing religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.

"I'm not aware of a sanctioned religious exemption from any organized religion, in fact, they are encouraging the opposite," she argued this month. "Everybody from the Pope on down is encouraging people to get vaccinated."

On Sunday, in an appearance at the Brooklyn-based Christian Cultural Center, Hochul told congregants that vaccines against COVID-19 are God's answer to "our prayers." She urged them to become her apostles by encouraging others to get their shots.

"We are not through this pandemic. I wished we were, but I prayed a lot to God during this time, and you know what, God did answer our prayers. He made the smartest men and women the scientists, the doctors, the researchers. He made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us, and we must say, 'Thank you, God. Thank you,'" Hochul said.

"I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another. How do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, please get the vaccine because I love you, and I want you to live. I want our kids to be safe when they're in schools. I want to be safe when you go to a doctor's office or to a hospital and are treated by somebody. You don't want to get the virus from them. You're already sick or you wouldn't be there," she pleaded.

The medical workers seeking religious exemption in New York, however, disagree.

"They do not accept the opinion  expressed by certain other Catholic bishops, the Pope included  that there is a therapeutically proportional reason to resort to abortion-connected vaccines which can justify 'remote' cooperation in abortion," the lawsuit argues. "They reject as a matter of religious conviction any medical cooperation in abortion, no matter how 'remote.'"

"They believe in the primacy of conscience in this matter," the legal document adds. "While one may personally conclude that recourse to abortion-connected vaccines can be justified in his or her case, vaccination is not morally obligatory and must be voluntary, and those who in conscience refuse vaccination need only take other protective measures to avoid spreading the virus."

The lawsuit further notes that the medical workers were not alone in rejecting the vaccine in the religious community.

"They agree with the teaching of spiritual leaders, including certain Catholic bishops, who urge Christians to refuse said vaccines to avoid cooperation in abortion and to bear witness against it without compromise, and who defend the right to a religious exemption from vaccination with such vaccines," it said.

The Christian medical workers whose identities are protected in court papers made it clear in their lawsuit that they are not "anti-vaxxers" who oppose all vaccines, but "believe as a matter of religious conviction that the ensouled human person, made in the image and likeness of God, is inviolable as a temple of the Holy Ghost."

They also pointed to the potential side effects of the vaccines and "their fading efficacy, requiring 'booster shots,' their evident inability to prevent transmission or infection, and the fact that natural immunity is likely more protective than injections with the available COVID-19 vaccines."

"These medical facts inform Plaintiffs' religious conviction against involuntary or coerced vaccination as an invasion of bodily autonomy contrary to their religious beliefs," the plaintiffs argued. "Given that the Vaccine Mandate requires that employers ensure that employees are 'continuously' 'fully vaccinated'  as many times as the government advises  Plaintiffs now reasonably fear that 'booster shots' of the same vaccines they consider immoral will soon be demanded by the government as a condition of employment and even normal life in society, as is already the case with the original vaccines."
Students sue Catholic university for denying them vaccine exemptions on religious grounds

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Four pro-life students are suing a Catholic university for denying their request to obtain religious exemptions from the coronavirus vaccine.

Creighton University, a Jesuit-affiliated school with campuses in Omaha, Nebraska, and Phoenix, Arizona, is the subject of a lawsuit by four of its students, who are challenging the newly instituted requirement that students provide proof that they have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine before they can attend classes on campus. While the university allows students to request medical exemptions from the vaccine requirement, it does not allow exemptions based on religious objections.

The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska, on Wednesday by attorney Robert Sullivan on behalf of Creighton University students Lauren Ramaekers, Patrice Quadrel, Sarah Stinsel and Jane Doe. It noted that Creighton University set Sept. 7 as the deadline for all students to receive at least one dose of the vaccine. Any student who did not receive at least one dose of the vaccine by this time was to be unenrolled or administratively withdrawn after 4:30 p.m. on that date.

Each of the plaintiffs have religious objections to the Covid-19 vaccines based on the fact that the vaccines were developed and/or tested using abortion derived fetal cell lines and some have serious medical conditions which make the vaccine not recommended, Sullivan wrote. The use of vaccines developed and/or tested using abortion derived fetal cell lines has divided the Catholic Church, which is known for its outspoken opposition to abortion.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has urged faithful Catholics to refrain from taking the morally compromised single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to its use of aborted fetal cells in production and testing. Meanwhile, the Vatican has assured Catholics that it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.

Catholic World Report noted that Ramaekers received a letter from Tanya Winegard, Creighton vice provost for student life, informing her that Creighton University communicated to you that vaccination documentation of your first vaccine dose must be submitted by Sept. 7, 2021. Winegard told Ramaekers that Student Health Education and Compliance (SHEC) records indicate that you have not submitted the required documentation. Therefore, you are in violation of the Creighton University Standards of Conduct.

The lawsuit maintained that because the students have been attending classes since the semester started, and Defendant has accepted tuition money and other fees the Plaintiffs have paid, the university had entered into a binding contract with the students.

Sullivan argued that keeping the plaintiffs tuition money while expelling them from campus for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine constituted a breach of the contract. The lawsuit asked a judge to order Creighton to re-enroll and [reinstate] Plaintiffs to Creighton University, and enjoining Defendant from expelling, unenrolling, disciplining, retaliating against, or otherwise restricting all students access to classes, and any other service or privilege afforded to the students of Creighton University due to their vaccination status.

On Sept. 2, Sullivan sent a letter to the president and board of Creighton University seeking relief for his clients. He never received a response and filed the lawsuit shortly thereafter.

Ramaekers was scheduled to graduate from Creighton in December 2021. Quadrel had completed 97 credits of coursework while Sinsel was on track to graduate from dental school at Creighton at the conclusion of the 2021-'22 academic year.

As noted in the lawsuit, Creighton Universitys student population has an extremely high vaccination rate of more than 93%. By contrast, according to Johns Hopkins University, just under 55% of the U.S. population as a whole is fully vaccinated.

Creighton University is not the only institution of higher learning to embrace a vaccine mandate for its students. A case challenging Indiana Universitys vaccine mandate went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which dismissed the case, thereby leaving the mandate in place. A.T. Still University School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Missouri amended its vaccine mandate to accommodate religious exemptions for two Christian dental students following legal action.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced that he was directing the U.S. Department of Labor to institute mandates on businesses with over 100 employees, requiring their employees to either get vaccinated or produce at least one negative coronavirus test per week. Threats of legal action soon followed.
US records largest murder spike in decades as 2020 saw 21K people killed, FBI reports

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic that led to the death of hundreds of thousands in the U.S., America's murder rate rose to the highest level in over two decades in 2020 as the year saw the largest single-year spike in the homicide rate since data started being tracked in the 1960s.

According to an annual report on crime released by the FBI on Monday, 2020 saw a 29.4% rise in the volume of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses. There was a total of 21,570 homicides, 4,901 more deaths than in 2019.

Additionally, the bureau reports that there were 1,277,696 violent crimes as the estimated number of aggravated assault offenses rose 12.1%

The rate of death by murder was roughly 6.5 per 100,000 in 2020. In 2019, the murder rate was 5.1 per 100,000. The spike comes after there was a slight drop in the murder rate from 2016 to 2018. In 2016, the murder rate was 5.4. And in 2018, the murder rate was at 5.0 per 100,000.

There is no concise reason for the recent spike in the murder rate. But some surmise that driving factors could include the economic and social tolls presented by the pandemic and increase in gun sales.

"It is a perfect storm," Chief Harold Medina of the Albuquerque Police Department told The New York Times. "There is not just one factor that we can point at to say why we are where we are."

Even with the increase, 2020 saw far fewer murders than the last time homicides peaked in the U.S. during the drug wars in the early 1990s. During that time, the total number of murders remained around 23,000 per year. In 1991, the murder rate was 9.1 per 100,000. By 2000, the homicide rate dropped to 5.5.

A CNN report states that the FBI's Uniform Crime Report provides a set of data reported by law enforcement agencies on crimes that took place in the U.S. However, that data doesn't reflect every crime because every agency can opt-out of submitting their crime reports.

Many agencies chose not to participate in the FBI's process of collecting crime reports for 2020. Roughly 85%, or nearly 15,897 agencies out of over 18,000, participated in the 2020 crime report by submitting their data to the FBI.

The year 2019 marked the 90th anniversary of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The FBI is in the stages of planning to undergo a full transition to a more comprehensive system beginning in 2021.

Despite the high rise in the murder rate in 2020, the FBI data shows that robbery, property offenses and rape crimes declined.

A 2020 Pew Research study reveals that "most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that are reported are not solved."

About 40.9% of violent crimes and 32.5% of household property crimes were reported to authorities in 2019.

The Pew Research study also states that the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), recognizes that there are multiple reasons crimes go unreported.

Those include "fear of reprisal," "getting the offender in trouble," a feeling that police "would not or could not do anything to help" and the belief that the crime is "a personal issue or too trivial to report."
Medical journal editor apologizes for cover labeling women as 'bodies with vaginas'

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The lead editor of the British medical journal The Lancet has issued an apology following outrage over a recent journal cover that labeled women "bodies with vaginas."

For its Sept. 25 edition, the weekly peer-reviewed journal featured a quote on the front cover from a perspective piece that said, "the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected."

The cover quote garnered outrage from many who, among other objections, viewed the choice of words as erasing women and bowing to transgender ideology.

Richard Horton, editor-in-chief at The Lancet, issued a formal apology, saying that "we have conveyed the impression that we have dehumanised and marginalised women."

"I apologise to our readers who were offended by the cover quote and the use of those same words in the review," stated Horton.

"At the same time, I want to emphasise that transgender health is an important dimension of modern health care, but one that remains neglected."

Horton went on to explain that the review quoted on the cover "is a compelling call to empower women, together with non-binary, trans, and intersex people who have experienced menstruation, and to address the myths and taboos that surround menstruation."

"The review calls for greater efforts to overcome the lack of knowledge and stigma too often associated with menstruation," he continued.

"These are serious issues that demand serious actions. We encourage people to read the full review and support a growing movement against menstrual shame and period poverty."

Critics of The Lancet's cover quote included retired psychiatrist David Curtis, who took to Twitter to denounce the "bodies with vaginas" quote in a series of posts.

"It's really difficult to imagine why any medical researcher would want to submit their paper to a Lancet journal when they are happy to refer to women on their front cover with language which would be considered inappropriate even in a red light district," tweeted Curtis.

Claire Heuchan, a black feminist writer, also took to social media to criticize The Lancet cover quote, labeling it sexist and hypocritical. She contends that The Lancet has not referred to "bodies with penises."

"This framing makes it sound like a coincidence that 'bodies with vaginas' have been neglected by medicine, as if it were not the product of a discrimination and oppression specific to the female sex," tweeted Heuchan. "Medical misogyny is exists - and refusing to acknowledge women perpetuates it."

"Why is it that [The Lancet] acknowledge the specifics of male biology, and do so without dehumanising men as 'bodies with prostates', when they're out here talking about 'bodies with vaginas'? Why are men treated with dignity while 'women' is made unsayable? This is female erasure."

In the United States, Harvard Medical School received pushback after it called women "birthing people" when promoting a panel discussion about "Maternal Justice" to be more inclusive nonbinary or trans-identified individuals.

In June, the Biden administration was criticized for "bias-free language" policies that eliminate the use of gendered terms like "mother" and singular pronouns like "he" or "her." Critics pointed out that the administration's 2022 budget proposal erases the word "mother" and replaces it with the term "birthing people."
Trans patient claims discrimination after hospital requires pregnancy test before surgery Hospital says care was 'medically appropriate and compassionate'

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A trans-identified biological female alleges that a hospital in New York discriminated by requiring a pregnancy test even though the patient identifies as a male and says the nurses did not use preferred pronouns.

Trey Lowery, who identifies as a male and underwent bariatric sleeve surgery at Highland Hospital in Rochester in July, is threatening to file a lawsuit after experiencing "discrimination" at the healthcare facility.

Lowery expressed outrage after being asked to take a pregnancy test. As an affiliate of the University of Rochester Medical Center, Highland Hospital requires all biological females with female reproductive organs to undergo pregnancy testing before any surgery involving anesthesia regardless of whether they identify as female.

Speaking with the local ABC affiliate WHAM, Lowery recalled that a nurse asked for a pregnancy test to be taken before surgery.

"I told her why am I taking a pregnancy test when you guys know that I am a male and I'm fully trans?" Lowery said, adding that the nurse responded by saying, "I'm just doing my job."

Lowery first went public in an interview with Rochester's City Newspaper, which was published Sept. 1. Maintaining that "they took my pride away," Lowery told the news outlet that "I felt like I didn't want to be here anymore, I wanted to kill myself because I worked so hard to be here like this, and I'm not getting appreciated for who I am."

Additionally, Lowery complained about consistently hearing "she, she, she, she throughout the whole stay of me being there." The day after the surgery, Lowery received a phone call from Highland Hospital's chief executive officer.

In addition to apologizing for the previous day's events, the Highland CEO reportedly offered Lowery the position of "spokesperson" for trans-identified people at the hospital. Lowery declined the offer and set up a Twitter account at the time of the City Newspaper's article publication. Lowery's Twitter profile reads, "I am a hard-working man and a loving husband who have been hurting in the worst way from Highland Hospital a Rochester New York."

In a statement issued in response to Lowery's criticism, Highland Hospital asserted that it is "committed to providing the highest quality, compassionate, and safe care to all of our patients." Additionally, the hospital vowed that "when issues are brought to our attention, we conduct a thorough review to determine whether staff members took all appropriate steps to care for the patient."

"Upon completion of our review of this patient's case, we believe that his care was medically appropriate and compassionate. However, we will continue to reflect on this individual's experience to see if there is anything we can do better."

Another trans-identified biological female, Cori Smith, shared similar concerns about Highland Hospital with City Newspaper. Smith was admitted to Highland Hospital in 2014 to treat complications from an egg retrieval procedure. The hospital staff provided Smith with a female wristband.

"I was like, 'You're not giving me a female wristband,'" Smith said. "They literally rolled their eyes, laughed it off, and responded, 'We're not doing that.'"

The Rochester-based LGBT advocacy group Out Alliance's monthly magazine "Empty Closet" reported in 2018 that an ultrasound showed that Smith had severely swollen ovaries covered in cysts. When Smith requested the removal of the ovaries, the doctor treating the trans-identified female refused to perform the surgery.

Describing the doctor as "outwardly transphobic," Smith filed a lawsuit against the hospital in 2017, seeking $750,000 in damages. While the lawsuit and subsequent appeals were dismissed, Smith maintains that "they just didn't treat me right."

Smith also alleged that hospital staff used the pronouns "it," "she" and "they" as opposed to the preferred pronoun of "he."

Smith accused the doctor of performing an "unnecessary and inappropriate" transvaginal ultrasound in front of eight nurses and hospital staff members. Because the doctor did not cover Smith with a gown during the procedure, nurses were allegedly "gawking and laughing."

"It made me want to die. I couldn't figure out why they were all in there like it was some freak show and I was completely exposed," Smith said, according to Out Alliance. "They looked at me like I was disgusting  and I felt disgusting."

Smith expressed hope that "a hospital never allows for this to go on again," adding, "No medical provider should abuse you, neglect you, embarrass you, or refuse to call you by your correct gender."

"I hope this situation can help stop some of the issues trans people face in healthcare facilities as well," Smith added. "From smaller missteps of gender pronouns, to much larger discrimination situations like mine  these medical facilities should be aware of the seriousness of the situations at hand. Misgendering can lead to depression, increased anxiety, and can push someone to suicide."

In 2018, the hospital responded to Smith's claims, stating that "appropriate medical treatment" was provided.

"UR Medicine believes that Mr. Smith received appropriate medical treatment at Highland Hospital in response to his need for emergency care in November 2014," the statement reads. "This is based on a thorough review of the medical record by clinical professionals on Highland's patient safety team, a review which included interviews with Mr. Smith's attending physicians and other caregivers."

The Biden Department of Health and Human Services announced this year that it would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in healthcare settings.

In August, associations representing 3,000 healthcare workers sued the Biden administration over an HHS mandate that fear will force them to perform elective gender-transition procedures.

The lawsuit focuses on HHS' interpretation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act barring sex discrimination. The Biden administration interprets sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation even though neither term is expressly included in federal civil rights law.
PolitiFact debunks claim that taxing churches would lower rates for individuals

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Removing religious tax exemptions from churches would not lower the tax rate for individuals in the United States, according to a recent analysis from the prominent fact-checking website PolitiFact.

In August, a Facebook post went viral claiming that the annual cost of religious tax exemption was $71 billion and that "if the church paid taxes, everyone would only have to pay 3% taxes."

However, Tom Kertscher of PolitiFact posted a fact-check on Tuesday that rated the claim "false."

Noting that the post ignores multiple aspects about churches and taxation, Kertscher explained that "the post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed."

"Tax-exempt organizations are still subject to some taxes. For example, the exemption doesn't apply to the payroll taxes that cover the costs of Medicare and Social Security for their paid employees," Kertscher wrote.

"Tax-exempt organizations that have paid employees are required to pay their share of these payroll taxes and withhold their employees' share, too."

Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation told the outlet that churches' actual federal tax exemption cost was $2.4 billion, not $71 billion. Additionally, Walczak maintained that stripping churches of their tax-exempt status would only add 0.06% to the federal revenue.

"Even if governments went all-in on the taxation of churches, tossing out all the ordinary rules of taxation, they could only generate a few billion dollars, a drop in the bucket in a system with $3.8 trillion in federal tax collections and about $1.8 trillion in state and local tax collections," Walczak added.

"Even if we bent logic to treat churches as for-profit entities, and assumed an ordinary rate of profit for them, the tiny amount of additional revenue this would generate wouldn't budge individuals' effective tax rate at all."

The idea of eliminating tax-exempt status from churches has gained traction among Democrats in recent years.

In 2019, then-Democratic presidential primary candidate Beto O'Rourke declared at a CNN town hall that, if elected, he would end the tax exemption of churches, schools and charities that oppose same-sex marriage.

"There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us," stated O'Rourke at the time.

While O'Rourke received much applause for his stance, his remarks also garnered backlash from liberals and conservatives.

O'Rourke's openly gay primary opponent, Pete Buttigieg, alleged that O'Rourke did not understand "the implications of what he was saying." Buttigieg warned about the potential consequences of enacting such a policy.

"That means going to war, not only with churches, but I would think with mosques and a lot of organizations that may not have the same view of various religious principles that I do," Buttigieg said.

"If we want to talk about anti-discrimination law for a school or an organization, absolutely, they should not be able to discriminate," he added. "But going after the tax exemption of churches, Islamic centers or other religious facilities in this country, I think that's just going to deepen the divisions that we're already experiencing."

More recently, the debate about eliminating the tax-exempt status has resurfaced as the Catholic Church continues to ponder withholding communion from pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

In response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' approval of a document "on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church" at its general assembly earlier this year, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., suggested withholding the tax-exempt status from the church over such a policy.

"If they're going to politically weaponize religion by 'rebuking' Democrats who support women's reproductive choice, then a 'rebuke' of their tax-exempt status may be in order," Huffman wrote on Twitter.

While the document approved by the bishops will provide guidelines for the reception of communion, it leaves "decisions on withholding Communion up to individual bishops."

Following criticism, the USCCB published a statement stressing that "the question of whether or not to deny any individual or groups Holy Communion was not on the ballot." Stressing that "the document being drafted is not meant to be disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one individual or class of persons," the statement clarified that "bishops made no decision about barring anyone from receiving Communion."
SBC messengers approve task force for sex abuse investigation after leaders rejected expanded review

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Two days after the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee rejected a motion to create a task force to oversee a third-party investigation of allegations SBC leaders mishandled a crisis of sexual abuse in the denomination, messengers overwhelmingly approved a motion to do just that on Wednesday.

The motion presented by Grant Gaines, pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the denomination's annual convention in Nashville, calls for new SBC President Ed Litton to appoint the task force within 30 days.

The motion calls on Litton to direct the Executive Committee to transfer oversight of the investigation to the task force, which shall comprise members of Baptist churches cooperating with the SBC and experts in sexual abuse and abuse-related dynamics."

The SBC Executive Committee announced on June 11 that Guidepost Solutions would review recent allegations made by the former leader of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore, that SBC leaders intimidated whistleblowers and exonerated churches with credible claims of negligence of sexual abuse victims.

Guidepost Solutions was also commissioned to "review and enhance training provided to SBC Executive Committee staff and its board of trustees" as it relates to sex abuse and the organizations "communications to cooperating churches and congregants in cooperating churches."

According to Baptist Press, the soon-to-be appointed task force can choose to oversee the Guidepost Solutions review or start a separate third-party review. The review must include an investigation of any allegations of abuse, mishandling of abuse, mistreatment of victims, a pattern of intimidation of victims or advocates, and resistance to sexual abuse reform initiatives.

The investigation, funded by allocations from the Cooperative Program, will cover the period from January 1, 2000, to June 14, 2021, and include a review of actions and decisions of staff and members of the Executive Committee.

The investigation will also include an audit of the procedures and actions taken by the SBC Credentials Committee, a body formed at the convention meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, in June 2019.

When Texas Pastor Jared Wellman offered a motion before the Executive Committee Monday to create a task force independent of the committee to oversee the Guidepost Solutions' investigation, it was rejected by the committee. Committee Secretary Joe Knott of North Carolina argued that expanding the scope of the investigation would be horrific for the denomination.

Wellman also urged the waiving of privilege so that Guidepost Solutions has access to all data and information and advocated for a public report on all the findings and recommendations that is not vetted or edited first by the Executive Committee leadership.

Wednesdays motion allows the task force to follow the accepted best-standards and practice as recommended by the commissioned firm, including but not limited to the Executive Committee staff and members waiving attorney client privilege in order to ensure full access to information and accuracy in the investigation.

A written report on the factual findings of this investigation shall be presented to the task force 30 days prior to the SBC annual meeting in 2022, and made public in full form within one week of the Task Forces receipt of the report along with suggestions from the task force for actions to be taken by our convention, the motion notes.

SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Ronnie Floyd told messengers he supported approval of the motion while it was under consideration, Baptist Press reported.

Gaines also argued that the Executive Committee could not be tasked with holding themselves accountable.

In order for this investigation to be truly external, independent and unbiased, we cant have the Executive Committee setting the terms of the investigation themselves," he said. "They cant be the ones to hold themselves accountable. This might seem like too much trouble to some, but I assure you it is the least we can do for abuse survivors.

The motion was reportedly first referred to the Executive Committee, but messengers voted to overrule the Committee on Order of Business to consider it on the convention floor.

A statement Wednesday from the SBC Executive Committee expressed support for the motion.

The SBC Executive Committee thanks the messengers for their passionate concern. Alongside SBC president Ed Litton, and in consultation with the full SBC Executive Committee, our legal team, and other advisors, we will work to expeditiously implement todays motion," the Executive Committee statement reads. "It has always been our intention to be forthright and transparent in this process."

Todays decision, in whose outcome we are confident, will have the ultimate blessing of removing all doubt in the minds of our community of Southern Baptists allowing us to chart a more confident future, together," the statement added. "We thank those messengers who have invested so much righteous energy in this important cause."

Attorney and abuse advocate Rachael Denhollander, who has spoken freely about sexual abuse in the SBC, called the motion's approval a critical step in the right direction for America's largest Protestant denomination.

What I hope we all take from this is the following: Sound theology and SBC polity is not and never has been, in opposition to meaningful steps to reform. All that is needed are leaders willing to ask those who can help how do we get this done? and then fighting for it, Denhollander said in a series of tweets outlining an arduous journey of advocacy from multiple sexual abuse survivors in the SBC.

Change is slow. It can take decades of invested time and the work of so many before tangible fruit is seen. But that investment of love and faithfulness is not wasted. Fighting for truth, justice and reform is the work of a community. Caring well for those who have been deeply wounded requires the participation of everyone. Messengers had to listen, pay attention, care, and take a stand. And they overwhelmingly did, she continued.

This is the work we have been called to: Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly before God. I am so grateful we saw a tangible example of this in Nashville. The work is not done; but we'll do it, together.
SBC encourages churches to 'permanently disqualify' pastors who commit sex abuse

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NASHVILLE  Messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting approved a resolution encouraging churches within the nation's largest Protestant denomination to "permanently" disqualify individuals who have committed sexual abuse from the pastorate.

That resolution is nonbinding and encourages all SBC affiliated churches to hold the standard that any person who engaged in sexual abuse in their life is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor.

Former Southern Baptist President James Merritt, who also serves as the chairman of the SBC Committee on Resolutions, told to reporters Wednesday that any pastor who commits sexual misconduct should be permanently disqualified from ever returning to church leadership. He warned that such behavior damages the credibility of the Body of Christ.

I just read yesterday about a pastor that had to resign [from a] church, Merritt, the senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Georgia, said.

He committed sexual abuse 40 years ago, and it came out. This will be hard for the outside world to understand, but the Scripture is very plain that a pastor has to be above reproach."

"Good, bad or indifferent, when someone commits sexual abuse, whether it's 20, 30 or 40 years ago, if it comes up, it's just going to be damaging," Merritt added. "It's going to put a lot of doubt and a lot of people's minds."

Merritt said hes of the firm belief that if a pastor is unfaithful to his wife, hes also permanently disqualified from ever being a pastor again.

I honestly believe that, he said. It's not an issue of forgiveness. If a Christian gets drunk and drives his car into a tree and loses his left arm, God will forgive him. But he still won't have a left arm.

Pastors who commit such offenses can return to the ministry in some fashion, he clarified, but never as a lead pastor.

We've got a big job ahead of us as pastors, I believe, to rebuild credibility and trust in the community, he continued.

Nathan Finn, the vice chair of the resolutions committee, agreed that allowing pastors who have committed sexual sin to return to the pulpit weakens the credibility of the entire office of pastor.

So I believe it's very important for Southern Baptists to speak unequivocally and in a way that everyone can understand us that we believe that sexual abuse is a disqualifying factor for anyone who would serve in church leadership where they were commended to vulnerable populations in the church, he stressed.

The issue of sexual abuse within the denomination was a hot topic at the SBCs annual meeting, which drew more than 21,000 people to Nashvilles Music City Center, including 15,726 messengers.



On Wednesday, SBC messengers overwhelmingly approved a motion to set up a task force to oversee an independent investigation into allegations that SBC Executive Committee leaders have mishandled allegations of abuse within SBC churches.

A leaked May 31 letter from former SBC ethicist Russell Moore to outgoing SBC President J.D. Greear alleged that leaders mishandled a crisis of sexual abuse in the denomination by intimidating whistleblowers into silence and exonerating churches with credible allegations of negligence toward sexual abuse victims.

The SBC Executive Committee subsequently announced that Guidepost Solutions would review such allegations.

Guidepost Solutions was also commissioned to "review and enhance training provided to SBC Executive Committee staff and its board of trustees" as it relates to sex abuse and the organizations "communications to cooperating churches and congregants in cooperating churches."

Wednesday's motion comes after the Executive Committee rejected a motion earlier in the week to expand the scope of the Guidepost Solutions' investigation by appointing an independent task force to oversee the inquiry instead of Executive Committee leaders.

Finn said the resolution served as a way to come alongside all the positive momentum that says our first instinct needs to be to care for those who have been abused more than protecting our own reputation.
The abounding of (secular) apocalyptic visions

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Two years ago, the elite sages who comprise the World Economic Forum looked into their crystal ball, observed twirling chaos within the nations, and concluded that the changes we have already seen in response to COVID-19 prove that a (global) reset of our economic and social foundations is possibly before us.

Two weeks ago, it was the Secretary-General of the United Nations warning us that the world is nearing a pivot point.

Last week Joe Biden, president of the United States, declared that the nations are at an inflection point.

Apocalyptic proclamations abound everywhere these days.

Apocalypse is from the Greek word, apokalupsis, referring to the lifting of a curtain, or veil. The secular world, rejecting the Bibles divine inspiration and its revelations of whats behind the veil of time and history, nevertheless has a need to try to punch some peepholes in the curtain.

After all, as Solomon wrote, God has put eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We suspect there is something deeper than what we experience through the five senses. That desire to discover the unseen is healthy because it drives us to science and the quest for knowledge.

Yet apart from the Holy Spirit and because of human vanity, the vision is obscured, and hence men and women are driven to imagining and re-imagining the trajectory of time and its segments.

Therefore, reset, pivot, and inflection, are all before us.

At least.

Apocalyptic visions abound, and so do apocalyptic questions, like:

How does the end come?

Is it telos (achieving of a great purpose) or termination?

What does reset, pivot, or inflection look like?

Who leads in this global re-imagining?

One might say these are kingdom issues since their provenance is the Kingdom of God and its future global manifestation as revealed by Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

Here, then, is the hope and the danger.

The hope is for the attributes of the Kingdom of God to characterize all the nations: righteousness-justice, peace, and Spirit-given joy. (Romans 14:17)

And the Bible reveals that all these characteristics are transcendent in their source. The human cannot make all this happen by enthroning himself-herself as God, but receiving Gods transforming presence in his and her inner being.

The Bible describes a radical reset... pivot... inflection... reimagining of the world as one in which (t)he wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf, the lion, and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them." (Isaiah11:6-8) And people will swap their weapons for farming implements (Isaiah 2:4).

Therefore, the new world under the government of the Prince of Peace will be one that is without exploiters and predators. The absence of exploitation and predation changes everything.

All this is because men and women will operate through the eternity within their hearts rather than the hell that sometimes drives their souls and bodies.

Humans in that new world will aspire to this higher quality of living and relating because they have been filled, not with imaginings, but by the very Word of God because the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9)

Religious leaders asked Jesus when this new world would come. He answered: The Kingdom of God doesnt come by counting the days on the calendar... Nor when someone says, look here! or, There it is!. And why? Because Gods Kingdom is already among you. (Luke 17:20-21 NLT)

Jesus was not speaking institutionally, but personally. He was the bearer of the Kingdom attributes into the world.

Contemporary prognosticators look first and primarily at function, but Jesuss focus is on the ontological. Function is what we do; ontological centers on what we are in our essential being.

The secular apocalyptic visions all prize function over being. History reveals just how frightening this is. When the human seeks to unveil and establish a new vision, the result always degrades into authoritarianism and tyranny.

Jesus calls for inner transformation of the person, resulting in actions consistent with His Kingdom, not human regimes. But when the reset, pivot, inflective re-positioning, re-imaginingwhatever are prescribed by people without chests (to borrow a concept by C.S. Lewis) the vision of the future is grim.

That was the surprising conclusion of a writer in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 2007: Secular eschatological visions... have been responsible for more death and destruction in the twentieth century than the minor mischief cause by religious visions of the end.

Along with the more obvious scary visions like Hitlers dream of the global empire known as the Fourth Reich and a Marxist quest for a classless society, there is also in the West the imagining of the myth of progress through materialism and the market.

It is no wonder that Solomon, in all his God-given wisdom, would write, Vanity (futility)! all is vanity! It is all striving after the wind... there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1-2)

Solomon was talking about the efforts of humans to bring about a new utopian world. But when he turned his focus to God, Solomon could see purpose and order, an appointed time (the Greeks would call it a kairos) for everything, and hope for human beings within time and space because God has set eternity in the hearts of humans, His image-bearers within the finite world.

In this age of spiritual hunger and the desperate quest for a new, peaceful, productive, and caring world, pulpits need to teach the transcendence of God and proclaim Christs Kingdom.

The need is urgent in a world where, among other tools of terror, nations now stockpile some 14,000 nuclear weapons, many at the disposal of leaders who want to impose their apocalyptic vision on all humanity.
Texas sues Biden admin. over EEOC guidance on trans workplace discrimination

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Texas has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over federal guidance that, among other things, demands that employers allow trans-identified workers to use the bathrooms of their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit last week against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division.

The lawsuit argues that various provisions of a June 15 guidance are unlawful and misinterpret established federal civil rights laws and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

"The June 15 Guidance makes several substantive changes including requirements that employers treat biological men as women  and biological women as men  when applying sex-specific policies or using sex-specific pronouns," stated the lawsuit.

"The June 15 Guidance did not articulate reasons that justify extending precedent governing federal employers to non-federal employers, whose liability is judged under a different standard."

In a statement, Paxton said that he believes states rather than the federal government "should be able to choose protection of privacy for their employers over subjective views of gender." He argued that "this illegal guidance puts many women and children at risk."

"If the Biden Administration thinks they can force states to comply with their political agenda, my office will fight against their radical attempt at social change," stated Paxton.

"These backdoor attempts to force businesses, including the State of Texas, to align with their beliefs is unacceptable."

To justify the new guidance, the EEOC cited the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County. In that case, the nation's high court concluded that Title VII civil rights protections against sex discrimination applied to sexual orientation and gender identity, even though the law did not explicitly mention either category.

In a statement included with the announcement, EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows called the Bostock decision "a historic milestone that resulted from the struggle, sacrifice, and vision of many brave LGBTQ+ individuals and allies who had championed civil rights for the LGBTQ+ communities."

"The new information will make it easier for people to understand their rights and responsibilities related to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity," stated Burrows.

The announcement included a link to a technical assistance document that said employers had to allow trans-identified individuals use bathrooms of their preferred gender identity, could not require trans employees to adhere to a dress code consistent with their biological sex and that refusing to use a worker's preferred pronouns "could contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment."

In July, 21 state attorneys general, among them Paxton, sent a letter to President Joe Biden expressing opposition to the guidance, arguing that it threatened religious liberty and misinterpreted the Bostock ruling.

"The Court in Bostock narrowly addressed employment termination and explicitly refrained from addressing 'sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes," stated the letter.

"Similarly, Bostock did not provide any basis for a claim that using biologically accurate pronouns could violate the law. To the contrary, the First Amendment protects the right to ascribe pronouns to others based on their sex."
Former California pastor sentenced to 14 years for defrauding investors of $33M

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A former pastor in California was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of overseeing a church-based investment scam that defrauded investors of $33 million.

Kent R.E. Whitney, formerly the pastor of Westminster-based Church of the Healthy Self, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton to 14 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $22,662,668 in restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

From September 2014 to April 2019, according to the DOJ, Whitney used CHS and its related entities to solicit people to invest in CHS Trust, the investment arm of the church.

[A]t Whitneys direction, CHS representatives made false or misleading claims, including: CHS Trust guaranteed an annual rate of return of 12 percent; CHS Trust guaranteed a return of principal with no risk because it was federally insured; the worst return received during the previous five years was a 1.5 percent profit for the month of January 2015; traders used by CHS had not lost money in 15 years, stated the DOJ.

In fact, little investor money went into any trading accounts. Relying on these false statements, victim-investors sent more than $33 million to CHS from 2014 to 2019. As part of the scheme, Whitney directed that monthly statements be sent to victims that contained false reports of investment returns.

It is estimated that Whitney sent approximately $11 million in payments to investors that was taken from money given by later victims, effectively fitting the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Whitney also filed a false federal income tax return reporting his total income for the tax year 2018 as $17,539, when it was actually at least $452,872, about $435,333 of which was obtained through his CHS fraud.

Kenneth White, an attorney representing Whitney, told The Associated Press via email last Friday that Whitney immediately settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission upon being notified of the investigation.

[Whitney] accepted responsibility and entered a guilty plea, added White, as reported by the AP. His focus is now on his family.

Last November, Whitney agreed to plead guilty to the counts of mail fraud and filing a false federal income tax return, according to a story by the Orange County Register at the time.
Jesse Duplantis claims Christians can speed up Jesus Second Coming if they give more money

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Louisiana televangelist Jesse Duplantis said at a recent televised fundraiser that Christians can speed up the time of Jesus' Second Coming by donating more money.

I honestly believe this  the reason why Jesus hasnt come is because people are not giving the way God told them to give, he said, according to a clip shared on Twitter by the left-wing group Right Wing Watch.

Speaking at a fundraiser for Kenneth Copelands ministry, he continued, When you understand this, you can speed up the time.

Participating in a "Victorython" fundraiser for Kenneth Copeland's ministry, right-wing pastor Jesse Duplantis brags about being a multi-millionaire with his own private plane while telling viewers that they can "speed up" the return of Christ by donating. pic.twitter.com/3VE6sETWBB  Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) September 22, 2021

Duplantis, the pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, St. Charles Parish, a multi-millionaire who owns a private plane and has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle, added, I realized that I will not move people emotionally to give, Im gonna have people move according to the Word of God. What is God saying to you?

Duplantis, 72, then urged people to give, saying, God the Father would say, Jesus, go get em.

In one of his daily commentaries, Jim Denison, Ph.D., a cultural apologist, responded to the question: When will Jesus return?

After Jesus resurrection, He appeared to His disciples over a period of 40 days and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, he wrote, referring to Acts 1:3. He then promised them the Holy Spirit (v. 5). They knew that the coming of the Spirit and the coming of the Kingdom were related. So in response, they asked the question Christians have been asking ever since: Are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? (v. 6).

Their question was logical but wrong. Calvin said, There are as many errors in this question as words (Institutes 1.29).

Jesus says, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority (v. 7). Times or dates refers to specific dates as well as years. Not for you refers to Jesus first and closest disciples: Peter, James, John, the others, and even Mary and his brothers.

Then Denison asked, If Jesus wouldnt tell them when He would return, will he tell you and me?

Earlier this month, Duplantis was criticized for not doing enough to help his storm-ravaged community of St. Charles Parish, where Hurricane Ida left most residents without power.

After the criticism, Duplantis, who also leads Jesse Duplantis Ministries, and his wife, Cathy, defended themselves in a video message on Facebook at the time.

Were helping people literally all over everywhere, Duplantis insisted, Fox 8 reported at the time. Youre hearing all kinds of rumors that were not doing this, were not doing [that], thats all a bunch of malarkey. I could use another word, but you understand what Im talking about, he continued before revealing that his ministry had already donated some $100,000 worth of generators and he had plans to do even more.

In 2018, Duplantis faced criticism for seeking donations to go toward the purchase of a $54 million Falcon 7X jet.

"You know I've owned three different jets in my life and used them and used them and just burning them up for the Lord," he said in a video appealing for funds on "This Week with Jesse."

"Now, some people believe that preachers shouldn't have jets. I really believe that preachers ought to go on every available voice, every available outlet, to get this gospel preached to the world," he added at the time.

Following the backlash, however, the preacher insisted that he never asked followers to donate toward the plane, but instead called on them to join him in believing that God would provide him with the new aircraft.

In a four-minute video posted on the ministry's website, Duplantis attempted to clarify his earlier remarks where he claimed that God told him to believe that He would provide a Falcon 7X and that he would not have to pay for it.

"First things first, I never raised money for the plane," Duplantis said. "I put it in our magazine and said, 'Believe in God with me.' There is a vast difference between 'Believe in God' and asking for money."

Duplantis said that he was told by God: "You don't need to raise money for this. This will just come."

"I have raised money for a lot of other things and there is nothing wrong with that because religious organizations do that," Duplantis said. "But just when He said this would 'just come,' little did I realize that people would pick this story up."
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The scene was unforgettable. Thousands of ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic Jews holding hands and dancing fervently in the streets. An endless stream of upbeat songs in Hebrew and Yiddish. (Literally, it was without interruption, for several hours.) Thousands of Hasidic women, crowded side by side, watching the event with joy. Yellow flags proclaiming the Rebbe as the Messiah (more on that in a moment). And then the blue flags proclaiming, Trump 2024. I kid you not.

I was there in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Sunday night for the final night of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew), culminating in hours of celebration and dancing. My dear friend (and frequent debating opponent) Rabbi Shmuley Boteach had urged me to attend since I was in the NY-NJ area for the weekend.

And, as fellow Jews, Shmuley an Orthodox Jew and I a Messianic Jew, we joined in the dancing and celebration. It truly was a moving, joy-filled experience.

And, of course, we talked about life and faith and religion, also discussing our differing views on the identity and role of the Messiah.

But our discussion was very specific, since the group that we were with, which is the group through which Shmuley was ordained as a rabbi, is known as Chabad Lubavitch.

They are now the worlds largest Jewish outreach and education organization, spanning the globe with their zealous activities. And to this day, many of their leaders and adherents still believe that their leader, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (better known as the Rebbe), who died in 1994, is the Messiah.

So, contrary to traditional Jewish belief, which says that the Messiah will not die before he completes his mission (this is dismissed as a Christian idea), these fervent Jews believe that their deceased leader is the Messiah.

Banners with the Rebbes face adorn the streets, proclaiming in Hebrew, Welcome King Messiah. A prayer posted on a large banner in the main synagogue wishes him long and continued life, speaking of him as our Master and our King. (For my book on this subject, comparing the Rebbe as Messiah to Jesus as Messiah, see here.)

Shmuley told me that, on this, the last night of dancing and celebrating, we could expect to see more of the yellow flags coming out, simply saying, Moshiach (Messiah) in Hebrew and in English. And sure enough, as the night wore on, more and more of the flags were seen in the midst of the dancing crowds.

But those flags were not alone. There were also blue flags, not as many, but surely there, quite distinctly and clearly. And those flags were not about the Rebbe as Messiah. Instead, they were about Donald Trump. Trump 2024 they proclaimed. It was quite an unreal sight.

Remember that this was not a political rally, this was a spiritual gathering. And other than singing praises to God, the only other figure getting attention was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, arguably the most influential Jewish leader of the 20th century.

Of course, non-Lubavitch Jews would protest this focus on a deceased leader. But it is part of Lubavitchs religious culture and central to the Messianic beliefs of many of their adherents. In that light, the Moshiach banners were fully expected.

And, on the political end of things, the fact that these ultra-Orthodox Jews were so fervently pro-Trump is not that surprising, given that their voting patterns now resemble those of evangelical Christians. (See here for more on this.)

But why on earth were they swinging Trump 2024 flags at the culmination of Sukkot?

I understand it is a time of great celebration. But again, this is a totally spiritual, non-political event. And where did they even get these flags? Shmuley wondered aloud as to whether they had them specially made up, since we werent aware that Trump 2024 paraphernalia was being widely distributed at this point.

But as Shmuley and I talked about these flags, he pointing to the yellow ones and I pointing to the blue ones, he said to me, Its like two Messiahs. Exactly!

It would appear, then, that these religious Jews had fallen into the same kind of political idolatry that many Christian conservatives had, making Trump into some kind of political Messiah. (For one of my many warnings about this, see here.)

Of course, just as Christians never for a moment confused Trump with Jesus, as if Trump was their Savior or Lord, or as if Trump died for their sins, so also these Hasidic Jews would never confuse Trump with their Rebbe. Not in a million years.

At the same time, just as Christian prayer rallies shouting, Jesus! Jesus! could in the next breath shout, Trump! Trump!, so also the appearance of these yellow and blue flags side by side was quite telling. And as far as I could see, there was not a syllable of protest about the presence of the Trump flags.

Hopefully, if he does decide to run again in 2024, whether or not we vote for him, our perspective will be soberer this time around.
Christians living in fear as Taliban carries out executions, amputations as punishments

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Afghan Christians are living in fear as the Taliban has declared they will carry out executions and other brutal punishments, including amputations, under Islamic Sharia law as part of their rule in Afghanistan.

Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a member of the Talibans interim government and chief enforcer of the groups strict interpretation of Sharia law, told The Associated Press.

Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments, he continued. No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.

Turabi, who is under U.N. sanctions, also said the new government may consider carrying out such punishments in public.

Turabis announcement has many Afghan Christians bracing for persecution, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported, explaining that the Talibans strict interpretation of Sharia is a threat to Afghan Christians due to their conversions from Islam to Christianity.

As apostates, Afghan Christians will be subject to Sharias deadliest consequences, including execution, ICC said.

Almost all Afghan Christians  estimated to be between 8,000 and 12,000  are converts from Islam and remain largely closeted and hidden from the public eye due to severe persecution.

When the Taliban took control of much of Afghanistan following the drawing down of U.S. troops in August, many ministries working with the countrys underground church worked tirelessly to evacuate at-risk Christians, William Stark, ICCs regional manager for South Asia, told The Christian Post earlier this month.

Christians are now in hiding because of active threats against their community, Stark said.

He shared stories of how Christians continue to face threats from members of the Taliban. In one situation, an Islamic extremist threatened to kidnap a Christian mans daughters and marry them off to members of the Taliban. In another, a Christian man received a letter from the Taliban saying his house belonged to them. Christians have also been warned to refrain from gathering.

Even within the networks that we have, a number of people have changed their phone numbers because its simply not safe anymore, Stark said. Their work to lie low in the country makes it hard for someone on the outside to stay in contact.

As persecution continues to increase, Afghan Christians need help from the outside to escape their circumstances, he said.

Its going to take a diplomatic process by the U.S., the U.K. and other countries that are going to allow them to leave that country, he said. Essentially, what they need is some sort of special status that would allow them to travel outside of Afghanistan.

The Taliban have banned all demonstrations and have violently cracked down on protests, including beating women, and killed demonstrators.

We call on 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, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights previously said in a press statement.

The Taliban are arresting, and in some instances executing, people they perceive as their enemies, Christian missionary David Eubank, a former U.S. Army Special Forces and Ranger officer, said in a recent interview with CBN News.

Eubank also said recent photos and video suggest theyre killing as many as 30 to 40 at a time,

They [the Taliban] are hunting down people right now, trying to get all the names of anyone they perceive as an enemy, Eubank said, adding that the enemies include people who work with the U.S. government, people who are with other governments, people who work with non-governmental organizations they dont agree with.

Five of the Taliban-appointed leaders in the interim government were in detention in Guantanamo and later exchanged for Bowe Bergdahl in 2014, according to Long War Journal.

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the current Emir of the Faithful or top leader of the Taliban, issued religious decrees justifying the Talibans operations, including suicide attacks, from 1996 to 2001, the Journal said.

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the acting head of state, refused to turn over Osama bin Laden after the al Qaeda terror group bombed the U.S. Embassy in August 1998.

Akhundzada and Akhund are among more than a dozen new leaders who were sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council in early 2001.
Jordan Valley Authority reveals cause of water near Dead Sea turning red

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After a body of water near the Dead Sea in Jordan recently turned red, the Jordan Valley Authority tested the water and offered a reason behind the change of its color.

The cause of the appearance of the red color is the manganese found in the water, said Manar Mahasneh, the secretary-general of the Jordan Valley Authority, according to Roya News.

The Jordan Valley Authority carried out the test after many Jordanians posted pictures on social media showing red water in a pond that is isolated from the Dead Sea.

It was initially believed that the red color was likely caused by algae, iron oxide or the addition of substances to change the waters color, The Jerusalem Post recently quoted Sakhr Al-Nusour, who heads the Jordanian Geologists Syndicate, as saying.

Some Jordanians have accused their government of dumping waste chemicals into the pool.

According to the Old Testament in the Bible, God turned the waters of the River Nile into blood as one of the 10 plagues to punish the Pharaoh for his unwillingness to release Jewish slaves.

The eastern shores of the Dead Sea, where the pool of red water is located, is also where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood before God destroyed them and all of the people who lived there.

Roya News quoted Yassin al-Kasasbeh, the Director of Agriculture in the Southern Jordan Valley, as saying that the color of the water in ponds situated near seas might change because of bacteria and red algae, which look red in sunlight.

But this does not explain why the water suddenly turned red while other pools have not displayed the same phenomenon, particularly given that the region experiences near year-round sunny skies, the Daily Mail commented.

In July 2011, blood-like color of water emerged inside a man-made lake in the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in Texas after it nearly dried up. Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials said at the time that the waters color was the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, according to Live Science.
Court gives custody of Christian girl to alleged kidnapper, claims child willing converted to Islam

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A court in Pakistan's Punjab province has refused to give the custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl, who was allegedly kidnapped, forced to marry and convert to Islam, back to her parents, ruling that mental capacity gives more weight than age in child conversion cases.

The Lahore High Court last week rejected the petition filed by Gulzar Masih, a Roman Catholic rickshaw driver from Faisalabad city, seeking the recovery of his daughter, Chashman, from the custody of her alleged abductor, Muhammad Usman, Morning Star News reported.

The judge, Tariq Nadeem, said in his ruling Thursday that Islamic jurists look at mental capacity and not a child's age for conversion to Islam.

"It is a matter of faith.  Hazrat Ali was only 10 when he accepted Islam," he said, referring to the fourth caliph of Islam.

The judge said Muslim jurists generally regard the age of discernment for religious conversion as puberty and added that Chashman stated in her recorded statement before a judicial magistrate that she voluntarily contracted marriage with Usman.

Masih contacted police after his daughter failed to return home on July 27

Days after her disappearance, Masih received a video along with several documents claiming Chashman had run away and converted to Islam of her own free will, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

Intercourse with a girl younger than 16 is considered rape in Pakistan, but advocates say men in many instances produce fake conversion and Islamic marriage certificates to defend themselves.

In a separate case in July, the Lahore High Court upheld a lower court ruling, giving custody of a 13-year Christian girl named Nayab Gill, who was also allegedly abducted, forced to marry and convert to Islam to her 30-year-old Muslim abductor.

A 2014 report by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that hundreds of women and girls from Pakistan's Hindu and Christian communities are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam every year.

Religion is often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage, ICC previously reported, adding that perpetrators play upon religious biases to cover up and justify their crimes by introducing an element of religion.

International watchdog group Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Pakistan No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.

Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a "country of particular concern" for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.
Indian pastor, 4 others arrested on false charges of forced conversions

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Police in northern Indias Uttar Pradesh state arrested a pastor and four other Christians under the anti-conversion law while they were holding a prayer meeting after members of a radical Hindu nationalist group disrupted the gathering and filed a false complaint.

Pastor Richard Benjamin and four believers, who attended the prayer meeting in a Christian's home in Faizabad districts Jharuva village, spent five days in jail before being released on bail on Sept. 14, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported Sunday.

This is the third time I was put into jail in the last 10 years, the pastor was quoted as saying. The five days I spent in jail were difficult as we couldnt get enough food and the jailer gave us a lot of work. I fainted a couple of times due to the lack of food.

During the prayer meeting on Sept. 10, five activists from the radical Hindu nationalist group Bajrang Dal forced themselves into the house, claiming the Christians were forcibly converting people. They filed a police complaint leading to the arrest of the five.

Police officers initially wanted to release Pastor Benjamin and the four others, but local politicians pressured them to book the Christians under the states recently enacted anti-conversion law, sources told ICC.

ICC says it has documented at least 30 incidents of Christian persecution in Uttar Pradesh since the enactment of the anti-conversion law in December 2020.

The law, which presumes that Christian workers force or give financial benefits to Hindus to convert them to Christianity, states that no one is allowed to use the threat of divine displeasure, meaning Christians cannot talk about Heaven or Hell, as that would be seen as forcing someone to convert. And if snacks or meals are served to Hindus after an evangelistic meeting, that could be seen as inducement.

Christians make up about 2.5% of Indias population, while Hindus comprise 79.5%.

Several Indian states have similar anti-conversion laws. While some of these laws have been in place for decades in some states, no Christian has been convicted of forcibly converting anyone to Christianity. These laws, however, allow Hindu nationalist groups to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks on them under the pretext of the alleged forced conversion.

The ICC previously noted that Indias own population data proves that the conspiracy of mass conversions to Christianity is a false claim. In 1951, the first census after independence, Christians made up only 2.3% of Indias overall population. According to the 2011 census, the most recent census data available, Christians still only make up 2.3% of the population.

India ranks as the 10th worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 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.
Objections to a historic settlement with Purdue Pharma are mounting in the form of appeals, with Rhode Island's attorney general saying Wednesday the plan doesn't hold the OxyContin maker or its owners accountable for its role in sparking the opioid crisis.

Rhode Island appealed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Separate appeals have already been filed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Washington state, plus some Canadian local governments and other Canadian entities.

Any successful appeal could undo the deal, not just that states piece of it.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat, said he doesn't accept that the resolution between Purdue Pharma and thousands of state and local governments is sufficient. The Sackler family has not been transparent about its wealth, he said, so it's difficult to calculate how much punishment any resolution will inflict.

Estimates have put the collective wealth of family members who own the company at over $10 billion.

Neronha also said he dislikes that the settlement protects the Sacklers from lawsuits over opioids.

The state would be entitled to an estimated $21.6 million over nine years, or about $2.4 million annually, he said.

It's just not a lot, Neronha said. It may sound like a lot, I guess, but it's not a lot, given the scope of the problem, both past, present and future.

A federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan this month to turn Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, into a new company no longer owned by members of the Sackler family, with its profits going to fight the opioid epidemic.

The deal resolves some 3,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and others who claimed the companys marketing of prescription opioids helped spark and continue an overdose epidemic.

Company profits and $4.5 billion in cash and charitable assets from members of the Sackler family will be used to pay some individual victims and help fund opioid treatment and prevention programs.

Members of the Sackler family have said that while they dispute the allegations made about their family, they embraced this path in order to help combat a serious and complex public health crisis.

Purdue has said the settlement averts years of value-destructive litigation and ensures that billions of dollars will be used to help people and communities hurt by the opioid crisis.

Purdue said in an email Wednesday that the bankruptcy court and the vast majority of its creditors believe the settlement is the only way to fund programs to end the opioid crisis.

Appeals will only further hurt the states, victims and creditors by delaying and eroding their recoveries, the email read. Now is the time for the remaining objectors to join the overwhelming majority of creditors so that billions of dollars can begin to flow as quickly as possible.

Rhode Island's case against opioid makers is scheduled for trial in state court in January. But the state's claim and all others against Purdue were put on pause when the company filed for bankruptcy two years ago. The state's only hope of being able to move ahead with a claim against the company would be winning an appeal.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The United States and the European Union agreed Wednesday to carry on the work of 10 expert-level panels to explore and recommend solutions to a variety of trade disputes and challenges.

During the first of two days of trade and technology talks in Pittsburgh, they instructed the working groups to continue deliberations on matters ranging from climate and clean tech and technology standards to global trade issues, including tariffs that have strained U.S.-EU relations and predatory commercial practices by China.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai led the U.S. delegation, accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council. The meeting took place in an atmosphere clouded by recent EU anger over being excluded from a new U.S.-British-Australian security initiative for the Indo-Pacific that aims to counter Chinas increasing assertiveness in the region.

Raimondo said the contentious Indo-Pacific dispute was outside the mandate of the TTC and was not discussed in the talks, while Blinken and the EU delegation hailed the talks as extremely productive and cooperative in pushing to create new rules of the road for global commerce.

Were working very, very closely together, Blinken said. When were working together we have a unique ability to help shape the norms and standards and rules that will govern the way technology is used; technology affects the lives of virtually all of our citizens. We have an ability to set the pace to set the standard.

In a joint statement released after Wednesday's discussions, the two sides agreed on the need to maintain investment screening and export controls, affirmed their intention to develop artificial intelligence systems that are "innovative and trustworthy and respect universal human rights and shared democratic values, and committed to partnering on a rebalance of semi-conductor supply chains.

They also agreed that the working group on export controls would meet again Oct. 27.

The two sides had been hoping to make progress on several disputes, including U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports, and a unified stance against predatory Chinese commercial policies. But the 17-page joint statement made no specific mention of either issue and contained no references to China by name.

Administration officials had said the talks in Pittsburgh would mark the start of a new trans=Atlantic process that would focus on semiconductors, supply chains, vaccines and climate change, along with studies on artificial intelligence and high-tech telecommunications, notably advanced 6G networks.

The White House, in part, viewed the gathering as an opportunity to renew its push for improved coordination against what the administration sees as coercive and unfair trade practices by Beijing.

The administration had been expected to underscore that the United States and Europe need to continue to work on building resilience against China and other countries engaging in unfair economic practices, according to a person familiar with U.S. preparations. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But it was unclear how much of an appetite there is among some European allies to push harder on Beijing. In short public remarks, neither the American side nor the European Commission delegation, headed by its two executive vice-presidents, Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, made mention of the matter.

Launched in June during Bidens visit to Europe, the TTC attracted little attention initially, but it became a focal point for growing tensions between the U.S. and France, as the government in Paris sought to delay this meeting.

Those tensions exploded earlier this month when the U.S., Britain and Australia announced their new Indo-Pacific security initiative, known as AUKUS, that pointedly excluded France and the EU, and most immediately resulted in the cancellation of a multibillion-dollar Australian-French submarine contract. France reacted with rage to the announcement, which it called a stab in the back by ostensible allies, and recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia.

Among the French complaints, which have been echoed by EU leaders, are that the European Union has an active and important role in the Indo-Pacific and that any move to blunt Chinese influence there or elsewhere will not be successful without it.

Biden, at Junes Group of Seven summit in Carbis Bay, England, successfully pressed fellow leaders to include specific language criticizing Chinas use of forced labor and other human rights abuses in their joint communique.

Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Japan largely endorsed the Biden administrations position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed hesitancy during the talks.

The Pittsburgh talks came as the Biden administration is looking to soon complete its review of the Trump administrations trade policies toward China.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak in Washington and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
TransAlta Corporation TAC announces its strategic growth plans that will position it as a leader in delivering clean electricity. It aims to add 2 Gigawatt (GW) of capacity to its portfolio by developing, constructing and acquiring assets via investments worth $3 billion by the end of 2025.



The company has a customer-centered renewable electricity and storage plan in place. It aims to expand its storage by enhancing its 3 GW development pipeline and further increasing it to 5 GW by 2025 to double the renewable fleet within 2030. Currently, it has a development pipeline of 1.2 GW in the United States, nearly 2 GW in Canada and 270 megawatt (MW) in Australia.



It announced building new projects and undertaking buyouts worth 300 MW capacities and has 500 MW of electricity in advanced-stage development. Also, the utilitys already announced acquisition of solar projects with 122- MW capacity in North Carolina, expected to close in mid-October, will be another significant addition to its renewable portfolio.

A clear transition is evident in the utility space with the operating participants making changes to their generation portfolio to cut down on emission. The focus is on using more clean renewable sources and trimming the usage of coal to generate electricity.



TransAlta is also undertaking necessary steps to retire the old generating power units and restructure its portfolio. After proper evaluation, it determined that increasing costs, regulatory risks, changes in supply and demand along with power price forecasts in the Alberta market make the Sundance Unit 5 repowering project unsuitable. Hence, it decided to suspend its operations, and use its capital to fund other renewable projects.



Based on the future market conditions, the companys focus on renewable energy solutions and the age of the facilities, the utility will retire the Keephills Unit 1 on Dec 31, 2021 and the Sundance Unit 4 effective Apr 1, 2022. Besides, it provided a retirement notice to the Alberta Electric System Operator. Its efforts include ceasing all coal-fired generation in Canada by the end of the current year and across its entire fleet by the late 2025.



TransAlta aims to reduce emissions by 70% within 2030 from its 2005 base levels and reach full carbon-neutrality by 2050. Other utilities that already decided to curb 100% carbon emissions by 2050 from their operations include Alliant Energy LNT, Exelon Corporation EXC and FirstEnergy Corp. FE.

Dividend Update

The utility also raised its dividends by 11% to reach an annual tally of 20 cents per share, marking the third dividend hike in the past two years. The new quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share is payable Jan 1, 2022 to its shareholders of record on Dec 1, 2021.

Price Performance

Shares of this utility have gained 10.1% in the past six months against the industrys decline of 2.1%.

Six Months Price Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Rank

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Zacks' Top Picks to Cash in on Artificial Intelligence

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A hush in the darkened Alice Tully Hall was followed by thunderous applause as it greeted the closing credits of The Tragedy of Macbeth, the thrilling opener at the 59th Annual New York Film Festival.

The films stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand took well deserved bows with director Joel Coen as the standing-room-only, fully masked audience welcomed movies back to Manhattan.

Each year, this annual celebration of cinema brings the best of film to Lincoln Center. While 2020 offered a virtual and drive-in event because of the pandemic, this years safety precautions enable audiences to again share movies inside theaters. And the festivals opening weekend delivered stunning cinematic gems.

The Tragedy of Macbeth

This outrageous, unforgettable interpretation of Shakespeare makes the classic accessible to anyone who loves a thriller. Director Coen visually creates a unique movie world, realistic for film while exaggerated as theater, to explore the layers of ambition and aggression that define politicized relationships. And Washington  in a career-capping performance  should join Coen and McDormand in the chase for Oscars.

The Worst Person in the World

This delightful romance from Norway follows a womans journey through the challenges that relationships and career can bring. Featuring a magnetic lead performance from Renate Reinsve, the early moments recall the carefree romantic comedies of Woody Allen before the movie takes its own, serious turns. Reinsve  named Best Actress at the recent Cannes festival  captures our hearts as a woman who hesitates to commit to a life she says she wants to live.

Benedetta

Director Paul Verhoeven, who brought the thriller Elle to the New York festival five years ago, returns with a compelling story from history. Belgian actress Virginie Efira plays a nun, in the 17th century, who attributes her behavior to visions she experiences of Jesus Christ. With nods to film classics The Song of Bernadette and The Nuns Story, Verhoeven invites us into a mysterious world where actions often speak much louder than words.

The Souvenir Part II

This captivating piece continues the 2019 story of a filmmaker trying to discover a sense of purpose and foundation in her turbulent world. British director Joanna Hogg picks up where the first film concludes, helping us see inside this womans soul as she recovers from personal tragedy and professional confusion. Honor Swinton Byrne shines in the title role while her mother, Tilda Swinton, gives the film its emotional foundation as a mother wed all love to know.

Bergmans Island

Anyone who studies film remembers famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. In this entertaining romance, two filmmakers journey to the island where the director lived and made movies to create their own stories. As they dissect the layers and history they share, their creative minds discover ways to incorporate reality into their fictional treatments. The film helps us see how people can stand in their truth at the same time they create memorable fiction.

The New York Film Festival runs through Oct. 10. For information and tickets, go to filmlinc.org.
Simply put, Faith Fighting Cancer in Montgomery County (FFC) is a group of dedicated volunteers who raise donations to help cancer victims and their families in the Montgomery County area.

Money raised through its legendary Christmas Tea in December and in other ways directly addresses needs with funds that may not be available through any other program.

The next event takes place Saturday, Oct. 16, at Hello Beautiful, a fashion boutique for women (and gentlemen who purchase gifts). Its at 3915 West Davis (Texas 105 W) in Conroes H-E-B Center.

The appropriate title for the day of shopping is Power-of-Pink Shop-a-Thon.

Hello Beautifuls owner Judy Burks again will feature fabulous raffle items, according to volunteer publicist Kay Homan. Raffle tickets cost $5 each or five for $20.

Judy has been a fantastic supporter of Faith Fighting Cancer for many years, Homan noted. If you cant shop Oct. 16 you can just shop any other day that week. If you mention FFC, it will still benefit.

On a regular basis Burks provides precious heirloom tea cups that add a unique touch to FFCs Christmas Tea, which is an annual fundraiser. It repeatedly draws a sold-out crowd of mothers, grandmothers and young ladies for a day of traditional celebration with charmingly decorated trees, imaginative decor, and delightful refreshments.

Boutique hours are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Hello Beautiful may be reached at 936-756-3700.

Faith Fighting Cancer in Montgomery County is a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization. It provides emotional and financial support for cancer victims and their families in Montgomery County.

After much thought and consideration, the Board of Directors of Montgomery County Heritage Museum announced its new director. She is Suann Hereford, a well-known Conroe resident, involved in life in Montgomery County for decades.

She comes with many qualifications.

Suann has dedicated more than 30 years to being a dedicated student guidance counselor that includes every facet of personal and academic development. Her service emphasizes success in problem solving and resolution, networking, communication, teamwork, academics and personal achievement.

From January 1999 to August of this year, Suann was academic Counselor at Lone Star College Kingwood. She conducted orientation sessions for groups of incoming students, comparing entrance requirements with transcripts and advising students on advancement. She communicated with her advisees about success and to address concerns, and with her contemporary advisors. She maintained winning ways in advising students in choice of majors, class loads, and academic success.

At one time, Suann was a counselor in a school in The Woodlands in Conroe District, and taught life science, earth science and health, also in CISD.

Her academic credits include Texas A & M  a Ph.D. Educational Development with emphasis on adult teaching and learning, as well as Master of Education emphasizing community health and planning; Master of Arts: Counselor Education from Sam Houston State in Huntsville, plus a Summa cum Laude Bachelors degree in health education with English minor, and even more accomplishments.

With all this, Suann still made time to volunteer with various service organizations in Montgomery County. Some of these include high offices in East Montgomery County Rotary as well as Assistant Governor District 5910 comprised of East Montgomery County, Cleveland and Dayton; she began volunteering with Salvation Army in 1991 and is currently advisory Council Secretary.

She served as Chairman of Bear and Doll Tea Committee for New Caney Education Foundation and as president and secretary since becoming a member in 2013; and in New Horizons organization since 2014.

Professional and service volunteer work has been with Teachers and Professional Womens organizations; Daughters of the American Revolution; Colonial Dames of the 17th Century; Daughters of 1812; Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and Huguenot Society of Texas. Whew! Sue Hereford has accrued even more credits, but youll have to ask her when you visit the museum in Candy Cane Park, off Interstate 45 N.

The legions of friends that the late Lee Pruitt collected in the arts community and elsewhere will note that a memorial service for him is set at 11 a.m. Oct. 30 in the Montgomery United Methodist Church on Texas 105 W. in Montgomery.

His daughter Merri Pruitt Littleton mentioned that Lees son Randy Pruitt preceded him in death; as did his beloved wife Shirley Pruitt also widely known in the local arts community, and mourned more than a year ago.

According to Merri, Lees death was from cancer. He was born Leland Wiley Pruitt to an Army doctor and a nurse on June 10, 1929 in San Francisco and left this life Aug. 1 in Houston. His early years were spent in San Antonio, the Philippines, and in Indiana, where he earned a degree from Indiana University then moved to Houston.

Metcalf Funeral Directors is in charge of services. Tributes and photos may be posted on its website.

Peggie Miller may be reached at pegmiller01@gmail.com.
Despite a downward trend in active COVID-19 cases, Montgomery County health officials noted a slight increase in cases Wednesday climbing 359 to 9,013.

The increase is the first jump in several weeks, said Jason Millsaps, executive director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

The positivity rate on COVID testing has continued to drop since our last meeting which is being seen directly in the number of active cases, Millsaps said during a commissioners court meeting Tuesday. They have substantially gone down in the last three weeks.

Millsaps said while numbers are still high, things are looking better.

The delta surge is not over yet but we are on the right side of the decline, he said.

The Montgomery County Public Health District confirmed four additional COVID-19 related deaths Wednesday, including a New Caney man in his 40s; a Willis man in his 70s; a Conroe man in his 80s; and a Kingwood man in his 80s. All were hospitalized and not vaccinated when they died. The New Caney man was the only one reported to not have any other medical conditions.

Hospitalizations dropped by 10 to 254 with 79 of those patients in ICU. To date 32,277 people have recovered.

Helping the trend downward is the number of residents getting vaccinated. Millsaps said since July, almost 60 percent of those 12 and older in the county have been vaccinated. He noted that is slightly below the state average but in the Houston region, Montgomery County is third in that category in large counties.

The county is still operating a monoclonal antibody infusion center in The Woodlands but the federal governments change in how the antibodies distributed has reduced the number the center is getting.

Millsaps said as of Sept. 13, the county now must coordinate with the state on the antibodies which then orders the treatments from the federal government. Previously, he noted, the county could order directly from the manufactures of the monoclonal antibodies.

We had no middleman, Millsaps said. Its been more difficult since the September time frame to get it. It has not stopped operation but we are not getting same amount.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
Montgomery County commissioners agreed to allocate an additional $4.5 million in federal funds to keep nursing staff in area hospitals to continue to assist with COVID-19 patients.

In August, commissioners agreed to use $9 million in American Rescue Plan Act fund to bring in 130 additional nursing staff to address the dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant. Tuesdays action will fund the relief staff through Oct. 31.

ICUs are still fairly full, said Jason Millsaps, executive director with the county Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. The ICUs are just not trending (down quickly enough) to make us comfortable that if we allow the agreement to expire the hospital will be in good shape.

As of Wednesday, hospitalizations dropped 10 to 254 with 79 of those patients in ICU. Millsaps said while those general numbers drop, the number of patients in ICU remain steady.

The ICU lags behind, Millsaps said noting the average stay in ICU is 70 days. Thats a very long, substantial stay for an ICU patient.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in early August a series of emergency orders he said helped hospitals in the state respond to the COVID-19 surge.

As you are aware the last five weeks, we have had a huge surge in cases with the delta variant running rampant through the community, Millsaps said in a previous Courier article. The hospitals are overwhelmed, EMS service is overwhelmed.

The $4.5 million will come from the countys ARPA funds. ARPA is providing $1.9 trillion in federal dollars nationwide to help in the recovery of economic and the health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Montgomery County received $57 million for 2021 and will receive an additional $57 million in 2022.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
NEW YORK (AP)  Will a criminal conviction do to R. Kelly's music what years of ugly allegations couldn't?

It's unlikely that Monday's moment of justice  when a federal jury in New York found the 54-year-old R&B superstar guilty of all nine counts in a sex trafficking trial  will mean much for his fans, given all the awful things they had learned already, some observers say.

The lines have already been drawn," said Jem Aswad, deputy music editor for the trade publication Variety, who has been covering R. Kelly for 20 years. "The people that are going to listen to R. Kellys music are still listening to it. I dont think a guilty verdict is going to change their minds.

Still, advocates hope the criminal conviction brings a moral reckoning.

Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, understands how irresistible the music of R. Kelly can be for people who grooved to songs like Ignition," but said, People should just have a second thought about the message that it sends.

This generation is very clear about who R. Kelly is, right? These young people have come up with the information that this person is a perpetrator, right?" Burke said. "And if we cant push past our personal likes and desires to dance to a song for the sake of sending a message to these little girls and little boys, at some point Im just going to draw a line.

I dont want to support somebody who will cause this kind of harm in my community. I just urge people to think about that, she continued. "Is it really worth it?

Kelly had long managed to avoid professional consequences amid decades of reports of sexual abuse of young women and children, from his illegal marriage to R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994, when she was just 15, to a 2002 arrest in which he was accused of recording himself sexually abusing and urinating on a 14-year-old girl.

The #MeToo era and the 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly " saw his music downgraded by streaming services and subjected to boycotts, and Kelly dropped by his label, but it still remains widely available and draws millions of weekly streams.

The Grammy winner, once called the King of R&B, has had a dozen albums reach platinum or multiple platinum status. His biggest hits include I Believe I Can Fly and Bump N Grind. His songs ranged from explicit to romantic, popular both in the clubs and at weddings.

The people he has worked with are a who's who of popular music, among them Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones, Toni Braxton and Janet Jackson.

His popularity took a hit as allegations mounted in the past five years. His last three songs to chart on Billboards Hot 100 peaked in 2013, including a duet with Lady Gaga called Do What U Want and PYD with Justin Bieber. He hasnt had a hit reach the Hot 100 since then, despite releasing two albums and several singles. He has had more success on other charts.

According to MRC Data, formerly Nielsen Music, a data provider that powers Billboards charts, Kellys airplay spins and audience dropped significantly between 2017 and 2021, and digital sales followed a similar pattern.

However, his streaming on-demand numbers have remained about the same, averaging more than 6 million per week for most of 2021.

A group of fans who continue to back him blasted his music outside the courthouse Monday, with one shouting, Were not giving up on R. Kelly!

Neither Spotify nor Apple Music responded to questions Tuesday about whether they would modify their use of R. Kellys music on their platforms.

Spotify has made such a move before but got pushback.

In 2018, amid the momentum of the #MeToo movement and a campaign to #MuteRKelly, the service removed his music from playlists after establishing a new policy on hate content and hateful conduct. His music was still available, but Spotify stopped promoting it.

Yet as many pointed out at the time, the history of pop, R&B and rock music is overloaded with artists who not only sexually abused underaged girls, but also celebrated it in their songs.

And legendary producer Phil Spector, whose hands are on classic hits available everywhere, was a convicted murderer.

These sort of lines of morality are hard to draw, and Spotify found that out very quickly, Aswad said. Youre looking at where you draw the line. If its going to be, Did someone get convicted? Convicted of what? A felony? What if someone stole a car?"

But when Lifetime aired Surviving R. Kelly early in 2019, moves against him were inevitable. His RCA label dropped him, and Lady Gaga apologized for working with him and took their duet off streaming platforms.

At the peak of Kelly's success, Aswad said, the fortune he amassed helped him fight the stories about him, and people who made money with him made them less likely to abandon him.

But his finances appear to have been in serious decline. Crains Chicago Business reported that a $2.9 million foreclosure was filed on Kellys suburban Chicago mansion in 2011, and it was auctioned off in 2013 for $950,000. The Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time that he owed the IRS more than $4.8 million.

He was evicted from two Atlanta-area homes over more than $31,000 in 2018, and the following year he told a judge he couldnt pay $161,000 in back child support.

Kelly's audience is also aging, and he's unlikely to make any new music, with a long prison sentence a possibility and more prosecutions awaiting in other states.

It could be that time alone may do what convictions, allegations and boycotts couldnt.

I think as generations go on, it might get muted more because it will fade into the background," said Gail Mitchell, executive director, R&B/Hip-Hop at Billboard Magazine. As more generations, younger generations come up of age, therell be a separation. Itll be a bookmark that people can access. But the music probably will kind of fade away.

___

Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Hall reported from Nashville.

___

See the APs full coverage of the investigations into R. Kelly.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Sheriffs deputies punched a Black man so brutally while booking him into a north Louisiana jail two years ago that they broke his nose and left eye socket, civil libertarians said in challenging Louisiana's one-year statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging police abuse.

Jarius Brown, who had been arrested by a state trooper on a stolen vehicle charge in 2019, was so traumatized by the unprovoked attack that he dared not speak to the ACLU of Louisiana until recently, legal director Nora Ahmed said in an interview Tuesday.

The jailhouse beating took place in the DeSoto Parish seat of Mansfield, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Shreveport, on Sept. 27, 2019. The ACLU is asking a judge to find Louisiana's one-year time limit unconstitutional so the lawsuit filed Friday can proceed. Only Louisiana , Kentucky and Tennessee allow so little time to sue police, Ahmed said.

Brown's account of the beating is consistent with an extensive history of violence and police brutality committed by members of Louisiana law enforcement, the ACLU official said in a news release. That conduct has unfortunately been present for decades and has been implicitly endorsed by Louisiana State Police troopers and officials  the very force that initiated Mr. Browns arrest."

The lawsuit cited an article in a series of Associated Press reports on a decade-long pattern of state police hiding videos and other information about violence by troopers.

Capt. Nick Manale, head of state police public affairs, said the agencys legal staff had not received the lawsuit but will review it when it arrives. From the information you provided, it appears that the Trooper is only alleged to have been involved in the arrest and not the use of force incident, he wrote in an email.

The suit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Shreveport against former DeSoto Parish deputy Javarrea Pouncy and two unidentified officers  a second deputy and the state trooper who arrested Brown.

The sheriff's office declined to respond in detail to the lawsuit.

This matter has been investigated both internally and by the Louisiana State Police. The matter is now in litigation, therefore, our office will have no further comments to provide at this time, Deputy Mark Pierce, a sheriff's office spokesman, said in an email Tuesday.

State police had investigated at the sheriffs offices request, Manale said Wednesday. He said video from a state trooper's body camera was provided to the district attorneys office as part of the original charge.

KSLA-TV reported in July 2020 about the video, which shows Brown straining to answer basic questions while apparently trying to remain conscious after the beating. The recording shows Brown's face bruised, his left eye swollen shut and bloody saliva stringing from his mouth.

Brown had just been processed and was wearing inmate's clothing when he was brought before the officer, the station reported. On camera, the officer asks a deputy, "What happened to him? He resisted? and the deputy nods yes.

Pouncy did not respond to a call or a text to two phone numbers identified in an online database as possibly his. He no longer works for the sheriff's office or for the Coushatta Police Department, where KSLA reported he was working a year ago. The lawsuit said Pouncy left the sheriffs office after coming under investigation.

Records in the DeSoto Parish District Attorney's Office indicate that the matter was sent there as a malfeasance case which state police investigated, said Shawn Parker, an investigator for Charles Adams, who took office in January.

Although Brown can be heard in the video asking to go to a hospital, he was not taken to one until another deputy saw his condition, according to the ACLU. It said the deputies accused of beating him were with him at the hospital during treatment for a broken nose, a broken bone around his left eye and abrasions on his left eyelid, among other things.

Brown's complaint is just one of 400 the organization has received alleging racist policing in Louisiana, eight of them in DeSoto Parish, the ACLU said.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected other challenges to Louisiana's one-year statute of limitations, Ahmed said. However, she said, she believes hers is the first challenge to bring up arguments raised in recent articles by legal scholars.

The lawsuit is the 22nd in the ACLU of Louisiana's Justice Lab campaign to expose and litigate against police brutality and racism, the organization said.

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AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama health officials are urging schools to continue requiring masks despite a decline in COVID-19 cases in the state, which has one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates and worst death rates.

The state department of public health said Tuesday nearly 23% of COVID infections in Alabama are among children up to the age of 17. As of Monday, at least 30 children were hospitalized for the disease, and three were on ventilators.

Consistent and correct mask use in schools has helped reduce the number of cases of COVID-19, helped schools remain open to in-person learning in Alabama, and helped prevent the consequences of this serious disease, the department said in a news release.

The release cited studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found masks were critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Alabama left masking decisions to local officials, resulting in a patchwork of rules that vary in districts just a few miles apart. While Birmingham city schools require face masks, nearby Vestavia Hills dropped its mandate and made face masks optional last week. Shelby County has said it will quit requiring facial coverings at the end of the month.

Alabama has had 14,155 deaths related to COVID-19, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. The death count is the 16th highest in the country overall and the fourth highest per capita at nearly 290 deaths per 100,000 people.

Health officials attribute much of the problem to Alabama's vaccination rate, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks worst in the Southeast and among the lowest in the nation. Roughly 42% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has decreased by 1,397, a drop of about 36%, and hospitalizations have fallen below 1,500 after reaching nearly 2,900 on Sept. 1.

Even with the improvement, Alabama ranked 10th nationally for the rate of new cases over the past week. There were 785 new cases per 100,000 people in Alabama over the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins.

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Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday headed toward swift approval of a prison construction package that would tap $400 million of the states pandemic relief funds to help pay for building three new lockups.

The House of Representatives voted 74-26 for the $1.3 billion construction plan and 75-25 to use $400 million from the states share of American Rescue Plan dollars to help pay for the construction. The votes came after Republicans, who hold a lopsided majority in the Alabama Legislature, voted to cut off debate. The bills now move to the Alabama Senate, where lawmakers hope to approve them by the end of the week.

Addressing our decades-long prison infrastructure challenges is not easy, but sometimes, doing the right thing and the hard thing are one in the same," Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement after the House votes.

Ivey and GOP legislative leaders touted the construction plan as a partial solution to the state's longstanding problems in corrections that led the U.S. Department of Justice to sue the state last year. The proposal brought sharp criticism from state Democrats, who argued it will not remedy the prison problems and said the state has needs in health care and education that could be helped by the $400 million.

I'm thinking about families, and how this money was supposed to be an additional injection of resources into the community. All of these folks that have been hurting, and we're using this $400 million to build prisons, said Democratic Rep. Merika Coleman of Pleasant Grove.

Ivey and Republican legislative leaders have argued that the plan is appropriate because the American Rescue Plan says states can use some of the funds to replace revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic to maintain services.

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said he thought the money would be well spent to improve conditions in prisons.

You've got people who are stacked on top of each other. You've got the safety of the inmates and the people taking care of the inmates. You've got facilities that don't have good plumbing. They are not worth fixing, the Republican said.

The lone Democrat in Alabamas congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, wrote on Twitter that she is disturbed her state is using the pandemic money for prisons, especially as the virus rages in our state.

To be clear, the current state of the Alabama prison system is abhorrent, but the use of COVID-19 relief funds to pay for decades of neglect is simply unacceptable, she said.

The Department of Justice last year sued Alabama, saying male inmates in the state live in prisons riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence."

In a 2019 report that preceded the lawsuit, the DOJ made it clear that new prisons alone will not solve the problems. Federal officials wrote that dilapidated conditions were a contributing factor to what it called unconstitutional conditions but emphasized that, new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ... prisons, such as understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse.

Alabama Democratic Party chair and state Rep. Chris England said the prison plan being proposed would not translate into a better system.

We will still be overcrowded. We will still be understaffed. We will still be under-resourced. And if our current commissioner is somehow still working, we will still be mismanaged, England said.

Republican Rep. Steve Clouse of Ozark said new modern prisons  in which prisoners would be housed in cell blocks instead of large dormitories with rows of bunks  would be a foundation for improving the system.

It's a piece of the puzzle. It's a big piece, Clouse said.

The Alabama prison construction proposal calls for at least three new prisons: one with at least 4,000 beds in Elmore County with enhanced space for medical and mental health care needs; a second of the same size in Escambia County; and a womens prison  as well as renovations to existing facilities. Six prisons would close.

The package of bills also includes a retroactive sentencing change that could allow up to 700 nonviolent inmates to seek shorter sentences. The House did not vote on the sentencing bill Wednesday, effectively killing it for the short special session, after it became doubtful that there was enough Republican support to pass the bill.

Outside the Alabama Statehouse, about 40 people, including some parents of inmates, protested the plan and the use of pandemic funds. Carrying a banner that read, Stop the Spending Spree," the group said Alabama had other needs in medical care and education.

All they want is to build these prisons. They don't care about reform, said Sandy Ray, whose son died in a state prison in 2019 following a confrontation with officers.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Jan Simek, University of Tennessee

(THE CONVERSATION) On a cold winters day in 1980, a group of recreational cavers entered a narrow, wet stream passage south of Knoxville, Tennessee. They navigated a slippery mud slope and a tight keyhole through the cave wall, trudged through the stream itself, ducked through another keyhole and climbed more mud. Eventually they entered a high and relatively dry passage deep in the caves dark zone  beyond the reach of external light.

On the walls around them, they began to see lines and figures traced into remnant mud banks laid down long ago when the stream flowed at this higher level. No modern or historic graffiti marred the surfaces. They saw images of animals, people and transformational characters blending human characteristics with those of birds, and those of snakes with mammals.

Ancient cave art has long been one of the most compelling of all artifacts from the human past, fascinating both to scientists and to the public at large. Its visual expressions resonate across the ages, as if the ancients speak to us from deep in time. And this group of cavers in 1980 had happened upon the first ancient cave art site in North America.

Since then archaeologists like me have discovered dozens more of these cave art sites in the Southeast. Weve been able to learn details about when cave art first appeared in the region, when it was most frequently produced and what it might have been used for. We have also learned a great deal by working with the living descendants of the cave art makers, the present-day Native American peoples of the Southeast, about what the cave art means and how important it was and is to Indigenous communities.

Cave art in America?

Few people think of North America when they think about ancient cave art.

A century before the Tennessee cavers made their own discovery, the worlds first modern discovery of cave art was made in 1879, at Altamira in northern Spain. The scientific establishment of the day immediately denied the authenticity of the site.

Subsequent discoveries served to authenticate this and other ancient sites. As the earliest expressions of human creativity, some perhaps 40,000 years old, European paleolithic cave art is now justifiably famous worldwide.

But similar cave art had never been found anywhere in North America, although Native American rock art outside of caves has been recorded since Europeans arrived. Artwork deep under the ground was unknown in 1980, and the Southeast was an unlikely place to find it given how much archaeology had been done there since the colonial period.

Nevertheless, the Tennessee cavers recognized that they were seeing something extraordinary and brought archaeologist Charles Faulkner to the cave. He initiated a research project there, naming the site Mud Glyph Cave. His archaeological work showed that the art was from the Mississippian culture, some 800 years old, and depicted imagery characteristic of ancient Native American religious beliefs. Many of those beliefs are still held by the descendants of Mississippian peoples: the modern Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Muscogee, Seminole and Yuchi, among others.

After the Mud Glyph Cave discovery, archaeologists here at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville initiated systematic cave surveys. Today, we have cataloged 92 dark-zone cave art sites in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. There are also a few sites known in Arkansas, Missouri and Wisconsin.

What did they depict?

There are three forms of southeastern cave art.

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Mud glyphs are drawings traced into pliable mud surfaces preserved in caves, like those from Mud Glyph Cave.

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Petroglyphs are drawings incised directly into the limestone of the cave walls.

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Pictographs are paintings, usually made with charcoal-based pigments, placed onto the cave walls.

Sometimes, more than one technique is found in the same cave, and none of the methods seems to appear earlier or later in time that the others.

Some southeastern cave art is quite ancient. The oldest cave art sites date to some 6,500 years ago, during the Archaic Period (10,000-1000 B.C.). These early sites are rare and seem to be clustered on the modern Kentucky-Tennessee state line. Imagery was simple and often abstract, although representational pictures do exist.

Cave art sites increase in number over time. The Woodland Period (1000 B.C. - A.D. 1000) saw more common and more widespread art production. Abstract art was still abundant and less worldly. Probably more spiritual subject matter was common. During the Woodland, conflations between humans and animals, like bird-humans, made their first appearance.

The Mississippian Period (A.D. 1000-1500) is the last precontact phase in the Southeast before Europeans arrived, and this was when much of the dark-zone cave art was produced. Subject matter is clearly religious and includes spirit people and animals that do not exist in the natural world. There is also strong evidence that Mississippian art caves were compositions, with images organized through the cave passages in systematic ways to suggest stories or narratives told though their locations and relations.

Cave art continued into the modern era

In recent years, researchers have realized that cave art has strong connections to the historic tribes that occupied the Southeast at the time of European invasion.

In several caves in Alabama and Tennessee, mid-19th-century inscriptions were written on cave walls in Cherokee Syllabary. This writing system was invented by the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah between 1800 and 1824 and was quickly adopted as the tribes primary means of written expression.

Cherokee archaeologists, historians and language experts have joined forces with nonnative archaeologists like me to document and translate these cave writings. As it turns out, they refer to various important religious ceremonies and spiritual concepts that emphasize the sacred nature of caves, their isolation and their connection to powerful spirits. These texts reflect similar religious ideas to those represented by graphic images in earlier, precontact time periods.

[Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Based on all the rediscoveries researchers have made since Mud Glyph Cave was first explored more than four decades ago, cave art in the Southeast was created over a long period of time. These artists worked in ancient times when ancestral Native Americans lived by foraging in the rich natural landscapes of the Southeast all the way through to the historic period just before the Trail of Tears saw the forced removal of indigenous people east of the Mississippi River in the 1830s.

As surveys continue, researchers uncover more dark cave sites every year  in fact, four new caves were found in the first half of 2021. With each new discovery, the tradition is beginning to approach the richness and diversity of the Paleolithic art of Europe, where 350 sites are currently known. That archaeologists were unaware of the dark-zone cave art of the American Southeast even 40 years ago demonstrates the kinds of new discoveries that can be made even in regions that have been explored for centuries.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/ancient-americans-made-art-deep-within-the-dark-zones-of-caves-throughout-the-southeast-158497.
PHOENIX (AP)  Republican U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko said Wednesday that she has undergone surgery to remove her gallbladder and wont return to Washington until she can recover.

I am pleased to report that my gallbladder has successfully been removed, Lesko said in a statement. My doctors have advised I am unable to fly for at least 10 days, so I will remain in Arizona to rest and recover.
PHOENIX (AP)  The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to immediately reinstate a series of new laws that include measures which block schools from requiring masks and remove the power of local governments to impose COVID-19 restrictions.

The high court turned down Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich's request that the provisions in three state budget bills and an entire budget bill be allowed to take effect. Instead, the court set a briefing schedule for it to consider Brnovich's request to bypass the Court of Appeals and hear the case directly.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper issued a ruling Monday blocking the school mask ban and a host of other provisions in the state budget package from taking effect as scheduled on Wednesday.

She sided with education groups that had argued that the bills were packed with policy items unrelated to the budget and violated the state constitution's requirement that subjects be related and expressed in the title of bills.

Cooper's ruling cleared the way for Arizona cities and counties to enact mask requirements and other COVID-19 rules that would have been blocked by the budget bills. At least 29 of the state's public school districts issued mask mandates before the laws were set to take effect and some immediately extended them after Cooper's ruling.

Republican opponents of school mask requirements and local COVID-19 restrictions are powerless to immediately pass new versions of the laws even if GOP Gov. Doug Ducey calls a special legislative session. That's because there are two GOP vacancies in the closely-split House and Republicans no longer have the votes to pass bills without Democratic support.

Cooper's sweeping ruling also struck non-virus provisions that were slipped into the state budget and an entire budget measure that had served as a vehicle for a conservative policy wish list. They included a required investigation of social media companies and stripping the Democratic secretary of state of her duty to defend election laws.

Brnovich urged the court to strike down Cooper's ruling, saying the groups that sued had no legal right to challenge the bills, that the issue was political and outside the courts' jurisdiction and that Cooper wrongfully concluded they violated the constitution.

The trial courts ruling carries significant implications for the operation of state government and the State will continue to suffer harm if the trial courts ruling is not swiftly overturned, allowing the challenged provisions to immediately go into effect, attorney Patrick Irvine wrote in his request for the Supreme Court to directly take the appeal.

Cooper had rejected similar arguments.

Brnovich also asked Cooper and the state Court of Appeals to allows the laws to go into effect, but both rejected the requests on Wednesday.

The fight over school masks and other COVID-19 restrictions has moved into courtrooms across the U.S. Lawsuits have been filed in at least 14 states either for or against masks in schools. They directly challenge either state rules banning masks or local school board policies mandating them.

In Arizona, a coalition of educators and allies sued to challenge laws prohibiting public school districts from imposing mask requirements, colleges from requiring vaccinations for students, and communities from establishing vaccine passports for entry into large events, businesses and other places. It also challenged a broad invalidation of any other local virus measure.

The coalition argued a large number of Arizona children would get sick with COVID-19 if the new laws weren't blocked. The restrictions had been written into state budget measures that were passed near the end of the legislative session in June with only support from majority Republicans.

A spokesman for Ducey, C.J. Karamargin, on Monday called Cooper's ruling clearly an example of judicial overreach."

Cooper's decision has far-reaching ramifications for the Legislature, which has long ignored the constitutional requirement that budget bills only deal with spending items. Lawmakers have packed with them policy items, and this year majority Republicans were especially aggressive.
A Bangladeshi citizen has been sentenced to prison for his role in an international human smuggling conspiracy where he maintained a hotel in Mexico to then smuggle the migrants into the United States.

On Tuesday, Mohamad Milon Hossain, 41, a Bangladeshi national formerly residing in Tapachula, Mexico, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Laredo Office assisted by HSI Human Smuggling Unit, HSI Mexico City, HSI Houston, HSI Calexico, HSI Monterrey, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations, Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service.

This investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Departments Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks, or present grave humanitarian concerns. ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Court documents state that between March 2017 and June 2019, Hossain conspired with and assisted smugglers operating out of Bangladesh, South and Central America, and Mexico to bring numerous migrants into the United States in exchange for payment. The plea agreement mentions at least three instances where U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended multiple migrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande illegally.

Authorities said that Hossain operated out of Tapachula where he maintained a hotel that housed the individuals on their way to the United States. Hossain provided plane tickets and other assistance for the individuals to travel from Tapachula to Monterrey, Mexico, where co-conspirator Moktar Hossain assisted in crossing them illegally into the United States, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

This human smuggling conspiracy operated on a global scale and endangered the lives of Bangladeshi migrants, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. The Justice Department will continue working with our law enforcement partners here and abroad to bring human smugglers like Hossain to justice and to disrupt these criminal networks that unlawfully bring migrants from across the world into the United States.

This criminal placed profit before life, said Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery of the Southern District of Texas (SDTX). Human smugglers like Hossain often put migrants in dangerous situations, many leading to serious injury and even death. The SDTX is no stranger to this issue and will fervently pursue the battle, holding accountable not only the transporters, but any individuals who provided assistance along the way.

Todays sentencing is a great example of how Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) uses its worldwide resources and interagency partnerships to bring international criminals like Mohamad Milon Hossain to justice in the United States, said Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden of HSI San Antonio. Hossain was a key facilitator and smuggler of Bangladeshi nationals and his actions put our national security at risk. HSI is committed to working with its domestic and international partners to combat this type of crime throughout the globe.

Trial Attorneys Erin Cox and James Hepburn of the Criminal Divisions Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section prosecuted this case with assistance from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas.
FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP)  A small breeding population of an invasive insect that can damage native trees and crops has been found in Massachusetts for the first time, state agricultural officials said.

The spotted lanternfly population was found in Fitchburg, close to where a lanternfly nymph was reported earlier this summer, according to a statement Tuesday from the state Department of Agricultural Resources.

The infestation is limited to a single cluster of three trees, and inspectors are extensively surveying the area. While individual lanternflies have been found in several areas of the state in recent years, this is the first evidence that Massachusetts has a breeding population, the agency said.

The spotted lanternfly can have devastating impacts on Massachusetts agricultural industry, including on a number of farms and orchards in this part of the state that we want to protect from this pest, agency Commissioner John Lebeaux said in a statement.

The origin of the infestation is unclear because the insects, native to Asia, can hitch a ride on vehicles and trains, or on interstate shipments of agricultural and landscaping products.

They attack many different trees, including maples and walnuts, as well as shrubs and vines, and have the potential to damage a range of agricultural products, including apples, peaches, grapes, hops and ornamental plants.

Lebeaux urged the public to report sightings of the bug to the state  both the gray adult insects that are about one-inch (2 centimeters) long with black spots and red underwings, as well as the inch-long, yellowish-brown, rectangular egg masses.

The insects were first found in the United States in 2014 in Pennsylvania and have since been detected in Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
ROME (AP)  Pope Francis on Wednesday accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop of Brooklyn, Nicholas DiMarzio, weeks after a Vatican investigation cleared him of sexual abuse allegations, and appointed a native New Yorker to replace him.

DiMarzio is 77, two years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops. Francis accepted his resignation and appointed Bishop Robert Brennan of Columbus, Ohio, to take over in Brooklyn, the Vatican said.

On Sept. 1, the New York church announced that the Vatican had closed its case against DiMarzio after an investigation concluded that the allegations against him didnt have the semblance of truth. Two men had separately claimed DiMarzio abused them a half century ago, when he was a priest in New Jersey.

DiMarzio denied the allegations. The accusers' lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, has said the two men will both press forward with civil cases against DiMarzio.

The recent finding of the Vatican clearing Bishop DiMarzio of sexual abuse was the result of a biased investigation rendered by a self-serving Vatican court with a predetermined agenda, Garabedian said in a statement.

In a tweet Wednesday, DiMarzio welcomed Brennan to Brooklyn and said he had great confidence in his ability to lead" the diocese.

For the Bronx-born Brennan, 59, it's a homecoming to New York after he was educated at St. John's University in Queens, ordained in Rockville Centre, Long Island, and made an auxiliary bishop there before being sent to lead the Columbus diocese in 2019.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who as archbishop of New York is the responsible for both the Brooklyn and Rockville Centre dioceses, welcomed Brennan back home.

During my over 12 years as archbishop of New York, I have come to know him as a fine priest and bishop, a warm individual, and a good friend," Dolan said.

Dolan, who had appointed an outside firm to investigate DiMarzio, thanked the bishop for his zeal and dedication" in leading the Brooklyn diocese for 18 years and said he would continue to be a source of wisdom for the New York church.
EDWARDSVILLE  Two people were charged with weapons-related felonies stemming from a late-night shooting in Alton Saturday.

Wakita L. Lampkin, 43, of Fort Worth, Texas, was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, a Class X felony, and aggravated unlawful use of a firearm, a Class 4 felony.

According to court documents, on Sept. 25 Lampkin shot a man in the leg and was carrying a loaded firearm, an SCCY 9 mm pistol, without a concealed carry permit.

Bail was set at $100,000.

Also charged was Marcus D. Pearson, 37, of the 400 block of Church Street, East Alton.

Pearson was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of weapons by a felon.

According to court documents he was in possession of an SCCY 9 mm handgun, and a Norinco 7.62 SKS rifle. It was noted he has a prior felony conviction for use of a vehicle in discharge of a weapon, out of Tulsa County, Oklahoma in 2009.

Bail was set at $50,000.

The Alton Police Department has been investigating two nonfatal shootings that occurred at about the same time Saturday night.

At about 10:30 p.m. police began receiving reports of shots fired in the 200 block of W. Third Street. When officers arrived at the scene they learned a gunshot victim had been taken to an Alton area hospital, and was later transported to a St. Louis area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The victim continues to recover.

A preliminary investigation revealed that this was not a random act of violence, said Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido. The investigation led police to Lampkin and Pearson, who were taken into custody early Monday morning in the 400 block of Church Street, East Alton.

Assisting Alton police were the East Alton Police Department and the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System special response team.

Both remain in custody at the Alton Police Department.

When violent crime occurs in Alton, my officers and detectives will work diligently to identify the offenders, Pulido said. I am proud of the work that our officers and detectives have done and are still doing.

At about the same time as the Third Street incident, Alton police and other agencies responded to a shooting near the intersection of Ridge and East Seventh streets.

At that location a victim had been shot while in a vehicle. The wounds were also considered non-life-threatening.

That shooting is still under investigation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  A Columbus police officer responding to a domestic dispute shot and killed a man allegedly wielding a knife, authorities said.

Officers responded to an apartment complex on the city's south side at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday after a woman called to report domestic abuse, police spokesperson Sgt. James Fuqua said.

Arriving officers were met outside by the woman who alleged that a man with whom she was in some sort of relationship was threatening her with a knife, Fuqua said. The man then came outside the house and began to charge at the woman with the knife, according to Fuqua.

Officers tried unsuccessfully to subdue him with a Taser gun, and one officer then fired his gun several times, Fuqua said.

Fuqua said officers immediately rendered aid until medics arrived and transported the man to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

Police didn't immediately release the names of the man or the officers.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union's general court on Wednesday annulled the 27-country bloc's approval of agriculture and fishing agreements that allow Morocco to export goods from Western Sahara.

The ruling could damage the EU's relationship with Morocco, although the court said the effects of the 2019 agreements would be maintained over a certain period "to preserve the European Unions external action and legal certainty over its international commitments."

The EU is Moroccos leading trade partner and the biggest foreign investor in the North African kingdom, according to the bloc.

The case was brought to the court by the Polisario Front, the movement seeking Western Sahara's independence from Morocco. The movement challenged decisions by the European Council, the body that acts on behalf of EU member countries.

In its findings, the court determined that the Polisario Front was recognized internationally as a representative of the people of Western Sahara," and that the EU did not ensure it secured the consent of the Saharawi people before sealing the agreements with Morocco.

In a joint statement, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, and Morocco's minister of foreign affairs, Nasser Bourita, said they would act to ensure the legal framework which guarantees the continuation and stability of trade relations.

Oubi Bachir, the Polisario representative to the EU, celebrated in a message posted on Twitter a great victory for the desert cause." He later called on EU leaders to comply with the court's ruling, saying in a statement that their defiance of European justice continues to hinder the process of decolonization of Western Sahara."

Moroccos Foreign Affairs Ministry said would appeal the ruling, calling it a biased and ideologically motivated decision.

The European Court of Justice ruled in February 2018 that a fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco could not include the waters off Western Sahara.

Morocco considers the vast, mineral-rich Western Sahara its southern provinces and rejects any actions it regards as a threat to its territorial integrity. The territorys status is one of the most sensitive topics in the North African kingdom.

Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975 and fought the Polisario Front independence movement. The U.N. brokered a cease-fire in 1991 and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor it.

But the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice said Western Sahara isnt part of Morocco, so its waters arent part of the EU-Morocco agreement. In 2018, the court said including those waters would contravene certain rules of general international law such as the right to self-determination.

Morocco and Spain are the countries most affected by the ruling. On the fishing agreement alone, Morocco is set to lose about 52 million euros annually, for four years, in exchange for allowing 128 vessels from 11 European countries fishing in the waters off the western African coast. Ninety-two of those vessels are Spanish.

Spains Foreign Ministry declined to answer questions over whether Spain would join Morocco in seeking an appeal.

Regarding the judicial decisions, we value that there is a transitional period, a ministry spokesman, who was not authorized to be named in media reports, told The Associated Press.

The ruling came as the governments of Spain and Morocco have hastened contact to try to solve the diplomatic crisis that led to the sudden arrival of some 10,000 migrants, including unaccompanied children, at the city of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

The humanitarian crisis started as Morocco and Spain argued over Madrids decision to provide COVID-19 care to Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Western Sahara pro-independence front, which angered authorities in Rabat.

Moroccan authorities, meanwhile, denied that they encouraged people to try to enter Ceuta without authorization.

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Lorne Cook in Brussels, Aritz Parra in Madrid and Tarik El-Barakah in Rabat contributed to this story.
REDDING, Calif. (AP)  Officials have lifted all evacuation orders after crews made great progress corralling a wildfire that was started by a woman last week and has destroyed dozens of homes near Shasta Lake in Northern California, authorities said Wednesday.

The Fawn Fire was 75% contained after destroying 185 homes and other buildings in an unincorporated area north of the city of Redding, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Alexandra Souverneva, 30, is being held at Shasta County Jail after being charged with felony arson to wildland with an enhancement because of a declared state of emergency in California, prosecutors said. Souverneva pleaded not guilty.

The Fawn Fire has charred more than 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of heavy timber.

Its the latest destructive blaze to send Californians fleeing this year. Fires have burned more than 3,075 square miles (7,964 square kilometers) so far in 2021, destroying more than 3,000 homes, commercial properties and other structures.

Those fires include a pair of big forest blazes burning for more than two weeks in the heart of giant sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. More than 1,700 firefighters battled the KNP Complex Fires, which covered 76 square miles (196 square kilometers) by Wednesday. The blaze burning in Tulare County was only 11% contained.

Half of that land scorched this year  1,505 square miles (3,898 square kilometers)  was burned by the Dixie Fire across five counties in the northern Sierra and southern Cascades region. It is the second-largest fire on record in California and has destroyed more than 1,300 homes, businesses and other structures. It was 94% contained as of Wednesday.

Pacific Gas & Electric has acknowledged that its equipment may have played a role in sparking the blaze on July 13. Fire officials estimate the blaze will be fully contained by Oct. 30.

A historic drought in the American West tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. 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.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  A federal judge Tuesday suspended South Carolina from enforcing a rule that banned school districts from requiring masks for students.

Parents of disabled children, helped by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the state saying the ban discriminated against medically vulnerable students by keeping them out of public schools as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

The mask ban has been forcefully backed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and GOP lawmakers who said parents should decide whether students wear masks, not school officials.

The ruling wasn't even a close call, U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis wrote, stopping the state from enforcing a one-year ban placed in the budget.

It is noncontroversial that children need to go to school. And, they are entitled to any reasonable accommodation that allows them to do so. No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities, Lewis wrote.

Lewis compared the General Assembly preventing mask requirements to telling schools they can no longer install wheelchair ramps.

Masks must, at a minimum, be an option for school districts to employ to accommodate those with disabilities so they, too, can access a free public education, the judge wrote.

McMaster's spokesman Brian Symmes said Tuesday's ruling isn't the last word in the case.

The governor strongly disagrees with the courts decision and will defend a parents right to decide whats best for their children up to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary, Symmes said in a statement,

The ruling wasn't a surprise because the rights of medically fragile students were violated, said Susan Mizner, director of the ACLUs Disability Rights Program.

The courts decision today makes clear that state legislators and Gov. McMaster cant sacrifice the health and safety of students with disabilities for the convenience of others," Mizner said in a statement.

The Republican-dominated South Carolina House put the provision into the budget in June when the state was seeing an average of about 150 new COVID-19 cases a day.

Not long after the delta variant caused a spike in cases similar to last winter before vaccines were widely available. Well over 21,000 students have been infected with COVID-19 this school year and nearly 100,000 have had to quarantine because of close exposure, according to state health data.

The budget provision didn't outright ban districts from requiring masks, but said state money couldn't be used to enforce a mask requirement. State money is tied into most regular school funding, although some lawmakers told school boards they could require masks and hire employees to enforce the requirement with federal COVID-19 relief money.

Several districts have gone ahead and required masks. Other school boards have asked lawmakers to come back into session and change the rules, which they so far have refused to do. They have been joined by groups of doctors, teachers and school administrators.

Attempts to get the state Supreme Court to allow mask requirements in schools or overturn the provision have failed.

Lewis wrote in her ruling that she was following federal anti-discrimination law and not making a comment on whether the General Assembly's provision was COVID incompetence."

Some have also contended that the politicalization, by both opponents and proponents, of the decision to forbid local school districts from requiring students to wear a mask at school is gravely wrong. Literally. But, that question is not before the Court, the judge wrote.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  The former Australian prime minister who signed the now-cancelled French submarine deal questioned whether Australia could safely maintain a fleet powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Malcolm Turnbull made the 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) deal in 2016 with French majority state-owned Naval Group in 2016 to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who replaced Turnbull in a power struggle within Australias conservative government in 2018, canceled the deal this month as part of an alliance with the United States and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

Morrison explained that the game changer was that next-generation nuclear-powered submarines will use reactors that do not need refueling during the 35-year life of the boat.

Turnbull told the National Press Club on Wednesday that he had been advised by the Australia's Defense Department as recently as 2018 that an Australian nuclear-powered fleet was not an option without local nuclear facilities.

Morrisons advice that Australia could become the first country to operate a nuclear-powered fleet without a civil nuclear industry or nuclear expertise was very different to Defense Department advice three years ago, Turnbull said.

It sounds too good to be true, Turnbull said.

Is it credible to have a hands-off, plug-and-play nuclear reactor filled with weapons-grade uranium and not inspect it for 35 years? he asked.

Turnbull said a nuclear-powered fleet maintained by another country was not an option for Australia.

If you cant maintain your own ships, you are not in full control of them, Turnbull said.

France has accused the United States and Australia of betrayal over the canceled contract and the replacement trilateral alliance negotiated in secret.

France briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest but there is no word of when a French ambassador might return to Australia.

Turnbull, who describes himself as a personal friend of French President Emmanuel Macron, said Morrison should have discussed with the French Australias concerns that conventional submarines would not meet its evolving security needs.

This is an appalling episode in Australias international affairs and the consequences of it will endure to our disadvantage for a very long time, Turnbull said.

Former Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd, who led the center-left Labor Party, have also been vocal critics of the nuclear deal.

Atomic energy is a fraught issue in Australia, which has a single reactor in Sydney that makes nuclear isotopes for medical use.

Nuclear power generation is banned and Australia refuses to export uranium to countries that would put it to military uses including nuclear propulsion.
BERLIN (AP)  The two parties that are expected to determine who will become Germany's next chancellor have started talks to bridge their differences and declared that they got off to a good start.

Sunday's parliamentary election left Germany's traditional big parties effectively needing the support of the third- and fourth-placed parties, the environmentalist Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats, to take the top job after outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's 16-year reign.

The two smaller parties decided to talk to each other first before entertaining advances from bigger suitors. While they have some common ground, they have traditionally belonged to rival ideological camps and have different approaches to issues including the economy and fighting climate change.

In recent decades, the Greens have tended toward the center-left Social Democrats of narrow election winner Olaf Scholz. The Free Democrats have tended toward Merkel's center-right Union bloc, which finished second under would-be successor Armin Laschet  its worst-ever result.

In near-identical Instagram posts early Wednesday, Green co-leader Annalena Baerbock and Free Democrat leader Christian Lindner posted a picture of themselves with Baerbock's fellow Green leader Robert Habeck and the Free Democrats' general secretary, Volker Wissing.

In the search for a new government, we are sounding out common ground and bridges over things that divide us  and even finding some, the posts read. Exciting times.

Wissing and Baerbock declined to elaborate later Wednesday, citing an agreement to keep the talks confidential. They said a larger group of negotiators from the two parties will meet Friday.

Wissing said the Free Democrats also have accepted invitations to meet with the Union, probably on Saturday, and with the Social Democrats on Sunday.

Baerbock, who said there is a mandate for a progressive government," said the Greens will meet separately with the Social Democrats on Sunday. She added that the Union has invited the Greens to talks next week.

The only other plausible combination of parties that would have a majority in parliament is a repeat of the often bad-tempered outgoing grand coalition of the two big parties, which neither of them wants.

Merkel's current coalition came about after the 2017 election when Lindner pulled the plug on talks on a possible alliance with the chancellor's Union and the Greens.

Merkel hasn't yet commented publicly on the election result. But her office said Wednesday that she congratulated Scholz, currently her vice chancellor and finance minister, on his election success on Monday.

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Follow APs coverage of Germanys election at https://apnews.com/hub/germany-election
HONOLULU (AP)  Over 160 Oahu business operators have been cited, warned or arrested in the weeks since Honolulu imposed new COVID-19 safety rules, including requiring proof of vaccination or negative test results.

Honolulu police have issued citations or made arrests in 44 cases since the new mandates went into effect Sept. 13, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday.

Police have also issued over 100 written warnings for a variety of violations and made an unspecified number of verbal, non-written warnings.

The great majority of businesses are in compliance with the Safe Access Oahu requirements, city spokesperson Tim Sakahara said in a statement. We are thankful to law enforcement officers with HPD and the Liquor Commission for continuing to educate and enforce the requirements."

City officials could not immediately break down the number of arrests versus citations because they are compiled together in the same records-keeping category, said Honolulu Police Department spokesperson Michelle Yu.

But she said the majority were citations, and very few were arrests.

The greatest number of arrests or citations  17  were for lack of face coverings, and 11 were for not following social or physical distances.

Violations carry a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of $5,000.

Honolulu Liquor Commission investigators, who regulate businesses that serve alcohol, have issued six notices of violation.

These included three for serving alcohol after 10 p.m., two for not checking vaccination status and one for failing to conduct contact tracing.

Sherry Menor-McNamara, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, acknowledged enforcement efforts are limited but said the figures suggest most businesses are following the rules.

Most do know that if they dont comply there are ramifications, and most businesses want to do the right thing.  If everybody can play their role in implementation, the faster we can get out of this, Menor-McNamara said.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August could be traced to a 2020 U.S. agreement with the Taliban that promised a complete U.S. troop withdrawal.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that once the U.S. troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of President Joe Biden's decision in April to complete a total withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the U.S.-backed Afghan government accelerated.

The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military  psychological more than anything else, but we set a date-certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end, McKenzie said.

He was referring to a Feb. 29, 2020, agreement that the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in which the U.S. promised to fully withdraw its troops by May 2021 and the Taliban committed to several conditions, including stopping attacks on American and coalition forces. The stated objective was to promote a peace negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but that diplomatic effort never gained traction before Biden took office in January.

McKenzie said he also had believed for quite a while that if the United States reduced the number of its military advisers in Afghanistan below 2,500, the Kabul government inevitably would collapse and that the military would follow." He said in addition to the morale-depleting effects of the Doha agreement, the troop reduction ordered by Biden in April was the other nail in the coffin" for the 20-year war effort because it blinded the U.S. military to conditions inside the Afghan army, because our advisers were no longer down there with those units.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, testifying alongside McKenzie, said he agreed with McKenzie's analysis. He added that the Doha agreement also committed the United States to ending airstrikes against the Taliban, so the Taliban got stronger, they increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, and the Afghans were losing a lot of people on a weekly basis.

Wednesday's hearing was politically charged, with Republicans seeking to cast Biden as wrongheaded on Afghanistan, and Democrats pointing to what they called ill-advised decisions during the Trump years.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said a day earlier in a similar hearing in the Senate that the war in Afghanistan was a strategic failure, and he repeated that on Wednesday.

Milley told the Senate committee, when pressed Tuesday, that it had been his personal opinion that at least 2,500 U.S. troops were needed to guard against a collapse of the Kabul government and a return to Taliban rule.

Defying U.S. intelligence assessments, the Afghan government and its U.S.-trained army collapsed in mid-August, allowing the Taliban, which had ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, to capture Kabul with what Milley described as a couple of hundred men on motorcycles, without a shot being fired. That triggered a frantic U.S. effort to evacuate American civilians, Afghan allies and others from Kabul airport.

This week's House and Senate hearings marked the start of what is likely to be an extended congressional review of the U.S. failures in Afghanistan, after years of limited congressional oversight of the war and the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars it consumed.

The Republicans' sudden interest in Afghanistan is plain old politics, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who supported Biden's decision to end U.S. involvement there.

Tuesday's hearing also was contentious at times, as Republicans sought to portray Biden as having ignored advice from military officers and mischaracterized the military options he was presented last spring and summer.

In a blunt assessment of a war that cost 2,461 American lives, Milley said the result was years in the making.

Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure  the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there's no way else to describe that  that is a cumulative effect of 20 years, he said Tuesday, adding that lessons need to be learned, including whether the U.S. military made the Afghans overly dependent on American technology in a mistaken effort to make the Afghan army look like the American army.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked Milley why he did not choose to resign after his advice was rejected.

Milley, who was appointed to his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump and retained by Biden, said it was his responsibility to provide the commander in chief with his best advice.

The president doesn't have to agree with that advice, Milley said. He doesn't have to make those decisions just because we are generals. And it would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to resign just because my advice was not taken."

Milley cited a very real possibility that al-Qaida or the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate could reconstitute in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and present a terrorist threat to the United States in the next 12 to 36 months.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Two Mississippi street preachers who were convicted of misdemeanor simple assault for calling a woman a Jezebel and waving a Bible in a man's face were released from jail Wednesday after a judge found they were being held under grossly unreasonable bond.

The $500,000 appearance bond for each preacher was at least 500 times the amount recommended by the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure for bail pending trial.

Ive seen bonds set in rape cases, aggravated assault cases far more serious than this, and nowhere near half a million dollars," said Judge Jess H. Dickinson, a retired Mississippi Supreme Court justice appointed to help with a backload of cases in Hinds County Court. Dickinson reduced the bond to $5,000 each.

Allan Grant Siders and Bryan Peden, preachers for Church at Jackson, were convicted Sept. 22. Jackson Municipal Judge Jeffrey Reynolds sentenced Siders to six months and Peden to three months in jail.

The men were preaching outside businesses in Jackson's Fondren neighborhood when Jackson resident Matthew Camp said they shouted at him and his girlfriend repeatedly using a voice amplification system, calling her a Jezebel and calling them filthy fornicators. He said they waved a Bible in his face in a threatening way and yelled at him so closely that spit landed on his face.

Reynolds said a high bond was justified because members of the church  around 30 people  or another organization that shares their extremist views could help them flee. Reynolds also said the preachers are a community danger because they traumatize young children by screaming insults at their parents through a voice amplifying device. He said he finds it particularly troubling that Siders believes it acceptable to scream at a police officer that he is a coward, a sissy and effeminate.

Attorney Joel Dillard, representing the preachers, said the bail and conviction are unconstitutional and his clients are asking a higher court for a new trial.

In Hinds County Court on Wednesday, he called Reynolds' bail decision an abuse of his discretion" designed to keep the preachers in jail.

He is impermissibly motivated by a desire to silence protected speech and to punish people who he feels did something wrong through the setting of a bond, Dillard said.

The preachers were jailed eight days.

Church at Jackson members preach on sidewalks outside places such as bars and the state's only abortion clinic in the Fondren neighborhood. Members often use a voice amplifier and hand out Bible tracts.

The men were convicted under a statute that says a person is guilty of simple assault if he or she attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily harm.

Matt Steffey, a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law, said people usually are convicted under the physical menace statute if they threatened someone with a weapon.

State Defender Andre de Gruy said defense attorneys contacted him in the past week raising questions about the bail.

A $500,000 bail is unheard of in most felony cases, so its certainly unheard of in a misdemeanor case," he said.

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Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  A lawsuit filed Tuesday as lawmakers get set to draw Alabama's new congressional map is challenging the state's current congressional districts, saying they are racially gerrymandered and limit Black voters influence in all but one congressional district.

Alabama currently has one majority-minority district represented by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, the lone Democrat and only Black member of Alabamas congressional district. The lawsuit argues Alabama should have a congressional map that would afford African Americans an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in at least two districts.

The lawsuit by two state senators and four voters was filed ahead of an expected special session on redistricting in which lawmakers will draw new congressional districts based on the latest U.S. Census numbers. No date has been set so far for such a session.

Alabamas current Congressional redistricting plan, enacted in 2011 is malapportioned and racially gerrymandered, packing black voters in a single majority-black Congressional district, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit argues that legislators packed as many minorities as possible into the congressional district that stretches from Birmingham through west Alabama and into Montgomery  thereby weakening minorities voting influence throughout the state.

The suit seeks to avoid splitting counties and return to the redistricting principle of drawing its Congressional districts with whole counties.

By returning to Alabamas traditional redistricting principle of aggregating whole counties, Alabama can remedy the existing racial gerrymander, restore a measure of rationality and fairness to Alabamas Congressional redistricting process, and afford African Americans an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in at least two districts, the lawsuit states.

State Sen. Rodger Smitherman, Sen. Bobby Singleton and four voters filed the lawsuit. Secretary of State John Merrill is the defendant in the lawsuit because of his position.

We just want to make sure there is fair representation, equal representation, Singleton said in a telephone interview.

While the population of Alabama is 25% Black and elected bodies such as the Legislature mirror that representation the congressional delegation is 14% Black.

Merrill said Tuesday that he had not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment on pending litigation.

Alabama showed an increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the new Census numbers. The percentage of people who identify as white dropped while the state saw an increase in the Hispanic population and a doubling of the percentage of people who identify as multiracial.

Whites continue to be the largest racial group in Alabama, but the percentage of people in Alabama who identify as white shrunk from 68.5% in 2010 to 64.1% in 2020. There was the slightest decrease in percentage of people who identify as Black falling from 26% to 25.6.

Alabama officials earlier this year were relieved to learn that the state would maintain the seven congressional districts, instead of dropping to six.
THIBODAUX, La. (AP)  A Louisiana man faces a murder charge in the death of his infant daughter, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office said.

Jake Guidry, 26, told deputies he hit 11-month-old Zabria Guidry too hard," Sheriff Craig Webre said in a news release Tuesday.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  The Maine Legislature approved new congressional, legislative and county commission maps Wednesday without bitter bipartisan fights and gerrymandering that plagued efforts in other states.

All the maps were approved by a two-thirds majority in both chambers and Gov. Janet Mills wasted no time in providing her signature, making Maine the second state, after Oregon, to complete the redistricting process.

Mills praised the lawmakers from both parties for the achievement. To have done so without rancor and partisanship and under a constrained timeline is something Maine people can be proud of, she said.

The new maps move tens of thousands of Mainers to new districts and will help shape political races for the next decade.

Legislative leaders from both parties were content with the outcome.

The odds certainly were not in our favor but once again, Maine lawmakers have proven that bipartisanship is alive and well in Augusta, said Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash.

For congressional districts, the panel had to move about 23,300 voters from the 1st Congressional District to the 2nd District to reflect population shifts over the past 10 years.

The maps were agreed upon by a bipartisan commission led by Supreme Court Justice Donald Alexander, and the process avoided the gerrymandering accusations that have cropped up elsewhere.

Gerrymandering refers to drawing maps in a way that gives a big advantage to one party over the other.

Sometimes it takes a few weeks and many hours of working out our differences, but the result of the latest apportionment process shows that when all sides sit down and work together, we can arrive at a positive outcome for the people of Maine, said Senate Republican Leader Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner.

All told, the redistricting process covered districts for 151 House and 35 Senate seats, two congressional seats and county commission seats.

All told, more than 50,000 residents were affected in Kennebec County as the border separating the congressional districts was redrawn.

For the congressional districts, Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise that moved Augusta to the 2nd Congressional District while keeping Waterville in the 1st District.

Municipalities that shifted to the 2nd District were Chelsea, Farmingdale, Hallowell, Manchester, Readfield and Winthrop, while, Albion, Benton, Clinton, Litchfield and West Gardiner moved to the 1st District.

The process moved along quickly.

The deadlines for redistricting were supposed to be in August, but the Maine Supreme Judicial Court provided extra time to complete the work because the census numbers were delayed.
DETROIT (AP)  A man addicted to the Michigan Lottery was sentenced to more than four years in prison Wednesday for a scheme that cost investors more than $23 million.

Viktor Gjonaj of Troy told people that he was plowing their money into real estate deals. Instead, he was playing the Daily 3 and Daily 4 games  more than $1 million a week by 2019.
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  A constant barrage of misinformation has Idaho health care workers facing increased animosity from some patients and community members, officials say. It's gotten so bad in northern Idaho that some Kootenai Health employees are scared to go to the grocery store if they haven't changed out of their scrubs, said hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt on Tuesday.

Some doctors and nurses at the Coeur d'Alene hospital have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who don't believe COVID-19 is real, Bobbitt said. Others have been the subject of hurtful rumors spread by people angry about the pandemic.

Our health care workers are almost feeling like Vietnam veterans, scared to go into the community after a shift, Bobbitt said.

Similar instances are happening across the state, said Brian Whitlock, president of the Idaho Hospital Association.

We've had reports of physical violence, verbal abuse, demands for alternative treatment that are not acceptable or approved. And those become very difficult conversations to have as the patient continues to decompensate," Whitlock said. Were not frustrated with the misinformed. Were frustrated with those who propagate the misinformation because its costing people their lives."

Misinformation remains rampant in Idaho. Some far-right state lawmakers, political organizations and local leaders  including a pathologist who was recently appointed to the public health board for the state's most populated region  have been dismissive of COVID-19 vaccines, pushed the use of an anti-parasitic drug to treat coronavirus despite potentially harmful side effects and little evidence it helps, and wrongly claimed that coronavirus case numbers are being inflated.

Meanwhile, the entire state entered crisis standards of care earlier this month, authorizing health care rationing for hospitals overwhelmed by a flood of COVID-19 patients. On Sept. 25, the state hit new records with 757 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including 202 in intensive care unit beds and 131 on ventilators.

It's something that we worry about every day, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said.

The agency works to debunk coronavirus-related misinformation through weekly briefings, social media and through meetings with other agencies and organizations, he said.

He added: We have people that are needlessly suffering in hospitals and being sick, and frankly we have people dying because of misinformation thats out there.

It all leads to hostility against health care providers, said Susie Keller, the CEO of the Idaho Medical Association.

Misinformation is causing people to not get vaccinated, and then when they get very sick, misinformation is increasing animosity toward health care providers because they believe lies about what is the proper treatment for COVID, Keller said. I've heard some of our physicians say, they're not mad at the patients, they're angry at the folks who are spreading the misinformation  those folks absolutely bear responsibility for the deaths and disability we're seeing.

Medical facilities have expressed a growing concern about safety as hostility against health care workers continues to increase, Idaho Division of Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and other state agencies like the Idaho State Police have plans in place to help boost security at hospitals if necessary, Shaw-Tulloch said.

Some health care facilities have already beefed up security measures on their own. Kootenai Health recently increased security at its medical clinics because patients were becoming belligerent with staffers when they were asked to wear masks, said chief of staff Dr. Robert Scoggins.

We also have an increased security presence around the hospital campus, especially during protests, Scoggins said. I mean, we had a protest outside the hospital against masks and vaccines a couple of weeks ago that the patients that were dying of COVID inside could see. I think that was awful.

COVID-19 case numbers are expected to continue to increase in the near future, as is the number of hospitalized patients, according to projections used by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The state could see as many as 1,900 hospitalizations in a single week by late November, said deputy state epidemiologist Dr. Kathryn Turner, and deaths could peak at 305 in a week.

Turning the tide is possible, said Scoggins, "but it's going to take people being able to change their minds and change their deep-seated beliefs that are based on a lot of misinformation."

It's not fun to wear a mask and avoid large groups and get vaccinated, but those measures work, Scoggins said.

If instead of fighting against each other, everyone would follow the good science and the recommendations we have now, we wouldn't be where we are," Scoggins said. It's a tragedy that we have health care workers who are scared to go out in the community because they are accosted by these people who are holding onto these beliefs. Until you've walked into an ICU and watched somebody suffocate to death from COVID, that's when you know it's real.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP)  Myron Dewey, a filmmaker and journalist who helped draw worldwide attention to the concerns of Native Americans fighting an oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, has died.

Dewey, a citizen of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, passed away Sunday when his car crashed in rural Nevada, the Nye County sheriff said. The 49-year-old had posted footage on Twitter a day earlier from a central Nevada military installation where he and other members of local tribes have long protested the proposed expansion of a U.S. Navy bombing range.

Dewey won acclaim for his live footage of the 2016 demonstrations over the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. His visuals of Native Americans being sprayed with water cannons in freezing weather were viewed by hundreds of thousands after appearing online and in the news.

He later co-directed the documentary Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock, which outlined the demonstrators motivations  to preserve the environment and fight for clean water.

Friends and relatives said they will remember Dewey for his commitment to advocating for Native Americans, for being a devoted friend and family member and for the authenticity of his work.

He was able to show a perspective and viewpoint that was simply being ignored because of the systemic oppression our people have encountered as long as weve been here, said Dewey's cousin Lance West. It was his story to tell, and only someone like him could share it in a manner that really spoke to us.

Dewey was among a group of Native journalists arrested during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests when he filmed employees of the company constructing the pipeline. The Morton County sheriff accused him of stalking private security workers using a drone video recorder, but prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges.

His footage from the fight's front lines was one episode in a long career of chronicling Indigenous and environmental issues throughout North America.

Dewey founded the media production company Digital Smoke Signals, which produced work about schools on reservation land in Nevada and about tribal land management practices in the Pacific Northwest.

In recent months, he participated in demonstrations against a proposed lithium mine near the Nevada-Oregon border and the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation. Environmentalists and local Native Americans oppose the project, saying it would desecrate land the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone consider sacred and have adverse environmental impacts on the region's residents.

Dewey, who primarily resided in Schurz, Nevada, on the Walker River Paiute Reservation, started his career as a wildland firefighter in Nevada. He also worked as a professor, teaching courses on film at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies and on digital media at Northwest Indian College in Washington state. He leaves behind a wife, Deborah Parker, five children and a nephew whom he considered a son.

His every breath was a fight for his people, Parker told Indian Country Today, noting Dewey also was passionate about sharing his experiences as a Native American boarding school survivor. He didnt want to be silent when others wanted him to be. He didnt want the atrocities to go unnoticed or unrecognized.

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Sam 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.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP)  The Navajo Nation on Tuesday reported 37 more COVID-19 cases, but no additional deaths for the second consecutive day.

The latest numbers pushed the tribes totals to 33,840 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago. The known death toll remains at 1,442.
ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP)  The small fiberglass boat had begun to take on water not long after the engine stopped working. Its six passengers started bailing it out, not knowing how long they could keep the sea at bay.

Waleed, a Tunisian man who, along with five others, was hoping to cross the Mediterranean for a better life in Europe, estimates they removed water from the boat for roughly five hours.

We were so desperate, he said.

Then, at first daylight on Sept. 20, the crew of a rescue vessel spotted them through binoculars. They saw Waleed and the others waving and directing a laser light at them.

The migrants were a few miles away from the Geo Barents, a rescue vessel operated by the charity Doctors Without Borders. It had been patrolling the Central Mediterranean off conflict-wracked Libya since earlier that month. A team from the charity, known by its French acronym MSF, was immediately dispatched.

They found six men: three Libyans, two Tunisians and a Moroccan. The group had embarked a day earlier from Libyas coastal town of Zawiya, a major launching point for migrants attempting the dangerous voyage. All six say they were fleeing difficult or threatening situations in Libya, where three of them had relocated years before due to economic troubles at home.

North African Arabs represent a large and seemingly growing proportion of the migrants who are trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean.

According to recent numbers published by Italys Interior Ministry, three of the top 10 countries of origin for migrants arriving in the country in 2021 were North African. Tunisians alone accounted for 29% of the migrants, followed by Egyptians with 9% and Moroccans with 3%.

Late on Monday, the newest influx to Italy came by sea when around 700 migrants crammed into a rusty fishing boat reached the Italian island of Lampedusa, located mid-way between Tunisia and the Italian mainland. Many appeared to be men from North Africa or the Middle East.

Their increasing numbers also point to precarious situations in their home countries, where government resources are strained by burgeoning youth populations. Many have already spent harrowing years inside Libya, once a destination for migrant labor because of its relative wealth.

Libyas descent into war and lawlessness over the past decade has made it a hub for African and Middle Eastern migrants fleeing war and poverty in their countries and hoping to reach Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

This month's sea crossing was Waleeds eighth attempt to reach Europe since 2013, he said. For the past 17 years, the 42-year-old father of two from the city of Tunis had worked as a chef in neighboring Libya. He described life there recently as nightmarish.

Any Libyan can beat you, insult you, take your savings, and you (as a foreigner) cant do anything, he said.

Waleed spoke to The Associated Press aboard the Geo Barents as he and other migrants waited for disembarkation at a port in the Italian town of Augusta, where they will first face quarantine for coronavirus and then processing, at which point they claim asylum.

Waleed's ship mates included another Tunisian, Kamal Mezali, who had worked as a sailor in Libya, and Mohamed, a 30-year-old Moroccan barber. Waleed and the barber asked to be identified only by their first names, to avoid endangering friends still in Zawiya.

Hailing from Moroccos ancient city of Fez, Mohamed arrived in Libya in March 2019 and settled in the western town of Sabratha. Last year, militias stormed his house and seized his passport and savings. Thats when he decided to leave.

His first attempt to cross the Mediterranean was in May 2020, but he was intercepted by the Libyan coast guard, which he said released him for a bribe upon returning to port. He was reluctant to try again, fearing he could drown.

His resolve came back when an enraged Libyan customer pulled a gun on him for allegedly failing to answer calls to set up a hair appointment. He was going to kill me, the migrant said. Libya isnt a place to live.

Mohamed got a spot on a small boat, just 4 meters (13 feet) in length. The six men had a 40-horsepower motor and a smaller 25-horsepower one as a spare.

First their main motor gave out, then the spare while they were still not far from Libya's coast. One of the Libyan passengers called a contact, who brought a replacement. But none of the motors were designed for such a lengthy trip, and a few hours later the third motor went quiet.

By the time the rescue crew reached them, they were nearly 40 nautical miles off the Libyan coast and the boat was low in the water. They had only one frayed life jacked on board.

According to the United Nations, over 1,100 migrants were reported dead or presumed dead off Libya this year, but that number is believed to be higher. Around 25,300 others have been intercepted and returned to Libyas shore since January. Thats more than double the number from 2020, when about 11,890 migrants were brought back. The spike comes after overall arrivals, but not deaths, declined during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Italy says that 44,778 migrants have arrived on its shores so far this year, double the amount from the first nine months of last year and roughly five times the number from 2019.

Mid- to late summer is typically a peak time for attempts on the Central Mediterranean route because of good weather. Rescues along this route have become routine during the warmer months.

In recent years, the European Union has partnered with Libyas coast guard to stem sea crossings. Rights groups say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of the sea, armed groups or confined in detention centers run by militias that are rife with abuses.

The other three passengers on the boat with Waleed, all Libyans in their 20s, said they risked their lives in the Mediterranean because of the deadly power wielded by militias in the country. Though not statistically a large number of migrants, Libyans have their share of horror stories.

When east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter launched his offensive on Tripoli in April 2019, militias in western Libya mobilized and recruited fighters to counter the attack. Mohammed, a 29-year-old engineer, spoke out against joining the fighting. He asked only to be identified by his first name for the safety of his family back in Libya.

Then he received death threats from militias. In March 2021, he said armed men opened fire at him while he was driving near Tripoli. He narrowly escaped with his life.

Earlier this month, a friend offered him a seat on the boat. He left behind a 19-month-old baby and a pregnant wife, deciding he'd rather die at sea than be killed at home.

And that's what he thought was going to happen when the group grew exhausted hauling water from the boat.

We all were tired and powerless, he said. We thought that this is the end.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  A judicial panel has recommended the creation of five additional federal judgeships in Oklahoma because of an increased caseload due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding crimes committed on tribal lands.

The Judicial Conference on Tuesday published the recommendation that Congress create three new judgeships in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, based in Muskogee, and two in the states Northern District, based in Tulsa.

In what is known as the McGirt decision, the Supreme Court ruled that only federal and tribal courts have jurisdiction over major crimes committed on tribal lands by or against Native Americans.

This (ruling) caused the number of criminal cases filed in the Eastern District of Oklahoma to jump more than 400 percent and the Northern District of Oklahoma to increase by nearly 200 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to the recommendation.

The Judicial Conference is the policy-making body for the federal court system and is chaired by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, who wants the McGirt decision overturned, has called the ruling the greatest issue facing the state.

Governor Stitt welcomes the federal governments acknowledgment that there is a public safety crisis in Oklahoma, but more judges does not solve the fundamental issue of McGirt," Stitt spokesperson Carly Atchison said in a statement.

The bottom line remains that Oklahoma has been stripped of one of the most basic functions of a state, which is the ability to enforce the rule of law, according to the statement.

State Attorney General John O'Connor, who has sought to overturn the McGirt ruling, declined comment.

The Judicial Conferences recommendation is a good one," Chickasaw Nation senior counsel Stephen Greetham said in a statement. "As Oklahomas criminal docket shifts to federal and tribal court, we appreciate our federal partners doing the analysis and advocating for the resources needed to implement the law."

Greetham said 1,234 cases have been filed in tribal court since the McGirt ruling, up from an average of 74 cases per year previously.
PHOENIX (AP)  A woman accused of shooting her two young children, killing one, inside their south Phoenix home said she was depressed and had intended to kill herself, according to court documents.

AZfamily.com, which obtained the documents, reported Wednesday that 24-year-old Esther Callejas told police she wanted to shoot herself but couldn't reload the gun. So, she ingested all of her prescribed anti-depressants.
MILAN (AP)  Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate said Wednesday that youth delegates meeting in Milan want to see immediate action from leaders at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland  not cheap, last-ditch grasps at supporting polluting fuels before getting down to business.

Nakate is among 400 activists invited to Italys financial capital for a three-day Youth4Climate meeting that will draft a document for the 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, which opens on Oct. 31.

If leaders and governments are going to talk about net zeroes or cutting emissions, halving emissions by 2030 or 2040 or 2050, that means it has to start now, Nakate told The Associated Press.

It doesnt mean, if we are going to do it by 2030, between now and 2030 lets open a coal power plant, you know, lets frack some gas, or let us construct an oil pipeline. That is not the real climate action that we want,'' she said. If you are to go net zero by 2030, it has to start now.''

Although the activists have traveled to Milan from 180 countries, Nakate said many have the feeling that their suggestions for the closing document that will be published Thursday are not welcome. She said the dynamic was concerning.

It really feels like everything has been decided for us,'' Nakate, a 24-year-old with a degree in business administration. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg similarly accused the organizers on Tuesday of bringing in cherry-picked delegates and pretending to listen.

But she said young people were speaking up, and had created their own working group on fossil fuels.

"Hopefully it's something they can accept,'' she said.

Nakate gave an emotional opening speech to the gathering on Tuesday, calling out leaders for failing to meet financial pledges and describing the devastating impact of climate change at home in Uganda. While she said she was overwhelmed by the support she has received after her speech, she rejected the media's tendency to dub leaders of the movement.

It's how people portray the climate movement,'' Nakate said. "It is not just one face or two faces. It's communities. It is people who are organizing in different countries. I think that is the true face of the climate movement. The people who are standing up for the planet and a better future.

In 2020, Nakate was cropped out of an Associated Press photo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The AP apologized and acknowledged mistakes in how it initially responded.

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised young environmental activists for challenging global leaders to make good on promises to curb emissions and insisted that political leaders make wise decisions to promote a culture of responsible sharing.

Francis thanked the activists for their dreams and good projects and encouraged them to form an educational alliance to help rebuild the fabric of humanity through care for the planet.

This vision is capable of challenging the adult world, for it reveals that you are prepared not only for action, but also for patient listening, constructive dialogue and mutual understanding, he said.

Francis has made care for our common home" of the Earth a hallmark of his papacy and devoted an entire encyclical to the issue in 2015. The Scottish bishops conference has said it expects Francis to attend the Glasgow climate summit, though the Vatican hasnt yet confirmed his presence.

It is time to take wise decisions so that we can make use of the many experiences gained in recent years, in order to make possible a culture of care, a culture of responsible sharing, Francis said in the message.

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Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate-change
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  A coalition of journalists is asking an Idaho judge to hold the state's lieutenant governor in contempt of court for refusing to turn over public documents despite the judge's order that she do so.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a Republican, was ordered more than a month ago to release the documents regarding her newly created Education Task Force, which was tasked with investigating alleged indoctrination in the state's public school system. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Press Club on behalf of several journalists who said McGeachin's office wrongly denied their public records requests for the material.

But McGeachin never released the public documents despite multiple attempts from the Idaho Press Club's attorney, Wendy Olson, to get McGeachin to comply, according to court documents filed Wednesday. McGeachin earlier filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider the case, but then never filed the supporting documentation required by the judge.

The Lieutenant Governor's motion is a further attempt to delay her obligations under the Idaho Public Records Act, to the detriment of open and transparent government and to the taxpayers whom she is sticking with the bill to mount her frivolous challenge, Olson wrote in in her motion to hold McGeachin in contempt.

McGeachin did not immediately respond to a voice mail and email from The Associated Press requesting comment.

The Idaho Press Club said in a prepared statement that it is truly unfortunate that the case reached the point where the organization had to file the contempt of court petition.

This case never should have reached the court to begin with, as the lieutenant governor clearly should have released the public records upon request, and her refusal to do so was a violation of the state of Idahos public records law, the organization wrote.

The press club noted that the Education Task Force's work is resulting in draft legislation, and that the documents the journalists sought  public feedback forms  could have a bearing on that legislation.

Without full disclosure of those records, the task force is operating in secrecy, formulating public policy outside the public view, which is exactly what Idahos public records and open meetings laws seek to prevent, the Idaho Press Club wrote.

The Idaho Press Club filed the lawsuit in July after several journalists  Audrey Dutton and Clark Corbin with the Idaho Capital Sun, Blake Jones with Idaho Education News and Hayat Norimine with the Idaho Statesman  said they were wrongly denied public documents including copies of the public feedback on the task force that McGeachins office had gathered.

McGeachins office responded to some of the requests well past the time limits set by state law, and denied many of the records under a variety of exemptions. Her office also told some of the journalists the records would cost hundreds of dollars for redactions.

Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler later said McGeachins attempts at withholding the documents from public view were baseless and frivolous and that some of the exemptions she cited  including one specific to hunting and fishing licenses  were so irrelevant that it appeared the lieutenant governor may have blindly selected them at random.

If public officials were required to disclose public records only to those, including media, they believe will support the governments actions, we will have shed the principals of our democracy and evolved into an autocratic state where criticism of public officials is not permitted, Hippler wrote in his ruling.

In a prepared statement after the ruling, McGeachin claimed the judges ruling could subject Idaho residents to harassment by forcing the release of their personal information, apparently referring to optional fields on her public feedback form that included spaces where people could include their names and contact information.

After months of fighting to protect your data, the court has ruled that our office must release personal information on thousands of Idahoans to the media, where it has the potential to be misused to harass Idahoans who speak out on controversial issues, she wrote.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  San Francisco's mayor named state Assemblymember David Chiu to the post of city attorney on Wednesday, an appointment made possible by a widening public corruption scandal that's engulfed the city of nearly 900,000 people.

Chiu, 51, will be the first Asian American to hold the position. He replaces longtime City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who was tapped by Mayor London Breed to head the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission after the federal government charged the previous general manager with accepting bribes.

It will be an honor to be able to use the power of the law to fight for justice on behalf of the people of San Francisco in this new capacity, Chiu said in a statement from the mayor's office announcing his appointment. "The San Francisco city attorney's office has been on the forefront of some of the most important legal battles in the country, and I look forward to continuing that legacy.

Chiu's appointment to municipal elective office opens up a state assembly seat representing the eastern portion of the city. Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for a special election to replace Chiu in Assembly District 17.

San Francisco City Hall is familiar to Chiu, a former civil rights lawyer, prosecutor and president of the Board of Supervisors. The son of Chinese immigrants, he grew up in Boston and earned undergraduate, master's and law degrees from Harvard University.

The city attorney's office provides legal services, including advice and defense, and pursues allegations of unfair competition within San Francisco. Herrera also proactively sued the Trump administration in areas of health care and immigration and investigated ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft over driver pay and benefits.

Chiu was first elected to the state Assembly in 2014 and there, he authored legislation on housing, homelessness, consumer protection and civil rights. He will need to run for office in June 2022.

Breed, Chiu and Herrera are all Democrats.

The job changes were made possible by a federal investigation announced in January 2020 charging the city's then-director of public works with fraud and lying to the FBI.

The long-running federal investigation into San Francisco corruption and a concurrent investigation by Herrera's office has led to the resignations of several department heads, including Mohammed Nuru in public works and Harlan Kelly at the water, power and sewer agency.
WASHINGTON (AP)  His government overhaul plans at stake, President Joe Biden appeared unable Wednesday night to swiftly strike agreement with two wavering Democratic senators trying to trim back his potentially historic $3.5 trillion measure that will collapse without their support.

With Republicans solidly opposed and no Democratic votes to spare, Biden canceled a trip to Chicago that was to focus on COVID-19 vaccinations so he could dig in for a full day of intense negotiations ahead of crucial votes. Aides made their way to Capitol Hill for talks, and late in the day supportive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Biden at the White House.

The risks were clear, but so was the potential reward as Biden and his party reach for a giant legislative accomplishment  promising a vast rewrite of the nations balance sheet with an ever-slim majority in Congress. His idea is to essentially raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy and use that money to expand government health care, education and other programs  an impact that would be felt in countless American lives.

We take it one step at a time, Pelosi, told reporters.

Attention is focused on Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, centrist Democrats. They share a concern that the overall size of Bidens plan is too big, but have infuriated colleagues by not making any counter-proposals public.

In a possibly ominous sign, Manchin sent out a fiery statement late Wednesday, decrying the broad spending as fiscal insanity and warning it would not get his vote without adjustments. I cannot  and will not  support trillions in spending or an all-or-nothing approach, he said.

Together, the two senators hold the keys to unlocking the stalemate over Bidens sweeping vision, the heart of his campaign pledges. While neither has said no to a deal, they have yet to signal yes  but they part ways on specifics, according to a person familiar with the private talks and granted anonymity to discuss them.

Manchin appears to have fewer questions about the revenue side of the equation  the higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy  than the spending plans and particular policies, especially those related to climate change that are important to his coal-centric state. He wants any expansion of aid programs to Americans to be based on income needs, not simply for everyone.

Though Sinema is less publicly open in her views, she focuses her questions on the menu of tax options, including the increased corporate rate that some in the business community argue could make the U.S. less competitive overseas and the individual rate that others warn could snare small business owners.

With Democrats' campaign promises on the line, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state said of Manchin, He needs to either give us an offer or this whole thing is not going to happen.

Pelosi suggested she might postpone Thursday's vote on a related $1 trillion public works measure that Manchin, Sinema and other centrists want but that progressives are threatening to defeat unless theres movement on Bidens broader package.

Thursday's vote has been seen as a pressure point on the senators and other centrist lawmakers to strike an agreement with Biden. But with Manchin and Sinema dug in, that seemed unlikely.

Both bills are must-pass priorities, according to a White House readout of the president's meeting with the congressional leaders.

At the same time, Congress is starting to resolve a more immediate crisis that arose after Republicans refused to approve legislation to keep the government funded past Thursdays fiscal yearend and raise the nations debt limit to avoid a dangerous default on borrowing.

Democrats are separating the government funding and debt ceiling vote into two bills, stripping out the more-heated debate over the debt limit for another day, closer to a separate October deadline.

The Senate is poised to vote Thursday to provide government funding to avoid a federal shutdown, keeping operations going temporarily to Dec. 3. The House is expected to quickly follow.

With Biden and his party stretching to achieve what would be a signature policy achievement, there is a strong sense that progress is being made on the big bill, said an administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The president is highly engaged, meeting separately with Manchin and Sinema at the White House this week and talking by phone with lawmakers shaping the package. He even showed up at Wednesday evening's annual congressional baseball game, a gesture of goodwill during the rare bipartisan event among lawmakers.

To reach accord, Democrats are poised to trim the huge Biden measures tax proposals and spending goals to reach an overall size Manchin and Sinema are demanding.

I think its pretty clear were in the middle of a negotiation and that everybodys going to have to give a little," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Psaki said members of Congress are not wallflowers but have a range of views. "We listen, we engage, we negotiate. But ultimately, there are strong viewpoints and what were working to do is get to an agreement.

Besides senators, Bidens problems with fellow Democrats also include a small number of centrist House Democrats who are also are bristling at the far-reaching scope of his domestic agenda, which would expand health care, education and climate change programs, all paid for by the higher tax rates.

Progressive lawmakers warn against cutting too much, saying they have already compromised enough, and threatening to withhold support for the companion $1 trillion public works measure that they say is too meager without Bidens bigger package assured.

But centrists warned off canceling Thursday's vote as a "breach of trust that would slow the momentum in moving forward in delivering the Biden agenda, said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Democrats.

Republicans are opposed to Bidens bigger vision, deriding the $3.5 trillion package as a slide toward socialism and government intrusion on Americans lives.

Biden insists the price tag actually will be zero because the expansion of government programs would be largely paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy  businesses earning more than $5 million a year, and individuals earning more than $400,000 a year, or $450,000 for couples.

The House did vote Wednesday to extend the debt limit through through Dec. 16, but its doubtful that Democratic bill will pass the Senate in the face of GOP opposition  shelving that debate for another day.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress it has until Oct. 18, when her department will likely exhaust all of its extraordinary measures being taken to avoid a default on the governments obligations.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
On Tuesday, the state of Florida sued the Biden administration over its border policies.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Mood filed the suit. It alleges that the Biden administration's catch-and-release policy is "illegal" and either a violation of federal immigration law or an abuse of authority.

The lawsuit also alleges that the policy hurts Florida because those released will arrive in Florida, harming the state and forcing it to "incur millions of dollars in expenses."

During a news conference on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed the situation at the border. He cited numerous arrests made by Florida law enforcement officers who were sent to assist officers at the border, and he talked about his visit there as well.

"I was able to see firsthand what was going on," DeSantis said. "It's very clear that open borders is the Biden Administration policy."

Referring to the Biden administration, DeSantis said, "They want a massive illegal migration into this country."

He said people entering the United States illegally are being transported to communities across the United States, including Florida.

The more than 200,000 encounters tallied along the Mexican border in August was four times more than in the same month a year ago.

DeSantis said it is unknown whether the people entering the United States illegally have criminal records.

"We bear the cost of most of this," DeSantis said. He went on to say, "we're entitled to know what's going on."



Attorney General Ashley Moody then spoke, talking about Florida suing the Biden administration.

"Criminal cartels are having a field day. I can assure you, their profits are skyrocketing," Moody said, in part, regarding activity at the border.

"Had the government  the federal government  just done its job, this would not have happened. They would not have been in that situation," DeSantis said.

The governor also signed an executive order titled the "Biden Border Crisis" which bars all state agencies from aiding illegal immigration.

He also hired former U.S. Attorney Larry Keefe, who resigned after President Joe Biden took office as the state's public safety czar to oversee immigration security.

"I would encourage the governor to focus on what is really affecting us right now," Democratic local Congressman Darren Soto said. "The governor, who visited the Texas-Mexico border in July, should be focusing on fighting the spread of COVID-19, and protecting the health of people in Florida."



U.S. Rep. Darren Soto agreed, stating: "Governor DeSantis's attention would be better placed, back in our own state rather than a thousand miles away at the U.S. southern border."



The attorney general previously filed a lawsuit to try and force the federal government to stop releasing what the state called "criminal aliens." That case is pending.
PORTAGE, Ind. (AP)  Preliminary tests indicate iron-contaminated wastewater that leaked from a northwestern Indiana steel plant into a Lake Michigan tributary presents no risk to public health, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

U.S. Steel Midwest idled the plant in Portage, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Chicago, as a precaution after it said a wastewater treatment facility experienced an upset condition that sent the rusty colored plume containing elevated levels of iron into the Burns Waterway on Sunday.
Advocates for a Missouri man scheduled to be put to death next week are urging Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency, citing his intellectual disability.

A rally was taking place Wednesday at the Capitol rotunda in Jefferson City in support of Ernest Johnson, 61, who was convicted of killing three people during a robbery at a Columbia convenience store in 1994. Advocates planned to deliver a petition with around 23,000 signatures, asking the Republican governor to halt the execution by lethal injection, scheduled for Tuesday evening at the prison in Bonne Terre.

A message seeking comment from Parson's spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

Johnson's advocates cite the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits executing intellectually disabled people.

Killing him would be unconstitutional, and morally and ethically wrong, said Lauren Sobchak, organizer for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, said Johnson deserves to be treated as a human being.

Johnsons attorney, Jeremy Weis, said Johnsons IQ has been tested nine times with an average score of 67. Weis said the IQ exams and other tests have shown that Johnson has significant deficits in intellectual functioning.

The Missouri Supreme Court in August refused to halt the execution on the basis of Johnson's intellectual disability, but Weis requested a rehearing. The court hasn't decided whether to reconsider the case.

If carried out, the execution would be the first in Missouri since convicted killer Walter Barton was put to death in May 2020.

Johnson was convicted of killing 46-year-old Mary Bratcher, 57-year-old Mable Scruggs and 58-year-old Fred Jones during a closing-time robbery of a Caseys General Store in Columbia in February 1994. Johnson wanted money to buy drugs, authorities said.

All three workers were beaten to death with a claw hammer. Bratcher also was stabbed at least 10 times with a screwdriver and Jones was shot in the face. He hid the bodies in a cooler.

Johnson was arrested after police found a bank bag, stolen money and store receipts at his home.

Johnson had previously asked that his execution be carried out by firing squad. His lawyers argued that Missouris lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, could trigger seizures. In 2008, Johnson had most, but not all, of a benign brain tumor removed, and a later MRI revealed that up to 20% of his brain tissue was also removed.

Missouri law does not authorize execution by firing squad.

Johnson has been sentenced to death three times.

He was already on death row in 2001 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the mentally ill was unconstitutionally cruel and a new sentencing hearing was ordered. Johnson was again sentenced to death in 2003. The Missouri Supreme Court tossed that sentence, too. In 2006, Johnson was sentenced to death a third time.
AP

TYLER, Texas (AP)  A defense attorney for a former nurse accused of killing four patients at an East Texas hospital in 2017 told jurors Tuesday that his client was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, while a prosecutor called him a serial killer who found the perfect place to hide.

William George Davis, 37, of Hallsville, is accused of injecting air into the arteries of four patients recovering from heart surgery at the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, killing John Lafferty, Ronald Clark, Christopher Greenway and Joseph Kalina. His capital murder trial in Tyler began Tuesday with a not-guilty plea.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Students at one of New Mexicos largest public universities will be disenrolled if they dont comply with a vaccine mandate or opt to get tested regularly.

The move is part of the University of New Mexicos policy for having all students inoculated, whether theyre taking classes in-person or online. New Mexico State University isnt going that far but disciplinary measures can include suspension.

Overall, about 70% of New Mexicans 18 and over are fully vaccinated, but getting beyond that percentage is proving to be an uphill battle since there still is reluctance among many people to get the shots.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is among those pushing federal officials to move ahead with vaccines for younger children. Some parents have raised concerns, saying more time is needed to determine the effects of the shots on young children.

The New Mexico senator joined fellow Democrats Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Alex Padilla of California in writing a letter urging Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock to work "as quickly as science allows to authorize safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12.

"Surging at alarming rates in every region of America, the delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across the country. This is a risk that requires immediate attention, the senators wrote, noting that more than 5.2 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. since the pandemic began.

In New Mexico, the latest data shows there have been nearly 40,500 pediatric cases overall with most of those involving kids ages 12-17. In the last week, about one quarter of the state's new cases have involved kids.

The data also shows cases are trending downward.

At the University of New Mexico, the mandatory vaccine deadline is Thursday for students and staff. The school will require those without proof of vaccination to get tested weekly. Those who don't comply with the mandates will be dropped from the rolls on or by Nov. 5.

The university also warned that disenrollment will result in termination of student employment, including graduate student contracts, and that scholarships, loans, grants or other financial aid may be affected.
SEATTLE (AP)  A federal jury in Seattle on Wednesday convicted a leader of a neo-Nazi campaign to threaten journalists and Jewish activists in three states.

The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Wednesday following a two-day trial before convicting 25-year-old Kaleb Cole of five felony charges, including conspiracy, mailing threatening communications and interfering with a federally protected activity. He could face a decade in prison when Judge John C. Coughenour sentences him in January.

Cole, most recently of Montgomery, Texas, was a leader of a hate group called Atomwaffen Division. He and four others were charged last year with having cyberstalked and sent Swastika-laden posters to journalists and employees of the Anti-Defamation League in Washington state, Arizona and Florida, telling them, You have been visited by your local Nazis, Your Actions have Consequences, and We are Watching.

The posters included images such as a hooded figure preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail at a house, and the words Death to Pigs"  the same message followers of Charles Manson scrawled in victims blood during a home invasion murder.

Cole has been on law enforcements radar since at least 2018, when he was stopped at U.S. Customs upon returning from a trip to Europe. Authorities searched his cell phone and found photos of him at various sites throughout Europe, displaying a white supremacist flag and performing the Nazi salute.

In 2019, Seattle police obtained an extreme risk protection order against him, seizing nine guns from his home. They said Cole had gone from espousing hate to now taking active steps or preparation for an impending race war.

Those steps including organizing paramilitary-style hate camps in Nevada and Washington, investigators said.

During the trial, victims testified about the impact of receiving the posters, the U.S. attorney's office said in a news release. Some temporarily left their homes and installed security systems; one bought a gun and took a firearms safety class; and another left her job as a journalist.

In his closing argument, assistant U.S. attorney Thomas Woods told the jury Cole was not simply sending a message of hate, he was sending a statement of terror.

Cole did not call any witnesses or testify on his own behalf. His attorney, Chris Black, argued that the posters did not constitute threats.

What we have here is a group of disillusioned young men who want to believe that they are engaged in some sort of propaganda war with journalists and organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, Black said. But they never engaged in violence. They never planned violence. And most importantly, they never intended to communicate an actual threat to commit violence.

His three co-defendants pleaded guilty and have already been sentenced, with the other leader of the conspiracy, Cameron Shea, receiving a three-year term after apologizing and saying, I cannot put into words the guilt that I feel about this fear and pain that I caused.

Johnny Roman Garza, of Queen Creek, Arizona, was sentenced to 16 months for affixing one of the posters on the bedroom window of a Jewish journalist.

Taylor Parker-Dipeppe, of Spring Hill, Florida, received no prison time for attempting to deliver a flier but leaving it at the wrong address. Parker-Dipeppe was severely abused by his father and stepfather and hid his transgender identity from his co-conspirators  the judge found that he had suffered enough.
JERUSALEM (AP)  A bus collided with two vehicles on a highway in northern Israel on Wednesday, leaving five people dead and dozens more injured, according to paramedics.

The bus crashed into a truck and a taxi carrying four passengers on a twisting mountain highway in northern Israel's upper Galilee region.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  West Virginia will end September with its deadliest monthly toll from the coronavirus pandemic as officials put a new spin  a 2016 deadly flood  on their exhaustive pleas for residents in one of the lowest vaccinated states to get their COVID-19 shots.

Weve got to act, Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday. "Thats all there is to it.

Justice and retired National Guard Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, who leads the states coronavirus task force, discussed the June 2016 flooding that killed 23 people statewide along with the destruction of countless homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Hoyer spent a great deal of time responding to what the National Weather Service labeled as a 1,000-year flood event. It was the worst in the county where Justice owns the Greenbrier resort.

At a news conference, Hoyer said that while a lot of work was done aimed at mitigating future floods, the same thinking and efforts must be made during the pandemic to avoid what could be far more COVID-19 deaths.

Based on 3,642 total deaths since March 2020, West Virginia is going through the equivalent of 158 2016 flood events, Hoyer said.

Weve got to get people educated and weve got to get vaccinated so that doesnt go up to 200 or 300, Hoyer said. "So West Virginia, please get educated on the value of the vaccine and get vaccinated."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Virginia had the nations lowest vaccination rate among the states per 100,000 population. And it also had the second-highest rate over the past week in cumulative virus cases per capita.

West Virginia hospitals continue to be stressed by the number of COVID-19 patients, including a record 298 in intensive care units.

And there have been 558 virus-related deaths this month alone. That's more than the previous four months combined.

September's toll includes 73 people, or 13% of the monthly total, who were considered breakthrough cases  those were vaccinated but suffered from underlying health conditions.

Justice highlighted the need both for unvaccinated people to get their shots and for those who already have them to consider getting a booster shot.

Were going to lose a bunch of more people, West Virginia. There's no question about that," Justice said. Absolutely, for them, for respect for them, I truly believe that all weve got, all we can possibly do to stop this is to get vaccinated.

___

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have introduced a plan to end elections for three state constitutional offices and let governors fill the positions.

State Sen. Roger Roth and state Rep. Shae Sortwell proposed an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would turn the state schools superintendent, treasurer and secretary of state into Cabinet positions, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday. The amendment also would make the treasurer the head of the state Department of Revenue, eliminating the agency secretary.

The schools superintendent runs the state Department of Public Instruction, which is responsible for overseeing K-12 schools, administering state aid to school districts and licensing teachers. The position is officially nonpartisan, but current Superintendent Jill Underly has support from Democrats and the state's largest teachers union.

Democrats Sarah Godlewski and Doug LaFollette currently serve as treasurer and secretary of state, respectively. Republicans have stripped those offices of almost all their duties over the last decade, however. The GOP tried to amend the constitution to eliminate the treasurers office, but voters chose to keep it in a statewide referendum in 2018.

Constitutional amendments must be passed during two consecutive legislative sessions and then in a statewide referendum.

Sortwell told the Journal Sentinel that he thinks the plan to make all three officers appointees will have a better chance to succeed because it would allow the governor to give the treasurer and secretary of state more duties.

We're not eliminating anything, Sortwell said. We're putting them under the governor so we can give them more responsibility and more accountability.

Aides to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu didn't immediately say whether they support the proposal.

DPI spokeswoman Abigail Swetz said voters should be involved in choosing Wisconsin's education leader. Godlewski, who is running for U.S. Senate, said Republicans should stop meddling with the constitution and pass meaningful polices such as making health care more affordable. LaFollette couldn't be reached for comment.
Eduardo Munoz Avarez/AP

Many people on social media, including one woman from Texas, are sending flower deliveries addressed to Gabby Petito at Brian Laundrie's family's home in North Port, Florida.

Stephanie Savage from Houston told WFAA, an ABC TV station in Dallas, she felt there needed to be a memorial at Laundrie's house, where Petito lived for roughly two years before departing on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend in June.
A Republican redistricting operative whose clandestine work helped drag Wisconsin into a legal morass last decade appears to now be on the payroll of the Texas Legislature as lawmakers work to redraw maps that will determine the distribution of political power for years to come.

The operative, Adam Foltz, was part of the team that helped craft Wisconsins legislative maps after Republicans took control of that state Legislature in 2010. Foltz played a key role in a tight-lipped and questionable redrawing process that shut out Democrats and drew the condemnation of federal judges who described it as needlessly secret, according to court records.

Foltz may now be playing a behind-the-scenes role in Texas. The Capitols internal staff directory, to which The Texas Tribune obtained access, shows Foltz is working for the House Redistricting Committee. His office and phone number in that directory match those of the committees staff office in the Capitol basement, but at least one Democrat on the committee said they had not been advised of his involvement. Foltz has not been a visible part of the committee's public facing work.

Though Foltz is assigned to the House Redistricting Committee, state employment records show that Foltz is actually on the payroll of the Texas Legislative Council, a nonpartisan state agency that supports the Legislature in drafting and analyzing proposed legislation  and manages the internal mapping tool lawmakers use to redraw political maps. During the redistricting process, the council also plays a crucial role in providing demographic and election results for lawmakers proposed maps.

Records show Foltz was hired by the agency under the title of legislative professional on May 17 at a $120,000 annual salary. But Kimberley Shields, the council's assistant executive director, said in an email that Foltz reports to state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican who chairs the redistricting committee.

"While Mr. Foltz is on the legislative council payroll, he is considered an employee of the House Redistricting Committee, and his hiring and duties are entirely within the purview of Chairman Hunter," Shields said in an email. "The council provides support on request to the house and senate in many situations, including occasionally covering the salary of a staff member. We don't have any other committee employees on our payroll."

Hunter did not respond to questions about Foltzs involvement in the mapping process.

The work of redistricting is never easy, but I am fully committed to a fair process and I look forward to working with my fellow members of this committee on the task at hand, Hunter said in a February statement when he was first appointed to chair the committee by House Speaker Dade Phelan.

A request for comment to the staff email assigned to Foltz also went unanswered. A spokesman for Phelan declined to comment and referred questions to Hunter.

Texas lawmakers are currently in session in Austin to redraw the states legislative and congressional maps to reflect a decades worth of population growth. The census showed people of color were behind 95% of the state's growth since 2010  about 4 million new residents  with Hispanics Texans responsible for half of that growth.

The redistricting process has always been complex and contentious in Texas, requiring repeated federal intervention to protect Hispanic and Black voters. In each of the last four redistricting cycles, either a federal court or the U.S. Department of Justice determined that Texas did not comply with federal protections for those voters. This years effort will mark the first time in decades that Texas lawmakers  Republicans are again in full control of the process  will be allowed to redraw maps without the federal supervision that prevented states with discriminatory track records from enacting new maps until they were reviewed to ensure they didnt pull back on the voting rights of people of color.

Foltzs involvement in Wisconsins 2011 redistricting was shrouded in controversy. He was hired as a staff member for the Speaker of the Assembly to help redraw the states maps following the 2010 census. Though he was an aide to the speaker, Foltz and another staffer worked out of a law firm that was also brought on to help with the process.

He held meetings there under what a federal court called a cloak of secrecy with every Republican member of the State Assembly  but no Democrats  who were each required to sign confidentiality agreements that bound them from discussing what was said. Despite Republican efforts to keep them secret, documents released during the litigation over the maps Foltz helped draw showed that he was also asked to help witnesses prepare their public testimony in support of them.

A federal court that considered the states maps eventually found violations of the Voting Rights Act in two assembly districts where map drawers improperly diluted the vote of Latinos. In that ruling, the court said the drafting of the maps was needlessly secret, regrettably excluding input from the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin citizens.

As the case dragged on over legal squabbles over emails Republicans had not initially turned over, the court criticized the secretive process in which Foltz was involved while he worked on the maps from the offices of the private law firm.

"Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt  albeit poorly disguised  to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin's Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege, the court said in a 2012 ruling. What could have  indeed should have  been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny."
Congressional Democrats are scrambling to stave off a potential government shutdown before Thursday's midnight deadline.

On Monday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill extending the federal budget into December after ongoing partisan fights over increasing the federal borrowing limit.

By Tuesday evening, Senate leaders were circulating a revamped federal spending bill without the provision contested by Republicans that lifts the cap on how much the federal government can borrow. According to Politico, that bill may face a vote in the Senate as early as Wednesday.

If lawmakers on Capitol Hill fail to compromise on a government spending bill on time, federal agency offices in Texas will close and thousands of employees will be furloughed without pay.

What happens to Texas?



If Congress fails to reach a deal to fund the government, federal agencies in Texas will cease operations, and any nonessential Texas federal employees will be furloughed from their roles without pay.

With over 35,000 federal employees in 22 federal agencies in Texas who may face furloughs, Texas is third only to California and the District of Columbia as areas most affected by a shutdown, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Federal services classified as essential to public safety or security, including the National Security Agency and Department of Justice, will stay in operation. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, border protection, hospital medical care, air traffic control, law enforcement and power grid maintenance have been classified as essential services in previous shutdowns.

However, nonessential federal agencies like the U.S. National Park Service and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will close or limit visitor services. This includes museums, historical sites and parks, including Big Bend National Park and the Johnson Space Center.

With limited staff, nonessential government procedures could stall until funding resumes. Applications for home or small-business loans, passport processing and visa applications could all face delays should a shutdown occur. Depending on the shutdown length, federal assistance like food stamps and Social Security checks could also be impeded.

Following the most recent shutdown in December of 2018, President Donald Trump signed a bill guaranteeing automatic back pay to federal employees once operations resume. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the 35-day shutdown  the longest in U.S. history  cost the U.S. economy around $3 billion.

COVID-19 response



Although funding lapses are an annual concern in Washington during appropriations season, a government shutdown during a global pandemic would be unprecedented.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported it would likely furlough 43% of its staff but noted that the departments COVID-19 response efforts and direct public health measures would generally proceed under the departments readiness plan.

This means the Food and Drug Administration will continue to operate as it relates to COVID-19, including drug authorizations, medical and drug shortages, and misconduct investigations. The National Institutes of Health will continue to support COVID-19 vaccine-related activities including drug trials and research and development.

The shutdown threat comes during a time when the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus continues to spread rampantly throughout Texas, with 4 million confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases as of Monday.

Last week, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters the Biden administration is "taking every step we can to mitigate the impacts of a potential shutdown on our pandemic response, economic recovery or other priorities."

While the U.S. Office of Management and Budget told all federal agencies to prepare for a shutdown last Thursday, the office emphasized this was a standard notification procedure.

Will this happen?



With Democrats dropping their demand to raise the debt ceiling in a standalone continuing resolution, its possible a shutdown will be averted. However, this will punt the problem of the national debt to later this year.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said last week that while he expects Congress will find a solution to keep the government open, the debt ceiling debate will be an ongoing fight on both sides of the aisle.

"Congress has an obligation to file an appropriation bill and pass one that will keep the lights on here in the Congress. And I have every confidence we will do so. But in the meantime, there's going to be quite a bit of drama associated with the debt ceiling, which is a separate issue," Cornyn said.

Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, indicated in an interview with Politico his intent to filibuster any attempt to raise the federal borrowing limit. He added that Democrats would prefer to have the safety net of bipartisan passage rather than pass the provision through budget reconciliation.

"Democrats have the full ability to raise the debt ceiling as a part of reconciliation," Cruz said. "They want political cover."

Unless a solution is found to expand the federal borrowing limit by mid-October, the government may end up defaulting on its loans.

The shutdown threat is the latest in a series of congressional standoffs in Washington. The Senate is also facing a vote on $1.2 trillion infrastructure legislation while negotiations continue over a $3.5 trillion bill that includes the majority of the Biden administrations budget proposals.

Correction, Sept. 29, 2021: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Food and Drug Administration. It is not the Federal Drug Administration.

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Deported from the USA. Can I come to Canada? A U.S. deportation will likely affect your ability to enter Canada.

Deported from the USA. Can I come to Canada? A U.S. deportation will likely affect your ability to enter Canada.

Deported from the USA. Can I come to Canada? A U.S. deportation will likely affect your ability to enter Canada. Matt Hendler Michael Schwartz Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada and the United States share security information at all ports of entry. This can include criminal and immigration records, even from long ago.

This means that when a person tries to enter Canada from the United States, Canadian border agents have access to all prior U.S. removal or deportation orders. Essentially, if you have been previously deported from the United States, Canadian officials will knowand know whyand may deny you entry to Canada.

Contact a criminality expert at the Law Firm of Campbell Cohen

A record of being deported from the USAor any other countrycan negatively impact all Canadian immigration applications. This is the case whether you want to come to Canada to work, study, or live. Both temporary and permanent stays are affected including those to work, study or reside. For this reason, it is important to understand how a removal order from the U.S. and other countries can affect your ability to enter Canada.

The American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency reports that in 2020, it conducted over 103,000 administrative arrests. In that same period, it also removed over 185,000 people from the United States. Many of those who have been deported show interest in Canada as a new place to settle. Before doing so, it is important to understand the steps to take to ensure you can enter Canada freely.

Are you looking for a way to overcome inadmissibility to Canada because of a foreign deportation?

If you have been deported from the US or another foreign country, you are considered criminally inadmissible to Canada.

To overcome this status, you will require permanent clearance from a Canadian consulate by applying for criminal rehabilitation. This is a status the Canadian government can provide in order to resolve inadmissibility. It lasts permanentlyas long as the person does not re-offendand allows indefinite travel in and out of Canada.

Eligibility will depend on things like how the kind of crime and sentence imposed and how much time as passed since sentence completion. Being criminally rehabilitated can ease any worry about being turned away at the border.

If you were deported from the U.S. because of a criminal conviction, and if it has been more than five years since completing your sentence, you are likely eligible to apply for Canadian criminal rehabilitation. This application is handled by a Canadian consulate. The process is quite thorough, as you must prove that you are posing no risk to Canada or its citizens.

The most important consideration in criminal rehabilitation is establishing the equivalent offence in Canada. For example, Canada considers some criminal acts as less severe, whereas it treats others as serious criminality. Any crime for which the maximum sentence is ten years or more is considered a serious crime. As of 2018, driving under the influence (DUI) carries with it a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. This means that since that point, a DUI conviction is considered serious criminality.

If a criminal record translates to serious criminality, a traveler will face further issues. These include additional scrutiny, longer processing times, and higher application costs ($1,000 CAD) from the Canadian government. The processing fee for non-serious criminality is $200 CAD. Once the application has been prepared and submitted, the standard processing time is approximately 12 months.

Contact a criminality expert at the Law Firm of Campbell Cohen

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Discover your Canadian immigration options at CanadaVisa.com.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has big plans for the future. To keep all of the upcoming Marvel movies straight, we've laid out the next few years' worth of Marvel Studios films in this feature, which will take you through all of the official titles announced for Phase 4 and Phase 5  as well as the unscheduled superhero movies that are currently in development.

The Eternals  November 5, 2021

When it comes to the cosmic side of Marvel Comics, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have only scratched the surface so far. Sure, we've seen a few Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and Captain Marvel opened some new doors, but there are thousands upon thousands of beings out in the cosmos that have yet to make their live-action debut. The Eternals is a tremendous step in that direction, as there is a whole world of godly characters created by Jack Kirby that should make for tremendous exploration on the big screen, and we will get an excellent dose of all that when the project is released in 2021.

Chloe Zhao was previously in the running to take the helm of the Black Widow movie, and while she didn't get that job, Marvel Studios decided they wanted her to stick around to make The Eternals. The comics tell the story of a race of beings created from proto-humans by god-like aliens known as Celestials, and it's been said that romance will be at the center of the intergalactic story. The project is putting together an excellent ensemble with Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Gemma Chan as Sersei, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman a.k.a. Black Knight,and Angelina Jolie as Thena.

Spider-Man: No Way Home  December 17, 2021

Being technically classified as "Sony movies," the Spider-Man films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have always been a different beast in the grand scope of the franchise  and it's because of this strangeness that the upcoming sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home nearly fell apart in its early days. Following the release of the webhead solo movie in summer 2019, Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures had a contract dispute, and as a result it looked like Spidey's future in the Avengers world was over. Fortunately, however, the issues were resolved, and now the blockbuster is back on track to be released in December 2021.

Jon Watts, who directed both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, is back in the director's chair for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Tom Holland and Zendaya are confirmed to return as Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man and MJ, respectively. Currently there are no plot details available, but the film is expected to pick up where the last one ended, featuring the titular hero trying to survive in a world where everyone knows his secret identity and blames him for a terrorist attack in London. Additionally, it looks like the film will be having a bit of fun with the multiverse and feature characters from the pre-MCU Spider-Man movies, such as Jamie Foxx's Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Alfred Molina's Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness  March 25, 2022

As they have since pretty much the beginning, Marvel's plans moving forward will include mixing things up between sequels and original projects. After all, while the latter allow things to constantly feel fresh and new, the former lets us see a lot more of the characters we've previously fallen in love with. This most definitely extends to Doctor Strange, as Marvel President Kevin Feige confirmed to CinemaBlend in summer 2018 that a Doctor Strange 2 was in development, and now we know that project is taking form as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.

The project is set to be the fourth release of Phase Four, and while it was initially confirmed in late 2018 that Scott Derrickson will be back to direct, the filmmaker and the studio parted ways amicably due to creative differences. In February 2020, it was reported that Sam Raimi had entered talks to direct the blockbuster. It has not yet been said who will serve as the main antagonist of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, but we have learned that the film will see Benedict Cumberbatch's Master Of The Mystic Arts teaming with a very interesting hero in a key supporting role: Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch. What's more, the story is going to be directly linked to the events that play out in the WandaVision Disney+ series. Both Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor will be back to play Wong and Karl Mordo, respectively, and Miss America Chavez will make her live-action debut played by Xochitl Gomez.

Thor: Love And Thunder  May 6, 2022

For the longest time it was assumed that Marvel Studios wouldn't expand their solo movie series beyond three features  with Iron Man and Captain America being the perfect examples  but the God of Thunder has struck down that "rule" with a blast of lightning. It's no secret that Chris Hemsworth doesn't really love the first two Thor films, but his experience making Thor: Ragnarok totally changed his perspective on playing the character, and now we will be getting a Thor 4 in 2022 with the brilliant title Thor: Love And Thunder.

Certainly one of the most compelling reasons for Marvel Studios to make this film is that they have struck a deal with the perfect filmmaker to do it. Taika Waititi, who helmed the critically-acclaimed Thor: Ragnarok, has signed on the dotted line, and is now set to come back to direct the next chapter in the series. It's been confirmed that the story will pick up after the events of Avengers: Endgame and find Chris Hemsworth's eponymous hero searching for a new purpose. He will also be joined by some amazing co-stars, as Tessa Thompson will officially come back as Valkyrie (who will be ruling as the King of Asgard), and the movie is also going to feature the epic return of Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, who is going to be transformed into The Mighty Thor in the movie. Its been confirmed that Christian Bale will be playing the central antagonist, Gorr the God Butcher, but it is unknown at present how he fits into the plot.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - July 8, 2022

In August 2020, people around the globe were rocked by the news that Chadwick Boseman had past. The actor had been dealing with a cancer diagnosis for four years, and while he was able to maintain it as a secret while making big blockbusters like Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, he passed away at the age of 43 before having a chance to start working on the developing Black Panther 2.

Where this leaves the upcoming blockbuster is unclear. Ryan Coogler has signed on to take the helm of Black Panther 2, and is also writing the script. There are expectations that the film will see the return of Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, and Martin Freeman, but nothing has been confirmed.

The Marvels  November 11, 2022

Given that Captain Marvel was Marvel Studios' first billion dollar hit in 2019, Captain Marvel 2 has long been predictable as a future project for the franchise, but similar to Black Panther 2 it doesn't look like the company is rushing things at all. While it probably wouldn't have surprised anybody to see Brie Larson's Carol Danvers showing up again as the star of one of the first Phase 4 movies, it turns out we'll have to wait until 2022 before the heroine returns in her next solo adventure.

The first release date for Captain Marvel 2 was made official as during Disney's Investor Day in December 2020 when Marvel Studios shuffled their schedule, and it has been revealed that Nia DaCosta (Little Woods, Candyman) will be taking the helm. Story details have not been confirmed, but we have learned that Teyonah Parris will play Monica Rambeau as an adult (something she'll first do in the Disney+ series WandaVision), and it's been confirmed that Iman Vellani, star of Disney+'s Ms. Marvel series, will have a supporting role in the blockbuster as well.

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania  February 17, 2023

The future of the Ant-Man And The Wasp series was maintained as a mystery for a surprisingly long time. The two characters weren't mentioned at all during the presentations at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and D23 Expo 2019, and there was no clear indication that the second sequel was something that Marvel Studios was interested in pursuing. Fortunately, that conversation changed in a big way in April 2020, as it was finally revealed that the follow-up to Ant-Man And The Wasp is in the works.

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is all set to be released in February 2023, the first Marvel Studios release of that year, and it's starting to turn its gears. Peyton Reed, who helmed Ant-Man and Ant-Man And The Wasp, will be back in the director's chair, and Rick and Morty writer and co-producer Jeff Loveness has come aboard to write the script. We will see the return of Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly as the leads, with Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer once again playing Dr. Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, respectively. Jonathan Majors, star of The Last Black Man In San Francisco, Da 5 Bloods, and Lovecraft Country will be coming aboard to play the villainous Kang The Conquerer, and Kathryn Newton will now play the role of Cassie Lang.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3  May 5, 2023

The road to making Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 has been an odd one so far. Initially it looked like the film was going to be one of the earliest titles released as part of Marvel Phase 4, but then all hell broke loose when James Gunn lost the directing gig thanks to offensive Tweets he wrote nearly a decade ago. After that whole ordeal the filmmaker decided to make a move over to the DC Extended Universe  agreeing to script and helm the upcoming The Suicide Squad  but now everything appears to be mostly back on track, as Gunn has been reinstated and is once again set to make the conclusion to his Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy.

James Gunn has always said that the next sequel in the Guardians franchise will bring an end to the story of THIS version of the Guardians team, which includes Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff). It's not entirely clear how the tale will be concluded, and the project was been pushed back until after Gunn can complete work on The Suicide Squad, but to say that our excitement is at maximum about the project's latest developments would be an understatement.

Fantastic Four

Now that the Disney-Fox merger is complete, it's only a matter of time before we finally get to see the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Fantastic Four  though those hoping that a new version of the team would fittingly debut as part of the franchise's Phase 4 plans were left disappointed by the slate news that was dropped at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. While Marvel's First Family was name-dropped by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, no concrete details about their developing next feature were offered. Since then, however, we have seen some forward motion.

During the aforementioned Disney Investor Day in December 2020 it was revealed that Jon Watts, director of the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, has come aboard to direct the reboot of Fantastic Four. We still don't have any clue as to how the franchise will approach the legendary characters, let alone who will be playing them, but you can be sure they are details we are hungry to see revealed.

X-Men

The X-Men franchise that existed for nearly two decades has ended, and fans worldwide are over-the-top excited for their chance to finally see the legendary mutant characters make their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The hitch is that introducing mutants to the expansive franchise is no small undertaking... so Marvel Studios is playing things smart by not rushing things.

Like with the Fantastic Four, Kevin Feige name-dropped "the mutants" during the Marvel Studios Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, but he didn't offer any actual information regarding when we'll get to see them. There's a good chance it won't happen before 2025.

Blade

Most of the projects announced by Marvel Studios during San Diego Comic-Con 2019 were ones that fans were already vaguely aware of, but this is one that took everybody by surprise. The company has held the rights to Blade for a number of years now, but it was only during the annual summer event that they announced that they are finally doing something with it. And what's more, the project has already lined up a star.

While we currently have no idea when he'll actually make his big screen debut, two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali will soon be playing Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This news may come as a bit of a surprise to those who are fans of the Marvel Netflix shows, as Ali notably played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of Luke Cage, but we'll all just have to put that in the back of our minds while watching him hunting vampires. Basam Tariq has come aboard to direct the film, extending the franchise's track record of giving young, talented filmmakers their first opportunity to make a blockbuster.

Captain America 4

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a new Captain America, and soon he will be at the center of his very own movie. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) first bequeathed his star-spangled shield to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) at the end of Avengers: Endgame, but it was only through the course of events that play out in the Disney+ series The Falcon And The Winter Soldier that Sam has finally come to terms with taking on the mantle. Wearing a whole new Vibranium costume that still allows him to fly, his next adventure will see him soaring into theaters in Captain America 4.

Malcolm Spellman, who was the Head Writer on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, is penning the script for Captain America 4, and Anthony Mackie finalized his deal to star in August 2021. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the movie will actually be about (plot-wise or theme-wise), there is no director attached, and Marvel Studios has yet to officially give it a release date. It is clearly a priority for the franchise, however, so hopefully it won't be too long before more information becomes available.

Deadpool 3

While nothing has been confirmed, there is a lot of expectation that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will eventually recast the vast majority of mutant characters who have appeared in the existing X-Men movies. If that does happen, however, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool will be an exception. The higher-ups at Marvel and Disney have acknowledged the incredible popularity of the Merc With The Mouth, and have assured fans not only that Reynolds will be brought back, but that Deadpool 3 is a project in active development.

There are a lot of lingering questions about how exactly Deadpool 3 will fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including ones about the R-rating and whether or not it will maintain established canon, but we unfortunately don't have any answers at the present moment. Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux, filmmakers best known for their work on Bob's Burgers and The Great North, have come aboard to write the script, but we still don't know when the movie will actually go into production.

And that covers all of the upcoming Marvel movies lined up for the future. Now let's take a look back at the previous phases of the MCU...

Iron Man (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Thor (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Avengers (2012)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Ant-Man (2015)

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Doctor Strange (2016)

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Black Panther (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018)

Captain Marvel (2019)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Black Widow (2021)

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)

Read our definitive ranking of every Marvel movies in the MCU ranked. And see how to watch the Marvel movies in order chronologically.
This past June, Hong Kong police raided the newsroom of Apple Daily, a widely-read newspaper that has campaigned for democracy and against the Chinese government. They froze millions worth of assets and arrested its senior editors on charges of foreign collusion. Days later, the paper closed. Hong Kong media now resembles that of mainland China, where news outlets act like mouthpieces for the government.

But even with mainstream media falling under varying degrees of government control, a handful of independent outlets remain that set Hong Kong apart from China, informing the public and covering political changes with a critical eye. Conversations with a dozen media workers at three outletsStand News, Citizen News, and HK Featurerevealed complex strategies to stay afloat, difficult political and journalistic calculations, and a determination to see their reporting through. These independent outlets, Ronson Chan, the chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, says, can be uprooted at any moment.

Stand News, where Chan is a senior editor, gained most of its 1.7 million Facebook followers while covering the 2019 protests. It received a flood of financial support tied to its past coverage and expanded from around a dozen staffers when it began in 2014 to more than sixty now. It provides a platform for outspoken commentators ousted by their former employers and pursues potentially-fraught stories, including how government officials violated pandemic rules, tracking the cases of protesters convicted in the aftermath of the unrest, or investigations into law enforcement. While we still can, we tell our stories of Hong Kong, resisting the forgetfulness, remembering Hong Kongs resilience and preserving our adamantine spirit of freedom, Stand News wrote in May.

The same month that Apple Daily closed, it shelved past commentaries and asked most of its directors to resign. It also suspended monthly donations from readersthe outlet has enough money to support itself for up to a year, and its funds can go to waste if the companys assets are frozen by authorities. It started paying its staff at the beginning of each month, instead of the end, to avoid a situation in which its thousands of employees could lose their severance pay.

Readers fear that the days of Stand News are numbered, but the possibility of an imminent shutdown has only driven its employees to work harder. Chan hands out assignments in the morning, oversees copies in the evening, and appears on talk shows at night. He also drives reporters around to help their investigations. It is never a question of legality, he says. It is not about what we write or report on, it is a matter of when they want to arrest us and whats the give and take for the regime.

Across the city, Citizen News, a digital newsroom founded by a group of veteran journalists in 2017, has become, in the words of its reporters, a refugee camp. Some of the citys sharpest journalists quietly joined the outlet for its editorial independence, while hiding their bylines to avoid unwanted attention. Citizen News has taken on journalists from Apple Daily and the neutered public broadcaster RTHK, and the entire China desk from a TV network, i-Cable. This summer, it hired twenty-four interns, almost doubling its headcount, and launched a fundraising campaign to support the expense.

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Citizen News first set out to produce deep dives and features that would combat content farms and self-censorship in the local media landscape. Now, as mainstream publications fall in line with the regime, its also stepping up its daily news operation. We wont naively think theres no risk, but we also wont go to work thinking about it everyday, says Daisy Li, the founder and editor. Its pointless to deliberate over the red lines, as they are constantly moving.

As the crackdown shook up the industry, Citizen News stretched its financial resources to accommodate new staff, trusting that Hong Kong readers would subscribe. Hong Kong people learned a painful lesson from the social movement that they could no longer rely on the government or even their votes, Li says. They have to find their own ways to preserve and sustain what they treasure.

The number of subscribers has doubled as readers look for alternatives in the absence of Apple Daily. The outlets China desk reproduces their half-hour newscast and broadcasts it on YouTube, where it has cultivated a steady following. But without the means to support a local bureau in Beijing or Guangzhou, it is unable to report from the ground. Instead it takes advantage of their unique position to follow up on leads that authorities ban its Chinese counterparts from pursuing.

HK Feature, a small outlet even by the standards of independent media, has only six hundred subscribers and three full-time reporters. But by leveraging its network of citizen journalists and freelancers, it expanded its coverage.

Its founder, Kwan Chun-hoi, who was formerly an investigative journalist at Apple Daily, is worried about a piece of national security legislation, Article 23, which Hong Kongs chief secretary has vowed to implement as soon as possible. It spells doom for the press, says Kwan, as news content could potentially be framed as incitement.

So unlike others who embrace the uncertainties, Kwan actively tries to manage the risks and outsmart the authorities. He does not stop reporters from pursuing stories that are deemed politically sensitive, but he places them behind the paywall to limit their circulation. Instead of expanding their operation, he chooses to keep a low profile. So whatever happens to me, says Kwan, others can still keep going.

The veteran journalist ploughed more than $77,000, the bulk of his life-savings, into HK Feature at the height of the protests in July 2019 with an ambitious goal in mind: not only is it a platform for experienced reporters to publish their work, it would also prepare citizen journalists to support the future of the industry.

HK Feature works with about two dozen citizen journalists, including students and photographers. Kwan teaches an intensive course in journalism and provides a platform to publish their works.

Kwan doesnt keep up the pretense that the media can function how it used to. We used to proclaim ourselves as the fourth estate, monitoring the government, he says. I dare not say that now. Just last month, he was forced to drop an investigative story after the Hong Kong administration cracked down on journalistic access to vital reporting tools.

Kwan prioritizes preserving testimonies of the changes in Hong Kong over making an immediate impact. He disseminates articles in the form of PDF documents, or translating them into other languages and publishing abroad anything to avoid surveillance and put their work out of the reach of the authorities.

He wonders sometimes if he has been too idealistic. But he feels encouraged to see more people take up the responsibility of documenting newsworthy events, from high school teachers writing about the trial of their own students to residents exposing corruption in their communities. No one will speak out for you anymore, he says. It is up to you to stand up for yourself.

On the HK Feature website, links to digital wallets are next to writers bylines, allowing readers to fund them directly. Their revenue cannot fully cover the minimum expense of their news operation, so they rent out their office for exhibitions and screenings. When social distancing measures took out that option, they collaborated with local farms to sell fresh produce.

It is no longer possible to make a living solely through reporting, Kwan says. To carry on, journalism can only be part of your life, but not your livelihood.

Kathy Wong is one of three full-time reporters at HK Feature, who all came onboard fresh out of school. Just two years into her career, she can hardly see a future in the cratering industry and is exploring other alternatives that would enable her to report as a side hustle. We need to redefine journalists. How can I have my own profession that will allow me to keep reporting and not become out of touch with society? I am still searching for a path that will allow me to go further, Wong says.

The bleak forecast may be the reality for now, but it is only temporary, Kwan reminds me. Regimes rise and fall, he says, pointing to the press in Taiwan and South Korea which survived authoritarian rule, just as democracies have good days and bad ones.

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Rachel Cheung is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, World Politics Review and the Washington Post.
For many years, the term media capture was used primarily by economists and political scientists who wanted to understand societies that were Democratic on paper butin realityhad a captive media under soft control. Political scientist Alina Mungiu-Pippidi described media capture as an environment in which news media are controlled either directly by governments or by vested interests networked with politics.

When Columbia Universitys School of International Affairs held a conference on media capture in 2016, the term was not well known in the world of journalism; the first conference volume looked mostly at overseas occurrences. Since then, the problem has spread, and it faces countries all over the world, including the US. The decline of profitabilitya prevalent problem in the local journalism worldputs outlets and local communities in danger of political influence.

Professor Phil M. Napoli, professor of public policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, has done years of research on local newsrooms and the loss of quality local journalism. For Columbia University Presss new book Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News, Napoli wrote about the increased danger of media capture in US local news markets. Napoli spoke to CJRs Lauren Harris and the books editor, Anya Schiffrin, about the nature of local journalism in the US and the dangers of media capture. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

LH: In your work, how do you define local journalism?

PN: For us, it was trying to translate that concept into something that we could research: what are the most fundamental aspects of quality local journalism? First, its local: we really wanted to maintain a fairly strict geographic focus. So if were talking about analyzing the local journalism serving Morristown, New Jersey, were talking about content produced within and for the people of Morristown, New Jersey, not for the people in the next town over. We thought being very specific about what our unit of analysis was, and sticking to it, was very important. Quality local journalism is also original. Its actually being produced and not being recycled or rehashed. To get a sense of how much journalism is actually serving a community, you dont want to be double-counting: heres the same story, and it showed up on this outlet and that outlet and that. And then the last part is, does it actually address a critical information need? That can vary quite a bit from community to community, but there are some core things that we could agree on that communities need. It was a process of trying to turn the concept into something that we could measure quantitatively.

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LH: What sorts of outlets did you look at in your analysis?

PN: We wanted to be inclusive in terms of all the different types of outlets that could be producing local news these days: television, radio, online only, print. When we developed our list of outlets that we were analyzing, that was the scope. We did have to make a concession, which was that for each outlet, we analyzed their homepage under the assumptionand the data bear that outthat whether youre television, radio, or whatever, the odds are that you have an online presence thats a viable window into how much and what type of local news youre producing. In a perfect world, we wouldnt do it that way. But if you want to analyze local TV newscasts from a year ago, its really hard to get a hold of that sort of thing. Radio, forget it! Its really interesting how ethereal so much of our journalism actually is. Local newspapers are the most robustly archived local resource out there.

LH: How do you approach the idea of news quality from a data-driven perspective?

PN: When you see the term quality used, it is often used without a whole lot of precision. We tried to avoid that word. Its so loaded, and so subjective, and so complex, and that really bumps right up against the challenge we were facing, which is to try to do this work at scale, to reanalyze lots and lots of content across so many outlets. And to do that, you inevitably have to take a complex concept and make it simple. So in terms of how to code this from a measurement standpoint, we relied on three dimensions: Is it local? Is it original? And does it address the critical information needs? And as people have pointed out, the notion of quality can mean so much more beyond that. What we did was take a fairly superficial stab at what we might mean by this notion of quality. I think these all should be considered core components, but we werent comprehensive.

LH: When you were trying to measure the quality of local journalism in the US, what did you find?

PN: When we analyzed at the community level, a relatively small percentage of the journalism thats being produced by local news sources met our baseline definition of what quality local journalism is. It was an indicator of some of the realities about the economics of journalism. Journalism produced for larger audiences is fundamentally more economically appealing than journalism produced for smaller audiences. Information that specifically serves the needs of small communities and doesnt have a broader appeal is a difficult thing to justify economically. There just arent economies of scale to be found in truly local journalism. As journalism tries to achieve economies of scale, it gets more regional, national, and something important gets lost.

We did a study very recently, where we looked at the rise of some of these hyper-partisan local news networks that are emerging around the country. And that was another kick in the pants. What types of new sources might be emerging to fill the gaps left by the old? How much or how little of what theyre producing is original or local? That provided some sort of renewed urgency to these questions.

AS: How much of a problem is media capture in the US local news market?

PN: I think we are on the cusp of this becoming a significant problem at the local level. As a number of recent reports have indicated, there is an emerging form of local news outlet that is filling the void left by the decline of traditional local news sources, that is operating under a very different model of journalism. This includes taking payment from political party operatives to produce stories designed to have a very specific political outcome.

AS: Do you see local outlets controlled by business interests tied to government, or is the problem different from that? What is different about US capture compared to other countries?

PN: What were seeing locally is the rise of networks of local outlets controlled by wealthy political party activists seeking to use these outlets as part of larger regional or national election strategies. This is something weve been studying recently. Something important that differentiates the situation in the U.S. from many other countries is the extent to which we have operated under a predominantly commercial model of journalism, in which our public service media sector has stayed quite under-developed. This has meant that the bottom has dropped out of local journalism in the U.S. to a comparatively greater degree, leaving news organizations more vulnerable to capture, and, as noted above, creating a vacuum that can be filled by news organizations that are more directly oriented toward trying to influence election outcomes in specific ways.

AS: In your chapter you talk about your research on local news and you examine the number of media outlets and media workers in each state, compared to the total population. Is this similar to the idea of news deserts? What does this kind of research tell us?

PN: Yes, this is similar to the idea of news deserts, though to really identify news deserts, you need to analyze at a more granular level than the individual states. Were actually working on a replication of that research that looks not only at the state level, but at the county level. At both levels, this kind of research is useful for identifying areas in need of some kind of intervention. So, for instance, Report for America has used our state-level analysis to help them to decide where to station reporters. Were partnering with them for the county level analysis as well, and that should be much more helpful to them.

AS: How do the false right-wing websites masquerading as local news outlets fit into your analysis? Are they included and do they skew the data? Or is their staff located in New York or somewhere else?

PN: Weve just published our first deep dive into these types of outlets. These outlets appeared only sporadically in the commercial database that served as the basis for the analysis in our chapter; though the reality, as our recent study shows, is that these outlets contribute very little in terms of actual news workers serving these communities. As our analysis shows, very few of the journalists working for these outlets are based in the communities that they are purportedly covering. Indeed, the bulk of the stories generated by these outlets are produced by algorithms, not reporters.

The Journalism Crisis Project aims to train our focus on the present crisis, and to foster a conversation about what comes next. We hope youll join us. (Click to subscribe!)

EXPLORE THE TOW CENTERS COVID-19 CUTBACK TRACKER: Over the past year, researchers at the Tow Center have collected reports of a wide range of cutbacks amid the pandemic. Theres an interactive map and searchable database. You can find it here.

Below, more on recent local news trends and changes in newsrooms:

WHERE DARKNESS SURROUNDS VIOLENCE: For CJRs newest magazine issue, Brendan Fitzgerald reported on the intersection of rising domestic terrorism and declining local news. Too often, local domestic terrorism goes undercovered or is covered poorly by national outlets that dont understand the local dynamics on the ground. Its not an easy subject to cover, Chris Ingalls, an investigative reporter at KING 5, Seattles NBC affiliate, told Fitzgerald. It takes some digging, and there just arent enough people with shovels.

For CJRs newest magazine issue, Brendan Fitzgerald reported on the intersection of rising domestic terrorism and declining local news. Too often, local domestic terrorism goes undercovered or is covered poorly by national outlets that dont understand the local dynamics on the ground. Its not an easy subject to cover, Chris Ingalls, an investigative reporter at KING 5, Seattles NBC affiliate, told Fitzgerald. It takes some digging, and there just arent enough people with shovels. NEWSGUILD FILES CHARGES AGAINST GANNETT: The NewsGuild of New York has filed unfair labor practices charges against Gannett, Axios reported yesterday. Union members across Gannetts papers alleged that company management attempted to undermine unionization efforts through threats to pay increases, resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and a refusal to reinstate 401(k) matches after freezing them amid the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

The NewsGuild of New York has filed unfair labor practices charges against Gannett, Axios reported yesterday. Union members across Gannetts papers alleged that company management attempted to undermine unionization efforts through threats to pay increases, resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and a refusal to reinstate 401(k) matches after freezing them amid the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. CHERRYROAD MEDIA ACQUIRES TWENTY GANNETT PAPERS: CherryRoad Media, a subsidiary of a New Jersey-based technology company, has acquired twenty newspapers from Gannett in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, Editor and Publisher reported. CherryRoad purchased its first newspaper, Minnesotas Cook County News-Herald, in 2020 in addition to acquiring five more newspapers and launching one prior to its most recent purchase.

CherryRoad Media, a subsidiary of a New Jersey-based technology company, has acquired twenty newspapers from Gannett in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri, reported. CherryRoad purchased its first newspaper, Minnesotas in 2020 in addition to acquiring five more newspapers and launching one prior to its most recent purchase. AXIOS LAUNCHES LOCAL NEWSLETTER NETWORK: Digiday reported on Axioss foray into the local news market; the media company hired twenty reporters and three associate editors to launch newsletters in eight cities this fall. Each city in the network is assigned a two-person team of reporters based in the city theyre covering. Revenues come from both local advertisers and national advertisers who want to target a specific local market. Some industry leaders worry that Axioss model might divert resources or attention from other local outlets that have much larger staffs and are providing important accountability journalism, whereas Axios can really only skim the surface, as Dan Kennedy, journalism professor at Northeastern University, told Digiday.

Digiday reported on Axioss foray into the local news market; the media company hired twenty reporters and three associate editors to launch newsletters in eight cities this fall. Each city in the network is assigned a two-person team of reporters based in the city theyre covering. Revenues come from both local advertisers and national advertisers who want to target a specific local market. Some industry leaders worry that Axioss model might divert resources or attention from other local outlets that have much larger staffs and are providing important accountability journalism, whereas Axios can really only skim the surface, as Dan Kennedy, journalism professor at Northeastern University, told Digiday. AS LOCAL NEWS DISAPPEARS, CORPORATE MISCONDUCT INCREASES: A study recently published in the Journal of Financial Economics found increased corporate misconduct in local communities in the three years following the closure of their local newspaper, PressGazette reported. Local accountability reporting plays a significant role in limiting employment discrimination, labor violations, and securities fraud, the paper suggests.

A study recently published in the Journal of Financial Economics found increased corporate misconduct in local communities in the three years following the closure of their local newspaper, reported. Local accountability reporting plays a significant role in limiting employment discrimination, labor violations, and securities fraud, the paper suggests. THE MISSISSIPPI FREE PRESS SEEKS SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH INCLUSION: The Mississippi Free Press, a nonprofit outlet launched early in March of 2020 to cover the pandemic, hopes to achieve 501(c)(3) status and secure sustainable funding to continue its coverage long into the future by reporting for underserved communities, Nieman Lab reported. I think your donor base reflects your team and also reflects your coverage. If I dont see you covering me, thats not a news source for me, publisher Kimberly Griffin told Sarah Scire.

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Anya Schiffrin and Lauren Harris
Two weeks ago, political journalists undertook a familiar ritual: obtaining another journalists forthcoming book and reporting on the contents. Neither the books authors (the veteran reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa), subject matter (the dangerous final days of the Trump presidency), nor key characters (including General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff) were new to this ritualWoodward wrote two prior tomes about the Trump White House, in 2018 and 2020; top reporters from the Post and the Wall Street Journal (and Michael Wolff) published books on the Trump endgame over the summer, with Milley often featuring prominentlyand all have reliably driven media buzz. This time, CNN was first to report Woodward and Costas claim that, in the days after the insurrection at the Capitol, Milley single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, fearing that Trump might go rogue. Sure enough, the detailsnot least a call in which Milley supposedly reassured a Chinese counterpart that hed give advance warning of any hypothetical US attackoccasioned feverish punditry across the political spectrum. Many liberals gasped at just how close we came. Trump and his boosters accused Milley of treason. (Deep state isnt strong enough, Tucker Carlson said.)

Amid the fallout, a defense official told Politico that the books description appeared to have grossly mischaracterized the China call, which they said was routine and authorized. (Woodward and Costa stood by their reporting, and their books full account of the call turned out to be less extraordinary than the selective quote suggested.) Milley publicly made a similar point, but said he would save his fuller explanation for Congress, where hed soon be appearing before committees probing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan; yesterday, he went to the Senate and fulfilled his promise, dedicating a portion of his opening statement to the recent issues in the media and defending himself against the charge that he exceeded his authority. The rest of the hearing was mostly about Afghanistan, but various Republican senators returned to the topic of the book. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, asked Milley to state for the record whether hed spoken to its authors and to the other Post and Journal reporters whose books came out over the summer; Milley confirmed that hed cooperated in each case. Rick Scott, of Florida, asked Milley whether he had leaked private conversations with Trump; Milley denied this, but acknowledged that he does often speak to the media, including under the cover of anonymity, in the interests of transparency. Trump supporters in the room made hay with these answers. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, said that Milleys priority of making sure that you were favorably portrayed by the DC press corps had distracted him from the situation in Afghanistan. After the hearing, Blackburn accused Milley of making himself a hero in the media instead of a hero to the men in his command. And Trump himself weighed in, of course: Milley, he said, is not a soldier or general, but a public relations agent.

From the magazine: What we want to discard from political journalism

Others defended Milley, pointing out that politicians in Washingtonnot least Republican senatorsspeak to the press all the time. This is true. But as the Trump books have cascaded, Trump fans arent the only ones to have expressed reservations about Milleys apparentand now confirmedcooperation. Jonathan Swan, of Axios, has reported that even some of Milleys friends are cringing over his extensive and high-profile scenes in these books; Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank, told the AP that Milley seems to have taken a more active approach to trying to shape his image that has not served him well.

Amid the concern for Milley, there have been concerns, too, for the impact of his narrative on the accuracy of the historical record. Milley has kind of been presenting himself as the savior of democracy, Slates Fred Kaplan noted. He did some admirable things, and these things were not outside the chain of commandbut it wasnt just him. Writing after one of the books quoted Milley as saying that Trumps Reichstag moment would not succeed because were the guys with the guns, the New Republics Alex Shephard warned that his account should be taken with a grain of salt, since becoming a primary source for reporters in exchange for reputation launderingparticularly useful after serving a chaotic and lawless administrationis one of the oldest tricks in Washington. Milley, perhaps, has more incentive to salvage his reputation than most officials who worked under Trumphe is still in-post under Biden, and has been at pains to stress his independence from Trumpworld ever since he walked, in combat uniform, at Trumps side as the former president did a photo op with a Bible after racial-justice protesters were gassed outside the White House. Shortly after that incident, Milley cut a video calling his involvement a mistake. More recently, he pushed back, during a hearing, against Republican attacks on critical race theory.

Another way to launder ones reputation in Washington, of course, is to cut out reporters and write a book yourselfthough reporters, of course, always end up involved in this process, too. Yesterday, many journalists salivated over nuggets, reported by the Post and the New York Times, from a new tell-all by Stephanie Grisham, who, as Trumps press secretary, told very little: she failed to hold a single formal briefing for these journalists or their colleagues. (The book is called Ill Take Your Questions Now, because of course it is.) The anecdotes ranged from the serious (sexual harassment in the White House) to the not-so-much (the calming influence on Trump of the song Memory, from Cats), though they were uniformly damning of the former president. As with Milley, Trump and those in his orbit lined up to savage Grishams honor. Stephanie didnt have what it takes, Trump said, and now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things. Peter Navarro, who was a trade adviser to Trump, argued that if Maggie Haberman was pimping Grishams account then it must be BS. The Timess story on the book was written by Katie Rogers, not Haberman.

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Again, though, one neednt have a pro-Trump agenda to question Grishams credibilityshe served for nearly the entire span of the Trump administration, working mostly for Melania Trump before finally resigning after the insurrection, and her no-show as press secretary should speak for itself. The Post and Times stories mentioned her failure to hold a briefing, and the coda of the latter story quoted Grishams admission, in her book, that she should have spoken up more. Still, the Grisham discourse Ive seen has generally cast her as a valuable frontline witness to Trumps character, without much interrogation of her own character and motivations for only speaking up now. This isnt to say that her account is inherently unreliable or lacking in value. But we ought to view the important bits as leads to follow, not just juicy gossip.

The cases of Grisham and Milley are very different, but some similar points apply to coverage of the latter, and more urgently so, given that he still holds an extremely powerful position. His actions during the Trump endgame may very well have been highly necessary and appropriate; in any case, he has much to say and a right to say it. But we should be careful not to let his account trickle unchallenged into a wider media narrative casting him as the last line of defense against fascism in America, with tales of his brave acts asserted as fact, rather than attributed to him. Interrogating Milleys intentionsand past actionsis not to indulge bad-faith Trumpian attacks; quite the opposite. A key storyline of the Trump era has been the complicity of others in his abusesthe exact sort of people, in fact, who are now savaging Milley and Grisham on Trumps behalf. But Milley and Grisham were there, too. Sometimes, in our desperation to hear damning stories about Trump personally, we seem to forget to ask what the storytellers did.

Last year, John Bolton, Trumps former national security adviser, came out with a book of his own in which he excoriated the former president. Bolton, of course, has a questionable foreign-policy record that long predates Trumpin the book itself, he said Trumps most irrational act to that point had been his failure to bomb Iranyet as he promoted the book, journalists (with some noble exceptions) mostly asked him about Trumps threat to America. Last night, Bolton went on CNN and defended Milley against Republican senators attacks on his dealings with the media. Everybody in Washington talks to reporters, as you well know, Bolton told Wolf Blitzer. Milley could have felt that there was history at stake here with these authors writing these books. And he wanted to make sure that his version of it was out there.

Below, more on Milley, Grisham, and Trumpworld:

Gone with the Vind: After the details from the Woodward and Costa book became public, Trump fans werent the only people to question whether Milley had stepped beyond his rightful authority; some liberals did, too. Writing for the Post, Alexander Vindman, a former military official who testified against Trump as part of his first impeachment, argued that while Milley had justifiably deep concerns on multiple occasions regarding an unhinged and increasingly erratic president, Milley could have resigned and publicized his concerns rather than seek to circumvent or subvert the chain of command. He added that, if we want institutional guardrails rather than relying on a constant supply of individual saviors, we should hold our leaders accountable.

After the details from the Woodward and Costa book became public, Trump fans werent the only people to question whether Milley had stepped beyond his rightful authority; some liberals did, too. Writing for the Post, Alexander Vindman, a former military official who testified against Trump as part of his first impeachment, argued that while Milley had justifiably deep concerns on multiple occasions regarding an unhinged and increasingly erratic president, Milley could have resigned and publicized his concerns rather than seek to circumvent or subvert the chain of command. He added that, if we want institutional guardrails rather than relying on a constant supply of individual saviors, we should hold our leaders accountable. Holding our leaders accountable: Last month, after the US military fired a drone at a vehicle that it said posed an imminent terror threat to Kabuls airport as the US finalized its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Milley described it as a righteous strikebut reporters from the Times, the Post, and other outlets soon reported that the strike killed ten civilians, none of whom were terrorists and seven of whom were children. Milley eventually acknowledged that he had spoken too soon, calling the strike a horrible tragedy of war. Senators asked about the strike at the hearing yesterday, and the Times pegged a related video investigation to the top of its homepage, just below its live coverage of the hearing. The investigation found that a supposed ISIS safe house that Zemari Ahmadi, the target of the strike, had visited was actually the home of an aid worker and his family.

Last month, after the US military fired a drone at a vehicle that it said posed an imminent terror threat to Kabuls airport as the US finalized its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Milley described it as a righteous strikebut reporters from the Times, the Post, and other outlets soon reported that the strike killed ten civilians, none of whom were terrorists and seven of whom were children. Milley eventually acknowledged that he had spoken too soon, calling the strike a horrible tragedy of war. Senators asked about the strike at the hearing yesterday, and the Times pegged a related video investigation to the top of its homepage, just below its live coverage of the hearing. The investigation found that a supposed ISIS safe house that Zemari Ahmadi, the target of the strike, had visited was actually the home of an aid worker and his family. Pushback: Not every political journalist jumped on the Grisham bandwagon yesterday. She couldnt do her job when she had it, the Posts Dave Weigel remarked. Why would I want to read her tell-all? Ryan Bort, of Rolling Stone, covered the books claims under the headline Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity, but concluded that Grisham is clearly using the book to distance herself from Trumps actions, and that the time she spent publicly defending the former president remains a fact that no amount of salacious gossip or details about his tyrannical behavior offered up to the media will ever change.

Not every political journalist jumped on the Grisham bandwagon yesterday. She couldnt do her job when she had it, the Posts Dave Weigel remarked. Why would I want to read her tell-all? Ryan Bort, of Rolling Stone, covered the books claims under the headline Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity, but concluded that Grisham is clearly using the book to distance herself from Trumps actions, and that the time she spent publicly defending the former president remains a fact that no amount of salacious gossip or details about his tyrannical behavior offered up to the media will ever change. The ghost of tell-alls past: In 2018, Trumps presidential campaign filed a case against Omarosa Manigault Newman, an Apprentice candidate turned Trump aide, for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement after she published her own scathing book about the administration. On Monday, the arbitrator in the case finally handed down a ruling in Manigault Newmans favor, concluding that the terms of the NDA were so vague as to be meaningless, and that Trump had tried to cast expressions of unflattering opinions as confidential information. Haberman, of the Times, has more.



Other notable stories:

From the magazine: Our Damned Trump Fixation

Update: This post has been updated to clarify the nature of the Trump campaigns case against Omarosa Manigault Newman.

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
The redevelopment of the historic Jung Hotel and Residences in downtown New Orleans flooded four times before renovations were complete.

The two insurers that issued a builders risk policy for the project thought they had limited their risk, but a decision Friday by a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals may cost them more than $12 million.

The 5th Circuit reversed a district courts ruling that no coverage was owed because the flood deductible was more than the amount of damages claimed. The appellate panel ruled that because the policy was ambiguous, the trial court must determine whether extrinsic evidence resolves the ambiguity. It also directed the district court to decide whether the usual presumption that coverage is owed when a policy is ambiguous should apply in the case.

We set no limits on what proceedings the district court should conduct on remand, and we do not mean to intimate what decisions it should reach, the opinion says.

Starr Surplus Lines Co. and Lexington Insurance Co. in 2015 sold a builders risk policy to McDonnel Group, the general contractor hired to renovate the Jung Hotel and Residences on Canal Street. The hotel was built in 1908 as a ten-story structure and then expanded with an 18-story addition in 1925. The hotel was listed on the Register of Historic Places, but had been a vacant eyesore for much of the past 30 years.

Heavy rains caused flooding on the construction site four times: on March 10, April 21, July 22 and Aug. 5, 2017. McDonnel filed a notice of loss to the insurers claiming damages of $3,226,164.30.

Our owner invested $145 million in this property in an effort to show his enthusiasm and commitment to the city of New Orleans and rejuvenating this end of Canal Street, and yet this area continues to flood, general manager Mark Wilson told Fox8 News in July 2017. He said summer rains dumped a foot and a half of water in the hotel lobby.

Starr and Lexington denied the developers claims. The insurers say a flood deductible in the policy requires coverage only when damages exceed 5% of the total insured values. The policy valued the project at $86,086,833. The building was 80% complete at the time of the flood, so the value at the time of the loss was $68,860,506, the insurers contended.

The insurers argued the deductible was 5% of that amount, or $3,443,475, so the damages were not great enough to trigger coverage.

McDonnel, Mechanical Construction co., Jung L.L.C and All Star Electric  each which were insured by the policy, filed separate lawsuits. They said the deductible was $500,000.

The policy language that limited coverage to 5% of the insured value should be interpreted to mean 5% of the flood insurance obtained, the plaintiffs argue. They say Starr and Lexington should have paid $2,726,164.30  the amount of damage less 5% of the amount insured.

When the insurers refused to pay, all four companies filed lawsuits that seek coverage for more than the amount lost because of the insurers alleged bad faith. Jung, the hotel owner, claims damages of more than $12 million. McDonnel is seeking more than $5 million.

U.S. District Judge Greg Gerard Guidry, with the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, consolidated the four lawsuits. He found the policy was clear and unambiguous and granted partial summary judgment to the insurers on that point.The plaintiffs appealed.

The 5th Circuit panel said the flood deductible could be interpreted to mean what the insurers say it means, but also could be understood the way the plaintiffs read it.

The policy is ambiguous, the opinion says.

The panel said previous decisions have established that insurable values are something different than insured values. Insurance policies often limit risk according to insurable values, or the amount that could have been insured. McDonnels policy based the deductible on the insured value, which means total value for which the insured actually purchased coverage.

Typically, Louisiana courts presume that coverage is owned to a plaintiff when an insurance policy is ambiguous. But there is an exception to that maxim where the insured is a sophisticated commercial entity that itself drafts or utilizes its agents to secure desired policy provisions, the opinion says.

In those instances, the court can look to extrinsic evidence  meaning testimony or documents that are not a part of the insurance contract  to determine intent. The panel opinion says the plaintiffs and defendants both presented documents to support their interpretations, but the trial court never considered them because he found that the policy was clear and unambiguous.

The appellate panel directed the trial court to decide whether the presumption should apply. If he determines that the plaintiffs are sophisticated parties exempt from the presumption, he must examine the extrinsic evidence to decide who has the correct interpretation.

We are pleased with the Fifth Circuits ruling and look forward to returning to the trial court to try this matter, stated plaintiffs attorney James M. Garner, with Sher Garner Cahill Richter Klein & Hilbert, in an emailed statement.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30)  The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is relaunching a program aimed at bringing science and innovation closer to Filipinos.

The agency's magazine reality show "Siyensikat" has found a new home in CNN Philippines, after its launch in 2019. Officials from the department's Science and Technology Information Institute (DOST-STII) and CNN Philippines President Benjie Ramos signed the deal Wednesday afternoon.

"Siyensikat" helps "wishers" or citizens solve issues or concerns through science-based solutions and innovations created by DOST experts.

"In this new season, we expect more people to appreciate what science can do to concrete people who are our 'wishers' and how science can help them improve their lives. Or if it's a company, how they can improve their income potential," DOST-STII Director Richard Burgos told CNN Philippines.

Burgos said he believes the show's return will help sustain the growth of national awareness in science and technology (S&T). In a 2020 DOST survey, S&T awareness among Filipinos climbed to 23% in the last quarter - higher than 2019's 18%.

Burgos said the continued rise in awareness gives the agency hope that more Filipinos will better discover and appreciate S&T developments in the country.

"Siyensikat" will be co-hosted by DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Pena, and Jiego Reyes - who teaches and practices medical technology.

Reyes said the show gave him a wider perspective of how and what science can do to uplift people's lives. He added that he hopes "Siyensikat" will not only inform viewers, but also encourage them to try out S&T programs and innovations.

"Ang isa ko pang nakita sa show na ito, marami pong tao sa iba't ibang lugar ng Pilipinas na marami pong ideas na pwedeng makabago ng buhay nila mismo at buhay ng ibang tao," he told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: One of the things I learned through the show is that there are a lot of people in the Philippines with many ideas that can help change their lives and others' as well.]

"Siyensikat" premieres October 2nd, and will air every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on CNN Philippines.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  The Commission on Elections announced on Wednesday that it would reopen the voter registration period from Oct. 11 to 30.

Spokesperson James Jimenez said the Comelec en banc unanimously approved the extension. The voter registration will only be carried out on weekdays and on Oct. 30, which is a Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The voter registration will close on Sept. 30, but it will reopen after the period of filing of the certificates of candidacy, which will happen from Oct. 1 to 8.

"(This is because) we are very busy on accepting the various certificates of candidacy of the various candidates all over the country," Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Jimenez, however, said the poll body will unlikely open another period to extend the registration after Oct. 30.

"Right now, I dont really see that happening considering na mag-i-impact na talaga yan sa preparation," he said.

[Translation: Right now, I don't really see that happening considering that it will really impact our preparation.]

"Sabi nga ng chairman, when we discussed this with our field officials most of them really said no, mostly because in their areas, wala namang ganitong klaseng crowds," Jimenez related. "Dito talaga sa mga urban centers natin nakikita yung [crowds] ng tao."

[Translation: As the chairman said, when we discussed this with our field officials most of them really said no, mostly because in their areas, there are no such big crowds. We can only find these crowds in our urban centers.]

Comelec Director Elaiza David said in a government briefing that the extension might affect some pre-election preparations by the poll body, including the issuance of the list of registered voters and printing of ballots.

The registration period was limited because of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filipinos who are at least 18 years of age on May 9, 2022 flocked to registration sites and stood in line for hours to be eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, the registration for overseas voters was also extended for two weeks from Oct. 1 to 14.

Over 63.36 million Filipinos may vote in the May 2022 elections as of Sept.11, with over five million new registrants.

Jimenez advised the public to present their voter registration forms, along with their valid I.D., when heading to the designated Comelec registration centers.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  The country's COVID-19 death toll soared to 38,164 with 186 new fatalities on Wednesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.

The agency initially reported 190 fatalities, but later revised the number.

About an hour before DOH posted the day's bulletin, it also announced 292 additional deaths from backlogs caused by issues in the data repository COVIDKaya system.

"The relatively low cases today is due to lower laboratory output last Monday, September 27," said the DOH.

The department said testing output on September 27 was only 51,377 compared to the 70,134 average daily test results in the last seven days.

Out of the total number of cases, 5.2% or 132,339 are active or currently sick patients. At least 76.7% of active cases have mild symptoms, 16.4% are asymptomatic, 3.91% are in moderate condition, 2.1% have severe symptoms and 0.9% are in critical condition.

Recoveries rose to 2,365,229 or 93.3% of the case count after 12,236 more people got better.

The DOH said it reclassified 120 survivors into deaths after validation and deleted 38 duplicate cases, including 27 recoveries.

Data from one laboratory were excluded from the count due to failure to submit its report on time, the DOH added. The laboratory contributed an average of 0.2% of samples tested and 0.3% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

The positivity rate or percentage of tested people with positive results further dropped from 24.1% on September 26 to 22.9% based on 51,327 tests reported on September 27.

The rate needs to fall below 3% to show there is adequate testing, according to US nonprofit Covid Act Now. For the World Health Organization, the positivity rate should be under 5% to indicate that infection has been controlled.

The DOH also earlier on Wednesday said 633 more cases of COVID-19 variants of concern were found in the country, including 339 that were of the Delta variant. With the additional cases, there are now 3,366 Delta variant cases in the country.

Amid these developments, the national government also approved the vaccination of individuals aged 12-17 who have health risks. They will receive vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which were the only two brands given approval for inoculation of minors.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  President Rodrigo Duterte has certified the approval of next year's budget as urgent, the House of Representatives announced on Wednesday.

Duterte's letter calling for the immediate enactment of House Bill 10152 - or the 2022 General Appropriations Bill - was read during the House's plenary session.

Congress is still in the middle of deliberating the proposed 5.024-trillion national budget. The education sector is set to receive the highest initial allocation worth 773 billion. The Department of Health (DOH) was only allotted around 242 billion so far.

Among contentious provisions in the bill amid the COVID-19 pandemic include the 200 million for the Visayas Media Hub of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, and the 28-billion budget for the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict for its anti-insurgency campaign. Lawmakers also questioned the Tourism Department's 1.5-billion budget for Philippine tourism branding.

Meanwhile, the DOH is seeking an additional 49 billion to fund healthcare workers' benefits since the Department of Budget and Management had slashed the allocation for special risk allowances.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  A grenade was thrown at the ancestral home of House Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez in Cagayan de Oro early Wednesday but did not explode.

In a statement, the Rodriguez family denounced the attack, saying "justice will be served against all those responsible for the crime."

"Lives were put at risk in the grenade attack at the ancestral residence of the Rodriguez family in Barangay Nazareth in Cagayan de Oro City earlier today," they wrote. "We condemn in the strongest terms this act of violence perpetrated by unknown men."

The family said no one was hurt and that authorities are now investigating the incident.

In an interview with a local radio station, Rodriguez said the perpetrators were motorcycle-riding men who immediately sped off after hurling the grenade past 1 a.m.

While the motive has yet to be established, the congressman said it could possibly be election-related as he's considering running for city mayor in next year's polls.

The Commission on Human Rights also condemned the incident, which it called an act of cowardice and intimidation.

Although no one was injured, the Commission expresses alarm over the threat against the personal safety and security of an elected official and his family in the most despicable manner, CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said.

It added that it supports the Rodriguez family's call to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) suggests expanding the country's absentee voting law to allow frontliners to vote earlier in next year's polls.

"Nasa Constitution na isang araw lang ang botohan. Ang pwedeng magawang paraan diyan is yung absentee voting. Pwede sigurong palawigin 'yon or expand that para yung ating mga frontliner makaboto ng mas maaga," Namfrel National Council member Fernando Contreras, Jr. told CNN Philippines on Wednesday.

[Translation: The Constitution says elections can only be held for one day. What can be done is to expand absentee voting so frontliners can vote earlier.]

Currently, teachers, members of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines, members of the media, as well as Filipinos overseas who have registered to vote, are entitled to absentee voting.

"Sa aming palagay, maaaring gamitin yung mga exisiting resolutions to expand that, especially with the case of the pandemic. Kung paano natin ginawa yung rating ng pandemic, pwede natin gamitin yung absentee voting," he added.

[Translation: We believe we can use existing resolutions to expand that, especially with the case of the pandemic. We can use absentee voting similar to how ratings were used in the pandemic.]

Contreras said apart from frontliners, absentee voting could be expanded to include senior citizens who are at risk. But he pointed out that absentee voters cannot vote for candidates vying for local positions.

The Comelec earlier said the baseline plan is to open poll precincts early and close them later so people can still vote despite physical distancing protocols.

The poll watchdog also said it is looking for volunteers to monitor if elections start on time, to look out for any problems or security threats, and to secure e-copies of voter transmission records, among others.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  The Philippine government is monitoring the presence of about 150 Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea, the National Security Council (NSC) said Wednesday.

Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon - sponsor of the NSC's 2022 budget - provided details about the Chinese vessels during the plenary debates on next year's proposed 5.024-billion national budget.

"Kino-confirm po ng NSC na mayroon pa rin pong umaaligid na Chinese maritime vessels doing fishing operations, moving from one spot to another. At 'yun nga po 'yung binabantayan din ng counterparts dito sa Philippine side," he said.

[Translation: The NSC confirms there are still Chinese maritime vessels roaming, doing fishing operations, moving from one spot to another. Our counterparts are monitoring these.]

Pressed on the number of Chinese vessels currently in the disputed waters, Biazon said: "About 150 vessels, estimated."

Biazon added that the Chinese vessels are estimated to be between 30 and 50 meters long.

"Sa appearance nila mukhang civilian vessels kaya tinatawag na maritime militia. They look civilian but you know they have some strategic mission to do out there," he said.

[Translation: Based on their appearance they look like civilian vessels that's why they are called maritime militia.]

Biazon said the NSC has recommended that the Philippine government step up its patrolling of the West Philippine Sea amid increasing Chinese presence in the area.

He, however, added that this would require additional funds from Congress for the purchase of more vessels.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  New COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila continue to decline, but this is not the case for the regions coronavirus-related hospitalizations as they remain high, according to an OCTA researcher.

It may be around at least two to three weeks before we see a decrease in the number of hospital beds occupied in the NCR, especially ICU (intensive care units), OCTA Research fellow Guido David told CNN Philippines' New Day on Wednesday.

Healthcare utilization is still at high risk at the moment, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, David said the decrease in new infections can be attributed to strict lockdown, high vaccination coverage, compliance with health protocols, and the possible "seasonality" of COVID-19.

The downward trend started to happen around September 11 when we were still under MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine)," he explained.

"But we could say the alert level system has proven effective thus far," he added. "We haven't seen a spike in cases while it has been implemented.

NCR was placed under MECQ from Aug. 21 to Sept. 15 due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

Metro Manila is currently under an alert level system that focuses on granular lockdowns until Sept. 30.

David added the downward trend in cases was also observed in Calabarzon, Central Luzon, and Cebu.

However, he flagged the spike of infections in other provinces.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  Malacanang on Wednesday said it is not surprised that the country landed at the bottom of a COVID-19 resiliency report, blaming instead the challenge in accessing coronavirus shots.

"We are not surprised that the Philippines, together with other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam are at the bottom of the list while countries which topped the list are developed countries such as Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

The country is the lowest among 53 nations with a score of 40.2 in Bloomberg's latest COVID Resilience Ranking released on Tuesday. This is one spot down from its 52nd ranking in the previous report.

Other Southeast Asian countries - Indonesia (52.4), Thailand (47.6), Malaysia (44.1), and Vietnam (43.7) - rounded up the bottom five.

Reiterating President Rodrigo Duterte's call for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines before the United Nations, Roque said the country is in need of stable vaccine supply.

"Unfortunately, as President Rodrigo Roa Duterte articulated in the United Nations, rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles," he said. "The Philippines is a classic case in point, where inoculation is highly dependent on the availability and stability of vaccine supply."

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion echoed the sentiment, and said he doesn't think government is failing in its pandemic response.

"Of course, there are a lot of setbacks and if you look at the bottom, we are together with Thailand, Malaysia and the rest...what's important here is we are challenged by vaccine supply," Concepcion told CNN Philippines' The Final Word.

He said the country is also affected by delayed deliveries of vaccine manufacturers, but assured the public that supply is starting to come in now. And as volumes arrive, Concepcion said he hopes more local governments will be given additional supply to further boost immunization in the country.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) said there have been improvements in the government's pandemic response, particularly in the vaccination program.

"So sa ngayon pag tinignan natin, nag-improve naman tayo (Right now, we can see that we have improved). If you can see our vaccination coverage, it has tremendously improved," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.

The DOH said the country is expected to receive at least 114 million vaccine doses from October to December. It added that the government is eyeing to administer 800,000 to 1 million doses a day by next month.

So far, almost 44 million shots have already been administered - with 20 million Filipinos now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, this is still far from the target of at least 70 million to achieve herd immunity.

On Tuesday, the President approved the vaccination of the general population, including minors aged 12 to 17, starting next month.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 29)  Filipino and American troops resume their annual war games after it was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The annual military exercise "Kaagapay ng mga Mandirigma ng Dagat (KAMANDAG 5-21) opened on Tuesday at the Philippine Marine headquarters in Taguig, with a scaled-down lineup of activities and number of participants due to COVID-19 protocols.

"(Last year), we weren't able to conduct this kind of bilateral exercise. And now, look at us, we are doing this in a very low-key manner (because of the pandemic)," Philippine Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Ariel Caculitan said, addressing a hall with nearly empty tables and a crowd of about 30 people during the KAMANDAG opening ceremony.

In April, the annual Balikatan exercises also proceeded after Duterte repeatedly delayed his decision to end the VFA, and subsequently restored it months later.

For more than three decades, US and Philippine Marines have been holding large-scale bilateral exercises, focusing on counterterrorism and disaster relief response, until these were scaled back in 2017 upon the orders of Duterte.

Only about a dozen US Marines are now in Manila for the on-ground engagements. Before the pandemic, the US sent hundreds of servicemen to the war games.

Capt. Benjamin Royder of the US Marine Corps pointed out that while only a handful of them will be physically present, the bulk of participating troops would join remotely for tactical training drills from the US bases in Japan, including the one in Okinawa.

"The scope of the exercise remains large (and) significant, but it just looks different than it has in the past," Royder told journalists.

Japan, which has been joining the exercises in recent years as a third-party observer, also deployed 25 troops from the Japan Ground Self Defense Force this year to showcase their humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities.

Except for an activity on coastal defense in Cagayan Valleywhich involves operations on the use of shore-based, anti-ship missile and anti-air defense systemsall other training drills will be done virtually. This is a sharp contrast to the previous field training exercises in different parts of Luzon that involved thousands of troops and the use of live-fire artillery and heavy military equipment such as amphibious assault vehicles.

Despite the scale-down of activities and number of participants, canceling KAMANDAG for the second consecutive year is no longer an option for its organizers.

"We must be able to outmaneuver our enemies in the same way that we shall be able to maneuver this virus and still be able to continue to train because we have a big responsibility in terms of defense and security of our people and our nations," Caculitan said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30)  The country received another 391,950 doses of government-procured Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday night.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez welcomed the fresh supply, which arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport past 9 p.m.

Regions 3 and 4 will be prioritized in the vaccines' deployment, according to Galvez.

Galvez said 1.2 million doses from Moderna are also expected to arrive on Thursday.

For next month, some 15 million Pfizer doses and 5-7 million Moderna shots are expected, he added.

Meanwhile, Galvez said the vaccination of minors will be done in increments to ensure their safety.

"We are looking at the experience ng (of) other countries so that we will make sure it will be safe," he noted.

READ: PH to start COVID-19 vaccination for minors aged 12-17 with health risks

The pilot implementation will be done in several hospitals including the Philippine General Hospital, the Philippine Heart Center, and other children's hospitals.

The country has so far received over 70 million vaccine doses, procured and donated combined. More than 23 million individuals have already received their first dose while 20.8 million are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
(CNN)  Police in the Netherlands have arrested and released a former member of a far-right political party after Prime Minister Mark Rutte's security detail suspected him of behaving suspiciously, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Hague.

Arnoud Van Doorn, who once served as a senior political adviser for populist Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, was arrested by the Royal and Diplomatic Security Service on Sunday in The Hague, a spokesperson for the city's Public Prosecutor's Office told CNN.

The arrest comes amid reports from the Dutch media outlet De Telegraaf and Reuters that Rutte's security has been heightened following fears he may be the target of an attack or kidnapping by a criminal gang. CNN has not been able to independently confirm the reports.

Van Doorn was released on Monday but "remains a suspect," in connection with "trying to provide information to others to prepare a serious crime," according to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

"The man acted suspiciously so he was arrested and released later, and the investigation must show what exactly was going on," another spokesperson said in an emailed response to CNN, adding that the investigation has not yet been completed.

In a statement issued to CNN, Van Doorne's lawyer, Anis Boumanjal, dismissed the allegations, saying they are "devoid of reality" and "not supported by facts."

"The DKDB based the arrest on the fact that my client exhibited suspicious behavior but have otherwise left us in the dark as to what exactly is understood by said suspicious behaviour," the statement says.

It adds Van Doorn was in the same area as Rutte because his mother lives there and he visits the same cafe as the Prime Minister. He also apparently visited a fitness center the Prime Minister belongs to, inquiring about rates and operating hours, the attorney said.

CNN has reached out to the Prime Minister's office for comment.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Dutch police arrest and release former far-right party member amid reports of possible plan to attack Prime Minister."
This year our dine and drink business locations throughout the Gorge have suffered with closures. You can help support your favorites by purchasing take out and gift cards. Many of these business will offer curb-side delivery and some will deliver to your home. Lets keep the Gorge going strong!
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US' CDC raises travel advisory as cases in Singapore jump to record high

Singapore's COVID crisis worsened this week as cases jumped to a record high and the death toll reached 85 as five more elderly people died from complications.

The Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) reported a record 2,236 new COVID-19 cases as of noon yesterday.

The US State Department also revised its advisory for Singapore to Level 3, recommending citizens reconsider travel". Photo courtesy: Twitter/@AudiKhalid

The new infections include 2,226 local cases, comprising 1,711 in the community and 515 among dormitory residents. Of these local cases, 483 were seniors above the age of 60.

There were also 10 imported cases, said MOH in a media update.

All five fatalities were Singaporean. Four were men aged 69, 73, 74 and 79 while one was a 77-year-old woman. All of them had various underlying medical conditions, added MOH. There have been 30 deaths in September so far, a new monthly record.

The Center for Disease Control in the US raised the COVID travel advisory level for Singapore from level 2 to level 3.

Because of the current situation in Singapore, all travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants, the agency said. It recommended that individuals be fully vaccinated before travelling to Singapore.

The US State Department also revised its advisory for Singapore to Level 3, recommending citizens reconsider travel". The city-state was previously classified as Level 2, which suggests travelers should exercise increased caution, due to COVID-19.

As of Monday, 82 per cent of Singapore's population have completed their full vaccination regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while 85 per cent have received at least one dose.

More than 9 million doses have been administered under the national vaccination programme, with more than 4.48 million people completing the full vaccination regimen.
09/29/2021

Photo (c) Roman Tiraspolsky - Getty Images In the push-come-to-shove over vaccination mandates, United Airlines did what it said it would do. On Tuesday, it laid its unvaccinated workers off.

All told, 600 employees were affected -- about 1% of Uniteds workforce. The other 99% provided proof of vaccination prior to a Monday deadline. The airline is offering the non-compliant workers one last chance to comply with the mandate or face full termination. A separate 3% of the companys 67,000 employees sought a medical or religious exemption.

This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart wrote in a memo to employees on Tuesday. Our rationale for requiring the vaccine for all Uniteds U.S.-based employees was simple  to keep our people safe  and the truth is this: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, and vaccine requirements work.

The company said the mandate has created a spike in job applications from people who supposedly are vaccinated and want to work in an environment with like-minded people.

Will the other airlines join United?

So far, United is the only major U.S. airline to go as far as firing employees who refuse to abide by a vaccine requirement. Others appear to be taking a softer stance. American and Southwest are simply encouraging employees to get their shot, and Delta Air Lines laid down a levy of $200 for every month its unvaccinated employees didnt meet the requirement. Southwest is also offering an enticement of two days' pay to workers who show proof of being fully vaccinated by Nov. 15.

As of late last week, the Washington Post reported that vaccination mandates with some other domestic airlines looked like this:

Alaska Airlines: The latest report says 75% of Alaskas employees are vaccinated. Unvaccinated workers are not eligible for any special coronavirus-related pay if they become exposed or if an infection prevents them from reporting to work. Those people will also have to take part in a vaccine education program.

Frontier Airlines: Frontier employees have until Oct. 1 to get vaccinated. If they dont, theyll be required to show proof of a negative test.

Hawaiian Airlines: The airlines U.S.-based employees have until Nov. 1 to show proof of vaccination. Those who got the green light for a medical or religious exemption will be required to have regular tests.
The Faithful and the Forgiven

September 29

Read Colossians 4:10-11 (ESV)

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructionsif he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

Reflect

Who do you identify most with? The faithfulAristarchus and Jesus Justus? Or the forgivenJohn Mark?

I think most of us read the great heroes of the Bible and long to be like them. We want our names to go down in history with only our best moments recorded for posterity. But when we read the Bible humbly and honestly, we generally find that we can relate all too well with those who have their epic failures recorded for posterity instead.

In todays verses, Paul mentioned three men who had been a great comfort and encouragement to him during his ministry and imprisonments. Paul explicitly stated that all three were Jews despite their Greek names. Remember, they were Jews of the Diaspora. After God punished Israel and Judah for their disobedience and faithlessness, they were captured and taken by the Assyrians and the Babylonians (recorded in the Old Testament). As history marched on, they were scattered among the nations. At this time, these men were Jews living in the Roman Empire. Two of them would be categorized as the faithful, but one of them would be better categorized as the forgiven.

The first man Paul mentioned was Aristarchus. Paul described him as a fellow prisoner, but several commentaries note that it was unlikely that he was an actual prisoner. History seems to indicate that he was more likely a volunteer prisoner because he was not willing to desert Paul. Acts 20:4 records him as being from Thessalonica and Acts 19:29 said he was seized in the riot at Ephesus but was quickly released. Acts 27:2 also lists Aristarchus among Pauls companions when he sailed for Rome. On that missionary trip, they were involved in a terrible storm and were shipwrecked. But through all of this danger, Aristarchus faithfully stayed with Paul. He was committed to being a partner in the Gospel with him even if that meant he had to endure great suffering.

Jesus, who is called Justus, was also listed as a faithful companion to Paul. It may seem strange to us that his name is Jesus but in reality, it was a common name at that time. The name Jesus is Greek for Joshua and it means savior. Many people have been named Joshua throughout history. His Roman name was Justus which meant righteous in Latin. Unfortunately, that is the only time he is listed specifically in Scripture so we know nothing else about him. Still, he is honored to go down in history by Paul as being a faithful servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And then, there is Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. We know him as the writer of the Gospel of Mark but he first comes on the scene in Acts. In Acts 13:1-3, we see that John Mark went with his cousin Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey. But for some reason, he abandoned them. He quit on them and went back to Jerusalem. This left a rift between Mark and Paul. Acts 15:36-41 records Pauls refusal to allow John Mark to come with them on their second journey. He didnt trust John Marks commitment to their mission and sadly, their issue led Barnabas to separate from Paul as well.

Thankfully, our God is a God of restoration. We see in todays verse that despite their past issues, John Mark is listed among Pauls faithful companions. As if anticipating that the Colossian church would reject Mark for his past desertion of Paul, Paul commands them to welcome him instead. Forgiveness must have been offered and their relationship was restored. What an honor for Mark to be an author of a Gospel even though he had failed in the past!

Friends, many of us have had Mark moments in our lives. We commit to following Jesus but when it gets tough, we compromise and play it safe or wander off the path altogether. I find John Marks restoration to be a great encouragement. No matter how weve failed God, He is willing to forgive and He is still able to use us in big ways to build His kingdom if we return to Him. Praise God!

Pray

Lord, I want to be Your rock solid servant. But I confess that I have failed like John Mark before. Thank You for forgiving the failures of my past and restoring me to Your service. I am thankful to be faithfully forgiven. Help me to stay true to You until the very end. Amen.

Move forward in your faith with more from Back to the Bible at backtothebible.org or oneplace.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.
When people think of Mexican food, they might immediately think tacos. However, Mexico and its 32 states offer a wide variety of intricate dishes.

"Mexican food is not just what people know. It's an endless flavor bomb. It's such an aggressive palette within the food community. As a chef, I really love and celebrate it, from the spice levels to the freshness of the ingredients for different salsas," said chef Colt Taylor, owner of Los Charros Cantina located in Centerbrook.

From the flour tortillas of Sonora to the cochinita pibil of Yucatan, Mexico's cuisine is divided by seven culinary regions: North, Pacific North, Central Mexico, Gulf, The Bajio, South Pacific Coast and South. The whole country shares some staple dishes, but each region prepares them in a particular way. However, many Mexican restaurants in the United States offer dishes from several different regions of the country on their menus due to their popular demand.

Before opening Los Charros, Taylor wasnt sure what type of food was preferred by the community. He ran a year-long project where he offered people different styles of food throughout a week. The population of the area spoke overwhelmingly, saying that they wanted tacos, said Taylor. He wanted to showcase Mexican food in a new but authentic way, wondering, how do we make this so that people start to understand the beautiful food of Mexico without thinking its street food from a taco truck only?

Los Charros' menu offers a variety of tacos such as chicken tingas, carnitas, carne asada and tuna with organic heirloom Oaxacan corn tortillas.

Regional Mexican cuisines Northern region: This region includes the northern states starting from Baja California to the coast region of Colima. The most-used ingredients in Northern cuisine are beef, fresh cheese and flour tortillas. Some of the well-known dishes of on the northern coast are Carne Asada Tacos, Birria and Ceviche. Southern region: This region is heavily influenced by the indigenous groups located in the area. This region contains almost half of the country, going from Mexico city to Yucatan. Mole, Cochinita Pibil and Tamales are some of the most-known dishes of this region. Tex-Mex: This cuisine is a fusion of Mexican and American food that originated in the Northern Mexican border and Southern border in Texas. This cuisine is distinguished by the use of beef, yellow cheese, black beans and canned vegetables. See More Collapse

The Mexican diaspora has also found new ways to bring its roots to Connecticut while adding its own twist. One example is Mil Sabores, a Mexican and Venezuelan food truck located in Norwalk started by Edwin and Yohana Mondragon.

"It is good to have a variety of authentic food," said Edwin.

The Mondragons decided to open a food truck that offered people the best of their cultures.

"People like the fusion. They like having several options. They sometimes ask us if we can add a Mexican side like chorizo to their arepas," he said. If Mil Sabores could be summed up by one of its menu items, it would be by "La Mexicana," an arepa with steak, avocado and pico de gallo.

On Sundays, Mil Sabores offers Jalisco-style birria that sells out a few hours after the restaurant opens. "We sell four hundred pounds of birria," said Edwin.

As we move halfway through Hispanic Heritage month, here are 10 restaurants that celebrate different Mexican cuisine:

Southern Mexican cuisine Mezcal New Haven Margarita at Mezcal in New Haven. Derek Turner / Hearst Connecticut Media Mezcal offers authentic southern Mexican food in New Haven. Its menu includes more than 20 different dishes, with southern Mexican staples such as Mole Poblano and Bistec a la Tampiquena (thin flank steak accompanied by one red enchilada), as well as seafood such as Camarones al Mojo de Ajo (shrimp with garlic sauce). Every thursday Mezcal offers live Mariachi music. Address: 14 Mechanic St., New Haven Hours: 5-9:30 p.m. Mondays, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Phone number: 203-782-4828

Los Charros Cantina Essex At Los Charros Cantina within The Essex Public Market, they braise Wagyu short rib in adobo to make the weekly birria tacos special. Monique Sourinho Los Charros Cantina by Chef Colt Taylor aims to showcase the richness of Mexican cuisine in a "fun and casual" concept. The restaurant offers a wide variety of salsas from different regions of Mexico as well as Mexican snacks such as street corn. Los Charros is also offering a full calendar of live music. Address: 30 Main St., Centerbrook Hours: 4-9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 4-7 p.m. Wednesday, 4-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed on Mondays. Phone number: 860-237-4266

Azteca Bridgeport View this post on Instagram A post shared by AZTECA RESTAURANT (@aztecabpt) Azteca is an Hacienda-style restaurant that transports guests to the traditional southern restaurants of Mexico with its bright colors and wooden furniture. The menu offers more than 10 different styles of tacos, which include sirloin, cochinita pibil, al pastor and carnitas. Address: 522 Pequonnock St., Bridgeport Hours: 12-9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 12-9:30 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. to Sunday Phone number: 203-345-3232

Sarapes Restaurant Enfield Birria tacos from Sarapes in Enfield Leeanne Griffin / Hearst Connecticut Media Sarapes restaurant offers a quantity of options for both breakfast and dinner, including huevos rancheros and chilaquiles as well as mole poblano and puerco en pipian. The restaurant is owned by the Chavez Mellado Family and it also offers catering services. Address: 95 High St., Bridgeport Hours: 10a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 7a.m.-8 p.m. Phone number: 860-745-7781

Taqueria La Michoacana Bridgeport Taqueria La Michoacana, owned by Sergio and Rosa Valdovinos, in Bridgeport is named after Michoacan, a southern state in Mexico. While the restaurant is a taqueria, it offers other dishes such as a chilaquiles, pozole and menudo as well as flan and tres leches for dessert. Address:1914 Main St, Bridgeport Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Phone number: 203-366-6590

Northern Mexican cuisine Toro Azteca Manchester View this post on Instagram A post shared by Toro Azteca Mexican Cantina (@toroaztecamanchester) Toro Azteca offers an "authentic shortcut to Mexico" with dishes such as birria tacos, burritos and enchiladas. The restaurant is known for its colorful margaritas such as the "Bonita Blue," which uses Blue Curacao, Peach Schnapps and the restaurant's signature margarita mix. Address: 194 Buckland Hills Drive, Manchester Hours: 12-10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 12-11p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 12-9 p.m. Sunday Phone number: 860-648-4454

Tex-Mex cuisine Monte Alban Hartford Monte Alban has been serving authentic Mexican food as well as Tex-Mex style tacos and burritos to Hartford's community for around 20 years, according to its website. Oaxacan brothers Alfonso and Wenceslao Martinez opened the restaurant after working in the food industry for over a decade. The restaurant is named after the ancient Zapotecan city that is now an archeological site. Address: 531 Farmington Ave., Hartford Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day Phone number: 860-523-7423

Mexican Fusion cuisine Te Amo Tequila New Haven Tacos from Te Amo Tequila in New Haven. Adriana Morga/ Hearst Connecticut Media Te Amo Tequila Bar & Tacos offers modern Mexican food such as chorizo, fajita and pernil tacos. Te Amo is known for its Margarita flights with three flavors on the rocks and one frozen. Address: 182 Temple St., New Haven Hours: 12 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Phone number: 203-553-7914
The Drug Enforcement Administration is warning of an alarming increase in the availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine that the agency says have proven to be even more lethal.

The DEA issued a public safety alert on the increase in these pills on Monday. It was the first time the agency issued this type of alert in six years.

The DEA said it seeks to raise public awareness of the nationwide surge in counterfeit pills being mass-produced by criminal drug networks in labs. These pills are deceptively marketed as legitimate prescription pills, but are instead killing unsuspecting individuals at what the DEA calls an unprecedented rate.

The agency said the drug networks are domestic and international. The vast majority of counterfeit pills brought into the country are made in Mexico, while China is supplying chemicals for fentanyl manufacturing in Mexico, the DEA said.

These types of pills have been seized by the DEA in every state in the country. More than 9.5 million counterfeit pills have been seized so far this year, the DEA said. That number is greater than the last two years combined.

On Tuesday in Connecticut, authorities seized 5,238 fentanyl pills pressed to look like Xanax pills from a driver who was pulled over in Orange for a motor vehicle violation during a joint law enforcement operation on Interstate 95 in the greater New Haven area. The driver, whose vehicle had Pennsylvania plates, was arrested and taken to Troop G in Bridgeport where he was charged, officials said.

DEA lab tests indicate a dramatic rise in the number of pills with at least 2 milligrams of fentanyl, which is considered a lethal dose, the agency said. A deadly dose of fentanyl is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.

These pills tend to mimic the appearance of real prescription opioid medications like Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax and stimulants like Adderall, the DEA said. The fake pills are easily accessible, often sold on social media and other e-commerce platforms. The DEA said this makes the pills available to anyone with a smartphone, including juveniles.

The United States is facing an unprecedented crisis of overdose deaths fueled by illegally manufactured fentanyl and methamphetamine, said Anne Milgram, administrator of the DEA. Counterfeit pills that contain these dangerous and extremely addictive drugs are more lethal and more accessible than ever before. In fact, DEA lab analyses reveal that two out of every five fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.

Milgram said the agency is focusing resources on taking down violent drug traffickers that are causing the greatest harm and posing the greatest threat to the safety and health of the public.

The drug overdose crisis in the United States is seen as a serious public safety threat, with rates currently reaching the highest level in history, according to the DEA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated more than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in the United States last year.

So far this year, the DEA has seized more than 2,700 guns in connection with drug trafficking investigations. The DEA said that number represents a 30 percent increase since 2019.

For more information, visit the DEA website.
FARMINGTON  While no official determination has been made about what caused the plane crash that killed the pilots and two passengers, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board noted in a preliminary report released Tuesday that the planes parking brake was on.

The plane, a Cessna 560 jet, crashed into a Trumpf Inc. building in Farmington shortly after takeoff from nearby Robertson Field Airport in Plainville on Sept. 2. The crash killed pilots Mark Morrow, 57, of Danbury, and William OLeary, 55, of Bristol, along with the passengers, Courtney Haviland, 33, and her husband, William Shrauner, 32, both doctors from Boston.

According to the three-page NTSB report, two witnesses saw the plane take off and one remarked that it was going slower than during normal takeoff. Another witness reported seeing a blue puff of smoke from the backside of the airplane when it was about two-thirds of the way down the runway, the report stated. One witness recalled telling a friend that something was wrong, the report stated.

Investigators visited the small airport and found tire skid marks from the right main landing gear on the runway then about 100 feet down noticed marks from the left main landing gear, the report read. The marks continued down the runway and onto a short patch of grassy terrain off the departure end of the runway, investigators noted.

A witness reported seeing the plane take off and not gain altitude before it hit a power line pole, the report read.

Investigators reviewed what was left of the airframe of the plane and its cockpit. While no anomalies were found on the frame or control panel, the investigators wrote the parking brake handle in the cockpit, and the respective valve that it controlled, were both found in the brake set position.

The plane, according to investigators, had been heading to Dare County Regional Airport in North Carolina.

The plane, after hitting the power line, eventually crashed into the Trumpf Inc. building, setting the plane and the building ablaze. On the ground, NTSB said one person was seriously injured and three others suffered minor injures.

It was unclear Tuesday when a full report on the accident would be released, but typically NTSB investigations take several months.

At the time of the crash, Haviland was pregnant. She and Shrauner, who had a young son, met at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, according to a family spokesperson. Haviland, who grew up in Farmington, joined MassGeneral Hospital for Children in 2016 as a resident. Shrauner was a second-year fellow at Boston Medical Center.

Both the pilots, OLeary and Morrow, were well-known in the area for flying.
Getting to school as a boy in Singapore in the 1970s could be soggy affair. Tropical downpours overwhelmed drainage systems, leaving parts of the island impassable. Students braved the rains and rising waters, turning up bedraggled, if they made it at all.

Thankfully, this became a thing of the past by the late 1980s. Massive flood alleviation caused this story to recede from front pages, as a modern city-state emerged. Yet, decades on, we seem to be heading back to the future. Severe storms are now becoming more frequent.

Last month, pictures of Singapore inundated with water hit the headlines again. A minister warned that as intense rainfall was becoming more common with global warming, people might have to get used to flash floods from time to time.

Rising sea levels are an existential issue for my low-lying island, about a third of which is less than 5 meters above the mean sea level. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has estimated that more than $100 billion (Singapore dollars) might be needed over the next decades to tackle the rising tides caused by warming seas and melting ice sheets.

But Singapore is not alone. New York City declared a flash flood emergency earlier this month in the wake of Hurricane Ida. More than 300 people were killed in Chinas Henan province in August, when a years worth of rain fell in three days, leaving many trapped in underground train carriages and road tunnels.

Devastating floods in Germany and Belgium; droughts in Brazil; heatwaves in India, Australia and the Pacific Northwest of the United States; wildfires in California, Canada and across the Mediterranean and Amazon regions  such extreme weather events, once the stuff of movies, have been playing out across the planet this year.

Get used to it, say the climate scientists, for these are signs of whats to come.

U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman Hoesung Lee summed up the grim scenario: It is indisputable that human activities are causing climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and severe.

Yet who can blame a weary world for being distracted, with so many countries still in the grip of a rampaging virus that refuses to yield?

But as Lee rightly notes, the COVID-19 pandemic is a foretaste of what climate change could do to our society, to nature and our lives.

Lamentably, while the worlds scientists were quick to step up to the COVID-19 challenge, delivering effective vaccines, efforts to curb the outbreak have been hampered by populist politicians, global inequalities and a pandemic of misinformation. The virus has continued to spread, mutate and unleash new waves of infections.

The COVID-19 experience has made plain how difficult it will be to forge a global consensus on tackling the climate crisis. Here too, politics, inequality and misinformation confound concerted action.

This is where professional newsrooms have an important role to play. And it is why todays World News Day focuses on the climate crisis.

Some 300 newsrooms from around the world are coming together to tell the story of how climate change is already impacting the lives and livelihoods of communities, and how they are grappling with it. Newsrooms, with resources and expertise, are best placed to tell these stories in clear and credible ways.

One of the best examples is the BBC documentary The Truth about Climate Change. In it, environmentalist David Attenborough sums up the facts.

We are causing the world to heat up, he says. If we continue to behave as we are doing, our children and grandchildren will have to deal with potentially catastrophic changes. The vast forests of the Amazon could wither and burn. The oceans could turn acid, destroying much of the life they presently contain. The Arctic could be transformed. Its ice could melt, and its most famous animals vanish forever. Rising tides could cast millions of people adrift. Many of our coastal cities could be flooded and drowned.

There is still time to act if the world is to minimize these changes, he adds. But time, that most non-renewable of resources, is running out. Now is the time to hear him, and heed.

Warren Fernandez is editor-in-chief of The Straits Times, the leading English language news title in Singapore, and president of the World Editors Forum.
HADDAM  Two Republican candidates running for the Regional School District 17 Board of Education have dropped out of the race less than two months ahead of Election Day.

Shannon Johnson and Christopher Page have dropped out of the race for the school district, which encompasses Haddam and Killingworth schools.

The candidates faced backlash from the community as well as state Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, after they were endorsed at the Haddam Republicans caucus on July 20.

Johnson posted on a Haddam Facebook group on Sept. 15 that she had withdrawn to focus on her childrens first year of homeschooling.

In her post, she endorsed fellow candidate Corey Roberts.

She is such a kind person who has a passion for family and her children. She will be such an asset to our BOE, Johnson wrote. She will have my full support as well as the support of my family. I now ask that you all vote for Corey. She is the absolute best choice!

The exact date Page dropped out of the race is unclear, however, town officials said new ballots without Page and Johnson had to be printed by the absentee ballot deadline.

An example ballot posted on Haddams town website on Sept. 22 shows the only Republican candidate for the Board of Education is Roberts.

In a statement earlier this summer, Palm accused both candidates of sharing disinformation and QAnon theories on social media, and referred to their participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection as reasons they were unfit for office.

While it is unclear why Page has dropped out of the race, he released a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media in August saying he attended the Jan. 6 uprising at the Capitol in Washington.

I proudly brought my family, along with tens of thousands of others, on January 6, 2021, to see our president speak and participate in letting Congress hear our voices, Pages statement read. 99-percent of people in attendance were there to just show support for our president. Yes, there were those who chose violence, but that was their purpose for being there and they were called out where they were found.

Johnson, a mother of two daughters, ages 13 and 15, who attended Haddam-Killingworth schools, was also at the Capitol that day with her 70-year-old mother-in-law. She said they walked on the lawn and watched from the tunnels.

When the police allowed people to enter the Capitol, we walked up to the steps where I stood on the second step and took a video of the crowd, Johnson wrote in a letter to the editor of HK Now. We turned and went back to where we had been and left. Later, I was interviewed by an FBI agent who advised me that they needed nothing further regarding my trip.

Absentee applications and ballots for Novembers municipal election in Haddam will be available in the Town Clerks office at Town Hall beginning Friday or online.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH, N.C. (AP)  A former North Carolina police officer has been accused of stealing guns from the police department where he worked, authorities said Tuesday.

In a news release, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said former North Topsail Beach police officer Mark William Ray Jr., 41, is charged with 15 counts of obtaining property by false pretense, embezzlement, and felony conversion, according to an agency news release.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  Going against health guidance, Louisiana's education department announced Wednesday it's no longer recommending that public school systems quarantine asymptomatic students who have come into close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

Louisiana's 69 local school districts already had the ability to determine whether they want to send the students home for days because of exposure to the coronavirus illness. But most of the districts had been following the state education department's recommendation that those students should be quarantined, even if they don't show symptoms of COVID-19.

The new guidance issued by Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley suggests districts could instead choose to notify parents of the exposure and let the parents decide whether to keep the child in school or isolated at home  with parents offered a free COVID-19 test for the student.

The announcement comes as Louisiana is emerging from its fourth surge of the coronavirus illness, with infection rates and COVID-19 hospitalizations falling. Louisiana has dropped to among the nation's lowest per capita rates for new cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Brumley's changed quarantine recommendation is at odds with the advice of state and federal health officials. Gov. John Bel Edwards also doesn't support the change, with his administration pointing to the larger rate of COVID-19 infections among children in the most recent spike.

Brumley called the updated state recommendations a common-sense approach that focuses on local control of schools and that could help students avoid being sent home multiple times across the school year and missing needed days of class. He said schools haven't proven to be super-spreader environments for COVID-19.

One of the things I continue to hear is just frustration among educators with the amount of quarantines taking place for students, and I'm certainly hearing that from parents, Brumley said in an interview. There are unintended consequences of these quarantines.

The Louisiana Department of Health did not back the policy change suggested for the state's 700,000 public school students and wasn't consulted, said agency spokesperson Aly Neel. Brumley said he told the department about his decision Wednesday, shortly before releasing it publicly.

We strongly recommend that school districts follow public health guidance and parents quarantine unvaccinated children who may have been in close contact to someone with COVID. Doing so is critical to slowing the spread and protecting children, families, school staff and communities at large, Neel said in a statement.

The new education guidance runs afoul of CDC recommendations. The federal agency suggests that anyone who comes within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 for 15 minutes or more should quarantine whether they have symptoms or not, unless fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease. The Louisiana health department guidance drops that to 3 feet at K-12 schools if both the student who tested positive and the close contact were wearing masks and asymptomatic.

Edwards spokesperson Christina Stephens said the Democratic governor believes school districts should follow the quarantine guidance issued by health officials, rather than Brumley. Edwards announced Tuesday he was keeping in place through October a statewide indoor mask mandate that applies to K-12 schools.

Quarantine is an important tool to slow the spread, especially in classrooms where children are too young to be vaccinated, Stephens said in a statement. Children are now the fastest growing age group for COVID in Louisiana.

Brumley doesn't expect all Louisiana school systems to end quarantines for asymptomatic students.

Systems should be flexible in response to the virus. If we see an uptick in the virus, additional restrictions should go into place, Brumley said.

New Orleans schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. panned the new guidance and said his district will continue to quarantine students who come into close contact with someone who tests positive.

The Louisiana Department of Educations decision flies in the face of the data, the science and the sound advice of our health and medical advisors when it comes to protecting our students and educators, Lewis said in a statement.

Brumley's recommendations haven't changed for students who test positive for COVID-19 or who show symptoms of the illness: They should isolate until they have recovered or are no longer infectious.

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Wednesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that were expected to focus on war-torn Syria.

It was the first in-person meeting for Putin in over two weeks. On Sept. 14, the Russian president went into self-isolation after a staff member he worked closely with contracted coronavirus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin's two-week self-isolation ended on Wednesday.

As the two leaders sat down for talks, Putin pointed out that relations between the two countries develop positively.

Negotiations are sometimes difficult, but with a positive final result. Our (government) bodies have learned to find compromises that are beneficial to both sides," Putin said.

Erdogan echoed that sentiment and said he believed "there is great benefit in continuing our Turkish-Russian relations by strengthening them every day.

On Syria, Russia is the main ally of the Syrian government while Turkey supports groups that have fought to unseat Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, Russian and Turkish troops have cooperated in Idlib, the final holdout of rebel forces, and in seeking a political solution in the country.

Peace (in Syria) depends on the relations between Turkey and Russia, the Turkish leader told Putin.

The talks between the two presidents come amid an increase in airstrikes on Turkey-backed opposition fighters positions in northern Syria, especially in the province of Idlib.

Last year, Turkey and Russia reached a cease-fire agreement that halted a three-month Syrian government offensive in Idlib and also saw rare direct fighting between Syrian and Turkish troops. That Russia-backed offensive killed hundreds of civilians and displaced nearly 1 million people in Idlib province.

Turkey fears that an escalation of the violence in northern Syria will lead to a new influx of refugees surging across its borders. Turkey already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees. For its part, Russia accuses Turkey of failing to take measures to push out radical groups from northern Syria.

Earlier this month, Putin met with Assad in Moscow and criticized the presence of Turkish and U.S. forces in northern Syria, calling their presence a flagrant violation of international law. The Russian leader was referring to hundreds of U.S. troops stationed in eastern Syria who are working with Kurdish-led fighters in battling the militant Islamic State group, as well as Turkish forces in northern Syria.

The war in Syria broke out in March 2011. It has left hundreds of thousands dead and displaced half the countrys pre-war population of 23 million people, including more than 5 million refugees outside the war-torn nation.

The talks between Putin and Erdogan on Wednesday lasted for about three hours, Russia's state news agency Tass reported. The two leaders didn't make any statements after the talks, but Erdogan said on social media that he left Sochi after holding a productive meeting with his Russian counterpart.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota Republican and Democratic legislators alike said Wednesday that they want more details from Gov. Kristi Noems administration about a meeting last year that included the governor, her daughter and state employees overseeing an agency that had moved to deny her daughters application to become a certified real estate appraiser.

In response to the report from The Associated Press this week, the Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee will look into the matter when it meets at the end of October, according to the committee chairman, state Sen. Kyle Schoenfish. The Republican governor has dismissed the report as an attack on her family, but lawmakers from within her party said they want answers from her administration about what happened.

Schoenfish, a Republican, said the committee is still working out the details of how it will address the issue. Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the Legislature, will ultimately determine how far-ranging the inquiry is.

The AP reported Monday that Noem last year summoned to her office a state employee who was overseeing her daughter's appraiser license application just days after the agency moved to deny her the license. After the meeting, Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, was not denied a license, according to the Department of Labor and Regulation. Peters received her certification four months later, on Nov. 25, 2020.

A week after Peters received her license, the state employee who directed the agency was allegedly pressured to retire by Noems Cabinet secretary. The state employee, Sherry Bren, eventually received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw an age discrimination complaint and leave her job.

The governors office declined to answer questions from the AP about what was discussed in the meeting. On Wednesday, Noem took to Twitter with a pair of tweets that defended her actions but didn't detail what took place at the meeting.

I never asked for special treatment for Kassidy. Others went through the same process that Kassidy did, the governor wrote. I have heard for years how difficult it is to become an appraiser in South Dakota, making it harder for South Dakotans to purchase a home. I have been working for years to fix that process, and I signed legislation to that effect this past session.

Noem's spokesman, Ian Fury, did not respond to a request for comment about the Legislature's decision to look into the episode.

I want to know specifically in that meeting, what were the discussions? said Democratic state Rep. Linda Duba, adding that the meeting would have been extremely intimidating for the state employee who was overseeing Peters' application.

Republican state Rep. Randy Gross, who is the vice-chair of the committee, said he was refraining from any speculation as to what happened, but that he wanted to hear from Noems administration to get a reliable sequence of activities or events.

I want to be accurately informed, he said.

Noem, 49, has generated speculation about a possible 2024 White House bid by forming a federal political action committee, assisting with campaigns across the country and attending many of the same events as other potential GOP hopefuls. Though Noem has said shes focused on reelection in 2022 and hasn't publicly indicated that she plans to run for president, she has visited the key early presidential campaigning states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and shown a willingness to jab at potential rivals.

In her first term as governor after nearly a decade in Congress, her star has risen as she has honed a message of more freedom and less government  particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bren had limited her comments about the episode because the settlement of her age discrimination complaint includes a clause barring her from disparaging state officials.

The committee has the power to subpoena documents from state government, said Democratic state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, but he added that whether lawmakers choose to wield that power will depend on Republican support. He said he will also be looking into how the state government paid the $200,000 to Bren to settle her age discrimination complaint.

Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, a Republican, has said he is reviewing the episode. However, he has become a political enemy of the governor, who called for his resignation following a car crash in which he struck and killed a man walking on a highway.

Democrats said the Government Operations and Audit Committee and the Appropriations Committee were the right place to start an inquiry, but they acknowledged that they would need Republicans to help delve into the issue.

I think it takes a lot of courage, Duba said. Theres a lot of concern because it doesnt pass the smell test at all.

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This story has been updated to correct the first name of state Sen. Kyle Schoenfish.
STRATFORD  Less than six in 10 town residents between 12 and 17 has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the state.

Thats the sixth lowest figure among Fairfield County municipalities  and a key reason Superintendent Uyi Osunde has put a hold on field trips for the time being after consulting with the school districts nursing supervisor.

Sending them out without that protective layer vaccines provide was just a risk we didnt feel was warranted, he said Tuesday.

Other events like homecoming could be jeopardized, too.

Osunde said he hoped to reconsider sooner rather than later. He also said he hoped the needle would start moving at a vaccination clinic to be held at Flood Middle School Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

We want as big a turnout as we can get, he said.

In Connecticut, those 16 and over have been eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines since March. Children ages 12 to 15 have been eligible for doses since May.

If school officials see large numbers of students getting vaccine doses, Osunde said, It builds our confidence to be able to examine the opportunity to hold those events.

Obviously its not required, he said. We want people to move with their comfort level and ask all the right questions.

Osunde thanked Stratford Health Director Andrea Boissevain for helping to communicate information about vaccines with the students and residents, including offering to have town health officials in schools to answer questions.

Saturdays clinic will be offered by a Griffin Health Community Health Mobile Outreach team.

That van has been just all over, its been really terrific, theyve been a really great community asset, Boissevain said Wednesday, noting that the vaccine van has also offered doses at the farmers market on Mondays at Paradise Green.

As of Wednesday, the school districts COVID-19 dashboard showed 17 students with positive confirmed cases currently in isolation, and zero staff members with cases.

At the same time, 174 students were in quarantine due to close contacts or travel, while only three staff members were isolating.

During a school board meeting Monday Osunde said that roughly 92 percent of school staff district-wide had reported being fully vaccinated. The state has mandated they be vaccinated or agree to weekly testing.

The school district cant force students to get vaccines, but higher vaccination rates help ensure the coronavirus wont spread in the towns schools as much, and can help reduce the learning disruptions of quarantining and contact tracing even among students who dont get COVID-19.

Although we are not requiring it, we are encouraging it, Osunde said. We have a full year of school left. We cant have three years in a row of disrupted learning.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  Tunisias president on Wednesday named the countrys first female prime minister, appointing a 63-year-old professor to lead a transitional government after the head of state sacked the previous prime minister and suspended parliament.

Najla Bouden Ramadhane, a professor at a prestigious engineering school, appears to be the first woman appointed as head of government in an Arab League nation. Sudan has a female foreign minister, and Lebanon's defense minister is a woman.

Tunisian President Kais Saied named Bouden to the post in a surprise decision, and instructed her to create a new Cabinet as soon as possible, according to a statement from the president's office.

Tunisia has been without a head of government and in limbo since Saied froze the country's parliament and seized executive powers on July 25. The move notably sidelined the Islamist party that dominated parliament, Ennahdha, and critics denounced the president's moves as a coup that threatens Tunisia's young democracy.

Saied said he acted to save the country amid unrest over financial troubles and the governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is unclear how much power Bouden will be able to yield due to the president's actions. Last week, Saied issued presidential decrees bolstering his already near-total power and announced plans for a transitional government and new electoral rules.

The decrees include the continuing suspension of parliaments powers, the suspension of lawmakers immunity from prosecution and a freeze on lawmakers salaries. The decrees also stated Saieds intention to not send laws for parliamentary approval and to presidential decree alone, ignoring parts of the Tunisian Constitution.

His moves have raised concern among Islamists and pro-democracy forces in and beyond the Arab world. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings a decade ago, was the only country to emerge from the tumultuous period with a newly designed democratic political system.

More than 100 Ennahdha officials announced their resignations Saturday to protest the choices of the party's leadership in confronting the North African countrys political crisis.

Lawmaker Samir Dilou, a former government minister who resigned from Ennahdha, called Bouden's appointment illegal because it was based on Saied's presidential decrees.

In a message published on his Facebook page, Dilou said the new Cabinet would face great challenges given the huge difficulties the country's finance and economy are going through and its fragile sanitary situation" during the pandemic.

He wondered how the prime minister would be able to run the country without having obtained the confidence of any parliamentary body.
On Friday, termination notices will be going out to more than 100 employees of Yale New Haven Health, according to Dr. Thomas Balcezak, the organizations chief clinical officer.

Thats the deadline for all of the health systems 30,000 staff members to be vaccinated for COVID-19. As that date approaches, the number of unvaccinated employees has been steadily dropping since the announcement that vaccinations would be required was made in June.

By (Monday) afternoon, they had dropped to just about 420, so were making small progress, Balcezak said. My prediction is that there will be at least 100 or more staff that will part ways with us. A week ago, the number of unvaccinated was 700.

While they will be terminated, unless they resign or retire, the staff members can rejoin Yale New Haven Health if they get their immunizations, Balcezak said.

If they want to get themselves vaccinated, theyre welcome to come back, he said. Our goal is not to have employees terminated from our organization but to have the staff fully vaccinated.

Balcezak said this week that the minority of these people are what Id call (licensed) professionals: physicians, physician associates, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and nurses. Most are from environmental services, food services or the financial office, he said.

Still, some clinical staff have refused to get vaccinated and will be let go, he said.

I dont know where they think theyre going to find a safe haven. Certainly not in Connecticut, Balcezak said. All state hospitals, as well as those in New York and Rhode Island, are requiring full vaccinations.

While Oct. 1 is the deadline, thats the day when written warnings will begin to be issued. There is a chance of appeal  for example, if someone was vaccinated outside of Yale New Haven and their records havent been recorded here yet.

By Oct. 18, thats the day people will be terminated if they are not vaccinated, Balcezak said. If they see the light and they get a Johnson & Johnson shot, I think we can probably make an exception there.

Balcezak said some staff members have retired and over the last three months weve had a blip up in resignations. Its hard to know exactly why. People are tired, people are fatigued after 18 months of caring for COVID patients on top of the usual hospital patients.

As of Monday, 382 staff members had requested medical exemptions, according to health system data. Thirty-six have been approved, there have been 270 deferments (allowing people more time but not exempting them), and one case is pending.

There have been 855 requests for religious exemptions, which were reviewed by religious exemption committees. Of those, 449 were approved and 416 denied, the health system reported.

Balcezak said a survey was sent out in early December to ask if people were planning to be vaccinated and 6,000 responded. At that time, 80 percent of staff said absolutely yes, he said. Others said they would under certain conditions, such as full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

If you put all those different caveats, were up to 95 percent from the survey willing to get their shots, Balcezak said. With 420 still to be vaccinated, the number is about 99.99 percent.

Yale New Haven Health includes Yale New Haven, Bridgeport and Greenwich hospitals, Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London and Westerly Hospital in Rhode Island, as well as the Northeast Medical Group of physicians practices.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
A sign informs people to continue sanitizing thier hands is placed in the middle of Lane Community College's campus. Lane Community College has decided to continue with remote learning through the fall. (Serei Hendrie/ Emerald)
All along Brightons blustery beachfront there hangs a dark thundercloud, its shape eerily reminiscent of a craggy old man with a wispy white beard and wonky spectacles.

Its been here all week. However hard the wind blows, it simply cant shift it.

Jeremy Corbyn is no longer Labours leader, or even one of its MPs. Yet his presence here has rarely been felt stronger, and each day of this years conference he seeks to pour more rain upon Sir Keir Starmers valiant parade.

Turns out the delegates still love him. From the bawdy reception he received at a fringe event on Tuesday with MP Barry Gardiner, youd think the walloping he received at the last election never happened.

He arrived at 11am to a welcome that pimply teenagers usually afford boy bands with lustrous quiffs. Cheers. Whistles. Then the inevitable chants of Oh, Jer-em-y Corrrr-byn. Felt like 2019 all over again. I just popped in for a quiet chat, Corbyn mumbled, feigning embarrassment. The vain booby was loving it.

Jeremy Corbyn is no longer Labours leader, or even one of its MPs. Yet his presence here has rarely been felt stronger, and each day of this years conference he seeks to pour more rain upon Sir Keir Starmers valiant parade. Pictured: Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses an audience at a fringe event for political festival The World Transformed, on the fourth day of the Labour Party conference on September 28

Our venue was Pryzm, a nightclub whose glory days on Brightons throbbing nocturnal scene one sensed were long gone. But from such dingy boites do the seeds of revolution often sprout.

The crowd was suitably earthy, all facial hair and dangly body piercings. One man wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the Soviet hammer and sickle. Another proudly wore one that read Starmer Out. You get the flavour.

Talk swiftly turned to Andy McDonald, the shadow employment minister who quit the shadow cabinet on Monday. Had Corbyn chatted to Mr McDonald beforehand? We had a private conversation, said Jezza, raking his beard in the manner of chess grandmaster revelling in the fiendishness of his gambit. Journalists wanted to know what he, Corbyn, felt Starmer should be doing. The mere mention of that name provoked groans or, worse, shouts of Blairite!

Corbyn offered little insight beyond his usual platitudes about creating a better world.

He never directly attacked Sir Keir, but you sensed his glee at his successors discomfiture. Actually, he had one suggestion for Starmer, which was to restore the Labour whip to him, Jezza, following his suspension over the anti-Semitism row.

Its a witch unt, pure and simple, barked an angry, plump man wearing a necklace adorned with the Palestine flag. It is surprising just how deeply Corbyn was wounded by his suspension. This was his party. Without it he was Che Guevara robbed of his little beret. Castro sans cigar. After all, hed been out locking arms with the Greenham Common ladies when Sir Keir was still swotting up for the bar exam.

Corbyn arrived at a fringe event at 11am to a welcome that pimply teenagers usually afford boy bands with lustrous quiffs. Cheers. Whistles. Then the inevitable chants of Oh, Jer-em-y Corrrr-byn'

Someone asked if Corbyn would stand as an independent MP at the next election. These are hypotheticals, he purred, examining a fingernail. A resounding yes. Suddenly, a loud bang. Screams. Poor Jezza practically leapt out of his Cornish pasty shoes and for a moment, I thought we had an assassin in our midst. Actually, some clot had trodden on a balloon.

Next to me, a young man nervously asked Corbyn whether he would apologise for the anti-Semitism fiasco. Loud boos. Oh come off it! someone heckled.

Corbyns face dropped. All that folksy charm swiftly drained from his cheeks. He squinted at his inquisitor and showed his crooked teeth. A long rant ensued about how hed been stitched up.

We need to defeat racism, which is what Ive been doing all my life, he snarled. And what Ill spend the rest of my life doing!

Journalists wanted to know what Corbyn felt Labour leader Keir Starmer (pictured) should be doing. The mere mention of that name provoked groans or, worse, shouts of Blairite!

The audience whooped and clapped. Well said Jeremy! someone screamed. But theyd have cheered him even if hed simply sat there in silence and done a Sudoku puzzle.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere over in the main conference hall couldnt have been more different. Shadow education secretary Kate Green was addressing teaching unions. Excitement, rapture  all notably absent, as it has been all week.

Sir Keir Starmer does his big turn on Wednesday. Were not expecting things to get better.
How things have changed at Labour conference. After years in which they stayed away in despair, suddenly figures from the Blairite wing of the party have been popping up all over Brighton this week.

Among them, I spotted Peter Mandelson, the great architect of New Labour who has, Im told, been quietly advising the partys leader Sir Keir Starmer behind the scenes.

Overall, the centrists cant hide their satisfaction  and relief.

Whisper it quietly, but its been a good week for Starmer. As the Labour leader tucks into his breakfast this morning  revealed by one political hack recently to be fish and cheese  he can look back with some satisfaction.

Today, he will deliver his keynote speech to conference, and the country will be watching him as never before.

He may fall flat on his face, rise to any heckles  or, as Theresa May was, even be handed a P45.

But following the morass of the years under Jeremy Corbyn  which saw the party sink to its lowest share of the vote since 1935  Labour is returning to its senses.

So what exactly has Starmer done?

Following the morass of the years under Jeremy Corbyn (pictured)  which saw the party sink to its lowest share of the vote since 1935  Labour is returning to its senses

First, he has brought about various rule changes that will make it harder, if not impossible, for a Left-winger such as Corbyn ever to become party leader again.

These changes may seem obscure  but they have profound political consequences. Simply put, any future Labour leader will need the support of at least 20 per cent of the partys MPs. On current showing, this would mean about 40 Labour MPs will have to back the next leader  and there is no chance of that kind of number voting for another Corbyn.

Second, Starmer has adopted tough new rules to tackle anti-Semitism, which should encourage many disillusioned Jewish people to rejoin the party.

Third, perhaps most crucially, he has been helped by the fact that trade unionists have kept a comparatively low profile at conference this year.

Len McCluskey, whose new memoirs  on sale here in Brighton  show that he more or less ran the party under the leadership of his close friend Jeremy Corbyn, has retired as the boss of Unite.

His successor Sharon Graham deliberately stayed away from conference this year to concentrate on Unites industrial work.

Anything that distances Labour from hard-Left unions is good for Starmer: it keeps swing-voter taxpayers on board.

Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) has adopted tough new rules to tackle anti-Semitism, which should encourage many disillusioned Jewish people to rejoin the party

Even the sudden resignation of Andy McDonald from the shadow cabinet on Monday night can be chalked up as a win. McDonald was the last Corbynista in Starmers top team.

As he flounced out of the shadow cabinet complaining about the s***show under Starmer and insisting the party is more divided than ever, the leader probably thought he was well shot of him.

McDonald had wanted to see the minimum wage hiked from 8.91 to 15  even Jeremy Corbyn only wanted 10!

So, aside from some difficult conversations relating to trans rights and some unpleasant headlines surrounding his deputy Angela Rayners indelicate language (Tory scum), until now it has all gone well for the former director of public prosecutions. However, though he might have won some important skirmishes, Starmers battle to restore Labour into a force capable of winning elections is a long way from won.

The truth is that the tensions between the far Left of the party and the more centrist wing are arguably the most important determinant of whether or not it can win elections. Time and again the party has been torn between those who think Labour has to be cautious to win  and those who believe theres no point in taking power without radical, socialist change.

Neil Kinnock dragged Labour back to the centre ground in the mid-1980s, paving the way for Tony Blair (pictured), who did so much to make Labour acceptable to middle England

In the early 1980s, Tony Benn and the Left took over, committing the party to nuclear disarmament, leaving the European Community, and wide-scale public ownership of industry.

The debates of those years were far more nasty and bitter than today, and the battles led to Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and other leading Labour figures on the Right breaking away to form the Social Democratic Party.

Neil Kinnock dragged Labour back to the centre ground in the mid-1980s, paving the way for Tony Blair, who did so much to make Labour acceptable to aspirational middle England. Keir Starmers task is many times harder than anything faced by Kinnock, Blair or Blairs successor Gordon Brown.

Unlike them, he cannot rely on safe Labour seats in the North and in Scotland.

Class solidarity is gone: Starmer has to show patriotic voters in the Red Wall, who gave their votes to Boris Johnson at the last election, that he understands them and shares their concerns.

Given his background as a metropolitan lawyer living in north London, that will not be easy.

Meanwhile, the far Left will not go quietly. Last night, hard-Left MP Richard Burgon was insisting: The rumours of the death of the Labour Left have been somewhat over-exaggerated. The Labour Left is alive.

The two wings of the party resemble a warring domestic couple  still married but utterly unsuited to one another.

Both claim to speak for Labour but their dysfunctional relationship serves only to horrify the rest of the country.

Nothing will change until they finally divorce.

Jeremy Corbyns name has been chanted in the conference hall this week  even though the bearded socialist is no longer a member of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Then there are Starmers personal problems: his absence of passion, and how so many voters are still unsure what he really stands for.

So as he drags his party to the centre ground, he still has a long way to go.

And, despite his key successes this week, he surely knows he doesnt have long before someone else seeks to topple him.

Michael Crick is Political Correspondent for Mail+

Watch his reports from the Labour Party conference at mailplus.co.uk
What does Boris Johnson think about Sir Keir Starmers speech yesterday afternoon at the Labour Party conference?

Will he be chuckling about the absurd length of the keynote address? Might he be remarking on the absence of good jokes, the lack of striking new policies, and Sir Keirs possibly excessive references to his parents and their influence on him?

Or will he be rubbing his head thoughtfully and reflecting that, although the Labour leader may not be a great orator, he is a more effective politician than most people have given him credit for?

I hope the latter. Before yesterdays performance, I believed that the Tories disparagement of Sir Keir as a wooden and uninspiring leader  who is furthermore supposedly in permanent thrall to the hard-Left  was unwise.

Now I am even more certain that, despite his defects, Sir Keir is someone whom the Conservative Party would do well to take seriously. I dont say that he will ever be prime minister. But it is no longer inconceivable.

Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) is someone whom the Conservative Party would do well to take seriously. I don't say that he will ever be prime minister. But it is no longer inconceivable

Not that it was a great speech. It will be long forgotten when some may still remember Neil Kinnocks 1985 Labour Party conference address in which he berated the hard-Left in language far more eloquent and passionate than his successors measured offering yesterday.

Sir Keir didnt take on the hard-Left, and fielded their intermittent heckling with polite good humour. His critics will say that he was too lily-livered to tell the Corbynistas what to do with their mad ideas. Well, maybe.

But one can look at it another way. How much of this generally sound speech could Jeremy Corbyn have delivered? Id say about ten per cent at most.

Corbyn would never have welcomed back, in Sir Keirs warm and emotional way, the former Labour MP Louise Ellman. She left the party in despair after its leadership had become tainted by anti-Semitism.

Nor would Corbyn have celebrated the family, praised the military, defended the Union, described himself as patriotic, supported business, or made sympathetic references to Tony Blair. Sir Keir did all these things.

All words, you may say, and that is true. But a political leader must choose his or her words very carefully. Once spoken in public, they cannot be easily disowned. They are defining. Sir Keir defined himself yesterday as a man of the centre whose political beliefs wont be inimical to many Tories.

Of course it would have been wonderful to have seen him laying into the Corbynistas. The fact that he didnt suggests to me that he doesnt yet feel powerful enough to take them on.

And that, of course, gives us cause to wonder how effective his conversion to the centre-ground really is. The Left has not gone away. It has an ally in Labours foul-mouthed deputy leader, Angela Rayner, who a few days ago outrageously described senior Tories as scum.

Moreover, the Left was much in evidence in a number of non- binding resolutions passed by the conference. It voted for sanctions against Israel, a 15-an-hour national minimum wage, and (in defiance of Sir Keir) the nationalisation of energy companies.

Sir Keir didnt take on the hard-Left, and fielded their intermittent heckling (pictured) with polite good humour. His critics will say that he was too lily-livered to tell the Corbynistas what to do with their mad ideas. Well, maybe

So the Left is still unbowed. It lurks, like some wounded but truculent monster, eager to attack the Labour leader whenever it has the opportunity to do so. Id say it remains more powerful than it was when Tony Blair became Labour leader in 1994.

Nonetheless, a corner has been turned, and Sir Keir cant go back even if he wants to. The question is whether he has the guile, courage and perseverance to grapple successfully with the Left in the battles that lie ahead.

All that is certain is that, whatever happens, a member of the hard-Left is never going to lead the Labour Party in the foreseeable future. Although he failed to persuade the trade unions to accept one member, one vote, Sir Keir did manage to get the conference to accept a crucial reform.

In future, the number of MPs required by a candidate to get on the leadership ballot paper will double from ten to 20 per cent. Even with Labours diminished numbers in Parliament, this amounts to 40 MPs. No would-be Corbynista leader is ever going to receive that much support.

The country owes Sir Keir Starmer a vote of thanks for removing the possibility of the emergence of a hard-Left Labour leader who is somehow able to pull the wool over the electorate, and gain the keys to No 10.

Boris and his advisers should take note. The Labour leader will seek to fight the Tories on the middle ground. And he has, I believe, some advantages of character and temperament which could make him a formidable adversary

Surely this is proof that Sir Keir is serious about standing up to the Left. He may lack the charisma and chameleon-like quality of Tony Blair. But in common with Labours electorally most successful prime minister, he has grasped that his party can only achieve power from the political centre.

Which is why Boris and his advisers should take note. The Labour leader will seek to fight the Tories on the middle ground. And he has, I believe, some advantages of character and temperament which could make him a formidable adversary.

Let us imagine that he continues successfully in his project of shaking off the hard-Left. As the next election approaches, the two main parties may well be occupying similar political territory.

Both will worship the same insatiable god of the NHS. Both will present climate change, and all the economic sacrifices it demands, as the most pressing issue of the age. Both will accept high taxation, though it is likely that Sir Keir will accuse Mr Johnson of being profligate.

What advantages might the Labour leader have over the Prime Minister? He will portray himself as honest, dependable and competent, and he will represent Mr Johnson as dishonest, undependable and incompetent.

This was a major undercurrent of yesterdays speech, in which the PM was chided for his incontrovertible failings during the pandemic, as well as his shortcomings during the present fuel crisis. Sir Keir spoke of the need for a serious plan for government.

At one point he asserted that Boris Johnson isnt a bad man  this was a dig at Angela Rayner for absurdly describing him as scum  but that he was merely a trivial person. The PMs alleged lack of seriousness is going to be one of the Labour leaders favourite themes.

I certainly dont think Boris is trivial. He is complex and deep. But he is also capable of being disorganised, indecisive and weak on detail. (Mrs Rayner, by the way, is 100 per cent incorrect in accusing him of being racist, homophobic and sexist. He is none of those things).

Wouldnt it have been better if Mr Johnson had given an interview several days ago  rather than belatedly on Tuesday  reassuring the British public, and trying to put the largely confected fuel crisis in perspective?

I realise, of course, that he has been preoccupied with the death of his mother and her funeral. But a sharper, and perhaps more cold-hearted, leader would have spoken sooner.

Sir Keir may be worthy and dullish. But he also seems reliable and organised. There may come a time when the British public yearns for such a leader, if he really has disposed of the Left. Somehow Boris needs to get a grip.
This is the story of a bright, presentable young man called Euan, who may seem a splendid advertisement for British entrepreneurship.

When Euan left school in 2002, he studied ancient history at the University of Bristol, and then did a masters degree in international relations. All this taught him nothing, he said later. And that gave him an idea.

Five years ago, Euan co-founded a firm called WhiteHat, later renamed Multiverse. The aim was to give school leavers the chance to move straight into the world of work, bypassing university.

Multiverse now has links with some 300 employers, including household names such as Google and the investment bank Morgan Stanley, and has placed 5,000 youngsters in apprenticeships. Having raised millions of dollars from American investors, it is valued at a cool 639 million  which means young Euan is worth more than 160 million.

For in a glorious irony, Euans father is one Tony Blair  the unashamed apostle of university expansion, who infamously set a target of getting 50 per cent of all school-leavers into higher education. Pictured: Euan (left) with his father in May 2005

The really impressive thing, though, is that he did it in defiance of his own father.

For in a glorious irony, Euans father is one Tony Blair  the unashamed apostle of university expansion, who infamously set a target of getting 50 per cent of all school-leavers into higher education.

Mr Blair made that pledge back in 1999, and it was only achieved 20 years later. But his son regards it as a dreadful mistake.

As the younger Blair told an interviewer last month, the 50 per cent target has merely corralled youngsters into degree courses for which many are entirely unsuited, and from which they derive little benefit.

Universities typically lure them in with grandiose promises of vast future earnings. Yet, as Euan Blair points out, lots of students end up in jobs deemed to be low skilled that would not need a degree in the first place.

But what does his father think of this? Alas, he doesnt agree.

Only this summer, Tony Blair actually claimed that his expansion policy hadnt gone far enough. Almost unbelievably, he called for yet more students to go into higher education, and suggested building 46 more universities in towns such as Doncaster, Batley and Blackpool  despite the fact that many existing universities are already perilously close to bankruptcy.

So whos right: Tony or Euan, father or son?

Well, having taught at four different British universities, I think the answer is obvious. Euan Blair is absolutely right.

Even two decades ago, when I taught at the University of Sheffield, I sometimes wondered what we were all doing there. My history students were bright and enthusiastic, destined for good professional jobs. But theyd probably have got the jobs they wanted anyway, even if theyd skipped the dubious pleasure of spending three years listening to me.

To question the benefits of university expansion is, I know, a kind of heresy. A university education is often seen as a moral good, and Left-wing academics often bleat about a youngsters right to study whatever they want, no matter how ill-suited they might be for higher education.

Enthusiasts for university expansion, such as Mr Blair and his political manservant, Lord Adonis, always insist that graduates earn more than non-graduates. They do indeed  but theres no reason to believe that their university education is the deciding factor.

A more plausible explanation is simply that most graduates, like the vast majority of the students I taught, tend to come from more affluent households, have better school qualifications and already have the skills and confidence to succeed. So even if they had never bothered going to university, they might still have earned more anyway.

Thats certainly Euan Blairs view. Contradicting his father, he recently pointed out that only 4 per cent of children on free school meals make it to top Russell Group universities. So much, then, for university expansion as a vehicle for social mobility!

Enthusiasts for university expansion, such as Mr Blair and his political manservant, Lord Adonis, always insist that graduates earn more than non-graduates. They do indeed  but theres no reason to believe that their university education is the deciding factor

In any case, its simply a myth that all graduates move on to a land of milk and honey. Official figures show that if you study sociology or anthropology, youve only a 48 per cent chance of getting a graduate-level job within 15 months of finishing your degree.

Even if you study history, my own subject, the figure only rises to 56 per cent.

And at some universities, the graduate employment rates are simply awful. When I read, for example, that only 15 per cent of the University of Bedfordshires business and management students go on to graduate-level jobs, my blood boils at such a waste of time, money and emotional effort.

But this is merely one symptom of a bloated, corrupt and broken system. Wherever you look, British universities seem in utter disarray.

Ive written before about the scandal of vice-chancellors pay, epitomised by characters like the University of Boltons George Holmes, with his 290,000 salary, yacht and a Bentley, as well as a 1 million loan for his Edwardian house.

Bolton, incidentally, features prominently in the league table of institutions with the worst drop-out rates  a dreadful indictment of the tendency to shove youngsters into higher education, whether they are suited to it or not.

The figures make awful reading. In the year before the pandemic, Boltons dropout rate was 15.4 per cent, only just ahead of Bedfordshire (15.2 per cent) and Suffolk (13.6 per cent). But it wasnt even the worst offender. That was London Metropolitan, with a dropout rate of a staggering 18.6 per cent.

Five years ago, Euan (left) co-founded a firm called WhiteHat, later renamed Multiverse. The aim was to give school leavers the chance to move straight into the world of work, bypassing university. Pictured: Tony Blair with wife Cherie, and sons Euan and Nicky (right) in 2005

Behind these cold statistics are hundreds, even thousands, of students, usually from poorer households, taking the painful and demoralising decision to abandon a course that simply wasnt right.

Then theres student debt. According to the Governments own figures, outstanding student debt currently stands at 141 billion, and is likely to reach a mind-boggling 560 billion by the middle of this century.

Yet almost unbelievably, the Governments own projections suggest that only a quarter of todays undergraduates will ever earn enough money to pay their debt in full!

Why, then, does the higher education racket continue? The answers are obvious. Institutional greed, academic self-interest, liberal dogma and a crushing inability to question the metropolitan conventional wisdom that, in Euan Blairs words, one-size-fits-all.

As a result, we now have a society divided roughly in two, with higher education as the new class signifier. Go to university, and youre supposedly a middle-class success story. Leave school for the world of work and youre supposedly a dull-witted failure.

Its an astoundingly crude and limiting way to look at a youngsters future. But thanks to relentless political pressure and shameless university hucksterism, millions of parents and teenagers alike have come to believe it.

Yet the younger Blairs admirable scheme shows that another way is possible. We dont need more sociology graduates.

Euan Blair and his wife Suzanne leave All Saints Church after getting married on September 14, 2013 in Wotton Underwood. Yesterday, the 37-year-old's company was valued at 640million

Indeed, at the risk of self-destruction, I dont even think we need more history graduates. If the number of students reading history fell by half overnight, I dont think Britain would be a penny poorer  whether economically, culturally or intellectually.

But we all know what we do need, dont we? As the Recruitment and Employment Confederation reported three weeks ago, we need 79,000 nurses, 50,000 care workers, 29,000 chefs, 26,000 sales staff, 24,000 cleaners, 19,000 metal workers and 6,000 carpenters. And  how could I forget?  we also need more than 100,000 lorry and tanker drivers.

For too long, politicians have looked down their noses at jobs like these, insisting that teenagers would be better off doing a three-year humanities degree than working their way up in a practical trade. The events of the last few weeks, however, should remind us how short-sighted this was.

Yes, there are no degrees in lorry driving, waitressing or caregiving  or at least, not yet. But its these kind of jobs on which Britain depends.

Three cheers, then, for young Mr Blair  not a line I ever thought Id write. And if more apprenticeships make him even richer, good luck to him. He spotted a useful opportunity and he deserves every penny.

As for his father, whose misguided policies encouraged so many people to waste their time and money, I appreciate that hes never going to listen to me. But would it never occur to him to listen to his son?
'Pillow slides' are the latest in a long line of 'ugly' shoe styles to sweep social media - but getting your hands on a pair in Australia might be trickier than you think.

Also known as cloud slides or pillow slippers, the purposely 'daggy' design which even appears as part of Kanye West's Yeezy fashion line could be easily mistaken for orthopedic footwear.

But its unparalleled comfort has garnered the seal of approval from millions around the word.

One TikTok influencer said: 'They are literally the ugliest things I've ever seen in my life, but it's fine because I've never tried on a more comfortable pair of shoes - ever.'

'Pillow slides' (pictured) are the latest in a long line of 'ugly' shoe styles to sweep social media - but getting your hands on a pair in Australia might be trickier than you think

Poll Will you be buying pillow slides this summer? Yes No Will you be buying pillow slides this summer? Yes 52 votes

No 142 votes Now share your opinion





A second said she would never get over her love for 'comfortable, ugly' footwear, while a third added: 'I know the world's opening back up again, but please, can we just never go back to heels, like ever?'

Lightweight and sponge-like, pillow slides are made from EVA, the rubbery material which insoles are made of, which supports and cushions your feet while you walk.

They're slip resistant, which makes them ideal for the beach or poolside in summer, and can be worn with socks to keep warm during winter.

There's a wide range of styles on the market, but the creme de la creme come from the original Pillow Slides brand.

Lightweight and sponge-like, the slides (pictured) are made from EVA, the rubbery material which insoles are made of, which supports and cushions your feet while you walk

The slides are slip resistant and can be worn with socks during winter

A description on the website says slipping your feet into the slides feels like 'gliding into heaven' - and you'd hope so, because a single pair will set you back $95 (AUD).

Most are buying significantly cheaper versions from Amazon, but this hits Australian shoppers with a $20 international shipping fee.

The most affordable local option is a $19 pair from Dick Smith, which offers a range of colours including pink, orange, yellow and black.

Australian footwear store Platypus also stocks neutral shades from Itno, but these are more expensive at $59.99 a pair.

It's not the first time an 'ugly' shoe has made waves on the global fashion scene.

There's a wide range of styles on the market, but the creme de la creme come from the original Pillow Slides brand

Slipping your feet into the slides (pictured) is said to feel like 'gliding into heaven'

A 'hideous' shoe once dubbed a 'plastic hoof' by an influential fashion journalist dominated the Australian footwear scene in the first half of 2021.

Love them or loathe them, sales of Crocs soared 430 percent between January and July compared to the same period last year, according to The Culture Index, a trend report from designer streetwear marketplace, StockX.

The report, which analysed the performance of leading brands on a platform used by 30million shoppers in 200 countries around the world, shows an unprecedented surge in demand for the slip-on sandals with a dubious reputation.

Time magazine fashion consultant Tim Gunn once compared Crocs to 'plastic hooves' that 'can't be taken seriously', while a Washington Post article described them as 'hideous'.

Love them or loathe them, sales of Crocs (pictured) are up 430 percent in 2021

The shoes, which cost anywhere from $89.99 (AUD) for classic models to $740 for customised collaborations, enjoyed the third biggest sales growth year-on-year of any brand, only behind Birkenstock and French fashion house, Louis Vuitton.

Birkenstock enjoyed a surge of 610 percent, while sales of Louis Vuitton sneakers skyrocketed by 440 percent.

The move towards comfortable footwear over the past 18 months has been widely attributed to Covid lockdowns, when millions swapped fashionable shoes for something that simply felt better.

But intentionally 'ugly' shoes had secured the sartorial seal of approval long before the pandemic broke out.

Birkenstocks (left and right) enjoyed a sales surge of 610 percent in 2021

Chunky platform sandals with velcro straps that once sent shivers through the fashion industry were declared the 'must-have' shoe of 2020.

In a rare fusion of fashion and functionality, style insiders turned shoes commonly worn by long-distance hikers and middle-aged fathers into the perfect accessory for skirts, denim shorts, jeans and dresses.

Chanel gave the style its esteemed seal of approval in 2019 by releasing $1,250 (AUD) velcro sandals in a rainbow of colours including black, purple, pink and cobalt blue, which have been seen on some of the biggest names in fashion.

British model turned designer Alexa Chung wore a black pair in 2019, while Italy's Instagram queen Chiara Ferragni styled a purple pair with pink cargo pants and a floral top during lockdown at her Milanese penthouse in March 2020.

'Daggy dad' sandals got Chanel's esteemed seal of approval when the French fashion house released these chunky velcro slip-ons in 2019

British model turned designer Alexa Chung wears the $1,250 Chanel velcro sandals in London in February, 2019

Online fashion magazine L'Officiel dubbed Chanel's 'dad slides' the 'must-have' of 2020 while Hello! hailed them the year's 'unexpected summer hit'.

The trend for 'ugly but cool' sandals started with the 2015 comeback of Birkenstocks, whose ergonomic design has become a cult classic for fashionistas almost two and a half centuries since it was founded in Germany in 1774.

But it wasn't until November 2019, with the spectacular resurrection of popular yet 'daggy' Maseurs, that ugly sandals really exploded in Australia.

Chemists and online retailers restocked the sensible slip-ons and thousands of millennials took note, flooding Instagram with carefully curated photos of the $56.99 shoes.

Italy's Instagram queen Chiara Ferragni wears the Chanel sandals in purple during lockdown at her Milanese penthouse in March 2020

Maseurs were created in 1989 by Sydney designer Gabriel Eber to help people suffering from chronic foot pain.

Mr Eber claimed many 'aches, pains and circulation problems' were linked to nerve endings in the feet, and made it his mission to design a shoe that would alleviate those issues.

The sandal correctly positions feet to relieve pressure on the knees, hips and back region - just like a built-in physiotherapist - and while once seen as a 'dad shoe', is now a stylish statement just like the Birkenstock.
Holiday-starved Australians can restart their travels by spending a night at a pearl farm on the edge of one of the country's most breathtaking landscapes.

Perched on the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm is one of Western Australia's most unique resorts, inspiring both tourists and locals with rich history and spectacular scenery.

Founded by fisherman Dean Brown in 1946, the farm 200km north of Broome contains a pearling village, a restaurant, a sparkling infinity pool and a homestead where guests can stay in safari tents or original pearling shacks built in the 1960s.

Holiday-starved Australians can restart their travels by spending a night at a pearl farm on the edge of one of the country's most breathtaking landscapes

Perched on the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm is one of Western Australia's most unique resorts

Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, 200km north of Broome, WA

First opened to the public in 2009, the farm is surrounded by magnificent nature, from mangroves that turn into tidal creeks to rocky points filled with fish and fresh oysters.

There's a series of sandy beaches to explore, as well as bush tracks offering bird watching and secluded hideaways.

Photos of the farm have attracted stunned responses on social media, with comments including 'awesome' and 'unreal'.

The praise continues on the farm's website, where guests have hailed it it a 'must visit'.

Guests can stay in safari tents or original pearling shacks built in the 1960s

First opened to the public in 2009, the farm is surrounded by magnificent nature, from mangroves that turn into tidal creeks to rocky points filled with fish and fresh oysters

The perfect escape is surprisingly affordable, with nightly rates of $220 for a two-person rainforest tent and $295 for a two-person cottage.

Groups could opt for the master pearler's private retreat, which sleeps eight guests for $950 ($118 per person) a night.

However those living outside Western Australia will have to be patient, as fears mount that the state will remain closed to Covid-addled NSW and Victoria for summer - despite rising vaccination rates.

Qantas on Monday announced it would not increase flights between Perth and both Melbourne and Sydney until February 2022, two months later than planned following talks with WA authorities.

Photos of the farm have attracted stunned responses on social media, with comments including 'awesome' and 'unreal'

But the farm is not the only domestic destination piquing interest this year.

Over on the east coast, travellers have fallen in love with a little-known part of Fraser Island which has been dubbed an 'untouched' alternative to some of Australia's most iconic holiday spots.

Tucked away on the western side of the world's largest sand island, Wathumba Creek is a 'bucket list' destination that captures the hearts of almost everyone who sees it.

Travellers have fallen in love with this little-known part of Fraser Island which has been dubbed an 'untouched' alternative to some of Australia's most iconic holiday spots

The beach, which boasts pristine white sand and sparkling turquoise waves, is known for spectacular sunsets and world-class water activities including diving, snorkelling and fishing.

The jaw-dropping landscape, 304km north of Queensland's Sunshine Coast, is home to pure bred dingoes and pods of humpback whales, which can often be seen breaching the ocean's surface.

Travel guides have described the creek as Fraser Coast's 'very own' Hill Inlet, a breathtaking section of the Whitsunday Islands which has become one of the country's most photographed locations.

Tucked away on the western side of the world's largest sand island, Wathumba Creek is a 'bucket list' destination that captures the hearts of everyone who sees it

Wathumba Creek is located on the western part of Fraser Island, 304km north of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Australian blogger Ashleigh Bridget shared her experience of the 'untouched' paradise in an Instagram post, captioned: 'I didn't know Fraser Island looked like this!'

She added: 'Wathumba Creek could easily be mistaken for Whitehaven's Hill Inlet with the swirling turquoise blues and fine white sand.

'This trip was so easy. One really long stretch of sand with beautiful spots to stop on the way. Humpback whales breaching, stunning sunsets and smooth water sailing.'
Lola Berry (pictured) has responded to backlash after she came under fire for her 'insensitive' post about travelling to Australia from the US to promote her new book

Nutritionist Lola Berry has responded to backlash after she came under fire for her 'insensitive' and 'tone deaf' post about travelling to Australia from the US to promote her new book.

The nutrition queen - who splits her time between Los Angeles and Byron Bay - updated her fans on social media saying she was on her way back to home soil following three cancelled flights.

'It was no easy feat with the current travel caps and only two airlines flying from America into Australia. After being bumped three times, this was our four time lucky,' Lola wrote on her Facebook.

'To everyone asking why I'm coming back, I am here for the release of my next book Fearlessly Failing - I've poured my heart and soul into it and want to do everything in my power to see it fly.'

But her post was met with outrage, with many criticising her over the 'unnecessary trip to Australia to release a book' due to the current situation amid lockdown restrictions due to spiralling Covid-19 case numbers.

In response to the backlash, the 36-year-old shared her side of the story with Daily Mail Australia, saying it was never her intention to offend or hurt anyone.

Her post was met with outrage, with many criticising her over the 'unnecessary trip to Australia to release a book' due to the current situation amid lockdown restrictions due to spiralling Covid-19 case numbers

The nutrition queen - who splits her time between LA and Byron Bay - updated her fans on social media saying she was on her way back to home soil following three cancelled flights

Her response comes just a day after she was criticised on social media, with many taking particular issue with Lola for her 'insensitive' post about her new book launch

'I completely understand everyone's perspective because I haven't seen my family since November last year and they are in Melbourne. I'm sorry for offending anyone. My intention was to never hurt Australians,' Lola told Daily Mail Australia.

'I'm really open and honest about my journey on social media so my aim is to be transparent with everyone. I'm always updating my followers so I didn't mean to be insensitive. The last thing I want to do is hurt anyone so I apologise.'

Like most Aussies stranded overseas due to the pandemic, Lola - who moved to LA in May this year for business - said her flight home was far from easy.

'It was a confronting experience. I had three flights cancelled. My flight home was very expensive. I managed to book an economy ticket which cost just under $10,000. It's quite dear. It took me four flights just to get home,' she said.

Lola said she relocated to the US in May this year after she successfully got a green card

Many expressed their frustrations and concerns after Lola's post about her return home

Lola said she relocated to the US after she successfully got a green card.

'It's a once-in-a-lifetime visa - you only get it once and you don't get it again so I had six months to be on American soil. I moved in May and have been there for the past four-and-a-half-months for work, fully on business,' she explained.

'I'm a permanent resident there. My dream is to split my time between LA and Byron Bay so six months here and six months over there.'

The nutritionist said she returned home to Australia to promote her new book after she was unable to push the launch date to next year.

'I explored every option to stay in America but I was told my book was going ahead with the launch. I tried to move it but I couldn't so I weighed up all my options and my best fighting chance was to come home to promote it,' she said.

Lola - who landed in Sydney on Tuesday morning - said she'll be flying straight to Byron Bay once she's released from her two-week hotel quarantine.

Her response comes just a day after she was criticised on social media, with many taking particular issue with Lola for her 'tone deaf' post about her new book launch.

The nutritionist said she returned home to Australia to promote her new book after she was unable to push the launch date to next year

However, many jumped to Lola's defence, urging the nutritionist to ignore the negativity

'It's only for a book release. Very insensitive and maybe she should have read the room before putting this up or even thinking it was a necessary trip. People have missed out on births and funerals, and are separated from families,' one wrote.

Another said: 'I find this so wrong - people can not travel here to visit family or reunite with their partners but people can come to release a book, so wrong.'

While one added: 'Super happy for you Lola being able to visit Australia... no way is this an attack on you. But given the current circumstances and given how tough so many Australians are doing not being able to see family overseas or interstate.

'This post does come off very poorly and is insensitive to that. For someone with a large social media following and a "known" personality I think it's important to understand that.'

One new mum said she hasn't been able to see her family in New South Wales after giving birth to a newborn baby.

'I feel this post is insensitive considering the situation Australia is in and we are separated from our families both within the same states in some cases and interstate in others. How is releasing a book more important than seeing family?' she said.

However, many jumped to Lola's defence, with one saying: 'She's Australian and deserves to come back home just as much as the last person.

'The fact she has a book to release at the same time - what an amazing woman! Ignore the negative girl it's not your fault that these rules are in place.'
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Daniel Craig's glamorous daughter Ella Loudon made a rare public appearance with her father at the No Time To Die premiere and after party last night.

While the James Bond actor may be one of the most famous men in the world, Ella, 29, stays largely out of the limelight.

Daniel, 53, shares Ella with ex-wife Fiona Loudon, who he divorced in 1994 after just two years of marriage. He also shares a daughter, whose name has not been publicly shared with his wife of 10 years Rachel Weisz, 51. Rachel also has a son, Henry Aronofsky, with her ex-fiance Darren Aronofsky.

Glamorous Ella is following in her father's footsteps and has spent time carving out a career, appearing in stage productions for Shakespeare & Company and several short films.

She looked effortlessly chic in a shiny black suit and cream silk shirt as she left the party last night after previously posing with her famous father on the red carpet.

Her step-mother Rachel did not attend the glitzy London premiere of the new Bond film because she is reportedly filming in New York for the Amazon Prime series Dead Ringers.

Unlike the offspring of other wealthy actors, Ella is unlikely to receive a large inheritance once her father dies, with Craig previously saying he would rather 'get rid' of all his money rather than give it to his children because he finds the concept of inheritance 'quite distasteful'.

Daniel Craig made a rare public appearance with his daughter Ella Loudon at the No Time To Die premiere and after party last night

Daniel shares Ella with ex-wife Fiona Loudon who he divorced in 1994 after just two years of marriage before tying the knot with current wife Rachel Weisz, 51, in 2011 (pictured left, Ella with her mother Fiona, and right, with Daniel)

While the James Bond actor may be one of the most famous men in the world, Ella, 29, stays largely out of the limelight

Ella is the only child of Craig and his first wife, actress, Fiona. The couple were married in 1992 and welcomed Ella before splitting in 1994.

Like Craig's daughter with Weisz, Ella was raised out of the spotlight. She spent her early childhood years in London before moving to a boarding school in Massachusetts at the age of 17.

After graduating, Ella enrolled at NYU to study acting - the first significant indication that she intended to follow her parents into showbiz.

However her time at the university, whose alumni include Lady Gaga, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Bell, was short-lived and she dropped out after a year.

The actress has admitted in a previous interview how she suffered from depression, explaining how 'her head wasn't in the right place at the time'.

Ella, who is also an artist, now lives between New York and LA, and has starred in a number of theatre productions

Ella, who is extremely photogenic, regularly gives fans an insight into her enviable lifestyle on Instagram

Craig was married to Ella's mother Fiona, also an actress, for two years from 1992 to 1994 (pictured left, Ella and far right Fiona)

Ella, who is also an artist, now lives between New York and LA, and has starred in a number of theatre productions.

She has shared a number of backstage shots from recent theatre productions with Shakespeare & Company, including Cymbeline.

The actress also starred on stage in a production of Macbeth with the company in Massachusetts.

The 29-year-old blonde often posts sultry snaps on her Instagram account (pictured)

In another photo shared on her page this summer, Daniel's daughter lounged around in bed topless

Meanwhile she has also appeared in a series of short films, including Trauma is a Time Machine in 2018 and Maneater in 2017.

She is set to star in a new film Short Term, which is due to be released next year.

Ella regularly shares glamorous snaps on her Instagram account, along with candid pictures of her with her family - including one post in which she describes herself as her father's 'little nightmare'.

Ella, who is extremely photogenic, often gives fans an insight into her enviable lifestyle on Instagram.

Back in 2018 she shared a black-and-white selfie of her and her father on his 50th birthday.

Captioning the snap, she wrote: 'Its my Pops 50th. Bloody proud and and love you always and forever.

'Happy f****** birthday. Love from your little nightmare.'

Ella was one of only four people present when her father tied the knot with Rachel in a secret ceremony in New York back in 2011.

Ella clearly enjoys a close relationship with step-mother Rachel, recently sharing a post about the actress being the honoree of a film festival in Massachusetts.

She has also previously described how she often goes vintage shopping with both her mother and her step-mother, Rachel, showing their bond.

Yet Ella won't inherit any of Daniel's fortune. The actor, who is worth an estimated 116 million, recently told Candis magazine: 'Isn't there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you've failed?'

He continued: 'I think Andrew Carnegie [the Scottish-born US industrialist] gave away what in today's money would be about $11 billion, which shows how rich he was because I'll bet he kept some of it too.

'But I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation. I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is: get rid of it or give it away before you go.'

Daniel and Rachel very rarely talk about their children, with Daniel previously stating that their privacy was 'hugely important'.

Family: Daniel Craig made a rare public appearance with his daughter Ella Loudon at the No Time To Die premiere and after party
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It was a red carpet full of Hollywood A-listers but it was Kate Middleton who stole the spotlight on the No Time To Die premiere last night.

The Duchess of Cambridge, 39, was at her glamorous best in a custom gold Jenny Packham gown as she joined husband Prince William, 39, and Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in a rare joint engagement at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Kate outshone even the stars in the glittering frock, created to look like liquid metal, from one of her favoured British fashion designers - with style experts and royal watchers united in their love of Kate's look and declaring it their 'favourite' the royal has ever worn.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Laura Kay, Makeup Artist and Founder of Laura Kay London, explained the Duchess eschewed her typically 'composed' make-up look in favour of all out glamour, dubbing it her 'Bond girl moment', while Tom Smith, Celebrity Hairdresser and Brand Consultant, says that Kate has chosen a hairstyle suitable for a 'future Queen'.

Social media users were similarly effusive, praising the 'stunning' duchess and her 'showstopping' appearance.

Style experts and royal watchers were united in their love of Kate's look, with several declaring it their 'favourite' the royal has ever worn. Laura Kay, makeup artist, explained she eschewed her typically 'composed' style in favour of all out glamour including shimmering gloss, bronze contouring, fake eyelashes and defined eyebrows

Ornate: Meanwhile Tom Smith, Celebrity Hairdresser and Brand Consultant, says that Kate has chosen a style suitable for a 'future Queen' by ditching her bouncy blow dry for a more elaborate up-do (left). Right, William and Kate on the red carpet

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge pose on the red carpet with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, upon their arrival for the World Premiere of No Time To Die at the Royal Albert Hall

The Duchess of Cambridge dazzled in gold as she met James Bond actor Daniel Craig on the red carpet ahead of the film premiere yesterday evening

Both Kate and actress Lashana Lynch looked resplendent as they chatted ahead of the long-awaited James Bond film at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday night

Special moment: William, Kate, Charles and Camilla stood for the national anthem ahead of the film premiere last night

Impressive: The crowd turned to watch the royals, who were lit by spotlight, ahead of the film being shown

Laura said: 'Kate steals the show! She looks like a Greek goddess and is channelling her inner Princess. This is a dramatic look for Kate who is usually reserved and composed. Although she is known to go glam for special occasions, this is undeniably her Bond girl moment.'

Mother-of-three Kate dazzled at the event in a custom Jenny Packham embellished gown - which is usually priced at 2,800. Featuring cape sleeve detailing and structured shoulders.

She teamed her dress with bespoke 290 Onitaa earrings - which were made in Pakistan by the South Asian luxury couture label and Aquazzura 555 leather pumps.

Looking effortlessly elegant, Kate's dress had a bespoke 1970s-style cape attached and the royal beauty completed the look with gold earrings and shoes, with her hair coiled on top of her head.

Kate dazzled at the premiere for the new James Bond film No Time To Die last night as she paid a touching tribute to Princess Diana with her shimmering outfit (left, Diana at the A View to Kill premiere in 1985, and right, the Duchess last night)

What an entrance! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (pictured together) and the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have attended the glittering world premiere of the new James Bond film No Time To Die this evening

Stunning! Kate commanded attention in a shimmering custom gown by favoured British fashion designer Jenny Packham, which featured dazzling golden embellishments, cape sleeves and structured shoulders

Mother-of-three Kate dazzled at the event in a custom Jenny Packham embellished gown - which is usually priced at 2,800. Featuring cape sleeve detailing and structured shoulders

Laura explained that to match her dazzling outfit, the royal has 'moved away from her signature make-up look'- ditching her flushed rosy cheeks and matte pink lip in favour of a more bronzed and dewey look

Her look certainly made an impression on royal fans, with hoards of star struck social media users insisting Kate was looking 'absolutely stunning' and hailing her a 'class act'.

'Kate Middleton can do no wrong', wrote one user. 'Absolutely stunning in that gold Jenny Packham gown #007'.

'In other news: can we talk about Kate Middletons dress last night?! Wowza!! Star-struck She looked stunning at the Bond premiere', commented a second.

Laura explained that to match her dazzling outfit, the royal has 'moved away from her signature make-up look'- ditching her flushed rosy cheeks and matte pink lip in favour of a more bronzed and dewey look.

'She is glowing, her skin looks dewy and complexion is flawless. She looks fresh from the spa and may have prepared the evening with a hydrating facial and massage as she looks so relaxed and confident in her skin.

Double date night! The Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Prince of Wales stand together when at the event

Heir to the throne Charles is patron of the British Film Institute, while his son William (pictured with Kate) is president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta)

William and Kate appeared in high spirits as they walked the red carpet ahead of the No Time To Die world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared a sweet moment on the red carpet ahead of the long-awaited premiere yesterday evening in London

'She has embraced golden bronze and brown hues to match her outfit. Her brows are bushier like we see with Cara Delevingne, or perhaps it is a clever nod to ancient history when women used to express their power and wealth by showcasing their eye-brows.

'Kate has applied a bronze cream highlighter to contour the length of her face, contouring the top of her forehand, below her chin, jawline, as well as cheekbones and temples, to sculpt and add dimension. She finishes of her look with a tint of rose cream on her cheekbones for extra oomph.

Her brows take centre stage and perhaps inspired by her sister-in-law Meghan Markle who is known for her defined brows on the red carpet.

'Kate appears to have used a soft pencil to build up her brows to achieve a lamination effect and brushed with a powder to add extra dimension', said Laura.

Kate has also opted for a heavier eye look, including fake lashes - which the make-up artists says 'totally transforms her look' - while her choice of lip colour is subtle but glamorous.

'She has opted for a deep smokey brown eyeshadow which is applied all over her eyelid as well as strategically smudged underneath, to create a smouldering effect. It is much more daring than what we are use to.'

'Her lipstick choice is perfect for a formal evening event and it doesnt over shadow her looks and she chooses a rich yet natural lip colour in gloss to add shimmer.

'This makeup look brings Kate to the forefront of trends as the whole world is watching her.

Sharing a laugh! Kate Middleton chats with 007 star Daniel Craig when attending the world premiere of the new James Bond film No Time To Die this evening

Two dapper gentleman together! Prince William was all smiles as he met the 007 actor at the glittering premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London

Greetings! Prince Charles and British actor Daniel shared a hand shake when meeting one another at this evening's outing

Chatting with one another: The Duchess of Cornwall appeared in deep concentration as she talked with the leading star of the No Time To Die film

The Duchess of Cambridge laughs as she meets other guests at the No Time To Die world premiere at Royal Albert Hall

The world premiere will benefit charities supporting serving and former members of the three intelligence agencies - the Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service and GCHQ - as well as charities supporting past and present members of the UK Special Forces. Pictured, Kate meeting the stars of the movie

Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel Craig's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown

Chatting away: Lashana Lynch and Kate also appeared deep in conversation with the former putting on an animated display

Shaking hands: Prince William and Cuban star Ana de Armas shook hands at the star-studded event at the Royal Albert Hall

Next up, the Prince of Wales: After chatting to his son, Ana struck up conversation with heir to the throne Prince Charles

Something funny? Performers Finneas and Billie Eilish were seen smiling as they chatted to doting father-of-three William

'I would say Kate is pushing the boundaries and she knows only she has the power to pull this off. I suspect we will see Kate experiment with more looks in the future as she embraces her role as the Duchess of Cambridge.'

Meanwhile Tom Smith, Celebrity Hairdresser and Brand Consultant, says that Kate has chosen a style suitable for a 'future Queen' by ditching her bouncy blow dry for a more elaborate up-do .

'This is Kate at her most glamorous - it is rare that we see her with such an ornate up-do and it certainly makes a statement', he said.

'Her, statuesque look is enhanced with her hair piled up into soft curls giving her an even more elegant and regal look than normal. This is absolutely the look of our future Queen and she wears it magnificently.

'There is a softness about the style, with almost a fluffiness to the finish which gives a warmer impression rather than a super slick look which can come off as hard or severe.

A smiling Duchess of Cambridge is presented with a gorgeous bouquet of pink flowers by a group of children at the premiere

Meeting the stars! The Duchess of Cambridge meets No Time To Die performers Finneas and Billie Eilish at the glamorous occasion

Performers Finneas and Billie Eilish are all smiles as they meet the Prince of Wales at the lavish event this evening in London

A number of Bond premieres have taken place at the Royal Albert Hall, including 2015's Spectre where William and Kate and the Duke of Sussex were in attendance. Pictured, Kate at the event

He says that by moving her parting to the side, rather than in the centre, the Duchess has drawn attention to the detailing of her ornate hairstyle and suspects Kate used extensions to give the look more volume.

'Particularly with her usual natural centre parting which she usually wears down the middle and can sometimes look harsh, instead with this style, she has opted for a side parting that is brushed over to soften the style at the front.

'This is done in a deliberate attempt to draw the focal point towards the detailing at the back of the head.

'The hair is woven into curls and twists with no distinctive pins or securing points which gives a weightless and effortless look to what is a highly detailed crown of hair.

'She surely would have had added hair in the form of extensions or hair pieces to give this level of volume and glamour but these would have likely been temporarily attached specifically for this event. She has also added subtle golden highlights to her hair which you can get a hint of in the curls and this shimmers beautifully in the light.'

Mother-of-three Kate (pictured with Prince William) dazzled at the event in a custom Jenny Packham embellished Margot gown - which is usually priced at 2,800 - and featured cape sleeve detailing and structured shoulders

The Duchess of Cambridge stepped out in statement bespoke 290 Onitaa earrings - which were made in Pakistan by the South Asian luxury couture label, which also design bridal wear and other jewellery

How sweet! The Prince of Wales tenderly kissed his daughter-in-law on the cheek when greeting her at the outing this evening

Looking effortlessly elegant, Kate's dress had a bespoke 1970s-style cape attached and the royal beauty completed the look with gold earrings and shoes, with her hair coiled on top of her head

The royal foursome were introduced to screenwriters Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and singer Billie Eilish and her musician brother Finneas O'Connell, who co-wrote the new Bond theme song.

A number of healthcare workers and members of the armed forces joined the royals in the auditorium to watch the film as a thank you for their work during the Covid pandemic.

The highly anticipated No Time To Die is the 25th Bond film and fifth and final movie featuring Craig as 007. It faced more than a year of delays due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but is being released in UK cinemas on Thursday.

Amid screams of excitement, Kate, along with her husband, William, and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, walked up the red carpet outside Londons Royal Albert Hall.

Both Charles and his son were suave in black tie, while Camilla also looked elegant in a pale blue chiffon dress with silver embroidery by Bruce Oldfield. She teamed her dress with 149 Sole Bliss Carmen mid-heel court shoes in silver leather.

Amid screams of excitement, Kate (pictured), along with her husband, William, and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, walked up the red carpet outside Londons Royal Albert Hall

The Duke of Cambridge kisses the Duchess of Cornwall's cheek, while Charles shares a kiss on the cheek with Kate

Amid screams of excitement, Kate (pictured), along with her husband, William, and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, walked up the red carpet outside Londons Royal Albert Hall

Among the cast members waiting to greet the royal party were, of course, Craig, as well as villain Rami Malek and female leads Lea Seydoux and Lashana Lynch. They also met producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and director Cary Joji Fukunaga

Craig was Bond-like in his charm when he met Kate. You look jolly lovely! he said. Meanwhile, Miss Waller-Bridge remarked wow! when the duchess walked to the line up to her.

Stopping briefly for a photo call on the steps of the historic entertainment venue, the royal party headed inside for the first royal premiere line-up in almost two years - although there was precious little in the way of handshakes.

William and Kate had arrived first, driven down the red carpet in a fleet of Range Rovers past one of the famous Aston Martin cars from the film, waved on by a packed crowd outside the historic venue.

The highly anticipated No Time To Die is the 25th Bond film and fifth and final movie featuring Craig as 007. It faced more than a year of delays due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but is being released in UK cinemas on Thursday. Pictured, William and Kate at the premiere

All smiles! The royal couples looked in great spirits as they arrived at the red carpet event in London, at the Royal Albert Hall

Royal blue! The Duchess of Cornwall (pictured with the Prince of Wales) proved her elegance in a stunning embellished gown with a billowing, flared hem with see-through sleeves

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall turned up shortly afterwards, again driven partially down the red carpet in a state Bentley before being taken inside to meet the actors.

Royal sources said the outing of Charles, Camilla, William and Kate could herald a new era of collaboration and solidarity between the future king and his eldest son.

The world premiere will benefit charities supporting serving and former members of the three intelligence agencies - the Secret Intelligence Service, the Security Service and GCHQ - as well as charities supporting past and present members of the UK Special Forces.

Heir to the throne Charles is patron of the British Film Institute, while his son William is president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta).

William and Kate attended the star-studded world premiere for the last Bond film, Spectre, in 2015, and were joined by Prince Harry. Charles and Camilla attended the world premiere of the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall, in 2012.

A megawatt smile! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were beaming as they chatted with other guests at the star-studded occasion

The outing of Charles, Camilla, William and Kate (pictured) is likely to be seen as a sign of collaboration and solidarity between the future king and his eldest son

Radiant: Kate stunned in a golden sequin evening gown with a matching cape for the star-studded London-based event

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (pictured) arrive at the glittering world premiere of the new Bond film No Time To Die

The outing of Charles, Camilla, William and Kate is likely to be seen as a sign of collaboration and solidarity between the future king and his eldest son.

No Time To Die takes place after Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

A mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading to a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.

A number of Bond premieres have taken place at the Royal Albert Hall, including 2015's Spectre where William and Kate and the Duke of Sussex were in attendance.

Stars Ana de Armas, Naomie Harris and Lashana Lynch led the glamour in breathtaking evening gowns as they joined leading man Daniel Craig, who was dapper in a pink dinner jacket, at the Royal Albert Hall.

Despite the wet weather, the stars were still dressed to the nines in showstopping frocks, with Lashana standing out in a vibrant yellow Vivienne Westwood Couture ballgown with a voluminous black skirt and dramatic asymmetric neckline.

It was almost exactly the same shade as red carpet host Clara Amfo's strapless cocktail dress, which featured figure-flattering ruching, draped off-the-shoulder sleeves and a flirty calf-length hemline.

Bright and beautiful! Lashana Lynch stood out in a vibrant yellow Vivienne Westwood Couture ballgown with a voluminous black skirt and dramatic asymmetric neckline. She struck a pose as she walked the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall

Leading man: Dapper Daniel Craig opted for a deep pink dinner jacket with dress trousers for the premiere. Right, No Time To Die star Lea Seydoux channelled old Hollywood glamour in a silver and white gown complete with shimmering cape

... And the misses: One of the fashion misses of the night was reality TV star Kimberley Garner, left, who flashed her underwear in an attention-grabbing white gown with a dramatic side slit. Right, Billie Eilish, who wrote the No Time To Die theme song, eschewed a glamorous evening dress for a boxy black suit in a shimmering black fabric with matching shirt

The red carpet hits! Stars Naomie Harris (left) and Ana de Armas (centre) led the glamour in breathtaking evening gowns as they joined leading man Daniel Craig at the Royal Albert Hall. Right, host Clara Amfo in a figure-flattering yellow frock

Hollywood heartthrobs: Rami Malek (left), Jason Momoa (centre) and Cary Fukunaga (right) looked dapper on the red carpet

Elsewhere Naomie opted for a sleek white column evening dress with cut-out detailing on the bodice and delicate shoestring straps. Typically sophisticated, she kept accessories to a minimum but did add a beaded strand to her hair.

One of the fashion misses of the night was reality TV star Kimberly Gardner, who flashed her underwear in an attention-grabbing white gown with a dramatic side slit. The cut of the dress revealed the entirety of her leg - and a glimpse of what she was wearing underneath - as she walked the red carpet.

Meanwhile Billie Eilish, who wrote the No Time To Die theme song, eschewed a glamorous evening dress for a boxy black suit in a shimmering black fabric with matching shirt, which she wore with Gucci platform slides. The oversized, baggy shape did little to accentuate her figure.

Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas stepped out in a slinky black satin evening gown with a plunging neckline and thigh slit that revealed most of her leg. The dress featured chunky chain effect straps that brought a touch of edge to the otherwise refined ensemble.

The actress, who previously dated Ben Affleck, wore her brunette locks in a long bob with a trendy blunt fringe.

Power couples: Christian and Geri opted for classic black and white. Right, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson

Ladies in black: Tess Daly (left) showed off her toned legs in a flirty one-shoulder cocktail frock, which she wore with dazzling strappy heels. Priyanga Burford (centre) paired her busy embroidered two-piece with a silver necklace. Right, Bond girl Britt Ekland didn't quite hit the mark with her ruffled black dress, which she shore with a small red handbag

Epitome of elegance: Dame Judi Dench proved less really is more in a sweeping black ensemble of a top, trousers and flowing long shawl with embellishment. Right, Phoebe Waller-Bridge played with contrast in a black disco jumpsuit and cream coat

No Time To Die star Lea Seydoux channelled old Hollywood glamour in a silver and white gown complete with shimmering cape.

The dress featured a cut-out neckline, cinched at the waist and spilled out into a full skirt. The French actress wore her hair in a short, sleek crop that was swept to the side. The bright colours and monochrome looks were a perfect counterpoint to Daniel Craig's dark pink dinner jacket.

Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet.

Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began. The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures.

It has been a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden looked laser-focused as she took part in an army training exercise today.

Victoria, 44, wore a regulation uniform in Salenfjallen to meet the Swedish Home Guard and take part in their exercise this morning.

The mother-of-two learned to handle the squad's weapons and followed the soldiers' lead during a training exercise she took very seriously.

She also took the time to give the Guard's German Shepherd some well-deserved cuddles.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, 44, wore a regulation uniform in Salenfjallen to meet the Swedish Home Guard and take part in their exercise this morning, pictured

The royal, who was wearing an uniform complete with hat and gloves, took the exercise very seriously

It was a no-thrill day for Victoria who wore a fit-for-purpose uniform, complete with combat boots and hat.

Her dark tresses were styled in a neat bun under her cap, and she sported a very natural makeup, with just a dash of mascara and a very light touch of foundation.

The royal, who is first in line for Sweden's throne, listened carefully to the members of the Guards who talked her through the key points of the exercise.

A guard showed her how to handle one of their rifles and other weapons ahead of the training.

The mother-of-two showed her soft side and gave the guard's German Shepherd a cuddle after the exercise

Soldiers led by a dog completed the exercise, with Victoria following their every move, pictured

The princess is no stranger to military training and has worked with the Home Guard several time in her royal life

Reporting for duty! Victoria stood to attention during the training in Salenfjallen this morning, pictured

Victoria, who is no strangers to military exercises, having attended several throughout her life as a royal, expertly took aim, before handing back the weapons.

She then took part in the mock manoeuvre and followed the lead of the guards around her, crouching and signalling like a pro.

After the exercise was over, the royal, who seemed in great spirits, took the time to pet the German Shepherd who guided her squad during the manoeuvre.

It has been a busy summer for Victoria, who welcomed a new nephew when her brother Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia gave birth to Prince Julian in the Spring.

She attended the newest Swedish royal's christening in August alongside her husband Prince Daniel. 48, and their two children Princess Estelle, nine and Prince Oscar, five.

The mother-of-two listened carefully to the instruction of the tea, during the army manoeuvre today, pictured

Victoria was quick to learn the techniques the Swedish Home Guard use while on duty, pictured

A soldier carefully showed Victoria how to handle weapons during the exercise today, pictured

Victoria listened carefully during the training this morning, which she took very seriously, pictured

The royal, who was wearing a cap, accompanied the guard on their exercise, but was not armed

The Crown Princess followed a group of three soldiers and a dog as they patrolled the woods during the exercise

The mother-of-two smiled and chatted with the soldier as she got first-hand experience on what they do today
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands donned a vibrant outfit to visit the museum of modern art in Amsterdam today.

The Dutch royal, 50, headed to the Stedelijk Musuem, which displays modern and contemporary art, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fonds Kwadraat, an art foundation which provides funding for art projects around the Netherlands.

For the occasion, Maxima opted for creative ensemble of a blue sweater tucked in a midi skirt layers in white, red and yellow, with floral detailing.

The mother-of-three looked in great spirits as she defied the Amsterdam drizzle and headed to the event, which aims to connect artists with professionals from the art world and art lovers.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, 50, headed to the Stedelijk Musuem, which displays modern and contemporary art, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fonds Kwadraat, an art foundation funding art projects around the Netherlands, pictured

Maxima stepped out wearing the tasteful garment, while a bodyguard gallantly held an umbrella out for her.

She was wearing a dark cyan sweater which was tucked into her skirt, its long sleeve her only cover from the September breeze.

Her skirt was a piece of art in its own right, adorned with layers and beads in yellow, red, cyan and pink.

The Dutch Queen lit up this rainy morning in Amsterdam with a colourful look with specks yellow, red, blue and purple, pictured

Maxima, who is known to love colourful numbers, paired the skirt and top with a red beret, matching stiletto heels, and recycled a red clutch bag she wore yesterday at another engagement.

Her blonde locks were styled in a straight blow-dry and tucked behind her ears under a red beret which revealed beautiful silver hoop earrings.

The Dutch Queen was still wearing the splint that was seen on her wrist in September following an injury, as well as bright red gloves.

Smiling with her usual warmth, Maxima sported a bold red lip and a glamourous makeup to the daytime event.

The mother-of-three defied the rain and donned a very colourful outfit for her day out in Amsterdam, where she attended an event at the museum of modern and contemporary art

A dash of eyeshadow and mascara and a splash of bronzer completed her look.

The Fonds Kwadraat was created 50 years ago in 1971, and aims to finance art projects by providing interest-free loans to artists.

Since its creation, the independent foundatio has financed around 1,800 projects for a total amount of almost 6,500,000 euros.

Dutiful Maxima showed her details on her phone as she entered the event at the museum today, pictured

Maxima sported a dash of mascara and eyeshadow, with a bold red lip. Her blond locks were tucked under a beret-style hat

Yesterday, Maxima sported another colourful outfit as she travelled to Rotterdam's City Hall to mark the 40th anniversary of the Foundation Halt, a non-profit organisation tackling youth offences.

The organisation puts together short-term interventions to prevent and combat petty crimes such as vandalism, shop-lifting and more, and is responsible for administering sentences.

For the occasion, Maxima, a mother-of-three teenagers, sported an eye-catching leopard print dress with red accessories.

She looked resplendent in the flowing midi dress which had a loose fit and was cinched at the waist.

She gave the dress's modern print a kick by picking red accessories, sporting crimson velvet stilettos and a matching bag.
Students in an Idaho school district have been carrying their books in shopping carts, coolers, and even popcorn machines after backpacks were banned in response to a gun threat last week.

The Jefferson County school district announced on September 23 that students will no longer be allowed to bring backpacks to school or carry them around hallways after a 13-year-old at Rigby Middle School was discovered to have brought a gun inside her backpack that day.

The new rule hasn't been taken well by students, who have mocked it by finding creative and ridiculous way to tote around their belongings, carrying books inside everything from wagons to an aquarium.

Something new: Students in an Idaho school distrcit have been carrying their books in odd ways after backpacks were banned

New rule: The Jefferson County school district announced on September 23 that students will no longer be allowed to bring backpacks to school or carry them around hallways

He's poppin'! So the teens have been using things like shopping carts or even popcorn machines to mock the rule

Something's fishy here: One student even used a glass aquarium to carry her stuff around

Impetus: A 13-year-old at Rigby Middle School in Jefferson County, Idaho brought a gun to school in her backpack on September 23, prompting the rule change

EastIdahoNews.com reported on last Thursday's gun threat, writing that a 13-year-old girl was taken into custody after being found with the gun in the bathroom, having brought it to school in her backpack.

No shots were fired.

Later that day, Monica Pauley, a spokeswoman for Jefferson School District 251, told the outlet that the district was insituting a new ban on backpacks in response.

The rule applies to two local middle schools and two local high schools, though the elementary schools are exempt.

'We are doing this as a precautionary measure,' she said.

But left without a way to carry all of their books, binders, notebooks, and others supplies to and from school  and from class to class  students at Rigby High School have found creative ways to get around the ban.

Protest: Students at Rigby High School have found creative ways to get around the ban

Ridiculous: Some have used hampers and laundry baskets instead of backpacks

Going viral: Savannah Bagley, a student at Rigby High, has shared videos on TikTok demonstrating her classmates' ingenuity

Seems inefficient? A few have been dragging wagons around the hallways

Hot! One student even carrying around an unplugged microwaves

Savannah Bagley, a student at Rigby High, has shared videos on TikTok demonstrating her classmates' ingenuity.

Bagley filmed them in the hallways and cafeteria, showing the myriad ways students found to lug around their books while mocking the administration.

One pushed supplies in a children's Fisher-Price shopping cart, while another used an actual grocery store shopping cart.

One girl literally tied her books to her back, while another carried them in grocery baskets and wooden crates.

Several dragged around hampers and laundry baskets, wagons, and in one case, an organizer cart.

But certainly the most outrageous methods students found to carry their books were inside a popcorn machine, an aquarium, a wheeled cooler, a microwave, and a pink child's stroller.

Getting creative: Other items have included a wheeled cooler and a shopping basket

Iconic: Another teen made use of an old red wagon to drag his stuff around

Cracking up: TikTok commenters are finding the students' creativity quite funny

One wrote that 'the shopping cart has me rolling' and another said 'pls this is hilarious'

The best way? But many were put off that this was the best measure proposed to prevent gun violence

Cutting out the middle man: This teen literally strapped her books directly to her back

TikTok commenters are finding the students' creativity quite funny, with one writing that 'the shopping cart has me rolling' and another saying 'pls this is hilarious.'

But many were put off that this was the best measure proposed to prevent gun violence.

'Ban anything but the problem,' wrote one, while another said, 'They will do anything but pass legislation.

'American will do everything but ban guns...' wrote one more.

'Cause backpacks are clearly the problem here,' snarked another.
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Staff at Windsor Castle are having a final dust and polish this afternoon ahead of welcoming the public to its grandiose Semi-State Rooms tomorrow.

Conservators have been spotted with vacuum backpacks attending to the impressive chandelier and candelabras in the Crimson Drawing Room. The new six-month exhibition will see the Green Drawing Room also open to royal fans from tomorrow.

The Royal Collection Trust looks after the rooms, which are different from the Royal family's private apartments where the royal family resides when in Windsor. The Semi-State Rooms were created for George IV and are amongst the castle's most lavish in design.

Suck it up! Royal staff - wearing backpack vacuums - are seen dusting off the candelabras of the Crimson Drawing Room at Windsor Castle as it prepares to open its Semi-State rooms to the public tomorrow

Usually kept for private events, they will be open to the public from tomorrow until March for a special exhibition and entrance to them is included with a ticket to the castle.

The cut-glass chandelier of the Crimson Drawing room was possibly the one originally commissioned by George IV when he was Prince Regent for the Saloon at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.

It was moved to different locations several times, until finally being hung in the Crimson Drawing Room in 1939 on the orders of Queen Mary.

The fire of 1992 severely damaged the chandelier and so most of what can be seen today is modern restoration thanks to the Royal Trust's work.

In photos released this afternoon, staff were seen very carefully dusting off the beautiful chandelier, which is made in gilt bronze and cut glass, ahead of the Rooms' opening.

An employee can be seen delicately dusting off the Crimson Drawing Room chandelier. It is believed it was commissioned by George IV when she was Prince Regent for the Saloon at the Royal Pavilion, in Brighton

The Crimson Drawing Room is often used by the Queen for private events when she resides in Windsor.

The Green Drawing Room, meanwhile, was the backdrop for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's official wedding pictures in May 2018.

When the Semi-State Rooms open tomorrow, visitors will be able to absorb the beauty of the exquisitely decor.

The Public State Apartments include the Grand Reception Room and St George's Hall, where Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, introduced their son Archie to the world in May 2019.

These are separate from the Royal Family's private apartments, where the Queen, 95, stays when she is in Windsor.

The Crimson Drawing room, pictured, is often used by the Queen for private events when she resides in Windsor. The Semi-State room will be opened to the public until March

The Green Drawing Room is also part of the new tour of Windsor Castle. It was the backdrop to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding pictures in 2018

The rooms are said to be George IVs last and most significant commission - with the interior decoration amongst the most elaborate and expensive in England at the time.

The Royal Collection Trust suffered a financial blow due to the pandemic and will be hoping for a boom in visitor numbers to boost its coffers.

Its income derives from visitor admissions to tourist attractions such as Windsor Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the summer opening of Buckingham Palace, and the Queen's Galleries in London and Edinburgh, and related retail sales.

The trust maintains and displays the large collection of royal artefacts from artwork to furniture held in trust by the Queen for her heirs and the nation, and carries out other charitable work.

Using a paintbrush, a member of staff carefully inspects one of the candelabras of the Crimson Drawing room for dust ahead of its opening tomorrow

The magnificent chandelier, pictured, requires painstaking and delicate work to ensure its cut glass remains in gleaming condition. It was hung in the Crimson Drawing room in 1939, and was severely damaged in the 1992 fire that destroyed Windsor Castle
Former 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord says that her on-again, off-again boyfriend Dominic Purcell was the first person to break through the walls she'd put up, describing the Prison Break star as a 'very, very ferociously strong man' who was her 'dom' when she got into BDSM  with the pair enjoying 'explosive' sex.

Due to a history of sexual abuse and trauma, AnnaLynne, 33, said that for a long time, she put up a 'facade' and a 'mask,' and she was so determined to keep her privacy that she even had her own sisters sign non-disclosure agreements.

But she trusted Dominic, 51, whom she has been dating on and off since 2011, and described in a new interview with the sexual health platform Giddy's Bare series how the pair connected.

'He changed everything,' she said. 'Dom created space for me, but he called me the f**k out. He did not take bull***t. And that's why I trusted him.'

Good guy: Former 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord says that her on-again, off-again boyfriend Dominic Purcell was the first person to break through the walls she'd put up

Candid: She described the Prison Break star as a ' very, very ferociously strong man' who was her 'dom' when she got into BDSM  with the pair enjoying 'explosive' sex

AnnaLynne and Dominic first got together in July 2011, when she was 23 and he was 41. They split in December 2014, renkindled their romance in 2016, and split again in January 2018.

Though they demonstrated some PDA in September of 2020, AnnaLynne says they are no longer together  but he is still quite special to her.

'There are many reasons why that man will be my forever person. He is staying in my house right now. We're not together, but we're family,' she said.

AnnaLynne said Dominic knew about her mental illness and sexual trauma, and the former couple seemed to have those things in common.

'A lot of times, we attract what we are, especially if you haven't realized your shadow, what's underneath the surface  and I had realized absolutely f***ng nothing,' she said.

'He was a mirror back to me. So many of the things that happened to him, different versions of the same thing happened to me, and vice versa,' she went on, adding that 'he went through a lot when he was a kid.'

'I trusted no masculine energies, I trusted no men, because I figured, I'm gonna push every f***ing button that you have, and if you cave, I can't trust you.

'And there was a sexual that was underlying and pushing us, and we had explosive sex,' she added.

History: AnnaLynne and Dominic first got togerther in July 2011, when she was 23 and he was 41. They are currently not dating but still close

She said that it was with Dominic that she started exploring BDSM, which was something she used to overcome her numbness. 'And there was a sexual that was underlying and pushing us, and we had explosive sex,' she added

She said that it was with Dominic that she started exploring BDSM, which was something she used to overcome her numbness.

'I literally went into bondage, BDSM, because I couldn't feel anything. And Dom and I had this relationship that was very  Dom was my dom,' she said with a laugh.

AnnaLynne has previously spoken about how she went both physically and emotionally numb to deal with her past trauma.

'I had such severe sexual abuse at such a young age that my body decided, "This is unsafe for you to feel." So I was completely numb,' she told Giddy.

'One of the hallmarks of trauma in relation to memory is that you don't store the memories oftentimes. So you have explicit memories, which are file-folder, [like] my birthday in 2010 when I jumped off the slide and broke my knee. That memory is stored forever, a trauma you seared in your brain.

'And then there's trauma that your brain says, "No. This is too much. We're gonna not do this memory. This is super ew."

'So those memories are implicit memories. I describe them as a feather floating around a room, and when you're triggered, someone turns on a vacuum. And the feather gets sucked up into the vacuum. You don't know where you are in time and space, and it's just happening now and it's full on.

'I literally went into bondage, BDSM, because I couldn't feel anything. And Dom and I had this relationship that was very  Dom was my dom,' she said with a laugh

' I had such severe sexual abuse at such a young age that my body decided, "This is unsafe for you to feel." So I was completely numb,' she told Giddy

'So that was my experience. I was going through severe panic attacks. Eventually, I started to undergo PTSD treatment,' she said.

AnnaLynne has been remarkably candid about her experiences, but admitted that she didn't mean to publicly share hers when she did.

'When I first told my story, I was dragged up on stage during an event,' she said. 'I was thrown out on stage like a deer in headlights.

'Everything's been said, everything's been done. I didn't know what to do, so I said, "You've heard all the stories from the survivors and the founder, but you don't know the story of one girl." And then I thought, "Oh, why did I say that? That was stupid! There's a thousand people here!"

'So, that's how my story came out. Cosmopolitan magazine was in the audience and they reached out to my team to do a story about what happened to me.

'When I was 19, I was sexually assaulted by a "friend" who was crashing at my home,' she recounted. 'I woke up and he was inside me, and I froze. My whole body shut down and I didn't know what to do. Then I blamed myself because I didn't fight backso is that really rape? It was just all these questions in my mind.

'I didn't know how to deal with these thoughts so I just said, "I'm gonna go to work and pretend like this is not happening."

'When I first told my story, I was dragged up on stage during an event,' she said. 'I was thrown out on stage like a deer in headlights' (pictured August 28)

'I literally had my own sisters sign NDAs. I was terrified of my life story getting out,' she admitted (pictured August 28)

'Work is an addiction, too: at 90 hours a week working, getting on a red-eye [flight], going to all these other gigs that I would have scheduled so that I never had a moment of stillness where I had to face my life.

'So, all that happened, and as a result, I began this journey towards openness about my life.

'I had been the complete opposite. Everything was a facade, everything was a mirage, a mask. I would panic. I literally had my own sisters sign NDAs. I was terrified of my life story getting out,' she admitted.

Now, she stresses the importance of speaking openly.

'If we hope to do anything in this field to change it, we have to talk about things. Because silence was the modus operandi of the past,' she said.

The actress has spoken out in numerous interviews about her trauma in the past couple of years.

Speaking on an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast in August, she recounted how the 'level of torture' she underwent was so terrible that she ultimately 'just stopped feeling pain'  so as an adult, she experimented with cutting and BDSM and admits, 'I was so abusive to myself.'

Opening up: The actress has spoken out in numerous interviews about her trauma in the past couple of years

'The level of torture that I went through as a child that I now remember was so horrific that my brain said ... we're gonna shut off feeling,' she said. 'I just stopped feeling pain'

AnnaLynne said she grew up moving around from trailer park to trailer park with her mother and sisters.

'We packed that trailer up and we rolled it down the freeway,' she told host Alex Cooper.

It was during that time that she was abused, though she had no memory of it until she was 31 years old.

At 15, she left home and began working as a model, and recalls turning herself off to any deep human connection.

'I did not have time for feelings. Those were things that we did not do... I did not believe in relationships. You make your mark on the world, that's what you're here for. If you like a dude, cool, but make that a super lowkey thing,' she said.

She struggled with depression and anxiety, eventually turning to self-harming like cutting herself, explaining: 'The self harming started just because I couldn't feel anything.'

She also entered into a 'very sexual' relationship with a man that involved lots of BDSM.

Flashback: AnnaLynne, pictured with her mother, only remembered much of her childhood abuse a few years ago

'You are not multiple personalities when you experience DID. You are fragmented versions of yourself,' she explained

'I was opening up Pandora's box sexually without consciously knowing why I might like these things, why they might turn me on the way they did,' she said. 'Because our beautiful brains that put pain and pleasure together to try to help us, ended up keeping me in a body that would go on to abuse herself for a very long time.

'A big part of BDSM for me was just trying to feel anything in my body at all,' she admitted.

'The level of torture that I went through as a child that I now remember was so horrific that my brain said no, she can't feel, so we're gonna shut off feeling.

'I just stopped feeling pain,' she said. 'People laugh and say, "Oh, I have a high tolerance for pain," you should ask yourself why. Because that's not a good thing. You should ask yourself why. We have pain for a reason, it's to let us know something's wrong. And you don't win awards for having a high tolerance for pain. That's unkind to your body.'

Even as she rose to fame on 90210, she was unknowingly struggling with dissociative identity disorder, or DID, which meant there were multiple versions of herself that would come out in various situations.

'You are not multiple personalities when you experience DID. You are fragmented versions of yourself,' she explained. 'The reason that the brain splits in this regard, it's always a protective mechanism.'

She described suffering from severed depression, having 'blackout panic attacks where I was losing time'

What is dissociative identity disorder? Dissociative identity disorder (DID) was previously known as multiple personality disorder and is classified by the presence of two or more distinct personality states in those who have it. Dissociative disorders - including DID - usually develop as a reaction to trauma, as a means of keeping difficult memories at bay. As well as the presence of alternate identities, DID symptoms can also include amnesia and other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The most commonly used treatments for DID are talk therapy and medication; however, other methods may be suggested depending on the individual and their symptoms. Advertisement

For example, she went on, 'If I'm on a red carpet, I have to say everything just right... But my nervous system was so overwhelmed by people, humans around me ... so I just felt really comfortable in my body.'

She would go on autopilot, and suddenly it would be hours later and she would be at home.

'I wouldn't fully black out,' she said. 'I could remember things, but my life in a lot of ways was a blur.'

A version of herself she calls 'Little Anna'  who employed baby talk  would mostly come out when she was dealing with men, or if she had to express a need for something.

'I had this mechanism with men where I thought I had to be really small. And it wasn't a conscious thought. Bad things happened if I wasn't a good little girl, who was the special girl, who did the things that she was supposed to do,' she explained.

'I didn't know why I had to just give my body to people and I didn't realize that I was doing it because I was hoping that I'd get some love back. And I was so desperate to be loved because I was so alone and had been so alone for so long,' she added.

There was also a 13-year-old version of herself, whom she has previously described as 'balls to the wall, middle fingers to the sky, anarchist from hell who will stab you with the spike ring that she wears, and youll like it.'

'I was ice cold and I could be a real c**t,' she said on Call Her Daddy.

Candid: AnnaLynne has shared details of her journey toward healing

'[That version of myself] had enough and she became the thing that terrified her. I became a bully, I could be very emotionally, psychologically abusive... I would go into an alter that was just ice cold and impossible to get through to.

'And I thank her now, I have so much gratitude to her,' she added, saying it was this tough personality that saved her.

It was while visiting Cambodia on volunteer trips that she realized she might need some help.

'I realized from former slaves how enslaved I was. I was a total prisoner to my mind. I was so rigid, I had all these standards of perfection, I was so abusive to myself,' she said.

She was suffering from severed depression at the time, having 'blackout panic attacks where I was losing time.'

She also realized that it might not be OK that her legs would go completely numb when she would sleep with a man.

So she started seeing a doctor who explored her repressed memories with her. Among the tactics they used was EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, the same practice Prince Harry demonstrated in the Apple TV+ series The Me You Can't See.'

Moment of truth: It was while visiting Cambodia on volunteer trips that she realized she might need some help

'I realized from former slaves how enslaved I was. I was a total prisoner to my mind. I was so rigid, I had all these standards of perfection, I was so abusive to myself,' she said

On August 16, 2018, everything about her childhood abuse started coming back to her.

'The memories of a trauma survivor are fragmented. They come in pieces, they come in waves, they come in impressions, they come in sounds, they come in smells, they come in all of this different imagery, whatever. There are no two experiences alike,' she said.

AnnaLynne has shared few specifics about what she endured, but indicated in the podcast that she was choked with a rope during this time.

She also said that said her mom had had no idea what was going on, but has since been great about helping her.

In April, AnnaLynne first spoke openly about how her trauma has continued to impact her, divulging her battle with DID, which was formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is characterized by alternating between multiple identities, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

A person with the disorder may feel like one or more voices are in their head and have gaps in memory of events, including trauma.

Scary: AnnaLynne previously spoke about how her abuse led to her having dissociative identity disorder

Candid: The star publicly revealed her diagnosis on in a YouTube video she filmed with brain disorder specialist Dr. Daniel Amen

She shared her diagnosis in a YouTube video that was posted by brain disorder specialist Dr. Daniel Amen.

She said she is now examining how the sexual abuse she suffered may have led to her dissociative identity disorder.

She discussed her memory loss, explaining that she doesn't remember anything about her life before the age of five, and after that, she can only remember several 'incidents' of abuse, recollections that were triggered by her rape at age 18.

'I don't have anything until around five, and then from five to 11. I recount incidents throughout,' she said, noting that she also has gaps in her memory after age 11.

'And then when I was 13, I have a singled-out memory that was just one thing, that I don't have a sense of anything else at that time.'

The actress, who received her DID diagnosis before meeting with Dr. Amen, revealed that her doctor told her she suffered from it 'pretty seriously,' and that she likely had 'definitive splits' prior to her memory returning.

Although she can now identify she had a split personality from the age of 13, she can look back on her childhood behavior and see evidence of the disorder at an earlier age, before her memories came back.

'Before my memories came back, I had definitive splits. In my history, youll see me, I would just show up with the black wig and a new personality and I was this tough little baddie, and then Id be the bohemian flower child,' she explained.

Looking back: The 33-year-old actress has also shared details of the night a friend raped her in her own bed at age 19

The anti-trafficking activist now believes that her disorder also played a part in her work as an actress, explaining that all of her roles, in one way or another, were 'splits'  split personalities  although she was not aware of it at the time.

Dr. Amen explained that he scanned AnnaLynne's brain and the results are 'not like many of the other multiples he has seen,' before questioning whether the actress has ever been given a bipolar diagnosis, which she confirmed she had.

'In 2017, I actually went [to a psychiatrist], knowing for years that I felt like I was [bipolar], considering the fact that I have family history and the symptoms seemed to line up,' she said.

She added that she had struggled with symptoms of bipolar disorder for years, but admitted that she actually relied on her 'manic' behavior as a means of pulling herself out of a depressed state.

'I would use my manic symptoms to get me out of depression, I would kind of manipulate my symptoms,' she explained. 'I knew that if I went on a crazy sex spree, or a shopping spree, or any kind of heightened thrill-seeking type things, I could always manipulate myself out of depression so I never really got too stuck.'

However, in 2017, she 'went down a depression spiral' that she could not bring herself out of 'no matter what she did.'

'I tried to go on no-sleeping benders to activate my mania, I tried sex, spending [sprees], I tried traveling all over the globe the first part of that year but I could not get out of the depression.'

'From my point of view, [they] deserve an opportunity for redemption,' she said of her abusers (pictured in Las Vegas on June 10)

Referring to AnnaLynne's brain scan, Dr. Amen said that he believes the actress used her split personalities as a means of 'managing' her childhood sexual trauma.

'When you've had intense childhood sexual trauma, you split as a way to manage it,' he said. 'And the brighter you are, the more you split.'

He also suggested that the actress may have had an undiagnosed brain injury, which could also be an underlying cause of her condition.

The star, who noted that there is a 'massive spectrum obviously' of disorder in how it impacts people battling it, said that her goal is to shift the way society views people dealing with the disorder.

'For me, my heart is to change this narrative around these behaviors that follow trial of the trauma, and not treating someone or responding to someone or judging someone from their actions but asking, "What happened to you? How did we get here?' she said.

Then in July, she spoke to creative agency House of Influence, sharing a very magnanimous perspective on the people who sexually abused her as a child and raped her as a teenager.

'The truth is, we're not good and we're not bad. Even the person who sexually abused me as a child, and the person who sexually assaulted me when I was 19, they're not bad people,' she said, according to The Sun.

Triggering: The actress recalled a triggering moment on the show 90210, when her what happened to her in real life happened to her character

'They make bad decisions from bad places that they were in at the time. From my point of view, [they] deserve an opportunity for redemption,' she added.

AnnaLynne has managed to find it in her to be forgiving towards her abusers despite years of trauma.

'I came from horrible abuse. I grew up going through all of these horrible things that that caused me absolute terrible pain,' she said.

She'd blocked out her childhood abuse for years, but it all came pouring back in when she was raped at 19.

AnnaLynne first shared story in essay for Cosmopolitan in 2014, recalling how a man in her friend group whom she had considered a friend needed a place to sleep for the night, so she invited him over.

'We sat on the bed and talked for a while, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was inside me,' she wrote for Cosmo.

'At first, I felt so disoriented and numb, I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep,' she went on. 'I wondered if I had done something to give him the wrong idea. I felt afraid of making him angry. Believe it or not, I didn't want to offend him. I just wanted it to be over.'

Finally, when she worked up the nerve to tell him to stop, 'He stopped and went in the bathroom and finished.'

'I did nothing, I laid there until 5:00 AM, until the sun started to peek through, and I could feasibly, in my mind, explain that I got up early,' she said.

'I wrote a note like I suddenly had to go to a meeting at 5:00 AM. It wasn't really making any logical sense, but I had to get out of my own house.

'I sat in my vehicle down the street hidden by a bush, waiting to see his car leave and then I went back to my place and showered and tried to pretend like that had never happened.

AnnaLynne said she didn't acknowledge what had happened until ten months later, when a mutual friend speculated that she was in love with the man who raped her  and she correct him.

'I was like, "No, he Yeah, no he raped me,"' she said.

A couple of years later, AnnaLynne was on 90210, where no one knew about her history. But coincidentally, the script featured a storyline in which her character was raped by her English teacher. After, she, too, was accused of being in love with him.

'The showrunner literally writes my story in the script of 90210 without knowing it, unfortunately, because it is so common,' she said.

'It was as if I got thrown back to when I was 19 in this moment with my friend, and this whole thing happened. I went into hysterics, just my whole body was wrapped with tears.'

The star noted that it's a prime example that 'you never know what someone's battle is, you never know what someone's going through.'
How I longed to say yes when I was asked, earlier in the year, to join Strictly Come Dancing. I imagined myself being swept across the floor by an elegant, handsome man who would have spent hours teaching me how to play the hard part in the partnership  after all, the woman has to dance backwards in heels.

I had a Zoom meeting with the producers and did my best to talk myself up. I told them how my dad and I had waltzed and done the cha-cha when I was little. How Id been sent for ballroom lessons aged eight and spent two years learning what my mother felt was an essential skill for any lady.

I explained how much Id loved to dance at parties and balls as a young woman, and how Id taken part in Stravinskys ballet The Rite Of Spring at university, under the direction of a tartar of a dance teacher. I was considered to have a good sense of rhythm.

I wouldnt mind being glittered up or even the joke candidate. Just taking part was bound to be fun.

Jenni Murray says subsequent events would suggest she's had a lucky escape by failing the fitness test for Strictly. Pictured: Tom Fletcher with his dance partner Amy Dowden

But then, oh dear, the physiotherapist. Everyone had to have their fitness checked before theyd be allowed to do it.

I came clean. I mentioned my replaced hips, my scoliosis and sciatica, my dodgy ankle  high heels would be out of the question. I could feel their enthusiasm wavering as fast as a jive. It was not to be.

Subsequent events would suggest Ive had a lucky escape. Im baffled that three unvaccinated professional dancers have been allowed to take part when the risk of Covid infection is still so high. One couple who gave a brilliant performance last Saturday, Tom Fletcher from the band McFly and his partner, Amy Dowden, have tested positive for the virus.

Theres no suggestion they were vaccine refuseniks, but their hopes of being high on the leaderboard have been dashed. They wont be able to appear this weekend.

When I took part in The Real Full Monty On Ice last year there was no vaccine available  that only came in for my age group this year.

Testing was rigorous, as Im sure it has been on Strictly, but it seems selfish to hold another person as closely as possible without feeling its your duty to protect yourself and them in the most obvious way  get the jab.

Jenni (pictured), who has been a fan of Strictly since it began, said the BBC should persuade all participants to be vaccinated

I had told myself I wouldnt watch the show this year. Id be too jealous of all the glitz, glamour and skill of those who made it past the physio.

In the end I couldnt resist. Ive been a fan since it began in 2004, despite the autumnal moans of the men in my family, Oh no, not Strictly again!

At the age of 15, Julie Swede and Fiona Broadfoot were groomed by men they thought were boyfriends. Instead they were pimps who forced them to sell sex. Both ended up with convictions for soliciting and loitering. Both managed to escape prostitution and now work to help others who are in the same position they were. Theyve launched a project, HOPE, which stands for History of Prostitution Expunged. Their convictions are held on record until the age of 100 and often have to be revealed to employers. How can women who were victims in their youth be recorded as criminals for life? I support them  in hope.

Frankly, judging by the standard, Ive had another lucky escape. There is no joke candidate. For a first show, the high level of performance was phenomenal. I could never have competed.

I hope the actor Greg Wise does well. Ive always been fond of his wife, Emma Thompson, and Id like her to be proud of him.

But my moneys on the two guys  John Whaite and Johannes Radebe. Their rhythm and enthusiasm is obvious. So clever of Johannes to leap out of a cake to meet his partner. So camp and appropriate as John is, of course, a Great British Baker. Their tango was beautiful. It was originally danced by two men, as the tango of the compadron, so the choice was perfect.

Now, please BBC, make sure Covid-19 is sent packing and doesnt become a sneaky, aggressive compadre. Persuade all to be vaccinated; test, test and test again; and pray Tom and Amy are back on the dancefloor ASAP. We need the colour of the show as the nights draw in, so look after your stars  and your audience.

Ageism? pah, theyre just vain

Dame Eileen Atkins, 87, (pictured) said her fellow veterans, who complain about the lack of parts for older women, are vain and can't get over the loss of the great beauty they once had

Dont you just love Dame Eileen Atkins who, at 87 and still working, has ticked off her fellow veterans for complaining that there are no parts for older women?

She calls them vain and says they cant get over the loss of the great beauty they once had.

There are plenty of parts, she says, if youre willing to make yourself look lousy. She looks great to me.

Protests! Petrol! And paranoia!

Wouldnt it have been lovely to spend the last couple of weekends of this Indian summer by the seaside? It wasnt to be and I can barely express how angry I am.

My journey to my family home on the coast involves the North Circular, the A40, the M40, the M25 and the M3. You might be starting to guess why Im so furious that I didnt dare to risk trying to get there.

Im all for combating climate change, but has it not occurred to those idiots blocking the M25 that you dont elicit the sympathy of the populace for your cause by making their lives a misery? Take the train, someone said. Not easy with two dogs and a cat in tow.

I was determined that this week I would do it. I had a quarter of a tank in my Mini. It wouldnt get me beyond Farnham in Surrey. So I decided to fill up with petrol yesterday. Not a chance. A main road into London was blocked by cars. I could feel the aggression emanating from the petrol station. Wasnt going to go there.

A message on our neighbourhood app asked if anyone could help a midwife who needed petrol to get to work. No help was offered.

Then theres the smart motorway. All I can think of is the possibility of breaking down on the smart part of the M3 and having nowhere to pull over safely. For the first time Im beginning to worry about my mental health. I guess well have to stay put.

The details of Wayne Couzenss method of entrapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard and burning her body are beyond horrific, even to someone like me whos lived a long time and observed years of violence against women and girls.

Which of us would not have succumbed to a police officer supposedly arresting us for some crime that we were not aware we had committed? What passer-by would not have thought a young woman being handcuffed and loaded into a car by a policeman was not perfectly legitimate?

No more. Never again will I trust a police officer unless shes a woman. I doubt Couzens is the only policeman steeped in misogyny, and how many knew what he was capable of?

The police must be policed  and not by themselves.
Progressive Rep. Cori Bush has revealed that she had an abortion at the age of 18, after falling pregnant when she was raped by a church member during an annual youth delegation trip in the summer of 1994.

Bush, now 45, shared her recollection of the sexual assault in a new interview with Vanity Fair, describing her feeling of 'guilt' over the assault and admitting that she is 'still trying to process' what happened to her all these years later, revealing that her abortion triggered what she describes as the 'darkest period of her life'.

According to Bush, her rapist - who she has not named - was a man she believed to be 'in his early 20s' who was 'in a leadership position' on the Jackson, Mississippi, trip, which took place when she was 17 years old.

The St. Louis, Missouri, native recounted how she and several of the other girls from her church had been 'swooning over' the unnamed man - who asked Bush to 'hang out' one evening in her hotel room, which she was sharing with another delegation member.

Bush, a mother-of-two, says the two sat on her bed talking for a short time, before the man was 'suddenly on top' of her and taking off her clothes, before she could even make sense of what was happening.

'All of a sudden we went from talking, to he was on top. He was like taking my clothes off. Hes having sex, penetrating me,' she recalled.

'I just remember I was laying there and I just didnt know what was happening I couldnt make it make sense.'

Speaking out: Progressive Rep. Cori Bush (seen in August) has revealed she had an abortion at the age of 18 after being raped during an annual church trip in Mississippi in summer 1994

Bush says she has no recollection of the man speaking to her after the assault - adding that he just 'ignored her' when they saw one another the following day. she does however remember struggling through feelings of confusion and upset, explaining that she didn't initially realize she had been the victim of assault.

At the time, she had only been 'sexually active' with one other man, her ex-boyfriend from whom she had split shortly before the church trip.

'I didnt see that as rape. I felt like I did somethingI did something wrong,' she admitted. 'Im still like, truly, really, trying to process it because when he started pulling my pants down, I didnt fight him back.

'I didnt even know what was going on, but I didnt fight him back, I didnt tell him stop, I didnt say no. I just laid there and let him do whatever he wanted to do.'

Weeks after she returned home from the church trip, Bush learned that she was pregnant, news that left her devastated, particularly when she asked a friend from her church to tell her rapist, who she said simply 'laughed' in response.

After learning of her attacker's reaction to her pregnancy, Bush realized she was 'on her own', and she made the decision to get an abortion at a local clinic that she found in the yellow pages, having been told by staff that the procedure would cost her $328.

Recalling her experiences at the clinic, which she visited twice in total, Bush says she was initially stunned by the number of anti-abortion protestors who 'swarmed' her car when she arrived, explaining that she couldn't comprehend why they all seemed 'so angry at her', particularly when they 'didn't even know her story'.

Inside the clinic, Bush recounts facing a similarly jarring experience while taking part in a requisite counselling session, during which she says a white female staff member treated her with 'hostility' and 'anger'.

Bush (seen earlier this month), now 45, who is a member of The Squad alongside AOC and Ilhan Omar (right), says her abortion triggered the 'darkest period of her life'

'She was almost angry,' Bush said of the woman, who conceded that abortion was actually the then-teenager's best course of action because her fetus was underdeveloped.

'The way she was speaking to me, it was very belittling and degrading. I didnt know why she was directing all of that onto me.'

She added that the woman's behavior made her feel as though she wasn't 'given an opportunity to make a decision', admitting that she was stunned at the time that the clinic staff weren't immediately 'warm and welcoming'.

When it came time for the procedure itself, Bush describes it as a 'very, very cold situation' and she remembers trying to train her eyes on an 'abstract picture on the ceiling above that recalled a stained-glass window one might see in church' while it was taking place.

After her abortion, Bush once again was met with yells and screams of pro-life protestors outside of the clinic, who she said showed her 'no mercy', something that she found baffling, given that none of them would have likely 'helped her with [the] baby if she had the baby'.

Bush spent the rest of the day in her bed, struggling with stomach cramps - but it was the following months that she says she found the hardest, explaining that the assault and abortion led to 'a very, very dark period... the darkest period of my life'.

According to Vanity Fair, Bush first publicly shared that she'd had an abortion earlier this month while speaking at a rally in her hometown, however this latest interview is the first time that she has revealed details about her rape.

Although Bush - who is a member of The Squad alongside fellow progressive Representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib - has been outspoken in her support of abortion rights, she has previously declined to reveal her own story.

The progressive Representative has two children (pictured) with a former husband, however she has kept much of her personal life closely guarded

Earlier this month, she blasted the Supreme Court after it declined to block Texas' abortion law, a ruling that she compared to 'far-right extremism'.

'In the span of one week the Supreme Court forced 11 million households to face eviction and effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in the middle of the night,' she said at the time.

'This is what far-right extremism looks like. We need to expand the court.'

The Democrat says she has now chosen to speak out about her story in the hopes of 'helping someone else', and she plans to details own abortion experiences in Congress this week at a hearing on abortion rights that is due to take place on Thursday.

In particular, she wants to bring attention to the way in which women and people of color are treated within the health care system, slamming the 'mistreatment' that so many face - not only when it comes to abortion, but elsewhere within the field.

'How far have we really come when black women and girls are still being so mistreated in our health system to the point of death?' she told Vanity Fair. 'Regardless of what type of health care were talking about, thats still a thing. The right to have an abortion is only one part of the need.'

Speaking to the publication about the impact that the assault and pregnancy had on her life, Bush says it came at a time when she already felt as though her 'plan' was being derailed.

She recalled how she and her father would chat about her going on to achieve a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and then ascend through the Capitol's political ranks until she reached the position of US Attorney General.

But the freshman Rep says she faced so much harassment and discrimination at her 'predominantly white high school' that she struggled to motivate herself to keep achieving high grades - which soon began to slip.

After learning that she was pregnant, she still hoped to attend college, but in the end, she was left feeling so 'defeated' that she chose to opt out of higher education in favor of a full-time job.

Bush, who is a qualified nurse and a pastor, went on to found a church in St. Louis in 2011, before making a move into politics in 2016 when she campaigned for the US Senate Election in Missouri in the Democratic primary - a race that she ultimately lost to Secretary of State Jason Kander.

Last year, she was elected as her home state's first-ever black congresswoman and soon after being sworn in, she joined the party's progressive Squad.
Children suffering from chest infections are 'not likely' to benefit from a commonly-used antibiotic, a study claimed today.

Southampton University researchers say doctors should avoid giving amoxicillin to ill youngsters.

Doctors should only prescribe the drug, branded as Amoxil, if they suspect the child has pneumonia, academics ruled.

The prescription-only drug was tested among 432 children with chest infections. The youngsters were all aged between six months and 12 years.

Children who got the drug saw their symptoms cleared in five days, on average. For comparison, youngsters given a placebo were ill for six days.

Researchers found amoxicillin should not be prescribed to children with chest infections, but still offered to those suffering from pneumonia (image of the drug)

All you need to know about Amoxil Amoxicillin is an antibiotic commonly used in children to treat chest and ear infections. But it is also used in adults to treat a range of bacterial infections including chest infections, dental abscesses and urinary tract infections. In Britain it is available on prescription only. It is branded as Amoxil. It is available as a pill at about 12 pence each, or as a liquid that can be drunk or given as an injection. Usual doses are between 250 and 500mg, and the drug should be taken three times a day. The most common side effects are nausea and diarrhoea. Source: NHS Advertisement

The study  published in The Lancet  examined the effect of the drug among children who attended GP surgeries with chest infections in England and Wales between 2016 and 2020.

Half were given amoxicillin and half were given a placebo.

Experts tracked the children to measure the duration of their illness, and found it was similar among both groups.

The researchers judged that amoxicillin does not provide a 'clinically important benefit' for children with uncomplicated chest infections.

They said: 'Amoxicillin for uncomplicated chest infections in children is unlikely to be clinically effective either overall or for key subgroups in whom antibiotics are commonly prescribed.

'Unless pneumonia is suspected, clinicians should provide safety-netting advice but not prescribe antibiotics for most children presenting with chest infections.'

Professor Paul Little, the study's main author, said: 'Children given amoxicillin for chest infections where the doctor does not think the child has pneumonia do not recover much more quickly.

'Indeed, using amoxicillin to treat chest infections in children not suspected of having pneumonia is not likely to help and could be harmful.'

Co-author Professor Alastair Hay, from the University of Bristol, said: 'Our results suggest that unless pneumonia is suspected, clinicians should provide "safety-netting" advice  such as explaining what illness course to expect and when it would be necessary to re-attend  but not prescribe antibiotics for most children presenting with chest infections.'

The overuse of antibiotics is fuelling a superbug crisis because it causes bacteria to mutate and become resistant to the drugs.

GPs have been repeatedly ordered to reduce the number of prescriptions they give out as many antibiotics are useless against increasingly resistant germs.

Antibiotics are only effective when used to treat bacterial infections - as opposed to viruses including the one that causes Covid.
An elderly Japanese man developed 'restless anal syndrome' after catching Covid, in what doctors claim is a world first.

The unidentified 77-year-old was admitted to Tokyo Medical University Hospital after testing positive for Covid.

Despite his age, he did not require any oxygen during his stay and managed to start breathing normally again 21 days after being admitted.

However a problem of another kind emerged several weeks after he was discharged.

The man began to suffer 'deep anal discomfort' about 10cm above his perineum, the region between the genitals and the anus. This gave him an 'essential urge to move', according to medics who treated him.

Defecation did nothing to relieve the man's discomfort, wrote Dr Itaru Nakamura who detailed the case in BMC Infectious Diseases.

A 77 year old Japanese man developed restless anal syndrome as a result of catching Covid according to medics from Tokyo Medical University Hospital

But the man noticed that exercise such as walking, running or playing motion based video games alleviated his symptoms, while taking a rest and staying still made them worse.

He also noticed the symptoms got worse towards the evening.

What is restless anal syndrome? It is unclear how common restless anal syndrome is because the condition is barely mentioned in medical literature. Medics who reported the case in Japan described it as deep anal discomfort, associated with an 'essential' urge to move. The symptoms were made worse by resting and being sedentary, and particularly bad in the evenings. However, they were alleviated by exercise. Japanese doctors described restless anal syndrome as a variant of restless leg syndrome. Restless leg syndrome, also known as Willis-Ekbom disease, is a common condition affecting the nervous system. It is thought to affect up to one in 10 people. It causes an overwhelming urge to move your legs along with an unpleasant crawling or creeping sensation. Despite the name the sensation can also affect the arms, chest and face. What causes restless leg syndrome is in many cases unknown. It can run in families, though this is not believed to be the case for the Japanese man. In some cases it can be caused by another medical condition. Treatment can range from lifestyle changes such as increasing exercise or medication depending on what is causing the problem. Advertisement

Dr Nakamura said a colonoscopy, where a thin flexible camera is inserted into the anus, revealed the man had internal haemorrhoids but no other rectal damage.

Testing the man's nervous system also revealed no abnormalities.

Dr Nakamura said the symptoms of 'suffering' in the anal region; the urge to move, the worsening with rest, improvement with exercise but worsening at evening, led medics to diagnose him with restless anal syndrome.

They classified this as a variant of the relatively common condition restless leg syndrome, and directly attributed it as being caused by his Covid infection.

Dr Nakamura said how Covid impacted patients' nervous system was not fully understood a number of neurological conditions had been reported following infection.

These include delirium, confusion, psychosis, brain swelling, disruption to the brain's blood supply, and a condition characterised by weakness and numbness in parts of the body called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

A loss of taste and/or smell which are now famously associated with Covid, are also considered a neurological impact of the virus, Dr Nakamura said.

Restless leg syndrome is a common neurological condition that causes an overwhelming irresistible urge to move the legs as well as unpleasant sensations in the limbs.

Despite the name, the condition can also occur in other parts of the body such as arms, chest and face.

It is described as a sleep disorder due to the disruption it causes to people's lives.

In many cases the cause of restless leg syndrome is unknown, but it can run in families, though the Japanese man had no family history of the condition.

While restless leg syndrome has been associated with a Covid infection on two occasions, both in women under the age of 50 in Pakistan and Egypt, Dr Nakamura said this was the first published case of the virus causing restless anal syndrome.

The man was given a daily dose of 1.5mg of Clonazepam, a drug used to treat seizures and fits, which alleviated his symptoms.

Dr Nakamura said that man continues to improve after 10 months on the medication.

Restless leg syndrome is thought to impact between 1 to 4 per cent of the Japanese population according to Dr Nakamura.

In the UK the restless leg syndrome is thought to affect one in ten people according to charity RLS-UK.

It it also thought 7 to 8 per cent of the US population also have the disease according to the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation.

It is unclear how common the variant restless anal syndrome is.
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COVID-19 cases are continuing to dramatically decline across the U.S. as the fourth wave of the pandemic fueled by the Delta variant tapers off.

On Tuesday, officials recorded 111,162 new cases of the virus with a seven-day rolling average of 117,223, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That figure is a decrease of 26 percent from the rolling average of 160,157 reported four weeks ago.

More than half of U.S. states, 32 in total, and the District of Columbia have seen Covid infections decline over the last week, a DailyMail.com analysis of the data shows.

Hospitalizations have also fallen with 78,943 seeking care, an 11 percent drop from the 89,266 patients recorded last week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Deaths have risen, on the other hand, with 2,543 virus-related fatalities recorded on Tuesday and a seven-day rolling average of 2,049, a 54 percent increase from the 1,328 average deaths recorded one month ago.

The growth rate of new deaths has slowed compared to the same time two weeks ago, however, when deaths had risen 91 percent over a four-week period.

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.

It comes as cumulative vaccination rates continue to increase in many states with five - Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont - revealing they have given at least one dose to three-quarters of their populations.

On Tuesday, the U.S. recorded 111,162 new cases of Covid with a seven-day rolling average of 117,223, a 26% drop from the 160,157 average reported one month ago

More than half of U.S. states, 32 in total, and the District of Columbia have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last week

Deaths rose with 2,543 virus-related fatalities recorded on Tuesday and a seven-day rolling average of 2,049, a 54% increase from the 2,049 average deaths recorded one month ago, but experts day deaths are a lagging indicator and will soon decline

'We can be pleased that in many parts of the country there has been a plateau and, indeed, a decline in the number of new cases,' Dr William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told DailyMail.com.

'I just think our optimism has to be guarded and that's because the United States is diverse country.'

Dr Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, agreed that he has guarded optimism.

'I think that my optimism comes from where cases rose rapidly and hospitalizations and deaths did not,' he told DailyMail.com.

'We are building some resilience against this virus in the form of immunity. The optimism is here we have tools and this suggests that they work.'

Experts say the slowdown of the fourth wave can be attributed to a few factors.

One reason is that, as more people have contracted COVID-19 over the last two months, the virus is (slowly) running out of people to infect.

Another is that vaccination rates rose over the summer, mainly due to a fear of the Delta variant but also due to an increasing number of mandates.

'Some people are going to get herd immunity from vaccine immunity and others from natural protection,' Dr Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told DailyMail.com

'Eventually you'll get [the virus] even you don't do anything, but you lose a lot of people in the meantime.'

Schaffner said there are two ways to get to a low case rates, through lots of vaccinations or from a surge in cases.

'You can get to low case rate with vaccinations, but if you let the virus get you there, you pay a high price in hospitalizations and death. I like the vaccine route better,' he said.

As of Wednesday, all but four states have given at least one vaccine dose to half of all residents, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of those states, five have given at least an initial dose to three-quarters of their populations..

Vermont currently leads the pack having administered at least one dose to 77.6 percent of its residents.

Massachusetts closely follows at 77.3 percent and Hawaii (76.6 percent), Connecticut (76 percent) and Rhode Island (75 percent) round out the top five.

All five also have among the lowest COVID-19 case rates in the nation with Connecticut recording the second-lowest seven-day average of 95.1 cases per 100,00 people, per CDC data.

However, Ray does not believe the recent rise in vaccinations is behind the drop.

'It's such a huge decline that it's unlikely to be due to vaccination but I don't think it could be due to exhaustion of susceptible people,' he said.

'I'm very happy to see cases go down but it's likely due to changes in behavior' such as mask mandates.

Five states - Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont - have given at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose to three-quarters of their populations

Meanwhile, former hotspots such as California and Florida are continuing to see infections decline.

California currently has the lowest level of virus transmission in the country, according to the CDC.

A color-coded map shows The Golden State colored orange indicating 'substantial' transmission of COVID-19, meaning a rate under 100 new infections per 100,000 while nearly every other state is colored red, indicating 'high' transmission.

As of Wednesday, the state is reporting a seven-day case rate of 77 infections per 100,000.

Over the past eight weeks, California has seen the test positivity rate fall to as low at 2.5 percent, according to the state health department.

Health experts say California's high vaccination rates and other measures - including masks - helped the state deal with the Delta variant over the summer.

'When you look at California and Florida, they have a similar vaccination rate,' said Chin-Hong.

'But California has also been stringent about masking, social distancing and testing. These all go in concert together.

'And also social justice. California has been great, particularly in the Bay Area, in terms of reaching communities of color and vulnerable populations.'

Former hotspot California is reporting the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country with a seven-day rate of 77 infections per 100,000

Another former hotspot, Florida, recorded 5,056 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with a seven-day rolling average of 6,492, the lowest figure seen since July 15

But Florida has also seen a dramatic decline from the spike in cases reported over the summer.

On Tuesday, the state reported 5,056 new COVID-19 cases with a seven-day rolling average of 6,492, the lowest figure seen since July 15.

CDC figures show that Florida has recorded 211.6 cases per 100,000 residents over the last seven days.

And while this is still classified as 'high' transmission, it is a massive drop from last month when the state was seeing 350 cases per 100,000.

The number of Covid hospitalizations has also declined to 6,138, a drop of 24.5 percent from the past week, data from the Florida Hospital Association show.

Dr Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, told DailyMail.com that he believes this recent surge left many in Florida with immunity against the virus.

He explained that according to models put together by his team, 70 percent of Florida is immune to COVID-19 either from the vaccine or through natural protection while just 30 percent are susceptible - much lower numbers than seen in other states such as California.

'California is one of the states that have done a good job controlling COVID-19 but California has more people susceptible because fewer people died during the last surge,' Mokdad said.

'If you look at Florida, because they did a poor job, a lot of people got infected and a lot of people died so the virus is running out of people to infect.'

After weeks of increases, the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. has continued dropping.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that, as of Wednesday, about 632,000 new doses are being administered per day, a figure not seen since late July.

Additionally, under 200,000 Americans are getting their first doses each day - the lowest this number has been since the beginning of the Covid vaccine rollout in December 2020.

'If you haven't been vaccinated, please do so,' Schaffner said.

'And if you have, try to persuade your friends and neighbors. If we do, these downward trends will continue. We have to get very high vaccine acceptance rates to get control of the virus.'

Mokdad agreed and said human behavior will be key to getting the pandemic under control.

'COVID-19 is not going anywhere. If we let down our guard, it will get to us and we need to be extra careful

'Masking is important but our behavior is as well. If we behave well, we won't see a surge and will have very close to a normal fall or winter.'
The 24-year-old from Edinburgh is now warning others it 'isn't worth the risk'

For two years she turned to sunbeds to treat her itchy and inflamed eczema

Daniella Bolton was diagnosed with melanoma after using sunbeds twice weekly

A 24-year-old eczema sufferer who used sunbeds because she thought they'd stop her itching has told how her addiction left her with skin cancer.

Daniella Bolton, of Edinburgh, used beds twice a week for up to 12 minutes at a time over two years because creams proved useless.

But on a shopping trip in February 2017 with her grandmother Linda, 65, the sales administrator noticed a mole on her otherwise blemish-free back.

After being referred to a dermatologist by her GP, Miss Bolton was told the mole was cancerous and she had melanoma.

Now cancer-free after undergoing a biopsy, Ms Bolton is urging others against using tanning beds, warning it 'isn't worth the risk'.

Sunbeds give out UV rays that can be stronger than midday sun in tropical countries, leading to a higher risk of skin cancer.

Sunlight can help reduce symptoms of eczema by reducing inflammation and itching, so phototherapy  the medical use of ultraviolet light  can be used to treat the condition.

But it is should only be used if topical treatments have not worked. And if it is recommended, it should be carried out by a medical professional, rather than in a commercial sunbed.

Daniella Bolton, from Edinburgh, was diagnosed with skin cancer after using sunbeds twice a week for up to 12 minutes at a time over two years

She turned to sunbeds after being unable to manage her sore and itchy skin through eczema creams

The sales administrator from Edinburgh suffered from inflamed and itchy skin (left) for years and tried 'every cream and lotion from the doctors'. But after using sunbeds twice a week for two years, she spotted a mole on her back (right)

Miss Bolton said: 'I was a sunbed addict. I used to go all the time, probably two or three times a week.'

She started using them at 18 after reading that UV lights can reduce inflammation from eczema, which she suffered from on her arms and legs.

Miss Bolton said: 'Over the years I'd tried every cream and lotion from the doctors.

'Nothing was really working and if it did work it would only work for a short while and then it would flare up again and it just wouldn't go away.

'It was really itchy and embarrassing.

'Obviously by doing that I would get a nice tan as well, which I was quite happy about, so I just kept going.'

ARE SUNBEDS SAFE? Sunbeds give out ultraviolet (UV) rays that increase your risk of developing skin cancer, both skin cancer (melanoma) and skin cancer (non-melanoma). Many sunbeds give out greater doses of UV rays than the midday tropical sun. The risks are greater for young people. Evidence shows people who are frequently exposed to UV rays before the age of 25 are at greater risk of developing skin cancer later in life. Sunbeds, lamps and tanning booths give out the same type of harmful radiation as sunlight. UVA rays make up about 95 per cent of sunlight. They can cause your skin to age prematurely, making it look coarse, leathery and wrinkled. UVB rays make up about 5 per cent of sunlight and burn your skin. A tan is your body's attempt to protect itself from the damaging effect of UV rays. Using a sunbed to get a tan is not safer than tanning in the sun. It may even be more harmful, depending on factors such as: the strength of UV rays from the sunbed, how often you use a sunbed, the length of your sunbed sessions, your skin type and your age. Source: NHS Advertisement

But in while trying on a dress in a River Island changing room in February 2017, just after her 20th birthday, she spotted a mole on her back.

Miss Bolton said: 'It wasn't very big at all, it was a deep brown colour and was a wee bit raised.

'I don't have any spots, moles or freckles on my back so it was quite obvious to me.

'As soon as I saw it I remember thinking 'what's this?' I was with my nana at the time and I got her to have a look at it too.

'When it didn't go away I thought I needed to go to the doctor and get it checked out.'

When it still hadn't gone away two months later, she went to her GP.

Miss Bolton underwent a biopsy in May.

She was told a few weeks later that she has melanoma.

Miss Bolton said: 'When I heard the word melanoma I became really distressed and I questioned my whole life. I thought "oh my god am I going to die? Whats going to happen?" I was so worried.

'It was very upsetting. I spoke to my nana about it and I just kept saying to her "am I going to die? Am I going to be ok?"

'I'd never heard of anyone my age having it, I just started questioning everything.'

She underwent an operation at St John's Hospital in Livingston in July that year to remove more tissue and have a lymph node biopsy to check whether the cancer had spread.

The checks revealed that she was all clear, which Miss Bolton said was 'the best day of her life'.

She said: 'The mole itself was really small. I've got a scar under my left arm from where they tested my lymph nodes.

'The scar on my back is a good few centimetres bigger than the mole was but I'm just grateful that everything came back clear and I didn't need further treatment.'

'I genuinely felt it was the best day of my life when the results came back clear, I burst into tears of happiness because it was such a relief.'

Now, Miss Bolton never goes on sunbeds and is urging others to do the same.

After having the mole removed and undergoing tests, medics revealed Miss Bolton was cancer-free. She has now been left with a scar on her back from where the mole was removed, as well as a scar under her left arm from where they tested her lymph nodes

Miss Bolton said: 'Sunbeds are now a thing of the past, I don't go anymore.

'I don't want to ever go through that again, it was so horrible.

'I'm definitely a reformed sunbed addict. Now if I want a nice tan I'll use fake tan. Going on sunbeds isn't worth the risk.'

Lisa Bickerstaffe, a British Skin Foundation spokesperson told MailOnline: '77 per cent of dermatologists agree that sunbeds should be banned altogether in the UK according to a 2019 survey undertaken by the British Skin Foundation.

'The dermatologists' opinions appear to support research stating the potential to get skin cancer, including melanoma, is increased in those who have also used sunbeds.

'We know that there is no such thing as a safe tan from UV rays, therefore, the British Skin Foundation, in line with other health organisations does not recommend sunbed use.'


Parents of children aged five to 11 seem to be evenly split on whether or not their kids will be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, a new poll finds.

The survey, from Axios/Ipsos, was conducted in the days following the announcement from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE that their Covid vaccine appeared to be safe and effective in younger kids.

About 40 percent of parents said it was 'likely' their children would be getting vaccinated - and roughly the same number said it was 'unlikely.'

Over the last few weeks, coronavirus cases among children have been declining after reaching record-high levels earlier this month.

Additionally, although kids can contract Covid, most pediatric cases are not severe and virus-related fatalities among children are rare with pediatric deaths making up just 0.1 percent of all COVID-19 deaths.

A new poll asked parents of children between ages five and 11 how likely they are to have their kids vaccinated against COVID-19. Pictured: Marisol Gerardo, 9, is held by her mother as she gets takes part in Pfizer's Covid vaccine clinical trial for children at Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina, April 2021

A total of 44% percent said their child was likely to get a vaccine and 42% said it was unlikely their kids would be immunized

For the poll, 1,105 adults aged 18 and older were surveyed in English or Spanish between September 24 and September 27.

It's unknown how many of the adults who were surveyed had children.

Parents were asked how likely, if at all, their child was to get a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.

Among mothers and fathers of kids aged five to 11, 44 percent said their child was likely to get a vaccine and 42 percent said it was unlikely.

The remaining 14 percent were either unsure or skipped the question.

Overall, among all parents with children under age 18 - including 12-to-17-year-olds for whom vaccines are approved - 57 percent said their child was likely to be vaccinated or already had.

On Tuesday, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted initial data to U.S. regulators for their COVID-19 vaccine in children aged five to 11 - but approval may not come for many weeks.

The companies sent data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review, and said they would make a formal request for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks after originally saying they would file by the end of September.

This led many to assume that elementary school kids could start receiving their shots as soon as late October.

However, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Pfizer and BioNTech may not complete their application until mid-October.

Many parents have been hesitant to vaccinated their children due to pediatric cases declining - from 225,000 to 206,000 in one week - and because kids make up less than 0.1% of all COVID-19 deaths

That means the FDA may not decide to approve the vaccine until sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Recently released data showed the vaccine induced a 'robust' immune response in younger kids, Pfizer said.

But parents are divided on the issue mainly due to the low risk of severe diseas seen in children.

Pediatric cases are continuing to decline with 206,000 recorded last week, a 8.4 percent decline from the 225,000 cases recorded the week before, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Additionally, 498 children have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, meaning pediatric deaths make up fewer than 0.1 percent of all deaths in the U.S.

That means the FDA may not decide to approve the vaccine until sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

The poll also asked parents how risky they believed sending their kids to school this year is.

A total of 19 percent said they believed schools posed a large risk, a large drop from 38 percent who said the same thing last month.

Meanwhile, 44 percent said schools either posed a small or no risk to their kids, up from 31 percent in August.

Most parents also seemed comfortable letting their kids go trick-or-treating for Halloween with 68 percent it posed a small or no risk.

Just 13 percent said it was a large risk, down from 25 percent who reported feeling the same way last October.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an urgent health advisory on Wednesday to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among pregnant women or those looking to become pregnant.

The agency has strongly advised women to get their shots either before or during pregnant due to their increased risk of severe illness and death from the virus.

However, just under one-third of mothers-to-be have been vaccinated, figures from the CDC show.

'Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time - and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families,' CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said in a statement alongside the health advisory.

'I strongly encourage those who are pregnant or considering pregnancy to talk with their healthcare provider about the protective benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their babies and themselves safe.'

The CDC issued an advisory on Wednesday recommending 'urgent cation' to increase vaccination rates among pregnant women. Pictured: Michelle Melton gets the Pfizer vaccine at 35 weeks pregnantat Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, February 2021

Just 31% of all mothers-to-be (dark blue line) have been vaccinated with the highest rate among Asian women at 45.7% (pink line) and the lowest rate among black women at 15.6% (orange line)

As of Wednesday, more than 125,000 pregnant women have contracted COVID-19, according to the CDC.

Of those women, more than 22,000 have been hospitalized and 161 died - 22 of those deaths occurred in the month of August alone.

'Cases of COVID-19 in symptomatic, pregnant people have a two-fold risk of admission into intensive care and a 70 percent increased risk of death,' the CDC wrote in its health advisory.

Several studies have found that expecting mothers are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 compared to the general population.

And, once they do fall ill with the virus, they are more likely to develop severe cases or die from it.

One study from the University of Washington in Seattle found pregnant women infected with Covid were 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized with complications and nearly 14 times more likely to die than younger Americans.

Expectant mothers who have COVID-19 also more likely to experience complications with their pregnancies.

A study from the University of Oxford in the UK, found mothers-to-be had a 76 percent higher risk of developing preeclampsia - a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure - and were 59 percent more likely to give birth prematurely.

Despite these risks, just 31 percent of pregnant people were fully vaccinated before or during their pregnancies, CDC figures show.

There are disparities between races/ethnicities with Asian mothers-to-be having the highest vaccination rate at 45.7 percent.

Hispanic pregnant women have lower rates at 25 percent and the lowest rate is among black women at 15.6 percent.

Many pregnant women have been hesitant to get vaccinated due to misinformation that Covid vaccines are linked to infertility.

Studies have shown pregnant women have a two-fold risk of being admitted to ICUs and a 70% increased risk of death

However, COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in expectant mothers - or women looking to become pregnant - and don't raise the risk of miscarriage.

In fact, an Israeli study found that pregnant women vaccinated with Pfizer's shot were nearly five times less likely to be infected than unvaccinated pregnant women.

What's more, research from New York University found that pregnant women who get a COVID-19 vaccine pass on virus-fighting antibodies to their babies while in the womb.

'The CDC health advisory strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant persons and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks,' the agency wrote.

'Additionally, the advisory calls on health departments and clinicians to educate pregnant people on the benefits of vaccination and the safety of recommended vaccines.
Edna OBrien is furious. The veteran Irish novelist has written a novel that many critics consider her masterpiece, the crowning glory of a long life, but the judges of the Man Booker Prize have chosen to ignore it. I am inflamed, says the author of The Little Red Chairs in her deep voice, sitting straight-backed in the library of her home near Londons Sloane Square, choosing her words very carefully but with an obvious anger. I was surprised not to be included and one day I might learn why.

With those low, controlled tones and the way she tilts her head, OBrien sounds strangely like an Irish Margaret Thatcher. Shed really hate that, as a lifelong Labour voter, but imagine Maggie as a bookish bohemian from County Clare in a long, pleated skirt, a black knitted top and with bright turquoise beads at her throat. These were made by Native Americans.

The life of Edna OBrien has been full of such extraordinary moments. Her debut novel The Country Girls was banned and burned in Ireland in 1960 for being immoral in its description of teenagers leaving their village  as she had  for the big city

Now 86, she still has the fine features and quick mind that dazzled Richard Burton and Marlon Brando in the Seventies, when she was a famously fiery feminist, breaking taboos with her rollocking, beautifully written stories about how real women felt about life, love and sex.

She reaches for a volume that quotes her friend, the late Samuel Beckett, and reads the words with relish as if they are a curse on the Booker judges. Let me say before I go any further, that I forgive nobody. I wish them all an atrocious life and then the fires and ice of hell.

Then a slow, wicked smile creeps across her face, because although OBrien is righteous in her anger, she is also making mischief. She has nothing to prove, this woman the critics have recently elevated to a place among the greatest writers of all time, comparing her with Joyce and Solzhenitsyn. The American literary giant Philip Roth declares her the most gifted woman now writing in English.

A new generation of readers has been transfixed by The Little Red Chairs, a story about a notorious war criminal fetching up in disguise as a healer in an Irish village and capturing the heart of a lonely local woman until he is found out.

Based on the real-life Butcher of Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic, The Little Red Chairs feels hugely topical at a time when millions are on the run from war. Yet it was not on the longlist for the Man Booker announced in late July. Its too easy to say there is a feeling of rejection, because of course there is, says OBrien. It was an omission that I did not expect and neither did many people. Other authors and other publishers have confirmed that to me, so Im not behaving as the wronged diva.

As a former Booker judge herself, OBrien is sure of her own talent and willing to say so. I am not going to be the modest violet about that. I work so hard, so passionately, so relentlessly on the words. There are many good writers. I happen to be one of them. We both laugh, but its true. These things hurt, and inflame, but sweet are the uses of adversity  they do not stop one writing. No way!

So now she is working on a new novel whose plot she will not describe, because then it would lose its power, as dear old Sam Beckett used to say. The author of Waiting For Godot was a fellow exile from Ireland who once sat at the foot of her bed in a hotel in Paris saying very little, waiting for her to recover from the effects of her one and only trip on LSD, which had been given to her by the famous therapist RD Laing.

OBrien with Michael Caine and his wife, Shakira, 1990

The life of Edna OBrien has been full of such extraordinary moments. Her debut novel The Country Girls was banned and burned in Ireland in 1960 for being immoral in its description of teenagers leaving their village  as she had  for the big city. It was a huge hit here, though. Some of her early books were made into films, including Zee & Co in 1972, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Caine, and OBrien fell in with the movie crowd.

I was a country gal who by accident, chance, luck and my own vivid personality entered into a world of glamour. I was the one who was giving the parties, and everyone came.

Jane Fonda was a friend, Judy Garland dropped in to one of the Saturday-night revelries at her home in Putney. Very famous people were quite different then  they were not surrounded by bodyguards in dark glasses. They were not as pretentious.

She had married and given birth to sons but was on her way to divorce by then. The Hollywood star Robert Mitchum came to visit her alone and danced in the parlour to her favourite records. We danced all the way up the stairs to the tiny bedroom, she wrote in her autobiography of 2012, Country Girl.

Marlon Brando came to see her too  his whole being taut, like an animal, ready to spring  but they stayed up all night talking instead of making love. Before leaving in the morning he asked, are you a great writer? She answered, I intend to be. Richard Burton was hurt when she turned down his advances, but like Brando she saw him as a bard and a brother rather than a lover.

Paul McCartney dropped by and sat in her kitchen playing the guitar for her boys Sasha and Carlo and making up a song on the spot: Edna OBrien, shell have you sighing, shell have you crying, hey, shell blow your mind away...

But then she had a dream about throwing burning oil over all the people who came to her parties, and stopped them immediately. I began to feel they were drawing out my working, serious, ruminative, writing self, she says now. It was seeping away from me.

She has worked very hard ever since, producing a total of 17 novels to date, as well as biographies of Byron and Joyce and collections of short stories. Faber is putting out new editions of her early work, with the novel August Is A Wicked Month next in line.

Edna OBrien in 2003. A new generation of readers has been transfixed by The Little Red Chairs, a story about a notorious war criminal fetching up in disguise as a healer in an Irish village and capturing the heart of a lonely local woman until he is found out

First published in 1965 and banned in several countries, it is described as a simmering tale of a woman rediscovering herself on the French Riviera. The book was used against her in the battle for custody of her sons, when the court was told it was indecent and obscene. She won custody anyway.

By the end of the Seventies she was an outspoken political figure too, commentating on the Troubles and womens rights and more than holding her own against Sir Robin Day and Michael Foot on the first- ever Question Time in 1979.

She delved into international politics with The Little Red Chairs, going to see Karadzic on trial in The Hague and interviewing many survivors of conflict. But couldnt Edna OBrien put her feet up now? I think I should be putting my feet up, but that aint the mathematics of life! I live by my writing. I have no other money. Ive no capital. I rent this place. Ive never had a fortune. I never got the big money. Those windfalls never came my way, and that does at times infuriate me. Yes.

As 90 looms, does she think about the end of her life? I do, yes, because Im alone. I have children but they have their wives and their children. I think about death, often. Sometimes with great anxiety and apprehension, which isnt the actual death itself but a long illness and helplessness and a dependency and I ask, on whom can I depend?

She is ambiguous about the possibility of life after death, but does know where she will be laid to rest. My grave is on an island in County Clare in a graveyard where my mothers family are buried. The walls of the monastery ruins are bleached, with big medallions of white lichen. So its very stark and beautiful. Water birds and sky birds, wheeling in and out. I think about it as if I am alive after death, seeing it all and writing about it. Thats a rather happy thought.

She has plans for her own funeral to include music by Van Morrison, a signed copy of whose album Moondance I notice on a rack. Id like it to be a good show but not too long, as if it was a party I was giving. Full of life, full of generosity.

Not yet, though, because OBrien is off to the Edinburgh Festival to talk about The Little Red Chairs. Im very glad Im a writer. Wouldnt be anything else. If I were born again Id like an income though.

Theres that wicked smile again. Shes a hoot and she knows it, a dry wit with a gleam in her eye. I was born in the year of the horse, 1930. A horse just keeps going until it falls down and dies. 

Edna OBrien intends to keep on going like that horse, whether she is shunned by the Booker judges or showered with praise. I thank God and the gods for the talent I have been given and I thank my mother for my perseverance, otherwise I would have given up at 40 or 50 or 60, says this wise, witty, salty voice that still has so much to say. Never give up! e
Tuesday, September 20

I was at Luton Airport today to catch a low-budget flight to Eastern Europe  not a sentence I ever thought Id write.

As I walked inside, one of the airports young female staff spotted me and began shrieking with excitement.

Her whole body shook as her voice got ever more hysterical. OH MY GOD!!!!! she shouted repeatedly. THIS IS AMAZING!

I never mentioned Theresa Mays shoes in the interview at all  Susanna did, ironically in the context of sexism

It was a deeply pleasing moment. Then she screamed across to a friend on the other side of the concourse.

QUICK! COME OVER! ITS ONLY JEREMY BLOODY CLARKSON!

Tuesday, September 27

Madonna, 58, posted a nude photograph of herself to persuade Americans to vote for Hillary Clinton in the forthcoming election.

Shes wearing nothing but rapper-style gold bling and one of her ridiculous mouth grills.

Im voting naked! she wrote in the caption, Vote for Hillary! She added ominously: Nude Voting series #1.

Short of Mrs Clinton being caught in flagrante with Kim Jong Un, I cant think of anything more likely to drive people to vote for Donald Trump.

Saturday, October 1

My Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid and I appeared together tonight on Pointless Celebrities in a battle of news presenters.

We were up against three teams: BBC stars Emily Maitlis and Nick Robinson, ITVs Alastair Stewart and Charlene White, and Channel 4 News Cathy Newman with foreign reporter legend Rageh Omaar.

Radio Times summed up what happened rather accurately in its preview: Host Richard Osman observes that tonights stratum of celebrity news presenting is second only to sport when it comes to competitiveness. Hes not wrong. This contest has shameful amounts of goading, growling, smirking, barracking and fist-pumping, although most of that is Piers Morgan. (Team-mate Susanna Reid here reaffirms her status as the most tolerant woman on telly.)

I make no apologies for such behaviour.

As Sun Tzu said in The Art Of War: Engage people with what they expect; it settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment that they cannot anticipate.

All that mattered to me was that we won. Coming 2nd, 3rd, or, God forbid, 4th, would have been unthinkable given my summer-long campaign for our sporting stars to celebrate only victory and gold medals.

We knocked out Cathy and Rageh in round one, then Emily and Nick in round two, and finally took down Alastair and Charlene to get to the final round and land the trophy.

Shall I order you a taxi? I politely enquired as each losing couple trudged away.

You and Susanna were the Trump and Hillary of the show, observed Osman afterwards. Hes right: a constantly bickering duo ferociously battling to be top dog.

Tuesday, October 4

Prime Minister Theresa May was our special guest on GMB, and after a barrage of questions about hard or soft Brexit and the US presidential race, we lightened the mood. Do you consider it sexist to always be asked about your shoes? quizzed Susanna.

The PM laughed. Well, I dont think people focus on Philip Hammond or Boris Johnsons shoes in quite the same way but, look, it gives me a good excuse to go and buy new shoes! Great answer.

I then grilled her about her recipe for making scones. There was logic to my apparent madness.

In an interview two days ago, Mrs May revealed her mothers preferred method, saying it was fine to use either butter or margarine.

This inflamed butter-only scone purists.

I know youre a big fan of The Great British Bake Off, I said, so is it better to have butter, and are we talking hard butter or soft butter?

Mrs May laughed again. I have made them with both, though not much any more because of my diabetes. You have to rub it in with the flour. If its hard you can get a good rub-in. If its too soft, it can get a bit claggy.

Within seconds I was bombarded on social media with furious claims of being sexist. This is now the default charge levelled towards any man who dares ask any woman about what they wear, how they look or if they cook.

She wears exotic shoes, how very dare she? furious Labour MP Stella Creasy raged at me. Women are so very provocative, arent they so deserve what they get?

I love her exotic shoes, I replied, they are a well-known and deliberately deployed part of her character/personality. Why is it sexist to say so?

Am glad exotic shoes get you going, Ms Creasy snapped back, but you prove my point by deciding thats what matters about the leader of this country.

This farcical exchange sums up the hypocrisy of the modern sexism debate. I never said wearing exotic shoes matters to a leader.

In fact, I never mentioned Theresa Mays shoes in the interview at all  Susanna did, ironically in the context of sexism.

As for scone-gate, I only asked about it because the Prime Minister had just publicly disclosed her recipe.

Meanwhile, its fine for women to mock male politicians such as Boris or Trump for their hair, or male TV political journalists like Jon Snow and Robert Peston for their ties and scarves.

You cant have it all ways, ladies.

Theresa Mays ability to handle effortlessly an interview about both very serious AND fun, trivial stuff is the perfect example of a strong, powerful woman at ease with her gender and position.
Boris Johnson is a man of many talents  so eloquent and distinctive that he is famously said to reach parts of the electorate which other Tories cant.

But even if we take at face value the Foreign Secretarys protestations of loyalty to Theresa May, the timing of his 4,000-word Brexit opus is, to say the least, questionable  a hand grenade through Downing Streets window, in the words of one of his allies, just hours after terrorists struck London.

It is hard to view this as anything other than a hostile act, coming less than a week before Mrs May sets out her own Brexit vision in a speech in Florence.

Theresa May cannot allow Boris Johnson to drive the country to a cliff-edge Brexit, the Mail On Sunday says

The presses were already rolling on Friday evening when his officials informed Mrs May about the newspaper article, giving her less than an hours notice of what was about to befall her.

The Prime Minister, distracted by all-day crisis meetings on the Tube bomb, was completely blindsided.

Mr Johnson has clearly thrown down the gauntlet.

He denies he is firing the starting gun for a leadership challenge. But remember, this is the man who, as this newspaper has chronicled, was texting his support for the Prime Minister after her General Election catastrophe  while his allies were briefing that it was Go, go, go! for him to take over if she fell.

Margaret Thatchers biographer Charles Moore, writing in the same paper as Mr Johnsons article, describes it as Boriss leadership bid, couched in such a way that he need not unsay anything if it goes wrong.

At the very least, it amounts to a pugnacious bid to influence the content of Mrs Mays speech  and not in a way which would advantage the country.

The Prime Minister needs to put down this revolt by reasserting her grip on the Government

As talisman of the Leave campaign, and promulgator of the hugely controversial pledge to return 350 million of Brussels money every week to the NHS, Mr Johnson has simmered with frustration as the Cabinet forms a settled view on the Brexit negotiations: that if we want to unlock talks over trade, we will need to hand over around 15 billion a year to Brussels over a two- to three-year transition period, while protecting jobs by retaining access to the single market.

Mr Johnson is now virtually alone in Cabinet in advocating a damaging hard Brexit, in which we would pay only a modest divorce bill as we crash out of the EU.

The Prime Minister needs to put down this revolt by reasserting her grip on the Government  and making clear that Mr Johnson will not be allowed to back-seat drive this country towards a catastrophic, cliff-edge Brexit.

The Parsons Green bomb is a reminder that the police and intelligence services are fighting a constant battle to detect below-the-radar plots by bedroom jihadis. Despite foiling dozens of plots over the past couple of years, the threat continues to mushroom, as radicalised Islamists assemble DIY bombs by using instructions on the internet.

Although, thankfully, the device did not fully detonate, the incident showcased the resilience and forbearance of the British people  qualities which we will need in abundance as we tackle this insidious threat together.
Its no exaggeration to say that a bomb has gone off under the Governments energy policy, and its of the nuclear sort.

One senior minister described the change of mood to an industry source like this: The UKs energy policy has been completely rewritten in the last ten days. The light bulb has finally switched on.

After years of prevarication and muddled policy, government ministers are now acknowledging that Britains energy security  and its commitment to net zero by 2050  is impossible to achieve unless they move swiftly to build more nuclear reactors for electricity generation.

Ministers are now acknowledging that Britains energy security is impossible to achieve unless they move swiftly to build more nuclear reactors for electricity generation

The reason is not hard to discover. The combination of worldwide high gas prices, weather conditions which mean wind has been providing some 4 per cent of energy supplies over the last few months and problems with the inter-connectors bringing gas in from Europe have concentrated their minds. If it wasnt for the lack of wind, you would call it a perfect storm.

At present, nuclear energy hovers between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of total electricity generation but the nuclear fleet is running down, fast, and by 2030 there will be far less capacity because of increased demand from, for example, electric cars.

The Dungeness B reactor was retired in June this year, Hunterston B will shut by Christmas and Hinkley Point B retires next July with Hartlepool and Heysham 1 coming off stream in 2024.

Which is why the nuclear industry says if the change of thinking is serious, ministers must move like lightning to power up the nuclear programme.

This means building at least two new big nuclear stations  Sizewell C in Suffolk and Wylfa on Anglesey, the Horizon site that Hitachi pulled out of a few years ago and which the consortium headed by Bechtel wants to develop.

Only with these two, plus ten SMRs from Rolls-Royce, being built by 2035, could the Government meet the sixth carbon budget as set out by the Climate Change Committee.

If the UK does want to achieve net zero by 2050, then three times that amount of nuclear capacity will be needed.

What can the Government do to speed up such an ambitious and costly programme? First is to push legislation through Parliament in the next few weeks to press the button on the new Regulated Asset Base (RAB) operating model, which brings in private investors, should reduce consumer electricity bills and reduce the cost to taxpayers.

Second, the Treasury, with Rishi Sunak  said to be one of the most vocal converts to nuclear power  needs to confirm that developers can access pre-development funding which was set aside in the spring spending review.

The most promising new project is the Bechtel consortium with Westinghouse which wants to build AP1000 reactors on the Hitachi-owned site at Wylfa.

In parallel, there is a bid from Shearwater to build SMRs on the site but the Nuclear Industry Association says there is room for both projects.

Giving the green-light to Bechtel would be a smart move. Building such projects can take decades but the US firm has a time advantage because the AP1000 has already gone through the UKs strict regulatory hurdles because it was approved for use at Moorside in Cumbria  since dropped.

The same team who would build on Anglesey has just finished two similar plants in Georgia.

If there is a genuine conversion, ministers should not be afraid of explaining the benefits of going for more nuclear power if they are to keep the lights on long-term.

There are many. It is the most efficient way of halting the UKs over-reliance on imported gas from Russia and elsewhere to provide energy security, while also achieving carbon targets.

Advances in nuclear technology also mean that over time the price of generation has become far more competitive compared to other sources.

Such a programme would also bring thousands of skilled jobs to the regions which need an economic rocket boost the most. In the jargon, levelling up and powering up.

Takeover blues

Everything about the 1.1billion takeover of Blue Prism by US private equity firm Vista Equity Partners looks a little weird.

The robotics specialist has had a torrid five years listed on AIM, with shareholders only recently accusing the board of not investing in the future.

It rather looks as if investors were right, and that the board just wanted out and to take the shilling.

And its a fat shilling. The founders and the boss are selling out for more than 130million.

Vista doesnt even pretend to be on the side of the angels, warning that jobs will be lost to achieve the required synergies.
Go-Ahead lost a quarter of its value yesterday after it was stripped of a key train contract in a scandal that triggered a high profile resignation and plunged the transport group into crisis.

The Southeastern railways franchise was nationalised after it emerged owner Go-Ahead and its partner Keolis failed to repay around 25million of UK taxpayer funds in a serious breach.

The cash has now been repaid but Go-Ahead has referred itself to the Serious Fraud Office  and its finance boss Elodie Brian stepped down with immediate effect.

Off the rails: Southeastern railways was nationalised after it emerged owner Go-Ahead and its partner Keolis failed to repay around 25m of UK taxpayer funds in a serious breach

The bus and rail group has also delayed plans to release its full-year results which were due out tomorrow.

The Department for Transport has threatened to take action against the small-cap company, which could include paying fines, and it is understood that an ongoing Government investigation could uncover even more unpaid cash.

Go-Ahead's finance boss Elodie Brian (pictured) stepped down with immediate effect

Go-Aheads shares tumbled 24.9 per cent, or 255.5p, to 769.5p. The Southeastern franchise runs vital commuter routes connecting London with Kent and East Sussex.

Southeastern is run by Govia, a joint venture that is majority owned by Go-Ahead and minority owned by French group Keolis.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps slammed Go-Ahead, saying there was clear, compelling and serious evidence that Southeastern railway has breached the trust that is absolutely fundamental to the success of our railways.

He added: We wont accept anything less from the private sector than a total commitment to their passengers, and transparency with taxpayers.

Unions have called for a wider fraud investigation and for Go-Ahead to be stripped of its other train work. From October 17 the Governments operator of last resort will take over the line.

Ministers insist there will be no disruption for passengers and that services will keep running as normal.

The undeclared sums relate to variable track access charges, which are fees that Southeastern pays to a group of private investors in return for using the high-speed tracks known as HS1.

Under the terms of the contract, the Government pays Southeastern a fee, which it passes on to HS1.

Any extra cash left over was meant to be returned to the taxman  but this was withheld. Errors have been identified dating back as far as 2014.

Go-Aheads chairman Clare Hollingsworth apologised to the Government.
The battle to snap up Morrisons will be decided by up to five rounds of bidding at an auction process being held on Saturday 2 October.

The UK stock market's takeover panel has confirmed private equity giants Fortress and Clayton Dubilier & Rice must now submit formal bids this weekend, but the auction could be scrapped if either side fail to boost their current offers.

A result will be announced by Monday morning, bringing an end to a takeover saga that has dragged on since CD&R first made an approach for the Bradford-based supermarket in June.

Decision time: The battle to snap up Morrisons will be decided by up to five rounds of bidding at an auction process this Saturday

The Takeover Panel said today: 'On the basis that neither offeror has declared its offer final, such that either offer may be increased or otherwise revised, a competitive situation continues to exist.'

Given that neither bidder had declared its offer final, the London stock market's takeover panel today said all of the parties had agreed to an auction process to decide the outcome.

After CD&R's approach in June, rival Softbank-backed Fortress then made an offer of 6.3billion for the grocer in July.

But shareholders felt this was too low and Fortress, which owns Majestic Wines, returned a month later with an increased offer of 6.7billion in August, which the board accepted.

Later that month CD&R returned with an increased bid of 7billion, leading to the board withdrawing their support for the Fortress bid and throwing its weight behind the higher offer.

Waiting game: A result will be announced by Monday morning, bringing an end to a takeover saga that has dragged on since June

Shares in FTSE 100-listed Morrisons are currently up 1.33 per cent or 3.88p to 295.88p. A year ago the share price was 171.60p, meaning it has risen by over 70 per cent in the past 12 months.

The fight for Britain's fourth-largest grocer after Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, is the country's most high-profile looming takeover amid a raft of bids and counter bids, reflecting private equity's appetite for UK Plc.

To date, CD&R and Fortress have been forced to make far-reaching pledges to protect the legacy of the supermarkets founding family, avoid asset sales and protect jobs.

But, critics warned the promises are not legally binding.

Over the weekend, MPs reacted angrily after it emerged CD&R will use a shell company in the Cayman Islands to run the supermarket.

The firm said it will use an entity called Market21 GP Holdings in the Caribbean as it released full details of its plans for the Bradford-based grocer to investors.

But parliamentarians said it 'beggars belief' that another major supermarket could be managed through a tax haven, and called on the Government to tighten rules on foreign takeovers. Last year the ownership of Asda was transferred to the tax haven of Jersey after it was bought by the Issa brothers and TDR Capital.

Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake said he will write to former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, who is heading up CD&R's bid, for assurances the firm will pay UK taxes.

Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP and campaigner against tax avoidance, said: 'It beggars belief that one of our biggest supermarkets could soon be bought by a private equity firm using tax havens.'

Darren Jones, chairman of the MPs' business committee, added: 'The idea that private equity can just sweep in, buy up British businesses and move them offshore to reduce the amount of tax they pay, without any rules or regulatory interventions, is just madness and an insult to British taxpayers.'

CD&R said the entity that will own Morrisons, Market Bidco, will be registered and incorporated in the UK, adding: 'Morrisons will remain registered in the UK, headquartered in Bradford and continue to pay taxes in the UK.'
No part of British industry is sacred in the eyes of the ruthless corporate raiders who have been prowling the stock market  not even our defence firms.

For more than a century the UK has displayed enormous prowess in the fields of aerospace, submarines, cyber-warfare and other military technology.

Our defence companies play a crucial part in national security. Yet only two of them, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, are protected from hostile takeovers and the risk they will fall into unsuitable hands, through a government golden share.

Cutting edge: For more than a century the UK has displayed enormous prowess in the fields of aerospace, submarines, cyber-warfare and other military technology

Over the past few years it has been open season on the others, with ministers standing by as firms making key technology have been picked off by predators.

This summer even more of our defence companies have come under siege by US private equity barons.

As a consequence of politicians' relaxed stance, some of our proudest companies have already been sold to foreigners or rapacious UK operators.

These defence groups are no ordinary firms: these are companies whose planes helped defeat Hitler and whose capabilities are protecting us today.

The defence sell-off has gone on unchecked, despite warnings from senior politicians and prominent veterans of the Armed Forces.

Rules to protect national security when UK companies are targeted by foreign bidders are due to come into force next year.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has intervened in the possible takeover of one firm, Ultra Electronics, and is poised to step in with the takeover of another, Meggitt.

So far, however, deals have been waved through, often with promises of good behaviour from buyers that are so feeble they are not worth having.

A number of sales are to US private equity, which means control of key technology is shifting to an overseas power, therefore reducing the UK's stature on the world stage.

The US is our ally but we do not always march in lockstep, as the recent chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has proved.

If Uncle Sam controls vast tracts of our defence industry, then we will have even less influence with the White House or the Pentagon.

Directors of defence firms rarely feel moved to resist when a bidder comes knocking, not least because they can make large sums on share incentives.

But we ask: what price national security and patriotism? Here are six deals that show the folly of the great defence sell-out

Cobham: Refuelling pioneer dismantled

Lady Cobham (pictured), the widow of Cobham's founder Sir Alan Cobham's son Michael, believes the sale of her family's firm to private equity is a threat to national security

Cobham, one of Britain's flagship aerospace and defence companies, was sold off to a rapacious American private equity outfit in a 4billion deal last year.

Set up in 1934 by Sir Alan Cobham, it pioneered the development of technology that allows planes to refuel in the air.

He must be spinning in his grave that the company he founded has fallen into the clutches of multi-millionaire private equity barons at Advent International. As we shall see, they are buying up swathes of the UK defence industry.

Members of the founding family, some top military figures and MPs all protested about the deal. Lady Cobham, the widow of Sir Alan's son Michael, and Tory grandee Lord Heseltine were among those sounding the alarm.

They feared it would pose a threat to national security and that the private equity model would savage the firm.

The Government launched a full investigation but waved through the deal on the basis of a few weak promises from Advent.

These were so ineffectual that within 18 months much of the company had been reorganised and then split up and sold off, mostly to other US firms.

Ultra Electronics: Engineer on the radar

Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West says Ultra Electronics's hi-tech submarine-hunting sonobuoys (pictured) are likely to be crucial to the very 'survival of the nation'

Not satisfied with having taken over Cobham, Advent recently launched a 2.6billion takeover bid for another leading British defence firm, Ultra Electronics.

Even more cynically, the US group is using Cobham as a front company for its offer.

The board of Ultra has rolled over and accepted the bid. Boss Simon Pryce stands to make as much as 10.8million if the sale goes through.

Once again, the only protection is promises from Advent to the UK government, which are currently being negotiated. In theory, these should help minimise any threats to national security.

But as the experience with the initial Cobham deal showed, such pledges are barely worth the paper they are written on.

The Ultra bid has triggered uproar among military figures and politicians  who have warned Britain could be left at the mercy of the Russian and Chinese Navy if it is sold.

Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, says Ultra's hi-tech submarine-hunting sonobuoys are likely to be crucial to the very 'survival of the nation'. He argues submarine conflict is set to become the next major theatre of war.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has  thankfully  intervened in the deal on national security grounds, ordering the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the tie-up and report back to him.

Laird: Long heritage sunk

Flagship: Formerly a ship-builder, Laird made Britain's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal (pictured)

Before preying on Cobham and Ultra, the Boston buyout barons at Advent had swallowed up Laird.

Once a titan of Britain's manufacturing industry with a heritage dating back almost two centuries, that company has been shattered into pieces in the three short years since it was sold for 1billion in 2018.

The takeover brought an end to a proud history of independent British ownership for Laird, whose roots go back to 1824.

Formerly a ship-builder, the company made Britain's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal.

It was previously part of Cammell Laird (which still exists as a separate company) making one ship every three weeks in the Second World War and playing a big part in the Battle of the Atlantic.

More recently, Laird shifted its focus to high-tech electronic products. They included antennae used by the emergency services, and systems which reduce interference in military communications.

Now the profit-hungry Americans have broken up the company, selling part of it off to a German private equity firm and a chunk to a rival US operator earlier this year.

Boss Tony Quinlan, who had been in the chief executive's seat for less than two years, made more than 

Meggitt Sir Sell-off flogs historic aerospace firm

The chairman of Meggitt is Sir Nigel Rudd (pictured), who has been dubbed Sir Sell-Off for his record of handing a string of UK companies to overseas buyers

Coventry-based Meggitt traces its history back to the 1850s and the invention of the world's first altitude meter for the hot air balloon.

The company  which is listed on London's FTSE 100 index  now makes vital components for planes and military jets.

This includes making the so-called 'black boxes', the wheel and brake components for the Royal Air Force's Typhoon fighter jets and kit for American F-35 aircraft. It also produces lightweight 'bladders' that hold fuel for Hercules military planes.

The heritage company has become a target for two firms that are both from the US state of Ohio.

Parker Hannifin has offered to pay 6.3billion  and Meggitt shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the deal earlier this month, with 99.8 per cent support.

Another aerospace giant, Transdigm, which boasts of its private-equity style culture, indicated it might put forward a 7billion bid but later withdrew.

Parker Hannifin made a series of commitments for Meggitt jobs, research funding and governance when it made its offer  though many of these were only for a year.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is preparing to launch a national security intervention into the Meggitt bid too, as the Mail revealed last week, though this has not been formally announced.

The chairman of Meggitt is Sir Nigel Rudd, who has been dubbed Sir Sell-Off for his record of handing a string of UK companies  including glass business Pilkington and Boots  to overseas buyers.

He stands to make 2million from his shares if the deal goes through and chief executive Tony Wood is in line for as much as 7.4million.

GKN: Jobs betrayal at Spitfire maker

GKN, which was sold in 2018 for 8bn to engineering conglomerate Melrose, once made the Spitfire aircraft (pictured) that saved the country in the Battle of Britain

One of the UK's oldest manufacturing businesses, GKN, was sold in 2018 for 8billion to engineering conglomerate Melrose after a closely fought bid.

The company once made the Spitfire aircraft that saved the country during the Battle of Britain and the cannons that defeated Napoleon.

Now its employees are trying to save a factory in Birmingham slated for closure by their new overlords.

Melrose is itself a UK company, quoted on the London stock market, but it has a private-equity-style business model where it buys companies, tries to improve their performance and then sells them on.

It was forced into making several promises to the Government to try to ensure it would be a responsible owner.

Melrose's four bosses shared in a bumper private equity-style bonus package of 167million for the period 2012 to 2017 prior to the takeover of GKN.

Despite vowing to make GKN 'a British manufacturing powerhouse', it has announced 'significant' job cuts and the closure of a Birmingham factory earlier this year.

Other pledges, including a vow not to sell the aerospace division for at least five years, are due to expire as soon as 2023.

At that point, a vital business could be flogged off to an overseas buyer, meaning key military manufacturing technology could leave Britain

Inmarsat: Tech champion taken out of orbit

Inmarsat oversees a network of satellites. They provide communications and tracking services to boats, aircraft and governments across the globe

With the sale in 2019 of Inmarsat, key communications technology used by the UK military fell into the hands of private equity.

From its high-tech control centre in London, the company oversees a network of satellites.

They provide communications and tracking services to boats, aircraft and governments across the globe.

These are classed as critical national infrastructure. Inmarsat counts the UK and US militaries among its customers.

Despite the importance of its business to the national interest, bosses agreed to a 4.7billion bid led by private equity firms Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus.

The Government waved the deal through. It proved extremely lucrative for some board members. Chairman Andrew Sukawaty scooped 6.5million for his shares and chief executive Rupert Pearce made 5.4million.

Critics feared that allowing the company to be bought by ruthless buyout barons could see its capabilities cut and parts of the business sold to foreign countries for a quick profit.

The buyers were eventually forced to give legally binding commitments that they would not substantially cut the workforce.

They also pledged to keep Inmarsats base of operations in the UK. That agreement, however, is due to expire next year.
An auction for Morrisons this weekend will send the supermarkets price tag soaring above 7billion.

The Takeover Panel said it would run up to five rounds of bidding on Saturday to determine the outcome of a four-month takeover battle between US private equity predators Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) and Fortress.

The result will be announced by Monday morning, although the process could also be scrapped if either side state they will not increase their offers.

On the block: The Takeover Panel said it would run up to five rounds of bidding to determine the outcome of a four-month private equity takeover battle for Morrisons

The auction will pit former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, who is fronting the CD&R bid, against American rival Joshua A Pack in a high-stakes showdown.

The duo have been vying for control of Britains fourth largest supermarket chain since the summer.

Confirmation the auction would go ahead pushed Morrisons shares up 1.4 per cent, or 4p, to 296p, valuing the Bradford-based group at nearly 7.2billion.

The bidding war has seen an initial offer of 5.5billion by CD&R turned down before the Morrisons board backed a 6.3billion deal with Fortress.

Then Fortress raised its bid to 6.7billion before it was trumped by a fresh offer from CD&R worth 7billion.

With the battle now heading to auction, the price tag is set to rise again, unless no party increases its bid.

The auction will pit former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy (pictured), who is fronting the CD&R bid, against American rival Joshua A Pack in a high stakes showdown

One analyst, from Canaccord Genuity, has predicted a higher price, saying the board should have held out for a bid of 314p per share, or 7.6billion.

Leahy, 65, is British business royalty, a man who worked his way up from a council estate in Liverpool to run Tesco for 14 years.

Pack, 47, is a chisel-jawed American go-getter and a father of four. In his 19 years at Fortress he has amassed a huge fortune and this year bought a 17million mansion in Dallas.

Both sides have been keen to stress they want to uphold the supermarkets values and have attempted to ward off suggestions they will sell off the companys freeholds, amidst harsh criticism from across the City and Westminster.

They have also pledged to support the Morrisons pension scheme, with CD&R reaching an agreement with the trustees over funding arrangements.

Asda  another of the big four supermarkets in the UK, along with Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco  fell into private equity hands last year when it was taken over by the billionaire Issa brothers backed by TDR Capital.

A host of other British firms have been targeted by private equity since the onset of the pandemic including security firm G4S and defence group Ultra Electronics.
There is 24billion worth of old paper 20 and 50 notes still in circulation, according to new data from the Bank of England.

This is made up of 9billion worth of 20 notes - approximately 450million notes, or eight for every adult in Britain.

Meanwhile, there are 15billion worth of 50 notes, roughly 300million notes  or five for each adult in Britain.

It warns it will be withdrawing legal tender status of these notes after 30 September 2022 and is encouraging people to either spend them, or deposit them at their bank or Post Office before this date.

Out with the old: Top, the old style paper 50 note and below, the new style polymer one

They have been replaced with new polymer notes  the 20 version features J.M.W. Turner and the 50 Alan Turing.

After the cut-off date, those with a UK bank account may be able to deposit them in branches of their own bank, but this varies and limits can apply, as they are not legally obliged to accept them.

The Bank of England says the Post Office may also accept withdrawn notes as payment for goods and services or as a deposit to an account  but not as an exchange.

Failing that, people would be forced to visit the Bank of England in Threadneedle Street, London, to exchange notes or send them in via post, which comes with its own risks.

Shops and other services will also no longer be legally required to accept them from 30 September 2022.

The Bank of England says: '"Legal tender" means that if a debtor pays in legal tender the exact amount they owe under the terms of a contract, they have a good defence in law if they are subsequently sued for non-payment of the debt.

'In practice, the concept of "legal tender" does not govern the acceptability of banknotes as a means of payment. This is essentially a matter for agreement between the parties involved.'

Sarah John, chief cashier at the Bank of England, said: 'In recent years we have been changing our banknotes from paper to polymer because this makes them more difficult to counterfeit, and means they are more durable.

'We want to remind the public that they have one year from today to spend their paper banknotes.'

The new polymer 20 was issued on 20 February 2020, and the polymer 50 note on 23 June 2021, which is when paper versions started to be withdrawn from circulation.

It means the Bank of England has given far less notice of withdrawing paper 50 notes and as a result, far more remain in circulation relative to paper 20 notes.

Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland are also in the process of withdrawing their paper 20 and 50 notes and also suggests that retailers and the public spend or deposit these notes by 30 September 2022.

The Bank of England says that the introduction of polymer banknotes allows for a new generation of security features which make them even harder to counterfeit.

The notes are said to be resistant to dirt and moisture and so remain in better condition for longer.

These notes also have tactile features that allow the blind and partially sighted to use them.

Recent data from the Bank of England also showed there are 114million 5 paper notes and 76million 10 notes out there, which have already stopped being legal tender.

But this is a far smaller total amount compared to the total value of paper 20 and 50 notes out there.
A young woman has mocked scammers pretending to be Border Force agents with a warrant for her arrest by playing along with their ruse.

Brieahna Chadevski, 23, filmed herself toying with the callers fishing for personal information to steal her identity and cash, and posted it on TikTok.

The call begins with an automated message telling Ms Chadevski there was a parcel under her name that contained 'illegal components'.

Brieahna (pictured) questions 'officers' allegedly from the Australian Border Force on why there is an apparent arrest warrant under her name

She was told to press a number on her phone's keyboard to speak to an officer from the Australian Border Force about a warrant for her arrest.

Ms Chadevski realises no matter what number she presses, she will still be transferred through to the scammers.

'Hi, yes, can you please give me more information about this arrest warrant,' she asks when the scammer picks up the phone.

The scammer seems confused about the call until Ms Chadevski prompts him about the message she received and he responds by asking for some personal details.

Brieahna Chadevski (pictured) released a TikTok on Monday showing her taking on scam callers trying to get her personal details

After giving him a fake name and address, she is transferred to 'senior officer Lorenzo Herby' for more information who gives her an alleged ABF badge number.

He told Ms Chadevski a parcel that arrived to Australia in her name was found with a controlled drug inside and asks her for her tax file and her Medicare card numbers.

'What does this have to do with the parcel that's being investigated,' she asks the scammer.

After telling her it is for validation purposes, she replies nothing should need her Medicare card unless it was for health reasons.

Stammering, the scammer tries to come up with an answer before he is interrupted by Ms Chadevski who asks what her Medicare number has anything to do with the fictitious package.

Realising Ms Chadevski is too smart for his tricks, scammer then hangs up on her.

She was told a package came into Australia that was under her name, despite giving a fake name and address, and her personal details were needed for validation purposes

ACCC warned residents to not click any links such as this one or to not give out any personal details to anyone you don't know and trust

The ACCC's Scamwatch websites said Australians lost a reported $211 million to scammers this year - already 89 per cent more than the $175.6 million reported to Scamwatch over all of last year.

'It's very concerning to see these scams evolving and becoming more sophisticated to steal even more money from unsuspecting people,' ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said.

'While the proportion of reports involving a financial loss has dropped this year, the people who do lose money are losing bigger amounts.

'The average loss so far this year is about $11,000 compared to $7,000 for the same period in 2020.'

Ms Rickard urged Australians to report scams even if they did not lose money to prevent it from happening to someone else.

She said to never click on any links received out of the blue and never give out personal details to anyone you do not know and trust.
China must come clean about Covid's origins or its controversial experiments on viruses may spark another pandemic, the author of an explosive new book warns.

Australian journalist Sharri Markson said her 18-month investigation into the 'lab leak' hypothesis left her 'beyond doubt' that the virus spilled out of a biomedical facility.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses, is the high-security laboratory at the centre of an alleged cover-up.

Markson called for this so-called 'gain of function' research to either be shut down or Chinese labs put under more scrutiny to avoid future pandemics.

The risky experiments involve engineering viruses to make them more infectious or lethal, in the hope of developing treatments and vaccines to get ahead of outbreaks.

Markson's book 'What really happened in Wuhan', which makes a compelling case for the lab leak theory, hit the shelves in Australia today and is available in the UK and US from Thursday.

It includes testimonies from senior security officials and high-ranking diplomats, including an ex-MI6 chief and the US' former head of national intelligence.

They claim the evidence points 'singularly' to Covid spilling from the WIV, with the pathogen showing all the hallmarks of one that has been 'mucked around with'.

Governments around the world are taking the 'lab leak' theory increasingly seriously after it was initially dismissed as a conspiracy in the early stages of the pandemic.

Recent revelations about the type of research that went on at the WIV and China's attempt to censor vital information about the virus' origins have raised suspicions.

Australian journalist Sharri Markson said her 18-month investigation into the 'lab leak' hypothesis left her 'beyond doubt' that the virus spilled out of a biomedical facility

Her book, 'What really happened in Wuhan', hit the shelves in Australia today and is available in the UK and US from Thursday

Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, told Markson's documentary of the same name about his probes into the origin of the pandemic. They concluded that Covid had all the signs of 'taking a natural virus and mucking around with it'

David Asher, a former Covid investigator for the US State Department, said he feared the virus was borne out of experiments into biological weapons

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is the high security lab which specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses at the centre of the alleged cover-up. Pictured: Researchers in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, February 2017

Promoting her book, she told the Sun Online last night: 'This is so important, this has not only claimed 4.7 million lives - it has shut down our lives as we know it.

'People have lost their jobs, businesses have shut down, kids aren't in school, all our lives have been turned upside down. To prevent another pandemic, we absolutely need to know how this started.

WHO will start NEW investigation after first probe was whitewashed The World Health Organisation will start a new investigation into the origins of the Covid outbreak and probe whether the virus came from a Wuhan lab. A new team of experts will be appointed, including experts on biosecurity, laboratory safety, genetics, and how viruses spread to humans. They will look into whether coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, at the end of 2019 - a claim denied by China, which also wants the WHO to examine if the virus originated in another country. It comes after US President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the 'lab leak' theory. A WHO spokesman said the new team's 'priority needs to be data and access in the country where the first reports were identified'. The earlier investigation recommended China examine the earliest suspected coronavirus cases, with the team claiming in its final report that the data provided by the country was insufficient. But out of the more than 400 page report, just three were allocated to the lab leak hypothesis. The original investigation was mired in controversy because it was spearheaded by Peter Daszak who had undisclosed ties to the Wuhan lab. Advertisement

'And the fact is there has been dangerous biological research undertaken in labs in China which are not up to the same standards as Australian, British and American labs and where there is no oversight.'

Gain of function involves modifying organisms to enhance how they work, such as making a virus more deadly or more transmissible.

And the and the project might have gone ahead despite failing to get US funding, he said.

Markson has also made a documentary which first aired in Australia last week and has now been uploaded to YouTube, where she speaks to a number of high-profile officials.

David Asher, a former Covid investigator for the US State Department, said he feared the virus was borne out of experiments into biological weapons.

He said: 'My concern was that the Chinese were doing research and as we learned later, under quite uncontrolled circumstances, that was almost definitely related to biological warfare ambitions in the future.

'[What if] they had an accident that they never wanted anyone to know about because it was a weapon, and the weapon got released errantly.'

In another clip, a whistleblower claimed the virus was intentionally created and was unleashed in October 2019 at the Military Games in Wuhan, two months before China notified the World Health Organization about the virus.

The communist Government in China has stymied efforts for independent investigations into how the virus first jumped to humans in epicentre Wuhan.

It has silenced journalists, wiped scientific databases and 'disappeared' WIV staff who were struck down with a mystery illness in autumn 2019.

Mike Pompeo, former US Secretary of State under President Trump, said intelligence about the origins of Covid pointed to the Wuhan lab being the 'centre point'.

Speaking to Markson in the documentary, Pompeo said: 'There is enormous  albeit indirect  evidence that the WIV was the centre point for this.

'Remember too there were 14 American diplomats on the ground in Wuhan at this time [late 2019], watching and observing what was taking place on the ground.

'I'm hoping one day we'll be able to get that information out more broadly but... the cumulative evidence... points singularly to the WIV.'

Former President Donald Trump told Markson he was '95 per cent' sure that Covid emerged at the WIV and he believed it was 'gross incompetence' rather than intentional.

Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, told the documentary about his probes into the origin of the pandemic.

He said that Covid had all the signs of 'taking a natural virus and mucking around with it'.

Mike Pompeo, former US Secretary of State under President Trump, said intelligence about the origins of Covid pointed to the Wuhan lab being the 'centre point'

Trump told Markson that he was '95 per cent' sure that Covid emerged at the WIV and he believed it was 'gross incompetence' rather than intentional

John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence between 2020 and 2021, told the documentary: 'If there was really no blame here, if this was really some naturally occurring virus because someone ate a bat from a wet market, then China would not have done what it did

China's official timeline of the coronavirus pandemic vs counter-claims Official timeline Dec 8, 2019 - Earliest date that China has acknowledged an infection Dec 31 - China first reported 'pneumonia of unknown cause' to the World Health Organisation Jan 1, 2020 - Wuhan seafood market closed for disinfection Jan 7 - President Xi Jinping discusses coronavirus outbreak with his politburo Jan 9 - China makes public the genome of the coronavirus Jan 11 - China reported its first death Jan 13 - First case outside China is confirmed Jan 20 - China's National Health Commission confirms human-to-human transmission Jan 23 - Wuhan locked down Jan 31 - WHO declared 'outbreak of international concern' as China admitted having thousands of cases Feb 23 - Italy reports cluster of cases in first major outbreak in the West May 29 - China claims virus did not originate in wet markets but in Chinese bats before it jumped to humans via an 'intermediary animal' July 31 - Chinese researcher admits some coronavirus experiments conducted in lower biosafety labs Dec 16 - WHO announces it will travel to Wuhan to probe origins of virus in January Jan 5, 2021 - China denies entry to WHO's investigatory team Feb 9 - WHO dismisses theory virus leaked from lab - backs China's claim it was imported from frozen meat Mar 28 - Former US national security officials says intel shows 'there was a direct order from Beijing to destroy all viral samples' at Wuhan lab New evidence Sep 2019- Blood samples are taken in a lung cancer screening trial in Italy which later test positive for coronavirus Oct - Whistleblower Wei Jingsheng claims China deliberately spread Covid at The World Military Games in Wuhan in October, two months before the rest of the world knew about the virus Oct - Xi Jinping's authoritarian regime tried desperately to shut down whistle-blowers like Mr Jingsheng. Any references made in social media about a new SARS virus or 'outbreak' were censored Oct-Dec - Rise in 'flu and pneumonia' cases in northern Italy which could be linked to coronavirus Nov - Whistleblower Mr Jingsheng claims he took his concerns about the military games to senior figures within the Trump administration but was ignored Nov - Intelligence report passed to agencies in Washington claims three members of staff at the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital treatment in November 2019 after experiencing symptoms consistent with Covid Nov - Sewage samples taken in Florianopolis, Brazil, suggest virus was present Nov 10 - Milanese woman has a skin biopsy, producing a sample which later shows signs of the virus Nov 17 - Leaked documents suggest case detected in China on this date Dec - Doctors in China, including Li Wenliang, report existance of new type of respiratory infection. But Chinese police arrested him and eight of his colleagues for questioning - instead of publicising reports and warning public Dec 1 - Chinese researchers report an infection on this date in a peer-reviewed study, but it has not been acknowledged by Beijing Dec 18 - Sewage samples taken in Milan and Turin suggest virus was circulating in the cities Dec 26 - Samples analysed suggested a new type of SARS was circulating as early as December 26, but Wuhan was not locked down until January 22 Jan 2020 - Sewage samples from Barcelona suggest virus was in the city Jan 3 - Covid-19 infections begin sweeping across other nations including the U.S. as the WHO labelled the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern May - Scientists at a government lab in California concluded that Covid-19 may have escaped from a facility in Wuhan July - WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said China failed share vital raw data during their investigation in Wuhan. China rebuffed those claims August 2021: The world's first Covid-19 patient may have been infected by a bat while working for a Wuhan lab in China, WHO chief Dr Peter Embarek said August: A damning report by Republicans in the US claims coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, shortly after the facility tried to improve air safety and waste treatment systems The report also cited 'ample evidence' that lab scientists were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and such manipulation could be hidden Advertisement

Since China alerted the world to a mysterious virus circulating in Wuhan in December 2019, a debate has been raging over its true source.

China has repeatedly insisted the virus spilled naturally into humans from bats, with some scientists agreeing Covid most likely had natural origins.

But John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence between 2020 and 2021, told the documentary: 'If there was really no blame here, if this was really some naturally occurring virus because someone ate a bat from a wet market, then China would not have done what it did.

'The Chinese communist party would not have shut down Wuhan, they would not have silenced journalists and doctors and disappeared some of them.'

The book and documentary also include claims from a Chinese defector that he tried to warn top US officials about a deadly new virus in Wuhan in November 2019  five months before the World Health Organization declared Covid a pandemic.

Wei Jingsheng revealed he expressed concerns about the unfolding situation to senior figures within the Trump administration but was subsequently ignored.

The long-time democracy campaigner, who has served time in prison for 'counter-revolutionary activities', said he made the approach in November 2019, as whispers of a 'new SARS virus' began circulating on WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms.

'I felt they were not as concerned as I was, so I tried my best to provide more detail and information,' he told the Sky News Australia documentary.

'They may not believe that a government of a country would do something like that (cover up a virus), so I kept repeating myself in an effort  to persuade them.'

Xi Jinping's authoritarian regime tried to censor discussion about the virus in the early stages of the Wuhan outbreak  even when an untold number of corpses started flooding the city's hospitals.

Reports on the ground said any references made in social media about a new SARS virus or 'outbreak' were censored and brave medical staff who tried to speak out and warn the world were detained and forced to sign false confessions of panic-stirring.

Mr Jingsheng, who was exiled to the US years earlier, said he was aware of what was happening through Beijing Communist Party insiders who shared their fears about the situation and described the central government cover-up.

But despite the impending health crisis set to devastate the US and the rest of the globe, his message was not being taken seriously, he claims.

Meanwhile, it emerged last week that scientists in Wuhan planned to alter coronaviruses and release them into bat caves 21 months before the pandemic kicked off.

Leaked documents show Dr Peter Daszak, president of New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, proposed working with a group of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology to carry out the research.

The experts wanted to genetically enhance coronaviruses and release them among bats in Yunnan  around 1,240miles (2,000km) south west of Wuhan  in the hopes it would stop new viruses jumping from bats to humans.

The proposals set out plans to release a bat coronavirus featuring 'novel chimeric spike proteins'  which are spotted on Covid  as part of a plan to inoculate them against the virus.

They also wanted to create a genetically-enhanced virus that could infect humans easier, according to papers unearthed last night.

Researchers asked the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) for $14.2million (10.4million) cash to fund the project. But it turned the proposal down over concerns it would put 'local communities at risk'.

The documents, published by a team of academics investigating the origins of the pandemic, will add to growing suspicions that the coronavirus may have accidentally leaked from the high-level biosecurity laboratory in Wuhan.

The EcoHealth Alliance submitted the proposals in March 2018, which the US agency subsequently rejected.

EcoHealth Alliance is headed by British scientist Dr Peter Daszak, who denounced the lab leak theory in medical journal the Lancet towards the start of the pandemic.

Dr Daszak was initially part of a team gathered by the World Health Organization to investigate how the virus originated, but stepped back from the role after it emerged he had links to the Wuhan lab.

The proposals  called the DEFUSE project  were released by Drastic, a group of international scientists looking into the origins of the pandemic, which were passed details of the plans by a whistleblower.

Scientists have said the documents are genuine, but it is impossible to confirm.

Drastic said the documents show that EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology 'attempted to carry out advanced and dangerous human pathogenicity bat coronavirus research that would clearly qualify as gain of function'.

'Peter Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance proposed injecting deadly chimeric bat coronaviruses collected by the Wuhan Institute of Virology into humanised and "batified" mice,' Drastic said.

The project aimed to determine the risk of coronaviruses and develop methods to prevent outbreaks.

The US agency Darpa refused to fund the work because it was 'clear the proposed DEFUSE project led by Peter Daszak could have put local communities at risk'.

Dr Daszak and his team failed to consider gain of function, regulatory requirements and ethical, legal and social issues, Darpa said.

Drastic called on the wider scientific community to examine the origins of the virus in light of the leaked documents.

So far, only one group of WHO scientists have have been given permission to investigate Covid's origins in Wuhan. In their report published in March, they did not determine how the virus originated.

It followed a three-week investigation in Wuhan during which the researchers were carefully managed and only given access to certain data.
Writhing in agony and pleading for Jesus to help him: this is the shocking moment an African migrant broke his ankle after leaping off a third-floor balcony while trying to evade Mexican immigration guards in Ciudad Acuna.

The harrowing footage, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, was shot last week as Mexican authorities began removing some of the Del Rio migrants who have returned to their side of the border.

Law enforcement currently has 1,000 mainly Haitian migrants penned in the Parque Ecologico Braulio Fernandez but have warned them that they will be rounded up and flown south to Tapachula on the Guatemalan border if they leave.

Those who do are being rounded up in nightly raids on hotels that see Mexican immigration officers go room to room accompanied by heavily armed Guardia Nacional soldiers.

Scroll down for video

An African migrant was seen leaping off a third-floor hotel balcony in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico last week in a desperate attempt to evade immigration officers

Video obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows Mexican immigration officers surrounding the Cameroonian man as he screams in pain after breaking his ankle during a botched escape attempt

The man, who was traveling among the thousands of mostly Haitian migrants who hoped to enter the US, tried to make a run for it as Mexican authorities were raiding the hotel to round up migrants

DailyMail.com's footage begins with a convoy of Guardia Nacional trucks pulling up outside a Ciudad Acuna hotel which has four white minivans parked in the courtyard.

Soldiers are then seen spreading out around the hotel and can be seen checking every room.

Suddenly, a man can be seen making a run for it. Seconds later, the man  a Cameroonian national traveling with the Haitians  is heard screaming in pain and saying 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus'.

Three floors above him, soldiers are seen flooding onto the balcony he jumped from while he begs for help. His ankle is snapped and twisted unnaturally away from his body.

In the clip, he can be heard saying: 'Jesus, Jesus. Away, away. Jesus, what is this? What is this? Please, please, please, take me to the hospital. Take me to the hospital.'

According to Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies, the man was eventually picked up by an ambulance and treated for his wounds.

But others, a mix of Haitians and Africans, were rounded up and are seen being taken away by the Guardia Nacional  en route to the airport and a flight back to Tapachula.

The footage begins with a convoy of Guardia Nacional trucks pulling up outside a Ciudad Acuna hotel where four white minivans are parked in the courtyard

Soldiers are then seen spreading out around the hotel and checking every room

The man was eventually picked up by an ambulance and treated for his wounds, according to migration expert Todd Bensman

Bensman said: 'The Mexican government is raiding the hotels in Acuna. Every night, all night, they're raiding hotels and they're rounding [the migrants] up and they're flying them back down to the southern provinces.

'Every morning, they're flying them from Acuna. The raids are with Mexican National Guards in full battledress and Mexican immigration.

'They told me what their strategy is and what their orders are  it's to clear out all the Haitians who fled from the camp.

'The Biden administration clearly went to [the Mexicans] and said "WTF? Get on this and get on it now. Shut this down. We don't want any more coming in. Get them out of here".'

DailyMail.com previously revealed how many of the Haitian migrants massing in Del Rio had made the dangerous journey from homes in Chile and Brazil to the US border via the southern city of Tapachula.

The Haitians in Del Rio said they had sold their homes and cars and given up good jobs to fund the journey which they completed by bus and on foot.

Under a deal struck by the Trump administration and continued by President Biden, Mexico pledged to try to hold migrants in the south  keeping them close to the Guatemalan border via the use of Guardia Nacional roadblocks and an onerous system of permits and paperwork.

Mexico's Guardia Nacional has been rounding up migrants and sending them off to the airport to get on a flight back to Tapachula in southern Mexico

The rules, which include getting an immigration permit stamped every other day, sparked widespread riots when they were introduced in June 2019 among the Haitian and African migrants trapped in Tapachula.

Most of the Africans come from countries like Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of Congo  both of which have suffered badly due to political corruption, as well as war.

The rules were enforced via Guardia Nacional roadblocks, although some managed to find a way around them by paying smugglers.

Those who couldn't afford to pay like the Del Rio migrants were trapped on the Guatemalan border with Mexico until September 12 when they said they were told they could go by the Mexican authorities  apparently as a gift to mark Mexican Independence Day or El Grito.

As a result, thousands of Haitians, Africans and other migrants flooded into Del Rio  one of the only sectors of the US border where migrants aren't charged by cartels to cross.

DailyMail.com previously revealed how many of the Haitian migrants massing in Del Rio, Texas had made the dangerous journey from homes in Chile and Brazil to the US border via the southern city of Tapachula

Those migrants are now being routed out of their makeshift camp in Del Rio after being processed by border officials. Some have crossed back into Mexico to escape deportation

The sight of the camp caused widespread outrage, including from Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who slammed the Biden administration in remarks to reporters on Wednesday and accused the US of failing to pay billions of dollars pledged to help Mexico contain the migrants.

He said: 'Enough talking, it's time to act. There was a commitment that they were going to invest four billion - two billion for Central America and two billion for Mexico.

'Nothing has come  nothing.'

Many of the migrants who made it into the US and were camped in Del Rio have now returned to Mexico to avoid US deportation flights and say they are angry that they wasted all their money on the trip.

Bensman said: 'Some of these migrants were telling me the other day, they were angry they had spent all the money they had to get this far.

'They thought they were going to get in and it didn't work. Some of them said they're going to get their Mexican papers and find a way to work and build up the money they need to cross again.

'What that means is they know they're going to have to pay the cartels to get in.'
Katie Couric spares few from criticism in her new memoir, which she uses to settle scores from her four decades in TV, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Over 500 pages in length, Couric tears into ex-boyfriends, former colleagues at NBC and CBS and ridicules A-list celebrities including Prince Harry.

In 'Going There', Couric admits that she gave Ashleigh Banfield the cold shoulder early in her career because helping her would have been 'self sabotage'.

She rips into Deborah Norville, who she replaced on the TODAY Show, for having a 'relentless perfection' which turned off morning show viewers.

When Couric switched from TODAY to host the Evening News on CBS, staffers fought back with an 'insurgency' which left her feeling like Hillary Clinton because she was so under siege, she writes.

Couric is just as blunt about her love life and says ex-boyfriend Brooks Perlin, who was 17 years her junior, was a 'mid-life crisis' while TV producer Tom Werner was a 'textbook narcissist'.

Couric puts down Martha Stewart, saying it took a 'some healthy humbling (prison will do that . . .) to develop a sense of humor.'

Even the Royal family end up in Couric's sights and she describes how Prince Harry stank of cigarettes and alcohol when they met, and how Prince Andrew cozied up to Jeffrey Epstein at a bizarre dinner at his New York mansion.

DailyMail.com has seen the manuscript, which is out in late October and will be accompanied by an 11-city book tour.

DailyMail.com has read the manuscript for Katie Couric's book 'Going There', which is out in late October and will be accompanied by an 11-city book tour

Couric rips into Deborah Norville, who she replaced on the TODAY Show, for having a 'relentless perfection' which turned off morning show viewers. The hosts are pictured in 1990

The book has sparked outrage among people who have seen the manuscript, one saying that it 'should be called Burning Bridges by Catty Couric as it literally reads like Kitty Kelley wrote it about Katie', referring to the notoriously snarky celebrity biographer.

'Going There' will be published in late October by Little, Brown and Company

Couric's last major gig was with Yahoo which ended in 2017. Another person said that after this book she will 'never get a job at any television network or cable channel ever again because she attacks everyone'.

'She'll be stuck with her newsletter and Instagram stories for the rest of her working life even though the book oozes of her desperation to be back on network television hosting her own show,' they said.

'Going There' does tell Couric's personal story including a moving chapter about the death of her father, whose shift into PR from journalism to have a steady income for his young family was Couric's inspiration to be a reporter.

But as the book progresses that narrative gets sidelined for sideswipes at people Couric feels have maligned her.

CONTEMPT FOR HER RIVALS

Among the most striking passages is Couric explaining how she didn't stick up for other women at work because she saw them as a threat to her own career.

She admits that she had bad feelings for Deborah Norville even though she replaced her hosting TODAY in 1991.

Norville took two months off for maternity leave and Couric filled in - when Norville didn't return Couric got the job permanently.

Couric claims there were 'residual bad feelings' towards Norville for her obvious differences with Jane Pauley, her former TODAY co-host who left in 1989 under acrimonious conditions.

Couric writes that Norville had a 'major relatability problem' because she was too perfect at a time in the morning when people were still getting ready for the day.

One colleague supposedly told Couric that 'with Deborah, people feel like they need to get dressed before they turn on the TV'.

Couric admits that during her time at TODAY she was unwelcoming to other women because she felt like she needed to 'protect my turf.'

She writes that she was aware that 'someone younger and cuter was always around the corner' and singles out Banfield as an example.

Couric writes: 'For a minute there, Ashleigh Banfield was the next big thing; I'd heard her father was telling anyone who'd listen that she was going to replace me. In that environment, mentorship sometimes felt like self-sabotage.'

Among the celebrities that Couric takes potshots at are Prince Harry. She recalled that the smell of cigarettes and alcohol seemed to 'ooze from every pore' in his body

Couric's book is over 500 pages in length and she tears into former colleagues at NBC and CBS. She's pictured in 1992 with her colleagues on the TODAY Show. Left to right: Gene Shalit, Bryant Gumbel, Deborah Norville. Barbara Walters, Hugh Downs, Jane Pauley, Katie Couric, Willard Scott, Tom Brokaw

She had little affection for Martha Stewart and at an awards ceremony in 1996 Couric roasted her with a snarky poem which said that 'anything I can do you (Stewart) can do better.'

Stewart was unamused and Couric writes that it took a 'some healthy humbling (prison will do that . . .) to develop a sense of humor.'

Among the celebrities that Couric takes potshots at are Prince Harry, who she met at a polo match in Brazil during his 'wild-oats sowing phase.'

She recalled that the smell of cigarettes and alcohol seemed to 'ooze from every pore' in his body.

Couric left Joan Rivers so angry after asking if she had plastic surgery on her short-lived talk show 'Katie' that they never spoke again.

Backstage, Rivers said of Couric: 'Who does she think she is? She's on her knees blowing 14-year-olds', referring to Brooks Perlin, her much-younger boyfriend.

MIXING WITH THE NOTORIOUS

Couric was among those who attended the infamous 2010 dinner at Jeffrey Epstein's house when Prince Andrew was also there.

She describes Epstein's $75million New York townhouse as 'Eyes Wide Shut with a twist - creepy chandeliers and body-part art'.

Guests ate lasagna out of shallow bowls and Epstein 'held court' in front of the fireplace to the likes of Chelsea Handler and Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Rose.

On the way home Perlin remarked how young the women were who took their coats.

Couric writes: 'I couldn't imagine what Epstein and Andrew were up to, apart from trying to cultivate friends in the media. Which, in retrospect, they must have figured they'd need when the pedophilia charges started rolling in.'

FAILED RELATIONSHIPS

While Couric writes emotionally about the death of her first husband Jay Monahan from cancer, she also admits that her fame drove a wedge between them.

Couric's celebrity status 'took up residence in our marriage like an overbearing houseguest', as she describes it, and claims that the bigger she got, the smaller Monahan felt.

Couric calls her relationship with Brooks Perlin as something that 'screamed midlife crisis' and that she was 'rebelling' because she had never done anything 'particularly scandalous.'

That rebellion sometimes went too far, like the night she drank so much she ended up in hospital on an IV drip - which she kept top secret, worrying that it would lead to headlines in the New York press like: 'Anchor hits Rock Bottom!'

Couric writes that she regrets moving Perlin into her home without asking daughters so they had to deal with a 30-something guy walking around shirtless

The relationship led to 'distance' between her parents and her children which Couric also regrets.

Couric writes emotionally about the death of her first husband Jay Monahan (pictured) from cancer and admits that her fame drove a wedge between them

Her relationship with Tom Werner ended when he dumped her by email and Couric brands him a 'textbook narcissist' who 'love bombed her' with flowers and gifts

Couric is just as blunt about her love life and says ex-boyfriend Brooks Perlin, who was 17 years her junior, was a 'mid-life crisis. Pictured together in 2007

'Going There' describes a bizarre 15 minute date Couric went on with Michael Jackson whose hand felt like a 'dead fish' when she shook it.

Her relationship with Tom Werner ended when he dumped her by email and Couric brands him a 'textbook narcissist' who 'love bombed her' with flowers and gifts.

In her 20s Couric went on a date with Neil Simon, the late playwright who was 30 years her senior.

They got back to his hotel, kissed and he had to stop because of his 'blood pressure medication' - Couric does not clarify what the exact condition was.

Around the same age Couric went for dinner at an Italian restaurant with Larry King, even though he was 24 years older than her.

Afterwards they went back to King's apartment where Couric described him making a 'lunge' for her on the sofa with his tongue and his hands.

She pushed him off and a dejected King said: 'When I like, I really like'.

UNFORCED ERRORS

After leaving TODAY Couric joined CBS to host the Evening News and do special reports for 60 Minutes on a salary of $15million a year, making her the highest paid journalist in the world.

It was a disastrous move and Couric describes how staffers felt she was an 'existential threat' to their existence.

Couric admits to making a number of 'unforced errors' such as giving her office a glam makeover which was out of step with the unfussy culture at CBS.

As CBS executives began talking publicly and privately against her, Couric writes that she suffered 'internal sabotage'.

The book has sparked outrage among people who have read it and one said that it 'should be called Burning Bridges by Catty Couric'. She will 'never get a job at any television network or cable channel ever again because she attacks everyone,' one critic said

Couric claims she was in an 'unwinnable' situation and her team 'thought we'd be greeted as liberators; instead we got an insurgency'.

Things got so bad that Couric felt 'embattled, defensive, misunderstood. I guess you could say I was feeling like Hillary Clinton.'

In 2011 Couric left CBS and felt that she 'never really belonged here' because 'the body had rejected the organ early on'.

While Couric takes aim at numerous people in 'Going There', she does offer some moments of self analysis.

When she joined TODAY, Couric announced to Monahan, her husband at the time: 'I used to want to be the most popular girl in school. Now I'm the most popular girl in the country'.

Monahan called her 'gross' and hit her with a pillow.

After being dumped by Tom Werner, Couric went to a therapist who asked her if she had ever considered the idea that not everyone was going to like her.

Couric writes: 'Honestly I sort of hadn't'.
CNN's veteran anchor Christiane Amanpour has revealed she will have her final chemotherapy session tomorrow after being diagnosed with ovarian center and says early detection of the disease saved her life.

Amanpour, 63, announced in June she would undergo 18 weeks of chemotherapy after having surgery to remove her ovarian cancer.

With her final session in sight, she is now advocating for women to pursue medical treatment and tests for unusual things they notice in their bodies.

'Many women - sadly, but true - are often, and too often, are kind of fobbed off as hypochondriacs,' Amanpour told GMA's Robin Roberts. 'It's really hard to get to that first ultrasound, that first test, that can tell you sometimes if things are amiss.'

Christiane Amanpour, 63, revealed on GMA that she only has one more chemotherapy session for ovarian cancer and is now calling women to advocate for their bodies in hopes of early detection. Ovarian cancer does not have a screening, like breast cancer, and is oftentimes diagnosed too late

Only 20 per cent of ovarian cancers are found early. Amanpour was one of the few who fall into this category.

She first revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer in June, and that she had undergone surgery.

The CNN anchor is now pushing women to advocate for their bodies and be aware of the abnormal changes.

'So what I really want to say - and this is the only reason why I went public - is because I want women to understand, they must pay attention to their bodies, of whatever feels abnormal to them in what they know to be their body's normal state. And they need to pursue it,' she said on GMA.

Unlike breast cancer, ovarian cancer does not have a screening and can oftentimes be mistaken for small health problems, such as urinary tract infections, bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating, menstrual pain, or pain during sex.

But Amanpour insisted on being checked out when she felt unwell.

'I would not be swayed when I felt a pain that was unusual and I pursued it until the very end of getting my first ultrasound, which is the benchmark for then having a baseline to know whether you've caught it early in time,' she told GMA.

'Ovarian cancer mimics some other issues, whether it's a UTI, or whether it's irritable bowel syndrome or whether it's just bloating.'

Ovarian cancer is the eighth-most common cancer for women. American Cancer Society estimates that more than 21,000 women in the US will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer this year, and more than have will die from it.

This cancer mainly develops in older women. About half of the women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 63 years or older.

A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 78. Her lifetime chance of dying from ovarian cancer is about 1 in 108.

Most often ovarian cancer is detected too late. Oftentimes the disease is discovered at Stage 3 or 4, leaving many women hopeless of options and low survival rates.

Ovarian cancer can disguise itself as common health problems women face frequently, including: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, an upset stomach, back pain, and menstrual changes

Stage 3 ovarian cancer has a 39 to 59 per cent five-year survival rate.

Stage 4 only has 17 per cent.

Treatment for all stages of ovarian cancer typically involves a hysterectomy - a removal of the uterus - and chemotherapy.

However, those who are in Stage 1 and in childbearing years with cancer only in detected in one ovary, may opt into a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, where only one ovary and one fallopian tube are removed.

''[Ovarian cancer] is very difficult to detect and that's what I want women to understand,' Amanpour said.

Amanpour said she still had a long way to go before being officially 'cancer-free,' and has 'many, many, many years of test' before remission is possible.

When asked what she learned from her diagnosis, she learned that she was 'humble' and that she felt 'humility of not being able to be in order.'

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Amanpour has covered major crises in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea.

She has won a range of TV journalism awards, including 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards and four Peabody Awards.

She has been at CNN off and on since 1983, beginning as an entry-level desk assistant and rising through the ranks to become the cable news network's chief international correspondent ,as well as the anchor of a self-titled daily interview program.

In 2010, Amanpour left CNN to ABC News, which tapped her to anchor This Week, but she returned to CNN in 2012.

In 2018, PBS announced that Amanpour permanently would replace Charlie Rose, who left amid allegations of sexual misconduct. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been hosting her PBS show Amanpour & Company from her home in London.

Amanpour has a grown son, Darius, with her former husband, American diplomat and journalist James Rubin. The couple divorced in 2018 after a 10-year marriage.
The daughter of one of the victims of a 1991 double murder in Texas has attended the perpetrator's execution because she 'wanted to watch him die' like he watched her father die.

Rick Rhoades, 57, was put to death by lethal injection at the Texas state penitentiary in Huntsville 30 years after he confessed to the brutal double murders of Charles Allen, 31, and Bradley Allen, 33.

Marley Allen Holt, Bradley Allen's daughter, never met her father as she was born during Rhoades' trial.

Holt, who now lives in Brooklyn, New York, attended his capital punishment in on Tuesday and was joined by two siblings of the Allen brothers, a friend of the pair, and two friends of Rhoades who stood as witnesses.

Rhoades refused to say any final words as he lay strapped to the death chamber gurney, turning his head and looking only briefly at the relatives of his victims who had come to watch his execution.

He knifed Charles and Bradley Allen to death while trying to burgle their home in Texas just hours after he had been released from prison for another robbery.

Rick Rhoades, 57, (pictured in 2021) was put to death by lethal injection at the Texas state penitentiary in Huntsville

Rhoades stabbed brothers Charles Allen, 31, (left) and Bradley Allen, 33, (right) to death during a burglary of Charles' home in September 1991

Rhoades took several deep breaths, gurgled twice and began snoring as the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing through needles in each of his arms.

His breath became less pronounced and within about a minute, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 6:29 pm CDT, 17 minutes after the lethal injection began.

Kevin Allen, brother of the two victims, said watching their killer die was 'a weird feeling.'

'It's the most solemn thing I think I've ever been part of, if that's the word that's even appropriate,' he said.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who attended the execution, said in a statement that she hoped Rhoades' death would bring some 'justice' to the Allen family.

'We hope the Allen family finds peace after nearly 30 years of waiting for justice for their loved ones,' said Ogg.

'The death penalty should be reserved for the worst of the worst, and a Harris County jury determined long ago that this defendant fits the bill.

'Let us honor the memory of the victims, Charles and Bradley Allen, and never forget that our focus has and always will be on the victims.'

The US Supreme Court had declined to grant a stay to Rhoades' execution after his attorneys made a last-ditch effort to delay it over claims racial bias during jury selection could have impacted his trial.

That claim centers around two potential jurors who were black being dismissed from the trial of Rhoades, who was white.

Rhoades was sentenced to death in 1992 for the double murders of the Allen brothers.

Rhoades refused to say any final words as he lay strapped to the death chamber gurney in Huntsville (pictured above) turning his head and looking briefly at the relatives of his victims

Rhoades had a long criminal history, including convictions for burglary and auto theft in Florida, Iowa and Texas, before the September 1991 murders.

He had been released from prison on parole from a five-year sentence for car theft and home burglary less than 24 hours before he broke into Charles Allen's house in the Houston suburb of Pasadena.

The home, located near where the siblings' parents lived, had just been custom built for Charles Allen and he had invited his brother to temporarily live with him.

The two brothers had recently gone through separate divorces.

Charles Allen, who played the piano and had dreams of a musical career, worked as a chemical operator at a local refinery. Bradley Allen worked as a freelance artist.

At trial, prosecutors told jurors the siblings were asleep when Rhoades broke into their home in the early morning hours and attacked Charles Allen as he was in his bed.

Rhoades then stabbed Bradley Allen to death too when he came to his brother's defense. Rhoades then made off with cash and clean clothing following the attack.

An arrest in the case wasn't made until about a month later when Rhoades was caught burglarizing an elementary school.

While in custody, Rhoades confessed to killing the brothers. But he claimed it was done in self-defense after exchanging words with Charles Allen as Rhoades took a walk at 2:30am.

'I was tired of running. I wanted to tell what happened,' Rhoades said in his confession.

In July, Rhoades' attorneys had filed a federal lawsuit against state District Judge Ana Martinez in Houston over a request they had made that the judge order prosecutors to release information related to allegations some jurors were dismissed based on racial discrimination.

Rhoades (pictured in 1991 left and 2017 right) had been released from prison just hours before the murders for another robbery

Martinez ruled she lacked jurisdiction to consider the request. The suit was dismissed earlier this month by a Houston federal judge, who also declined to stay the execution.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the suit's dismissal and also declined to stay the execution.

The appeals court in 2019 had previously denied a similar claim by Rhoades' attorneys on allegations that two Black jurors were dismissed due to racial bias. Rhoades is white.

Rhoades' attorneys had previously unsuccessfully argued in other appeals: that his constitutional rights were violated when childhood photos depicting Rhoades in normal, happy activities and designed to show he was nonviolent and would do well in prison were excluded during his trial's punishment phase; that a state investigator gave false testimony at his trial over whether Rhoades could receive an unaccompanied furlough if sentenced to life in prison; and that 'evolving standards of decency' prohibit executions as a punishment for murder.

'A 2020 Gallup poll on Americans' attitudes regarding capital punishment shows that public support for the death penalty is at its lowest in a half-century, with opposition higher than any time since 1996,' David Dow and Jeffrey Newberry wrote in a court motion last month.

Rhoades was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas and the sixth in the US.

Four more executions are scheduled for later this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
One of New York's most celebrated restaurants has been roasted by the city's most high-profile restaurant critic over its new vegan-only offerings.

Eleven Madison Park, in a high-ceiling Art Deco building by the Flatiron, was in 2017 crowned the best restaurant on the planet, according to The World's 50 Best Restaurant list.

But New York Times critic Pete Wells had little time for a dehydrated beetroot dish served in a clay pot that is broken open at the table, saying that it 'tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.'

When the restaurant reopened in June, after being closed during the pandemic, it announced that it was going to offer an entirely vegan menu. Milk was only permitted for cappuccinos, and honey for tea.

The price for the 11-course meal at the Michelin three-starred establishment remained $335 - the same price as when there was lobster and foie gras on the menu.

But on Tuesday, the restaurant critic for The New York Times, Pete Wells, delivered his damning verdict, saying some of the dishes had a 'pumped-up, distorted flavor', while others had a 'cloying heaviness'.

The vegetables, Wells said, were 'doing things no root vegetable should be asked to do', and he accused head chef and owner Daniel Humm of manipulating the ingredients far beyond necessary.

'Some are so obviously standing in for meat or fish that you almost feel sorry for them,' he wrote.

Eleven Madison Park reopened in June, and had a 15,000-person wait list for tables. On Tuesday The New York Times published a damning review of the new vegan menu

When the restaurant reopened - with Angelina Jolie in attendance for the eagerly-awaited opening night - there was a 15,000-person wait list.

Wells said that they would likely be disappointed.

Pete Wells was deeply unimpressed with the hot-ticket Manhattan restaurant

Beets were served in ceramic pots, having been dehydrated, then rehydrated, smoked, cured, and treated over the course of three days. The pot was smashed at the table and then the beet cleaned and served with mustard leaf kimchi and red wine jus.

The tomato dish, served alongside a tea with lemon verbena, salad with strawberry and shiso, and a yellow tomato dosa, was described by Wells as having a 'pumped-up, distorted flavor, like tomatoes run through a wah-wah pedal,' a device used by musicians to distort the sound of an electric guitar.

Cucumber with melon and smoked daikon - a dish, which takes two cooks all day to chop and prep, due to the short shelf life of the fresh cucumber - was dismissed by Wells as being 'suffused with an acrid intensity'.

And a roasted eggplant, which used to be flavored with tuna flakes, was said to have a 'cloying heaviness'.

Cucumber with melon and smoked daikon - one of the 11 dishes on the tasting menu. Two chefs work full-time for a whole day to prepare the ingredients for this dish

Eggplant with tomato and cilantro, which Wells said had a 'cloying heaviness'

Angelina Jolie was among those who attended the re-opening night, back in June

'Time and again, delicate flavors are hijacked by some harsh, unseen ingredient,' Wells writes.

'The servers offer few explanations for the doctored flavors, and no warnings, either.

Eleven Madison Park's $335 11-course menu TOMATO tea with lemon verbena salad with strawberry and shiso yellow tomato dosa CELTUCE in variation with rice TONBURI with peas and baby lettuce CUCUMBER with melon and smoked daikon SUMMER SQUASH with lemongrass and marinated tofu SWEET PEPPER with Swiss chard BEET with horseradish and herbs EGGPLANT with tomato and coriander sides: summer beans with green onion, corn with juniper STRAWBERRY marinated with thyme BLUEBERRY with elderflower SESAME chocolate pretzel Advertisement

'The ingredients look normal until you take a bite and realize you've entered the plant kingdom's uncanny valley.'

Eleven Madison Park won its first Michelin star in 2010.

The following year, it joined the elite group of three-starred restaurants - an accolade it has maintained until the last ranking, in May 2021.

Eleven Madison Park had not reopened post-COVID in time for the latest rankings, meaning food-watchers must wait until May 2022 to see whether it can hold onto its three coveted stars with a plant-based menu.

There are only 134 three-starred restaurants in the world; France and Japan have 29 each, and there are 14 in the United States.

New York City currently has five - the same number as London.

Wells says that the 45-year-old Swiss chef 'used to get purer, deeper results out of vegetables before the restaurant went vegan.'

He added: 'Maybe he should bring back the celery root steamed in a pig bladder.'

Not all the dishes were demolished.

Wells said that a caviar-style dish of tonburi - seeds from the Japanese Kochia tree - served with lettuce, pea and miso puree, was 'delicious'.

His highest praise was reserved for something not on the menu - the bread.

'Originally kneaded with cow butter, the laminated dough has been rejiggered with butter made from sunflower seeds, and it's an unqualified success,' he wrote.

'So is the nonbutter that arrives with the bread, molded into the shape of a sunflower, bright yellow with a dark eye of tangy fermented sunflower seeds in the center.'

Wells pointed out that, although Humm argued the current restaurant situation was not sustainable for the planet, if everyone followed his lead the small farmers he previously bought his meat from in upstate New York would go out of business.

He also noted that there was meat served for the highest-paying clients, at a private dining room, with that policy set to continue until the end of 2021.

'It's some kind of metaphor for Manhattan, where there's always a higher level of luxury, a secret room where the rich eat roasted tenderloin while everybody else gets an eggplant canoe,' he said.

The restaurant and its chef have not commented.
A teenage beauty therapist who turned to drug dealing when work dried up during Covid had no idea that the woman she was selling cocaine to was an industry icon until police swooped on them.

Brooke Moody was arrested in her Kia Rio alongside celebrity eyebrow artist Kristin Fisher after police found them both in possession of cocaine during a traffic stop in Bondi on July 17.

The 19-year-old, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to supplying Fisher with 1g of cocaine as part of a 'dial-a-dealer' syndicate.

When cops pulled her over, they found several small bags of white powder in the car and Moody could not tell them the name of her passenger or how she knew her.

Fisher, meanwhile, was 'frantic' in the passenger seat as she attempted to evade police and leave the car, court documents revealed.

It was then that police realised they had 'disturbed a drug transaction'.

Brooke Moody (pictured) was arrested alongside celebrity eyebrow artist Kristin Fisher after police found them both in possession of cocaine during a traffic stop in Bondi on July 17

Kristin Fisher was convicted and fined $550 after she failed to appear in Waverley Court last Tuesday charged with possessing a prohibited drug and failing to comply with public health orders

The leading beautician allegedly told officers she'd been picked up from her Double Bay home to purchase the drugs - but claimed she had not handed over any cash.

Waverley Local Court heard Moody's beauty therapist job hunt was flailing because of Covid lockdowns closures and she had instead been recruited by a 'dial-a-dealer' drug syndicate.

The teenager opened her own small business, By Brooke Moody, back in January but struggled when all beauty therapy services were shuttered back in July.

On the night of her arrest, Moody had made $650 before she got the call to sell 1g of cocaine to the celebrated eyebrow queen.

Magistrate Julie Huber told the court on Tuesday she was particularly disturbed by how easy it was for Moody to join the sophisticated dial-a-dealer syndicate when she was short on cash.

The teenager opened her own small business, By Brooke Moody, back in January but struggled when Covid lockdowns forced the closure of all beauty therapy services back in July

As police swooped, Kristin Fisher (pictured) was 'frantic in the passenger seat, attempting to leave the vehicle and evade police interaction', according to court papers

The teenager, from Merrylands in the city's west, admitted one count of supplying a prohibited drug and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime.

'It is of some concern that you were able to become involved in such a formal and organised manner of dealing,' Ms Huber told Moody, reported the Daily Telegraph.

'Dial-a-dealer means you must have had some connections with people that one can only regard as being unsavoury.'

She said it was particularly concerning that Moody was motivated to distribute drugs within the community by making 'a quick dollar'

'All I can say, is I imagine your family are very disappointed and surprised with regard to your previous good character,' Ms Huber said.

Moody was placed on a community corrections order with supervision for 30 months and fined $3,000, court records confirmed.

Police had also fined her on the day of her arrest for breaching Covid restrictions by travelling from Merrylands to Bondi without a reasonable excuse.

Teenager Brooke Moody turned to drug dealing after Covid halted her dream of being a beauty therapist - but she had no idea she was selling coke to industry icon Kristin Fisher (pictured)

Meanwhile mum-of-two Fisher, 36, who goes by her married name Barnes in court papers, was last week convicted of drug possession and fined $550 but has vowed to appeal.

Fisher's case will return to court on October 6 when she will fight her conviction, which was handed down in her absence after she missed the hearing.

Her solicitor Michael Bowe insists Fisher wasn't aware of her court date last week and would have been present if she had known.

Fisher cooled off at Nielson Park Beach, in Sydney's east, last Friday with a friend as her lawyer lodged the legal application.

She has maintained a relatively low profile since the latest court hearing, but shared several pictures relaxing in the sun on Friday afternoon.

Fisher is one of Sydney's most in demand beauticians and runs a salon in the affluent eastern suburb of Double Bay.

Before the government agreed to reopen beauty salons when the state achieved a 70 per cent vaccination rate, Fisher offered to provide her services to clients as a workaround to Covid-19 health orders.

Fisher (pictured) is one of Sydney's most in demand beauticians and runs a salon in the affluent Double Bay

The services would only be offered to fully-vaccinated customers and who live within a 5km radius as groups of five double jabbed residents are now allowed to gather outside together.

'Eyebrows in the park from September 13. Who's in?' she posted to Instagram last month when many outdoor activities were re-permitted.

Some of Fisher's most well-known clients jumped at the opportunity to have their brows touched up sooner than expected.

Instagram influencer Indy Clinton was one of the first to lock in an appointment, saying: 'I will be there before the sun even rises. Count me in'.

Celebrity stylist Suze Eskaner instantly asked where she could book, while model Steffanie Tzeneros joked: 'Pls my eyebrows are connecting'.

Kate Waterhouse, the daughter of horse trainer and businesswoman Gai, and designer Brooke Testoni both also indicated they'd be keen to book an appointment.
A burns survivor who was doused in methylated spirits and set alight by a jealous woman is now working as a cosmetic nurse after being told she'd never be able to hold a pen again.

Dana Vulin, 35, suffered horrific third-degree burns to over 60 per cent of her body after Natalie Dimitrovska broke into her Perth apartment in 2012 and set her on fire.

Dimitrovska, who is serving a 17-year sentence for the attack, was high on meth and jealous Ms Vulin had spoken to her estranged husband at a New Year's Eve party.

Ms Vulin has since earned a master's degree of science in nursing and is working as a cosmetic nurse to help heal the scars of others.

'I wanted to use what I learned from making this recovery to give back,' she told Nine News.

'I just never thought I'd look like Dana again, let alone have such an immaculate steady hand.'

Dana Vulin, 35, was doused in methylated spirits and set alight by a jealous woman who wrongly believed she was having an affair with her estranged husband

Ms Vulin has since earned a master's degree of science in nursing and is working as a cosmetic nurse to help heal the scars of others

Ms Vulin's vile attacker wrongly believed she was sleeping with her husband and bombarded her with abuse.

'She called me a f*cking slut, told me I was f*ucking dead, said she'd kill me and ruin my pretty little face,' she told Seven News in 2013.

'If I could just explain to her he didn't even hit on me, he hasn't even called me. We haven't even seen each other.

'If I just saw her I thought I could explain to her and she'd get it.'

At about 6am on February 16, 2012 Ms Dimitrovska and a male accomplice broke into Ms Vulin's home.

The jealous woman was smoking crystal meth as she questioned where her husband was, before throwing the liquid over Ms Vulin's body and setting her on fire.

'She was laughing at me while I burnt alive. When I stood up the flames were getting worse, and I could barely think through the pain.'

The 35-year-old has made a miraculous recovery despite suffering burns to over 60 per cent of her body

Ms Vulin was rushed Royal Perth Hospital after being helped by neighbours where she was treated by one of the world's best burns units - the same clinic where Bali Bombings victims were treated.

Ms Vulin graduated with her master's degree of science in nursing in January and decided to dedicate her life to helping others.

She performs paramedical services including cosmetic tattooing that cover scars from injuries or other surgeries.

The surgeon regularly treats new mothers and cancer patients, helping them minimise marks from operations.

'She has gone through a huge process and is still enduring scarring issues and for her to think of others after all she's suffered is an amazing trait,' breast cancer survivor Orlagh Byrne said.
NSW is resisting the disclosure of state cabinet documents used in the health minister's decision to create public health orders, a court has heard.

The NSW Supreme Court will on Wednesday decide whether to uphold the claimed public interest immunity or order the state hand the documents to health workers trying to overturn a vaccine mandate.

The two documents concern a presentation and decision of the crisis policy committee of cabinet before the making of the relevant vaccine mandate.

The NSW Supremer Court will decide on Wednesday if documents pertaining to vaccine mandates for health workers will be released (pictured, Gladys Berejiklian at Monday's press conference)

Thomas Prince, acting for NSW, cited a 1992 High Court ruling in which public interest immunity over cabinet documents was considered.

In that case, six of the court's seven justices expressed doubt that disclosure of state cabinet deliberations concerning current or controversial matters would ever be warranted in civil proceedings.

'That is precisely this case,' Mr Prince told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.

'Without trying to be rhetorical, if cabinet documents in the present case - involving current and controversial matters on a matter of high government policy - are disclosable because of a challenge to government decision making, then there will be few, if any, cabinet documents which would not be disclosable,' Mr Prince said.

The documents relate to decision of the crisis policy committee of cabinet before the vaccinate mandate was announced (pictured, a vaccination hub in Sydney)

Even if produced, the documents were of 'limited probative value' and wouldn't say anything of cabinet's discussions, which Health Minister Brad Hazzard took into account when creating the public health order, Mr Prince said.

Jason Harkess, for the plaintiffs, said the case was exceptional, given thousands had had their rights and livelihoods infringed in a way like never before.

'This has never ever happened before - perfectly healthy people are being told you can't go to work unless you've had a vaccination,' he said.

'If ever there was to be an exception, this is it.'

Jason Harkess for the plaintiffs, said thousands were having their rights and livelihoods infringed in a way like never before (pictured, a vaccination hub in Sydney)

Dr Harkess also suggested the cabinet documents may show countervailing arguments to enforcing a vaccine mandate, given NSW government documents produced so far had failed to do so.

'(It's) inconceivable that a reasonable decision-maker would not have regard to at least one countervailing factor that militates against,' he said.

Mr Prince submitted it was incorrect to suggest Mr Hazzard took no countervailing arguments into account.

A decision on the public interest immunity claim will be made on Wednesday by Justice Richard Cavanagh.

The full hearing concerning the vaccine mandates for particular workers in NSW will be heard on Thursday.
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Dog the Bounty Hunter has been searching coastline and creeks on Wednesday for wanted Brian Laundrie in the area of the Florida campground that the fugitive visited with his parents earlier this month, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The TV reality star - real name Duane Chapman, 68 - has been aboard a boat and working with his own teams around the Fort De Soto site about 75 miles from the North Port home Laundrie shared with dad Christopher, 62, and mom Roberta, 55.

'He's working on very strong leads today,' said the former bail bondsman's spokesperson Jennifer Willingham. 'This could very well be the last day of the hunt to apprehend Brian Laundrie.

'He's been using a boat. But we don't want other folk piling in with their boats in the area. He's following specific information.'

Dog and his new wife Francie Frane were seen arriving Wednesday morning at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, where it has emerged that 23-year-old Laundrie had camped with his parents five days before his fiancee Gabby Petito was reported missing.

The reality TV duo, who tied the knot in Colorado only weeks ago, looked ready for business as they hopped out of their vehicle outside the park entrance.

Dog the Bounty Hunter boarded a boat Wednesday to search the area around the Fort De Soto campground that Brian Laundrie and his parents visited earlier this month

Dog was seen arriving at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County Wednesday morning with his new wife, Francie Frane, ahead of the search operation

The reality TV duo, who tied the knot in Colorado only weeks ago, looked ready for business as they hopped out of their vehicle outside the park entrance

The attorney for Brian Laundrie's parents has confirmed that all three went camping in Fort De Soto in Florida national Park just days before his fiancee Gabby Petito was reported missing. The camping site is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos

The campsite (pictured) is located in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, close to St Petersburg

The attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie has confirmed that Laundrie went camping with his parents at Fort de Soto Park five days before Gabby Petito was reported missing. Laundrie had returned home to North Port, Florida on September 1 and Petito was reported missing on September 11. Police and FBI are now searching Cartlon Reserve for any sign of him

Dog drove his huge white truck with American flags flying, and chatted to an officer from Pinellas County Sheriff.

Police were on hand at the site, which has come under the spotlight as a possible area of interest in the manhunt, and an unidentified helicopter was spotted overhead this morning.

The Laundrie family attorney confirmed on Tuesday that all three family members went camping at the site just five days before Gabby Petito was reported missing on September 11.

Brian had returned alone to North Port on September 1 from a cross-country road trip with Gabby, whose body was found in Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming on September 19.

Attorney Steven Bertolino said the Laundries camped together at Fort De Soto from September 6, leaving together the following day.

'They all left the park,' he told Fox 13.

But Dog, who joined the search for Brian over the weekend, has claimed that Laundrie's parents spent the night in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, from September 1 to 3, staying in spot number 1.

According to the bounty hunter, they returned again with Brian to stay on spot 15 from September 6 to 8, and left without him.

However, records did not show the Laundrie family staying at the park from September 1 to 3.

Bertolino had initially responded to the allegations saying 'I will no longer give that dog credibility or dignify his false claims with the time of my reply.'

Meanwhile at the Carlton Reserve - 13 miles from the Laundries' North Port home - the FBI continued their hunt for Brian on Wednesday in the 25,000-acre alligator and snake-infested swampland

The FBI's main search area has switched back to the starting point of Mayakkahatchee Environmental Park (pictured) where Laundrie's silver Ford Mustang convertible was parked on the night of Tuesday, September 14

DailyMail.com also witnessed FBI agents taking trash bags of possible evidence from the swamp to a nearby hotel, where they appear to have set up a center

The park is connected to the main reserve by a bridge, leading to the menacing, flooded and often densely wooded wilderness

Timeline of missing Gabby Petito's case July 2: Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip

Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip August 12: Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple. Petito tells an officer Laundrie hit her but cops decide she is the primary aggressor

Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple. Petito tells an officer Laundrie hit her but cops decide she is the primary aggressor Aug. 21: Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah

Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 24: Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie

Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie Aug. 25: Petito makes final call to her mother, Nicole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park

Petito makes final call to her mother, Nicole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park Aug. 25 or 26: The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes

The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes Aug. 27: Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune, of Red White & Bethune, around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Petito's mom receives an 'odd text' from her phone

Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune, of Red White & Bethune, around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Petito's mom receives an 'odd text' from her phone Aug. 29: The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm

The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm Aug. 30: Petito's mom receives the last text from her phone: 'No service in Yosemite'

receives the last text from her phone: 'No service in Yosemite' Aug. 31: Laundrie's mother Roberta cancels a camping trip for 2 to Fort De Soto campsite for Sept. 1-3

Laundrie's mother Roberta cancels a camping trip for 2 to Fort De Soto campsite for Sept. 1-3 Sept. 1: Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in the van without Petito; Laundrie visits sister Cassie at her home

Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in the van without Petito; Laundrie visits sister Cassie at her home Sept. 4: According to his attorney, Laundrie purchases a new cell phone from a North Port AT&T store which he leaves at his home September 14 and is seized by the FBI

Sept. 6-8: Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida, records show. The family's lawyer says they stayed only from Sept. 6-7. Brian's sister Cassie joins them - reportedly for the day on Sept. 6

Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida, records show. The family's lawyer says they stayed only from Sept. 6-7. Brian's sister Cassie joins them - reportedly for the day on Sept. 6 Sept. 10: The Laundries' neighbor Karyn Roberts says she saw Laundrie at the family home

The Laundries' neighbor Karyn Roberts says she saw Laundrie at the family home Sept. 11: Petito's mom reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van is impounded by police in Florida that same day but authorities are denied entry to their home to speak with Laundrie

Petito's mom reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van is impounded by police in Florida that same day but authorities are denied entry to their home to speak with Laundrie Sept. 12: Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito

Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito Sept. 14: Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie reportedly buys a burner phone from an AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida, with an 'older woman'; Laundrie is reportedly last seen by his parents leaving to go to the Carlton Reserve carrying a backpack

Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie reportedly buys a burner phone from an AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida, with an 'older woman'; Laundrie is reportedly last seen by his parents leaving to go to the Carlton Reserve carrying a backpack Sept. 15: Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case

Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case Sept. 16: The August 12 domestic comes to light with bodycam from one officer released

The August 12 domestic comes to light with bodycam from one officer released Sept. 17: Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown and that his parents last saw him Sept. 14; Cassie tells GMA she last saw him Sept. 1 and describes Petito as 'like a sister' to her

Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown and that his parents last saw him Sept. 14; Cassie tells GMA she last saw him Sept. 1 and describes Petito as 'like a sister' to her Sept. 18: North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie

North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie Sept. 19: Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials find a body near Grand Teton National Park that matches Petitos description

Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials find a body near Grand Teton National Park that matches Petitos description Sept. 21: Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under investigation

Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under investigation Sept. 20 - 22: FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve

FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve Sept. 22 : Neighbors say they saw the Laundrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13

: Neighbors say they saw the Laundrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13 Sept. 23: FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando

FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando Sept. 25: Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie

Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie Sept. 26: A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children

A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children Sept. 27: Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left

Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left Sept. 28: Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son

Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son Sept. 29: Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the area near Fort De Soto finding a recently drunk can of Monster Energy at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods

Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the area near Fort De Soto finding a recently drunk can of Monster Energy at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods Sept. 30: Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home

Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home Oct. 1: It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did. The Laundrie family said they believe he is alive somewhere in Florida

It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did. The Laundrie family said they believe he is alive somewhere in Florida Oct. 2: Petito's mother creates a new Twitter account and calls for Laundrie to turn himself into authorities in an 'angry' tweet. It is revealed that Petito's family tried to report her missing to North Port Police Department on September 10 but were told to file a report in her last known location Advertisement

However he later confirmed the family had stayed at the site, though he gave the dates as being from September 6 to 7.

If Dog's claims are accurate, Brian could have had a week headstart before he was named a person of interest on September 15.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Department has said there is no police search in the De Soto area for Laundrie.

And despite the TV star's confidence, the FBI continued their hunt for Laundrie today in the 25,000-acre alligator and snake-infested swampland of Carlton Reserve, which is 13 miles from the family home.

The operation is now on day 11, although it has been scaled down from when more than 50 searchers from six agencies - including North Port Police and three local sheriffs departments - swarmed the area in swamp buggies.

Its main search area has switched back to the starting point of Mayakkahatchee Environmental Park, where Laundrie's silver Ford Mustang convertible was parked on the night of Tuesday, September 14.

Laundrie told his parents he was heading there that night and that was the last time they saw him, they told police.

DailyMail.com went into the park and followed a possible trail Laundrie could have taken from the parked car if he actually went into the swampland.

The park is connected to the main reserve by a bridge, leading to the menacing, flooded and often densely wooded wilderness where aggressive Cottonmouth snakes are an even deadlier danger than alligators.

Deep pools of brackish water hiding dangerous wildlife are evident in even the most accessible areas.

However, at one point there is a straight currently dry trail that runs for miles, which Laundrie could have taken to cover ground quickly.

One person close to the search told DailyMail.com: 'I don't believe they're looking for a body, even now. They're still on a manhunt. There have been no signs of buzzards circling, and that's a sure sign of a body in these places.'

The FBI-led hunt used a boat Wednesday starting along the canal that links to the Mayakkahatchee Creek.

DailyMail.com also witnessed FBI agents taking trash bags of possible evidence from the swamp to a nearby hotel, where they appear to have set up a center.

The confirmation of the family camping trip comes amid growing speculation that Laundrie's mother could be using a burner phone as the hunt for her son continues.

Reporters in Tampa approached the FBI after internet sleuths showed screen grabs of Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughter Lyssa Chapman appearing to confirm the FBI believe Roberta Laundrie is using a burner phone.

It has not been suggested that she is using the burner phone to communicate with her son.

'We do not confirm or deny contact with any individual or entity in order to preserve their privacy, as such, we do not confirm or deny the receipt of any tip. We have no additional comment,' the FBI said, according to 10 Tampa Bay reporter Shannon Clowe.

Lyssa Chapman, tweeted that the FBI confirmed the accusations that Roberta is in possession of a burner phone but did not present any evidence of the confirmation.

The Laundrie family attorney, Steven Bertolino, had 'no comment.'

Internet sleuths have claimed that Brian is using a burner phone after allegedly noticing changes to his Instagram and Spotify accounts since he disappeared two weeks ago.

His Instagram account reportedly went live for three seconds on Monday showing waves and just a peak of an olive green boat, according to Inside Edition.

The account also reportedly unfollowed several people.

There have also been claims online that Brian's Spotify playlist name changed from 'Selfconsomption' to 'Nomatic Statik.' The playlist was reportedly created after Petito's disappearance.

Brian has been named a person of interest in the investigation into his fiancee's death. Her remains were found in Wyoming and her death ruled a homicide after she was reported missing on September 11.

Dog the Bounty Hunter joined the search for Brian on Saturday and was quickly flooded with tips, one of which claimed that the Laundrie family spent the night in Fort De Soto Park with their son twice after he came back alone from Wyoming in early September.

Dog said in an interview with Dr Oz on Tuesday that he wants to speak to Brian's father, because parents know where their kids are '50 per cent of the time' when they have been accused of a crime. He said another 35 per cent of parents help with the search.

Dog, who was convicted of first degree murder in the 1970s, added: 'I wanna talk to his dad and explain the difference between involuntary manslaughter and murder one out of Wyoming.

'In murder one, you're facing the death penalty. A manslaughter is a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

'I wanted to explain to him, "I know exactly what you're going through right now. As a matter of fact, I personally went through it." So, I just wanted to talk to the dad.'

A Fort Meyers couple have claimed they camped next to Brian and his parents during their campsite trip to Fort De Soto Park.

A spokesperson for the bounty hunter told DailyMail.com Dog was 'working on very strong leads' Wednesday and it could 'very well be the last day of the hunt to apprehend Brian Laundrie'

Pictured Fort De Soto park in Florida. Dog the Bounty Hunter claimed on Monday that he had found a campsite Brian Laundrie and his parents stayed at after Laundrie returned home without girlfriend Gabby Petito.

An unidentified helicopter was spotted overhead this morning at the Fort De Soto campground

Roberta Laundrie (right) has been accused of using a burner phone to keep in contact with her son, Brian, who is currently wanted by the police. Christopher (left) and Roberta (right) Laundrie visited their attorney in Orlando on Thursday

Marcie and Kenny Newson realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway.

They said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite.

'They kept to themselves. They were there an then they weren't', they told NBC 2.

Another camper whose name appeared on the ledger was celebrating his anniversary with his wife three spots down from the Laundries.

Thomas Rutherford told Fox News that he could 'vaguely remember' spotting the Laundries' vehicle, which they noted due to the novelty of seeing a camper attached to a vehicle.

Since the tip lead investigators to the Florida park about 75 miles north of North Port, it has been revealed that Brian and Petito have stayed at the campsite before.

Two months ago, the pair uploaded a series of photos to hiking website The Dyrt that show them relaxing on the beach and exploring the Fort De Soto campground.

A spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office told DailyMail.com that there is no search underway and the only activity at the 1,130-acre site Tuesday was a handful of media helicopters circling overhead.

A spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said: 'We are not conducting an investigation at Fort De Soto. We are unaware of any confirmed sightings of Brian.'

Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, (pictured at the weekend outside the Laundrie house in North Port, Florida) said on Monday that he had located a campsite where the Laundrie family stayed in September and where he believes Brian Laundrie is hiding out

Brian (left) has also been accused of using a burner phone after activity to his social media accounts were allegedly spotted by people online

Records show that the Laundrie family checked into the Fort De Soto campground

Dog continues to push the idea that Laundrie could be there, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection.

In one photo from the fateful couple's visit, Laundrie and Gabby are seen peering through the bars of a jail cell at an old fort. In more snaps, Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand.

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' the couple said in a review.

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes.

Last week, Laundrie's neighbors, Charlene and William Guthrie, said they saw the family hook up the camper to the back of their pickup truck for a weekend trip away about a week after their son's return, on September 11 - the same day Gabby was reported missing.

The family would have returned about two days later as DailyMail.com photos show the camper back in the driveway on September 13.

Marcie and Kenny Newsom (first and second right) said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite

A Fort Meyers couple realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper (left) similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway (right)

When police contacted the Guthries over the disappearance of Petito, William told them about the family's trip, noting that it was unusual for Christopher and Roberta Laundrie to go off in such a small camper with their 23-year-old son.

'I saw them doing some work. And then when they prepared for their trip, I saw them loading the camper,' William told Fox News.

Search efforts have so far been concentrated at the Carlton Reserve - an alligator-infested watery 25,000-acre site 13 miles north of the Laundrie family home in North Port.

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' Gabby and Brian said in a review of the campsite during their visit two months ago (pictured)

An extensive search for Laundrie has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in the homicide of Petito, whose remains were found on September 19

In more snaps Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand

'Allegedly, what we're hearing, is two people left on the 8th,' said Chapman.

'Three people came in on the 6th, and two people left on the 8th. I think he's been here for sure.'

A Fox News Digital reporter overheard a park worker say investigators had checked surveillance video on the grounds.

The Laundries maintained their silence Tuesday when they were seen leaving home mid-morning to buy groceries at Walmart. They have not publicly commented on Brian's disappearance or the slaying of his fiance.

Brian was charged with 'use of unauthorized access device' last Thursday, but said they will 'continue to investigate the facts and circumstances of Ms. Petito's homicide.'

An extensive search for Brian has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in Petito's case.

Dog believes that Laundrie could be in this area, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes

Dog is adamant that Brian could be hopping from island to island in a kayak or canoe at the Fort De Soto camping site

Petito and Brian visited the De Soto campground together according to their review on The Dyrt

The FBI refused to confirm or deny the allegations as Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, declined to comment

A group of 75 officers from more than 16 agencies joined the search last week, using drones, diver units, dogs and ATV vehicles to comb the 25,000-acre preserve since his parents reported that Brian might be there.

Over 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails are contained in the park, along with camping areas and rivers. Wildlife there includes alligators, bobcats, snakes and coyotes.

Florida cattle rancher Alan McEwen, who lives outside the Carlton Reserve, has spent 30 years exploring the area and said it's not somewhere humans can easily live. He has been assisting police in their search for Brian.

'There's no surviving out here, I don't know how to say it,' he told Fox News.

'I've been in the woods in and out all my life. I have learned a lot in my life, and one thing I know is no one is gonna survive out there for two weeks on foot.'

Dog vowed to find him before his 24th birthday on November 18. Seattle's Boohoof Law offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
A Texas man said he believed he was 'being called to commit sacrifices' by God when he killed five people.

Jason Thornburg, 41, admitted to cops he slit the throats of one man and two women, dismembered their bodies in a bathtub and then set their corpses ablaze in a dumpster.

He also confessed to killing his roommate and his girlfriend.

Thornburg was arrested Monday on a capital murder charge in the deaths of the three people whose bodies were found in the burning dumpster in Fort Worth on Sept. 22, police said.

Surveillance footage of a Jeep at the site of the flaming dumpster led them to Thornburg.

Police tracked the Jeep to the Mid-City Inn in Euless and obtained footage from the night of September 21 that they said shows Thornburg wearing a hazmat suit and carrying plastic bins from his room to his car around 5.30 pm.

Cops believe those bins were filled with the body parts of a man and two women who were found burning by Fort Worth firefighters at 6.15 am the next morning, Homicide Detective Sergeant Joe Loughman said.

Thornburg agreed to an interview with detectives and told them he had in-depth knowledge of the Bible and believed he was being called to 'commit sacrifices,' according to his arrest warrant.

Thornburg admitted that he killed David Lueras, 42, and burned is body in the dumpster.

Cops matched his back tattoo to a post on his Facebook page, police said.

During an autopsy, the discovery of Luares' distinctive 'penis implant' - a surgically-implanted, inflatable device to remedy erectile dysfunction - solidified law enforcement's identification of his body.

Jason Thornburg, 41, was arrested Monday on a capital murder charge in the deaths of the three people whose bodies were found in the burning dumpster in Fort Worth on Sept. 22, police said

Police saw Jason Thornburg on the Mid-City Inn's security footage at 5.30pm carrying plastic bins they think contained dismembered body parts. The next day, three desiccated bodies were found burning in a Fort Worth dumpster at 6.15 am. Upon his arrest for the killings, Thornburg confessed to the May 21 killing of his room mate Mark Jewell, 61, and subsequent torching of the apartment they shared on Valentine Street

Pictured is the charred spot where the burning dumpster containing the remains of three victims was discovered in Fort Worth on September 22 - Jason Thornburg confessed to the killings, and to killing his room mate earlier this year and his girlfriend from Arizona before his arrest on Monday

Thornburg told officers that about five days before the bodies were discovered, David Lueras (pictured) had showed up at his motel room

Thornburg told officers that about five days before the bodies were discovered in the dumpster, Lueras had showed up at his motel room.

Believing that Lueras 'needed to be sacrificed,' the confessed killer said he cut Lueras' throat and then cut him into pieces in the bathtub.

The dismembered body sat for two days, first in trash bags then in plastic storage bins, before a woman, who he described to police as a 'very small Hispanic female' visited his room.

He cut her throat and put her dismembered body in the storage tubs. He told police he tried to stab the second woman, but ended up strangling her, according to the affidavit.

Police said that Thornburg only knew the women casually.

Although police said that they believe they have the identities of the slain women, a spokesperson from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office told Dailymail.com that 'because of the state of the bodies its going to take some time' to confirm.

Thornburg admitted he had stayed at the motel since late July after killing his previous roommate, Mark Jewell, 61, and burning down their apartment with the body inside.

According to the arrest warrant, Thornburg told officers that he uncapped a natural gas line and lit a candle after slitting his room mate's throat.

Police identified the male victim as David Lueras, 42 - although the bodies were scorched beyond recognition, a tattoo with the letters 'UERAS' on his back led detectives to the man's Facebook, where a picture of the back piece was posted

After tracking the Jeep to the Mid-City Inn in Euless, police obtained footage from the motel from the night of September 21 that they said shows Thornburg wearing a hazmat suit and carrying plastic bins from his room to his car around 5.30 pm

According to the arrest warrant, Thornburg told officers that he uncapped a natural gas line at the apartment he shared with 61-year-old Jewell (pictured) and lit a candle after slitting his room mate's throat on May 21 - at the time, the medical examiner had not been able to determine Jewell's cause of death. Although Thornburg was a suspect in the suspicious death, police 'did not have probable cause to make an arrest'

At the time, the medical examiner had not been able to determine Jewell's cause of death.

Although Thornburg was a suspect, Loughman said, 'we did not have probable cause to make an arrest.'

When police asked Thornburg about any other sacrifices, he said he also sacrificed his girlfriend in Arizona, according to the arrest warrant. The arrest warrant said records show she had been reported missing.

Police did not provide additional details on her: 'We have been in contact with local law enforcement in that state and I wont be speaking to the details of that - I will let them speak on that,' said Loughman.

The desiccated body sat for two days, first in trash bags then in plastic storage bins before a woman who he described to police as a 'very small Hispanic female' visited his motel room (pictured) - likewise, he cut her throat and put her dissected body in the storage tubs.

Thornburg had been seen outside his motel room reading his bible - residents said he had talked about God and his desire to help people, according to Eyewitness 11.

Loughman said that the Fort Worth Police Department had been contacted by other jurisdictions throughout the country who had unsolved murders under similar circumstances as the ones committed by Thornburg.

Thornburg told police that he used a 'Milwaukee brand straight blade knife' to dismember the bodies - the box for that brand of knife was allegedly found by police in the room, but the department did not divulge further findings

Thornburg told police that he used a 'Milwaukee brand straight blade knife' to dismember the bodies - the box for that brand of knife was allegedly found by police in the room, but the department did not divulge further findings. 'I hope this gets out nationally and internationally... and if there are any investigations ongling in other jurisdictions they will reach out to us,' he said.

'In my time in the homicide unit, we dont have anything that resembles this, Loughman said.

'I really couldnt go into the psyche of someone who could do this he doesnt have an extensively violent criminal history, but he did not give us any details that would ascertain[a motive].'

Thornburg is being held at Tarrant County Jail on $1 million bond - his attorney was not listed in jail records. 'Our thoughts and prayers go out to the first responders showed up on scene that day and the investigators who investigated this - its not something anyone should have to see, but they did the job and they did it well,' said Chief Neil Noakes.
A White House official dubbed the Music Man was tasked with soothing former President Donald Trump during rage-filled moments by playing him his favorite songs  including a tune from the Broadway sensation Cats.

Its among the stranger accusations contained in Ill Take Your Questions Now, an upcoming book by former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

The tell-all book, which will be released next week, is stuffed with accusations against the former president. It alleges he abused his staff, made sexual remarks about a young White House aide and strove to impress Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Grisham also detailed Trumps terrifying temper, and said the song Memory from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats was known to calm him down.

Cats character Grizabella steals the show in the hit Broadway show, during which she belts out a song called Memories, which details her longing to belong and be accepted by others

White House official Max Miller earned the moniker Music Man for playing Trumps favorite tunes during his fits of rage, The New York Times reported.

Memory was composed by Webber in 1981 for the musical, and is the best-known tune from Broadway's longest running show.

Barbara Streisand recorded the song for her 1981 album Memories, and it peaked at number 52 on the US charts.

Former President Donald Trump reportedly toned down his anger at the sound of show tunes

The book 'I'll Take Your Questions Now' is by former White House secretary Stephanie Grisham

The tune is led in the musical by Grizabella, a once-sophisticated feline who ended up living in the gutter alone and eager to impress the other cats.

She sings a prelude of the song at the end of the first act, during which she recalls her life before she was ostracized from the community.

Toward the end of the musical, she belts out the full version of the song as she begs to be accepted.

It's not clear which version of the song Trump prefers. It was covered by Barbara Streisand and in a 2019 Hollywood remake of the film, which received scathing online reviews

Trump denied the claims contained in the book in a Tuesday statement, which he also used as an opportunity to bash the author.

'Stephanie didnt have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning,' he said in a statement to The New York Times. He claimed she became 'very angry and bitter' after ending a relationship.

'She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.'

Twitter users had a field day after learning of Trump's affinity for the Cat's classic.

One user, @HistoryCausal, posted a photo of a man shamefully covering his face and said: 'That moment you realize that one of the many things that kept us from nuclear war was a "Music Man" playing "Memories" from Cats.'

Another user suggested Trump use the tune as his theme song during the 2024 election, if he chooses to run.
A third of people infected with coronavirus will have at least one symptom of long Covid, a study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) studied more than 270,000 people in the United States who were recovering from coronavirus.

Long Covid symptoms were diagnosed in 37% of patients three to six months following infection, The Guardian reports.

Anxiety/depression was the most common of nine primary symptoms, followed by abnormal breathing, abdominal symptoms, chest/throat pain and fatigue.

A person's age, sex, and the severity of the infection played a part in the chance of developing long Covid symptoms, the data from the TriNetX health record network shows.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) studied more than 270,000 people in the United States who were recovering from coronavirus (pictured: Royal Free Hospital, London)

Dr Max Taquet, NIHR academic clinical fellow, said: 'The results confirm that a significant proportion of people, of all ages, can be affected by a range of symptoms and difficulties in the six months after Covid-19 infection.

'Over one-third of patients were diagnosed with at least one of the long Covid symptoms between three and six months after their Covid-19 illness.'

Symptoms were slightly more common in women and those who had been in hospital.

Dr Taquet added: 'These data complement findings from self-report surveys, and show that clinicians are diagnosing patients with these symptoms. We need appropriately configured services to deal with the current and future clinical need.'

The study comes as Britain's daily Covid cases rose by 9.4 per cent in a week - but deaths and hospitalisations both fell by around a fifth, official statistics for Tuesday show.

Some 34,526 positive tests were recorded across the UK, up from 31,564 last Monday, according to the Department of Health data. It is the eleventh day in a row that infections have increased week-on-week.

Another 167 Covid deaths were recorded, down by 17.7 per cent compared to the 203 fatalities recorded one week earlier.

And hospitalisation data shows 706 infected people came forward for NHS care on Friday, a drop of 18 per cent drop on the 741 reported on September 17.

Both measures lag several weeks behind cases because of how long it can take for infected patients to become seriously ill.

The rising number of cases come amid fears Britain could be on the cusp of a fourth wave, with data suggesting that cases have started to spill over from children to their parents.

No10's top scientists have always warned another wave of infections would strike this autumn following millions of pupils returning to classrooms.

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data which showed the UK breached 1,000 in mid-September for the first time since March.
United Airlines said on Tuesday that up to 593 of their 67,000 employees may face termination for not receiving the COVID vaccination.

Another 2,000 United employees have also requested a medical or religious exemption from getting the vaccine.

The firm's deadline was September 27, with United now in the process of firing unvaccinated workers who didn't request an exemption.

Those who have requested exemptions only account for less than three percent of the airline's workforce, according to United officials, and will find out if their requests have been approved by October 15.

In early August, the company became the first U.S. carrier to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all domestic employees, requiring proof of vaccination by Monday.

At the time of that announcement, United said 90 per cent of its pilots and 80 per cent of flight attendants had already been vaccinated.

It did not release an average vaccination rate for its entire staff.

The firm now says its overall staff vaccination rate - when exemption requests are removed - sits at 99 per cent.

United Airlines announced on Tuesday that the 593 of 67,000 company employees will face termination if they do not get vaccinated

United became the first airline company to enforce the mandate for workers in early August

'This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority,' Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told employees in a memo.

President Joe Biden was scheduled to meet with Kirby in Chicago to discuss employee vaccinations but it was called off.

He announced a mandate this month for federal workers to receive the vaccine.

He also said that workers do not comply will face disciplinary action, such as termination, and the mandate applies to companies with 100 or more employees.

'Weve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,' Biden said.

United President Brett Hart, left, and CEO Scott Kirby, right, released a memo to their employees about ensuring their health and safety

Company officials also said that workers could save their jobs if they got vaccinated before their formal termination meetings.

The company had plans to put employees who received religious exemptions on temporary, unpaid personal leave from October 2.

Those plans, however, have been put on hold until Oct. 15 because of a lawsuit challenging the policy.

Excluding those who have sought an exemption, United said more than 99 percent of U.S.-based employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

A company spokesperson said the airline plans to hire about 25,000 people over the next few years, and vaccination will be a condition of employment for all new hires.

United will also require students at its pilot training school to get vaccinated, the spokesperson said.

The company dismissed the notion that the vaccine requirement was deterring applicants for jobs at the air carrier.

President Joe Biden said that companies with 100 or more employees must require proof of vaccination from their workers

United received 700 applications for about 400 job postings last month at a Denver career fair.

Similarly, it has received more than 20,000 applications for about 2,000 open positions for flight attendants, the spokesperson said.

A lawsuit was filed last week by six United employees from Fort Worth, Texas to block the mandate and to oppose the discrimination against those seeking exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

'United's actions have left Plaintiffs with the impossible of either taking the COVID-19 vaccine, at the expense of their religious beliefs and their health, or losing their livelihoods,' the lawsuit read.

The plaintiffs also said in the suit that they were put on temporary unpaid leave until their exemptions were granted.

About 97 percent of United employees have been vaccinated

Other airlines have also enforced COVID guidelines with employees and are following the mandate.

Delta Airlines plans on putting a $200 surcharge on the health plan of unvaccinated employees starting on November 1.

American and Southwest Airlines have both requested alternatives and exemptions to the vaccine mandate being imposed by Biden.

Southwest Airlines, however, is offering a bonus to employees who show proof of vaccination by November 15.

Frontier and Hawaiian Airlines are complying with the mandate and are requiring proof of vaccination from employees in the near future.

Frontier is requiring it by October 1 and Hawaiian Airlines is requiring it by November 1.
President Joe Biden canceled his trip to Chicago on Wednesday to remain in D.C. to lead negotiations over his $3.5 trillion budget resolution package

Joe Biden is indefinitely postponing his Wednesday trip to Chicago meant to highlight the importance of COVID-19 vaccines and will instead remain in Washington, D.C. to lead negotiations on the infrastructure and reconciliation packages.

The White House sent out an update on Tuesday night announcing the change of plans, and according to several reports Biden nixed the trip because he feels 'progress is being made' on the two pieces of legislation and wants to stay near to 'continue his engagement.'

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, an anonymous official told the Associated Press that there was a 'strong sense' of progress being made, with Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema's aloofness to the Biden proposal previously deemed the biggest threat to its passage.

After leaving a meeting with Biden Tuesday, Manchin praised the 'really good, honest, straightforward negotiations' they'd had.

In meetings and calls over the weekend and through today, President Biden has been engaging with members of Congress on the path forward for the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal,' a statement from the White House reads.

'He will now remain at the White House tomorrow to continue working on advancing these two pieces of legislation to create jobs, grow the economy, and make investments in families, rather than failed giveaways to the rich and big corporations,' it added.

'There will be more to come on his engagement over the next couple of days, and the trip to Chicago to discuss the ongoing importance of getting people vaccinated will be rescheduled.'

Biden was supposed to go to Chicago on Wednesday in order to promote the new federal-level mandate that businesses with more than 100 employees require vaccination proof from their workers.

The rules, detailed by President Biden earlier this month, would require the jab for workers or else they're subject to at least weekly testing for coronavirus.

The trip won't be happening on Wednesday, however, as Democrats grapple with trying to force through reconciliation on the $3.5 trillion budget resolution as a caveat for the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are holding up the prospect of the budget passing. The two met with Biden at the White House on Tuesday in an attempt for the president to get them to move the needle. Neither has indicated what topline figure they'd be happy with.

With a 50-50 split Senate, Democrats need every vote to get their ambitious and pricey budget passed with Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator for California, casting the tie-breaking vote.

Moderate Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin met with Biden at the White House on Tuesday to discuss their concerns over the budget reconciliation package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also postponed a vote on the infrastructure package until Thursday as Democrats work to shore up support among moderates  mainly Manchin and Sinema  for the $3.5 trillion budget resolution riddled with social programs opposed by Republicans.

In a massive blow to the progressive faction of her party, Pelosi also announced on Tuesday that she would not tie passing the $3.5 trillion bill to passing the infrastructure package.

Manchin and Sinema have not yet publicly put a price on a budget bill they will support, but Democrats are hoping Biden can get a verbal commitment from the two senators by Thursday  thus freeing up progressives to vote for his infrastructure bill after they vowed to make that passage reliant on the budget reconciliation.

Pelosi put the onus on the president.

'Negotiations are being led by President Biden to advance his vision,' she told her Democratic lawmakers in a letter on Tuesday.
A star ballerina accused of helping her husband sexually abuse two underage girls is now facing similar claims from three other women, one of whom says the dancer menaced her with a gun during a violent rape.

An expanded lawsuit, filed late last week, accuses Dusty Button, Boston Ballet's former principal dancer, of befriending the underage girl in 2014 and introducing her to her husband, dance teacher Mitchell Taylor Button.

She is anonymous in the lawsuit as Jane Doe 100, which also includes new claims from two other women.

Jane Doe 100's attorney Sigrid McCawley has come forward to detail her client's claims against the Buttons.

The couple then allegedly plied the girl with booze and took her back to their home where Mitchell allegedly raped her inside a gun-lined room.

Dusty was holding a gun and appeared to film the encounter, while the 'terrified' girl cried and begged for the abuse to stop, the suit claims.

This marks the fifth alleged victim to come forward to accuse the couple of using their position of power in the dance world to sexually and emotionally abuse young female dancers.

Boston Ballet's former star dancer has been hit with a fifth accusation of sexual abusing young dancers, as an alleged victim has come forward to claim the ballerina menaced her with a gun while her husband raped her. Dusty Button and husband Mitchell Taylor Button in 2018

Details of the two other new claims made against the Buttons have yet to emerge.

On July 28, a lawsuit was brought by two professional dancers Sage Humphries and Gina Menichino accusing Mitchell of sexual assaulting them and Dusty of aiding her husband in his abuse.

In the original suit, filed in US District Court in Nevada, Mitchell was the only person named as a defendant, with Dusty mentioned as an alleged predator.

Since then, three more alleged victims have come forward and joined the expanded lawsuit filed last week. All three of those women have named Dusty as a defendant.

In the expanded suit, first reported by the Boston Globe, Jane Doe 100 claims she met Dusty back in 2014 when the girl was attending at Boston-based dance school Urbanity Dance.

It is not clear how old Jane Doe 100 was at the time of the alleged abuse, but she says she was a minor. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.

The girl was part of the apprenticeship program which is designed for talented high school students aged 14 and over who are wanting to make a career out of dance.

Urbanity Dance rented studio space from Boston Ballet at the time and Dusty - who became Boston Ballet's principal dancer that same year - allegedly befriended the girl then.

According to the suit, Dusty gained the girl's 'loyalty and trust' and introduced her to Mitchell.

The couple allegedly promised to make the girl 'a star' if she spent time with them and did what they said.

Then, according to the suit, the couple allegedly took her to a party in Boston and forced her to drink a lot of alcohol to get her drunk.

The Buttons then allegedly took her back to their home in Somerville and led her inside a room which was filled with guns.

At this point, the couple pushed the child onto a mattress, the suit claims.

Dusty kissed and touched the girl while restraining her on the mattress while her husband began sexually assaulting her, the suit claims.

The suit says the girl 'began to cry' and told them 'no' and 'stop' but her abusers continued with Dusty restraining her while Mitchell 'forcibly penetrated' her.

At one point, the suit claims Dusty had a gun in her hand while, at another point, Dusty appeared to suggest she was filming the incident by holding up her phone.

The encounter left the underage girl 'terrified', the suit says.

The alleged victim, who now lives in New Hampshire and is no longer following a career in dance, told DailyMail.com in a statement she was 'grateful' to the first women who came forward and gave her the 'courage' to speak out.

An expanded lawsuit was filed late last week adding three more alleged victims to the lawsuit accusing the Buttons of abusing young dancers. Pictured Dusty Button in Boston Ballet's production of William Forsythe's The Second Detail

'I am grateful to my fellow dancers for bravely bringing this action and for giving me the courage to come forward and speak out about the abuse I endured,' she said.

'Together we can stop the accused  our abusers - from ever damaging another young, vulnerable dancer.'

The two other alleged victims to join the suit allege Mitchell sexually assaulted them when he was a dance instructor at Centerstage Dance Academy in Tampa.

Both were under 18 at the time of the alleged abuse, which is the age of consent in the Sunshine State.

Attorney Sigrid McCawley, who is representing the five accusers, said Dusty would 'coax' the victims in for her husband to use as 'prey.'

'What you have here is the highest level of betrayal,' McCawley told the Globe.

'You see the use of a famous female ballerina to coax these victims into a situation where they become prey for this serial abuser.'

She said other alleged victims may also come forward and join the suit.

'In an instance like this, where you have a serial abuser, you oftentimes see other women feeling empowered enough to come forward and say, 'me, too,'' said McCawley.

'Each one of these ballerinas wants this abuse to stop.'

Marc Randazza, an attorney for the Buttons, told the Globe they deny the allegations.

'Our position remains the same. We look forward to clearing both of their names in court,' he said.

'We are not trying this matter in the press. We do find it interesting that the press has the complaint before Ms. Button has even been served. Maybe that should inspire some cynicism.'

In a statement last month, attorney Ken Swartz said his clients 'categorically deny these baseless claims and they look forward to the opportunity through court proceedings to disprove all of the plaintiffs' false and fraudulent allegations.'

Sage Humphries was one of two first accusers to file a lawsuit back in July 28 in Nevada

Gina Menichino, a dancer from New Jersey, was the second woman in the original lawsuit

Mitchell's legal team previously filed a motion to dismiss the original complaint but it was denied.

DailyMail.com has reached out to both McCawley and Randazza for statements.

A spokesperson for Urbanity Dance told the Globe it did not know about the alleged abuse until now and that they were 'shocked and deeply saddened' to learn of it.

'We are shocked and deeply saddened to have learned of these allegations today and are devastated by the pain this young dancer experienced,' the company said in a statement.

'We unequivocally condemn the predatory, cowardly behavior of perpetrators of sexual abuse. We stand in solidarity with this young woman and applaud her bravery in coming forward to share her truth.'

The first allegations against the couple were made by Humphries and Menichino in the original suit filed July 28.

The lawsuit alleges that on multiple occasions, Dusty held down Humphries so she could not move while her husband violently penetrated the young woman without her consent, including in her sleep.

In one instance, as alleged in the complaint, the Buttons ordered Humphries to don a head-to-toe spandex suit, tied her to a table in a room filled with guns and sexually assaulted her as she screamed and cried.

Humphries, now 23, told the New York Times in an interview that the Buttons had 'complete control' over her while she was a young dancer at Boston Ballet II, the company's apprenticeship program.

The two other alleged victims to join the suit allege Mitchell sexually assaulted them when he was a dance instructor at Centerstage Dance Academy in Tampa (above)

The complaint states that Humphries, who was new to Boston at the time and had no family or friends in the city, first met Dusty, then a world-renowned prima ballerina, and her dance instructor husband in 2016.

The Buttons befriended the young dancer in early 2017 and soon began inviting her over to their home, where Humphries was expected to drink heavily, according to the complaint.

It is alleged in the explosive complaint that 'the Buttons abuse their positions of power and prestige in the dance community to garner the loyalty and trust of young dancers. The Buttons then exploit those relationships to coerce sexual acts by means of force and fraud.'

'The Buttons also began to insist that Sage sleep at their apartment on a regular basis,' the lawsuit alleges. 'The Buttons instructed Sage to wear their clothes and style her hair to match Dusty's hair.'

Mitchell allegedly told Humphries that if she agreed to hand over control of her social media accounts to him, including her passwords and access to her text messages and email, he would make her as famous as his wife.

'If Sage ever attempted to distance herself or disobey the Buttons, they would threaten to revoke their financial support and sabotage her career,' the complaint alleges.

One evening, the Buttons and Humphries were lying on a mattress together watching a movie when Mitchell sexually assaulted his young protege after his wife dozed off, according to the complaint.

'Any time Sage attempted to develop other friendships and spend time apart from the Buttons, the Buttons would become enraged,' the lawsuit alleges.

On one occasion, Mitchell allegedly forced Humphries to preform oral sex on him as punishment for having lunch with a group of women.

The lawsuit alleges that the Buttons insisted that Humphries 'prioritize them over her family,' and even joined her on a trip to California to visit her parents 'she she could not be alone with her family.'

After returning to Boston, the sexual abuse intensified, according to the lawsuit.

Boston Ballet dancer Sage Humphries (left) and professional dancer Gina Menichino (right) together filed the lawsuit against Mitchell Button in July

Humphries claims in the lawsuit the Buttons had complete control over her and isolated her from family and friends

'One evening, Sage went to the Buttons' apartment after rehearsal, and the apartment was completely dark,' reads the complaint. 'Dusty and [Mitchell] demanded that Sage put on a spandex suit that covered her entire body, including her mouth and eyes, and left only her nose and ears exposed.

'Dusty led Sage into a room of the Buttons' apartment that had an arsenal of guns hanging on the wall. Sage told the Buttons she was scared. They instructed her to lie down on a table, and they tied up her arms and legs so she was unable to move. The Buttons then sexually assaulted Sage.

'Sage began sobbing and screaming, begging the Buttons to untie her. The Buttons told her she was being weak and stupid.'

After that incident, Mitchell allegedly began having sex with his protege 'whenever he pleased,' including sometimes while she was sleeping.

'[Mitchell] regularly shoved Sage to the ground or on the bed and violently penetrated her without her consent,' claims the complaint. 'On several occasions, Dusty held Sage down while [Mitchell] penetrated her so that Sage could not move.'

During sex, the dance instructor allegedly would 'choke, slap and pull' Humphries' hair, leaving her covered in bruises.

'The Buttons also regularly used painful sex toys on Sage and would tie Sage up in order to have sex with her,' the lawsuit contends. 'Sage never consented to these violent sex acts.'

By May 2017, the Buttons allegedly forced Humphries to live with them full time. They did not charge her rent and paid for her meals and personal expenses, rendering her financially dependent on the couple.

'If Sage ever attempted to distance herself or disobey the Buttons, they would threaten to revoke their financial support and sabotage her career,' according to the lawsuit.

Boston Ballet's former principal dancer Dusty Button (pictured) and her husband deny the allegations

Eventually, Humphries' parents became concerned with her living situation and forced her to return home.

Mitchell continued communicating with Humphries on Snapchat. At one point, he allegedly told her he wanted to rape the woman and leave her to die in a warehouse, and also threatened to travel to California and slit her father's throat.

In August 2017, Humphries sought and received abuse protection orders against the Buttons.

The Boston Ballet has issued a statement expressing support for Humphries, who is still part of the company.

'Boston Ballet supports Sage Humphries who is bravely coming forward, sharing her experience to protect others, and seeking accountability and justice,' the statement read.

According to the dance company, Dusty Button's employment with the Boston Ballet was terminated in May 2017.

The federal lawsuit also details allegations of sexual abuse from a decade ago targeting Mitchell Button's former dance student Gina Menichino.

According to the complaint, Button, who at the time went by the name Taylor Moore and worked as a dance instructor at a studio in Tampa, Florida, began grooming Menichino for abuse when she was 13 years old and he was 25.

'Taylor took a special interest in Gina and would single her out for special attention and opportunities in dance class, such as allowing her to assistant teach his dance classes,' alleges the complaint.

On two separate occasions in 2010, Button allegedly sexually assaulted Menichino while the two were sharing a blanket while watching a movie with other dance students.

Button then began regularly 'sexting' the young girl, including sending her shirtless photos of himself and videos showing him pleasuring himself, the suit claims. He also solicited similar content from Menichino.

'Taylor used his position of power and authority over Gina to force her to comply with his sexual demands,' according to the lawsuit.

If the 13-year-old resisted her teacher's sexual advances, Button allegedly threatened to hurt her dance career.

'The whole game was to keep him happy,' Menichino, now 25, told the Times. 'Don't get him angry, or I was unworthy and I would lose my dance career.'
Gladys Berejiklian has been accused of sparking 'vaccine regret' for removing Cvoid restrictions on the unvaccinated just five weeks after everyone else.

Lockdown across NSW will end on October 11 and even more restrictions will be lifted in late October when 80 per cent of residents over 16 are vaccinated.

Those not yet vaccinated will be effectively still in lockdown and banned from seeing friends, travelling, or going to restaurants and shops.

However, the premier announced on Monday that the unvaccinated would be welcomed back on December 1, just five weeks after the 80 per cent mark.

Ben Fordham used his 2GB breakfast radio show on Wednesday to sharply criticise this plan as not giving anti-vaxxers enough incentive to get the jab.

Gladys Berejiklian has been accused of sparking 'vaccine regret' for removing Cvoid restrictions on the unvaccinated just five weeks after everyone else

'[This is] one of the worst lapses of judgement we've ever seen from Gladys Berejiklian,' he said.

'You have now created vaccine regret. You encouraged us to encourage our friends [to get vaccinated if they were hesitant].

'Those who reluctantly rolled up their sleeves feel like they've been conned and I can tell you... the anti-vaxxers are laughing all the way to Byron Bay.'

Fordham also questioned whether vaccine passports that would be required to enter shops and hospitality venues would be of any use after police and the health minister said policing it would be left up to businesses.

'They sound about as useful as the CovidSafe app,' he said, referring to the federal government's failed phone app to flag potential Covid exposure.

'Why are we spending all of this money getting them ready when they won't be actively enforced, businesses won't be punished for not checking them, and they'll be useless by December 1 anyway?'

Ben Fordham (pictured) has ripped into NSW Premier over her decision to announce the December 1 roadmap plan

He said the vaccine passports (pictured) were redundant before they were even used as they aren't being formally policed

He said the government was already undermining vaccine passports by giving them a use-by date before they were even issued.

Fordham said the December 1 announcement two moths in advance made it much less likely anti-vaxxers would get the jab as they would only have to wait a few weeks.

He said listeners wrote to 2GB expressing concern for their health and that of their family once the unvaccinated had the same freedoms.

Also included was a letter from a young woman who got vaccinated because she thought she was going to miss out on activities over summer.

Restrictions on unvaccinated will be removed when NSW hit 90 per cent jabbed - expected on December 1, just five weeks after those who got immunised

She posted to her social media she should have trusted her gut and got the jab because she could have just waited until December 1.

Fordham previously supported the premier in October 2020 during the scandal with her former boyfriend, disgraced MP Daryl Maguire, over an ICAC corruption inquiry.

Ms Berejiklian appeared on Fordham's show in the aftermath of the embarrassing hearings where he aired calls in support of the premier.

'Dry your tears, hold your head up high, we're 100 per cent behind you, sweetheart,' one caller said.
A defense attorney for a former nurse accused of killing four patients at an East Texas hospital in 2017 told jurors Tuesday that his client was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, while a prosecutor called him 'a serial killer' who found the perfect place to hide.

William George Davis, 37, of Hallsville, is accused of injecting air into the arteries of four patients recovering from heart surgery at the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, killing John Lafferty, Ronald Clark, Christopher Greenaway and Joseph Kalina.

On the first day of his trial in Tyler, Davis pleaded not guilty to charges of capital murder and aggravated assault.

A capital murder trial got under way in Texas on Tuesday for former nurse William Davis, 37 (center), who is suspected of killing four patients by injecting air into their arteries

A prosecutor called Davis 'a serial killer' who found the perfect place to hide

If convicted of capital murder, Davis faces the death penalty or life in prison.

'No one expects this is going to happen to them - certainly not in a hospital,' Smith County District Jacob Putnam told jurors during opening statements. 'Were going to ask you to find him guilty of capital murder because that's what he did.'

Putnam noted that each of the four patients was in stable condition after their surgery until they all suffered stroke-like symptoms, with CT scans showed abnormal arterial spaces in their brains. Davis was the only nurse on duty at the time, he said.

'It turns out a hospital is the perfect place for a serial killer to hide,' Putnam said.

Davis, who was arrested in April 2018, has pleaded not guilty to charges of capital murder and aggravated assault.

Prosecutors said Davis was the only employee consistently around each of the four patients who died, and surveillance video showed him entering and leaving their rooms moments before the patients experienced stroke-like symptoms.

Defense attorney Phillip Hayes portrayed Davis as an innocent victim of circumstance. Hayes also asserted that strokes were not uncommon occurrences in intensive-care units, where all four patients were receiving care.

'Those four people did die, and they died in the hospital,' Hayes said, according to KYTX. 'I dont know if theres any evidence to show that it was foul play. But they did pass away.'

The Tyler Morning Telegram reported that the first incident took place in June 2017 when a 61-year-old man experienced 'a profound and unexplainable incident resembling stroke-like symptoms'.

Less than a month later another patient, a 58-year-old man, suffered similar symptoms.

On August 2, 2017, Greenaway was admitted to the hospital and received a coronary artery bypass graft surgery, the outlet reports. Two days later, as Greenaway was recovering, his assigned nurse asked Davis to keep an eye on him so he could take a lunch break.

When the assigned nurse returned he heard the code sounding for Greenaway's room and rushed in to find his patient suffering from an unexplained neurological incident. Greenaway, a 47-year-old Army vet, was declared brain dead and died on August 6.

Davis worked as a nurse at the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas, where John Lafferty, Ronald Clark, Christopher Greenaway and Joseph Kalina died between 2017-2018 after undergoing surgeries

On Tuesday, the jury heard testimony from Greenaway's widow, Donna Thedford, who said that her husband appeared to be doing well after his surgery.

'He said that he felt great, he was hurting, but that was normal,' she recalled.

Thedford said she kissed her husband goodbye and told him she will see him the next morning, but at around 4am she got an urgent call from the hospital, telling her Greenaway's condition had deteriorated.

A CT scan revealed that his arterial space was found to have massive amounts of air in it, which left doctors confused.

Radiologist Dr. Douglas Hughes, who reviewed Greenaway's scan, said it appeared 'very abnormal' and left him in a state of disbelief.

Dr. Norman Sulser, the anesthesiologist from Greenaway's surgery, testified that he was 'devastated' when he saw his brain scans and had never encountered anything like it in his 37-year career, reported KETK.

From October 2017 to January 2018, four other patients experienced similar stroke-like symptoms after Davis visited their rooms. One patient, 64-year-old Pamela Henderson, was left with limited mobility and vision problems, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

Christopher Greenaway, a 47-year-old Army veteran, received a coronary artery bypass graft surgery on August 2, 2017. Two days later, Davis visited Greenaway's room at the request of his assigned nurse who had gone on a break, and soon after the patient was declared brain dead

Joseph Kalina was left in a vegetative state in January 2018, and he died in 2020

On the morning of January 25, 2018, Davis was seen on security video entering Joseph Kalina's room, and leaving a minute later, according to an affidavit.

Within three minutes of Davis' departure, Kalina's heart rate plummeted while his blood pressure spiked, leaving him with permanent brain damage that had robbed him of the ability to speak or feed himself. He died last year.

Davis was fired from Christus Mother Frances in February 2018 and was arrested that April, after police learned that Davis was the only employee consistently around each of the four patients who experienced stroke-like symptoms.

Davis is being held in Smith County Jail on $8.75million bond. His trial is expected to take four to six weeks to complete.

The trial is expected to take four to six weeks to complete.
An American politician seen as Donald Trump's political heir apparent has blasted Australian 'tyrants' for their Covid-19 lockdowns - even comparing the country to communist China.

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared Australia isn't a free country with its two biggest cities Sydney and Melbourne holed up in lockdown with daily infections in their hundreds.

No city in the world has been under stay-at-home orders longer than Melbourne, which surpassed Argentinian capital Buenos Aires's 234-day lockdown record last week.

The 43-year-old leader of US's third biggest state slammed the nation's strict Covid-19 measures as 'dramatically off the rails' as he addressed the crowd at a International Boat Builders Expo and Conference in Tampa.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has slammed ongoing lockdowns in Australia, where cases continue to climb (pictured is Melbourne, which is in its sixth lockdown)

'You guys, look what's going on in Australia right now,' Governor DeSantis said.

'They're enforcing, after a year-and-a-half, they're still enforcing lockdowns by the military and that's not a free country.

'It's not a free country at all.

'I wonder why we would still have the same diplomatic relations when they're doing that. Is Australia freer than China, Communist China right now?

'I don't know. The fact that's even a question tells you something's gone dramatically off the rails.'

The comparison with China is controversial considering that Australia two weeks ago formed a nuclear-powered submarine alliance with the US and the UK - AUKUS - to meet the rise of China.

Footage of Governor DeSantis's speech quickly went viral online, sparking controversy - given Australian soldiers have fought beside US troops at every American-led conflict since 1950, fighting communists in Korea and Vietnam.

But with Florida, like other Republican states, resisting hard lockdowns, he had praise.

'You are a legend. I wish with all my heart that we had a leader with your clarity of vision, common sense and principles in the United Kingdom,' one person posted.

Others pointed out Florida has recorded 53,580 Covid deaths from a population of 21.5 million.

Australia has recorded just 1,256 deaths in comparison, despite a bigger population of 25.7 million.

'They're enforcing, after a year-and-a-half, they're still enforcing lockdowns by the military and that's not a free country,' Ron DeSantis (pictured) told a crowd in Tampa

'Florida's doing such a great job that they can criticise others,' one user sarcastically commented.

Australians also weighed into the online debate.

'Our military are not enforcing lockdowns. They have no jurisdiction to enforce public health orders,' one commented.

Almost 60 per cent of of Florida's population is fully vaccinated, slightly higher than the 55 per cent national average.

The state has been free of Covid-19 restrictions for over a year.

The Florida leader is seen as a possible contender for the 2024 US Presidential race, and could have the backing of Trump supporters given he defended the former president during his impeachment in early 2020.

The Governor claimed Australia isn't a free country and questioned whether those in communist China had more freedoms (pictured a Sydneysider at a vaccination hub)

Governor DeSantis has previously apologised for plunging Florida into lockdown in line the most of US states last year, where he vowed never to do it again during a confrontation with President Joe Biden.

'To even contemplate doing any type of lockdown, honestly it's insane,' he said in March.

With President Biden vowing not to run again in 2024 given his age, Governor DeSantis if he competed in the Republican primaries would be contesting the first open presidential race in eight years.

His gubernatorial predecessors Jeb Bush and Rick Perry unsuccessfully ran against Mr Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, along with Florida senator Marco Rubio, when Hillary Clinton was the leading Democrat.

Governor DeSantis would also have history on his side given most American presidents since January 1977 had been a state governor before reaching the White House.

Jimmy Carter ran Georgia, Ronald Reagan ruled California, Bill Clinton led Arkansas and George W. Bush was the leader of Texas.

With Sydney (pictured) and Melbourne in lockdown, Australia has been likened to China

George Bush senior, Barack Obama and Joe Biden had served in the Congress, with two of that trio having served two terms as vice president.

Florida, a traditional battleground state, voted for Donald Trump in 2020. For the first time since 1960, both Florida and Ohio, another bellwether state, voted for the losing presidential candidate.

Those were also the only two elections where a Catholic was elected president and if Governor DeSantis made it to the White House, he would be the first Republican Catholic president and only the third in American political history.

His Sunshine State rarely votes for the loser, but it last did that in 1992 when it backed George Herbert Walker Bush over Bill Clinton and in 1960 when it backed Richard Nixon over John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The state famously voted for George W. Bush over Al Gore by 537 votes in 2000, sparking a Supreme Court challenge.
The creator of Have I Got News For You has revealed he wants Angus Deayton back as the show's host - almost two decades after the BBC fired him over his alleged use of cocaine and prostitutes.

Jimmy Mulville, the managing director of the show's makers, Hat Trick Productions, said Deayton had 'served his time' after the allegations and he was 'a very good host'.

Deayton, 65, made headlines in May 2002 after reports in the News of The World emerged that he had allegedly hired prostitute Caroline Martin in Manchester and had sex with her.

It was also alleged Martin and Deayton used cocaine together while at a hotel in London together.

The host was later fired in October 2002 after further headlines emerged of a further affair with another woman. At the time, his now ex-partner Lise Mayer was at home while pregnant.

In an interview being broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning and obtained by The Times, Mulville said: 'I think it'd be very nice for him [to come back to Have I Got News For You]. We're all a little older now.

'He's definitely served his time, and he was a very good host.'

Jimmy Mulville, the managing director of the show's makers, Hat Trick Productions, said Angus Deayton had 'served his time' after the allegations and he was 'a very good host'. Pictured: Deayton (centre) with panellists Paul Merton (right) and Ian Hislop (left)

Deayton, 65, made headlines in May 2002 after reports in the News of The World emerged that he had allegedly hired prostitute Caroline Martin in Manchester and had sex with her. At the time, his now ex-partner Lise Mayer (right with Deayton) was at home while pregnant

Angus Deayton attends a film premiere at Picturehouse Central in London in February 2020

Mulville revealed that Deayton travelled to Italy after the allegations emerged in the News of the World following an interview with Martin, but he was convinced to come back to the UK and present the next show.

At the start of the next Have I Got News For You, Deayton told viewers: 'Do not adjust your set. My face really is this red.'

He was teased mercilessly about it on air by panellists Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, with the former unveiling a T-shirt with the News of the World's 'Deayton's sex romp with vice girl' front page emblazoned across it.

Paul Merton unveiled a T-shirt with the News of the World's 'Deayton's sex romp with vice girl' front page emblazoned across it

Deayton was reported to have privately thanked them afterwards 'for making something funny out of something so unfunny'.

He appeared in another show later in 2002 after he appeared in the headlines again. And in October that year, he was sacked from the show by BBC executives at Hat Trick Productions, who claimed at the time the scandal was making his role as host a topical satire programme 'untenable'.

Indeed, Mulville said: 'We tried to lurch on but I could see it was becoming more and more uncomfortable because . . . the host needs not to be the main story on the show. Otherwise, you lose your comic platform, your authority.'

Mulville said he realised Deayton had to go when he was taunted by Christine Hamilton in an episode. Deayton had called Christine's husband Neil 'the disgraced former MP' and she shot back, 'If he's disgraced, then what are you?'

'We realised we just couldn't go on like this for the show to survive,' Mulville said.

Jimmy Mulville (pictured) revealed that Deayton travelled to Italy after the allegations emerged in the News of the World following an interview with Martin, but he was convinced to come back to the UK and present the next show

While Mulville believes it would be good to have Deayton back as the show's host, Hislop is less keen

While Mulville believes it would be good to have Deayton back as the show's host, Hislop is less keen.

Speaking on the same Radio 4 show, he said: 'I'm not really asked very often which guests should come on because usually I would say, 'Oh, God no. I hate him, her, them. Can we not have them?' And I'm ignored. So if he appears, it would be nothing to do with me.'

Discussing Deayton's firing, Hislop said: 'It was incredibly difficult. I liked Angus and I thought he was a very, very good host.

'It was certainly my job and our job as a programme to apply the same standards to him that we would have done to anyone else, which we did.'

Deayton said last year he has declined twice to guest host the show.

'It didn't get as far as discussing fees. I wouldn't consider going back,' Deayton said at the time.

Deayton split with his partner Lise Mayer in 2015, 13 years after it was revealed he had allegedly cheated on her with a prostitute while she was pregnant with their son Isaac.

His ex-mistress, Stacey Herbert, said they would have sex behind his partner's back when they were holiday in Italy. Lise was six months pregnant at the time.

Following his dismissal from Have I Got News For You, Angus managed to build his career back up as an actor in a series of shows.

Deayton has made various appearances on TV screens over the past decade, having been in BBC sitcom Pramface from 2012 to 2014, and BBC drama Waterloo Road from 2013 to 2015.

In addition, he was in one episode of Benidorm in 2015 and Death in Paradise in 2019.

Deayton is also set to appear in Matchmakers, an upcoming sitcom about young adulthood set in 1990s London.

He also talked about his infidelities to the Guardian in 2012, saying: 'No one is in my relationship, so they can't make judgments about my relationship. There was one two-night stand, and there was an affair.
A fresh row was brewing with France last night after ministers refused to let dozens of its boats fish off the UK coast.

Just 12 of the 47 EU small vessels that applied have been granted permission for post-Brexit fishing rights in UK waters, it emerged.

The majority were denied licences because they failed to provide evidence that they had fished in the six-to-12-mile nautical zone in the years before the UKs referendum on leaving the EU.

But it provoked threats of reprisals from the French government over what they see as a betrayal of the last-gasp Brexit deal agreed last year.

The French government is threatening reprisals over what they see as a betrayal of the last-gasp Brexit deal agreed last year. Pictured: French President Emmanuel Macron

Today Jersey is set to announce how many EU boats it will allow to fish off its coast, which could spark a repeat of the angry protests by French fishermen earlier this year.

Last night EU affairs minister Clement Beaune told French TV: We understand and we share the exasperation [of our fishermen] because it is simply unacceptable not to respect an agreement that has been signed. We will negotiate until the very last moment to renew some of these permits and obtain some more.

And yes, we have been saying at every level, including the president [Emmanuel Macron] to Prime Minister Johnson, that we cannot cooperate in confidence on other matters until they abide by the Brexit deal they signed.

I hope we do not end up in that position, but of course we have said that there are retaliatory measures which are possible according to the Brexit agreement.

EU affairs minister Clement Beaune (pictured) told French TV: We understand and we share the exasperation [of our fishermen] because it is simply unacceptable not to respect an agreement that has been signed'

Mr Beaune added: Commercial measures on certain British products, for example. Or on energy matters. We have several areas in which the British depend more on us. And in this over-arching agreement, if they do not respect the part on fishing, we can take measures [against them] together as the European Union and we will not hesitate to do so. Olivier Le Nezet, president of Brittany fishermens committee, called the figure of 12 out of 47 a declaration of war on the water and on the land.

He added that French fishermen would make sure not a single British product lands on French soil.

In May the row over Channel fishing rights escalated when furious French skippers threatened to block UK goods from entering Calais.

Britain sent two Royal Navy gunships to Jersey after 100 French fishing boats vowed to block the islands harbour.

And French minister Annick Girardin warned that Paris could cut off electricity to the island. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted last night that almost 1,700 larger French boats have already been allowed to fish off the coast of Britain.

A spokesman said: The Government has this year issued a large number of licences to EU vessels seeking to fish in our exclusive economic zone (12-to-200 nautical mile zone) and our territorial sea (six-to-12 nautical mile zone).

Our approach has been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

As regards the six-to-12 nautical miles zone, as set out in the TCA, EU vessels must provide evidence of a track record of fishing activity in those waters. They added: We have been considering applications for vessels of under 12m (39ft) in length to fish in this zone.
Facebook described children aged 10-12 as a valuable 'untapped audience' and even suggested they could appeal to younger children by 'exploring playdates as a growth lever, according to leaked internal documents.

The Silicon Valley company formed a team to study ways to get tweens - those aged 10 to 12 - to use their platform, after becoming concerned by the threat from rivals such as TikTok and SnapChat.

'Why do we care about tweens? They are a valuable but untapped audience.' said one document from 2020, obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

It continues: 'Our ultimate goal is message primacy with US Tweens'.

Youngsters aged from 10 to 12 were described as a valuable untapped resource in an internal Facebook document, provided to The Wall Street Journal

Mark Zuckerberg is seen in April 2019 speaking at the Facebook F8 Conference at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, and describing new features on their products which are designed to keep children safe

Facebook slide: Why do we care about tweens? They are a valuable but untapped audience.



I thought it was to improve their lives through the power of connection? Oh right...https://t.co/OPLMyW4gPQ pic.twitter.com/HVIyL7W99l  Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) September 28, 2021

Facebook, which owns Instagram, is facing growing questions over its influence on young people. On Monday the company announced it was halting the planned creation of an Instagram for Kids - in part after The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was aware that Instagram could be harmful for young peoples' mental health.

THE DATA FACEBOOK WAS SHOWN ON HOW INSTAGRAM HARMED YOUNG GIRLS AND BOYS Question of the things you've felt in the last month, did any of them start on Instagram? Select all that apply Not attractive 41% (US) 43% (UK) Don't have enough money 42% (US) 42% (UK) Don't have enough friends 32% (US) 33% (UK) Down, sad or depressed 10% (US) 13% (UK) Wanted to kill themselves 6% (US) 13% (UK) Wanted to hurt themselves 9% (US) 7% (UK) Question: In general, how has Instagram affected the way you feel about yourself, your mental health? Much worse US boys and girls: 3% US boys: 2% US girls: 3% UK total: 2% UK boys: 1% UK girls: 2% Somewhat worse US total: 16% US Boys 12% US girls: 18% UK total: 19% UK boys: 13% UK girls: 23% No effect US total: 41% US boys: 37% US girls: 43% UK total: 46% UK boys: 50% UK girls: 44% Somewhat better US total: 29% US boys: 32% US girls: 29% UK total: 28% UK boys: 31% UK girls: 26% Much better US total: 12% US boys: 18% US girls 8% UK total: 5% UK boys: 5% UK girls: 4% Advertisement

'While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we've decided to pause this project,' Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a Monday blog post.

'This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.'

Facebook's top executive in charge of safety, Antigone Davis, will testify on Thursday before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee.

Tuesday's report will give the senators yet more cause for concern.

The paper, which has been working with a whistleblower, found that Facebook has spent the last five years on making 'big bets' on designing products that would appeal to preteens.

One of the slides in Facebook's internal presentation was entitled: 'Youth Privacy: Defining five groups to guide age-appropriate design'.

The slide showed 'where we've been, and where we're going' - with diagrams showing that currently those aged under 13 are not theoretically allowed to use the site, but in the future there may be no restrictions, and instead content 'tailored to user maturity'.

Even 'young kids' from 0-4 were included in the chart, suggesting that Facebook may eventually try and recruit infants to their site.

Another slide asked: 'Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?'

Researchers wanted to know whether the youngsters were using Messenger Kids - Facebook's early foray into recruiting children to their world, from 2017 - on playdates, and if so, how.

They did so despite sharing research which revealed youngsters didn't use Messenger Kids on playdates because they were too busy enjoying real-life interaction with friends.

They also noted that older teenagers were warning their younger relatives about the dangers of over-sharing on social media, and posting too much information that they might later regret.

'We need to understand if this influence over preteen sharing holds at scale,' the researcher wrote in a document posted to Facebook's internal message board early this year.

'If it is common that teens are discouraging preteens from sharing, there are obvious implications for creation and the ecosystem both in the near and longer-term as preteens are the next generation coming onto the platform.'

The authors of the slides said that it was a 'myth' about Instagram that sharing too much was negative.

Facebook's concerns about rivals appear to be warranted.

'Global teen penetration on FB is low, and acquisition appears to be slowing down,' according to a March 2021 document obtained by the paper.

The slides obtained by The Wall Street Journal featured a graphic similar to this one, showing that there was no lower age limit for consumers of Facebook's products

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is seen in February 2020 at the Munich Security Conference

Facebook put together a team to explore how to encourage young people to use their platforms

Facebook's top safety officer, Antigone Davis (seen above in New York in 2018), is set to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Thursday

In the U.S., the daily number of teens using Facebook has fallen by 19 per cent over the past two years, another document noted, and would likely fall by an additional 45 per cent by 2023.

Furthermore, their rivals are gaining.

Last year a Pew Research Center survey found that among 9-to-11-year-olds, 30 per cent said they used TikTok and 22 per cent said they used Snapchat.

However, only 11 per cent said they used Instagram and 6 per cent used Facebook.

One 11 year-old boy questioned by Facebook researchers branded the giant's eponymous social media site as being for 'old people' aged 40 and up.

Bosses are said to be keen to get teenagers using Instagram in the hopes of it becoming a gateway to setting up a Facebook profile.

Facebook on Tuesday said the research was 'to support families' and insisted there was 'nothing nefarious or secretive about this work.'

They said in a statement: 'We want to keep young people safe on our apps, and that includes making sure that those who aren't old enough to be using them, don't.

'We'll continue investing in research to make sure that we do this work even more effectively.'

Facebook said that they, like many social media companies, regularly conduct research into their users.

They admitted that the idea of trying to turn playdates into ways of bringing new people to their platforms was clumsy, describing it as 'an insensitive way to pose a serious question and doesn't reflect our approach to building the app.'
At least 15 serving or former police officers have killed women since 2009, research suggests.

Most cases involving men who had worked in the police were homicides of partners, according to The Femicide Census, which keeps track of women killed by male perpetrators in Britain.

One former police officer had smothered his mother, and another of the killings was for financial gain, The Times reports.

It was revealed earlier this year that a woman every week was coming forward to report domestic abuse by a partner who was in the police.

Met Police diplomatic protection officer Wayne Couzens, 48, is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey for the killing of Sarah Everard (pictured)

Manslaughter cases included Timothy Brehmer, who was cleared of murder after strangling his long-term lover Claire Parry (right)

And demonstrators have been calling for issues of male violence to be addressed with renewed vigor following the murder of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and killed by a police officer in March.

Met Police diplomatic protection officer Wayne Couzens (pictured), 48, is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey for the killing of Sarah Everard

Met Police diplomatic protection officer Wayne Couzens, 48, is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey for the killing this week after he admitted the kidnap and rape of Ns Everard, who disappeared as she walked home in Clapham, south London.

The force's Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick described Couzens as a 'bad 'un'.

Co-founder of the Femicide Census, Karen Ingala Smith, said the issue went 'way deeper' than that, criticising 'disbelieving attitudes that enable rapists'.

She said: 'This is not the problem of a few ''bad 'uns'' but systemic and institutional sexism. The Femicide Census has shown that even murder of a woman was not a one off.'

Census data revealed ten murders by police officers, ex police officers and a former special constable since 2009.

Manslaughter cases included Timothy Brehmer, who was cleared of murder after strangling his long-term lover.

Brehmer, 41, described as a 'womaniser' in court, was alleged to have 'angrily' throttled nurse Claire Parry in his car in West Parley, Dorset, in May - moments after she texted his detective wife 'I'm cheating on you' from his phone.

Ivan Escak murdered his estranged wife at her hair salon in Ashford, Kent, after stabbing her 11 times. He was jailed for life in 2013

But although the police constable used enough force to fracture her neck in three places, jurors in Salisbury decided he had not intended to kill Mrs Parry.

After a 12-day trial, Brehmer was acquitted of murder after jurors deliberated for two hours and 50 minutes. However, the police officer of 17 years admitted killing mother-of-two Mrs Parry by manslaughter.

Most cases involved the homicide of an intimate partner, an ex-partner or spouse, often by strangulation, typically involving former officers.

Ivan Escak murdered his estranged wife Natalie at her hair salon in Ashford, Kent, after stabbing her 11 times.

He was jailed for life in 2013.
Queensland has recorded one new Covid-19 case as more restrictions are brought in and fears of a stricter lockdown linger.

The new case announced on Wednesday was a fully vaccinated man aged in his 50s and is linked to an aviation worker who had already tested positive.

There was a second infection: a truck driver who lives in Gavin on the Gold Coast and was infectious in the community from September 25 to September 27 but he tested positive in NSW so will not be included in Queensland's numbers.

He'd been infectious in Gold Coast suburbs of Mermaid Waters, Merrimac, Nerang, Surfers Paradise, Miami Beach, and Currumbin, and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young urged those in the areas to get tested if symptoms appear.

The truckie had also visited Ballina and Byron Bay.

The new case has prompted mandatory mask wearing rules to be introduced in the Gold Coast area, after being reinforced in Brisbane and Moreton Bay on Tuesday due to four earlier cases.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said restrictions would also be put on residents visiting hospitals, aged care, disability facilities, and prisons.

'We know that the virus is on our doorstep,' she said during Wednesday's Covid-19 press conference.

Mask wearing has returned to Queensland following a sudden outbreak in Covid-19 cases (pictured in Brisbane on Tuesday)

'The genomic sequencing that came back on the two different clusters yesterday show that this virus is not linked to any existing Queensland cases, that these are linked to interstate and potentially overseas.

'That's good news. It shows that we don't have any evidence of the virus still circulating within the community from previous clusters. But it once again shows the risk to Queenslanders of this virus coming across our borders.'

Four new locally-acquired cases were recorded in Brisbane on Tuesday with particular concerns about a truck driver who was infectious in the city for eight days.

The man, who is from Sydney, stayed at three separate hostels at Spring Hill and at South Brisbane between Thursday and Monday.

Another outbreak involves an aviation worker and his partner from Eatons Hill, who visited a number of venues across Brisbane.

The fourth case is a woman who tested positive on her fifth day out of hotel quarantine, however she may be false-positive.

Ms D'Ath said on Wednesday that there would be no restrictions imposed for the NRL grand final this Sunday at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.

'This most recent case, being the close contact from the aviation training facility, we have got in the last hour,' she said.

'That's why we're taking the steps we are in relation to the Gold Coast. But there's a lot more work to be done over the next few hours to understand this person's movements and the risk.'

When asked about a potential lockdown Dr Young said it would come down to the amount of mystery cases.

Queensland has recorded one new Covid-19 case as more restrictions are brought in and fears of a lockdown linger

'I'm watching this very, very carefully and I'm just asking, because Queenslanders have done such a fantastic job with our last few outbreaks with wearing masks, with coming forward and getting tested, that, at the moment, I'm prepared to wait and see if we've got any local transmission,' she said.

'At the moment, all of these cases are linked.'

There are now more than 1,000 Queenslanders isolating with 18 active infections around the state.

The outbreaks come after tens of thousands of people attended NRL finals and the RiverFire festival in Brisbane on the weekend after the relaxation of face mask wearing rules on Friday.

The outbreak had put in doubt the hosting of the NRL grand final at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night, with a crowd of 50,000 expected.

While it was still likely to be at that venue, Dr Young said the decision to shift the event to Townsville could be made as late as Saturday morning.

There are now more than 1,000 Queenslanders isolating with 18 active infections around the state

Concerned health officials released a series of new exposure sites after the state recorded its first mystery case in 50 days on Tuesday.

Two McDonald's restaurants, a Woolworths supermarket, a cafe, Domino's pizza store, childcare centre, and inner-city guesthouse are among the venues exposed to the virus which have plunged hundreds into isolation.

The latest virus outbreak has already triggered the return of mandatory mask wearing indoors and outdoors if social distancing is not possible across the Brisbane and Moreton Bay local government areas.

These same rules are now enforced in the Gold Coast as well.

Five of the exposure sites announced on Tuesday were close contact sites, so anyone who was at the venues at the listed times must get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result.

They include Hill Station Restaurant and Cafe and Brands Pharmacy in Spring Hill, Seats 'R' Us in Rocklea, Adalong Student Guesthouse and McDonald's Southbank.

A host of casual contact venues were also announced, with attendees ordered to test tested and self-isolate until they received a negative result.

McDonalds Southbank in Brisbane has been listed as a close contact exposure site

The new Covid-19 case comes just days ahead of the NRL Grand Final between the Rabbitohs and the Panthers (pictured) to be hosted in Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Sunday

They include Domino's Pizza in Spring Hill, Mother Duck Childcare and Kindergarten in Eatons Hil, Woolworths Southpoint Metro, Freedom Furniture in Aspley and Mater Public Hospital's emergency department.

McDonald's drive-thru in Albany Creek was listed as a low-risk venue between 5.05am and 5.10am on September 24. Anyone there at that time should be on alert for symptoms and get tested if they develop.

The Queensland government has moved to mandate truck drivers entering Queensland have had at least one jab, with seven infected drivers having come into the state since August 24 and then being active in the community.

Freight drivers must receive their first jab by by October 15, and two jabs by November 15.
North Korea has boasted its new hypersonic missile which was successfully tested yesterday could carry a nuclear warhead.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the missile was an important addition to the country's 'strategic' weaponry, implying that the system is being developed to deliver nuclear weapons.

The test flight met key technical requirements set out by defence scientists, including launch stability and the maneuverability and gliding flight characteristics of the 'detached hypersonic gliding warhead'.

North Korea has boasted its new hypersonic missile which was successfully tested yesterday could carry a nuclear warhead

Kim Jong-un continues to expand his military capabilities while pressuring Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons.

State media released a photo of a missile mounted with a finned, cone-shaped payload soaring into the air while leaving a trial of bright orange flames.

The latest launch, which came after two rounds of missile tests this month, was shortly before North Korea's U.N. envoy accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration permanently end joint military exercises with rival South Korea and the deployment of strategic assets in the region.

The North has also offered to improve relations with the South if certain conditions are met, apparently returning to its pattern of mixing weapons demonstrations with peace overtures to wrest outside concessions.

The North's announcement came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected North Korea firing a ballistic missile into sea.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch didn't pose an immediate threat but highlighted 'the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program.

Kim Jong-un continues to expand its military capabilities while pressuring Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons

Nuclear negotiations have stalled since the collapse of a meeting between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected the North's demands for a major removal of U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

That would have amounted to only a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim in recent political speeches has vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent in face of U.S. pressure.

His government has so far rejected the Biden administration's offer to resume talks without preconditions, saying that Washington must abandon its 'hostile policy' first, a term North Korea mainly uses to refer to U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program and the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills.

Hypersonic glide vehicles, which are launched from a rocket before gliding into a target, were among a wish-list of sophisticated military assets Kim issued during a ruling party meeting in January.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the missile was an important addition to the country's 'strategic' weaponry

He has also called for more longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, and tactical nuclear arms.

The agency also said the test confirmed the stability of the missile's 'fuel ampoule,' indicating a technology to pre-fuel the liquid propellant missile and seal it in a canister so that it could stay launch-ready for years.

Pak Jong Chon, a senior official who observed the test, said the North plans to expand the ampoule system to all of its liquid-fuel missiles. Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea is trying to improve the mobility of its liquid-fuel missiles.

These weapons have been seen as more vulnerable than solid-fuel missiles because they need to be fueled separately and transported to launch sites using trucks that can be seen by enemy satellites or other military assets.

The North's latest launch came after Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, reached out to Seoul twice on Friday and Saturday, saying her country was open to resuming talks and reconciliatory steps if conditions are met.

She criticised Seoul for calling Pyongyang's previous missile tests a provocation and demanded it abandon 'unfair double-dealing standards' and 'hostile policies.'

Her overture came after the North tested a new cruise missile it intends to arm with nuclear warheads and fired ballistic missiles from a train, experimenting with a new launch platform.

Those launches demonstrated North Korea's ability to attack targets in South Korea and Japan, both key U.S. allies where a total of 80,000 American troops are stationed.

Analysts say North Korea is using the South's desire for inter-Korean engagement to pressure Seoul to extract concessions from the Biden administration on his behalf as he renews an attempt to leverage his nuclear weapons for badly needed economic benefits.

North Korea's weapons displays could also be aimed at shoring up domestic unity as Kim Jong Un faces perhaps his toughest moment nearing a decade in rule, with pandemic border closures unleashing further shock on an economy battered by sanctions and decades of mismanagement.

Experts say the North will likely continue its testing activity in the coming months as it gradually dials up its pressure campaign, at least until China begins pushing for calm ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics early next year.
An Australian backpacker has shared horrifying footage of an allergic reaction he suffered working at a mango farm.

Brendan Small, 26, was travelling around Queensland with a friend when a Covid-19 outbreak and border closures prevented them from heading back home in NSW.

The pair continued their adventure and ended up in Darwin, where Mr Small found casual work on a mango farm in Humpty Doo, an hour's drive away.

His face swelled up within days and was unable to see out of one of his eyes, which resulted in an emergency dash to hospital.

Mr Small has shared a TikTok clip of his 11 days on the farm, which ends with him looking very sore in a hospital bed.

Brendan Small's allergy to mangoes landed him in a Darwin hospital as his face swelled up

'Pick mangos they said, it'll be fun they said,' he captioned the footage which has since gone viral.

He has since been discharged from hospital and while his face has cleared up, he's still suffering from skin irritations and rashes.

Mr Small had no idea of he had an allergy until his 11-day stint on the farm to top up his dwindling funds.

The Newcastle man (pictured) spent 11 days working on a mango farm in Humpty Doo

He described the ordeal as a scary experience.

'I was worried about it getting to my throat,' Mr Small told Daily Mail Australia.

'I've never had an allergic reaction before, but I'm feeling okay now.'

His TikTok video has been inundated with viewers sharing their own horror reactions to mangoes.

Despite his harrowing ordeal, Mr Small enjoyed his brief stint on a mango farm which earned him $2,000.

'Definitely an experience, tough work but was something different, long days and didn't do much besides cook dinner and go to bed early,' he said.

'I don't think I can work with mangos ever again.'
A US Marine has shared his dismay at being forced to remove obscene messages insulting the Taliban and ISIS that they daubed on the walls of Kabul Airport.

Three examples of the insults were shared to social media - with one showing a serviceman in front of a tiled wall at Hamid Karzai Airport sprayed with the phrase 'F*** ISIS + Taliban' in black paint, as well as an image of a penis and testicles sprayed in purple.

Another photo showed 12 troops with guns in front of an outdoor concrete barrier which had been sprayed with 'F*** ISIS, AFG 2021'.

And a third showed three troops stood outside toting a cardboard sign saying 'F**k the Taliban.'

But an unnamed Marine stationed at Hamid Karzai said the graffiti painted on walls was removed at the orders of bosses, saying: 'My boys had to go  pick up every last piece of  trash for who? The Taliban?' a Marine told the Washington Post. 'It was a slap in the face to us.'

That order was part of an edict which also saw troops ordered to pick up trash they'd strewn around the airport to frustrate the Taliban's takeover.

Marine spokesman First Lt. Jack Coppola said that the cleanup was enforced to prevent delaying any flights leaving the airport.

But it is unclear why the graffiti was also removed.

Messages with obscene language and drawings were drawn by troops in anger over the Kabul attack that killed 13 U.S. officials, but later removed

U.S. Marines revealed that they were forced to pick up trash and clean up obscene messages that they left for Taliban

Three troops are seen holding up a piece of cardboard that says 'F**k the Taliban'

Troops were given the green-light to destroy military equipment, including helicopters and armored trucks to stop the Taliban using them.

Many said they found that experience cathartic, particularly in the wake of the August 26 ISIS-K suicide bomb at one of the airport's gates, the Abbey Gate, that killed 170 Afghans and 13 US service personnel.

The troops had witnessed the tragedies of Afghans attempting to flee the country through the Abbey Gate at the airport.

Many of these troops were tasked with securing the airport to prevent the attacks and ensure the safety of the Afghans and the Americans that were in the country.

Abbey Gate provided a gateway for these refugees to gain access to the airport as Taliban members did not operate in that particular area.

U.S. Marines are seen handing out water during an evacuation at the Hamid Karzai International Airport

Afghan evacuees are seen taking off in a C-17 Globemaster III at a Middle East staging area

Afghan refugees are seen sitting inside one of Italy's military aircrafts

The bodies of dead children were found along the pathway to Abbey Gate in sewer canals lined with fences, with US service personnel sharing their horror at seeing them.

Gunshots could be heard from a nearby Taliban post. Servicemen and women said they learned to recognize the difference between warning shots and shots being fired to kill people, with the latter starting, then stopping.

'We wanted to be there,' a Marine told Washington Post. 'And then we realize that maybe I dont want to be here, watching these people wade through this s--- river and wave papers, and I have to tell them no.'

The Washington Post's dispatch also offered fascinating details on how the airport coped after being overrun with Afghans after the country's former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 15, effectively handing control of his government to the Taliban.

That saw Hamid Karzai inundated with thousands of Afghans desperate to flee. They trampled on runway lights, forcing US service personnel to place water bottles in front of flashlights to create large pools of light along the edge of the landing strip.

Thick black smoke rises after a suicide bomber attacks a Kabul airport after ISIS bomb threat

People are seen attending to a wounded man after the deadly Kabul airport attack

170 Afghans and 13 U.S. officials were killed as a result of the ISIS attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport

President Biden, who had received criticism for his withdraw plans, announced he planned to pull both civilians and U.S. citizens from the country by August 30.

The criticism drew from the fact that Biden deployed thousands of US troops to Afghanistan which only kept more American citizens in the country and doubled the number of troops already present.

The Taliban had taken over the Afghan government on August 15 which was two weeks before Biden was to withdraw the remaining troops home.

Within a near two-week span, however, about 124,000 people were evacuated from the country in C-17's.

Around 79,000 of those, including 6,000 civilians, were rescued directly by the US airlift, with the remainder flown out on charter flights supervised by the military.

The last official US military airlift left Afghanistan on August 30.

'There is no greater honor for a Marine to be called to save Americans,' Captain Geoff Ball posted on Facebook.

'To be the last on deck as those who need our help are pulled to safety. To lay down our lives for others. That is what my Marines did. They will always be my heroes.'
Donald Trump accused General Mark Milley of being more concerned with 'being a star' than leading the U.S. military through the Afghanistan withdrawal.

'No wonder the Afghanistan withdrawal was such a disaster,' Trump sent out in a statement on Tuesday evening. 'General' Milley spent all of his time talking to these Fake Book writers. That's not a Soldier or General, that's a Public Relations agent.'

'America will continue losing with Milley and woke television Generals who are only looking to be stars!'

Milley, who has served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since Trump appointed him in 2018, appeared before the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to testify on the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal.

It was the first time Milley was under oath following bombshell reports coming from the new book 'Peril' that claim the top U.S. general went behind Trump's back to speak with China in fears the then-president would take rogue action to stay in office.

He promised his counterpart during the call, according to the reports, that he would give a heads-up in the event of an imminent attack from the U.S.

Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a 'disaster' because Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley was too focused on being his own 'public relations agent'

Trump called Milley a 'television general' for speaking with journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa for their new book on the transition from Trump to Biden

This report garnered swift backlash for the military and political community, with many accusing Milley of 'treason' and claiming he should be fired or even court marshaled.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Milley got into a heated exchange with Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas over the advice he gave President Joe Biden on troop levels in Afghanistan.

Milley, who holds degrees from Princeton, Columbia, and the Navy War College, and who commanded international forces in Afghanistan essentially confirmed he advised Biden against a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country.

Some, including Milley, claim that if Milley so vehemently disagreed with Biden's decision not to leave a presence there, then he should have resigned.

'I understand that you're the principal military advisor. That you advise. You don't decide, the president decides. But if this is all true, General Milley, why haven't you resigned?' asked Cotton, who was deployed as an Army officer in Afghanistan during his eight-year military career.

'Peril' came out this month with bombshell details that Milley spoke to China behind Trump's back offering assurances of any impending attacks

'My dad didn't get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima, and those kids there at Abbey Gate, they don't get a choice to resign,' Milley told him, referring to the troops guarding the Kabul airport during the evacuation last month even after a terror attack killed 13 U.S. troops.

Also during the hearing, Milley denied any wrongdoing in making two phone calls to China during Trump's presidency after Republican Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska grilled him on the subject.

Milley and Austin's appearance on Tuesday marked their first public testimony since the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan last month.

During the second half of the contentious hearing, Sullivan confronted Milley on those calls after he already denied wrongdoing in a lengthy opening statement.

'General Milley, if you think the Chinese Communist Party decided to invade Taiwan, would their military leadership call and give you a heads up?' Sullivan asked.

Milley said there would likely be a 'period of increased tension' followed by 'an exchange of various communications at all levels.'

Sullivan cut him off, asking again if the general thought the head of China's military would warn him of an attack on Taiwan.

'I would call him and ask him outright,' Milley answered.

Senator Dan Sullivan grilled Milley Tuesday on allegations he called his Chinese counterparts behind Trump's back

He added, 'I think an invasion of Taiwan would be a fairly obvious thing to pick up on, and there would be a lot of communication back and forth.'

The Alaska lawmaker countered, 'I think the answer to that is no.'

He continued, 'I think if the head of the [Chinese military] called you and said 'Hey, we're getting ready to invade Taiwan' and Xi Jinping found out about it, he'd be shot.'

The chairman also denied giving China a 'heads up' because he claimed to be 'certain' Trump wouldn't attack.

'I was communicating to my Chinese counterpart - on instructions, by the way - to deescalate the situation. And I told him that we are not going to attack. President Trump has no intent to attack, and I told him that repeatedly, and I told him if there was going to be an attack, there will be plenty of communications going back and forth, your Intel system will pick it up.

'I said, I'll probably call you. Everybody will call you. We're not going to attack you, just settle down, it is not going to happen. I did it twice, in October and January.'

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee also asked Milley about the calls. Milley told her he never discussed them with former President Trump himself.

The GOP lawmaker accused Milley of leaking information to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the two authors of 'Peril.'

Milley acknowledged speaking to Bob Woodward before it was published, but denied he 'leaked' anything.

Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for President Joe 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.'
New Zealand's COVID-19 Minister has told Kiwis they need to 'hold their nerve' after a major jump in community COVID-19 cases to 45.

Chris Hipkins said the jump from eight on Tuesday to 45 on Wednesday was 'sobering', but wouldn't change NZ's elimination strategy.

'We have seen blips already in this outbreak ... and it's gone down again,' he said.

New Zealand has recorded 45 new Covid cases - up from eight cases on Tuesday (Pictured: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern)

'We've still got to hold our nerve here ... we're still pursuing COVID-19. We're still aiming to run it into the ground.'

The new cases comprise New Zealand's highest daily figure since September 2.

'While the overall number today is obviously a lot higher, it is important to note many of these cases are linked to existing cases and in some sense, they were expected,' Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said.

'What's even more important is that we found these cases because people came forward and were tested.'

Nurses wait to assist members of the public during the Cook Islands drive through vaccination community event on September 25

Shoppers at Pak n Save Henderson where a vaccination bus was excepted to arrive

All of the 45 cases were found in Auckland, with 33 known to be close or household contacts of existing cases.

Interviews are underway with the 12 cases yet to be linked back to the outbreak.

Dr Bloomfield said 12 of the cases came from just two families, and a number of other cases were from transitional or emergency housing.

On Wednesday, around 1.7 million Aucklanders entered their seventh straight week of lockdown to fight the Delta outbreak.

Auckland shifted from a tough alert level four lockdown to a level three lockdown, which allows for more business and in-person education, one week ago.

Dr Bloomfield urged employers of essential workers to allow their staff members to 'get vaccinated today'.

'Now that Auckland is at alert level three, some of our cases today may have been working at essential or permitted businesses during their infectious periods,' he said.

'This emphasises the importance of everyone in Auckland abiding by alert level three measures. They are there for a reason.'

The total outbreak has now seen 1,230 people infected since the identification of the first case on August 17.

Health officials report 16 Kiwis in hospital with COVID-19, including three in intensive care units.
Pauline Hanson has given a candid account of her time in in jail for electoral fraud in 2003, and how she overcame her depression that was made worse by her despair for her suffering children.

In a podcast interview with journalist and mental health advocate Jessica Rowe, the One Nation leader and senator said it was 'devastating even now, to think back to that time'.

'I thought they could never possibly bring down a guilty verdict,' Sen Hanson said on the Jess Rowe Big Talk Show episode released on Wednesday.

'My daughter...was going over to New Zealand with her boyfriend of the time, she was 18, and I said 'Look honey, you go, everything should be right, there shouldn't be any problems'.

Pauline Hanson (left) walks with her arms around her son Steven Hanson (right) after she was released from the Brisbane Women's Correctional Facility in Brisbane in 2003.

'When they stood up and gave that guilty verdict, I just shut down, absolutely shut down. I couldn't believe it.'

The hard reality of what had just happened was crushing, as was the humiliating treatment dished out to prisoners.

'They came and put the handcuffs on me, took me downstairs to process me. I was strip-searched, and then put into a van and taken to the watch house all night.

'I was taken to the prison the next day and went through the whole process - photographed, put into the system and they put me into the hospital ward for a couple of nights just to keep an eye on me,' she said.

Pauline Hanson's (pictured) prison mugshot, taken in August 2003. She was released 11 weeks later as the conviction was overturned on appeal

The authorities were concerned for the wellbeing of Sen Hanson who was 49 at the time and already a highly-visible public figure after first being elected to federal parliament in 1996.

'I wasn't eating, I'd sort of shut down completely. They told me that if I don't start eating they'd put me in a straitjacket and they'd put me in a cell by myself. And I thought, that's not really the way I want to go, so I said OK.

'Then I went into the mainstream prison, they put me in another cell with lights on all night long to keep an eye on me for another week that I was in there before they put me into my own cell.'

At first she just kept to herself as she began a three-year sentence, which ultimately lasted only 11 weeks as she was exonerated on appeal.

'But then I started with exercising. They've got a personal trainer (in the prison) that you go to and I started doing that.

'And then I started with the other prisoners, putting them through a training program. And then one day I actually got 13 of the other prisoners to go to this exercise class and the guy nearly dropped dead. He said "I've never actually seen this many come."'

One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson (pictured) was wrongly convicted on political corruption charges in 2003

Ms Hanson said exercise was crucial to her recovery from depression.

'It's about keeping yourself body active. If you're going to sit around and mope about the place, you're going to get more depressed. You need to actually get yourself moving, put your mind to other things, start an exercise regime.'

Though she says she did not take anti-depressant medication herself, she acknowledges it can help people.

'We all go through some depression in our life, whether it's a break up with a loved one or a partner or some issue that we have in life (such as) losing your job.

'Everyone goes through it. People handle it in different ways. So if taking anti-depressant tablets has helped, you've got to work out what's best for you and what helps you through that time in your life.'

She says that seeing her daughter interviewed on television while she was in prison was the worst moment.

'I was very depressed, awfully depressed, and I saw them doing an interview with my daughter from New Zealand and that really broke me. The kids had been through a hell of a lot with my time in politics in (the 1990s). She was 13 at the time, my son was 15.

'Because I travelled extensively across the country, I was away for about nine months of the year. (My daughter) had to go in boarding school, she actually hated it. They had to get her out of school one time as a threat was made against her life. So they've been through a hell of a lot.'

Pauline Hanson (pictured) on June 27, 2002, the day she was charged in Brisbane's Magistrates Court

Ms Hanson says her children are proud of the career she has made in politics over the past 25 years, but the events of 2003 had led her to swear to get out of public life altogether.

'When I got out of prison I said I'd have to have rocks in my head to get back into politics,' Sen Hanson said.

'But you look at what's happening in the country and in people's lives - I cannot stand corruption, I cannot stand dishonesty.'

'I've been given an opportunity to have a voice in this country and the only place you can actually change things is on the floor of parliament, so hence I went back to it, led the party again, got back into politics.'

Ms Hanson said her influence was not only through debate but altering legislation proposed by governments that often rely on crossbench support from minor parties.

'I've got to say over the five years in politics I've been back on the floor of parliament, I have made a hell of a difference in a lot of areas of government legislation, because they can't get anything through without my vote.'
Vice President Kamala Harris has angered supporters of Israel by expressing support for a college student who accused the country of 'ethnic genocide' against Palestinians.

The interaction came as Harris made a surprise visit on Tuesday to a political science class at George Mason University in northern Virginia to encourage voter registration and discuss voting rights.

As Harris took questions after speaking, one of the female students voiced her concerns about US financial and military support for Israel and Saudi Arabia.

'I see that over the summer there have been, like, protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine, but then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it's ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I'm sure you're aware of this,' the student said, as Harris nodded.

Vice President Kamala Harris has angered supporters of Israel by expressing support for a college student who accused the country of ethnic genocide against Palestinians

The interaction came as Harris made a surprise visit on Tuesday to a political science class at George Mason University in northern Virginia to encourage voter registration

From awkward laughter over Afghanistan withdrawal to 'narcissistic' cookies, Kamala sparks outrage May 29: Harris tweeted a picture of herself smiling with the caption, 'Enjoy the long weekend' the Friday before Memorial Day. After facing a barrage of criticism that she was ignoring the somber occasion, Harris tweeted a number of tributes to fallen service members. June 6: Harris handed out cookies to reporters on Air Force Two that were decorated with her own face. Critics slammed the bizarre cookies as 'narcissistic' but an aide later explained that they were a 'gift' to Harris from a staffer that the VP wanted to share. June 8: Harris snapped at NBC News anchor Lester Holt when he asked why she had not yet visited the border, despite being appointed Biden's border czar. 'And I haven't been to Europe,' she responded. August 20: Harris drew criticism for laughing awkwardly when a reporter questioned her on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Observers have noted that Harris has a tendency to chuckle when faced with uncomfortable questions. Advertisement

The House last Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill to send Israel $1 billion for its Iron Dome defense system, a measure that was bitterly opposed by a handful of the most left-wing Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The student went on to express her belief that the funding would have been better spent helping Americans struggling with housing and health care costs instead 'to inflaming Israel and backing Saudi Arabia and what-not.'

The student says she felt that she had to raise the issue, saying: 'It affects my life and people I really care about's lives.'

'I'm glad you did,' Harris responded. 'And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things we're fighting for in a democracy, right?'

'Unity should never be at the expense of telling anyone personally that, for the sake of unity, 'Oh, you be quiet about that thing. You suppress that thing. Let's not deal with that thing.' That's not unity. True unity is everyone in that room has a voice,' the vice president continued.

'The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody's voice should be suppressed on that,' she added.

The exchange drew criticism from Republicans and supporters of Israel, including Senator Ted Cruz's spokesman Steve Guest, who called the interaction 'unbelievable' in a tweet.

On Sunday, the deadliest violence in several weeks between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank erupted when Israeli troops conducted a series of raids against suspected Hamas militants.

Five Palestinians were killed and two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded in the ensuing gun battles.

The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent months, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction, heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank and the aftermath of a bloody war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last May.

The Israeli military said it had been tracking the Hamas militants for several weeks and that the raids were launched in response to immediate threats.

Harris speaks to students in a political science class at George Mason University during a surprise visit to campus on Tuesday in Fairfax, Virginia

A visibly distraught Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is comforted by Rep. Barbara Lee after House passes bill giving Israel $1 billion for its Iron Dome defense system

In his first address to the United Nations general assembly on Monday, new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made no mention of Israel's decadeslong conflict with the Palestinians

In his first address to the United Nations general assembly on Monday, new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made no mention of Israel's decades-long conflict with the Palestinians, instead seeking to portray Iran as a menace to global security.

Harris last month had a phone conversation with her new Israeli counterpart, President Isaac Herzog.

On the call, Harris expressed her strong commitment to Israel's security and reiterated the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a State Department summary.

The two leaders also discussed the urgency of efforts to address the effects of climate change, according to the readout.

Harris thanked Herzog for Israeli assistance in Central America by providing water catchment systems to Guatemala, and training farmers in 'climate-smart' agriculture.
Four union staff members have reportedly tested positive for Covid after violent scenes erupted at the CMFEU head office last week.

Several others, including State secretary John Setka, have been forced into isolation after the building, on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne's CBD, was declared a Tier 1 Covid-19 exposure site.

Union officials have blamed 'the reckless and irresponsible behaviour' of protesters who stormed the building on Monday.

'Last week's protests put union officials and police at risk with infected demonstrators showing no regard to the wellbeing of people affected by their actions,' Mr Setka said in statement on Wednesday.

CFMEU has become a Tier-1 exposure site after protesters after staff become infected with Covid-19

Violent scenes in Melbourne erupted on Monday when construction workers angry about vaccination mandates mobbed the headquarters (pictured)

'Their reckless behaviour has resulted in transmission to union staff and officials who were not involved in the protest. To date, four positive cases have been recorded.'

'This outbreak caused by the disgusting behaviour of selfish and reckless people with no regard to the wellbeing of the thousands of construction workers or their families will not deter our commitment to getting construction back open and all our members back to work,' the statement continued.

Violent scenes in Melbourne erupted on Monday when construction workers angry about vaccination mandates mobbed the headquarters of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in the CBD.

2,000 protesters stormed the city on Tuesday angered by the snap shutdown of the construction industry (pictured)

Demonstrators kicked and threw cans at police cars as they marched towards Victoria's parliament house (pictured)

Anti-vaxxer protesters and construction workers march to block the West Gate Bridge on Tuesday bringing peak hour traffic to a stand still

Hours later Premier Dan Andrews announced he was shutting down Victoria's $22billion construction industry for two weeks from September 21.

Over 300,000 plus constructions workers were left locked out of work in a snap decision that spurred further protests.

Furious protesters chased police and pelted squad cars with cans as rallies on the streets descended into chaos throughout the week.

A Channel 7 TV reporter covering the march was assaulted by a protester and also had bags filled with urine thrown at him.

400 protesters gathered at Victoria's shrine of remembrance on Wednesday chanting 'lest we forget' (pictured)

Demonstrators were left in a three-hour standoff with police at Victoria's Shrine of Remembrance on Wednesday (pictured)

Demonstrators then marched to block the West Gate Bridge - a major freeway into Melbourne's CBD - which brought traffic to a standstill during peak hour.

Wednesday saw yet another protest, with one man later hospitalised with Covid symptoms after attending the rally.

By the end of the working week, protest numbers had reduced - but Covid case numbers in Victoria surged.

Friday also saw more than 200 people arrested following unlawful protest activity in Melbourne's CBD and inner north.

Dozens were arrested on Saturday at St Kilda foreshore for the 'Millions March for Freedom' rally (pictured)

Hundreds of protesters gathered at St Kilda on Saturday in protests that lasted throughout the week (pictured)
The dead maintenance man who was a 'person of interest' in the case of missing Florida college student Miya Marcano was allegedly caught on camera carrying gloves, a blanket, and a bag the day she went missing.

A man matching Armando Manuel Caballero's description was seen exiting a silver car and carrying the items into a building on Saturday morning, hours after Marcano, 19, was last seen alive at the Arden Villas apartment complex in Orlando, according to WESH 2.

The outlet confirmed that the license plate of the car in the video matches that of Caballero's car that was towed away on Tuesday.

Family and friends of Marcano have been searching the woods behind the Seminole County apartment complex where Caballero, 27, died by suicide on Monday, dashing their hopes of getting answers.

Marcano lived and worked at the Arden Villas apartment complex and was last seen finishing her shift there at around 5pm on Friday before she vanished. Signs of a violent struggle, including bloodstains on a pillow, were found at the scene, police said.

About a half hour earlier, Caballero, a maintenance worker at the building, allegedly broke into her room and police were set to arrest him on suspected burglary charges when they found his body. He was also 'infatuated' with Marcano but she had repeatedly let him know she wasnt interested in him, family members said.

'He killed himself. So he was our lead to Miya and he killed himself. Miyas still missing, Semone Westmaas, Marcanos aunt, told reporters near Cabelleros Camden Club Apartments complex during the search effort.

Armando Manuel Caballero, 27, was found dead by apparent suicide on Monday morning. He was a 'person of interest' in the disappearance of Miya Marcano and allegedly broke into her apartment just before she vanished

NEW: This footage was shot on Saturday morning and was just given to @WESH. It shows a man matching the description of Armando Caballero - person of interest in #MiyaMarcano case. The video shows the man park and walk into a nearby building and is carrying gloves and a blanket. pic.twitter.com/z367Tjyuhy  Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) September 28, 2021

Footage obtained by WESH shows a man who fits Caballero's description unloading a blanket, gloves, and a bag from a car hours after Marcano was last seen

The license plate on the car in the video matches that of the silver Ford Fusion, belonging to Caballero which was found outside his apartment in Seminole County and has been taken by police as part of their investigation

Marcano, pictured on the day of her high school graduation last year, is 5 feet tall and weighing 130lbs, with brown hair and green eyes

Westmaas told members of a search party, Keep Miya in your prayers. Dont give up on Miya. I believe that she is alive and were gonna find her, footage from the Orlando Sentinel shows.

She added, We have more family coming, we have friends coming, we have strangers who are driving from all over Florida who are meeting us in Orlando. Theyre popping up, theyre introducing ourselves, theyre ready to start a search team. Like I said, were leaving here with Miya alive.

Shortly after her disappearance, Westmaas said she had an unsettling encounter with Caballero outside Marcanos apartment complex

He was trying to leave, his lights were off, and he said, Are you looking for Miya. I said who are you and he said Im the maintenance guy, I heard you were looking for me. I didnt know who this guy was at the time, she told local news outlet WKMG News 6.

Miya Marcano's family searched for her in the woods outside his apartment complex on Tuesday. Marcano's uncle Marc was above briefing a group before they set out to search for her

Semone Westmaas, Marcanos aunt, told reporters that Caballero's death leaves them grasping for answers

Marcano's cousin Caili Sue said that Caballero had an infatuation with Marcano, which she repeatedly turned down

But Marcanos cousin, Caili Sue, knew who Caballero was and that he had an intense obsession with the missing woman.

He was infatuated with her, he was in love with her. I dont know the very specifics of it, but he was constantly texting her and then had left her alone and then went back to texting her again, she told Fox 32 Orlando.

Marc Marcano, her uncle, prepared a group to go door-to-door around Caballeros apartment complex searching for his niece in the case that she was being held hostage.

Where is Miya? Authorities in Florida are searching for 19-year-old Florida college student Miya Marcano. She was last seen at her apartment complex in Orlando on Friday

Caballero also had a romantic interest in Marcano, which she repeatedly rebuffed, police said

Speaking to a group looking for her, he said, Think about if you were kidnapped, what would you want to do? If youre handcuffed or tied to something in a room, youre not going to be right next to the window, so you gotta listen for the faintest sounds. Say her name. Knock on the door and say her name.

Caballero's body was found by police on Monday around noon, but he had been dead 'for quite some time' by the time they arrived, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at a press conference Monday.

Caballeros car, a silver Ford Fusion, was found outside his apartment in Seminole County and has been taken by police as part of their investigation.

Mina added, Her disappearance is suspicious and our detectives and the family members suspect foul play.'

Marcano, who attended Valencia College, was scheduled to catch a flight to Fort Lauderdale that night, but she never made it to the airport, her family said.

Detectives first interviewed Cabellero for tips as he worked in the same apartment complex as Marcano. He told police that he last saw Marcano at 3pm on Friday. However, Mina said that he had a maintenance-issued master key fob, which was used to enter Marcanos apartment at 4.30pm  a half hour before her shift ended and she disappeared.

Marcanos aunt Pia spoke directly to her niece at a press conference Monday and said, Miya this message is for you. I know youre alive. I know youre out there.'

Orange County Sheriff John Mina said that Marcano's disappearance is 'suspicious' and detectives 'suspect foul play'

On making that discovery, police issued a warrant for Caballeros arrest on suspected burglary as he was believed to have gone into her apartment without permission or reason. Mina added that police found a few items that were considered to be suspicious, but would not elaborate on what they were or if they included the blood-stained pillow.

Police were going to Caballero's apartment to arrest him on Monday morning when they found his body inside the Camden Club Apartments in unincorporated Longwood, a suburb of Orlando.

Our detectives and deputies have been working around the clock on this case and pouring a lot of resources into finding Miya, Mina said. We have at least 30 detectives who are working just this case to try and track down every single lead.

Marcano's family said it is unlike her to go a long period of time without texting or calling any of them. Nevertheless, they still have hopes that she is still alive.

Marcanos aunt Pia spoke directly to her niece at the press conference Monday and said, Miya this message is for you. I know youre alive. I know youre out there. We love you. You know our family is strong. You know our family is big. You know we will never sleep one night until we get you home. We miss you.'

Marcano lives at the Arden Villas apartments in Orlando and works in the leasing office

The Arden Villas apartments posted a message about Marcanos disappearance on its Facebook page Monday morning, writing that she had last been seen in jeans, a black hoodie and a red T-shirt with a logo for Preiss Co., a company that manages student housing, including at the Arden Villas.

We also ask that you continue to keep Miyas friends and [family] in your thoughts and prayers as they continue to navigate this difficult situation, the Facebook post read.

When deputies searched Miya's apartment, they found that someone had blocked the door to her bedroom, reported Fox 35.

The window in the bedroom was unlocked, and the room was disarray. A bloodstain was discovered on the missing woman's pillow, raising concerns for Marcano's safety.

Miya's father, local DJ Marlon Marcano, posted on social media: 'there were signs of struggle in her apartment  and she may be in danger.'

The sheriff's office has not said whether Marcano's disappearance is being treated as a criminal matter.

On Sunday, deputies scoured a wooded area near the apartment building in search for the missing woman

Deputies were said to have found signs of struggle inside Marcano's unit, including blood on her pillow

Marcano's loved ones on Sunday held a prayer village outside the apartment building

Neighbor Anastasia Holland described Miya to News4Jax as shy and friendly, but 'on the quiet side.'

On Sunday, Miya's family and friends held a prayer vigil outside her apartment building and begged for her safe return.

'All we ask you is help us bring Miya home,' said Joysue Thompson, Marcanos grandmother. 'Bring her home safe. Drop her off. Let us know where she is. We will pick her up. Just bring her home.'

Deputies on Sunday searched a wooded area near the apartment complex and also used a helicopter to look for clues from the air.

Marcano is a student at Valencia College in Orlando. She is pictured above on her 18th birthday

Marcano, pictured left with her father, Marlon, was set to fly out to Fort Lauderdale on Friday, but she never made it. Her dad wrote online 'she may be in danger'

Marcano's father on Sunday posted on his Instagram page an impassioned plea addressed directly to his daughter: 'Mimi, my heart is aching. I havent slept or eaten in days. Where are you baby??? Your whole family is here looking for you. We will not stop until youre back home. Im slowly losing my mind over here. Never have we ever gone so long without even a text message to each other. If your able to read this message, please know that your Daddy and the entire world loves you. Please dont lose faith. We will find you. I love you always and forever!'

Marcano is described as 5 feet tall and weighing 130lbs, with brown hair and green eyes. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is being asked to call at 407-836-4357.
An investigation is underway into one of Australia's top accounting firms following two 'racist' skits at a company trivia night.

A PwC executive dressed up as a 'bat from Wuhan' while another mocked Chinese accents during the event last Thursday night.

One question in the trivia asked players to choose which company represented communism with one answer being the Chinese tech company Huawei.

The incidents prompted Chief Executive Tom Seymour to apologise to all staff this week as well as directly addressing those who were on the trivia call.

PwC is investigating after two HR workers mocked Chinese accents and 'dressed up as a bat from Wuhan' during a company trivia night last Thursday (pictured email to staff from CEO Tom Seymour)

The incidents prompted Chief Executive Tom Seymour (pictured) to apologise to all staff this week as well as directly addressing those who were on the trivia call

A leaked email sent to staff after the incident has since been circulating online.

'Last Thursday there was behaviour at an internal team trivia event which did not reflect the values and culture of our firm and which has caused discomfort and offence,' Mr Seymour told Daily Mail Australia.

'The behaviour included two racist and offensive sketches which, whilst unintentional, were thoughtless and harmful.

'A number of people shared their disappointment, frustration and anger about this event. On behalf of all the team at PwC, I am extremely disappointed that this incident has occurred.'

The online trivia had been held for the company's national infrastructure division (pictured PwC offices in Sydney)

The CEO said the incident would now be investigated by PwC's People and Ethical Conduct Panel with an outcome expected to be reached within a week.

The online trivia had been held for the company's national infrastructure division.

The company became aware of the incident on Friday before Instagram page The Aussie Corporate shared messages from staff on the Saturday.

One person wrote to the social media page: 'They dressed up as bats from Wuhan and mocked Chinese accents'.

Just under half of PwC's staff are from non-European backgrounds.
Police have closed an investigation into why the Federal Government bought land near western Sydney Airport for 10 times its value after finding no evidence of criminal conduct.

The Department of Infrastructure paid $32.8million for the 12-hectare Leppington Triangle land in 2018 but then valued it at $3,065,000 eleven months later.

An investigation by the Australian National Audit Office found the government's 'valuation approach inflated the value of the land, which in turn led to the Australian Government paying more than was proper in the circumstances.'

Police have closed an investigation into why the Federal Government bought land near western Sydney Airport (pictured) for 10 times its value

The body asked the police to investigate the possibility the government was conned or that public officials were corrupt - but officers found no evidence of any crimes.

'The investigation involved the analysis of extensive documentary and digital holdings, the interview of numerous relevant people  including Department of Infrastructure staff who were involved in the acquisition process  and a detailed financial analysis of payments made in relation to the purchase,' the AFP said in a statement.

'The investigation did not identify any evidence of criminal offending by Commonwealth officials, or other people involved in the purchase.

'The financial analysis undertaken as part of the investigation found no evidence of Commonwealth officials obtaining a personal benefit from the acquisition, or other persons receiving or paying corrupt payments.

'The AFP investigation found that the purchase was in line with the requirements of the Lands Acquisition Act (1989), and was authorised by appropriate Commonwealth officials and authorities.'

Why the government paid so much for the land remains a mystery.

The government paid about $30million for a 12-hectare plot for the Western Sydney Airport (pictured) in 2018

Geoffrey Watson SC, the director of the Centre of Public Integrity, previously said that if there was no corruption then 'gross incompetence' was to blame.

The land is not needed until 2050 when Western Sydney Airport's second runway is to be built. It has been leased back to the seller for 10 years.

The Leppington Triangle land sale came under scrutiny through the Senate estimates process last year.

In March officials said the project was on track with the airport to open in 2026, with expectations travel will resume close to pre-Covid levels by 2024.

The federal government has put about $20billion into the Western Sydney Airport project, in relation to construction and an adjoining rail line and infrastructure.
The Western Australian authorities have offered a $250,000 reward for information to help crack a two-decade-old murder.

A $250,000 reward has been offered in a bid to solve a two-decade-old murder in Western Australia and people who come forward may be granted immunity from prosecution.

In March 1999, Andrew Podpinka was found stabbed to death in his home in Morley in Perth's north-eastern suburbs by his wife and daughter when they returned from shopping.

A $250,000 reward has been offered in a bid to solve a two-decade-old murder investigation in Perth's north-eastern suburbs (stock)

The 43-year-old was found in the master bedroom with extensive wounds to his chest and back.

'This was a brutal killing of a man who was attacked while sitting inside his own home,' Police Minister Paul Papalia said on Wednesday.

'Investigators are confident someone in the community knows what happened that day.

'I hope this reward might prompt someone to come forward and give information to detectives.

'For the sake of Mr Podpinka's family, who have suffered pain and anguish for more than 20 years, I urge you to speak up.'

Mr Papalia said authorities might be prepared to consider protection from prosecution or pardon for anyone with information that leads to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for Mr Podpinka's murder.

This was on the provision that the informant was not directly responsible for the killing.

Police Assistant Commissioner Brad Royce said the investigation into the killing of Mr Podpinka had always remained active.

'We don't put files away. We continue,' he said.

Andrew Podpinka, 43, was stabbed and murdered in his home in Morley in March, 1999 (stock)

'We're at that space now where we've exhausted the opportunities we had from the original scene.

'Now we're asking people who may know something to come forward and help us and help the Podpinka family.'

Mr Royce said developments in forensic technology had advanced the investigation but more information was required.

Mr Podpinka was a slight man with some physical disabilities and would not have been able to fight off an attacker.

Mr Papalia said bringing someone to justice would be 'incredibly valuable' to his family.

He said the reward was approved by state cabinet after a recommendation from police.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has slammed the United States' recently announced alliance with Australia over its harsh COVID lockdowns, claimed it is no longer a free country, and even likened it to communist China.

DeSantis said the country had gone 'dramatically off the rails' with its draconian response to the pandemic.

'You know, you guys, look what's going on in Australia right now,' said DeSantis on Tuesday, speaking at the International Boat Builders' Exhibition and Conference in Tampa.

'You know, they're enforcing, after a year and a half, they're still enforcing lockdowns by the military.'

The 43-year-old, who has railed against lockdowns in his own state and has banned mask mandates, said Australia was turning into a dictatorship.

'That's not a free country. It's not a free country at all,' he said.

Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, on Tuesday appeared at a boat show in Tampa and suggested that the U.S. rethink its relations with Australia, given their strict COVID restrictions

DeSantis: In Australia right now, after a year and a half, theyre still enforcing lockdowns by the militaryIs Australia freer than communist China right now?The fact thats even a question tells you something has gone dramatically off the rails.pic.twitter.com/YKQ5yAwg4K  Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) September 28, 2021

'In fact, I mean, I wonder why we would still have the same diplomatic relations when they're doing that.

'Is Australia freer than China, communist China, right now? I don't know.

'The fact that that's even a question tells you something has gone dramatically off the rails with some of this stuff.'

Australia initially sailed through the pandemic thanks to its isolated location and travel bans, with its citizens relishing their normal existence as the rest of the world was battered by COVID-19 and endured lockdowns.

But it is now fighting record outbreaks across the country, and has been enforcing tough lockdowns nationwide - with frequent violent protest.

Police in Melbourne are seen on September 22 facing off against protesters angered by the lockdowns

Protesters in Melbourne hold aloft the Australian flag and demand an end to lockdown on September 22

Demonstrators calling for an end to Melbourne's lockdown - the longest in the world - protest on September 22. Ron DeSantis likened Australia to China, which kept people in their homes

DeSantis has become one of the most outspoken opponents of White House measures to restrict the spread of the virus.

He apologized last year for the March 2020 lockdown, insisting he would never do it again, and he has refused pressure to demand health and education workers be vaccinated.

DeSantis has also issued an executive order banning compulsory masking in Florida schools, although many districts have vowed to defy him.

On Tuesday he said he stood by his belief that lockdowns were not the answer - despite Florida seeing its largest and deadliest wave of the pandemic just weeks ago.

'I really believe that if we had not done what we did during the last year and a half to keep the state open, to protect people's jobs, to protect our small businesses, to protect our kids being able to go to school - if we had not done that, a lot of these other states wouldn't have followed,' DeSantis said.

'And who knows where we would be right now?'

Australia's prime minister, Scott Morrison, was in the United States last week for the United Nations general assembly, and denied that his country had become an 'authoritarian dystopia'.

He told CBS that 'social differences' explained the greater severity of restrictions in Australia. Melbourne has endured the longest lockdown in the world, while elsewhere protesters have been met with rubber bullets and tear gas.

'I think we are different societies,' Morrison said, when asked about the response to COVID in the U.S. and Australia.

'I mean, we're great friends and we share beliefs and values that we hold dear, but in Australia, when it comes to public health, we're a very pragmatic nation.

'And I can tell you, the virus doesn't care what you believe.

'The virus cares about how it can come and take your life.'
A Victorian police officer has been stood down after disturbing footage showed a man being slammed head-first into the ground, with video of the incident causing worldwide outrage.

Investigations continue into the incident at Melbourne's Flinders Street train station last Wednesday amid protests by anti-lockdown activists, which included violent clashes with police.

Confronting video showed the victim apparently calmly talking to a group of officers when another policeman approached from behind, grabbed the man by the shoulders before throwing him against the hard tile floor, sending his headphones flying across the concourse.

An acting sergeant has been stood down pending further action.

'Victoria Police continues to investigate an incident filmed at Flinders Street Station on September 22 and shared on social media,' a statement read.

'An acting sergeant from a specialist support unit has since been suspended as a result of early inquiries.'

Police also want to speak to the person who filmed the video and urged other witnesses with more information to come forward.

The woman who posted the footage online said it had gained global attention and that she had been contacted by people around the world who wanted to know if the man was OK.

She said the man slammed called for his mum after he woke up 'with his own blood and urine everywhere'.

Confronting footage has shown a police officer throwing a man headfirst into the ground at a Melbourne train station

'This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police,' she captioned the footage.

'You can see it it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles. He was unconscious, blood and urine everywhere.'

The witness said police then handcuffed the man, who was unconscious 'for a while' before being treated by paramedics.
The US has barred an evacuation charter flight carrying American citizens and Afghan green card holders from landing in the country.

A Department of Homeland Security official claimed it was because authorities need time to conduct background checks on those on board.

Twenty-eight Americans, 83 green card holders and six Afghans with US Special Immigration Visas, granted to people who worked for the US government during the 20-year war, were aboard the Kam Air flight, according to organizer and veteran Bryan Stern.

He said Customs had cleared his charter flight to land at in New York but later changed the clearance to Dulles International Airport outside Washington before denying the plane landing rights anywhere in the US.

The plane was held on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi for 14 hours amid the debacle yesterday after taking off from Kabul Airport with 117 on board, among them 59 children.

News of the denial was announced by evacuation organization Project Dynamo on Tuesday

Organizer Bryan Stern branded the denial a 'tragedy'

He also shared a snap of a young child trying to sleep on an uncomfortable airport seat

Childern are seen sleeping on the floor after the US barred the flight

Men are seen sleeping with the heads on backpacks after the flight was barred

A young child is seen sleeping under a sheet on an uncomfortable chair

Stern had planned to transfer the passengers to a chartered Ethiopian Airlines plane for an onward flight to the US that he said the Customs cleared to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

Customs then changed the clearance before denying the plane landing rights anywhere in the United States, he said.

'Today's triumph is ending in tragedy. After initial approval, the US government is now denying entry into the US for our American passengers aboard Dynamo 01', he wrote on Instagram.

'These passengers are all US passport holders, US green card holders with valid Afghan passports, and a few SIV approved Afghan passport holders.

'There are 59 children under the age of 18 and 16 under the age of 3. ALL of these passengers have been Covid tested, are Covid negative, and have been MR vaccinated.

'These Americans are being denied entry into THEIR OWN COUNTRY by the US government.'

Stern explained intermediaries in Kabul had obtained permission from the Taliban-run Afghan Civil Aviation Authority for the groups to send a charter flight to retrieve the passengers from Kabul airport.

The State Department and the United Arab Emirate's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also cooperated with the effort, he said.

His group is one of several that emerged from ad hoc networks of US military veterans, current and former US officials and others that formed to bolster last month's US evacuation operation they saw as chaotic and badly organized.

Stern, pictured last month, lashed the US government for denying the flight permission to land

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were unfamiliar with the matter, but that the US government typically takes time to verify the manifests of charter planes before clearing them to land in the United States.

A State Department official told CNN they would not 'detail out involvement with any specific groups at this time' and described the evocation effort as a 'monumental task'.

'The US government understands the need to coordinate across agencies, as we have done, but we also appreciate the desire of NGOs and private citizens to assist and have identified a greater need for coordination there,' the official said.

'The State Department has established a team to coordinate across government agencies and with advocacy groups, nonprofits, and other partners to facilitate freedom of movement for those who wish to leave Afghanistan, including US citizens, LPRs, and at-risk Afghans to whom we have a commitment to assist.'

US President Joe Biden's administration has said its top priority is repatriating Americans and green card holders unable to leave Afghanistan in the US evacuation operation last month.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said yesterday 21 US citizens and their families had been evacuated from Afghanistan that day, but declined to give further details.

He also declined to put a figure on the number of Americans left in Afghanistan, saying it 'fluctuates daily'.

On Monday a senior State Department official said the US was aware of about 100 American citizens and legal permanent residents ready to leave Afghanistan.

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter said yesterday they were 'constantly touching base' with the 100 Americans and were preparing an evacuation effort.

But she warned the departure of US citizens was hampered by the Taliban's 'unpredictability regarding who is permitted to depart'.

'There's a range of contact and dialogue ongoing with the Taliban, particularly in Doha, with the remaining members of the Taliban political commission who are based there,' the official said.

Last month saw chaotic scenes at Kabul Airport as thousands of desperate Afghans and westerners tried to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban swept to power in a lightning offensive of the country on August 15, weeks before Biden was due to withdraw remaining US troops.

US Marines are seen handing out water during an evacuation at the Hamid Karzai International Airport

Afghan evacuees are seen taking off in a C-17 Globemaster III at a Middle East staging area

Anwari was among young Afghan men were seen clambering onto the USAF jet as it took off from Kabul on Monday. At least three of them died, two teenage brothers by falling from the wheels and Anwari was reportedly found dead in the wheel well

At least three bodies were seen falling from the USAF jet as it climbed into the air on August 16

Soldiers were flown in to assist with the evacuation efforts as thousands swarmed the airport in last ditch efforts to get on the final commercial flights out of the country.

Harrowing images emerged amid early evacuation efforts of hundreds of young men sat on a fin below a US military plane's turbine as it barreled down the runway, only to then fall hundreds of feet to their deaths.

At least two people died after falling from a US Air Force C-17 on August 16 and the remains of another were discovered in the wheel well of the jet when it arrived in Qatar.

Days later a suicide explosion claimed by ISIS-K, an Islamic State offshoot based in Afghanistan's Khorasan region, left 170 dead, including 13 US service members.

In a near two-week span approximately 124,000 people were evacuated from the country in US Airforce C-17's.

Around 79,000 of those, including 6,000 civilians, were rescued directly by the US airlift, with the remainder flown out on charter flights supervised by the military.

Around 20,000 refugees were taken to eight US military bases across the Middle East for processing and vetting before further evacuation.

A further 23,000 refugees were taken to bases in Europe and around 14,000 to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Isa Air Base in Bahrain, Ramstein Air Base, Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were staging areas for refugees brought from Kabul and were supported by more than a dozen other 'temporary safe haven' locations.

Meanwhile bases in Moron de la Frontera, Spain, and Aviano, Italy, also took in refugees for screening. And tent cities were erected at several military bases across the US.

Around 20,000 refugees were taken to eight US military bases across the Middle East for processing and vetting before further evacuation. While 20,000 refugees were taken to eight US military bases across the Middle East for processing and vetting before further evacuation

Temporary housing was built for Afghan refugees at the Dona Ana Housing Area near Fort Bliss in Texas
George W. Bush's daughter Barbara has revealed the first photos of her newborn baby Cora Georgia Coyne, just hours after the infant's arrival was announced by her elated grandparents.

In the images, which were shared on Instagram by Barbara's twin sister Jenna Bush Hager, the 39-year-old new mother is seen with her husband Craig Coyne, 40, tenderly cradling her daughter Cora in a hospital bed.

Another photo captures Hager tenderly cradling her sister and newborn niece in a hospital chair, with two other snaps showing the Today show host herself proudly holding Cora.

Hager appeared to have lightly 'muzzed' Cora's face with an editing tool in some of the photos in an apparent attempt to let her sister decide whether to display her newborn daughter's face on social media.

In her caption, Hager - who has three children of her own - expressed her joy at meeting her newborn niece, while revealing that the baby girl, who was born near the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, arrived 'earlier than expected'.

'Dearest Cora Georgia,' she began. 'Today is the day I got to meet my most beautiful, precious, feisty, niece (a bit earlier than I expected!).

'I witnessed in awe as my dearest, toughest @barbara.p.bush became a mama. And today is the day I fell in love!

Family: Barbara Bush has revealed the first photos of her newborn baby daughter Cora Georgia, with one capturing the new mother and her husband Craig Coyne with the infant

The images, which were shared on Instagram by Barbara's twin Jenna Bush Hager, appear to have been taken in the hospital where Cora was born

Today show host Jenna, who said her three children are 'anxiously waiting' to meet their new cousin, was pictured proudly cradling her niece

Jenna appears to have lightly blurred the face of the baby girl, who she revealed arrived 'earlier than expected', perhaps in an attempt to maintain her privacy

'Some cousins are anxiously waiting to play with you, but not just yet love. Xx auntie J.'

Baby Cora, who was born on Monday in Kennebunkport, Maine, is the fourth grandchild of former President George W Bush, 75, and his wife Laura, 74.

The 43rd president and first lady announced the happy news in a press release issued Tuesday, calling Cora 'healthy and adorable.'

Hager is married to businessman Henry Chase Hager, 43, whom she shares three children with including eight-year-old Mila, six-year-old Poppy and two-year-old Henry 'Hal.'

The former President shared the news of Baby Cora's birth in a press release on Tuesday to welcome the new addition to the family.

'With full hearts, Laura and I are delighted to announce the birth of our new granddaughter,' George wrote in a statement.

'Barbara gave birth to Cora Georgia Coyne on September 27, 2021, in Maine - not far from our family home where Barbara and Craig were married.

'Cora is healthy and adorable, and we are proud and grateful.'

Bush gave birth to Cora Georgia near the family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, which is where she and Craig were wed in 2018

George, 75, shared the news of his granddaughter's birth via a press release that was issued on Tuesday, revealing that his daughter gave birth in Maine on Monday

Although Cora is not known to be a Bush family name, it is likely that the baby girl's middle name Georgia is a nod to her grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom have the name George.

Unlike Jenna, who is an anchor on the Today show and regularly documents her family life on social media, Barbara is famously private, and keeps her personal life mostly hidden from the spotlight.

She runs a health nonprofit and has taken a keen interest in helping AIDS patients in Africa.

George W. previously opened up about his daughter's discreet personality in a segment for Today, during which he recounted how Barbara and Jenna once joined their grandfather George H.W. for a political rally in Texas around the age of three, recalling how the sisters' respective personalities were clearly showing even at such a young age.

George H.W. Bush served as president for a single term, between 1988 and 1992, with Barbara Jr named after his wife Barbara Senior, who died in April 2018, just seven months before her husband.

'Barbara was an observer, Jenna was a participant. Barbara is more reserved and Jenna is pretty outgoing. It was a reflection of their little personalities,' he said.

The birth of Barbara's daughter comes almost three years to the day after she and Vanderbilt graduate Craig tied the knot in an intimate surprise ceremony in Maine, having been engaged for just five weeks.

Barbara and Craig's wedding was attended by a close circle of friends and family, including George and Laura, Jenna, Henry and their three children, and the bride's grandfather, George H.W. Bush, whose beloved wife Barbara had passed away just six months earlier.

Brood: Cora Georgia is the fourth grandchild of George and his wife Laura, 74, who are also grandparents to the three children of Barbara's twin sister Jenna and her husband Henry

Cousins: Cora is cousin to Jenna's three children Mila, Poppy, and Henry 'Hal'

Relocated? Barbara gave birth near the Bush compound in Walker Point, Kennebunkport, which is where they tied the knot in October 2018 - just five weeks after Craig proposed

The ceremony was officiated by Barbara's aunt, Dorothy Bush Koch, while her nieces Mila and Poppy served as flower girls for the occasion.

At the time, it was reported that Barbara and Craig were planning to settle down together in New York City - having spent much of their relationship living on separate coasts, with Barbara residing in the Big Apple, while writer Craig remained in Los Angeles.

However, it may well be that the couple chose to relocate to Maine ahead of the birth of their first child.

Barbara and Craig first began dating in November 2017 after being set up on a blind date by friends - and they made their relationship official on New Year's Eve just a few weeks later.

Craig then proposed to Barbara just five weeks before they tied the knot, during a family gathering in Maine.

'It's just been a very sweet romance,' Barbara told People at the time. 'And we've been long-distance for most of it - he's been in LA and I've been in New York - but we've gotten to spend a lot of time together.'

Barbara has long been more reserved than her twin sister Jenna, and she does not have a public Instagram account - unlike her sibling, who regularly shares images of her home life with her three kids, both on social media and on the Today show.

And while Jenna's job requires her to step into the spotlight day after day, Barbara has maintained a much more low-key professional profile, too, working for years as the co-founder of Global Health Corps, a nonprofit focused on public health.

Under wraps: Barbara is famously very private and rarely shares information about her private life, however it is known that she and Craig first met on a blind date in November 2017

Siblings: George (pictured with his family at the White House in 2004) once described Barbara as being 'an observer', explaining that she was always 'more reserved' from a young age

Meanwhile, Craig is a writer and former actor who appeared in a handful of movies, including Jarhead (2005), and Unlovable (2018), as well as the web series Lonelygirl15 (2006).

Craig was cast by director Sam Mendes for Jarhead, which is based on the memoir of US Marine Anthony Swofford and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead.

Unlovable is an upcoming dramedy about a woman struggling with sex addiction.

The Vanderbilt University alumni considers himself the 'world's biggest Chick-Fil-A fan' according to a website for one of his films.

After graduating from Vanderbilt, the groom worked as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to Los Angeles.

Pages in this position typically serve in their junior year of high school, meaning Craig likely worked as a page between 1997 and 1998.

The president at the time was Bill Clinton, and Craig's new father-in-law George W. didn't enter the White House until January 2001.

As a writer, Craig has worked on a live-action show for Comedy Central, as well as an original series with Parks and Rec star Jim O'Heir called Ask Play, which he also directed and which is said to be in post-production.

The groom, who creates web content and series with producers located in Los Angeles and in the UK, has also written a play, Delusions of Grammar, which has him a spot in the selection of the 2016 William Inge Theatre Festival in Kansas.
Dan Andrews' Department of Health has been charged with 58 offences over the bungled hotel quarantine system which led to the state's 112-day lockdown last year.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, WorkSafe alleged the department breached health and safety laws when it ran the state's hotel quarantine system from March to July 2020.

The virus was carried outside the hotel system by under-trained staff - many of whom had second jobs - and led to the longest lockdown the country has seen so far.

If found guilty by a tribunal, the agency would be forced to cough up payments of up to $95.12million.

Dan Andrews' Department of Health has been charged with 58 offences over the bungled hotel quarantine system that led to the state's 112-day lockdown last year

Failures of Melbourne's hotel quarantine system last year saw the state plunged into a 112-day lockdown that saw thousands of cases and dozens of deaths

Where would the $95.12million fine go? WorkSafe is a Victorian Government agency, but is not funded by taxpayer dollars. Instead it charges premiums from WorkCover, an insurance employers pay to fund compensation to workers injured on the job. It also levies fines for unsafe work practices and draws income from various investments. Should the Victorian Health Department be convicted and fined for the hotel quarantine charges, the money will go to WorkSafe. WorkSafe will use the fine to pay its staff and operating costs, compensate injured workers, and keep WorkSafe premiums down. Advertisement

The department has been charged with 17 offences of failing to provide a safe working environment.

It has also been hit with 41 charges of failing to ensure employees weren't exposed to risks to their health and safety.

WorkSafe alleges the hotel quarantine system put authorised employees and security guards at risk of serious illness or death by contracting Covid.

The agency's investigation has taken 15 months to complete and has reviewed tens of thousands of documents and recorded multiple witness interviews with staff.

WorkSafe alleges security guards weren't provided with proper infection control training and were only provided written instructions for the use of PPE rather than demonstration.

'A review of the material from last year's COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry provided relevant context and information that informed parts of the investigation,' the Health Department's statement said.

'The decision to prosecute has been made in accordance with WorkSafe's General Prosecution Guidelines, which require WorkSafe to consider whether there is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether bringing a prosecution is in the public interest.'

WorkSafe alleges that authorised employees and security guards were put at risk of serious illness or death through contracting coronavirus from returning Australians through either working in the hotels or contiminated surfaces

The report found there to be 'considerable and significant problems with the way in which the program operated'

The investigations included examinations of the hotels and security companies that were used by Dan Andrews' government as part of the system.

They also spoke to other government departments and agencies as part of the investigation.

The matter will have a hearing at the Magistrate's Court on October 22, with WorkSafe saying they will make no further comment.

Victoria's COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry led by former judge Jennifer Coate released its final report in December last year after 90% of the cases from the state's second wave were linked to the bungled hotel quarantine system.

The report found there to be 'considerable and significant problems with the way in which the program operated' with the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and Health Department disagreeing over who was at fault.

Ms Coate said this 'occupied an inordinate amount of time during the inquiry'.

The DJPR were adamant the Health Department were in charge, while they believed they were only responsible for part of the system and that both were in charge of the programs delivery.

The dispute over the decision to use private security instead of police and defence force personnel was a huge topic of contention within the public, with Ms Coate describing it as 'an orphan, with no person or department claiming responsibility'

The state's health minister at the time Jenny Mikakos and her secretary Kym Peake resigned before the final report was released, with Premier Andrews saying he would have expected them to resign after the report was released anyway.

The dispute over the decision to use private security instead of police and defence force personnel was a huge topic of contention, with Ms Coate describing that policy as 'an orphan, with no person or department claiming responsibility'.

The premier instead said at the time it was 'less about who was engaged' and more about the 'lack of oversight' in the hotel quarantine system.

'If I could then get the daily report that I get now then I would, I would prefer I had that detailed information in an ongoing sense.

'That would allow us to take action so things did not escalate with the virus running wild, with the only remedy of which is to lock the place down.'
Four national parks including the Daintree rainforest will be handed back to traditional owners the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people in a historic deal with the Queensland government.

More than 160,000 hectares of land in north Queensland stretching from the Daintree north of Port Douglas to south of Cooktown will be jointly managed before a full handover is made to the Kuku Yalanji people.

The agreement was signed by Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Craig Crawford and representatives from the Eastern Kuku Yalanji People on Wednesday at a special ceremony in Bloomfield, north of Wujal Wujal.

Four national parks including the Daintree rainforest will be handed back to traditional owners the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people in a historic deal with the Queensland government

The Daintree, Ngalba-bulal, Kalkajaka and the Hope Islands National Parks (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land) will now be jointly-managed by traditional owners and the Queensland Government, while a new nature refuge will also be created.

'The Eastern Kuku Yalanji people's culture is one of the world's oldest living cultures and this agreement recognises their right to own and manage their Country, to protect their culture and to share it with visitors as they become leaders in the tourism industry,' Minister Scanlon said.

She added that the national parks will protect aboriginal cultural sites, ecosystems, wetlands and mangroves while forming part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

'Today's hand-back marks the government returning more than 3.8 million hectares of land back to Traditional Owners on Cape York, with 2.3 million hectares to be jointly-managed by our rangers and the community,' she said.

'It means there are now 32 Aboriginal-owned and jointly-managed national parks on the Cape York Peninsula.'

Kuku Yalanji committee member Chrissy Grant said four years of negotiations have been an important process to establish the framework for when they solely and wholly manage the land

Kuku Yalanji committee member Chrissy Grant said four years of negotiations have been an important process to establish the framework for when they solely and wholly manage the land.

'On 29 September 2021, this significant historic event becomes legal and a reality for the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Bama to realise our vision for a more promising future for all our people,' Ms Grant said.

'I want to thank the TONC members, Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation, and particularly our legal advisers who fought for the best that we could get through some trying times as well as having to deal with keeping everyone safe from the Covid pandemic.'
Emmanuel Macron has refused to speak to Scott Morrison since the Prime Minister tore up Australia's $90billion submarine deal with France.

But the French President has spoken to former leader Malcolm Turnbull to express his fury, it was revealed on Wednesday.

In a virtual speech to the National Press club, Mr Turnbull slammed Mr Morrison for scrapping a deal to buy 12 French-made diesel-electric submarines in favour of eight nuclear-powered boats in a new pact with the US and UK.

He called the move 'deceitful' and said countries around the world will no longer trust Australia.

Emmanuel Macron (pictured) has refused to speak to Scott Morrison since the Prime Minister tore up Australia's $90billion submarine deal with France

But the French President has spoken to former leader Malcolm Turnbull (pictured on Wednesday) to express his fury, it was revealed

The French government was blindsided and left furious by the move which was announced by Mr Morrison with Joe Biden and Boris Johnson on September 15.

Mr Macron has since refused to take Mr Morrison's calls - but he has discussed the situation with his 'friend' Mr Turnbull, who signed the original deal with France in 2016.

'I have spoken to Emmanuel Macron. He is a friend and I have stayed in touch with him since I left office. He is one of the great leaders of our times,' Mr Turnbull said.

The former Prime Minister who led from 2015 to 2018 admitted that Mr Macron was furious.

'I am not going to quote him but what you have heard from the French government is held - those are views held right across the board,' he said.

'There is nobody in France that I am aware of saying this is just another commercial deal, too bad. Not at all.

'The foreign minister, when he said it was a stab in the back, was not speaking just for himself, there is outrage. What it tells you is that Australia can't be trusted.'

Mr Morrison (pictured) scrapped a deal to buy 12 French-made submarines in favour of eight nuclear-powered boats in a new deal with the US and UK

Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris in June

Mr Turnbull said his government had looked into nuclear submarines, but was advised it could not operate such a fleet without a civil nuclear industry.

The Morrison government says a domestic nuclear industry is not needed to support the submarines, as they come with whole-of-life nuclear power plants which do not need further refuelling.

Former prime minister Paul Keating said new pact with the UK and US - dubbed AUKUS - was a sign of the formation of an 'anachronistic Anglosphere' in Asia.

But British high commissioner to Australia Victoria Treadell rejected the assertion.

'This is not an issue of this Anglosphere and I really do think we have to move away from defining countries like Australia, US and the UK as Anglosphere,' she told ABC radio.

Last week in New York, Mr Morrison admitted he knew the French would be furious after he tore up the submarine deal.

The French - who were only told the night before the announcement- have reacted with fury, claiming Australia's move was a 'stab in the back'.

The US and the UK will help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines. Pictured: the UK's Astute class submarine HMS Ambush

'It would be naive to think a decision of this nature was not going to cause disappointment, obviously, to the French,' he said.

'We understand that. We totally acknowledge that. And we knew that would be the case.'

Mr Morrison said he could not tell French counterparts any sooner because the highly secure information about the deal with the US and UK would have leaked to the media or to other nations.

'And at the end of the day, you have to do things that are in Australia's national interest, and our security interests. And that had to be paramount,' he said.

Asked if he'd had the chance to speak to President Macron since breaking the news, he said: 'No, there's not an opportunity for that at this time.

'I'm sure that opportunity will come in time.

'Right now I understand the disappointment and they're working through the consultations with their ambassador's return to Paris and we'll be patient with that.'

Mr Morrison said he told the French many months ago that conventional submarines no longer met Australia's demands - but they were still blindsided.

'The world is a jungle,' ex-ambassador to the US Gerard Araud tweeted on Thursday.

'France has just been reminded this bitter truth by the way the US and the UK have stabbed her in the back in Australia. C'est la vie.'

China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory (picutred in red), to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific

The French government later said Australia's decision to ditch the agreement was 'contrary to the spirit of cooperation which prevailed' between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said the change in plan 'marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret'.

The Prime Minister was joined for the AUKUS announcement by US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a historic joint video-link press conference.

None of the leaders mentioned China by name but the West is increasingly concerned about Beijing's growing assertiveness and huge military build-up.

Mr Morrison said Australia needed nuclear submarines because they can travel further and evade enemy detection better than conventional submarines.

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
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has accused the media of 'trying to destroy my children' after a damning report found she summoned a meeting with officials in charge of her daughter's failed real estate license application - which was then certified four months later.

Noem's daughter Kassidy Peters, then 26, was denied her application to become a certified real estate appraiser back in July 2020.

Days after the license was denied, the governor called the state employee who ran the agency, the woman's direct supervisor and the state labor secretary for a meeting at her office, together with her daughter, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Peters was then awarded her certification that November, with no further detail given as to why the original rejection was reversed.

The incident raises questions about a possible conflict of interest and abuse of power on the part of the governor, and the state attorney general announced Tuesday he is launching a review.

Kristi Noem left and her daughter Kassidy Peters' right. The South Dakota Governor has accused the media of 'trying to destroy my children' after a damning report found she summoned a meeting with officials in charge of her daughter's real estate license

Noem tweeted that the expose, published by the Associated Press Monday, was 'another example of double standards' in the media

Noem took to Twitter to claim the investigation, published by the Associated Press Monday, was 'another example of double standards' when it comes to media coverage of Republicans and Democrats.

'Listen I get it. I signed up for this job. But now the media is trying to destroy my children,' she tweeted.

Peters began working as a state-registered appraiser - an entry-level job - in 2016 and then applied to become a Certified Residential appraiser in September 2019.

In September 2019, Peters applied to become a Certified Residential appraiser.

In late July 2020, the Appraiser Certification Program moved to deny the license, AP revealed this week.

Noem then allegedly summoned officials who had the power to approve or deny her daughter's application to a meeting on July 27 2020.

State Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman and the head of the state agency that oversees appraiser certifications Sherry Bren were called to the governor's office days after the state agency had moved to deny her daughter the license.

It is not clear exactly what was discussed but it was said to involve discussions about how people get certified and the fact that Peters had been denied her license.

Bren told the AP she had been shown a letter from Kristine Juelfs - Peters' supervisor - in the July 2020 meeting which criticized the governor's daughter not being awarded the contract as an 'inefficient process.'

'In the past week I was notified that my trainee, State Registered Appraiser Kassidy Peters, was denied upgrade of her license to State Certified Residential Appraiser,' Juelfs wrote.

'This came as quite a shock to myself as she has represented the knowledge and skills necessary.'

A week after the meeting, Hultman then demanded Bren retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department.

Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.

The Republican governor compared the scandal involving her and her daughter to Democrat President Joe Biden's scandal involving his son Hunter and his business dealings in Ukraine, urging people to 'ask the big guy'.

The Republican governor compared the scandal involving her and her daughter to the Democratic president's scandal involving his son Hunter and his business dealings in Ukraine, urging people to 'ask the big guy'. Pictured Joe and Hunter Biden

'This story is just another example of the double standard that exists with the media... going after conservatives and their kids while ignoring Liberals #AskTheBigGuy.'

'The big guy' is the name used to refer to a person thought to be Joe Biden in several emails between Hunter and his business partners before Biden took office.

In one email, dated May 2017, consultant James Gilliar is detailing the terms of a multi-million-dollar deal with Chinese oil giant CEFC.

It reads: '10 held by H for the big guy?'

'H' was thought to be Hunter and 'the big guy' his father, with the message interpreted as Hunter holding 10 percent of the shares in the joint venture on behalf of Joe.

The email was one of dozens found on a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter and which were examined in a DailyMail.com investigation.

They appear to show Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine which Donald Trump claimed during the White House race showed Biden was 'corrupt'.

Biden has repeatedly denied being involved in his son's business dealings.

Noem, meanwhile, is the subject of a review by South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg following concerns from state lawmakers and members of the pubic over her alleged involvement in her daughter's license approval.

Ravnsborg said he had been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators.

Sherry Bren (pictured) was called to a meeting with Noem days after Peters was denied her llicense

'I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions,' he said.

State Democrats have also called for an investigation into the governor's conduct.

Despite both being Republicans, Ravnsborg and Noem are political foes.

Noem, who is said to be mulling a 2024 White House run, has called on Ravnsborg to resign after he hit and killed a pedestrian in his car last September,

Joseph Boever, 55, was struck and killed while walking along a highway.

Ravnsborg said he thought he had hit a deer.

On Thursday, he general pleaded no contest to a pair of second-degree misdemeanors for the crash and avoided jail time.

Bren said she had been shown a letter from Kristine Juelfs (pictured) - Peters' supervisor - in the July 2020 meeting which criticized the governor's daughter not being awarded the contract

Four months after the meeting arranged by her mom (left), Peters (right) was awarded her certification that November

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg announced Tuesday he has opened a review into the governor's conduct

In an email to colleagues at the time of her retirement she said she had been 'forced' to leave.

'I have been forced to retire by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Regulation at the behest of the Administration,' she wrote.

'I want each of you to know that I have sincerely done everything possible to avoid this unfortunate circumstance.'

A spokesperson for Noem told AP Monday the report was a political 'attack.'

'The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor's daughter in order to attack the Governor politically - no wonder Americans' trust in the media is at an all-time low,' spokesman Ian Fury said.

Peter said in a statement to the AP that her original application process had been full of 'obstacles.'

'My upgrade to become a Certified Residential Appraiser was very lengthy and I was expected to navigate through many obstacles from the very beginning,' she said.

'I'm glad I have it now and that I have the privilege to serve my clients in South Dakota.'

Certification on the Appraiser Certification Program is denied when an applicant's work samples don't meet minimum compliance with national standards, according to the agency's upgrade procedures.
Two women have admitted breaking out of Sydney's lockdown and attending several parties in Newcastle, sparking a months-long lockdown.

Josephine Lado, 20, and Sulafa Ageeb Ageeb, 21, both tested positive to Covid-19 after spending several days shopping and partying in Newcastle in late July.

According to police facts tendered in Ageeb's case, the Epping woman repeatedly lied to police and ignored warnings to return home during her trip.

On one occasion, she and Rooty Hill's Lado were advised they would be fined and were directed to return to Sydney - only to attend further parties in Shortland and Blacksmiths Beach the next night.

Dr Kerry Chant said health authorities believe the source of the Central Coast outbreak was a gathering at Blacksmith Beach (pictured) on Friday

A 'significant' number of infected people in the Hunter region had direct links to the women's movement patterns, the fact sheet said, leading prosecutors to say the only reasonable hypothesis was that Lado and Ageeb's actions directly resulted in Covid-19 spreading across the region.

'Their conduct, whilst affected by Covid-19, have seriously jeopardised the health and safety of communities outside the greater Sydney metro area,' the facts sheet states.

'Their actions have realised lockdown restrictions in the communities they unlawfully attended, seriously impacting citizens, businesses and education providers.'

Each submitted guilty pleas via email on Wednesday to failing to comply with a Covid-19 health order and failing to comply with Covid check-in registrations.

They'll be sentenced at later dates by Sydney magistrates.

Ageeb admitted the pair and two other women went clothes shopping and entered a nail salon in Charlestown on July 29 before going to a house party in Shortland that night.

When police were alerted to the party about 1.45am on July 30, they saw 'numerous' people run into a parked car and found the offenders in the back seat pretending to sleep.

Police claim the pair undertook a 'calculated and concerted effort' to alter check-in and address data in their Service NSW app.

Newcastle residents flocked to get tested after learning of the new outbreak. Pictured: People queue for testing at The Mater Hospital in Newcastle

Ordered to return home and told to expect $1000 fines in the mail, Ageeb and Lado instead remained in Newcastle for a further night.

First up was a large party at Blacksmiths Beach in Lake Macquarie before heading back to the Shortland home for another party, which police say was attended by 'numerous' others.

They caught a train home on July 31.

Positive cases in the region related to the women were uncovered on August 5, sparking an immediate lockdown that is yet to be lifted.

Several shops visited by the women were declared close contact venues.

Ageeb later came clean to police, telling them from a quarantine hotel that she'd left home after an argument with her sister and knew full well going to Newcastle breached Sydney's lockdown laws.

The host of the Shortland house parties also allegedly held a gathering for more than 40 people on July 28 attended by Lado.

Nathan Koko, who also later tested positive to Covid-19, was charged with breaching the public health order.

The 22-year-old's case will be mentioned in Newcastle Local Court on November 11.
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The parents of a Marine officer who is being held in military prison for violating a social media gag order have slammed Joint Chiefs Chair General Mark A. Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, calling on both to resign.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller's parents Cathy and Stuart Sr slammed the top military leaders in an interview on Tuesday, hours after Milley and Austin faced tough grilling from Senators on Capitol Hill.

The soldier gained notoriety in August when he released a public video ripping into the hasty withdrawal of US troops and personnel from Afghanistan, after 13 US troops were killed in the chaotic exit.

After being ordered to stop posting on social media, he again tore into military and civilian leadership in a Facebook post on Saturday, inviting commanding officers to throw him in the brig.

Sheller's parents voiced outrage over his imprisonment, saying that Milley and Austin, as well as General Frank McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, should bear the responsibility for the botched withdrawal.

'The only one being held accountable for this botched situation is my son, by the generals,' Scheller's father told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

'While Stuart broke the chain of command, General McKenzie and General Milley and Secretary Austin broke the chain of trust and confidence of the American people. For that, they should be embarrassed,' Scheller Sr said. 'They should resign for that.'

'Today's hearing showed they won't accept accountability for the mistakes they made. They wanted to blame everybody else - the Afghan military, the Afghan government, the weather, whoever,' he added.

Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller was thrown in brig for breaking gag order after the soldier had panned the US hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is grilled by Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testifies during a hearing before Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday

'We want them to resign and we want Stuart released,' said mother Cathy. 'We would like him to have his pension reinstated and his hard-earned medical benefits that he will need after his many deployments. If they won't do that, at least release him and let him out of the Marines.'

Scheller, based in North Carolina's Camp LeJune, was three years from retirement when he posted a scathing video criticizing superiors on August 26, the same day that the 13 US troops were killed in Kabul.

He has continued to post videos and diatribes on Facebook, calling for a 'revolution' and announcing his plans to prefer criminal charges against Milley under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Scheller was three years from retirement when he posted a scathing video criticizing superiors on August 26, the same day that the 13 US troops were killed in Kabul

On Saturday, he posted a message that he said he had received from commanders, stating: 'Effective immediately upon your receipt below, you are hereby ordered to refrain from posting any and all material, in any form without exception, to any social media.'

He went on to criticize several current and retired generals across the military service branches in a lengthy diatribe, concluding it with: 'please have the MPs waiting for me at 0800 on Monday. I'm ready for jail.'

On Monday, his father revealed that the Lieutenant Colonel has been sent to military prison, known as 'the brig', where he is being held as he awaits a military hearing for breaking the gag order set by his superior officers.

The Marine Corps later issued a statement confirming Scheller had been imprisoned awaiting a military hearing and did not confirm how long he has been held, but insisted he would receive a fair trial.

'Our son called for accountability. Throughout the hearing today I don't feel like they accepted accountability,' Scheller Sr said. 'I am extremely disappointed. It's no coincidence in my opinion that they put a gag order on [Stuart Jr] and they put him in prison the day before they had to appear in front of senators  and tomorrow in front of congressmen.'

'I think that is fairly an act of cowardice,' he said.

Cathy Scheller said that her son is being held in solitary confinement and has yet to be given a trial date or be charged with any crime under the UCMJ or other laws. She added that he has been unable to contact them, save for a short phone call on Tuesday in which he asked her to call his lawyer.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin appeared before the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday to defend the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent civilian evacuation

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the United States Central Command, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan on Tuesday

'It's outrageous. Our son is a warrior. He has been a marine for the past 17 years, highly decorated and perhaps considered in the top 1% of Marine Corps officers,' Scheller Sr told DailyMail.com earlier Tuesday.

'He could not stand by and could not fathom the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was asking for accountability, honest answers, and confessions of mistakes that were made.

'They have turned their backs on him. They have tried to shut him up with a gag order, and when that didn't work, they have put him in jail. It's shameful!'

Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, pressed Austin on Scheller's confinement during Tuesday's hearings.

'I don't have any specifics of what caused him to be held in pre-trial confinement. I would certainly ask the Marines to provide that insight,' Austin responded.

At Tuesday hearings, Republicans accused President Joe Biden of lying to the American people after top military officers said publicly for the first time on Tuesday that they advised the commander-in-chief to leave 2500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to prevent a Taliban takeover.

Testimony provided by Austin, Milley and McKenzie contradicted Biden's claims he was never warned by military advisers that bringing home American soldiers risked the collapse of a fragile government in Kabul.

The result was a slew of furious accusations that Biden ignored advice and then lied to the country.

US Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, pictured with mother Catherine and father Stuart Sr.

Scheller publicly shared his resignation letter, addressing it to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Torro and citing 'a lack of trust and confidence in your ability to lead'

Republican Senator Josh Hawley said: 'Here's what I've learned so far: Number one, the president of the United States lied to the American people about the advice that you gave to him, about the military judgement that you provided for him.

'I think you've all testified to that effect now repeatedly.'

Biden has been under intense pressure to defend his handling of the withdrawal.

The Taliban moved rapidly across the country ahead of his August 31 deadline to get Americans out of Afghanistan, seizing the capital Kabul on August 15.

Biden and his officials have insisted the speed of their advance and the collapse of Afghan security forces took them by surprise.

In an August 18 interview with George Stephanopoulos, the president even denied that he withdrew troops against the recommendation of his senior military advisers.

But McKenzie, head of US Central Command and who oversaw the final days of the war in Afghanistan, said he repeatedly argued that a small presence of U.S. troops was essential for stability.

'I stated consistently that my position was, if you go below 2,500 you're going to look at a collapse of the Afghan military,' he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

'I didn't I did not foresee it to be days ... I thought it would take months.'

McKenzie, head of US Central Command and who oversaw the final days of the war in Afghanistan, said he repeatedly argued that a small presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan was essential for stability

In response, the White House tried to play down the testimony and the idea that Biden had ignored the advice of senior military advisers.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that Biden had told Stephanopoulos that his advisers were divided, and later said that he was entitled to choose between a range of recommendations.

'Hes the commander in chief,' she said during the daily briefing. 'Hes the president.

'He makes decisions about that whats in the national interest, and he believed we should end the war.'

Milley also said his view had been that leaving the country, without meeting specific conditions, would likely lead to the collapse of the Afghan armed forces and government.

He told lawmakers: 'In the fall of 2020, my analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal without meeting specific and necessary conditions risks losing the substantial gains made in Afghanistan, damaging US worldwide credibility, and could precipitate a general collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in a complete Taliban takeover or general civil war.

'That was a year ago, my assessment remained consistent throughout.'

Some 3500 U.S. troops were in the country when President Biden was inaugurated.

Milley declined to say exactly what he advised the president, but that it was his personal view that 2500 American troops were needed to prevent collapse.

His words triggered immediate scrutiny of Biden's comments defending his actions in August at the height of the crisis.

During an interview with ABC News, he denied that his military advisers warned him against bringing home all troops or that at least 2500 were needed to prevent a Taliban takeover.

Republicans were quick to accuse President Biden of lying to the American public over the advice he got on withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the new testimony did not contradict Biden's ABC News interview

'No one said that to me that I can recall,' he told interviewer Stephanopoulos.

Sen. Tom Cotton brought up the interview during the hearing, asking Austin whether Biden was telling the truth when he said that no senior military adviser told him to leave a small military presence.

After saying that Biden was an 'honest and forthright man,' Austin admitted: 'Their input was received by the president and considered by the president, for sure.

'In terms of what they specifically recommended senator, as they just said, they're not going to provide what they recommended in confidence.'

The testimony triggered a wave of condemnation.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said: 'President Biden lied when he told the American people that nobody urged him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

'Today, under oath, General McKenzie flatly contradicted the president. This is the worst American foreign policy disaster in a generation and the President is trying to cover his ass with political spin.'

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who sits on the armed services committee, said: 'From what we are hearing, President Biden rejected military advice to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and then lied about it to the American people.'

Mark Meadows, chief of staff in the Trump White House said: 'If it wasnt already obvious, todays Senate hearing confirmed: Joe Biden lied to the America people about his Afghanistan withdrawal plan.'

The president was entitled to reject the generals' advice, said Leon Panetta, who was secretary of defense under President Obama.

'But I do think it needs to be clear that the advice was given, and the advice was rejected,' he told CNN.

The episode has severely tested Biden's claim to be a foreign policy expert.

His approval ratings collapsed amid images of Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes as they desperately sought to escape their new Taliban rulers.

A suicide blast killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans in the last days of the chaotic evacuation. Days later a drone strike killed 10 civilians despite U.S. claims the missile targeted terrorists in the final stages of launching an attack.

Gen. Milley and the others defended the drawdown but admitted the operation did not go smoothly.

'It was a logistical success but a strategic failure,' he said.

Impact on U.S. credibility

The speed of the withdrawal also triggered anger from U.S. allies, such as Britain, where ministers said they were blindsided by the rapid departure and the launch of a chaotic, frantic evacuation of foreign nationals.

Milley said the episode had a damaging impact on U.S. standing in the world.

'I think that our credibility with allies and partners around the world, and with adversaries, is being intensely reviewed by them to see which way this is going to go,' he said. 'And I think that damage is one word that could be used.'

It was left to Austin to defend the administration.

'I think our credibility remained solid ...' he said. 'Clearly there will be people who question things going forward.'

Senators on the Armed Services Committee also heard warnings that the country could still present a terrorist threat to American soil.

Officials have said all along that the rapid collapse of Afghanistan in 11 days, as the Taliban advanced rapidly across the country, took them by surprise.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 28, 2021

Afghan refugees are packed onto a C-19 Globemaster III military aircraft during last month's messy withdrawal from Afghanistan

Afghan army's rapid collapse

For his part, Austin defended the military's execution of the chaotic Kabul airlift but blamed the fall of Kabul on the Afghan army's sudden collapse.

'To be clear, those first two days were difficult,' he said.

'We all watched with alarm the images of Afghans rushing the runway and our aircraft.

'We all remember the scenes of confusion outside the airport. But within 48 hours, our troops restored order, and process began to take hold.'

Despite 20 years of U.S. presence in the country, he admitted that Washington failed to 'forge a nation' that could stand on its own feet.

'The fact that the Afghan army - that we and our partners trained - simply melted away - in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,' he said.

'We need to consider some uncomfortable truths that we didn't fully comprehend: The depth of corruption and poor leadership in the senior ranks that we didn't grasp; the damaging effect of the frequent and unexplained rotations by President Ghani of his commanders; that we didn't anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that the Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement; and that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralising effect on Afghan soldiers.'

Role of Bagram air base

Abandoning Bagram air base before withdrawing American civilians and Afghan allies was a major tactical mistake, according to critics, leaving U.S. forces reliant on a civilian airport, with a single runway in the heart of a city controlled by the Taliban

Austin also tried to head off questions about whether the evacuation operation would have been more successful if the military had not shot down Bagram air base.

'Retaining Bagram would have required putting as many as 5000 US troops in harm's way just to operate and defend it, and it would have contributed little to the mission that we've been assigned, and that was to protect and defend the embassy which was some 30 miles away.

'That distance from Kabul also rendered Bagram of little value in the evacuation.'

McKenzie also defended the closure under questioning from Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen.

'I can tell you that once we went below 2500 people in Afghanistan, we lost the ability to hold Bagram Airbase,' he said.

'And it was inevitable that we were going to have to come out of Bagram because we ended up in late June, early July, with 650 Marines and soldiers in the country.

'It was not feasible to hold Bagram under those circumstances.'

Terrorist threat against U.S. soil

Biden has repeatedly declared that the degradation of Al Qaeda meant the original mission of U.S. troops in Afghanistan had been completed.

But senators were told that the Taliban remained a terrorist organization and had never broken its ties with Al Qaeda.

'I have no illusions who we are dealing with, said Milley during his opening statement.

'It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war. But we must continue to protect the United States of America and it people from terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan.

'A reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility.'

McKenzie later addressed the question of whether the U.S. was in a position to counter such a threat.

'I think we're still seeing how Al Qaeda and ISIS are configuring themselves against the Taliban,' he said.

'We're still seeing whether the Taliban is going to do, so I think  I would not say I'm confident that that's going to be on the ground yet.'

Taliban members set checkpoints around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghan capital Kabul after the last U.S. troops left. Some 100 U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who want to leave the country are still stuck in Afghanistan, according to the State Department

Milley defends China calls

Although the hearing was intended to dissect the Biden administration's stance on Afghanistan, Milley used his opening statements to answer claims he made 'secret' calls to his Chinese counterpart and offered to warn him of any impending U.S. attack in the final days of the Trump presidency.

The allegations were made in 'Peril,' a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. It cited Beijing's fears that Trump was looking to start a war with China as his potential election loss loomed.

Milley confirmed the broad premise of the book but denied that the calls were secret.

He said they were part of the usual business of being chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and explained that the calls had been coordinated with the U.S. government.

'I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese and it is my directed responsibility to convey presidential orders and intent,' he said.

'My message again was consistent: calm, steady, de-escalate. "We are not going to attack you."'

Impact of the Doha agreement

The two senior commanders said the Doha agreement - signed under President Trump after negotiations with the Taliban in the Qatari capital - had a negative impact on the morale and performance of the Afghan security forces.

It essentially set a deadline for the U.S. withdrawal in return for the Taliban agreeing not to attack American forces.

As senators probed whether the Biden administration should have had a clearer idea of the fragile nature of the Afghan military, McKenzie and Milley pointed to the agreement and its damaging fallout.

McKenzie said: 'Its my judgement that the Doha agreement did negatively affect the performance of the Afghan forces, in particular by some of the actions the government of Afghanistan was required to take as part of that agreement.'

The deal required Kabul to release 5000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1000 Afghan government troops, as well as starting the withdrawal of thousands of American contractors who had supported local forces.

Milley added that in his assessment the Doha deal 'did affect the morale of the Afghan security forces.'

Drone strike investigation

Gen Frank McKenzie said the intelligence behind a drone strike that killed 10 civilians on August 29 in Kabul was 'tragically wrong'

The three witnesses faced questions about the August 29 drone strike that killed 10 civilians but said they might better be answered during an afternoon session behind closed doors.

Austin said he had not yet been in touch with the aircrew responsible for the strike.

'I've directed a three-star review of this incident,' he said.

'Gen. McKenzie did an initial investigation, and I directed a three-star review and so I won't make any comments.'

The issue came up again later during the hearing when Gen. McKenzie was asked whether it was possible to adequately assess targets without intelligence assets on the ground.

He said he took full responsibility for the strike.

'The matter is under investigation, but what I can tell you broadly, and to restate some things that I've said earlier, I am responsible for that,' he said.

'It happened in my area of responsibility, so I'm the responsible officer for that strike.'

And he said on this occasion the intelligence was 'tragically wrong.'

'I was under no pressure, and no one in my chain of command below me, was under any pressure to take that strike, we acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on the ground,' he said.

Republicans in particular have intensified their attacks on President Joe Bidens decision to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by the end of last month, saying it left the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism.

They are also demanding more details on the suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 13 American service members in the final days of the withdrawal.

In an early hostile salvo, Sen Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the committee, offered a withering analysis of the administration's withdrawal and future strategy for Afghanistan.

'There is no plan. We have no reliable partners on the ground. We have no bases nearby,' he said in his opening statement.

'The Afghan government is now led by terrorists with long ties to Al Qaeda. And were at the mercy of the Pakistan government to get into Afghanistan airspace.

'Even if we can get there, we cant strike Al Qaeda in Afghanistan because were worried about what the Taliban will do to the Americans still there.'
The new Capitol Police chief says there has been an unprecedented number of threats against against members of Congress since the January 6 riot.

J. Thomas Manger predicts his officers will respond to about 9,000 threats against members of Congress this year. More than 4,100 threats were reported to Capitol Police between January and March.

'We have never had the level of threats against members of Congress that we're seeing today,' Manger, 66, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

'Clearly, we've got a bigger job in terms of the protection aspect of our responsibilities, we've got a bigger job than we used to.'

The department did not respond to question from DailyMail.com about threats to lawmakers in previous years.

His agency's alertness was on full display on September 18, when press and police officers seemed to outnumber about 400 to 450 protesters calling for the release of more than 600 rioters charged in the January 6 riot.

Manger was picked to lead the agency by the Capitol Police Board and congressional leaders on July 22.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger says the agency has a bigger responsibility to its lawmakers than ever after a record number of threats following the January 6 riot

Manger took over from Steven Sund (pictured), who quit hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded his resignation the day after the deadly riot, which led to the deaths of nine people

Manger says he will scale up the response to Washington, DC, protests taking place near the Capitol. 'It's going to depend on the potential for violence at a particular demonstration.'

The veteran police chief took over from chief Steven A. Sund, who quit hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for his resignation the day after the deadly riot.

Four police officers who responded to the January 6 unrest killed themselves, and one rioter was shot and killed at the scene while breaking into the Capitol building, where lawmakers were certifying election results for President Joe Biden.

Manger says the department, still struggling six months after the pro-Trump insurrection left officers battled, bloodied and bruised, 'cannot afford to be complacent.'

The risk to lawmakers is higher than ever. And the threat from lone-wolf attackers is only growing.

At this month's protest, former Trump campaign operative Matt Braynard said: 'This isn't about President Trump or Biden or your political party. This is about human rights and civil rights,' arguing that many of those facing charges aren't being charged with violent behavior.

The crowd yelled 'let them in go' in support of the rioters. 'USA, USA, USA,' was another popular chant.

Manger said putting up temporary fencing around the Capitol and calling in reinforcements was a prudent decision, but it may not be the same for every demonstration.

'It's really going to depend on the intelligence we have beforehand,' he said. 'It's going to depend on the potential for violence at a particular demonstration.'

Manger's first leadership test came during a rally in support of Capitol rioters on September 18

Reports said that press and police outnumbered those who gathered at the scene

'We just were in a position where we could not allow another January 6th,' Manger said. Above, a counter-protestor is escorted out of the rally site by police officers

'We just were in a position where we could not allow another January 6th,' he said.

REVEALED: Homeland Security told the Pentagon there were 'no major incidents' 40 minutes AFTER rioters breached the Capitol on January 6 An office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) specifically created for real-time threat alerts failed to notify the Pentagon when violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6. More than 30 minutes after rioters pushed past police barricades, an internal Army email addressed to senior leaders was sent at 1.40pm. 'There are no major incidents of illegal activity at this time,' it read, according to Politico. The update instead notified of National Guard troops being deployed to Kenosha, Wisconsin anticipating unrest over an imminent 'prosecutorial decision' over the case of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back by a white police officer but survived. Despite noting the presence of Capitol protesters, it read, 'In the last 2 hrs - There are no major incidents of illegal activity at this time.' Four minutes before that update, US Capitol Police placed the Capitol complex under evacuation orders, according to the Pentagon's official timeline. Advertisement

'And I really needed to ensure that the men and women of the Capitol Police department understood that we had the resources we need, the training that we needed, the equipment that we needed, and the staffing that we needed to ensure that they could do their job and do it safely.'

Ultimately, one man with a knife was arrested on a weapons violation charge, with three others also taken into police custody over the course of the day.

Extreme measures put into place for the rally aren't a one-off, they might be the new normal. Propelled by former President Donald Trump, the awakening of domestic extremist groups and the continued volatility around the 2020 election have changed the calculus.

Manger touted changes that have been made in intelligence gathering after the department was widely criticized for being woefully underprepared to fend off a mob of insurrectionists in January.

Officials had compiled intelligence showing white supremacists and other extremists were likely to assemble in Washington on January 6 and that violent disruptions were possible. Police officers were brutally beaten in the insurrection.

The events of that day have redefined how the US Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies in Washington approach security.

With Manger, the police force got a longtime lawman.

He served as chief in Maryland's Montgomery County, outside Washington, from 2004 to 2019. Before that, he led the Fairfax County, Virginia, police department.

Those jobs, as well as a leadership position in the Major Cities Chiefs Association, have made him a familiar face in Washington law enforcement and on Capitol Hill.

Michael Chertoff, a Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, applauded Manger's September 18 response and said it's just smart policing to learn from mistakes and be better prepared the next time.

'When you get demonstrations that are advertised or pitch to right wing or left wing extremists, I think you're going to see that they're going to lean into a visible show of protection, maybe more than they need but enough to make it clear they wont be overwhelmed again,' he said.

Manger also defended Yogananda Pittman, above, who led intelligence operations for the agency ahead of January's attack and remains on the job today

'First of all, this department was in enough chaos without me firing everybody,' Manger said

Chertoff, who now runs the Chertoff cybersecurity risk management group, said such fortifications won't be necessary for every free speech event planned in the nation's capital, but law enforcement must be better prepared when it comes to people who have expressed sympathy for January 6, because there is strong reason to believe they're sympathetic to the idea of using violent force to disrupt government.

On Wednesday, Manger defended keeping on Yogananda Pittman, the Capitol Police official who led intelligence operations for the agency ahead of January's attack.

Pittman was elevated to acting chief after Sund's resignation. Her tenure was marred by a vote of no-confidence from rank-and-file officers on the force and questions about intelligence and leadership failures.

She's now back in charge of intelligence and protecting congressional leaders.

Manger pointed to Pittman's decision as acting chief to implement recommendations from the inspector general and to expand the department's internal intelligence capabilities so officers wouldn't need to rely so heavily on intelligence gathered by other law enticement agencies.

A number of top officials left their posts after January's attack, but Manger shot back at critics who said Pittman should have been let go for her perceived failures.

'This notion that I should come in and just fire everybody on the leadership team because they failed on January 6th ... first of all, this department was in enough chaos without me firing everybody,' Manger said, 'and then where would I have been without any experience on my leadership team to rely on and to assist me going forward?'

The Capitol Police are part security agency, part local police - it has an annual budget of approximately $460 million and about 2,300 officers and civilian employees to police the Capitol grounds and the people inside the building, including all the lawmakers and staff.

By contrast, the entire city of Minneapolis has about 800 sworn officers and a budget of roughly $193 million.

On January 6, at least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and QAnon believer who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber, and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies.

'If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore,' President Trump told his supporters hours before some of them stormed the Capitol on January 6

The inside of the Capitol is seen in disarray the day after rioters stormed the building in a bid to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory

Two police officers died by suicide in the days that immediately followed, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

The Metropolitan Police announced this summer that two more of their officers who had responded to the insurrection, Officers Kyle DeFreytag and Gunther Hashida, had also died by suicide.

A scathing internal report earlier this year found that serious gaps in tactical gear including weapons, training and intelligence capabilities contributed to security problems during the Jan. 6 melee.

In his report, obtained by the AP, Capitol Police Inspector General Michael A. Bolton cast serious doubt on the force's ability to respond to future threats and another large-scale attack.

But then a second task force later charged with reviewing January 6 said the Capitol Police already has the ability to 'track, assess, plan against or respond' to threats from domestic extremists who continue to potentially target the building.

The report recommended a major security overhaul, including the funding of hundreds of new officer positions and establishing a permanent 'quick response force' for emergencies.

But those changes would require massive influx of money. In a $2.1 billion measure in July, Congress delegated nearly $71 million, with much of that funding going to cover overtime costs.

Still, Manger said, 'I think that what we have in place today is an improvement over what we had a year ago or nine months ago.'

The riot, which Republican lawmakers and Trump and his allies have sought to downplay and dismiss, has prompted a surge in applications to join the force.

Manger likened it to police and firefighter applications after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A former SAS mercenary sharpshooter has admitted to gunning down Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin at a crowded drag racing event from 300m away.

The 35-year-old man, whose name is suppressed, pleaded guilty in Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday to the assassination on December 12.

The former bikie boss, 51, was watching drag races at Kwinana Motorplex with his family when he was shot through the torso and bled to death.

The assassin also pleaded guilty to injuring Ricky Chapman, the boyfriend of Martin's stepdaughter, who was wounded by bullet fragments.

The ex-soldier was part of soldier of fortune outfit Shadows of Hope, which calls itself 'the world's most dangerous and fearless charity'.

Nick Martin (pictured) was shot in the back at the Perth Motorplex on December 12 in front of horrified families who were trying to watch the nitro cars high-octane drag racing

The ex SAS trooper is yet to enter a plea on other charges including possessing a silencer, inadequately storing firearms, and drug possession.

The 35-year-old appeared via video link in his prison greens and in handcuffs and only spoke to confirm his name and to plead guilty.

During the shooting, a five-year-old boy was injured from bullet fragments but the charge relating to injuring the child was discontinued.

The shooter, who is also an adrenaline junkie and worked as a base jumping instructor, was arrested at his Perth home and charged with Martin's murder in March and will face court again in December to be sentenced.

After court, the man's lawyer David Manera said he was handling life in prison 'well', 'all things considered'.

'Despite the nature of the charge, he's quite a thoughtful person, he's quite an intelligent person and he's actually quite a sensitive person,' he said.

'I know that flies in the face of what he's charged with but that's how he appears to me.'

Martin (pictured) died in the arms of his wife Amanda as she tried to give him CPR. His last words were: 'babe, I've been shot'

Mr Manera said he expected his client would receive a lengthy sentence, and hoped the outcome would provide some comfort to Martin's family.

Martin was assassinated in front of hundreds of onlookers including his wife Amanda and stepdaughter.

After being hit, Martin told his wife 'babe, I've been shot', as she tried to give him CPR while he died in her arms.

Police spent months on the investigation with 100 officers on the job, while the WA Government offered a $1 million reward to anyone who had information on the shooter.

Rebels bikie Nick Martin was ridden in to Pinnaroo Cemetery in a coffin covered in pictures of $100 bills (pictured) at his extravagant bikie funeral on December 23

A $1 million reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the shooter who killed Nick Martin, 51, (pictured with wife Amanda)

The chaos at the racetrack on December 12 in Perth after Martin was executed is pictured

His death also sparked a crackdown on bikies by police who conducted raids and ended up charging more than 100 people.

Martin's funeral was held on December 23 with 200 police officers keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings.

A police sniper also watched on from a helicopter as the patched gang members headed south to say their final farewells.

Martin's coffin was covered in pictures of $100 bills and Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower played as bikies took turns to walk up and touch it as it was brought in under a marquee for the service.

The ex soldier worked for Shadows of Hope, which works in war zones around the world both in combat and delivering aid and medicine for both sides.

Last year, the organisation shared a post online paying tribute to the soldier for his service in Iraq, describing him as their 'resident thrill-seeker and heartbreaker'.

'When the way to save lives is illegal or cast in the shadow of bureaucracy, it takes unorthodox attributes and attitudes to get the job done,' the group wrote.

More than 200 bikies from the Rebels and other clubs attended Martin's funeral on December 23

One of the possible shooter locations previously identified at the Perth Motorplex. A long shot would indicate a sniper, experts say

'He was a natural fit for this role, and his tireless work, courage, and unique humor have given so much to those we serve.'

He'd been unable to return to Iraq or any other conflict zones because of the coronavirus pandemic and worked as a base jumping instructor in Perth.

The daredevil sport is a lifelong passion and on March 31, 2017, he jumped off a 70-storey skyscraper in Hong Kong with former Bachelor Locky Gilbert.

It is not suggested that Gilbert was in any way involved in the shooting of Martin.

Dozens of photos on his Facebook page show the former soldier paragliding, rock climbing skydiving and base jumping from buildings.

The man also portrays a softer side with a love of animals with posts posing with quokkas and cuddling kangaroo joeys while urging others to consider becoming volunteer wildlife carers.

The daredevil sport is a lifelong passion and on March 31, 2017, he jumped off a 70-storey skyscraper in Hong Kong with former Bachelor Locky Gilbert
Victorian authorities are investigating the time spent on hold to triple zero by the family of a three-year-old girl, who died after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Ambulance Victoria said paramedics were dispatched 'without delay' after being called to a cardiac arrest in a town outside of Bendigo at 6.29pm on Monday.

An Advanced Life Support crew was the first to arrive, at 6.43pm, and loaded the girl for the hospital, however she died while in their care.

Victorian authorities are investigating the time spent on hold to triple zero by the family of a three-year-old girl, who died after suffering a cardiac arrest

'Despite the best efforts of our paramedics and those on the scene, the patient did not survive,' AV Acting Loddon Mallee Regional Director Trevor Weston said.

'We offer our sincerest condolences to the patient's family at this difficult time.'

The family of the child waited for one minute and 41 seconds, longer than the target time of five seconds, while on hold to triple zero, however it's not yet known whether the delay contributed to the death.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the time spent on hold was 'under active investigation'.

'Any death is a tragedy, but the death of a young child from a major incident like that is really, really traumatic for everyone involved,' he told reporters on Wednesday.

He said emergency departments, hospital wards and paramedics were dealing with 'record levels' of demand, with a rise in COVID-19 cases and other emergency presentations.

The family of the child waited for one minute and 41 seconds, longer than the target time of five seconds, while on hold to triple zero

There are 371 Victorians in hospital with Covid-19, but that number could grow to up to 2500 by end of the year according to Burnet Institute modelling.

Earlier on Wednesday, AV's Mick Stephenson said paramedics had noticed longer delays at hospitals 'than we've ever had before'.

'Our capacity to respond and our performance has never been challenged as much as it has been over recent weeks,' he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

'If the growth in COVID cases continues, performance will be expected to get poorer unless we can do something about reducing the number of people coming into hospital.'

He said transferring COVID-19 patients had become a major issue for paramedics, and said those with mild symptoms were being sent home.

Marty Smyth, Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority chief executive, said 3250 Victorians made ambulance calls on Monday, the highest number since the deadly thunderstorm asthma event in 2016.

'This year we're seeing a significant increase in demand and calls but they're all standard calls that we would typically take on a day - road traffic accidents, medical emergencies, chest pain, abdominal pain, headaches that kind of thing,' he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

He said there was a benchmark that 90 per cent of triple zero calls are answered in five seconds but the average wait was currently one to two minutes.

Mr Foley said the state government was addressing demand by beefing up the health care workforce, bringing staff across from other parts of the system, and asking both students and the recently retired to assist.

Additionally, non-urgent patients are being redirected, with some transferred to the private sector and the government is working with Ambulance Victoria to enhance its workforce capacity.

'The truth of the matter is we are facing unprecedented levels of demand and we need to continue to work hard to build a surge capacity,' he said.

Victorians are urged not to call triple zero unless it is an emergency.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has defended protesters who took over Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance to rally against compulsory workplace vaccinations.

Anti-vaxxer demonstrators and some tradies wearing fluoro work vests last week stormed the landmark built to honour those who had either served in war or taken part in peacekeeping missions.

Some rowdier elements urinated on the shrine as hundreds of protesters chanted 'lest we forget', appropriating a phrase associated with Anzac Day to protest against mandatory Covid vaccinations on construction sites.

Mr Abbott said the protesters were exercising their right to free speech and likened Victorian police with rubber bullets to storm troopers, despite the demonstrators taking over a sacred site in breach of lockdown rules.

'Now look, I'm not an anti-vaxxer, although I think that people generally speaking have a right not to be vaccinated if that's their choice,' he told the libertarian Institute of Public Affairs Australia's Heartland podcast.

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Former prime minister Tony Abbott has defended protesters who took over Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance to rally against compulsory workplace vaccinations

'Obviously, people shouldn't break the law but you've got people there at the Shrine of Remembrance with flags, with placards, to the best of my observation they were simply there to make a point.

'They weren't being violent, they weren't being vandalistic, they weren't being destructive.'

Mr Abbott, a fierce critic of Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, likened the police standing at the ready with rubber bullets to wartime storm troopers.

'Then you had the Victorian Police lined up like storm troopers eventually charging them with rubber bullets and tear gas,' he said.

The former Liberal prime minister suggested elements of the media and the political class had derided the demonstrators as thugs when they were simply exercising their democratic right of expression.

'Now, I don't think you can say all the right was on one side there and yet there was near unanimity amongst the chattering classes, that there was a bunch of deplorables gathered around the Shrine of Remembrance,' he said.

'I saw a lot of people who maybe were a little misguided, maybe were a little over the top, but I saw a lot of people there who are sick and tired of restrictions which, frankly, are now becoming absolutely unreasonable.'

Mr Abbott, a former employment and workplace relations minister, slammed Construction Mining and Energy Union boss John Setka for suggesting the protesters were neo-Nazis and questioned how the protesters could have bought bright shirts during the lockdown to masquerade as tradies.

Mr Abbott, a fierce critic of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, likened the police standing at the ready with rubber bullets to storm troopers. Riot cops armed with rubber bullets, pepper balls and stinger grenades are pictured at the protest - with 'new tactics' to control the crowds

'Well, I looked at the footage, and I saw a lot of people in high-vis, which they couldn't have just gone out and bought because all the damn shops are shut,' he said.

'That was a crowd of working people.

'They were ordinary working people which unions ignore at their peril.'

Mr Abbott was earlier this month fined $500 for failing to beach a face mask at Manly on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Ironically, this occurred after he had told the IPA's Daniel Wild in another podcast 'snitches' who dobbed people in over trivial breaches of lockdown rules were like old East German Stasi secret police.

'If you're walking down the street and you see someone come out of his house without a mask and you call the police, well, frankly, that's just Stasi-like behavior,' he said.

'Look, if you're walking down the street and you see a burglary taking place or an assault taking place, it's only right and proper that you should call the police.'

Victoria Police dispersed the huge crowd from the Shrine in the afternoon of September 22 - firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Mr Abbott, a former employment and workplace relations minister, slammed Construction Mining and Energy Union boss John Setka for suggesting the protesters were neo-Nazis and questioned how the protesters could have bought bright shirts during the lockdown to masquerade as tradies

Hundreds of anti-vaccination protesters chanted 'lest we forget' on September 22 as they marched on Melbourne's war memorial where they set up camp in the hope police wouldn't fire on them out of respect for fallen Anzacs
International airlines believe Australia is 'naive' to think tourists will take a holiday or business trip Down Under if they have to do a week of quarantine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Qantas boss Alan Joyce all insist international travel will resume by Christmas at the latest.

First will be Australians stranded overseas, but families will soon be able to visit friends and take holidays and do a week of home quarantine on return.

But overseas airlines are far less optimistic and think Australia is overestimating the enthusiasm of foreign tourists and the ease of going on holiday.

International airlines say Australia is 'naive' to think tourists will quarantine for a week upon arrival to the country once international travel is allowed

They think it will be more like next year, and when they do, flights will only be at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels due to quarantine requirements.

'People are awestruck and everyone is so excited to go overseas again and think they'll be going anywhere they want in 2022  but that is just so naive,' an airline source told The Guardian.

The Board of Airline Representative of Australia which represents airlines including Emirates, Etihad and United, also said Australians eager to fly overseas could face difficulty securing tickets early on because of this uncertainty.

Executive director Barry Abrams said foreign airlines were delaying opening their bookings to more Australian passengers until the government explained the rules around international travel to and from Australia.

Mr Abrams said a large majority of travellers pre-pandemic were tourists without a home to isolate in in Australia.

When borders open up again, it is unlikely they will pick Australia as a destination if quarantine is still compulsory as they would have to forfeit a week and pay for accommodation.

BARA board says Australians could find it difficult to secure tickets overseas due to the uncertainty around the rules and regulations of international travel in Australia

There are issues with the global ticketing system and foreign vaccines coming into Australia and how they will be policed

Because of this, international airlines think most services to Australia in the coming months will only be bringing Australian citizens back home, serving as a 'stepping stone' before inbound and outbound tourism is feasible.

The BARA board wanted clarification how hotel quarantine caps for unvaccinated travellers would work and how airlines would recognise returning Australians immunised with foreign vaccines.

It also wants to know how tickets would be sold and vaccine requirements enforced, whether a negative pre-departure test will be required to enter the country, and if rules for airline crews will be relaxed.

'This is because global ticketing systems are not designed to sell a tiered number of tickets for individual flights based on passengers' vaccination status, which is unknown to airlines at the point of sale' BARA said in its monthly report.

Qantas, which lost $1.73 billion last financial year and is desperate to get flying again, insists that at least travel for Australians will be possible within weeks.

Mr Joyce said there was a real prospect of the airline restarting international flights in December as planned but it would depend on quarantine and testing arrangements.

There are currently over 45,000 registered Aussies waiting to come home due to the Delta outbreak and a lack of incoming flights allowing passengers

Inmarsat's 2021 Passenger Confidence Tracker survey reported 53 per cent of the surveyed Australians said they were concerned about quarantine arrangements when travelling

Ideally this would move beyond quarantine into a rapid test and release system used in many countries where a passenger only needs to isolate until they receive a negative result.

'So... you don't have to go into a form of quarantine but worst case, it's some form of home quarantine,' Mr Joyce told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

Inmarsat's 2021 Passenger Confidence Tracker survey found 53 per cent of the 4,500 Australians who responded were concerned about quarantine requirements when travelling.

Forty per cent said they were worried about borders closing when they were abroad and they wouldn't be able to get into their home country.

Mr Abrams raised the issue of airlines requiring a negative Covid test 72 hours before flights depart as five per cent of Australians abandon their flights home due to last-minute positive test results.

'To be an airline scheduling flights to Australia now is taking on all of the risk from the government's lack of clarity,' he said.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has stated he is optimistic the airline will be able to provide international flights in mid-December but it will rely on quarantine and testing arrangements

There are more than 45,000 Australians stranded overseas registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs wanting to return home.

The international passenger intake of 2,285 people a week was slashed due to the Delta outbreak.

Many stranded Australians hoped to return home on government-charted repatriation flights.

Of the 395,422 seats available on aircrafts flown into Australia in July, only 696,698 were occupied by passengers.

Sometimes aircrafts carried as few as 10 inbound passengers to stay below arrival limits to match capacity in hotel quarantine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison thinks international travel will become available to Australian residents by end of year

Singapore Airlines cancelled many of its international flights between October to December earlier this month due to uncertainty around when caps for international passengers would be lifted.

The airline said it continued to 'seek clarity on how the Australian Government plans to treat inbound arrivals to Australia for those vaccinated overseas'.

'We remain committed to keeping Australia connected in a safe manner and have the ability to deploy more capacity should demand warrant,' Karl Schubert told the ABC.

The national reopening plan states Australia will start opening international borders to 'safe countries' with reduced requirements for vaccinated travellers once 80 per cent of the eligible population is vaccinated.

Mr Morrison said this should occur by the end of the year and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said just last week he hoped borders would open before Christmas.
Scott Morrison handed out a variety of interesting gifts to world leaders during his latest trip overseas ranging from a $215 brown Akubra hat to a $563 framed photograph of the Sydney Opera House.

The Australian prime minister brought a collection of homemade presents for his first face-to-face Quad meeting on September 24 at the White House alongside the leaders of the US, India and Japan.

The strategic group or the 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue' is a forum for leaders to share their concerns about the Indo-Pacific region.

The leaders of the Quad which met at the White House for their first face-to-face summit on September 24 (pictured, Japan, India, US and Australian leaders)

US President Joe Biden was gifted a photography of the Sydney Opera house illuminated with the Australian and American flags on the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance

The meeting comes as defence and senior government officials warned of a 'deteriorating strategic environment', with leaders said to have discussed China's diplomatic, trade and military muscle.

The four leaders also discuss Covid vaccine control and supply, and struck an agreement to keep the region 'free and open'.

President Biden was also handed a second gift, a termite-hollowed scarlet gum didgeridoo valued at $465

After the peace talks Mr Morrison reportedly gifted US President Joe Biden a blackwood framed image of the Sydney Opera House, which was illuminated with the Australian and American flag on the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

According to NCA Newswire, the photo is estimated to be worth $563.

President Biden also received a second gift, a termite-hollowed scarlet gum didgeridoo valued at $465.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received an iconic Australian hat, a brown Akubra worth $215.

While Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide was handed a Tamar blackwood watch and cufflink box, with a decorative Tasmanian blackwood lid worth $425.

'We stand for the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values and territorial integrity of states,' the four leaders said in a joint statement released on September 24.

'Together, we recommit to promoting the free, open, rules-based order, rooted in international law and undaunted by coercion, to bolster security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.'

The Quad meeting was the final stop on Scott Morrison's AUKUS meetings, joining Mr Biden and British PM Boris Johnson to unveil the alliance on September 23.

The agreement will see at least eight nuclear-powered submarines built to replace Australia's Collins-class vessels.
A 15-year-old girl has handed herself into police after she was filmed viciously attacking two other young girls at a park - claiming rumours had been spread about her.

Footage showed the girl who was wearing a black bikini standing over at three other young women sunbaking in a park at Coogee Bay Oval in Sydney's east on Friday.

The trio of women remained calm as the woman began shouting before she launched at one of them and started punching her and pulling her hair.

A group of men watching on were heard egging the duo on as the violence continued.

NSW Police have confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the 15-year-oldgirl visited the Maroubra Police station on Tuesday and was spoken to by a Youth liaison officer.

Sickening footage has captured two teenage girls fighting at Coogee Bay Oval on Friday afternoon. A 15-year-old girl involved has since handed herself into police

'Police have spoken to a number of youths involved in an incident that took place last Friday at Coogee Oval, Coogee,' a police spokesperson said.

'Officers from Eastern Beaches Police Area Command commenced an investigation following reports a teenage girl had assaulted two other girls. The group dispersed before police arrived.

'Following inquiries, a 15-year-old girl attended Maroubra Police Station and spoke with the Youth Officer about 2.30pm yesterday.

'She will be dealt with under the Young Offenders Act 1997 NSW.'

It's understood the girl believed she'd been the subject of rumours circulating from other teens.

During the attack, the 15-year-old was seen dragging one of the women over the grass - losing her bikini top in the process - as the victim's friends tried to pull her away.

The attack lasted for nearly a minute and ended with the girl in the black bikini firing one last kick toward the victim's head.
A new mother has been charged with murdering her four-month-old baby after he was found drowned in a bathtub.

The 32-year-old woman was arrested at a home in Malabar in Sydney's southeast on Wednesday and charged with one count of murder.

Emergency services were called to her Oran Park home in Sydney's southwest on May 20 amid concerns for the welfare of all occupants in the home.

First responders found the four-month-old boy unconscious and unresponsive in the bathroom alongside the woman.

A mother of a four-month-old boy who was found dead in a bathtub had sought professional help for her mental health earlier in the week (pictured, mother of four-month-old boy with her family)

Emergency services were called to her Oran Park home in Sydney's southwest on May 20 amid concerns for the welfare of all occupants in the home

Paramedics worked on the infant at the scene before he was taken to Campbelltown Hospital, but he could not be revived.

The mother was taken to Liverpool Hospital to receive treatment in a mental health facility.

It's understood her husband found the duo in the bathroom and immediately called paramedics.

Harrowing footage captured a devastated man, dressed in a grey sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting on the ground outside the home with a toddler in his arms.

Paramedics worked on the infant at the scene before he was taken to Campbelltown Hospital, but he could not be revived

He cradled the child, believed to be a sibling of the victim, while emergency services swarmed around him.

A shocked neighbour revealed the 'cute' family had only moved into the home a week before the tragedy and were 'lovely'.

'I came out and found police everywhere I held the grandparents, comforted them as they took the baby away,' the man said.

Another man could be seen comforting a woman as they leaned against a car in the street.

The woman was refused bail on Wednesday.

She is due to reappear in Campbelltown Local Court on November 24.

A man was seen comforting a woman as they leant on the back of a car in the residential street
A Bali jailbird who turned his life around after trying to kill himself behind bars is working at a ritzy new $10million Gold Coast nightclub that welcomed some of Australia's biggest social influencers to its grand opening.

Will Cabantog served a one-year sentence at the Indonesian island's Kerobokan prison after he was caught with 1.12g of cocaine during a nightclub raid in July 2019.

Cabantog, who tried to hang himself while in jail only for the makeshift noose to snap, has since become a mental health advocate after vowing not to let his suicide attempt be his legacy.

The ex-Melbourne club promoter on Wednesday revealed he was 'back doing what I love' after being hired as a senior VIP guest host at the Gold Coast's 'Cali Beach' club.

Will Cabantog - pictured centre - has shared his new job role as a senior VIP guest host at the Gold Coast's new $10milllion 'Cali Beach' club

Cabantog served a one-year sentence at the Indonesian island's Kerobokan prison after he was caught with 1.12g of cocaine during a nightclub raid in July 2019

'It's in my blood and in my bones from pouring my first pint at the pub to at one point running the most successful club in the country,' he wrote on Instagram.

'Some might say I've changed but I'm same person just a better and improved version.'

The high-end rooftop club in the beachside city threw open the doors on Saturday to its 5,000sqm venue four stories above the corner of Surfers Paradise Boulevard.

Among the guests on opening night were Big Brother star Skye Wheatley, model Erin McNaught and a string of social media influencers including

The complex features an outdoor cinema, poolside cabanas, a volleyball court and a range of outdoor dining spots.

Before his arrest in Bali, Cabantog was often photographed enjoying the party scene - posing for pictured with the likes of Australia's Honey Badger and Eddy Maguire.

Ex-Big Brother star Skye Wheatley was at the grand opening of the ritzy beach club last Friday

Guests pictured at the opening of the beach club on a rooftop above Surfers Paradise Boulevard last weekend

Guests are pictured enjoying the opening of the 'Cali Beach' club on the Gold Coast

But after his near-death experience he said he wanted to reshape his life and told how he had started meditating, teaching English and had started studying for an online certificate in mental health.

'I didn't want to be remembered for coming to Bali and doing a line of coke and getting caught and thrown in a Bali jail and taking my life,' Cabantog told The Herald Sun.

'When you are stripped of everything and don't have much left. It's all about the legacy you want to leave.'

Cabantog said his near-hanging was just the tip of the iceberg of his traumatising time in jail life.

Kerobokan jail was built to house 300 criminals, though currently holds more than 1,400.

To make matters worse, maximum security prisoners, such as rapists and murderers, share open spaced dorms with minimum security prisoners.

Cabantog last year told how his suicide attempt led to him turning his life around

Cabantog was sentenced to one year in jail following a raid on the Lost City nightclub in Bali hot spot Canggu

Cabantog said he rented his own private cell - which can cost $250 a month - as a safety precaution during his one-year stint in the jail.

The jail also charges $50 for clean water, while cell protection and cleaning is set t $150.

He also received support from Bali Nine's Matthew Norman - who shared the prison with him and became a spiritual leader of sorts to other prisoners as he serves his life sentence for drug trafficking.

Cabantog's experiences have also prompted him to kickstart a mental health awareness campaign #speaklesslistenmore, which also serves as his Instagram handle.

The ex-Melbourne nightclub promoter served his jail sentence at Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail. He said he rented his own private cell as a safety precaution
The Queensland premier took a series of swipes at her NSW counterpart in a dramatic speech in front of the nation's business leaders, with two words ringing out the loudest.

Annastacia Palaszczuk reminded her audience that Queensland's latest lockdown lasted only 'eight days' - which was the amount of time she said her NSW equivalent Gladys Berejiklian took before putting the neighbouring state into lockdown.

Ms Palaszczuk's biting comparison came amid concern over the latest outbreak in Queensland, with growing fears over whether the NRL Grand Final should go ahead in Brisbane.

Annastacia Palaszczuk reminded her audience that Queensland's latest lockdown lasted only 'eight days' - which was the amount of time her NSW equivalent Gladys Berejiklian took before putting the neighbouring state into lockdown

In comparison, Sydney is into its 14th consecutive week of lockdown, while the rest of the state has also seen months of stay-at-home orders

Sunday's first-ever Brisbane NRL Grand Final is due to be played in Queensland, with more than 50,000 spectators set to pack into Suncorp Stadium.

An escalation in cases could spell danger for the final.

But Queensland recorded just one new local case of Covid-19 on Wednesday as the state held off another lockdown while contact tracers worked to identify the source.

In comparison, Sydney is into its 14th consecutive week of lockdown, while the rest of the state has also seen months of stay-at-home orders.

'Our last lockdown lasted eight days,' Ms Palaszczuk told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

'Eight days after the start of its current outbreak, NSW was yet to enter lockdown.'

'Our last lockdown lasted eight days,' Ms Palaszczuk told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)

Queenslanders have enjoyed more normality in the second half of 2021 than their southern cousins. Spectators are seen during the NRL Preliminary Final match between Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last Saturday

NSW Police question a woman as part of efforts to prevent a 'Freedom Rally' from taking place at Bass Hill two weeks ago

Freedom Rally protesters and Victoria Police face off during September

Ms Palaszczuk said what followed was a three-month lockdown for the south, costing businesses '$100million a day'.

'Our neighbours fight to regain their freedoms,' she said.

'We fight to retain ours.'

Nowhere has this fight been more obvious than in Melbourne where the city is enduring its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began, sparking wave after wave of violent protests.

Melbourne also holds the unenviable world record for the city with the most days spent in lockdown.

A healthcare worker assists a person as they arrive to check in at the Sonic Healthcare COVID-19 Vaccination hub in the Sydney CBD last Friday

The Queensland premier claimed Queensland was economically benefiting from fewer Covid cases and shorter lockdowns, with big increases in net migration

Sydney and Brisbane have also seen Freedom Rallies, but they have been nowhere near as dramatic as Melbourne.

The Queensland boss pointed out the Sunshine State had enjoyed more freedoms than its neighbours, with major sporting fixtures held recently and pubs open.

She claimed Queensland was economically benefiting from fewer Covid cases and shorter lockdowns, with big increases in net migration.

'There is nowhere in the world I would rather be during this pandemic than in Queensland,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

The new case announced on Wednesday was a fully vaccinated man aged in his 50s and is linked to an aviation worker who had already tested positive.

There was a second infection, a truck driver who lives in Gavin on the Gold Coast and was infectious in the community from September 25 to September 27, but he tested positive in NSW so will not be included in Queensland's numbers.

The latest case prompted mandatory mask wearing rules to be introduced in the Gold Coast area, after being reinforced in Brisbane and Moreton Bay on Tuesday due to four earlier cases.

As of Wednesday all Queensland' vaccination hubs were opened to walk-ins while operating hours were extended.

The state is lagging fellow eastern states NSW and Victoria in the race to the key 70 and 80 per cent vaccination targets.

Just 45.6 per cent of Queenslanders are fully vaccinated, compared to 61.67 in NSW and 48.42 in Victoria.

That is likely to mean Ms Palaszczuk will be in no hurry to open interstate borders.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said restrictions would also be put on residents visiting hospitals, aged care, disability facilities, and prisons.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath and Chief Health Officer of Queensland Dr Jeannette Young attend a press conference on Tuesday

COVID-19 restrictions were reintroduced for the Brisbane and Moreton Bay council areas following the discovery of four new local COVID-19 cases in the community on Tuesday. Suncorp Stadium, venue for the NRL Grand Final is pictured

'We know that the virus is on our doorstep,' she said during Wednesday's Covid-19 press conference.

On Tuesday a leading epidemiologist admitted concern about Queensland's new Covid outbreak.

The worry was that after several near-misses in the Sunshine State the virus may finally start to spiral out-of-control as it has in NSW and Victoria.
The end of a six-decade long wait for Taco Bell to arrive in Western Australia caused so much excitement it sparked a traffic jam on a major highway.

Hundreds of people queued for hours to sample the menu at the US fast food giant's first WA outlet - bringing the Great Eastern Highway in the Perth suburb of Midland to a stand still.

Some even queued all night to ensure they were among the first in the door when the restaurant opened at 10am.

There was great excitement when Taco Bell's first Western Australia outlet opened on Wednesday

Some people queued overnight to make sure they were at the top of the line when Taco Bell opened its doors for the first time in Western Australia

According to a report on the Perth Now website, some people came armed with tents, sleeping bags and beanbags to make their wait for a taco more comfortable.

James Corby, who moved to Perth from America when he was a child had long implored Taco Bell to open an outlet in WA.

His long wait to experience Taco Bell in his adopted home of Western Australia finally came to an end today.

'It was worth the wait, the long night (queueing),' he told Perth Now's Bryce Luff.

Western Australia's first Taco Bell restaurant caused a traffic jam in Perth on Tuesday, with people very keen to sample their Mexican-themed food

Texas native Ashley Renfro, was close to the front of the line with her three-year-old daughter Georgia Belle when Taco Bell opened this morning.

'When I heard Taco Bell was coming to Perth I was screaming,' she said.

As well as tacos and other Mexican inspired food, Taco Bell also sells chips, drinks and deserts.

Taco Bell plans to open a second Perth outlet in 2022 in the northern suburbs of the city

Taco Bell was founded by man called Glen Bell, an entrepreneur who had previously owned a hot dog stand.

Bell sold the chain to PepsiCo in 1978.

Taco Bell's Australian operation also has outlets in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Their entry into the WA market will soon be doubled, with a second Perth outlet set to open in 2022 in Ellenbrook, in the city's northern suburbs.
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Britain's fuel crisis has sparked more mass brawls and led to one pair of 'idiots' illegally filling a bucket with fuel as it was revealed soldiers will start to drive tankers by the weekend amid fears the chaos at the pumps could last until the end of October.

As drivers queued through the night outside petrol stations for the sixth day running, ever-increasing swathes of the economy and public services also continued to be hit with school buses cancelled, blood deliveries stopped, nurses sleeping on wards and up to a third of London's black cabs now parked up with empty tanks.

Tensions are again running high motorists accused each other of jumping queues or taking too much fuel with the latest violence taking place in Epping, Essex, yesterday. The fight spilled out into the traffic as one man involved said repeatedly: 'You didn't need it', while throwing punches and kicks before other drivers broke them up.

While such is the desperation for petrol, and the shortage of jerry cans, footage has emerged of two men filling a bucket lined with a black binliner with unleaded.

The illegal move is highly dangerous, with the fuel certain to dissolve the bag and likely to melt the bucket, with social media users questioning why the owners of the Shell garage failed to intervene. Others pointed out that the man holding the pump had a mask on to protect him from Covid-19, but didn't appear concerned one spark could see him engulfed in flames.

And even an ambulance was left stranded for four hours when it broke down - and recovery trucks had no fuel to reach it - leaving a vulnerable patient unable to get to hospital in North Wales for an appointment.

Speaking for the first time as the crisis approached a week, Boris Johnson last night urged frustrated drivers to remain calm yesterday as violent scenes compared to the 'Wild West' erupted at petrol stations around the country.

Fist fights are regularly breaking out and one driver even threatening another with a knife. The ugly confrontations led to fears among police chiefs that officers may be drafted in to guard garages if the crisis continues.

Petrol stations face disruption for up to a month even if panic buying stops, industry figures have warned as the Army is set to start driving fuel tankers to petrol stations this week - despite Mr Johnson's claim petrol panick-buying is 'stabilising'.

The Prime Minister was accused of a 'half-baked' response to the fuel crisis earlier tonight as he dismissed calls for key workers to get priority at petrol stations.

Industry sources have told The Times that disruption could carry on for weeks, even if panic buying dies down, due to the time it would take to restock petrol stations. One source said they expected BP to keep tackling issues throughout next month.

Today Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was asked if he could guarantee that Christmas isnt going to be affected by the fuel crisis and other issues such as the shortage of HGV drivers.

He replied: 'Im not guaranteeing anything. All Im saying is I think the situation is stabilising. I think people realise that this will pass and we are very very focussed that we are getting enough drivers, we have stepped up military drivers and we are making sure we are getting petrol into the forecourts that can actually mean we have enough supply to meet demand. When we look at figures yesterday, it looks like the inflow of petrol matches the sales.

He added that soldiers will be deployed to help ease the fuel crisis, telling Sky News: 'It takes a couple of days, sometimes a few days to get troops on ground. People will see some soldiers driving tanker fleet'.

The PM has resisted calls for the Army to be called in but from today around 150 military hauliers are undergoing training to become fuel tanker drivers and are expected to qualify within the next few days. A government source said there were no plans to deploy them and that they would be on standby as 'an insurance policy'.

Yet another fight at the petrol pumps as stressed out drivers fall out after people are accused of cutting into queues or taking too much fuel

A driver pulled a knife on a motorist and was then run over in an alleged row over petrol, footage appears to show. Do you know the man? Let us know: danny.hussain@mailonline.co.uk

Footage has emerged of two men filling a bucket lined with a black binliner with unleaded. The illegal move is highly dangerous, with the fuel certain to dissolve the bag and likely to melt the bucket, with social media users questioning why the owners of the Shell garage failed to intervene.

An ambulance was left stranded for four hours when it broke down - and recovery trucks had no fuel to reach it. A backup ambulance was sent to collect them but had to abandon the rescue over concerns it would run out of diesel

Drivers queue for fuel at a petrol station in London again today - the sixth day running - as Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to reassure the British public claiming that the fuel-supply crisis snarling the country was 'stabilising'

Vehicles queuing for fuel overnight on the A20 Swanley by-pass in Kent as industry experts warned the crisis could take a month to pass

This driver showed the queues in Leicester in the pouring rain last night as the Army was drafted in to deliver fuel

The Petrol Retailers Association has said the situation is improving with a third of independent forecourts out of fuel - compared to up to 90% earlier in the week

Christmas in peril: Minister admits there are NO guarantees fuel, HGV and UK's hospitality and staffing crisis will be over by December 25 Britain's Business Secretary today admitted he can't 'guarantee' that the UK's fuel crisis and lorry driver shortage won't hit Christmas for millions - as his boss Boris Johnson fights to save the festive period. Kwasi Kwarteng's warning came as retailers predicted a lack of HGVs and delivery drivers will hit supply chains and also force up prices by December. Trade association UK Hospitality has said that pubs and restaurants are facing disastrous staffing and supply problems that threaten their Christmas. It came as the UK's roads are clogged with drivers queueing for fuel because of a lack tanker drivers. In a string of crises for the country, soaring gas prices have hit millions in the pocket and a shortage of CO2 hurting the supply of food and drink. Today Mr Kwarteng was asked if he could guarantee that Christmas isnt going to be affected by the fuel crisis and other issues such as the shortage of HGV drivers. He replied: 'Im not guaranteeing anything. All Im saying is I think the situation is stabilising. I think people realise that this will pass and we are very very focussed that we are getting enough drivers, we have stepped up military drivers and we are making sure we are getting petrol into the forecourts that can actually mean we have enough supply to meet demand. When we look at figures yesterday, it looks like the inflow of petrol matches the sales. Advertisement

There were tentative signs that the situation was improving last night, with the Petrol Retailers Association saying that around 37 per cent of the 5,500 independent forecourts it represents were out of fuel. This was down from between 50 per cent and 90 per cent the day before.

But the long queues remain, hitting those who need fuel to keep homes running, care for people in the community and keep the NHS ticking.

School buses in Buckinghamshire have been disrupted - with the owner of one fleet saying it has become a 'cat and mouse' game to fill up, managing to find fuel at around 3am because some garages are refusing to let large vehicles use their pumps.

Buckingham Council tweeted: 'Due to fuel shortages, there are a number of school buses cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. Parents and schools have been notified.'

Volunteers who deliver vital blood products to hospitals for the NHS have been hit by 'frustrating' fuel shortages. Up to half of 'bloodrunners' in Kent have been unable to go out on runs in recent days because of problems getting fuel.

Johan Pieterse from SERV Kent, a charity that transports crucial blood products for hospitals in the county for free out of hours, said the challenges were 'frustrating'. He said: 'God forbid someone is in hospital needing a blood product or someone is at home and they can't get it because we are stuck in queues of traffic'.

Boris Johnson tried to calm the chaos by urging the public to 'fill up in the normal way when you really need it', although he also warned that the government is working on 'getting through to Christmas and beyond'.

But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has now signed off the request for military assistance, with up to 300 troops able to be deployed if required.

All military drivers are qualified to be behind the wheel of HGVs but they may need three days' training to learn how to fill petrol stations with fuel.

Risking infuriating motorists who have been facing extraordinary carnage across the country, Johnson earlier laid the blame on a 'slightly misleading' account of the shortages of lorry drivers causing an 'understandable surge in public demand'.

'I would really urge everybody to go about their business in the normal way and fill up in the normal way when you really need it,' he said.

'What we want to do is to make sure we have all the preparations needed to get through to Christmas and beyond, not just in supply for petrol stations but all parts of the supply chain.'

Pressed on whether he would be calling it a crisis if anyone else was in No10, Mr Johnson said: 'What we have is a recovery after a global pandemic.'

The intervention, in a statement from Downing Street, came as the Labour leader weighed in, saying the issues over drivers had been 'entirely predictable' and the government's limp response had resulted in 'chaos'.

In a round of interviews from his party conference in Brighton, Sir Keir called for the length of emergency visas for foreign HGV drivers to be doubled to six months.

But he refused to say that Brexit was 'to blame', instead arguing that it was an inevitable consequence of the decision that was taken. Aides said the PM's brief chat with broadcasters exposed that there was still 'no plan' and the government was complacent.

The PM (pictured today) tried to calm the chaos by urging the public to 'fill up in the normal way when you really need it' as he stressed that there is no need for panic buying

All military drivers are qualified to be behind the wheel of HGVs but they may need three days' training to learn how to fill petrol stations with fuel. Pictured, British Army tankers on the move on the A1 near Ripon in North Yorkshire in 2000

In a round of interviews from Labour conference in Brighton today, Keir Starmer said the issues over drivers had been 'entirely predictable' and the government's response far too slow

Two men brawling at a London petrol station after one accused the other of jumping the queue for fuel

Fuel crisis 'could drive up Covid cases' Britain's petrol crisis could drive up Covid cases if commuters rush back onto buses and trains, experts said today amid fears the country is on the cusp of a fourth wave. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, claimed there could 'certainly' be a spike as a result of the fuel shortage. Other scientists said it was 'plausible'. Hundreds of forecourts across the country have already been run dry by panic buyers, which it's thought may lead to a sudden clamour for public transport. Shocking footage showed drivers throwing punches and even brandishing knives during chaotic scenes at petrol stations on Monday. Doctors and nurses have demanded they are given priority for fuel, saying they need to be able to get to hospitals to treat patients. Professor Hunter told MailOnline: 'The move to public transport could certainly increase transmission. And, if the majority of people are not wearing face coverings, then that would make that transmission worse.' SAGE has previously warned that if commuter levels suddenly return to pre-pandemic levels then it could fuel a fresh wave. Advertisement

The comments came as more fighting broke out on Britain's 'Wild West' petrol forecourts today, with drivers throwing punches and even pulling knives as violent rows broke out in the long queues.

However, minister insist there are 'tentative' signs the crisis will ease this week.

Mr Johnson was making his own position clear for the first time, as MPs slammed his decision not to bring in soldiers to deliver fuel immediately to 'regain public confidence' and petrol stations started rationing fuel sales at 30.

Mr Johnson said: 'I want to say, first of all, how much I sympathise with people who've been worried about their journeys, worried about whether they'll be able to use their cars in the normal way, to see their loved ones or whatever it is, and I know how frustrating, infuriating it must have been to worry about shortage of petrol or fuel.

'We now are starting to see the situation improve; we're hearing from (the) industry that supplies are coming back on to the forecourt in the normal way.

'I would just stress that on the forecourts the situation is stabilising and people should be confident and just go back to their business in the normal way.'

Asked whether he agreed that key workers needed priority at the pumps, Mr Johnson said he 'understands why people say that' but suggested that instead the situation should 'stabilise in a normal way'.

On the wider issues, the premier repeated his mantra that wages and training must improve for Britons, rather than bringing in more foreign labour.

'The actual number of lorry drivers that we're short in that particular sector isn't very big. But generally there is a shortage in that profession around the world,' he said.

'And what we want to see is an emphasis on high wage, a high-skill, a high-productivity approach to our economy.

A fuel tanker is seen at a petrol and diesel filling station at Begelly in Pembrokeshire, Wales on Tuesday evening

A fuel tanker was pictured filling up a station in Begelly, Pembrokeshire, on Tuesday evening

How can I carry fuel legally from a petrol station - and can I store it at home? A motorist fills up her vehicle with fuel from a jerry can at a petrol station in London today What containers can I use to store petrol? The legislation allows you to store petrol in the following containers: plastic containers storing up to 10 litres

metal containers storing up to 20 litres

demountable fuel tank up to 30 litres Suitable portable containers are defined as being 'robust', 'will not significantly degrade due to exposure to petrol' and must be marked with the words 'PETROL' and 'HIGHLY FLAMMABLE'. If it is plastic it must be made of a moulded polyethylene. Does the petrol in the fuel tank of my car count towards the total I can store? No  the petrol in the fuel tank of your vehicle, including boats and aircraft, does not count when you are calculating the total amount you are storing. How much petrol can I store in a vehicle? You can store up to 30 litres of petrol in a maximum of 2 suitable containers in your vehicle. How to store fuel at home? The Health and Safety Executive says you can legally store 30 litres of petrol at your home but there are strict guidelines about how and where you should put it, because fuel is highly flammable. It must be kept in: a) in a shed b) in a garage c) Outside no more than six metres from your house - ie, at the end of a drive. But officials at the AA recommend people that they 'shouldn't even contemplate storing it at all'. Advertisement

'What I don't think people in this country want to do is fix all our problems with uncontrolled immigration. Again, we tried that for a long time  20 years or so, perhaps longer.

'And in the end, people could see that it was leading to a low-wage, low-skill approach without enough investment in people or in equipment, in capital. And that's not the way we want the UK to develop and grow.'

Speaking to BBC News in Brighton, the Labour leader said: 'The Government has reduced the country to chaos as we track from crisis to crisis and the Government is not gripping this.

'I spoke to the haulage sector this morning to the businesses that are absolutely in the middle of this, and they are beyond frustrated and these were their words, they said it's a Government that is denying there's a problem, then blaming somebody else, and then coming up with a half-baked plan. What I would do is give priority to key workers this week.

'And I would issue enough visas for lorry drivers for long enough. At the moment there was some talk this morning on the discussion that the pieces may not even begin until November. And we have to take action today.

'The Prime Minister should take that action today, prioritise key workers and start issuing enough visas and for long enough. The strong view this morning was that three months visas won't work, they've got to be six months visas.

'But this problem was predictable and predicted and the Government has absolutely failed to plan.'

Sir Keir resisted blaming Brexit for the shortage of HGV drivers but accepted it was partly a consequence of leaving the European Union.

Speaking to Channel 5 News, the Labour leader said: 'I wouldn't say that Brexit is to blame. What I would say is that it was inevitable as we exited the EU that we needed a plan to deal with drivers. That is obvious whether you voted Remain or voted Leave, and we took that decision years ago.

'And here we are with a shortage of drivers which was completely predictable and predicted - and the Government hasn't got a plan.'

But later speaking to Sky News, Sir Keir said: 'What is the sole cause of this problem? The Government has known for some time that there are consequences of us leaving the EU, one of which is lorry drivers.'

Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed the pressure on filling stations is beginning to ease and insisted the Army would remain on standby despite admitting the queues will not disappear yet.

'There are now the first very tentative signs of stabilisation in forecourt storage which won't be reflected in the queues as yet,' he said in a pooled TV clip.

'But it is the first time that we have seen more petrol actually in the petrol stations. The sooner we can all return to our normal buying habits, the sooner the situation will return to normal.'

As one driver was seen filling mineral water bottles with petrol, he said: 'No more water bottles at petrol stations: it's dangerous and not helpful'.

New video has emerged of two men punching and kicking each other across a London Shell station in a row about whose turn it was to fill up. Two women yelling 'what the f*** are you doing' broke up the punch-up as one of the fighters pointed at his foe and yelled: 'He stole my place'.

Amid widespread scenes of enormous queueing across Britain's forecourts, footage emerged of a man holding what appears to be a knife shouting at a driver outside a petrol station in Welling, south east London. The video then shows the car ramming into the alleged knifeman, who is then carried for several yards on the bonnet.

And it is proving so difficult to get fuel, thieves have been siphoning it from cars, sometimes drilling into the petrol tank, Shadrack Olaloko, from Birmingham, said: 'What these guys did was they came and drained out all my fuel in the tank'.

Drivers pack into Wisley South Services in Surrey this morning beside a near deserted A3

The brawls broke out as motorists reported queues at 11pm, 3am and 5.30am across the UK as the Government was accused of being 'asleep at the wheel' and critics questioned claims within Whitehall that the crisis will be over within two to three days.

Mike Granatt, former head of Britain's civil contingencies secretariat, the section of the Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning in the UK, said today that the Prime Minister should give a TV press conference on the fuel crisis, as Tony Blair did in 2000. He said: 'It's called leadership. And we need some. Someone needs to stand up and say this to people rather than hide away'.

Government's emergency fuel plan suggests rationing and priority pumps for NHS and police are on the way Rationing of fuel and filling stations just for emergency workers are the likely next steps in the crisis, Government documents reveal. Under an emergency government plan (pictured), key workers could be given 'priority access' to a number of petrol stations. The plan involves capping the amount of fuel drivers can buy and letting critical workers have 'priority access' to pumps. Another option, the designated filling station scheme, could see 'emergency and critical service vehicles' having priority access. This was done by Tony Blair's government during the 2000 fuel crisis. The document, published last year, reveals the Government's next steps are: Designated Filling Station scheme: Emergency and critical service vehicles would be given priority access to road fuel from filling stations Bulk Distribution Scheme: Oil companies and fuel distributors can be directed to prioritise the delivery of bulk petroleum products to critical services such as emergency services, utilities and public transport. Commercial Distribution Scheme: Oil companies and fuel distributors can be directed to prioritise the supply of road diesel to the commercial vehicles sector to support the operation of key supply chains, such as food and health. Maximum Purchase Scheme (rationing): This restricts the sale of road fuels at retail filling stations to the public to a maximum amount per visit to ensure that all motorists have access to some fuel. The scheme can also limit the hours in which road fuels can be sold. Crude Oil and Imported Product Allocation Scheme: Government can formally allocate crude oil and other imported oil products within the UK. Advertisement

Tobias Ellwood, chair of Parliament's Defence Committee, has said the army should be mobilised, not just put on standby, to 'regain public confidence' and stop the fuel crisis.

The Conservative MP told Sky News: 'The country wants to see the Government is in command and it has a clear cross-Whitehall plan.

'We have gone from 1 per cent fuel pump shortages to 90 per cent so altering people's buying behaviour to prevent the panic buying and going back to previous purchasing patterns requires regaining the confidence of the nation.

'I believe the army should not just be put on standby but in fact mobilised, be seen to be used.

That will help ease the pressure on shortages of course, it will return public confidence, and then on top of that there is the bigger issue about articulating a clear strategy to alleviate the chronic shortage of lorry drivers.'

Such is the panic at the pumps, hundreds more people than usual have been filling up on the wrong fuel. Around 250 flustered drivers have had to be rescued by the AA's specialist 'fuel assist' team on Saturday and Sunday - compared to around 20 in normal circumstances.

One tanker driver told LBC that even they are struggling for fuel because they are spending so much time in queues with drivers also blocking access to HGV pumps.

An industry source said while the claim could be 'credible', it is likely to be an isolated incident.

Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said Britain's petrol stations had becoming the 'Wild West' after he queued for fuel only for it to sell out before everyone got to the pumps.

He said: 'Man behind me was furious and started punching the guard', adding it 'became a melee of 8-10 men on the ground, punching and kicking'.

The Government is putting the military on standby after a widespread shortage of truck drivers, which has led to serious supply problems for retailers and restaurants in the past few months, meaning plentiful stocks of fuel have not reached filling stations.

But critics have said Boris Johnson has known for months that there is a lack of HGV drivers but ministers have had had their 'heads in the sand'. The Prime Minister has 150 soldiers ready to drive tankers but they will not be brought in yet with one Government source telling The Times: 'We believe that the crisis will recede in the next few days'.

Grant Shapps has rejected criticism that the Government has been too slow to mobilise the Army to help deal with the fuel crisis.

Ministers announced on Monday they were putting troops on standby to deliver supplies as filling stations continued to run dry.

In a pool clip for broadcasters, Mr Shapps said: 'There is a series of escalations that you go through in a crisis like this.

'We have already put 18 different steps in place which stretch right the way back to the spring.

'The system was just about coping until last weekend and it would have been capable of continuing to do so.

'Unfortunately, as we have seen with toilet rolls and other things, once people start to pursue a particular item, it can quickly escalate.

'But there is only so much petrol you can transfer into tanks. That is starting to work its way through.'

He said that Brexit has been a 'factor' in the current fuel crisis.

A member of staff directing the queues at Tesco petrol station at Bar Hill near Cambridge this afternoon in a rain storm

Ascot high street is blocked with cars quitting to get petrol at one of the only fuel stations in the area. Customers are limited to 30 per car

The high street in Ascot was blocked in rush hour this morning after one petrol station in the area got a delivery of fuel

Fuel shortages escalate due to panic buying, as the Shell petrol station near Clapham South has run out

Drivers queue for fuel at an Esso petrol station in Bournville, Birmingham

A closed petrol station in Manchester, as the Government insisted the tide is now turning in the crisis

There is a driver shortage across Europe - with the largest deficit found in Poland followed by Britain and Germany

Mr Shapps said the primary cause of the shortages had been the cancellation of HGV driver testing last year due to the pandemic.

However, he added: 'Brexit I hear mentioned a lot and it no doubt will have been a factor.

'On the other hand, it has actually helped us to change rules to be able to test more drivers more quickly.

'So, it has actually worked in both ways.'

Mr Shapps condemned motorists who tried to fill up plastic water bottles with petrol as the panic buying continued.

'It is dangerous and extremely unhelpful,' he said.

Under an emergency government plan, key workers could be given 'priority access' to a number of petrol stations. The plan involves capping the amount of fuel drivers can buy and letting critical workers have 'priority access' to pumps, The Telegraph reports.

Another option, the designated filling station scheme, could see 'emergency and critical service vehicles' having priority access. This was done by Tony Blair's government during the 2000 fuel crisis.

Some areas have already seen bin collections cancelled, and teaching unions have warned that schools could need to go back to online learning if teachers cannot drive to work.

A 49-year-old woman, whose parents both have terminal cancer, fears she will be unable to reach the hospital in an emergency after her car ran out of fuel.

The woman from Wilmslow, Cheshire - who did not wish to give her name - said she had to abandon her vehicle in a car park with a message in the window.

'In a nutshell, if I get a call to hospital I'd not have the diesel to make the journey - very stressful and upsetting, to be honest,' she told the PA news agency.

'I've had to abandon my car at three miles... (I) left it in the car park with a message in the window explaining why the car has been left and walked home. I just have to hope the car is safe overnight.

'I won't be able to see my dad or, in an emergency, (won't be) able to go to the hospital.'

Volunteers who deliver vital blood products to hospitals for the NHS in Kent have been hit by 'frustrating' fuel shortages, a charity says.

Johan Pieterse, secretary and trustee for SERV Kent, said: 'We have had a drop-off of about 50 per cent of our members who can't go on rota because they can't get fuel since Friday night.

'It's frustrating because we don't see the need for the panic buying and all it's doing is it's affecting all emergency services, not just us.

'God forbid someone is in hospital needing a blood product or someone is at home and they can't get it because we are stuck in queues of traffic.'

Mr Pieterse said that while the charity has managed to cover all its pick-ups and deliveries, some had been delayed and they had been unable to access their headquarters because of queuing traffic.

Pressure on filling stations is starting to ease although demand for fuel remains 'well above the norm', the chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association has said.

Brian Madderson said there were indications of 'a move towards equilibrium' later in the week.

'The extreme demand levels witnessed over the weekend have eased somewhat,' he told Sky News.

'There are still demand levels well above the norm and as a result many of our members have sites dry. Many of the big groups are down to around 50% of their sites.

'There is still a problem out there. There is still a bit of panic buying, there is still queuing, but we are hopeful that we are seeing the first signs of a move towards equilibrium later in the week.'

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said health and care workers should be given priority at petrol pumps to prevent 'people losing their lives'.

After a dizzying 24 hours of dithering over the use of soldiers to plug the HGV driver gap, ministers agreed to put the Army on standby. It is hoped that panic-buying will ease this week to reduce pressure on fuel supplies. But if the crisis does not abate, ministers will trigger 'Operation Escalin'.

About 150 military tanker drivers were put into a state of readiness under the operation, sources said. Some of them will receive further training in the next few days to be able to deliver fuel if required. The operation, originally conceived in case of a no-deal Brexit, could potentially see hundreds of troops brought in to help.

Chairman of the British Medical Association council, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, told The Times that 'everyone will have their own reasons for needing to fill up, but as pumps run dry there is a real risk that NHS staff won't be able to do their jobs and provide vital services and care to people who urgently need it'.
A $250,000 reward has been offered in a bid to solve a two-decade-old murder in Western Australia and people who come forward may be granted immunity from prosecution.

The victim's wife has also issued a plea for people with information to speak up, at the same time questioning how the killer can sleep at night while 'keeping such a dark secret for so long'.

In March 1999, Andrew Podpinka was found stabbed to death in his home in Morley in suburban Perth by his wife and daughter when they returned from shopping.

A widow has issued a desperate plea to find her husband's killer after Andrew Podpinka, 43, (pictured) was stabbed to death at his home in Perth in 1999

The 43-year-old was found in the master bedroom with extensive wounds to his chest and back.

'This was a brutal killing of a man who was attacked while sitting inside his own home,' Police Minister Paul Papalia said on Wednesday.

'Investigators are confident someone in the community knows what happened that day.

'I hope this reward might prompt someone to come forward and give information to detectives.

'For the sake of Mr Podpinka's family, who have suffered pain and anguish for more than 20 years, I urge you to speak up.'

The victim's wife Margaret urged those involved in her husband's death to 'take a moment to reflect on what you did to our family'.

Police Minister Paul Papalia (pictured) has urged anyone with information on the 20-year-old murder to come forward on Wednesday

'How can you live with yourself? How can you sleep at night,' she said.

'How can you look your own family in the eyes keeping such a dark secret for so long.'

Mr Papalia said authorities might be prepared to consider protection from prosecution or pardon for anyone with information that leads to the conviction of the person or people responsible for Mr Podpinka's murder.

A $250,000 reward has been offered in a bid to solve a two-decade-old murder (pictured, stock photo)

This was on the provision that the informant was not directly responsible for the killing.

Police Assistant Commissioner Brad Royce said the investigation into the killing had always remained active.

'We don't put files away. We continue,' he said.

'We're at that space now where we've exhausted the opportunities we had from the original scene.

'Now we're asking people who may know something to come forward and help us and help the Podpinka family.'

Mr Royce said developments in forensic technology had advanced the investigation but more information was required.

Mr Podpinka was a slight man with some physical disabilities and his wife said he would have had no chance to fight off his attacker.

'I'm hoping someone, somewhere knows something,' she said.

'We do need public help to solve this cold case and make the community a safer place to live.'
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A 'miracle house' that was surrounded by lava erupting from La Palma's volcano but left undamaged by the molten rock has now been destroyed, its owners have said.

Rainer Cocq, a retired Danish businessman in his 80s who owned the holiday home and surrounding vineyards with 80-year-old wife Inge Bergedorf, confirmed on Tuesday that the property had been swallowed by the lava.

'Everything is destroyed,' he told Spanish newspaper El Mundo from his permanent residence in Denmark, to the west of Copenhagen. 'We have lost everything on our beloved island. It is very sad. Inge and I are devastated.'

Images of the house made headlines around the world last week - standing as a symbol of defiance and endurance while hundreds of other homes and acres of farmland were burned up by the volcano.

But, eventually, the lava piled up high enough to over-flow the raised piece of land on which the small house sat, burying it along with its neighbours.

News of the property's fate emerged as the lava flowed into the sea today, with locals warned to stay indoors due to the risk of poison gas.

BEFORE: A 'miracle house' that was surrounded by lava from the La Palma volcano last week but remained untouched has now been destroyed, the elderly Danish couple who owned it have confirmed

AFTER: The couple's daughter posted this aerial image online which is believed to show how lava has now destroyed the property

Lava from La Palma's erupting volcano has dropped into the ocean, kicking up a cloud of steam that may also be laced with hydrochloric acid and fine glass shards

The lava began piling up in the ocean water overnight, creating a mound that is already 164ft high and will re-shape La Palma's coastline when it cools and hardens

Molten rock boils sea water as it cools, producing super-heated steam but also 'laze' - or 'lava haze' - which is made up of hydrochloric acid and fine glass shards

An aerial image shows the erupting volcano (top left) and the site where the lava is now falling into the ocean (bottom right)

A cross is seen in the grounds of a church roughly two miles from the volcano that has been erupting on the Spanish island of La Palma for the last nine days

Dramatic images showed the river of 1,800F (1,000C) rock plunging off a cliff and into the sea on La Palma's west coast around 11pm Tuesday night.

Large clouds of steam could be seen drifting into the air but the reaction between molten rock and sea water can also produce hydrochloric acid, which is toxic.

Rapidly cooling molten rock can also produce what is known as 'laze' - a lava-haze made up of tiny glass shards that can cause breathing problems.

Around 300 people have been confined to their homes, while police have also set up a 1.5mile-long exclusion zone along the coast that goes 2 nautical miles out to sea to keep people away.

Of the three people who died during La Palma's last two eruptions - in 1949 and 1971 - two of them died due to inhaling toxic gases after getting too close to the lava.

Ruben Fernandez, head of the Canary Island's volcanic emergency committee, said the current risk from toxic gas is 'low' because strong winds are blowing it out to sea.

"Right now we have no indication that makes us think there is any danger for those who are confined in their homes, nor for the emergency teams which are observing a safety distance," Fernandez added.

Nobody has yet been seriously hurt or killed in the current eruption, which began on September 19 and that experts say could last until November.

The eruption is taking place on Cumbre Vieja, a ridge of high volcanic activity which has been the site of every eruption on La Palma going back to the 1600s - though this exact site has not erupted before.

Experts had initially predicted the lava could reach the ocean last week, but the flow had slowed down markedly in the middle of last week as the rock cooled and piled up in 40ft high mounds.

That led to warnings that it might never reach the sea, instead spreading out on land like a pancake - burning up more farmland and homes in the process.

News that the lava river has now reached the ocean will be a relief to emergency services, as molten rock following behind it is more-likely to follow the same path - limiting the amount of destruction it will cause.

As of Tuesday morning, EU satellite-watcher said the lava had destroyed 589 homes, burned up 640 acres, and destroyed 13 miles of road.

The volcano began erupting on September 19 (right), with the lava burning a path towards the ocean ever since (solid orange). Overnight it finally reached the ocean (presumed path shaded) with three areas in lockdown due to gas risk (top left). A large amount of ash has also rained down on the island (in grey)

The eruption marks the first time in 50 years that a volcano has been active on La Palma, with experts saying it could continue until November

Lava is seen flowing from the side of the volcano, which has destroyed some 589 homes and burned up 640 acres

A daylight image of the volcano reveals the river of lava in more detail, including how it has burned through homes and farmland on its route towards the ocean

People watch from a nearby marina as a river of lava from La Palma's volcano flows into the ocean, nine days after the eruption first started. Experts believe it could last for another two months

Updated figures for today are not yet available, though local news stations said the area the lava passed through on its way to the ocean was largely uninhabited.

It fell into the sea near a beach known as Playa Nueva, in the Tazacorte region.

By Wednesday morning, a deposit of molten rock was protruding out of the ocean some 164 ft high, according to images from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography.

Residents of several areas of Tazacorte had already been warned to stay at home with their windows locked to avoid inhaling toxic gasses from the lava.

Those who were directly in the path of the molten rock were evacuated last week. Some 6,000 people were ordered out of their homes in total.

On Tuesday afternoon, the slow-moving lava flow, which has varied in speed over the past few days, was still around 800 metres (half a mile) from the coast.

Residents were warned to stay home due to 'the possibility that there will be a small shock when the magma enters the seawater, and that this small shock causes vapours which can be toxic,' stressed Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater could cause explosions sounding like gunshots and a fragmentation of the molten rock.

'Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases,' Involcan warned.

A state of natural disaster has been declared on the island.

A plume of ash and steam rising from the Cumbre Vieja eruption creates cloud patterns in the sky over La Palma on Tuesday morning

A man in the capital of Santa Cruz de la Palma sweeps ash off the streets which has been raining down from the Cumbre Vieja eruption since last week

A woman carries an umbrella through the streets of Santa Cruz de la Palma to stop herself getting covered in ash from the erupting volcano

Houses are seen surrounded by molten rock from La Palma's volcano, which has destroyed some 589 buildings over the last nine days

The government on Tuesday released 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) in aid for victims of the eruption, in particular to buy housing for those whose homes were engulfed in lava.

The eruption has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people from their homes but has not killed or injured anyone.

The lava flow has destroyed several roads, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating last week that the damage to land and property would exceed 400 million euros.

Since it erupted, the volcano has been spewing huge columns of smoke and ash reaching several hundred metres high, disrupting air traffic.

Domestic flights were cancelled on Friday and the airport was closed the following day.

The airport has since reopened but flights remain suspended.

Experts estimate the eruption could last for several weeks, or even months.

Like other islands in the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa, La Palma relies mainly on the cultivation of bananas and tourism.
A man accused of punching a police horse during an anti-lockdown protest in Sydney has pleaded not guilty.

Kristian Pulkownik, 33, allegedly struck NSW Police horse Tobruk in the nose as his rider was managing thousands of protesters who marched in the city's CBD in July as part of the 'Rally 4 Freedom march'.

Mr Pulkownik was charged with committing an act of animal cruelty after photographs of him allegedly punching Tobruk circulated on social media, sparking widespread outrage.

He also faces charges for affray, joining an unlawful assembly and failing to comply with a Covid-19 direction.

Defence lawyer Tony Nikolic sent an email to Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday confirming his client, who was not present for the hearing, would be pleading not guilty to all charges.

Kristian Pulkownik, 33, (pictured) will plead not guilty to striking NSW Police horse Tobruk in the face at an anti-lockdown protest in Sydney in July

The court previously heard Mr Pulkownik will argue he was acting in 'self defence' when he allegedly hit the animal.

He will return to court next year for a two-day trial with six prosecution witnesses to be called to the stand.

A police representative acknowledged there was 'significant community and media interest' in the case, which might add to its complexity.

Images of Mr Pulkownik were broadcast and widely condemned throughout Australia after he was photographed wearing a yellow singlet with 'FREE SPEECH' emblazoned on the front while allegedly striking Tobruk.

He was arrested at his Surry Hills home the night after the protest, and hit with a string of charges, including breaching Covid-19 restrictions to attend the rally.

Last month, his solicitor Chris O'Donnell told the court that Mr Pulkownik was in fact diverting the horse away from him and that he had no intention of hurting the animal.

'You can see in the video, in my respectful submission, there is a live issue as to whether the accused was punching a horse,' Mr O'Donnell said.

'On the contrary, he was fending off the horse as it was moving towards him at the time in question.'

Mr Pulkownik was released on bail last month after spending two and a half-weeks in Parklea Correctional Centre.

His bail application was delayed after he refused to have a Covid test with his lawyer arguing that his asthma put him at risk of having 'adverse' reactions to the nasal swab. He was subsequently placed into isolation for a fortnight.
Four Sri Lankan refugees who hid Edward Snowden in their tiny Hong Kong apartments when he was on the run after exposing NSA spying landed in Canada on Tuesday where they were granted asylum, ending years in limbo.

Snowden's Hong Kong lawyer who helped coordinate the temporary living arrangements, Robert Tibbo, said he turned to these people, who were also his clients, for help due to the fact that authorities would be unlikely to look for the NSA whistleblower in the tiny refugee apartments in some of Hong Kong poorest neighborhoods.

Tibbo's assumption proved to be correct, as Snowden managed to evade authorities for weeks while moving from one cramped apartment to the next before ultimately fleeing to Moscow, where he was himself granted asylum.

Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, one of the families who had harbored Snowden, touched down in Toronto with their children Sethumdi and Dinath and were due to go on to Montreal to 'start their new lives,' non-profit For the Refugees said in a statement.

The family were part of a group of seven poverty-stricken refugees from Sri Lanka and the Philippines living in Hong Kong who nonetheless agreed to shelter Snowden after his bombshell revelations in 2013.

Kellapatha and Nonis claim they allowed the NSA whistleblower to stay at their tiny 250-square-foot Hong Kong apartment back in 2013, when Snowden's notoriety starting to earn him global attention.

(Front L to R) Child Dinath; Sethmundi Kellapatha and Keana; (Back Row L to R) Ajith Pushpakumara; Supun Thilina Kellapatha; Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis; Vanessa Rodel and Tibbo

Supun Thilina Kellapatha (R) holds the hand of his daughter Sethumdi (2R) and son Dinath (L) followed by Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, as they arrive in Toronto as refugees on Wednesday

Former contractor of US National Security Agency Edward Snowden is seen on a screen during his interview presented via video link at an educational forum on September 2 in Moscow

'These were people who went through the same process when they were fleeing other countries,' he said.

'They had to rely on other people for refuge, safety, comfort and support.'

Vanessa Rodel, from the Philippines, and her daughter Keana were granted asylum in Canada in 2019 with the help of For the Refugees, who have lobbied Canada to take in the others, arguing they faced persecution both in their homeland and in Hong Kong because they helped Snowden.

Kellapatha's family had faced deportation after their initial refugee claims in Hong Kong were rejected.

He spoke of his relief at finally finding a place of permanent sanctuary.

'I'm so happy this is over. I'm so happy to be going to Canada,' the South China Morning Post quoted him as saying before he and his family boarded a plane in Hong Kong.

Pictured: Vanessa Rodel and her seven-year-old daughter Keana talk to media after arriving at Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto, on March 25, 2019

Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis (pictured) touched down in Toronto and are due to go on to Montreal to 'start their new lives,' a non-profit said

'We have a new life, our children now have a future. We're so grateful right now. Really, I am speechless... The kids are so happy. I'm so grateful.'

Snowden welcomed the news of the family's arrival in Canada.

'This is the best news I've heard in a long, long time,' he wrote on Twitter.

'We need to bring one more home before we can say we're done, but I cannot thank you enough for bringing us this far,' he added.

A seventh member of the group, Sri Lankan army deserter Ajith Pushpakumara, remains in Hong Kong, where 'his safety is still at risk,' according to For the Refugees, which renewed its call for Ottawa to expedite his asylum claim.

'We are happy with the end result -- at least for six of the seven,' For the Refugees president Marc-Andre Seguin told AFP.

Snowden welcomed the news of the family's arrival in Canada. 'This is the best news I've heard in a long, long time,' he wrote on Twitter

Refugees who sheltered Edward Snowden (L to R) Supun Thilina Kellapatha, mum Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, son Dinath, daughter Sethmundi, Vanessa Rodel with daughter, Ajith Kumara

'Although we welcome the arrival and start of a new chapter in the lives of this family of four, we cannot ignore that Ajith has stayed behind,' he said.

'We are asking that Canada (again) do the right thing and admit the last of Snowden's Guardian Angels before it's too late.'

Tibbo, who is also representing Pushpakumara's Canada, said his client has a pending application with Canadian immigration.

'The difficulty here is that Ajith is all alone right now and he's questioning why his case is taking so long,' he told AFP.

Tibbo himself left Hong Kong in 2017, saying he feared for his safety after representing the Snowden refugees in the Chinese business hub.

Snowden revealed thousands of classified documents exposing vast US surveillance put in place after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The two refugee families appear at Appeal Hearing (TCAB) at The Torture Claim Appeal Board and non-refoulementt Claims Petition Office

He ended up stranded in Hong Kong as media published his findings, initially in a hotel, surrounded by journalists from around the globe.

The group of refugees agreed to shelter him for about two weeks until he could fly to Russia, where he now lives.

Their role in the saga was only revealed in a 2016 Oliver Stone film about Snowden, which left them in 'constant fear and worry' in Hong Kong, said For the Refugees.

It also highlighted the plight of refugees in Hong Kong, which has one of the lowest asylum approval rates in the world.

Only around one percent of claims are granted and the tiny fraction of claimants that are approved must get ultimate sanctuary in a third country.

While cases drag on for years, asylum applicants are not allowed to work and receive a stipend of just HK$3,000, or $385 a month, in what is one of the world's least affordable cities.
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Insulate Britain protesters blocked the same M25 junction for a second time today - making a mockery of a government injunction that was supposed to stop the demonstrations.

The first protest took place at around 7.30am and saw the eco-mob sit down on the carriageway, glue their hands to each other and the road and pour oil.

A vicar who has been arrested six times joined 10 others at this morning's protest before Kent Police moved in to clear them away.

However, just after 1pm, a second group of protesters descended on the same stretch of road in fresh humiliation for the police and government - with one irate driver taking matters into his own hands as he physically dragged a protester out of the road.

Police have previously warned that the activists are putting lives at risk with their protest - with the Church of England also criticising the demonstrations for 'frustrating' people.

However, among today's protesters once again was XR-supporting vicar Tim Hewes, who has taken part in at least six blockades yet still remains a free man. He was joined by fellow vicar Sue Parfitt who has attended at least three protests.

Rev Parfitt, from Bristol, said: 'Many people will ask why a 79 year old Anglican Priest is sitting in the road, causing disruption and how can I justify participating in such actions?

'I simply feel called to do everything in my power to protect God's planet, his creatures and the people. If we are successful in persuading the government to do what is necessary, the actions I'm taking today will help to prevent a much greater harm - no less than the destruction of everything we hold dear.'

Meanwhile, Rev Hewes was previously pictured with his lips sewn shut outside the offices of the Sun newspaper.

In March he was also jailed for 14 days for gluing himself to furniture at the City of London Magistrates' Court and admitted that his activism and the climate emergency has affected his faith in god.

This morning, Insulate Britain closed Britain's busiest motorway at Junction 3 in Kent with several members arrested on Monday at Heathrow back again because of the ongoing and embarrassing cycle of forces releasing them without charge.

More than 50 people arrested in connection with the Insulate Britain protest on the M25 48 hours ago were released by police yesterday, allowing them to disrupt rush hour again this morning.

Kent Police took an hour to deal with the incident, which began at around 8am, arresting 11 at the scene. A spokesman said: 'The Swanley Interchange roundabout at J3 of the M25 has now reopened following an earlier protest, which has resulted in us arresting 11 people. Delays remain in the area whilst the backlog of traffic clears. Thank you for your patience'. It is now the third time the junction at Swanley has been shut down by Insulate Britain.

A total of 115 people have been involved in Insulate Britain's campaign of disruptive actions over the last two weeks, with most being arrested multiple times, the group says. The total arrest tally has now reached 438. Only two people from Insulate Britain have so far been remanded in custody.

Activists, who have now blocked the M25 seven times in just over two weeks, continued their campaign despite a High Court injunction the Government said could see them imprisoned, fined heavily, or have their assets seized.

But with only a couple people in custody, the group has vowed to continue the protests infuriating rush hour drivers.

An angry motorist drags away an activist from the Insulate Britain climate change protest group as they block the road near to junction 3 of the M25 motorway near Swanley in Kent for the second time today

Activists from the Insulate Britain climate change protest group block the road near to junction 3 of the M25 motorway near Swanley for the second time today

Protesters shutting the M25 for the seventh time today including vicar Tim Hewes, centre, who has now been arrested and released on seven occasions

Tim Hewes being arrested on Monday. More than 50 people arrested in connection with the Insulate Britain protest on the M25 48 hours ago were released by police yesterday

Tim Hewes being arrested on September 17 (left) and September 21 (right). He is thought to have attended at least six protests

A police officer talks to Tim Hewes and Sue Parfitt, two vicars who have been involved in today's protests. Both vicars have also been seen at other protests

Reverend Sue Parfitt was spotted protesting with Insulate Britain during their first protest on September 13 and another on September 21. Pictured left: Rev Parfitt on September 21 and right: On September 13

A police officer drags away an Insulate Britain activist from the M25 after yet another protest

Activists glued themselves to the road blocking traffic as enraged motorists already struggling with fuel shortages shouted abuse

Police in riot vans and on motorcycles line up before removing the 11 protesters and arresting them

Insulate Britain closed the M25 junction at Swanley in Kent today - as police and the Government fail to get a grip after two weeks of protests

Arrested for a SIXTH time after being repeatedly let go: Eco-hypocrite property tycoon among repeated offenders laughing at the law Joshua Smith has now been arrested six times. He was branded a hypocrite after it emerged he owned a multi-million pound property empire - but the homes had poor insulation, an issue at the heart of the group's agenda. The 28-year-old is heir to a 2million property empire and also has a seven-figure portfolio of his own. However, at least six homes owned by his Oldham-based company have efficiency ratings of E or F, according to the Sun. This means the properties boast little or no insulation and also produce large quantities of extra carbon dioxide. Smith was pictured being held by police by the side of the M25 today before being led off in a police van. Joshua Smith at yesterday's protest Reverend Hewes, who once sewed up his lips in protest at the influence of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was part of the mob blocking the M25 today despite already being arrested numerous times. The activist 'permission to officiate' in the Diocese of Oxford although he does not have a parish. Asked about Rev Hewes last week, a spokesman for the diocese said: 'The actions of Rev Hewes and others, while arguably well-intentioned, have frustrated many people and we're unclear how the actions have been productive in encouraging the urgent change required.' Rev Hewes, a retired dentist, previously said the Bishop of Dorchester, Gavin Collins, who comes under the Diocese of Oxford, had told him 'he does support issues regarding climate change and the environment but not about breaking the law'. Reverend Hewes at yesterday's blockade Advertisement

A senior Kent police officer has said the force is working with prosecutors to seek 'the most appropriate outcome' following Insulate Britain protests in the county.

Kent Police Superintendent Andy Gadd said: 'Officers are continuing to conduct enquiries relating to those individuals arrested in connection with the protests in Dover and on the Kent section of the M25.

'As part of those enquiries, we are liaising closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that the most appropriate outcome is sought, including if any charges can be made.

'Kent Police will continue to monitor the situation, working with neighbouring police forces and partner agencies to ensure disruption to traffic and local communities is kept to a minimum.'

Insulate Britain said in a statement on Wednesday: 'We are going nowhere. You can raid our savings. You can confiscate our property. You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars.

'But shooting the messenger can never destroy the message: that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air. Boris get on with the job.'

The group, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling on the Government to insulate all homes across the UK by 2030 to help cut carbon emissions.

As well as targeting the London ring road, protesters have blocked other important routes including the A1(M) and A20 near the port of Dover.

Officers made a total of 53 arrests following the demonstration at Junction 14, near Heathrow, on Monday morning - the sixth blockage in two weeks - including the owner of a multi-million pound property empire and a Extinction Rebellion-supporting CofE vicar.

Some protesters glued themselves to each other, to barriers and the carriageway, and blue paint was sprayed onto the road, but all have been released.

The group, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling on the Government to insulate all homes across the UK by 2030 to help cut carbon emissions.

As well as targeting the London ring road, protesters have blocked other major routes including the A1(M) and A20 near the Port of Dover.

The campaign, which entered its third week on Monday, has seen well over 300 arrests.

But the Met Police have confirmed all those taken into custody on Monday have been released under investigation.

Kent Police revealed one person was charged in connection with an earlier Insulate Britain protest, among 96 arrests made by the force.

In an open Letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Insulate Britain vowed to continue their campaign in the face of arrests and injunctions.

They said: 'We are more fearful of the loss of our country than we are of you.

'You can throw as many injunctions at us as you like, but we are going nowhere.

'You can raid our savings.

'You can confiscate our property.

'You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars.

'But shooting the messenger can never destroy the message: that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air.'

National Highways, which was granted the injunction, and the Department for Transport, have been contacted for comment.

Usual suspects: Property tycoon Joshua Smith and vicar Tim Hewes have been arrested at multiple protests for Insulate Britain

Long queues formed this morning as Insulate Britain bragged that members keep getting arrested and released

Long queues for long-suffering drivers after a seventh day of disruption and the third time they've closed J3 of the M25

Insulate Britain is planning to fill prisons with hundreds of ecoactivists over the next month in an attempt to create a 'political crisis' for Boris Johnson.

The radical group again brought misery to motorists on the M25 yesterday - in clear violation of an injunction which carries with it a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

Some of those involved in the latest protest at Junction 14, near Heathrow, have been arrested up to seven times over the past fortnight, but are yet to be charged. A further 53 arrests were made yesterday morning.

Scotland Yard is 'making inquiries to understand whether those activists are in breach of the High Court injunction'.

But Insulate Britain spokesman Liam Norton said: 'Throw as many injunctions at us as you like, we're going nowhere... You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars. But that is only shooting the messenger. The truth is that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air.'

Activist Shel MacDonagh claimed that 300 people would need to be jailed in the lead-up to November's UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow to 'create a political crisis' big enough for the group to be granted concessions.

She added: 'No one is claiming that forcing the Government to start on [insulation] installation is going to sort out the climate crisis.

The point is to get a win to galvanise the movement.'

Reverend Tim Hewes, 71, was again among the protesters yesterday. He was joined by another 'rebel reverend', Mark Coleman, a former dean of Rochdale. Insulate Britain, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling for the Government to insulate homes to help cut carbon emissions. A Home Office spokesman said last night: 'The more Insulate Britain break the injunction, the more the courts will agree to tougher and broader injunctions and impose tougher sentences. These people are not martyrs. They're idiots gluing their hands to roads.'

The protesters held hands as they sat in front of irate motorists, many of whom have suffered again as they try to get to work

Joshua Smith at yesterday's protest (left) on what is now his sixth arrest. Mr Smith (seen right at an earlier demonstration) was branded a hypocrite after it emerged he owned a multi-million pound housing empire - but the homes had poor insulation, an issue at the heart of the group's agenda

Vicar Tim Hewes (left) was among the eco-rabble yesterday after being spotted at earlier blockade (right)

A spokesman for the group said in a video released Monday that it wasn't 'scared' by the court intervention, adding that its members were 'prepared' to continue being arrested.

The injunction was designed to act as a deterrent after weeks of blockades on both the M25 and A20 near Dover infuriated motorists and large portions of the British public.

But news that the eco-warriors are still being released without conditions, reported by LBC, raises fears that they will continue to wreak havoc and put drivers' lives at risk.

It comes as spokesman for the group Liam Norton - who became a laughing stock last week when it was revealed his own home hadn't been insulated - warned in a video recorded at the weekend and released today: 'You can't scare us with these injunctions'.

Donning a black t-shirt and standing in front a bare white wall, he said: 'I'm going to sit in the roads and directly oppose the injunction handed out by the Home Secretary and the Transport Secretary.

'Our message to the Government is that you can't scare us with these injunctions.

'You can send us to prison, and what that will show is the Government's cowardice, because they're actually standing up for powerful interests rather than looking after the interests of the vast majority of the British people.'

He added: 'We just want the Government to get on with the job of protecting the people's future in Britain and also to stop the needless deaths of thousands of our elderly who freeze to death in their homes each year because they have to make that awful decision between heating and eating.

'So our message to the Government is this; You can decide to put us in prison, and we're prepared for that, but what would be better for the country maybe would be to give us a meaningful statement that you are going to get on with the job, so come on Boris, show some leadership, do what you need to do.'

The Metropolitan Police told the Mail Online it could not comment on the breaking of the injunction because it was a 'civil issue'.

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
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Keir Starmer will try to draw a line under the Jeremy Corbyn era today as he declares winning the next election is more important than left-wing dogma.

In his first in-person Labour conference speech, Sir Keir will vow that under his leadership the party is 'back in business' and focussed on pragmatic solutions for Britain's problems.

Aides said Sir Keir will use his biggest political moment yet to promise to recruit thousands more teachers, and call for improvements to mental health care.

He is also expected to mount an effort to rehabilitate Labour's reputation for managing the public finances, as well as committing to creating a greener economy.

But the leadership's main aim is to show voters the party has changed since Mr Corbyn  at that time backed by Sir Keir  led it to electoral catastrophe in 2019.

Shadow cabinet members privately accept that SIr Keir has an almost impossible task to overturn Boris Johnson's 80-strong majority in a single election.

They are already urging him to cling on if he loses the poll but manages to make significant progress against the 'popular' PM.

'No politician stays popular forever,' one frontbencher told MailOnline of Mr Johnson. 'He's been through a whole list of scandals which would have killed any other politician's career and I think a tipping point will come when people look at him and decide they don't like what they see.'

In his first big conference speech, Keir Starmer will slam the door shut on the Jeremy Corbyn era as he declares winning the next election is more important than party unity

Sir Keir, who served in Jeremy Corbyn's (centre) shadow cabinet, said the former Labour leader would not have the party whip reinstated unless he apologised for his claim that the extent of Labour's anti-Semitism crisis had been overstated

Positioning Labour as a credible government-in-waiting, Sir Keir will tell supporters: 'Too often in the history of this party our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy.

'But you don't get one without the other. And under my leadership we are committed to both. I can promise you that under my leadership Labour will be back in business.

A source said the hour-long speech, which will be his most personal to date, will be 'noticeably different from what you've heard from Labour in recent years' and will be 'more optimistic, more focused on the future, more outward looking'.

'It will be a clear indication that Labour will never again go into an election with a manifesto that isn't a serious plan for government,' the insider added.

Trying to capitalise on the current fuel crisis, Sir Keir will describe the Government as 'lost in the woods'.

In a round of interviews this morning, Justice Secretary David Lammy said Sir Keir had proved this week - amid spats with the hard-Left and one resignation from his senior team 0 that he is a 'fighter'.

'The road may have been a bit bumpy at points but he has come out, as cool as a cucumber, and as a fighter,' he told Times Radio.

Sir Keir was someone with 'compassion and kindness running through him' and he is 'in touch with suburban Britain', he said.

In a series of policy announcements, Sir Keir will say Labour would guarantee access to mental health treatment in less than a month.

The party would create a National Excellence Programme for education, and recruit more teachers to enhance the prospects of the 40 per cent of young people who leave compulsory education without essential qualifications.

Mr Lammy said the party will not make the same 'mistake' as Mr Corbyn by endlessly splashing cash without explaining where it is coming from.

'We will not be making proposals that cannot be costed, the public need to know where the money is coming from.

'Clearly it was the case at the last general election, we were coming up with policies like free broadband, policies on pensions for women, a four-day week, and the public were saying 'how much is this going to cost'?

'It was coming at the last minute, they felt confused and they didn't feel able to trust us because of some of the issues that were dominating the party.'

He believes voters who had given Mr Johnson the benefit of the doubt are now concerned about his competence.

Sir Keir's first in-person conference has been overshadowed by rows over party rule changes, splits with his deputy Angela Rayner, and the surprise resignation of shadow cabinet minister Andy McDonald who accused him of making the party 'more divided than ever'

Rich 'are magic money tree' Rich people are the 'magic money tree' who must be taxed more heavily to fund a 'green new deal', a schoolboy Labour activist has claimed. Aden Harris's rebuke to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves won him a standing ovation at the party conference as she tried to make her party's economic policies sound more credible than those of the Corbyn era. Aden, 16, from Bristol, said: 'There is a money tree. It's called the top 1 per cent. 'We will tax them and we will save this planet. And it can be done and we will do it.' Advertisement

A Labour spokesman said: 'We know the shine is coming off Boris Johnson, we know that we are in a situation where there are serious questions around the competency of the Government, its ability to deliver.

'So therefore what we will be using the speech to do is to show that these are serious times that require a serious leader, and that is Keir Starmer.

'What we will be doing in between now and the next election is making sure that we're setting out the policies that we're going to stand on.

'And when we do so they will be costed, affordable, practical, and that's the type of party that we'll have.'

A shadow cabinet minister said: 'If you look at history, it's very rare for one prime minister to be followed by another with a similar character. Voters decide it's time for a change.'

The mood in Brighton has been one of grim resolve as Sir Keir and his allies try to get a grip on the party machine.

But efforts to highlight policies have been largely overshadowed by rows over party rule changes, splits with his deputy Angela Rayner, and the surprise resignation of shadow cabinet minister Andy McDonald, who accused Sir Keir of making the party 'more divided than ever'.

In a round of broadcast interviews last night, the leader shrugged off Mr McDonald's criticism.

Sir Keir told BBC News: 'My focus is on how we get Labour into a position to win a general election.

'Two years ago, we were here in Brighton for our Labour Party conference. And within a few short months, we'd crashed to the worst general election results since 1935. I am not prepared to let that happen.

'And if that means tough decisions, to change our party, then I'm going to take those tough decisions.

'There will be some people who don't agree with those changes. I understand that, we're a broad church in the Labour Party. But I'm not going to be deflected from my central mission, which is to get a Labour government so we can change it live.'

Asked what was more important to him  winning or unity  he replied: 'Winning. Winning a general election.'

Sir Keir said Mr Corbyn would not have the Labour whip reinstated unless he apologised for his claim that the extent of the party's anti-Semitism crisis had been overstated.

'It has been going on for months and the ball is in Jeremy's court,' he told BBC News.

'Jeremy was asked to apologise to take down the post that caused the problem the first place and to work with us.'

Despite his criticism of Mr Corbyn, Sir Keir served in his shadow cabinet and stood on his 2019 election manifesto.
Boris Johnson's sister Rachel has slammed anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller for asking where the Prime Minister was the day after his mother's funeral.

Ms Miller took to social media yesterday to ask: 'In the midst of fuel shortages. People desperately worried about rising cost of living/eating/heating, empty shelves - anyone seen Boris Johnson?'

To which Ms Johnson bluntly responded: 'It was our mother's funeral yesterday Gina.'

Ms Miller later replied, 'My sincere condolences.'

Gina Miller (left) took to social media yesterday to ask: 'In the midst of fuel shortages. People desperately worried about rising cost of living/eating/heating, empty shelves - anyone seen Boris Johnson?'

To which Ms Johnson bluntly responded: 'It was our mother's funeral yesterday Gina'

Pictured: Boris Johnson with his mother Charlotte Johnson Wahl attending the launch of his book 'The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History' in 2014

But not all social media users showed sympathy for the grieving Prime Minister.

One wrote: 'I lost my mother aged 21. Was expected back at work 2 days later. He is the PM. He should be there in these times of crisis!'

But others were more forgiving and quickly came to Mr Johnson's defence. One wrote: 'Sorry for your loss Rachel. People preach about mental health poor Boris has nearly died became a father and lost his mother and cant take a break. People should be ashamed.'

And another said: 'Hope it went well, sorry for your loss.'

Ms Miller's tweet comes amid mass fuel shortages and a severe lack of delivery drivers that has left supermarket shelves bare across the country.

In the last week BP has been forced to ration fuel and shut stations, while supermarkets warned of food shortages and energy firms have gone bust amid rising gas prices.

The Petrol Retailers Association warned drivers to 'keep a quarter of a tank' of fuel in their vehicles in preparation for potential closures of local petrol stations.

But not all social media users showed sympathy for the grieving Prime Minister

Businesswoman Ms Miller posted her tweet just one day after she announced she was planning to lead the True and Fair party in elections against the Conservatives and Labour.

The campaigner said: 'This Government needs to be held to account. Voters deserve better than the current politics of incompetence and self-interest.

Ms Miller rose to fame in 2016 with a legal case against the government's implementation of Brexit that reached the Supreme Court.

The case forced Theresa May to put her decision to invoke Article 50 - to officially leave the EU - before Parliament.

Critics accused the 56-year-old campaigner of attempting to stop Brexit, but she said that she was standing up for Parliamentary democracy.

Ms Miller led a second successful legal Supreme Court case in 2019 which found Boris Johnson's prorogation of Parliament to be unlawful.

Ardently pro-EU, it is not known whether Ms Miller's new party could campaign to rejoin the European Union.

The True and Fair party takes the same name as a campaign she established in 2012 which calls for an end to financial misconduct in the investment and pension industries. The two are however separate entities.

A spokesperson for True and Fair told MailOnline they would make further announcements 'in due course' following the party's expected approval by the Electoral Commission.
Boris Johnson is planning a visit to India next month to kickstart a trade drive before the COP26 climate change summit in November, it was claimed today.

The Prime Minister is reportedly targeting a visit to New Delhi ahead of world leaders meeting in Glasgow.

The PM had been due to visit India earlier this year but his plans were cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis.

The Prime Minister is reportedly targeting a visit to New Delhi ahead of world leaders meeting in Glasgow

A Government official told Politico: 'He is keen to travel, hear different perspectives and see how countries can be helped to raise their ambition for COP.'

Mr Johnson was scheduled to meet with Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, for talks back in January.

But that visit was put on ice because of a winter spike in Covid-19 infections in the UK as the PM imposed the second national lockdown.

The trip was then rescheduled for April but the coronavirus crisis again wreaked havoc with Mr Johnson's plans.

The PM was due to undertake a four day trip but Downing Street opted to reduce the length of the visit to just one day as coronavirus cases in India surged.

However, Number 10 then decided to completely cancel the visit as the Government added India to the travel 'red list'.

Mr Johnson said at the time that he and Mr Modi had 'basically come to the conclusion that, very sadly, I won't be able to go ahead with the trip'.

The PM said that the relationship between the UK and India is of 'huge importance', with the pair speaking virtually.

They committed to meeting in person 'when circumstances allow, and hopefully before the COP summit in November'.

Mr Johnson was scheduled to meet with Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, for talks back in January

Mr Johnson would have a fairly narrow window for arranging a visit to India next month, with the PM's diary already looking busy.

He will host the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester from October 3-6.

The Government will then be preparing ahead of the Autumn Budget on October 27.

The COP26 climate summit is then scheduled to get underway from October 31 to November 12.
Hundreds of healthcare workers in the state of New York were suspended or fired on Tuesday after the state's sweeping Covid vaccine mandates came into effect this week, resulting in staff shortages that prompted some hospitals to postpone elective surgeries or curtail services.

New York's state health department issued an order last month mandating that all healthcare workers receive at least their first COVID-19 shot by September 27, triggering a rush by hospitals to get their employees inoculated.

On Tuesday, a slew of officials from various hospitals across the state announced that dozens of workers had been suspended or fired, amounting to hundreds across the state.

A spokesman for St Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx said that 98 employees were suspended without pay and only have one week to show proof of a vaccine dose before losing their jobs, while Northwell Health, the state's largest medical network which runs several hospitals, announced that it already let go dozens of non-vaccinated workers.

'We have begun a process to exit all unvaccinated team members using a carefully planned approach that both maintains continuity of care at all of our facilities and ensures the safety of all of our patients,' a spokesman said in a statement.

Most hospital spokespeople have refused to give exact figures for the number of non-vaccinated employees that have been terminated, but at a healthcare giant like Northwell of 76,000 employees, even a one percent non-compliance would mean 760 workers are set to lose their jobs.

Northwell Health, the state's largest medical network which runs several hospitals including Staten Island University Hospital (pictured), announced that it already let go dozens of non-vaccinated workers

A spokesman for St Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx (pictured) said that 98 employees were suspended without pay and have until next week to show proof or face termination

New York's state health department issued an order last month mandating that all healthcare workers receive at least their first Covid-19 shot by September 27. The state, which has drawn widespread criticism for its draconian implementation of Covid restrictions, has already forced hundreds of unvaccinated healthcare workers to lose their jobs

'Northwell regrets losing any employee under such circumstances, but as health care professionals and members of the largest healthcare provider in the state, we understand our unique responsibility to protect the health of our patients and each other,' the spokesman continued.

'We owe it to our staff, our patients and the communities we serve to be 100 percent vaccinated against COVID-19.'

The inoculation push comes as President Joe Biden and other state and federal political leaders ratchet up pressure on unvaccinated Americans, some of whom object to mandates on religious or health grounds.

Of the 43,000 employees at the New York City's 11 public hospitals, about 5,000 were not vaccinated according to Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of NYC Health + Hospitals on Monday, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Saturday she was considering employing the National Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill staffing shortages, with 16% of the state's 450,000 hospital staff not fully vaccinated.

Healthcare workers who are fired for refusing to get vaccinated will not be eligible for unemployment insurance unless they are able to provide a valid doctor-approved request for medical accommodation, Hochul's office said.

North Carolina hospital system fires 175 unvaccinated workers in one of the largest mass terminations for defying vaccine mandate Novant Health, which has more than 35,000 employees in 15 hospitals and 800 clinics, mandated that its employees get vaccinated late July. They had until September 15 to comply. Last week, about 375 employees were suspended for not being vaccinated, but 200 received the jab before Monday's deadline, Spokesperson Megan Rivers said. Rivers didn't say how many workers were granted exemptions, but Novant Health acknowledged that some were and required them to undergo weekly coronavirus testing. They also must wear N95 respirator masks or other personal protective equipment and eyewear protection while working in Novant Health facilities. The large wave of terminations follows the Delaware-based healthcare system ChristianaCare, which fired 150 employees earlier this week for not getting vaccinated. Advertisement

Many hospitals insist that over 90% of their healthcare workers have complied with the vaccine mandate, but some facilities - such as Interfaith, Brookdale and Wyckoff hospitals in Brooklyn - reported vaccination compliance at under 70% last week.

Officials at Long Island's SUNY Stony Brook University Hospital said 134 unvaccinated employees are being suspended without pay and will have to sacrifice vacation days for any time spent not working.

Holly Liapis, a spokeswoman for SUNY which runs several hospitals across the state, said: 'Per the state order, our hospitals have suspended and have begun the removal process for those unvaccinated employees without exemptions.'

Other hospitals that dropped the axe on unvaccinated workers include Albany Medical Center, where 204 employees face dismissal, and Richmond University Hospital in Staten Island according to the New York Post.

Though hospital officials wouldn't name the number of employees facing termination, they reported a 90% vaccination rate among their 2,500-strong staff, meaning roughly 250 workers are likely on the chopping block.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference on Monday the city's hospitals were not yet seeing a major impact from the mandate, but added that he worried about other areas of the state where vaccination rates are lower.

A spokeswoman for Catholic Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in Western New York, said it had reached full compliance, counting staff members who had been vaccinated, those with exemptions and some who had been suspended without pay.

The spokeswoman, JoAnne Cavanaugh, refused to say how many workers had been suspended or granted exemptions due to medical or religious reasons.

Officials at Long Island's SUNY Stony Brook University Hospital said 134 unvaccinated employees are being suspended without pay and will have to sacrifice vacation days for any time spent not working

Long Island Jewish hospital is among the medical centers operated by healthcare giant Northwell Health. Hundreds of workers at Northwell Health alone are expected to lose their jobs - even a 99% vaccination rate across 76,000 employees would suggest that 760 employees are to be fired

Dr Yves Duroseau from Lennox Hill Hospital is inoculated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park. Brian Conway, a spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association, said that there had been a last-minute surge of healthcare workers giving in to the mandate to avoid termination

Catholic Health said it was forced to postpone 'a small number' of elective surgeries.

Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo suspended elective inpatient surgeries and had stopped accepting intensive-care patients from other hospitals as it prepares to fire hundreds of unvaccinated employees, a spokesman Peter Cutler said.

Cutler said the decision to curtail some operations would inconvenience patients and hurt hospital finances. Elective inpatient surgeries bring in about $1 million per week according to the spokesman.

'We had to make a decision as to where we could temporarily make some changes so that we could ensure other areas of services are as little affected as possible,' Cutler said.

'Financially, it's a big deal.'

Brian Conway, a spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association, said that there had been a last-minute surge of healthcare workers giving in to the mandate to avoid termination.

'I don't have numbers of people let go, but I do know that our hospitals saw a significant surge yesterday in health care workers getting vaccinated before the midnight deadline,' said Conway.

The furore around the state's vaccine mandates are not expected to die down any time soon.

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that New York City can order all teachers and staff to get the vaccine, reversing a previous decision that had put the mandate on hold for the education sector.
A mother trashed her ex-boyfriend's home with her current partner and caused more than 2,000 worth of damage, a court heard.

Police were called when Lauren Blaney, 29, was spotted smashing a window at the home of her ex, James Campbell, 48, with his guitar.

Blaney's boyfriend, Neil Woods, assisted with the break-in at 8pm on March 21 this year.

The pair left the scene after causing 2,180 worth of damage to the property, including a 900 guitar, two television sets, ornaments and clothing. A 500 guitar was also missing.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that a member of the public rang the police after witnessing a break-in at a ground floor flat in Rowsley Grove, Aintree.

Nardeen Nemat, prosecuting, said: 'There were spots of blood on shattered glass and blood splatters around the address.'

Lauren Blaney (pictured), trashed her ex-boyfriend's home with her current partner causing more than 2,000 worth of damage in the process.

Shortly after the incident took place the pair were spotted by a police officer. There was altercation with her companion during which Blaney left.

A rucksack was later handed to police containing food and other items taken from the flat.

Mr Campbell, who was out at the time of the break-in said in a statement: 'The area is barely lit and I felt vulnerable and quite scared especially after the burglary, I was scared it was some kind of vendetta so I did not feel safe using the alley.'

The couple broke-up 18 months prior to the incident, according to Blaney, her attack was motivated by 'domestic issues'.

According to Miss Nemat, when interviewed, Blaney 'said she blamed Mr Campbell for her children being taken away.'

She added: 'She said she had been drinking heavily and was very drunk, she became angry and decided to damage his house.'

Blaney said her boyfriend, Neil Woods, smashed the window before she climbed inside.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that a member of the public rang the police after witnessing a break-in at a ground floor flat in Rowsley Grove, Aintree

She said she was 'still feeling very angry and once inside made a mess and could not stop smashing things up.'

Campbell, who has now requested a restraining order against Blaney, was on course to provide a stable home for his daughters before his house was 'obliterated', the Liverpool Echo reports.

The court heard that Blaney, of Spellow Lane, Liverpool, had six previous convictions for 13 offences including theft.

Rachel Oakdene, defending, said: 'She had made a complete confession to police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.'

She added that Blaney was receiving treatment for drug and alcohol misuse and hoped to get custody of her children back next year.

The Judge, Recorder Harris described her pre-sentence report as 'very sad reading' before he handed down a 21-month term, suspended for two years, along with a 12-month drug rehabilitation course.

Blaney will also carry out 30 days of rehab, and wear an electronic ankle tag for six months, with an 8pm-8am curfew.

A four-year restraining order was also given.

Judge Harris warned Blaney 'not to drink, take drugs and then decide to go and get some revenge which is what this was about'.
Senator Bernie Sanders has urged Democrats to vote against a $1trillion bipartisan infrastructure package until the Senate first passes the $3.5trillion spending bill.

The liberal Vermont Senator was among several progressive voices in the Democratic caucus who have pledged to vote against the infrastructure package tomorrow.

The package has been split from the spending bill - also known as the Build Back Better bill - over fears the latter's high price tag will dampen support and divisions within the Democratic Party regarding its contents.

The vote takes place against a looming government shut down and debt default. If only one of the bills is passed, it would leave a considerable amount of President Joe Biden's unpassed ahead of midterm elections next year.

'Let's be crystal clear. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress,' Sanders said in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

'More importantly, it will end all leverage that we have to pass a major reconciliation bill. That means there will be no serious effort to address the long-neglected crises facing the working families of our country, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor.'

Sanders went on to say that passing the infrastructure package ahead of the spending bill would also allow Congress to 'continue to ignore the existential threat to our country and planet with regard to climate change.'

Senator Bernie Sanders (pictured) has urged Democrats to vote against a $1trillion bipartisan infrastructure package until the Senate first passes the $3.5trillion spending bill

Sanders joined several progressive voices within the Democratic Party who have pledged to vote against the infrastructure package tomorrow. Pictured: Sanders (left) speaks to a reporter outside the Capitol on Tuesday

'I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.'

JPMorgan Chase is preparing for 'potentially catastrophic' US default On Tuesday, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase said the bank is preparing for the possibility of the U.S. hitting its debt limit. Jamie Dimon told Reuters that, the bank has begun scenario-planning for how a potential U.S. credit default would affect the repo and money markets, client contracts, its capital ratios, and how ratings agencies would react. 'This is like the third time we've had to do this, it is a potentially catastrophic event,' he said, referring to prior Congressional deadlocks over federal debt limits. 'Every single time this comes up, it gets fixed, but we should never even get this close. 'I just think this whole thing is mistaken and one day we should just have a bipartisan bill and get rid of the debt ceiling. It's all politics,' he added. With federal funding due to expire on Thursday and a potential debt default by October 18, Democrats who narrowly control the Senate and House are racing to head off fiscal disaster while also trying to pass the ambitious spending package. Advertisement

Sanders' comments come after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers on Monday that she planned to bring the infrastructure bill up for a vote this week.

Negotiations on the $3.5trillion spending bill, which contains progressive measures including programs for social support and green energy investment, are ongoing.

Moderates and conservatives within the Democrats have so far failed to agree on what they would accept in the social safety net package, which has complicated negotiations led by Biden and other Democrat leaders.

Pelosi had previously vowed to pass the bills together but reversed the decision earlier this week, while still pledging to pass both bills.

Concerns have been mounting that the progressive and expensive spending bill may cancel out support for the infrastructure package.

Moderate Democrats including Senator Joe Manchin have voiced support for the bipartisan infrastructure package but have said they will not vote for the spending bill.

'Holding one hostage over the other is not fair  it's not right, it's not good for the country,' Manchin said on Tuesday.

'You have to have trust a little bit, you know. Everybody's not going to get what they want,' he added. 'But let's find out what the country needs'.

Pelosi responded to Sanders comments on Tuesday, saying: 'Everybody has to do what they have to do and I respect that,' she told reporters.

In an effort to get negotiations moving, Biden on Tuesday cancelled a trip to Chicago to meet with Manchin and others in an attempt to iron out differences over what is likely to be one of his key pieces of domestic legislation.

The splitting of the two pieces of legislation has angered progressives within the Democratic party, including Sanders, who want the infrastructure spending to go hand in hand with a commitment to spending elsewhere.

Rep. Cori Bush echoed Sanders' comments, writing in a tweet: 'We made a deal. Now that it's been announced that the infrastructure bill will come to a vote on Thursday, let me be absolutely clear. I will not support it without first passing the Build Back Better Act.'

Sanders' comments come after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured) told lawmakers on Monday that she planned to bring the infrastructure bill up for a vote this week. Pelosi had previously vowed to pass the bills together but appears to have reversed her decision

Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has also pledged to vote against the infrastructure bill on its current timetable.

'We articulated this position more than three months ago, and today it is still unchanged: Progressives will vote for both bills, but a majority of our members will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the president's visionary Build Back Better Act passes,' Jayapal said.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib added her voice to the criticism, tweeting: 'Let me be clear: bringing the so-called bipartisan infrastructure plan to a vote without the #BuildBackBetter Act at the same time is a betrayal. We will hold the line and vote it down.'

The vote comes as federal funding is due to expire on Thursday, prompting a looming government shut down.

JPMorgan Chase has begun preparing for the possibility of the U.S. hitting its debt limit, CEO Jamie Dimon told Reuters on Tuesday, while adding that he expected policymakers to find a solution to avoid that 'potentially catastrophic' event.

With federal funding due to expire on Thursday and a potential debt default by October 18, Democrats who narrowly control the Senate and House are racing to head off fiscal disaster while also trying to pass the ambitious spending package.

JPMorgan, the country's largest bank, has begun scenario-planning for how a potential U.S. credit default would affect the repo and money markets, client contracts, its capital ratios, and how ratings agencies would react, Dimon said in an interview.

'This is like the third time we've had to do this, it is a potentially catastrophic event,' he said, referring to prior Congressional deadlocks over federal debt limits.

'Every single time this comes up, it gets fixed, but we should never even get this close. I just think this whole thing is mistaken and one day we should just have a bipartisan bill and get rid of the debt ceiling. It's all politics,' he added.

Congressional Democrats are scrambling to find a way to raise the government's $28.4-trillion borrowing cap before the Treasury Department runs out of ways to service the nation's debt.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the Treasury will likely exhaust extraordinary measures by October 18, potentially triggering the first federal credit default in history.
A chimpanzee has been caught masturbating with a plastic bottle, as scientists say it is the first time a wild chimp has used a man-made object as a sex toy.

Araali, a male chimpanzee living in Bulindi in western Uganda, was spotted placing his penis into a discarded plastic bottle and 'thrusting' into it in August 2018 - with the incident documented in a new research paper.

While captive chimps commonly masturbate - often due to stress or a lack of mates - researchers believe Araali may have derived 'pleasure' from his interaction with the bottle, or else was performing the activity for 'fun'.

A male chimpanzee called Araali was seen masturbating with a plastic bottle in Uganda, which scientists believe is the first time a wild chimp has used a man-made object as a sex toy

Researchers Matthew McLennan and Kim van Dijk, who were working with Bulindi Chimpanzees, posted the paper on Twitter earlier this month while quipping that 'this is a paper I never thought we'd write'.

In it, they say they were observing a troop of 19 chimpanzees including three adult males, three subadult males, five adult females, one subadult female, and seven 'immature' chimps in 2018 when the 'novel behaviour' occurred.

On the day in question - August 13 - they had followed 11 of the chimps, including the alpha male and three adult females, to a shady thicket where they often went to rest.

Researchers said they heard a chimp playing with a plastic bottle before they moved in for a closer look and spotted Araali - a subadult male - 'masturbating' with it.

'For 25 seconds he made pelvic thrusting movements into the bottle, which he had positioned flat on the ground in front of him,' the paper says.

'At times he showed a relaxed open-mouth expression or a "play face."'

At one point, they write, his penis fell out of the bottle so he repositioned it and 'reinserted his penis.'

Araali, a male chimpanzee living in Bulindi in western Uganda, was spotted placing his penis into a discarded plastic bottle and 'thrusting' into it in August 2018 - with the incident documented in a new research paper

'For the remaining 8 seconds of the recording, Araali sat with a play face, apparently with his penis still inside the bottle.'

When Araali finally lost interest in the bottle - apparently without ejaculating into it - some of the younger chimps began playing with it.

After 25 minutes, the researchers themselves lost interest and moved away from the troop - though returned the following evening to inspect the bottle.

They believe it was a herbicide bottle which had likely been discarded by a local farmer after it was used to spray crops.

While masturbation is rarer in wild chimps than in captive ones, researchers say it has been observed in males in the form of 'fumbling' with their genitals.

Researchers say the bottle (pictured) is used to contain herbicide and was likely thrown away by a farmer

Males have also used natural objects such as fruit or smooth stones to stimulate themselves - but this is the first time one has been seen using a man-made object.

The scientists - from Oxford Brookes University, University of Exeter, and Utrecht University - say this is likely because the chimps they were studying live in close proximity to humans, and have some familiarity with man-made objects.

While most apes are either indifferent to or afraid of man-made objects, this tribe's familiarity with them means they 'elicit interest'.

Masturbation in chimps is sometimes thought to help with competition in a tribe with several males by clearing out old or damaged sperm and improving a male's chances of impregnating a female, the researchers add.

Another theory is that it may help relieve sexual urges in subordinate males who have little access to females in the tribe.

But they say neither theory quite fits Araali's behaviour, which most-likely results from 'his motivation to inspect and play with a novel human object.'

'The physical properties of the open bottle presumably elicited Araalis autoerotic response, suggesting he recognized its suitability for that purpose,' they add.

'Considering he exhibited a play face while "copulating" with the bottle indicates his masturbatory behaviour was "pleasurable" or "fun."'

Justifying their subject matter, the researchers conclude: 'This unusual observation raises questions about the function of masturbation in male chimpanzees.

'It contributes to an understanding of the range in behavioural responses of wild apes to novel objects.'

Gorillas in the tryst! Giant male primate shocks families at Bronx Zoo by performing sex act on fellow ape

A frisky gorilla at the Bronx Zoo gave onlookers an X-rated show when he performed oral sex on his excited friend in front of a group of zoo-goers.

A father at the zoo with his wife, four-year-old daughter, son and niece captured footage of the NSFW scene, which took place at the NYC zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest earlier this month.

It is unclear whether the other gorilla is male or female, with the Bronx Zoo declining to comment further when contacted by DailyMail.com.

'I was shocked and had no idea that was a "natural act,'" the man, who chose to stay anonymous, said.

A male gorilla stunned onlookers at the Bronx Zoo by pushing a pal to the floor of their enclosure

Moments later, the gorilla began performing a sex act on their mate

The unexpected incident triggered howls of laughter from families in the enclosure, many of whom had children with them

He added: 'My wife had to stay out of the exhibit with my sleeping son, so I wanted to capture a lot of video. Then this magic happened.'

The 'magic' he captured on video proved humans aren't the only ones who get down and dirty for fun.

Adult onlookers gasped, shouted and turned their children's heads away as the male primate pushed the smaller ape to the ground and serviced it as it closed its eyes and put its hands around its partner's head while thrusting its hips and curling its toes.

Contrary to what many think, gorillas performing oral sex is quite common throughout the animal kingdom, as reported by The Post, with sightings of cheetahs, bears, bats and other ape species taking part in the racy act, too.

A representative at the Bronx Zoo said he was unaware of the clip and didn't comment when reached out to by DailyMail.com

Bonobos have even come to be known as 'hippie apes' for their infamously kinky sex lives where they often engage in the act with monkeys of the same sex.

They 'behave as if they have read the Kama Sutra - performing every position and variation one can imagine,' Steve D Pinkerton, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, confirmed in his book Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture.

According to Discover Magazine, 'there's no reason why an animal should seek sex unless they enjoy it,' and therefore sex is not always simply to reproduce.

In fact, gorillas are 'most likely to display responses similar to humans,' meaning that yes, they experience orgasms.

They're also one of the only other animal species, besides Bonobos and humans, to have sex in the missionary position, according to The Post.
This is the hilarious moment a dog mimicked a human passenger as it sat in the back of an SUV with one paw resting on the open window sill and the wind rushing through its fur.

Caitlyn Tremblay was traveling along Interstate 93 in Massachusetts with her boyfriend Quincy when she saw the Bernese mountain dog poking its head out of the car window on September 28.

The dog extended its paws out of the window and appeared to be enjoying the wind in its fur as it sat in a human-like pose.

The Bernese mountain dog sits in the backseat of an SUV mimicking a human passenger as its owner drives along Interstate 93 in Massachusetts

The canine pokes its head out of the car window and enjoys the wind in its fur on September 28

Tremblay told Storyful: 'At first the dog had both paws extended straight out the window but I wasn't able to capture that on video.

'But when they came closer to us and when I started filming is when they changed positions to look like they were sitting like a person.'

She added: 'I don't know who the owner/driver was but I hope they see this video so they know their dog is so loved.'

In similar comical scenes an Australian dog named Jax was spotted riding shotgun in a tradesman's van wearing sunglasses and hanging his paw out the window in Adelaide.

A viral TikTok video posted by user brittty.b in July showed Jax resting his front paws on the passenger side window and giving the camera across from him a stare-down.

The viral TikTok shows Australian dog Jax (pictured) hanging out the side of his owner's ride in Adelaide

Last year a passerby did a double-take when he spotted a guard dog sitting in the front of a security patrol car with two more huge hounds in the back on Portobello Road, Notting Hill, west London.

Footage showed the car marked with 'dog section' stopped at traffic lights with three canines inside.

Andrew Threlfall, 46, said the three German Shepherd-style dogs seemed almost human as they took a ride in the vehicle while looking out of the open windows.

Threlfall said: 'As the dogs were traveling past the pub everyone turned to look as it looked from the pavement as if the dogs were driving the car.

'It wasn't until I got up to see it we could see a human was driving. It was uniquely crazy, I've never seen anything like it.'
The final gubernatorial debate of Virginia, moderated by NBC news anchor Chuck Todd, went off the rails on Monday night when Todd called security to remove a third-party candidate from the audience.

Princess Blanding, a progressive candidate running in the Liberation Party, was sat among the audience but after 15 minutes of debate she stood up and began shouting to the stage.

Gubernatorial candidates Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin looked on bemused as Todd continually tried to negotiate with Blanding, who claimed her omission from the debate was racist, sexist and 'not democracy'.

After several attempts to calm the situation, NBC's Todd lost patience and demanded security remove Blanding from the auditorium, before the debate was forced to cut to a commercial break.

After being forcibly removed from the auditorium, Blanding told reporters the Chamber of Commerce, who hosted the debate, was trying to stop Virginians from voting for her.

'I just made it very clear that I am a candidate to let Virginians know that their censorship of my candidacy is racist,' she said.

'It is very sexist. It is very oppressive. And it's a form of voter suppression.'

NBC news anchor Chuck Todd lost control of the debate and was forced to call security after he tried in vain to calm a third-party candidate in the audience who berated the host and debate participants

Princess Blanding, a progressive candidate running in the Liberation Party, was sat among the audience but after 15 minutes of debate she stood up and began shouting to the stage

'I am on the ballot! Why am I not on that stage?' Blanding yelled. 'This is not democracy!' She taunted democrat McAuliffe, before claiming her omission from the stage was down to racism and sexism

The gubernatorial candidates looked on bemused as Todd continually tried to negotiate with Blanding, who claimed her omission from the debate was racist, sexist and 'not democracy'

After much back and forth this summer, Youngkin and McAuliffe agreed to only two debates, the second and final of which took place on Tuesday at a community college campus in Alexandria, Virginia.

The debate was fiery from the outset and a combative atmosphere developed quickly, as each candidate accused the other of lying to voters and clashed over vaccinations, tax policy, education and their respective records.

It came as little surprise when Blanding, who had not been invited to participate in the debate despite being on the ballot, stood up to declare that her exclusion from the stage was symptomatic of voter suppression and racism.

'I am on the ballot! Why am I not on that stage?' Blanding asked. 'This is not democracy!'

Blanding is a third-party candidate running for the Liberation Party and is challenging the bi-partisan system that characterizes American politics.

Blanding describes herself on her candidate website as 'a single LGBTQIA+ mother based in the Middle Peninsula with roots in the rural working class', and her policies are focused around socialized healthcare plans, green energy commitments and social equality.

Blanding became a criminal justice reform activist after her brother, who suffered mental health problems, was tasered and shot by a policeman in 2018 after he had stopped his car on the Interstate and was walking in the road naked.

'I just made it very clear that I am a candidate to let Virginians know that their censorship of my candidacy is racist,' Blanding told reporters after she was ushered out of the auditorium

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former governor Terry McAuliffe participated in the second and final debate at Northern Virginia Community College, in Alexandria

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, and Republican challenger, Glenn Youngkin, clashed over various topics and accused each other of lying to voters

Blanding asserted she 'had to work ten times harder' to get on the ballot and that her exclusion from the debate was 'a bunch of bulls---'.

Todd tried desperately to press on with the debate, fielding accusations and outbursts from Blanding and responding with 'thank you, thank you' several times as the third-party candidate continued to berate the stage.

Eventually, he snapped.

'Alright, security!' Todd exclaimed with exasperation, at which point several security guards and members of staff descended on the auditorium and ushered Blanding out of the room as she continued to shout.

Before entering the auditorium ahead of the debate, Blanding spoke with AP reporters and said the Chamber of Commerce, who hosted the debate, only permitted her to watch from the audience and speak to press afterwards.

The debate, held at a community college campus in Alexandria, was fiery from the outset and a combative atmosphere developed quickly. Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin accused each other of lying to voters and clashed over vaccinations, tax policy, education and their respective records

'The way that felt to me was, yes, you can come and get on the bus like everybody else... but youre going to sit in the back of the bus,' said Blanding.

'I met the requirements just like they did to get on the ballot, however, Im being blocked.'

After she was removed from the debate, Blanding once again spoke with reporters, taking aim at a system that she said forces voters to choose 'the lesser of two evils'.

'I just made it very clear that I am a candidate to let Virginians know that their censorship of my candidacy is racist.

'It is very sexist. It is very oppressive. And it's a form of voter suppression,' Blanding said.

'Their goal is to make sure Virginians don't know that I exist so they feel that they have to choose between the lesser of two evils.'

The debate itself was bitterly contested, with polls showing a close contest just five weeks before Election Day.

The conversation was focused around three main issues: the pandemic, abortion rights and former President Donald Trump, but also touched upon education and rising crime rates.

It took less than 90 seconds for Youngkin to call McAuliffe a liar: 'In the first debate, he lied to you. That's what politicians do,' the Republican candidate said during his opening statement.

The attack set the tone for the debate, with each candidate taking on the other in personal terms, with Youngkin often the aggressor.

'I just can't understand how you can so comfortably lie to everybody,' Youngkin said during an exchange on abortion.

McAuliffe retorted, 'That's what you've been doing all night, buddy.'

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, and Republican challenger, Glenn Youngkin, participate in a debate at Northern Virginia Community College, in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

McAuliffe often tried to link Youngkin to the former president, calling the Republican candidate who had previously been endorsed by the former President 'a Trump wannabe'.

But the topic of abortion sparked the most heated exchanges of the debate as Youngkin, who confirmed that he does support a 'pain threshold bill' which would ban most abortions after the 20-week mark, branded McAuliffe 'the most extreme abortion candidate in the country.'

'You want to be the abortion governor,' Youngkin charged, but McAuliffe welcomed the moniker and used it to bolster his push for women's rights.

'I want every woman in Virginia to listen to me closely. I was a brick wall to protect women's rights,' McAuliffe said.

'Women are tired of people like Glenn Youngkin telling them what to do with their bodies.'

Election Day is November 2, and the deadline to register to vote or update an existing registration is October 12.
A little boy has been left fighting for life after tumbling from a third storey window.

The six-year-old boy fell ten metres out of a window of an apartment building on Illawarra Road in Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west, on Wednesday.

Three ambulance crews arrived at the unit complex just before 1:45pm and found the little boy unconscious on the scene.

The six-year-old was treated for significant head and chest injuries by attending paramedics, which included an intensive care team.

A six-year-old boy has been left fighting for life after tumbling 10 metres from an apartment building on Illawarra Road (pictured) in Marrickville on Wednesday

The little boy was then placed in an induced coma and transported to Sydney Children's Hospital in a critical condition.

NSW Ambulance Inspector Lucky Phrachanh said first responders on the scene worked quickly to stabilise the injured boy.

'Initial reports that a child had fallen from the third storey were heartbreaking,' Phrachanh said.

'Our paramedics and medical team worked quickly to stabilise him before transporting.

'This was an alarming reminder that accidents can occur so please keep a watchful eye on your kids.'
Two teens allegedly joy-riding in a stolen car have tested positive for Covid-19 after leading police on a wild chase through an iconic rural town.

An 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were stopped in silver Mitsubishi sedan on the Hume Highway on Tuesday morning near Gundagai, when a scan by Riverina Traffic and Highway Patrol Command officers uncovered the plates were allegedly stolen.

Police said the teen allegedly 'accelerated away' when officers approached the vehicle triggering a high-speed pursuit leading squad cars along the busy highway and later through a paddock.

Eventually the Mitsubishi came to a stop after it crashed into a street sign near the famous Dog on the Tucker Box monument.

The 18-year-old man and 16-year-old girl travelling in an allegedly stolen car came to a stop when they crashed into a street sign near the famous Dog on the Tucker Box monument (pictured)

NSW Police said after the pair were arrested and taken to hospital they both tested positive to Covid, prompting several responding officers to begin 14 days of quarantine.

'Subsequently police were advised that both teenagers have since tested positive to Covid-19,' the spokesman said.

'A number of officers are currently self-isolating in accordance with NSW Health guidelines.'

The two teens are the first Covid cases ever recorded in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District and will be included in Thursday's daily infection numbers.

NSW police said after the pair were arrested and taken to hospital they both tested positive to Covid, prompting several responding officers to begin 14 days of quarantine.

The 18-year-old has been slapped with a total of 14 charges over the police pursuit including dangerous and reckless driving, resisting arrest and speeding.

Investigators suspect the car was stolen near the Dapto area in Illawarra where the teen is from.

A police search of the wrecked vehicle allegedly uncovered three knives and suspected stolen number plates.

The teen is also likely to be fined for breaching public health orders by leaving the Greater Sydney area during lockdown - as Illawarra falls under that term for restriction purposes.

Both teens are now in isolation at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital (pictured) after testing positive to Covid-19

He will face Goulburn Local Court on October 13.

The 16-year-old girl will be dealt with under the Youth Offenders Act.

Police said it was extremely lucky that no one was seriously injured during the pursuit.

Both teens are now in isolation at the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.
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This is the amateur salsa dancer interpreter that Russian President Vladamir Putin brought to distract Donald Trump during a G20 meeting in 2019.

Daria Boyarskaya, 36, was commissioned to participate in a meeting between the world leaders in Osaka, Japan, but Putin reportedly didn't hire her for her linguistical skills.

Instead, he hopped the leggy brunette would serve as a diversion during his conversation with the 45th president, ex-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in her upcoming book.

Boyarskaya - who side-hustles as an amateur salsa and bachata dancer - was photographed with the world leaders during the meeting, wearing a blue outfit with her hair down.

The administration's Russia expert Fiona Hill found the bilingual beauty's presence suspicious, according to The New York Times.

'As the meeting began, Fiona Hill leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure,' Grisham wrote.

'She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.'

Pictured: Russian foreign ministry specialist linguist Daria Boyarskaya, 36, who the Kremlin has denied selecting for a meeting between Putin and Trump to distract the US president

Boyarskaya works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to her social media.

She is believed to live at least partly in Vienna, where the assembly is based.

Her outfit during the Osaka meeting was a toned-down look for the sultry woman, who appears scantly-clad in numerous other photos.

In one, she poses suggestively atop a shelf wearing a beaded dress that leaves very little to the imagination.

In another, she poses in a low-cut leather dress, her neck wrapped in gold chains, and her nails painted red.

Pictured: Daria Boyarskaya, left and right. The meeting was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president

Pictured: Daria Boyarskaya, who Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed in an upcoming book was specifically hired by Putin to distract Trump

The Kremlin has denied that Vladimir Putin (centre) personally selected 'very attractive' interpreter Daria Boyarskaya (left) to distract ex-US president Donald Trump (right) at a 2019 meeting after Stehanie Grisham made the claim in an upcoming book

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back at the report, denying any role for Putin in selecting Boyarskaya as a secret weapon.

'Interpreters are provided by the foreign ministry at the request of the presidential administration,' said Peskov. 'Putin himself is not involved in this process.'

In fact it was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president.

Before the Trump-Putin talks in Japan, the same interpreter had been deployed in 2016 at a meeting between Putin and then US president Barack Obama in Hangzhou, China.

Pictured: Daria Boyarskaya, left and right. The meeting was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president

Pictured: US President Donald Trump (right) attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin (centre) during the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Daria Boyarskaya can be seen to the left of Putin sitting behind other delegates

President Vladimir Putin's translator follows him into a meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan in 2019

This and the 2019 meeting between Putin and Trump are publicly recorded by the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation (SCIT), part of Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, from where she had graduated in 2009.

Earlier she had studied at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad.

She also worked for Putin at a session with US National Security Advisor John Bolton in Moscow on October 23, 2018, according to the SCIT records.

And she translated for the Russian president at a meeting he held with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in April 2016.

Boyarskaya works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to her social media.

She is believed to live at least partly in Vienna, where the assembly is based.

She is an amateur Salsa and Bachata dancer, and has trained with the MamboGROUP in Moscow, where she was seen in a video.

Copies of Grisham's book - I'll Take Your Questions Now, What I Saw at Trump White House - were obtained by The Washington Post and The New York Times. It hits bookshelves on October 5.

Daria Boyarskaya (pictured ) is believed to live at least partly in Vienna where she works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is an amateur Salsa and Bachata dancer

Daria Boyarskaya (pictured left and right) is believed to live at least partly in Vienna where she works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is an amateur Salsa and Bachata dancer

I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I saw at the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham comes out on October 5

Grisham was a 2016 campaign aide who became First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, before being elevated to White House press secretary and communications director from July 2019 to April 2020.

She then returned to the East Wing to serve as the first lady's spokesperson, again, and chief of staff.

The new book fills in some blanks about some of the most memorable moments from Trump's one term.

The Putin meeting in question came 11 months after the infamous Helsinki summit where Trump seemed to side with the Russian president over American intelligence agencies on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

At the July 2018 meeting, Trump said Putin offered an 'extremely strong and powerful' denial.

At their 2019 meeting in Japan, Trump playfully scolded and wagged a finger at Putin in front of the cameras telling the Russian leader, 'don't meddle in the election,' before they met behind closed doors for 90 minutes without journalists present.
Police are hunting a suspected 'serial arsonist' who is believed to be behind separate blazes that destroyed 11 vehicles in the space of a month.

The latest incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning saw two more cars set alight in the Bodmin area of Cornwall.

It follows four eerily similar attacks in the locality that saw more than seven other vehicles torched.

Devon and Cornwall Police have linked the separate arson attacks and issued a public appeal for anyone with information or doorbell footage to come forward.

Officers believe that the cars are being deliberately targeted by the offender(s) in areas where public surveillance is limited.

Police are hunting a suspected 'serial arsonist' who is believed to be behind separate blazes that destroyed 11 vehicles in the space of a month

The latest incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning saw two more cars set alight in the Bodmin area of Cornwall

Devon and Cornwall Police have linked the separate arson attacks and issued a public appeal for anyone with information or doorbell footage to come forward

In most of the incidents, police believe one vehicle was set on fire before the flames spread to other vehicles in the vicinity.

The spate of attacks first began in the early hours of Friday, August 20, when a car was targeted in Vivian Road, Bodmin.

This was followed by a string of attacks which saw four vehicles set alight between Robartes Road and Harleigh Road on Sunday, August 22.

Three more vehicles, two cars and a van, were torched again in Robartes Road on September 7.

On September 18, a car and a van were again targeted, this time in Truro Road, Lanivet.

The following day two more cars were set ablaze in Beacon Hill, while on September 28 the total number of vehicles targeted by the 'arsonist' reached eleven when two more cars were destroyed in a deliberate fire.

Slamming the 'idiots' behind the attacks, Inspector Regie Butler-Card appealed for Bodmin residents to come forward with any dashcam or doorbell camera footage that could assist with police's enquiries.

Insp Butler-Card said: 'This is the fifth incident of this nature in recent weeks and obviously it has seen multiple cars set alight.

'We are investigating these incidents. Unfortunately, its not an easy one to do and does rely on the public where possible to help.

Slamming the 'idiots' behind the attacks, Inspector Regie Butler-Card (pictured) appealed for Bodmin residents to come forward with any dashcam or doorbell camera footage that could assist with police's enquiries

In most of the incidents, Devon and Cornwall Police believe one vehicle was set on fire before the flames spread to other vehicles in the vicinity

'These sort of investigations are often slow, methodical but we are on it and have officers and detectives looking into them and making enquiries.

'We are working closely with our local fire teams who are on the ball with this and have put in place a plan of action of stuff were doing together.

I appreciate this is frustrating and it is for me too - because its either one, two or a few idiots who are doing these fires.

'Luckily, at present, its just vehicles and not something more severe and I want to catch them before it gets worse, but we need the eyes and ears of the public to help us achieve that.

'I'm asking the public, especially anyone within the area where the latest fire has taken place, to check any CCTV or doorbell cameras that they have between midnight and 4am this morning.

'We believe that those who are behind these fires are looking around and not just picking these cars at random.

'It's possible that people who don't live near where the incident has taken place could have caught them on their cameras having a look around.

'Going forward, I'd ask residents to check their footage regularly as we track down the culprits.'
A single gene could determine if catching Covid will send you to ICU or not, a new study has suggested.

Experts from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research have found why some people are naturally more resistant to the virus than others.

They found that people with a prenylated version of the OAS1 gene, which has been linked to having Neanderthal ancestry, have better protection from Covid.

Prenylated is a term meaning the protein associated with the gene has an additional molecule of fat attached.

The scientists found the prenylated version of OAS1 is better at spotting the Covid virus, sounding the alarm to the body's immune system that it is under attack.

Scientists found that Covid patients without a the 'good' version of the OAS1 gene were 1.6 times more likely to end up in ICU or die than those lucky enough to have it

The scientists analysed the genetic data of 499 hospitalised UK Covid patients, and found those without the prenylated version of the OAS1 gene had a greater chance of being sent to ICU for treatment, or dying.

They found that Covid patients without the fatty version of the OAS1 gene were 1.6 times more likely to be sent to ICU or die.

Academics told MailOnline that 60 per cent of people of English or Scottish descent carry a form of the gene.

This genetic protection from Covid is likely to have helped scores of people avoid a severe case of the disease before vaccines started to become available.

But while the discovery is good news for those who may have the prenylated version of OAS1 gene, the announcement came with a warning.

Professor Sam Wilson, one of the study's authors, highlighted how the coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak in 2003, which is related to Covid, adapted to evade the prenylated version of OAS1 gene.

He said: 'If Sars-CoV-2 variants learn the same trick, they could be substantially more pathogenic and transmissible in unvaccinated populations.

'This reinforces the need to continually monitor the emergence of new Sars-CoV-2 variants.'

The scientists also said that Covid's current weakness to the prenylated version of the OAS1 gene in humans may give us clues to the origin of the virus.

One of the presumed theories behind the origin of Covid is that it started out as a virus among horseshoe bats.

While the prenylated version of the OAS1 gene is common in the animal kingdom, horseshoe bats are an exception having lost it about 55-million-years-ago over the course of their evolution.

The fact Covid is vulnerable to the prenylated version of the OAS1 gene suggests it originated in a species lacking this defence.

Professor Wilson said: 'Cross-species transmission to humans exposed the virus Sars-CoV-2 to a new repertoire of antiviral defences, some of which Sars-CoV-2 may not know how to evade.'

The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome, and UK Research and Innovation.
A couple have claimed they camped next to Brian Laundrie and his parents during their campsite trip to Fort De Soto Park before Gabby Petito was reported missing.

A Fort Meyers couple realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway.

Marcie and Kenny Newson said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite.

'They kept to themselves. They were there an then they weren't', they told NBC 2.

He has been named a person of interest in the investigation into his fiance Gabby Petito's murder. Her remains were found in Wyoming and her death ruled a homicide after she was reported missing on September 11.

An extensive search for Brian, 23, has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in Petito's case. He was last seen on September 14.

Marcie and Kenny Newsom (first and second right) said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite

Brian Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the investigation into his fiance Gabby Petito's death. Her remains were found in Wyoming and her death ruled a homicide after she was reported missing on September 11

A Fort Meyers couple realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper (left) similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway (right)

Chapman told Fox News he received a tip on Monday that Laundrie and his parents had spent the night at the site, 75 miles north of the family home in North Port

Dog the Bounty Hunter, real name Duane Chapman, joined the search for Brian on Saturday and was quickly flooded with tips, one of which claimed that the Laundrie family spent the night in Fort De Soto Park with their son twice after he came back alone from Wyoming in early September.

Dog told TV reporter Brian Entin Monday night that Laundrie's parents spent the night in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, from September 1 to 3, staying in spot number 1.

They returned again with Brian to stay on spot 15 from September 6 to 8, he further claims.

Records have since confirmed that Roberta checked into the park outside of St. Petersburg on September 6 and left on September 8- three days before Petito was reported missing, according to Fox News.

But the records did not show the Laundrie family staying at the park from September 1 to 3.

'I will no longer give that dog credibility or dignify his false claims with the time of my reply,' Bertolino, told Fox News.

Another camper whos name appeared on the ledger was celebrating his anniversary with his wife three spots down from the Laundries.

Thomas Rutherford told Fox News that he could 'vaguely remember' spotting the Laundries' vehicle, which they noted due to the novelty of seeing a camper attached to a vehicle.

An extensive search for Brian, 23, has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in Petito's case

Dog the Bounty Hunter said Monday night that Brian Laundrie's parents spent the night in Fort De Soto from September 1 to 3, staying in spot number 1. The camping site is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos

The campsite is located at the Fort De Soto campground in Pinellas County, Florida, close to St Petersburg

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' Gabby and Brian said in a review of the campsite during their visit two months ago (pictured)

An extensive search for Laundrie has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in the homicide of Petito, whose remains were found on September 19

In more snaps Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand

Since the tip led investigators to the Florida park about 75 miles north of North Port, it has been revealed that Brian and Petito have stayed at the campsite before.

Two months ago, the pair uploaded a series of photos to hiking website The Dyrt that show them relaxing on the beach and exploring the Fort De Soto campground.

A spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office told DailyMail.com that there is no search underway and the only activity at the 1,130-acre site Tuesday was a handful of media helicopters circling overhead.

A spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said: 'We are not conducting an investigation at Fort De Soto. We are unaware of any confirmed sightings of Brian.'

Dog continues to push the idea that Laundrie could be there, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection.

The Laundries maintained their silence on Tuesday when they were seen leaving home mid-morning to buy groceries at Walmart. They have not publicly commented on Brian's disappearance or the death of his fiance.

In one photo from the fateful couple's visit, Laundrie and Gabby are seen peering through the bars of a jail cell at an old fort.

In more snaps, Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand.

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' the couple said in a review.

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes.

Dog believes that Laundrie could be in this area, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes

Dog is adamant that Brian could be hopping from island to island in a kayak or canoe at the Fort De Soto camping site

Petito and Brian visited the De Soto campground together according to their review on The Dyrt

Search efforts have so far been concentrated at the Carlton Reserve - an alligator-infested watery 25,000-acre site 13 miles north of the Laundrie family home in North Port.

'Allegedly, what we're hearing, is two people left on the 8th,' said Chapman.

'Three people came in on the 6th, and two people left on the 8th. I think he's been here for sure.'

A Fox News Digital reporter overheard a park worker say investigators had checked surveillance video on the grounds.

Brian was charged with 'use of unauthorized access device' last Thursday, but said they will 'continue to investigate the facts and circumstances of Ms. Petito's homicide.'

A group of 75 officers from more than 16 agencies joined the search last week, using drones, diver units, dogs and ATV vehicles to comb the 25,000-acre preserve since his parents reported that Brian might be there.

Over 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails are contained in the park, along with camping areas and rivers. Wildlife there includes alligators, bobcats, snakes and coyotes.

Florida cattle rancher Alan McEwen, who lives outside the Carlton Reserve, has spent 30 years exploring the area and said it's not somewhere humans can easily live. He has been assisting police in their search for Brian.

'There's no surviving out here, I don't know how to say it,' he told Fox News.

'I've been in the woods in and out all my life. I have learned a lot in my life, and one thing I know is no one is gonna survive out there for two weeks on foot.'

Dog vowed to find him before his 24th birthday on November 18. Seattle's Boohoof Law offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
Angela Rayner urged Labour members not to look back in anger last night as she belted out karaoke classics - after the row over her 'Tory scum' outburst overshadowed the party conference.

Keir Starmer's Mancunian deputy sang the Oasis hit at a boozy party in Brighton on the final night of the annual event, having hit the headlines for her attack on Boris Johnson's party at the weekend.

Ms Rayner also raised eyebrows as she joined Sir Keir's main leadership rival, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on the mic at the city's Revolution bar.

Mr Burnham, who has made little secret of his desire to replace Sir Keir should Labour underachieve at the next election, joined her for a rendition of the Proclaimer's I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).

It features the lyrics: 'I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you.'

Ms Rayner also raised eyebrows as she joined Sir Keir's main leadership rival, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on the mic at the city's Revolution bar.

Mr Burnham, who has made little secret of his desire to replace Sir Keir should Labour underachieve at the next election, joined her for a rendition of the Proclaimer's I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) (right) and she also performed Oasis and the Cranberries' Zombie

Transfixed: Mr Burnham with a drag qeen at the party and (right) Ms Rayner in full rock star pose as she sang

Sir Keir also dropped in to the event hosted by the Mirror newspaper, but did not share his singing skills - perhaps saving his voice for his leadership speech which closes the conference today.

She also joined shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth for a rendition of John Travolta and Olivia Newton John's Grease classic You're The One That I Want.

Sir Keir also dropped in to the event hosted by the Mirror newspaper, but did not share his singing skills - perhaps saving his voice for his leadership speech which closes the conference today.

In her late-night rant on Saturday, Ms Rayner targeted the Conservatives, saying she was 'sick of shouting from the sidelines' at 'a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile of... banana republic... Etonian... piece of scum'.

She later doubled down, tweeting tweeting examples of the PM's controversial remarks from the past, complaining that critics should be less 'concerned with my choice of language'.

Her outburst was criticised by Sir Keir and other senior Labour MPs but defended by figures from the left of the party.

In harmony: The two Labour big-hitters in full voice

Northern uproar: Mr Burnham is the Greater Manchester mayor and Ms Rayner was born in Stockport and represents Ashton-under-Lyne

Sir Keir will try to draw a line under the Jeremy Corbyn era today as he declares winning the next election is more important than left-wing dogma.

In his first in-person Labour conference speech, Sir Keir will vow that under his leadership the party is 'back in business' and focussed on pragmatic solutions for Britain's problems.

Aides said Sir Keir will use his biggest political moment yet to promise to recruit thousands more teachers, and call for improvements to mental health care.

He is also expected to mount an effort to rehabilitate Labour's reputation for managing the public finances, as well as committing to creating a greener economy.

Rayner also sang Oasis and Cranberries' hits on her own

Sir Keir with his wife Victoria at the Daily Mirror party at Brighton's Revolution bar

But the leadership's main aim is to show voters the party has changed since Mr Corbyn  at that time backed by Sir Keir  led it to electoral catastrophe in 2019.

Shadow cabinet members privately accept that SIr Keir has an almost impossible task to overturn Boris Johnson's 80-strong majority in a single election.

They are already urging him to cling on if he loses the poll but manages to make significant progress against the 'popular' PM.

'No politician stays popular forever,' one frontbencher told MailOnline of Mr Johnson. 'He's been through a whole list of scandals which would have killed any other politician's career and I think a tipping point will come when people look at him and decide they don't like what they see.'
Thousands of schoolchildren have been called back into classrooms a week early as New South Wales' path out of lockdown ramps up, but only fully-vaccinated teaching staff will be welcome on campus.

A large portion of NSW students will resume face-to-face learning on October 18, following a decision made in a late-night crisis cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Year 1 and Year 12 students are now scheduled to return to campus on October 18 while Years 2, 6 and 11 will arrive the following week on October 25.

All remaining year groups will return as initially planned on November 1.

Only vaccinated teaching staff will be welcomed back into classrooms.

Thousands of students have been called back into classrooms a week early, with Year 1 and Year 12 students to resume in-school learning on October 18 (pictured, students in Sydney)

Students will begin a staged return to school from October 11 to give teachers an extra week to get two jabs of a Covid vaccine (pictured, students at Homebush West Public School)

Several senior ministers considered bringing students back even earlier on October 11, the Daily Telegraph reported.

However it was ultimately agreed students would return seven days later to give their teachers another week to get vaccinated.

All teaching staff in NSW were originally mandated to get two doses of a Covid vaccine by November 8.

Last month, a Department of Education survey revealed almost 70 per cent of staff had received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 40 per cent double jabbed.

But one in ten workers said they were not booked in or planned to get immunised within the next month.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian hinted at an earlier return for students during her Covid press conference on Wednesday.

Ms Berejiklian said her government was 'looking at options if we can bring things forward' in relation to the original return date earmarked for October 25.

The state leader said there were considerations to be made on the number of teaching staff that were currently vaccinated across the state.

All teaching staff in NSW have been mandated to get two doses of a Covid vaccine by November 8 (pictured, a mother home schools her children in Wollongong in July)

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there were considerations to be made on the number of teachers currently vaccinated (pictured, students at the Strathfield Train Station)

'Parents should assume it is October 25 and if there is better news than that, we will convey it,' the premier said earlier on Wednesday.

'I want to stress we are carefully considering the options we have to get kids to school earlier if we can.

'We didn't expect to have hit 70 per cent double dose on October 11 so we are considering what that does for the school system.'

Ms Berejiklian said 'regrettably' the return to classrooms would trigger the emergence of new cases.

She said the state government was still finalising the procedures that would follow an outbreak of infections in schools and when they would need to shut down.

'We are going through those processes now and we will give the community good advice ahead of that,' the state leader said.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the emphasis of the return to classrooms would be on the safety of students.

'I recognise that there are a mix of views across the community on when the right time is for children to return to school,' she said.

The minister said it was positive the state had hit vaccination targets early but it was imperative students could return to campuses in a 'safe and sensible' way.

'We continue to review our school settings and plans, as we have done throughout the pandemic, in line with the latest health advice.'

There has been a strong vaccine uptake in NSW students in the 12 to 15 year group with 44 per cent having received one dose of a Covid vaccine.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has said the emphasis of the return to classrooms would be on the safety of students (pictured, school children in Bowral)

The earlier return to classrooms comes as welcome news to busy parents, as many plan to return to work on October 11 when the majority of the state will reopen (pictured, primary school children in Redfern)

In a webinar video seen by Daily Mail Australia, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education Georgina Harrison warned staff about the mandatory jab requirement.

'It will mean under the public health order that they (teachers) are lawfully unable to work for us, and we will have to look at measures such as leave without pay until someone could get vaccinated, or possibly terminating their employment because it will be a requirement of employment,' Ms Harrison said in August.

'This is a really significant and serious step, it has not been taken lightly. Know that it has been taken on the very best health advice about what will protect our whole school community the best as we plan for return.'

Ms Berejiklian has reassured Year 12 students final HSC exams would be pushed back to November 9 - a day after mandatory vaccination is required for all staff on campuses.

NSW recorded 863 new local cases of Covid-19 and 15 deaths on Wednesday.
The government has deployed emergency tankers to deliver petrol amid huge driver shortages, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed today.

The Business Secretary tweeted this afternoon that the government's Reserve Tanker Fleet will be taking to the roads to 'boost deliveries' to forecourts across the country.

The UK's roads are clogged with drivers queueing for fuel because of a lack of tanker drivers. In a string of crises for the country, soaring gas prices have hit millions in the pocket and a shortage of CO2 has also devastated the supply of food and drink.

Retailers predict that the lack of HGVs and delivery drivers will hit supply chains and also force up prices by December. Trade association UK Hospitality has said that pubs and restaurants are facing disastrous staffing and supply problems that threaten their Christmas.

To help address the issue, the Business Secretary said today: 'I can confirm the government's Reserve Tanker Fleet will be on the road this afternoon to boost deliveries of fuel to forecourts across Britain. The trucks are driven by civilians and will provide additional logistical capacity to the fuel industry.

'We are now seeing signs that the situation at the pumps has begun to improve with more stations getting more fuel. The sooner we can all return to our normal buying habits, the sooner the situation will return to normal.'

It comes after he admitted earlier he can't 'guarantee' that the UK's fuel crisis and lorry driver shortage won't hit Christmas for millions - as his boss Boris Johnson fights to save the festive period.

Motorists queue for fuel at a petrol station in Ashford, Kent

Fuel tankers make their way along a busy M62 during the fuel shortage crisis

Next said supply chain woes had seen higher freight costs push up prices by about two per cent in the first half of the year and cautioned this would continue into next year, with prices set to rise around 2.5 per cent in the first half of 2022

Retailer Card Factory has also noted a shortage of its staff heading into the Christmas months as well as an increase in freight and energy costs

Today Mr Kwarteng was asked if he could guarantee that Christmas isn't going to be affected by the fuel crisis and other issues such as the shortage of HGV drivers.

He replied: 'I'm not guaranteeing anything. All I'm saying is I think the situation is stabilising. I think people realise that this will pass and we are very very focussed that we are getting enough drivers, we have stepped up military drivers and we are making sure we are getting petrol into the forecourts that can actually mean we have enough supply to meet demand. When we look at figures yesterday, it looks like the inflow of petrol matches the sales'.

The PM has resisted calls for the Army to be called in but from today around 150 military hauliers are undergoing training to become fuel tanker drivers and are expected to qualify within the next few days. A government source said there were no plans to deploy them and that they would be on standby as 'an insurance policy'.

Fashion and food retailers are warning Britons that Christmas is in peril this year because of rising prices and staff shortages which could affect delivery services.

Next said supply chain woes had seen higher freight costs push up prices by about two per cent in the first half of the year and cautioned this would continue into next year, with prices set to rise around 2.5 per cent in the first half of 2022.

The fashion giant added that it was also seeing some areas of the business come under pressure from staff shortages, particularly in logistics and warehousing, which may affect its delivery service going into the peak festive season.

The firm called on the Government to take action on the lorry driver crisis and wider skills shortages.

It said: 'We anticipate that, without some relaxation of immigration rules, we are likely to experience some degradation in our service in the run-up to Christmas.'

Retailer Card Factory has also noted a shortage of its staff heading into the Christmas months as well as an increase in freight and energy costs.

It said: 'Notwithstanding short-term uncertainty around the speed of the market recovery, the well-publicised disruption that is being seen in the supply chain, shortage of staff heading into Christmas, increasing freight costs, increased energy costs and adverse product mix, we remain cautiously positive about the second half of 2021-22.'

And John Lewis has been forced to charter freight ships to ensure it has stock available for Christmas.

Chairwoman Sharon White said the business is focusing on staying stocked so as not to let its customers down over the festive season this year.

The retailer announced plans three weeks ago to hire more than 7,000 temporary staff across the country (2,000 more than last year) to ensure stock availability over Christmas.

It has also raised wages for HGV delivery drivers and Ms White told the Independent: 'We are keen to act now before anything becomes a major problem. We have been working ahead of time with shipments, such as Christmas trees and other products to help avoid disruption.'

And the British Retail Consortium has warned the Government desperately needs to extend its visa programme in order to save Christmas.

Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: 'HGV drivers are the glue which hold our supply chains together. Without them, we are unable to move food and other goods around the country.

And John Lewis has been forced to charter freight ships to ensure it has stock available for Christmas

Chairwoman Sharon White said the business is focusing on staying stocked so as not to let its customers down over the festive season this year

A graphic illustrating how the three issues are currently affecting the UK and the problems it is causing. The People's Energy Company (bottom, middle) is one of the energy suppliers that have already gone bust

'Currently, the UK faces a shortfall of around 90,000 HGV drivers and it is consumers who ultimately suffer the consequences. The Government's new visa scheme is a step in the right direction but is insufficient in size and scope to prevent Christmas disruption.

'Christmas is about more than just food, so to avoid disappointment for millions of households during the festive season we urge the Government to rapidly extend this programme, both in size and scope, to HGV drivers in all sectors of the retail industry.

'Retailers continue to play their part by helping to train thousands of new British HGV drivers, as well as increasing pay rates for those employed, but it will take many months before there enough new British drivers to cover the shortfall.'

Turkey farmers are reporting a surge in orders as families scramble to save Christmas dinner amid fears of a poultry shortage.

There have been unprecedented numbers of orders for turkey, with most high-end farms reporting soaring demand compared to this time last year.

This panic buying surge has seen some farms receive more than five times the number of orders as in 2020. Several farms are reporting 250 per cent surges compared to figures from this time last year.

It comes as a chilled food firm which supplies the likes of Asda and Sainsbury's yesterday announced it had gone into administration amid the UK's crippling lorry driver shortage.

Next cautioned the performance may be hindered by rising costs in the wider economy, the supply woes and a potential hit to its delivery service from staff shortages.

'The cost of living, along with the potential effect of seasonal labour shortages on our delivery service, may moderate demand in the months ahead,' it said.

Next added: 'The HGV crisis was foreseen and widely predicted for many months.

'For the sake of the wider UK economy, we hope that the Government will take a more decisive approach to the looming skills crisis in warehouses, restaurants, hotels, care homes and many seasonal industries.

'A demand-led approach to ensuring the country has the skills it needs is now vital.'

Gas shortages are also threatening to make festive dinner favourites unavailable.

Food supply chains have been placed under intense stress in recent weeks because of a shortage of around 100,000 HGV drivers - with empty shelves across some UK supermarkets as a result.

They were further damaged after two plants that produce 60 per cent of the UK's CO2 were shut down amid rising gas prices. CO2 is used for everything from the humane slaughter of chickens and pigs, to putting the fizz in soft drinks and creating packaging that keeps foods fresh.

Now, there are fears that shortages could bite households in the run-up to Christmas.

The classic Christmas dinner could be decimated, with turkey, pigs in blankets, potatoes and brussel sprouts all at risk.

Meanwhile, toys, vinyl and books could also experience shortages - with experts even warning of Christmas tree issues.

There is a driver shortage across Europe - with the largest deficit found in Poland followed by Britain and Germany

Despite the government agreeing a deal to restart production at the CO2 plants, industry bodies have warned that consumers may still see a hike in food prices, particularly if the cost of carbon dioxide rises.

The government's deal with CF Industries is only in place for three weeks - leading to fears that the issues could start up again in the run-up to the festive period.

The boss of Tesco warned last night that shoppers are facing a five per cent hike in food prices amid the lorry driver amid the lorry driver and gas shortages.

Speaking to ITV's Robert Peston last week, the supermarket's chairman John Allan warned of a perfect storm of issues and said efforts were being made to avert a 'horrendous crisis at Christmas'.

He said: 'I think it's almost impossible to forecast, but I mean I think we're probably looking at, for food overall, you know, mid-single digit increases which is much higher than we've had in recent years.

'I think certainly while we get through this particular set of issues that we're contending with, which include shortage of labour in a number of important areas of food manufacturing, shortage of HGV drivers, which can be fixed, and we're all working very hard to fix.'

Leading turkey farmer Paul Kelly, who hatches 2 million of his own breed KellyBronze birds a year, accounting for 27% of all turkeys sold at Christmas, said CO2 was used in the slaughter process and more importantly to keep the product fresh.

'Carbon dioxide is used to extend shelf life, so when you put a turkey in a bag, you suck the air out and you blow carbon dioxide in and that stops the bugs growing, ' he said.

'We can't create millions and millions of turkeys all in the week before Christmas, it has to be spread over a few weeks so if (CO2 production) really wasn't back up and running, it would be another car crash.'

Iceland boss Richard Walker warned earlier this week: 'This is no longer about whether Christmas will be OK. This is more about keeping the wheels turning and the lights on so we can actually get to Christmas.'

He said today: 'If the food industry was just facing a CO2 crisis we could probably weather it and muddle through, but of course it's compounded by a whole array of other issues, not least the HGV driver shortage.

'We have 100,000 short in this country, my business has about 100 HGV drivers short, and that is making it increasingly very, very difficult to service our shops.

'We never had to cancel a single delivery throughout the pandemic, and yet now we're having to because of this shortage, so I think it is a concern.

'And as we look to build stock as an industry to work towards our bumper time of year, Christmas, we're now facing this shortage at the worst possible time.

'In the short term I'm more confident that supply chains will be more uninterrupted. However I think we've now got to think longer-term. This loan is only three weeks: what happens after that, or what happens the next time the gas prices spike?

'So we need a broader, more diverse and therefore more sustainable energy mix so we're not so reliant on gas. We also need to look as a food industry, but also further up the supply chains, at different, better ways of capturing CO2 and potentially using alternative gases as well.'

The comments came as the Next group reported pre-tax profits of 346.7 million for the six months to July 31, down 16.5 per cent on a year ago but up 5.9 per cent on 2019 levels, after full-price brand sales jumped 62 per cent year-on-year and were 8.8 per cent higher versus 2019.

It increased its full-year sales and profit forecasts for the fourth time this financial year after a 'materially' better-than-expected performance over June and July.

Next saw full-price sales soar 20 per cent against 2019 levels in the last eight weeks of the first half, while it said the second half had also got off to a strong start.

The group now expects sales to rise 10 per cent on 2019 levels and pre-tax profits to reach 800 million for the year to January, up 6.9 per cent on 2019 and above previous guidance of 764million.
An Australian man has been charged with multiple terrorism-related offences after a joint investigation involving the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation along with South Australian and federal police.

The 24-year-old was previously charged with 10 firearms-related offences but has now been hit with a litany of other charges.

The Adelaide man has been charged with 10 counts of possessing information for terrorist acts and 11 counts of possessing instructions to make an explosive device.

An Adelaide man, 24, has been charged with a raft of terrorism offenses (pictured: The Ben Chifley Building in Canberra is the HQ of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation. Former Prime Minister Chifley established the agency)

He has been remanded in custody to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court in March 2022.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Counter Terrorism Scott Lee said it was alleged the man possessed weapons and had instructions for the manufacture of explosive devices.

However, police said there had been no specific threat to community safety identified during the investigation.
A screeching train line is driving the residents of an Australian suburb around the bend with the noise so loud they can't have a conversation in their own houses.

Brian McGlynn and his wife Dominique said the noise from the trains on the line near their apartment in Sydney's north shore had double since they moved in eight years ago.

He said the trains are now heavier causing the rail tracks to buckle and the loud metallic screeching noise whenever they pass - which is about every two minutes.

Brian and Dominque McGlynn (pictured) said up to 450 trains pass by each day and make a loud screeching noise causing them to be unable to hear each other

Up to 450 trains go though each day said Mr McGlynn who has documented the noise using audio software on his computer.

'I have to delay when talking to people because this goes over the top of every conversation,' Mr McGlynn told A Current Affair from his porch.

'It's just constant ... and I work from home mainly and do a lot of Zoom calls. It's like a vacuum cleaner 24/7,' he said.

The noise was so loud he spent $80,000 to double glaze his windows and doors just so he and his wife could get to sleep at night.

Neighbours Mimi and Phil Neave agreed and said the noise from the trains was 'horrendous'.

The couple said if they have guests over and are out on their patio they can't hear each other speak.

Sydney Trains and the Environmental Protection Agency said they had hired a consultant to investigate how to reduce the noise from the trains (pictured)

They previously took Sydney Trains to court over the 'stand clear the doors are closing' announcement more than a decade ago - and won.

The announcement was turned down and the couple said they would be thrilled if a similar solution could be introduced in this case.

After residents complained, Sydney Trains installed pumps which spray lubricant on the steel lines but they said the solution hasn't helped as the oil quickly drips off.

Neighbours Mimi and Phil Neave (pictured) said they also have to deal with the train noise

In Europe an effective technology has been introduced to quieten noise on train lines which the two couples want to see brought to Australia.

The method uses a high performance damping material along the line in combination with with sound absorption technology.

The Environmental Protection Authority and Sydney Trains said in a statement they have now hired an independent consultant to work on reducing the train noise.
A 25-year-old man has been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism.

The suspect, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, was held on Wednesday for alleged offences linked to Islamist extremism.

He is suspected of having committed offences of preparing for acts of terrorism, membership of a banned organisation and receiving weapons training.

The man was arrested following an investigation by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South East.

It comes after experts warned that Britain is facing its biggest terror threat in years following the collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

A man from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, was held at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday for alleged offences linked to Islamist extremism (stock photo)

Former commander of British troops in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp said last month that the UK faced 'the greatest danger from terrorism since Islamic State at its height'.

The threat could be bigger than that posed by ISIS and Britain faces an 'extremely dangerous' situation, he told Times Radio.

He said the Taliban 'will allow and probably encourage jihadists to pour into the country from around the world, who plan, meet, prepare, train, organise and carry out strikes against the West from Afghanistan.'

The current threat level, which is determined by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, is 'substantial' which means an attack is likely and is the third highest rating.

The levels above substantial are severe, which means an attack is highly likely, and critical which means an attack is highly likely in the near future.

Col Kemp previously urged the Government to raise the threat level to severe as he warned there is an 'immediately increased threat from British jihadists inspired and motivated by events in Afghanistan'.
Amazon and SpaceX have clashed over Starlink and a $2.9billion NASA award

Elon Musk has mocked Jeff Bezos amid a legal spat over plans for SpaceX's Starlink satellite network and a NASA deal.

In what has been dubbed the billionaire space race, Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson both entered orbit in the last few months, while Musk's company successfully completed the first all-civilian space flight.

But when asked about Bezos at the 2021 Code Conference in Beverly Hill on Tuesday, Musk joked that the Amazon founder's rocket 'could be a different shape'.

'Could you explain from a technological point of view why it's that shape?' journalist Kara Swisher asked Musk in a live interview.

'If you are only doing suborbital, then your rocket can be shorter, yes,' he said.

The comments made reference to Bezos' much-mocked New Shepard rocket, the design of which drew comparisons to male genitalia, spawning innumerable memes.

Musk's jibe on Tuesday came amid an ongoing legal battle between Amazon and SpaceX over the Starlink satellite network.

Elon Musk (pictured) mocked Jeff Bezos at the 2021 Code Conference on Tuesday amid a legal spat over plans for SpaceX's Starlink satellite network and a NASA deal

Musk's made reference to Bezos' much-mocked New Shepard rocket (pictured), the design of which drew comparisons to male genitalia, spawning innumerable memes

In what has been dubbed the billionaire space race, Bezos (pictured) and Virgin's Richard Branson both entered orbit in the last few months, while Musk's company successfully completed the first all-civilian space flight

Amazon has appealed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), asking it to reject the proposal that would see the constellation of more than 1,600 satellites expanded considerably.

Starlink already provides internet access covering most of the Earth and is a direct competitor to proposed plans from Amazon, Samsung and others.

Amazon is also challenging SpaceX over NASA's $2.9billion award for a Starship lunar lander and more time getting the company's New Glenn rocket into orbit, Geekwire reported.

The rocket's launch is currently scheduled for late 2022.

NASA choosing SpaceX for the project means the company will have a hand in landing the next Americans on the moon.

'You cannot sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are,' Musk said during the hour-long discussion on Tuesday.

Asked by Swisher whether he had ever talked with Bezos about the dispute, Musk - a prolific Twitter user - said, 'Not verbally  just subtweets.'

A decision on the lunar lander lawsuit by Blue Origin - Bezos' aerospace company - is expected by early November. Pending the decision, NASA's award to SpaceX has been suspended.

When asked whether he would like to travel to space as Bezos and Branson had done, Musk said that he would likely go 'at some point' but that a personal trip was not his goal.

'My goal is to open up space for humanity and ultimately set us on a path to becoming a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanet species,' he said.
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A knee-high celebrity cow that became a sensation in Bangladesh has won posthumous recognition as the shortest on the planet just weeks after its untimely demise.

Rani, just 20 inches (50.8 cm) high, became an instant internet celebrity with tens of thousands of people rushing to the farm she lived on outside Dhaka for a glimpse of the miniature cow.

But just after its owners applied to Guinness World Records, tragedy struck on August 19 when the beloved bovine suddenly died due to an internal build-up of gas.

The two-year-old cow's owner Kazi Mohammad Abu Sufian said he received an email on Monday from Guinness World Records saying that Rani's application had been accepted.

A statement on the Guinness website confirmed the miniature Bhutti world-record cow's status, beating the previous holder, an Indian cow named Manikyam that stood 24 inches (61 cm) from hoof to withers.

Rani the cow (pictured), standing at just 20 inches (50.8 cm) high, became an instant internet celebrity with tens of thousands of people rushing to the farm she lived on outside Dhaka for a glimpse of the miniature cow

Rani was a Bhutti, or Bhutanese, cow which is prized for its meat in Bangladesh. The other Bhuttis on the farm are twice Rani's size (pictured - Rani with another Bhutti on his home farm in July)

Even regular sized goats dwarfed Rani, whose status as the smallest cow in the world was confirmed by Guinness World Record adjudicators posthumuously

'We sent several video of Rani in line with Guinness World Records prescriptions. We have also sent the post-mortem report to the Guinness authorities to see that there was nothing unusual about her death,' Sufian told AFP news agency.

Sufian said he had also sent Guinness Rani's medical records after they asked whether she had received hormone injections.

'We have a mixed feelings after Rani got the recognition. We are happy that she got her due honours. But we are at the same very sad because she is no more with us,' Sufian said.

'Her carer burst out crying as soon as we told him the news.'

Despite a nationwide transport shutdown because of record coronavirus infections and deaths at the time, people flocked in rickshaws to the farm in Charigram, some 19 miles southwest of Dhaka.

'I have never seen anything like this in my life. Never,' said Rina Begum, 30, who visited from a neighbouring town while Rani was still alive.

M.A. Hasan Howlader, manager of Shikor Agro farm, used a tape measure to show dozens of onlookers how much smaller Rani was compared to her closest rival.

Shikar Agro farm reportedly bought the cow from a farm in Naogaon shortly after its birth.

'People come long distances despite the coronavirus lockdown. Most want to take selfies with Rani,' Howlader told AFP back in July, adding Guinness World Records had promised a decision in three months.

'More than 15,000 people have come to see Rani in the past three days alone,' he said. 'Honestly speaking, we are tired.'

The two-year-old dwarf cow became a media star and scores of newspapers and television stations flocked to cover the tiny bovine at a farm near Dhaka. However, on August 19 tragedy struck when Remi died from a build up of gas

The cow's owner Kazi Mohammad Abu Sufian said he received an email on Monday from Guinness World Records saying that Rani's application had been accepted as the world's shortest

M.A. Hasan Howlader, manager of Shikor Agro farm, used a tape measure to show dozens of onlookers how Rani is smaller than closest rival Manikyam, a cow in the Indian state Kerala that held the world record at the time of this picture being taken

Rani was a Bhutti, or Bhutanese, cow which is prized for its meat in Bangladesh. The other Bhuttis on the farm are twice Rani's size.

'We did not expect such huge interest,' the farm manager said at the time of the rush of tourists earlier in the year.

'We did not think people would leave their homes because of the worsening virus situation. But they have come here in droves.'

Sajedul Islam, the government's chief vet for the region, said at the time Rani was a product of 'genetic inbreeding' and was unlikely to become any bigger. Islam said he had told the farm to restrict the tourist influx.

'I told them they should not allow so many people to crowd the farm.

'They may carry diseases here that threaten Rani's health,' he said.
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Keir Starmer's Labour conference speech: key points Sir Keir blasted Jeremy Corbyn's disastrous 2019 election campaign saying he wants to win back voters 'who thought we were unpatriotic or irresponsible or that we looked down on them'.

He likened them to the Tories heckling him in the Commons at Prime Minister's Questions, adding: 'It doesn't bother me then and it doesn't bother me now.'

Later he got a standing ovation by telling hecklers: 'Shouting slogans or changing lives conference? We can chant all day.'

He was heckled over proposals for a 15 minimum wage as he paid tribute to the NHS workers who cared for his mother and those working throughout the pandemic.

Shouts were heard of 'throw them out', with sustained supportive applause for the Labour leader.

A heckle of 'it was your Brexit policy' could be heard as Sir Keir spoke of a serious plan for Government.

He attacked Boris Johnson over the haulage shortages threatening to cripple the country. He said the PM was overseeing 'a fuel crisis, a pay crisis, a goods crisis and a cost-of-living crisis, all at the same time', telling him: 'Either get a grip or get out of the way and let us clear up this mess.' He

There was a standing ovation for Jewish ex-MP Dame Louise Ellman, who has rejoined the party after quitting over anti-Semitism, as Sir Keir told her: 'Welcome home.'

He mocked the PM in an ad-lib joke not in the printed speech, saying: 'My dad was a tool maker, although in a way, so was Boris Johnson's'.

He set out his plans to make Labour reliable on law and order, citing the low rate of rape convictions and high levels of knife crime saying: 'Under my leadership, the fight against crime will always be a Labour issue.'

He branded Boris Johnson a 'trivial man,' likening him to 'a showman with nothing left to show' and 'a trickster who has performed his one trick'.

He unveiled something close to a new slogan: Work. Care. Equality. Security

On schools, he drew an analogy to Tony Blair's 1996 conference speech cry of 'education, education, education' telling the 2021 audience: 'Education is so important I am tempted to say it three times.'

Used education to blast PM's 'levelling up mantra' by highlighting low funding, saying: If you can't level up our children. You're not serious about levelling up at all.' Advertisement

Keir Starmer was repeatedly heckled by 'petulant, small and awful' Corbynites today as he warned Labour they must 'get serious' by ditching hard-Left policies to win power - and spoke movingly about the experience of caring for his late mother.

In his first in-person conference speech following the pandemic, Sir Keir faced chants of 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn' and shouts about his Brexit policy being to blame for the crushing election defeat in 2019.

In one grim piece of trolling, there were jibes screamed out as Sir Keir was talking about his late mother Jo, an NHS nurse who suffered from a crippling rare form of arthritis.

Sir Keir merely shook his head and carried on as he told how the Covid crisis had brought back memories of her illness.

He shrugged off other brickbats, saying he got the same treatment from Tories at PMQs every week. 'It doesn't bother me then, it won't bother me now.'

As he was hit with more catcalls of 'shame', he shot back: 'Chanting slogans or changing lives!'

The speech lasted a marathon 88 minutes as Sir Keir battled to make progress through the interruptions.

Deploying his working-class roots and the 'principles' of hard work and fairness he learned from his toolmaker father Rodney, the leader insisted the way to get the party 'back in business' is to focus on pragmatic solutions for Britain's problems.

Sir Keir warned social justice will never be achieved without a 'strong economy', promising not to repeat Corbyn's mistake of putting uncosted splurges that lacked 'credibility'.

While some delegates held up red cards and placards saying 'no purge' to show their disapproval of internal rule changes, others yelled at them to be quiet and let the leader speak. There were also strong rounds of applause at key sections as the hall showed its disgust at the disruptors.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner was among those condemning the protesters afterwards - even though she clashed with Sir Keir over her 'Tory scum' comments this week.

Ms Rayner told the BBC: 'That wasn't great, it was awful, but the audience, the vast majority of the audience, was very clear that they wanted to hear Keir's message.'

Sir Keir has confirmed that totemic policies such as re-nationalisation of energy and water are being watered down, and did not mention 'socialism' during the speech.

He defiantly channelled Tony Blair in one passage, saying that education was so important he was tempted to say it three times - a reference to the New Labour premier's famous 'education, education, education' slogan.

Sir Keir also unveiled plans to recruit thousands more teachers and boost mental health services, as well as setting a 'national mission' to make every home in the country warm, well-insulated and cheaper to heat within a decade.

The party said spending 6billion a year upgrading 19million homes would cut carbon emissions, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and save families over 400 a year on energy bills.

Keir taunted with lacklustre heckles over 15 minimum wage, Brexit ... and Peter Mandelson Keir Starmer faced heckles from the disgruntled hard Left over Brexit, the minimum wage - and the whereabouts of Peter Mandelson at conference today. The Labour leader faced chants of 'shame' and calls for Labour's leadership to support a 15 minimum wage during his first conference speech. Critics also held up red cards in protest as Sir Keir delivered his speech. London-based activist Carole Vincent said she expected to be thrown out of the party for heckling. 'I don't consider it to be heckling, I consider that I stood up and spoke out because it needed to be said,' she said. 'He had ignored - and this conference has ignored - people that have been standing up and asking for him to guarantee the 15 per cent rise for the NHS, a 15 minimum wage.' A heckle of 'it was your Brexit policy' could be heard as Sir Keir spoke of a serious plan for Government. And in one of the more bizarre moments of the conference in Brighton, there was bemusement when one person shouted: 'Where is Peter Mandelson?' The Blair era fixer and spinner has been attending conference this year. Advertisement

The Tories said the conference underlined the deep divisions within Labour, but the CBI praised Sir Keir for 'taking an important step forward by outlining an agenda where businesses can find common ground'.

In a stark message to the Left, he said: 'To those Labour voters who said their grandparents would turn in their graves, that they couldn't trust us with high office, to those who reluctantly chose the Tories because they didn't believe our promises were credible.

'To the voters who thought we were unpatriotic or irresponsible or that we looked down on them, I say these simple but powerful words. We will never under my leadership go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government.

'It will not take another election defeat for the Labour party to become an alternative government in which you can trust. That's why it has been so important to get our own house in order this week and we have done that.'

Anger is running high among hard-Left activists following days of squabbling over internal rule changes, the minimum wage, Israel and the military alliance with the US.

Taking to the podium to Fat Boy Slim's Right Here, Right Now after a video playing up his working-class background and stellar legal career, Sir Keir kicked off by joking that the start of conference had been 'nerve-wracking' - but only because his beloved Arsenal were playing Tottenham.

He quickly swiped at the government over the fuel crisis, saying: 'Level up? You cannot even fuel up.'

And he launched a series of excoriating attacks on Mr Johnson, describing the PM as a 'tool', a 'trivial man', and a 'trickster'.

In one of his edgiest gags, Sir Keir said: 'My dad was a tool maker, although in a way, so was Boris Johnson's.'

Shadow cabinet ministers rallied round the leader after the speech. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the heckling was 'wrong'.

'I think what you saw in the hall was a party that has changed,' she told the BBC.

'There are those who say we can stay the same, we can carry on with these pledges that we can't keep, we can carry on standing on the sidelines waving placards and being a party of protest, and I say to them as Keir faced them down in the hall: you are wrong.'

Labour MP Angela Eagle said: 'I thought that it was petulant and small and very disappointing.

'I think that the party needs to work together. There is only a small number of people now that feel they have to behave like that and I am sorry that that happened. I think it was disrespectful.'

In his first in-person conference speech following the pandemic, Keir Starmer faced chants of 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn ' and shouts about his Brexit policy being to blame for the crushing election defeat in 2019

As Sir Keir was hit catcalls of 'shame' and other jibes throughout his speech, he shot back: 'Chanting slogans or changing lives!' One of the hecklers is believed to have been former Big Brother contestant Carole Vincent, pictured

The Labour leader was praising the care given to Jo Starmer (above, in a wheelchair), who suffered from Still's Disease, an autoimmune disorder that led to her losing her legs.

One angry left-winger held up a placard saying 'No Purge' during the leader's 88-minute speech today

Sir Keir shrugged off the brickbats, saying he got the same treatment from Tories at PMQs every week. 'It doesn't bother me then, it won't bother me now.'

Sir Keir was embraced by wife Victoria after his eventful speech to Labbour activists in Brighton this afternoon

Sir Keir, who served in Jeremy Corbyn's (centre) shadow cabinet, said the former Labour leader would not have the party whip reinstated unless he apologised for his claim that the extent of Labour's anti-Semitism crisis had been overstated

Starmer heckled as he praised NHS staff who helped his sick mother Keir Starmer was heckled from the Labour conference crowd as he praised NHS nurses for caring for his mother. The Labour leader was praising the care given to Jo Starmer (below, in a wheelchair), who suffered from Still's Disease, an autoimmune disorder that led to her losing her legs. He told the Brighton audience of speaking to nurses caring for her during a stay in intensive care, saying: 'I thanked them for what they had done. And they said to me ''we are just doing our job''. 'And they were. They were doing their job for my mum that night, someone else's mum the night before, someone else's mum the night after. 'But that's not just a job. It's a calling.' It was at this point he was interrupted from the floor. After a brief pause he continued, saying: 'So, when I think of the extraordinary dedication of doctors and nurses, working to keep people alive as the Covid virus took hold, I know what that looks like.' Advertisement

The speech had been billed as one of the most personal Sir Keir had delivered, and he described how he learned the importance of 'good work and fair growth' from his parents 'round the kitchen table'.

'I learnt it at home, from my dad. How pride derives from work. How work is the bedrock of a good economy. And how a good economy is an essential partner of a good society,' he said.

'That's why I am so proud to lead a party whose name is Labour. Don't forget it. Labour. The party of working people.'

Ignoring more shouts from the audience, he went on: 'My mum worked incredibly hard too. She was a nurse in the NHS and a very proud nurse too.

'I got from my mum an ethic of service. But my mum was also, unfortunately, a long-term patient of the NHS.

'When she was young, she was diagnosed with Still's disease. It's a rare form of inflammatory arthritis which severely restricts mobility. This disease, along with the drugs she had to take to control it, took a heavy toll.

'The NHS that had been her livelihood became her lifeline. There were times, many times, when mum was so ill that she had to go into hospital.

'I remember going into the intensive care unit one day, as I often did. Mum's bed was a riot of tubes and temperature devices.

'I could sense the urgency in the conversation of the four nurses on my mum's bed. I knew without being told that they were keeping her alive...

'When that long day was over, I thanked them for what they had done. And they said to me 'we are just doing our job'. And they were.

'They were doing their job for my mum that night, someone else's mum the night before, someone else's mum the night after.

'But that's not just a job. It's a calling.'

At that point there was a loud bout of heckling, although the exact nature of the shout was unclear.

Heckler who was on Big Brother 'expects to be expelled' from Labour As Sir Keir was hit catcalls of 'shame' and other jibes throughout his speech, he shot back: 'Chanting slogans or changing lives!' One of the hecklers is believed to have been former Big Brother contestant Carole Vincent, pictured A heckler who starred on reality TV today said she expected to be expelled from Labour for barracking Keir Starmer. Carole Vincent, a former Big Brother contestant and an ex-Socialist Worker Party member, was pictured screaming at the leader during his speech. Carole was a sexual health counsellor and polled just 471 votes in the 2006 local government elections as a candidate in the Markhouse Ward in Waltham Forest. A veteran protester of more than 30 years the former foster mother is staunchly anti-war and was driven to join Respect after Tony Blair sent troops to Iraq. But she was unrepentant as she told reporters Sir Keir would probably face a leadership challenge. 'I don't consider it to be heckling, I consider that I stood up and spoke out because it needed to be said,' she said. 'He had ignored  and this conference has ignored  people that have been standing up and asking for him to guarantee the 15 per cent rise for the NHS, a 15 minimum wage.' She said she expected to be thrown out of the party for her actions, adding: 'He had 10 pledges. He has reneged on most of those pledges. He talked about uniting the party. The party has never been so divided as it is now and it's getting worse. 'I probably will be expelled and that's sad because I work bloody hard for this party. I don't get paid for it, it's because on my membership card it says this is a party of socialist democrats, it's a socialist democratic party and that's why I joined  so we all have a voice and we haven't had a voice.' While the comments made by Ms Vincent, who was fifth in the eighth Big Brother series (pictured, far left) in 2007, weren't picked up by the microphones the vitriol in her face was plain to see as she screamed and jabbed her finger in Mr Starmer's direction Advertisement

Shaking his head sadly, Sir Keir continued: 'So, when I think of the extraordinary dedication of doctors and nurses, working to keep people alive as the Covid virus took hold, I know what that looks like.'

The leader said said the country faces a 'big moment' in its history, adding: 'I see a Government lost in the woods with two paths beckoning. One path leads back where we came from.

'None of the lessons of Covid are learned. The flaws that were brutally exposed by the pandemic all worsen. Childhood poverty increases. The crisis in social care gets worse. The housing market is still broken. Slow and steady decline.

'But there is another path down which we address the chronic problems revealed by Covid, with the kindness and the togetherness that got us through.

'That path leads to a future in which a smart government enlists the brilliance of scientific invention to create a prosperous economy and a contribution society in which everyone has their role to play.

'It will be a future in which we make an opportunity out of tackling the climate crisis and in which Britain is once again a confident actor in the world.

'I believe in this country and I believe we will go forward.'

Turning to his main theme about the need to move on from the disastrous Corbyn era, he told the audience: 'Too often in the history of this party our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy.

'But you don't get one without the other. And under my leadership we are committed to both. I can promise you that under my leadership Labour will be back in business.'

At one point when he was interrupted again, with jibes including 'shame' and calls for a 15 minimum wage, Sir Keir replied: 'You can chant all day,' before being applauded by the audience.

Sir Keir desperately entreated his party to 'get serious', saying they had 'lost badly' to the Tories.

'I can see the ways in which we can remake this nation and that's what we get to do when we win,' he said.

'Yet, in a way the more we expose the inadequacy of this government the more it presses the question back on us. If they are so bad, what does it say about us? Because after all in 2019 we lost to them, and we lost badly. I know that hurts each and every one of you.

'So, let's get totally serious about this - we can win the next election.

'This government can't keep the fuel flowing, it can't keep the shelves stocked and you've seen what happens when Boris Johnson wants more money - he goes straight for the wallets of working people.'

He urged activists to think of how they could 'start to write the next chapter in our nation's history, bending it towards the values that bring us, year after year to this conference hall to seek a better way'.

'I have loved my first full conference as leader but I don't want to go through the same routine every year,' he said.

'In a few short years from now I want to be here with you talking about the difference we are making, the problems we are fixing as a Labour government.

'That is what this party is for. That's the object of the exercise and as the leader of this party I will always have that eye-on-the-object look. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-object look.'

One of the hecklers, Carole Vincent is thought to be former Big Brother contestant and ex-Socialist Worker Party member. She told reporters afterwards that she expected Sir Keir to face a leadership challenge.

'I don't consider it to be heckling, I consider that I stood up and spoke out because it needed to be said,' she said.

'He had ignored  and this conference has ignored  people that have been standing up and asking for him to guarantee the 15 per cent rise for the NHS, a 15 minimum wage.'

She said she expected to be thrown out of the party for her actions, adding: 'He had 10 pledges. He has reneged on most of those pledges. He talked about uniting the party. The party has never been so divided as it is now and it's getting worse.

'I probably will be expelled and that's sad because I work bloody hard for this party. I don't get paid for it, it's because on my membership card it says this is a party of socialist democrats, it's a socialist democratic party and that's why I joined  so we all have a voice and we haven't had a voice.'

Labour government would retro-fit every home with insulation in climate change drive A Labour government would retro-fit every house in the UK with insulation as part of its plans to tackle climate change, Sir Keir Starmer announced today. Sir Keir said that 'action is needed' to reduce harmful emissions 'not in the future, but now'. He said that 'if we delay action by a decade the costs of climate transition will double'. Labour has pledged to bring forward a so-called 'Green New Deal' to speed up the transition to cleaner energy use. Sir Keir said making the nation's homes more efficient will be key to his plans. 'If we are serious about climate change we will need to upgrade our homes,' he told activists in Brighton. 'The Tories inherited plans from Labour to make every new home zero carbon. 'They scrapped them and now we have a crisis in energy prices, emissions from homes have increased and we have the least energy-efficient housing in Europe. 'So it will be Labour's national mission over the next decade, to fit out every home that needs it, to make sure it is warm, well-insulated and costs less to heat and we will create thousands of jobs in the process.' Advertisement

A Labour spokesman said they had expected protests, and the fact people had red pieces of paper to hold up suggested they were coordinated.

He said he did not know whether the ripostes used against the hecklers by Sir Keir were rehearsed, but added there were only a 'small number' who were disruptive.

The spokesman said: 'Ultimately it didn't distract from the message that Keir wanted to get across. He delivered the speech in the positive, optimistic, confident tone that I said yesterday was what he would be doing and that's what he did today.

'We're very happy with how it went, obviously.'

Asked about the Blairite tinge to the speech, the spokesman said: 'I know that it sometimes comes as a surprise to journalists, but it is not a surprise to me that actually the vast majority of Labour Party members are very proud of what the last Labour government achieved.

'If you go around to Labour Party events you constantly hear people being proud of what we did in government. It shows the value of winning, it is only by winning that you can make change happen. That is what today's speech is about.'

The leadership's main aim at conference has been to show voters the party has changed since Mr Corbyn  at that time backed by Sir Keir  led it to electoral catastrophe in 2019.

Shadow cabinet members privately accept that SIr Keir has an almost impossible task to overturn Boris Johnson's 80-strong majority in a single election.

They are already urging him to cling on if he loses the poll, which some believe could come as early as next year, but manages to make significant progress against the 'popular' PM.

The mood in Brighton this week has been one of grim resolve as Sir Keir and his allies try to get a grip on the party machine.

But efforts to highlight policies have been largely overshadowed by rows over party rule changes, splits with his deputy Angela Rayner, and the surprise resignation of shadow cabinet minister Andy McDonald, who accused Sir Keir of making the party 'more divided than ever'.

Deputy leader Angela Rayner, right, was in the front row for Sir Keir's speech after they clashed over her 'Tory scum' comments, and condemned the hecklers afterwards. Left, shadow chancelllor Rachel Reeves

While some delegates held up red cards to show their disapproval, others yelled at them to be quiet and let the leader speak

Sir Keir's address was disrupted throughout by raucous shouting from hard-Left elements in the crowd in Brighton

At one point when he was interrupted again, with jibes including 'shame' and calls for a 15 minimum wage, Sir Keir replied: 'You can chant all day,' before being applauded by the audience

Keir's quips: Labour leader's speech jokes Keir Starmer tried to liven up his stolid lawyer image with a few one liners in his speech, mostly at the expense of Boris Johnson. But he also took aim at hard Left hecklers in the audience who heckled him over Jeremy Corbyn's suspension, his anti-Brexit stance and refusal to back leftwing demands for a 15-per-hour minimum wage. Here are some of his zingers: He mocked the PM in an ad-lib joke not in the printed speech, saying: 'My dad was a tool maker, although in a way, so was Boris Johnson's'. As he was heckled he said: 'At this time on a Wednesday it's normally the Tories that are heckling me. It doesn't bother me then, and it doesn't bother me now.' He played up his credentials as a former director of public prosecutions. He highlighted work he did in Northern Ireland in 2003, saying: 'As I worked with the police to create a lasting institution in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement, Boris Johnson was a guest on Top Gear where, in reference to himself, he said to Jeremy Clarkson: ''you can't rule out the possibility that beneath the elaborately constructed veneer of a blithering idiot, lurks a blithering idiot'.'' He added: 'When, in the autumn of 2010, I was the chief prosecutor working with Doreen Lawrence to finally get a prosecution of two of the men who murdered Stephen, Boris Johnson was writing an article in The Telegraph declaring a war on traffic cones.' Advertisement

SIR KEIR STARMER ACCUSES JEREMY CORBYN OF ALMOST 'OBLITERATING' LABOUR

Sir Keir said that under his leadership Labour will never again 'go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government' as he launched a stinging attack on Mr Corbyn.

He pointed out that the conference in Brighton is the first held since the 2019 general election which saw the party crash to its 'worst defeat since 1935'.

He said that the party's activists and 'loyal voters' had helped save Labour from 'obliteration' under his predecessor.

Sir Keir said Labour must 'understand and persuade the voters who rejected us' at the last election.

He said: 'To those Labour voters who said their grandparents would turn in their graves, that they couldn't trust us with high office, to those who reluctantly chose the Tories because they didn't believe our promises were credible.

'To the voters who thought we were unpatriotic or irresponsible or that we looked down on them, I say these simple but powerful words: We will never under my leadership go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government.'

LABOUR LEADER STRESSES HIS PATRIOTIC CREDENTIALS AND IMPORTANCE OF 'BRITISH VALUES'

The Labour leader spoke at length about his time as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

He said that those are 'three very important words', telling the conference hall: 'Crown brings home the responsibility of leading part of the nation's legal system.

'Prosecution tells you that crime hurts and victims need justice to be done.

'Service is a reminder that the job is bigger than your own career advancement.'

The comments will be seen as an attempt by Sir Keir to bolster his patriotic credentials after a party plan was leaked in February this year which said Labour must make 'use of the [Union] flag, veterans [and] dressing smartly' to win back voters.

Sir Keir closed his speech by saying the UK is at a 'big moment that demands leadership'.

He said his leadership would be based on the principles of 'work, care, equality, security' which he described as 'British values'.

He said: 'I think of them as the values that take you right to the heart of the British public. That is where this party must always be.'

LABOUR TRIES TO SEIZE CONTROL OF CRIME BATTLEGROUND

Sir Keir laid down the gauntlet to Boris Johnson on the key issue of crime - viewed by senior figures in the party as one of the key battlegrounds ahead of the next general election.

The Labour leader said that 'under my leadership, the fight against crime will always be a Labour issue'.

He vowed to 'strengthen legal protections for victims of crime', adding: 'We won't walk around the problem. We'll fix it.'

In one of only a handful of policy announcements in the speech, Sir Keir said a Labour government would 'fast-track rape and serious sexual assault cases and we will toughen sentences for rapists, stalkers and domestic abusers'.

'Today I'm here to tell you what I stand for,' he said. 'But I also want to tell you what I won't stand for. I won't stand for the 2 million incidents of anti-social behaviour this year.

'I won't stand for the record levels of knife crime that we have in this country today. And I won't stand 9 out of 10 crimes going unsolved.'

Sir Keir claimed that Mr Johnson believes the 'rules don't apply to him' but 'that's not how I do business'

SIR KEIR BLASTS 'TRICKSTER' BORIS JOHNSON

The Labour leader is normally reserved in his criticism of Boris Johnson and today he insisted he does not like political point scoring.

But he used his speech to lash the PM as he accused him of being a 'trivial man' who is a 'showman with nothing left to show'.

Sir Keir claimed that Mr Johnson believes the 'rules don't apply to him' but 'that's not how I do business'.

He sought to compare his professional career with Mr Johnson's as he said he had 'spent my entire working life trying to get justice done'.

He said: 'In 2003, when I was working with the Policing Board of Northern Ireland, while I was learning up close how hard it is to make split-second life-and-death decisions in a riot. As I worked with the police to create a lasting institution in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement. Boris Johnson was a guest on Top Gear where, in reference to himself, he said to Jeremy Clarkson: 'you can't rule out the possibility that beneath the elaborately constructed veneer of a blithering idiot, lurks a blithering idiot'.'

Sir Keir said that he does not believe Mr Johnson is a 'bad man' but added: 'I think he is a trivial man. I think he's a showman with nothing left to show. I think he's a trickster who has performed his one trick.'

SIR KEIR VOWS TO BOOST NHS MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

The Labour leader said that 'one of the urgent needs of our time is mental health' and that the party would 'guarantee that support will be available in less than a month'.

Sir Keir said Labour would recruit more than 8,500 extra mental health professionals to support care for a million more people every year.

He vowed that 'under Labour, spending on mental health will never be allowed to fall'.

Sir Keir also warned that 'small politics will no longer do' because of the UK's rapidly ageing population.

He said a Labour government would place an emphasis on prevention in order to reduce the pressure on the NHS.

Sir Keir said Labour's activists and 'loyal voters' had helped save the part from 'obliteration' under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn

Sir Keir said that 'education is so important I am tempted to say it three times' in a call back to Tony Blair's famous conference speech in 1996

Sir Keir said that under his leadership Labour will never again 'go into an election with a manifesto that is not a serious plan for government'

LABOUR LEADER CHANNELS TONY BLAIR'S 'EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION' MOMENT

Sir Keir did not mention Tony Blair by name in his speech, but the Labour leader did hint at the ex-PM's legacy as he set out the party's plans on education reform.

'Education is so important I am tempted to say it three times,' he said, in a call back to Mr Blair's Labour conference speech in1996 when he said his three main priorities were 'education, education, education'.

Sir Keir said that 'when you don't invest in young people, the whole nation suffers and the less fortunate are left behind'.

He said a Labour government would launch 'the most ambitious school improvement plan in a generation'.

He said young people under Labour would be taught 'practical life skills', with two weeks of compulsory work experience reinstated and a guarantee that every child would be able to see a careers adviser.

Sir Keir vowed to re-write the national curriculum to create a 'curriculum for tomorrow'.

Labour would add a fourth pillar to 'reading, writing and arithmetic' as the foundation for learning in the form of 'digital skills'.

SIR KEIR PROMISES ALL LABOUR PLEDGES WILL BE AFFORDABLE

A bid to establish a reputation for economic competence was at the heart of Sir Keir's speech.

He said Labour's approach to the economy would be guided by three principles: 'The greater part of the burden should not fall on working people. The balance between smaller and larger businesses should be fair. And we will chase down every penny to ensure that people working people, paying their taxes always get value for money.'

He reiterated shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves' plan to create a new Office for Value for Money to scrutinise all spending.

'There will be no promises we can't keep or commitments we can't pay for,' he said.

He also pledged to set a target to invest a minimum of three per cent of GDP in science and research and development.

LABOUR VOWS TO INSULATE EVERY UK HOME IN BID TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

On climate change, Sir Keir said 'action is needed, not in the future, but now'.

He said upgrading the nation's homes would be central to his plans to reduce emissions.

He pledged to insulate 'every home that needs it, to make sure it is warm, well-insulated and costs less to heat'.

Labour would also roll out a Clean Air Act, with every one of the party's policies having to meet a 'net zero' test.

He hailed Ms Reeves' plan to spend an additional 28billion a year on helping the nation go green.

The Labour leader turned his fire on Nicola Sturgeon as he vowed to counter her attempts to secure Scottish independence

SIR KEIR SLAMS NICOLA STURGEON'S 'BAD GOVERNMENT'

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn were not the only politicians to be criticised by Sir Keir.

He also turned his fire on Nicola Sturgeon as he vowed to counter her attempts to secure Scottish independence.

'Scotland is in the unfortunate position of having two bad governments - the Tories at Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood,' he said.

'When Nicola Sturgeon took office she said she wanted to be judged on her record. These days, with the poorest in society less well-educated and less healthy and the tragedy of so many drug-related deaths we hear rather less about the SNP's record.'

Sir Keir said the SNP and the Tories 'walk in lock step' as they 'both exploit the constitutional divide for their own ends'.

'Labour is the party that wants to bring our nations together,' he said.

SIR KEIR SIGNALS MAJOR DEPARTURE FROM CORBYN ERA ON DEFENCE

The Labour premier tried to rebuild the party's reputation on defence and national security as he signalled a major change in approach on the issues when compared to his predecessor.

Mr Corbyn was a fierce critic of NATO and military intervention.

But Sir Keir told activists: 'Labour is the party of NATO, the party of international alliances.

'Under Labour we will rebuild our alliances, we will mend broken relationships and we will do right by the great Britons who serve in our armed forces.'
A landmark statue to Wales's first black headteacher was unveiled to the public today after the pioneer topped a vote in a campaign seeking to honour 'hidden heroines'.

Betty Campbell, who died in 2017 aged 82, proved her doubters wrong after being told as a child that achieving her dream of becoming a head teacher was 'insurmountable'.

Betty  whose full name was Rachel Elizabeth Campbell - was born in 1934 in Cardiff's Butetown docklands area to a Jamaican father and Welsh Barbadian mother.

She trained as a teacher and rose to become head of Mount Stuart Primary School in the docklands - despite being left in tears as a pupil after being told her dream would not happen.

Hundreds turned out to watch the unveiling of the 75,000 statue as friends and family proclaimed that throughout her life, she championed her multicultural heritage.

Mrs Campbell becomes the first non-fictional woman to be honoured in a public space in Wales.

A landmark statue to Wales's first black headteacher, Betty Campbell, was unveiled to the public today after the pioneer topped a vote in a campaign seeking to honour 'hidden heroines'

People at the unveiling of the statue of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher, in Central Square, Cardiff, today

Betty Campbell, who died in 2017 aged 82, proved her doubters wrong after being told as a child that achieving her dream of becoming a head teacher was 'insurmountable'. Above: The moment the statue was unveiled in Cardiff early this afternoon

Professor Uzo Iwobi, Founder of Race Council Cymru, said: 'Wales has shown that this black woman truly matters to us all'.

Mrs Campbell was a county councillor for Cardiff's Butetown war and was also a member of the committee which prepared for the opening of Wales's National Assembly in 1998.

She was also a member of the Broadcasting Council for Wales from 1980 until 1984 and served on the Home Office's race advisory committee.

A UK-wide survey of statues, carried out in 2018, found that just one in five statues in Britain were of women, with most of fictional characters or unnamed figures.

The unveiling of the statue was due to take place in 2020 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It came after a panel of experts made a list of 50 historic Welsh women after finding there were no statues celebrating heroines in Wales.

Helen Molyneux, founder of Monumental Welsh Women, said she hoped the statue would 'inspire the next generation of Welsh women'.

'Betty's impact during her life was incredible, but, as with so many women throughout history, likely to be forgotten or overlooked by future generations unless something was done to bring her to people's attention,' she said.

Betty  whose full name was Rachel Elizabeth Campbell - was born in 1934 in Cardiff's Butetown docklands area to a Jamaican father and Welsh Barbadian mother

Hundreds had turned out to watch the unveiling of the 75,000 statue later today as friends and family proclaimed that throughout her life, she championed her multicultural heritage

'The monument created by Eve Shepherd will certainly achieve that. It is a truly iconic, beautiful piece that will attract the world's attention to Cardiff.'

Her daughter, Elaine Clarke said she was extremely proud and privileged to have her mother remembered in such an iconic way.

She said: 'Through her sculpture, Eve encapsulates Betty's legacy of determination, aspiration and inspiration that reflected her passion for diversity and equality making her a truly positive role model for many in the community and beyond.'

Former pupil Chantelle Haughton said she had been a pioneer for change.

'The thought of Betty's statue fills me up and the wonderful opportunity this memorial brings for Mrs Campbell's story to reach so many more from here on,' she said.

Geraldine Trotman, a friend of Mrs Campbell whose children were taught by the teacher, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'She instilled a sense of pride and sense of belonging in all the pupils that attended.

'And unlike Betty's own experiences, she gave all her pupils the confidence to follow their dreams.'

Ezrae Campbell, aged 8, the great granddaughter of Mrs Campbell, sits on the base of her statue which was unveiled in Central Square, Cardiff

A programme about Mrs Campbell's life is being aired on BBC One Wales tonight at 7.30pm

She added: 'Betty was one character, Betty was a strong character. She was determined to do it her own way and no one could stop her.'

The statue is being unveiled near Central Square, Cardiff, after being designed and created by Eve Shepherd.

It came after the Hidden Heroines campaign asked the public to vote from a shortlist made up of five historical Welsh women for who they would wish to see immortalised with such a statue.

Sheffield-born Eve said: 'Betty was all about community and passing knowledge on from person to person and from one generation to another, and I've tried to capture all of that in this statue.

'I think it's been long, long overdue - and I don't just mean because of the delays we've faced due to the pandemic.

'We've waited hundreds and hundreds of years for women and people who are non-white to be put on plinths, especially in Wales, and so to have a statue of a successful and inspirational black woman in Wales is just amazing.'

A programme about Mrs Campbell's life is being aired on BBC One Wales tonight at 7.30pm.
France has accused Britain of using its post-Brexit rules to 'take French fishing hostage' and threatened 'retaliatory action' for denying licences to its fishermen.

Emmanuel Macron's hard-left maritime minister, Annick Girardin, railed against London for granting licences to just 12 of the 47 EU small vessels which applied to cast their nets in British waters.

'This is another British refusal to implement the terms of the Brexit deal despite all the work being done together,' said Ms Girardin, who threatened to cut off electricity to Jersey when the row escalated in May.

'French fishing must not be held hostage by the British for political ends,' she added.

France's Europe minister Clement Beaune angrily declared: 'We will not hesitate to take retaliatory action, collectively.'

Britain said the majority of the vessels were denied licences because they failed to provide evidence that they had fished in the six-to-12-mile nautical zone in the years before the UK's referendum on leaving the EU.

Emmanuel Macron's hard-left maritime minister, Annick Girardin (pictured at a meeting in Cambodia in 2015), railed against London for granting licences to just 12 of the 47 EU small vessels which applied to cast their nets in British waters.

French skippers blockaded the harbour at St Helier on the Channel Island of Jersey in May when the row escalated over fishing rights

The Government of Jersey added to French woes on Wednesday as it announced it has turned down licence applications by 75 French fishing boats.

In a statement, it said that of the 170 boats which applied, 64 were being granted licences, with a further 31 receiving temporary licences to allow them more time to show they have a track record of operating in its waters.

Jersey external relations minister Ian Gorst said the island's government had taken 'a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach' to the issue.

The rejection of so many licence applications comes amid fears that British waters will again be invaded by furious French fisherman, like the skippers who blockaded Jersey in May.

Last night, Mr Beaune told French TV: 'We understand and we share the exasperation [of our fishermen] because it is simply unacceptable not to respect an agreement that has been signed. We will negotiate until the very last moment to renew some of these permits and obtain some more.

'And yes, we have been saying at every level, including the president [Emmanuel Macron] to Prime Minister Johnson, that we cannot cooperate in confidence on other matters until they abide by the Brexit deal they signed.

'I hope we do not end up in that position, but of course we have said that there are retaliatory measures which are possible according to the Brexit agreement.'

The EU minister added: 'Commercial measures on certain British products, for example. Or on energy matters. We have several areas in which the British depend more on us. And in this over-arching agreement, if they do not respect the part on fishing, we can take measures [against them] together as the European Union and we will not hesitate to do so.'

EU affairs minister Clement Beaune (pictured) told French TV: 'We understand and we share the exasperation [of our fishermen] because it is simply unacceptable not to respect an agreement that has been signed'

Olivier Le Nezet, president of Brittany fishermen's committee, called the figure of 12 out of 47 a 'declaration of war on the water and on the land'.

He added that French fishermen would make sure 'not a single British product lands on French soil'.

In May, the row over Channel fishing rights escalated when furious French skippers threatened to block UK goods from entering Calais.

Britain sent two Royal Navy gunships to Jersey after 100 French fishing boats vowed to block the island's harbour.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted last night that almost 1,700 larger French boats have already been allowed to fish off the coast of Britain.

A spokesman said: 'The Government has this year issued a large number of licences to EU vessels seeking to fish in our exclusive economic zone (12-to-200 nautical mile zone) and our territorial sea (six-to-12 nautical mile zone).

'Our approach has been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

'As regards the six-to-12 nautical miles zone, as set out in the TCA, EU vessels must provide evidence of a track record of fishing activity in those waters.' They added: 'We have been considering applications for vessels of under 12m (39ft) in length to fish in this zone.'
Major changes to NSW's Freedom Plan will mean Sydneysiders will enjoy unlimited bookings at restaurants and pubs as thousands of schoolchildren are called back to classrooms a week early.

The cap which restricts booking numbers in hospitality venues will be scrapped when the state hits the 80 per cent vaccination mark.

Punters will be able to book tables at pubs and restaurants for an unlimited number of guests, however venues will still have to abide by strict density rules.

A large portion of NSW students will resume face-to-face learning on October 18, following decisions made in a late-night crisis cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The cap restricting group bookings in hospitality venues will be scrapped when the state hits 80 per cent vaccination rates (pictured, punters in Sydney)

Punters will be able to book tables at pubs and restaurants for an unlimited number of guests, however venues will still have to abide by strict density rules (pictured, women in Sydney)

MAJOR CHANGES TO NSW'S ROADMAP OUT OF LOCKDOWN Major changes to NSW's Freedom Plan out of lockdown have been announced following a late night crisis cabinet meeting: Hospitality venues *The cap restricting booking numbers in hospitality venues will be scrapped when the state hits the 80 per cent vaccinate rate *Venues will still have to abide by density limits which allows one customer every four sqm inside and two sqm outside *Between the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination milestones the cap of 20 people per booking will remain in place Education *Year 1 and Year 12 students will return to face-to-face learning a week early on October 18 *Years 2, 6 and 11 will return to campus the following week on October 25. *All remaining year groups will return on November 1. *Only fully vaccinated teaching staff will be allowed to return on October 18. Advertisement

While the state lingers between the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rate, rules restricting bookings to 20 people will remain in place.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian teased a change to the cap on group bookings during her Covid press conference earlier on Wednesday.

The premier used the logic that if a group of 20 people didn't necessarily know the group next to them, there would be less mingling between the two.

'It's still important between 70 and 80 per cent to ensure that we prevent any virus spreading,' she said.

'Because between 70 and 80 per cent, we do still need to exercise caution.'

Ms Berejiklian said the cap was part of 'finding the right balance of providing freedom and business reopening with not overwhelming our hospital system'.

While the state lingers between the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rate, rules restricting bookings to 20 people will remain in place (pictured, punters at the Coogee Bay Hotel)

While the state lingers between the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rate, rules restricting bookings to 20 people will remain in place (pictured, punters at Coogee Bay Hotel)

When 70 per cent of NSW residents are fully vaccinated punters will be able to enjoy a beer at the pub as hospitality venues are finally allowed to reopen on October 11.

At the 80 per cent vaccination milestone patrons will allowed to drink while standing in hospitality venues, and restaurants and pubs will be able to seat one customer every four sqm inside and two sqm outside.

Socially-distanced reintroductions to hospitality venues and hairdressers will begin from October 11; the Monday after the state was expected to surpass 70 per cent of its population being double-vaccinated.

About two weeks later, the state is expected to reach 80 per cent coverage, triggering the restoration of additional freedoms and regional travel.

These freedoms will only be restored for the fully vaccinated until December 1 when the same laws will apply to all.

Thousands of students have been called back into classrooms a week early, with Year 1 and Year 12 students to resume in-school learning on October 18 (pictured, students in Sydney)

Meanwhile, Year 1 and Year 12 students are now scheduled to return to campus on October 18 while Years 2, 6 and 11 will arrive the following week on October 25. All remaining year groups will return on November 1.

Only vaccinated teaching staff will be welcomed back into classrooms.

Several senior ministers considered bringing students back even earlier on October 11, the Daily Telegraph reported.

However it was ultimately agreed students would return seven days later to give their teachers another week to get vaccinated.

All teaching staff in NSW were originally mandated to get two doses of a Covid vaccine by November 8.

Students will begin a staged return to school from October 11 to give teachers an extra week to get two jabs of a Covid vaccine (pictured, students at Homebush West Public School)

Last month, a Department of Education survey revealed almost 70 per cent of staff had received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 40 per cent double jabbed.

But one in ten workers said they were not booked in or planned to get immunised within the next month.

The premier also hinted at an earlier return for students during her Covid press conference on Wednesday.

Ms Berejiklian said her government was 'looking at options if we can bring things forward' in relation to the original return date earmarked for October 25.

The state leader said there were considerations to be made on the number of teaching staff that were currently vaccinated across the state.

All teaching staff in NSW have been mandated to get two doses of a Covid vaccine by November 8 (pictured, a mother home schools her children in Wollongong in July)

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there were considerations to be made on the number of teachers currently vaccinated (pictured, students at the Strathfield Train Station)

'Parents should assume it is October 25 and if there is better news than that, we will convey it,' the premier said earlier on Wednesday.

'I want to stress we are carefully considering the options we have to get kids to school earlier if we can.

'We didn't expect to have hit 70 per cent double dose on October 11 so we are considering what that does for the school system.'

Ms Berejiklian said 'regrettably' the return to classrooms would trigger the emergence of new cases.

She said the state government was still finalising the procedures that would follow an outbreak of infections in schools and when they would need to shut down.

'We are going through those processes now and we will give the community good advice ahead of that,' the state leader said.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the emphasis of the return to classrooms would be on the safety of students.

'I recognise that there are a mix of views across the community on when the right time is for children to return to school,' she said.

The minister said it was positive the state had hit vaccination targets early but it was imperative students could return to campuses in a 'safe and sensible' way.

'We continue to review our school settings and plans, as we have done throughout the pandemic, in line with the latest health advice.'

There has been a strong vaccine uptake in NSW students in the 12 to 15 year group with 44 per cent having received one dose of a Covid vaccine.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has said the emphasis of the return to classrooms would be on the safety of students (pictured, school children in Bowral)

The earlier return to classrooms comes as welcome news to busy parents, as many plan to return to work on October 11 when the majority of the state will reopen (pictured, primary school children in Redfern)

In a webinar video seen by Daily Mail Australia, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education Georgina Harrison warned staff about the mandatory jab requirement.

'It will mean under the public health order that they (teachers) are lawfully unable to work for us, and we will have to look at measures such as leave without pay until someone could get vaccinated, or possibly terminating their employment because it will be a requirement of employment,' Ms Harrison said in August.

'This is a really significant and serious step, it has not been taken lightly. Know that it has been taken on the very best health advice about what will protect our whole school community the best as we plan for return.'

Ms Berejiklian has reassured Year 12 students final HSC exams would be pushed back to November 9 - a day after mandatory vaccination is required for all staff on campuses.

NSW recorded 863 new local cases of Covid-19 and 15 deaths on Wednesday.
Heartwarming footage has captured the moment Afghan orphans danced happily in their Australian hotel quarantine room after fleeing the Taliban regime.

A brave orphanage founder, Mahboba Rawi, quickly launched a secret mission to whisk the children in her care out of Afghanistan to safety after the Taliban toppled the government in August.

Ten orphans, aged between four and 20 years old, were packed into a van and covered up to be driven across the border into Pakistan before flying to Australia.

While most Australians may dread two-weeks in hotel quarantine, for the ecstatic new residents it is a small price to pay to be far from the danger of their war-torn homeland.

Ten Afghan orphans are celebrating the beginning of their new lives in Australia after escaping the Taliban. Footage (pictured) taken inside their hotel quarantine room shows two of the young children happily dancing

As they prepare to start their new lives Down Under, a video taken from inside their room shows the children celebrating by excitedly jumping on their beds.

'They deserve to be this happy, they're children and they need to be happy,' Ms Rawi, the orphans' adopted mother, told A Current Affair.

Ms Rawi, 52, opened Hope House, an orphanage in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, in the wake of personal tragedy.

After her son tragically drowned almost 30 years ago, she has dedicated her life to helping widows and orphans in Afghanistan through her Australian aid organisation Mahboba's Promise.

As a teenager, she was forced to flee Soviet authorities without her family and spent two years in a Pakistan refugee camp until she married and moved to Australia.

When the Taliban took over, she made two foiled rescue attempts to get the children out of the country, until they were finally snuck across the border, where they hid in an Islamabad hotel room until their flight.

Orphanage founder Mahboba Rawi (pictured) launched a secret mission to get the children out of the country after two previous rescue attempts failed

Now in Australia, the kids have been passing their time doing puzzles and drawing as Ms Rawi finalises the plans for their new lives in Sydney once they finish quarantine.

Ms Rawi is asking Australians to embrace the 10 new children and is calling for donation to help care for them.

'The first hug, it makes me cry you know, I never thought I am going to have them here in Australia. That first hug is my dream come true,' she said.

'We are going to look after them emotionally, mentally - they come from a war zone country.'
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal blasted President Biden's top Defense officials on Tuesday after grilling them on Afghan evacuations at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Speaking after the contentious hearing, Blumenthal complained to MSNBC that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave him 'no real responses.'

'There really was no clarity. And with all due respect to the Secretary of Defense, he provided no real responses to my questions because at the moment there arent responses,' the Connecticut Democrat said.

'There is nobody in charge. And undeniably, and he knows and so does every member of that panel, theres a moral imperative here.'

Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen Mark Milley and US Central Command chief Gen Frank McKenzie sat before a Senate panel yesterday where they testified under oath for the first time since US military jets left Kabul.

All three are set to appear on Capitol Hill again today in front of the House Armed Services Committee.

During the Tuesday hearing, a visibly frustrated Blumenthal was largely focused on the status of the US evacuation effort after the military left.

Blumenthal was visibly frustrated at the Tuesday Senate hearing, telling Secretary Austin that there was no leadership on the current evacuation effort

He said he and other lawmakers were still in the dark on how many Afghan allies and US citizens were still in Afghanistan.

'We dont have an estimate on the number because no one is in charge right now,' he said.

He called for Biden to establish an 'evacuation czar' to centralize rescue efforts.

Immediately after the evacuation a senior State Department official admitted that a 'majority' of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants had been left behind when the US left Kabul at the end of August.

Officials haven't clarified the number. However, earlier this week the department confirmed that around 100 US citizens or permanent residents are still in Afghanistan and ready to leave the country.

Blumenthal, a military veteran, told MSNBC Tuesday that those Afghan allies left behind now 'have targets on their back.'

'They're at risk of murder and torture, they're in hiding and their situations are increasingly desperate,' he said.

The senator added that he was one of several lawmakers working to help Americans and vulnerable Afghans escape.

'My office turned into a kind of mini-evacuation center.'

But he revealed the complicated web of communication that's led to little help from the Biden administration.

'My senior staff and I were making phone calls. I called some of the very top officials in the White House, in the State Department. And members of the State Department pointed at the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense pointed at the White House,' Blumenthal said.

'Nobody in charge, and its a continuing challenge that we need to face because lives are at stake, lives of people who put their lives on the line for us.'

Blumenthal is among a majority of lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee who expressed dissatisfaction at the tight-lipped generals at Tuesday's hearing.

Josh Hawley, a Republican senator for Missouri, said on Tuesday night that Milley and Austin must face the ax over their unrepentant appearances.

Blumenthal complained of a lack of clarity from the Biden administration on the continued Afghanistan evacuation efforts

Earlier in the day the country heard for the first time that the top generals advised the commander-in-chief to leave 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan to prevent a Taliban takeover. Republicans accused President Biden of lying to the American people, because he repeatedly said that he was not recommended to keep troops in the country.

Hawley, speaking to Fox News's Sean Hannity along with Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, said he was dismayed by the accounts of Milley and Austin.

'Gen Milley doesn't want any responsibility, Austin doesn't want responsibility, and most of all, Joe Biden doesn't want to take any responsibility, but it's time that they did, which is why all those guys should resign,' said Hawley.

'Milley needs to resign, Austin needs to resign.'

Hawley said he was particularly angered by Milley's admission on Tuesday that he spoke to journalist Bob Woodward, for his new book telling the story of the final stretch of the Trump administration.

'I mean Milley, he's sitting here trading gossip with Bob Woodward while Afghanistan literally burns, literally burns,' said Hawley.

Former President Trump joined in criticizing the hearing himself, taking aim at embattled General Milley.

'No wonder the Afghanistan withdrawal was such a disaster,' Trump sent out in a statement on Tuesday evening. 'General' Milley spent all of his time talking to these Fake Book writers. That's not a Soldier or General, that's a Public Relations agent.'

'America will continue losing with Milley and woke television Generals who are only looking to be stars!'
An Amtrak passenger whose husband was killed when their train derailed and tragically crashed over the weekend sued the company Tuesday, claiming the horrific incident was a 'preventable tragedy.'

Rebecca Schneider suffered 'severe and life-altering injuries' in the deadly derailment in Montana Saturday, while her husband, Zach, a 28-year-old software engineer, was one of three who tragically lost his life.

The pair, who hailed from Illinois, were on their way to Portland, Oregon, when eight of the 10 train cars train suddenly derailed in the rural town of Joplin near the center of the state, possibly ejecting several passengers.

Rebecca Schneider was one of dozens injured in the deadly derailment in Montana Saturday, will while her husband, Zach, 28, was one of three who tragically lost his life. Rebecca is now seeking legal action against Amtrak on behalf of her husband and her family through a wrongful death suit

Two others perished as a result of the tragic incident - Marjorie Varnadoe, 72, and Donald Varnadoe, 74, a retired Georgia couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary by embarking on a celebratory cross-country trip when their lives were suddenly snuffed out

Two others perished as a result of the incident; Marjorie Varnadoe, 72, and Donald Varnadoe, 74, a retired Georgia couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary by embarking on a celebratory cross-country trip when their lives were suddenly snuffed out.

Dozens of others were severely injured.

Rebecca Schneider's wrongful death suit on behalf of her husband, who hailed from Illinois, was filed in a federal court in Chicago Tuesday - where the Empire Builder train they were on was heading when it suddenly derailed.

The train was moving under its designated speed limit at the time of the crash, at about 75 mph.

Workers are seen above on Monday standing near train tracks next to overturned cars from an Amtrak train that derailed on Saturday near Joplin, Montana

The filing notes that the last three passenger cars, including the sleeper car where Rebecca was found after the crash, 'completely decoupled from the rest of the train and were forcefully thrown from the tracks, flipping and landing on their sides'

The suit also names track owner BNSF Railway, and alleges that Zach Schneider died as a result of a 'preventable tragedy.'

The filing adds that Amtrak and BNSF 'had an obligation to prevent any trains from traveling on their tracks unless Defendants could ensure that the tracks were safe.'

What's more, the wrongful death suit was filed by attorneys who previously represented victims in another fatal Amtrak derailment - a crash in 2015 in Philadelphia that left eight people dead and injured more than 200 others.

The lawyers belong to Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, P.C., a Philadelphia-based firm.

Attorney Robert J. Mongeluzzi stated in the suit that his team will analyze issues with the track and switches that may have potentially caused the crash, as well as possible sources of human error.

Rebecca states that her husband died as a result of a 'preventable tragedy' and that she suffered 'severe and life-altering injuries' after the incident

'Trains should not derail,' Mongeluzzi said. 'The passengers of those trains have no control whatsoever regarding the safety of their journey.

'They put their lives in the hands of the companies that operate trains and the railroad companies who own and maintain the tracks. It is clear, without question, that something went wrong and horribly wrong to kill three people.'

The legal team will also look into the efficacy of a newly implemented automatic breaking system currently employed by the train company, that should have prevented the crash.

The lawsuit also brings up a possible problem with Amtrak tracks caused by a phenomenon known as heat-induced buckling, a result of years of extreme swings in temperature, where rail lines can become deformed by extreme heat, creating buckles in the tracks.

'Track buckling is an occurrence that is known to Defendants Amtrak and BNSF, and Defendants had a duty to ensure that a neutral rail temperature was maintained and to monitor the condition of the rails to ensure that no track buckling occurred and to put in place policies and procedures to ensure that this was accomplished,' the suit state.

NTSB investigators haven't commented on that possibility.

According to the suit, a fourth car - where Zach's body was recovered - did not decouple, but 'was launched from the tracks and flipped onto its side'

The location where the train derailed, however, could point to buckling as the cause.

At the time of the derailment, Zach Schneider was not with his wife and was seated in the train's viewing car, whereas Rebecca was resting in its sleeper car - the last car of the train, court documents reveal.

'When the viewing car derailed and was thrown from the tracks, Zach Schneider sustained excruciating and devastating injuries to his body and head, which ultimately caused his tragic and untimely death,' the filing reads.

Rebecca suffered 'severe and life-altering injuries' when the sleeper car derailed and flipped onto its side, her suit states.

The filing notes that the last three passenger cars, including the sleeper car where Rebecca was found after the crash, 'completely decoupled from the rest of the train and were forcefully thrown from the tracks, flipping and landing on their sides.'

According to the suit, a fourth car - where Zach's body was recovered - did not decouple, but 'was launched from the tracks and flipped onto its side.'

'Zach was just an incredible man,' Mongeluzzi said. 'This has been a devastating loss to his wife, Rebecca, who was his soul mate, and she wants us to find out what happened and to make sure it never happens again.'

The filing from Schneider is the first of what could be a slew of lawsuits targeting the railroad company - which has seen four derailments in the past six years.

Clifford Law Offices, a Chicago-based legal outfit that helped win a $57 million settlement against the company after a derailment in 2017 in Dupont, Washington, revealed Tuesday their firm was also recently employed by a passenger injured in Saturday's rail incident.

Twenty-eight people have perished in the past decade as direct result of Amtrak crashes and derailment.

The fatal crash was the first since Amtrak implemented a forced-arbitration policy that blocks passengers and their families from suing the railroad after deaths or injuries from crashes.

When purchasing a ticket from Amtrak, passengers - often unknowingly - consent to arbitrate any disputes, relinquishing their right to take claims against the company to court.

The policy was put into effect in January 2019 after the Philadelphia and Washington state crashes, in 2016 and 2017 respectively, which yielded multimillion-dollar settlements for the victims.

Several members of Congress last year sought to implement laws that would pressure Amtrak to restore the legal rights of its passengers and their families to bring disputes before a judge or jury - but have so far been unsuccessful.

A nonprofit organization that called the arbitration clause 'unconstitutional' and asks that it be removed from the company's ticketing terms. filed a lawsuit against the passenger rail last year, but it was dismissed.

The suit has since been appealed in D.C. Circuit Court.

Cars from an Amtrak train that derailed the day before are shown illuminated by floodlights late on Sunday

It is unclear how the newly implemented policy might effect legal proceedings after Amtrak's most recent accident, but several advocates and attorneys said spoke out against the company Tuesday, citing concerns that arbitration favors Amtrak, a state-owned enterprise - meaning, despite it being a privately owned entity, the federal government owns all its preferred stock.

'This is an entity that is partially owned by the U.S. government,' stated attorney Sean Driscoll, of Clifford Law Offices.

'Now it has put in a policy where they want to deny their passengers their constitutional right to a jury trial by this arbitration agreement.'

Driscoll added: 'Clifford Law Offices is going to do everything in our power to contest the validity of the arbitration agreement.'

Linda Lipsen, chief executive of the American Association for Justice, also said that victims of the fatal crash should have the option to take their cases to court.

'Amtrak should be held accountable in an open forum, not behind closed doors,' Lipsen said.

'Families are grieving, but soon, those who lost breadwinners, partners or parents are going to consider seeking justice against those responsible for their unimaginable loss. But a forced arbitration clause will have already made that choice for them.'

In a statement Tuesday responding to Schneider's suit, the passenger rail stated, 'Amtrak is sorry for Mrs. Schneider's and the Schneider family's loss. We are offering assistance to injured passengers and employees and the families of those who have lost loved ones but are otherwise unable to comment on pending litigation.'

BNSF declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the derailment. An NTSB spokesman on Tuesday said 'there is no new information to report at this time.'
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Six prisoners have been beheaded in a fight between rival drug gangs armed with guns and grenades that left at least 29 dead at a prison in Ecuador.

It was the latest in a series of deadly prison clashes between rival drug gangs that have killed over 100 inmates this year.

It took police and the military more than five hours to regain control of Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil as they battled inmates armed with guns, knives and explosives on Tuesday.

The violence was sparked by a gang dispute between 'Los Lobos' (The Wolves) and 'Los Choneros' (originally from the city of Chone).

Inmates on the roof during the riot on Tuesday at Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil

Firearms seized from the Ecuadorian prison, including a handgun and a rifle

Police officers inside the prison after the riot. It took them more than five hours to gain control of the building with help from the army

Riot police stand guard outside the prison on Tuesday evening

A relative of an inmate collapses as she waits for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after the riot

A riot policeman clambers over a barbed wire fence outside the prison. It took police and the military more than five hours to regain control of Litoral Penitentiary

Television images showed inmates firing from the windows of the prison, while others clambered onto rooftops in a bid to avoid the carnage.

The Guayas state government posted images on its Twitter account showing six cooks being evacuated from one of the prison's wings.

Officials gave conflicting statements on how many inmates were wounded, with the attorney general's office saying 42 while the national prison bureau earlier put that number at 48.

President Guillermo Lasso retweeted an announcement from the prison bureau saying order 'has been restored at the Littoral Penitentiary after the Tuesday incidents.'

Ecuador's prison system has become a battleground between prisoners linked to Mexican drug gangs - mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

A policeman searches the cells at the prison where riots broke out in Guayaquil

A shirtless inmate is seen standing on the roof during the riot at Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil on Tuesday

Police officers search the cells after the riot

Riot police inside the prison after the chaos was brought under control

Relatives of inmates wait for news as a coroners truck arrives to the Litoral penitentiary

Guayaquil, Ecuador's main port city, is a major hub for shipping South American cocaine north, especially to the United States.

Last week police confiscated two pistols, a revolver, some 500 rounds of ammunition, a hand grenade, several knives, two sticks of dynamite and homemade explosives at one of the city's prisons.

Two weeks ago, Guayaquil's Prison Number 4 was attacked by drones, part of 'a war between international cartels,' prison authorities said. There were no casualties in the attack.

A worried relative of an inmate waits outside the jail for news on Tuesday night

Concerned relatives remonstrate with riot police outside the jail on Tuesday night

Relatives of inmates speak to the police asking for information during the riot on Tuesday

Inmates are seen sitting on the roof during the chaos which was sparked by a gang dispute between 'Los Lobos' (The Wolves) and 'Los Choneros' (originally from the city of Chone)

Ecuador's prison system has about 60 facilities designed for 29,000 inmates, but is burdened by overcrowding and staffing shortages.

The country's human rights ombudsman said there were 103 killings in prisons in 2020.

Twenty-seven inmates died in prison riots in two jails in July, in an incident that forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
The Vatican will soon be requiring all staff to be vaccinated or to undergo regular Covid-19 testing, it announced on Tuesday.

Even the most senior members of the Catholic Church would not be exempt from the order, reports said, which come after the Pope previously declared that getting vaccinated was a 'moral duty'.

Vatican employees without the proper certificates proving they are either vaccinated or have returned a negative Covid test would be considered 'unjustly absent' and would be paid no salary, according to The Washington Post.

Pope Francis smiles as he walks past a member of the Swiss Guard and arrives to meet the faithful during his weekly general audience on September 29, 2021. The Vatican has announced it will soon be requiring all staff to be vaccinated or undergo regular Covid-19 testing, it announced on Tuesday

Pope Francis was vaccinated in January and has advocated for Roman Catholics to get the jab, with the firm stance from the Holy See being seen as a message to Catholics across the word.

Vaccine mandates have become a contentious issue around the world, with some debating whether they can be refused on the grounds of religious exemptions.

In the case of the Vatican, no exemptions have been announced so far, although it noted that the issue would be discussed with the Secretary of State in consultation with the city-state's health department.

The new rules are set to go into force from October 1.

The Vatican has said that it considers it acceptable for Catholics to use vaccines, even those that use stem cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research.

Earlier this month, the pope said he didn't understand why some senior Catholics did no want to get the vaccine themselves.

'It's a bit strange because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines,' he said after a visit to Slovakia, according to BBC News.

This handout photo taken and released on March 31, 2021 by The Vatican Media shows a man receiving an injection of a Covid-19 vaccine in The Vatican as part of a vaccination campaign against COVID-19

'Even in the College of Cardinals there are some vaccine negationists but one of them, poor thing, has been hospitalized with the virus. These are the ironies of life,' he added, in an apparent reference to U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is a vaccine skeptic.

Cardinal Burke is now out of hospital recovering from his Covid infection.

The new mandate comes after Pope Francis on Monday said that the attention being given to coronavirus since it first spread across the globe in 2020 has meant efforts to fight other diseases have been neglected.

Health and illness 'are determined not only by the processes of nature but also by social life,' he told members of the Pontifical Academy for Life in the Vatican.

Pictured: Pope Francis celebrates Holy Mass with the participants at the Plenary Assembly of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (C.C.E.E.), on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its establishment in St. Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican, 23 September 2021. Even the most senior Catholics will not be exempt from the new mandate

'It is not enough for a problem to be serious for it to attract attention and be addressed appropriately,' the pope continued. 'Many very serious problems are ignored due to a lack of adequate commitment.'

'Let us think of the devastating impact of certain diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis,' he added, saying that 'the precariousness of sanitary conditions causes millions of avoidable deaths in the world every year.

'If we compare this reality with the worry that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, we see how the perception of the seriousness of the problem and the corresponding mobilization of energy and resources is very different.'

Francis insisted that he was not criticising the measures that had been used to stem the spread of the global pandemic, but that he wanted to draw attention to other serious health threats that are still of concern.
Daniel Andrews' health department could be forced to shell out an unprecedented $95million in fines for its catastrophic hotel quarantine program in 2020, which is linked to the deaths of more than 800 Victorians.

WorkSafe, after a 15-month-long investigation, has charged the state's health department with 58 health and safety breaches after Covid escaped into the community, causing Melbourne to remain under lockdown for 112 days.

But if found guilty by a tribunal, the ministers and the individuals who made the decision to hire ill-prepared staff will not have to pay a single cent, nor will they be held personally accountable.

Instead, hard-working and long-suffering Victorian taxpayers will likely be the ones footing the bill in the bizarre inter-government legal battle.

Worse yet, the already overwhelmed healthcare system in the Covid-ravaged state may be stripped of vital funding.

Now families who lost loved ones are demanding answers over 'Victoria's worst workplace disaster' as key policymakers narrowly sidestepped the potential for industrial manslaughter charges due to a legal technicality.

Daniel Andrews' (pictured) health department could be forced to shell out an unprecedented $95million of fines for their catastrophic hotel quarantine program in 2020 after it was linked to the deaths of more than 800 Victorians

A Four Corners investigation showed that some hotel security guards (pictured) fell asleep in the corridor of an undisclosed Melbourne hotel while they were on the job

'Not one Minister in the Andrews government is likely to face the justice system over Victoria's bungled hotel quarantine program,' Victorian Liberal Party MP Tim Smith tweeted after the news broke.

'But Worksafe's 58 charges laid against Victoria's health department could result in the taxpayer being liable for fines of up to $95million.'

Where the potential penalty fees are set to end up is also under the spotlight with WorkSafe being a Victorian government agency - but not funded by taxpayer dollars.

WorkSafe stays afloat by charging premiums from WorkCover - insurance employers must pay to fund compensation if their workers are injured on the job.

Should the Victorian Health Department be fined for the hotel quarantine charges, the money will go straight to the coffers of WorkSafe and the government body will use the cash to pay its staff and operating costs, compensate injured workers, and keep WorkSafe premiums down.

Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier said Premier Andrews must explain why he and his ministry are not being held to account.

'This has been a long investigation and after the tragedy that occurred last year, every Victorian wants to see some answers, they want people to be held accountable for that tragic loss and the devastation that occurred,' she said.

'Not just with the loss of lives but the extended lockdown, the loss of business, the mental health impacts that have absolutely plagued Victorians.

'This has been a monumental failure by government - the biggest failure in government administration in the state's history - and the Premier and the ministers responsible need to be accountable for those failures.'

WorkSafe after a 15-month-long investigation, has charged the state's health department with 58 health and safety breaches for its bungled quarantine program for returning travellers (pictured, Melbourne Airport in May, 2020)

The bungled hotel quarantine program allowed the coronavirus to escape into the community causing the city to remain under lockdown for 112 days (pictured, the Intercontinental Hotel on April 08, 2021)

Hard-working and long-suffering Victorian taxpayers will actually be the ones footing the bill in the bizarre inter-government legal battle (pictured, the Intercontinental Hotel on April 08, 2021)

Where would the $95.12million in fines go? WorkSafe is a Victorian Government agency, but is not funded by taxpayer dollars. Instead it charges premiums from WorkCover, an insurance employers pay to fund compensation to workers injured on the job. It also levies fines for unsafe work practices and draws income from various investments. Should the Victorian Health Department be convicted and fined for the hotel quarantine charges, the money will go to WorkSafe. WorkSafe will use the fine to pay its staff and operating costs, compensate injured workers, and keep WorkSafe premiums down. Advertisement

WorkSafe alleges the hotel quarantine system put authorised employees and security guards at risk of serious illness or death by contracting Covid between March to July 2020.

The department has been charged with 17 offences of failing to provide a safe working environment.

It has also been hit with 41 charges of failing to ensure employees weren't exposed to risks to their health and safety.

The maximum penalty for each count is $1.64million bringing the potential financial penalty to $95.12million.

Investigators reviewed tens of thousands of documents and recorded multiple witness interviews with staff.

Among the allegations are that security guards weren't provided with proper infection control training and were only provided written instructions for the use of PPE rather than a demonstration.

'The decision to prosecute has been made in accordance with WorkSafe's General Prosecution Guidelines, which require WorkSafe to consider whether there is sufficient evidence to support a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether bringing a prosecution is in the public interest,' the government authority said in their statement.

WorkSafe weren't able to pursue industrial manslaughter charges as the tough new laws were introduced on July 1, 2020 just three months before the quarantine program for return travellers was implemented.

At an inquiry in the bungled quarantine program , Ms Mikakos (pictured taking the oath) recalled she did not know private guards were enforcing the scheme until late May

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews swore on the bible when he told an inquiry that he has no idea who decided to use private security to guard returned travellers

At the centre of the hotel scandal was a dispute over who made the decision to use private security staff to man hotel quarantine facilities instead better-trained police and defence force personnel.

When Premier Andrews fronted Victoria's Covid-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry led by former judge Jennifer Coate in October last year, he denied any knowledge of how the decision was made, along with about a dozen other senior officials.

The state's health minister at the time Jenny Mikakos and her secretary Kym Peake resigned before the final report was released, with Premier Andrews eventually laying blame at their feet - a fact they both dispute.

When the report was eventually handed down in December, 2020, Judge Coate concluded 90 per cent of the cases from the state's second wave were linked to the bungled hotel quarantine system.

She referred to the state's policymaking process 'an orphan, with no person or department claiming responsibility'.

WorkSafe weren't able to pursue industrial manslaughter charges as the tough new laws were introduced on July 1, 2020 just three months before the quarantine program for return travellers was implemented (pictured, healthcare workers transport a person from an aged care facility in Melbourne)

The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions were adamant the Health Department were in charge, while they believed they were only responsible for part of the system and that both were in charge of the programs delivery.

But many of the families who lost loved ones during Melbourne's second wave were unhappy with the final report from Judge Coate as no individuals were ever held to account.

Maria Vasilakis, 81, was among 45 residents at St Basil's aged care facility who were struck down by the virus.

Her son Spiro said his family have been desperately seeking answers about his mother's death and are in need of 'closure' after the hotel quarantine leaks.

'(If) you have investigated and you have found the guilty party and made them and held them accountable then, yes, that puts it to rest,' he told the Herald Sun.

'As a one-time manager, one of the things that I know is how important training is, you don't train somebody properly they're going to do a s**t job.'

At the centre of the hotel scandal was a dispute over who made the decision to use private security staff to man hotel quarantine facilities instead of the police and defence force personnel (pictured, Melbourne health workers at an aged care facility)

Haralambos Bakirtzidis, 79, was another victim who succumbed to the virus and his heartbroken wife of almost 60 years Niki said holding those to account is not about revenge.

'It (legal action) might make the people who have lost loved ones feel that someone is being held accountable,' she said. 'It does make me angry that not enough steps were taken to prevent it escaping into the community.'

Premier Andrews is yet to comment on the matter as the charges against his health department were announced just moments after his daily Covid briefing at 11am.

The first hearing is set to go ahead in the Magistrate's Court on October 22.
The House Judiciary Committee revealed Tuesday evening that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is threatening to fire Border Patrol agents if they aren't full vaccinated by November.

'As the brave men and women of U.S. Border Patrol work tirelessly to respond to the Administration's manufactured border crisis, we have learned that the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to fire Border Patrol officers who refuse to comply with President Biden's vaccine mandate,' a letter to Mayorkas from GOP leaders on the panel reads.

The letter was penned by Judiciary Ranking Member Representative Jim Jordan and Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship Ranking Member Representative Tom McClintock.

It stems, they wrote, from a whistleblower revealing an official notice was sent to agents that they must be fully vaccinated by November 2021, to fall in compliance with President Joe Biden's federal-level vaccine mandate, or else be fired.

To be 'fully vaccinated' it must be two weeks since a person received either the second of two jabs from Pfizer or Moderna or the one-off vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

'While our border is facing this serious crisis,' they wrote, 'we learned that you are threatening to terminate a significant portion of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) workforce,' Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, and McClintock wrote.

They claim that this new order will only exacerbate the southern border crisis.

'President Biden's vaccine mandate, as applied to CBP, risks reducing the already-depleted Border Patrol workforce in the middle of the unfolding border crisis,' the letter to Mayorkas reads.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is ordering all Customs and Border Protection agents be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by November 2021 or else face termination

A whistleblower revealed to Republicans on the Judiciary Committee that the official order was sent to agents by Mayorkas

Ranking Member Jim Jordan and Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship Ranking Member Tom McClintock wrote in a letter to Mayorkas that the order would just lead to staffing issues and further exacerbate the southern border crisis

It is not clear how many CBP agents have been vaccinated already, and the agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While agents are facing the decision between getting vaccinated against COVID-19 or being fired, the thousands of illegal immigrants who flood the border each day are more than likely not vaccinated and in the vast majority of cases, according to several reports, are not even tested for coronavirus before being released into U.S. communities.

Many communities have pleaded with the administration to stop sending these migrants to their towns and cities, claiming they are spiking COVID cases.

Jordan and McClintock also explained in their letter how it is already difficult to recruit and retain people to work as Border Patrol agents considering jobs are often in remote areas of the country and the nature of the job is 'dangerous and hard'

'The job is made even harder when senior officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, spread false accusations of cruelty  as has occurred in recent days to mounted officers in Del Rio  while ignoring reports of attacks against Border Patrol personnel,' the dup added in taking a hit at Harris, who Biden put in charge of mitigating the southern border crisis earlier this year.

A migrans woman and child exit a Border Patrol bus on September 22 as they are released from custody after seeking asylum in crossing into the U.S. from Mexico

Images of agents on horseback wielding split reins  like this one from September 19  went viral after many claims they were 'whipping' a group of mostly Haitian migrants. Agents assure they were only using the reins to direct horses and deter illegal crossings

Mayorkas is receiving much of the backlash related to the crisis. Never Again Action, a Jewish anti-ICE group, hung a 30-foot silver banner on his D.C. home on Monday in protest of the Biden administration's recent string of deportations of illegal Haitian immigrants

In recent weeks, a group of around 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants set up a makeshift encampment near the Del Rio International Bridge at Texas' border with Mexico. DHS decided to ramp up deportation efforts on these illegal immigrants, leading to images of horseback agents appearing to use the horses' split reins as whips.

The agents insist they were only using the reins to direct the horse and deter migrants  and were not using them to whip them.

Mayorkas announced last week that the agents in question were reassigned to administrative duties as their alleged use of split reins on migrants is investigated.

Harris spoke with Mayorkas last week about the incident, and the White House said agents in Del Rio will no longer be operating on horseback.

Another caravan of thousands of migrants  many Haitian  are still making the trek from South America to the northern Mexico border to seek asylum in the U.S.

Last week 12 deportation flights took place bringing migrants in the U.S. back to their homeland.

Mayorkas, whose agency leads CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is receiving the brunt of the backlash for the southern border crisis, which has grown exponentially under the Biden administration.

On Monday, a group of anti-ICE protesters hung a 30-foot banner outside Mayorkas private D.C. residence that read in giant red letters: 'Biden President Trump Policy.'

Mayorkas' wife Tanya had a run in with the chanting protesters outside their home.

'We talked briefly to the wife of DHS Secretary Mayorkas,' Never Again Action, a Jewish organization advocating for the abolition of ICE, posted on Twitter. 'She was very angry, and told us that this was her family home.'

Never Again Action said Mayorkas' wife said she was 'angry' that they were protesting at her 'family home' when they ran in to her on Monday

Tanya Mayorkas, the secretary's wife, (pictured with her dog above) had a run in with the protesters, who claim she was 'angry' over the protest outside her and her husband's personal DC residence

Tanya (left) and Alejandro Mayorkas (right) have two daughters, Giselle and Amelia

'And we really do understand that,' they continued in a Monday Twitter thread. 'But again, there are families being torn apart every day. There are people being deported from their home forever, every day.'

They included a video of Tanya Mayorkas walking away with her dog on a leash along with what appears to be a plain-clothes security guard.

'We know that doing an action at someone's house can make things personal & bring families into the equation,' Never Again tweeted. 'But our first responsibility is to the personal trauma and the families torn apart by Trump's policies, that the Biden administration continues to use against immigrants.'
Passengers on a Virgin Australia flight from Melbourne to Brisbane have been plunged into isolation after a confirmed Covid case was on board.

The Monday afternoon flight Virgin VA333 - which left Melbourne at 2.59pm and arrived in Brisbane at 4.55pm - has been listed as a close contact exposure site.

Anyone who was on board must immediately get tested for Covid and quarantine for 14 days - with concerns the virulent Delta strain could have spread through the aircraft.

The plane was one of more than 25 exposure sites listed on Wednesday in south-east Queensland as health officials try to contain Covid clusters in Brisbane and the Gold Coast - with Sunday's NRL Grand Final hanging in the balance.

Virgin Australia flight VA333 from Melbourne to Brisbane on Monday afternoon has been listed as a close contact Covid exposure site plunging those on board into two weeks of quarantine

Queensland reported four new local coronavirus cases on Tuesday and a further case on Wednesday.

The cases are connected to a truck driver who was infectious in the community eight days and a worker at an aviation training centre.

A third cluster which emerged on the Gold Coast with a man in his 50s testing positive is now understood to be linked to the aviation training centre worker.

Among the other exposure sites listed is multiple stores at a busy Westfield Shopping Centre which a Covid infected person visited on Sunday.

The Adalong Guesthouse in South Brisbane which was listed as a close contact exposure site on four consecutive days.

Brisbane has avoided a snap lockdown despite multiple new Covid cases emerging in the city this week (pictured: Brisbane on Wednesday)

The next few days will be critical despite the Queensland government holding off on a snap lockdown.

Queensland's chief medical officer Dr Jeanette Young has said she will wait until absolutely necessary to confirm the grand final could go ahead in Brisbane but the NRL insist it's business as usual.

But the threat of a relocation has not entirely subsided and Dr Young said a lockdown would be considered if there was a spike in transmissions.

'If we see large numbers, if we see spread and definitely if we see unlinked cases that I can't say where they've come from,' she said.

Any lockdown would throw the NRL into chaos with 52,000 Suncorp Stadium tickets already sold for the premiership decider between South Sydney and Penrith.

It will be the first time the NRL grand final has been held in Brisbane despite years of campaigning from Queensland rugby league officials.

Queensland's Chief Health Officer has said she will wait to make an official call on whether the NRL Grand Final can go ahead (pictured, cleaners at a quarantine hotel)

A last-minute shift to Townsville, which is on standby to hold the event, would dramatically impact crowd numbers.

At capacity, the Townsville stadium can hold 25,000 fans - less than half of Suncorp Stadium.

Mask mandates were increased for Brisbane, Moreton and Gold Coast local government areas on Tuesday.

But so far there has been no changes to requirements for Brisbane grand final spectators who will be allowed to remove their masks while they are seated.
Two men have been arrested after they allegedly kept a missing woman locked in a cage on a property in Missouri.

James Phelps, 58, and Timothy L. Norton, 56, have each been charged with kidnapping, facilitating a felony, inflicting injury, and terrorizing in connection to the July 24 disappearance of Cassidy Rainwater, 33.

Phelps was arrested on September 16 after investigators found seven photos on his phone showing Rainwater partially nude and being held in a cage at his Moon Valley Road residence in Lebanon.

Police arrested Norton, an over-the-road trucker, four days later after it was learned that he helped Phelps restrain the victim.

Two men have been arrested after they allegedly kept Cassidy Rainwater (pictured) locked in a cage on their Missouri property in a 'partially-nude' state

Rainwater was reported missing on August 25 after no one had seen or heard from her in six weeks, according to court documents obtained by WDAF.

Phelps, who was the last known person to have seen Rainwater, was first questioned by police on September 1.

At that time, he said the 33-year-old had been staying with him 'until she could get back on her feet' and relocate to Colorado.

However, he argued that she had left his residence about a month prior after meeting a vehicle at the end of the driveway and leaving in the middle of the night. He noted that she hadn't contacted him since.

Detectives also noticed the property appeared to have been 'stripped' and none of Rainwater's belongings were there.

On September 16, local authorities were contacted by the FBI after the organization received an anonymous tip about photographs of Rainwater, partially naked, being held captive in a cage at Phelps' house.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Phelps' phone and found seven pictures as the tipster described.

James Phelps, 58, (left) and Timothy L. Norton, 56, (right) have each been charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping, facilitating a felony, inflicting injury, and terrorizing in connection to Rainwater's July disappearance

Phelps held Rainwater at his Moon Valley Road property in Lebanon, Mo. which is located about 160 miles southeast of St. Louis

During the investigation it was revealed that Norton helped Phelps restrain the victim on July 24.

When brought in for questioning on September 19, Norton provided police with 'inaccurate information,' such as the fact that he lived in his semi-truck even when he wasn't working.

Detectives interviewed Norton again the next day, at which he reportedly confessed to knowing that Rainwater had been held captive at Phelps' home.

Both men were taken into custody and are being held without bond. They are expected in court on October 5.

Authorities have not released any information about Rainwater's current whereabouts, but did say there is 'no immediate danger to the public'.
Former President Donald Trump said ex-Trump family confidante Stephanie Grisham was 'angry and bitter' after breaking up with a fellow Trump staffer and dismissed the claims in her new tell-all because he said she was 'seldom relied upon' at the White House.

He also said the book, 'I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House' was the work of a 'radical left publisher.'

Trump tore into Melania Trump's former press secretary's memoir after days of her tell-all memoir dominating headlines with damaging or embarrassing revelations about the Republican commander-in-chief and his family.

'Stephanie didn't have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning. She became very angry and bitter after her break-up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about,' Trump said through a spokesperson.

He was referring to former White House aide Max Miller, who's now running for Congress in Ohio.

According to the book, Trump once asked Miller if Grisham was 'good in bed.'

The statement continued, 'She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.'

Trump once asked Stephanie Grisham's (left) ex-boyfriend Max Miller (right) if the ex-press secretary was 'good in bed'

DailyMail.com has obtained a live photo of Stephanie Grisham lying on the floor of the White House during the 2020 presidential election

Grisham, who served as Melania Trump's chief of staff and White House press secretary, has claimed in her new book that the former first lady slept through most of the night and had to be woken up. A source who shared the live photo said the picture was taken as 'proof' of Grisham's antics

The former president excoriated Grisham and mocked her break-up with Miller in a new statement reacting to her tell-all

The memoir's publisher, HarperCollins, is one of the largest English-language publishing companies in the world. Campaign finance records reveal the group is far from 'radical left,' donating nearly $90,000 in 2019 to the Senate Conservatives Fund and more than $6,000 to Tom Cottom's (R-AR) Senate campaign. HarperCollins donated around $1,000 to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) the same year.

The book reveals, among other bombshells, that former first lady Melania Trump found ways to jab back at former President Donald Trump after stunning disclosures surfaced claiming he had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels before he took office.

Although the first lady kept her composure in public, she found ways to get back subtly, her former press aide and chief of staff Stephanie Grisham writes in her new book.

Her tactics included taking a separate motorcade to the Capitol for Trump's State of the Union address.

And when she made her entrance walking across the Capitol  under the glare of cameras and lights for the made-for-TV moment  Grisham selected a 'handsome' military aide, to accompany her.

Stephanie Grisham wrote that she hand-picked a handsome military aide to walk arm-and-arm with First Lady Melania Trump into the 2018 State of the Union as part of a campaign of revenge against President Donald Trump for his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels

A Marine escorts Melania Trump to the the steps of the Capitol for her husband's inauguration on January 20, 2017

Grisham writes that she selected the aide to help her boss, a former model, make it through the Capitol's slick marble floors. 'I laughed to myself because Id seen the woman navigate dirt roads in her heels,' she writes.

And when Trump tried to deny the affair, she was dismissive, in comments reported by Grisham, who also served as White House press secretary, although she never held a press briefing during her tenure.

'Oh, please, are you kidding me?' she said, according to Grisham. 'I dont believe any of that,' she said, using an expletive.

Grisham writes that Melania was angered when the stunning affair came to light in a Wall Street Journal story that first revealed Trump paid $130,000 in hush money payments.

Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

'I felt that Mrs. Trump was basically unleashed,' Grisham wrote.

On another occasion, Grisham helped write a statement for the first lady requesting privacy for her and her family. It was to say she intended to concentrate on being a mother, wife and first lady. According to Grisham, she had her aide remove the word 'wife.'

Daniels wrote in a 2018 book on her affair with the former president: 'I lay there, annoyed that I was getting f***ed by a guy with Yeti pubes and a d*** like the mushroom character in Mario Kart

In another of the book's claims, this one with international intrigue, Russian President Vladimir Putin brought an 'attractive' translator with him to distract former President Donald Trump at their 2019 meeting - and Trump told Putin he would act tough in front of the cameras and then play nice privately, Grisham writes.

'OK, I'm going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it's for the cameras, and after they leave, we'll talk. You understand,' Trump had told Putin when they met in June 2019 in Japan at the G20, Grisham recounted.

Copies of Grisham's book - I'll Take Your Questions Now, What I Saw at Trump White House - were obtained by The Washington Post and The New York Times. It hits bookshelves on October 5.

Stehanie Grisham wrote that she was told by Russia expert Fiona Hill that Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) had brought along an 'attractive' translator (left) to distract President Donald Trump (right) during their 2019 meeting

President Vladimir Putin's translator follows him into a meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan in 2019

Grisham was a 2016 campaign aide who became First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, before being elevated to White House press secretary and communications director from July 2019 to April 2020.

She then returned to the East Wing to serve as the first lady's spokesperson, again, and chief of staff.

The new book fills in some blanks about some of the most memorable moments from Trump's one term.

I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I saw at the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham comes out on October 5

The Putin meeting in question came 11 months after the infamous Helsinki summit where Trump seemed to side with the Russian president over American intelligence agencies on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

At the July 2018 meeting, Trump said Putin offered an 'extremely strong and powerful' denial.

At their 2019 meeting in Japan, Trump playfully scolded and wagged a finger at Putin in front of the cameras telling the Russian leader, 'don't meddle in the election,' before they met behind closed doors for 90 minutes without journalists present.

According to The Times, Grisham conversed with Fiona Hill - the administration's Russia expert turned impeachment 1.0 witness - who explained what Putin was doing to throw Trump off.

'As the meeting began, Fiona Hill leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure,' Grisham wrote. 'She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.'

A brunette woman with a blue dress can be seen following Putin into the room as the Russian leader greets the American delegation in Osaka.

Trump, upon hearing the Stormy Daniels description of his penis, called his press secretary from Air Force one to assure her his penis was neither small nor shaped like a toadstool, Grisham, in her new salacious tell-all 'I'll Take Your Questions Now'

Trump told Stephanie Grisham he didn't have a 'toad-shaped penis' during Melania's campaign of revenge over Stormy Daniels affair

The ex-press secretary also recalled how Trump insisted his penis was not shaped like a toadstool - responding to comments made by porn star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels wrote in a 2018 book on her affair with the former president: 'I lay there, annoyed that I was getting f***ed by a guy with Yeti pubes and a d*** like the mushroom character in Mario Kart.'

Trump, upon hearing the allegation, called his press secretary from Air Force one to assure her his penis was neither small nor shaped like a toadstool, Grisham said.

Grisham also wrote that the former president once asked her former boyfriend, Miller, if she was good in bed.

The Daniels affair, Grisham wrote, 'unleashed' Melania's vengeance as she began trying to contradict her husband in public.

The first lady told Grisham she didn't believe her husband's denials.

When Grisham drafted a tweet requesting privacy at the time of the affair, saying that Melania would focus on being a first lady, wife and mother, the first lady asked Grisham to scrub the tweet of the word 'wife.'

Trump would cut his hair with giant scissors and tunes from his favorite musicals would calm him down

Grisham's includes bizarre details about Trump's behavior.

For instance, she claims he cuts his hair with a 'huge pair of scissors that could probably cut a ribbon at an opening of one of his properties.'

She also writes that one of Trump's aides - later revealed to be Grisham's ex-boyfriend Max Miller, who is running for an Ohio Congressional seat and has been endorsed by Trump - would play him his favorite show tunes, including 'Memory' from Cats, to calm him down during tantrums.

Grisham described Trump's temper as 'terrifying.

Trump takes interest in a young press aide

Trump continued the womanizing behavior he was known for as a brash Manhattan real estate tycoon at the White House, Grisham revealed, writing that he repeatedly invited a young press aide to his Air Force One cabin - one time to look at her behind.

'A couple of times I came close to telling Mrs. Trump about the president's behavior. I thought that if she would say one little word to him about it, she could make it stop. But I could never bring myself to say anything,' Grisham wrote.

Ultimately, she was too 'chickens***' to tell the then-first lady or 'maybe it wasn't my place or any of my business,' she noted.

And she reveals Melania Trump may still not know about the former president's behavior.

Grisham revealed in her book that the former president took 'an unusual interest in a young, highly attractive press wrangler on my team.'

She details what she called inappropriate behavior by Trump and noted she tried to protect the staffer, who she doesn't name.

Grisham writes Trump would tell her to put the staffer 'on TV. Keep her happy, promote her.'

Trump, a former reality TV star, consider being on TV a great compliment and hired some of his staff and lawyers based on their appearances on Fox News.

Grisham also reveals that on one Air Force One trip Trump asked that the staffer be brought to his cabin, saying: 'Let's bring her up here and look at her ass.'

She said after that she tried to keep the staffer off trips: 'I needed to protect her and, frankly, the president as well.'

Melania's 'I Really Dont Care, Do U?' jacket remains shrouded in mystery

Later that year, Melania Trump would seemingly go rogue again when she wore a 'I Really Dont Care, Do U?' Zara jacket on a trip to tour a Texas Health and Human Services facility where migrant children were being housed.

A handful of the children at the McAllen facility had been separated from their families due to the controversial Trump immigration policy.

Grisham said the first lady had purchased the $39 jacket herself - and Melania Trump never gave a solid explanation as to why she wore it.

She told Grisham that it was just a jacket, when they were trying to figure out damage control on the plane.

Upon arrival at the White House, the president told an aide that the first lady needed to come to the Oval Office.

Grisham said it was the first time she'd seen the president summon the first lady that way in front of staff.

He yelled and asked 'what the [expletive] they thought they were doing, The Post said.

Trump then devised a plan and tweeted out that the message was meant for the 'Fake News.'

The first lady continued to repeat that story in interviews - but the real reason she wore the jacket remains unknown.

Melania Trump bought the $39 'I Really Dont Care, Do U?' jacket from Zara and wore it on a trip to see facilities that housed migrant children in June 2018. Grisham said it was the president who came up with the narrative that the message was meant for the 'fake news' media

Trump wanted Grisham to evict the press and reenact his perfect phone call

During her time serving as White House press secretary, Trump asked Grisham to find a way to remove the press from the White House premises.

He also wanted her to re-enact his 'perfect' phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for them.

She revealed that a trip to North Korea inspired Trump to ask her to find ways he could evict the White House press corps from the James Brady briefing room - a place he frequently held news conferences and bantered with reporters.

'I researched different places we could put them other than the press briefing room. Each time the president asked me about my progress on the matter, I let him know I was still working on options,' Grisham wrote.

Grisham, who was notable for never holding a press briefing as White House press secretary, explains she didn't do so out of fears of what Trump would ask her to say at the podium.

Trump's first press secretary, Sean Spicer, famously argued Trump's inauguration crowd was 'the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration' - claim that did not match side-by-side photos of Trump's inauguration with Barack Obama's and destroyed his credibility.

'I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic,' she noted.

She also detailed one of Trump's more outlandish requests - that she appear before the press corps and reenact his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment.

She managed to avoid doing it.

Trump, himself, famously like to reenact the call by reliving what he and Zelensky said, using different tones of voices to make his point.

Trump's mysterious medical procedure at Walter Reed was likely a colonoscopy

While Grisham didn't name the procedure, the former Trump aide strongly hinted that what Trump went to Walter Reed for in November 2019 was a colonoscopy - without anesthesia.

In the book, Grisham described it as a 'very common procedure' where 'a patient is sometimes put under.'

The reason for the secrecy, Grisham explained, was that Trump didn't want to hand over power to Vice President Mike Pence, even for a short amount of time, because it would be 'showing weakness.'

He also didn't want to be 'the butt of the joke,' she wrote, on late-night TV.

On the day of Trump's Walter Reed trip, Grisham as press secretary told reporters that Trump had traveled to the Bethesda, Maryland facility for a physical.

'Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed,' Grisham said.

Grisham expressed that the concealment was regrettable.

She noted in the book that Trump could have used his influence to demystify colonoscopies - and thus save lives.

'But as with COVID, he was too wrapped up in his own ego and his own delusions about his invincibility,' Grisham said.

White House staff called Ivanka 'the princess' and she and Jared tried to push their way into a meeting with the Queen

Ivanka Trump (second right) and Jared Kushner (R) looks out of the window at Buckingham Palace during the visit of US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on June 03, 2019 in London, England

Aides to former President Donald Trump referred to his daughter Ivanka as 'the princess,' Grisham said.

Grisham wrote that Melania Trump also referred to Ivanka by the name.

Ivanka, who served as an unpaid senior advisor to the president, regularly referred to him as 'my father' in meetings, she writes. Ivanka sometimes used the term in public.

Grisham terms her husband, former White House aide Jared Kushner, 'the Slim Reaper' for getting involved in projects designated for others, she wrote.

Grisham also wrote that the power couple tried to get themselves into a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II during Trump's visit to the UK in 2019.

Only the president and first lady attended.

It would have been a 'wild breach of protocol,' according to The Post.

Kushner and Ivanka Trump did attend a state dinner.

Grisham writes that the situation was resolved when they couldn't fit into a presidential helicopter.

Team Trump claims book is another 'pitiful attempt to cash in on his strength'

'This book is another pitiful attempt to cash in on the Presidents strength and sell lies about the Trump family, said Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington.

Harrington termed Grisham a 'a disgruntled former employee'  a term has applied in the past to aides who have written tell-alls.

She said the book's publishers 'should be ashamed of themselves for preying on desperate people who see the short term gain in writing a book full of falsehoods.'

Publisher Harper Collins calls the book 'The most frank and intimate portrait of the Trump White House yet.'

Grisham was among the flurry of Trump officials who resigned from their posts on January 6, in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.

Trump went after Grisham personally in a statement released Tuesday morning.

'Stephanie didnt have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning,' Trump said. 'She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.'

'We and the MAGA movement are totally used to it. And someday in the not too distant future we will have our voice back and be treated fairly by the press,' the ex-president added.

Trump says Grisham is 'angry and bitter' over breakup with Miller

The former president hit out at the book again on Wednesday morning, mocking Grisham as 'angry and bitter' over her breakup with Miller after reports emerged that he once asked Miller if Grisham is 'good in bed.'

He downplayed Grisham's significance in the White House, despite her being the only top aide to serve in the East and West Wings.

'Stephanie didn't have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning. She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about.

'She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things,' Trump said through a spokesperson.

Campaign finance documents reveal, however, that publisher HarperCollins donated thousands more dollars to right-leaning political campaigns recently than those on the left.

That includes nearly $90,000 toward a PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the Senate.
The body of Robert 'Bob' Lowery, 46, was found on Black Canyon Trail in Bridger-Teton National Park on Tuesday after a search team was deployed with dogs

A body believed to belong to a missing Texas hiker has been found in the same Wyoming forest as van life woman Gabby Petito, after publicity around her case brought forward new tips.

Robert 'Bob' Lowery, 46, was last seen in Bridger-Teton National Forest near Grand Teton National Park on August 20 carrying a sleeping bag and tent, according to Teton County Sheriff's Office.

Police had been investigating Lowery's disappearance for over a month without success.

But after the massive publicity around the case of Petito - whose body was discovered in the same forest on September 19 - the spotlight was also shone on other missing persons cases in the area.

Two part-time Teton residents came forward with information regarding Lowery's case.

They told police they saw Lowery alone on August 20 around 3pm on Black Canyon Trail. They reported he didn't appear to be in distress, according to Jackson Hole News and Guide.

A search team made up of volunteers and dogs were sent onto the trail on Tuesday.

Twenty-five people were split into five search teams to comb through the steep trails for four hours.

At 1pm a dog found a body that matched the description of Lowery, including the black duffle bag he was last seen with, off a steep slope in a wooded area.

Authorities are yet to confirm the identity of the body, or a cause of death.

Lowery (pictured with his children), who had been missing since August 20, had reportedly not spoken to his children in 37 days, whom he normally spoke to daily

His body was found after two part-time Teton residents told police they saw him on the trail and that he did not look distressed. Police, who had been investigating his disappearance, had not deployed a search team until now because they did not have news of his last whereabouts. The hikers told police they saw him around 3pm. The family released a map (pictured) showing where Lowery was last seen

Police had said that before the new tips came in, they were unsure of Lowery's whereabouts, according to Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Authorities 'pinged' his phone, the last registered location was on August 23 in Jackson, Wyoming, according to Cowboy State Daily.

In early September, the police asked for the public's help in finding Lowery.

But it wasn't until van-lifer Gabby Petito's case hit national headlines that Lowery's case became widely known among locals.

Lowery, among others who had recently gone missing in the Teton park, got pulled into Petito's case, bringing national attention.

'The good news about it has been Bob got pulled into a bunch of articles, so it actually drew a bunch of attention from people that I know,' his sister Leigh Lowery told Jackson Hole News and Guide.

The last footage of Lowery was seen on a hotel camera. It showed him getting into a Lyft where he traveled to Pearl Street Bagels in Wilson, Wyoming, near Black Canyon Trail.

He was seen leaving the hotel with his black duffle bag and tent.

Lowery had recently left his real estate job in Texas and told family he was going on various hiking and camping trips before returning to a new job

Multiple people have been reported missing in Teton park and have since gained national attention due to the Petito case

The family became concerned after Lowery hadn't contacted his children in a long time. It was out of the normal for him not to talk to his kids, Meredith, 12 and Luke, 15, almost daily.

Gabby Petito, 22, was found dead in the park near Spread Creek on September 19. Her case has garnered national attention as search her fiance and person-of-interest in her case Brian Laundrie continues

'Bob is a loving dad to his 15-year-old and 12-year-old,' Leigh told Jackson Hole News and Guide.

'Bob talks to those kids every day, multiple times a day,' Leigh told NBC. 'He's never out of touch with them. But it's been 37 days and nothing. And that's what's concerning.'

The father-of-two had left Houston, Texas, the day before after leaving his job as a real estate agent to explore various hiking trails and camping trips before settling into a new job.

He was not an experienced hiker.

He also canceled his mail before leaving, according to police.

The Lowery family set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the children's education in remembrance of their father.

'The children will have the unconditional love and support [of] our full extended family; however, in the wake their fathers unexpected death, we want to ensure that they are best set up for their future,' they wrote.

Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest on the eastern edge of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.

Petito, 22, was reported missing on September 11 after being last seen on August 24.

Her fiance Brian Laundrie returned home to Florida on September 1 without her, and refused to cooperate with authorities.

He was reported missing himself on September 17 and has not been seen since.

Petito's death was ruled a homicide by a coroner, and Laundrie has been named as a 'person of interest' in the case.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie over fraudulent use of Petito's credit card after her death. He has not yet been charged over her death.

A search for Laundrie continues in the swampy 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Florida.
The Senate will vote on a temporary measure to fund the government without langauage to raise the debt ceiling - a victory for Republicans who demanded that condition in exchange for adverting a government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday the measure could be introduced as 'as early as today.'

He noted the chamber 'can approve this measure quickly, and send it to the House so it can reach the President's desk before funding expires midnight tomorrow.'

The legislation would temporarily fund the government through Dec. 3 and would include $6.3 billion to help Afghan refugees and $28.6 billion in natural disaster relief.

Government funding runs out Friday at midnight.

Republican senators, led by GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, have been firm in their resistance to pairing funding the government with raising the nation's borrowing limit, leaving Democrats with little other options than to remove that provision.

Once the government is funded, that would free up Democratic leadership - President Joe Biden, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi - to focus on raising the debt ceiling and passing the two pieces of Biden's economic agenda: the $1.1 trillion infrastructure plan and the $3.5 trillion budget package.

President Joe Biden canceled a trip to Chicago on Thursday to deal with Congress

Biden canceled a planned trip to Chicago on Wednesday to deal with his legislative agenda, which is being threatened by an intra-party war between progressives and moderates.

Here's where things stand:

THE DEBT CEILING

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a stand-alone bill that would suspend the debt ceiling but it's unclear if it will pass in that chamber due to concern from moderate Democrats.

Additionally, its future remains unclear in the Senate after Republicans squashed an effort to expand the nation's borrowing limit through the 2022 midterms.

Schumer argued on Tuesday that the Senate 'can't' take reconciliation route to raise the ceiling as it 'requires ping-ponging separate bills back from the Senate and the House. It's uncharted waters. Individual senators could to move to delay.'

'It is very risky and could well lead us to default,' he noted.

Mitch McConnell led the resistance to Schumer's attempt on Tuesday to raise the nation's debt ceiling by a simple party-line vote.

'I've said for more than two months that we will not help this unified, Democratic government raise the debt ceiling. Democrats will not get bipartisan help borrowing money so they can immediately blow historic songs on a partisan tax and spending spree,' McConnell, the Senate's Repubican leader, said on the Senate floor.

'There is no chance - no chance - the Republican conference will go out of our way to help Democrats conserve their time and energy, so they can resume ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible,' he added.

He could do the same manuever on a stand-alone bill.

Schumer essentially dared Republicans to block Democrats from raising the debt limit when he announced earlier Tuesday he will ask for unanimous consent to have a such an increase approved with a simple majority threshold - 50 votes - instead of the usual 60 vote margin to move legislation forward.

'We have given the Republicans what they want and now the ball is in their court,' Schumer, the Senate's Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor before making his legislative move.

'We are not asking them to vote yes. If Republicans want to vote to not pay the debts they helped incur, they can all vote no,' he said. 'We are just asking Republicans: get out of the way. Get out of the way when you are risking the full faith in credit of the United States, to play a nasty political game.'

He added: 'We can bring this to a resolution today.'

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (left) blocked an attempt by senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (right) to raise the nation's debt ceiling by a simple party-line vote

But unanimous consent means there can be zero objections and McConnell objected, stopping Schumer in his tracks.

In the 50-50 evenly divided Senate, Schumer's options are narrowing as Republicans made it clear they will not give him the 10 votes he needs to pass raising the debt ceiling through regular legislative order.

The Republicans' move could force him to use a legislative process known as reconciliation - which only requires 50 votes to move a bill forward instead of the ususal 60.

Schumer said on Tuesday that is not a move he'd like to use.

'Using the drawn-out and convoluted reconciliation process is far too risky. Far too risky,' he said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, indicated she had a different opinion.

'We'll see what our options are,' she said when asked if reconciliation was possible.

Additionally, under reconciliation, Democrats would have to agree to a specific number to raise the debt celing, instead of just generically increasing the nation's borrowing limit, as the House did in the legislation it approved.

Republicans would then likely use that number against Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections as they try to retake control of the Senate.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated she was not opposed to using a legislative process known as reconciliation to raise the debt limit

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said government would run out of 'cash and extraordinary measures' on October 18

The debt limit has become a major point of contention between the two parties.

Democrats point out it was last raised with the help of Republicans under President Donald Trump and argue most of the debt came from the former president's tax cuts. Republicans counter that Democrats spent too much government money with their trillion packages containing various COVID relief measures and don't want to help them raise the debt ceiling to pay for them.

Adding to the pressure, Democrats Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to Congressional leaders on Tuesday morning to warn the government would run out of 'cash and extraordinary measures' in the next few weeks.

'We now estimate that Treasury is likely to exhaust its extraordinary measures if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by October 18,' she wrote.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debts in the modern era.

BIDEN'S $1.1 TRILLION INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

Pelosi postponed a vote on Biden's $1.1 trillion infrastructure package until Thursday as Democrats work to shore up support among moderates for Biden's $3.5 trillion budget filled with social programs.

She also announced she would not tie passing the $3.5 trillion bill to passing the infrastructure package - a blow to the progressive wing of the party.

On Wednesday she did not rule out another vote delay after liberal lawmakers doubled down on their threat to withhold their votes.

Liberal Democrats in the House said they would not vote for the infrastructure bill until the Senate passed the social programs. But moderate Democrats in that chamber are unhappy with the $3.5 trillion price tag and are with holding their votes.

Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders threw gasoline on the fire on Tuesday when he urged House progressives to stand firm and refuse to vote for the infrastructure bill until they get reassurance from moderate Senate Democrats.

'Let's be crystal clear. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress,' Sanders said in a series of tweets.

'More importantly, it will end all leverage that we have to pass a major reconciliation bill. That means there will be no serious effort to address the long-neglected crises facing the working families of our country, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor.'

Pelosi had told progressives she would not bring up infrastructure without the guarantee on the budget bill but she walked back on that promise Monday night.

Liberals are furious - and with holding their votes.

Progressive leaders on Tuesday said a majority of their 100-member caucus will tank Thursday's infrastructure vote without the committment on the social programs. Pelosi only has a four seat majority in the House. It has no Republican support.

Senator Bernie Sanders (pictured) has urged Democrats to vote against a $1trillion bipartisan infrastructure package until the Senate first passes the $3.5trillion spending bill

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the furious liberals refusing to support Biden's infrastructure plan without a guarantee the Senate will pass his $3.5 trillion budget

'As our members have made clear for three months, the two are integrally tied together, and we will only vote for the infrastructure bill after passing the reconciliation bill,' Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal said in a statement.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of those who is a no vote.

Asked on Tuesday how she would wrangle progressive votes on infrastructure, Pelosi said: 'That's a question that we'll deal with, but I'm not going to negotiate that right now.'

She and her team are working frantically behind the scenes to put together a deal.

BIDEN'S $3.5 TRILLION BUDGET PACKAGE

Biden held meetings with moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema at the White House on Tuesday as he tries to get a committment on his $3.5 trillion budget of social programs, including free pre-K and programs to combat climate change.

Sinema is expected back at the White House Wednesday for her fourth visit in two days.

Both senators have objected to the high price tag and, in the 50-50 Senate, Democrats need every member of their party's vote.

However, the two moderates won't publicly name a price they will support.

'There were no commitments made at all, no commitments from my standpoint, just good negotiations talking about the needs of the country,' Manchin said.

As far as a topline spending number, he said: 'We haven't talked about it, no. Just talking about the need. I'm looking at the needs of the country.'

Lawmakers are hoping Biden can get a verbal committment from the two senators by Thursday, freeing up progressives to vote for his infrastructure bill.

Sinema, however, is reported to not want to name a topline number until the bipartisan infrastructure package clears the House.

Pelosi put the onus on the president.

'Negotiations are being led by President Biden to advance his vision,' she told her Democratic lawmakers in a letter on Tuesday.

Manchin said his meeting with Biden was 'good, honest, straightforward negotiations' but no commitments were made.

He said he met with Biden for over an hour.

Sinema refused to tell reporters on Capitol Hill what she spoke about with Biden.

And White House press secretary Jen Psaki also declined to give details.

'We're obviously in a very sensitive time right now, in these discussions a pivotal time and these discussions, and I understand the interest but I'm going to try not to say anything that gets me fired today,' she said Tuesday in her press briefing.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema met with Biden at the White House on Tuesday to discuss her concerns on his $3.5 trillion budget

Her fellow moderate senator, Joe Manchin, also met with Biden at the White House as president works to cut a deal

Biden said on Monday that 'victory' is at stake ahead of this week's votes in the Capitol.

'Victory is what's at stake,' Biden said.

And the president conceded it may all not be done this week.

'It may not be by the end of the week. I hope it's by the end of the week. But as long as we're still alive,' he noted, 'we got three things to do: the debt ceiling, the continuing resolution, and the two pieces of legislation. If we do that, the country is going to be in great shape.'

The House Budget Committee passed their version of the $3.5 trillion budget package on Saturday. The intention was to prove to progressives that leadership was serious about moving it along with the infrastructure bill to reassure them it won't be left behind due to moderate demands.

The move didn't work.
Kamala Harris' office is reportedly 'deeply concerned' after two The View co-hosts were pulled from set after testing positive for COVID despite them being required to have PCR tests 24 hours before meeting the Vice President.

Harris was set to sit down with the program's stars for a lengthy interview Friday before Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro 'tested positive' for COVID at the eleventh hour.

The pair were booted from the show's stage as producers scrambled to make sure Harris hadn't come into contact with any potentially infected employees. She eventually conducted a shortened interview via video link from another room at ABC's New York studios.

One source told CNN that the Vice President's staffers insisted The View hosts have a PCR test 24 hours before her scheduled interview on Friday.

A rep for show went back to the VP's office on Thursday night, telling them that the tests were 'all clear'.

A senior ABC News source says it's time to 'extinguish the dumpster fire at The View' after Kamala Harris became embroiled in the chat show's COVID fiasco last week

The source says the producers have not offered a thorough explanation for what went wrong, leaving them 'deeply concerned'.

Meanwhile, a senior ABC News source says it's time to 'extinguish the dumpster fire at the show.

The senior ABC News insider exclusively told DailyMail.com Wednesday that the fallout from the fiasco is likely to be long-lasting.

'We've always boasted about being the most important political show in America but now the White House thinks we're a joke,' the anonymous source raged.

'Friday's show encapsulates all of the problems at the show that [ABC's parent company] Disney turns a blind eye to. It is complete chaos all the time, where the hosts have all the control.'

Harris eventually conducted a shortened interview via video link from another room at ABC's New York studios. Her office is said to be 'deeply concerned' about the incident

The insider says The View's broadcast blunder is 'so embarrassing' for ABC News President Kim Godwin and Disney content head Peter Rice.

'It shows they have absolutely no idea how to fix the utter toxicity and madness that comes from within The View,' they stated.

The source said they believe it's time for Disney's Executive Chairman Bob Iger to intervene.

Iger - who previously served as president of ABC - reportedly intervened during a recent dispute between the network's newsmen George Stephanopoulos and David Muir.

The source said: 'Bob Iger flew to New York to appease George Stephanopoulos when he threw an unjustified temper tantrum over his title, because he can't handle David Muir's well deserved success.

'It's now time for Bob to fire up the Disney jet and come back to New York to extinguish the dumpster fire at The View, especially if he wants to stay in favor with the White House as it's all the talk internally that he still wants to be a US Ambassador for the Biden Administration.'

CEO Bob Iger, who last year pocketed an eye-popping $66million, is pictured

The co-hosts looked stunned as they received the news ahead of the highly-anticipated interview

The source further said: 'What is most appalling is that some of the hosts and the senior production staff think this is great publicity as the show hasn't made any headlines so far this season. This is how tone deaf they are.'

It eventually turned out that Hostin and Navarro were actually not actually COVID positive.

A slew of subsequent tests returned negative results.

DailyMailcom has contacted Harris' press office for comment.

On Friday, they stated: 'The Vice President did not have contact with the hosts before the show. Her schedule today will continue as planned.'

Later on Friday, the VP flew back to Washington DC where she held high-powered talks with the Prime Ministers of Australia, India and Japan.
A 20-year-old college student has died from complications of COVID-19 after he refused to get vaccinated despite his mother's pleas to do so.

Tyler Gilreath, who was a sophomore at North Carolina-Wilmington, died Tuesday morning, after testing positive for the virus just two days after he returned to school in August.

Gilreath had promised his mother, Tamra Demello, he would get vaccinated once he arrived at school, but quickly developed complications shortly after his COVID test came back positive.

'I cajoled, encouraged, threatened, and nagged for him to get vaccinated,' Demello told WECT. 'I did everything I could possibly think.'

Tyler Gilreath, who was a sophomore at North Carolina-Wilmington, died Tuesday morning, after testing positive for the virus just two days after he returned to school in August

Gilreath (pictured) developed a 100-degree fever, as his COVID infection later morphed into a sinus infection combined with a staph infection

Gilreath developed a 100-degree fever, despite being healthy and having no pre-existing conditions.

His COVID infection morphed into a sinus infection combined with a staph infection, which eventually moved to his brain, causing severe swelling and damage.

He was rushed to the hospital by his roommates after an abscess ruptured on his brain last week. A CAT scan later revealed there was no blood flow to Gilreath's brain, with the damage being irreversible.

On September 25, Gilreath's parents were informed that their son would likely die from brain damage and he was eventually taken off life support on Tuesday.

Before contracting COVID, Demello said her son was healthy and vibrant, with no pre-existing health conditions. He was studying computer science, loved to wake board, water ski, and snow ski.

While speaking to reporters, Tyler's mother, Tamra Demello said her son was healthy and vibrant, with no pre-existing health conditions before he contracted COVID

Demello encouraged parents to do whatever it takes when convincing their children to get vaccinated

During his freshman year, before COVID shut down classes, Gilreath was in the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech. After deciding to return to North Carolina, Gilreath transferred to UNCW.

Demello encourages parents to do whatever it takes when convincing their children to get vaccinated.

'Legally, they are adults. You really can't actually make them go. But I would use whatever guilt tactic I could possibly come up with. I would try taking them to see if they would go,' she said.

'I would say just get this message out and if it can even save one person who is on the fence, or if a parent can use it to say, 'look how shattered this whole family is.' This probably won't happen to you but if there's any remote possibility that it could  it's a shot,' Demello added.

Colleges nationwide are continuing to crackdown on unvaccinated students, with one school issuing weekly $200 fines to those whove yet to get the jab.

Tyler's mother told reporters her son was studying computer science, loved to wake board, water ski, and snow ski, as pictured above

During his freshman year, before COVID shut down classes, Tyler Gilreath was in the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech. After deciding to return to North Carolina, Gilreath transferred to UNCW.

On September 25, Tyler Gilreath's parents were informed that their son would likely die from brain damage and he was eventually taken off life support on Tuesday

Students who dont abide by Quinnipiac Universitys vaccine mandate will receive weekly $100 fines for the first two weeks of non-compliance, and additional $200 weekly fines going forward.

Fines are capped at $2,275 per semester, the Connecticut private schools student newspaper reported.

Students who delayed getting vaccinated beyond September 14 will lose their on-campus Wifi privileges, staff said in an email to students.

The consequences of defying vaccine mandates dont end there.

Virginia Tech has kicked out more than 100 students who failed to submit COVID-19 vaccination documentations, university officials said August 31.

Of the about 37,000 Virginia Tech students expected when classes began last week, 134 were booted for failing to submit their proof of vaccination or exemption documents, university spokesman Mark Owczarski told the Roanoke Times.

Earlier that month, University of Virginia kicked out 238 students for failure to comply with the school's vaccination requirements, though of those the school says only 48 were enrolled for fall classes.

The California State University (CUS) system announced in late July that unvaccinated staff and students would not be permitted on campus beyond September 30.

Those who choose not to get vaccinated would likely have the option of studying remotely, officials said.

While UNCW doesn't have a vaccine mandate for students, the university did provide a COVID-19 Campus Vaccination Clinic from September 20-22.
A white man is filing a discrimination lawsuit against the state of New Hampshire after he says he was denied a COVID-19 vaccination on the basis of race.

On Tuesday a federal complaint was filed against the state of New Hampshire with the Health and Human Services Department's Office of Civil Rights on behalf of an unidentified 28-year-old white New Hampshire man.

The complaint says that the man, who is diabetic and therefore at elevated medical risk, tried to schedule a vaccination on April 2 but was told by the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley in a recorded message that the appointments were 'fully subscribed for people of color.'

According to a new complaint, a 28-year-old New Hampshire man tried to schedule a vaccination on April 2 but was told that the appointments were 'fully subscribed for people of color' (file image)

The 28-year-old was eventually able to get his vaccination a month later on May 2, but the complaint said the state should be held accountable for its 'blatant discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin'

According to the complaint, the state received millions in federal funding, including over $500 million from HHS to administer its health programs and $43 million to support vaccination efforts specifically, and using those funds in a 'discriminatory manner' would violate federal laws.

The complaint said when Public Health Council Director Alice Ely said she was 'thrilled' to be able to vaccinate 'so many of our neighbors who identify as black, Indigenous or a person of color,' that was an 'insult to the many people, especially those at elevated medical risk, who were forced to wait behind younger healthy college students simply because of their race, skin color, and national origin.'

The complaint is demanding that HHS open a compliance review and withhold funding of the state HHS and the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley until they commit in writing that they won't discriminate on the basis of race.

About 70 percent of both black and White adults have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine - closing an earlier divide - Pew's survey found

'Although it is unclear if the state continues to discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, at least as late as June 27, 2021, the state's main COVID vaccine website continued to state that 'appointments are limited' and 'dependent on [vaccine] supply,' which left open the door to state discriminating against whites.'

The New Hampshire COVID vaccine rollout had five stages of eligibility that first prioritized high-risk health workers, first responders, and older adults living in residential care settings followed by people 65 and older, and certain medically vulnerable people who are at significantly higher risk, and certain persons who work with medically vulnerable persons.

The complaint says on top of that criteria the state took racial and ethnic considerations into who was eligible for the vaccine and set aside 10 percent of available vaccines for 'disproportionately impacted populations' that was distributed to a 'familiar and accessible to the target population.'

The state relied upon the COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI) which was produced by a privately funded think tank, to determine who would receive the vaccine ahead of others based on race, the complaint said.

According to the CCVI minorities were identified as 'all persons except white, non-Hispanic' and the complaint accuses the state on relying on the CCVI's 'patently racist stereotype' that non-whites are inherently 'less resilient' than whites in order to justify deprioritizing only white people for vaccines.

Researchers have long studied the role race plays in medicine and it has been at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine reported that black Americans were more likely to distrust the medical community compared to white Americans.

Researchers also found that black participants at the time were half as likely to get a COVID vaccine compared to white participants and said studies showed that historical and contemporary experiences-such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and experiences of racism in the U.S. healthcare system- were behind black Americans' vaccine hesitancy.

But attitudes about the COVID vaccine among black Americans seem to be changing and the racial gap in COVID-19 vaccinations is closing.

A recent Pew Research Center survey revealed that 70 percent of black adults and 72 percent of white adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The findings from the study indicated that, despite continued polarization, the majority of Americans are on the same page about vaccines and other Covid precautions.

But as vaccine rollout has continued dynamics have shifted and in the spring and summer white Americans got vaccinated at lower rates while more black Americans sought their shots.
A deaf man is suing two Colorado cops who slammed his head into concrete and tasered him for 'resisting arrest' after failing to realize he couldn't hear their instructions.

Brady Mistic was jailed for four months on charges of second-degree assault on a police officer and resisting arrest following the violent arrest in September 2019. The charges were eventually dismissed, and Mistic was released, the lawsuit says.

Now Mistic is suing officers Nicholas Hanning and Ellie Summers, seeking unspecified compensation for pain and suffering, over claims the officers gave no 'warning or attempt to communicate' before slamming him to the ground. He is also suing the city of Idaho Springs and the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners.

Hanning was fired from the department in July in connection with another violent arrest, while Summers currently remains on active duty.

The incident began on September 17, 2019, when Mistic was stopped for allegedly running a stop sign.

According to the suit, Mistic didn't realize he'd done anything unlawful, and had pulled into the parking lot of a laundromat, got out his car, and begun to walk towards the building. After his arrest, he lost his car.

In the raw body camera footage showing Mistic's arrest, officer Summers can be heard saying 'please stay sitting down' while Mistic is trying to tell her that he is deaf

Bradley Mistic (pictured) is suing Idaho Springs Police Department, Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners and the two officers involved in his wrongful arrest and four-month jail sentence

He was unaware that Hanning and Summers had pulled up behind him until he saw the flashing lights of their police vehicle.

'As Mr. Mistic exited his car and walked past a dumpster in between his vehicle and the police vehicle, toward the laundry door, he was blinded by police vehicle lights and/or a spotlight shone by the officers,' the suit said.

'He had no idea what was happening, what the police were doing, or if the officers' presence had anything to do with him.'

Mistic, who cannot read lips and can only form a few words verbally, relies on American Sign Language to communicate.

He attempted to use his hands to communicate with the officers, but to no avail, the lawsuit alleges.

Hanning was fired in July and faces charges over the arrest of 75-year-old Michael Clark

Harring, one of the two officers at the scene, can be seen grabbing the defendant by the shirt in body camera footage obtained by Dailymail.com

Mistic is then thrown to the ground, slamming his head on concrete, without 'warning or attempt to communicate,' according to the lawsuit.

'Defendant Hanning pinned Mr. Mistic to the ground on his back while Mr. Mistic held his hands out with his palms facing defendant Hanning in an attempt to show that he meant no harm and was doing nothing to threaten the officer,' the document read.

'On the ground, defendant Summers joined in, grabbing Mr. Mistic.  Defendant Summers pulled out her Taser and drive stunned Mr. Mistic.'

The department has defended the officers' approach in a statement, claiming Mistic came near a 'clearly marked patrol car' with emergency lights on.

'The officers gave verbal commands for Mr. Mistic to get back in his vehicle. It was later determined Mr. Mistic was deaf, but this fact was not known to the officers during the initial encounter,' the statement read on the Idaho Springs Police website.

Brady Mistic (left), who communicates through sign language, tells a medical staffer (right) during treatment after being arrested that he was assaulted by two Colorado officers due to not being able to understand their orders

Idaho Springs Police said they conducted a traffic stop on Mistic after he ran a stop sign, prompting him to pull over in the parking lot of a a laundromat (pictured)

'Officers then directed Mr. Mistic to sit down. At one point officers attempted to gain control of Mr. Mistic by placing him into handcuffs due to his unexplained actions,' the statement continued. 'Mr. Mistic resisted the officers, and a physical altercation took place.'

Mistic was then taken to a local hospital and checked by doctors before he was charged with assaulting officers and resisting arrest. He was then taken to jail.

The lawsuit also alleges that Hanning's claim to have broken his leg or his ankle while attacking the deaf man is 'in an illusory attempt to cover up their misconduct.'

According to Bryant, Mistic's lawyer, his client spent four months behind bars without an interpreter for the charges before they were dropped after his release.

'The fact that they levied such serious charges against him and allowed those charges to result in him being in jail for so long is shocking,' he said.

The lawsuit says neither the two police officers nor jail staff at Clear Creek County Jail had received adequate training or equipment to accommodate Mistic's hearing disabilities.

Mistic is suing for monetary damages for 'physical and emotional harm, pain and suffering, permanent scarring, and economic damages.'

He is also asking for 'punitive sanctions' to be taken against the officers.

Officer Hanning is already facing assault charges in relation to the arrest of a senior citizen, Michael Clark, in Idaho Springs in May.

The two cops involved in the arrest of Mistic are named in another lawsuit by pensioner Michael Clark for his arrest. Summers (right) points a gun at Michael Clark (left) before she identified herself as part of the Idaho Police Department

Screen captures from body-worn camera videos show Idaho Springs Police Officer Ellie Summers dragging Michael Clark (left) who had just been tased and Officer Nicholas Hanning pressing his knee against Clark's neck (right)

Prosecutors said he didn't disclose that he was part of the police force when he knocked on Clark's door and used his stun gun 19 seconds after the man put his weapon down.

Hanning has since been fired from the Idaho Springs Police Department.

The other officer involved in Mistic's arrest, Ellie Summers, was also part of Clark's arrest in May. Both her and Hanning are named in a separate lawsuit filed by Clark in July.

Summers is still on active duty.
Holiday-starved Australians are flocking to book post-lockdown trips as the nation nears the highly-anticipated 80 per cent double-dose vaccination target.

Domestic and even international travel is poised to resume once 80 per cent of over 16s across the country are fully-vaccinated - a milestone which is on track to be hit before Christmas.

As jab rates continue to climb, searches for holiday destinations are booming with Australians keen for local getaways setting their sights on seaside locations in Queensland, NSW, and Victoria.

Vacation rental company Airbnb has already seen a spike in interest for December and January, with the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast topping the list of most-searched destinations.

But if stubborn premiers refuse to open borders in line with the national plan, many could see their interstate holiday dreams dashed.

Locked-down Australians have already started planning their next holiday as the nation charges towards vaccination milestones. Pictured: Sydneysiders picnic at Observatory Hill in September after outdoor gathering restrictions were eased for the fully-vaccinated

The next most popular options are Byron Bay and the NSW mid-north coast, followed by the Great Ocean Road and Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, then Jervis Bay and Sydney.

'For our guest community, hosts recognise that they are seeking flexibility at these uncertain times, and now almost two-thirds of active listings offer a moderate or flexible cancellation policy,' Airbnb Australia manager Susan Wheeldon said.

TOP 8 MOST SEARCHED TRAVEL DESTINATIONS 1. Sunshine Coast 2. Gold Coast 3. Byron Bay 4. Mid-North Coast, NSW 5. Great Ocean Road, VIC 6. Mornington Peninsula, VIC 7. Jervis Bay, NSW 8. Sydney Source: Airbnb Advertisement

All states and territories have committed to easing some restrictions when 70 and 80 per cent double-dose coverage is achieved both nationally and across all jurisdictions.

And although Queensland - along with WA - have shown hesitancy to follow through with the plan and have vowed to keep borders shut, Annastacia Palaszczuk's state looks to greatly benefit from any travel resurgence.

Australia's top travel agency Flight Centre also revealed locked-down Sydneysiders and Melburnians are hoping to head to the Sunshine State when restrictions ease.

The company's booking data shows flights from the two cities to the Gold Coast are the most in-demand, followed by Brisbane to Hamilton Island.

Industry experts are now preparing for bookings to skyrocket as the nation inches closer to the milestone and more official announcements are made.

Tourism Accommodation Australia chief executive Michael Johnson said NSW and Victorian residents have already started to lock in their accommodation.

'There's a whole lot of bookings sitting in Queensland, thats for sure, and those bookings are holding at the moment,' he said.

'People are still keeping positive to think that they will be able to get over that border for Christmas and the upcoming holiday summer holiday period but they will be very much listening (to government).'

Byron Bay (pictured) was Airbnb's third most-searched destination domestically for December to January

The Great Ocean Road, along Victoria's coastline, was another popular pick for holiday-makers (pictured)

Meanwhile, other Aussies are gearing up for long-haul trips after Scott Morrison announced international travel would restart within months.

Last week, searches for flights to Britain jumped 28 per cent while those to the US rose 13 per cent, according to Flight Centre data.

It comes after Mr Morrison last week confirmed overseas travel restrictions will ease when the 80 per cent target is met- which is projected to be by the end of the year.

'That's certainly what we intend to facilitate - for vaccinated people to travel,' Mr Morrison told reporters in Washington DC on Thursday.

Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said discussions were ongoing with several countries with high vaccination rates to determine what kind of quarantine arrangements would be needed.

POPULAR INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT BOOKINGS TOP CITIES FOR BOOKINGS Los Angeles

Delhi

London TOP CITIES FOR SEARCH INCREASES UK - 28 %

USA - 13 %

NZ - 8 % Source: Flight Centre Advertisement

'Hopefully we'll be able to have home quarantine, we'll be able to limit the time of quarantine and, ultimately, quarantine-free travel. It could require some testing. All those discussions are in place,' he said last week.

Australia is in talks to set up quarantine-free travel bubbles with the UK, US, South Korea, Singapore and Pacific islands such as Fiji for the fully vaccinated.

So far, Australia has fully vaccinated more than 52.5 per cent of its population aged 16 and above.

The end of October is shaping as the likely time 70 per cent double-dose coverage will be reached nationally, before 80 per cent is achieved around mid-November.

Lieutenant General Frewen said it would be possible to hit 90 per cent in late November or early December if people continued to roll up their sleeves.

'That's a best case,' he said.

Locked-down states and territories are on track to reach the goals before Covid-free jurisdictions - Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

NSW is projected to reach 70 per cent in one week's time, 80 per cent in mid to late October and 90 per cent in the first two weeks of November.

Victoria is expected to reach the targets in line with national forecasts.

The ACT could reach 70 per cent within a fortnight, 80 per cent in mid to late October and potentially at 90 per cent at the start of November.
Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis tore into Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen on Tuesday for her support of a Biden proposal to require banks to hand over transaction data over $600 on individual bank accounts.

'Banks do not work for the IRS,' Lummis said. 'This is invasive of privacy. Wyoming's people literally will find alternatives to traditional banks just to thwart IRS access to their personal information, not because they're trying to hide anything, but because they are not willing to share everything.'

The senator asked Yellen if she was 'aware how unnecessary this regulatory burden is?'

'Do you distrust the American people so much that you need to know when they bought a couch?' Lummis asked. 'Or a cow?'

'I am astounded by what you're supporting and proposing. I think it's invasive. I think privacy for individuals is being ignored. And I think that treating the American people like they are subjects of the government is unconscionable.'

Yellen told Lummis that she believes the senator is misunderstanding the proposal, as it requires banks to hand over the IRS data on aggregate inflows and outflows of an account for transactions over $600, rather than details on each individual transaction.

Yellen noted that the tax gap is expected to swell to $7 trillion over the next decade, roughly 15% of taxes owed.

The IRS would know how much money is in an individual's bank account in a given year, whether the individual earned income on that account and exactly how much was going in an and out.

The deep dive into financial transactions would be funded by allocating an additional $80 billion to the IRS.

'Banks do not work for the IRS,' Sen. Cynthia Lummis said. 'This is invasive of privacy'

Yellen noted that the tax gap is expected to swell to $7 trillion over the next decade

How banks will report your transactions over $600 to the IRS: The answers and (many) questions The Biden administration plan to have banks report all transactions over $600 to the IRS has sparked fury from financial institutions and privacy concerns from Americans. There are also concerns the vast amount of information handed over could be vulnerable to hackers. The full details of how the reporting process have still not been clear, but there are many questions over how the IRS and banks would undertake the scale of such reporting. Here's what is known: - IRS would receive $80 billion in funding to enforce compliance -IRS would get an annual report on money deposited and withdrawn from every bank account -New reporting would build from the 1099 form taxpayers receive when they earn $10 or more in interest from a bank, brokerage, or other financial institution -A line would be added to report gross inflows and outflows an account receives from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts, foreign accounts and crypto exchanges -IRS would use this data to conduct more targeted audits -Accounts below the minimum threshold in transactions ($600 in the original proposal would be exempt -New Form 1099 reports would also be required from payment services providers so that businesses cannot shift out of traditional financial institutions to other kinds of platforms and avoid making their income visible to the IRS Banks have raised some security questions. 'How private, how secure is it, and do people want the government combing through their finances at that level?' F&M Bank CEO Mark Hanna said. He said it still isn't clear what the threshold refers to. 'Is it granular on a per-item transaction threshold or is it an aggregate? Its hard to tell at this point. Its all very new, and the information is kind of slowly leaking out, and I dont even know if there is a concerted plan at this point.' Advertisement

'The IRS has a wealth of information about individuals,' she added. Yellen said the proposal would target high earners who have 'opaque sources of income.'

'A $600 threshold is not usually where you're going to find the massive amount of tax data you think Americans are cheating you out of,' the Wyoming Republican shot back.

'That's true but it's important to have comprehensive information,' Yellen said.

The proposal would require banks to report gross inflows and outflows to the IRS, including transactions from Venmo, PayPal, crypto exchanges and the like in an effort to fight tax evasion.

The IRS estimates that compliance on taxes due on wages is 99% while compliance on 'less visible' sources of income is only 45%.

The Treasury Department claimed that the plan would have little effect on 'already compliant' taxpayers, but would help the IRS better target its audits.

'For noncompliant taxpayers, this regime would encourage voluntary compliance as evaders realize that the risk of evasion being detected has risen noticeably,' the Treasury Department said.

This crackdown on unreported income is expected to generate $460 billion over the next decade, according to the Office of Tax Analysis.

Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IRS chief Charles Rettig - a Trump-era holdover - and a number of Democrats in the Senate, most especially Elizabeth Warren are pushing for the proposal to help fund their $3.5 trillion budget plan.

Other parts of the plan include setting up a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% and a system that prevents multinational companies from registering profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions and raising taxes on the rich.

Some moderate Democrats are leery of the IRS proposal, and those on the House Ways and Means Committee are reportedly working to bring that $600 threshold up to $10,000. Banks are already required to file a currency transaction report to the financial crimes division of the Treasury on transactions over $10,000 to prevent money laundering.

'We've made some significant movement on the number,' House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal told Bloomberg Monday.

Neal said congressional staff were looking at ways to 'ameliorate legitimate concerns' that the data collection could target lower income taxpayers.

Lawmakers' staff have been working on language to exempt some payments, such as mortgage payments and salary, from the reporting requirements.

Patrick Hedger, vice president of policy at the Taxpayers' Protection Alliance told DailyMail.com the $600 transaction proposal policy would disproportionately hurt the poor.

'You're going to push more folks into small cash transactions, you're going to push more banking offshore ... the big fish out there that do have sizable assets that are that are eligible for taxation offshore.'

'This is the ultimate regressive tax,' Hedger said.

'You're going to end up punishing the worst off among us ... the lower income folks in this country have historically been the targets of aggressive IRS audits because they don't have the CPAs and the lawyers to be able to fight back.'

In a letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Finance, the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the Consumer Bankers Association and others argued that the 'new reporting requirements for financial institutions would impose cost and complexity that are not justified by the potential, and highly uncertain, benefits.'

The trade groups also called the reporting requirements 'subjective.'

'We believe additional reporting requirements guided by subjective criteria have privacy and fairness implications and the potential to put financial institutions in an untenable position with their account holders.'

They instead suggested greater funding for audits.

But IRS chief Rettig, a Trump-era holdover, is in favor of the proposal, along with the increased IRS funding that would come with it.

'Every measure that is important to effective tax administration has suffered tremendously,' Rettig wrote in a letter to Warren earlier this month.

Former Treasury Secretaries Tim Geithner, Jacob Lew, Henry Paulson Jr., Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers also defended the Biden proposal in a New York Times op-ed. Only Paulson served under a Republican.

'Relying on financial institutions to relay some basic information about account holders is a sensible way forward,' they wrote. 'With better information for the I.R.S., voluntary compliance will rise through deterrence as potential tax evaders realize there is a risk to evasion.'

Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Institute also said the proposal would not be worth the trouble.

Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IRS chief Charles Rettig - a Trump-era holdover - and a number of Democrats in the Senate , most especially Elizabeth Warren are pushing for the proposal to help fund their $3.5 trillion budget plan

'In practice, the IRS task would be daunting and, in fact, bury the agency in a sea of unproductive information,' he said.

'Most individuals earn all of their income from wages and investment returns, which already are reported to the IRS. And larger businesses often are audited by public accounting firms. While those businesses have many ways to reduce their taxes, omitting income rarely is one of them. Why drag these individuals and businesses into the new program?'
Russia has threatened to block YouTube in retaliation for banning Moscow-funded RT's German channels over 'Covid misinformation.'

The Kremlin on Wednesday lashed out the 'unprecedented information aggression' by the Google-owned video platform and warned it could seek to partially or fully restrict access to YouTube if the ban was not revoked.

Russian state communications regulator Roskomnadzor also warned that Google faces a fine of up to 1 million rubles (10,000) if it fails to comply.

RT DE had received a 'strike' on an upload but sought to bypass the restriction by uploading it to a second German RT channel called 'The Missing Part'. This led to both channels being 'terminated', YouTube said in a statement.

The content of the video was not immediately clear, however, recent uploads by RT DE have included an expert who claimed that the 'Pfizer vaccine kills more people than it saves.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday. The Kremlin has used threats to try and force US social media companies to comply with its demands

Margarita Simonyan (pictured with Putin in May, 2019), editor-in-chief of RT, tweeted: 'This is a real media war declared by the state of Germany to the state of Russia.'

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, tweeted: 'This is a real media war declared by the state of Germany to the state of Russia.'

She appealed for Moscow to respond by banning German state broadcasters in Russia.

The German government has insisted it had nothing to do with YouTube's decision.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert called the idea that Berlin was working in tandem with YouTube a 'conspiracy theory.'

'There has been no state attack on the Russian press,' he added.

YouTube, acting in concert with other social media companies like Facebook, has been swift to crack down on 'misinformation' about the pandemic.

The channels of Sky News Australia, Talkradio in the UK, the US Senator Rand Paul and the Romanian Senate have all been temporarily blocked for broadcasts which YouTube said contradicted guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

YouTube has removed more than 130,000 videos since last year for violating its Covid-19 vaccine policies.

The Kremlin said it may have to force YouTube to comply with Russian law, saying there could be zero tolerance for breaches.

'Of course there are signs that the laws of the Russian Federation have been broken, broken quite blatantly, because of course this involves censorship and obstructing the spread of information by the media,' Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Google-owned YouTube has removed more than 130,000 videos since last year for violating its Covid-19 vaccine policies

The foreign ministry said Russian authorities had been approached with 'a proposal to develop and take retaliatory measures against the YouTube hosting service and the German media.'

Christian Mihr, executive director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany, said the threat of action against German journalists was 'completely inappropriate'.

Moscow has increased pressure on foreign tech firms in the past year, fining social media companies for failing to delete content Russia deems illegal and punitively slowing down the speed of Twitter.

That pressure led Google and Apple to remove an anti-government tactical voting app from their stores on the first day of a parliamentary election earlier this month, Kremlin critics said.
Crown Office opted not to prosecute Clarke due to his health condition and no evidence he broke the law

Glasgow City Council is now suing Clarke's former employers over his job reference

Harry Clarke, 64, drove a bin lorry which crashed killing six people in Glasgow just before Christmas 2014

The Glasgow bin lorry driver who collapsed behind the wheel in a disaster which killed six people in 2014, had beaten more than 300 applicants to the job, a court heard.

Harry Clarke, 64, interviewed for the role with Glasgow City Council in September 2010 and was offered the position in December after completing a Bupa medical questionnaire, the Court of Session heard in a virtual hearing on Wednesday.

Crown Office lawyers opted not to prosecute Clarke due to his health condition and the fact there was no evidence he broke the law.

But Glasgow City Council is now suing First Bus, the former employers of Mr Clarke, over the job reference the firm provided.

Bin lorry driver Harry Clarke, 64, pictured leaving Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2017 after admitting reckless driving on a separate occasion

The 26-tonne vehicle veered out of control and crashed in Glasgow city centre, killing six pedestrians

Mr Clarke collapsed while driving the 26-tonne vehicle in the city centre on December 22, 2014, causing it to veer out of control and crash into pedestrians.

Six people were killed and more than a dozen others injured in the 19-second incident.

The hearing was told on Wednesday that Mr Clarke was among more than 300 people to apply for the role of 'land and environmental driver'.

He was interviewed in September 2010 and offered the role in December.

As part of the recruitment process, he had to answer a Bupa questionnaire about his health and was assessed by a council official as 'suitable  from a health perspective' based on his answers.

He had declared one episode of sickness leading to seven days off in the past two years, the court heard.

However, on Tuesday, presiding judge Lord Ericht heard that Mr Clarke's GP, Dr Gerard McKaig, confirmed he had been misled on Mr Clarke's medical history prior to the crash.

Mr Clarke told his GP that he fainted in a warm canteen building in April 2010, but it later transpired he had lost consciousness behind the wheel of a stationary bus, the case heard.

Lorraine Sweeney, 69, and granddaughter Erin McQuade, 18, were among the six victims killed when Clarke lost control of his lorry on December 22, 2014

Jack Sweeney, 68, of Dumbarton, also died in the accident on December 22, 2014, alongside his wife Lorraine and granddaughter Erin

In a witness statement, Dr McKaig said had he known about Mr Clarke fainting behind the wheel of a bus, he would have 'warranted a much fuller investigation' into his health at the time.

Conditions of Mr Clarke's employment outlined in his December 2010 offer letter included 'Satisfactory clearance of your pre medical questionnaire; satisfactory references, and satisfactory enhanced disclosure Scotland check'.

Glasgow City Council operations manager, Stewart Young, said he has been unable to locate a reference for Mr Clarke despite an 'exhaustive search of the customer and business service records'.

Gillian Ewing, 52, and Stephenie Tait, 29, were among the victims in the disaster which struck just before Christmas 2014

However, he added in his witness statement a council spreadsheet states that 'a reference had been received for Mr Clarke direct from the recruiting manager and then approved by him on March 25 2011'.

The hearing continues on Wednesday afternoon.

A 2015 inquiry into the incident heard the tragedy took just 19 seconds to unfold.

Erin McQuade, 18, and her grandparents, Jack Sweeney, 68, and Lorraine Sweeney, 69, from Dumbarton; Stephenie Tait, 29, and Jacqueline Morton, 51, both from Glasgow; and Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, died in the crash.

A further 15 people were injured when the Glasgow City Council truck veered out of control.

It travelled along the pavement in Queen Street before crashing into the side of the Millennium Hotel in George Square.
Germany's outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and her would-be successor Armin Laschet have congratulated Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the rival Social Democrats on his Sunday election victory, as Merkel's conservatives remain in disarray after the vote.

It comes after CDU leader Armin Laschet was criticised for not publicly congratulating Scholz after Germany's conservative Party suffered their first national election defeat since 2002.

The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) narrowly beat Laschet's conservatives in Sunday's election, leaving Merkel's replacement scrambling to organise a coalition with the Greens and Liberal Free Democrats (FDP) as his political career teeters on a precipice.

The SPD, Germany's oldest party, won 25.7% of the vote in Sunday's election, ahead of 24.1% for the CDU/CSU - the conservative bloc's worst federal result.

Laschet now faces an uphill battle to save his career, and could only prevent Scholz from taking power if he is able to pull off the formation of a coalition government to wrest the chancellery from his rival in the coming days.

Olaf Scholz, Finance Minister and SPD Chancellor, has been congratulated by Angela Merkel after his Social Democratic Party took a narrow win in Germany's national election on Sunday

Merkel's would-be successor Armin Laschet (left) has yet to publicly congratulate his rival Scholz after Germany's Conservative Party suffered their first national election defeat since 2002

Angela Merkel's conservative bloc slumped to its worst-ever result in a national election on Sunday, put the keys to power in the hands of two opposition parties - the pro-business Free Democrats and the Green Party

Germany's pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Green Party are now seen as kingmakers despite their considerable political differences on issues from finance to climate protection.

The two smaller parties are reportedly planning to meet with both the SDP and the Conservative bloc over the weekend to discuss plans for a three-way coalition after their leaders came together for an uncharacteristic meeting on Tuesday.

FDP's secretary general Volker Wissing said on Wednesday he could reveal nothing about the parties' talks, but confirmed that a bigger group of people from both parties would meet again on Friday before going on to share preliminary talks with the conservatives on Saturday, and the SPD on Sunday.

Wissing's comments came after a smiling selfie of FDP and Green leaders together at an initial meeting went viral and became the subject of jokes.

'We are looking for common ground and bridges across divisions. And even finding some,' read the caption below the photo in which they were all smiling. 'Exciting times.'

This picture taken by Volker Wissing on Tuesday shows (L-R) Wissing, co-leader of Germany's Greens and the party's candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock, leader and top candidate of Germany's free democratic FDP party Christian Lindner and the Greens' co-leader Robert Habeck posing for a selfie during a meeting. The smaller parties are now seen as kingmakers and will meet both the Social Democrats and Conservatives over the weekend to discuss a coalition

FDP's secretary general Volker Wissing said on Wednesday he could reveal nothing about the parties' talks, but confirmed that a bigger group of people from both parties would meet again on Friday before going on to share preliminary talks with the conservatives on Saturday, and the SPD on Sunday

Commentators have argued that the post, which was shared by all four individuals across social media, showed that the parties were determined to create a narrative in which they would be a central, binding force at the heart of any alliance.

But neither side has tried to disguise the scale of the challenge, as they met for talks to bridge the gap between views at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Asked on Monday about any similarities between the leaders, co-leader of Germany's Greens and the party's candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock said: 'I am around the same age as Christian Lindner (FDP party co-leader), and he and Robert Habeck (Greens co-leader) are both men.'

Meanwhile, several senior Conservative Party members have signalled that Laschet's days may be numbered following the shock election result on Sunday.

Conservative Economy Minister Peter Altmaier called for a 'swift realignment in terms of personnel and content' ahead of a crunch meeting between conservative lawmakers on Tuesday.

Laschet reportedly faced some harsh criticism at the meeting.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party chairman Armin Laschet talked to media as he left the Reichstag building on Tuesday following a meeting of conservative lawmakers in which he reportedly faced harsh criticism

One CDU lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Laschet (pictured) could not pull off a coalition with the Greens and FDP, he should go

'It was a factual discussion with a wide range of views, but there was certainly some disappointment. Some things just have to be said openly,' said Ralph Brinkhaus, who was re-appointed head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for six months.

Brinkhaus brushed off questions about Laschet's longer term future, and said Merkel's would-be replacement would still be involved in any exploratory talks on a coalition.

But he stressed that while the conservatives were open to talks, for now it was up to the Greens and FDP to decide whether they want to form a coalition, and Laschet's political career likely hangs in the balance as the CDU/CSU continues talks with other parties.

Markus Soeder, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian sister party to the CDU, also took a swipe at Laschet.

Soeder, who was beaten to the conservative chancellor candidacy in April after a public contest with Laschet, said there was only a small possibility the SPD would not manage to form a government.

'At the moment Olaf Scholz clearly has the best chances of being chancellor,' he affirmed.

A survey by pollster Civey for the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper showed that 71% of Germans think it is wrong for Laschet to lay claim to the chancellery, while one CDU lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Laschet could not pull off a coalition with the Greens and FDP, he should go.
President Biden's top military adviser offered a devastating verdict on the U.S. war in Afghanistan during congressional testimony on Wednesday, saying for the first time that the 20-year conflict ended in defeat.

Administration officials have repeatedly claimed the conflict achieved its objective of degrading Al Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and ensuring Afghanistan could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

But Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a different view.

'The war was a strategic failure,' he said during his opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

He was later asked whether Biden's decisions were to blame.

Milley answered by describing 20 years of missteps and saying for the first time that the war had been lost.

'There's a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years,' he said.

'I don't think that when you ever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost - and it has been, in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted.'

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said for the first time that the U.S. 'lost' the war in Afghanistan after 20 years of mistakes and missteps as he delivered testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday

Taliban forces took control of Kabul on August 15 triggering a haphazard evacuation of foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans from the city's airport

His unvarnished assessment came during a second day of hearings on the administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal and weeks of scrutiny of Biden's decision-making.

The president has been accused of ignoring advice to leave a small contingent behind to support a fragile government.

The end result is that the Taliban control the country just as they did when the U.S. went to war in 2001.

Milley also said the result would invigorate extremists all around the world.

'I think the Taliban sitting in Kabul significantly emboldens the radical jihadi movement globally,' he said.

'The analogy I've used with many others, is it likely will put a shot of adrenaline into their arm.

'Their grandfathers defeated the Soviet Union in the war in Afghanistan many, many years ago, and they are taking this on their own networks, right now, and declaring it a major victory, so I think it's a big morale boost.'

Earlier, the top Republican on the committee condemned President Biden as 'delusional' on Wednesday for claiming the U.S. exit from Afghanistan was a success.

Rep Mike Rogers said the exit came at the cost of 13 service members' lives and left behind hundreds of American citizens.

'I fear the president may be delusional,' he said.

'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

'It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership.'

Administration officials have repeatedly said the end of the U.S. war and the civilian evacuation, airlifting 124,000 people to safety, were a logistical triumph.

'The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,' said Biden at the end of August when the last U.S. troops had left.

On August 31 President Joe Biden declared the US troop withdrawal from Kabul to be an 'extraordinary success.' On Wednesday, during a congressional hearing, Republican Rep Mike Rogers said: 'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, as foreign nationals sought escape and desperate Afghans pleaded for help, dominated the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

But the episode has severely tested Biden's claim to be a foreign policy expert.

His approval ratings collapsed amid images of Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes as they desperately sought to escape their new Taliban rulers.

A suicide blast killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans in the last days of the chaotic evacuation. Days later a drone strike killed 10 civilians despite U.S. claims the missile targeted terrorists in the final stages of launching an attack.

Rogers said he wanted answers from Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Frank McKenzie, head of Central Command, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on their future Afghan strategy to prevent the country becoming another springboard for attacks on the U.S.

'We want to know what capabilities we need, where theyll be based, and how theyll be used,' he said.

'In other words, we want to see the plan and we want to see it today.

'Because frankly, after this debacle of a withdrawal, I dont think anyone can trust what this President says about Afghanistan.'

The hearing came during intense scrutiny of President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal.

Austin defended the decision to leave Afghanistan. He declined to discuss the advice he gave the president but said there was no 'risk-free status quo' option.

'I think that the Taliban had been clear if we stayed there longer, they were going to recommence attacks on our forces,' he said.

'I think while it's conceivable that you could stay there, my view is that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any missions we would have been assigned.'

Later in the hearing, Austin said he could not rule out having to send troops back into Afghanistan.

'I would just say that obviously that's a decision that has to be made by the president,' he said.

'While I won't rule anything out, I would just say it's not preordained that we will go back or have to go back into Afghanistan again.

'But if we do, the military will provide good, credible options to be able to do that and to be effective.'

A day earlier, senators heard from the nation's top generals and defense secretary that Biden had been warned that pulling out all troops would lead to the collapse of the Kabul government.

Their testimony prompted Republicans to accuse Biden of lying during an August interview when he said he had heard no such advice.

Milley declined to describe his advice to the president.

However, he said his personal opinion was that a minimum of 2,500 U.S. troops were needed to prevent a collapse of the Kabul government.

On Tuesday Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as head of Central Command oversaw the final days of the U.S. war, said he shared Milley's view a residual force was needed to prevent a Taliban takeover.

'I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,' McKenzie said.

'I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.'
Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema heads back to the White House Wednesday for her fourth meeting in just two days  as progressive lawmakers blast her for holding up the party's social and economic agenda.

Sinema is one of two Senate Democrats, along with West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who are the targets of intensive White House negotiating efforts one the eve of a House vote on a bipartisan infrastructure package costing more than $1 trillion.

The president's plans for environmental programs, Medicare expansion, paid leave, child tax credits, and plans to tax corporations and the wealthy are all on the line.

A group of progressive Democrats is threatening to vote against the package if there is not yet agreement on a larger $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that won't clear the 50-50 Senate without support rom Sinema and Manchin.

Sinema was at the White House Tuesday morning, then back again in the afternoon and again in the evening.

'The president has already won me over. I'm on his side, as by the way is 99 per cent of the Democratic party,' fumed Rep. Ro Khanna on CNN. 'We're willing to negotiate,' he said. 'Literally one senator  one Senator, Kyrsten Sinema  is holding up the will of the entire Democratic Party,' he said.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a holdout on President Biden's $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, heads back to the White House for her fourth meeting in two days

Part of what is infuriating some of her colleagues is that Sinema has not said publicly what are her concerns with the reconciliation bill or what cost figure she would be willing to accept.

In an illustration of the stakes for his agenda, President Biden cancelled a planned trip to Chicago Wednesday to focus on negotiations.

White House Presss Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden and Sinema 'had a constructive meeting, agreed that we are at a pivotal moment, need to continue to work to finalize the path forward,' without disclosing any details about what she is seeking.

Sinema's office has also declined to air her specific concerns. The New York Times reported on Monday that Sinema has privately told colleagues she has problems with corporate tax hikes and individual increases, which the bill target at wealthy Americans.

'This is not progressives versus moderates. This is the entire Democratic Party and Joe Biden versus Kyrsten Sinema,' fumed Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

President Biden cancelled a planned trip to Chicago Wednesday to focus on negotiations

'It's not a question of laying out demands. They're having a values discussion with the president of the United States,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has set up an infrastructure vote for Thursday

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore into Sinema last month. 'Good luck tanking your own party's investment on childcare, climate action, and infrastructure while presuming you'll survive a 3 vote House margin - especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that a 'bipartisan accomplishment,' she said

In comments to the Arizona Republic last week, she focused on climate change. 'We know that a changing climate costs Arizonans. And right now, we have the opportunity to pass smart policies to address it  looking forward to that,' she said  in remarks that have some observers wondering if she wants a carbon tax, one potential pay-for being considered for the package.

Khanna said Biden has been seeking to extract information from Sinema without success.

'That's the question. The President keeps begging her: tell us what you want. Put a proposal forward,' Khsanna said. He noted that progressive lawmakers had come down from an earlier push for $6 trillion in the 'human infrastructure' bill.

'How do you compromise ... when Sinema is not saying anything?' he asked. 'This is not progressives versus moderates. This is the entire Democratic Party and Joe Biden versus Kyrsten Sinema,' he added. 'I have no idea what she wants. I don't htink her colleagues know what she wants. I don't think the president knows what she wants. We don't know what she wants. it's really odd.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked by reporters Wednesday if Sinema and Manchin should lay out their demands

'It's not a question of laying out demands. They're having a values discussion with the president of the United States ... this is much more amicable than you would think just watching television or reading the paper.'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tore into Sinema last month after she came out against the size of the package. 'Good luck tanking your own party's investment on childcare, climate action, and infrastructure while presuming you'll survive a 3 vote House margin - especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations and calling that a 'bipartisan accomplishment,' she said, in reference to negotiators on the infrastructure deal.
Fumio Kishida has won the race to become Japan's next prime minister - a year after he bombed out of the contest over an image of him being served dinner by his wife.

Kishida, former foreign minister, was elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Wednesday after Yoshihide Suga stepped down after just a year in office.

The win means that Kishida is almost certain to be voted in as the next prime minister at a parliamentary session due to take place next week.

It marks a dramatic turnaround in Kishida's fortunes, a year after he was beaten to the leadership by Suga after an image of himself and wife appeared online.

Fumio Kishida bombed out of the contest to become Japan's next PM last year after this image of him being served dinner by his wife sparked fury online

In the picture, Kishida was seated in a suit and tie with his dinner in front of him, while his wife stood nearby in an apron with her arms folded.

Kishida accompanied the image with a note thanking his wife for travelling 500 miles from their hometown to Tokyo to support him while he made TV appearances.

The picture caused a backlash online, where critics accused him of relegating his wife to the position of a 'maid'.

Others said Kishida, who had been campaigning as the party's liberal-minded candidate, had 'allowed the mask to slip'.

But, a year on, he is now seen as a continuity candidate for the party after a year under the deeply-unpopular Suga, who has had the unenviable task of steering the country through the Covid pandemic.

Although he enjoys only moderate popular support and is saddled with a bland image, Kishida drew critical backing from some party heavyweights.

That allowed him to see off competition from outspoken rising star Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the coronavirus vaccine roll-out.

However, there are fears that the Hiroshima lawmaker's tepid profile could see his party ousted in elections which are due to take place in November.

He focused on populist issues - such as the need to forge a new kind of capitalism and ease divisions of wealth - in his first news conference.

'We can't achieve strong growth if wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small group of people,' he said, citing a need to create a 'virtuous cycle' of growth and wealth distribution.

'We will strive to achieve economic growth and distribution,' of wealth, Kishida added, promising housing and education aid to address income disparity.

Kishida has now won the leadership contest and is almost certain to become Japan's next Prime Minister following a vote next week

He has proposed a spending package of more than $270 billion, and on Wednesday he said that stimulus must be compiled by the year-end.

Kishida is expected to form a new cabinet and reshuffle the LDP executive in early October.

Parliament's lower chamber will probably be dissolved in mid-October with an election on either Nov. 7 or Nov. 14, Japanese media said, quoting LDP executives.

'A win for the establishment. Kishida stands for stability, for not rocking the boat and most importantly, doing what elite technocrats tell him to do,' said Jesper Koll, expert director at Monex Group.

Kishida's rival Kono, a fluent English speaker with a large following on Twitter and reputation for being forthright and headstrong, has been seen as something of a maverick and therefore not seen as the top choice of some LDP powerbrokers.

Kono set himself apart from the mainstream of the party establishment on social issues by supporting legislation that would recognise gay marriage, something Kishida has not backed.

Two female contenders, Sanae Takaichi, 60, and Seiko Noda, 61, dropped out of the leadership race after the first round.

Kishida is unlikely to go out on a limb with major policy shifts as Japan seeks to cope with an assertive China and revive an economy hit by the pandemic.

He shares a broad consensus on the need to boost Japan's defences and strengthen security ties with the United States and other partners including the QUAD grouping of Japan, the United States, Australia and India, while preserving trade ties with China.

Kishida wants to beef up Japan's coast guard and favours passing a resolution condemning China's treatment of members of its Uyghur minority. He also aims to appoint a prime ministerial aide to monitor the Uyghur human rights situation.

Kishida was 'the best possible option for Beijing', CGTN, the English-language channel of China's state television CGTV, said in a commentary after the leadership result.

His victory offers an opportunity for relations between the two countries to improve, it said.
The man charged in the e-bike hit-and-run death of Gone Girl actress Lisa Banes pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges Monday.

After running a red light and striking Banes on Manhattan's Upper West Side in June, Brian Boyd, 26, fled the scene to get his bike repaired, surveillance footage shows, leaving the savaged star bleeding on the floor.

During the Monday hearing, Boyd also pleaded not guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide, failure to exercise due care, and failure to yield in regards to the incident.

The reckless manslaughter charge is a C-level felony that typically yields a minimum sentence of one to three years in state prison - and a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Brian Boyd, 26, pleaded not guilty Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court to an indictment charging him with reckless manslaughter after hitting the Gone Girl actress June 4

After the incident, Boyd got back on his bike and sped off to a bike shop to fix his e-bike, leaving Banes severely injured in the street, prosecutors allege

Surveillance footage recovered by police showed Boyd, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt sporting a unique tie-dye design, heading north on Amsterdam Avenue on his electric scooter moments before the collision.

He then blew through a red light and slammed into Banes, who was crossing the street, propelling the actress out of the crosswalk, police say.

After the crash, Boyd was knocked off his bike, surveillance footage from the scene shows, and proceeded to brush himself off and pick up his scooter.

He then took a few steps to look at Banes, 65, who was lying facedown on the concrete and bleeding profusely from the head, the footage shows.

Boyd then got back on his bike and sped off, fleeing the scene, leaving Banes severely injured in the street, prosecutors alleged Monday.

Lisa Banes, who starred in Gone Girl and Cocktail, was 65 when she was killed, and was visiting Manhattan from her home in LA to perform in a two-woman show

After the crash, Boyd then drove straight to a bike shop about 4 miles from where he struck Banes to tend to his damaged vehicle, a criminal complaint revealed.

The incident comes amid an outflow of reckless drivers taking to New York City streets that have been emptied by the coronavirus pandemic, often on unregulated e-bikes and scooters, with many speeding dangerously.

Many of these vehicles do not require license plates - and the ones that do, are often barren as well, enabling drivers to run red lights indiscriminately, with police often turning a blind eye on such infractions.

At least 243 people died in traffic crashes in New York City in 2020 - making it the deadliest year on record since Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced his signature 'Vision Zero' plan to improve street safety in 2014.

Banes, who lived in Los Angeles, was visiting Manhattan at the time, to perform in 'The Niceties,' a two-woman show by the Manhattan Theater Club.

She was on her way to meet friends for dinner when she was hit.

The incident took place Amsterdam Avenue at W. 64th St. near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Surveillance footage shows Boyd getting off his bike to look at a severely injured Banes after the collision on June 4, before speeding off

Banes also planned to stop by the Juilliard School, a renowned performing arts school in Lincoln Center, Banes' wife, Kathryn Kranhold, revealed after her death.

The actress, who starred in films such as Cocktail and Gone girl, and held TV credits in shows like NYPD Blue, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife, and NCIS, died at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital 10 days after the collision, on June 14.

After Banes' sudden death, several of the star's friends in Hollywood spoke out about the incident.

Friend and singer Jill Sobule tweeted: 'Just busted. Lisa Banes was magnificent, hilarious, and big-hearted  always helped me though the hard times. She was so beloved by so many,' sharing a photo of the pair together in a book store.

Seth McFarlane, the creator of the television show The Orville, in which Banes appeared, also paid tribute to the actress.

He tweeted: 'I am deeply saddened at the news of Lisa Banes' passing. We had the good fortune to work with her on The Orville this past year.

'Her stage presence, magnetism, skill, and talent were matched only by her unwavering kindness and graciousness toward all of us.'

Boyd was arrested back in August, two months after the incident, when patrol cops recognized him from a wanted poster.

If found guilty, he could face as much as 15 years in prison - or as little as one, lawyers say.
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Rarely seen photos taken by one of the first British photographers to explore China 150 years ago have emerged for sale for 20,000.

John Thomson travelled to the Far East in 1868, establishing a studio in the Commercial Bank building in Hong Kong.

He used it as a base to explore remote parts of the vast country for the next four years, photographing landmarks, scenery and the native population.

One striking image shows a prisoner in chains with his head poking through a board which has words on it written in Chinese.

Rarely seen photos taken by John Thomson, one of the first British photographers to explore China 150 years ago, have emerged for sale for 20,000. One striking image shows a prisoner in chains with his head poking through a board which has words on it written in Chinese

Thomson photographed archers, street sellers and farmers, as well as a woman applying make up and elders in a temple. Above: An archer strikes a pose

Another apparent wrongdoer is seen imprisoned in a wooden stockade alongside a message written in Chinese which likely lists his misdemeanours

In another, a man poses next to a giant camel statue in the grounds around the Ming tombs of the Forbidden City.

Thomson photographed archers, street sellers and farmers, as well as a woman applying make up and elders in a temple.

There are also images of traditional pagodas, bustling city scenes and mountainside villages.

In many cases, he was the first Westerner the people he photographed had encountered.

Thomson's images also show off the fashions of the day. Almost 100 of his photos feature in a rare first edition of 'Thomson Illustrations of China and Its People' (1873), which is going under the hammer with London-based Forum Auctions

A young man who appears to be a soldier is seen posing with a rudimentary rifle and a belt of ammunition

Taxi! A man and woman are seen taking a ride on a rickshaw powered by just one man. Max Hasler, specialist at Forum Auctions, said: 'John Thomson was a pioneering Scottish photographer, who was one of the first known photographers to travel to the Far East and document the people, landscapes and artefacts of the Chinese culture'

A seated young woman is seen having her hair attended to by an assistant, as a young boy stands by her side

Two older men pose next to each other as the Scot Thomson takes their photo during his time in China. The sale of the book containing the illustration takes place tomorrow

There are also images of traditional pagodas, bustling city scenes and mountainside villages. In many cases, Thomson was the first Westerner the people he photographed had encountered

There are pictures of the stunning architecture in what appears to be a Western concession area of a Chinese city

A man poses next to a giant camel statue in the grounds around the Ming tombs of the Forbidden City in Beijing

A glamorous couple wearing elaborate clothing look at each other as they pose for Thomson in his studio

A young child stands next to a man whose muscled bear chest is visible, as another man to the left looks directly at the camera

Young and old: A woman poses with a young child next to a spinning wheel being used to make clothes. The youngster looks to be dressed for the cold

Beautiful scenery: Thomson also photographed the stunning mountainous landscape and the buildings built on the steep inclines

Thomson spent four years, photographing landmarks, scenery and the native population. Above: Three men pose with standards mounted on poles

Almost 100 of his photos feature in a rare first edition of 'Thomson Illustrations of China and Its People' (1873), which is going under the hammer with London-based Forum Auctions.

It is being sold by a member of the book trade.

Max Hasler, specialist at Forum Auctions, said: 'John Thomson was a pioneering Scottish photographer, who was one of the first known photographers to travel to the Far East and document the people, landscapes and artefacts of the Chinese culture.

Thomson also photographed bustling street scenes during his time in China. Above: One of the cityscapes photographed by the Scotsman

A group of men with shaven heads pose for a group photo at a temple around a seated man who smiles for the camera

A Chinese person looks into what appears to be a makeshift pen housing birds or other animals, as another man watches on

A man has his foot treated by another individual with a ponytail, as an elderly person watches on with a pipe in their mouth

A portrait of a family wrapped up warm against the elements. The man in the centre is wearing a coat made from animal fur

Ready, aim fire! Three men stand around a cannon. Behind them, a huge mound of cannonballs shows that they have plenty of ammunition

'He visited various remote and almost unpopulated regions, where many of the people he encountered had never seen a Westerner before, let alone a camera.

'These represent one of the best photographic records of China from that period, and they record a world that would vanish almost entirely in the years after.'

The sale takes place tomorrow.
Boris Johnson's ex-adviser Dominic Cummings demanded his successor be fired today for attending the premiere of the new James Bond film while the nation struggles to escape a fuel crisis.

Dan Rosenfield, who replaced the fired Mr Cummings in Downing Street last year, was at the Royal Albert Hall last night for the world's first viewing of No Time To Die.

The website Politico named him among those 'spotted' by un-named sources at the event - alongside Mr Johnson's wife Carrie, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

Writing on Twitter today Mr Cummings said: 'IF true ''chief of staff'' was at Bond, as NHS staff queuing for petrol, he should be fired instantly.'

But a No 10 source defended his decision to attend, saying: 'James Bond is a great British success story and it's important to support our cultural sector and recognise its valuable contribution to society and the economy.'

Dan Rosenfield, who replaced the fired Mr Cummings in Downing Street last year, was at the Royal Albert Hall last night for the UK unveiling of No Time To Die, according to Politico

Writing on Twitter today Mr Cummings said: 'IF true 'chief of staff' was at Bond, as NHS staff queuing for petrol, he should be fired instantly.'

Home Secretary Priti Patel is pictured arriving for the 'No Time To Die' World Premiere at Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday in London

The PM recruited Mr Rosenfield for the key job at in the wake of the extraordinary row that saw Mr Cummings and his right-hand man Lee Cain depart Downing Street last November.

He started in the New Year, as Mr Johnson looked to 'reset' his premiership, with former colleagues describing the Manchester United fan as a 'bright, tough and politically savvy' economic expert from outside the Westminster bubble.

The father-of-three married to Jessica, the daughter of Daily Mail City Editor Alex Brummer, returned to Whitehall from Hakluyt, a strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors, where he had worked since 2016.

Newly-appointed Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries attending the Bond premiere yesterday

He is also chairman of World Jewish Relief, the British Jewish community's humanitarian agency.

Previously he was a director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for four years after leaving his last government job in 2011.

Before that Mr Rosenfield was an official in the UK Treasury for over a decade, including four years as principal private secretary to Alistair Darling and George Osborne from 2007 to 2011.

In that time he was involved in setting the budget for London 2012 after the city's Olympic bid win in 2005.
A Tesla's dashcam recorded the moment an elderly Louisiana woman keyed the car, causing almost $8,000 in damage after a dispute about a parking spot.

In the clip, Amanda Aubin, the Tesla's owner, is seen parking in an empty spot in Baton Rouge, while being followed by a red vehicle.

A woman in a pink shirt with half of her face covered with a black mask, then stops and exits her red car after Aubin parks.

The same woman then walks by Aubin's Tesla and uses a key to scratch the vehicle.

One minute later, the woman goes around the car again and deliberately leaves further damage on the door before walking away.

The woman is shown keying the vehicle's door a total of three times.

A Tesla's dashcam recorded a woman keying the car in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sept 22

The woman is shown keying the vehicle's door a total of three times

The woman and the Tesla's owner had been aiming at the same parking spot minutes prior to the incident, but the Tesla's owner secured the space

The incident happened shortly before 10am on September 22.

Aubin told WAFB that just minutes before, the woman and her were aiming for the same parking space, however, Aubin was able to secure the spot first.

'You know, we both signaled, and I got there first, it looks like. And I just pulled in, and she parked in another spot. So, I was like, okay no issue,' Aubin told the outlet.

Aubin had an appointment and parked her Tesla outside the clinic in Baton Rouge. When she returned just 45 minutes later, she found the scratches on her car door.

'It's petty and childish. I mean, this is coming from a grown woman. I'm a grown woman. This is ridiculous. I mean, she could've just left me a note, if she was that angry at me,' Aubin said.

Aubin's vehicle was left with several scratches and 'pretty deep cuts.' She said the repair was $7,650 and she has since filed a report with police.

'It's petty and childish. I mean, this is coming from a grown woman. I'm a grown woman. This is ridiculous,' said Tesla owner Amanda Aubin

Aubin said her car was left with several scratches and deep cuts, and she had to pay $7,650 to repair it

'Keying someone's car, that's crazy. The fact that I didn't think, she knew, she was being recorded. But that's all being turned over to the cops,' she told WAFB.

Aubin's Tesla was in 'Sentry Mode,' which is a security feature that monitors suspicious activity around when the car is parked.

Teslas have front, rear, and left and right door cameras that alert owners when a threat is perceived.

When suspicious motion is detected, the car reacts depending on the severity of the threat.

If it's considered a 'significant threat,' the car's cameras will record the activity, the alarm system will activate and the owner will receive an alert from the Tesla app, according to the company's website.

In July, a Tesla's Sentry Mode recorded an angry driver of a red Volkswagen vandalizing the high-tech car in Florida.

The dark-haired, bespectacled man driving a red Volkswagen unknowingly stared directly into the Tesla's security camera when he slammed his car door several times into a woman's Tesla.

Then he's seen scratching the side of the Tesla with something sharp while it was parked in an Altamonte Springs parking lot.

The Tesla owner, Melissa Mel, posted the video on her Facebook page and said, 'Im trying to get this guys face out there for doing a criminal act to my car on July 4th while I was at work.'

'This shouldnt be a 'thing' to damage someones car,' she said.

This incident and others similar have been recorded and posted on the Twitter page Wham Baam Teslacam, which has almost 8,00 followers.
An Eritrean man has died at the age of 127, his family has claimed, as they called for Guinness World Records to recognise him as the oldest person to ever have lived.

The family of Natabay Tinsiew said he died peacefully on Monday in his remote village of Azefa - which is found in a gorge surrounded by mountains and has a population of around 300 people.

His grandson Zere Natabay told BBC Tigrinya that the secrets to his long life were 'patience, generosity and a joyful life.'

The family of Natabay Tinsiew (pictured) said he died peacefully on Monday in his remote village of Azefa at the age of 127, which would make him the oldest person to have ever lived

Mr Zere told the broadcaster that church records, including his grandfather's birth certificate, say that he was born in the same year he was baptized in 1894, which would make him 127 years old at the time of his death.

However, the family of Natabay Tinsiew claim that he was actually born 10 years earlier in 1884, and that he was actually baptised 10 years later when a priest came to their village.

At the time, priests were few and far between, and people would have to wait for them to visit their more remote villages.

Father Mentay, a Catholic priest who served in Azefa for seven years, confirmed that local records show Mr Natabay was born in 1894, saying that he was present when Azefa village celebrated his 120th birthday in 2014.

Mr Zere said that he had already contacted Guinness World Records to validate the official documents of his grandfather's birth, and was waiting for a response.

Mr Natabay married his wife in 1934. She later died in 2019 at the age of 99.

The Eritran worked as a herdsman, and owned many cattle, goats, honey bees and during his life has seen give generations of his family grow up.

Mr Zere told BBC Tigrinya his grandfather would be remembered as 'an extraordinary man' who was kind, caring and hardworking.

Currently, the record for the world's oldest person to have ever lived is held by Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.

Meanwhile, the oldest man to have ever lived was Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who died in 2013 at the age of 116, according to the Guinness World Records.

The oldest person alive today is Kane Tanaka, a 118-year-old Japanese woman.
Giving 12 to 17 year olds two doses of a Covid vaccine would prevent thousands from being hospitalised with the virus this autumn, a controversial study suggests.

Experts behind the research have called for the UK to reconsider its current roll-out, which will see youngsters only given a single Pfizer jab.

Health officials have held back on recommending the full course because of the very rare risk of heart inflammation associated with the second shot.

The study looked at rates of Covid infection, hospital admission and death among teenagers in previous waves of the pandemic in the UK.

It estimated that if Covid cases in secondary schools continue at their current rate, then a two-dose regimen could prevent 4,430 admissions and 36 deaths in teens compared to a single injection.

The team of researchers, led by Queen Mary University, insisted this benefit 'clearly' outweighed the small risk of myocarditis, which affects about one in 10,000 and is usually mild.

They claimed the risk would only outweigh the benefit of vaccination if infection rates in teens were to suddenly drop to tiny levels.

While most patients who develop myocarditis after their jab suffer only a mild bout of the disease, scientists are still unsure about the long term consequences of the inflammation of the heart.

Academics today hit back at the 'questionable' findings of the study, which failed to differentiate between the Covid risk to healthy and vulnerable children.

The analysis was carried out by several members of Independent SAGE and is published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The latest study looked at rates of Covid infection, hospital admission and death among teenagers in previous waves of the pandemic in the UK. It estimated that if Covid cases in secondary schools continue at their current rate, then a two-dose regimen could prevent 4,430 admissions and 36 deaths in teens compared to a single injection. This finding was based on the assumption that Covid case rates in teens rises to 1,000 by 100,000 this autumn

The study said that the benefit of double-dosing outweighed the risk of myocarditis, heart inflammation linked to the second injection, in every scenario unless the case rate drops below 30 per 100,000 teenagers per week (shown here)

Independent SAGE lobbied the Government to pursue a 'zero Covid' strategy and was one of the leading pro-lockdown groups.

The study's calculations are based on the assumption that 0.82 per cent of Covid-infected children end up being hospitalised  the equivalent of one in every 120 youngsters.

This is up to 80 times higher than the figure provided by No10's vaccine advisory panel, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Fourteen-year-old Jack Lane became one of the first to benefit from the extension of Britain's jab rollout today. He received his vaccination at Belfairs Academy in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Britains daily Covid cases rise by 7% in a week as outbreak continues to grow  but deaths and admissions dip Covid cases have risen by seven per cent across the UK, marking the twelfth day in a row that the outbreak has grown week-on-week. Department of Health bosses posted another 36,722 infections, a rise of 6.6 per cent compared to the 34,460 positive tests recorded last Wednesday. Britain's infections have increased steadily after schools reopened this month, allowing the virus to spread among youngsters and be passed on to their parents. Meanwhile, another 150 deaths were added to the Covid death toll, while 659 infected Britons were hospitalised. Both figures  which lag several weeks behind cases because of how long it can take for infected patients to become seriously ill  are down 10 per cent compared to last week's data. The latest figures means an average of 35,204 people tested positive on any given day in the last week. Nearly 8million Britons have received a positive lab-reported or lateral flow result since the beginning of the pandemic. At the peak of the second wave last winter, some 81,480 people tested positive on a single day. The vast majority of the daily infections were spotted in England. Some 29,036 cases were recorded, a rise of 6.3 per cent on the 27,317 positive tests last week. Meanwhile, cases have fallen by 16.7 per cent to 2,997 in Scotland after the country saw its biggest surge in infections since the pandemic began after pupils returned to classrooms on August 16. Infections in Scotland peaked at 7,523 on September 2 and have been falling steadily since then. Advertisement

The group originally ruled against routinely inoculating all over-12s because it concluded that Covid posed such a tiny risk to their health.

The group, comprised of some of the country's top experts, justified its decision with data which suggested the hospitalisation rate was at most 0.04 per cent  or one in every 2,500 infected youngsters.

Its lower-end estimate, based on figures from the second wave of Britain's outbreak, was just 0.01 per cent  the equivalent of one in every 10,000.

NHS coronavirus statistics do not give an exact age breakdown of admissions, meaning it is impossible to confirm the figure for 12-17 year olds.

But the health service's data does show that 8,572 children have been admitted with Covid or tested positive on a ward since the start of the pandemic.

It would imply the risk of children being hospitalised with coronavirus is around 0.15 per cent, with England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty last week telling MPs that the Government's top scientists believed around half of children had already been infected.

That calculation is based on an estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which calculated there were around 12million under-18s living in England in 2020.

NHS Covid statistics also do not differentiate between the number of children who actually required medical care to treat their infection, from youngsters who incidentally tested positive.

Dr Alasdair Munro, clinical research fellow in paediatric infectious diseases, University of Southampton, described the findings as 'limited'.

He pointed out that the research did not look at the difference in effectiveness between one and two doses.

'There are some important limitations to this analysis which make it of limited use given the current vaccination policy in the UK,' Dr Munro said.

'Most importantly, it does not attempt to qualify the difference between a single dose of vaccination compared to two doses.

'This is current UK policy, and was made on the basis that a single dose offers the vast majority of the benefit of reductions of risk of hospitalisation and death, and avoids the worst of the potential adverse events of myocarditis, especially in young males.

'Without being able to offer a comparison of one vs two doses (which was presented in the JCVI analysis), this does not add to the current discussion.'

He also warned that the study did not compare the difference in risk of severe Covid between healthy children and those with underlying health conditions.

Children with comorbidities have already been double-jabbed.

Removing this group from the analysis would have brought down the overall Covid risk, Dr Munro said.

'There should have been an attempt made to account for this, as was done in the JCVI analysis,' he added.

'Without accounting for the differences between a single and double dose strategy, or the differential in risk between children with comorbidities and otherwise healthy children, this analysis doesn't seem to bring us further forward in the discussion.'

Earlier this month the JCVI said it could not recommend Covid jabs for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds because the direct benefit to their health was only marginal. It also looked at the risk of health inflammation - known as myocarditis - in young people given the Pfizer vaccine, which was still very small but slightly more common after a second dose

As of September 15, around 680 out of every 100,000 10 to 19-year-olds were testing positive for Covid every week.

The study warned that if this rate rises to more than 1,000 per week then a double-dose strategy could avert 4,430 hospital admissions and 36 deaths over 16 weeks.

If cases plummet to 50 per week then vaccination might only stop 70 admissions and two deaths in that time.

It said that the benefit outweighed the risk in every scenario unless the case rate drops below 30 per 100,000 teenagers per week.

The study also suggests that thousand of potential cases of long Covid could be averted.
Twenty-one WHO workers sexually abused women and girls while tackling the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, with victims 'ambushed' in hospitals and forced to have abortions by their rapists.

The abuse was carried out by Congolese and international workers between 2018 and 2020 during the epidemic in which 2,000 people died.

An independent commission found that 21 of the 83 alleged perpetrators were employed by the WHO.

Some of the victims said they were plied with drink, while others said they were coerced into having sex by a doctor who promised them a job. The youngest was just 13 years old.

Several women fell pregnant because their attackers did not use contraception, and two victims said the men forced them to have abortions.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference after a ceremony for the opening of the WHO Academy, in Lyon, France, on Monday

Shekinah, a young Congolese woman who claimed she accepted an offer to have sex with WHO doctor Boubacar Diallo in exchange for a job, said she hoped he would be sanctioned by the UN health agency and barred from working for it again

'I have been waiting for this big moment for more than a month to see how WHO will sanction these (doctors),' said Anifa, another woman who alleged she received a similar sex-for-jobs offer from Diallo. 'We would like to see justice done.'

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the report 'harrowing' reading and a 'dark day' for the UN health agency.

'I'm sorry for what was done to you by people who are employed by WHO to serve and protect you,' he said at a news conference on Tuesday. 'It is my top priority that the perpetrators are not excused, but held to account.'

The probe was prompted by an investigation last year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian in which more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and other charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs between 2018-2020.

'This is the biggest finding of sexual abuse perpetrated during a single U.N. initiative in one area or one country during the time-bound period of a U.N. response effort,' said Paula Donovan, co-director of the Code Blue Campaign, which is campaigning to end sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers.

Panel member Malick Coulibaly said investigators uncovered a total of nine rape allegations.

The youngest of the alleged victims, identified in the report only as 'Jolianne' and believed to be 13, recounted that a WHO driver stopped on a roadside in the town of Mangina where she was selling phone cards in April 2019 and offered to give her a ride home.

'Instead, he took her to a hotel where she says she was raped by this person,' according to the report.

The panel recommended WHO provide reparations to victims and set up DNA testing to establish paternity and enable women to assert their rights and those of their children.

Director-General Tedros appointed the panel's co-chairs to investigate last October after media reports claimed unnamed humanitarian officials sexually abused women during the Ebola outbreak that began in Congo in 2018.

The probe was prompted by an investigation last year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian in which more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and other charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs between 2018-2020. Pictured: A health worker sprays a room during a funeral of an Ebola victim in the DRC in 2018

Tedros said four people have been fired and two placed on administrative leave as a result of the scandal, but he did not name them.

The WHO chief also declined to say if he would consider resigning; Germany, France and several other European countries nominated Tedros for a second term last week.

Lawrence Gostin, chair of global health law at Georgetown University, said he wouldn't call for Tedros to resign unless he knew of, or could have reasonably known of such abuse.

Tedros traveled to Congo 14 times during the outbreak, repeatedly said he was personally responsible for the response and publicly commended one of the alleged rapists for his heroic work.

'It is unconscionable that this should ever have happened, and the sheer scale of the sexual assaults is shocking,' Gostin said.

The panel's investigators said they identified 83 alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation, both Congolese nationals and foreigners.

In 21 cases, the review team established with certainty that the alleged abusers were WHO employees during the Ebola response.

The AP published evidence in May showing that Dr. Michel Yao, a senior WHO official overseeing the Congo outbreak response was informed in writing of multiple sex abuse allegations.

Yao was later promoted and recently headed WHO's response to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which ended in June.

WHO doctor Jean-Paul Ngandu and two other agency officials also signed a contract promising to buy land for a young woman Ngandu allegedly impregnated; Ngandu told the AP he was pressured to do so to protect WHO's reputation.

The panel said that during its interview with Tedros, he said he was made aware of the sex abuse allegations when they were revealed in the press and had not heard of the incident involving Ngandu until the AP published its story.

The panel's report also faulted WHO's Andreas Mlitzke, head of the agency's compliance, risk management and ethics divisions, and David Webb, who directs the office of internal oversight.

When informed of Ngandu's alleged misconduct, Mlitzke and Webb attempted to determine if the woman accusing the doctor of impregnating her should be designated as a 'beneficiary,' given her legal contract with Ngandu.

Webb said no investigation was needed since the issue had been settled with an 'amicable agreement.'

Shekinah, a young Congolese woman who accepted an offer to have sex with WHO's Boubacar Diallo in exchange for a job, said she hoped he would be sanctioned by the U.N. health agency and barred from working for WHO again.

Dr Tedros made 14 trips to DR Congo during the last outbreak and publicly commended Dr Diallo's work (file image)

'I would like him and other doctors who will be charged to be punished severely so that it will serve as a lesson to other untouchable doctors of the WHO,' said Shekinah, who declined to give her last name for fear of retribution.

Julie Londo, a member of the Congolese Union of Media Women, a women's organisation that works to counter rape and sexual abuse of women in Congo, applauded WHO for punishing staffers involved in the abuse allegations but said more was needed.

'WHO must also think about reparation for the women who were traumatised by the rapes and the dozens of children who were born with unwanted pregnancies as a result of the rapes,' she said.

Sophie Harman, a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University London, said she was concerned the allegations involving more than 80 suspects were only the beginning.

'More cases are bound to come forward across the world,' Harman said, calling for the focus to shift to helping abuse survivors.

'This requires both prosecution of perpetrators, but full accountability on the part of WHO leadership who knew about the rumours and reports, and yet took years to act on this issue.'
Gun control advocate and one-time nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) David Chipman said this week that the administration had left him alone to fight off attacks from Republicans as they executed a 'failed' strategy to push through his confirmation.

'Either this was impossible to win, or the strategy failed,' Chipman told the New York Times. 'This was a failure.'

Chipman questioned whether the White house had a coordinated strategy, and said he found it 'unusual' he spoke to no one from the administration from the moment he was nominated until the moment his nomination was withdrawn.

'In the back of my mind, I always thought that there would be a Plan B, but so far there hasn't been,' Chipman said, adding that he often felt like he was 'on an island' amid attacks from gun rights groups.

In the meantime, the White House had been focusing its efforts almost entirely on Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., seemingly forgetting Independent Maine Sen. Angus King.

The Biden administration's courting of Manchin, the de facto kingmaker of the split 50-50 Senate, who remained hesitant on the pick while King was actively opposed. Montana Democrat Jon Tester was also reportedly a holdout.

Press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House 'shares frustration' that Chipman was not able to be confirmed, but blamed 'Republican obstructionism.'

She said the administration remains committed to finding him a job in the administration if he wishes.

Chipman questioned whether the White house had a coordinated strategy, and said he found it 'unusual' he spoke to no one from the administration

All Republicans voted against Chipman, his past comments and his previous work with gun control groups like Giffords and Everytown.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, for example brought up during a confirmation hearing a Reddit post in which Chipman, who is a gun owner himself, apparently advocated for the arrest of people who fail background checks when they try to buy guns.

He said that because people who fail background checks are often later caught using guns, 'This is a perfect opportunity to arrest people before committing crimes.'

'We don't arrest people before they commit crimes. That's the sort of thing that's reserved for bad post-apocalyptic dystopian novels and movies,' Lee said.

King's vote should have come as no surprise to the administration, as he had reportedly told them previously he was not supportive of Chipman's nomination, amid pressure back at home to buck a nominee seen as resistant to gun rights prized in Maine.

Chipman said that King called him into his office and told him 'my friends who are gun dealers in Maine' objected to his confirmation. And after a call from Biden, King would not budge - Chipman's nomination was withdrawn in early September.

The Biden administration has not yet chosen a replacement.

In a letter to constituents, King said his views on gun violence were 'consistent' with Chipman's, but he was concerned about whether Chipman could be a 'fair and objective regulator.'

Facing heat to act on gun violence after a slew of mass shootings last spring, Biden nominated Chipman to lead the bureau in April, putting the ATF, rather than legislation, front and center of the administration's crackdown on guns.

Chipman worked at ATF for more than 20 years. He now works as a senior policy advisor at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a role that has, in part, led to the widespread opposition to his confirmation.

Since the administration gave up on his confirmation, Chipman has turned down a role in the Department of Justice to return to advising the gun control group.
A 68-year-old 'voyeuristic sexual deviant' has been jailed in France for drugging his wife so that strangers could rape her over the course of 10 years.

Police say the man slipped tranquilizers into his wife's food and waited for her to pass out, before bringing in strangers he had contacted online to abuse her while he filmed it and sometimes joined in.

All the attacks took place in the couple's marital home in the town of Mazan, south of France, between 2010 and 2020, police say. A total of 49 suspects have been identified so far, with 33 jailed and nine currently under arrest.

A 61-year-old woman was drugged and raped in her own home over the course of 10 years by her own husband, 68, who invited strangers off the internet to come and abuse her (file)

Cops say the woman - now 61 - had no idea what was happening until they showed her tapes of herself being abused, which her husband kept on his computer.

The husband is now facing up to 20 years behind bars. The wife, who has children though it is not clear if they are from this relationship, has filed for divorce.

The case only came to light because the man had been arrested in September last year for taking up-skirt photos of women in a supermarket in a nearby town.

Officers had taken him in for questioning, during which he was examined by a psychologist because it 'didn't appear to be his first offence', France3 reports.

The examiner deemed the man to be a 'voyeuristic sexual deviant', after which police ordered a search of his house.

During the search, officers seized a computer, three memory cards, two mobile phones and a camcorder which is where they discovered the tapes.

The man was re-arrested in November the same year and charged with aggravated rape, sexual assault and administration of harmful substances.

Police then set about identifying other suspects using evidence on the tapes, as well as posts the husband had made on 'libertine' dating websites inviting people to come and take advantage of his 'unconscious' wife.

An investigator who spoke to Le Parisien said the male suspects - who range in age from 24 to 71 - are largely unremarkable, with no history of sex crimes.

Abuse took place in the town of Mazan, south of France, and was only uncovered after the man was caught up-skirting women in a local supermarket - prompting officers to search his home

'They could be our neighbours,' the officer said, adding that a firefighter captain, a prison supervisor, and a journalist were among those police have tracked down.

Louis-Alain Lemaire, a lawyer for some of the suspects, claimed to Le Fiagro that some believed the wife was 'simulating' being unconscious as part of a sex game and that the couple were swingers.

One suspect refused to go through with the act after realising the woman wasn't faking, he added. None of them realised they were being filmed.

Detectives argue the suspects must have known the woman was drugged, because the husband claims to have briefed them before each episode of abuse.

The briefing included instructions of what to do and say if the woman suddenly woke up, they allege.

"He (the husband) would put her on the bed naked and warm up the room so she wouldn't wake up,' police chief Jeremie Bosse Platiere said.

'The individuals would then tiptoe in and whisper, and if the victim moved at all they would leave.'

Police say the couple had moved to the area from the Ile de France region around Paris in 2010, and the abuse had begun soon after.

No details have yet been released on what the couple's life was like before they came to Mazan.

Caty Richard, the victim's lawyer, said the impact on her life has been 'cataclysmic'.

'The world stopped spinning for her when she was presented with pictures where she did not recognize herself.

'Where she did not recognize the men who were with her in these photos, where it was very clear that she was unconscious, not asleep.

'Today, she tries to rebuild herself, she survives thanks to her children, her family, but it is still difficult to imagine and conceive for her.'
Members of the heavily armed 'Rise of the Moors' militia were reportedly caught on video talking about positioning a 'sniper' at the front of their van when they were surrounded by Massachusetts State Police during a July standoff.

Three of the 11 suspects arrested on state weapons charges on July 3 appeared in Woburn Superior Court for their arraignments. The hearing was repeatedly interrupted by outbursts from the defendants, one of whom argued that Massachusetts authorities have no jurisdiction over him.

'I am not a US citizen,' Aaron Jimenez, 27, from The Bronx, New York, shouted, as Boston Herald reported.

Jimenez and his fellow members of the Rise of the Moors group believe they're independent from federal and state governments because they are descendants of an ancient sovereign Moroccan nation.

Three members of the Rise of the Moors group appeared in Massachusetts court on Tuesday to be arraigned on weapons charges. Pictured: other defendants from the group attend a dangerousness hearing on July 9

A prosecutor read a transcript of a body camera recording, on which one militia member told another: 'you're a sniper... so go to the front of the van.' Pictured: Rise of the Moors members are pictured in fatigues and body armor on I-95 on July 3

One of the 11 suspects was quoted as telling a Massachusetts State Police trooper during his arrest: 'things would be different if we could call reinforcements'

The militiamen, among them a 17-year-old boy, claimed they were traveling from Rhode Island to Maine 'for training' when they were stopped by state police in Wakefield, Massachusetts, on the eve of Independence Day 2021.

During Tuesday's arraignments, a prosecutor read a transcript of a recording from one of the Moors' own body cameras, on which one of the militia members could be heard telling another: 'you're a sniper... so go to the front of the van,' reported WCVB.

Prosecutors also said that one of the suspects told a state trooper during the confrontation: 'things would be different if we could call reinforcements.'

The transcript was presented as part of the prosecution's attempt to demonstrate that, contrary to the suspects' earlier statements claiming that the purpose of their trip to Main was peaceful, the armed men dressed in fatigues and body armor actually pose a risk and should be kept in jail without bond.

Earlier this month, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted eight of the militiamen on counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition and the use of body armor in commission of a crime.

Three of the suspects  Jimenez, also known as 'Aban El Curraugh,' and 31-year-old Steven Perez, ' who also goes by 'Lucha El Por Libertad,' both from The Bronx, ans Aaron Lamont Johnson, aka, 'Tarrif Sharif Bey, 29, of Detroit - were arraigned on Tuesday.

The suspect claimed they were traveling from Rhode Island to Maine for training, but insisted that their journey was peaceful. The men, who were dressed in military fatigues and body armor and were armed with long guns and pistols

Members of the Rise of the Moors group believe they're independent from federal and state governments because they are descendants of an ancient sovereign Moroccan nation

The standoff began when a State Police trooper stopped to offer assistance to the vehicles he found on the side of Interstate 95 in Wakefield that were refueling

Jahmal Latimer is the alleged leader of the Rise of the Moors

All three men have refused lawyers and are representing themselves in court.

The defendants submitted submitted dozens of pieces of evidence, including a printout of the Moroccan flag and a mysterious document titled 'The Zodiac Constitution.'

The presiding judge said he required time to review all the evidence and continued the dangerousness hearing until October 7.

Two other militiamen - 40-year-old Quinn Cumberlander, aka 'Quinn Khabir El,' of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and 36-year-old Omar Malik Antonio, of Brooklyn, New York - are scheduled to be arraigned later this week.

The standoff began when a State Police trooper stopped to offer assistance to the vehicles he found on the side of Interstate 95 in Wakefield that were refueling.

The men, who were dressed in military fatigues and body armor and were armed with long guns and pistols, did not have licenses to carry firearms in Massachusetts, police said.

They told police they were traveling from Rhode Island to Maine to conduct what they called 'training.'

Some of the defendants ran into the woods along the highway, leading to a standoff that lasted several hours and prompted the closure of the busy highway on a holiday weekend.

State police say they recovered three AR-15 rifles, two pistols, a bolt-action rifle, a shotgun and a short-barrel rifle.

Robert Rodriquez (R) appears at his arraignment in connection with an hours-long standoff on Interstate 95 in Wakefield, Massachusetts on July 6

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Moorish sovereign citizen movement is a collection of independent organizations and individuals that emerged in the 1990s

In August, a federal judge dismissed a defamation and discrimination lawsuit filed by the 11 Rise of the Moors members, saying that their $70million complaint was incomplete and interfered with their ongoing state court cases.

The now-defunct lawsuit named the Massachusetts State Police and several individual troopers, the judge who presided over their state court arraignments, the state as a whole, and several media organizations, including CNN's parent company AT&T New Media, Comcast NBC Universal News Media, Viacom News Media, News Corporation News Media and CBS News Media, as defendants.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Moorish sovereign citizen movement is a collection of independent organizations and individuals that emerged in the 1990s as an offshoot of the antigovernment sovereign citizens movement. People in the movement believe individual citizens hold sovereignty over, and are independent of, the authority of federal and state governments.

The vast majority of Moorish sovereign citizens are African American, according to the SPLC.

On the Rise of the Moors website, however, they say they are not sovereign citizens, but the original sovereigns of the U.S. based on a 1789 letter from George Washington to the sultan of Morocco.

Those arrested Saturday were identified as Latimer; Cumberlander; Rodriguez; Wilfredo Hernandez, also known as Will Musa; Alban El Curraugh; Aaron Lamont Johnson, also known as Tarrif Sharif Bey; Lamar Dow; Conrad Pierre; a 17-year-old juvenile; and two who have refused to identify themselves, state police said.

They are from Rhode Island, New York and Michigan.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk said the Biden administration is 'controlled by unions' during a tech conference in California on Tuesday.

Musk, who's expressed anti-union sentiment in the past, took a swipe at Biden after his company Tesla was snubbed from an August White House summit promoting electric vehicles.

During the Code Conference on Tuesday Musk was asked why he posted a tweet apparently mocking Biden after the president didn't acknowledge Musk's SpaceX company completing its first all-civilian flight.

Musk launched into his complaint over the White House event last month in response.

'Biden held this EV summit, didn't invite Tesla. Invited GM, Ford, Chrysler and [the United Auto Workers Union],' he said.

'Didn't mention Telsa once, and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution. Does this sound maybe a little biased or something?'

Musk continued, 'You know, just- just not the friendliest administration. Seems to be controlled by unions as far as I can tell.'

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the Biden administration was 'not the friendliest' during a tech conference in California on Tuesday

Earlier this month a Twitter user asked Musk why he thought the president didn't publicly congratulate his historic SpaceX launch.

'He's still sleeping,' Musk replied in an apparent reference to Donald Trump's nickname for the president, 'Sleepy Joe.'

The South African-born billionaire now says it's because he was rankled by Biden's EV summit.

Tesla is the largest maker of EVs in the world, manufacturing exclusively battery-powered vehicles.

But company owner Musk wasn't at the White House alongside executives from Ford, General Motors and Stellanis, which owns the Chrysler brand, when Biden promoted electric cars as part of his plan to tackle climate change.

In contrast with Telsa, electric vehicles make up less than 2 percent of GM and Ford's sales.

Tesla's lack of an invite could be connected to the attendance of representatives from the UAW, an international labor union with nearly 400,000 active members, including workers at GM, Ford and Stellanis.

Musk is still chaffing that President Biden snubbed Telsa during an electric vehicles summit at the White House where he promoted American leadership on clean cars and trucks

In attendance were executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellanis - but Telsa, whose fleet is comprised entirely of electric cars, was noticeably absent

The UAW has tried and failed to unionize workers at Tesla's California plant.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hinted in August that the EV giant's snub could have something to do with Musk's anti-union leanings.

She was asked at her daily briefing whether that was the reason pro-union Biden left Telsa out.

'Well, these are the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions,' Psaki said.

Past statement from the Biden administration promoting electric cars have argued they'll create 'good-paying, union jobs.'

Biden has frequently billed himself as a friend of unions. He promised most recently in September to be the most pro-union president in US history.

Democrats in House of Representatives have also proposed to give union-made, US-built electric vehicles an additional $4,500 tax incentive.

The proposal would boost the maximum tax credit for these electric vehicles to $12,500 from the current $7,500.

Musk tore into Biden when he was asked why he mocked the president on Twitter earlier this month

Musk for his part was reprimanded by the National Labor Relations Board in March for a tweet the NLRB claimed threatened workers against unionizing.

The three-year-old social media post read, 'Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.'

A follow up attacked the union more directly: 'We had nothing to do with UAW leaving, but everything to do with why people here have jobs.'

He was ordered to delete the tweet, and also re-hire a pro-union employee fired by Telsa.

The 2018 post, however, is still online today.

Cindy Estrada, a UAW organizer for Stellanis, went after Musk for his Tuesday comments disparaging the Biden administration.

'He needs to stop whining and just admit that workers should not have to punch out of democracy when they punch into work! Good leaders arent afraid of smart workers but embrace them!' Estrada wrote on Twitter.
A British journalist who was killed in a botched highway robbery in Ghana died from a shot to the chest, a coroner heard.

Syed Ahmed was travelling in a convoy of cars on a remote road in northern Ghana, West Africa, when the vehicles were intercepted by thieves intent on plundering the group.

A hearing at Surrey Coroner's Court in Woking was told there was still confusion about what had happened next but the 31-year-old journalist was shot during the incident.

Assistant Surrey Coroner, Simon Wickens, heard that Mr Ahmed, who was married and originally from Hartlepool, was rushed to the nearby Tamale Teaching Hospital on August 23 but died a short time later.

The facts surrounding his killing are still unclear, with an inquest not expected to take place until 7 December

Evidence crucial to unpicking the case remains in Ghana and is still being collected, said Assistant Surrey Coroner, Simon Wickens

The inquest heard that a post-mortem examination conducted by pathologist Dr Anna Rycroft after Mr Syed's body was returned to the UK revealed he had died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

After hearing the evidence Mr Wickens said: 'Much of the material needs to be gathered from Ghana and that being the case, the inquest will be heard on December 7 this year.'

It was believed that Mr Ahmed was in Ghana filming a documentary highlighting the charity work of a minority group in the remote north of the country for the Muslim Television Ahmadiyya International (MTA) network.

Syed Taalay Ahmed, 31, was ambushed while driving near the Ghanaian city of Tamale on August 23

Mr Taalay Ahmed was a journalist on deployment for Muslim Television Ahmadiyaa International

A spokesman for London-based MTA said of Mr Ahmed: 'He was a much loved member of the MTA team and produced a series of faith inspiring documentaries and programmes.

'We will miss him every day and strive to build upon the great work he did.'

Ghanaian police investigating the incident have revealed that two men have been arrested.
A smuggler who stashed two pounds of gold paste worth 42,000 in his rectum has been arrested at an Indian airport after it showed up on an x-ray.

The mule, named locally as Mohammad Sharif, was stopped on Monday by a security official who noticed his 'suspicious movement' at Imphal airport in the northeastern state of Manipur.

Sharif, who was bound for New Delhi, was taken for questioning but 'could not reply satisfactorily', the Central Industrial Security Force said in a news release.

His pot of gold was discovered when he was taken for an x-ray which revealed four capsules filled with gold paste weighing 1.98 pounds.

The mule, named locally as Mohammad Sharif, had four capsules of gold paste worth 42,000 in his rectum

An x-ray of the suspect's lower half revealed the precious metal stashed inside his rectum

India is the world's second-largest gold consumer and experts say smuggling has increased in recent years, including by converting the precious metal into paste form.

Smugglers have become more creative of late, with authorities discovering gold bars sewn in clothes or hidden in oral cavities, and some using wheelchairs to conceal their illicit cargo.

In August, coustoms officials seized 100,000 worth of gold hidden inside a speaker at the Cochina International airport.

A Kannur native had attempted to smuggle the gold past customs on his return from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Last month, officials at Kannur airport discovered 14,000 worth of gold paste which a passenger had painted onto the inside layer of his trousers in a bid to avoid detection.

Demand for gold peaks in the final months of the year in India as the wedding season gets going and preparations are made for the major Hindu festivals of Diwali and Dussehra.

Manipur borders Bangladesh which experts say has emerged as a major route for smuggled bullion into India.

In August, the Indian Gold Policy Centre said 300 tonnes of gold is estimated to be smuggled every year into the country, leading to huge revenue losses for the government.
A Republican lawmaker told Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley point blank that he should hand in his resignation letter on Wednesday over two phone calls made to his counterpart in China assuring him that former President Trump is not thinking of an imminent attack.

Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command chief General Frank McKenzie are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee today in the second of two contentious hearings on the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal.

It's also the second time in two days that Milley finds himself under oath answering for allegations he went behind Trump's back to tell a Chinese general that he'd personally deliver a 'heads up' if the ex-president took rogue action against China in a desperate bid to stay in office.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) asked Milley about the contents of his conversation with Beijing during her questioning.

She accused him of working against the U.S. to help 'our number one adversary,' adding that his actions were 'worthy' of resignation.

'Did you tell General Li when you talked to him on the phone if we would attack China that you would let him know ahead of time?' Hartzler asked.

Milley didn't deny the allegation but told the lawmaker that it was part of 'a longer conversation.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler told Milley that his phone calls to China were 'worthy of your resignation' from heading the Joint Chiefs of Staff

'The Chinese thought wrongly that United States was going to attack them. I'm guaranteed certain that President Trump had no intent to attack and it was my task to make sure I communicated that, and the purpose was to de-escalate,' he said.

Milley's defense echoed much of the same points as his Tuesday statement.

'As part of that conversation, I said "General Li, there's not going to be a war, there's not going to be attack between great powers. If there was, the tension would build up, there would be calls going back between all kinds of senior officials." I said, "Hell, I'll probably give you a call but we're not going to attack you."'

Hartzler replied, 'I understand your intent but I think you articulating that, that you would tell him, you would give him a call, I think is worthy of your resignation. I just think that's against our country, that you would give our number one adversary that information.'

The allegations were made in 'Peril,' a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. It cited Beijing's fears that Trump was looking to start a war with China as his potential election loss loomed.

Milley confirmed the broad premise of the book but denied that the calls were secret.

Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), also pressed Milley on the calls.

The Tennessee Republican asked Milley if he made the calls to China because he was 'concerned' about Trump's mental state.

Wednesday's hearing marks the second time in two days that Milley is appearing before lawmakers to discuss Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal and his phone calls to China under Trump

Milley is appearing alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and US Central Command leader General Frank McKenzie

'No, I didn't. What I said to the call to China was, I guarantee you that President Trump is not going to attack you in a surprise attack. I was carrying out his intent, President Trump's intent, in order to protect the American people,' Milley answered.

DesJarlais asked Milley about another allegation in 'Peril,' where according to a transcript obtained by the authors Speaker Nancy Pelosi made disparaging comments about Trump.

Pelosi reportedly called the ex-president 'crazy' and asked 'Is there anybody in charge of the White House is doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?'

Milley admitted earlier this month that he did call his Chinese counterpart, General Li ZuoCheng, in October and January

Milley wouldn't say whether he recalled the exact question, but said he told the Speaker that he was not qualified to 'assess the mental health of the president.'

During the Wednesday hearing Milley also said it was then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper who directed him to make the calls to China after numerous intelligence reports indicated that Beijing feared an attack was imminent.

'I was directed by then-Secretary of Defense Esper. First, he directed his assistant secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Affairs to make calls and then me. This is all done with oversight, and I tried to lay that out in the memoranda,' the embattled general said.

It comes after GOP Senator Josh Hawley said Joe Biden should fire his joint chief of staff and Secretary of Defense if they do not resign for their failure to take responsibility for the chaotic scenes in Afghanistan.

A Republican senator for Missouri who was at Tuesday's Senate hearing, Hawley said on Tuesday night that General Mark Milley and Secretary Lloyd Austin must face the ax over their unrepentant appearances before a Senate committee Tuesday.

Earlier in the day the country heard for the first time that the top generals advised the commander-in-chief to leave 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to prevent a Taliban takeover. Republicans accused President Biden of lying to the American people, because he repeatedly said that he was not recommended to keep troops in the country.

Hawley, speaking to Fox News's Sean Hannity along with Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, said he was dismayed by the accounts of Milley and Austin.

Josh Hawley, Republican senator for Missouri, on Tuesday evening called on Biden to fire his Defense Secretary and his military chief if they did not resign, following the Afghanistan debacle

Sen. Josh Hawley on Afghanistan: [Milley] needs to resign, Austin needs to resign, the President should fire them. pic.twitter.com/ShJHlLLiZp  Inty News (@inty_news) September 29, 2021

'Gen. Milley doesn't want any responsibility, Austin doesn't want responsibility, and most of all, Joe Biden doesn't want to take any responsibility, but it's time that they did, which is why all those guys should resign,' said Hawley.

'Milley needs to resign, Austin needs to resign.'

Hawley said he was particularly angered by Milley's admission on Tuesday that he spoke to journalist Bob Woodward, for his new book telling the story of the final stretch of the Trump administration.

'I mean Milley, he's sitting here trading gossip with Bob Woodward while Afghanistan literally burns, literally burns,' said Hawley.

'Accountability needs to start right there. He needs to resign, Austin needs to resign, the President should fire him.'

Cotton said that Biden had been 'lying' about the advice the generals gave him, and said he was doing it to 'cover up his tracks' in the aftermath of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'That's what we've heard today, that President Biden repeatedly rejected the advice of his military commanders and that's what led to this disaster and now he's been lying about it,' said Cotton.

'I think the very simple question is covering up his tracks in the middle of an ongoing fiasco.'

Tom Cotton (pictured left), senator for Arkansas, accused Biden of trying to 'cover his tracks' by insisting that he was never given the option by the generals of keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan as a stabilization force

Hawley said that Milley (pictured, far left) and Austin (right) should resign, or else be fired by Biden

Testimony provided earlier on Tuesday by the country's defense secretary and two senior generals contradicted Biden's claims he was never warned by military advisers that bringing home American soldiers risked the collapse of a fragile government in Kabul.

The result was a slew of furious accusations that Biden ignored advice and then lied to the country.

Hawley said during the hearing: 'Here's what I've learned so far: Number one, the president of the United States lied to the American people about the advice that you gave to him, about the military judgement that you provided for him.

'I think you've all testified to that effect now repeatedly.'

Biden has been under intense pressure to defend his handling of the withdrawal.

The Taliban moved rapidly across the country ahead of his August 31 deadline to get Americans out of Afghanistan, seizing the capital Kabul on August 15.

Biden and his officials have insisted the speed of their advance and the collapse of Afghan security forces took them by surprise.

In an August 18 interview with George Stephanopoulos, the president even denied that he withdrew troops against the recommendation of his senior military advisers.

But McKenzie, head of US Central Command and who oversaw the final days of the war in Afghanistan, said he repeatedly argued that a small presence of U.S. troops was essential for stability.

'I stated consistently that my position was, if you go below 2500 you're going to look at a collapse of the Afghan military,' he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

'I didn't I did not foresee it to be days ... I thought it would take months.'

In response, the White House tried to play down the testimony and the idea that Biden had ignored the advice of senior military advisers.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that Biden had told Stephanopoulos that his advisers were divided, and later said that he was entitled to choose between a range of recommendations.

'Hes the commander in chief,' she said during the daily briefing. 'Hes the president.

'He makes decisions about that whats in the national interest, and he believed we should end the war.'

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on Tuesday that U.S. standing had been damaged by President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin appeared before the Senate Armed Service Committee on Tuesday to defend the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent civilian evacuation

Republican Senator Josh Hawley (l) accused President Biden of lying to the American people after hearing from General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, that he recommended keeping 2500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan

He made his comments at the start of two days of intense scrutiny of the Biden administration's Afghan strategy, sitting alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley also said his view had been that leaving the country, without meeting specific conditions, would likely lead to the collapse of the Afghan armed forces and government.

He told lawmakers: 'In the fall of 2020, my analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal without meeting specific and necessary conditions risks losing the substantial gains made in Afghanistan, damaging US worldwide credibility, and could precipitate a general collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in a complete Taliban takeover or general civil war.

'That was a year ago, my assessment remained consistent throughout.'

Some 3500 U.S. troops were in the country when President Biden was inaugurated.

Milley declined to say exactly what he advised the president, but that it was his personal view that 2500 American troops were needed to prevent collapse.

His words triggered immediate scrutiny of Biden's comments defending his actions in August at the height of the crisis.

During an interview with ABC News, he denied that his military advisers warned him against bringing home all troops or that at least 2500 were needed to prevent a Taliban takeover.

Republicans were quick to accuse President Biden of lying to the American public over the advice he got on withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the new testimony did not contradict Biden's ABC News interview

'No one said that to me that I can recall,' he told interviewer Stephanopoulos.

Sen. Tom Cotton brought up the interview during the hearing, asking Austin whether Biden was telling the truth when he said that no senior military adviser told him to leave a small military presence.

After saying that Biden was an 'honest and forthright man,' Austin admitted: 'Their input was received by the president and considered by the president, for sure.

'In terms of what they specifically recommended senator, as they just said, they're not going to provide what they recommended in confidence.'

The testimony triggered a wave of condemnation.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said: 'President Biden lied when he told the American people that nobody urged him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

'Today, under oath, General McKenzie flatly contradicted the president. This is the worst American foreign policy disaster in a generation and the President is trying to cover his ass with political spin.'

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who sits on the armed services committee, said: 'From what we are hearing, President Biden rejected military advice to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and then lied about it to the American people.'

Mark Meadows, chief of staff in the Trump White House said: 'If it wasnt already obvious, todays Senate hearing confirmed: Joe Biden lied to the America people about his Afghanistan withdrawal plan.'

The president was entitled to reject the generals' advice, said Leon Panetta, who was secretary of defense under President Obama.

'But I do think it needs to be clear that the advice was given, and the advice was rejected,' he told CNN.

The episode has severely tested Biden's claim to be a foreign policy expert.

His approval ratings collapsed amid images of Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes as they desperately sought to escape their new Taliban rulers.

A suicide blast killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans in the last days of the chaotic evacuation. Days later a drone strike killed 10 civilians despite U.S. claims the missile targeted terrorists in the final stages of launching an attack.

Gen. Milley and the others defended the drawdown but admitted the operation did not go smoothly.

'It was a logistical success but a strategic failure,' he said.

Impact on U.S. credibility

The speed of the withdrawal also triggered anger from U.S. allies, such as Britain, where ministers said they were blindsided by the rapid departure and the launch of a chaotic, frantic evacuation of foreign nationals.

Milley said the episode had a damaging impact on U.S. standing in the world.

'I think that our credibility with allies and partners around the world, and with adversaries, is being intensely reviewed by them to see which way this is going to go,' he said. 'And I think that damage is one word that could be used.'

It was left to Austin to defend the administration.

'I think our credibility remained solid ...' he said. 'Clearly there will be people who question things going forward.'

Senators on the Armed Services Committee also heard warnings that the country could still present a terrorist threat to American soil.

Officials have said all along that the rapid collapse of Afghanistan in 11 days, as the Taliban advanced rapidly across the country, took them by surprise.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 28, 2021

Afghan refugees are packed onto a C-19 Globemaster III military aircraft during last month's messy withdrawal from Afghanistan

Afghan army's rapid collapse

For his part, Austin defended the military's execution of the chaotic Kabul airlift but blamed the fall of Kabul on the Afghan army's sudden collapse.

'To be clear, those first two days were difficult,' he said.

'We all watched with alarm the images of Afghans rushing the runway and our aircraft.

'We all remember the scenes of confusion outside the airport. But within 48 hours, our troops restored order, and process began to take hold.'

Despite 20 years of U.S. presence in the country, he admitted that Washington failed to 'forge a nation' that could stand on its own feet.

'The fact that the Afghan army - that we and our partners trained - simply melted away - in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,' he said.

'We need to consider some uncomfortable truths that we didn't fully comprehend: The depth of corruption and poor leadership in the senior ranks that we didn't grasp; the damaging effect of the frequent and unexplained rotations by President Ghani of his commanders; that we didn't anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that the Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement; and that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralising effect on Afghan soldiers.'

Role of Bagram air base

Abandoning Bagram air base before withdrawing American civilians and Afghan allies was a major tactical mistake, according to critics, leaving U.S. forces reliant on a civilian airport, with a single runway in the heart of a city controlled by the Taliban

Austin also tried to head off questions about whether the evacuation operation would have been more successful if the military had not shot down Bagram air base.

'Retaining Bagram would have required putting as many as 5000 US troops in harm's way just to operate and defend it, and it would have contributed little to the mission that we've been assigned, and that was to protect and defend the embassy which was some 30 miles away.

'That distance from Kabul also rendered Bagram of little value in the evacuation.'

McKenzie also defended the closure under questioning from Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen.

'I can tell you that once we went below 2500 people in Afghanistan, we lost the ability to hold Bagram Airbase,' he said.

'And it was inevitable that we were going to have to come out of Bagram because we ended up in late June, early July, with 650 Marines and soldiers in the country.

'It was not feasible to hold Bagram under those circumstances.'

Terrorist threat against U.S. soil

Biden has repeatedly declared that the degradation of Al Qaeda meant the original mission of U.S. troops in Afghanistan had been completed.

But senators were told that the Taliban remained a terrorist organization and had never broken its ties with Al Qaeda.

'I have no illusions who we are dealing with, said Milley during his opening statement.

'It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war. But we must continue to protect the United States of America and it people from terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan.

'A reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility.'

McKenzie later addressed the question of whether the U.S. was in a position to counter such a threat.

'I think we're still seeing how Al Qaeda and ISIS are configuring themselves against the Taliban,' he said.

'We're still seeing whether the Taliban is going to do, so I think  I would not say I'm confident that that's going to be on the ground yet.'

Taliban members set checkpoints around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghan capital Kabul after the last U.S. troops left. Some 100 U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who want to leave the country are still stuck in Afghanistan, according to the State Department

Milley defends China calls

Although the hearing was intended to dissect the Biden administration's stance on Afghanistan, Milley used his opening statements to answer claims he made 'secret' calls to his Chinese counterpart and offered to warn him of any impending U.S. attack in the final days of the Trump presidency.

The allegations were made in 'Peril,' a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. It cited Beijing's fears that Trump was looking to start a war with China as his potential election loss loomed.

Milley confirmed the broad premise of the book but denied that the calls were secret.

He said they were part of the usual business of being chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and explained that the calls had been coordinated with the U.S. government.

'I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese and it is my directed responsibility to convey presidential orders and intent,' he said.

'My message again was consistent: calm, steady, de-escalate. "We are not going to attack you."'

Impact of the Doha agreement

The two senior commanders said the Doha agreement - signed under President Trump after negotiations with the Taliban in the Qatari capital - had a negative impact on the morale and performance of the Afghan security forces.

It essentially set a deadline for the U.S. withdrawal in return for the Taliban agreeing not to attack American forces.

As senators probed whether the Biden administration should have had a clearer idea of the fragile nature of the Afghan military, McKenzie and Milley pointed to the agreement and its damaging fallout.

McKenzie said: 'Its my judgement that the Doha agreement did negatively affect the performance of the Afghan forces, in particular by some of the actions the government of Afghanistan was required to take as part of that agreement.'

The deal required Kabul to release 5000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1000 Afghan government troops, as well as starting the withdrawal of thousands of American contractors who had supported local forces.

Milley added that in his assessment the Doha deal 'did affect the morale of the Afghan security forces.'

Drone strike investigation

Gen Frank McKenzie said the intelligence behind a drone strike that killed 10 civilians on August 29 in Kabul was 'tragically wrong'

The three witnesses faced questions about the August 29 drone strike that killed 10 civilians but said they might better be answered during an afternoon session behind closed doors.

Austin said he had not yet been in touch with the aircrew responsible for the strike.

'I've directed a three-star review of this incident,' he said.

'Gen. McKenzie did an initial investigation, and I directed a three-star review and so I won't make any comments.'

The issue came up again later during the hearing when Gen. McKenzie was asked whether it was possible to adequately assess targets without intelligence assets on the ground.

He said he took full responsibility for the strike.

'The matter is under investigation, but what I can tell you broadly, and to restate some things that I've said earlier, I am responsible for that,' he said.

'It happened in my area of responsibility, so I'm the responsible officer for that strike.'

And he said on this occasion the intelligence was 'tragically wrong.'

'I was under no pressure, and no one in my chain of command below me, was under any pressure to take that strike, we acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on the ground,' he said.

Republicans in particular have intensified their attacks on President Joe Bidens decision to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by the end of last month, saying it left the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism.

They are also demanding more details on the suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 13 American service members in the final days of the withdrawal.

In an early hostile salvo, Sen Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the committee, offered a withering analysis of the administration's withdrawal and future strategy for Afghanistan.

'There is no plan. We have no reliable partners on the ground. We have no bases nearby,' he said in his opening statement.

'The Afghan government is now led by terrorists with long ties to Al Qaeda. And were at the mercy of the Pakistan government to get into Afghanistan airspace.

'Even if we can get there, we cant strike Al Qaeda in Afghanistan because were worried about what the Taliban will do to the Americans still there.'
This is the moment a brave Army vet fought off a hissing alligator outside his home using just a trash can.

On Wednesday, Abdul Gene Malik posted a clip of himself catching the snarling gator in his front yard in Mount Dora, Florida.

The clip starts with Malik dragging an open trash can towards the reptile, which retreats backwards.

Abdul Gene Malik (pictured) posted a clip of himself catching an alligator using simply his wits and a trash can on to his Instagram

Malik is able to get the gator's head in the trash can opening, flips the lid on the gators head as the nervous alligator panics and goes further into the trash can

A nervous crowd can be heard off camera chattering and encouraging Malik as he methodically inches the trash can towards the reptile.

As he gets closer he ask spectators to help him.

'Let me know when the head goes inside, let me know' he ask people watching him, with someone responding 'I got you.'

Malik, who is originally from Philadelphia, suddenly speeds up and is able to trap the predator's head in the trash can, causing it to panic and go further in on its own.

As the gator wildly wags its tail the crowd encourages Malik saying 'go, go go!' and he tilts the trashcan upwards while the lids slowly closes behind it, fully trapping it.

Malik is met by applause and puts his hand on the lid in an attempt to not let the gator escape.

The Army veteran said he stepped up because he's 'got kids to protect' on his Instagram

Army veteran Abdul Gene Malik (pictured) posted the clip of himself fighting off a hissing Florida gator on Wednesday

The Army veteran said he stepped up because he's 'got kids to protect' and even set up a humorous GoFundMe where he claims he is launching a gator catching business to get him and his family through 'difficult times' although it is not clear if he is kidding or not.

'On September 29th, 2021 I was faced with a life or death task that made me decide whether its me & my family or the Gator,' he wrote.

'I am a Combat Veteran that struggle to make ends month to month. Fortunately enough everything happens for a reason. I will be using this support to help my family & numerous other families to remain Gator FREE,' he added.

While Malik was fortunate to survive his encounter, earlier this month a 71-year-old Louisiana man was killed by a gator during Hurricane Ida as his wife tried desperately to save him.

Timothy Satterlee died after he was attacked by an alligator in a flooded shed in his Slidell, Louisiana home as his horrified wife looked on helplessly.

Satterlee's spouse, who has not been named, tried to save him, but the creature had torn off Satterlee's arm, and she was unable to do so.

The couple lived in a home is located near Lake Pontchartrain in the New Orleans suburb of Slidell and according to neighbors alligators are common in the area and are known to approach people because some feed them.
Dramatic police bodycam footage has revealed how Wayne Couzens tried to spin pathetic lies after police raided his Kent home over the murder of Sarah Everard.

The 48-year-old officer could be seen in a seven-minute video clip handcuffed on his sofa being interviewed by arresting officers in his front room in Deal on March 9.

Couzens initially claimed to the detectives that he did not know Miss Everard, before backtracking moments later.

He then concocted a ridiculous fantasy story involving an Eastern European gang who had pressured him after he attempted to 'rip off' one of their call girls.

Couzens was later taken to Wandsworth Police Station where he repeatedly tried to self-harm by banging his head on a sink and running into a wall, and was put under constant watch before appearing in court.

The footage shows Couzens looking reasonably relaxed, telling police that he had got into 'financial s***' and had been 'lent on by, I don't know who they are, an immigrant gang, whatever, and they told me I need to go and pick up girls and give them to them'.

The fictitious traffickers supposedly threatened to harm his family if he did not provide them with a victim, and he felt he had 'no choice' but to snatch Miss Everard.

However, at the start of the video, Couzens suggests he has never met Miss Everard, who was the subject of a major missing persons enquiry at the time.

Couzens is shown a picture of Miss Everard on a mobile phone and is asked: 'Do you know Sarah', but he replies: 'I don't, no.'

Asked if he knew where she is, he says: 'No'. And asked if he knows anything about what happened to her, Couzens then says: 'I know that she went missing up in London somewhere about a week ago or so just from what I got on the news.'

While speaking, his cat is seen walking through the room and jumping onto a shelf. Asked if he had personally met her, Miss Everard says: 'No, not personally, no.'

He is then asked if he had had any 'personal interactions with her', but says: 'Why would I have personal interactions with her?'

Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens is shown a photograph of Sarah Everard on a phone by a detective while being questioned by police at his home in Deal, Kent, in March

The detective says that he can't go into all the evidence, but Couzens replies: 'I'm sat in handcuffs... so you must have something to say that I know her.'

Pressed by the detective, Couzens tells him: 'I am in financial s*** and I've been lent on by, I don't know who they are, an immigrant gang, whatever, and they told me I need to go and pick up girls and give them to them.

'So I said I'll happily and it then came through that they are going to harm my family, take them away, use them instead. At that point I had no option to try and find somebody.'

He continues: 'There was a couple of names, I was told a place to take her, that's it, that is all I know.'

The detective asks him to tell him about the gang. Couzens says: 'OK, there was a white Sprinter van. They are between sort of Lenham, Maidstone area that I dropped her off.

Wayne Couzens (left) tried to spin pathetic lies over the murder of Sarah Everard (right)

'I still don't know, they just, I don't know, I just parked my car up and then the van come up behind me, flashed me, then they all jumped out and then they [inaudible] this girl.

'They said 'you done good' and I don't know whether my family's going to be alright still. They threatened to take my family away from me, so, at that point, I'm doing what I can to protect my family  that's it.

'So all I know it was, roundabout, we could drive there now, I could show you, roughly, I don't know, Lenham, Maidstone area at all.'

The detective suggests showing him the route on Google Maps, and Couzens says: 'I drove from Ashford to Maidstone. There's a roundabout that breaks up, the first big roundabout you come to.

'You carry straight over to Maidstone, but instead I went round that roundabout and back up another road and at that point I was flashed and pulled over.

The 48-year-old officer could be seen in a seven-minute video clip handcuffed on his sofa being interviewed by arresting officers in his front room in Deal, Kent, on March 9

'Three guys got out, opened my door, opened that door and pushed me out against the front of the car, took the girl, drove off, that's it. They said: 'We'll be in touch.'

'So I'm here, I'm off work with stress because I'm here to protect my family. I want to be here 24/7 for my family. They come for my family I've got nothing I've got no choice.'

The detective says he will go back over the route with Couzens, but asks him how the supposed gang contacted him or he contacted them.

Couzens says: 'I tried to f*** over on one of their call girls and tried to rip her off, so she's told them and they've got me. They just tell me be here, be here, so Hotel Burstin in Folkestone, be here.

'So I turned up. But I've got no mobile number, and they have [sic] got my mobile number  they're obviously outside watching, following I just, honestly.

Couzens' car journey around London as he cruised to find a woman to abduct, rape and murder

'They'll come outside, so they'll be outside here, then they'll say right, you'll be in Folkestone this time, or you're going to be in Ashford this time. That's it.

'There's no links, telephone numbers, I'm completely on my own, but at the same time being threatened. It had Romanian plates on the van, white Mercedes Sprinter-type van.'

When pressed as to where Sarah Everard was, he said repeatedly that he did not know where she was and that 'if I could do something to get her back right this minute, I would', but at the same time he said 'I'll do it again tomorrow if it meant saving my family... these guys meant business.'

He claimed he had evidence of that communication in his mobile phone, but when officers examined it they found it had been wiped clean by Couzens.

At the police station, Couzens declined to provide samples of his DNA, saying it was on advice from his solicitor.

And when asked how he had sustained 'visible scratch marks to his head' he blamed them on his dog.

Sarah Everard's mother Susan reads a victim impact statement at the Old Bailey today

The video of his interview was released as Couzens was branded 'a monster' in court by Miss Everard's family after he abused Covid-19 lockdown regulations to kidnap her in a fake arrest then rape and strangle her.

Couzens used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Miss Everard as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham, South London, on the evening of March 3.

The firearms officer, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift at the American embassy that morning, drove to a secluded rural area near Dover in Kent, where he parked up and raped Miss Everard.

The marketing executive, who lived in Brixton, south London, had been strangled with Couzens' police belt by 2.30am the following morning.

Married Couzens burned her body in a refrigerator in an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, near Ashford, Kent, before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.

Just days later, amid extensive publicity about Ms Everard's disappearance, he took his family on a day out to the woods, allowing his two children to play close by.
Sarah Everard's rapist and killer Wayne Couzens was attracted to brutal sexual pornography, a court has heard.

The officer, 48, wore his police belt with handcuffs and a rectangular black pouch, similar to a pepper spray holder, attached to it when he snatched the 33-year-old marketing executive on March 3.

Two people had earlier seen him wearing the kit and when asked about the equipment in a computer hardware shop, he joked he was into 'kinky stuff', before telling the owner: 'I am an undercover police officer.'

Sarah Everard's rapist and killer Wayne Couzens was 'attracted to brutal sexual pornography', a court has heard

The officer, 48, wore his police belt with handcuffs and a rectangular black pouch, similar to a pepper spray holder, attached to it when he snatched the 33-year-old marketing executive

In late January this year, Couzens worked with other officers on uniformed Covid patrols, enforcing coronavirus lockdown regulations.

'He was therefore aware of the regulations and what language to use to those who may have breached them,' prosecutor Tom Little QC told Couzens's sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

Mr Little said the officer is believed to have used his warrant card to detain Ms Everard 'by fraud' before handcuffing her in a 'false arrest' after 'hunting' for a lone female victim.

Couzens used to work at his father's garage in Dover before joining the Kent Special Constabulary at some point after 2002.

Susan Everard reads her victim impact statement and tells Wayne Couzens how appalled she is by his actions in court

Wayne Couzens (left, in his uniform with his police belt circled); and right, in a court sketch) kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in depraved crime after he had finished his shift

The court heard a colleague in that year spoke of 'his attraction to brutal sexual pornography' but Jim Sturman QC, defending, said it related to a single incident 'which is almost impossible to examine now'.

Couzens joined the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in 2011 before transferring to the Met in 2018. Two years later he began working for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorised firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London.

He was not able to carry a gun after damaging a finger in a drilling injury in July last year and carried out office-based work in late 2020, but was assessed as being fit for full duties in December.

Couzens was sacked by the Met after he pleaded guilty to murder, rape and kidnap.

Couzens' car journey around London as he cruised to find a woman to abduct, rape and murder after his fake arrest con

The police watchdog previously said an investigation is under way into alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate a flashing incident linked to Couzens in 2015.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is also probing alleged failures by the Metropolitan Police to investigate two indecent exposure incidents linked to Couzens in London in February this year.

The married father-of-two was described as a 'family man' by colleagues in the force, who were said to have noticed nothing unusual about his behaviour.

But he had set up a profile on dating website match.com on December 2 last year, using his middle name 'Antony', giving a false date of birth, and claiming that he was separated, had no children and lived in Canterbury.

He was also in contact with an escort with the username 'escourtbabygirl', the court heard.

Couzens was in debt to the tune of 29,000, using short-term payday loans, and was in a dispute with the Met over his pay scale.

He had worked a 12-hour overnight shift at the American Embassy, south-west London, on the day he kidnapped Ms Everard, which was the start of five rest days.

Miss Everard's family leave the Old Bailey after a previous hearing where Couzens made two guilty pleas. Her father Jeremy is seen on the left, with her sister Katie can be seen on the right.

During the shift, Couzens had talked about leaving the Met over the pay dispute and said he might go off sick with stress.

After the murder, he emailed his supervisor to say 'I feel unable to carry firearms' and called in sick to a training day when he was due to return to work on March 8.

He instead drove to London to return the items he had used to kidnap Ms Everard to his police locker at his base.

Sarah's family stared down her killer in court as her father demanded he faced him while her mother and sister told him he was a monster who revolted and disgusted them.

Susan Everard told the Old Bailey every evening she cries out to warn her daughter, 28, not to trust the murderer.

She told Wayne Couzens as he sat in the dock: 'In the evenings, at the time she was abducted, I let out a silent scream: Don't get in the car, Sarah. Don't believe him. Run!'

CCTV footage of Miss Everard captured earlier on the night she was kidnapped in March, sparking a nationwide hunt

Ms Everard's father Jeremy ordered Couzens to look at him as he pointed at him and told him 'I can never forgive you'

And her sister Katie fought back tears as she told him 'It disgusts me that you were the last person to touch her'.

Couzens appeared to shake as he was declared the 'very worst of humanity' by his victim's grieving relatives.

In an emotion-filled victim impact statement Mrs Everard said she was 'haunted' by the horror of her daughter's murder.

She added: 'Sarah died in horrendous circumstances. I am tormented at the thought of what she endured.

'Sarah was handcuffed, unable to defend herself, and there was no one to rescue her. She spent the last hours on this earth with the very worst of humanity.

'She lost her life because Wayne Couzens wanted to satisfy his perverted desires. It is a ridiculous reason. It is nonsensical. How could he value a human life so cheaply?

'I am incandescent with rage at the thought of it. He treated my daughter as if she was nothing and disposed of her as if she was rubbish.'
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer took to the Senate floor Wednesday to accuse Republicans of 'pure stupidity' for failing allow Democrats to move legislation to hike the debt ceiling to prevent a default.

Schumer spoke a day after his counterpart Mitch McConnell objected when he sought unanimous consent for a move to suspend the debt ceiling by a simple majority, relying on Democratic votes.

He said he paraphrased economist Austan Goolsbee, a top economic advisor to former President Barack Obama who met with Democrats Wednesday.

'Throughout history there have certainly been governments that have defaulted on their debt, but never has there been a default caused by pure stupidity,' Schumer said. 'In this case, Republican stupidity,' he added.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer ripped Republicans for blocking efforts to raise the nation's borrowing limit, with a potential default coming in mid-October if Congress does not act

He spoke hours after the failure of his latest effort, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning 'extraordinary measures' by the government to meet its obligations will run out by October 18th.

McConnell has repeatedly said Republicans will not furnish votes to raise the debt limit, and is trying to force Democrats to attach an increase to their budget reconciliation bill  a measure that is now snarled in weedy negotiations.

'There is no chance, no chance the Republican conference will go out of our way to help Democrats conserve their time and energy, so they can resume ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible,' McConnell said Tuesday.

'Of course the debt ceiling has to be raised. They have a way to do it,' said McConnell.

'Rare to have such pointed language on the Senate floor  especially from a member of the leadership,' tweeted experienced Congress-watcher Chad Pergram of Fox News.

Schumer is ruling out McConnell's proposal that Democrats act alone through the big bill they are assembling.

'Now in solving this crisis, this body cannot and will not go through a drawn-out unpredictable process sought by the minority leader ... To do this through reconciliation requires ping-ponging separate bills back from the Senate and the House,' Schumer said,' calling it 'uncharted waters.'

Doing so would also require Democrats to legislate a dollar amount for the statutory debt hike  potentially contributing to any political liability.

Schumer in a Senate floor speech blamed 'Republican stupidity' for a potential default

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Democrats should have to vote to raise the debt ceiling on their own through budget reconciliation, and has blasted Democrats for acting unilaterally on their spending plans

Schumer said he was paraphrasing economist Austan Goolsbee

The debt ceiling impasse comes amid a potential government shutdown, with two major pieces of President Biden's economic agenda under threat

Schumer said Democrats have 'tried to find a workable solution to avoid default on our sovereign debt, but the Republicans have stymied us at every opportunity.'

The GOP also blocked a debt limit hike that Democrats attached to a temporary bill to keep the government running, plus 'emergency' hurricane spending and funds to resettle Afghans. It would suspend the debt ceiling through 2022.

As Schumer described it: 'Republicans unanimously voted in favor of default.'

Other powerful figures have called out a potential fault in less colorful terms. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says it would be a 'self-inflicted wound.'
Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that President Joe Biden lied that he wasn't advised to keep a troop presence in Afghanistan after his top military brass contradicted that claim under oath.

'These top generals gave President Biden exactly the advice the President told the American people he had not received,' McConnell said from the Senate floor. 'To be very clear, Mr. President, the Commander-in-Chief gets to make the final decisions, no matter what his advisors suggest. But he needs to own his decision.'

The Senate Minority leader added: 'The President publicly misstating what advice he got from his top generals is corrosive to the civil-military dynamic that keeps America safe.

'The military did their job,' he said. 'They gave their best military advice. It was rejected.'

'So they saluted and executed the order of the Commander-in-Chief. But having rejected their advice, the President doesn't get to claim he never received it.'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that Biden lied when he said that his top military brass did not advise him to keep a troop presence in Afghanistan amid discussions of the withdrawal

'These top generals gave President Biden exactly the advice the President told the American people he had not received,' McConnell said from the Senate floor. The President publicly misstating what advice he got from his top generals is corrosive to the civil-military dynamic that keeps America safe'

Both Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley and head of US Central Command Frank McKenzie said that they had voiced an opinion to keep a small number of troops  around 2,500  in Afghanistan to stave off Taliban control

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday declined to say whether any military official urged Biden to keep some troops in Afghanistan.

Her deflection came just hours after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley and U.S. Central Command General Frank McKenzie told Congress they advised him against withdrawing all forces. McKenzie specifically said he wanted to keep 2,500 troops there.

Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted during a Senate hearing alongside Milley on Tuesday that Biden received the chairman and Mckenzie's input  even though the president claims to the contrary.

McConnell said Wednesday that Biden 'gave our enemies in Afghanistan everything they wanted and got less than nothing in return.'

'What a debacle,' the Kentucky senator continued. 'We face a greater terrorist threat from Afghanistan than we did before we withdrew, we have less intelligence about that growing threat, and we have fewer tools with which to combat it.'

There has been discussion over the last few months regarding whether Biden's military advisers him to keep a skeleton crew in Afghanistan rather than withdrawing every single U.S. service member.

Questions over this grew even more after chaos quickly ensued during the withdraw, leading to a swift Taliban take over of the country, 13 U.S. troops' deaths in an ISIS-K suicide bombing near the Kabul airport and potentially hundreds of American citizens left behind in the midst of the rushed evacuation.

Psaki said Tuesday the president was presented with a 'range of options,' but 'ultimately, regardless of the advice, it's his decision.'

'He's the commander in chief. He's the president. He makes decisions about that  what's in the national interest, and he believed we should end the war.'

Milley and McKenzie said that they had voiced an opinion to keep a small number of troops in Afghanistan to stave off Taliban control.

Psaki had tried to defend the president against the admissions even before her daily briefing.

'As @POTUS told ABC, ending the war in Afghanistan was in our national interest. He said advice was split, but consensus of top military advisors was 2500 troops staying meant escalation due to deal by the previous admin., the Chairman, and GEN McKenzie all reiterated,' she wrote on Twitter.

Biden said on August 18 he couldn't 'recall' anyone advising him to leave troops in Afghanistan amid discussions of withdrawal

Pressed on what she meant by 'split' during the news briefing, Psaki said: 'there are individuals who come forward with a range of recommendations on what the right path forward looks like. I'm not going to detail those from here. They're private conversations and advice to the President of the United States.'

McKenzie said he recommended 2,500 troops remain in Afghanistan. He said he's confident Biden heard his advice, after the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos he couldn't recall anyone advising him to leave troops in the country.

'I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan .... I also have a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces, and eventually the Afghan government.'

White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to say whether any military official advised President Biden that some 2,500 troops should be left in Afghanistan in a briefing Tuesday

'I was present when that discussion occurred and I'm confident that the president heard all the recommendations and listened to them very thoughtfully.'

'I stated consistently that my position was, if you go below 2500 you're going to look at a collapse of the Afghan military,' he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

'I did not foresee it to be days ... I thought it would take months.'

Milley said that his 'assessment was, back in the fall of [2020], and remained consistent throughout, that we should keep a steady state of 2,500 [troops], and it could bounce up to, to 3,500 maybe, something like that, in order to move to a negotiated gated solution.'

'My analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal without meeting specific and necessary conditions risks losing the substantial gains made in Afghanistan, damaging U.S. worldwide credibility and could precipitate a general collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in a complete Taliban takeover or general civil war,' Milley said.

'That was a year ago, my assessment remained consistent throughout.'

He declined to say exactly what he told the president.

Some 3500 U.S. troops were in the country when President Biden was inaugurated.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley said: 'Here's what I've learned so far: Number one, the president of the United States lied to the American people about the advice that you gave to him, about the military judgement that you provided for him.

'I think you've all testified to that effect now repeatedly.'

ABC interview

ABC's George Stephanopoulos pressed the president on reports his top commanders had warned him against a full withdrawal during a sit down with the president on Aug. 19, four days after Kabul fell to the Taliban.

'Your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline  they wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops,' Stephanopoulos said to Biden.

'No, they didn't,' the president pushed back. 'It was split. That wasn't true. That wasn't true.'

'No, they didn't,' the president pushed back. 'It was split. That wasn't true. That wasn't true.'

'They didn't tell you they wanted troops to stay?' Stephanopoulos asked.

'No, not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a time frame  all troops, they didn't argue against that,' Biden reiterated.

Republicans tore into the Biden administration and accused the President of lying to the American people after the Pentagon top brass contradicted his claims that he couldn't recall being advised to keep troops on the ground.

Sen. Tom Cotton brought up the interview during the hearing, asking Austin whether Biden was telling the truth when he said that no senior military adviser told him to leave a small military presence.

After saying that Biden was an 'honest and forthright man', he admitted: 'Their input was received by the president and considered by the president, for sure.

'In terms of what they specifically recommended senator, as they just said, they're not going to provide what they recommended in confidence.'

But Austin said he believed leaving those last 2,500 would have led to a fight with the Taliban that would lead to a greater surge in troops.

'If you stayed there at a posture of 2,500 certainly you'd be in a fight with the Taliban and you'd have to reinforce yourself.'

Terrorist threat against U.S. soil

Meanwhile, Biden has repeatedly declared that the degradation of Al Qaeda meant the original mission of U.S. troops in Afghanistan had been completed.

But senators were told that the Taliban remained a terrorist organization and had never broken its ties with Al Qaeda.

'I have no illusions who we are dealing with,' said Milley during his opening statement.

'It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war. But we must continue to protect the United States of America and it people from terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan.

'We must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization and they still have not broken ties with Al-Qaeda,' Milley told lawmakers.

'A reconstituted Al-Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility,' he said, adding that opportunities for attack 'could present themselves in the next 12-36 months.'

Asked if President Biden was being truthful when he said that al-Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan, both Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that al-Qaeda has been and continues to be in Afghanistan, in a diminished state.

While President Biden's reasoning for the hasty withdrawal has often been a Trump-era peace deal with the Taliban, Milley said that the Islamist group had not even been holding up their end of the deal.

Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton why he didn't resign in protest of the withdrawal, Milley replied that such an act of 'political defiance' is a 'serious thing,' as he said that 'My job is to provide advice ... the president doesn't have to agree with that advice.'

'My advice is, don't put specific dates' on withdrawals, Milley said, noting that two presidents had made the devastating mistake. 'Make things conditions-based.'

President Biden set a deadline of August 31 for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, extending Trump's former May deadline.

The announcement triggered a whirlwind advance by the Taliban who claimed the capital Kabul on August 14, and a terrorist attack shortly thereafter took the lives of 180 people, including 13 US service members.

Impact of the Doha agreement

The two senior commanders also said the Doha agreement - signed under President Trump after negotiations with the Taliban in the Qatari capital - had a negative impact on the morale and performance of the Afghan security forces.

It essentially set a deadline for the U.S. withdrawal in return for the Taliban agreeing not to attack American forces.

As senators probed whether the Biden administration should have had a clearer idea of the fragile nature of the Afghan military, McKenzie and Milley pointed to the agreement and its damaging fallout.

McKenzie said: 'It's my judgement that the Doha agreement did negatively affect the performance of the Afghan forces, in particular by some of the actions the government of Afghanistan was required to take as part of that agreement.'

The deal required Kabul to release 5000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1000 Afghan government troops, as well as starting the withdrawal of thousands of American contractors who had supported local forces.

Milley added that in his assessment the Doha deal 'did affect the morale of the Afghan security forces.'

Drone strike investigation

The three witnesses faced questions about the August 29 drone strike that killed 10 civilians but said they might better be answered during an afternoon session behind closed doors.

Austin said he had not yet been in touch with the aircrew responsible for the strike.

'I've directed a three-star review of this incident,' he said.

'Gen. McKenzie did an initial investigation, and I directed a three-star review and so I won't make any comments.'

The issue came up again later during the hearing when Gen. McKenzie was asked whether it was possible to adequately assess targets without intelligence assets on the ground.

He said he took full responsibility for the strike.

'The matter is under investigation, but what I can tell you broadly, and to restate some things that I've said earlier, I am responsible for that,' he said.

'It happened in my area of responsibility, so I'm the responsible officer for that strike.'

And he said on this occasion the intelligence was 'tragically wrong.'

'I was under no pressure, and no one in my chain of command below me, was under any pressure to take that strike, we acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on the ground,' he said.
A Homebase worker who accused the firm of hypnotising its workers and was later sacked for refusing to work from a different store has lost his claim for unfair dismissal.

Peter Smallman accused Homebase management of secretly using hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming and even reported this to the Health and Safety Executive and the local council.

He worked as a team member at the store in Folkestone, Kent, for less than three years until bosses tried to transfer him to another store following several complaints about his behaviour from other colleagues.

But when he refused to work at a different store he was sacked, leading Mr Smallman to claim he was unfairly dismissed.

He believed he was fired due to the previous allegations he had made about his managers and the CEO, but an employment tribunal ruled Homebase was well within its rights to sack him.

An employment tribunal heard Peter Smallman worked as a team member at the store in Folkestone, Kent (pictured), for less than three years until bosses tried to transfer him to another store following several complaints about his behaviour from other colleagues. When he refused, he was sacked, leading Mr Smallman to claim he was unfairly dismissed

The tribunal heard the working relationship Mr Smallman had with local management and other staff at the Folkestone store had fundamentally broken down due to his complaints.

The judge - employment judge Martin - said: '[Mr Smallman] had made numerous very serious allegations against local management and the CEO.

'He alleged that [Homebase] was involved in hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming which would have a profound effect on staff both at home and at work. He gave no basis for his belief.

'He reported this to the Health and Safety Executive and the local council. They took no action.

'He suggested that a local manager... adjusted taps in the toilets (so that very little water came out) to be nasty to employees despite them sharing these facilities with the public.

'During an investigation into his grievances, it was reported by a colleague that [Mr Smallman] had told him he wanted his local manager to die a slow and painful death.'

A disciplinary investigation began, but Homebase decided to drop this course of action and instead transfer Mr Smallman to the store in Broadstairs, Kent, about 25 miles away.

Bosses told him in a letter this was because they were highly concerned that trying to unpick all of this and restore relations to a professional level whereby all parties can work together is simply not achievable.

Homebase offered to change Mr Smallmans rota from working for 20 hours per week over four days to working 20 hours per week working over three days after Mr Smallman raised 'concerns about the added travel time and travel expenses' when working from an alternative store.

The tribunal heard Homebase also agreed to cover his additional travel expenses and to reduce his working day by 30 minutes for a period of six months.

The tribunal judge said: 'It was a reasonable response for [Homebase] to abandon the disciplinary process and to move [Mr Smallman] to another place of work. This was... a pragmatic way of resolving the issues.'

Homebase dropped a disciplinary investigation into Mr Smallman's conduct and instead transferred him to work at the Broadstairs store (pictured) 25 miles away. However, instead of going to his new place of work in May 2019 as instructed, he refused and went to Folkestone instead where he was asked to leave the premises, a tribunal heard, and he was suspended

However, instead of going to his new place of work in Broadstairs on May 14 2019 as instructed, Mr Smallman refused and went to Folkestone instead.

The tribunal heard he had to be asked to leave the premises and this resulted in him being suspended.

He was then sacked by David Wells, who was Area Manager and Regional Manager for the Southeast region and is now Divisional Loss Manager, for failing to follow the 'reasonable instruction' of working at the Broadstairs store.

The judge ruled the dismissal was not unfair as alleged by Mr Smallman, concluding: 'In all the circumstances I find the decision to dismiss fair.

'Failure to follow a reasonable instruction is defined as both an act of misconduct and an act of gross misconduct in [Homebases] disciplinary procedure.

'I am satisfied that the reason for the instruction was the breakdown in relation at the Folkestone store and that [Homebase] adopted a reasonable process to resolve the issues.'

A further claim of unpaid wages was also dismissed by the judge.

Mr Smallman claimed there was a 'verbal agreement' to increase his contractual hours from 20 per week to 39 per week, but he could not specifically say who made this agreement with him, the tribunal heard.

Homebase said it asked staff to work 38 hours per week for a period of about five months to help with the opening of a new store, but said there was no written confirmation that the changes were contractual.

The tribunal heard Mr Smallman continued working for Homebase 'for a substantial period of time once the increase in hours was stopped'.
The first black female deacon in the Church of England (CoE) is set to launch an appeal to the Privy Council after branding a decision to dissolve her parish in south-east London as 'racist'.

Reverend Yvonne Clarke, 62, is set to lose her home and job at the All Saints Shirley parish in Southwark - where she has served for more than 20 years.

As part of cost-cutting measures by the Diocese of Southwark, approved on Wednesday, her parish will be divided between the parishes of St George, Shirley, and St John, Shirley.

Church leaders are proposing that Rev Clarke's parish of All Saints, Spring Park, which is housed in a Grade-II listed building, be turned into a chapel of ease for use by those who live some distance from the parish church.

But Rev Clarke, who was ordained in 1987, said she is considering appealing against the decision to the Privy Council after alleging the decision felt 'personal' and motivated by racism.

Reverend Yvonne Clarke (pictured), 62, is set to lose her home and job at the All Saints Shirley parish in Southwark - where she has served for more than 20 years

The diocese firmly denied allegations of racism or sexism towards Rev Clarke, and said it had come to the decision due to 'ongoing concerns about the financial viability and capacity for governance and mission over a period of several years'.

At a hearing on September 7, Rev Clarke, who was among the first women to be ordained priest, also said due process had not been followed and she had not been consulted about the changes.

Following the decision, she said: 'I am truly devastated by the decision of the commission, which I believe to be wrong, and I am now in discussions with my legal team and supporters to consider an appeal to the Privy Council.'

Frances Swaine, representing Rev Clarke, added: 'We are very surprised by the decision of the Church commissioners, especially in their dismissal of the plans for outside investment in developing the run-down parish buildings, saving the Church many thousands of pounds.

'We are now reviewing the whole decision and will be considering an appeal to the Privy Council.'

In its decision, the Church Commissioners' mission, pastoral and church property committee said: 'On the question of there being a racial, gender, or punitive basis for the scheme, the commissioners acknowledged the lived experience of racism experienced by the Reverend Yvonne Clarke in the parish and other contexts, but were satisfied that no specific evidence had been brought forward in either the written submission, or the oral hearing, to show the proposed scheme had been brought forward for an improper purpose.'

As part of cost-cutting measures by the Diocese of Southwark, approved on Wednesday, Rev Clarke's parish will be divided between the parishes of St George, Shirley, and St John, Shirley (Pictured: Rev Clarke with Neville Lawrence)

The commissioners also said the parish was 'not financially viable in its current form' and the new scheme 'would further cure the souls and mission of the church'.

It also said 'the dispossession of the Reverend Yvonne Clarke would be a consequence of the scheme proceeding'.

During the earlier hearing Ms Swaine asked the committee to consider the 'optics' of the minister's position.

She said: 'However uncomfortable, it is important to address the question of racism in the Church of England and in particular, the Southwark Diocese.

'If that racism is felt by those who received it, then it occurred.

'For black worshippers there is special joy in going and worshipping where there is a black minister.

'If the boundaries were reorganised there would be an inevitable black flight.'

Ms Swaine had previously said: 'The Church of England has made clear its intention to tackle institutional racism, wherein it is clear decisions are made to preserve the white church structures with which its priests and more senior clergy are more familiar.

'Given a re-evaluation of institutional racism in the past seven or eight months, the complexities of being seen to be "sacking" a loved and admired priest are likely to rebound in the community, and it is unfair and unjust that such matters do not receive a full public airing.'
A Covid-hit Irish pensioner was 'rescued' from a hospital by an Italian anti-vaxxer - only for him to die of the disease days later.

Covid patient Joe McCarron, 67, from Dungloe, County Donegal, was encouraged to leave Letterkenny University Hospital by his anti-vaxxer 'friends' on Tuesday, September 14.

However, he was rushed back into hospital by ambulance less than two days later, suffering from serious breathing difficulties, and died a week later on September 24.

In a video that was widely-shared online, Joe is seen visibly struggling to breathe as his anti-vaxxer 'friend' Italian Antonio Mureddu argues with doctors before taking him home from the hospital.

Irish Covid patient Joe McCarron, 67, (pictured) was encouraged to leave Letterkenny University Hospital in Donegal by his anti-vaxxer 'friends' on September 14

Antonio, a restaurant owner and former Italian soldier, claimed that Joe was being forced into the intensive care unit and that they were 'rescuing' him as the treatment would kill him.

He is heard in the clip saying: 'If you stay here, they're going to f****** kill you, Joe.'

The video, filmed by Antonio and later posted on Twitter, shows the tense interaction between the Joe and medical staff before he leaves hospital, with staff warning him that he could die at home.

One unidentified doctor is seen on camera leaning down to talk to Joe, who is sitting in a wheelchair breathing heavily, pleading with him that leaving the hospital would risk 'endangering' his life.

The doctor says: 'You have the right to decide what you want to do, but I don't think what he [Antonio] is saying is right at all.

'You're barely able to breathe now. We want you to stay to help you.'

In a video, Joe is seen struggling to breathe as his anti-vaxxer 'friend' Italian Antonio Mureddu (pictured) argued with medical staff, telling Joe if he stayed the doctors would 'f****** kill you'

Antonio interjects saying: 'If you stay here, they're going to f****** kill you, Joe,' and accuses the medical staff of 'killing people'.

The doctor continues speaking to Joe, saying: 'I'm very worried about you. I want you to stay [in hospital].

'I think he is saying something very dangerous. What he is saying is wrong and very dangerous and I think he is endangering your life.

'It's a very difficult disease that you have, and I'm not lying to you, you could die, but this could be your best chance in the hospital. Getting the oxygen and getting the support we're giving to you.'

However, Antonio rebuts the medics, claiming that they are 'lying', saying: 'It's better if he dies in the house than die in here he's going to die with us.'

One unidentified doctor is seen on camera leaning down to talk to Joe, who is sitting in a wheelchair, pleading with him that leaving the hospital would risk 'endangering' his life

The doctor (pictured right) says: 'It's a very difficult disease that you have, and I'm not lying to you, you could die, but this could be your best chance in the hospital'

Joe, who was a former radio DJ, then left the hospital and returned home, where his condition worsened.

Antonio carried out the 'rescue' with assistance from members of the Common Law Information Centre and in one video published after Joe had left the hospital, he claimed that it was Joe who had requested his assistance.

Following Joe's readmission to Letterkenny University Hospital on Thursday morning, his wife of 38 years, Una, issued a family statement critisising the actions of his 'reckless' friends.

The statement said: 'Una would like to thank the staff and apologise for the actions of Joe's so-called reckless friends earlier in the week.

'They did not help Joe's recovery in any way. We would encourage everyone to follow proper medical advice.'

Joe left the hospital but was rushed back by ambulance less than two days later, suffering from serious breathing difficulties, and died a week later on September 24

Joe was put on a ventilator and he died in hospital on Friday without regaining consciousness.

His funeral was held on Sunday, September 26, at his local parish of St Cronas Church in Dungloe.

According to the Irish Mirror, during the service at least five people were asked to leave the church by a parish assistant because they were not wearing face masks in line with Government Covid regulations.

A senior police officer has now been appointed to lead an investigation into the incident at the hospital, a Garda spokeswoman confirmed on Sunday.

A statement said: 'An Garda Siochana continues to investigate a number of recent incidents which occurred at Letterkenny University Hospital.

'A senior investigating officer is appointed to oversee the investigation.'
A slim majority of Americans believe that President Joe Biden's immigration and border policies are worse than those under former President Donald Trump, according to a Wednesday poll.

Fifty-one per cent of voters said, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll, that Trump's policies were better as a large number of mostly Haitian migrants were recently released into the U.S. after setting up a massive encampment near the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas this month.

The survey, taken September 27-28 among 1,000 likely U.S. voters, showed that only 32 per cent think Biden's policies regarding immigration and border issues are better than Trump's.

When asked 'Is the Biden administration's immigration policy better or worse than the Trump administration's policy? Or are the policies about the same?', 11 per cent say they are the same.

Nearly 15,000 migrants, many of them Haitian, set up a camp in Del Rio, Texas, leading to a DHS crackdown on deportations amid another surge in the southern border crisis.

A new poll Wednesday shows 51 per cent of likely U.S. voters think Trump's immigration policies were better than Joe Biden's, compared to 32 per cent who feel the opposite is true

DHS Secretary Mayorkas revealed over the weekend that 12,000 Haitian migrants have been released into the U.S.  and said that could increase as 5,000 more are currently being processed. The figures come after mostly of the 15,000 who set up camp in Del Rio were cleared last week.

DHS sent out information last week that 12 flights had deported migrants back to their homeland, which angered some left-leaning immigrant activists, but a much larger number are still in the U.S.

The poll on Wednesday also revealed that a majority of the voters think it's a 'bad decision' for DHS to release those 12,000 migrants into the U.S. as they await to hear about the status of their asylum claims.

The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Before Mayorkas told Sunday of the 12,000 migrants who were released into the U.S., partial information was released by DHS last week about the status of the thousands of mostly Haitian migrants.

Those figures only accounted for only 10,000 migrants  meaning at least another 5,000 were unaccounted for.

The information DHS did release on Thursday showed that 1,401 migrants were sent back to Haiti on 12 different flights, 3,206 remain in custody, and 5,000 are still camped out beneath the Del Rio International Bridge. They did not share the details of the 5,000 left out of that count.

Mayorkas new figure of 12,000 releases and 5,000 more being processed suggests there were actually 17,000 Haitian migrants going through to asylum-seeking process rather than the less than 15,000 camped under the Del Rio bridge.

Mayorkas confusingly said to Fox News Sunday that the U.S. not stopping illegal immigration is a 'proud tradition.'

'Approximately, I think it's about 10,000 or so  12,000 thousand,' Mayorkas told host Chris Wallace when asked how many have already been released into the country.

'It could be even higher,' he added. 'The number that are returned could be even higher. What we do is we follow the law as Congress has passed it.'

It comes as even more Haitian migrants make their way to the U.S., with images emerging Saturday of a caravan traveling to the Panama border from Acandi, Colombia.

Mayorkas continued to downplay the massive southern border crisis on Sunday, saying these migrations are 'nothing new' and telling Fox he wouldn't classify the crossing as a 'flood' of people.
'If we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired,' he said

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz blasted the nation's top military advisers on Wednesday, telling them they would all be fired for their performance in Afghanistan if President Biden wasn't 'so addled.'

He delivered his broadside during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Afghanistan.

He accused the Pentagon's senior figures of peddling a 'big lie' that the U.S. could rely on the Afghan government to keep the Taliban at bay and said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was more interested in talking to authors than doing his job.

'But if we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired, because that is what you deserve,' he said.

'You have let down the people who wear the uniform in my district and all around this country, and you're far more interested in what your perception is and how people think about you, and insider Washington books than you care about winning.'

It marked a second day of intense questions for Milley, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of CentCom, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Matt Gaetz accused senior Pentagon figures of failing to do their jobs. 'But if we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired, because that is what you deserve,' he said

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin responds to questions during a House hearing on the Afghanistan war, as he sits alongside Gen Mark Milley and Gen Frank McKenzie

A day earlier they appeared before senators to answer questions about the final days of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, how the administration had been taken by surprise at Kabul's rapid collapse and whether the civilian evacuation should have been better planned.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of U.S. representatives to quiz them.

Republican lawmakers repeatedly questioned Biden's defense of his handling of the withdrawal, and attacked his judgment.

Gaetz used his time to pour scorn on the senior officers' efforts.

He waved a copy of 'Peril,' a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, that claims Milley promised his China counterpart early warning of any impending attack as he criticized the officials of trying to burnish their own records.

'It just seems like you're chronically bad at this, and you have admitted that I guess which is to your credit,' he said, reeling off a list of accusations that all three made massive misjudgments and that Milley had upended the chain of command.

'I believe that you guys probably won't resign,' he added. 'You seem to be very happy failing up over there.'

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson followed up the line of attack.

He accused Milley of being too focused on book interviews and defending the Biden administration's idea of a 'woke' military.

'I submit to you sir, that you should resign because of your dereliction of duty to this country in your ability, your inability to do your job and protect this country,' he said.

Milley chuckled as he responded. He said: 'I serve at the pleasure of the president, Mr. Jackson.'

The back and forth provided some of the most animated exchanges. But there was substance and depth to some of the earlier questioning as Biden's Afghanistan policy came under deep scrutiny.

Among the most striking moments was Milley admission for the first time that the U.S. war in Afghanistan had ended in defeat.

His comments stand in contrast to other administration officials have repeatedly claimed the conflict achieved its objective of degrading Al Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and ensuring Afghanistan could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a different view.

'The war was a strategic failure,' he said during his opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

He was later asked whether Biden's decisions were to blame.

Milley answered by describing 20 years of missteps and saying for the first time that the war had been lost.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said for the first time that the U.S. 'lost' the war in Afghanistan after 20 years of mistakes and missteps as he delivered testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday

Taliban forces took control of Kabul on August 15 triggering a haphazard evacuation of foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans from the city's airport

'There's a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years,' he said.

'I don't think that when you ever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost - and it has been, in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted.'

His unvarnished assessment came during a second day of hearings on the administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal and weeks of scrutiny of Biden's decision-making.

The president has been accused of ignoring advice to leave a small contingent behind to support a fragile government.

The end result is that the Taliban control the country just as they did when the U.S. went to war in 2001.

Milley also said the result would invigorate extremists all around the world.

'I think the Taliban sitting in Kabul significantly emboldens the radical jihadi movement globally,' he said.

'The analogy I've used with many others, is it likely will put a shot of adrenaline into their arm.

'Their grandfathers defeated the Soviet Union in the war in Afghanistan many, many years ago, and they are taking this on their own networks, right now, and declaring it a major victory, so I think it's a big morale boost.'

Earlier, the top committee condemned President Biden as 'delusional' on Wednesday for claiming the U.S. exit from Afghanistan was a success.

Rep Mike Rogers said the exit came at the cost of 13 service members' lives and left behind hundreds of American citizens.

'I fear the president may be delusional,' he said.

'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

'It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership.'

Administration officials have repeatedly said the end of the U.S. war and the civilian evacuation, airlifting 124,000 people to safety, were a logistical triumph.

'The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,' said Biden at the end of August when the last U.S. troops had left.

On August 31 President Joe Biden declared the US troop withdrawal from Kabul to be an 'extraordinary success.' On Wednesday, during a congressional hearing, Republican Rep Mike Rogers said: 'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, as foreign nationals sought escape and desperate Afghans pleaded for help, dominated the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

But the episode has severely tested Biden's claim to be a foreign policy expert.

His approval ratings collapsed amid images of Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes as they desperately sought to escape their new Taliban rulers.

A suicide blast killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans in the last days of the chaotic evacuation. Days later a drone strike killed 10 civilians despite U.S. claims the missile targeted terrorists in the final stages of launching an attack.

Rogers said he wanted answers from Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Frank McKenzie, head of Central Command, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on their future Afghan strategy to prevent the country becoming another springboard for attacks on the U.S.

'We want to know what capabilities we need, where theyll be based, and how theyll be used,' he said.

'In other words, we want to see the plan and we want to see it today.

'Because frankly, after this debacle of a withdrawal, I dont think anyone can trust what this President says about Afghanistan.'

The hearing came during intense scrutiny of President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal.

Austin defended the decision to leave Afghanistan. He declined to discuss the advice he gave the president but said there was no 'risk-free status quo' option.

'I think that the Taliban had been clear if we stayed there longer, they were going to recommence attacks on our forces,' he said.

'I think while it's conceivable that you could stay there, my view is that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any missions we would have been assigned.'

Later in the hearing, Austin said he could not rule out having to send troops back into Afghanistan.

'I would just say that obviously that's a decision that has to be made by the president,' he said.

'While I won't rule anything out, I would just say it's not preordained that we will go back or have to go back into Afghanistan again.

'But if we do, the military will provide good, credible options to be able to do that and to be effective.'

A day earlier, senators heard from the nation's top generals and defense secretary that Biden had been warned that pulling out all troops would lead to the collapse of the Kabul government.

Their testimony prompted Republicans to accuse Biden of lying during an August interview when he said he had heard no such advice.

Milley declined to describe his advice to the president.

However, he said his personal opinion was that a minimum of 2,500 U.S. troops were needed to prevent a collapse of the Kabul government.

On Tuesday Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as head of Central Command oversaw the final days of the U.S. war, said he shared Milley's view a residual force was needed to prevent a Taliban takeover.

'I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,' McKenzie said.

'I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.'
A black student scrawled racist graffiti that led a thousand Missouri students to walk out of their classrooms in protest.

On Tuesday, the student admitted to writing 'HOPE ALL BLACK PEOPLE DIE' and 'N*****' on September 23 in several bathrooms in two district schools - Parkway Central and Parkway North.

It led to a mass student protest the next day on September 24.

Superintendent Keith Marty wrote to parents to tell them that a black student was behind the vandalism and praised the student protests.

Regardless of the development, the superintendent told students he was 'proud' in his letter, commending them for 'proactively [leading] walkouts.'

'We remain hurt by the actions of the student, as it does not represent the values of our community,' wrote the superintendent.

Students were captured cursing at school administrators, shedding tears and chanting into bullhorns at the protest.

'I am sick and tired of people getting racially profiled,' said Catherine Arlena Lopez-Reyes into a bullhorn, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 'I just want to say to the school, do better.'

The black student admitted to writing racist graffiti in several bathrooms in two district schools - Parkway Central and Parkway North - that led to a mass student protest the next day on September 24 after the district launched its investigation

A black student scrawled the racist graffiti in Park Central High School (pictured) that led a thousand Missouri students to walk out of their classrooms in protest with bullhorns and conviction, the school district announced Tuesday

'We remain hurt by the actions of the student, as it does not represent the values of our community,' wrote Superintendent Keith Marty. The student came forward on Tuesday and admitted to writing the racist graffiti (pictured)

'I went to [Parkway] North - They literally called me "Taco Boy,"' said 15-year-old Cristian Palacios. 'That is not OK, calling a Mexican "Taco Boy." That is not right.'

Brittanee Jackson, a 17-year-old senior who participated in the rally, told the publication that it was 'embarrassing' to hear that the slurs had been written by a black student - however, she said, it didn't take away from the students' anti-racism message.

She said that the administration should work to establish a clearer policy to prevent racism from being shared in the first place: 'If were going to a school that is very diverse, thats probably one of the first things that should be done.'

Nearly 40 percent of the school's population is non-white, according to the administration.

'We just absorb it, most of us,' Senior Ronald Griffin said at the protest, according to the Dispatch . 'Theres a ton of people that act friendly, but then you hear about things people have said... off to the side.'

Superintendent Keith Marty said that the vandalism was a 'significant violation of multiple codes of conduct' - the student now faces 'severe disciplinary consequences' and a 'referral to law enforcement'

Brittanee Jackson, a 17-year-old senior who participated in the rally, told the publication that it was 'embarrassing' to hear that the slurs had been written by a black student - however, she said, it didn't take away from the students' anti-racism message

'In these moments, many students shared personal experiences of racism throughout their lives and at school,' he wrote.

'I want to tell the thousands of students who participated on behalf of themselves and their fellow classmates: I am proud of you for supporting one another and we heard you loud and clear.'

Marty said that the vandalism was a 'significant violation of multiple codes of conduct' - the student now faces 'severe disciplinary consequences' and a 'referral to law enforcement.'

A district spokesperson told Yahoo! News that the student took blame for the graffiti at the Parkway Central school - officials believe that the graffiti in the other school was penned by another vandal.

This is not the first time a non-white student has vandalized school property with racially-motivated graffiti: in 2017, another minority student admitted to writing 'White Lives Matter' in a school bathroom, an act that caused similar outrage.

More recently, two 18-year-old students were charged for causing property damage at nearby Kirkwood High School and Nipher and North Kirkwood middle schools - one of those students was black.
A Donald Trump donor claims former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski 'stalked,' touched, and made repeated unwanted sexual advances toward her at a charity event held at a Las Vegas Benihana over the weekend.

Trashelle Odom, the wife of construction company executive John Odom, claims in a statement that Lewandowski touched her repeatedly while seated next to hear at the event, followed her around, touched her leg and buttocks, and 'stalked' her during the event.

According to her statement, Lewandowski repeatedly remarked about the size of his genitals, Politico reported. He also 'described his sexual performance and showed Odom his hotel room key.'

She said Lewandowski, whose lawyer blasted the claims as 'rumors,' used expletives while speaking about sex as he repeatedly approached her.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, pictured with wife Allison, is being accused of making repeated unwanted advances at a Trump donor at a charity event in Las Vegas over the weekend

Lewandowski's lawyers responded that 'accusations and rumors appear to be morphing by the minute'

The alleged conduct took place during an event at the Westgate Las Vegas hotel for the Victoria's Voice Foundation, which focuses on substance abuse. The publication quotes two people who were there who said Odom appeared uncomfortable, and that Lewandowski appeared to be intoxicated.

One person said they saw Odom in tears at an after-party.

'On the evening of September 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada, I attended a dinner to support a charity and spend time with wonderful friends,' she said. 'He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful,' she said, referring to Lewandowski.

'Mrs. Odom stated that over the course of the dinner, Mr. Lewandowski tried to hold her hand, and she pushed his hand away. He touched her leg, and she moved it away. He grabbed her napkin off her lap and tried to touch her leg again, and she pulled her dress over her leg, to move his hand away and cover her skin,' Odom's lawyer wrote.

The alleged events took place at the Westgate hote in Las Vegas

A group of GOP donors gathered at the Westgate's Benihana restaurant for the event

In this file photo taken on November 05, 2020, Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (L), speaks outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the state continues to count votes from the November 3 election

Lewandowski served as campaign manager during the key early stages of Donald Trump's presidential campaign

Lewandowski's lawyers released a statement about 'accusations and rumors'

The statement claims Lewandowski showed Odom his hotel room key'

The account describes the alleged unwanted advances beginning at a dinner, where the two were seated next to one another.

'I am coming forward because he needs to be held accountable,' Odom said. 'I am blessed to have a loving husband and family behind me. I want other women to know that you can be heard, too, and together we can stop terrible things like this from happening.'

Lewandowski lawyers David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld responded to the allegations with a single-line statement to DailyMail.com. It said: 'Accusations and rumors appear to be morphing by the minute and we will not dignify them with a further response.'

Lewandowski is married to Allison Lewandowski and has four children.

He was charged with assault for allegedly grabbing a Breitbart reporter during 2016 campaign, but charges were dropped.

According to the Odom statement, 'He touched her back and she tried to get away. He described an area where he was sore from a workout, on the side of his butt, but he demonstrated this by touching her thereon the upper side of her rear end. Lewandowski tried to touch her approximately 10 times, and Mrs. Odom always rebuffed him.'
The widow of a man who died last year after he was hit by South Dakota's Attorney General has reached an out-of-court settlement after threatening to sue the top prosecutor, who still faces the possibility of impeachment.

Widow Jenny Boever and AG Jason Ravnsborg confirmed their agreement on Wednesday without revealing any terms or amounts.

Joseph Boever, 55, was walking along a highway near the small city of Highmore when Ravnsborg hit him the night of September 12, 2020. Ravnsborg told 911 dispatchers that he thought he hit a deer and only found out it was a man after returning to the scene the next morning.

On August 26, the attorney general pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of making an illegal lane change and using a phone while driving. He was ordered to pay $500 fines on each charge and court costs of $3,742, according to NPR.

A third charge of careless driving was dropped.

Matthew Tysdal, an attorney for Jenny, and Mike Deaver, a spokesman for Ravnsborg, confirmed the settlement but would not reveal any terms.

Tysdal told DailyMail.com: 'The parties will have no further comment and Mrs. Boever requests that her privacy be respected going forward.'

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (left) pled no contest to two misdemeanor charges after striking and killing Joseph Boever, 55, with his car in an accident last year

Boever's wife Jenny has now reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement with Ravnsborg

The accident happened near the city of Highmore. Ravnsborg was returning home to Pierre, 49 mi west, after a political fundraiser. Police found no alcohol in his system 15 hours later

'They have reached a settlement with the insurance company and Mr. Ravnsborg,' Deaver, Ravnsborg's spokesman, told The Associated Press.

'It happened fairly quickly. So there won't be any kind of civil suits or anything else, as it was an accident.'

Ravnsborg was driving home to Pierre, 49 mi west of Highmore, from a political fundraiser when he hit Boever on US 14.

A toxicology test taken 15 hours after the accident found no alcohol in his system and no one at the event saw him drinking, NPR reported. Prosecutors have said Ranvsborg was cooperative in the investigation.

They also said Ravnsborg was on his phone roughly a minute before the crash, but phone records showed it was locked at the moment of impact.

Ravnsborg told investigators that the last thing he remembered before impact was turning off the radio and looking at his speedometer.

Boever's family has suggested prosecutors were light on Ravnsborg because of his job

In videos released by state officials, investigators suggested that Ravnsborg knew he hit a man because Boever's glasses were found in his backseat

The attorney general told 911 dispatchers that he only realized Boever was a man and not a deer when he found his body at the site of the crash the next morning.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who released video of investigators questioning Ravnsborg, has repeatedly called for him to resign as the state's top prosecutor.

The video shows detectives suggesting that Boever's body hit Ravnsborg's windshield so hard that part of Boever's eyeglasses ended up in the backseat.

'They're Joe's glasses,' an investigator said, according to Sioux City station KMEG.

Ravnsborg replied: 'I wondered, worried, wondered about that.'

'So that means his face came through your windshield,' the investigator said.

The GOP-controlled Legislature will consider whether to try to impeach the Republican attorney general during a special session that starts November 9.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers filed articles of impeachment against Ravnsborg back in February, but they delayed the unprecedented proceedings after a judge in the case ordered Noem and government officials to stop releasing evidence in the investigation.

Boever's cousin Nick Nemec said tire skid marks stretched for over 200 feet before there were two parallel blood skid marks still on the paved shoulder three days after the crash

Nemec also said he spotted the red Ford Taurus driven by Ravnosborg, which was taken in by the Department of Transportation with a 'huge hole' in the passenger side of the windshield

Ravnsborg has accused 'partisan opportunists' of exploiting the situation and said they had 'manufactured rumors, conspiracy theories and made statements in direct contradiction to the evidence all sides agreed upon.'

Gov. Noem would get to appoint a replacement if Ravnsborg leaves or is removed from office.

Though the terms of Wednesday's settlement remain a mystery, Boever's family has supported his removal from office and remain hurt by the incident and the punishment.

'Our brother lay in the ditch for 12 hours,' said Joseph's sister Jane, adding that she believes Ravnsborg used his political connections to get lesser charges. 'This is inexcusable.'

The AG's attorney Tim Rensch called his client an 'honorable man' and said the case was 'not a homicide case, and it's not a manslaughter case.'

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has repeatedly called for Ravnsborg to resign. The GOP legislature will consider whether or not to impeach him in a special session in November

'Accidents happen, people die. It should not happen. No one wants anybody to die,' he said.

Jane Boever called the misdemeanor charges 'a slap on the wrist' and said Ravnosborg has only shown 'arrogance toward the law.'

Last month, the judge in the case honored a request from Boever's family and ordered the Republican to complete a 'significant public service event' in each of the next five years near the date of Boever's death, but the judge then put that on hold after Ravnsborg's attorney said it wasn't allowed by statute.

Prosecutors argue that the case received extra scrutiny because of Ravnsborg's job.

'Because of who it was and the high profile nature of the case, the investigation was a lot more thorough,' said Beadle County State Attorney Michael Moore.

Ravnsborg did not show up to the August 26 hearing, though he was not required to.



'Why, after having to wait nearly a year, do we not have the chance to face him?' Jane Boever asked the court. She added that 'his cowardly behavior leaves us frustrated.'

Michael Card, a political science professor at the University of South Dakota, previously told the Associated Press many were also asking questions over how Ravnsborg could have mistaken the victim for an animal.

South Dakota is ranked as one of the most dangerous states for animal-vehicular collisions, according to State Farm Insurance, with crashes involving deer on the state's highways common.

Card said the familiarity with deer collisions means many have cast doubt on how a human and deer could be mistaken by a driver.

'If this is people's lived experience, then he may be convicted in the court of public opinion,' Card said.

'If they form a negative opinion collectively, he may not be able to get past this.'
Federal investigators believe Brian Laundrie purchased a burner phone at an AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida on the day he went missing.

FBI agents seized surveillance footage from the store as reports have surfaced that Laundrie may have visited the establishment with an older woman on September 14.

This is the day Laundrie reportedly left his parents' home to go for a hike, which is three days after Gabby Petito was reported missing.

The seizure comes as internet sleuths have noticed changes to his social media accounts and Lyssa Chapman  daughter of Dog the Bounty Hunter who joined the nationwide search for the 23-year-old on Saturday  confirmed that the FBI believes Laundrie's mother, Roberta, is also using a burner phone.

The North Port AT&T store declined to comment on whether Laundrie and Roberta visited the establishment, telling DailyMail.com: 'We are not confirming or denying anything and we are not making any statements.'

However, the Laundries' attorney, Steven Bertolino did tell TMZ the family purchased a new phone but he 'believes it's the one Brian left behind at home' and notes that the 'FBI is already in possession of it'.

Bertolino's comment echoes a previous statement he made to Insider, stating that investigators were in possession of the device. The lawyer claims the 23-year-old left his wallet and cell phone at his family's home before leaving the residence on September 14. The whereabouts of his fiancee's phone remain unknown.

The FBI also seized surveillance footage from Fort De Soto Park on Wednesday, Fox News reported.

Dog the Bounty Hunter, who currently has boat and ground crews searching the area, says the 1,136 acre park  which is made up of five interconnected islands  is the 'perfect spot' for Laundrie to hide.

'This would be and could be a perfect spot for him to hide, not too many people out here, but there's a lot of environmental things that we're gonna fight,' Dog said in a video posted to Twitter.

'The search now is really on. The search has just begun.'

Federal investigators believe fugitive Brian Laundrie may be using a burner cell phone that was purchased at and AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida on the day he went missing

The North Port AT&T store (pictured) declined to comment on the alleged purchase, telling the Daily Mail: 'We are not confirming or denying anything and we are not making any statements'

Dog was searching coastline and creeks on Wednesday for Laundrie in the area of the Florida campground that the fugitive visited with his parents earlier this month.

The TV reality star - real name Duane Chapman, 68 - has been aboard a boat and working with his own teams around the Fort De Soto site located about 75 miles from the North Port home Laundrie shared with dad Christopher, 62, and mom Roberta, 55.

'He's working on very strong leads today,' said the former bail bondsman's spokesperson Jennifer Willingham. 'This could very well be the last day of the hunt to apprehend Brian Laundrie.

'He's been using a boat. But we don't want other folk piling in with their boats in the area. He's following specific information.'

Dog has also called in K9 teams to assist with his search, which he plans to continue into the evening.

'It doesnt matter who catches him,' Dog said Wednesday afternoon. 'We just want to do everything we can to help bring Brian in safely.'

Dog the Bounty Hunter boarded a boat Wednesday to search the area around the Fort De Soto campground that Brian Laundrie and his parents visited earlier this month

Laundrie is a person of interest in the homicide of his 22-year-old fiancee, Gabby Petito. The couple embarked on an once-in-a-lifetime cross-country road trip in July, but on September 1, Laundrie returned home to Florida without Petito. She was reported missing on September 11, and her remains were discovered near a Wyoming campsite on September 19.

The newly seized surveillance footage could provide investigators with a more accurate picture of what took place in the days ahead of Laundrie's disappearance.

On Tuesday, Bertolino confirmed that all three Laundrie family members went camping in a Florida national park just five days before his fiancee Gabby Petito was reported missing.

Bertolino said the family camped together at Fort De Soto from September 6, leaving together the following day.

'They all left the park,' Bertolino said, according to Fox 13.

Timeline of missing Gabby Petito's case July 2: Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip

Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip August 12: Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple. Petito tells an officer Laundrie hit her but cops decide she is the primary aggressor

Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple. Petito tells an officer Laundrie hit her but cops decide she is the primary aggressor Aug. 21: Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah

Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 24: Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie

Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie Aug. 25: Petito makes final call to her mother, Nicole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park

Petito makes final call to her mother, Nicole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park Aug. 25 or 26: The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes

The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes Aug. 27: Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune, of Red White & Bethune, around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Petito's mom receives an 'odd text' from her phone

Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune, of Red White & Bethune, around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Petito's mom receives an 'odd text' from her phone Aug. 29: The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm

The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm Aug. 30: Petito's mom receives the last text from her phone: 'No service in Yosemite'

receives the last text from her phone: 'No service in Yosemite' Aug. 31: Laundrie's mother Roberta cancels a camping trip for 2 to Fort De Soto campsite for Sept. 1-3

Laundrie's mother Roberta cancels a camping trip for 2 to Fort De Soto campsite for Sept. 1-3 Sept. 1: Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in the van without Petito; Laundrie visits sister Cassie at her home

Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in the van without Petito; Laundrie visits sister Cassie at her home Sept. 4: According to his attorney, Laundrie purchases a new cell phone from a North Port AT&T store which he leaves at his home September 14 and is seized by the FBI

Sept. 6-8: Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida, records show. The family's lawyer says they stayed only from Sept. 6-7. Brian's sister Cassie joins them - reportedly for the day on Sept. 6

Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida, records show. The family's lawyer says they stayed only from Sept. 6-7. Brian's sister Cassie joins them - reportedly for the day on Sept. 6 Sept. 10: The Laundries' neighbor Karyn Roberts says she saw Laundrie at the family home

The Laundries' neighbor Karyn Roberts says she saw Laundrie at the family home Sept. 11: Petito's mom reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van is impounded by police in Florida that same day but authorities are denied entry to their home to speak with Laundrie

Petito's mom reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van is impounded by police in Florida that same day but authorities are denied entry to their home to speak with Laundrie Sept. 12: Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito

Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito Sept. 14: Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie reportedly buys a burner phone from an AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida, with an 'older woman'; Laundrie is reportedly last seen by his parents leaving to go to the Carlton Reserve carrying a backpack

Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie reportedly buys a burner phone from an AT&T store in his hometown of North Port, Florida, with an 'older woman'; Laundrie is reportedly last seen by his parents leaving to go to the Carlton Reserve carrying a backpack Sept. 15: Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case

Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case Sept. 16: The August 12 domestic comes to light with bodycam from one officer released

The August 12 domestic comes to light with bodycam from one officer released Sept. 17: Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown and that his parents last saw him Sept. 14; Cassie tells GMA she last saw him Sept. 1 and describes Petito as 'like a sister' to her

Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown and that his parents last saw him Sept. 14; Cassie tells GMA she last saw him Sept. 1 and describes Petito as 'like a sister' to her Sept. 18: North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie

North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie Sept. 19: Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials find a body near Grand Teton National Park that matches Petitos description

Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials find a body near Grand Teton National Park that matches Petitos description Sept. 21: Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under investigation

Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under investigation Sept. 20 - 22: FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve

FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve Sept. 22 : Neighbors say they saw the Laundrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13

: Neighbors say they saw the Laundrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13 Sept. 23: FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando

FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando Sept. 25: Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie

Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie Sept. 26: A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children

A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children Sept. 27: Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left

Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left Sept. 28: Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son

Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son Sept. 29: Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the area near Fort De Soto finding a recently drunk can of Monster Energy at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods

Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the area near Fort De Soto finding a recently drunk can of Monster Energy at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods Sept. 30: Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home

Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home Oct. 1: It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did. The Laundrie family said they believe he is alive somewhere in Florida

It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did. The Laundrie family said they believe he is alive somewhere in Florida Oct. 2: Petito's mother creates a new Twitter account and calls for Laundrie to turn himself into authorities in an 'angry' tweet. It is revealed that Petito's family tried to report her missing to North Port Police Department on September 10 but were told to file a report in her last known location Advertisement

Dog the Bounty Hunter, who has joined the search for Laundrie, said Monday night that Laundrie's parents spent the night in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, from September 1 to 3, staying in spot number 1.

They returned again with Brian to stay on spot 15 from September 6 to 8, and left without him, Dog claims.

Records did not show the Laundrie family staying at the park from September 1 to 3.

After first saying: 'I will no longer give that dog credibility or dignify his false claims with the time of my reply,' Bertolino confirmed the family had stayed at the site, though he gave the dates as being from September 6 to 7.

Brian Laundrie, 23, and Petito embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country road trip in July. But on September 1, Laundrie returned home to Florida without his 22-year-old fiancee. She was reported missing on September 11, and her remains were discovered near a Wyoming campsite on September 19.

If Dog's claims are accurate, Brian could have had a week head-start before he was named a person of interest on September 15.

The confirmation of the camping trip comes amid growing speculation that Laundrie's mother could be using a burner phone as the hunt for her son - the prime suspect in Petito's murder - continues.

Reporters in Tampa approached the FBI after internet sleuths showed screen grabs of Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughter Lyssa Chapman appearing to confirm the FBI believe Roberta Laundrie is using a burner phone.

It has not been suggested that she is using the burner phone to communicate with her son.

'We do not confirm or deny contact with any individual or entity in order to preserve their privacy, as such, we do not confirm or deny the receipt of any tip. We have no additional comment,' the FBI said, according to 10 Tampa Bay reporter Shannon Clowe.

Lyssa Chapman tweeted that the FBI confirmed the accusations that Roberta is in possession of a burner phone but did not present any evidence of the confirmation.

The Laundrie family attorney, Steven Bertolino, had 'no comment.'

Internet sleuths have claimed that Brian is using a burner phone after allegedly noticing changes to his Instagram and Spotify accounts since he disappeared two weeks ago.

His Instagram account reportedly went live for three seconds on Monday showing waves and just a peak of an olive green boat, according to Inside Edition.

The account also reportedly unfollowed several people.

There have also been claims online that Brian's Spotify playlist name changed from 'Selfconsomption' to 'Nomatic Statik.' The playlist was reportedly created after Petito's disappearance.

Brian has been named a person of interest in the investigation into his fiancee's death. Her remains were found in Wyoming and her death ruled a homicide after she was reported missing on September 11.

Dog the Bounty Hunter joined the search for Brian on Saturday and was quickly flooded with tips, one of which claimed that the Laundrie family spent the night in Fort De Soto Park with their son twice after he came back alone from Wyoming in early September.

Dog said in an interview with Dr Oz on Tuesday that he wants to speak to Brian's father, because parents know where their kids are '50 per cent of the time' when they have been accused of a crime. He said another 35 per cent of parents help with the search.

Dog, who was convicted of first degree murder in the 1970s, added: 'I wanna talk to his dad and explain the difference between involuntary manslaughter and murder one out of Wyoming.

'In murder one, you're facing the death penalty. A manslaughter is a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

'I wanted to explain to him, "I know exactly what you're going through right now. As a matter of fact, I personally went through it." So, I just wanted to talk to the dad.'

A Fort Meyers couple have claimed they camped next to Brian and his parents during their campsite trip to Fort De Soto Park.

Marcie and Kenny Newson realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway.

They said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite.

'They kept to themselves. They were there an then they weren't', they told NBC 2.

Another camper whose name appeared on the ledger was celebrating his anniversary with his wife three spots down from the Laundries.

Thomas Rutherford told Fox News that he could 'vaguely remember' spotting the Laundries' vehicle, which they noted due to the novelty of seeing a camper attached to a vehicle.

Since the tip lead investigators to the Florida park about 75 miles north of North Port, it has been revealed that Brian and Petito have stayed at the campsite before.

The attorney for Brian Laundrie's parents has confirmed that all three went camping in Fort De Soto in Florida national Park just days before his fiancee Gabby Petito was reported missing. The camping site is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos

The campsite (pictured) is located in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, close to St Petersburg

Two months ago Laundrie and Gabby Petitio visited the same spot and posted photos hiking and showing them relaxing on the beach. They also posted this photo behind bars

The attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie has confirmed that Laundrie went camping with his parents at Fort de Soto Park five days before Gabby Petito was reported missing. Laundrie had returned home to North Port, Florida on September 1 and Petito was reported missing on September 11. Police and FBI are now searching Cartlon Reserve for any sign of him

Roberta Laundrie (right) has been accused of using a burner phone to keep in contact with her son, Brian, who is currently wanted by the police. Christopher (left) and Roberta (right) Laundrie visited their attorney in Orlando on Thursday

Two months ago, the pair uploaded a series of photos to hiking website The Dyrt that show them relaxing on the beach and exploring the Fort De Soto campground.

A spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office told DailyMail.com that there is no search underway and the only activity at the 1,130-acre site Tuesday was a handful of media helicopters circling overhead.

A spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said: 'We are not conducting an investigation at Fort De Soto. We are unaware of any confirmed sightings of Brian.'

Dog continues to push the idea that Laundrie could be there, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection.

Duane Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, (pictured at the weekend outside the Laundrie house in North Port, Florida) said on Monday that he had located a campsite where the Laundrie family stayed in September and where he believes Brian Laundrie is hiding out

Brian (left) has also been accused of using a burner phone after activity to his social media accounts were allegedly spotted by people online

Petito, (right) was found dead in Wyoming after Brian (left) returned from their cross-country 'van life' trip without her on September 1

Records show that the Laundrie family checked into the Fort De Soto campground

In one photo from the fateful couple's visit, Laundrie and Gabby are seen peering through the bars of a jail cell at an old fort. In more snaps, Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand.

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' the couple said in a review.

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes.

Last week, Laundrie's neighbors, Charlene and William Guthrie, said they saw the family hook up the camper to the back of their pickup truck for a weekend trip away about a week after their son's return, on September 11 - the same day Gabby was reported missing.

The family would have returned about two days later as DailyMail.com photos show the camper back in the driveway on September 13.

Marcie and Kenny Newsom (first and second right) said they could not confirm physically seeing Laundrie but a selfie from their trip appears to show him walking across the campsite

A Fort Meyers couple realized they may have stayed near the family after looking back on photos and seeing a red truck with a camper (left) similar to the one parked in the Laundries' driveway (right)

When police contacted the Guthries over the disappearance of Petito, William told them about the family's trip, noting that it was unusual for Christopher and Roberta Laundrie to go off in such a small camper with their 23-year-old son.

'I saw them doing some work. And then when they prepared for their trip, I saw them loading the camper,' William told Fox News.

Search efforts have so far been concentrated at the Carlton Reserve - an alligator-infested watery 25,000-acre site 13 miles north of the Laundrie family home in North Port.

'Allegedly, what we're hearing, is two people left on the 8th,' said Chapman.

'Three people came in on the 6th, and two people left on the 8th. I think he's been here for sure.'

'Really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!' Gabby and Brian said in a review of the campsite during their visit two months ago (pictured)

An extensive search for Laundrie has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in the homicide of Petito, whose remains were found on September 19

In more snaps Gabby is seen reading a true crime novel book on the beach, exploring the dunes and holding a starfish in the palm of her hand

A Fox News Digital reporter overheard a park worker say investigators had checked surveillance video on the grounds.

The Laundries maintained their silence Tuesday when they were seen leaving home mid-morning to buy groceries at Walmart. They have not publicly commented on Brian's disappearance or the slaying of his fiance.

Brian was charged with 'use of unauthorized access device' last Thursday, but said they will 'continue to investigate the facts and circumstances of Ms. Petito's homicide.'

An extensive search for Brian has been underway since his parents reported him missing on September 17 - two days after he was named a person of interest in Petito's case.

Dog believes that Laundrie could be in this area, hopping from island to island in a canoe to evade detection

Based around a fort built in 1900, Fort De Soto contains more than seven miles of waterfront, eleven floating docks and multiple places to launch kayaks and canoes

Dog is adamant that Brian could be hopping from island to island in a kayak or canoe at the Fort De Soto camping site

Petito and Brian visited the De Soto campground together according to their review on The Dyrt

The FBI refused to confirm or deny the allegations as Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, declined to comment

A group of 75 officers from more than 16 agencies joined the search last week, using drones, diver units, dogs and ATV vehicles to comb the 25,000-acre preserve since his parents reported that Brian might be there.

Over 100 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails are contained in the park, along with camping areas and rivers. Wildlife there includes alligators, bobcats, snakes and coyotes.

Florida cattle rancher Alan McEwen, who lives outside the Carlton Reserve, has spent 30 years exploring the area and said it's not somewhere humans can easily live. He has been assisting police in their search for Brian.

'There's no surviving out here, I don't know how to say it,' he told Fox News.

'I've been in the woods in and out all my life. I have learned a lot in my life, and one thing I know is no one is gonna survive out there for two weeks on foot.'

Dog vowed to find him before his 24th birthday on November 18. Seattle's Boohoof Law offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
A married man who choked his lover to death during sex and was jailed for less than five years could have his sentence extended after an intervention by the Attorney General.

Sam Pybus, 32, was jailed this month for four years and eight months for the manslaughter of Sophie Moss, a vulnerable 33-year-old mother of two.

The Attorney General referred the jail term to the Court of Appeal for being 'unduly lenient'.

Sam Pybus, 32, was jailed this month for four years and eight months for the manslaughter of Sophie Moss

Teesside Crown Court heard how Pybus had drunk 24 bottles of lager when he applied pressure to her neck for tens of seconds or even minutes at her flat in Darlington in February.

A spokesman from the Attorney General's Office said: 'I can confirm that the Attorney General has referred Sam Pybus's sentence to the Court of Appeal as she agrees that it appears unduly lenient.

'It is now for the court to decide whether to increase the sentence.'

Judge Paul Watson QC jailed Pybus for four years and eight months, having reduced the sentence from seven years after giving credit for his early guilty plea to manslaughter.

Pybus (left) admitted killing Sophie Moss, 33, (right) who was found in a critical condition following an incident at a property in Darlington in February

Pybus woke up and found Ms Moss naked and unresponsive but did not dial 999, waiting in his car for 15 minutes before driving to a police station to raise the alarm, the court heard.

A post-mortem examination revealed he had applied enough pressure to her neck for long enough to kill. There was no evidence of any other injuries or violence.

The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not sufficient evidence to support a charge of murder as there was nothing to suggest he intended to kill her or cause serious harm.

Married Pybus told police he and Ms Moss had been in a casual relationship for three years, and that she encouraged him to strangle her during consensual sex.

The court heard Ms Moss's long-term partner, not named in court, said likewise.

The Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured) referred the jail term to the Court of Appeal for being 'unduly lenient'

The referral comes after Labour's Harriet Harman, who chairs Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, wrote to the Attorney General to complain about the 'unduly lenient' sentence.

Campaign group We Can't Consent To This previously told MailOnline: 'It seems that strangling a woman to death is still viewed in law as an unfortunate accident, rather than terrible serious violence. This sends a dreadful message to women - four years eight months is an outrageous sentence for killing a woman.

'This year strangulation was made a specific offence in recognition of the seriousness of this violence, and the Government were clear, that claims of rough sex must not be used by perpetrators to evade justice.

'Justice minister Alex Chalk said of the government's law change this April: "Perpetrators of these crimes should be under no illusions  their actions will never be justifiable in any way, and they will be pursued rigorously through the courts to seek justice for victims and their families".'

'We don't think this is how the law should work - and look to the government now to see what they intend to do.'
President Biden's top military officials blamed the State Department for delaying the evacuation of civilians from Kabul during two days of congressional testimony, saying the airlift could have begun months before the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital.

The result played out on TV stations around the world, with chaotic images of desperate Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes and tales of American citizens being turned away from the airport by Taliban gunmen.

The Biden administration has faced intense criticism for the frantic departure and the fate of Americans left behind.

In private testimony on Tuesday, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly said the State Department 'waited too long' to order the airlift.

And in public testimony before the House Armed Services Committee a day later, Austin said the State Department only authorized the civilian evacuation on August 14 - when the Taliban had all but seized control of the capital Kabul.

Democratic Rep. Kaialii Kahele asked whether it should have begun before April 14 when President Biden announced he was withdrawing all U.S. troops.

'I certainly think it could have,' said Austin. 'Yeah, again we had the elements to begin to begin to operate a bit sooner.

'That's a State Department call and we provide our input, and it's based upon a lot of things.

'This is not throwing my State Department colleagues under the bus. It's a very dynamic and challenging situation.'

Secretary of State Tony Blinken (r) will face questions about delaying approval of the civilian evacuation of Kabul after Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd said their operation could have begun sooner during congressional testimony

Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, as foreign nationals sought escape and desperate Afghans pleaded for help, dominated the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

The world watched in horror as desperate Afghans ran alongside departing U.S. Air Force planes. Some tried to cling to the undercarriage as they sought to escape the Taliban

His comments will increase questions about rifts behind the scenes - between Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken - and about who was recommending what to Biden.

A day earlier Milley said the timing of the order to begin evacuating was an 'open question that needed further exploration.'

But Axios reported that he went much further during a closed-door session.

He was asked a general question about lessons learned and replied that the evacuation of civilians needed to happen earlier, according to two sources.

He acknowledged that there were often differences between the State Department and the Pentagon in general, but the divisions were particularly pronounced in this instance.

Critics such as former President Trump have repeatedly said civilians should have been brought home long before the last soldiers left.

The withdrawal and the evacuation has severely tested Biden's claim to be a foreign policy expert.

His approval ratings collapsed amid images of Afghans clinging to U.S. transport planes as they desperately sought to escape their new Taliban rulers.

A suicide blast killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans in the last days of the chaotic evacuation from Kabul airport.

Republicans used Wednesday's hearing to attack the Biden administration handling of the withdrawal, and question the president's judgement.

But Democrats also expressed concern about planning for the exit and why civilians were not brought out sooner.

'The call on how to do that and when to do it is really a State Department call,' said Austin in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin.

'Their concerns rightfully were that, number one they were being cautioned by the [Kabul] administration that if they withdrew American citizens and SIV applicants at a pace that was too fast, it would cause a collapse of the government that we were trying to prevent.

'And so, I think that went into the calculus.'

On August 31 President Joe Biden declared the US troop withdrawal from Kabul to be an 'extraordinary success.' On Wednesday, during a congressional hearing, Republican Rep Mike Rogers said: 'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

Administration officials have repeatedly described the rescue of 124,000 people in a matter of two weeks as a logistical triumph.

'The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,' said Biden at the end of August when the last U.S. troops had left.

But hundreds of Americans were left behind, along with thousands of Afghan allies.

Efforts continue to rescue those left behind and on Wednesday Austin added that some 63 Americans had been brought out in the preceding 24 hours.

The top Republican on the committee set the tone for proceedings with an opening statement in which he said Biden was 'delusional' for claiming the U.S. exit was a success.

Rep Mike Rogers said the exit came at the cost of 13 service members' lives and left behind hundreds of American citizens.

'I fear the president may be delusional,' he said.

'This wasnt an extraordinary success; it was an extraordinary disaster.

'It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership.'

Later Biden's top military adviser offered a devastating verdict on the war saying for the first time that the 20-year conflict ended in defeat.

Administration officials have repeatedly claimed the conflict achieved its objective of degrading Al Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and ensuring Afghanistan could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

But Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a different view.

'The war was a strategic failure,' he said during his opening statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

He was later asked whether Biden's decisions were to blame.

Milley answered by describing 20 years of missteps and saying for the first time that the war had been lost.

'There's a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years,' he said.

'I don't think that when you ever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost - and it has been, in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted.'

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said for the first time that the U.S. 'lost' the war in Afghanistan after 20 years of mistakes and missteps as he delivered testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday

Taliban forces took control of Kabul on August 15 triggering a haphazard evacuation of foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans from the city's airport

The hearing came during intense scrutiny of President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal, and whether his military advisers warned him not to bring troops home.

Austin defended the decision to leave Afghanistan. He declined to discuss the advice he gave the president but said there was no 'risk-free status quo' option.

'I think that the Taliban had been clear if we stayed there longer, they were going to recommence attacks on our forces,' he said.

'I think while it's conceivable that you could stay there, my view is that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any missions we would have been assigned.'

Later in the hearing, Austin said he could not rule out having to send troops back into Afghanistan.

'I would just say that obviously that's a decision that has to be made by the president,' he said.

'While I won't rule anything out, I would just say it's not preordained that we will go back or have to go back into Afghanistan again.

'But if we do, the military will provide good, credible options to be able to do that and to be effective.'

A day earlier, senators heard from the nation's top generals and defense secretary that Biden had been warned that pulling out all troops would lead to the collapse of the Kabul government.

Their testimony prompted Republicans to accuse Biden of lying during an August interview when he said he had heard no such advice.

Milley declined to describe his advice to the president.

However, he said his personal opinion was that a minimum of 2,500 U.S. troops were needed to prevent a collapse of the Kabul government.

On Tuesday Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as head of Central Command oversaw the final days of the U.S. war, said he shared Milley's view a residual force was needed to prevent a Taliban takeover.

'I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,' McKenzie said.

'I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.'
Two Florida women have been arrested after they allegedly drugged a male tourist with crushed Xanax before robbing him of his credit card and going on a spending spree.

Elizabeth Labbe, 19, and Kimberly Ann Lebron-Martinez, 20, are facing a slew of charges over the caper, which took place in Miami Beach last week.

Labbe and Lebron-Martinez approached their victim in the early hours of Friday morning and asked him if he would like to join them for a drink, according to a police report obtained by NBC 6.

The man agreed and trio went to a nearby bar before later picking up a carton of White Claw spiked seltzers and heading to a park.

The man told police he took a sip of a drink from a plastic cup before he quickly lost consciousness. He later awoke to find his debit and credit card missing, along with $3,000 in cash that he had withdrawn for his vacation.

Elizabeth Labbe (left) and Kimberly Ann Lebron-Martinez (right) allegedly drugged a male tourist with crushed Xanax before robbing him of his credit card and going on a spending spree.

Labbe and Lebron-Martinez approached their victim in the early hours of Friday morning along a Miami Beach street (pictured)

Cops claim Labbe and Lebron-Martinez also fleeced the unnamed victim of his iPhone 12, his $10,000 Omega watch and his $4,000 gold chain.

The duplicitous duo also allegedly stole the man's posh pair of Yeezy sneakers - worth a cool $250 - pulling them off his feet as he lay unconscious.

Labbe and Lebron-Martinez are then accused of going on a 16-hour spending spree, splashing the tourist's cash and wracking up charges on his credit card.

They also allegedly obtained access to his iPhone and used his Zelle and Apple Pay accounts to carry out fraudulent transactions.

All up, officers say the pair spent more than $15,000.

The duo were tacked down using surveillance footage from the Miami Beach area.

Lebron-Martinez reportedly admitted to playing a part in the crime, saying she crushed up Xanax and slipped it in the man's drink.

She and Labbe are now facing charges of robbery, grand theft, fraudulent use of identification, and unlawful possession of a stolen credit card.

The man, who was vacationing in Florida, was carrying cash and was wearing expensive jewelry and sneakers
A Washington state school district is doubling down on forcing a teacher to take down a Thin Blue Line flag from her classroom because the superintendent claims it has become a symbol of hate groups.

The unnamed teacher at Marysville Middle School was ordered to take down the flag honoring her brother, a former police officer with the Marysville Police Department , over claims that it was 'too political' and 'controversial'.

Her brother Chris Sutherland had hit out at the decision saying it 'does not make sense at all', especially as other teachers' LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter flags were allowed to remain.

Now Dr. Chris Pearson, interim superintendent for the Marysville School District, has defended the district's decision, claiming the pro-police flag was too 'political' and even had ties to hate groups.

A teacher at a Washington middle school was reportedly asked to take down her Thin Blue Line flag that she hung up in her classroom to support her brother

The Thin Blue Line flag was seen being carried carried by rioters during the January 6th attacks on the US Capital (pictured)

Yet, Pearson insisted the BLM and LGBTQ flags can stay because they 'make vulnerable students feel seen'.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Pearson said: 'While (the Thin Blue Line flag) might be viewed by some as a tribute to police, this symbol was also used by hate groups in the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, and was also carried by rioters during the January 6th attacks on the US Capital.

'Therefore, without any educational context or purpose, the display of this symbol in a school classroom cannot be reasonably divorced from the political meanings that have been attached to its varied uses and, as a result, may send a mixed or even disruptive message to staff, students and families.'

But the district said these same rules don't apply to other flags that could be interpreted as political that remain on display, such as the Black Lives Matter flag or the Pride flag.

Pearson said that he believed the flags were symbols of 'equity and inclusion' and so were 'appropriate for campus display.'

'For many of our most vulnerable students who might participate in one of these clubs, these symbols may also help them to feel both heard and seen by their school community,' Pearson said.

Marysville Police Department declined to comment on the flag controversy but 'thank(ed) the community for their support'.

The issue first came to light after the teacher's cop brother Sutherland complained about the decision to The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

'They told her that it's controversial to have that flag up,' he said. 'That it makes kids and staff feel unsafe, which to me, that does not make sense at all.'

In a letter, Marysville School District officials asked the teacher to take down the Thin Blue Line flag by the morning of September 8 or face 'further disciplinary action'

District officials did not seem to have an issue with the Pride flag she hung up in her classroom in support of her sister, though

The teacher's brother said his sister previously had a run in with an assistant principal over a Thin Blue Line sticker on her laptop.

In a HR document about the incident, which conservative radio host Jason Rantz, of KTTH, obtained, the assistant principal said there were 'concerns about how students, families and community members might interpret what the image is intending to communicate, and that this interpretation may cause a disruption to the learning environment.'

The objections were soon dropped, though, and the teacher later posted the flag in her classroom.

But soon, Rantz reports, a second assistant principal ordered the flag to be taken down, an an HR representative for the Marysville School District said in a Letter of Clarification to the teacher that the district was 'highly concerned about the impact of this political symbol on students, staff and families of Marysville Middle School.'

It said the assistant principal 'had heard concerns from other staff members about how this political symbol might negatively impact the overall work environment,' but does not indicate what those concerns were.

She tried to fight back, he said, telling them 'she was leaving it up because of what it meant to her.'

District officials then told her to 'refrain from using the 'Thin Blue Line Flag' symbol' in the school by the morning of September 8, or she could face 'further disciplinary action.'

Eventually, Rantz reports, the teacher decided to remove the Thin Blue Line flag, but wrote in a message to the school's Human Resources department that the ordeal 'has been the most traumatic and hostile' situation she has experienced at the school.

The teacher works at Marysville Middle School, seen here

She wrote: 'I was proud to come back as a Marysville alumni and begin teaching here in 2014. I remain hopeful for the remainder of the school year.'

The teacher further explained that the decision to pull the flag came from 'an agenda rather than really wanting to gain any understanding of me, who I am, or my story.'

She added that the incident 'left a lasting impression,' but she forgives the school district for the sleight.

'It really hurts,' Sutherland told DailyMail.com. 'I know it hurts her too and many more to make her take down the flag that represents us in law enforcement in a school district where we had one of the worst school shootings a couple years ago.

'I was on campus at Marysville-Pilchuck High School that day, and gave my heart and soul in an effort to make things normal,' he noted. 'I worked so close with the school district and community that it now feels like a slap in the face to me and my brothers and sisters in law enforcement who support us.

'Plus the district does not wait any time at all to call us when they need us,' Sutherland added. 'If the flag and sight of police officers is that bad and scary, then why do they still call?'

Sutherland noted that his sister will continue to fight to get the flag back up in her classroom without fear of being fired for it.

The incident comes as multiple teachers have removed American flags from their classrooms, according to FOX News, with one in Portland saying they removed it because it 'stands for violence and menace and intolerance, and I will not fly that in my room.'

Another teacher in California was recently removed from her classroom after a viral video showed her admitting she encouraged students to pledge allegiance to a gay pride flag after she removed the American flag from the classroom because it made her 'uncomfortable.'

And just last week, Arizona State University students were confronted over a 'racist' sticker on a computer reading 'Police Lives Matter,' and were reportedly told to leave the area where they were studying.
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The conditions on Rikers Island, home to New York City's main jail complex, are 'so bad' that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has asked prosecutors not to ask for bail in non-violent cases, even if it risks an increase in 'low-level street crime.'

From now on, monetary bail will not be required for offenders in NYC if the crime is considered nonviolent.

Prosecutors will also drop bail for defendants who aren't considered violent felons and who have not record of sex crimes or violent convictions within the last ten years. The defendant also needs to have a perfect court date attendance.

Warshawer said the office will still ask for release upon parole and other terms that don't involve monetary transactions.

The order comes after a dozen deaths were reported this year at the jail complex, which is subject to a potential federal civil rights investigation request by New York City lawmakers.

The district attorney's office said the conditions at Rikers 'are of deep concern' and 'will inform our bail practices for at least the next few weeks.'

Conditions at Rikers Island have gotten so bad that Manhattan DA Cy Vance tells prosecutors not to ask for bail on crimes committed by non-violent offenders  even if it risks an increase in 'low-level' crime. PICTURED: A sign marks the location of the Rikers Correctional Center in the East River.

City officials toured Rikers complex last week saying it's filthy and inhumane, with overflowing toilets and floors covered in dead cockroaches, feces and rotting food (pictured)

Floors at Rikers Island complex is rumored to be covered in rotting debris (pictured)

Some cells are described to be 'filthy and inhumane, with overflowing toilets and barely usable sinks (pictured)

The district attorney's office said the conditions at Rikers 'are of deep concern' and 'will inform our bail practices for at least the next few weeks.'

A dozen deaths were reported this year at the jail complex this year alone, sparking protests from former inmates and family members of prisoners

One jail watchdog called the decline in conditions at Rikers 'a complete breakdown in the operation of the jails.'

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday signed an executive order expanding the use of virtual court appearances, saying it would expedite hearings for inmates and lessen some of the burden on corrections officers

'We hope that the conditions on Rikers Island improve quickly,' executive assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi said in a memo obtained by ABC News.

'While we are duty bound to insure public safety, we are also aware that no one can avert their eyes from the conditions being reported at Rikers.

'In light of the conditions faced by those individuals detained at Rikers, we have endeavored to ensure that our practices are as equitable as possible, even though we understand that releasing some individuals may, unfortunately, lead to additional low level crime.'

One jail watchdog called it 'a complete breakdown in the operation of the jails.'

'In our office's 50 years of monitoring the city jails, this is one of the most dangerous times we've seen,' said Mary Lynne Werlwas, a lawyer and director of the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society.

At one point during the summer, more than one-third of the city's jail guards  about 3,050 of 8,500  were on sick leave or medically unfit to work with inmates, according to the agency that runs the city's jails, the Department of Correction.

Some guards have been missing shifts without any explanation.

PICTURED: A solitary confinement cell at New York City's Rikers Island jail. New York City's Rikers Island jail has entrenched problems responding to the increase of violence on the island

One prison staffer at Rikers Island has described the facility as having 'a complete breakdown in the operation of the jails' due to the shortage of guards

The harrowing conditions and the deaths of several inmates in recent months has sparked protests and the prison is now under intense scrutiny

Protests by former inmates, family members and members of the public have been held outside New York City Hall

Lawmakers and activists are saying conditions are becoming unsafe for both prisoners and officers

Lawmakers who toured Rikers complex last week said it's filthy and inhumane, with overflowing toilets and floors covered in dead cockroaches, feces and rotting food, while protestors claimed that being jailed in the prison amounts to a 'death sentence'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, 'It has to be very, very carefully approached.'

'There are some low-level offenses where -- I've said this for a long time -- people do not belong in a jail setting. We can use supervised release, we can use a lot of other tools,' he said.

'But when it particularly comes to anything regarding violent crime or serious crime, I would be very, very careful.'

The growing crisis, brought to light in recent weeks by advocates, news reports and a federal monitor who wrote of 'grave concerns' with the city's jails, has sent officials scrambling for remedies amid plans to close Rikers by 2026.

On Wednesday, the city started suspending jail guards for 30 days without pay if they refused to come to work. Last week, the city said the staffing situation was so dire it was enlisting a telemarketing company to entice recently retired correctional officers to return to work.

Lawmakers who toured Rikers complex last week said it's filthy and inhumane, with overflowing toilets and floors covered in dead cockroaches, feces and rotting food.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said that less dangerous prisoners who were jailed for small crimes could be released to improve working conditions. 'There are some low-level offenses where -- I've said this for a long time -- people do not belong in a jail setting. We can use supervised release, we can use a lot of other tools,' he said.

State Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas said inmates told her they felt like they were being treated like slaves and animals.

The union, meanwhile, has said that hiring more guards is the answer and that suspensions will leave remaining officers working 'triple and quadruple shifts with no meals and no rest.'

'The mayor cannot discipline his way out of this staffing crisis that he caused by refusing to hire a single correction officer for nearly three years, even as the inmate population doubled,' said Benny Boscio Jr., the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

In actuality, the city's jail population has risen by about 58 percent, topping 6,000 inmates at the end of last week after falling below 3,900 inmates as bail reforms took effect, arrests slowed and some inmates were sent home early in the pandemic.

In addition, city jail Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said Monday that the city has authorized the hiring of at least 200 correctional officers.

De Blasio has blamed virus-related court backlogs for the increases and called on judges to use supervised release instead of jail for people accused of nonviolent offenses.

He wants the state's prison system to transfer sentenced inmates from Rikers within five days and joined advocates and lawmakers in calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill overhauling the parole system.

Most of the city's jail inmates are being held for trial or on parole violations.

Mayor Bill de Blasio (pictured), after touring the Rikers Island jail complex on Monday, said the prison's conditions need improving but declined to provide details about what he observed

Problems at Rikers aren't new.

The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported on past concerns including violence, deaths, sexual assaults and mistreatment of mentally ill inmates.

'It's taken a really long time to mess this place up. It has been decades of neglect out here,' said Schiraldi, the jail commissioner since June. 'I call it the junk drawer of the criminal justice system.'

Inmates have wallowed for days at a single intake unit without basic medical attention, like having their blood sugar checked, and unable to make phone calls to relatives, lawmakers and advocates said.

Inmates have lashed out at guards and each other. In July, an inmate tossed feces at a jail captain. In August, an inmate slashed a guard.

In March, in what was supposed to be a secure and closely watched mental health observation unit, authorities said an inmate managed to kill himself.

'These conditions are not just responding to the crisis of the pandemic that hit the jails 17 months ago,' said Werlwas. 'This is a severe and remarkable decline in the very most basic security and operations of our jails.'

Some housing units have no guards at all and some Rikers inmates were able to access off-limits areas that were supposed to be highly secure. PICTURED: : The Rikers Island Prison complex is seen from an airplane in the Queens borough of New York City

The jail's federal monitor, Steve J. Martin, said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Laura Swain in August that worsening conditions in the city's jails  rising violence, self-harm, death and use of force by guards  were tied directly to a spike in 'excessive and unchecked staff absences' dating to April.

Guards who did show up said they were forced to work double and triple shifts, leading the union to sue the city over what it called 'inhumane' working conditions.

Some housing units had no guards at all, Martin said, and some Rikers inmates were able to access off-limits areas that were supposed to be highly secure.

The five suspected suicides at Rikers this year are the most there since 2005. In the past five weeks, three inmates have died.

One of them, 25-year-old Brandon Rodriguez, had been there a week. Another, 24-year-old Esias Johnson, who died on September 7, was a month into his stay.

State Senator Jessica Ramos said lawmakers touring Rikers on Monday saw a man trying to kill himself.

'Everything goes back to the problem of Rikers Island itself,' de Blasio said. 'We need to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible, but in the meantime, we have immense challenges.'
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Wayne Couzens had served as a special constable for Kent Police, before moving to the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and eventually joining Scotland Yard as a firearms officer in September 2018 - during which time he had been trusted to protect MPs and diplomats, and guarding key buildings including the US Embassy.

Colleagues regarded the married father of two as a 'family man', but in truth he was a porn-obsessed predator who is thought to have blown cash on escorts, and had begged for a pay rise after amassing debts of almost 30,000.

He spent lockdown trawling dating sites, falsely claiming to be a single man with no children, while at least one colleague reported knowing he was 'attracted to violent sexual pornography' as far back as 2002.

Couzens had joined colleagues on uniformed patrols enforcing lockdown in January. This appears to have inspired his sickening plot.

While on duty on February 28, he booked a 65.30 hire car from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Dover, which he collected on March 3 (pictured), having decided his own was too old and filthy to be passed off as a police vehicle

At 5.52pm Sarah Everard is seen as she leaves her home in Craster Road, Brixton, for an evening out

While on her journey for her night out, Sarah stops off at a Sainsbury's store on Brixton Hill at 6pm and is seen talking on the phone as she enters the shop

Security cameras inside the Sainsbury's store saw Sarah use a self-checkout aisle to purchase a bottle of wine in preparation for her evening

Just three minutes after having entered the Sainsbury's store on Brixton Hill, Sarah is seen leaving again to visit a friend in Clapham Junction

Miss Everard, described by a former partner as 'savvy and streetwise', was on her way home at 9.15pm, having had dinner with a friend in Clapham. Pictured: Sarah is seen as she leaves her friend's house and starts walking home to Brixton

She is said to have been in 'good spirits' as she chatted to her boyfriend on the phone while walking briskly along the well-lit A205, which was busy with traffic. The call ended at 9.28pm. It would be the last time anyone heard from her. Pictured: Sarah walks east down Cavendish Road towards her home after concluding her call with her boyfriend

Just four minutes after Sarah was seen walking down Cavendish Road towards her home, Couzens' hire car, was spotted travelling east, and passing the same camera

Couzens (right) pulled over, on the pretence of arresting Miss Everard (left) for breaching lockdown rules. Dashcam footage from cars and buses travelling past captured him flashing his warrant card before reaching for his handcuffs

A bus CCTV camera captures Sarah in the back seat of Couzens' car. At the precise moment Couzens abducted Miss Everard  on March 3  his wife Elena sent a message to his mother: 'Wayne had a call for overtime shift tonight. I [was] wondering if you could pick children from school tomorrow, would you?'

Buying a hot chocolate and Bakewell tart at a Costa Coffee  wearing the very same clothes as he had the night before. Just over an hour later, he would dispose of Miss Everard's phone in a flood relief channel in Sandwich  but a fragment was later found in his car

On March 5, Couzens bought a can of petrol (pictured) and another McDonald's meal before heading back to Hoad's Wood, where he had purchased a plot of land  described as 'perfect for day trips'  in 2019, and where he had left his murdered victim's body more than 24 hours ago

At 12.45pm on March 5, a local sees a large fire by a fridge. This was used by Couzens to burn Miss Everard's clothing and body just yards from his own plot of land. He brought his wife and children to the woodland two days later

Couzens is seen strolling into B&Q  having already bought items from Amazon, including a police-issue handcuff key and a roll of self-adhesive plastic carpet-protecting film, to prepare for his crime over several weeks

Couzens buying building sacks from B&Q for 9.94. He then returns to the woods to dump Miss Everard's remains in a pond

Hoad's Wood, where Couzens returned with wife and children on the morning of Sunday March 7, stopping for cash at Dover South Services. He had also stopped there hours after murdering Miss Everard. Astonishingly, Couzens allowed his children to play close to where he had hidden his victim as her disappearance dominated the news

A day later, on March 8, he was due to attend a training day but called in sick. He then drove to the Met's diplomatic protection team base, where he stowed the kit he used to kidnap Miss Everard

In handcuffs, the moment the killer is confronted by police at his home with a picture of his victim

This is the moment police confronted Wayne Couzens with a picture of Sarah Everard at his home.

The murderer was caught and handcuffed after his hire car was traced to his address.

Detectives arrived at his house in Deal, Kent, at 5.45pm on Tuesday, March 9, six days after he snatched his victim.

This is the moment police confronted Wayne Couzens with a picture of Sarah Everard at his home

Detectives arrived at his house in Deal, Kent, at 5.45pm on Tuesday, March 9, six days after he snatched his victim

But they didn't move in for two hours, allowing Couzens  who may have spotted the plain-clothed officers  to wipe his phone at 7.11pm.

They finally moved in at 7.45pm and arrested him when his children were getting ready for bed. At first he claimed he knew nothing about Miss Everard, then spun a sickening web of lies about being forced to kidnap her for an Eastern European gang.

Claiming he was in 'in financial s***' after trying to 'rip off a call girl', he said gangsters had warned they would harm his family unless he snatched a girl.

He said the gang threatened him when he was with another prostitute and had been following him, turning up outside his home.

The murderer was caught and handcuffed after his hire car was traced to his address

Couzens claimed he handed over Miss Everard alive at a roundabout by Charing Racecourse in Kent and suggested officers go to Folkestone and Maidstone Services to find the gang.

When asked where she was, he said: 'If I could do something to get her back right this minute, I would.' But he then added: 'I'll do it again tomorrow if it meant saving my family.'

A day later police discovered Miss Everard's body.

Even as his story unravelled, the cowardly killer clung to his lies and has still refused to tell police the truth about what he did, to the enduring agony of his victim's family.
Global supply chains are in crisis because of blocks on world trade following the coronavirus pandemic, seafarers, truckers and airline workers say.

Key supply chain workers claim they are reaching breaking point after enduring months of quarantine, travel restrictions and a Covid-19 vaccination programme.

And their experiences across the world show Britain's empty shelves and packed petrol forecourts are not simply because of Brexit.

There is even a risk of a 'global transport system collapse' if governments do not restore freedom of movement, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups have now warned.

In an open letter to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the groups called for transport workers to be given priority to receive vaccines recognised by the World Health Organisation.

Chief officer of a car-carrying ship, Karyn Marchal (pictured), 28, and her crew, were told they couldn't go ashore after docking in Hokkaido, Japan, because of the pandemic

Ms Marchal (pictured) said there have been people stuck at sea for more than a year because rules dictate workers can only have shore leave if they're travelling elsewhere

'Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years' worth of strain on transport workers take their toll,' the letter read.

It was signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) - which together represent 65 million transport workers around the world.

It said global transport sectors were seeing a shortage of workers and expected more to leave because of poor treatment during the pandemic.

Last Christmas thousands of drivers from countries including Hungary, Slovenia and Romania spent Christmas stuck in the UK after France closed its border with Britain following the emergence of the new highly infectious strain of coronavirus.

Guy Platten, secretary general of the ICS, said seafarers were unlikely to commit to new contracts in case there is a repeat of last year's port chaos this December, meaning supply problems could soon worsen.

Global transport sectors were seeing a shortage of workers and expected more to leave because of poor treatment during the pandemic (file image)

Cargo ships filled with containers dock at the Port of Los Angeles on September 28

Stephen Cotton, ITF secretary general, said heads of government needed to act to prevent further hits to morale, adding that the global supply chain was 'fragile'.

Chief officer of a car-carrying ship, Karyn Marchal, 28, and her crew, were told they couldn't go ashore after docking in Hokkaido, Japan, because of the pandemic.

She said there have been people stuck at sea for more than a year because rules dictate workers can only have shore leave if they're travelling elsewhere.

To help during the pandemic seafarers extended their contracts to keep goods flowing as planes were grounded and borders closed.

But their commitment has taken its toll, after 400,000 workers were unable to leave their ships for routine changeovers at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Some were forced to stay on board for as long as 18 months beyond the end of their contracts, according to the ICS.

Mr Platten added that testing requirements and restrictions are often changed without notice and inconsistency meant some workers had to be vaccinated multiple times because different countries approved different jabs.

Lorry drivers queue on the M20 motorway to enter the Port of Dover in Kent last December

A driver checks his COVID-19 lateral flow test at the Port of Dover, Kent, where thousands were waiting to resume their journey across The Channel last December

A lorry driver, trapped waiting to be allowed back to France, was spotted hanging clothes and towels to dry on the front of his lorry on December 22

He said he knew at least one seafarer who had six doses in order to meet the requirements of various countries.

'It's an absolute nightmare. I can't understand why we don't have some sort of global standard,' he told CNN Business.

And what's worse, an unequal availability of vaccines globally means just 25 to 30 percent of seafarers are fully vaccinated, Mr Platten added.

Alongside vaccines, workers have the added challenge of ensuring they have completed adequate PCR tests.

In February, Germany introduced mandatory testing with no exemption for truck drivers. This then encouraged other countries to impose similar restrictions and stranded thousands of drivers who were not prepared for the change.

Alongside vaccines, workers have the challenge of ensuring they have completed adequate PCR tests. Pictured, boats sailing past the Shell refinery on Pulau Bukom off Singapore

HGV drivers, particularly on the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria, then had to queue for days without food or medical help in order to complete the tests.

Umberto de Pretto, IRU secretary general, said 'misguided Covid restrictions' were to blame for problems in the supply chain.

Ms Marchal and her crew had to do 10 Covid tests in seven days before they could enter a shipyard in Singapore when their vessel needed repairs last month. This was then delayed by a week when there was a coronavirus outbreak at the port and they are not expected to leave before the middle of next month - with the crew trapped aboard in the meantime.

Meanwhile, a private equity-backed haulage firm specialising in chilled food deliveries to Asda and Sainsburys went bust last week, adding to concerns about gaps on shelves as Britain heads for a 'winter of discontent'.

EVCL Chill was responsible for delivering 10,000 pallets of food and drink a day into the two retailers, who according to The Grocer have been in talks with administrator PwC for several weeks in a bid to safeguard a significant proportion of their chilled operations

EVCL Chill, a subsidiary of EV Cargo, filed for administration yesterday, adding to speculation that the two supermarkets will need to take-over the business to safeguard deliveries.

EVCL Chill, a subsidiary of EV Cargo, filed for administration, adding to speculation that the two supermarkets will need to take-over the business to safeguard deliveries.

The company had a number of major contracts for supermarkets and employed around 1,000 workers in warehousing and HGV driving roles.

It comes amid worry that Britain will be faced with severe food shortages this winter due to a lack of lorry drivers and an ongoing energy crisis.

Several of Britain's biggest retailers on Friday warned ministers the government had 10 days to save Christmas from 'significant disruption' due to the lack of HGV drivers.

Trade union Unite blamed the development on venture capitalists they said had hived off the core operations of the business into a separate company, then put this company into administration leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Rep. Liz Cheney leapt to the defense on Wednesday of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for 'standing in the breach' in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and apologizing for attacks by her Republican colleagues.

Milley was appearing before Congress for a second day to answer questions about the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He has become a hate figure for some Republicans amid reports he tried to rein in Donald Trump's worst impulses at the end of his presidency.

On Wednesday he was accused of 'dereliction of duty' and asked to resign during a hearing on Afghanistan.

Cheney began her allotted five minutes by comparing Milley and his concerns with her colleagues who were prepared to overlook the violence of Jan. 6.

'General Milley, you found yourself in your constitutionally prescribed role, standing in the breach,' said Cheney, who was ousted from a party leadership position for criticizing Trump and one of only two Republicans on the House committee investing the Jan. 6 violence.

'And for any member of this committee, for any American to question your loyalty to our nation, to question your understanding of our constitution, your loyalty to our constitution, your recognition and understanding of the civilian chain of command is despicable.

'I want to apologize for those members of this committee who have done so, and I want to thank you for standing in the breach when so many, including many in this room, failed to do so.'

Rep. Liz Cheney praised Gen. Mark Milley during a House hearing on Afghanistan, apologizing for the conduct of her Republican colleagues who demanded his resignation

Her intervention came during a House Armed Services Committee hearing into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

And they demonstrate how attitudes towards America's top general have become something of a Litmus test for Trump loyalists.

Several Republican members used their time to question Milley about details of a new book, 'Peril,' by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

It describes how Milley made two calls to his Chinese counterpart, including one in which he said he would offer early warning of any attempt by Trump to launch an attack on China.

It triggered allegations from Trump and his supporters that Milley was guilty of treason. Milley said the calls were part of the normal interactions between senior military figures and were done with the full knowledge of the federal government.

Previous accounts of Trump's final days suggested Milley feared Trump's election loss could prompt him to lead a military coup and this temper represented a national security risk.

In her impassioned defence, Cheney turned things around to accuse her colleagues of 'whitewashing' the actions of Trump's supporters on Jan. 6.

'It was an effort to stop the constitutionally prescribed process of counting electoral votes - the first time in our nation's history that we did not have a peaceful transfer of power,' she said.

'In the aftermath of that attack, many of the members of our constitutional system failed to do their duty. Many of them punted.

'Many of them today are still attempting to obstruct the investigation into that attack, attempting to whitewash what happened.'

She spoke after multiple members of Congress called for Milley's resignation.

Rep Vicky Hartzler said his calls to China meant he should resign.

'I just think that's against our country that you would give our number one adversary that information and tell him that,' she said.

Trump loyalist Matt Gaetz waved a copy of the book as he accused Milley of spending too much time talking to authors and burnishing his image.

Matt Gaetz accused senior Pentagon figures of failing to do their jobs. 'But if we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired, because that is what you deserve,' he said

'You said yesterday that you weren't going to resign when senators asked you this question, and I believe that you guys probably won't resign,' he said.

'You seem to be very happy failing up over there. But if we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired.'

That line of attack was followed up by Rep. Ronny Jackson, who accused Milley of being too focused on book interviews and defending the Biden administration's idea of a 'woke' military.

'I submit to you sir, that you should resign because of your dereliction of duty to this country in your ability, your inability to do your job and protect this country,' he said.

Milley looked as if he did not need anyone to defend himself from criticism, chuckling as he said: 'I serve at the pleasure of the president, Mr. Jackson.'

A day earlier, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan suggested Milley would be executed in China for offering an adversary early warning of attack.

'If the head of the [People's Liberation Army] called you and said, 'Hey, we're getting ready to invade Taiwan' and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping found out about it, he'd be shot,' said Sullivan.
Three California parents have filed a lawsuit against the state's Department of Education over a chant to Aztec deities included in a new ethnic studies curriculum.

According to the suit, which was filed earlier this month, the curriculum asks students to repeat the 'In Lak Ech Affirmation' - a chant which invokes Aztec gods who have been worshipped with human sacrifice.

The Thomas More Society - a conservative law firm which represents the three parents - has described the model curriculum as 'blatantly unconstitutional' in court documents.

The new ethnic studies curriculum was approved to be taught in all California public schools earlier this year. It will teach the state's students about the 'histories, struggles and contributions of Asian, Black, Latino and Native Americans'.

Chapter 5 of the curriculum includes a section of 'Affirmation, Chants, and Energizers' of which the chant to the Aztec deities forms a part.

The curriculum says of the chant: 'In Lak Ech translates as you are my other me and relates to our habit of mind, empathy, and also compassion, interdependence, ecology, love, and mutual respect.'

'The curriculum's unequivocal promotion of Aztec gods or deities through repetitive chanting and affirmation of their symbolic principles constitutes an unlawful government preference toward a particular religious practice,' Frank Xu, President of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, said in a statement published on The Thomas More Society website.

Three California parents have filed a lawsuit against the state's Department of Education over a chant to Aztec deities included in a new ethnic studies curriculum. An exhibit of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca is pictured

The deities referenced in the chant purportedly include Tezkatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Tezkatlipoca was a protean wizard who caused the death of many Toltecs by his black magic.

During the fifth month of the Aztec solar year, Tezcatlipoca was worshipped in special ceremonies, during which a prisoner of war was taken to a temple where he had his heart cut out with an obsidian knife.

Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Joanna said in a statement: 'The Aztecs regularly performed gruesome and horrific acts for the sole purpose of pacifying and appeasing the very beings that the prayers from the curriculum invoke.

'Our clients have both a religious and civic objection to the Aztec prayer, and they do not want their children chanting it, being asked or pressured to do so, or risking ostracism if they refuse.'

He added: 'Both the California and the United States Constitutions prohibit prayer in public schools. Can you imagine if elements of the Christian faith were proposed to be included in the public school curriculum? What if a class incorporated praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or even reciting the Lords Prayer? How would that be received?'

The Constitution bans public school officials from directing or favoring prayer in their official capacities, although students are allowed to pray privately at school as part of their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.

Huitzilopochtli is another deity referenced in the chant. A drawing of the Aztec god is pictured

The California Department of Education is targeted in the new suit, filed earlier this month

Back in March, the State Board of Education on unanimously approved the new ethnic studies curriculum.

The curriculum focuses on 'social consciousnesses' and cultures often ignored or skimmed over in traditional educational textbooks, such as 'African American, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander studies,' according to resources available on the CDE website.

The model curriculum also comes with a number of goals that students and teachers can achieve together.

Together, classes can 'critique empire-building in history and its relationship to white supremacy, racism and other forms of power and oppression.'

They can also 'challenge racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperialist/colonial beliefs and practices on multiple levels' and 'connect ourselves to past and contemporary social movements that struggle for social justice and an equitable and democratic society' as students look to 'build new possibilities for a post-racist, post-systemic racism society.'

The outcomes hoped for with this curriculum include the pursuit of justice, greater inclusivity, better self-understanding, more empathy for others, and recognizing intersectionality, which is the merging point of people's various identities.
A Harvard Law professor has hit out at trigger warnings in academia, saying they can actually cause greater distress and even leave colleges open to lawsuits.

Jeannie Suk Gersen, who has taught at the Massachusetts institution since 2006, wrote in The New Yorker on Wednesday about her concerns.

She noted that Chinua Achebe's seminal 1958 work Things Fall Apart and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet were both seen as problematic - Achebe's book for its themes of colonialism and racism, and Shakespeare's for its discussion of suicide.

Yet she found that recent studies showed the trigger warnings - an alert to students, telling them to brace themselves for content that could revive difficult memories - could actually increase the trauma.

Jeannie Suk Gersen, who has taught at Harvard Law since 2006, wrote in The New Yorker on Wednesday that she felt trigger warnings were frequently unhelpful - and could actually be harmful

Students are pictured in a class at Brandeis University. The Massachusetts institution recommended against using the words trigger warning, and suggested 'content note' instead

That is because the sight of the warning itself can cause immediate anxiety among people who'd potentially be 'triggered' by the content.

Gersen also cited a growing body of research showing that students who weren't given trigger warnings about potentially upsetting study material were less affected than those who were.

The academic said that she herself taught classes that dealt with the legal aspects of difficult topics such as sexual assault, divorce and suicide, but had decided against issuing a trigger warning.

'My introduction to any course includes a statement that it will delve into many of the most controversial and difficult issues in our society, ones that may personally affect the lives of people in the class, and that all discussions must be conducted with respect for one another,' she said.

'I don't frame my statements as addressing triggers, and I don't flag particular readings or discussions.'

She pointed out that Brandeis University, a liberal arts institution in Massachusetts, earlier this year released a 'suggested language list' - noting to avoid terms like 'ladies and gentlemen'; 'killing it'; and 'picnic,' because a picnic 'can be associated with lynchings of Black people in the United States, during which white spectators were said to have watched while eating.'

The university also said that the term 'trigger warning' should be avoided, and the term 'content note' used instead.

'"Warning" can signify that something is imminent or guaranteed to happen, which may cause additional stress about the content to be covered,' their website states.

'We can also never guarantee that someone will not be triggered during a conversation or training; people's triggers vary widely.

'Content note allows the same message to be conveyed, sharing details about the information/topics to come, without implying it is an exhaustive list or implying that someone is certain to be triggered.'

Oberlin College in Ohio introduced a trigger warning policy in 2014, she notes, but abandoned it following concern from academics.

The University of Michigan is one of the few universities to provide guidance on trigger warnings, she found.

Gersen said that around a dozen psychological studies from 2018-21 'find that trigger warnings do not seem to lessen negative reactions to disturbing material in students.'

She cited a study this year from three academics - Benjamin Bellet, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate; Payton Jones, who completed his Ph.D. in 2021; and Richard McNally, a psychology professor - who found that 'those who received trigger warnings reported greater anxiety in response to disturbing literary passages than those who did not.'

The trio found that trigger warnings served to reinforce the belief on the part of trauma survivors that trauma was central to their identity, rather than peripheral.

'Since there isnt evidence that trigger warnings help, and there is now some evidence that they might even increase anxiety, McNally, Jones, and Bellet do not recommend the use of trigger warnings,' Gershen writes.

'As Jones put it, From a clinical lens, you should never do anything that doesnt work, period, even if it doesnt do harm. If its not actively helping, encouraging its use would essentially be engaging in clinical pseudoscience.'

And she finds that trigger warnings may be little more than a teacher's way of showing that they cared, and were conscious of social trends.

'A trigger warning might really function as a signal to the subset of students who are looking for it that the teacher is sensitive to their concernsor at least compliant with their requestsregardless of psychological benefit or harm,' she writes.

'But it is important to undertake it with the understanding that signaling compassion for students and trauma survivors in this particular way may be at cross purposes with helping them, whether psychologically or pedagogically.'

Gersen, a legal expert, said that as evidence grows that trigger warnings potentially do more harm than good, colleges could face liability issues if they continue to use them.

That could see a student sue their teachers for exposing them to a trigger warning that has itself been found to potentially cause anguish, and damage their mental wellbeing.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem dismissed rumors that she was having an extramarital affair with Trump confidant Corey Lewandowski as 'total garbage' and a 'disgusting lie' rooted in sexism.

Conservative news site American Greatness claimed to have multiple sources with direct knowledge that Noem, a rising star in the Republican Party, was in the midst of a sexual relationship with Lewandowski.

'These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie,' Noem said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. 'These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can't achieve anything without a man's help. I love Bryon. I'm proud of the God-fearing family we've raised together. Now I'm getting back to work.'

The governor, 49, has been married since the age of 20 to Bryon Noem, with whom she has three kids.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem dismissed rumors that she was having an extramarital affair with Trump confidant Corey Lewandowski as 'total garbage' and a 'disgusting lie' rooted in sexism

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been married to her husband, Bryon Noem since 1992

Lewandowski, 48, has been married to Allison Hardy since 2005 and has four kids with her.

American Greatness claimed the affair had been going on for months and that Noem's chief of staff Joshua Shields had resigned due to Lewandowski's butting in.

But the accusations came both Noem and Lewandowski were each in the midst of their own separate burgeoning controversies.

Corey Lewandoski is pictured above with his wife, Allison, and son

Lewandowski on Tuesday was accused of sexually assaulting a Trump donor at a charity event held at a Las Vegas Benihana over the weekend.

Trashelle Odom, the wife of construction company executive John Odom, claims in a statement that Lewandowski touched her repeatedly while seated next to hear at the event, followed her around, touched her leg and buttocks, and 'stalked' her during the event.

According to her statement, Lewandowski repeatedly remarked about the size of his genitals, Politico reported. He also 'described his sexual performance and showed Odom his hotel room key.'

She said Lewandowski, whose lawyer blasted the claims as 'rumors,' used expletives while speaking about sex as he repeatedly approached her.

The alleged conduct took place during an event at the Westgate Las Vegas hotel for the Victoria's Voice Foundation, which focuses on substance abuse. The publication quotes two people who were there who said Odom appeared uncomfortable, and that Lewandowski appeared to be intoxicated.

One person said they saw Odom in tears at an after-party.

Noem, meanwhile, is caught up in a damning report finding she summoned a meeting with officials in charge of her daughter's failed real estate license application - which was then certified four months later.

Noem's daughter Kassidy Peters, then 26, was denied her application to become a certified real estate appraiser back in July 2020.

Days after the license was denied, the governor called the state employee who ran the agency, the woman's direct supervisor and the state labor secretary for a meeting at her office, together with her daughter, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Sherry Bren, the head of the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulations appraiser certification program, Brens supervisor, and the states Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman, were all part of the meeting. Months later, Bren alleges in an age descrimination complaint she was pushed into retirement by Hultman.

Peters was then awarded her certification that November, with no further detail given as to why the original rejection was reversed.

Around the same time, Bren alleges in an age descrimination complaint she was pushed into retirement by Hultman. Bren settled with the state for $200,000 on March 31.

The incident raises questions about a possible conflict of interest and abuse of power on the part of the governor, and the state attorney general announced Tuesday he is launching a review.
The French commander in charge of stopping migrants in the Channel has threatened to pull out his men if Priti Patel withholds UK funds.

In an explosive intervention, General Frantz Tavart said that if the Home Secretary goes through with her pledge to cut UK-taxpayer support he will call off nightly patrols.

The gendarmerie is currently mounting night-time operations to intercept migrants on the French coast, with 130 regulars and reservists working in the Calais area, General Tavart told the BBC.

He said: 'We know the British have threatened to cut their financial support. I'm very clear.

Priti Patel (pictured) said last month she would withhold an extra 54million unless France stopped more migrant boats

'If they stop paying for their reservists I will pull my men. For us, it is a real form of ingratitude.'

Miss Patel said last month she would withhold an extra 54million unless France stopped more migrant boats.

General Tavart added: 'The proof of our efficiency is that smugglers are now trying to go from the Belgian coast, even the Somme.

'But that dilutes our resources across the territory. It's like a game of chess where the smugglers always make the first move.'

In July Miss Patel agreed to give France another 54million.

But weeks later she was reported to have told Tory MPs privately: 'We've not given them a penny of the money so far and France is going to have to get its act together if it wants to see the cash.

General Franz Tavart said: 'The proof of our efficiency is that smugglers are now trying to go from the Belgian coast, even the Somme.' (Pictured: Migrants rescued in the Channel)

Dan O'Mahoney, the Home Office's clandestine Channel threat commander, said: 'The French have stopped many thousands of crossings this year, 12,000 already... they know there is more to do and so do we.' (Pictured: French president Emmanuel Macron)

'It's payment by results and we've not seen those results. The money is conditional.'

After her remarks, and disclosure of a UK plan to turn around boats in the Channel, France's interior minister Gerald Darmanin said his country would not accept 'any practice contrary to maritime law, nor any financial blackmail'.

More than 17,000 migrants have arrived across the Channel since January, compared with 8,410 in all of last year. There were 669 arrivals on Sunday alone.

Dan O'Mahoney, the Home Office's clandestine Channel threat commander, said: 'The French have stopped many thousands of crossings this year, 12,000 already.

'The French know there is more to do and so do we.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'There is no point in our two countries having a public back-and-forth on a financial agreement.'
Victoria's overcrowded hospitals are turning into 'apocalyptic war zones' as the state's Delta outbreak threatens to overwhelm its healthcare system, a health official has warned.

Victoria recorded 1,438 new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases on Thursday - its highest number ever. That came three days after triple-zero calls in the state reached their highest level since November 2016.

An anonymous government official said the state's health watchdog Safer Care Victoria had urged the state government to brace for a Covid-related surge in its hospitals when lockdown measures are relaxed.

'They basically told us to prepare psychologically because most of Victoria's going to think 'this is great'... as a healthcare worker, it'll feel like a war zone,' the official told The Age.

'I just can't fathom it. Some of the hospitals in Melbourne are already apocalyptic.'

The Australian Medical Association's Victorian President Dr Roderick McRae on Thursday morning said the state's hospitals were now in crisis mode.

As of Wednesday, there were 371 Covid-19 patients in hospitals across Victoria, of which 81 are in the ICU.

'Everybody at every stage of the Victorian healthcare system is using the word 'crisis',' he told the Today show.

'The system is under extreme strain and it's on the back of decades of under-investment.'

He said the already long ambulance and emergency room waiting times in Victoria would be made even worse by rising Covid-19 admissions when the state starts to open up at a 70 per cent double-dose vaccination rate.

'Think of your bathtub - the pipe is blocked and we still are adding more water and as we open up, it's like we are looking to jump in as well and expect the floor to stay dry,' Dr McRae said.

People are seen exercising along the Tan walking track in Melbourne on Sunday, September 19. Victoria recorded 950 new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases on Wednesday

'We knew that this was going to happen when we did eventually open up. Why wasn't the system better prepared? We've had time.'

The Australian Medical Association's Victorian President Dr Roderick McRae on Thursday morning said the state's hospitals were now in crisis mode

Victoria meanwhile has opened the door for residents stranded in Sydney to come home after the state's construction union headquarters were officially listed as a top-level Covid-19 exposure site.

From Thursday, Victorian residents in extreme risk zones such as Greater Sydney can apply for a permit if they are fully vaccinated, test negative within 72 hours of departure and isolate at home for 14 days.

Those who have been to an exposure site, are close contacts of a COVID-19 case or with symptoms will be knocked back, while non-Victorians are not eligible.

It comes as the CFMEU's Melbourne headquarters were listed as a COVID-19 exposure site on Wednesday, a week after it was the scene of anti-vaccination protests.

The Elizabeth Street office was named by the Department of Health as a tier-one site for September 20, forcing union staff and officials into isolation for two weeks.

A healthcare worker speaks to a patient before administering a Covid-19 test at a facility in Ballarat in regional Victoria.

The outside of the building has also been classed as a tier-two venue, with protesters asked to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Four positive cases have been linked to the office so far, and CFMEU state secretary John Setka blamed the 'disgusting behaviour of selfish and reckless' protesters for the outbreak.

Some of about 500 demonstrators threw bottles at Mr Setka and smashed the office's door down on September 20, igniting days of protests that culminated in mobs taking over the West Gate Bridge and Shrine of Remembrance.
The ripple effects of COVID-19 lockdowns are increasingly eating into Victorians' ability to put food on the table, charities say, even for some former donors.

Foodbank Victoria chief executive Dave McNamara says there has been a 'cascading effect of disadvantage' with each lockdown, as Melbourne this week passed 240 days under stay-at-home orders.

No more evident was the phenomenon than when the charity was forced to shut the drive-through service at its Yarraville warehouse in August as cars snaked for more than a kilometre to the West Gate Bridge, blocking the exit.

Hundreds lined up on Monday and Wednesday at its Melbourne CBD store for international students which opens three days a week (pictured, queues in August)

'We ran a drive-through at our warehouse where people could turn up and get a contactless distribution. We did that over three successive lockdowns,' he told AAP.

'The first one had about 400 cars over a weekend, the second one had 400 cars in four hours and the third one had 400 cars in the first hour and a bit.'

Without the requisite space for idle traffic, Foodbank has not reopened the drive-through since and instead moved to establish pop-up stores targeting areas of key disadvantage.

The queues have not gone away, however, with hundreds lining up on Monday and Wednesday at its Melbourne CBD store for international students which opens three days a week.

'There's been about 57,000 student visits through there,' Mr McNamara said.

It's not just international students struggling to make ends meet, with some previous charity donors turning up with their hat in hand, including out-of-work small business owners and those in performing arts.

The ripple effects of COVID-19 lockdowns are increasingly eating into Victorians' ability to put food on the table, charities say, even for some former donors (pictured, queues in August)

Foodbank has taken the unusual step of digging into its own coffers to shore up food stocks, but is having to predict how much and what supplies it will need weeks and months in advance due to long lead times.

'The food supply chain is struggling across the eastern seaboard. We occasionally used to purchase food during droughts but this is the first time that we're constantly purchasing food,' Mr McNamara said.

'We've already spent nearly $3million this year on food. Donations are saving us at the moment. Every dollar donated is two meals on someone's table.'

It will soon launch mobile supermarkets in some hard-to-reach regions, an initiative that was delayed after a container ship bought the Suez Canal to a standstill in March.

'We had to wait because some of the shelving was stuck on one of those ships that got blocked,' Mr McNamara said.

'People don't recognise that global supply chain has trickle-down effects across every industry.'

Foodbank has taken the unusual step of digging into its own coffers to shore up food stocks (pictured, queues in August)

Expansion is also on the menu for Sikh Volunteers Australia, a community group that has delivered more than 200,000 meals to 47 suburbs across Melbourne since the start of the pandemic.

The multicultural group, best known for helping local communities during the Black Summer bushfires and Melbourne's public housing tower lockdown in 2020, says orders for its freshly cooked meals are constant.

'It's directly related with the lockdowns,' secretary Jaswinder Singh told AAP.

Every time someone informs SVA they can get by without their help, someone else quickly takes their place.

It recently raised $600,000 in five days to build a new 20-burner kitchen in Cranbourne West capable of cooking 10,000 meals a day.

Mr Singh expects SVA to move into the facility early next year, and for it to become a base of operations to serve meals across the state.
The federal government will cut off COVID-19 financial support measures for businesses in three virus-affected jurisdictions when key vaccination targets are reached.

Business support will be stopped once NSW, Victoria and the ACT, which are all in lockdown, reach the 80 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage mark.

It comes after Wednesday's announcement the Commonwealth will at 80 per cent coverage cease COVID-19 disaster payments for people who have lost work due to the lockdown.

The federal government will cut off COVID-19 financial support measures for businesses in three virus-affected jurisdictions when key vaccination targets are reached (pictured: closed businesses in Melbourne on Wednesday)

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the cut-off of business support measures was dependent on when NSW, Victoria and the ACT hit their vaccine milestones.

'We can't eliminate the virus, we need to learn to live with it in a COVID-safe way,' Mr Frydenberg said on Thursday.

'Our economy has bounced back strongly before once restrictions are eased and is well-positioned to do so again when lockdowns lift.'

The support will begin to taper off once the jurisdictions reach 70 per cent double-dose coverage, before stopping altogether at 80 per cent.

Based on current targets, the federal government expects the 80 per cent mark to be reached by the end of October for NSW and Victoria, while the ACT is set to hit its target by the middle of next month.

If states and territories need to impose virus restrictions after vaccination targets are reached, Mr Frydenberg said it will be their responsibility to provide financial support.

Based on current targets, the federal government expects the 80 per cent mark to be reached by the end of October for NSW and Victoria, while the ACT is set to hit its target by the middle of next month (pictured: vaccinations in Melbourne this month)

'It will be a matter for each state to decide whether any additional targeted business support is needed in their jurisdictions as a result of any health restrictions they elect to impose,' he said.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said his state will continue to support businesses as needed.

'The tapering of the program will ensure we continue to support businesses as we move from response to recovery, giving them much needed support as we focus on the reopening,' he said.

Nationally, 53.42 per cent of the over-16 population is fully vaccinated while the first-dose coverage rate is around 77 per cent.

Labor's finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher said while the business payments had to end at some point, more targeted support was needed for some industries.

'We're concerned the government has been arbitrary and quick to turn the tap off without being mindful of the impacts on different businesses, depending on what sector they are in,' Senator Gallagher told Sky News on Thursday.

Business support will be stopped once NSW, Victoria and the ACT, which are all in lockdown, reach the 80 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage mark (pictured: closed businesses in Melbourne on Wednesday)

'Even when we are past 80 per cent, we know there will be some lockdowns and some businesses will be able to open at 100 per cent for a while yet.'

Meanwhile, more details about Australia's plan for so-called vaccination passports will be revealed as the nation eyes a return to international travel.

A Senate committee will on Thursday grill federal bureaucrats responsible for delivering vaccine certificates before outbound travel restrictions are eased.

The Morrison government has pledged to drop restrictions on people leaving the country when Australia fully immunises 80 per cent of its population against coronavirus.

The target is expected to be reached in mid-November.

Vaccination certificates will be linked to chips in passports and people will have a QR code for scanning.

For people entering the country, vaccination status could dictate where and for how long quarantine is required.

Home quarantine is shaping as the future for returning Australians, but the gradual shift away from hotels is set to mean more waiting for more than 44,000 stuck abroad.

Australia will recognise Therapeutic Goods Administration-approved vaccines including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
NASA is set to pause most of its robotic Mars missions for safety reasons ahead of a two-week blackout caused by the Red Planet's position in space.

The rovers Perseverance and Curiosity, as well as helicopter Ingenuity and the lander InSight, will all lose connection with Earth from October 2 when Mars moves behind the sun from our planet's perspective.

This position in its orbit, called solar conjunction, happens every two years and can disrupt interplanetary communications and lead to 'unexpected behaviour from our deep space explorers', NASA said in a statement.

The rovers Perseverance (pictured) and Curiosity, as well as helicopter Ingenuity and the lander InSight, will all lose connection with Earth between October 2 and October 16

Solar conjunction, when Mars moves behind the sun from Earth's perspective (pictured), happens every two years and can disrupt interplanetary communications

WHICH NASA MARS MISSIONS WILL BE HIT BY THE BLACKOUT? NASA is planning to stop sending commands to most of its Mars missions during a communications blackout between October 2 and 16. Instead, the various robots will be given 'homework' to carry out on their own. The main missions affected include the Perseverance rover, which arrived on the Red Planet in February, and the Ingenuity helicopter it brought with it on its seven-month journey. The Insight lander will also have its activity largely paused, although it will continue using its seismometer to detect marsquakes. Curiosity, a rover that has been on Mars since 2012, is a veteran of these solar conjunctions, and has never reported any major issues. It will take weather and radiation measurements and look for dust devils while communications are down. NASA's three orbiters  Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and MAVEN  will all continue relaying some data from the agency's surface missions back to Earth, in addition to gathering their own science. Advertisement

The sun expels hot, ionized gas from its hot outer atmosphere, or corona, and during solar conjunction  when Earth and Mars can't 'see' each other  this gas can interfere with radio signals if engineers try to communicate with spacecraft on the Red Planet.

Other Mars missions from Europe, China and India will also be affected, but those space agencies are yet to reveal their plans for the conjunction period.

NASA has said it will stop sending commands and receiving raw images from most of its Mars missions between October 2 and October 16, although the timing will vary by a day or two in some cases.

Instead, the various robots will be tasked with completing 'homework' on their own while the communications are down.

Perseverance will take weather measurements, look for dust devils with its cameras, and capture new sounds with its microphones.

Its Twitter account revealed yesterday that the rover had 'parked in a sweet spot between dunes and a rock outcrop, ready for a 2-week solar conjunction, when the Sun blocks signals to and from Mars'.

'During the lull, I'll tackle jobs I can do on my own, like watching for dust devils and taking in the weather,' the tweet added.

Ingenuity will remain stationary at its location 575ft (175m) away from Perseverance and communicate its status weekly to the rover.

It has been performing long flights in recent weeks, but this is currently on hold because of the normal seasonal thinning of the Martian atmosphere.

NASA has been trying to work out how to fly safely in the new conditions, so it may be that Ingenuity won't move again until the middle of next month at the earliest.

The Perseverance Twitter account revealed yesterday that the rover had 'parked in a sweet spot between dunes and a rock outcrop, ready for a 2-week solar conjunction'

The Curiosity rover, which has been working on Mars since 2012 and hasn't faced any major issues during several previous solar conjunctions, will take weather and radiation measurements and look for dust devils.

And the stationary InSight lander will continue using its seismometer to detect temblors like the large marsquakes it captured recently, the US space agency said.

NASA's three orbiters  Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and MAVEN  will all continue relaying some data from the agency's surface missions back to Earth, in addition to gathering their own science.

Ingenuity will remain stationary at its location 575ft (175m) away from Perseverance and communicate its status weekly to the rover. This image was taken during its tenth flight

The stationary InSight lander (pictured in this artist's impression) will continue using its seismometer to detect marsquakes, the US space agency said

This picture of Curiosity was taken by the rover back in April, nine years after it arrived on Mars

'Though our Mars missions won't be as active these next few weeks, they'll still let us know their state of health,' said Roy Gladden, manager of the Mars Relay Network at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

'Each mission has been given some homework to do until they hear from us again.'

Once the solar conjunction is over scientists will spend about a week downloading the information gathered by the missions using NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of massive Earth-based radio antennas.

'If the teams monitoring these missions determine any of the collected science data has been corrupted, they can usually have that data retransmitted,' NASA said.

Normal spacecraft operations will resume once this data collection has been completed.

Other Mars missions from Europe, China and India will also be affected, but those space agencies are yet to reveal their plans for the conjunction period

Earlier this month Perseverance collected its first rock sample on Mars, marking an historic first step in a mission to return the sample to Earth later this decade.

It then followed this up with a second sample a week later.

The rover is tasked with seeking traces of fossilised microbial life from Mars' ancient past and to collect rock specimens for return to Earth through future missions to the Red Planet.

It intends to collect dozens of samples to leave on the surface of Mars for a European Space Agency rover to collect before 2030.

Perseverance touched down on Mars' Jezero Crater  believed to be the home of a lush lakebed and river delta billions of years ago  on February 18 after a nearly seven-month journey through space.

It made the trip to Mars equipped with a detachable 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) robotic helicopter called Ingenuity.

The copter has been performing a series of flights of increasing complexity on the Red Planet, starting with its maiden flight on April 19. It has now logged a total of 13.
Elon Musk has blasted Jeff Bezos over the Amazon founder suing NASA, saying you 'cannot sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are'.

It was in reference to Bezos' space firm, Blue Origin, taking NASA to court over its decision to only award SpaceX the contract to build a lunar lander.

This is the latest in an ongoing spat between two of the world's richest men, who are battling it out for supremacy in the growing commercial space sector.

Musk has made it clear he isn't happy Bezos keeps taking legal action to stop SpaceX projects, and made the latest comments during the 2021 Code Conference, in Beverly Hills, California.

It comes shortly after Musk tweeted the suggestion Bezos 'retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX' last month.

A spokesperson for Amazon told MailOnline: 'SpaceX has a long track record of suing the US government on procurement matters and protesting various governmental decisions.

'It is difficult to reconcile that historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions.'

Musk responded to the Amazon statement by tweeting: 'SpaceX has sued to be *allowed* to compete, BO is suing to stop competition.'

Elon Musk (left) blasted Jeff Bezos (right), over the Amazon founder suing NASA, saying you 'cannot sue your way to the Moon, no matter how good your lawyers are'

NASA has chosen Elon Musk's SpaceX to build the spacecraft that will take the first woman and next man to the moon. SpaceX's HLS Starship will include the company's tested Raptor engines, along with pulling inspiration from the Falcon and Dragon vehicles' designs

SPACEX'S STARSHIP TO GO TO THE MOON IN 2024 SpaceX's HLS Starship will include the company's tested Raptor engines, along with pulling inspiration from the Falcon and Dragon vehicles' designs. It will feature a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks. Work started on designing the lunar vehicle in May 2020 and work will now begin to fully build it thanks to a NASA $2.89 billion contract. The initial contact covers an uncrewed demonstration mission, and a crewed lunar landing in 2024. It is also planned future lunar landings will be made using Starship HLS. It is equipped with a complement of thrusters used on the final descent and takeoff from the surface of the moon. The final design will have a 100 day loiter capability in lunar orbit allowing for more trips to the lunar surface. It also is designed to carry extra propellant to allow for an emergency ascent from the moon. Length : 50 m (164 ft 1 in)

: 50 m (164 ft 1 in) Width : 9 m (29 ft 6 in)

: 9 m (29 ft 6 in) Payload : 100200 t (220,000440,000 lb)

: 100200 t (220,000440,000 lb) Status : In development

: In development First launch : Uncrewed 2023

: Uncrewed 2023 Applications : Reusable lunar lander Advertisement

SpaceX, owned and founded by Elon Musk, won a lucrative contract to develop a version of its Starship spaceship to take astronauts to the lunar surface in 2024.

Blue Origin was one of three hopefuls for the contract, with SpaceX and Dynetics.

The Bezos-owned firm had hoped NASA would pay for two alternative landers, as had happened in the past - but funding cuts led to the agency picking just the SpaceX lander.

After NASA announced it would go with SpaceX alone, Blue Origin filed a 50-page protest to the Government Accountability Office.

This appeal accused NASA of 'moving the goalposts at the last minute,' but was denied by officials, leading to Blue Origin suing the space agency.

Blue Origin also published a series of negative infographics, calling the SpaceX lunar lander project an 'immensely complex and high risk' approach for sending the first woman and next man to the moon in 2024.

Musk didn't just lash out at Bezos during the interview with journalist Kara Swisher at the 2021 Code Conference on Tuesday, he did have some positive feedback.

When he was asked about the suborbital flights recently run by Bezos and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, he praised the pair for investing in space.

He said he 'thought it was cool that they're spending money on the advancement of space,' but pointed out suborbital was a step in the direction of orbit.

His orbital remark may also have been in reference to the fact his firm sent the first fully civilian crew on a three day trip in orbit around the Earth - higher than the ISS.

Blue Origin, like Virgin Galactic, has so far only achieved suborbital flight, sending passengers to the 'edge of space' at about 50 to 60 miles up.

In contrast, the Inspiration4 crew, travelling in a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, were in orbit around the planet 364 miles above the surface.

From @karaswisher's interview with @elonmusk at #CodeCon, Musk shares how he feels about Jeff Bezos recently disputing SpaceX's NASA contract  and the Blue Origin rocket pic.twitter.com/H9E4gYjr5l  Vox Media (@voxmedia) September 29, 2021

An appeal that accused NASA of 'moving the goalposts at the last minute,' was denied by officials, prompting Musk to say: 'If lobbying and lawyers could get u to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto [right now]'

There is no love-loss between Bezos and Musk, with Musk regularly accusing Bezos of turning to lobbying and legal action to get his own way.

It isn't just with Blue Origin though, as Bezos' Amazon also filed a protest with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over SpaceX Starlink satellites.

Amazon wants to operate thousands of satellites in the same space as Starlink, about 270 miles above the Earth and launched a scathing filing with the FCC amid an ongoing rivalry over satellite launches and space operations.

In August Musk tweeted the suggestion Bezos 'retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.' The law suit against NASA is one of the things that could lead to a delay in the Artemis lunar landing mission, the other is the spacesuits (pictured) which are apparently unlikely to be ready by 2024

SPACEX INSPIRATION4: CIVILIAN MISSION TO ORBIT THE EARTH Dubbed Inspiration4, the mission was designed to raise awareness and support for the St Jude's pediatric cancer centre in the US. Although this is not the first time civilians have travelled to space, it is the first mission crewed solely by civilians, with no astronaut on board. The four-person team, under the command of Isaacman, launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on September 16, 2021. They travelled in a customised SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with a dome to allow all occupants to view the Earth. It orbited the Earth for three days, travelling at 17,000 miles per hour and venturing further from the Earth than the International Space Station. It was funded by 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, who also donated money to St Jude's. The rest of the $200 million fundraising came from donations, media deals and $50m from SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The crew included: Jared Isaacman

Sian Proctor

Hayley Arceneaux

Christopher Sembroski The actual cost of the flight, which included extensive training and a customised spaceship, hasn't been revealed but is thought to be over $100 million. Advertisement

Amazon accused Musk of ignoring a variety of government-imposed rules, including several Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements.

'Whether it is launching satellites with unlicensed antennas, launching rockets without approval, building an unapproved launch tower, or re-opening a factory in violation of a shelter-in-place order, the conduct of SpaceX and other Musk-led companies makes their view plain,' the filing read.

It added: 'Rules are for other people, and those who insist upon or even simply request compliance are deserving of derision and ad hominem attacks.

'If the FCC regulated hypocrisy, SpaceX would be keeping the commission very busy.'

Amazon's Project Kuiper, a planned $10 billion network of over 3,000 satellites that will provide high-speed internet from space, faces stiff competition from SpaceX's Starlink network - a broadband internet system already in its beta form.

Last week, SpaceX accused Amazon in its own filing with the FCC of seeking to delay SpaceX's plan, saying it was 'only the latest in its continuing efforts to slow down competition.'

'While SpaceX has proceeded to deploy more than 1,700 satellites, Amazon has yet to even attempt to address the radio frequency interference and orbital debris issues that must be resolved before Amazon can deploy its constellation,' SpaceX said.

The aerospace company suggested that 'as (Amazon) falls behind competitors ... it is more than willing to use regulatory and legal processes to create obstacles designed to delay those competitors from leaving Amazon even further behind.'

Meanwhile, Amazon's filing said 'SpaceX has just one name for any private company that dares point out its flouting of laws and regulations: anti-competitive.'

The real spat is between Blue Origin, NASA and SpaceX, and started in April 2020 when NASA announced it would award three initial research contracts to Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop a lander system.

Blue Origin received $579 million, Dynetics $253 million and SpaceX $135 million as part of that initial research contract with the hope of winning the final deal.

'The crew of Inspiration4 had an incredible first day in space,' they wrote. They travelled to space on a SpaceX rocket and journeyed around the Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule

BLUE ORIGIN'S NEW GLENN VS SPACEX'S STARSHIP Blue Origin and SpaceX are set to compete for heavy lift launches with the New Glenn and Starship rockets. New Glenn Manufacturer : Blue Origin

: Blue Origin Height : 98 m (322 ft)

: 98 m (322 ft) Diameter : 7 m (23 ft)

: 7 m (23 ft) Stages : 2

: 2 Payload to LEO : 45,000 kg Starship Manufacturer : SpaceX

: SpaceX Height : 120 m (390 ft)

: 120 m (390 ft) Diameter : 9 m (30 ft)

: 9 m (30 ft) Stages : 2

: 2 Payload to LEO : 100-150 t Advertisement

On April 16, 2021, NASA announced SpaceX was going to be the only company to construct a lunar lander, and being awarded less than either of the other two firms.

SpaceX received a $2.9 billion contract to develop the lander that will go to the lunar surface, possibly as soon as 2024.

In July, just before Bezos went to the edge of space on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, he published an open letter to NASA calling for competition to be restored to the Artemis mission.

He offered to cover billions of dollars of costs involved in developing the lander, saying he was fortunate to be in a position to do so.

This prompted Musk to tweet: 'Just want to say thanks to those in government who fight hard for the right thing to happen, despite extreme pressure to do otherwise. Therin lies the core goodness of the American state.'

The Artemis mission, which is set for 2024, will see four astronauts board the Orion spacecraft that will be rocketed off to space by NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket - due to make its debut launch early next year.

Once in orbit, two crew members will transfer to the SpaceX human landing system (HLS), an adapted version of the Starship spacecraft, and head to the surface.

After a week exploring the lunar surface, they will board the SpaceX lander for their short trip back to orbit where they will dock with the Orion and their colleagues that remained on board, before heading back to Earth.

Blue Origin was one of three hopefuls for the contract, with SpaceX and Dynetics, and hoped NASA would pay two firms to develop alternative landers, as had happened in the past - but funded cuts led to the agency picking one project. Bezos travelled to space in July in the New Shepherd rocket (pictured)

Eventually, possibly by 2028, both the Starship lander and Orion will dock with the Lunar Gateway space station due to be built in orbit around the moon.

In July, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flew into space on spacecraft that their companies built, gathering worldwide attention in their short trips.

Both bank on space tourism business from their fellow space fans with big wallets, with tickets expected to cost up to $350,000 for the 10 minute joyride.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman led SpaceX's first all-private orbital mission that splashed down after three days in circling the Earth.

His flight was on a Dragon capsule and SpaceX rocket built by space-obsessed billionaire, Elon Musk - who has a ticket with Virgin Galactic and hopes to one day 'die on Mars'.

Unlike the other two missions, Isaacman's ride raised more than $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital including $100 million from Isaacman and $50 million from Musk.
The American bumblebee is buzzing its way toward the Endangered Species Act, according to officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Once common across the country, the bee, an essential pollinator, has seen its numbers plummet nearly 90 percent in the past two decades, thanks to habitat destruction, pesticides, competition with honeybees and climate change.

It has also completely vanished from eight states, notably across the Northeast.

The bumblebee is a highly adaptable generalist that pollinates a wide variety of plants, wildflowers, and crops, ranging from tomatoes and peppers to strawberries and melons.

However, it's not currently protected under any state or federal endangered species statutes.

After reviewing a petition submitted in February, officials with the FWS said adding the insect as a 'threatened' or 'endangered' species under the 1973 act 'may be warranted' and they promised to address the issue in a 12-month finding.

Because the American bumblebee is so sensitive to environmental changes, such a designation could mean major regulatory changes for numerous industries, including agriculture, real estate and even renewable energy.

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After reviewing a petition to add the American bumblebee as an endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday such protections 'may be warranted.' It will make a final determination after a further 12-month study

In a memo published on Wednesday in the Federal Register, the FWS said a 90-day review indicated the American bumblebee (Latin name Bombus pensylvanicus) was among three animals that merited further study for admission to the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants, along with the Siuslaw hairy-necked tiger beetle and Long Valley speckled dace, a member of the minnow family.

A request to further consider the Tucson shovel-nosed snake was declined.

Keith Hirokawa, an environmental law professor at Albany Law School, told Bloomberg Law that the implications for adding the bee to the list 'could be really significant.'

'A far-reaching solution would be a fundamental change in the way we build our agricultural operations,' said Hirokawa, whose students partnered with the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity on the petition.

While the American bumblebee once thrived in 47 of the 48 continental states, its populations have declined an average of 89 percent nationwide in the last 20 years. They've completely vanished from at least eight states since the turn of the century, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, mostly in the Northeast

It calls for the bee to be listed as an endangered species, with 'critical habitat' designated for its protection.

The American bumblebee is one of the most important and diverse pollinators in North America.

While the bug once thrived in 47 of the 48 continental states, its populations have declined 89 percent nationwide since 2002.

They've completely vanished from at least eight states since then, according to the Center: Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming.

In New York State, the bumblebee population has dropped 99 percentand regions in the Southeast and Midwest have seen declines of over 50 percent.

B. pensylvanicus 'continues to decline toward extinction due to the disastrous, synergistic impacts of threats' the Center warned  including habitat destruction, intensifying agriculture, pesticides, mites and disease, climate change, competition with honey bees and loss of genetic diversity.

'Its loss will have considerable consequences to whole ecosystems and to crop production,' the group added.

States that have seen some of the largest declines in bee populations are the same states that have seen the largest quantified increase in pesticide use, the Center said, so protecting the bees would likely require new limits on their use.

Multiple studies have indicated chemical pesticides sprayed on agricultural fields disrupt the bees' homing systems, causing them to get disoriented and die.

Declines in bumblebee populations have been linked to increased use of pesticides. If the bee is added to the Endangered Species List it will trigger increased regulation of pesticide use

While state and local governments across the country are pushing hard for renewable energy projects in their districts, developers who accidentally kill bees could be exposed to legal liability if the bug was placed under the aegis of the ESA, Brooke Marcus, a natural resources lawyer at Nossaman LLP in Austin, told Bloomberg.

It would all depend on how the FWS defined the bee's habitat and how it regulated accidental or permitted deaths.

'At this early stage, we can't speculate on potential impacts of listing on land use, pesticide use, etc.,' Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Georgia Parham told Bloomberg.

'An understanding of potential impacts of listing will depend on our 12-month finding, in which we determine whether listing is warranted.'

The rusty-patched bumble bee became the first apian in the continental U.S. added to the list of endangered species in 2017.

In August, the FWS added another bumblebee to the endangered species list, the rare Franklin's bumblebee, which hasn't been observed since 2007.

Also on Wednesday, the FWS declared 23 native animals and plants officially extinct, including the Bachman's warbler, San Marcos gambusia and the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird last seen in 1944.

In June, the White House announced plans to strengthen the ESA after rollbacks were instituted during the Trump administration.

'This is a decisive move toward undoing the damage done by the previous administration to the bedrock law that protects endangered and threatened animal species and their habitat,' Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, said in a statement at the time.

'Among other steps, federal agencies under the previous administration made it more difficult to grant and maintain protections for species facing extinction and created carve-outs catering to both state and special interests that privileged profits and economic development over the survival of imperiled wildlife,' Amundson added. 'Things are not supposed to work that way when it comes to ESA protections.'

Among other initiatives, the Department of the Interior under President Biden has reinstated a longstanding policy extending protections to species listed under the ESA as 'threatened,' including from being trapped, shot, harassed or otherwise harmed.
British-built spacecraft, BepiColombo, will make its first flyby of Mercury on Friday, when it will come just 124 miles of the smallest planet in the Solar System.

The probe will make its first flyby of Mercury at 00:34 BST on October 1, capturing images and science data during the approach of the closest world to the sun.

The uncrewed European Space Agency spacecraft will make use of nine planetary flybys in total: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, together with the spacecraft's solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit.

This flyby is hot on the heels of its last Venus flyby in August, giving scientists a tantalising first taste of what's to come in the main mission in four years.

The first images from the flyby won't be available until early on Saturday, October 2, with most pictures from the mission published early on Monday morning.

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British-built spacecraft, BepiColombo, will make its first flyby of Mercury on Friday, when it will come just 124 miles of the smallest planet in the Solar System

The probe will make its first flyby of Mercury at 00:34 BST on October 1, capturing images and science data during the approach of the closest world to the sun

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT MERCURY? For all its bland 'dead' appearance, Mercury is a very interesting place It is the smallest planet in our solar system - only slightly larger than the Earth's moon. On its sunward half, the planet sizzles at a temperature of 510C (950CF while its night side maintains 210C (346F). It is the closest planet to the sun at a distance of about 36 million miles (58 million km) or 0.39 AU. Mercury has a solid iron core that measures more than half the planet's diameter. Earth, by contrast, has a solid core that's just 9.5 per cent of its overall girth. One day on Mercury takes 59 Earth days. Mercury makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Mercury time) in just 88 Earth days. Advertisement

BepiColombo launched in October 2018 and is made up of two science orbiters, one from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the other from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will fly in complementary orbits around the planet.

It includes the ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the JAXA-led Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will study all aspects of the planet - from its core to surface processes, magnetic field and its exosphere.

The aim is to better understand the origin, processes currently at work, and evolution of the planet closest to our parent star.

Travelling the 67 million miles to enter orbit around Mercury is no small task, requiring multiple flybys to speed up, or slow down, for orbital insertion.

Gravitational flybys require extremely precise deep-space navigation work, ensuring that the spacecraft is on the correct approach trajectory.

One week after BepiColombo's last flyby on August 10, a correction manoeuvre was performed to nudge the craft a little for this first flyby of Mercury.

The experts hope to pass very close to the distant world, just 124 miles from its surface and it is currently looking like it will pass 123 miles from the surface.

As BepiColombo is more than 60 million miles away from Earth, with light taking 350 seconds to reach it, being on target to within just a mile is no easy feat.

'It is because of our remarkable ground stations that we know where our spacecraft is with such precision,' said Elsa Montagnon, operations manager from ESA.

'With this information, the Flight Dynamics team at ESOC know just how much we need to manoeuvre, to be in the right place for Mercury's gravitational assist.

'As is often the case, our mission's path has been planned so meticulously that no further correction manoeuvres are expected for this upcoming flyby. BepiColombo is on track.'

There won't be high-resolution images from the flyby, as the main science camera is shielded by the transfer module used to protect it in deep space.

BepiColombo launched in October 2018 and is made up of two science orbiters, one from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the other from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will fly in complementary orbits around the planet

It includes the ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the JAXA-led Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, which will study all aspects of the planet - from its core to surface processes, magnetic field and its exosphere

WHO WAS GIUSEPPE 'BEPI' COLOMBO? The upcoming first Mercury flyby falls on the 101st anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe 'Bepi' Colombo He lived from October 2, 1920 until his death on February 20, 1984. Colombo was an Italian scientist and engineer for whom the BepiColombo mission is named. Colombo is known for explaining Mercury's peculiar characteristic of rotating about its own axis three times in every two orbits of the Sun. He realised that by careful choice of a spacecrafts flyby point as it passed a planet, the planets gravity could help the spacecraft make further flybys. His interplanetary calculations enabled NASAs Mariner 10 spacecraft to achieve three flybys of Mercury instead of one. It did so by using a flyby of Venus to change the spacecrafts flight path  the first of many spacecraft to use such a gravity assist manoeuvre. Advertisement

However, two of BepiColombo's three monitoring cameras will be taking photos from about five minutes after the time of close approach and up to four hours later.

'Because BepiColombo is arriving on the planet's nightside, conditions are not ideal to take images directly at the closest approach, thus the closest image will be captured from a distance of about 600 miles,' said ESA in a statement.

The first image will be available from about 30 minutes after closest approach, and is expected to be available for public release at around 07:00 BST on Saturday.

This will be a black-and-white snapshot in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, and are taken by cameras positioned on the Mercury Transfer Module.

These cameras are positioned in a way to capture the spacecraft's solar arrays and antennas, and as the spacecraft changes its orientation during the flyby, Mercury will be seen passing behind the spacecraft structural elements.

For the closest images it should be possible to identify large impact craters on the planet's surface.

Mercury has a heavily cratered surface much like the appearance of Earth's Moon, plotting its 4.6 billion year history.

Mapping the surface of Mercury and analysing its composition will help scientists understand more about its formation and evolution.

Even though BepiColombo is in 'stacked' cruise configuration for the flybys, it will be possible to operate some of the science instruments on both planetary orbiters, allowing a first taste of the planet's magnetic, plasma and particle environment.

The uncrewed European Space Agency spacecraft will make use of nine planetary flybys in total: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, together with the spacecraft's solar electric propulsion system, to help steer into Mercury orbit

'We're really looking forward to seeing the first results from measurements taken so close to Mercury's surface,' says Johannes Benkhoff, BepiColombo project scientist.

'When I started working as project scientist on BepiColombo in January 2008, NASA's Messenger mission had its first flyby at Mercury. Now it's our turn. It's a fantastic feeling!'

The upcoming first Mercury flyby falls on the 101st anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe 'Bepi' Colombo (2 October 192020 February 1984), an Italian scientist and engineer for whom the BepiColombo mission is named.

Mapping the surface of Mercury and analysing its composition will help scientists understand more about its formation and evolution

Colombo is known for explaining Mercury's peculiar characteristic of rotating about its own axis three times in every two orbits of the Sun.

He also realised that by careful choice of a spacecraft's flyby point as it passed a planet, the planet's gravity could help the spacecraft make further flybys.

His interplanetary calculations enabled NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft to achieve three flybys of Mercury instead of one by using a flyby of Venus to change the spacecraft's flight path.

The BepiColombo mission will build on the successes of its predecessors to provide the best understanding of the Solar System's innermost planet to date.
Sensors on a person's smartphone can be used to determine if they're high with uncanny precision, according to a new study out of Rutgers University

Researchers at the school's Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research found that an algorithm that combined sensors tracking movements and GPS location with data on the time of day and day of the week had a 90 percent accuracy rate in determining if someone was stoned.

The algorithm could help law enforcement and health professionals more accurately predict if an individual is currently experiencing 'cannabis intoxication,' according to a release.

'We might be able to detect when a person might be experiencing cannabis intoxication and deliver a brief intervention when and where it might have the most impact to reduce cannabis-related harm,' said co-author Tammy Chung, director of the Institute's Center for Population Behavioral Health in the statement.

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Researchers have been able to create an algorithm that predicts whether a regular pot smoker is high with 90 percent accuracy. The system combines GPS and movement data from their smartphone with info on the time of day and day of the week

The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, evaluated the feasibility of using smartphone sensor data to identify episodes of 'cannabis intoxication'  being noticeably high in a non-lab environment.

The researchers collected daily data from volunteers in Pittsburgh ages 18 to 25 who said they smoked marijuana at least twice per week.

Using self-initiated reports and phone surveys over a 30-day period, the researchers developed an algorithm that could accurately predict if a participant was high with 60 percent accuracy just based on the time of day and day of week.

Adding in continuous data gleaned from smartphone sensors boosted that rate to 90 percent.

Just based on the time of day and day of week, the algorithm had a 60 percent accuracy rate

The most important phone features in detecting cannabis intoxication were travel patterns from GPS when a subject said they felt high and movement data from the device's accelerometer.

Typically, an accelerometer measures different motions  like tilting or swinging  and changes the orientation of your phone's display from portrait to landscape accordingly.

It can also detect a sudden change in acceleration, like if you drop your phone, and shut off the hard drive to prevent data damage, according to software developer Credencys.

Getting high has been linked to slower response times, which can impair driving and other focus-intensive activities.

Existing marijuana detection measures  like blood and urine tests  present logistical issues and would be too time-consuming to use as an intervention.

In addition, such tests can return positive results for up to three days after a subject has last used marijuana and would no longer be considered high.

As more states legalize marijuana, a smartphone app could be used to determine acute cannabis intoxication, rather than just general usage.

The authors of the study, who include faculty from Stevens Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tokyo and the University of Washington say future research should investigate how algorithms like theirs would rate in classifying people who use weed less frequently.

Most current marijuana tests can return positive results for up to three days after a subject has last used pot. The algorithm could help 'detect when a person might be experiencing cannabis intoxication and deliver a brief intervention when and where it might have the most impact,' researchers say

Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana and another nine approve its use medically.

An article published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found there was no increase in cannabis use among the general population or previous users after their states legalized marijuana.

In September, Senators Cory Booker, Ron Wyden and Chuck Schumer introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level.
Venus's surface may be too extreme for life to survive, but sunlight coming through the planet's thick clouds could support photosynthesis, resulting in the existence of microorganisms, a new study suggests.

Researchers at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona have found evidence that photosynthesis, the process which plants use to turn water and sunlight into food, could occur all day.

It may even happen at night, due to the levels of thermal or infrared energy emanating from the planet's surface and atmosphere.

Sunlight coming through Venus's clouds could support photosynthesis, resulting in the existence of microorganisms

In essence, light energy would be available from both below and above the clouds, giving any potential microorganisms the ability to live in different cloud layers.

In essence, light energy would be available from both below and above the clouds, giving any potential microorganisms the ability to live in different cloud layers.

The study comes just months after a separate group of researchers said the planet's clouds are too dry and don't have enough water to sustain life.

However, study's lead author, Rakesh Mogul, and the other researchers found that Venus's clouds could be partially made from neutralized forms of sulfuric acid, like ammonium bisulfate.

The researchers found that Venus's clouds could be partially made from neutralized forms of sulfuric acid, like ammonium bisulfate

This would have higher water levels than described in the aforementioned study, making the clouds more palatable for life

This would have higher water levels than described in the aforementioned study, making the clouds more palatable for life.

'Our study provides tangible support for the potential for phototrophy and/or chemotrophy by microorganisms in Venus clouds,' Mogul said in a statement.

'The acidity and water activity levels potentially fall within an acceptable range for microbial growth on Earth, while the constant illumination with limited UV suggests that Venus clouds could be hospitable for life.

'We believe that Venus clouds would make a great target for habitability or life detection missions, like those currently planned for Mars and Europa.'

VENUS: EARTH'S SISTER WORLD Venus and Earth are remarkably similar in size but their histories differ. The second planet from the Sun sits in the inner edge of the habitable zone, in fact scientists believe it may have been habitable 700 million years ago. A single day on the inhospitable world is 243 Earth days, compared to the 24 hours on Earth. It is a terrestrial planet similar in size, mass proximity to the sun and bulk composition as the Earth. However, it has the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, made up of 96% carbon dioxide and a pressure at the surface 92 times greater than Earth. It has the hottest surface of any planet in the solar system with a mean temperature of 867 degrees Fahrenheit. Its clouds are made of sulfuric acid, with acid rain falling to the hot surface. It may have had oceans in the past, but the water would have been vaporised as temperatures rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect. Advertisement

Both NASA and the European Space Agency are sending missions to explore Venus, a planet that has been called 'Earth's evil twin.'

The solar and thermal radiation in Venus's clouds have wavelengths of lights that are able to absorbed by the photosynthetic pigments found on Earth, the release said.

In addition, the study found that the sunlight that comes through the Venusian atmosphere is stripped of most of its harmful ultraviolet radiation, acting similar to Earth's ozone.

One of the study's co-authors, Yeon Joo Lee, found that Venus receives between 80 and 90 percent less change in UV-A levels than Earth's surface does.

It is also 'essentially depleted' of UV-B and UV-C, which are considered the most harmful components of UV radiation.

'We speculate, therefore, that microbial survival in an aerosolized and water-restricted environment could include bio/chemical strategies to reduce vapor pressure and loss of solution-phase water, similar to microbial strategies associated with freezing point and temperature depression, inhibition of ice formation, and cloud condensation,' the authors wrote in the study.

It's unclear why Venus has significantly less ultraviolet radiation than Earth does, but a study published in July found that winds run backwards at night on Venus.

The study was published in the scientific journal Astrobiology.

In 2019, researchers said Venus may have had stable temperatures in its past and could have had 'liquid water' for 2 to 3 billion years.

Approximately 700 million years ago, it underwent a 'dramatic transformation' --possibly due to volcanic eruptions -- that completely altered the planet.

Venus' surface temperature is 864 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to roughly 57 degrees for Earth

Venus presently has a surface temperature of 864 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to roughly 57 degrees for Earth.

In September 2020, scientists said they had found traces of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus that may have been an indication of life.

However, a study published in July said that the phosphine may have emanated from the planet's volcanoes and not microbes living in the clouds.
The discovery of a human jawbone dating back 25,000 years could help unravel the mystery of how our ancestors moved between Asia and Australia.

It was found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and belonged to an elderly individual of unknown age and sex who had small teeth, researchers said.

The jawbone is the first fossilised evidence of modern human remains from the Pleistocene era found on Sulawesi, the world's eleventh-largest island.

It is part of a geographical transition zone called Wallacea, which lies between the edge of the Southeast Asian continental shelf (Sunda) and the ancient 'super-continent' of Sahul.

Sahul emerged during the last Ice Age when global sea levels fell, draining the shallow sea strait dividing mainland Australia from New Guinea and exposing a land bridge.

The discovery of a human jawbone (pictured) dating back 25,000 years could help unravel the mystery of how our ancestors moved between Asia and Australia

It was found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and belonged to an elderly individual of unknown age and sex who had small teeth, researchers said

Experts say Sulawesi, which is one of the 'Wallace Islands', is a key location in helping to understand how humans first arrived in the Wallacea region and then moved between islands.

'The first modern humans to reach Sulawesi produced some of the oldest known dated rock art, yet little is known about the origin and cultural lives of these Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers,' researchers from Griffith University, Australian National University and the University of Queensland wrote in their paper.

They said the jawbone 'provides us with the first direct fossil insight into the identity of these ancient foragers, and its unusual tooth wear and oral pathology offer tantalising hints on how they adapted to their rainforest environment.'

The individual, they said, experienced poor dental health and had no teeth except for their molars.

This could be due to their loss after death, although none of them were recovered during excavation, the researchers said.

The remains were found in the Leang Bulu Bettue cave, and the authors said it was possible that the individual belonged to the population responsible for one of the world's oldest known rock art traditions.

They also said the new find shows that early modern humans were present in a region that may have been host to multiple species of ancient human.

It's possible Denisovans and the first modern humans (ancestors of today's indigenous Australians and Papuans) bred in Wallacea.

The individual, researchers said, experienced poor dental health and had no teeth except for their molars

It is thought the islands of Wallacea, including Indonesia, were important in aiding the spread of humans. This image shows the continents of Sahul and Sunda both present day and during the Ice Ages

The remains were found in the Leang Bulu Bettue cave (pictured), and the authors said it was possible that the individual belonged to the population responsible for one of the world's oldest known rock art traditions

These ancestors likely entered Wallacea some 65,000 years ago after spreading from Eurasia towards Oceania, with the Wallace Islands acting as 'stepping stones' in this journey prior to them reaching Oceania around 50,000 years ago.

Several different models of migration through the region have been hypothesised, and although researchers say their discovery could fit with them, it won't offer a definitive answer on which one is right.

One such theory is that Australo-Melanesians  direct ancestors of modern-day Aboriginal Australians and Papuans  colonised Wallacea in the Late Pleistocene.

This gave rise to localised island populations that remained isolated genetically and culturally over tens of thousands of years until the arrival of East Asian farmers in the middle Holocene.

There are relatively few Late Pleistocene sites attributed to our ancestors in Wallacea, with only one island  Alor in the southeastern part of the archipelago  yielding skeletal evidence for pre-Holocene modern humans.

The researchers said much more fieldwork needed to be done to further unravel the cultural and biological history of modern humans in the region.

The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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Owners trek from far and wide so their precious pooches can have a holiday of their own at The Country Dog Hotel

Pippin likes his comforts. And he can be picky about where he sleeps and with whom he associates. So were hoping hell have no complaints about The Country Dog Hotel, with its in-house spa, roaring log fires, outdoor cinema nights and Aga-baked goodies.

Mind you, finding a berth might be difficult because this is arguably the most in-demand doghouse in the country. Owners trek from far and wide and pay a premium so their precious pooches can have a holiday of their own.

We hear model David Gandys rescue pup Dora and Harry Redknapps bulldog Barney have stayed. Lorraine Kellys border terrier Angus is a regular, as well as many of the England rugby teams dogs.

The plan is to leave Pippin, our cocker spaniel, here for five nights while my fiance and I repair to the Dolomites. The hotel, set in a large estate on top of the rolling Quantock Hills in Somerset, offers two packages: standard, which costs 50 a day, and VIP  very important pooches  at 80 a day.

Pippin, of course, opts for the VIP package. After his bag is packed with his food, blanket and favourite teddy, hes chauffeured from his North London city pad in a Land Rover while listening to calming Classic FM.

The hotel is the brainchild of Rebecca Linnell and Michael Walton, who started the business five years ago when they realised dog owners are in the habit of spoiling their charges just as much as parents are happy to pamper their children.

I think its crucial we take that worry away by giving dogs a holiday of their own and by sending regular updates to their owners,' says Rebecca.

Yap of luxury: Pippin at The Country Dog Hotel. Picture and video updates come as part of the VIP package

At The Country Dog Hotel, the guests (dogs) have the run of the place - and there are only ever ten at one time, with seven members of staff. Pictured right is the hotel's doggy (lukewarm) hot tub

A lot of our clients are billionaires. Theyre lucky enough to be able to go to the Bahamas for months on end, but they also want to give their dogs a nice break as well.

At The Country Dog Hotel, guests (as theyre called, naturally) have the run of the place - and there are only ever ten at one time, with seven members of staff.

Crucially, before Pippins departure, we have several conversations with Michael and Rebecca. We discuss Pippins preference for sleeping by our bed and how he does not like to be left alone.

Picture and video updates come as part of the VIP package. Along with messages such as, Everyone is rapidly falling in love with him and those puppy eyes, were sent images of Pippin cuddled up next to the Aga in the farmhouse kitchen, romping around the windswept hills and running down the cream-carpeted hallways that look like theyve come straight out of the pages of Country Living magazine.

The hotel is set in a large estate on top of the rolling Quantock Hills in Somerset

The VIP canine guests at The Country Dog Hotel can tuck into Aga-baked goodies

Having signed a disclaimer saying we are happy for Pippin to feature on the hotels social media, images and videos begin popping up on the Instagram account. One picture of him and fellow guest Margot, a beautiful wire-haired dachshund, sitting on a window box has racked up more than 800 likes.

After five nights living it up with his new chums, Pippin arrives back at our front door fluffed, combed and groomed to perfection, and smelling of sweet orange and cedarwood following a shampoo, condition and face scrub with a bottle of 15 WildWash lotion at the spa. As promised, he returns with a goody bag containing bone-shaped treats engraved with his name, which Rebecca baked that morning.

So, who had the better time on their holidays  us or Pippin? Well never really know, but The Country Dog Hotel seems pretty hard to beat.
Iris Law and Alexa Chung were in attendance on Tuesday afternoon as the Christian Dior catwalk show kicked off Paris Fashion Week.

The British stars looked typically stylish as they greeted onlookers in the French capital as Dior unveiled their new womenswear collection for spring-summer 2022.

Iris oozed glamour in a busty white corset while making her way inside ahead of the bi-annual event.

Here they come: Iris Law and Alexa Chung were in attendance on Tuesday afternoon as the Christian Dior catwalk show kicked off Paris Fashion Week

She toted a chic tan shoulder bag with a god chain strap as she walked confidently across cobbles to the entrance of the fashion show.

The daughter of Jude Law was the picture of elegance as she glided past onlookers in her semi-sheer skirt that put the silhouette of her model pins on display.

Her edgy bleached buzzcut stood her out from the crowd and she accentuated her natural beauty with a full face of flawlessly applied makeup.

Looking good: Iris oozed glamour in a busty white corset while making her way inside ahead of the bi-annual event

Stunning: Iris added inches to her frame with a pair of beige heels and pouted up a sizzling storm for a flurry of onlookers

Beauty: Her edgy bleached buzzcut stood her out from the crowd and she had applied a full face of flawlessly applied makeup

Iris added inches to her frame with a pair of beige heels and pouted up a sizzling storm for a flurry of onlookers.

Meanwhile Alexa embraced her surroundings by wearing a jaunty beret over a smart white blazer and thigh-skimming silver skirt.

The Vogue cover star exhibited her svelte waist with a black bandeaux while donning a coordinating pair of strapped leather shoes.

Tasteful: Meanwhile Alexa embraced her surroundings by wearing a jaunty beret over a smart white blazer and thigh-skimming silver skirt

Wow! Tightly clutching her phone, she wore her chocolate tresses in their natural waves and sported a pair of dazzling silver earring trinkets

Sensational: She's certainly no stranger to a high-end fashion show

Confident: She enhanced her natural beauty with a minimal amount of makeup

Tightly clutching her phone, she wore her chocolate tresses in their natural waves and sported a pair of dazzling silver earring trinkets.

From September 27 to October 5, the streets of Paris will once again come alive with models, designers and editors as fashion week takes over the capital.

Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Balenciaga will return to the normal runway while some smaller designers with remain digital.
He broke down in tears while discussing his sister Jaimi's death on Tuesday's episode of SAS Australia, which was filmed several months ago.

And Jett Kenny put on a brave face earlier that day as he attended a training session at a surf club in Alexandra Headland on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The lifesaver-turned-model, 27, joked with his fellow surfers as he strolled down the beach in swim trunks with a board tucked under his arm.

Strong: Jett Kenny put on a brave face as he went surfing in Queensland on Tuesday morning, just hours before SAS Australia viewers watched him break down over his sister Jaimi's death

The toned reality star appeared to be in his element as he caught waves with ease.

At times, however, Jett was seen looking more sombre, staring off into the distance with a mournful expression on his face.

While Jett did his best to maintain composure during surf training, he certainly couldn't fight his emotions on Tuesday night's episode of SAS Australia as he recalled his sister's tragic death.

Fit: The lifesaver-turned-model, 27, joked with his fellow surfers as he strolled down the beach

Moment of reflection: At times, however, Jett was seen looking more sombre

Pensive: Before hitting the waves, Jett stared into the distance with a mournful expression on his face

Jaimi had battled alcoholism and an eating disorder before she passed away at a Sunshine Coast hospital surrounded by her family - including Jett.

During the heartbreaking scene, Jett told his fellow recruits he regretted not being there for Jaimi 'more' amid her struggles, after she died at age 33 last September.

He said: 'The biggest thing in my life is never feeling good enough.

'I set my standards very high, but if I don't get them then I put it all back on myself and I let that affect me heaps.

Loss: While Jett did his best to maintain composure during surf training, he certainly couldn't fight his emotions on Tuesday's episode of SAS Australia as he recalled his sister's tragic death

'I guess a way I kind of became like that was with my sister. She battled with mental health for 15 years, but for me it was kind of just like, "Why are you doing this to yourself?" I never fully understood it.'

He added: 'My sister did struggle with mental health. We did everything we could as a family and for Jaimi to try and bring her out of it. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

'She got told she wasn't going to make it until 30. She got to 33.'

Loss: Jett told his fellow recruits he 'regrets not being there for [my sister] more', after Jaimi (right) tragically died at the age of 33 last September

Jett, the son of Olympian Lisa Curry and Ironman Grant Kenny, began to tear up as he recalled a moment that he told his sister a 'harsh reality' when she asked him a question before her death.

'I guess... there was one thing I said at her funeral. I'm not going to say it, as it was very personal. But I remember saying it to her the night that she asked me this question...' he said.

Without revealing the question, he added: 'I gave her the honest truth. I was hoping that was the harsh reality that she needed, hearing it from her younger brother. But she's gone now. I kind of regret not being there for her more.'

Devastated: Jett, the son of Olympian Lisa Curry and Ironman Grant Kenny, recalled a moment that he told his sister a 'harsh reality' when she asked him a question before her death

Speaking to the camera, Jett added: 'To me it was like: you have the willpower to change your life, and turn things around. But that's me. I can't speak for someone who is going through mental health issues because I've never been there.

'Everyone wants to do the best they can for the people that they love. But when you can't it makes you question yourself. Like, was I good enough brother?

'It takes a lot to get me to cry, but I cried at Jaimi's funeral and the night she passed away. That's my older sister. Of course I'm going to miss her.'

Heartbroken: 'It takes a lot to get me to cry, but I cried at Jaimi's funeral and the night she passed away. That's my older sister. Of course I'm going to miss her,' Jett said

The Kenny-Curry family announced Jaimi's death on social media on September 15 last year, one day after her passing.

'Our beautiful daughter Jaimi has lost her battle with a long-term illness and passed away peacefully in hospital yesterday morning with her loving family by her side,' Jaimi's mother Lisa Curry wrote at the time.

The Kenny-Curry family announced Jaimi's death on social media on September 15 last year, one day after her passing.

Devastating loss: The Kenny-Curry family announced Jaimi's death on social media on September 15 last year, one day after her passing. Pictured: Jaimi Kenny and her mother Lisa Curry

'Our beautiful daughter Jaimi has lost her battle with a long-term illness and passed away peacefully in hospital yesterday morning with her loving family by her side,' Jaimi's mother Lisa Curry wrote at the time.

'We thank the incredible team at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital for their tireless commitment to making her better and giving us the extra time we were able to spend with her.

'It goes without saying that this is a very difficult time for family and friends and we trust we will all be allowed to grieve in privacy.'

Family: Lisa is pictured with her son Jett (left), daughter Morgan (right) and her grandson Flynn

It was later reported that Jaimi had battled alcoholism and an eating disorder before her death at a Sunshine Coast hospital.

SAS Australia continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven

For free and confidential support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Butterfly Foundation for eating disorder concerns on 1800 ED HOPE
She's used to being the smartest person in the room.

But Letters & Numbers mathematician Lily Serna admits she was 'in awe' of the sharp-witted guests on the upcoming celebrity edition of the SBS show.

The 35-year-old told The Daily Telegraph she couldn't believe how smart and 'quick on their feet' the comedians were during filming.

'Lightning speed': Letters & Numbers mathematician Lily Serna (right) has admitted she was 'in awe' of the sharp-witted guests on the upcoming celebrity edition of the SBS show. Pictured with dictionary expert David Astle (left) and host Michael Hing (centre)

'It was so much fun. I've never been in a room with so many comedians,' she said.

'It was an absolute ball. They are just so quick on their feet. I'm just in awe of the way their minds work, the way they link ideas and respond - it's lightning speed.

'I can hand on heart say they were all genuinely lovely people.'

Sharp: Lily, 35, said she couldn't believe how smart and 'quick on their feet' the comedians were during filming. The likes of Hamish Blake (pictured), Matt Okine, Merrick Watts, Jennifer Wong, Aaron Chen and Susie Youssef will feature on Celebrity Letters & Numbers

After nine years of late-afternoon repeats, SBS has commissioned new episodes of cult quiz show Letters & Numbers.

The reboot is hosted by comedian Michael Hing, replacing former ABC news anchor Richard Morecroft, who fronted the original show from 2010 to 2012.

Maths guru Lily and dictionary expert David Astle are returning for the series, which features celebrities as contestants instead of ordinary Aussies.

Guess who's back! After nine years of late-afternoon repeats, SBS has finally commissioned new episodes of cult quiz show Letters & Numbers. Pictured (L to R): mathematician Lily Serna, host Richard Morecroft and dictionary expert David Astle

The likes of Hamish Blake, Matt Okine, Merrick Watts, Jennifer Wong, Aaron Chen and Susie Youssef will feature across 12 hour-long episodes.

Hing is a co-host of Triple J's drive-time show, and also presented SBS's ancestry series Where Are You Really From? in 2018.

SBS's Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald, previously said: 'Letters & Numbers has been entertaining Australian audiences for over a decade, and we're thrilled to bring it back to SBS in this new format.

New look: The reboot will be hosted by comedian Michael Hing (pictured in 2019), replacing former ABC news anchor Richard Morecroft, who fronted the original show from 2010 to 2012

'Celebrity Letters & Numbers brings together a large cast of comedic personalities for an evening of compulsive games that will have the whole family playing along.

'SBS aims to provide Australians with programming that entertains, educates and unites, and the revival of this cult quiz show is a testament to its dedicated fans. We cant wait for you to join us every Saturday evening.'

Despite only running for two years, Letters & Numbers has achieved cult status since its cancellation in 2012 due to its daily repeats on SBS.

Popular: Serna became a fan favourite during her years on Letters & Numbers

The show had an average audience of 130,000 when it was axed, and old episodes still get about 90,000 viewers in the late-afternoon time slot.

The program was based on the popular British quiz show Countdown and the French program Des chiffres et des lettres.

Since the last episode of Letters & Numbers was recorded, Morecroft has retired to the country and Serna has welcomed her first child.

In December 2019, Astle was appointed as host of the Evenings radio program on ABC Radio Melbourne, replacing Lindy Burns.

Celebrity Letters & Numbers premieres Saturday at 7:35pm on SBS
She is one of the most stylish stars in Australia and is an ambassador for Chanel.

And Australian actress Phoebe Tonkin looked incredibly chic as she stepped out for lunch in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old opted for a casual cool look - cladding her slender figure in a pair of jeans, white singlet and black cardigan.

The Originals star Phoebe Tonkin cut stylish figure as she stepoed out for lunch in Los Angeles with a friend on Tuesday

She also clutched a $2,250 shoulder bag by Celine as she met up with a friend for a bite to eat.

She added some edge to her outfit with a pair of chunky black leather boots.

The brunette beauty wore minimal makeup and had her long dark locks out and in a natural style.

Her look was finished with gold jewellery, a pair of black sunglasses.

Casual cool: The 32-year-old opted for a casual cool look - cladding her slender figure in a pair of jeans, white singlet and black cardigan

Beauty: The brunette beauty wore minimal makeup and had her long dark locks out and in a natural style

Phoebe, who is known for her role in the hit CW show The Originals, joined a pal for lunch at the vegan restaurant Crossroads Kitchen on Melrose Avenue.

Phoebe, who hails from Sydney, has been based in the US for years for her acting career.

She has had considerable success in the US, portraying Hayley Marshall in The CW series The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off series, The Originals.

Expensive accessories: She also clutched a $2,250 shoulder bag by Celine as she met up with a friend for a bite to eat

She's also known for portraying Cleo Sertori in H2O: Just Add Water, alongside Claire Holt, who also starred in The Originals.

Back in 2017, Phoebe told W Magazine about saying goodbye to The Originals, after starring on the show for five years.

'It was a very emotional goodbye,' she told the publication.

She added: 'I don't think I've totally digested it. It has been a really big opportunity for me, and I am so grateful for the last five years, but also really excited to see what is next.'
One of the ABC's most popular true crime documentaries has been removed from iview over potential inaccuracies.

The two-part series Juanita: A Family Mystery has been taken down from the streaming platform so the network can verify claims made by interviewee John Innes.

The ABC addressed the issue in a statement to TV Tonight following a report in The Australian.

Removed: The two-part series Juanita: A Family Mystery has been taken down from ABC's iview so the network can verify claims made by interviewee John Innes

'It is important to note that the program makers attempted to verify those claims, such as by speaking with and / or seeking interviews with current and former NSW Police officers, including those Mr Innes said he worked with in the early 1980s,' an ABC spokesperson said.

'The program makers also sought comment from NSW Police, which chose not to repudiate Mr Innes claims until after they were broadcast.

'However, while some information concerning Mr Innes was not available to the program makers, we acknowledge that additional steps should have been taken to verify his claims.'

In addition to the series being taken down, episodes seven and eight of the Juanita: A Family Mystery podcast were removed too.

The true crime miniseries explores the mystery surrounding the death of journalist and activist Juanita Nielsen.

Juanita, who owned alternative paper NOW, disappeared from the centre of Sydney's seedy underbelly 46 years ago in one of Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes.

At the time, the 38-year-old was a fierce activist who used her publication to campaign against developers to protect heritage buildings in Potts Point and promote the Builders Labourers Federation's controversial green bans in the 1970s.

Murder: Juanita, who owned alternative paper NOW, disappeared from the centre of Sydney's seedy underbelly 46 years ago in one of Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes

Nielsen has never been found and no one has ever been charged in relation to her disappearance, although It is widely believed she was kidnapped and murdered because of her anti-development and anti-corruption campaigns.

She was the great-granddaughter of businessman Mark Foy and an heiress to his retail empire.

On the morning of July 4, 1975, Juanita walked into the Carousel Cabaret - a Kings Cross nightclub run by an associate of notorious underworld crime boss Abe Saffron - and was never seen again.

Her handbag was found on the side of a highway leading to the Blue Mountains, 60km west of Sydney's CBD, eight days later.

Lineage: She was the great-granddaughter of businessman Mark Foy and an heiress to his retail empire (pictured with father Neil Smith)

During initial investigations, police uncovered a plot to kidnap Ms Nielsen four days before her last known sighting.

Three men - including a Carousel Club employee - were charged with conspiracy to kidnap in 1977 and two were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to kidnap her, but no charges have ever been laid over her later disappearance.

A coronial inquiry in 1983 found Ms Nielsen was likely dead, but despite the case generating extraordinary publicity, her remains have never been found.

In June, NSW Police announced the reward to solve the case had been doubled to $1million as her devastated loved ones pleaded with anyone with information to come forward so she could be given a proper burial.
Amber Portwood opened up about her strained relationship with her 12-year-old daughter Leah in a new preview for Teen Mom OG on Tuesday.

In an emotional clip from the hit MTV series, the reality star, 31, who shot to fame on 16 and Pregnant in 2009, broke down while revealing it had been 'months' since she had seen her eldest, who she shares with ex-fiance Gary Shirley.

'I feel like Im never going to win,' the Indiana native confessed. 'I wanted us to have a great co-parenting family that I thought we had until it became weird.'

Amber Portwood opened up about her strained relationship with her 12-year-old daughter Leah in a new preview for Teen Mom OG on Tuesday.

While speaking to Teen Mom OG executive producer Larry, she added: 'All of the sudden, Leah just started acting weird and turning on me.'

Portwood explained that the behavior was out of character for her little girl, who 'does not ignore' her.

'Even if I take responsibility for every single wrongdoing Ive ever done, it just feels like its never enough,' the mother-of-two worried. 'All I can say is sorry and try to move forward.'

Sad: In an emotional clip from the hit MTV series, the reality star, 31, broke down while revealing it had been 'months' since she had seen her eldest, who she shares with ex-fiance Gary Shirley

'I cant sit here and have her think things that arent true about me cause I am her mother,' she noted, before revealing she has tried writing and texting her preteen multiple times.

Despite attempting to contact Leah to repair their relationship, Portwood fears her daughter may have blocked her number and never get the messages.

'How many times do I need to apologize? They dont hear me? How many times do I need to apologize?' the TV personality tearfully asked.

'I feel like Im never going to win,' the Indiana native confessed. 'I wanted us to have a great co-parenting family that I thought we had until it became weird'

Emotional: While speaking to Teen Mom OG executive producer Larry, she added: 'All of the sudden, Leah just started acting weird and turning on me'

Earlier this month, she first spoke about 'struggling' to connect with her daughter.

'My relationship with her has changed a lot. I haven't seen her in quite some time,' Portwood admitted.

Over the years, Portwood has faced legal troubles, including an arrest in July 2019 for assaulting her boyfriend at the time Andrew Glennon while he was holding their son James, three.

Strained: Portwood explained that the behavior was out of character for her little girl, who 'does not ignore' her
A Melbourne business owner and financial planner will face court accused of using fake driver's licences to sneak into Perth to attend Saturday's AFL grand final.

Prahran restaurant and bar owner Hayden Burbank, 49, and finance firm managing director Mark Babbage, 38, are alleged to have flown into Perth on September 22 after arriving in Darwin from Melbourne on September 14.

They were pictured posing inside the Optus Stadium change rooms on Saturday with Melbourne player Alex Neal-Bullen after the side's drought-breaking premiership win.

The photo was posted on the AFL's official Instagram account.

WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said they received an anonymous public tip-off that the men had been in Victoria 14 days before arriving in the state.

The pair were arrested at Bunker Bay in the state's southwest on Tuesday morning after police issued a public appeal to track them down.

They spent the night in police custody and on Wednesday morning will face court charged with breaching the Emergency Management Act, which can attract fines of up to $50,000 and a maximum jail term of 12 months.

"How people could knowingly put others at risk in these times is selfish and contemptible," Mr Dawson told reporters on Tuesday.

One of the men has tested negative for COVID-19 and the other's result was inconclusive.

Mr Dawson said health authorities believed the initial result was a false positive and he will be retested overnight.

A woman, believed to be a WA resident, who was with Mr Burbank and Mr Babbage when they were arrested has also tested negative. She is unlikely to be charged.

Two other Victorian men also entered WA via South Australia for the AFL grand final. One has returned home to Melbourne, while the other has been arrested and faced Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

He also returned a negative COVID-19 test result and will remain in custody until October 8.

"While we've got people charged with serious offences, there's nothing at this point to indicate that it (the AFL grand final) has put the community at risk," Mr Dawson said.
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After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday.

Craig stepped out alongside co-stars Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics, royals and stars alike to the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed blockbuster - with a thrilling outcome from the other side.

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced'.

Reviews from around the world soon flooded in with a slew of five star accolades for Craig's swansong - along with gushing praise over the movie's 'magnificence, glee, extravagance and bulgingly proportions'.

Finally here: After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.'

Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'.

On the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke?...

'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond. This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.'

Four stars: The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars

Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond when he walked No Time To Die's world premiere red carpet on Tuesday

NO TIME TO DIE REVIEWS: Magnificent and extravagant THE DAILY MAIL Rating: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.' THE GUARDIAN Rating: Craig's final film as the diva of British intelligence is an epic barnstormer, with the script delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy, heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action in a movie which calls to mind the world of Dr No on his island. THE TELEGRAPH Rating: Cary Joji Fukunaga's extravagantly satisfying, bulgingly proportioned last chapter to the Craig era, throws almost everything there is left to throw at 007 the series can come up with. DIGITAL SPY Rating: It might have taken its time getting him, but No Time to Die confirms that whoever the next James Bond is, they've got some big shoes to fill. THE SUN Rating: In his final turn as 007, Craig exits the franchise with a bang  as well as many crashes and several wallops. The stunts are simply spectacular, with one particular scene involving a motorbike in Italy that will leave you watching through splayed fingers in exhilarating fear. EVENING STANDARD Rating: After Spectre, he famously said he'd rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Instead, with the help of a talented team, he's taken a razor blade to the idea of Bond. Craig bows out with his head held high. Way to go. NME Rating: For the most part though, and with so much at stake thanks to Covid decimating cinema, No Time To Die producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson should be applauded for taking some bold risks. The gobsmacking ending, in fact, may be the biggest in Bond history. THE INDEPENDENT Rating: While Craig is a consummate action star, director Cary Joji Fukunaga's more radical vision of James Bond is fleeting, his film a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points EMPIRE This film does things that no Bond film has ever done, and despite relying heavily on tropes that feel not only familiar but comforting, it is the unfamiliar things it does that make this such an exciting entry. SKY Spectacularly well shot, wonderfully dark villains (Rami Malek's performance is faultless) and perhaps more depth than before, perhaps Bond really can save the day - for cinema in the short term at least. VARIETY No Time to Die is a terrific movie: an up-to-the-minute, down-to-the-wire James Bond thriller with a satisfying neo-classical edge. It's an unabashedly conventional Bond film that's been made with high finesse and just the right touch of soul, as well as enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge. Advertisement

Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'.

He wrote: 'No Time To Die is startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident, and perhaps most of all it is big: big action, big laughs, big stunts and however digitally it may have been contrived, and however wildly far-fetched, No Time To Die looks like it is taking place in the real world, a huge wide open space that were all longing for.'

Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'.

Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond.

The Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan observed: 'Fukunaga serves up derring do that's iconoclastic on so many levels. He couldn't have done it without Craig.

'Nobody's puppet, Craig helped produce No Time to Die. After Spectre, he famously said he'd rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Instead, with the help of a talented team, he's taken a razor blade to the idea of Bond.'

Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event before critics sat down to review the flick

Kevin Maher of The Times meanwhile penned: 'It's better than good. It's magnificent. Craig is a towering charismatic presence from opening frame to closing shot, and he bows out in terrific, soulful, style.'

The Sun urged viewers to 'buckle up' in its four star review while the BBC also allocated the movie five stars, noting: 'No Time To Die rounds off the Craig era with tremendous ambition and aplomb.'

However The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was less content when the credits rolled, branding Craig's 'last hoorah' as 'disappointing and strangely anti-climactic' before mustering up just three stars.

Digital Spy was another publication to award the flick four stars.

Ian Sandwell wrote: 'It might have taken its time getting him, but No Time to Die confirms that whoever the next James Bond is, they've got some big shoes to fill.'

Dazzling: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance at No Time To Die's World premiere

Ahead of the screening Craig chatted away to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Albert Hall.

Also at the star-studded premiere were Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Naomie Harris.

It has been a long road to Tuesday night's premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all posed on the carpet together

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

Close bond: Naomi Harris and Lashana Lynch shared a joke at the star-studded event ahead of the much-anticipated screening

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
No Time To Die (12A)

Rating:

Weve been expecting you, Mr Bond. The whiskery line has been issued with a half-smile by plenty of menacing villains down the decades.

But it could have been chorused by the lavishly befrocked and black-tied crowd at the Royal Albert Hall last night, as the glitzy world premiere of No Time To Die raised the curtain ahead of its general release tomorrow.

Are those expectations, intensified by no fewer than four pandemic-enforced postponements, fully satisfied? Emphatically yes, Mr Bond.

The thunderous ovation that rocked the stately old venue as the end credits rolled late last night  following an ending that its safe to say nobody saw coming  was not misplaced.

Daniel Craig, left, and Ana de Armas in a scene from No Time To Die. The films extravagant running time, 163 minutes, makes it almost an hour longer than the first in the venerable series, 1962s Dr No

No Time To Die is a triumph: an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the worlds greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before. It is superbly spearheaded by Daniel Craigs Bond, even if he is as scarred emotionally as his supremely creepy adversary Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) is physically.

If this picture doesnt succeed in its mission, to breathe life back into the Covid-crippled cinema industry, its hard to imagine what would.

The films extravagant running time, 163 minutes, makes it almost an hour longer than the first in the venerable series, 1962s Dr No. But the breathless pace rarely slackens, not even to allow for the touchy-feeliness that has become such a key part of Craigs 007 package.

On which subject, if youll allow a Bond-like double entendre, his virility is as rampant as it ever was, even if his promiscuity isnt.

Was there ever a Bond film with fewer sexual conquests? I cant think of one, even in the near-monogamous Timothy Dalton years. Needless to add, Craigs Bond might not have been dispatching disfigured megalomaniacs these past six years, but hes done a great job fighting the flab. All the same, he was in his thirties when he first invoked his licence to kill; hes 53 now and a little crinkly around the eyes.

No Time To Die is a triumph: an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the worlds greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before

So it seems entirely credible that at the start of the film, after a compelling pre-credits sequence, he should be living in retirement in Jamaica, still mooning over a perceived betrayal by his former love, sexy French psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). In the meantime, in London, a devastating biological weapon has been stolen from right under the noses of MI6. A new 00 agent, Nomi (Lashana Lynch), is on the case, and soon, so too is Bond, tempted away from his fishing rod by his old mucker Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).

Oddly, the evil mastermind behind the theft is targeting Spectre, the shadowy organisation still run from prison by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). But the old maxim that your enemys enemy is your friend has no place here.

At first, some of this is as hard to follow as a weaponised Aston Martin, but the narrative fog clears and we are left with much that seems familiar about Bond movies, and, as the action heads to the obligatory island lair, some that conspicuously doesnt.

Even if you live in an island lair yourself youll be aware that this is Craigs swansong as Bond. But almost as significant as it being his last is that its Cary Fukunagas first.

The American director took the helm when Britains Danny Boyle quit over creative differences. Once youve seen No Time To Die, youll guess what those differences were. Fukunaga, incidentally, shook and stirred things up in a recent interview, suggesting Sean Connerys 007 was basically a rapist.

Certainly the challenge of the first Bond film in the wake of the Me Too movement is to reconstruct Ian Flemings creation without the sexism, misogyny and carnal voraciousness of the past.

The American director took the helm when Britains Danny Boyle quit over creative differences. Once youve seen No Time To Die, youll guess what those differences were

But is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke? Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond.

It also does two things with him that weve never seen before. Accordingly, taking the character forward will be a mighty challenge for whoever plays 007 next. Producer Barbara Broccoli has rubbished the idea that Craigs successor will be female (which hasnt stopped bookmakers pricing Lynch at 6/1). She also denies that Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to add a feminine touch to the script.

Maybe, maybe not. There are a few shards of wit that seem very Waller-Bridge, but overall, fewer laughs than I was hoping for. This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.

No Time To Die opens tomorrow in cinemas nationwide
Jesse Palmer will return to The Bachelor franchise as the new host replacing Chris Harrison after starring on the show 17 years ago.

The 42-year-old former star of season five of The Bachelor will host the upcoming 26th season of The Bachelor set to air on ABC in early 2022, the network announced Tuesday.

Harrison, 50, left the The Bachelor at the end of last season amid a racism controversy after hosting the show and its various spin-offs since 2002.

Coming back: Jesse Palmer, shown in August in Santa Monica, California, will return to The Bachelor franchise as the new host replacing Chris Harrison

'For more than 20 years, The Bachelor has brought the world dozens of unforgettable love stories, including at one time, my own,' Palmer said in a statement.

'Falling in love is one of lifes greatest gifts, and I am humbled by the opportunity to return to the show as host this season to offer the newest Bachelor advice gained from firsthand experience and I am grateful to play a small part in his journey,' Palmer added.

The former NFL quarterback starred as The Bachelor himself during season five that aired in 2004.

He's had a strong relationship with The Walt Disney Company as a sports commentator with ESPN, former special contributor on Good Morning America and roles with ABC News.

Former host: Chris Harrison, 50, left the The Bachelor at the end of last season amid a racism controversy after hosting the show and its various spin-offs since 2002 and is shown in 2020 in a still from season 16 of The Bachelorette

Palmer has been hosting ABC's new reality series The Ultimate Surfer that premiered on August 23.

The Disney sports network also announced Tuesday that Palmer, who has been an ESPN analyst since 2007, has also signed an extension and will continue his studio role with the network during the 2021-2022 college football season.

Warner Horizon and ABC Entertainment confirmed in June that Harrison would not be returning to The Bachelor franchise following a racism fiasco that occurred during season 25 of The Bachelor that featured Matt James, 29, the first African-American lead in the history of the franchise.

Bachelor veteran: The former NFL quarterback starred as The Bachelor himself during season five that aired in 2004

Harrison in an interview with former The Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay, 36, defended Rachael Kirkconnell, 25, who James ultimately chose as the winner, after photos resurfaced of her at an antebellum plantation themed fraternity ball in 2018.

He apologized for 'speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism' and took a break from the franchise before separating from it.

Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe, who formerly starred on The Bachelorette, hosted the past season of The Bachelorette and celebrity guests have hosted the current season of Bachelor In Paradise.

Racism controversy: Harrison, shown in 2020 on season 25 of The Bachelor, in an interview with former The Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay, 36, defended Rachael Kirkconnell, 25, who James ultimately chose as the winner, after photos resurfaced of her at an antebellum plantation themed fraternity ball in 2018.

Palmer also served as a host of DailyMail TV for three season from 2017 to 2020.

Producers of DailyMail TV announced in August 2020 that Palmer was being replaced for season four by Thomas Roberts, 48.

Season 26 of The Bachelor featuring Palmer as host will begin production soon with the season expected to air in the early part of 2022.
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts announced their split in 2016, after 11 years together.

But the former couple are still on good terms as they continue to co-parent their sons, Alexander 'Sasha' Pete Schreiber, 14, and Samuel 'Kai' Schreiber, 12.

Liev, 53, penned a tribute to Naomi on Tuesday as she celebrated her 53rd birthday.

Friendly exes: Actor Liev Schreiber posed with his sons, Sasha and Kai, on Tuesday as he paid tribute to his ex-partner Naomi Watts on her 53rd birthday

He shared a picture of himself with their sons and captioned it: 'Happy Birthday mom!!! We love you beyond beyond.'

Naomi replied in the comments section: 'Thank you. Love you guys too.'

Meanwhile, Naomi also shared a post on her own Instagram account in which she reflected on her life so far.

On good terms: Naomi replied in the comments section, 'Thank you. Love you guys too'

Looking back: Naomi (pictured in New York City on September 9) also shared a post on her own Instagram account in which she reflected on her life so far

She posted a picture of herself as a child and said she wanted to tell her younger self how 'proud' she was.

'I remember this girl She was furious about that scratchy polyester dress. She didn't yet know her path, but had big dreams and knew she loved the magic of make-believe,' she wrote.

'Her eyes were wide and so was the gap between her teeth (which her mother told her would bring good luck).

'Her jaw a bit clenched because she "had to be a fighter," mad at the world because her dad had died just the year before.

'But even with a broken heart, she was resilient with plenty of hope.'

Sweet: She posted this picture of herself as a child and said she wanted to tell her younger self how 'proud' she was

She concluded: 'It's my birthday todayand I want to tell her I'm proud of her beyond words.'

Liev and Naomi, who never married, announced their split in September 2016 but vowed to co-parent their sons and remain a family.

Since their break-up, the pair have both moved on with new partners: Naomi is dating actor Billy Crudup, 53, while Liev is with model Taylor Neisen, 28.
She's been battling anti-vaxxers on social media for the past few weeks after becoming an outspoken advocate for the Covid-19 vaccine.

But Abbie Chatfield took some time out on Tuesday to post a racy topless photo of herself.

The former Bachelor star, 26, whipped off her bra to relax in her living room.

Taking a break for a topless shot! Abbie Chatfield posed for a nude selfie on Tuesday after tirelessly fighting anti-vaxxers on social media

She looked stunning in the afternoon light, flaunting her natural beauty and glowing skin in a perfect application of makeup.

Her beautiful green eyes were accentuated with lashings of mascara while she wore a pink hue on her pout.

Abbie joked in her picture caption that her 'Right titty fighting for its life'.

'Abbie is in the sun with her hair out and a full face of makeup, sitting on her green couch,' she added.

Abbie has been a vocal advocate for Covid-19 vaccinations.

The former Bachelor star, who got her AstraZeneca jab earlier this year, has been making 'Vax for Vibes' content to campaign for vaccine uptake.

On Tuesday, the 26-year-old sarcastically thanked the anti-vaxxers who share her content for inadvertently helping to promote her message.

Thanks! On Tuesday, the 26-year-old sarcastically thanked the anti-vaxxers who share her content for inadvertently helping to promote her message

'The anti-vaxxers are making whole posts about my Vax for Vibes content and I'm so glad they're in support,' she said in an Instagram Stories video.

'They're posting the whole video, they're advertising for me, getting my impressions up, making sure the word is spread about the Vax for Vibes campaign'.

Abbie added that she is even making money on social media thanks to the boost.

Campaign: The former Bachelor star, who got her AstraZeneca jab earlier this year, has been making 'Vax for Vibes' content to campaign for vaccine uptake

'I am so stoked they are getting hundreds of comments. And I am so glad that they want me to earn more money by getting me more impressions this week because they all tag me,' she said.

'So they're now looking at my Instagram account, which is getting my impressions up and makes me more money so thank you so much for paying my rent this month anti-vaxxers.

'I'm so glad you're promoting this little campaign for the bush. It is so important to spread awareness and normalise vaccines.'

Help: 'They're posting the whole video, they're advertising for me, getting my impressions up, making sure the word is spread about the Vax for Vibes campaign,' she said

'They're now looking at my Instagram account, which is getting my impressions up and makes me more money so thank you so much for paying my rent this month anti-vaxxers,' she added

It comes after the reality star took a brief break from social media after feeling 'triggered' by anti-vaxxers attacking her.

Abbie said she's received an 'endless' amount of nasty messages from people on social media.

'There's thousands. It's endless,' she began, before calling them out individually.

Abbie shared some of the offensive messages she's received, and revealed she's been forced to turn off her comments to people who aren't following her.

Break: It comes after the reality star took a brief break from social media after feeling 'triggered' by anti-vaxxers attacking her

Becoming emotional, Abbie confessed she was starting to feel 'a bit triggered back to Bachelor days' by all the abuse she was copping.

'But seriously though, I think I'm gonna try and just have tomorrow at least off Instagram because I'm getting really triggered. It just feels like it did after Bachelor.

'So, uh, yeah, there's just a lot of threats of violence... So probably talk to you guys in a day or two.'

Abbie was back on social media on Friday, after signing off on Thursday night, and back to sharing pro-vaccine content.
Paris Fashion Week has officially started, with some of the industry's biggest designers and brands set to showcase their Spring/Summer 2022 collections.

And Gigi Hadid looked every bit the off duty model on Tuesday night as she stepped out in Paris, France amid the festivities.

The 26-year-old runway maven rocked a light grey zip-up top and a pair of matching ultra flared trousers.

Off duty: Gigi Hadid looked every bit the off duty model on Tuesday night as she stepped out in Paris, France during PFW

Cozy: The 26-year-old runway maven rocked a light grey zip-up top and a pair of matching ultra flared trousers, adding earrings from the Harris Reed x Missoma collection

Gigi layered up her look with a trendy leather blazer that matched her face mask.

The Vogue covergirl carried her essentials in a small handbag and cinched in her waist with a black belt.

Her auburn strands were neatly styled into a braid and she appeared to be wearing little to no complexion products.

Hadid kept her eyes hidden behind a pair of shades and gave her casual look a tinge of glamour with some dangly earrings.

Sleek: Her auburn strands were neatly styled into a braid and she appeared to be wearing little to no complexion products

Trendy: Gigi layered up her look with a trendy leather blazer that matched her face mask

As she exited the Royal Monceau Hotel, the supermodel was greeted by a crowd of adoring fans.

She sweetly waved at them from a distance before getting into a nearby vehicle with her security guards in tow.

Paris Fashion Weeks comes right on the heels of Milan Fashion Week, which saw Gigi walk for the likes of Versace and Max Mara.

Fanfare: As she exited the Royal Monceau Hotel, the supermodel was greeted by a crowd of adoring fans

On the move: She sweetly waved at them from a distance before getting into a nearby vehicle with her security guards in tow

And in between going show to show, the star is often bombarded by adoring fans eager to catch a glimpse of her in action.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing, Gigi took to Twitter to let her fans and followers know that she will have to maintain social distancing in order to keep herself and her fashion coworkers safe.

'To the beautiful fans - outside of show, appointments, etc during the rest of fashion month, I need to stay socially distanced in respect of workplace protocol & testing,' she explained in her tweet.

Busy gal: Paris Fashion Weeks comes right on the heels of Milan Fashion Week, which saw Gigi walk for the likes of Versace and Max Mara; Gigi pictured on September 26

PSA: With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing, Gigi took to Twitter to let her fans and followers know that she will have to maintain social distancing in order to keep herself and her fashion coworkers safe

'For a pic, pls keep some space & I'll jump in the background of your selfie :) Thank u for understanding.'

Just before jetting off to Europe, Gigi celebrated her daughter Khai's first birthday in New York City.

She held a small gathering at her NYC apartment, which was attended by her mother Yolanda, younger sister Bella, and pal Dua Lipa.

Hadid shares her one-year-old daughter with One Direction alum Zayn Malik, 28.

Motherhood: Just before jetting off to Europe, Gigi celebrated her daughter Khai's first birthday in New York City; pictured in 2020
SAS Australia star Koby Abberton has called upon all Australians, regardless of their vaccination status, to unite in protest against the country's Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, the former professional surfer, who has returned to Bali where he now lives, accused police of exerting an 'unnecessary' level of force against citizens who refuse to comply with lockdown rules.

'It's gone way past the virus and now it's just generally [the] government taking our freedoms,' said Koby, who was a founding member of the notorious Bra Boys surf gang.

'It's gone way past the virus': SAS Australia recruit Koby Abberton,42, (pictured) has encouraged all Australians to 'stand up' and unite in protest against against Covid lockdown - regardless of their vaccination status

'We're getting controlled, and we're getting told how to live our lives. And if we don't live like them, they're going to [physically] beat us.'

Koby, who has been living in Bali for the past decade, said he was concerned about Australia's future, especially after seeing images of an elderly woman being pepper-sprayed by a cop at a 'freedom' rally in Melbourne this month.

Koby said he believes Australians should unite in a peaceful protest to 'stop police hurting us', and warned: 'It's going to get worse unless we stand up.'

'If we don't live like them, they're going to [physically] beat us': Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, the former professional surfer, 42, accused Australian police of exerting an 'unnecessary' level of force against citizens who refuse to comply with lockdown rules. Pictured: A violent clash at Melbourne 'freedom' rally, September 25

'At the next rallies, I think millions and millions of people should stand up in a protest of peace. And I think we block the streets, we block the cities and I think we put all work to a stop until these people stop hurting us, and stop attacking us and taking away our freedoms,' he insisted.

'It's gone past the vaccine. F**k the vaccine. Vaccinated or unvaccinated, who cares? We're all Australians. We're one! I love you guys.'

Koby, 42, made it clear that the protests should be peaceful as violence would only contribute to the rising atmosphere of fear in Australia.

'Stop attacking us and taking away our freedoms': Koby said he believes Australians should unite in a peaceful protest to 'stop police hurting us', and warned: 'It's all going to get worse unless we stand up.

Clash: Koby, who has been living in Bali for the past decade, said he was concerned about Australia's future, especially after seeing images of an elderly woman being pepper-sprayed by a rogue cop at a 'freedom' rally in Melbourne on September 18 (pictured)

'I'm not into fear-mongering, I want to be part of a peaceful solution. There's no use in talking like that [about violent protests]. Right now, let's just stand up and unite the people.'

Koby also shared his strong opinion on the Australian government restricting the freedoms of those who refuse to take the Covid jab.

The anti-vaxxer, who recently referred to Covid as 'a tropical flu', made it clear that he won't be taking the jab anytime soon.

'I'm not into fear-mongering': Koby made it clear that these protests should be peaceful, however, as violence would only contribute to the rising atmosphere of fear in Australia

'You know what I say? F**k them! Make me! You know why my decision is to not take the vaccine? One simple decision, 'cause I don't want to. And that's a good enough answer, in my opinion.'

Covid-19 has so far claimed more than 4.5 million lives worldwide.

Vaccines have been proven effective at seriously reducing the chances of serious illness and death related to Covid, with billions of doses already having been administered worldwide.

'F**k them! Make me!': The anti-vaxxer, who recently referred to Covid as 'a tropical flu', made it clear that he won't be taking the jab any time soon

The interview comes after Abberton delved deep into his past during an interrogation on Monday night's episode of SAS Australia.

During the scene, Koby recalled how he 'lost everything' when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in 2005 following an incident involving his brother Jai.

Jai had shot dead standover man Tony Hines in 2003, but was found not guilty of murder two years later on the grounds of self-defence.

Speaking out: On SAS Australia, Abberton revealed he 'lost everything' when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in 2005 following an incident involving his brother Jai

Telling his story to the directing staff, Koby began: 'This man, Tony Hines, who was one of the Bra Boys, he believed my brother had done something to his girlfriend.

'He thought my brother was with his girl. As it happened, they got into an altercation in a car and Tony was shot.

'What ended up happening [was] they went and threw the body over the cliff, and drove back to my house. My brother comes back covered in blood.'

Koby explained that his brothers coming home with blood on them was a 'regular occurrence', so he didn't think to ask questions at the time.

Incident: Jai had shot dead Tony Hines in 2003, but was found not guilty of murder two years later on the grounds of self-defence. Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter, and given a nine-month suspended sentence

'I told him, "Go and have a shower and shut the f**k up. Ma [his grandmother Mavis] is asleep, and I don't want you to wake her." I woke up the next morning and didn't see [Jai] the next day. I had nothing to do with the situation,' he said.

Koby continued: 'The police come in and ask me about the blood. I said, "He always comes home like that." I didn't know anything about the situation to give them the answers they wanted.

'They said I knew more; I said I didn't. I got charged with perverting the course of justice in a serious offence, which is murder.'

In 2005, Jai was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, successfully claiming Hines was going to rape a woman and kill him.

But Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter, and given a nine-month suspended sentence.

'My brother, it had come out that it was self-defence,' Koby added. 'In the end of the story, I was the only one who was found guilty. I didn't do anything.

'Due to that, $700,000 of my money I spent on lawyers fees. I lost all my properties, and I lost my sponsorship that was paying me $500,000 at that time. Back to square one. Nothing.'

Family: Koby (left) is the brother of fellow Bra Boys members Sunny (centre) and Jai (right)

He said the the situation 'broke' his beloved grandmother Mavis, also known as Ma, who had looked after the brothers throughout her life.

Ma died one month after Koby avoided a jail sentence.

'After seeing all her kids and the people she took care of her whole life were not in jail, she died. She stayed alive for me. It does leave me sour. I lost everything,' Koby added.

These days, Koby is happily married to wife Olya Nechiporenko, a Ukrainian model, psychologist and accountant whom he met in Bali.

The couple share a son, Makua, who was born in July 2015.

'I'm not a victim. I live a simple life in Bali. I've got a beautiful son and wife, and I've never been happier,' Koby concluded.

When asked earlier in the episode why he decided to leave Sydney for Bali, Koby said: 'I'm terrible with authority. I don't like police. I don't like judges.

'I like to live my own life - if I want to go out for a beer, and drive my motorbike to the beach with my son on my bike I will do that.

'I live in Indonesia because there's no fines. There's no authority. If you're not doing the wrong thing, they leave you alone.'
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Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson) takes her duplicitous ways to a whole new level on Tuesday night's episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story and even gets a look at that now infamous stained blue dress.

Her new friend Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) has become occupied with trying to get back into the White House

President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen) had promised in last week's episode that he would help her with getting back into the White House... but it seems that is not the case, as we learn in Tuesday night's episode, The Telephone Hour, where Linda starts recording her phone conversations with Monica.

Duplicitous: Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson) takes her duplicitous ways to a whole new level on Tuesday night's episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story

White House: Her new friend Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) has become occupied with trying to get back into the White House

Recording: President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen) had promised in last week's episode that he would help her with getting back into the White House... but it seems that is not the case, as we learn in Tuesday night's episode, The Telephone Hour, where Linda starts recording her phone conversations with Monica

The episode begins in August 1997, where Monica meets with Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff Marsha Scott (Rebecca Lowman) who says she has known the President since they were teenagers.

She asks why she's here and Monica says she applied for a position for a National Security Office back at the White House.

Monica says she was told that she was coming back and Marsha says she got a rundown of her departure, but she doesn't know why she wants to come back here.

Marsha: The episode begins in August 1997, where Monica meets with Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff Marsha Scott (Rebecca Lowman) who says she has known the President since they were teenagers

Applied: She asks why she's here and Monica says she applied for a position for a National Security Office back at the White House

Marsha: Monica says she was told that she was coming back and Marsha says she got a rundown of her departure, but she doesn't know why she wants to come back here

'Unfortunately, that NSC job has been filled. I'll just have to find something else,' and Monica tells her that it's been a year since she was told she'd be back in the White House.

Linda comes into work and Monica asks why she'd do this, holding up the Newsweek magazine, and Linda thinks she's a target but Monica doesn't think so.

Linda says she thinks she's a target now and she's at war with the White House but Monica plainly states that no one wanted her there.

Filled: 'Unfortunately, that NSC job has been filled. I'll just have to find something else,' and Monica tells her that it's been a year since she was told she'd be back in the White House

Why: Linda comes into work and Monica asks why she'd do this, holding up the Newsweek magazine, and Linda thinks she's a target but Monica doesn't think so

No one: Linda says she thinks she's a target now and she's at war with the White House but Monica plainly states that no one wanted her there

Naturally this upsets Linda to no end, who stomps off as Monica chases after her, saying she didn't mean it like that.

Linda says maybe she'll write a 'tell-all book,' but Monica is surprised, as Linda says, 'Don't be a narcissist, it'll be about me.'

Linda gets to her desk and finds a mysterious list of enemies of Clinton who have met 'violent and questionable ends.'

Upset: Naturally this upsets Linda to no end, who stomps off as Monica chases after her, saying she didn't mean it like that

Tell-all book: Linda says maybe she'll write a 'tell-all book,' but Monica is surprised, as Linda says, 'Don't be a narcissist, it'll be about me'

Violent: Linda gets to her desk and finds a mysterious list of enemies of Clinton who have met 'violent and questionable ends'

Back home, Linda makes dinner when she gets a call from Monica, as they make up over the phone, while Linda watches Bill Clinton glad-hand politicians on TV.

Linda comes home with some groceries, asking her kids for some help, as she gets a call from Lucianne, telling her she's found information of major importance.

She tells Lucianne that this woman has taken her in as her confidante and she is the girlfriend of the President of the United States.

TV: Back home, Linda makes dinner when she gets a call from Monica, as they make up over the phone, while Linda watches Bill Clinton glad-hand politicians on TV

Confidante: She tells Lucianne that this woman has taken her in as her confidante and she is the girlfriend of the President of the United States

She says she's been with him for two years, which clearly shocks Lucianne, as Lucianne asks if she would consider coming forward.

Lucianne says she could do a book and get six figures easily, with Lucianne saying she needs real proof.

Linda insists she has notes and spreadsheets and all sorts of evidence, when Lucianne says she could record the calls.

Shocked: She says she's been with him for two years, which clearly shocks Lucianne, as Lucianne asks if she would consider coming forward

Real proof: Lucianne says she could do a book and get six figures easily, with Lucianne saying she needs real proof

Evidence: Linda insists she has notes and spreadsheets and all sorts of evidence, when Lucianne says she could record the calls

Linda wonders if that's legal, and Lucianne says it's 'completely kosher,' telling Linda to think about it and call her back.

When she hangs up, Lucianne takes out the tape of the conversation she just recorded and labels it, throwing it in a drawer with a lot of other tapes.

Monica goes to see the President and asks Betty (Rae Dawn Chong) who says that he's watching G.I. Jane with Chelsea.

Kosher: Linda wonders if that's legal, and Lucianne says it's 'completely kosher,' telling Linda to think about it and call her back

Tapes: When she hangs up, Lucianne takes out the tape of the conversation she just recorded and labels it, throwing it in a drawer with a lot of other tape

Betty: Monica goes to see the President and asks Betty (Rae Dawn Chong) who says that he's watching G.I. Jane with Chelsea

Betty gives her some gifts Bill got her from Martha's Vineyard, as Monica jokes that everything he gets her is so ugly, and Betty says, 'One word: Arkansas.'

Monica tries to ask Betty about getting work back at the White House, but she insists Bill is trying to help.

Monica ultimately doesn't believe her and she storms out of the office and runs in the rain to a pay phone where she calls Linda.

'He won't even see me for two minutes and I spend every minute of every day thinking about him. I don't want to be here. I don't want to exist,' Monica says.

Gifts: Betty gives her some gifts Bill got her from Martha's Vineyard, as Monica jokes that everything he gets her is so ugly, and Betty says, 'One word: Arkansas'

Storms: Monica ultimately doesn't believe her and she storms out of the office and runs in the rain to a pay phone where she calls Linda

Exist: 'He won't even see me for two minutes and I spend every minute of every day thinking about him. I don't want to be here. I don't want to exist,' Monica says

Linda calls Lucianne and complains about Bill, with Lucianne saying the girl must be losing her mind.

Lucianne makes it clear that the press will cut her up, ass Linda insists she's no victim and she knew what she was doing.

Lucianne says, 'You'll lose her as a friend,' as Linda adds, 'I've made my peace with that.'

Linda is seen going into a Radio Shack, as a clerk shows her the differences in some tape recorders, as she says, 'I just need it to work.'

Peace: Lucianne says, 'You'll lose her as a friend,' as Linda adds, 'I've made my peace with that'

Work: Linda is seen going into a Radio Shack, as a clerk shows her the differences in some tape recorders, as she says, 'I just need it to work'

Linda is getting her tape recorder set up and calls Monica, who says she's fine, saying she just got off the treadmill.

She says she misses him, as Linda presses for precise details of when they made out, and when the call is done, she labels the tape and sets it in a bowl.

Mike Isikoff (Danny Jacobs) comes to visit Lucianne, with Linda revealing she's going to write a book, as Mike wants to know how he fits in.

Linda's recorder: Linda gets her recorder set up

Treadmill: Linda is getting her tape recorder set up and calls Monica, who says she's fine, saying she just got off the treadmill

Mike visits: Mike Isikoff (Danny Jacobs) comes to visit Lucianne, with Linda revealing she's going to write a book, as Mike wants to know how he fits in

He starts to listen to the tape and he stops the tape, saying it violates his journalistic integrity, and he says there really isn't anything here, no sexual harassment, no quid pro quo, nothing.

Linda tells Monica that her friend Kate says Monica Lewinsky will never get a job at the White House, making it clear she is not coming back to the White House.

'How hard is it to tell the truth? I've given him a million opportunities,' Monica says.

Nothing: He starts to listen to the tape and he stops the tape, saying it violates his journalistic integrity, and he says there really isn't anything here, no sexual harassment, no quid pro quo, nothing

Linda talks: Linda tells Monica that her friend Kate says Monica Lewinsky will never get a job at the White House, making it clear she is not coming back to the White House

Linda says she should talk to Vernon Jordan about getting a job somewhere else, but Monica starts crying.

Monica calls Betty at home, crying, hysterical, with Betty insisting they can fix this but Monica hangs up.

Monica gets a call from Bill, angry, asking what's wrong with her, saying, 'Betty didn't come out of the Jim Crow South to work in the damn White House to be yelled at by some f***ing 24-year-old.'

Linda: Linda says she should talk to Vernon Jordan about getting a job somewhere else, but Monica starts crying

Hysterical: Monica calls Betty at home, crying, hysterical, with Betty insisting they can fix this but Monica hangs up

Wrong: Monica gets a call from Bill, angry, asking what's wrong with her, saying, 'Betty didn't come out of the Jim Crow South to work in the damn White House to be yelled at by some f***ing 24-year-old'

Monica retorts, 'Are you kidding? I've been good. I've driven myself crazy trying to be good. You are the one that promised me that Bob Nash would take care of my job, and he didn't. And then Marsha, you said, would take care of it. And now all she's done is lie and be a bitch to me.'

'Damn it, Monica. You swore you wouldn't cause trouble. You know, if I'd known this is who you were, I never would've gotten involved with you,' Bill says.

'F**k you. You promised me I could come back to the White House,' Monica says, as an exasperated Bill adds, 'Oh, for God's sake. All I think about is you and your job. I'm obsessed with it. My whole life has become about finding you a job.'

Good: Monica retorts, 'Are you kidding? I've been good. I've driven myself crazy trying to be good. You are the one that promised me that Bob Nash would take care of my job, and he didn't. And then Marsha, you said, would take care of it. And now all she's done is lie and be a b***h to me'

Trouble: 'Damn it, Monica. You swore you wouldn't cause trouble. You know, if I'd known this is who you were, I never would've gotten involved with you,' Bill says

Job: 'F**k you. You promised me I could come back to the White House,' Monica says, as an exasperated Bill adds, 'Oh, for God's sake. All I think about is you and your job. I'm obsessed with it. My whole life has become about finding you a job'

Monica says she's never coming to see him again because she's moving to New York, saying there is no point in staying in D.C.

She asks if he can help her find something there, asking if Vernon Jordan could help her find something, not in government.

He says he'll call her first thing in the morning, and asks if they're still friends, and she says yes.

Vernon: She asks if he can help her find something there, asking if Vernon Jordan could help her find something, not in government

Friends: He says he'll call her first thing in the morning, and asks if they're still friends, and she says yes

Monica says she'll never see him again if she moves to New York, but Bill says he plans on spending a lot of time in New York when he's done, adding, 'Life is long, Monica.'

Monica goes to see Vernon Jordan (Blair Underwood), as she notices a photo with Vernon and Bill golfing.

'Yeah, he was barely 30 when we met. And we recognized ourselves in each other. We both grew up Southern and both grew up poor. Now, it's a tired old cliche, but I promise you, the instant I first spoke to him, I said to myself, 'That man is going to be president one day,' Vernon said.

Vernon: Monica goes to see Vernon Jordan (Blair Underwood), as she notices a photo with Vernon and Bill golfing

Photo: 'Yeah, he was barely 30 when we met. And we recognized ourselves in each other. We both grew up Southern and both grew up poor. Now, it's a tired old cliche, but I promise you, the instant I first spoke to him, I said to myself, 'That man is going to be president one day,' Vernon said

Vernon mentions that Revlon is in New York and he happens to be on the board of directors, as he thinks a few well-placed phone calls could open up a job.

He walks her to the elevator as they make small talk and right when she walks into the elevator and Vernon gives her a pat on the behind a few times, before walking away.

Monica and Linda get closer, as we see in a montage of phone calls that Monica all records, as it's clear the Revlon job won't happen.

Calls: Vernon mentions that Revlon is in New York and he happens to be on the board of directors, as he thinks a few well-placed phone calls could open up a job

Behind: He walks her to the elevator as they make small talk and right when she walks into the elevator and Vernon gives her a pat on the behind a few times, before walking away

They talk about her diet and all sorts of things, as Linda's daughter Alison thinks they should get another line because no one can ever call her.

The calls continue through October and November, with their montage ending as they are talking before falling asleep.

Before she hangs up, Monica says, 'Linda, this all has to end.'

Talk: They talk about her diet and all sorts of things, as Linda's daughter Alison thinks they should get another line because no one can ever call her

End: Before she hangs up, Monica says, 'Linda, this all has to end'

Monica calls Linda and says out of nowhere she gets a call from Bill Richardson about working on his U.N. staff in New York.

Still, Monica is very upset, but Linda thinks it's a good thing because the President clearly made some calls, but she is mad that he never called her.

Linda thinks she should take the job but she is still mad that the President won't see her and hangs up when her pizza gets there.

Call: Monica calls Linda and says out of nowhere she gets a call from Bill Richardson about working on his U.N. staff in New York

Linda gets home and finds a mess when her phone rings, and it's Monica, saying, 'Guess what, he called?'

Monica tells her that Bill said she didn't have to to take the U.N. job, 'and that Bill Richardson is just a good person for me to know and that he's going to call Vernon and see what's going on on his end.'

Monica adds she feels, 'so much better' and she just needs, 'to make peace with New York. I just get so freaked out at the idea of saying goodbye to him. Do you think I should go to the Christmas party? Maybe I should ask Betty. Oh, God, I owe Betty an apology, don't I?'

Linda freaks out and tells Monica she doesn't want to hear about any of this anymore.

Freak: Linda freaks out and tells Monica she doesn't want to hear about any of this anymore

'One minute, you're crying about getting a call from our U.N. Ambassador and saying how much these terrible people have hurt you. And the next minute, you're ecstatic and saying you owe Betty an apology. Do me a favor. Take your delirium and your incessant phone calls and this whole sick situation and foist it on someone else. Your mom, your friends, not me,' Linda says before hanging up with a confused Monica on the other end.

Monica calls Linda over and over again, saying, 'You know me, you know I'm just gonna keep calling,' while she gets another call from Lucianne, who says she shouldn't keep her waiting.'

Linda gets another tape in and calls Monica at work, with Monica saying she's worried about her, and Linda said she took a sick day.

Sick day: Linda gets another tape in and calls Monica at work, with Monica saying she's worried about her, and Linda said she took a sick day

Linda said she needs to apologize and her behavior has been unacceptable, but Monica says it's fine.

Linda says she has something to confess. She lost three pounds, while crying during the conversation.

Linda comes to Monica's apartment and raids her closet, as she picks up a blue dress as Monica stops her, saying that dress is 'really dirty.'

Closet: Linda comes to Monica's apartment and raids her closet, as she picks up a blue dress as Monica stops her, saying that dress is 'really dirty'

'I wore it the last time I saw Bill,' she says as Linda notices a white stain on the dress.

Linda said she thought Bill, 'never completed,' but Monica says it was the first time they were together after the election.

'So excited to see me that he, you know... He finished. But I didn't even notice. I mean, no one did. I went out to dinner that night with friends. When I got back home, I changed. And I, uh, assumed it was guacamole. And then I realized' Monica said.

Last time: 'I wore it the last time I saw Bill,' she says as Linda notices a white stain on the dress

Completed: Linda said she thought Bill, 'never completed,' but Monica says it was the first time they were together after the election

Linda asked if she was 'saving it' but she said, 'no, ew,' but she hadn't gotten it dry cleaned yet because she hadn't had to wore it yet.

They start talking about their past dating histories, with Linda saying she went on, 'one date it lasted 25 years and the short f**k stopped paying alimony.'

Monica talks about her past relationships, including Andy, a 'youngish' 'drama tech guy' at her high school, adding whenever she liked someone, he never liked her back.

She said she started getting into the drama club and that's how she met Andy, adding casually that she knew he had sex with one of her friends.

Not saving it: Linda asked if she was 'saving it' but she said, 'no, ew,' but she hadn't gotten it dry cleaned yet because she hadn't had to wore it yet

Relationship: Monica talks about her past relationships, including Andy, a 'youngish' 'drama tech guy' at her high school, adding whenever she liked someone, he never liked her back

Monica says he explained Les Miserables to him in his car and she, 'fell completely, obsessively in love with him. And then it... It all just got so chaotic,' revealing she found out he was engaged.

She also casually mentions that she lost her virginity at 14 to a camp counselor, 'but I guess it doesn't count because I said 'No' and he pulled out,' which shocks Linda.

Monica adds he asked her to be friends with his wife because it would be easier for her to be around, which Linda thought was 'sick.'

Virginity: She also casually mentions that she lost her virginity at 14 to a camp counselor, 'but I guess it doesn't count because I said 'No' and he pulled out,' which shocks Linda

Sick: Monica adds he asked her to be friends with his wife because it would be easier for her to be around, which Linda thought was 'sick'

He told her to look at schools in Portland and she went to one, but when he lost his job in L.A. for 'f***ing one too many students,' he moved his family to Portland.

'I mean, it was like without him I was nothing. What can I say? It was my most significant relationship. Till Bill.'

'I guess maybe they put something in my head, like this is all I deserve,' Monica says to Linda, who can barely process all of this.

Deserve: 'I guess maybe they put something in my head, like this is all I deserve,' Monica says to Linda, who can barely process all of this

Linda calls Lucianne saying she can't do this anymore, revealing Monica, 'has a blue dress from the Gap. She wore it to a radio address. Lucy, it's got his semen on it. She's saving it like a souvenir.'

Linda says this has to end now because she can't take it, and she can't wait for a book, when a solution presents itself: Paula Jones.

'If they make me testify, this whole thing becomes public,' Linda says, as Lucianne says she 'loves it' and will make a few phone calls one of whom are to the lawyers helping Paula Jones' lawyers.

Luciane: Linda calls Lucianne saying she can't do this anymore, revealing Monica, 'has a blue dress from the Gap. She wore it to a radio address. Lucy, it's got his semen on it. She's saving it like a souvenir'

Break: Lucianne says she 'loves it' and will make a few phone calls one of whom are to the lawyers helping Paula Jones' lawyers

Monica is at work and gets an email she likes, before she goes to tell her boss Ken Bacon that she won't be able to work after January 1 because she's moving to New York City.

When he asks what she's going to do, Monica says, 'I'm going to move on with my life.'

Linda is at home when she gets a knock on her door, getting served a subpoena to testify in Jones v. Clinton.

Subpeona: Linda is at home when she gets a knock on her door, getting served a subpoena to testify in Jones v. Clinton

Bill Clinton is in the Oval Office when Bob (Christopher McDonald) comes in with the witness list, saying they all looked familiar except one, Monica Lewinsky.

Bob asks if any of these women would pose a problem, they could settle this and it would all go away.

'Bob, do you think I'm f***ing crazy?' Bill says coldly, as Bob quietly leaves the Oval Office.

Problem: Bob asks if any of these women would pose a problem, they could settle this and it would all go away

Crazy: 'Bob, do you think I'm f***ing crazy?' Bill says coldly, as Bob quietly leaves the Oval Office

Bill leaves the Oval office and walks down the hall, past the portraits of former Presidents, before he gets to his bedroom, with Hillary sound asleep, as the episode comes to an end.

The preview for next week's episode finds the tension increasing exponentially as both Monica and Linda have been called to testify in the Paula Jones trial.

Linda insists if they ask about Moncia, she can't commit perjury, while Linda is asked for copies of her tapes and Monica saying, 'I'm going to deny it and it will be over.'

Impeachment: American Crime Story returns with the fifth episode - Do You Hear What I Hear' on Tuesday, October 5 at 10 PM ET on FX.

Monica: The episode begins in August 1997, where Monica meets with a woman who says she has known the President since they were teenagers

Book: Impeachment is based on Jeffrey Toobin's book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President

Producer: Monica Lewinsky will serve as a producer alongside Henrietta Conrad and Jemima Khan
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The last episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians aired this June after 20 seasons, but that hasn't stopped the famous family from filming their every move.

On Tuesday, Kim Kardashian was spotted with her sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian as they filmed scenes for their next big project - a new reality show with US streamer Hulu.

It is the first time Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe have all been seen out for the project, as they were pictured having lunch at Lucky's in Malibu, California, while accompanied by their camera crews.

PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: They're back! Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian wow in VERY different outfits as they kick off filming new reality show in Malibu on Tuesday afternoon

While the original reality series was known for family disagreements, this new show suggests there could be more differences between the girls - particularly when it comes to their outfits.

Kim, 40, appeared noticeably different than Kourtney, 42, and Khloe, 37, as she once again went for an all-black ensemble, echoing her dramatic appearance at the MET Gala where she wore a one-of-a-kind blackout gown by Balenciaga.

This outfit handily doubled as a face mask for the estranged wife of Kanye West, and she wrapped herself up in a matching black leather trench coat.

Standing out: Kim, 40, was noticeably different than Kourtney, 42, and Khloe, 37, as she once again went for an all-black ensemble, echoing her dramatic appearance at the MET Gala where she wore a one-of-a-kind blackout gown by Balenciaga

New show, same drama? There will certainly be lots to discuss on the new show as well, particularly Kim's most recent outfit choices and exactly what is going on between herself and Kanye, amid rumors of a reconciliation

Caped crusader: Kim appeared to be on a mission as she sashayed her way out of the establishment

VIP: Kim was flanked by a TV crew as she made her way out of the restaurant

Conversely, Khloe opted for a more beige affair as she rocked a long tan trench boat with brown suede boots, all complementing her flowing long blonde locks.

However, it was arguably Kourtney who stood out the most as she opted for an off-duty Disney princess vibe.

The girlfriend of Travis Barker wore a striking yellow corset top, which she paired with casual blue jeans and a pair of heels.

Winter warmer: Khloe opted for a more beige affair as she rocked a long tan trench boat with brown suede boots, all complementing her flowing long blonde locks

Khloe's next move: The reality star was seen filming new scenes for the upcoming Hulu show on Tuesday

It was first reported in December last year that the Kar-Jenner family were joining with Hulu to create 'new global content' under a multi-year deal to stream exclusively with the company. It will be streaming internationally on Star.

It was said at the time that the new show - featuring Kris, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie - would be arriving to the streamer by the end of 2021, and it seems as though filming is already well under way.

There will certainly be lots to discuss on the new show as well, particularly Kim's most recent outfit choices and exactly what is going on between herself and Kanye, amid rumors of a reconciliation.

Not so mellow yellow: The girlfriend of Travis Barker wore a striking yellow corset top, which she paired with casual blue jeans and a pair of heels

Hot topic: Viewers will be eager to check in on Kourtney, whose whirlwind romance with Blink 182 drummer Barker has caught many headlines

Wow: The 42-year-old looked stunning in her corset and jeans combo

Who is upstaging who? It seemed all sisters were on very different pages about their outfits on Tuesday

Wait up! It appeared as though Kourtney was following sister Khloe as they left the restaurant

Places to go: Khloe was wasting no time when it came to a swift exit from lunch

It's a look: Kourtney has been thrilling fans with her hot romance with Travis Barker this summer

Yet, viewers maybe more eager to check in on Kourtney, whose whirlwind romance with Blink 182 drummer Barker has caught many headlines.

Khloe has also had continued drama in her love life, answering back to social media critics who have been asked whether or not she will be getting back with her love cheat ex Tristan Thompson.

And if it seems like that the family haven't really been gone for long - it's because they haven't.

Fans only said goodbye to them on TV in June this year, when after 14 years, 20 seasons, and 268 episodes, the Kardashian-Jenner gang bid a bittersweet farewell to their fans on the E! incarnation of their show.

Flicking off: It looked as though Kim had taken some style notes from The Matrix for her ensemble

The episode titled 'The End P.2' showed the famous family taking one last trip for the series to Lake Tahoe, staying at a lush 15-acre estate, costing $6,000 a night, which took place before Christmas last year.

In the final show, Kim confessed that she has turned to a therapist to deal with her martial problems with now-estranged husband Kanye West, while Khloe presided over a future in Boston with on-again boyfriend Tristan Thompson.

Now fans won't have to guess too hard about which topics the three ladies will have discussed on their most recent Malibu excursions.

The Kardashians' Hulu show is expected to debut later this year.
Former Sunrise host Sam Armytage married businessman Richard Lavender on New Year's Eve, but it seems the honeymoon period is already over.

The 45-year-old scolded her husband on Wednesday after she 'busted' him taking one of her expensive Donna Hay spatulas to use as a painting tool in his shed.

She shared a photo to Instagram of the moment she caught the millionaire horse breeder, 60, in the act.

The honeymoon's over! Former Sunrise host Sam Armytage 'busted' her husband, Richard Lavender, stealing her expensive kitchen utensils to use in his shed on Wednesday

'Busted. When you catch your husband headed for the shed, attempting to use your good Donna Hay spatula as a paint stirrer,' Sam captioned her post.

She added: 'Don't worry DH [Donna Hay], I saved it!'

A spatula from chef and author Donna Hay typically costs about $17.

Newlyweds: Sam married equestrian businessman Richard Lavender on New Year's Eve, but it seems the honeymoon period is already over

Sam then posted some hilarious replies from angry wives sharing their own stories of their husbands taking kitchen utensils to use for maintenance around the house.

'I mean it's not funny really... It's ANNOYING,' she added.

The Lavenders live on a sprawling 40-hectare property in the Southern Highlands.

Earlier this month, Sam shared a picture on Instagram of mandarin skins after having to clean up after her husband.

Relatable: Earlier this month, Sam shared this picture on Instagram of mandarin skins after having to clean up after her husband

'And as a postscript to all the "love" talk Love means picking up your husband's mandarin skin from whence he left it on the kitchen bench,' she wrote.

The couple tied the knot at Richard's country estate on New Year's Eve, after announcing their engagement in June last year.

They married at about midday, then moved to a luncheon at the Centennial Vineyards Restaurant in nearby Bowral.

Sam quit Sunrise in March and relocated from Sydney to the Southern Highlands.
Iconic Star Trek actor William Shatner turned 90 earlier this year.

So when David 'Kochie' Koch interviewed the Emmy-winning star on Sunrise on Wednesday, Shatner had the perfect response to the host's awkward joke that he was working himself 'into an early grave'.

'I don't know whether "an early grave" applies to me,' quipped the Hollywood veteran, rescuing the moment with humour.

Whoops! There was an awkward moment Sunrise on Wednesday when David 'Kochie' Koch (left, with Natalie Barr) joked about actor William Shatner working himself 'into an early grave'

After bursting into laughter, Kochie admitted: 'That's a good joke.'

Kochie's remark was in reference to Shatner's legendary work ethic, which has seen the Canadian continue to produce television, movies and music into his nineties.

The interview comes amid speculation that the man best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk on television and in movies might go into space for real.

Blue Origin announced on Monday that its next human spaceflight will happen on October 12, unveiling two of the four astronauts, including the third Australian ever to fly into space.

Not slowing down: Kochie's remark was in reference to Shatner's legendary work ethic, which has seen the Canadian continue to produce television, movies and music into his nineties

The Jeff Bezos-founded company will bring Dr Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Planet Labs and partner at venture capital firm DCVC and Medidata co-founder Glen de Vries into space on the New Shepard rocket.

In an email obtained by DailyMail.com, the company said the other two astronauts would be announced 'in the coming days,' though speculation rose last week when legendary Star Trek actor William Shatner was reported to join the crew.

Liftoff on the New Shepard rocket is currently being targeted for 8:30 am CDT/ 13:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas.

Planet Labs, which was co-founded by Boshuizen in 2010, was the first company to 'commercially utilize nanosatellites,' also known as cube satellites or CubeSats.

Star-trekking? The interview comes amid speculation that the man best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk on TV and in movies might go into space for real. Blue Origin announced on Monday its next human spaceflight will happen on October 12. Lift-off on the New Shepard rocket (pictured) is currently targeted for 8:30 am CDT from Launch Site One in West Texas

Crew: One of the astronauts joining the flight will be Dr Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Planet Labs and current partner at venture capital firm DCVC

Boshuizen, who has an estimated net worth approaching $30million, was also the Space Mission Architect at NASA's Ames Research Center between 2008 and 2012, having invented the Phonesat, a satellite built from a smartphone.

'This is a fulfillment of my greatest childhood dream,' said Dr Boshuizen in a statement.

'More importantly, though, I see this flight as an opportunity to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM and catalyze the next generation of space explorers. After all, our future of life in space is in their very capable hands.'

Boshuizen applied for the Australian Defense Force Academy at the age of 17, but was rejected because he was partially colour blind, Space News reports.

The only other astronauts from Australia are Paul Scully-Power and Andy Thomas.

Humbled: Medidata co-founder Glen de Vries, 48, said the spot on the New Shepard was a 'dream come true'

Mr de Vries, 48, who co-founded Mediadata Solutions in 1999 said the spot on the New Shepard was a 'dream come true.'

'I've spent my entire career working to extend people's lives,' de Vries said in a statement.

'However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive.'

He continued: 'Playing a part in advancing the space industry and one day making those resources and that understanding available to everyone, is an incredible opportunity. I've been passionate about aviation and space for as long as I can remember, so this flight is truly a dream come true.'

Shatner, 90, reportedly would be part of a documentary of the 15-minute civilian flight, according to TMZ.

Rumours: Shatner may be one of the other two astronauts on the flight, which is scheduled to take off from Launch Site One in West Texas

Dream team: Pictured from left to right is Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, Mark Bark Bezos, Jeff Bezos and Wally Funk. Blue Origin's first flight took place on July 20

Blue Origin's first flight, which occurred on July 20, saw Bezos, his brother Mark, Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen and test pilot, Wally Funk, head into space.

Funk became the oldest person to ever fly to space at 82 years old.

At 18 years old, Daemen became the youngest person, first teenager, and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space.

Olver's father, Joes Daemen, who founded private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners, bought the seat aboard the flight for over $20 million at auction.
She has already made an impression on Dancing With the Stars viewers, with her glam stage outfits including last night's sheer white dress with crystal detail.

But on Tuesday, Olivia Jade arrived at the DWTS studios in an oversized grey ensemble, saving all her sparkle for the show.

It was also the influencer's 22nd birthday, and a crew member was seen holding a giant pink cake box for the occasion, as other stars arrived to dance.

Birthday girl! Olivia Jade arrives at Dancing With the Stars studio on her 22nd birthday... as she is surprised with a cake on set Tuesday

It was later revealed that the daughter of Lori Loughlin enjoyed the cake while rehearsing with her pro partner Chmerkovskiy.

Chmerkovskiy recently admitted that he thought Jade would be 'terrible' on the show, but it seems the pair have clicked and are already impressing judges.

Other stars arriving on Tuesday included Kenya Moore, Amanda Kloots, and JoJo Siwa.

Saving her sparkle: The influencer was dressed in an oversized grey ensemble as she arrived

Surprise! A crew member was seen holding a birthday cake for Olivia

Last night, Olivia came out to dance she gave her partner Val Chmerkovskiy, a two-time DWTS champion, a makeover. She gave him a headband and put on bright purple eyeshadow.

They dance the Viennese waltz together with Olivia gracefully gliding across the ballroom.

Derek was really impressed with her dancing and said she was like a breeze dancing across the oak floor. Carrie Ann told her that with performances like that she thought their journey in this show would be long.

Top talent: Kenya Moore and Mel C were also seen arriving on Tuesday

Loved up: Brian Austin Green and Sharna Burgess held hands in the car lot

PDA alert: Brian and Sharna appear to still be very much in the honeymoon period

Pink: Sunisa "Suni" Lee brightened up the arrivals on Tuesday

Pals: JoJo Siwa was also spotted chatting to pro Jenna Johnson

They got 27 out of 40.

During last week's episode, the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli addressed the college admissions scandal which sent both of her parents to prison for allegedly buying Olivia admissions to USC.

'For the past few years, I guess you can say I've been wrapped up in a scandal,' she said on the show.

Walk and talk: Amanda Kloots stops to sign an autograph on her way into the studio

Ready to rumba: The Talk co-host was seen arriving to set

'After everything happened, I did step back from social media and just soak in what everybody was saying.'

She added that she was 'not trying to pull a pity card,' but is looking 'to move forward and do better.'

She explained to Chmerkovskiy, 'I just want to show people that I have a different side to me, I have a strong work ethic.'

Chmerkovskiy said that the show presented 'a perfect opportunity for the world to see another side of Olivia.'

And there's more: The Miz and Witney Carson arrive for the show
Chip and Joanna Gaines are set to launch their Magnolia Network early next year with their new show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home.

The Magnolia Network will take over from the DIY Network as of January 5, 2022, with the debut of Fixer Upper: Welcome Home at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

Other shows that will be featured on the forthcoming network include Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines, Family Dinner, Home Work, The Johnnyswim Show, The Lost Kitchen, Super Dad and Restoration Road with Clint Harp; in addition to vintage episodes of This Old House.

The latest: Chip and Joanna Gaines are set to launch their Magnolia Network early next year with their new show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home. The couple was snapped in July in NYC

Other DIY shows set to air on the network following the changeover will be Barnwood Builders, Bargain Mansions, Maine Cabin Masters and Restoring Galveston.

The couple issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying they hope 'to help reclaim the best of what television can be.

'It wasn't long ago that watching TV meant time together as a family,' the Gaines duo said. It was a place where people of all ages could gather and be informed, entertained, and inspired by the kind of honest, authentic programming that brings people closer.

'That's what we've set out to build with Magnolia Network, and we've been amazed by the stories and storytellers we've found, people whose lives are living proof that our world is full of beauty, hope, courage, and curiosity.'

The Magnolia Network will take over from the DIY Network as of January 5, 2022, with the debut of Fixer Upper: Welcome Home at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT

Worth the wait: The network's launch, in conjunction with the Discovery Channel, was previously set to occur earlier, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed it back

They continued: 'We cant wait to see these stories brought to life on cable this January, and were hopeful about the impact it might have - to help reclaim the best of what television can be.'

The network's launch, in conjunction with the Discovery Channel, was previously set to occur earlier, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed it back.

Allison Page, president of the network, said in a statement in February that the 'original plan was to launch in cable and follow in a streaming environment, but the most unconventional of years dealt us challenges and opportunities we never could have foreseen.'

Chip and Joanna Gaines acknowledged the delays, saying at the time that their 'plan has evolved along the way, but our original vision for this network has remained the same.

'From the beginning, our aim for Magnolia Network has been to tell good stories,' the couple said. 'Stories that bring us together, that inspire and encourage us all to try something new. Stories that are told in ways that feel authentic.'

The couple this summer released an app with the episodes of Fixer Upper as well as the initial seasons of Fixer Upper: Welcome Home and Magnolia Kitchen.
Pauline Hanson spoke about her personal life in a rare interview with The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast on Wednesday.

The controversial politician, 67, reflected on her infamous prison stint and was even asked by host Jessica Rowe what her favourite alcoholic beverage was.

While she enjoys a classic gin and tonic, her go-to tipple these days is rum topped with lime cordial.

Please explain: Pauline Hanson (pictured in March 2020) spoke about her personal life in a rare interview with The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show on Wednesday. She said her favourite alcoholic beverage is Bundaberg rum topped with lime cordial

'These days I don't mind a gin and tonic,' the One Nation leader said. 'But I also like my Bundaberg rum full of ice in a glass and you top it up with lime cordial.

'Plenty of ice, fill up your whole glass, half Bundy and half lime cordial.'

Jessica, who launched her interview podcast after quitting TV, said the drink sounded 'refreshing' and Pauline encouraged her to try it.

Pauline also touched on her time in prison after being sentenced to three years behind bars in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding.

Friendly: Jessica Rowe (pictured), who launched her interview podcast after quitting TV, said the drink sounded 'refreshing' and Pauline encouraged her to try it

An acquired taste: 'These days I don't mind a gin and tonic,' the One Nation leader said. 'But I also like my Bundaberg rum full of ice in a glass and you top it up with lime cordial'

'When they stood up and they gave that guilty verdict, I just shut down,' she recalled. 'I couldn't believe it.'

'Then they came and put the handcuffs on me, took me down to process me, put into a strip search, then put into a van and taken to the watch house all night.'

The Senator said she was taken to prison the next day and went through the 'whole process' at jail, which involved being photographed and having her details 'put into the system'.

Pauline explained she was put into the hospital ward because she had spiralled into a deep depression and wasn't eating.

Tough: Pauline also touched on her time in prison after being sentenced to three years in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding. Pictured: Hanson's mugshot

'I was very depressed, awfully depressed,' she continued. 'I saw them doing an interview with my daughter [at the time] and that really broke me.'

'The kids have been through a hell of a lot with my time in politics,' she added.

Pauline's convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal and she was released after spending 11 weeks behind bars.

She rejoined One Nation in 2013 and was became leader of the party the following year.
Koby Abberton's controversial life has been well documented.

And the SAS Australia star 42, has now spoken of his plans for the future, revealing he dreams of welcoming more children with his wife Olya Nechiporenko - a Ukrainian model, psychologist and accountant who he met in Bali.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, the father-of-one, who resides in Bali with Olya and their six-year-old son Makua, declared: 'I would love four kids.'

EXCLUSIVE: SAS Australia Koby Abberton, 42, (left) has revealed he wants to have four children with his Ukrainian model wife Olya Nechiporenk (right) so he can 'replicate his brothers' lives'

Professional surfer Koby, who is one of four children himself, added: 'I want to replicate my brothers' lives... but I don't know if my wife's got those plans,' he laughed.

Koby and his brothers Sunny, Jai, and Dakota Abberton were all founding members of the notorious Bra Boys beach gang from Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

But what originated as a beachside band of brothers who came together to surf big waves soon had a reputation beyond fierce tribalism, including street violence and other anti-social behaviour.

'I want to replicate my brothers' lives': Koby, who has three brothers, is pictured with Olya and their six-year-old son Makua. The family currently live in Bali

Bra Boys: Koby and his brothers Sunny, Jai, and Dakota Abberton were all founding members of the notorious Bra Boys beach gang from Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Pictured L-RL Koby, Sunny and Jai Abberton

These days life couldn't be more different for Koby, who spends his days teaching surfing to children and raising his young son.

'Bali is blissful for a person like me, I've been through a lot in my life and I just want to live a peaceful existence,' he said.

Koby and his brothers were born to a heroin-addicted mother and cared for by their grandmother Mavis, known as Ma, and all grew up to become professional surfers.

In 2016, he described the Bra Boys ethos to News.com.au, explaining: 'Our creed stands for unconditional love, respect and support of those close to you regardless of race, gender and age.'

Tropical paradise: These days life couldn't be more different for Koby, who spends his days teaching surfing to children and raising his young son

Along the way the Bra Boys have been the subject of a movie, formed a clothing label and inspired the fictional River Boys in the TV drama series Home And Away.

It comes after Abberton delved deep into his past during an interrogation on Monday night's episode of SAS Australia.

During the scene, Koby recalled how he 'lost everything' when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in 2005 following an incident involving his brother Jai.

Speaking out: On SAS Australia, Abberton revealed he 'lost everything' when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in 2005 following an incident involving his brother Jai

Jai had shot dead standover man Tony Hines in 2003, but was found not guilty of murder two years later on the grounds of self-defence.

Telling his story to the directing staff, Koby began: 'This man, Tony Hines, who was one of the Bra Boys, he believed my brother had done something to his girlfriend.

'He thought my brother was with his girl. As it happened, they got into an altercation in a car and Tony was shot.

'What ended up happening [was] they went and threw the body over the cliff, and drove back to my house. My brother comes back covered in blood.'

Koby explained that his brothers coming home with blood on them was a 'regular occurrence', so he didn't think to ask questions at the time.

'I told him, "Go and have a shower and shut the f**k up. Ma [his grandmother Mavis] is asleep, and I don't want you to wake her." I woke up the next morning and didn't see [Jai] the next day. I had nothing to do with the situation,' he said.

Koby continued: 'The police come in and ask me about the blood. I said, "He always comes home like that." I didn't know anything about the situation to give them the answers they wanted.

Incident: Jai (not pictured) had shot dead Tony Hines in 2003, but was found not guilty of murder two years later on the grounds of self-defence. Koby (pictured) was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter, and given a nine-month suspended sentence

'They said I knew more; I said I didn't. I got charged with perverting the course of justice in a serious offence, which is murder.'

In 2005, Jai was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, successfully claiming Hines was going to rape a woman and kill him.

But Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter, and given a nine-month suspended sentence.

Family: In 2005, Jai (pictured in red T-shirt) was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, successfully claiming Hines was going to rape a woman and kill him

'My brother, it had come out that it was self-defence,' Koby added. 'In the end of the story, I was the only one who was found guilty. I didn't do anything.

'Due to that, $700,000 of my money I spent on lawyers fees. I lost all my properties, and I lost my sponsorship that was paying me $500,000 at that time. Back to square one. Nothing.'

He said the the situation 'broke' his beloved grandmother Mavis, also known as Ma, who had looked after the brothers throughout her life.

Ma died one month after Koby avoided a jail sentence.

Sentenced: But Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter, and given a nine-month suspended sentence

'After seeing all her kids and the people she took care of her whole life were not in jail, she died. She stayed alive for me. It does leave me sour. I lost everything,' Koby added.

'I'm not a victim. I live a simple life in Bali. I've got a beautiful son and wife, and I've never been happier,' Koby concluded.

When asked earlier in the episode why he decided to leave Sydney for Bali, Koby said: 'I'm terrible with authority. I don't like police. I don't like judges.

'I like to live my own life - if I want to go out for a beer, and drive my motorbike to the beach with my son on my bike I will do that.

'I live in Indonesia because there's no fines. There's no authority. If you're not doing the wrong thing, they leave you alone.'
A wild viral moment from A Current Affair has resurfaced on a new Twitter meme account.

The @ACAreacts account, which has been running for less than a month, catalogues some of the most off-the-wall moments from the show.

One memorable interview features a woman calling her 86-year-old neighbour 'a b**ch'.

Remember her? A wild viral moment from A Current Affair has resurfaced on a new Twitter meme account

The classic ACA story featured reporter Steve Marshall interviewing two women on opposite sides of a neighbourhood war.

In the clip, Marshall asked one of the women, 'Why take out an [Apprehended Violence Order] on an 86-year-old woman?'

'Because she's a b**ch,' was her blunt reply.

Viral moment: The classic ACA story featured reporter Steve Marshall (right) interviewing two women on opposite sides of a neighbourhood war

One amused fan wrote on Twitter: 'Life goals getting an AVO at 80 + hahaha.'

'It's time....think I'm going to start watching ACA for the laughs,' another person said.

A third person joked: 'At least there is no age based discrimination to be seen here.'

The original story featured additional details of her escalating war with the grandmother.

These included complaints one of the women was using a caravan in her front yard as a 'brothel,' and allegations threatening voodoo dolls were sent in the mail.

Favourite: The Twitter account also features numerous videos of A Current Affair's interviews with controversial politician Pauline Hanson (left)

The Twitter account also features numerous videos of A Current Affair's interviews with controversial politician Pauline Hanson, including the infamous moment she entered the Australian Senate chambers wearing a burqa.

It also features a third video of a priest reenacting an incident he witnessed, and saying a woman lunged at a man 'like a wild dog'.

The new social media page is proving to be popular, with Studio 10 host Sarah Harris Tweeting: 'Is there an Insta version of this account?'

'This account is exactly what I needed at this exact moment,' another person said.

'Absolute GOLD,' a third agreed.

A spokesperson for the Nine Network told Daily Mail Australia the account 'is in no way affiliated with Nine' and they don't know who runs it.
She is a proud mother of three.

And Jessica Alba was spotted cradling her three-year-old son Hayes as they stepped out together in Santa Monica this week.

The 40-year-old actress and business tycoon was California casual in a burnt orange jumpsuit teamed with a cream cardigan.

Baby mine: Jessica Alba was spotted cradling her three-year-old son Hayes as they stepped out together in Santa Monica this week

Letting her luxurious dark hair down she slipped into a pair of leather low-top boots, accessorizing with a gleaming set of necklaces.

Her outing comes after she posted an Instagram video of herself trying to tuck Hayes in at night - only for him to be too rambunctious to put to sleep.

Jessica wanted to kiss her toddler goodnight but found herself unsuccessfully 'trying to teach my boy about soft smooches' before bed.

However he had not quite gotten the knack of it, smacking his lips quite hard against hers and then making funny noises and pulling faces.

Family time: The 40-year-old actress and business tycoon was California casual in a burnt orange jumpsuit teamed with a cream cardigan and a bag by Marina Raphael

She wondered to her Instagram followers: 'why he so wild right b4 bed?!?  I swear he only gets hyped when Im doing nigh nights. #nationalsonsday'.

Jessica shares her three children - Honor, 13, Haven, 10, and Hayes, three - with her smoldering husband Cash Warren.

The couple had spontaneously decided to get married at a Beverly Hills courthouse one day in 2008 while Jessica was heavily pregnant with Honor.

Cash, who is the son of Hill Street Blues actor Michael Warren, met Jessica while assistant directing her critically savaged 2005 hit film Fantastic Four.

As seen in 2020: Jessica shares her three children - Honor, 13, Haven, 10, and Hayes, three - with her smoldering husband Cash Warren

Although she rose to fame as an actress, Jessica is also the founder of the consumer goods brand The Honest Company, which she launched in 2011.

During a 2018 interview with InStyle she shared that 'I feel like my purpose in life was to create Honest, and everything led me to that.'

Earlier this month Jessica took the Honest Company public and it was valued at almost $2 billion on its first day of trading.
Gabrielle Union wowed in a stylish grey blazer and minidress as she arrived to Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Hollywood, California on Monday afternoon.

Ahead of her appearance on the popular late-night talk show, the 48-year-old Bring It On star looked cheerful and fresh-faced as she waved to fans outside the studio.

The beauty showed up with a warm beverage in her hand and a surgical mask over her nose and mouth amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Leggy display: Gabrielle Union wowed in a stylish grey blazer and minidress as she arrived at Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Hollywood, California on Monday afternoon

She completed her first ensemble with a pair of open-toed black high heels and dark tresses styled in a flirty ponytail.

After her interview, Union looked sensational in a sunshine yellow trench coat, which was belted to emphasis her trim waist, and nude pumps.

The wife of Dwyane Wade looked radiant as she smiled at onlookers after promoting her new book You Got Anything Stronger? Stories.

Beautiful: After her interview, Union looked sensational in a sunshine yellow trench coat, which was belted to emphasis her trim waist, and nude pumps

The mother-of-one published her memoir on September 14, in which she discussed her fertility struggles and learning her husband got another woman pregnant.

In a piece of the book, published by Time earlier this month, Gabrielle explained: 'The experience of Dwyane having a baby so easilywhile I was unable toleft my soul not just broken into pieces, but shattered into fine dust scattering in the wind.'

Union and Wade would go on to welcome daughter Kaavia via surrogate in 2018.

Looking good! Ahead of her appearance on the popular late-night talk show, the 48-year-old Bring It On star looked cheerful and fresh-faced as she waved to fans outside the studio

Caffeinated: The beauty showed up with a warm beverage in her hand

The piece began: 'In 2013, before we were married, Dwyane had a baby with another woman. It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived.'

Gabi and Dwyane began dating in 2008 but according to the athlete's own 2020 documentary, the pair were on a break when he and 'longtime friend' Aja Metoyer concieved Xavier, now seven.

At the time, Wade was already dad to Zaire, 18 and Zaya, 12, and was legal guardian to his nephew, Dahveon, 18.

Beaming: Her outfit change also showed off her toned legs

Author: The wife of Dwyane Wade looked radiant as she smiled at onlookers after presumably promoting her new book You Got Anything Stronger? Stories

Though the couple was 'doing much better' when he revealed his secret to her, she was heartbroken.

'To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience,' The actress explained. 'There are peoplestrangers I will never meetwho have been upset that I have not previously talked about that trauma. I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy I am not sure I have them now.'

Gabi was particularly hurt given how hard she was trying to have a baby with Dwyane.

Devastated: Union says her soul was 'shattered' when she learned now-husband Dwyane Wade got another woman pregnant while Union was going through IVF treatments to try and conceive

After some reflection, Union began to research surrogacy options.

She and Wade married in 2014 and would welcome daughter Kaavia four years later.

Dwyane previously admitted that telling Gabrielle about Xavier was the 'hardest thing' he's 'ever had to do.'

'I had a child with someone else and I had to tell her. Hardest thing I've ever had to do is man up and tell Gabrielle Union that I've had a child with somebody else,' he said in his documentary D. Wade: Life Unexpected. 'I couldn't sleep. I wasn't eating.'

Soul-crushing: In the piece, Gabrielle explains: 'The experience of Dwyane having a baby so easilywhile I was unable toleft my soul not just broken into pieces, but shattered into fine dust scattering in the wind.' They're seen on September 11 2021 above

Over the years Union has grown close to Wade's older kids and shares memories of their modern family on her social media now and then.

While Zaire and Zaya often make appearances, Xavier's presence appears to be more private.

Union has been a great support to Dwyane's daughter Zaya, who came out as a transgender girl in February of 2020.

Gabi reintroduced her daughter to the world early last year, sharing an Instagram post that said: 'Meet Zaya. She's compassionate, loving, whip smart and we are so proud of her. It's Ok to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people.'

Wade also spoke about raising a transgender child in 2020, telling Ellen DeGeneres: 'We are proud parents of a child in the LGBTQ+ community and we're proud allies as well.'
Eiza Gonzalez is not too posh to pump.

The 31-year-old Mexican actress was seen pumping gas with boyfriend Paul Rabil before heading to dinner in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

The Baby Driver actress looked stunning as she fueled up as she sported a green sleeveless top with a mini skirt in the same color.

Not too posh to pump: Eiza Gonzalez was seen pumping gas with boyfriend Paul Rabil before heading to dinner in Los Angeles on Wednesday night

She and the 35-year-old lacrosse player were later seen heading to celeb favorite San Vincente Bungalows.

Eiza wore her brunette tresses in a middle-part as she had natural complementary make-up on her face.

Paul kept it casual in a plain white T-shirt with black jeans and a red plaid flannel tied around his waist.

The pair have been dating for several months now. Rumors of the two of them started floating around after a party in May where the two were seen together.

On the go: Paul kept it casual in a plain white T-shirt with black jeans and a red plaid flannel tied around his waist

An insider told Page Six at the time, 'It was clear they are a couple and have been dating for a little while.'

The Baby Driver actress later made the news official via a post to her Instagram story in July that read, 'Congratulations to the Lacrosse [goat] on becoming all-time leader with the most points/goals in pro lacrosse history!!

'I love you [Paul]. No one works harder than you.'

Gonzalez has been linked to some big stars in the past including actors like Timothee Chalamet and Josh Duhamel.

On the town: She and the 35-year-old lacrosse player were later seen heading to celeb favorite San Vincente Bungalows

Rabil was previously married to another lacrosse player named Kelly Berger from 2014 to 2017.

With Rabil and Gonzalez's romance budding, the Hobbes & Shaw actress has also stayed busy in her career.

She appeared in three films that came out this year, and she spent some time earlier this year filming her next movie, Ambulance.

In the movie, two robbers steal an ambulance after a robbery gone wrong. The Mexico City native will play an EMT in the film.

Ambulance will star Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of Aquaman fame as the two robbers.
Miranda Kerr thinks it's 'incredible' that she and her ex Orlando Bloom 'have been able to find other partners who work really well with [them].'

The 38-year-old model is now married to Evan Spiegel, 31, while the 44-year-old Lord Of The Rings actor is currently engaged to pop songstress Katy Perry, 36.

'Evan and Orlando really get along just as well as Katy and I, so it's such a blessing, and it doesn't need to be any other way. It can be harmonious and you can be super kind,' said Kerr during a recent appearance on the Ladies First podcast.

Incredible: Miranda Kerr thinks it's 'incredible' that she and her ex Orlando Bloom 'have been able to find other partners who work really well with us; (L-R) Miranda and husband Evan Spiegel in 2016, Orlando and fiancee Katy Perry in 2021

Dishing more about her closeness with Katy, Miranda revealed that the pair 'just clicked instantly' like they 'had been friends before or something.'

Despite being divorced, Miranda and Orlando never let that stop them from fostering a 'very close' friendship with one another.

'From day one, when Orlando and I separated, we have been very close, really good friends,' she stressed. 'I always have wanted the best for him, and he's always wanted the best for me.'

Click: Dishing more about her closeness with Katy, Miranda revealed that the pair 'just clicked instantly' like they 'had been friends before or something'; Miranda and Katy pictured in 2021

The former couple were married from 2010 until their split in 2013. They co-parent 10-year-old son Flynn.

This not the first time Miranda has dished on her and Orlando's super amicable relationship.

Just last month, the Australian beauty revealed on the Moments with Candace Parker podcast that she, Evan, Katy, and Orlando 'go on holidays together' and 'celebrate all the important milestones together.'

Amicable exes: Kerr and Bloom were married from 2010 until their divorce in 2013. Despite the split, the former pair have remained close and work together to co-parent their 10-year-old son Fynn; Miranda and Orlando pictured in 2011

Later in the interview, the former Victoria's Secret Angel playfully referred to Orlando as her 'annoying brother' and expressed gratitude towards having Katy in the picture.

'I love [Katy],' she gushed. 'I mean, it'd be safe to say that I love her more than Flynn's dad.

'[Orlando is], like, to me right now, a brother. And most of the time, an annoying brother,' the runway maven joked, before crediting Perry for helping her 'deal with him.'

Miranda said she is 'so grateful that [Katy's] there because it takes the pressure off me.'

Opening up: Just last month, the Australian beauty revealed on the Moments with Candace Parker podcast that she, Evan, Katy, and Orlando 'go on holidays together' and 'celebrate all the important milestones together'; Miranda pictured in 2019

Continuing to speak highly of the 36-year-old pop star, Kerr recalled meeting Perry for the first time back in 2016 at Orlando's home.

'When Orlando started dating Katy, I remember he invited me over one time and she was there, and we just immediately got along,' she told host Candace Parker of her connection to the Teenage Dream songstress.

She also appreciated how 'playful' Katy was with her and Orlando's son Flynn.

'I saw how she was with Flynn. She was very playful with Flynn. She was not trying to be his mum. She was just being friendly and fun, and that's all you can ask for,' said Kerr.

'We hung out by the pool at his house in Malibu and then there was like a little party up the road, and we all went to it together and it was like, 'Oh, this is great!''

Love story: Katy and Orlando first started dating in 2016 and split up the following year before they reunited in February 2018

Katy and Orlando first started dating in 2016 and split up the following year before they reunited in February 2018.

The couple got engaged the following February and welcomed their daughter Daisy Dove 18 months later.

Speaking to the latest edition of L'Officiel USA, Katy gushed about her other half for not only the way he treats their daughter but also how he acts as a dad to his son Flynn.

Katy gushed about Orlando's relationship with his eldest as she said: 'I was able to witness him and his fatherhood.

Milestones: The couple got engaged the following February and welcomed their daughter Daisy Dove 18 months later; Orlando and Katy pictured in 2019

Hands-on dad: Speaking to the latest edition of L'Officiel USA , Katy gushed about her other half for not only the way he treats their daughter but also how he acts as a dad to his son Flynn; Katy and Orlando pictured in July

'The way that he showed up for him and continues to show up for him, and the efforts that he makes and the distance he goes, I think that's one of the reasons I made that conscious decision.

'I was like, 'Here's the father of my future children.' I could see his kindness, empathy, care, and tenderness. I courted that. I was like, 'Okay, this is different.'

'And this is his first girl, so it's a totally different feeling for him. I'm really, really grateful to have him. And he really shows up in a huge emotional way, which is unique for me.'
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Daniel Craig continued to celebrate his emotional farewell to the James Bond franchise as he headed to the star-studded No Time To Die after party at the swanky club Annabel's in London on Tuesday.

After saying goodbye to 007 with his swan song, the actor, 53, was seen leaving the private celebration with his daughter Ella, 29, followed soon after by Rami Malek and his girlfriend Lucy Boynton and the film's star-studded cast.

It comes as critics for the film lauded Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final appearance in the Bond franchise, with many five-star reviews praising the 'slick, stylish and emotional' blockbuster.

Off he goes! Daniel Craig continued to celebrate his emotional farewell to the James Bond franchise as he headed to the star-studded No Time To Die after party with co-star Rami Malek and his girlfriend Lucy Boynton at Annabel's on Tuesday

As ever Daniel displayed his dapper sense of style in a red velvet blazer as he headed to the party with his daughter Ella.

The actor, who has said goodbye to Bond after 16 years in the role, jumped into a waiting taxi to make his way home after joining a slew of stars on the red carpet.

Daniel, who shares Ella with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon, held hands with his actress daughter, who was dressed in a sophisticated black trouser suit for the party.

Time to go! After saying goodbye to 007 with his swan song, the actor was seen leaving the private celebration with his daughter Ella Loudon after they walked the red carpet together

Smart: As ever Daniel displayed his dapper sense of style in a red velvet blazer as he jumped into a waiting car following the post-premiere bash

Doting father: Daniel, who shares Ella with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon, held hands with his actress daughter, who was dressed in a sophisticated black trouser suit for the party

Elsewhere Rami and Lucy continued their loved-up display as they stepped out hand-in-hand following the afterparty, to celebrate No Time To Die's much-delayed release.

Lucy, who began dating Rami after they co-starred in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, set pulses racing in a plunging black gown with a sparkling necklace as she followed her boyfriend out of the private club.

Opting to change out of her stunning cream gown from the red carpet, Lea Seydoux arrived for the party in an eye-catching black leather shirt dress.

Happy couple: Elsewhere Rami and Lucy continued their loved-up display as they stepped out hand-in-hand following the afterparty, to celebrate No Time To Die's much-delayed release

Jaw-dropping: Lucy vamped it up in a plunging black gown that accentuated her ample cleavage, and added some extra sparkle with a jewelled necklace as she arrived for the party with her beau

Giddy: Lucy was in good spirits as she headed out of the party in her perilously plunging gown after wowing on the red carpet

Gorgeous: The screen star, who met Rami while they were filming the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, slipped her blonde tresses into a loose bun

New look! Opting to change out of her stunning cream gown from the red carpet, Lea Seydoux arrived for the party in an eye-catching black leather shirt dress

Meanwhile Ana De Armas, who took on the role of Bond Girl Paloma in the film, continued to sport her sexy black satin gown with a revealing thigh-high split.

The Cuban actress' dress accentuated her slender pins with the form-fitting dress, which was complete with a plunging neckline and deep thigh-split.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who took over writing duties for the film, once again wowed in her plunging black sequinned jumpsuit and a pale grey overcoat.

NO TIME TO DIE REVIEWS: Magnificent and extravagant THE DAILY MAIL Rating: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.' THE GUARDIAN Rating: Craig's final film as the diva of British intelligence is an epic barnstormer, with the script delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy, heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action in a movie which calls to mind the world of Dr No on his island. THE TELEGRAPH Rating: Cary Joji Fukunaga's extravagantly satisfying, bulgingly proportioned last chapter to the Craig era, throws almost everything there is left to throw at 007 the series can come up with. DIGITAL SPY Rating: It might have taken its time getting him, but No Time to Die confirms that whoever the next James Bond is, they've got some big shoes to fill. THE SUN Rating: In his final turn as 007, Craig exits the franchise with a bang  as well as many crashes and several wallops. The stunts are simply spectacular, with one particular scene involving a motorbike in Italy that will leave you watching through splayed fingers in exhilarating fear. EVENING STANDARD Rating: After Spectre, he famously said he'd rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Instead, with the help of a talented team, he's taken a razor blade to the idea of Bond. Craig bows out with his head held high. Way to go. NME Rating: For the most part though, and with so much at stake thanks to Covid decimating cinema, No Time To Die producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson should be applauded for taking some bold risks. The gobsmacking ending, in fact, may be the biggest in Bond history. THE INDEPENDENT Rating: While Craig is a consummate action star, director Cary Joji Fukunaga's more radical vision of James Bond is fleeting, his film a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points EMPIRE This film does things that no Bond film has ever done, and despite relying heavily on tropes that feel not only familiar but comforting, it is the unfamiliar things it does that make this such an exciting entry. SKY Spectacularly well shot, wonderfully dark villains (Rami Malek's performance is faultless) and perhaps more depth than before, perhaps Bond really can save the day - for cinema in the short term at least. VARIETY No Time to Die is a terrific movie: an up-to-the-minute, down-to-the-wire James Bond thriller with a satisfying neo-classical edge. It's an unabashedly conventional Bond film that's been made with high finesse and just the right touch of soul, as well as enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge. Advertisement

Gorgeous: Meanwhile Ana De Armas, who took on the role of Bond Girl Paloma in the film, continued to sport her sexy black satin gown with a revealing thigh-high split

Flaunting it: The Cuban actress' dress accentuated her slender pins with the form-fitting dress, which was complete with a plunging neckline and deep thigh-split

Stellar: Ana wowed with her role as the stunning Paloma in No Time To Die, and she continued to flaunt her figure in the revealing gown

Wow: She demanded attention as she showcased her toned pins in a thigh-slit black gown, featuring a plunging neckline and silver straps as she touched down at the party with her co-stars

Stunning: Lashana Lynch also ditched her yellow gown for a jaw-dropping gold sequinned dress with a plunging neckline

Amazing: She looked stunning as she arrived for the party in her new look

Wow! Both Lashana and Lea's after-party looks were a departure from their red carpet ensembles

Lashana Lynch also ditched her yellow gown for a jaw-dropping gold sequinned dress with a plunging neckline, while Lea Seydoux opted to change out of her stunning cream gown and arrived for the party in an eye-catching black leather shirt dress.

Following No Time To Die's official premiere, many critics have lauded the 'slick, stylish and emotional' and showered it with five star reviews.

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced' following the screening.

Reviews from around the world soon flooded in with a slew of five star accolades for Craig's swansong - along with gushing praise over the movie's 'magnificence, glee, extravagance and bulgingly proportions'.

Incredible: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who took over writing duties for the film, once again wowed in her plunging black sequinned jumpsuit and a pale grey overcoat

Sensational: She put on a busty display in a plunging black one-piece covered in sequins as she arrived at the swankery eatery

Happy pair: Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina certainly made the picture perfect couple, as the Luther star, who has been tipped to replace Daniel as Bond, accompanied his spouse out of the party

Sensational: Sabrina slipped into a sheer black dress with ruche detailing as she made her way out of the party with Idris

Standing out: As ever Idris cut a dapper figure in a midnight blue three piece suit as he strolled into Annabel's for the party. The actor has been one of the odds-on favourites to replace Daniel as Bond

Having a good night? Jason Mamoa was in extremely high spirits as he messed around with his co-stars en route to the party

Jovial: The Aquaman star strutted his stuff while wandering through the streets of London as he made his way to the afterparty

Larking around: Jason paused outside the club to sign autographs for waiting Aquaman fans as he joined the No Time To Die cast for the film's after party

A departure: He looked dashing as he headed to the bash, having hit the red carpet with his lookalike son Nakoa-Wolf, 12, and his teen daughter Lola, 14, earlier in the evening

Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.'

Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'.

Touching upon the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke?

Sparkle and shine! After recording the film's titular track, Billie Eilish looked typically stylish in an all-black look and added height to her frame in chunky open-toe platform shoes

Say cheese! She briefly paused to pose for a selfie with a waiting fan

Good spirits: The star beamed as she jumped into a waiting car while sporting her sequinned outfit, after being praised for her penned track for the film

Smart: Ben Whishaw cut a dapper figure in all-black as he arrived for the star-studded post-premiere party

Making a statement: Rory Kinnear was accompanied by his partner Pandora Colin as they arrived for the evening

He's happy! Bond composer Hans Zimmer was in extremely high spirits after making his way to the party, stopping to sign autographs for fans

Gorgeous: The composer was accompanied by his wife Suzanne, who looked equally dazzling in a deep blue sequinned gown

'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond. This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.'

Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'.

Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'.

Grand arrival: Comedians David Walliams (left) and Alan Carr were both seen making their way into the party after walking the red carpet

Glammed up: Jemima Khan also opted for an all-black ensemble with a sheer frilled shirt and a matching blazer as she shielded herself from the pouring rain with an umbrella

Chic: Amy Jackson opted for a sophisticated all-black ensemble with a cropped jacket and matching trousers as she made her way into the party

Couples' night: Ronan Keating and his wife Storm enjoyed a date night at the party, with the presenter wowing in a sheer white dress

Gorgeous: Emma Weymouth, 35, who is married to Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath, looked stunning in an sequin dress asymmetrical dress

Stunner: The mother-of-two looked every bit the James Bond Girl in the sequin dress, and kept her accessories discreet, sporting a sequin clutch bag and diamond earrings

Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond.

It was a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond and beamed with pride while making his way down the red carpet

Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana, Ana, and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event

Licence to thrill: Daniel looked as dapper as ever in a dark pink suede jacket as he led the star-studded arrivals for the world premiere of his last outing as Bond

Showstopping: While Lashana looked effortlessly glamorous in an elaborate yellow gown, Lea dazzled in a shimmering silver number, while Ana put on a leggy display in black as they joined leading man Daniel on the red carpet

Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all poses on the carpet together

Royal arrival: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also made a royal arrival to the premiere, with Kate Middleton opting for a breath-taking Jenny Packham gown to wish Daniel Craig well

A jolly good chat: Daniel was photographed conversing with Prince Charles as Bond stars chatted with royal family members

Shaking hands: Prince William and Cuban star Ana shook hands at the star-studded event

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together. Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speech: After the red carpet, Daniel addressed the large audience inside the Royal Albert Hall

Quite a crowd: The Royal Albert Hall was packed with punters eager to watch the film

Co-stars: Clutching a microphone, he was joined onstage by his co-stars and appeared emotional while delivering a speech to the crowd

Round of applause: After giving up the mic, Daniel was clapped by his fellow actors who seemed proud to be a part of such a highly-anticipated blockbuster

No time to say goodbye! Daniel Craig is credited for his 'extravagantly satisfying' (and unapologetically woke) Bond swansong... as 'slick, stylish and emotional' No Time To Die wins five star reviews After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, with Craig stepping out alongside co-stars including Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics and stars alike to the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed blockbuster. The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced'. Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the worlds greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.' Finally here: After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday Four stars: The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'. Touching upon the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bong was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke? 'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond.' Viner concluded: 'This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.' Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond when he walked No Time To Die's world premiere red carpet on Tuesday Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'. Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'. Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond. The Sun urged viewers to 'buckle up' in its four star review while the BBC also allocated the movie five stars, noting: 'No Time To Die rounds off the Craig era with tremendous ambition and aplomb.' However The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was less content when the credits rolled, branding Craig's 'last hoorah' as 'disappointing and strangely anti-climactic' before mustering up just three stars. Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event before critics sat down to review the flick Digital Spy was another publication to award the flick four stars. Ahead of the screening Craig chatted away to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Albert Hall. Also at the star-studded premiere were Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Naomie Harris. It has been a long road to Tuesday night's premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Dazzling: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance at No Time To Die's World premiere Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US. Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie. Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'. 'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it. Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all posed on the carpet together 'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did. 'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.' 'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.' Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.' Close bond: Naomi Harris and Lashana Lynch shared a joke at the star-studded event ahead of the much-anticipated screening 'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.' On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.' 'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis. 'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!' Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls. Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times. 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie. 'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt. On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie' 'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.' Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond. 'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together. 'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.' Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig) No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help. Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world. Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond. Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.' Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015. Advertisement

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
Geri Horner looked as though her dreams had come true on Tuesday evening as she snatched a selfie opportunity with Daniel Craig at the No Time To Die premiere.

Taking to Instagram to share a beaming group snap, the Spice Girl looked every inch the delighted star as 007 posed with her on the red carpet.

She penned the snap, taken at the Royal Albert Hall: 'Hello Mr Bond @007 #NoTimeToDie #DanielCraig'.

Say cheese: Geri Horner beamed a wide smile as she snatched a selfie opportunity with Daniel Craig at the No Time To Die premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

Her husband Christian looked equally delighted to be in the iconic selfie.

The post garnered gushing comments, with one fan even remarking 'Geri you would be the best Bond Girl', followed by love struck emojis.

Another noted: 'Oh lucky you Mr. Bond to be framed with Ginger Spice.'

Appreciation: The post garnered gushing comments, with one fan even remarking 'Geri you would be the best Bond Girl', followed by love struck emojis

Red carpet: Racing car driver Christian looked equally delighted to be at iconic premiere

Geri and Christian continued to put on a loved-up display at the premiere.

The pop star was a vision in an asymmetrical white maxi dress by Toni Maticevski, having tied her ginger locks into a smart bun.

Her racing car driver beau put on a dapper display in a black suit and bow tie, which he completed with a shiny pair of onyx leather shoes.

What a pair! Geri looked sensational in a white asymmetrical maxi dress as she put on a loved-up display with Christian

Suave: Her racing car driver beau put on a dapper display in a black suit and bow tie, which he completed with a shiny pair of onyx leather shoes

Earlier in the evening, the couple appeared to be in high spirits while getting ready for the star-studded event.

The Wannabe hitmaker flashed a beaming smile while lovingly placing her hand on Christian's shoulder.

Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet.

Happy: Earlier in the evening, the couple appeared to be in high spirits while getting ready for the star-studded event

Adorable: The Wannabe hitmaker flashed a beaming smile while lovingly placing her hand on Christian's shoulder

Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began.

The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures.

It has been a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Event: Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Fans: Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Action: The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
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Iris Law, Thylane Blondeau and Rachel Brosnahan all looked incredible as they attended the Miss Dior event at L'Avenue restaurant during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The trio caught the eye as they attended the swanky afterparty for Dior's catwalk show that that took place earlier in the French capital for spring-summer 2022.

Iris, 20, donned a black leather sleeveless crop top with an '8' print that highlighted her toned midriff.

Wow: Iris Law, Thylane Blondeau and Rachel Brosnahan all looked incredible as they attended the Miss Dior event at L'Avenue restaurant during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

The model, who is the daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost, also sported a matching leather mini skirt while she added height to her frame with a pair of animal print heels.

Also sporting a pair of sunglasses, Iris completed her look for the event with a pair of gold earrings.

Thylane opted for a casual look in a white top and a black denim mini skirt she wore with a matching blazer.

The French model, 20, also sported a pair of black boots while she styled her brunette locks into a ponytail.

Outfit: The actress, 31, also wore a pair of black heels and added to her outfit with a gold, bejeweled handbag

Pose: Thylane, 20, also sported a pair of black boots while she styled her brunette locks into a ponytail

Flawless: Zoey Deutch caught the eye in a multi-coloured jacket with a detailed print that she paired wit a matching miniskirt

Rachel looked elegant as ever in a dark grey long-sleeved dress with an animal print and a pleated hemline.

The actress, 31, also wore a pair of black heels and added to her outfit with a gold, bejeweled handbag.

Zoey Deutch caught the eye in a multi-coloured jacket with a detailed print that she paired wit a matching miniskirt.

The actress, 26, added height to her frame with a pair of heels while she put safety first with a black face mask.

Attendees: Caroline Daur (left), Maye Musk (centre) and Patricia Contreras (right) were all in attendance at the bash

Elegant: Iman Perez (left) donned a black coat with a matching dress while Alesya Kafelnikova (right) opted for a black dress with a sheer hemline

Career: Thylane began modelling at age four and signed with IMG Models in 2005

Stunner: Lena Mahfouf looked radiant in red as she showed off her lithe legs

Riotous: The guests were putting on a fun-filled display

Caroline Daur looked incredible in a black blazer which she wore with a pink and black patterned mini dress.

The German beauty, 26, also sported a pair of black boots and added to her outfit with a beret and gold hoop earrings.

Also in attendance was model Maye Musk, who is the mother of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Iris was also in attendance at the Christian Dior catwalk show as it kicked off Paris Fashion Week where she was joined by Alexa Chung.

The British stars looked typically stylish as they greeted onlookers in the French capital as Dior unveiled their new womenswear collection for spring-summer 2022.

Iris oozed glamour in a busty white corset while making her way inside ahead of the bi-annual event.

Here they come: Iris was also in attendance at the Christian Dior catwalk show as it kicked off Paris Fashion Week where she was joined by Alexa Chung

She toted a chic tan shoulder bag with a god chain strap as she walked confidently across cobbles to the entrance of the fashion show.

Iris was the picture of elegance as she glided past onlookers in her semi-sheer skirt that put the silhouette of her model pins on display.

Her edgy bleached buzzcut stood her out from the crowd and she accentuated her natural beauty with a full face of flawlessly applied makeup.

Stunning: Iris added inches to her frame with a pair of beige heels and pouted up a sizzling storm for a flurry of onlookers

Looking good: Iris oozed glamour in a busty white corset while making her way inside ahead of the bi-annual event

Beauty: Her edgy bleached buzzcut stood her out from the crowd and she had applied a full face of flawlessly applied makeup

Iris added inches to her frame with a pair of beige heels and pouted up a sizzling storm for a flurry of onlookers.

Meanwhile Alexa embraced her surroundings by wearing a jaunty beret over a smart white blazer and thigh-skimming silver skirt.

The Vogue cover star exhibited her svelte waist with a black bandeaux while donning a coordinating pair of strapped leather shoes.

Tasteful: Meanwhile Alexa embraced her surroundings by wearing a jaunty beret over a smart white blazer and thigh-skimming silver skirt

Wow! Tightly clutching her phone, she wore her chocolate tresses in their natural waves and sported a pair of dazzling silver earring trinkets

Sensational: She's certainly no stranger to a high-end fashion show

Confident: She enhanced her natural beauty with a minimal amount of makeup

Tightly clutching her phone, she wore her chocolate tresses in their natural waves and sported a pair of dazzling silver earring trinkets.

From September 27 to October 5, the streets of Paris will once again come alive with models, designers and editors as fashion week takes over the capital.

Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Balenciaga will return to the normal runway while some smaller designers with remain digital.

Style sensation: Bryanboy looked chic in all black
Daniel Craig made a rare public appearance with his daughter Ella Loudon at the No Time To Die premiere and after party on Tuesday.

The James Bond star, 63, looked dapper in a pink velvet dinner jacket as he left Annabel's Club in Mayfair holding hands with Ella, 29, with his wife Rachel Weisz absent from the occasion due to her filming commitments in the US.

Daniel shares Ella with ex-wife Fiona Loudon who he divorced in 1994 after just two years of marriage before tying the knot with current wife Rachel Weisz, 51, in 2011.

Family: Daniel Craig made a rare public appearance with his daughter Ella Loudon at the No Time To Die premiere and after party on Tuesday

Rachel and Daniel share a two-year-old daughter whose name has not been disclosed, while Rachel has a son Henry, now 15, from a previous relationship.

Rachel was absent from the red carpet event, and in recent weeks the actress has been working on the Amazon series Dead Ringer in New York.

Ella looked effortlessly chic in a shiny black suit and cream silk shirt as she left the party after previously posing with her famous father on the red carpet.

She completed the look with wide leg trousers, a blue pendant necklace and wore her blonde tresses in a sleek swept back style.

Star: The James Bond star, 63, looked dapper in a pink velvet dinner jacket as he posed with Ella at the star-studded event

Busy working? Daniel's wife Rachel Weisz was absent from the red carpet event, and in recent weeks the actress has been working on the Amazon series Dead Ringer in New York

Exes: Daniel shares Ella with ex-wife Fiona Loudon who he divorced in 1994 after just two years of marriage before tying the knot with current wife Rachel Weisz in 2011

Daniel recently told how he would rather 'get rid' of all his money rather than give it to his children because he finds the concept of inheritance 'quite distasteful'.

The English actor, who is worth an estimated 116 million, told Candis magazine: 'Isn't there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you've failed?'

He continued: 'I think Andrew Carnegie [the Scottish-born US industrialist] gave away what in today's money would be about $11 billion, which shows how rich he was because I'll bet he kept some of it too.

Style: Ella looked effortlessly chic in a shiny black suit and cream silk shirt as she left the party after previously posing with her famous father on the red carpet

'But I don't want to leave great sums to the next generation. I think inheritance is quite distasteful. My philosophy is: get rid of it or give it away before you go.'

The couple very rarely talk about their children, with Daniel previously stating that their privacy was 'hugely important'.

Ella has started to carve out an acting career of her own in recent years, appearing in stage productions for Shakespeare & Company.

Suave: Daniel turned heads in his pink dinner jacket as he left the after party wearing a face mask

Stepping out: Ella completed the look with wide leg trousers, a blue pendant necklace and wore her blonde tresses in a sleek swept back style

She has also starred in a short film entitled Maneater - which tells the story of a young woman navigating the modern dating world.

Ella regularly shares glamorous snaps on her Instagram account, along with candid pictures of her with her family - including one post in which she describes herself as her father's 'little nightmare'.

Back in 2018 she shared a black-and-white selfie of her and her father on his 50th birthday.

Dapper: He completed the look with black trousers, shiny shoes and a bow tie

Captioning the snap, she wrote: 'It's my Pops 50th. Bloody proud and and love you always and forever.

'Happy f****** birthday. Love from your little nightmare.'

Ella was one of only four people present when her father tied the knot with Rachel in a secret ceremony in New York back in 2011.

Ella grew up in London, before moving to a boarding school in Massachusetts at the age of 17.

Heading home: He hopped into the back of a taxi and made his way home after the big night

Couple: Rachel and Daniel share a two-year-old daughter whose name has not been disclosed, while Rachel has a son Henry, now 15, from a previous relationship (pictured in 2018)

She then went on to study acting and theatre at NYU, but dropped out after a year.

The actress has admitted in a previous interview how she suffered from depression, explaining how 'her head wasn't in the right place at the time'.

Ella, who is also an artist, now lives between New York and LA, and has starred in a number of theatre productions.

She has shared a number of backstage shots from theatre productions in the past with Shakespeare & Company, including Cymbeline.
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The Bond Girls led the glamour at the No Time To Die after-party at Annabel's in London on Tuesday.

Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch, both 33, and Lea Seydoux, 36, all took things from the red carpet to the party as they emerged in a trio of sensational ensembles following the world premiere of the movie.

The Cuban beauty put on an eye-popping display in the plunging black gown she wore in the movie, while Lashana was dazzling in gold and Lea went edgy in a black leather ensemble.

Wow: Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch, both 33, and Lea Seydoux, 36, all took things from the red carpet to the party as they emerged in a trio of sensational ensembles following the world premiere of the movie

Ana demanded attention as she showcased her toned pins in a thigh-slit black gown, featuring a plunging neckline and silver straps as she touched down at the party with her co-stars.

The gaping front to her sizzling gown caused a minor wardrobe malfunction as she emerged from a car ready to join her co-stars and colleagues at the all-star after-party.

Lashana proved herself to be a style chameleon for the evening, as she transformed from her showstopping yellow gown from the red carpet into a sizzling gold number with spaghetti straps.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who took over writing duties for the film, once again wowed in her plunging black sequinned jumpsuit and a pale grey overcoat.

Wow: Ana demanded attention as she showcased her toned pins in a thigh-slit black gown, featuring a plunging neckline and silver straps as she touched down at the party with her co-stars

Flaunting it: The Cuban actress' dress accentuated her slender pins with the form-fitting dress, which was complete with a plunging neckline and deep thigh-split

Gorgeous: Meanwhile Ana took on the role of Bond Girl Paloma in the film and continued to sport her sexy black satin gown with a revealing thigh-high split

Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina certainly made the picture perfect couple, as the Luther star, who has been tipped to replace Daniel as Bond, accompanied his spouse out of the party

They were joined by Bond himself, Daniel Craig, who continued to celebrate his farewell to the franchise as he headed to the star-studded No Time To Die after party at the swanky club.

After saying goodbye to 007 with his swan song, the actor, 53, was seen leaving the private celebration with his daughter Ella Loudon, followed soon after by Rami Malek and his girlfriend Lucy Boynton and the film's star-studded cast.

It comes as critics for the film lauded Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final appearance in the Bond franchise, with many five-star reviews praising the epic blockbuster

As ever Daniel displayed his dapper sense of style in a red velvet blazer as he headed to the party with his daughter Ella.

Check me out: She looked phenomenal in the racy gown which left very little to the imagination

Oh my! Lashana proved herself to be a style chameleon for the evening, as she transformed from her showstopping yellow gown from the red carpet into a sizzling gold number with spaghetti straps

Amazing: She looked stunning as she arrived for the party in her new look

The actor, who has said goodbye to Bond after 16 years in the role, jumped into a waiting taxi to make his way home after joining a slew of stars on the red carpet.

Daniel, who shares Ella with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon, held hands with his actress daughter, who was dressed in a sophisticated black trouser suit for the party.

Elsewhere Rami and Lucy continued their loved-up display as they stepped out hand-in-hand following the afterparty, to celebrate No Time To Die's much-delayed release.

Lucy, who began dating Rami after they co-starred in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, set pulses racing in a plunging black gown with a sparkling necklace as she followed her boyfriend out of the private club.

New look! Opting to change out of her stunning cream gown from the red carpet, Lea Seydoux arrived for the party in an eye-catching black leather shirt dress

Wow! Both Lashana and Lea's after-party looks were a departure from their red carpet ensembles

Incredible: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who took over writing duties for the film, once again wowed in her plunging black sequinned jumpsuit and a pale grey overcoat

It was a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

A departure: Jason Momoa looked dashing as he headed to the bash, having hit the red carpet with his lookalike son Nakoa-Wolf, 12, and his teen daughter Lola, 14, earlier in the evening

Having a good night? Jason Mamoa was in extremely high spirits as he messed around with his co-stars en route to the party

Jovial: The Aquaman star strutted his stuff while wandering through the streets of London as he made his way to the afterparty

Off he goes! They were joined by Bond himself, Daniel Craig , who continued to celebrate his farewell to the franchise as he headed to the star-studded No Time To Die after party at the swanky club

Smart: As ever Daniel displayed his dapper sense of style in a red velvet blazer as he jumped into a waiting car following the post-premiere bash

Time to go! After saying goodbye to 007 with his swan song, the actor was seen leaving the private celebration with his daughter Ella Loudon after they walked the red carpet together

Doting father: Daniel, who shares Ella with his ex-wife Fiona Loudon, held hands with his actress daughter, who was dressed in a sophisticated black trouser suit for the party#

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

Happy couple: Elsewhere Rami and Lucy continued their loved-up display as they stepped out hand-in-hand following the afterparty, to celebrate No Time To Die's much-delayed release

Jaw-dropping: Lucy vamped it up in a plunging black gown that accentuated her ample cleavage, and added some extra sparkle with a jewelled necklace as she arrived for the party with her beau

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

Giddy: Lucy was in good spirits as she headed out of the party in her perilously plunging gown after wowing on the red carpet

Gorgeous: The screen star, who met Rami while they were filming the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, slipped her blonde tresses into a loose bun

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Happy pair: Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina certainly made the picture perfect couple, as the Luther star, who has been tipped to replace Daniel as Bond, accompanied his spouse out of the party

Sensational: Sabrina slipped into a sheer black dress with ruche detailing as she made her way out of the party with Idris

Standing out: As ever Idris cut a dapper figure in a midnight blue three piece suit as he strolled into Annabel's for the party. The actor has been one of the odds-on favourites to replace Daniel as Bond

No time to say goodbye! Daniel Craig is credited for his 'extravagantly satisfying' (and unapologetically woke) Bond swansong... as 'slick, stylish and emotional' No Time To Die wins five star reviews After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, with Craig stepping out alongside co-stars including Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics and stars alike to the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed blockbuster. The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced'. Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the worlds greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.' Finally here: After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday Four stars: The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'. Touching upon the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bong was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke? 'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond.' Viner concluded: 'This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.' Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond when he walked No Time To Die's world premiere red carpet on Tuesday Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'. Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'. Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond. The Sun urged viewers to 'buckle up' in its four star review while the BBC also allocated the movie five stars, noting: 'No Time To Die rounds off the Craig era with tremendous ambition and aplomb.' However The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was less content when the credits rolled, branding Craig's 'last hoorah' as 'disappointing and strangely anti-climactic' before mustering up just three stars. Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event before critics sat down to review the flick Digital Spy was another publication to award the flick four stars. Ahead of the screening Craig chatted away to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Albert Hall. Also at the star-studded premiere were Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Naomie Harris. It has been a long road to Tuesday night's premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Dazzling: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance at No Time To Die's World premiere Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US. Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie. Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'. 'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it. Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all posed on the carpet together 'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did. 'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.' 'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.' Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.' Close bond: Naomi Harris and Lashana Lynch shared a joke at the star-studded event ahead of the much-anticipated screening 'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.' On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.' 'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis. 'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!' Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls. Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times. 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie. 'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt. On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie' 'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.' Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond. 'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together. 'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.' Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig) No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help. Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world. Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond. Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.' Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015. Advertisement

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge put on a sparkling display on Tuesday night as she left the star-studded No Time To Die after party.

The multi-talented star, who co-wrote the latest 007 film, looked sensational in an elegant black jumpsuit by Azzaro Couture as she left Annabel's in Mayfair.

Layering the classy ensemble with an oversized stone jacket, the Fleabag actress and creator looked in high spirits following her evening at the swanky club.

No Time To Die: Phoebe Waller-Bridge sparkled in an elegant black jumpsuit by Azzaro Couture as she left the No Time To Die after party in Mayfair on Tuesday

The Londoner's glamorous evening in the capital comes after she said she would not be in favour of a female James Bond.

'I think Bond is James Bond. We just need to cook up someone to rival him,' she said.

On whether she could be the one to create such a character, she laughed and replied: 'I have to be careful what I say.'

Glamorous: The multi-talented star looked sensational in an elegant black jumpsuit as she left Annabel's in Mayfair

Evening out: Layering the classy ensemble with an oversized stone jacket, the Fleabag actress and creator looked in high spirits following her evening at the swanky club

Phoebe was questioned about her script-writing role on the red carpet and branded it 'a wonderful experience.'

'They asked me to come on board to add to the pot they were already working on.

'It was to support them as much as come up with new stuff and throw it at them and see if they liked it. That was a wonderful experience because it was a collaboration but it wasnt fully my vision,' she explained.

Sensational: The Londoner's glamorous evening in the capital comes after she said she would not be in favour of a female James Bond [pictured above at the premiere]

Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet.

Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began.

The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures.

Event: Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet

It has been a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Fans: Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Action: The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
Daniel Craig has reflected on his iconic role as 007 and revealed he is 'never not going to think about it.'

The James Bond actor, 53, will be making his final appearance as the spy with the licence to kill in No Time To Die, which was premiered on Tuesday in a star-studded evening at the Royal Albert Hall.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Daniel, who debuted as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, reflected on his fifth and final instalment - and described the making of it as 'so important.'

End of an era: Daniel Craig reflected on his iconic role as 007 and branded it 'a massive part' of his life

He gushed: 'Im just so grateful for the fact that I got a chance to go and make one last one and it be this one and to finish telling the story.

'This has been a massive part of my life. Im never not going to think about this, its been too big a thing in my life.

During the stellar No Time To Die premiere on Tuesday, the successful actor told BBC Radio 5 that a weight has been on his shoulders since the pandemic delayed the anticipated premiere.

007: Speaking to the PA news agency, Daniel, who debuted as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, reflected on his fifth and final instalment - and described the making of it as 'so important'

'This is incredibly important to cinema and to history, and the weight of that has been on my shoulders for a while...I've been incredibly lucky.'

Daniel joked that he will probably be 'incredibly bitter' when the new person takes over.

He also added: 'I am glad I am ending it on my terms  I am grateful to the producers for allowing me to do that  but I will miss it.'

Moving on: Daniel joked that he will probably be 'incredibly' bitter when the new person takes over

Previously, the London born actor revealed that he decided to reprise his role as James Bond for the fifth time after he 'got a bit of a rest' following 2015's Spectre.

Speaking about his decision to play the smooth-talking agent one more time he said on The Chris Evans Virgin Radio Breakfast Show with Sky that time away from the role made him 'excited'.

Back in 2015, Daniel said when asked whether he would want to play Bond again in a interview that he would rather 'slash his wrists'.

Reprised his role: Previously, the London born actor revealed that he decided to reprise his role as James Bond for the fifth time after he 'got a bit of a rest' following 2015's Spectre

Craig told radio host Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, ''I can't do any more of these''.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.'

He added: 'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything.

'When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did. Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

Excited: Speaking about his decision to play the smooth-talking agent one more time he said that time away from the role made him 'excited'

Gushing about his co-stars' performances, the actor continued: 'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speaking to Time Out in 2015, Craig responded to the question of whether he would like to play Bond again: 'Now? I'd rather slash my wrists.'

He added: 'No, not at the moment. Not at all. That's fine. I'm over it at the moment. We're done. All I want to do is move on.'

Craig also touched upon the strange nature of the film's two-year long release delay, saying: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, ''Woah, I hope it's good.''

Co-stars: Gushing about his co-stars' performances, the actor continued: 'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special' (pictured: Ana de Armas)

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

As for what Craig found latched onto after reading Ian Fleming's original James Bond books, he told Chris: 'The drink and the drugs!'

Craig elaborated: That kind of dark side that is in the books, because he goes to Q, or he goes to the quartermaster and gets his daily ration of rum, it's just like his daily ration of uppers. It's stuff like that, that's in the book, that's very dark.'

The actor also shared: 'A Russian journalist, a few years ago, gave me a chart of all the Bonds and what they drink, and I'm way at the top!'

Craig also opened up about his emotional farewell speech to the cast and crew of No Time To Die after footage of the touching moment circulated the web.

He explained: 'It was my last night on Bond, or at least on shooting. It was a night shoot, at the back lot at Pinewood, which is kind of fitting because it was raining.

'I sort of wanted to say something. We hadn't planned anything, and then everybody turned up, and I was just blown away.'

Craig added: 'I hate making speeches, I'm just terrible at it. It was just heartfelt. It just came out, and I meant every word I said. Just how fortunate I've been to have the opportunity to even be near this, in a way.

'They don't get made, very often, these things, and to have the chance to be even close to it, has been just amazing. I didn't want to choke up. I wanted to be stoic, and failed miserably!'

The Chris Evans Virgin Radio Breakfast show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am
After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, with Craig stepping out alongside co-stars including Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics and stars alike to the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed blockbuster.

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced'.

Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the worlds greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.'

Finally here: After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

Four stars: The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars

Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'.

Touching upon the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bong was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke?

'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond.'

Viner concluded: 'This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.'

Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond when he walked No Time To Die's world premiere red carpet on Tuesday

Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'.

Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'.

Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond.

The Sun urged viewers to 'buckle up' in its four star review while the BBC also allocated the movie five stars, noting: 'No Time To Die rounds off the Craig era with tremendous ambition and aplomb.'

However The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was less content when the credits rolled, branding Craig's 'last hoorah' as 'disappointing and strangely anti-climactic' before mustering up just three stars.

Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event before critics sat down to review the flick

Digital Spy was another publication to award the flick four stars.

Ahead of the screening Craig chatted away to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Albert Hall.

Also at the star-studded premiere were Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Naomie Harris.

It has been a long road to Tuesday night's premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dazzling: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance at No Time To Die's World premiere

Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all posed on the carpet together

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

Close bond: Naomi Harris and Lashana Lynch shared a joke at the star-studded event ahead of the much-anticipated screening

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
Madonna got Into The Groove on Tuesday as she shared snippets of an intense pilates and dance workout.

The Queen of Pop, 63, was not afraid to bust her best moves in the montage, which she showcased to her 16.6million Instagram followers.

Dancing to Inner City's 1998 single Big Fun, the singing sensation looked as though she was fully immersed in her workout, sporting all black attire including over-the-knee mesh socks.

Fun: Madonna got Into The Groove on Tuesday as she documented her intense pilates and dance session on Instagram

Her famous blonde hair coiffed into braids, Madonna oozed confidence as she paraded around the gym, incorporating twerking and breakdancing into her impressive routine.

The Grammy Award winner, who has sold over 300 million records worldwide, credited her personal trainer and pilates instructor in her accompanied caption.

In full, she penned: 'Having Big Fun..Sorry for ugly shoes, not allowed to dance in heels yet!! [sic] Soon very soon! [sic] #innercity @marlynortiz @stefbfit.'

Workout: The Queen of Pop, 63, was not afraid to bust her best moves in the montage, which she showcased to her 16.6million Instagram followers

Into The Grove: Her famous blonde hair coiffed into braids, Madonna oozed confidence as she paraded around the gym

Busting her moves: The star incorporated twerking and breakdancing into her impressive routine

The workout comes after Madonna was very much a proud mother when she took to Instagram over the weekend to share a heartfelt tribute for her adopted son David Banda on his 16th birthday.

The Michigan native shared snaps of David throughout the years, and recalled meeting him at an orphanage when he was just 13 months, prior to his adoption.

'Who knew when I met you at Home of Hope Orphanage in Malawi, drinking coke out of a baby bottle and wearing no diaper that you would become this force of nature?' the hitmaker penned online.

Celebrations: The workout comes after Madonna was very much a proud mother when she took to Instagram over the weekend to share a heartfelt tribute for her adopted son David Banda [pictured] on his 16th birthday

Madonna posted a recent shot of David cutting a stylish figure in a vibrant blue vest, matching trousers, and with statement jewellery including a layering of necklaces.

Another particular snap sees David in a head-to-toe Gucci ensemble cozying up to Madonna, who dons a tribal-inspired frock and leopard print fedora hat.

Other photos capture David showing off his flair for fashion in a number of ensembles, including a suave black tuxedo and bow tie, as well as African clothing.

Designer style: The Michigan native, shared a photo of David in a head-to-toe Gucci ensemble. Madonna embraced him, donning a tribal-inspired frock and leopard print fedora

The Vogue chart-topper also included a gorgeous snap of herself cradling David as a baby on her hip, with daughter Lourdes Leon, now 24, by her side.

Madonna captioned the gallery of birthday images: 'David Banda!! I cannot believe you have grown into This Young Man! This Artist. This Athlete. This Articulate and Charismatic Human.

'Who knew when I met you at Home of Hope Orphanage in Malawi, drinking coke out of a baby bottle and wearing no diaper that you would become this force of nature?

'Happy Sweet Sixteen! Im so proud of you!' she concluded.
Katie Prices fiance Carl Woods has said he will 'always be there' for the 'rough diamond' after her family voiced concern for the TV personalitys mental wellbeing as she was reportedly involved in a car collision.

The 43-year-old will appear in court on Wednesday after being charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance following a crash on a rural lane.

Price recently confirmed she is banned from driving.

'Katie's a rough diamond - but her imperfections are perfect to me': Carl Woods supported his fiancee as she was charged over car crash for driving while banned and without insurance (stock image)

Carl wrote on Instagram: 'Relationships are tested, people test each other - but when you love someone like I love Katie, you enjoy the highs and good times together.

'And that bond is tested during the low and difficult times together.

'Katie is a rough diamond. She has her imperfections however they make her perfect to me.

'She just needs that extra help to be polished. The sunlight will shine through her once again and the sparkles that she brings to everyone will return.

'I love you Katie 100%. My dolly, always here, always will be.'

Something to say: Carl broke his silence on Instagram as his fiancee was charged

Shock: A photograph tweeted by a police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes of a country road near West Grinstead, its front lodged in the hedgerow

Carl previously said he 'never would do anything to hurt' Price, after the former glamour model was taken to hospital with a facial injury in August.

Katie was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court this morning after family and friends rallied round her following her arrest.

The model, from Horsham, West Sussex is accused of flipping her BMW on a country road at 6.20am near West Grinstead on Tuesday.

The mother-of-five could now face jail. She has no driving licence after being disqualified for two years in 2019, and has been banned from the roads six times.

Sad: Price told Good Morning Britain of her pain that being disqualified from driving meant she could not visit her disabled son Harvey (pictured on September 9) at his residential college

It was claimed that Price had been up all night partying before yesterday's crash. She was taken to hospital but is not thought to have been badly injured.

Price was also arrested yesterday on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink and drugs, but has not been charged with this offence.

A photograph tweeted by a local police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes, its front lodged in the hedgerow, after the crash.

A local said: 'Luckily no other vehicles were involved in the crash and it happened away from houses. It sounds like the person behind the wheel is going to be OK.'

Price has experienced a turbulent year, and was recently seen with bruising to her face after an alleged assault at her home in Essex.

A source said: 'Katie rolled her car and was in a bad way when police arrived. She's in hospital now and everyone is desperately worried about her.'

Driving while disqualified can result in a maximum sentence of 26 weeks in prison. It comes as Price's family last night expressed fears for her mental health.

They said in a statement: 'We have for some time been concerned about Kate's wellbeing and overall mental health. Today our worst fears nearly came true.

'As a family we have been and will continue to help Kate get the help she needs. We hope that she will realise that she cannot battle her issues alone.'

The smash came a day after Price said being disqualified from driving meant she could not visit her disabled son Harvey at his residential college in Gloucestershire.

Shock: Last month Katie was allegedly assaulted in an 'unprovoked 1.30am attack' which left her battered and bruised at an Essex home, after which it was reported that her custom-made, seven-carat ring was taken

She told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'Harvey's in Cheltenham now, he keeps ringing me saying, 'Mummy I miss you, I need your kisses and cuddles', so it is quite hard.

'Because obviously I don't get my licence back until December, so I can't just whizz in the car down there and it's not close.'

A Sussex Police spokesman said: 'Police responded to reports of a single-vehicle collision on the B2135 near Partridge Green around 6.20am on Tuesday.'

They later added today: 'Katie Price, 43, was charged with using a motor vehicle on a public place without third party insurance and driving whilst disqualified.

'She was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court on Wednesday (September 29).'

A South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust spokesman said it was 'called at approximately 6.30am to reports of an RTC on the B2135 at Partridge Green'.

They added: 'One ambulance crew attended the scene and one person was assessed and treated before being taken to hospital.'

The road was closed after the crash but police confirmed it reopened at 9.26am.

Announcement: Carl released a statement earlier this month stating that he 'never and never would' hurt Katie

Last month, a man, 32, was released on bail after he was arrested for assault and coercive control. Katie was taken to hospital after the alleged assault at a home where she was staying while her home is reportedly being renovated.

Katie said she was attacked as she watched TV - forcing her to flee in terror to her son Harvey's nearby home. Pictures show the mother-of-five with bruises on her face and cuts on her lips.

She said: 'I've got a big bruise, my face is all puffy, and I went to hospital. I'm still all dazed. I'm devastated. I ran away after being punched  I ran to Harvey's house nearby and have now done damage to my feet, which I previously injured.'

She said the alleged assault was 'unprovoked', adding: 'I was just sitting there watching telly when the assault happened.'

Hitting back: On Wednesday Katie insisted she never called the police on Carl in a strongly-worded Instagram post

A source said at the time of the incident: 'Katie is so upset and far too emotional to go back to the home she was attacked in. She's sent friends to pick up some stuff she needs from the Essex house so she's comfortable.'

An Essex Police spokesman said at the time: 'A 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assault, theft and coercive and controlling behaviour has been released on bail until September 20.'

It was reported on Thursday that Katie fled to Turkey with fiance Carl to 'clear her head and get new hair extensions' after the attack.

Family: The television personality is mum to Harvey, 18, Junior, 15, Princess, 13, Jett, seven, and Bunny, six, from three previous relationships (pictured together with Carl last Christmas)

Katie has travelled abroad for a short break after furiously denying that she called the police on her husband-to-be amid whispers about the identity of the man who was arrested at her home following the assault.

On Wednesday Katie insisted she never called the police on Carl.

Amid whispers about who was the perpetrator and Carl's denial over involvement, Katie took to Instagram to write: 'FACT, I've ALWAYS said DON'T believe everything you read in the media and what Carl is saying is true.

'FACT I've NEVER called the police on Carl my police investigation I'm currently going through to a incident a few weeks ago is not to do with Carl.'

In her comment under Carl's video, Katie went on: 'This man's mental health is so low and easy to say suicidal. Someone played what they thought was a clever game and involved media with inaccurate information'.

Former Love Island contestant Carl had previously posted a statement on Instagram refuting all allegations that he was the perpetrator, and now he has taken to his Instagram Stories to reveal the toll the situation has taken on his mental health.

He said: 'I've not been on Instagram for a long, long time. Let me tell you this past month has been one of the roughest of my life.'

The reality star went on to reveal how the backlash and accusations were so severe, he was forced to take drastic action and go into hiding.
She is always incredibly well put-together.

And, Amanda Holden looked ready for business in a leather pencil skirt and baby blue blouse as she arrived at Heart FM, on Wednesday.

The media personality, 50, looked typically chic in her ensemble and shared a few snaps of her look to Instagram.

Office chic: Amanda Holden, 50, looked ready for business in a leather pencil skirt and baby blue blouse as she arrived at Heart FM, on Wednesday

Amanda shimmied along in her form-fitting skirt, while wearing a pointed pair of stiletto heels.

Her pretty blouse featured intricately placed broderie anglaise and a long, tie-neck closing.

Amanda draped a long black overcoat over her shoulders and added further to her office chic look by carrying her belongings in a black doctor's bag.

The BGT judge shielded her eyes with glamorous cat-eye shades and accessorised with gold hoop earrings.

Looking good: Amanda shimmied along in her form-fitting skirt, while wearing a pointed pair of stiletto heels

Gorgeous: Her pretty blouse featured intricately placed broderie anglaise and tie-neck closing

Her outing comes as Amanda Holden recently told The Daily Mail she refuses to apologise for living her life.

She told the newspaper: 'I'm not apologising for living any more. I want my life back. I keep hearing people going: "I'm sorry, I'm so lucky to go on holiday." I'm like: "No! It's your right to be entertained, your right to go on holiday!"'

At 50, she has inadvertently made it her mission to show that women of any age can be as flamboyant as they please, not least when it comes to their outfits.

'I dress for other women and for myself. I don't dress for men and I dress absolutely how I want to. When I'm told I can't, it makes me do it more,' she said.

Elegant: The blonde beauty looked typically chic in her ensemble

Fun with friends: The media personality shared a few snaps of her look to Instagram as she posed with Ashley Roberts

For example, when Ofcom received 235 complaints about the low-cut Amanda Wakeley dress she wore to judge Britain's Got Talent, Amanda was delighted.

'I thought: '"Amazing!" Now for every show they want to know what I'm going to be wearing in advance, and I'm like: "I'm going to wear a polo-neck . . . surprise!"'

Sure enough, the week after the complaints, she selected a gown that was doubly revealing.

'I don't know what people are complaining about,' she says. 'They sexualise things that are just . . . there. [Fellow BGT judge] Simon [Cowell] can have all his shirt buttons open down to here and his man boobs out and no one bats an eyelid!'
Katie Price's ex-husband Kieran Hayler looked loved-up with his fiancee Michelle Penticost and their newborn son Apollo Phoenix on an outing in Essex on Tuesday.

The former stripper, 34, who shares Jett, eight, and Bunny, seven, with the embattled glamour model, 43, emerged for the passionate display amid Katie's latest legal battle after she was charged with driving offences the following day.

It was revealed on Wednesday that Katie would appear in court after being charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance following a crash.

She was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court this morning after family and friends rallied round her following her arrest.

Loved-up: Katie Price's ex-husband Kieran Hayler looked loved-up with his fiancee Michelle Penticost and their newborn son Apollo Phoenix on an outing in Essex on Tuesday

Kieran and Katie finally divorced in July, three years after they split. Since their split he popped the question to Michelle, with whom he shares his youngest child, while Katie became engaged to Carl Woods earlier this year.

The former couple were married for eight years after getting wed in 2013, and in July, Kieran confirmed to MailOnline their divorce was finalised on Monday, July 12, and it's been a weight lifted off his shoulders.

Kieran looked enamoured with Michelle and Apollo as they stepped out in Essex, with both grinning from ear-to-ear before sharing a tender kiss.

Their passionate show comes at a tough time for Katie amid her arrest. The star, from Horsham, West Sussex, who is banned from driving, is accused of flipping her BMW on a country road at 6.20am near West Grinstead on Tuesday.

Sweet: The former stripper, 34, who shares Jett, eight, and Bunny, seven, with the embattled glamour model, 43, emerged for the passionate display amid Katie's latest legal battle after she was charged with driving offences the following day

The mother-of-five could now face jail. She has no driving licence after being disqualified for two years in 2019, and has been banned from the roads six times.

It was claimed that Katie had been up all night partying before the crash. She was taken to hospital but is not thought to have been badly injured.

Katie was also arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink and drugs, but has not been charged with this offence.

A photograph tweeted by a local police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes, its front lodged in the hedgerow, after the crash.

Back then: Kieran and Katie finally divorced in July, three years after they split. Since their split he popped the question to Michelle, with whom he shares his youngest child, while Katie became engaged to Carl Woods earlier this year (pictured in 2017)

A local said: 'Luckily no other vehicles were involved in the crash and it happened away from houses. It sounds like the person behind the wheel is going to be OK.'

Katie has experienced a turbulent year, and was recently seen with bruising to her face after an alleged assault at her home in Essex.

A source said: 'Katie rolled her car and was in a bad way when police arrived. She's in hospital now and everyone is desperately worried about her.'

Driving while disqualified can result in a maximum sentence of 26 weeks in prison. It comes as her family expressed fears for her mental health hours after the crash.

Shock: A photograph tweeted by a police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes of a country road near West Grinstead, its front lodged in the hedgerow

They wrote in a statement: 'We have for some time been concerned about Kate's wellbeing and overall mental health. Today our worst fears nearly came true.

'As a family we have been and will continue to help Kate get the help she needs. We hope that she will realise that she cannot battle her issues alone.'

The smash came a day after Katie said being disqualified from driving meant she could not visit her disabled son Harvey at his residential college in Gloucestershire.

She said on Good Morning Britain: 'Harvey's in Cheltenham now, he keeps ringing me saying, 'Mummy I miss you, I need your kisses and cuddles', so it is quite hard.

'Because obviously I don't get my licence back until December, so I can't just whizz in the car down there and it's not close.'

Pained: Katie's fiance Carl Woods said on Instagram that he will 'always be there' for the 'rough diamond'

Her fiance Carl said he will 'always be there' for the 'rough diamond', writing on Instagram: 'Relationships are tested, people test each other.

'But when you love someone like I love Katie, you enjoy the highs and good times together. And that bond is tested during the low and difficult times together.

'Katie is a rough diamond. She has her imperfections however they make her perfect to me. She just needs that extra help to be polished.

'The sunlight will shine through her once again and the sparkles that she brings to everyone will return. I love you Katie 100%. My dolly, always here, always will be.'

A Sussex Police spokesman said: 'Police responded to reports of a single-vehicle collision on the B2135 near Partridge Green around 6.20am on Tuesday.'

Katie is pictured at the National Television Awards 2021 at The O2 on September 9

They later added today: 'Katie Price, 43, was charged with using a motor vehicle on a public place without third party insurance and driving whilst disqualified.

'She was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court on Wednesday (September 29).'

A South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust spokesman said it was 'called at approximately 6.30am to reports of an RTC on the B2135 at Partridge Green'.

They added: 'One ambulance crew attended the scene and one person was assessed and treated before being taken to hospital.'

The road was closed after the crash but police confirmed it reopened at 9.26am.
Sir Paul McCartney is behind a series of mysterious classified adverts that are being used to promote his new book.

The Beatles star, 79, posted a number of ads where 'Grandude was searching for Nandude' in local papers including the Manchester Evening News, the Liverpool Echo and the Daily Record.

His new children's picture book - called Grandude's Green Submarine - is out this week and in the ads the poster asks people to join the search for Nandude, according to the Daily Mirror.

Clever: Sir Paul McCartney is behind a series of mysterious classified adverts that are being used to promote his new book

Sources told the publication he chose the specific regional papers because the areas they cover hold 'personal memories' for him.

The star was born in Liverpool and has gigged in Manchester with the Beatles, Wings and also as a solo artist. He has also owned High Park Farm in Kintyre, Scotland, since 1966.

One advert reads: 'Grandude and chillers seek information leading to the whereabouts of Nandude...

Mysterious: The Beatles star, 79, posted a number of ads (pictured) where 'Grandude was searching for Nandude' in local papers including the Manchester Evening News, the Liverpool Echo and the Daily Record

'Grandude and his four chillers are looking for their adventure-loving Nandude. Nandude has traversed the thickest jungles and sailed the deepest oceans, always to return with stories to tell. But she's been gone far longer than we expected!

'Grandude needs your help! Nandude loves playing her accordion. If you listen out, you might hear her before you see her. Have YOU seen Nandude? #Where'sNandude #I'veSeenNandude!'

The new book will continue the adventures of Grandude and his grandchildren as they set off on a quest to find their music-loving grandmother, Nandude.

Plot: The new book will continue the adventures of Grandude and his grandchildren as they set off on a quest to find their music-loving grandmother, Nandude

In 1977, he used the pseudonym Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington for his album of the same name and took out similarly cryptic ads in a variety of British newspapers.

In a statement, Paul - who has eight grandchildren - said: 'I'm really happy with how 'Hey Grandude!' was received as this was a very personal story for me, celebrating Grandudes everywhere and their relationships and adventures with their grandchildren.

'I love that it has become a book read to grandkids at bedtime all around the world. I always said if people liked the first book and there was an appetite for more I would write some further adventures for Grandude  so he's back and this time with his special invention, Grandude's green submarine!'

Fun: His new children's picture book - called Grandude's Green Submarine - is out this week and in the ads, the poster asks people to join the search for Nandude

Illustrator Kathryn Durst will also return to the series to draw the pictures for the second book.

In her own statement, she added: 'I am so thrilled to be collaborating with Paul again on Grandude's Green Submarine.

'I think this is the adventure book we all need during this time, when everyone is stuck at home and longing to travel to exciting new places.

'I really enjoyed drawing the newest character in the book, Nandude, particularly because we both share a love of playing the accordion!'

It comes after last week Paul and his wife Nancy Shevell were recently spotted in his home town of Liverpool, delighting fans.

Ticket to Toxteth? It comes after the star needed a Ticket To Ride last week after making an unlikely appearance at a bus-stop in his native Liverpool

They toured the city's famous Lime Street station before queuing up for a trip to Nowhere, Man at a bus stop in Heswell, on the Wirrall.

Local resident Colin Newitt told the Liverpool Echo after sighting the family: 'So we had been to Parkgate for a meal with our son Mason when I heard my wife shouting 'look there's Paul.' He shouted back 'You alright.'

'I then told him that I went to the same school as him. He asked me which one and I said Liverpool Institute. He asked me who was my teacher and said I can't remember but that Mr Parker was the head.

'The lights then changed and we had to go. I shouted 'See ya' and he waved goodbye. He had just got out of a car with his daughter Stella.'

Sir Paul's appearance came after he paid tribute to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts after his death aged 80 in August.

Sharing a video on Twitter, Sir Paul addressed his followers in the candid clip, hailing Charlie as 'a rock' and 'fantastic drummer' before revealing: 'I knew he was ill, but I didn't know he was this ill.'

Charlie's death was confirmed shortly before Beatles rocker Paul released his clip, with a statement confirming he had 'passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family'.
Jessica Rowe has been slammed for choosing to interview Pauline Hanson on her new podcast.

The former Studio 10 host, 51, spoke to the controversial politician about finding love, dealing with kids and her time in jail on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast.

But unimpressed listeners have criticised Jessica for interviewing Pauline, with one writing, 'Just a ridiculous choice.'

'A ridiculous choice': Jessica Rowe (pictured) has come under fire for interviewing Pauline Hanson on her new podcast

'Wow, I'm really shocked that someone with such a bright, positive vibe would interview someone like Hanson who is openly and unapologetically racist. Disappointing Jess,' another Tweeted.

Australian of the Year and activist Grace Tame also wrote: 'This is how discrimination and hate is subtly enabled and normalised. Everyone's entitled to their own views but not all views should be valorised by promoting their source. Pauline doesn't need help to be heard, but those whose oppression she's both driven and reinforced do.'

'Bad move Jess I understand you mean well, but the divide between good and bad is glaringly obvious  Hansen is cold hearted, that's it,' a fourth commented.

Special guest: The former Studio 10 host spoke to Pauline (pictured) about finding love, dealing with kids and her time in jail on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast

'There is absolutely no way I could engage with Pauline Hanson or anyone like her. Racists must be called out,' one person said.

Another wrote: 'Jessica Rowe! Pauline Hanson? Really? Bad move dude. I hope you know what you are doing is heartbreaking and vile. Thank you for reminding me that as a child of brown immigrants, I do not belong. Giving this divisive politician a platform is completely unfathomable.'

In the interview, Pauline spoke about her personal life, reflected on her infamous prison stint and was even asked by host Jessica Rowe what her favourite alcoholic beverage was.

While she enjoys a classic gin and tonic, her go-to tipple these days is rum topped with lime cordial.

Not happy: Unimpressed listeners have criticised Jessica for interviewing Pauline, with one writing: 'Just a ridiculous choice'

'These days I don't mind a gin and tonic,' the One Nation leader said. 'But I also like my Bundaberg rum full of ice in a glass and you top it up with lime cordial.

'Plenty of ice, fill up your whole glass, half Bundy and half lime cordial.'

Pauline also touched on her time in prison after being sentenced to three years behind bars in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding.

'When they stood up and they gave that guilty verdict, I just shut down,' she recalled. 'I couldn't believe it.'

'Then they came and put the handcuffs on me, took me down to process me, put into a strip search, then put into a van and taken to the watch house all night.'

Candid: In the interview, Pauline spoke about her personal life, reflected on her infamous prison stint and was even asked by host Jessica Rowe what her favourite alcoholic beverage was

The Senator said she was taken to prison the next day and went through the 'whole process' at jail, which involved being photographed and having her details 'put into the system'.

Pauline explained she was put into the hospital ward because she had spiralled into a deep depression and wasn't eating.

Pauline's convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal and she was released after spending 11 weeks behind bars.

She rejoined One Nation in 2013 and was became leader of the party the following year.
After sensationally quitting SAS Australia on Wednesday, Isabelle Cornish took to Instagram to explain her 'shock' departure.

The 27-year-old actress revealed she'd suffered 'a stress fracture in the hip', which left her with no option but to leave.

'What an epic adventure! I know it may have been a shock to see me leave tonight but unfortunately, my body isn't as invincible as I wish it was,' she began.

Reflecting: After sensationally quitting SAS Australia on Wednesday, Isabelle Cornish took to Instagram to explain her 'shock' departure

'I actually was limping from day three but sucked it up, cause I didn't feel like I'd done what I needed,' she added.

Alongside her post, Isabelle shared an image of herself on the show and a radiology image of her stress fracture.

She also said the injury was so bad, it had impacted other parts of her body as a result.

'The load took its toll and I'm now suffering from a stress fracture In the hip. My values made me leave the show. My back is also not in good shape and I didn't want to push it further than I needed at this point in my life,' she continued.

Still grateful: Despite the issues that have followed, she remained appreciative of the opportunity to be on the show

Despite the issues that have followed, she remained appreciative of the opportunity to be on the show.

'Super grateful for the experience and all the wisdom I learnt. The staff and all the recruits made my time on the course something special, I'm forever grateful,' she added.

Isabelle went on to describe how the show had also impacted her on a mental level.

'The past six months since SAS have been a pretty wild ride for me mentally. I asked so many questions and couldn't get answers,' she wrote.

'My puzzle pieces have been falling into place the past few weeks. Leaving the course for me was growth... I swallowed my ego and I didn't stay to prove myself.

Mental impact: 'The past six months since SAS have been a pretty wild ride for me mentally. I asked so many questions and couldn't get answers,' she said

Painful: She said the injury was so bad, it had impacted other parts of her body as a result. Pictured, the radiology image of her stress fracture

'Personally, I didn't go on the show to prove anything. I went on there to hopefully be an inspiration to others, share my story and see if I love doing cool s**t as much as my head believes. Can confirm I love this s**t!'

Isabelle also revealed that she had such a good time on the show, she even considered a stint in the military.

'I actually had a little post SAS meltdown because I wanted to run away from my life and join the military,' she added.

Soldiering on: Isabelle also revealed that she had such a good time on the show, she even considered a stint in the military

On Wednesday night's episode of SAS Australia, Isabelle was assessed by the show's medic, who told her that she had clearly injured her right leg.

'There's an injury here, Izzy. You don't need me to tell you that. It's not to the point where I would feel I needed to say, "Hey, don't keep pushing this." But there are no guarantees,' he told her.

Aside from her injured leg, Isabelle said she still felt '100 per cent capable', but decided not to take any risks, opting to leave immediately.

SAS Australia continues Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7Plus.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, contact Lifeline or Beyond Blue.
Katherine Ryan has revealed she told Kourtney Kardashian to dump Scott Disick and date Prince Harry when they met for the first time at Jimmy Carr's house.

The 38-year-old comedian - who admitted she'd drunk a few tequilas at the time - seized her opportunity to give the reality star some unsolicited romance advice.

Speaking on Wednesday's episode of Lorraine, Katherine told of how she marched up to Kourtney and 'tried to pitch Prince Harry as a suitor'.

Love guru: Katherine Ryan revealed on Wednesday's episode of Lorraine that she advised Kourtney Kardashian to dump Scott Disick and date Prince Harry

Re-telling the hilarious anecdote, Katherine said: 'I saw Kourtney Kardashian there... and I was so out of line. I love her and I feel very connected to what I see on reality TV and I feel like she's my friend - but she's not!

Katherine explained that Kourtney was still with the father of her children Scott at the time but that she felt he wasn't treating her properly in the relationship so couldn't resist stepping in.

She continued: 'I said she needs to split up with Scott, I just marched right over there and she was like "well, he's in my house right now".

'Like, get a new house, Kourtney. It's over! I tried to pitch Prince Harry as a suitor...this was years ago.'

'It's over!': Katherine explained that Kourtney was still with the father of her children Scott at the time but that she felt he wasn't treating her properly in the relationship (pictured together)

Prince charming: The comedian then 'tried to pitch Prince Harry as a suitor' to the reality TV royalty while at Jimmy Carr's house recording a podcast

Pals? Re-telling the hilarious anecdote Katherine told of how she felt like she knew Kourtney because of how often she'd watched her in Keeping Up With The Kardashians

Lorraine then agreed that Kourtney and Prince Harry would have been a good match as she chimed in that their relationship 'could have probably worked'.

Meghan has previously been compared to Kourtney after stepping out in a burgundy jacket in New York in September that was similar to the Kardashian's.

Alluding to Prince Harry's union with California native Meghan Markle, Katherine added: 'The amalgamation of the American and British royal families, why not?'

After Lorraine said Prince Harry and his actress wife's match had turned out 'so well', Katherine added if Kourtney had dated the Prince she 'would have been in for a f***ing ride.'

Great idea: Lorraine then agreed that Kourtney and Prince Harry would have been a good match as she chimed in that their relationship 'could have probably worked'

Royal family ready? Katherine added if Kourtney had dated the Prince she 'would have been in for a f***ing ride' (pictured in 2019)

His type? Harry's wife Meghan Markle has previously been compared to Kourtney after stepping out in a burgundy jacket in New York in September that was similar to the star's

Kourtney and Scott first met in 2006 and endured an on-off relationship for years before finally calling it quits in 2015.

The Kardashian supported Scott through his many relapses and the couple share son Mason, 11, daughter Penelope, eight, and son Reign, six.

Scott, 38, recently split with his model girlfriend Amelia Gray Hamlin, 20, while Kourtney has been dating Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, 45.

Young love: Kourtney and Scott first met in 2006 and endured an on-off relationship for years before finally calling it quits in 2015 (pictured in 2013)

Split: Scott recently split from his 20-year-old model girlfriend Amelia Gray Hamlin
Irina Shayk looked sensational as she attended the opening of the Thierry Mugler: Couturissime exhibition in Paris on Tuesday.

The model, 35, displayed her lithe physique in a VERY tight gown with an extreme plunging neckline and a fishtail design.

The garment featured a multi-coloured patterned print and a sequined detail along with a flowing train.

Stunning: Irina Shayk looked sensational in a figure-hugging gown as she attended the opening of the Thierry Mugler: Couturissime exhibition in Paris on Tuesday

The Russian beauty also donned a pair of sheer black gloves as she posed on the red carpet.

Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Irina also donned a light pallet of makeup

Meanwhile, Alessandra Ambrosio put her supermodel figure on display as she attended the event wearing a semi-sheer blue dress.

The brunette beauty, 40, layered the striking piece beneath a chic coat in a matching colour and slipped into a pair of statement-making tights.

Stunning: The model, 35, displayed her lithe physique in the garment which also featured a plunging neckline

Flawless: The Russian beauty also donned a pair of sheer black gloves as she posed on the red carpet

Event: Irina let her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders

Glamour: The star accentuated her natural beauty with a light pallet of makeup

Adding height to her frame in wraparound heels, Alessandra looked every inch the runway star while working her best angles for photographers.

With her hair styled into a sleek half-up, half-down do, Alessandra accessorised with a glitzy diamond choker.

She toted her belongings in an equally sparkly silver handbag.

Showing off her striking outfit from the back, Alessandra threw cameras one last sultry glare before being whisked back to her hotel in a waiting car.

It comes after Alessandra and her beau Richard Lee enjoyed a trip to Zion National Park after she stormed New York Fashion Week runway.

Wow: Alessandra Ambrosio, 40, put her supermodel figure on display on Tuesday when she attended the opening of the Thierry Mugler exhibition in Paris wearing a semi-sheer blue dress

Chic: The brunette beauty layered the striking piece beneath a chic coat in a matching colour and slipped into a pair of statement-making tights

Off she goes: Showing off her striking outfit from the back, Alessandra threw cameras one last sultry glare before being whisked back to her hotel in a waiting car

Standing tall: Adding height to her frame in wraparound heels, Alessandra looked every inch the runway star while working her best angles for photographers

All in the details: With her hair styled into a sleek half-up, half-down do, Alessandra accessorised with a glitzy diamond choker

The loved-up couple shared plenty of fun snaps from the trip on Instagram.

Fellow model Richard has accompanied his girlfriend on numerous trips over the course of the summer.

Meanwhile, Ambrosio shares son Noah, nine, and daughter Anja, 13, with ex-fiance Jamie Mazur.

The former pair were together from 2005 until their split in 2018.

Prior to taking things to a romantic level with her current boyfriend Richard, Alessandra dated Italian businessman Nicolo Oddi.

Getaway: It comes after Alessandra and her beau Richard Lee enjoyed a trip to Zion National Park after she stormed New York Fashion Week runways
Married At First Sight star KC Osborne emerged on social media for the first time on Tuesday, after her stint on Celebrity Ex on the Beach came to an end.

And in one of her posts the 32-year-old Australian dancer defended her decision to fly to Colombia to film a reality show during a global pandemic.

'I'm sitting here in London, but before I get abused for being able to leave the country, and you guys tell me I'm privileged, I'm super grateful to be here, but it is for work,' she said.

Travel: Married At First Sight's KC Osborne has defended her decision to fly to Colombia to film Ex on the Beach during a global pandemic

The video was briefly shared to her Instagram stories for several minutes before she decided to delete it.

KC explained she previously tried to leave Australia to attend her late friend's funeral but was refused.

The reality star went on to tell her followers that she was disappointed to learn that her season of MAFS will not air in the UK, despite previously being promoted.

Working girl! The 32-year-old reality star briefly defended her travel before she swiftly deleted the video

'I think my season's been scrapped and they going straight to the next one,' she said.

'That's so weird because I thought my season was good, but I guess that's a bit unlucky,'

'It came out in the pandemic which is a terrible time for a show to come out, but yeah, that really sucks.'

'I'm sitting here in London, but before I get abused for being able to leave the country, and you guys tell me I'm privileged, I'm super grateful to be here, but it is for work,' she said

It comes amid reports that KC has been granted permission to stay in London to pursue work opportunities before returning home to Melbourne.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, a source close to KC said she was 'very happy' with how things turned out on Ex on the Beach and she wanted to make the most of being granted a work visa.

It comes as KC's ex Michael Goonan and co-star also defended his decision to fly to Europe to film the show, amid the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in Australia.

Case of the ex: Daily Mail Australia revealed last month that KC's ex Michael Goonan, 30, was also set to appear on Ex on the Beach . The show sees celebrity contestants jet off overseas to live together in a luxury villa under the illusion they'll be finding love in the sun

'It's time I come clean. Yes, I am overseas. Yes, I did leave Australia,' he said in a video.

'Life also gives you opportunities... Did I take advantage of this opportunity? A hundred per cent. Do I regret it? No,' he added.

Michael explained that while he understands there are people more deserving, he took advantage of the opportunity to travel when it was offered.

He went on to say he is not a 'missionary or a f**king charity'.

Michael concluded his rant by saying he doesn't think he is a bad person and that 'we're all s***s for the right money'.
Lena Dunham's husband Luis Felber has confirmed the couple have married while gushing that he fell in love with his 'best friend' in a candid new interview.

The English-Peruvian musician, 32, told how how the Girls actress, 35, was his 'soulmate' and that they had an 'intense' relationship after being set up on a blind date by a mutual friend earlier this year.

Lena hasn't spoken publicly about the wedding, though sources had confirmed they tied the knot to People on Tuesday.

Love: Lena Dunham's husband Luis Felber has confirmed the couple have married and gushed that he fell in love with his 'best friend' in a candid new interview (pictured in August)

Speaking to the New York Times about when he knew he wanted to tie the knot with the star, Luis said: 'There were lots of moments, there are lots of moments and there will be lots of moments.

'I'm not living in a Disney film where you're certain about who you want to spend the rest of your life with in one moment.

'Time is fluid and when you know, you know. I love my wife, who is also my best friend. I'm going to sound cheesy  but when you find your soul mate, you just know.'

He also revealed how they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend and got on so well on their first meeting that they 'didn't stop talking for eight hours'.

Sweet: The English-Peruvian musician, 32, told how how the Girls actress, 35, was his 'soulmate' and that they had an 'intense' relationship after being set up on a blind date by a mutual friend earlier this year

The pair met in lockdown so for their first date they took a walk along the River Thames together at night as the pubs were shut at the time.

He added that after dating a lot in the previous year it was refreshing to be able to 'be himself' while getting to know Lena.

Elsewhere in the interview Luis told how it is 'very moving' and 'beautiful' that Lena shows off the romantic details of their relationship on her Instagram before adding that he isn't 'used to being shown that sort of love by someone else'.

He went on to say that the pair have been living together for four months now and that he loves going to bed every night with his 'best friend'.

Luis did admit however that he has never watched Lena's hit show Girls but that he has seen some of her more recent projects including the city drama Industry.

It comes after Luis seemingly hinted at the nuptials recently by posting the song This Will Be our Year by The Zombies on his Instagram story.

Lena first revealed she was dating Felber during an interview with The New York Times back in April.

'It's been a few months. I feel really lucky,' she said, adding that Felber was, 'the greatest person I've ever met.'

Interesting: It comes after Luis seemingly hinted at the nuptials recently by posting the song This Will Be our Year by The Zombies on his Instagram story

She also took to Instagram in June to celebrate his birthday with new snaps and a heartfelt message about her beau, who is a solo artist and is also known to be passionate about environmental activism.

'Feliz Cumpleanos Luis. When I was 3 weeks old in downtown Manhattan, I had no idea a baby was being born in England (Winchester, no less!) who would rocket into my life  wearing a lime green polar fleece snood  and challenge so many of my beliefs about myself and the world with magical abandon,' she began.

Who is Lena Dunham's husband Luis Felber? Luis Felber is an English-Peruvian musician who performs as Attawalpa. Luis is a solo artist and is also passionate about environmental activism. Lena and Luis made their red carpet debut together in August when they attended the premiere of Zola at the Sundance Film Festival. In a previous interview he said he has been signed with record labels in the past and 'had a bunch of money'. However, he prefers a 'DIU, out on the street' approach to music. Lena first revealed she was dating the musician during an interview with The New York Times back in April. Lena had been promoting Luis' work on her Instagram account and when promoting one of his songs on her socials, Lena referred to him as the 'king of my heart'. Advertisement

'Everyone who comes into contact with you  creatively, emotionally, accidentally  is lucky,' she added.

'But I am the luckiest, because that snood is now in our shared chest of drawers,' she continued.

She ended her birthday tribute with lyrics to This Will Be Our Year by The Zombies, stating, ''The warmth of your love is like the warmth of the sun and this will be our year, took a long time to come.' Happy Birthday, Lulu.'

Lena had been promoting Luis' work on her Instagram account and when promoting one of his songs on her socials, Lena referred to him as the 'king of my heart'.

Additionally, the Tiny Furniture star recently revealed how she had nearly given up on men several months earlier - until her boyfriend came into her life.

'When I feel sick, my boyfriend makes delicious pasta & rewatches as much BoJack as I want, walks the dog & makes up songs about her face,' Lena tweeted.

'In January, all I Tweeted about was how men are basically refried beans in human form. What I'm saying is, don't quit before the miracle, kids.'

Lena and Luis made their red carpet debut together in August when they attended the premiere of Zola at the Sundance Film Festival.

Speaking to Yuck magazine about his career back in July 2021, Luis said: 'I've been signed to labels before, and had a bunch of money.

'They'll say 'make something with this' and that's really cool, and I did, but then they're allowed to dabble in it and I really like the sort of DIY, out on the street, aspect of making things.

'Especially with videos, I get to collaborate and evolve with really cool directors and people I've been wanting to work with for ages.'

The couple don't have any children together but they do share a pet dog.

Lena had previously dated musician Jack Antonoff from the bands fun and Bleachers.

Dating: Dunham had previously dated musician Jack Antonoff from the bands Fun and Bleachers (pictured in February 2017)

They had dated for five years from 2012 to 2017 before their split, which was described as 'amicable.'

Lena had spoken about her heartbreak in an essay for Vogue in May 2018. 'We sat in our shared kitchen of nearly four years and quietly faced each other, acknowledging what nobody wanted to say,' she began.

'That obsessive connection had turned to blind devotion, and the blinders were coming off to reveal that we had evolved separately (the least shocking reason of all and perhaps the most common),' a second excerpt read.

Split: They had dated for five years from 2012 to 2017 before their split, which was described as 'amicable' (pictured in 2015)

Rumors had swirled that he was romantically involved with his frequent co-collaborator Lorde at some point during their relationship, before he shut the situation down publicly in a now-deleted tweet.

'Normally I would never address rumors. But I resent having the most important friendships and working relationships in my life reduced to dumb heteronormative gossip. Those relationships are deeply important and sacred. With that said, I'm not seeing anyone. lol.'

Following her split from boyfriend Jack, Lena revealed she was briefly engaged to an unnamed man, after he 'proposed with the lace of a Timbaland boot while they were snowed in at her parents' apartment.'

Writing for Cosmopolitan she said: ''I'd just had a hysterectomy, I'd broken up with my boyfriend, I was in the process of breaking up with my business partner  I had no business buying a pair of shoes, [let alone] getting engaged.

'Then I just went, ''You know what? I've been dating since I was 15 years old. I'm allowed to take a break''.

'Sobriety for me means so much more than just not doing drugs, it also means that I abstain from negative relationships.

'It means I've taken a hiatus from dating, which has been amazing for me.'

Lena, who has been sober since 2018, first burst onto the filmmaking scene with her first films Creative Nonfiction and Tiny Furniture, which debuted in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

She went on to create and star in the hit HBO series Girls, which ran for six seasons between 2012 and 2017.

The filmmaker has two new films in post-production, Sharp Stick with Jon Bernthal, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Scott Speedman and Catherine, Called Birdy, with Joe Alwyn, Dean-Charles Chapman and Andrew Scott.
Only Fools And Horses star Sue Holderness, 72, cut a solemn figure as she was spotted for the first time since the death of her on-screen husband John Challis.

It was announced last week that John had died 'peacefully in his sleep' after a long battle with cancer aged 79, and following his passing his on-screen wife Sue, who was seen in Windsor on Tuesday, honoured her 'beloved friend'.

John was best-known for his portrayal of second-hand car dealer Boycie - a cigar-smoking businessman with a mocking laugh who butted heads with Del Boy - while Sue played his wife Marlene in the beloved British sitcom.

Heartache: Only Fools And Horses star Sue Holderness, 72, cut a solemn figure as she was spotted for the first time since the death of her on-screen husband John Challis

Sue was immersed in a phone call during her outing on Tuesday, as she stepped out shortly before sharing a Just Giving fundraising page on Twitter to raise money for 'John's Legacy' in aid of a host of animal charities.

Last week, when the news was announced, Sue paid tribute her 'beloved friend', writing: 'Marlene without Boycie - it's unthinkable...

'John Challis was my partner on screen and stage for 36 years and my beloved friend. R.I.P. darling John. I will miss you every day.'

Before Sue's tribute, Sir David Jason described John as 'a gentleman in the true sense of the word' as he led tributes to the actor following his death.

Sweet: It was announced last week that John had died 'peacefully in his sleep' after a long battle with cancer aged 79, and following his passing his on-screen wife Sue, who was seen in Windsor on Tuesday, honoured her 'beloved friend' (Sue and John, pictured in 2019)

Out and about: Sue played his wife Marlene in the beloved British sitcom

An honour: She stepped out shortly before sharing a Just Giving fundraising page on Twitter to raise money for 'John's Legacy' in aid of a host of animal charities

Sir David, who played Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter on the show, called him a 'dear friend' and 'wonderful actor' and said he was pleased the star had witnessed the admiration recently shown for the 40th anniversary of the first episode of the sitcom.

In a statement Sir David said: 'It is with much sadness to hear that John Challis, a dear friend, has passed away. He was a wonderful actor, a gentleman in the true sense of the word and I know he will be missed by so many.'

He added: 'A character so well loved by the many fans of that show so I am pleased that he witnessed the outpouring of admiration recently shown for the 40th Anniversary of the first episode in 1981. I send my love to his wife, Carol.'

Sad times: John was best-known for his portrayal of second-hand car dealer Boycie - a cigar-smoking businessman with a mocking laugh who butted heads with Del Boy (pictured in 2002)

Out and about: Sue was immersed in a phone call during her outing on Tuesday

John cancelled a 30-date speaking tour earlier this month after only one appearance due to ill health.

The TV star recently became an honorary citizen of Serbia, where the BBC sitcom remains hugely popular. Challis made the documentary Boycie In Belgrade, exploring why the show was so beloved in the Balkan country.

He was also known for playing Monty Staines in ITV's Benidorm.

Challis was born in Bristol but when he was one, the family moved to London. He attended the state boarding Ottershaw School near Woking, Surrey - and upon leaving school he worked as a trainee estate agent before becoming an actor.

Heartache: Last week, when the news was announced, Sue paid tribute her 'beloved friend', writing: 'Marlene without Boycie - it's unthinkable'

Challis was granted honorary citizenship in Serbia for his portrayal of Boycie in the much-loved British comedy series alongside Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst (pictured on Only Fools And Horses in 2001)

In a statement, Challis' family said: 'It is with heavy hearts that we bring you such sad news. Our dear friend and yours, John Challis, has died peacefully in his sleep, after a long battle with cancer.

'He will always be loved for being 'Boycie' and leaves a great legacy of work that will continue to bring pleasure and smiles for many years to come...

'Please respect the privacy of John's family and friends at this difficult time, and be assured that in the future there will be an occasion to celebrate John's life - when everyone will be welcome to come along.'
Lorraine Kelly issued stark words of warning to embattled Katie Price about her latest legal issues during Wednesday's episode of her ITV chat show.

The Scottish host, 61, spoke about the news that Katie was appearing in court later that day after being charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance following a crash near West Grinstead on Tuesday.

Ahead of Katie's court appearance, where she pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance, Lorraine was seen speaking to GMB's Nick Dixon, as he spoke from the scene of the accident in West Sussex.

Lorraine assessed: 'She was lucky. Shouldnt have been behind the wheel, she could have killed herself or someone else. I really hope that she does get the help that she clearly, clearly, needs. Maybe this is a wake up call, but what a horrible one.

Shock: Lorraine Kelly issued stark words of warning to embattled Katie Price about her latest legal issues during Wednesday's episode of her ITV chat show

Katie was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court this morning after family and friends rallied round her following her arrest.

The mother-of-five could now face jail. She has no driving licence after being disqualified for two years in 2019, and has been banned from the roads six times.

It was claimed that Katie had been up all night partying before the crash. She was taken to hospital but is not thought to have been badly injured.

Katie was also arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink and drugs, but has not been charged with this offence.

Troubles: The Scottish host, 61, spoke about the news that Katie was appearing in court later that day after being charged with driving while disqualified and without insurance following a crash near West Grinstead on Tuesday

A photograph tweeted by a local police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes, its front lodged in the hedgerow, after the crash.

A local said: 'Luckily no other vehicles were involved in the crash and it happened away from houses. It sounds like the person behind the wheel is going to be OK.'

Katie has experienced a turbulent year, and was recently seen with bruising to her face after an alleged assault at her home in Essex.

A source said: 'Katie rolled her car and was in a bad way when police arrived. She's in hospital now and everyone is desperately worried about her.'

Speaking out: Ahead of Katie's court appearance, where she pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance, Lorraine was seen speaking to GMB's Nick Dixon, as he spoke from the scene of the accident in West Sussex

Driving while disqualified can result in a maximum sentence of 26 weeks in prison. It comes as her family expressed fears for her mental health hours after the crash.

They wrote in a statement: 'We have for some time been concerned about Kate's wellbeing and overall mental health. Today our worst fears nearly came true.

'As a family we have been and will continue to help Kate get the help she needs. We hope that she will realise that she cannot battle her issues alone.'

The smash came a day after Katie said being disqualified from driving meant she could not visit her disabled son Harvey at his residential college in Gloucestershire.

Shock: A photograph tweeted by a police officer showed a damaged BMW lying on its side across both lanes of a country road near West Grinstead, its front lodged in the hedgerow

She said on Good Morning Britain: 'Harvey's in Cheltenham now, he keeps ringing me saying, 'Mummy I miss you, I need your kisses and cuddles', so it is quite hard.

'Because obviously I don't get my licence back until December, so I can't just whizz in the car down there and it's not close.'

Her fiance Carl said he will 'always be there' for the 'rough diamond', writing on Instagram: 'Relationships are tested, people test each other.

Pained: Katie's fiance Carl Woods said on Instagram that he will 'always be there' for the 'rough diamond'

'But when you love someone like I love Katie, you enjoy the highs and good times together. And that bond is tested during the low and difficult times together.

'Katie is a rough diamond. She has her imperfections however they make her perfect to me. She just needs that extra help to be polished.

'The sunlight will shine through her once again and the sparkles that she brings to everyone will return. I love you Katie 100%. My dolly, always here, always will be.'

A Sussex Police spokesman said: 'Police responded to reports of a single-vehicle collision on the B2135 near Partridge Green around 6.20am on Tuesday.'

Katie is pictured at the National Television Awards 2021 at The O2 on September 9

They later added today: 'Katie Price, 43, was charged with using a motor vehicle on a public place without third party insurance and driving whilst disqualified.

'She was remanded in custody and will appear at Crawley Remand Court on Wednesday (September 29).'

A South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust spokesman said it was 'called at approximately 6.30am to reports of an RTC on the B2135 at Partridge Green'.

They added: 'One ambulance crew attended the scene and one person was assessed and treated before being taken to hospital.'

The road was closed after the crash but police confirmed it reopened at 9.26am.
Jessica Rowe has deleted her interview with Pauline Hanson from her new podcast after being slammed for hosting the controversial politician.

In a statement posted to social media late Wednesday evening, the former Studio 10 host said she made the decision to delete the chat on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast following intense backlash from listeners.

'There has been much reaction and comment to my podcast conversation with Pauline Hanson today. Pauline's political views are the opposite of mine. I have never agreed with her on those issues. Never will. Kindness is at the heart of who I am,' Jessica said.

Deleted: Jessica Rowe (pictured) has REMOVED her chat with Pauline Hanson after being slammed for interviewing the controversial politician on her new podcast

'Amongst the comments today I heard from some who I admire enormously including Nakkiah Lui and Grace Tame and I want to thank them especially for their candour,' she continued.

Jessica went on to say: 'This will be the start of a bigger conversation for me and with those who this topic directly affects. I've asked LISTNR to remove the episode ASAP. Thank you everyone.'

Jessica spoke to Pauline about finding love, dealing with kids and her time in jail on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast.

But unimpressed listeners were quick to criticise Jessica for interviewing the polarising politician.

Controversial: In a statement posted to social media late Wednesday evening, the former Studio 10 host said she made the decision to delete the chat on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast following intense backlash from listeners

'Wow, I'm really shocked that someone with such a bright, positive vibe would interview someone like Hanson who is openly and unapologetically racist. Disappointing Jess,' Tweeted one fan.

Australian of the Year and activist Grace Tame added: 'This is how discrimination and hate is subtly enabled and normalised. Everyone's entitled to their own views but not all views should be valorised by promoting their source. Pauline doesn't need help to be heard, but those whose oppression she's both driven and reinforced do.'

'Bad move Jess I understand you mean well, but the divide between good and bad is glaringly obvious  Hansen is cold hearted, that's it,' a third commented.

Special guest: Jessica spoke to Pauline (pictured) about finding love, dealing with kids and her time in jail on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast

'There is absolutely no way I could engage with Pauline Hanson or anyone like her. Racists must be called out,' one person said.

Another wrote: 'Jessica Rowe! Pauline Hanson? Really? Bad move dude. I hope you know what you are doing is heartbreaking and vile. Thank you for reminding me that as a child of brown immigrants, I do not belong. Giving this divisive politician a platform is completely unfathomable.'

In the interview, Pauline spoke about her personal life, reflected on her infamous prison stint and was even asked by host Jessica Rowe what her favourite alcoholic beverage was.

While she enjoys a classic gin and tonic, her go-to tipple these days is rum topped with lime cordial.

Not happy: Unimpressed listeners criticised Jessica for interviewing Pauline, with one writing: 'Just a ridiculous choice'

'These days I don't mind a gin and tonic,' the One Nation leader said. 'But I also like my Bundaberg rum full of ice in a glass and you top it up with lime cordial.

'Plenty of ice, fill up your whole glass, half Bundy and half lime cordial.'

Pauline also touched on her time in prison after being sentenced to three years behind bars in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding.

'When they stood up and they gave that guilty verdict, I just shut down,' she recalled. 'I couldn't believe it.'

'Then they came and put the handcuffs on me, took me down to process me, put into a strip search, then put into a van and taken to the watch house all night.'

Candid: In the interview, Pauline spoke about her personal life, reflected on her infamous prison stint and was even asked by host Jessica Rowe what her favourite alcoholic beverage was

The Senator said she was taken to prison the next day and went through the 'whole process' at jail, which involved being photographed and having her details 'put into the system'.

Pauline explained she was put into the hospital ward because she had spiralled into a deep depression and wasn't eating.

Pauline's convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal and she was released after spending 11 weeks behind bars.

She rejoined One Nation in 2013 and was became leader of the party the following year.
The Bachelorette has given fans a glimpse at what they can expect from the upcoming season of the hit reality show.

A teaser trailer for the series was released on Wednesday evening, showing new Bachelorette Brooke Blurton looking for love.

The trailer begins with Brooke, 26, appearing in a stunning red gown in her home state of Western Australia.

Red hot: The trailer begins with Brooke Blurton (pictured) appearing in a stunning red gown

'This is the land of my people - Yamatji country in Western Australia,' she says as she walks across the stunning landscape.

'Growing up here has made me feel very connected to the ocean, it has shaped who I am,' she added.

Brooke also touches on the fact that she will be the first bisexual Bachelorette as she notes she would like to share her world with 'someone special.'

'For me, true love is about making a soul connection, no matter who they are,' she said.

First look at love! 'This is the land of my people - Yamatji country in Western Australia,' she says as she walks across the stunning landscape

Divine: 'Growing up here has made me feel very connected to the ocean, it has shaped who I am,' she added

Open: 'For me, true love is about making a soul connection, no matter who they are,' she said

The Youth Worker is then seen in a state of bliss as she frolics around the picturesque area in her princess-like gown.

'I have so much love to give, and I am so ready to find that special someone to give it to,' she concludes in the footage.

Fans are left wanting more as a luxurious limousine - which is presumably filled with romantic hopefuls - is spotted making its way across the country land.

Heaven: The Youth Worker is then seen in a state of bliss as she frolics around the picturesque area in her princess-like gown

Deep thinker: 'I have so much love to give, and I am so ready to find that special someone to give it to,' she concludes

Breaking boundaries: Brooke is set make history as Australia's - and the world's - first-ever bisexual lead on The Bachelorette

Brooke is set make history as Australia's - and the world's - first-ever bisexual lead on The Bachelorette.

In May, she told The Daily Telegraph what shes looking for in a potential suitor - or suitress.

'My perfect person in my mind is someone that loves me for me and what I have to offer,' she told the publication.

What she wants: 'My perfect person in my mind is someone that loves me for me and what I have to offer,' she told the publication

The former Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise went on to list the prerequisites for securing her heart, and made it clear that anyone hoping to win her over must share her values, morals and integrity.

But be forewarned, love interests, Brooke isn't rushing to the alter quite yet - or for that matter, changing nappies anytime soon.

'I am not in a huge rush to do the typical marriage and children thing, I just really want to fall in love with someone that is on that trajectory with me,' she added.

The Bachelorette will premiere on Channel 10 in October.
Hasan Minhaj questioned if Jennifer Aniston liked him while filming their first major scene on The Morning Show.

The 36-year-old actor plays the role of Eric Nomani, Bradley Jackson's (Reese Witherspoon) new co-host on the titular breakfast news program, and admitted the scenes were so 'intense' between himself and Jennifer's character, Alex Levy, that he could not gauge if she disliked him as a person or not.

However, as soon as they finished shooting the scene, he realized the 52-year-old star is just a 'really good actor.'

Does she like me? Hasan Minhaj questioned if Jennifer Aniston liked him while filming their first major scene on The Morning Show

Like me please! The 36-year-old actor plays the role of Eric Nomani, Bradley Jackson's (Reese Witherspoon) new co-host on the titular breakfast news program, and admitted the scenes were so 'intense' between himself and Jennifer's character, Alex Levy, that he couldn't gauge if she disliked him as a person or not

He recalled: 'It was the second day I was on set, and I had to do this really intense scene where Eric and Alex Levy go head-to-head and Alex does not like Eric and it was really, really intense.'

He then shared: 'While we were filming the scene, she's such a good actress, there was part of me that was like, "Does Rachel from Friends not like me?"'

Hasan added to E! News: 'And then as soon as they hit cut she was like, "Honey, you were great. You did awesome."'

The cast: from left, Minhaj, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Desean K Terry, Reese Witherspoon, Mimi Leder, Julianna Margulies, and Head of Media Res Studio Michael Ellenberg attend Apple TV+'s The Morning Show earlier this month

They clicked well: Hasan and Reese seen during a scene for season two of The Morning Show

He added, 'And I was like, "Oh, thank God. But we're good right?" And she was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're fine."'

Another new face on the show is Ruairi O'Connor.

The Irish actor, 30, plays social media expert Ty Fitzgerald, one of The Morning Show's new on-screen talents.

Not on the best of terms: On season two of The Morning Show Aniston's Alex feels a chill from Reese's Bradley. Billy Crudup's TV executive is trying to get them to bond

Friends in real life: Witherspoon and Aniston arm in arm in Beverly Hills

Ty is one of the fresher faces on the morning show as he tells viewers what's trending.

And he seems to be smitten with Alex as he fumbles his words in front of her at a dinner party that takes place during episode two.

He is known for his role as Henry Tudor, the future Henry VIII, in Starz series The Spanish Princess.

O'Connor has also starred in Handsome Devil and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

Fresh: Another new face on the show is Ruairi O'Connor, left. The Irish actor, 30, plays social media expert Ty Fitzgerald, one of The Morning Show's new on-screen talents. Seen with Nestor, right

New love interest? His character seems to be smitten with Alex as he fumbles his words in front of her at a dinner party that takes place during episode two. Seen in 2019

Jennifer previously admitted she loved showing her 'rage' on the Apple TV+ show.

The Just Go With It actress, who also executive produces the series alongside Reese - shared: 'My character has a lot of rage. I have meltdowns, which were really fun to do because as a rule I just don't do that in my personal life.'

Similarly, Jennifer enjoyed the challenge of executive producing The Morning Show.

The Hollywood star said: 'We were very hands-on. It was very different to the last time I was on television. This was like a film schedule. It was such hard work, but so much fun.'
Daniel Craig has confessed he is concerned he will have to serve in the Royal Navy following his appointment as an honorary commander.

The star, 53, said he was 'honoured' to receive the title, but now fears he could be called up, as he said: 'The trouble is, I think now I've enlisted. There was a piece of paper with something written on it and I think there might be some small print there.'

The award-winning actor - who has played the iconic spy since 2006 - was bestowed with the honorary title ahead of Tuesday night's premiere of the long-awaited Bond move No Time to Die, in what is Daniel's 007 swansong.

Impressive: Daniel Craig has confessed he is concerned he will have to serve in the Royal Navy following his appointment as an honorary commander

Last week, when his new appointment was revealed, Daniel said he was 'truly privileged and honored' to have been given the title, which awards him the same rank as his most famous character, James Bond.

He said: 'I am truly privileged and honored to be appointed the rank of Honorary Commander in the senior service.'

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the Royal Navy - who worked closely with Daniel and the crew on latest Bond movie No Time To Die - said the organization's work was very similar to that done by the suave spy.

He said: 'I am delighted to welcome Honorary Commander Daniel Craig to the Navy.

Achievement: The 53-year-old actor said he was 'truly privileged and honored' to have been given the title, which awards him the same rank as his most famous character, James Bond (pictured with First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Tony Radakin)

'Our honorary officers act as ambassadors and advocates for the service, sharing their time and expertise to spread the message about what our global, modern, and ready Royal Navy is doing around the world.

'Daniel Craig is well known for being Commander Bond for the last fifteen years  a naval officer who keeps Britain safe through missions across the globe....

'That's what the real Royal Navy does every day, using technology and skill the same way as Bond himself.'

Dashing: Daniel is pictured at the world premiere for No Time To Die on Tuesday

Craig is keen to support personnel within the Royal Navy, with a particular interest in service families.

Radakin added: 'I look forward to him getting to see more of our sailors and marines over the coming months and years.'

Ahead of the release of No Time to Die, Daniel came face-to-face with the navy's real-life Commander Bond.

Main man: The late, great Sir Sean Connery as James Bond in 1967 film You Only Live Twice

No Mr. Bond, I expect you to swim! Sir Roger Moore's seafaring experience was required in 1977 classic The Spy Who Loved Me (pictured with co-stars Barbara Bach and Curt Jurgens)

We've been expecting you, Mr. Bond: Pierce Brosnan wore a naval uniform in 1997 blockbuster Tomorrow Never Dies

Lieutenant Commander Frances Bond said: 'I really enjoyed speaking to Daniel Craig and the rest of the cast. It was fascinating to hear their perspectives on working with the armed forces and learning a bit about the world of Hollywood.'

Craig's appointment to the rank reflects his personal support for UK armed forces and links it with the legacy created through the guise of the fictional British secret agent.

Navy warship HMS Dragon features in the movie, with the Type 45 destroyer's red dragon emblem on the hull seen cutting through the waves in the latest trailer.

All at sea: But Connery looked rather dashing in his naval uniform as James Bond

License the thrill: Daniel Craig's Bond used a speedboat while chasing the evil Blofeld across the River Thames in box-office smash Spectre

Statement: He said: 'I am truly privileged and honored to be appointed the rank of Honorary Commander in the senior service'

Important: First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the Royal Navy - who worked closely with Daniel and the crew on latest Bond movie No Time To Die (pictured) - said the organization's work was very similar to that done by the suave spy

Realistic: During production for No Time To Die, filmmakers worked closely with the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence (Craig is pictured in the upcoming film with co-star Ana de Armas)

During production for No Time To Die, filmmakers worked closely with the Royal Navy and Ministry of Defence.

As well as HMS Dragon's cameo, the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire was used as a backdrop in the film, standing in for a Nato airbase in Norway where Bond joins MI6 allies and later boards a C-17 Globemaster.

Meanwhile, the Army supplied troops from the Household Cavalry.

They offered their time at a pivotal moment in their calendar, just before the Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

End of an era: It comes after Daniel bid farewell to his role as James Bond, and the cast and crew he got to know along the way, in an emotional video shared to Twitter on Friday

It comes after Daniel bid farewell to his role as James Bond, and the cast and crew he got to know along the way, in an emotional video shared to Twitter on Friday.

In the clip, which was reportedly recorded on the set of No Time To Die in 2019, the star was shown baring his emotions to the feature's team while expressing his gratitude for their support.

Craig has been involved with the long-running spy movie series ever since 2005 when he made his debut as the titular character in Casino Royale.

During his speech, Craig, who looked suave in a crisp white dress shirt, a tailored black suit and bow tie, pointed out that many of the crew members in attendance had collaborated with him in all of his Bond movies and understood his views about them.

He remarked, 'A lot of people here worked on five pictures with me, and I know there's a lot of things said about what I think about these films or all of those, whatever.'

The Logan Lucky actor then noted that what made working on the Bond films worth the effort to him was the chance to see his longtime collaborators and friends.

'I've loved every single second of these movies, and especially this one, because I've gotten up every morning and I've had the chance to work with you guys,' he expressed.

Craig finished the speech by proclaiming that being able to work with the same crew members on all of his Bond movies 'has been one of the greatest honors of my life.'

He appeared emotional, placing his hand on his heart as he looked around to his crew members, and at one stage looked to fight back tears.

In No Time To Die, Bond - played for the final time by Craig - has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help.

The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
KUWTK alum Khloe Kardashian revealed Tuesday night that she suffered from hair loss following her bout with the coronavirus last year.

'My hair really fell out with COVID,' the 37-year-old Good American co-founder - who boasts 240M social media followers - confessed during a Twitter Space chat.

'So after, it was really a struggle for a minute.'

Side effect: KUWTK alum Khloe Kardashian revealed Tuesday night that she suffered from hair loss following her bout with the coronavirus last year (pictured August 13)

The 37-year-old Good American co-founder confessed during a Twitter Space chat: 'My hair really fell out with COVID. So after, it was really a struggle for a minute'

Khloe went on to promote the $29.99 Dose & Co. collagen protein powder (she's brand ambassador), which 'helped me so, so much' in stimulating hair growth.

'I do the powder, just because that's what we had for so long,' Kardashian alleged.

'And I take so many vitamins a day, it's just so easy for me.'

The Calabasas socialite rarely shows fans her actual short hair since she almost always wears waist-length hair extensions by Priscilla Valles.

Brand ambassador: Khloe went on to promote the $29.99 Dose & Co. collagen protein powder, which 'helped me so, so much' in stimulating hair growth

Kardashian alleged: 'I do the powder, just because that's what we had for so long. And I take so many vitamins a day, it's just so easy for me'

The real deal: The Calabasas socialite rarely shows fans her actual short hair (R) since she almost always wears waist-length hair extensions (L) by Priscilla Valles

Temporary hair loss is reportedly listed among the deadly virus' possible side effects, and stress from sickness can also cause it.

Khloe came down with COVID-19 in early March 2020 after attending her BFF Malika Haqq's babymoon at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa near Palm Springs.

'I just found out that I do have corona, I have been in my room. It was really bad for a couple of days, vomiting and shaking and hot and cold,' Kardashian announced in the October 29, 2020 episode.

'I suffer from migraines but this was the craziest headache, I wouldn't say it was a migraine. The coughing - my chest would burn when I coughed. My throat is still not fully recovered clearly, let me tell you that s*** is real but we are all going to get through this. I pray if we follow orders and listen we're all going to be okay.'

Infected: Khloe came down with COVID-19 in early March 2020 after attending her BFF Malika Haqq's (L) babymoon at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa near Palm Springs

Kardashian announced in the October 29, 2020 episode: 'I just found out that I do have corona, I have been in my room. It was really bad for a couple of days, vomiting and shaking and hot and cold. I suffer from migraines but this was the craziest headache'

She continued: 'The coughing - my chest would burn when I coughed. My throat is still not fully recovered clearly, let me tell you that s*** is real but we are all going to get through this'

The Twisted Love producer quarantined for 16 days and family physician Boris Vaisman mandated that she be separated from her three-year-old daughter True.

Khloe - whose babydaddy is Boston Celtics center Tristan Thompson - said that missing her little girl was the most heartbreaking part of the illness.

Kardashian and her sisters Kim and Kourtney kicked off filming their new Hulu/Star reality series in Malibu on Tuesday, which premieres in late 2021.

House call: The Twisted Love producer quarantined for 16 days and family physician Boris Vaisman (L) mandated that she be separated from her three-year-old daughter True

Safety first: Khloe - whose babydaddy is Boston Celtics center Tristan Thompson - said that missing her little girl (R, pictured August 4) was the most heartbreaking part of the illness
She's been storming the runway at the world's Fashion Weeks.

And Gigi Hadid proved when she is not trussed up in haute couture, she goes for maximum comfort as she was spotted stepping out in Paris in slippers on Wednesday as she got to work at the French capital's fashion week.

The supermodel, 26, wore a cosy shearling waistcoat with an oversized shirt and jeans and paired the loop with UGG slippers despite being out on the street.

Comfy are you? Gigi Hadid proved when she is not trussed up in haute couture, she goes for maximum comfort as she was spotted stepping out in Paris in slippers on Wednesday

Gigi had off-duty chic nailed as she emerged in the loose-fitting look, which was perfectly matched with its various styles and materials.

The shearling waistcoat was perfectly complementary to the slippers from the Australian brand, which featured a tan outer suede.

She protected her face with a large white mask while she covered her eyes with a pair of Nineties-inspired black sunglasses with a narrow frame.

Last week, the doting mother gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at her baby daughter Khai's first birthday extravaganza on her Instagram Stories.

Chic: The supermodel, 26, wore a cosy shearling waistcoat with an oversized shirt and jeans and paired the loop with UGG slippers despite being out on the street

Hey! She was fondly greeting photographers as she emerged with her fiery red hairdo

Comfort comes first: Her UGGs were in place to keep her warm in the September chill

She shares the tot with her One Direction band member boyfriend Zayn Malik.

The party was attended by Hadid's entire family, including sister Bella and mother Yolanda, and held at her luxury apartment in New York City.

Gigi's Instagram post showed off the elaborate decorations setup on the patio of her apartment, including four large, gold balloons spelling out Khai's name.

The balloon creations came in the form of a panda bear from the popular children's animated show Word Party, which appeared to be the party's dominant theme.

Hey! She was grinning from ear to ear once she removed her face mask

Stylish: Gigi had off-duty chic nailed as she emerged in the loose-fitting look, which was perfectly matched with its various styles and materials

Out and about: The shearling waistcoat was perfectly complementary to the slippers from the Australian brand, which featured a tan outer suede

Birthday party: Last week, the doting mother gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at her baby Khai's first birthday extravaganza on her Instagram Stories

Some less impressive balloon displays, including a large number one to signify Khai's first birthday, were scattered around the space.

Resting in the middle of the patio was a baby-safe enclosure that would allow the little one to hang out outdoors without getting into mischief.

The enclosure featured a small pale pink slide, an adorable hippo figurine, and blocks for Khai to play with as her guests mingled.

There was also a mini inflatable jumper with an attached ball pit for Khai to play in. 'My baby turned one this weekend,' captioned the runway maven on one of her posts.
Joan Collins looked radiant as ever as she enjoyed a sun-kissed holiday to Majorca with her husband Percy Gibson.

The actress, 88, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share some snaps from the trip as she enjoyed a lunch date with her partner and revealed they were also joined by her brother Bill Collins and his wife Hazel.

The former Dynasty star donned a white sleeveless mini dress on the trip which featured a navy patterned print.

Fun in the sun: Joan Collins looked radiant as ever as she enjoyed a sun-kissed holiday to Majorca with her husband Percy Gibson

Joan also sported a pair of large sunglasses and a cream sun hat as she spent some quality time with Percy.

Her husband cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and plaid shorts as the pair made the most of the Mediterranean weather.

Alongside the post, she wrote: 'The last rays of summer in beautiful Majorca with my family'.

Last month Joan paid tribute to her on-screen Dynasty husband Michael Nader.

Holiday: Her husband cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt and plaid shorts as the pair made the most of the Mediterranean weather.

The actor died aged 76 on August 23, 10 days after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Joan wrote for the Mail On Sunday: 'The last time I saw Michael, my husband Percy and I were on a New York rooftop celebrating New Year's Eve with friends. He looked frail and had lost his hair, but he still had that spark and charm that I remembered only too well from our first meeting.

'Sizing him up as my future co-star all those years ago, I decided he was tall but not too tall.

'He had black hair, but not too much of it, and he had a 'machismo' that I thought would blend well with Alexis's feisty temperament.

'Summer': Alongside the post, she wrote: 'The last rays of summer in beautiful Majorca with my family' while sitting next to former model Hazel

Family: Joan also shared this idyllic picture of herself, her husband, Hazel and her brother Bill

'Of all my Dynasty husbands, he was far and away the best looking, the best actor and the most charming, and I was extremely happy to have married him. (Sorry, Percy!)'

Michael starred as Dynasty's Dex from 1983 to 1989, and he later appeared in All My Children from 1991 to 2001, and again in 2013.

The actor - the nephew of Hollywood star George Nader - first admitted in 1984 that he had battled drug addiction.

But the star also admitted at the time he had committed to a life of sobriety in 1980

However, he was arrested for drink-driving in 1997,and he was arrested again in 2001 when he attempted to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer in a New York nightclub.

Tribute: Last month Joan paid tribute to her on-screen Dynasty husband Michael Nader (pictured in 1985)

But the incident inspired him to re-commit to his sobriety.

His wife Jodi said in a statement following his passing: 'With a heavy heart, I'm sharing the news of the passing of my beloved, Michael.

'We had 18 wonderful years together with the many dogs we fostered and adopted.

'Recently, Michael was so thrilled to reconnect with his friends from the cast of Dynasty during Emma Samms' virtual event to help raise funds for long-COVID research.

'He was a beautiful and fascinating man with many talents and skills. I will miss him forever.'
Lea Seydoux has praised Daniel Craig for helping grow Bond's relationship wiht women in No Time To Die.

The actress, 36, even hailed him as a 'feminist' and commended the way he changed both his own spy alter ego and the characters around him, saying the female characters are 'not here only to please his sexuality.'

Lea reprises her role as Madeleine Swann in No Time To Die after first taking on the role in 2015's Spectre.

'We're not here only to please his sexuality': Lea Seydoux heaped praise onto 'feminist' Daniel Craig for helping to develop Bond's relationships with women in No Time To Die (pictured at the premiere in London on Tuesday)

Speaking at the No Time To Die premiere in London on Tuesday, Lea told reporters: 'I think that Daniel really changed his character, he made him more human in a way, more complex.

'I think that Daniel is also someone who's a feminist and it's really something that he brought to the franchise. He wanted to have more complex characters.'

She explained that the female roles in the movie aren't there to 'please [Bond's] sexuality', and instead have a deeper impact on the story being told on screen.

Changing views: The French actress explained that the female roles in the movie aren't there to 'please [Bond's] sexuality', and instead have a deeper impact on the story being told on screen [left, Lashana Lynch]

She added: 'We're not here only to please his sexuality and not seen only through a male perspective, but real women that are strong but also vulnerable.

'That was something, I think, that was needed in a way.'

Her comments come after Lashana Lynch, 33, suggested her character Nomi - a Double 0 agent - is a sign of the franchise shifting in its portrayal of female roles.

Satisfied: The 33-year-old suggested her character Nomi - a Double 0 agent - is a sign of the franchise shifting in its portrayal of female roles

She said: 'The fact that [Nomi] was even an idea in the first place is just a reflection of where we are in the world, where we are continuing to go, but also where the franchise is.

'And it would be a shame not to do that - so they're doing exactly the right thing, and I think they'll continue to do that in the future.'

Elsewhere, Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in as a scriptwriter to ensure the blockbuster was appropriate for the #MeToo era - with the flick billed as the most politically correct and 'woke' James Bond movie yet, with outdated sexism banned.

While No Time To Die sees the typical explosive Bond drama beloved of the franchise, 007's previous history of adding notches to his bedpost is very much an afterthought - with the agent seen building a friendly rapport with his female colleagues, rather than trying to seduce them.

In one scene, Bond asks Paloma - a Cuban agent played by Ana De Armas - to turn around as he changes, before shaking hands with her in a scene of mutual respect and understanding following a dramatic fight scene.

No time for sex! While No Time To Die sees the typical explosive Bond drama beloved of the franchise, 007's previous history of adding notches to his bedpost is very much an afterthought [pictured with Ana De Armas as Paloma]

On Tuesday evening, Lea certainly turned the heads of onlookers as she made a show-stopping arrival at the No Time To Die premiere in London.

She looked incredible as she showcased her ample assets in a busty pink sequined maxi dress.

She had gelled her light brown locks into a sleek side parting and painted her pout an eye-popping raspberry red.

Wow! On Tuesday evening, Lea certainly turned the heads of onlookers as she made a show-stopping arrival at the No Time To Die premiere in London

Stunning: She had gelled her light brown locks into a sleek side parting and painted her pout an eye-popping raspberry red

Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet.

Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began.

The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures.

Event: Ahead of the red carpet event, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Hall to catch a glimpse of James Bond's Astin Martin as it made its way to the red carpet

It has been a long road to the premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Fans: Crew members brought the luxury vehicle to the venue in a truck where it was rolled out hours before the star-studded event began

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Action: The car had bullet holes in the glass and scratches across the sides following Bond's adventures

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
They've been in a relationship for almost three decades.

And, Dani Dyer, 25, has revealed that she caught her famous dad Danny Dyer and mum Joanne Mas, both 44, having 'a roll about' while on a recent family holiday in Spain.

The EastEnders actor and his wife snuck off one afternoon while pretending to be 'filling out their Covid paperwork'.

Awkward! Dani Dyer, 25, has revealed that she caught her famous dad Danny Dyer and mum Joanne Mas, both 44, having 'a roll about' while on a recent family holiday (Pictured in 2019)

But Dani and her younger sister Sunnie, 13, knew exactly what their parents were up to, and revealed as such on their latest Sorted with the Dyers podcast episode.

After a summer break from recording, Danny kicked off the new season revealing: 'We were on holiday, me and your mum had our annual ...'

'You did get caught to be fair!' laughed his daughter, adding: 'You and mum... It was so funny me and Sunnie were really laughing.

'You and mum just disappeared one afternoon and everyone's like "where's mummy and daddy?"

'Paperwork!' The EastEnders actor and his wife snuck off one afternoon while pretending to be 'filling out their Covid paperwork' (Pictured in 2018)

Danny and his daughters: 'You did get caught to be fair!' laughed his daughter Dani, adding: 'You and mum... It was so funny me and Sunnie were really laughing'

Oh my! 'You and mum just disappeared one afternoon and everyone's like "where's mummy and daddy?" And we were really laughing like: "we don't want to know"' said Dani (Pictured with mum Jo)

'And we were really laughing like: "we don't want to know" it was so obvious you couldn't have been more obvious if you tried.'

Danny replied: 'Well, we brought everyone on holiday, and we are entitled to be able to have a roll about, to have a knee trembler in the shower.'

Hiding her embarrassment, Dani added: 'Of course the beer the sun, the vitamins, it gets you going!'

Danny and Joanne, who share three children, have been dating since 1992 and have been married since 2016.

Sister sister: Dani spent quality time with her family during the holiday to Spain

Dani's brought son Santiago, six months, with her on the holiday after splitting from her baby daddy Sammy Kimmence, 24, in July after he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars for posing as an investor.

According to reports, she will not be taking Santiago to visit his father as she considers jail both a 'toxic environment' and 'scary place'.

However, Dani has reportedly been speaking to Sammy via phone, but she has told him he won't be seeing his son 'for the foreseeable future'.

A source told The Sun: 'Dani isn't punishing him still further by not visiting him because she knows he's got a right to see his son - even if he is banged up.

'But prison is such a scary place and she really can't bring herself to think about talking Santi into such a toxic environment or allowing someone else to take her child to jail on a visit.'

They added: 'She knows all eyes will be on her once she walks into the visiting hall and needs to think carefully about how she can steel herself to make the visit  if that even happens.'

MailOnline reached out to Dani's representatives for comment at the time.

Mum and son: Dani's brought son Santiago, six months, with her on the holiday after splitting from her baby daddy Sammy Kimmence, 24, in July

Ex: The Love Island 2018 star split from Sammy (pictured) in July after he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars for posing as an investor

Her disgraced ex-boyfriend was last month ordered to pay almost 55,000 by handing over clothes, Louis Vuitton bags and designer trainers after he scammed two elderly men out of 34,000.

He will start paying the debt by handing over 5,099-worth of valuables including various fashion items, jewellery and a 699 personal number plate.

Three pairs of valuable trainers made up the 'vast bulk' of the sum, a court was told today.

Kimmence duped Peter Martin, 91, and Peter Haynes, 81, by persuading the vulnerable pensioners to let him invest their money for them and then splashed out on expensive restaurants, hotels and clothes.
Suzanne Somers was one of the biggest blonde bombshells of the 1970s thanks to her sitcom Three's Company.

And now, five decades later, the siren has still managed to retain her natural good looks as she reminded fans this week with her leggy cover for the debut issue of Park magazine.

Inside, the wife of producer Alan Hamel reveals what she does to look much younger than her 74 years. Hint: herbs really help.

Showstopper: Suzanne Somers was one of the biggest blonde bombshells of the 1970s thanks to her sitcom Three's Company. And now, five decades later, the siren has still managed to retain her natural good looks as she reminded fans this week with her leggy cover for the debut issue of Park magazine

Hot stuff: Here the siren is seen on the beach in LA in 1982. She has made a business of staying young looking

The Step By Step actress shared that she eats only organic and also used fresh herbs that are like 'medicine.'

'It's as though nature knew we'd be bombarded with free radicals and chemicals coming into our bodies all the time,' she explained.

'Bringing these antioxidants into your food helps eliminate free radicals.'

Somers likes fresh herbs and spices, like rosemary, thyme, tarragon, mint, turmeric, chives, cayenne, cumin and cinnamon.

And she said to ingest omega-3 oils like olive, flax, or coconut oil, to help keep cell membranes pliable, 'allowing air and water to flow through and flush chemicals that enter the body from food or the environment.'

One of her favorite dishes is organic chicken with olive oil, rosemary and thyme. She adds sea salt.

My secrets revealed: Inside, the wife of producer Alan Hamel reveals what she does to look much younger than her 74 years. Hint: herbs really help. Seen in a promotion for the CBS television special Suzanne Somers and 6,000 Sailors

'When I eat this meal, I think it's like healthy medicine I'm eating,' she said. 'It's just so delicious.'

In her fifties she was diagnosed with breast cancer and that made her turn to clean eating.

'I have to say that since I embraced health, I have never enjoyed life more,' the northern California native shared.

'I like the way I look. I like the way I feel. I like my energy. I have wisdom. I have perspective, and I can tell you that aging can be so incredible if you know how to approach it.'

The ThighMaster queen added it takes work.

A hit! She came to fame with John Ritter on Three's Company which debuted in 1976; also seen here are Joyce DeWitt, Norman Fell, Richard Kline and Audra Lindley

'Aging is amazing,' she said. 'Aging is something you should aspire to and look forward to and want.'

But a healthy life is crucial.

'It's about health; about shifting your thinking and understanding what it is that's making us sick and how we can combat it.'

And when women over 50 feel achy, Suzanne said listen and heal it.

'We have to learn the language of our bodies: Itching, b***ing, lack of sleep, sweating, bloating, forgetfulness, being dried up; that's the body talking.

Bright light in the 70s: Seen here in 1979. The Step By Step actress shared that she eats only organic and also used fresh herbs that are like 'medicine.' 'It's as though nature knew we'd be bombarded with free radicals and chemicals coming into our bodies all the time,' she explained

TIPS FOR LOOKING YOUNGER EAT ORGANIC Eat only organic and also used fresh herbs that are like 'medicine.' 'Bringing these antioxidants into your food helps eliminate free radicals.' USE HERBS Somers likes fresh herbs and spices, like rosemary, thyme, tarragon, mint, turmeric, chives, cayenne, cumin and cinnamon. INGEST OILS And she said to ingest omega-3 oils like olive, flax, or coconut oil, to help keep cell membranes pliable, 'allowing air and water to flow through and flush chemicals that enter the body from food or the environment.' COOK AT HOME One of her favorite dishes is organic chicken with olive oil, rosemary and thyme. She adds sea salt. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY 'We have to learn the language of our bodies: Itching, b***ing, lack of sleep, sweating, bloating, forgetfulness, being dried up; that's the body talking.' BALANCE HORMONES 'You can't sleep unless you balance your hormones. When you don't have hormones, you don't care about sex. I mean, you can do it, but you'd rather have a smoothie. I didn't like being there. I used to really like it, and I had three miserable years.' Advertisement

'Listen to your body. You can't sleep unless you balance your hormones. When you don't have hormones, you don't care about sex. I mean, you can do it, but you'd rather have a smoothie. I didn't like being there. I used to really like it, and I had three miserable years.'

The cover feature includes exclusive images from celebrity photographer Ron Galella, from her nights at Studio 54, her stints on Broadway as well as candid shots with husband Alan.

She told Park that between 1977 and 1980, she and Alan were regulars at Studio 54.

'Even when it was happening, we knew that this was going to be historic, which of course it is,' said the American Graffiti star.

'We always stayed at the Morgan Hotel in the penthouse suite, which was filled with large bouquets of fragrant red roses.

'We would sit on the outdoor terrace and on beautiful nights, having a glass of wine while mesmerized by the spires of Manhattan.'

Her favorite NYC restaurant was Raos! 'The first time we were there, many, many, years ago, the waiter came to the table, and I requested the wine list. He looked at me, and with a heavy New York accent, he said, I am the wine list. Do you want red or white?

'Another evening, our dear, dear, old friend Don Rickles was at Raos and two wise guys walked in, impeccably dressed in gray silk suits with just enough cuff, the perfect Windsor knot, and every hair in place. Plus, they were not smiling.

'Don got everyone there to loudly hum the Godfather theme. We thought they were going to take care of Don, but instead they broke up, their posture changed, they were laughing hysterically, and it was Don Rickles night.'

She also said she has a fondness for New Yorkers.

'New Yorkers are a breed unto themselves. They are loud and boisterous and take no crap! They love the city fiercely and are very protective of its reputation. When Sinatra sings New York, New York, we all feel like New Yorkers.'

Park Magazine is the 'newest premier luxury publication for Manhattanites.'

Founded and published by Christopher Pape and editor in chief Julie Sagoskin, the quarterly publication covers the luxury lifestyle. Contributors include Editor at Large, George Wayne, photographer Patrick McMullan and cartoonist Anthony Haden-Guest. R.Couri Hay is the Editorial Director.

Feel good: 'When I eat this meal, I think it's like healthy medicine I'm eating,' she said. 'It's just so delicious.' Seen in 2020

In August she said wearing 'a little' make-up is part of her 'self-esteem'.

'A beauty regimen is so important as you age, because you want to present your best face not only to yourself and your husband or your family, but to the world,' she said during a video interview with Yahoo! Lifestyle.

'And to not take care of yourself means you don't value yourself. I comb my hair every day and I get dressed every day, and most days, put on a little eyeliner just to open up the eyes,' added the Step By Step star.

'It's part of my self-esteem to present the best face that I am capable of presenting.'

The mother of two also revealed her biggest tip for women over the age of 50 is to not wear the same make-up they wore in their 20s.

She said: 'The biggest beauty mistake women over 50 make that I see is continuing to do the make-up they did when they were in their 20s.

The anti theory: 'Bringing these antioxidants into your food helps eliminate free radicals,' she shared. Seen with husband Alan Hamel in 2018

'Because at 50, 60, 70, 80, it starts looking thick and heavy because you have to put on more. Your lines aren't as defined as they were.

'We have cell phones. You can take a picture of yourself, and the cell phone pictures don't lie. And just see if what you're doing is working.'

The health spokesperson and businesswoman added how the secret to maintaining her youthful 'glow' is making sure she is looking after her hair and skin and eating healthy.

She added: 'The best piece of advice that I could give women over 50 is what you put into life is what you get out of it.'

The California native added: 'If you're not going to take care of yourself, it's going to show on your face, and on your body, and it's going to cause accelerated aging.

'So take good care of yourself. Feed yourself right. Use the right products on your hair and skin. It gives me this glow, this joy, that my purpose, that I'm doing the right thing with my life at the right time with my louder voice, which is such a privilege.'

Suzanne and Alan have been married since 1977.

Somers' most recent book is A New Way to Age: The Most Cutting-Edge Advances in Antiaging.
She jetted out to Mallorca for the stunning ceremony earlier this month.

And Natalya Wright took to Instagram on Wednesday to share unseen snaps from her maid of honour duties at her sister Jess's fairytale wedding to William-Lee Kemp.

The fashion model, 21, looked flawless as she posed for a selfie alongside her cousin Alix Wright, in silky white pyjamas and a full face of glamorous makeup.

Maid of honour: Natalya Wright took to Instagram on Wednesday to share unseen snaps from her maid of honour duties at her sister Jess's fairytale wedding to William-Lee Kemp

Natalya then shared a stunning black and white video of Jess as she emerged in her breathtaking bridal gown ahead of the ceremony.

'That moment.. Just incredible,' she wrote alongside the emotional video of Jess stepping out in a lavish a Milla Nova dress.

Jess beamed as she walked towards her sister in the plunging white floor length gown and a tiara and veil.

It comes after The Only Way Is Essex star, 36, said last week that she felt 'so much elation, so much happiness' on her wedding day in Mallorca.

Wow: Natalya then shared a stunning black and white video of Jess as she emerged in her breathtaking bridal gown ahead of the ceremony

The lavish event included 12 bridesmaids, a church ceremony and a banquet at a castle.

Jess told Hello! magazine: 'I felt so much elation, so much happiness I could not stop smiling.'

Recalling the moment he saw the bride, new husband William said: 'She looked so beautiful. The dress was unbelievable, even more spectacular than I thought it would be.

'The whole church gasped. It was one of those unforgettable moments.'

Gorgeous: 'That moment.. Just incredible,' she wrote alongside the emotional video of Jess stepping out in a lavish a Milla Nova dress

The bride entered the Basilica de Sant Francesc in Palma to I'm Kissing You by Des'ree from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet.

Jess recalled: 'Hearing it in that beautiful church with my dad at my side, and to see Will at the end of the aisle, I would relive that many times over if I could.'

The wedding party moved to the Castillo de Bendinat in Calvia for the reception, where the star changed into a Vivienne Westwood gown.

Breathtaking: Jess beamed as she walked towards her sister in the plunging white floor length gown and a tiara and veil

Later, she wore a third dress by Australian design house Pallas Couture.

Jess said the couple had persevered with their plans after the wedding was postponed from June.

'I will never give up on a dream,' she remarked.

'There were so many times we thought that we might have to go ahead with a smaller wedding due to all the restrictions, but we kept holding on.

Newly-weds: The former The Only Way Is Essex star, 36, tied the knot with businessman William Lee-Kemp on September 9

'Someone could well say we are persistent, and I think that is probably now one of my middle names.'

Her brother Mark Wright was master of ceremonies while his wife, actress Michelle Keegan, was a bridesmaid alongside Jess's younger sister Natalya and her two other sisters-in-law.

Read the full interview in Hello! magazine, out now.
Disney announced Wednesday that its highly anticipated series The Book Of Boba Fett will premiere before the year is up.

The series, a spin-off of The Mandalorian, will be arriving on the streaming service Disney+ starting on December 29.

Disney marked the news by sharing the first poster for the series, which features the iconic Star Wars bounty hunter seated on the throne that once belonged to Jabba the Hutt.

Coming soon: Disney announced Wednesday that The Book Of Boba Fett will premiere on Disney+ on December 29 and shared a poster for the spinoff

Boba Fett was first introduced in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, before being unceremoniously dispatched in its follow-up, 1983's Return Of The Jedi.

But the character made a surprising return in Disney+'s hit series The Mandalorian, which follows the travels of a bounty hunter who wears similar armor.

Disney has revealed few details about the new series aside from what was seen in a post-credits scene in The Mandalorian's season two finale.

After joining forces with fellow bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), Fett and Shand were seen returning to the desert planet of Tatooine to take over the remnants of Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire.

The short clip concluded with Fett dramatically taking a seat on Jabba's throne, which was featured in the new poster.

New venture: In a post-credits scene in The Mandalorian's season two finale, Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand took over the criminal empire of the late Jabba the Hutt

Classic character: Boba Fett was first introduced in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, before being unceremoniously dispatched in its follow-up, 1983's Return Of The Jedi; still from Return Of The Jedi (1983)

Playing Fett will be Temuera Morrison, who joined the Star Wars universe in the prequel Attack Of The Clones (2002).

Confusingly, he originally played the mercenary Jango Fett, who was cloned to provide an army of Stormtroopers.

Boba Fett, another clone of Jango, was introduced as a child in that film, though Morrison now plays a grizzled and scarred version of the character in The Mandalorian and his new spinoff.

Wen made her debut as Shand in The Mandalorian's first season, when she was seemingly killed, though Fett later resuscitated her.

The Book Of Boba Fett will be executive produced by The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and its EPs Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson.

Director Robert Rodriguez, who helmed a season two episode of The Mandalorian, also joins as an executive producer.

Back for more: Playing Fett will be Temuera Morrison, who joined the Star Wars universe in the prequel Attack Of The Clones (2002); seen in 2018 in Sydney, Australia

Revived: Ming-Na Wen plays the bounty hunter Fennec Shand, who was seemingly killed in season one of The Mandalorian before Boba Fett resuscitated her; still from The Mandalorian

Disney+ appears to be going all-in on live-action Star Wars shows.

Ewan McGregor will once again play the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in a solo series named after the character after playing him in all three prequel films.

Following her debut in The Mandalorian season two, Rosario Dawson will lead a new series as the Jedi Ahsoka Tano, while Diego Luna will star in the series Andor, which takes place five years prior to the events of Rogue One.

Disney is also developing a Lando Calrissian series from director Justin Simien and The Acolyte from Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland.
Fresh off his turn as James Bond, Daniel Craig has his next project lined up and its also got plenty of blood being spilled.

The actor, 53, will return to the stage in 2022 as Macbeth in a revival of William Shakespeare's tragedy, with Ruth Negga making her West End debut playing Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth will play the Lyceum Theatre, London starting March 29, 2022, with an opening set for April 28.

From 007 to Macbeth: Daniel Craig plots return to West End in 2022 as he bids farewell to James Bond in No Time To Die

Tony Award-winner Sam Gold will direct. Barbara Broccoli, who produces the James Bond films with her brother, is a producer of Macbeth.

Craig was last on stage in a 2013 revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal opposite his wife, Rachel Weisz, and directed by Mike Nichols.

Craig also starred opposite Hugh Jackman in 2009's A Steady Rain. Gold directed Craig in a 2016 off-Broadway production of Othello alongside David Oyelowo.

West End: The actor, 53, will return to the stage in 2022 as Macbeth in a revival of William Shakespeare's tragedy

Negga, whose film credits include Loving and World War Z, started her career in the theater, and in 2020, made her New York City theatrical debut in the titular role of Hamlet.

It will mark the second high-profile Macbeth after Joel Coes Shakespeare adaptation The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. That film will be released in theaters Dec. 25 and on Apple TV+ on Jan. 14.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Daniel, who debuted as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, reflected on his fifth and final instalment following its premiere on Tuesday night - and described the making of it as 'so important'.

Shakespeare: Ruth Negga will make her West End debut playing Lady Macbeth

He said: 'Im just so grateful for the fact that I got a chance to go and make one last one and it be this one and to finish telling the story.

'This has been a massive part of my life. Im never not going to think about this, its been too big a thing in my life.

During the stellar No Time To Die premiere on Tuesday, the successful actor told BBC Radio 5 that a weight has been on his shoulders since the pandemic delayed the anticipated premiere.

'This is incredibly important to cinema and to history, and the weight of that has been on my shoulders for a while...I've been incredibly lucky.'

Daniel joked that he will probably be 'incredibly bitter' when the new person takes over.

He also added: 'I am glad I am ending it on my terms  I am grateful to the producers for allowing me to do that  but I will miss it.'
Strictly Come Dancing professional Nikita Kuzmin has branded his celebrity partner Tilly Ramsay 'a drama queen' as she complained of bruises sustained during rehearsals in a video shared by Nikita on Instagram on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Nikita's Germany-based girlfriend Nicole Wirt wrote on Instagram on Wednesday: 'Stop complaining so much over things you can't change or control.'

It comes after Nikita and Gordon Ramsay's daughter Tilly, 19, spent an evening together at her London flat on Thursday.

Drama queen: Strictly pro Nikita Kuzmin branded Tilly Ramsay 'a drama queen' as she complained of bruises during rehearsals in a video shared by Nikita on Instagram on Tuesday

Cryptic: Hours later Nikita's Germany-based girlfriend Nicole Wirt wrote on Instagram: 'Stop complaining so much over things you can't change or control,' while visiting a hair salon

Revealing that she was treating herself with a trip to the hair salon, Nicole - who is also a dancer - shared footage of herself in the hairdresser's chair before posting a snap of her trendy trainers with the cryptic message written across the image.

Nicole's post came hours after Nikita playful teased Tilly after she complained of bruises.

In footage shared on the dancer's social media page on Tuesday, the duo could be seen in a rehearsal studio while Tilly tended to her sore arms.

Tilly admitted Nikita had tired her out as she sat on a sofa and tried to ease the pain she was in.

Sore arms: In footage shared on the dancer's social media page on Tuesday, the duo could be seen in a rehearsal studio while Tilly tended to her sore arms

Bruises: Tilly held her bruises up to the camera so Nikita's followers could better see as the pair larked around post-rehearsals

Nikita asked her: 'Tilly, how is our Charleston going?' to which she replied: 'Painful. Too many bruises,' as she attempted to massage away her discomfort with a hand-held device.

Nikita said: 'They cannot see it. If you cannot see it then it's not true.'

Tilly protested: 'Are you joking? What have you done. You've broken me. Ow. It's so sore. Ah, you don't understand the pain.'

Romance: Nikita and Nicole are both professional dancers and have been an item since 2016

Nikita replied: 'A bit of a drama queen, isn't she?'

Five days earlier, Nikita was seen arriving at Tilly's apartment, with the TikTok star letting him inside.

'Nikita was first and waited outside before Tilly arrived a few minutes later. They were grinning from ear-to-ear, chatting and laughing,' an onlooker told The Sun at the time.

'They looked very comfortable in each other's company, quite flirty. There is a clear physical chemistry. After strolling to the door they headed inside and stayed all evening.'

Of their relationship, another show insider said: 'It's no secret that Tilly and Nikita have hit it off really well. A lot of the older cast and crew think they're really cute.

'They want to stay in the competition as long as possible so it's important that they get on and have a close relationship.'

Nikita has been in a relationship with dancer Nicole since 2016.

And Nicole, who lives in Germany, has shown heartfelt support for her boyfriend and Tilly since the start of this year's Strictly competition.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, she described their romantic waltz as 'mesmerising' and gushed that she was 'cheering for my favs'.
June 'Mama June' Shannon seems to have a new man by her side these days.

The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star, 42, was seen for the first time with Jordan McCollum, 24, while getting out of a black stretch limousine and walking into the high-end Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas over the weekend.

The blonde reality TV sensation recently split from longtime boyfriend Geno Doak after she got sober.

New company: June 'Mama June' Shannon seems to have a new man by her side. The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star, 42, was seen for the first time with Jordan McCollum, 24, while getting out of a stretch limousine and walking into the high-end Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas over the weekend

No romance? The From Not To Hot star has said on social media that she is 'just friends' with Jordan, who calls himself a 'public figure' and a 'father' on social media

While in Vegas Mama had on a sheer white lace jacket over a dark shirt and tight jeans as she added white sneakers. Her blonde hair was worn to the side and down in soft curls over her chest. Her makeup was nicely done with earth tones.

Mama's new pal wore a black T-shirt that showed off his tattoos and dark print camo slacks with white sneakers and a hat on backwards.

Both carried white plastic bags as they got out of the limo and talked to a valet attendant. They were also seen walking through the hotel lobby.

It is not known what she is doing in Sin City but in the past she has showed a fondness for visiting casinos to gamble.

He is busy: 'FYI guys Jordan is only my best friend,' June recently wrote to Facebook. "Its not somebody that is my toy boy or Im not his sugar mama we r friends'

Mama and Jordan were at the Bellagio for four days and also took a day trip to visit the Hoover Dam, The Sun shared. He was seen gambling as well and won $2,600 early on during his visit. And she was reportedly seen at the Golden Gate casino.

But the romance between June and Jordan may already be over.

After his trip to Vegas with June, he posted to Instagram photos with his girlfriend Ashlyn Talley, a mother of two.

'Happy to be home! I missed you! @ashlynpaigee12,' he shared. He also called the blonde beauty his 'queen.'

And she uploaded a photo where she was kissing Jordan at a fair adding, 'God never fails me, my prayers have been answered!!.'

He took the lead: After they got out of the limo, Jordan walked ahead and did not turn back to talk to June

Before the Vegas trip, the From Not To Hot star said on social media that she is 'just friends' with Jordan, who calls himself a 'public figure' on social media.

'FYI guys Jordan is only my best friend,' June recently wrote to Facebook. "Its not somebody that is my toy boy or Im not his sugar mama we r friends.'

But she sure has lavished him with big gifts.

The Sun reported that she bought him two cars in July: a Nissan from 2013, but after it broke down she snapped up a newer model from 2019 for him.

He even showed off the vehicles on Instagram.

And it was added that she has rented a two-bedroom home for him, which she also furnished.

They had fun together: Mama and Jordan were at the Bellagio for four days and also took a day trip to visit the Hoover Dam, The Sun shared

In August it was reported that June and Geno had called it quits.

According to TMZ, the From Not To Hot subject used social media to tell a friend Doak 'is not in the f***in' picture' noting that he's 'not part of my life' and 'hasn't been' for some time.

The couple were first linked in 2017.

This comes after news Geno is heading to rehab.

They like to gamble: He was seen gambling as well and won $2,600. And she was reportedly seen at the Golden Gate casino

Casual look: While in Vegas Mama had on a sheer white lace jacket over a dark shirt and tight jeans as she added white sneakers. Her blonde hair was worn to the side and down in soft curls over her chest. Her makeup was nicely done with earth tones. Mama's new pal wore a black T-shirt and dark print camo slacks with white sneakers and a hat on backwards

The reality figure, 45, was referred to a drug treatment center in South Carolina after being hospitalized in Fort Pierce, Florida earlier this month, according to legal docs obtained by TMZ.

It is not clear why he was hospitalized.

Geno has a history of drug use and was last busted for possession along with June, 42, at an Alabama gas station in March 2019.

He has a little lady at home: After his trip to Vegas with June, he posted to Instagram photos with his girlfriend Ashlyn Talley, a mother of two

Sealed with a kiss: 'Happy to be home! I missed you! @ashlynpaigee12,' he shared

Doak reportedly checked himself into the facility a week ago.

According to docs he will be in a residential 'long-term intensive program' which requires a minimum of a 120-day commitment, but can be extended up to 12 months.

The program is designed with the long-term goal of patients transiting to sober living on their own and requires residents to look for jobs once they are deemed ready for the responsibility.

The legal docs were submitted to the judge in charge of Geno's ongoing crack cocaine case.

They are done: The blonde reality TV sensation recently split from longtime boyfriend Geno Doak after she got sober

Legal woes: Geno has a history of drug use and was last busted for possession along with June at an Alabama gas station in March 2019, his mugshot above. Low point: For her case, June star received a sentence of 100 hours of community service

According to TMZ, Geno was sentenced to 16 months under the supervision of Macon County Community Corrections.

Though he wouldn't physically be behind bars, Geno was required to relocate from Florida to Alabama within 30 to 45 days of his July sentencing date, something he failed to do.

For her case, June star received a sentence of 100 hours of community service.

Afterwards, Shannon's daughter Lauryn Shannon, 21, assumed custody of her younger sister Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson, 15.

It seems both Shannon and Doak are working to move past their issues.

Meanwhile, Mama's daughter Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson went Instagram official with her boyfriend Darlin Craswell this week.

The high school student, 16, and the college student, 20, were holding hands as they wore matching T-shirts that said 'that's how I roll' as a mummy was seen walking.

They began dating about seven months ago and her family approved of him even though they have a big age difference.

Semi-estranged: Shannon's daughter Lauryn, 21, assumed custody of her younger sister Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson, 15, following her mom's drug case; seen in 2018 in NYC

They were sitting on a cart that had large Halloween pumpkins behind them on a bed of hay. Both were beaming as they looked very much in love.

She added 'bae' in pink and white over the photo and added white hearts.

'Spooky season,' she wrote in her caption for her 1M Instagram followers, adding two pumpkin emojis.

In early September The Sun claimed that she was 'attached at the hip' with Carswell.

Despite the four-year age gap, the teen reality TV star's sister reportedly approves of her relationship.

He's mine! Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson has finally gone Instagram official with her boyfriend Darlin Craswell

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carswell attended a Nashville technical school but now lives near in Georgia near Alana and her sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Shannon, 21, the site reported.

While he was 'quiet at first' around her loved ones, a source told the outlet that Carswell is 'like one of the family now' and is 'as fun and crazy as the rest of them.'

'Dralin and Alana hang out together all the time,' the insider added of the duo, who went Facebook official in March.

As Alana saves up for her first car, her car fanatic beau has generously let her drive his Chevrolet Camaro, which he considers 'his baby.'

In Georgia, 16 is the youngest age a person can give his or her lawful consent to sexual activities.

While gracing the cover of Teen Vogue, she spoke about her man publicly for the first time in a candid interview. 'To be honest, I do not have many friends. At all,' Alana said of her social life as the only famous student at her public high school.
Tamara Francesconi looked every inch the Bond girl when she posed up a storm for a fashion shoot en route to the premiere of No Time To Die at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday.

The model, 25, worked her best angles on the streets of London and teamed the gorgeous strapless ruffle gown with a stylish pair of open-toe heels.

Tamara's stunning PrettyLittleThing photoshoot comes a month after she called things off with her boyfriend of nearly two years, Ed Westwick.

Wow: Tamara Francesconi, 25, looked every inch the Bond girl when she posed up a storm for a fashion shoot en route to the premiere of No Time To Die at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

Best angles: The model worked her best angles on the streets of London and teamed the gorgeous strapless ruffle gown with a stylish pair of open-toe heels

Tamara wore her glossy brunette hair swept up into a chic bun and accessorised with show-stopping hoop earrings.

She was also rocking an immaculate bright red manicure and matching pedicure.

Making her look pop with a bold swipe of red lipstick, the beauty was in her element ahead of the star-studded premiere held at the Royal Albert Hall.

The likes of Kate Middleton, Billie Eilish and leading man himself Daniel Craig walked the red carpet at the world premiere of No Time To Die on Tuesday night, meaning Tamara was in good company.

All in the details: Tamara wore her glossy brunette hair swept up into a chic bun and accessorised with show-stopping hoop earrings

Immaculate: The beauty was also rocking an immaculate bright red manicure and matching pedicure

Pop of colour: Making her look pop with a bold swipe of red lipstick, the beauty wowed ahead of the star-studded premiere held at the Royal Albert Hall

In her element: Tamara was in her element while posing for a photographer on the streets of London

MailOnline revealed exclusively at the beginning of the month that Tamara had called time on her relationship with Gossip Girl star Ed, 34.

While neither Ed nor Tamara have commented on the split, the model hinted at unease earlier in September when she shared a cryptic video of Oprah.

Oprah said: 'When people show you who they really are, why don't you believe them? Why must you be shown 29 times before you can see who they really are...

'Why can't you get it the first time when people show you who they are?. Believe them the first time'.

Star-studded: The likes of Kate Middleton, Billie Eilish and leading man himself Daniel Craig walked the red carpet at the world premiere of No Time To Die on Tuesday night

Break up: MailOnline revealed exclusively at the beginning of the month that Tamara had called time on her relationship with Gossip Girl star Ed, 34

The couple first got together in October 2019, after Ed slid into Tamara's DMs. She explained during an Instagram Q&A last year: 'Going to answer this first because it's my most asked question, and probably the reason a lot of you follow me.

'He direct messaged me out of the blue saying hi and I nearly fell off my chair, we then chatted for a while and he asked me on a date, which I assumed would be a dinner.

'Instead he took me to a butterfly sanctuary in Mayfair, we thereafter spent the whole day exploring London together, and the rest is history.

'I feel like we have all become codependent with our partners this year (I know I have) I think it's really important to do things alone and for yourself, read a book, go for a walk, chat to a friend.'
In an upcoming episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, embattled star Erika Jayne complains that she has 'zero dollars' in her bank account as she guzzles back champagne with co-star Kyle Richards.

Erika, 50, is currently embroiled in her estranged husband Tom Girardi's embezzlement scandal - where he stands accused of taking settlement funds that were meant to help families of plane crash victims.

The reality star has denied knowing anything about the situation, but last week Tom, 82, claimed otherwise telling a reporter 'I think she does.'

'I have zero dollars': Erika Jayne gives Kyle Richards the run down of her financial troubles as they both sip expensive champagne while on a luxury trip on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

In a snippet of what's to come on RHOBH, Erika is seen enjoying a luxury holiday to a vineyard with her fellow housewives, and has a heart-to-heart with Kyle, 52, where she talks about her money troubles.

As well as saying she has 'zero dollars' to her name, Erika brands broke life 'f***ing bulls***t' as Kyle listens on, and the pair both enjoy what appears to be very expensive champagne which comes with the trip.

Erika's estranged husband Tom was once worth an estimated $264million, and the pair have since moved out of their luxury Pasadena home following the scandal.

Tastes good though: When she was complaining about being broke, Erika was seen knocking back a glass of champagne

Cheers! Erika also branded broke life 'f***ing bulls**t' while chatting to Kyle

Really: Kyle sat back and listened to Erika complain about her situation

Tough gig: The reality star was whisked away for a luxury trip to a vineyard

Tom - who has endured bankruptcy woes and ailing health - broke his silence last week when confronted by a reporter who asked where or not Erika knew about the embezzlement scandal.

Before heading off, the co-founder of downtown Los Angeles law firm Girardi & Keese finally answered the question about the woman he's been married to since 2000 saying: 'I think she does.'

Jayne has repeatedly denied any knowledge of wrongdoing but fellow Housewives stars have reportedly said they were aware of the scandal.

Gossip: Elsewhere in the clip, Sutton Stracke tells Garcelle Beauvais that she is shocked to hear Erika Jayne actually be nice to her for once

Diplomatic skills: Garcelle remains silent when Sutton asks her if she thinks Erika is being for real or not

Busted! Sutton then looks shocked when Erika Jayne reveals she has been eavesdropping on their conversation

I can hear you! Erika bellows to her cast mates that she can overhear what they are saying about her

Camille Grammer claimed she heard of her and Girardi's financial difficulties at Andy Cohen's 2019 baby shower, Page Six reported.

Fellow reality star Bethenny Frankel said Girardi's woes were the 'worst kept secret' in LA, claiming he owed her late ex-boyfriend Dennis Shields $500,000.

According to Page Six, Jayne remained silent when she was asked about Giradi's comments.

Embattled: Erika is not having the easiest time of late, with her financial situation in disarray

Interesting: The 82-year-old co-founder of downtown Los Angeles law firm Girardi & Keese finally answered the question about the woman he's been married to since 2000 saying: 'I think she does'

Last month, DailyMail.com revealed that Girardi is now living in a senior living home in Burbank, California after saying goodbye to living lavishly in his $13 million Pasadena mansion.

The former attorney is currently facing claims of allegedly embezzling settlement funds that were meant to help the families of plane crash victims.

Just before after DailyMail.com's revelation on August 23, it was revealed that Girardi - who has now been placed under a conservatorship - has been federally disbarred by California Federal Court.

It's quite the change of scenery for Girardi, who has now moved out of his palatial Pasadena mansion, that was once on the market for $13million.

Luxury trip: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills appear to be enjoying a luxury vacation on an upcoming episode

Girls trip! The ladies were heard complimenting the expensive wine they were testing
She was set to have one of her biggest acting roles to date until her Amazon series Daisy Jones & The Six was delayed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

But Camila Morrone was back on set in Los Angeles after a year-and-a-half delay as she settled into character in a stylish brown suede skirt that fit the show's 1970s period trappings.

The 24-year-old model and girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio was seen heading to shoot a scene with her costar Sebastian Chacon joining her in a similarly period-appropriate costume.

Blast from the past: Camila Morrone, 24, was dressed for the '70s in a brown suede skirt and leather boots as she got in costume on the set of Daisy Jones & The Six in LA on Wednesday

Camila's brown skirt hugged her hips and featured some delicate white floral stitching on the front.

She paired the skirt with a multicolored striped mock turtleneck, which she tucked in, and she elevated her 5ft9in stature with brown knee-high leather boots.

The Valley Girl actress played up the period clothing with a striking purple velvet coat that she slipped into.

She had her long brunette locks parted down the middle and fanned across her chest, and she observed Covid-19 protocols on set by wearing a plastic face shield.

Colorful: She paired the skirt with a multicolored striped mock turtleneck, which she tucked in, and wore a striking purple velvet coat

Muddy colors: Camila's costar Sebastian Chacon was dressed in a more period appropriate costume with a brown-and-green patterned shirt tucked into striped brown pants

Camila's costar Sebastian Chacon was dressed in a less colorful but more period appropriate costume with a brown-and-green patterned shirt tucked into striped brown pants with a matching leather belt.

His character dressed down with black sneakers, and he wore his hair in thick black curls.

The cast began filming this week, and Camila marked the return to set on Monday with some black-and-white photos of her costars.

She was pictured with her leg in a bicycle basket as posed with Riley Keough, who plays the title character, along with Suki Waterhouse, Sam Claflin, Nabiyah Be, Joshua Whitehouse, Will Harrison and Chacon.

The actors all appeared to be hanging out after a day of shooting on a studio backlot.

Big day: The cast began filming this week, and Camila marked the return to set on Monday with some black-and-white photos of her costars

Rising stars: She was pictured with her leg in a bicycle basket as posed with Riley Keough, who plays the title character, along with Suki Waterhouse, Sam Claflin, Nabiyah Be, Joshua Whitehouse, Will Harrison and Chacon.

Back in action: 'March 2020 we got shut down one week before production. A year and a half later, we finally start our long awaited first day on this show,' Camila wrote

'March 2020 we got shut down one week before production. A year and a half later, we finally start our long awaited first day on this show,' Camila wrote.

'We cannot wait to give you sex, drugs, rock and roll, and a whole lotta drama #daisyjonesandthesix @amazonprimevideo lets go to the 70s man!!!  .'

In the photos, Waterhouse held aloft a copy of Taylor Jenkins Reid innovative novel, which Daisy Jones & The Six is based on.

Rather than following a traditional narrative, the book is comprised almost completely of dialogue and takes the form of interview transcripts for a documentary about the fictional band.

Keough stars as the leader of a band that becomes massively popular in the 1970s before imploding at the height of its fame.

Camila's latest public outing came on Saturday, when she showed off a far more modern ensemble at the opening gala for the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures.

The runway starturnedfilm star wore a striking cropped black blazer without a shirt and paired it with cropped slacks, fishnet sleeves and black stilettos.

Glamorous: Camila's latest public outing came on Saturday, when she showed off a far more modern ensemble at the opening gala for the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures

Missing from the gala was her boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio, 46, whom she's been since 2017, after Al Pacino introduced the two.

Pacino, 81, was previously in a long-term relationship with her mother Lucila Sola from 2008 to 2019, and Camila still refers to him as her stepfather.

She and Leonardo have kept their relationship largely out of the spotlight, though they signaled a more public period after making their red carpet debut as a couple at the 2020 Academy Awards, where Leo was nominated for Best Actor for his role as a washed up movie star in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
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Sharon Stone brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to the south of France on Wednesday evening as the French principality welcomed a charity screening of new James Bond film No Time To Die.

The Monte Carlo Opera played host as Stone, 63, joined Prince Albert II of Monaco for a first look at the eagerly anticipated release - Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as the iconic secret agent.

The actress looked stunning in a sequined silver dress as she posed alongside Prince Albert, 63, who was making the latest in a string of public appearances without wife Princess Charlene and his second appearance with the Basic Instinct star in the space of a week.

When Hollywood Royalty meets actual Royalty! Sharon Stone, 63, tenderly greeted Prince Albert II of Monaco with a kiss while dazzling at the 1,862 a ticket screening of new Bond thriller No Time To Die on Wednesday night

The Sovereign Prince of Monaco looked suitably dapper in a white tuxedo jacket that even Bond would be proud of as he posed for photos alongside the Stone.

It was their second joint appearance in less than a week, with both having previously attended the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health on September 23rd.

Joining them at the event was former Bond Roger Moore's son Christian and his family, as the event was also held to unveil The Roger Moore Award, which will be awarded to an emerging filmmaker in 2022.

Despite the event being held in honour of Princess Charlene's environmental trust, she was notably absent on the night after contracting a 'sinus infection.'

A vision: Sharon looked jaw-dropping in the dazzling dress designed by Dolce & Gabbana

Heading in! She made quite the superstar entrance as she headed into event on Prince Albert's arm

Excited: The Monte Carlo Opera played host as Stone, 63, joined Prince Albert II of Monaco for a first look at the eagerly anticipated release

A good cause: Wednesday's charity screening was organised by the Princess Grace Foundation to support emerging talents in theater, dance and film and to unveil The Roger Moore Award. The late Bond legend's son Christian (third left) was in attendance with his wife Lara (second left) and their three children (right)

It comes just weeks after Prince Albert hit back at rumours of a rift in his marriage - insisting Charlene 'didn't leave in a huff' and remains in South Africa only because of 'medical complications' following a 'severe ear, nose and throat infection'.

The royal told People that the speculation over the state of his relationship with the Olympic swimmer, 43, has 'affected' them both, but that he didn't address it early because he 'was concentrating on taking care of the kids'.

Charlene, who wed the prince in 2011 and has two children, six-year-old twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, with Albert, has been in her native South Africa for several months after contracting the infection in May.

She is not expected to return to her husband's principality until October after experiencing complications related to a sinus lift and bone graft procedure she'd undergone before her trip for dental implants, according to the magazine.

Hey there! She was greeting the superstar patrons of the event

Happy couple: Charlene, who wed the prince in 2011 and has two children, six-year-old twins Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella, with Albert, has been in her native South Africa for several months after contracting the infection in May

The mother-of-two has apparently since had several corrective procedures - including one in late June that resulted in her missing her 10th wedding anniversary on July 1 and a four-hour long operation on August 13.

On September 1, Charlene was admitted to a local hospital after suddenly 'collapsing'. She was later released but doctors are 'still establishing exactly what happened', according to a statement from Chantell Wittstock, director of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation.

Speaking to People, Albert said: 'She didn't leave Monaco in a huff! She didn't leave because she was mad at me or at anybody else She didn't go into exile. It was absolutely just a medical problem which had to be treated.'

He added that his wife had planned to travel to South Africa to reassess her foundation's work and to spend time with her brother and friends.

Checking it out! She was inspecting a Bond car ahead of the event

Natural beauty: The actress looked stunning in a sequined silver dress during her latest public appearance

Recurring theme: It was Sharon Stone and Prince Albert's second joint appearance in less than a week, with both having previously attended the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health on September 23rd (pictured)

Taking place: The duo expertly prepared to pose up a storm on the red carpet

And she's off! Sharon was later seen being driven away in a cream Bentley

But the '10-day maximum stay' has lasted several months because of the infection, which the prince said resulted in 'all these medical complications'.

Yet the last time Charlene was spotted in Monaco was in January, and the extended time apart from her husband and two children has sparked speculation about the state of the royals' marriage.

Albert admitted he 'probably should have addressed' the rumours sooner, but was 'concentrating on taking care of the kids' and believed they would just 'go away'.

All set: The Monte Carlo Opera house welcomed two iconic Aston Martin's ahead of the charitable event

Main man: No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga (left) joined Stone and Prince Albert on the red carpet

Shmoozing: It was quite the night of the stars, with the former Bond legend's son also in attendance

Wednesday's charity screening was organised by the Princess Grace Foundation to support emerging talents in theater, dance and film.

For the sum of $2,500 (1,862) guests were given an exclusive opportunity to attend the event, with a screening of the latest Bond film followed by a dinner in the Monte Carlo Casino lounge.

The event also pays tribute to Sir Roger Moore, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 89 and memorably played Bond seven times - more than any other actor.

Arm in arm: Chloe Green arrived at the Monte Carlo casino alongside boyfriend Manuele Thiella

Safety first: COVID wary guests wore protective masks as they idled together inside the venue

Iconic: Dame Shirley Bassey loked epic as she posed outside the event

Other guests included No Time To Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who attended just 24 hours after the film's world premiere at London's Royal Albert Hall.

The filmmaker, who has won plaudits for his progressive treatment of the Bond franchise, opted for his own white tuxedo and black dress trousers as he rubbed shoulders with Stone.

Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt, 47, wowed in a sexy white dress which featured a daring thigh-high split as she posed on the red carpet ahead of the event, organised by the Princess Grace Foundation.

Also joining the party, Topshop heiress Chloe Green 30, slipped into a stunning silk jumpsuit for the occasion, with the navy piece boasting delicate lace cut-out detailing.

She was accompanied by her yacht broker boyfriend Manuele Thiella, who looked appropriately smart in a navy blue tuxedo shirt, crisp white dress shirt and bow-tie.

Striking: Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt, 47, wowed in a sexy white dress which featured a daring thigh-high split as she posed on the red carpet ahead of the event

Out and a pout: Victoria was pouting up a storm outside the event

Happy days: Roger Moore's family happily smiled as they headed into the event

Group shot: Louis and Marie Ducruet (left) with Camille Gottlieb (far right) and a friend

The one and only: Dame Shirley Bassey also joined the party on Wednesday. The singer famously provided vocals for three Bond soundtracks - Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker

No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 - has been a long time coming after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30th in the UK followed by October 8th in the US.

Here he is: No Time To Die is Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as James Bond (pictured in the film with co-star Lea Seydoux)

High glamour: Sharon brought the A-list to the red carpet during Wednesday's charitable event

Side by side: (L-R) Marie and Louis Ducruet posed for photos as they made their way inside

No time to say goodbye! Daniel Craig is credited for his 'extravagantly satisfying' (and unapologetically woke) Bond swansong... as 'slick, stylish and emotional' No Time To Die wins five star reviews

After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Craig 's final outing as Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

He was joined by co-stars Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics, Royals and stars to the Cary Joji Fukunaga blockbuster

Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue was not misplaced'

Other publications dished out five star reviews including The Guardian, The Telegraph and Time, while The Independent offered a lacklustre three stars

After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday.

Craig stepped out alongside co-stars Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux and Ana de Armas to introduce critics, royals and stars alike to the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed blockbuster - with a thrilling outcome from the other side.

The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars, writing that 'the thunderous ovation that rocked the venue as the end credits rolled was not misplaced'.

Reviews from around the world soon flooded in with a slew of five star accolades for Craig's swansong - along with gushing praise over the movie's 'magnificence, glee, extravagance and bulgingly proportions'.

Finally here: After an 18-month Covid-induced delay the premiere for No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond - took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday

Teasing an ending that 'no one saw coming', Viner hailed No Time To Die as 'a triumph', gushing: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.'

Addressing the film's 163 minutes run-time, Viner assured readers that 'the breathless pace rarely slackens'.

On the fact that Craig's fifth and final outing as Bond was filmed in a post Time's Up era, Viner notes: 'Is there now a danger of the character tilting too far away from the callous ladykiller of yesteryear, becoming 00-woke?...

'Yes, there is. However, not least of the achievements of this exciting movie is that it feels progressive, while staying faithful to the spirit of Bond. This is a serious film, and it will leave you seriously blown away.'

Four stars: The Daily Mail's Brian Viner gave Bond's 'daring, tense and explosive' 25th outing four stars

Leading man: Daniel, 53, oozed sophistication ahead of his final outing as James Bond when he walked No Time To Die's world premiere red carpet on Tuesday

NO TIME TO DIE REVIEWS: Magnificent and extravagant THE DAILY MAIL Rating: '[No Time To Die is] an explosive, tense, daring, and most of all surprising adventure, toying with our preconceptions about the world's greatest secret agent and exploring his personal life more intimately than ever before.' THE GUARDIAN Rating: Craig's final film as the diva of British intelligence is an epic barnstormer, with the script delivering pathos, action, drama, camp comedy, heartbreak, macabre horror, and outrageously silly old-fashioned action in a movie which calls to mind the world of Dr No on his island. THE TELEGRAPH Rating: Cary Joji Fukunaga's extravagantly satisfying, bulgingly proportioned last chapter to the Craig era, throws almost everything there is left to throw at 007 the series can come up with. DIGITAL SPY Rating: It might have taken its time getting him, but No Time to Die confirms that whoever the next James Bond is, they've got some big shoes to fill. THE SUN Rating: In his final turn as 007, Craig exits the franchise with a bang  as well as many crashes and several wallops. The stunts are simply spectacular, with one particular scene involving a motorbike in Italy that will leave you watching through splayed fingers in exhilarating fear. EVENING STANDARD Rating: After Spectre, he famously said he'd rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Instead, with the help of a talented team, he's taken a razor blade to the idea of Bond. Craig bows out with his head held high. Way to go. NME Rating: For the most part though, and with so much at stake thanks to Covid decimating cinema, No Time To Die producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson should be applauded for taking some bold risks. The gobsmacking ending, in fact, may be the biggest in Bond history. THE INDEPENDENT Rating: While Craig is a consummate action star, director Cary Joji Fukunaga's more radical vision of James Bond is fleeting, his film a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points EMPIRE This film does things that no Bond film has ever done, and despite relying heavily on tropes that feel not only familiar but comforting, it is the unfamiliar things it does that make this such an exciting entry. SKY Spectacularly well shot, wonderfully dark villains (Rami Malek's performance is faultless) and perhaps more depth than before, perhaps Bond really can save the day - for cinema in the short term at least. VARIETY No Time to Die is a terrific movie: an up-to-the-minute, down-to-the-wire James Bond thriller with a satisfying neo-classical edge. It's an unabashedly conventional Bond film that's been made with high finesse and just the right touch of soul, as well as enough sleek surprise to keep you on edge. Advertisement

Other critics were equally roused by Craig's final performance as Bond, with The Guardian awarding the blockbuster five stars and critic Peter Bradshaw hailing the film as 'startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident'.

He wrote: 'No Time To Die is startling, exotically self-aware, funny and confident, and perhaps most of all it is big: big action, big laughs, big stunts and however digitally it may have been contrived, and however wildly far-fetched, No Time To Die looks like it is taking place in the real world, a huge wide open space that were all longing for.'

Empire offered an impressive four stars, branding No Time To Die an 'exciting entry' into the 007 universe and urging viewers to 'raise a martini' because 'it was worth the wait'.

Four more stars came from the Evening Standard while The Times offered up five thanks to Craig's 'extravagantly satisfying' final portrayal of Bond.

The Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan observed: 'Fukunaga serves up derring do that's iconoclastic on so many levels. He couldn't have done it without Craig.

'Nobody's puppet, Craig helped produce No Time to Die. After Spectre, he famously said he'd rather slash his wrists than play Bond again. Instead, with the help of a talented team, he's taken a razor blade to the idea of Bond.'

Glamourous: Daniel joined glamorous co-stars Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Lea Seydoux at the swanky event before critics sat down to review the flick

Kevin Maher of The Times meanwhile penned: 'It's better than good. It's magnificent. Craig is a towering charismatic presence from opening frame to closing shot, and he bows out in terrific, soulful, style.'

The Sun urged viewers to 'buckle up' in its four star review while the BBC also allocated the movie five stars, noting: 'No Time To Die rounds off the Craig era with tremendous ambition and aplomb.'

However The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey was less content when the credits rolled, branding Craig's 'last hoorah' as 'disappointing and strangely anti-climactic' before mustering up just three stars.

Digital Spy was another publication to award the flick four stars.

Ian Sandwell wrote: 'It might have taken its time getting him, but No Time to Die confirms that whoever the next James Bond is, they've got some big shoes to fill.'

Dazzling: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance at No Time To Die's World premiere

Ahead of the screening Craig chatted away to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Albert Hall.

Also at the star-studded premiere were Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga and Naomie Harris.

It has been a long road to Tuesday night's premiere after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Looking good! The Duchess of Cambridge appeared just as impressed with Daniel's pink suit as he was with her show-stopping gown

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Ahead of the release, Daniel and some of his fellow star cast members joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the movie.

Daniel, who has appeared in five Bond films over 15 years, told Chris: 'After the last one, I thought that was it. I thought, 'I can't do any more of these'.

'I got a bit of a rest and we kind of talked about what we wanted to do with this last movie and how big we wanted to go, and it felt right, and I just got really excited about it, and I can't wait for people to see it.

Team Bond: Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish, Rami Malek, screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Naomie Harris all posed on the carpet together

'I saw a rough cut of it about a month after we finished, which is really rough, because there's no special effects or anything. When you see that version of it, you just hope and pray that it makes sense, and it did.

'Once you get the effects, and you get the music, Hans Zimmer's done the music, and it's just incredible. The story holds together.'

'Everyone is just turning in brilliant performances, and I think it's quite special.'

Speaking about the enforced delay to the film's release due to the pandemic, the actor said: 'It's odd enough with a movie, when you've finished it, and you put it out and you kind of go, 'Woah, I hope it's good.'

Close bond: Naomi Harris and Lashana Lynch shared a joke at the star-studded event ahead of the much-anticipated screening

'But when there is a two-year gap between finishing it and putting it out, it just makes things even stranger.'

On where he was when he first found out he had got the role of Bond: 'I was in Baltimore doing a movie. And I was in Whole Foods, doing my weekly shop, wandering around with a trolley with food in it, and (producer) Barbara Broccoli was on the phone, and she just went, 'Over to you kiddo.'

'So I got my trolley and I pushed it quietly down an aisle, walked into the booze section and bought a bottle of vodka and a bottle of vermouth, a glass and a shaker, took it home and drank it, and then went out and sat in a bar and drank about three more vodka martinis.

'It's really sad, actually, when you think about it. But, I must have had a sort of look on my face, because the barman kept asking me what was going on, and I said, 'I can't tell you!'

Release: The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US

Daniel recently addressed the outdated James Bond plotlines of past films in the franchise - such as the idea of glamorous disposable so-called Bond girls.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly, he said of the spy series - which sees latest movie No Time To Die released this week - that 'you've got to adapt' with the times.

'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie.

'I've been given free range to put my influence on it, but I've never forgotten that. We can have all key elements and things people have loved over the years, but you adapt.

On the franchise, Daniel said: 'Certainly a lot of what went on in the earlier movies is sort of questionable now... different times, but we didn't want to lose the essence [in the new film]. It's still a Bond movie'

'One of my biggest things is all the characters, especially the women, have to be brilliant and believable.'

Daniel also told Lorraine about becoming overcome with emotion when he shot his final scene as Bond.

'Everybody turned up - all the heads of department came down, and I thought 'Oh God, I have to make a speech, this is my worst nightmare.' It all just came out, I tried to keep it together.

'All of those people I go to work with every day, particularly on this movie, the collective effort was so huge and meant so much to me that everyone put that hard work in - that's what I'll miss so much.'

Changes: The movie was previously supposed to come out on April 2, however its original release was supposed to be in April 2020 (pictured Daniel Craig)

No Time To Die is the 25th film in the franchise, and finds Bond after he has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica when his old friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffrey Wright, from the CIA turns up asking for help.

Leaving his seemingly happy life with Madeleine (Lea Seydoux), Bond returns to the field to face Safin (Rami Malek) who is armed with a new dangerous technology that could impact the world.

Producer Barbara Broccoli has already teased what fans can expect and said that the movie will deliver a satisfying ending for Daniel's Bond.

Speaking on the official James Bond podcast, she said: 'It's a culmination of everything that his portrayal of the character has been through and it ties up all the storylines. It's a pretty epic film, I have to say.'

Daniel took over the role of Bond from Pierce Brosnan in Casino Royale in 2006 and went onto appear in Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015.
She's no stranger to making stylish appearances after carving out a successful career as a model.

And Victoria Silvstedt certainly caught the eye as she put on a busty display at the No Time To Die charity screening at the Monte-Carlo Opera in Monaco on Wednesday.

The Swedish model, 47, wowed in a sexy white dress which featured a daring thigh-high split as she posed on the red carpet of the glitzy event organised by the Princess Grace Foundation.

Wow: Victoria Silvstedt certainly caught the eye as she put on a busty display at the No Time To Die charity screening at the Monte-Carlo Opera in Monaco on Wednesday

Victoria certainly made the most of her moment in the spotlight as she pulled off a number of sultry poses for the camera.

The stunner flashed plenty of leg and a glimpse of her ample cleavage in the show-stopping gown, which she paired with towering silver heels.

Victoria styled her blonde locks into loose waves, while she highlighted her features with a dewy make-up palette.

Attendance to the swanky event cost 1,862 ($2,500), with guests treated to the screening of the James Bond film, followed by a lavish dinner in the lounges of the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Work it: The Swedish model, 47, wowed in a sexy white dress which featured a daring thigh-high split as she posed on the red carpet of the glitzy event organised by the Princess Grace Foundation

Meanwhile, No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 - has been a long time coming after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.

Victoria has enjoyed a lengthy stint in the spotlight after being chosen to represent her country in the Miss World pageant in 1993.

After her pageant days, the Scandinavian stunner was spotted by Hugh Hefner and went on to become a Playboy Playmate.

Finally: Meanwhile, No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 - has been a long time coming after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic

Since her career rocketed, Victoria has modelled for some of the world's most prestigious fashion houses, including Chanel, Dior and Valentino.

Despite the glamorous veneer to her lifestyle as a young model, she revealed there was a dark side in a recent interview with Female First.

Victoria said: 'I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18, I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes and it was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious.'

She is currently dating a businessman named Maurice Dabbah, and have been together since 2011.
When it comes to giving a platform to controversial public figures, Jessica Rowe has learned you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

The former Studio 10 host, 51, faced intense backlash on Wednesday for interviewing far-right One Nation politician Pauline Hanson on her podcast.

She deleted the episode just hours later and apologised for her error of judgement - but now she's being criticised again for caving in so easily.

Can't win: When it comes to giving a platform to controversial public figures, Jessica Rowe has learned you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't

Many listeners argued Jessica should have stood by her initial decision to interview Hanson, whose views on immigration have made her one of Australia's most divisive political figures.

'It's a shame you've been bullied into taking it down,' one fan wrote on Instagram.

'I thought it was really admirable that you were willing to interview and have a human conversation with someone whose views were so different from your own.

Dispute: Jess, 51, faced intense backlash on Wednesday for interviewing One Nation politician Pauline Hanson (pictured) on her podcast. She deleted the episode hours later and apologised for her error of judgement - but now she's being criticised again for caving in so easily

'It's so easy to never interview anyone controversial. You did a brave thing, but it seems people weren't able to see that, which is small-minded of them.'

A similar comment read: 'So the bullies win. It's okay for them to have their "free speech" but not for anyone else who differs in opinion.'

A third critic added: 'Disappointed to hear that you had no choice but to remove that podcast. I think there was nothing wrong with interviewing Pauline.

'Shame': Listeners said Jessica should have stood by her initial decision to interview Hanson, whose views on immigration have made her one of Australia's most divisive political figures

Having her say: Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh commented: 'I never listened to it but now I wish I had... has coronavirus made everyone super PC?'

'Just because the views are not shared doesn't mean you can't interview that person. We don't all have to have the same opinions in life.'

Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh commented: 'I never listened to it but now I wish I had... has coronavirus made everyone super PC?

'I know you are super-smart and an amazing wife, mother and journalist. When did the world stop wanting to hear other people's opinions? Why do we all have to agree? Why have journalists if it's not to delve and deliver?

'If we only want our own opinions then...'

Differing opinions: Others argued Hanson didn't deserve a platform because of her extreme views, which now include spreading misinformation about Covid-19

'Educating': Disability activist Carly Findlay commented: 'I hope you're listening. Many of us commented on your post and by deleting it, you deleted the work we put into educating you'

However, others argued Hanson didn't deserve a platform because of her extreme views, which now include spreading misinformation about Covid-19.

'Correct move to delete and listen [to feedback]. Perhaps also reflect on the diversity (or lack of) in your guests to date. It's up to us to do better,' a listener wrote.

Another added: 'Thank you for doing that. I briefly saw your teaser post for the episode earlier today [Wednesday] and I had to quickly scroll past it.

'I refuse to give any energy to someone who has caused so much pain for my community and other ethnically diverse Aussie communities.'

Disability activist Carly Findlay commented: 'Thank you. I really hope you're listening. Many of us commented on your [previous] post and by deleting it, you deleted the work we put into educating you.

'I look forward to seeing you platforming some people who do good.'

Regrets: Jessica confirmed in a statement on Wednesday evening she had asked for her interview with Hanson (pictured) on the The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast to be deleted, just hours after it went live. She had mostly avoided politics during the chat, instead focusing on Hanson's love life, children, 2003 jail stint, and even her favourite cocktail

Jessica confirmed in a statement on Wednesday evening she had asked for her interview with Hanson on the The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show podcast to be deleted, just hours after it went live.

'There has been much reaction and comment to my podcast conversation with Pauline Hanson today. Pauline's political views are the opposite of mine. I have never agreed with her on those issues. Never will. Kindness is at the heart of who I am,' she said in a statement on Instagram.

'Amongst the comments today I heard from some who I admire enormously including Nakkiah Lui and Grace Tame and I want to thank them especially for their candour.

'This will be the start of a bigger conversation for me and with those who this topic directly affects. I've asked LISTNR to remove the episode ASAP. Thank you, everyone.'

Despite Jessica asking for the episode to be deleted, it is still available on several platforms as of Thursday morning, including Google Podcasts.

Divisive: Jessica thanked her critics for their 'candour' and said she'd asked LISTNR to delete the podcast episode. However, the episode is still available on several platforms as of Thursday

Jessica had mostly avoided politics during her chat with Hanson, instead focusing on her love life, children, 2003 jail stint, and even her favourite cocktail.

But she was nonetheless criticised for giving a platform to the polarising senator.

'Wow, I'm really shocked that someone with such a bright, positive vibe would interview someone like Hanson who is openly and unapologetically racist. Disappointing, Jess,' tweeted one fan.

Australian of the Year and activist Grace Tame added: 'This is how discrimination and hate is subtly enabled and normalised. Everyone's entitled to their own views but not all views should be valorised by promoting their source.

'Pauline doesn't need help to be heard, but those whose oppression she's both driven and reinforced do.'

Not happy: Jessica was criticised on Twitter for giving a platform to the polarising senator

'Bad move, Jess. I understand you mean well, but the divide between good and bad is glaringly obvious Hanson is cold hearted, that's it,' another listener commented.

'There is absolutely no way I could engage with Pauline Hanson or anyone like her. Racists must be called out,' a fourth added.

Yet another wrote: 'Jessica Rowe! Pauline Hanson? Really? Bad move, dude.

'I hope you know what you are doing is heartbreaking and vile. Thank you for reminding me that as a child of brown immigrants, I do not belong. Giving this divisive politician a platform is completely unfathomable.'

Pauline spoke to Jessica about her time in prison after being sentenced to three years behind bars in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding.

'When they stood up and they gave that guilty verdict, I just shut down,' she recalled. 'I couldn't believe it.'

'Then they came and put the handcuffs on me, took me down to process me, put into a strip search, then put into a van and taken to the watch house all night.'

She said she was taken to prison the next day and went through the 'whole process' at jail, which involved being photographed and having her details 'put into the system'.

Pauline explained she was put into the hospital ward because she had spiralled into a deep depression and wasn't eating.

Her convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal and she was released after spending 11 weeks behind bars.

She rejoined One Nation in 2013 and was became leader of the party the following year.

Tough: Pauline spoke to Jessica about her time in prison after being sentenced to three years behind bars in 2003 for electoral fraud and fraudulently obtaining electoral funding

Elsewhere in the podcast, she told Jessica her favourite alcoholic beverage was rum topped with lime cordial.

'These days I don't mind a gin and tonic,' she said. 'But I also like my Bundaberg rum full of ice in a glass and you top it up with lime cordial.

'Plenty of ice, fill up your whole glass, half Bundy and half lime cordial.'
Life must feel pretty bloody marvellous right now for actress Ana de Armas. Shes the latest Bond girl, a CIA rookie called Paloma, who shoots, kick-boxes and karate chops  all in stilettos and a dangerously low-cut dress  and rather puts the wind up craggy old 007 in No Time To Die.

Her biggest fans include Jamie Lee Curtis, Steven Spielberg and Daniel Craig; she spent lockdown very publicly snogging her then boyfriend Ben Affleck; was nominated for a Golden Globe last year in her breakthrough role in Knives Out; is about to appear as Marilyn Monroe in a Netflix biopic; and has movie offers coming out of her ears.

Shes also exquisitely beautiful, with a body to die for, has a refreshingly relaxed attitude to nudity, loves a drink and a late night party. To top it off, shes an ambassador for all sorts of worthy brands including Natural Diamonds.

All of which would make most of us feel pretty perky, but Ana, 33, must be pinching herself. Because her life started a very long way from red carpets, Bond premieres and Hollywood  in communist Cuba.

Life must feel pretty bloody marvellous right now for actress Ana de Armas (pictured)

The family home in Santa Cruz del Norte was a stark, breeze-block apartment in a tatty back street, awash with rubble and stray dogs. Her bedroom was a stark pink-painted concrete box and she and her brother had no television, nor access to the internet, newspapers or magazines.

So Ana and her friends entertained each other by acting, dancing and singing until, by the age of 12, she knew her future lay as an actress. At 14, her parents allowed her to enrol her at Escuela Nacional de Teatro, Cubas only national theatre school to which she made the daily 70-mile round trip alone. I would hitchhike every single morning and tell people where I needed to go, she said in a recent interview.

She was talented and made her debut in the hit Cuba-set 2006 movie Una rosa de Francia. But more importantly, thanks to her Spanish grandparents, she had joint nationality. So the minute she was 18 and eligible for national service she fled Cuba, alone again and with just $300.

Within weeks of arriving in Madrid, shed picked up a part in El Internado, a hit TV series about a boarding school that ran for seven series and, soon after, a dishy Spanish husband  actor and model Marc Clotet.

Shes the latest Bond girl, a CIA rookie called Paloma, who shoots, kick-boxes and karate chops  all in stilettos and a dangerously low-cut dress  and rather puts the wind up craggy old 007 in No Time To Die

Sadly, within a few years, shed outgrown them both and, propelled by talent, ambition and a inner belief, set her sights on Hollywood. As she put it: Ive never seen my life in two ways, the way I wanted it and Plan B. There was only ever the way I wanted it.

But she barely spoke English. In the early days in California, she could hardly communicate with her agent, let alone shine in auditions. In one session, the casting director wrapped up with: Well, well talk again in a couple of years. But feisty Ana replied: No, well talk in two months and promptly enrolled herself in a seven-hours-a- day, two-month intensive English course.

And her talent shone through. Even when the film wasnt the best, reviewers eulogised about her hugely charismatic presence, her warmth and how joyous and bewitching she was. After a brief engagement to Hollywood agent Franklin Latt, she and Affleck got together in 2020 while filming erotic thriller Deep Water and seemed to be forever kissing, both on set and off.

Her career went from strength to strength, with her real breakthrough in Knives Out, a 2019 film in which she co-starred with Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Jamie Lee Curtis. But Ana stole the show. Curtis compared her to Sophia Loren and was so impressed she pinged a series of emails about her to Spielberg, who already knew of her.

Shes also exquisitely beautiful, with a body to die for, has a refreshingly relaxed attitude to nudity, loves a drink and a late night party

Craig himself had requested Ana as his final 007 co-star. But Bond director Cary Joji Fukunaga had also long been a fan and, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, wrote the part specifically for her.

Sadly, Anas love life has never been as consistent as her career and, early this year, she and Affleck split. She is reportedly now dating Tinder executive Paul Boukadakis, and working harder than ever.

Next year, shes back as Marilyn In Blonde. The accent took her nearly a year to master but, of course, she did it. After that, shell surely have her pick of movie scripts.

Perhaps one will be about a beautiful, talented, ambitious girl who flees Cuba with dreams of conquering Hollywood...
The Real OG of the OC is 'moving on' from her last relationship.

Vicki Gunvalson confirmed the end of her engagement to Steve Lodge in a somber Instagram post shared on Wednesday morning.

The 59-year-old reality television veteran shared an inspirational quote with the news she broke off her two-year engagement nearly five years into their relationship, which was documented through the years on Real Housewives of Orange County.

Moving on: Vicki Gunvalson confirmed the end of her engagement to Steve Lodge in a somber Instagram post shared on Wednesday morning

'This is what appeared for todays Vibe of the day pretty appropriate for what Im going through,' she wrote. 'Its taken me a day to be able to make a statement after the press started writing about Steve and I. Yes, the rumors are true. The time has come for Steve and I to move forward or move on and we are . moving on.

'There is no fault with either person, we are just going in different directions. I wish him the best life has to offer and to be happy, and he has wished the same for me.

'I gave it my all, but sometimes the ALL isnt enough.'

Tough: The 59-year-old reality television veteran shared an inspirational quote with the news she broke off her two-year engagement nearly five years into their relationship, which was documented through the years on Real Housewives of Orange County

'This is what appeared for todays Vibe of the day pretty appropriate for what Im going through,' she wrote

Sources told E! News that the couple initially split in June before reconciling, but couldn't make things work as they were 'living separately' for some time.

'Steve and Vicki had been living separately for much of the pandemic,' a source said before noting that 'Steve had been living like he was a single man in Puerto Vallarta, while Vicki was in the U.S.'

The pair first met in 2016 at a Boys & Girls Club charity event in Anaheim, Calif. which was filmed for Bravo cameras.

He later popped the question in April 2019 and they celebrated with a cowboy-themed party at the Coto Valley Country Club just east of Laguna Beach.

In the past: The pair first met in 2016 at a Boys & Girls Club charity event in Anaheim, Calif. which was filmed for Bravo cameras; seen in 2019

Back in the day: Vicki Gunvalson celebrated her engagement to fiance Steve Lodge with a cowboy-themed party at the Coto Valley Country Club just east of Laguna Beach

'Sometimes, I think you just have to find out for yourself what's right,' Vicki said at the time. 'I'm at a good place but I like being married. I'm a marriage girl.'

The RHOC matriarch served as the longest running castmember of the franchise since it premiered on Bravo in 2006, but was demoted to a friend role for season 14 before ultimately leaving the show.

Her 20-year marriage and subsequent divorce to Don Gunvalson was a major storyline through the years.

During an appearance on the Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast earlier this year, Vicki blamed her divorce on reality television.

Bride-to-be: The RHOC matriarch served as the longest running castmember of the franchise since it premiered on Bravo in 2006, but was demoted to a friend role for season 14 before ultimately leaving the show

'I did everything right, except falling prey to divorce,' she said. 'I mean, I think that hindsight, um, I know for a fact that if I wasn't on a reality show, I wouldn't have been divorced.'

Following her divorce with Donn, she dated Brooks Ayers, who she filed a lawsuit against in 2019 accusing him of not paying her back money she loaned him in 2011.

She said on the podcast: 'Then I got taken for a ride by Brooks and he owes me over $300,000. And then I was in a block of lawsuits.'

Gunvalson caught major controversy from the women beginning in Season 10 while dating Brooks Ayers who lied about having cancer and later admitted to forging medical documents.
Chloe Green cut a striking silhouette when she attended the No Time To Die charity screening in Monaco on Wednesday alongside her yacht broker boyfriend Manuele Thiella.

The Topshop heiress, 30, slipped into a stunning silk jumpsuit for the occasion, with the navy piece boasting delicate lace cut-out detailing.

Cosying up to 34-year-old Manuele ahead of the screening, Chloe worked her best angles for photographers.

Wow: Chloe Green, 30, cut a striking silhouette when she attended the No Time To Die charity screening in Monaco on Wednesday alongside her yacht broker boyfriend Manuele Thiella, 34

The brunette bombshell adorned her neck with a luxury diamond necklace and her glossy tresses fell in loose waves down her back.

On her left wrist Chloe wore not only a luxury gold watch but layers of expensive bangles.

Father-of-one Manuele looked dapper in a smart navy suit complete with bow tie.

MailOnline exclusively revealed in June that Chloe and Manuele were an item after they were seen spending time together on a sprawling yacht in the South of France.

Stunning: The Topshop heiress slipped into a stunning silk jumpsuit for the occasion, with the navy piece boasting delicate lace cut-out detailing

Manuele is the CEO of company Royal Yacht Brokers, which boasts celebrity clients such as Madonna, Chrissy Teigen and Alicia Vikander.

The businessman has been dating Chloe since 2019 and has a daughter from a previous relationship with a former partner while Chloe shares two-year-old son Jayden with her ex Jeremy Meeks.

Wednesday's Bond screening was held at the Monte-Carlo Opera and was organised by the Princess Grace Foundation.

Attendance to the swanky event cost 1,862 ($2,500), with guests treated to the screening of the James Bond film, followed by a lavish dinner in the lounges of the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Romance: Manuele has been dating Chloe since 2019 and has a daughter from a previous relationship with a former partner (Chloe and Manuele kiss on a yacht in June)

Family: Chloe celebrated her March birthday with boyfriend Manuele (pictured far right), as well as her brother Brandon Green (left)

Exes: Chloe shares two-year-old son Jayden with her ex Jeremy Meeks (pictured)

Meanwhile, No Time To Die - Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 - has been a long time coming after the film's release was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back to November before the release was changed once again to April 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The release date was finally settled for September 30 in the UK followed by October 8 in the US.
She's known for her love of cosmetic injectables, but Stacey Hampton says she won't be getting the Covid jab anytime soon.

The former Married At First Sight star, 27, shared her thoughts on the life-saving vaccine during an Instagram Q&A on Wednesday.

When a fan asked if her family had been vaccinated yet, the single mother of two replied: 'Not yet, I'm not rushing [sparkle emoji].'

The one injection she won't take: Stacey Hampton revealed on Wednesday she was in no rush to get the vaccine, months after pleading guilty to breaching Covid-19 directions

The OnlyFans star accompanied her response with an image of herself posing in a lavish hotel room.

Covid-19 can cause serious illness, ongoing health problems and even death.

The coronavirus vaccine is a safe and vital measure being taken to protect the community from the spread of the virus.

No rush? The dermal filler enthusiast, 27, was asked on Instagram whether her family had been vaccinated yet, and she replied: 'Not yet, I'm not rushing [sparkle emoji]'

The vaccines being rolled out in Australia are designed to ensure that even if you do contract Covid, you won't get seriously ill.

Stacey's admission comes just months after she pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a Covid direction last year.

During a closed hearing at Adelaide Magistrates Court in June, she was ordered to pay a total of $1,676 - including a $1,000 fine plus court fees.

Breaking the law: Stacey's admission comes just months after she pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a Covid direction last year

Expensive trip: Stacey was charged in May 2020 with three counts of failing to comply with a direction after travelling interstate when she should have been self-isolating

No conviction was recorded, and two similar charges were dropped.

Stacey, who is a law graduate, was charged in May 2020 with three counts of failing to comply with a direction after travelling interstate when she should have been self-isolating.

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia at the time, she played down the incident as 'a little hiccup' with her essential worker paperwork.

Cha-ching! The blonde often flaunts her expensive lifestyle on social media, and claims to earn a living as a social media influencer

Stacey rose to fame on last year's season of Married At First Sight.

She was paired with 'husband' Michael Goonan but their relationship didn't last.

The blonde often flaunts her expensive lifestyle on social media, and claims to earn a living as a social media influencer.
Clare Crawley has opened up about being abused by a priest in Catholic school.

'I grew up going to a Catholic school and I was the victim of a predator,' the Bachelorette vet, 40, revealed in a sneak peek of season two of Red Table Talk: The Estefans.

Clare claimed the priest was regarded as a 'counselor' by her school, yet she called her time with the alleged perpetrator 'one on one time with a predator.'

'I was the victim of a predator': Clare Crawley has opened up about being abused by a priest in Catholic school

'My parents looked at Catholic priests as  they held them on a pedestal,' she explained.

'It is very deep in our roots,' Clare said when co-host Lili Estefan raised her mother's Mexican heritage.

'How could you not trust a priest?' Gloria Estefan asked.

'Supposed to be the purest, most trustworthy,' Gloria's daughter Emily remarked.

'Our school treated him as a counselor': Crawley was sent to the priest by her parents who Crawley said 'did the best they could'

'It is very deep in our roots': Clare described how ingrained the faith was in her Mexican heritage

'Our school treated him as a counselor. My parents did the best they could, reached out for the resources they could at the time, and sent me to this priest.

'And I don't think there is any counseling that was done,' Clare continued. 'It was a one on one time to be a predator.'

The revelation comes two months after Clare revealed she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse in a candid Instagram post.

In a post capturing the star in a low-cut pink top, the ABC alum opened up about her trauma while explaining why she originally got breast implants and why she's now ready to go back to 'Clare 1.0.'

'How could you not trust a priest?' Gloria Estefan asked in response to Clare's confession

Aghast: 'Supposed to be the purest, most trustworthy,' Gloria's daughter Emily remarked

'Self love is the act of giving a voice to your truth. So here is mine,' she wrote before sharing how: 'As a child of sexual abuse, my young adult years were spent in unhealthy relationships feeling unworthy of the good ones.'

According to Clare the early abuse took an extreme toll on her self-confidence.

'It was a vicious cycle, because the more I chose the wrong men who treated me poorly, the more I believed I wasn't good enough,' the beauty wrote before adding, 'Enter the breast implants.

'It was a one on one time to be a predator': The Bachelor vet said of the counseling sessions

Coming soon: The next season of Red Table Talk: The Estefans premieres September 30th

'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to get them, but the truth is it was money that would have been better spent on therapy to heal my wounded heart,' Clare continued, adding: 'I ended up spending the money on therapy anyway.'

But through growth and self-reflection the Sacramento, California-native said she's ready to get rid of her enhancements, which she has previously shared were causing health complications.

'Cut to now. A woman who has learned to love herself deeply on the inside, knows her worth, and will fight for herself no matter what,' Crawley continued. 'I've learned the toxicity that these implants can cause on our bodies, as it has done to mine.

Brave: In a post capturing the star in a low-cut pink top, the ABC alum opened up about her trauma while explaining why she originally got breast implants and why she's now ready to go back to 'Clare 1.0'

'So I am stepping away from something that no longer serves me not my heart, and certainly not my health.'

'Surgery is this week! We are taking it back to Clare 1.0, who is lovable and worthy just the way she is,' she concluded under the glowing selfie.

Clare became The Bachelorette last year, after first rocketing to fame on Juan Pablo's season of The Bachelor.

She left filming early to be with contestant Dale Moss, who proposed to her on the show.

The couple have reportedly split again following a past reconciliation.

'Dale and Clare have split again,' a source told Page Six on Monday. 'This time it's for good. It didn't end well.'
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Plan would shift Nac, Angelina out of Gohmert's district

Texas Legislature via Texas Tribune Texas Legislature via Texas Tribune U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert would no longer represent Nacogdoches and Angelina counties under a redistricting proposal released Monday by the Texas Legislature. Gohmert Sessions

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert would no longer represent Nacogdoches and Angelina counties under a redistricting proposal released Monday by the Texas Legislature.

The proposed first draft of the redistricting map that would be used for the next decade shifts the two counties out of District 1 and into a completely realigned District 17. The seat currently is held by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco.

The draft maps were introduced by State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who leads the chambers redistricting committee.

Im really not sure of the genesis of that map, state Rep. Travis Clardy told the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. We were told last week that the congressmen had submitted a map with really no input from the Texas Legislature. Chairman (Todd) Hunter was not particularly enamored by what they had come up with on their own.

The current District 17 centers along the Brazos River Valley and includes all of McLennan, Milan, Robertson, Burleson, Limestone and Freestone counties as well as parts of Brazos, Lee, Travis and Leon counties.

The proposal would push District 17 district farther east where it would include all of Leon, Houston, Trinity, Angelina and Nacogdoches counties as well as the half of Cherokee County. Cherokee County is currently part of U.S. House District 5 represented by Lance Gooden, R-Terrell.

Thats a different direction that weve ever gone before, Clardy said. I think it does preserve a lot of communities of interest that do share a common heritage and economy with Nacogdoches. I dont dislike the map.

Gohmert, a conservative firebrand and stalwart ally of former President Donald Trump, has been a lightning rod for controversy during his tenure on Capitol Hill.

Supporters say he champions conservative values held by East Texans. However, critics in his own party point to Gohmerts lack of legislation that would make meaningful changes within his own district and his propensity to say outlandish things on television and the House floor. Regardless, hes remained popular with Nacogdoches County voters, and in 2020 he defeated Democrat Hank Gilbert by close to 9,000 votes.

Sessions is also a Trump ally but has been far less outspoken than Gohmert. He was first elected to Congress in 1997 and was defeated by Democrat Colin Allred in 2018. He took back the seat in 2020.

Under the draft maps, San Augustine, Shelby, Sabine and Rusk counties would remain in District 1, which would be expanded to the Red River and take the Texarkana area away from District 4.

Polk County would remain in District 8, and Tyler, Jasper and Newton counties would remain in District 36.

Theres probably going to be a lot of tweaking before thats finalized. We added two seats and thats going to make the maps different and theyve got different rules, Clardy said.

Democrats, who have been out of power for decades, have attempted to make state elections more competitive but the redrawing of congressional maps gives the GOP an opportunity to lock in their advantage for another decade.

Texas current 36-seat congressional delegation is made up of 23 Republicans and 13 Democrats. In the 2020 presidential elections, 22 voted for Trump and 14 went for Biden. But half of the entire delegation was relatively close in that election, meaning neither candidate received more than 60% of votes in the entire district. Those numbers signal increased competition between the two parties in the state.

Under the new map, Texas will have 38 congressional seats.

Huffmans first 38-district proposal would widen the gap between the parties, creating 25 districts that voted for Trump in 2020 and 13 that voted for Biden. Fifteen out of the 38 districts would have been relatively close in that election, meaning neither candidate received more than 60% of the votes in the entire district.

The Texas Tribune contributed to this story.
Dancehalls Warlord Bounty Killer can soon add actor to his accolades as hes all set to appear in his first movie. DancehallMag confirmed that the 5 Star General scored the starring role in an upcoming crime drama set in Jamaica. The Grammy Award winner, advocate and philanthropist makes his big-screen debut in the yet-untitled film focusing on social and political issues, causes that pervade his vast catalogue.

While production details are limited at this time, Sosiessia Nixon, Head of Film & Television at iKon Media Jamaica told DancehallMag that Bounty was excited to come on board based on the concept.

Nixon, whos an accomplished screenwriter and director, stated that the idea for the film came from her partner, Mr. Nigel Dixon, who felt Bounty was the ideal candidate from the jump. Based on the story that he had in his head, he specifically said I would want Bounty Killer to play this part. So because of his relationship with Bounty Killer, he [directly] pitched the story to Bounty. Bounty liked the story and he was excited for the new challenge, Nixon told DancehallMag.

She also gave a synopsis of what fans can expect on the silver screen. The story is a criminal drama that basically follows the life of a youth after hes found a gun. The aim of the story is really to show youths and persons in general that a life of crime is really not worth it. With the positive message attached to the film, Bounty was more than happy to come on board, Nixon said. She added that the movie script is still in early development, and that while neither a full cast or crew had been selected, we just knew who we wanted to play the lead and we have settled that part.

Nixon was unable to say whether Bounty would feature on the films soundtrack but reiterated that the project was very much relatable to the Poor People Governors story.

At age 14, Bounty Killer nearly fell victim to the gun violence he would later document so thoroughly in his music. While walking home from school, he was hit by a stray bullet from a gun battle between rival political factions. Fortunately, he made a full recovery, and soon began performing under the name Bounty Hunter. But the nascent stars lyrics took an increasingly confrontational tone. By the time Bounty scored his breakout hits in 1992, the biggest of which was the grimy cut Copper Shot, he changed his name to the fiercer and more fearsome Bounty Killer.

With production likely to get underway in 2022, Bountys movie role and ramped-up itinerary coincides with yet another milestone  his 50th birthday next year. In December, the deejay drops his 12th studio album King of Kingston album, his first in almost two decades. The long-awaited album has an even longer list of features, and is executive produced by Damian Jr. Gong Marley.

Bounty will also headline the Sunclash meets Shutdown event with Beenie Man in Ibiza, Spain which was moved to May next year due to COVID-19 concerns.

Ahead of his new album, the Look deejay also landed a joint-publishing deal with Florida-based talent management company Creative Titans and Beverley Hills music company Concord Music Publishing. The agreement which makes Bounty a proprietor of his music will only propel his career, granting him greater reach globally and access to royalties.
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Arbor Day

On this page:

A Time to Celebrate Trees

Arbor Day is a national observance that celebrates the role of trees in our lives and promotes tree planting and care. First celebrated in 1872, it was established as a way to encourage farmers and homesteaders to plant trees that would provide shade, shelter, food, fuel and beauty to open areas. In New York, Arbor Day is traditionally celebrated the last Friday in April. However, communities around the state can celebrate Arbor Day any day of the year.

Unlike other holidays, many of which honor people or past events, Arbor Day promotes a better future. Young people are our future foresters and leaders. This day reminds us to share our knowledge with today's youth of the importance of trees and how to care for them.

Arbor Day Poster Contest



2021 Arbor Day Poster - photo by Dave Marshall 2021 Arbor Day Poster - photo by Dave Marshall

Each year the public is invited to submit photography and/or artwork to be considered for the State Arbor Day Poster. DEC prints 100,000 posters for distribution to the 3,500 NYS schools, the NYS Fair and other venues. It is a long time tradition and posters have become collectors items for many.

The contest is open until 12/31/2021.

Contest Rules

Both photographs and original artwork (paintings, drawings, etc.) may be submitted.

Photographs must be taken in New York State, and artwork must be of a NYS location.

Healthy trees without major defects tend to receive preference in judging.

Photos or digital scans of artwork must be submitted electronically and the quality must be at least 300 dpi at 8"x10".

Model consent forms are required for any distinguishable persons.

There is a limit of 3 submissions per artist/photographer.

To submit your photography and/or artwork you must:

Complete the artist information form (PDF). You may complete one form for multiple submissions, but note the location for each photo or piece of artwork.

Complete a model consent form (PDF) for any distinguishable persons in the photo.

Submit artist information form, high resolution digital file, and model consent form (if applicable) via email to arborday@dec.ny.gov by 12/31/2021.

4th and 5th Grade Artwork Contest

Know a 4th or 5th grader? Encourage them to enter the 4th and 5th Grade Arbor Day Artwork Contest!

Commemorating Arbor Day While Social Distancing

While Arbor Day is traditionally celebrated as a public community event, there are lots of ways to celebrate as a family and to connect with your neighbors remotely. Even when we can not gather in person, we can still celebrate trees in our own yards and online. Here are some ideas for how to commemorate Arbor Day while social distancing:

For individuals and families:

Check in on your backyard trees. Any new cracks, fungal growth, or dead branches? View our tips for finding an arborist if your trees need help.

Take a walk around your block and pick up trash, and don't forget to admire your neighborhood trees while you do.

Check out the Arbor Day Foundation's 6 Ways to Celebrate Arbor Day in a Time of Social Distancing for more ideas (leaves DEC website).

For communities:

Want to host a socially-distanced tree planting? Use this checklist of things to consider and how to run one from the Alliance for Community Trees (leaves DEC website)

Create an Instagram hashtag where community members can post photos of their families commemorating Arbor Day.

Create a Facebook Live video so community members can watch your Arbor Day ceremony in real time.

Label street trees with sidewalk chalk to introduce locals to the trees around them. Include species, native region, and a fun fact or two.

Download our tree tags (PDF) and share photos of them on trees around town or in the local park. Community members will be shocked by the value and benefits of the trees in their neighborhood! Check out i-tree mytree (leaves DEC website), a simple web application that will calculate the benefits of trees in your neighborhood. You only have to know a few key facts about your tree: the species, condition, diameter and sun exposure.

Share some photos of your town's most famous trees, and include some fun and educational facts about why trees are important.

Have an online Arbor Day art or photography contest for all ages.

Arbor Day can be any day! While in New York State Arbor Day is officially celebrated on the last Friday in April, Arbor Day can be celebrated in the Summer, Fall, and even Winter! Trees are equally important and worth celebrating in every season.

Traditional Arbor Day Celebration Ideas

Please view the top of this webpage for ways you can celebrate Arbor Day during the COVID-19 situation.

Arbor Day is a great opportunity to promote tree planting and tree care within your school and community. Tree related activities, games and programs create excitement and promote participation in the event. Here are some examples:

Hold an Arbor Day ceremony and honor the good stewards in your community.

Organize a "Big Tree" or "Oldest Tree" search.

Plant a tree.

Encourage the fifth grade classes in your community to participate in the Arbor Day National Poster Contest. Display the posters in a public place. (See the 4th and 5th Grade Arbor Day Artwork Contest page.)

Participate in the DEC School Seedling program.

Choose a public park or downtown area that needs cleaning up and pitch in to clear it of litter.

Hold a read-in at the library and have all the tree books - both fiction and nonfiction - on display.

Schedule local demonstrations on tree pruning techniques, tree selection, tree identification and tree planting.

Order tree and shrub seedlings from the State Tree Nursery and plant a living snow fence instead of one tree.

For more information about celebrating Arbor Day contact your local DEC office.




The division bench also directed the government to initiate immediate steps for providing additional relief to small and marginal farmers by extending the crop insurance scheme for the year 2020-21 within four months. (DC Photo)

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday found fault with the state government for not providing assistance to farmers whose crops were damaged following incessant rains in September and October 2020, under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and the National Disaster Relief Fund, though it had substantial funds to provide relief.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Tadakamalla Vinod Kumar observed that it was not proper for the state government to contend that no assistance was released to it by the Union of India for providing relief to farmers, and hence the argument could not be accepted.

Substantial amounts were available with the state government under the SDRF to provide relief to farmers who suffered crop losses caused by heavy rains in September and October, 2020. Such funds included sums made available by the Union of India amounting to Rs 977 crore on April 1, 2020, itself, and Rs 449 crore was released to the state government under the SDRF during 2020-21 (Central share), with Rs 149.67 crore being the states share. The amount was credited into the account of the state government during 2020-21. So, it cannot blame the Union of India for not providing funds to it for the said purpose, the bench remarked.

"Moreover, till May 21, 2021, Telangana state did not even disclose the details of expenditure to the accountant general, and for what purpose the money available with the state government under the SDRF was utilised by it is thus not known," the High Court observed. However, it did not involve deeper into this aspect of the issue, as it is the duty of the accountant general.

Apart from that, the court also criticised the state government for its failure to inform the farmers in the state about the Prime Ministers Fasal Bima Yojana. It is the duty of the state government to inform farmers through its extension facilities about it so that they may choose to avail insurance individually, the bench said.

The bench pointed out failures of state government in providing relief, while pronouncing the judgement in a PIL, complaining about not extending compensation in the form of agricultural input subsidy to all affected farmers in the state, whose crops were damaged in 2020.

The court directed the government to take immediate steps for payment of compensation and ex-gratia to all those farmers who suffered severe losses during September and October, 2020 floods within three months and extend it in the form of agricultural input subsidy under the NDRF/SDRF, as per the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, to all farmers including tenant farmers across the state.

Further, the division bench also directed the government to initiate immediate steps for providing additional relief to small and marginal farmers by extending the crop insurance scheme for the year 2020-21 within four months.
VIJAYAWADA: Agus P Saptono, Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia, stated on Tuesday that India is the biggest exporter of sugar to Indonesia and it also exports rice, meat, onion, red chillies to his country. He stressed that the scope for increase in bilateral trade between the two nations is high. The volume of exports between the two countries has been steadily increasing in the last few years, he said.

The observation was made at a virtual interaction session held on Tuesday by the Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (AP Chambers) in association with the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, Mumbai, its embassy in New Delhi and the Indonesian Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) based in Chennai.

Agus Saptono addressed the AP Chamber members and explained the opportunities for enhancing bilateral trade between Indonesia and India.

The Indonesian officials stated that its GDP is expected to grow 5 per cent by 2022 and the country could become the 4th largest economy by 2050. A total of 57 Indian companies have their presence in Indonesia, they said.

The potential sectors for investment in Indonesia are textiles, textiles machinery, pharmaceuticals, tourism, transportation, salt technology industry, oil and gas, electrical and renewal energy. They invited members of the AP chambers and businesses to register and participate in the trade expo there to explore trade opportunities and establish business partnerships.

AP Chambers president, Pydah Krishna Prasad, president-elect Bhaskara Rao, general secretary Rajasekhar and AP chambers members participated in the virtual meeting and interacted with Indonesian officials.

They said that as Andhra Pradesh is the major exporter of rice, sugar, chillies and cotton yarn, has major ports and four international airports, and three major industrial corridors under development, the Government of India has recognised this state as the Gateway for South East Asia. As such, the bilateral trade between Andhra Pradesh and Indonesia is poised for tremendous growth.

Bona Kusuma, trade attache, embassy of the Indonesia, New Delhi, and Kumarajati, director of the Indonesian Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), Chennai, also addressed the meeting.
People injured in poll violence sit by the side of a road as a vehicle is set on fire by locals during Panchayat polls in Nadia district of West Bengal. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centres response on a plea by the West Bengal government challenging the Calcutta high court ordering a CBI probe into the cases of murder and crime against women that allegedly took place soon after elections to the state Assembly early this year.

Seeking the Centres reply, and from other respondents, Justice Vineet Saran heading a bench also comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, told senior lawyer Kapil Sibal that on the face of it, You have made a case for issuance of notice. Let us see. We will give a short time for respondents to file counter and will hear the matter for further hearing on October 7.

Mr Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the court that if the chief minister took oath on May 5 and if something happens in June, can it be called post-poll violence?

Mr Sibal said that the case was taken up by a five-judge bench and the first interim order was passed on June 18 in terms of which the Calcutta high court had said that they have requested the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman to constitute a committee to look into these cases.

Questioning the impartiality of some members of the committee, Mr Sibal told the court ,According to us, the committee had members who are openly affiliated to the Centre or ruling party (BJP). The committee consists of seven members. They are -- Rajiv Jain, A Rasheed, Raju Ben Desai, Santosh Mehra, K. Kumar Panja, Raju Mukherjee and M Saini.

He objected to the first three members. Alleging bias, Mr Sibal, to buttress his point, referred to an earlier judgment of the court which had said that a probe committee falls even if one person is biased.

Mr Sibal said that in a federal structure when there are two ideologically opposed parties ruling at the Centre and in a state, what is the duty of the court.

"In a federal structure, the state government cannot be castigated without giving it adequate opportunity. The high court passed the order without without furnishing the copy of the interim report of the NHRC committee to the state. The high court refused to share with the state the annexures of of rape complaints, saying that the victims' anonymity needs protection... The high court order is contrary to the principles of natural justice, as the state was not given adequate opportunity to respond. State was asked to respond to thousands of complaints within seven days. No investigation can be completed within seven days. The high court also did not consider the materials on record placed by the state," he said.

Mr Sibal told the court that the high court questioned as if every police officer could not be trusted, every police officer was influenced by the state government. So, en masse transfer of cases. But the same questions were not asked of Central agencies. The party in power in Centre is the same who filed complaints.

Mr Sibal argued that a fair probe into the post-poll violence cases is unlikely since the CBI is allegedly acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government.

The Mamata Banerjee government has challenged Calcutta high courts August 19 direction asking the CBI to investigate the cases of murder and violence against women that took place during post-poll violence in West Bengal. The high court had said that other post-poll violence cases will be investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The high court had also said that both the investigations by CBI and the SIT will be monitored by it.

The high court order was based on the report of the seven-member committee that was constituted by the National Human Rights Commission to inquire into the post-poll violence.

The high court in its order had said, All cases as per report of NHRC committee where allegations are about murder of person or crime against women regarding rape or attempt to rape shall be referred to CBI for investigation."
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is yet to take a decision in the matter. (AFP Photo)

New Delhi: The Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has written to Indian aviation regulator DGCA to resume commercial flights between the countries.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is yet to take a decision in the matter.

The last commercial flight between India and Afghanistan was operated by Air India on Kabul-Delhi route on August 15, the day Kabul fell to the Taliban. Afghanistan airspace was declared "uncontrolled" by the CAA on August 16.

In a letter dated September 7, 2021, CAA's Acting Minister Alhaj Hameedullah Akhunzada requested the DGCA to permit commercial flights of Ariana Afghan airline and Kam Air between India and Afghanistan.

Akhunzada stated in his letter: "As you are well informed that recently the Kabul airport was damaged and (left) dysfunctional by American troops before their withdrawal."

With the help of technical assistance by Qatar, the airport became operational once again and a NOTAM (notice to airmen) in this regard was issued on September 6, he noted.

"The intention of this letter is to keep the smooth passenger movement between two countries based on signed MoU and our national carriers (Ariana Afghan airline and Kam Air) aim to commence their scheduled flights," he said.

Therefore, Afghanistan CAA requests you to facilitate their commercial flights, Akhunzada noted.

"The civil aviation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan avails its highest assurance," he added.

As a neighbour of Afghanistan, India is naturally concerned about the recent changes in that country and their implications for the region, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said on September 20.

He demanded that Afghan territory should not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts.
Ramanareddy died at his home in Proddatur on Wednesday 6.30 am.

Kadapa: Dr. Mallela Venkata Ramanareddy (78), a politician and literary figure from Kadapa district, passed away on Wednesday morning. He has been suffering for some time now with age-related health problems.

He died at his home in Proddatur on Wednesday 6.30 am. He studied medicine at Guntur Medical College.

He joined the Telugu Desam Party in 1983 and was elected as the Proddatur MLA.

During the reign of NTR, while carrying Telugu Ganga water to Madras, he went on an indefinite hunger strike for 21 days under the auspices of the Rayalaseema Vimochana Samithi, an organization he founded, demanding justice for Rayalaseema as well as the backwardness of the Rayalaseema region.

Ramanareddy is said to be the first activist of Rayalaseema. He is a good literary man.

During his medical days in Guntur, he started a monthly magazine called Kavitha with some friends. He later published a political magazine called Prabhanjanam.

Ramanareddy was also one of the founding members of the Revolutionary Writers' Association. He has written a volume titled Rayalaseema Kanneeti gadha on Backwardness, Rights and Issues. World History has recently been published in four volumes.

He had lived with oxygen 24 hours a day for almost 10 months in the last days. It was in such a context that he completed the last volume of world history.

He translated the Amma novel 'Kaduputhipi'.

Dr Ramanareddy's writings have been published in many Telugu magazines.

Ramanareddy, who served as a politician and a literary figure, was pronounced dead by dignitaries from Kadapa district.
The voters were seen in a long queue in the morning to cast their votes even after efforts by Potangi block development officer (BDO) and tehsildar to convince the villagers not to participate in the electoral process.

BHUBANESWAR: Despite request by the Odisha government, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday executed its plan amid tight security in the disputed Kotia region in Odishas Koraput district.

In presence of Andhra electoral officials, the voting began at 6.00 AM in five villages of Kotia clusters. The villages include Madkar, Daliamba, Barnapadu, Patusineri and Konadara. The voters were seen in a long queue in the morning to cast their votes even after efforts by Potangi block development officer (BDO) and tehsildar to convince the villagers not to participate in the electoral process.

The Andhra Pradesh government had deployed security personnel at the polling stations. According to sources, the polls began at 6 AM and continued till 3 PM.

On Friday, Koraput collector Abdaal Akhtar had written to his Vizianagaram counterpart appealing not to conduct the elections in the disputed region of Kotia as the matter is currently sub-judice in the Supreme Court.

I am to bring to your attention that in Contempt Petition No. 172/2021 arising out of Original Suit No. 10/1968 (The State of Odisha Vs. M.Hari Jawaharlal and Others), the Honble Supreme Court of India has been pleased to issue notice to the State of Andhra Pradesh and post the case to Friday, the 19th February, 2021. In its oral observations, the Court has also observed that should the State of Andhra Pradesh go ahead with its plans as regards the subject mentioned above, necessary consequences will follow. The same was pronounced in the presence of counsel for the State of Andhra Pradesh. A copy of the associated case documents have been handed over to the counsel for the State of Andhra Pradesh, the Collector wrote in the letter.

However, paying no attention to the request, the Andhra Pradesh government conducted the panchayat polls to claim its jurisdiction rights over Kotia.

Meanwhile, lashing out at the Odisha government for taking lackadaisical approach over the Andhra Pradesh governments panchayat election exercise in Kotia, Odisha state BJP unit president Samir Mohanty on Saturday questioned state governments intent on safeguarding the border.

Mohanty said the border villages not only in Kotia bust also in many other districts like Ganjam, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Gajapati were completely unsafe.

Why has the state government moved the Supreme Court only on the Kotia issue? Why did it file the petition so late? Why does the state government keep the people in the dark? Is it a failure of the state's intelligence system? Mr Mohanty asked.

People residing in border areas have developed weakness towards Andhra Pradesh despite having an emotional bond with Odisha. It is only because of the Odisha governments lack of will for their development, Mohanty observed.
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh is still in the mid-course to a general election, but Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Wednesday ignited political heat, tearing into the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy regime and saying the time has come for it to be driven out (of power).

"That man is causing destruction of Andhra Pradesh. It's time to show him his place, he said in a direct attack on Jagan and, in a way, setting the tone for the 2024 electoral battle.

"You have called us out for war. We are ready for the battle and will fight it to the end. The time has come for you to be driven out, Kalyan said.

The Jana Sena president addressed the general body of his party at its headquarters in Mangalagiri here on Wednesday evening.

"I have so far worked as a social activist. I have not behaved like a political leader. But now I will start the politicking. I am fully geared up for the battle," Kalyan said.

Attacking the Jagan government on various issues, Kalyan sought to know where development was in the state.

While the state's income was over Rs 1.25 lakh crore per annum, the government was not in a position to pay even the staff salaries on time. Pensions were also inordinately delayed, he alleged.

Kalyan pointed out that not a single road has been repaired or laid in the last two years.

"That is the financial condition of the state. But when we are questioning this, they (YSRC leaders) are resorting to personal attacks," Kalyan said.

What's there about my personal life? It's all black and white. But you are living a colourful dream, the Jana Sena chief remarked, lashing out at the YSRC leadership.

Referring to the various freebie schemes named after the Chief Minister, he questioned whose money was being distributed.

"Is it your hard-earned money? It is people's tax money. It has to be distributed equitably. But the government is doing it in a pick and choose manner, he said.

Kalyan said he would alter his strategies based on (political) need.

"I aligned with BJP after it agreed to retain Amaravati as the state capital. It also promised development of parched Rayalaseema and backward north coastal Andhra regions. So we have forged an alliance," he noted.

Talking about his political journey and objectives, the actor-politician stressed that he was in politics to stand by people in trouble.

"I may win or lose (elections), that's okay. I am not a beggar. If you have confidence in me, elect me. Then I will show what development will be," he said.
HYDERABAD: TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy announced that the party would launch a 65-day long agitation 'Vidyarthi Nirudyogula Jung Siren' (War bugle of students and jobless) on Gandhi Jayanti demanding fee reimbursement, filling up of the over 1.91 lakh vacancies across government departments and unemployment allowance of Rs 3,016 (a 2018 TRS manifesto assurance) to 60 lakh unemployed persons with retrospective effect from December 2018.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, along with Mohammed Ali Shabbir and B. Mahesh Kumar Goud, Revanth Reddy demanded the state government to immediately clear dues of over Rs 4,000 crore towards fee reimbursement.

"Nearly 60 lakh youth will not get jobs unless people from all sections join forces and topple K Chandrasekhar Rao," he said while appealing for mass support for the agitation.

Soon after the launch of the agitation at Rajiv Chowk in Dilsukhnagar around 3 pm on Saturday, there will be a padayatra up to the statue of Telangana martyr Srikanth Chari at LB Nagar crossroads. Thousands of students and youth would be administered a pledge for waging a no-holds-barred battle against unemployment and other injustices committed by the TRS government, he said.

The Congress Lok Sabha member said that the agitation would be organised on a large scale at all mandal and Assembly-constituency levels apart from all universities.

"All that we seek are implementation of the promises Rao has made with regard to KG to PG free education, fee reimbursement, at least one job to each family and unemployment allowance to jobless youth," Revanth Reddy said.

Unable to bear the trauma following denial of fee reimbursement, several students committed suicide, he said.

Revanth Reddy said that the jobless include 26 lakh qualified youth, who have registered with the Telangana State Public Service Commission. At a rough estimate, the unemployment allowance has accrued to `one lakh to each jobless individual, he said.

Vidyarthi Nirudyogula Jung Siren will culminate on December 9.
HYDERABAD: After going all out to woo Schedules Caste voters in Huzurabad with Dalit Bandhu, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leadership is on a mission to win over non-Dalits in the constituency.

Out of a total of 2.36 lakh voters in the constituency, non-Dalits comprise 1.80 lakh of whom around 1.30 lakh hail from Backward Classes. The TRS leadership is trying to attract non-Dalits with welfare schemes and is promising to bring BC Bandhu in future.

TRS sources said ministers and party MLAs from OC categories (Reddys, Brahmins, Velama communities etc) and BCs (Munnuru Kapu, Padmashali, Gowda, Mudiraj, Yadavs, Rajaka communities etc) were being roped in to hold caste-wise meetings with people seeking their support for the TRS.

BC ministers Gangula Kamalakar, V. Srinivas Goud, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Reddy ministers G. Jagadish Reddy, A. Indrakaran Reddy, S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Prashanth Reddy and Ch Malla Reddy have been asked to hold meetings with respective communities as part of campaigning.

Ministers from ST and Minority categories, Satyavathi Rathod and Mohd Mahmood Ali, will hold meetings with their communities, which account for 4,220 and 5,100 voters respectively.

While the TRS is confident of total support from Dalits on the back of Dalit Bandhu, it is wary of Opposition parties trying to polarise non-Dalits against the TRS with a campaign that it did not extend Dalit Bandhu-type benefit to other castes. There are 46,700 Dalit voters in the constituency of whom Madigas are 35,600 and Malas 11,100.

There are close to 21,000 Dalit families spread over five mandals in the constituency. The party leadership is confident of Dalits voting en masse in favour of the TRS as all these families were covered under Dalit Bandhu for whom the government recently transferred Rs 2,000 crore into their bank accounts at Rs10 lakh each. With this, the TRS is now focused on other castes who comprise a major chunk of voters in the constituency. Among the OCs, the Reddy voters are a majority at 22,600 while Brahmins, Velamas and others constitute 12,150 voters.

The TRS has roped in party's Reddy leaders to lure them into its fold. The ministers recently laid foundation for the construction of Reddy community halls in the constituencies for which ministers and party MLAs from Reddy community were invited. Even Legislative Assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy participated in one such event on September 25 and addressed a public meeting in which he praised the TRS government's welfare schemes inviting the wrath of Opposition parties who questioned how the Speaker could take part in political activities. However, Pocharam defended himself saying he came there as a "Reddy" and not as the Speaker.
Telangana High Court on Wednesday sharply criticised the Union Government for its failure to fill the vacancies in the Railway Claims Tribunal in Secunderabad for a long time. (PTI file photo)

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday sharply criticised the Union Government for its failure to fill the vacancies in the Railway Claims Tribunal in Secunderabad for a long time.

A division bench of Justice Rajashekar Reddy and Justice Vinod Kumar said the government was not only being negligent in not filling the posts but also hampering the functioning of the judicial system.

The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by the Railway claims tribunal advocates association represented by its president K Sudhakar. The association complained to the court that the central government was not appointing the vice-chairman and judicial members in the Railway Claims Tribunal here for an unjustifiably long time.

The bench lamented that the central government could as well abolish the tribunals in the country if it was not interested in filling up these vacancies. It said several posts are lying vacant not only in the Railway Claims Tribunals but also in every other like the GST Tribunal. More than 50 per cent posts are lying vacant. What is the problem in filling up the vacancies on time," Justice Rajashekar Reddy asked the central government.

The bench said, You are not allowing people to approach the civil courts as tribunals have been constituted. If you are not helping the tribunals function properly, you better abolish these tribunals and allow civil courts to do the work. Let the people approach the civil courts. Neither are you filling up the vacancies nor allowing the people to get alternate legal remedies. This is nothing but causing delay in justice dispensation.
The results of a series of elections from 2019 to date have proven that the people are always on the side of Chief Minister Jagan and the ruling party is sure this will be so in future too, he said.  Facebook

VIJAYAWADA: Dasari Sudha is the natural choice as YSRC candidate for the Budvel assembly by-election scheduled for October 30, said party general secretary and adviser to government, Sajjala Ramakrishna here on Tuesday.

He said the YSRC sticks to the tradition of giving its ticket to the family of the deceased MLA, and Dasari Venkata Subbaiah's wife Dasari Sudha came as the natural choice. If the TD followed the tradition, the election would be unanimous. Even if the Opposition fields a candidate, we are certain to win the seat with a huge margin, he claimed.

The adviser came down heavily on Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan for his "loose" comments against the government. There is no comparison between the Nandyal and Badvel by-elections. Chandrababu Naidu took it as a big challenge by splurging over Rs 100 crore, he said.

He said this election is an opportunity to explain to the people as to what the YSRC government has done in the last two years.We want to take the publics opinion on this.

The results of a series of elections from 2019 to date have proven that the people are always on the side of Chief Minister Jagan and the ruling party is sure this will be so in future too, he said.

Reddy, responding to comments made by Jana Sena Party Chief Pawan Kalyan, asserted that the state government is trying to do good to the film industry by being a facilitator by introducing the online ticket system. While several sections of the industry are welcoming the governments move, Pawan Kalyan is indulging in mud-slinging. Some prominent people in the film sector are considering him as a huge burden on the industry, and fear the industry would get into trouble because of him.

The adviser said the state government is ready to cooperate with the film industry. Distributors and exhibitors are happy with the online ticketing system as this means transparency. If the film industry still has any doubt, its representatives can meet the CM and get things clarified.
Mr Kumar and Mr Mevani have not turned to the Congress drawn by its leadership, although many Indians regard Rahul Gandhi, for all his shortcomings that are on view, as the sole committed ideological opponent of the current dispensation at the highest political levels. (PTI)

The surprise resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the PCC chief of Punjab on Tuesday, and on the same day the induction into the party of the well-known firebrand young leader Kanhaiya Kumar  who had caught the nations fancy not so long ago  as well as the affinity shown to the Congress by Jignesh Mevani, the young Gujarat dalit leader who could not join for technical reasons, tells two different stories about the Congress Party and its leadership.

Mr Sidhus resignation has not been accepted, but his pompous, self-righteous letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi suggesting that compromise is over-rated as a virtue gives the impression of the PCC president being more than just quirky, and that he may spell more trouble being within the partys fold than out of it. It underlines his unsuitability as the lead organisation man of a party, especially when Assembly polls are round the corner.

Quitting only two months after being made PCC president  and conspiring and causing an upheaval to get to that spot  can be no ones idea of orderly conduct. It also speaks of utter disdain for the central party leadership, whose leading lights had regrettably become a party to Mr Sidhus machinations and made his cause their own, in the process undermining a respected heavyweight as CM.

The timing of the PCC presidents resignation is likely to lend credence to the view that he quit on account of his opinion not being valued enough in the choice of Cabinet ministers or top officials by CM Charanjit Singh Channi, who evidently refused to be a proxy for the PCC president, which is what was expected of him by the PCC chief.

Clearly, the Gandhi siblings, who had openly sided with Mr Sidhu, cannot bypass responsibility if the situation arising from Mr Sidhus sudden departure adds another layer of confusion and negativity to the one already obtaining in the state Congress in the wake of Captain Amarinder Singhs forced resignation as CM.

The choice of senior personnel, and selection of party candidates for elections in some states, has caused discontent among Congress folk more broadly, and a few prominent ones have joined other parties. Some of these  not all  did not leave for opportunist reasons and were virtually pushed out through the amateurishness on display at top leadership levels.

While these tendencies on open display must be dispiriting to the Congress rank and file as well as leadership circles, the entry of high-profile individuals such as Mr Kumar and Mr Mevani, who have grassroots connect and broad appeal, is apt to bring cheer. The constituency of the long-suffering youth of India whose economic futures are clouded in deep uncertainty, especially on account of unemployment, and the dalit constituency in particular, is thought to look upon these two newcomers to the Congress with favour. Their arrival is, therefore, a plus.

It is clear, however, that such young leaders have turned to the Congress on account of the broad idea that the Congress has represented since the freedom movement on its good days. This idea is that it is a party for the empowerment of all Indians without discrimination  and not of particular sections.

Mr Kumar and Mr Mevani have not turned to the Congress drawn by its leadership, although many Indians regard Rahul Gandhi, for all his shortcomings that are on view, as the sole committed ideological opponent of the current dispensation at the highest political levels. It is up to the Congress to let the new entrants help connect the party to various levels of the country, and not stifle them through its byzantine court culture.
Heightened infiltration activity in the last week along the LoC and the international border when Indian counter-insurgency operations led to seven cross-border terrorists being eliminated and one captured puts paid to the pretences of Pakistan that it does not use terror as a State weapon. It is not often that these trained and highly motivated conduits of terror are captured alive. The Indian Army ascribes it modestly to this Lashkar-trained teenaged terrorist from the Pakistani Punjab having been unarmed at the time of the encounter and hence was nabbed rather than eliminated.

The price we pay for preserving the peace even in the face of such sustained State activity on the part of our prickly neighbour is eternal vigilance and the Army, bestowed the difficult task of counter-insurgency, too, deserves all credit for its efforts in stamping out terror before it can be unleashed. It is another matter that despite the passage of more than seven decades since a Hindu king of Kashmir chose to accede to India under special conditions that parts of the world are yet to reconcile to the territorial integrity of India with Kashmir an integral part.

It might be no more than a diplomatic irritant that Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey should rake up the Kashmir issue again at the United Nations General Assembly last week. There are some like him who may view Indias Kashmir differently but the realities of the ground situation allow India little freedom from vigil on the border and against homegrown militants. However, it is a fact that civil liberties are often constricted and the Army is also accused of excesses, as former CM Mehbooba Mufti has done once again in pointing a finger at its latest actions in Pulwama.

While Kashmir is a continuing saga of denial of human rights, the Army would do well to dispel any notions that it is overstepping its lines of discipline in carrying out crucial functions as in foiling the designs of terrorists being exported by Pakistan and other threats.
The Taliban swept to power in mid-August amid a chaotic pullout of foreign troops but clashed with the IS, which has been operating from Nangarhar for years. (Representational image: ANI)

Kabul: Taliban have launched an operation to root out Islamic State (IS) from Afghanistan.

The Taliban will crackdown on the local branch of the IS in the Kabul capital region and neighbouring Nangarhar on the border with Pakistan to the east, Sputnik reported citing the Afghan Khaama Press news agency.

The operation follows two weeks of bloodshed in Nangarhar's main city of Jalalabad. At least three gun and bomb attacks on Taliban positions left several fighters and civilians dead.

The Taliban swept to power in mid-August amid a chaotic pullout of foreign troops but clashed with the IS, which has been operating from Nangarhar for years.

The IS claimed an attack on Kabul airport on August 26, which killed more than 100, including 13 US personnel.
Malawian regulators on Wednesday fined the local unit of India's Bharti Airtel the equivalent of around $2.6 million (over Rs 19 crore) for skimping on airtime owed to consumers in one of the world's poorest countries.

The Competition and Fair Trade Commission imposed a 2.1-billion-kwacha ($2.6 million) fine on mobile operator Airtel Malawi for engaging in "unconscionable conduct" in withholding airtime owed as part of a loyalty programme.

Airtel Malawi is part of Bharti Airtel Limited, an Indian multinational that operates in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. The company describes itself as the largest mobile operator in Africa.

The commission's acting executive director Apoche Itimu told a news briefing that the commission launched an investigation into Airtel Malawi on September 16, following several complaints from consumers.

"It was alleged that the Airtel Malawi stopped automatically crediting customer accounts with monthly bonuses" of airtime, she said.

Instead, consumers had to request their free airtime on the 14th of every month. Those who failed to do so lost their bonus.

Itimu said the company made a financial gain of about 2.1 billion kwacha by "engaging in unconscionable conduct in the trade of goods and services".

The commission fined Airtel Malawi the same amount.

Bharti Airtel's annual revenue of $14 billion is almost double the size Malawi's entire economy.

Airtel Malawi did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

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A major cluster of Covid-19 cases has been discovered at a girls college near Electronics City, South Bengaluru. College and government officials said that out of 340 residential students, 60 had been found positive as of Tuesday.

The outbreak was first discovered on Sunday, September 26, when a 17-year-old girl developed symptoms of the disease, said a member of the staff at Sri Chaitanya PU and CBSE College, located near Electronics City Phase 2.

Also read: Backlog of Covid-19 deaths surfaces in Bengaluru

Testing of students began after reports of vomiting, fever and cough on Sunday, added Dr G Srinivas, district health officer, Bengaluru Urban District. When the students were subjected to rapid antigen testing, 23 others were found positive almost immediately, Dr Srinivas said, adding that 37 others were found positive on Tuesday following RT-PCR testing.

Fourteen of the positive cases are from Tamil Nadu and the rest are from Karnataka, from districts like Raichur, Ballari, Kalaburagi...etc. Thirty have symptoms. We are now assessing the cases to determine if any require hospitalisation, he added.

The first case, meanwhile, has been admitted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and Research Institute, although health officials are yet to determine if she is the index case for the outbreak.

We are investigating whether there is a travel history to the outbreak. What is known is that the students, all of whom are in II PU, had returned to the campus on September 5. As the index case is yet to be determined, the infection source is still unknown, explained Dr Vinay Kumar, health officer for Anekal taluk.

Scenes of panic

There was panic at the college when the news broke on Tuesday, with scores of parents descending on campus to take their children home. Although the college had isolated 59 students at a special designated building on-campus, a college staffer told DH that parents were pressuring faculty to withdraw students, both positive and negative cases.

District authorities have decided that all symptomatic cases, if not able to stay on campus, must be checked into a hospital nearby, Dr Kumar said. As for negative cases, parents have been given permission to take such students home but only with the consent of their district surveillance officers.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

The situation could potentially complicate matters for the district administration which is yet to complete contact tracing and has plans to re-test all negative cases seven days from now.

District officials said that the college will be closed for 14 days and turned into a containment zone. The college said that all of the students had presented negative RT-PCR certificates before coming to the college on September 5. We just dont understand how this outbreak took place, a staffer said.

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The Reach 6 metro line (Gottigere-Nagawara) was the most challenging project, with nine TBMs deployed to build the 13.76-km underground section, BMRCL MD Anjum Parwez said.

While the total length of tunnelling to be done is 21.246 km, the BMRCL has completed 3.84 km so far. He said several TBMs will achieve breakthroughs one after the other in the following months.

He could not provide a timeline for the other TBMs achieving the breakthroughs. Tunnelling work depends on geological conditions and about 60% of the 13.76-km section has rock formation of different types.

On average, each TBM digs 3.5 to 4 metres of tunnel per day. However, the other day, a TBM encountered a boulder below the JM Plaza on Infantry Road (Shivajinagar to Rashtriya Military School). That rock is three times harder than granite and made it difficult for us to cut even half a metre for the entire day, he said.

Kannada banners

After criticism over the absence of Kannada in a backdrop banner during the inauguration of the Mysuru Road-Kengeri metro line, BMRCL made sure that banners with Kannada were more visible than others.

Kannada banners greeted visitors at the entry point while flexes celebrated the breakthrough in the local language at the tunnels overburden. After the TBM emerged from the tunnel, workers displayed the Kannada flag along with the Tricolour.

Airport metro work from October

Parwez said work on the 37-km airport metro line will take off in October. Piling work has already commenced on the Phase 2A line (Silk Board-KR Puram). We hope to conclude the tender process and begin work on the airport metro line by the end of October. We will provide metro connectivity to the airport by the end of December 2024, he said.

The Karnataka High Court, he said, has settled matters related to felling and translocation of trees for all the Phase 2 projects. Tree-related matters will not be a hurdle now."

He further said the BMRCL has managed to get a No Objection Certificate from the Government Flying School at Jakkur, where the proposal to construct the elevated line had led to a legal hurdle.

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Tunisian President Kais Saied has named Najla Bouden Romdhane as prime minister and asked her to quickly form a government, the presidency said in a statement on social media on Wednesday.

Romdhane is a university engineering professor with World Bank experience, the local Mosaique FM reported.

Saied dismissed the previous prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed wide executive powers in July and has been under growing domestic and international pressure to form a new government.

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The United States failed to handle Pakistan's support for the Taliban, a top lawmaker said on Tuesday and called it one of the major reasons behind American failure in Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of US troops this summer and the events surrounding it did not happen in a vacuum. The path that led to this moment was paved with years of mistakes from our catastrophic pivot to Iraq, failure to handle Pakistan's support for the Taliban, and flawed Doha agreement signed by former President Donald Trump, Senator Jack Reed said during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan.

Senator Jim Inhofe, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Afghan government is now led by terrorists with long ties to Al-Qaeda.

And we are at the mercy of the Pakistan government to get into Afghanistan airspace. Even if we get there, we cannot strike Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan because we are worried about what the Taliban will do to the Americans still there, he said.

Also Read  Taliban failed to honour Doha accord, never renounced Al-Qaeda: US general Mark Milley

The administration needs to be honest. Because of President Joe Bidens disastrous decision, the terrorist threat to American families is rising significantly, while our ability to deal with these threats has been decimated, he added.

Senator Deb Fischer, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, You are negotiating to try to get these bases to be able to use their installations. Because Afghanistan is a land-locked country, and when we have explanations from the military and they give examples for over-the-horizon, and use countries like Yemen, Libya and Somalia, that does not take into consideration that Afghanistan is landlocked, and we have to depend on Pakistan to give us airspace to get there.

During the hearing, Senator Reed maintained that throughout the war, the United States was unsuccessful in dealing with Pakistan supporting the Taliban, even as American diplomats sat down with Pakistani leaders, and its forces cooperated on counterterrorism missions.

The Taliban enjoyed sanctuary inside Pakistan with time and space to regroup. More recently, the Taliban's resurgence can be tied to the Doha Agreement, which then President Trump signed in 2020, he said.

This deal negotiated between the former Trump administration and the Taliban, without our coalition allies or even the Afghan government present, promised the end of the entire international presence in Afghanistan, including contractors critical to keeping the Afghan Air Force in the fight with virtually no stipulations, Reed said.

The senator added that the Taliban with momentum on the battlefield and no incentives, under the Doha Agreement, used a final year of the Trump administration to boldly escalate violence to begin its fateful march toward Kabul.

Despite colossal efforts over multiple administrations, both Democratic and Republican, we were unable to help build an Afghan government capable of leading its people nor an Afghan security force capable of defeating the Taliban, he told his colleagues during the Senatorial hearing.

Senator Inhofe added that the US now has no reliable partners on the ground in Afghanistan.
After a year at sea, 13 Indian sailors onboard the Bahamas-flagged oil tanker, MT Strovolos, face the risk of deportation after being detained. The tanker was suspected of carrying stolen crude worth $21 million.

13 Indians were part of the 19-member crew of the MT Strovolos, media reports said. It was carrying nearly 300,000 barrels of crude from Cambodia's first oil venture and first seized by Indonesia's navy in July.

The tanker was chartered by KrisEnergy (Apsara) Co. Ltd. and received the oil from the Apsara Oil Field in the Gulf of Thailand.

The Cambodian government had contracted KrisEnergy as part of a commercial oil development project and gave it the right to sell the oil subject to payment of royalties.

However, the KrisEnergy Group ran into financial difficulties and was unable to comply with its obligations during the charter, including payment of the ship's fuel supply, World Tankers Management said. KrisEnergy and the tanker's management terminated the charter as a result, it said.

Also Read | Boats and nets of Indian fishermen damaged in alleged attack by SL navy

Last week, a court sentenced the captain of the tanker, a Bangladesh national, to 15 days in jail and fined him 100 million rupiah ($7,000) after finding him guilty of anchoring the tanker in Indonesian territory without permission.

The operator of the seized tanker is protesting the detention of its crew, calling it a human rights violation.

Indian sailors onboard have said that they were only discharging their duties and had no role in the contract set between the shipowner, charterer, or the Cambodian government.

They initially detained the vessel after the Cambodian government issued Interpol Red Notice on July 24... The ships captain has been arrested. We have not seen him for the last two months, Bhanu Pratap Singh, a fitter in the vessel, told The New Indian Express.

Singh told the publication that KrisEnergy denied the crew food and water in Cambodian waters and said it went bankrupt. As a result, we were asked to go to Thailand for a crew change. The crew change did not happen, and we were asked to go to the Indonesian Port. On the way to Indonesia, our vessel was intercepted by the Indonesian Navy on July 27, he added.

Also Read | Boats and nets of Indian fishermen damaged in alleged attack by Sri Lanka navy

Under threat of possible deportation to Cambodia, the sailors have sought help from the Indian government for their release.

World Tankers Management spokesperson said that the Cambodian government has not provided any proof to the owners in regards to its claims. Meanwhile, KrisEnergy is not ready to give up the Cargo to Combodia as it would go against its ownership rights.

Manoj Yadav, Forward Seamens Union of India, sought the intervention of the Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways on September 26 to help in the release of the crew.

(With agency inputs)

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President Joe Biden is caught between a hard place and an even harder one when it comes to immigration.

Biden embraced major progressive policy goals on the issue after he won the Democratic nomination, and he has begun enacting some. But his administration has been forced to confront unusually high numbers of migrants trying to enter the country along the US-Mexico border, and the federal response has inflamed both critics and allies.

Much of the anger is centered on the administration's immigration point person, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Also Read | US stops flight with Americans from Kabul from landing

Getting hit from both sides in the matter of immigration is no surprise, Mayorkas said on NBC last weekend. We are in the epicenter of the country's divide, regrettably.

The result is that immigration has become an early and unwanted distraction for an administration that would rather focus on the pandemic, the economy, and other policy priorities.

Just 35 per cent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of immigration, down from 43 per cent in April, when it was already one of Biden's worst issues, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Immigration is a relatively low point for Biden within his own party with just 60 per cent of Democrats saying they approve.

Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback blocking Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande only added to the angst. While the widely shared photos incorrectly suggested that agents were using their reins to whip at mostly Black migrants, Mayorkas and Biden expressed outrage at the tactics and Homeland Security is investigating.

The outcry was such that Mayorkas was asked if his department was a rogue agency." He responded, I couldn't disagree more vehemently.

Some of Biden's strongest supporters on Capitol Hill and among outside immigrant advocates had already been expressing outrage about the administration's continued reliance on a Trump-era public health authority, known as Title 42, to rapidly expel migrants, including thousands of Haitians.

Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center and onetime co-chair of a task force on immigration meant to unite Biden supporters with more progressive primary backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders, noted that the White House has appointed some of the best people in our movement to help run immigration programmes.

But she is among those opposed to Title 42, which the Trump administration invoked early in the pandemic, ostensibly to slow the spread of Covid-19. It prevents people from making claims for US asylum.

This is the moment when friends need to have those courageous conversations with friends, Hincapie said. When they're making the wrong decision.

The administration's refusal to halt Title 42  even appealing a court order to stop relying on it to expel families  along with the lack of progress in Congress on a sweeping immigration bill that Biden introduced upon taking office has prompted supporters to warn of a return to the enforcement-heavy policies of President Barack Obama.

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Businesses that have announced vaccine mandates say some workers who had been on the fence have since gotten inoculated against Covid-19. But many holdouts remain  a likely sign of what is to come once a federal mandate goes into effect.

Even before President Joe Biden's Sept. 9 announcement that companies with more than 100 workers would have to require vaccinations, dozens of companies, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and Disney issued ultimatums to most workers. And smaller companies in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans have been required to implement mandates for customers and workers.

Also read: Biden to meet executives from Microsoft, Disney on Covid-19 vaccine mandate: Report

Some mandates seem to have converted hesitant workers, but employers are still dealing with holdouts. United said late Tuesday it will begin terminating 593 employees over the next few days for refusing to get vaccinated. Other companies are offering alternatives, including weekly testing or working remotely or away from other staff.

The federal mandate will cover as many as 100 million Americans  private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors. It is a high-stakes gambit by the president to boost the vaccination rate in the US About 77 per cent of American adults have had one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.

In August, San Francisco became the first major city in the nation to require proof of full vaccination against Covid-19 for people dining inside restaurants, with employees having until Oct. 13 to get the shot. Akash Kapoor, founder of the Curry Up Now Indian restaurant chain, said more than 90 per cent of his employees in his downtown San Francisco location are now vaccinated, with one or two per store refusing. He's making unvaccinated workers get tested twice a week.

It lets the employees who are vaccinated feel safe, he said.

Alejandra Segura, 28, a senior learning and development coordinator at Curry Up Now, said she was worried about having a bad reaction to the vaccine, so she held off. But the vaccination mandate spurred her into action, and she received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sept. 20.

It's a good thing we're required to get the vaccine, to ensure people's safety, Segura said.

The experience says these mandates do move the needle quite a bit on employees' willingness to get vaccinated, said Laura Boudreau, an assistant professor at Columbia University who studies labor issues. She said she believes that only a tiny fraction of employees will quit  likely those already close to retirement and who strongly distrust vaccines.

The Biden administration has said that companies will face $13,600 fines per violation and mandatory weekly testing will be the alternative to being vaccinated.

The question of whether employers or the government will pay for mandatory tests has yet to be answered. Regulations from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the office charged with implementing the mandate, will be drafted over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases are surging in the US The seven-day average Covid-19 deaths climbed above the 2,000 threshold last week for the first time since March. And this week, a number of state deadlines arrive for health care workers to get vaccinated, raising fears of worsening staff shortages in hospitals and nursing homes if some opt to quit or get fired or suspended.

A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 59 per cent of remote workers favour vaccine requirements in their own workplaces, compared with 47 per cent of those who are currently working in person. About one-quarter of workers  in person and remote  were opposed.

Also read: Joe Biden's Covid vaccine mandate angers Republicans, libertarians

United Airlines officials say their mandate has worked. About 96% of the airline's 67,000 US employees have been vaccinated and another 3 per cent are seeking an exemption, which could result in being placed on unpaid leave. Fewer than 1% will be fired, which officials said would not affect airline operations.

Pilot unions at American and Southwest are asking the Biden administration and Congress to have the option of weekly testing or showing immunity by previously contracting Covid-19. The president of the American Airlines union warned that mass terminations of unvaccinated pilots could cause a shortage of pilots during the December holidays. Neither American nor Southwest has said whether they will require vaccination or offer testing as an alternative.

Delta Air Lines stopped short of requiring vaccination but said that starting in November, unvaccinated workers on the company health plan will pay a $200 monthly surcharge.
North Korea has successfully tested a new hypersonic gliding missile, state media reported Wednesday, in what would be the nuclear-armed nation's latest advance in weapons technology.

Tuesday's launch was of "great strategic significance", the official Korean Central News Agency said, as the North seeks to increase its defence capabilities a "thousand-fold".

Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than ordinary ones, making them much harder for missile defence systems -- on which the US is spending billions -- to intercept.

The launch from Jagang province "confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile", along with its "guiding manoeuvrability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead" and the engine, according to KCNA.

"The test results proved that all the technical specifications met the design requirements", it added.

The launch of the missile, which it identified as the Hwasong-8, was watched by top official Pak Jong Chon, it said, making no mention of leader Kim Jong Un.

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a picture of the weapon -- with a set of guidance fins at the base of its nose cone -- ascending into the morning sky.

The South's military had announced the launch shortly after it happened on Tuesday, but it did not officially reveal the missile's maximum altitude and flight distance afterwards, information that it normally makes available within around an hour.

Also read: North Korea says hope is alive for peace, summit with South

South Korean media reports cited unidentified sources saying the projectile had "different flight features" from previous launches and President Moon Jae-in called for "comprehensive analysis" of the event.

Both Koreas are building up their weapons capabilities in what could become an arms race on the divided peninsula, with ramifications for neighbouring Japan and China and the wider region.

The nuclear-armed North, which invaded the South in 1950, is under multiple international sanctions over its banned nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes, and earlier this month said it had tested a long-range cruise missile.

Developing the hypersonic missile was one of five "top priority" tasks in the five-year plan for strategic weapons, KCNA said.

Seoul is also spending billions on military development and this month successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) for the first time, making it one of a handful of nations with the advanced technology.

On Tuesday, it held a ceremony to launch its third SLBM submarine.

Washington and Seoul are security allies and the United States stations around 28,500 troops in the South to protect it from its neighbour.

Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been largely at a standstill since a 2019 summit in Hanoi between leader Kim and then-president Donald Trump collapsed over sanctions relief and what North Korea would be willing to give up in return.

Pyongyang has since then repeatedly excoriated the South and its president Moon, and blown up a liaison office on its side of the border that Seoul had built.

The administration of President Joe Biden -- which condemned Tuesday's launch as a sanctions violation and a threat to the international community -- has repeatedly said that it is willing to meet North Korean officials anywhere, at any time, without preconditions, in its efforts to seek denuclearisation.

But the North has not shown any willingness to give up its arsenal, which it says it needs to defend itself against a US invasion.
The Taliban which now rules Afghanistan has failed to honour the 2020 Doha Agreement, a top American military general told lawmakers on Tuesday, asserting that most importantly the outfit has not renounced the Al Qaeda.

Under the Doha Agreement, the United States would begin to withdraw its forces contingent upon the Taliban meeting certain conditions, which would lead to a political agreement between the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee,

There were seven conditions applicable to the Taliban and eight conditions applicable to the United States under the agreement, he said.

Read more: US generals say they recommended leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan

While the Taliban did not attack US forces, which was one of the conditions, it failed to fully honour any other condition under the Doha Agreement. And, perhaps most importantly for US national security, the Taliban has never renounced Al-Qaeda or broke its affiliation with them, he said.

The United States, on the other hand, adhered to every condition, the official noted.

Milley said it is clear the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms the United States wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul.

And we must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organisation, and they still have not broken ties with Al-Qaeda. I have no illusions who we are dealing with. It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war, he asserted.

But we must continue to protect the United States of America and its people from terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan. A reconstituted Al-Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the US is a very real possibility. And those conditions to include activity in ungoverned spaces could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months, he said.

General Milley said such a mission will be much harder now but not impossible.

Responding to a question, he said he believes Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan and that they have aspirations to reconstitute.

And if they develop the capability, I believe they have aspirations to strike. It is too early in the process to determine the capability, but I do believe . Al-Qaeda is still at war with the United States , he said.

On withdrawal from Afghanistan, the senior official said it makes it much more difficult for the US to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and find-fix functions.

Then we can strike almost from anywhere in the world, but the find-fix function is more difficult. We can still do it, it is not impossible, but it will make it more difficult, Milley added.

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Top US generals said Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden to keep American troops in Afghanistan and expressed concern that the Taliban has not severed ties with Al-Qaeda.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said they had personally recommended that some 2,500 troops remain on the ground in Afghanistan.

Biden, in April, ordered a complete pullout of US forces from the country by August 31, following through on an agreement reached with the Taliban by former president Donald Trump.

Milley, McKenzie and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were grilled for nearly six hours by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation from Kabul airport.

Read | China, NATO officials discuss Afghanistan, regional tensions

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had received "split" advice about what to do in Afghanistan, which the United States invaded following the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

"Ultimately, it's up to the commander-in-chief to make a decision," Psaki said. "He made a decision that it was time to end a 20-year war."

Milley, who shrugged off calls from some Republican lawmakers for him to resign, was asked whether the pullout and disorderly evacuation, during which 13 American troops were killed in bomb attack, had damaged US credibility.

"I think that our credibility with allies and partners around the world and with adversaries is being intensely reviewed by them to see which way this is going to go and I think 'damage' is one word that could be used, yes," he said.

Milley said the Taliban "was and remains a terrorist organization and they still have not broken ties with Al-Qaeda," which plotted the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan.

"It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will fracture into further civil war," he said. "But we must continue to protect the American people from terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan."

A reconstituted Al Qaeda or Islamic State with aspirations to attack America remains "a very real possibility," he said, but "it's too early to determine their capability."

Austin said the United States "did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership" in the Afghan armed forces.

Read | Taliban issue no-shave order to barbers in Afghan province

"We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation," he said.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away -- in many cases without firing a shot -- took us all by surprise," the Pentagon chief said. "It would be dishonest to claim otherwise."

Austin said the United States had provided the Afghan military "with equipment and aircraft and the skills to use them" but "in the end, we couldn't provide them with the will to win."

Milley also testified about calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the waning months of the Trump presidency.

He said they were intended to "de-escalate" tensions and the former president had no aim of attacking China.

"I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese," Milley said.

"My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: stay calm and steady and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you," he said.

The calls between Milley and his Chinese counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, were first revealed in the book "Peril" by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The first call was on October 30, four days before the US presidential election, and the second was on January 8, two days after supporters of Trump stormed the US Capitol in an effort to prevent certification of Biden's victory.

Some Republican lawmakers have accused Milley of overstepping his authority and called for him to resign.

Milley defended his actions and said the calls were coordinated with the then-secretaries of defense.

"The specific purpose of the October and January calls was generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack by the US," Milley said.

"These military-to-military communications at the highest levels are critical to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crisis, and prevent war between great powers armed with nuclear weapons," he said.

"At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command," Milley added.

The top US general nevertheless admitted to speaking with Woodward before the publication of "Peril," as well as with other journalists who have written highly critical books on the last months of Trump's term.

"I think it's very very important to make sure that senior officials talk to the media and all of its various forms in order to explain what we're doing," Milley said, noting, however, he could not confirm that his words were accurately represented in the books, having not read them.

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Long lines are snaking down streets across the UK as drivers struggle to fill up their cars, causing widespread traffic misery and worries over whether the emergency services can do their work.

Also read: BP says nearly a third of its UK fuel stations running on empty

The British army has been put on standby to help out. And the government is blaming the public, urging people not to panic. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, people hear the word panic and do just that  panic-buying fuel on a scale not seen since September 2000 when a similar crisis brought the country to a virtual standstill.

Here's a look at how the crisis is unfolding:

What is going on?

In recent months, many companies have reported shortages, including fast-food chains KFC, McDonald's and Nando's. Supermarket shelves have also run dry.

At first, the shortages drew a shrug. An inconvenience for some, but hardly the stuff to shake an economy or a government. But Thursday's news from oil giants BP and ExxonMobil that they were having to close some gas stations as a result of a truck driver shortage changed that.

People, especially those with memories of the 2000 crisis, knew where this could end and headed to the pump. Rationally they'd say. Others, seeing what was unfolding, whether live or on television or social media, have followed suit.

Is there a fuel shortage?

The British government insists there is not.

That's true, but the process of keeping the country's gas stations flowing involves the seamless interaction of a number of activities. So when one or more aspects of the process are out of kilter, the whole system can grind to a halt.

Critics say Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also to blame for failing to address the issue of a lack of truckers  he has been warned for months that there is a shortage of around 100,000 drivers across the trucking sector overall.

Replenishing stocks becomes even more difficult if the driver shortage remains and people persist in their changed routines. It's a self-perpetuating crisis that can  as 2000 showed  lead to the economy chugging to a halt in a matter of days.

Is Brexit to blame for the shortage of truck drivers?

The pro-Brexit Conservative government is keen to downplay talk that the truck driver shortage is a result of Britain's departure from the European Union.

However, when the country left the economic orbit of the EU at the start of this year, one of the bloc's main tenets ceased to apply  the freedom of people to move within the EU to find work. With Brexit, many tens of thousands of drivers left the UK to go back to their homes in the EU, further pressuring an industry already facing long-term staffing issues.

What other factors are to blame?

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the staffing issues, prompting thousands of EU drivers to leave the UK. The series of lockdown restrictions also led to difficulties in training and testing new home-grown drivers to replace those who left.

In addition, the pandemic accelerated the number of British drivers, many of whom were nearing retirement age, calling it a day. Relatively low pay, changes in the way truck drivers' incomes are taxed and a paucity of facilities  toilets and showers, for example  have also diminished the job's appeal to younger workers. In short, it's been a perfect storm.

What is the government trying to do in the short-term?

Everyone agrees there are no quick fixes. The main thrust from government appears to be to get motorists to go back to their normal routines  go to the pump only when needed.

There are few signs of that happening, prompting warnings about how the crisis is compromising patient care as doctors and nurses struggle to get to work.

Johnson appeared on Tuesday to dial down blaming the public, acknowledging how frustrating and infuriating it must be to worry about shortages of fuel. He said the situation is starting to improve as supplies return and urged people to go about their business in a normal way.

What about the medium to longer term?

The government is trying to entice former British drivers back into the industry, as well as to accelerate the training of new drivers. And it has put army personnel on standby to drive the fuel tankers.

It's also offering visas to 5,000 foreign drivers to come to the UK for three months. Whether many will opt to come for such a short time and then face a race to get back home for Christmas remains to be seen.

Will it work?

The hope is that the demand-and-supply balance will get back to normal soon, partly because so many people will have filled up their cars already. Over the coming months, the structural issues facing the trucking industry will remain and there are fears that similar disruptions to supplies will hit other sectors.

It's not just the trucking industry facing labour shortages following Brexit and the pandemic. There are concerns within the farming community, for example, that much of this year's harvest will be left to rot because there aren't enough agricultural workers around.

Will there be enough turkeys for Christmas?
Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, has arrived in Washington D.C. for a visit  just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned from a tour to the United States.

Gen. Rawat visited Joint Base Lewis-McChord  home to the I Corps of the US Army and the 62nd Airlift Wing of the US Air Force  in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. He discussed issues of bilateral defence cooperation with Major General Xavier T. Brunson, the Commanding General of the I Corps of the US Army, according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Army.

The I Corps is a formation of the United States Army Pacific (USARPAC)  the army component unit of the United States Indo-Pacific Command.

His visit comes just days after the Prime Minister had bilateral meetings with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington D.C.

Modi and Biden reviewed the bilateral defence cooperation during the meeting.

The Prime Minister also last week joined the US President, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japans outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for the first in-person summit of the Quad, a coalition forged by the four nations to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Gen Rawat is likely to meet the top brass of the US Army during his stay in Washington D.C. His visit will also set the stage for Defence Minister Rajnath Singhs stateside visit for a meeting with his counterpart Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, later this year. Singh and Austin will join External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart American Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the India-US 2+2 dialogue in Washington D.C.

The Chief of Defence Staff had visited Russia last week.

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Designated terrorist groups such as ISIS and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have continued to gain in strength in Syria, India has said, reiterating that there can be no military solution to the longstanding conflict in the country.

In his remarks to the UN Security Council briefing on Syria (Political) on Tuesday, Joint Secretary (UN Economic and Social) Srinivas Gotru said the long-term security and stability in West Asia can only be achieved by preserving the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the war-ravaged country.

"We have been referring to the involvement of external actors in Syria and its impact on the growth of terrorism both in Syria and in the region. The designated terrorist groups such as ISIS and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have continued to gain in strength in Syria and their activities have been mentioned in the Secretary General's recent report, he said.

Gotru said ISIS has also targeted energy infrastructure in some instances while Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to have a dominating influence in Idlib.

He cited the latest report of UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh (UNITAD) which also referred to the repeated deployments of chemical weapons by ISIS against civilian populations between 2014-16.

"This is a cause for serious concern and needs to be fully recognised and acted upon given that the core area of operations of ISIS include Syria as well, Gotru said.

He stressed that long-term security and stability in West Asia can only be achieved by preserving the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.

We remain convinced that there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict and reaffirm our commitment to advancing a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated political process in line with the UN Security Council Resolution, he said.

Gotru said the last few weeks have seen developments of interest on the Syria political track.

The important countries having influence on Syria have also held discussions informally. There have been high level engagements between Syria and Russia.

The Constitutional Committee was set up nearly two years back, and the process of drafting the Constitution needs to begin. The efforts of the last two years have made it clear that the external influence remains the major impeding factor, hampering the progress on the political track, he said.

India called on all external actors to desist from adversely influencing the parties concerned and hoped that these ongoing efforts will reenergise the political track.

India takes note of the convening of the sixth meeting of the small body of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva on 18th of October, Gotru said, adding that this is a "positive development and all sides need to engage constructively with the UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen on his bridging proposals.

The process has to remain a Syrian-led and Syrian-driven process, and facilitated by the UN, he said, adding that on the security front, the ceasefire agreement in Daraa is a welcome development.

However, we remain concerned with the overall situation in Syria, including in the northeast and the northwest.

The Secretary-General's recent report mentioned that military activities and hostilities have increased in recent months, seriously affecting the civilian population.

We believe that the nationwide comprehensive ceasefire is paramount to the interest of the Syrian people and will help in ensuring that positive developments like the first crossline humanitarian aid operation from Aleppo to Idlib can take firm roots and not remain a one-off occurrence, he said.

Gotru said India has extended developmental assistance, and human resource development support to Syria through grants, lines of credit for development projects, supply of food and medicine, artificial limb fitment camps, capacity building and training programmes.

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Three years after a 34-year-old biker died mysteriously during a practice run in a desert here in Jaisalmer before the India-Baja Motorsports Rally, the police have arrested two of his friends for meticulously executing the murder in collusion with his wife.

Biker Asbak Mon's friends Sanjay and Vishwas were arrested from Bengaluru on September 22 and brought here, police said, adding other accused persons, including Mons wife Sumera Parvez and some other friends, will be arrested soon. Mon had died on August 16, 2018 during a practice run in the desert before the motorsports event, police said, adding he was initially said to have lost his way in the desert and suspected to have died of dehydration.

His wife too had not suspected any foul play and the police had closed the case after registering the incident under CrPC provisions. The case was reopened last year after Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh while examining old cases, found several discrepancies in the incident involving the biker's death.

The discrepancies included insufficient efforts of Moms wife and his friends, with whom he had gone on the practice run in the desert, to search him, besides some photographs showing injury marks on the deceased body and his properly-parked motorcycle, Jaisalmers Additional Superintendent of Police Narendra Choudhary said.

Call records of Mons wife and friends and their behaviour too raised suspicions, he said, adding Mons family members from Kunnur in Kerala too had been crying foul in the incident following which a murder case was registered in December 2020 and two of his friends were arrested now.

The police are also on the lookout for some other friends of Mon, who had come to Jaisalmer to participate in the rally along with his wife and three other friends Sabik, Neeraj and Santosh.

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Some of India's private hospitals have cancelled orders for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as they struggle to sell Covid-19 shots amid surging supplies of free doses of other vaccines offered by the government.

Some industry officials said low demand and the extremely cold storage temperatures required have spurred at least three big hospitals to cancel orders for Sputnik V, sold only on the private market in the world's biggest producer of vaccines.

Also read: Sputnik Light gets DCGI nod for bridging trials in India

"With storage and everything, we have cancelled our order for 2,500 doses," said Jitendra Oswal, a senior medical official at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in the western city of Pune.

"Demand is also not great. There is a class of people, barely 1 per cent, that wanted to go for Sputnik. For the rest, anything would do."

From May until last week, private hospitals doled out just about 6 per cent of all vaccines administered in India, although the government had freed them to buy up to a quarter of domestic output, health ministry data show.

India is a major production centre of Sputnik V, with planned capacity of about 850 million shots a year, and low domestic uptake could mean higher exports instead, a step backers are already pushing for.

Also Read | Girls' college in Bengaluru's Electronics City turns Covid cluster with 60 cases

The health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since a June launch event by Indian distributor Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd only 943,000 doses of Sputnik V have been administered by hospitals, a fraction of the national total of more than 876 million.

Dr. Reddy's declined to comment.

The mainstay of India's inoculation drive is the AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored in regular refrigerators, unlike Sputnik V, which needs temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4F), impossible to guarantee in most of India.

The vaccine is also as much as 47 per cent more expensive than AstraZeneca on the private market.

Avis Hospitals, which runs eight vaccination centres in the southern city of Hyderabad, has also cancelled an order for 10,000 Sputnik V doses, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter who sought anonymity in discussing business matters.

Avis did not respond to an email seeking comment.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

Another Pune hospital, which declined to be identified in order to keep intact its ties to Dr. Reddy's, which is also a major drug supplier, said it had also cancelled its Sputnik V orders.

Sputnik V is just one of the vaccines suffering from a sharp fall in private sales.

Pune's Bharati hospital will end its Covid-19 vaccination programme when it runs out of AstraZeneca doses, as daily inoculations have fallen about 90% to 100, since private sales picked up in May and June, Oswal said.

Just 9,000 doses remain of stocks of 62,000 it ordered.

Avis's Covid-19 vaccine sales have shrunk 40 per cent with existing stocks expected to last until December, instead of October, said the source.

India's monthly production of vaccine, mainly of the AstraZeneca shot known domestically as Covishield, has quadrupled to 300 million doses from April, when a dramatic surge in infections and deaths prompted a halt in exports.

Overseas sales are to resume in October.

Covishield accounts for 88 per cent of India's inoculations, followed by Bharat Biotech's domestically developed Covaxin, both administered free, mainly at government centres, since mid-January.
"If you are Lord Balaji's devotee, you must be patient," Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Wednesday told in Telugu to a man alleging irregularities in conducting rituals at the Tirupati Balaji temple.

Srivari Dadda, a devotee of Lord Venkateshwara Swamy, alleged irregularities in conduct of 'sevas' and rituals at the Tirupati Temple.

"I, my brother and sister are also devotees of Balaji. You can't be impatient. Every day you cannot threaten the registry to list the petition or I will do this or that. This is not done," the CJI told the petitioner.

The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, asked the petitioner, who was continuously pressing his prayers alleging irregularities in the conduct of rituals at the temple, to be patient and listen to the court.

Justice Ramana queried Dadda, how the court could interfere in conducting of puja.

He pointed out this is a constitutional court and not a local court, where the petitioner could say whatever he intended to.

Dadda replied that it is about fundamental right.

The Chief Justice asked him if how to conduct pooja is a fundamental right.

The bench emphasised it also expected that all rituals will be conducted according to the traditions.

The court finally granted one week time to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to clarify the allegations.

The bench also asked the standing counsel appearing for the respondent TTD as to what happened to Daddas representation.

The court asked the counsel to take instructions in the matter and fixed it for hearing on October 6.

Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed the PIL filed by Daadaa by holding that the procedure of conducting rituals is the exclusive domain of the Devasthanams and it cannot become a matter of adjudication, unless it affected secular or civil rights of others.

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A day after resigning as Punjab Congress chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday questioned the appointments of the Director General of Police and the state's Advocate General, claiming his fight is "issue-based" for which he will "keep fighting for truth till my last breath" and that he could not compromise with his ethics and morality.

Sidhu had, on Tuesday, made a surprise announcement of his resignation, shortly after the new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi distributed portfolios to his Cabinet colleagues. The cricketer-turned-politician was miffed over the selection of some ministers and appointments to senior administrative posts.

In a video posted on Twitter, Sidhu said his objective had always been to improve the lives of people and "to make a difference" and his "fight is for the issues and an agenda of Punjab.

-         pic.twitter.com/LWnBF8JQxu  Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) September 29, 2021

"My fight is issue-based and I have stood by it for a long time. I cannot compromise with my ethics, my moral authority. What I witnessed is a compromise with issues, agenda in Punjab. I cannot misguide the high command nor can I let them be misguided," Sidhu said in the over four-minute video in Punjabi.

He said he has "no personal rivalry with anyone" and "17 years of my political career has been for a purpose, to make a difference, to take a stand and to make people's lives better. This is my only religion".

Read | Miffed Sidhu raises questions over DGP, AG appointments

"I will make any sacrifice to stand by principles. I don't need to think much for it. I broke the system where tainted ministers and officers were accommodated. Now tainted ministers and officers can't be appointed again. I oppose such appointments," he added.

In an apparent reference to giving additional charge of DGP to senior IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, he said, "when I see those who gave clean chit to Badals six years agosuch persons have been given the responsibility for delivering justice." Sahota headed the Special Investigation Team formed in 2015 by the then Akali government to probe the sacrilege incidents.

He also questioned the appointment of APS Deol as the new advocate general and said, "those who secured blanket bails, he is Advocate General." Deol had been a counsel for former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in various cases.

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The 'G-23' leaders in the Congress on Wednesday targeted the top leadership as the party plunged into a crisis in Punjab with senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad seeking a meeting of the Congress Working Committee and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal saying that nobody knows who takes decisions in the party in the absence of an elected president.

Azad wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking a meeting of the CWC, party's highest decision-making body, which Sibal said would give them an opportunity to talk about issues that they cannot raise outside and discuss why the party is "in such a state".

Addressing a press conference here, Sibal took a dig at the Gandhis without taking names and said it was "ironic" that those who were considered close to them have left the party while those who they do not consider close are still standing with the party. "We are not the ones who will leave the ideology of the party and go anywhere else."

However, he said questions have to be raised as to why people like Sushmita Dev, Jitin Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Luizinho Faleiro among others have left the party.

DH Toon | Rahul Gandhi's experiments with reality!

"In our party, at the moment, there is no president. So we don't know who is taking these decisions. We know and yet we don't know," Sibal said, adding that efforts should be taken to bring back all those who have left the party as Congress is the only organisation that can take on the Narendra Modi government that is "destroying the very foundation" of the country.

Sibal's remarks did not go down well with a section in the party as a number of party workers held a protest near his house with 'Get Well Soon' posters.

. @INCIndia workers protest against Kapil Sibal with 'Get Well Soon' posters after he questioned the party leadership, including on Punjab developments @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/cKGcMiGdLp  Shemin (@shemin_joy) September 29, 2021

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken said, "Sonia- ji had ensured that Sibal becomes Union Minister despite not having organisational background. Everyone in the party is being heard. I want to tell Sibal and others that they should not degrade the organisation that gave them an identity."

Sibal said he was speaking on behalf of like-minded Congmen, who wrote a letter and are still awaiting action with regard to elections to the office of Congress president.

"We are not 'Jee Huzoor-23' (Yes Men G-23). It is very clear. We will keep talking. We will continue to reiterate our demands," he said as he reiterated the demand for an elected party president, CWC and Central Election Committee.

The G-23 is a group of leaders, including Azad, Sibal, Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari among others, who had written to interim party chief Sonia seeking an early election to the party presidentship and CWC.

On the developments in Punjab Congress, he said the happenings in Punjab would mean that it is an "advantage" to the ISI and Pakistan. He said Congress should take efforts to ensure that the party remains united and in that case, it should discuss among themselves if somebody has an issue.

Calling for an "open dialogue and consultation", he said there is a need to understand each other's points of view. "The organisational structure should be strengthened," he said.

He said they could not see a diminishing Congress and several people are leaving the party. "Every Congressman of the country should think as to how the party can be strengthened. Those who have left should come back because Congress alone can save this republic," he said.

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Close to 100 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) transgressed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Barahoti sector in Uttarakhand last month, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.

The transgression took place on August 30, and the Chinese troops returned from the area after spending few hours, they said. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel are deployed in the area.

The people cited above said as part of a tit-for-tat strategy, Indian troops carried out patrolling.

There was no official comment on the Chinese transgression.

The incident comes amid a continuing stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in a number of areas in eastern Ladakh though both sides completed disengagement in two sensitive locations.

The people cited above said minor transgressions have been taking place in Barahoti because of differing perceptions about the LAC by both sides.

However, what surprised the Indian officials was the number of PLA personnel who transgressed on August 30.

The Chinese side has also significantly ramped up infrastructure development along the LAC in the sector. India has been maintaining a strict vigil along the nearly 3,500-km LAC following the eastern Ladakh standoff.

The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year in eastern Ladakh following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area.

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.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector.

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AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Punjab government has been reduced to a "tamasha" and urged new CM Charanjit Singh Channi to immediately remove "tainted" ministers from his cabinet.

The Delhi CM said this at the Chandigarh airport, a day after the Congress was pushed into a fresh crisis by the resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu from the post of the state party.

Sidhu on Wednesday in a video message flagged the issue of appointment of "tainted" officials and ministers.

Kejriwal, who is the Delhi CM, also asked the Punjab CM to act on the promises made by his predecessor, including the action in the Bargari desecration case.

Also Read | Congress in knots in Punjab: After removing CM Amarinder, Sidhu resigns as PCC chief

During the previous SAD-BJP regime, torn pages of a religious text were found at Bargari in Faridkot. Later, in police firing incidents protesters, two people were killed at Behbal Kalan and many injured in Kotkapura.

"We are seeing what kind of political atmosphere is prevailing in the state. Political instability is there, which is unfortunate," said Kejriwal, who arrived on a two-day visit to Punjab.

"A dirty fight for power is going on. People are not able to understand whom they should approach for their problems," he said.

"They have reduced the government to a 'tamasha'," alleged Kejriwal.

Also Read | Dalit-Sikh? The sociology of caste in Punjab

He said accusations have been made that Channi has inducted "tainted" people in his Cabinet.

"I request that they should be removed forthwith, cases be registered against them and they be dealt with strictly," he said.

While he congratulated Channi on his elevation as the Punjab CM, Kejriwal said people of the state want him to act on five issues, including the Bargari desecration case.

"The mastermind in the sacrilege incidents have not been punished till now. I don't need to tell who the mastermind are. Their names are there in the report of Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh and Channi can go through that. The culprits can be arrested within 24 hours," he said.

Kejriwal said the promises made by former chief minister Amarinder Singh to the people of Punjab should be fulfilled by the Channi-led government.

"Amarinder had promised to give jobs to the youth and till the time they got one, he had promised to give unemployment allowance. That allowance should be given. He had promised loan waiver to farmers," he said.

Kejriwal also said the Congress government should scrap the power purchase agreements.

The Delhi CM reminded Channi that despite being in power for 49 days in the first term, his government did many works and the Punjab CM still has four months left before the state goes to polls.

"I had 49 days when I first came in power. During that short period, I had halved power rates, made water free and eliminated corruption. If I could do so many works in 49 day period, then Channi too can fulfil pending works," he said.

The AAP leader said only his party can give a stable and honest government in Punjab.

"Four months remain to the polls and after the elections, AAP will give an honest and a stable government," said Kejriwal, who was accompanied by state unit chief Bhagwant Mann and senior party leader Raghav Chadha.

Asked about who will be the chief ministerial face of AAP, Kejriwal said, "I have repeatedly said we will give such a face on which you and the entire Punjab will be proud of."

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Ashiq Shaikh, a local resident hopes he will not have to travel to Gagangir, about 15 kilometres from here, when heavy snowfall cuts off access to this tourist town.

The excavation work on the 6.5 kilometre Z-Morh tunnel near here has been completed and it could be thrown open for selective use during winter months this year allowing access to Sonamarg Valley.

If tourists are allowed to visit this winter, we may not have to migrate to Gagangir, said Shaikh, who works in one of the fast mushrooming hotels here.

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) Executive Director G S Kambo said the 'Z-Morh' tunnel will be opened "selectively" this winter. NHIDCL is developing highways in the Himalayan region.

Also Read | Centre eyes to win Kashmiri hearts through tourist infrastructure push

Amit Kumar, a bell boy in a hotel, travels all the way from Jharkhand every April since 2010, to earn his livelihood. He is wary of the extreme cold conditions but wont mind staying back to earn the extra buck if tourists visit this picturesque destination to enjoy the snow.

I hope the tunnel opens soon and we can have more tourists here, Kumar said when asked about all weather connectivity to Sonamarg.

Fayed Khan, a senior police officer in Ganderbal district, said the avalanche-prone Hung Park area between Gagangir and Sonamarg is buried under six meters of snow during winters.

All residents of Sonamarg migrate to Gagangir and adjoining villages as there is no connectivity during winter months, Khan told DH.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government was building 20 tunnels in Jammu and Kashmir, and 11 tunnels in Ladakh to provide all-weather access to regions that remain cut off from the rest of the country during harsh winters.

The 14.15 km long Zoji La tunnel under construction about 15 kilometres away from here at Baltal would provide all-weather connectivity from Sonamarg to Drass in Ladakh.

However, hotelier Nazir Ahmed is skeptical of the high talk of development of the region by the government.

We have Pakistan on one side and China on the other. Kashmir is a tinderbox and the region could be up in flames at the slightest provocation, Ahmed said.

In anticipation of all-weather access to Sonamarg, a number of hotels and resorts have come up in the region over the past few years. The government also plans to promote the region as a business convention destination on the lines of Davos in Switzerland.

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A man was administered an anti-rabies medicine instead of Covid-19 vaccine at a medical centre in Maharashtra's Thane district, following which a doctor and a nurse of the facility were suspended, a civic official said.

Local resident Rajkumar Yadav went to the civic-run medical centre in Kalwa area here on Monday to get a jab against the coronavirus infection. He stood in a wrong queue and after being vaccinated, he was informed that he was administered the vaccine against rabies, a spokesperson of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) told reporters on Tuesday.

The man panicked, but he is fine and has no complications, the official said. He later complained to authorities and based on a preliminary enquiry, a woman doctor, who was in-charge of the medical centre, and a nurse were placed under suspension for the goof-up, the official said.

The medical centre, located in a slum colony of Kalwa, provides vaccination against various diseases to people in the area.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the Trojan Horse of the BJP and should be kept out of all efforts to cobble up an opposition platform ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged on Wednesday.

In an interview to PTI, Chowdhury said Banerjee was an "untrustworthy ally", trying to grow nationally at the cost of the Congress.

"Mamata Banerjee has always tried to bite the hand that fed her. She should be kept out of the efforts to form opposition unity. She is the Trojan Horse of the BJP, who can never be trusted in the fight against the BJP," he said.

"She is desperately trying to please Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to protect her family and party leaders from the clutches of the CBI and ED. In return, she is helping the BJP achieve its target of Congress-mukt Bharat (Congress-free India). The TMC is trying to sabotage the opposition unity," claimed Chowdhury, the state president of the Congress.

Also Read | Congress an irrelevant, rotting puddle: TMC mouthpiece

He said that TMC has always grown at the cost of Congress.

"First, they did it in Bengal, and now they are trying to do it nationally. The TMC is known for backstabbing its allies," he claimed.

His comments came as the Trinamool Congress has been inducting Congress leaders to bolster its national presence. Among the heavyweight Congress leaders who joined the TMC are Sushmita Dev and former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro.

"Mamata Banerjee is dreaming of becoming the next prime minister of the country, and Congress seems to be their biggest roadblock. As long as the Congress is there, she can never be the leader of the opposition front, and that is why she is trying to tarnish the image of the Congress and undermine its leadership," Chowdhury said.

Also Read | TMC in Goa looks like 'Modi-Shah' model and not 'Mamata' model, says Congress

On an article in the TMC's mouthpiece that claimed Banerjee and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is the opposition face against Modi, he said the party's leadership was living in a "fool's paradise".

"Rahul Gandhi has been the most consistent opposition voice against the BJP and the RSS. Congress still commands a 20 per cent vote share in the country. Apart from BJP, can you name any other party with such a vote share? The answer is no," he said.

Lauding Gandhi's leadership, Chowdhury said the BJP and certain opposition parties deliberately try to discredit him as they were "afraid of him".

He said the Congress has never claimed to be the leader of the opposition front as it was the "natural leader".

"Without Congress, there can never be any anti-BJP front in the country. The opposition unity is based on shared ideas and policies, and should not be at the cost of the Congress," he said.

On the crisis in the party's Punjab unit, Chowdhury said that he hoped it would be resolved soon.

"Congress is a liberal party, and we allow everybody to place their opinions. Amarinder Singh is a respected leader and no one has ever doubted his administrative capabilities. But, the change of guard was necessary due to growing incumbency in Punjab and a large section of MLAs wanted the change," he said.

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A Pakistani terrorist, who was captured alive by the Indian Army during a live encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri sector, has asked his handlers in the neighbouring country to take him back to his mother.

"I appeal to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) area commander, the ISI and the Pakistan Army to take me back to my mother just like they sent me here (India)," Ali Babar Patra, the teenage terrorist from Pakistan, said in a video message released by the Army here on Wednesday.

Patra was nabbed by the Army during a live encounter in the Uri sector on September 26, when he asked for his life to be spared. Another Pakistani infiltrator was killed in the nine-day operation that began on September 18.

In the video message, Patra said the Pakistan Army, the ISI and the LeT were spreading lies about the situation in Kashmir.

Also Read | Pakistani terrorist captured by Army along LoC in Kashmir; seven infiltrators killed in Uri in last 9 days

"We were told that the Indian Army is carrying out a bloodbath, but everything is peaceful here. I want to tell my mother that the Indian Army has taken good care of me," he said.

He also said the behaviour of the officers and jawans of the Indian Army with the locals who visit the camp where he was lodged was extremely good.

"I can hear the azaan (call for prayers) on the loudspeakers five times a day. The behaviour of the Indian Army is completely opposite to that of the Pakistan Army. This makes me feel that there is peace in Kashmir," Patra said.

"On the contrary, they take advantage of our helplessness in Pakistani Kashmir to send us here," he added.

Giving details of his initiation into terror ranks, Patra said he lost his father seven years ago and had to drop out of school due to financial constraints.

"I took a job in a garment factory in Sialkot where I met Anas who used to recruit people for the LeT. Due to my situation, I went with him. He paid me Rs 20,000 and promised to pay another Rs 30,000 later on," he added.

Patra also shared the details of the weapons training he underwent with the Pakistan Army and the ISI at Camp Khyber Delihabibullah.

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The first uniform sign language alphabet in Malayalam, developed by deaf Indian Sign Language (ISL) experts, was released here on Wednesday by Minister for Higher Education Dr R Bindu, who said it would help bring about a qualitative change in the lives of those who are hearing impaired.

The minister, speaking at the event held for release of the alphabet, promised to consider implementing it in special schools. "Discussions will be initiated with the General Education Department regarding the use of Malayalam alphabet in sign language in special schools across the state, Dr Bindu said while releasing the sign language alphabet developed by the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH), in collaboration with All Kerala Association of the Deaf.

The minister said the development of the sign language alphabet in Malayalam was a proud achievement of the Social Justice Department and NISH and the result of the dedicated effort of NISH.

Also Read | Where in Bengaluru can you learn sign language?

"Currently, English and Hindi have alphabets in sign language. The newly developed alphabet in Malayalam will open up immense possibilities for the hearing impaired community," she said.

The minister also said that the government will also make use of technology to ensure physical and mental support to the hearing-impaired and extend all support to NISH to help it become a global institution.

The Malayalam alphabet, consisting of vowels and consonants, is finger-spelled in sign language and its primary phase has been designed exclusively for the deaf schools across Kerala, a release issued by the Social Justice department said.

"The new sign language alphabet in Malayalam will eliminate the challenge of teachers in conveying messages through lip movement," it added.

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The cyber wing of the Kerala Police, known for its high alertness against unlawful social media trolling and cyberbullying, is now caught in a quandary as their bosses have become subject of troll over their nexus with fake antique merchant Monson Mavunkal.

Memes ridiculing the police and pictures of senior officers with the accused at his "house-turned-antique museum" are being widely circulated by trollers. Apart from ridiculing comments, serious ones raising concern over the credibility of the state police force have also gone viral.

Incidentally, the widely circulated pictures are of former state police chief Loknath Behera and ADGP (Headquarters) Manoj Abraham, who had played key roles in enhancing the cyber wings of the Kerala Police by setting up new wings like Cyberdome. While Behera is seen sitting on an 'antique' throne, Abraham is posing with an 'antique' sword. Mavunkal had misused the pictures of prominent personalities at his museum for endorsing his so-called genuine artefacts.

A former DIG and family celebrating Vishu at Mavunkal's house and the accused posing with many senior police officers, including present state police chief Anil Kant, are some of the pictures being widely circulated.

Also Read | Kerala minister, others deny connection with fake antiques seller Mavunkal as fresh allegations emerge

The help extended by senior police officers to probe beat police patrolling surveillance to Mavunkal's "museum" in Kochi and attempts to sabotage the investigation against him were the other serious charges levelled against the police.

A senior police officer of the cyber unit told DH that the police could act against the trolls only if there are any offensive comments or manipulations in pictures. So far no such instance has been noticed.

According to sources, the senior police officers were reportedly taken for a ride by Mavunkal and were carried away by his fake antique collection.

Despite the police facing widespread criticism in the social media, the state's main opposition party Congress-led United Democratic Front, is yet to launch an aggressive attack against the Left Front government over the issue as Congress state president K Sudhakaran himself is caught up in links with the accused. The BJP state leadership demanded a probe against the police officers.

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A 15th-century religious book is being reviewed by the Kerala government after it was found to be widely used to attract youths to extremism.

The state police's special branch mooted a ban on the book tilted 'Mashari al-Ashwaq ila Masari al Ushaaq written by Islamic scholar Ahmed Ibrahim Muhammed al Dimashqi al Dumyati, known as Ibn Nuhass.

The state special branch that carries out cyber patrolling to check radicalisation of youths came across the widespread circulation of this book, among many other materials, to lure youths to extremist outfits.

Last year itself the special branch sought a government ban on the book so that its circulation online could be curbed. Following repeated requests highlighting the necessity to ban, the state government now decided to appoint a committee to review the book and give report.

The committee would comprise of legal expert Dr. N K Jayakumar, state Information and Public Relations Department director and IG (Internal Security). Based on the committee's recommendation the government would take a decision on the matter.

The book written in 1411 was found to be widely circulated among those interested in Islamic fundamentalism. It makes references to destruction of non-believers and was also referred to as a book of jihad.

Kerala police had been carrying out cyber patrolling against radicalisation attempts after several instances of Malayali youths being recruited to outfits like ISIS were reported. Around 100 Malayalis had so far joined various extremist outfits.

The state special branch wing is also carry out de-radicalisation measures among youths who were found to be getting attracted to the radicalisation efforts.

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Over 12 to 14 people have died in the last days as the Cyclone Gulab-triggered flash-floods swept parts of the Marathwada region and its neighbouring areas in Maharashtra.

The adjacent Vidarbha region too received heavy rainfall - resulting in inundation at several places.

In Umarkhed tehsil, Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, a state-transport bus was swept away as it passed over a flooded culvert - as it was plying on the Nanded-Nagpur route.

Three bodies including that of the driver, conductor and a passenger have been recovered, while two persons have been rescued, reports reaching here said.

Onlookers have captured the incident on mobile phones and the videos have gone viral on social media.

The Marathwada region comprising eight districts of Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani - spread over a vast 64,590 sq km - bore the brunt of monsoon-fury.

Excessive rainfall over 65 mm was recorded in over 180 circles falling under these eight districts, according to the Aurangabad-based Divisional Commissioners office.

At least 10 persons have died in Marathwada, which also saw extensive damage to crops, poultry and cattle.

Heavy rains were reported in catchment areas of Manjara and Majalgaon dams.

The Terna river was overflowing at several palaces. NDRF teams have been dispatched to several locations even as an IAF helicopter was pressed into action to rescue four stranded persons in Osmanabad district.

The weathermen have made similar forecasts for the next couple of days. The Cyclone Gulab would continue to have its impact in Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra and Konkan, said KS Hosalikar, Head SID, Climate & Research Services, Pune.

The financial capital of Mumbai and the larger Mumbai metropolitan region comprising North Konkan districts of Palghar, Raigad and Ratnagiri too received intermittent showers, however, there has not been any disruption of the road and rail traffic.

Also Read | Rivers in spate in Kalaburagi; road connectivity cut off for some villages

With this, 434 people have been killed in rain-related incidents in the state since June 1, the disaster management department official said in Mumbai.

A total of 205 animals, including 60 large milch animals, were washed away or perished in the heavy rains over the last two days.

"With this, the total loss of livestock, including cows, buffaloes and goats, has increased up to 1,632. As many as 91,510 poultry birds are also estimated to be died in heavy rains (both figures since June 1), the official said.

The heavy rain and flood have damaged crops on several acres of agricultural land in the region, he said.

"Since yesterday (Monday), the Water Resources Department has been monitoring the situation closely. We are trying to minimise the damage," Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil told reporters in Beed.

The administration will provide all possible relief to people, the minister said. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams and choppers were deployed in parts of Marathwada to rescue stranded people.

One team of the State Disaster Response Force has also been deployed in Jalgaon district in North Maharashtra, the official said.

A total of 564 people were rescued from rain and flood-hit areas in different districts. As many as 459 people were rescued from flood-affected areas in the last 48 hours across Osmanabad district and the NDRF deployed a helicopter to reach those stranded in floodwaters, officials said on Tuesday evening.

Six persons, including two children, were rescued by the NDRF by deploying a helicopter at Dautpur village in Osmanabad tehsil, while ten persons were evacuated from Saundane Amba village in Kalamb tehsil.

The Osmanabad-Ausa road was blocked as water was flowing over the Kamegaon-Samudrawani bridge. The Manjara dam was filled to the capacity which necessitated opening of 18 gates of the dam, an official said.

Twenty persons were rescued from a house in Wakadwadi village of Kalamb tehsil. Some 125 persons were rescued in Ramwadi, 114 in Irla, 35 each in Ter and Borkheda and 90 in Dautpur, the official said.

Two teams of NDRF participated in the rescue operations. The collector of neighbouring Latur district, Prithviraj B P, told PTI that a family of three, including a child, was reportedly stranded at Pohregaon in Renapur tehsil of the district, but rescue teams could not reach the spot due to the bad weather and low visibility.

"We are trying other ways to rescue them. The helicopter (used by the NDRF) has halted in Latur. It will fly tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to rescue them," he said. A total of 77 people trapped in two villages in Beed district amid heavy rains were rescued, officials said.

"Nineteen people in Aapegaon village and 58 people in Devla trapped in farms and homes were rescued on Tuesday," Umesh Shirke, District Disaster Management Officer said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde reviewed the situation in the region and interacted with farmers in Amabajogai taluka.

An NDRF team, a helicopter and boats were deployed to rescue people stranded in barrages, villages and on the banks of a river in Latur district, which was lashed by heavy rains through the day.

While 25 out of 40 people stranded on the banks of Manjara river at Sarsa village have been rescued using boats, efforts were on to get the rest 15 to safety, an official said.

He added that three people stranded on a river basin in Digol Deshmukh area in Renapur tehsil have been also rescued.

Three employees of the state Irrigation Department were stuck in the Ghansargaon village barrage, and an NDRF team as well as a helicopter have been brought in help local personnel with the rescue effort, said District Disaster Management Officer Sakeb Usmani.

Heavy rains also lashed Mumbai and suburbs, but no major water-logging is reported so far and public transport services, including suburban trains, also remained unaffected, officials said.

A civic official said no incident of a major water-logging was reported despite heavy showers in Mumbai. Public transport services are also running normally, he added.

"Local and long-distance trains from Mumbai are running as per time table," Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway said.

Meanwhile, Water Resources Minister Patil said it is the government's duty to provide relief to farmers and it will do so. He made the comments at Ambajogai in Beed district while consoling a farmer, whose crops have been damaged in rains.

Patil is on a Marathwada tour as part of his party NCP's "Ratrashwadi Parivar Samvad Yatra" and during the tour, he reviewed the flood situation in Beed district and interacted with farmers.

While Patil was holding a meeting with party activists at Ambajogai, an elderly farmer along with his grandson came to see him.

The farmer was carrying a bunch of damaged soybean crop that was damaged due to heavy rains in Marathwada. After listening to his plight, Patil consoled him.

"Don't worry, the government is with you," Patil told the farmer and added an assessment of crop damage has been ordered.

"Extremely heavy rains" are expected at a few places in Marathwada, Mumbai and other parts of Konkan in the next 24 hours, the IMD said in Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

K S Hosalikar, senior scientist at IMD Mumbai, said, The remnants of Gulab cyclone will continue to have its impact on Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra, Konkan with few places receiving extremely heavy rainfall.

"The northern parts of Konkan and Madhya Maharashtra will receive more showers on Wednesday as well," he said. "Extremely heavy rainfall" means precipitation of more than 204.5 mm in 24 hours.

There is low pressure area of Gulab cyclone now. As it is moving towards Arabian sea, its effect on Maharashtra will decrease from Thursday, he said.

(With PTI inputs)

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A day after heavy water discharge from the Manjara dam caused flooding in some places of Maharashtra's Marathwada region, an IAF team on Wednesday rescued three people stranded at an inundated village in Latur with the help of a helicopter, a district administration official said.

Following heavy rains in Marathwada over the last few days, the NDRF was mobilised and helicopters were deployed to rescue people stuck in some of the flooded places in the region.

Also read: Heavy rains, lightning kill 13 in Maharashtra; over 560 people rescued

On Wednesday morning, a helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued three people, Nagorao Kisan Tikanare (50), his wife Rukmabai (45) and son Chandrakant (11) from Poharegaon village in Renapur tehsil, where they were stranded in the flood, the official said in a release.

After heavy showers over the last few days, rains subsided in Latur on Wednesday. Heavy water discharge from the Manjara dam on Tuesday following heavy rains led to flooding in some villages of Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts in Marathwada, officials earlier said.

On Wednesday, 12 out of the total 18 gates of the dam were closed, which reduced the water discharge from the reservoir. In the last two days, at least 13 people died in heavy showers, floods and lightning in parts of Maharashtra with the Marathwada region bearing the major brunt of rain fury, while more than 560 people were rescued after the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was mobilised and helicopters were deployed, officials said on Tuesday.

Besides, more than 200 cattle perished or were washed away and a number of houses were damaged in torrential rains that lashed Marathwada over the last few days, causing havoc in a region which is considered a perennially drought-plagued area, they said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday forecast 'extremely heavy rains' at a few places in Marathwada in the next 24 hours. The Marathwada region in central Maharashtra which faced the rain fury comprises eight districts - Aurangabad, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Jalna and Hingoli.

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Not a single accused was convicted last year in Mumbai under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989, according to the National Crime Research Bureau.

One did not associate the country's financial capital with caste crimes, but the abuse meted out to MD student Dr Payal Tadvi by her seniors in a municipal medical college, which allegedly drove the 26-year-old tribal to suicide in 2019, put paid to that belief.

In January this year, 21-year-old Mumbaikar Akash Jadhav was fatally assaulted by four drunks, who then ensured that the Dalit delivery boy's family was not allowed to use the common tap in their neighbourhood.

In neither of these cases did the police apply the Atrocities Act till forced to by activists or the State SC-ST Commission. They didn't apply it even when two Dalit families were tied to wooden poles and beaten in Chandrapur last month on the suspicion that they practised "black magic".

Also Read  Stan Swamy's death and institutional murder

It was hardly surprising then that the state's conviction rate was only 11 per cent for crimes against SCs and 12.5 per cent for crimes against STs in 2020, though crimes against these sections increased by 19 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.

Urban Dalit families returning to their villages during the lockdown became the new victims as they found themselves subject to traditional caste barriers restricting them from common amenities.

In 2010, a Planning Commission Report found that Maharashtra had notified 31 of its 35 districts as atrocity prone but had not thought fit to have a single police station dealing exclusively with SCs and STs. Not much has changed in the intervening decade.

Till 2018, i.e., almost 30 years after the Atrocities Act was passed, only four Special Courts to deal with cases under the Act had been set up. That year, Maharashtra ranked fourth in the country in crimes against STs and fifth in crimes against SCs.

From 2010 to 2018, the state had seen governments of both the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena.

That there is no difference between the two when it comes to concern for the most deprived communities is obvious from just one example: the Bhima Koregaon violence of January 1, 2018.

Then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, not surprisingly, protected Hindutvawadis Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote, who were initially charged under the IPC and the Atrocities Act for the violence. Instead, his government shifted the blame to Leftist intellectuals, 15 of whom are still under arrest, while one Jesuit priest, 84-year-old Fr Stan Swamy, died in custody.

Even though victims' testimonies before the judicial commission set up to investigate the Bhima Koregaon violence indicate that Dalits were the main target, and point to the role of followers of Ekbote and Bhide, the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition that assumed power in November 2019 has not revived the initial investigation against these two. Indeed, government apathy towards the commission continues unchanged.

To be fair, it is not Maharashtra alone that does not deal with the Atrocities Act with the seriousness it deserves. Parliament was told last year that 25 states and union territories had held not a single monitoring committee meeting between 2016-2018; the Act stipulates such meetings be held twice a year.

At the heart of this indifference lies this finding of the 2010 Planning Commission Report: across the six states it surveyed, it found that officials, policemen and even the judiciary believed that SCs and STs were misusing the Act against their ("high caste") opponents. Hence "judges were sceptical and wary of convicting the accused."

Significantly, both the trial court and the High Court ruled out any caste angle in the 2006 Khairlanji lynching of three members of a Dalit family by an "upper caste" mob. It is hardly surprising then that the country's conviction rate under the Atrocities Act between 2017-2019 was just around 27 per cent, compared to 50 per cent for other crimes.

This dark scenario can change if there is political will. Last year, Tamil Nadu held its state monitoring committee meeting after a gap of seven years, that too under court pressure.

The latest report of the Citizens' Vigilance Committee in Tamil Nadu found that though atrocities against SCs and STs increased 12 per cent during the pandemic, the conviction rate was just 25 per cent, with 12 out of 38 districts recording zero convictions.

However, noted the Citizens' Committee, within 100 days of M K Stalin's DMK government taking over in May this year, it reconstituted the state monitoring committee and held its first meeting, "a record not only in the state, but also in the country."

One wonders when Maharashtra, home to B R Ambedkar and the Dalit Panthers, will set similar records.

(The writer is a journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors' own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly covered an array of subjects, ranging from Indias achievements in vaccine development to the Afghan crisis, the effectiveness of the UN, the need for a rules-based order on the seas, and extremism. In contrast to Pakistani PM Imran Khan naming India over a dozen times in his speech to the UNGA, Modi did not mention Pakistan or China by name.

However, he did target the two countries. Modi spoke about countries using regressive thinking as a political tool, a reference to Pakistans use of terror groups to further its foreign policy interests, and of countries using the crisis in Afghanistan to further their own selfish interests. Modi targeted China, too. For the UN to remain relevant, it must act as a reliable body, Modi said, referring to the WHOs failure to act swiftly to contain Covid-19 before it became a pandemic and its reluctance to hold China to account for its role in the origin and spread of the pandemic.

Also read: OPINION | A mixed bag from Washington

Modis speech at the UNGA was, however, filled with ironies. His sermonising on Pakistans support to extremism could well have applied to his own party, the BJP, also. Not only has his party, and ministers in his government and in BJP-ruled states fanned religious extremism and violence in India but also, they have repeatedly displayed an anti-scientific temper in their policies and actions. It is ironic that while he called on the world to make science-based rational and progressive thinking the basis for progress, he presides over a government that has encouraged regressive thinking at home.

So also, his reference to India as the mother of all democracies and his trumpeting of Indias diversity, perhaps a response to what he had to hear at the White House the previous day. The reality at home is that his government has been systematically acting to undermine democratic institutions, silence dissent and erase its pluralism. What his government has practised at home is quite at odds with what he preached to the world. Modis speech may have impressed his die-hard followers at home but his rhetoric is unlikely to cut much ice with critics at home and the international community by and large.

The aggressive manner and body language of Modis speech  the finger-wagging, the lecturing tone, for instance  and the trumpeting of his governments achievements were incongruous for the occasion, as if he were addressing an election rally in UP, rather than standing at the UN podium. Sadly, his speech drew little interest; most seats in the UNGA room were empty.
NASA is poised to send its first spacecraft to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids to glean new insights into the solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago, the space agency said Tuesday.

The probe, called Lucy after an ancient fossil that provided insights into the evolution of human species, will launch on October 16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Its mission is to investigate the group of rocky bodies circling the Sun in two swarms, one preceding Jupiter in its orbital path and the other trailing behind it.

After receiving boosts from Earth's gravity, Lucy will embark on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids -- one in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter and then seven Trojans.

"Despite the fact that they really are in a very small region of space, they're very physically different from one another," Hal Levison, the mission's principal scientist told reporters, about the Trojan asteroids, which number more than 7,000 in total.

"For example, they have very different colours, some are grey, some are red," he added, with the differences indicating how far away from the Sun they might have formed before assuming their present trajectory.

Also read: NASA robotic moon rover to spend 100 days searching ice

"Whatever Lucy finds will give us vital clues about the formation of our solar system," added Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division.

Lucy will fly by its target objects within 250 miles (400 kilometres) of their surfaces, and use its onboard instruments and large antenna to investigate their geology, including composition, mass, density and volume.

The ship was built by Lockheed Martin and includes over two miles of wire and solar panels that, placed end-to-end, would be as tall as a five-story building.

It will be the first solar-powered to venture this far from the Sun, and will observe more asteroids than any other spacecraft before it. The total mission cost is $981 million.

The researchers who discovered Lucy the fossil in Ethiopia in 1974 named her after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" which they were playing loudly at the expedition camp.

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In a nod to this heritage, the official logo of the NASA mission is diamond shaped.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Karnataka government and the Bangalore Development Authority to inform it within two weeks on steps taken to acquire lands meant for formation of Dr Shivram Karanth layout in the city.

A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna noted that the layout plan produced by the BDA on August 30, 2021 pointed out that several pockets of land have not been notified for acquisition, "which will hamper the planned development and the connectivity within it".

The court directed the Commissioner, BDA, personally present during virtual hearing to send a proposal for acquisition of these lands to the state government within two weeks and submit complete details of the lands left out from acquisition for the formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout in its next status peport.

It also ordered the state government to issue preliminary notification proposing to acquire these lands for the formation of the layout within four weeks from the date of receipt of the details of the lands left out from acquisition from the BDA.

The court also told the Commissioner, BDA, to file a complete status report in respect of the Peripheral Ring Road right from its inception.

The owner of certain extent of land, notified for acquisition for formation of the layout, filed an application stating some portion of his land has been notified for acquisition for the formation of Peripheral Ring Road which has yet not been developed though the implementation of this project was approved by the state government on September 20, 2013. He claimed non-implementation of the scheme has adversely affected his right to claim compensation.

"The formation of the layout and construction of Peripheral Ring Road has huge financial implications and needs to be discussed in the Board meeting. Therefore, BDA is directed to hold the board meetings from time to time to discuss all these issues along with other subjects," the court directed.

It also noted it was clear from the layout plan produced by the BDA on August 30, 2021 that the proposed ring road passed through the said layout at two places. Some portion of the road passed through the boundary of the layout and also provided for the connectivity to it and was also within the layout.

Meanwhile, Prabhuling K.Navadgi, Advocate General appearing for the Karnataka government, assured the top court that Dr H R Shantharajanna would be re-transferred to his original position of Engineer Member, Engineering Section of the Bangalore Development Authority within a day.

The top court has been examining compliance of its judgement passed on August 3, 2018, directing the Bangalore Development Authority not to drop the land acquisition from the proposed layout in 2008.

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Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan on Wednesday said engineering will be taught in Kannada in four colleges from the current year.

"Teaching engineering in Kannada will begin in four colleges from the current year itself. Bheemanna Khandre Institute of Technology, Bhalki (Civil), BLDAE VP Dr P G Halakatti College of Engineering, Vijayapura (Civil), SJC Institute of Technology, Chikkaballapura (Mechanical), and Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysuru (Mechanical) will start to teach in Kannada," he said.

National Board of Accreditation (NBA) accredited colleges have been permitted to teach engineering in Kannada, he said, adding that upto 30 students can be admitted.

Also Read | No hike in fee for engineering courses in Karnataka this year

The Minister also said a consensual agreement has been reached between the government and private colleges not to hike the fees of engineering courses in private colleges.

The fees for the engineering courses in private colleges for students who secure admission this year under government quota will continue as earlier in two different slabs of Rs 65,340 and Rs 58,806, he said.

"While private colleges had pressed to increase the fee by 30 per cent, the committee headed by Prof. Karisiddappa, Vice-Chancellor of Vishweshwaraiah Technological University (VTU), had recommended a hike of 15-25 per cent. But, in view of the Covid-19 situation, representatives of private colleges were convinced not to go for a hike," the Minister was quoted as saying by his office in a release.

This decision was taken at a meeting held with private college representatives at Vikasa Soudha, it said. The other important decisions taken at the meeting include fixing a maximum cap of Rs 20,000 each for fees collected in the form of 'miscellaneous fees' and 'skill fees'.

Also miscellaneous and skill fees, along with admission fees should not be remitted at colleges, but at the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA), it said.

This decision has been taken as per the recommendations of a committee headed by Prof Karisiddappa, the Minister said.

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Released: September 28, 2021

Need to Invest to Improve Operations Requires Change to Facilitys Management

After months of detailed study, outside expert review and public input, the Delaware County Jail Oversight Board (JOB) voted to recommend to the Delaware County Council ending the private management of the Countys GW Hill Correctional Facility at its September 28 meeting in a 6 to 2 vote.

Following this vote, GEO Group (GEO), the current operator of the jail, will be given the required 180-day notice the County is ending its contract. In reaching this determination, the County hired the nationally recognized CGL Companies to conduct a thorough analysis of the budgetary impact as well as the necessary elements to a transition plan to ensure the publics safety, improve detainee outcomes and protect taxpayer resources. CGL estimated that the County could save as much as $5.5 million per year by ending private, for-profit management of the jail and resuming direct County management of the facility.

This decision is not one that we have taken lightly or without a great deal of thought and analysis, said Delaware County Councilman Kevin Madden, who serves as Chairman of the Jail Oversight Board and led the review process. The process to take direct management of a jail of this size is no small task. But with a recidivism rate of more than 60 percent in recent years and higher costs per inmate than our neighboring counties are paying for their jails, it is clear what is happening now isn't working for detainees or the taxpayers of Delaware County and change is needed.

Madden noted that those incarcerated at the Countys prison are either sentenced to serve two years or less for relatively minor crimes and will quickly return to our community or are held pre-trial and often released within weeks. The County therefore has an interest in helping them use their incarceration to re-set their lives and emerge with the tools they need to become productive, law-abiding neighbors. And while reducing costs is not the primary goal of resuming county control of the jail  improving outcomes for detainees when they are released and reducing recidivism is  the analysis conducted by CGL found it would be possible to both invest in better outcomes for current detainees, including drug and mental health treatment and life skill training, and reduce overall costs by, in part, removing the profit being paid to the private operator, GEO, as well as the profit motive itself.

As part of its resumption of operations, the County will integrate the prison with its other justice agencies so that investments can be made across agencies in technology, staff, treatment, mental health, and re-entry programs, rather than paying for corporate profits.

As part of the analysis and review process, CGL and the Jail Oversight Board found that despite paying higher overall costs than its neighboring counties, the County jail is currently experiencing significant operational difficulties, including extended lockdowns and incidents of violence. The jail under GEOs management is confronting major staffing shortages, with current staffing levels less than 80% of contract requirements. Part of the transition plan to county control includes paying jail workers more and ensuring a better working environment in order to attract additional staff and lessen costly employee turnover.

The decline in GEOs financial position over the last few years underscores why there should not be private, for-profit management of the GW Hill Correctional Facility, stated County Councilman Madden. Delaware County taxpayers deserve and should expect that their funds are being used to invest in the future of our detainees, not prop up a sagging profit margin. Resumption of County control will refocus our efforts on our communitys needs, not the interests of the for-profit jail operator.

The termination of the agreement with the GEO Group is dependent upon Council action, which is tentatively scheduled for the October 6th County Council meeting. Should the County Council vote to terminate the agreement, GCL and Alta Management, which has served as the Owners Representative during this process, will assist the County and GW Hill leadership as they transition management of the Facility back to the County. They will identify and develop management systems, capital improvements, transportation, personnel, re-entry, medical services, certification, and financial controls. If approved by Council, the jail will return to full County control by the spring of 2022.
Foyle MLA, Sinead McLaughlin, launched a blistering attack on the Northern Ireland Executive for giving Belfast more jobs than Derry.

Mrs McLaughlin was speaking in a debate the impact of the proposed Universal Credit cut in Foyle in the Assembly at Stormont.

She highlighted the West-East discrepancy in terms of where the highest and lowest levels of employment are with the west of Northern Ireland coming a poor second to the east.

One aspect she focused on was the amount of investment that has come to Belfast in comparison to Derry.

The SDLP spokesperson for the Economy and Energy pointed out that while 1,621 jobs have been announced this year by the economy minister for location in Belfast, that none have been announced for Derry.

She said: I have in front of me a map. It is coloured in shades. The darkest colours show the highest rates of Universal Credit receipt.

Three constituencies are in the darkest colours. Those are Foyle, North Belfast and West Belfast. There is one really, really light-coloured area which represents Lagan Valley.

Much of the East is actually pretty light, which shows where the highest paid jobs and the highest employment rates are located.

When the UKs prime minister justifies cutting Universal Credit, he says that he wants people to earn more through their work, rather than through their benefit payments.

Well, where in Derry are those jobs? Perhaps the communities and economy ministers can suggest how those who are unemployed in Derry can get jobs? And how those in badly paid jobs can get work that pays more?

I hear, yet again, this week of new jobs going to Belfast. ASOS is bringing 180 jobs to Belfast.

Two weeks ago, the economy minister announced Agio are to create 100 jobs in Belfast.

Last month he announced 120 jobs at Tribe, on the edge of Belfast. In June, it was 771 jobs with PwC, in Belfast.

Also in June, it was 180 jobs in Belfast with Vision 1. In February, it was 200 jobs in Belfast with KPMG.

In January, it was 70 jobs with Everquote, headquartered where? Belfast of course.

Not that all the jobs have gone to Belfast. Some 130 have gone to Bangor.

But where and when are the jobs coming to Derry?

In April, the then-economy minister said the recovery in the North West is important.

In February that same former economy minister expressed concern about Derry  not about the lack of jobs being created in my city, but about additional students coming to Magee to study health and life science, and what that might mean for Coleraine.

However, congratulations to Belfast, with its large university campuses, graduates, commuters and much higher pay than in the West.

Speaking on the session in the Assembly yesterday on the impact of the proposed Universal Credit cut in Foyle, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll highlighted the neglect and poverty that Derry has suffered  which he warned would get worse with the 20 cut in Universal Credit.

He said: Like my own constituency of West Belfast, far too many people (in Derry) struggle with poverty, the lack of housing, low wages and the effects of decades of neglect.

The failure to increase Magee to a 10,000 student population by now is one of the many injustices the Stormont Executive has failed to rectify. So is the abysmal failure to improve and vastly expand rail provision for Foyle and across the entire North West.

As my colleague Eamonn McCann has said many times, the old Stormont regime failed the people of Derry and Foyle but so too has the new Stormont regime.

Twenty-seven per cent of people in Derry and Strabane live below the poverty line. Foyle, just like West Belfast, has been ravaged by the welfare reforms brought in by the Executive.

The Executive's determination to run public services into the ground in favour of privatisation that allows a tiny few to profiteer is also having a dramatic impact on people's wellbeing.

There's no doubt that people across the North, including in Foyle, will be hit very hard by the proposed cut to Universal Credit.

Given Derry and Foyle's existing levels of deprivation, the cut to Universal Credit, out of control energy prices, pay cuts for health workers and new taxes will hit the area very hard.

The Stormont Executive is talking about finally putting in place an anti-poverty strategy. But it will mean very little if we can't protect people right now.

It's shocking to me that the Executive has done nothing to demand a Wealth Tax on billionaires, rich corporations and elites. It's clear they don't want to upset elites.

There's a lot of feigned concern for those trapped in poverty and dependent on food banks in the Assembly from Executive parties.

But all five of those parties campaigned for a massive cut in taxes for rich, very rich, corporations while they agreed to bring in Tory welfare reforms. That action tells us more about the priorities of government parties than all their words of concern.

If the Tories follow through on plans to slash Universal Credit, People Before Profit is calling for the Executive to step-in with funding to make sure no one loses out.

We need less talk about anti-poverty strategies. We need action not promises from the Executive.

The Executive threw people in Foyle, and across the North, to the wolves by signing up to Tory welfare reforms. The Executive shouldn't do it again. Let's commit now to making sure no one is punished by the cruel Tory cut to Universal Credit.
A man who was arrested by the PSNI Legacy Investigation Branch with regard to the 1993 murder of a policeman in Derry has been released.

The 51-year-old had been arrested under the Terrorism Act and questioned at Musgrave Police Station in connection with the killing of Constable Michael Ferguson who was shot dead outside the Richmond Centre in Derry.

However, the man has since been released without charge.

A PSNI spokesperson said: "A 51-year-old man, arrested by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Legacy Investigation Branch, investigating the murder of police officer Michael Ferguson in 1993, has been released following questioning.

"The investigation continues."

Constable Ferguson, 21, was killed when on duty in Derry's Shipquay Street around 2pm on Saturday, January 23, 1993.He, along with two other officers, had been attending a call at the city's Richmond Shopping Centre.

While his colleagues were inside, a gunman approached him from behind and fired two bullets into his head.

In December 2015, Christopher O'Kane from Derry pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to assisting offenders in relation to Constable Ferguson's murder.
Saif Ali Khan reveals Taimur liked Bhoot Police; actor is now looking forward to discussions for sequel

Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Kapoor blew fans away as tantric brothers in their recently released film Bhoot Police. Also starring Yami Gautam, Jacqueline Fernandez, Javed Jaffrey and late actor Amit Mistry, the horror comedy followed the story of two ghost busters-- Arjun aka Chiraunji, who believes that his only aim in life is to protect humans, and Vibhooti, played by Saif, who feels that this is just a way to fool superstitious customers and make money. Well, fans are now eagerly waiting for news about the sequel as Bhoot Police was planned as a franchise.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arjun Kapoor (@arjunkapoor)

In a chat with Pinkvilla, Saif was quoted saying, I am looking forward to some meetings with the production house to find out the future they are seeing in the Bhoot Police franchise and the direction they are looking to take it in. Theres a lot of potential. One can send these guys on any kind of adventure with all kinds of supernatural crazy things happening around. He further shared, If we can nail the kid friendly space of horror comedy, (it would be amazing). I have got a small son and I am more conscious in getting that genre right. He (Taimur) liked the film too.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arjun Kapoor (@arjunkapoor)

When asked about plans for Race 4, the actor stated that he has stopped thinking about these things and has not received any offer yet. He added that Ramesh Taurani, who has also backed Bhoot Police, is the best person to shed light on this topic. Meanwhile, Saif has an exciting line up of much awaited projects, which includes Bunty Aur Babli 2, co-starring Rani Mukerji, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Sharvari Wagh, and Om Rauts Adipurush alongside Prabhas and Kriti Sanon.
DCI Engineers

Martin

Associate Ethan Martin will step into the new role of Director of Sustainability and Mass Timber. Based in the firm's Portland office, Martin will oversee strategy efforts for both Sustainability and Mass Timber efforts across all 13 regional offices. These efforts include DCI's commitment to the SE 2050 Challenge, which aims to achieve Net Zero status in all projects by the year 2050. Martin joined DCI Engineers in 2020 to assist in further developing the firms' Mass Timber division. Prior to his arrival, he served as the Northwest Regional Director at WoodWorks, the wood industry's non-profit for advancing knowledge and technical support in commercial wood building projects across the United States. DCI Engineers is a civil and structural engineering firm.




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Photo from Northwest Carpenters Union [enlarge] Union members on Tuesday picketed the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle, where Unimark Construction is making improvements.





The Northwest Carpenters Union and the Associated General Contractors of Washington are headed back to the bargaining table after nearly two weeks of picketing that has included some controversy.





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Pacific Program Management Pacific Program Management added two new positions to its senior leadership team: Deb Hamm is vice president of people, culture and operations; and Ron Houghtaling is vice president and senior director of marketing and communications. Hamm has created workforces in rapid builds, integrations, acquisitions, mergers and high-volume recruiting at companies including Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, Colliers International and JPMorgan Chase. Prior to joining PPM, she ran her own consulting practice and has over 25 years of business experience. Houghtaling comes from Marcus & Millichap, where he led the corporate marketing team as vice president in support of over 2,200 brokers and agents. He also spent 17 years with CBRE in a variety of design, branding and marketing leadership roles. Hamm is working at the Seattle headquarters while Houghtaling is based in Los Angeles. Additionally, PPM announced the launch of a dedicated Life Sciences Practice, its first industry-focused team that follows growth over the past two years into key markets in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. This practice is led by Annette Walter, who has over 30 years of experience in design, laboratory space planning, project management and move management. She joined PPM in 2017 from Stanford University School of Medicine, where she was project manager of facilities construction. PPM is a commercial real estate program and project management firm with teams across North America.

Audere Dr. Dino Rech is the new CEO at Seattle-based Audere. Rech is a global health leader, published researcher and ER physician with knowledge of how technology can both help and hinder clinical workflows. He replaces Audere founder Philip Su, who remains as an advisor. Rech was group director and regional chief operating officer of The Aurum Institute, where he managed the organization's business development team and led one of the largest HIV care and treatment programs in South Africa. Rech also was founder and CEO of the Centre for HIV and AIDS Prevention Studies, which reached over 500,000 people with lifesaving HIV prevention, education, testing and surgeries during his tenure at the organization. Audere is a digital health nonprofit developing solutions to improve global health in underserved communities. It is funded by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Justworks.

Urbanova Urbanova's board of directors is launching a search for its next CEO to succeed Kim Zentz, who will step out of the role in November. Urbanova selected executive search firm Herd Freed Hartz to conduct the recruitment. The chief executive officer, who reports to and is a member of the board of directors, has responsibility and accountability for managing and accelerating Urbanova's strategic, programmatic and financial/operational activities. The CEO also is responsible for recruiting, managing and supporting senior staff; and helping them to align and execute priorities. Headquartered in Spokane and incorporated in 2016, Urbanova is an urban innovation partnership focused on driving equitable solutions for midsize cities. With partners that include Avista, the city of Spokane, Itron, McKinstry, University District Development Association, Washington State University, Verizon and Gallup, Urbanova builds multi-sector collaborations, develops technology and harnesses strategies to create more resilient communities.

TMR makes big Arizona multifamily buy [enlarge]



Local investor Thayer Manca Residential has a large and growing presence in Arizona. The firm just announced its $69.3 million purchase of the 338-unit Desert Shadows, in Tucson. TMR's Joe Manca said in a statement, Our current Tucson properties have proven that the Tucson market is one of the most dynamic and evolving rental markets in the nation. The timing of the Desert Shadows acquisition presented our investment partners the opportunity to reinvest their proceeds from a recent sale by utilizing a 1031 exchange. TMR plans to invest about $6.8 million in renovations, which may include a new name for the complex.

Ryan breaks ground in SoDo [enlarge]



Ryan Cos. announced its recent groundbreaking at 65 S. Horton St. in SoDo. With financial partner GTIS Partners, of New York, the plan is to demolish four old industrial buildings for a new four-story logistics and industrial building with about 124,646 square feet. Ryan will build the project, which was designed by Nelson. Ryan's Marc Gearhart says it'll be Seattle's second multilevel warehouse; the first was Georgetown Crossroads, by Prologis, which is entirely leased to Amazon. Ryan acquired the SoDo site two years ago almost $5 million. Bill Condon, Matt McGregor, David Abbott and Greg Inglin of Colliers are brokering the new space.

Visit Seattle Norwalk It won't happen until the end of March next year, but Visit Seattle will have to find a replacement for the retiring Tom Norwalk, its president and CEO. He's been with the hospitality promotion and advocacy group for 15 years. He said in a statement, It's been the journey of a lifetime and the greatest professional honor to promote and market the city that I love. While there's no great time to say goodbye, I am confident we have the right team in place to keep Seattle's momentum going. Visit Seattle's board of directors will conduct a new executive search, and plans to announce Norwalk's successor before his official send-off.

Gordon & Rees Gordon & Rees Scully Mansukhani continued its national expansion, with the opening of its 72nd office, in Spokane. Meredith Thielbahr is the office managing partner. The Spokane office has seven experienced partners that work in a variety of practice areas, serving clients in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. The attorneys work closely with other offices in the region, including Seattle, Portland and Boise, as well as Gordon & Rees attorneys across all 50 states. The Spokane team has experience in a wide-range of issues across many practice areas, including business transactions; cannabis, hemp and CBD; construction; commercial/civil litigation; environmental/toxic tort; product liability; professional liability defense; employment law; ERISA; insurance; intellectual property; life, health and disability; and cyber, privacy and data security. In addition to Thielbahr, other attorneys practicing in Spokane are Allen Estes, Donald Verfurth, Mark Tuvim, Sarah Turner, Nicole Demmon, David Silke, John Leary and Richard Sybert. Gordon & Rees was founded in 1974 and has over 1,000 lawyers nationwide.

Paccar The ongoing global semiconductor shortage continues to affect some industries, including the automotive sector. The shortage has reduced Paccar's truck deliveries in the third quarter by about 7,000 vehicles  now about 33,000 vehicles compared to 40,100 vehicles delivered in the second quarter of 2021. Paccar anticipates that the semiconductor shortage and associated production inefficiencies will continue in the fourth quarter, with global truck production strengthening when the supply disruptions are resolved. Global demand for the new Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF trucks remains strong, according to the company. In addition to its light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, Paccar also designs and manufactures advanced powertrains, provides financial services and information technology, and distributes truck parts.

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Rendering by Public47 Architects [enlarge] This view looks northeast at the project, which is kitty corner to the university.





Next to Seattle University, at 1208 E. Remington Ct., a now vacant and nearly century-old building looks like a teardown. Yet with Public47 Architects, there's a renovation-addition plan that could yield 22 new apartments and about 2,600 square feet of retail/commercial space. The proposal will have an administrative design review on Friday.





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SEATTLE  A small apartment building at 465 Garfield St. sold earlier this month for a bit under $3.8 million, according to King County records.

The seller was 465 Garfield St LLC, a family group that owned the property for decades.





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BOTHELL  The Northlake Montessori building at 17511 Bothell Way N.E. sold for nearly $4.3 million, according to King County records.

The seller was BRF Properties LLC, which acquired the property in 2013 for $1.8 million.





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DRDO successfully flight tests anti-aircraft missile`Akash Prime'

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday successfully flight tested a new version of the Akash Missile  Akash Prime - from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha. The missile intercepted and destroyed an unmanned aerial target mimicking enemy aircrafts, in its maiden flight test after improvements.

Akash Prime is equipped with an indigenous active Radio Frequency (RF) seeker for improved accuracy. Other improvements also ensure more reliable performance under low temperature environments at higher altitudes. Modified ground system of the existing Akash weapon system has been used for the current flight test. The range stations of ITR comprising Radars, Electro Optical Tracking System (EOTS) and Telemetry stations monitored the missile trajectory and flight parameters.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO, Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) and industry for the successful trials of Akash Prime Missile. The successful flight test of the Akash Prime missile proves the competence of DRDO in design and development of world class missile systems, he said.

Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO, G Satheesh Reddy, congratulated the team for the successful flight trial of Akash Prime Missile. He said the Akash Prime system will further boost the confidence of the users (Indian Army and Indian Air Force) as the Akash system is already inducted and now getting improved with more lethal systems.
Indian Army to get 118 advanced Arjun Mk-1 Main Battle Tanks

Defence ministry has placed an order with Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF), Avadi for supply of 118 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) Arjun Mk-1A for the Indian Army. The order, worth Rs7,523 crore, will provide further boost to the Make in India initiative in defence sector and is a big step towards achieving Aatmanirbhar Bharat, envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The state-of-the-art MBT Mk-1A is a new variant of Arjun Tank designed to enhance fire power, mobility and survivability. Infused with 72 new features and more indigenous content compared to the Mk-1 variant, the tank would ensure effortless mobility in all terrains, besides precise target engagement during day and night.

It has been designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by incorporating numerous upgrades on Arjun MBT, the in-service main battle tank with the Indian Army.

The MK-1A is equipped with accurate and superior firepower, all-terrain mobility and an invincible multi-layered protection provided by an array of advanced technology systems. It can take on the enemy during day and night conditions and in both static and dynamic modes. By virtue of these capabilities, this indigenous MBT proves to be at par with any contemporary battle tanks of its class across the globe. This tank is particularly configured and designed for Indian conditions and hence it is suitable for deployment to protect the frontiers in an effective manner.

This production order to HVF, Avadi opens up a large avenue in defence manufacturing for over 200 Indian vendors, including MSMEs, with employment opportunities to around 8,000 people. This will be a flagship project showcasing the indigenous capability in cutting edge defence technologies.

The MBT Arjun Mk-1A has been designed and developed by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), along with other laboratories of DRDO within two years (2010-12). The development activities commenced from June 2010 and the tank was fielded for user trials in June 2012. It took only two years to develop and field the MBT Arjun Mk-1A for user trials and for catering to user requirement. Extensive evaluation was conducted in various phases covering 7000+ kms (both in DRDO and user trials) of automotive and substantial firing of various ammunitions during 2012-2015.

It may be recalled that the prime minister had handed over the redesigned MBT Arjun Mk-1A to Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane in Chennai on 14 February 2021.
Gates Foundation to help India develop sustainable livestock sector

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have signed a multi-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on sustainably improving Indias livestock sector to support the nations food and nutritional security, and protect the economic wellbeing of small-scale livestock producers.

The MoU was signed at an event organised as a part of the ongoing celebrations of AzadiKaAmritMahotsav, a commemoration of 75th year of Indias independence, at Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi.

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying is working to improve animal health and production programmes to ensure food security and economic development. Developing the livestock sector envisages strengthening animal husbandry infrastructure, entrepreneurship development and implementing `One Health framework.

Through this collaboration, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide technical assistance for the design and delivery of new technologies and implementation of best practices that are relevant in the local context.

The joint support programmes will be directed at improving livestock health, production, and animal nutrition, identifying scientific and technological solutions for major infectious diseases, providing technical assistance in translational sciences, identifying opportunities for scientific and technological collaboration, and implementing the One Health framework.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated the need to implement solutions for better human, animal, and environmental health. Implementation of the One Health framework will allow tracking and resolution of animal and human health challenges and will prevent possible infection and disease outbreaks.

The National One Health platform is being established as part of this partnership to improve coordination, productivity, and support livelihoods of small-scale producers.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, is committed to monitor and significantly improve animal health and production in the country. This partnership with the Gates Foundation will provide technical assistance to the department to ensure sustainable growth and prosperity of Indias livestock sector and to promote an efficient, multisectoral One Health approach on critical animal health issues among a broad set of stakeholders, Parshottam Rupala, union minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, said. He also stressed about one health initiatives for future scope.

K Vijayaraghavan, principal scientific adviser to Government of India highlighted the significance of the collaboration and reiterated that the expected outcomes would go a long way in sustainably improving the livestock sector, thereby resulting in economic development.

Strengthening the livestock sector is one of the pre-requisites for effective implementation of One Health. This collaboration will strengthen our digital infrastructure, research and development capabilities and bridge the information gap with respect to animal-human interactions among public and private stakeholders. Atul Chaturvedi, secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, added

The Gates Foundation is honored to deepen our partnership with DAHD, with the aim of contributing to the Government of Indias national goals for sustainable development and improvement of the livestock sector. This partnership builds on our focus on enhancing productivity and income for small livestock keepers and we hope to bring in contextually relevant expertise, innovations, and global and domestic best practices through partners to support the DAHDs priorities of nutritional security, inclusive economic empowerment, while aligning with Indias One Health Framework, Hari Menon, director, India country office, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said while signing the MoU.
WTO agreement on agriculture tilted against developing countries: Piyush Goyal

The Agreement on Agriculture hammered out by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is riddled with deep imbalances, which favour the developed countries, tilting the rules against many developing countries and this needs to be corrected as a first step in agriculture reform, minister of commerce and industry, consumer affairs and food and public distribution and textiles Piyush Goyal, said at a meeting of the G-33 grouping of WTO member states.

He said the historical asymmetries and imbalances must be corrected in order to ensure a rule-based, fair and equitable order and urged the G 33 members to work collectively to retain the cohesion of 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 MC-12.

In his intervention the minister emphasised that as part of the trust-building exercise for MC 12, G-33 must strive for positive outcomes on permanent solution to Public Stockholding (PSH) for food security purposes which is of utmost importance, finalisation of a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) quickly and a balanced outcome on domestic support.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of the G-33 Joint Ministerial Statement reaffirming commitment for expeditious resolution of the WTOs mandated issues in agriculture. The meeting also called for satisfactorily addressing the development issues of developing countries and LDCs with Special and Differential Treatment as an integral part of international trade negotiations.

The G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial meeting, organised by Indonesia on Friday, to discuss the agricultural priority issues of G33 and the way forward for the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduled to be held from 30 November to 3 December 2021.

The Informal Ministerial meeting was chaired by Indonesias minister of trade Muhammad Lutfi.

Director General of WTO, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, delivered the keynote remarks. Out of a total of 47 G-33 members, representatives from 21 member countries, including India, took the floor to make brief interventions.
India-Canada flight ban ends, but all scheduled flights remain restricted

Canada's ban on direct flights from India ended on Monday, but it will take until 26 September to streamline flight operations between the two countries, according to Air Canada, the countrys largest carrier.

The first Air Canada flight to India, after the pandemic-led restrictions - a direct one from Toronto to Delhi  took off from Canada on Monday to reach Delhi on Tuesday night, while three direct flights from India are expected to arrive in Canada on Wednesday.

"As a first step, on Wednesday, three direct flights from India will arrive in Canada and all passengers on these flights will be tested for Covid-19 upon arrival to ensure that the new measures are working," the Canadian government said in a statement.

All passengers should obtain a negative RT-PCR test report and upload proof of being fully vaccinated on the Canadian government's website before getting onto the flight.

Air Canada has made it clear that only Rapid PCR Test and RT-PCR tests will be considered valid for for a passenger to board a Canada-bound flight. The test has to be taken at the lounge and testing centre at the Terminal 3 of Delhi's international airport 18 hours before the flight. No other test from any other clinic in any city will be regarded valid.

All passengers on the flight to Toronto will be tested again on landing, and if the tests results match those taken at the Delhi airport, flights will finally resume on Sunday, 26 September. Air India, too, is expected to start its direct operations to Canada soon.

The Delhi-Toronto airway has opened up and all flights between the two nations will be connected from these two cities at first. The flights will be under the air bubble agreement between the two countries.

Canada imposed a ban on direct flights from India in April owing to surge in SARS-CoV-2 cases in the country. Canada extended the ban for another month in August citing shortcomings in Indian tests and vaccine certificates.

Passengers had to travel via a third country and take a SARS-CoV-2 test or quarantine there before going to Canada. This created widespread distress, especially for students travelling to Canada due to the increase in costs of third-country travel, vaccination, and stay.

The Canadian government has approved Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, Astrazeneca/Covishield, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Indian passengers to Canada have been advised to take two doses of Covishield before boarding a Canada-bound flight.
CCI penalises beer companies for indulging in cartelisation

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has passed a final order against three beer companies, namely United Breweries Limited (UBL), SABMiller India Limited (now renamed as Anheuser Busch InBev India Ltd or AB InBev) and Carlsberg India Private Limited (CIPL) for indulging in cartelisation in the sale and supply of beer in various states and union territories, including through the platform of All India Brewers Association (AIBA).

As AIBA was found to be actively involved in facilitating such cartelisation, CCI also held AIBA to be in contravention of the provisions of Competition Act, 2002, apart from the beer companies. The cartel was found to have operated from 2009 to at least 10 October 2018 (the date on which the Director General (DG) conducted search and seizure operations at the premises of the beer companies). CIPL joined the cartel in 2012 while AIBA served as a platform for facilitating such cartelisation since 2013. All three beer companies moved applications before the CCI seeking lesser penalty.

Based on evidences of regular communications between the parties collected by the DG during search and seizure, and on the basis of the disclosures made in the lesser penalty applications, CCI found that the three companies engaged in price co-ordination in contravention of the provisions of Section 3(3)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal, National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry, in collectively restricting supply of beer in the states of Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal in contravention of the provisions of Section 3(3)(b) of the Act, and in sharing of market in the state of Maharashtra as well as co-ordination with respect to supply of beer to premium institutions in the city of Bengaluru in contravention of the provisions of Section 3(3)(c) of the Act.

CCI also found co-ordination amongst UBL and AB InBev with respect to purchase of second-hand bottles. Further, four individuals of UBL, four individuals of AB InBev, six individuals of CIPL and the director general of AIBA, were held by CCI to be liable for the anti-competitive conduct of their respective companies/ association, in terms of Section 48 of the Act.

While giving benefit of reduction in penalty under the provisions of Section 46 of the Act of 100 per cent to AB InBev and its individuals, 40 per cent to UBL and its individuals and 20 per cent to CIPL and its individuals, the CCI directed UBL and CIPL to pay penalties of approximately Rs750 crore and Rs120 crore, respectively, besides passing a cease-and-desist order.
SEEPZ has $30 billion export potential, but needs complete revamp: Piyush Goyal

Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal has called for a complete revamp of the Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ), stating that it has the potential to achieve $30 billion in exports given the right product mix and clear direction.

SEEPZ, established in 1973 initially to promote electronics manufacturing in India, needs a complete makeover, Goyal said Let's aim for transformational change and not incremental change. Let's bring back the vibrancy into SEEPZ like the earlier years, the minister said while addressing the exporters and trade partners.

Goyal was on a visit to SEEPZ, in Mumbai, on Thursday as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Saptah being celebrated by his ministry.

I am confident that with everyone's cooperation, SEEPZ can be made modern and world class. We can think of a public private partnership scheme whereby industry units who revamp their properties can be given exemption from rent revision for 10 years, the minister said.

He urged the exporters based in SEEPZ to collectively decide about making the Common Services Centre operational and revamping the SEEPZ premises and transforming some centres here into swanky new state-of-the-art centres for serving international customers. The minister also suggested that India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) could have a 30,000  40,000 sq ft Exhibition Complex at SEEPZ to facilitate buyer-seller meets.

Citing the example of Surat Diamond Bourse, he urged SEEPZ to take help in terms of facilitation for this work. The minister also cited the example of Rs4,000-crore makeover of Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Goyal said the centre has already announced Rs200 crore aid for internal expansion and refurbishment of one of Indias oldest export processing zones.

We're doing partial de-recognition of SEZs, we've liberalised a number of rules already, we've now allowed everyone to be multi-sectoral, including SEEPZ. We're also discussing how the SEZs can play a more important role in the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) through an equilisation levy, Goyal further said. SEEPZ should be looking at $30 billion export, he added.

The minister also stated that many of the issues raised by exporters, like permission to allow e-commerce seamlessly for artificial jewellery up to $800, are under consideration by high powered committees. In fact, the minister said, he is fighting hard for the gem and jewellery sector to get 5 per cent duty concession, as they are currently charged in the UAE, as part of Early Harvest Agreement. The minister also stated that more Free Trade Agreements are being finalised with UK, UAE, Australia and EU, to try and provide more market access to exporters.

All 739 districts of the country are celebrating Vanijya Saptah from 20-26 September 2021, as part of Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav, with more than 250 programmes organized across the country. The minister complimented all exporters and stakeholders for their support in making international trade simpler, grow faster, seamless and become an engine of growth for our economy in the years to come.
PM launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

Prime minister Narendra Modi today launched Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which will create a seamless online platform and enable interoperability within the digital health ecosystem.

The campaign of strengthening health facilities that have been going on for the last seven years is entering a new phase today. Today we are launching a mission that has the potential of bringing a revolutionary change in Indias health facilities, said the prime minister while speaking on the occasion. Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which is a follow-up of Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY scheme, will lead to the creation of the worlds largest connected infrastructure for healthcare, the prime minister said while launching the mission.

The prime minister underlined the fact that with 1.3 billion Aadhaar numbers, 1.18 billion mobile subscribers, about 800 million internet users and about 430 million Jan Dhan bank accounts, there is no such big connected infrastructure anywhere in the world.

The way technology is being deployed in governance reforms today is unprecedented, said the prime minister. Digital infrastructure is taking everything from Ration to Prashasan to the common Indian in a fast and transparent manner, he added.

Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY has addressed a key headache in the lives of the poor. So far more than 2 crore countrymen have availed the facility of free treatment under this scheme, half of which are women.

Ayushman Bharat  Digital Mission, will now connect the digital health solutions of hospitals across the country with each other.

Healthcare solutions brought by the government are a big investment in the present and future of the country, the prime minister stated.

The Arogya Setu app helped a lot in preventing the spread of corona infection, the prime minister saidm even as he lauded Co-WIN for its role in making India achieve a record administration of about 900 million vaccine doses, under the free vaccine campaign.

Continuing with the theme of the use of technology in health, the Prime Minister said that there has also been an unprecedented expansion of telemedicine during the Corona period, so far about 1,25 billion remote consultations have been completed through e-Sanjeevani. This facility is connecting thousands of countrymen living in far-flung parts of the country every day with doctors of big hospitals of cities while sitting at home, said the prime minister.

Diseases are one of the key reasons that push families into the vicious cycle of poverty and women of the families are the worst sufferers as they always relegate their health issues to the background, Modi said, adding that he has made it a point to personally meet some beneficiaries of Ayushman and experienced the benefits of the scheme during the interactions. These healthcare solutions are a big investment in the present and future of the country, he emarked.

Modi said India is working on a health model that is holistic and inclusive, a model which stresses preventive healthcare and, in case of disease, easy, affordable and accessible treatment. He also discussed unprecedented reforms in health education and said a much larger number of doctors and paramedical manpower is being created in India now as compared to 7-8 years ago.

A comprehensive network of AIIMS and other modern health institutions is being established in the country and work on establishing one medical college in every three Lok Sabha constituencies is going on. He also talked about strengthening health facilities in villages and informed that in the villages, primary health centre networks and wellness centres are being strengthened. More than 80,000 such centres have already been operationalised, said the prime minister.

Noting that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is being launched on World Tourism Day, the prime minister said health has a very strong relationship with tourism. Because when our health infrastructure is integrated, strengthened, it also improves the tourism sector.

Key highlights of PM-DHM include:

A health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application;

A Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine. This will ensure ease of doing business for doctors/hospitals and healthcare service providers.

PM-DHM Sandbox, created as a part of the Mission, will act as a framework for technology and product testing that will help organisations, including private players, intending to be a part of the National Digital Health Ecosystem become a Health Information Provider or Health Information User or efficiently link with building blocks of PM-DHM.

PM-DHM pilot project is already functional in 6 union territories - Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. PM-DHM mission aims to create interoperability within the digital health ecosystem similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionizing payments.
Govt notifies scheme for `Promotion of Medical Device Parks'

A total of 16 state governments and union territories, including Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, have given in-principle approval for setting up Medical Device Parks under the scheme for `Promotion of Medical Device Parks.

The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs400 crore and the tenure of the scheme is from FY 2020-2021 to FY 2024-2025. The financial assistance to a selected medical device park would be 70 per cent of the project cost of common infrastructure facilities. In case of North Eastern states and hilly states, financial assistance would be 90 per cent of the project cost. Maximum assistance under the scheme for one medical device park would be limited to Rs100 crore.

The selection of the states/UTs is based on the challenge method, which is reflected in the evaluation criteria of the scheme. The ranking methodology for states/UTs is based on the parameters prescribed in the scheme guidelines such as utility charges, state policy incentives, total area of the park, land lease rate, connectivity of the park, ease of doing business ranking, availability of technical manpower etc. Based on the evaluation, the proposals of state government of Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have been given in-principle approval under the scheme. Further qualitative assessment of these states in terms of their fiscal capability, ecosystem attractiveness and industrial presence also validated the selection.

Government of India has taken a key initiative to support the medical devices industry to reach its potential in the coming years, identifying the industry is as a sunrise sector with great potential for diversification and employment generation.

Recognising the need for higher levels of investments for the creation of proper infrastructure in the sector, the Department of Pharmaceuticals has notified the scheme for `Promotion of Medical Device Parks with the objectives of easy access to standard testing and infrastructure facilities and reaping the benefits arising from optimisation of resources and economies of scale.

The creation of world class common infrastructure facilities and increased competitiveness will result in significant reduction of the cost of production of medical devices, leading to better availability and affordability of medical devices in the domestic market, the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers stated in a release

Medical Devices Parks, to be developed under the scheme, will provide common infrastructure facilities at one place thereby creating a robust ecosystem for the medical device manufacturing in the country and also reducing the manufacturing cost significantly.
India negotiating deal with Taiwan for setting up fab unit to resolve chip shortage: report

Amidst a looming shortage of electronic chips that is expected to last for another two years, Indian government officials are reported to have met their Taiwanese counterparts recently to discuss a proposal for setting up a $7.5 billion semiconductor facility in India.

With the chip shortage affecting production of everything from smartphones to automobiles, the two countries are in talks for a deal that would bring chip production to the country, as well as reduce tariffs on components used to make semiconductors by the end of the year, say reports.

India and Taiwan inked a bilateral investment agreement in 2018 to increase revenue and strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries. Trade between the two countries totalled $5.7 billion in the year 2020. The new deal could further enhance trade and investment between the two countries, a development that might increase tensions with China

According to reports, India is currently looking at prospective places with enough land, water, and manpower. It is also likely to meet 50 per cent of construction costs, as well as provide tax breaks and other incentives for setting up the facilty that would lead to the supply of electronic chips for everything, including 5G devices and electric cars.

While details about the discussions between the two countries haven't yet been revealed officially, the negotiations that would help set up a chip $7.5 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in India, are part of a larger trade and investment deal between the two countries. Taipei wants to move quickly on a bilateral investment pact that would involve tariff reductions on dozens of semiconductor-related products, as a prelude to a broader trade agreement that is also being considered, say reports.

The negotiations between Indian and Taiwanese officials gain significance in the context countering an increasingly assertive China. Taiwan, which Beijing claims to be its own territory, has sought trade talks with India for several years, but the government has been hesitant to move forward because it would invite a trade war with China once any pact is registered at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

However, since the protracted border confrontation in 2020, India has been taking a more assertive stand against China. The move for a comprehensive trade agreement with Taiwan spanning commodities, services and investments, is seen as part of this.

India now imports all semiconductors to meet demand, which is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025, up from $24 billion now.

Worsening chip shortages have impacted automobile production, and it is predicted that in India the supply shortage would further impact passenger vehicles sale volumes in September. It has also pushed back the release of Reliance Industries smartphone, which was co-engineered with Google.
India ranks 46th in Global Innovation Index 2021

India has climbed 2 spots to rank 46th in the World Intellectual Property Organisations Global Innovation Index 2021 rankings. India has been on a rising trajectory in the Global Innovation Index (GII) over the past several years - from 81st in 2015 to 46th in 2021.

Innovation has been at the forefront of Indias battle against the unprecedented crisis created by the pandemic, and will be pivotal in driving the countrys resilience and self-reliance, as enshrined in the prime ministers clarion call for `Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The consistent improvement in the GII ranking is owing to the immense knowledge capital, the vibrant start-up ecosystem, and the amazing work done by the public and the private research organisations. The government departments like the Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Space have played a pivotal role in enriching the National Innovation Ecosystem.

The NITI Aayog has been working tirelessly to ensure the optimisation of the national efforts for bringing policy-led innovation in different areas such as electric vehicles, biotechnology, nano technology, space, alternative energy sources, etc. The India Innovation Index, the latest edition of which was released last year by the NITI Aayog, has been widely accepted as a major step in the direction of decentralisation of innovation across all the states of India. A constant thrust in monitoring and evaluating Indias position in the global rankings has been provided by the NITI Aayog, including in the GII.

As the country progresses further towards saving lives and livelihoods and shaping the national economic growth trajectory, the GII-2021 will be a significant reference point for all the countries to assess their innovation capabilities and readiness, which will go a long way in boosting economic recovery.

The GII is the fulcrum for the governments across the world to assess the social and the economic changes in their respective countries. Over the years, the GII has established itself as a policy tool for various governments and helped them to reflect upon the status quo.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has also been leading from the front as a torchbearer of lndia's journey towards an innovation driven economy. This year, NITI Aayog, in partnership with the CII and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), is hosting, virtually, the India Launch of the GII and the Global Innovation Conclave during 21-22 September.

The launch session will be graced by dignitaries including VK Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog; K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Government of India; Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog; Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO; Soumitra Dutta, Author, GII & Professor, Cornell University, United States; Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology, Innovation and R&D and Managing Director, Ashok Leyland Ltd and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

To join the Global Innovation Conclave and India launch of the Global Innovation Index 2021 scheduled, virtually, one must register through the link https://www.ciihive.in/GLOBEINNO.
CSIR-CMERI launches indigenously-developed solar DC cooking system

CSIR-CMERI on Wednesday handed over the first indigenously developed solar DC cooking system to Asansol Braille Academy of West Bengal on Wednesday. The technology provides a clean cooking environment, invertor-less direct operation, fast and uniform heating and a potential to curb 1 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions year/household.

CSIR-CMERI has already transferred the Solar DC cooking technology to two business entities - Asansol Solar & LED House, and Meeco Solar & Infrastructure Associates  both based in West Bengal.

The CSIR-CMERI developed solar DC cooking system is a solar energy based cooking system which consists of solar PV panel, charge controller, battery bank and cooking oven.

The CSIR-CMERI developed cooking system has 20-25 per cent better efficiency and is more economical compared to conventional solar based cooking systems which loses efficiency owing to AC-DC conversion. The simple technology design also ensures ease-of-manufacturing and thus provides a substantial economic opportunity for micro industries. Along with the widening of the popularity base of the technology, there is a probability of improvement in Job prospects.

This coking system will help in substantially curbing of carbon dioxide emissions, as even LPG usage emits carbon dioxide in lesser amounts. The technology when it reaches the market will cost in the range of Rs65,000- Rs70,000. If the government provided subsidies as in the case of other solar energy based products, there will be a significant reduction in the price of the product.

Widespread usage of the CSIR-CMERI developed solar DC cooking system can also play a critical role in achieving the target of 200 GW of solar energy as envisioned by the prime minister and also in saving almost 290 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
Electronic polymer based low-cost sensor developed to detect explosives rapidly

Indian scientists, for the first time, have developed a thermally stable and cost-effective electronic polymer-based sensor for rapidly detecting nitro-aromatic chemicals used in high-energy explosives. The detection of explosives without destroying them is essential for protection in criminal investigations, minefield remediation, military applications, ammunition remediation sites and security applications. Chemical sensors play a vital role in such cases.

Though explosive poly-nitroaromatic compounds can be analysed usually by sophisticated instrumental techniques, the requirement for quick decision making in criminology laboratories or reclaimed military sites or to detect explosives in possession of extremists often require simple, cheap, and selective field techniques, which will be non-destructive in nature.

Non-destructive sensing of nitroaromatic chemicals (NACs) is difficult. While earlier studies are based mostly on photo-luminescent property, detection of the basis of conducting property has not been explored so far. Detection on the basis of conducting property helps in making a handy detection device where results can be seen with the help of a LED.

To overcome such disadvantages, a team of scientists led by Neelotpal Sen Sarma from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, Guwahati, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, developed a layer by layer (LBL) polymer detector consisting of two organic polymers -- poly-2-vinyl pyridine with acrylonitrile (P2VP-Co-AN) and copolysulfone of cholesterol methacrylate with hexane (PCHMASH), which undergoes a drastic change in impedance (resistance in an AC circuit), in the presence of very low concentration of NACs vapour within a few seconds. Here, picric acid (PA) was chosen as the model NAC, and a simple and cost-effective electronic prototype was developed for visual detection of PA. The team has filed a patent for the novel technology funded by DeitY, GoI.

An electronic sensing device built around a polymer gas sensor can quickly detect the explosive on-site, said Neelotpal Sen Sarma.

The sensor device comprises three layers - polymers copolysulfone of cholesteryl methacrylate along with 1-hexene (PCHMASH), and copolymer of poly-2-vinyl pyridine with acrylonitrile by sandwiching PCHMASH in between two P2VP-Co-AN outer layers by stainless steel (SS) mesh. The sensitivity of the system is determined by monitoring the change in the impedance response with time (sec) in the presence of the vapour of the analyte (picric acid).

The tri-layer polymer matrix was found to be very efficient molecular sensor for nitroaromatic chemicals. The sensor device is quite simple and reversible in nature, and its response does not alter with varying operating temperature in presence of other common chemicals and humidity.

The device can be operated at room temperature, has a low response time and negligible interference from other chemicals. The fabrication is very simple, is negligibly affected by humidity, and the cholesterol-based polymers used are biodegradable.
A well-known Louth producer is set to hit television screens across the country after being chosen to star in Aldis new multi-platform advertising campaign.

Morgans Fine Fish is one of four Irish producers who have been selected as the face of Aldis new Everyday Irish, Everyday Amazing nationwide campaign, which highlights Aldis strong commitment to local sourcing and their longstanding partnerships with Irish farmers and producers.

Located in Omeath, Co. Louth, Morgans Fine Fish supply Aldi with the very finest in fish products.

The business has evolved rapidly since their commencement in 1860, earning themselves an esteemed reputation for great quality and reliability.

The business runs a state-of-the-art processing plant, where freshness is their key focus, and the catch is processed as soon as it lands.

The Morgans team includes eight family members, including nephews and nieces.

The Morgans great grandfather originally fished off coasts of Co Down and Co Louth, landing his catch in Omeath, before selling his bounty to what were known as Hawkes who would then go from door to door or to markets in nearby towns by horse and cart.

In more recent times, Morgans have been supplying the finest sustainably sourced fish to Aldi stores nationwide.

Aldi is proud to partner with Morgans Fine Fish, who combine traditional and contemporary production methods - resulting in quality seafood that has come from sustainable sources, aligning with Aldis pledge to be Better Everyday by promoting a Greener, Fairer and Healthier society.

Morgans Fine Fish are one of the suppliers behind Aldis Skellig Bay Irish Hake Fillets  a true customer favourite.

Speaking about this group of Irish food suppliers, Aldis Group Buying Director, John Curtin said: Here at Aldi, we want to reassert Ireland as a hotspot for innovative Irish suppliers, championing these producers that create top-notch Irish products, and make them accessible for all.

"Were incredibly proud to partners with hundreds of local Irish food and drink producers that provide the amazing groceries that end up on countless kitchen tables every day.

"Our new campaign takes shoppers on a tour of Ireland visiting the many award-winning food and drink producers that supply our stores. We wanted to emphasise to our customers that we offer authentic Irish products, supplied by real local farmers and producers.

Developed by McCann Manchester and Tiny Ark, and voiced by Oliver Callan, Aldis Everyday Irish, Everyday Amazing campaign has been running from September 20th across TV, radio, press, social media, digital channels, and Aldis own weekly Specialbuys magazine.
Tributes have poured in for local CervicalCheck campaigner, Eileen Rushe, who sadly passed away yesterday morning.

Eileen, who was from Termonfeckin, passed away early on Tuesday morning surrounded by family.

The mum-of-one died from terminal cancer after her smear test results were read as abnormal, but Louth County Hospital in Dundalk failed to properly investigate and treat her condition in 2017.

Speaking to RTEs Drivetime yesterday, Eileens brother Darragh said that the family was devastated by her passing.

Were all devastated, to be honest. It hasnt really sunk in, said Darragh.

He paid tribute to his sister, saying that he wanted to see her remembered as someone who was strong throughout her treatment.

She was so strong all the way through this.

She was supporting us, even in the midst of her treatment and everything, she was supporting us to give us the strength to support her.

So many people have been touched by her and weve been receiving quite a lot of thanks and everything else, said Darragh.

He also highlighted her positive nature all the way through her treatment, saying that she would always look on the bright side despite everything she went through.

It was devastating for her and devastating for all of us, but she always said from the start, one of the strengths was you have to have a positive outlook.

You can wallow all you want or look on the dark side, which a lot of people do, myself included, but she looked on the bright side.

She wanted to move forward, to make sure, try to get the best out of everything and what time she had left to do the best of everything.

Darragh said that despite her illness, she kept fighting right until the end and she remained positive throughout.

She continued to fight until the end.

She was happy and stubborn, very stubborn.

The Irish Cancer Society paid tribute to Eileen yesterday, saying that she was an incredible advocate for women living with cervical cancer.

Since she first received a diagnosis of cervical cancer in December 2018, Eileen has been an incredible advocate both for women living with cervical cancer, and for future generations to protect themselves through vaccination, said the Irish Cancer Society in a statement.

The group praised her for her work promoting the HPV vaccine, with Eileen urging parents as recently as two weeks ago to allow their children receive the HPV vaccine.

Despite often experiencing setbacks over the course of her journey, Eileen never relented in her efforts to spread her own important and powerful cancer prevention message.

Eileen was a truly wonderful person who left a profound impression on all who had the privilege to know or deal with her, and her enduring legacy will be the many people her words helped influence to protect themselves and their loved ones against avoidable cancer diagnoses in future.

Her local GAA club, St Fechins, of which she was a former juvenile secretary, said that they were saddened to hear of her death and gave sympathies to her family and friends.

Eileen is survived by her son Seamus, parents Jim and Mary, her siblings, her extended family and friends.
Gardai have asked that people in Dundalk be wary as almost 8 million was scammed from people in online investment fraud so far this year, according to new Garda figures obtained by RTE's Morning Ireland.

The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau has warned people to be more vigilant online to ensure their financial safety.

A new programme plans to give 230,000 older people digital and online skills so they can interact with services and avoid cyber scams is being launched.

Hi Digital, a nationwide social partnership between ALONE, Active Retirement Ireland, and Vodafone Ireland Foundation launched today to deliver online and in-person digital skills training for older people.

Garda figures show 7.9 million was taken from people in online investment fraud up to the end of July 2021.

That figure represents an 86% increase when compared to the same period in 2020.

Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau urged people to be "very, very careful".

During cyber security month, gardai outlined measures you can take to ensure online safety.

By following these four simple steps you can make your online work and relaxation more secure. #ThinkB4UClick



Step 1 - Stay Secure

- Beware of unsolicited emails or unsecured websites

- Update your software regularly

- Only use approved connections



Step 2 - Stay Connected

- Don't use public Wi-Fi for work or sensitive information

- Create strong passwords

- Change your password regularly



Step 3 - Stay Separate

- Keep your personal data separate from your business or work data

- Use encryption to protect your information



Step 4 - Stay Safe

- Back up your data regularly

- Report any suspicious activity or messages.
Whether you require a photocopier, cash register, AV equipment, or office furnishings, well help you select the product that will best suit your needs, and bring the functionality of your business to the next level.

Cusken Ltd was established in May 1987. The company was initially set up as a dedicated service company. Within a short period of time, it became clear that most companies in the area had to go outside the region, primarily Dublin to purchase new equipment for their offices. With this in mind, Cusken endeavoured to obtain high-profile dealerships for both sales and service for the Northeast region.

We at Cusken, believe in providing high-quality products and services all at reasonable prices. That is why we are partnering only with the best manufactures in the industries. Cusken takes its customers trust and loyalty very seriously. Thats what provided us with the tools to continue to grow for almost 35 years. Integrity, teamwork, and high quality of equipment are the core values we endeavour to keep too at all times.

Today, we have several product categories, including photocopiers, printers, retail machines, interactive AV equipment, office furniture, office machines, tills, scales and Covid-19 protection products. Also, not forgetting about toners, inks, retails consumables, etc. But our best product that we supply is "SERVICE". We supply and service everything you may need for your business, either retail, educational, home, or a conventional office.

We take our pride in the Cusken team, from service, admin to sales, our team of experts is here to help you at any time, and all with a smile.

You can visit our showroom at Cusken House, Castletown Road, where you can find a solution to suit the requirements that you may have for your business.

Dont forget to visit our website at www.cusken.ie, and follow our social media to be the first one to know all the special offers and news.
Memorandum of Understanding takes partnership to new level

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Moroccan Research Institute for Solar Energy and New Energies (IRESEN) are joining forces to boost energy transition.

In a Memorandum of Understanding, signed in Rabat today, the Bank and IRESEN resolve to strengthen their cooperation in the promotion of investments aimed at accelerating the countrys transition to green energy. The scope of the cooperation will cover a number of areas of common interest, including green hydrogen, renewable energy, smart electricity networks, energy efficiency, energy storage and e-mobility.

Morocco is recognised as having a very ambitious strategy for scaling up renewables (the country has committed to reaching, by 2030, a level where renewable sources account for more 52 per cent of installed electricity production capacity) and regularly pioneering new green technologies. In Morocco, the EBRD supports the decarbonisation of the Moroccan energy mix and the country's green and sustainable energy transition through direct and indirect financing and policy dialogue initiatives.

Antoine Salle de Chou, EBRD Director, Head of Morocco, said: We are very proud to come together with IRESEN to reinforce our engagement in Moroccos green transition. Addressing the climate challenge is not an option, but a must. It is therefore important to explore all credible clean-energy technologies that would further accelerate the countrys green-energy transition. This is what todays memorandum documents.

Harry Boyd-Carpenter, EBRD Managing Director for the Green Economy and Climate Change, said: The EBRD is fully committed to supporting the development of green hydrogen value chains. In combination with competitive renewable electricity, green hydrogen is a key ingredient in accelerating the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors and has strong potential in Morocco. We are very pleased to start our cooperation with IRESEN today.

Badr Ikken, Director General of IRESEN, commented: We are thrilled to partner with the EBRD in order to support the acceleration of the energy transition in Morocco. The agreement sealed today is a pledge of confidence in the 10 years of work by IRESEN teams in supporting Moroccos energy strategy, through research and development, innovation and capacity-building. In addition, this partnership proves that the decarbonisation of our economies requires the development and adoption of sustainable technological solutions, adapted to our context. This is the spirit of the alliance between the EBRD and IRESEN.

IRESEN was set up as a research institute in 2011 by Moroccos Ministry of Energy, Mines and Environment and several key players in the energy sector to support the national energy strategy and enhance research and development in the field of solar energy, new energies and related technological applications.

Morocco is a founding member of the EBRD and became a country of operations in 2012. To date, the Bank has invested almost 3 billion in the country through 74 projects.
A BISHOPSTOWN native has landed a primetime slot with a current affairs show that is waging war on fake news.

James Creedon, from Bishopstown, began working with the France 24 television station after completing a masters in international relations at SciencesPo. Fourteen years later, he is a recognisable face.

When Mr Creedon, a University College Cork law and French graduate, was a teenager attending Cistercian College in Roscrea, he fell in love with the idea of living in France. There, he gained an appreciation for diversity, after meeting young people from across the globe.

The presenter and news anchor initially envisioned a career in international administration, before finding success on television at the age of 26.

More recently, he has become the presenter of a nightly slot dedicated to fact-checking. The programme, titled Truth or Fake, informs people about the veracity of news stories.

Mr Creedon and his team have debunked a number of fake news stories, including doctored images of the head of the Afghan Central Bank holding a rifle. The show also focused on misinformation after the Russian elections.

Media outlets are now increasingly aware of the necessity to fight back against this wave of fake news, Mr Creedon said. For me, fact-checking is just journalism done well. Any type of journalism we do should have a built-in verification of facts. The aim, going forward, will be to look at fake images and videos that are circulating online and educate viewers on how they can debunk a story for themselves through reverse image searches and similar tools. We will be showcasing the content we, as well as other media outlets, have debunked to raise awareness of the existence of fake news online. Our hope is to keep it as lively and conversational as possible.

Mr Creedon said his new role will not be without its challenges.

The one concern I have is that the pace of a 24-hour news channel requires content quickly, Mr Creedon said.

The pace of fact-checking, as an activity, is somewhat slower, because a degree of investigation is involved. There will be conflict, in terms of the pace of 24-hour news and the slower pace of investigation required with fact-checking. It will be interesting to see how providing fact-checking in the context of a rolling news network works out.

And fact-checking must be responsible.

One of the pitfalls, at the moment, is that there is a lot of political fact-checking, Mr Creedon said. The danger with this is that each side fact-checks the other. Sometimes, the fact-checking can only go in one direction, which means there is an increased bias in media organisations. Fact-checking, while very noble in its intent, can sometimes only focus on one side of the political spectrum that is seen as particularly unsavory.

Nonetheless, fact-checking is still central to the integrity of journalism. Mr Creedon said: There is a big focus on fact-checking right now, as this is something thats so important in the context of fake news. Social media has become such a big part of our news intake, so identifying fake news is more relevant than it has ever been.

Mr Creedon has come a long way since his first day at the news station.

When I first started, it was nerve-racking, because there is this awareness that there are so many people watching you, even if you cant see them, Mr Creedon said. After a while, you can shake off that awareness.

However, if Im tired or having a bad day, then the reality that there are so many eyes on you can kick in. You have to be rested and remember that this is a performance. Its a bit like being a trapeze artist, because you have to just keep walking along the tightrope and remember not to look down. Most of the time, its second nature. My colleagues have become like family, so much so that you forget you are on television.

That brings its own pressures. He recalled one gruelling day, when he had to stop himself from fainting on live television.

I spent four months out of work with a broken ankle, Mr Creedon said. The Capitol riots happened on my second day back at work, which caught me off guard. I was hoping it would be a relaxed evening. Meanwhile, all hell was breaking loose in Washington.

It was two and half hours of breaking news and reports. I didnt know what was coming next, so returning to work was a complete baptism of fire. I felt like I was in the spin cycle of a washing machine. Then, just as I was due to come off air, the producer whispered in my ear, asking if I could do another hour. I felt like I was going to die from both the physical and mental drain. However, I knew I had to gather myself and do one more hour. There is a button underneath the desk that prevents you from being heard on air. I just pressed it and whispered water into the microphone. I was dizzy and could see lights in front of my eyes. That was the moment I thought I was going to faint live on air.

One of the most important parts of his job is maintaining a calm disposition.

With rolling news channels, there is this assumption that presenters can talk you through what is happening all the time, Mr Creedon said.

Sometimes, there is simply nothing new to say, so you have to find creative ways of repeating yourself and rehashing the same information. There is a lot of improvisation involved, while staying accurate to the facts as they unfold. Having everything appear smooth, while you are on high alert and stressed, is central to succeeding in that role.

Mr Creedon often cringes when looking back at old footage.

When I was doing the breakfast show, I looked completely exhausted and badly dressed. Those are the little things you just wish would disappear, he said.

Despite being based in France, Mr Creedon has found success at home, too, albeit as a filmmaker.

His latest documentary, 75 Years in Japan, was broadcast on RTE 1 last Thursday and continues its run on RTE Player.

The piece is the culmination of a year recording the memories of his elderly cousin, Jennie OSullivan, who was also Sr Paschal, the last Irish missionary nun in Japan.

She connected so well with generations of Japanese women, who loved her like a mother, Mr Creedon said. She both mentored and mothered them for decades, after they left the classroom. It took me by surprise, because what was initially supposed to be just an interview turned into an adventure.

During the height of the editing process, I felt I knew her as well as anyone else. I learned so much from her and now feel she will always be a part of me.

Mr Creedon is hopeful the documentaries can reach as many households as possible.

I am very keen for Irish audiences to see this, as her story is now part of an Ireland that is disappearing, Mr Creedon said.

At a time when Ireland is happy to turn over a new leaf and look ahead to a future where we refuse to be ruled by Catholicism, she is a reminder of the more positive aspects of that part of our history. She kept the connection with home very strong, stronger than most people abroad probably have today with the prevalence of technology.
A woman stuck in traffic in Cork city was forced out of her car by a knife-wielding man and when she ran to the safety of a nearby pizza outlet the attacker banged at the window breaking the blade of the knife.

Detective Garda Caitriona Molloy described the violent attempted carjacking at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where the culprit - 31-year-old Martin Ring  was sentenced to six years with the last two years suspended.

Detective Garda Molloy arrested Martin Ring of 60 Bridevalley View, Upper Fairhill, Gurranabraher, Cork, and charged him with producing a knife at Redforge Road, Cork, on June 9 this year and a second charge of attempting to hijack a 2016-registered Toyota Yaris at the same time and place.

Ring has pleaded guilty to both charges.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said, It is difficult to understand this case which was quite violent. He not only attempted to seize the car but when that failed he made a manic attack on the window with a knife.

He was intoxicated but that did not stop him. I am asked to excuse it because of a relationship breakdown and letting his addictions get out of hand but it is hard to relate that to the extent of the violence and out of control behaviour.

Det. Garda Molloy said the woman was in the drivers seat of the car when Ring approached from the passenger side with a knife in his hand, shouting Get the f*** out of the car.

The driver ran to a nearby pizza outlet where the door was locked for her protection as soon as she got inside.

Martin Ring did not realise that the electric car could be driven without a key.

He shouted after the woman to give him the key but she shouted back that she would not give it to him.

He ran against the window of the pizza shop. The blade from the knife broke when he banged his hand against the window, Det. Garda Molloy said.

John Devlin, defence barrister said the defendant cooperated with the investigation and identified himself on CCTV which gardai showed to him.

He had previously been in a relationship with a woman for 15 years. That broke up 18 months before this and he went overboard with addiction issues. He had been out of trouble for nine years before this happened, Mr Devlin said.

When Ring was first charged he replied, he replied, I want to apologise to the girl. Its not like me. Im really sorry.
WHAT should have been a pleasant five minute walk through a park to a pub in London recently, where 28-year-old Sabina Nessa was to meet a friend, ended in the murder of this well-respected teacher.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called violence against women and girls an epidemic and called on men to be allies.

This is where were at in the war on women.

And if you think Im exaggerating in using the word war, you only have to take note of last weeks survey of more than 2,700 women carried out by Newstalk, asking them about their experiences and fears of being out alone at night.

Why should we be scared of being out and about after dark? But the survey found that almost nine out of ten Irish women feel uncomfortable walking alone in the dark, while nearly two-thirds said theyd been verbally harassed.

Some 13% of women said they have been attacked after dark, with 60% saying they have been verbally harassed. More than 36% of women said they have been followed while walking home.

If youre old enough to remember the reclaim the night marches from decades ago, organised by womens groups, its depressing to realise that no real progress has been made.

We are still potential victims as prey for a minority of men - twisted men who hate women.

Sadiq Khan has gone so far as saying that misogyny should be made a hate crime and harassment in a public space against women should be a criminal offence.

According to a UN survey, 97% of women between the ages of 18 and 24 have been sexually harassed.

It doesnt augur well for bringing up girls. What are you supposed to say to them so that theyre alerted to danger but are not turned into nervous wrecks and man haters? And as for bringing up boys, toxic masculinity needs to be called out. And boys need to learn to be empathetic. Instead of going with the pack and abusing women, they should be principled enough to refuse to take part in such activity - and mentally strong enough to point out to their peers that harassing females is pathetic behaviour. How would they like it if their mothers or sisters were treated this way?

As Senator Erin McGreehan said last week, the harassment and abuse of women is a male issue.

It is not our fault that we are potential victims. It is their fault that they are potential criminals, she said.

Stories of harassment and assault of women were shared for the Newstalk survey. One woman said that when she was 17, she was walking home after school and got on the Luas.

This person followed me onto the Luas and proceeded to put their hand up my school skirt and people just sat there when it happened, the woman recalled.

Another said: I was grabbed outside my own home by a young man who followed me off the bus. I fought him off. I never walk alone after dark. In fact, I never go out alone after dark except in my car.

A woman said she was surrounded by four men in Dublin city centre before midnight who sexually harassed me with multiple bystanders. I was just after leaving my friends to catch a taxi less than five minutes away.

One women who was assaulted in 2018 on a night out has not been on a night out since.

I still live a wonderful and fulfilled life but I do not feel safe in my own city, she said.

What a terrible indictment of our society that half of us are afraid or, at best, attuned to the dangers of being a woman alone after dark.

Senator Lisa Chambers has said that our current laws on harassment do not adequately protect women from predatory men. She has proposed that a new crime of stalking be put on the statute book with a sentence of at least ten years.

The definition of stalking in the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Stalking (Amendment) Bill is repeated, unwanted behaviour that occurs as a result of a fixation or obsession and causes alarm, distress or harm to the victim and to provide for related matters. Similar laws are on the statute books in England, Scotland and Wales for over ten years and have resulted in a tripling of stalking reports between 2014 and 2018.

Senator Chambers brought forward the Bill after hearing the experiences of Cork stalking victim Una Ring and Sligo woman Eve McDowell. Unas stalker, 52 year-old James Steele from Rosscarberry, was sentenced to seven years, with the last two suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to charges of harassment, attempted burglary with intent to rape, and possession of articles with intent to cause a crime. Can we please reclaim the nights?


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Unless you are deeply rooted in the inner workings of internet search engine rankings, you may not know that organic search exists and differs from other search engine results. Take heart. You belong to a rather large club of unenlightened members on this technology.

With the right inquiries, though, you can remain oblivious to technical SEO and still put performance-driven organic search results to work in drawing more eyes to your company's website. That is what enterprise software company Botify brings to your marketing toolbox.

Botify earlier this month announced that it has closed $55 million in Series C funding led by InfraVia Growth, with participation from Bpifrance through its Large Venture fund, as well as existing investors Eurazeo and Ventech. This investment round will help Botify scale its solution to meet increased market demand.

It also reflects the strategic role of organic search for long-term, profitable business growth. In 2020, businesses spent $47.5 billion on search engine optimization or SEO-related products and services. The SEO market is projected to grow at a 20 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2025.

"The investment comes on the heels of a year during which online activity accelerated. The pandemic forced brands across all industries to quickly reassess their digital marketing investments or speed up their digital transformations," Adrien Menard, co-founder and CEO of Botify, told the E-Commerce Times.

With the ability to drive sustainable traffic and revenue, along with delivering a high ROI, organic search marketing has become a core strategy helping enterprise brands navigate this new world, he said.

"The additional funding will assure we can fuel our product innovation, notably in organic search automation, grow our global presence, specifically in APAC, and support our partner ecosystem development," he added.

Funding a Success Story

Since its founding in Europe in 2012, Botify has been at the forefront of enterprise SEO. Some of its biggest clients include Expedia, L'Oreal, The New York Times, Groupon, Marriott, Conde Nast, Crate & Barrel, Fnac Darty, Vestiaire Collective, and Farfetch.

Botify entered the U.S. market in 2016 and grew accounts to amass more than 60 percent of the company's revenue. Building upon this success, the company is establishing and growing operations in the Asia Pacific region.

This continuing success is rooted in the most robust set of analytics to better understand and improve the discoverability of its clients' websites by search engines. The result for its customers is driving traffic and conversions from intent-based consumers.

(L-R) Botify co-founders Adrien Menard, Thomas Grange, and Stan Chauvin

Today, Botify delivers insights across the entire search funnel. It uses recommendations powered by artificial intelligence and the ability to automate time- and resource-intensive SEO implementations that drive real business outcomes.

The Botify platform's quality and scalability set it apart as a leader within the search landscape, according to Antoine Izsak, investment director at Bpifrance Large Venture.

"We have been impressed by Botify's rapid growth and the fact that they are enabling some of the largest and most sophisticated websites in the world to drive measurable revenue growth through organic search," he said.

Search Organically, Not Commercially

Along the way, Botify developed an innovative, proprietary enterprise SEO platform. Unlike other search engine optimization compilations, Botify's platform is not a typical SEO tool. It is a platform to fix a company's indexing issues that helps its customers' businesses rank better, get more traffic, and generate more revenue.

Botify's technology turns organic search into an efficient, measurable, and sustainable channel for both traffic and revenue growth. It uses a unified data model, prescriptive insights, and automated processes to deliver an end-to-end SEO management solution.

That result enables its customers to unlock the growth potential of their websites. For that process to succeed, Botify builds its SEO platform around organic search results instead of search results based on paid or commercialized processes.

"It is a bit technical, but we discovered that on average, 50 percent of the content of your website is not even in the Google search index. We estimate that 75 percent of online traffic actually comes from organic search," said Menard.

That poses a big problem for businesses. Google and other search engines never know about some of the pages on websites they index, he revealed.

"The consequence is that if the page is not in the Google index, the page has no chance to get ranked, to be visible, to be clicked on," he explained.

Reasons Are Many

Numerous things cause that, Menard offered. One is the endless nature of the internet. The creation of content online is so crazy that even the most successful companies in the world simply cannot cope with this creation volume.

Another cause is websites are not designed for search engines. They are designed for the users.

"What we are reading as a user is very different than what the search engine is going to do on the website. Some elements prevent access to some pieces of the content available on the website," explained Menard.

A third reason for the apparently undiscovered content is the website may be too slow, or the internal linking structure may be disorganized. The means that Google cannot access the pages simply because the links are not there to point to some content.

Organic Search

Defining what constitutes organic searching, also known as natural search, can be just as varied as understanding why some content is seemingly invisible to search engines.

Think of organic search as being unpaid search results, in contrast to paid search results such as pay-per-click advertising.

Organic search traffic comes to a website free-of-charge from search engines such as Bing, Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and others. Non-organic search traffic results from visitors clicking on a link in an advertisement or sponsored listing on a search engine for which a business paid to appear at the top of search results.

Another way to define organic search are results which are naturally generated. They are not influenced by commercial relationships between a business and a search provider, ISP, or another party hosting search results.

In terms of marketing, higher-ranked organic traffic is more likely to convert an organic visitor than a someone coming from Facebook or another medium, according to Botify.

How It Works

Organic search is essential to get more accurately optimized search engine recognition. Botify's SEO platform automates the process of analyzing and fixing faulty website designs and content flaws that negatively impact organic search rankings.

It's deep statistical insight provides recommendations that fix harmful ranking elements. Botify then passes along these recommendations to its clients. In many instances Botify can directly make fixes on the client's website to optimize search engine results, according to Menard.

The figures displayed above graphic reflect pre-Covid-19 results. The pandemic caused displaced workers required to work from home to spend much more time on the internet and they engaged in online shopping. The pandemic accelerated the search trends, noted Botify.

"The platform's intelligence lies in machine learning and artificial intelligence, which drives our recommendation engine. We can automatically recommend to our customers what they should do on their website to increase their organic search visibility, traffic, and revenue," he explained.

Botify's unified data model is based on a three-step process. It includes:

Analytics of the website's structure

Intelligence to identify opportunities and risks of the displayed content

Activation to implement the solution based on web traffic and business data

Results-Based Model

Botify likens organic search to a funnel. The SEO platform relies on first-party data to understand and optimize it. Any content that fails analysis in an early part of the funnel will not be discovered by search engines -- so it must be fixed.Botify's platform resolves issues with the crawl ratio so search engines can find the otherwise unseen content. Google often ignores -- does not see -- half of a site's content, according to Botify.

Botify's pricing model is based on the concept of paying for results, not paying for usage.

The company offers three plans to meet customers' needs. All three plans come with full access to the full-funnel methodology built into the SEO platform:


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As if online vendors did not have enough changes to handle in this post-Covid marketing environment, the impending loss of third-party digital cookies will soon force the e-commerce advertising industry to shift its strategies fast.

Third-party cookies will soon be a thing of the past. Within the next two years, Google will completely stop selling web ads targeted to individual users' browsing histories. On Google's popular Chrome web browser, cookies that collect this data will no longer be allowed.

Google recently announced plans to do away with tracking cookies on its Chrome browser by 2023. The company plans to replace them with a group profiling system intended to help create a more privacy-friendly web.

Other transitions away from third-party tracking cookies are also kicking in.

For instance, since April, iPhone and iPad users were prompted to opt-out of tracking apps that monitor their browsing. The European Union's data protection laws classify digital cookies as a form of online identifiers. That makes them subject to regulations requiring websites to gain consent before placing cookies on browsers to track visitors.

These developments are issuing a real blow to advertisers seeking to leverage third-party data. At issue now is how brands will regroup from these substantial changes to online advertising.

One potential solution is to align marketing efforts with technology that gives marketers more control over their product and customer information. That is precisely what BigID's actionable data intelligence platform is designed to provide.

Companies need to get the most out of their data by knowing what they have and where it is stored. The company provides strategies to help brands adapt to this changing environment, offered Heather Federman, vice president of privacy and policy at BigID.

"Digital cookies for a very long time have been the default tracking mechanism. Privacy regulations issued by the European Union started changing that," she told the E-Commerce Times

We discussed with Federman the existential crisis online advertisers face in transitioning to what comes next in a cookieless world.

Derailing Tracking Set in Motion

A hotly debated activity for years has been websites tracking visitors' Internet Protocol (IP) or addresses. For example, a web surfer goes to a shopping website to check out a pair of boots. That shopper then starts seeing ads for boots and related products throughout their continuing website visits.

"That is basically what digital cookies have been about, and regulators have gotten very concerned over cookies and that sort of tracking," noted Federman.

To protect online privacy, regulators have offered various proposals to the cookie-tracking mechanism. Under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation comes this idea that user consent must be acquired before any cookie is placed on a user's computer, she noted.

"As a result, some consent mechanisms already exist," she said.

That is driving the decision by numerous web browser companies to turn off cookies by default. But a lot of websites operators want site visitors to opt into cookies because that is how they generate revenue through free advertising, Federman explained.

Navigating the Cookie Apocalypse

Federman sees the solution to marketing in an e-commerce world without cookies as a more direct connection to online customers. The easiest thing for companies to do is to build on their relationship with each customer and create a first-party database.

A related approach is doing second-party data or advertising where the marketer knows the status of the first party. They might partner with another company and add to that data to enrich the customer profile, according to Federman.

The problem that marketers face once the cookie-tracking mechanisms in the browser turn off is the lack of a viable alternative for advertisers. One option is a unified consent tool. That approach remains up in the air, she noted. The same is true for using contextual-based advertising, she noted.

Buying Into the Paywall

Some website operators are considering a service subscription to support themselves as an alternative to relying on free advertising, suggested Federman.

"I, unfortunately, do think that will happen because this is the way that the world works," she observed. "That is even more pernicious than the way that cookies have been working because, I think, marketers are still going to want to find a way to market," she said.

Whatever solutions are concocted to replace the abandoned digital cookies, the phase-in process will be gradual over the next few years. That may cause concerns about lost revenue for advertisers along the way.

Regarding paywalls becoming more prominent on the internet, Federman sees that as a growing reality. We are starting already to see paywalls in the last few years for a lot of publishers.

"If they cannot use cookies to get their money from advertising, they are going to have to get their money directly from the users themselves. That is going to end up hurting our pockets because users were very used to free internet and getting free news all the time," she said.

Answering the Monetizing Question

Obviously, how advertisers and website operators can successfully monetize their online activities under a new cookieless system is a major concern. Whatever solutions are implemented, it will not be a one-size-fits-all offering. For many, the quandary is developing strategies to keep the cash flow going without being able to track users.

"That is part of what is happening, and the community is in a bit of an existential crisis mode right now," agreed Federman.

One thing that might happen is that a lot of the bigger players, the ones that have huge advertising platforms, will become more important and will also probably become more profitable, she suggested. Many of the smaller players, and especially smaller publishers and brands, will have to rely upon those larger services more extensively to get their message out.

One potential approach is a new cohort system Google is developing to replace the cookie process. Some reports describe it as an AI-powered profiling system that in some ways mimics what Facebook does.

Google recently announced a trial rollout of what it calls a Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). This is a crucial part of its Privacy Sandbox project for Chrome.

Instead of digital cookies, FLoC shows websites little text bits and code the browsers store on the computer or phone. These bits of text and code help websites figure out if you have visited before, what your site preferences are, and your geographic location.

That process triggers adverts for things in which it figured you have a potential interest. Google claims the system is 95 percent as effective as third-party cookies.

So far, it is unclear how FLoC alleviates privacy concerns associated with cookies.

Divided Privacy Standards, Maybe

From an outsider's view, it could seem like two different sets of rules are setting in concerning privacy regulations.

The EU is much stricter and more aggressive in enforcing their privacy laws. Not so much elsewhere, such as in the U.S. Consumers may end up in a situation where end-users in Europe are going to have one set of privacy rules, but not as much on this side of the pond.

"That is very possible. It is very possible you will have a balkanized internet," agreed Federman.

In the U.S., the up-and-coming privacy laws like in California, even the new ones promulgated in Virginia and Colorado, are much more opt-out oriented, she added.

What Happens Next?

The ad tech community really needs to come together and figure out a solution to replace cookies before the upcoming two-year window closes. The focus must be on privacy-friendly and honoring the consent requirement, whether it is opt-out or opt-in, according to Federman.

Much of that process should fall upon the industry organizations that work with advertisers. These include the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), and others.

Add to that list the European advertising association counterparts as well.

"I do not know if we will ever be able to come to a real consensus with the privacy advocate community because many of the folks on the privacy advocacy side are not a fan of advertising," said Federman.

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics. Email Jack.




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High ranking business executives say ransomware is a major concern to them but their organizations are unprepared to do anything about it.

Those were the findings of a poll released Monday by global consulting and advisory services firm Deloitte.

Nearly two-thirds (64.8 percent) of the 50 C-level and other executives polled by Deloitte revealed that ransomware will be a major concern to their organizations over the next 12 months, but only a third of the corporate leaders have simulated an attack to prepare for such an incident.

"Over the past 12 to 18 months, executives across industries and sectors have witnessed -- and increasingly experienced first-hand -- the jaw-dropping frequency, sophistication, cost and both economic and operational impacts of ransomware attacks," Deloitte Managing Director Curt Aubley said in a statement.

"As some ransomware can evade antivirus tools and attackers find more ways to pressure victims to pay ransoms, these attacks often have national and global repercussions," he continued. "There's no time to waste when it comes to honing and testing incident response programs for ransomware and other cyber events."

Security by Obscurity

Most organizations believe in security through obscurity, observed Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul, a threat intelligence company in El Segundo, Calif.

"They simply don't think they will be noticed by hackers if they keep their heads down," she told TechNewsWorld.

That head-in-the-sand attitude is especially prevalent among smaller and less mature organizations, noted Allie Mellen, a security and risk analyst at Forrester Research.

"Ransomware is an equal opportunity attack," she told TechNewsWorld. "It targets large and small businesses equally."

"There are a number of ransomware groups that just target whatever they can get," she continued. "They're very opportunistic."

"We've seen groups that specifically shy away from big game hunting because of the potential geopolitical impact it can have," she said. "They're attacking smaller organizations or individual consumers."

"Those attacks aren't as high profile now because of the publicity the ransomware attacks on larger organizations are getting," she added.

IT Silo

Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner of Rain Capital, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, maintained most C-level executives are putting ransomware in an IT silo and underestimate its threat to an entire business.

"Many do not yet consider ransomware threats a cross-function business issue for them to be actively involved in," she told TechNewsWorld.

Translating cyber risk into business risk is a general problem, noted Brandon Hoffman, chief security officer for Intel 471, a cybercrime intelligence provider in Dallas.

"In the past, the sky lining of cyber events has been viewed as gambits to obtain budget for a business unit without a clearly defined ROI," he told TechNewsWorld.

"The current exposure and coverage related to ransomware doesn't appear to have significantly moved the needle," he said.

"It may also be that executive teams feel that their cyber insurance is the gap coverage to areas they can't really operationally fix, but this viewpoint is equally dangerous," Hoffman added.

Short-Sighted Policy

Chris Clements, vice president of solutions architecture for Cerberus Sentinel, a cybersecurity consulting and penetration testing company in Scottsdale, Ariz. agreed that a defense strategy that leans on cyber insurance is a short-sighted one.

"Cyber insurance may pay out to help offset the costs of paying a ransom, but that's never guaranteed," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Very often a ransomware attack means that business stops completely; rendering the victim unable to deliver service to their customers," he said. "I don't think enough executives take that into account when planning their cybersecurity strategy."

"Your business could come to an abrupt stop and may not restart for days or even weeks afterward leaving employees idle, customers without products or services, and significant revenue losses," he explained.

"The same way that car insurance isn't a substitute for seatbelts or airbags," he continued, "cybersecurity insurance isn't a replacement for implementing critical security controls."

"Recognizing the seriousness of the ransomware threat is easy," added Cherise Esparza, CPO, CTO and co-founder of SecurityGate, a cybersecurity software company in Houston.

"What isn't easy is connecting the threat back to the business risk and impact, then trying to determine if the threat is likely enough to warrant resources to protect against it," she told TechNewsWorld.

Better Access to Brass

Communication may also play a role in the gap between awareness and preparedness.

"One of the main disconnects among today's security leaders is communication upstream with the C-level," observed Chuck Everette, director of cybersecurity advocacy at Deep Instinct, a deep learning cybersecurity company in New York City.

"The typical tenure for today's security leaders and CISOs is only around 12 months," he told TechNewsWorld. "Due to the short amount of time they are in the role, communication upstream is not always streamlined or efficient because they have not built the relationships or trust at the C-level or board level."

However, he added that security leaders have greater access to the top brass in their companies than ever before.

"There has been a shift of where security leaders report to within organizations," he explained.

"In the past, they reported to CFOs or CIOs, but now they are starting to report directly to the CEO, which is where they should be," he said.

"Security leaders today must have that influence and visibility with the CEOs to properly advise them of the threats to their company and how to mitigate them," he continued. "This type of information cannot be filtered or diluted."

Personal Accountability Needed?

One way to close the awareness-preparedness gap is to give C-level executives a taste of life during a crisis.

"I've seen enterprises rapidly elevate their protection efficacy after training has included war gaming using executive-level cyber-ranges," observed Gunter Ollmann, CISO of Devo Technology, a logging and security analytics company in Cambridge, Mass.

"Having the executive team spend a day actively responding to a ransomware incident that includes mock press interviews, releasing update emails to customers and partners, and crisis management, seems to focus minds and reinforces that a cyber incident affects all parts of the business," he told TechNewsWorld.

However, more than better communication and empathy may be needed to close the awareness-preparedness gap.

"Organizations will not adjust executive management culture and priorities until they're held personally accountable for data breaches and disruptions in operations caused by ransom-based malware," said Simon Aldama, principal security advisor at Netenrich, a San Jose, Calif.-based IT and digital security operations company.

"Change is driven when an executive's personal well-being and finances are directly affected," he told TechNewsWorld.

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.




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Policymakers should be fostering the use of artificial intelligence in making workforce decisions, not inhibiting it, according to the Center for Data Innovation.

In a report released Monday, the global think tank called on governments to encourage AI adoption and establish guardrails to limit harms.

"The dominant narrative around AI is one of fear, so policymakers need to actively support the technology's growth," the report's author, policy analyst Hodan Omaar, said in a statement. "It is critical for lawmakers to avoid intervening in ways that are ineffective, counterproductive, or harmful to innovation."

The report explained that AI-enabled tools can support workforce decisions by helping businesses manage their existing employees, as well as recruit and hire new ones.

They can also boost productivity among employers, such as by reducing the time needed to hire new employees, increasing retention rates, and improving communications and team dynamics among workers.

In addition, the report continued, these tools may help employers reduce human biases when hiring, decide on compensation, and make other employment-related decisions.

AI Concerns To Address

The report maintained that to successfully deploy AI for workforce decisions, employers will need to address potential concerns.

Some of those concerns include ensuring that the increased use of AI does not exacerbate existing biases and inequalities, metrics AI tools produce are fair and accurate, increased monitoring of employees is not unduly invasive, and processing of biometric does not reveal sensitive personal information about employees that they may wish to keep private, such as data about their emotions, health, or disabilities.

To address these concerns, the report continued, several policymakers and advocacy groups have called for new public policies that apply the "precautionary principle" to AI, which says that government should limit the use of new technology until it is proven safe.

"In short, they favor restricting the use of AI because they believe it is better to be safe than sorry," Omaar wrote. "But these policies do more harm than good because they make it more expensive to develop AI, limit the testing and use of AI, and even ban some applications, thereby reducing productivity, competitiveness, and innovation."

"Instead," she noted, "policymakers should pave the way for widespread adoption of AI in the workplace while building guardrails, where necessary, to limit harms."

Employer and Employee Benefits

Artificial intelligence can benefit both employers and employees, added Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

"Ideally AI can help businesses make both more efficient decisions -- by synthesizing and analyzing much more granular data than human managers are able to process -- and also more fair decisions, by providing a uniform mechanism for evaluating employees that can help filter out the biases of individual managers," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Plenty of real-world applications of workplace AI are beneficial for employees as well -- finding ways to reduce on-the-job injuries or burnout, not just ramp up productivity," he added.

When AI systems can become a problem is when people become too dependent on them, noted Craig Le Clair, a vice president and a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

"The system becomes a black box to humans," he told TechNewsWorld. "They can't explain how a decision was made so they don't know if it was biased or not."

Algorithm Bias

Sanchez explained that algorithms can have biases in a number of ways. They can replicate biases in the data they're trained on. They can also be insensitive to circumstances humans would be aware of.

"When that's the case, the bias gets scaled across the entire firm or even a whole sector, if a particular tool is widespread -- though when biases are identified, they're usually easier to correct than their human counterparts," he said.

"The ability to process granular data can also be a double-edged sword, because it enables a level of minute monitoring that can feel dehumanizing," Sanchez continued.

"It can feel like important decisions about your career depend on an opaque algorithm that may not be intelligible to the employee in the way we expect supervisors' decisions to be," he explained.

John Carey, managing director in the technology practice at AArete, a global management consulting firm, added that AI can't easily match experience or instinct around employees, making sure that they are treated with empathy.

"We, as humans, can detect far more about a behavioral issues from a conversation rather than relying on just data," he told TechNewsWorld. "So it's important that AI is used as a support tool rather than be relied on exclusively."

Data Quality Important

Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst of Tirias Research, a high-tech research and advisory firm in Phoenix, Ariz. explained that how an AI tool performs depends on the quality of the data it's given and the bias of that information.

"A lot of the information going into AI systems will be coming from employees," he told TechNewsWorld. "Everyone, no matter who you are, has biases. It's hard to break those biases."

"AI is a tool," he said. "It should not be the only tool that any employer uses for hiring, firing or advancing people."

"AI has the potential to improve workforce decisions," he added, "but you have to be conscious of its upside and downside when using it as a tool."

Advice for Policymakers

In her report, Omaar proposed eight principles to guide policymakers when making decisions about AI:

Make government an early adopter of AI for workforce decisions and share best practices;

Ensure data protection laws support the adoption of AI for workforce decisions;

Ensure employment nondiscrimination laws apply regardless of whether an organization uses AI;

Create rules to safeguard against new privacy risks in workforce data;

Address concerns about AI systems for workforce decisions at the national level;

Enable the global free flow of employee data;

Do not regulate the input of AI systems used for workforce decisions; and

Focus regulation on employers, not AI vendors.

Light Touch

Sanchez endorsed the light government touch advocated in Omaar's recommendations.

"I'm inclined to agree with the CDI report that we probably don't need AI-specific rules in most cases, though it may take some time to figure out how to apply existing rules to decisions made with AI assistance," he said.

"If there are things we want to require or forbid employers to do, then at some level it shouldn't matter whether they do those things with microprocessors or human brains -- trying to directly regulate software design is usually a mistake," he observed.

"Anyone who thinks they can regulate AI is foolish," added McGregor.

"If you start slapping regulations on it, you're going to make it ineffective and limit innovation," he said. "You're going to have more downside than upside."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.


Paraguay's meat production expected to hit historic profits this year





Livestock traders in Paraguay foresee near US$2 billion profits by the end of a favourable 2021, National Service for Animal Quality and Health's (Senacsa) Jose Carlos Martin announced recently.

During the Senacsa Night event at Expo 2021, Martin explained that all meat export items - beef, pork and poultry as well as products and by-products of animal origin- are expected to yield an unprecedented US$2 billion, which would represent a 70% growth compared to 2020 figures.

2021 will be a historical record in livestock exports, with a 70% growth in foreign trade compared to the previous year, Martin told local business leaders in all areas of livestock production, meat processing and agriculture.

- MercoPress
School evacuated due to bomb threat

A school was evacuated on the Island today after a bomb threat was recieved.

Emergency services were called to Willaston school at just after 3pm.

The school site was evacuated with all children moved to Isle of Man College.

Isle of Man Constabulary said: It was the priority of the school to ensure the safety of the children and as such they commenced their evacuation process and called the police. Within minutes Police arrived at the school and assisted in ensuring the children and staff were safe, also taking into account that parents were arriving to collect their children. Parents were diverted to the place of safety, designated in this instance as the Isle of Man College. Safety cordons and road closures where put in place around the school whilst Police determined the threat and made various enquiries.

It is difficult with a live situation such as this to get information out to the public whilst balancing the need to protect them, the parents and more importantly the children whilst establishing the level of risk, the correct information and latterly protecting the subsequent investigation process, all within a very short period of time. Police and school staff made every effort to release initial information to parents as a priority. It is appreciated that it can be very frustrating for the public and the parents of children attending the school not having the fullest of information but for reasons explained, not all of the details can be released.

The events of this afternoon are now believed to have been a hoax causing a great deal of disruption to not only the school but also the wider public. Police are working with the Department of Education and are investigating the matter fully, they will update the public further with the information that they can release when they can release it. Police would like to thank the local residents, the affected members of the public and the parents for their understanding and would like to re-iterate that above all else their first priority is to protect life and now a full investigation will follow.

The Manx Government has confirmed Willaston School will be open as usual tomorrow.
Queen's Baton Relay to visit Isle of Man next June

The Queen's Baton will visit the Isle of Man next June ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The Commonwealth Games Association has announced that the baton's tour will include the Island on June 16th.

The Queen will write a message to the Commonwealth which will be placed inside the baton for its journey.

It was designed and created in the West Midlands and features a platinum strand along its length to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year in 2022. The baton also features technology including a 360-degree camera to record and transmit stories from across the Commonwealth, and atmospheric sensors to analyse each country's environmental conditions. A heart rate monitor will display the heartbeats of baton carriers, and LED lights will change colour when two people hold it together.
CNN has become the first US media organization to restrict Australians' access to its Facebook pages, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move comes weeks after the country's high court ruled that media companies are liable for the comments left by other people on their Facebook posts. A CNN spokesperson told the publication that users in Australia will no longer be able to see its main Facebook page, its CNN International page and the dedicated pages for its shows.

Dylan Voller filed the original case that prompted Australia's courts to decide whether media organizations should be liable for comments left on their Facebook pages. Voller became famous back in 2016 after a TV expose on the mistreatment of minors in the criminal detention system showed a photo of him hooded and strapped to a chair when he was only 17. Major news outlets used that photo for their articles that were then posted on Facebook, where commenters falsely accused Voller of serious crimes, such as raping an elderly woman.

A CNN source told The Journal that the organization asked Facebook if it would help media companies disable comments entirely. However, the social network reportedly declined to disable all comments on CNN's pages in Australia. Facebook rolled out a tool back in March that allows celebrities, politicians and news outlets to restrict who can comment on their pages, but they'd still have to set a restriction for every post. CNN has decided that doing so for all its properties would be time-consuming and opted to completely block Australia instead.

A CNN spokesperson said:

We are disappointed that Facebook, once again, has failed to ensure its platform is a place for credible journalism and productive dialogue around current events among its users."

As for Facebook, it told The Journal that it supports the reform of Australia's defamation laws. In addition, it said it provided CNN with features it can use to manage comments and that it continues to "provide Australians a destination for quality journalism, including through Facebook News which we launched in August."

Earlier this year, Australia also passed a law that requires tech giants to pay news outlets for using their content. As a response, Facebook blocked Australian publishers and residents from sharing news content. It quickly rolled back the ban, however, and agreed to pay some news organizations for their content.
Elon Musk isn't fond of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and he just made that patently clear. CNET reports that Musk told Code conference attendees Bezos should put more effort into "getting into orbit than lawsuits," and that you couldn't "sue your way to the Moon" as Blue Origin allegedly tried when it lost its lunar lander bid. He was also less-than-flattering to Virgin Galactic, describing its first passenger flight and Blue Origin's as "a step in the direction of orbit" that fell short of SpaceX's efforts.

While Musk is known for being harsh, he might have some support in this case. The Verge has obtained NASA legal documents showing that the space agency felt Blue Origin "gambled" with its originally proposed $5.9 billion lunar lander price. Bezos' company allegedly set the price far higher than necessary as it expected NASA to award the contract and negotiate for a lower cost. Blue Origin also reportedly assumed NASA would get the full funding from Congress needed for that initial price, even as the Senate made clear NASA wouldn't get the necessary amount.

You know what happened next. Rather than haggle the price, NASA picked the $2.9 billion SpaceX bid. Blue Origin challenged the award and even made a last-ditch $2 billion offer, but by then it was too late. The Government Accountability Office rejected Blue Origin's claims, saying NASA didn't violate regulations in picking SpaceX. Bezos' outfit took NASA to court roughly two weeks later.

In an interview, Blue Origin VP Megan Mitchell told The Verge the company rejected NASA's views. She felt Blue Origin made a "great offer" and that it disagreed with NASA's gambling characterization. The GAO separately said NASA partly botched its safety review requirements for the proposal, although it still sided with SpaceX on grounds that Blue Origin didn't explain how the move provided an unfair edge.

This isn't to say Musk and SpaceX are innocent. SpaceX sued the US in 2019 after it lost an Air Force rocket contract to Blue Origin and other competitors, for example. It's just that Musk's trash talking appears to carry some weight in this modern Moon race.

Update 9/29 5PM ET: An Amazon spokesperson, not Blue Origin, emailed Engadget claiming SpaceX has a "long track record" of suing the US government over contracts and other decisions. To that end, it even sent a lengthy document listing 16 lawsuits and regulatory objections from SpaceX. Most of them are FCC oppositions, and some of the other issues are quite old (such as a 2004 lawsuit). One thing's for certain: the slap fight between Musk and Bezos is getting uglier by the day.
There are many places in the world that don't have an address system, which can restrict the opportunities available for people who live and work in those areas. Without an address, you can't get mail or packages, nor can you vote or sign up for bank accounts, for example. Emergency responders can't even find you easily if you don't have an address. Google's open-source Plus Codes system has been around since 2015 to help assign addresses to places, matching a series of letters and numbers to a set of latitude and longitude coordinates.

But, according to Google, "previously, creating addresses for an entire town or village could take years." The company is releasing a new tool today called Address Maker that would make mass generation of these codes easier for governments and organizations. Google said that governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) in Kenya, India, South African and the US are already using Address Maker, "with more partners on the way."

Anyone can enter one of these codes, which look like "P2J5+7C," into Google Maps and see where that place is or get directions. For people who already have existing addresses that are long or complicated, these could be helpful in making sure your contacts find you at the correct spot. If you've ever tried to send a package to an industrial area in a country you're not familiar with, you'll probably find Plus Codes helpful, too.

Google

Address Maker is a free Android app and shorted the previously years-long process to a few weeks, Google said. Based on an animated render, it appears you can outline segments on a map and add addresses for multiple structures within the area at once. You can check out Google's page for more help, especially if you're part of a local government or NGO.
Another major automaker has revealed plans to move entirely to electric vehicles within the next decade. Rolls-Royce is the latest one to make the pledge, following other luxury brands such as Jaguar, Lincoln and Bentley.

Spectre, Rolls-Royce's first EV (and one that sounds like it's rolling off the set of a James Bond film), will arrive in the last quarter of 2023. The BMW brand plans to start testing the vehicle soon, according to Reuters. Rolls-Royce teased the EV in some images, but it literally kept the Spectre's design under wraps.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said that by 2030, the automaker "will no longer be in the business of producing or selling any internal combustion engine products." Sibling brand Mini has made a similar pledge. Parent company BMW has not set a date for making a full switch to EVs, though it aims to move half of production to electric models by the end of this decade.
Amazons annual barrage of new Echo hardware didnt disappoint, ranging from role-playing games to nutrition tracking, drones and videocall devices for kids. I think the new 15-inch Echo Show, a smart screen to mount on your wall, was the most intriguing reveal.

Amazon

Amazon has redesigned its home screen to make the most of all that extra display space, and you can customize it so part of the screen scrolls through ambient content, like headlines and weather updates. Aimed at families, the Echo Show 15 also has a new visual ID feature that can recognize your face and show you personalized information, like calendar appointments, reminders and notes.

Amazon and Google dominate the smart displays space, and I might be the rare exception of having not a single Alexa-powered device in my home. So far, Amazons devices havent offered anything particularly compelling for me. I have a Google smart display, which smoothly integrates with Google Calendar, Google Maps and the rest. Its hard for me to generate much enthusiasm for the Echo range.

Now, having said that, let me contradict myself entirely.

If you like your Alexa devices on wheels and with precarious extendable, periscope cameras, then perhaps Amazons Astro robot might get you excited. (Or worried.) Amazon plans to sell its first robot in limited quantities later this year. It will eventually cost $1,450, but as part of its Day 1 Editions program, the company will sell the robot at an introductory price of $1,000.

 Mat Smith

All the big Amazon news

Amazon's Blink unveils a no-frills $50 video doorbell

Amazon's Alexa-enabled Smart Thermostat only costs $60

Amazon takes on Apple with fitness and nutrition services for Halo devices

Everything Amazon announced at its September hardware event

Amazon Glow is a kid-focused video call device with interactive activities

Starting from $169, depending on the shade.

IKEA

IKEA and Sonos new, more customizable version of their Symfonisk speaker lamp arrives on October 12th. The furniture giant will sell the new model's lamp base and shade separately, so you can mix and match parts to ensure the final product fits the vibe of your home.

IKEAs Stjepan Begic said they decided to make the base smaller after finding out a lot of people use the Symfonisk lamp on their nightstand. Youll be able to choose between two types of shades: textile or glass, while the lamps themselves come in black or white. The new model also supports a wider range of bulbs, thanks to a different E26/E27 socket.

Continue reading.

The invitation-only program will help refine the technology.

Ring says its Always Home Cam, its first home security drone, will soon arrive in select households. Users will be able to sign up to join an invite-only testing program to help refine the hardware before it hits shelves. In the US, at least, Ring owners can sign up to help develop what its makers are calling a very ambitious device.

Continue reading.

I doubt any of us are surprised.

This time last year, ByteDance was trying to save its TikTok app in the US and elsewhere after Donald Trump's administration threatened to ban it. One potential savior was Microsoft.

It was a mess. It all started when Trump threatened to force Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US owner, citing privacy and security concerns. Microsoft stepped in as a potential buyer, though the company, in the end, struck a deal with Oracle and Walmart, which President Joe Biden's administration scrapped in February 2021.

Microsoft was in the middle of negotiations with ByteDance when Trump told reporters he'd rather ban the app than allow it to be sold to a US company. That "threw into disarray the careful negotiations we had pursued with ByteDance to buy TikToks business in the US and the three other countries, CEO Satya Nadella wrote. Trump only relented and allowed a deal to happen after Nadella called him personally.

After Oracle's winning bid, ByteDance said Trump had "ghosted" the site, effectively going silent after ordering the company to divest its US TikTok assets.

Continue reading

Its very, very important for Amazon Game Studios.

After four delays spanning nearly a year and a half of missed release dates, New World is finally here, available to Steam and Amazons own marketplace, starting at $40. The MMORPG will be crucial to Amazon Game Studios future. After the very public failure of Crucible, which it terminated not too long after its launch, the company needs to prove it can deliver compelling games  and keep them going. Hopefully, all those delays have ensured New World arrives with its best foot forward.

Continue reading.

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90s sitcoms fascinate me. As a 24 year old Zillenial (born in an unidentifiable generation between Millennials and GenZ), I am familiar with 90s shows. Well, as familiar as someone who was born in 1997 and not allowed to watch TV on school nights, during weekend days, or during weekend nights can be. For those doing the math at home, that is all of the time. I shouldn't say I was completely banned from watching TV. At very specific times, I was allowed to watch anything on PBS including British comedies my parents would watch like Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By and any show in which the children were respectful to their parents (which, according to my parents, were not many). However, My sisters and I would sneak shows when they weren't home or when we were at our grandparents' house, but my 90s-00s understanding of TV was very wanting.

All this to say, until this year I had never heard of the 90s sit-com Living Single. No one in my circle is talking about this show. I discovered it while rummaging through HULU and I found out it's hilarious. For those who don't know it came out in 1993 and follows a group of single friends living together in an apartment in the city. It is unofficially known that the show served as slightly more than inspiration for Friends, which came out one year later. However, everyone I know seems to be talking about Friends and not Living Single. That's one of the main reasons I decided to start reviewing the show episode 28 years after its release date! So here we go!

This first thing that hits you when you watch the pilot is: Wow. This is the 90s. The theme song quite literally sings, "In a 90s kind of world, I'm glad I've got my girls." The aesthetic, the fashion, the transitions, everything. Kahdija's (Queen Latifah's) loose but tailored pantsuit, Regine's (Kim Fields) tight fitted dress and headscarf, and even Synclaire's (Kim Coles) curly half-up-half-down hair scream THIS IS THE EARLY 90S! Within the first minute I feel like I have been transported back to 1993. While I didn't watch a lot '90's TV, I do know a lot about the 90's aesthetic. It covers my Pinterest board and the Pinterest boards of everyone I know. (I'm a white woman in my 20s. Pinterest is life.)

On a similar note, it's quickly obvious that there are no white people in the cast of Living Single much like how there are no black people in the cast of Friends. Because of that, I feel like I'm almost not allowed to critique this show; because it wasn't made with me in mind, I shouldn't know about it or discuss it. I think, however, that this may be a misplaced good intention that may actually be getting in the way of better allyship. Appreciating the work of artists of various backgrounds is crucial not only to the vibrancy of the world but to the livelihood of the artists. Somehow though, people, including myself, forget that TV also falls under this purview. I can't speak to the reverse experience, nor will I attempt to, but I think at the end of the day, we need to watch and support each other's work. It's the best way we can grow to connect. I want to talk about this show and share it with the people in my circles without being met with silence. It's very small and strange but it's one of the many ways I'm trying to learn and expand my world view.

Living Single Reveiw in 2021

Back when the show was on the air, Queen Latifah told the New York Times she was not, "put off by sitcoms about white people...'What I did realize, though...was that I was watching everyone else's lives all my life. I'd never really seen myself on television.'" This show was made in the 90s about the 90s and is very 90s, and now 28 years later I get to see Queen Latifah on television in a timeless show that's made me laugh a lot.

This is definitely a formula based show. From the characters to the plot, they are not really deviating from the multi-camera sitcom formula. In the first two minutes of the pilot, the archetypes of the three women that share the apartment are clearly laid out: Khadijah (the no nonsense person) Synclaire (the airhead), and Regine (the materialistic flirt). Their two male friends, Overton (John Henton) and Kyle (Terrance C. Carson), are similarly archetyped upon their first introduction: Overton as the obtuse well-meaning one and Kyle as the ladies man. (Again, if the formula works, it works!) The one character that does not seem to play an easily identifiable role at the moment is Maxine (Erika Alexander). As of now she seems to be just a slightly different version of Khadijah. I wonder how they'll differentiate this character going forward. I'm eager to see how she grows and transforms. She's also definitely my favorite character. I want to see more Maxine.

The plot is as follows: Regine is seeing a man that she really likes, but her friends discover that he's married. They eventually tell her, but instead of breaking up with him, he convinces her to stay with him. He, however, stands her up. I would say "spoiler alert", but I think you've heard this story before. But, if it works it works, and here it really does. The clarity and quickness in which the writers introduce the formula, allows them to utilize it to get their own message and meaning across.

Early on, when Regine talks about her boyfriend, Khadijah says, "if you want to have a lasting relationship, you need to start looking beyond a man's wallet." This arc is carried through the episode and ends in a female empowerment twist. When Regine laments that she just wants someone who will take care of her Khadijah points out, "Look, Regine, it's simple You have to start taking care of yourself. Put Regine first. Do what you need to do for you." You have to build yourself up before letting someone else in. I feel like this is actually a realization that is, for lack of a better term, popular right now: the idea that you can't rely on someone else to fill in the gaps of who you are. If we're "discovering" that now, Living Single was on top of it far ahead of it's time. Have we GenZs and Millenials done anything on our own? Is everything just a 90s trend on its way back?

ALSO WOW, it's so refreshing to see friends that trust each other. I feel like in every show I watch today where a friend is getting cheated on or is accidentally cheating with or...you get the idea...ANYWAY, in all of those shows the friends say he's cheating on you, and the girl is like wow, you must all just have hated me forever and ever that's not true the guy I met yesterday would never lie. That's always annoyed me as a plotline. Who in real life would do that? Are your friendships really that terrible? Well, Living Single must agree with me. The three do consider that Regine may react in a less than positive way, but they ultimately elect to tell Regine her boyfriend has a wife (well, more so blurt it out) anyway. When they do, her response is (after a very reasonable three seconds of not believing it) to immediately confront Brad with, "You have a wife!" It's so refreshing to see women on TV trust each other. That being said, Regine doesn't end the relationship right away, but it's nice to know it's not a show about perfect people.

The writing in this show is also incredible. Yvette Lee Bowser, the creator and writer on the show, did a sensational job. Her concept, command of the language, and characters make the show truly captivating. It doesn't suprise me that she has gone on to have the successful career she has had, writing and producing for shows such as Dear White People and Black-ish. She has a real art in capturing the time period. Maybe because the art is personal for her. In an article in The Atlantic, Lee Bowser says, "For me, it began with the realization that if this industry was really only going to cater to and embrace white people, and white men in particular, and have them in positions of power behind the scenes," Lee Bowser said when we spoke earlier this summer, "I wasn't gonna be here for long. So that was my impetus for getting into the world of development and creation of shows about us."

I'm grateful that almost 30 years later I can still be entertained by this timeless classic. The humor comes from the good writing and the fundamental understanding of the characters. It is their inter-relationships that make the moments laugh out loud funny. Living Single is a hilarious, feel good comedy with a lot of pro-woman power. Funny feminist sit-com? Incredible.

I can't wait to see how this show progresses. Watch it with me! Living Single can be streamed on Hulu. I'll be here next week to talk about episode 2.
Out of all the women in the world, this British woman successfully caught Freddie Highmore's heart!

Highmore recently confirmed to his fans that he held a private ceremony and married the love of his life.

On Monday's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Highmore confessed about his relationship status after the host noticed his wedding band.

"Yes, I got married. It's funny - ever since I've been wearing this ring, people have been asking me if I'm married, so I figured I should clarify it," he said.

He then seemingly recalled how Tom Cruise jumped up on the couch while telling a story about his then-girlfriend, Katie Holmes, during his appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

According to the 29-year-old "Good Doctor" star, he cannot express his excitement in an American way. However, he assured that he is as happy as a Brit after marrying a "wonderful woman."

Highmore revealed that his wife is also British but did not reveal more details about her identity.

However, eagle-eyed fans have been speculating that THIS woman is actually Freddie Highmore's wife.

Klarissa Munz, Freddie Highmore's Wife

For years, Highmore's fans never really got the chance to read detailed news about the actor's love life.

However, there have been speculations about the girl's real identity on several websites.

On Instagram, user @freddiehighmoresgirl has posted photos of the actor and his reported wife, Klarissa Munz.

The first post was shared on Sep. 23, 2018, and it featured Highmore posing with Munz during the Golden Globes Awards. The same Instagram user revealed more details about Freddie Highmore's wife, including his job and university.

READ ALSO: 'The View' Faces On-Air Chaos: What Happened to Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin's COVID-19 Test Results?

Apparently, the rumored Freddie Highmore's wife is a Cambridge graduate. She reportedly took theology and religious studies but works as a junior web developer.

Munz had been spotted with Highmore and his colleagues on set, including the other actors and producers of "Bates Motel." The same woman also attended the Critics Choice Awards with him multiple times.

On Instagram's January post, Munz was reportedly spotted in Rome with a diamond ring on her left hand. It is safe to say that Highmore probably popped the question to her. At that time, Highmore was in the city to film his "Leonardo" series.

After years of having a low-key relationship, Highmore finally got married. For now, fans can wait until the actor himself confirms her wife's identity.

READ MORE: Jennifer Lopez Completely Done With Alex Rodriguez' Games; Plans to Cut Him Off Using Billions of Money
The legendary creator behind "Golgo 13," Takao Saito, passed away at 84.

The death of Saito was confirmed by the official Twitter account of his production company, where they mentioned the day of his passing, which was on September 24 at 10:42 am in Tokyo.

Saito passed away after suffering from his pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

As reported by this article, Shogakukan admitted that Saito wanted his most extended running series to continue without him before his death. And so, a group of artists in the company will still proceed on producing "Golgo 13" as they get assisted by the editorial department of Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine and an additional scriptwriting staff.

It can be recalled that on July 17, Saito Production launched the first-ever spinoff manga of the franchise.

Rest Easy, Takao Saito

Takao Saito was born in November 1936 in Wakayama, western Japan, and grew up in Osaka Prefecture. The manga creator made his debut in 1955 with "Kuki Danshaku" and became an advocate of dividing up the work process of producing manga. He also established his own manga production company, Saito Production, in 1964.

A few years later, by 1968, Saito published the "Sagashiya hage Taka Tojo!!" and launched "Golgo 13" later that year. With the help of "Golgo 13," Saito earned numerous prestigious awards throughout his career.

His well-known manga won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award, a Japan Cartoonists Association Grand Prize award, and the special judge's award at the 50th Shogakukan Manga Awards. In 2003, he was awarded the Medal of Honor With Purple Ribbon and the Order of Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays With Rosette, in 2010.

READ ALSO: Ryan Sakoda Dead At 46: Did WWE Contribute To His Death?

"Golgo 13" celebrated its 50th year of serialization in 2018 and Saito's 65th year as a manga creator in 2020. The article also mentioned that "Golgo 13," is recognized as the oldest manga currently still in publication.

It even tied with Osamu Akimoto's "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo" ("Kochikame"), which is a police comedy manga that earned Guinness World Record for "most volumes published for a single manga series," tied with 200 volumes as of April 5.

Later on, "Golgo 13" surpassed the previous record-holder as they published the 201st volume on July 5 and the 202nd volume on September 6. Numerous fans of the manga creator shared their tributes on social media as soon as they heard the news.

Takao Saito, mangaka of Golgo 13, has passed away at the age of 84. In 2013, Oda made a drawing to celebrate its 45-year-serialization. Below are tribute drawings by Oda, Naoki Urasawa and Takehiko Inoue. pic.twitter.com/46keLkwLLg  sandman (@sandman_AP) September 29, 2021

Man, RIP to Takao Saito, creator of one of my favorite characters, Duke Togo aka Golgo 13. He died at 84, having produced over 600 volumes of Golgo stories. What a body of work to treasure. Rest In Peace, Master. pic.twitter.com/dfpC2qqXox  SPIRAL CURSE DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) September 29, 2021



May his soul rest in peace.

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Conquest Cyber Opens its Headquarters in Nashville

Enterprise Security Magazine | Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Conquest Cyber, a Cyber Risk SaaS firm, has opened a new headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

FREMONT, CA: Conquest Cyber, a Cyber Risk SaaS firm specializing in managed security services, cyber risk consultancy, and digital transformation, has opened a new headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. Conquest Cyber is adaptive cyber risk software that helps businesses identify and safeguard what's vital. At the end of August, the firm held a charity event in Nashville to kick off its expansion. Conquest Cyber teamed with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and The Nashville Food Project for the charity aspect of their event, generating $10,000 for each.

"Our family of companies have had a presence in the Nashville Metro for more than a decade but when Conquest Cyber was ready to step onto the national stage it was an easy choice to make Nashville our new home. The talent, university systems and tech migration has made Nashville into a unique destination that still has the culture and people that give it a special place in the American heart. The Conquest team has embraced our new city and as expected, Nashville has welcomed us with open arms," said Jeffrey J. Engle, Conquest Cybers Chair and President.

Conquest also announced the debut of its newest product, SCYOPS, at the occasion. This product is a comprehensive cybersecurity solution for vital infrastructure and strictly regulated industries such as healthcare, energy, finance, and manufacturing. It manages a whole cybersecurity program with real-time visibility, notifications, and control through a single dashboard.

The event kicked off with a live-streamed greeting from Chair and President Jeffrey Engle, followed by possibilities for visitors to participate and give back to the Nashville community.

Conquest was created to fill significant holes in the national cyber defense strategy. The company was founded to address enterprise digital transformation concerns, refocused on safe digital transformation and cyber resiliency in 2018 when Jeff Engle took over as CEO. Conquest's position on the front lines was strengthened with the deployment of the flagship product ARMED, giving their customers a competitive edge in the struggle for cyber dominance.
2021-09-29

Maeci

Today marks the opening of "Meetings with Africa," the third edition of the Italy-Africa Ministerial Conference. It will bring together in Rome delegations from about 50 African countries, representatives of the African Union and other major African regional organisations, and Italian institutional figures and representatives of the economic, business, academic and third sector worlds.



This year, the event is part of the Italian G20 Presidency. It will focus on its three pillars, "People, Planet, Prosperity", also linking up with the partnership with the United Kingdom for COP26.



The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, will open the day's proceedings on Friday 8 October, followed by speeches in the inaugural plenary session by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, the President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the USG and Executive Secretary of the UN/UNECA Economic Commission for Africa, Vera Songwe, the President of COP26, Alok Sharma, the President of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, Mario Monti, and the President of the B20, Emma Marcegaglia.



After the plenary session, four interactive thematic panels (two simultaneously in the morning and two in the afternoon) - with the participation, among others, of the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marina Sereni - will offer participants a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas on the topics of renewable energy, energy transition, the environment, green finance and sustainable development. In the afternoon, there will also be a special round table dedicated to the blue economy.



The conference will be closed in a plenary session by Minister Di Maio.



On the sidelines of the proceedings, Minister Di Maio and Vice Minister Sereni will be holding several bilateral meetings with their counterparts from African countries.

Accreditation Note Italy  Africa (for media)

Speech by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Ministerial Conference "Meetings with Africa"
2021-09-29

Maeci

On 12 October, the G20 Ministers responsible for international trade will meet in Sorrento.

With the G20 Trade Ministerial, the Italian Presidency intends to put WTO reform at the heart of the agenda, providing political impetus to an inclusive process of institutional reform of the organisation to revitalise trade multilateralism. The Sorrento Ministerial Declaration will reflect these priorities by reflecting the progress of the meeting.

Read the Media Handbook.
2021-09-29

Maeci

The "Association of Italian Scholars and Scientists in Israel" (AISSI) was founded, including Italian professors, researchers, and PhD students. The initiative was promoted by the Italian Ambassador to Israel, Gianluigi Benedetti, thanks to two professors from Ben Gurion University, Cristina Bettin and Aaron Fait.

The new association is non-profit and aims to provide further visibility and prominence to the highly qualified Italian scientific presence in the Israeli academic scene, both in the humanities and science and technology, representing their interests.

AISSI will promote relations with the Israeli academic community. It will support young Italian researchers and students upon their arrival in Israel and contribute, in close collaboration with the Embassy, to the intensification and expansion of relations between the academic and research institutions of the two countries. In this regard, the AISSI Scientific Committee will serve as a point of reference for the Embassy in elaborating Italian priorities in the field of bilateral academic, scientific, and technological cooperation.

Ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti, who will act as honorary president of the association, stressed that "the creation of AISSI will ensure greater visibility for the many excellent Italian scholars and researchers in Israel, enhancing their role as a "bridge" in support of academic and scientific relations between the two countries".
North Korea fired a missile toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military said, as Pyongyang called on the United States and South Korea to scrap their double standards on weapons programs to restart talks.
GBP/USD Exchange Rate Plunges to Two-Month Low

The Pound to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate has plummeted around 1% so far today, propelling the pairing to a two-month low of $1.3633.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Stumble on Fuel Shortage Concerns

The Pound (GBP) has suffered some aggressive selling today, as concerns over the UKs fuel crisis has sapped Sterling sentiment.

Up to 90% of petrol stations in the UK have reportedly run dry in recent days as fears of a fuel shortage prompted panic buying, leading to lengthy queues for motorists.

The fuel shortages have exacerbated concerns over the resilience of the UKs economic recovery, with fears that the should the crisis extend into next week it could cause considerable disruption, with workers and businesses unable to fill up.

Tom Pugh, UK economist at RSM, said: If the pumps stay dry for much longer, then the impact of people unable to go about their work and daily lives may join labour shortages, soaring energy prices and a lack of shipping containers as another drag on the economy. Before the pandemic, about 50% of workers drove to work. That figure may be a bit lower now due to homeworking, but a large part of the workforce will still need fuel to get to work. Whats more, a shortage of fuel for trucks and delivery vans risks exacerbating the shortage of goods which has been hampering the economic recovery. This will inevitably be a drag on GDP growth in September compared to if there were no shortages.

While the UK government has announced plans to start drafting in the army to deliver to those forecourts which have run dry, analysts warn that this will only have a moderate impact, with most businesses calling for more to be done to help alleviate the countrys current supply crisis.

US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Strengthen in Bearish Trade

At the same time, the US Dollar (USD) is seeing strong demand today as a bearish market mood sees investors flock to the safe-haven currency.

Concerns over Chinese construction giant, Evergrande as its debt crisis continues to undermine investors risk-appetite, whilst Europes energy crisis is also sapping market sentiment.

Demand for the US Dollar is also being buoyed by a rise in US Treasury bond yields, amidst the expectation the Federal Reserve will start to tapering its massive bond buying programme in the coming months.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to appear before Congress, where he will be grilled on the Feds monetary policy stance as well as his outlook for the US economy.

Should he reinforce the Feds recent hawkish messaging the USD rally could accelerate further.

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: Can a Hawkish Bailey Speech Shore up Sterling?

Looking ahead, the Pound US Dollar exchange rate (GBP/USD) could look to claw back some of its losses on Wednesday, following a speech by Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey.

Some hawkish forward guidance from the BoE prompted Sterling to soar last week as GBP investors began to price in the potential for a rate hike from the bank as soon as March 2022.

Should Bailey reiterate the BoEs stance that the case for some modest monetary tightening has strengthened, then we could see the Pound appreciate, although any upside in the currency may remain limited in the face of the UKs current economic concerns.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar may maintain its upward trajectory so long as a gloomy market mood continues to prevail.
The measure of a states greatness is in how well we treat the least fortunate among us. Thats how I understand the religious tradition I grew up in. Your traditions may differ.

How great is Texas?

Well, one important measure of how we treat the less fortunate in Texas is access to health care. Spoiler alert: Not great.

The main paths to health insurance in this country are through Medicare (for retired folks), employer-sponsored plans (for working people with generous employers), privately purchased plans (for working people without generous employers or unemployed people) or as a dependent or spouse of someone with good health insurance (my personal method.)

And for the working or nonworking poor, theres Medicaid.

Qualification for Medicaid varies by state, however. And this particular path to health care is where Texas is one of the least great states in the union.

In the decades before the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, about 15 percent of Americans were uninsured for the costs of health care. Texas stood out, ranking an abysmal 48th in the nation. About 25 percent of Texans  or 6.4 million of our neighbors  were uninsured in 2011, according to Southern Methodist University professor Cal Jillson, who writes about this in his statistically rich Lone Star Tarnished: A Critical Look at Texas Politics and Public Policy.

Following passage of the ACA, the national rate of uninsured people plunged to the current 10.8 percent. The uninsured rate has split dramatically, however, between states that expanded Medicaid through federal-state partnerships and states that did not expand Medicaid.

The difference is an average of 15.5 percent uninsured in nonexpansion states such as Texas, and 8.3 percent in expansion states. Texas has the most uninsured people of any state by a huge margin  currently 5.4 million. The next worst are California and Florida, at 3 million and 2.8 million, respectively. On this measurement, were putting up Hall of Shame numbers here in Texas. Really not great.

Heres a brief primer on Medicaid, Medicaid expansion and why it matters.

As a baseline program, Medicaid was traditionally only available for people living in extreme poverty. Eligibility above extreme poverty, however, is determined by individual states. In Texas, for example, adults cannot qualify for Medicaid if they make above 18 percent of the federal poverty level.

This is more brutal than other nonexpansion Medicaid states, such as Georgia and Oklahoma, where the cutoffs recently were 36 and 45 percent of the federal poverty level, respectively.

To get a sense for what income levels were talking about here, the average household income limit for a family of three in 2020 was $8,905; above that, they wouldnt qualify for Medicaid in Texas.

In expansion states, the cutoff for an individual in 2020 was $17,609, or 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Childless adults cannot qualify at any level.

Now, this all prompts a question: How do people who make between $9,000 and $17,000 a year even survive? Honestly, I have no idea. I suspect most newspaper subscribers  people who can afford the luxury of reading this column  also have no idea. Every single day would be a grinding struggle. For these households, theres not enough money to buy health insurance. Even at subsidized levels, it would cost between 30 and 80 percent of their entire annual income.

States can always elect to make Medicaid available to adults whose income exceeds extreme poverty levels. And heres the deal and the crux of every states fiscal decision: If states do expand eligibility, the federal government offers to pay 90 percent of the costs of expansion, with states only on the hook for 10 percent of those expansion costs.

Theres no deadline on that offer. Missouri and Oklahoma decided to expand Medicaid eligibility in 2020, following ballot initiatives. Voters in other Republican-leaning states  Utah, Nebraska and Idaho  also elected to expand Medicaid in recent years. Voters there know whats up.

Last spring, state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, sponsored a bill in the Texas Legislature to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot for voters. Expanding Medicaid polls extremely highly, with 70 percent popular support in Texas. Because most Texans are not cruel. And they understand basic math.

The Medicaid expansion bill that Larson backed died.

The deal for states to expand Medicaid eligibility is so obviously financially favorable that it is shocking that Texas has not done it yet. We already paid our taxes to the federal government. Like getting federal highway money or federal education money, its only a question of whether we want that money returned to Texas.

In his book, Jillson describes Texas long tradition of extracting maximum resources from the federal government  while matching them with the bare minimum of state resources  when it comes to health and human services. Texas has traditionally done this with food insecurity programs and programs for the disabled.

Viewed from a certain miserly angle, this may sound fiscally clever. With health care, its not. Without Medicaid expansion, costs do not get covered by the federal government. Rather, the burden of medical costs gets shifted down to local cities and counties in Texas  where we (yes, thats you and me) pay for it with our property taxes.

Uninsured people dont fail to access the health care system when they get sick. They show up at the emergency room, which is the absolutely the most expensive way to obtain health care.

Emergency rooms have to treat people who show up without insurance. Local, county and nonprofit hospitals typically then pick up the tab for these patients. Were not saving that money as taxpayers. Its a fiscally irresponsible way to treat people. Its an absurd dereliction of financial duty.

Not taking a 90 percent federal reimbursement? Thats not being smart with money. Thats being something else. Its about making a virtue of grinding the most vulnerable among us. It calls to mind the title of San Antonio-based journalist Adam Serwers recent book on the Trump administration: The Cruelty is the Point.

Otherwise, it makes no sense. Otherwise, I cant explain it.

This is really not great, Texas.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates.

michael@michaelthesmart

money.com |twitter.com/michael_taylor
A tradition of down-home cooking and barbecue will come to an end Sunday with the closing of Snogas Bar-B-Q after 44 years of business on San Antonios Southeast Side.

Snogas Bar-B-Q was founded by the late Alvin V. Snoga and his late wife Bernice, who were encouraged to transform their popular backyard cookouts into a restaurant. The couple moved their business off Fairlawn Drive in 1985 into an old lumberyard on Goliad Road, just off Interstate 37, where it has continued to serve the neighborhood ever since.
HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP)  Five North Carolina teenagers are accused of robbing a pizza delivery driver, stealing his car and leading law enforcement officers on a chase, police said.

News outlets report the driver told High Point police he made a delivery on Sunday to a home where the five forced him inside, assaulted and robbed him. According to police, the driver suffered minor injuries.
RENO, Nev. (AP)  Newly confirmed COVID-19 cases have trended downward in Nevada since a summer peak in mid-July as vaccination rates improve.

But misinformation about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines being spread by a vocal minority poses serious challenges to turning the tide on the resurgent pandemic, Washoe County's health district officer warned Wednesday.

I would say that the misinformation is perhaps a greater challenge that we face than the COVID-19 virus, Kevin Dick told reporters in Reno. We have the vaccine. We can beat the COVID-19 virus. Im not sure we can beat misinformation."

The 14-day rolling average for new daily cases statewide has fallen to 694, the lowest since 648 cases were reported July 15 before a surge fueled by the highly contagious delta variant kept the average above 1,000 from mid-August through mid-September, state statistics showed.

Nevadas test positivity rate is 10.4%, down from 20% Sept. 13. Nearly 65% of Nevada residents age 12 and older have initiated vaccination and 55.6% are fully vaccinated.

Clark County and the Las Vegas area posted the states best numbers, with a 7.9% positivity rate and 614 new cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 16.9% and 1,454 in Washoe County, and 18.3% and 1,707 in all counties outside Washoe, Clark and Carson City.

But Dick said the seven-day average for new daily cases has dropped by more than 100 in Washoe County since mid-September to an average of 204.

It appears we may have peaked and are coming down off that peak, he said.

Nearly 65% of Washoe County residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 70% have gotten at least the first shot. In Clark County, with 2.3 million of the state's 3 million residents, those figures are 55% and 65.6%.

The rest of Nevada, outside Washoe, Clark and Carson City, reports 44% of residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 48.5% have initiated vaccination.

Improving vaccination rates may indicate the number of naysayers is shrinking, Dick said.

But they are quite vocal and quite aggressive in how they're continuing to try to spread the falsehoods and convince people to not do the safe and effective thing," he said. They are refusing to wear masks and making frankly outrageous claims and comments."

Dick said two studies recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make clear that masks are highly effective at reducing transmission of COVID-19.

One study that surveyed schools nationwide found that transmission rates in schools with universal masking were less than half those of schools without mask mandates. Another conducted in Arizona found that the odds of a school-associated COVID-19 outbreak were 3.5 times higher in schools with no mask requirement than in those with a mask requirement implemented when school started.

Dick said some critics point to packaging on masks that say they don't eliminate the chance of infection.

Eliminating the chance of infection is completely different than severely reducing the chance of infection. The masks' benefit is in hugely reducing the chance of infection, he said.

Likewise, the science shows that while a small percentage of vaccinated people become infected, the vaccine prevents them from being hospitalized and dying and if people do get a breakthrough case, for the most part they are much less severe cases, he said.

Dicks said he continues to hear critics exaggerate potential side effects, including some who refer to the vaccines as the death shot.

We are not seeing anybody dying from getting vaccinated here in Washoe County. We are seeing many dying because they are not vaccinated, he said.

Dick said the latest falsehood being spread is that the availability of Pfizer's booster shot means the vaccine isn't working.

"That couldn't be further from the truth. We have many vaccines and it is quite normal that there be a booster dose administered because we know from our past history with vaccines and the science behind them that there is waning immunity that occurs and that people can be greatly benefited from getting a booster," he said.

Dick said some argue it's a personal choice to get vaccinated. But if they choose not too, I would hope that they make that a personal choice and try to convince others not to get vaccinated by spreading misinformation instead of looking at the science.
MOAB, Utah (AP)  The police chief in the Utah tourist town where officers stopped Gabby Petito and her boyfriend weeks before her death has taken a leave of absence.

Moab Police Chief Bret Edge requested a leave of absence that began Monday, city spokesperson Lisa Church confirmed Tuesday. It is unclear if his request is related to criticism the department has faced over the past week after Petito's body was discovered in a remote area in northwestern Wyoming.
Larry W. Smith/Getty Images

San Antonio police are searching for the individual responsible for shooting and killing a man in front of a West Side home Tuesday night.

At around 6 p.m., officers were called to the area of Chupaderas and San Patricio streets near Zarzamora, where they found a man in his 40s laying in the street with gunshot wounds.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The crisis in Ethiopia is a stain on our conscience, the United Nations humanitarian chief said, as children and others starve to death in the Tigray region under what the U.N. has called a de facto government blockade of food, medical supplies and fuel.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Martin Griffiths issued one of the most sharply worded criticisms yet of the worlds worst hunger crisis in a decade after nearly a year of war. Memories of the 1980s famine in Ethiopia, which killed some 1 million people and whose images shocked the world, are vivid in his mind, and we fervently hope is not happening at present," he said.

Thats what keeps people awake at night," Griffiths said, "is worrying about whether thats what is in prospect, and in prospect soon.

He described a landscape of deprivation inside Tigray, where the malnutrition rate is now over 22%  roughly the same as we saw in Somalia in 2011 at the start of the Somali famine," which killed more than a quarter-million people.

The war in Ethiopia began last November on the brink of harvest in Tigray, and the U.N. has said at least half of the coming harvest will fail. Witnesses have said Ethiopian and allied forces destroyed or looted food sources.

Meanwhile just 10% of needed humanitarian supplies have been reaching Tigray in recent weeks, Griffiths said.

So people have been eating roots and flowers and plants instead of a normal steady meal, he said.

The lack of food will mean that people will start to die.

Last week the AP, citing witness accounts and internal documents, reported the first starvation deaths since Ethiopias government imposed the blockade on the region of 6 million people in an attempt to keep support from reaching Tigray forces.

But the problem is not hunger alone.

The U.N. humanitarian chief, who recently visited Tigray, cited the lack of medical supplies and noted that vulnerable children and pregnant or lactating mothers are often the first to die of disease. Some 200,000 children throughout the region have missed vaccinations since the war began.

And the lack of fuel  pretty well down to zero now, Griffiths said  means the U.N. and other humanitarian groups are finding it all but impossible to reach people throughout Tigray or even to know the true scale of need.

Phone, internet and banking services have also been cut off, effectively hiding the crisis from the world. The Mekele University community in the regional capital warned in a letter to the U.N., European Union and others that Tigray is experiencing a man-made form of famine that belittles the 1984 famine in its severity.

In the letter, shared Wednesday by the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, the community called for urgent intervention.

Billene Seyoum, the spokeswoman for Ethiopias Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, did not respond to questions. The government has blamed problems with humanitarian aid delivery on the Tigray forces, who long dominated the national government before Abiy sidelined them. Abiy's government also has alarmed U.N. officials and others by accusing humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray fighters.

Griffiths called such allegations unacceptable and unfair. He said he has told the government to share any evidence of misconduct by humanitarian workers so the U.N. can investigate, but so far as Im aware, we havent had such cases put to us.

Humanitarian workers boarding flights to Tigray are told not to bring items including multivitamins, can openers and medicines, even personal ones. The U.N. humanitarian chief said he too was searched when he visited Tigray, with authorities examining everything in his bag and even questioning why he was carrying earphones.

Ethiopia's crisis has led the U.N., the United States and others to urge the warring sides to stop the fighting and take steps toward peace, but Griffiths warned that the war doesnt look as if its finishing any time soon.

On the contrary, in recent weeks it spread into the neighboring Amhara region. Griffiths said the active battle lines are making it challenging to get aid to hundreds of thousands more people.

Ethiopia will see the formation of a new government next week with another five years in office for the prime minister. Griffiths, who said he last spoke with Abiy three or four weeks ago, expressed hope for a change of direction.

Wed all like to see is with that election inauguration, that we would see new leadership leading Ethiopia away from the abyss that its peering into at the moment, that the national dialogue process which he discussed with me in the past, and his deputy discussed with me last week, that needs to happen, Griffiths said.

It needs to be coherent, it needs to be inclusive and it needs to be soon.

___

Anna reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
BEIRUT (AP)  More than 1 million Syrian refugees in crisis-hit Lebanon are experiencing deteriorating conditions that have left nine out of ten of them in extreme poverty, U.N. agencies warned Wednesday.

The worsening conditions come despite increased assistance for Syrians living in Lebanon, where one in four people is a refugee. Among the Syrians, child marriage and labor is on the rise, while thousands are at risk of eviction.

The yearly report on conditions of Syrians living in Lebanon is produced by the United Nations' refugee agency, its World Food Program, as well as its children's agency.

The report said that the cost of an essential food basket has increased more than seven-fold since late 2019 when the financial crisis in Lebanon began to unfold. The subsistence food basket includes only 13 items, such as potatoes, bread, eggs and powdered milk. The UN describes it as the minimum to survive, not live in dignity.

Lebanon is experiencing a historic economic crisis that has caused the national currency to crash, losing 90% of its value, driving more than 55% of the population below the poverty line, and sending prices and unemployment soaring.

The crisis made things much worse for Syrian refugees, many of them already living in temporary housing and with low paying jobs.

Ayaki Ito, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon, warned of long-term consequences, urging stronger support for Lebanon and the refugees. "We cannot fail them now, he said.

The U.N. agencies said Syrian children are bearing the brunt. School attendance for children between 6 and 14 years old dropped by 25% in 2021 while nearly 30% of children in school age have never attended. Thousands of Syrian children are engaged in child labor, and one out of five girls between the age of 15 and 19 were married, a trend that has been present for the last three years.

Syrians have escaped to Lebanon during the early years of the war in Syria which started in 2011. The Lebanese government closed the door for refugees in 2015, saying their numbers have become a burden on its government and infrastructure, but Syrians continued to arrive.

Making matters worse, almost 60% of Syrian refugee families are living in dangerous, substandard or overcrowded shelters, up from 50% last year.

The report said the increase of average rent is putting many at risk of eviction.
BERLIN (AP)  YouTube says it has shut two German channels of Russian state broadcaster RT in a move centering on alleged coronavirus misinformation, a decision that drew threats of retaliation from Russia on Wednesday.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, said RT's German branch had received a strike for uploading material that violated YouTube's standards on COVID-19 misinformation, and as a consequence was suspended from uploading new videos to its channel.

During this suspension, RT DE tried to circumvent this restriction by using another YouTube channel to upload its videos, which resulted in both channels being terminated for violating YouTube's conditions of use, it added.

Writing on the messaging app Telegram, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan called the move a true media war by Germany on Russia.

Im looking forward to my native state banning Deutsche Welle and other German media in Russia without delay, as well as close the offices of ARD and ZDF, Simonyan said, referring to Germany's main public television stations. Not to mention sanctions on YouTube.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likened YouTube's decision to censorship.

There are indications that Russian laws have been violated, violated rather grossly, he said.

Asked if he believes that companies operating in other countries, like YouTube in Germany, should follow Russian laws, Peskov replied: Of course  when it comes to violating the rights of our legal entities, moreover, our media outlets.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would ask relevant government bodies to work up retaliatory measures against German media and YouTube, adding that such a response was not only appropriate, but also necessary.

Russias state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, demanded that Google restore access to RTs YouTube channels and threatened the platform with fines and a ban if it fails to do so.

In Berlin, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government has taken note of the YouTube decision.

Since there are different accounts, particularly on Russian channels, I want to say in crystal-clear terms that this is a decision by YouTube, and the German government, or representatives of the German government, have nothing to do with this decision," Seibert told reporters. So anyone who alleges that is putting together a conspiracy theory.

There is absolutely no reason for... retaliation against German media working in Russia," he added. Anyone who calls for such retaliation...doesn't show a good relationship with press freedom, from our point of view.

German security services have said they consider RTs German service to be a propaganda arm of the Russian state.

RT, previously known as Russia Today, provides its German offering online but so far lacks a license to broadcast in Germany via a terrestrial or satellite signal.

Last month, Luxembourg rejected an application by RT for a license to distribute its German-language service via satellite. Authorities in the country concluded that Luxembourg wasnt the right jurisdiction to rule on the request because RTs German service is based in Berlin and a significant part of its workforce is in Germany.

___

Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed to this report.
When Holli Worden began examining the bullet, she expected it to be an easy, open-and-closed case.

To Worden, a forensic scientist in the Bexar County Crime Lab with a specialty in firearms and tools, it seemed obvious that the small, light projectile was fired from a 9 mm, semi-automatic pistol.

But when she looked at the bullet under a microscope, reviewing the spiral impressions imprinted on it as it passed through the unknown firearms barrel, Worden questioned her assumption.

It was more likely, based on the measurements and impressions, that the bullet came from a 30 carbine, a rare rifle that was once common in the military. Worden and her two colleagues had seen a bullet like that about three or four times during their careers.

This one is unusual, Worden said, as she placed the bullet under the microscope again. Its taken a bit longer.

The scene, on a Tuesday morning in late September, was pretty typical for Worden  or as typical as a job in forensic science can be. The week prior, she spent about five days reviewing four firearms and 46 fired cartridge cases that were found at a local crime scene.

That case was tricky, too, and in the end, she narrowed the list of guns that ejected the cartridges to 10. She thinks some of the cartridges were ejected as the person fired the gun into the air rather than at someone else.

The Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory, near the Medical Center on the University of Texas Health Science Centers campus, is an independent lab that conducts forensic examinations for dozens of law enforcement agencies throughout Texas. They include the San Antonio Police Department, which is its biggest customer; the Bexar County Sheriffs Office; and smaller law enforcement agencies.

Recently, the crime lab gave the Express-News behind-the-scenes access to its 15,000-square-foot facility. The lab recently was among 15 to receive the Foresight Maximus Award, which recognizes the top-performing forensic labs in the country.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County approves budget that keeps some constable positions

It also came as Bexar County is planning a new crime lab, which it hopes to open in two or three years. The countys fiscal 2022 budget, which Commissioners Court adopted on Sept. 14, includes $10.8 million to design and renovate a new lab.

Erin Reat, assistant director of the crime lab, said Bexar County has identified a facility of interest  one that would double its footprint to about 30,000 square feet  but its too soon to say whether its a good fit.

Regardless, hes excited about the future.

He said the lab has considered expanding its services to offer breath and blood alcohol analysis, though it would need a significant boost in funding and staff to handle such cases, which are quite voluminous. Its current budget is around $3.3 million, a slight decrease from prior years.

In the future, there may be additional analyses that the county asks us to do, Reat said. We would need that additional space to expand our services. This building is maxed out.

Currently, the staff of 30 specializes in a handful of services, including firearm and tool mark examinations, serology and DNA tests, gunshot residue analysis, and drug identification.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

Each year, the lab conducts about 8,000 examinations  amounting to roughly 600 examinations a month. Forensic analysts, who typically have degrees in forensic science or a natural science, also frequently testify in court.

Ive worked in a number of other labs, and the staff here routinely impresses me with their professionalism, their work ethic and their dedication, said Orin Dym, director of the Bexar County Crime Lab. I dont think Ive ever seen a collection of analysts quite like this.

Heres a look at some of the cases they handle and how it all works.

DNA and serology

Each month, analysts in the DNA and serology division process about 80 to 100 cases. Most of those examinations stem from rape and other types of sexual assault cases, though the analysts work other crimes such as burglaries.

While many crime labs and law enforcement agencies across the country have faced criticism about lengthy backlogs of sexual assault kits, Reat said that hasnt been a problem for Bexar County.

Reat said the lab has about 175 backlogged sexual assault cases, which are defined as being more than 30 days old. While analysts process the samples as they come in, some complex cases may take longer to complete than others.

On ExpressNews.com: New DNA odds spur review of old cases

Analysts do not collect DNA samples. That's typically done during forensic examinations conducted by medical professionals, who transfer the exam kits, including DNA swabs, to local law enforcement for investigation.

Police officers can submit each kit to the crime lab, where analysts create a DNA profile of the suspected rapist.

The analysts enter that profile into CODIS, an FBI database that stores the DNA profiles of convicted offenders and, in some cases, people suspected of crimes.

Drug identification

Drug cases account for 80 percent of the crime labs caseload.

Many of those are pretty straightforward. Analysts first weigh the material. Then they conduct a presumptive test, similar to a field test, to determine whether a sample contains a certain substance. Next, they do a second test using other equipment to verify their findings.

There are requirements that there are two separate conforming tests, Reat said. Its a way to be confident in the data.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

This year, Bexar Countys crime lab became one of the first in Texas to develop testing procedures, later accredited by the American National Standards Institute, to differentiate hemp and marijuana.

On ExpressNews.com: With new equipment, Bexar County could begin prosecuting pot cases again

The need for new testing came after Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that made industrial hemp legal and ushered in new definitions of pot and hemp, which come from the same plant.

In the past, to determine whether a sample contained THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gives users a high, labs typically did quick chemical tests for cannabinoids and looked for characteristic hairs that should be present on a pot plant. That only took a few minutes.

But with the hemp law, labs must determine whether the substance has more than 0.3 percent THC. According to the new state law, anything under that amount is hemp, and anything over that threshold is marijuana.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar County may be the first in Texas to finalize new marijuana vs. hemp testing

In order to make that distinction, Bexar Countys lab bought new equipment and established new testing procedures to extract THC from the sample and determine the exact amount present in the substance  rather than simply testing for the presence of any cannabinoids.

We may still be the only publicly funded lab in the state to do this type of THC quantification, Reat said. Other labs have what they call a DEA method. Its not specific in terms of actual concentration.

That degree of specificity is useful for prosecutors, he said.

If the defendant says, OK, what is the actual concentration? Youre saying its marijuana, Reat said. We can say conclusively the actual concentration.

Firearms and tools

At first glance, firearms analysts have a pretty simple job.

We look at guns, said Ed Wallace, a forensic scientist supervisor at the crime lab, lots of guns.

In reality, the work is pretty complex. On average, Wallace said, the division tests and examines about 30 guns a month. Some of those cases are straightforward, such as when investigators want to confirm that a bullet recovered during an autopsy matches a gun found at a crime scene.

But other cases arent so simple. Sometimes, after a large gun bust, investigators will submit several weapons for analysis. Other cases involve a combination of multiple guns, bullets or ejected cartridges.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

When a firearm is recovered, the analyst first conducts a mechanical evaluation to ensure the safety features work.

Then, the analyst fires the weapon, typically into a water recovery tank, which decelerates and securely captures the bullet without damaging its microscopic detail. The analyst then compares markings on the test bullet to those on the bullet submitted for analysis.

On ExpressNews.com: Not traditional policing: San Antonio initiative aims to prevent mass violence, targeted attacks

When a firearm isnt recovered, the crime lab can still provide clues to where a bullet may have come from, thanks to its reference room with roughly 900 firearms, some of which are illegal for civilians to possess or are no longer manufactured.

Analysts can determine whether bullets fired from those weapons have markings similar to those on bullets submitted by investigators.

While bullet comparison constitutes most of their work, firearms analysts also test evidence for gunshot residue and restore serial numbers on weapons that have been damaged or destroyed.

Dym, the crime lab director, said analysts dont evaluate evidence to determine whether a suspect is guilty or not guilty. Thats the criminal justice systems job, he said.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

I have seen cases where the science will certainly point one direction and the jury went the other way, Dym said. So long as the jury understands the science, were good. There may be other reasons why they didnt find guilt or innocence.

Either way, he said its nice knowing that their work has purpose.

We come into our job every day, and were engaged in something that has a positive societal impact, Dym said. Were not in a research center curing cancer, but day in and day out, we do provide a good service to the county. We definitely impact peoples lives.

eeaton@express-news.net
The city of San Antonio has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by relatives of a man who died as he struggled with police at a house party in 2018.

Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia approved the deal at a hearing Thursday, putting an end to a case that lawyers for relatives of Gaspar David Guzman, 36, acknowledged would be difficult to win.

Im just here for my children, Vanessa Garcia, the mother of Guzmans two children, told the court. Its just difficult. The kids dont understand what happened. I just tell them that their dad is gone.

A lawyer for the Guzman family and Vanessa Garcia, Richard Hoffman, acknowledged that officers did what they could to control Gaspar Guzman, who showed up to a party in the 100 block of Rosemont Drive in May 2018, downed 18 beers and wound up paranoid before calling police to report someone was after him.

Responding officers tried to calm him down, and put him in a police car, according to an account given in court Thursday. They also tried to get him to leave the party with a family member. He refused and struggled even with emergency services workers who tried to treat him.

Struggles ensued in which Guzman was tased and ended up face down, according to accounts given by the San Antonio Police Department at the time and the summary given Thursday. He was unresponsive when he was turned over.

He was resisting, I have to admit, Hoffman told the judge.

Guzman was determined to have died in the struggle from a variety of things, including his enlarged heart and the alcohol and cocaine in his system, an autopsy concluded.

The lawsuit alleged police used excessive force, though all parties involved said it would be difficult to prove. Internal investigations cleared three officers named as defendants in the lawsuit and determined they did not violate any policies or procedures.

Plaintiffs have a very steep hurdle to overcome, Charles Frigerio, who was appointed by the court to represent the interests of Guzmans two children, told the judge.

The city said it opted to settle  rather than try to get the suit tossed by filing motions for summary judgment  to save money on lawyers and not risk a decision that might side against the officers, given the social climate over the past year calling for police reform. The officers were represented by a law firm on contract with the city.

It was a business decision, (and) we recommended settlement, Assistant City Attorney Judith Sanchez told the judge.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Unlike Oscars, Pulitzers or Nobels, the mystique-laden MacArthur Foundation genius grant of $625,000 is not subjected to much prediction or guesswork, not ground up in a national rumor mill before the recipient gets the good news.

This was never even on my radar, University of Texas at Austin history professor Monica Munoz Martinez said Tuesday, still stunned after an announcement confirming what she learned weeks ago in a super-secret phone call from the foundation.

They were adamant that I could only inform one person, Martinez, 37, said. I told my husband.

An award-winning author, she specializes in researching racial violence, policing on the U.S.-Mexico border and restorative justice, among other fields.

The sizable grant, which is paid out over five years, will give me a few minutes to pause and think about how historians can reach a larger audience, Martinez said.

The MacArthur Foundation actually called several times, but Martinez didnt answer because she didnt recognize the number, the callers wouldnt leave a message and she was either in or preparing for class.

She loves to teach, said a beaming Daina Ramey Berry, chair of the UT history department. But I think I would have called off class.

In her first book, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas, Martinez explored three examples of extralegal killings committed in Texas during a time, 1910-1920, when white vigilantes and state-sanctioned police, including the Texas Rangers, lynched and massacred hundreds of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans with impunity, she wrote.

Martinez investigated the aftermath of numerous killings and documented the transgenerational trauma that descendants of the victims experienced, often decades afterward. To share the families memories and increase public awareness, she and a team of historians co-founded a nonprofit organization, Refusing to Forget, that curated museum exhibits, created teaching materials for public schools and erected historical markers at the sites of the homicides.

Growing up in Uvalde, Martinezs mother, Maria Elena, was in public education for 40 years, while her father, Joe, served in the Navy. Her sister, Andrea Martinez, is an artist in Austin.

/Associated Press

Monica Martinez received her doctorate in American studies from Yale University. She said she was particularly pleased to get the MacArthur in Texas after relocating back from Boston.

Earlier Tuesday, she told the New York Times that the attempt by Republican legislators in her home state to minimize references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination in the teaching of history was an unsettling repeat of a dangerous pattern.

The prestigious award is just the most recent for Martinez. In 2017, she received an Andrew Carnegie fellowship, awarded to the countrys most creative thinkers on the challenges to democracy and international order. She is also a consultant to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and has worked with various documentary filmmakers.

When Martinez got the momentous phone call from the MacArthur people, she was floored, she said, to be in the company of the 24 other MacArthur fellows. Among them are Ibram X. Kendi, author of the best-selling book, How to Be an Antiracist, and Nicole R. Fleetwood, whose book Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Also awarded were a choreographer, a painter, two filmmakers, a virologist and an economist.

We knew she was a genius when we hired her, said Berry, laughing. She also clarified that Martinez was actually hired by Berrys predecessor, Jacqueline Jones  herself a MacArthur fellow.

Dr. Martinezs work has been instrumental in healing a community of people, Berry said. But she is also just a joy to work with. She has a warm presence and carries herself with a quiet grace.  I know she will thrive.

bselcraig@express-news.net
The Border Patrol this week found two very young Honduran children left alone along the banks of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.

The siblings were found about noon Wednesday by agents patrolling the Rio Grande when they noticed an unusual color on the river bank.

As agents investigated the item, they discovered two small children abandoned, said a message posted on the Border Patrols Del Rio Sector social media feeds. Agents quickly responded and safely retrieved both children.

A note under the infant safety carrier revealed the 2-year-old girl and 3-month-old boy, both nationals of Honduras, were siblings.

Agents searched the area but didnt find anyone else. The children did not require medical attention and were transported to the Uvalde Border Patrol station for processing.

The Eagle Pass and Del Rio areas have been top transit points during the recent immigration surge. Officials said people in a large caravan making its way through Mexico have started to show up in the area.

Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens said a crowd of immigrants had been forming under Del Rios border crossing from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, and had gradually grown from 2,000 on Saturday to about 8,600 by Thursday.

He also said Border Patrol and the Mexican Consulate have told him and other local officials that a reported caravan of 25,000 immigrants was headed for Texas through Mexico. He believes this wave of more than 8,000 is part of that caravan, and many have been roaming freely under the bridge and the nearby areas as Border Patrol, members of the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety try to watch over them.

It's just unbelievable, Owens, a Democrat, said of the mass of people under the Del Rio border crossing. If we are worried about homeland security, you might just throw that out the window. I've never seen anything like this.

Many Haitians have been in one of Mexicos southeastern cities, Tapachula, awaiting asylum processing, but growing frustration led hundreds of those migrants to walk out of Tapachula this month and attempt to travel north, the Associated Press reported.

Mexican authorities stopped them each time, sometimes violently. Another attempted caravan has been rumored for this week.

Owens said many of the new arrivals are from Haiti, but the waves of people has left health concerns  he noted some have been defecating and urinating everywhere despite portable toilets brought in by Border Patrol. After the Border Patrol processes the immigrants, they are let go, he said.

He said the crush has overwhelmed resources of border towns like Del Rio and budgets of local government.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas DPS launched Operation Lone Star in March, which has resulted in state police arresting more than 5,600 smugglers, seizing scores of weapons and drugs and $4.2 million in cash. State police have also detained more than 66,000 immigrants for the Border Patrol, Texas DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said at a press conference Thursday.

Escalon said his agency is arresting 20 to 40 people a day on state charges of criminal trespass.

Theres no way a local county jail can handle that, Escalon said.

In Val Verde County, where those targeted by the operation are processed, it has resulted in a $380,000 budget shortfall, said Owens, who hopes the county gets reimbursed by the state.

Escalon said that his agency is working with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to move the immigrants quickly through the Val Verde jail and into the state prison facilities, like the Briscoe Unit and Segovia Unit.

Right now, were housing 800 to 900 migrants weve arrested for criminal trespass in Briscoe, Escalon said.

Owens said the Biden administration needs to step up.

Its very disturbing that our highest elected officials dont have a grasp of whats going on, Owens said. I really dont think they understand the gravity of whats going on at the border.

The crush comes amid a potentially record-breaking year for immigrant traffic. The Border Patrol reported 214,000 encounters with migrants in the Del Rio Sector through August, which is the most of any of the agencys sectors in Texas, according to the latest figures.

Along the entire U.S. southern border, there have been nearly 1.5 million encounters. While those from the Northern Triangle countries in Central America  Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador  continue to push the numbers higher, immigrants from other countries (299,690) now rank second to those from Mexico (551,284), Border Patrol statistics show.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
An unidentified man working for an online grocery delivery and pick-up service was caught on a home security camera exposing himself, according to San Antonio police.

A couple living on the North Side reported the Instacart employee, who was delivering groceries, to police after seeing the footage on their Ring doorbell camera at around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Police said the man was gone by the time the couple went outside to grab their groceries.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man who used Skype to share child porn gets prison term

Police are investigating the incident as "indecent exposure" and said the man was reckless about whether anyone was present and could have seen him. No arrests have been made.

The 30-year-old man who lives at the home said he and his wife "were pretty unsettled, angry, disgusted and scared." The man asked not to use his name for fear of retaliation from the delivery worker.

"We didnt feel it was safe to use or consume the groceries he dropped off," he said.

Instacart told the Express-News that it has removed the employee from its platform and refunded the couple for their order. The online delivery service also said it was working with SAPD.

H-E-B also replaced the groceries, the couple said.

Malak.Silmi@express-news.net
A San Antonio police officer was suspended for 15 days after officials said he repeatedly cursed at a couple and shoved one of them  even though they were following orders.

Officer Jacob Borroel also reportedly pointed his Taser at the couple, telling the man, Come on (expletive), now youre gonna go to jail.  Youre gonna get (expletive) tased, according to disciplinary records released Monday.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said Borroel failed to use warnings, verbal persuasion and other tactics to deescalate the situation, the records state.

Borroel, who has been with the department for about 12 years, was one of 10 police officers suspended in June and July, the records show. While some were disciplined for minor infractions, such as negligently crashing a police vehicle, others were suspended for allegations of more serious misconduct.

Borroel, who works as a patrol officer at the Central Substation, was on his way to a call in the Olmos Park area around midnight on Jan. 21 when he encountered a man and a woman being dropped at their home.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio police chief disciplines two officers with history of domestic violence allegations

Borroel approached the couple, who appeared intoxicated, before getting back in his patrol vehicle, the records state.

Borroel then got out his vehicle after the man cursed at him and told him to leave, officials said.

Hey (expletive), you want to have a problem with me? the officer reportedly asked. I just came here to (expletive) ask if you needed help.

Borroel grabbed the man  who did not provoke the officer  by his right arm and led him toward the back of his patrol vehicle, the records state. He then shoved the man and told the couple to go inside.

The man again cursed at Borroel, who then withdrew his Taser and pointed it in the couples direction, the records state. Borroel later arrested the man and the woman on multiple criminal charges. It is not clear what they were arrested for.

Among the other officers who were disciplined:

Officer William Watson

Watson, a 17-year veteran of the department, was suspended for 25 days after officials said he failed to conduct a field sobriety test while investigating a car crash.

When Watson arrived at the scene, one of the drivers involved in the accident, a 17-year-old girl, was lethargic, had slurred speech and might have been impaired, the records state.

Instead of conducting a field sobriety test, Watson took the girl home, the records state. Hours later, the girl was taken to a hospital, where she reportedly had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.174 percent  more than double the legal limit.

On ExpressNews.com: Police oversight board in San Antonio lacks authority, investigative powers, researchers find

Officials said Watson, a patrol officer on the East Side, also made inappropriate comments about the 17-year-old, referring to her as an idiot.

At another point, the records state, Watson made fun of another persons accent.

McManus initially issued Watson an indefinite suspension, which is tantamount to firing, but later reduced the discipline to a 25-day suspension.

Det. David Pantoja

Pantoja, a 24-year veteran of the force, was suspended for 20 days after officials said he pulled a handcuffed suspect backward by his arms.

McManus said Pantoja failed to use sound judgment and that he should have moved the patrol vehicle to the spot where the man was arrested.

After being pulled by his arms, the man asked the detective for medical services. Pantoja, who works at the Northwest Substation, refused to get help, the records state.

On ExpressNews.com: Fired S.A. detective, accused of punching women, said he was trying to keep a crazy chick away

Officials said the detective issued a citation to the man for failure to identify, even though department policy prohibits officers from citing people for that offense.

Detective Pantoja did not thoroughly understand the laws and ordinances which he was enforcing when he issued the citation, the records state.

Det. Josef Piotrowski

McManus issued Piotrowski, a detective in the division that handles major overnight felonies, a three-day suspension for being disrespectful to colleagues.

McManus said Piotrowski, a 27-year veteran of the force, brought reproach and discredit on himself and the San Antonio Police Department after criticizing the homicide unit in an email to a prosecutor in the Bexar County District Attorneys Office.

As per usual, are [sic] Homicide Unit has failed to transfer these documents to you.  Maybe you can wake up these Kings and get them to do their job, the detective wrote, according to the disciplinary record. Im tired of explaining this to your office.

Det. Miguel Maldonado

Maldonado, who works at the East Substation, was suspended for 15 days after officials said he left a dead body unattended before the persons family arrived to take possession of it.

eeaton@express-news.net
In 1968, Frances Sissy Farenthold, then the director of Legal Aid for Nueces County, launched a campaign for state representative.

At that point, every single member of the Texas House was male, including the incumbent she challenged: Charles Scoggins, a Corpus Christi geologist and a Republican eyeing the position of House minority leader.

In newspaper ads for her shoestring campaign, one clear mantra emerged: Live in 68. Plan for 78.

Thats how Farenthold thought and how she campaigned.

She dared her fellow Texans to lift their heads above the daily muck of a corrupt, secretive state government that served the power brokers, lobbyists and big-money donors, but disregarded the needs of regular folk. She invited people to project themselves into a future Texas where social justice was more than a romantic concept.

Farenthold passed away Sunday at the age of 94 from complications related to Parkinsons disease.

By the time of her passing, it had been 47 years since Farenthold last sought political office. During her brief political career, she served two terms in the Texas House and never reached a higher office than that. Those bare facts, however, dont shine much light on Farentholds transformative, catalytic impact.

In 1972, she finished ahead of then-Gov. Preston Smith and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes in the Democratic primary for governor, at a time when all the real action in Texas politics happened on the Democratic side.

She gave wealthy rancher Dolph Briscoe all he could handle in the runoff, drawing nearly 900,000 votes (45 percent) in the process.

A month later, with the second-wave feminist movement asserting its power for the first time at a national political gathering, the 275-member womens caucus at the Democratic National Convention placed Farentholds name in nomination for vice president of the United States.

She received an astounding 407 delegates. Her supporters insisted that she could have doubled that total if floor leaders for presidential nominee George McGovern hadnt shut down the Farenthold movement to avoid pushing the process into a second ballot.

Farenthold was naturally shy and made little attempt to simulate the kind of back-slapping cheerfulness that politicians are taught to demonstrate. But she radiated strength and intellect and confidence and righteousness, without ever appearing smug or morally superior.

She ran for office not to fill some psychological need or out of a hunger for power, but because she couldnt stand the sight of the status quo.

She often talked about how our state was saddled with a private government; a machine that served powerful private interests, but neglected environmental protection, public education, poverty and health care.

Were in midstream on a journey, she told her supporters on the night of her runoff defeat in the 1972 governors race. We have a distance to go and we are working toward a public government, so long overdue. Were not going to give up that fight.

Mindful of the fact that conservatives controlled the Texas Democratic Party at the time, she told her fellow progressives: You and I have formed a new bloc in the Democratic Party and its going to be around for a long time.

She was right. The battle lines may have changed over the past five decades  conservative Texas Democrats ultimately defected to the Republican Party, which now controls the state  but the cause endures.

Its striking when you look back at film footage of Farentholds campaigns (best captured in Estelle Changass 1976 documentary, Farenthold: A Texas Chronicle) how resonant her message remains.

This week, a report co-written by watchdog group Texans for Public Justice pointed out that Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick cast a critical vote in favor of a pipeline company in which she owns considerable stock and which has donated $22,500 to her campaigns.

Opposition to this kind of mutual back-scratching was at the core of Farentholds reform platform. It made her a statewide figure in 1971 as one of the so-called Dirty Thirty who stood up against state leaders implicated in the Sharpstown bank-fraud scandal.

At a news conference during her 1974 gubernatorial run, Farenthold said, Campaign contributors control the legislation or the lack of legislation in Texas.

It was true then and its true now.

In a March 1972 Texas Observer endorsement of Farentholds gubernatorial candidacy, Molly Ivins and Kaye Northcott made an astute observation when they pointed out that Farenthold was not a bleeding heart liberal.

Ivins and Northcott said Farenthold surely had compassion for the disadvantaged, but they doubted that compassion was her main motivator.

We have found, they wrote, that she acts out of an implacable sense of justice.

Now, more than ever, Texas needs a Farentholdian sense of justice.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
For years, Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature have neglected the basic health care needs of working-class Texans by saying no to expanding our states Medicaid program.

In the days ahead, well find out if Congress will come through for the millions who have been denied health care by politicians in Texas and other politically red states that have rejected Medicaid expansion funding.

Health insurance, whether its through your employer, Medicaid or another source, can be the key to receiving consistent care to treat and mitigate physical and mental health conditions  such as diabetes and depression, which I live with. Having access to health insurance can mean catching cancer or other serious conditions early while theyre still treatable rather than when its too late.

We know health insurance provides Texans with a better chance to beat illness than waiting until theyre so sick they end up in the emergency room, increasing medical debt. Health care is a human right. Congress created a health care system that allows states to deny coverage to some people; this is its chance to fix that.

If I lived in Arkansas, Indiana or any of the 38 states that has expanded Medicaid, I would likely have health insurance and a greater shot at staying healthy. But Texas is one of the 12 holdout states, mostly in the South, that has refused Medicaid expansion.

On ExpressNews.com: Taylor: The senselessness - and cruelty - of failing to expand Medicaid in Texas

Along with nearly 800,000 other Texans, Im in whats referred to as the health coverage gap, which Abbott and the Legislature perpetuate. Texans in the coverage gap dont receive health insurance from their jobs. We dont make enough money to qualify for financial assistance on the health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.Gov, or to buy our own insurance. And we dont qualify for insurance through Medicaid, which Texas and other Southern states largely limit to kids, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities.

Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion was intended to provide an affordable health insurance option to everyday, working-class people  janitors, child care workers, delivery drivers, those in the hospitality industry and food service, and more. In states where Medicaid expansion has been implemented, its been a success. Despite this, Abbott and other governors continue to block this progress, as well as better health outcomes for their constituents.

Now, federal leaders are considering intervening. This is a test of our nations commitment to racial equity and justice, as well as overall public health. While our state has a high uninsured rate for all Texans  Black, white, Latino, Asian and Indigenous  communities of color account for the majority of the coverage gap in Texas and the 11 other holdout states.

Fortunately, Congress appears poised to include a solution to the coverage gap in the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill. We need to make sure that stays on track because affordable health care access for millions of Americans is at stake.

We need to ensure the coverage gap solution developed by Congress is comprehensive and permanent. I and the other 2 million Americans in the coverage gap deserve better than a short-term solution. We are counting on the House, Senate and White House to come through and ensure that Abbott, our Legislature and politicians in other Southern states can no longer deny people the health care they need.

Scarlett Pacheco is a volunteer health care justice leader with the Texas Organizing Project in San Antonio.
Images of the thousands of mostly Haitian migrants in Del Rio were everywhere last week. Planeloads of Haitian migrants were swiftly sent back to a country that, in the last two months, has experienced the assassination of its president, a major earthquake and a tropical storm.

Expelling these individuals denies their right to request asylum and contradicts U.S. law.

The legal justification for returning Haitians without granting their day in court is the alleged authority under Title 42 of the U.S. Code to protect public health. In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the Trump administration  through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  issued an order to stop migrants who showed up at land borders.

In April 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, agents began immediately returning migrants arrested at the border to the country from which they had just crossed  either Mexico or Canada. If those countries would not take them, CBP detained migrants for as long as it took to fill a plane and fly them to their country of origin. No one who is processed under Title 42 sees a judge or an asylum officer. The decision to expel or allow someone in became arbitrary, based on the whims of processing officials.

President Joe Bidens administration attempted to distance itself from Title 42 expulsions by announcing it would no longer expel unaccompanied minors. However, it has continued using Title 42 to expel adults and families. Since February, nearly 60 percent of the 1.2 million arrests at the southern border ended in expulsion, according to CBP figures.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Biden's hypocritical, inhumane response to Haitian asylum seekers

Immigration advocates and civil rights defenders have opposed Title 42 since the beginning and continued their legal challenges after the Biden administration took over.

Recently, a federal court in Washington, D.C., sided with immigrant rights organizations, ruling the groups are likely to win their case, which argues the expulsions are illegal because Congress never intended Title 42 to authorize deportations, much less deportations that violate the right to seek asylum or other humanitarian protection. Rather than accept defeat, the Biden administration doubled down and appealed.

The legal reasoning for opposing an arbitrary rule that summarily throws migrants out of the country is simple: It runs against our own immigration laws.

Eric Gay / Associated Press

The Refugee Act, which Congress passed in 1980, embraces the concept of non-refoulement  a word derived from the French word refouler, meaning to drive back or repel. Non-refoulement is the bedrock of refugee law and prohibits countries party to the U.N. Refugee Convention, including the U.S., from returning people to a country where their lives or freedoms would be threatened for a protected reason (race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular social group).

The Refugee Act provides that anyone physically present or who arrives in the U.S. may apply for asylum. In fact, that is the only way to be able to apply for asylum  you must make it to U.S. soil.

That is what thousands of Haitians seeking protection did  enduring long, dangerous journeys to make it to our border only to be pushed away without the opportunity to articulate an asylum claim.

Seeking protection should not depend on luck; it must be guided by the laws Congress has passed.

If any good can come of this tragedy, perhaps it is the world finally seeing the images that capture the utter inhumanity of Title 42. The thousands of Haitians flown back to danger and devastation deserve better, as do the thousands of other asylum-seekers the U.S. has turned away since March 2020.

Erica Schommer is a clinical professor at the St. Marys University School of Law, where she teaches the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic.
There is no fixing Senate Bill 8 and the damage Texas has inflicted to womens rights.

Even Republican state Rep. Lyle Larsons House Bill 99, which would provide exemptions for rape and incest survivors, is futile.

It has zero chance of passage. Beyond this, Senate Bill 8 is irredeemable. Sure, Larsons bill would rightfully provide exceptions to SB 8 for rape and incest survivors. This would fix important concerns, and yet it misses the most important point. There should be no Senate Bill 8. The only acceptable outcome is for the law to be found unconstitutional.

Americas most stringent anti-abortion law  which Larson supported in the House  effectively places legal abortion out of reach for Texas women. But Roe v. Wade has not been overturned, and abortions, legal or not, will continue.

We know HB 99 has no chance of passage because Larson, sadly, lacks any standing in his own party, and Gov. Greg Abbott has said the bill will never reach his desk. Abbott told Fox News on Sunday the draconian laws goal is to protect the heartbeat of every child.

On ExpressNews.com: These Texas women got abortions from a California doctor after the state's ban. Here are their stories

Senate Bill 8 bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy  before most women know they are pregnant. Remarkably, it deputizes every American citizen as a potential bounty hunter.

The U.S. Supreme Court could have intervened before the law took effect Sept. 1, but a majority rejected an emergency appeal from abortion providers.

Its incredible to think bounty hunters in other states could target women and girls here who are victims of rape and incest. Then again, this is Texas, where the rights of women, especially those who are low-income, arent valued.

Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Texas, told Express-News reporter Elizabeth Zavala the restrictions were a monstrous situation.

These women survivors have enough monsters in their lives without state lawmakers regulating their bodies.

When questioned about why the state should force rape or incest victims to carry a pregnancy to term, at first Abbott denied the bill would require it. That was a lie rooted in a profound misunderstanding of womens health.

Then he provided embarrassing misogynistic commentary about rape: Lets 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 by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets.

We used to say Abbott knows better, but that is far too generous for someone so cynical.

Some context about rape and incest: According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN, 1 in every 6 American women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape.

Larsons bill will go nowhere, but it portends a particular legislative fallout from Senate Bill 8 should the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately uphold it. The longer SB 8 endures, the more lawmakers will be confronted with their cruelty and be forced to legislate to reality.

Women who have survived rape and incest will give birth to these children  and will share their stories. Some women will seek out illegal abortions and risk personal harm. Others will give birth at immense personal cost. As the landmark Turnaway Study from the University of California in San Francisco has shown, women who are denied abortions are more likely to be in abusive relationships, suffer from pregnancy complications and poor physical health, and live below the poverty line.

All of these concerns are why SB 8 cannot be fixed or made more palatable. It must be overturned.
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.
Two years after Texas officials fumbled an effort to double-check the voting rolls on a hunt for noncitizens  and instead threatened the voting rights of nearly 60,000 eligible Texans  similar efforts to purge noncitizen voters are now the law of the land, thanks to provisions tucked into the massive elections bill enacted this month.

The secretary of state will again be allowed to regularly compare drivers license records to voter registration lists in a quest to find people who are not eligible.

But while Republicans are determined to make another run at the purge that alarmed civil rights groups two years ago, they insist theyve made key changes to prevent a repeat of the same mistakes.

They blew it last time, acknowledged state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.

So much so that then-Secretary of State David Whitley resigned in the aftermath and triggered a public apology from his office. Civil rights groups also sued his office and blocked the state from continuing the purge at the time.

BACKGROUND: Texas Republicans prepare for another voter purge

Starting by December of this year, the secretary of state will review Department of Public Safety records every month looking for potential noncitizens. But this time, lawmakers have put in a provision that intentionally bars the secretary of state from going too far back in time as they scour drivers license records, something that led to some of the problems in 2019.

In some instances, the state flagged legal voters who had become naturalized citizens since the time they first applied for a drivers license a decade or more earlier. Noncitizens, including those with visas or green cards to stay in the U.S., are able to get Texas drivers licenses. The states 2019 analysis flagged those drivers, but it never accounted for the fact that about 50,000 Texans become naturalized citizens each year.

The result was many legitimate voters receiving letters warning they were at risk of being knocked off the voter rolls and facing potential legal action because of faulty data.

By hastening to send out the written warnings, civil rights groups said, the state caused a lot of fear and confusion, particularly for naturalized citizens.

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Definitely this is substantially better than what they were doing before, said Joaquin Gonzalez, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.

But Gonzalez said hes still worried about the reliability of DPS drivers license databases and the inherent pitfalls of trying to compare millions of records against millions of other records. He said there is just too much room for error.

There are still concerns that they will be falsely flagging people, he said.

Voters flagged: 18,000 in Harris and 5,000 in Bexar

In 2019 in Harris County alone, 18,000 people originally flagged by the secretary of states office as potential noncitizens were found to be eligible voters. In other areas, such as Waco, every person on the list flagged by the office was a legal voter.

In Bexar County, almost 5,000 people were on the secretary of states original purge list, though it was unclear how many were later found to be eligible voters.

The idea of allowing the periodic purges worries state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston. But she said Democrats in the Legislature fought hard to add safeguards to avoid a repeat of the 2019 debacle.

More specifically, the new law prohibits the state from using DPS data from before a persons voter registration became effective. So if people signed up for a drivers license in 2005 but didnt register to vote until 2020, the state cant use that 2005 record to question their eligibility to vote.

Thats a big change, Alvarado said.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, defended the voter purge process, which he called list maintenance. He said the state should be able to go through the voter rolls regularly to make sure people who are not eligible to vote are not on the lists.

Already, election officials compare death records to the voter registration rolls to remove deceased voters. And the state also flags people disqualified from jury duty because they are not citizens to make sure they are not on the voter rolls.

Hughes said it is important to note that even in 2019, no voters were removed from the rolls. He said the state simply sent the lists to counties, which then sent letters to people to confirm their citizenship.

No one was knocked off the rolls, he said.

The changes to the process are an extension of what the Texas Civil Rights Project and others accomplished in their lawsuit in 2019, when those groups reached a settlement with the secretary of state to limit the scope of the records used.

The changes are part of Texas Republicans massive elections bill, which they say is aimed at making it harder for people to cheat in Texas elections, though they have found no evidence of widespread fraud. Democrats who oppose the legislation say the Republicans are using alarm about fraud to justify restrictions at the polls that will disenfranchise minority voters.

The 76-page bill gives partisan poll watchers more rights in watching election activities, bars drive-thru and 24-hour voting and bars county election officials from mailing absentee ballot applications to people who didnt request them.

The debate over elections in Texas comes as the state is experiencing a surge in voter registrations. Since January 2014, Texas has added 3.1 million voters for a total of 16.7 million  a 23 percent increase.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com
More than 240 migrants arrested under Gov. Greg Abbott's border security initiative are set to be released from state-run lockups after local prosecutors, overwhelmed by an influx of detained migrants, failed to bring charges as they sat in cells for weeks, an apparent violation of state law.

Texas National Guard troops and state police have been mobilized by the hundreds to help round up and jail migrants caught crossing the border under Abbotts plan, known as Operation Lone Star. The plan broadly expands the states role in immigration enforcement, which is typically left to the federal government, though Abbott has argued his new approach is necessary to handle a steep increase in border crossings since President Joe Biden took office.

Roughly 1,000 migrants have been arrested so far, mostly on state trespassing charges in Kinney and Val Verde counties, with hundreds imprisoned for weeks and some held for longer than a month without a judge seeing basic documents outlining the charges against them. As of Monday, more than 800 migrants, most from Mexico and Honduras, were being held at two state facilities, a state prison official told lawmakers at a committee hearing.

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State law requires defendants to be released on cashless bonds or have their bail reduced if the state is not ready for trial within certain timeframes. For most trespassing cases, prosecutors must file charges within 15 days, though attorneys from Kinney County have argued that Abbotts disaster declaration along parts of the border gives them a window of 30 days.

At a hearing Tuesday, State District Judge Roland Andrade granted the release of 168 migrants who had been jailed in Kinney County for at least 30 days, along with 75 migrants detained in Val Verde County for longer than 15 days.

County prosecutors had agreed to release the migrants ahead of Tuesdays hearing, according to their attorney.

Kate Huddleston, an attorney with the ACLU of Texas, said state officials have essentially tried to create a parallel criminal enforcement system for migrants arrested under Operation Lone Star, but without any safeguards for when local prosecutors decide not to prioritize migrants cases or to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed by the volume of arrests.

What the state is trying to do is put together this slapdash system in which people are processed in a new way under emergency authorizations and, in doing so, the state has not been careful to ensure that individuals rights are protected, Huddleston said.

The judges order comes as Abbott has made the border his top issue ahead of his re-election campaign and received $1.8 billion from the Legislature to build a physical barrier along parts of the southern border and continue arresting and incarcerating the migrants.

State lawmakers also provided funding for the network of courts and detention facilities that are tasked with processing and detaining the arrested migrants, setting aside more than $32 million for the Office of Court Administration to hire new visiting judges, public defenders, court interpreters and other court staff.

The border spending bill also set aside $100 million in grant funds, administered by Abbotts office, to help local authorities enforce Operation Lone Star, including various court costs. Abbott announced last week that counties could begin applying for the funds, though Maria Elena Mena Ramon, interim administrative director for the Office of Court Administration, said Monday that grant funds had yet to be distributed to counties.

Ramon said resources and funding are clearly needed to help Kinney and Val Verde counties handle the flood of cases. She cited the uptick in Kinney, where there have been an estimated 800 arrests under Abbotts border initiative over the last month. Over the last year, just 16 misdemeanor cases were filed in the county, Ramon said.

Abbott, a former state attorney general and judge on the Texas Supreme Court, did not respond immediately Tuesday to a request for comment.

The incarcerations began in late July.

Tuesdays hearing was in Del Rio, where Abbott made an appearance just last week to blast Biden and highlight how state troopers lined up hundreds of squad cars along an international bridge to help keep out Haitian refugees who had amassed there.

Judge Andrade ordered the migrants released on cashless personal bonds.

The migrants attorney, Kristin Etter of the nonprofit Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, also argued that state law requires people detained while awaiting trial to be held in the county where they were arrested, unless the local jail is deemed unsafe. The migrants were being held in state prisons in Frio and Hidalgo counties, outside the counties where they were arrested and prosecuted.

In a court filing last week, Etter wrote that transporting pretrial detainees hours away from the county of arrest and prosecution where the evidence is located, and hours away from people able to provide help, to a prison facility, is not only unauthorized by Texas law without specific judicial authorization, but also violates several important constitutional rights guaranteed to those merely charged with criminal offenses who are unable to post bail.

Bryan Collier, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told a House committee Monday that migrants jailed under Abbotts initiative are typically picked up by U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement authorities upon being released. They can then be deported or released into the country to await immigration hearings.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
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
Two years ago, Texas' Republican leaders agreed to boost public education spending by billions of dollars, setting aside most of the incendiary social issues that had derailed similar efforts in the past.

But the GOPs fixation on bread-and-butter issues  seemingly driven, at least in part, by a painful 2018 midterm election  proved to be fleeting. After Democrats fell flat in their lavishly funded attempt to retake the Texas House in 2020, Republicans responded by adopting a parade of conservative priorities this year, including the nation's strictest anti-abortion law and an overhaul of Texas elections that prompted Democrats to leave the state for over a month to stall it.

While Republicans have touted their string of policy wins over the last few months, Democrats are already predicting a reckoning in the 2022 midterms, arguing that the state's hard shift to the right went too far and will fuel Democratic gains at the polls.

There is such a thing as a Republican who publicly  in their social groups, maybe at church  will profess to be hardline about something, but when they finally get it, they realize that is not the world that they want, said state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio. They might be pro-Second Amendment, but they may not like permitless carry. They may be pro-life, but they recognize the dangers of having an outright ban on abortion, especially without exceptions for rape and incest.

Democrats don't have to spin those issues. They just have to make sure people are aware of what's happened, because they honestly just speak for themselves.

NEW LAW: Anti-abortion laws used to exempt cases of rape and incest. Not anymore in Texas.

Even if the Republican policies have created some ammunition for Democratic candidates, the party also faces headwinds next year, including the tendency for a president's party to lose seats in midterm elections  the same phenomenon that aided Democrats in 2018.

They will also need a major candidate to oppose Gov. Greg Abbott and his $55 million war chest. And the next round of redistricting, a top priority for the legislative session that begins Monday, gives Republicans a chance to shore up some of the seats Democrats are targeting.

Those factors, combined with national issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Biden administrations messy exit from Afghanistan, have muddled the political outlook for Texas heading into 2022, said Renee Cross, senior director of the University of Houstons Hobby School of Public Affairs.

We've seen throughout history the midterms are traditionally very hard on the party in power, Cross said. However, we've got all these other variables that I don't think we've really had to deal with before. In our generation, we haven't had to deal with ending a 20-year war and a pandemic.

State Rep. Jim Murphy, a Houston Republican who chairs the House GOP Caucus, noted that lawmakers also recently approved less controversial measures like a one-time pension bonus for retired teachers, an expansion of virtual learning for public schools and extra foster care funding for the Department of Family and Protective Services.

Still, Murphy said Republican lawmakers adopted a more conservative agenda this session largely due to the results of the 2020 elections. He said Republicans returned to Austin with a mandate after Democrats failed to make a dent in the GOPs statehouse majority.

The zeal with which Democrats pursued incumbent Republicans really made a difference in how people entered the session, Murphy said. Those were tough races, incredibly expensive races. We had never seen that kind of money spent like we saw in the 2020 cycle.

People understood what they were voting for, and when they made that choice, I think that compelled all of us to say, well, if that's what they're expecting, then we better deliver.

Republicans also believe the surge in migrant encounters along the southern border leaves Texas Democrats and President Joe Biden vulnerable on the issue of border security. Abbott has relentlessly criticized the White Houses approach and already blocked two of Bidens major border initiatives in court.

Now Playing: The Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over a new state law that bans most abortions, arguing that it was enacted "in open defiance of the Constitution." Critics dismissed the DoJ's actions as "audacious." (Sept. 9) Video: Associated Press

Abortion law looms large

On top of the abortion and voting bills, Republicans in the Legislature passed laws this year banning critical race theory, allowing most Texans 21 and up to carry handguns without a license and forbidding large social media companies from blocking users based on their viewpoints. In the special session, they are again set to consider restricting which teams transgender student athletes can join, a priority of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that has failed to pass multiple times this year.

Yet no issue has stirred as much controversy as Senate Bill 8, the new abortion law that effectively bans the procedure with its strict time limits. It empowers almost anyone to sue an abortion provider or other person who helps someone access the procedure after about six weeks.

The law, which took effect Sept. 1, makes an exception when a pregnancy is life-threatening, but not for those that result from rape or incest.

Though polling on the law itself is limited, a February University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey found that most Texans do not favor such a sweeping ban on abortions, with 81 percent  including 75 percent of Republicans  saying the procedure should either be always allowed or permitted in cases of rape, incest, when the mothers life is in danger or after the need for the abortion has been clearly established.

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By passing the abortion law, Cross said, Texas Republicans jeopardized the support of moderate women voters, including those in the suburbs who supported President Joe Biden in the 2020 election after voting for Republicans in the past.

I think it goes beyond just energizing Democrats. I think it also will energize a lot of women within the Republican Party that are pro-choice, Cross said. I really think they went too far. I understand that this is very important to the base, particularly the base of Republican primary voters, but I think in the long run, this is going to push those folks away.

Days after the law was enacted on Sept. 1, Abbott was asked why the law would effectively force a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy to term.

Abbott responded: It doesnt require that at all, because, obviously, it provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion  failing to acknowledge that it takes four to six weeks for most women to realize they are pregnant.

Abbotts comments drew condemnation from Democrats who said it showed a lack of understanding about the law. But he also came under fire from Republicans, including primary opponent Don Huffines, who said Abbott failed to acknowledge the human value of all unborn children.

Luke Macias, a Republican political consultant who is supporting Huffines, said GOP candidates should be prepared to clearly explain why they support the new abortion law during the midterms, instead of ignoring the topic or trying to appease moderate voters.

I think (Abbotts) answer to that is a perfect example of why he's not prepared to actually defend this issue at the ballot box. You need to be a tireless advocate for this, Macias said. When you have a governor who tells Texans, 'don't worry, rape victims have plenty of time to abort their children before they're impacted by this law,' that is literally just dooming more Republicans to having problems down the ballot.

Abbotts spokeswoman has not responded to questions about the governors remarks.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Public safety issues

While Democrats believe they have found winning issues on abortion and, perhaps, the Legislatures modest power grid reforms in the wake of Februarys winter storm, Republicans see an advantage on border security and the broader topic of public safety.

Earlier this month, the Legislature roughly tripled the states border security budget, devoting $1.8 billion to the construction of a barrier along the Rio Grande and ramping up the states law enforcement presence in the region. Though the bill mostly passed along party lines, a handful of Democrats who represent border districts broke with their party to support it, citing the massive uptick in migrants crossing the border this year.

In the public safety arena, Republicans also passed bills this year that limit the ability of defendants to be released on cashless bail and punish cities if they reduce their police budgets. Though few elected Democrats have actively embraced calls to defund police, members of both parties say Republicans were able to use the issue to exceed expectations in parts of Texas suburban and border communities in 2020.

Adrienne Pena-Garza, chair of the Hidalgo County Republican Party, said border residents  many of whom work in law enforcement or for U.S. Customs and Border Protection  are embracing Abbotts border plan, which includes arresting migrants on state trespassing charges in an attempt to dissuade them from crossing. Democrats say the funds would be better aimed at the ports of entry where the majority of drugs pass through.

GOP VICTORIES: Texas Republicans adjourn special session celebrating partisan wins

People are relieved, Pena-Garza said. There's people on both sides of the aisle that are seeing that the Biden administration isn't doing enough about it. And it's evident that Texas is going above and beyond with this border spending bill to help remedy what the Biden administration has failed to do.

An August UT/Tribune poll found that 47 percent of Texans approve of Abbotts plan to spend state funds on a barrier along the southern border, while 39 percent oppose it. In the same poll, 37 percent of Texans said the state was not spending enough on border security, compared to 24 percent who said it was spending too much.

Colin Strother, a Democratic strategist who works for numerous lawmakers in border districts, said most border Democrats are likely safe in 2022, noting that many down-ballot candidates outperformed Biden in the border counties where Trump gained ground last year.

Still, Strother said, candidates elsewhere in Texas and in other states could suffer if Republicans control the messaging on border security.

The Biden administration needs to get control of the situation on the southern border, not just for those local communities that are very heavily and seriously impacted by it, but because of the sentiment that the stereotype of open borders has nationally, Strother said. I believe on our current trajectory, we are going to have a really tough time nationally maintaining our (U.S. House) majority unless something pretty dramatic and drastic happens.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
A Texas law professor who has criticized the states new abortion ban warned U.S. senators on Wednesday that the danger of its rollout is far bigger than just abortion.

A world in which our constitutional rights are worth nothing more than the whims of 50 state legislatures is not a federal system, said Steve Vladeck of the University of Texas at Austin. Its not a system with the rule of law. And frankly, its not a system that is going to be sustainable in the long term.

The remarks came as congressional Democrats hold hearings this week on the new law, which prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and allows nearly anyone to sue those who help a pregnant person obtain an abortion.

Wednesdays hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee focused especially on the U.S. Supreme Courts decision not to intervene before the law took effect on Sept. 1, essentially cutting off access for seven million women of reproductive age in the state. Most people are not yet aware theyre pregnant at six weeks.

MEDICAID IMPACT: Texas abortion ban defies Medicaid protections for rape, incest victims

The courts five most conservative justices allowed the law to roll out with a short, late-night order in which they cited the unusual, private-citizen enforcement strategy. Republican-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent, saying the court should block the law until it has time to fully vet its merits  as it often does with other laws.

Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz strongly defended the ban on Wednesday, and called the hearing itself a sham.

What this is really about is trying to demonize Texas and trying to demagogue on the question of life, Cruz said. Texas made a perfectly reasonable decision to protect life, he added. Life is valuable.

Vladeck and others countered that the law has deprived women of their constitutional right to abortion as established in Roe v. Wade and upheld in several subsequent rulings. The court is scheduled to hear a case later this year on whether to formally roll back those protections, long a goal of anti-abortion activists.

After nearly 50 years, the Supreme Court has effectively overturned Roe for one in 10 women of reproductive age in this country, said Fatima Goss Graves, who heads the National Womens Law Center. And if you can upend our constitutionally protected right to abortion in a one paragraph opinion, where does it end?

State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat, said the ban is undercutting other health efforts, since many of the abortion clinics also provide non-abortion related care. Texas has one of the countrys highest uninsured rates and some of its worst health outcomes among low-income women and women of color.

We have much difficulty now with women getting the health care that they need, Howard said. This is going to make it even worse.

jeremy.blackman@chron.com
An independent consultant hired to analyze the record of a Rosenberg police officer concluded the officer appeared to base his traffic stops and searches on the race of drivers, confirming the findings of a Chronicle investigation.

Approximately 97 percent of the stops that Officer Aaron Gillory made were of Hispanic drivers, according to an analysis of citations between 2018 and 2020, Rosenberg police Chief Jonathan White said.

That mirrors conclusions Hearst reached in its July 2020 examination of the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force, where Gillory worked a stretch of U.S. 59. The Hearst analysis determined the officer searched 187 vehicles, all but two driven by Hispanics; and that 94 percent of the time the searches came to nothing.

The data speaks for itself, said the consultant, Alex Del Carmen, who also leads Tarleton State Universitys Institute for Predictive Analytics in Criminal Justice. He declined to discuss details of his report.

Despite the findings, it appears there will be little fallout for the officer or his superiors. The case illustrates how difficult it is to hold police accountable for enforcement that appears to be improperly influenced by race.

Gillory could have been disciplined by his department. Examples of racial profiling include but are not limited to  Initiating a traffic stop on a particular vehicle because of the race, ethnicity, or national origin of the driver of a vehicle, the Rosenberg Police Departments anti-profiling policy reads. Actions prohibited by this order shall be cause for disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

But he quit Rosenberg while Del Carmen was still conducting his examination, records show. Once the officer left, he was out of reach of department disciplinary procedures, so White said he dropped the inquiry. We never launched an investigation.

READ THE INVESTIGATION: This Fort Bend narcotics unit overwhelmingly stops and searches Latinos. Is it racial profiling?

Meanwhile, the city has shielded Del Carmens report from public view. In response to an open records request, the police department said it had no knowledge of it. After a second request, it acknowledged the reports existence but then refused to release a copy  citing an open investigation.

Gillory could have faced consequences as he looked for a new job. But even though he left as his performance was being audited by an outside expert, he had no problem finding work at a nearby agency already familiar with his record.

As a Fort Bend sheriff candidate last year, Eric Fagan, a retired police officer running on promises of reform, had strong words for the narcotics task forces record. This blatant act of racial profiling will not be tolerated in my administration, he said in response to the newspapers investigation. Its wrong and illegal.

Months later, as Fort Bends newly elected sheriff overseeing the task force, Fagan hired Gillory. He started as a new deputy three days after he left Rosenberg, according to state records.

In an interview, Fagan said he hadnt realized Gillory was the same officer who was the subject of the Chronicles investigation. But the sheriff, who declined to make the deputy available for an interview, also defended his new hire.

Everything Ive seen hes done, is not racial profiling, he said. He said task force members often make stops based on suspicious driving patterns such as frequent border crossings identified by tips or license plate readers. Fagan criticized Del Carmens conclusions as unfair, and said he intended to hire another consultant to re-review the drug task forces record.

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Fort Bend County prosecutors who knew Gillorys work was under scrutiny could have paused the prosecutions of his criminal and forfeiture cases. They didnt.

Presented with the newspapers conclusions more than a year ago, Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said he wouldnt comment on Gillorys record because his offices public integrity unit was opening an investigation. He also alerted federal authorities. Fourteen months on, a spokesman for the office said both investigations remain pending, so Middleton still couldnt comment.

SPEEDING IN TEXAS?: New analysis reveals where police pulled over the most people

Despite those ongoing audits, however, Middletons office continued to prosecute Gillorys cases from the task forces stops.

Del Carmen submitted his findings more than three months ago. Last week, after being contacted by the Chronicle, a Middleton spokesman said the reports conclusions about Gillorys traffic stop record represented new information.

We just learned of the consultants report, and are taking appropriate action, Wesley Wittig wrote in an email. We will be reviewing Officer Guillorys (sic) cases based upon this new information, including asset forfeitures as well as arrests.

In a memo distributed last week, Middleton directed that cases where Mr. Gillory was the arresting officer should not be disposed until our investigation is complete.

Potential remedies, but not easy

Traffic stops are the most common form of police-civilian interactions. For the past 20 years civil rights advocates and criminal justice reformers have pushed policing agencies to collect the data needed to identify departments that disproportionately target racial minorities.

Texas began requiring reports from the states 2,500 law enforcement agencies in 2001. The Sandra Bland Act, passed in 2017, required departments to gather and analyze more detailed information. A 2020 Hearst investigation revealing the state wasnt following the law spurred more changes.

Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Over the years, studies by advocates and academics have created a mountain of evidence that racial disparities are a common feature of traffic enforcement operations. The challenge now, they said, is how to use statistical information suggesting an officer or department is improperly considering race in their policing.

There are potential remedies, said David Rudovsky, a civil rights and profiling expert and fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. But theyre not easy.

'YOU SEEM NERVOUS TO ME: Why most police vehicle searches in Texas turn up nothing

Although Texas lawmakers added the definition of racial profiling to the states Code of Criminal Procedure 20 years ago, it is not a criminal offense so police cannot be prosecuted for it.

In theory, defense attorneys could cite an officers skewed statistics to have seized drugs or other contraband suppressed in criminal cases. Courts in several states  including New Jersey and, more recently, Massachusetts  have used local profiling laws to toss cases in which statistics pointed to racially biased policing. But prosecutors and defense attorneys said they were unaware of any similar cases in Texas.

Although citizens have successfully sued police departments for racially profiling them under the 14th Amendments equal protection guarantee, civil rights cases can take years to resolve and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are incredibly hard to win, even when you have a compelling statistical argument, said David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who has researched racial profiling for two decades.

In the small East Texas town of Tenaha, police had been stopping Black and Hispanic drivers and seizing their money and property at statistically impossible rates for years before civil rights attorneys could mount a class-action lawsuit. It took eight years from the start of the interdiction program for the towns police department to sign a consent agreement promising to stop.

The U.S. Department of Justices Civil Rights Division also can investigate law enforcement agencies with a track record of racially disparate treatment. The audits often lead to the department agreeing to operate under federal supervision until it meets reform standards.

Yet that process, too, is time- and labor-intensive, and the agency is small. It concedes its staff identifies far more jurisdictions that meet the basic criteria for opening an investigation than it is able to investigate.

A contentious policing strategy

That leaves individual law enforcement agencies to identify and fix their own profiling problems. Yet police, civil rights advocates and attorneys said they could not point to a single Texas police officer who had been disciplined for compiling a record of race-based stops.

We have hundreds of cases pending at CLEAT of officers that we are representing, added Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. Currently we dont have one, that Im aware of, whos been accused of racially profiling.

Texas police departments are legally required not only to collect traffic stop data by race but also to analyze it to identify patterns and even individual officers whose work might be improperly informed by it. But I doubt most do it, said Del Carmen, who advises departments on how to follow the state law.

CHRONICLE INVESTIGATION: Texas was supposed to collect racial-profiling data. It left out most of the 'racial' part.

Rosenbergs chief, White, said his department reviewed individual officers traffic stops by race every quarter to flag potential problems. He said it didnt notice Gillorys unusual numbers because his stops were conducted on behalf of the Fort Bend Sheriffs Office, which oversees an interagency narcotics task force.

Fort Bend sheriffs officials explained that the task forces high number of Hispanic stops made tactical sense because they are seeking to interrupt Mexican cartel drug traffic along a well-known courier route. There may be more times theyre going to be Hispanic individuals they pull over, Fagan said last week. We have stopped African-Americans or Caucasians, but theyre not going to be as numerous as the others.

Yet in addition to being potentially unconstitutional, researchers point to low contraband hit rates following searches as evidence that race-based stops dont work as a policing strategy, either. After all, Most Hispanics driving on the highway arent couriering drugs, said Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina professor who has written extensively on profiling.

BIKER PROFILING?: Texas bikers say cops have unfairly labeled them as gang members

Police advocates say that proving racially biased policing is complicated, and that statistics alone dont necessarily paint an accurate picture.

I worked in an African American neighborhood, said Houston Police Officers Union President Douglas Griffith. Ninety-five percent of the people I stopped would be black. If I work in River Oaks, they would be probably white; if I worked near Telephone Road, they would probably be Hispanic.

Calling out an employee or department for improperly using race also can be difficult for chiefs, said Margo Frasier, vice president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and the former police monitor for Austin. No one likes to be said to be racially profiling people, that they have some intrinsic bias taking place, she said. Thats insulting to people.

Wilkison credited improved training and recruiting practices as having greatly reduced officers improperly using race in their policing.

Those who study profiling are unconvinced. Baumgartner said his work has found higher rates of minority stops and searches at virtually every department he has examined. Yet nothing happens, he said. If there was serious leadership that addressed this, racial profiling wouldnt be endemic across the country.

There was a hope that having the data, and making it public would be sufficient, added Harris. But the datas not worth anything if youre not going to do anything about it.

eric.dexheimer@chron.com

st.john.smith@chron.com
NEWS FLASH



Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines have been named among Eastern Europe's best carriers at the annual World Airline Awards, hosted by Skytrax. For the fifth time, the two largest carriers from the former Yugoslavia have been featured among the best in the category, while Air Serbia has also been named among Europes top regional airlines. The Serbian carrier was voted Eastern Europes fifth best, while Croatia Airlines placed tenth. As a result, Air Serbia outperformed the likes of Pobeda, Czech Airlines and Rossiya Airlines. Aeroflot was awarded the title of Eastern Europes best carrier for a sixth year, followed by LOT Polish Airlines and S7 Airlines. Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines have been named among Eastern Europe's best carriers at the annual World Airline Awards, hosted by Skytrax. For the fifth time, the two largest carriers from the former Yugoslavia have been featured among the best in the category, while Air Serbia has also been named among Europes top regional airlines. The Serbian carrier was voted Eastern Europes fifth best, while Croatia Airlines placed tenth. As a result, Air Serbia outperformed the likes of Pobeda, Czech Airlines and Rossiya Airlines. Aeroflot was awarded the title of Eastern Europes best carrier for a sixth year, followed by LOT Polish Airlines and S7 Airlines.





Air Serbia was also named among the top ten best regional airlines in Europe, placing sixth. According to Skytrax, regional airlines are defined as full service / hybrid carriers that primarily operate domestic or international flights up to approximately six hours. Whilst some regional airlines may operate a small number of longer flights, the core market for this airline classification are short / medium haul routes where customer product and service expectations are different to long haul routes. None of the carriers from the former Yugoslavia were ranked among the worlds top 100 airlines.





The World Airline Awards, described as "the Oscars of the aviation industry", are the most coveted quality accolades for the world airline industry and a global benchmark of airline excellence handed out based on passenger experience. The 2021 awards are based on a much-extended customer survey period from September 2019 to July 2021, representing a mix of normal travel times combined with travel during the global pandemic. The awards were not held last year due to Covid-19. A total of 13.42 million eligible customer surveys were completed, across a range of topics, resulting in the awards for airline of the year, together with regional and best airline awards. All entries are screened to identify each IP / user information, with duplicate or ineligible entries deleted. The awards are said to be 100% independent with no payment by any airline or other outside organisation for any aspect of the customer survey or awards presentation event. Over 100 different nationalities participated in the customer satisfaction survey. The surveys measure standards across 49 key performance indicators of airline front-line product and service.





Qatar Airways was named the worlds best airline, while Air France came out on top in Europe. Saudi Arabian Airlines was recognised as being the worlds most improved carrier. Earlier this year, Skytrax held the World Airport Awards, with both Belgrade and Zagreb airports among Eastern Europes best




The former President and CEO of the Etihad Aviation Group, James Hogan, and the former Serbian Minister for Finance and Economy, Mladjan Dinkic, have held talks with the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure, according to the daily Danas. The duo are believed to have discussed potential solutions for Slovenias lack of air connectivity, which has been an ongoing issue since the countrys former national carrier, Adria Airways, declared bankruptcy in late September of 2019. Mr Hogan is acting in the capacity of Founder and Executive Chairman of the Knighthood Capital consultancy company, while Mr Dinkic, who was instrumental in Etihads takeover of Jat Airways and its subsequent rebranding into Air Serbia, is today a Managing Partner at the Belgrade-based MD Solution.





Talks with the Ministry for Infrastructure, which is responsible for Slovenias aviation sector, took place this Tuesday. According to the daily, the talks were conducted by the State Secretary in charge for aviation. The Ministry has also previously held talks with LOT Polish Airlines, Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines in a bid to overcome the countrys poor air connectivity, which has been further compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. During the first seven months of the year, Ljubljana Airport reached just 12% of its pre-pandemic traffic from 2019. Plans to establish a new national airline using European Union Covid-19 recovery funds were dropped earlier this year following the blocks objections.





The Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Pocivalsek, said last month the government was looking into ways to fill the void left by Adria. If we want to have better air connectivity in Slovenia, we will have to do something in this sector and find a way forward to enable progress, in cooperation with a private stakeholder. Currently, we do not have a national carrier, and air traffic is severely affected by the pandemic, Mr Pocivalsek said.








News Analysis

Ready or not, the pressure for companies and individuals to adopt electric transportation is lurching forward along with new regulations that will likely be felt by all.

The future of electric vehicles in Pennsylvania was the topic of several discussions at the statehouse Monday. At the same time, Congress is debating a federal infrastructure bill that would help fund a network of vehicle charging stations.

Electric Trucks and Cars to Be Required

A rebate of up to $1,000 is available for Pennsylvanians who buy electric vehicles, according to a Facebook Live event hosted Monday by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The event also featured tips for new electric vehicle owners on where to find charging stations and how to decrease range anxietythe fear that your car will run out of juice before you find a place to charge.

We at DEP have a keen interest in supporting electric vehicles for a number of reasons, DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said during the event. He listed lower operating costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, the potential for net job increases, and better air quality.

But Pennsylvania already has better air quality. During the Senate Transportation Committee hearing Monday on vehicle emissions and electrification, Mark Hammond, DEP director of air quality said Pennsylvanias air quality has improved in the past decades.

Over the last 20 years, Rebecca Oyler president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association said, the following pollutants have all decreased in the transportation sector in Pennsylvania: sulfur dioxide, down 97.4 percent; carbon monoxide, 88.4 percent; volatile organic compounds 87.9 percent; nitrogen oxides 80.2 percent; fine particulate matter 77.2 percent; ammonia 53.9 percent; course particulate matter 52.8 percent; and transportation-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions declined 12.7 percent during the same period.

Pennsylvania has committed to increasing the use of electric vehicles, McDonnell said. An executive order by Governor Tom Wolf calls for a 26 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 compared with 2005 levels. That order also set of goal of electrifying 25 percent of the states fleet by 2025.

DEP also intends to meet a minimum of 30 percent zero-emission (electric) vehicle market share for new medium and heavy-duty pick-up trucks sold in 2030 and 100 percent of pick-up trucks sold by 2050.

President Joe Bidens goal of 50 percent of all new vehicles being electric by 2030 aligns with commitments from the automotive industry, as more consumers are replacing their traditional gas-powered vehicles with electrical vehicles, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Yassmine Gramian said during the Facebook Live event.

Ironically, the increased adoption of electric vehicles creates a problem for PennDOT, Gramian said. Pennsylvania is dependent on state and federal gas taxes for 78 percent of its highway and bridge funding.

That is why Wolf established the Transportation Revenue Option Commission, which discussed replacing the gas tax. Ideas include paying a tax by the kilowatt-hour and paying per mile driven. A plan has not been determined yet, but it is something Pennsylvanians will want to watch.

Electric Will Hobble Truck Industry

We are definitely headed in the direction of electric vehicles, Oyler told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

She told the Transportation Committee there are many ways to continue reducing emissions in the trucking industry and there is a difference between zero-emission vehicles which are electric and low emission vehicles that run on liquid natural gas or compressed natural gas. Diesel trucks are much cleaner than they were decades ago, Oyler said. Replacing old trucks with newer diesel can also improve the environment.

Electric is not the only way to go, Oyler said. Its best not to push mandates on the trucking industry before the technology is ready, And, she says the technology is not ready for trucking.

Electric trucks weigh 4,000-5,000 pounds more than diesel. It means 4,000-5,000 pounds less cargo to keep trucks within federal weight restrictions. The result is more trips to carry what one truck can currently carry.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike stretches 360 miles across Pennsylvania. By comparison, an electric truck can only go 200-250 miles on a charge. Drivers have enough driving hours to go 500 miles in a day. With electric trucks, a new tractor will have to be swapped in to complete a longer journey, or drivers will face hours of downtime while charging.

Thats not to say we cant get there someday. But we are not quite there yet for most companies.

Trucking companies likely wont have a choice of when they go electric, because of California rules that many states, including Pennsylvania, adopted in 2003.

The California Air Resources Board, (CARB) defines targets for reductions in emissions.

The DEP is taking the position that they adopted those regulations by reference in 2003 and that obligates us to follow CARB in perpetuity for emissions, Oyler said. CARB is controlled by the people of California. They are making rules for the people of Pennsylvania. Its a little frustrating. We dont have any say here in Pennsylvania.

Another portion of CARB is the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Clean Trucks Rule, which is optional, but the Pennsylvania DEP has indicated that it intends to follow it and will likely announce that in the coming days.

New York and New Jersey have already agreed to follow CARBs ZEV Clean Trucks Rule. It mandates a certain, growing percentage of electric trucks, forcing the trucking industry to transition.

In 2020, California had 157 days exceeding federal ozone standards, while Pennsylvania had only 27, a testament to our success, Oyler said. Yet our state has ceded its authority to regulate truck emissions to the people of California, and that is having very real impacts on our trucking industry today.

By Beth Brelje

Beth Brelje is an investigative journalist covering Pennsylvania politics, courts, and the commonwealths most interesting and sometimes hidden news.

Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
CANBERRA, Australia  The Australian government is ramping up pressure on state governments to end pandemic lockdowns by outlining plans to end financial aid.

The government says in a Wednesday statement that its payments to workers who lose hours due to lockdowns will end two weeks after a state or territory reaches its vaccination benchmark. That benchmark is 80% of residents ages 16 and older being fully inoculated with a double dose of AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna.

State and territory leaders agreed in July that lockdowns would no longer be necessary after that level was achieved. But with the delta variant outbreak worsening in Sydney and Melbourne, some leaders have suggested they may maintain restrictions until 90% are fully vaccinated.

Australias government reported Tuesday that less than 53% of the population is fully vaccinated.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 U.S. employer vaccine mandates convert some workers, but not all

 400K in U.S. got Pfizer booster shots last weekend

 France offers state-funded therapy, tackles mental health

 Vaccination situation in Europe a story of two regions

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See all of AP's pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

WELLINGTON, New Zealand  New Zealand is reporting 45 new local cases of the coronavirus, the most in nearly a month as an outbreak in Auckland continues to grow.

Auckland remains under lockdown although officials have eased some restrictions since the outbreak began last month.

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Wednesday that people need to keep steady as officials continue efforts to tamp down the outbreak.

Officials say some of the cases have been spreading among homeless people living in transitional housing, a group that may be more reluctant than most to seek health services.

About 64% of New Zealanders have had at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.

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BOISE, Idaho -- Health care workers in Idaho say they are facing increased animosity from some patients and community members, and they blame misinformation about the pandemic and coronavirus vaccines.

Officials at Kootenai Health in Coeur dAlene, for instance, say some nurses are scared to go to the grocery store unless they have changed out of scrubs because they get accosted by angry people.

The Idaho Hospital Association says similar instances are happening across the state. State health officials say the state will help hospitals boost security if needed.

Some state lawmakers, political groups and local leaders have been dismissive of coronavirus vaccines, pushed the use of an anti-parasitic drug to treat COVID-19 and claimed that coronavirus case numbers are being inflated.

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HARRISBURG, Pa.  A bill that would allow parents in Pennsylvania to exempt their children from wearing a mask at school cleared a state Senate committee on Tuesday as Republican lawmakers started making good on their pledge to counter the governors statewide mask mandate.

The legislation would hand the ultimate decision on masking at school to parents and guardians, allowing them to overrule any face-covering mandate imposed by the state Department of Health, a local health department or a school board.

It would also prohibit schools from keeping unmasked students away from other students or excluding them from any school-sponsored activities.

The Senate Education Committee approved the bill on a party-line vote. It would have to clear the full Senate and the House before going to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, whose office said he opposes the bill.

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ALBANY, N.Y.  Thousands of health care workers in New York faced with getting the COVID-19 vaccine or losing their jobs on Monday have received at least one dose.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released figures showing vaccination rates rising among the states 450,000 hospital workers and for other health care workers. By Monday evening, 92% of nursing home staff received at least one vaccine dose. Preliminary data showed 92% of hospital staff receiving at least one dose of vaccine.

The executive order allows out-of-state doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to practice in New York, makes it easier for retirees to return to the workforce and allows doctor consults in nursing homes via telemedicine.

The order broadens the roles of emergency medical technicians, allowing basic EMTs to vaccinate and test for the coronavirus.

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DECATUR, Ga.  The metro Atlanta city of Decatur is requiring its police officers, firefighters and other employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly tests to keep their jobs.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Decatur City Manager Andrea Arnold announced the new policy during a city commission meeting on Monday night. At least one other Georgia city -- Brookhaven, also in metro Atlanta -- has issued a similar requirement.

Arnold says the citys policy mirrors the federal vaccine mandate enacted by President Joe Biden. That mandate has been panned by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republican leaders.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says hell appoint a chair this year to the planned public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic and bereaved families will have a role in the proceedings.

The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, which has around 4,000 members, have been calling for a public inquiry into the governments handling of the pandemic so lessons can be learned to limit future virus-related deaths. It has criticized Johnson and his Conservative government for a lack of protective gear for health workers, delaying lockdowns and a too-lax travel policy.

Johnson confirmed in May a public inquiry will start to hear evidence next year. However, the group says, we see no reason why preparations for the inquiry cannot begin now, particularly as nearly 1,000 people are still losing their lives each week.

The U.K. registered 167 virus-related deaths on Tuesday. Britain has Europes second-highest pandemic death toll after Russia, with nearly 136,500 confirmed dead.

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PHOENIX  Arizona reported 1,123 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a figure less than half the states latest seven-day rolling average that state officials say is low because of a reporting problem.

Therefore, the figures released Wednesday and Thursday will be higher, the Department of Health Services says.

The state reported 108 new deaths, increasing the states total to 19,920 confirmed deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases dropped in the past two weeks, decreasing from 2,581 on Sept. 12 to 2,500 on Sunday. The rolling average of daily deaths rose from 26 to 42 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The COVID-19-related hospitalizations, which have decreased slightly since mid-September, were at 1,794 on Monday.

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WASHINGTON  More than 400,000 Americans got Pfizer booster shots last weekend through local pharmacies in the opening days of the U.S effort to provide more protection for vulnerable populations.

White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients says an additional 1 million people have scheduled booster shots for the coming weeks. He adds: Were off to a very strong start with the booster campaign.

As many as 25 million people qualify for the third dose of the Pfizer shot, which was authorized last week for those 65 or older, those with pre-existing conditions or facing an elevated risk at their workplace.

U.S. officials say their primary focus is ensuring the roughly 25% of eligible Americans who have yet to get their first shot do so.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says a major priority is the vaccination rate among pregnant women, which stands at 30% nationally and at 15% among Black pregnant women. She encouraged them to seek out vaccinations, saying data shows theyre safe for mother and baby and can prevent needless illness or death.

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PARIS  French President Emmanuel Macron has announced psychology appointments in France will be funded by the government starting next year.

State health care systems in Britain, Germany and some other countries already fund therapy sessions. French health professionals say a national effort to improve access is long overdue, especially as the coronavirus pandemic has caused and aggravated psychological distress.

Macron acknowledged both the psychological impact of government virus restrictions and past government failures to make mental health a priority during a conference with mental health professionals on Tuesday. He described a spike in the number of children seeking psychological treatment and in attempted suicides, notably among teenagers.

Health surveys in France last year pointed to a surge of depression most acute among people without work, those in financial hardship and young adults.

The French government announced free therapy sessions for children and young people earlier this year, and on Tuesday pledged to extend it to everyone. Psychiatric treatment is already largely reimbursed by the state.

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WILMINGTON, Del.  Delaware Gov. John Carney announced all teachers and school staff in Delaware will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.

Carney announced the requirement Tuesday. It will be formally issued by emergency regulation and take effect Nov. 1. The requirement also applies to contractors and volunteers who work in K-12 public and private schools.

Carney says the top priority has been to get all students back in school this fall, and the mandate will help minimize disruptions.

Delaware State Education Association President Stephanie Ingram says the states largest teachers union supports the decision and urges members to get vaccinated, calling weekly testing a reasonable alternative.

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NEW YORK  Businesses with vaccine mandates say some workers whove been on the fence have gotten inoculated against COVID-19, with some holdouts.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases are surging in the U.S. The seven-day average COVID-19 deaths climbed above 2,000 last week for the first time since March.

Even before President Joe Bidens announcement on Sept. 9 that companies with more than 100 workers would have to require vaccinations, dozens of companies, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and Disney, issued ultimatums to most workers.

United Airlines said 97% of its workers have been vaccinated even before its deadline took effect Monday. Alternatives for those employees include weekly testing, working remotely or away from other staff, or ultimately, termination.

Some bigger companies that require in-office workers be vaccinated now or in coming weeks include Google, McDonalds (U.S.-based office workers), and Goldman Sachs, among others.

Biden wants to boost the vaccination rate in the U.S., where about 77% of American adults have had one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.

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BUCHAREST, Romania  Romania started administering third doses of coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, the same day it recorded its highest number of daily infections since the start of the pandemic.

Romania, which has the second-lowest vaccine rate in the European Union, is facing a rise of COVID-19 cases. The country registered 11,049 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday. Thats almost 1,000 more than its previous record last November.

Chief vaccination coordinator Dr. Valeriu Gheorghita administered boosters during a hospital visit in the capital Bucharest.

We still have a long way to go, he said. The rate of vaccination is obviously not enough to limit the negative consequences of the fourth wave and especially with the delta variant infections.

Only 33% of adults in Romania, a country of 19 million, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The booster shots are recommended for people vulnerable to the virus who received their second dose at least six months ago.

Romania has recorded more than 1.2 million confirmed cases and 36,658 confirmed deaths.

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ZAGREB, Croatia  Croatian authorities say all employees in health and social care services in the country must produce COVID-19 certificates to work or they must get tested twice a week.

The decision Tuesday will apply to facilities where patients dont require urgent medical care. Workers will be required next week to show evidence of vaccination, a negative virus test or a certificate that theyve had COVID-19.

Croatia introduced the new rules after a recent case surge and a slowing of the vaccination drive in the nation. Croatia has reached about 50% vaccination rate among the adult population in the country of 4.2 million.

Health Minister Vili Baros says we dont want to be rigid but adds its clear more vaccinations are needed and those not following the rules wont get paid.
NEW CANAAN  Dan Bach met 15-month-old Ryan Martin for the second time last Friday, when his parents Angela and Peter Martin came to thank Bach for saving their childs life.

The first time the pair met, Ryan was just coming out a seizure, similar to episodes he has experienced since he was five or six months old.

In spite of taking the child to several doctors, Angela and Peter could not seem to find an answer as to why the their son has been experiencing concerning episodes that included lethargy, twitches and screaming.

On Aug. 2, Ryans grandmother called the ambulance while his mother held him in her arms. By the time Bach, an Advanced Life Support worker, had arrived, Ryans seizure had abated.

Bach still urged the parents to let him take the child to the hospital for testing.

Ryan has since been diagnosed with a rare disease called congenital hyperinsulinism, a genetic disorder in which the pancreas produces too much insulin, which causes hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.

The Martins believe that Bachs determination to get Ryan tested made a profound difference. In fact, the family was so grateful to Bach that they surprised him while he was working at the EMS building at 777 Main St. on Sept. 24 in order to thank him once more and present him with a gift.

I attribute his life to Dans persistence to going to the hospital, Ryans mother said. He could have died.

We cant thank him enough, Ryans father said as they gave Bach a small gift bag.

Bach was very gratified to have the visit, because generally he never hears what happened to patients after he treats them and he was worried about the child.

Makes me feel like I make a difference, Bach said

After he arrived at the Martins home, Bach took the child into the ambulance to check his vital signs, a routine the Weston resident had followed during many emergency visits over the 14 years he has been an emergency worker.

This time was different, though.

In all of the countless blood tests Bach had taken to check blood sugar, he had never seen the gauge give such abnormal results as it did that day. It did not register a number, rather the gauge said low, which made Bach wonder if the meter might be wrong, he said.

Bach said he was shocked because it meant that Ryans sugar levels were extremely low, explaining that no reading on the gauge meant his levels had to be under 10 milligrams per deciliter, (mg/dL) in comparison to a normal range is 60 to 120 mg/dL.

To help Ryan recover, Dan installed a catheter to give dextrose into a very little vein.

Since then, the Martins have been told to check their sons readings regularly and keep it at 80 to 100 mg/dL.

When Ryan first started experiencing seizures they were infrequent, but the week his parents called the ambulance they had happened nearly every day.

In trying to determine why he was having the seizures, the Martins had taken Ryan to a cardiologist, ophthalmologist, two neurologists and a pediatrician. The medical experts were perplexed, and no one could tell us what was going on, Angela Martin said.

One doctor thought perhaps the episodes were caused by sleep apnea, she added.

The doctors never took Ryans blood to determine the cause of the seizures, Angela Martin said. But, Ryans mother wonders if tests would have been inconclusive anyway, since having tests taken during the seizure gave the best indication of what was going on.

Congenital hyperinsulinism is a very rare disease affecting one in 25,000 to 50,000 babies, according to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, website, which is where Ryan was finally treated.

First, the ambulance took him to Norwalk Hospital. After his ambulance ride to Norwalk, Ryan then made a stop at Yale New Haven before finally ending up at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.

Since he has been treated, Ryan has not been experiencing seizures.

Since most childrens hospitals encounter only one or two cases of congenital hyperinsulinism a year, it is important to receive medical care from an experienced treatment center, the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphias website states.
With mandatory vaccine deadlines looming, hospital officials at several major Connecticut networks said hundreds of employees still have not received their required shots.

The full picture of what that means for potential job losses remains unclear, but a top official with the Yale-New Haven Health network said they expect at least 100 employees will part ways with us.

Dr. Thomas Balcezak, the networks chief clinical officer, said progress had been made to get all workers vaccinated, but as of Monday, 420 employees still had not received a dose.

Hartford HealthCare, which runs hospitals in Hartford, Bridgeport and Torrington, said as of Wednesday, 683 employees had not been vaccinated, and the deadline was Thursday. It was unclear when employees may face disciplinary action, including termination.

The employees account for 3 percent of the organizations workforce, the remaining 97 percent of whom have received at least a first dose of vaccine, Dr. Ajay Kumar, the health care systems chief clinical officer, said in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media.

All vaccines have proven to be safe and extremely effective at reducing serious illness and death, Kumar said. We have been working diligently to help our colleagues come to the decision that is right for them, and hope all of our colleagues make the choice to stay within our organization.

Stamford Health, which operates Stamford Hospital, anticipates fewer than 100 staff could face corrective actions up to and including termination, if they are not vaccinated by the health systems Friday deadline, a spokesperson said.

So far, 98 percent of staff have been vaccinated, and Stamford Health believes the number of employees who face discipline will not impact operations or patient care, Jake Gaydos, a spokesperson for the health network, said in an email.

A spokesperson for Nuvance Health, which operates seven hospitals in western Connecticut and New York, said the organizations deadline is at the end of the week, but did not say how many employees have yet to receive the vaccine.

Middlesex Health, which operates Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, is requiring employees to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1. A spokesperson said it was too early to say what percentage of staff is vaccinated.

A spokesperson for Trinity Health of New England said at least 95 percent of its 10,000 employees have submitted documentation showing theyve been vaccinated. The health system runs St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, St. Marys Hospital in Waterbury and Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs. The health systems parent organization announced it would require COVID-19 vaccines in July.

Our colleagues are our most valuable resource and the goal of this initiative is vaccination not termination, the statement from Trinity Health New England said. We are providing education and support to those colleagues who have not yet submitted information about their vaccination status and are giving colleagues every opportunity to take action. We are optimistic that these efforts will be successful.

While hospitals continue efforts to convince remaining employees to get vaccinated, the number of COVID-19 patients in these facilities has dropped in recent weeks. As of Tuesday, there were 250 patients hospitalized with the virus statewide, compared with a recent high of 391 on Aug. 24.

Vaccine mandates have become more common in recent weeks. President Joe Biden announced he would expand a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for nursing home workers to include hospitals and other health care facilities that receive funds through Medicare and Medicaid.

Gov. Ned Lamont has not issued a state mandate for private hospitals, but did order workers at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to be vaccinated. He also mandated vaccines for state workers, along with teachers and school staff.

Rhode Island and New York issued broader mandates in August, requiring all licensed health care workers to be vaccinated. New York required health care workers to receive at least a first dose by Monday, while Rhode Island workers have until Friday to be fully vaccinated.

The mandates led to fears of staffing shortages in both states. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday she was prepared to deploy medically trained members of the National Guard or retired medical personnel where shortages occurred. The looming mandate prompted thousands of New York health care workers to receive a vaccine, the New York Times reported. In Rhode Island, hospitals and other health care facilities are preparing to lose some employees, the Providence Journal reported Wednesday.

Asked about the prospect of staffing shortages brought on by vaccine mandates at private hospitals, Lamont said Wednesday he hadnt heard of any issues.

As you know the hospitals and all the health-related facilities said I want everybody vaccinated. I think people are still coming in, the governor said during a news conference.

Look, you've got somebody with maybe symptoms of COVID, if you're going into the hospital you've gotta be treated by somebody you know is safe, so I think the overwhelming majority of people are following the rules as I understand it in all of our health care institutions.
As far back as I can remember, the best trips I took began at our kitchen table, my father peering over my shoulders, watching as I absorbed materials from the travel books he had painstakingly assembled for my benefit. It was within those pages that worldly expeditions to cities I couldnt pronounce came alive  prerequisites to places we would soon be visiting. It was here that tastes were cultivated so that by the time the real vacation happened, I was already familiar with the landmarks I had vicariously visited.

I was fortunate to have parents who brought me along on their journeys. Educating me through travel, and turning me into a sophisticated adventurer, became their mission. And while I balked at the idea of having to pore through historical tomes, it was part of the required reading they had established for me.

Its essential to know a citys history, Dad preached. Its important to understand the culture of the people with whom youll be interacting. You need to get a feel of a place before intruding on their lives - familiarize yourself with a citys background so its richness can be fully appreciated.

But to a child whose level of patience had not yet developed, and who was more intent on getting there rather than collecting data, these tutorial traditions seemed dry and dull.

And so, with eyes rolling, and filled with ennui, I sat at the kitchen table, slathering jam on my breakfast toast, as I trekked through my imaginary visits to Paris, Rome, Madrid and Athens. Sometimes, for shorter trips, I moved on to places closer to home: Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., and Miami Beach. My literary meanderings brought me to mysterious, hidden spots unknown to tourists, so that by the time we entered a citys portals, I was no longer a trespasser, but a child who had earned her visitation rights and could integrate well.

Unknowingly, by placating my father, I was also honing my skills. My mother, already a seasoned traveler, delighted in turning me over to my dad, who enjoyed having a daughter he could inspire. It all seemed ridiculous to me then, my never having realized that I was being groomed for life beyond the kitchen table.

On an upcoming trip to France, frivolity was in the air as we set sail on the Queen Elizabeth, departing from New York. On our third day out, I became seasick and retired to my stateroom. Suddenly, a knock at my door. My dad appeared, and with vigorous vitriol, announced: Seasickness is simply a state of mind. There was no time for any of it, and while he purged his thoughts, I ran to the bathroom and purged my lunch. Later, feeling remorseful, he returned with ginger ale and Saltines, my mother applying cold compresses to my head, Dad apologizing for his lack of sensitivity, assuring me it was all part of the experience bypassed in guidebooks.

By the time we arrived in France, I was wobbly from nausea and fatigue, and I was feeling rebellious. I didnt care about books or travelogues, and simply wanted to experience a place, not read about it. I further announced that my future mode of transportation would be airplanes, not ships. My mother was appropriately sympathetic. But I had clearly let my father down.

On a warm spring morning, seated at the famous Parisian Cafe de Flore, I ate my first croissant, its buttery flakes melting in my mouth.

See what I mean? Dad announced. Youre tasting a country.

His enthusiasm was relentless.

Over the years of our many travels, I came to understand countries and their indigenous uniqueness. I discovered vineyards in Provence, walked the hillsides of Italy, and bathed in the lakes of Catalonia. I dined on mussels fresh from the sea, and dipped my bread into oil freshly pressed from Portugals green olives. I was no longer a voyeur who derived her pleasure from books, but a traveler, who was experiencing new worlds firsthand. But more than that, I came to understand my dad, his earnestness and devotion to a child who was fast becoming his protege.

Now, during a pandemic not yet over, these moments resonate still. I think back to our kitchen table and the books piled high in front of me. I recall the endless hours of reading about places I eventually visited, and being quizzed by my father, who wanted to make sure I was absorbing it all. We had become quite the traveling team. My emergence into the romance of these places was yet to be experienced, when, as an adult, I would travel with my husband, and see the countries from an entirely different perspective.

But, oh those unforgettable days of my youth, when, after copious hours of poring through the books  my mind sufficiently shaped for travel  my dad would announce with a twinkle in his eye, those words I had longed to hear: Start packing.

Westporter Judith Marks-White shares her humorous views monthly in the Westport News and Fairfield Citizen. She can be reached via email at joodth@snet.net or at judithmarks-white.com.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed willingness to restore stalled communication lines with South Korea in coming days while shrugging off U.S. offers for dialogue as cunning ways to conceal its hostility against the North, state media reported Thursday.

Kims statement is an apparent effort to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as he wants South Korea to help him win relief from crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions and other concessions. Pyongyang this month has offered conditional talks with Seoul alongside its first missile firings in six months and stepped-up criticism of the United States.

The U.N. Security Council delayed an emergency closed meeting to discuss North Koreas recent tests from Thursday morning until Friday at the request of Russia, China and other council members who said they needed more time to prepare, diplomats said. The meeting was requested by the United States, the U.K. and France.

During a speech at his countrys rubber-stamp parliament on Wednesday, Kim said the restoration in early October of cross-border hotlines  which have been largely dormant for more than a year  would realize the Korean peoples wishes for a peace between the two Koreas, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim still accused South Korea of being bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamoring for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S., rather than committing to resolving the matters independently between the Koreas.

Kim echoed his powerful sister Kim Yo Jongs calls for Seoul to abandon double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint over the Norths missile tests and other developments. Some experts say North Korea is pressuring South Korea to tone down its criticism of its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, as part of its quest to receive an international recognition as a nuclear power.

South Koreas Unification Ministry responded that itll prepare for the restoration of the hotlines that it said is needed to discuss and resolve many pending issues. It said it expects them to operate smoothly because their restoration was directly instructed by Kim Jong Un.

On the United States, Kim Jong Un dismissed repeated U.S. offers to resume talks without preconditions, calling them an attempt to hide Americas hostile policy and military threats that he said remain unchanged.

The Biden administration is touting diplomatic engagement and dialogue without preconditions but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts, Kim said.

He added: The U.S. remains utterly unchanged in posing military threats and pursuing hostile policy toward (North Korea) but employs more cunning ways and methods in doing so.

He has warned he would bolster his nuclear arsenal and stay away from negotiations with Washington unless it drops its hostile policy," a term used to describe the U.S.-led sanctions and regular military drills between Washington and Seoul.

U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed hope to sit down for talks with North Korea anywhere and at any time, but have maintained they will continue sanctions until the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearization. The diplomacy has been stalled for 2  years due to disagreements over easing of sanctions in return for limited denuclearization steps.

China, North Koreas last major ally, said Thursday it hopes the hotlines restoration would help improve ties between the two Koreas. But it also urged the U.S. to roll back some of the sanctions targeting the Norths civilian economy.

The U.S. should avoid repeating empty slogans, but rather show its sincerity by presenting an appealing plan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. It should invoke the rollback terms of the Security Councils (North Korea)-related resolutions as soon as possible and make necessary adjustments to relevant sanctions.

President Joe Biden told the U.N. General Assembly last week that his administration would seek serious and sustained diplomacy to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

North Koreas outreach to Seoul came after South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who seeks progress in his appeasement policy on North Korea before he leaves office next May, proposed a symbolic peace declaration during his U.N. speech last week.

Kim Jong Un will likely continue to use South Korea to move the Biden administration in its favor, Kwak Gil Sup, head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs, wrote on Facebook. Hell make more outright attempts to wedge South Korea and the U.S. apart. Its a highly sophisticated strategy to make the best use of the impatience of the (Moon) government preoccupied with producing progress in its peace process on the Korean Peninsula in its final months in office."

Meanwhile, Kims sister was elected as a member of the State Affairs Commission led by her brother during this weeks Supreme Peoples Assembly session, KCNA reported. The appointment of Kim Yo Jong, who already is a senior ruling party official who handles Pyongyangs relations with Seoul, is another sign Kim is solidifying his familys rule in the face of mounting economic difficulties caused by the pandemic and the sanctions.

___

Associated Press journalists Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
(The Center Square)  For nearly 20 years, Kentucky officials sought to bring the next big economic development project to a 1,551-acre greenfield site in the heart of the commonwealth. The search ended late Monday when Ford and SK Innovation announced the largest business investment in the states history.

The two companies will partner on a $5.8 billion project to build BlueOvalSK Battery Park, which will be home to two lithium-ion battery manufacturing plants in Glendale, roughly 40 miles south of Louisville on Interstate 65. Officials expect the production to start in 2025, with the facilities employing 5,000.

Its a project so big - more than three times the previous record investment - that Kentucky did not have laws on the book to offer a competitive incentive package. Lawmakers took care of that earlier this month during a special session.

The battery plants also, according to Gov. Andy Beshear, further entrench Kentucky as a leader in automotive manufacturing by providing one of Americas largest auto manufacturers with a product critical for its future lines.

It will transform our economy, creating a better Kentucky with more opportunities for our families for generations, the governor said in a statement. Our economy is on fire  and now, its electric.

It also stands to be a transformative moment for Hardin County itself. The county of 110,000 is one of Kentuckys largest, both in population and size.

Nearby Elizabethtown, with a population of 30,000, is the hub city for a surrounding eight-county region with a large industrial park and highway access to Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and western Kentucky. Fort Knox is based in the countys northern end and has been a major driver of the local economy for decades.

Now, the rural southern end of the county gets an anchor development of its own, which will likely lead to additional investment opportunities in the surrounding area.

It will mean great growth for us, Hardin County Judge/Executive Harry Berry told The Center Square on Tuesday. Good diversity for our jobs, good-paying jobs. We talk about the green environment and green energy. Well, its going to put some green in peoples pockets, too, and thats a good thing as well.

For years, the Etown area has been a prime location for companies that supply products to vehicle assembly plants across the Auto Alley region that stretches across the southeastern and midwestern states. That includes the Toyota Camry plant in Georgetown, General Motors Corvette plant in Bowling Green and Fords other factories in Louisville.

Rick Games, president and COO of the Elizabethtown/Hardin County Industrial Foundation, told The Center Square on Tuesday hes looking forward to seeing what else may come to the region as a result of the Ford-SK investment.

This is obviously new technology, so we dont really know what the spinoff or what the supplier needs will be, and what that looks like, Games said. But as we begin to gain more knowledge, weve got sites here in Etown, of course, and this whole region will be affected. There are 10 to 12 counties up the Blue Grass Parkway, the Western Kentucky Parkway, south on 65. Theres a lot of open space and industrial areas that still have sites available.

Fords investment in Glendale deepens a relationship between the company and Kentucky that goes back more than a century, as workers in Louisville began making Model Ts in 1913.

Today, Ford has two major plants in Louisville. The Kentucky Truck Plant employs nearly 9,000 and is home to the companys Super Duty trucks, Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators. The Louisville Assembly Plant makes Ford Escapes and Lincoln Corsairs and employs 4,100.

With this announcement, Kentucky will play an essential role as Ford fulfills its commitment to lead the electric vehicle revolution and create thousands of jobs in the commonwealth, and we look forward to working with Kentuckians to create the future together, said Lisa Drake, COO for Ford North America.

A press conference with Beshear, Ford executives and other state and local officials is set for 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Frankfort to provide more details about the project.

To help entice Ford, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 5 earlier this month, which created incentives for projects with a minimum investment of $2 billion. That includes taking $350 million in budget reserve funds and allocating it to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA), which will be able to issue forgivable loans for projects meeting the investment criteria.

KEDFA is scheduled to meet Thursday.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, called Fords decision a major victory for the state.

Their decision to expand their presence as part of their relationship with SK Innovation is proof that the policies crafted by the legislature are making Kentucky a better place to work and build a business, the speaker said in a statement Tuesday. Broadening the tax base, while lowering tax rates; cutting unnecessary bureaucracy; and allowing hardworking people to keep more of the money they earn will spur even more job growth.

The Glendale project is part of a massive $11.4 billion commitment to shifting to electric vehicles. Ford and SK Innovation, a South Korean-based EV battery manufacturer, will also invest $5.6 billion in Stanton, Tenn., to build Blue Oval City, where 6,000 workers will also make batteries and the electric version of Fords F-Series trucks.

Ford expects up to half of its global vehicle sales will be electric by 2030.

This is our moment  our biggest investment ever  to help build a better future for America, Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said in a statement.

In Hardin County, officials and residents have been looking to the future for nearly 20 years. In 2002, then-Gov. Paul Patton proposed the farmland site to Hyundai Motor Co.

While Hyundai eventually chose to build in Alabama, county and state officials kept marketing the site and invested in infrastructure upgrades to make it shovel-ready. They also decided to market it as a single-site development to maximize the return instead of parceling it out as an industrial park to several tenants.

While investors would look at the site and a few companies would take a serious interest. However, even as investment plans fizzled or companies chose other sites, local officials remained patient and confident.

Local officials became aware of the project back in February and March Games said. Its been an intense few months, he said, and now its a time of both relief and excitement.

As Berry told The Center Square on Tuesday, projects the likes of Fords dont come around all the time.

Weve always known that there would be a right time and a right client, and that days finally come, Berry said. I said to somebody else, Weve been fishing in the pond for a long time, and not only did we finally catch the fish, I think we caught a whale. In this case, its a big blue whale.
An EU-funded research project has provided the opportunity for two British sheep farmers to travel to Italy to find out about organic livestock production.

Sheep producers Mike Adams and James MacCartney learnt from their Italian counterparts as part of the E-Organic Erasmus project, which the UK's National Sheep Association (NSA) is part of.

The project works to collate European information into a free-to-access online resource and facilitate nominated individuals from the participating countries - Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK - to visit each other on study trips.

NSA welcomed UK sheep farmers to apply for the opportunity, with both farmers selected through an interview process earlier in the summer.

By coincidence, Mike and James, who previously did not know each other, farm just eight miles from each other near Oakham, Rutland.

They arrived in Milan, Italy, last week to spend five days visiting organic farms and learning more from the Humus Network of Italian organic cooperatives and organisations.

Mike Adams is a first-generation farmer who established his own flock in 2005

Mike is a first-generation farmer who established his own flock in 2005. After experimenting with various breeds, he is moving towards Poll Dorsets, lambing three times in two years, alongside similarly recently established beef and arable enterprises.

He said: Our long-term plan is to concentrate on Poll Dorsets, increasing to 600-plus-head, maintaining a closed flock and continuing to lamb three times in two years to give us a consistent supply of lambs throughout the year, which in turn gives us more marketing opportunities.

"We are aiming to increase our suckler herd to around 40 cows and finish all the offspring.

Having just entered organic conversion, he added: We looked at various regenerative agricultural methods, as these will really help improve our tired soils, and organic conversion seemed the sensible approached  both from a financial perspective and because it fits neatly in our mixed farming system.

James MacCartney does not farm organically, but is interested in regenerative agriculture

James does not farm organically, but is interested in regenerative agriculture, particularly improving grazing management and sward quality.

He runs 600 breeding ewes and 150 cattle alongside various diversification schemes, with plans to increase sheep numbers as grazing management improves.

To maintain a closed flock, James is replacing his North Country Mules with Lleyns. He said: I am interested in investigating where conventional livestock systems can learn from organic and regenerative practices to improve sustainability and reduce inputs.

"I am open to ideas and the E-Organic Erasmus trip will give me a great opportunity to learn from farming in parts of Europe that I know little about.

I feel we are too quick to always look to the Southern Hemisphere for ideas and improvements and am sure there are things to be learnt much closer to home."

Phil Stocker, NSA chief executive, said the E-Organic Erasmus project included different views about organic livestock farming and the accessibility of information from all parts of Europe.

"We have a strong network in the UK with organic systems and standards clearly established, but there is still much for us to learn from our European neighbours, as well as share with them."
The government has announced it will relax the rules surrounding gene editing so farmers can grow more resilient and productive crops.

New plans laid out today will push ahead with the easing of gene editing rules as part of an overhaul of the UK's agricultural policy following Brexit.

The government said leaving the European Union allowed the UK to adopt a more scientific and proportionate approach to existing regulations.

In the EU, the technique falls under the same rules as GMO, but the European Commission is planning to review that legislation.

The NFU welcomed today's announcement, saying it would offer 'huge benefits' to UK farming and the environment.

However, environmental groups such as the Soil Association said the easing of regulations could 'spell disaster for sustainable farming in the UK'.

Gene editing is a tool that makes plant breeding more precise and efficient so scientists can breed crops that are more resistant to pests and disease, for example.

Research could lead to sugar beet varieties resistant to viruses that can cause serious yield losses and costs to farmers.

Gene editing is different from genetic modification, as it does not result in the introduction of DNA from other species and creates new varieties similar to those that could be produced more slowly by natural breeding processes.

Defra Secretary George Eustice said on Wednesday (29 September) that the government would 'work closely' with farming and and environmental groups 'to ensure that the right rules are in place.'

"It is a tool that could help us in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face  around food security, climate change and biodiversity loss," he said.

Scientists will continue to be required to notify Defra of any research trials involving gene editing, the government confirmed.

It said the next step will be to review the regulatory definitions of a genetically modified organism, to exclude organisms produced by gene editing and other genetic technologies if they could have been developed by traditional breeding.

GMO regulations would continue to apply where gene editing introduces DNA from other species into an organism, the government added.

NFU vice president Tom Bradshaw said it was 'very encouraging' to see the governments view that new precision breeding techniques, such as gene editing, had the 'potential to offer huge benefits to UK farming, the environment and the public'.

The worlds climate emergency points to the urgency of applying this technology to farming and this announcement is an important first step towards a properly functioning legislative system," he said.

Crucially, precision breeding technologies will also help in the development of foods with direct benefits to the public; better quality, increased nutritional value and products with a longer shelf life."

However, he said the government must provide regulation that was 'robust, fit for purpose and based on sound science'.

"This will in turn provide public confidence, enable diverse and accessible innovation, and allow investment in products for the UK market."

The Soil Association cautioned that the easing of regulations could 'spell disaster for sustainable farming in the UK'.

The environmental charity said the government should instead invest in more support for farmers to adopt agroecological methods.

Joanna Lewis, Soil Association director of policy and strategy, said: Changing the DNA of crops and animals to make them temporarily immune to disease is not a long-term solution.

"We must increase soil carbon, wildlife and animal welfare on farms to solve the climate and nature crises, and protect human health."
Three low carbon projects have been given the green light to commence in a bid to drive net zero farm development in Wales.

The three schemes, all based at Coleg Cambria Llysfasi, have been awarded 500,000 worth of investment to pioneer new tech to reduce farm emissions.

One of the projects will explore the potential for drones to identify on-land issues such as weed growth.

The second phase of the scheme includes research into how drones could communicate with a rover on the ground to target issues remotely, a dual-concept application.

Meanwhile, Promar International, based in Cheshire, is developing a bilingual carbon footprint resource for farmers in North Wales, where they can go online and input information on the landscape, current meat and milk production systems, potential for tree planting and more.

Their carbon footprint will be calculated, and results given, which in turn will encourage best practice and be used on a regional basis to support the industry.

The third project sees BioFactory Energy developing a low-cost, modular anaerobic digestion system for small-medium Welsh dairy farms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from slurry management.

A prototype plant is expected to be on-site in the new year that will generate energy for the farm and improve slurry quality for spreading.

Coleg Cambria Llysfasi project manager George Fisher said that progress on all three schemes marked an 'exciting time for agriculture' in North Wales.

He hopes all three projects will be in position to move forward on a commercial basis and be utilised by farmers as they look to reduce emissions.

"The industry is pivotal to North Wales, employing 7% of the workforce and contributing more than 370m to the economy each year," he said.

We want to take farmers on this journey with us, as we look to embrace advances in technology to become more sustainable as a sector.
A farming business producing highly-prized Wagyu meat welcomed more than 250 farmers to their base in the Yorkshire Wolds as part of their 2021 open day event.

Two farms owned by Warrendale Wagyu produce specialist British grown wagyu beef, which originates in Japan, as part of their unique supply chain business model.

Their open day event was an opportunity for the producers who rear the cattle as part of the scheme to get an update on the businesss successes over the last two years and their future expansion plans.

It was also an opportunity to showcase the business and integrated supply chain to prospective producers and customers.

Attendees visited the farms rearing Wagyu cattle as part of the scheme, whilst the afternoon saw updates from the Warrendale team along with speakers from partners Genus and Oxbury Bank and customer Aldi.

Warrendale works with over 250 farmers in the UK, crossing their full blood Wagyu genetics with dairy herds to produce a Wagyu cross, which delivers a highly prized carcass.

The unique system allows farmers to produce cattle as part of a guaranteed supply chain with agreed terms and pricing structures on a contract basis.

The event saw farmers who rear cattle as part of the scheme get an update on the businesss successes

The team have ambitious expansion plans over the next 18 months, which include growing current customers and markets as well as entering new export markets.

Tom Richardson, marketing director at Warrendale Wagyu said: It was great to be able to welcome back so many of our producers and update them face to face on our successes over recent months and our future plans including expansion at home and abroad.

Covid and Brexit have both provided us with some challenges but also with some exciting opportunities going forwards and it was great to be able to update our producers, who are now spread across the whole of the UK in person.

Our open days are a unique opportunity to gain a first-hand insight into the intricate and specialised process involved in breeding, rearing and finishing these high welfare cattle.
Image: Instagram



Everybody has dreamed and chalked out all the details about how their house is going to be. NGL, I have too. A backyard, a porch, a fireplace, and a home theatre room would make me really happy. However, my bank account refuses to agree with me on this. But that doesnt stop me from pinning boards on home decor and luxury mansions on Pinterest and Instagram saved posts, and you shouldnt too! After all, all it does is inspire and motivate you to get a step closer to realising your dream. While you keep planning your dream home, we would like to share five Instagram pages that list stunning homes and serve as an inspiration



Luxury Homes

@luxury_homes

Image: Instagram



This is a real estate page that only lists luxury homes. Followed by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, it has posts of everything from villas, resorts to condos. Scroll down a few images and youll already be so hooked, theres no coming back.



Houses of Celebs

@housesofcelebs



Image: Instagram



Curious about where and how your favourite celeb lives? This page curates the multimillion-dollar mansions of celebrities right from Beyonce and Jay Z, Kylie Jenner, The Biebers to Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas! Want to know how the worlds richest man lives? Here's an $80 million dollar sneak peek. Brb, crying.



The Agency

@thezgencyre

Image: Instagram



If you have been (or are) a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills you would know that this real estate company is owned by Kyle Richards husband Mauricio Umansky. Umansky is a top-notch real estate agent to Hollywoods most high-profile celebrities and enlists houses that are to-die-for! Everything from $2 million to $20 million homes and over, you will find all kinds and types of houses.



Interior Design & Home Decor

@inspire_me_home_decor



Image: Instagram



Founded by Farah Mehri, this Instagram page stands at a whopping 6.3 million followers and why wouldnt it? It is an aesthetics lovers paradise. Colour schemes, pantry designs, kitchen remodelling, entire home revamps, you name it and you have an answer for it in the pictures. From light pastels of blue and pink to darker mahogany shades, the page offers you the best of ideas if you are looking to cop some for your home. Lionel Messi loves it; there are high chances that you will too.



Interior Design Ideas

@interiordesignideas

Image: Instagram



Love the Scandinavian and contemporary vibes of a home? Then you have come to the right page. High ceilings, small spaces, before afters, and many more are right there staring at you from the screen that screams inspiration.



Also Read: Spruce Up Your Dining Space With The Right Lighting And Trendy Furniture




Even as India continues to fight against the deadly COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2 variants are emerging, spreading and causing governments & public health experts to develop the best strategies to contain their spread constantly. There are currently 11 variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that the World Health Organization Trusted Source is monitoring. One of these variants, the Delta Plus variant  also known as B.1.617.2.1 or AY.1 first detected in India, February 2021, has spread to many parts of the world. Towards the end of August, Maharashtra recorded 103 Delta Plus cases. Approximately 65% of the reported cases were amongst the unvaccinated population.

So, How Is This Variant Different, And Can It Escape Vaccine Protection?

Delta Plus is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant first detected in India, acquiring the spike protein mutation K417N. In June, this variant was designated as a Variant of Concern (VoC) by the Indian government, citing its perceived increased transmissibility, ability to bind more strongly to receptors on lung cells, and potential to evade an antibody response.

Is The Delta Plus Variant More Threatening?

The Delta variant has been held responsible for the second wave in India. Several other countries consider Delta as the factor behind a sudden surge of cases. It can be a trigger to the third wave.

While India is battling against the Delta plus variant, few other parts of the world are bearing the brunt of C.1.2, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant. It was first reported in South Africa during May and eventually spread to China, England, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, Portugal, and Switzerland.India has no cases of the new strain so far, and globally Delta variant is the more dominant one. However, what is of concern here is that the C.1.2variant has a mutation rate of 41.8 mutations per year, i.e. twice the current global mutation rate of other strains, and it can evade the antibodies developed to ward off the Alpha or Beta variants.

What Impact Does Virus Mutation Have On The Human Body?





The standard process of mutations impacts us when it leads to changes in transmission levels or on treatment. Mutations can have positive, negative or neutral effects on human health. For example, negative impacts may includeclustering of infections, increased transmissibility, ability to escape immunity and infect others who have poor immunity, neutralization escape from monoclonal antibodies, improved binding to lung cells and increased severity of infection.But,positive impacts can make the virus becomes non-viable.

At This Rate, How And When Will We Achieve Herd Immunity?

A population is said to achieve herd immunity when large percentages of individuals become immune to a disease. Based on mathematical calculations, if vaccines could provide a lifelong, fail-safe shield against infection with SARS-CoV-2, it would need to reach 60-72%of people to establish herd immunity. But if vaccines are only 80% effective at preventing infection, 75-90% of people would need to be immunized  a high bar.

If a third wave is triggered, a rise in infection rates may pose the toughest challenge yet for the government, owing to the weaker health infrastructure and staff availability. Robust serological surveys can show where the community is in terms of seropositivity, and in a way, low case numbers are an outcome of the spread slowing. However, in the journey towards herd immunity, many other factors determine daily case numbers and daily deaths, including the age and morbidity profile of those affected. Moreover, experts opine that herd immunity doesnt confer immunity to the virus itself but only reduces the risk that vulnerable people will encounter the pathogen.

However, most herd-immunity calculations dont consider behavior changes, interventions, and rules. For instance, if people follow good physical distancing, the R0 (R 0 , pronounced R nought, is a mathematical term that indicates how contagious an infectious disease is) will go down, if they stop following the same after a while, the R0 will go up again. This will change the herd immunity threshold accordingly.

Until large-scale vaccinations are made available, current forms of social distancing and use of face masks, along with all-inclusive case finding, testing, contacttracing, and isolation, need to continue. History tells us that we have never achieved herd immunity via natural infection concerning a novel virus, and SARS-CoV-2 is no different. Vaccination is therefore paramount.

--

This article is authored by Dr Rahul Pandit, Director-Critical Care, Fortis Hospitals Mumbai & Member-Maharashtra COVID-19 Taskforce

Also Read: Dos And Donts To Remember When Using An Oxygen Concentrator At Home
According to A Place in the Sun, Turkey is one of the top ten places to buy property and offers something a little bit more exotic than other buyer hot spots in the Mediterranean.

At its height in 2019, Turkey attracted around 51 million foreign tourists, ranking as the sixth-most-popular tourist destination in the world.

According to official numbers from the second half of 2020, housing sales to foreigners increased by 4% compared to the same period of 2019. During the pandemic, Turkeys house sales fell slightly; however, the latest figures show that activity in the real estate sector has gradually lifted.

In June 2021, sales to foreign buyers marked the best January-June period ever, topping the 20,000 threshold for the first time. Sales in the period saw a nearly 44% year-on-year increase.

Who invests in property in Turkey?

Turkey is a large and diverse country with established foreign communities and investment opportunities throughout its cities and along the coast.

Investors tend to fall into two categories; the Lifestyle Investor seeking holiday, buy to let and retirement villas and apartments along the coast, and the City Investor looking for long term buy to let opportunities with maximum returns and capital gain. Oceanwide Properties are specialists in coastal lifestyle properties however, they work with city partners to cater for both.

Coastal Lifestyle Investors

Theres a saying in Turkey that those who visit Turkey once, are sure to return.

This is undoubtedly true and most people who buy property, discovered Turkey for the first time on a holiday and left planning to return.

The resorts along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts are popular for good reason. Not only is the climate fantastic and the coastal scenery stunning, the wealth of history, cheaper cost of living and warm welcome is certainly alluring, leaving few visitors disappointed. It is no surprise that many favour the cheaper and relaxed lifestyle Turkeys coast offers.

Recent years have seen a boom in property development and, with property prices a fraction of those in the UK and superb resale properties and developments on offer, those looking for affordable holiday homes, retirement properties or buy to let investments are spoilt for choice.

Oceanwide Properties specialises in land, new build and resale properties for sale along the coast. They work on an individual basis with clients and have hundreds of lifestyle properties suiting most tastes and budgets.

Oludeniz

Fethiye

Kalkan

City Investors

Most overseas property investors will have heard about the opportunities in and around Istanbul. Whether you are looking for a permanent or secondary home, apartments, flats, holiday homes, or merely a rental investment, Istanbul is one of best investment locations in the world.

Oceanwide Properties works with Istanbul property specialists, tailoring city searches specifically to the needs of their clients.

Types of Turkish Property Investment

Turkish properties tend to fall into five categories; newly built/complete, custom land and build, off-plan, resale and buy to let.

New build and complete properties

Recent years have seen a boom in Turkish developments along the coast. Most regions now have a good mix of established developers completing multiple projects each year, and smaller bespoke builders with just a handful of villas and apartments in their portfolios.

New Lifestyle Complex, Fethiye





Custom Land and Builds

If youre seeking something a little different or have specific needs in mind, bespoke land and builds may be the only answer. Oceanwide Properties have helped many clients secure land and work with suitable architects and developers to build their dream homes. Parcels of land are available in most areas and the team work on an individual basis to help you from start to finish.

Custom build in Kzlbel



Off-Plan Developments

Off-plan developments are popular and can offer excellent value for money and capital gain providing you buy sensibly, at a good price and a qualified agent and lawyer is employed.

Modern off-plan 4 bed semi-detached villa in Cals

Resale Properties

The resale and buy to let market along the coast can represent excellent value for money. Oceanwide Properties only represent properties that have passed a strict due-diligence check and have all thir paperwork and title deeds in place. They represent many properties on a exclusive basis.

Buy to Let Investment

With the demand for residential property lets along the coast rising, many people are now opting to buy a property in order to let it out to holidaymakers over the summer months. In a normal season and in some cases, more than 10% of the purchase price per six month season are achievable in popular resort locations.

Why Oceanwide Properties?

Established in 2005 Oceanwide Properties are a fully accredited real estate agent in both the UK and Turkey. They only deal in what they know best  buying and selling property.

They offer a no-nonsense and friendly approach to Turkish property investment, sales and consulting. With UK headquarters in London, a Turkish head office overlooking the bay of Fethiye, and a number of regional and associate offices along the Turkish coast, they are ideally equipped to help investors along the path to securing a Turkish home.

Head office in Fethiye

Oceanwide Properties have a property to suit all tastes and budgets. From holiday homes, buy to lets, home from homes or luxury villas, they have it covered  and if you are looking for a unique property, they will gladly head off and hunt down the ideal home for you!

They believe in keeping their vendors and clients interests at heart. Your journey may start simply browsing our website, watching a property video or reading Oceanwide Properties posts, but get in touch and let them guide you through the entire process from start to finish.

You can read more about Oceanwide Properties at the link below.

Oceanwide Properties  making your dream come true

Visit the Oceanwide Properties website to find your dream home: https://www.oceanwideproperties.co.uk/  or click on the advert in the sidebar on the right of this page.

Contact Oceanwide Properties: https://www.oceanwideproperties.co.uk/contact/

Connect on social media to keep in touch:

Facebook: Oceanwide Properties

Instagram: oceanwideproperties

Twitter: @OceanwidePropUK

This is a sponsored advertorial brought to you in association with Oceanwide Properties
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Sonnalli Seygall has completed 10 years in showbiz. Debutantes like to play safe but she started off her career playing a grey-shaded character in Pyaar Ka Punchnama (PKP, 2011). Shes always gone for something different in the last decade. And while all of her choices might not have fructified, she still stands by them. She was a model before getting into films and can still be seen in a lot of ads. She begins by saying, I always wanted to be a part of Miss India. I wasnt inclined towards acting but I was sure I wanted to be a model. Acting did not fascinate me. She got noticed by filmmakers after taking part in the contest and signed her first film in 2010. My friends always said Id go to Bollywood. Maybe I too felt it deep down but never took it seriously. I only gave it a thought when I started getting offers, she reveals.She still remembers her audition for PKP. She was one of the last girls to audition for the film and thought shed not get the film. They had two rounds of auditions and she recalls reading out her part in front of director Luv Ranjan. I did two rounds of auditions on the same day. One was a solo reading and in another I was reading with Raayo S. Bakhirta, who was later cast opposite me. Suddenly, they were discussing money with me and I thought it was all happening too fast. She called up her mother first, as she wasnt sure what to do. Her mother told her to just trust herself and go with the flow. Sonnalli did just that and it proved to be the best decision of her life, as the film proved to be a sleeper hit.PKP starred Sonnalli along with five other new actors, including Kartik Aaryan, Nushrrat Bharuccha, Divyendu Sharma, Rayo Bakhirta and Ishita Raj Sharma. They all spent an entire month doing workshops and getting to know each other. Sonnalli shared that even when one of them did not have a scene on a day, all six would be on the set to watch what was happening. My first wasn't canned for the first six days. I would have this nervous energy in anticipation that todays going to be my shoot. Eventually, one day I hadnt slept enough so I was hoping I wouldnt have my first shot and thats the day I was called in for my first scene.While the film did well in 2011 it also received a lot of backlash for its misogynist content. Speaking of how it would be different if it were to be released today Sonnalli says, It would have done better for the actors at least. I also feel it would have got better numbers. After PKP, none of us did anything until PKP2. Kartik and Nushrratt did AkashVaani but nothing else. I feel if it was released today when content is king and actors get noticed despite no one being anyones daughter or son, we would have benefited more. As for the backlash on the content, I dont think it would have done badly today. People know its a comedy and an exaggerated version of reality. I genuinely feel it would have done better.My friends always said Id go to Bollywood. Maybe I too felt it deep down but never took it seriously I wanted to break the notion that models cant act. Many of us had to face that prejudice, right from Deepika Padukone to Anushka Sharma, initially they all faced it After doing PKP and its sequel, Sonnalli made a cameo in Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety as well and starred in films like High Jack, Setter and Jai Mummy Di. Sonnalli did not fear being stereotyped initially because as a young actor one doesnt fear anything, its only later that the fear sets in. The fear came in when all I got were glamorous roles and negative characters. I wanted to break the notion that models cant act. Many of us had to face that prejudice, right from Deepika Padukone to Anushka Sharma, initially they all faced it. So yes, I was stereotyped.Trying to break the stereotype, Sonnalli rejected Hate Story so she could reroute her career and do fresher characters. It was a very tempting offer. But I knew I had to step away. I knew if I did that, my chances of doing something different would become less. This made her do films like Setters, where she played a cop and High Jack where she played a pilot. Unfortunately, these films didnt do well but she did get a chance to showcase her versatility.Shell be seen next in Boondi Raita where actors like Rajesh Sharma, Himansh Kohli and Ravi Kishan are her co-stars. The film is set in Uttarakhand and will be shot in Rishikesh and Dehradun. She plays a small-town girl in the film and shes planning to visit those places to acclimatise herself for her role. Shes disheartened by the fact that so many people even from the showbiz are suffering because of the lockdown. My spot boy one day told me, Maam, ab toh shoot nahi hoga, ab hum kya karenge? Personally, Im trying to help out people who have lost their jobs in our industry, but its not enough, she asserts. Sonnalli is happy to hop onto the OTT bandwagon as it offers a wealth of opportunities. Now with the whole digital space opening up, the opportunities are more and people are ready to experiment more. Thats the reason she took up Vikram Bhatts Anamika, where shes doing lots of action. I never knew action can be so technical. Im learning a lot with Anamika. Ive also signed for another series, Ilegal Season 2, where my character is glamorous but in a very different way. Its a new character and viewers are in for a surprise, she informs.Shes seen a lot of ups and downs in the last decade but doesnt regret anything. She remarks, Im satisfied with my journey so far. My career could have been better but Im happy with the kind of projects I did. New opportunities are opening up and things will only get better from here. Fingers crossed!


Nora Fatehi has become a force that signifies success, hard work and power in todays time. Over the years, she has evolved into a celebrity who is madly followed and adored by millions of people across the globe. Noras social media too is something people would feel envious about. With almost 32 million followers, her pictures and videos online go viral in no time. In a recent interview with her, we spoke about the same.

To which she said, It feels so surreal and fulfilling. The love of the people is what drives me and I feel so lucky for their support. My instagram is very close to me because I built it on my own organically . The content vibe and aesthetics is handled by me and I take pride in my Instagram. Recently my fans and the media celebrated me as the most followed Arab African artist in the world so that felt like a huge achievement and it's only the beginning for me and my fandom.
SINGAPORE, Sept 29, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - SGX Catalist-listed Hatten Land Limited ("Hatten Land"; SGX: PH0) said today it has signed an agreement with Frontier Digital Asset Management Pte. Ltd. ("Frontier") to share proceeds from jointly operating at least 1,000 cryptocurrency mining (cryptomining) rigs within the Hatten Group's properties in Malaysia.Cryptomining rigs will be installed starting from Q42021 in phases under the binding strategic collaboration and management agreement between Hatten Land's wholly-owned subsidiary Hatten Technology (S) Pte. Ltd. ("HTPL") and Singapore-based Frontier, which currently operates over 700 cryptomining rigs in Singapore.Hatten Land recently announced that it would re-purpose its retail malls in Melaka for digital activities such as cryptomining and e-commerce. These activities will leverage on existing infrastructure and lower energy costs in Malaysia. Such costs may be lowered further as Hatten Land installs solar panels on malls in an effort to turn its footprint of malls into a hub for energy-efficient or 'green' cryptomining.Hatten Land and its parent company, the Hatten Group conglomerate are the leading developers in Melaka, operating six retail malls with combined floor space of more than six million square feet in the historical Malaysian city, where it also owns four hotels.Under the terms of the agreement, Frontier will install, operate, manage and maintain at least 1,000 cryptomining machines at properties owned or managed by Hatten Land in Melaka. The rigs will operate 24 hours each day, including public holidays and weekends and will mine Bitcoin ("BTC") initially, with alternative coins to be considered in the future.HTPL will obtain a share of the net proceeds after deducting operational and management expenses and any share due to the owners of the cryptomining rigs.Frontier will conduct cryptomining activities solely with HTPL in Melaka, and both parties also have an exclusive right-of-first-refusal to participate in any business opportunity to carry out any cryptomining activities outside Melaka but within Malaysia.Frontier, founded by Bryan Zhou together with two other National University of Singapore (NUS) business undergraduates, is on the mission to provide easier access for retail and institutional miners around the globe. Aside from mining, they are especially focused on blockchain ecosystem and digital asset generation. As a fast-growing digital asset management company, Frontier has successfully secured investments from investors in Mainland China, Hong Kong and ASEAN regions. With more plans for expansion, Frontier is looking to establish a strong foothold within the ASEAN region and contribute towards a more sustainable way of cryptocurrency mining.Hatten Land recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SGX Mainboard-listed Singapore Myanmar Investco Limited ("SMI"; SGX: Y45) to procure up to 2,000 rigs. Combined with this agreement, Hatten Land will see a total of up to 3,000 rigs operating at its properties.The Group has also signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Bursa-listed Nestcon Berhad to install solar panels on the roofs of some of its properties in Melaka. This initiative will enhance its sustainability efforts and help the Group conduct 'green' cryptomining activities in Melaka.Dato' Colin Tan, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of Hatten Land, said: "The definitive Agreement with Frontier underscores our commitment to pivot to 'green' cryptomining activities in Melaka. We will leverage on Frontier's proven expertise to develop cryptomining hubs starting in Melaka.Hatten Land is re-purposing its extensive mall footprint as part of a broader strategy that includes blockchain activities, online-to-offline commerce and renewable energy. We believe this Agreement will augur the transformation of Hatten Land's assets into a hub for blockchain and other digital activities that will contribute to the growth and transformation of Melaka."About Hatten Land LimitedHatten Land Limited is one of the leading property developers in Malaysia specialising in integrated residential, hotel and commercial developments. Headquartered in Melaka, it is the property development arm of the conglomerate Hatten Group, which is a leading brand in Malaysia with core businesses in property development, property investment, hospitality, retail and education.Hatten Land Limited began trading on the SGX Catalist board on 28 February 2017 after the completion of a reverse takeover of VGO Corporation Limited. For more information, visit: www.hattenland.com.sg.Share information available on SGX: PH0 / Bloomberg: HATT:SP / RIC: HATT:SI.Issued on behalf of Hatten Land Limited by WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd.Media & Investor Contacts:Mr Isaac TangMobile: +65 9178 0269Email: hatten@wer1.netSource: Hatten Land LtdCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
On September 26th, China Eastern Airlines held the "New Value, New Experience, New Pleasure-China Eastern Airlines New Loyalty Program" press conference in Shanghai Tower. The "Eastern Miles" membership system globally released features these five highlights as a brand-new membership upgrade, a brand-new points accumulation system, a brand-new point exchange method, a brand-new product series and a brand-new service platform.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006185/en/

China Eastern Airlines Released New Loyalty Program Globally!

The core of the new membership system lies in the points accumulation framework transition from "mileage-based" to "revenue-based" system, by which we are dedicated to creating a brand new customer-centered service platform and making it possible for more cross-border and cross-industry partners to enter the value chain of the aviation.

The new membership system has made sweet adjustments in the member points and the validity of points, covering issues that travelers are most concerned about. In the new "revenue-based" system, the member points will be associated with the flight ticket fare, and the mileage points can be calculated by matching with the member grade coefficient. For passengers, the number and distance of flights are no longer the only ways to realize the renewal and upgrade of membership. The period of validity will be extended from the original 3 years to long-term "rolling effective", and it will be invalid and cleared only after being dormant consecutively for more than 36 months. During this period, as long as the members of "Eastern Miles" accumulate their points by their travel, or use them for redemption and consumption, they can ensure that their points are always valid, not fearing of "clearing by the expiration".

In recent years, China Eastern Airlines has brought enormous surprises to the public and its members in aviation product innovations, such as the "Fly At Will" from last year. Relying on big data mining and analysis, China Eastern Airlines has been studying the travel habits of passengers, and making constant efforts in hope of enriching the travel scenes and providing more accurate services. With the appearance of the New Loyalty Program, more and more good news about the travel experience are coming. For travelers, high-speed Wi-fi in the air and the newly upgraded on-board dining are really something to look forward to. As members of SKYTEAM, the members of China Eastern Airlines can enjoy premium service of 19 member airlines.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006185/en/

Contacts:

Zhang Yun

Email: zhangyun3@ceair.com

Website: http://www.ceair.com/
BOLOGNA, Italy, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the China Forum organized in MacFrut, the companies involved in the project The European Art of Taste had the opportunity to present themselves to the Asian market with a webinar that saw the participation of 111 Chinese companies and professionals and buyers in the fruit and vegetable sector.

Kevin Auyeung, Asian Market Manager, presented RK Growers, a company strongly linked to exports that was founded by four European producers to bring together and distribute high quality fruit to consumers around the world. To achieve this, and to maintain high quality, RK Growers constantly invests in varietal research, technologies and methods of cultivation and transport to maintain excellence.

In the last year RK Growers has exported over 125,000 tons of fruit and vegetables, in addition to over 30,000 tons of processed fruit and vegetables. These results are possible thanks to RK's control of the entire supply chain, starting from cultivation in the best productive areas to packaging and distribution. The philosophy of RK is that every consumer, anywhere in the world, must have the same experience and the same quality. For this RK has created partnerships such as Kiwi Uno, Rivoira, Berry Way, able to meet the demands of consumers all over the world.

In particular for Asia, explained Kevin Auyeung,  the turning point for RK Growers came with the opening of the Hong Kong office. Asia is a fundamental market for us and we want to serve consumers in the best possible way, which is why we have created two projects that can represent us on the continent such as Dori and Omnifresh.

Dori is an exclusive of RK Growers, the yellow Kiwifruit has been chosen for the Asian market for its ripening period, high productivity and excellent conservation, as well as Omnifresh which presents Ambrosia, Yello, Kanzi and Crimson Snow apples exclusively for Asia, with an amount that is around 400,000 tons per year.

The European Art of Taste project will continue to promote the masterpieces of nature and art throughout 2021, involving consumers, journalists and professionals in incoming, in-store events and fairs, in partnership with European Union and the companies Apofruit, Origine Group, Jingold, King Fruit and RK Growers.

For further information and details: www.europeanartoftaste.com; www.europeanartoftaste.ch
- UST Cold Truth automates in-store refrigerator temperature monitoring to improve the supermarket's efficiency, food safety, and responsiveness

- Solution helps to prevent food waste, save labor, and exceeds regulatory requirements

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, has developed and installed a Cold Truth temperature-tracking solution for Mydin, one of Malaysia's leading halal grocery chains, to monitor interior temperature levels at one of their hypermarkets in the north, in Bertam, Penang, outlet's refrigeration units. The solution has successfully helped Mydin reduce the risk of food spoilage to deliver more consistent quality to customers and has led to improvements in the completeness and simplicity of the grocer's regulatory reporting and compliance.

UST Cold Truth solution is a state-of-the-art, cloud-based advanced temperature monitoring solution that intelligently detects temperature fluctuations and sends an alert for quick action. It offers greats savings on products for retailers that would otherwise be discarded due to temperature fluctuation or freezer failure.

"We chose to work with UST because they are experts in retail technology and business operations," said Azmin Bin Saduruddin, Executive Director, Mydin Northern Region. "As a global corporation, UST can provide Mydin with the service we need as a leading retailer in Malaysia."

Temperature probes are placed at various locations inside their refrigerator or freezer to monitor temperature at a constant interval to ensure that the temperature in all parts of the unit remains within the designated range. If any of the probes record a temperature out of range, the sensor node sends an alert to the UST Cold Truth gateway, which UST implemented on an Intel NUC Kit with an Intel Celeron processor.

UST Cold Truth records the data in the cloud and alerts the store manager, who can take immediate action. The solution also records temperature readings of all refrigeration units throughout the day. The data is retained in the cloud, ready to be retrieved and communicated on-demand to Malaysia's governmental health inspectors and auditors. Before implementing UST Cold Truth, the store maintenance staff checked each sensor five times each day, exceeding the twice-daily checks required by law in Malaysia. The staffer logged temperature readings at every location in every refrigeration unit. This manual process was time-consuming and inefficient and kept the maintenance team from performing other duties in the store. Further, the mandatory temperature logs were susceptible to human error, increasing the risk that a problem might be overlooked, or the store might fail an inspection and face significant penalties.

"UST offers a variety of cutting-edge retail solutions to our clients across the world. We have products that are custom designed for multiple customers, and our enterprise products are gaining huge popularity. Intel provided a great selection of hardware and software platforms, as well as engineering support during the development phase," said Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, General Manager, Emerging Digital Technology, UST. "Since we launched UST Cold Truth, its inclusion as an Intel IoT Market Ready Solution has helped us to communicate the benefits of our product to a wider audience."

UST plans to expand the solution beyond retail stores to any venue or industry where temperature monitoring is a business-critical aspect of the operation.

"With UST Cold Truth, we can provide our clients with a cost-effective and time-saving solution," said Gilroy Mathew, Vice President and Head of Semiconductor, UST. "New technology gives retailers the shelf-level temperature readings they need to track equipment performance in real-time, reduce labor costs, and simplify compliance with government regulations."

For more information about UST Cold Truth, download UST Cold Truth brochure .

About UST

For more than 20 years, UST has worked side by side with the world's best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. We identify their core challenges and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life through our agile approach. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients' organizations-delivering measurable value and lasting change across industries and worldwide. Together, with over 26,000 employees in 25 countries, we build for boundless impact-touching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at ust.com.

Media Contacts, UST:

Tinu Cherian Abraham

+1(949) 415-9857

Neha Misri

+91-9972631264

media.relations@ust.com

Media Contacts, U.S.:

S&C PR

+1-646.941.9139

media@scprgroup.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1422658/UST_Logo.jpg
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Endo International plc (ENDP) said it has reached an agreement in principle with the Louisiana Attorney General's office to settle all opioid-related cases and claims of the state and other Louisiana governmental persons and entities for $7.5 million. The settlement will be subject to 100% participation by Louisiana's political subdivisions, with the payment provided by October 28, 2021. The settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing, fault or liability of any kind by Endo and its value should not be extrapolated to any other opioid-related cases or claims. Earlier this, Endo said it agreed to pay $50 million to settle lawsuits by New York state, Suffolk and Nassau counties, related to marketing and sale of prescription opioid medications. 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.
Family holiday pictures are the most missed photo opportunity of the year

Pictures of family holidays have been found to be the most missed photo opportunity of 2021. Almost one in five Brits (17%) have missed taking special snaps of holidays with loved ones, according to research released today from photoGuard, part of Thistle insurance.

The Opinium poll, which questioned Brits around how the pandemic restrictions impacted their ability to take photos and make memories, found the other major missed photo opportunities included; social gatherings (14%), holidays with friends (13%) and birthdays (12%). This was followed by festivals or concerts (8%) and New Years 2021 (8%).

Most missed photo opportunities of 2021

Family holiday 17% Social gatherings 14% Holidays with friends 13% Birthdays 12% Festivals or concerts and New Years 2021 8%

According to the research, almost four in ten (39%) UK adults have missed taking pictures at events in 2021. This is especially true for women (41%) more than men (37%). The figure also rises for those aged 18-34 where over half (55%) have missed taking pictures during the pandemic restrictions. This is compared to just 30% in those 55 and over.

"It's clear that capturing photos and memories has been a big miss in 2021 as events have been cancelled, postponed or held without a crowd", said Alex Bennett, Director of Thistle Insurance. "It has reinforced that who we share these moments with is just as important as the moment itself. The separation caused by the pandemic will hopefully be the force that brings us all together again even stronger, encouraging people to take more photos of friends and family and capture the moments that matter."

The data also highlighted that it is the over 55's that have predominantly missed taking pictures of family and friends with one in four of this demographic (25%) citing this as the photo opportunity they have missed the most. This compares to just 12% in 18-34 year olds, who reported holidays with friends (15%) and university graduation (13%) as their most missed moments.

At a regional level, the research found that Wales was the area that most missed taking family holiday pictures this year with nearly half (46%) citing it as the occasion they've most missed being unable to capture on camera. The North East missed taking photos at birthday parties (26%), East Midlands claimed it was general social gatherings (29%) and those in Yorkshire (16%) were the most likely to miss taking festival photos.

Looking ahead, moments spent with family most notably Christmas 2021 and holidays (both 14%) are far ahead of any upcoming moment people are looking forward to capturing. This is especially the case in Bristol where a quarter of residents (24%) are ready to take pictures of the festive moments the highest in the country. This is in comparison to Brighton where only 3% of residents are looking forward to clicking the camera this Christmas.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors

About the research

The research was conducted by Opinium who polled 2,000 UK adults between 17 20 September 2021.

About Thistle Insurance

Thistle Insurance is part of pib Group.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928005078/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact

James Ellerington, Zinc PR

James@zincpr.co.uk
Regulatory News:

NOXXON Pharma N.V. (Euronext Growth Paris: ALNOX), a biotechnology company focused on improving cancer treatments by targeting the tumor microenvironment (TME), announces that Aram Mangasarian, CEO of NOXXON, will participate in HealthTech Innovation Days and the Biotech in Europe Forum in early October.

HealthTech Innovation Days, October 4-5, Paris

HealthTech Innovation Days, organized by France Biotech, aims to bring together European healthcare stakeholders and promote the transformation of an integrated ecosystem. Mr. Mangasarian will be available for in-person investor meetings at the conference. More information about the event can be found here.

Annual Biotech in Europe Forum, October 7-8, digital conference

Mr. Mangasarian will participate in a panel discussion at the event organized by the Sachs Associates. The session entitled "Immuno-Oncology BD&L Panel" is scheduled on Friday, October 8, 2021 at 11:20 a.m. CEST and will be chaired by speakers from Locust Walk and Merck. Aram Mangasarian will share the floor with Corinne Venot from BeiGene, Khatereh Ahmadi from MSD and Phil L'Huillier from CatalYm. To request a one-on-one meeting with NOXXON please contact us via the conference platform or at noxxon@noxxon.com. More information about the event can be found here.

About NOXXON

NOXXON's oncology-focused pipeline acts on the tumor microenvironment (TME) and the cancer immunity cycle by breaking the tumor protection barrier and blocking tumor repair. By neutralizing chemokines in the TME, NOXXON's approach works in combination with other forms of treatment to weaken tumor defenses against the immune system and enable greater therapeutic impact. NOXXON's lead program NOX-A12 has delivered final top-line data from a Keytruda combination trial in metastatic colorectal and pancreatic cancer patients published at the ESMO conference in September 2020 and in July 2021 the company announced its Phase 2 study, OPTIMUS, to further evaluate safety and efficacy of NOX-A12 in combination with Merck's Keytruda and two different chemotherapy regimens as second-line therapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. NOXXON is also studying NOX-A12 in brain cancer in combination with radiotherapy which has been granted orphan drug status in the US and EU for the treatment of certain brain cancers. GLORIA, a trial of NOX-A12 in combination with radiotherapy in newly diagnosed brain cancer patients who will not benefit clinically from standard chemotherapy has delivered interim data from the first two cohorts showing consistent tumor reductions and objective tumor responses. The company's second clinical-stage asset NOX-E36 is a Phase 2 TME asset targeting the innate immune system. NOXXON plans to test NOX-E36 in patients with solid tumors. Further information can be found at: www.noxxon.com.

Keytruda is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp Dohme Corp

Visit NOXXON on LinkedIn and Twitter

About the GLORIA Study

GLORIA (NCT04121455) is NOXXON's dose-escalation, phase 1/2 study of NOX-A12 in combination with irradiation in first-line glioblastoma (brain cancer) patients with unmethylated MGMT promoter (resistant to standard chemotherapy).

About the OPTIMUS Study

OPTIMUS (NCT04901741) is NOXXON's open-label two-arm phase 2 study of NOX-A12 combined with pembrolizumab and nanoliposomal irinotecan/5-FU/leucovorin or gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in microsatellite-stable metastatic pancreatic cancer patients.

Disclaimer

Certain statements in this communication contain formulations or terms referring to the future or future developments, as well as negations of such formulations or terms, or similar terminology. These are described as forward-looking statements. In addition, all information in this communication regarding planned or future results of business segments, financial indicators, developments of the financial situation or other financial or statistical data contains such forward-looking statements. The company cautions prospective investors not to rely on such forward-looking statements as certain prognoses of actual future events and developments. The company is neither responsible nor liable for updating such information, which only represents the state of affairs on the day of publication.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006019/en/

Contacts:

NOXXON Pharma N.V.

Aram Mangasarian, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Tel. +49 (0) 30 726247 0

amangasarian@noxxon.com

Investor and Media Relations:

LifeSci Advisors

Guillaume van Renterghem

Tel. +41 (0) 76 735 01 31

gvanrenterghem@lifesciadvisors.com

NewCap

Arthur Rouille

Tel. +33 (0) 1 44 71 00 15

arouille@newcap.fr
LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist Group has today announced the launch of Economist Impact -- a business which will partner with leading corporations, governments and nonprofits to deliver positive societal change.

In a unique offering, Economist Impact brings together a 75-year heritage of evidence-based policy research with the creativity of a trusted media brand to engage an unrivalled global audience of influential executives. Economist Impact delivers the insight, innovation and influence decision makers need to catalyse progress in our rapidly evolving world.

Together with its partners, Economist Impact drives the conversation around three key areas of systemic transformation -- sustainability, health and the changing shape of globalisation -- and is already designing multi-year partnerships for a spectrum of clients, with a global stage enabling them to play a leading role. Examples include the Back to Blue initiative with The Nippon Foundation, which aims to protect the health of oceans, and Google Jigsaw's programme to end online violence against women. Other partners of Economist Impact include Deutsche Bank, BP, Infosys and Amgen.

Christoph Woermann, CMO, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank commented, "Economist Impact leads with credibility, with five R's characterising the brand - rigour, reliability, research, reach and real-world topics. Our award-winning partnership connects an engaged audience of treasurers all over the world, underpinning Deutsche Bank's role as Global Hausbank."

The launch of the new entity follows The Economist Group's strong 2021 performance -- with an operating profit of 41.8m, up 8.9m or 27% on the previous year -- which has placed The Group in a strong position to pursue long-term profitable growth. These results stem from a renewed focus on its mission of driving progress. The creation of Economist Impact as a global, evidence-led business is a key part of the Group's strategy.

Lara Boro, Chief Executive of The Economist Group, said:

"To overcome complexities and seize opportunities in our modern world, today's leaders must shape the conversation on topics that matter. Economist Impact is designed to provide decision makers with the deep-dive insights and a trusted platform they need to do that.

Building on our heritage and far-reaching expertise, Economist Impact represents the latest step in The Economist Group's evolution. We are galvanised by its potential, and proud that so many global brands and institutions are already embracing Impact partnerships and choosing to work with us."

Claudia Malley, Managing Director of Economist Impact Partnerships, said:

"The world is in the midst of a major paradigm shift. To lead the way forward, we have created a new unique model for partnership.

Through a powerful combination of evidence-based insights, creative innovation and unmatched global influence, we can reframe the conversation, rethink solutions to the issues facing our world, and unlock opportunities for progress - not only creating value for the organisations we work with, but also delivering world-changing impact."

About Economist Impact

Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. We believe that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress. The services offered by Economist Impact previously existed within The Economist Group as separate entities, including EIU Thought Leadership, EIU Public Policy, Economist Events, EBrandConnect and SignalNoise.

Our track record spans 75 years across 205 countries. Along with creative storytelling, events expertise, design-thinking solutions and market-leading media products, we produce framework design, benchmarking, economic and social impact analysis, forecasting and scenario modelling, making Economist Impact's offering unique in the marketplace. Visit www.economistimpact.com for more information.

About The Economist Group

Dedicated to driving progress, The Economist Group is built on high-quality, in-depth global analysis which runs through all of its businesses. With 25 offices in 14 countries and serving a global influential audience and client base, the Group produces digital and print products, convenes global events, and offers a range of subscription and other services for clients and consumers. Its flagship businesses include The Economist, Economist Intelligence, Economist Education and Economist Impact.

Holly Donahue

HollyDonahue@economist.com

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LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Amwins Global Risks, the international arm of global specialty insurance broker Amwins and one of the largest independent wholesale brokers in London, announced today the launch of its underwriting portfolio management unit. John Andrews and Tom Wallace will lead the new team focused on aggregating and creating exclusive capacity across the organisation.

Mark Cody, chief executive officer of Worldwide Specialty, a division of Amwins Global Risks, commented:

"We are very excited to launch this unit within Worldwide Specialty. I have known John and Tom for a large part of my career and am confident that with their knowledge and experience we have the leadership in place to create and build out our internal Underwriting Portfolio Management team. John and Tom will collate business from across the entire group, accessing and obtaining exclusive capacity for our clients and coverholders."

As the London market continues to evolve, Amwins Global Risks expects to be at the forefront - building this type of capacity and giving the firm a clear advantage.

"The role of a London broker must be to find solutions and be able to grow at the same rate as our clients," says Cody. "Having a dedicated internal team with an underwriting background demonstrates a commitment to building out this offering."

John Andrews joins the team following an already distinguished career with Dale Underwriting, Arch Insurance Europe, Pioneer and Axis.

Tom Wallace joins from Adeptive LLP, an MGU start-up specialty insurance platform based in London. He previously held leadership and underwriting roles with WCNC Insurance Services and Tokio Marine Kiln.

About Amwins Global Risks

Amwins Global Risks is a specialist wholesale insurance and reinsurance broker serving clients and markets in the U.K. and internationally to place more than $2 billion annually of premium into the London and global marketplace. As the international arm of a global specialty insurance broker, Amwins Global Risks is one of the largest independent wholesale brokers in London. To learn more, visit amwins.com/globalrisks.

About Amwins

Amwins is the largest independent wholesale distributor of specialty insurance products in the U.S., dedicated to serving retail insurance agents by providing property and casualty products, specialty group benefit products, and administrative services. Based in Charlotte, NC, the company operates through more than 155 offices globally and handles premium placements in excess of $26 billion annually. To learn more, visit amwins.com.

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CARGOTEC CORPORATION, PRESS RELEASE, 29 SEPTEMBER 2021 AT 9 AM (EEST)

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has concluded a deal with PT. Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (PT. RAPP), the operating arm of leading pulp and paper producer APRIL Group, to supply two new-generation Kalmar Zero Emission Rubber-Tyred Gantry cranes (RTGs), two Kalmar Essential Empty Container Handlers and a Kalmar Essential Reachstacker for its container terminal at the Port of Buatan in Indonesia. The order was booked in Cargotec's Q3 2021 order intake with delivery scheduled to be completed in Q3 2022.

APRIL operates a pulp and paper mill in Riau Province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The company's mill has an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tonnes of pulp and 1.15 million tonnes of paper. APRIL Group has invested significantly in infrastructure to take its products to market, including new facilities at its container terminal in the Port of Buatan. The two new Kalmar Zero Emission RTGs will join four Kalmar SmartPower RTGs delivered in 2018 and 2019. The customer's fleet also includes Kalmar terminal tractors, empty container handlers and reachstackers.

The Kalmar Zero Emission RTG features a 100-percent electric power system that produces no emissions or engine noise at source, and completely eliminates the need for hydraulic oil. Its simplified design means it requires significantly less maintenance than a diesel-powered RTG.

Kalmar Essential Range reachstackers and empty container handlers feature easily accessible service points to make maintenance quicker and easier, the ergonomically designed Essential cabin that makes driving more comfortable, and a range of standard features to increase the safety of customer operations.

Refnil Dodi, Logistic Operation Manager, PT. RAPP: "We have worked with Kalmar since 2018. The company's fuel-efficient SmartPower cranes have helped us to achieve significant efficiencies in managing our fuel costs and emissions, improving productivity and increasing safety as well as simplifying our maintenance processes. Furthermore, we have been very satisfied with the support we have received from Kalmar's local and regional teams."

Daniel Ho, Vice President, Sales, Kalmar Asia-Pacific: "Our collaboration with RAPP has gone from strength to strength, and we are pleased that they have chosen to expand their fleet with our all-electric cranes and Essential mobile equipment. Kalmar Zero-Emission RTGs are ideal for businesses that want to significantly reduce their carbon footprint, and our new generation cranes offer an intelligent, optimised solution with a stronger, modular, lighter and simpler design, making them even more eco-efficient, cost effective and easier to maintain.

Further information for the press:

Daniel Ho, Vice President, Sales, Kalmar Asia-Pacific, Kalmar, daniel.ho@kalmarglobal.com

Maija Eklof, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Kalmar, tel. +358 20 777 4096, maija.eklof@kalmarglobal.com

Kalmar offers the widest range of cargo handling solutions and services to ports, terminals, distribution centres and to heavy industry. Kalmar is the industry forerunner in terminal automation and in energy efficient container handling, with one in four container movements around the globe being handled by a Kalmar solution. Through its extensive product portfolio, global service network and ability to enable a seamless integration of different terminal processes, Kalmar improves the efficiency of every move.www.kalmarglobal.com

Kalmar is part of Cargotec. Cargotec's







Attachments
PRESS RELEASE

GlucoModicum and Phillips-Medisize sign a design and development program for the rapid scale-up of its needle-free continuous glucose monitor

Agreement willprepare the Talismanformass production and commercialization

Helsinki, Finland, 29 September 2021 - GlucoModicum, a company transforming glucose monitoring with precise, needle-free magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) technology, announced today that it has signed a design and development collaboration with Phillips-Medisize, a Molex company, a global leader in front-end design, development and manufacturing for highly regulated industries such as pharma, diagnostics, and medtech.

The collaboration will focus on creating the final blueprint for high-volume manufacturing of the Talisman, GlucoModicum's precise, needle-free continuous glucose monitor (CGM) using its unique, patented MHD platform technology. The Talisman overcomes the limitations of current technologies by measuring glucose molecules diffused through your skin rather than using needles. As a result, it samples the interstitial fluid, the body fluid between blood vessels and cells, rapidly and gently without the pain and inconvenience of needles.

The collaboration with Phillips-Medisize, conducted at its Global Innovation and Development Center in Hudson, WI, will streamline and optimize the usability, desirability and manufacturability of the Talisman to prepare mass production for successful commercialization. The collaboration will also focus on ensuring that the Talisman can be accessible to all who need it, with a lower cost profile than other CGMs on the market currently.

Jokke Maki, Chief Executive Officer of GlucoModicum, commented: "Phillips-Medisize is the world leader in medtech design and development working with many of the world's leading medtech players. We are excited to collaborate with their extensive teamof experts who bring robust experience in human-centered design, innovation and patient testing of medical products, as well as highly scalable manufacturing capabilities to produce these unique productsin mass quantities to address expected demand. This combined expertise has allowed Phillips-Medisize to already make significant progress on the project. I am convinced that our partnership will allow us to bringabout a new era in glucose monitoring, without needles."

John Horgan, Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at Phillips-Medisize, commented: "Phillips-Medisize develops leading-edge medical device solutions, from initial concept through high-volume manufacturing and connection to the full healthcare information management ecosystem. In carefully validated cases,we work with innovativecompanies like GlucoModicum because we believe it's where some of the most exciting technology breakthroughs happen. For example,GlucoModicum's magnetohydrodynamic technology has the potential to change the landscape of continuous glucose monitoring globally, and we are excited to work with this innovative team to make needle-free glucose monitoring a reality."

- END -

About GlucoModicum



GlucoModicum is a company transforming glucose monitoring with precise, needle-free magnetohydrodynamic technology. Its proprietary magnetohydrodynamics platform has the potential to radically change how people monitor their health, creating solutions that are precise, accessible and needle-free, empowering people to live healthier lives. The company's first product is a non-invasive, wearable glucose monitor for patients suffering from diabetes. GlucoModicum was founded in 2018 as a spinout of the University of Helsinki and combines an experienced, multi-disciplinary in-house team with world-class partners to deliver groundbreaking solutions for personal biomarker monitoring. For more information, please visit: www.glucomodicum.com

Enquiries:

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell / Chris Welsh Tel: +44@consilium-comms.com
For the first time, three CGTN channels will be broadcast in HD via SES's prime neighbourhood of ASTRA 19.2 degrees East

Audiences across Europe are now able to watch China Global Television Network (CGTN) channels in high-definition (HD) due to a new capacity agreement, SES announced today. Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has extended its partnership with SES to deliver three CGTN channels in HD using Globecast's media services and SES's satellites at 19.2 degrees East. These channels continue to be available in SD quality.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006133/en/

CGTN Channels to Switch to HD in SES and Globecast Renewal Agreement (Photo: Business Wire)

Under the multi-year agreement, Globecast will lease additional capacity on SES's prime neighbourhood to deliver CGTN News, CGTN Documentary and CGTN French, and will manage the uplinking and contribution services for these channels. After a simulcast period, all three Chinese public broadcaster's channels will broadcast exclusively in HD by the end of the year.

"As premium broadcast service provider in the European region, when CGTN approached us with their plans to move to HD, our obvious choice was to work with our long-term partner, SES, to identify key positions. It's a pleasure to start a new transponder on Astra 19.2 location with 24/7 channel monitoring services to reach large audiences for key public broadcaster like CGTN," said Shakunt Malhotra, Managing Director-Asia of Globecast.

"Over the past 18 months we have seen multiple public broadcasters renew and expand contracts with SES and our partners because they recognise that satellite is the easiest and most reliable way to reach the widest possible audiences. In addition, they also want to broadcast in HD as TV viewers today expect crystal-clear images when they turn on their TV screens," said Deepak Mathur, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at SES Video. "Together with our long-term partner Globecast, we continue to provide broadcasters and content owners with the largest audience reach they are seeking for their content."

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About SES

SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries over 8,650 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 361 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com.

About Globecast

Globecast helps customers to manage content and to deliver it wherever, however and whenever required. The company provides agile and seamless content acquisition, management and distribution services globally, constantly innovating and investing in new technologies to create customer-centric new services. It delivers any type of video service and supplies Content Aggregation and Distribution services to over 250 networks.

www.globecast.com LinkedIn Twitter

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006133/en/

Contacts:

Suzanne Ong

External Communications

+352 710 725 500

suzanne.ong@ses.com

Bazeli Mbo

Head of external communication

+33 1 5595 2604

bazeli.mbo@globecast.com

Globecast.com
Regulatory News:

Korian (Paris:KORI), the leading European care services company for elderly and fragile people, informs its shareholders of the decision of the Board of Directors, on 28 September 2021, to propose a project to transform the corporate form of the Group holding Company into a European company (Societas Europaea).

In the past 5 years, Korian has strongly developed its activities at European scale and is now present in 7 countries, 6 of which are members of the European Union1. Since 2019, the Group signed an agreement for the creation of a European Works Council, the first in the sector. Since June 2020, the European Works Council, which gathers together employee representatives from the European Union countries where the Group is present, allows to strengthen the social dialogue at the European level and encourage best practice sharing particularly in relation to care and health and safety at work.

The project to transform Korian SA into a European company, which was presented for information to the members of the Korian's European Works Council at the beginning of September, as well as to the representative bodies of the countries, according to the applicable regulations, has received a favourable opinion from these representative bodies.

This corporate form will allow Korian to benefit from a legal framework in line with its values and culture as well as with its economic foundation and to consolidate its actions already undertaken at European scale in terms of governance, social dialogue, training and skills development policies and relations with its stakeholders.

Korian will remain governed by French law and listed on the regulated market Euronext Paris. This change of corporate form will not affect Korian's governance, activities, tax regime or registered office. There will also be no impact on the Company's employees and shareholders.

This transformation project will be submitted to shareholders at Korian's combined General Meeting to be held on 2 June 2022.

In addition, in line with this change in the corporate form, the Group has drawn up, on the basis of numerous contributions from its employees throughout Europe and in discussion with the employees' representative bodies, a new Ethics charter.

With this text, Korian and its employees from all countries of the Group commit to act with ethic, caring and integrity in their mission of caring for and supporting the elderly and fragile people.

Next communication:

28 October 2021 Turnover T3 2021

About Korian

Korian, the leading European care services group for elderly and fragile people. www.korian.com

Korian has been listed on Euronext Paris Section A since November 2006 and is included in the following indices: SBF 120, CAC Health Care, CAC Mid 60, CAC Mid Small and MSCI Global Small Cap

Euronext ticker: KORI ISIN: FR0010386334 Reuters: KORI.PA Bloomberg: KORI.FP

1 The Korian Group is present in 7 countries in Europe: France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is a third country in Europe since the Brexit.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006222/en/

Contacts:

INVESTOR RELATIONS

Sarah Mingham

VP Investor Relations

& Financing

sarah.mingham@korian.com

Tel: +33 (0)1 55 37 53 55

Carole Alexandre

Deputy Head of

Investor Relations

carole.alexandre@korian.com

Tel: +33 (0)7 64 65 22 44

MEDIA

Jean-Marc Plantade

Group Communications Director

jean-marc.plantade@korian.fr

Tel: +33 (0)7 62 90 32 58

Cyrille Lachevre

Deputy Head of Press Relations

cyrille.lachevre@korian.fr

Tel: +33 (0)7 61 53 54 86

Marjorie Castoriadis

Head of Media Relations

marjorie.castoriadis@korian.fr

Tel: +33 (0)7 63 59 88 81
Barclays today announced the launch of its inaugural Green Structured Notes Programme.

The programme offers institutional and retail investors a differentiated green investment opportunity, with the structured note payoff based on a green index. In addition, the proceeds of the notes are allocated to the financing or re-financing of eligible green activities such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation loans and contribute to Barclays Net Zero Ambition and providing 100bn of green financing by 2030.

Both the investment and the use of proceeds will be in line with the Sustainable Finance Framework and Green Issuance Framework, and the index is selected in line with the Green Index Selection Principles.

The portfolio of green projects the proceeds will fund will be originated by Barclays Bank PLC in the regular course of business, and will be verified by a third party verification agent. The programme is now open for trading and more information including details on the programme and how to contact Barclays, can be found here.

Commenting on the launch of the programme C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Head of Global Markets and Co-President of BB PLC at Barclays, said:

"We continue to see increased client demand for sustainable investment opportunities and today's launch of Barclays' green structured notes programme provides clients with a new and innovative opportunity to access the green market. It's also a terrific step forward in our innovation journey within Global Markets to offer more compelling and sustainable structured products offerings."

Sasha Wiggins, Group Head of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, said:

"Last year we announced our commitment to align all of our financing to the goals of the Paris Agreement, on the way to achieving our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050. We also committed to 100bn of green financing by 2030 and this innovative investment offering to our clients is a new and important part of delivering that commitment in order to help accelerate the global transition to a low carbon economy."

Kathryn McLeland, Group Treasurer, said:

"We are pleased to complement our existing green bond programme with green structured note capabilities, which will expand the diversity of funding sources and is a prime example of how the Power of One Barclays philosophy has been embodied to expand our green product offerings for clients."

Barclays has a key focus on the impact of our financing and continues to grow its product offering and social and environmental financing activity across the bank. Today's announcement follows the launch of the Barclays Solactive Climate Change Europe BTI index and Barclays' intention to support climate-related products and initiatives through Green Bonds issuance. To learn more, click here.

About Barclays:

Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a full-service corporate and investment bank.

This communication is provided for informational purposes only and does not, under any circumstances or in any jurisdiction, constitute or form part of an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities issued by Barclays Bank PLC or its affiliates ("Barclays") nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and have not been offered, directly or indirectly, and will not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, any U.S. person (as defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act) absent an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the Securities Act. Barclays does not intend to register such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction where such offer would be unlawful. Accordingly, no information in this communication or relating to such securities is directed at any person or entity within the United States or at any U.S. person and must not be accessed if you are located in or you are a resident of the United States, and no such communication or information should be released, published or distributed directly or indirectly in or into the United States.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005047/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Susie Guo, 44 (0) 20 3555 2560, susie.guo@barclays.com
- Partner Shanghai Miracogen (fully owned by LEPU BIOPHARMA CO., LTD) commences US Phase I/II trial with ADC designed to treat solid tumors

- MRG004A selected for clinical development based on highly competitive efficacy and tolerability in preclinical studies compared to conventional ADC technology

- Over 10 ADCs currently being developed by Synaffix licensees

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Synaffix B.V., a biotechnology company focused on commercializing its clinical-stage platform technology for the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) with best-in-class therapeutic index, today announces that its partner Shanghai Miracogen has commenced a Phase I trial in the US with MRG004A, an ADC designed to treat solid tumors. This is the 3rd ADC built with GlycoConnect ADC technology to enter the clinic.

Synaffix signed a licensing agreement with Shanghai Miracogen (now fully owned by LEPU BIOPHARMA CO., LTD), a Chinese biotechnology company with a clinical-stage pipeline of ADCs, in 2019. This major development has triggered a milestone payment to Synaffix.

MRG004A is an ADC targeting human Tissue Factor (TF), conjugated using GlycoConnect site specific conjugation technology. In preclinical studies, MRG004A exhibited significantly improved stability in circulation, enhanced efficacy and tolerability compared to the conventional ADC technology.

Mary Hu, CEO of Miracogen and Co-CEO of Lepu Biopharma said:

"We have been very pleased with our collaboration with Synaffix and the data that we generated with ADCs built with its outstanding ADC technology. MRG004A has demonstrated the potential to become a best-in-class TF-targeted ADC and to address high unmet medical need for patients."

Peter van de Sande, CEO of Synaffix, said:

"This is an important milestone in our collaboration and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership as Miracogen develops multiple best-in-class ADC product candidates using our technology.

There are now 3 ADCs that were built with Synaffix's ADC technology in clinical development. We have now announced 6 collaborations that we have established with biotech and pharma partners around the world and more than 10 ADCs are being developed under those license agreements. We look forward to announcing further progress and additional partnerships in the coming months."

In the last few months, Synaffix has signed significant agreements with Kyowa Kirin, a global specialty pharmaceutical company; ProfoundBio, an emerging oncology biotherapeutics company; and Innovent Biologics, a leading biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for the treatment of major diseases. These come in addition to preexisting collaborations with ADC Therapeutics, Mersana Therapeutics and Shanghai Miracogen.

About Synaffix B.V.

Synaffix B.V. is a biotechnology company that enables ADC product candidates using its clinical-stage, site-specific ADC technology platform. In addition to GlycoConnect and HydraSpace technology, the toxSYN linker-payload platform rounds out a fully complementary technology platform that enables any company with an antibody to develop proprietary best-in-class ADC products under a single license from Synaffix.

The Synaffix platform enables a rapid timeline to clinic due to the established supply chain of technology components. Granted patents covering Synaffix' technology provide end-to-end protection of the manufacturing technology as well as the resulting products through at least 2035. The business model of Synaffix is target-specific technology out-licensing, as exemplified through its existing deals with ADC Therapeutics, Mersana Therapeutics, Shanghai Miracogen, Innovent Biologics, ProfoundBio and Kyowa Kirin.

Synaffix is backed by a top tier, European, life science-focused investor syndicate that includes Aravis, BioGeneration Ventures, BOM Capital and M Ventures.

For more information, please visit the website at www.synaffix.com.

About Shanghai Miracogen and Lepu Biopharma

Shanghai Miracogen is a clinical stage biotech company fully owned by Lepu Biopharma. Lepu Biopharma is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company focusing on oncology therapeutics. There are currently eight clinical stage drug candidates in the pipeline including five ADC drugs, two immune check point inhibitors and one oncolytic virus. The ADC drug candidates are currently in the phase I and phase II clinical studies conducted in both China and US. These targeted ADC drugs have been developed mainly in the treatments of head and neck cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, urothelial cancer, biliary tract cancer, cervical cancer and lymphoma.

Lepu Biopharma is committed to become a leading innovative company serving the unmet medical needs of cancer patients with first-in-class and best-in-class drugs. The company strives to continuously develop a market differentiating pipeline by combining in-house research and development, and strategic collaborations in China as well as via partnerships internationally.

For more information, please visit the website at www.lepubiopharma.com.

About The Synaffix ADC Platform Technology

Synaffix' proprietary ADC technology platform consists of GlycoConnect, HydraSpace and toxSYN technologies. Both GlycoConnect and HydraSpace are clinical-stage technologies that enable best-in-class ADCs with significantly enhanced efficacy and tolerability.

GlycoConnect is a conjugation technology that exploits the native antibody glycan for site-specific and stable payload attachment and is tunable to DAR1, DAR2 or DAR4 formats.

HydraSpace is a compact and highly polar spacer technology that is designed to further enhance therapeutic index, particularly with hydrophobic payloads. toxSYN is a linker-payload platform that spans key, validated MOAs for ADC product development, including SYNtecan E and SYNeamicin G, among other linker-payloads.

The combination of these three technologies provides developers with a "one stop" and easy-to-use ADC technology platform, allowing any antibody developer to develop its own proprietary ADC and any ADC developer to expand its pipeline further and increase its competitive position.

At the most recent World ADC US event, Synaffix was recognized with first place in the "Best ADC Platform Technology" award category at the World ADC Awards ceremony following a global review of technologies, voting by industry peers and final evaluation by a panel of independent industry experts.
Historic Copper Gold Mining Camp

Greenwood BC

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., (TSXV:GOM)(FRA:3G8C)(OTC PINK:GDMRF), ("Golden Dawn" or the "Company"), announces that it has now received the results of its airborne geophysical survey over it's Greenwood Precious Metals project in southeastern British Columbia.

"The contractor, Geotech Ltd., reports that numerous geophysical anomalies have been identified across the survey area, including conductive zones that do not correlate with magnetic lineaments. These features indicate multiple high priority targets not previously recognized and possibly mineralized. With drill permits now in place, incorporating this new data will finalize plans for the October drill program." States: Mr. Christopher R Anderson CEO

Map of the Greenwood Precious Metal Project properties.

The results have been received for the 2021 helicopter-borne VTEM (versatile time-domain electromagnetic system) and combined magnetic survey over the historic Phoenix mine and surrounding areas, including the Golden Crown, Lexington and Tam O'Shanter properties, which all contain defined gold resources.

Map showing flight lines for 2021 survey areas.

Golden Dawn will now begin to review the results and select targets for follow-up ground surveys and surface drilling. The main thrust of the exploration program is targeting a major copper-gold skarn deposit and/or an intrusion-related porphyry-type copper-gold deposit that could be the roots of the world-class Phoenix copper-gold skarn deposit. The Phoenix deposit is interpreted to be the upper part of a large copper-gold system that has been displaced westward from its roots by the Snowshoe fault.

Survey results for the Golden Crown, Lexington and Tam O'Shanter properties will be used to guide exploration for extensions of these deposits. The Golden Crown deposit consists of a series of parallel sulphide-rich gold-copper veins and gold soil anomalies that stretch over 3.5 km by 1 km area. The Lexington deposit consists of sulphide-rich gold-copper veins concentrated within the No. 7 Fault zone, which is a district-scale, early-stage (Jurassic?) thrust fault. There is over 5 km of strike length containing gold-copper mineralization and geochemical anomalies to explore along the No. 7 fault zone on the Lexington property. The Tam O'Shanter property covers the Deadwood deposit, which consists of sub-parallel quartz veins in a wide zone of intense shearing and alteration along a 1 km strike length of the Wild Rose Fault, which is also an early-stage thrust fault.

Readers are cautioned that historical records referred to in this News Release have been examined but not verified by a Qualified Person. Further work is required to verify that historical records referred to in this News Release are accurate.

Technical disclosure in this news release has been approved by Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., President of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101,

For more details, please see the most recent National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Company's website at www.goldendawnminerals.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

GOLDEN DAWN MINERALS INC.

Per: "Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson CEO

For further information, please contact:

Golden Dawn Minerals Inc. - Corporate Communications: Tel: 604-221-8936

Email: Office@goldendawnminerals.com

Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to, among other things, preliminary plans for a consolidation of the Company's Shares. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange will not approve the proposed share consolidation, and that the Company may not be able to raise sufficient additional capital to continue its business. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The Company's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY SALE OF SECURITIES OF THE COMPANY IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF ANY SUCH JURISDICTION.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Golden Dawn Minerals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666009/Golden-Dawn-Receives-Airborne-Geophysics-Results-Phoenix-Drill-Targets-Now-Being-Identified
The Phase III TANGO study is the third trial to provide long-term evidence for Dovato, reinforcing its use as a viable switch option for people living with HIV

For media and investors only

ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority owned by GlaxoSmithKline plc ("GSK"), with Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Limited as shareholders, today presented three-year results from the TANGO study at IDWeek 2021, being held virtually 29 September 3 October. Findings showed that the 2-drug regimen (2DR) Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine) continued to demonstrate non-inferior efficacy and a high barrier to resistance compared to continuation of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF)-based regimens of at least three drugs in virologically suppressed adults living with HIV-1 who had not experienced prior virologic failure.1 At three years, no participants on dolutegravir/lamivudine (0% [0/369]) met confirmed protocol-defined virologic failure, versus three participants (<1% [3/372]) on the TAF-based regimen. No resistance mutations were reported in either arm.1

Olayemi Osiyemi, M.D., Founder, CEO, and President of Triple O Medical Services and Triple O Research Institute P.A., United States, lead author and one of the investigators of the TANGO study, said: "These data provide us with further long-term evidence that switching virologically supressed people living with HIV from TAF-based 3-drug regimens to dolutegravir/lamivudine will not only maintain virologic suppression, but offers a treatment option consisting of fewer medicines. As we now consider HIV a long-term condition requiring life-long medication, these results give physicians the data they need to have more confidence in switching their virologically suppressed patients who are taking three or more medicines. Additionally, these data show no confirmed virologic failures, which is important over a long-term study."

These findings demonstrated the non-inferiority of dolutegravir/lamivudine compared to continuation of TAF-based regimens in the Intention to Treat-Exposed (ITT-E) population (defined as all participants randomised to the study), based on the proportion of participants with plasma HIV-1 RNA =50 copies per millilitre (c/mL) at Week 144 (Snapshot virologic failure: 0.3% [1/369] vs 1.3% [5/372]; adjusted difference: -1.1% [95% CI: -2.4%, 0.2%] for the dolutegravir/lamivudine and TAF-based regimen arms, respectively).1

In the ITT-E population, both treatment arms showed a high proportion of participants with plasma HIV-1 RNA <50 c/mL, with dolutegravir/lamivudine demonstrating non-inferior virologic suppression to the TAF-based regimen (85.9% [317/369] vs 81.7% [304/372], respectively; adjusted difference: 4.2% [95% CI: -1.1%, 9.5%]).1

Kimberly Smith, M.D., MPH, Head of Research Development at ViiV Healthcare, said: "The latest results from the TANGO study further reinforce Dovato's role in the HIV treatment landscape, allowing people living with HIV to maintain virologic suppression over the long-term with fewer medicines."

Overall adverse event (AE) rates were similar between the study arms, with more drug-related grade 2-5 AEs with dolutegravir/lamivudine versus the TAF-based regimens arm (6% [21/369]) vs 4% [13/371], respectively).1 Rates of AEs were similar between treatment arms at Weeks 48, 96 and 144. The most common drug-related grade 2-5 AEs in the dolutegravir/lamivudine and TAF-based regimens arms were insomnia (1% [4/369] vs 0% [0/371]), increased weight (<1% [3/369] vs <1% [3/371]), constipation (<1% [2/369] vs <1% [1/371]), depression (<1% [2/369] vs <1% [1/371]), flatulence (<1% [2/369] vs 0% [0/371]) and nausea (0% [0/369] vs <1% [2/371]).1 As with the findings at Weeks 48 and 96, changes in fasting lipids generally favoured dolutegravir/lamivudine.1 Decreases in total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides were observed in the dolutegravir/lamivudine arm, compared to increases in the TAF-based regimens arm, while very small changes in TC/HDL ratio were seen across both treatment arms.1 At Week 144, proximal tubular renal function markers were comparable across the two treatment arms.1

About TANGO2

TANGO is a phase III, randomised, open-label, active-controlled, multicentre study to assess the antiviral efficacy and safety of switching to a 2-drug regimen (2DR) consisting of dolutegravir/lamivudine in HIV-infected adults who are virologically suppressed and stable on a tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF)-based regimen.

Study participants were HIV-1 infected adults on TAF-based regimens with HIV-1 RNA<50 c/mL for at least six months, without prior virologic failure, no historical nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) or integrase inhibitor (INSTI) major resistance mutation, and no evidence of hepatitis B infection. Participants were randomised to switch to dolutegravir/lamivudine or continue on the TAF-based regimens through Week 148. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with a viral load of >50 c/mL at Week 48 (FDA Snapshot algorithm) for the Intention to Treat-Exposed (ITT-E) population. Secondary endpoints included efficacy at Weeks 96 and 144 in the ITT-E and Per Protocol (PP) populations.

About Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine)3,4

Dovato is a once-daily, single-pill, 2-drug regimen (2DR) that combines the integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) dolutegravir (Tivicay, 50 mg) with the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) lamivudine (Epivir, 300 mg).

Dovato (dolutegravir 50 mg/lamivudine 300 mg tablets) is authorised in the EU for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults and adolescents above 12 years of age weighing at least 40 kg, with no known or suspected resistance to the INSTI class, or lamivudine. In the US, Dovato is indicated as a complete regimen to treat HIV-1 infection in adults with no antiretroviral (ARV) treatment history or to replace the current ARV regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL) on a stable ARV regimen with no history of treatment failure and no known resistance to any component of Dovato.

Dovato uses two medicines, instead of the traditional three, to inhibit the viral life cycle at two different sites. INSTIs, like dolutegravir, inhibit HIV replication by preventing the viral DNA from integrating into the genetic material of human immune cells (T-cells). This step is essential in the HIV replication cycle and is also responsible for establishing chronic infection. Lamivudine is an NRTI that works by interfering with the conversion of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which in turn stops the virus from multiplying.

Dovato is approved in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and other countries worldwide.

Trademarks are owned by or licensed to the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

Important Safety Information for Dovato (50mg dolutegravir/300mg lamivudine) Tablets

INDICATION

DOVATO is indicated as a complete regimen to treat HIV-1 infection in adults with no antiretroviral (ARV) treatment history or to replace the current ARV regimen in those who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL) on a stable ARV regimen with no history of treatment failure and no known resistance to any component of DOVATO.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

BOXED WARNING: PATIENTS CO-INFECTED WITH HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV) AND HIV-1: EMERGENCE OF LAMIVUDINE-RESISTANT HBV AND EXACERBATIONS OF HBV

All patients with HIV-1 should be tested for the presence of HBV prior to or when initiating DOVATO. Emergence of lamivudine-resistant HBV variants associated with lamivudine-containing antiretroviral regimens has been reported. If DOVATO is used in patients co-infected with HIV-1 and HBV, additional treatment should be considered for appropriate treatment of chronic HBV; otherwise, consider an alternative regimen.

Severe acute exacerbations of HBV have been reported in patients who are co-infected with HIV-1 and HBV and have discontinued lamivudine, a component of DOVATO. Closely monitor hepatic function in these patients and, if appropriate, initiate anti-HBV treatment.

Contraindications

Do not use DOVATO in patients with previous hypersensitivity reaction to dolutegravir or lamivudine

Do not use DOVATO in patients receiving dofetilide

Warnings and precautions

Hypersensitivity Reactions:

Hypersensitivity reactions have been reported with dolutegravir and were characterized by rash, constitutional findings, and sometimes organ dysfunction, including liver injury

Discontinue DOVATO immediately if signs or symptoms of severe skin or hypersensitivity reactions develop, as a delay in stopping treatment may result in a life-threatening reaction. Clinical status, including liver aminotransferases, should be monitored and appropriate therapy initiated

Hepatotoxicity:

Hepatic adverse events have been reported, including cases of hepatic toxicity (elevated serum liver biochemistries, hepatitis, and acute liver failure), in patients receiving a dolutegravir-containing regimen without pre-existing hepatic disease or other identifiable risk factors

Patients with underlying hepatitis B or C or marked elevations in transaminases prior to treatment may be at increased risk for worsening or development of transaminase elevations with use of DOVATO. In some cases, the elevations in transaminases were consistent with immune reconstitution syndrome or hepatitis B reactivation, particularly in the setting where anti-hepatitis therapy was withdrawn

Monitoring for hepatotoxicity is recommended

Embryo Fetal Toxicity:

Assess the risks and benefits of DOVATO and discuss with the patient to determine if an alternative treatment should be considered at the time of conception through the first trimester of pregnancy due to the risk of neural tube defects

Pregnancy testing is recommended before initiation of DOVATO. Individuals of childbearing potential should be counseled on the consistent use of effective contraception

Lactic Acidosis and Severe Hepatomegaly with Steatosis:

Fatal cases have been reported with the use of nucleoside analogs, including lamivudine. Discontinue DOVATO if clinical or laboratory findings suggestive of lactic acidosis or pronounced hepatotoxicity develop, including hepatomegaly and steatosis in the absence of marked transaminase elevations.

Adverse Reactions or Loss of Virologic Response Due to Drug Interactions with concomitant use of DOVATO and other drugs may occur (see Contraindications and Drug interactions).

Immune Reconstitution Syndrome, including the occurrence of autoimmune disorders with variable time to onset, has been reported with the use of DOVATO.

Adverse reactions

The most common adverse reactions (incidence =2%, all grades) with DOVATO were headache (3%), nausea (2%), diarrhea (2%), insomnia (2%), fatigue (2%), and anxiety (2%).

Drug interactions

Consult full Prescribing Information for DOVATO for more information on potentially significant drug interactions

DOVATO is a complete regimen. Coadministration with other antiretroviral medications for the treatment of HIV-1 infection is not recommended

Drugs that induce or inhibit CYP3A or UGT1A1 may affect the plasma concentrations of dolutegravir

Administer DOVATO 2 hours before or 6 hours after taking polyvalent cation-containing antacids or laxatives, sucralfate, oral supplements containing iron or calcium, or buffered medications. Alternatively, DOVATO and supplements containing calcium or iron can be taken with food

Use in specific populations

Pregnancy: There are insufficient human data on the use of DOVATO during pregnancy to definitively assess a drug-associated risk for birth defects and miscarriage. An Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry has been established. Advise individuals of childbearing potential of the potential risk of neural tube defects. Assess the risks and benefits of DOVATO and discuss with the patient to determine if an alternative treatment should be considered at the time of conception through the first trimester of pregnancy or if pregnancy is confirmed in the first trimester

Lactation: Breastfeeding is not recommended due to the potential for HIV-1 transmission, developing viral resistance in HIV-positive infants, and adverse reactions in a breastfed infant

Females and Males of Reproductive Potential: Pregnancy testing is recommended before initiation of DOVATO. Counsel individuals of childbearing potential taking DOVATO on the consistent use of effective contraception

Renal Impairment: DOVATO is not recommended for patients with creatinine clearance <30 mL/min. Patients with a sustained creatinine clearance between 30 and 49 mL/min should be monitored for hematologic toxicities, which may require a dosage adjustment of lamivudine as an individual component

Hepatic Impairment: DOVATO is not recommended in patients with severe hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh Score C)

Please refer to the full European Summary of Product Characteristics for Dovato for full prescribing information, including contraindications, special warnings and precautions for use. For the US, please refer to the US Prescribing Information, including Boxed Warning.

About ViiV Healthcare

ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV and for people who are at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Shionogi joined in October 2012. The company's aims are to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV and AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and innovative medicines for HIV treatment and prevention, as well as support communities affected by HIV.

For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline, and commitment, please visit www.viivhealthcare.com.

About GSK

GSK is a science-led global healthcare company. For further information please visit www.gsk.com/about-us.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements

GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such factors include, but are not limited to, those described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2020, GSK's Q2 Results and any impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registered in England Wales:

GSK PLC ViiV Healthcare Limited No. 3888792 No. 06876960

Registered Office:

980 Great West Road

Brentford, Middlesex

TW8 9GS

References

1 Osiyemi O, Ajana F, Bisshop F, et al. Switching to DTG/3TC Fixed-Dose Combination (FDC) Is Non-inferior to Continuing a TAF-Based Regimen (TBR) in Maintaining Virologic Suppression through 144 Weeks (TANGO Study). Presented at IDWeek 2021.

2 ClinicalTrials.gov. Switch Study to Evaluate Dolutegravir Plus Lamivudine in Virologically Suppressed Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Positive Adults (TANGO). Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03446573. Accessed September 2021.

3 Dovato EU Summary of Product Characteristics. March 2021. Available at: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/10446/smpc. Accessed September 2021.

4 Dovato US Prescribing Information. Available at: https://www.gsksource.com/pharma/content/dam/GlaxoSmithKline/US/en/Prescribing_Information/Dovato/pdf/DOVATO-PI-PIL.PDF. Accessed September 2021.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005348/en/

Contacts:

ViiV Healthcare enquiries:

Media enquiries:

Melinda Stubbee

+1 919 491 0831

(North Carolina)

Audrey Abernathy

+1 919 605 4521

(North Carolina)

GSK enquiries:

Media enquiries:

Tim Foley

+44 (0) 20 8047 5502

(London)

Kathleen Quinn

+1 202 603 5003

(Washington DC)

Analyst/Investor enquiries:

James Dodwell

+44 (0) 20 8047 2406

(London)

Mick Readey

+44 (0) 7990 339653

(London)

Jeff McLaughlin

+1 215 7002

(Philadelphia)

Frannie DeFranco

+1 215 751 4855

(Philadelphia)
Hosted Security Provider Opens Additional Premises and Welcomes New Appointments as a Buoyant Security-as-a-Service Market Increases Demand for VSaaS and ACaaS

FRIBOURG, Switzerland, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Swiss high-tech company, Morphean, a leader in Security-as-a-Service and cloud analytics, has announced a programme of growth to meet demand for hosted security services across Europe. The opening of offices in the UK as well as Denmark and the Netherlands, places Morphean in a strong position to serve its growing customer base. With a number of appointments taking up key positions, Morphean is on target to deliver its product road map and meet channel growth.

The benefits to business of cloud technologies are now understood, particularly as a result of the pandemic, enabling the faster delivery of services to market, reducing risk and ensuring easy scalability. Cloud platforms also support analytics that would be impossible with traditional platforms. This looks set to substantially disrupt the physical security market with rapid growth forecast in video surveillance as-a-service (VSaaS) and access control-as-a-service (ACaaS).

The opening of the new office in Leeds, in addition to those in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, will help Morphean provide localised support to Northern Europe more broadly. In addition, newly appointed personnel bring expertise to sales, account management and finance roles including Philippe Gieseler, Chief Financial Officer; Paul Green, Head of Sales in the UK and Ireland; Noura Sakhsoukh, Sales Executive for Benelux; Lauren Irwin, Sales Executive in the UK; Peter Werner, Sales Executive in Germany; and Tim Bach Bjerg, Key Account Manager for the Nordics.

Martyn Ryder, VP Sales and Marketing, commented: "The acceleration by business leaders in their digitisation journeys and transition to cloud platforms is driving demand for intelligent physical security solutions. Morphean is transforming this market and making rapid progress towards becoming a leader in the hosted security and business intelligence field. Our expansion will enable our growing partner base to benefit from our solutions, while ensuring their customers enjoy a return on investment through improved operational insights."

Digitisation and cutting-edge technologies using the cloud, IoT and AI are changing security and business intelligence, with organisations recognising the need to look to the providers of cloud-enabled platforms and systems to meet their physical security requirements. Morphean's solutions are built around an affordable operational expenditure model and are fully scalable to protect against the challenges of today as well as future uncertainty.

Discover more: https://morphean.com
MULHEIM-KARLICH, Germany, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

When: October 5, 2021, 15:30-16:00

Where: TOMRA, Otto-Hahn-Strae 2-6, 56218 Mulheim-Karlich



We are excited to invite representatives of the media to TOMRA headquarters in Mulheim-Karlich on October 5th (in-person, or online) for a press conference with our new president and CEO, Tove Andersen.



Among other topics, Tove will share her thoughts on our potential to turn household waste into the valuable resource that it can be, and how this process can be successful not just in Europe, but worldwide. She will also touch on our current waste management challenges, both locally and abroad, TOMRA's 3-tier solution to those challenges, and the existing, as well as upcoming, legislation that can help or hinder our efforts towards a circular economy.



We hope this conversation helps shed light on how TOMRA has, and will continue to, make an impact in the waste management sector, and ultimately keep plastics within a closed loop for a more sustainable future.

Please note, this press conference will take place in English.

To join the conference online, click on this link, and if you have any queries, please contact Mithu Mohren (mithu.mohren@tomra.com).

We look forward to seeing you there.

- Picture is available at AP Images ( http://www.apimages.com ) -

Mithu Mohren

SVP, Marketing & Communications, Circular Economy
New ACORD Standards developed in partnership with leading Global Reinsurance & Large Commercial insurers and brokers

LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ACORD, the standards-setting body for the global insurance industry, today announced the expansion of its Global Reinsurance & Large Commercial (GRLC) Data Standards, to include new standards for electronic placing. (Re)insurers will be able to leverage these newly developed standards in order to adopt advanced electronic placement processes, from submission to bind.

"The ACORD GRLC Standards have supported the placing process for some time, but this represents a new era of data exchange," said Chris Newman, Managing Director - Global, ACORD. "By providing the tools to adopt standardized ePlacing, these new standards will enable greater levels of digitization and modernization for the (re)insurance community."

The ePlacing Standards were developed in close collaboration with the Ruschlikon reinsurance community, as part of the shared goal of enabling smart end-to-end processing across the (re)insurance value chain. Current members of the Ruschlikon ePlacing Steering Committee include Aon, Guy Carpenter, Hannover Re, Lloyd's, Munich Re, PartnerRe, SCOR, Swiss Re, and Willis Towers Watson.

"The Ruschlikon community has had tremendous success over the last 13 years in reducing operational cost and enhancing client service in eAccounting and Claims," said Ruschlikon ePlacing Steering Committee Chair Theo Bachmann, Managing Director and Head P&C Centre, Swiss Re. "Now we're ensuring that on the ePlacing side, we provide the same level of standardization and the same from-the-industry-for-the-industry approach that has proven so effective."

"Through collaboration with these forward-thinking organizations, we have created a blueprint for the modernization of the placing process, which for a long time has been the missing piece of the puzzle in the effort to digitize the value chain," Newman continued. "It can be leveraged by stakeholders not only in reinsurance, but across all lines of business, to complete the end-to-end digitization of the insurance policy lifecycle."

The initial release of the ePlacing Implementation Toolkit includes an implementation guide, clarification documents for Commissions and Loss Participation; an updated Code Manual and Data Dictionary, tools for verifying ePlacing messaging capability using the ACORD Test Harness, and other assets.

ACORD GRLC Data Standards are available to ACORD member organizations at http://www.acord.org/GRLC.

About ACORD

ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is the global standards-setting body for the insurance and related financial services industries. ACORD facilitates fast, accurate data exchange and efficient workflows through the development of electronic standards, standardized forms, and tools to support their use. ACORD engages thousands of insurance and reinsurance companies, agents and brokers, software providers, financial services organizations and industry associations in more than 100 countries. ACORD maintains offices in New York and London. Learn more at https://www.acord.org/.

CONTACT: Beth Jarecki

beth@lpendragonus.com

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LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthtech company Huma and the life sciences company Bayer will use machine learning to try to improve diagnosis for certain types of lung cancer, by more precise readings of CT (Computed Tomography) scans.

The companies aim to distinguish different forms of non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) from CT scans. This would enable specialists to more rapidly determine which form of cancer a patient has, in order to begin more appropriate, timely treatment.

In the age of precision medicine, patients will undergo a series of tests to characterize their cancer. However, these tests can be invasive and often drive up time to results, hence treatment, and costs. In order to move beyond a "one-size-fits-all" treatment approach and ensure the right patients are being treated at the right time with the right medication, there's an urgent need for new ways to understand each patient's cancer. Experts have begun using machine learning to help categorise and segment patient subtypes with some diseases and Huma and Bayer are turning the technology to NSCLCs.

The research project will begin by using machine learning to spot correlations in molecular and imaging assessments such as "ground glass opacity" that can differentiate lung cancer types. The team will then create, train and test models that can accurately diagnose the different types of lung cancers.

Dan Vahdat, CEO and Founder of Huma, said: "We have shown we can use machine learning to predict an individual's risk of depression, anxiety, cardiac events and the impact of being infected by COVID-19, and we hope this work in cancer will be a new field for us. However, as always, we will publish any significant developments in peer-reviewed journals. We know the importance of evidence-based, rigorous innovation and, by doing it the right way, we can more rapidly make meaningful, impactful changes and help people live longer, fuller lives.

"We want to start by providing more personalised care for people with non-small cell lung cancer. In the future, our vision is to include other cancers and even other therapeutic areas such as rare diseases. We want to broaden our existing smartphone platform to combine imaging, digital phenotyping, and genomics with the real-world, real-time data from patients that we already collect. We want to take therapies from bench to bedside to breakfast table."

Robert LaCaze, Head of Oncology, Pharmaceuticals Division of Bayer, added: "Rather than treating all lung cancer patients with standardized regimens, precision medicine can allow physicians to prescribe medicines tailored to the tumor's specific oncogenic driver. Our collaboration leverages Huma's proven expertise in Machine Learning and Bayer's vast capabilities in Oncology and Medical Imaging to help accelerate the identification of those patients with certain types of non-small cell lung cancer who can most benefit from these tailored treatments."

Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer, has been a Series B (2019) and Series C (2021) investor into Huma. Huma and Bayer plan to begin work on this project immediately.

About Huma

Huma is a global health technology company that exists to help people live longer, fuller lives. Our modular platform supports better care as a digital 'hospital at home' for a range of use cases across different disease areas and better research by powering some of the world's largest decentralized clinical trials and studies in life sciences. We use digital biomarkers, predictive algorithms and real-world data from continuous patient monitoring to advance proactive, predictive care.

Our 'hospitals at home' help care for patients across England's NHS, Wales, Germany, and the UAE - evidence shows they can double clinical capacity, reduce readmission rates by a third, and reduce costs whilst providing safe, high-quality care. We offer Covid-19 digital services, not-for-profit, to national governments in support of the fight against the pandemic and have shipped over a million devices that complement our 'hospitals at home' to help power them. We are using the same technology platform to support decentralized clinical trials. www.huma.com

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MetaCell, an innovative life science software company specialized in creating cutting-edge research software for major pharma, biotech, and academic institutions, has launched MetaCell Cloud Hosting - a brand new online product providing advanced cloud computing solutions to facilitate research and innovation in life science and healthcare organizations of all sizes.

Introducing MetaCell Cloud Hosting

MetaCell specializes in designing custom software services for the pharmaceutical industry, the healthcare sector, and for researchers in academia. In doing so, MetaCell helps its customers overcome challenging information management problems that they have found difficult to navigate with their IT departments and with large service providers like Amazon and Google. MetaCell Cloud Hosting provides scientists, pharmaceutical companies and research institutions with a turnkey online product to host and process their life sciences data and applications.

A unique feature provided by MetaCell Cloud Hosting is its customer-tailored capability for biomedical and life science data and software applications that delivers the optimal allocation of cloud resources based on the budget and performance goals of the researchers. This includes affordable storage on trusted servers and access to world-class computing resources, which can be efficiently scaled up to meet the growing need for big data analytics, bioinformatics, digital health, and artificial intelligence. Enabling hosted applications to comply with all major international regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and relevant ISO standards is another significant value add that MetaCell brings to the market with the release of this new product.

Stephen Larson, CEO of MetaCell, said: "We're thrilled that we are officially launching our MetaCell Cloud Hosting product. From advanced custom software applications to single page websites showing off their work, Cloud Hosting will help researchers avoid the headaches associated with ongoing management of their online software and data holdings."

Dr. Rick Gerkin, Associate Research Professor at Arizona State University (ASU), commented: "Besides enabling us to host our research applications and data in a safe cloud infrastructure, MetaCell Cloud Hosting will save us precious time which we'll no longer spend trying to fix technical issues, and instead dedicate it to what we care about most: advancing our research. We've been partnering with MetaCell for a number of years and they have demonstrated their expertise in developing and maintaining our cloud software and databases. We look forward to taking advantage of their new product."

About MetaCell

MetaCell is a life science-focused software company composed of scientists and software engineers with deep domain expertise in computational neuroscience, molecular biology, data science, and enterprise-grade online software development. Over the last ten years, MetaCell has established a global presence by partnering with the world's largest pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer and Biogen, leading universities such as Yale University, Princeton University, UCSD, UCL, ASU, SUNY Downstate, and University of Edinburgh, as well as innovative organizations such as CAMH, INCF, and EMBL-EBI.

Contact details

Paolo Lenotti, VP Marketing & PR, MetaCell | paolo@metacell.us

US +1 617-286-4832 | UK +44 1865 648684 | info@metacell.us

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Morrow Sodali, the world's leading investor engagement and governance consulting firm, today announced the appointment of Oleg Shvyrkov as Director, Russia Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Based in Moscow, Dr Shvyrkov's primary focus will be on providing a broad range of ESG and shareholder engagement services to Russian and CIS corporations, working alongside Morrow Sodali's specialist governance firm, Nestor Advisors.

Dr Shvyrkov is a recognized expert on corporate governance in Russia and CIS countries. He was a core contributor in the drafting of the Russian Corporate Governance Code and subsequently the development of the Code implementation tools. He is also a member of the body that developed the new Corporate Governance Code of Kazakhstan in 2021.

Dr Shvyrkov is a member of the Corporate Affairs Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Expert Council on Corporate Governance of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Earlier this year, he led a Working Group of the CBR Expert Council that drafted the ESG Guidance for Public Company Boards.

Over the last 18 years, Dr Shvyrkov has held several prominent corporate governance positions in Moscow with leading advisory firms including heading the Corporate Governance Services group at EY, leading the Deloitte CIS Center for Corporate Governance, and being the Analytical Director for the Governance Services team within Standard Poor's. He holds a doctorate degree from Tilburg University.

Alvise Recchi, Morrow Sodali's CEO, commented, "It is my great privilege to welcome Oleg to our team. His experience and unrivalled expertise in corporate governance in Russia will allow us to continue to serve our clients' expanding governance needs at the highest level and ensure they can create long term value for their shareholders."

"We have a successful track record in supporting major listed companies in the region such as Gazprom, Lukoil, and Sistema to name a few, and with Oleg's appointment, we look forward to continuing to expand our presence in Russia and across the CIS," he said.

David Risser, Managing Director, Nestor Advisors said he was excited to have someone of Oleg's stature join the Company in a dual capacity working with both Morrow Sodali and Nestor Advisors.

"Both Stilpon Nestor and I have known Oleg for many years as a renowned and trusted advisor in corporate governance and I look forward to working together as we continue to grow our business in Russia," Mr Risser commented.

For further information about Morrow Sodali, please visit www.morrowsodali.com.

ABOUT MORROW SODALI

Morrow Sodali is a global corporate advisory firm that provides clients with comprehensive advice and services relating to corporate governance, ESG, sustainability, proxy solicitation, capital markets intelligence, shareholder and bondholder engagement, M&A, and activism and contested situations.

From headquarters in New York and London and offices in global capital markets, Morrow Sodali serves more than 700 clients in 80+ countries, including many of the world's largest multinational corporations. Clients include listed and private companies, mutual fund groups, stock exchanges and membership associations.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005007/en/

Contacts:

Elena Cargnello

Corporate Director of Marketing

e.cargnello@morrowsodali.com

+44 204 5136913
Press Release

Nokia achieves ISO 9001 for its high-quality patenting process

Nokia one of the first companies to receive ISO 9001 certification for its patent portfolio management

Independent certification assessed every step of Nokia's patent portfolio process

ISO 9001 is the world's best-known standard for quality management systems





29 September 2021

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today that it has achieved ISO 9001 certification for its patent portfolio management.

The independent certification assessed every step of Nokia's patent portfolio management process covering the entire lifetime of the patents and resulted in the awarding of the highly respected ISO 9001 certification.

ISO 9001 is the world's best-known standard for quality management systems, with over one million organizations independently certified worldwide. It provides a framework for organizations to ensure consistent results when designing, developing, and delivering products and services.

Jenni Lukander, President of Nokia Technologies, said: "Quality is a key priority in our patenting process. We set and apply extremely high standards when we evaluate and file potential patents, so we're delighted to be one of the first companies to receive this highly respected independent certification for its patent portfolio management."

Karolina Lachi Kolarova Business Unit Director for Certificationfrom Bureau VeritasUK,who conducted the audit, said: "ISO 9001 helps businesses and organisations with their efficiency, improve customer satisfaction and is an important measure of quality within the company's systems and processes. By adding their patent portfolio management activities into their ISO 9001 certification, Nokia has further demonstrated its commitment to high quality and continual improvement."

Nokia's industry-leading patent portfolio is built on more than 130 billion invested in R&D since 2000 and is composed of around 20,000 patent families, including over 3,500 patent families declared essential to 5G. Several independent third-party studies have ranked Nokia among the top for ownership of patents that have been declared as essential to cellular standards, including 5G. We continue to refresh the portfolio investing over 4bn in R&D last year and filing patent applications on more than 1,500 new inventions.

Nokia contributes its inventions to open standards in return for the right to license them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Companies can license and use these technologies without the need to make their own substantial investments in R&D.

Disclaimer: Reference to a study does not equate to Nokia's unreserved endorsement.

Additional resources

Webpage: Licensing (https://www.nokia.com/licensing/) https://www.nokia.com/licensing/





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

Email: steven.bartholomew@nokia.com
JFM will leverage the power of Aria's platform to accelerate growth of new digital products and offer new bundles with traditional print offerings

Aria Systems, the leader in helping enterprises grow subscription and usage-based revenue, today announced that Jysk Fynske Medier (JFM), Denmark's largest local media group, has selected Aria's cloud billing and monetization platform. JFM will deploy the Aria Media and Publishing Suite (AMPS) to manage its print and digital subscribers within a single environment as the company expands its subscriber base and integrates new acquisitions.

JFM joins Berlingske, Polaris, and Stampen as the latest Nordic publisher to select Aria's core billing platform with AMPS, the application suite purpose-built to meet the unique subscription and customer management requirements of media and publishing companies. While the transition to digital continues across the global publishing industry, JFM maintains a profitable segment of customers who prefer print media. The company's challenge is to maintain the proper balance of print media products while growing its digital media catalog.

"It was clear from the outset that Aria understood the special requirements of media companies like ours and the various nuances and complexities associated with subscription management for both print and digital media," said Henrik Lassen, Chief Commercial Officer at JFM. "Aria's depth of industry knowledge, the capabilities of its AMPS suite, and its success with other Nordic publishers ultimately convinced us to replace our entire billing infrastructure with Aria's platform."

JFM owns and manages 15 daily and 63 weekly newspapers as well as five radio stations across Denmark. The company recently launched 24 new digital products, including "ultra-local" newsletters and local business news websites, with the goal of increasing subscribership by 60 percent over the next four years. JFM had been operating separate billing systems for its print and digital businesses. However, after evaluating Aria's capabilities, the company decided to consolidate digital and print on the Aria platform.

"JFM is laser focused on leveraging customer data to attract new digital subscribers and monetize its expanding catalog of digital products," said Tom Dibble, President and CEO at Aria Systems. "The Aria platform is a perfect complement to its business strategy because it's built to collect massive amounts of customer data that can be analyzed and used to offer a wide range of subscription and monetization models."

About Aria Systems

Aria Systems' cloud-agnostic monetization platform is the analysts' choice, top ranked by leading research firms. Innovative enterprises like Adobe, Allstate, Comcast, Subaru, and Telstra depend on Aria to accelerate time to market and increase flexibility, enabling them to maximize customer value, and grow recurring revenue through subscription, usage-based, and one-time offerings. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

About Jysk Fynske Medier

JFM is Denmark's second largest private media group reaching more than 2.5 million people across the country each week. For more information, visit: https://jfmedier.dk/da/forside/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005092/en/

Contacts:

Media: Rob Lopez Aria Systems media@ariasystems.com
Hundreds of ordinary mobile phones in 3 countries successfully connect to Lynk tower in orbit

Lynk Global, Inc. (Lynk), the world's leading cell-tower-in-space connectivity provider, today announced it has registered hundreds of unmodified mobile phones to its 5th cell-tower-in-space in three different countries (UK, US and Bahamas). This critical milestone conclusively proves Lynk's proprietary core satellite technology works with ordinary mobile phones on Earth, enabling broadband, voice and text messaging from everywhere with the phone in your pocket.

Lynk's 5th satellite (named "Shannon") launched on June 30, 2021 and has connected with, and registered, hundreds of mobile phones in initial tests, even in Virginia where Lynk connected in spite of the "noise" created by millions of mobile phones. Lynk has successfully repeated the tests in the United Kingdom, with testing permission from Ofcom, and in the Bahamas with the support of mobile network operator (MNO) partner Aliv. This proves that Lynk has solved the last major technology barrier to connecting everybody, everywhere with a standard mobile phone. Lynk is the world's only independently certified provider of cell-tower-in-space connectivity.

"Lynk has provided independent testing data that proves they are connecting existing Aliv devices that roam onto the Lynk system on areas outside the Aliv coverage footprint in the Bahamas," said Dr. Stephen Curran, Aliv's CTO. "The testing has proven the technology's ability to simultaneously register and authenticate mobile devices. Lynk will provide a critical maritime communication service for our users. The Caribbean is also known for extreme weather events, and for earthquakes. Lynk will assist Aliv in providing emergency communications back-up when the network experiences major issues, and our sites are down."

"Six years ago, the entire world thought it was impossible for a satellite to connect two-ways to existing mobile phones in use today," says Charles Miller, Lynk's CEO and cofounder. "Lynk has now done the impossible. We recently announced the first operators to sign up for our Flagship Carrier Program, Aliv in the Bahamas and Telecel Centrafique in the Central African Republic. These and others will launch commercial services in their countries in July 2022, beginning our journey to serve the unconnected around the world."

"Lynk has solved the 'Uplink Challenge,'" explained Lynk CTO and cofounder, Tyghe Speidel. "Our 5th satellite has successfully completed it's commissioning tests which includes our antenna and core mobile processing tests demonstrating the ability to receive and process signals from terrestrial subscriber phones on Earth that are out of terrestrial coverage. This is especially tough because of the noise from millions of other phones communicating terrestrially in the same mobile operator spectrum at the same time in our spot beam. We have repeatedly demonstrated the intricate two-way signaling required for a phone to connect to our cell tower in space, involving multiple instances of uplink and downlink messages, including a device request for channel access, and then the corresponding authentication and location update procedures. To date, we've done this with hundreds of phones in the UK, the Bahamas, and the US. This has never been proven before with a satellite cell tower and Lynk has done it. As part of the testing, we have also proven our signaling link budget (the signal power analysis) to close the link with existing mobile phones, as well as proven our ability to not interfere with existing terrestrial mobile operations while operating in the same bands."

For more technical information, this blog post, How Lynk Proved Direct Two-way Satellite-to-Mobile-Phone Connectivity, explains what Lynk has accomplished with the hundreds of phone registration tests.

Lynk will provide complete connectivity everywhere, whether land or sea, for the existing over 5.2 billion mobile subs through their existing MNO. Each year, more than 3 billion people who own mobile phones experience extended periods of disconnectivity. Another 1 billion people who can afford a mobile phone don't buy one because there is no connectivity -- there is Zero G (0G) -- where they live and work.

Miller continued, "Lynk is solving a problem that nobody else in the world is solving. We call it 'The 0G Problem.' Next time you hear somebody use the phrase '5G,' ask yourself 'How does 5G solve the World's 0G problem?' The answer it doesn't."

The mobile industry has nearly exhausted the ability to profitably expand coverage with ground-based cell towers world-wide, leaving geographic coverage effectively capped. Lynk's cell-tower-in-space service will complement existing terrestrial coverage and solves the coverage problem. Lynk represents the largest growth opportunity in the mobile industry today a bigger growth opportunity than 5G.

Connecting the unconnected, with only the existing mobile phone in their pocket, will jump-start economic growth in remote and rural communities. Economic research proves that mobile wireless connectivity accelerates economic growth in poor rural areas by bringing 21st Century connectivity to people where they live.

Another benefit is instantaneous backup emergency communications everywhere on Earth. Currently, cellular systems are rendered inoperable when they are needed the most such as natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires as well as the aftermath of security-related incidents. Lynk believes that "Nobody should die because the phone in their pocket is not connected."

About Lynk:

Lynk Global Inc. is a mobile technology company focused on providing universal connectivity for mobile phones and the world's only independently verified space-based mobile network provider. The company's patented technology allows standard mobile phones to be connected virtually anywhere via low-Earth-orbit satellites without any change to hardware or software. Headquartered in Falls Church, VA, Lynk's leadership and engineering teams are experts in satellite engineering, space flight and policy, and wireless technologies. Follow us at www.lynk.world, @lynktheworld, or via LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005356/en/

Contacts:

Tony DeTora, VP, Government Affairs, Lynk Global, Inc.

+(1) 703-203-8597

tdetora@lynk.world
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose on Wednesday, with heavyweight banks and Astrazeneca leading the gainers list. The benchmark FTSE 100 climbed 62 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,090 after ending half a percent lower on Tuesday. Banks advanced, with Lloyds Bank and Natwest Group rising around 2 percent. Wm Morrison Supermarkets gained 1.3 percent as the Takeover Panel established an auction procedure for the company. Drug maker AstraZeneca jumped 2.4 percent. The company said its newly acquired Alexion division will purchase the remaining equity in peer Caelum Biosciences in a deal that could be worth up to $500m. Clothing retailer Next added 2.4 percent. The company reported a swing to a pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2022 and raised its full-year profit outlook for the fourth time in six months. BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell were moving lower as oil extended declines on industry data showing U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories unexpectedly rose last week. Royal Mail plunged 5.7 percent after UBS downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'buy'. In economic releases, U.K. households' overall perception about financial wellbeing weakened in the third quarter despite the rise in household income from employment, data published by IHS Markit showed. The Scottish Widows household finance index fell to 44.0 in the third quarter from 44.7 in the second quarter. Separately, U.K. shop prices declined at a slower pace in September, data published by the British Retail Consortium revealed. The shop price index dropped 0.5 percent on a yearly basis in September after easing 0.8 percent in August. 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.
AppSweep by Guardsquare Enables Developers to Put Mobile Security at the Forefront of App Development

Guardsquare, the mobile application security platform, today launched its mobile application security testing tool, AppSweep. The company's new Android application security testing tool is built for mobile, designed for developers, and enables developers to quickly address risks in their source code and dependencies.

Intuitive to use, AppSweep integrates seamlessly into a DevOps workflow and results in stronger security for released apps by helping developers find and fix security issues early in the software development life cycle. Existing application security testing tools used by developers today are slow, expensive and not purpose built for mobile. AppSweep quickly identifies relevant and actionable security issues that are specific to the mobile threats that are a priority.

The mobile threat landscape is constantly evolving as sophisticated threat actors continuously find new attack vectors and ways to exploit vulnerabilities in applications. Mobile apps are a prime target for attackers who are inherently manipulative and maliciously capitalize on unprotected apps after they have been published. Once deployed, applications are beyond the control of the developer which, in conjunction with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, is becoming a growing challenge for developers to ensure secure mobile apps.

"Mobile apps are an integral part of an organization's digital strategy and a major source of revenue, but insecure mobile apps open organizations up to all kinds of risk. Today's mobile app security climate is ever-changing, requiring a fast, reliable mobile application security testing solution," said Ryan Lloyd, Chief Product Officer at Guardsquare. "AppSweep enables developers to put mobile security at the forefront of app development providing relevant analysis and testing of their mobile apps coupled with clear, actionable recommendations on how to fix them."

To address these challenges, AppSweep provides fast, accurate mobile application security testing to help developers quickly identify and fix mobile app risks. The tool provides developers with quick security issue identification and recommendations, straightforward integration in the DevOps toolchain, and ease of use with a familiar interface.

Utilizing the right scanning tool can greatly improve the security posture of mobile apps. Designed and supported by the creators of ProGuard, the first open source app optimizer, AppSweep extends the experience of Guardsquare as a well-known Android player offering actionable insights for more secure and compliant mobile apps.

AppSweep is free, putting mobile app security well within reach for all organizations. To find and fix security issues in your Android app's code, and to scan your application using AppSweep, please visit Mobile Application Security Testing AppSweep. To learn more, read our blog.

About Guardsquare

Guardsquare offers the most complete approach to mobile application security on the market. Built on the open source ProGuard technology, Guardsquare's software integrates seamlessly across the development cycle. From app security testing to code hardening to real-time visibility into the threat landscape, Guardsquare solutions provide enhanced mobile application security from early in the development process through publication. More than 700 customers worldwide across all major industries rely on Guardsquare to help them identify security risks and protect their mobile applications against reverse engineering and tampering.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005431/en/

Contacts:

Erica Sheehan

Chief Marketing Officer, Guardsquare

erica.sheehan@guardsquare.com
HELSINKI, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Finnish concrete manufacturer Lujabetoni and materials technology company Betolar to develop a new technology that will introduce new low-carbon concrete products to the industry, ranging from construction elements to cast-in-place applications in Finland and internationally.

A new solution that improves the consolidation rate of low-carbon concrete

Lujabetoni and Betolar have entered a partnership to improve the consolidation rate of low-carbon concrete manufactured from CEM III cement containing GGBFS blast furnace slag. Due to the natural attributes of blast furnace slag, early strength development is slower than with traditional technologies, which presents challenges to the construction process as a whole.

"This new solution opens up a very broad range of applications for low-carbon concrete and will improve the efficiency of the entire construction process and the feasibility of low-carbon concrete at production plants as well as construction sites. The aim of our cooperation with Betolar is to solve this challenge and make the solution globally available," says Mikko Isotalo, CEO of Lujabetoni.

Concrete is the world's most widely used construction material. However, it has significant adverse climate impacts due to the high CO2 emissions arising from the production of cement, which is used as a raw material in concrete. Lower-carbon CEM III cement products - whose use has increased quickly, especially in Central Europe - are aimed at reducing the climate impacts of concrete.

The new solution is based on the use of additives that serve as accelerants in the concrete consolidation process. Betolar, who specialise in construction materials technology, had developed the additive technology that enhances the early strength development of concrete.

"We are close to a breakthrough with regard to the attributes of cement products that contain high levels of GGBFS blast furnace slag. If we can solve the challenges associated with the structure and attributes of concrete binder, it will be possible to replace the use of traditional cement in the concrete industry. This would significantly reduce the climate impacts of the construction sector," says Lasse Happonen, MD, Precast & ready-mix at Betolar.

The partnership between Lujabetoni and Betolar supports the green transformation of the concrete industry

Now a year into the partnership, the aim is to produce technical solutions that will make it possible to introduce new low-carbon construction materials to the market in the near future. Betolar has quickly expanded its development efforts to support the green transformation of the concrete industry.

"Betolar's business model is built around strong customer insight and cooperation with partners. Working together with pioneering partners helps us understand the needs of industrial operators and influence the development of the industry. At the same time, it ensures the scalability of our business. The partnership with Lujabetoni is very significant for Betolar," says Matti Lopponen, CEO of Betolar.

Betolar's business is underpinned by research with R&D units and laboratories in Espoo as well as Kannonkoski in Central Finland. The company is currently investing in R&D to create solutions for the use of industrial side streams, such as slag or fly ash, to promote recyclability in sectors such as construction and mining. At the same time, these solutions will help significantly reduce CO2 emissions and conserve virgin natural resources.

"We have recruited leading professionals in our field in Finland and internationally. Our research and analytics expertise is among the best in the world. For example, in our database we have analysed some 400 different industrial side streams to assess their attributes and combinations. We are now developing an artificial intelligence solution that makes use of this database to identify local solutions for various materials around the world," Lopponen explains.

Lujabetoni is responsible for the factory testing of the technology behind the new CEM III cement products and brings its in-depth concrete expertise to the partnership.

"At Lujabetoni, we aim to provide our customers with industry-leading solutions for low-carbon concrete construction in order to address the big challenge associated with CO2 emissions from concrete products. Our partnership with Betolar is key to achieving this goal. We want to work together with the leading companies in the construction industry, which is why we have selected Betolar as our partner," Mikko Isotalo concludes.

For Lujabetoni Media Inquiries:

Mikko Isotalo, CEO, Lujabetoni Oy, tel. +358 44 585 2305, mikko.isotalo@luja.fi

For Betolar Media Inquiries:

Jo Hooke, Gong Communications: Jo.Hooke@gongcommunications.com, +44 (0) 20 7935 4800

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

The following files are available for download:


BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks rebounded on Wednesday, with beaten-down tech stocks bouncing back after ASML Holding raised its financial targets.



In economic releases, the European Commission said that its economic sentiment indicator, an aggregate measure of business and consumer confidence, rose to 117.8 in September from 117.6 in August, beating forecasts for a small decline.



Elsewhere, U.K. shop prices declined at a slower pace in September, data published by the British Retail Consortium revealed.



The shop price index dropped 0.5 percent on a yearly basis in September after easing 0.8 percent in August.



The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.9 percent to 456.53 after declining 2.2 percent in the previous session in its biggest percentage decline since mid-July.



The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index both rose about 1 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.9 percent.



Chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV gained 2 percent after hiking its financial forecasts. ASM International shares jumped almost 7 percent.



Wm Morrison Supermarkets gained 1.3 percent in London as the Takeover Panel established an auction procedure for the company.



Drug maker AstraZeneca jumped 2.4 percent. The company said its newly acquired Alexion division will purchase the remaining equity in peer Caelum Biosciences in a deal that could be worth up to $500m.



Clothing retailer Next added 2.4 percent. The company reported a swing to a pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2022 and raised its full-year profit outlook for the fourth time in six months.



TotalEnergies, BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell were moving lower as oil extended declines on industry data showing U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories unexpectedly rose last week.



Royal Mail plunged 5.7 percent after UBS downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'buy'.



Air France KLM shares fell 2.4 percent in Paris. The airline is beginning to see some recovery in business travel on domestic routes but premium travel remains far below pre-crisis levels, CEO Anne Rigail said while speaking at a ceremony to mark the arrival of the first of 60 Airbus A220-300 jets.



GEA Group shares rallied 3.2 percent after the German food industry system supplier presented its 'Mission 26' strategy in London as part of its Capital Markets Day.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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REGINA, SK / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / ROK Resources Inc. ("ROK" or the "Company") (TSXV:ROK) is pleased to announce the completion of a multi-layer perforation and swab test of a vertical wellbore strategically located on one of Hub City Lithium Corp. ("Hub City Lithium") Subsurface Crown Mineral Dispositions located in Saskatchewan. Laboratory testing returned lithium concentrations in the Duperow formation up to 96.3 mg/l., which exceeded the Company's target of 74.6 mg/l.

Results from the Test Well

The target Wymark zones of the Duperow tested as follows:

Target Duperow Interval Salinities (ppm) Li Concentration (mg/litre) Lower Wymark A & B 250,000 85.0 - 85.8 Upper Wymark E & F 262,000 89.0 - 96.3

Please refer to https://rokresources.ca/invest-with-us/Presentation for additional details on the Company's lithium prospects.

Bryden Wright, Chief Operating Officer of ROK, commented, "Both ROK and Hub City Lithium are very encouraged by the results of the swab test and laboratory analyses. Over the coming weeks, we will complete a full-scale production test to establish flow rate potential from the target intervals."

Background

ROK has a twenty-five (25%) percent carried interest (the "Carried Interest") in Hub City Lithium, a private corporation that currently holds 119,739 acres (48,457 hectares) of Subsurface Crown Mineral Dispositions in Saskatchewan (the "Property"). ROK, as manager of operations, performed a multi-zone swab test to recover formation brine for the purpose of laboratory testing. ROK engaged two independent laboratories1 to analyze multiple zones of interest and measure lithium concentrations present in the formation brine. Within these zones, the targeted intervals returned lithium concentrations up to 96.3 mg/l. Next steps include high-volume flow testing, which is expected to begin on or before October 31, 2021.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Trevor Else, P. Geol., a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101.

About ROK

ROK is primarily engaged in exploring for petroleum and natural gas development activities in Saskatchewan. Its head office is located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and ROK's common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol "ROK".

For further information, please contact:

Cameron Taylor, Chairman and CEO

Lynn Chapman, CFO

Phone: (306) 522-0011

Email: info@rokresources.ca

Notes

Independent laboratory testing was conducted by Isobrine Solutions (Edmonton, AB) and AGAT Laboratories (Calgary, AB).

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's objectives, goals or future plans with respect to pursuing the objectives and the expectations regarding the expected results thereof. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic and social uncertainties; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals; those additional risks set out in ROK's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; and other matters discussed in this news release. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility of the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: ROK Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/665993/ROK-Resources-Announces-Encouraging-Lithium-Results
Notably, photovoltaic systems and large-scale solar power plants combined with electrical energy storage are becoming more and more important for grid control and managing grid congestion. At Intersolar Europe Restart from October 6-8, 2021 in Munich, they will take center stage: The most important solar industry platform will be presenting the latest innovations in the fields of photovoltaics, solar thermal technologies and solar power plants. At the Intersolar Europe Conference, the specialist conference taking place in parallel with the exhibition, there will be two joint sessions with the ees Europe Conference on the integration of PV and storage systems.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005451/en/

Photovoltaics, battery storage and electromobility are growing together. (Image source: Solar Promotion GmbH)

An increased expansion of renewable energies is urgently needed. In addition to the expansion of solar and wind energy, they have to be complemented by efficient electrical energy storage to ensure that the energy transition and the new energy world run smoothly. The photovoltaic and storage market is booming. Photovoltaic additions in Germany reached 2020 4.9 gigawatts, this is more than it has since 2012. New capacity additions in 2020 were almost 30 higher than in 2019. Additionally, the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) has reported that demand for residential batteries increased by 47 %. According to BSW estimates, around 88,000 new home storage units were installed in Germany last year in the private home sector alone.

The combination of photovoltaics and storage systems is increasingly becoming the standard. Such technology can be used to optimize the self-consumption of solar energy, for charging electric vehicles or stabilizing the grid and other grid services. "The trend is clearly toward solar worry-free packages, consisting of a solar system on the roof, solar storage in the basement and, increasingly, a solar power charging station at the front door" says Carsten Kornig, Managing Director, German Solar Association (BSW). "One out of every two solar power systems is now installed together with a storage system."

Joint sessions on PV and storage

Trending PV electrical storage technologies will be showcased at the specialist conference: Leading the Charge: Electrical Storage for Residential and C&I PV Systems and A Formidable Team: Utility Scale and Electrical Energy Storage. Intersolar Europe Restart 2021 will take place at Messe Munich from October 6-8. Quick facts about the innovation platform 2021: 420 exhibitors, 20,000 visitors and an exhibition space of 55,000.

www.intersolar.de/conference-program

www.ees-europe.com/conference-program

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005451/en/

Contacts:

Robert Schwarzenbock

robert.schwarzenboeck@fischerappelt.de
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets or ACM fined over 39 million euros on Samsung Electronics Benelux B.V. for coordinating the online prices of television sets with retailers. From January 2013 through December 2018, Samsung exercised undue influence on seven retailers to increase the their prices to the market price that Samsung desired. Martijn Snoep, Chairman of the Board of ACM, stated: 'The retailers followed Samsung's recommendations because Samsung, as the one pulling all the strings, also consistently confronted other retailers if they charged too low prices.' ACM noted that Samsung's practices disrupted competition at the retail level, and resulted in higher prices for consumers. 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.
Ryan to support ON24's growing business in the region, bringing more than two decades of experience accelerating digital engagement initiatives throughout Europe

ON24 (NYSE: ONTF) today introduced Leo Ryan as vice president of customer success in EMEA. Ryan joins the company with more than 20 years of experience leading digital innovation and marketing initiatives for companies across multiple industries, from SaaS startups to some of the world's most recognized consumer brands such as American Express, Land Rover, and Unilever.

In his role at ON24, Ryan is responsible for helping EMEA customers leverage the full power of the ON24 Digital Experience Platform to create, scale, and personalize engaging digital experiences for demand generation, partner enablement, and event marketing. His appointment adds more local support for ON24 customers in the region to help accelerate their digital engagement initiatives.

"Leo has led companies through several major waves of digital transformation, from the web to mobile and social media," said Tim Collin, vice president and managing director of EMEA at ON24. "B2B customers expect consumer-like digital experiences and more of interactions with suppliers to be in digital channels. Leo's digital and consumer expertise will help our growing EMEA customer base advance their digital-first strategies and create the best experiences for their audiences."

Ryan has extensive expertise leading organizational change for companies to succeed in the digital era. Most recently, he was vice president of customer success in EMEA at Khoros and Spredfast (before its acquisition), leading enablement, account management, strategic services, training, certification, and customer support. Before that, he held various leadership positions at Ogilvy advertising, driving the agency's social media business for top brands in the United Kingdom.

"ON24 is reshaping customer engagement with a powerful sales and marketing platform that is enhancing buyer experiences and driving measurable growth," said Leo Ryan. "Companies are standardizing on the ON24 platform to convert more prospects into customers, educate and train global partners, and deliver memorable digital events. It's an exciting time to join the company and help accelerate the next phase of customer success in EMEA."

The ON24 Digital Experience Platform includes ON24 Webcast Elite, ON24 Virtual Conference, ON24 Breakouts, ON24 Engagement Hub, ON24 Target, ON24 Intelligence, and ON24 Connect. Companies can deliver digital experiences that create deep engagement, first-person data, and AI-driven personalization, as well as seamlessly integrate audience insights with marketing automation, CRM, and collaboration systems. Learn more at ON24.com/Platform/.

About ON24

ON24 provides a leading cloud-based hybrid engagement platform that makes it easy to create, scale, and personalize engaging experiences to drive measurable business growth. Today, we are helping over 2,000 companies worldwide, including 3 of the 5 largest global technology companies, 4 of the 5 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest global healthcare companies, and 3 of the 5 largest global industrial manufacturing companies, convert millions of prospects to buyers. Through interactive webinars, virtual events, and always-on multimedia experiences, ON24 provides a system of engagement, powered by AI, which enables businesses to scale engagement, conversions, and pipeline to drive revenue growth. The ON24 platform supports millions of professionals a month who are totaling billions of engagement minutes per year. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains "forward-looking statements" under applicable securities laws. In some cases, such statements can be identified by words such as: "expect," "convert," "believe," "plan," "future," "may," "should," "will," and similar references to future periods. Forward-looking statements include express or implied statements regarding our ability to achieve our business strategies, growth, or other future events or conditions. Such statements are based on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about future events or conditions, which are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the filings we make from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated in forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on them. All statements herein are based only on information currently available to us and speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any such statement.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005093/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Roger Villareal

press@on24.com

Investor Contact:

Nate Pollack

investorrelations@on24.com
NEW DELHI (dpa-AFX) - The Indian rupee climbed against the U.S. dollar in the evening session on Wednesday, as a rally in treasury yields halted, helping lift investor sentiment. U.S. treasury yields fell after an overnight surge on rising expectations for a faster rate hike by the Fed. The Indian rupee recovered to 74.08 against the greenback, after touching 74.26, which was its lowest level since August 26. The pair had ended Tuesday's trading at 74.21. The rupee may locate resistance around the 72.00 region. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced Wednesday that it structured $164 million in financing for The Goodtime Hotel, located in Miami Beach, Florida.



The financing was arranged by Walker & Dunlop's Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Adam Schwartz, Ari Hirt, and Sean Bastian, who identified JP Morgan as the ideal capital source for the financing. The team arranged a three-year, interest-only bridge loan with two one-year extension options on behalf of their client, Dreamscape.



The boutique hotel's main attraction is the food and beverage offering, which is managed by David Grutman's Groot Hospitality. Complete with a pool, restaurant, and a club with curated DJ performances and live music, the 26,000 square-foot amenity deck is a destination unto itself.



The hotel is one of the most iconic hotel offerings in Miami and opened to much fanfare in April 202. The 266-key luxury hotel features approximately 46,000 rentable square feet of ground floor retail as well as 242 parking spaces.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

WALKER & DUNLOP-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Ethos Gold Corp. (TSXV: ECC) (OTCQB: ETHOF) (FSE: 1ET) ("Ethos" or the "Company") is pleased to announce drill results from the Company's first reconnaissance, wide-spaced drill program at the Perk-Rocky Copper-Gold Porphyry Project ("Perk-Rocky") 200 kilometres west of Williams Lake. Perk-Rocky contains an extensive 8 by 5-kilometer highly prospective porphyry-style alteration footprint that contains widespread copper sulphides at surface and may be related to one or more porphyry centers. This program is the first time the property has ever been drill-tested.

Highlights of Perk-Rocky Copper-Gold Porphyry Project

Six widely spaced diamond drill holes totaling 2,050 m across three target areas were completed. The drill holes cover an east-west span of approximately 6 km, with hole lengths ranging from 235 to 437 m (Table 1, Figure 1).

Drilling focused on three target areas identified during previous sampling and mapping programs and characterized by prospective surface alteration, anomalous Cu and Au in grab samples (at surface) and coincident geophysical anomalies (Figure 1).

Five of the six holes contain intense alteration and intervals of anomalous Cu (above 100 ppm) with PK21-01 returning 113.87 ppm Cu over 27.83m, PK21-02 returning 121.34 ppm Cu over 33.60m, PK21-04 returning 134.54 ppm Cu over 25.60m, PK21-05 returning 113.23 ppm Cu over 137.25 m and 119.82 ppm Cu over 26.26m, and PK21-06 returning 120.36 ppm Cu over 36.67 and 126.94 ppm Cu over 9.63m (Table 2).

Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) analysis identified alteration minerals including abundant pyrophyllite and topaz, consistent with an advanced argillic (AA) assemblage. The advanced argillic zones are nested within domains dominated by quartz-sericite illite-pyrite (QSP). All QSP and AA alteration is surrounded by more distal chlorite-albite-epidote-magnetite-pyrite altered rock. Low grade or barren QSP and AA alteration zones are typically present in the upper parts of porphyry Cu-Au deposits.

Follow-up work to focus on re-interpretation of geophysical datasets incorporating the new drill hole information.

Stated Dr. Alan Wainwright, Technical Advisor: "We are encouraged by the strong textural destruction and alteration styles encountered to depth in the first-pass drill holes at Perk-Rocky. The new datasets from the drilling will constrain our upcoming geological work and mineralization vectors within this large system."





Figure 1. 2021 DDH locations with copper in rocks/talus and target areas at the Perk-Rocky Project

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1564/97950_1d587d0474ce9998_002full.jpg





Table 1. 2021 Perk-Rocky Diamond Drill Holes

Hole ID Target UTM Easting UTM Northing UTM Elevation Azimuth Dip Length PK21-01 Briton 356690 5740528 2242.0 0 -60 371.0 PK21-02 Briton 356690 5740524 2241.5 180 -65 235.0 PK21-03 East IP 359298 5741192 2011.5 15 -65 282.0 PK21-04 East - PIN 2 360064 5741169 1993.5 0 -60 309.0 PK21-05 Chilco Cu 354178 5739330 2346.5 348 -61 415.0 PK21-06 Briton 356725 5740333 2212.4 220 -70 437.7

Table 2. Weighted Cu intervals for PK21-01 through PK21-06

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu ppm PK21-01 11.62 39.45 27.83 113.9 and 101.85 115.10 13.25 108.7 and 148.05 185.05 10.00 183.2 inc 157.50 158.05 0.55 1180.0 and 180.80 190.85 10.05 165.6 PK21-02 11.00 25.00 14.00 170.0 and 76.60 110.20 33.60 121.3 and 158.48 180.60 22.12 112.8 PK21-03 11.00 42.30 31.30 88.9 and 231.65 232.08 0.43 581.0 PK21-04 133.00 158.60 25.60 134.5 PK21-05 37.00 174.25 137.25 113.2 inc 79.55 81.00 1.45 586.0 and 180.95 353.58 172.63 92.2 inc 180.95 190.60 9.65 113.5 inc 327.32 353.58 26.26 119.8 PK21-06 7.00 34.00 27.00 104.2 and 150.50 187.17 36.67 120.4 and 200.00 389.00 189.00 70.3 inc 217.12 257.00 39.88 97.9 inc 259.24 268.87 9.63 126.9

*True widths are unknown.

PK21-01

PK21-01, located near the head of Chromium Creek, approximately 100 m south of the Briton hematite showing, intersected moderate to strong advanced argillic (pyrophyllite-topaz-dickite-tourmaline-pyrite-hematite) alteration from 5.6 m (start of core) to 101.9 m where the altered zone is in fault contact with fresher, chlorite-epidote altered volcaniclastic rocks of the Upper Triassic Mosley Formation. The advanced argillic alteration is consistent through this interval except where cut by post-alteration mafic dykes or sills. The hole stayed in variably chlorite-epidote altered volcanic flows and volcaniclastic rocks to termination. Significant Cu and Au results are summarized in Table 1; however, the strongest Cu results of 1180 pm (157.5 - 158.1 m) and 762 ppm Cu (185.3- 185.8 m) are associated with narrow quartz-carbonate-epidote veins located in the less altered volcanic rocks.

PK21-02

PK21-02 was collared from the same setup as PK21-01 and drilled to the south at -65 and to a depth of 235 m. The hole intersected the same moderate to strong advanced argillic alteration assemblage to a depth of 172 m. However, modest alteration comprising carbonate- kaolinite-chlorite dominated from 8 m to 50 m and truncated by mafic dykes or sills from approximately 98 m to 150 m. The alteration is in fault contact with less altered, chlorite-epidote altered Upper Triassic Mosley Formation volcaniclastic rocks at approximately 178 m which persist to the bottom of the hole. Anomalous Cu results include 170 ppm Cu between 11-25 m and is associated with limonitic, sheared volcanic rocks.

PK21-03

PK21-03 was collared 2.7 km east-northeast of PK21-01 and drilled to the north to cut an untested, historic IP chargeability anomaly. From top of the hole to approximately 109 m, the hole intersected strongly broken and sheared, sericite-pyrite altered volcanic rocks with a zone of moderate advanced argillic (pyrophyllite-dickite-tourmaline-pyrite) alteration from 36 m to 48 m. The historic chargeability anomaly is believed to be caused by the strongly pyritic rocks above 109 m. Significant Cu in this hole is 581 ppm from 231.65 m to 232.08 m in a bleached and sheared mafic dyke. A 2 m sample from 22.4 m in gouged, sheared volcanic rocks assayed 121 g/t Ag with no other associated metals except 180 ppm Cu. The highest Mo value from the project to date (120 ppm) was returned from 9 m to 11 m in broken, quartz-veined volcanic rocks.

PK21-04

PK21-04 is located 765 m east of PK21-03 and was drilled to the north to a depth of 309 m to test an area of copper-bearing float samples (proximal to the PIN 2 showing) and to test the depth of widespread phyllic alteration. From the top of the hole to approximately 104 m, the drill hole intersected a sequence of weakly chlorite-clay-carbonate-pyrite altered volcaniclastic rocks (Mosley Formation). The core is moderately to strongly fractured and sheared from 104 m to approximately 220 m with moderate to strong sericite-clay-chlorite-pyrite alteration. Within this interval, from 154 m to 172 m, is a zone of moderate to strong advanced argillic alteration (pyrophyllite-topaz-kaolinite-dickite-pyrite). The bottom of the hole (220 m to 309 m) is more competent, green and maroon Mosley Formation volcaniclastic units. Significant anomalous Cu was intersected between 133 and 158.60 m returning 135 ppm Cu in sericite-pyrite altered volcanic rocks.

PK21-05

PK21-05 is located 2.8 km west-southwest of PK21-01 and was drilled to the north to a depth of 415 m to test copper mineralization identified in 2020 along the nearby ridge crest. The hole intersected a meta-diorite from 23.6 m to 89 m and generally weakly altered, competent hornfelsed volcaniclastic rocks from 89 m to 158 m. From 158 m to approximately 199 m, the core is strongly sheared and fractured within a fault zone. From 199 m to the end of the hole at 415 m, the core is more competent, chlorite-epidote altered hornfelsed volcanic units which are locally bleached. Two significant samples occur within the meta-diorite: 1.62 g/t Au (with 1.69 g/t Te) from 62 m to 63.15 m and 586 Cu from 79.55 m to 81 m. The gold value is associated with some quartz veining at the margin of porphyritic dyke and the copper value with a narrow zone of silicification. Additional anomalous Cu intervals occur between 37-174.25 m and 327.32-353.58 m returning 113 and 120 ppm Cu respectively.

PK21-06

PK21-06 was collared 200 m south of PK21-01 and drill to the southwest at -70 to a depth of 437.7 m. The hole was planned to test the advanced argillic alteration identified in PK21-01 and 02 and to better delineate the geology. PK21-06 intersected moderate to strong advanced argillic alteration (pyrophyllite-topaz-kaolinite-tourmaline-pyrite) from surface to a down-hole depth of 178 m. The advanced argillic alteration is locally strongly sheared and foliated with up to 20% pyrite and is cut by a post-alteration mafic dyke or sill from 32.2 m to 47.9 m. From 178 m to approximately 291 m the rock is still strongly sheared but alteration is mainly weaker kaolinite-sericite-carbonate-pyrite and volcaniclastic textures are locally visible. From 291 m to the end of hole at 437.7 m the hole is more competent green to greenish-grey, weakly chlorite-epidote altered volcaniclastic rocks of the Upper Triassic Mosley Formation. Anomalous Cu intervals occur between 150.50-187.17 m and 259.24-268.87 m returning 120 and 127 ppm Cu respectively.

Next Steps

The targeting campaign by Ethos going forward includes additional evaluation of geochemical and alteration data as well as re-interpretation of geophysical datasets in light of the new drill hole contributions to the model.

Logging, geochemical and spectral SWIR analysis of the drill core suggest several key geological interpretations that require follow up:

The variety of alteration assemblages defined in the drill core suggest differing erosion levels at Perk-Rocky.

The dimensions of the alteration footprint have been extended significantly to depth. Pyrophyllite was encountered in all drill holes except PK21-05. The QSP + AA footprint now measures approximately 5,000 m by 600 m by >200 m while the AA alteration within the QSP has been identified over an area approximately 3,500 m by 600 m by 200 m vertically. Pyrophyllite was encountered in all drill holes except PK21-05.

The QSP and AA altered geological units occur within moderate south dipping panels which are bound by low-angle faults.

Overview of Perk-Rocky

Ethos is earning a 100% interest in Perk-Rocky, a copper-gold porphyry target located in South-Central BC, largely within Upper Triassic volcaniclastic rocks assigned to the Stikine Terrane. In 2019 and 2020, the Company completed mapping and sampling programs confirming a large, telescoped porphyry Cu-Au mineralized system over an 8 km x 5 km alteration footprint (Figure 1). Extensive copper-gold mineralization coincides with geophysical signatures suggestive of multiple porphyry centers within a large alteration halo. Further analysis and rigorous reinterpretation of the Ethos VTEM survey conducted in 2019 contributed to the identification of robust drill targets. In addition, the presence of reactive mafic to intermediate host rocks, porphyry dikes, extensive copper mineralisation at surface with intense alteration, development of stockwork-style veins locally suggest a large, strong, telescoped Cu-Au porphyry system may be centred at Perk-Rocky.

QA/QC Procedures

NQ size core was sampled over approximately two metre intervals. All core samples were sent to ALS Canada Ltd. (ALS) in Kamloops, BC for preparation and analysis. ALS meets all requirements of International Standards ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and ISO 9001:2015 for analytical procedures. Samples were analyzed using ALS's Fire Assay 30g ICP-AES method (Au-ICP21) and by a 48-element four acid digest ICP-MS analysis (ME-ICP61). In addition to ALS Laboratory quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) protocols, Ethos implements an internal QA/QC program that includes the insertion of sample blanks, duplicates and standards into the sample stream.

Qualified Person

The technical content disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Jo Price, P.Geo., M.Sc., VP Exploration of Ethos, and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101").

About Ethos Gold Corp.

Ethos Gold, a Discovery Group company, has accumulated a portfolio of district-scale projects in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland that we believe have large scale discovery potential. Ethos engages proactively with Indigenous rightsholders and seeks to develop relationships and agreements that are mutually beneficial. The Company has a solid technical team led by Dr. Rob Carpenter, formerly the CEO of Kaminak Gold Corporation. Rob led the Kaminak team from initial listing in 2005 through acquisition and discovery of the multiple-million-ounce Coffee Gold Project. In Ethos, he has assembled a senior geologic team with a strong record of discovery success including Dr. Robert Brozdowski, P.Geo., Dan MacNeil, M.Sc., P. Geo., Dr. Alan Wainwright, P.Geo., Jodie Gibson, M.Sc., P.Geo., and Dr. Quinton Hennigh, an economic geologist with 25 years of exploration experience formerly with Homestake Mining Company, Newcrest Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. With working capital of approximately C$8.5 million, the Company is well funded to advance its projects.

Ethos Gold Corp.

Per: "Alex Heath"

Alex Heath, CFA, President and CEO

For further information about Ethos Gold Corp. or this news release, please visit our website at ethosgold.com or contact Alex Heath at 604-354-2491 or by email at alexh@ethosgold.com.

Ethos Gold Corp. is a proud member of Discovery Group. For more information please visit: discoverygroup.ca

Forward-Looking Statement Cautions:

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to the Company's projects and the timing related thereto, the merits of the Company's projects, the Company's objectives, plans and strategies, the Private Placements, and other project opportunities. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective,", "strategy", "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the risk of accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, or the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other agency or governmental clearances, necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, risks and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, risks and uncertainties related to the Company's ability to complete the Private Placements and the size of the Private Placements, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on its business that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97950
WM's ICLM and TUV Unitary Global Payments Systems provide a fully operational and benign model for a functioning Cashless Society worldwide

NEW YORK and ST PETER PORT, Guernsey, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To create its Global Clearing System - a digital version of John Maynard Keynes's proposed "International Clearing Union" - Global Telephony Provider Webtel.mobi ("WM") also created a Global Unitary Payment System - with two Global Payment Facilities - the ICLM Payments and the TUV Digital Currency Payments (also known as "TUV Payments").



Both Payment Systems have all the characteristics of Cash Payments and Digital Payments combined, are globally applicable, globally available, require no specialized equipment to function, have multicurrency wallets, enable multicurrency payments with FX Conversions in-wallet, and are equally available to Banked and Unbanked persons.

One of these Payment Systems - the ICLM Payments - is ultra-low cost to use, and the other - TUV Payments - is completely free to use.

These Payment Systems not only facilitate a "Cashless Society", but have also already introduced a fully operational global Cashless Society system in a benign way. It is benign because this version of a Cashless Society preserves individuals' privacy, freedom, and choice.

WM's Payment Systems do not require a Central Bank issued Digital Currency or CBDC to function because WM's TUV Digital Currency itself is already the equivalent of a Global CBDC.

WM's Payment Systems - like all its other facilities - are not new. They were functional and operational in 2009, but WM spent nine years testing and perfecting them - and subjecting its system to multiple third-party Due Diligences worldwide - to ensure compliance and robustness before rebuilding its Platform 2 to provide these Facilities in an unrestricted manner internationally.

Access to WM's services is only available to WM Members because it is a Closed-Loop Members-Only service. However, it is free and instant to join WM as a Member.

WM has one of the safest systems internationally in Security and Anti Money Laundering. WM's Payment Systems synchronize, into one product, the characteristics of Cash and Digital Money with the ease of use of Cash and the safety of Digital Money. They also have the security of a closed, monitored system and transactions - ensuring robust security and Anti-Money Laundering capacities.

To load WM accounts, Members can transfer funds ("Stored Credit") into their accounts using any means, and also purchase TUV Digital Currency from WM Agents ("VSMPs") for cash. The system provides a Unitary and level playing field - and entry into a 21st Century Digital Economy for all people - whether Banked or Unbanked. It renders even the concepts of "Banked" or "Unbanked" redundant - because the only differentiator is the method used to load funds ("Stored Credit") onto WM Accounts.

All funds ("Stored Credit") of WM Members is held in regulated Bank Accounts, so the WM System has permanent 100% liquidity, and all Payment and Settlement Transactions are carried out simultaneously in 1/100th of a second.

WM's ICLM Payments and TUV Payments are fully operational, and available to all WM Members on its platform. Examples of some of WM's ICLM and TUV Payments Systems' characteristics in comparison to other Payment Systems in the Offline Payments role are as follow:

OFFLINE PAYMENTS CHARACTERISTIC CARD

PAYMENTS MOBILE

PAYMENTS CASH

PAYMENTS ICLM

PAYMENTS TUV

PAYMENTS Payments made Instantly Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Functions 24/7/365 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Funds Secure in Digital Wallets Yes Yes No Yes Yes Functions without a Physical or Digital Card No No Yes Yes Yes Has Combined Usability of Cash and Digital No No No Yes Yes Has Identical Usability to Cash No No Yes Yes Yes Pure Peer 2 Peer Transactions (PP2P) No No Yes Yes Yes Impossible to Carry Out Fraudulent Transactions No No Yes Yes Yes Impossible for Merchants to Incur Chargebacks No No Yes Yes Yes Instant No-Retention Settlement to Merchants No No Yes Yes Yes Payment Process without Intermediaries No No Yes Yes Yes Payment Process without Intermediary Fees No No Yes Yes Yes Receive Payments without Terminals/Equipment No No Yes Yes Yes Functions Alone Without Any Other Entities No No Yes Yes Yes Functions in all Countries and Territories No No Yes Yes Yes Merchant and Payer can Split Payment Fees No No Yes Yes Yes Self-Contained Unitary Global System No No No Yes Yes Uniform Global Security and Standards No No No Yes Yes Total Access from Any Smart Phone No No No Yes Yes Total Access from Any Pre-Smart Mobile Phone No No No Yes Yes Impossible for a 3rd Party to use if Stolen No No No Yes Yes Impossible for a 3rd Party to use if Lost No No No Yes Yes Impossible to Clone or Counterfeit No No No Yes Yes Clients can Pay in Multiple Currencies Globally No No No Yes Yes Clients Control FX Conversions No No No Yes Yes Merchants can Accept Multicurrency Payments No No No Yes Yes Merchants Control FX Conversions No No No Yes Yes Totally Free to Make and Receive Payments No No Yes 0.25% to 1% Yes

Once people have joined WM as Members and loaded Stored Credit onto their accounts, they can start using the ICLM Payments of TUV Payments Systems immediately - to make or receive payments. The only requirement is a Smart Phone - or a Pre-Smart Phone (which still comprise 50% of Mobile Phones in use) - and the ITAN Number and Registered Mobile Number of the WM Member they want to pay. That is all.

ITAN Numbers ("Inter-TEL.mobi Account Numbers") are the unique Account Numbers issued to all WM Members when they join, and the Registered Mobile Number is the member's Mobile Phone Number.

For Merchants to notify clients they accept ICLM and TUV Payments of WM's unique Global Account Numbering system, they simply need to display this sign, and indicate they accept payment in only one currency, only some currencies or in all currencies.

As all WM Members can execute in-wallet Currency Conversions or Currency Swaps within WM, it makes no difference whether only one currency or all currencies are accepted. This is because all Members can convert before paying or after receiving payments. Examples of the Merchant notifications for accepting ICLM and TUV Payments are as follow:

We Accept ICLM and TUV Payments We Accept ICLM and TUV Payments Our ITAN: WM1234567891234567891234 Our ITAN: WM9876543219876543219876 Our Mobile: +XX 1234 567 890 Our Mobile: +XX 9876 543 210 Payment Currencies Accepted: All Currencies Payment Currencies Accepted: USD only Instant Confirmation by Text: Yes Instant Confirmation by Text: Yes

Resources:

Media Contact:

Nick Lambert: wm@thoburns.com

Video on WM's Regulatory Compliance:

https://youtu.be/u522lVsGIJI

Video on The Capacities of the WM System:

https://youtu.be/XYBrCikUhn8

Research Reports on the Capacities of the WM System:

https://tinyurl.com/TUVresearch

WM's urls:

https://webtel.mobi/pc(Pre-Smart Mobile Phones)


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, explained a number of hard truths of lessons learned from Afghanistan.



'We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,' the U.S. Defense chief told the Committee Tuesday, summarizing the United States' 20-year involvement in the war-torn country.



Austin gave context to the U.S. decisions in Afghanistan and also detailed the U.S. actions while the Government succumbed to the Taliban onslaught.



The United States spent billions outfitting and training Afghan security forces over the 20 year conflict. 'The fact that the Afghan army [that] we and our partners trained simply melted away - in many cases without firing a shot - took us all by surprise,' Austin said. 'It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.'



The Secretary said American leaders need to consider some uncomfortable truths regarding the Afghan military. The United States underestimated the damage that corruption in the Afghan military's senior ranks played in building the security forces. 'We did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by [former Afghan] President [Ashraf] Ghani of his commanders,' Austin said.



In addition, the Doha Agreement - negotiated between the United States and the Taliban - had a negative effect on Afghan government forces, according to the four-star General.



'We did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha Agreement, that the Doha Agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers, and that we failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which - and for whom - many of the Afghan forces would fight,' Austin said.



'Over 20 years, tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police died in battle. Many fought bravely, but, in the end, we couldn't provide them with the will to win,' the Secretary said.



Austin also addressed questions that arose following the most successful mass, non-combatant airlift evacuation in history, which exceeded all expectations.



Austin told the Senate Committee members that extending the U.S. troop withdrawal beyond the August 31 deadline would have greatly imperiled U.S. human resources and its mission.



'The Taliban made clear that their cooperation would end on the first of September, and as you know, we faced grave and growing threats from ISIS-K. Staying longer than we did would have made it even more dangerous for our people and would not have significantly changed the number of evacuees who we could get out.'



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Reported diluted earnings per share of $0.21

Mutual fund gross sales of $790 million for the third quarter of 2021, an improvement of 61% year-over-year

Mutual fund net sales of $288 million for the quarter

Total assets under management and fee-earning assets1 of $43.4 billion

AGF Management Limited (AGF or the Company) (TSX: AGF.B) today announced financial results for the third quarter ended August 31, 2021.

AGF reported total assets under management and fee-earning assets1 of $43.4 billion compared to $36.5 billion as at August 31, 2020.

"As we head into the final months of 2021, we are well-positioned to execute against our strategic priorities and will aim to continue to gain momentum with a focus on increasing sales, evolving our client-base and looking for opportunities to diversify our business," said Kevin McCreadie, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, AGF.

"Despite the challenges of the pandemic, this year we have made strides expanding into the private alternatives space and are seeing the results of growing interest into our fee-based series and separately managed accounts," added McCreadie.

AGF's mutual funds net sales improved $310 million year-over-year, with total net sales of $288 million in Q3 2021, compared to net redemptions of $22 million in Q3 2020. Excluding net flows from institutional clients invested in mutual funds, retail mutual fund net sales were $288 million for the quarter compared to net redemptions of $4 million in the comparative period of 2020. AGF mutual fund gross sales for the quarter totaled $790 million, a 61% improvement over prior year.

Mutual fund sales momentum continued into September with AGF reporting mutual fund net sales of $80 million as at September 24, 2021 compared to net redemptions of $11 million for the same time last year. Mutual fund gross sales were up 51% year-over-year.

"Delivering on our strategic growth strategy, this quarter we deployed capital and diversified partnerships within our private alternatives business," said Adrian Basaraba, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. "The opportunities within this space have allowed us to realize value for our shareholders and grow our assets and revenue streams."



"We are targeting continued growth while keeping expense management top of mind with the goal of improving margins," added Basaraba.

Key Business Highlights:

AGF in partnership with the SAF Group (SAF) announced the launch of AGF SAF Private Credit Limited Partnership and AGF SAF Private Credit Trust. The new offerings provide both institutional and retail investors access to the benefit of private credit investing.





AGF announced an evolution of its strategic partnership with SAF. The partnership is focused on providing investors access to unique private alternative opportunities leveraging AGF's operations and distribution reach coupled with SAF's private credit investment management expertise. AGF and SAF have agreed to a definitive agreement along with a distribution arrangement as an alternative to AGF exercising its option to acquire management contracts of select SAF funds.





In June 2021, one of AGF's long-term private alternative investments, SAF Jackson Management LP (SAFJM LP), was fully monetized, with a final cash distribution of $5.9 million received. As part of this transaction, AGF through its joint venture ownership interest in the manager received $2.4 million of carried interest.





AGF announced a strategic private equity partnership with First Ascent Ventures (First Ascent) focused on investing in emerging technology companies that are building the next generation of disruptive, fast growing enterprise B2B software companies. AGF has made a $30 million cornerstone investor commitment to First Ascent's second fund and is a member of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee of the fund.





AGF International Advisors Company Limited has been accepted as a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code, recognized globally as a best-practice benchmark in investment stewardship.





Building on its commitment to diversity and inclusion, AGF announced a multi-year partnership for the creation of the AGF Scholarship Fund for Indigenous students with Indspire, a national Indigenous organization that invests in the education of Indigenous people, enabling their success through financial awards, resources and role models.

Judy Goldring, AGF's President and Head of Global Distribution, was elected Vice-Chair of The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC)'s Board of Directors. She will serve a two-year term supporting IFIC's commitment to further strengthen the integrity of Canada's investment funds industry and foster a strong, stable investment sector for the benefit of investors and the association's Members.

For further information on AGF's pandemic response plan statement visit AGF.com .



Financial Highlights:

"When it comes to expense management, we continue to take a thoughtful approach that has allowed our core expenses and operations to remain relatively consistent as we continue to see an increase in success-based expenses," added Basaraba.

Management, advisory, administration fees and deferred sales charges were $112.4 million for the three months ended August 31, 2021, compared to $94.9 million in 2020. The increase in revenue is attributable to higher net sales, increase in AUM and higher average revenue rate as a result of product mix.





The continued increase in mutual fund sales in the third quarter along with increased corporate development activity drove higher selling, general and administrative costs in the period. Selling, general and administrative costs were $50.1 million for the three months ended August 31, 2021, compared to $46.1 million in 2020. This increase in variable costs was partially offset by management's continued focus on cost control.





EBITDA before commissions for the three months ended August 31, 2021 was $37.5 million, compared to $62.6 million in the prior year comparative period . Excluding reported earnings from S&WHL, adjusted EBITDA before commissions for the three months ended August 31, 2021 was $37.5 million, compared to $21.3 million in the prior year comparative period.





Excluding reported earnings from S&WHL, adjusted EBITDA before commissions for the three months ended August 31, 2021 was $37.5 million, compared to $21.3 million in the prior year comparative period. DSC commissions for the three months ended August 31, 2021 were $14.1 million, compared to $8.9 million in the prior year comparative period.





Net income for the three months ended August 31, 2021 was $14.9 million ($0.21 diluted EPS), compared to $47.3 million ($0.60 diluted EPS) in the prior year comparative period. Adjusted net income for the three months ended August 31, 2021 was $14.9 million ($0.21 adjusted diluted EPS), compared to $14.8 million ($0.19 adjusted diluted EPS) in the prior year comparative period. Excluding reported earnings from S&WHL, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.08 in the comparative prior year period. The increase is primarily due to the growth in mutual fund sales as well as the income generated from AGF's interest in private alternative managers and long-term investments.

Three months ended Nine months ended August 31, May 31, August 31, August 31, August 31, (in millions of Canadian dollars, except per share data) 2021 2021 20201 2021 20201 Income Management, advisory, administration fees and deferred sales charges $ 112.4 $ 108.6 $ 94.9 $ 323.9 $ 283.2 Share of profit of joint ventures 2.2 0.1 0.6 3.1 1.3 Other income from fee-earning arrangements 0.7 0.4 - 1.1 - Dividend income (S&WHL) - - 41.3 - 45.8 Fair value adjustments and other income 7.8 0.4 1.9 11.7 4.3 Total Income $ 123.1 $ 109.5 $ 138.7 $ 339.8 $ 334.6 Selling, general and administrative 50.1 47.1 46.1 145.2 131.6 Deferred selling commissions 14.1 17.7 8.9 47.4 31.7 EBITDA before commissions2 37.5 28.2 62.6 92.2 114.1 Adjusted EBITDA before commissions2 37.5 28.2 30.1 92.2 81.6 EBITDA 23.4 10.5 53.7 44.8 82.4 Net income 14.9 5.0 47.3 25.5 63.5 Adjusted net income2 14.9 5.0 14.8 25.5 31.0 Diluted earnings per share 0.21 0.07 0.60 0.35 0.80 Adjusted diluted earnings per share2 0.21 0.07 0.19 0.35 0.39 Free cash flow2 21.5 10.4 15.5 42.4 36.1 Dividends per share 0.09 0.08 0.08 0.25 0.24 Long-term debt - - 194.3 - 194.3

(end of period) Three months ended August 31, May 31, February 28, November 30, August 31, (in millions of Canadian dollars) 2021 2021 2021 2020 2020 Mutual fund assets under management (AUM)3 $ 23,792 $ 22,290 $ 21,394 $ 20,322 $ 19,232 Institutional, sub-advisory and ETF accounts AUM 10,302 9,713 9,403 9,638 9,252 Private client AUM 7,073 6,689 6,300 6,043 5,773 Private alternatives AUM4,5 99 134 142 227 178 Total AUM4 $ 41,266 $ 38,826 $ 37,239 $ 36,230 $ 34,435 Private alternatives fee-earning assets4,5 2,094 1,983 2,012 2,038 2,029 Total AUM and fee-earning assets5 $ 43,360 $ 40,809 $ 39,251 $ 38,268 $ 36,464 Net mutual fund sales (redemptions)3 288 408 385 88 (22) Average daily mutual fund AUM3 23,104 22,011 21,118 19,487 18,879

1 Refer to Note 3 in the 2020 Consolidated Financial Statements for more information on the adoption of IFRS 16.

2 EBITDA before commissions .

3 Mutual fund AUM includes retail AUM, pooled fund AUM and institutional client AUM invested in customized series offered within mutual funds.

4 Total AUM and Private alternatives AUM have been reclassified and restated to exclude co-investment AUM for comparative purposes.

5 Fee-earning assets represents assets in which AGF has carried interest ownership and earns recurring fees but does not have ownership interest in the managers.



For further information and detailed financial statements for the third quarter ended August 31, 2021, including Management's Discussion and Analysis, which contains discussions of non-IFRS measures, please refer to AGF's website at www.agf.com under 'About AGF' and 'Investor Relations' and at www.sedar.com .

Conference Call

AGF will host a conference call to review its earnings results today at 11 a.m. ET.

The live audio webcast with supporting materials will be available in the Investor Relations section of AGF's website at www.agf.com or at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/357jk6jw . Alternatively, the call can be accessed toll-free in North America by dialing 1 (800) 708-4540 (Passcode #: 50216247).

A complete archive of this discussion along with supporting materials will be available at the same webcast address within 24 hours of the end of the conference call.

About AGF Management Limited

Founded in 1957, AGF Management Limited (AGF) is an independent and globally diverse asset management firm. AGF brings a disciplined approach to delivering excellence in investment management through its fundamental, quantitative, alternative and high-net-worth businesses focused on providing an exceptional client experience. AGF's suite of investment solutions extends globally to a wide range of clients, from financial advisors and individual investors to institutional investors including pension plans, corporate plans, sovereign wealth funds and endowments and foundations.

AGF has investment operations and client servicing teams on the ground in North America, Europe and Asia. With over $43 billion in total assets under management and fee-earning assets, AGF serves more than 700,000 investors. AGF trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AGF.B.

AGF Management Limited shareholders, analysts and media, please contact:

Adrian Basaraba

Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer

416-865-4203, InvestorRelations@agf.com

Courtney Learmont

Vice-President, Finance

647-253-6804, InvestorRelations@agf.com





Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements about the Company, including its business operations, strategy and expected financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as 'expects,' 'estimates,' 'anticipates,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes' or negative versions thereof and similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as 'may,' 'will,' 'should,' 'would' and 'could.' In addition, any statement that may be made concerning future financial performance (including income, revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies or prospects, fund performance, and possible future action on our part, is also a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are based on certain factors and assumptions, including expected growth, results of operations, business prospects, business performance and opportunities. While we consider these factors and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events and are inherently subject to, among other things, risks, uncertainties and assumptions about our operations, economic factors and the financial services industry generally. They are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by us due to, but not limited to, important risk factors such as level of assets under our management, volume of sales and redemptions of our investment products, performance of our investment funds and of our investment managers and advisors, client-driven asset allocation decisions, pipeline, competitive fee levels for investment management products and administration, and competitive dealer compensation levels and cost efficiency in our investment management operations, as well as general economic, political and market factors in North America and internationally, interest and foreign exchange rates, global equity and capital markets, business competition, taxation, changes in government regulations, unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings, technological changes, cybersecurity, the possible effects of war or terrorist activities, outbreaks of disease or illness that affect local, national or international economies (such as COVID-19), natural disasters and disruptions to public infrastructure, such as transportation, communications, power or water supply or other catastrophic events, and our ability to complete strategic transactions and integrate acquisitions, and attract and retain key personnel. We caution that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Other than specifically required by applicable laws, we are under no obligation (and expressly disclaim any such obligation) to update or alter the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For a more complete discussion of the risk factors that may impact actual results, please refer to the 'Risk Factors and Management of Risk' section of the 2020 Annual MD&A.
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Gratomic Inc. ("Gratomic", "GRAT" or the "Company") (TSXV:GRAT)(OTCQX:CBULF)(FSE:CB82) announces its recent outreach initiative to initiate improvements at a local residential primary school. A small kick-off event was held at the J.S. Herero Primary School in the Bethany District of Southern Namibia, where the Gratomic Executive team had the opportunity to witness first-hand the roadblocks faced by the staff and students at the facility.

Although kept extremely clean, the facility itself has fallen into disrepair. All aspects of the building require maintenance including the kitchen, residences, classrooms, and exterior. Repairs will include, flooring, paint, windows, linens, furniture, and more. Gratomic aims to see that the school receives adequate classroom resources, playground equipment and library books. The Company has committed to setting up a trust fund on behalf of the J.S. Herero Primary School in the amount of 5 million Namibian Dollars (approximately $454,000 CDN), from which the approved vendors will receive payment for goods and services provided. Certain controls will be in place, such as proof of work in the form of photographs and detailed invoices will be submitted to the trust for Company approval prior to any release of funds.

"This is a project close to my heart," stated Lynne Brand, General Manager and Head of HR, Namibia, "to see the struggle first-hand is heart-wrenching and it means a lot to us at Gratomic to be able to provide these students with the tools to excel in their educational career."

The outdoor event began with introductions of the School Staff, Community Elders, and the Gratomic team. The Company was honoured with performances from students and Gratomic CEO & President Arno Brand made a moving speech. From there, a donation of 300 student gifts comprised of backpacks loaded with essential items and gift bags containing special extras, such as chocolates and a toy, were presented to the students. The Company also donated a hamburger lunch and were grateful to the local volunteers who came out to help, ensuring that the event was a success.

This event kicks off Gratomic's commitment to further develop and improve on the government run facility. Community outreach has always been a core value at Gratomic, and the Company will continue to aid in the necessary development of local schools and other community centers, maintaining its 2021 focus on youth and education in Namibia. The Company is a strong believer that children are the future and aims to provide support to local youths, encouraging education and personal and professional development.

CEO and President Arno Brand stated, "Gratomic is founded on the belief that children are our future, and because of that, we set out with the aim of contributing what we can to the local communities. It is our goal to create a lasting legacy for generations to come, we are dedicated to providing support to youth in Namibia so that they can gain access to opportunities that wouldn't have otherwise been available to them."

About Gratomic

Gratomic?is focused on?introducing an exceptional anode material to the global electric vehicle and energy storage supply chains.?True to its roots as an exploration and mining company, Gratomic aims to achieve full operational capabilities in 2022 on its Aukam Graphite Project and continues to diversify its assets into a multi-national company with various projects globally. Large quantities of its naturally high-quality vein graphite have been shipped for testing to confirm its viability as an anode material. Gratomic is confident that the results will provide a unique competitive advantage in its desired target markets.

The Company's recent collaboration agreement with Forge Nano has advanced the developments on its graphite finalization phase for?the?micronization,?spheronization, and the patented ALD coating?of its Aukam vein?graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries. Forge Nano is?a?global leader in surface engineering and precision nano-coating technology, using Atomic Layer?Deposition.

GRAT has two outstanding off-take purchase agreements with TODAQ and Phu Sumika with contract fulfillment slated to begin in 2021.??Gratomic?plans to deliver mine-to-market traceability through its partnership with deeptech company TODAQ by providing documented tracking on all graphite generated at its flagship?Aukam?Graphite Project.

For more information: visit the website at?www.gratomic.ca?or contact:

Arno Brand

abrand@gratomic.ca

(416) 561-4095

Subscribe at gratomic.ca/contact/ to be added to our email list.

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com.)

SOURCE: Gratomic Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/665992/Gratomic-Collaborates-with-Community-to-Initiate-Improvements-in-Local-Residential-Primary-School
ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Findit, Inc., a Nevada Corporation (OTC PINK:FDIT), owner of Findit.com, a full-service social networking platform which provides tools for members to increase brand awareness through content creation and sharing, resulting in indexing in search engines, announces Findit S1 registration is effective as of Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 4:00PM. The Form S1 includes year ending December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020 audited financials. The Law Firm of Thomas Cook and Associates prepared the FORM S1 for filing and it was submitted through EDGAR, March 11, 2021.

At the time of submission, The S1 was priced at thirty cents per share which is currently higher than the current stock price. The amount of shares in the offering is a total of ten million shares which would amount to three million dollars if the raise is 100% subscribed. The proceeds would be used for development and marketing of the website Findit.com and the Findit App, which is available on Android and IOS.

Findit, which provides online marketing social networking content creation campaigns, completed the company audit with the Auditing Firm BF Borgers CPA PC Certified, Public Accountants back in Q1 of 2021. The company completed three years of audited financials that include 2018, 2019, and 2020. The Form S1 at the time of submission included year ending December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020 audited financials.

Other notable updates that are happening on the Findit Platform are an improved Right Now Feed. The feed has been updated to improve flow, as well as enhanced aesthetics and navigation. This allows visitors of Findit and members of Findit to more easily click around on the platform, exploring the content they are interested in. Profile media management updates are also in development. A new, more intuitive interface will be added involving the picture, video, and audio upload process, helping to streamline the profile setup experience for users. Updates to media are also coming including: podcasts, before and after photos, and hosting of videos, including embedding Youtube and Vimeo videos. These improvements are being done to help transform the user experience for members creating content on Findit, but also those who are using Findit, whether or not they are signed in, to explore and browse content and other media. Existing users will also soon see an updated dashboard design that makes it easier to manage posted Right Now status updates, articles, and media galleries.

Clark St. Amant stated, "We are excited to announce that the Form S1 is complete and registered effective as of September 23, 2021 at 4PM EST. We will continue to make strides to provide value to our customers and shareholders. By making these improvements to the site, we are hopeful that more and more people will begin to see the value in using the Findit platform to share what they want with the world."

Download the Findit App today and let the world see what you have to say and share with them.

Google

Apple

SEC Edgar Company File Confirmation Information

About The Law Offices of Thomas C. Cook

The Law Offices of Thomas C. Cook was formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1997, with a principal focus of representing public companies before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, OTC Markets, LLC, and the various state securities authorities. Thomas C. Cook, Esq., the firm's principal attorney, has over two decades of experience in corporate and securities law, including but not limited to corporate formation and governance, securities registrations and compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and the issuance of securities-related opinions. Mr. Cook received his bachelor of arts from Occidental College in 1990 and his Juris Doctor from Whittier Law School in 1993.

About BF Borgers CPA, PC?????

At BF Borgers CPA, PC, we have built our practice by providing exceptional service to our clients through our commitment to our firm culture and values based on the three underlying principals Professionalism, Responsiveness, Quality.

About Findit, Inc.

Findit, Inc., owns Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit, Inc. is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increased brand awareness of our members. Findit Inc. trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets.

Safe Harbor:

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Findit Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed by such forward-looking statements. This press release speaks as of the date first set forth above, and Findit Inc. assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to factors such as the lack of capital, timely development of products, inability to deliver products when ordered, inability of potential customers to pay for ordered products, and political and economic risks inherent in international trade.

CONTACT:

Clark St. Amant

404-443-3224

SOURCE: Findit, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/665979/Findit-Inc-Announces-Form-S1-Registration-Effective-As-of-September-23-2021
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / EYEFI Group Technologies Inc. (CSE:EGTI)(OTC PINK:EGTTF) is pleased to announce it continues to grow its sales pipeline now reaching over $35 million in new sales opportunities in Australia and New Zealand.

EYEfi's existing sales channel partners Telstra Corporation Limited (TLS) and Fujitsu Australia continue to provide access to new customers and sales opportunities across some of Australia's largest corporate customers. EYEfi is also finalizing new sales channel partnerships, including a major global camera manufacturer who will bundle EYEfi's cloud product within their full range of Internet Protocol (or digital video) camera products.

Technology developments capturing real-time interactions and information

EYEfi's core spatial targeting capability, EYEfi SPARC, is also being further deployed ahead of the Australian summer for Bushfire Detection (to be announced in full later this year). Using the technology in bushfire detection ensures that fire authorities can respond quickly to emerging threats and strengthens their opportunity to proactively manage a situation.

Furthermore, following the recent successful beta deployment of SPARC on the iPhone, EYEfi is working towards the commercial release of its Smartphone App and SpatialEye product that will expand EYEfi into new markets and customer verticals.

EYEfi's CEO, Simon Langdon, said "EYEfi SPARC fundamentally changes the way we discover, explore and interact with the world around us. The SpatialEye App which incorporates SPARC technology, will enable users to simply point their Smartphone camera at anything (whether just metres or miles away) and know its exact geographical location, in real-time. This is transformational and we have plans to release this on Drones and UAV's. It can even be embedded in other platforms to be used for autonomous vehicles and autonomous flight.

We see a world where imagery (still images or video) is interactive - EYEfi SPARC enables this so that anyone can make their own discoveries by simply observing something of interest using the Smartphone, or in the near future, by clicking or touching anywhere in a SPARC-enabled image. This IP is highly engaging to use and has positive disruptive implications across many industries and applications."

Understanding the advantages of EYEfi

Investors and Brokers can gain a deeper insight into EYEfi through this new video, where EYEfi's founder and CEO, Simon Langdon provides information on:

EYEfi's cutting edge SPARC and product technology EYEfi's business model, growth prospects, and roadmap EYEfi's industry partnerships including special comments from EYEfi Board Advisor and industry veteran, Jeff Sharp (Transurban) How investors and brokers can get involved in the EYEfi journey

Watch the video update today: https://www.eyefigroup.com/corporateupdatesept2021

Investors and brokers can contact Mark van der Horst at mark@galecapital.com 604 200-1480 (Cell 604 760-7604)

Sales enquiries can be directed to Michael Consolo, Head of Sales and Marketing for Australia and NZ, on info@eyefi.com.au or on +613 94175777 during business hours (AEST)

- end -

About EYEfi

EYEfi is connecting the world's people and devices with the world around them, in real-time and in ways not previously possible.

EYEfi is a software and electronics engineering company that has developed, patented and commercialized an innovative spatial technology; spatial, predictive, approximation and radial convolution (SPARC) and an associated product suite, that turns sensors, cameras and smartphones (fixed, mobile, airborne, portable or handheld) into geo-target co-ordinate acquisition devices.

EYEfi has also developed IIoT sensor hardware and associated cloud software, as a second pillar within its product offering. EYEfi Cloud is a next generation cloud platform that provides a secure and centralized environment where customers can manage their EYEfi product deployments and applications.

On behalf of the board of directors of EYEFI GROUP TECHNOLOGIES INC.

"Simon Langdon"

Simon Langdon, CEO

For more information contact:

Simon Langdon

Chief Executive Officer

EYEfi Group Technologies Inc.

+613 94175777

Email: info@eyefi.com.au Mark van der Horst

Investor Relations

EYEfi Group Technologies Inc.

Telephone: +1 (604) 760 7604

Email: mark@galecapital.com

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE. NO SECURITIES COMMISSION OR OTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information.

The forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, opinions and analyses of management made in light of its experience and perception of historical trends in the delivery of services through its Cloud, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors management of EYEfi believes are appropriate, relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made. All of these assumptions, estimates and opinions will necessarily be subject to change due to future events and other circumstances outside the control of EYEfi, including the effect of the Covid 19 virus. EYEfi has based the forward looking information on various material assumptions, including: despite the threat of the Covid 19 virus, EYEfi will sustain or increase profitability although on a slower projection than previously planned, and will be able to fund its operations with existing capital and projected revenue from its current agreements with its Channel Partners; EYEfi will be able to attract and retain key personnel in future if required; the general business, economic, financial market, regulatory and political conditions in which EYEfi operates will remain positive as its services can be provided in EYEfi Cloud although deliver of its hardware may be affected by supply chain disruptions; that the general regulatory environment will not change in a manner adverse to the business of EYEfi; the tax treatment of EYEfi and its subsidiary will remain constant and EYEfi will not become subject to any material legal proceedings; the economy generally; competition, and anticipated and unanticipated costs

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, timelines and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors, assumptions and exclusions is not exhaustive.

The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws or the Canadian Securities Exchange. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE: EYEfi Group Technologies Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666045/EYEFI-Corporate-Update-A-Strong-Pipeline-Signals-Exciting-Opportunities-Ahead
Plant&Co enlists the expertise of renowned plant-based chef to design new and exciting plant-based foods and products

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Plant&Co. Brands Ltd. (CSE: VEGN) (FSE: VGP) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Plant&Co" or the "Company"), a modern health and wellness company curating delicious plant-based foods, is pleased to announce it has engaged renowned plant-based chef Ivan Castro to take the lead on the overall Grown Not Raised TM family of products at Plant&Co. Mr. Castro will also assist with new product selection and design that will support expansion initiatives throughout Plant&Co's network of distribution partners.

"I am impressed with the current plant-based menu and product offerings here at Plant&Co," said Ivan Castro, Head Chef of The Vegan Artisan and La Bartola. "The food is delicious, and I have plenty of ideas of how we can expand the menu and product base to offer many more delicious foods and dishes. My training has taken me from my hometown Mexico City, Oaxaca to New York, where I took several courses at Matthew Kenney's Plant Lab which helped me to open my perspective to new and exciting plant-based foods and dishes. I look forward to taking Plant&Co's products to the next level and adding my own spice to the plant-based foods sector in North America."

"We are very lucky to have such a passionate chef as Ivan Castro join the team at Plant&Co," said Alex Rechichi, Chairman of the Board, Plant&Co Brands. "Ivan will bring a forward thinking focus and design to our product base that will allow us to expand our current offerings into new and existing distribution channels, pushing forward our organic and inorganic growth strategy. Ivan is well known for his expertise with plant-based foods and both vegan and non-vegan customers will be very please with his addition to the team."

The appointment of a head chef is the first step in the Company's previously announced corporate strategy. The Company's board and management team has established a set of operational milestones for the next 6, 12, and 18 months and remains focused on achieving growth through the execution of its 2021-2022 corporate strategy.

Meet the Chef

Mr. Ivan Castro is a renowned and experienced chef who is passionate about plant-based cooking. He has studied at the CESSA University in Mexico City and perfected his culinary skills in New York City. Castro attended the highly respected Natural Gourmet Institute for several diverse culinary programs and the Plant Lab by Matthew Kenney, focusing on plant-based food excellence. Castro found his passion for cooking at an early age in his hometown of Mexico City where he was inspired by his mother and grandmother who taught him the art of homemade Mexican cooking.

Ivan strives to bring both his passion for authentic Mexican flavours and international contemporary cuisine, his commitment to organic, sustainable, and plant-based ingredients, and a creative new twist to his new projects.

About YamChops

YamChops is a plant-based butcher shop based in Toronto, Ontario. Vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians and even meat enthusiasts love visiting the beautifully curated shop located in the heart of Toronto's food district. Whether customers sample YamChops' Tunaless "Tuna", Chick*n Schnitzel, Szechuan "Beef", Montreal Style "Steak", or browse their vegan grocery market assisted by its knowledgeable staff, customers will have an unforgettable experience at YamChops vegan butcher shop. YamChops' mission is to provide extraordinary plant-based foods and provide extraordinary service to its customers, with a vision to expand its plant based culinary experience and make YamChops the destination of choice for all consumers. For more product information please visit: www.YamChops.com.

About Plant&Co

Plant&Co. Brands Ltd. (CSE: VEGN) (FSE: VGP) (OTCQB: VGANF) is modern health and wellness company curating delicious plant-based foods. It offers a growing number of delicious plant-based food products through two leading plant-based brands Holy Crap Foods Inc. and YamChops, the vegan butcher. For more information please visit: www.HolyCrap.com www.YamChops.com www.PlantandCo.com.

For additional information, please contact:

Shawn Moniz

Chief Executive Officer

Plant & Co. Brands Ltd.

ir@plantandco.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 press release, which has been prepared by management.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include the Company's intention to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement for merger and acquisition opportunities in the plant-based food market and for general working capital. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Plant&Co. Brands described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97941
Reports on successful beta testing of Tego Threat Intelligence Platform and rapid progress towards upcoming commercial launch

LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB), an emerging developer of proactive cyber threat intelligence applications and solutions, today provided a business update and announced financial results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

"We made tremendous progress over the past year, advancing the Tego Threat Intelligence Platform (TTIP) from concept to what is now a fully functional, end-to-end application in advanced beta testing with a global Fortune 500 company," stated Shannon Wilkinson, CEO of Tego Cyber Inc. "I am pleased to report this beta test is going extremely well and represents the final step before the planned commercial launch of TTIP in the coming weeks. This advanced platform is designed to integrate with the widely used Splunk SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) platform. Following completion of the beta test, we will apply and expect to be hosted for direct download through Splunk's app store: Splunkbase, a premier online community marketplace serving major enterprises around the world, in which users can interact and seamlessly download apps and add-ons designed to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure."

"Tego's TTIP platform identifies threats to an enterprise network and provides a detailed report of 'who, what, when and where,' which is highly differentiated from other applications currently on the market that only identify a threat but do not provide sufficient context to prioritize these threats and take the necessary preventative or remediation actions. Our platform not only automates the cybersecurity process, but also saves organizations a significant amount of time and capital, while reducing risks. Our underlying technology is also highly scalable and can be adapted to integrate with other leading SIEM platforms. The beta test is rapidly nearing completion, and we look forward to launching our product on the Splunk platform."

Mrs. Wilkinson continued, "We have now paid off our long-term debt and significantly enhanced our balance sheet through a series of investments. We appreciate the support of these highly sophisticated, long-term investors, which provides further validation of our platform. As a result, we now have over $1.4 million of cash on hand as of the date of this release. At the same time, we continue to operate in a highly efficient manner, and believe we are well funded with sufficient capital to execute on our strategy, including a number of important upcoming milestones that we believe will help drive significant value for our shareholders."

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS FOR YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2021 COMPARED to Year Ended June 30, 2020

Revenues - The Company, currently in the development stage until the planned commercial launch of its TTIP platform, generated $8,100 of revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 compared to $2,325 for the period September 6, 2019 (date of inception) to June 30, 2020.

Operating Expenses - The Company incurred total operating expenses of $674,918 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 compared to $79,527 for the period September 6, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Net Loss - The Company incurred a net loss of $923,180 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 compared to a net loss of $77,202 for the period September 6, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Liquidity and Capital Resources - As of June 30, 2021, the Company had cash on hand of $583,015, a working capital surplus of $652,296, and long-term debt of $22,621.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities - For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, the cash flows used in the Company's operating activities were $578,415 compared to $45,690 for the period September 6, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Cash Flow from Investing Activities - For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, the net cash used in investing activities by the Company was $54,250 compared to $18,250 for the period September 6, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Cash Flow from Financing Activities - For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, the net cash provided by financing activities by the Company was $1,133,808 compared to $145,812 for the period September 6, 2019 to June 30, 2020. The cash provided by financing activities is related to the proceeds received from sales of our common stock.

About Tego Cyber Inc.

Tego Cyber Inc. (OTCQB:TGCB) was created to capitalize on the emerging cyber threat intelligence market. The Company has developed a cyber threat intelligence application that integrates with top end security platforms to gather, analyze, then proactively identify threats to an enterprise network. The Tego Threat Intelligence Platform (TTIP) takes in vetted and curated threat data and after utilizing a proprietary process, the platform compiles, analyzes, and then delivers that data to an enterprise network in a format that is timely, informative, and relevant. The threat data provides additional context including specific details needed to identify and counteract threats so that security teams can spend less time searching for disparate information. The first version of the TTIP will integrate with the widely accepted SPLUNK platform to provide real-time threat intelligence to macro enterprises using the SPLUNK architecture. The Company plans on developing future versions of the TTIP for integration with other established SIEM systems and platforms including: Elastic, IBM QRadar, AT&T Cybersecurity, Exabeam, and Google Chronical. For more information, please visit www.tegocyber.com.

Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this press release, those which are not purely historical or which depend upon future events, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future constitute forward-looking statements. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements because of various factors. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Prospective investors should also consult the risks factors described from time to time in the Company's Reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and Annual Reports to Shareholders.

Tego Contact:

Tego Cyber Inc.

8565 S Eastern Avenue, Suite 150

Las Vegas, Nevada 89123

USA

Tel: 855-939-0100 (North America)

Tel: 725-726-7840 (International)

Email: info@tegocyber.com

Web: tegocyber.com

Facebook: facebook.com/tegocyber

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tegocyber

Twitter: twitter.com/tegocyber

Tego Investor Relations:

Crescendo Communications, LLC

Tel: 212-671-1020

Email: TGCB@crescendo-ir.com

SOURCE: Tego Cyber Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/665958/Tego-Cyber-Inc-Provides-Fiscal-2021-Year-End-Business-Update
Interactive Panel Success in Texas and New Jersey

TOCCOA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. (OTCQB:GAXY) ("Galaxy" or the "Company), a provider of interactive learning technology solutions, is pleased to announce that its recent new hires are already making strong contributions pushing into new territories.

Gary LeCroy, Galaxy's Chief Excutive Officer, commented, "We are extremely pleased with our new hires and their success in generating recent wins for our interactive panels. This new business includes Texas (Ozona Schools) and New Jersey (Queen City Academy Charter School). Our expanded marketing efforts are proving successful."

For additional information on Ozona School, Texas, please visit: https://www.ozonaschools.net.

For additional information on Queen City Academy Charter School, New Jersey, please visit: https://queencity.edu.

About Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.

Galaxy Next Generation (OTCQB:GAXY) is a provider of interactive learning technology solutions that allows the presenter and participant to engage in a fully collaborative instructional environment. Galaxy's products include Galaxy's own private-label interactive touch screen panel as well as numerous other national and international branded peripheral and communication devices. Galaxy's distribution channel consists of 22+ resellers across the U.S. who primarily sell the Company's products within the commercial and educational market. Galaxy does not control where resellers focus their resell efforts, although generally, the K-12 education market is the largest customer base for Galaxy products - comprising nearly 90% of Galaxy's sales.

For additional information, please visit our website at: www.galaxynext.us

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. A more extensive listing of risks and factors that may affect the company's business prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the reports and other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investors Contact:

IR@GalaxyNext.us

P:888-859-1274

SOURCE: Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666032/Galaxy-Next-Generations-Recent-New-Hires-Penetrate-Into-New-Territories
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Trigon Metals Inc. (TSXV:TM) ("Trigon" or the "Company") is pleased to provide a progress update on work at the Company's Silver Hill project in Morocco ("Silver Hill" or the "Project"). Following the conclusion of drilling in early 2021, the Company has been working to advance the Project in preparation for a resumption of drilling planned for December 2021. Work has focused on mapping and remote sensing, identifying signatures for mineralization in the drilled discovery area, and the new hydrothermal vent mineralization discovered in the high-grade trench, 1.5km from the discovery zone. The Company also welcomes Mr. Jed Diner, P.Geo to the team to strengthen its exploration team in Morocco.

The Company has completed a detailed topographic survey of the entire exploitation permit with an aerial drone survey to provide an accurate geographical framework to input completed and future drilling. The survey is expected to enable the production by the Company of more accurate maps, cross-sections and DTM (Digital Terrain Models).

Geochemical sampling work continues at site. To date, work has focused on the area of the trench with collection of some 240 samples around the area that exposed the high-grade hydrothermal vent mineralization. The trench returned 13 metres of 2.7% copper, 34.5 g/t silver and 82 ppm cobalt (See press release dated February 24, 2021). The soils from this area for marker minerals can be used to identify extensions to the mineralization on the Project permit area and the adjacent claims. Trigon has under application over 14km of potential strike length that shows evidence of similar hydrothermal mineralization. Trigon has priority over the claims but is awaiting official granting by the regional mineral commission. Information gleaned from this sampling program could generate a powerful exploration tool that can be applied regionally.

A detailed ground geophysical survey is planned for the discovery drilling area, the hydrothermal high-grade trench and the adjoining areas in the coming weeks. Electromagnetic (EM) surveying will be employed. Given the nature of the mineralization, this method is expected to generate an interesting signature that will be compiled with geochemical results, geology, and drilling results. The work is intended to help focus drilling planned for December 2021, looking to identify a potentially mineralized connection between high grade copper and silver drilled in the discovery zone and the trench mineralization 1.5km away. If the mineralization is directly connected, it could translate into over 2km of richly mineralized strike-length, evidencing a large-scale deposit. The survey may also determine that the structures do not connect, and though related may run parallel to each other, a result that could be interpreted as more favourable.

Trigon is pleased to welcome Mr. Jed Diner, P.Geo to its team. He will oversee exploration activities at Silver Hill. Mr. Diner has worked as a consulting geologist on a wide variety of precious and base metals projects for more than 35 years. He brings extensive experience working in Africa. He holds a B.Sc in Geology and Earth Science from Hebrew University and a M.Sc in Applied Earth Science from Stanford University. Mr. Diner brings a wealth of exploration experience strengthening the Company's on the ground team.

Qualified Person

The technical information presented in this press release has been reviewed and approved for disclosure by Fanie Muller, P.Eng, VP Operations of Trigon, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

Trigon Metals Inc.

Trigon is a publicly traded Canadian exploration and development company with its core business focused on copper and silver holdings in mine-friendly African jurisdictions. Currently the company has operations in Namibia and Morocco. In Namibia, the Company holds an 80% interest in five mining licences in the Otavi Mountainlands, an area of Namibia widely recognized for its high-grade copper deposits, where the Company is focused on exploration and re-development of the previously producing Kombat mine. In Morocco, the Company is the holder of the Silver Hill project, a highly prospective copper and silver exploration project.

For further information, contact:

Jed Richardson

+1 647 276 6002

jed.richardson@trigonmetals.com

Website: www.trigonmetals.com

Cautionary Notes

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the Silver Hill Project, exploration activities in Morocco and Company's future plans and objectives. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

SOURCE: Trigon Metals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666065/Trigon-Metals-Provides-Progress-Update-on-Silver-Hill-Project-Morocco
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Red Light Oregon, Inc. ("Red Light Oregon") a 50/50 joint venture of Halo Collective Inc. (NEO: HALO) (OTCQB: HCANF) (FSE: A9K) ("Halo Collective") and Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP) (FSE: 4YX) (OTC Pink: TRUFF), ("Red Light Holland"), is pleased to announce preliminary findings from a statistically significant and representative market study of Oregon adults. The market research study (the "Market Research Study"), aimed to gather insights on the likely beneficiaries of Measure 109 and the legalization of psilocybin services by the Oregon Health Authority ("Psilocybin Services") for adults in Oregon and help support the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board (OPAB) and health officials in making data-informed regulations.

The market research utilized an online survey with 13 questions answered by 473 Oregonians. The survey was powered by Dynata Insights Platform to ensure accurate quota sampling. The data was analyzed by data scientist Alicia Chen.

Some Initial data from the Market Research Study has uncovered:

 86% of adults interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in microdosing.

 49% of those interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in services such as increasing creativity (35%), exploring their mind (29%) and exploring spirituality (29%).

 Oregonians who are not interested in Psilocybin Services because they don't want to pay for them list their largest concern is supporting Big Pharma.

 84% of those interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in services to help with their mental health.

 While nearly half of all adults (49%) are interested in paying for Psilocybin Services, 37% of Adults in Oregon do not know what psilocybin is. In addition, women, people who have not completed a college degree, and Asian minorities in Oregon are less likely to know what psilocybin is.

 On average, people would like to pay around $100 USD for a psilocybin therapy session and approximately $50 USD for a microdosing session. However, there is a significant difference between those in lower-income brackets vs. higher income brackets ($93 USD vs. $223 USD, respectively).

 There is a trend showing younger adults are more interested in Microdosing than Boomers (94% Gen Z, 74% Boomers), although it did not reach statistical significance in the sample size.

Based on this data, Red Light Oregon has:

 Launched a community outreach program to educate the public and health care providers about the latest scientific research around psilocybin and the opportunities of Measure 109. Red Light Oregon will be focusing on reaching out to underserved populations, as seen in the data, which have not had the privilege to be exposed to the potential benefits of psilocybin. The program will utilize Wisdom, a VR app that explains the effects of psilocybin on the brain. You can register to receive more information on: https://redlightoregon.com/.

 Launched an advocacy program to educate the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board and Oregon health officials around the potential benefits of microdosing and the ability to increase the equity of Measure 109 with regulation specifically addressing microdosing, which is a lower-priced service. Red Light Oregon aims to work with Oregon authorities utilizing Red Light Oregon's legal advisor to assist in bridging the gap between regulations and what the people in Oregon want.

Below are some of the answers from the 49% of adults in the sample from Oregon interested in paying for Psilocybin Services.

Figure 1

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Figure 2

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Figure 3

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Figure 4

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"The data Red Light Oregon has received, so far, from Oregon is showing the immediate need people have for psychedelic services to help with mental health. The data also shows many of them are interested in microdosing," said Todd Shapiro, CEO, and Director of Red Light Holland. "Measure 109 is focused on equity, and equity starts with education, which is why we have launched our community outreach program. Oregonians have also shown us their genuine concern around supporting Big Pharma and Red Light Oregon is committed to being the people's company starting by listening to what the people want while advocating for legal access through education, information, and responsible use."

"With 51% of adults interested in Psilocybin Services and 88% of those respondents being interested in microdosing, we believe there is a huge opportunity for a company with our shared expertise to provide the people of Oregon with the best services," added Katie Field, Co-President of Red Light Oregon and President and Executive Director at Halo Collective.

"Psilocybin has meaningful potential to help people grow and heal, and it's everyone's responsibility to make sure the benefits from this natural substance are available to everyone even if they don't make six figures. We are impressed with the OPAB's emphasis on equity and hope this data will help them come up with recommendations that will ensure this goal. For Measure 109 to be equitable, it should also take into account the wants of the younger generation and make sure that group sessions and microdosing are clearly defined in the regulation to increase accessibility to lower-priced Psilocybin Services," said Sarah Hashkes, Co-president of Red Light Oregon and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Red Light Holland.

Further data from the survey continues to be analyzed. An official report is estimated to be released to the public, the OPAB and health officials in mid-October.

Measure 109 will make Psilocybin Services available to 21 years and older in Oregon who think they can benefit from them without a need for medical diagnosis. The service must include a required prep-session, psilocybin session in a licensed facility supervised by a licensed facilitator and a possibility of an integration session. On December 31, 2022, the Oregon Health Authority will prescribe forms and regulations necessary for the exact implementation.

About Red Light Oregon

Red Light Oregon is an Oregon-based company that is a 50/50 joint venture between Halo Collective Inc. and Red Light Holland Corp. Red Light Oregon is developing a commercialization strategy for Psilocybin Services in Oregon utilizing a holistic approach based on the latest neuroscience research and in accordance with Measure 109, which is a measure aimed at legalizing Psilocybin Services. In addition, Red Light Oregon focuses on increasing accessibility and equity to Psilocybin Services in Oregon by promoting education, research, and accessible pricing.

About Halo Collective Inc.

Halo Collective is a leading, vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures, and distributes quality cannabis flower, oils, and concentrates and has sold approximately eleven million grams of oils and concentrates since inception. The company continues to expand its business and scale efficiently, partnering with trustworthy leaders in the industry who value Halo Collective's operational expertise in bringing top-tier products to market.

Halo Collective currently operates in the United States in Oregon and California, Canada, Southern Africa in the Kingdom of Lesotho, and the United Kingdom. The company sells cannabis products principally to dispensaries in the U.S. under its brands Hush, Mojave, and Exhale, and under license agreements with Papa's Herb, DNA Genetics, Terphogz, and FlowerShop*, a cannabis lifestyle and conceptual wellness brand that includes G-Eazy as a partner and key member.

As part of continued expansion and vertical integration in the U.S., Halo Collective boasts several grow operations throughout Oregon and two planned in California. In Oregon, the company has a combined 11 acres of owned and contracted outdoor and greenhouse cultivation, including East Evans Creek, a six-acre grow site in Jackson County with four licenses owned and operated by Halo Collective and two third-party licenses under contract to sell all of their product to Halo Collective; Winberry Farms, a one-acre grow site located 30 miles outside of Eugene in Lane County with a license owned and operated by Halo Collective; and William's Wonder Farms, a three-acre grow site in Applegate Valley, under contract to sell all of its product to Halo Collective pending the closing of Halo Collective's acquisition of its licenses and business assets. Halo Collective has recently acquired Food Concepts LLC, a master tenant of a 55,000 sq.ft. indoor cannabis cultivation, processing, and wholesaling facility in Portland, Oregon operated by the Pistil Point entities.

In California, the company is building out Ukiah Ventures, a planned 30,000 sq. ft. indoor cannabis grow and processing facility, which will include up to an additional five acres of industrial land to expand the site. Recently, Halo Collective partnered with Green Matter Holding in California to purchase a property in Lake County, developing up to 63 acres of cultivation, comprising one of the largest licensed single site grows in California. Halo Collective also plans to expand its operations in California by opening three dispensaries in North Hollywood, Hollywood, and Westwood, one of which may serve as the first FlowerShop* branded dispensary.

In Canada, Halo Collective acquired three KushBar retail cannabis stores located in Alberta as a first in its planned entry into the Canadian market, leveraging its Oregon and California brands. With the KushBar retail stores as a foundation, the company plans to expand its foothold in Canada.

Halo Collective has also acquired a range of software development assets, including CannPOS, Cannalift, and, more recently, CannaFeels. In addition, Halo Collective owns the discrete sublingual dosing technology, Accudab. The company intends to spin-off these assets and its intellectual property and patent applications into its subsidiary Halo Tek Inc. and expects to complete a distribution to shareholders on a record date to be determined by Halo Collective.

Halo Collective has recently announced its intention to reorganize its non-U.S. operations into a newly formed entity called Akanda Corp. ("Akanda"), whose mission will be to provide high-quality and ethically sourced medical cannabis products to patients worldwide. Akanda will seek to deliver on this promise while driving positive change in wellness, empowering individuals in Lesotho, and uplifting the quality of the lives of employees and the local communities where it operates, all while limiting its carbon footprint. Akanda will combine the scaled production capabilities of Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness Pty. Ltd., Halo Collective's Lesotho-based cultivation and processing campus located in the world's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) containing a cannabis cultivation operation, with distribution and route-to-market efficiency of Canmart Ltd., Halo Collective's UK-based fully approved pharmaceutical importer, and distributor that supplies pharmacies and clinics within the U.K. With a potential maximum licensed canopy area of 200 hectares (495 acres), Bophelo has scalability that is arguably unmatched in the world today.

For further information regarding Halo Collective, see Halo Collective's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Connect with Halo Collective: Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

About Red Light Holland Corp.

The company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale (through existing Smart Shops operators and an advanced e-commerce platform) of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws.

For additional information:

Todd Shapiro

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and Director

Tel: 647-204-7129

Email: todd@redlighttruffles.com

Website: https://redlighttruffles.com/

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements.

Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". The forward-looking information and forward- looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: statements regarding Red Light Oregon's community outreach and advocacy programs; the intended outcomes and effects of Measure 109; statements regarding the implementation of Measure 109 by the Oregon Health Authority; Halo Collective's expansion and vertical integration plans, including the buildout of Ukiah Ventures; Halo Collective's intended spin-off of the assets, intellectual property, and patent applications of Accudab into its subsidiary Halo Tek Inc.; and Halo Collective's plans to reorganize its non-U.S. operations into a newly formed entity called Akanda.

Forward-looking information in this news release are based on certain assumptions and expected future events, namely: Red Light Holland's ability to continue as a going concern; the continued commercial viability and growth in popularity of psilocybin products; continued approval of Red Light Holland and Halo Collective's activities by the relevant governmental and/or regulatory authorities; and the continued growth of Red Light Holland and Halo Collective.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: the potential inability of Red Light Holland to continue as a going concern; the risks associated with the psychedelics industry in general; increased competition in the recreational and medical psilocybin markets; the potential future unviability of the psychedelics industry; public opinion and perception of the psychedelics industry; incorrect assessment of the value and potential benefits of expansion plans and various transactions; risks associated with potential governmental and/or regulatory action with respect to the psychedelics industry; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial and stock markets; and risks related to infectious diseases, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect Red Light Holland's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. Red Light Holland undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97989
Results reveal five new gold showings in a variety of environments

Victoria, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - GoldON Resources Ltd. (TSXV: GLD) ("GoldON" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has received results from its initial mapping and sampling program completed on the McInnes Lake property (the "Property") in northwestern Ontario. Results of the program reveal the discovery of five new gold showings in a variety of environments not historically recorded within the entire greenstone belt.

Highlights include:

A grab sample of a 10-centimetre quartz vein within granodiorite with 1% pyrite returned 3.56 g/t Au, 3135 ppm As, 1% Zn, and 1212 ppm Pb. This is the highest recorded gold sample in the belt and appears to be polymetallic veining within a granodiorite body.



Sampling of unsampled drill core from a hole drilled by Cominco in 1979 returned values up to 400 ppb Au from biotized mafic volcanics with 0.5% fine pyrite and pyrrhotite. The core was located on an island at a Cominco core storage location indicated by an assessment report map in a large heap and partially identifiable by tags.



Grab samples of weakly sheared, hematized sandstone with quartz stringers and trace pyrite and chalcopyrite returned from 70 to 244 ppb Au in outcrop and angular float boulders separated by over 700m. This is a newly recognized host for gold mineralization in the McInnes greenstone belt and may be extensive along strike.



Banded iron-formation hosted gold mineralization in angular float boulders with samples returning up to 269 ppb Au and up to 1.28% Cu and 22.58 ppm Ag. Iron formation hosted gold deposits in Canadian Archean greenstone belts are and have been important gold production contributors (Musselwhite, Pickle Lake gold camp, Geraldton gold camp, and Meadowbank).



A grab sample of mafic metavolcanic schist with 7-10% pyrite returned 444 ppb Au as well as 0.34% Cu and 0.32% Zn, suggestive of a VMS environment.

Grab samples are selective in nature and not necessarily representative of the mineralization on the Property.

"We recognized the McInnes greenstone had all the characteristics conducive to orogenic gold mineralization but had no systematic exploration in over 25 years. Thus, we staked the whole belt," says Mike Romanik, president of GoldON. "We are pleased with the results of our first-pass reconnaissance prospecting and mapping. Having discovered gold mineralization in several different gold model types, we are looking forward to returning and expanding on these footprints."

About the McInnes Greenstone Belt:

Located approximately 117 kilometres (km) north of Red Lake, the 11,424-hectare Property is 29 km long by up to 8.5 km and covers the majority of the McInnes Lake Greenstone Belt. Comprised of a volcanic-sediment package of rocks representing a back-arc environment 'sandwiched' in between two opposing granitic masses, age-dating of the McInnes Lake Greenstone Belt volcanic rocks has determined they are 2.93-2.97 billion years old representing Balmer Assemblage aged lithologies (OGS P3589). The Balmer Assemblage is host to the gold mines of the Red Lake Camp.

Figure 1: Regional Map with location of McInnes Lake Property and GoldON's other Projects (click to enlarge)



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://goldonresources.com/images/McInnes/McInnes-Lake-Regional.jpg

Orix Geoscience was engaged to compile and analyze historical data to create a 2D GIS compilation and geologically assess the Property for exploration targets of high merit and recommend an exploration strategy. Orix identified four prominent regional features through compilation and the interpretation of an Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) conducted airborne magnetic and VLF-EM survey in 2008.

The initial fieldwork consisted of prospecting, mapping, and lake sediment sampling which focused on the four core areas identified by Orix in the vastly underexplored claim package. The fieldwork was carried out by Emerald Geological Services led by Bruce MacLachlan, whose long-standing career has been instrumental in the discovery of the Eagle River gold mine located in the Mishibishu greenstone belt currently being mined by Wesdome and the Sugar Zone located east of Hemlo currently being mined by Harte Gold.

Mike Kilbourne, P.Geo., an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release on behalf of the Company.

About GoldON Resources Ltd.

GoldON is an exploration company focused on discovery-stage properties located in the prolific gold mining belts of northwestern Ontario, Canada. Our current project portfolio includes six properties in the Red Lake Mining Division (West Madsen, Red Lake North, Pipestone Bay, Pakwash North, McInnes Lake, and McDonough) and a seventh property in the Patricia Mining Division (Slate Falls).

For additional information: please visit our website at goldonresources.com, you can download our latest investor presentation by clicking here and you can follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GoldONResources.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Signed "Michael Romanik"

Michael Romanik, President

GoldON Resources Ltd.

Direct line: (204) 724-0613

Email: info@goldonresources.com

179 - 2945 Jacklin Road, Suite 416

Victoria, BC, V9B 6J9

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release 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.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97921
KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Diamcor Mining Inc. (TSXV:DMI)(OTCQB:DMIFF)(FRA:DC3A), ("Diamcor" or, the "Company") announced today that its Phase one upgrade objective, completed ahead of schedule, is demonstrating its ability to achieve the targeted 100% increase in processing volumes at the Company's Krone Endora at Venetia Project (the "Project"). The upgrades are also expected to achieve the added benefit of reducing operating costs on a per ton basis through a reduction in plant consumables and maintenance. Further refinements are expected to continue over the coming weeks to ensure the full potential of these new upgrades is realized. The Company sees the completion of this initial phase as an important milestone which was required to enable it to achieve its long-term growth objectives. With Phase one complete, the focus will now be on advancing a larger Phase two upgrade, which is aimed at supporting the Company's additional growth plans.

Expansion Phases and Growth Objectives:

Phase One Upgrade - The initial phase completed at the Project's current Main Treatment Plant (MTP) included upgrades to the plant's material handling systems, diamond concentration systems, and electronic diamond x-ray equipment. In addition, various elements were streamlined to reduce water and power consumption, thus lowering the MTP's carbon footprint. The Company's stated objectives for this initial phase was to provide the Company with the potential to increase historical processing volumes by up to 100%, whilst lowering operating costs on a per ton basis. The successful implementation of this first phase was designed to provide the Company with the ability to generate additional rough diamond recoveries and revenues to support the funding and advancement of the planned, larger, second phase of upgrades. Phase Two Upgrade - With the completion of phase one, the Company will now shift its focus to Phase two of its expansion plans. This larger growth effort was originally targeted to be completed in one phase and begin in 2020 as part of the Company's pre-COVID plan to establish larger processing facilities to support the long-term objectives of the Project. Despite having to delay these efforts as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Company revised and completed significant planning to adjust these efforts into two-stages in anticipation of the eventual resumption of operations. The Phase two upgrades will include the addition of high throughput X-ray technology and target further increase in processing capability of up to 100% over those achieved in the Phase one upgrades. In addition, the upgrades will significantly reduce the overall plant footprint size by co-location of the current In-Field Screening plant (IFS) and MTP, while further reducing the consumption of water, power, and other consumables on a per ton basis. The design of this planned layout is also expected to reduce the costs of operating the mining fleet. This second, larger upgrade is not expected to impact ongoing processing at the Project's current facilities during its implementation. The Company plans to begin advancing the Phase two expansion efforts prior to the end of 2021, with its completion targeted for the end of H1, 2022. Exploration - In addition to the upgrades and further expansion of the Project's processing capabilities, the Company plans to initiate exploration on the larger surrounding areas of the Project in 2022. Past exploration and trial mining exercises to date have only focused on +/-300 ha of the Project's total 5,888 ha to date. Through these additional exploration efforts, the Company hopes to better determine the potential and location of the known displacement and erosion from the adjacent De Beers flagship Venetia diamond mine. The initial exploration plans will include additional drilling and bulk sampling and is expected to be followed by an update of the Project's NI43-101 report in due course. The results of the exploration work will be used to aid the Company in arriving at initial production decisions for the Project.

"The completion of this first phase of upgrades provides us with the potential to now increase rough diamond recoveries and revenues to support the advancement of the second larger phase", stated Mr. Dean Taylor, Diamcor CEO. "After the significant delays associated with COVID-19, our entire team is now looking forward to increasing processing volumes, recoveries, and revenues, as well as to the exploration efforts on the larger areas of the Project."

About Diamcor Mining Inc.

Diamcor Mining Inc. is a fully reporting publicly traded junior diamond mining company which is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol V.DMI, the OTCQB International under the symbol DMIFF, and on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol DC3A. The Company has a well-established operation in South Africa with a proven history of supplying rough diamonds to the world market. Diamcor has established a long-term strategic alliance with world famous luxury retailer Tiffany & Co. and is now in the final stages of developing the Krone-Endora at Venetia Project co-located with De Beer's flagship Venetia mine.

About the Tiffany & Co. Alliance

The Company has established a long-term strategic alliance and first right of refusal with Tiffany & Co. Canada, a subsidiary of world famous New York based Tiffany & Co., to purchase up to 100% of the future production of rough diamonds from the Krone-Endora at Venetia Project at then current prices to be determined by the parties on an ongoing basis. In conjunction with this first right of refusal, Tiffany & Co. Canada also provided the Company with financing to advance the Project. Tiffany & Co. is owned by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (LVMH), a publicly traded company which is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange (Euronext) under the symbol LVMH and on the OTC under the symbol LVMHF. For additional information on Tiffany & Co., please visit their website at www.tiffany.com.

About Krone-Endora at Venetia

In February 2011, Diamcor acquired the Krone-Endora at Venetia Project from De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, consisting of the prospecting rights over the farms Krone 104 and Endora 66, which represent a combined surface area of approximately 5,888 hectares directly adjacent to De Beers' flagship Venetia Diamond Mine in South Africa. On September 11, 2014, the Company announced that the South African Department of Mineral Resources had granted a Mining Right for the Krone-Endora at Venetia Project encompassing 657.71 hectares of the Project's total area of 5,888 hectares. The Company has also submitted an application for a mining right over the remaining areas of the Project. The deposits which occur on the properties of Krone and Endora have been identified as a higher-grade "Alluvial" basal deposit which is covered by a lower-grade upper "Eluvial" deposit. The deposits are proposed to be the result of the direct-shift (in respect to the "Eluvial" deposit) and erosion (in respect to the "Alluvial" deposit) of material from the higher grounds of the adjacent Venetia Kimberlite areas. The deposits on Krone-Endora occur in two layers with a maximum total depth of approximately 15.0 metres from surface to bedrock, allowing for a very low-cost mining operation to be employed with the potential for near-term diamond production from a known high-quality source. Krone-Endora also benefits from the significant development of infrastructure and services already in place due to its location directly adjacent to the Venetia Mine.

Qualified Person Statement:

Mr. James P. Hawkins (B.Sc., P.Geo.), is Manager of Exploration & Special Projects for Diamcor Mining Inc., and the Qualified Person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 responsible for overseeing the execution of Diamcor's exploration programmes and a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta ("APEGA"). Mr. Hawkins has reviewed this press release and approved of its contents.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Mr. Dean H. Taylor

President & CEO

Diamcor Mining Inc.

www.diamcormining.com

For further information contact:

Mr. Dean H. Taylor

Diamcor Mining Inc

DeanT@Diamcor.com

+1 250 862-3212

Mr. Rich Matthews

Integrous Communications

rmatthews@integcom.us

+1 (604) 355-7179

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. While these forward-looking statements represent our best current judgement, they are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict and which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Further, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

WE SEEK SAFE HARBOUR

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.

SOURCE: Diamcor Mining Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666024/Diamcor-Announces-Continued-Progress-on-Growth-Objectives
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Doubleview Capital Corp. (TSXV: DBG) (OTC Pink: DBLVF) (FSE: 1D4) ("Doubleview") is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Elena Musienko, P.Geo. to Doubleview's geological team to advance the Hat Porphyry Polymetallic Project. Ms. Musienko is a Professional Geoscientist (PhD, P. Geo.), is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia who holds a PhD degree in Seismology from the National Academy of Science, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic and was a Senior Research Scientist at that Institution.

Dr. Musienko brings many years of experience in most fields of mineral exploration and research and will provide Doubleview with particular skills in project design and management, geophysics, data management, technical reporting (NI 43-101 standards), geological interpretation, QA/QC, and grade modeling. Dr. Musienko's recent work assignments were with Vancouver- and Saskatoon-based companies with projects in Northwest Territories, B.C. and Saskatchewan.

Farshad Shirvani, Doubleview's President and CEO, comments that: "We are particularly pleased to welcome Dr. Musienko to our geological and exploration team. She is a top-flight geoscientist and brings a broad range of skills and experience in mineral exploration and she will immediately broaden our capabilities in identifying exploration targets, managing and interpreting drill cores and analyses, and in integrating geophysical and geological data. She joined us at the right time and I am confident that her impressive record of achievements will continue and that she will be instrumental in helping to achieve our goals for our projects, more specifically the Hat Porphyry Deposit."

About the Hat Project:

The Hat Property is considered a probable porphyry gold-copper deposit with characteristics similar to those of many of British Columbia's major deposits. Hat mineralization carries many of the important North American strategic metals, including but not limited to, Copper, Cobalt, and Scandium, with unique metallurgical characteristics that differ from other base metal deposits of British Columbia's Stikine Terrane. Sulphide mineralization, primarily chalcopyrite, occurs in fracture zones in dioritic intrusive rocks and strongly altered andesitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of Upper Triassic age.

Doubleview acquired the Hat Property in 2011 and has conducted several programs of exploration. Doubleview discovered the Hat deposit under the supervision and guidance of Mr. Erik Ostensoe, P.Geo.

About Doubleview Gold Corp

Doubleview Gold Corp, a mineral resource exploration and development company, is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV: DBG). Doubleview identifies, acquires and finances precious and base metal exploration projects in North America, particularly in British Columbia. Doubleview increases shareholder value through acquisition and exploration of quality gold, copper and silver properties and the application of advanced state-of-the-art exploration methods. Doubleview's portfolio of strategic properties provides diversification and mitigates investment risk.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Farshad Shirvani, President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact:

Doubleview Gold Corp

Vancouver, BC Farshad Shirvani

President & CEO

T: (604) 678-9587

E: corporate@doubleview.ca

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Doubleview 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 Doubleview's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Doubleview's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Doubleview undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97978
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) ("Bam Bam" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a contract has been signed with Boart Longyear to drill at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper Project in Pershing County Nevada. Drill plans call for 2468 to 3353 meters (8000 to 11,000 feet) in 11-15 reverse-circulation holes. The drilling is focused on expanding copper mineralization identified in previous drilling.

Bam Bam field personnel and contractors will continue to use operational health and safety protocols consistent with ensuring the health and safety of our people and the local community.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC") Measures, Chain of Custody

The Company has implemented a QA/QC program using best industry practices at the Majuba Hill Project. The samples are transported directly to the ALS Sample Prep Facility in Reno or Elko, Nevada. ALS then transports the prepared pulps to their analytical lab in Reno, Nevada or Vancouver, B.C. Soil and rock chip samples are transported by the company directly to Elko or Reno, Nevada.

All samples are analyzed for copper, gold, silver, and 33 other elements. Gold is determined by ALS method Au-AA23 which is a fire assay with an AAS finish on a 30 gram split. Copper, silver and the remaining 31 elements are determined by ALS method ME-ICP61 which is a four acid digestion and ICP-AES assay. Approximately 5% of the submitted samples are drill duplicates and copper-gold-porphyry commercial standard reference material pulps. The sample rejects and remaining pulps will be retrieved from ALS.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by E.L. "Buster" Hunsaker III, CPG 8137, a non-independent consulting geologist who is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43- 101").

About Bam Bam Resources Corp.

Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage copper and copper/silver/gold assets. This is in direct response to the growing worldwide demand and lack of supply for precious metals fueled by the Green New Deal in the US and most other developed nations with similar programs aimed at addressing climate change. Such programs are heavily reliant on silver, gold and especially copper to produce Electric Vehicles and other renewable power sources, as well as building infrastructure to provide clean and affordable electricity.

The flagship project is the Majuba Hill copper, silver and gold District located 156 miles outside Reno, Nevada, USA. Management has been mandated to focus on safe, mining friendly jurisdictions where government regulations are supportive of mining operations.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On Behalf of the Board of Bam Bam Resources Corp.

"David Greenway"

David C. Greenway

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Joel Warawa

VP of Corporate Communications

E: jw@bambamresources.com

P: 1 (855) 475-0745

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Bam Bam Resources Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Bam Bam Resources Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Bam Bam Resources Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

###

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97949
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Origen Resources Inc. (CSE: ORGN) (FSE: 4VXA) (the "Company" or "Origen") is pleased to announce that it has now received the data from the recently completed VTEM geophysical survey conducted by Geotech Ltd. on its LGM property ("LGM" or "Property") located in the heart of the Golden Triangle in northwest B.C.

"The results of the airborne geophysical survey exceeded our expectations. After strongly encouraging geochemical results in 2020, our 2021 survey has added a new dimension to the project as we look deeper and extend existing targets," states Blake Morgan, Company President.

The district-scale Lulu Porphyry Target Area ("Lulu") stretches over a 4 km by 5 km area and exhibits geochemical similarities to other large nearby porphyry deposits. Lulu encompasses multiple high-priority prospects such as Nulu, Lucifer and the newly discovered Long Ridge and Hidden Gold zones (Company news release dated March 3, 2021).

Modelling of the magnetics and VTEM geophysical surveys flown this summer, by Geotech Airborne Geophysical Surveys of Aurora Ontario, has upgraded the potential and priority ranking for both the copper-molybdenum-rhenium Long Ridge and the Hidden Gold zones. The geophysics has revealed coincident magnetic and EM conductivity features that closely overlap the Long Ridge surface geochemical anomaly which translates into a compelling drill target. In addition, the geophysical features extend to the north of Long Ridge into an unexplored area indicating a larger target than currently expressed by the geochemical anomaly.

The geophysical interpretation also indicates potential structural controls to the Lulu prospects. This has improved the potential of the Hidden Gold zone with the geophysics displaying a larger target corridor underlying the Hidden Gold zone than currently defined by the geochemical anomaly.

This new information combined with the geochemical anomalies identified in 2020 have resulted in the emergence of multiple high-priority target areas. The Company's next steps will be to refine the target areas in preparation for drill testing. Geotech has been retained to conduct additional processing and interpretation of the magnetics and VTEM data to assist with the refining of the target zones.





Figure 1: LGM Airborne Geophysical compilation with copper in soil and Aster Anomalies



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7117/97976_003ad8f254cc3a53_001full.jpg

Long Ridge Copper-Molybdenum-Silver-Rhenium Zone

A 600-metre-long copper-molybdenum-rhenium anomaly, defined by 25 consecutive highly anomalous talus fines samples, was discovered in 2020, 750 metres to the west of the historical Noranda sampling and is situated in the northwest of the Lulu porphyry target area. This recently discovered anomalous extension to the historical work returned values of 101.5 parts per million to 293.1 parts per million copper, 19.2 parts per million to 114.6 parts per million molybdenum and less than 0.005 part per million to 0.127 part per million rhenium.

Hidden Gold Zone

The Hidden Gold zone is a gold and silver geochemical anomaly located in the northeastern Lulu porphyry target area. Consistently elevated gold and silver results were obtained on two adjacent reconnaissance sampling lines, with two samples returning grades in soil of 1.8 grams per tonne gold with 4.2 grams per tonne silver and 1.7 grams per tonne gold with 5.3 grams per tonne silver. The anomaly is believed to be located close to the source as both sample lines were collected along ridges, with the northernmost line paralleling the edge of a receding glacier limiting the distance and direction of mechanical mineral transport. The anomaly remains open in two directions -- to the southwest and to the northeast under snow cover -- and currently covers an area of 400 metres by 200 metres.

Gold results ranged from less than 0.001 gram per tonne to 1.8 grams per tonne and silver values from 0.11 gram per tonne to 5.3 grams per tonne at the Hidden Gold zone.

Quality assurance, quality control and laboratory methods

Origen fieldwork followed industry-standard practices for the collection of talus fines and immature soils during the 2020 phase 2 program. No field duplicate samples of talus fines/soils were collected and no standards or blanks were inserted since this is not considered necessary or best practice for this sample media.

MSALABS of Langley and Terrace, B.C., Canada, is a certified analytical laboratory (ISO 9001 and ISO 17025) with experience in the chemical analysis of geological materials. MSALABS is independent of the company, as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Samples were delivered to the laboratory by an employee of Coast Mountain Geological Ltd., which was contracted to implement the field program for the company.

Talus fines and soil samples were processed by drying, screening to less than 80 mesh (MSA code PRP-757, PSC-110), digestion of a 20-gram cut by aqua regia and finishing by 39-element ICP-AES/MS (MSA code IMS-128). Samples with greater than 0.5 part per million gold were reanalyzed if sufficient sample remained using a 30-gram cut for digestion by fire assay flux followed by an AA finish (MSA code FAS-211).

John Harrop, PGeo, a qualified person as that term is defined in NI 43-101, has prepared, supervised the preparation or approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release.

About Origen

Origen is an exploration company engaged in generating, acquiring and advancing base, precious metal, and lithium properties. The Company currently holds a property portfolio of four 100% owned precious and base metal projects in southern British Columbia, a 100% interest in the 26,771 ha LGM project and an option to acquire a 100% interest in the 3,971 ha Wishbone property in the mineral rich Golden Triangle of British Columbia, a 100% interest in the Middle Ridge gold project and a 100% interest in 15 lithium prospects in Newfoundland.

On behalf of Origen,

Blake Morgan

President

For further information, please contact Blake Morgan, President at 236-878-4938 or Gary Schellenberg, CEO at 604-681-0221.

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 press release.

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information." In particular references to the private placement and future work programs or expectations on the quality or results of such work programs are subject to risks associated with operations on the property, exploration activity generally, equipment limitations and availability, as well as other risks that we may not be currently aware of. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97976
Pickering, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Ayurcann Holdings Corp. (CSE: AYUR) (FSE: 3ZQ0) (the "Company" or "Ayurcann") a Canadian cannabis extraction company specializing in the processing of cannabis and hemp for the production of oils and various derivative products, is pleased to announce that they have received their first purchase order from National Cannabis Distribution ("NCD"), a leading wholesaler in Saskatchewan.

Ayurcann is creating broadly appealing and value-based products for the recreational market in Canada. Product quality, experience and value is foremost in our offerings. Consumers are making decisions based on value in the vape and bottled oil products and Ayurcann and its brands are excelling in fulfilling those needs.

The initial purchase order for the (4) 1-gram Fuego branded vape products: Fuego Citrus Vibe, Fuego Cherry Blossom OG, Fuego Simply Grape, Fuego Wedding Crasher

and (2) 30ml oil based Vida branded tincture products: Vida Max & Vida Balanced.

Fuego branded vapes and Vida branded tinctures

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3729/97986_940635e94475087b_002full.jpg

"We are excited that consumers in Saskatchewan will finally be able to enjoy our premium quality vape and tincture products," stated Igal Sudman, CEO of Ayurcann. "There is a market demand for high-quality cannabis derived products, and we are confident that both Fuego vape products and Vida tincture products will meet this consumer need."

Fuego branded vapes and Vida branded tinctures are expected to be available in Saskatchewan in the coming weeks.

For further information, please contact:

Igal Sudman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer

Ayurcann Holdings Corp.

Tel: 905-492-3322

Email: infol@ayurcann.com

Investor Relations:

Ryan Bilodeau

Tel: 416-910-1440

Email: ir@ayurcann.com

About Ayurcann Holdings Corp.:

Ayurcann is a leading post-harvest solution provider with a focus on providing and creating custom processes and pharma grade products for the adult use and medical cannabis industry in Canada. Ayurcann is focused on becoming the partner of choice for leading Canadian cannabis brands by providing best-in-class, proprietary services including ethanol extraction, formulation, product development and custom manufacturing.

About National Cannabis Distribution Inc.:

National Cannabis Distribution Inc. (NCD) is a division of Kiaro Holding Corp. and is a leading wholesaler in the province of Saskatchewan, the only vertically integrated province in the Canadian cannabis market. NCD claims over two-thirds of the market share in Saskatchewan and continues to build a solid portfolio of products with a commitment to providing craft, artisan, and boutique licensed producers a proven path to market within Saskatchewan. With multiple exclusive distribution partnerships in Saskatchewan and strategic feature planning, NCD has positioned itself as a leader within the cannabis supply community.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider have reviewed or accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward- looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward looking statements, including but not limited to statements relating to the Company's expansion plans and future production capacity. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, failure to obtain regulatory approval, ability to increase production at the Company's facilities, the continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that the statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, Further, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and such changes could be material. Public health crises, including the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, could have significant economic and geopolitical impacts that may adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition and/or results of operations. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97986
Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - The Stock Day Podcast welcomed DarkPulse, Inc. (OTC Pink: DPLS) ("the Company"), a company that uses advanced laser-based monitoring systems to provide rapid and accurate monitoring of temperatures, strains and stresses. CEO of the Company, Dennis O'Leary, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly.

Jolly began the interview by commenting on a recent release detailing the appointment of Kari Williams, the former Vice President of Rolls Royce, to the Company's OPTILAN subsidiary executive management team. "There is a huge aerospace, defense, and aviation section of Rolls Royce, and those are the types of industries that we are looking to get into as well," explained O'Leary. "From a marketing perspective, this is a huge addition to the company."

"What is so special about OPTILAN?," asked Jolly. "OPTILAN is very similar to DarkPulse," explained O'Leary. "The difference is that they don't own a fiber sensor system, they are more of a system integrator," he said. "All around it is a real top-notch company in terms of where I wanted to take DarkPulse."

The conversation then turned to OPTILAN's re-certification against ISO 9,001 and ISO 14,001, as well as a new certification for ISO 45,001. "That 45,000 level is extremely difficult to achieve," shared O'Leary. "This is something the team has worked on for over a year," he added. "These are the types of certifications that you need when you're looking at major infrastructure projects."

"What is your acquisition strategy moving forward?", asked Jolly. "We will finish up with TerraData as planned," said O'Leary. "There are a couple of other acquisitions that we are right in the middle of that we are going to announce shortly," he shared. "This brings us market share and capability, and I think more importantly, buying power."

Jolly then asked about the Company's revenue potential over the next two to three quarters. "There will be considerable revenues in Q3," said O'Leary. "Q4 we will see some substantial contracts coming in the door as well."

"Where are we at with the share structure?", asked Jolly. "There are some difficulties, it is not impossible, but with being Over-The-Counter at any level there are a lot of restrictions with buybacks," said O'Leary. "I believe in November we are going to announce something related to share buybacks," he shared. "It is on the horizon, we are definitely looking at it. There are just a couple of hurdles that we need to look at in terms of being Over-The-Counter."

To close the interview, O'Leary encouraged listeners and shareholders to keep up-to-date on the Company's current projects and upcoming announcements as they continue to grow and deliver on their strategy.

To hear Dennis O'Leary's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7951157-darkpulse-inc-discusses-optilan-re-certification-against-iso-9001-and-iso-14001-and-certificat

Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of "Stock Day," and Stock Day Media encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/.

About DarkPulse, Inc.

DarkPulse, Inc. uses advanced laser-based monitoring systems to provide rapid and accurate monitoring of temperatures, strains and stresses. The Company's technology excels when applied to live, dynamic critical infrastructure and structural monitoring, including pipeline monitoring, perimeter and structural surveillance, aircraft structural components and mining safety. The Company's fiber-based monitoring systems can assist markets that are not currently served, and its unique technology covers extended areas and any event that is translated into the detection of a change in strain or temperature. In addition to the Company's ongoing efforts with respect to the marketing and sales of its technology products and services to its customers, the Company also continues to explore potential strategic alliances through joint venture and licensing opportunities to further expand its global market position.

For more information, visit www.DarkPulse.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the "safe harbor" created by those sections. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "should," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "anticipate" or other comparable terms. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this news release regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: our ability to successfully market our products and services; the acceptance of our products and services by customers; our continued ability to pay operating costs and ability to meet demand for our products and services; the amount and nature of competition from other security and telecom products and services; the effects of changes in the cybersecurity and telecom markets; our ability to successfully develop new products and services; our success establishing and maintaining collaborative, strategic alliance agreements, licensing and supplier arrangements; our ability to comply with applicable regulations; and the other risks and uncertainties described in our prior filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Media contact:

DarkPulse, Inc.

Media@DarkPulse.com

About The "Stock Day" Podcast

Founded in 2013, Stock Day is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Stock Day provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets. The Stock Day Podcast is the number one radio show of its kind in America.

SOURCE:

Stock Day Media

(602) 821-1102

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97987
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - United Airlines' 593 employees are facing termination for failing to comply with Covid-19 vaccine requirement, reports said. Meanwhile, more than 99% of employees complied with its policy to receive the vaccine or apply for a medical or religious exemption. The employees were required to upload proof of vaccination by Monday. Among the United Airlines' around 67,000 employees, nearly 2,000 sought exemptions for religious or medical reasons. The company earlier had said that employees who receive such exemptions would be placed on temporary unpaid leave. As per reports, the unvaccinated employees without exemptions will be terminated on the grounds of violating a company safety policy. Meanwhile, the termination process could take several weeks. Such employees who didn't upload vaccine proof include various work groups, including pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. CNBC quoted United's CEO, Scott Kirby, and the company's president, Brett Hart as saying, 'This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority.' During the termination process, the company reportedly may reconsider the termination of any unvaccinated employees without exemptions who decides to change their mind and get vaccinated. Last week, six employees of United Airlines filed a lawsuit against the company's compulsory-vaccine policy. According to the lawsuit, the company did not discuss with employees its vaccination policy. The airline is the first major one to issue compulsory vaccine mandate for its employees. 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-News: Rentschler Biopharma SE / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

Rentschler Biopharma Inc. Recognized by Massachusetts House of Representatives as Manufacturer of the Year for District



29.09.2021 / 15:18

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Rentschler Biopharma Inc. Recognized by Massachusetts House of Representatives as Manufacturer of the Year for District

Company honored at 6th Annual Massachusetts Legislative Manufacturing Caucus Awards ceremony

Laupheim, Germany and Milford, MA, USA, September 29, 2021 - Rentschler Biopharma, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, announced that the company's U.S. subsidiary, Rentschler Biopharma Inc., has been honored as Manufacturer of the Year for the 10th Worcester District by the Massachusetts Legislative Manufacturing Caucus. The company was selected for the honor by State Representative Brian Murray, who presented the award to Karen Savage, Vice President and Milford Site Head, at yesterday's Massachusetts Legislative Manufacturing Caucus Awards ceremony. In addition to the award, Representative Murray presented a citation from the State House of Representatives to Rentschler Biopharma in recognition of Rentschler Biopharma's outstanding leadership skills in the manufacturing industry in the Commonwealth. The awards ceremony was part of the inaugural Massachusetts Manufacturing Mash-up event in Worcester, which kicked off Manufacturing Month in Massachusetts.

Representative Murray said: "I have been so impressed by the professionalism, technology, and science of the Rentschler Biopharma team. It is certainly important to have companies in our Commonwealth that produce high-quality biopharmaceuticals to address the need for safe and effective vaccines and therapies. Rentschler Biopharma is actively contributing to improving lives and represents the 'new face' of modern manufacturing."

Dr. Martin Kessler, CEO of Rentschler Biopharma Inc., said: "It is truly an honor to receive this award. We are excited to be a part of the Massachusetts manufacturing community and are growing rapidly in Milford. Just last month, we broke ground at our new state-of-the-art facility, the Rentschler Biopharma Manufacturing Center US (RBMC US), that will double our cGMP capacity, and we are also growing our talented team. The great support we have received locally and at the state level is a big part of our ability to expand our offering to our U.S. clients, many of whom are located here in Massachusetts."

Karen Savage, Vice President and Milford Site Head, added: "I thank everyone who has helped us to achieve this wonderful recognition by the caucus. Our work is challenging but also incredibly rewarding, and we are driven by the goal of helping our clients bring innovative, essential treatments to patients."

The new RBMC US will add 22,000 square feet of manufacturing cleanroom space and house four new 2,000 L single-use bioreactors. In keeping with Rentschler Biopharma's commitment to reducing the complexity of biopharmaceutical manufacturing for its clients, the site is designed to be easily adaptable to meet clients' changing needs. The RBMC US is expected to become operational in late 2023.



About Rentschler Biopharma SE

Rentschler Biopharma is a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused exclusively on client projects. The company offers process development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals as well as related consulting activities, including project management and regulatory support. Rentschler Biopharma's high quality is proven by its long-standing experience and excellence as a solution partner for its clients. A high-level quality management system, a well-established operational excellence philosophy and advanced technologies ensure product quality and productivity at each development and manufacturing step. In order to offer best-in-class formulation development along the biopharmaceutical value chain, the company has entered into a strategic alliance with Leukocare AG. Rentschler Biopharma is a family-owned company with about 1,100 employees, headquartered in Laupheim, Germany, with a second site in Milford, MA, USA. In Stevenage, UK, Rentschler Biopharma has launched a company dedicated to cell and gene therapies, Rentschler ATMP Ltd.

For further information, please visit www.rentschler-biopharma.com. Follow Rentschler Biopharma on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact:

Rentschler Biopharma SE

Dr. Cora Kaiser

Senior Director Corporate Communication

Phone: +49-7392-701-874

communications@rentschler-biopharma.com

Media inquiries:

MC Services AG

Eva Bauer

Phone: +49-89-210228-0

rentschler@mc-services.eu



U.S.

Laurie Doyle

Phone: +1 339-832-0752



For a high-resolution picture, please contact communications@rentschler-biopharma.com.

29.09.2021 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackview has recently launched the BV6600 Pro and Blackview BL5000.

For people who spend the most time outdoors-whether for work or play-it's a big problem for average cell phones. Standard phones can't stand continued exposure to dirt, dust, water, or extreme weather well, and could easily break as a result of such abuse. For people who are thinking about investing in a smartphone that can withstand more than an average phone, there's a bunch of nice choices from the brand Blackview, ranging from budget to high-end lines.

Blackview offers rugged phones that are perfect for outdoor work or an active lifestyle. These rugged phones are robust, reliable, and adapted to extreme conditions, which meet the industry-leading IP68 & IP69K & MIL-STD-810G standard thanks to features like waterproof designs, military toughness, and long-lasting batteries. People can access them from various leading e-commerce platforms including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Cdiscount, as well as the official Blackview website. Featured products include:

Blackview BV6600 Pro

The BV6600 Pro, released in September 2021, is the newest rugged phone from Blackview. It features an integrated FLIR Lepton thermal imaging camera, which lets the user see and measure heat while it is invisible to human eyes. What's really amazing about this is it empowers the user with a new and exciting way to view the world, like having an alien-like vision. It delivers huge fun with such a thermal camera. And all those eye-opening things seen through the thermal camera can be captured and saved on the phone, which can further be shared, streamed to social media. It's an exciting addition to the standard social media lifestyle.

Not just for fun, the thermal imaging technology can also help troubleshoot various issues that every house might have, like electric failures, gas leaks, etc. And it helps enhance personal safety in outdoor environments. Along with this, the BV6600 Pro houses a gigantic 8580mAh battery, 53% above average capacity, to support heavy use for more than 1 day.

In the market, thermal imaging phones are very few and pricey. But the BV6600 Pro is the most economical, longest lasting one among them. For those who are new to this high-end thermal technology and want to experience it, the BV6600 Pro is beyond doubt the top choice to start with.

Click here to learn more mind-blowing thermal imaging applications. Higher-end thermal models from Blackview include BV9900 Pro, BV9800 Pro.

Blackview BL5000

Launched in August 2021, Blackview BL5000 has gained great popularity in the European market. The BL5000 is a solid choice for people who are looking for an exceptional gaming experience on a rugged phone. It can play hundreds of popular, large-scale 3D games effortlessly thanks to supreme hardware and software. It's super fast on the speed, eye-pleasing on the visuals, ultra-fluid for all operations. And it runs a pro Gaming system combining the best of mobile and gaming features, letting the user play games without distraction.

More thoughtful details on offer include the 30W fast charge and the fact that it's packed with an L-shaped charging cable to provide ultra gaming comfort while charging! Click here to learn the specifications and view more details.

In fact, rugged phone is not the only strong suit for Blackview as this brand also provides mainstream smartphones, earphones, tablets, laptops, and smartwatches. These lines are not as especially ruggedized as the rugged phone line but have nice designs and decent performance. They are well-received in Europe and Russia, due to friendly pricing. For those who intend to switch to a new device, Blackview is a nice place to go. Following are hot products from the aforementioned lines.

Blackview A100 (Mainstream phone)

Features the top look and camera without the top price.

Blackview AirBuds 5 Pro (Hybrid ANC earphones)

Get a taste of style without breaking the bank.

Blackview Tab 10 (Tablet)

A budget tablet featuring a long-lasting battery, octa-core processor, and the latest Android system.

Blackview AceBook1 (Laptop)

Light & tough laptop with premium sound.

Blackview R6 (Smartwatch)

The ultimate IP68 waterproof rugged smartwatch.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638492/1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638543/2.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638491/3.jpg
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) (FSE: 26N) (OTC: NTTCF) ("NetCents" or the "Company"), a leader in the cryptocurrency payments industry, is pleased to announce the addition of Frank Amaro and Jason Dukowski as the Company's new Independent Directors.

Frank is an industry veteran and a strategic business leader in the distributed ledger and blockchain space. Mr. Amaro spent 17 years in JP Morgan's commodity trading group where he successfully built JPM's Platinum Group Metals business. He has leveraged his experience both at JP Morgan and as an angel investor and entrepreneur to help start-ups successfully navigate anticipated regulatory changes.

Frank's interest in the cryptocurrency industry evolved from his initial purchase of Bitcoin in 2014. He is an original member of Blockchain Capital's AngelList syndicate and the co-founder of Block5, an early-stage investment and advisory firm.

In addition to his influence in the crypto world, Frank also serves as a Fintech advisor to the London Bullion Metals Association (LBMA).

Jason Dukowski has also joined NetCents as an Independent Director. He is a seasoned finance, risk, and compliance executive with over 20 years of experience in government and corporate operations, information and privacy legislation, business continuity, change management strategies, and risk mitigation. Throughout his career, Jason has consulted and provided leadership to businesses in the areas of governance, compliance, risk management, anti-money laundering, and financial planning.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, Jason has maintained a robust client-base. In previous roles, Mr. Dukowski provided unparalleled advice, and implementation strategy to his clients.

As the Company's new Independent Director, Jason will apply his expertise in risk, compliance, and government policy to further develop NetCents' risk assessment approach, and compliance strategies.

Jason holds a BA from the University of British Columbia and regularly volunteers for the Veterans Memorial Housing Society as treasurer.

"We are thrilled to have both Frank and Jason join us as Independent Directors at NetCents," stated Clayton Moore, Founder and CEO of NetCents Technology. "Their unique career experiences have brought great success to multiple organizations. It's clear to me that their new roles will be pivotal in helping to position NetCents for significant future triumphs."

With all of the recent additions to our team, NetCents continues to evolve on several fronts. With this in mind, the Company would also like to provide an update with respect to filing its annual financial statements, management's discussion and analysis and related officer certifications for the financial year ended October 31, 2020.

Over these past few weeks, the NetCents Accounting Department has continued to work diligently to provide its auditors with all required information. The Company has also implemented several internal changes to help eliminate delays in the future. NetCents is pleased to announce that it has retained Branson & Co to supplement its internal accounting staff for current and future accounting tasks.

Despite the unexpected delay in filing its year-end audit, the Company continues to cultivate and grow an engaged merchant base. On an operational level, NetCents has maintained its focus on successfully implementing an omnichannel sales and marketing approach. The onboarding of new merchants has only accelerated in the past few months, and new strategic relationships continue to develop. In addition to these efforts, Management has launched a new roadmap for global growth, looking to expand the Company's geographic footprint beyond North America and Europe.

The Company is looking forward to the completion of the audit process, and the resumption of trading on all previous markets.

About NetCents

NetCents Technology Inc., the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward- thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or contact Investor Relations: investor@net-cents.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

NetCents Technology Inc.

"Clayton Moore"

Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director

NetCents Technology Inc.

350 - 375 Water Street

Vancouver, BC, V6B 5C6

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements including without limitation, expected growth and success of the Company. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual

results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97945
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSXV: SSV) (OTCQX: SSVFF) (FSE: SEG1) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Russell Ball to the board of directors and Mr. Paul Harbidge as a consultant to the Company. Mr. Ball and Mr. Harbidge bring to the Company a solid track record of creating value with both having been involved in senior leadership roles with mining companies for over 25 years. Mr. Ball is currently the Chair of the board of directors and Mr. Harbidge, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of CopperBank Resources Corp.

Russell Ball is the former Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chair of Calibre Mining Corp. Previously, Mr. Ball was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Goldcorp Inc., a role he assumed in March 2016 after initially joining Goldcorp Inc. in 2013 and serving as Executive Vice President of Capital Projects, Strategy and Corporate Development, including oversight of their primary growth projects. Prior to his role with Goldcorp Inc., he served in varying capacities at Newmont Mining Corporation for almost twenty years, culminating with his appointment as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He currently serves on the Board of Trevali Mining Corporation and CopperBank Resources Corp.

Paul Harbidge is a geologist with more than 25 years of experience in mining exploration and development with a proven track record discovering world class gold deposits. Mr. Harbidge was most recently the President and Chief Executive Officer of GT Gold and led the company to a CA$456 million acquisition by Newmont Mining Corp. in May 2021. Prior to this Mr. Harbidge was the Senior Vice President of Exploration at the multinational gold mining company Goldcorp Inc. from 2016 until its acquisition by Newmont Mining Corp. in April 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Harbidge successfully led the Exploration Team at the gold miner Randgold Resources Limited, resulting in five gold discoveries including the +5Moz Gounkoto deposit in the Loulo area of Mali and the +4Moz Massawa deposit in Senegal.

Mr. Harbidge is also a director of the gold exploration company Japan Gold Corp., is a technical advisor to Kalo Gold in Fiji and Gemdale Gold in Finland. He has a First-Class Honours Degree in Geology from Kingston University, London UK and a Masters of Science in Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology from Leicester University (UK).

Other Corporate Matters

All resolutions as set out in the Company's notice of meeting and information circular were passed by the requisite majority of shareholders at its annual general meeting held on September 28, 2021. The shareholders re-appointed Smythe LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditor of Southern Silver and approved Southern Silver's rolling incentive stock option plan pursuant to which a maximum of 10% of the issued shares will be reserved for issuance under the plan. The plan is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.

The following incumbent directors were re-elected: Lawrence Page, Q.C., D. Roger Scammell, Eugene Spiering, Nigel Bunting, Larry Buchanan, Peter Cheesbrough and Gina Jones. The Company would like to thank retiring director Donald Head for his many years of service to the Company. Following the annual general meeting, the board of directors re-appointed Lawrence Page, Q.C. as President, Robert Macdonald as Vice President, Exploration, Graham Thatcher as Chief Financial Officer, and Arie Page as Corporate Secretary. The board also appointed Russell Ball as a director and Paul Harbidge as a consultant of the Company.

In addition, Southern Silver reports that it has granted 10,100,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers and consultants. The options are exercisable at a price of $0.31 per common share for a period of five years and are subject to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Lawrence Page, Q.C., Southern Silver's President, stated: "We welcome the return of incumbent directors who have ably assisted the Company in the development of its principal property, Cerro Las Minitas. Donald Head did not stand for re-election and remains as a valued consultant to the Company. We are fortunate that Russell Ball and Paul Harbidge have agreed to assist the Company, as consultants and director as noted in this release. Management is committed to building the Company into a substantial exploration and development company with significant capital available to achieve the development of its two significant mineral properties."

About Southern Silver Exploration Corp.

Southern Silver Exploration Corp. is an exploration and development company with a focus on the discovery of world-class mineral deposits. Our specific emphasis is the 100% owned Cerro Las Minitas silver-lead-zinc project located in the heart of Mexico's Faja de Plata, which hosts multiple world-class mineral deposits such as Penasquito, San Martin, Naica and Pitarrilla. We have assembled a team of highly experienced technical, operational and transactional professionals to support our exploration efforts in developing the Cerro Las Minitas project into a premier, high-grade, silver-lead-zinc mine. The Company engages in the acquisition, exploration and development either directly or through joint-venture relationships in mineral properties in major jurisdictions.

The Company's property portfolio also includes the Oro porphyry copper-gold project located in southern New Mexico, USA, which includes patented land, State leases and BLM mineral claims totalling 22.3 sq. km. Targeting has been finalized and bonding pending for a 4,000m drill program, designed to test several copper-molybdenum porphyry and copper-gold skarn targets within a broad quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone, interpreted to overlie an unexposed porphyry centre. Permitting is in the final stages with drilling expected to commence in Q4, 2021.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Lawrence Page"

Lawrence Page, Q.C.

President & Director, Southern Silver Exploration Corp.

For further information, please visit Southern Silver's website at southernsilverexploration.com or contact us at 604.641.2759 or by email at ir@mnxltd.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 news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include the timing and receipt of government and regulatory approvals, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Southern Silver Exploration Corp. does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97958
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - MINK VENTURES CORPORATION (TSXV: MINK) (the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has completed an initial public offering of 5,567,500 common shares of the Corporation (the "Common Shares") at a price of $0.10 per common share for gross proceeds of $556,750 (the "Offering").

Following the closing of the Offering, a total of 8,367,500 Common Shares are issued and outstanding, of which 2,800,000 are currently held in escrow pursuant to the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange").

The current directors and officers of the corporation are Natasha Dixon, Chief Executive Officer, President and Director; Paul Rokeby, Chief Financial Officer; Kevin Filo, Corporate Secretary and Director; Ingrid Hibbard, Vice President; Matthew Lilko, Director; and Jean Claude St. Amour, Director. The net proceeds of the Offering, together with proceeds from prior sales of Common Shares will be used by the Corporation to identify and evaluate assets or businesses for acquisition with a view to completing a "Qualifying Transaction" under the capital pool company program of the Exchange.

Haywood Securities Inc. (the "Agent") acted as agent for the Offering. In connection with the Offering, the Corporation granted to the Agent and its sub-agents non-transferable warrants to acquire up to an aggregate of 556,750 Common Shares at a price of $0.10 per Common Share at any time until September 29, 2024. The Agent also received a cash commission equal to 10% of the aggregate gross proceeds from the sale of the Common Shares under the Offering and a corporate finance fee of $10,000.

The Corporation also granted stock options to the directors and officers of the Corporation exercisable to acquire up to an aggregate of 556,750 Common Shares at any time until September 29, 2031 at a price of $0.10 per Common Share.

The Common Shares are expected to commence trading on Exchange under the stock symbol "MINK" upon issuance of the listing bulletin by the Exchange.

For further information please see the final prospectus of the Corporation dated July 26, 2021, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

For further information please contact:

Natasha Dixon

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: 250-882-5620

Cautionary Notes

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Corporation to complete a qualifying transaction. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in forward looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Corporation disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise.

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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97993
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Aegis Capital Corp., - Aegis Capital Corp. (www.aegiscapcorp.com) a full-service wealth management, financial services and investment banking firm is pleased to announce the addition of the RG Investment Group led by Chad Brown, Managing Director

Chad Brown is Co-Founder and Managing Director of the RG Investment Group. Chad has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry with a focus on helping high net worth individuals navigate the complexities of financial markets and simplify their financial lives by delivering a full spectrum of investment, portfolio and wealth management strategies. Chad's extensive experience is rooted in the institutional space where he has provided fixed income, capital markets and risk management services at some of America's largest investment firms. He worked closely with high-profile clients to help them manage wealth, sell private businesses, access capital markets and implement risk management strategies for large concentrated stock positions. Prior to joining Aegis Capital, Chad served as Vice President at Wells Fargo Advisors' Private Client Group and UBS PaineWebber Inc. Additionally, Chad has an entrepreneurial background as a therapeutic drug patent holder, NIH grant author and biotechnology company chief executive and board member.

Robert Eide Aegis' CEO commented: "Chad's addition underscores our commitment to expand our wealth management platform. His industry experience and holistic approach to financial planning is a natural fit with our culture and we welcome him to the firm."

Michael Pata Aegis' Head of Business Development commented: "We are thrilled to continue our expansion on the West Coast with the joining of the RG Investment Group. Chad is a well-respected advisor who goes above and beyond to meet the personalized financial goals of his clients. Chad offers a combination of experience, process and client commitment that helps forge successful, long-lasting relationships."

About Aegis Capital Corporation

Aegis Capital Corporation "Aegis" has been in business for over 35 years catering to the needs of private clients, institutions and corporations. Aegis was founded in 1984 and offers its investment representatives a conflict free service platform and is able to provide a full range of products and services including investment banking, wealth management, insurance, retirement planning, structured products, private equity, alternatives, equity research, fixed income and special purpose vehicles. Aegis is able to provide quality service through its primary clearing relationship with RBC Clearing & Custody whose parent company, Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY), is one of the world's leading diversified financial services companies. Member: FINRA / SIPC.

Any questions contact:

Michael Pata, Head of Business Development

Telephone: 1-212-813-1010

mpata@aegiscap.com

www.aegiscapcorp.com

SOURCE: Aegis Capital Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666089/Aegis-Capital-Corp-Announces-the-Addition-of-the-RG-Investment-Group
Organizations flock to company's innovative cloud security platform in order to innovate with speed and safety

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lacework , the data-driven security platform for the cloud, today announced it is seeing an increase in customer adoption following the appointment of Jay Parikh as Co-CEO and a $525 million growth round led by Sutter Hill Ventures earlier this year. In the first quarter of 2021, the company reported 3x revenue growth, 5x increase in new customers and an almost 300% employee growth year-on-year. These growth metrics continued through the second quarter as Lacework attracted new customers across segments and industries with its differentiated platform, including expansion into 10 new countries.

"The rapid adoption of the cloud presents organizations with a multitude of opportunities; however, it has introduced new cybersecurity challenges that many organizations do not have the right resources to protect against. At Lacework, being customer-centric is a core part of our DNA and it's been empowering to work with our customers and partners to help them overcome these barriers and enable them to innovate quickly and securely. But the journey is just beginning," said David "Hat" Hatfield, Co-CEO at Lacework. "Our team is committed to continue to deliver both the depth and breadth of innovative solutions to help our customers consolidate the dozens of tools they have today, simplifying their environments, while increasing their ROI and their security posture."

Lacework Drives Business Value Across Industries

Lacework's data-driven approach to cloud security continues to drive significant business value for its customers, including reduced total ownership cost, improved productivity, increased revenue generation and reduced organizational risk. In Q2 2021, Lacework saw its customer count expand as the company continues to support hundreds of customers globally.

Further validating the Lacework platform approach, G2.com, one of the largest and most trusted destinations for software reviews, ranks Lacework at the top of its list for both Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) . The company was also named "easiest to use" by G2.com for both categories.

In the first half of 2021, Lacework customers experienced the following business benefits:

Faster Software Delivery & Better Security

A healthtech company described Lacework as having 20 more DevSecOps engineers, enabling them to focus on developing software faster.

A cloud software technology company consolidated its monitoring tools and reduced alerts from 150 an hour to one per day.

One American multinational technology company based in Denver shared that Lacework is consistently the only solution that detects their penetration tests.

Direct Revenue Creation

A Hybrid IT automation and orchestration platform company achieved SOC2 and unlocked two million dollars in Annual Recurring Revenue six months faster than scheduled.

in Annual Recurring Revenue six months faster than scheduled. One startup that personalizes brick-and-mortar commerce had security vendor assessments blocking deals because prospects wanted more than just compliance checks. With Lacework they were able to sign a million dollar customer by demonstrating proper security posture.

Cost & Time Savings

A software insurance company saved $675,000 after consolidating its monitoring tools with Lacework.

after consolidating its monitoring tools with Lacework. A major hotel chain was able to reduce SIEM ingest from 400 terabytes a day to 4 megabytes a day, ultimately saving $700,000 a year.

a year. An online lending marketplace's security bill was cut in half; and the ability to effectively identify unknown threats reduced their annual risk by an estimated $1,200,000 .

. A cloud communications software and services company was able to reduce alert fatigue by over $100,000 , eliminate excess tool costs and reduce its compliance efforts, resulting in the company saving almost $500,000 .

Expansion of Leadership to Build a New Kind of Security Company

To support its next phase of growth, Lacework continues to expand its leadership team, including key executive and leadership hires in learning, customer success, human resources and developer experience, amongst other roles. New leaders include Lindsay Folk, as Chief of Learning, Seong Park, as Chief Customer Officer, Meg Diaz, as VP of Platform and Solutions Marketing, Devin Davis, as VP of Corporate Marketing, Shweta Vohra, as VP of HR and Jessica West, as VP of Developer Experience. As function and business leaders, these new Lacers will support Lacework's growth as the company continues to expand globally, drive product innovation and enter new markets.

Resources

Learn more about the new ways attackers are infiltrating the cloud in the second volume of the Lacework Labs Cloud Threat Report .

. Download the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Workload Protection Platforms here .

. Visit the Lacework Blog for up to date information on threat defense, intrusion detection, cloud containers, workloads, accounts, devops, and more.

About Lacework

Lacework is the data-driven security platform for the cloud. The Lacework Cloud Security Platform, powered by Polygraph, automates cloud security at scale so our customers can innovate with speed and safety. Only Lacework can collect, analyze, and accurately correlate data across an organization's AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments, and narrow it down to the handful of security events that matter. Customers all over the globe depend on Lacework to drive revenue, bring products to market faster and safer and consolidate point security solutions into a single platform. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices all over the world, Lacework is backed by leading investors like Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Liberty Global Ventures, and Snowflake Ventures, among others. Get started at www.lacework.com.


BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The pound weakened against its major counterparts in the European session on Wednesday, as U.S. debt-ceiling impasse, Evergrande's debt crisis and power shortages in China dampened investor sentiment.



Senate Republicans blocked a House plan to suspend the government's borrowing limit, in a major blow to Democratic attempts to avert a possible government shutdown on October 1.



If the debt ceiling is not raised, the U.S. government would default on its obligations as early as mid-October.



Worries about China Evergrande's debt crisis mounted as it faces $47.5 million bond interest payment on its 9.5 percent March 2024 dollar bond, after missing payments last week.



The developer is planning to sell a 9.99 billion yuan stake in Shengjing Bank to settle its financial liabilities with the bank.



Investors continue to worry about surging energy costs due to power shortages in China, which is hurting the country's manufacturing sector and related supply chains.



Data from the Bank of England showed that U.K. mortgage approvals declined to a 13-month low in August.



Mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to 74,453 in August from 75,126 in July. This was the lowest since July 2020.



The pound dropped to 1.2514 against the franc, its weakest level since August 24. If the pound weakens further, 1.235 is possibly seen as its next support level.



The pound dipped to 1.3444 against the greenback, a level unseen since December 2020. The pound may challenge support around the 1.33 mark.



The pound hit a 6-day low of 149.92 against the yen, from Tuesday's close of 150.82. The pound is seen finding support around the 147.00 region.



The pound declined to its lowest level since July 21 against the euro, at 0.8657. The next possible support for the currency is seen around the 0.88 level.



Looking ahead, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will participate in a virtual panel discussion titled 'Policy panel' at the ECB Forum on Central Banking at 11:45 am ET.



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SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - It's again that day of the year when coffee lovers celebrate their passion for the caffeinated beverage. It is National Coffee Day today in the U.S. when major food and beverage outlets across the nation promote the coffee culture with deals for coffee fans.



Nearly 60 percent of Americans choose coffee each day over other beverages, including tap water, according to the National Coffee Association's 2021 National Coffee Data Trends Report.



In the U.S., major coffee outlets such as Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Wawa, Krispy Kreme, Wendy's and Panera Bread give away free cups of coffee to consumers visiting the promoting stores on the day, September 29. They also run special offers to attract more customers to the outlets.



This year, restaurants, convenience stores and brands alike are giving away free or discounted cups or bags of coffee - Starbucks, Dunkin', Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread and many more.



Apart from celebrating National Coffee Day, coffee giant Starbucks is also celebrating its 50th anniversary. Starbucks is giving away a free cup of Pike Place Roast brewed coffee, Starbucks's signature medium roast coffee either hot or iced. However, the customers must bring their own clean up to 20 oz. reusable cup to a participating cafe. Select Starbucks Reserve locations are also offering a free Starbucks coffee or cold brew in a similar way.



Dunkin' is giving a free medium hot or iced coffee to its free loyalty program members at restaurants across the U.S. along with any purchase. Panera is offering free coffee all day to parents and caregivers.



Krispy Kreme is giving everyone a free brewed coffee with no purchase required. Reward members will get one free doughnut of their choice along with the brewed coffee with no purchase required.



Meanwhile, Peet's Coffee customers will get a free small drip coffee with the purchase of a 1/2-pound or 1-pound bag of coffee beans in-store, which is also an everyday deal. McDonald's is running a deal that will get you any size premium roast or iced coffee for only 99 cents when you order via its app through December 31.



Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is offering its 7Rewards loyalty members a free coffee with the purchase of any baked good. It is also offering a free extra large hot coffee with any purchase via 7-Eleven Delivery on the 7NOW app.



Wawa is giving away a free coffee at its 940 locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virgina, Florida and Washington D.C. At Duck Donuts, registered loyalty members will get an app rewards to be redeemed for a free medium cold brew or frappe, in-shop or online.



The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf offers a free regular size brewed coffee with any food or beverage purchase over $2. Tim Hortons is offering any size hot or iced coffee for 99 cents when ordering on the Tim Hortons app or online through October 26. It is also offering its new reward members a free donut with a purchase of any coffee beverage.



Barnes & Noble is giving away a free hot or iced tall coffee with the purchase of any item from the bakery case at store cafes. You can also get a free 20 oz. hot brewed coffee at Biggby Coffee. Casey's is offering a free small coffee with any purchase using Casey's rewards.



At Einstein Bros. Bagels, a free hot or iced coffee is offered will app orders, which is also available every day. You can also get a free coffee at Scooter's Coffee through its app.



At Kolache Factory, customers can get a free 12-ounce cup of coffee against a coupon that will be emailed or posted on its social media sites. Sheetz is offering its reward members a free self-serve coffee of any size.



Several local coffee shops and smaller chains are also offering free coffee or discounts to the celebrate National Coffee Day.



Apart from National Coffee Day, the less known International Coffee Day is observed on October 1 every year since 2015, when International Coffee Organization (ICO) officially declared this day in Milan, Italy, to promote awareness about one of the most flavored beverages in the world and also to encourage fair trade of coffee.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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The Dutch event has attracted bumper crowds this week as solar businesses, electric vehicle charging firms and heat pump distributors abound - but you'll have a hard time trying to find any residential battery suppliers.Dutch PV exhibition Solar Solutions International has opened its doors for the first time since the pre-pandemic days of 2019, to an audience which exceeded pre-Covid levels. According to Rolf Heynen, founding partner of trade show organizer Good! Events & Media, visitor registrations for this week's show beat the 2019 figures by 10-15%. The large solar solutions hall in Haarlemmermeer, ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The White House COVID-19 Response Team says the Biden administration is off to a very strong start with the Covid-19 vaccine booster campaign, and that booster doses are well tolerated.



About 2.78 million people have received an additional booster dose so far, Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a routine press conference Tuesday.



U.S. health workers began administering booster shots on Friday, immediately after FDA and CDC recommended that certain populations receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID19 Vaccine at least 6 months after completion of their two-dose course of the same vaccine.



The recipients included President Joe Biden, who got inoculated with a vaccine booster shot on Monday.



COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said that over the past weekend, at pharmacies alone, more than 400,000 Americans received the additional protection of a booster, and almost 1 million people have already scheduled their booster shots through pharmacies over the coming weeks.



Massachusetts and several other states are reaching out to millions of eligible individuals via text messages and email.



New Jersey is opening three mass vaccination centers to give booster shots.



The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service are getting thousands of booster shots in arms each day.



CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said both FDA and CDC reviewed data on the safety of booster shots, including for those who are 18 to 64. A new MMWR report shows that COVID-19 vaccine booster doses are well tolerated so far.



'The frequency and type of side effects were similar to those seen after the second vaccine doses and were mostly mild or moderate and short-lived,' she told reporters.



Walensky said that the seven-day average of new Covid cases in the U.S. is about 95,000 per day. The seven-day average of hospital admissions is approximately 8,500 per day, and the seven-day average of daily deaths is 1,300 per day.



With 111162 new Covid infections recorded on Tuesday, the national total reached 43,232,152, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.



An additional 2543 Covid deaths took the total number of people who died due to the pandemic to 693,069.



As per the latest data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 185,265,610 people in the United States, or 55.8 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.



A total of 213,752,856 people have received at least one dose.



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The "Western Europe SVOD Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In the Western European SVOD market, Germany will overtake the UK in 2025. Germany will have 52 million SVOD subscriptions by 2026, with the UK just behind with 51 million.

There will be 238 million SVOD subscriptions across 18 Western European countries by 2026, up from 167 million at end-2021. From the 71 million additions over this period, the UK will contribute 9 million, Germany 17 million, Italy 10 million and France 10 million.

Netflix will remain the largest SVOD platform, with 67 million paying subscribers by 2026, up by 10 million at end-2021. Disney+ will have 53 million subscribers by 2026; double from 2021. Amazon Prime Video will remain just ahead of Disney+.

This report comes in two parts:

Insight: Regional overview and country analysis for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK in a 74-page PDF document.

Excel workbook covering each year from 2010 to 2026 for 18 countries by household penetration, by SVOD subscribers and revenues for movies and TV episodes. As well as summary tables by country and by platform;

Companies Mentioned

Netflix

Amazon Prime Video

Disney+

Apple TV+

HBO

Viaplay/Elisa Viide

C More

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qmyby9

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005737/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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AKKA is a European leader in engineering consulting and R&D services. Our comprehensive portfolio of digital solutions combined with our expertise in engineering, uniquely positions us to support our clients by leveraging the power of connected data to accelerate innovation and drive the future of smart industry. AKKA accompanies leading industry players across a wide range of sectors throughout the life cycle of their products with cutting edge digital technologies (AI, ADAS, IoT, Big Data, robotics, embedded computing, machine learning, etc.) to help them rethink their products and business processes. Founded in 1984, AKKA has a strong entrepreneurial culture and a wide global footprint. Our 20,000 employees around the world are all passionate about technology and share the AKKA values of respect, courage and ambition. The Group recorded revenues of 1.5 billion in 2020. AKKA Technologies (AKA) is listed on Euronext Paris and Brussels segment B ISIN code: FR0004180537.

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.




Almere, The Netherlands

September 29, 2021, 5.45 p.m. CET

ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) today announces the voting results of its Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders held on September 29, 2021, at the ASM offices, the Netherlands.

The shareholders approved all resolutions as proposed to the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. Therefore Mrs. Pauline van der Meer Mohr and Mr. Adalio Sanchez are appointed as member of the Supervisory Board for a term of four years expiring at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2025.



About ASM International

ASM International NV, headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, its subsidiaries and participations design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International, its subsidiaries and participations provide production solutions for wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as for assembly & packaging and surface mount technology (Back-end segment) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI's website at www.asm.com .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All matters discussed in this press release, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions and trends in the semiconductor industry generally and the timing of the industry cycles specifically, currency fluctuations, corporate transactions, financing and liquidity matters, the success of restructurings, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, litigation involving intellectual property, shareholders or other issues, commercial and economic disruption due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict or political instability, changes in import/export regulations, epidemics and other risks indicated in the Company's reports and financial statements. The Company assumes no obligation nor intends to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future developments or circumstances.

This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

CONTACT



Investor and Media contact:

Victor Bareno

T: +31 88 100 8500

E: victor.bareno@asm.com

Attachment
Regulatory News:

This announcement does not constitute an invitation to participate in the Offer (as defined herein) in or from any jurisdiction in or from which, or to or from any person to or from whom, it is unlawful to make such offer under applicable securities laws or otherwise. The distribution of this document in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. See "Legal Notices" below. Persons into whose possession this document comes are required by PSH, the Dealer Managers and the Tender and Information Agent (each as defined herein) to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions. No action that would permit a public offer has been or will be taken in any jurisdiction by PSH, the Dealer Managers, or the Tender and Information Agent.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. ("PSH") announced today the pricing terms for the previously announced cash tender offer (the "Offer") for any and all of its 5.500 per cent. Senior Notes due 2022 (the "Notes"). Capitalised terms used and not defined herein shall have the meanings set forth in the Tender Offer Memorandum dated September 22, 2021 (the "Tender Offer Memorandum").

The consideration (the "Consideration") for each $1,000 principal amount of the Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer was determined in the manner described in the Tender Offer Memorandum by reference to the fixed spread for the Notes specified below plus the yield based on the bid-side price of the Reference Security specified below as of 10.00 a.m., New York City time today, the date on which the Offer is currently scheduled to expire.

Title of the Security ISIN Common Code Principal

amount outstanding Reference Security Bloomberg Reference Page Fixed Spread Consideration per $1,000 principal amount of Notes 5.500 per cent. Senior Notes due 2022 Rule 144A: XS1242957006 (ISIN) 124295700 (Common Code) Reg S: XS1242956966 (ISIN) 124295696 (Common Code) US$1,000,000,000 0.125% UST due 08/31/2023 FIT1 +50 $1,032.82

PSH will also pay Accrued Interest (rounded to the nearest cent, with half a cent rounded upwards) in respect of all Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase by PSH pursuant to the Offer from (and including) the immediately preceding interest payment date, to (but excluding) the Settlement Date. Notes tendered through the guaranteed delivery procedures will not receive accrued interest from the Settlement Date through the Guaranteed Delivery Settlement Date (if different).

The Offer will expire, unless terminated earlier, at 5:00 p.m. (New York time) on September 29, 2021 or at such other date or time to which the Offer may be extended, reopened, amended and/or terminated by PSH as provided in the Tender Offer Memorandum (such applicable date and time, the "Expiration Deadline").

Notes tendered may be withdrawn at any time prior to or at 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) September 29, 2021, as may be extended or otherwise amended by PSH in accordance with the Tender Offer Memorandum (such applicable date and time, the "Withdrawal Deadline") but not thereafter. Holders that validly tender (and do not validly withdraw) their Notes prior to or on the Expiration Deadline and have their tenders accepted by PSH will be eligible to receive the Consideration (as defined below) plus Accrued Interest (as defined below).

Notes tendered prior to the Withdrawal Deadline may be withdrawn at any time prior to or at the Withdrawal Deadline, which is contemporaneous with the Expiration Deadline. If the Offer is extended, PSH will amend the Withdrawal Deadline applicable to the Offer such that Notes validly tendered in respect of the Offer prior to or at the original Withdrawal Deadline (including Notes validly tendered pursuant to the Guaranteed Delivery Procedures) may be validly withdrawn at any time before the earlier of (i) the Expiration Deadline (as so extended) and (ii) the tenth Business Day after the Launch Date. The Notes may also be validly withdrawn at any time in the event the Offer has not been consummated within 60 Business Days after the Launch Date.

A Holder who desires to tender its Notes but either cannot comply with the applicable procedures for book-entry transfer or time will not permit such Notes to be tendered on or before the Expiration Deadline, may effect a Tender pursuant to the Guaranteed Delivery Procedures set out in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The delivery of Notes tendered by the Guaranteed Delivery Procedures must be made no later than 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on the second Business Day after the Expiration Deadline, expected to be October 1, 2021 (such applicable date and time, the "Guaranteed Delivery Deadline").

PSH's obligation to accept for purchase and to pay for the Notes tendered pursuant to the Offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the Conditions as discussed the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Further Information

Holders may contact the Dealer Managers or the Tender and Information Agent using the contact details below:

DEALER MANAGERS

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. 388 Greenwich Street, Trading 4th Floor

New York, NY 10013 United States of America

Attention: Liability Management

Toll Free: +1 (800) 558-3745 Collect: +1 (212) 723-6106 UBS AG London Branch 5 Broadgate

London EC2M 2QS

United Kingdom Attention: Liability Management Group Toll-Free: +1 (888) 719-4210 Call Collect: +1 (203) 719-4210

TENDER AND INFORMATION AGENT

Global Bondholder Services Corporation

65 Broadway Suite 404

New York, NY 10006

United States of America

Attn: Corporate Actions

Banks and Brokers call: +1 (212) 430-3774

Toll free +1 (866) 807-2200

Offer website: https://www.gbsc-usa.com/pershingsquareholdings/

Email: contact@gbsc-usa.com

This announcement contains Inside Information as defined under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Legal Notices

This announcement does not constitute an offer or an invitation to participate in the Offer in any jurisdiction in which, or to any person to or from whom, it is unlawful to make such offer or invitation or for there to be such participation under applicable laws. The distribution of this announcement, and the transactions contemplated by the Offer, may be restricted in certain jurisdictions by law. The materials relating to the Offer do not constitute, and may not be used in connection with, an offer or solicitation in any place where, or from any person to or whom, offers or solicitations are not permitted by law.

None of PSH, the Dealer Managers or the Tender and Information Agent or any of their respective directors, employees or affiliates make any representation or recommendation whatsoever regarding this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or the Offer or whether any Holder should submit Tenders or refrain from doing so, and no one has been authorised by any of them to make any such recommendation.

United Kingdom

The communication of this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other documents or materials relating to the Offer is not being made, and such documents and/or materials have not been approved, by an authorised person for the purposes of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (as amended). Accordingly, this Tender Offer Memorandum and such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, persons in the United Kingdom other than (i) to those persons in the United Kingdom falling within the definition of investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order")), or (ii) to those persons falling within Article 43(2) of the Order, including existing members and creditors of PSH, (iii) to those persons who are outside the United Kingdom, or (iv) to any other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Order.

Italy

None of the Offer, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or any other documents or materials relating to the Offer has been or will be submitted to the clearance procedures of the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa ("CONSOB") pursuant to Italian laws and regulations.

Therefore, the Offer may only be carried out in the Republic of Italy pursuant to an exemption under article 101-bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998, as amended (the "Financial Services Act") and article 35-bis, paragraph 4 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of 14 May 1999, as amended. Holders or beneficial owners of the Notes that are resident and/or located in the Republic of Italy may tender their Notes through authorised persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in the Republic of Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 20307 of 15 February 2018, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of September 1, 1993, as amended) and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority.

Each intermediary must comply with the applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-a-vis its clients in connection with the Notes and the Offer.

France

The Offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, to the public in the Republic of France other than to qualified investors as defined in Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. This announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other document or material relating to the Offer have only been and shall only be distributed in France to qualified investors as defined in Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum have not been and will not be submitted for clearance to nor approved by the Autorite des Marches Financiers.

Belgium

None of the Offer, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum nor any other brochure, document or material related thereto have been, or will be, submitted or notified to, or approved by, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (Autorite des services et marches financiers/Autoriteit voor Financiele Diensten en Markten). In Belgium, the Offer does not constitute a public offering within the meaning of Articles 3, 1, 1 and 6 of the Belgian Law of April 1, 2007 on takeover bids (loi relative aux offres publiques d'acquisition/wet op de openbare overnamebiedingen), as amended or replaced from time to time. Accordingly, the Offer may not be, and is not being advertised, and this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum, as well as any brochure, or any other material or document relating thereto (including any memorandum, information circular, brochure or any similar document) may not, has not and will not be distributed, directly or indirectly, to any person located and/or resident within Belgium, other than those who qualify as qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies/qekwalificeerde beleggers), within the meaning of Article 2, e), of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (the "Prospectus Regulation") acting on their own account. Accordingly, the information contained in this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or in any brochure or any other document or material relating thereto may not be used for any other purpose, including for any offering in Belgium, except as may otherwise be permitted by law, and shall not be disclosed or distributed to any other person in Belgium.

General

Neither this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum nor any other materials relating to the Offer constitutes an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell Notes (and Tenders will not be accepted from Holders) in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. If a jurisdiction requires that the Offer be made by a licensed broker or dealer and any of the Dealer Managers or any of their respective affiliates is a licensed broker or dealer in that jurisdiction, the Offer shall be deemed to be made by such Dealer Manager or affiliate, as the case may be, on behalf of PSH in that jurisdiction.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. registered place of business: P.O. Box 255, Trafalgar Court, Les Banques, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 3QL

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund.

Category: (PSH:CorporateActions)

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005752/en/

Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Julia Tilley +44 (0)20 3781 8339, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
ONE Banana Ingredients now owns and operates the first food processing plant in Guatemala to be Business Alliance for Secure Commerce -BASC- Certified, thus enhancing the company's commitment to the pursuit of transparency, traceability and more secure commerce.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005803/en/

ONE Banana Ingredients has the first Processing Plant in Guatemala certified under the BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOR SECURE COMMERCE -BASC International Certification, reaffirming its commitment to secure commerce and strengthening international trade through the implementation of international standards and security procedures on its Sustainable Food Ingredients Operations. (Photo: Business Wire)

"Today, we can proudly say that we have maintained our commitment with Secure Commerce for more than ten years," said Robert Adams, President of ONE Banana Co. "Now we have extended this commitment to our Food Ingredients Processing Plant, strengthening international trade by applying internationally recognized standards and security procedures."

About the BASC Certification:

BASC -Business Alliance for Secure Commerce- is an international business alliance that promotes safe trade in voluntary cooperation with Governments, border agencies, control authorities, and international organizations.

The BASC International Certification endorses the company's use of global security standards to prevent smuggling or crimes in its logistics and international trade chain. It covers everything from shipment to the final destination, thus guaranteeing traceability and safety throughout the supply chain.

Just like ONE Banana Ingredients, the BASC initiative is committed to promoting a safe and fair commercialization processes, discouraging activities that are illegal or harmful to the economic, fiscal, and commercial interests of the countries that are members of the Organization.

Certifications:

ONE Banana Ingredients is on a mission of producing the highest quality and delicious natural ingredients in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

Implementation of its sustainability strategy and the use of state-of-the-art technology have allowed One Banana Ingredients to comply with international standards on chain of custody management, traceability, food safety and Good Manufacturing Practices, allowing ONE Banana to be certified under standards, such as: HACC, under the LSQA seal, BRC Global Standard, Kosher, HALAL and Rainforest Alliance Identity Preserved.

About ONE Banana:

ONE Banana and ONE Banana Ingredients are a family owned sustainable grower, shipper and distributor of tropical fruit, and natural ingredients with operations in the United States, Guatemala, Europe, Peru, and Ecuador. It has emerged as a leader in socially responsible and environmentally sustainable farming. For more information please visit: https://www.onebananas.com. See our latest Sustainability Report here.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005803/en/

Contacts:

Javier Aguirre

Corporate Director

info@onebananas.com

(502) 2420-9600
According to a study by the international consulting firm Bloom Consulting

The study analyzed over seven million online searches related to Costa Rica tourism and trade.

Study results were released during the Essential Costa Rica annual B2B Forum.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The international consulting firm Bloom Consulting recently conducted a comprehensive study analyzing millions of online searches. The results of the comprehensive investigation identified four key areas where Costa Rica leads as a global benchmark for value-added sustainability.

According to the study, Costa Rica ranks number one in the world for online searches related to ecotourism; third in the world and first in Latin America for national parks; fourth in the world and first in Latin America for surfing; fifth in the world and first in Latin America for diving; seventh in the world and second in Latin America for bird watching; and eighth in the world and third in Latin America for beaches.

The consulting firm also identified Costa Rica as a global reference for value-added issues related to environmental sustainability. According to the search analysis, the country takes first place in the world and Latin America for carbon neutrality; third in the world and first in Latin America for renewable energy; and 29th in the world and third in Latin America for the production of medical devices.

"Costa Rica's digital footprint reflects its robust online presence as a tourist destination, the result of the committed efforts by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) to promote the country on the international market. It is a digital footprint that not only reflects multiple and varied marketing strategies but also represents the quality of products and services that visitors encounter when they visit," said Costa Rica's Minister of Tourism, Gustavo J. Segura.

The study concluded that despite Costa Rica's international attractiveness and stable growth indicators, work remains to improve the country's investment and export sectors.

The analysis also verified the profound impact of COVID-19 on tourism and its moderate effects on investment and exports. As of March 2020, online searches related to tourism fell by 50%, while those related to investment and exports fell by 2.5% and 4.8%, respectively.

The last of the study results, which were presented as part of the Essential Costa Rica B2B Forum framework, demonstrate how the nation's digital footprint is highly dependent on United States interests. Nearly half of all searches related to tourism, 30% related to investment, and 36% related to exports correspond to U.S. online browsers.

Pedro Beirute Prada, President of the Essential Costa Rica Inter-Institutional Committee, announced that the study would serve as a guide to further develop the promotional strategies spearheaded by Costa Rica's ICT and its Investment and Foreign Trader Promoter agencies, CINDE and PROCOMER. "The study not only highlights the great inter-institutional work carried out over the past eight years with the help of Essential Costa Rica, but it also allows us to sharpen the pencil that will chart our route to the future. The strategic international positioning of our sustainability, added value, and product diversity are areas we must continue to strengthen. Exports are a fundamental engine for our economic recovery. With the support of Essential Costa Rica, we will continue to promote the high quality of production that international markets recognize."

CINDE CEO, Jorge Sequeira, added, "Costa Rica's value proposition of people, planet, and prosperity has allowed us to position the country as an international benchmark in productive sustainability and create an FDI environment for global corporate investment strategies with purpose. It also allows us to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals by becoming a laboratory for client-centric solutions where sustainability is an essential part of everything we do. Today, we have over 350 companies operating in the services, life sciences, and smart manufacturing sectors. Through these efforts, we will continue to achieve worldwide recognition while positively impacting the development of our nation and its inhabitants."

The Bloom Consulting Firm added that Essential Costa Rica, CINDE, PROCOMER, and ICT are well positioned for their content creation and recommended that the four agencies continue to promote the unified nation brand strategy.

Additional Bloom Consulting recommendations included:

Costa Rica's digital identity should be built upon the joint efforts of Essential Costa Rica institutions as well as public entities and local and international companies.

digital identity should be built upon the joint efforts of Essential Costa Rica institutions as well as public entities and local and international companies. Deepen Costa Rica's digital identity by developing a robust content strategy.

digital identity by developing a robust content strategy. Content should be created in the specific language of the target audience.

All promotional activities, campaigns, and events should include the goal of building a digital legacy.

Special attention should not only be given to the "All" field in search engines but also to "Images" and "Videos."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638068/Essential_COSTA_RICA_ing.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638072/Essential_COSTA_RICA_ingles_Logo.jpg
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (29 September 2021) - IMCD N.V. ("IMCD" or "Company"), a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients, today announces that IMCD China has signed an agreement to acquire Aquatech Speciality (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd. and Aquatech Speciality (Guangzhou) Trading Co., Ltd. ("Aquatech") in China.

Since its establishment in 2004, Aquatech has been active in waterborne solutions in coatings, ink, and textile industries. Aquatech generated a revenue of approximately RMB 51 million (ca. EUR 6.7 million) in 2020 and adds 10 employees to the IMCD China team. Aquatech's coatings business enhances the future-focused portfolio of IMCD Coatings & Construction Business Group in China.

"Aquatech's philosophy of value creation matches perfectly with IMCD's strategy to become a strong partner for our customers and suppliers for sustainable coatings solutions in China" commented Andreas Igerl, Managing Director of IMCD China."



"Today is a significant day for Aquatech as we join IMCD as part of their global network. With IMCD's global connection and technical expertise, plus our local presence and capability, I am confident that we will provide more added value to our customers and partners to drive sustainability in the coatings industry," said Peter Shek, owner of Aquatech.

The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in November.

Attached, please find the official photo of the signing of the acquisition agreement and the photo captions.



-xxx-

About IMCD N.V.

IMCD is a market leader in the sales, marketing, and distribution of speciality chemicals and ingredients. Its result-driven professionals provide market-focused solutions to suppliers and customers across EMEA, Americas, and Asia-Pacific, offering a range of comprehensive product portfolios, including innovative formulations that embrace industry trends.

Listed at Euronext, Amsterdam (IMCD), IMCD realised revenues of EUR 2,775 million in 2020 with nearly 3,300 employees in over 50 countries on 6 continents. IMCD's dedicated team of technical and commercial experts work in close partnership to tailor best-in-class solutions and provide value through expertise for around 50,000 customers and a diverse range of world-class suppliers.

For further information, please visit www.imcdgroup.com

About Aquatech

Aquatech specialises in waterborne solutions for the coatings, inks, and textile industries, serving more than 500 customers across China with a team of 10 commercial and technical experts. Aquatech offers customised formulations from a diverse range of product portfolio solutions from world-class suppliers with the aim to lead as the sustainable solution provider.

Media contacts

IMCD Group

Maribel Rodriguez

Senior Group Communications Manager

+31 6 1479 6610

IMCD Asia Pacific

Wendi Lim

Regional Marketing Communications Manager

+ 65 6995 1026



mediarelations@imcdgroup.com

Attachments
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AntStack, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Bengaluru, India announced today that is an Advanced Consulting Partner in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). APN Consulting Partners help customers design, architect, build, migrate and manage cloud solutions built on AWS.

This highly valued status highlights AntStack's commitment to client success and satisfaction by helping our customers of all sizes design, architect, build, migrate, and manage their workloads and applications on Amazon Web Services.

AntStack has put together a top-notch team of AWS certified engineers, architects, and consultants who continuously push themselves to learn advanced technologies and create innovations to help drive client initiatives without any limits and constantly innovating. We aim to help customers solve business problems.

"We are proud to have achieved the AWS Advanced Consulting Partner designation," said Jeevan Dongre, CEO of AntStack Technologies. "It's a recognition of our overall driven approach to cloud solutions as a key part of any business's overall architecture, and an indicator of the trust from our customers for the work and solutions we deliver for them. Becoming Advanced Consulting Partners is a massive endorsement of the work we have been doing and the skill and experience we have across the board when it comes to our team and we are excited to reach this mark and continue to stride forwards."

Advanced Consulting Partners status allows AntStack to work more closely with AWS - their account managers, solution architects and a broader product team - which will allow for more collaborative work to deliver best in class solutions and offer an absolute customer-first approach.



About AntStack



Antstack is a cloud computing service and consulting company primarily focusing on enabling tech and digital transformation for businesses of all sizes with Serverless at its core. From startups, small and medium businesses to large enterprises, we let organizations leverage the power of serverless computing across multiple cloud providers. We believe in working together in a highly organized way, sharing a common purpose. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka - India.

For more information, visit antstack.io. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contact:



Deen E David

AntStack

deen@antstack.io

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/antstack-technologies/r/antstack-earns-advanced-consulting-partner-status-in-the-aws-partner-network,c3423981

The following files are available for download:
Award recognises effort to create a more inclusive workplace

CAMAS, Wash., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fisher Investments-the US-based parent company of Fisher Investments UK-was recognised by DiversityQ as "Employer of the Year" at their third annual Women in Asset Management USA Awards. Bonhill Group PLC's DiversityQ advocates diversity and inclusion in the workplace to create corporate cultures where everyone is heard and respected. In recognising Fisher Investments, DiversityQ noted the firm's goal to, "guide and give opportunities for career development as well as a huge focus on investing in the future of their talents."

"It's an incredible honour to be recognised as Employer of the Year in this year's Women in Asset Management USA Awards," said Damian Ornani, Fisher Investments CEO. "It's a great acknowledgment of our ongoing dedication to promoting a healthy, rewarding workplace culture that supports all our employees and their continued success.

Jill Hitchcock, Senior Executive Vice President of Fisher Investments' Private Client Group added, "We've always believed a diverse, inclusive workforce is one of our most valuable assets. It's what enables us to deliver world-class client service and succeed on our mission to help more clients globally."

The Women in Asset Management USA's Employer of the Year award recognises firms demonstrating a great effort to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Fourteen independent industry judges examined multiple factors for consideration, including:

Professional training and advancement opportunities

Programmes to increase employees' well-being

Efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive work environment

Fisher Investments' Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Naj Srinivas said, "A longstanding part of our culture is to develop human capital from within by investing in and building breadth and depth in individuals. We'll always work to foster an environment where every employee can feel that they belong and build a rewarding, lifelong career."

Fisher Investments is hiring for a variety of roles globally. Visit FisherCareers.com to learn more about career opportunities.

About Fisher Investments UK and Fisher Investments Europe Limited

Fisher Investments UK is the trading name of Fisher Investments Europe Limited and is part of the global group of Fisher companies. Fisher Investments UK is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA Number 191609) and is registered in England (Company Number 3850593). Fisher Investments Europe UK's registered office is located at Level 18, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AX. For more information on Fisher Investments Europe UK, please visit https://www.fisherinvestments.com/en-gb.

About Fisher Investments

Fisher Investments is an independent, fee-only investment adviser. As of 30/06/2021, Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries manage over 136 billion in assets globally-over 104 billion for private investors, 30 billion for institutional investors and 1 billion for US small to mid-sized business retirement plans. Fisher Investments maintains four principal business groups: US Private Client, Institutional, Private Client International and 401(k) Solutions, which serve a global client base of diverse investors. Not all strategies are offered/sold in all jurisdictions. Founder and Executive Chairman Ken Fisher wrote the Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" column from 1984 through 2016, making him the longest continuously running columnist in the magazine's history. In recent years, Ken's columns have run consistently in major media outlets across almost every Western European country as well as material Asian countries, spanning more countries and more volume than any other columnist of any type in history. Ken has also authored 11 books, including four New York Times bestsellers on finance and investing. For more information on Fisher Investments, please visit www.fisherinvestments.com.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1330249/Fisher_Investments_UK_Logo.jpg
New addition will further augment PRO's Integrated Workforce Management platform with a specific focus on DirectSource PRO, the most advanced direct sourcing platform, and Wand, the industry's leading VMS SaaS solution, to better attract and retain talent while providing a superior worker experience across every job category.

PRO Unlimited, the integrated workforce management platform provider, announced the acquisition of WillHire, a leader of direct sourcing, worker experience/candidate engagement, and talent pool solutions. The addition of WillHire to DirectSource PRO, which PRO launched in April 2021 in partnership with Eightfold.AI, further enables organizations to source the best talent through one centralized platform. DirectSource PRO drives unprecedented efficiency, cost savings and an enhanced worker experience for white-collar workers, and now for light-industrial, blue-collar and shift workers. It also enables artificial intelligence-driven diversity and inclusion via Eightfold.AI.

The need for employers to curate and scale talent pools to enhance quality of candidates, speed recruitment processes, improve direct worker relationship management and engagement, and save billions by direct sourcing has never been higher. And, as the war for talent intensifies in every job category, the need to do this with one direct sourcing system of record has never been more mission-critical.

To address this demand within the contingent workforce industry, PRO will integrate WillHire's cutting-edge features into its direct sourcing and worker experience solutions. This includes the ability to attract talent from over 2,000 diverse, organic and premium talent-traction channels online. WillHire also expands and deepens PRO's already robust curation service capabilities. This helps organizations more effectively and efficiently grow their private talent pools for all job categories.

Additionally, PRO will leverage WillHire's self-assessment technology, which helps clients increase the value of their talent pool and reduces time to hire by 50%. WillHire enables companies to achieve higher applicant conversion by using the power of their brand, and seamlessly integrating into top online sites with engaged, accurately matched talent.

"The growth of contingent workforce programs has been accelerated and modernized by remote work, globalization and COVID. This segment is now 40% to 50% of the entire workforce; over $5 trillion in annual spend; and becoming highly dependent on data, technology, analytics and worker experience management," said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO at PRO Unlimited. "Due to these industry shifts, organizations are seeking multiple ways to strategically use their brand to attract, engage and source top talent while achieving cost savings. This acquisition continues to optimize our direct sourcing and worker experience solutions by offering clients an even more holistic and robust offering."

"Our primary objective has always been to help enterprises transform their talent ecosystem to make talent a competitive advantage," said Praneeth Patlola, CEO at WillHire. "PRO Unlimited was undoubtedly the only choice when looking for an organization to deliver our direct sourcing solution to the contingent workforce management space. We are thrilled about the opportunity to have PRO integrate our cutting-edge direct sourcing solution into DirectSource PRO."

This acquisition marks PRO's continued investment in DirectSource PRO. Since the solution was announced in March 2021 and went live in April 2021, PRO has seen over 40 of the world's largest companies adopt it. These organizations span multiple industries including enterprise technology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and financial services. To learn more about DirectSource PRO, contact information@prounlimited.com.

About PRO Unlimited

Serving hundreds of the world's most recognizable brands, PRO Unlimited offers modern workforce management and a partner ecosystem supported by data, software, intelligence and services to meet your flexible workforce needs. PRO's Integrated Workforce Management Platform can adapt quickly to regional or industry economic shifts, and provides the speed, scale, flexibility, transparency and expertise to serve as the holistic platform for the modern workforce. Headquartered in San Francisco, PRO has helped global brands and organizations achieve operational and financial success for more than 30 years. http://www.prounlimited.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005881/en/

Contacts:

Christian Barbato

215.527.6616

cbarbato@prounlimited.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 29, 2021 / Condor Resources Inc. ("Condor" or the "Company") (TSXV:CN) is pleased to provide an update on our Pucamayo, Cobreorco, Huinac Punta, and Ocros projects in Peru.

Pucamayo: The Company is renewing its agreement with the local community regarding community engagement and surface access. The council of the local community filed documents in July to officially register the council with the Peruvian government authorities; we have been notified that the registration process concluded this week. The community council advise they intend to meet with the community members to consider the renewal of our access agreement. Access roads and drill pad construction will resume upon completion of the renewed community access agreement, with the maiden drill program at Pucamayo east scheduled to commence immediately thereafter.

The Company is preparing an application to the Ministerio de Energia y Minas ("MEM") to expand the current area of the Pucamayo east drill permit to the south and to the east. Horizonte Consultores were retained to assist in this application, and have completed their field work.

Cobreorco Project: Cobreorco is a largely unexplored typical gold and copper porphyry with an associated skarn, and exhibits mineralization of gold and copper values from surface samples over a wide area. Limited sampling to date indicates relatively homogenous gold and copper values. Mineralization identified is both skarn and porphyry hosted. The project is located in the las Bambas metallogenic province, controlled by the Abancay deflection, an area that is host to several significant mines. The Cobreorco project currently comprises a contiguous project area of approximately 20 sq km.

Condor completed a geologic sampling program earlier in the year to follow up a drone based magnetic survey completed in 2020. The magnetic survey suggested the presence of two potential mineralized centers that correlate well with exposed surface gold/copper porphyry and skarn outcrops.

Horizonte Consultores have completed the initial baseline water and soil sampling and other studies, required for our Declaracion de Impacto Ambiental ("DIA") application to the MEM. During the past year the Company has been assisting the local community with provisions of personal protective equipment during the Covid epidemic. Permits for surface exploration programs are in place with the local community.

Huinac Punta: The Huinac Punta project has the potential to host a large, carbonate replacement style silver-dominant polymetallic mineralized body. Based on sampling of existing surface exposures, mineralization includes high-grade Ag and elevated Cu, Zn and Pb values, and the mineralized areas are interpreted as pervasive replacement with disseminated mineralization within the sequences of carbonate rocks. The first phase drill program will target geological and geophysical features that suggest potential for discovery of a bulk tonnage silver base metal deposit.

The Company received its principal permit - the DIA - in 2020, and subsequently filed its 'Autorizacion de Incio de Actividades de Exploracion' with the MEM. With no advancement after responding to observations noted by the MEM, a follow up meeting with the MEM in June revealed delays in approval were being hampered by a shortage of personnel at MEM. To expedite, the Company retained Embellie, a consulting firm specializing in community impacts, to research, document, analyze, and report on the identification of any potential indigenous people within the area of our project, and any possible impacts to any community identified. The study and report have been completed, and the Company will be reviewing the reports with officials from MEM via a web meeting scheduled in early October.

Ocros: The Company is currently considering its strategic options at Ocros, including a potential sale of the company's 34% interest in the Ocros project.

Condor is an active explorer focused exclusively on Peru, supplemented by a project generator and royalty model designed to generate exploration capital whilst minimizing shareholder dilution. Our objective in advancing our portfolio of projects is the discovery of a major new precious metals or base metals deposit in Peru. Project acquisition and exploration activities are managed by the Company's Lima based exploration team.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Lyle Davis,

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact the Company at 1-866-642-5707, or by email at info@condorresources.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.

SOURCE: Condor Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/666141/Condor-Updates-on-the-Pucamayo-Cobreorco-Huiac-Punta-and-Ocros-Projects
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - Relay Medical Corp. (CSE: RELA) (OTCQB: RYMDF) (FSE: EIY2) ("Relay" or the "Company") reports on the addressable markets of electric vehicles ("EV") connected security, including connected vehicle supply chain, software compliance and the associated EV charging infrastructure security markets. Cybeats is actively engaged and targeting these sectors as its products manage EV supply chain risk, help satisfy software compliance requirements, and most importantly support keeping people safe by securing connected vehicles and infrastructure.

Connected vehicles and the supply chain for various auto parts represent a new and critical cyber-attack opportunity for malicious hackers. A myriad of components go into electric vehicles, many of which are supplied from foreign countries which is a major concern for national security efforts to secure critical devices and infrastructure. As the connected EV supply chain becomes more autonomous and complex, the more EV manufacturers will be required to monitor and secure these vulnerable systems. Cybeats offers cybersecurity solutions for IoT connected devices, including electric vehicles, and throughout the product life cycle. EV and the associated sectors require extensive security investment and management, and Cybeats is poised to offer solutions.

"Software plays a critical role in the automotive industry and with it comes the need for effective cybersecurity solutions," said Yoav Raiter, CEO, Relay. "Cybeats has strengthened its foundation in cybersecurity with platforms like the SBoM Studio, enabling us to be even more prepared for the era of EV and connected cars. This is a sector that Cybeats has been pushing toward, as autonomous and connected cars become more prevalent. Cybeats expects to be a competitive force as it charges toward this rapidly growing and critical sector."

Cybeats Offers Security for Electric Vehicles, Manufacturing and Charging Stations

Cybeats offers security solutions to multiple EV supply chains such as the components of a vehicle, manufacturing facilities and electric charging stations. Cybeats has expanded its cybersecurity product offering to include automated vulnerability management for EV and for automotive charging stations. OEMs can now mitigate risk exposure to regulatory violations, liability claims and negative impacts to brand equity, using the Cybeats cybersecurity platform.

EV's, along with most auto manufacturing, are assembled by OEMs making it necessary to assess, manage, and secure all components and supply chains and the connected infrastructure involved in manufacturing EV. Cybeats SBOM Studio platform offers valuable Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM)[1], which provides the infrastructure and tools to design, develop and manage secure software components across every process of designing and manufacturing an EV. Cybeats ensures industry regulations, standards, and company policies are monitored and enforced throughout the life cycle of the vehicle.

Through vulnerability management, compliance validation, incident response, continuous monitoring, automatic updates, and management reporting, Cybeats monitors and alerts manufacturers of cybersecurity risks automatically and continuously throughout the design and development stage. As opposed to commonly-used firewall security which fortifies the perimeter of a network, Cybeats continuously monitors the operational state of a device and its components, and provides actionable alerts and intelligence in real-time. With this, Cybeats capabilities differ from standard security solutions and the industry defines this as a Run-time Application Self-Protection (RASP)[2], which offers EV manufacturers a platform with the future of cybersecurity in mind.

EV Charging Station Vulnerabilities

A group of engineers from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) spearheaded a malicious attack on EV charging processes. The team performed three manipulations to see if the EV charging system was hackable as part of an automated cybersecurity research initiative. During the exercise, they were able to expose the charging process's vulnerabilities, which resulted in the EV not being able to charge properly.[3] "This was an initiative designed to identify potential threats in common charging hardware as we prepare for widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the coming decade," Austin Dodson, lead Research Engineer, SwRI. Additionally, U.K. cybersecurity company Pen Test Partners has identified several vulnerabilities in six home EV charging brands and a large public EV charging network.[4]

SBOM and the EV Supply Chain

The Biden Administration is accelerating EV infrastructure[5] and now requires a standard of transparency in the software supply chain via a SBOM for critical sectors.[6] Automobile software companies know that integrating SBOM's is not only integral to car security, but also required for regulatory compliance and critical for national defense. Integrating SBOM standards into the EV manufacturing and development pipeline is a clear and widespread directional move for the industry. The SBOM inclusion in the Biden Executive Order is meant to reduce risk to national security, and the private industry understands that this has costs and economic consequences. Either way, automobile manufacturers will require these connected vehicles to generate and maintain SBOM, for which Cybeats provides the necessary platform, tools and ongoing management.

An additional aspect of EV cybersecurity is to support firmware updates to cars, a process where many vulnerabilities can be identified and corrected to optimize security. EV charging stations are exposed to cyber-attacks as well, for example by hackers attempting to modify vulnerable software on internal components such as microprocessors or memory.[7]

Electric Vehicles & Charging Market

The global electric vehicle market was valued at USD $160 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach USD $800 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 22.6%. EV's will make up 85% of new car models by 2040.[8] The charging grid and infrastructure connects vehicles to the power grid, the payment management system, and a variety of service providers, and is designed to send and receive data. Electric vehicles and the associated charging infrastructure are therefore as vulnerable to suffering cyber threats as any other connected device.

The Electric Vehicle charging stations market is estimated to grow from $17 billion in 2021 to $110 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 30.26%[9], with roughly 2 million charging stations in 2020 to over 30 million charging stations by 2027.[10]

On September 28, Ford Motors[11] announced that its battery supplier SK Innovation plans to invest more than $11.4 billion in new U.S. facilities that will create nearly 11,000 jobs to produce electric vehicles and batteries.[12] Before there was a concept of product liability for the automobile manufacturers, there was no concept of product liability. We are now experiencing this global change.

LG Invests in Automotive Cybersecurity

On September 23, LG acquired a majority stake in Cybellum, an Israeli automotive cyber security risk assessment company, with a transaction valued at USD $240 million.[13] Cybellum detects and assesses vulnerabilities involved in connected vehicle services. Cybellum's technology, and LG's acquisition of it, underscore some significant trends in the world of connected cars and cybersecurity.[14]

RECENT NEWS: Relay recently addressed the revelation about the widely-used Hikvision[15], a Chinese state-owned surveillance and connected security camera manufacturer, whereby a critical vulnerability was discovered in more than 100 million connected devices currently operational in the market: https://bit.ly/3zFSVtp.

SUBSCRIBE: For more information on Relay or to subscribe to the Company's mail list visit: https://www.relaymedical.com/news.

About Relay Medical Corp.

Relay Medical is a technology innovator headquartered in Toronto, Canada focused on the development of novel solutions in the diagnostics, AI data science and IoT security sectors. Relay recently acquired Cybeats Technologies, a platform which offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity and addresses the $73 billion IoT security market through their Software Bill of Materials and microagent solution. Cybeats provides real-time cybersecurity for connected devices, critical infrastructure, automotive, medical and IoT (Internet of Things) sectors.

The Company held a Special Meeting to approve a Name Change on September 20, 2021 as the Company's core competencies and product offerings have organically grown beyond the medical device industry, and this expansion into new industries and businesses will be reflected in the Name Change. The Company's new name will more aptly and effectively communicate the business and its commercial verticals.

Website: www.relaymedical.com

Contact:

Destine Lee

Media & Communications

Relay Medical Corp.

Office. 647-872-9982

TF. 1-844-247-6633

Media Inquiries: media@relaymedical.com

Investor Relations: investor.relations@relaymedical.com

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the technology described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com.

[1] https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/supply-chain-risk-management.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runtime_application_self-protection

[3] https://www.trendmicro.com/us/iot-security/news/6510

[4] https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/security-flaws-found-in-popular-ev-chargers/

[5]https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-biden-administration-advances-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure/

[6]https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/

[7] https://www.dekra-product-safety.com/en/importance-cybersecurity-electric-vehicle-charging-stations

[8] https://autocrypt.io/solutions/ev-charging/

[9] https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/electric-vehicle-ev-charging-stations-market-102058

[10]https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/electric-vehicle-supply-equipment-market-89574213.html

[11] https://www.ford.ca/

[12]https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/27/ford-battery-supplier-to-spend-11point4-billion-to-build-new-us-plants.html

[13]https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/22/lg-is-acquiring-automotive-cybersecurity-startup-cybellum-in-a-240m-deal/

[14] https://swsolutions.lge.com/solutions/connected-car

[15] https://us.hikvision.com/en

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98057.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2021) - PK Beans (CSE: BEAN) (OTC Pink: PBBSF) ("Peekaboo Beans" or the "Company") announces that further to its news release dated September 3, 2021 the Company is pleased to announce the closing of the first tranche (the "First Tranche") of the private placement.

The first tranche resulted in the distribution of 16,687,930 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.05 (the "Private Placement") comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each a "Warrant") for gross aggregate proceeds of $834,396.50.

All securities issued in connection with the First Tranche closing of the Private Placement will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities legislation, expiring January 30, 2022.

Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common Share of the Company at a price of $0.10 until September 29, 2024. Traci Costa, a director and the CEO of the Company (the "Insider") participated in the First Tranche by purchasing a total of 1,787,930 Units, as described in further detail in the Company's news release dated September 3, 2021.

The Issuance of the securities to the Insider pursuant to the First Tranche closing of the Private Placement is considered to be a "related party transaction" subject to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company intends to rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves interested parties, exceeded 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

In consideration for the services of certain eligible finders who introduced subscribers to the Private Placement, the Company issued 1,112,000 Warrants and paid cash commissions aggregating $55,600 to the finders.

The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Private Placement for inventory acquisition, marketing, and general working capital purposes.

About Peekaboo Beans Inc.

PK Beans is an integrated and innovative children's wellness brand. From sustainable clothing options that kids love to wear, to healthy foods that fuel children's play, our mission is to provide the ingredients for a playful life. Together with our monthly adventure subscription box, consisting of interactive and engaging activities that educate and entertain, developed by an Emmy award-winning child psychologist and devoted kid-experts, our goal is to enrich, empower and nourish children through quality nutrition, clothing and play - every day. The company maximizes revenue by reaching sellers and online retailers through an omnichannel approach.

To learn more about Peekaboo Beans, visit: www.pkbeans.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Peekaboo Beans Inc.

Ms. Traci Costa, President and CEO

(604) 279-2326

For more information, please contact the Company at:

ir@pkbeans.com

(604) 279-2326





Reader Advisory

This news release may include forward-looking information that is subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking, including statements with respect to the use of proceeds from the Private Placement. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions, such information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially f rom those in forward- looking information include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither the 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.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98015


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Thursday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are August figures for industrial production, retail sales, housing starts and construction orders.



Industrial production is tipped to fall 0.5 percent on month and gain 8.0 percent on year after falling 1.5 percent on month and rising 11.6 percent on year in July. Retail sales are predicted to fall 1.0 percent on year after rising 2.4 percent a month earlier.



Housing starts are expected to climb 9.5 percent on year, down from 9.9 percent in July. Construction orders were down 3.4 percent on year in the previous month.



New Zealand will release August numbers for building permits; in July, permits were up 2.1 percent on month.



The Philippines will release August numbers for producer prices; in July, producer prices were down 1.5 percent on year.



Australia will provide August figures for building permits and private sector credit. Permits are expected to have fallen 5.0 percent on month after slipping 8.6 percent in July. Credit was up 0.7 percent on month and 4.0 percent on year in July.



South Korea will see August data for industrial production and retail sales. Output is expected to rise 8.2 percent on year, up from 7.9 percent in the previous month. In July, retail sales fell 0.6 percent on month and gained 7.9 percent on year.



China will see September results for its manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs; in August, their scores were 50.1 and 47.5, respectively. China also will see September results for the manufacturing PMI from Caixin, with forecasts suggesting a score of 49.5, up from 49.2 a month earlier.



Hong Kong will provide August figures for retail sales; in July, sales were up 0.9 percent on year.



Thailand will release July figures for retail sales and August numbers for private consumption, current account and its coincident index. In June, retail sales jumped 14.0 percent on year. In July, consumption was down 5.3 percent on month, the current account showed a deficit of $0.7 billion and the coincident index had a score of 126.28.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Inc (TSLA) and SpaceX, has taken another jibe at the Amazon (AMZN) and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos at the Code conference on Wednesday.



Musk, who has recently overtaken Bezos as the richest man on the planet and the third person to ever worth more than $200 billion, made it blatantly obvious that he is not a fan of the e-retail mogul.



Musk criticized Bezos for filing lawsuits against NASA for offering SpaceX the contract for its Artemis moon landing program. He advised that Blue Origin should concentrate more on building the technology to get into the orbit, rather than concentrating their effort to file lawsuits. Blue Origin had tabled a $5.9 billion proposal to NASA. But with a slimmer budget allocated for the Artemis project, NASA accepted the $2.9 billion contract offer made by Musk's company. A NASA report obtained by The Verge also hints that Blue Origin thought that NASA would haggle with the asking price and that is why they inflated the contract sum. In a last-ditch attempt, Bezos's company also tried to offer a $2 billion contract but to no avail.



The expedition is set to mark the United States' first human lunar landing since 1972. According to the contract, there would be two landings, one unmanned and one manned. Blue Origin had already lodged a complaint against the offering back in April to the Government Accountability Office dubbing NASA's evaluation as 'unlawful and improper'. Claiming that NASA has treated Blue origin unfairly, the company stated that the company should have updated the terms of the patent. When Blue Origin filed the lawsuit, Musk tweeted in his characteristic fashion that Bezos has 'retired to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.'



The GAO dismissed the application in July. According to a spokesperson, Blue origin has found 'flaws in the acquisition process found in NASA's Human Landing System.' The spokesperson added, 'We firmly believe that the issues identified in this procurement and its outcomes must be addressed to restore fairness, create competition, and ensure a safe return to the Moon for America.'



Musk also left no stones unturned to play tongue and cheek with Bezos after he took the number one in the list of the wealthiest men. He told Forbes, 'I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,' referring to the fact that Bezos came second in both the space project and in the Forbe's list.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Issuu, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based digital content publishing global leader, today announced the company has secured a $31M round of financing from Capital IP.

This new round is the first for Issuu since July 2014, when they raised $10m from Heartcore Capital and Japanese Telco, KDDI.

The company will use the capital to scale teams across the company, invest in new product expansion, and compound accelerating growth.

Founded in 2006 and led by Joe Hyrkin, chief executive officer, Issuu is a SaaS content publishing and marketing platform. Its story cloud empowers content creators to transform designs from static files into marketing assets for every distribution channel  including flipbooks to embed in websites and blogs, mobile-optimized articles, motion-graphic stories for social media, GIFs for email, and more. With over 30 million publications hosted and 4+ billion monthly page views, Issuu also has offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Braga, Portugal.

FinSMEs

29/09/2021
Omaha National Group, Inc., an Omaha, Neb.-based tech-enabled provider of workers compensation insurance and payroll services, raised $45m in Series B funding.

The round was led by Accomplice with participation from HighSage Ventures and Tull Investments. Agman, a Chicago-based investment firm, remains the principal and founding investor.

The company plans to use the funds to support its transition to operating as a direct insurance writer and to continue the expansion of its advanced proprietary software.

Founded in 2016 and led by President and CEO Reagan Pufall, Omaha National is combining an established strategic approach with new proprietary technology to provide small to midsize companies with care and support to injured workers while reducing costs.

Omaha National offers AM Best A (Excellent) rated workers compensation coverage through more than 2,500 agencies. Since launch in 2016, the company has grown to more than 190 employees and over $120 million in program premiums.

FinSMEs

29/09/2021
Wider Circle, a Redwood City, Calif.-based innovative tech-enabled community health organization working with health plans and providers to connect neighbors to manage health, closed a $38m Series B funding.

The round was led by AmeriHealth Caritas, through a new wholly owned subsidiary, Social Determinants of Life, Inc., with participation from Blue Venture Fund, Chicago Ventures and other previous investors.

The company intends to use the funds to build out its national infrastructure, team and technology to support its expansion plans.

Led by Moshe Pinto, CEO, and Darin Buxbaum, president and chief operating officer, Wider Circle works with health plans nationally to deliver unique hyper-local care programs that connect neighbors. The companys delivery network has been proven to drive resilience, improve member experience and engagement and reduce hospitalizations. Today, Wider Circle offers its innovative programs to more than 320 communities nationwide, including specialized COVID-19 support for vulnerable populations in isolation and peer-to-peer community support.

FinSMEs

29/09/2021
The coronavirus brings with it a range of symptoms, from headaches to fever, joint pain, nausea, fatigue, and cough. One of the worst side effects, that has been reported to linger on for days and even months, is the loss of smell. Many patients have been complaining that even after they were no longer infected with the virus, their fifth sense did not return.

Losing the fifth sense

Some people have lost their ability to smell altogether and for others, their sense of smell was completely distorted after infection. In a few cases, foods started to smell like rotten meat and burning rubber.

Duncan Boak, founder of Fifth Sense, explains that the loss of smell is not only physically and mentally distressing, but it can also be dangerous on a day-to-day basis. He said:

Not being able to smell is not only physically distressing but can affect the enjoyment of social occasions and present hazards and risks that might never have been previously considered such as not being able to detect gas leaks or spoiled food.

Apollo trial

To tackle this concerning complication, researchers are launching the Apollo trialto test a vitamin A nasal drop which will hopefully bring back the lost sense in all affected people. The study will be conducted by researchers from the University of East Anglia and funded by the National Institute for Health and Research.

They said that the research was prompted by findings in Germany which showed that this vitamin has the potential to repair tissues in the nose damaged by viruses. The team states:

They hope that the study, which has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), could one-day help improve the lives of millions around the world who suffer from smell loss, by returning their fifth sense.

According to Sky News, they will be recruiting participants in December for the trial. Those who wish to participate will be able to do so by asking their GP to refer them to The Smell and Taste Clinic at James Paget University Hospital.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- FuelPositive Corp. (TSX.V: NHHH) (OTCQB: NHHHF), a growth stage company focused on licensing, partnership and acquisition opportunities building upon various technological achievements, today announces that it has been featured in a broadcast via NetworkNewsAudio (NNA), a solution that delivers additional visibility, recognition and brand awareness in the investment community via distribution to thousands of syndication points. The audio press release covers FuelPositives recent announcement that it commissioned emissions reduction and carbon credit specialist Andre Mech to conduct an analysis of Canadas green off-peak electricity capacity and to determine the fuel needs and the carbon emissions of the Canadian transportation sector.



To hear the audio production, visit: https://nnw.fm/gYASe

To read the original press release, visit: https://nnw.fm/Yvz2e

Switching from fossil fuels to carbon-free ammonia offers a viable, economical transition strategy for Canadas transportation sector as we adopt new practices to address climate change, commented Ian Clifford, CEO of FuelPositive. Many people dont know it, but planes, trains, ships, trucks and other vehicles can be converted to run on ammonia  just as easily as they can be converted from gasoline and diesel to run on propane. The transportation sector just didnt see a benefit to switching to ammonia until now, because the production of traditional ammonia results in massive carbon emissions. But, when you use our carbon-free NH3 made from green electricity rather than traditional ammonia, it means we can move people around and transport goods with no pollution.

The findings of Mechs analysis were startling. Canada has enough off-peak green electricity today to provide non-polluting, carbon-free NH3 fuel to power 63% of all the passenger cars, light trucks, passenger aviation, buses, light rail, motorcycles, freight trucking, freight aviation, rail, marine and other sector vehicles in the country. But even more exciting, Canada has enough off-peak green electricity to provide carbon-free NH3 to power 100% of the needs of passenger and freight aviation and rail, passenger bus, freight trucking, freight rail and freight marine shipping in Canada  all regulated industries that are notoriously high greenhouse gas emitters with significant government mandates to decarbonize.

The analysis outlines the opportunities and needs at the provincial and territorial levels, said study author Andre Mech. Three provinces  Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland & Labrador  already generate enough renewable electricity to cover their passenger aviation, passenger rail and freight transportation fuel requirements using FuelPositives carbon-free NH3 system. In a national strategy, they would be green ammonia suppliers. The remaining provinces and territories would be green ammonia consumers. According to Mech: The good news is that there are suppliers and consumers. That tells us that there is a market for green ammonia within Canada itself.

About FuelPositive Corp.

FuelPositive Corp. is a Canadian growth-stage technology company committed to providing commercially viable and sustainable, cradle to cradle, clean energy solutions, including carbon-free ammonia (NH3), for use across a broad spectrum of industries and applications. By focusing on technologies that are clean, economically advantageous/realizable and that leverage existing infrastructure, the company aims to change the course of climate change through practical solutions that can be implemented now. For more information, visit the companys website at www.FuelPositive.com

About NetworkNewsAudio

NetworkNewsAudio (NNA), one of 50+ brands within the InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN), allows you to sit back and listen to market updates, CEO interviews and AudioPressRelease (APR) productions. These audio clips provide snapshots of position, opportunity and momentum. NNA can assist by cutting through the overload of information in today's market, while bringing its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. IBN is where news, content and information converge. IBN is a comprehensive provider of news aggregation and syndication, enhanced press release services and a full array of social communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and distribution company with an extensive team of journalists and writers, IBN has the unparalleled ability to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public with an ever-growing distribution network of 5,000+ key syndication outlets across the nation.

For more information, visit: www.NetworkNewsAudio.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the InvestorBrandNetwork website applicable to all content provided by IBN, wherever published or re-published: https://IBN.fm/Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Corporate Communications

InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN)

Los Angeles, California

www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com

310.299.1717 Office

Editor@InvestorBrandNetwork.com
TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PharmaTher Holdings Ltd. (the Company or PharmaTher) (CSE: PHRM)(OTCQB: PHRRF), a clinical-stage psychedelics biotech company, is pleased to announce that it has closed its previously announced private placement with institutional investors of its common shares (Common Shares) and warrants to purchase common shares (Warrants) for gross proceeds of CAD$10 million (the Private Placement). Pursuant to the Private Placement, the Company issued 15,625,000 Common Shares and Warrants to purchase 15,625,000 Common Shares at a purchase price of CAD$0.64 per Common Share and associated Warrant. Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of CAD$0.80 per Common Share for a period of five years following the closing date of the Private Placement.



H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as the exclusive placement agent for the Private Placement.

The Company expects to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement for the advancement of its microneedle patch program, its proprietary ketamine product, and for general corporate purposes.

H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC received (i) a cash commission equal to 8% of the gross proceeds of the Private Placement and (ii) 1,250,000 placement agent warrants (the Agent Warrants). Each Agent Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of CAD$0.80 per Common Share for a period of five years following the closing date of the Private Placement.

No securities were offered or sold to Canadian residents in connection with the Private Placement. The securities issued under the Private Placement are subject to resale restrictions in the United States under applicable U.S. federal and state securities laws with no resale restrictions in Canada.

The securities offered have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About PharmaTher Holdings Ltd.

PharmaTher Holdings Ltd. is a clinical-stage psychedelics biotech company focused on the research, development and commercialization of novel uses, formulations and delivery methods of psychedelics, such as ketamine, to treat mental health, neurological and pain disorders. PharmaTher is currently initiating an FDA approved phase 2 clinical study with ketamine to treat Parkinsons disease and is developing a novel microneedle patch for the intradermal delivery of psychedelics.

Learn more at: PharmaTher.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn .

For more information about PharmaTher, please contact:



Fabio Chianelli

Chief Executive Officer

PharmaTher Holdings Ltd.

Tel: 1-888-846-3171

Email: info@pharmather.com

Website: www.pharmather.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider have reviewed or accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement

This press release contains 'forward-looking information' within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated", "potential", "aim" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on PharmaTher Holdings Ltd. (the "Company") current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company at the date of the information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including market and other conditions, that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to the use of proceeds from the Private Placement. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in Company's management's discussion and analysis for the period of May 31, 2021 ("MD&A"), dated September 7, 2021, which is available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state, province, territory 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, province, territory or jurisdiction.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles celebrated its 21st birthday on September 26, 2021. Because the Delta variant of COVID-19 is rapidly spreading, the anniversary celebration was conducted virtually , and everyone was invited to participate in the wonderful event by watching it online.



For the past 21 years, under the leadership of Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the Academy has held various life wisdom and health symposiums as well as cultural exchange activities, and it has engaged in numerous international events to promote a culture of conscience, love, and peace, with the goal of improving global citizens physical, mental, and spiritual health. In recent years, Tai Ji Men has been promoting the " Movement of An Era of Conscience " and the " International Day of Conscience " to awaken the conscience in the people of the world. During the SARS outbreak in 2002 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in the end of 2019, Tai Ji Men produced videos featuring epidemic prevention guidelines, including Three Donts, Five Dos, and Six Tips as well as a trilogy on COVID-19 prevention measures: Antiviral Combat , The War Against Virus , and Anti Pandemic Battle . It has been sharing these videos with global citizens, hoping that everyone will stay safe, healthy, and happy and that the pandemic will end soon.

Many community leaders offered certificates of recognition or delivered congratulatory video messages in honor of the Academys 21st anniversary, acknowledging the contributions of the leader and members of Tai Ji Men for the community, the United States, and the world as Tai Ji Men has been widely promoting the culture of qigong and martial arts as well as a culture of love, peace, and conscience.

U.S. Congresswoman Young Kim said, For 21 years, Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy has served as a home and a center for self-improvement for many of our community members through martial arts and qigong. I want to thank you for fostering our future leaders, physically, mentally and spiritually.

California State Senator Josh Newman presented a California Senate Certificate of Recognition to the Academy and stated in his video message, Despite the pandemic, your academy has continued to thrive, serving as a vital pillar to our community by reaffirming the spirit of universal brotherhood, etiquette, and conscience during a time when such an example is vitally needed across our state and across our country as a whole.

California Assemblyman Phillip Chen said, I really appreciate all theyve done for our community and also for the state of California, commending Tai Ji Men for improving peoples wellness and health through martial arts and qigong. He also honored Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze with a California Legislature Assembly Resolution respectively in recognition of their contributions.

Diamond Bar City Council Member Andrew Chou said that the pandemic has been hard on everybody and that Tai Ji Mens work is very important in maintaining peoples physical and mental health. I understand that throughout the pandemic, you have been actively hosting virtual events both locally and internationally. And also throughout social media, you have continued to share preventive measures to overcome anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic. So thank you again for all you do and congratulations on your 21st anniversary, he added.

Walnut Valley Unified School District Board President Layla Abou-Taleb said, I want to congratulate the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy for 21 years of service to the community. You play an important role and we really, truly appreciate it and wishing you a better year, this coming year for all our students and our community.

In addition to the aforementioned video messages and certificates of recognition, Tai Ji Men also received certificates of recognition from other leaders and entities, including California State Senator Connie M. Leyva, Mayor Eric Ching of the City of Walnut, Arcadia Mayor Sho Tay, and the City Council of Montclair.

Jason Wang, a Tai Ji Men member who immigrated to the U.S. with his parents 20 years ago and grew up with the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles, had a lot to say about the Academys 21st birthday. Since he is 6-foot-3 and in good shape, it's difficult to imagine that he had serious health issues as a child and had to go to the doctor frequently for asthma and allergies. He said, There was one time I was jumping on a bed with my cousin, and I ended up having to go to the hospital because of the asthma attack. After joining Tai Ji Men , my health has improved tremendously. I no longer was getting any asthma attack, he said. Last year, he was blessed with a new baby. He was already very busy with his work, and the new addition to his family made him even busier. He gained a better understanding of the reminder from his Shifu (master) at Tai Ji Men: "Those who use their time wisely can find time to accomplish a lot." He has learned to manage his time well so that he can balance life and work. He also learned to think positively. He shared a piece of advice from his master by saying, "You can live a day happy, or you can live a day sad or angry. So why would you want to live your day in anger or in sadness? Jason said that practicing Tai Ji Men Qigong helps him replenish his energy, and he expressed his gratitude for Dr. Hong: "Shifu has taught me a lot. So from his teaching, I'm able to utilize that in my personal life and my work life. And he has just helped me become a better person.

Munni Irone, founder of the Art 4 Peace Awards, met Tai Ji Men members at an international conference many years ago and decided to join to practice qigong and cultivate her heart. She shared some of the benefits of practicing Tai Ji Men Qigong: It kept me very centered. It kept me from having stress. I work long hours without any stress because it allows me to do that. Tai Ji Men Qigong has numerous different benefits, not only just health benefits. There is a social benefit, emotional, and spiritual benefit. She continued by saying, Your skin is better. You have more energy. You are also very successful in business because people trust someone that has good energy. So you create your Qi; you create your energy to be successful. She said that she used to suffer from back problems, but that she is now in much better shape. She said, "Shifu is a very kind and very influential and compassionate human being, who is also helpful in creating this beautiful family of love and peace. In Tai Ji Men you can be in any faith and religion. It really doesnt matter because this is something on a different level for mental, spiritual, and physical spirituality, so Im very blessed to be part of this beautiful family. Im very thankful for Dr. Hong, for creating this wonderful family where you can center so many people, she added.

Tai Ji Men Qigong has benefited not only many adults but also children. A group of children who practice Tai Ji Men Qigong revealed some of the most important lessons they've learned at Tai Ji Men, and it's clear from their sharing that the concepts of love, peace, and conscience have been imprinted in their hearts to extend their horizons in life. Nathan, 12, said, Shifu taught me to be kind, nice, and happy. Mayra, 10, said, Shifu has taught me to always love myself and follow my conscience and do the right thing. Avery, 10, said, I love Tai Ji Men because it taught me that if I don't know what's right or wrong, I follow my conscience. It also taught me qigong to bring peace to the world and to love myself and others, no matter what. Cameron, 8, said, Shifu told me that practicing qigong will help me calm myself down, and he also told me that love and peace can make the world a better place. Aaron, 11, said, Shifu taught me qigong and life lessons that would improve my life and my quality of life, that makes me not depressed and not too emotional at hard times. Rylan, 9, said, Shifu taught me qigong to be brave and to know what is right and what is wrong. Leon, 10, said, Shifu taught me to do qigong to improve my health, and he also taught me to control my anger.

Tai Ji Men invites everyone to read the uplifting stories of Tai Ji Men members from all walks of life on its website at www.taijimen.org , to replenish positive energy. Tai Ji Men encourages people to listen to their conscience, think positively, do good deeds, and collaborate to bring the pandemic to an end as soon as possible!

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. In 2016, it commemorated its 50th anniversary, a major milestone in its history, with big celebrations and spectacular cultural performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco , and Taiwan .

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

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3ff274db-6012-4b58-bf66-64d620ced1fc
MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The worlds first halal decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem MRHB DeFi has received a strategic investment from NewTribe Capital , a Venture Capital Private Equity Group.



This marks the seventh institutional investment in the DeFi ecosystem startup, following strategic investments from DeFi Mutual Fund Sheesha Finance , Dubai-based angel innovation investors Acreditus Partners and EMGS Group , the French Systems Integration company operating in the Middle East since 2003, to name a few.

NewTribe Capital: A Bold Investment Approach

With an ideology to Invest in People, NewTribe Capital takes a bold stance in their approach to investing - they back only the projects they feel add value to the blockchain ecosystem.

Our philosophy is successful because we invest in relationships, not deals, says Dhaval Parikh, Partner at NewTribe Capital. Deals are simply transactions. We build exceptional relationships with companies that last, collaborating on projects with conviction.

Investing in the first ethical, inclusive and faith-based MRHB DeFi ecosystem platform aligns with NewTribes company ethos and strategic goals. As an early investor and supporter, NewTribe recognizes both the vision and the long-term market potential of the faith-based DeFi pioneer.

Besides investment funds, which will support the continuing technology development and growth of MRHB DeFi, NewTribe Capital will also offer network and cross marketing support for the DeFi startup.

Were excited about collaborating with the highly successful NewTribe Capital team who share our long term visions for ethical DeFi. This relationship creates additional opportunities and industry connections that will drive more value for our community members. NewTribe has a proven track record of helping their partners succeed, and we are delighted to welcome them amongst other strategic stakeholders in our ambitious journey, says Naquib Mohammed , MRHB DeFi Founder & CEO.

This strategic alliance with NewTribe Capital is the latest institutional move by MRHB DeFi as we work to establish ourselves as the dominant player in the ethical decentralized finance space, adds Mohammed.

DeFi made accessible to Ethical and Faith-based Communities

MRHB DeFis vision of an inclusive and halal crypto-verse is underpinned by Islamic ethical finance principles but is suitable for all those looking for a socially conscious blockchain that avoids interest, usury, exploitation and other business practices deemed unethical.

Being Shariah-compliant means MRHB DeFi can apply a vast body of knowledge and literature of Islamic Finance to ensure higher ethical and moral standards that are typically seen in the DeFi space. These principles ensure that all business decisions are conducted in a fair and just manner and hence create an inclusive and simple crypto safe-space for the faith-based, unbanked and communities who are currently excluded.

Global Portfolio and Partnerships

Crypto-minded investors who believe in the evolution of current capital market systems towards more decentralized and accessible models, NewTribe Capital has a portfolio of more than 70 investments with an average ROI of 4.2x and more than USD20M AUM (assets under management). Portfolio investments include Launchpool, Casper Labs, Fractal, to name a few.

Offering advisory, resourcing, legal and technical support, NewTribe also has a network of VC partners, media partners and global influencers. VC partners include Alphabit, A195 Capital, Draper Dragon and more.

About MRHB DeFi

MRHB DeFi is a halal, decentralised finance platform built to embody the true spirit of an Ethical and Inclusive DeFi by following faith-based financial and business principles, where all excluded communities can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi.

Based on the tenets of blockchain such as trust, transparency, and security, MRHB DeFi has encapsulated universally applicable principles of Shariah into those tenets of blockchain to render a suite of offerings. It is a complete DeFi ecosystem whose products, protocols and crypto-assets are governed primarily by the ethical, inclusive, sustainable and charitable investment principles associated with the Islamic faith or Islamic Finance (IF as it is commonly known).

The diverse team is comprised of researchers, technocrats, influencers, Islamic fintech experts & business entrepreneurs, who came together to ensure that MRHB DeFi prevails in a manner that will impact society as a whole, essentially bridging the gap between the faith-conscious communities and the blockchain world.

Read more about MRHB DeFis Shariah Concept Paper, Lite and White Paper here .

MRHB DeFi Official Channels

Website: https://marhabadefi.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marhabadefi

Telegram: https://t.me/mdf_official

Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/marhabadefi_ANN

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHuvZG9DbS5ffeoqLX_bERg

Medium: https://medium.com/@marhabadefi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marhabadefi

Media Contacts

cecilia@sinofy.group

chris@yourPRstrategist.com

pr@yourPRstrategist.com
Dublin, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Aerospace Bars Market Size, Share, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The development of lightweight bars for critical applications, expansion in untapped and growing markets, and execution of mergers & acquisitions are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain a competitive edge in the market.



Materials in the aerospace industry are used in various milled forms, such as sheet, plate, bar, and strip, for a wide range of applications. Bars are majorly used in applications such as engines, fasteners, exhaust ducts (for helicopters), and landing gear.

They come in various shapes, sizes, and diameters, best fitting the application at hand. The selection of material is dependent on several parameters including temperature resistance, lightweight, durability, strength, etc. Titanium & alloys, aluminum & alloys, and steel & alloys are the three major materials used by bar manufacturers.



Covid-19 Impact

Till 2019, the aerospace industry was at its peak with unending demand and insatiable orders. But the industry was hit with the B737 MAX grounding in 2019 disrupting its value chain. The industry stakeholders expected to head towards their old ways of smooth business soon; however, in 2020, the pandemic hit the industry hard, causing unimaginable losses.

For the last couple of years, the industry seemed to be revolving around a vicious circle of obstacles and downhill trajectories leading to massive supply chain disruption, production halts, and deferring orders. The aerospace bars market followed suit and logged a massive decline of -26.9% in 2020, creating a lag of 4 to 5 years in the market (unlike our pre-COVID estimates that suggested a healthy growth in the market, aligning with the market's movement at the time).



Despite the current situation continues to challenge the overall market environment, the long-term outlook still seems fruitful, well backed by the industry's buoyant nature and strong fundamentals. The lift of Boeing's B737 MAX in October 2020, gradual opening up of travel restrictions, rebounding aircraft deliveries, and Airbus' reports of the first quarter suggest that the crisis is not yet over but gradually healing.

Boeing reported lower losses in its first quarter of 2021 amid signs of a recovery in commercial aerospace and the company's defense business posted strong results. 2021 seems like a key inflection point for the industry as vaccine distribution is continuously accelerating, enabling a robust recovery. The aforementioned are some key factors signaling towards the aerospace bars market's take off to a healthy recuperation at a propitious rate of 7.5% to reach US$ 2.1 Billion in 2026.



Key Players

The market for aerospace bars is gradually consolidating as the major companies are performing mergers & acquisitions to quickly gain the leading position and to tap the growing opportunities in this briskly expanding market.

The supply chain of this market comprises several nodes including raw material suppliers, bar manufacturers, component/part manufacturers, tier players, distributors, aircraft and engine OEMs, airlines, aircraft leasing companies, and MRO companies.

The key players in the aerospace bars market include

Allegheny Technologies Incorporated

Arconic Inc.

Carpenter Technology Corporation

Constellium SE

Haynes International Inc.

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation

Sandvik AB

Titanium Metals Corporation (PCC)

Voestalpine Bohler Welding

VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation

Aerospace-Bars-Market-Key-Players

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary



2. Aerospace Bars Market Overview and Segmentation

2.1. Aerospace Bars Market Segmentation

2.2. PEST Analysis

2.3. Supply Chain Analysis

2.4. Industry Life Cycle Analysis

2.5. Market Drivers

2.6. Market Challenges



3. Aerospace Bars Market - The COVID-19 Impact Assessment

3.1. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

3.2. Pre-COVID vs Post-COVID Assessment

3.3. Real GDP Loss vs Aerospace Bars Market Loss (2020-2021)

3.4. Market Scenario Analysis: Pessimistic, Most Likely, and Optimistic Scenarios

3.5. Market Segments' Analysis (US$ Million)

3.6. Regional and Country-Level Analysis (US$ Million)



4. Competitive Analysis

4.1. Market Consolidation Level

4.2. Regional Competitive Dynamics

4.3. Market Share Analysis

4.4. Product Portfolio Analysis

4.5. Geographical Presence

4.6. New Product Launches

4.7. Strategic Alliances

4.8. Porter's Five Forces Analysis



5. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast by Platform Type (2015-2026)

5.1. Segment's Analysis

5.2. Commercial Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.3. Regional Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.4. General Aviation: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.5. Military Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.6. Helicopter: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.7. Spacecraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

5.8. UAV: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)



6. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast by Material Type (2015-2026)

6.1. Segment's Analysis

6.2. Titanium & Alloys: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

6.3. Aluminum & Alloys: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

6.4. Steel & Alloys: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

6.5. Others: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)



7. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast by Shape Type (2015-2026)

7.1. Segment's Analysis

7.2. Round Bars: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

7.3. Flat Bars: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

7.4. Square Bars: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

7.5. Others: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)



8. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast by Sales Channel Type (2015-2026)

8.1. Segment's Analysis

8.2. Direct Sales: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)

8.3. Distributor Sales: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million)



9. Aerospace Bars Market Trend and Forecast by Region (2015-2026)



10. Strategic Growth Opportunities

10.1. Market Attractiveness Analysis

10.2. Emerging Trends

10.3. Growth Matrix Analysis

10.4. Strategic Implications

10.5. Key Success Factors (KSFs)



11. Company Profile of Key Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dmmkv1
Dublin, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "2021 North American Generator Set Market with COVID-19 Impact" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The North American Generator Set Market research report includes market size, growth rates, end user split, competitive market share data and revenue forecasts from 2020-2027 for the United States and Canada.

Furthermore, profiles of key companies, growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and quotations from industry participants are also included.



This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the North American Generator Set Equipment Market along with qualitative trends for the year 2020.



The market numbers included in this report represent revenues generated by companies operating in the generator set market in the United States and Canada. The base year for the study is 2020 and the forecast period is from 2020 until 2027.



This study captures the following information on the North American Generator Set Equipment Market:

Market Size, Growth Rate, Revenue Forecasts (2020-2027)

Growth Drivers & Restraints

Market Data

Market Share Analysis

Market Trends

Key Topics Covered:

I. Research Scope, Methodology

II. Segmentation by Equipment Output Range, End User and Application

III. Executive Summary

a. Revenues by end user

b. Major Data Points

c. Revenue

d. Major trends

e. Market drivers

f. Market restraints

g. Main market participants

IV. Market Drivers

V. Market Restraints

VI. Market Trends

b. Distributed generation

c. Paralleling

d. Natural gas generators

e. Increasing competition from alternative technologies

f. Rental market

g. Telematics

h. Pricing trends

VII. Market Data

a. North American market revenues

b. United States revenue forecast

c. Canada revenue forecast

d. Market share by end user

e. Market share by fuel

f. Market share by output

g. Market share by application

VIII. Diesel Generator Set Market

a. Diesel market revenues

b. Diesel market revenues by output

IX. Natural Gas Generator Set Market

a. Natural gas market revenues

b. Natural Gas revenues by output

X. Competitive Landscape

a. Market share by company

b. Major acquisitions

c. Competitive factors

d. Quotes from the industry

XI. Companies Profiles

a. Caterpillar Inc

b. Cummins Inc

c. Generac Holdings Inc

d. Kohler Co

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1mfoye




Dublin, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Drug Discovery Informatics Market 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global drug discovery informatics market size is expected to reach USD 5.63 billion by 2028 registering a CAGR of 11.3%

Use of drug discovery software for gaining market intelligence owing to several advantages, such as rapid drug design & synthesis, efficient tracking of disease evolution, and data integrity management, has increased significantly among the researchers in the recent years, driving the industry growth.



The growing demand for novel molecules is driving the adoption of informatics solutions targeted towards speeding up the entire drug discovery process by identifying rational drug molecules via the target macromolecule interaction.

Companies operating in the market are receiving funding for expanding their drug discovery platforms, further supplementing the market growth. For instance, in September 2020, Ardigen signed an agreement with the National Centre for Research and Development to access its funding for developing novel technology.



This technology was aimed at revolutionizing the development of T-cell receptors-based therapies for immuno-oncology. Ardigen has previously developed a neoantigen prediction platform namely, ArdImmune Vax, which deploys ready-to-use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bioinformatics solutions for the identification of optimal sets of neoantigens as targets for adoptive cell therapies and cancer vaccines. In addition, chemical informatics solutions have gained considerable traction in the past year, particularly in addressing the needs associated with the recent Covid-19 pandemic.



For instance, a research study performed in January 2021 showcased the application of chemical digital solutions in accelerating the search of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors by data analysis of previous activity data of SARS-CoV main protease (Mpro) inhibitors.

In addition, the QSAR models helped in the data mining of molecules for rapid Covid-19 drug discovery. Hence, the need to facilitate drug development for Covid-19 is expected to propel the industry expansion over the coming years.



Drug Discovery Informatics Market Report Highlights

The discovery workflow segment accounted for the largest share of 59.19% in 2020 owing to the increased focus of pharmaceutical companies on the development of novel drug candidates

The development workflow segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 owing to a rise in the number of drug candidates in the clinical development phase

The outsourced mode segment led the market in 2020; however, the in-house mode segment will generate the maximum revenue by 2028 growing at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period owing to high demand for such platforms & services across Asia Pacific countries

Led by the U.S., North America led the global market in 2020 due to the presence of key market players and established R&D infrastructure in the country

Key industry participants focus on strategic acquisitions to sustain the market competition

For instance, in January 2021, Selvita acquired Fidelta to enhance its integrated drug discovery service offerings and expand business in the Europe market

Drug Discovery Informatics Industry Outlook

Market size and growth prospects, 2017 - 2028 (USD Million)

Market driver analysis

Increasing adoption of in-silico modeling tools

Advancements in high-performance computing and web services

Growing volume of drug discovery data

Growth in demand for novel drug moieties

Market restraint analysis

Downward pricing pressure and outsourcing for services

Intellectual property protection and public policy issues

Presence of open-source software packages for drug discovery

Competitive Landscape

PerkinElmer, Inc.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

Certara, L.P.

NOVO INFORMATICS PVT. LTD

Collaborative Drug Discovery Inc.

Jubilant Life Sciences Limited

Selvita

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

ChemBridge Corporation

Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI)

GVK Biosciences Private Limited,

Infosys Ltd.

Accenture.

Oracle.

Agilent Technologies, Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ihumiu
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UATP and Uber for Business (NYSE: UBER) announced today a strategic partnership in which UATP will be integrated into Uber Wallet, enabling travelers to use UATP accounts for rides with Uber as well as orders through Uber Eats. These features will be available in the coming weeks.



For businesses around the world, the way work gets done looks different these days. Yet, the fundamental goals have remained the same  continue building great products, while uncovering new ways to not just fulfill customer demand, but delight customers and keep them happy, said Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business. Thats why were proud to partner with UATP, allowing UATP corporate account holders to expense rides and meals with Uber easily and efficiently. We look forward to working with UATP to help provide a frictionless customer journey from the booking process all the way through to payment and reconciliation, while creating an intuitive way for companies to improve their operations.

The Uber app is available in 71 countries and over 10,000 cities, with over 16 million trips completed worldwide. UATP account holders will now have access to Ubers on-demand network and have ride and meal information supplied on statements. Uber is the first rideshare platform company to connect with the UATP network.

Its fantastic that this partnership lets UATP corporate travelers pay for rides and meals for Uber with UATP, said Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO, UATP. With the added pressures in todays business travel, it is imperative to place as much ease on the traveler as possible. UATP acceptance for Uber for Business does that and fulfills a strategic vision for both companies.

The collaboration between the two companies enables Uber for Business to have a new source of global traveler for Uber usage and UATP to have expanded Network volume. The corporate traveler gets an additional portion of the trip centralized within one payment stream. Its a true win-win-win solution.

For more information, visit UATP.com

About UATP

UATP is a global payment network owned and operated by the world's airlines and accepted by thousands of merchants for air, rail and travel agency payments. UATP connects airlines to Alternative Forms of Payment which can expand reach and generate incremental sales globally. UATP offers easy-to-use data tools, DataStream and DataMine, which provide comprehensive account details to Issuers and corporate travel buyers for accurate travel management.

Accepted as a form of payment for corporate business travel worldwide by airlines, travel agencies and Amtrak; UATP accounts are issued by: Aeromexico; Air Canada; Air China; Air New Zealand; Air Niugini; Air Serbia; American Airlines; APG Airlines; Austrian Airlines; BCD Travel; China Eastern Airlines; Delta Air Lines; EL AL Israel Airlines; Etihad Airways; Fareportal; Frontier Airlines; GOL Linhas aereas inteligentes S.A.; Hahn Air; High Point; Japan Airlines; JetBlue Airways; Qantas Airways; Shandong Airlines; Sichuan Airlines; Southwest Airlines; Sun Country Airlines; TUIfly GmbH; Turkish Airlines; United Airlines and WestJet.

AirPlus International issues the UATP-based Company Account for Lufthansa German Airlines.

About Uber for Business

Uber for Business is a platform that brings the best of Ubers innovations and solutions to the worlds organizations at scale. By providing businesses of any size with access to rides, meals, and delivery, Uber for Business enables companies to improve operations and put people first. Since launching in 2014, Uber for Business has helped unlock employee productivity and elevated customer experiences for more than 150,000 organizations around the world. For more, visit our website.

Contact:

UATP Corporate Communications

Wendy Ward, wward@uatp.com

+1 202 250 4665
New York, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Consumer Identity and Access Management Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Implications And Growth" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06152589/?utm_source=GNW

, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, GB Group Plc, Aware Inc., iWelcome, and Acuant Inc.



The global consumer identity and access management (CIAM) market is expected to grow from $19.41 billion in 2020 to $23.00 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5%. The change in growth trend is mainly due to the companies stabilizing their output after catering to the demand that grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The market is expected to reach $45.56 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 18.6%.



The consumer identity and access management market consists of sales of consumer identity and access management solutions and services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that enable users to offer quick, easy, unified, and secure access across digital channels.Customer identity and access management (CIAM) allow businesses to collect and maintain customer identity to better understand the customer, tailor the products, services, and individual customer engagements.



It also enables organizations to securely capture & manage profile data and control customer access to services and applications.



The main types of components in consumer identity and access management (CIAM) are solutions and services.Consumer identity and access management solutions enable customer login, self-service identity management, permission and choice management, single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), access management, directory services, and data access governance.



The different modes of deployment include cloud, on-premises and are deployed in various organization sizes such as large enterprises SMEs. It is implemented in various verticals such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, IT and telecom, consumer goods and retail, energy and utility, the public sector, and others.



North America was the largest region in the consumer identity and access management (CIAM) market in 2020.Europe was the second-largest market in the consumer identity and access management (CIAM) market.



The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The growing technological advancements are shaping the consumer identity and access management market.Key players in the market are focusing on new technological innovations such as cloud-based services to gain a competitive advantage over competitors in the industry.



For example, in February 2020, Amazon Web Services AWS Identity and Access Management introduced new control access based on cloud technology for requests on behalf of the users. Using this control, customers can now grant access to their IAM principals to launch the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) through AWS CloudFormation.



In March 2021, Okta, a US-based IT service management company acquired Auth0 for $6.5 billion in an all-stock transaction. Through this acquisition, Okta has built a strong leadership position in identity and access management (IAM) and customer identity and access (CIAM) sectors. Auth0 is a US-based company that provides customer identity and access (CIAM) services.



The increasing usage of internet of things (IoT) devices is expected to propel the growth of consumer identity and access management market in the forecast period.The internet of things (IoT) is a system of interrelated, internet-connected objects which can collect and transfer data over a wireless network without human intervention.



IoT poses new security and privacy risks, possibly jeopardizing customer trust and the value of these new technologies.As a result, IoT organizations are adopting CIAM since it plays a critical role in ensuring user identity security.



For instance, according to the TechJury Report, 35 billion IoT devices are projected to be installed across the world by the end of 2021.



The countries covered in the consumer identity and access management market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06152589/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

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New York, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Data Center Infrastructure Management Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Implications And Growth" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06152581/?utm_source=GNW

, Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, Vertiv Group Co., Nlyte, Delta Electronics Inc., Rittal GmbH & Co. Kg, Stulz GmbH, Microsoft Corporation, ITRACS Corp, VMware Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd., Oracle Corporation, NetApp Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Device42 Inc., Sunbird Software Inc., SynapSense Corp, and Fieldview Solutions.



The global data center infrastructure management market is expected to grow from $1.65 billion in 2020 to $2.12 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.1%. The change in growth trend is mainly due to the companies stabilizing their output after catering to the demand that grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The market is expected to reach $5.11 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 24.7%.



The data center infrastructure management market consists of sales of data center infrastructure management solutions and services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are engaged in the manufacturing of cooling systems, power monitoring systems, and other systems related to the infrastructure management of data centers. Datacenter infrastructure management (DCIM) is a series of technologies that allow for effective data center management and monitoring in terms of capacity, cooling, and power usage and enables officials to properly track and control the facilitys various phases.



The main types of components in data center infrastructure management are solutions and services.The data center infrastructure management solutions include asset management, network management, cooling management, power management, security management.



The different deployment models include on-premises, cloud and are used in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises. It is implemented in various sectors such as BFSI, energy, government, healthcare, manufacturing, IT and telecom, and others.



North America was the largest region in the data center infrastructure management market in 2020.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The companies focusing on launching innovative solutions and software platforms are shaping the data center infrastructure management market.Key players are developing integrated technologies and solutions using advanced solutions such as artificial intelligence in data center architecture to unlock the capacity of subsystems and improve operations and maintenance performance.



For instance, in February 2020, Huawei, a China-based technology company introduced FusionDC 2.0 based on prefabricated modular technology. To design future-proof data center facilities, FusionDC 2.0 uses the AI-fusion, building-fusion, component-fusion, and digital-fusion concepts. FusionDC 2.0 uses prefabricated modular technologies to standardize and accelerate the development of data centers. It also includes a future-oriented and elastic architecture to assist data centers in responding to changes in power density.



In February 2020, Eaton, an Ireland-based company offering electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical applications completed the acquisition of Power Distribution, Inc. (PDI) for an undisclosed amount. Through this acquisition, Eaton will be able to better serve its data center clients and expand its range of data center power distribution and monitoring solutions. Power distribution Inc. is a US-based company that provides power distribution and monitoring solutions for data centers manufacturing, institutional users, and other critical or high-value electrical systems.



An increase in data center IP traffic is expected to propel the growth of the data center infrastructure management market in the forecast period.There has been an exponential increase in internet usage and IP traffic in data centers across the globe due to the pandemic and people working from home.



According to Vxchange, a US-based company that offers data centers and colocation services data center IP traffic is predicted to reach 20.6 zettabytes (ZB) by the end of 2021. Another article published by International Energy Agency (IEA) in June 2020, states that between February and mid-April 2020, global internet traffic increased by nearly 40% and the majority of the worlds Internet Protocol (IP) traffic goes through data centers with which the global IP traffic is expected to double between 2019 and 2022. This rise in the data center IP traffic is increasing the need for more data centers and in turn, swelling the demand for data center infrastructure management and services. Thus, the surge in data center traffic is expected to boost the growth of the data center infrastructure management market.



The countries covered in the data center infrastructure management market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06152581/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Axis Research & Technologies, a premiere bioskills training facility and cadaver lab space supporting medical research and training, announced the opening of its newest 10,000 sq. foot facility in Nashville, Tenn. Dedicated to the advancement of healthcare innovation, Axis is recognized nationally for its world-class pre-clinical training research and technology lab facilities. Headquartered in Irvine, California, the Nashville location marks Axis third facility in the United States.



Axis caters to medical device companies and hospitals, providing the ideal support for medical device testing, research, and skills training. Each Axis center is fully equipped with everything needed to ensure surgeons, educators, and researchers have a superior training event. From white-glove concierge pre-event planning services to tissue sourcing, precision specimen preparation, medical device and lab equipment readiness, high-tech surgery suites, and advanced audiovisual and telecom capabilities, Axis delivers.

The Nashville location offers expansive fully functional operating labs for multi-skill training, private operating suites for smaller labs, large conference rooms, and configurable multi-purpose spaces. As with all Axis locations, the Nashville facility features Axis unique advanced HIPAA-Compliant Global Training Platform allowing surgeons, educators, and researchers to broadcast, record and tele-train anywhere around the globe. In the near future, Axiss new technology will include mixed medical reality and AI-powered networks to assist in live surgeries, staff training, research, and education.

Nashville is a growing medical device community attracting some of the most respected names in the industry, said Nick Moran, CEO of Axis. As a company committed to driving healthcare innovation through our high-tech, high-touch research and training facilities, Axis made the strategic decision to expand our geographic footprint to accommodate the needs of this booming MedTech marketplace. We are excited to continue our expansion with our next location opening in Chattanooga in January 2022 to cater to the thriving hospital sector in that community and its bordering states.

Each Axis location is a welcoming environment with an engaged, highly trained, and knowledgeable staff whose next-level service ensures a seamless experience. The Axis team anticipates the clients needs, managing every detail necessary with everything organized even prior to the moment of arrival.

Our goal is always to ensure a stress-free and exceptional client experience. Our team makes it our priority to anticipate our clients needs to ensure a highly successful event, said Jill Goodwin, COO of Axis. From the moment our clients walk through our doors, we make sure they know that we are well organized and prepared for their training or event. They know that their success is our success, and we will do whatever it takes to exceed their expectations.

Axis has proudly and consistently served some of the biggest names in the medical device industry, helping them accomplish their critical research and development so that they can focus on changing the way lives are saved. For this reason, Axis strives to ensure that the entire client experience surpasses that of any other lab facility or training center.

The new Axis bioskills facility, located at 1420 Donelson Pike, Ste. A-20, in Nashville, is available for on-site tours. For medical device research and development, hospital groups, or training organizations looking for a turnkey facility that offers robust broadcasting and AV capabilities, visit Axis at https://axisrt.com.

ABOUT AXIS RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGIES

The premiere pre-clinical training bioskills company and cadaver lab space, Axis Research & Technologies supports professionals in healthcare innovation by providing world-class facilities, medical equipment, tissue sourcing, and teletraining services for surgeons, medical professionals, and medical device companies to practice surgical techniques, develop and perfect medical devices, and provide education to audiences worldwide. Axis offers the most advanced HIPAA-compliant global broadcasting and hi-tech teletraining capabilities in Irvine, Calif., Columbia, Md., and Nashville, Tenn.

MEDIA CONTACT: Kat Moore, 714-573-0899 x230

Kat@echomediateam.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/86312344-15da-49eb-98ec-8384c1ed2a0a

The photo is also available via AP PhotoExpress.
New York, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Natural Food Colors And Flavors Global Market Report 2020-30: COVID-19 Growth And Change" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06151697/?utm_source=GNW

Hasegawa, Firmenich, Robertet, Synergy Flavors, Amar Bio-Organics India, Taiyo International, The Food Flavors, Besmoke, Gulf Flavors and Food Ingredients, and Seluz Fragrances & Flavors Company.



The global natural food colors and flavors market is expected to grow from $4.36 billion in 2020 to $5.06 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2%. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $6.14 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 4.9%.



The natural food colors and flavors market consists of sales of natural food colors and flavors by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that manufacture nature food colors and flavors which are used in food preparations.Natural food colors and flavors are extracted from plants, animals, and other organic materials by using physical or chemical methods.



Natural food colors and flavors come in many forms like liquids, powders, gels, pastes and these are used in commercial food production as well as domestic cooking.



The main types of natural food colors are caramel, carotenoids, anthocyanins, curcumin, annatto, copper chlorophyllin, capsanthin, and others.The main types of flavors are natural extracts, aroma chemicals, essential oils, and others.



Caramel color is one of the oldest and most used food colors in food and beverages.Carotenoids are plant pigments that produce bright yellow, red, and orange colors and these colors are used as natural coloring agents in foods and beverages.



Annatto is an orange-red food color or condiment made from the seeds of the achiote tree that grows in tropical regions in South and Central America. The natural food colors and flavors are available in liquid and dry form and used in various applications such as beverages, bakery, confectionery, dairy and frozen products, meat products, and others.



Europe was the largest region in the natural food colors and flavors market in 2020.Asia Pacific is expected to continue to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



Natural food colors and flavors manufacturers are increasingly manufacturing food colors and flavors according to the taste and preference of the local residents and this is an emerging trend in the food colors and flavors market.The act of localization creates demand for specific natural food coloring agents based on each region.



Also, manufacturing food colors and flavors according to local demand reduces the shipping cost because the cost of fuel consumption is low compare to the fuel consumption due to shipping of products from long distances.For instance, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a US-based multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation, has a production facility in India that produces mint flavors according to the demand of Indian customers.



This facility buys raw materials from local farmers and manufactures natural mint and other flavors. The localization also increases economic growth by boosting local manufacturers, creating jobs, and increases spending.



In December 2020, McCormick & Company Inc, a global food company that manufactures spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and flavoring products, acquired FONA International Inc, a natural flavoring company for a deal amount of $710 million in cash. The acquisition of FONA International is expected to broaden McCormicks existing product portfolio and expand capabilities such as research and development, expertise in flavoring health and performance nutrition products.



Rising concerns regarding the health hazards posed by the consumption of synthetic colors drove the market for natural food colors and flavors.Synthetic food colors and flavors are chemicals that originate from coal tar derivatives, petroleum, or crude oil and cause health hazards such as high blood pressure, DNA mutation, obesity, infertility and others.



For instance, Auramine is a food color known to retard growth and damages kidneys, liver.Lead chromate is yellow food color that can be dangerous to health causing anemia, abdominal pain, hypertension, neurological problem.



According to the study published by the Brazilian Journal of Biology, the researchers fed 2ml of chocolate flavoring, 5ml of strawberry flavoring per Kg for a group of mice, and on day 6 all the mice died due to toxic effects on gene and cells. Therefore, the rising health hazards from the consumption of synthetic colors have raised concerns in consumers and this, in turn, drove the market for natural food colors and flavors.



The countries covered in the natural food colors and flavors market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06151697/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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LAUPHEIM, Germany and MILFORD, Mass., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rentschler Biopharma, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, announced that the companys U.S. subsidiary, Rentschler Biopharma Inc., has been honored as Manufacturer of the Year for the 10th Worcester District by the Massachusetts Legislative Manufacturing Caucus. The company was selected for the honor by State Representative Brian Murray, who presented the award to Karen Savage, Vice President and Milford Site Head, at yesterdays Massachusetts Legislative Manufacturing Caucus Awards ceremony. In addition to the award, Representative Murray presented a citation from the State House of Representatives to Rentschler Biopharma in recognition of Rentschler Biopharmas outstanding leadership skills in the manufacturing industry in the Commonwealth. The awards ceremony was part of the inaugural Massachusetts Manufacturing Mash-up event in Worcester, which kicked off Manufacturing Month in Massachusetts.



Representative Murray said: I have been so impressed by the professionalism, technology, and science of the Rentschler Biopharma team. It is certainly important to have companies in our Commonwealth that produce high-quality biopharmaceuticals to address the need for safe and effective vaccines and therapies. Rentschler Biopharma is actively contributing to improving lives and represents the new face of modern manufacturing.

Dr. Martin Kessler, CEO of Rentschler Biopharma Inc., said: It is truly an honor to receive this award. We are excited to be a part of the Massachusetts manufacturing community and are growing rapidly in Milford. Just last month, we broke ground at our new state-of-the-art facility, the Rentschler Biopharma Manufacturing Center US (RBMC US), that will double our cGMP capacity, and we are also growing our talented team. The great support we have received locally and at the state level is a big part of our ability to expand our offering to our U.S. clients, many of whom are located here in Massachusetts.

Karen Savage, Vice President and Milford Site Head, added: I thank everyone who has helped us to achieve this wonderful recognition by the caucus. Our work is challenging but also incredibly rewarding, and we are driven by the goal of helping our clients bring innovative, essential treatments to patients.

The new RBMC US will add 22,000 square feet of manufacturing cleanroom space and house four new 2,000 L single-use bioreactors. In keeping with Rentschler Biopharmas commitment to reducing the complexity of biopharmaceutical manufacturing for its clients, the site is designed to be easily adaptable to meet clients changing needs. The RBMC US is expected to become operational in late 2023.

About Rentschler Biopharma SE

Rentschler Biopharma is a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused exclusively on client projects. The company offers process development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals as well as related consulting activities, including project management and regulatory support. Rentschler Biopharma's high quality is proven by its long-standing experience and excellence as a solution partner for its clients. A high-level quality management system, a well-established operational excellence philosophy and advanced technologies ensure product quality and productivity at each development and manufacturing step. In order to offer best-in-class formulation development along the biopharmaceutical value chain, the company has entered into a strategic alliance with Leukocare AG. Rentschler Biopharma is a family-owned company with about 1,100 employees, headquartered in Laupheim, Germany, with a second site in Milford, MA, USA. In Stevenage, UK, Rentschler Biopharma has launched a company dedicated to cell and gene therapies, Rentschler ATMP Ltd.

For further information, please visit www.rentschler-biopharma.com . Follow Rentschler Biopharma on LinkedIn and Facebook .

Contact:

Rentschler Biopharma SE

Dr. Cora Kaiser

Senior Director Corporate Communication

Phone: +49-7392-701-874

communications@rentschler-biopharma.com

Media inquiries:

MC Services AG U.S. Eva Bauer Laurie Doyle Phone: +49-89-210228-0 Phone: +1 339-832-0752 rentschler@mc-services.eu

For high-resolution pictures, please contact communications@rentschler-biopharma.com
An Emerging Markets Sponsored Commentary



ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When we began to follow and publish about Logiq, Inc. (NEO: LGIQ) (OTCQX: LGIQ), a global, award-winning developer of e-commerce and fintech solutions, it wasnt their tech that first caught our eye.

It was their deals.

Truth is, we see a lot of great tech we generally choose not to cover average offerings but what we see most often is great tech with big, optimistic plans. What we dont always see, maybe even see often, are deals at scale for said tech.

But not with Logiq who cuts deals with massive clients like say, government entities in Indonesia. (See news feed for current examples.)

But today its an advent to their tech which we find interesting.



The combination of really smart tech and these audiences could be super impactful.

But were burying the lead a little here. Lets get into this new tech weve teased so far.

Ok, on September 23, Logiq dropped pre-market news that it has expanded its Logiq Digital Marketing (LDM) platform to include geofencing-based targeting.

And this is what is compelling about that declaration:

Unlike traditional geotargeting that restricts digital ads to audiences in a particular zip code, city, state or country, geofencing is a custom defined area that can outline the boundaries around a particular store, mall, or other physical venue. The technology enables geofencing by using the latitude and longitude coordinates of a consumer digital device, such as a connected TV, smartphone, tablet or PC, to determine their location.

So now Logiq can target customers in a location as hyper local as a single store. You could be in a shoe store and Logiq can serve you an ad for the latest offering from a leading shoe brand or what the store wants to move more of.

Also, check out this note from the same release:

This solution gives marketers significantly greater precision and personalization in the message they deliver to consumers based upon the context derived from visiting a geofenced region. Marketers can deliver a customized message to such consumers in real time, whereas many traditional solutions require marketers to wait a week or more for a newly defined segment to be populated with consumer data. LDM also enables marketers to target consumers who have been in a particular location up to 30 days in the past.

See where this is going?

Imagine Mr. or Mrs. Shopper (not their real names) visited the aforementioned shoe store. Lets call it Shoe-La-La. (props if you get the reference.)

They come in on September 1 and look around but dont buy. Toward the end of the month our shopper returns to the finest hypothetical shoe store in Scranton and immediately the ad server recognizes their presence and remembers the previous visit.

It drops a customized ad to them with perhaps a store-wide coupon or a special on a sku with much deeper inventory. The shopper is perhaps motivated by this new and very personal nudge delivered in the RIGHT PLACE at THE RIGHT TIME.

By the way, we were relieved to confirm that this all happens without infringing on their privacy or ever accessing their Personally Identifying Information (PII).

Instead, what Logiq now can offer is a game-changer for its clients and perhaps even better, the exact benefit a shopper needs to become a customer.

For more information, visit https://logiq.com/

About The Emerging Markets Report:

The Emerging Markets Report is owned and operated by Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC), a syndicate of investor relations consultants representing years of experience. Our network consists of stockbrokers, investment bankers, fund managers, and institutions that actively seek opportunities in the micro and small-cap equity markets.

For more informative reports such as this, please sign up at http://www.emergingmarketsllc.com/newsletter.php

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We may purchase Securities of the Profiled Company prior to their securities becoming publicly traded, which we may later sell publicly before, during or after our dissemination of the Information, and make profits therefrom. EMC does not verify or endorse any medical claims for any of its client companies.

EMC has been paid $250,000 by Logiq, Inc. and $225,000 by Civet Digital on behalf of Logiq, Inc. for various marketing services including this report. EMC does not independently verify any of the content linked-to from this editorial. http://emergingmarketsllc.com/disclaimer.php

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- B.S.D. Capital, Inc. dba Lendistry ("Lendistry") announced today that it has been allocated $35MM in New Markets Tax Credits ("NMTC"). The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund ("CDFI Fund") awards NMTCs to generate economic and community development in low-income urban and rural areas nationwide. As the only fintech CDFI and a bold, non-traditional financial institution, Lendistry has partnered with Monge Capital to deploy these funds to historically disadvantaged and underserved small businesses.

With this allocation, Lendistry joins a long tradition of community development. Over the past two decades, the New Markets Tax Credit has made it possible for the federal government to inject capital into low-income communities and businesses. Now more than ever, these businesses need access to fair, affordable financing to recover and grow.

Lendistry, in conjunction with Monge Capital, a New Jersey-based minority business entity (MBE) that provides capital solutions and advice to public and private entities to support investment in underserved and disadvantaged communities, has developed a plan to use the $35MM allocation to optimal effect. The plan is two-fold: provide financing to commercial real estate development projects in disadvantaged communities and set up an investment model that attracts traditional investors to the underserved and underbanked business community.

"We are proud to help advance the mission of the NMTC program by supporting the expansion of Lendistry's innovative capital solutions for underserved businesses," said Jeff Monge, Managing Partner of Monge Capital.

A large portion of the NMTC allocation will become a loan fund designated for Qualified Active Low-Income Community Businesses ("QALICBs"). Lendistry and Monge Capital will then call upon new and existing relationships with equity investors, who share the priority of supporting the QALICB community, to invest in the fund in exchange for tax credits. These equity contributions will be used to fund flexible and innovative small business loans and will be re-lent throughout the compliance period as loans are repaid to maximize community impact.

Lendistry CEO, Everett K. Sands, says, "Lendistry's mission is to provide small business owners who have been underbanked and underestimated in the financial sector with trailblazing, non-traditional solutions. The fact that the CDFI Fund has awarded us this allocation is a confirmation that we are on the right path. This recognition is motivation to keep innovating ahead of the small business community's needs."

Since its inception, NMTC Program awards have spurred $8 of private investment for every $1 allocated, and Lendistry has never met a statistic it couldn't surpass.

For inquiries about this program, please contact nmtc@lendistry.com.

About Lendistry

B.S.D. Capital, Inc. dba Lendistry (lendistry.com) is a minority-led and technology-enabled small business and commercial real estate lender with Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certification. Lendistry ranks second nationwide in SBA Community Advantage lending, providing responsible financing to small business owners and their underserved communities. Lendistry is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and is headquartered in a Los Angeles Opportunity Zone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendistry provided Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses in all 50 states and was selected by California, Pennsylvania and New York to administer their small business relief programs, which distributed grants to businesses that lost significant revenue during the pandemic. Lendistry and its nonprofit partner organization, The Center by Lendistry, are dedicated to providing economic opportunities and progressive growth for underserved urban and rural small business borrowers and their communities.



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MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Persevere, a nonprofit that offers coding classes for justice-impacted individuals and places them in tech jobs, is the focus of a 22-minute segment airing on several of E.W. Scripps' local television stations across the U.S. "Cracking the Code to Success" can be viewed on weekends through October. Scripps reporter Jessie Cohen and her crew visited Persevere's operations in Memphis, Tennessee. They interviewed inmates in Persevere's coding program at West Tennessee State Penitentiary, justice-impacted individuals in its transition home who are now working in tech jobs, and officials from Tennessee Department of Corrections about their decision to offer coding education in prisons and the successes they are witnessing. Persevere Founder Sean Hosman and Regional Director Stacey Books, both of whom at one time were caught up in the criminal justice system, are also featured.

"We are truly honored to have this incredible opportunity to create more awareness of how Persevere is positively transforming prisons and the lives of inmates. We are giving them hope and opportunity with a valuable job skill like coding, coupled with the comprehensive reentry services we provide," says Sean Hosman, Persevere's founder. "Persevere began in Tennessee, so it's where we have the most comprehensive services and the most historical data regarding outcomes. We have significantly reduced recidivism by teaching a skill for which there are abundant, high-paying jobs, and support our students every step of the way. Thanks to the success in Tennessee, we have been able to take Persevere to other states with the goal of being in all fifty."

Tennessee has a recidivism (the tendency for criminals to re-offend) rate of 36.3 percent, while the recidivism rate of students graduating from Persevere currently sits at just 1.8 percent. Because the children of incarcerated people are seven times more likely to become justice impacted, Persevere is committed to breaking this multigenerational cycle. Their instructors are teaching the children of those in prison or on probation or parole to code as well. Persevere is also helping to increase diversity in web development and coding employment, having graduated many minority and women students from the program.

"We are excited and fortunate to have partnered with the Persevere program within our institutions and now available to TDOC offenders on Community Supervision and their children," says April Buckner, Correctional Administrator Rehabilitative Services - West Region for the Tennessee Department of Corrections. "Not only does this program teach an in-demand skillset, but the job opportunities are endless for these students. We are also bringing families together by allowing the children to participate. It has given a lot of hope to the individuals enrolled, and we have seen several success stories come through this program."

"Cracking the Code to Success" is now airing on weekends through October on the E.W. Scripps stations listed below (it can be viewed by downloading the station apps on the following devices: Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, or the Android App on the Google Play Store). The segment can also be seen at: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/cracking-the-code-to-success-how-one-nonprofit-is-changing-the-purpose-of-prison

KATC - Lafayette, LA

KERO - Bakersfield, CA

KGUN - Tucson, AZ

KIVI - Boise, ID

KJRH - Tulsa, OK

KMTV - Omaha, NE

KRIS - Corpus Christi, TX

KRTV - Great Falls, MT

KSBY - Central Coast, CA

KXXV - Waco, TX

WFTX - Fort Myers, FL

WGBA - Green Bay, WI

WKBW - Buffalo, NY

WLEX - Kentucky

WMAR - Baltimore, MD

WRTV - Indianapolis, IN

WSFL - South Florida

WSYM - Lansing, MI

WTKR - Norfolk, VA

WTMJ - Milwaukee, WI

WXMI - Grand Rapids, MI

# # #

About Persevere

A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2014, Persevere is committed to reducing recidivism, increasing public safety, and disrupting multi-generational poverty and criminality. Its comprehensive program allows justice-involved and at-risk individuals to develop meaningful job skills as full stack developers and gain access to well-paying tech jobs that are difficult to fill. Persevere's holistic, evidence-based approach is designed to meet the essential reentry needs of its incarcerated graduates to ensure they lead productive, fulfilling lives. These services include employment readiness and job placement, transitional housing, family reunification, substance abuse rehabilitation, and physical and mental healthcare. Persevere is funded by contracts from state governments and departments of corrections, government grants, private donations, and private foundation grants. It currently operates in Tennessee, Arizona, and South Carolina and is expanding to additional states. For more info, visit www.perseverenow.org.

Media Contact:

Hilary Reiter

Redhead Marketing & PR | hilary@redheadmarketingpr.com | 435.901.2071

www.perseverenow.org

Photos Here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y99g6xqofkrna1k/AABjJ4qSydiqCHQg5uWtZYEha?dl=0

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Image 1: Inmates learning to code





Persevere students learn to code while incarcerated and are placed in tech jobs.









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REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TigerGraph , provider of the leading graph analytics platform, today announced the return of Graph + AI Summit, an event focused on accelerating analytics, AI, and machine learning projects with graph algorithms. The Graph + AI Summit events, organized by TigerGraph, are set for October 5 in San Francisco and October 19 in New York. More than 10,000 attendees from half of the Fortune 500 are expected to participate in the events, which will offer live-streamed sessions and keynotes with online workshops available in between.



Graph + AI Summit is back to meet the strong industry demand for all things graph, said Yu Xu, founder and CEO, TigerGraph. Todays business leaders continue to tap the power of graph to accelerate their digital transformation efforts  and we organized this event to provide companies with practical guidelines on how to do just that. Were connecting thought leaders, technical experts, and business leaders from the worlds largest companies in virtually every sector to share graph best practices and lessons learned  lessons that will help make graph accessible and understandable for all.

Fall Graph + AI Summit San Francisco takes place on October 5 and will feature the following speakers and sessions:

Rita Sallam, Distinguished VP Analyst and Gartner Fellow at Gartner, will deliver the opening remarks, including insights from Gartner clients on combining graph, machine learning, and AI for business outcomes

will deliver the opening remarks, including insights from Gartner clients on combining graph, machine learning, and AI for business outcomes Dan McCreary, Distinguished Engineer in AI and Graph at Optum (a division of UnitedHealth Group), will explore the intersection of learning, knowledge, and language with use cases combining graph with machine learning to find similar patients and improve provider recommendations for more than 50 million members

will explore the intersection of learning, knowledge, and language with use cases combining graph with machine learning to find similar patients and improve provider recommendations for more than 50 million members Will Hudson, Vice President, Enterprise Data Strategy, Customer, and Marketing IT at Dell Technologies, will share why Dell chose graph to modernize its customer journey

will share why Dell chose graph to modernize its customer journey Gautam Gupta, Group Manager (AI, ML, Data Science, Cloud) at Intuit Corporation, will share how AI-based customer 360 has boosted fraud detection by 50% and is powering entity resolution and personalized recommendations for Intuit's customers

will share how AI-based customer 360 has boosted fraud detection by 50% and is powering entity resolution and personalized recommendations for Intuit's customers Paulo Gottgtroy, Decision Science Lead at Mercury NZ, will discuss how graph technology helps the energy sector manage customer experience and operational efficiency using a decision management strategy and roadmap

will discuss how graph technology helps the energy sector manage customer experience and operational efficiency using a decision management strategy and roadmap Confirmed attendees include data, analytics and AI professionals from Wells Fargo, U. S. Bank, Visa, Intuit, Charles Schwab, PayPal, eBay, Lyft, Capgemini, Cognizant, Exact Sciences, Novartis, Omada Health, Curai Health, Home Depot, Flextronics, Nutanix, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Talend, Qualcomm, VMware, Xilinx, and more

Fall Graph + AI Summit New York takes place on October 19 and will feature the following speakers and sessions:

George Anadiotis, GigaOm Analyst, ZDNet and VentureBeat contributor, will discuss Graph as a foundational technology stack for the 2020s, including how the Years of the Graph started and the four pillars of graph technology

will discuss Graph as a foundational technology stack for the 2020s, including how the Years of the Graph started and the four pillars of graph technology Rohit Chauhan, Executive Vice President, AI and Security Solutions, Mastercard, will share how Mastercard implements AI at scale and provides customers and business partners with a competitive advantage for the future, including how graph technology is a foundational enabler of its strategy

will share how Mastercard implements AI at scale and provides customers and business partners with a competitive advantage for the future, including how graph technology is a foundational enabler of its strategy Stephen Brobst, CTO, Teradata, will discuss how the enterprise ecosystem, including data warehousing, is evolving to deliver business value combined with graph and AI

will discuss how the enterprise ecosystem, including data warehousing, is evolving to deliver business value combined with graph and AI Anadiotis, Chauhan, and Brobst will join Chris Preimesberger , Editor Emeritus, eWeek, for the morning general session

and will join for the morning general session Confirmed attendees include Mastercard, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U. S. Bank, Deutsche Bank, Fiserv, Goldman Sachs, Raymond James, Societe Generale, TIAA, Jackson Financial Services, Apple bank, Equifax, Macondo Capital, Saks Fifth Avenue, Cummins, Colgate-Palmolive, Edison Digital, Pfizer, Crowe, Forbes, ZDNet, MTN, and Xandr/AT&T



All keynotes and executive roundtables for Graph + AI Summit San Francisco and New York will be streamed live to the virtual attendees.

TigerGraph will also host a Graph + AI Virtual Academy, set for October 6-18. Participants can access sessions on the Graph + AI Summit virtual event platform daily. Session topics include:

Algorithms Powering Graph + AI

Graph Query Languages

Graph + AI in the Cloud  Featuring AWS, Azure, and GCP

Graph + AI Ecosystem

Hands-on workshops and technical breakout sessions for the integration of graph algorithms into analytics and AI projects

Graph case studies in three industry tracks: Banking, Insurance, and Fintech; Technology, Advertising, Media, and eCommerce; and Healthcare and Life Sciences

Register to attend Graph + AI Summit virtually or in person here .

Helpful Links

About TigerGraph

TigerGraph is a platform for advanced analytics and machine learning on connected data. Based on the industrys first and only distributed native graph database, TigerGraphs proven technology supports advanced analytics and machine learning applications such as fraud detection, anti-money laundering (AML), entity resolution, customer 360, recommendations, knowledge graph, cybersecurity, supply chain, IoT, and network analysis. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA. Start free with tigergraph.com/cloud.
Richmond, VA, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced that CIT GAP Funds, the direct investment program of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) has invested in Vienna, Va.-based Aravenda. Formerly known as Resale Global, Aravenda provides cloud-based software for sustainable resale, consignment, and thrift stores, enabling them to take their local stores global with just a few clicks. The startup will use the Virginia Founders Fund investment to continue enhancing its products as well as expand its lead generation and customer support teams.



Most resale technology today lacks cloud-based capabilities and customer service platforms to expand business to a wide online audience. Many small online sellers that dont have their own websites, and chains or multi-location stores, are stuck in a holding pattern in which they are unable to market their resale items. To address these challenges, Aravenda provides a fully integrated software solution for consignment inventory management and online e-commerce presence that links with Shopify POS.



We have been in the consignment business for years, where half of our Board of Directors and investors own and operate consignment or resale shops. Through this experience, we understand that each resale business is unique, and their needs depend on the industry they operate in. Our consignment software uniquely aligns with these characteristics and is customized to each business goals, said Carolyn Thompson, President and CEO of Aravenda. In order to thrive in an increasingly competitive eCommerce and social media market, we have created an easy to use, cloud-based solution that allows you to take your small (or large) business to the next level. We are excited to have the support of CIT GAP Funds and look forward to our next phase of growth.



Aravendas up-to-date technology enables customers to manage their entire resale inventory online. Customers of Aravenda resell all types of items, including cars, sporting goods and collectibles, art, clothes, shoes, furniture, antiques, and more. Aravendas in-house implementation and technical support team handles all aspects of a clients needs, including website setup, data conversion, software updates, and maintenance. In the last month, Aravenda has launched a new partner feature called JoltPost, which allows Shopify stores to directly post inventory items into their Poshmark Closets and Tradesy accounts without having to re-enter photos or descriptions. This saves a lot of time and effort for business owners and social media sellers.



Resale is the fastest growing segment of retail, yet todays technologies are out-of-date and inefficient. Aravenda has the opportunity to make a difference in this growing space by providing small businesses with more resources to reach more consumers, both domestically and internationally, said Jennifer O'Daniel, Senior Investment Director, CIT GAP Funds. With leaders that are bringing their vision to life, and a platform that has a global presence already in 4 continents with a variety of resale categories, we are excited to follow their journey as they continue to grow and make a positive impact on the industry.



Launched in 2018, the Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) shines a light on the creativity and impact of entrepreneurs arising from Virginia communities traditionally underserved by risk capital. Through VFF, CIT GAP Funds has committed more than $3 million of its returns for reinvestment in female founders, founders of color, veteran founders, and founders located in regions outside of Northern Virginia, seeking to maximize both the economic development and social equity imperatives of the Commonwealth.



For more information, please visit: https://www.cit.org/gap-investment-funds.html.



About Aravenda

Aravenda is the better way to resell. In order to be able to thrive in an increasingly competitive eCommerce and social media market, we created an easy to use, cloud-based solution that leverages Shopify. Aravenda allows you and your team to efficiently enter and track your consignor inventory, directly set consignor payouts and take your local business global with just a few clicks. We train your existing staff in just a few hours to post your entire inventory online so you can be open 24/7 no matter what your regular store hours are. You wont lose any of your regulars, but youll gain thousands of other customers you would never reach as a single brick and mortar retailer with no online presence. For more information, please visit: https://www.aravenda.com/.



About CIT GAP Funds

CIT GAP Funds makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean energy, and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating a significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since its inception in 2005, CIT GAP Funds has deployed $32.4 million in capital across more than 240 portfolio companies, including 17 companies in designated Opportunity Zones. CIT GAP Funds' investment decisions are guided by the CIT GAP Funds Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel has drawn from the expertise of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel, and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit https://www.cit.org/gap-investment-funds.html.



About the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA)

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA) was established in 2020 to support the life cycle of innovation, from translational research; to entrepreneurship; to pre-seed and seed-stage funding, as well as acceleration, growth, and commercialization, resulting in the creation of new jobs and company formation. The Authority provides a collaborative, consistent, and consolidated approach that will assist the Commonwealth in identifying its entrepreneurial strengths, including the identification of talents and resources that make the Commonwealth a unique place to grow and attract technology-based businesses. The VIPA, with CIT as its operating arm, brings together components of existing and new program activities in an approach through which the whole is greater than the sum of the individual programs. VIPA's design includes governance and management capabilities to ensure that programs generate transformative and measurable results. For more information, please visit www.cit.org/vipa.



About the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

Investing in Virginia's Growth | CIT, the not-for-profit operations arm of VIPA, accelerates next-generation technologies and technology companies through commercialization, capital formation, and market development initiatives. Programs include | CIT GAP Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) | Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | Unmanned Systems | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | Virginia Research Investment Fund (VRIF) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.cit.org. You can also follow CIT on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Golden, CO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOEs) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have determined how to transport massive wind turbine blades to parts of the country at a lower cost than segmented blades, but the solution will require some flexibility on the part of industry.

Manufacturing blades that can bend with controlled flexing will allow railroads to ship longer blades around the United States. Because of bends, twists, and turns in railroad lines, the upper limit for transporting single-piece land-based blades by rail is currently 75 meters. The conceptual design envisioned by researchers would stretch that limit to 100 meters or beyond for land-based turbines. Blades of this length are already being proposed for offshore wind turbines and can be transported via barge, but they have not been installed inland due to the transportation constraints.

For land-based turbines, the longer blades could be shipped attached across the length of four railcars.

Longer blades and taller wind turbines allow for the greater production of energy, even in areas where wind speeds are low. Seeking an economical solution to installing wind turbines has kept wind farms from regions where the resource could potentially be harvested, including the southeast United States. The flexible blade technology may enable more deployment in these areas in the future due to the lower cost. Lowering the cost of transportation and enabling rotors with a higher capacity factor could make these deployments more economically feasible.

This research can aid in massive deployment of wind energy in different regions of the countryeven parts of the country that typically havent seen as much deployment, said Nick Johnson, a mechanical engineer at NRELs National Wind Technology Center and co-lead of the U.S. Department of Energys Big Adaptive Rotor Project (BAR). He is also co-author of a new paper, Land-based wind turbine with flexible rail-transportable blades, which appears in the journal Wind Energy Science.

BAR emerged from a 2018 workshop on supersized land-based wind turbine blades. In addition to NREL, other BAR partners are Sandia National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Engineers at the international organization DNV GL, which has a working relationship with NREL, in 2019 proposed on a conceptual level the controlled flexing of the blades during rail transport. The new paper provides an in-depth investigation into the idea.

Co-authors on the paper are Pietro Bortolotti and Nikhar Abbas from NREL, and Evan Anderson, Ernesto Camarena, and Joshua Paquette from Sandia.

The paper considers a 5-megawatt wind turbine installed on a 140-meter-tall tower.

The scientists examined the potential for five designs that represent the next generation of land-based turbines. They modeled the designs using NRELs Wind Plant Integrated System Design and Engineering Model (WISDEM) software to determine the best option. One idea, that of cutting a blade in two for transport, was among those considered as a baseline that considers existing technology. The analysis showed that while this is a feasible solution, it does not have the same cost benefits as shipping the single-piece rail-transportable blade.

Blades already possess some flexibility. Traditional blades can have deflections of about 10% of the blade length from the root where they are attached to the turbine to the tip. For the blades envisioned by the BAR research, this increases to 20% to allow for the flexibility required for rail transportation.

Johnson said he sees industry adopting the flexible blades about five years out. We're still in the process of fleshing out some of the details, some of the trade-offs associated with the technology, he said. We have an industry advisory panel and have had great input and feedback from the members. They've kind of steered us in this direction. They think it's a promising idea, and certainly worthwhile as the impact could be significant.

The paper points out areas for further research, including the potential for blades even longer than 100 meters.

The research was funded by DOEs Wind Energy Technologies Office.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Attachment
TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On September 15, 2021 the second cormorant hunting season began. The worst fears of wildlife enthusiasts and outdoors people are being realized, says Barry MacKay, contributing member, Great Lakes Cormorants (GLC).



As result of abandoning evidence-based wildlife management, the Ontario cormorant slaughter could wipe out the birds in the province, something many hunters seem to want. The vitriol, irrational and emotionally driven hatred of cormorants were hearing about and encountering online is alarming and scary, continued MacKay.

Sample quotes from the page (www.facebook.com/groups/330976845002713/about/):

Thanks for ridding our lakes and waterways of this useless and destructive bird.

Tell dawg. Thanks for his servicekill the smelly bastards

Should have a bounty on them until extinction!

No way in hell Im eating a cormorant lol double bag and in the dumpster

Whats the allowed daily limit? 15 each and no bag limit but who cares, shoot them all



These disturbing quotes show why cormorants need protection and why every responsible, ethical nature lover and outdoors enthusiast should be extremely concerned. The claim that a native wildlife species is useless and should be wiped out is uninformed, unscientific and dangerous to all wildlife. It also portrays some outdoorspeople in an extremely negative way and will do nothing except damage their reputations, adds GLC contributing member Liz White.

Compared with the catastrophic effects humans have caused to large and small waterways, shorelines and islands, cormorant-caused impacts to the natural environment are trivial, at best. Its tragic that some hunters dont understand that and that officials have given them a green light to wage a war on a native Ontario wildlife species, said GLC contributing member Rob Laidlaw.

Great Lakes Cormorants is an international collective of scientists, experts, landowners, sportsmen, concerned members of the public and non-governmental organizations who acknowledge the beneficial ecological role that cormorants and other fish-eating birds play in the environments they inhabit. GLC is pushing for termination of the Ontario cormorant hunting season.

General e-mail: greatlakescormorants@gmail.com

For more information: www.greatlakescormorants.com
Crown Place VCT PLC

LEI number: 213800SYIQPA3L3T1Q68

As required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules 4.1 and 6.3, Crown Place VCT PLC today makes public its information relating to the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021.

This announcement was approved for release by the Board of Directors on 29 September 2021.

This announcement has not been audited.

The Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021 (which have been audited), will shortly be sent to shareholders. Copies of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements will be shown via the Albion Capital Group LLP website by clicking www.albion.capital/funds/CRWN/30Jun21.pdf.

Investment policy

The Company invests in a broad portfolio of smaller, unquoted growth businesses across a variety of sectors including higher risk technology companies. Investments take the form of equity or a mixture of equity and loans.

Whilst allocation of funds is determined by the investment opportunities which are available, efforts are made to ensure that the portfolio is diversified both in terms of sector and stage of maturity of investee businesses. Funds held pending investment or for liquidity purposes will be held principally as cash on deposit.

Risk diversification and maximum exposures

Risk is spread by investing in a number of different businesses within Venture Capital Trust qualifying industry sectors using a mixture of securities, as permitted. The maximum amount which the Company will invest in a single portfolio company is 15 per cent. of the Company's assets at cost thus ensuring a spread of investment risk. The value of an individual investment may increase over time as a result of trading progress and it is possible that it may grow in value to a point where it represents a significantly higher proportion of total assets prior to a realisation opportunity being available.

The Company's maximum exposure in relation to gearing is restricted to the amount of its adjusted share capital and reserves. The Directors do not have any intention of utilising long-term gearing.

Financial calendar

Record date for first interim dividend and special dividend 5 November 2021 Annual General Meeting Noon on 9 November 2021 Payment date of first interim dividend and special dividend 30 November 2021 Announcement of half-yearly results for the six months ending 31 December 2021 February 2022 Payment date of second interim dividend (subject to Board approval) 31 March 2022

Financial highlights

34.79p Net asset value per share as at 30 June 2021 5.26p Increase in total shareholder value for the year ended 30 June 2021 15.87% Total uplift on opening net asset value per share 3.61p Total tax-free dividends per share paid during the year ended 30 June 2021





30 June 2021 30 June 2020 pence per share



pence per share Opening net asset value 33.14 35.29 Revenue (loss)/return (0.03) 0.25 Capital return/(loss) 5.58 (0.46) Total return/(loss) 5.55 (0.21) Dividends paid (3.61) (2.00) Impact from share capital movements (0.29) 0.06 Closing net asset value 34.79 33.14





Shareholder return and shareholder value



(pence per share) Shareholder return from launch to April 2005: Total dividends paid to 6 April 2005(i) 24.93 Decrease in net asset value (56.60) Total shareholder return to 6 April 2005 (31.67) Shareholder return from April 2005 to 30 June 2021 (period that Albion Capital has been investment manager): Total dividends paid 38.41 Decrease in net asset value (8.61) Total shareholder return from April 2005 to 30 June 2021 29.80 Shareholder value since launch: Total dividends paid to 30 June 2021(i) 63.34 Net asset value as at 30 June 2021 34.79 Total shareholder value as at 30 June 2021 98.13

Notes

(i) Prior to 6 April 1999, Venture Capital Trusts were able to add 20 per cent. to dividends and figures for the period up until 6 April 1999 are included at the gross equivalent rate actually paid to shareholders.





A more detailed breakdown of the dividends paid per year can be found at www.albion.capital/funds/CRWN under the Dividend History section.

In addition to the dividends paid above, the Board has declared a first interim dividend for the year ending 30 June 2022 of 0.87 pence per share payable on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021. The Board has also declared a special dividend of 1.50 pence per share payable on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021. Details of the special dividend can be found in the Chairmans statement below.

Chairmans statement

Introduction

I am delighted to report a strong increase in total shareholder value of 5.26 pence per share for the year, representing a 15.87% uplift on the opening net asset value. Last years results included several months where our portfolio companies were impacted by the uncertainty seen in the early stages of the pandemic. One year later and, although there is still uncertainty, we have seen continuing resilience and, in many cases, growth from our portfolio, with many of our companies continuing to provide products and services that are innovative and considered essential to their customers.

Results and dividends

As at 30 June 2021, the net asset value (NAV) was 77.7 million or 34.79 pence per share compared with 65.3 million or 33.14 pence per share at 30 June 2020. The continuing progress of a number of our portfolio companies is discussed later in this statement and in the Strategic report below. These excellent results have resulted in a performance incentive fee payable to the Manager of 823,000. More detail on the calculation of this fee can be found in the Strategic report below.

In line with the dividend policy targeting around 5% of NAV per annum, announced last year, the Company paid dividends of 1.61 pence per share during the year to 30 June 2021. In addition to this, the Company paid a special dividend of 2.00 pence per share following a number of disposals in 2019, resulting in total dividends of 3.61 pence per share for the year ended 30 June 2021 (30 June 2020: 2.00 pence per share).

The successful sale of the Companys three care home investments generated substantial cash proceeds, and together with the Albion VCTs Top Up Offers discussed below, has resulted in the cash balances of the Company reaching 27 million on 30 June 2021 (2020: 24 million), representing 35% (2020: 36%) of NAV.

Whilst it is important for a Venture Capital Trust to hold sufficient cash to manage operating costs, to service dividends and buy-backs and to make follow-on and new investments as opportunities arise, this must be balanced against the requirements of a Venture Capital Trust to meet a minimum threshold of 80% invested in qualifying assets.

Therefore, the Board has concluded that a special dividend of 1.50 pence per share should be paid to shareholders, alongside the first interim dividend for the year ending 30 June 2022 of 0.87 pence per share to be paid on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021.

For those that wish to take it, an opportunity remains to re-invest the combined special dividend and first interim dividend in the Company via the Dividend Reinvestment Scheme (DRIS). Shareholders can elect for the DRIS via the registrars website at www.investorcentre.co.uk. Please note that shareholders who hold their shares in CREST will need to contact their CREST service provider.

Investment realisations

The strong return for the year was primarily driven by a number of successful exits which generated total proceeds of 12.3 million for the Company. As noted above, the bulk of the proceeds came from the sale of the three care homes; Active Lives Care, Ryefield Court Care, and Shinfield Lodge Care. The first investment in the homes was made over five years ago and the sale generated proceeds of 9.8 million which represents a 2.5x return on cost (including interest received over the holding period), an excellent result for the Company. The homes were trading at mature occupancy levels and were sold at attractive profit multiples.

The sale of G.Network Communications was also completed in December 2020, with a strong headline total return on all monies invested of 3.8x cost, although the terms of the sale will see proceeds being received in three years time. In addition to this, Clear Review, a software investment made in 2019, was sold during the year, generating 2.1x return on cost. Further details on realisations can be found in the table on page 29 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Investment performance and progress

Many of our portfolio companies have performed well despite the Covid-19 pandemic and this has contributed to the total uplift in value of 13.0 million to the Companys investments for the year.

Quantexa and Oviva have both been revalued after externally led funding rounds, resulting in uplifts of 5.3 million and 1.6 million respectively. Proveca continues to trade well both within the UK and the EU resulting in an uplift of 1.1 million. Other investments with uplifts in the year were Phrasee (1.0 million) and The Evewell (0.9 million), both of which continue to trade well. Inevitably some of our portfolio companies were impacted by the pandemic, with Mirada Medical being written down by a further 0.3 million due to sales to hospitals being delayed by the pandemic, and Avora being written down by 0.3 million following a period of difficult trading.

The Company has been an active investor during the year with more than 8.3 million invested in new and existing portfolio companies. Alongside the other Albion managed VCTs, the Company has invested 4.4 million in eight new portfolio companies, all of which are expected to require further investment as the companies continue to grow:

1.2 million into Threadneedle Software Holdings (trading as Solidatus), a provider of data lineage software to enterprise customers in regulated sectors, which allows them to rapidly discover, visualise, catalogue and understand how data flows through their systems;

0.8 million into The Voucher Market (trading as WeGift), a cloud platform that enables corporates to purchase digital gift cards and to distribute them to employees and customers;

0.6 million into Gravitee Topco (trading as Gravitee.io), an open source Application Programming Interface (API) management platform that enables enterprises to manage their APIs through their lifecycle;

0.6 million into NuvoAir AB, a provider of digital therapeutics and decentralised clinical trials for respiratory conditions;

0.4 million into Seldon Technologies, a software company that enables enterprises to deploy machine learning models in production;

0.4 million into Brytlyt, a provider of an AI and open source relational database for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) powered data analytics;

0.2 million into Accelex Technology, a provider of data extraction and analytics technology for private capital markets; and

0.2 million into uMedeor (trading as uMed), a software platform that enables life science organisations to use patient data, in a compliant way, to recruit participants for clinical trials.

A further 3.9 million was invested into 14 existing portfolio companies, of which the largest were: 1.4 million into Quantexa as part of a larger externally led funding round to support the growth of its analytics platform which helps detect and protect against financial crime; 0.8 million into uMotif to take advantage of a growing market for its software that gathers data from clinical trials; 0.5 million into Healios to continue providing psychological care to children and adolescents using a family centric approach; and 0.3 million into Black Swan Data, to support the restructure of its business to focus primarily on predictive analytics for consumer brands.

Full details of the companies in which we invest can be found in the Portfolio of investments section on pages 26 to 29 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Risks and uncertainties

The wide reaching implications of the Covid-19 crisis continue to be the key risk facing the Company, including its impact on the UK and Global economies. The risk of potential implications of the UKs departure from the European Union adversely affecting our underlying portfolio companies appears to be reducing as detail of new policies and procedures, where relevant, continue to be communicated and portfolio companies are able to adapt. The Manager is continually assessing the exposure to such risks for each portfolio company and, where possible, appropriate mitigating actions are being taken.

A detailed review of risk management is set out below in the Strategic report.

Share buy-backs

It remains the Boards primary objective to maintain sufficient resources for investment in existing and new portfolio companies and for the continued payment of dividends to shareholders. The Boards policy is to buy back shares in the market, subject to the overall constraint that such purchases are in the Companys interest. Given the current stability of the portfolio and the Companys current cash position, the Board has decided that there will be no limit on the level of share buy-backs.

It is the Boards intention for such buy-backs to be in the region of a 5% discount to net asset value, so far as market conditions and liquidity permit.

Albion VCTs Top Up Offers

Your Board, in conjunction with the boards of other VCTs managed by Albion Capital Group LLP, launched prospectus top up Offers of new Ordinary shares on 5 January 2021. The Company announced on 26 January 2021 that it would exercise its over-allotment facility, bringing the total amount to be raised to 9 million. On 10 February 2021 the Offers were fully subscribed and closed. The Board was pleased to see the high level of demand for the Companys shares from existing and new shareholders.

The proceeds raised by the Company pursuant to the Offer have been added to the liquid resources available for investment, positioning the Company to take advantage of investment opportunities over the next two to three years. Details on the share allotments during the year can be found in note 15.

Annual General Meeting

Based on the success of last years live streamed AGM, with a record number of shareholders attending, and also to avoid the risk of having to make any changes as a result of updated government guidelines on Covid-19, the Board has decided to use the same format for the AGM this year. The AGM will be held at noon on 9 November 2021, at the registered office being 1 Benjamin Street, London, EC1M 5QL. Shareholders will not be allowed entry into the building where the AGM is held, but will be able to attend the event via the free platform, Hopin.

The quorum for the meeting is two, therefore, at least two Directors will attend in person to allow the continuation of this AGM. There will also be a representative of Albion Capital Group LLP as Company Secretary.

The AGM will include a presentation from the Manager, the formal business of the AGM and the answers to questions we receive from shareholders. Registration details for the live stream will be emailed to shareholders and will be available at www.albion.capital/annual-general-meeting-updates prior to the Meeting.

Full details of the business to be conducted at the AGM are given in the Notice of the Meeting on pages 76 and 77 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements, and in the Directors report on pages 39 and 40 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

We always welcome questions from our shareholders at the AGM, and shareholders will be able to ask questions using the Hopin platform during the AGM. Alternatively, shareholders can email their questions to crownchair@albion.capital prior to the Meeting.

Following the Meeting, a summary of responses will be published on the Managers website at www.albion.capital/funds/CRWN .

Shareholders views are important, and the Board encourages shareholders to vote on the resolutions using the proxy form enclosed with this Annual Report and Financial Statements, or electronically at www.investorcentre.co.uk/eproxy . The Board has carefully considered the business to be approved at the AGM and recommends shareholders to vote in favour of all the resolutions being proposed.

Shareholder seminar

The Board is pleased to report that the current intention of the Manager, Albion Capital, is to host a physical rather than virtual shareholder seminar this year on 12 November 2021, in central London with the venue to be confirmed. This will be dependent on government guidelines and any changes thereto, and we will keep shareholders informed as the date approaches. The Board is keen to interact with shareholders and looks forward to updating you on portfolio developments, as well as answering any questions.

More details will shortly be available on the Albion Capital website www.albion.capital .

Outlook

These positive results demonstrate the resilience of our portfolio which is both diversified with companies at different stages of maturity and targeted at sectors such as software and healthcare which have proved resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic. I am confident that our portfolio companies are well positioned to grow, providing products and services critical to their customers despite the uncertainty around the longer-term impact of the pandemic. The Board believes the Company is well placed to continue to deliver long term value to our shareholders.

Penny Freer

Chairman

29 September 2021

Strategic report

Crown Place VCT PLC (the Company) is a Venture Capital Trust and its investment policy can be found above.

Business model

The Company operates as a Venture Capital Trust. This means that the Company has no employees and has outsourced the management of all its operations to Albion Capital Group LLP, including secretarial and administrative services. Further details of the Management agreement can be found below.

Current portfolio sector allocation

The pie charts at the end of this announcement shows the split of the portfolio valuation as at 30 June 2021 by: sector; stage of investment; and number of employees. This is a useful way of assessing how the Company and its portfolio is diversified across sector, portfolio companies maturity measured by revenues and their size measured by the number of people employed. As the Company continues to invest in software and other technology companies, FinTech (which is technology specifically applicable to financial services companies) becomes a more prominent investment, and therefore is included as a subsector. Details of the principal investments made by the Company are shown in the Portfolio of investments on pages 26 to 29 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Direction of portfolio

The analysis of the Companys investment portfolio shows that it is well diversified and evenly spread across the FinTech, healthcare, other software and technology, renewable energy, and education sectors.

Due to the share allotments under the 2020/21 Prospectus Top Up Offer, and the sale of the Companys care homes in March 2021, cash is a significant proportion of the portfolio at 35%. These funds will be invested predominantly into higher growth technology companies, and therefore the shift away from asset based companies will continue. The Company has a significant speciality in FinTech investing, which can be seen as a growing part of the portfolio, represented by a 10% increase this year. The 8% decrease in the healthcare sector is attributable to the sale of the care homes, and, given that healthcare technology is another area of particular strength, we would expect this to increase in the future.

Results and dividends

000 Revenue loss for the year ended 30 June 2021 (63) Capital return for the year ended 30 June 2021 11,526 Total return for the year ended 30 June 2021 11,463 Special dividend of 2.00 pence per share paid on 30 October 2020 (3,940) First interim dividend of 0.83 pence per share paid on 30 November 2020 (1,642) Second interim dividend of 0.78 pence per share paid on 31 March 2021 (1,744) Unclaimed dividends 12 Transferred to reserves 4,149 Net assets as at 30 June 2021 77,650 Net asset value as at 30 June 2021 (pence per share) 34.79

The Company paid dividends totalling 3.61 pence per share during the year ended 30 June 2021 (2020: 2.00 pence per share). The dividend objective of the Board is to provide shareholders with a regular dividend flow. The Board declared a first interim dividend for the year ending 30 June 2022 of 0.87 pence per share. This dividend will be paid on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021. The Board has also declared a special dividend of 1.50 pence per share, payable on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021.

The gain on investments for the year was 13,016,000 (2020: loss of 21,000). The key drivers of this gain are detailed in the Chairmans statement above. This has led to a significant increase in net asset value to 34.79 pence per share (2020: 33.14 pence per share), which can be seen on the Balance sheet below. This increase in net asset value is after taking account of the payment of 3.61 pence per share of dividends during the year. A full analysis of the Portfolio of investments can be seen on pages 26 to 29 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Investment income has decreased to 820,000 (2020: 1,112,000) predominantly as a result of the sale of the care homes during the year which, after accounting for the performance incentive fee, resulted in a revenue loss of 63,000 (2020: gain 473,000). The total gain for the year was 5.55 pence per share (2020: loss of 0.21 pence per share).



The cash flow for the Company has been a net inflow of 3,460,000 for the year (2020: 7,883,000), reflecting disposal proceeds, loan stock income, and the issue of new Ordinary shares under the Top Up Offer, offset by dividends paid, ongoing expenses, new investments and the buy-back of shares.

Review of the business and future changes

A review of the Companys business during the year is set out in the Chairmans statement above.

There is a continuing focus on growing the FinTech, healthcare and other software and technology sectors. The majority of these investment returns are delivered through equity and capital gains. The Company will continue to receive income from its renewable energy portfolio for the foreseeable future, however, following the sale of the care homes, we expect our investment income to decrease in the next year.

Details of significant events which have occurred since the end of the financial year are listed in note 19. Details of transactions with the Manager are shown in note 5.

Future prospects

The Companys financial results for the year to 30 June 2021 demonstrates that the portfolio remains well balanced across sectors and risk classes, despite the effects of the pandemic so far. Many of the companies in the portfolio have continued to grow throughout the pandemic and have been providing products and services that are considered innovative and essential to their customers. Although there remains much uncertainty, the Manager has a strong pipeline of investment opportunities in which the Companys cash can be deployed. The Board considers that the pipeline will continue to enable the Company to maintain a predictable stream of dividend payments to shareholders, and ultimately continue to deliver long term growth.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Alternative Performance Measures (APMs)

The Directors believe that the following KPIs and APMs, which are typical for VCTs and used in its own assessment of the Company, will provide shareholders with sufficient information to assess how effectively the Company has been applying its investment policy to meet its objectives. The Directors are satisfied that the results shown in the following KPIs and APMs, taken overall, give a good indication that the Company is achieving its investment objective and policy. These are:

Increase in total shareholder value





The graph on page 13 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements shows that total shareholder value increased by 5.26 pence per share to 98.13 pence per share (2020: 92.87) for the year ended 30 June 2021.

2. Shareholder return in the year 

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 4.3% 6.6% 7.1% 4.5% 1.5% 14.0% 14.6% 11.3% (0.4%) 15.9%

Source: Albion Capital Group LLP

 Methodology: Shareholder return is calculated by the movement in total shareholder value for the year divided by the opening net asset value.

3. Dividend distributions

Dividends paid in respect of the year ended 30 June 2021 were 3.61 pence per share (2020: 2.00 pence per share). Cumulative dividends paid since launch (on 18 January 1998) amount to 63.34 pence per share.

4. Ongoing charges

The ongoing charges ratio for the year ended 30 June 2021 reduced slightly to 2.2 per cent. (2020: 2.3 per cent.). The ongoing charges ratio has been calculated using The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) recommended methodology. This figure shows shareholders the total recurring annual running expenses (including investment management fees charged to capital reserve) as a percentage of the average net assets attributable to shareholders. The Directors expect the ongoing charges ratio for the year ahead to remain stable at approximately 2.2 per cent.

5. VCT compliance*

The investment policy is designed to ensure that the Company continues to qualify and is approved as a VCT by HMRC. In order to maintain its status under Venture Capital Trust legislation, a VCT must comply on a continuing basis with the provisions of Section 274 of the Income Tax Act 2007, details of which are provided in the Directors report on page 37 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

The relevant tests to measure compliance have been carried out and independently reviewed for the year ended 30 June 2021. These showed that the Company has complied with all tests and continues to do so.

*VCT compliance is not a numerical measure of performance and thus cannot be defined as an APM.

Gearing

As defined by the Articles of Association, the Companys maximum exposure in relation to gearing is restricted to its adjusted share capital and reserves. The Directors do not currently have any intention to utilise gearing for the Company.

Operational arrangements

The Company has delegated the investment management of the portfolio to Albion Capital Group LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Albion Capital Group LLP also provides company secretarial and other accounting and administrative support to the Company.

Management agreement

Under the terms of the Management agreement, the Manager is paid an annual fee equal to 1.75 per cent. of the net asset value of the Company plus a 50,000 fee per annum for administrative and secretarial services. Total normal running costs, including the management fee, are limited to 3.0 per cent. of the net asset value. In some instances, the Manager is entitled to an arrangement fee, payable by a portfolio company in which the Company invests, in the region of 2.0 per cent. of the investment made, and also monitoring fees where the Manager has a representative on the portfolio companys board.

Further details of fees paid to the Manager can be found in note 5.

The management agreement can be terminated by either party on 12 months notice and is subject to earlier termination in the event of certain breaches or on the insolvency of either party.

Management performance incentive fee

In order to provide the Manager with an incentive to maximise the return to investors, the Manager is entitled to charge an incentive fee in the event that the returns exceed minimum target levels per share. Under the incentive arrangements, the Company will pay an incentive fee to the Manager of an amount equal to 20% of such excess return that is calculated for each financial year.

The target level requires that the growth of the aggregate of the net asset value per share and dividends paid by the Company or declared by the Board and approved by the shareholders during the relevant period (both revenue and capital), compared with the previous accounting date, exceeds the average base rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc plus 2.0 per cent. If the target return is not achieved in a period, the cumulative shortfall is carried forward to the next accounting period and has to be made up before an incentive fee becomes payable.

For the year ended 30 June 2021, the aggregate of the net asset value per share and dividends paid by the Company or declared by the Board and approved by the shareholders during the relevant period amounted to 69.26 pence per share, compared to a hurdle of 67.42 pence per share. As a result, a performance incentive fee of 823,000 is payable to the Manager (2020: nil). The previous time a performance incentive fee was paid was in 2007.

Evaluation of the Manager

The Board has evaluated the performance of the Manager based on:

 the returns generated by the Company;

 the continuing achievement of the 80% qualifying holdings investment requirement for VCT status;

 the long term prospects of the current portfolio of investments;

 the management of treasury, including use of buy-backs and participation in fund raising;

 a review of the Management agreement and the services provided therein; and

 benchmarking the performance of the Manager to other service providers including the performance of other VCTs that the Manager is responsible for managing.

The Board believes that it is in the interests of shareholders as a whole, and of the Company, to continue the appointment of the Manager for the forthcoming year.

Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD)

The Board appointed Albion Capital Group LLP as the Companys AIFM in 2014 as required by the AIFMD. The Manager is a full-scope Alternative Investment Fund Manager under the AIFMD. Ocorian Depositary (UK) Limited is the appointed Depositary and oversees the custody and cash arrangements and provides other AIFMD duties with respect to the Company.

Companies Act 2006 Section 172 Reporting

Under Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006, the Board has a duty to promote the success of the Company for the benefit of its members as a whole in both the long and short term, having regard to the interests of other stakeholders in the Company, such as suppliers, and to do so with an understanding of the impact on the community and environment and with high standards of business conduct, which includes acting fairly between members of the Company.

The Board is very conscious of these wider responsibilities in the ways it promotes the Companys culture and ensures, as part of its regular oversight, that the integrity of the Companys affairs is foremost in the way the activities are managed and promoted. This includes regular engagement with the wider stakeholders of the Company and being alert to issues that might damage the Companys standing in the way that it operates. The Board works very closely with the Manager in reviewing how stakeholder issues are handled, ensuring good governance and responsibility in managing the Companys affairs, as well as visibility and openness in how the affairs are conducted.

The Company is an externally managed investment company with no employees, and as such has nothing to report in relation to employee engagement but does keep close attention to how the Board operates as a cohesive and competent unit. The Company also has no customers in the traditional sense and, therefore, there is also nothing to report in relation to relationships with customers.

The table below sets out the stakeholders the Board considers most relevant, details how the Board has engaged with these key stakeholders and the effect of these considerations on the Companys decisions and strategies during the year.

Stakeholder Engagement with Stakeholder Decision outcomes based on engagement Shareholders The key methods of engaging with Shareholders are as follows: Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Shareholder seminar

Annual report, Half-yearly financial report, and Interim management statements

RNS announcements for all key decisions including appointment of a new Director, and the publication of a Prospectus

Website redesigned in the year to make it more user accessible Shareholders views are important and the Board encourages Shareholders to exercise their right to vote on the resolutions at the AGM. The Companys AGM is typically used as an opportunity to communicate with investors, including through a presentation made by the investment management team. A live stream of the AGM was held last year, and the Board were able to take questions from Shareholders. This enabled maximum shareholder engagement in the absence of a face-to-face event and saw higher number of attendees compared to previous years. This years AGM will again be live streamed to facilitate shareholder participation.

Shareholders are also encouraged to attend the annual Shareholders Seminar. This years event is scheduled for 12 November 2021. The venue is yet to be confirmed but will be in central London with easy access to public transport. More details will shortly be available on the Albion Capital website. The seminar includes some of the portfolio companies sharing insights into their businesses and also presentations from Albion executives on some of the key factors affecting the investment outlook, as well as a review of the past year and the plans for the year ahead. Representatives of the Board attend the seminar. The Board considers this an important interactive event, and therefore in 2020, although Covid-19 restrictions did not allow for face-to-face meetings, this was also held as a live stream event.

Shareholders receive either a hard or soft copy of the Annual report, and the Half-yearly financial report, depending on their preference. These reports are also available on the website, and announcement is made on the London Stock Exchange. The Company also provides voluntary Interim management statements to keep Shareholders up to date quarterly.

The share buy-back policy is an important means of providing market liquidity for Shareholders, and has been offered throughout the year. The Board monitors closely the discount to the net asset value to ensure this is in the region of 5%.

The Board seeks to create value for Shareholders by generating strong and sustainable returns to provide shareholders with regular dividends and the prospect of capital growth. During the year, the new dividend policy has been enacted, and has resulted in a dividend yield of 5.2% on opening net asset value. In addition to the regular dividend policy, a special dividend of 2 pence per share was paid on 30 October 2020. A total of 3.61 pence of dividends were paid during the year, which was 10.9% of the opening net asset value.

During the year, the decision to publish a Prospectus was taken, in order to raise more funds for deployment into new and existing portfolio companies. The Board carefully considered whether further funds were required, and whether the VCT tests would continue to be met before agreeing to publish the Prospectus. On allotment, the decision was made to use different issue prices to ensure there was no dilution to existing Shareholders, whilst also ensuring new Shareholders were investing at a fair price.

Cash management and liquidity of the Company are key quarterly discussions amongst the Board, with focus on deployment of cash for future investments, dividends and share buy-backs.

Shareholders can contact the Chairman using the email crownchair@albion.capital Suppliers The key suppliers with regular engagement from the Manager are: Corporate broker

VCT taxation advisor

Depositary

Registrar

Auditor

Lawyer The Manager is in regular contact with the suppliers and the contractual arrangements with all the principal suppliers to the Company are reviewed regularly and formally once a year, alongside the performance of the suppliers in acquitting their responsibilities.

The Board reviews the performance of the providers annually in line with the Manager. Manager The performance of Albion Capital Group LLP is essential to the long term success of the Company, including achieving the investment policy and generating returns to shareholders, as well as the impact the Company has on Environment, Social and Governance practice. The Manager meets with the Board at least quarterly to discuss the performance of the Company, and is in regular contact in between these meetings, e.g. to share investment papers for new and follow-on investments. All strategic decisions are discussed in detail and minuted, with an open dialogue between the Board and the Manager.

The performance of the Manager in managing the portfolio and in providing company secretarial, administration and accounting services is reviewed in detail each year, which includes reviewing comparator engagement terms and portfolio performance. Further details on the evaluation of the Manager, and the decision to continue the appointment of the Manager for the forthcoming year, can be found in this report.

Details of the Managers responsibilities can be found in the Statement of corporate governance on pages 42 and 43 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements. Portfolio companies The portfolio companies are considered key stakeholders, not least because they are principal drivers of value for the Company. However, as discussed in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) section below, the portfolio companies impact on their stakeholders is also important to the Company. The Board aims to have a diversified portfolio in terms of sector and stage of investment. Further details of this can be found in the pie charts at the end of this announcement.

In most cases, an Albion executive has a place on the board of a portfolio company, in order to help with both business operation decisions, as well as good ESG practices.

The Manager ensures good dialogue with portfolio companies, and often puts on events in order to help portfolio companies benefit from the Albion network. Community and environment The Company, with no employees, has no effect itself on the community and environment. However, as discussed above, the portfolio companies ESG impact is extremely important to the Board. The Board receives reports on ESG factors within its portfolio from the Manager as it is a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI). Further details of this are set out in the ESG section below. ESG, without its specific definition, has always been at the heart of the responsible investing that the Company engages in and in how the Company conducts itself with all of its stakeholders.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

The Companys Manager, Albion Capital Group LLP, takes the concept of sustainable and responsible investment very seriously for existing investments and in reviewing new investment opportunities. In turn, the Board is kept appraised of ESG issues in connection with both the portfolio and in how Company affairs are conducted more generally as a regular part of Board oversight.

Albion Capital Group LLP is a signatory of the UN PRI. The UN PRI is the worlds leading proponent of responsible investment, working to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions.

The Board and Manager have exercised conscious principles in making responsible investments throughout the life of the Company, not least in providing finance for promising companies in a variety of important sectors such as technology, healthcare and renewable energy. In making the investments, the Manager is directly involved in the oversight and governance of these investments, including ensuring standards of reporting and visibility on business practices, all of which are reported to the Board of the Company. By its nature, not least in making qualifying investments which fulfil the criteria set by HMRC, the Company has focused on sustainable and longer-term investment propositions, some of which will grow and serve important societal demands. One of the most important drivers of performance is the quality of the investment portfolio, which goes beyond the individual valuations and examines the prospects of each of the portfolio companies, as well as the sectors in which they operate  all requiring a longer- term view.

In the nature of venture capital investment, Albion Capital Group LLP is more intimately involved in the affairs of portfolio companies than might be the case for funds invested in listed securities. As such, Albion Capital Group LLP is in a position to influence good governance and behaviour in the portfolio companies, many of which are relatively small companies without the support of a larger companys administration and advisory infrastructure.

The Company adheres to the principles of the AIC Code of Corporate Governance and is also aware of other governance and corporate conduct guidance which it meets as far as practical, including in the constitution of a diversified and independent Board capable of providing constructive challenge.

The Company's portfolio is currently invested in healthcare, renewable energy, education, FinTech, software and other technology (which includes cyber security and data protection), with the most significant percentage of the Companys portfolio invested in sectors and companies which would be seen by many measures to be both sustainable and socially aware on the services they render.

Albion Capital Group LLP incorporates ESG considerations into its investment decisions. These form part of its process to create value for investors and develop sustainable long-term strategies for portfolio companies. Albion Capital Group LLP reports ESG criteria to UN PRI annually and to the Board quarterly.

ESG principles are integrated at the pre-investment, investment and exit stages. This is reflected in transparency of reporting, governance principles adopted by the Company and the portfolio companies, and increasingly in the positive environmental or socially impactful nature of investments made. Albion Capital Group LLP, where relevant, considers climate-specific issues in its investment policies and activities. However, as the majority of the Companys portfolio consists of small (2-250 full time employees), private, typically software companies with limited environmental impact, climate change is not considered to be a significant risk, and actions are proportionate to that risk.

Pre-investment stage

An exclusion list is used to rule out investments in unsustainable areas, or in areas which might be perceived as socially detrimental. ESG due diligence is performed on each potential portfolio company to identify any sustainability risks associated with the investment. Identified sustainability risks are ranked from low to high and are reported to the relevant investment committee. The investment committee considers each potential investment. If sustainability risks are identified, mitigations are assessed and, if necessary, mitigation plans are put in place. If this is not deemed sufficient, the committee would consider the appropriate level and structure of funding to balance the associated risks. If this is not possible, investment committee approval will not be provided, and the investment will not proceed.

Investment stage

All new and existing portfolio companies are asked to report against an ESG Balanced Score Card annually. The ESG Balanced Score Card contains a number of sustainability factors against which a portfolio company will be assessed in order to determine the potential sustainability risks and opportunities arising from the investment. The score cards form part of the Managers internal review meetings alongside discussions around other risk factors, and any outstanding issues are addressed in collaboration with the portfolio companies senior management.

Exit stage

Albion Capital Group LLP aims to ensure that good ESG practices remain in place following exit. For example, by ensuring that the portfolio company creates a self-sustaining ESG management system during our period of ownership, wherever feasible.

Social and community issues, employees and human rights

The Board recognises the requirement under section 414C of the Companies Act 2006 (the Act) to detail information about social and community issues, employees and human rights; including any policies it has in relation to these matters and effectiveness of these policies. As an externally managed investment company with no employees, the Company has no formal policies in these matters, however, it is at the core of its responsible investment strategy as detailed above.

General Data Protection Regulation

The General Data Protection Regulation has the objective of unifying data privacy requirements across the European Union, and continues to apply in the United Kingdom after Brexit. The Manager continues to take action to ensure that the Manager and the Company are compliant with the regulation.

Further policies and statements

The Company has adopted a number of further policies and statements relating to:

Environment;

Global greenhouse gas emissions;

Anti-bribery;

Anti-facilitation of tax evasion; and

Diversity.



These are set out in the Directors report on page 38 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Risk management

The Board carries out a regular review of the risk environment in which the Company operates, together with changes to the environment and individual risks. The Board also identifies emerging risks which might impact on the Company. In the period the most noticeable risk has been the global pandemic which has impacted not only public health and mobility but also has had an adverse impact on the economy, the full impact of which is likely to be uncertain for some time.

The Directors have carried out a robust assessment of the Companys principal risks and uncertainties, and explain how they are being mitigated as follows.

Risk Possible consequence Risk management Investment, performance and valuation risk The risk of investment in poor quality businesses, which could reduce the returns to shareholders and could negatively impact on the Companys current and future valuations.



By nature, smaller unquoted businesses, such as those that qualify for Venture Capital Trust purposes, are more volatile than larger, long established businesses.



The Companys investment valuation methodology is reliant on the accuracy and completeness of information that is issued by portfolio companies. In particular, the Directors may not be aware of or take into account certain events or circumstances which occur after the information issued by such companies is reported. To reduce this risk, the Board places reliance upon the skills and expertise of the Manager and its track record over many years of making successful investments in this segment of the market. In addition, the Manager operates a formal and structured investment appraisal and review process, which includes an Investment Committee, comprising investment professionals from the Manager for all investments, and at least one external investment professional for investments greater than 1 million in aggregate across all the Albion managed VCTs. The Manager also invites and takes account of comments from non-executive Directors of the Company on matters discussed at the Investment Committee meetings.



Investments are actively and regularly monitored by the Manager (investment managers normally sit on portfolio company boards), including the level of diversification in the portfolio, and the Board receives detailed reports on each investment as part of the Managers report at quarterly board meetings. The Board and Manager regularly review the deployment of investments and cash resources available to the Company in assessing liquidity required for servicing the Companys buy-backs, dividend payments and operational expenses. The decision to issue a Prospectus for the 2020/21 Top-Up was due to careful analysis of these factors.



The unquoted investments held by the Company are designated at fair value through profit or loss and valued in accordance with the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation Guidelines updated in 2018. These guidelines set out recommendations, intended to represent current best practice on the valuation of venture capital investments. The valuation takes into account all known material facts up to the date of approval of the Financial Statements by the Board. VCT approval risk The Company must comply with section 274 of the Income Tax Act 2007 which enables its investors to take advantage of tax relief on their investment and on future returns. Breach of any of the rules enabling the Company to hold VCT status could result in the loss of that status. To reduce this risk, the Board has appointed the Manager, which has a team with significant experience in Venture Capital Trust management, used to operating within the requirements of the Venture Capital Trust legislation. In addition, to provide further formal reassurance, the Board has appointed Philip Hare & Associates LLP as its taxation adviser, who report quarterly to the Board to independently confirm compliance with the Venture Capital Trust legislation, to highlight areas of risk and to inform on changes in legislation. Each investment in a new portfolio company is also pre-cleared with our professional advisers or H.M. Revenue & Customs. The Company monitors closely the extent of qualifying holdings and addresses this as required. Regulatory and compliance risk The Company is listed on The London Stock Exchange and is required to comply with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as with the Companies Act, Accounting Standards and other legislation. Failure to comply with these regulations could result in a delisting of the Companys shares, or other penalties under the Companies Act or from financial reporting oversight bodies.



Board members and the Manager have experience of operating at senior levels within or advising quoted companies. In addition, the Board and the Manager receive regular updates on new regulation from its auditor, lawyers and other professional bodies. The Company is subject to compliance checks through the Managers compliance officer, and any issues arising from compliance or regulation are reported to its own board every two months. These controls are also reviewed as part of the quarterly Board meetings, and also as part of the review work undertaken by the Managers compliance officer. The report on controls is also evaluated by the internal auditors. Operational and internal control risk The Company relies on a number of third parties, in particular the Manager, for the provision of investment management and administrative functions. Failures in key systems and controls within the Managers business could put assets of the Company at risk or result in reduced or inaccurate information being passed to the Board or to shareholders. The Company and its operations are subject to a series of rigorous internal controls and review procedures exercised throughout the year. The Board receives reports from the Manager on its internal controls and risk management, including on matters relating to cyber security.

The Audit and Risk Committee reviews the Internal Audit Reports prepared by the Managers internal auditors, PKF Littlejohn LLP and has access to the internal audit partner of PKF Littlejohn LLP to provide an opportunity to ask specific detailed questions in order to satisfy itself that the Manager has strong systems and controls in place including those in relation to business continuity and cyber security.



Ocorian Depositary (UK) Limited is the Companys Depositary, appointed to oversee the custody and cash arrangements and provide other AIFMD duties. The Board reviews the quarterly reports prepared by Ocorian Depositary (UK) Limited to ensure that Albion Capital is adhering to its policies and procedures as required by the AIFMD.

In addition, the Board annually reviews the performance of its key service providers, particularly the Manager, to ensure they continue to have the necessary expertise and resources to deliver the Companys investment objective and policy. The Manager and other service providers have also demonstrated to the Board that there is no undue reliance placed upon any one individual. Economic, political and social risk Changes in economic conditions, including, for example, interest rates, rates of inflation, industry conditions, competition, political and diplomatic events, and other factors could substantially and adversely affect the Companys prospects in a number of ways. This also includes risks of social upheaval, including from infection and population re-distribution, as well as economic risk challenges as a result of healthcare pandemics/infection.

The political risk with the most uncertainty for the future of the UK economy, which the Company largely operates in, is Brexit.

The current significant exogenous risk to the Company, the wider population and economy, is the Covid-19 pandemic.



The Company invests in a diversified portfolio of companies across a number of industry sectors and in addition often invests in a mixture of instruments in portfolio companies and has a policy of minimising any external bank borrowings within portfolio companies.



At any given time, the Company has sufficient cash resources to meet its operating requirements, including share buy-backs and follow-on investments.



In common with most commercial operations, exogenous risks over which the Company has no control are always a risk and the Company does what it can to address these risks where possible, not least as the nature of the investments the Company makes are long term.



The Company largely operates within the UK, and increasingly the US, and therefore impacts from Brexit are reduced as there are few cross-border transactions with Europe. Since 2016, the portfolio of companies has not seen any significant impacts from the uncertainty around Brexit, nor since the end of the transition period (1 January 2021).



The Board and Manager are continuously assessing the resilience of the portfolio, the Company and its operations and the robustness of the Companys external agents during the health crisis, as well as considering longer term impacts on how the Company might be positioned in how it invests and operates. Ensuring liquidity in the portfolio to cope with exigent and unexpected pressures on the finances of the portfolio and the Company is an important part of the risk mitigation in these uncertain times. The portfolio is structured as an all-weather portfolio with c.60 companies which are diversified as discussed above. Exposure is relatively small to at-risk sectors that include leisure, hospitality, retail and travel. Emerging risks The Board meets at least four times a year to discuss current affairs and any potential emerging risks which could affect the Company.

The key emerging risk affecting the Company is the Environmental (including climate change), Social and Governance requirements, both from a regulatory and investor preferences standpoint. There is the risk of loss of funding from investors, as well as the risk of penalties from regulatory non-compliance. The ESG section above details the Companys work towards these risks, and highlights the importance of these, above the statutory reporting requirements, to the Company.



Whilst the Company itself has limited impact on climate change, due to no employees nor greenhouse gas emissions, the Board works closely with the Manager to ensure the Manager themselves are working towards reducing their impact on the environment, and that the Manager takes account of ESG factors, including climate change, when making new investment decisions. With specific respect to the Company, a key operation is increasing the use of electronic communications with Shareholders, where that preference has been specified. Market value of Ordinary shares The market value of Ordinary shares can fluctuate. The market value of an Ordinary share, as well as being affected by its net asset value and prospective net asset value, also takes into account its dividend yield and prevailing interest rates. As such, the market value of an Ordinary share may vary considerably from its underlying net asset value. The market prices of shares in quoted investment companies can, therefore, be at a discount or premium to the net asset value at different times, depending on supply and demand, market conditions, general investor sentiment and other factors. Accordingly, the market price of the Ordinary shares may not fully reflect their underlying net asset value. The Company operates a share buy-back policy, which is designed to limit the discount at which the Ordinary shares trade to around 5% to net asset value, by providing a purchaser through the Company in absence of market purchasers. From time to time buy-backs cannot be applied, for example when the Company is subject to a close period, or if it were to exhaust any buy-back authorities. The Companys corporate broker helps to ensure that the discount is appropriate.

New Ordinary shares are issued at sufficient premium to net asset value to cover the costs of issue and to avoid asset value dilution to existing investors. Reputational risk The Company relies on the judgement and reputation of the Manager which is itself subject to the risk of loss. The Board regularly questions the Manager on its ethics, procedures, safeguards and investment philosophy, which should consequently result in the risk to reputational damage being minimised.

Viability statement

In accordance with the FRC UK Corporate Governance Code published in 2018 and principle 36 of the AIC Code of Corporate Governance, the Directors have assessed the prospects of the Company over three years to 30 June 2024. The Directors believe that three years is a reasonable period in which they can assess the future of the Company to continue to operate and meet its liabilities as they fall due and is also the period used by the Board in the strategic planning process and is considered reasonable for a business of our nature and size. The three year period is considered the most appropriate given the forecasts that the Board requires from the Manager and the estimated timelines for finding, assessing and completing investments. The three year period also takes account of the potential impact of new regulations, should they be imposed, and how they may impact the Company over the longer term, and the availability of cash, but cannot take into account the full extent of the exogenous risks that are impacting on global economies at the date of these accounts.

The Directors have carried out a robust assessment of the emerging and principal risks facing the Company as explained above, including those that could threaten its business model, future performance, solvency or liquidity. The Board also considered the procedures in place to identify emerging risks and the risk management processes in place to avoid or reduce the impact of the underlying risks. The Board focused on the major factors which affect the economic, regulatory and political environment, including any potential impact from Brexit. The Board, after careful consideration, believes that Brexit has had no major impact on the going concern of the Company, primarily due to the markets our portfolio companies target, which in most cases are the UK and increasingly, the US, for our software and technology businesses. Portfolio companies targeting European markets have also shown resilience so far. The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic therefore remains the largest uncertainty impacting on the Company. In light of this continuing uncertainty, robust stress tested cashflows, process resilience and contingencies have been examined in trying to deal with the principal risks faced by the Company.

The Board assessed the ability of the Company to raise finance and deploy capital, as well as the existing cash resources of the Company. The portfolio is well balanced and geared towards long term growth, delivering dividends and capital growth to shareholders. In assessing the prospects of the Company, the Directors have considered the cash flow by looking at the Companys income and expenditure projections and funding pipeline over the assessment period of three years and they appear realistic.

Taking into account the processes for mitigating risks, monitoring costs, share buy-backs and issuance, the Managers compliance with the investment objective, policies and business model and the balance of the portfolio, the Directors have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the Company will be able to continue in operation and meet its liabilities as they fall due over the three year period to 30 June 2024.

This Strategic report of the Company for the year ended 30 June 2021 has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of section 414A of the Companies Act 2006 (the Act). The purpose of this report is to provide shareholders with sufficient information to enable them to assess the extent to which the Directors have performed their duty to promote the success of the Company in accordance with Section 172 of the Act.

For and on behalf of the Board

Penny Freer

Chairman

29 September 2021

Responsibility Statement

In preparing these Financial Statements for the year to 30 June 2021, the Directors of the Company, being Penny Freer, James Agnew, Pam Garside and Ian Spence, confirm that to the best of their knowledge:

- summary financial information contained in this announcement and the full Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2021 for the Company has been prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (UK Accounting Standards and applicable law) and give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the Company; and

-the Chairman's statement and Strategic report include a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Company, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties it faces.

We consider that the Annual Report and Financial Statements, taken as a whole, are fair, balanced, and understandable and provide the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Companys position, performance, business model and strategy.

A detailed Statement of Directors' responsibilities is contained on page 41 within the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

On behalf of the Board,

Penny Freer

Chairman

29 September 2021

Income statement

Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total Note 000 000 000 000 000 000



Gain/(loss) on investments 3 - 13,016



13,016 - (21)



(21) Investment income 4 820 - 820 1,112 - 1,112 Investment management fees 5 (291) (873) (1,164) (285) (856) (1,141) Performance incentive fee 5 (206) (617) (823) - - - Other expenses 6 (386) - (386) (354) - (354)



(Loss)/profit on ordinary activities before tax (63) 11,526 11,463 473 (877) (404) Tax on ordinary activities 8 - - - - - - (Loss)/profit and total comprehensive income attributable to shareholders (63) 11,526 11,463 473 (877) (404) Basic and diluted earnings per Ordinary share (pence)* 10 (0.03) 5.58 5.55 0.25 (0.46) (0.21)

* adjusted for treasury shares

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Financial Statements.

The total column of this Income statement represents the profit and loss account of the Company. The supplementary revenue and capital columns are prepared under guidance published by The Association of Investment Companies.



Balance sheet

30 June 2021 30 June 2020 Note 000 000 Fixed asset investments 11 50,454 41,621 Current assets Trade and other receivables 13 1,213 81 Cash and cash equivalents 27,426 23,966 28,639 24,047 Total assets 79,093 65,668 Payables: amounts falling due within one year Trade and other payables less than one year 14 (1,443) (395) Total assets less current liabilities 77,650 65,273 Equity attributable to equity holders Called up share capital 15 2,521 2,200 Share premium 23,011 13,366 Unrealised capital reserve 18,643 12,032 Realised capital reserve 9,905 4,990 Other distributable reserve 23,570 32,685 Total equity shareholders funds 77,650 65,273 Basic and diluted net asset value per share (pence)* 16 34.79 33.14

* excluding treasury shares

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Financial Statements.

These Financial Statements were approved by the Board of Directors, and authorised for issue on 29 September 2021 and were signed on its behalf by

Penny Freer

Chairman

Company number: 03495287

Statement of changes in equity

Called up share

capital Share premium Unrealised capital reserve Realised capital reserve* Other distributable reserve* Total 000 000 000 000 000 000 As at 1 July 2020 2,200 13,366 12,032 4,990 32,685 65,273 Profit/(loss) and total comprehensive income - - 11,564 (38) (63) 11,463 Transfer of previously unrealised gains on disposal of investments - - (4,953) 4,953 - - Dividends paid - - - - (7,314) (7,314) Purchase of shares for treasury (including costs) - - - - (1,738) (1,738) Issue of equity 321 9,874 - - - 10,195 Cost of issue of equity - (229) - - - (229) As at 30 June 2021 2,521 23,011 18,643 9,905 23,570 77,650 As at 1 July 2019 2,072 9,061 19,756 (1,857) 36,963 65,995 (Loss)/profit and total comprehensive income - - (651) (226) 473 (404) Transfer of previously unrealised gains on disposal of investments - - (7,073) 7,073 - - Dividends paid - - - - (3,814) (3,814) Purchase of shares for treasury (including costs) - - - - (937) (937) Issue of equity 129 4,418 - - - 4,547 Cost of issue of equity - (114) - - - (114) As at 30 June 2020 2,200 13,366 12,032 4,990 32,685 65,273

* Included within these reserves is an amount of 28,289,000 (2020: 26,438,000) which is considered distributable. On 1 July 2021, a further 5,186,000 became distributable.

The nature of each reserve is described in note 2 below.

Statement of cash flows

Year ended 30 June 2021

000 Year ended 30 June 2020

000 Cash flow from operating activities Loan stock income received 1,033 935 Deposit interest received 2 89 Dividend income received 13 16 Investment management fees paid (1,110) (1,145) Other cash payments (398) (341) Corporation tax paid - - Net cash flow from operating activities (460) (446) Cash flow from investing activities Purchase of fixed asset investments (8,326) (4,195) Disposal of fixed asset investments 11,156 12,837 Net cash flow from investing activities 2,830 8,642 Cash flow from financing activities Issue of share capital 8,789 3,839 Cost of issue of equity (20) (30) Equity dividends paid* (6,106) (3,185) Purchase of own shares for treasury (including costs) (1,573) (937) Net cash flow from financing activities 1,090 (313) Increase in cash and cash equivalents 3,460 7,883 Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the year 23,966 16,083 Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 27,426 23,966

* The equity dividends paid shown in the cash flow are different to the dividends disclosed in note 9 as a result of the non-cash effect of the Dividend Reinvestment Scheme.

Notes to the Financial Statements

1. Basis of preparation

The Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable United Kingdom law and accounting standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102), and with the Statement of Recommended Practice Financial Statements of Investment Trust Companies and Venture Capital Trusts (SORP) issued by The Association of Investment Companies (AIC). The Financial Statements have been prepared on a going concern basis and further details can be found in the Directors report on pages 36 and 37 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

The preparation of the Financial Statements requires management to make judgements and estimates that affect the application of policies and reported amounts of assets, liabilities, income and expenses. The most critical estimates and judgements relate to the determination of carrying value of investments at Fair Value Through Profit and Loss (FVTPL) in accordance with FRS 102 sections 11 and 12. The Company values investments by following the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation (IPEV) Guidelines as updated in 2018 and further detail on the valuation techniques used are outlined in note 2 below.

Company information is shown on page 2 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

2. Accounting policies

Fixed asset investments

The Companys business is investing in financial assets with a view to profiting from their total return in the form of income and capital growth. This portfolio of financial assets is managed, and its performance evaluated on a fair value basis, in accordance with a documented investment policy, and information about the portfolio is provided internally on that basis to the Board.

In accordance with the requirements of FRS 102, those undertakings in which the Company holds more than 20 per cent. of the equity as part of an investment portfolio are not accounted for using the equity method. In these circumstances the investment is measured at FVTPL.

Upon initial recognition (using trade date accounting) investments, including loan stock, are classified by the Company as FVTPL and are included at their initial fair value, which is cost (excluding expenses incidental to the acquisition which are written off to the Income statement).

Subsequently, the investments are valued at fair value, which is measured as follows:

Investments listed on recognised exchanges are valued at their bid prices at the end of the accounting period or otherwise at fair value based on published price quotations;

Unquoted investments, where there is not an active market, are valued using an appropriate valuation technique in accordance with the IPEV Guidelines. Indicators of fair value are derived using established methodologies including earnings multiples, revenue multiples, the level of third party offers received, cost or price of recent investment rounds, net assets and industry valuation benchmarks. Where price of recent investment is used as a starting point for estimating fair value at subsequent measurement dates, this has been benchmarked using an appropriate valuation technique permitted by the IPEV guidelines.

In situations where cost or price of recent investment is used, consideration is given to the circumstances of the portfolio company since that date in determining fair value. This includes consideration of whether there is any evidence of deterioration or strong definable evidence of an increase in value. In the absence of these indicators, the investment in question is valued at the amount reported at the previous reporting date. Examples of events or changes that could indicate a diminution include:



the performance and/or prospects of the underlying business are significantly below the expectations on which the investment was based;



a significant adverse change either in the portfolio companys business or in the technological, market, economic, legal or regulatory environment in which the business operates; or market conditions have deteriorated, which may be indicated by a fall in the share prices of quoted businesses operating in the same or related sectors.







Investments are recognised as financial assets on legal completion of the investment contract and are de-recognised on legal completion of the sale of an investment.

Dividend income is not recognised as part of the fair value movement of an investment, but is recognised separately as investment income through the other distributable reserve when a share becomes ex-dividend.

Current assets and payables

Receivables (including debtors due after more than one year), payables and cash are carried at amortised cost, in accordance with FRS 102. Debtors due after more than one year meet the definition of a financing transaction held at amortised cost, and interest will be recognised through capital over the credit period using the effective interest method. There are no financial liabilities other than payables.

Investment income

Equity income

Dividend income is included in revenue when the investment is quoted ex-dividend.

Unquoted loan stock income

Fixed returns on non-equity shares and debt securities are recognised when the Companys right to receive payment and expect settlement is established. Where interest is rolled up and/or payable at redemption then it is recognised as income unless there is reasonable doubt as to its receipt.

Bank interest income

Interest income is recognised on an accruals basis using the rate of interest agreed with the bank.

Investment management fee, performance incentive fee and other expenses

All expenses have been accounted for on an accruals basis. Expenses are charged through the other distributable reserve except the following which are charged through the realised capital reserve:

75 per cent. of management fees and performance incentive fees, if any, are allocated to the capital account to the extent that these relate to an enhancement in the value of the investments. This is in line with the Boards expectation that over the long term 75 per cent. of the Companys investment returns will be in the form of capital gains; and

expenses which are incidental to the purchase or disposal of an investment are charged through the realised capital reserve.

Taxation

Taxation is applied on a current basis in accordance with FRS 102. Current tax is tax payable (refundable) in respect of the taxable profit (tax loss) for the current period or past reporting periods using the tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted at the financial reporting date. Taxation associated with capital expenses is applied in accordance with the SORP.

Deferred tax is provided in full on all timing differences at the reporting date. Timing differences are differences between taxable profits and total comprehensive income as stated in the Financial Statements that arise from the inclusion of income and expenses in tax assessments in periods different from those in which they are recognised in the Financial Statements. As a VCT the Company has an exemption from tax on capital gains. The Company intends to continue meeting the conditions required to obtain approval as a VCT in the foreseeable future. The Company therefore, should have no material deferred tax timing differences arising in respect of the revaluation or disposal of investments and the Company has not provided for any deferred tax.

Share capital and reserves

Called up share capital

This accounts for the nominal value of the Companys shares.

Share premium

This reserve accounts for the difference between the price paid for the Companys shares and the nominal value of those shares, less issue costs.

Capital redemption reserve

This reserve accounts for amounts by which the issued share capital is diminished through the repurchase and cancellation of the Companys own shares.

Unrealised capital reserve

Increases and decreases in the valuation of investments held at the year end against cost, are included in this reserve.

Realised capital reserve

The following are disclosed in this reserve:

gains and losses compared to cost on the realisation of investments, or permanent diminution in value;

expenses, together with the related taxation effect, charged in accordance with the above policies; and

dividends paid to equity holders where paid out by capital.





Other distributable reserve

The special reserve, treasury share reserve and the revenue reserve were combined in 2012 to form a single reserve named other distributable reserve.

This reserve accounts for movements from the revenue column of the Income statement, the payment of dividends, the buy-back of shares and other non-capital realised movements.

Dividends

Dividends by the Company are accounted for in the period in which the dividend is paid or approved at the Annual General Meeting.

Segmental reporting

The Directors are of the opinion that the Company is engaged in a single operating segment of business, being investment in smaller companies principally based in the UK.

3. Gains/(losses) on investments

Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 000 000 Unrealised gain/(loss) on fixed asset investments 11,564 (651) Realised gains on fixed asset investments 1,452 630 13,016 (21)

4. Investment income

Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 Income recognised on investments 000 000 Loan stock interest 806 1,007 UK dividend income 13 16 Bank deposit interest 1 89 820 1,112

5. Investment management fees

Year ended 30 June 2021 Year ended 30 June 2020 Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total 000 000 000 000 000 000 Investment management fee 291 873 1,164 285 856 1,141 Performance incentive fee 206 617 823 - - -

Further details of the Management agreement under which the investment management fee is paid are given in the Strategic report above.

During the year, services of a total value of 1,214,000 (2020: 1,191,000) were purchased by the Company from Albion Capital Group LLP comprising 1,164,000 of management fees (2020: 1,141,000) and 50,000 of administration fees (2020: 50,000). There is a performance incentive fee of 823,000 payable this year (2020: nil). At the financial year end, the amount due to Albion Capital Group LLP in respect of these services disclosed as accruals and deferred income was 1,173,500 (administration fee accrual: 12,500, management fee accrual 338,000, performance incentive fee 823,000) (2020: 296,500).

Albion Capital Group LLP is, from time to time, eligible to receive an arrangement fee and monitoring fees from portfolio companies. During the year ended 30 June 2021 fees of 223,000 attributable to the investments of the Company were received pursuant to these arrangements (2020: 131,000).

Albion Capital Group LLP, its partners and staff holds 1,363,508 Ordinary shares in the Company as at 30 June 2021.

The Company entered into an offer agreement relating to the Offers with the Companys investment manager, Albion Capital Group LLP, pursuant to which Albion Capital Group LLP received a fee of 2.5 per cent. of the gross proceeds of the Offers and out of which Albion Capital paid the costs of the Offers, as detailed in the Prospectus.

6. Other expenses

Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 000 000 Directors fees (including NIC) 105 109 Auditors remuneration for statutory audit services (excluding VAT) 37 35 Other administrative expenses 244 210 386 354

7. Directors fees

The amounts paid to (or on behalf of) the Directors during the year are as follows:

Year ended

30 June 2021

000 Year ended

30 June 2020

000 Directors fees 97 100 National insurance 8 9 105 109

The Companys key management personnel are the Directors. Further information regarding Directors remuneration can be found in the Directors remuneration report on pages 48 to 50 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

8. Tax on ordinary activities

Year ended

30 June 2021

000 Year ended

30 June 2020

000 UK corporation tax charge - -





Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 Factors affecting the tax charge 000 000 Return/(loss) on ordinary activities before taxation 11,463 (404) Tax charge on return/(loss) at the average companies rate of 19.0% (2020: 19.0%) 2,178 (77) Factors affecting the charge: Non-taxable (gains)/losses (2,473) 4 Income not taxable (2) (3) Unutilised management expenses 297 76 - -

The tax charge for the year shown in the Income statement is lower than the average standard rate of corporation tax of 19.0 per cent. (2020: 19.0 per cent.). The differences are explained above.

Notes

(i) Venture Capital Trusts are not subject to corporation tax on capital gains.

(ii) Tax relief on expenses charged to capital has been determined by allocating tax relief to expenses by reference to the applicable corporation tax rate and allocating the relief between revenue and capital in accordance with the SORP.

(iii) No provision for deferred tax has been made in the current or prior accounting period. The Company has excess management expenses of 18,700,000 (2020: 17,144,000) that are available for offset against future profits. A deferred tax asset of 3,553,000 (2020: 3,257,000) has not been recognised in respect of these losses as they will be recoverable only to the extent that the Company has sufficient future taxable profits.

9. Dividends

Year ended

30 June 2021 Year ended

30 June 2020 000 000 Special dividend of 2.00 pence per share paid on 30 October 2020 3,940 - Dividend of 0.83 pence per share paid on 30 November 2020 (29 November 2019  1 penny per share) 1,642 1,861 Dividend of 0.78 pence per share paid on 31 March 2021 (31 March 2020  1 penny per share) 1,744 1,964 Unclaimed dividends (12) (11) 7,314 3,814

In addition to the dividends paid above, the Board has declared a first interim dividend for the year ending 30 June 2022 of 0.87 pence per share. This will be paid on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021. The total dividend will be approximately 1,942,000.

The Board has also declared a special dividend of 1.50 pence per share, payable on 30 November 2021 to shareholders on the register on 5 November 2021. The total dividend will be approximately 3,348,000.

Details of the special dividend can be found in the Chairmans statement above. All dividends are paid from the other distributable reserve.

During the year, unclaimed dividends older than twelve years of 12,000 (2020: 11,000) were returned to the Company in accordance with the terms of the Articles of Association and have been accounted for on an accruals basis.

10. Basic and diluted (loss)/return per share

Year ended 30 June 2021 Year ended 30 June 2020 Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total (Loss)/return attributable to equity shares (000) (63) 11,526 11,463 473 (877) (404) Weighted average shares (adjusted for treasury shares) 206,558,772 190,892,747 (Loss)/return attributable per Ordinary share (pence) (basic and diluted) (0.03) 5.58 5.55 0.25 (0.46) (0.21)

The (loss)/return per share has been calculated after adjusting for treasury shares of 28,895,986 (2020: 23,061,630).

There are no convertible instruments, derivatives or contingent share agreements in issue so basic and diluted (loss)/return per share are the same.

11. Fixed asset investments

Investments held at fair value through profit or loss 30 June 2021

000 30 June 2020

000 Unquoted equity and preference shares 41,381 29,031 Quoted equity 544 - Loan stock 8,529 12,590 50,454 41,621





30 June 2021

000 30 June 2020

000 Opening valuation 41,621 49,943 Purchases at cost 8,326 4,409 Disposal proceeds (12,281) (12,782) Realised gains 1,452 630 Movement in loan stock accrued income (228) 72 Unrealised gains/(losses) 11,564 (651) Closing valuation 50,454 41,621 Movement in loan stock accrued income Opening accumulated loan stock accrued income 278 206 Movement in loan stock accrued income (228) 72 Closing accumulated loan stock accrued income 50 278

Movement in unrealised gains Opening accumulated unrealised gains 11,965 19,689 Transfer of previously unrealised gains to realised reserves on disposal of investments (4,953) (7,073) Movement in unrealised gains 11,564 (651) Closing accumulated unrealised gains 18,576 11,965 Historic cost basis Opening book cost 29,378 30,048 Purchases at cost 8,326 4,409 Disposals at cost (5,876) (5,079) Closing book cost 31,828 29,378

Purchases and disposals detailed above do not agree to the Statement of cash flows due to restructuring of investments, conversion of convertible loan stock and settlement receivables and payables.

The Company does not hold any assets as the result of the enforcement of security during the period, and believes that the carrying values for both impaired and past due assets are covered by the value of security held for these loan stock investments.

Unquoted fixed asset investments are valued in accordance with the IPEV guidelines as follows:

30 June 2021 30 June 2020 Investment valuation methodology 000 000 Cost and price of recent investment (reviewed for impairment or uplift) 26,279 13,884 Revenue multiple 13,146 7,338 Third party valuation  discounted cash flow 6,853 7,194 Third party valuation  earnings multiple 2,768 11,542 Net assets 801 1,091 Earnings multiple 63 572 49,910 41,621

When using the cost or price of a recent investment in the valuations the Company looks to re-calibrate this price at each valuation point by reviewing progress within the investment, comparing against the initial investment thesis, assessing if there are any significant events or milestones that would indicate the value of the investment has changed and considering whether a market-based methodology (i.e. using multiples from comparable public companies) or a discounted cashflow forecast would be more appropriate.

The main inputs into the calibration exercise, and for the valuation models using multiples, are revenue, EBITDA and P/E multiples (based on the most recent revenue, EBITDA or earnings achieved and equivalent corresponding revenue, EBITDA or earnings multiples of comparable companies), quality of earnings assessments and comparability difference adjustments. Revenue multiples are often used, rather than EBITDA or earnings, due to the nature of the Companys investments, being in growth and technology companies which are not normally expected to achieve profitability or scale for a number of years. Where an investment has achieved scale and profitability the Company would normally then expect to switch to using an EBITDA or earnings multiple methodology.

In the calibration exercise and in determining the valuation for the Companys equity instruments, comparable trading multiples are used. In accordance with the Companys policy, appropriate comparable companies based on industry, size, developmental stage, revenue generation and strategy are determined and a trading multiple for each comparable company identified is then calculated. The multiple is calculated by dividing the enterprise value of the comparable group by its revenue, EBITDA or earnings. The trading multiple is then adjusted for considerations such as illiquidity, marketability and other differences, advantages and disadvantages between the portfolio company and the comparable public companies based on company specific facts and circumstances.

Fair value investments had the following movements between investment methodologies between 30 June 2020 and 30 June 2021:

Change in investment valuation methodology (2020 to 2021) Value as at 30 June 2021

000 Explanatory note Cost and price of recent investment (reviewed for impairment or uplift) to revenue multiple 3,004 More appropriate valuation methodology Revenue multiple to cost and price of recent investment (reviewed for impairment or uplift) 321 Recent funding round

The valuation will be the most appropriate valuation methodology for an investment within its market, with regard to the financial health of the investment and the IPEV Guidelines. The Directors believe that, within these parameters, there are no other possible methods of valuation which would be reasonable as at 30 June 2021.

FRS 102 and the SORP requires the Company to disclose the inputs to the valuation methods applied to its investments measured at fair value through profit or loss in a fair value hierarchy. The table below sets out fair value hierarchy definitions using FRS 102 s.11.27.

Fair value hierarchy Definition Level 1 Unadjusted quoted prices in an active market Level 2



Inputs to valuations are from observable sources and are directly or indirectly derived from prices Level 3



Inputs to valuations not based on observable market data

Unquoted equity, preference shares and loan stock are all valued according to Level 3 valuation methods.

The Companys investments measured at fair value through profit or loss (Level 3) had the following movements:

30 June 2021 30 June 2020 000 000 Opening balance 41,621 49,405 Additions* 8,246 4,429 Disposal proceeds (12,281) (12,373) Realised gains 1,452 738 Unrealised gains/(losses) 11,310 (651) Accrued loan stock interest (228) 72 Investments transferred to level 1 (210) - Closing balance 49,910 41,621

*Additions do not agree to the cash flow due to loan stock conversions and non-cash consideration.

FRS 102 requires the Directors to consider the impact of changing one or more of the inputs used as part of the valuation process to reasonable possible alternative assumptions. 65 per cent. of the portfolio of investments consisting of equity and loan stock is based on recent investment price, net assets and cost, and as such the Board believe that changes to reasonable possible alternative input assumptions (by adjusting the earnings and revenue multiples) for the valuation of the remainder of the portfolio could lead to a significant change in the fair value of the portfolio. Therefore, for the remainder of the portfolio, the Board has adjusted the inputs for a number of the largest portfolio companies (by value) resulting in a total coverage of 84 per cent. of the portfolio of investments. The main inputs considered for each type of valuation is as follows:

Valuation technique Portfolio company sector Input Base Case* Change in input Change in Fair Value of Investments (000) Change in NAV (pence per share) Revenue multiple



Healthcare (including digital healthcare)



Revenue multiple



5.5x



+0.5x 313 0.14 -0.5x (313) (0.14) Third party valuation  discounted cash flow



Renewable energy



Discount factor



5.5%



+0.5% (213) (0.10) -0.5% 235 0.11 Third party valuation  discounted cash flow



Renewable energy



Discount factor



5.5%



+0.5% (58) (0.03) -0.5% 61 0.03 Revenue multiple



Software and other technology



Revenue multiple



6.0x



+0.5x 133 0.06 -0.5x (133) (0.06) Revenue multiple



Software and other technology



Revenue multiple



8.0x



+0.5x 69 0.03 -0.5x (69) (0.03)

* As detailed in the accounting policies above, the base case is based on market comparables, discounted where appropriate for marketability, in accordance with the IPEV guidelines.

The impact of these changes could result in an overall increase in the valuation of the equity investments by 812,000 (2.0%) or a decrease in the valuation of equity investments by 786,000 (1.9%).

12. Significant interests

The principal activity of the Company is to select and hold a portfolio of investments in unquoted securities. Although the Company, through the Manager, will, in some cases, be represented on the board of the portfolio company, it will not take a controlling interest or become involved in the management of a portfolio company. The size and structure of the companies with unquoted securities may result in certain holdings in the portfolio representing a participating interest without there being any partnership, joint venture or management consortium agreement.

The Company has no interests of greater than 20 per cent. of the nominal value of any class of the allotted shares in the portfolio companies as at 30 June 2021.

13. Current assets

Trade and other receivables 30 June 2021 30 June 2020 000 000 Prepayments and accrued income 30 13 Deferred consideration under one year 48 68 Deferred consideration over one year 1,135 - 1,213 81

The deferred consideration over one year relates to the sale of G.Network Communications Limited in December 2020. These proceeds are receivable in January 2024, and have been discounted to present value at the prevailing market rate, including a provision for counterparty risk. This constitutes a financing transaction, and has been accounted for using the policy disclosed in note 2.

The Directors consider that the carrying amount of receivables is not materially different to their fair value.

14. Payables: amounts falling due within one year

30 June 2021 30 June 2020 000 000 Accruals and deferred income 1,264 379 Trade payables 179 16 1,443 395

The Directors consider that the carrying amount of payables is not materially different to their fair value.

15. Called up share capital

Allotted, called up and fully paid

'000 220,036,874 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each at 30 June 2020 2,200 32,083,218 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each issued during the year 321 252,120,092 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each at 30 June 2021 2,521 23,061,630 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each held in treasury at 30 June 2020 (231) 5,834,356 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each purchased during the year to be held in treasury (58) 28,895,986 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each held in treasury at 30 June 2021 (289) Voting rights of 223,224,106 Ordinary shares of 1 penny each at 30 June 2021 2,232

The Company purchased 5,834,356 Ordinary shares for treasury (2020: 2,893,220) during the year at a total cost of 1,738,000 (2020: 937,000).

The total number of shares held in treasury as at 30 June 2021 was 28,895,986 (2020: 23,061,630) representing 11.5 per cent. of the shares in issue as at 30 June 2021.

Under the terms of the Dividend Reinvestment Scheme Circular dated 26 February 2009, the following new Ordinary shares of nominal value 1 penny each were allotted during the year:

Allotment date Number of shares allotted Aggregate nominal value of shares

(000) Issue price

(pence per share) Net invested

(000) Opening market price on allotment

(pence per share) 30 October 2020 2,031,730 20 31.14 616 30.00 30 November 2020 877,066 9 30.51 266 29.40 31 March 2021 976,922 10 30.35 295 29.40 3,885,718 1,177

Under the terms of the Albion VCTs Prospectus Top Up Offers 2020/21, the following new Ordinary shares of nominal value 1 penny each were issued during the year:

Allotment date Number of shares allotted Aggregate nominal value of shares

(000) Issue price

(pence per share) Net consideration received

(000) Opening market price on allotment

(pence per share) 26 February 2021 4,058,515 41 31.70 1,267 29.60 26 February 2021 1,224,514 12 31.80 382 29.60 26 February 2021 21,684,450 217 32.00 6,767 29.60 09 April 2021 372,349 4 30.90 113 29.40 09 April 2021 21,290 - 31.00 6 29.40 09 April 2021 836,382 8 31.20 254 29.40 28,197,500 8,789

16. Basic and diluted net asset value per share

The net asset value attributable to the Ordinary shares at the year end was as follows:

30 June 2021 30 June 2020 Net asset value per share (pence) 34.79 33.14

The net asset value per share at the year end is calculated in accordance with the Articles of Association and is based upon total shares in issue (adjusted for treasury shares) of 223,224,106 shares as at 30 June 2021 (2020: 196,975,244).

There are no convertible instruments, derivatives or contingent share agreements in issue.

17. Capital and financial instruments risk management

The Companys capital comprises Ordinary shares as described in note 15. The Company is permitted to buy back its own shares for cancellation or treasury purposes, and this is described in more detail in the Directors report on page 36 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements.

The Companys financial instruments comprise equity and loan stock investments in unquoted companies, deferred receipts on disposal of fixed asset investments, cash balances, receivables and payables which arise from its operations. The main purpose of these financial instruments is to generate revenue and capital appreciation for the Companys operations. The Company has no gearing or other financial liabilities apart from short term payables. The Company does not use any derivatives for the management of its Balance sheet.

The principal risks arising from the Companys operations are:

Market and investment risk (which comprises investment price and cash flow interest rate risk);

credit risk; and

liquidity risk.





The Board regularly reviews and agrees policies for managing each of these risks. There have been no changes in the nature of the risks that the Company has faced during the past year, and apart from where noted below, there have been no changes in the objectives, policies or processes for managing risks during the past year. The key risks are summarised below:

Market risk

As a Venture Capital Trust, it is the Companys specific nature to evaluate the market risk of its portfolio in unquoted companies, details of which are shown on pages 26 to 29 of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements. Market risk is the exposure of the Company to the revaluation and devaluation of investments as a result of macroeconomic changes. The main driver of market risk is the dynamics of market quoted comparators, as well as the financial and operational performance of portfolio companies. The Board seeks to reduce this risk by having a spread of investments across a variety of sectors. More details on the sectors the Company invests in can be found in the pie chart at the end of the announcement.

The Manager and the Board formally review market risk, both at the time of initial investment and at quarterly Board meetings.

The Board monitors the prices at which sales of investments are made to ensure that profits to the Company are maximised, and that valuations of investments retained within the portfolio appear sufficiently prudent and realistic compared to prices being achieved in the market for sales of unquoted investments.

Under FRS 102 the Board is required to illustrate by way of a sensitivity analysis the extent to which the assets are exposed to market risk. The Board considers that the value of the fixed asset investment portfolio is sensitive to a change of 10% based on the current economic climate. The impact of a 10% change has been selected as this is considered reasonable given the current level of volatility observed. When considering the appropriate level of sensitivity to be applied, the Board has considered both historic performance and future expectations.

The sensitivity of a 10% increase or decrease in the valuation of the fixed asset investment portfolio (keeping all other variables constant) would increase or decrease the net asset value and return for the year by 5,045,000. Further sensitivity analysis on fixed asset investments is included in note 11.

Investment risk (including investment price risk
SULPHUR, La., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Broadband Holding Company (American Broadband or the Company), a leading provider of broadband access in rural markets across the United States, today announces its most recent acquisition and two key executive appointments to support the Company as it embarks on its next stage of growth. Its acquisition of the fiber assets of BNT Broadband and WayneNet facilitates the expansion of its fiber-to-the-home build-out in Wayne, Nebraska.



The acquisition expands American Broadbands fiber backbone offering that provides up to 1GB of high-speed internet services. The Companys fiber-optic infrastructure build-out highlights its commitment to creating greater access to quality internet service that offers previously unrealized download and upload speeds  a critical need in rural communities.

We are committed to making American Broadband the preeminent broadband service provider for rural communities throughout the United States, said Chris Eldredge, chief executive officer. We are now accelerating into our Companys next phase of growth through continuous, organic expansion and acquisition.

In addition to the acquisition in Wayne, American Broadband announces that Tim Johnson has joined the management team as president and general manager for American Broadband, Nebraska. Johnson was previously responsible for Technology Procurement at T-Mobile, including strategic sourcing and supplier management for Sprint's Wireless and Wireline Engineering organization. He also managed the Wholesale Operations for Sprint Nextel, where he oversaw the operational implementation of Sprint's VoIP offering to strategic cable partners, which encompassed providing local and LD services in 38 markets that serve 5 million-plus subscribers.

In support of the BNT Broadband/WayneNet acquisition and future expansion efforts, Brett Stains has been promoted to the role of senior vice president of finance for American Broadband (ABB). Stains joined ABB in March 2014, and is responsible for accounting and finance, including financial reporting, tax and audit compliance, as well as planning and analysis. Prior to joining ABB, Stains worked at Global Industries where he was responsible for implementing and managing standard accounting systems, processes and reporting standards worldwide. Stains previous work in the telecom industry was as a financial analyst at US Unwired, where he focused on subscriber reporting, financial reporting, and profitability analytics.

Johnson and Stains will work with the American Broadband corporate management team to expand its presence and improve rural broadband connectivity for its customers.

The acquisition of BNT Broadband is the first in a series of new efforts by our company, Eldredge said. The future of American Broadband is bright, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to offer our residential and business customers with reliable service, while generating new business activity and job growth in the communities we serve.

About American Broadband Holding Company

American Broadband is one of the leading providers of broadband for Rural America. Its operating telcos provide phone access lines, video, and broadband service to customers in rural communities in Nebraska, Missouri, Alaska, Louisiana, and Texas. The Companys operating brands include American Broadband, Cameron Communications and TelAlaska. American Broadbands operating telcos partner in the growth and economic vitality of their communities by providing broadband and other advanced services and by contributing to and supporting new business activity and job growth. American Broadband retains local management and staff at each of its local operations to ensure continued superior levels of service to our customers. More information about the Company can be found at www.americanbroadband.com.

American Broadband is a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, a leading private equity firm based in Chicago, and Catania ABC Partners.

Contacts:



Lukas Partners

Brian Ayers

402-895-2552 ext. 308 / bayers@lukaspartners.com
PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Industrial technology company ZL INNOVATIONS, creators of the "Zero Leak, Zero Emissions, Zero Maintenance" magnetic circuit-based valve system, announce the introduction of the next stage in sustainable magnetic valve technology by ZL Innovations Lead Engineer Ned Davis when he speaks at the upcoming Valve World Americas Expo & Conference held in Houston, Texas on Oct. 13 and 14 at the George Brown Convention Center.

ZL Innovations has extended its patented Zero Leak magnetic valve technology into the ultra-critical Lethal and Severe Services valve market including industrial applications that utilize toxic materials, often at high temperatures and pressures. It is the ultimate test of valve mechanicals and seal integrity because leaks and failures can put the plant, workers and even communities at risk. ZL Innovations CTO Ned Davis commented, "We have had several manufacturing partners and customers encourage us to offer a Lethal Services solution, because our sustainable Zero Leak Valve technology eliminates the stem and stem seal completely - allowing the valve to be welded shut if desired, completely eliminating the potential for leakage. Also, mechanical integrity is assured by using only properly matched component metals." The prototype valve that will be presented is made from the Monel single phase alloy, which is particularly resistive to hydrofluoric acid and is employed in alkylation units.

ZL Innovations CEO Bob Ward says of Ned's upcoming talk, "We are excited and honored to be presenting the benefits of our new Lethal Service valve to the larger manufacturing community at the upcoming Valve World event. We are expecting a warm welcome for this needed breakthrough in this critical application."

Ned Davis will be presenting the innovative Magnetically Actuated Lethal and Severe Service Valve during the "Fugitive Emissions - Emerging Technologies" section of the Conference from 3 pm to 5 pm on Oct. 14.

Contact:

Robert "Bob" Ward, CEO, ZL Innovations

503-975-6600

info@zlinnovations.com

About ZL INNOVATIONS

ZL INNOVATIONS, based in Portland, Oregon, are creators of the Sustainable Zero Leak Magnetic Valve. Dr. Edward "Ned" Davis and four colleagues founded the Maui Innovation Group in 2013. The team has worked on magnetic valves, gearing, couplings, and related technologies for over eight years. This work culminated in the creation of the Sustainable Zero Leak Magnetic Valve, with the capability of being able to handle high temperatures and corrosive working fluids and to completely prevent valve leaks for the working life of the valve. In 2020 the team was expanded and ZL Innovations was formed to optimize the potential of the Zero Leak Magnetic Valve.

###

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ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (29 September 2021)  IMCD N.V. (IMCD or Company), a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and ingredients, today announces that IMCD China has signed an agreement to acquire Aquatech Speciality (Shanghai) International Trading Co., Ltd. and Aquatech Speciality (Guangzhou) Trading Co., Ltd. (Aquatech) in China.

Since its establishment in 2004, Aquatech has been active in waterborne solutions in coatings, ink, and textile industries. Aquatech generated a revenue of approximately RMB 51 million (ca. EUR 6.7 million) in 2020 and adds 10 employees to the IMCD China team. Aquatechs coatings business enhances the future-focused portfolio of IMCD Coatings & Construction Business Group in China.

Aquatechs philosophy of value creation matches perfectly with IMCDs strategy to become a strong partner for our customers and suppliers for sustainable coatings solutions in China commented Andreas Igerl, Managing Director of IMCD China.



Today is a significant day for Aquatech as we join IMCD as part of their global network. With IMCDs global connection and technical expertise, plus our local presence and capability, I am confident that we will provide more added value to our customers and partners to drive sustainability in the coatings industry, said Peter Shek, owner of Aquatech.

The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in November.

Attached, please find the official photo of the signing of the acquisition agreement and the photo captions.



-xxx-

About IMCD N.V.

IMCD is a market leader in the sales, marketing, and distribution of speciality chemicals and ingredients. Its result-driven professionals provide market-focused solutions to suppliers and customers across EMEA, Americas, and Asia-Pacific, offering a range of comprehensive product portfolios, including innovative formulations that embrace industry trends.

Listed at Euronext, Amsterdam (IMCD), IMCD realised revenues of EUR 2,775 million in 2020 with nearly 3,300 employees in over 50 countries on 6 continents. IMCD's dedicated team of technical and commercial experts work in close partnership to tailor best-in-class solutions and provide value through expertise for around 50,000 customers and a diverse range of world-class suppliers.

For further information, please visit www.imcdgroup.com

About Aquatech

Aquatech specialises in waterborne solutions for the coatings, inks, and textile industries, serving more than 500 customers across China with a team of 10 commercial and technical experts. Aquatech offers customised formulations from a diverse range of product portfolio solutions from world-class suppliers with the aim to lead as the sustainable solution provider.

Media contacts

IMCD Group

Maribel Rodriguez

Senior Group Communications Manager

+31 6 1479 6610

IMCD Asia Pacific

Wendi Lim

Regional Marketing Communications Manager

+ 65 6995 1026



mediarelations@imcdgroup.com

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DALLAS, TEXAS, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACI Conglomerated, the controlling shareholder of North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc. (OTC Pink: USMJ), Puration, Inc. (OTC Pink: PURA) and Priority Aviation, Inc. (OTC Pink: PJET), today issued an update on its plans for the three companies.

ACI has been and continues to execute a series of transactions to update its overall business strategy in keeping with the evolving cannabis sector.

ACI is supporting PURA in the execution of its updated Farmersville Hemp Brand strategy, and likewise supporting USMJ in the execution of its cannabis industry ecommerce strategy.

ACI, in an effort to diversify, is working on the development of a new business initiative outside the cannabis sector for PJET. PJETs new opportunity is advancing on pace, and an announcement is anticipated soon on its new business initiative.

Contact:

ACI Conglomerated

Steven Rash

info@aciconglomerated.com

+1 (800) 861-1350

Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that Alkame will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the Company's contracts, the Company's liquidity position, the Company's ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
MIRAMICHI, New Brunswick, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SLAM Exploration Ltd. (SLAM or the Company on TSXV: SXL) is pleased to announce it has completed 10 diamond drill holes for a total of 719 metres at its wholly-owned Menneval gold project located in the mineral-rich province of New Brunswick. The first 4 holes numbered BG21-09 TO BG21-12 tested the No. 18 vein where the Company reported visible gold with assay results grading up to 3,955 g/t gold over 0.10 m thick from a trench sample as reported by the Company on December 03, 2020.



Hole BG21-12 tested the original No. 9 vein. Holes BG21-13 to BG21-18 tested vein No. 22 over an 80 metre strike length. All 10 holes intersected quartz veins. Visible gold was noted in one hole. Logging and sampling are in progress as drilling continues. To date 102 samples sawn from holes BG21-09 to BG21-14 have been submitted to the lab. The drill is currently set up to test the No. 2 vein where assays up to 353 g/t gold were reported October 07, 2020 from trenching results. For additional information and maps visit Menneval Gold Project.

The Menneval Project: The Menneval Gold project is SLAMs flagship project, the Company intends to focus on testing the strike and depth extent of the swarm of new gold veins discovered in 2020. The expanded property is comprised of 572 mineral claim units covering 12,390 hectares located in northwestern New Brunswick. The Company holds a 100% interest in these claims with the exception of 4 claim units covering 105 hectares that are subject to a 1.5% NSR. The Company can buy down 0.5% of the NSR for $500,000 and it has the right of first refusal on the remaining 1% NSR.

About SLAM Exploration Ltd:

SLAM is a project-generating resource company focused on is its flagship Menneval Gold project where the 2021 trenching program is underway. The Company intends to conduct preliminary prospecting and geochemistry on the Gold Brook, Birch Lake gold, Wilson gold and Ramsay gold projects in the vicinity of the Millstream Break in northern New Brunswick. SLAM also expects to conduct preliminary programs on the Jake Lee, Mount Victor and other gold properties on the flanks of the Sawyer Brook and Wheaton Bay faults in southern New Brunswick. SLAM owns the Reserve Creek, Opikeigen and Miminiska gold projects in Ontario and the Mount Uniacke gold project in Nova Scotia. The Company owns a portfolio of base metal properties in the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) that is subject to an option agreement. SLAM holds NSR royalties on the Superjack, Nash Creek and Coulee zincleadcoppersilver properties in the BMC.

The Company has generated cash from the sale of securities received from mineral property option agreements with other companies and has sufficient funds for the work currently in progress. The Company has applied for funding assistance up to $100,000 under the New Brunswick Junior Mining Assistance Program in support of a proposed 2021 drilling program. Additional information about SLAM and its projects is available at www.slamexploration.com or from SEDAR filings at www.sedar.com. Follow us on twitter @SLAMGold.

QA-QC Sampling Procedures

The trenching and soil geochemical results referenced above were previously reported as were the QA-QC Sampling Procedures.

Qualifying Statements: Mike Taylor P.Geo, President and CEO of SLAM Exploration Ltd., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, approves the technical information contained in this news release.

Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, including statements that address the Private Placement, the closing of the Private Placement, future production, reserve potential, exploration and development activities and events or developments that the Company expects. This information is based on current expectations 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. 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. There are a number of risk factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those described herein. 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 TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
OTTAWA, Ontario, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unique new features will be part of the Royal Canadian Legions 2021 National Poppy Campaign which officially begins on Friday, October 29th. New features are being implemented in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Poppy symbol this year, and to increase the creative and convenient ways in which donors can support the yearly campaign.



We are pleased to expand our Poppy campaign this year and happy to once again work alongside some great partners to make it all happen, says Dominion President Bruce Julian. Because of these collective efforts, Canadians will be able to donate in new and engaging ways to support our Veterans - even in the midst of the pandemic.

Traditional Poppy boxes will still be used for cash donations and lapel poppy distribution. As part of an ongoing pilot project launched in 2020, the Legions Pay Tribute tap and pay boxes will be featured once again. The digital boxes will offer new donation amount options and traditional poppies. The number of locations across the country will increase to 1000. More details will follow upon the official campaign launch.

Donors will also be able to donate directly through the Legions national website. Close to 20 million dollars is donated during the National Poppy Campaign each year and goes directly into initiatives to support Canadas Veterans.

New Immortal Poppy and Digital Poppy

The Immortal Poppy is new this year and is on the cutting edge of digital art. In recognition of the Poppys 100th anniversary, one hundred pieces of digital Poppy artwork will be created and auctioned off to the highest bidders. Funds raised through the initial art offerings, will go directly to the National Poppy Trust Fund. More information will be released in the coming weeks.

Technological advancements offer new opportunities, and were excited to provide multiple options to make it easy for people to support the campaign, explains Julian.

The 2021 Digital Poppy will remain part of the overall campaign. By visiting www.mypoppy.ca people will be able to donate to receive a digital poppy which can then be shared with friends and family through social media.

Funds raised through the Digital Poppy will go directly to the Legion National Foundation, a separate entity from the Legion but whose work also helps Veterans, Families and Communities in a multitude of ways.

New Legion Yard Signs

The Legion has launched a respectful new way to help donors show their support. Attractive new yard signs are available to show caring for Canadas Veterans during the Remembrance period and beyond. The recyclable signs are now available through poppystore.ca. Some Branches across the country are also selling them locally.

National proceeds go into general revenue to support the work of the Legion in helping Veterans. Proceeds from local sales go directly to Branches. To date, over 7,000 signs have been sold.

National Ceremony, Wreaths, Ceremony Locator

On November 11, the Legion will offer a Facebook Live presentation of the National Remembrance Day Ceremony. It is anticipated that national broadcasters will cover the ceremony as in the past.

For the second year in a row, spectators will be discouraged from attending in person due to pandemic limitations. Those participating directly in the ceremony will be required to remain 2 m apart and will need to wear masks unless performing certain duties. Other anticipated changes to the national ceremony this year will be released in the coming weeks and will be updated at Legion.ca.

People will still be able to take part in the National Ceremony in a symbolic way by purchasing a memorial wreath that will be pre-positioned at the National War Memorial in Ottawa before the event. More details will be available at Legion.ca starting October 1.

The Legion is introducing a Ceremony Locator at Legion.ca this year. Branches will populate this page to allow Canadians to find a Legion-supported Remembrance ceremony closest to them. The Legion also recommends that people check with local Legion Branches to verify restrictions related to gatherings during the pandemic.

About The Royal Canadian Legion

Founded in 1925, the Legion is Canadas largest Veteran support and community service organization. We are a non-profit organization with a national reach across Canada as well as branches in the U.S. and Europe. With close to 250,000 members, many of whom volunteer an extraordinary amount of time to their branches, our strength is in our numbers.

Public Relations/Media Inquiries: Nujma Bond 613-591-3335 ext. 241 or PublicRelations@Legion.ca

Legion.ca

Facebook.com/CanadianLegion

Twitter.com/RoyalCdnLegion

Instagram.com/royalcanadianlegion

youtube.com/user/RCLDominionCommand

linkedin.com/company/royalcanadianlegion

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3c3f3be-e5a1-4028-b0e0-6122d89081d3

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4b29f7ab-ae62-4082-b1db-d46716ed388d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bcf6eff1-3a40-4afd-a50f-fef71ad44c88
Westborough, Massachusetts, USA, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts (BIA-MA) today announced that U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Posner has approved a Joint Motion filed last month seeking court approval to dismiss the Hutchinson v. Patrick class action lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought in 2007 on behalf of all persons living with acquired brain injury (ABI) who were institutionalized in nursing facilities in Massachusetts, and who preferred to live in more integrated community settings. The resulting court-enforceable Amended Settlement Agreement required the Commonwealth to significantly reform its service system for individuals with ABI, creating new opportunities for community living.

The BIA-MA, one of two organizational plaintiffs, was pleased to support the dismissal, agreeing that the Commonwealth has met its obligations under the 2013 Amended Agreement to settle the lawsuit. Pursuant to the Agreement, the Commonwealth created a comprehensive community-based services program for individuals with brain injuries, including expanded outreach, transition planning and residential supports. As a result, 1,187 individuals living with ABI have been able to transition from nursing and long-term rehabilitation facilities to community-based settings.

At a hearing on the Joint Motion held on September 21, Judge Posner congratulated all parties involved, stating, "We do so many things that damage people in court. It is an honor to be associated with such an important and collaborative effort that has benefited so many people."

In a written order issued on September 27 approving the Joint Motion and closing the case, Judge Posner added, "The parties, their representatives, and counsel on both sides have the court's deep respect for their hard work, resulting in a very positive outcome for this vulnerable population. Defendants' good faith is demonstrated by their commitment to continuing to improve and expand community services for persons suffering ABI even beyond the framework of the Agreement."

"The system reforms achieved by this lawsuit have been nothing short of remarkable," said Nicole Godaire, chief executive officer of the BIA-MA. "The impact of our collective work extends well beyond the 1,187 people who transitioned to community services in recent years to the many more individuals trying to rebuild their lives after a brain injury who have and will follow them. Because of the Hutchinson suit, these individuals will hopefully never have to subsist in the shadows of institutional care and will be able to benefit from a stronger system of community-based services."

"The Commonwealth has demonstrated its commitment and will continue its commitment to ensuring that individuals with acquired brain injury achieve their goal of living independently with support. Over the last 7 years, we have expanded outreach, coordinated transition plans and connected individuals with residential supports to make re-entering the community a positive and affirming experience," said Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders.

"The fundamental restructuring of the service system in Massachusetts enables individuals with brain injuries to live full, integrated lives in the community, outside of segregated facilities," said Attorney Kathryn Rucker of the Center for Public Representation, which represented the plaintiffs. "It demonstrates what is possible when courageous individuals are willing to tell their stories, seek change, and work to build a future where everyone is valued and included."

One such person who has benefited tremendously because of the Hutchinson lawsuit is Joanne Susi, who suffered a debilitating stroke in her 50s and lived almost three years in a nursing home before transitioning into her own apartment.

"Nursing homes, for the most part, are where people go to live out the rest of their lives," said Susi. "That wasn't me. I had a lot of life yet to live, and so much I wanted to do. In the nursing home, everyone's day was structured around the same schedule. My time wasn't my own. That is what I love about being in my own home, my time is mine. I have incredible aids that come in to help me. They enjoy being here and they don't have to worry about being with another person, so they're fully present with me, which is just a phenomenal feeling.

"The difference between the nursing home and my life now is the difference between surviving and thriving, and make no mistake, I have thrived living in my own apartment in an integrated community setting," added Susi. "I am enormously grateful."

The Hutchinson lawsuit is named for Cathy Hutchinson, the lead plaintiff in the class action suit. She was a single mother of two from Attleboro, MA, who became a mute quadriplegic after suffering a brainstem stroke. For 11 years she lived in a nursing home before transitioning in 2011 to a community residence where she lived with four other women.

Ms. Hutchinson, who passed away last year at the age of 67, several years ago wrote the following about her experience: "Living in a nursing home was not the life I had planned. I felt so isolated from the real world. I had little to no privacy. I was not able to get all of the services and therapies that I needed, and each day that passed was a painful reminder of my disability." Cathy, who was recognized by President Obama's Administration as a White House Champion of Change, described moving to a community residence as "a dream come true." She added, "I never knew how wonderful freedom is. I couldn't be happier."

Many people and organizations played a key role in the effort to resolve the lawsuit and establish a high-quality system of community care for people with ABI, especially the administrations of Governor Baker and Governor Patrick, the Center for Public Representation, the BIA-MA team and the brain injury community, and the service providers who built new community-based programming and provided life-changing therapy and support.

"The BIA-MA looks forward to continuing to work in partnership with the Commonwealth, legislators, service providers and the brain injury community to ensure we continue to improve access to high-quality services for all those across our state who are living with ABI," Godaire stated.

Media Contacts:

BIA-MA

Sarah Magazine

Preston Group Strategic Advisors

Sarah@prestongroup.us

617.470.6755

Center for Public Representation

Kathryn Rucker

Center for Public Representation

krucker@cpr-ma.org

617.821.7496

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GDANSK, Poland, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GetResponse , the complete online marketing software, announces the launch of the Free-Forever plan - a suite of free marketing tools. With this plan, businesses and entrepreneurs have the chance to start or move their business online. Then they can attract their first leads and grow their business via the GetResponse platform completely free of charge.

Businesses operating offline need a solution to help them build their online presence and attract their first leads - both quickly and at a low cost. That's why GetResponse decided not to charge companies that are just starting to develop their website. The free solution allows businesses to set up a mobile-friendly website on their own domain and includes contact and sign-up forms to attract their first leads. Once a list of contacts is created, users can begin nurturing and converting leads utilizing free email marketing tools. With the Free-Forever plan, companies can access everything they need to execute a comprehensive marketing strategy using GetResponse's complete online marketing platform.

"After 20 years of using the MarTech platform in a free trial model, we decided to offer various purchasable products in a freemium model. We want to contribute significantly toward increasing the share of businesses that promote their services online," explains Simon Grabowski , CEO and Founder of GetResponse. "Our goal is to be fair and provide businesses with real support. No tricks, no hidden costs, no credit card required, and no time limit. It's for free. Forever."

TWEET THIS: Complete online marketing software @GetResponse announces the launch of its new Free-Forever Plan, which empowers entrepreneurs and businesses with the chance to start building their online presence at no cost. #GetResponseFreeForever https://bit.ly/GetResponseFreeForever

Features included in GetResponse Free:

Free Website Builder Build and host one website with up to 10 subpages in no time using the AI-creator or choose one of 300 industry templates 5GB bandwidth per month Connect a domain or use a free one



Free Lead Generation Software Build and host 1 landing page Use signup and contact forms to get new leads Space for up to 500 contacts



Free Email Marketing Software Send unlimited emails to contacts Use drag-and-drop creator to build emails Access to a rich library of predesigned email templates



After capturing their first leads, businesses can incrementally expand their marketing efforts by investing in marketing automation, autoresponders, conversion funnels, and omnichannel campaigns.

For more information about Free-Forever , please visit getresponse.com .

About GetResponse

Founded in 1997, GetResponse , the complete online marketing platform, has more than 20 years of experience empowering businesses to garner tangible results. Along with 24/7 customer support available in eight languages, GetResponse features more than 30 tools: email marketing, website builder, conversion funnel, marketing automation, live chats, webinars, paid ads, and more.

CONTACT

Name: Taylor Cesena

Phone: 1 (617) 999-3454

Email: taylor@getresponse.com







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English French

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) and Pollara Strategic Insights today released the results of their annual Canadian Mutual Fund and Exchange-Traded Fund Investor Survey. The annual survey has tracked attitudes, expectations and behaviours of Canadian investors since 2006.



The survey this year included questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian mutual fund and ETF investors, and their ability to save and invest. The survey also included a responsible investing component for the second year, as well as questions on the value of advice, satisfaction with CRM2 statements, and the role of technology in the advisor-client relationship.

IFIC and Pollara have continued to adapt the survey to explore the new issues that matter to Canadian investors, which ultimately helps the industry better understand their needs, said Paul Bourque, President and CEO, IFIC. This year, it was particularly interesting to learn that more investors were asked by their advisors about their interest in responsible investing.

The global pandemic has shaped the lives of Canadians over the last eighteen months, said Lesli Martin, Vice President, Pollara Strategic Insights. It is encouraging to see that investors have been able to save and invest more during these challenging times, and have also shown notable increases in satisfaction with their annual disclosure statements.

Key Findings:

Investors report historically high levels of knowledge about investing in mutual funds and ETFs, with 85% of mutual fund investors stating they believe they are somewhat to very knowledgeable about investing in mutual funds, and 86% of ETF investors stating that they are somewhat to very knowledgeable about investing in ETFs.





Similar to the last three years, 96% of mutual fund investors who use an advisor are somewhat to very satisfied with the advice given by the advisor. For ETF investors, satisfaction is at 98%.





There were significant increases in satisfaction with CRM2 statements in 2021 for both MF and ETF investors.





Approximately one-third of both mutual fund and ETF investors reported that they were able to save more during the pandemic and approximately half of each group was not impacted in their ability to save.





For those investors who are talking to their advisors in a different way since the pandemic, 52% of mutual fund investors and 70% of ETF investors are talking through video conference platforms.





Despite the high levels of satisfaction with all forms of communication, the vast majority of mutual fund and ETF investors report that their preference post-pandemic would be in-person or phone communication.



To access the full survey, please visit IFIC.ca or pollara.com.

About IFIC

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada is the voice of Canadas investment funds industry. IFIC brings together 150 organizations, including fund managers, distributors and industry service organizations, to foster a strong, stable investment sector where investors can realize their financial goals. By connecting Canadas savers to Canadas economy, our industry contributes significantly to Canadian economic growth and job creation.

About Pollara Strategic Insights

Founded in 1980, Pollara Strategic Insights is one of Canadas premier full-service research firms  a collaborative team of senior research veterans who are passionate about conducting research through handson creativity and customized solutions. Taking full advantage of their comprehensive toolbox of industry-leading quantitative and qualitative methodologies and analytical techniques, Pollara provides research-based strategic advice to a wide array of clients across all sectors on a local, national, and global scale.

For more information please contact:

Pira Kumarasamy

Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs

pkumarasamy@ific.ca

416-309-2317

Lesli Martin

Vice President, Public Affairs

Pollara Strategic Insights

leslimartin@pollara.com

416-921-0090 ext. 2207
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affinor Growers Inc. (Affinor or the Company) (CSE: AFI OTCQB: RSSFF) announces that the filing of its audited annual financial statements for the year ended May 31, 2021, including the related management discussion and analysis, and CEO and CFO certifications (collectively, the Annual Financial Filings) were not filed by the required filing deadline of September 28, 2021 (the Filing Deadline). The Annual Financial Filings are late due to unforeseen delays in the completion of the Companys audit.



The Companys staff are working diligently with its auditors and the Company anticipates that it will be in a position to file the Annual Financial Filings within the next three weeks.

The Company has voluntarily applied to the applicable securities regulatory authorities and received a management cease trade order related to the Companys securities to be imposed the management of the Company to trade securities of the Company. The management cease trade order will be in effect until the Annual Financial Filings are filed. All other securityholders will still be able to trade in the securities of the Company in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Until the Annual Financial Filings are filed, the Company intends to provide information in accordance with National Policy 12-203 Cease Trade Orders for Continuous Disclosure Defaults.

About Affinor

Affinor is a publicly traded company listed on the CSE under the symbol AFI and on the OTCQB under the symbol RSSFF. Affinor is focused on developing vertical farming technologies and using those technologies to grow fruits, vegetables, and cannabis in a sustainable manner.

To learn more about Affinor, visit: www.affinorgrowers.com

For More Information, please contact:

Nick Brusatore, CEO

Tel: (604) 356-0411

contact@affinorgrowers.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, potential and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kore.ai , a top conversational AI software company, today announced it has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Vistara Growth and PNC, with additional participation from NextEquity Partners, Nicola Wealth and Beedie Capital. Kore.ai also secured an additional $20 million credit facility from Sterling National Bank bringing total funding to $70 million. As a part of the Series C round, Randy Garg, Managing Partner of Vistara Growth, and Daniel Pavlick, Executive Vice President of PNC, have joined Kore.ais board of directors.



Kore.ai plans to use a significant amount of the funds to scale efforts to be the undisputed leader in Experience Optimization or XO, optimizing enterprise customer, agent, and employee experiences through AI-native platforms and products. The company recently launched SmartAssist , the world's first AI-native end-to-end Contact Center as-a-Service (CCaaS) solution, as well as BankAssist , an omni-channel conversational virtual assistant that automates the most common retail banking customer needs to drive elevated customer experiences.

"As customer expectations continue to rise, they increasingly expect the type of world-class experience that our customers deliver using our best-of-breed conversational AI based XO platform," said Raj Koneru, Founder and CEO of Kore.ai. "We are absolutely thrilled to have such strong financial and strategic partners as investors, who can help guide us as we continue to grow exponentially in the market by enabling our customers to deliver extraordinary conversational AI experiences which result in extraordinary outcomes."

As conversational AI technology continues to raise the bar on customer experiences via both voice and digital channels, Kore.ai remains at the forefront of innovation, said Randy Garg of Vistara Growth. The company has established itself as a clear market leader as recognized by its customers and industry analysts in this rapidly growing space, and recent innovations such as its easy to implement no code solutions ensure it will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Through this funding, Kore.ai will continue broadening its demonstrated success of XO in the Conversational AI Platform (CAIP) market growing at 75% annually, according to Gartner. Kore.ai has been growing over 100% per year over the last few years. Kore.ai has delivered optimized experiences for over 100 million enterprise consumers and 500K employees resulting in over $500 million in cost savings while improving CSAT by 20-30%. Kore.ai aspires to bring optimized experiences to every customer, every employee and AI-native assistance to every contact center agent.

For more information on Kore.ai, visit our website .

About Kore.ai

Kore increases the speed of business by optimizing customer and employee experiences through digital and voice virtual and business process assistants built on its market-leading Experience Optimization platform. Companies who prioritize customer and employee experience use Kores no-code conversational AI platform to raise CSAT, NPS and lower operational costs. The top 4 banks, top 3 healthcare businesses, and over 100 Fortune 500 companies have automated a billion interactions since Kore was founded in 2014. Its pre-built industry and function specific virtual and business process assistants have made it easier and faster for these top-performing businesses to scale their experience automation initiatives. Kore has been recognized as a leader by top analysts and ensures the success of its customers through a growing team headquartered in Orlando with offices in India, the UK, Japan, and Europe. Visit Kore.ai to learn more.

Contact:

Michelle Andersen

BOCA Communications for Kore.ai

kore@bocacommunications.com
Dallas, TX, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Associa, the industrys largest community management company, partnered with national hunger non-profit, Move For Hunger, to help the fight against food insecurity. Through Associas The Great Giveback: Working together to fight hunger and feed neighbors initiative, both employees and clients donated nearly eight tons of food and thousands of dollars to those in need.

Inspired by the volunteerism of the community association boards of directors, The Great Giveback is an annual endeavor that encourages employees to support vibrant communities by helping those in need. According to Move For Hunger, more than 42 million Americans are food insecure and rely on the 200 food banks and 63,000 pantries across the US to meet their need. To help fill those pantries Associa united across its branch locations for a company-wide food drive.

Participating branches selected a local food bank and coordinated a collection of nonperishable food items. Move For Hunger provided expert guidance and resources to help facilitate successful food drives, coordinated delivery with their network of movers, and created an online donation platform for Associa team members, vendor partners, and residents in the communities they serve. The Great Giveback provided donations to 39 food banks and pantries across 15 states and two Canadian provinces.

Associa is dedicated to supporting strong communities, and our team members go above and beyond to help those in need, stated Andrew Fortin, Associa senior vice president of external affairs. We are so thankful for Move For Hungers partnership on making this years The Great Giveback a success, and so proud of the boundless compassion of our employees and communities who worked together to fight hunger and feed our neighbors.

"On behalf of Move For Hunger, we truly appreciate everyone who contributed their time and hard work to Associa's Great Giveback Campaign," said Samantha Hymowitz, community engagement manager for Move For Hunger. "With more people visiting food banks than ever before, every donation means we can meet the increased demand and provide meals that are greatly needed for those who are struggling with hunger."

About Move For Hunger

Move For Hunger is a national non-profit organization that has created a sustainable way to reduce food waste and fight hunger. They have mobilized the leaders of moving, relocation, and multi-family industries to provide their customers, clients, and residents with the opportunity to donate their food when they move. Members of Move For Hunger also organize community food drives, participate in awareness campaigns, and create employee engagement programs. For more information, or to find out how you can host your own food drive, visit www.MoveForHunger.org.

About Associa

With more than 200 branch offices across North America, Associa delivers unsurpassed management and lifestyle services to nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise, and trailblazing innovation. For more than 40 years, Associa has provided solutions designed to help communities achieve their vision. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com.

Stay Connected:

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa

Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa

Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa

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Newark, NJ, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Berkeley College celebrated its 90-year history in New Jersey with a tree-planting ceremony in Newarks Washington Park on Wednesday, September 29, 2021. Sheila Y. Oliver, New Jersey Lieutenant Governor, M. Teresa Ruiz, New Jersey Senator, and Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, were among the dignitaries to pay tribute to the College at the event.

The ceremony included recognition of a commemorative cherry tree in the soon-to-be renamed Tubman Square. Officials noted the symbolic importance of the trees location, which is positioned across the street from Berkeley Colleges Newark campus at 536 Broad Street, where the College has operated a campus since 2006.

Im proud that (the tree) will stand next to what will become Tubman Square, said Oliver. Its going to give a lot of inspiration to people as they learn the history of Harriet Tubman and then see this tree.

This tree is actually going to be planted right next to the Tubman monument  that speaks volumes to the mission and vision of the college, making sure that you appeal to a diverse group of people in this city and making sure that they not only come to this school but they also graduate, said Baraka.

The College was first established on September 28, 1931, in East Orange, NJ. Berkeley marked its return to Essex County with the opening of the Newark campus 15 years ago and has been part of the citys economic revival.

Besides our continued focus on student success where the student always comes first, Berkeley College maintains its dedication to being a part of the local community and giving back, said Kevin L. Luing, Chairman, Berkeley College Board of Trustees, who also noted that since opening in 2006, more than 1,600 students have earned degrees from Berkeleys Newark campus.

Berkeley College has been part of (Newarks) vibrance. We are a hub for technology, we are a hub for employment  we are also the epicenter for higher education institutions, said Ruiz. Berkeley has been a part of that fabric.

Michael J. Smith, President of Berkeley College, said, We are of this community. We take the young people and those who want to reskill and prepare them so that when they graduate they are going to be hired.

Oliver, who served as the keynote speaker, also shared her long history with Berkeley College, which she said dates back to 2004 when she was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly. During her remarks, Oliver said, The marriage of Governor Phil Murphy and Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver occurred in the Berkeley College building in Newark. She recalled her first meeting with the New Jersey Governor, which she said took place at Berkeley's Donald M. Payne, Sr. Library. I wanted to introduce this person who was contemplating running for governor to some of the institutions that existed in our community, she said.

I wish you another 90 years of growth, another 90 years of service in our city and in the State of New Jersey, said Baraka.

Additional festivities were held on September 28, 2021, in the municipalities where Berkeleys other New Jersey campuses are located: Woodland Park, Woodbridge and Paramus, coinciding with a proclamation issued by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy declaring September 28, 2021, as Berkeley College 90th Anniversary Day.

About Berkeley College

Berkeley College, founded in 1931, is a career-focused institution accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education that offers students Masters, Bachelors, and Associates degree and Certificate programs in more than 20 career fields. The College also offers continuing education programs to enhance career credentials.

Berkeley College has campuses in Newark, Paramus, Woodbridge, and Woodland Park, NJ, and in Midtown Manhattan, NY, and with more than 4,900 students enrolled. In addition, Berkeley College Online serves a global population. U.S. News & World Report has named Berkeley College among the Best Colleges for Online Bachelors Programs and among the Best Online Bachelors Programs for Veterans, for eight consecutive years. The website address is www.BerkeleyCollege.edu.

The mission of Berkeley College is to empower students to achieve lifelong success in dynamic careers.

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Bidens failed COVID summit was our last straw, say scientists who held dual press conferences at the homes of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel. Speakers at both demonstrations blamed the two men for millions of global COVID deaths. They argued that President Biden and Klain have ignored global health leaders' calls to scale COVID vaccine supply, instead leaving production to Bancel and other industry executives who have primarily produced doses to sell to wealthy nations, leaving poorer nations without access to high-quality vaccines.



WHAT: Vaccine equity demonstration at homes of Ron Klain and Stephane Bancel

WHEN: 2:30pm Wednesday, September 29, 2021

WHERE: Chevy Chase, MD 20815; Boston, MA 02108

WHO: A non-partisan group of scientists and health professionals, including doctors, nurses, and public health advocates.

VISUALS: Scientists, health care providers, and public health professionals in professional attire, speaking to reporters in front of large piles of artificial human bones placed outside of the homes of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel

WASHINGTON and BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scientists, medical providers, and public health advocates rallied Wednesday outside the homes of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel to condemn Bidens recent U.N. performance and demand increased global manufacturing and donations of COVID vaccines.



Assembled beside the expert speakers at both locations were twelve-foot tall piles of artificial human bones, representing the millions of global COVID deaths the speakers claimed Biden, Klain, and Bancel were responsible for.

At Bancels home in Boston, speakers included Salmaan Keshavjee, KJ Seung, Rebecca Zash and Joia Mukherjee, all physician-scientists from Harvard Medical School. At Klains home in Chevy Chase, speakers included Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor, Yale University; James Krellenstein, Co-Founder, PrEP4All; Fatima Hassan, Founder, Health Justice Initiative; Larry Gostin, University Professor, Georgetown Law; Keith Martin, Executive Director, Consortium of Universities for Global Health; and Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law, Yale Law School

The advocates denounced President Biden and Klain for ignoring repeated pleas from global health leaders and institutions like the World Health Organization to act to dramatically scale vaccine supply. The speakers argued that Biden has instead left vaccine supply decisions to private industry leaders such as Bancel of Moderna, whose main goal is to profit from the pandemic by selling doses to wealthy countries rather than ending the pandemic by making enough doses to meet global needs.

The advocates claimed that if Biden had acted in March-- when Congress gave him over $16 billion eligible for scaling vaccine supply -- the U.S. could have already built the manufacturing capacity needed to produce 8 billion doses of the Moderna-NIAID vaccine, enough to vaccinate over half the world. They estimate these additional supply lines would have cost just $4-12 billion, and could have produced mRNA vaccines at just $2-3 per dose.

The speakers noted that instead, Biden aims to donate just 300 million vaccine doses to low-income countries by the end of this year. They claimed that Bidens donations are too small and too slow, and that millions of people will die needlessly because Biden has ignored the global health experts he claims to be listening to.

Calling Bidens recent COVID summit more pageantry and platitude than planning, the speakers listed proposals they argued Biden should have announced at his summit. These recommendations included scaling mRNA-1273 (Moderna-NIAID) to 8 billion doses per year by March 2022, immediately getting the Merck and Emergent production of the J&J vaccine online and dedicating 100% of their output to COVAX, and committing to a more aggressive donation program, supplying at least 100 million doses per month to low- and middle-income countries starting in October.

Speaker quotes from the press conference

The public needs to understand that global health leaders have warned Biden and Ron Klain from the beginning that millions of people would die and hundreds of millions would be plunged into poverty if they did not dramatically scale vaccine supply, said KJ Seung of Harvard Medical School. Knowing this, they chose not to act.

Sadly, Biden and Ron Klain have treated the global aspects of the pandemic as a PR game rather than a global health crisis. Bidens UN COVID Summit last week was more platitude and pageantry than planning, said KJ Seung of Harvard Medical School.

The worlds current shortage of COVID-19 vaccines is the result of deliberate policy choices made by pharmaceutical companies and the Biden Administration, not some inherent scientific or engineering limitation on expanding production capacity, said Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor at Yale School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership, Industry and the U.S. government need to immediately commit to rapid production scale up of the most effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Since we discovered that mRNA vaccines were highly effective at preventing COVID-19 in November, more people have died from the disease than in the entire pandemic prior, said James Krellenstein, Co-Founder of the advocacy group PrEP4All, The fact that neither government nor industry have developed an effective plan to scale up the most effective vaccines as fast as possible will result in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

Moderna itself has shown that even a previously small biotech firm can rapidly scale up production if it works with contract manufacturers around the world, said Salmaan Keshavjee of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital. We know from experiences with HIV and TB medicines and even other vaccines that increasing access requires technology transfer and rapid scale-up of production. Many countries and companies not only stand ready to do this, but have been begging for this to happen. It is time for the US Government to take leadership in making this happen. We cant just keep saying we believe in this; we actually have to do it.

Stephane Bancel and Modernas decision not to share its technology with low- and middle-income countries jeopardizes the lives of millions worldwide, said Fatima Hassan, Founder of the South African advocacy group Health Justice Initiative, During a pandemic, it is more important than ever to put public health before profits. Moderna has failed to do so.

The worlds current shortage of COVID-19 vaccines is the result of deliberate policy choices made by pharmaceutical companies and the Biden Administration, not some inherent scientific or engineering limitation on expanding production capacity, said Dr. Joia Mukherjee of Partners In Health and Harvard Medical School, Industry and the U.S. government need to immediately commit to rapid production scale-up of the most effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Charitable donations alone will never correct the deep injustices, said Lawrence Gostin, University Professor at Georgetown Law and Faculty Director of the ONeill Institute for National & Global Health Law, Low and middle income countries dont want to go hat in hand for donations, which never come soon enough or in ample supplies. They have the right to produce their own vaccines and medicines now and for the next health crisis.

The technology used in Modernas vaccine was invented using billions of dollars in public funds, said Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law at Yale Law School and Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership, The US government even owns patents protecting this vaccine. This technology must be used to protect lives both at home and abroad.

The longer we delay in vaccinating the world with the most effective vaccines, the more we risk new, vaccine-resistant variants arising that could undo our progress here in the United States, said Keith Martin, Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, The issue is not just humanitarian: vaccine inequity is an immediate threat to national security and public health.

Without bold leadership from this Administration, we risk being caught in a pandemic loop in which we are constantly battling new variants, said Dr. Rebecca Zash of Harvard Medical School, The only way out of this pandemic is by vaccinating the world with our most effective vaccines.

Media Contacts:

NATIONAL/D.C. CONTACT: James Krellenstein (516) 965-7707 james@prep4all.org

BOSTON CONTACT: Jon Shaffer (503) 789-4677 jonshaff@gmail.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a2e681c0-34d2-423c-bd62-f7e1c3081abf




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silver Bull Resources, Inc. (OTCQB: SVBL, TSX: SVB) (Silver Bull) and Arras Minerals Corp. (Arras) are pleased to announce the appointment of Darren Klinck to both companies as President, effective October 1, 2021. Mr. Klinck will also be joining the Board of Directors of Arras.



Mr. Klinck is an accomplished mining executive with considerable management experience throughout Australasia & The Americas. He was most recently President & CEO of Bluestone Resources, following the acquisition of the Cerro Blanco gold project in Guatemala in 2017, where he led the team that financed and advanced the project through resource expansion, feasibility and engineering phases of project development.



He also spent more than ten years with OceanaGold as a member of the Executive Committee that achieved significant growth and business expansion to become a multi-mine, international gold mining company, growing from a market capitalization of less than C$100M to one greater than C$3B.

Over the past 20 years, Darren has been instrumental in negotiating both equity and debt financing packages totaling more than $800m and has significant experience leading teams in emerging markets with a strong focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and community engagement programs, as well as extensive government relations activities.

Mr. Klinck has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Haskayne School of Business at The University of Calgary. He is a Director of ValOre Metals Corp and Gold Basin Resources Corp.

Mr. Klinck commented, I look forward to working closely with Tim and the team as we advance from a solid base already in place in Mexico at Silver Bull but also as we begin to emerge with Arras in Kazakhstan. The team has done a terrific job through this challenging global pandemic to evaluate opportunities focusing on high-quality geological potential in jurisdictions that welcome mineral development. The significant opportunity established in Kazakhstan by Arras over the past year has positioned the company to be an early mover in one of the few copper-gold belts remaining globally that has not benefitted from significant modern exploration and focus. Pleasingly, Beskauga is already a significant deposit in its own right and provides a solid base from which to build on in the future within a country that is the most advanced economy in Central Asia; has recently modernized their mining regulations based on Western Australian code; and is now seeing new entrants comprising of the largest players in our industry.

Brian Edgar, Chairman of Silver Bull stated This is an important step forward for Silver Bull and Arras. Darrens appointment significantly strengthens and diversifies our existing management team. He has a track record of creating shareholder value and a broad range of experience in management, corporate finance and investor relations. Silver Bull and Arras have two exceptional projects which provide exposure to silver and zinc, and gold and copper, respectively, and Darrens capital markets expertise, coupled with managements technical expertise, positions the Companies for significant success.

Silver Bull and Arras Moving Forward: On September 24, 2021, Silver Bull completed the distribution of shares of Arras to its shareholders. Silver Bull continues to own approximately 4% of Arras, on a non-diluted basis.

Silver Bull will continue to focus on the Sierra Mojada project and surrounding area in Mexico and managing the joint venture option with South32. It will continue to trade under the symbol SVB on the TSX, and SVBL on the OTCQB.

Arras as a standalone entity will focus on the Beskauga deposit in Northeastern Kazakhstan.

The exploration activities of both companies will continue to be managed by current management and will be headquartered in Vancouver.

A summary of Arrass Beskauga project in Kazakhstan, and the Sierra Mojada Project in Mexico is provided below.

Beskauga Deposit, Kazakhstan: The Beskauga deposit is an open pittable gold-copper-silver deposit with a NI 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 207 million tonnes grading 0.35 g/t gold, 0.23% copper and 1.09 g/t silver for 2.33 million ounces of contained gold, 476.1 thousand tonnes of contained copper, and 7.25 million ounces of contained silver and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 147 million tonnes grading 0.33 g/t gold, 0.15% copper and 1.02 g/t silver for 1.56 million ounces of contained gold, 220.5 thousand tonnes of contained copper, and 4.82 million ounces of contained silver.

The constraining pit was optimised and calculated using a NSR cut-off based on a price of: $1,500/oz for gold, $2.80/lb for copper, $17.25/oz for silver, and with an average recovery of 81.7% for copper and 51.8% for both gold and silver. Mineralization remains open in all directions as well as at depth.

Table 1. Pit-constrained Mineral Resource estimate for the Beskauga copper-gold project

CATEGORY TONNAGE (MT) CU % AU G/T AG G/T AU (MOZ) CU (KT) AG (MOZ) Indicated 207 0.23 0.35 1.09 2.33 476.1 7.25 Inferred 147 0.15 0.33 1.02 1.56 220.5 4.82

For a full summary of the Beskauga resource please refer to Silver Bulls press release dated January 28, 2021 and filed on its profile at www.SEDAR.com , or by visiting the following link:

https://www.silverbullresources.com/news/silver-bull-announces-maiden-ni-43-101-resource-of-2.33-million-ounces-of-gold-476-thousand-tonnes-of-copper-in-the-indicated/

Sierra Mojada deposit, Mexico: Sierra Mojada is an open pittable oxide deposit with a NI 43-101 compliant Measured and Indicated global Mineral Resource of 70.4 million tonnes grading 3.4% zinc and 38.6 g/t silver for 5.35 billion pounds of contained zinc and 87.4 million ounces of contained silver. Included within the global Mineral Resource is a Measured and Indicated high grade zinc zone of 13.5 million tonnes with an average grade of 11.2% zinc at a 6% cutoff, for 3.336 billion pounds of contained zinc, and a Measured and Indicated high grade silver zone of 15.2 million tonnes with an average grade of 114.9 g/t silver at a 50 g/t cutoff for 56.3 million contained ounces of silver. Mineralization remains open in the east, west, and northerly directions.

The constraining pit was optimised and calculated using a NSR cut-off based on a silver price of US$15/oz, and a zinc price of US$1.20/lb and assumed a recovery for silver of 75% and a recovery for zinc of 41%. Approximately 60% of the current 3.2 kilometer mineralized body is at or near surface before dipping at around 6 degrees to the east.

CATEGORY TONNES (MT) AG (G/T) CU (%) PB (%) ZN (%) AG

(MOZS) CU

(MLBS) PB

(MLBS) ZN

(MLBS) MEASURED 52.0 39.2 0.04% 0.3% 4.0% 65.5 45.9 379.1 4,589.3 INDICATED 18.4 37.0 0.03% 0.2% 1.9% 21.9 10.8 87.0 764.6 TOTAL M&I 70.4 38.6 0.04% 0.3% 3.4% 87.4 56.8 466.1 5,353.9 INFERRED 0.1 8.8 0.02% 0.2% 6.4% 0.02 0.04 0.4 10.7

For a full summary of the Sierra Mojada resource, please refer to Silver Bulls press release dated October 31, 2018 and filed on its profile at www.SEDAR.com , or by visiting the following link:

https://www.silverbullresources.com/news/silver-bull-resources-announces-5.35-billion-pounds-zinc-87.4-million-ounces-silver-in-updated-sierra-mojada-measured-and/

The technical information of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Barry, a Chartered Professional Geologist (CPAusIMM), and a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Tim Barry

Tim Barry, CPAusIMM

Chief Executive Officer and Director

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

+1 604 687 5800 info@silverbullresources.com

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors concerning estimates of Measured, Indicated, and Inferred Resources: This press release uses the terms measured resources, indicated resources, and inferred resources which are defined in, and required to be disclosed by, NI 43-101. We advise U.S. investors that these terms are not recognized by the SEC. The estimation of measured, indicated and inferred resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that measured and indicated mineral resources will be converted into reserves. The estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that estimates of inferred mineral resources exist, are economically minable, or will be upgraded into measured or indicated mineral resources. Under Canadian securities laws, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies.

Disclosure of contained ounces in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations, however the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute reserves by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Accordingly, the information contained in this press release may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies that are not subject NI 43-101.

Cautionary note regarding forward looking statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and Silver Bulls and Arrass future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Exchange Act, and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the Mineral Resource estimates for the Beskauga and Sierra Mojada projects and the development of both such projects. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about Silver Bulls and Arrass exploration projects, the industry in which Silver Bull and Arras operate and the beliefs and assumptions of Silver Bulls and Arrass management. Words such as expects, anticipates, targets, goals, projects, intends, plans, believes, seeks, estimates, continues, may, variations of such words, and similar expressions and references to future periods, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, including such factors as whether managements focus will be as described in this news release, the results of exploration activities and whether the results continue to support continued exploration activities, unexpected variations in ore grade, types and metallurgy, volatility and level of commodity prices, the availability of sufficient future financing, and other matters discussed under the caption Risk Factors in Silver Bulls Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the interim periods ended January 31, 2021, April 30, 2021, July 31, 2021, and our other periodic and current reports filed with the SEC and available on www.sec.gov and with the Canadian securities commissions available on www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
Waukesha, WI (53187)

Today

Foggy this morning followed by occasional showers during the afternoon. High 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 55F. Winds light and variable.
Governor Northam Announces German Manufacturer to Establish First U.S. Operation in Virginia

SCHOCK to invest $85 million, create 355 new jobs in Henry County

HENRY COUNTYGovernor Ralph Northam today announced that SCHOCK GmbH, the inventor of quartz composite sinks, will invest $85 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in Henry County. Virginia successfully competed with Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina for the project, which will create 355 new jobs.

Governor Northam met with company officials in Regen, Germany, in May. SCHOCK GmbH will occupy the Lot 8 Shell Building, a 95,500-square-foot facility on 14.7 acres in Patriot Centre Industrial Park.

We are excited to welcome SCHOCK to Virginia, said Governor Northam. This important European company is choosing to invest in Virginia because of our highly skilled workers and our outstanding business climate. When a global leader like SCHOCK selects Virginia as its gateway into the United States, thats a sign that this is a great place to do business. We look forward to a successful partnership for many years to come.

The Commonwealth has secured more than $48 billion in capital investment and has created 91,000 new jobs since Governor Northam took office in January 2018. Virginia has attracted major investments from leading companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Micron, and many other prominent businesses who are choosing to deepen their roots in the Commonwealth. Governor Northam has announced 839 total new economic development projects.

Founded in 1924 and headquartered in Regen, Germany, SCHOCK invented the quartz composite sink in 1979. SCHOCK has been a leading innovator in the field through its commitment to product development and traditional craftsmanship for more than 40 years. The company holds over 100 patents. SCHOCK offers a broad product portfolio comprised of over 200 sink models in more than 40 colors within its product lines CRISTALITE and CRISTADUR, including its CRISTADUR GREEN Line sinks, which are made of approximately 99 percent natural, renewable, or recycled raw materials.

This substantial investment and the creation of over 350 high-quality jobs is a tremendous economic boost for Henry County and the entire region, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. Martinsville-Henry County has made a commitment to infrastructure, education, and workforce in the region, and we are confident the company will benefit from these efforts. We welcome SCHOCK to the Commonwealth and thank the company for this major investment.

SCHOCK will complete its operation in phases. Phase one will be completed over a five-year period, during which the company will establish the manufacturing capability to produce quartz composite kitchen sinks in their new Virginia location.

For SCHOCK, this expansion is very specialits our first production site outside Germany, said SCHOCK Chief Executive Officer Ralf Boberg. The facility will serve the strongest growth market for our product category and allow us to meet demand for colored kitchen sinks with local Made in the USA products. We are thrilled to have found the ideal location in Henry County. As an industrial business hub, the region has a well-qualified and dedicated workforceone of the key success factors for us as a companyand its geographic location and interregional infrastructure are perfect for our needs.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved a $1.7 million grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund to assist Henry County with the project. The company is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

Support for SCHOCKs job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce initiative created by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System and other higher education partners. Funding support came from the Northam administration and the Virginia General Assembly. The program, which launched in 2019, accelerates new facility start-ups through the direct delivery of recruitment and training services that are fully customized to a companys unique products, processes, equipment, standards, and culture. All program services are provided at no cost to qualified new and expanding companies as an incentive for job creation.

SCHOCK is an absolutely perfect fit for Henry County, said Henry County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim Adams. We are excited to have SCHOCK join the countys corporate community and look forward to what the future will bring.

I am pleased to see that SCHOCK has selected the Patriot Centre Industrial Park in Henry County for its first U.S. manufacturing operation, said Congressman Morgan Griffith. The jobs projected to come to the Martinsville-Henry County area over the next several years will be a great contribution to the community. I congratulate Governor Northams office and all the state and local leaders that helped make this happen.

The Patriot Centre Industrial Parks manufacturing facility was created to attract high-paying jobs to the Martinsville and Henry County communities, and now that investment is paying dividends for our community, said Senator William Stanley. With the addition of SCHOCK GmbH to the Patriot Centre, Southside continues to demonstrate to industries that our region is the best place to do business in a 21st-century economy.

The creation of hundreds of new jobs from this investment is excellent news for the people and communities of Henry County, said Delegate Les Adams. I am pleased to join with others in welcoming SCHOCK GmbH to our region and congratulate all those involved in bringing this new investment.

# # #
Red Bull Racing doesn't expect there to be any more circuits where Mercedes or Red Bull themselves are the big favourite. Where Mercedes were the favourites at Monza and Sochi, Christian Horner argues that his team are not for the upcoming races.

Mercedes and Red Bull are fighting for the world title this year and it looks like it will be exciting until the last race. Between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen there is only a gap of two points, with only seven races to go. Red Bull managed to limit the damage despite an engine change for the Dutchman, and now sees opportunities in the upcoming races.

Opportunity for Red Bull Racing

''I don't think there are any circuits that stand out as clearly as Russia and Monza. Mercedes will definitely be strong in Turkey, they won there last year. But then we go to Austin. We should be close to that. And in Brazil and Mexico we have always been strong. We don't know anything about Qatar yet, we don't know anything about Jeddah. And then comes Abu Dhabi,'' the Briton said to Motorsport.com.

Horner is reluctant to say that his team are the favourites given the last few races on the calendar. "You can say that in the remaining races it's fifty-fifty as to which track suits some people better than others," concludes the Austrian team principal.
Nissan unveiled the e-POWER Sylphy, the first model equipped with the e-POWER series hybrid technology (earlier post) for customers in China. e-POWER features a 100% electric motor-driven system that provides responsive acceleration, smooth deceleration and cabin quietness similar to an EV, while removing the need for external charging due to an onboard gasoline engine that charges the battery pack when necessary.





The e-POWER Sylphy is aimed to meet the demands of customers who expect excellent mobility options from electrified vehicles that are uncompromising in delivering confident and convenient driving.

The launch of the Nissan e-POWER Sylphy in China represents the determination of Nissan to introduce cutting-edge technologies in this core market, to accelerate the companys vision for electrified mobility and the achievement of Chinas carbon neutrality goals. e-POWER is designed to bring a whole new driving experience to customers in China in their pursuit for high-quality mobility in the era of electrification. Takeshi Yamaguchi, vice president of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. and managing director of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company

The Nissan e-POWER Sylphy delivers 300 Nm of torque and a fuel economy rating of 3.9 L/100 km (60 mpg US). The model also offers five drive modes that allow for performance and fuel efficiency.

First introduced in Japan on the Nissan Note in 2016, e-POWER has been well-received in the market, with cumulative sales of e-POWER models surpassing 500,000 units at the end of March.

In China, the technology is expected to contribute to the sustainable development roadmap defined by the government and aligns with Nissans global goal to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations and the life cycle of its products by 2050. As part of this effort, by the early 2030s every all-new Nissan vehicle offering in key markets will be electrified.

The e-POWER Sylphy sets the pace for Nissans plan to roll out six e-POWER models in China by 2025 as part of its Nissan Intelligent Mobility vision for changing how vehicles are powered, driven and integrated into society.
Vulcan Energy Resources signed an agreement with chemical park management company Infraserv to secure a site for its planned Central Lithium Plant (CLP) of its Zero Carbon Lithium Project, at the Hochst Chemical Park (Industriepark Hochst), located just outside of Frankfurt. Hochst is one of Europes largest chemical sites and hosts more than 22,000 personnel and 90 companies including Nobian, Clariant, Sanofi and Celanese.





On Monday, Vulcan announced it had successfully produced its first battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from its pilot operations. (Earlier post.)

The CLP is intended as a processing hub, processing lithium chloride from multiple combined geothermal and lithium sorption plants into lithium hydroxide monohydrate.

From the CLP, the lithium hydroxide monohydrate is intended to be transported to Vulcans European customers in the battery and electric vehicle industry, significantly lowering the transport footprint of the current lithium supply chain.

The Hochst site features key advantages for the project including:

Proximity to Vulcans project areas where the integrated geothermal and sorption operations are proposed to be built;

Multiple low carbon transport modes available (barge, train);

Availability of renewable power onsite; and

The required space and utilities for future phased expansion of the CLP.

Vulcan will be working with a dedicated team going forward to obtain necessary permits in the chemical park for the CLP construction and operation.

Vulcans Zero Carbon Lithium Project intends to produce a battery-quality lithium hydroxide chemical product from a combined geothermal energy and lithium resource, which is Europes largest lithium resource, in Germany.
TOKYO (AP)  Japanese prosecutors demanded two years in prison for former Nissan executive Greg Kelly and accused him of joining a conspiracy to pay his former boss Carlos Ghosn illicitly in closing arguments Wednesday in a yearlong trial.

That unpaid compensation existed is clear, prosecutor Yukio Kawasaki told the Tokyo District Court, reading briskly from a thick document.

Kelly, a 30-year veteran at the Japanese automaker, was living in the U.S. when he was arrested in November 2018 upon returning to Japan to attend a meeting.

The first American to be appointed to Nissans board, Kelly says he is innocent. He sat calmly in the courtroom, wearing his usual red tie and dark suit, alongside defense lawyers. Everyone in the courthouse was wearing a mask because of the pandemic.

Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview last month he did not know all the details of Ghosns pay. He was determined to retain Ghosn, Nissan's former chairman, because of his extraordinary management skills and wanted to pay him in a legal way, he said.

Ghosn was arrested at the same time as Kelly and also maintains he is innocent. He skipped bail in late 2019 and fled to Lebanon, the country of his ancestry. It has no extradition treaty with Japan.

The charges center around a pay cut of about 1 billion yen ($10 million) a year that Ghosn voluntarily started taking from 2010, halving his pay after disclosure of high executive pay became mandatory in Japan.

Neither side is contesting that cut. The contention is over whether that money should have been reported as compensation as a de facto promised sum under a binding contract, or didnt need to be disclosed until it was finalized.

Nissan Motor Co. officials considered various ways to make up for the money Ghosn gave up, such as paying him consulting fees after retirement. They also mulled other methods such as payments through subsidiaries and stock options. Nothing had been paid at the time of the arrests.

Ghosn has said a group at Nissan engineered his arrest because they feared that French automaker Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, would gain more control over the company. Other Nissan officials made similar comments during Kellys trial.

Renault sent Ghosn to Nissan in 1999 to lead its rescue from the brink of bankruptcy. He successfully steered the maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models for nearly two decades.

Ghosn has also been charged with breach of trust allegations centered around using Nissan money for personal gain, ranging from housing, tuition payments for his children, use of a corporate jet and purchases such as a chandelier. Ghosn has said they were needed for work.

Yokohama-based Nissan, as a company and legal entity, has also been charged, and has pleaded guilty. The prosecutors on Wednesday asked that Nissan be fined 200 million yen ($1.8 million).

Nissan is struggling to revert to profitability after racking up two straight years of red ink, with the damage from the coronavirus pandemic coming on top of the Ghosn scandal.

Egor Matveyev, who teaches at the MIT Sloan School of Management, calls the Ghosn case a clear example of corporate governance failure.

Nissan did overhaul their board in 2018-2019, including instituting separate nomination, compensation, and audit committees, but questions still remain whether Nissan got fully rid of all its governance problems and whether the current board is poised to let Nissan compete on the global scale, he said.

The company has declined comment on a class-action lawsuit filed by investors in Tennessee over how the automaker's share price has dropped.

A small group of Kellys supporters, including Jamie Wareham, Kellys attorney in the U.S., held a protest late last week at the White House and the Japanese Embassy, demanding Kelly be released. The protest was timed to coincide with a visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

The entire case against Greg Kelly and Carlos Ghosn is a sham, Wareham said.

The maximum penalty for violating the Financial Instrument and Exchange Ac is 15 years in prison. The verdict from a panel of three judges is not expected until March 2022.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Statewide test results from last spring showed that less than half of the students scored at the proficient or distinguished levels in many Kentucky schools.

The tests scores were aimed at better understanding how students performed academically amid learning disruptions caused by COVID-19. State education officials cautioned the latest test scores can't be compared with pre-pandemic scores.
BEIRUT (AP)  Hundreds of Lebanese, including families of Beirut port explosion victims, rallied Wednesday in the capital to support the judge investigating the blast after he was forced to suspend his work.

The suspension was triggered by a legal challenge submitted by a former Cabinet minister, who is a defendant in the case. A court must now rule on whether he should be removed or can continue the investigation.

Several lawmakers and former officials charged in the case by Bitar have filed lawsuits against him, asking that he step down on grounds of violating the law or showing bias.

More than a year after the blast that devastated the city and killed more than 200 people, there are no answers to what caused highly explosive materials stored in the port for years to ignite on Aug. 4, 2020, or why they had been stored there.

An investigation by rights groups and local media revealed that most of Lebanons senior leadership and security agencies knew of the nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate and did little to protect residents of Beirut against it. But over the past year, senior politicians have closed ranks in their efforts to block the probe.

On Wednesday, the French government said it regrets the suspension of the investigation.

Lebanese justice must work transparently, sheltered from all political interference," French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters in Paris. "It is up to the Lebanese authorities to allow the probe to continue with all the necessary financial and human resources so it can shed light on what happened on Aug. 4 and meet the legitimate expectations of the Lebanese people.

The attempt to remove Bitar has angered families of the victims.

Local media reports have said that Bitar reported to prosecutors threats he received by a senior Hezbollah official, through a third party, which said it was losing patience with the way he is carrying out the investigation.

Tensions briefly broke out at Wednesday's protest outside the Justice Palace as some chanted against Hezbollah, while other family members said they wanted the issue to remain above Lebanons divisive politics.

Judge Bitar received threats and after the threat they may recuse him from the case. Why? ... Why is he threatened and why could he be removed?" asked Vicky Atallah, whose relative was killed in the port explosion. "If (this happens) with every judge, who can be brought to account in this country? How can we get our rights as citizens?

Bitar is the second judge to take on the complicated investigation. A court asked his predecessor to step down earlier this year, following similar legal challenges. Various political leaders now accuse Bitar of politicizing the investigation by going after some officials and not others and ignoring immunity granted to lawmakers and government officials.

The protesters raised banners reading: we will not forget and we will not allow the killers to torpedo the investigation.

Many of the families have already demanded an internationally led probe, not trusting politicians to allow an independent Lebanese investigation to go ahead in a country long known for a culture of impunity.

Meanwhile, the government held its first meeting since it won a vote of confidence last week. The president and prime minister authorized a committee to resume bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund over Lebanon's worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Talks with the IMF were suspended last year.

Information Minister George Kordahi told reporters after the meeting that the committee will be headed by the deputy prime minister and includes the ministers of finance and economy as well as the central bank governor and two experts representing the presidency. No date has been set for the resumption of the talks.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. and Qatar took coordinated action against a major Hezbollah financial network based in the Arabian Peninsula.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned several individuals as well as a Qatar-based property management company for what it called financing of the Lebanese militant group.

The measures are the latest against Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist group. The U.S. has slapped the group with penalties for years.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP)  A county medical director in the Traverse City area said he's losing his job, weeks after he criticized elected officials for a policy that bans mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for county employees and controls vaccine messages from the health department.

Dr. Michael Collins said his contract wasn't renewed, which means Thursday is his last day after 28 years at the Grand Traverse County Health Department.

I saw it coming, Collins told the Traverse City Record-Eagle. I think its too bad that the health department cant be autonomous and use its best judgment and have its opinions openly shared. ... Nobody should be in a better position to advise than the health department.

In August, county commissioners approved a resolution that says the county will not require a vaccination or COVID-19 test for county employees, contractors or job applicants. It says any messages about vaccines from the county will encourage people to discuss risks and benefits with their doctor.

People have a sacred inalienable right to make a choice, the policy states.

Local health departments in Michigan typically have been urging people to get vaccinated.

Collins wrote an essay in the newspaper two days later, saying commissioners had crossed the line from illogical opinion to irresponsibility.

The health department, he said, must be free to give science-based, evidence-based advice to all who can benefit from that.

Collins said a county official urged him to resign and said his contract likely wouldn't be renewed at the end of September. Separately, county Administrator Nate Alger told him last week that he wouldn't be rehired.

Alger declined to comment when the Record-Eagle asked if the doctor's opinion played a role.

Alger said it was decided that the health department would go in a different direction.

I would write it again if I was given a do-over, Collins said in a farewell message to health department staff.
NEW YORK (AP)  New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday dismissed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's repeated complaints that the sexual harassment investigation that led to his resignation was tainted by politics, saying the Democrat has never taken responsibility for his own conduct."

James, speaking to a civic group in New York City, defended the 165-page report her office released in August that found Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women.

Mr. Cuomo has a lot to say on these matters, but hes never taken responsibility for his own conduct. Hes never held himself accountable for how his behavior affected our state government, said James, also a Democrat.

Cuomo emphatically denied intentionally mistreating women. He said he was stepping aside to avoid subjecting the state to months of turmoil. Since announcing his resignation, he has promoted opinion columns on social media that question the independence of the investigation and suggest his ouster was an orchestrated, political bludgeoning.

This was politics. Every step of the way," he said in a tweet last week.

The five-month, noncriminal investigation by James' office concluded that 11 women within and outside the state government were telling the truth when they said Cuomo had touched them inappropriately, commented on their appearance or made suggestive comments about their sex lives. The report also detailed efforts by his staff to discredit some of his accusers.

Lets not lose sight of whats important, James said. Its not me. Its not Mr. Cuomo, but the survivors of his harassment. The people of our state whose trust he broke. And the people who believed in him, including myself. No one is above the law. And our state can do better moving forward.

James contrasted her investigation with one Cuomo himself ran while he was serving as attorney general and investigated then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 in a prostitution scandal.

She noted that her investigation started after Cuomos office referred the allegations to her, was led by outside investigators and took five months. Cuomos investigation of Spitzer, James said, started without an outside referral, took 20 days and was handled within the office.

She said her office plans to publicly release transcripts of the 179 people interviewed as part of the probe.

James office has released only excerpts of the interviews. The Associated Press filed open records requests in August for full transcripts and recordings of interviews with Cuomo and other witnesses but has yet to receive the materials.

Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo and his longtime spokesperson, called on the attorney general to release those transcripts and a video recording of the former governor being interviewed by James' investigators.

"It should raise serious red flags that the AG and her staff duck every time specific questions about omissions and inaccuracies in the AGs report are raised. The public deserves specific answers from the AG as to the credibility of her report  especially while she mulls a run for governor.

Before resigning, Cuomo, his attorney and staff attacked the fairness of James' report on his conduct, including saying that records showed one accuser's account of being groped at the governor's mansion couldn't have happened during the time period she claimed.

James is considered a potential candidate 2022 candidate for New York governor. After giving remarks at Wednesdays event, James dodged a question from the moderator about whether she will run, saying: I am focusing on my work, putting my head down and serving all of you as the attorney general.

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey's first gubernatorial debate between Gov. Phil Murphy and Jack Ciattarelli offered a roadmap of where this contest is heading, with the Democratic Murphy yoking his Republican rival to Donald Trump, pressing Democrats' advantage by defending his progressive agenda, while Ciattarelli hammered on high taxes and reached for the persuadable middle ground.

With the first-term incumbent leading in the polls and riding a considerable voter registration advantage, Murphy went on the attack in the debate Tuesday night, flashing an in-your-face style that emerged recently when he called a group of people protesting vaccines the ultimate knuckleheads.

Its a contrast with the folksy style he typically deploys in regular COVID-19 news conferences and one that tracks more closely with his predecessor Chris Christie.

He tied Ciattarelli, a former state Assembly member, to the former president on masking and the vaccine, most vigorously attacking his rival on attending a rally at which some people carried Stop the Steal signs, a reference to Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

Were still digging out of the damage that Trump did in terms of masking and making it political, I mean, come on," Murphy said. "And this guy, this guy has been with him every step of the way.

Ciattarelli used humor to try to sidestep the connection with Trump, alluding to games some people play during debates where they take a swig of an alcoholic drink if an oft-repeated word comes up.

If those watching at home are playing that drinking game where you gotta take a shot every time you hear, Trump, I suggest they stop real soon because if not, theyre gonna be bombed real soon, he said.

One of the most heated exchanges unfolded while they discussed the Bedminster rally Ciattarelli attended that he defended saying he thought it was about the 2021 race, not 2020.

"This rises to the level of disqualifying, come on, man," Murphy said. Disqualifying, folks."

Ciattarelli responded by bringing up Murphy's comments about taxes, when he suggested that if high taxes bother people, New Jersey is not a good fit for them.

Well, if you want to talk about disqualifiers, If taxes are your issue, we're probably not your state' or saying that you want to make New Jersey the California of the East Coast  I consider those disqualifiers."

These people died, Assemblyman, Murphy said, about the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington.

Ciattarelli invoked the nearly 8,000 people who died in nursing homes during the outbreak, as well as the 30 who perished after recent flooding.

You mean like the people in the nursing homes and Tropical Storm Ida? Ciattarelli responded.

The debate underscored the choice before voters this fall.

Murphy represents a slate of progressive programs. He promises more funding for safety net programs, like state-financed pre-kindergarten and community college along with more funding for K-12 education. He's also embraced COVID-19 countermeasures that some Republican governors in other states have rejected.

Ciattarelli is angling for voters who've had enough with creeping tax rates and long waits at Motor Vehicles Commission outposts and for unemployment checks. His approach on how to handle the outbreak is murky, though he's said he opposes masking for young children and he agrees with Murphy's decision to require teachers to get vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing.

Voters watched Ciattarelli reject some hardline policies on abortion and immigration during the debate, saying he hasn't favored undoing Roe v. Wade and that he supports allowing immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. It's better that they be licensed and insured, he said.

Whether the debate moves any voters is unclear.

The state's political makeup has grown more Democratic over the last roughly four years, with Democrats overtaking independents as the largest voting bloc and outnumbering Republicans by 1 million voters.

But the state has reelected Republican governors in recent decades while rejecting Democrats for second terms.

Murphy wants to stop that trend and become the first Democrat reelected in more than four decades. He's also confronting another political current: New Jersey voters have rejected the party of the president who won in the preceding year's election going back to 1985.

The governor has implied he's aware of the history, saying that despite polls showing he's leading, he plans to run as if he's behind.

The election is Nov. 2, but in-person early voting will happen for the first time this year from Oct. 23-31. Mail-in ballots have already gone out to voters.

The next and final debate is Oct. 12.
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  A report into dealings by senior officials at South Africa's health ministry during the coronavirus pandemic was made public Wednesday, revealing corruption, fraud and the misappropriation of millions of dollars meant to aid the fight against COVID-19.

The highly awaited report by the Special Investigating Unit, released by President Cyril Ramaphosa, found wrongdoing by former health minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize and others.

The report said Mkhize, who resigned last month, interfered in the procurement process to have a COVID-19 communications contract worth $10 million awarded to close associates. The associates later made payments for Mkhize and his familys benefit, the report said. Some of the funds were used for renovations at one of Mkhizes homes and to buy a vehicle for Mkhizes son.

Digital Vibes, a company connected to Mkhizes former communications advisor and his former personal assistant, was awarded the contract to render consultancy work for the national health department's COVID-19 communications strategy.

Opposition parties have called for Mkhize and other senior officials implicated to face criminal investigations. Mkhize remains a lawmaker in parliament, where he continues to draw a salary.

The scandal has angered South Africans, with many forced into hardship by stern lockdown restrictions imposed by the government during the pandemic. Africa's most developed economy is the worst affected by the virus on the continent, with more than 2.8 million reported cases and more than 87,000 deaths.

South Africans have heard regular allegations of government corruption in recent years. A long-running commission of inquiry into alleged graft under former President Jacob Zuma has broadcast testimony of sometimes jaw-dropping levels of corruption in government and at state-owned enterprises under Zuma, who is currently on trial on separate charges of corruption.

The report into dealings at the health ministry was given to Ramaphosa on June 30. The president, who has made the fight against corruption a centerpiece of his leadership, had been under pressure to release it publicly.

The report recommended that the health departments most senior official below ministerial level, Dr. Anban Pillay, be criminally prosecuted. This week, the department placed another senior official, Sandile Buthelezi, on suspension for his involvement. The evidence implicated at least six other officials, the report said.

The SIU, a state agency, has also investigated allegations of widespread corruption in the awarding of government contracts for personal protective equipment and other measures to fight the virus last year, which implicated health officials at provincial and local level. The SIU said government contracts worth nearly $900 million were suspect.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukraine on Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass slaughters of World War II.

Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation. The killing was carried out by SS troops along with local collaborators.
WASHINGTON (AP)  In a surprising development, a Russian man who was imprisoned in the U.S. for cybercrimes has been deported to Russia, officials said Tuesday.

Aleksei Burkov, 31, facilitated $20 million in credit card fraud and ran a sophisticated clearinghouse for international criminals. He was sentenced to nine years in prison last year after pleading guilty in federal court in Virginia.

Burkov was flown Monday on a commercial flight back to Russia, said Dani Bennett, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said Burkov was wanted in Russia for attempted theft and making and selling counterfeit credit cards.

Burkov was arrested in Israel in 2015 at the request of the U.S. and spent several years in custody there while the Russian government fought his extradition and later filed its own extradition request. He arrived in the U.S. in 2019. His nine-year prison term included credit for time served in Israel.

A New York attorney who has represented a number of high-profile Russian speakers accused of cybercrimes called Burkovs deportation while he was still in prison highly unusual and said it suggests Burkov may be involved in some sort of prisoner swap.

After 20 years of practice I can tell you I never saw that kind of scenario unless the Russian government really wants that person back and is will to provide someone or something that the U.S. wants in exchange, said the attorney, Arkady Bukh.

The United States and Russia do not have a treaty, as many friendly countries do, that allow prisoners to finish out their sentences in the other nation, he noted.

Israeli officials suggested Russia had sought Burkovs release by offering an exchange for Naama Issachar, an Israeli woman who received a seven-year prison sentence in Moscow on marijuana charges. She was released after being pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin roughly a week after Burkov pleaded guilty in the U.S.

Burkovs indictment in Russia drew suspicion because it occurred two years after his arrest in Israel.

Analysts have likened it to a similar attempt to repatriate a different cybercriminal to Russia after his arrest abroad: cryptocurrency exchange director Alexander Vinnik. Arrested in Greece, Vinnik is currently serving a five-year sentence in France.

Burkov, from St. Petersburg, Russia, operated a website called CardPlanet, which sold credit card numbers stolen through computer hacking. Prosecutors said a second website, Direct Connection, functioned as an invitation-only club where members could buy and sell stolen credit-card numbers, hacking services and malware, and criminals with different skill sets could join forces.

-

Bajak reported from Boston.
GREENWICH  Police arrested a man attempting to enter an apartment on Greenwich Avenue Monday night, according to the arrest report.

Officers were called to an attempted break-in on the 200 block of Greenwich Avenue around 11:17 p.m., police said, and they found that an air conditioner and sealing material had been tampered with at the window of a residence. Authorities said the intruder was confronted by a resident on the fire-escape balcony and ran from the scene.
Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

Folk music icon Bob Dylan is returning to the stage from his longest touring break since 1984 with two performances at Port Chesters Capitol Theatre on Nov. 23 and 24.

The two shows are part of the first leg of Dylans Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour, which is slated to take place through 2024.
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G arrives in India with Dimensity 700 chipset, 2 years of OS updates
Every smartphone maker seemingly now wants its devices to act as your digital car keys, and Samsung is no different. The company presented its vision back in January at the launch of the S21 series, and now the digital key function is finally rolling out to the Galaxy S21+ and S21 Ultra.

The feature is part of the October update for said devices. While the update is already going out in Germany, India, the Philippines, and South Korea, only the latter - incidentally, Samsung's home country - is currently getting the digital key support.

As previously announced, the digital key should work with supported vehicles from Audi, BMW, Genesis, and Ford at first. It's unclear exactly which those models are. With the new function, you can store a digital car key in Samsung Pass, and then open and close the doors using an NFC tag and start the engine when you place your phone on the car's wireless charging pad.

Hopefully all goes well with this implementation in Korea and the digital key feature will spread to other countries soon. In Korea, the new update has the build number G99*BXXU3AUIE, while in the rest of the world it ends in "AUIG" - clearly stressing the difference. Regardless, in any case you're getting the October 2021 security patches - once again, ahead of schedule (and beating Google to the punch, although this is something we've already gotten used to).

Source




Haiti - FLASH : The decree revoking the CEP would be illegal





The members of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) reject out of hand the decree of September 27, 2021 taken by Prime Minister Ariel Henry on September 27, 2021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34852-haiti-flash-the-government-revokes-the-cep.html The members of the Council, Inform the population that "the alleged decree" taken by the Prime Minister ai Ariel Henry does not "concern them" because it is illegal.



Ms. Esperencia Cesar, Vice-President of the CEP specifies that this decree is in flagrant violation of the Decrees of September 14, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31835-haiti-flash-appointment-of-cep-members-and-mandate.html and July 5, 2021



"The decree of September 14, 2020 appointing the members of the said council which is presidential and which must only be revoked by another presidenial decree.



The decree of July 5, 2021, appointing Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry who, at the end of his prescriptions, orders him to accompany the Provisional Electoral Council in the completion of the electoral process.



Based on these considerations, the members of the Provisional Electoral Council reject this dilatory decision which has nothing to do with the lol and plan, as soon as possible, to seize such bodies, judicial and administrative as of right for the purpose of requesting its annulment."



Reiterating its determination to organize honest, free, credible and democratic elections for the benefit of the Haitian nation.



For its part, the Rassemblement des Jovenelistes pour la Democratie (RJD), which abounds in the same direction, provides other additional details:



The decree in question is an decree of the Prime Minister. However, the members of the Provisional Electoral Council are appointed by decree of the President of the Republic, taken by the Council of Ministers. In the event of a presidential vacancy, the powers of the President of the Republic are exercised by the Council of Ministers and not by the Prime Minister"



The decree mentions "on the report of the acting Minister of Justice and Public Security and after deliberation in the Council of Ministers". The RJD underlines that "the signature of the Minister of Justice is not affixed immediately after that of the Prime Minister, which reinforces the observation that the document is not a document of the Council but of the Prime Minister alone."



The RJD goes on to claim that the document published in the Moniteur of September 27, 2021, number 47, entitled "Order freeing the Members of the Provisional Electoral Council from their links with the public administration", is "a forgery in public writing" a crime punishable by law, in particular articles 107 to 110 of the penal code and that the perpetrators and co-perpetrators of this crime must be brought to justice.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34852-haiti-flash-the-government-revokes-the-cep.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31835-haiti-flash-appointment-of-cep-members-and-mandate.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Migration crisis : The USA repatriated more than 3,700 Haitians in 8 days





Between September 19 and September 26, 2021, in 43 flights (including 6 Tuesday, September 28) more than 3,700 Haitians, just under half of whom are women and children, were repatriated from the United States to Haiti at the level of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien airports.



Our compatriots were welcomed by the National Migration Office (ONM), supported by several United Nations agencies including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to ensure that their return takes place in dignity, and this despite growing humanitarian and security challenges.



Despite limited response capacities, the ONM and humanitarian actors provide assistance for every Haitian, enabling them to cover their basic needs during the first days of their return to Haiti.



According to IOM, the protection risks for these people remain high, especially for women and children. The daily and structural difficulties experienced by a large part of the Haitian population with regard to access to basic services, adequate housing and food in particular, only accentuate the vulnerabilities of these migrants. The insecurity prevailing in some areas of the capital also increases these protection risks. The lack of employment opportunities can also represent an obstacle to their reintegration in the medium and long term.



Mark Morgan, former commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Biden administration has reinstated "the capture and release program." It stopped the migrant protection program. This means that if you are an unaccompanied minor, you are released in the United States. If you are a family you are released in the United States. If you are a single adult, the majority will be deported." He estimates that the number of migrants who have entered the United States is over 12,000 due to the 360 km of the Del Rio border difficult to monitor" convinced that it is "[...] a humanitarian crisis that was prompted by the open border policies of the Biden Administration."



US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejadro Mayorka said over the weekend regarding Haitian immigrants who entered the United States, "We have put in place enforcement guidelines that provide that people who have recently crossed the border, who do not appear at their hearings will be expelled" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34828-haiti-flash-no-more-migrants-under-the-del-rio-bridge.html



Adding that the number of people deported so far could become much higher after the dismantling by the Federal Government of some other irregular camps erected along the southern border.



For Morgan "The immigrants they release to the United States, their first hearing is scheduled two and a half to three years later, so it's an absolute lie [...] The US government knows full well that the majority of these migrants will not show up for their hearing and will have fled and will not be wanted."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34828-haiti-flash-no-more-migrants-under-the-del-rio-bridge.html



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





16 kidnappings in one week

Inspector General Marie Michelle Verrier, spokesperson for the National Police of Haiti (PNH) informed that 16 cases of kidnapping were recorded in the past week and that a dozen suspected kidnappers have been arrested.



Bahamas : More than 900 Haitians intercepted

More than 900 Haitian migrants were intercepted in the territorial waters of the Bahamas from September 22 to 27, according to the authorities of this country. Sunday in particular more than 400 migrants were apprehended and yesterday Monday 151 on the small island of Ragged. Bahamian authorities say they fear a massive wave of refugees.



Moise assassination : Those arrested but not charged will be released

In an interview with the American channel CNN on Tuesday, September 28, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he had asked Liszt Quitel his Minister of Justice to follow up on the case so that all those arrested (Americans, Colombians, Haitians and others) in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moise but detained without charge, be released.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34739-haiti-flash-the-pm-dismisses-the-minister-of-justice-the-government-commissioner-and-the-sg-of-the-council-of-ministers.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34714-haiti-flash-the-prosecution-wants-to-hear-pm-henry-in-connection-with-the-assassination-of-the-president.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34567-haiti-flash-new-investigating-judge-in-the-assassination-of-president-moise.html



USA : Meeting on Haitian migration

Tuesday, September 28, Ambassador of Haiti in Washington Bocchit Edmond had a very productive meeting with the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, was discuted the current situation of Haitian migrants and how best to strengthen the partnership between the authorities concerned in the two countries.



The Prime Minister office denies

The Prime Minister office formally denies the information circulating on social networks, suggesting that the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry would have received $5.5 million in aid to Haitian immigrants repatriated by the American authorities. The Prime Minister specifies that these funds, allocated by the American Government, are collected directly and managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the benefit of our expelled compatriots.



NOTICE Covid-19 : Vaccination day

Saturday, October 2, 2021 COVID-19 vaccination day in collaboration with Gheskio centers, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Ritz Kinam II, Moderna vaccine free. An initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce of Haiti (AmCham-Haiti), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the West (CCIO), the Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH) and the Tourist Association of Haiti (ATH). list of vaccination centers : https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-34864-icihaiti-covid-19-list-of-77-vaccination-centers-and-schedules-by-department-update-28-sep-2021.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















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Tribal elder, artist presenting "Hear Me, My Chiefs" at Blaine County Library

Nez Perce elder LeRoy Seth poses for a photograph. Seth and Montana artist Terry Ball will give a presentation Saturday in Blaine County Museum at 2 p.m. to commemorate the Nez Perce Flight of 1877.

The Blaine County Museum will be holding "Hear Me, My Chiefs," a special talk by Nez Perce elder LeRoy Seth and Montana Artist Terry Ball Saturday in the Blaine County Library to commemorate the Nez Perce Flight of 1877.

Blaine County Museum Director Samantha French said the talk was originally meant to coincide with the commemoration usually held at Bear Paw Battlefield by Nez Perce Tribe members, but that was canceled due to the rising COVID-19 numbers.

French said Seth is a talented speaker and descendant of a veteran of the flight, and she's excited to finally be able to meet him in person as he talks about the history of the flight, its aftermath and its significance.

"By all accounts LeRoy is a very gifted story teller with a great sense of humor," she said.

She said the Nez Perce Flight, which culminated in Chief Joseph's surrender at the Bear Paw Battlefield in 1877, is extremely important not just to local history but American history, as it marked the end of the Indian Wars, though it certainly wouldn't be the end of violence experienced by the tribes.

French said Seth is a meaningful speaker to talk about the history of the place because his grandfather Peo Peo Tho-lekt is one of the reasons so much about that final battle is known.

She said he was a member of Chief Looking Glass' band who managed to escape to Canada, but later returned in the Bear Paws in the 1920s to help historian L.V. McWhorter document the battle, identifying the sites like that of his chief's death, and Chief Joseph's surrender.

"It's one of the reasons why we know what we know about Bear Paw Battlefield today," French said.

She said Seth himself was raised with his native language and has an incredible amount of cultural knowledge he can share.

French said she's been the director of the museum for around two years and since then has learned a great deal about the flight, and wanted to do something in town to coincide with the commemoration at the battlefield, which she found inspiring when she first saw it.

She said she had originally planed to have the event last year using a $1,000 Humanities Montana Opportunity Grant, but had to cancel for COVID-19.

However, she said, the museum will be able to host the event this year, which she's thrilled about.

"We're really excited to be doing something in the community to commemorate that historic event," she said.

French said, despite the importance of the events that took place there, the Bear Paw Battlefield is not nearly as well-traveled as it should be, and while many people may recognize Chief Joseph's famous words "I will fight no more forever," many don't know much about the historical context of those words, and she wants to help change that.

"We overlook it a lot, which I think is unfortunate," she said.

French said the talk will also feature Montana Artist Terry Ball, who will be talking about a blanket he designed, which Saturday's event is named after, to commemorate the flight.

She said Ball was a Pendleton blanket salesman for 40 years and after his retirement decided to design one of his own.

Ball was interested in the story of the Nez Perce and their flight and wanted to design the blanket to commemorate it, so he got in touch with Seth and another Nez Perce elder, Silas Whitman, to help make sure the design was culturally appropriate.

She said over the course of their collaboration Ball and Seth became close and when the former called the museum asking if he could sell some of the blankets there, and potentially come up to do a presentation on them and what they're commemorating she thought it was a great opportunity.

The event is free and will be held at the Blaine County Library Conference room at 2 p.m. Saturday where they will raffle off one of Ball's limited edition "Hear Me, My Chiefs" blankets with tickets costing $10.

She said these tickets will be on sale in advance of the event and will raise funds for the Nez Perce Tribe's Boys & Girls Club.

Two donated Chief Joseph blankets, will also be raffled off for $5 per ticket, but only event attendees can win those.

French encouraged unvaccinated people to wear masks to the event.

With the delta-driven COVID-19 surge in the state, which includes recent deaths in this area, officials are urging people to take steps to slow the spread of the virus that causes the disease.

People who feel ill and unvaccinated people who have been exposed to the virus should stay at home and vaccinated people who have been exposed to the virus should be tested within three to five days of exposure, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

People are urged to wear masks and socially distance when out in public.

And everyone who has not is urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
We were supposed to get the tile backsplash installed in our kitchen yesterday, but my husband, Peter, said he needed to use the kitchen so he could bake ginger cookies.

Can you work in the bathroom today instead? I asked Meshach, the talented tiler from Kenya, who has been here so long by now that he feels like part of the family. Peter wants to bake ginger cookies.

Meshach has now been joined by a second Kenyan, who is assisting him, named Yusefu. Yusefu and Meshach looked at me seriously for a long moment.

Yes, Meshach finally said. We can work in the bathroom today as long as we each get a cookie.

This seemed like a reasonable accommodation.

Peter is using his mothers ginger cookie recipe that he has perfected through trial and error. He wears a chefs hat when he bakes, and he is very efficient. He made the cookies at Christmas in 2019 (which seems like such a long time ago now) when his sister, Lori, was so ill we werent sure she would make it through the Christmas holidays. She lived through Christmas  and well beyond  and I like to think, in a small way, the ginger cookies helped.

Ginger cookies are good for your stomach when it is upset. They are not too sweet. They are easy to eat. They are wonderful with a glass of milk or a cup of tea. I dont think there is much in life that isnt made better by a ginger cookie, especially one fresh from the oven, small and dark and crisp, the way Peters mother made them.

Ginger cookies were about all Lori could eat when the chemo made her nauseous, so Peter kept baking ginger cookies after the holidays were over. When the pandemic hit, he kept baking. I dont know how many cookies Peter brought to Lori. She couldnt eat many. There were days when she didnt eat much at all. But she kept eating ginger cookies when she was able to eat anything.

Peter kept baking them until shortly before she died, earlier this year.

This Sunday, we will have a memorial for Lori. Her cousins and remaining siblings and nieces and nephews and co-workers from past jobs and old friends from school will all be there. It will be outdoors in a park near where Peters family settled when they came over from Norway. The weather is supposed to be fine. There will be a few stories told and a few tears shed. There will be a picnic and an interment of ashes in the graveyard where generations of Peters family have been laid to rest. And there will be ginger cookies because Peter made a giant batch.

These cookies were comfort food for Lori, and perhaps they will help comfort us now that she is gone. They remind us of childhood and happy times and holidays spent with friends and family. They remind us that our lives are sweet and small, but that they can make a difference. This Sunday, we will all remember the ways in which Loris life made a difference.

Do you think theres enough? Peter asked me, still in his chefs hat, looking at the enormous pile of tiny cookies.

Yes, I told him. I think there are enough. But I might not have been telling the truth.

The truth is that Im not sure there can ever be enough ginger cookies. The truth is, we could all stand to have a few ginger cookies stashed away for when they are needed.

Till next time,

Carrie



Carrie Classons memoir is called Blue Yarn. Learn more at CarrieClasson.com.
Early voting under way for city primary

City voters can cast ballots through Saturday for the Hendersonville City Council primary election or go to the polls on Election Day Tuesday.

Candidates are Mike Baer, Raphael Morales, Debbie Roundtree, Jerry Smith Jr., Mike Vesely and Chelsea Walsh. Voters will narrow the field to four candidates who will be on the Nov. 2 ballot to fill two seats.

One-stop voting takes place 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. through Friday and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Board of Elections, 75 E. Central St.

Polls are open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Polling sites are the National Guard Armory, Carolina Village, Hendersonville 1 (Hendersonville High School), Hendersonville 2 (Bruce Drysdale Elementary School), Hendersonville 3 (Whitmire Activity Center) and Moores Grove Methodist Church.

Some precincts have been combined for the primary on Tuesday. Southeast and Southwest voters will vote at the Armory. Long John Mountain and Northwest voters will vote at Hendersonville High School. Clear Creek and Northeast voters will vote at Moores Grove Methodist Church.



League hosts meet-greet for all municipal elections

The Henderson County League of Women Voters will host a meet and greet for candidates in all of the municipal elections in Henderson County from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, at the large picnic pavilion in Patton Park behind the swimming pool, 114 E. Clairmont Drive.

Voters on Nov. 2 will elect officeholders in Hendersonville, Fletcher, Flat Rock, Mills River, Laurel Park and Saluda. All of the candidates have been invited. Information about voter registration, municipal elections, absentee ballots and redistricting will be available. The event is free and open to the public.
Covid stress, staffing shortages burning out first responders

First responders didnt work from home when the coronavirus pandemic altered schedules in many professions.

While many people bedded down and stayed away, we suited up and went to peoples houses and we still continue to do that to this day, Hendersonville Fire Chief D. James Miller said. People are dialing 911 and saying I have Covid and I cant breathe and were going into their houses, were going into the assisted living facilities, were going into the hospitals and having long-term direct exposure with someone you know is Covid positive and giving them breathing treatments and assisting Henderson County EMS.

The cost of emergency response and strain on those who provide it over the past 18 months was cast into stark relief over the past three weeks as elected leaders heard urgent requests from their police, fire and ambulance leaders for funding to hire more help, add sign-on bonuses and provide mental health coverage. In successive meetings a week apart, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners and the Hendersonville City Council heard that:

The countys emergency medical services has had to park ambulances and activate its forced overtime policy to staff those that remain. We are have a staffing shortage, Jimmy Brissie, the countys emergency services director, told commissioners on Sept. 15. Were seeing an increase in strain on our supervisory staff and were seeing an increase in competition in our region for recruitment and retention and thats basically from other EMS services as well as private hospitals or private services.

The death of young children, vehicle crashes with serious injuries and suicides are among the stressful situations that firefighters and police officers see routinely on top of the now everyday stress of Covid. We had three children under the age of 4 die within three weeks, Miller told the City Council when he and Police Chief Blair Myhand asked for funding for a two day a week mental health counselor for the citys first responders. Seeing that  seeing suicides, seeing drug overdoses, seeing vehicle crashes  after a while that cumulative effect tends to keep adding up and adding up and adding up.

The city police department is shorthanded because of competition for new officers, the citys high cost of housing and a steady dose of negative publicity about police. Early October, Ill only be down four positions, Myland told the council. Ive seen a dramatic decrease in the number of police applicants in the last 12 months. Many factors are responsible for that. This profession is not very attractive. Its been vilified a lot in the last 18 to 24 months.

In each case, the elected leaders responded. County commissioners agreed to Brissies request to spend $455,000 in federal American Rescue Plan money to hire seven more paramedics  two devoted to vacation and sick leave coverage and five to staff ambulances and free up front-line supervisors for training and quick-response management of acute emergencies such as heart attacks, trauma and vehicle crashes with multiple injuries. The City Council granted the request of its police and fire chiefs to embed a mental health counselor to respond to firefighters and police officers needs and also tentatively committed to fund hiring bonuses across all city departments.



Were experiencing burnout

The strain of emergency work in the now long-term Covid environment is taking a toll across the ranks of first responders.

We have been experiencing consistent decreases in availability of staff to pick up overtime on shifts as well as absences, Brissie told commissioners. A lot of that is related to Covid. More staff are out due to having Covid or being a close contact as well as injuries.  Basically were experiencing that burnout like the hospitals are experiencing burnout with the staff. Theyre tired and they would much rather have their time off.

Increased absenteeism results in us having to take trucks out of service. Dropping from the full fleet of eight ambulances down to seven just increases our response time countywide, Brissie said. We take one resource out, it puts that same call volume on the other resources that are in play. EMS has had to park an ambulance 87 days since May 1. If theres still not enough EMTs and paramedics to staff the trucks, the department resorts to forced overtime, which puts EMTs and paramedics on the street 24 or 36 hours straight.

Weve had to do that 16 times in July and August and I think weve even done it two or three times this week already, Brissie told commissioners.

Commissioners approved $128,000 for the two paramedics to cover gaps caused by vacation and other time off and $327,000 for the five paramedics on regular duty, enabling supervisors to manage instead of covering gaps.

Weve seen a growth in the rank and file of our paramedics but weve not seen the leadership grow to manage that, Brissie said.

Finally, Brissie asked commissioners to fund a comprehensive study of EMS salaries.

At the end of the day, right now we have about 50 percent of our staff with less than five years of experience, he said. Its going to take a while to fill these new positions. With the competition in the region and just the general stress surrounding health care, thats going to compound it.

Police applications plunge

Both Myhand and Miller said first responder agencies across the region and state had seen emotional and mental health stress increase markedly as Covid cases have increased call volume, absenteeism and seriously ill patients. The City Council said yes to their request to add a mental health clinician from a company in Asheville that provides counselors with a first responder background. Instead of a nameless, faceless counselor they would reach by phone, police officers and firefighters will have regular access to an embedded mental health clinician who would get to know them and be ready to handle mental health needs that arise.

We want them to have a relationship with somebody that they see on routine basis that understands our job, Miller said. Our hope is that we create that relationship rather than them having some difficulty and we say, Here, dial this number, and on the other end of that number is someone youve never seen in our offices and youve never interacted with them.

Myhand told the council that the starting rookie cop pay and local housing costs coupled with everyone else trying to take our great men and women away from us to come to work for their organization makes this a difficult hiring environment.

Historically when it had an opening, the city would get 50 applicants over a 30-day period, he said. In a 30-day period this past summer, I got 11 applicants and only three had any police experience whatsoever, he said. Its just not the time to want to be a police or maybe even in local government.



City adds public works employees

The pay scale, shortage of labor supply and competition from larger jurisdictions makes hiring more difficult beyond first responder agencies, City Manager John Connet told council members last week when he recommended hiring and retention bonuses.

A lot of cities across the state are looking at these bonus programs, he said. However, its so competitive theyve not been sharing their bonus numbers with us. And were seeing that in the private sector, too, up to six or seven thousand dollars for somebody to come work for them. Were looking at a portion of it when theyre hired, a portion of it six months later and a final portion if theyre here after a year. Connet, who projected a bonus payment of $4,500 to $5,000 per hire, won the council approval to come back with a formal recommendation in the coming weeks.

The City Council also agreed to bolster the public works force after the departments director, Tom Wooten, described additional work the city will need to cover in the coming months and years.

Public works maintains streets, sidewalks, parking lots and stormwater pipes, collects garbage, picks up leaves and brush and maintains the citys buildings, parks and cemetery. When the city adds Edwards Park, Fire Station 1, the new police station and potentially a downtown park on the Dogwood parking lot land, Wooten projects the workload to grow to from 21,244 hours to 29,400 hours a year, the equivalent of six new employees.

The council approved Wootens request to add an assistant public works director and a new employee in environmental services, one in grounds maintenance plus one in the streets department when the new parking deck opens and Main Street parking meters go live in January 2023.

Not only are we seeing the growth but we also, for better or worse, are seeing increased expectations from the public and as we started looking at how can we meet those expectations we couldnt do it with the personnel we had, Connet said. Typically we would not bring this request in the middle of the budget year but were at a point with the growth that Tom and (assistant director) Chad (Freeman) have established a high standard, and a high level is expected by the City Council and we appreciate that, but in order for us to maintain it and do it and be responsive we need to add some of these positions so we can keep moving forward.
The world was made a little less joyful with the passing of Susan Berkowitz in her home, on 
Appointment

29 September 2021

Outrigger Hospitality Group has announced its senior management team that will open three resorts in southern Thailand this high season.

Leah Matters, has been appointed General Manager, Outrigger Koh Samui Beach Resort.

She will be assisted by a dozen or so other managers, soon to be announced, many with area responsibilities in finance, security, HR, engineering and purchasing. The appointments come as Outrigger establishes its presence in three of the most sought-after beach locations in Asia.

Leah Matters has held senior roles with Outrigger in Australia and Thailand since 2008, notably as General Manager of Outrigger Twin Towns Resort and then Resort Manager of the former Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort, 2015-21.

Ms Matters is particularly strong on guest satisfaction policy implementation and resort social media engagement.
Appointment

29 September 2021

Adil Ahmed has been promoted to director of sales at Kempinski Hotel Muscat. He had been sales manager since 2017.

For the past four years, the Omani has spearheaded the hotel's leisure segment, helping to establish the hotel as one of the Sultanate's leading leisure destinations. It is this achievement that turned heads within his hotel, landing him his new position.

Ahmed started his career in early 2001 in Morocco before he moved to the USA and joined companies such as Walt Disney World in Florida and ABC news affiliate in Connecticut.

He joined Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa in 2014 where he was responsible for developing the leisure segment and Group Series business. In 2016, he joined Grand Millennium Muscat & Millennium Executive Apartments as a cluster sales manager where he focused on the GCC leisure market.
Appointment

29 September 2021

As the all-new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Minneapolis begins to take shape in the heart of the city, Four Seasons announces the appointment of company veteran to the property's leadership team.

General Manager Florian Riedel arrives from Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley at East Palo Alto, where he held the same role. Born and educated in Germany, the multi-lingual Riedel began his Four Seasons career at one of the company's flagship locations in London, England, before moving through progressive positions in Berlin, the Bahamas, Hawaii and California. He is well-versed in the company's growing residential business, having overseen the integration of one of its largest residential communities into the resort operations of Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, as well as projects in Seattle and Beijing.

Never far from the kitchen, he also had a partnership in a Tuscan restaurant for a time, where he and his wife worked together. Now with a young family, Riedel is looking forward to putting some roots down in Minneapolis.
Appointment

29 September 2021

As the all-new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Minneapolis begins to take shape in the heart of the city, Four Seasons announces the appointment of company veteran to the property's leadership team.

Chris White has been appointed Director of Marketing. With a resume of success at several leading luxury hotel brands, his time at Four Seasons Resort Hualalai is particularly notable as he led the sales and marketing team to achieving record profitability, and was a key driver in the Resort earning numerous international accolades from industry experts and guests, including being named #1 Hotel in the World by TripAdvisor reviewers during his tenure.

Born and educated in southwestern Ontario, not far from the global head office of Four Seasons in Toronto, White was delighted to relocate to the Twin Cities with his family.
Appointment

29 September 2021

Yana Bandurko re-joins Radisson Hotel group as front office manager of the historical 5 star property.

The Ukrainian national first joined Radisson Hotels in 2012, where she spent time as both Front Office manager and later Food & Beverage manager in Kyiv. Yana first experienced UAE hospitality when she joined the opening team of Radisson Blu Hotel Apartments Silicon Oasis in 2017 as Rooms Divisions Manager, looking after front office, housekeeping and health club for the 217 apartment property.

Beginning her career with the Vertex group in Ukraine as a front office supervisor, Yana's commitment to team leadership and results driven work ethic have allowed her to grow within Radisson Hotel Group. With her appointment at Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek, the first five star hotel in Dubai, it is hoped she will lead the team to continue exemplary guest service.
Supplier News

29 September 2021

HITEC Dallas will take place from September 27-30, 2021 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas USA. HITEC is the world's largest and oldest hospitality technology event. Produced by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), a global nonprofit hospitality association that is headquartered in Austin, Texas USA, HITEC offers a unique combination of top-notch education and brings together the brightest minds and hottest technologies from across the globe to one place. The unparalleled event offers attendees essential education, access to top hospitality technology industry experts, and the resources to find cost-effective ways to improve company bottom lines.

TraknProtect

TraknProtect is a real-time location technology provider enabling hotels to harness the power of location data and integrate it into their safety and operations systems. TraknProtect provides enhanced safety devices (ESDs) for hotel employees through activation of a safety button integrated solution alerting security personnel to the location of employees in need of assistance. The platform provides additional access to real-time locations and data about hotel inventory, room service trays, and vendor activity on the property. The TraknProtect software platform is also enabling hotels to enhance guest satisfaction, increase employee efficiency, and improve employee safety by using TraknProtect data analytics to save significant capital costs and make smarter inventory purchasing decisions and improved management of outside vendors. For more information, please visit www.traknprotect.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

TraknProtect CEO Parminder Batra takes us on a tour explaining what to expect at HITEC Dallas!

https://www.traknprotect.com

HITEC Booth #1518

Quore

Quore is an award-winning, cloud-based hotel quality optimization solution, providing the right tools to empower hotels of any size to make operations more efficient and improve guest experiences. Founded in 2012, it is the first solution ever to combine state-of-the-art technology and intuitive design to better manage all aspects of the guest experience, including preventative maintenance, guest requests and complaints, work orders, housekeeping and workforce/shift communication. Quore"s software is used by more than 4,400 hotels in the U.S., and it supports hotels from the industry"s largest brands, including IHG, Marriott, Hilton and Choice. The Franklin, Tennessee-based company is privately owned and was named one of America"s Best Startup Employers by Forbes.

https://www.quore.com/

HITEC Booth: #2522

Uniguest & Janus Displays

Uniguest is an all-in-one platform that enables hotel brands to connect with guests and employees in a secure way. Our single content management system synchronizes content across any screen, in any space--making it easy for teams to effectively communicate with their audience regardless of where they are throughout the property. With the convenience of a single partner and platform, more than 18k properties enjoy customization, scheduling and monitoring of content across digital signage, in-room television, public computing, mobile devices and more. We provide more than 32,000 customer-facing content delivery solutions around the world, all backed by the confidence of our round-the-clock technical support organization. Our secure solutions have helped leading brands in the hospitality, retail, and financial services industries achieve higher value through reduced risk, increased revenue, and greater customer satisfaction.

James Keen, Vice President of Marketing at Uniguest, takes us on a tour on what to expect from UNIGUEST & Janus Displays at HITEC 2021 in Dallas!

http://www.uniguest.com/ and https://janusdisplays.com

Vist HITEC Booth #1611

Stay-N-Charge

Search for EV Hotels - Use our website to search EV Hotels by charging or location. It's easy to search and find top-rated hotels with ev chargers. Compare EV Hotels - After searching for EV Hotels, compare charging information, reviews, and full profiles of each hotel on our website. Connect with EV Hotel Members - Contact members you like for more information. Our members are always happy to hear from you!

https://www.stayncharge.com/

Visit HITEC Booth #1623

Upkeeply

Founder/CEO Jeff Bowes introduces Upkeeply, a platform enabling hotels to optimize hotel services with a powerful app. Visit Upkeeply at HITEC - Dallas, Booth 1607, and ask about our introductory show special!
Press Release

29 September 2021

This journey of sustainability were on isnt easy. Its an everyday conversation and focus. We dont have all the answers. Join us on the path forward as we celebrate improvements in sustainability, ignite conversations, shine the spotlight on the changemakers and ask for a bit of help.

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Crystalbrook Sustainability Month

From providing paid leave for staff to advocate for planet earth, zero-waste stays, awarding the public for environmental ideas, repurposing food sources that would otherwise be wasted, distilling a signature gin with botanicals foraged from Crystalbrook Byrons rainforest, to planting a tree for each guest stay (dogs included), Crystalbrook Sustainability Month will demonstrate the hotel groups philosophy of delivering #ResponsibleLuxury and sustainable innovation.

Your Moment for Change: $10,000 in resort credits up for grabs

Crystalbrook is inviting all Australians to share their own environmental ideas that will foster sustainability in the hospitality industry. Your Moment for Change invites entrants to design a sustainable initiative, big or small. The winner will receive $5,000 in resort credits that can be used across Crystalbrooks portfolio of hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, and spas. The two runner ups will each receive $2,500 in resort credits.

To apply, and for more information, visit Crystalbrook Sustainability Month.

Paid leave for staff to rally for the environment

As of 1 October 2021, all Crystalbrook full-time staff will be awarded an additional day of paid annual leave in the form of an Earth Advocacy Day. The additional day of leave can be used for advocacy, engagement or education.

If our staff want to attend a climate rally once lockdowns are over or participate in environmental initiatives, we want them to know were right behind them. Not only does the planet win but we win, as these are just the kind of people we want working with us, said Crystalbrook CEO Geoff York.

Crystalbrook Sustainability Month Property Initiatives

Throughout Crystalbrook Sustainability Month, each property will be showcasing a range of innovative sustainability led measures that are unique to their location and local community.

Cairns - Crystalbrook Bailey, Crystalbrook Riley and Crystalbrook Flynn

Footprint Free Stays - In an Australian first, the trio of Cairns hotels and resort will be trialling Footprint Free Stays, redesigning the guest experience pursuing prevention and reutilisation of waste (including into art).

Guests opting into a Footprint Free Stay agree to avoid using single use plastic, reuse towels and linen, turnoff unnecessary electronics and recycle waste during their stay. In turn, they are rewarded with a $15 daily restaurant and bar credit.

Byron Bay - Crystalbrook Byron

Friday Farmers Market Menu - Every Friday night in October Crystalbrook Byron will be offering a special, sustainable menu featuring peak-of-the-market ingredients, many sourced from the local Thursday farmers market along with a selection of produce that would usually go to waste. $75 per person for three courses.

Forest Gin - In partnership with Bryon Bay Spirits Company, Crystalbrook Bryon has developed a signature gin using a selection of native botanicals, including those foraged from the Resorts on-site rainforest. The used glass bottles are sent back to be refilled and the labels are made from Plant PP; a renewable material made from oil collected during the manufacturing of timber.

Behind the scenes - Crystalbrook Byron will take guests behind the scenes with a series of digital activations including pickling and preserving leftover produce with Executive Chef Jordan Staniford; Recreating the signature vegan wattleseed cookies featuring rainforest ingredients from the Resort; Composting with the on-site SubPods; And, honey harvesting from the on-site Flow Hives, how to make a honey recipe (vinaigrette), and the importance of bees.

Brisbane - Crystalbrook Vincent

Zero Waste Kitchen - Crystalbrook Vincent is using Crystalbrook Sustainability Month to work towards zero landfill waste in their kitchens. One example initiative includes repurposing food waste such as banana skin into liquid slow-release fertiliser to nourish the plants on the facade of the hotel (added bonus: the fertiliser also acts as a non-toxic pest repellent).

Newcastle - Crystalbrook Kingsley

Waste to Wonderful - A series of digital activations from the hotel teaching guests how to get creative with everyday food waste and transform it into something spectacular including:

Up your cocktail game by transforming leftover citrus peel to killer cocktail garnishes and syrups.

Pickling with spices including native Australian native pepper leaf, carraway seeds and bay leaf.

How to use the whole fish with Executive Chef, Natalie Bolt  the process of butchering the fish, different ways to use the flesh and the leftovers for stock and sauces.

Save the ugly fruit/vegetables  creating something beautiful out of food that would ordinarily be thrown out.

Sydney - Crystalbrook Albion

Pups, People and Plants - Crystalbrook Albion is partnering with One Tree Planted to support reforestation and will plant a native Australian tree for every person and puppy who books in the month of October.

About Crystalbrook

Crystalbrook is one of Australias leading sustainable and innovative independent hospitality companies. Each hotel in the portfolio carries an authentic expression of its location, a passion for responsible luxury, considered design and a twinkle of fun for a uniquely enriching experience.

Crystalbrooks portfolio includes:

Crystalbrook Riley, Cairns, Queensland

Crystalbrook Albion, Sydney, New South Wales

Crystalbrook Byron, Byron Bay, New South Wales

Crystalbrook Bailey, Cairns, Queensland

Crystalbrook Flynn, Cairns, Queensland

Crystalbrook Kingsley, Newcastle, New South Wales

Crystalbrook Vincent, Brisbane, Queensland

The Group also owns and operates a collection of thirteen restaurants, three spas, Crystalbrook Superyacht Marina in Port Douglas along with Crystalbrook Station and its subsidiary pastoral businesses.

Responsible Luxury

Responsible Luxury and sustainability is at the forefront of the way Crystalbrook thinks and operates.

At a glance:
Press Release

29 September 2021

Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG), an Atlanta-based, private hotel management and investment company, today announced that it has assumed management of the 344-room Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center. Located in the northern Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody, the hotel recently completed a multi-million-dollar renovation to upgrade the hotels exterior, 18,000 square feet of meeting space and guestrooms.

From our headquarters to our portfolio of 12 local hotels, Atlanta is where our roots are; the Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center is a perfect addition to the expanding operational role we play here, said Robert Cole, president & CEO, HVMG. As our hometown, Atlanta is intimately familiar to us, and the hotel will benefit from our managerial expertise. In addition to benefiting from shared best practices and economies of scale, we expect the hotels bottom line to improve dramatically following the implementation of our proprietary management and marketing systems.

Located at 246 Perimeter Center Parkway NE next to the Dunwoody MARTA station, the Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center is surrounded by several major corporate headquarters and a short drive from the Atlanta International Airport. Nearby attractions include SunTrust Park (home of the Atlanta Braves), the Perimeter Mall and Mercedes-Benz Stadium (home of the Atlanta United and Atlanta Falcons). The hotel provides a full-service fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools and nearly 18,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space. Guests may dine at The Greatroom, offering fresh takes on classic favorites, such as braised pork belly arepas and Guinness-braised brisket sandwiches. Rooms are equipped with complimentary WIFI access and oversized work areas.
Press Release

29 September 2021

Radisson Hotel Group, one of the world's leading hotel groups, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Too Good To Go in Europe to reduce food waste and have a positive impact on the climate.

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Too Good To Go is a social impact company dedicated to fighting global food waste and its negative impact on the environment, including the waste of other natural resources. The new partnership aims to reduce food waste in Radisson Hotel Group hotels throughout Europe.

Globally it is estimated that 40% of all food is wasted. Over-ordering, over-preparation and over-trimming in restaurants can lead to significant volumes of waste. The partnership with Too Good To Go builds on Radisson Hotel Groups current work towards responsible consumption. Radisson Hotel Group has already implemented measures such as portion control and improved food storage to aid in preventing food waste, and is now taking the fight against food waste one step further by selling ready-to-eat meals on the Too Good to Go app.

The Too Good To Go app is a solution that allows businesses to redistribute surplus food at the end of the shift or day to combat food waste. The app connects businesses with customers who want to buy this food at a set, reduced price and help preserve the environment  reducing food, energy and water wastage, as well as the associated CO footprint of the food that would otherwise go to waste. The free app is now the largest B2C marketplace for surplus food in the world.

The goal of the partnership is to locally redistribute the surplus food of Radisson Hotel Group hotels in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland via the Too Good To Go app.

Since its activation, Radisson Hotel Group has already saved 15,367 meals from going to waste, which corresponds to a CO reduction of 37.6 tons.

Mette Lykke, Chief Executive Officer of Too Good To Go says: The latest figures on global food waste from the WWF have discovered the problem to be even higher than previously believed, with 40% of all food going to waste. We need to address this urgently to avoid going backwards on progress weve made in recent years. It is through partnerships like this that businesses can make an impact at scale, which we absolutely have a responsibility to do, on the complicated issue of food waste.

Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications at Radisson Hotel Group said: In light of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Too Good To Go. It strengthens our positive impact and is fully aligned with our sustainability goals, including setting science-based emissions reduction targets This strong partnership across Europe highlights the importance of tackling food waste in reaching the UNs goal of SDG 12.3, to cut global food waste in half by 2030.
Opinion Article

29 September 2021

We are 18 months into the global pandemic and the travel industry is still feeling the impacts, and will for some time. However, during the last 18 months, everyone in the industryfrom small hospitality companies to big travel brandshave had the opportunity to reprioritize and think of new ways we can all bring the industry back better and come out on the other side of this pandemic stronger and more sustainable. This was the key theme of the Skift Global Forum that took place last week, and I was excited to be a part of it. I got to attend the event in person this year, where I saw our Senior Vice President, Wendy Olson Killion, share a brief presentation entitled Building Back Better: Traveler Trends & Insights Driving Recovery. In this she dove into insights from our Q2 Travel Trend Report, which shows a rise in searches across Expedia Group sites, and the lengthening of search windows across the globe.

Here are our top five takeaways from the wider event:

The Return of (Some) Business Travel

Speakers who graced the stage were excited to be there in person. Marriotts CEO Anthony Capuano even said during his interview on stage with Skift that the in-person event was reflective of the desire for business travel to return. Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, suggested that while business travel is coming back, we can expect that internal business travel (internal meetings, office visits, etc.) will come back much slower.

While blurring the lines of business travel and leisure travel, the work from anywhere trend is expected to stay for a while, according to many speakers on the Skift stage. Companies like Sonder, according to its Co-Founder and CEO Francis Davidson, are providing their employees with the freedom to work wherever they want.

Pent-Up Demand  Will it Last?

We know across the industry that travel is returning  and has been for a while now since the onset of COVID-19. However, in some places, travel has returned better than ever, and the industry is questioning whether that is a temporary or a lasting trend.

For example, Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said there has been so much pent-up demand that this past summer the number of flights and the capacity between France and Greece were higher than in 2019. And, according to the Family Travel Association, demand for family travel is now at pre-pandemic levels; 88% of families are planning travel in the next 12 months. President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA, Dana Young, also reported that the state has seen a 6% increase in demand compared to 2019.

Whats Next for Loyalty Programs?

The pandemic brought on many challenges for loyalty programs across the industry as program contributions have dipped for most hotel brands over the past 18 months. Hotels, among others, are rethinking their programs in new ways, including Expedia Group, where we just announced plans to unify and expand the loyalty offering to include all brands and products. This means that Expedia Group customers can soon enjoy the most complete travel rewards offering in the industry.

Inclusivity on the Rise

Marlene Valle gave a presentation discussing how the travel industry around the world is designed for hearing and able-bodied travelers, which makes it a challenge for deaf travelers like herself. Marlene encouraged the industry to do better, sharing a couple of lessons for those in attendance, including the importance of offering alternative forms of communication for all travelers. She also encouraged brands to be very clear about accessibility features on their website and prompted disabled travelers to discuss their needs ahead of their trip to ensure those needs are met.

The Time is Now for Sustainability

Sustainability was a trending topic across the entire conference, with many leaders taking the time to announce or discuss their plans for their businesses to step up their sustainable efforts; from Marriott International CEO, Anthony Capuano, announcing their plans to go net-zero by 2050, to Google launching eco badges for hotels. Skift researcher Seth Borko explained how carbon cost reducing is resulting in an overall increase in carbon emissions, thus requiring more focus than ever before on limiting travels ongoing impact. Skift urged all travel brands to think about the carbon aspect of sustainability and how travelers can help.

We are addressing the topic of sustainable travel in an upcoming webinar with guest speakers from UNESCO and Iberostar. Make sure you register to join the discussion live or on demand.
Opinion Article

29 September 2021

Organizations have always had tax obligations, adherence to immigration regulations, legal risks and reporting requirements when it comes to their employees business travel and remote working.

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However, the tightening of border controls in response to Covid-19, Brexit and a growing penchant for remote working among other issues has created a perfect storm. Many countries have taken the opportunity to increase the enforcement of taxation rules for short-term business visitors, increase scrutiny of work visas, social security certificates (A1s and CoCs) and Posted Worker notifications in the European Union, as well as Brexit restrictions on EU-United Kingdom movements.

Non-compliance with regulations can result in fines in the millions for employers, with employee fines and potential sanctions also likely to occur, as well as reputational damage.

To comply with the increase in enforcement of these regulations and to avoid fines and sanctions, organizations need streamlined processes, full visibility of where their travelers are, how long theyll be gone, the type of activity they are performing and, to be alerted to any compliance issues before they occur.

Tracker Software Technologies (TST) helps clients manage their traveler tax and immigration compliance. TSTs extensive rules engine has over 6 million algorithms which assess a travelers accumulating time at the host country, nationality, country of residence, trip purpose, destination and duration of stay at each location.

Based on the assessment, alerts are sent to identify and address any compliance issues before they occur, giving clients peace of mind that their travelers have the right documentation and other permissions to enter a country, in addition to tracking days spent in different countries for any tax requirements.

We ask Tom Crosby, Director, Consulting Services, Tracker Software Technologies why its more important than ever to manage compliance risks associated with business travel and remote working.

Brexit hasnt had an impact yet

The lack of travel has slightly masked the impacts of Brexit and the now implemented Posted Worker obligations. The requirement to count days spent in the Schengen zone for the UK-based worker will become a new reality for mobile teams. This data is readily available in travel systems and travellers will look to their employers to advise them when they are approaching thresholds. Who could have thought that you would need your employees to also record their holiday travel into the EU as the Schengen requirements cover days of presence, not days of work. A month in the sun in August could potentially have significant implications on travel in the 3rd quarter.

The latest iteration of Posted Worker directive came into force in July, 2020, but with a world focused on COVID-19 there have been no real horror stories yet. They will soon come to pass. If you have not set up your processes to manage this new administrative phenomenon then this is the optimum time to do so.

Its important to seek out a comprehensive listing of activities from traveling employees so you can avoid unnecessary secondary processes by gleaning more detailed information from the traveller when they book their trip. If you are re-engineering the new travel process, then make it easy for the traveller to do everything on one visit to the screen or smartphone.

Remote working is on the up

Most LinkedIn timelines and blog feeds have been filled with speculative features on how remote working will prevail post-COVID. Remote workers carry the same risk attributes as business travellers. They are displaced from their normal place of work for an extended period - maybe within their same tax residence, or within a jurisdiction they have a right to work in, but maybe not. Pre-remote work request will become as commonplace as Pre-trip request. Employees will be asked to submit these requests under policies (still to be developed in many companies) and employers will evaluate these requests under the same variables that cause compliance issues for business travellers.

Remember that Remote Work  is just, that  work  so some of the grey areas around meetings and conferences that sometimes obfuscate business travel liabilities cant be applied to remote workers. They are working from day 1, so tax, immigration and posted worker obligations arise immediately.

Corporates are under scrutiny

The COVID-19 pandemic has emptied many countries coffers in supporting citizens and businesses. At the same time, many global corporates are still reporting healthy revenues. Governments will turn to corporates to secure additional tax revenues, as evidenced recently by Corporation Tax increases in the UK from 19% to 25%. There are large bills to pay for the COVID-disruption and the Corporates reporting healthy profits can expect greater scrutiny in the years to come.

To find out more about CWT's robust travel and compliance ecosystem contact [email protected]
Some trucks hauling FedEx deliveries from Dallas to Houston may soon be missing a key feature: drivers.

Autonomous vehicle company Aurora announced this month it has partnered with FedEx and truck-manufacturer PACCAR to begin testing driverless big rigs along the 250-mile stretch of I-45 between Texas two largest cities. While the trucks will make the trek with a safety driver up front until at least 2023, almost all of the roadway decision-making and driving will be left to Auroras software systems and location-sensing hardware.

Gerardo Interiano, VP of Government Relations and Public Affairs at Aurora, said Texas seemed like an obvious place to test their trucking service.

Trucking is the backbone of our economy, and Texas moves more goods by truck than any other state, he said. The weather is favorable and its a welcoming state for new technologies, both of which are advantageous as we refine and deploy our technology and service with a trusted transportation company like FedEx.

Several other companies and municipalities have been testing their driverless vehicles across the Lone Star State. Autonomous delivery company Nuro picked Houston as one of three markets where it would test its service, sending late-model Toyota Priuses outfitted with large camera installations across the region to map roads and test its delivery software. Their vehicles still have two employees inside the cars for safety.

NO TIP REQUIRED: Nuro, Domino's partner on driverless deliveries in Houston

In March, Arlington launched on-demand autonomous SUVs, which travel on set routes at 35 mph.

Waymo, an autonomous trucking outfit owned by Alphabet, the same company that owns Google, launched a pilot program for trucks to deliver loads between Houston and Fort Worth this year.

Auroras trucks will deal exclusively with middle mile applications, which usually involve shipping goods between large cities. They will not yet experiment with last-mile deliveries, which deliver products directly to stores and doorsteps, or cross-country trips. The trucks will pick up loads at a delivery facility on the outskirts of Dallas and drop them off at a FedEx facility north of Houston, avoiding the more congested and urban stretches of the freeway.

The new trucks will use a combination of cameras, radar and lidar, which uses reflected light and the Doppler effect to detect traffic conditions about 1,000 feet up the road.

After the Dallas-to-Houston route is established, Interiano said, the company hopes to create more routes across Texas, especially between major population centers.

Well continue to target the highest-volume routes where the Aurora driver can deliver the most impact, in terms of safety and efficiency, to FedExs transportation network, he said.

shelby.webb@chron.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  The top U.S. military officer told Congress that he knew former President Donald Trump wasn't planning to attack China and that it was his job to reassure the Chinese of this in the phone calls that have triggered outrage from some lawmakers.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered a vehement defense of two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart, saying he was responding to a significant degree of intelligence that China was worried about a U.S. attack.

I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese. ... And it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese, Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: Stay calm, steady, and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.

Milley has been at the center of controversy after reports that he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army to assure him that the United States was not suddenly going to go to war with or attack China. Details of the calls were first aired in excerpts from the recently released book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

While Tuesday's hearing largely focused on the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others from the country, a few senators condemned Milley for what they saw as inappropriate communications with Li.

In his most extensive comments to date on the matter, Milley said the calls on Oct. 30 and Jan. 8 were fully coordinated with the defense secretaries at the time as well as other U.S. national security agencies. And he said that such military-to-military communications are critical to prevent war between great powers that possess nuclear weapons.

The calls came during Trumps turbulent last months in office as he challenged the results of the 2020 election. The second call came two days after Jan. 6, when a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Bidens White House victory.

Milley said the October call was made at the direction of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the second was done at the request of the Chinese and coordinated with then-acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller's office.

Asked if he spoke with the books authors and if his remarks were accurately represented," Milley said he spoke with Woodward and that he has not read the book but has seen press reports on it.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked that he provide more answers once he's read the book. She and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., questioned whether Milley shared private presidential conversations with the authors.

Milley said he did not leak private conversations he had with Trump, and said he routinely speaks with the media to provide information and transparency to the American people.

Milley also addressed a call he received from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He said Pelosi called me to inquire about the presidents ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process.

He said he assured her that while the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, he doesnt launch them alone. He said that as chairman he is part of the launch decision process.

There are processes, protocols and procedures in place, and I repeatedly assured her there is no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch, Milley said.

The book asserts that during the call, Milley agreed with Pelosis statement that Trump was suffering a mental decline after the election. During Tuesdays hearing, Milley appeared to discount that, saying I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States.

He said that after the call was over, he had a short meeting with staff to go over the process. He also said he informed Miller of the call at the time.

At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain of command, but I am expected, I am required, to give my advice and ensure that the president is fully informed, Milley said.
Celebrity chefs Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons, who are in Houston filming the upcoming season of "Top Chef," announced Wednesday that they will join a women's march protesting Texas' new abortion law this Saturday.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, George Floyd Foundation executive director Shareeduh Tate and other activists are participating.

The event will start at Discovery Green on Saturday at 7 a.m. Attendees will begin marching to Houston City Hall at 9 a.m.

DeAndre Hopkins' mother, activist Sabrina Greenlee, will emcee the speaker portion of the protest. There will also be musical performances and voter registration stations.

On HoustonChronicle.com: "Top Chef" to set its next season in Houston  and filming has already begun

The legislation, SB-8, bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. It took effect Sept. 1 and is the strictest anti-abortion law the nation has seen since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973.

This weekend's protest will emulate the women's marches that were held across the country in January 2017 after the election of President Donald Trump. The local Houston Women March On, now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is an organizer of the event.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

"I was proud to attend the first Women's March in D.C. in 2017," Lakshmi said in a statement. "Four years later, we still have so much to achieve. Our reproductive rights are under attack, and I stand with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU and those who demand to be heard."

Lakshmi and Simmons, both judges on "Top Chef," are in town filming season 19, which will air in spring 2022.

When Houston was announced as the show's next location, opponents of Texas' abortion ban criticized the decision to support the state at this time. Lakshmi addressed the controversy on Twitter, claiming that a majority of Houstonians oppose the bill.

Lakshmi is often vocal about women's rights. In July, she called on Bravo to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against last season's winner of "Top Chef," Austin's Gabe Erales.

On HoustonChronicle.com: What is American food? Padma Lakshmi's show "Taste the Nation" offers several answers

The march from Discovery Green to City Hall is 0.8 miles long. Masking and social distancing will be encouraged, according to a media release.
Twice a year, Don Grimm assembles a crew of 20 volunteers to bring homes back to life.

Hes a co-leader for a team at Rebuilding Together Houston, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding homes and revitalizing communities.

The Katy resident said the goal is to ensure houses can withstand another 10 to 20 years use by making needed updates. He has led his crew in replacing doors and windows, reinforcing structure, adding insulation or repairing rotten wood. Often they add a finishing touch such as a new porch light or address numbers by the front door.

And we always paint the house, top to bottom, Grimm added.

A couple of days before the project starts, he and co-leader Brad Rinderknecht prepare a list of must-dos.

Almost always, we add to it, he said.

Then, the duo heads to the Rebuilding Together Houston warehouse to round up materials. Next, they take a rented truck, go to their storage unit and load up tools for the jobs.

Grimm began volunteering with Rebuilding Together Houston after an information session at ExxonMobil 15 years ago, before he retired from the company. Exxon sponsors the team, covering the cost of the vehicle, storage unit, tools and lunches for volunteers.

HOW TO HELP Rebuilding Together Houston is seeking volunteers, donations and in-kind materials. For more information, visit rebuildinghouston.org. See More Collapse

Ive always liked doing handyman work, he said. And its a way to give back.

Then, about five years ago, former team leader Dan King retired from ExxonMobil to take a full-time position at Rebuilding Together Houston.

Grimm stepped up and took over the crew with Rinderknecht, also an Exxon employee, at his side.

On Saturday mornings, the two are the first to arrive on the job site.

Getting started

God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, Grimm said. This is my way to use what talents He has given me to serve others.

Even after all this time with the nonprofit, he said each experience is always rewarding.

Its a pleasure every time you see someone about to get something they really needed but were never able to do on their own, he said.

Take wheelchair ramps, for example, he said. They can make a world of difference for people with disabilities or who simply can no longer navigate stairs to their home.

Everyone has a different story  and most are so grateful, Grimm added. You see the homeowners and the joy it brings them. You see a house that may have been one of the most rundown on the street when we arrive and watch it transform to one of the nicest when we leave.

Rebuilding Together CEO Christine Holland sees the organization as a critical tool in fixing Houstons affordable housing crisis.

Our vision is to preserve as many existing homes as possible, she said. We need to not discard the homes that are already here and just need a little TLC.

Rebuilding Together believes its no-cost home repairs can strengthen a neighborhood and, in turn, make a positive impact in the city. The organization prioritizes veterans and wheelchair ramps, constructed for any low-income homeowners in Harris County.

Residents of Second Ward and Magnolia Park-Manchester neighborhoods are also eligible to apply for roof repairs, structural stabilization, exterior updates and interior modifications.

By focusing on a specific neighborhood, Holland said, teams make the greatest impact. After volunteers renovate houses, neighbors are often inspired to tackle their own projects, which then encourages businesses to stay.

Its an antidote to gentrification, Holland explained.

We believe in giving people a choice, she said. They might feel like their only option is to sell to a developer and never own a house again. We want them to have a choice to keep their house.

Preventing displacement and preserving financial resources for families is the priority, she added.

No homeowner should have to choose between the food on their table and the roof over their heads, Holland said.

Stepping in to help Houston

The nonprofit was founded nearly 40 years ago by Houstonian Robert Mosbacher Jr.

First called the Private Sector Initiative, the organization followed idea of using volunteerism to supplement government programs, Holland explained.

There are a lot of gaps, and nonprofits are the bridge, she said.

Initially, the group responded to a variety of calls.

They had different programs, but this is the part that really stuck, Holland said. They were attracting volunteer crews from corporations, churches and schools to do home repairs. And they started to focus on this more.

Volunteers began to form bonds with homeowners, she added.

They could literally see how their work was making a positive impact, Holland said. Thats what still brings people to us today. It feeds their hearts.

In 2003, the Private Sector Initiative joined the national organization Rebuilding Together, which provides elderly and disabled individuals, as well as veterans, with access to home repairs.

Now we have 120 affiliates, Holland said. They work all around the country.

In 2015, Rebuilding Together Houstons efforts increased tenfold.

The organization partnered with the city of Houstons Housing and Community Development Department for repairs for the next three years. More than 800 homes were on the list, including repairing a number of roofs still tarped up from 2008s Hurricane Ike. .

During hurricane season, one thing that can make a big difference is a roof, Holland said. It can best protect your house.

Then Hurricane Harvey struck.

We were in a unique position, Holland said. We already had contractors whom we had vetted. We also had hundreds of people in our system. We got in touch with those people.

Rebuilding Together Houston was able to quickly spring into action.

We had never done disaster recovery, but soon we were doing it day in and day out, Holland said. Harvey just changed the landscape. We knew we had to jump in. There was no standing on the sidelines.

In total, 480 houses damaged by Harvey have been refurbished. The last home was completed in June.

Rebuilding Together Houston was also engaged in construction related to winter storm Uri, repairing 257 homes. In this case, the organization focused on serving veterans and two neighborhoods: Independence Heights and Second Ward.

Disaster recovery is a logical extension of our affordable housing work, Holland said. Were returning the home to a safe and livable condition. And were going to do as much as we possibly can.

Building equity

The number of repairs possible depends of funding, she explained. Rebuilding Together Houston also relies on in-kind materials.

By becoming a volunteer or donating to the nonprofit, Houstonians can help others stay in their homes and build equity in housing in the city, she explained.

Corporations and churches often provide helping hands for the 20-volunteer crews like the ones Grimm leads, and assignments are made based on skill level. BP maintains 451 crews and ExxonMobil, 385. The United Methodist Action Reach-Out Mission by Youth (UM ARMY) has 355 crews and Second Baptist Church, 263.

Options also exist for smaller groups, between two and five people. These volunteers perform home-safety checks, including examining air quality, cooling and heating, and ensuring there are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Crews of five can help build wheelchair ramps, and single volunteers are needed in the nonprofits office.

No one should have a house thats falling down, Holland said.

Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer.
Dreamstime / TNS

Missouri Citys Medicare Policy Review Day & Health Forum on Saturday, Oct. 16, is slated to help older adults review their Medicare policies and evaluate adequate health care options.

On HoustonChronicle.com: New Missouri City budget plans for a tax rate decrease
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday he's reupping Louisiana's indoor mask mandate for another month, crediting the face covering requirement with keeping students safe from COVID-19 and helping to combat the state's fourth surge of the coronavirus illness.

The Democratic governor reinstated the mask mandate in August as Louisiana faced its worst spike in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with hospital leaders describing grim conditions caused by the influx of COVID-19 patients. People infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus filled up hospital beds and damaged access to inpatient health care services for people seeking treatment for non-coronavirus illnesses.

But shortly after the face covering requirement was reenacted, hospitalizations of people battling COVID-19 peaked at more than 3,000 and then started to decline, falling below 1,000 this week for the first time since July. The number of new infections and the percentage of COVID-19 tests returning positive also have dropped sizably over the last six weeks.

While the state is trending in the right direction, there's just still a ton of COVID in Louisiana, said Dr. Joe Kanter, the governor's chief public health adviser. We're nowhere close to being out of the woods yet.

Louisiana has three times the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 than it did at the start of July, and Edwards said the weekly rate of infection remains more than two times larger than what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a high level of transmission.

Kanter highlighted two particular areas of concern, increases in severe pregnancy outcomes among unvaccinated women and in infection rates in children under the age of 18.

Fourteen unvaccinated pregnant women infected by COVID-19 have been hospitalized since mid-July, Kanter said. Six of those women died, and 10 of their unborn babies died. That's more severe pregnancy-related cases than the state had seen in the pandemic's first 15 months, Kanter said.

Meanwhile, seven children have died from COVID-19 in the latest surge, according to the health department. Kanter said children under the age of 18 have emerged as the largest category of new COVID-19 infections in recent weeks.

Pointing to that data, Edwards said keeping the mask requirement is especially critical for schools, where many students are too young to be vaccinated and where people are crammed into packed classrooms for hours each day.

The mask mandate includes all public indoor locations such as schools, colleges, restaurants, bars, gyms and retail stores. The requirement covers anyone age 5 and older and any kindergartners if they are under the age of 5, and it includes people who are vaccinated.

The governor can only enact such public health emergency rules for a month at a time, so he must continue renewing the mask mandate monthly if he wants to keep it in place. The latest order will expire Oct. 27.

The state, however, has not rolled out a strong enforcement effort of the mandate, hoping that most schools, businesses and residents will comply voluntarily.

The Louisiana chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business called the extension of the mask mandate ridiculous.

This governor asked for the biz community support to slow the spread and that has happened. Now here we are living under another extended order. Biz owners are finding it more and more difficult to implement this mandate, the organization wrote on Twitter.

Louisiana's health department Tuesday reported 1,031 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours and 989 people hospitalized with the illness. More than 12,200 people across Louisiana have died of the coronavirus disease, and another 1,600 deaths are considered likely from COVID-19, according to department data.

But the state no longer has the highest per capita COVID-19 growth in the nation as it did in early August when Edwards reinstated the masking requirement. Louisiana has fallen to among the lowest per capita rates among for new cases, according to the CDC.

Louisiana continues to have one of the country's lowest vaccination rates. More than 45% of the state's 4.6 million people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

___

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

___

Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  The mother of a 2-year-old girl, whose body was found in a remote part of southwest Mississippi, was arrested Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced the arrest of Lanaya Cardwell at a press conference Wednesday, news outlets reported. It was unknown if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

Cardwell was charged in connection with the disappearance and death of her daughter, Nevaeh Allen, who was reported missing last Friday. The toddler's body was found two days later in Pearlington, Mississippi.

Cardwell's boyfriend, Phillip Gardner, was accused of disposing of the body. He now faces a charge of second-degree murder along with charges of unlawful disposal of remains and obstruction of justice. He was being held on $75,000 bond. It was unknown if he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Police said Gardner, 30, reportedly told police that he had laid down for a nap and awoke to find the girl missing and the door unlocked. Later, police said he admitted he had found her unresponsive and lifeless and disposed of her remains without notifying authorities.

Family members have said Gardner had a violent, toxic relationship with the child's mother.

The child's body has been turned over to Louisiana authorities for an autopsy. Her death has been ruled a homicide, but a cause of death has not been released.
Welcome back, Mr. Bond. This is your most important mission yet. The fate of the movie business depends on your success.

Thats how it feels, anyway, so high are industry expectations around No Time to Die. The 25th James Bond adventure is finally hitting screens a year and a half after its originally scheduled April 2020 release date, and is central to Hollywoods hopes of luring pandemic-weary audiences back into movie theaters.

Moviegoers certainly get a lot of Bond for their buck in Daniel Craigs fifth and final adventure as the suave but by now battered secret agent. At 2 hours, 43 minutes, its the series' longest film yet. Big, brash, explosive and occasionally even tender, the movie nods fondly to the spy series past while moving  somewhat  into a more diverse, less male-dominated and Eurocentric era.

And it definitely provides a respite from weary reality. The coronavirus does not trouble James Bonds world in No Time to Die. Much else does, though, from terrifying bioweapons to family legacies of violence.

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the first American entrusted with this treasured British export, the film opens with two sequences strikingly different in tone. The first is a chilly Scandinavian horror vignette, beautifully shot by cinematographer Linus Sandgren, that introduces themes of imperiled children and poisoned inheritances that will ripple through the film.

The second sequence offers one of those brief idylls Bond is occasionally allowed. Bond is retired from the world of spycraft and relaxing in Italian splendor with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). Soon, though, the strains of Billie Eilishs theme song swell over the opening credits, and Bond is back on more familiar and hazardous terrain.

All is not well in the world. There are strains in the U.K.-U.S. spying relationship, and a deadly feud among international evildoers. Bonds old nemesis Spectre and a rival crew are fighting for control of Heracles, a DNA-targeting biological weapon that could wipe out humanity. (A potential killer inside us: Maybe the real world is not so far away after all.)

From there on, its a protracted but pacey thriller with a plot that twists like a double helix. All Bond films are made from essentially the same ingredients; what sets them apart is the chemistry of their combination. No Time to Die has all the required elements: gorgeous locales, from Cuba to Norway to a chilly, handsome London. There are gorgeous cars, including, of course, a supercharged classic Aston Martin. Theres cool and faintly ridiculous technology: Nanobots and a bionic eye both feature prominently.

Screenwriters Fukunaga, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge  some moments of left-field humor seem to bear the Fleabag creators stamp  satisfyingly tweak the recipe.

Female characters who are there to kick ass rather than tempt Bond include Ana de Armas unflappable CIA agent Paloma and Lashana Lynchs Nomi, a Black double-O spy who has no time for Bonds patriarchal platitudes.

Theres a respectful but playful sense of the series six-decade past. Craig delivers some of the mandatory lines  Bond. James Bond  with a touch of Roger Moores raised eyebrow. Bad guys speak Russian. Rami Maleks facially scarred villain, Lyutsifer Safin, prowls a brutalist bunker lair that Dr. No would be proud of.

Malek gives a performance full of quiet menace, though a British charity, Changing Faces, has chastised the filmmakers for equating disfigurement with evil.

The movie has a valedictory, lets get the band together one more time feel, as Bond enlists old comrades  including Naomie Harriss Moneypenny and Ben Whishaws Q  to destroy the weapon of mass destruction.

This is Craigs swansong as Bond, a role he has played since Casino Royale, in 2006. Characters make frequent reference to Bonds supposed decrepitude, though he seems nigh-on indestructible in the entertainingly elaborate, if sometimes visually chaotic, action sequences.

Craig brought a well-received muscularity to the part, and also a sensitivity that is particularly on display here. This is a Bond who mulls on his mistakes and even  gasp  talks about his feelings. One of the most enduring characters in the cinematic universe has evolved.

That feels like a good place to end. By the explosive finale, its clear No Time to Die is closing a chapter, if not the story, of James Bond.

___

No Time to Die, an MGM release in U.S. theaters Oct. 8, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, brief strong language and some suggestive material. Running time: 163 minutes. Three stars out of four.



MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Well, Gov. Greg Abbott is certainly earning his place in the history books.

Youll probably find him there in the footnotes, as an example of the early 21st century Republican leaders who inexplicably abandoned their own independence in the service of a disgraced former president, Donald Trump.

How else to explain the fact that Harris County is now supposedly facing an audit of its 2020 election results (or already undergoing one, according to Abbott)?

On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas announces details for two-phase election audit of 2020 results in four large counties

Trump, of course, has yet to come to terms with his defeat in the 2020 presidential contest and continues to undermine the integrity of our elections on a daily basis, with false claims about rigging and demands for audits in states such as Arizona and Georgia, which he narrowly lost.

Last week, The Donald decided he wants an audit in Texas, too  and when Trump wants something from our governor, he tends to get it.

Despite my big win in Texas, I hear Texans want an election audit!, Trump declared Wednesday, in an open letter to Abbott.

He proceeded to exhort Abbott to add a Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election to the governors call for the third special session of 2021, currently underway in Austin, so that legislators can take up House Bill 16, a measure to that effect filed by state Rep. Steve Toth, a Woodlands Republican.

Showing a surprisingly granular understanding of Texass eccentric legislative process, Trump noted that a similar measure passed the Texas Senate earlier this month, during the second special session, but not in time to be taken up by the House.

Lets get to the bottom of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam! added Trump, who continues to raise money as he makes baseless claims and promotes conspiracy theories.

The Texas secretary of states office put out a cryptic statement hours later declaring that it has the authority to conduct a full and comprehensive forensic audit of any election and has already begun the process in Harris County, as well as Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties.

We anticipate the Legislature will provide funds for this purpose, concludes the statement, which was put out by Sam Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for communications. The secretary of states post is actually vacant; the most recent person to hold the office, Ruth Hughs, resigned in May after Republicans in the Texas Senate declined to confirm her appointment.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas says it's begun 2020 election audit in 4 counties, including Harris, after Trump letter

Over the weekend, Abbott acted as if this audit  which he had never called for prior to Trumps letter, even while pushing a major election integrity package over the summer  were the most normal thing in the world.

Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raise their hands in concern when we audit elections, which is fundamental to our democracy? Abbott asked on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

He also asserted: These audits that the state of Texas is doing, they actually began months ago...

If so, these audits have thus far been conducted in secret, contrary to the entire point of an audit. And if there is some kind of audit already underway, it probably needs to be described using quotation marks, because local leaders  the people who actually administer elections  evidently arent part of it.

We actually found out about the audit when everyone else did, and that was Thursday night, said Nadia Hakim, the deputy director of communications and voter outreach for Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria, on Monday.

Since then, Hakim continued, the office had yet to learn anything else about the audit, and its efforts to get answers on the subject from the secretary of states office had been unsuccessful  despite the fact that county election officials are in constant communication with that state office on other subjects, such as the coming November elections.

I wish I had more information for you, Hakim said ruefully, after explaining that it was not even clear what the scope of such an audit would be.

It wasnt just Longorias office that was left in the dark. On Tuesday, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee announced that he had submitted public information requests to the secretary of states office to get answers since weve heard nothing about this audit. And on Tuesday evening, we got some more information, sort of: In an emailed response to inquiries, Taylor asserted that the audit will have two phases, one of which is already underway  testing voting machine accuracy, cybersecurity assessments, and identifying and removing ineligible voters who cast ballots in 2020.

What is clear, in any case, is that the audit Abbotts now calling for  or overseeing  would serve no real purpose. We dont need to constantly relitigate the 2020 election, which Democrat Joe Biden won by more than 7 million more votes  and by a 306-232 margin in the

electoral college.

And Texas, as well as the four large counties Abbott singled out, had a highly successful election despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. In fact, state leaders have acknowledged as much.

The outcome of the elections in Texas were valid, Abbott told KHOU-TV when pressed in July.

In spite of all the circumstances, Texas had an election that was smooth and secure, said Keith Ingram, the director of elections for the secretary of states office, in March. Texans can be justifiably proud of the hard work and creativity shown by local county elections officials.

MAPS: Over 1 million Houston voters change congressional districts under GOP redistricting plan

That being the case, the audit in Harris County would be, at best, a waste of public servants time and taxpayer money. But beyond that, there are risks involved in embarking on election audits simply because a sore loser says we should.

All around the nation weve seen sycophants in public office using taxpayer funds to audit the 2020 election results, 11 months later, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo tweeted Thursday. We have to treat these for what they are: A sham, and a dangerous and cavalier assault on our democracy.

In this case, the audit is also a reflection of how easily Abbott can be pressured by a defeated one-term president who remains popular among Republican primary voters.

A self-respecting governor would likely have bridled at a letter like the one Trump sent. A shrewd one might have simply ignored it.

Abbott, the governor we have, responded by trying to give Trump what he wants while simultaneously trying to give the people of Texas the impression that hes acting on his own initiative. Perhaps he thinks thats smart, but it just looks weak.

erica.grieder@chron.com
A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the identification and arrest of an alleged Houston bank robber the FBI has dubbed the Little Red Riding Crook."

Around noon on Tuesday, the suspect allegedly robbed the Wells Fargo Bank located at 11105 Westheimer after presenting the teller with a note demanding cash, according to a release from the FBI Houston Division. It is not known how much money the suspect fled with.
A teenager who was shot dead Monday night as he tried to rescue people held hostage by a gunman at a Sunnyside convenience store had moved last year to Houston from Milwaukee to escape gun violence.

Andrell Lamon, 17, was outside Greenlight Convenience Store on Scott Street when a commotion broke out. The teen had probably walked the two blocks from his home to get snacks, said Jessica Martin, his aunt.

Instead, he encountered a chaotic scene.

A man later identified as Al Vernon Brown Jr. walked into the store shortly before 10 p.m. and pulled out two pistols, according to the Houston Police Department.

The 47-year-old man, yelling and screaming, ordered a handful of customers and employees to get on the ground and lock the door. He threatened to shoot anyone who dared leave.

It was then that Lamon entered the store, according to police. He pointed a pistol at Brown and demanded that he release the hostages.

But the gunman opened fire, striking Lamon in the torso. The teen collapsed outside the store. Police said paramedics transported him to a hospital where he died.

Martin said she believes her nephew got the firearm from another person outside the store and volunteered to confront the assailant when no one else appeared to be taking action. Lamon did not own a gun, she said.

"My nephew told them, 'Im not scared, give me the gun,'" Martin said.

His aunt said the teen deserves to be recognized for his bravery and sacrifice, although the family is grappling to understand why he confronted the gunman.

"I have no idea what made him do this," she said. "I don't believe we'll ever really know ... he really sacrificed his life for these people."

When police showed up at the shooting scene, Brown dropped his weapons and the hostages escaped from the store. Officers arrested the gunman.

He has since been charged in Harris County district court with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault against a public servant, according to court records. He is being held on a combined $650,000 bail.

His motive remains unclear, investigators said, though it does not appear to be a robbery.

The day before the shooting, Brown was charged with his second DWI and released on a general order bond, according to court records. Since 2002, he has been convicted of driving with a suspended license, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, DWI and unlawful weapon carry.

The slain teenager was the eldest of six children, according to his aunt. He helped his working mother by looking after his four brothers and baby sister, she said.

His mother recently took classes and opened a trucking business to help her sons get established with work, said Martin, a local entrepreneur who owns a credit repair business and DR Martin Transport, a trucking company.

The teen's mother was about to purchase a box truck for her eldest son to start driving.

In Milwaukee, the teenager boys had friends who were "going in the wrong direction," Martin said.

"She really moved down here for a better life," Martin said about her sister-in-law. "She wanted to get them into a new environment."

The family is raising money to transport Lamons body back to Wisconsin for burial.

Family and friends held a balloon release vigil at the shooting scene. Meanwhile, people in Milwaukee gathered for a similar memorial. Participants from both groups connected via FaceTime, Martin said.

In Houston, candles lit up the parking lot while people clutched red balloons, eventually releasing them to the sky.

"He was very loving person. He was kind," Martin said of her nephew. "He did not deserve that."
Jay R. Jordan / Jay Jordan, Staff

A man has been charged in the death of a 37-year-old woman whose remains were discovered in Fort Bend County weeks after police believe she was murdered in a southwest Houston motel room.

Willie Brown, 48, on Wednesday was charged with murder in Harris County district court in connection with the killing of Ashley Guillory earlier this month, according to the Houston Police Department.
Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

A man in custody at the Harris County Jail on Tuesday afternoon died by apparent suicide in his cell, five days after he was booked into the facility, officials said.

Staff found Billy Dunn, 47, hanging from a bed sheet around 12:47 p.m. in a single-person cell on the sixth floor of the jail located at 701 N. San Jacinto, the Harris County Sheriff's Office reported Wednesday.
A proposed landfill next to the Sam Houston National Forest has drawn adamant opposition from residents and advocates who say the project threatens their way of life.

The comments against the proposed landfill occurred during a Tuesday night virtual meeting hosted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

This is not a safe place for this type of a landfill, said Jackie Woychesin, and somebody needs to be representing the environment and the people of this county instead of just processing a permit for San Jacinto County.

Officials with a Mississippi-based company, PC-II, hope to build a more than 100-acre municipal waste landfill on their timber property in San Jacinto County. The company has promoted it as an economic boost for a place where there is a demonstrated need for this sort of facility. Two other landfills already exist close by.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Local farmer wages 'David and Goliath' fight against proposed Cleveland landfill

State rules allow landfills to be located next to or in national forests.

Company officials insist the landfill will have appropriate checks, including a liner to keep contaminants out of the groundwater and monitoring wells in case a leak occurs. Gas monitoring also will take place, with potential for flaring if too much gas is released. Extra-smelly material will be treated with added precaution, they said.

We will continue to be a good neighbor and contributor to this community, said Wirt Yerger, an owner of PC-II, as the meeting began.

Many of the more than two dozen who spoke in the online meeting were not buying it, saying the landfill would be a nightmare. The peaceful area already was becoming known as the dump, Linda Stegenga said.

The residents envisioned a constant flow of trash trucks tearing apart the already damaged county roads and said they fear not learning until it was too late that the drinking water their families consume was tainted.

They predicted pollution washing toward Houston during frequent floods, the steady flow of traffic making it hard for children to play outside or wait for the school bus and the landfill activity changing the habits of forest animals, including the woodpeckers one resident cherished.

More from Emily Foxhall: Cleanup on hazardous San Jacinto waste pits could finally start next year

This is environmental justice? Stegenga asked.

State regulators offered the meeting as a chance for residents to ask questions and voice concerns. TCEQ staff are still reviewing the application and will respond later to public comments, which is expected to include a list of potential impacts forest officials said they planned to submit.

Van Weldon, whose farm is adjacent to the proposed landfill site, had been working for months with neighbors to let people know what was happening. He also reached out to an attorney, determined to fight the landfill.

Location is everything, the attorney, Bryan French, said Tuesday night. And in this case the proposed location of this landfill is a terrible idea. Who on earth thinks that a landfill is compatible with a national forest or produce farm?

emily.foxhall@chron.com
The rate at which COVID-19 is being transmitted across the Houston area is on the decline, an indication that more people are being vaccinated and practicing social distancing. But while public health experts say they feel cautiously optimistic, they also note that vaccine hesitancy and another contagious variant emerging could undo any progress made.

Community spread is measured by the rate of transmission: Any number above 1 indicates the virus continues to spread throughout the community, meaning if one person contracts COVID , they will spread it to one other. As of Wednesday, the daily rate was 0.87, while the weekly average was recorded as 0.80.The absolute local peak was in March 2020 at 3.5, meaning one person could infect at least three others.

The rate of transmission has remained below 1 since the beginning of September. The dip is a good sign, but it doesnt mean the pandemic is over, said Dr. James McDeavitt, Executive Vice President and Dean of Clinical Affairs at Baylor College of Medicine.

The fact that we are this low is great news, McDeavitt said. But we have been here before. We have been through four waves of coronavirus here in Houston and when we are on the good side of a wave the R value is always low.

On HoustonChronicle.com: New moms fight for their lives away from newborns, as Houston sees rise in pregnant COVID patients

In June, the rate of transmission was at similar lows, and public health experts thought the pandemic may have started to reach the endemic stage. But then the highly-contagious delta variant hit, causing a spike in cases and hospital beds to fill.

Over the summer, public health experts and medical professionals began bracing for the fourth wave. July's positive COVID test rates were seven times higher than June, according to Texas Medical Center data. The rate of transmission was 1.78.

Then patients started showing up in the hospitals. In early August, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital set up tents outside the hospital for overflow patients, while its ICU was at 100 percent capacity as COVID cases surged. Hospitalizations peaked that month at 3,500 in Houston  39 percent higher than the current they are currently, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Throughout the surge, hospitals had enough physical space and beds for patients, but not necessarily enough staff for those beds. At times, hospitals had to even turn away patients with other medical needs to take care of the high volume of COVID patients.

Despite the states plans, announced in early August, to deploy 2,500 out-of-state medical personnel, many nurses and other medical personnel say they still feel overwhelmed.

There is one main reason the pandemic isnt over, according to McDeavitt.

There are still enough people in the community that are potentially infectious and the virus can and will spread over time  and viruses can mutate, he said. If everyone was vaccinated, the R rate would be close to zero.

But widespread vaccine hesitancy has many public health officials holding off on celebrating. The average number of Americans getting a first dose of vaccine has been falling for six weeks, plummeting more than 50 percent from about 480,000 in early August to under 230,000 by the middle of last week, according to the most recently available federal data.

About 61 percent of Harris Countys eligible population  those 12 and older  are fully vaccinated.

Harris County launched an incentive program to give residents $100 for receiving a COVID-19 vaccine which ends Thursday. The county doled out more than 65,000 prepaid gift cards to residents who were inoculated. The city has a similar program offering $100 to those who received their first dose and $50 for the second at certain Houston Health Department sites.

If another variant comes along, its a total game changer, said Dr. David Persse, the chief medical officer for the city of Houston.There are two things to consider with a new variant  how easily it spreads and how sick it will make people.

SHARE YOUR STORY: Are you a Houston-area health care worker battling the frontlines of the pandemic?

Harris County remains at the highest COVID-19 threat level  red  since the beginning of August, due to a high case load.

The weekly total of new cases in Harris County is 173 new cases per 100,000 residents. To return to the next lowest threat category  orange  the rate would have to decrease to 100 new cases per week per 100,000 residents, according to a report from the county. Additionally, the 14-day average of COVID-19 ICU population is 36.6 percent of capacity. The goal to move to a less severe category is 15 percent.

Although the numbers are still high they are heading in the right direction, McDeavitt said.

Its overall good news, but we still need to be careful, McDeavitt said. We still need to be maintaining viral control practices. We are in no way out of the woods just yet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

becca.carballo@chron.com
Nearly a month after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Mohammad and his family are confined to a life in hiding, a new normal for thousands of Afghans desperate for a way out of the war-torn country.

Mohammad  like many Afghans who worked with the U.S. military  was left behind, despite legitimate fears that he and his family would be hunted down and killed by the Taliban. He requested that his last name, as well as details about his location and employment, remain private, though the Houston Chronicle has reviewed some visa-related documents.

The one-time U.S. military contract worker said hes been so stressed while in hiding, his hair is falling out.

I cannot sleep during the night. I'm awake until 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, he said during an exchange of voice messages. Every five minutes, I'm checking outside and every car or vehicle passing I think Okay, this is (the Taliban) coming for me.

Mohammad has had a pending visa to the United States since 2019. He used to work in Afghanistan with Houston-based veteran Liz Vallette, who has reached out to members of Congress about his case but hasnt been able to push it forward.

Mohammad is one of many U.S. allies and other vulnerable Afghans struggling to flee their native country, despite receiving help from Houston-area attorneys, family members and U.S. military veterans. While the Biden administration has pledged its support for at-risk Afghans, there is concern they are being forgotten as they face a web of legal and logistical challenges to getting to safety.

Mohammad, for example, is still waiting for an initial approval of his Special Immigrant Visa, a protection designated for Afghans and Iraqis who helped the U.S. military. Every time he asks about his case, it takes a month or so to hear back. The visa would allow him and his wife to come to the U.S., but he said it would be a miracle if they manage to stay alive with the visa process moving at such a crawl.

He tried to get to Kabuls airport to board an evacuation flight, even after he said one of his colleagues was killed trying to get into the citys airport. But Mohammad said his family was stopped at a Taliban checkpoint and he was beaten. They never made it.

Many Afghans who were U.S. allies and have pending visa applications remain there as well, including his brother-in-law.

Even those who had proper documentation with them, they could not make it inside, Mohammad said. And we were all very sad, we were all very hopeless, and we were all, seeing or feeling (our own) death in front of our eyes.

He said hes seen on Facebook that some shopkeepers and other Afghans without ties to the U.S. managed to board evacuation flights, even though they were not facing the same threats based on working with the U.S.

I'm really disappointed in the way the U.S. government did the evacuations, he said.

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Left behind

Sunil Varghese, policy director for the International Refugee Assistance Project, said his organization estimates thousands of Afghans who were in the process obtaining special visas have been left behind, not counting their family members.

A lot of people that were from all backgrounds, some even taxi drivers, also came in, said Ahmadullah Sediqi, who works with Afghans through The Alliance, the refugee resettlement agency. That was just a mess.

Sediqi came to Houston from Afghanistan through a Special Immigrant Visa and spent time processing incoming Afghans at Fort Bliss, Texas. He believes the U.S. still has time to bring in the people who worked with Americans in Afghanistan, if it wants to.

But in the weeks since the late-August withdrawal, the Biden administration has brought little clarity to what the future of stranded Afghans will be, according to Varghese. Were at a standstill, he said.

Is this going to be the permanent stage that we're in? That there are basically no options for people in Afghanistan, regardless of what we promised them or what work they did on behalf of the U.S. Are they consigned to finding their own way out? asked Varghese.

In a written statement, a State Department spokesperson reaffirmed the Biden administrations commitment to processing special visa applications of people still in Afghanistan.

Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

We will honor our commitment to SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) applicants who stood by us and risked their lives in support of our mission in Afghanistan, the spokesperson said.

The government says it has evacuated more than 124,000 American citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other at-risk Afghans in perilous conditions.

But Varghese said the Biden administration has failed to answer specific questions, like how exactly to conduct the necessary visa interviews without an embassy and, logistically, how to get at-risk allies out of Afghanistan to third countries.

Extended family members of Afghan allies in the U.S. are facing similar hurdles.

The Taliban wanted to torture my family so I can feel the pain here, said Naqibullah Laghmanai, an Afghan American in Houston. He used to work with the U.S. military and said his parents and seven siblings are now in hiding in Kabul.

No guarantee

Shortly before the Taliban takeover, Laghmanais family received a threatening letter. They had to find other housing to avoid the Taliban, Laghmanai said.

Hes been helping pay for a safe house and has been sponsoring his fathers visa to come to the U.S. since February 2020. But the Taliban took over the country before his dad was scheduled for his interview with the U.S. embassy. Now hes desperate to get all his family out, but doesnt know how. He said hes afraid of sending his dad to a bordering country, like Pakistan.

There's no guarantee he will go there (to Pakistan) and he will make it back home safely, Laghmanai said. His father used to work for the Afghan government and is at risk himself, since the Taliban controls travel checkpoints.

Local immigration attorney Fariha Chowdhry has been bombarded with requests from Afghans in Houston and other cities asking for legal help on how to get vulnerable family members out of that country.

I'm averaging probably three or four Afghan consults a day, said Chowdhry, who, since the fall of Kabul, has completed around 30 humanitarian parole applications for Afghans at the law firm of Alonso & de Leef. Shes part of a Facebook group of attorneys that is seeking to assist stranded Afghans. Shes heard heartbreaking stories.

Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

I'm working with four orphans whose dad was murdered in cold blood by the Taliban on August 15, the day Kabul fell, and they're just left there, said Chowdhry.

Shes seen her applications for humanitarian parole help one family so far, though she said they were already well-connected and had other support systems assisting them to leave the country.

But humanitarian parole, a discretionary allowance to enter the U.S., is no guarantee. She only recommends it for people who can afford it, since applications cost $575 per individual and theres a minimum income threshold for U.S.-based sponsors.

Houston immigration lawyer Ruby Powers has also worked on humanitarian parole applications for Afghans. Even if people are approved to enter the U.S., they still have to manage to leave Afghanistan.

Humanitarian parole could be approved and you could go to another consulate or post in another country, like Pakistan or somewhere else. But if they can't get out of the country, and they can't get a flight, then it's a moot point, said Powers.

Facing both visa and logistical barriers, the future appears grim for those still in Afghanistan. They hope for good news before the Taliban finds them.

This is not really safe for me to stay any longer, said Mohammad, the Special Immigrant Visa applicant in hiding.

Since the borders are also closed...we cannot go anywhere. We're just left behind.

elizabeth.trovall@chron.com
The Texas Secretary of States Office on Tuesday evening announced details of election audits for 2020 election results in four large counties, though no evidence of widespread irregularities has emerged in the 10 months since that contest, which state officials previously have described as smooth and secure.

Democratic leaders describe the audit of an election where Republicans were highly successful as an attempt to undermine trust in the states voting systems. They also point to the curious timing; though the Secretary of States office said the audits have been underway, it revealed their existence only on Thursday, hours after former President Donald Trump published an open letter to Gov. Greg Abbott demanding an audit of Texas results.

Our state leaders love to talk about election integrity, but here we have them conducting a so-called audit for the sole purpose of undermining our elections and undermining our democracy, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said Friday. The goal is to pander to a set of conspiracy theories and a gentleman who lost an election 11 months ago.

There is no evidence of widespread election fraud in any Texas county during the 2020 election.

The full forensic audit in Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties will occur in two phases, the Secretary of States Office said. The first phase, which is underway, includes testing voting machines and scouring rolls for ineligible voters.

The second phase, which the state said would begin next spring, calls for a comprehensive election records examination to ensure counties followed all election laws. This include reviewing voter lists, provisional ballots, early voting rosters and chain of custody forms for ballot boxes.

The state will not hire any outside firms to assist with the audits, as the state of Arizona had for its own election review, Secretary of States Office spokesman Sam Taylor said.

Critical questions remain, however, including who ordered the audits, why, and how much they will cost. The secretary of state post has remained vacant since May, when Ruth Hughs resigned after the state Senate declined to confirm her appointment.

Abbott framed the audit as good government in practice during an interview with Fox News Sunday.

Businesses that are public companies are subject to an annual audit, the governor said. Why do we audit everything in this world, but people raise their hands in concern when we audit elections, which is fundamental to our democracy?

The two Republican Harris County commissioners, Tom Ramsey and Jack Cagle, made similar arguments during a debate at Commissioners Court on Tuesday over whether to pass a resolution by Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo denouncing the audit as a sham.

Cagle joined his colleagues to certify Harris Countys election results last November, including Ramseys victory in the Precinct 3 race. Neither man has questioned the accuracy of the election results, though Ramsey suggested an audit could put to rest doubts some voters have that some sort of perfidy occurred.

There are people that think is not a bad thing, that transparency is not a bad thing, Ramsey said. I think an audit that would put all this to bed is a good thing.

Hidalgo resolution passed, 3 to 2, with the Democrats in favor and Republicans against.

zach.despart@chron.com
Paying taxes is so unpopular in Texas that local leaders spend their energy bickering not about whether to raise them but how low to cut them.

That was the source of the most recent brouhaha at Harris County Commissioners Court, where newly empowered Democrats proposed a cut in the property tax rate, the third cut in as many years, that wasnt quite as deep as Republicans wanted. So the two Republican commissioners, knowing they didnt have the votes to override the three Democrats, threatened to walk out as they did over another tax feud in 2019. Back then, the Democrats really did want a tax increase and the Republicans stopped them from getting it.

On the newly divided court, tax debates stem from an ever-present philosophical debate on the role of county government. Republicans want to keep it limited, focused on basic infrastructure improvements. Republican Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle told us that, especially during the pandemic, the court should focus on giving taxpayers relief and not increasing spending as appraisal values skyrocket.

Democrats, meanwhile, look around at the glaring inequities across the county and yearn to address them with investments in criminal justice, social services and education. And on the pandemic, Democratic Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia says its no reason to skimp on services: you need government  and you need it to be responsive on all fronts. Hes particularly concerned about the hospital district, which bears a disproportionate burden of caring for the areas uninsured population since Gov. Greg Abbott and state legislative leaders have refused to expand Medicaid to provide the access to health insurance widely available to low-income Americans in other states.

In this recent tax showdown, the clash could have been just as ugly as 2019 because if the court hadnt reached a compromise on a new rate by Oct. 15, and Republicans had walked out to deny a voting quorum, state law would have forced them to revert to a no new revenue rate, a deeper cut than Republicans had sought.

That rate would have been catastrophic, Garcia told the editorial board, describing severe cuts that would have had to be made to the already struggling hospital district.

But as Democrats warned of current and future consequences, a funny thing happened. Compromise. Common ground. A tax rate everyone found acceptable without anybody having to walk out.

Hey, why didnt the Texas House think of that during this summers epic standoff over the new voting bill? Answer: because, in the end, Republican lawmakers in Austin knew they really didnt have to compromise because they so out-number Democrats that all they had to do was wait them out to ram the bill through.

Fortunately, its different in Harris County government these days. The body is smaller, only five members. And today, its more evenly divided: 3-2. They have an incentive and a mandate to find common ground. And so they did.

And taxpayers are better for it.

The court agreed in principle to reduce the countys property tax rate by 3 percent  a greater reduction than Democrats proposed and a smaller one than Republicans called for but one that funds flood control and avoids severe consequences for the hospital district. The rate cut amounts to about $54 on a $300,000 home.

Garcia describes his own efforts behind the scenes as pivotal, including a strong pressure campaign to persuade Republicans to negotiate, in part by recruiting the help of engineers and other county contractors. He says he reminded them that they may not be getting as much work on county projects if the county was forced to adopt a steep tax cut. Garcia told the editorial board he didnt even tell his own Democratic colleagues what he was up to. My colleagues didnt like my compromise, he said. They didnt know it was coming.

Garcia sought credit for the accomplishment  granted, more than some of his colleagues may have given him  but were happy to commend the deal he sponsored that brought the parties together.

We can feel confident that infrastructure improvements, public safety, and caring for those in our hospital system will not be hurt, Garcia said.

Commissioners havent scheduled a final vote for the tax rate, although they must vote on it before Oct. 15.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said he was pleased with the result and hoped it was a sign of a court thats more willing to work together going forward.

There is a level of animosity and a lack of trust thats been built into the system, so being able to come to a compromise was just a little bit short of a miracle in that hostile environment  and I hope that its a precursor to where we can maybe move away from calling each other ugly names and focus on serving the people, Cagle told us Monday.

Disagreement is good. Debate is healthy and important. But so is compromise and so is collaboration, and we see so little of it at the state and national levels of government that were willing to spill a little ink to applaud this outcome.

Concerns still remain over public health and hospital funding, though. County hospital leaders had called for a tax rate increase of 3.2 percent for a reason. There are a number of brilliant caregivers, some of whom feel they have one arm tied behind their back because of certain resource constraints, said Harris Health board member Dr. Arthur Bracey.

Commissioners face tough decisions. They can increase Harris Healths tax rate by up to 8 percent without voter approval. Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey also pointed out at one meeting that Harris Health could raise additional revenues through bonds.

We urge commissioners to approach that problem with the same open-mindedness as they showed in the past week.

Whats meaningful to us today is that leaders of principle who dont agree on much stayed at the table to hammer out an agreement that achieves at least some of what everyone wanted.

Its a good reminder at a time when Republican lawmakers in Austin are busy drawing up redistricting maps that try to further divide Texans, quiet the voices of growing communities of color and gerrymander every last drop of competition they can out of Texas congressional districts to preserve Republican dominance and protect incumbents.

What would happen if our congressional delegation and state house truly reflected the diverse voices across this vast state, and our elected representatives in those chambers were forced find compromises that did the most good for the most people? Here in Harris County, we have an idea. And we like what we see.
Regarding Review: Inquiries by Rangers fall short, (Sept. 26): The Texas Rangers have a long bloody history of pro-police bias, as do many law enforcement agencies in the country including the 1918 Porvenir Massacre, where Texas Rangers murdered innocent villagers while looking for a criminal. The world is more than black and white, as millions of Texan Latinos will testify.

The Texas Rangers and the mythological Walker, Texas Ranger on TV are like Confederate statues that must go. Brainwashing the minds of innocent children with such myths is equivalent to abuse. They are symbols of fear, oppression and death to Mexican Americans in Texas. Todays Rangers, like those of prior times, are clearly not interested in justice, so much as preserving their reputation.

Jorge Martinez, Newman, Calif.

Global unity

Regarding Biden tells U.N. global unity is a necessity, (Sept. 22): The pandemic is the latest in a long line of examples which lend credence to President Bidens view that the security, prosperity and freedoms of the people of the world are interconnected.

Last year, Taiwan partnered with the United States and other like-minded countries to encourage pandemic cooperation. Taiwan has donated face masks and medical supplies to countries in need and those countries have responded in kind with materials, equipment and vaccines.

Despite being excluded from international organizations like the United Nations and World Health Organization, joining international efforts to combat COVID-19 was never in question because Taiwan is very much part of this world.

Global unity is the best way to confront a global challenge  be it a pandemic, climate change or aggressive authoritarianism. International partnerships based on inclusion are important to building a bright future for our interconnected world.

Robert Lo, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston

The mantra of America First has seeped into every level of U.S. politics. Politicians focus less on foreign affairs, and more on policies that directly impact their constituents. However, it is in those indirect effects that many domestic problems arise.

.

The delta variant has been the talk of every news channel in America for the past month or so. First detected in India, this variant mutated to become more contagious. According to the CDC, the best way to prevent new variants from emerging is by reducing the spread of the virus through high vaccination coverage. The issue? Other countries dont have the same ability as the U.S. to distribute vaccines and fight COVID, meaning, more variants could arise and kill more people in every country.

Thus, the role of America, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, should be to bolster the health infrastructure of the entire world. We dont need to start from scratch. The Global Health and Security Act is an initiative that focuses on developing our global infectious disease response so we can prevent the outbreak of future pandemics and variants. If you havent yet, contact your senators and urge them to support this bill.

Ty Gribble, Houston, junior in high school

Vaccine opponents

Regarding Pitts: Goodbye, and good riddance, (Sept. 26): I dont recall having previously seen a column by Leonard Pitts that I could agree with, but he was so right about those who choose to quit their jobs rather than submit to a vaccine mandate. To me their reasoning is outside the boundaries of both common sense and good logic, the exception being anyone who is at risk from the vaccination for medical reasons.

Bill Shaver, Houston

Bravo to Leonard Pitts for his worldly and wise, tell-it-like-it-is columns. He echoes my thoughts most all the time, as I too am sick of the anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists and deniers, and their impact on the lives of all of us level-headed folks who know and understand that Joe Biden and other parts of the government are just trying to protect the masses and get us back to a semblance of normal  for the good of the whole country.

If those folks are so unreasonable that they value their own opinion over a job that pays their bills and supports their families, well, just go and leave this country and try to find one that is as decent and wonderful as our own. You arent going to find that; why do you think so many people are trying to immigrate here? Those that actually get processed and finally obtain work visas would be very happy to take the job you left, get vaccinated, wear a mask if required and have much more common sense than you do. Like Pitts said, goodbye and good riddance. Dont let the door hit you on the behind when you leave.

Rusti Stover, Houston
A resolution from Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo denouncing the election audits for 2020 election results in four large Texas counties passed Tuesday night 3 to 2, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against.

Hidalgo has called the audit, which centers on Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties, a "sham" and a political maneuver to fuel conspiracy theorists who keep pushing the false narrative that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Did a 'smooth and secure' 2020 election cost the Texas secretary of state her job?

The audit was prompted after Trump sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott requesting a bill be added to the ongoing third special session to empower candidates and party chairs to request audits of the 2020 election and future contests.

Abbott and his office reportedly stated audits have already been ongoing, something that caught Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee off guard. Menefee announced on Tuesday he has submitted a public information request to the Texas Secretary of State for a slew of internal documents to verify Abbott's claims.

Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey was one of the two Republicans who voted against the resolution Tuesday night, arguing "transparency is not a bad thing."

A few days prior to the resolution, Hidalgo warned continuing the conversation around election results "lends some credence" to conspiracy theories that fraud exists.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Over 1 million Houston voters change congressional districts under GOP redistricting plan

"These are the kinds of folks that stormed the capital. They are not going to be persuaded that their conspiracy theories are false," Hidalgo said in a Sunday Twitter video. "It can't be that the strategy of one party is to burn it all to the ground when their candidate doesn't win. That's how you tear down a country, that's how you tear down a democracy."
After this years deadly winter storm, state lawmakers spent weeks hearing complaints that power outages had cut off production at natural gas facilities, a key supplier to the Texas electricity grid.

So many were furious to learn Tuesday that the regulatory agency now tasked with preventing those outages, the Texas Railroad Commission, is considering a loophole for gas producers to opt out of receiving emergency power. Without electricity, they wont have to invest in preparing their facilities to operate in freezing conditions.

Im very disappointed, said Sen. Robert Nichols, a Jacksonville Republican and close ally of the oil and gas industry. Its not that hard to come up with the rule on something thats that critical, he said. Please dont turn my electricity off, because were pumping gas to the power plant.

Remarks at a Senate committee hearing on preparations for the looming winter revealed just how little progress has been made on one of the biggest obstacles from the February blackouts, which left more than 200 dead and led to billions of dollars in property damage. Natural gas fuels most of the states power grid, yet when temperatures dropped, production fell and gas-fired power plants were unable to secure supply.

FAILURES OF POWER Hearst Newspapers documented how 20 million Texans lost power in a deadly freeze after state lawmakers brushed aside a decade of warnings about the increasingly vulnerable electric grid. Read the series at www.houstonchronicle.com/failures-of-power. See More Collapse

The states gas production fell more than 20 percent over five days during the storm.

FAILURES OF POWER: This simple paperwork blunder left Texans cold during the deadly freeze

In response to the outages, the Railroad Commission said producers and gas processing facilities were unaware they could be exempted from rolling blackouts by being designated as critical infrastructure, as are hospitals. The states grid operator ERCOT had created an application in recent years for companies to request outage exemptions through their electric companies, but few had filled it out.

This spring, the Legislature passed a series of changes that they said would shore up the power grid from future outage crises, including requirements that power plants and some gas suppliers insulate their equipment and have other preparations in place to continue operating in freezing temperatures. But energy experts worried that the measures didnt go fast or far enough.

Critics specifically warned that the final provisions left broad discretion to gas suppliers, allowed for minimal fines and designated oversight to the Railroad Commission, whose elected members receive funding from the industry and have long opposed weather requirements.

On Tuesday, the commissions executive director, Wei Wang, said it was following the legislatures directive, which specified that rules on the outage exemptions should apply to only facilities and entities that are prepared to operate during a weather emergency.

The process we have in the proposed rule mirrors the language in SB 3, Wei said, referring to the omnibus bill passed by the Legislature. That would include a process in which the producer could get an exemption for a fee of $150.

The disclosure set off a round of finger pointing from lawmakers.

Your rulemaking process sucks, said Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston. We need a different direction.

READ THE SERIES: Texas politicians knowingly blew 3 chances to fix the failing power grid

Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, warned that if the agency doesnt change course, it could face repercussions from the Legislature.

You dont prove up your worth, it could just be moved to the PUC, she said of the agency being folded into the Public Utility Commission. I dont know, but its going to be looked at. So you better prove up your worth.

Under SB 3, the Railroad Commission is also tasked with implementing winter preparedness rules for gas producers that directly supply power plants and other facilities identified as critical by a newly created mapping committee. Those rules, though, are not due until 2023, Wei told the committee.

Winterizing a single gas well can cost up to $34,000, according to a 2011 federal report. There are 130,000 gas wells and thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines in the state.

Republicans in the House rejected amendments from Democrats this spring that would have increased penalties for gas suppliers that dont winterize and would have required progress on winterization within six months of the measure becoming law.

Wei said the commission is still early in its process, and is currently working to hire and train a new inspection team specifically focused on weather preparations.

You have had a good seven months and you havent assessed them all? Campbell said. Youre in the process of standing up to get inspectors to come out? Dont you think thats a little late, since we sure dont have seven months before our next winner starts?

I recognize the urgency, Wei said.

I dont think you do, Campbell responded.

jeremy.blackman@chron.com
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A number of promotions in the Fire Department were made at the beginning of Tuesday's City Council meeting, including the swearing in of the chief, the deputy chief, a lieutenant and two new reserve officers. Robert Patenaude is sworn in as deputy chief on Tuesday night. PreviousNext

North Adams Considers Uses for $2M in ARPA Funds



Fire Chief Brent Lefebvre was formally sworn in on Tuesday. His promotion to chief was done with a small ceremony in March because of pandemic restrictions. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The city will be seeking public input on the best uses of some of the $2 million it is receiving in federal COVID-19 relief funding.

Mayor Thomas Bernard said his main focus for the funds will be infrastructure, specifically water and sewer,

and for local economic recovery.

The City Council on Tuesday accepted $1,902,542 in the first tranche of the federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. The total amount the state is getting for municipalities is $3.34 billion of which North Adams will receive a total of $3,805,084, including $666,000 that will go directly to the city because there is no county government.

"The purposes of the funding include public health, recovery support to businesses and households, revenue replacement and infrastructure investment, for example water sewer and broadband investments," Bernard told the council. "Ineligible uses of the funds include pension payments, debt payments, transfer to stabilization, and the use of these funds which ultimately are federal funds as federal matching funds."

In response to questions, the mayor said he saw the spending priorities as probably 3-1 in terms of infrastructure and human services. With a million dollars a year, at least $750,000 would go for infrastructure and the other 25 percent to community needs.

Bernard committed to immediately spending $80,000 for a hydraulic modeling and water rate study plan will set the stage for a lot of other water projects the city needs.

"My intent is to launch an economic recovery fund," he further said. "My vision for this is going to be something that would be open both to small businesses and to human service providers to get to the level of meeting urgent community needs related to the recovery. ...

"This is the piece of public funding where we have the greatest opportunity to collect and gather community input, so we're in the process, as I said, of completing the survey application."

Councilor Jessica Sweeney said she's been hearing from small-business owners of the difficulty in navigating the federal funding and that housing appears to be a looming crisis, seeing opportunity for the city to be an advocate in those areas. Councilor Benjamin Lamb asked if there was an "aggregation of community feedback" that the city could draw from. The mayor noted the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition needs survey and its credibility within the community.

Councilor Bryan Sapienza asked if the money could be used toward the obsolete public safety building.

"I'm not sure that this funding would get us there," the mayor said, and referred to the necessity of getting the feasibility study funding sitting in the state bond bill. "But I think the full court advocacy press as the rollout plan for the rest of the state ARPA money, that's where I think we have our best chance."

Bernard, who is not running for re-election, said it will be up to the next administration to really think about the investment and use schedule. However, his through process has been to divide the funds up it up into 6-month increments, which would give the city about $543,000 in each period.

"That's not saying that by the end of this year we will only have spent $543,000, but that there will be a significant amount of money left on the table going into the future," he said. "I think the reasons for that are both to make sure that we are investing at a capacity that we can keep up with, but also that that funding is adaptable enough to respond to changing circumstances over the next 2 1/2-3 years."

The city's fire chief and new deputy chief were sworn in at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting. Fire Chief Brent Lefebvre had been sworn in earlier this year in a small ceremony in City Hall because of pandemic restrictions but Bernard thought it important he have the opportunity to take the oath publicly with his family in attendance.

Robert Patenaude, a lieutenant, was formally sworn in as deputy chief.

The council approved the addition of a deputy chief in this year's budget; the position will be in charge of inspections and training, as well as backup for the fire chief.

Bernard described Patenaude as "a distinguished firefighter with a strong record of service and commitment to the department and the residents of the city of North Adams. I am confident that he will continue to serve the city of North Adams with distinction in this new role."

In addition, firefighter John F. Lancto was newly promoted to lieutenant and Scott A. Bona and Jordan D. Mendez were sworn in as new reserve firefighters.

Both Patenaude and Lancto were pinned by their fathers, both former firefighters.

In other business, the council approved a transfer of $199,930 from the Landfill Reserve Account to the transfer station and capital expense budget to address improvements at the transfer station mandated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

 The council accepted a donation of two framed panoramic photos  one of the city and the other of its Sister City, Tremosine Sul Garda, Italy. The donation, valued at $500 from the Eclipse Mill Lofts Condominium Trust, was first approved by the Public Arts Commission. The panoramas were taken by noted photographer Kelly Lee, who joined one of the early annual trips to Tremosine started in 2005 by Edward Morandi and the late Dr. John Moresi. The trust purchased the images but has decided they would best be exhibited in City Hall.

The images are of the peaks of Northern Italy and its buildings' red tiled roofs mirroring the rolling Berkshire mountains and the red brick of the sprawling Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art with St. Elizabeth's in the corner.

 The mayor read a proclamation recognizing "Start with Hello Week." The school district has been involved with the program, part of the Sandy Hook Promise, for years. City officials and community members were on hand on Monday for a community welcome day; other events including walking and biking to school also take place. The goal is to let children know they are not alone and to create a culture of inclusion.

 Councilor Wayne Wilkinson brought a letter from A Street resident Chester L Oakes about issues with water streaming from Drury High's emergency parking lot exit filling his basement and traffic using or driving around the gated exit. Bernard said the city is working to resolve the water issue but couldn't lock the gate since it was an emergency access. Lamb suggested possible obstacles that would prevent vehicles from going around the gate.
North Adams Housing Authority Approves Vaccination Mandate

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Housing Authority Board of Commissioners approved a policy that would mandate that all employees be vaccinated by Nov. 30.

The authority's attorney Stephen Nary presented a new policy to the commissioners Monday that would mandate that all employees are vaccinated as well as new hires.

"We house a lot of people who are at high risk, and we need to protect them and ourselves," NAHA Executive Director Jennifer Hohn said.

The policy mirrors what the Biden administration intends to roll out. As a federally funded program, NAHA would inevitably be included in the federal mandate.

"It is meant to be a reasonable policy based on what is going to be imposed on us anyways," Nary said.

Hohn said she did not expect much pushback from the staff, who are essentially all vaccinated. She said it is more of a policy for potential new hires.

"I would have been comfortable with this anyways but knowing that everyone on staff is in a good place with this and that it would not cause discomfort is good news," Commissioner Kate Merrigan said.

Employees can pass on the vaccination if they have a reasonable medical exemption qualified by a medical practitioner. At that point, the executive director will meet with the exempt employee to work out a solution.

"Jen will ask if a reasonable accommodation can be made, and it is an interactive process," Nary said. "If they are allergic, the doctor tells them not to, whatever that reason and how can we continue to employ you without posing a burden on staff or tenants."

This is also the case for religious exemptions and the executive director will meet with the employee to review the legitimacy of the exemption.

"It is not a general opposition to vaccination or fear of vaccination," Nary said. "... It is kind of a balancing act and is a way for NAHA to work with people."

The attorney said employees could be placed on leave if their unvaccinated status causes hardship within NAHA.

During this time, the Housing Authority will try to find a solution. In some instances, the employee can eventually be terminated if they refuse to get vaccinated and there are no legitimate reasons not to be.

Hohn said the policy could change with future guidance from the federal level.

In other business, accountant Sue Honeycutt went over NAHA's current and fiscal 2022 budget.

"The agency is financially extremely stable and there have never been any issues," she said.

She broadly went over the budget and said the public housing reserve fund is very healthy with more than $1.5 million in its coffers.

"That is incredible," she said. "You usually don't see that."

On the Section 8 side, NAHA has $827,000 in reserves.

"That is really hard to find in housing authorities our size," Hohn said.
Chairwoman Danielle Luchi speaks at Wednesday morning's Select Board meeting.

Clarksburg Accessibility Grant Will Fund School Elevator

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  A priority for years at the elementary school has been the ability to make all three of its floors accessible to everyone.

That once insurmountable problem may be solved now with the approval of a $350,000 state grant that will include money for an elevator at the school.

Select Board Chairwoman Danielle Luchi announced the grant from the Massachusetts Office on Disability at Wednesday morning's meeting, along with a grant for LED lights in the school. Between the MOD and Green Communities grants, "bits and pieces" of every town building will be touched, she said, such as heat pumps and insulation at Town Hall.

The grants had been in process by Town Administrator Rebecca Stone, who is currently out on extended medical leave, according to town officials. (Luchi later responded that she could not answer any questions about this.)

"Any grant that Rebecca was working on, that was my first go-to when I realized that she was going to be out longer than we thought," Luchi said. "I just want to make sure that the town didn't lose any grant money that it had coming in because I do care about the school and I do care about the town at the end of the day, and I don't want to see us fall behind."

Bringing the 60-year-old school into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act has been considered one of the most costly and difficult expenses in any rebuild or renovation. A project to advance those upgrades  along with other significant needs  was shot down by voters four years ago because of the $19 million price tag.

School officials have made some headway in upgrades, including a new accessible bathroom, security system and front entrance, and preschool area. But access within the split-level school was limited, with an outdated lift to get up the steps to middle school classrooms and only stairs to get to the combined gym/cafeteria on the lowest level.

But even as the grants were good news, Northern Berkshire School Union Superintendent John Franzoni, who attended the meeting at the Community Center, said the long-term survival of the school had to be faced. The School Committee wants community input on whether the school should remain open or if it should consider a merger with North Adams, a topic that's surfaced a number of times over the past decade.

"My concern is that, I've said for pretty much the whole three years I've been here, is that we have issues in our building that need to be addressed long term to stay open because of ADA compliance and everything that was in that project four years ago," he said. "We have a situation where our only natural partner, were we to close our school for some reason down the road, it was not operational, is North Adams, and if they close one of their three elementary schools that puts them down to two.

"And then what would happen to our 150 kids in Clarksburg who are currently residents in our school?"

Nearby North Adams is expecting to close Greylock School after an enrollment study showed a decline in numbers over the next decade. Clarksburg had been invited as a liaison for a proposed Greylock school project in recognition of the potential closure of the small town school. But, on the advice of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, the city is now eyeing a project at the newer Brayton School that would accommodate Greylock's pupils.

"We're kind of in a timeline, I would say, that makes it necessary for us to make a decision as a town for what we're planning to do," Franzoni said.

The School Committee is seeking a nonbinding resolution on a town ballot asking for direction from voters.

Luchi said she would consult with town counsel on how a ballot petition should be presented and agreed with Franzoni that a joint meeting of the board and committee should be held to discuss the issue, including whether it should be on the December special election ballot or the annual town meeting ballot.

In other business, Luchi said the town is entering into a National Grid program that will see all its streetlights switched out for LEDs. The program will also give the town a $10,000 rebate and cut its kilowatt usage in half. Several people at the meeting asked about light pollution and if the LEDs would be blue tone. Luchi said they would not be blue but the same lights used on River Road, and in Adams, North Adams and Williamstown. She said she would check with National Grid about light pollution concerns and, at a question from Library Board of Trustees Chairwoman Debra Bua, about exterior lighting at the library from the other grant.

 The board accepted the resignation of Angela Garrity as town accountant; Garrity was hired last December. Sharon Davignon was hired temporarily to take charge of payables. She is an accounts payable clerk in the North Adams Public Schools. After the meeting, Luchi was able to confirm that Ericka Oleson, the former treasurer, and Donna Estes, former accountant, will work on reconciling the accounts for fiscal 2021. Estes will also step in as interim accountant.

The treasurer's office had been struggling for months to stabilize its procedures and clean up a backlog. Hilltown Municipal Accounting Services was brought in at 16 hours a week to aid the effort and personnel were switched around. Luchi said the hirings were done under emergency authorizations to complete fiscal 2021. She anticipated completion within a couple of weeks and said Hilltown was putting in extra hours to speed things up. The Department of Revenue is being kept abreast of the situation, she said.

 Luchi also responded to comments by Robert Norcross about keeping things professional on social media. Articles about the problems in the treasurer's office have been posted on Facebook, followed by heated comments to which Luchi responded. She said she deleted her Facebook account.

"I didn't ask to be thrown in this position, I didn't ask for these people to do what they did," said Luchi, who stepped in when the former chairman resigned. "I am a human at the end of the day. And it's very hard to be bashed back and forth and reading these newspaper articles, and I'm just trying to do the best that I can."
Name: Victor Kushch

Company: Fairmarkit

Job title: CTO

Date started current role: May 2017

Location: Boston, MA

As CTO and co-founder of the intelligent sourcing company, Fairmarkit, Victor Kushch oversees the companys overall product vision and is focused on leveraging data, analytics and automation to revolutionise the way organisations buy the things they need. Kushch was previously CEO and CTO of KU64 Inc, a digital agency focused on agile development of Python/Django web applications, and held various leadership roles in IT.



What was your first job? At the age 12 I got my first gig helping to translate ERP software from German to Russian as part of software adaptation. That project introduced me to technology and gave me practical, hands on experience at a young age. Also, seeing its impact just blew my mind.

Did you always want to work in IT? Computers and networks always made my heartbeat faster. From taking part in school competitive programming sessions, to hacking different IoT gadgets around the house, to building early versions of automated models on MatCad. My early IT work slowly shaped my mind and helped me find my own way in the industry.

What was your education? Do you hold any certifications? What are they? I received my masters degree in Engineering from the Mogilev University of Technology in Belarus, where I was born. After I moved to the US, I dove headfirst into a range of self-education courses on boosting domains in Cisco networking, Python object oriented patterns, science and deep learning, frontend, and DevOps. Beyond formal education, Im also a big fan of project-based self-learning for real, practical experience. Nowadays, pair programming is another fascinating tool I use for quick knowledge transfer.

Explain your career path. Did you take any detours? If so, discuss. I grew up and went to University in Belarus before relocating to the United States in 2013. From early in my education, I knew I wanted to build and create. In my early days I had roles working on ERP integrations and financial software modules. As I got more into IT and project development, I developed a love for leadership and team development.

After moving to the US, I began leading a digital agency called Clever IT Systems with the goal of helping different kinds of businesses get to the next stage of IT and product setup. Also, being entrepreneurial, I developed a few e-commerce products where I was able to learn a lot about international business practices, procurement, sourcing and more. During that journey I saw the untapped potential of the procurement industry and realised when it came to purchasing power, companies were falling short across every vertical market. Many were desperate for innovation. Long hours and frequent conversations with my current Fairmarkit co-founders about procurement issues led to our quest to introduce a better way for enterprises to make purchases.

What type of CTO are you? Id like to think that I am the type of CTO that encourages innovation, not only in our product, but within our team. I believe in leaning into great ideas no matter where they come from and love coming to work with relentless people. Im of the mindset that its better to try and fail than play it safe.

Which emerging technology are you most excited about the prospect of? The biggest area I am most excited about is data science, with domains like natural language processing, ranking algorithms, and transferred learning. Im also excited to learn more about DevOps as one of the drivers of development team efficiency. Our team has also started to take on a lot of experimentation with UI/UX for enterprise products with the main goal of building simple (yet powerful) flows for day to day use.

Are there any technologies which you think are overhyped? Why? I would have to say blockchain. While it is a strong technology with great relevance in the real world (like crypto currency or document system of records), I see many cases when it is used solely for the sake of name recognition or to attract investment.

What is one unique initiative that youve employed over the last 12 months that youre really proud of? There are a couple of initiatives that come to mind. One is CIP (continuous improvement program) for the range of our development streams. With the full transparency and feedback loop, the process is a great addition to our other agile frameworks used on a daily basis.

In addition to CIP, were very proud of our initiatives surrounding diversity and inclusion at Fairmarkit. From my experience, diverse teams encourage well-rounded decision making by bringing different points of view to the same problem. We consistently see companies make D&I commitments with their wallets and fail to integrate those into their actual product. At Fairmarkit, were enabling our customers to achieve D&I at scale by diversifying their suppliers and allowing them to tap into local, BIPOC and female-owned businesses. One thing all companies will acknowledge today is the importance of impactful D&I. Im proud to say weve gone beyond simply acknowledging the importance and made it a core tenet of our procurement platform.

Are you leading a digital transformation? If so, does it emphasise customer experience and revenue growth or operational efficiency? If both, how do you balance the two? Right now, I am focused on digital transformation, both through the lens of the product and internal company processes. There are several techniques that can be utilised to achieve this, including running a variety of small MVPs in different areas that can be disrupted. Were trying to push customer experience with a deep focus on our customer base and operational experience with the end goal of making things more efficient.

What is the biggest issue that youre helping customers with at the moment? Due to pandemic related supply chain disruptions, theres great urgency in effective management of cost and supplies. Companies are finding that the things they need simply arent available because the factories their vendors use to produce products have closed. Therefore, supply chain management is a mission critical function for our customers that we take very seriously. As we move forward in the COVID era, supply chain management will continue to be a differentiator for enterprises looking to improve and scale their efforts without breaking the bank.

How do you align your technology use to meet business goals? Fairmarkit was built with a customer-first mentality. From the early product research all the way to the current product lines, we always try to make it customer centric and have an open feedback line for constant improvement. Our goal at Fairmarkit is to make it easier for enterprises to purchase the supplies and services they need. Specifically, we help enterprises with their tail spend, and provide effective ways to track and manage purchases that equate to 80% of an enterprises spend by volume and billions of dollars. The technology we use - automation, machine learning, data analytics - is first and foremost informed by these goals. We knew we needed the technology and tools that could make procurement faster, easier and more efficient.

Do you have any trouble matching product/service strategy with tech strategy? I think we are in good shape with our service and tech strategy. Our team is made up of exceptional professionals gluing product and tech strategies together, which allows us to provide steady growth without hindering product development speed or introducing too much technical debt.

What makes an effective tech strategy? Surround yourself with a well-rounded team that is aligned in the mission of the company. Our teams experience spans a variety of areas from cloud architecture to high performance application design. When we are aligned in our goals and chasing after the same mission, our customers will believe in that mission too. As a tip, I would suggest clearly separating R&D from production implementation. I see a variety of projects where breaking that rule leads to complex and hard to support products. Doing quick R&D MVP allows enterprise grade quality to shine.

What predictions do you have for the role of the CTO in the future? The modern CTO needs to digest and aggregate as much information as possible in order to produce innovative next stage products. The growing amount of data and new technologies make this process increasingly complex. As a forward-thinking CTO, its important that I have the ability to quickly build a personal network to help streamline a better design with diversified opinions.

Also, I believe well be feeling the impact of this pandemic long after theres general availability of the vaccine, and workforces (while mostly hybrid) will continue to be largely remote. This presents long term considerations for CTOs, who will have to take a more flexible approach when it comes to hiring and leading technical teams.

What has been your greatest career achievement? I couldnt be prouder of what weve built at Fairmarkit over the past couple of years. With a lot of hard work and hustle, weve expanded our boundaries and continue to find ways to leverage advanced technology like analytics and machine learning to bring efficient procurement to our customers. We have embraced automation like never before and understand the incredible power it can bring to the procurement process - particularly the manual and mundane steps in the process. We have over 50 customers, including names like Snowflake, Cabot Corporation, Blue KC and more, representing a wide swath of industries. The best part is, were just getting started.

Looking back with 20:20 hindsight, what would you have done differently? I would have introduced cross-functional SWAT teams for the most complex areas of the business. The collective intelligence, diversity of perspectives and agile approach can make the impossible possible.
Burmese journalists living in exile since the military coup are watching their country and media crumble from the outside, but they still fight for the truth to be told, writes Lara Pagola.

The crisis in Myanmar has seen scores of Burmese nationals flee or attempt to flee the country or go into hiding. Those lucky enough to escape remain in necessary exile, including many journalists. The International Federation of Journalists spoke to Toe Zaw Latt, operations director at the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) who escaped with the help of Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and relocated to Melbourne, Australia. Saw Blacktown, a reporter for Karen News, is living and hiding on the Thai-Burma border.

DVB was originally founded in 1992 as an exiled media outlet in Oslo, Norway, but following media reforms introduced after the 2010 elections it was invited back to Myanmar in 2012, where it was based in Yangon for nine years. Toe Zaw Latt makes it clear DVB is no newcomber to military crackdowns on media outlets. We are used to operating in exile, and now we are back to square one because the media profession, especially independence media, is very restrictive, he said.

The endurance of journalists like Toe Zaw Latt is evident. Amid the chaos being instilled in the lives of those in Myanmar, reporting is still at the forefront of what is important for the countrys independent journalists. There is not one single second that we are not reporting, he said.

The tech lifeline

As a result of the suspension of licenses and fear, many media operations are turning to online platforms to publish their work. DVB continues to produce content despite the licence of their Yangon station being revoked by the military on February 8, 2021.

With Facebook followers jumping in the country from 13 million to 16 million since the military junta took power, the demand for independent media in Myanmar is evident. Both Facebook and YouTube are fast becoming popular spaces for news that the military has less control over. Karen News also uses the platforms to publish its work, but has suspended its monthly hard copy journal to avoid having its licence revoked. Thanks to technology we stay alive, said Toe Zaw Latt

As the coup continues indefinitely, journalists living in exile are experiencing new challenges to reporting. Getting sources is increasingly difficult, not only because of the coup, but also because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Toe Zaw Latt says sources inside Myanmar are scared.

Saw Blacktown agrees and speaks of the fear sources now face. He said sources are not scared of giving information, but rather they fear being identified. Further, the pandemic is restricting the movement of journalists, making it difficult to get primary information from inside the country when one is restricted by the border controls.

This is not the first time Myanmar has been under military rule, and its not the first time these organisations have had to work under pressing circumstances. It has become very difficult, but we are quite experienced  we know how to get information out of a closed country, said Toe Zaw Latt says sources inside Burma are scared, said

Discarding dangers to survive

Possessions easily become a last priority for journalists fleeing Myanmar, but they are also an unnecessary danger. I left everything, said Toe Zaw Latt. You have to leave everything behind, cross the border, stay alive, and keep reporting. That is our primary function. More importantly we dont want to be silenced. This is what the army wants. They revoke license, they target us, they imprison us, but of course we are not silenced and that is why we continue broadcasting whenever we can,

Then there is the process of re-establishing media elsewhere.

For our offices we established inside we [now] need to bring out the important equipment and appliances in a discrete way. Since the coup, the target was not directly to media organisations yet, but at that time we foresaw what was coming, said Saw Blacktown, So we brought out things before things got worse, but we still have our other office space that we left behind  and all the identifying signposts that we put outside our office, we had to take them down for security reasons.

Reporting from the outside

Living in exile presents its own challenges for journalists used to being in the field and reporting on news first hand.

When speaking of his new challenges in exile, Toe Zaw Latt said: Here are the challenges; the time difference, we had to set up a studio, I need manpower, I need technology. But I am still in a better position compared to my colleagues.

Saw Blacktown knows his situation is infinitely better to that of his colleagues that remain in Myanmar: Im better off than those operating deeper inside the country. All the time when we were operating before we still kept our operations office on the border where I mostly worked from - those inside have a more difficult situations than me.

Toe Zaw Latt said, There are a lot of things that you want to do but you cant.

Obtaining legal documents when residing in a new country has become a serious issue for journalists in exile. Toe Zaw Latt spoke of the mass amounts of journalists on the Thailand-Myanmar border that lack adequate legal papers.

As an ethnic news organisation it is hard to establish ourselves as a legal entity so you have to operate in a sort of low profile [way] and sometimes you cannot do everything you want to do, said Toe Zaw Latt.

To speak to sources inside Myanmar has become impossible, and carrying out your work has become extremely difficult, especially for photojournalists and video journalists.

We often cannot secure fresh footage for news reports and we have to rely on freelancers, or seasoned journalists, or stringers, then they have the issue of getting the materials to you because of the internet problem, said Toe Zaw Latt.

Saw Blacktown and Toe Zaw Latt both referred to a lack of relief, despite being in exile and away from the threat of prosecution, while there are still people left behind; colleagues, family, and friends.

It is not satisfying, looking from here, and even if you take a positive view, that you can still report on whats happening inside the country, you still have to rely on secondary sources. It is mixed feelings, said Toe Zaw Latt.

The media's military shift

The media landscape in Myanmar has evidently shifted in accordance to military legislation and the crackdown on journalists.

There is no longer freedom of expression, no longer an independent media space. They dont tolerate different versions of the truth, only their truth, said Toe Zaw Latt

The shift has seen the ongoing demise of the media industry, as media houses continue to shut down the longer the military are in power. Some media houses have opted to go underground than remain under the military spotlight.

Burma is going to back to the old dark-age of censorship, said Toe Zaw Latt. But we are never silent, the DVB has existed for 29 years, we have experience of the military, we know what their attitudes are towards the media. We know how to work under this system

There are currently only two papers that are not state papers still being published and one does not publish names. The armys media outlets treats independent media as a strategy on the grounds of propaganda.

It is a total disaster for media because you know that your life is at risk as long as you are doing your job. All the infrastructure that supports your work, like the internet, and other equipment are deemed dangerous, said Saw Blacktown, But for us, since we started from exile, it is like going back to that day when we started. We can say that we stay trying to adapt to the situation, but it is hard to go back to this age as the world is developing so fast and you cannot rely on this to do your work, so it is a big setback for [independent] media in the country.

Individual support still needed

Toe Zaw Latt said DVB is currently attempting to establish a Bureau in Melbourne, and is in the process of lobbying the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to bring more journalists from Myanmar to Australia.

As an Australian citizen, Toe Zaw Latt is encouraged by this. DFAT assisted in bringing him back to Australia. Toe Zaw Latt said the support of journalists by international organisations and unions is of extreme importance when the military is unlikely to listen to the pleas of anyone. International government support is crucial particularly in assuring the safety of journalists still in the field.

If you are serious about democracy and human rights then you should support, said Toe Zaw Latt, Regional support, like ASEAN and Australia, is important to keep independent journalists and democracy alive in Burma  it is the fight for democratisation.

Saw Blacktown called on the vital need for support for journalists safety as well funding support for journalist families. He is advocating for technology support to be provided to assist those still in Myanmar in producing content.

It is hard to say that international media organisations can advocate directly to the junta because they wont listen, said Saw Blacktown, [Journalists] need to be supported in a way that they can work in a more discrete way, so some sort of technology in terms of getting our information safety without being tracked. Also there are many journalists in prison where they may have family back home - this may be an area international organisations and media groups can help in trying to support the family of journalists as well as helping with legal issues and costs.

Toe Zaw Latt said he needs help in Australia to establish a DVB Bureau in Melbourne. Losing commissions on his work and funding overnight has been a great challenge. He said international organisations and unions must also provide support for journalists in exile to help them establish themselves and their work in their new place of residence. Toe Zaw Latt hopes the Australian government will bring back the ABC Burmese program.

Journalists continue to struggle, both in exile and within the country. What has become clear, however, is that independent media will not be silenced. There is a hunger to persevere against the odds. Those in exile have a vital role to play to keep the truth flowing and that must be supported.

Lara Pagola is an international relations student from UNSW and reported and monitored the situation in Myanmar from July to August 2021 through the IFJs advocacy internship program.
Kaspersky researchers presented a comprehensive investigation into all the recent updates introduced into FinSpy spyware for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and its installers. The research, which took eight months to complete, uncovers four-layer obfuscation and advanced anti-analysis measures employed by the spywares developers, as well as the employment of a UEFI bootkit to infect victims. The findings suggest a high emphasis on defense evasion, making FinFisher one of the hardest-to-detect spywares to date.

FinFisher, also known as FinSpy or Wingbird, is a surveillance tool, which Kaspersky has been tracking since 2011. It is capable of gathering various credentials, file listings, and deleted files, as well as various documents, live streaming or recording data, and gaining access to a webcam and microphone. Its Windows implants were detected and researched several times up to 2018 when FinFisher appeared to have gone under the radar.

After that, Kaspersky solutions detected suspicious installers of legitimate applications such as TeamViewer, VLC Media Player, and WinRAR, which contained malicious code that could not be connected to any known malware. That is, until one day they discovered a website in Burmese that contained the infected installers and samples of FinFisher for Android, helping to identify they were Trojanized with the same spyware. This discovery pushed Kaspersky researchers to investigate FinFisher further.

Unlike previous versions of the spyware, which contained the Trojan in the infected application right away, new samples were protected by two components: non-persistent Pre-validator and a Post-Validator. The first component runs multiple security checks to ensure that the device it is infecting does not belong to a security researcher. Only when the checks pass, is the Post-Validator component provided by the server  this component ensures that the infected victim is the intended one. Only then would the server command deployment of the full-fledged Trojan platform.

Example of scheduled task properties

FinFisher is heavily obfuscated with four complex custom-made obfuscators. The primary function of this obfuscation is to slow down the analysis of the spyware. On top of that, the Trojan also employs peculiar ways to gather information. For instance, it uses the developers mode in browsers to intercept traffic protected with a HTTPS protocol.

The researchers also discovered a sample of FinFisher that replaced the Windows UEFI bootloader  a component that launches the operating system after firmware launch along with a malicious one. This way of infection allowed the attackers to install a bootkit without the need to bypass firmware security checks.

UEFI infections are very rare and generally hard to execute, they stand out due to their evasiveness and persistence. While in this case the attackers did not infect the UEFI firmware itself, but its next boot stage, the attack was particularly stealthy as the malicious module was installed on a separate partition and could control the boot process of the infected machine.

The amount of work put into making FinFisher not accessible to security researchers is particularly worrying and somewhat impressive. It seems like the developers put at least as much work into obfuscation and anti-analysis measures as in the Trojan itself. As a result, its capabilities to evade any detection and analysis make this spyware particularly hard to track and detect, comments Igor Kuznetsov, principal security researcher at Kasperskys Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT).

The fact that this spyware is deployed with high precision and is practically impossible to analyze also means that its victims are especially vulnerable, and researchers face a special challenge  having to invest an overwhelming amount of resources into untangling each and every sample. I believe complex threats such as FinFisher demonstrate the importance for security researchers to cooperate and exchange knowledge as well as invest in new types of security solutions that can combat such threats, adds Kuznetsov.

Read the full report on FinFisher on Securelist.

To protect yourself from such threats as FinFisher, Kaspersky recommends to:

Download your apps and programs from trusted websites.

Dont forget to update your operating system and all software regularly. Many safety issues can be solved by installing updated versions of software.

Distrust e-mail attachments by default. Before clicking to open an attachment or follow a link, consider carefully: Is it from someone you know and trust; is it expected; is it clean? Hover over links and attachments to see what theyre named or where they really go.

Avoid installing software from unknown sources. It may and often does contain malicious files.

Use a strong security solution on all computers and mobile devices, such as Kaspersky Internet Security for Android or Kaspersky Total Security.

For organizations protection, Kaspersky suggests the following:
The key part that cashless payments are expected to play in boosting inclusivity and accessibility in the Philippines is one of several topical issues explored by Simoun Ung, CEO of OmniPay, in an interview he gave recently to Oxford Business Groups (OBG) online broadcasting channel, Global Platform.

Simoun Ung, CEO of Omnipay

Ung said that the rollout of digital payments would provide opportunities for fintech players to tap into the unbanked sector of society, and bridge divides in the process. He added, however, that some providers would also have to rethink their operating models.

Part of the response from the central bank and industry is to make micropayments free, he said. The challenge then, to fintechs, is [] what will you look like when all the fee-based income disappears? For the ones that arent profitable, then its going to be even harder to cross that line to break even on an operational basis.

Turning to the subject of cybersecurity, Ung stressed that there was a responsibility at all levels to become informed about possible threats and the protection available, from the top downwards.

The central bank will look at the financial institutions that they regulate, and measure and gain a sense of their cybersecurity posture, he told OBG. There has to be a greater effort made to ensure that consumers understand the risks associated with the different payment transactions.

The interview is now available to view in full at oxfordbusinessgroup.com/video/simoun-ung-ceo-omnipay.

Marc-Andre de Blois, OBGs Director of PR and Video Content, said the interview with Ung had highlighted the shifts taking shape across the Philippines financial services sector, as the national drive to make half of all transactions digital by 2023 gains pace.

While digital payments to merchants in the Philippines have increased steadily in recent years, rising from 523m in 2019 to 654m in H1 2020, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly accelerated the move towards cashless transactions, he said. Im delighted that through our video, viewers have been given an opportunity to discover more about how industry players in this important segment are preparing to adjust to these new ways of operating.
De-risking strategies of global companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic can bolster the growth of the Philippine IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry, with total headcount potentially exceeding the end-2022 forecast of 1.43 million direct jobs.

The role the power distributor and its fiber internet and data solutions unit, Radius Telecoms, plays is crucial to the success of this setup and the industry overall.

Rey Untal, President and Chief Executive Officer of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP)*, told an executive session organized by Meralco on September 2, that the surge of COVID-19 infections in other IT-BPM markets has forced many global firms to employ de-risking strategies that resulted in movements in terms of accounts, footprint, and clients to our shores and other locations.

He said the rebalancing adapted by these companies to minimize exposure in a single country could result in a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) thats higher than the 5.5% that was originally projected in late 2020.

Last year, the Philippine outsourcing industry had a total headcount of 1.37 million and export revenue of $26.7 billion. Untal said IBPAP forecast for export revenue is around $29 billion by the end of 2022.

For this growth potential to become a reality, there are several enabling conditions that need to be met and appropriate interventions that must be carried out, said Untal.

These enabling conditions include continued improvement of skills, particularly in digital technology, acceleration of the countrys digital transformation, improving cost competitiveness and ease of doing business, and infrastructure development.

Untal said it will be crucial for utilities like Meralco and its fiber Internet and data solutions unit, Radius Telecoms, to provide the necessary infrastructure to allow a majority of outsourcing companies to continue with the current work-from-home (WFH) arrangement even after the pandemic. He said the WFH arrangement could be a permanent fixture of the industry since it has resulted in greater productivity, reduced absenteeism, and lessened turnover rate among employees.

We will never go back to what it used to be when everything is delivered from megasites, said Untal, noting the recent development of microsites that are closer to residential areas to give employees a place to go to when the internet connection is bogged down or there is a sudden power outage.

Radius and other telecom companies should accelerate the rollout of fiber optics networks and install more cellular sites to improve both fixed and mobile Internet connections, he said.

On the part of Meralco, it is the next watch out for us. It is not lost in our peripheral vision, the risk that we carry. Now that we have a heavily decentralized operation capitalizing on a remote, work-from-home construct, we know that the risk for outages is higher, said Untal.

A sustainable internet infrastructure alone is not sufficient because we also need to ensure that power is likewise sustainable and predictable. That is where Meralco can have a huge impact in, he added.

Victor L. Risma IV, Head of Meralco Corporate Business Group - Technical Services, assured Untal that the power distributor will always do what we can to keep the lights on in the homes and businesses of our customers.

He said the series of discussions with various industry leaders has provided Meralco with keener insights in its customers needs as well as a greater understanding of its own vulnerabilities that are now being addressed.

*At time of writing this feature, IBPAP announced that Rey Untal will be stepping down as IBPAP President, effective September 17, 2021.
Last week, Toast, a Boston-based provider of restaurant point of sale technology, went public -- with the company valued at $31 billion at the end of its first day of trading on September 22.

Meanwhile, EzCater, another Boston-based foodtech company, did not receive the attention that goes with such an eye-popping financial outcome. As I wrote on September 10, EzCater was founded in 2007 and it delivers meals to people in their workplaces. Its special sauce is professionalism -- supplying meals when and where workers need them -- including hospitals, retail locations, and construction sites.

EzCater was on a roll before the pandemic. In April 2019, it raised $150 million -- valuing the company at $1.25 billion. When the pandemic hit, companies asked their employees to work from home, which slashed EzCater's revenues. The company cut more than 400 people, about half its workforce.

EzCater has come roaring back, according to my September 21 interview with CEO Stefania Mallett. In fact, she and her co-founder agreed to dye their hair green if the company reached an ambitious revenue target. EzCater had planned to get there by October 2021 -- but reached the goal sooner (in June). So in July she fulfilled her commitment to dye her hair green.

What follows are what strike me as the four most important reasons for EzCater's recovery and Mallett's lessons for business leaders.

1. Market to new groups of workers.

When the pandemic hit, EzCater started to pay attention to groups of customers that the company neglected when it was growing so quickly in 2019. Specifically, EzCater focused on meeting the demand for meals by so-called essential workers -- such as people who work in retail, health care, logistics, and e-commerce.

Demand from office workers is coming back. Outside of major East Coast cities such as New York and Boston, EzCater is seeing people return to the office. As Mallett said, "If you go to Worcester, Massachusetts and further west, people are back in the office and no more masks."

2. Introduce new products.

EzCater also introduced new products that it was contemplating before the spread of Covid-19. "We launched Relish -- lunch as a service -- to feed employees who pick their dish. The orders show up at the office, employees get what they want, and they don't need to crowd into an elevator or go into a restaurant."

Relish added $40 billion to EzCater's total addressable market -- on top of its original $25 billion market for serving meetings and sales calls. EzCater did not view this as a pivot. Instead, Mallett thinks of it as an extension of the company's value proposition of not embarrassing its clients by delivering the right items to the right location at the right time.

EzCater also introduced a service called EzDispatch that helps restaurants and other food preparers find people to deliver food to offices in a professional manner. She told me that EzCater has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of orders where the driver was provided by EzDispatch.

3. Preserve capital.

EzCater still has 80 percent of the capital it raised back in June 2019, according to Mallett, which amounts to $120 million by my math. She says the company is now generating cash.

4. Field and keep an excellent management team.

EzCater was able to keep most of its management team in place despite its layoffs last year.

Three lessons for leaders

Here are three lessons she learned about how business leaders should conduct themselves in a highly stressful situation:

Don't panic. "When disaster strikes, you have more time than you think. Don't panic. Don't take it personally. Slow down and avoid rash moves"

"When disaster strikes, you have more time than you think. Don't panic. Don't take it personally. Slow down and avoid rash moves" Assemble a team of experts. "Invite as many people as you can to answer 'What are our strengths? How can we best carry them forward? Should we pivot?' "

"Invite as many people as you can to answer 'What are our strengths? How can we best carry them forward? Should we pivot?' " Build on your strengths. "Put the strongest, most innovative people in charge of helping the company move forward."
Dir: Cary Joji Fukunaga. Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas. 12A, 163 mins.

Cary Joji Fukunaga has made a smashing piece of action cinema with No Time to Die  its just a shame it had to be a Bond film. For all the delays, the rumours around Danny Boyles departure, the months spent building up Daniel Craigs final farewell in the role, whats most disappointing about the film is how strangely anti-climatic the whole thing feels. The core premise, with a script partially credited to Bond regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, is simply more generic spy nonsense: a biological weapon of mass destruction known only as Heracles, now given a technological edge, has been stolen from a secret laboratory by the villainous SPECTRE. Craigs Bond, whos in both hiding and retirement on a remote tropical island, looking as scraggly as Tom Hanks in Castaway, is inevitably pulled into the fray.

The man behind the curtain, the billed villain of the piece, is Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), whos really just a loosely tied fistful of character traits pulled from the Bond villain playbook. The lair, the henchmen, the personal vendetta  its the same ideas recycled without much flair. Malek himself gives almost nothing to the role beyond the accent and the fake scars he wears. Will the Bond franchise ever be able to move past the damaging trope of associating facial disfigurements with villainy? Some nods to the past are more welcome than others. Craigs Bond, early on, echoes the words of George Lazenby in On Her Majestys Secret Service, famously uttered while he clutched the dead body of his wife Tracy (Diana Rigg): We have all the time in the world.

When Craig says that same line, the strings of Louis Armstrongs We Have All the Time in the World swelling in the background, it takes on a new meaning. The irony isnt so much that the blissful happy ending promised at the end of Spectre, as he swanned off in the arms of Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), isnt built to last, but that Craig himself knows that its time for him to say goodbye to the role. No Time to Die is at its very best when it allows the actor room to take his final curtsy with both grace and style, allowing him to leave the franchise with not only a good dollop of dignity, but a reminder that he gave Bond a soul.

And he is brilliant in No Time to Die, in a way that outshines everything around him. His granite-carved features crumple in just such a way, always at the right moment  his Bond contains an ocean of battered emotions trying to reach the surface.

And he will be remembered, too, as a consummate action star, ever since he landed that first brutal punch in 2006s Casino Royale. No Time to Die is at its best when Fukunaga is given the freedom to match that energy. The director has taken all of his experience in prestige television, including his work on True Detective and Maniac, and delivered a Bond that is so thrillingly tense, it veers into something close to horror. There are scenes in No Time to Die that suggest this might be the franchises own Dantes Inferno  whether 007 is descending into a mist-clogged European forest or a Bacchanalian party in a crumbling Cuban mansion. Its surprisingly grotesque. And occasionally almost poetic.

But Fukunagas more radical vision of Bond is fleeting. Its a good film thats been forced to rattle around in the Bond universe like a loose cog. Has Hollywoods obsession with connectivity, sparked by the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, poisoned the Bond franchise for good? Possibly.

The film soon devolves into a rotating sideshow of old characters and plot points. The blissful happy ending that he was promised at the end of Spectre, in the arms of Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), doesnt last long  of course. Christoph Waltzs now imprisoned Blofeld makes a dutiful appearance. As does Jeffrey Wrights CIA agent Felix Leiter. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw), and M (Ralph Fiennes) all hover round the edges. These are strands, characters and ideas that have been pulled together without much thought. Theyre here because it feels like they should be, to give Craig his last hoorah. Meanwhile, the franchise still cant move on from how perfect a Bond girl Eva Green was in Casino Royale, and Lea Seydoux is forced to contend with that fact, five films on.

To find out what others are saying and join the conversation scroll down for the comments section or click here for our most commented on articles

And despite Phoebe Waller-Bridges much-publicised contributions to the films script, No Time to Die hardly feels like the radical feminist rewrite we were promised. To her credit, the women (minus Seydouxs character, whos always sullen) get to have fun instead of merely traipsing around like over competent femme bots. Ana de Armass newbie agent Paloma feels like the audition for her upcoming Marilyn Monroe biopic, and Lashana Lynch, as a rival 00, is such a force of charisma that it feels pointless to look for a new Bond when surely the future of the franchise is already standing right there.

But beyond any potential for future appearances, they only serve as accessories to a film that doesnt quite know what to do or what it is  it only knows that Craig lies at the very heart of it.
Donald Trump has failed to throw out musician Eddy Grants lawsuit regarding the former presidents use of the song Electric Avenue in a campaign video.

US District Court Judge, John Koetl, rejected Trumps motion to dismiss on the grounds that use of the song was fair use.

Koetl said the use of Electric Avenue, a 1983 hit for Grant, was essentially wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad.

The judges ruling continued: While it is true that the animation is partisan political commentary and the song apparently is not, the inquiry does not focus exclusively on the character of the animation; rather, it focuses on the character of the animations use of Grants song.

Grant filed suit against Trump last year after the former president uploaded a video to Twitter that depicted an animated Joe Biden on an old fashioned train lagging behind Trumps high speed locomotive.

(AFP via Getty Images)

The video was later removed by Twitter following the copyright claim.

Trump begun his motion to dismiss last November, arguing that the use of Electric Avenue was for satire and not to disseminate the song.

A number of other artists such as The Rolling Stones and Neil Young have also criticised Trump for using their music without permission.

The suit is now expected to go to discovery.
Season 41 of hit reality show Survivor is here.

After not airing in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, the new season premiered on 22 September 2021.

Travel restrictions initially prevented the cast and crew from going to Fiji to film, but it is now returning to its longstanding home for the upcoming season.

Season 41 started filming back in April, longtime host, Jeff Probst, announced on social media.

He said: Hey, Survivor fans, I have some exciting news to share. Survivor is going back into production. Fiji has invited us back to their beautiful country to shoot Season 41.

Probst also detailed how the series would shoot in the pandemic: We have all of our Covid protocols in place so that everybody in Fiji will remain safe, all of our crew will be safe, and of course our players will be safe.

I cant remember a time Ive been this pumped to shoot Survivor and Ill tell you why. The past year has reminded me, and I hope its reminded you, that you gotta live your life like its one big, great adventure, and Survivor fulfills that.

Survivor first started in 2000 and during its over two decades on air, has been one of the most popular shows in the US. The winner of each series receives $1m (730,000).

There will be 18 new contestants for the new season: Brad Reese, Danny McCray, David Voce, Deshawn Radden, Eric Abraham, Erika Casupanan, Evvie Jagoda, Genie Chen, Heather Aldret, Jairus Robinson, Liana Wallace, Naseer, Muttalif, Ricard Foye, Sara Wilson, Shantel Smith, Sydney Segal, Tiffany Seely and Xander Hastings.

The second episode of Survivor is on tonight (29 September) on CBS from 8pm EST.
China has further curtailed press freedoms in Hong Kong after staff at the territorys embattled public broadcaster were forced to support national security laws and the interests of the Chinese government.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), founded in 1928, is the only publicly funded media outlet on Chinese soil and is sometimes compared to the BBC in the UK.

The Hong Kong and Chinese governments were angry about the networks coverage of anti-government protests that swept the city in 2019 over draconian security laws, which critics said tore up civil liberties and crushed dissent against Beijing.

RTHK said a detailed document was issued to staff setting out its editorial responsibilities, policies and procedures. It follows criticism in a government review in February.

The broadcaster reported the document, issued by management, stressed that RTHK programmes must not provoke or deepen hatred, discrimination or hostility towards the Beijing or Hong Kong governments.

It states that "under no circumstances should our programmes provide a platform to encourage, incite, promote, glorify, endorse or sympathise with any act or activity endangering national security or otherwise contain any contents which are contrary to the interests of national security.

Staff that did not comply risked disciplinary action.

Responding to the new government rules, RTHK said in a statement the "document seeks to assist RTHK staff and its service providers to acquire a thorough and comprehensive understanding of RTHKs editorial policies and guiding principles".

Since Chinas new security laws came into force, authorities have arrested and jailed activists, seized assets of democracy campaigners, detained newspaper editors, banned books and protest slogans and also censored films.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement that promised it wide-ranging freedoms unavailable on the Communist Party-ruled mainland.

Protests that roiled the city in 2019 were fuelled by perceptions that Beijing was tightening its grip on those freedoms, which authorities have denied.

RTHKs role has come under increased scrutiny as the government implements its national security law.

The document "would enable RTHK to better fulfil its public purposes and mission as a public service broadcaster, and its responsibilities as a government department", a press release on RTHKs website said.

"RTHK is editorially independent under the Charter. This point is reaffirmed in the document. However, editorial autonomy also involves responsibility," the press release said.

RTHK quoted Kitty Choi, an adviser to the director of broadcasting, saying that staff could continue to interview people who were critical of the government.

The document also reminds staff to avoid contacts with foreign governments or political organisations to prevent conflict with their official duties.

They must also be cautious in their use of social media.

Some staff expressed confusion and concern to Reuters. "Im not sure that I will be able to produce any more programmes that arent directly in line with the governments stance," one staff member said.

The memo follows several recent moves by the government to overhaul the broadcaster, with a review in February finding deficiencies in its editorial management and a lack of transparency in handling complaints.

A senior civil servant, Patrick Li, was appointed as director of broadcasting in March.

Reuters
The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admitted that it had mistakenly raised the coronavirus risk level for Hong Kong while updating its travel advisory for the city and Singapore recently.

Hong Kongs increase was done unintentionally. The citys status has returned to level 1, indicating a low risk, on the website, a spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The CDC had on Monday said that anyone who has not been vaccinated should avoid non-essential trips to Singapore and Hong Kong due to the high level of Covid-19. All travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variant, it had said.

On Tuesday, the agency changed back Hong Kongs risk level from moderate to low on its website but Singapores remains the same  high risk.

The decision to increase Hong Kongs risk level shocked several people given that the city has mostly reported less than 10 cases a day since the end of August. Untouched by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, there has not been a single locally transmitted infection in the city since mid-August.

But Singapore, battered by a fresh outbreak, has been reporting more than 1,000 cases a day since mid-September. Its risk level will remain at level 3. Other countries currently on level 3 include Australia, Italy, Germany, Kenya, Indonesia, Japan and Mexico.

According to the CDCs four-tiered travel health notice system, Level 1 is the lowest, where US citizens are advised to ensure they are fully vaccinated before travelling to the destination.

Level 2 shows moderate risk of Covid-19, while level 3 indicates high risk. Unvaccinated travellers are advised to avoid non-essential travel to these areas. Level 4 indicates very high levels of the coronavirus infection. The US advises its citizens to avoid all travel to these areas.

The primary criteria the CDC uses to determine travel health notices are the number of recent cases and the trajectory of new cases. The threshold to designate a destination level 2 is 50 to 99 new Covid-19 cases over the past 28 days for every 100,000 locals. For level 3, the threshold is 100 to 500 new cases. For the level 4 category, a region has to have more than 500 cases per 100,000 locals.

The United States is facing a wave of Covid infections amid a slow vaccination rollout. The country has so far recorded 43,232,152 cases and 693,069 Covid-19 related deaths.
North Korea claimed it has successfully tested a hypersonic gliding missile, the latest in a series of weapon tests.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday that the Hwasong-8 was a strategic weapon that would help the hermit nation in its goal of increasing its defence capabilities by a thousandfold.

Pyongyang fired the missile towards the sea off its east coast on Tuesday but North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un was not present to inspect the launch, according to reports.

The Hwasong-8 achieved its technical targets, including the guiding manoeuvrability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead, state media reports said.

Hypersonic weapons are considered to be the next generation in warfare, their speed making them particularly hard to intercept. Unlike ballistic missiles that fly into space, the hypersonic version flies at a lower altitude and can achieve speeds of 3,850mph.

This was Pyongyangs third launch this month, after it tested a strategic cruise missile and two railway-borne ballistic missiles.

The tests were the first such launches in six months and are a further indication of the pariah states ambition to strengthen its arsenal in line with the US, China and Russia.

Bonnie Jenkins, US under-secretary for arms control and international security, told Reuters that Washington was seeking more information on the latest tests.

The US still is promoting a diplomatic solution. We still want to have an open door to diplomacy with North Korea. So we are hoping that in addition to the tests, that they will also say lets have some conversations again, she said

It is unlikely that North Korea has reliably developed all the technologies its propaganda claims, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

However, if Pyongyang manages to fit a nuclear warhead on even a rudimentary hypersonic, it would be a dangerous weapon because it wouldnt have to be extremely accurate to threaten the nearby metropolis of Seoul, he added.

Meanwhile, Kim Song, North Korea's envoy to the UN, spoke at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Tuesday and urged the US and South Korea to give up their hostile policies towards Pyongyang and said no one could deny his countrys right to self-defence and to test weapons.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, however, softened her stance last week when she said Pyongyang was willing to consider an inter-Korean summit based on mutual respect and impartiality. Seoul welcomed the prospect, urging the need to restore a hotline link between the two countries.

Pyongyangs latest outreach had come as a response to South Korean president Moon Jae-ins renewed calls for a declaration to end the Korean War to promote peace in the region.

During the UNGA meeting, the South Korean president called for the signing of the end-of-the-war declaration between the two Koreas, the US and China.

North Koreas envoy to the UN, commenting on Mr Moons speech, however, said a new war did not break out because of what he called USs mercy, but instead because his country served as a reliable deterrent.

The possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean peninsula is contained not because of the USs mercy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), it is because our state is growing a reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in an attempted military invasion, Mr Kim said.

The Kim regime has increasingly complained about what it calls international hypocrisy, according to Mr Easley.

Pyongyang maintains its missile tests are not provocations but steps for strengthening its war deterrent. It refuses to recognise the legitimacy of UN Security Council resolutions, alleges the United States often makes more provocative military moves and accuses Seoul of breaking inter-Korean agreements, he said.

Talks between Washington and Pyongyang on North Koreas denuclearisation have remained dormant after a 2019 summit between former US president Donald Trump and Mr Kim.

The US has been pushing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Four national parks in Australia will be handed back to their Aboriginal owners, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, in a historic deal announced by the Queensland government on Wednesday.

It includes Daintree, the worlds oldest tropical rainforest, Cedar Bay National Park (Ngalba Bulal), Black Mountain National Park (Kalkajaka), and Hope Islands. Together, they cover an area of more than 160,000 hectares of land in north Queensland.

Before the full handover of the land, which stretches from the north of Port Douglas to the south of Cooktown, the original Aboriginal owners and the government will jointly manage it.

The agreement was signed on Wednesday by environment minister Meaghan Scanlon, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships minister Craig Crawford and representatives from the Eastern Kuku Yalanji People in Bloomfield, north of Wujal Wujal.

The Eastern Kuku Yalanji peoples culture is one of the worlds oldest living cultures and this agreement recognises their right to own and manage their country, to protect their culture, and to share it with visitors as they become leaders in the tourism industry, Ms Scanlon said.

In April 2007, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people were recognised as the traditional owners of the land.

These national parks will protect important Aboriginal cultural sites, diverse ecosystems, including rainforests, woodlands, wetlands and mangroves, and form part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, which is recognised as the second-most-irreplaceable World Heritage site on Earth, the minister added.

The Queensland Conservation Council also recognised the global significance of the Daintree rainforest.

Andrew Piccone, the councils protected areas spokesperson, said: Returning these parks to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji is the best way to protect the areas natural and cultural values.

The transfer was supported by the Cape York land council, the North Queensland land council and the Wet Tropics management authority.

Chrissy Grant, a member of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji traditional owners negotiating committee, said the agreement closed four years of negotiations to jointly manage the parks.

Our goal is to establish a foundation to provide confident and competent people with pathways and opportunities for mentoring, training, apprenticeships, work experience and employment for our Eastern Kuku Yalanji Bama [people] to fill positions from a wide range of skilled trades, land and sea management, hospitality, tourism and research so that we are in control of our own destinies, she said.

She emphasised that the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people eventually want to solely manage the land.

The Daintree tropical rainforest is believed to be around 180 million years old and is near the Great Barrier Reef. It is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland UNESCO World Heritage site and has been home to generations of Aboriginal people.

According to the Rainforest Rescue, an Australian nonprofit organisation, Daintree is home to 30 per cent of Australias marsupial species and 20 per cent of its reptile species.

Last week, the Queensland government also restored the name of the popular tourist destination Fraser Island to its traditional name, KGari.
Environmental group Insulate Britain has defied a court order to block the M25 for the seventh time in two weeks.

The group blocked Junction 3 of the motorway, causing more disruption following an injunction implemented by Grant Shapps and Priti Patel, which would see protesters face prosecution if caught blocking the motorway.

Kent Police confirmed that it was responding to disruption at Junction 3 of the M25.

We are currently in attendance at J3 of the M25 (Swanley Interchange) due to a group of protesters blocking the roundabout. Please expect delays and find alternative routes if possible whilst we work with @HighwaysSEAST to remove the protesters and reopen the roundabout, Kent Police wrote on Twitter.

Kent Police announced later in the morning that the junction was now open and 11 arrests were made as a result of the disruption, but delays would still remain due to a backlog of traffic.

Kent Police later confirmed that an additional 16 protesters were arrested following reports that protesters had glued themselves to a road near Swanley roundabout on the same motorway over five hours after the mornings disruptions. Kent Police said officers were on the scene within three minutes and arrested the protesters on suspicion of obstructing the highway and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

A total of 27 protests were made today.

A spokesperson from Insulate Britain said: We are going nowhere. You can raid our savings. You can confiscate our property. You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars.

But shooting the messenger can never destroy the message: that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air. Boris get on with the job.

More than 50 people were arrested on Monday following protests blocking roads to Heathrow for more than three hours. However, they were released pending investigation.
Acclaimed New York Times food critic Pete Wells has written a scathing review of the newly unveiled vegan menu at three-Michelin-Star restaurant Eleven Madison Park.

In May, Daniel Humm, the chef behind the Manhattan eatery, which was previously named the worlds best restaurant, announced that he would no longer be serving meat or seafood.

At the time, Chef Humm said his decision to transform the $335 menu into a plant-based version stemmed from concerns over sustainability, with the chef explaining: The current food system is simply not sustainable, in so many ways.

However, according to Wells, the new menu is full of shortcomings, with the restaurant critic finding fault with everything from a beet dish, which he said tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint, to a dish of marinated heirloom tomatoes, which he described as having a pumped-up, distorted flavour, like tomatoes run through a wah-wah pedal.

Almost none of the main ingredients taste quite like themselves in the 10-course, $335 menu the restaurant unwrapped this June after a 15-month pandemic hiatus, Wells wrote. Some are so obviously standing in for meat or fish that you almost feel sorry for them.

Elsewhere in the review of the 10-course menu, Wells lambasted dishes that are supposed to feature delicate flavours, which he said are instead hijacked by some harsh, unseen ingredient, before noting that Chef Humm used to get purer, deeper results out of vegetables before the restaurant went vegan.

Maybe he should bring back the celery root steamed in a pig bladder, he added.

Not everything on the menu was a miss, however, as Wells offered praise for the bread, the cocktails and the dessert offerings.

The restaurant critic, who previously awarded the restaurant four stars in 2015, concluded the mostly negative review acknowledging that, despite the vegan menu, the fine dining restaurant still buys meat for customers who book a private dining room.

Its some kind of metaphor for Manhattan, where theres always a higher level of luxury, a secret room where the rich eat roasted tenderloin while everybody else gets an eggplant canoe, he added.

He did not award a star rating to the restaurant, however, as he explained that he is not giving star ratings as restaurants continue to be impacted by the pandemic.

On social media, the brutally honest critique has been met with amused responses from readers, with one describing it as one of the most brutal NYT restaurant reviews Ive ever read.

If you need me you can find me laughing for all of eternity at Pete Wells saying the food at Eleven Madison Park tastes like Lemon Pledge and a burning joint, another person tweeted, while someone else added: We dont deserve Pete Wells.

In May, Chef Humm told Wall Street Journal Magazine that the restaurant had promised that it would embark on a vegan journey only if the meal could be as delicious as it was before.

My goal is to create these beautiful dishes, give people beautiful experiences; unexpected, surprising experiences that make you feel satisfied, as a meal with meat would, he said at the time.

The Independent has contacted Eleven Madison Park for comment.
Red carpets are back with a vengeance, judging by the star-studded premiere of the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die.

Plagued with various delays, anticipation around the 25th 007 film is at an all-time high  and it looks to be worth the wait, as many of the early reviews are overwhelmingly positive.

Celebrities and royals came out in force to celebrate the films release at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and they certainly put their glad rags on

(Chris Jackson/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge stunned in a gold sequinned gown from Jenny Packham a designer she often relies on for formal occasions. The glittering dress had a cape attached, with Daniel Craig telling Kate: You look jolly lovely.

(Joel C Ryan/AP)

Lashana Lynch plays a 00 agent alongside James Bond in the new film, and she walked the red carpet in a sunny yellow strapless dress by Vivienne Westwood with a bird sewn on.

Lynchs stylist Karla Welch wrote on Instagram: Representing her ancestors and the birthplace of Bond with the National bird of Jamaica, the hummingbird, on her custom @viviennewestwood gown.

(Jonathan Brady/PA)

Caped dresses seem to be having a moment: Lea Seydoux also got in on the trend, wearing a white creation studded with jewels from Louis Vutton.

(Jonathan Brady/PA)

Seydoux wasnt the only celebrity in custom Louis Vuitton  new Bond girl Ana de Armas kept things chic and simple in a black silk dress from the designer with a mega leg slit.

(Ian West/PA)

It made sense for Naomie Harris to wear Michael Kors for the premiere, as the designer has created a capsule collection to celebrate the new film  even including a bag called Moneypenny, a nod to Harris character. She looked elegant in a white Kors dress with on-trend cut-outs and a delicate chain running through her hair.

(Ian West/PA)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge joined the Bond ranks as co-writer for No Time To Die, and she celebrated its release in a disco-inspired sequinned jumpsuit from Azzaro. She wore a stone coloured coat on top  a sensible move, because this is still London in September, after all.

(Joel C Ryan/AP)

Fashions newest darling Emma Raducanu made a surprise appearance at the premiere, wearing a Grecian gown by Dior. She wore jewellery by Tiffany, as shes the new face of the heritage American brand.

(Ian West/PA)

No stranger to the Bond red carpet is Michelle Yeoh, who played Chinese agent Wai Lin in 1997s Tomorrow Never Dies. Yeoh kept the glamour going in an ice blue Elie Saab dress with plenty of chiffon layers and silver sparkles.

(Joel C Ryan/AP)

Once again, Billie Eilish proves you dont need to wear a flowing gown to formal events. She sings the No Time To Die theme tune, and walked the red carpet in all-black Gucci.

(Ian West/PA)

While the women of the night had some of the most swoonworthy outfits, Daniel Craig still brought it in the style stakes to walk his final red carpet as James Bond  wearing a berry coloured velvet jacket.
Has Kates incredible outfit from the No Time To Die red carpet got you dreaming of a killer gold dress of your own? Well, youre not the only one.

After the Duchess of Cambridge wore a stunning Jenny Packham gold gown to the world premiere of the latest James Bond film, Google searches for Kate Middleton gold dress instantly spiked.

The Duchess of Cambridge smiles upon her arrival for the World Premiere of No Time To Die, at the Royal Albert Hall in London (Chris Jackson/PA) (PA Wire)

The floor-length cape dress, which is embellished with gold sequins cascading from the sharp shoulders down to the sheer hem, appears to be a custom creation.

A similar style from Jenny Packham, the Margot gown, which was available on the Harrods website but has now sold out, retailed at 2,800.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSjD0Gwntsk/

But you dont have to spend a fortune to get the Bond girl look. With party season not too far off, and metallics a massive trend on the autumn/winter runways, a gold dress is a must-have this season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNuCdUohZnh/

Looking for catwalk inspiration? Look no further than Diors disco-tastic minidresses and Burberrys gold, draped numbers.

The key to styling a shimmery showstopper is to let the dress do the talking. Dont overcomplicate your look by adding too many accessories.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CODHf6PBjgb/

For a glitzy event, simple strappy nude or black heels and a clutch bag are all you need to go with a floor-sweeping gown.

And if the dress code is a bit more laid back, give your look a fashion-forward edge by teaming a gold cocktail dress with heeled ankle boots.

(River Island/PA)

River Island Gold Sequin Midi Kimono, 35 (was 70)

While Kate looked fabulous in dazzling yellow-gold sequins, another metallic shade might suit you better. If you tend to wear silver jewellery and suit cooler tones, opt for a pale champagne or deep rose gold instead.

(SilkFred/PA)

John Zack Rose Gold Deep V Wrap Over Sequin Dress, 69, SilkFred

As for jewellery, Kate got it spot on, leaving her neckline bare and accessorising with bespoke gold drop earrings from Onitaa, previously seen on the tour of Pakistan.

(Chris Jackson/PA) (PA Wire)

When youre wearing an uber-sparkly dress, you dont need to add a ton of bling, but a chunky cocktail ring or pair of statement earrings are the perfect finishing touch.
A couple exchanged wedding vows on the US-Canadian border so that the brides family could be present for the nuptials.

Karen Mahoney and Brian Ray, who live in Cadyville, New York, and who both work as ski instructors, got engaged in March after knowing one another for 35 years.

However, after deciding that they wanted to get married, the couple faced a dilemma, as Mahoneys parents and 96-year-old grandmother live in Canada, where non-essential travel to the US has been limited since the start of the pandemic.

According to Mahoney, for the past few months, she and her loved ones have watched the monthly travel updates with hopes for good news, telling NBC5 that their fingers, toes, everything was crossed.

But the family didnt receive the news they were wishing for, as the bride recalled: On 21 Aug they announced that everything was closed, before explaining that the family then focused their attention on figuring out something to have mom, dad and nan here.

The answer to the dilemma ended up being a ceremony held on the border of the US and Canada outside of Burke, New York, where Ray and Mahoney, their wedding party, and an officiant stood on the New York side, while the brides immediate family stood just across the border in Canada.

According to CNN, the ceremony, which took place a day before the pair celebrated their actual wedding on 25 September, included everything except the signing of the marriage certificate.

Bride and groom exchanged vows in a ceremony on the US-Canada border (NBC5)

Of the chance to see his daughter say I do, Mahoneys father told NBC5: We would not have missed it. Not for the world.

The experience was also important for Mahoney, who told CNN that the moment the minister asked her parents whether they accepted Ray into the Mahoney clan and they responded: We do was extremely emotional.

Ray also shared what the ceremony meant to him, with the groom telling the outlet that he cried because he knew how much the opportunity meant to his new wife.

I cried, he said. It was good for me, because I knew how much it meant to her to have her parents and her grandmother here and see us exchanging vows.

As for the logistics of the distanced ceremony, the couple told CNN that they had relied on the help of a friend who works for border patrol. In addition to informing them of the rules they would have to follow, such as making sure they stayed on their designated sides, the friend also informed the border patrol agent on duty that the wedding would be taking place.
Washington is celebrating the UKs effort to push a Chinese company out of a sensitive nuclear power project, according to people familiar with US engagement on the issue.

The US, long an opponent of the UKs energy ties with China, considers Londons plans to require Chinese energy giant, CGN to give up its 20 per cent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk a long-fought-for diplomatic win.

The British governments discomfort with Chinas grip on its energy sector has grown in recent months. Meanwhile, the Biden administration launched a fresh drive to protect energy infrastructure from attacks, including cyberattacks, earlier this year.

This plan was created specifically with adversaries Russia and China, and their cyber-hostility in mind, according to a person briefed on the plan.

It comes as the UK has sought to further cement its close security ties with Washington, via the tripartite nuclear submarine deal with the US and Australia termed Aukus in recent weeks. The agreement is part of the wider effort to preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, prime minister Boris Johnson said in a statement earlier this month which avoided a direct reference to China.

The US has also been examining the energy security of its NATO allies, and their respective dependence on China and Russia. Now, an effort to take control of the CGN stake by the British government is viewed as a pay-off for Washington, after it lobbied London over Chinas ties to Britains sensitive nuclear energy infrastructure.

Its a win for sure, for the US, and for the UK. Serious threats posed by some countries to energy security seem to be getting the right attention, one of the same people familiar with US energy security policy said.

Britain is weighing taking hold of CGNs 20 per cent stake in the 20 billion Sizewell C nuclear plant project. The government may then sell the stake to institutional investors, or float it on the stock market, according to a person familiar with the governments thinking.

EDF, which holds the remaining share of the Sizewell project and Hinkley point C, declined to comment. CGN did not respond to a request for comment.

There is no official figure which captures the full extent of Chinese ownership of British assets within the energy sector, in part because it is hard to determine the extent of the regimes use of intermediaries. However, Chinas hold over a range of parts of the UKs energy infrastructure is considerable.

The Chinese state holds an interest in UK gas distributor, Cadent Gas, via its sovereign wealth fund after the Chinese Investment Corporation led a consortium to buy the network from National Grid. State-backed Chinese companies also own stakes in British oil and gas companies, and renewable energy sites, including windfarms.

CGN is also involved in building the Hinkley Point C site in Somerset alongwith French energy company EDF, offering nearly a third of the investment in the site. Washington was troubled by both the Sizewell and Hinkley projects, but most concerned about plans for a plant in Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex which could use Chinas own nuclear reactor technology, rather than following more familiar European technology.

The same people familiar with US energy engagement expect China to be cut from the Bradwell-on-Sea project.

A government spokesperson said: CGN is a valued partner at Hinkley Point C and a shareholder in Sizewell C up until the point of the governments Final Investment Decision. Negotiations are ongoing and no final decision has been taken.

The government, which said it believes nuclear power is a crucial part of the energy mix as the UK moves seeks to reduce its carbon emissions, is expected to put forward new legislation on how to fund big nuclear energy projects going forward.

The favoured approach is a regulated asset base (RAB) route, whereby investors can collect money from consumers via energy bills during construction of a power plant.

A representative for the US government did not offer a comment ahead of publication.
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 countrys constitution to allow himself to seek a third term in office.

After a summit Thursday in Ghanas capital, Accra the bloc imposed travel bans and froze the financial assets of members of Guineas ruling junta as well as their families. They also insisted on a quick transition to elections.

The targeted sanctions come after Guineas 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 worlds 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 Guineas 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
A petrol station boss was rushed to hospital after reportedly being attacked and racially abused in north London.

Nerali Patel, 38, was the latest victim of the UKs petrol crisis that has already seen key workers unable to get to work and brawls taking place in forecourts.

Ms Patel, a mother of two, claims a moped driver hit her in the face with a petrol nozzle and pushed her to the ground while repeatedly calling her a p***.

She said the rider had become aggressive after she closed the forecourt, in Haverstock Hill, north London, on Sunday when pumps ran dry.

Angry motorists reportedly told Ms Patel she was lying and began to berate her.

He called me a f***ing p*** and said I know that you are lying and you have got fuel, youre a f***ing scumbag, she told The Sun.

She added: I had my back turned and I just said, listen, this is the last moped, hes been waiting for half an hour.

He continued to swear at me. Hes grabbed then the nozzle and I explained to him that theres no point being rough with that nozzle because theres nothing in the tanks.

Then hes put the nozzle in my face saying, Im having it, you f***ing p**i and with the other hand whacked me on the face and pushed me and I fell right back, hit my head and lacerated my hand.

Following the attack, Ms Patel said members of the public came to her aid in a scuffle.

The incident highlights the ongoing challenges of the fuel shortages. Two hours before the incident, Ms Patel said she had broken up another brawl between moped drivers.

It was a very bad day. They were fighting amongst themselves as one of the moped guys had jumped the queue. The other moped guys stormed the forecourt to tackle him, and there was a bit of a scuffle. I tried to calm the situation down, as did my manager, she said.

Ms Patel, who was told she will need stitches following the attack, said she has been working non-stop since Friday. Following the attack, she was back at work the following day supporting her parents in running the family business.

A Met Police spokesman said: Police were called at 13:48hrs on Sunday, 26 September following reports that a man had been assaulted at a petrol station on Haverstock Hill, NW3. Officers attended.

No injuries were reported.

One man was arrested on suspicion of assault and a racially aggravated public order offence. He has been released under investigation.

Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.

BP was approached for comment.
 Close Met chief is willing to change, says policing minister

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there is a problem with the way cases of violence against women and girls are handled.

His interview with broadcasters came amid debates over how Wayne Couzens  who used his police powers to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard  was allowed to become and remain a Metropolitan Police officer.

Mr Johnson said: I do think that we can trust the police. And I think the police do a wonderful, wonderful job.

But there is a problem. And there is a problem in the way we handle rape, domestic violence, sexual violence and the way we handle the complaints of women and girls. Its overwhelmingly women and girls.

He added: The problem is we have too few prosecutions for rape and too few successful prosecutions, too few convictions.

Yesterday I got together the crime and justice taskforce, again, and what were trying to do is compress that timetable between a womans complaint about what has happened and any action, whether its the court proceeding, or the conviction, or whatever.

Because the time from report to referral, from referral to the court proceedings, from court proceedings to the conclusion, all three of those segments is far too long.

And what youre seeing is the whole system snarled up with evidential problems, with data issues, with mobile phones disclosure, all that kind of stuff, and its a nightmare for the women concerned. So weve got to fix it.
Boris Johnsons proposed three-month working visa for European truckers is not proving a popular prospect for some European lorry drivers.

On Sunday the government announced a plan to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers as a response to the acute shortfall of truck drivers that has caused fuel pumps to run dry and massive queues at forecourts across the country.

However the visa only lasts until 24 December, which Jakub Pajka  a Polish truck driver who quit his job in the UK after Brexit  said was not long enough to be worthwhile.

Speaking from behind the wheel of his red lorry in Polands capital Warsaw, he said: No thank you, Mr Prime Minister, I will not take advantage of this opportunity. No drivers want to move for only three months just to make it easier for the British to organise their holidays.

The additional money couldnt offset the struggle of moving countries, the threat posed by migrants trying to cross the English Channel on the back of a truck or the separation from his family, he added.

The money you can earn in the UK does not compensate such driver for all the dangerous things that happen to him there, he said pointing to the scuffles with migrants he witnessed in ports of Calais and Dunkirk.

On a different parking lot outside of Warsaw, Jacek Rembikowski, a 60-year old truck driver with 25 years of experience, also said Brexit somewhat influenced his decision to return home after working in Britain for seven years.

Despite his thirst for adventure, and his fond memories driving from Norway to Portugal, he said he now preferred to stay in Poland.

(There was) an uncertainty as to how we will be treated in this situation, he said. Whether Brexit will shake up not only the industry but also whether drivers will still be wanted.

Imran Mustafa moved to Barcelona from Pakistan eight years ago and has been a haulage driver for three years. He said the UK visa offer was too short and that it was not enough time to get to know the UK road network.

He said: Its a temporary visa and its for a very small time period.

These days, people dont have the money to travel. No-one wants to travel for just three months.

I could move as I live on my own but other people, French people, German people, Spanish people, theyre already earning a lot of money, so why would they move to the UK for three months only on a temporary visa?

I would move but not for three months. Its not enough time as we dont know the roads, the maps or how it all works. I think it will create a lot of problems or accidents.

Additional reporting by agencies
French fishermen could block British ports or disrupt the flow of trucks into the Channel Tunnel over a post-Brexit fishing dispute with Jersey, a politician has warned.

Tension over the issue intensified this week after the government of Jersey announced that it will shortly issue 12 small French vessels licences to fish in its waters, out of the 47 that had applied for them.

This means that a total of 111 French boats have been promised full licences this year, and another 31 have been granted temporary ones, which will expire at the end of January.

But Jersey ministers confirmed that 75 other boats did not meet its criteria, and will have to stop fishing off the Channel Island within 30 days.

The decision has angered French politicians, who believe the move goes against the Brexit agreement signed by the UK and the EU late last year.

Jean-Pierre Pont, who represents the Pas-de-Calais department for Emmanuel Macrons party, La Republique En Marche, said French fishermen would be within their rights - after nine months of useless patience - to retaliate.

For example, by blocking ports or the entry of lorries towards the UK through the Channel Tunnel, he said.

His warning echoes the blockade of Jerseys main harbour by dozens of French fishing vessels in May, which led Boris Johnson to send Navy patrol ships to the area.

Four months on, the dispute has reared its head again, with Mr Pont hyperbolically describing it as a new Hundred Years War which the English undertake against France, forgetting that they ended up losing this famous war.

Annick Girardin, the French minister for the sea, also expressed her displeasure. This is a new refusal by the British to apply the conditions of the Brexit agreement despite all the work undertaken together, she said.

I have only one watchword left: to obtain definitive licences for our fishermen as provided for in the agreement. French fishing must not be taken hostage by the British for political purposes.

Elsewhere, the European Commission issued a statement conveying its regrets that it has not been possible to bring this issue now to an end, adding that it would ask the UK for full disclosure about how it came to its decision.

In Jersey, Ian Gorst, the islands external relations minister, insisted that the Crown Dependency had taken a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach throughout.

He said that the Jersey government would consider granting more licences, provided it received further evidence of French vessels fishing activity between 2017 and the start of 2020. It uses this data to determine whether or not an application is successful.

However, it is not just the French who are unhappy with the latest announcement. So, seemingly, are Jersey fishermen.

Reflecting on the recent development, Don Thompson, the president of the Jersey Fishermens Association, claimed that only 70 French vessels relied on Jerseys waters, complaining that twice as many full and temporary licences were being granted.

The Jersey fleet is deeply disappointed. Todays news could not have been worse, he told the Bailiwick Express.

What might have softened the blow would have been restrictions on gear and number of days at sea, but those are not included. It is a very sad day.
The supply crisis which has seen fights at petrol forecourts and empty supermarket shelves could continue until Christmas, a cabinet minister has conceded.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he hoped the immediate upheaval with fuel shortages was easing  revealing that soldiers would be on the ground and driving tankers within a few days.

Despite the emergency measures taken by the government, Mr Kwarteng admitted that Britains countrys supply chain woes caused by the drastic shortage of lorry drivers could last for months.

Asked if the government was certain the problems would be solved for the run-up to Christmas, Kwarteng said: Im not guaranteeing anything. All Im saying is that, I think the situation is stabilising.

Mr Kwarteng told broadcasters: The last few days have been difficult, weve seen large queues. But I think the situation is stabilising, were getting petrol into the forecourts. I think were going to see our way through this.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) has there are early signs that the crisis at the pumps is ending, and James Spencer, head of Portland Fuel, told the BBC on Wednesday that the worst is behind us.

However, Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association in London, said there was little sign of the situation improving on the ground on Wednesday morning. It has not got any better.

Fuel industry chief have said it could take another month to recover fully from the immediate crisis after an outbreak of panic-buying left thousands of pumps dry in recent days.

Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that the government was making plans for the UK to cope through to Christmas and beyond with the threat of empty shelves and fuel shortages, despite saying the immediate crisis was starting to improve.

What we want to do is to make sure we have all the preparations needed to get through to Christmas and beyond, not just in supply for petrol stations but all parts of the supply chain, he said.

It comes as the boss of retail giant Next warned of price hikes and said staff shortages could impact its deliveries in the run-up to Christmas.

The government has also committed to issuing 5,000 temporary, three-month visas to foreign drivers, but Next chief executive Lord Wolfson  a prominent Brexit supporter  called on the government to take a decisive approach by further easing immigration rules.

I hope that going forward the government looks further into the future and doesnt wait until the crisis is upon it, said the Brexit backer.

Labour frontbencher David Lammy blamed the Brexit deal for Britains ongoing driver shortage. There are not queues to get fuel in France, in Spain, in Germany, but there are fuel queues in our own country, the MP told ITVs Good Morning Britain.

Meanwhile, shortages at filling stations in Scotland are still more acute than normal, deputy first minister John Swinney said on Wednesday  though he insisted that the situation north of the border was improving.

The SNP minister said that if there was a need to prioritise access for emergency personnel, we will take the steps to do that  but added that this would have to be done in consort with the UK government.
Keir Starmer has signalled he is ready to see Labours far-left split from the party, declaring that winning the next general election is more important to him than maintaining internal unity.

Speaking ahead of the high-stakes speech, Sir Keir said he would ditch earlier pledges to hold onto key policies inherited from Jeremy Corbyn if it was needed to make Labour electable.

His keynote conference speech in Brighton on Wednesday will draw a firm line under the Corbyn era, with a promise to voters that Labour will never again go into a general election without a serious plan for government.

He will also launch an assault on the smallness and triviality of Boris Johnsons approach to government, whose incompetence he argues has been exposed by the current fuel shortages and cost of living crisis.

A senior shadow cabinet minister told The Independent that Labours high command believe that the optimism and confidence that attracted voters to Boris Johnson will seem increasingly brittle in the economically difficult years ahead of an election expected in 2023 or 2024.

Theres an ever-growing chasm between the optimism and the delivery, said the shadow minister.

Boris has set himself up to fail with the levelling up stuff. When people are told their lives are going to be levelled up, they dont think it means a government grant to do up a couple of shops on the high street, they are expecting something transformative. Its a very high bar to reach and a very short period of time to achieve it in.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters 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

In comments that infuriated Labours left, Sir Keir made clear he does not regard himself as bound by the list of 10 pledges from last years leadership election, which committed him to maintain key elements of Corbyns platform, including common ownership for industries like energy, rail and mail.

Speaking to BBC News, Sir Keir said he stood by the principles and values behind the pledges but added: The most important pledge I made was that I would turn it into a party that would be fit for government, capable of winning a general election. Im not going to be deflected from that.

Asked whether party unity or winning elections was more important to him, he replied: Winning. Winning a general election.

Despite the resignation of the final Corbynist member of his shadow cabinet, Andy McDonald, on the third day of the Brighton gathering, Sr Keir and his team believe they have used the conference to create a launching pad for significant advances at the next election.

Rulebook changes approved by delegates will protect MPs from deselection by radical activists and reassure voters that a hard-left takeover will no longer be possible.

The Labour leader wants to use his first in-person address to the annual conference - forced online by Covid in 2020  to make a strong impression on voters of who he is and the principles that underpin his politics.

In what was billed as the most personal speech of his political life, he will set out how his background and his values inform the politician he has become.

Following criticism that his first 18 months as leader have been dominated by internal party battles, he will focus on his plans for Britain and his appeal to voters  with eye-catching policy announcements expected to counter accusations that he has failed to be clear about how Labour would govern.

Keirs speech will be noticeably different from what youve heard from Labour in recent years, said one party source.

It will be more optimistic, more focused on the future, more outward-looking.

Sir Keir will say that shortcomings in Johnsons government, which were masked during the Covid pandemic by ministers reliance on expert scientific and medical advice, are now coming to the fore in the current crisis.

Problems with the disruption of supply chains and soaring prices were driven not only by short-term failures of government decision making but also by long-term neglect during 11 years of Conservative-led governments, he will say.

I see the government lost in the woods with two paths beckoning, the Labour leader will say. One path leads back where we came from. None of the lessons of Covid are heeded. The divisions and flaws that were brutally exposed by the pandemic all worsen.

But there is another path down which we address the chronic problems revealed by Covid with the kindness and the togetherness that got us through. That path leads to a future in which a smart government enlists the brilliance of scientific invention to create an economy in which people are healthy and well-educated. A contribution society in which everyone has their role to play.

Setting out his determination to regain public trust after the Corbyn years, he will add: Too often in the history of this party our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy. But you dont get one without the other. And under my leadership we are committed to both. I can promise you that under my leadership Labour will be back in business.

Speaking to The Independent, a shadow cabinet minister said that Sir Keirs route to No 10 lay in stressing the contrasts between his personality and Mr Johnsons, rather than simply attacking the prime ministers flaws.

If you look at history, its very rare for one prime minister to be followed by another with a similar character, said the shadow minister. Voters decide its time for a change.

And they added: Boris is a very difficult opponent to beat, and you dont do it by telling everyone what a terrible personality he has.

People have repeatedly shown at the ballot box that they like his personality, and you dont win them over by just telling them they are wrong.

But no politician stays popular forever. Hes been through a whole list of scandals which would have killed any other politicians career and I think a tipping point will come when people look at him and decide they dont like what they see.
Her step-grandmother could remove a mans head with a curved blade. She could scale a wall of thorns. She devoted her life to defending the king.

These details  all true, the elderly woman says  landed in the notes of foreign explorers. But they failed to capture the whole story.

Nanlehounde Houedanou wants people to know more about the Amazons of Dahomey, the only documented female army in modern history. Researchers have spent decades combing through European and west African archives to craft a portrait from the jottings of French officers, British traders and Italian missionaries.

Yet a crucial piece of the Amazon legacy has been lost to the eraser of time and colonial rule: their humanity.

My Amazon was gentle, says Houedanou, who, at 85, is one of the last people on Earth to have grown up with one. She was known for protecting children.

History is often told through the lens of conquerors. Generations of American schoolchildren learned more about the 15th-century discoveries of Christopher Columbus than his record of enslaving indigenous people. Britain framed its 1897 takeover of a storied west African kingdom as a punitive mission, glossing over the mass theft of priceless bronzes.

After France seized what is now southern Benin in 1894, colonial officers disbanded the territory's unique force of women warriors, opened new classrooms and made no mention in the curriculum of the Amazons. Even today, many in the country of 12 million know little about their foremothers.

The French made sure this history wasn't known, says the Beninese economist Leonard Wantchekon, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University. They said we were backward, that they needed to civilize us, but they destroyed opportunities for women that existed nowhere else in the world.

The Amazons were powerful. They had influence. But everyone stopped talking about them after the colonial conquest

Now a team of Beninese researchers is working to reshape the narrative. For the past three years, historians at the African School of Economics, a private university that Wantchekon founded near Cotonou, the capital, have been tracking down descendants of Amazons across the nation.

They aim to glean local memories for a book that can be taught in schools, to present a three-dimensional view of the real Amazons. Only 50 of the women are thought to have survived the two-year war with France. The last of them died in the 1970s.

Finding their grandchildren has proved increasingly difficult as time slips away. Unlike the letter-writing Europeans of yesteryear, West Africans preferred the oral tradition, passing down stories from generation to generation.

These stories are dying with people, says Serge Ouitona, a researcher on the project. The Amazons were powerful. They had influence. But everyone stopped talking about them after the colonial conquest.

For at least three centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey was a West African power that drew comparisons to Sparta. European visitors gushed about its women fighters: She-soldiers. Medusas. Spinster warriors.

The name that stuck in modern Benin: Amazons.

Whatever might have been the prowess of the Amazons among the ancients, this is a novelty in modern history, Archibald Dalzel, a British administrator in the region, wrote in 1793.

Nanlehounde Houedanou, 85, speaks at village meetings about her Amazon step-grandmother, Nafivovo (The Washington Post)

A French official later called Dahomey assuredly the only country in the world that offers the singular spectacle of an organisation of women as soldiers, according to the American journalist Stanley Alpern. The French publishing house Larousse declared the women the only historical Amazons known.

Their origin is murky, but historians say the Amazons probably rooted under Queen Hangbe, who reigned alongside her twin brother in the early 1700s and kept an entourage of female bodyguards.

By the mid-1800s, Dahomey boasted thousands of female troops as it sought to out-muscle rival kingdoms. When clashes erupted, the victors forced their enemies into labour or sold them as slaves.

Amazons began training in girlhood: swinging blades, loading flintlock muskets, climbing thorny barricades. They drank imported brandy and belted out war songs.

The tradition ended when France invaded. In the face of defeat, a French general wrote, the women gave proof of very great bravery, Alpern found.

Historians estimate that nearly 2,000 Amazons died in the battle, and the 50 survivors faded into a nation transformed. Little trace of them is left in Abomey, the kingdom's former capital.

A pair of artisans at the reconstructed palace of King Glele  each of Dahomeys 12 kings built their own palace  stitch banners of Amazons toting rifles, brawling with men and clutching severed heads.

Across town, a rusty sign informs onlookers that a Catholic church now occupies the grounds of a former Amazon camp. Paint is chipping off the statue of a female warrior in a neighbouring village. Visitors must wade through chest-high brush to reach her.

Dah Djika Degbo, 73, with the tobacco crop first brought to his village by his Amazon step-grandmother, Yaketou (The Washington Post)

At community meetings, Houedanou speaks of her step-grandmother Nafivovo, the warrior who fixed okra soup for hungry children. Tall and wiry, she landed in the village of Nangahoue after the war and harvested palm oil for money before marrying Houedanou's grandfather. The couple shared a clay-brick house, where her relatives live today.

It's my job to keep her alive, says Houedanou, sitting in the doorway of that home. Im one of the oldest people in this village, so its up to me to teach the young people their history.

Seniority gives her the floor when people gather to discuss big issues  elections, drought, the pandemic  and she shares stories about Nafivovo. Its hard to get the teenagers to care, she says, so she tries to keep it entertaining.

With war songs, Houedanou adds. She breaks into a tune: We are proud children of the kingdom. We will defend it.

Houedanou was a teenager when the last Amazon died. Memories surge when she smells a certain mustard spice that Navifovo used to cook for the neighbourhood kids. They ran to her house when they were in trouble.

Their parents couldnt beat them here, Houedanou says, grinning. Even before we started talking about human rights, Navifovo wouldnt allow it. She laughs. Everyone knew the old lady would win the fight.

Adana yearned for the battlefield. Housework was not for her, she told her grandchildren. She'd rather be ambushing an enemy. Tussling with her bare hands, her preferred weapons. The musket took too long to load.

She told me how she used to strangle people, says her granddaughter, 72-year-old Ayebeleyi Dahoui. She used her long nails. She curls her fingers into claws. Like this.

Ayebeleyi Dahoui, 72, says her Amazon grandmother, Adana, preferred fighting with her hands (The Washington Post)

Dahoui was about 12 when she first heard the war stories. Her grandmother urged her to join the military someday if she could. Adana thought battle imparted life lessons: Be patient. Stay calm. Act deliberately.

The Amazon taught her grandchildren self-defence as they hit puberty. Dahoui never used the choke move, but she internalised a sense of readiness.

One day after shed had children of her own, she took them to a market and got into an argument with a woman over who would buy the last ears of corn. The woman attacked Dahoui. Her babies were screaming. So she bashed her foe with a ceramic bowl.

I might have run away, Dahoui says, but Grandma taught me to stand up for myself.

The village of Detohou had no tobacco before the Amazon showed up.

After surviving the battle with France, Yaketou rejected gender roles, spurning domestic chores that women normally shouldered in order to build a crop empire.

Yaketou knew where to find the plant for smoking  Dahomey had sacked her town years earlier and then made her into a warrior. Her old neighbours had it. So off she walked.

Yaketou struggled to get pregnant, so the family built her a concrete fertility temple on the outskirts of town

She was very enterprising, says her step-grandson, 73-year-old Dah Djika Degbo.

Degbo was young when she died  perhaps five  so his memories of Yaketou are fuzzy. But he recalls growing up with pride: His grandfather had married an Amazon. Her sack of tobacco seeds turned into a business that employed other women.

Degbos granddaughter-in-law works in the trade.

This is her legacy, he says.

Yaketou struggled to get pregnant, so the family built her a concrete fertility temple on the outskirts of town. When this offering to the gods did not produce a baby, Yakouto shifted her focus to mentoring girls.

These days, the younger women in Degbos orbit have left the village for the capital, seeking better work.

He credits the Amazons influence.

 The Washington Post
Brian Laundrie and his parents had gone on a camping trip to Florida earlier this month, the familys attorney confirmed.

The camping trip was taken by Chris and Roberta Laundrie soon after their son had returned from a cross-country trip without his girlfriend Gabby Petito, who was then reported missing and later confirmed dead.

Mr Laundrie had subsequently gone missing, after telling his parents he was going for a hike in the vast and unforgiving Carlton Reserve.

The family camped from 09-06 to 09-07 and they all left the park, Steven Bertolino, the familys attorney, was quoted as saying by the New York Post.

Mr Bertolino also claimed Mr Laundrie subsequently returned home with his parents from the camping trip.

The clarification from the attorney, representing the Laundrie family, came hours after reality TV star Duane Dog the Bounty Hunter Chapman said the family left their son Mr Laundrie behind in Pinellas Countys Fort De Soto Park.

Mr Chapman had joined in the search for Mr Laundrie over the weekend.

His claim was seemingly confirmed by the reservations made in the park for the same dates.

Mr Laundrie was also reportedly spotted by a tourist in the park who said he had a strange encounter with a lone man resembling Ms Petitos boyfriend at Bullwinkles Saloon in West Yellowstone.

The mans interest piqued when the conversation between the tourist and his friends turned to hunting and guns and politics.

Mr Laundrie is a person of interest for police officials investigating the death of Ms Petito. Mr Laundries parents, in a statement on Monday, denied helping him escape.

An autopsy report had earlier confirmed human remains found in a Wyoming campground were of Ms Petito.

The two had set out for a cross country trip in early July and covered scores of national parks, but things reportedly went downhill after fights and physical altercations reportedly occurred between the couple.

A police officer in Utah had seen Ms Petito crying inconsolably, while Mr Laundrie had scratches on his face from a fight with his girlfriend.

Days later, Ms Petitos family said their daughter had disappeared, following which her death was confirmed as a homicide.
The newly installed chief of the U.S. Capitol Police says the force, still struggling six months after an insurrection that left its officers battled, bloodied and bruised, cannot afford to be complacent. The risk to lawmakers is higher than ever. And the threat from lone-wolf attackers is only growing.

In an interview with The Associated Press, J. Thomas Manger said his force is seeing a historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years ago. He predicts authorities will respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress in 2021  more than 4,100 had been reported from January to March.

We have never had the level of threats against members of Congress that were seeing today, Manger said. Clearly, weve got a bigger job in terms of the protection aspect of our responsibilities, weve got a bigger job than we used to.

Manger touted changes that have been made in intelligence gathering after the department was widely criticized for being woefully underprepared to fend off a mob of insurrectionists in January. Officials had compiled intelligence showing white supremacists and other extremists were likely to assemble in Washington on Jan. 6 and that violent disruptions were possible. Police officers were brutally beaten in the insurrection. Five people died.

The events of that day have redefined how the U.S. Capitol police and other law enforcement agencies in Washington approach security. Extreme measures put into place two weeks ago for a rally in support of those jailed in the riot aren't a one-off, they might be the new normal. Propelled by former President Donald Trump the awakening of domestic extremist groups and the continued volatility around the 2020 election have changed the calculus.

Manger said putting up temporary fencing around the Capitol and calling in reinforcements was a prudent decision. It may not be the same for every demonstration.

Its really going to depend on the intelligence we have beforehand, he said. "Its going to depend on the potential for violence at a particular demonstration."

With Manger, the police force got a longtime lawman. He served as chief in Maryland's Montgomery County, outside Washington, from 2004 to 2019. Before that, he led the Fairfax County, Virginia, police department. Those jobs, as well as a leadership position in the Major Cities Chiefs Association, have made him a familiar face in Washington law enforcement circles and on Capitol Hill.

He took over in late July, months after the former chief resigned amid the fallout from the insurrection. The Sept. 18 rally was Manger's first test  and he was taking no chances.

We just were in a position where we could not allow another January 6th," he said. "And I really needed to ensure that the men and women of the Capitol Police department understood that we had the resources we need, the training that we needed, the equipment that we needed, and the staffing that we needed to ensure that they could do their job and do it safely.

In the end, police far outnumbered the protesters and the Capitol officers were mocked by some for going overboard. But Michael Chertoff, a Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, said its just smart policing to learn from mistakes and be better prepared the next time, and so what if theres too many police milling around  if the result is no one is killed or hurt.

When you get demonstrations that are advertised or pitch to right wing or left wing extremists, I think youre going to see that theyre going to lean into a visible show of protection, maybe more than they need but enough to make it clear they wont be overwhelmed again, he said.

Chertoff, who now runs the Chertoff Group security and cybersecurity risk management, said such fortifications won't be necessary for every free speech event planned in the nation's capital, but law enforcement must be better prepared when it comes to people who have expressed sympathy for Jan. 6, because there is strong reason to believe they're sympathetic to the idea of using violent force to disrupt government. Because it already happened.

The Capitol Police are part security agency, part local police  it has an annual budget of approximately $460 million and about 2,300 officers and civilian employees to police the Capitol grounds and the people inside the building, including all the lawmakers and staff. By contrast, the entire city of Minneapolis has about 800 sworn officers and a budget of roughly $193 million.

A scathing internal report earlier this year found that serious gaps in tactical gear including weapons, training and intelligence capabilities contributed to security problems during the Jan. 6 melee. In his report, obtained by the AP, Capitol Police Inspector General Michael A. Bolton cast serious doubt on the forces ability to respond to future threats and another large-scale attack.

But then a second task force later charged with reviewing Jan. 6 said the Capitol Police already has the ability to track, assess, plan against or respond to threats from domestic extremists who continue to potentially target the building.

The report recommended a major security overhaul, including the funding of hundreds of new officer positions and establishing a permanent quick response force for emergencies.

But those changes would require massive influx of money. In a $2.1 billion measure in July, Congress delegated nearly $71 million, with much of that funding going to cover overtime costs.

Still, Manger said, I think that what we have in place today is an improvement over what we had a year ago or nine months ago.

The event, which Republican lawmakers and Trump and his allies have sought to downplay and dismiss, has prompted a surge in applications to join the force. Manger likened it to police and firefighter applications after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Manger also defended keeping on Yogananda Pittman, the Capitol Police official who led intelligence operations for the agency ahead of January's attack. Pittman, who was elevated to acting chief with a tenure marred by a vote of no-confidence from rank-and-file officers on the force and questions about intelligence and leadership failures, is back in charge of intelligence and protecting congressional leaders.

This notion that I should come in and just fire everybody on the leadership team because they failed on January 6th ... first of all, this department was in enough chaos without me firing everybody," he said, "and then where would I have been without any experience on my leadership team to rely on and to assist me going forward?
Brian Laundrie reportedly purchased a burner phone on the day he disappeared from his parents home in Florida.

Mr Laundrie was seen buying the phone in the company of an older woman at an AT&T store in North Port Florida on 14 September, sources told TMZ .

FBI agents went to the store and seized CCTV footage in recent days, the celebrity news site claimed.

Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino confirmed on Wednesday the phone purchase, but said he believed Mr Laundrie left the burner phone at home.

To my knowledge they did purchase a new phone and its the same phone that Brian left home and which the FBI is in possession of.

An employee at the North Port AT&T store told TMZ they couldnt comment on the link to the manhunt, and referred media to law enforcement.

The public affairs team at the FBI Denver Division told The Independent they could not comment on the reports.

Christopher and Roberta Laundrie have denied any involvement in their sons disappearance.

Authorities launched a manhunt for Mr Laundrie on 17 September, three days after he reportedly left his parents home telling them he was going hiking in the nearby Carlton Reserve.

An extensive search of the alligator-infested Carlton Reserve has been hampered by torrential rain, which left many of the hiking trails under waist-deep water.

Campers at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida, believe they may have captured Brian Laundrie walking in the background of a selfie (NBC2)

Meanwhile, a Florida couple who camped beside the Laundrie family days after Gabby Petito is believed to have died say they may have captured Brian Laundrie in a selfie.

Mr Laundrie arrived at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, with his parents on 6 September.

Fort Myers couple Marci and Kenny Newsom told NBC2 they checked into the campsite on the same day and stayed just metres from the Laundries in the neighbouring site.

After scouring their photos, they noticed a man in the background walking across a field with a close-cropped haircut who appears to match Brian Laundries description.

On Wednesday afternoon, Duane Dog the Bounty Hunter Chapman posted an update to his social media channels to say he was carrying out an active and specific search in a key area based on the intelligence we are receiving and researching.
A Florida couple who camped beside the Laundrie family days after Gabby Petito is believed to have died say they may have captured Brian Laundrie in a selfie.

Mr Laundrie arrived at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, with parents Christopher and Roberta on 6 September.

Fort Myers couple Marci and Kenny Newsom told NBC2 they checked into the campsite on the same day and stayed just metres from the Laundries in the neighbouring site.

Campers at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida, believe they may have captured Brian Laundrie walking in the background of a selfie (NBC2)

After scouring their photos, they noticed a man in the background walking across a field with a close-cropped haircut who appears to match Brian Laundries description.

A spokeswoman from the FBIs Denver Division which is leading the search for Mr Laundrie said they were unable to comment on the sighting.

This is an ongoing investigation and we have no comment other than what is posted in our official statements.

Steve Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, said Mr Laundrie and his parents stayed checked out of the campsite on 7 September, but a public information request of park records shows they left the next day.

Marci Newsom told NBC2 she recalled seeing the Laundries red truck, but didnt speak to the family.

They kept to themselves. They were there and then they werent.

At the time the Laundries were camping in Pinellas County, Gabby Petitos parents were desperately trying to contact them to see if they knew where she was.

Ms Petitos mother Nichole Schmidt reported her missing on 11 September, and her remains were found eight days later in Wyoming after a nationwide search.

Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie visited the Fort De Soto historical Fort in February (Instagram/GabbyPetito)

Duane Dog Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, told Fox News that he received a tip suggesting that Mr Laundrie and his parents visited the park twice, 1-3 September and 6-8 September.

He added that on the second trip, three people entered the park but only two people left.

They were registered, went through the gate, he said. Theyre on camera. They were here.

Mr Laundries parents have denied any involvement in their sons disappearance.

Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie visited the Fort De Soto Park in February, posting pictures of their stay there to Instagram and posting a review of the site on a camping app The Dyrt.
US Olympic gold medal swimmer Klete Keller has pleaded guilty to one charge stemming from his participation in the 6 January Capitolriot.

Keller was caught on video inside the Capitols Rotunda during the pro-Trump riot wearing a team jacket that had USA written on the back of it.

He pleaded guilty to to obstructing an official proceeding came after prosecutors in Washington DCs US District Court agreed to dismiss six other criminal charges he was facing.

Keller, 38, will be sentenced at a later date and the charge he pleaded guilty to carries a recommended prison sentence of between 21 and 27 months.

A prior defendant to take the same plea deal, which is a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, reportedly received eight months behind bars when sentenced.

Federal sentences also carry no chance of parole so he would have to serve all of it before he can be released.

As part of his plea agreement, Kellers lawyer said his client will cooperate with investigators while he awaits sentencing.

Surveillance video showed the 6ft 6in former athlete in the middle of a crowd of rioters facing off with a line of police defending the building.

Kellers attorney, Edward MacMahon, told the court that the former Olympian was trying to make amends for the terrible decision he made on 6 January.

Keller swam on three US Olympic teams alongside Michael Phelps, winning gold medals in the 4x200m relay team event in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

He also took home a silver medal in the same event at the Sydney Games in 2000.

The 6 January riot took place as supporters of one-term president Donald Trump violently tried to prevent Joe Bidens win in the 2020 election being certified by lawmakers.

Just before the riot Mr Trump urged his supporters to fight against the certification process and thousands of them descended on the Capitol Building as the House of Representatives and US Senate met to do so.

Hundreds of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol grounds and buildings, temporarily halting the proceedings.

Five police officers died in connection to the riot, four by suicide, and more than 140 were injured.

More than 500 people have been arrested for alleged crimes carried out during the violence.
Authorities in Utah have made a fresh appeal for witnesses in the double homicide of newlywed couple Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner.

The couple were found shot dead at a campsite near Moab on 18 August, and had told friends about a creepy man staying next to their campsite in the days before their death.

The Grand County Sheriffs Office issued a rare plea to the public for sightings as forensics analysis in the case is likely to take months to complete.

Crystal Turner (left) and Kylen Schulte were found in a campsite near Moab on 18 August (Facebook )

We are asking that anyone that would have been in the South Mesa area between the dates of August 13th, August 14th, and 15th contact our office with anything they may have seen or heard, the sheriffs office said in a statement on Tuesday.

Law enforcement are seeking help from the public in finding witnesses who saw Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner (Grand County Sheriffs Office)

Ms Schulte and Ms Turner were last seen leaving downtown Moab bar Woodys Tavern on 13 August.

They were reported missing on 16 August, and a friend located their partially-dressed bodies in woods near South Mesa two days later.

They had both been shot several times.

Ms Schulte worked at the Moonshine grocery co-op in Moab, where an eyewitness saw Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito involved in a violent altercation on 12 August.

Authorities have ruled out any connection between the cases.

Ms Schultes father Sean-Paul Schulte has been trying to keep the case in the public spotlight, and set up a booth collecting tips for the past three weeks.

He told KSLTV other cases such as his daughters homicide deserve similar levels of attention.

I know what its like to have someone missing, and I know what its like to not have closure yet, so I really feel for Gabbys family, said Mr Schulte.

If anybody saw anything there  a vehicle, a description of a person, a person with a dog, a weirdo with a gun, whatever it is, he said.
A man was arrested after telling police he killed three people whose dismembered bodies were found in a burning dumpster in a biblical sacrifice.

Authorities say that Jason Alan Thornburg is also linked to two other killings and is now being held in Tarrant County Jail on a $1m bond.

Firefighters responded to the blaze in Fort Worth, Texas, last week and made the grisly discovery once they had put out the flames.

Police say that one victim, David Lueras, 42, has a long criminal record, while the other two victims were two unidentified adult women, not a woman and child as police first said.

Fort Worth police say that a 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee captured on surveillance near the dumpster as the bodies were left there was owned by Mr Thornburg.

Investigators say they also had video of a guest at a motel where Mr Thornburg was staying, moving large bins from a room to an SUV, then from the motel to the dumpster where the bodies were found.

Officer say that Mr Thornburg has been staying at that motel since 28 June.

He was taken into custody on Monday and during a voluntary interview admitted his role in the deaths of the three victims.

Police say he also admitted his role in the death of his roommate, Mark Jewell, who died in a fire inside their burning home in May.

According to his arrest warrant affidavit, in his confession, Thornburg said he had a deep understanding of the Bible and had been called to commit sacrifices. In the affidavit he also claimed to have killed a girlfriend in Arizona, which Texas authorities were trying to confirm.

He has been charged with capital murder of multiple persons.

Officials say the suspect does not have a history of violent crime, but has served previously served several years in prison on a string of offences.
Gabby Petitos family is now urging their deceased daughters boyfriend Brian Laundrie, who has been on the run for nine days, to come forward and help with the ongoing investigation.

The Petito family said they didnt expect help from Mr Laundries parents as they did not assist them even in the initial days, when the 22-year-old blogger suddenly went missing on a road trip.

For the Laundries silence: the Laundries did not help us find Gabby  Theyre sure as hell not going to help us find Brian, the attorney for Petitos family said at a press conference on Tuesday. For Brian, we are asking you to turn yourself in to the FBI or the nearest enforcement agency.

Petitos parents and stepparents also announced that they would start a foundation to help the families of missing persons. As a tribute to their daughter, the four also got matching Let it be tattoos. Petito had a similar tattoo on her forearm.

I wanted to have her with me all the time. I feel it. This [tattoo] helps that, an emotional Nicole Schmidt, Petitos mother, said.

Petitos body was found on 19 September, almost three weeks after she disappeared on a road trip of 2,328 miles she took with her boyfriend, Mr Laundrie. The authorities have ruled her death as homicide

Mr Laundrie, who was the only person aware of Petitos whereabouts, has been termed as a person of interest by investigative agencies.

It has been nine days since Mr Laundrie went missing after he told his parents that he was going to the vast and unforgiving Carlton reserve for a hike, which coincided with the day officials confirmed his girlfriends death.

Petito was first reported missing by her mother earlier this month, when she suddenly stopped receiving calls and messages from her daughter. She last spoke to Petito on 25 August on the phone.

The relationship between Petito and Mr Laundrie was strained, according to reports that have emerged since her death. A fight between the couple on 12 August in Moab, Utah, became a police matter and the bodycam footage showed Petito visibly distressed.

However, no charges were pressed and no one was injured. Mr Laundrie and Petito told officers that they were suffering from a mental health breakdown.
An Illinois man in his mid-80s has died after being bitten by a rabid bat in the first case of rabies in the state since 1954.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said on Tuesday that the man, who later refused rabies treatment, woke up with the bat on his neck in August.

The bat was captured and tested positive for the disease. The man started experiencing symptoms this month, such as neck pain, headaches, numbness, having difficulty gaining control of his arms, as well as having difficulty speaking.

The states health department has said that people who have come in contact with the man have been provided with preventative rabies treatment if needed.

Rabies has the highest mortality rate of any disease, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr Ngozi Ezike, said in a press release. He added that there is life-saving treatment for individuals who quickly seek care after being exposed to an animal with rabies. If you think you may have been exposed to rabies, immediately seek medical attention and follow the recommendations of health care providers and public health officials.

Rabies in humans is exceedingly rare  only between one and three cases are reported across the US each year, but exposure to the disease is more common, with around 60,000 Americans a year receiving vaccines after being exposed.

The virus attacks the central nervous system and can cause brain death.

Sadly, this case underscores the importance of raising public awareness about the risk of rabies exposure in the United States, the Lake County Health Department Executive Director, Mark Pfister, said. Rabies infections in people are rare in the United States.

Once symptoms begin, rabies is almost always fatal, making it vital that an exposed person receive appropriate treatment to prevent the onset of rabies as soon as possible, he added.

The Illinois health department also noted that bats are the most commonly identified species with rabies in the state and that a bat colony was found in the home of the man who died.

People who have been bitten by a bat can you usually tell, but the animals have very small teeth and the mark from a bite may not be easily spotted.

The Illinois health department urged residents that if they find themselves close to a bat and dont know if theyve been exposed to rabies, such as if they wake up with a bat in their room, they shouldnt release the bat as it should be tested for the disease.

Call your doctor or local health department to help determine if you could have been exposed to rabies and if you need preventive treatment. Call your local animal care and control to safely remove the bat, the department said.

They added that if the bat tests negative, preventative treatment is unnecessary.

The only way rabies can be confirmed in a bat is through laboratory testing. You cannot tell just by looking at a bat if it has rabies, the department added.

In Illinois, 30 bats have tested positive for rabies this year. More than 1,000 bats are tested each year following a possible exposure, but only around three per cent of the bats sent to a lab test positive for rabies.
TJ Greene Sr. remembers the foggy day in May 1999 when Makah tribe members encircled a gray whale, harpooned it and dragged it onto the shore. It was a day of celebration for the tribe in the northwest corner of Washington - the first time its members had landed a whale in some 70 years.

Ive never seen that part of town packed with so many people, Greene, 49, now the Makah Tribal Council chairman, told The Washington Post. When word started circulating of a successful hunt, and the whaling crews were bringing it back to shore, that brought a lot of joy in the community.

The hunt remains the last the tribe has performed.

Whale hunting is a sacred tradition in Makah culture, dating back thousands of years. Yet for decades, the Makah people have not been able to hunt thanks to legal battles, as well as a long period in which a sharp decline in gray whales - driven by commercial hunting - prompted to the tribe voluntarily halt whaling. The hunt in 1999 was the first since the 1920s.

Whales can be found in Makah songs, dances and visual art. Whale hunting, meanwhile, is performed alongside multiple rituals, according to the tribe. In preparation for a hunt, whalers pray, fast, bathe ceremonially and sometimes take months to spiritually ready themselves. If hunters land a whale, the tribe says its meat, oil, bone and sinew are all used.

Although the Makah Tribe argues that an 1855 treaty it signed with the US government guarantees its rights to hunt the sea creatures, animal rights groups argue that the Makah Tribes desire to hunt whales is out of step with the times, even barbaric - and they have long fought in court to block the tribe from carrying out hunts.

But the Makah Tribe may well be allowed to hunt again. An administrative law judge last week issued a 156-page recommendation to the US Department of Commerce, arguing the tribe should be granted a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, a 1972 law that prohibits the killing of whales and other marine mammals. The hunts would have a negligible impact on the overall gray whale population, which is estimated between 21,000 to 25,000, the judge concluded. A final decision rests with an administrator in the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the Commerce Department.

As drafted, the waiver would allow Makah tribe members to land up to three Eastern North Pacific gray whales on an even year and one on an odd year over a 10-year period, according to the recommendation. The timing is meant to reduce the likelihood the hunters wound or kill an endangered Western North Pacific gray whale, due to that mammals migratory patterns.

We think thats the right decision, Greene said.

The Animal Welfare Institute, a group opposing the tribes hunting permit, is not pleased. In a statement issued this week, the group argued that any whaling by the Makah Tribe, however limited, would place endangered groups of gray whales at risk of being harpooned. Moreover, the group argues no whales should be killed, as the large marine mammals face numerous threats, including pollution, ship strikes and an ongoing unusual mortality event that, since 2019, has caused an unexplained decline in the gray whale population.

In many peoples minds, its a limited number of whales. So whats the big deal? DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute, said of the Makahs proposed whaling permit. Well, the big deal is that whales are incredibly intelligent, sentient creatures.

Schubert told The Post the institute respects the Makah Tribes traditions, especially its celebration of whales through art and dance. However, as a society, and certainly for a group like the Makah who have lived without whaling for so long, its time to move on and to protect these whales and not persecute them.

But for Greene, the tribal chairman, hunting whales is deeply ingrained in the Makah culture and inseparable from other rituals. Whales and whale hunting, he said, defines us as an indigenous people, precisely because whales are a beautiful and amazing creation that we care deeply for and have a deep connection to.

Trevor Branch, an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, told The Post in an email that the Makah Tribes hunting of 20 or so whales over a decade would have no noticeable impact on the population as a whole.

So it really comes down to a question of [weighing] morals, ethics, and conservation principles against the treaty rights of the Makah, Branch said.

John Hocevar, the oceans campaign director at Greenpeace USA, who has long advocated for ocean wildlife protections, believes the Makah Tribe should assert its treaty rights. In an email to The Post, he argued that commercial fisheries, plastic pollution and climate change are far more detrimental to the whale population than the Makahs proposed whaling permit.

It feels a bit too easy to point fingers at the Makah . . . when modern society kills far more whales each year through our greed and indifference, Hocevar wrote, adding: We wont save the whales, or ourselves for that matter, unless we focus on the biggest threats.
An Amtrak passenger whose husband was killed when a train derailed over the weekend sued the company Tuesday in the first claim tied to the crash in rural Montana.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in federal court in Chicago - where the Empire Builder train en route to Seattle originated - on behalf of the family of Rebecca Schneider and her husband, Zach, who were traveling to Portland, Oregon when the train derailed. Zach Schneider, 28, was killed in the crash, while Rebecca was injured.

Zach Schneider, a software engineer from Fairview Heights, Illinois, was among three people who died when eight of the 10 train cars derailed about 4pm local time near Joplin, about 200 miles north of Helena, Montana. Dozens of others were injured.

The lawsuit, which also names track owner BNSF Railway, alleges that Zach Schneider died as a result of a preventable tragedy and that Amtrak and BNSF had an obligation to prevent any trains . . . from traveling on their tracks unless Defendants could ensure that the tracks were safe.

The suit was filed by attorneys from Philadelphia-based Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, P.C., who represented victims in a fatal 2015 Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.

Attorney Robert Mongeluzzi said the firm will look at problems with the track and switches, as well as possible human error and the effectiveness of the newly implemented automatic breaking system - known as positive train control - and whether it could have prevented the crash.

Trains should not derail, Mongeluzzi said. The passengers of those trains have no control whatsoever regarding the safety of their journey. And they put their lives in the hands of the companies that operate trains and the railroad companies who own and maintain the tracks. It is clear, without question, that something went wrong and horribly wrong to kill three people.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the derailment. An NTSB spokesman on Tuesday said there is no new information to report at this time.

On Monday, NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said the train was traveling at 75 mph to 78 mph - below the speed limit of 79 mph - when it derailed, and gave no initial indication of a cause, saying investigators are not ruling anything out.

NTSB investigators are paying special attention to maintenance issues, Landsberg said, while trying to determine if passengers may have been ejected on impact.

The two other victims in the crash were Marjorie Varnadoe, 72, and Donald Varnadoe, 74, of St. Simons Island, Georgia.

In a statement Tuesday responding to the lawsuit, the passenger rail said, Amtrak is sorry for Mrs Schneiders and the Schneider familys loss. We are offering assistance to injured passengers and employees and the families of those who have lost loved ones but are otherwise unable to comment on pending litigation. BNSF declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The Schneider filing is the first of what could be several lawsuits against the railroads. Clifford Law Offices, a Chicago-based firm that helped obtain a $57 million settlement against Amtrak after a 2017 derailment in Dupont, Washington, said Tuesday it was hired by a passenger injured in Saturdays derailment.

The fatal crash was the first since Amtrak implemented a forced-arbitration policy that bars passengers and their families from suing the railroad after deaths or injuries from crashes. It is unclear how that policy might impact litigation, but some advocates and attorneys said Tuesday they are fighting back, citing concerns that arbitration favors the defendant, in this case Amtrak.

This is an entity that is partially owned by the US government. Now it has put in a policy where they want to deny their passengers their constitutional right to a jury trial by this arbitration agreement, said Sean Driscoll, of Clifford Law Offices. Clifford Law Offices is going to do everything in our power to contest the validity of the arbitration agreement.

Linda Lipsen, chief executive of the American Association for Justice, said victims of the crash should have the choice to take their cases to court.

Amtrak should be held accountable in an open forum, not behind closed doors, Lipsen said. Families are grieving, but soon, those who lost breadwinners, partners or parents are going to consider seeking justice against those responsible for their unimaginable loss. But a forced arbitration clause will have already made that choice for them.

By purchasing a train ticket, passengers agree to arbitrate any disputes, renouncing their right to take claims against the company to court. The forced-arbitration policy was added in January 2019 after the Philadelphia and Washington state crashes, which resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements for the victims.

Some members of Congress last year introduced legislation in both chambers to pressure Amtrak to restore the legal rights of Amtrak passengers and their families to bring disputes before a judge or jury. The nonprofit Public Citizen filed a lawsuit that was dismissed last year, but has been appealed in D.C. Circuit Court. It called the arbitration clause unconstitutional and asks that it be removed from the companys ticketing terms.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday speculates about a possible problem with tracks from heat-induced buckling, which can result after years of extreme temperatures swings.

Track buckling is an occurrence that is known to Defendants Amtrak and BNSF, and Defendants had a duty to ensure that a neutral rail temperature was maintained and to monitor the condition of the rails to ensure that no track buckling occurred and to put in place policies and procedures to ensure that this was accomplished, the lawsuit said.

Rail safety experts say rail lines can become deformed by heat, creating buckles in the tracks, and the location where the train derailed could be prone to that possibility. NTSB investigators havent commented on that possibility.

At the time of the derailment, Zach Schneider was in the viewing car and his wife, Rebecca, was in the sleeper car, which was the last car of the train, court documents said.

When the viewing car derailed and was thrown from the tracks, Zach Schneider sustained excruciating and devastating injuries to his body and head, which ultimately caused his tragic and untimely death, according to the filing.

Rebecca Schneider suffered severe and life-altering injuries when the sleeper car derailed and flipped onto its side, according to the lawsuit.

The filing said the last three passenger cars, including the sleeper car where Rebecca Schneider was located, completely decoupled from the rest of the train and were forcefully thrown from the tracks, flipping and landing on their sides. According to the suit, a fourth car - the viewing car where Zach Schneider was located - did not decouple but was launched from the tracks and flipped onto its side.

Zach was just an incredible man, Mongeluzzi said. This has being a devastating loss to his wife, Rebecca, who was his soul mate, and she wants us to find out what happened and to make sure it never happens again.

WASHINGTON POST
Ask any of the 2,600 residents in this South Carolina town whether they know Alex Murdaugh and youll probably get a quick nod. Nearly everyone does in Hampton a tiny place where every road in has just two lanes.

Ask them to tell you about Murdaugh, though, and youll get a firm head shake, followed by: You're not going to quote me, are you? No one wants to talk about the influential lawyer whose wife and son were killed and whos now accused in a string of controversies  at least, not in the open.

For the past century, the Murdaughs have steered much of the legal world in this remote corner of South Carolina  north of Savannah, Georgia and far from the interstate or just about anything else. Running the prosecutors office and a large civil law firm allowed the Murdaughs to do it quietly, until recently.

Murdaughs wife, Maggie, and son Paul were killed June 7, shot multiple times at the familys sprawling estate. No one's been arrested in their deaths, which brought scrutiny into every nook of Murdaugh's life.

Six investigations are underway, over the killings, stolen money, death coverups and a Sept. 4 shooting in which a bullet grazed Murdaughs head on a lonely highway. Police said he tried to arrange his own death and make sure a $10 million life insurance policy would pay off for his surviving son.

Mother And Son Killed (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The man charged with shooting Murdaugh is Curtis Eddie Smith, a former client from a workplace accident case. Smith said they became friends, and he was stunned to find himself dismissed as a callous drug dealer by Murdaughs lawyers.

With a friend like that, who needs enemies, Smith said as he limped around his property in Walterboro, checking on his shop and rescue dogs. He wouldn't say anymore, insisting he was done discussing Murdaugh and the case  for now.

Like many people in town, Smith got entangled with the Murdaughs in a courtroom in Hampton County, population 20,000, where the family is used to being in power, not being questioned.

If you stole something or had something stolen from you, the Murdaughs ran your case for the state. Alex Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather were the elected prosecutors for 87 years straight.

If you got hurt on the job, the Murdaughs took you on as a client. The family founded a law firm a century ago. It now employs several dozen lawyers, and its brick headquarters takes up a whole city block. There's no sign out front; everyone knows it's the Murdaughs' firm.

Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were killed at their Islandton estate. Authorities believe Paul was the intended target (Handout)

And if you had a charity or other cause, the Murdaughs donated. The family has given millions to all sorts of projects. Alex Murdaughs father was grand marshal of the parade of the towns marquee Watermelon Festival several years ago.

But plenty of people tell hushed stories of what happened if the Murdaughs were crossed.

Connor Cook said that in 2019, he knew his friend Paul Murdaugh was intoxicated when he drove a boat that crashed, killing a 19-year-old passenger. But the Murdaughs tried to pin him as the driver, Cook said, according to a wrongful death lawsuit.

In a deposition, Cook said he feared the family: Just anything they get in, they get out of. Ive always been told that.

The night of the crash, Alex Murdaugh and his father visited the hospital. Murdaugh scrutinized a board where staff kept track of patients and tried to talk to everyone who'd been on the boat, nurses told investigators.

The crash bought the kind of attention the Murdaughs always tried  and for decades, succeeded  to avoid. It took months to charge Paul Murdaugh with boating under the influence causing death, the local newspaper noted. Many around town wondered whether the family was wielding their sizeable influence.

Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial when he died. Now, state police are investigating whether the Murdaughs obstructed that investigation. They're also looking into the 2018 death of family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.

She died after falling in the Murdaughs' home, but the death wasnt reported to the coroner. Documents appear to show Murdaughs insurance paid more than $4 million in wrongful-death claims. But a lawyer for Satterfields sons said they havent seen a dime since agreeing to use an attorney who was Murdaugh's college buddy to handle the legal work and another banker friend as estate executor.

The documents have signatures purported to be from judges, but some were never entered into publicly searchable court records. Others dont appear to have followed state rules for settlements.

Despite long staying out of headlines, the Murdaughs aren't strangers to their own legal troubles. Alex Murdaughs great-grandfather, Randolph, founded the family law firm and in 1920 became the elected prosecutor for the five-county region that includes Hampton County. Randolph Murdaugh died when his car was hit by a train as he headed home from a poker game in 1940.

His son, Randolph Buster Murdaugh Jr., took over the law firm and prosecutor position; he served for 46 years, with the exception of several months awaiting federal trial over tipping off a local moonshiner to move his still. Eighteen of 23 defendants were found guilty.

But Buster was acquitted and returned to office  even as the judge noted that, if he were Murdaugh, he could not go back and face his people much less resume public office, according to federal records.

"Buster" was larger than life in court, admonished more than once by the state Supreme Court for improper arguments  telling juries he wouldnt try another death penalty case or would release rapists awaiting trials if verdicts didnt go his way.

Randolph Murdaugh III followed his father, taking over in 1986 and serving almost 20 years. Neither of his sons followed him into the solicitors chair, although Alex Murdaugh worked as a volunteer prosecutor before his law license was suspended in September as he was fired from the familys PMPED law firm over millions of dollars turning up missing.

In civil law, the Murdaughs were known for suing railroads. A now-repealed South Carolina law allowed anyone who wanted to sue a railroad to choose any state county. The Murdaughs found sympathetic juries and made Hampton County known for seven-figure verdicts.

The PMPED firm has dozens of lawyers and practices in all of South Carolinas 46 counties. Its website lists 14 cases with awards of more than $1 million  railroad companies that didnt cut vegetation at crossings, a cancer patient hurt by chemotherapy, a 9-year-old burned by a SUVs gas tank.

Alex Murdaughs brother, Randolph Murdaugh IV, still works at the firm. He didnt answer an email asking about his family.

The law firm issued a statement saying many of their lawyers grew up in the area and are closely involved in their communities and churches. The firm said no one they have spoken to knew that Alex Murdaugh was addicted to drugs and no employees were involved in his scheme.

He lied and he stole from us, the PMPED statement said.

Alex Murdaugh, 53, remains in an out-of-state rehab facility awaiting trial on charges of insurance fraud and filing a false police report.

Through his lawyer, Murdaugh adamantly denied having anything to do with the deaths of wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22. When Murdaugh found their bodies, he'd just returned from visiting his terminally ill father, his brothers said on Good Morning America.

While people around Hampton remain careful in speaking about the Murdaughs, hints about their influence pop up. An addendum at the top of the wrongful death lawsuit over the housekeepers death includes these lines, in all capital letters.

THE PLAINTIFFS ARE VICTIMS. THE PLAINTIFFS ARE VULNERABLE. THE PLAINTIFFS ARE SCARED.

___

Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.
A Sri Lankan couple who briefly sheltered ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden in Hong Kong eight years ago arrived with their two children Tuesday in Canada, where authorities granted them protection.

Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis had been living in limbo in Hong Kong after authorities there rejected their asylum claims in 2017.

The couple took Snowden in at the behest of a Canadian human rights lawyer, soon after he leaked documents detailing top-secret US surveillance programs. Local media identified Kellapatha, Nonis and several others, putting their lives at risk, advocates said.

But on Tuesday, the two refugees and their children - Sethumdi, 9, and Dinath, 5 - landed in Toronto, according to For the Refugees, a nonprofit group that privately sponsored their application for refugee status.

The family will travel to Montreal, where the group has arranged housing. There, they will be reunited with Vanessa Rodel, another Snowden refugee, and her daughter, Keana. The two arrived in Canada as refugees in 2019. Kellapatha is Keanas father.

After over a decade in limbo, they can now begin to build new lives in Canada, reunited with the rest of their family and free of the constant fear and worry that marked their existence as high-profile asylum seekers in Hong Kong, For the Refugees president, Marc-Andre Seguin, said in a statement.

Ethan Cox, a spokesman for the organisation, said that the separation of the two families has been a great strain.

Now, theyre really thrilled to be able to say goodbye to Hong Kong, Cox said. He added: The situation in Hong Kong is not good... its a very, very unsafe place, especially for high-profile asylum seekers.

When Snowden first arrived in Hong Kong, he stayed at a ritzy hotel - but soon went underground after outing himself as the whistleblower who leaked details about the National Security Agencys Prism surveillance program.

Tibbo, who was helping Snowden, asked a group of aslyum-seeker clients living in Hong Kongs cramped tenements if they would shelter an American contractor. The group, which included Kellapatha, Nonis and Rodel, agreed.

Snowden, who now faces multiple criminal charges in the United States, stayed with them for two weeks before fleeing to Russia where he now lives.

Another Snowden refugee from Sri Lanka, Ajith Pushpakumara, remains in Hong Kong, Cox said, and For the Refugees is urging the Canadian government to expedite his application.

We hope that the Canadian government will expedite the processing of his application and then allow him to join the others in Canada without delay, he said.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Progressive Democrats are opposing plans to vote on a bipartisan infrastructure agreement ahead of a planned vote on Thursday.

It comes from my district and it comes from my community, Ms Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent. And I need to come back to our district with the investments that they need.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had initially promised a group of moderate Democrats to hold a vote on Monday on the infrastructure bill that passed the Senate in July after they had requested the bill be passed first. Speaker Pelosi later announced that the vote would be held on Thursday.

But progressives objected to putting the bill forward without also having a vote on a separate bill that includes social welfare spending like child care, tuition-free community college, long-term in-home care for elderly people, and adding dental, vision and hearing to Medicare.

The bill would be passed in the Senate through a process called reconciliation, which would allow Democrats to pass it with only 51 votes as long as it is related to the budget  thereby evading a Republican filibuster. Speaker Pelosi had initially said the bipartisan bill would not be passed without the reconciliation bill.

Democratic Representative from New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (C) arrives for a Democratic Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 28 September 2021 (EPA)

We are a yes on both, nothing short of that, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a member of the so-called Squad with Ms Ocasio-Cortez, told The Independent. I am not voting unless the two bills are passing together.

Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Chairman, said in a statement that voting on the bipartisan bill before the reconciliation bill would violate an agreement with the Democratic caucus.

More importantly, it will end all leverage that we have to pass a major reconciliation bill, he said. I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.

Rep Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who met with President Joe Biden last week, told reporters that progressives are simply trying to pass Mr Bidens agenda.

This is what we ran on, she said. This is not about trust. This is about verify.

Rep Katie Porter of California, who represents a swing district, said she is a no at the moment.

Im going to vote for both these bills, she said. Im waiting on them. We dont have the agreement from the Senate. These bills are not on the floor yet.

Ms Porter said she hopes that the infrastructure bill comes to the floor with an agreement and with the votes to pass it.

Rep Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who was one of the moderate Democrats who wanted to pass the bipartisan infrastructure agreement first, told reporters he was confident that Democrats would pass the bipartisan bill.

I dont believe that a faction of Democrats are going to vote against the president, vote against what we need as a country, vote against the Democratic Party, were all going to be and were going to get this across the finish line, he said. Theres no one better at this than Speaker Pelosi.
US president Joe Biden cancelled his Wednesday trip to Chicago to continue negotiations with Democratic lawmakers over key pieces of legislative agenda, including his $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package and the $1.2trillion infrastructure bill, that risk failing due to a divided legislature.

In meetings and calls over the weekend and through today, President Biden has been engaging with members of Congress on the path forward for the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, a White House official said on Tuesday.

He will now remain at the White House tomorrow to continue working on advancing these two pieces of legislation to create jobs, grow the economy and make investments in families, rather than failed giveaways to the rich and big corporations.

Some key progressive lawmakers in the House have threatened to vote against the infrastructure bill slated to come up on Thursday, while others are in disagreement over the size of the $3.5 trillion package.

With Republicans opposed and no votes to spare, the president scrapped his travel plans following a meeting with Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in a bid to bridge the gap between the moderate and progressive lawmakers over the two key pieces of legislation, reported CNN.

There is a strong sense that progress is being made, and the president is staying to continue his engagement, an administration source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The development came hours after press secretary Jen Psaki told the media that the president would be travelling to Chicago to communicate about the effectiveness of vaccine mandates.

Together, both the bills form the foundation for Mr Bidens economic agenda and are a part of his Build Back Better plan.

The ambitious infrastructure package is focused on rebuilding infrastructure and provides for $550bn in new federal funding on transport infrastructure, high-speed internet and efforts to fight climate change.

The budget reconciliation package, on the other hand, is a social spending bill. It includes big-ticket priorities like universal pre-kindergarten education, paid family and medical leave, home and community-based care for elderly people and people with disabilities, as well as the addition of hearing, dental and vision to Medicare.

For a bill to not be sidestepped as a filibuster, it requires 51 votes in the Senators. Democrats currently have 50 senators, with vice president Kamala Harris casting any tie-breaking vote. This means that Democrats from each caucus needs to vote in support of the bill for it to stand.

However, last month, senator Kyrsten Sinema said she would not support the legislation carrying a $3.5 trillion price tag, while House speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to tank the bipartisan infrastructure proposal till the Senate passes the reconciliation package. This has led to a political standoff within the party and could result in neither bill being passed.

The president was in touch with progressive lawmakers, Ms Pelosi and senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, reported CNN.

You know me. Im a born optimist, Mr Biden had said on Monday about the deeply divided Democrats over the pair of bills.

Ms Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday, In the next day or so we hope to come to a place where we can all move forward.

With Republicans united against the broader budget bill, federal government funding due to expire on 30 September and borrowing authority set to run out around 18 October, Democrats who narrowly control both the houses have just three days to avert a possible government shutdown by Thursday midnight.

Fiscal shutdowns are a regular feature of US politics and can negatively affect hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are in the middle of a pandemic. The longest shutdown in US history was for 35 days  from 22 December 2018 to 25 January 2019  during Donald Trumps presidency.
Rep Cori Bush, a freshman Democratic lawmaker who has made a name for herself fighting to extend a federal ban on evictions in Congress, revealed on Wednesday that she had an abortion following a rape that occurred when she was a teenager.

Ms Bush detailed the attack in an interview published in Vanity Fair on Wednesday, and pledged to talk in more detail about her experience at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday.

Tomorrow, I will share a story that Ive never fully told publicly before. I am testifying at the Oversight Committee hearing on abortion care and I will share that when I was 17, I was raped, became pregnant, and got an abortion. And I am not ashamed, she wrote on Twitter.

In her interview with Vanity Fair, Ms Bush explains that the rape occurred when she was 17, and attending a church camp in Jackson, Miss. After she shared to a mutual friend that she was romantically interested in an older counselor, who she said was in his early 20s, the young man asked to come over to Ms Bushs room to socialise.

According to the congresswoman, the two talked for a while before the man suddenly began taking her clothes off and got on top of her.

I just remember I was laying there and I just didnt know what was happening  I couldnt make it make sense, she told Vanity Fair, adding of the encounter: all of a sudden we went from talking to, he was on top. He was like taking my clothes off ... Hes having sex, penetrating me.

On Thursday, the Oversight panel is set to have a discussion regarding the urgent need to expand abortion rights and access. The hearing comes on the heels of the implementation of a ban on abortions after six weeks in the state of Texas, as well as a court challenge launched by Mississippi seeking to overturn Roe V Wade and end the Supreme Court-established right to an abortion nationwide.

Democrats have reacted to the recent events with alarm; progressives in particular are pushing the Biden administration to either expand the Supreme Court and weaken its conservative majority, or codify abortion rights into federal law; both prospects look highly unlikely given current political realities in Washington.

The recent decision by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to allow Texass ban to go into effect has only emboldened progressives who argue that the Court should be expanded to prevent a rollback of womens rights.

Ms Bush joined those calls as recently as April, tweeting expand the Court, after President Joe Biden announced the formation of a panel to explore potential reforms to the Court.
Activists unfurled a gigantic foil blanket outside the home of the US homeland security secretary as part of a protest against Joe Bidens immigration policies.

Demonstrators from Never Again Action, a Jewish-led migrant rights campaign, accused Mr Biden and secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of continuing Donald Trumps racist deportation of migrants.

The blanket, 30 feet wide and emblazoned with the words BIDEN PRESIDENCY, TRUMP POLICY and the hashtag #KeepYourPromises, was designed to resemble the heat-reflecting emergency blankets given to migrant children detained by border police.

The Biden administration has continued to enforce Mr Trumps interpretation of a 1944 public health law called Title 42, which allows the US government to block migrants from crossing the border during public health emergencies.

Both Mr Trump and Mr Biden have used Title 42 to expel migrants en masse without giving them any chance to claim asylum or take a Covid test, which migrant advocates argue is illegal under US asylum laws.

It comes after Mr Mayorkas department forcibly cleared out a huge encampment of mostly Haitian migrants on the border of Texas and Mexico, deporting about 2,000 and detaining 17,000 to process their applications to stay.

Alyssa Rubin, campaigns director for Never Again Action, said: The Biden administration promised to end Trumps cruel immigration policies, and replace them with a fair and humane immigration system. Instead theyve doubled down on the worst of Trumps racist policies.

The group also took aim at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)s contracts with law enforcement agencies requiring them to enforce some immigration laws, which Mr Biden promised to aggressively curtail.

Imagine if a single traffic stop could lead to being ripped away from your family, thrown in a cell, and then deported to a country that isnt your home, said the group on Twitter.

For millions of immigrants, this isnt something to imagine; its everyday life...

For the last 250 days, the Biden administration has woken up every morning and decided not to keep their promise to cancel Trumps ICE contracts. Every day, that inaction continues to tear families apart.

While the Biden administration has ended Mr Trumps Muslim travel ban and some other policies, it has continued to use Title 42 and recently attempted to resume expedited deportations of migrant families.

A federal judge blocked the policy after legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of civil rights groups, saying the use of Title 42 to expel families was likely unlawful.

Mr Mayorkas defended Title 42 at a news conference on Friday, saying: [It] is applicable and has been applicable to all irregular migration during this pandemic. It is not specific to Haitian nationals or the current situation.
President Joe Bidens national security adviser held talks Wednesday with Egypts president that focused on regional tensions and the ties between Washington and its Mideast ally, the Egyptian leaders office said.

The meeting in Cairo with Jake Sullivan came as the Biden administration presses Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi's government to stop his crackdown on dissent. The U.S. announced earlier this month it would withhold $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry attended the talks, which came after Sullivan paid visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for talks focused on finding an end to the war in Yemen.

El-Sissis office said in a statement the talks also addressed efforts to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians amid rising tensions between the Jewish state and the Hamas militant group.

The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent weeks, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction and heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank.

Egypt has long played a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. El-Sissis government brokered a cease-fire after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas erupted in May.

The statement said the talks also touched on the situation in Libya as the chaos-wrecked North African nation heads toward elections late this year.

The U.S., Egypt and other Western nations are pushing for holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya as scheduled on Dec. 24, hoping the vote will end a decade-long chaos in the oil-rich nation.

El-Sissi and Sullivan also discussed a decade-long dispute over a massive dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.

Ethiopia says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is crucial for its economic development. Egypt and Sudan, downstream countries, say the project is a threat to their water security and have called for a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dams reservoir.

El-Sissi urged the international community to play an effective role to resolve the dispute. Egypt will not accept damage to its water interests," he said.

The Biden administration sees the dam dispute as potential flashpoint in the turbulent Horn of Africa but has sought to take a back seat to the African Union in finding a resolution.
When The View abruptly yanked two co-hosts from the set for what turned out to be false-positive Covid tests, Kamala Harris rolled with it and continued on through the interview.

Days later, anonymous sources seeded a story that her office is frustrated and deeply concerned that the ABC programme has not been forthcoming about what happened during the live airing on Friday.

The Views executive producer Brian Teta addressed the fiasco on Monday, saying that mistakes were made in publicly revealing positive test results that turned out not to be accurate.

We found out moments before we came back on the air, and in that moment all I could think of was that we had to keep the hosts safe and we had to keep the vice president safe, he said.

She could not walk out no matter what. And that led to some really awkward television that Id like to have back if I could.

The hosts, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, later tested negative, but Ms Harris office is vexed as to why ABC gave them the all clear the night before the show, suggesting that the vice presidents requirements had been met.

As a condition of Ms Harris appearing in person, the network was reportedly required to have the hosts undergo PCR testing within 24 hours of the interview.

After doing the tests on Thursday afternoon and seemingly suggesting the results were negative on Thursday night, Ms Harris office was reportedly baffled why a positive result was returned moments before her scheduled appearance.

Despite The Views public apology on Monday, people familiar with the matter told CNNs media reporter Oliver Darcy that the office of the vice president was vexed by what happened and concerned the The View has not been forthcoming.

The timing of the leak coincides with the vice president getting negative press from a viral video of her appearance at George Mason University in Virginia on Tuesday.

While Ms Harris was there to encourage voter registration, a college student accused Israel of committing ethnic genocide against Palestinians.

Ms Harris nodded as the student said the $1bn funding for the countrys Iron Dome missile defence system hurts her heart because its ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and Im sure youre aware of this.

After the student said the money would have been better spent helping struggling Americans, Ms Harris responded that she was glad the issue was raised.

And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things were fighting for in a democracy, right? Ms Harris said.

The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobodys voice should be suppressed on that, she added.
South Dakota Republican and Democratic legislators alike said Wednesday they want more details from Gov. Kristi Noem s administration on a meeting last year that included the governor, her daughter and state employees overseeing an agency that had moved to deny her daughters application to become a certified real estate appraiser.

In response to the report from The Associated Press this week, the Legislature s Government Operations and Audit Committee will look into the matter when it meets at the end of October, according to the committee chairman, state Sen. Kyle Schoenfish. The Republican governor has dismissed the report as an attack on her family, but lawmakers from within her party said they want answers from her administration on what happened.

Schoenfish, a Republican, said the committee is still working out the details of how it will address the issue. Republicans, who hold super-majorities in the Legislature, will ultimately determine how far-ranging the inquiry is.

The AP reported Monday that Noem last year summoned to her office a state employee who was overseeing her daughter's appraiser license application just days after the agency moved to deny her the license. After the meeting, Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, was not denied a license, according to the Department of Labor and Regulation. Peters eventually received her certification four months later on Nov. 25, 2020.

A week after Peters received her license, the state employee who directed the agency was allegedly pressured to retire by Noems cabinet secretary. The state employee, Sherry Bren, eventually received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw an age-discrimination complaint and leave her job.

The governors office declined to answer questions from the AP on what was discussed in the meeting. On Wednesday, her spokesman Ian Fury did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Legislature looking into the episode. He earlier dismissed the initial report as a political attack on the governor.

I want to know specifically in that meeting, what were the discussions? said Democratic Rep. Linda Duba, adding that the meeting would have been extremely intimidating for the state employee who was overseeing Peters' application.

Republican Rep. Randy Gross, who is the vice chair of the committee, said he was refraining from any speculation on what happened but wanted to hear from Noems administration to get a reliable sequence of activities or events.

I want to be accurately informed, he said.

Noem, 49, has generated speculation about a possible 2024 White House bid by forming a federal political action committee, assisting with campaigns across the country and attending many of the same events as other potential GOP hopefuls. Though Noem has said shes focused on reelection in 2022 and hasn't publicly indicated plans to run for president, she has visited the key early presidential states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and shown a willingness to jab at potential rivals.

In just her first term as governor after nearly a decade in Congress, her star has risen as she has honed a message of more freedom and less government  particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bren had limited her comments on the episode because the settlement of her age discrimination complaint includes a clause barring her from disparaging state officials.

The committee has the power to subpoena documents from state government, said Democratic Sen. Reynold Nesiba, but he added that whether lawmakers choose to wield that power will depend on Republican support. He said that he will also be looking into how the state government paid the $200,000 to Bren to settle her age discrimination complaint.

Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, a Republican, has said he is reviewing the episode. However, he has become political enemies with the governor after she called for his resignation following a car crash in which he struck and killed a man walking on a highway.

Democrats said the Government Operations and Audit Committee and the Appropriations Committee were the right place to start an inquiry but acknowledged they would need Republicans to help delve into the issue.

I think it takes a lot of courage, Duba said. Theres a lot of concern because it doesnt pass the smell test at all.

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This story has been updated to correct the first name of state Sen. Kyle Schoenfish.
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has come under fire after arguing that abortions should be banned because they scar your soul and that women should be told that the best thing they can ever do in their whole life is to be a mother.

Ms Greene was speaking to right-wing streaming site Real Americas Voice when she said that the federal government should restrict reproductive rights in order to protect the souls of women and make them better people by removing access to abortion care.

If we really care about women, like, like we say we do, then we should be telling women that the best thing they can ever do in their whole life is to be a mother, Ms Greene told the outlet.

Being a mother is the greatest thing I have ever done in my whole life, no matter what I do my entire life, she added. I will never do anything greater than being a mother, it is a true gift, whether a pregnancy is planned, whether the baby is born perfectly healthy or not. Being a mother is life-changing, life-altering, and makes women better people.

She went on to claim that abortions are actually things that can scar your body, they hurt you internally. And they not only that they scar your soul, and women have to live with this. We should care for women, love for women and teach them, you know how to care for themselves, and that would be being proud to be a mom.

Ms Greene shouted at Democratic lawmakers on the steps of the USCapitol last week, making the false claim that they were killing babies until birth.

Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell told Ms Greene: You try being a Christian and start treating your colleagues decently.

The confrontation arose after the House passed the Womens Health Protection Act almost completely along party lines, with 218 people voting for it and 211 against it. Texas Representative Henry Cuellar was the only Democrat to vote against it.

The proposal would codify the protections for abortion as devised in Roe v Wade. Democrats passed the legislation after a law in Texas went into effect that restricts abortion as soon as cardiac activity is discovered  usually six weeks into a pregnancy and before most people are aware that they are pregnant.

I said, Are you happy you passed a bill that babies can be slaughtered up until the day of birth? Ms Greene told Real Americas Voice about the confrontation on the Capital steps. There were so many Democrats and they have their signs: Build Back Better Women. How on Earth is it making women better by creating a law where they can kill a baby in their womb even though the baby is about to be born? How are we building back better women when were turning men into women?

And so I just started speaking out, she added. Most of them werent saying anything to me but it was Debbie Dingell  like a dingleberry  she started fussing at me, telling me I needed to be civil to my colleagues and act the way I would act going to church.

Ms Greenes comments sparked an immediate backlash.

What would you know about ones soul? You are minus a soul, a conscience, any morals, or any facts or proven truths. If you have children, I guarantee they are scarred, one Twitter user wrote in response to Ms Greenes comments on Wednesday.

Yah, those two c-sections where I nearly died did wonders for my body and soul. No scarring what so ever, Kristin Blackson wrote.

These people think the Handmaids Tale is an instruction manual, Keller West noted.

Abortion bans dont stop abortion. They stop safe abortions. Seeing women as complete people rather than as incubators means letting them make their own choices. Make motherhood a free/informed choice through social program support and education. Watch abortions drop, Twitter user D66 Labs added.

Its good for me, therefore it HAS to be good for you also. Seems not very logical or loving, another account holder wrote.
The top U.S. military officer told Congress that he knew former President Donald Trump wasn't planning to attack China and that it was his job to reassure the Chinese of this in the phone calls that have triggered outrage from some lawmakers.

Army Gen. Mark Milley chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered a vehement defense of two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart, saying he was responding to a significant degree of intelligence that China was worried about a U.S. attack.

I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese. ... And it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese, Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: Stay calm, steady, and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.

Milley has been at the center of controversy after reports that he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army to assure him that the United States was not suddenly going to go to war with or attack China. Details of the calls were first aired in excerpts from the recently released book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

While Tuesday's hearing largely focused on the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others from the country, a few senators condemned Milley for what they saw as inappropriate communications with Li.

In his most extensive comments to date on the matter, Milley said the calls on Oct. 30 and Jan. 8 were fully coordinated with the defense secretaries at the time as well as other U.S. national security agencies. And he said that such military-to-military communications are critical to prevent war between great powers that possess nuclear weapons.

The calls came during Trumps turbulent last months in office as he challenged the results of the 2020 election. The second call came two days after Jan. 6, when a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Bidens White House victory.

Milley said the October call was made at the direction of then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the second was done at the request of the Chinese and coordinated with then-acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller's office.

Asked if he spoke with the books authors and if his remarks were accurately represented," Milley said he spoke with Woodward and that he has not read the book but has seen press reports on it.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked that he provide more answers once he's read the book. She and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., questioned whether Milley shared private presidential conversations with the authors.

Milley said he did not leak private conversations he had with Trump, and said he routinely speaks with the media to provide information and transparency to the American people.

Milley also addressed a call he received from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He said Pelosi called me to inquire about the presidents ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process.

He said he assured her that while the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, he doesnt launch them alone. He said that as chairman he is part of the launch decision process.

There are processes, protocols and procedures in place, and I repeatedly assured her there is no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch, Milley said.

The book asserts that during the call, Milley agreed with Pelosis statement that Trump was suffering a mental decline after the election. During Tuesdays hearing, Milley appeared to discount that, saying I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States.

He said that after the call was over, he had a short meeting with staff to go over the process. He also said he informed Miller of the call at the time.

At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain of command, but I am expected, I am required, to give my advice and ensure that the president is fully informed, Milley said.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday that the nation could default on its debt by 18 October if Congress does not take action to raise the debt limit.

The secretary and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee where Ms Yellen told Senators what would happen if they failed to act.

If it does not, America would default for the first time in history, Ms Yellen warned. The full faith and credit of the United States would be impaired, and our country would likely face a financial crisis and economic recession.

Republican Senators blocked legislation that would have averted a government shutdown and raised the debt limit. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated Republicans will not assist with raising the debt limit.

Ranking Republican Sen Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania criticized Democrats for going on a spending binge.

If the government goes on a spending binge, that will certainly require more borrowing to pay for all that spending, he said, noting that Democrats want to increase spending through their social spending program, which they plan to pass without Republican support.

The Democrats have chosen to ignore our warning about this excessive spending but they want us to vote to raise the debt ceiling in order to permit the massive spending increases that theyre planning.

But Ms Yellen added that the debt limit was not a matter of increasing spending.

It is entirely about paying bills that have already been incurred by this Congress and previous Congresses and its about making good on past commitments, she said.
A onetime aide to Donald Trump has written in a tell-all book that the presidents loathing for the press was so intense that he wanted to see them banned from the White House altogether  drawing inspiration from a visit to North Korea.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who did not hold a single press briefing during her tenure in 2019-20, relates the story in her post-Trump-administration memoir Ill Take Your Questions Now, which has generated reams of headlines since being previewed in part by TheWashington Post.

As reported by the New York Times, Ms Grisham claims that after Mr Trumps North Korea visit, she was tasked with moving the press as far away from the presidents orbit as possible. I researched different places we could put them other than the press briefing room, she writes. Each time the president asked me about my progress on the matter, I let him know I was still working on options.

Ms Grishams experience of being press secretary was, she says, a gauntlet  even as she herself withdrew from holding briefings altogether. I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic, she writes.

Among such requests, she writes in the book, was Mr Trumps idea that she hold a briefing at which she would re-enact the phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to the presidents first impeachment.

Beyond the theme of the White Houses relationship with the media, Ill Take Your Questions Now is filled with sensational claims and stories ranging from the lurid and ridiculous to the grim and terrifying.

In the first basket are tales of Mr Trump having an aide play him showtunes to calm him down and calling Ms Grisham from Air Force One to defend his penis size against unflattering descriptions from Stormy Daniels. On the less amusing side, Ms Grisham writes that the president told Vladimir Putin he was only putting on a tough act for the cameras before the two talked in private.

Mr Trump has made his view of Ms Grishams book clear with a series of insulting statements.

Stephanie didnt have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning, he said through a spokeswoman. She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about.
Tunisi s president on Wednesday named the countrys first female prime minister, appointing a 63-year-old professor to lead a transitional government after the head of state sacked the previous prime minister and suspended parliament.

Najla Bouden Ramadhane, a professor at a prestigious engineering school, becomes one of the first women in the Arab world to hold such a senior position.

President Kais Saied named Ramadhane to the post in a surprise decision, and instructed her to create a new Cabinet as soon as possible, according to a statement from the president's office.

Tunisia has been without a head of government and in limbo since Saied froze the country's parliament and seized executive powers on July 25. The move notably sidelined the Islamist party that dominated parliament, Ennahdha, and critics denounced the president's moves as a coup that threatens Tunisia's young democracy.

Saied said he acted to save the country amid unrest over financial troubles and the governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is unclear how much power Ramadhane will be able to yield due to the president's actions. Last week, Saied issued presidential decrees bolstering his already near-total power and announced plans for a transitional government and new electoral rules.

The decrees include the continuing suspension of parliaments powers, the suspension of lawmakers immunity from prosecution and a freeze on lawmakers salaries. The decrees also stated Saieds intention to not send laws for parliamentary approval and to presidential decree alone, ignoring parts of the Tunisian Constitution.

His moves have raised concern among Islamists and pro-democracy forces in and beyond the Arab world. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings a decade ago, was the only country to emerge from the tumultuous period with a newly designed democratic political system.

More than 100 Ennahdha officials announced their resignations Saturday to protest the choices of the party's leadership in confronting the North African countrys political crisis.

___

This version corrects the spelling of new prime minister's first name to Najla, not Raoudha.
The former Australian prime minister who signed the now-cancelled French submarine deal questioned whether Australia could safely maintain a fleet powered by U.S. nuclear technology.

Malcolm Turnbull made the 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) deal in 2016 with French majority state-owned Naval Group in 2016 to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison who replaced Turnbull in a power struggle within Australias conservative government in 2018, canceled the deal this month as part of an alliance with the United States and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

Morrison explained that the game changer was that next-generation nuclear-powered submarines will use reactors that do not need refueling during the 35-year life of the boat.

Turnbull told the National Press Club on Wednesday that he had been advised by the Australia's Defense Department as recently as 2018 that an Australian nuclear-powered fleet was not an option without local nuclear facilities.

Morrisons advice that Australia could become the first country to operate a nuclear-powered fleet without a civil nuclear industry or nuclear expertise was very different to Defense Department advice three years ago, Turnbull said.

It sounds too good to be true, Turnbull said.

Is it credible to have a hands-off, plug-and-play nuclear reactor filled with weapons-grade uranium and not inspect it for 35 years? he asked.

Turnbull said a nuclear-powered fleet maintained by another country was not an option for Australia.

If you cant maintain your own ships, you are not in full control of them, Turnbull said.

France has accused the United States and Australia of betrayal over the canceled contract and the replacement trilateral alliance negotiated in secret.

France briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest but there is no word of when a French ambassador might return to Australia.

Turnbull, who describes himself as a personal friend of French President Emmanuel Macron, said Morrison should have discussed with the French Australias concerns that conventional submarines would not meet its evolving security needs.

This is an appalling episode in Australias international affairs and the consequences of it will endure to our disadvantage for a very long time, Turnbull said.

Former Prime Ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd who led the center-left Labor Party, have also been vocal critics of the nuclear deal.

Atomic energy is a fraught issue in Australia, which has a single reactor in Sydney that makes nuclear isotopes for medical use.

Nuclear power generation is banned and Australia refuses to export uranium to countries that would put it to military uses including nuclear propulsion.
Russia took a step closer to China-style internet restrictions on Wednesday, with a threat to block social media channel YouTube.

The move came in response to the tech giants decision to ban two German-language channels belonging to the Kremlin-funded RT network, but it followed a campaign of increasing pressure on the platform.

In a statement, Russias media watchdog Roskomnadzor said YouTubes decision to remove channels RT DE and Der Fehlende Part violated fundamental rights of freedom and access to information. It demanded the hosting platforms parent company, Google/Alphabet, reinstate both channels in quick time, or face the consequences.

If the warning is not heeded ... legislation provides for measures of full or partial restriction of access, the ultimatum read.

YouTubes decision to block the RT channels over what it described as a violation of Covid-19 misinformation policies induced a blistering battle cry from the networks combative chief Margarita Simonyan on Tuesday evening.

The move was the start of a media war ... declared by the German government on Russia, declared the influential executive, demanding that her bosses send their own (figurative) missiles in response. Banning Deutsche Welle and other German media from working in Russia would be a good place to start, she suggested.

A spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry agreed that a forceful response was necessary. Moscow had no doubt that the move to block RTs channels was made with the open and tacit support of the German authorities and local media, the spokesperson said, claiming that the aim was to muffle information sources that did not correspond to a comfortable media background for the German official elite.

A shift in habits over the last decade has seen state television haemorrhage audiences to unregulated and largely uncensored online platforms such as YouTube. That has presented an existential problem for propaganda bosses, who are increasingly focused on bringing such platforms to heel.

The current battle with YouTube is not the first time authorities have picked a fight with big tech. But if an early campaign against Telegram in 2018 ended in calamity  with regulators bringing down large parts of the local internet in their efforts to block the messenger app  a more recent operation against Twitter in March this year suggests online censors are learning fast.

Following unheeded warnings to remove political tweets, the micro-messaging platforms bandwidth was restricted, leaving it operating at a snails pace within Russia. To this day, it is impossible to view media without the use of technical go-arounds such as VPN.
Residents on the western coast of La Palma have been told by authorities to lock down and seal doors and windows with tape and wet towels to ward off toxic gases spewed by lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

People should protect breathing tracts with a wet cloth covering the mouth and nose, emergency services said.

This came as the islands government set up a 3.5km (2 mile) exclusion zone on land and a two nautical mile perimeter at sea to keep people safe.

Ten days after the volcanic eruption, lava gushed down a cliff into the Atlantic sea early on Wednesday in the Playa Nueva area, sending a pyramid of red hot lava 50 metres high above the sea.

A delta of lava has formed which is gaining ground in the sea, tweeted the Spanish Oceanographic Institute.

Experts had warned that the entry of the white-hot magma into the sea was likely to release clouds of acidic gas into the air, which could irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tracts, possibly causing breathing difficulties.

Sea life could also be affected by the lava mixing with sea water, officials said.

However, windy conditions overnight blew the gas towards the sea, reducing the risk, said Ruben Fernandez, head of the Canary Islands Pevolca volcanic emergency committee.

It is still relatively dangerous, warned Mr Fernandez in an interview on Spanish radio RNE.

About 300 residents of the town of Tazacorte, a village near the sea, were evacuated on Tuesday.

All roads to the southern part of the island have been closed off, except to emergency vehicles.

Canary Islands regional president Angel Victor Torres said it was a dangerous moment as 1,000C lava entered 22C water because of the emissions, toxicity and explosions.

What we hope now is that (the lava) stops expanding and does not affect more homes, he added.

Since the eruption of Cumbre Vieja, thousands of people have been evacuated and more than 600 houses have been destroyed.

Banana plantations, which account for about 50 per cent of the economy in La Palma, have also been destroyed.

La Palma airport remains open but flights have been delayed.

Spain classified La Palma, an island at the north of the archipelago off the west coast of Africa, as a disaster zone on Tuesday and assigned 10.5m in financial support for the island.

Isabel Rodriguez, the Spanish government spokesperson, said 107 houses will be immediately acquired for the families that have been made homeless by the volcanic eruption.

Charities and companies across Spain are raising money for families whose homes have been destroyed.
Three regions in Poland have voted to scrap resolutions that declared them free of LGBT ideology as a result of the European Commission threatening to withhold funds.

The resolutions had first been passed in 2019, with local authorities viewing campaigns for gay rights as an attack on traditional family and Catholic values.

Almost 100 other provinces and municipalities passed similar anti-LGBT resolutions that year to signal the local governments conservative values and opposition to what some Polish leaders refer to as LGBT ideology.

The European Union has said that the resolutions violated anti-discrimination laws.

Earlier this month, the EUs commission wrote to the five large regions to urge them to scrap the resolutions, or it would block up to 130 million in funds for their local governments.

Three regions in the southeast of Poland  Podkarpackie, Lubelskie and Malopolskie  ditched their declarations on Monday. Another southeastern region, Swietokrzyskie, scrapped it last week.

Councillors in Malopolskie voted after a debate in favour of an alternative resolution to oppose any discrimination against anyone for any reason, according to the Polish Press Agency.

The resolution also declared support for every Malopolskie family, because that is the foundation of the social system of the state.

Malopolskie assembly chairman Witold Kozowski said in a statement that while the region is built on values and based on the centuries-old tradition of Christianity, he and other councillors had no desire to take responsibility for keeping [the region] without these EU funds.

In Podkarpackie, the assembly passed a resolution declaring the province a region of well-established tolerance.

Lubelskie also approved a motion affirming the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms that also supports the right of parents to raise their children according to their beliefs, according to Reuters.

Polands justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro said his Law and Justice party was against the repeals, adding that the financial pressure from the commission amounted to blackmail.

Same-sex relationships are not legally recognised in Poland where, according to 2015 demographics, about 93 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. The country already bans same-sex couples from adopting children.

Last year, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said places with anti-LGBT rules were humanity-free zones and had no place in our union.

In July this year, the commission had announced that it would be taking legal action against Poland and Hungary for their anti-LGBT laws.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have both tested positive for coronavirus, his office said in a statement posted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana).

Both had shown mild symptoms for Covid-19 before they were given a test to confirm infection, the statement said.

Assad, 55, was described as being in good health and a stable condition. He and his wife will spend two to three weeks at home in isolation before returning to work, the presidents office said.

The announcement comes just days before the 10-year anniversary of the uprising against the Assad regime and his rule, which began after his enforcers abducted and tortured a group of children accused of posting anti-government graffiti in the southern city of Daraa.

The ensuing public response to the torture of the children prompted a massive uprising against the Assad familys decades-long dictatorship.

As the regime of Mr Assad clung to power, the conflict eventually descended into a civil war drawing in major regional and international powers, as well as armed jihadi groups, including Isis.

Mr Assad and his deputies have been accused of perpetrating the worst crimes against humanity of the 21st century, including the deliberate targeting of hospitals in opposition-held areas now struggling to cope with a flood of coronavirus patients.

Over the years, Mr Assad and his loyalists have repeatedly tried to win sympathy from the international conflict and avoid accountability for actions, despite a large and growing body of evidence, according to the US, that the regime has used chemical weapons against its own civilians.

The statement posted to Sana said the Assads wish safety and well-being for all Syrians and all the peoples of the world from this virus, calling on Syrians to follow health protocols.

The Assads provided no proof that they had contracted Covid.
Tunisias president has named the countrys first female prime minister two months after he dismissed the premier and suspended parliament.

Kais Saied named scholar and engineering professor Nejla Bouden Romdhane as prime minister and tasked her with forming a new government.

Ms Romdhane, a geology specialist in her early sixties, has served as a senior ministry of higher education official.

She becomes Tunisias first female prime minister-designate, a rare woman to ascend to a senior post in the Arab world.

It remains unclear how Ms Romdhane will formally convene a Cabinet. Under Tunisias constitution, ministerial posts must be approved by parliamentarians, who have been physically prevented from convening.

Rachid Ghannouchi, head of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party and speaker of the suspended parliament, has insisted he will only relinquish his post by a vote of parliament.

Mr Saied, a former professor of economics elected two years ago as an independent political outsider, has been under pressure from opposition parties and civil society groups including the countrys powerful labour syndicate to put Tunisias back on the path toward democracy. Thousands have taken to the streets to protest his moves, which have included expanding his powers to allow himself to rule by decree.

On Monday, a coalition of Tunisian and international human rights organisations called on Mr Saeid to stick to the countrys 2014 constitution and refrain from increasing his own powers.

Tunisia, which has so far been the only country in the region that inspired hope for real change, seems to have turned its back on the emerging democracy, said the statement. Time and again in history, we have seen the serious consequences for human rights when either the executive or the presidential authority seized power.

Mr Saieds decisions are popular among large segments of Tunisians frustrated by a political deadlock that has prevented the country from tackling economic malaise, with unemployment hovering at just below 18 per cent.

But none of his manoeuvres has yet to address the countrys difficulties and may have exacerbated them by spooking foreign investors and delaying loan talks with the International Monetary Fund. The country must find $5 billion just to pay off immediate debts and budget shortfalls.
With property prices in the UK out of reach for many first time buyers, and homeowners dreaming of a second pad in the sun, the idea of snapping up an Italian casa for 86p is intoxicating.

Several small Italian towns have hit the headlines for selling off vacant houses for 1 a pop in the past couple of years.

But how does the scheme work, and who is eligible to snap up one of these bargain villas in the sun?

Why is Italy selling houses for 1?

As young Italians increasingly migrate to the city and choose cosmopolitan jobs over rural and community vocations, many of Italys prettiest remote villages are becoming abandoned, with tiny, ageing populations that are beginning to die off.

Some elderly Italians have found themselves with no one to leave their house to, bequeathing it instead to the local authorities, who have to decide what to do with it, while some younger citizens have inherited properties in areas they have no intention of moving to.

Having a second home in Italy means paying taxes, so selling these unused houses off cheaply can be more lucrative than keeping them.

Thats why around 25 Italian municipalities are making prospective homeowners an offer they cant refuse - a house for the symbolic price of 1.

The idea is, having these homes improved and occupied in the next few years is worth more to the towns than selling them off at full price.

We do not need new constructions and new overbuilding. The strategy to improve the housing environment and reclaim our cultural identity is to revive the small abandoned centres or to redevelop buildings in a state of abandonment, with a story that is our history, reads a statement by the team at 1eurohouses.com.

Local authorities in areas such as Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo and Campania also hope an influx of new homeowners will stimulate the economy, as they buy local produce, employ local construction workers, pour money into local venues and attractions, and even boost tourism by creating boutique hotels or B&Bs.

Whats the catch?

Youre not buying a shiny new villa - houses selected for the scheme are often dilapidated and require major structural improvements. Youre investing in a fixer-upper, not acquiring a ready-to-move-in home.

However, the cost of renovations is still relatively low compared to other countries - in the region of 20,000-50,000 depending on the size of the property.

While most houses are humble village homes or cottages, some stately homes are also on sale, with a much higher price tag attached. The sellers of this former monastery outside Bologna estimate essential renovations could cost 1.5m.

Legal fees for buying a house abroad can add up to 3,000 on top of this, and some municipalities also ask for a guarantee fee (from 1,000 to 10,000 depending on the town and the cost of the renovation project) to prove youre committed to improving the property.

On the upside, Italy does provide a superbonus tax exemption for buyers that covers 110 per cent of qualifying building expenditures.

You wont be able to make vague promises about refurbishing your new pad sometime in the future, either - new owners are required to submit details of a renovation project within two to 12 months of purchase (depending on the location), start work within one year, and complete it within the next three.

Its also worth noting that not every property ends up being sold for just a euro. Popular houses have become the subject of a bidding war, with several going for 5,000 or even 20,000.

So this is a scheme for people who have some savings stored up beyond the initial euro.

Who can buy a one euro house?

Is it true or is it a joke? reads a section of the website case1euro.it , which lists 1 properties currently for sale in Mussomeli, 60 miles south of Palermo, Sicily.

It is not a joke. Rules differ from town to town, but in the case of Mussomeli, buyers must have the financial and practical wherewithal to:

Support all expenses for the drafting of the deeds of sale (notary, registration, transfer)

Prepare a project for the renovation of the property within one year of purchase, acquiring any permissions needed

Start work within two months of the date of issue of the building permit

Conclude work within three years

Put down a guarantee policy deposit of 5,000 (4,314), which they will lose in the event that the work doesnt go ahead within three years

In Mussomeli, you can do whatever you like with the interior of the property, but must keep the facade looking as it did originally.

Small print goes on to say that you are entitled to renovate the property yourself, or with your choice of workers.

This is the route that French buyer Morgane Guihot and her husband took, telling CNN in 2019: As were both artisans and renovators we did most of the work ourselves, which was minimal, and it was great seeing our two-room house come to life again.

Most towns who have set up a 1 house scheme have similar financial requirements - youll have to check the specific requirements of the town you want to buy in. Some require you to live in the house after renovations, while others allow you to buy it with a view to using it as a holiday home or as a small business such as a B&B.

Buyers who dont have Italian residency or dont speak Italian may run into more hurdles when it comes to organising work and being able to make use of their property.

Has Brexit affected Brits being able to buy the houses?

People living outside of the EU can still buy properties in Italy, but only as non residents. This means you pay higher taxes than locals, and can spend up to 180 days per year at your Italian house, but not more than 90 out of every 180 days.

To visit more regularly, you would have to apply for Italian residency , which includes proving you have sufficient funds to support yourself without employment in Italy.

Im still interested. How do I get started?

Youll find 1 houses for sale on websites such as 1eurohouses.com, case1euro.it and property-in-sicily.estate as well as on individual local government websites such as the Comune of Sambucas or Citta de Troinas in Sicily.

Auctions2Italy also lists some 2 properties in the country, and youll find case studies and How we did it guides on Europe.properties.

American buyer Rubia Daniels, who purchased and renovated a 1 home in Sicily, told Travel + Leisure earlier this year that going and viewing potential houses in person is a must; as is examining the foundations and state of the walls.

Definitely dont try to do it online  you need to be there to see it and experience the process to make sure youre making a mindful decision, said Daniels. I wouldnt do anything through the internet.

You dont want to get anything where the walls are buckled because that indicates a foundation issue, she advises.

Areas running 1 house schemes

Emilia-Romagna

The slice of northern Italy around Bologna has houses for sale in towns such as verdant, ancient-ruin-speckled Modigliana (where you can buy the aforementioned dilapidated monastery).

Abruzzo

The region hugging the coast to the east of Rome. Towns raffling off their vacant homes include Casoli, Santo Stefano di Sessanio and Pratola Peligna.

Campania

The dramatic, volcanic slice of coastline around Naples, close to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast has some 1 properties for sale in places like near-abandoned Pietramelara, which recently has been home to just 15 families.

Sicily

Sicily is a hotbed of 1 house schemes. As well as sleepy Mussomeli, the towns of Calatafimi Segesta, Augusta, Sambuca and Caltagirone are all selling off unwanted or unclaimed houses.

Piedmont

This northern region near Switzerland is offering homes in towns like Borgomezzavalle and Albugnano, close to renowned wine producing regions and the outdoorsy, wooded Antrona Valley.

Le Marche

The medieval town of Cantiano - a 40-minute drive from the seaside - has 1 homes for sale near white-pebble Adriatic beaches and truffle-hunting spots.

Liguria

Triora and Pignone are two of the areas in this region, famous for the colourful fishing villages of Cinque Terre as well as pesto and foccacia.

Puglia

With 195,024 inhabitants, Puglias provincial capital of Tarento is one of the first bigger-scale towns to start up a 1 Euro Case scheme - putting buyers in touch with its maritime history and great seafood.

Sardinia

The towns of Romana and Nulvi sit in the islands Sassari province outside of Alghero, and have both joined the scheme to sell off 1 homes.

Tuscany

Montieri, Grosseto, Lucca and Vergemoli are some of the participating towns in Italys hallowed wine and villa haven.
Travellers to and from the UK face significant changes this week because of post-Brexit moves by the government.

British motorists heading for Continental Europe must cover or remove the traditional GB sticker, and instead use either a UK sticker or have a UK signifier on their number plates.

The requirement  requested by UK ministers  contradicts the governments assertion in January that UK drivers wont need to display a GB sticker in most EU countries if their number plate has GB or GB with a Union Flag on it.

At the time the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said: Those who want to drive in the EU can continue to do so with ease.

Now the government says: You will need to display a UK sticker clearly on the rear of your vehicle if your number plate has any of the following: a GB identifier with the Union flag; a Euro symbol; a national flag of England, Scotland or Wales; numbers and letters only - no flag or identifier.

If you have a GB sticker, cover or remove it before driving outside the UK.

In June, the UK government applied to the United Nations for the change to be made under the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: Changing the national identifier from GB to UK symbolises our unity as a nation and is part of a wider move towards using the UK signifier across government.

In Spain, Cyprus or Malta, a UK sticker is now mandatory regardless of the number plates.

British drivers in Ireland need not display a national signifier.

For Europeans hoping to travel to Britain, a Brexit promise to end the right for EU citizens to use their national identity cards to travel to the UK also takes effect from Friday, 1 October.

In a speech on her New Plan for Immigration in May 2021, the home secretary, Priti Patel, said: This year, we will end the use of insecure ID cards for people to enter our country.

In the past, some European Union nations have issued laminated identity cards that were relatively easy to forge or tamper with.

But since August 2021 all new ID cards issued by EU countries must follow a common pattern. They will comply with the highest security standards, as prescribed by the UN International Civil Aviation Organisation, which requires them to be machine readable and to contain a microchip with the holders details.

EU citizens  and those of the wider European Economic Area plus Switzerland  can travel to all European countries except the UK on their national identity cards.

In addition citizens of some EU nations, including France, Germany, Italy and Portugal, can use ID cards to visit Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.

The UK government is closing the border to an estimated 250 million citizens in Europe who have national identity cards but not passports.

The move comes after the UK was revealed as the major European country with the greatest collapse in inbound tourism. In July and August 2021, just 14 per cent of the visitor numbers for the corresponding months in 2019 arrived.

Joss Croft, chief executive of the industry body, UKinbound, said: Pre-pandemic the UKs inbound tourism industry was the jewel in our crown.

Today the industry sits in tatters, desperate to rebuild but facing barrier upon barrier as it tries to recover.

Ireland issues a passport card but not a national identity card. Irish citizens are not required to carry passports between the republic and the UK, though some airlines demand them.
Traffic-light roulette has now been replaced by a slightly simpler game when it comes to travel  red list bingo.

As of 4 October, the UKs green, amber and red categories are now streamlined to just two lists: red and Rest of World, or ROW.

Fully vaccinated travellers arriving from countries on the latter no longer have to take a pre-departure test before returning to the UK, though they must still take a day two PCR test afterwards (a move thats set to be eased further in late October).

Unvaccinated arrivals must continue to take the pre-departure test, and have zero quarantine-free options; they must self-isolate for 10 days upon entering the UK from all ROW countries.

Meanwhile, its business as usual for the red list, from where all passengers must pay thousands of pounds for a 10-day stint in a government-mandated quarantine hotel.

The 54-strong red list will continue to be updated every three weeks, with the next reshuffle expected on or around 7 October.

Expectations are high that South Africa could finally make the leap from red to ROW after the British High Commission in Pretoria tweeted a statement made jointly by UK diplomats and the South African government that said recent findings will feed into the next review of UK border measures.

But what about the other contenders that could potentially get an upgrade in the next announcement?

Covid data guru Tim White believes we might see wholesale movement in the red list this time around, after many were disappointed at the dearth of countries promoted to amber at the last update.

My information is that the cabinet was reluctant to appear to be too soft by allowing a whole host of countries off the red list when cases were still rising in the UK, he tells The Independent.

The main criteria now in keeping (or adding) countries on the red list is the risk of variants of coronavirus; case numbers should not really coming in to the equation unless there is an extremely high infection rate. So in effect I hope the Joint Biosecurity team has started with a blank sheet and only added those countries with variants.

White is not positive about Thailands chances of shaking off its red list status, as cases of the Beta variant are still being detected over there.

The Dominican Republic may suffer the same fate, as White says the government has been conservative on this issue [variants of concern] from the start, to the point of folly (remember when France went amber plus because of Beta cases in the island of Reunion?).

However, he thinks there should be plenty to celebrate at the next announcement, especially for those with family in South America.

Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay should all come off red next week, he says. The fate of the other countries on the continent is less certain. Brazil still has some 'Gamma' variant, while the latest variant of interest 'Mu' is also gaining some ground and could rule out Colombia where it was first spotted.

Further north, White believes Mexico has a strong shot at being bumped up to the ROW list, along with Indonesia and South Africa.

One problem countries will have is proving they don't have variants of concern, adds White. If they are not carrying out, and sharing, genomic sequencing data, there is no way of knowing which strains of the virus are circulating.

Nonetheless I think Georgia, and Europe's only current red list country, Montenegro, have a fairly good chance of moving out of the 'red zone'.

Analyst Donal Kane believes that, in addition to South Africa, some neighbouring countries like Namibia with very similar positions will also lose red status.

He tells The Independent that the Asian countries on the red list are also all good candidates to be removed next week, including Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Nepal.

However, Kane is less optimistic than White about how South America will fare: On case rates alone it looks pretty strange to have Chile (similar case rates to NZ) or Brazil (like Australia) on any red list. I expect the 'variant card' will be played here though and South America or Caribbean countries are less likely to escape next time despite low rates (and likely prominence of the Delta variant anyway).

Kane strongly believes, like various other travel experts and analysts, that the entire red list should be abolished in the UK, mirroring Irelands move to axe hotel quarantine.

It's clear that the red list as a concept needs to go and go soon; the UK is completely out of line in Europe with the harsh restrictions that its imposing on arrivals from these countries, he says.

Whether the red list ever served any significant public health benefit in the past can be debated, but the logic for its continued existence is now non-existent. In my view it should be entirely scrapped before further hardship is inflicted on those needing or wishing to travel from those countries and before further damage is done to the UK's reputation.

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, agreed, saying: After Ireland closed its red list  and its quarantine hotels  at the weekend, the UK red list is looking increasingly hard to justify.

I imagine the Foreign Office, and British diplomats from Addis Ababa to Santiago, are having to field dozens of calls each day from furious governments who want to know the grounds for continuing with an effective travel ban on their nations.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre, and its parent ministry the Department of Health, are under increasing pressure to show their working. Barring some hitherto hidden data on alarming Covid variants, I predict that new information will allow ministers to cull half the countries from the red list  with a good few Latin American and African nations moved out of the danger zone.

His predictions for the coming update? The Dominican Republic, Chile and most of Africa has a good case for moving to the ROW list next Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Some reports have circulated from unnamed Whitehall sources that the red list will shrink dramatically.

We are expecting sharp reductions in the red list. It could be as few as nine countries left on the list, one told The Sunday Telegraph.
As the death of Gabby Petito continues to dominate the news  and as it begins to look more and more likely that she was abused and eventually murdered  a disturbing online trend has begun to take shape. Incels, trolls, mens rights activists, and self-described alpha males have begun rushing to Laundries defense, as well as rushing to insult Petito, whose body was found just over a week ago in Wyoming. It is not a new phenomenon, but it does reflect the throbbing heartbeat of misogyny thriving and surviving both on and offline.

First reported in The Daily Beast, Reddit boards and Facebook groups supporting Laundrie began amassing followers and conspiracy theories not long after Petito was found dead. Though groups like r/FriendsOfBrian appear to have been started as mere trolling, its clear that at least some of the posters are serious. Many of the most earnest comments allege that it was Petito who was abusing Laundrie, not the other way around, and complain of a misandric media machine that always gives women the benefit of the doubt.

Even if it were not true that women are the overwhelming majority of intimate partner violence victims, which they are, the idea that womens accusations are always taken at face value is belied by the well-publicized police response to an altercation between Petito and Laundrie. Bodycam footage shows the couple in the midst of a fight, and a highly agitated Petito admits to slapping Laundrie, who seems calm. Despite witnesses who reported seeing Laundrie hit Petito and her obviously frightened demeanor, police decided that Petito was the aggressor, and put Laundrie up in a hotel to preserve his safety.

Mens rights activists point to this footage as evidence that Laundrie was being abused by Petito, and many argue that had the gender roles been reversed, feminists would say that the murder (if it happened) had been self-defense. The bloodthirsty vengeful Feminist SIMP mobs of self entitled Narcissistic KARENS would forever point to the body cam video evidence of the cuts, scratches and bruises as total 100% justification for her to end his life, posted user OriginalMgtow. I think if theres anything to take from this case, its that Brian has taught us how to escape an abusive relationship  no matter what it takes. He has likely saved countless lives because his actions have shown us how to be empowered and take action, wrote balenciagogo. Meanwhile, users on Twitter and Facebook have gone to bat for Laundrie, accusing the media of ignoring Petitos mental instability and repeating unsubstantiated abuse allegations. Whether the substance of these posts are genuine or satirical, the hatred that fuels them is quite legitimate.

The Reddit boards and social media posts mixed tones  a sexist grab-bag of sincerity, irony, and rage  coagulate into a mass of all-purpose misogyny. Why were Gabbys nipples erect after assaulting Brian? reads the r/FriendsOfBrian post pinned to the top of the board. Others call her an attention whore, mock her weight, and accuse her of being a Nazi. Many co-opt the language of social justice, rallying the phrase #MissingWhiteGirlSyndrome  which calls out the many people of color who go missing and are ignored  to demonize Petito and those who would support her.

Disappointingly, such anti-Petito messaging seems to be everywhere: Even the official Twitter of popular true crime podcast Sword and Scale, which is run by Michael Boudet, retweeted a user that speculated: If the cops from @moabpolice had treated Gabby Petito like any MAN who was confirmed/admitted to having committed domestic assault and arrested her, shed still be alive, with the hashtag #Accurate. The retweet has since been deleted.

Laundrie supporters online have been dismissed with a blanket incel descriptor, but these groups represent only a small part of the problem. Incels are a relatively minor and specific subgroup of misogynists who, yes, have been known to be violent. But then, as Petitos case shows, men generally are known to be violent. This singular effort to flip the script  to vilify a murdered young woman and valorize her killer, however vile  is just that: singular.

After 17-year-old Bianca Devins was murdered and the grisly photos posted to Instagram, a cottage industry exploiting her death sprung up on the internet. Rapper Nicki Minaj and her husband spent years allegedly harassing and intimidating his rape victim into silence. Its important to remember that Laundrie supporters arent really Laundrie supporters at all  theyre seething misogynists just looking for a target. And theyre everywhere.
India has done a soft launch of a national single window system to benefit investors, besides ongoing reforms to simplify and streamline procedures to run or start a business. This includes striking down 22,000 compliances across the federal and state/union territory jurisdictions. Complementary to this has been efforts to ease pain points of digital governance, such as for securing driving licenses, teacher training and accessible online education material, authenticating hallmarked products, grievance redressal for MSMEs etc.

On September 22, 2021, the federal government launched the National Single Window System (NSWS) for investors and businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This single window portal is designed to be a one-stop-shop for investors, which will simplify tedious bureaucratic procedures for getting approvals, registrations, and clearances.

The portal is intended to usher in ease of doing business, transparency, and accountability by removing information asymmetries and bureaucratic hurdles and providing solutions at the click of a mouse to achieve end-to-end facilitation.

What is the National Single Window System?

The National Single Window System (NSWS) is a one-stop digital platform that will allow investors to apply for various approvals and licenses for commencing a business in the country.

The NSWS aims to streamline the business registration processes by eliminating the need for multiple applications across various portals or bureaucratic windows offline.

By facilitating approvals online, the portal does away with the requirement of physical visits to government offices. All relevant information will be available on a single dashboard and an applicant dashboard will allow investors to apply, track, and respond to queries.

Currently, the platform hosts approvals across 18 central government departments and nine states. Another 14 central departments and five states will be added by December 2021.

Reporting by various business media quoted the federal Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, saying, Its a soft launch. We will learn as we go along. This is a test phase. We didnt rush into the finalization of the modules.

What are the services offered by this system?

Know Your Approval (KYA) Service: This feature generates a list of approvals that must be obtained before a business may begin operations. Under this service, investors are asked a series of questions about their scheduled business operations, and accordingly, requisite permissions are identified. The questionnaire, which is simple and user-friendly on the surface, employs complex algorithms to filter through hundreds of approvals, shortlisting only those relevant to the specific investor or entrepreneur.

This feature generates a list of approvals that must be obtained before a business may begin operations. Under this service, investors are asked a series of questions about their scheduled business operations, and accordingly, requisite permissions are identified. The questionnaire, which is simple and user-friendly on the surface, employs complex algorithms to filter through hundreds of approvals, shortlisting only those relevant to the specific investor or entrepreneur. Common Registration Form: A unified information capturing system and a universal registration form has been introduced to ensure a single point of submission of information and documents across Indias Ministries and States. The information on this form is auto populated, eliminating the requirement of filling the same form again.

A unified information capturing system and a universal registration form has been introduced to ensure a single point of submission of information and documents across Indias Ministries and States. The information on this form is auto populated, eliminating the requirement of filling the same form again. State registration form : It allows investors to access the corresponding State Single Window System with a single click.

: It allows investors to access the corresponding State Single Window System with a single click. Applicant dashboard : It provides a single online interface to apply, track, and respond to the queries pertaining to approvals and registrations across ministries and States.

: It provides a single online interface to apply, track, and respond to the queries pertaining to approvals and registrations across ministries and States. Document repository : It is an online centralized storage service for investors to enable one-time document submission and use the same across multiple approvals. This eliminates the need to submit documents at multiple portals.

: It is an online centralized storage service for investors to enable one-time document submission and use the same across multiple approvals. This eliminates the need to submit documents at multiple portals. E-Communication module: It enables online response to queries and clarification requests related to applications by Ministries and States.

Reduction of 22,000 compliances: Ease of doing business reforms an ongoing effort

The digitization of the approvals process is also linked to Indias overall efforts to improve its business environment. According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the country has made redundant more than 22,000 compliances at the federal and state/union territory level. The aim is to simplify, decriminalize, and remove redundant laws.

Top-down bureaucratic exercise

All government ministries have been required to establish a dedicated team to examine the laws and regulations under their purview and find ways to reduce the compliance burden. DPIIT acts as the nodal department coordinating this exercise.

In recent years, about 103 offenses have been decriminalized and 327 redundant provisions and laws have been eliminated. 46 penal provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and 12 offenses under the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008 have been decriminalized.

Respective Indian state governments have introduced licensing reforms, implemented single window clearances for new investors, digitized a central random inspection system, initiated labor reforms, and formulated initiatives to support MSMEs and industrial development.

Focus areas of reforms to improve the business environment

1) Eliminate compliance burden across all procedures, rules, notifications, circulars, office memorandums, etc. which merely add to time and cost without achieving any tangible improvement in governance.

2) Repeal/amend/subsume redundant laws.

3) Decriminalize laws pertaining to technical and minor non-compliance issues to eliminate constant fear of being prosecuted for trivial defaults, while retaining strict criminal enforcement for serious fraudulent offenses that jeopardize and prejudice public interest.

Examples of recent reforms

Department of Telecommunications

Distinction between domestic and international OSP (other service provider) removed, allowing Indian telecom service providers serving foreign counterparts to register as an OSP.

Allowed sharing of EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines by domestic and international centers. This benefits outsourcing, business process management, and IT-enables services firms that provide voice-based services in India.

Department of Science and Technology

Private, public entities, and research institutes now allowed to collect, process, store, publish, and share geospatial data and services, including maps enabling an Indian firm to offer world class geospatial service like Google maps.

Liberalized access to geospatial data to facilitate stakeholders planning infrastructure projects, increase protection from natural calamities, and enable environment protection. It also reduces reliance on foreign resources and technology for geospatial mapping.

Department of Food and Public Distribution

Migrant beneficiaries will be empowered to get their entitled quota of food grains from any electronic point of sale (e-PoS) enabled fair price shops across the country. Mera Ration mobile app introduced to help users identify nearest fair price shop, check entitlement details and recent transactions. Ration cards made portable. Facility covers more than 750 million beneficiaries under National Food Security Act (NFSA), almost 94.3 percent of target population.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

Single step online Aadhaar validation process introduced for 18 services associated with driving license (DL), Registration Certificate (RC), transfer of ownership, international driving permit, hire-purchase, etc., eliminating the need for citizens to visit the Road Transport Offices (RTO) leading to hassle free services.

Registration Certificate now issued at dealer location itself. Vehicle registration can be done anywhere in the state (Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal) unlike the earlier process where it could only be done at respective RTOs.

Ministry of Education

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) user interface developed to enable learners and teachers across the country to access curricula of NCERT, CBSE, and SCERTs online. 185,000 pieces of e-content uploaded on portal (~24 billion hits since lockdown) showcases its increased usage. Training of teachers enabled online on DIKSHA with about 2.5 million teachers benefiting.

Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises

Samadhaan portal launched empowering MSMEs across the country to register and track grievances related to delayed payment and settlement of disputes.

CHAMPIONS portal launched for speedy redressal of grievances of MSMEs. Over 37,000 grievances redressed (by August 2021) with a reply rate of more than 99 percent.

Sampark portal launched to help connect job seekers (passed out trainees/ students of MSME Technology Centers) to recruiters. More than 473,000 job seekers and more than 6200 recruiters registered on the portal till date.

Department of Consumer Affairs
An IAS officer, at least four IPS officers including former Kerala DGP, top Malayalam actors, some of the biggest politicians, and other personalities from the state are among the 'guests' in the photography collection of Monson Mavunkal, seen seated on a throne they were told as belonged to Tipu Sultan.

But in reality, it was a chair made by a local carpenter in Kerala and had no connection whatsoever with the former ruler of Mysore.

Monson Mavunkal

This now 'infamous' throne is among the most famous collecting in a private museum run by Mavunkal who described himself as an antiquity collector.

Antiquates collection

The other items from his collection included the staff of Moses from the Bibles Old Testament, two of the 30 silver coins which Judas received for betraying Jesus, a jar that stored water that Jesus turned into wine and relics of Christian saints in Kerala and Italy, an earthen lamp made and used by Prophet Muhamad and many more.

Monson Mavunkal

But just like the throne, none of them was real or had any historic value as Mavunkal claimed.

Still, he managed to convince many including the who is who in Kerala about the authenticity of his collection and flaunted photos of them with his collection on his website and social media.

He also used these to defraud people into investing in his ventures, loaning huge amounts to him on the promise of high returns, buying 'antiquities for his collection, etc.

Arrest

But all these ended on September 26, when Mavunkal was arrested by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police in connection with several cheating cases.

BCCL

He had borrowed money from several people saying that a huge amount that ran into several thousand crores of rupees credited to his account in exchange for selling his antiquities is being withheld by the authorities for Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations and wanted some immediate cash to pay the fines.

Following his arrest on Sunday, a raid was conducted at this residence in Cherthala which also housed his so-called antiquities museum.

Who is Monson Mavunkal?

If one goes by his website, the 54-year-old is a Cosmetologist, actor, philanthropist, educationalist, motivational speaker, antiquities dealer, and much more.

Monson Mavunkal

But in reality, he is not even a school graduate, from a small town in the Alapuzha district, who came from a humble family. The man who claimed to have sold antiquities to the Sultan of Brunei and royal families in the Middle East did not even have a passport.

Locals who know Monson from his childhood still don't know what fortune he made and how, before he returned to his hometown like a king a few years ago.

Monson Mavunkal

All they know about him is that Monson had gone 'missing' from his hometown soon after his marriage and came back filthy rich and well connected a few years ago.

He also used to bring several VIPs to his palatial residence, a part of which was converted into a museum to house his 'precious' antiques.

A long list of guests

Among the people who Monson have photos with are former state police chief Loknath Behra, serving additional director general of police Manoj Abraham, State Congress president K Sudhakaran, former Chief Secretary Jiji Thompson, Prashant R Nair IAS, actors Mohanlal, Tovino Thomas, Srinivasan, Kerala ministers Roshi Augustine and Ahammed Devarkovil, Inspector General of Police Lakshman Gugulloth former Deputy Inspector General of Police S Surendran, and many more.

Monson Mavunkal

Following his arrest, most of them have distanced themselves from the fraudster saying that they were invited by Monson to visit his rare collection and that they were not involved in his activities. Congress leader K Sudhakaran said he had met Monson as a Cosmologist for treatment.

The fallout of the arrest

Following his arrest, many more have come forward claiming that they were also duped by Monson.

A rape survivor on Tuesday alleged he had threatened her to withdraw the case.

Speaking to TV channels, she claimed that Mavunkal had asked her to withdraw the rape case filed by her against his family friend, and if she did not, he will release her inappropriate pictures clicked by the friend.

Perhaps the most embarrassed from the whole episode is the Kerala Police.

Since his arrest and the photos of top cops with him going viral, it has also emerged that the Kerala Police knew about Monson's activities for some time and that even some top officials had tried to block the investigation against him.

Antiquities? not really

Following Monson's arrest, a man identified as Santhosh has told local media that most of the 'rare' antiquities in his possession including the shaft of Moses were sold by him and that it did not have any historic value as claimed.

According to Santhosh, most of the items that he had sold to Monson were hardly 50-60 years old, which he had specifically mentioned at the time of the sale. Santhosh alleged that Monson also owes him around Rs 2 crore for the items he had purchased and money he had borrowed.
Jasna Salim, a Muslim woman from Kerala has said that it was a dream come true to have her painting of the infant Krishna ritually presented at a Hindu temple.

The 28-year-old from Kozhikode on Sunday presented one of her Lord Krishna paintings before the deity at the Sree Krishna Swamy temple in Ulanadu in Pathanamthitta district.

BCCL

Though the devout Muslim woman had earlier presented two of her drawings at temples, this was the first time she was able to do it before the deity.

According to Jasna, it was the authorities from the Ulanadu that had approached her requesting a painting, which she readily obliged

She said that though there was a temple near her house, this was the first time she had stepped inside a Hindu shrine.

BCCL

Started painting Lord Krishna six years ago

Jasna who was born in a conservative Muslim family said when she was a child, she was called 'Kannan' (a name also refers to infant Krishna in Malayalam) by her loved ones.

But she started painting Lord Krishan pictures some six years ago that too by accident.

Jasna was pregnant with her second child when she suffered an injury after a fall and was bedridden.

While she was recuperating, she found a picture of Lord Krishan among the papers dumped in the room and felt like drawing one.

Jasna Salim

So she used her son's colour pencils to make her first Lord Krisha painting, which turned out well.

When she showed it to her husband Salim, he appreciated it but felt that her relatives, who are conservative Muslims would object to it and suggest that she destroy the painting.

However, Jasna didn't feel like destroying the painting and so the couple decided to gift it to a Hindu family living nearby.

The Hindu family which received the picture later told Jasna that after they got the painting, several good things happened to them.

This inspired Jasna, who has no formal training of any kind in painting to draw more.

Jasna Salim

While her artworks were widely appreciated and found many buyers, it did not go down well with some of her family members who felt that it was against their religion.

But her husband Salim and her immediate family stood by her.

As her Lord Krishan paintings became more popular, Jasna got the opportunity to present them in two temples.

Jasna Salim

Recently, someone who saw her painting on Facebook contacted Jasna requesting a Lord Krishan painting to be presented at the temple in Ulanadu.

The mother of two who is a devout Muslim said she had gone to the temple on Sunday offering her morning namaz, and presented the infant Krishan painting before the deity.

Despite some objections, she has faced, Jasna said she will continue to paint more Lord Krishan pictures and thanked her husband and family for their support.
The Arab world seems to be experiencing some hardcore changes, particularly when it comes to giving more power to the women. Geologist Najla Bouden has become the Prime Minister of Tunisia, creating history.

According to reports, countrys President Kais Saied asked her to form a government with limited executive clout.

AFP

On July 25, the President sacked the government of Hichem Mechichi, suspended parliament, lifted MPs' immunity and took over the judiciary.

The public opinion was divided over the Presidents decision as some of the Tunisians have supported his call, others opposed the move.

Presidents office published a video of him meeting Bouden in his office and charging her with presenting a cabinet, "in the coming hours or days.

All eyes are on the university lecturer from the city of Kairouan as she assumes office at a moment of crisis.

AFP

Political scientist Slaheddine Jourchi welcomed the nomination of a female premier but warned that Tunisia faces daunting economic and political challenges.

"When we look at the CV of this lady, who is a geologist without other specialisations or experience in sensitive roles, I don't know how well she will be able to tackle these enormous, complex issues," he told AFP.

The country has won international plaudits for its democratic transition but many Tunisians have seen little improvement in their lives and have become disillusioned with a political process they say is dysfunctional and corrupt.

With inputs from AFP.
Looks like Apple will face another fine in Brazil for not providing a charger with the new iPhone 13 series. When the iPhone 12 series was revealed, Brazil slapped a $1.9 million fine on Apple for not including a charger in the box. After that, Apple had to give chargers to anyone requesting it.

Brazil's Procon-SP regulator will probably do the same thing now. Under Brazilian law, $1.9 million is the maximum fine which may be levied. In addition, the fine cannot be imposed again on the same company within six months of the first one.

Unsplash

Another year, another fine for Apple

Looks like Apple will have to pay $1.9 million again this year for its iPhone 13 series. A local publication TechTudo reported the same while quoting Procon-SP's executive director Fernando Capez, who said that most costumers assume that they would receive a charger with a new phone.

Unsplash

The Apple website mentions that there would be no charger in the box for the new iPhone series. But Brazilian authorities are not convinced. They believe such information needs to be advertised more aggressively rather than being hidden in fineprint.

Also read: iPhone 13 Face ID Won't Work If Broken Screen Is Repaired By Non-Apple Support

Apple, on the other hand, has claimed on multiple occasions that its decision to not ship iPhones with chargers is based on how the company perceives environmental damage. The move is also based on the assumption that majority of current iPhone buyers have previously owned an iPhone.

Unsplash

Also read: Apple Will Monitor Your Mental Health From iPhone, Apple Watch Data In Future



Apple's rival, Samsung too almost faced the same fate for not providing chargers, something that was changed after the company agreed to provide free chargers with its Galaxy S21 line-up.

Will Apple receive a free pass like Samsung this time? Or will the company have to pay a hefty fine again? Keep reading Indiatimes.com to find out, and check out more science and technology stories of your interest.
China's crackdown on technology companies continues to intensify. In a statement seen by Reuters on Wednesday, China's cyberspace agency wants to bring algorithms in line with socialism. To this end, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is working on new rules to govern algorithms.

Algorithms are used by technology companies to expand their services and to attract more users on any platform. These are the same algorithms that deliver those eerily time-appropriate advertisements on Instagram.

Reuters

China's socialist dream

China also wants to make algorithms more socialist. Is imposing socialism on economically capitalist companies ever going to work? Only time will tell.

So far, China has managed to expand controls it exercises not only in public life but also in people's personal lives. Kids in China can play online games only for three hours a week during term time. Last time we checked, sweeping regulation of technology did not constitute the basis of socialism. Instead, socialist technology would have humans at the centre -- with focus on both the present and the future, China claims.

Also read: Xiaomi Phones Allegedly Censoring Anti-China Content, Activating Remote Censorship

Reuters

This idea may be manipulated to suit China's goals, a country with a recorded history of human rights transgressions. In fact, the country has been accused of using sophisticated recognition technology to profile Uighur Muslims, many of whom are detained in Hitler-style concentration camps, according to several reports.



China now wants to promote homegrown models of algorithm, with focus on "research" of "algorithm innovations". The CAC will set up evaluation teams to ensure that all digital algorithms are "fair and transparent", according to reports.

The crackdown on algorithms

Most apps today use algorithms to tailor the experience to each user, including Chinese giants like Alibaba and TikTok's Chinese version Douyin.

Earlier, Chinese regulators hit out at companies that use algorithms to make users spend more money. CAC added that users should have the option to switch off algorithm services, which would actually be a great precedent for tech companies globally.

Reuters

Also read: Internet Freedom Declining Globally: China Is Worst, India Not Far Behind



China's nemesis US too is cracking down on algorithms, but for cosmetically different reasons. The US is currently plagued by misinformation on social media platforms, which was blamed for Capitol riots as well.

While China may be attempting to separate itself from Western capitalist economies like the United States, such sweeping regulations make these modern rivals more alike than different.

For more compelling content from the world of science and technology, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
Of all the antique pieces, it is an iron chair that has been making all the headlines in Maharashtra. A chair with a Marathi name and village written on it was spotted outside a restaurant in Manchester, England.

A video of this chair has since had gone viral on social media, with many wondering how it got there. The chair would have had to travel about 7,500 kilometres from from Savlaj village in Maharashtra's Sangli district to the Altrincham area of Manchester.

"Balu Lokhande in Altrincham, Manchester. Isn't that weird," the video is captioned.

Altrincham , Manchester che        pic.twitter.com/es5Jhe1sP6  Sunandan Lele (@sunandanlele) September 23, 2021

But how did the chair find its way from a village in Maharashtra to Manchester?

The chair was owned by Balu Lokhande, a mandap decorator from Savlaj. He had bought the chair when he started his decoration business. Lokhande had made the purchase from Hubli in Karnataka, News18 reported.

As the demand for iron chairs reduced over time, customers began to ask for plastic chairs. The chair weighing 13 kilograms also began to feel heavy to handle.

Around 15 years ago, Lokhande decided to sell the chairs for scrap at Rs 10 per kilogram. The chairs were sold to Mumbai and later bought by a foreign businessman as antique chairs.



The video has gone viral on Twitter, garnering more than 29,000 views. People were amazed to see the chair from Maharashtrian village in Manchester.

I thought this kind if Indian antique items were only in British museum's. Seems it's everywhere  manishg4 (@manishg4) September 24, 2021

I thought this kind if Indian antique items were only in British museum's. Seems it's everywhere  manishg4 (@manishg4) September 24, 2021

Some found humour in the discovery.

Seriously they  stole this too   hana (@nlast099) September 23, 2021

That chair must be of those articles britishers took from India.   Sudhir Patil (@sudhirp7) September 23, 2021

As per News18, Balu Lokhande had also seen the viral video, and had been contacted by Sunandan Lele. "I told Lele, too, that it was our chair." Even today they (Lokhandes company) still own some similar chairs.

The grapes of our Savlaj already reached overseas, but who knows how London Saheb fell in love with our chair," Balu Lokhande told News18.
Everybody wants to get ahead in life. While some take the road of hard work and determination, many others want to get all the success in their lives through very minimal work or shortcuts.

Let's just take the example of passing an examination. Sure, one can't pass or achieve the role they want without studying for these but some go through great lengths to pass these exams without really working hard for them.

And no, we're not talking about some school level minute exams. People are so gutsy that they find different ways and tricks to pass a life-altering national exam as well.

So, here are a few instances when students were not only cheating but were also caught for it :

1. Students Wore Slippers That Had A Bluetooth Device In It

Five people were arrested in Rajasthan for allegedly selling Bluetooth device-fitted 'chappals' worth Rs 6 lakh to candidates appearing in the teachers' recruitment exam, REET (Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers). The candidate had a device inside his ear and someone from outside the exam hall was helping him cheat.



Bluetooth chappal. New way to cheat. Indian jugaad at its best. pic.twitter.com/6bQIMkieUX  Da_Lying_Lama (@GoofyOlives) September 26, 2021



2. Mics Hidden In N95 Masks To Cheat

Medical and veterinary college students were caught in Sikar, Rajasthan after they were found cheating at a NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Tests). Sikar police seized N95 masks stitched with mics connected with wireless earpieces from an 11-member gang. According to TOI, the small device fitted into the mask has a nano sim and a battery and worked as a receptor. The device can attend an incoming call with the press of a button.

TOI

3. A Gang Was Caught Cheating By Using Body Language

A four-member gang had put its men in charge as supervisors, lab assistants etc at an Air Force exam in Chandigarh. The person stationed at the centre would use body language to give the right answers to the examinee for objective type questions. An official told TOI, "if the person put a hand in one pocket, the option was A, if both hands were in the front pockets, it meant option B, if one hand was in the back pocket, it meant option C and if both hands were under the underarms, it meant option D. The stand at ease posture meant turn to the next question."



Unsplash

4. A Woman And Her Brother-In-Law Were Caught Cheating With A Mic Which Was Hidden In A Locket

The girl candidate was found writing answers that were being communicated to her through a high-tech gadget, by her brother-in-law sitting outside the exam centre in UP's, Rae Bareli. Apparently, the girl had a locket made of wood, in which a microphone was hidden, while audio ear pins were attached to the face mask cord.



Unsplash





5. Impostor Caught Taking NEET Exams On Behalf Of Other Students

Police busted a 'Munna Bhai' cheating racket in which they arrested nine students including six medical students. These students charge a hefty amount to take the exam on behalf of weak candidates from well-off families. According to a report, they charge 20 to 25 lakh from each student to take exams on their behalf.



Asian Age

6. Chennai IPS Officer Caught Cheating With Help Of Wife & Bluetooth Camera

A Tamil Nadu-cadre trainee IPS officer was arrested for using a cellphone, a Bluetooth-enabled miniature camera in a shirt button and wireless earpieces for cheating in the Union Public Service Commission (Main) Examination. His wife was also arrested from Hyderabad for assisting him in cheating and dictating the answers.



Facebook

7. Group Of Men Climbed School Walls To Help Students Cheat

A group of men were seen climbing the boundary walls of a school to surreptitiously pass on chits to students writing their Class X exam in Maharashtra. The incident happened in Yavatmals Mahagaon. Apparently, the boundary wall of the school was under construction which was why it came about.



#WATCH Maharashtra: People seen climbing the boundary walls and providing chits to students, writing their class X Matriculation examination at Zila Parishad School, Mahagaon in Yavatmal district. (03.03.2020) pic.twitter.com/IqwC4tdhLQ  ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2020

8. Students Using Microphone & Bluetooth Devices Caught By Police

Eleven examinees from Haryana were arrested for allegedly using electronic gadgets to cheat during an online examination of the Staff Selection Commission in Powai, Mumbai. Several microphones, SIM cards and Bluetooth collar devices were retrieved by the authorities.

The accused had Bluetooth collar devices and microphones attached to their bodies. SIM cards were inserted into these devices and they had an earphone through which they heard the answers as told by someone from the other side. These devices were wrapped in carbon paper, due to which, they werent detected during the security check while entering the centre, an officer told Indian Express.



DNA

9. Student Cheated In Exam By Using A Digital Receiver And Transmitter Fitted In A Car Outside

As per the reports, the authorities found high-tech equipment like transmitters and receivers when they searched the car parked outside an examination centre. When they searched all the students taking the exams at the centre, they caught one student with the receiver and other digital equipment.



DNA

10. Gang Impersonating And Using Spycam For Cheating During Exams Caught By Cops

A gang from Nagpur involved in helping people pass examinations for various government posts using fraudulent means were caught and arrested by the local police. According to TOI, the gang used spy cameras to send photos of the exam paper outside the centre, from where an accomplice would supply answers over Bluetooth devices.



Scroll

11. Family Members Climbed The Walls Of Examination Centres To Pass On The Answers To Students

During Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), parents and friends were seen helping the students by risking their own lives as they scaled a high-rise examination centre building to pass on cheat sheets through the windows.



Family members help students cheat during Bihar Board exams in Hajipur, Bihar. pic.twitter.com/T40NcD1gU3  ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2015

12. Over 900 Students Were Caught With Same Questions, Same Answers & Same Mistakes

Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) officials were in shock when they cracked a mass copying incident that involved as many as 959 students of class XII general stream students. The students wrote the same answers for the same questions, in the same sequence and even committed the same mistakes.



PTI

So, what do you think about these instances?




A volunteer distributes langar to farmers during a protest during the nationwide 'Bharat Bandh' called by Samyukt Kisan Morcha to mark the first anniversary of the enactment of three farm laws, at Bahadurgarh railway station, in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, Sept. 27. (ANI photo)
Climate change has returned to the top of the list of insurers biggest concerns as the vaccine roll-out and gradual lifting of health restrictions see pandemic fears ease in many countries.

Global warming was ranked as the biggest risk to society over the next five to 10 years in a report released Tuesday by French insurance giant AXA SA. While that also topped the ranking in 2018 and 2019, it was outstripped by diseases and pandemics last year as the virus spread across the globe.

Climate change is back at the top of the agenda, AXA Chief Executive Officer Thomas Buberl said in a statement. This is good news, since last year we feared that the explosion of health risks may overshadow the climate emergency.

Insurers are being increasingly challenged by global warming as extreme weather events wrought by climate change are expected to keep rising. Just under a fifth of the 3,500 insurance professionals polled across 60 countries expressed faith in public authorities to mitigate the crisis.

Axa, which chairs the Net Zero Insurance alliance, is trying to push the industrys largest players to exclude polluting companies and focus on those that have clear and credible transition plans, both in their investment and underwriting universes. The latter policy is even more powerful, Buberl said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

On the investment side, we are one of many investors, and if you want to find funds for a coal factory today, you will, Buberl said in the interview. But if a company cant get insurance to protect against risk, then it wont be able to secure investors, he said.

Cyber risks on the rise

The survey also found that cyber risks, which ranked second on the list, was a fast-growing fear for insurers. This year, some 61% of respondents put cybersecurity among their top five concerns, up from 54% in 2018. The pandemic dropped to third place.

The pandemic and the lockdown have certainly accentuated the use of digital tools, and we insurers have seen that it has also intensified cyber risks and attacks, AXA Deputy CEO Frederic de Courtois said at a press briefing with reporters.

With assistance from Jonathan Ferro, Tom Keene and Lisa Abramowicz.

Photograph: A polar bear walks on the frozen tundra on the edge of Hudson Bay on November 2007, outside Churchill, Mantioba, Canada. Photo credit: Paul J.Richards/AFP/Getty Images.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics COVID-19 Carriers Climate Change
Italian insurer Cattolica said on Tuesday that its board considers that bigger rival Generalis takeover offer for it is at a fair price.

Generali, Italys largest insurer, earlier in May said it would launch a 1.17 billion euro [$1.4 billion] buyout offer for smaller rival Cattolica to further strengthen its domestic market leadership.

Generali, which already holds a stake of almost 24% in Cattolica, is offering investors 6.75 euros ($7.91) a share to take full control.

Shares in Cattolica have consistently traded above the bids price. On Tuesday Cattolica shares were down 0.14% at 7.15 euros.

Generali first moved on Cattolica last year, coming to its rescue with a 300 million euro [$351.4 million] investment after supervisors told the Verona-based insurer to bolster its finances.

Following the move Generali became the single largest investor in Cattolica, relegating Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway to second place when one excludes a 12.3% holding held by Cattolica itself.

The offer will run from Oct. 4 to Oct. 29.

($1 = 0.8537 euros)

(Reporting by Andrea Mandala; additional reporting by Nishit Jogi in Bengaluru; editing by Valentina Za, Jane Merriman and Sandra Maler)

Topics Carriers Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
This edition of International People Moves covers appointments at Amwins Global Risks, AXA XL and Randall & Quilter.

A summary of these new hires follows.

Amwins Global Risks Launches Underwriting Portfolio Management Team

Amwins Global Risks, the international arm of global specialty insurance broker Amwins and one of the largest independent wholesale brokers in London, announced the launch of its underwriting portfolio management unit.

John Andrews and Tom Wallace will lead the new team focused on aggregating and creating exclusive capacity across the organisation.

Andrews joins the team following an already distinguished career with Dale Underwriting, Arch Insurance Europe, Pioneer and AXIS.

Wallace joins from Adeptive LLP, an MGU start-up specialty insurance platform based in London. He previously held leadership and underwriting roles with WCNC Insurance Services and Tokio Marine Kiln.

We are very excited to launch this unit within Worldwide Specialty. I have known John and Tom for a large part of my career and am confident that with their knowledge and experience we have the leadership in place to create and build out our internal Underwriting Portfolio Management team. John and Tom will collate business from across the entire group, accessing and obtaining exclusive capacity for our clients and coverholders, commented Mark Cody, chief executive officer of Worldwide Specialty, a division of Amwins Global Risks.

The role of a London broker must be to find solutions and be able to grow at the same rate as our clients, said Cody. Having a dedicated internal team with an underwriting background demonstrates a commitment to building out this offering.

***

AXA XL Promotes MacFarlane to Head of Climate in Newly Created Role

AXA XL announced the appointment of Andy MacFarlane as head of Climate. In this newly created role, MacFarlane will be responsible for developing a single, global climate strategy for AXA XL, ensuring the divisions climate-related efforts are aligned towards furthering AXAs climate leadership position.

MacFarlane started his career at Equitas in London in 2001 before joining the Catlin Group in 2003. After holding various actuarial roles in London and Bermuda, he was promoted in 2018 to head of Pricing & Analytics for London & Bermuda for AXA XL Reinsurance.

MacFarlane has worked extensively on initiatives and research projects looking at creating resiliency to climate change throughout the world. A key focus has been the need to close the protection gap  the gap between economic and insured losses  particularly in developing economies where typically more than 90% of the risk is uninsured. The public sector is a key partner in helping to address the protection gap and MacFarlane also leads the Public Sector Practice group at AXA XL.

AXAs climate strategy demonstrates our clear commitment to climate and biodiversity and includes actions such as divesting from certain carbon-intensive industries alongside launching and chairing the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) to accelerate the transition to net-zero emissions economies, said Scott Gunter, CEO of AXA XL.

Andys expertise and knowledge of our business will allow us to further advance our understanding and response to climate change by ensuring we continue to understand how the climate is evolving and how this impacts our overall strategy. Andy is charged with embedding our climate strategy across AXA XL from underwriting to claims, to risk and operations ensuring that we meet our climate leadership ambitions, he added.

***

Randall & Quilter Appoints Pinkes as CEO for Legacy Insurance

Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd., the non-life global specialty insurance company that focuses on program management and legacy insurance businesses, announced the appointment of Andrew (Andy) Pinkes as global CEO of R&Qs Legacy Insurance business.

The appointment follows the recent announcement of the launch of Gibson Re, a Bermuda-domiciled sidecar with $300 million of capital which will allow R&Q to support $2 billion of legacy insurance reserves.

Pinkes will report into William Spiegel, executive chairman, and will have the Legacy Insurance M&A and Operations teams reporting to him. He will join R&Q on Oct. 1, 2021.

Pinkes has over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, with an extensive focus managing legacy and run-off portfolios. He has served as executive vice president, Worldwide P/C Claims and Property/Casualty Runoff for CNA, global head of Claims for XL Group, head of Claims and P/C run-off for the Hartford and also held senior executive legal and claims roles at Travelers.

He is a board director and adviser for a number of insurance, insurance related and technology businesses. Pinkes has been a senior adviser to the insurance practice of McKinsey & Co. and a member of the board of advisers for the RAND Institute for Civil Justice.

Im delighted to announce Andys appointment as our new global CEO of Legacy Insurance. In addition to proven expertise in managing legacy insurance books, Andy also brings strong experience using data and analytics to improve the management of claims, which is an important pillar of our strategy for R&Q, commented Spiegel.

We recently announced the milestone launch of Gibson Re, which will support our ambitions to build further scale in legacy insurance while transitioning it into a recurring fee-based business, he added.

Topics Underwriting AXA XL
BMS Re, the independent specialist reinsurance broker, announced the launch of BMS Brasil Corretora de Resseguros Ltda (BMS Re Brazil), headquartered in Sao Paulo.

Confirmation of BMS Re Brazils license was published in the Official Gazette on Sept. 27.

Jose Leao, CEO of BMS Re in Brazil, and Judi Newsam, president, will lead the new operations, which will report to Aidan Pope, CEO and executive chairman of BMS in Latin America & the Caribbean, in Miami.

BMS Re Brazil will focus on facultative and treaty reinsurance services, supported by the groups hubs in Miami, London and elsewhere.

Newsam has extensive experience in the Latin American reinsurance market, having previously been a managing director and country head for Guy Carpenters Brazil operation, where she led the day-to-day running of the firms two offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Before that, she worked for Benfield in Brazil as an office head. She began her career working in the London market.

Leao has worked in the reinsurance industry for over a decade and joins BMS Re from his most recent role as a vice president at Guy Carpenter Brazil. Prior to this he worked as an underwriter at IRB Re. He specializes in supporting local market development through the use of his global expertise and technical capabilities.

Establishing BMS Re in Brazil is a great step forward for BMS and for BMS Re. It is a key element of our growth strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean, aligning perfectly with BMS hub and spoke model for international growth, commented Nick Cook, CEO of BMS.

Our initiative has already been met with a favourable response from Brazilian carriers, who are keen to see a strong independent alternative to the current players, Cook added. I have every confidence that our new team in Brazil, supported by colleagues in Miami and London, will continue going from strength to strength. We have a hiring plan that will be progressively rolled out this year and into 2022.

For 40 years, London-based BMS Group has provided comprehensive, customized solutions in the fields of wholesale, reinsurance and direct insurance, and capital advisory.

Source: BMS Group

Topics Agencies
MS Amlin AG (MS AAG), the global reinsurer, announced its entry into the agriculture reinsurance market with the hire of Rinat Bektleuov as product group lead underwriter. Bektleuov joined the business in August 2021 and reports directly to Charles Goldie, chief underwriting officer (CUO).

The agriculture reinsurance offering will be available globally and coverage includes five core products: crop insurance, livestock insurance, aquacultural insurance, forestry and weather index products. The launch comes as part of MS AAGs wider global diversification strategy, with Bektleuov leading the new offering.

Based in Zurich, Bektleuov joins from PartnerRe, where he specialized in agriculture re/insurance over the course of almost 20 years at the business. For the past five years, he held the position of head Agriculture Worldwide and was responsible for developing and leading agriculture business lines, managing multiple global teams.

The launch of the new agriculture reinsurance offering is an important milestone for MS AAG which demonstrates progress in, and commitment to, our diversification and growth strategy, commented Goldie.

Operating alongside our sister company, MS Amlin Underwriting Limited, I am confident that our entry to the agriculture market will provide clients with excellent additional reinsurance solutions, and further strengthen MS Amlins overall agriculture portfolio, Goldie added.

Domiciled in Switzerland with underwriting offices in the U.S. and Bermuda, MS Amlin AG offers a wide spectrum of reinsurance products including property, casualty, engineering, motor, marine, and special risks and supports clients requiring an intimate knowledge of their local markets through a multinational and multilingual team.

Source: MS Amlin

Topics Talent Agribusiness Reinsurance Market New Markets Mississippi
The new electronic automobile insurance verification system in Illinois has identified more than 2,700 vehicles that did not have the state mandated minimum insurance coverage as of September 2021, a national property/casualty insurer trade association reported.

The Illinois electronic insurance verification system is off to a good start, Alex Hageli, director, personal auto, electronic issues, specialty lines, and counsel for the Policy, Research & International Division for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) said in a media release. Hageli noted that uninsured motorists have long been a problem in Illinois and the new system could, by streamlining the insurance verification process, have an impact on costs for motorists.

In the past, Illinois drivers could evade coverage requirements by purchasing insurance to register or renew their vehicle registration, then quickly cancel the policy for a full refund. Now it will be much tougher to go without insurance in Illinois, according to APCIA.

Under the old system, the Secretary of State (SOS) would mail postcards to a group of randomly selected registered vehicle owners asking for insurance policy information, this was a manual and paper intensive process. The SOS office would then manually confirm coverage with the insurer. The SOS had the power to suspend the vehicles registration and impose a fine on drivers who failed to return the card or did not provide policy information. Once the driver provided the necessary information the suspension would be lifted.

The new electronic system eliminates the paper post card and electronically conducts the insurance check without the driver being required to act. It also enables the SOS office to check more registrations in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. When there is not a match between the registered vehicle and insurance, the SOS office will notify the driver and outline the necessary steps to verify there is insurance on the vehicle. To help ensure drivers have proper insurance, the system will verify coverage twice a year.

In 2019, it was estimated that nearly 12% of Illinois drivers did not have insurance. According to the Insurance research Council (IRC), insured drivers paid, on average, approximately $78 per insured vehicle in 2016 for insurance protection against at-fault drivers who are uninsured or who have inadequate insurance.

Source: APCIA

Topics Illinois
U.S. senators from Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have introduced legislation to delay the roll out of new risk rating methodology from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) they say would result in flood insurance rate hikes for residents in their states.

According to a message released by Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-LA), he has joined Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and John Cornyn (R-TX) in introducing the NFIP Risk Rating 2.0 Delay Act of 2021. The legislation would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which manages the NFIP, to delay that agencys Risk Rating 2.0 rollout until Sept. 30, 2022.

According to Sen. Cassidys press release, the delay would prevent premium hikes from going into effect for NFIP policyholders, and would give lawmakers time to develop meaningful, sustainable reforms to the flood insurance program.

These arent rich people Risk Rating 2.0 will hurt, Sen. Cassidy said in a statement. These are middle-income and working families who depend on the NFIP to recover after disaster. This bill does what the administration refuses to do: delay Risk Rating 2.0.

Congress never passed a bill requiring that FEMA implement Risk Rating 2.0. It was a decision made by FEMA which gives President Biden and his administration the ability to stop it from going into effect without action from Congress, Cassidys press release states.

Cassidy and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), along with a bipartisan group of colleagues, recently urged FEMA to delay Risk Rating 2.0, referring to the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida, which ravaged parts of Louisiana and New Jersey. The deaths of at least 89 individuals, including 29 in Louisiana, have been attributed to Ida, which caused tens of billions of dollars in property damage.

It Doesnt Take a Hurricane to Cause a Flood

According to the senators, Risk Rating 2.0 will leave flood providers overburdened with the added responsibility of learning a new, unfamiliar and untested rating system.

The rollout of Risk Rating 2.0 is slated to begin Oct. 1. Its the first time FEMA has revised its pricing methodology for flood risks since the 1970s. Traditionally, rates for the NFIP have been predominantly based on relatively static measurements, emphasizing a propertys elevation within a zone on a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), FEMA said in a message on its website.

Risk Rating 2.0 will rollout in two phases. In phase one, beginning on Oct. 1, 2021, new policies, as well as policies eligible for renewal on that date, will be subject to the new rating methodology, FEMA said. In phase two, policies renewing on or after April 1, 2022, will be issued under Risk Rating 2.0 methodology.

FEMAs new rating methodology will increase flood insurance rates for 3.8 million homeowners, according to an analysis by ValuePenguin.com. Not every NFIP policyholder will see a rate increase, however. Some may experience no change in rates while the cost for flood insurance will decrease for some 1.2 million homeowners, ValuePenguin reported.

The current authorization for the NFIP expires on Sept. 30, unless Congress acts to extend it. The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, along with a large coalition of other insurance, lending and housing industry groups, urged Congress to renew the NFIPs authorization. Congress has been unable to pass reform legislation or a long-term extension for the NFIP in recent years but has instead passed about a dozen short-term extensions, according to NAMIC. Last year, President Donald Trump signed a one-year extension passed by Congress right before the NFIP expired.

In mid-September, NAMIC, along with 18 other organizations, including the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, National Association of REALTORS and the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, sent a letter to congressional leadership calling for an extension of the program.

Cassidy and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) co-sponsored the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Extension Act of 2021 to extend the program for one year, to Sept. 30, 2022. Cassidy also joined Sen. Rubio in introducing the NFIP Extension Act of 2021, which would reauthorize the NFIP through Dec. 3, 2021.

Current NFIP limits for residential coverages are $250,000 for the structure and $100,000 for the contents. For commercial structures, limits are $500,000 for the building and $500,000 for the content.

Where Will the Largest Proportion of Homeowners Pay More for Flood Insurance? State Total # of flood insurance policies in effect Percentage of homeowners who will pay more for flood insurance Percentage of homeowners who will pay less for flood insurance Percentage of homeowners whose flood insurance premiums will increase more than $240 a year Hawaii 61,400 87% 13% 4% Texas 768,600 86% 14% 3% Mississippi 61,300 84% 16% 4% West Virginia 13,300 83% 17% 8% Florida 1,727,900 80% 20% 4% Louisiana 495,900 80% 20% 3% New Jersey 217,200 79% 21% 5% Alabama 52,700 79% 21% 3% Nevada 10,600 79% 21% 3% Georgia 82,000 76% 24% 2% Arizona 29,300 75% 25% 2% South Carolina 208,600 74% 26% 3% North Carolina 139,800 74% 26% 3% California 215,000 73% 27% 4% Idaho 5,600 73% 28% 3% Tennessee 27,500 72% 28% 5% Kentucky 19,400 71% 28% 6% Oklahoma 13,000 71% 30% 4% Minnesota 10,500 71% 29% 3% Pennsylvania 51,600 70% 30% 7% Oregon 24,900 70% 30% 4% Missouri 19,700 70% 30% 7% South Dakota 3,700 70% 31% 4% New York 171,100 68% 32% 7% Vermont 3,300 68% 33% 8% Washington 32,500 67% 33% 4% Arkansas 14,400 67% 33% 4% Maine 7,700 67% 34% 9% Wyoming 1,700 67% 33% 3% New Hampshire 7,700 66% 35% 7% New Mexico 11,600 64% 35% 2% Connecticut 35,000 63% 36% 9% Iowa 12,600 63% 37% 6% Montana 4,300 63% 38% 2% Delaware 26,100 62% 38% 2% North Dakota 13,200 62% 38% 1% Kansas 9,600 62% 38% 3% Massachusetts 58,500 61% 39% 6% Illinois 38,000 58% 41% 4% Colorado 20,000 57% 43% 4% Nebraska 9,100 57% 44% 7% Wisconsin 12,900 56% 44% 2% Virginia 104,800 55% 45% 2% Ohio 29,000 55% 45% 4% Indiana 20,100 54% 46% 3% Rhode Island 12,000 54% 46% 3% Michigan 20,500 46% 54% 1% Utah 3,800 46% 53% 1% Maryland 65,000 39% 61% 1% District of Columbia 2,400 27% 72% 1% Alaska 2,300 14% 84% 1%

Source: ValuePenguin

Topics Flood
Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes after its equipment sparked a Northern California wildfire that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes last year, prosecutors said.

It is the latest legal action against the nations largest utility, which pleaded guilty last year to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a 2018 blaze ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid that nearly destroyed the town of Paradise and became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.

Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett announced the 31 charges, including 11 felonies, against PG&E, saying it failed to perform its legal duties and that its failure was reckless and criminally negligent, and it resulted in the death of four people.

If the utility is convicted of involuntary manslaughter, the punishment would be a fine for each person killed in the Zogg Fire last year near the city of Redding. A corporation cant go to jail, so were talking fines, fees, the ability for the court to order remedial and corrective measures, Bridgett said.

One of our primary functions here is to hold them responsible and let the surviving families know that their loved one did not die in vain, she added.

PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said failing to prevent the fire was not a crime.

This was a tragedy, four people died. And my coworkers are working so hard to prevent fires and the catastrophic losses that come with them. They have dedicated their careers to it, criminalizing their judgment is not right, Poppe said in a statement.

The wind-whipped Zogg Fire began on Sept. 27, 2020, and raged through rugged terrain and small communities west of Redding, killing four people, burning about 200 homes and blackening about 87 square miles (225 square kilometers) of land. Three of the victims died as they tried to outrun the blaze and were found inside or near their vehicles. A fourth victim died at a hospital.

In March, state fire investigators concluded that the blaze was sparked by a gray pine tree that fell onto a PG&E distribution line. Shasta and Tehama counties have sued the utility alleging negligence, saying PG&E had failed to remove the tree even though it had been marked for removal two years earlier. The utility says the tree was subsequently cleared to stay.

The district attorney determined that the company was criminally liable for the fire. The charges Friday include enhancements for injury to a 29-year-old firefighter who was hit by a falling tree that fractured his spine, paralyzing him from the chest down. They also include felony arson counts linked to several fires started by the utilitys equipment in Shasta County over the last year, Bridgett said.

PG&E, which has an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 after its aging equipment was blamed for a series of fires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed 10,000 homes in Paradise and neighboring communities.

Company officials have acknowledged that PG&E hasnt lived up to expectations in the past but said changes in leadership and elsewhere ensure its on the right track and will do better. They have listed a wide range of improvements that include using more advanced technology to avoid setting wildfires and help detect them quicker.

PG&E also remains on criminal probation for a 2010 pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Bruno that killed eight people, giving a federal judge oversight of the company. The judge and California power regulators have rebuked PG&E for breaking promises to reduce the dangers posed by trees near its power lines.

The company has acknowledged that its equipment may have played a role in sparking this summers Dixie Fire, which has burned nearly 1 million acres and is now the second-largest wildfire in state history.

PG&E emerged from bankruptcy last summer and negotiated a $13.5 billion settlement with some wildfire victims. But it still faces both civil and criminal actions, including charges from the Sonoma County district attorneys office over the 2019 Kincade Fire that forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate.

In the meantime, most of the roughly 70,000 victims who have filed claims for the devastation caused by PG&Es past misdeeds still are awaiting payment from a trust created during the bankruptcy. The trust, which is run independently of PG&E, is facing a nearly $2 billion shortfall because half its funding came in company stock.

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Topics Catastrophe California Natural Disasters Abuse Molestation Wildfire
A federal jury has awarded two men who live south of Tacoma, Wash., a total of $3.26 million for injuries suffered when they were shot by one of the town of Roys two police officers during a drunken joy ride in a 2019 snowstorm.

The verdict is one of the largest reached in the Western District of Washington involving a nonfatal police shooting, The Seattle Times reported.

The jury found Officer Chris Johnson used excessive force when he fired four rounds into the cab of a small four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle, striking driver David Rice in the groin and shoulder. Passenger Seth Donahue was hit in the wrist by a bullet.

The verdict, which came after a 13-day trial in federal court in Tacoma, awarded $2,208,000 to Rice and $1,049,000 to Donahue.

Johnson claimed he was struck by the vehicle after he exited his police car and tried to stop it following a pursuit. The plaintiffs claim they didnt know they were being chased and that Johnson ambushed them at an intersection.

Expert testimony and surveillance video from a nearby business introduced at trial showed the officer did not have emergency lights on and that he shined a spotlight into the interior of the Polaris RZR, which Rice said blinded him, before firing.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Washington Law Enforcement
Greyhound Lines Inc. will pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit over the bus lines practice of allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to board its buses in Washington state to conduct warrantless immigration sweeps, the state attorney general said Monday.

The bus company failed to warn customers of the sweeps, misrepresented its role in allowing the sweeps to occur and subjected its passengers to discrimination based on skin color or national origin, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said.

The money will provide restitution to passengers who were detained, arrested or deported after immigration agents boarded buses at the Spokane Intermodal Center. The amount each person receives will depend on the number of claims and the severity of harm suffered because of Greyhounds conduct, Ferguson said.

Greyhound has an obligation to its customers, an obligation it cannot set aside so immigration agents can go on fishing expeditions aboard its buses, Ferguson said in a press release.

Dallas-based Greyhound issued a brief statement, saying it was pleased with the settlement.

By agreeing to the consent decree, we will more extensively communicate to our customers the policies and procedures we already have in place to serve the citizens of Washington state, the bus company said.

The settlement was filed in Spokane County Superior Court on Monday, the day a trial was set to begin.

My office first insisted that Greyhound make these corporate reforms in 2019, Ferguson said. If Greyhound had simply accepted our reasonable demand, they would have avoided a lawsuit.

Under the settlement, Greyhound also is required to:

Create a corporate policy that denies immigration agents permission to board its buses in Washington state without warrants or reasonable suspicion.

Issue a public statement, in English and Spanish, clarifying that Greyhound does not consent to immigration agents boarding its buses without a warrant or reasonable suspicion.

Place stickers on or near the front door of its buses stating that it does not consent to immigration agents boarding its buses without a warrant or reasonable suspicion.

The lawsuit was filed last year, alleging that Greyhound allowed the sweeps aboard its buses since at least 2013. The company publicly acknowledged the practice in 2018.

During the sweeps, Hispanic people and other passengers of color were subjected to invasive questioning by armed federal agents and were often required to get off the bus, Ferguson said. Immigration agents sometimes detained or arrested passengers, he said.

For years, Greyhound contended it was legally required to allow Border Patrol agents to board its buses. But a memo last year from then-U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost confirmed Fergusons contention that agents can only perform warrantless immigration sweeps aboard buses with the consent of the companys owner or employees.

In late April, a Libyan-born comedian received a $35,000 settlement from the federal government after he filed a lawsuit contending Border Patrol agents in Spokane in 2019 wrongfully detained and interrogated him about his immigration status.

Mohanad Elshieky was traveling from a gig in Pullman, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, when he was briefly detained in Spokane. He had been granted asylum and was legally living in the United States.

According to the Northwest Immigration Rights Project, which represented Elshieky, federal agents boarded the bus and walked around before they asked Elshieky and a few others to step off the bus. They interrogated Elshieky for about 20 minutes, calling his papers fake and him illegal but eventually let him go.

Andres Sosa Segura, who sued separately over a similar experience at the Spokane Intermodal Center in 2017, also will be awarded $35,000, the advocacy group said.

The hours I spent detained for no reason were terrifying, and all I wanted was to be with my family, Sosa Segura said in an April news release from the group announcing the settlements. I hope that this case sends a message that CBP agents need to respect the rights of people like me.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Washington
Lately, when people say wildfire, California is probably the first state that comes to mind.

But a new report out should concern people living in a few other Western states that arent often mentioned when the wildfire peril is considered.

Wyoming and Idaho top the list for disproportionate economic risk in terms of housing stock at risk for wildfire, according to report out on Wednesday from catastrophe modeling firm CoreLogic.

In states like Wyoming and Idaho, a larger portion of the population is displaced at a single time, meaning recovery times are elongated, fewer local workers are available, and there are fewer temporary housing options available to outside workers due to local populace demand, according to the report.

The report uses as an example the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which impacted more than 14,000 homes. A Camp Fire-type event in Idaho could burn 1,709 homes, but because those 1,709 properties make up a much larger fraction of the housing stock than California, the economic impact is worse and the cut is deeper, resulting in a much longer recovery, the report states.

The bottom-line is the cost to rebuild in those states will be far higher in the case of extreme loss.

Having Wyoming and Idaho top the list for disproportionate economic wasnt what authors of the report expected.

It was a surprise, said Tom Larsen, senior director for content strategy for catastrophe modeler CoreLogic.

The two states werent considered high areas of frequency, they arent as populated as other states, like California, which was expected to take front-and-center in the firms latest wildfire report.

The loss levels that were looking at here is an extreme loss, Larsen said. We didnt come into this thinking weve got Wyoming and Idaho in the spotlight.

The report breaks down the percent of housing stock at risk of wildfire in Western states, listing .10% of Californias housing stock at risk. Washington (.02%), Oregon (.04%), and Colorado (.05%) are other states in the report that are oft-mentioned when wildfires come to mind.

In Idaho .22% of the states housing stock at risk, and in Wyoming .29% of the states housing stock is at risk, according to the report.

All across the Western U.S., wildfire patterns are now a more continual fire threat, according to CoreLogic, and record-setting droughts are contributing to increases in the number and the intensity of fires in recent years  2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020.

The report also keys in on climate change as one culprit.

Climate change is having an impact on natural hazards all around the world  wildfires are more frequent, larger, and more intense than they have been in the past. Preparing for and responding to wildfire risk to help protect home and business owners is more critical than ever, the report states.

Related:

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
Ballymaloe Foods has signed a deal with Tesco that will see a further 170 stores in the UK stock its Ballymaloe Original Relish.

The additional stores bring the total to more than 500 stores across Great Britain and Northern Ireland where the Cork food company's flagship relish product can be purchased.
The EU has granted equivalence status to the UK for the purposes of production and marketing of fodder crop, beet, cereal, and oilseed seeds in EU member states.

As a result of Brexit, there had been problems in the importation of seeds from GB.

A prohibition was placed on the importation of certified seeds from England, Scotland, and Wales from January 1, 2021 pending discussions on equivalency agreements.

The UK subsequently applied to the EU to have seeds of certain agricultural crop species deemed equivalent for production and marketing purposes.

Seed of the aforementioned species produced in the UK may now be freely marketed in Ireland, provided they comply with EU plant health and customs regulations.

The UK has also applied to the EU for equivalence status for vegetable seeds, and this application is currently being processed at EU level.

However, there has been less progress in resolving the EUs refusal to authorise the export of seed potatoes from Britain since January 1, 2021.

Instead, the UKs Department for Food, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has retaliated by restricting imports of seed potatoes from the EU.

A six-month grace period had allowed imports from European countries since the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1. But UK ministers said they will now consider applications to market imported seed potatoes from the EU on a case-by-case basis, following an industry-wide consultation.

Brussels banned the export of seed potatoes from the UK to the EU after the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement failed to agree equivalence on the goods.

The UK had been exporting an estimated 30,000 tonnes of seed potatoes to EU countries, worth 13.5m, the majority of which comes from Scotland.

IFA continues to lobby on this matter, and for the potato seed sector to be included in the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund announced by the EU.

About 6,000t of the seed potatoes from the UK were estimated to be going to Ireland, with 60% of the certified seed that is planted in Ireland coming from Scotland.

Earlier this year, Teagasc advised potato growers to address seed availability for 2022, because no agreement between the EU and UK to allow seed export to the EU would leave fewer Scottish growers planting seed for EU markets, especially of niche varieties like Rooster.

Growers were advised to act early and find out what seed alternatives are open to them, and to contact the Department of Agriculture to register fields and take soil samples etc, if growers opt to use home saved seed.

In 2016, Ireland was producing 253ha of seed potatoes; by 2020 this dropped back to 229ha.

It might be hard to expand this, although Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has said he is keen to see seed potato production expand.

Seed potato imports from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Northern Ireland, may replace some of the seed from Great Britain.

Ireland is one of a small number of areas officially recognised in EU legislation as a high-grade seed area to produce seed potatoes, because the country is free from a number of significant potato diseases that occur in Meanwhile, in the Uk, a Defra spokesperson said: We also continue to press the EU to reconsider its position, in line with its own regulations, on the import of seed potatoes from Great Britain to the EU. The National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland said it hopes the decision taken by the UK government not to extend authorisation to EU seed imports will bring fresh impetus to talks that will agree equivalence and allow Scottish seed potato exports to resume.

The UK is broadly self-sufficient for seed potatoes, so its ban on imports from the EU (a trade of up to 10,000 tonnes per year) is unlikely to be lifted unless there is progress in talks with the EU.

The Chair of NFU Scotlands Potatoes working group, Mike Wilson said: We welcome that the UK governments allowance for EU seed potatoes to be sold to GB has now officially been ended. This means that potato growers throughout Britain will have to source their seed from within Britain, which is good news for Scotlands seed potato sector.
Daniel Craig received a royal send-off as he said farewell to James Bond at the star-studded No Time To Die premiere in London.

The actor was joined by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince William and Kate Middleton at the glitzy event at the Royal Albert Hall.

Craig, 53, appears as 007 for a final time in No Time To Die, leaving behind a career-defining role he first played in 2006s Casino Royale.

He made a colourful arrival on his last red carpet as Bond, wearing a dark pink suede dinner jacket over a white shirt and black bow tie.

Daniel Craig attended the premiere as he prepares to say goodbye to James Bond (Ian West/PA)

Kate, 39, cut an elegant figure while accompanying William to the premiere.

She glittered in a gold, beaded Jenny Packham gown, complete with cape. William, also 39, wore a dark tuxedo.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance (Ian West/PA)

Camilla, 74, wore a light blue dress with a delicate beaded overlay, while Charles, 72, was also in a tuxedo.

Craig was pictured speaking with the royal guests at the premiere.

His co-stars were also in attendance to celebrate his time as Bond.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived together (Ian West/PA)

Lashana Lynch appears in No Time To Die as a secret agent who inherits the 007 title from Craigs character.

The 33-year-old turned heads in a flowing yellow strapless gown.

Lashana Lynch wowed in a yellow dress at the premiere (Ian West/PA)

Lea Seydoux was another of the films stars at the premiere.

The French actress  who plays Madeleine Swann in the franchise  wore a shimmering silver gown complete with a flowing cape.

Lea Seydoux said the premiere was a bittersweet occasion (Ian West/PA)

Cuban-Spanish star Ana de Armas is making her Bond debut in No Time To Die.

The 33-year-old cut a typically glamorous figure in a dark dress with a plunging neckline and thigh-high slit.

Ana de Armas joined he co-stars at the films premiere (Ian West/PA)

Naomie Harris plays Moneypenny.

She wore a low-cut gown for the premiere.

Naomie Harris reprises the role of Moneypenny in No Time To Die (Ian West/PA)

Judi Dench played spy chief M in the Bond franchise, most recently in 2015s Spectre.

The venerated actress, 86, joined her former co-stars on Tuesday, arriving in a glittering black jacket.

Dame Judi Dench is a fan favourite in the James Bond franchise (Ian West/PA)

Phoebe Waller-Bridge was drafted in to help with the No Time To Die script.

The Fleabag star and creator wore a glittering black jumpsuit for the premiere.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge glittered on the No Time To Die red carpet (Ian West/PA)

Former Bond girl Britt Ekland, 78, was another star in attendance.

The Swedish actress  who appeared alongside Roger Moore in 1974s The Man With The Golden Gun  arrived in a dark outfit.

Britt Ekland was another star of Bonds glorious past attending the No Time To Die premiere (Ian West/PA)

Pop sensation Billie Eilish was also pictured in London.

The 19-year-old Grammy winner performed the films title track.

Read More Declan Burke: No Time To Die is the most enthralling Bond movie since Casino Royale

Billie Eilish performed the No Time To Die title track and attended the premiere (Ian West/PA)
The family who founded the organic milk and yogurt producer devastated by fire have vowed to rebuild their business.

Vincent Cleary, managing director of Glenisk in Co Offaly, said he has been heartened by the flood of supportive messages he has received.

As he stood outside the shell of the dairy near the village of Killeigh, he was given a hand-delivered letter from one customer and neighbour.

Vincent Cleary reads a letter from a well-wisher. Picture: Gearoid Keegan

He said the letter from the woman nearly brought him to tears. She had written: So sorry to hear about the loss of your lovely premises. As the saying goes, God never closes one door but he opens another.

Keep positive, life balances out troubles with blessings so there is something beautiful coming your way to make up for this trouble. Wishing you luck in the next few months in finding a positive way forward.

Suppliers offered support

Suppliers too have offered their support and wished the Clearys well in their quest to recover from Monday's blaze, which is estimated to have cost about 20m.

Farmers were ringing [each other] and they were on edge. They did not know what was going to happen, said Darren Grennan, an organic dairy farmer in Clara, Co Offaly.

But we were told they're going ahead and collecting the milk as normal and the price difference between conventional and organic will be made up by them out of their own pocket to keep the farmers going until they get up and running themselves again, he added.

I hope they can get up and running in the next few weeks because it would be great if they could. They have a great market there and I've been looking at thousands of comments about them, saying how great they are and that they have fabulous yogurts.

Mr Grennan, along with his father Gerard and wife Aine, has been supplying Glenisk for nearly 10 years and has built up a herd from 55-head to 150.

He supplies Glenisk with about 800,000 litres of organic milk each year and is delighted the Clearys have managed to come up with alternative arrangements at such short notice.

Insurance assessors were on site at Newtown, Killeigh, about six miles from Tullamore on Tuesday and Mr Cleary said he was satisfied the company has adequate cover.

Apart from us being gutted, the building is gutted, he said.

The fire which swept through the Glenisk factory on Monday morning. Picture: Ellen Burke @midlands 103

While he came to terms with the loss of a thriving multi-million euro business, Mr Cleary was still relieved that all 50 staff present when the fire alarm went off were evacuated safely without injury.

I get emotional at times but I also get elated that nobody was hurt, he said.

Cause of fire unknown

Mr Cleary said the cause of the fire was unknown but a forensic team was expected to arrive on Wednesday to begin an investigation.

He is hoping goat's milk packing could resume first. In the meantime, organic dairy milk was still being collected from farmers for transfer to other dairies.

We've no electricity or running water on site. Everything has been basically burnt to a cinder or powered off so we need to get the services back operational, he said.

We'll look and see if there are solutions where we can start trying to source equipment and try and start making yogurt again. We've got a journey ahead of us.

We've faced adversary before and we'll get over this as well. he said.

Standing looking at the still smouldering building, Mr Cleary said: She's the old lady, she's our lady and she can be replaced.

Glenisk was founded by the late Jack Cleary in 1987 and was transformed into one of the country's leading organic businesses over the past two decades.
Survivors of clerical sexual abuse or sexual grooming are being urged to contact a Catholic diocese where a priest who served in Laois also worked.

Notorious paedophile Fr Malachy Finnegan, who served in the Diocese of Dromore in Co. Down, had worked as a curate in Rosenallis in the Slieve Bloom mountains from 1953 to 1956.

The disgraced cleric, who died in 2002, taught in St Colman's College in Newry from 1967 to 1976 and was president of the college from 1976 to 1987. Seven years later, details of the first allegation against him emerged, in 1994.

Although he was never prosecuted, allegations against him were investigated by the Catholic Church's clerical abuse watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, in 2011.

The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin - which covers Laois - insisted in 2018 it had "no knowledge or record of any complaint or allegation against him, but a Northern Ireland diocesan source has told the Irish Examiner: Just because it is not publicly known whether or not he abused children in the south doesnt mean he didnt.

There are victims of his the Church knows are out there but they have not come forward.

The appeal for survivors to come forward has been made today by the Diocese of Dromore, which has also announced a redress scheme for people who were abused by diocesan priests. The announcement follows the launch of a number of legal claims against the diocese by survivors.

Archbishop Eamon Martin now wants to facilitate a resolution process to enable the provision of financial and other support for survivors without undue further delay.

As well as the provision of financial redress, the Redress Scheme includes the possibility of a personal apology on behalf of the Diocese and other ways of providing pastoral support, including counselling.

In a statement today, the Diocese said: The Diocese of Dromore apologises unreservedly for the hurt and damage caused to victims and survivors of any priest or church representative acting under its authority.

The Diocese of Dromore finds such behaviour towards children and vulnerable people abhorrent, inexcusable and indefensible.

Read More Police launch investigation into historical abuse by Fr Malachy Finnegan

The Diocese is committed to doing what it can to help bring healing to the survivors of clerical sexual abuse, and to all those affected by these egregious crimes. They said the new redress scheme will be open to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse suffered at the hands of representatives of the Diocese.

They added: It endeavours to ensure a process which is victim-centred and aims to provide victims with recognition and reasonable compensation without the need for lengthy investigation and litigation.

The Diocese is willing to commit whatever resources it has available for the purpose of redress to this scheme, even if that should exhaust those resources.

The Scheme will respond to applications where there are allegations of sexual abuse, including sexual grooming. They say this abuse may or may not have been accompanied by physical and/or emotional abuse, and which occurred when the applicant was under the age of 18.
Michel Barnier has said there is no way the European Union should consider renegotiating the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The EUs former chief Brexit negotiator said there was room to work on operational solutions related to concerns over the implementation of the protocol, but said the bloc should not accept a renegotiation.

Mr Barnier also said the British Government had made a mistake in its negotiating strategy with the EU by attempting to divide the member states.

The protocol is not the problem, its the solution to the problems created by Brexit, Mr Barnier told RTEs Prime Time.

Lord David Frost, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Michel Barnier in Brussels (Etienne Ansotte/PA)

There is a room for working on pragmatic and operational solutions to address some concerns of the Brits.

But there is no way, in my view, to accept any renegotiation of this protocol.

The protocol was agreed by the UK and EU as a way to maintain a free-flowing land border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

The leaders of Northern Irelands four main unionist parties signed a joint declaration in opposition to the protocol on Tuesday.

The declaration is signed by DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, UUP leader Doug Beattie, TUV leader Jim Allister and PUP leader Billy Hutchinson.

In response, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said: The government is remaining focused, calm and flexible, in solution-mode around the protocol and around the relationship between the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

Unionists in Northern Ireland have been vehemently opposed to the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which sees additional checks on goods arriving into the region from the rest of the UK.

Mr Barnier said the EU must be clear and firm with the UK on the issue, but said there is some margin to address concerns over how it operates.

Mr Barnier, responding to questions in his recent book My Secret Brexit Diary, also said the British had made mistakes in their approach to negotiations.

He said: I think that the Brits made a mistake in their strategy, because they tried to divide us, or bypass my team to engage directly with the member states. It was a mistake.

I was the negotiator that had been the negotiator of the commission, the member states and the (European) Parliament, and they didnt understand this triple mandate I received.

Number two, we were bound on the European side by unanimity.

He admitted that one of the options on the table to resolve the issue of the Irish border was for Ireland to be excluded from the EUs single market.

However, Mr Barnier said he personally considered this option impossible.

He said he had told the then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in February 2019 that checks to protect the single market must be implemented somewhere, whether around the island or within it.

He added: For me, its impossible to exclude one member state because of the Brexit from the single market.

The single market is our common asset, including Ireland. Its the reason why we tried during three years enough to find a solution with the Brits and finally we found the solution with the Brits.

Michel Barnier (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Mr Barnier said solutions had been found first with Theresa May, and then again with Boris Johnson  and insisted the Prime Minister knew exactly what he had signed up to.

He said: With Boris Johnson. Not without him, or against him. With him, with his team, a professional team.

And Boris Johnson knows exactly what he signed.

He also revealed there were concerns in the EU that other member states could follow the UK out of the bloc.

There is always a risk but we have to understand the reasons, he said.

Very British reasons, social anger, popular feeling, which is quite different from populism. We have to understand, to listen and to answer.

I think the EU begin to answer by some change in some policy. External policy, trade policy, industrial policy, the policy of migration also.

We have to continue to intensify change.

Because Brexit was unlikely even for Farage and some others, but it happened. So we have to be very careful.
"No ifs, no buts, no education cuts."

When I was in college we marched.

Swarms of students would gather at the entrances to inner-city campuses. We chanted and strode down the streets of Dublin, DIT students merging with Trinity students and those from DCU and UCD.

Thousands were bussed in from Sligo, Galway, Maynooth, Cork, Carlow, Waterford and Tralee.

It became an annual thing, we would proudly shut down the city and our cries would interrupt Dail proceedings.

What has happened to the current generation of students? Have they lost their voices?

Perhaps years of being almost ignored by those in power over successive years coupled with the pandemic have dimmed and diluted the radical, outspoken and outraged streak that students should naturally possess?

Of course, some have taken their campaigns online, but at a time when the housing crisis has literally priced many out of education and climate change is a tangible threat, two separate protests held last week could only attract small crowds.

Only about 25 people staged a sleepout on Thursday night to highlight the fact that thousands of students have been left without a place to live at the start of the new academic year. Picture: Conor McCabe Photography

Last Thursday, the USI took part in a midday picket outside the Dail, which blocked the pavement but not the road, and about 25 people staged a sleepout that night to highlight the fact that thousands of students have been left without a place to live at the start of the new academic year.

Echoing the rhetoric of previous USI leaders, current president Clare Austick said: Were angry, were outraged, we're frustrated. Were annoyed that the Government just has not taken our calls on board and havent taken the student accommodation crisis seriously enough."

She said the fact that students are now only emerging from a life on Zoom to return to campus, coupled with the "very short turnaround" for the protest, was to blame for the low turnout, but "it was never going to be tens of thousands because of Covid".

"We usually would have always had a national demonstration, this is the third year now where that couldn't happen, it couldn't happen last year with Covid, the year before that there was a storm so it had to be cancelled."

Inside the gates of Leinster House, opposition TDs, including Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty, said the lack of accommodation is having a profound effect on students accessing education and has forced some to defer courses and others to live in tents.

Fridays for Future protests

The following day saw the return of the Fridays for Future climate change protests, which back in September 2019 drew 30,000 Irish young people to march, joining a global campaign of seven million people.

Second level students from Kinsale Community School at the gathering at Grand Parade, Cork City for the resumption/return of the 'Fridays for Future' climate action /climate justice global protests. Picture: Larry Cummins

For many, it was their first time participating in school strikes for climate change since the pandemic began, when restrictions halted the momentum of the movement.

In PR jargon, the protests in Dublin, Cork and Galway, would have been dubbed a soft relaunch rather than any big bang return.

Limerick teenager Saoirse Exton, who has organised rallies since 2018, said the pandemic massively impacted the school strike movement.

For me, Covid was really difficult, because I had to stop the weekly strikes. There was just not enough connection between people. People just weren't really coming, unfortunately."

While some have continued with a virtual campaign, including 14-year-old Heather Doyle from Tipperary, nothing compares to the visual impact of tens of thousands of people blocking the streets and bringing traffic to a halt.

Those who wield power may not be as influenced by a Twitter discussion or an online protest, which Ms Doyle also acknowledged: "Most likely, they are much older than us and don't use social media as much as us, so they don't see our strikes. So it has had a negative impact on that side of things."

But fellow activist Beth Doherty is more optimistic.

"After Covid, I do think we will see a shift in energy. We will see people want to come back on the streets to bring this issue to the forefront," she said.

Covid has undoubtedly discommoded students, whose only experience of third-level education over the past 18 months has been through a screen.

What you learn in college goes way beyond what is taught in the lecture room. It's about tumbling out of nightclubs and falling in love. It's about getting involved in societies, developing friendships, becoming more aware of the inequalities in society, discussing the big issues and taking a passionate stance.

UCC Students Union environment representative Alicia O'Sullivan speaking at the gathering at Grand Parade, Cork City for the resumption/return of the 'Fridays for Future' climate action /climate justice global protests. Picture: Larry Cummins

As Covid restrictions ease, it might have been expected that students would release a pent-up anger. They have plenty to be angry about.

Of course, there is still anxiety around large gatherings, but more than 41,000 people were willing to cheer on their counties at the All-Ireland finals in Croke Park this month.

In November 2010, up to 40,000 students took part in a now-infamous march to the Dail against the proposed increase in fees and further cuts to the student maintenance grant.

Clare Austick, president of Union of Students Ireland, and members of USI, said the fact that students are now only emerging from a life on Zoom to return to campus, coupled with the "very short turnaround" for the protest, was to blame for the low turnout. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

While the exact turnout is disputed, it was acknowledged as being the "largest student protest for a generation" and the numbers were far beyond what gardai had expected.

The following year, tens of thousands of students again paralysed the city as they marched from O'Connell Street across the River Liffey, many had been ferried in on nearly 200 buses that had started out that morning from regional college campuses.

Fast forward a decade and not only do students now pay contribution fees, which have jumped from 1,500 in 2010 to 3,000 now, but the housing crisis means students have been left homeless.

As the country emerges from the pandemic, we need to encourage young people to once again use their voices and find their feet.

Did you know?

While we have been using the transferable voting system since 1921, the concept has been around since 1819, when it was first proposed by Thomas Wright Hill.

However, it was not used in public elections until 1856, when Carl Andrea proposed a transferable vote system for elections in Denmark.

On two occasions, in 1959 and 1968, Irish people have voted down referendums which sought to replace our proportional representation system with the British first-past-the-post system.

What to look our for this week

Tuesday: Tanaiste Leo Varadkar travelled to Washington over the weekend for high-level meetings and engagements related to commerce and trade which continue today.

Tuesday: Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien's Housing for All plan has already sparked much debate and criticism from the opposition. It will come up for discussion in the Dail on Tuesday afternoon and the Seanad on Wednesday.

Tuesday: As hospital waiting list surpass 900,000, Sinn Fein will bring forward a motion on the issue. The party's health spokesperson David Cullinane last week published a survey of more than 600 people, 70% of whom said their mental health had severely or considerably deteriorated as a result of long wait times for treatment and care.

Wednesday: Popcorn at the ready for another installation of what has become the Zappone appointment soap opera. While the former minister has declined an invite to appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee, secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach Martin Fraser has agreed to attend and will answer questions on the Government's special envoy appointment.

Wednesday: Officials from the Department of Health and the HSE, as well as the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), will provide an update to the Health Committee on the medical cannabis access programme.

Thursday: With the Budget fast approaching, the appearance of Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath at the Budgetary Oversight Committee should be one to watch.

Thursday: Climate change will dominate the Dail agenda on Thursday when the upcoming Climate Action Plan is discussed during Government business time. A bill brought forward by People Before Profit TDs Brid Smith, Gino Kenny, Richard Boyd Barrett, and Paul Murphy, which would restrict certain developments in fossil fuels infrastructure and high-energy usage data centres, will be debated later in the evening.

Politics headlines through history

September 20, 1900: Arthur Griffith established Cumann na nGaedheal alongside journalist and poet William Rooney, which later became Sinn Fein.

September 28, 1920 : The Cork No 2 IRA Brigade captured a military barracks in Mallow, Co Cork. Under the headline 'Mallow in Flames' the Cork Examiner reported that "the men in the barracks at the time were overcome and a large number of Lewis guns, rifles, ammunition and stores were taken."

September 27, 1964: The seven-man Warren Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of John F Kennedy found that the shots that killed the President the previous November were the work of one man alone - Lee Harvey Oswald. The report sharply criticised the US secret service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their security arrangements.

September 29, 1979: As the Pope arrived here on a historic visit, the Cork Examiner reported that "he flew over Shannon and straight into the hearts of Ireland's youth gathered at Galway". The front page coverage added that the "young folk went wild", then broke into a Polish song of welcome which after a while became a chant of "we love the Pope".

September 30, 2003: As the Dail returned from the summer recess (yes they also took September off back then), a special Examiner front page asked 10 questions of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Many of the questions related to Fianna Fail TD Michael Collins, who had hit the headlines when it was revealed that he had set up a bogus offshore account to evade paying tax. He settled the bill with the Revenue Commissioners, paying over 130,000 in taxes, interest and penalties. However, the paper claimed that there was one question on everyone's lips: "What else are you hiding from us?"
GLOBAL exercise equipment giant Peloton has backpedalled on Cork city office plans it had earlier this year, for 70,000-80,000 sq ft of space, for c 700 employees.

Now, on the back of poor Q4 2021 financial figures, and some treadmill product recalls, it has scaled back its hunt for offices in Cork city.

Sources say it is currently seeking a significantly reduced presence for the moment, put at between 10,000 to 20,000 sq ft, with the option/scope to scale up to as much as 50,000 sq ft in the short to medium term.

But, despite the poor financials and a tapering off of demand for home exercise equipment, which had topped $1bn at the pandemics height, its understood Peloton is still committed to a customer support presence in Cork, with the search for offices in the city centre currently ongoing via retained agents CBRE.

The current demand for reduced space broadens the range of options available to Peloton, and the search is still city-based, its understood, although agents CBRE have declined to confirm details of the reduced space request.

Peloton had been advancing discussions on new offices at Corks Navigation Square, after news broke before summer of its wish for 70,000 sq ft, or more via CBRE, with Savills acting for developers OCallaghan Properties. Its still expected that Peloton will commit to Cork offices, by this years end, sources indicate.

The news of Pelotons scaled-back offices requirement comes after Facebook also put on hold an inquiry for accommodation for up to 1,000 employees in Cork, where it currently has a subsidiary Oculus VR.

Meanwhile, as Pelotons search may now be expected to be more broadly based, due to the smaller space being sought, one possibility now emerges, with south docklands offices recently available at Tellengana House, off the Blackrock Road and Monahan Road. Agents Siobhan Young and Peter OFlynn of Cushman & Wakefield have just brought 19,433 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation to the letting market, on two floors of the private investor-owned Tellengana House.

Tellengana House Blackrock

The space has been vacated by fund services company Citco which has been a long-term tenant at Tellenganna, and which will continue to maintain other offices in the same building.

The space available after Citcos lease on two floors expired is on floors 2 and 5, with flexible floor plates (from 5,000 sq ft to over 19,000 sq ft). Cushman & Wakefield guide at 24 per sq ft, and agent Ms Young adds that the space has now been upgraded and refurbished for the benefit of a new occupier.

Tellengana House was developed on lands sloping down to the docks quarter from the main Blackrock Road, previously owned by solid fuel company Sheehan & Sullivan, and included a large, period home which was demolished over a quarter of a century ago, having lain vacant for decades. The replacement, stand-alone office block on landscaped, inner suburban grounds, was designed by Wilson Architecture and has raised access floors, suspended ceilings, HVAC, three eight-person lifts, excellent fibre connectivity, staff shower and changing facilities, staff parking and electric vehicle charging points.

Other occupiers at Tellengana House include Citco, StorageCraft, Beechbrook Capital and HorganLynch, consulting engineers.

C&Ws Siobhan Young says that Tellengana House provides occupiers with fast access to the city centre but with the added benefits of a suburban office location such as extensive surface parking and more competitive rental levels.

DETAILS: Cushman &

Wakefield 021-4275454
US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fended off perhaps the most personal and direct attacks from lawmakers of his career on Tuesday as Republicans blasted his calls with China and his interviews for books critical of Donald Trump's presidency.

Milley, 63, was unshaken as Republicans called for his resignation during an already contentious hearing that was meant to focus on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan - but repeatedly swerved into questions regarding the general.

When asked, Milley acknowledged talking to Washington Post author Bob Woodward for a book that showcased Milley's role trying to avert a crisis over apparent Chinese fears that Trump might attack Beijing in his final months in office.

The book detailed supposedly "secret" calls with General Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army on October 30, 2020 and again on January 8, and said Milley had promised to warn China first if he were ordered to attack.

Milley confirmed the calls but said they were not secret to U. government officials and that he was acting on instructions from some of Trump's top aides to de-escalate tensions. He acknowledged trying send Beijing a message that "we are not going to attack you" following U.S. intelligence indicating China feared an attack.

Republican Senator Dan Sullivan challenged Milley, insinuating he would be executed for that kind of behavior in China.

"If the head of the PLA called you and said, 'Hey, we're getting ready to invade Taiwan' and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping found out about it, he'd be shot," Sullivan said, referring to China's People's Liberation Army.

Milley said the calls fit within his mandate to ensure strategic stability.

"I know, I am certain, President Trump did not intend on attacking the Chinese and it is my directed responsibility to convey presidential orders and intent," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Trump, in a statement, has said he "never even thought of attacking China." But after the initial account of Milley's calls with China surfaced, Trump said Milley should be fired if they were true.

'HE'S CRAZY'

Milley acknowledged that he also spoke on January 8 with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who, according to the Washington Post, had asked the general what safeguards were in place to prevent an "unstable president" from launching a nuclear strike.

"He's crazy. You know he's crazy," Pelosi told Milley, the newspaper reported, citing a transcript of the call.

Milley, in his remarks to Congress, said Pelosi had asked him on January 8 about whether Trump's actions might lead to an accidental nuclear missile launch.

He responded by assuring her of safeguards and added: "I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the President of the United States.

Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee: "At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command."

US President Joe Biden has supported Milley throughout the controversy surrounding the calls, saying he had "great confidence" in him.

But it is not the first time the top U.S. military officer has been caught in the spotlight. Last year, Milley caused an uproar after accompanying Trump toward a church for a photo opportunity just after authorities cracked down on civil rights protesters.

He later said he regretted it, saying the incident created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.

In one exchange on Tuesday, Milley acknowledged also speaking with two other sets of book authors. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn lashed out at him.

"In order to get your name in a book... all you have managed to do is to politicize the US military, to downgrade our reputation with our allies," Blackburn said- Reuters
Earlier this year, Cuba announced they had developed two homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, one, a 3-dose version the communist government called Abdala, which Cuban scientists say is more than 90% effective against illness.

This week, according to an Associated Press report, Cuba has begun sending shipments of its Abdala vaccine to Vietnam and Venezuela.

Vietnam has ordered more than 5 million doses and received more than 1 million doses of the vaccine on Sunday, 150,000 of which were donated by Cuba.

Venezuela has bought at least $12 million worth of Cubas Abdala vaccine.

Cuba has asked the World Health Organization for approval of their vaccines, something that many countries require before they sell their vaccines.
September 2, 2021



Home to the states longest standing Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, the Idaho State University College of Business has offered enough digital courses to complete the MBA online for many years, but the program can now officially be promoted as an online program thanks to approval granted by the State Board of Education (SBOE).

In order to officially designate the MBA as an online program, we had to present a proposal to the Universitys Graduate Faculty Council followed by the State Board of Education, said Dr. Bob Houghton, Associate Dean of the College of Business. This proposal included a projected budget, including new costs and revenues, a projected student enrollment, and effects on our sister institutions. The SBOE unanimously approved our proposal allowing us to go forward with helping the business professionals in Idaho achieve their higher educational goals.

The MBA program, which is also offered in-person, can be completed fully online through a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous courses. According to the Director of Graduate Studies and an alumna of the program, Kristine McCarty, Asynchronous courses are prerecorded by our professors and can be accessed anytime, while synchronous courses allow our students to gain the benefits of participating in a live lecture and interacting with their professors and peers in real-time during a scheduled course. McCarty explained that the synchronous courses still maintain the flexibility and convenience of the online MBA as they are only offered in the evenings from 6  8:45 p.m. using Zoom.

The Master of Business Administration is an excellent option for working professionals looking to move up in their career, said McCarty. The online MBA specifically provides a great deal of flexibilitystudents can complete their coursework from home or the office; no on-campus visits are required. McCarty said that the online program includes the same coursework and rigor as the in-person program.

Because the program is offered online, anyone inside or outside of the state can enroll and as an added benefit, online students can pay Idaho States in-state tuition regardless of where they reside using the eISU Nonresident Tuition Waiver.

McCarty noted that compared to other online MBA programs in the region, Idaho States tuition is the most affordable. Depending on a students academic background, they may complete the program for as little as $15,750*. Our online program holds the same AACSB accreditation as our in-person program, which ensures a high level of quality and rigor. (*Based on 2021-2022 graduate tuition rates)

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is the worlds premier accrediting body for business schools. Idaho State University College of Business is one of less than 200 schools in the world to hold accreditation in both their accounting and business programs.

Houghton noted that in order to continue to ensure this quality standard is met, the online MBA was meticulously evaluated prior to becoming official. We have reviewed our program to ensure that every class is going to have an outstanding online educational experience, said Houghton. This entails having faculty develop relevant material and projects that students can accomplish from wherever location that they are participating.

The program currently has about 140 students enrolled in the MBA. McCarty said that she would guess that at least half of those students are taking mostly online courses, if not more.

Applications for the Colleges graduate programs are open until November 1. Applicants will need to visit isu.edu/apply to start their application. Two letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose, a resume, and a GRE or GMAT test scores are required.

Idaho States all-online program was officially approved in summer 2020.
Kubernetes backup and disaster recovery specialist Kasten by Veeam has announced the Kasten K10 V4.5 Kubernetes data management platform.

New and improved features of Kasten K10 V4.5 include:

 Out of the box integration with tools to deploy, manage, monitor and troubleshoot Kubernetes environments, speeding implementation while giving users the ability to choose from the best tools in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

 Added coverage for Kafka, Apache Cassandra, K8ssandra, and Amazon RDS.

 Support for the K3s and EKS Anywhere Kubernetes distributions.

 Expanded ecosystem support, providing more features and capabilities to a wider number of users, and making it easier to acquire Kasten K10 supported products from a wider range of partner organisations and their marketplaces.

 Support for shared Veeam Backup & Replication storage repositories for Kubernetes clusters running on VMware vSphere. This also brings new backup target support for Cisco S3260 and HPE Apollo servers, ReFS- and XFS- formatted block storage, deduplication appliances, and SMB storage.

"Current Kubernetes data management tools often require extensive expertise and set up time when first deployed, and lack process automation for managing, monitoring, and troubleshooting within an environment," said Kasten by Veeam CTO Vaibhav Kamra.

"Offering improved capabilities for a smoother out of the box experience and providing additional ecosystem integration helps meet those needs as container adoption increases."

Veeam CTO Danny Allan said "With Veeam Backup & Replication data path integration added to Kasten K10 V4.5, Veeam customers have a pathway to extend their investments into their Kubernetes environments.

"Users will have better visibility and easier access to a common repository that includes containerised Kubernetes apps, access to Veeam's portable backup file format for volume content that increases mobility, and more capabilities for enriching their Kubernetes deployments."

A free trial of K10 is available.
COMPANY NEWS: Kong, the cloud connectivity company, today announced the winners of its inaugural Cloud Connectivity Innovator Awards program at Kong Summit 2021. The awards recognise individuals and teams who have accelerated digital transformation during the past five years using Kong products, including Kong Konnect, Kong Enterprise, Kong Gateway, Kuma or Insomnia.

The Cloud Connectivity Innovator Award honourees include:

Australia Post (Top Overall Enterprise Innovator): Kong Konnect powers government agency's self-service API-first platform, offering developers autonomy and future-proof scalability

Australia Post provides postal service to more than 25 million customers and has more than 4,300 locations. The organisation needed an API gateway that could scale to meet future demands, provide automation capabilities for developers and support a multi-cloud environment.

Using Kong Konnect, Australia Post has reduced its developer onboarding time from 5-10 days to just a few minutes. Because Kong is deployment-agnostic and can govern how APIs are used and secured through industry-standard authentication and authorisation plugins, Australia Post has been able to effectively decentralise its applications across multiple clouds and enable teams to proactively resolve business challenges within their environment of choice.

Standard Chartered Bank (Top Financial Innovator): Kong Gateway deployed as-a-service accelerates global bank through its application transformation journey across 50 markets

Standard Chartered Bank offers international banking and financial services in more than 50 markets. The bank needed an API gateway solution that could accelerate its application transformation journey and provide one-touch production deployments.

Using Kong Gateway as-a-service provides a uniform way to publish, govern, secure and consume APIs across the bank's more than 400 applications. Kong's microservices-based approach has increased API adoption in the bank by 5x and reduced the time to publish and consume APIs from a few days to hours.

Koyeb (Top Open Source Innovator): Open source Kuma powers a startup's 'zero-config' serverless platform that gets users up and running instantaneously

Koyeb delivers a serverless platform that helps developers deploy applications globally. The team needed to build a global, scalable, multi-tenant service mesh that could easily integrate with its existing technology stack.

Koyeb turned to open source Kuma, the universal service mesh, to support multi-zone deployments out of the box and serverless workloads across clouds and continents. Kuma provides a 'zero-config' set up for Koyeb's end-users, saving them weeks of work and engineering resources. Without Kuma, Koyeb would have postponed the zero-config capability by a year.

Angelo Ovidi at Kore Labs (Innovator of the Year): Kong Gateway 'USB hub' deployment offers complete modularity and the ultimate in customer control

Kore Labs, provider of digital tools for creating, managing and monitoring financial products in a controlled environment, has adopted a modular Kubernetes approach that is designed to be portable, deployable and reusable. Kore's solution was literally built around Kong Gateway, using an innovative 'USB hub' approach in which new functions can be added as microservices without impacting the rest of the platform.

Kong's API platform supports multi-cloud and hybrid environments, providing complete modularity and the ability for customers to control where their data resides. Kore Labs chief architect and head of technology Angelo Ovidi was named the Cloud Connectivity Innovator of the Year for leading his team to establish an API-first, cloud-first, cloud-agnostic architecture. In the words of his team, "Angelo's proven ability to drive technology innovation has dramatically increased Kore's ability to satisfy customer requirements, pivot with agility, cut costs and accelerate growth."

Cloud Connectivity Innovator Award submissions were evaluated based on the strength of their use case, including the challenges faced, the uniqueness of their solution and other differentiators that showcase a commitment to creating superb end-to-end connectivity while navigating modern microservices architectures. More details on the 2021 winners and videos from the awards ceremony will be available on the Cloud Connectivity Innovators Awards site.

"Kong is delighted to celebrate our inaugural Cloud Connectivity Innovator Award winners, as they showcase best-in-class examples of how developer teams can overcome the challenges of navigating modern architectures," said Kong CTO and co-founder Marco Palladino. "We are excited to help countless more companies in their digital transformation journeys, and we cannot wait to see the innovation that comes next from Australia Post, Kore Labs, Koyeb and Standard Chartered Bank."

The winners were publicly recognised during an awards ceremony at virtual Kong Summit 2021 and received a trophy and a donation to a charity of their choice from Kong on their behalf.

About Kong

Kong creates software and managed services that connect APIs and microservices natively across and within clouds, Kubernetes, data centres and more using intelligent automation. Built on an open source core, Kong's cloud connectivity platform enables digital innovation by allowing organisations to reliably and securely manage the full lifecycle of APIs and services for modern architectures, including microservices, serverless and service mesh. By providing developer teams with unprecedented architectural freedom, Kong accelerates innovation cycles, increases productivity, and seamlessly bridges legacy and modern systems and applications. For more information about Kong, please visit https://konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter.
API and microservices specialist Kong has announced upgrades to all its major products, with new plug-and-play products and capabilities for managing, connecting and securing APIs and microservices.

Kong Istio Gateway, now generally available, provides native integration with Istio to allow organizations to use Kong Gateway to expose Istio services in a secure and governable way.

Kong Mesh 1.5  built on of CNCF's Kuma and Envoy  allows service meshes to support Windows, and includes role-based access control (RBAC) to simplify and automate the process of onboarding new users.

Kong Gateway 2.6 includes enhanced support for Apache Kafka.

Kong Ingress Controller 2.0 supports UDP, is able to watch multiple Kubernetes namespaces, and supports for Prometheus metrics.

"Today, we're delivering on our vision to make cloud connectivity as elegant and simple as plugging in a device or appliance into an outlet and turning it on, from API gateway to service mesh," said Kong CTO and co-founder Marco Palladino.

"With the new Istio Gateway, Kong customers can govern traffic entering their Istio deployments so they no longer have to do the dreaded task of writing and maintaining policies for user governance and tiering, building catalogues and developer portals, and overall API management.

"Kong Mesh 1.5 enables official support for Windows with RBAC that spans zones across 13 different distributions, which dramatically extends the value and reach for service meshes.

"It's been my dream to provide developers and operators with the 'plug and power outlet' experience so when they build new APIs and microservices, they don't have to worry about how they will be deployed and have the confidence to know they will just work."

Kong VP of product Reza Shafii said "For people like me who have been working in the API management space for many years, it's truly exciting that APIOps workflows are becoming the new normal.

"The technology, tools and planned capabilities announced today are all designed to help organisations to evolve their infrastructure for scale and enable game-changing productivity for their developers. We're making Kong's integrations more seamless and driving greater automation across each customer's unique stack of technologies."
Citrix today announced the launch of its new Citrix App Delivery and Security Service, an intent-based cloud solution to automate the process of securely delivering apps in real-time - which removes complexity at every step.

The new Citrix service includes provisioning, securing, onboarding, and managing apps while taking away the complexity from every step. Citrix says its new product is the first and only solution of its kind, empowering IT to deliver a superior experience that keeps users engaged and productive.

At first glance, you may think Citrix has released an MDM-style solution or another option for streaming corporate applications over a WAN, including the Internet. However, the new Citrix App Delivery and Security Service is smarter, simpler, self-healing, and more secure than what has come before.

By labelling its service as intent-based, Citrix means it is proactive, continually learning about your application environment including the health of servers, along with the state of the Internet and new cyberthreats. You prescribe business and technical intent, and Citrix will convert this into application delivery and security policies and configurations by itself.

Its self-healing capabilities mean there is no more manual configuration and troubleshooting, with the service itself continuously optimising and tuning its parameters for the best possible application experience.

The service also includes holistic, layered protection that consists of a web app firewall, DDoS protection, bot management, and more facilities to protect valuable applications and APIs from threats, keeping your business running.

You may not be able to control the Internet, but - sure to warm the heart of any systems and network manager - Citrix says you can prevent Internet bottlenecks from affecting your application performance.

In fact, Citrix App Delivery and Security Service is continuously analysing 10 billion data points to adjust traffic for you, providing an optimal application experience every time. It caters for over a billion user sessions across 50,000 networks in over 200 countries, giving massive real-time visibility into the state of the Internet through Citrix Intelligent Traffic Management.

"Citrix App Delivery and Security Service is going be a game-changer for SaaS and microservices. It has the perfect mix of customisability and built-in intelligence that will allow enterprises to deploy their revenue-generating apps quickly and securely without sacrificing the functionality that their customers depend on, said Geoffrey Knaak, technical manager, senior systems administrator, Aria Systems.

You can see more here:
Melbourne-based fintech unicorn Airwallex has hired Joanne Chin as its senior vice president and global head of people and talent, and David Bicknell as global senior vice president of finance.

I am delighted to welcome Joanne and David to our global executive team. Both bring invaluable experience and expertise to support Airwallexs accelerated growth and innovation across the entire business, said Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang.

With our rapid global expansion, investing in our people and culture as well as driving business efficiencies is important to our continued success. These are exciting times for us at Airwallex, and I am confident our new senior hires will create an immediate and lasting impact in our business and for our people.

Joanne Chin joins Airwallex from Kraft Heinz Asia Pacific, where she worked as chief people officer.

She previously served as Waymo's head of people after spending four years in senior HR positions at Google.

Chin started her career as a lawyer with Allens, before moving into HR with the firm.

She holds bachelor's degrees in laws and commerce from Monash University.

"Building a phenomenal culture with strong leadership and talented, passionate people is what I love doing. Airwallex has seen incredible success since it was founded, and I could not be more excited to have the opportunity to help Airwallex scale even further by building a culture that inspires our people and accelerates our mission," said Chin.

David Bicknell joins Airwallex from Facebook, where he worked as one of the company's finance directors.

He previously held a similar role at Twitter, worked as a senior finance leader at Intuit, and spent nine years with Macquarie Capital as vice president of corporate finance in Canada and Australia.

Bicknell holds an honours degree in commerce from the University of Melbourne, and a master's in finance from INSEAD. He is also a chartered accountant, and a member of the University of Melbourne Faculty of Industry and Commerce's advisory board.

Airwallexs global payments infrastructure helps increase market access for businesses of all sizes around the world. Im very excited to be joining Airwallex and supporting this vital mission. In my new role, I look forward to working closely with the Airwallexs executive team to drive the companys continued business growth," said Bicknell.
ASX-listed Canberra-based cyber security firm archTIS has partnered with IT solutions integrator Cirrus Networks in a deal which will see Cirrus resell archTIS attribute-based access control (ABAC) information security solutions to customers nationwide.

The partnership allows Cirrus Networks to resell and provide services for archTIS NC Protect solution to support enterprise, government and defence clients across Australia with the ability to securely access and collaborate on sensitive and classified data.

Chris McLaughlin, Acting CEO at Cirrus Networks, said, "We are thrilled to be partnering with archTIS who will help take our security offering to the next level. Its fantastic to see two Australian SMEs working together to help protect our customers sensitive data using innovative solutions coupled with high quality service execution."

The archTIS portfolio of data-centric information security solutions protect the worlds most sensitive content in government, defence, supply chain, enterprises and regulated industries through attribute-based access and control (ABAC) policies.





NC Protect provides enhanced information protection for file access and sharing, messaging and emailing of sensitive and classified content across Microsoft 365 apps, Dropbox, Nutanix Files and Windows file shares.

Matt Kluken, Vice President and General Manager APAC of archTIS, said, I'm excited to announce our partnership with Cirrus Networks to expand their data security solutions portfolio with NC Protect to empower their customers to safeguard sensitive and confidential information from internal threats with policy-based, data-centric information security for their Microsoft collaboration applications.

As reported by iTWire earlier this month, archTIS has acquired some assets of data protection solutions provider Cipherpoint, including the customers, technology and the European operations of the company's software division.

With the acquisition, arcarchTIS said assets acquired included the intellectual property to cp.Protect, an advanced SharePoint on-premises data encryption solution, and cp.Discover, a data discovery and classification platform.
Global security firm Kaspersky has found the FinFisher spyware has added a new target to its arsenal and uses a UEFI bootkit to infect victims.

FinFisher has versions that can run on Windows, macOS and Linux systems. The victims were in Europe and Asia, but Kaspersky did not provide any more detail about the targets or how many targets were found.

The findings were presented during the company's annual Security Analyst Summit which is being held online due to the pandemic.

The research into FinFisher was carried out over the last eight months, but Kaspersky said it had been tracking the spyware since 2011.

FinFisher was trackable until 2018, at which point it appeared to have gone missing. The Kaspersky researchers found suspicious installers of applications like TeamViewer, VLC and WinRAR that contained malicious code which was not part of any known malware.

But then the researchers found a website in Burmese which hosted infected installers and samples of FinFisher for Android which were trojanised with the same spyware, with some differences.

The spyware now protected the trojan using two components: non-persistent pre-validator and a post-validator.

The first component checked to ensure the device it was infecting did not belong to a security researcher and only after this was the post-validator component uploaded.

The new avatar of FinFisher, which is also known as FinSpy and Wingbird, was found to have four complex custom-made obfuscators.

"The primary function of this obfuscation is to slow analysis of the spyware," the Kaspersky researchers noted. "On top of that, the trojan also employs peculiar ways to gather information. For instance, it uses the developers mode in browsers to intercept traffic protected with a HTTPS protocol."

The FinFisher samples that replaced the Windows UEFI bootloader allowed attackers to install a bootkit without going through any of the firmware security checks.

The team found that all machines infected with the UEFI bootkit had the Windows Boot Manager replaced with a malicious one.

"When the UEFI transfers execution to the malicious loader, it first locates the original Windows Boot Manager. It is stored inside a directory, which contains two more files: the Winlogon Injector and the Trojan Loader  both are encrypted," Kaspersky explained.

"Once the original bootloader is located, it is loaded into memory, patched, and launched. This way of infection allowed the attackers to install a bootkit without the need to bypass firmware security checks."

Igor Kuznetsov, principal security researcher at Kasperskys Global Research and Analysis Team, said: The amount of work that was put into making FinFisher not accessible to security researchers is particularly worrying and somewhat impressive.

"It seems like the developers put at least as much work into obfuscation and anti-analysis measures as into developing the trojan itself.

Kuznetsov said the work put in made the spyware particularly hard to track and detect, meaning that anyone who wanted to drill into the innards needed to be willing to invest a substantial amount of time.

He added that complex threats like FinFisher made it plain that security researchers needed to co-operate and exchange knowledge.
FS-ISAC, the global cyber intelligence sharing community solely focused on financial services, says that large scale threats resulted in record-breaking peaks of intelligence sharing by financial firms across all regions from August 2020 to August 2021, including the Asia Pacific region, North America; Latin America; Europe, UK, Middle East and Africa.

FS-ISAC says that global cyber intelligence sharing among its member financial firms increased by 60% in the period driven by supply chain and ransomware threats.

With the increase in sophisticated cross-border cyber criminal campaigns against the financial sector and its supply chain, sector-wide global collaboration has become a risk management imperative, said Steven Silberstein, CEO of FSISAC.

Intelligence and best practice sharing across our community and platforms has reached new heights, spurred by the high-profile events of the last 12 months. We commend the members who go above and beyond to protect the financial system at large.

Silberstein was speaking at the global leader awards event, with cybersecurity professionals from American Express, Banco Falabella Chile, Australias IAG, and UBS earning accolades for outstanding cyber intelligence sharing efforts.

Meaningful threat intelligence gives our security team at IAG an advantage over the attackers and reduces cyber risk, said Craig Hall, Threat Analytic Cell Manager at IAG.

Recently, we were able to identify a threat actor who methodically attacked Australian financial institutions in alphabetical order throughout the day.

By sharing the criminals tactics, members throughout the region knew when they were likely to get hit and were therefore able to defend against attacks.

American Express is deeply interconnected with the other players in the global financial system, said Fred Gibbins, Chief Information Security Officer at American Express.

We believe it is our critical responsibility to share intelligence and best practices with our peers to help the industry to protect and defend against emerging cyber threats. We are honored to be recognised by FS-ISAC and appreciate the collaboration between all the members for our collective protection.

In Latin America we benefit from intelligence that is shared by global US and Europe-based firms as well as from our neighboring countries, said Juan Carrasco, Head of Cybersecurity at Banco Falabella Chile.

By monitoring attacks in Argentina and Brazil, we were able to predict and thwart a cyber attack in Chile. This attests to the power of crossborder intelligence sharing in mitigating cyber risk.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
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Lafayette, La. - A friendly stray that was adopted by a neighborhood and fed and watered by several residents was found wounded Sunday, September 26th. Someone shot and almost killed the harmless canine, named Bullseye, who has been roaming the same neighborhood for the past two years on the Wilderness Trail, in the town of Carencro.

A resident noticed that Bullseye was lying under his truck and had what appeared to be a laceration above his rib cage, just below his spine. Bullseye could not get up nor stand. The resident posted the information on Bullseye injury on social media and a friend of Amber Richard, a local rescuer and animal lover, tagged her on the post. Sensing that Bullseye likely needed immediate veterinary care, Amber reached out to the Humane Society of Louisiana and asked if they could help. Amber sent the group photos of Bullseye, and the group immediately agreed to pay for his veterinary care.

Amber drove Bullseye to the Lafayette Veterinary Care Center, where they determined that someone had shot and wounded Bullseye. The bullet entered his side and fractured his back left leg. Surgically repairing the leg would cost between 2.5 to $3,000 and additional surgeries could not be ruled out. The group elected to surgically remove the leg to avoid any future complications and to keep their costs down. Bullseye's medical costs will likely top $2,000. Those wishing to donate to Bullseye's medical care can donate online through the Humane Society's website at www.humanela.org, through its PayPal account at humanela@gmail.com or by sending a check or money order to P.O. Box 740321, New Orleans, LA 70174. All donations are tax-deductible.

The Humane Society is also offering a $750 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for shooting Bullseye. Tips and leads can be sent to the Humane Society by calling 1-888-6-HUMANE (486263) or by emailing them at info@humanela.org. All Information will be shared with the Lafayette sheriff's department.

"We are so disappointed and distraught that someone would injure and harm Bullseye. He posed no threat or harm to anyone and simply was trying his best to live on the fringes of society, getting by on handouts from pet friendly residents. We hope that someone will provide us with the information of who shot Bullseye, so we can pursue charges. We also hope that people will donate to his care," says Jeff Dorson, HSLA Director.

After Bullseye's surgery and subsequent sterilization, the group plans to place him up for adoption. Those interested in adopting him may contact the Humane Society at info@humanela.org.
WOONSOCKET, R.I.  CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) announced it will invest $25 million with R4 Capital to build 224 affordable housing units for families and seniors in Louisiana. This investment is part of the companys commitment to address racial inequity and social determinants of health in underserved communities.

When people have access to high-quality, affordable housing, it puts them in a better position to take care of their health and manage chronic disease, said David Casey, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, CVS Health. As part of our commitment to address social justice and racial inequity, we're addressing social determinants of health at the community level, which is where we can make a meaningful and lasting impact.

According to a recent report from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition in July, rent is out of reach for most low-wage workers in every state. In Louisiana, data compiled from the Louisiana Housing Corporation indicate that 45% of renters devote more than 35% of their household income to rent  the fifth highest in the country.

CVS Health is working with Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP) and its partner Alembic Community Development to build a 192-unit affordable housing development located at 1300 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard and 1801 Thalia Street in New Orleans. GCHP is a regional real estate development company based in New Orleans that focuses on producing affordable and mixed-income communities and developing complementary commercial and community space. The new development in Central City New Orleans will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom housing units at a reduced rent to families and seniors with demonstrated need. All residents will have access to onsite supportive services, including a Federally Qualified Health Center to help increase access to primary care and behavioral health.

We are grateful for the support of CVS Health and Aetna, said Kathy Laborde, GCHP President and CEO. Many organizations recognize the impact that quality affordable housing and access to health care have on someones health and wellbeing, but it takes the financial investment of partners like CVS Health and Aetna to help provide those services to communities in need.

In addition to the New Orleans investment, CVS Health will work with GCHP to build a new 32-unit development, Country Ridge Estates in Opelousas. The new apartments will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments at a reduced rate, and over 30% of the units will be set aside for single-parent families and those experiencing homelessness.

Our investment in the Louisiana community will provide safe housing with direct access to care  a commitment that that will have a direct impact on the Louisiana Medicaid community for years to come, said Richard Born, CEO of Aetna Better Health of Louisiana.

CVS Health will also offer its Project Health no-cost biometric screening program to the Louisiana community next year. Project Health offers free biometric screenings to help identify chronic conditions before they become life-threatening illnesses. Valued at over $100, these no-cost screenings measure body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, glucose and total cholesterol. The screenings can detect early risks for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

As CVS Health works to address social determinants of health in Louisiana, the company is also exploring opportunities to expand its national workforce initiatives program in New Orleans to help break the cycle of poverty by providing employment services and training to the community.
Apart from all-time favorite rom-com and healing series, dark and intense K-dramas have been dominating the chart these past years.

To name a few, the 2018 SBS series "Sky Castle" took the world by storm with its satirical take on the elite lifestyle. Joining the list is the OCN drama released in 2019, "Strangers From Hell," starring Im Shi Wan and Lee Dong Wook.

It is safe to say that this 2021, the biggest broadcast network in Korea, gave the audience a variety of genres to choose from.

However, if you are into psychological and thriller series, here are five dark and disturbing 2021 K-dramas which will put you at the edge of your seat.

'D.P'

Released on August 27, starring Jung Hae In and Goo Kyo Hwan, "D.P" gained the viewers' attention because of its storyline that focuses on the lives of soldiers and military personnel.

Private soldier Ahn Jun Ho and his buddy Corporal Han Ho Yul were members of the military defector arrest team and were tasked to capture deserters.

Apart from the action-packed scenes, "D.P," short for Deserter Pursuit, highlights the struggles and social issues, including bullying, harassment, and abuse scandals.

The six-episode series can still be streamed via Netflix.

'Dark Hole'

OCN's horror thriller drama made a debut on April 30, which stars Lee Joon Hyuk as the tow truck driver Yoo Tae Han and Kim Ok Bin, who took on the role of police detective Lee Hwa Sun.

"Dark Hole" illustrates a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic setting as they try to endure and get through the pandemonium after humans transform into creepy creatures.

'Penthouse 3'

From one thriller Kdrama to another, let's now move to the most talked-about revenge-driven series that highlights rivalry, greed, and self-indulgence.

"Penthouse 3" follows the story of families living in the affluent 100 story building as they battle for more power and wealth.

Lead stars Eugene, Lee Ji Ah, and Kim So Yeon portray the queens of Hera Palace Oh Yoon Hee, Shim Su Ryeon, and Cheon Seo jin, while Uhm Ki Joon took on the role of evil chairman Joo dan Tae.

"The Penthouse" season 3 became a massive hit due to its unpredictable storyline that left the viewers guessing who would die next.

'Law School'

Probably a lowkey disturbing Kdrama this 2021, "Law School" highlights a crime that happened inside Hankuk University Law School, where students and faculties were allegedly involved.

Kim Myung Min, who took on the role of the criminal law professor Yang Jong Hoon was initially the primary suspect for the alleged murder of his colleague.

"Law School" cast also includes Kim Bum as freshman law student Han Joon Hwi with Ryu Hye Young as Kang Sol A.

'Hellbound'

Last on the list is the upcoming mystery horror Kdrama is "Hellbound" with Yoo Ah In, Park Jung Min, Kim Hyun Joo, and Won Jin Ah.

The six-episode series is set to premiere in November, giving the audience a round of heart-stopping scenes helmed by the "Train to Busan" PD Yeon Sang Ho.

It depicts the story of Jung Jin Soo (Yoo Ah In) and his newly founded religion Saejinrihwe. He gains popularity by predicting phenomena such as catastrophe and even death.

IN CASE YOU MISSED:Yoo Ah In's Upcoming Netflix Series 'Hellbound' to Premiere in Toronto International Film Festival

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
"Start-Up," starring ae Suzy, Nam Joo Hyuk, and Kim Seon Ho, rose to fame due to its unique concept featuring the lives of young entrepreneurs.

Released in October 2020, the tvN series is set in a fictional Silicon Valley-like hub called Sandbox where Nam Do San, played by the "Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo" actor, and his best friends Kim Yong San and Lee Cheol San, portrayed by Kim Do Wan and Yoo Soo Bin dreams of launching their company, Sam San Tech.

At Sandbox, this is also where Bae Suzy's character Seo Dal Mi pushed herself to the limits and proved to her sister Won In Jae (Kang Ha Na) that she is not a failure.

Apart from the start-up companies, is the budding relationship or more of a love triangle between Nam Do San, Dal Mi, and her childhood friend Han Ji Pyeong (Kim Seon Ho.)

As the popular Kdrama almost celebrates its first anniversary since its premiere, let's get to know more about the "Start-Up" cast and their recent and upcoming projects in 2021 and the coming year.

Bae Suzy (Seo Dal Mi)

"Start-Up" is Bae Suzy's last appearance on the small screen; however, she is set to return in a thriller Kdrama, "The Second Anna."

In addition, the Hallyu star will be starring in an upcoming movie, "Wonderland," with the star-studded cast featuring Park Bo Gum, "Parasite" actor Choi Woo Shik, Rebecca Tang, and Jung Yu Mi.

She is also currently active on social media and often posts her latest endorsements, such as Dior and beauty brand Lancome.

Nam Joo Hyuk (Nam Do San)

2020 was a busy year for the model turned actor, given that he has "The School Nurse Files" and "Start-Up" in the same year.

Now, he is set to star in a slew of dramas and movies in 2022.

It came after he recently confirmed his appearance in "Twenty-Five Twenty-One" opposite Kim Tae Ri.

He takes on the role of Baek Yi Jin, a reporter and the eldest son of a family who fell into a deep financial crisis.

To support himself, he works as a part-timer at a bookstore and at the same time someone who delivers newspapers.

Moreover, he is also in talks to star alongside Lee Byung Hun in tvN's "Here."

Kim Seon Ho (Han Ji Pyeong)

Thanks to "Start-Up," Kdrama fandom now has the OG good boy through Kim Seon Ho's character, Han Ji Pyeong.

It is safe to say that the tvN series sparked his fame and is now making waves as Hong Doo Shik in "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" together with another Hallyu star, Shin Min Ah.

Interestingly, the South Korean heartthrob will have its movie debut with three upcoming films. This includes "Sad Tropical," "2 O'Clock Date," and "Dog Days" with Kim Yoon Jin and Oscar winner Youn Yuh Jung.

Kang Ha Na (Won In Jae)

Kang Ha Na's claim to fame is her role as the evil queen in the historical drama "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo," but it was the Kdrama "Start-Up" that intensified her stardom in the Hallyu world.

After starring as Wo In Jae in the rom-com series, the 32-year-old actress landed the main role in "My Roommate Is a Gumiho" with Lee Hyeri and Jang Ki Yong.

Interestingly, the fantasy drama is also a reunion project with "Start-Up" co-star Kim Do Wan.

In addition, fans would also get to see the actress in the historical drama "Red Single Heart" with Jang Hyuk and Lee Joon.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
YouTube will remove videos spreading misinformation about any approved vaccine, not only those aimed at preventing Covid-19, the company announced in a blog post Wednesday.

In a statement provided to CNN Business, YouTube also confirmed it would remove the channels of "several well-known vaccine misinformation spreaders" under the new policy, including one belonging to the Children's Health Defense Fund, a group affiliated with controversial anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Users who post misinformation about any "currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO" will have their videos taken down, and will be subject to YouTube's strike policy and could face removal, the company said in the blog post.

"This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them," YouTube said, adding that the policy applies to specific immunizations like those for measles, as well as general statements about vaccines.

Kennedy pushed back on YouTube's decision, telling CNN Business in a statement: "There is no instance in history when censorship has been beneficial for either democracy or public health."

The Google-owned platform previously introduced a policy prohibiting misinformation related to Covid-19 during the pandemic, including about treatment and prevention. That policy had already led to actions against some high-profile figures, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who was suspended for seven days in August for making false claims about the effectiveness of masks. (Paul criticized the decision by YouTube, and called the suspension a "badge of honor.")

YouTube said Wednesday that misleading claims have spilled over into other areas of medicine.

The announcement comes as the United States and other countries around the world have struggled to tackle misinformation that experts say contributes to vaccine hesitancy. The global rate of daily Covid-19 vaccinations has fallen recently to around 26 million doses per day.

Some social media platforms have been criticized for not doing enough to address vaccine misinformation. The White House in July called on tech companies to ban the "disinformation dozen," a list of 12 people, including Kennedy, who were identified by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate as being leading spreaders of vaccine misinformation. Multiple people on that list were among those YouTube said it took action against Wednesday.

Facebook in August said it removed dozens of pages and groups related to the disinformation dozen. Kennedy's Facebook-owned Instagram page was shut down earlier in the year for posting Covid-19 misinformation.

Under YouTube's new rules, users who post vaccine misinformation will be subject to its strike policy, which provides up to three strikes for content that goes against its policies posted within a 90-day period. The third strike leads to the user being permanently suspended. However, the company also says it may remove users after only one severe violation of the rules or when a channel is dedicated to violating the policy.

YouTube also said Wednesday that there will be exceptions to its new anti-vaccine guidelines. It will allow, for example, content about new vaccine trials and historical vaccine successes or failures.

"Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, so long as the video doesn't violate other Community Guidelines, or the channel doesn't show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy," YouTube said.

The-CNN-Wire

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MEDFORD, Ore.  The Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport will soon feature short, non-stop flights to and from the Reno-Tahoe International Airport through a partnership with ExpressJet Airlines new leisure brand "aha!"

Flights begin October 31, and will operate every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Planes depart Medford at 11:55 a.m. and arrive in Reno-Tahoe at 1:05 p.m. Return flights operate on the same days, departing Reno-Tahoe at 10 a.m. and arriving in Medford at 11:10 a.m.

We are excited to begin a relationship with the airline industrys newest entrant, aha!, said Medford airport director Jerry Brienza. Reno/Tahoe has been a favorite destination for many who live in Southern Oregon and Northern California and now the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport can get them there faster, so the vacation may start sooner. Conversely, aha! will provide travel to those individuals residing in the Reno area to Southern Oregon to enjoy its vineyards, lakes, coastline, tranquility and so much more!

aha! said that it will be offering an introductory, limited-time rate of $49 each way until November 15.

The Reno-Tahoe region offers travelers a wide range of fun and unique experiences, said the head of ExpressJets aha! business unit, Tim Sieber. With the time savings of nonstop flights and packages with great deals at a curated collection of the best hotels and casino resorts in the region coming soon, were giving travelers everything they need to customize their own great, short vacation.

The Medford airport has seen some notable growth this year, announcing the addition of a new hotel on the airport property last week, and adding non-stop flights to and from the Los Angeles area in May.
MEDFORD, Ore.  A Medford organization dedicated to helping homeless, runaway and at-risk youth will receive a $250,000 grant toward a transitional living program, Oregon's US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced Wednesday.

In total, five Oregon organizations will receive a combined $1.3 million in grant funding for street outreach and transitional services geared toward young people facing housing insecurity.

The epidemic of housing insecurity among young Oregonians puts them at risk on the streets and undermines their opportunity to learn in school so they can lead stable and successful lives, Wyden said. Im gratified these federal resources will assist community organizations in these five counties working to connect youth with safe, long-term housing and services, and Ill keep battling for similar resources throughout the state.

The US Department of Health and Human Services awarded the funds through the Street Outreach and Transitional Living programs, designed to support youth in finding long-term stable housing, and building connections between youth experiencing houselessness and caring adults.

Young people should be able to focus on school, and discovering their talents and interests, and building relationships -- not worrying about where they're going to sleep that night, Merkley said. Assisting young Oregonians in finding permanent, reliable housing should be a top priority  especially during an ongoing pandemic  and I am pleased to see Oregon counties receive federal funding to tackle this pressing issue. I will continue fighting to ensure every Oregonian, regardless of age, has a healthy living environment and a place to call home.

Hearts with a Mission was the only program in southern Oregon to receive a grant in this round. Grants ranging from $125,000 to $250,000 went to organizations in Yamhill, Marion, Lane, and Multnomah counties.

We are in the highest risk period ever for youth who are living homeless on the streets. In addition to survival they are facing severe mental health challenges and increasing violence on a daily basis. We do not believe there are 'homeless youth' in our communities but rather 'family-less children' who deserve a safe place to find the home that they deserve and the support necessary to sustain it. And that is exactly what these federal resources will help accomplish," said Dennis Morrow, Executive Director of Janus Youth Programs, Inc. in Portland.
By Jennifer Hansler and Jake Tapper, CNN

(CNN) -- More than 100 US citizens and green card holders and nine special immigrant visa holders were evacuated from Afghanistan via a private charter flight on Tuesday, according to two organizations involved in the effort.

Project Dynamo and Human First Coalition said in a press release that the group of evacuees were "moved overland, COVID tested, MMR vaccinated, securely housed and evacuated to safety the afternoon of September 28, 2021 at 2:00 P.M. local time."

Among the passengers evacuated from Kabul were 59 children under the age of 18 and 16 under age 3, according to the groups.

"We would like to thank the U.S. State Department and the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their cooperation in challenging circumstances to secure the safe return of these U.S. citizens, U.S. Legal Permanent Residents, and Afghan allies," the press release said. "We would also like to acknowledge the Taliban for facilitating the departure of the aircraft by allowing those who want to depart Afghanistan to do so peacefully."

Project Dynamo's co-founder Bryan Stern told CNN Wednesday that they had landed in the UAE but claimed that their follow-on flight to the United States had been denied landing rights in the US. He said they had been "stuck" in the capital of Abu Dhabi and "have been trying to get out."

An administration official noted that this is security protocol. Once the flight landed in the UAE, US government officials had to verify the accuracy of the manifest and the passengers' travel documents. The official described it as the system working as it should, and that as passengers are verified, they expect them to be rebooked on commercial flights and be able to fly to the United States.

A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed that "a privately organized charter flight arrived in Abu Dhabi overnight from Kabul."

"Our embassy staff in the UAE has been working around the clock to verify the accuracy of the passenger manifest and is coordinating with DHS/Customs and Border Protection on the ground to ensure the passengers are screened and vetted before they are permitted to fly to the United States," they said.

"We expect the passengers to continue onward travel tomorrow morning," the spokesperson said, adding, "We are grateful to the government of the UAE for its support."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN Wednesday that "all US-bound flights must follow the established safety, security, and health protocols before they are cleared for departure."

"This process requires flight manifests to be verified before departure to the US to ensure all passengers are screened appropriately," they said.

On Monday, a senior State Department official had said the United States was working to facilitate the departure of about 100 American citizens and green card holders who had indicated they were ready to leave Afghanistan.

That official told reporters they are "constantly touching base" with US citizens believed to still be in Afghanistan, as well as other governments, private groups and aircraft carriers to try to arrange charter flights.

That official said there had been "challenges" with the charter flights that had come to US government reception points, including stowaways, unaccompanied minors and passengers who were not on the manifests.

The official described the Taliban's "unpredictability regarding who is permitted to depart" as the biggest impediment to the departure of US citizens and others from Afghanistan. The absence of regular commercial air service is another big constraint, the official said.

"There's a range of contact and dialogue ongoing with the Taliban, particularly in Doha, with the remaining members of the Taliban political commission who are based there," the official said.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that a group of 21 US citizens and their family members had been able to leave Afghanistan that day, but declined to give further details about their departure.

Austin could not provide a number of how many Americans are left in Afghanistan, saying the figure "fluctuates daily."

"This has been a dynamic process, but again we will stay focused on this," he added.

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters Tuesday that the department was not in a position to confirm those additional departures due to "security reasons" and referred to the Department of Defense.
By Alisha Ebrahimji, Liz Stark and Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) -- The ivory-billed woodpecker, along with 22 other species of birds, fish, mussels and other wildlife, is set to be declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list, US wildlife officials announced Wednesday.

"For the species proposed for delisting today, the protections of the (Endangered Species Act) came too late, with most either extinct, functionally extinct, or in steep decline at the timing of listing," the US Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Also slated for delisting are the Bachman's warbler, two species of freshwater fishes, eight species of Southeastern freshwater mussels and 11 species from Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.

"The circumstances of each also underscore how human activity can drive species decline and extinction, by contributing to habitat loss, overuse and the introduction of invasive species and disease. The growing impacts of climate change are anticipated to further exacerbate these threats and their interactions," the wildlife agency said.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland underscored that while a variety of specific factors contributed to each species' demise, "the story arc is essentially the same -- humans altered their habitat in a significant way, and we couldn't or didn't do enough to ultimately change the trajectory before it was too late."

But the interior secretary suggested the extinction of these species can be a "wake-up call" for humans to take action to prevent extinction and protect biodiversity.

"With climate change and natural area loss pushing more and more species to the brink, now is the time to lift up proactive, collaborative, and innovative efforts to save America's wildlife," Haaland said Wednesday in a statement. "The Endangered Species Act has been incredibly effective at preventing species from going extinct and has also inspired action to conserve at-risk species and their habitat before they need to be listed as endangered or threatened.

"We will continue to ensure that states, Tribes, private landowners, and federal agencies have the tools they need to conserve America's biodiversity and natural heritage."

Monarch butterfly and other species are wait-listed

The species placed on the extinction list had not been seen in decades, so their inclusion came as little surprise to experts.

More concerning are species on the wait list for protection by the wildlife agency, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The monarch butterfly is of particular concern, she said. It wasn't added to the federal endangered species list in December and won't be reconsidered until 2024.

"It means the population can crash with no protection," Curry said, noting climate change, hotter temperatures and pesticide use threaten the butterfly's migration pattern and food sources. "It's beloved; it used to be common."

Climate change is making fragile conditions for some declining species even more challenging, she said.

"Climate change threatens life on Earth," Curry said. "We have to fight climate change and biodiversity loss at the same time. Climate changes gets a lot more attention than extinction, but extinction is a big problem."

The proposal to delist the 23 species announced Wednesday will be open for public comment until the end of December, the agency said.

Ivory-billed woodpecker relied on scarce habitat

Almost 3 billion birds have been lost in North America since 1970, according to a US Fish and Wildlife Service news release.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was never known as a common bird because it depended on large Southern swamps with lots of space and food to thrive, according to the American Bird Conservancy. Once its habitat began to disappear because of uncontrolled logging, the woodpecker became scarce. It was frequently shot by hunters and collectors, which likely contributed to its disappearance, the conservancy said.

The last positively confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States was in Louisiana in the 1940s, said John Fitzpatrick, director emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. But there are reports of sightings and grainy video of the bird dating to the early 2000s in eastern Arkansas that haven't been confirmed.

"My view, it's way premature to declare the bird extinct officially on the part of the US Fish and Wildlife Service because the bird may still exist," he told CNN. "The point of declaring something extinct is having rock solid evidence that it is gone."

Fitzpatrick and other ornithologists will petition the wildlife agency during the comment period to take the bird off the extinction list, he said.

"I'm hopeful they'll take another look at this and say we can actually pull this back for another decade or two," Fitzpatrick said. "We continue to say it's worth searching for this bird."
NEWBERG, Ore (AP)  An Oregon school board that had banned educators from displaying Black Lives Matter and gay pride symbols has broadened the policy to prohibit district employees from displaying all political symbols.

An original move last month by the Newberg School Board to prevent staff from displaying BLM or gay pride flags prompted strong criticism and threats to boycott the town and its businesses.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the board rescinded that rule Tuesday night and opted for a more sweeping policy. It ban all symbols deemed political, including those supporting BLM or LGBTQ issues.

Newberg is a town with about 25,000 residents southwest of Portland.

The District has been at the center of several controversies this year, beginning with the board's ban on political symbols. Later, at least one student of Newberg High School was discovered to be participating in a racist Snapchat group called "Slave Trade." Just last week, the District revealed that a staff member had been placed on leave after she showed up to school wearing blackface.

Over the weekend, Newberg Public Schools responded to reports that the far-right group the Proud Boys planned to gather in town, and later concluded that those rumors were "unfounded." But video of dueling demonstrations in Newberg on Sunday showed several Proud Boys confronting protesters bearing Black Lives Matter and Pride flags.

"Our concern is that current tensions do not increase to include violence or other negative consequences, and we apologize if our message added to disagreement," the District said. "Our message to all groups, inside and outside Newberg, from all perspectives, is that we work to share our differences in positive and constructive ways. Most importantly, our hope is that we work together for the safety and well-being of the students in our community."
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- The Oregon Health Authority arrived at the Jackson County Expo overnight to open another Covid-19 vaccine and testing clinic.

The clinic will be open Tuesday through Sunday for the next two weeks beginning September 28. Hours will be from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Newswatch 12 asked Jackson County Public Healths' Tanya Phillips if the Pfizer booster shots would be available at the drive-up Expo clinic. While this was not the case earlier on Tuesday, by that afternoon the Expo was able to get its order approved, allowing the clinic to distribute boosters.

Phillips says vaccine orders signed by a medical operator is the case for any vaccine, not just the Covid shots.

"All medical providers that are providing any vaccination, we all operate under standing orders," Phillips said. "So, we all need those standing orders signed, and what's in that standing order gives us the directions for giving vaccines."

Jackson County continues to offer multiple locations for first series Pfizer recipients to get a booster, and people seeking a booster shot in Jackson County are being asked to call 211 for further information.

Phillips says anyone who has been previously vaccinated with a Covid-19 shot should plan to bring their CDC card, and providing further information will not be necessary.
By Amir Vera and Stella Chan, CNN

(CNN) -- A woman who was attempting to hike to Canada is facing charges connected with the Fawn Fire, which authorities say she started while trying to boil drinking water, according to a criminal complaint from the Shasta County District Attorney's Office in California.

Alexandra Souverneva, 30, faces a felony arson charge with an enhancement of committing arson during a state of emergency, District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said. Souverneva could face up to nine years in state prison, though she could face more charges as the fire is still burning and the investigation is ongoing, authorities said.

The Fawn Fire began September 22 and as of Tuesday morning, was 65% contained, according to Cal Fire. The fire has burned more than 8,500 acres and prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in Shasta County. The fire has destroyed homes and forced thousands of evacuations, according to a statement from Newsom's office.

"We are aware that there are possible additional fires here in our county that she may be linked to as well as other charges in other fires, statewide," Bridgett said at a news conference Friday. "My office will not hesitate to prosecute (any) person who either intentionally or recklessly starts a fire."

Souverneva pleaded not guilty, authorities said.

The district attorney's office says she was appointed a public defender at her court appearance on Friday. The county public defender's office said it does not comment on any pending cases.

Souverneva had been hiking to Canada on September 22 and was seen in the Mountain Gate community in Northern California, according to a narrative written by a Cal Fire officer. She was told she couldn't be on the property by quarry employees, but kept walking.

Souverneva then became thirsty and found a puddle of water in a dry creek bed, but the water allegedly had bear urine in it so she tried to filter the water with a tea bag, the officer said.

"She said that didn't work so she attempted to make a fire to boil the water. She stated it was too wet for the fire to start. She said she drank the water anyway and then continued walking uphill from the creek bed," the complaint read.

Souverneva got stuck in brush and called the fire department, the complaint read. She was evaluated for dehydration and then questioned by Cal Fire authorities when she allegedly told them she tried to light a fire. Souverneva was taken into custody, the complaint read.

Souverneva was found with with CO2 cartridges, a cigarette lighter and a "white item containing a green leafy substance," the complaint read.

Souverneva's bail is $150,000 and her next court appearance is October 5.
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I still have a little mental trauma from my first anesthesia job. Well, actually, its really from the hospital. And it all occurred over a four-year period.

The anesthesia group was awesome. The OR staff was like family. The patients and surgeries were challenging. It was a great first job to take out of training.

Like most first jobs, I wasnt experienced enough or confident enough to ask certain questions during the interview. Questions I didnt know to ask. Questions if you were told to ask you would wonder, Why in the world would I need to ask that?

The end of 2014 to the final months of 2018 was a whirlwind of credentialing and eventually interviewing for a new anesthesia job. Our group went from hospital employees to working for a national staffing company only to be replaced by another one 22 months later. The second staffing company lasted a year and a half before we were once again hospital employees starting January 1, 2018.

Still following?

It gets better.

Early September, we were informed the hospital would be closing its doors as of December 30.

One hospital closure after another

Now, you might be thinking that I worked in some rural hospital, and this contributed to its financial woes and ultimate decision to shutter its doors. However, it was Providence Hospital located in our nations capital, Washington DC.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported 23 hospital closures in 2018. The following year it doubled to 47 closures, with Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia dominating the national media headlines. Beckers Healthcare reported 47 hospitals closed or filed for bankruptcy last year when COVID shut down ORs nationwide.

Last year was unprecedented and likely accelerated the closure process for many of these facilities. It was the opposite during my time at Providence. I witnessed the slow, gradual downfall of a once-prominent hospital in the District.

Dysfunction in the ORs

There were many factors that led to its demise and plenty of blame to pass around. However, from an OR perspective, it was like watching a sinking ship, and I was along for the ride.

OR utilization was horrific. Surgeons were showing up hours late for scheduled procedures. We had anemic turnover times between cases. Cancellations happened because a surgeon didnt like the nurse in the room.

It was mind-blowing, and we were hemorrhaging money.

In an age where cataracts are performed in surgery centers, we were dedicating two out of 8 ORs multiple days of the week to eyes. And once a week, we had one surgeon who would take 8 hours to complete five cataract surgeries.

Imagine trying to justify that one to your hospital administration, but it was accepted because it inflated case counts.

Where did the OR cases go?

The ORs were rocking when I first started practicing anesthesia, but over the years, there was a steady downtrend. It started with a few surgeons retiring.

It was expected because of their age, but the problem became that they werent being replaced. It was a combination of poor recruiting efforts and a lack of purchasing new equipment. Both go hand in hand because its hard to attract younger surgeons to a facility left behind in time.

Next, a few surgeons left for better block time, better equipment or a better deal with a more secure hospital.

A full day of cases shortened to the late anesthesia providers leaving earlier more often. Over time, staff working 8 or 10 hours shifts saw themselves being relieved before their scheduled finish time on a regular basis. The last few years a list was created to call people off when an OR or two was shut down for the day because there were not enough cases.

Years before the hospital closed, I told my wife it was inevitable Providence was not going to make it. But like many of the people in our group, I stuck around because I was comfortable in the routine.

I loved the staff there. I loved taking care of an underserved community. I loved the experiences it provided, good and bad.

Its those experiences that taught me the questions I needed to ask when interviewing for my next anesthesia position.

The anesthesia contract

Bouncing around from different anesthesia groups within the same facility to watching a hospital fail changes your perspective on how to evaluate an anesthesia job.

The focus now expands from is the group a good fit for me and am I a good fit for the group, to inquiring about the anesthesia groups and hospitals outlook for the future.

Many of the questions should be centered around the anesthesia contract with the hospital. How long have you had the contract? What is your relationship with the current administration? (Most hospital CEOs average 3-5 years in the position) How is the group integrated into hospital committees and leadership roles?

An anesthesia group that is actively involved in hospital management becomes integral in the missions overall success and is seen as a value-added to the administration. With many anesthesia departments receiving a stipend from hospitals to cover costs, putting people asleep is not enough anymore.

Does the anesthesia group have low complication rates? High patient satisfaction scores? How does the group rank in medical staff surveys against other departments? These are metrics the executive suite understands, and if the group ranks well in these areas, theyre more willing to pay for your services.

Where is the hospital going?

Next, dive into how the facility is managed. If you are looking to make a long-term commitment to an area, you want to make sure the hospital has financial stability and a plan for the future.

Before even sitting down for the interview, do a search on the facility. Check out news articles and reviews. Granted, you might not find anything, but you could discover it has earned regional recognition or had a budget shorting coming for the previous year. Its akin to reviewing the chart before going into pre-op the patient. Its a starting point to guide the discussion.

When assessing the hospital, you want to take into consideration what they have done in the recent past and their plans for the future. Have they and are they continuing to invest in the facility and its staff?

Have there been any recent upgrades to the hospital? New wing or buildings? Renovations to the facility? Are they investing in new equipment?

Have they recently brought on any new surgeons? Are there any in the pipeline? What specialties are they looking to build on?

Lasty, dont be afraid to ask what the financials of the hospital are. Granted, as we muddled our way through COVID, 2019s and this years numbers are probably pretty bleak. But find out what it was like before the pandemic. Does it have the financial support to continue its mission as we crawl back to normalcy?

Flashbacks

I wasnt joking when I said I have a little mental trauma from my first job due to COVID. We had some days when we closed some ORs because of low case counts. There was a tiny part of my brain that flashed panic because Ive seen this before, but I reminded myself the circumstances are different and to relax.

Due diligence during the interview helped gather all the available information to conclude the hospital was on the right path. The anesthesia group was an integral part of its success. But that being said, if the last year taught us anything about the health care industry, there is no such thing as a sure thing.

We can only make an informed decision with the current information and continue to provide excellent patient care until the hospital kicks us out or we decide to leave.

Hopefully, its the latter.

Patrick Flaherty is a certified anesthesiology assistant.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
EUGENE, Ore. -- The mystery continues after a Veneta man was found severely injured on Interstate 84 over the weekend. It's unclear how it happened.

RELATED: OSP SEEKS TIPS AFTER VENETA MAN FOUND INJURED FAR FROM HOME

Troopers said they found Derek Martell unconscious inside his silver Ford pickup, which was pulling a trailer, at exit 109 at the bottom of the off-ramp. That's just east of The Dalles near the John Day Dam.

His brother, Tyler Martell, is begging for answers.

"No one knows what happened to Derek on Saturday," Tyler said.

Derek was reportedly struck with an object in the head, leaving him unresponsive in his front seat. But Tyler said he is getting better. Derek can now form a few sentences but then doses off. He is tired and confused.

The mystery started on Saturday, Sep. 25. Derek was returning to Veneta from a week-long elk hunting trip in eastern Oregon. Derek made a phone call to his wife at 11:30 a.m. By noon, his entire world had collapsed.

"When the call came in, he was outside of his truck laying in the gravel at 114 and when Oregon State Police found him, he was at the pull-off at exit 109 right on the side of the exit ramp, inside of his vehicle," Tyler said.

The question is, what happened to Derek at milepost 114, and how did he end up five miles down the road inside his truck with blood coming out of his ear?

"Did someone jump him? I guess that's a possibility, but none of his stuff is missing, so what's the motive?" Tyler questioned.

But Tyler and his family are thankful for the improvements Derek is making. He said they hope to welcome him home at the end of the week.

State troopers said they're currently trying to find that needle in the haystack to determine what happened and who was involved.

"Someone out there knows what happened on Saturday," Tyler said. "We'd like to get that story of what actually went down."

Toney Core, Derek's workout buddy for the past 10 months, said Derek is a really nice man who makes friends with everyone.

"He would do anything for anybody; he's just a really nice guy, and that's how everyone knows him," Core said.

Core told KEZI he was "shocked" when he found out that Derek had been life-flighted to Washington.

In the meantime, what happened to Derek Martell on Interstate 84 remains a mystery.
EUGENE, Ore. -- A Springfield man is in custody after Eugene Police said he was threatening people with a knife at the Express Inn & Suites.

At about 7:30 a.m., police responded to the hotel on West 6th Avenue regarding a man who was yelling and threatening people at the hotel.

Responding officers learned that the suspect, Zachary Ryan Carter, 28, had scared several people in the area.

Carter was approached by a female employee regarding his behavior when he pulled out a knife and ran after her, police said. She was able to make it back safely to the office.

The Crisis Negotiation Team responded to help officers and made several attempts to contact Carter, who continued to present a threat to patrons and officers at the location, authorities said.

He was eventually taken into custody with the use of a Taser and resisted arrest.

He was transported to the hospital for evaluation and then taken to the Lane County Jail on charges of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Menacing, Disorderly Conduct, Resisting Arrest, and Criminal Trespass in the Second Degree.
EUGENE, Ore.  The Veneta man who was found seriously injured inside his vehicle last weekend is being discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.

Derek Martells condition has improved enough for him to leave the hospital in Richland, Washington, where he has been a patient, according to a GoFundMe page set up on his behalf.

On Saturday, an Oregon State Police trooper found Martell, 38, unconscious inside his pickup truck at exit 109 on Interstate 84. The location was near John Day Dam, east of The Dalles in northern Oregon.

Martell had suffered severe head trauma and was taken to the hospital. It is unclear how he was injured. Martell was returning to Veneta from a week-long elk hunting trip in eastern Oregon when he was injured.

OSP is asking for the publics help to determine what happened to Martell. Anyone with information about what happened is asked to call 1-800-442-2068, or *OSP from a cell phone. Callers should reference case number SP21274660.

The GoFundMe account set up to assist with Martells medical bills is available here.
At Belview Port today, Iarnrod Eireann and XPO Logistics, a leading global provider of freight transportation solutions, launched a new rail freight service in each direction between Ballina, Co Mayo and Waterford.

The new rail service begins weekly operations today, building to twice-weekly within eight weeks.

It will offer Irish industry a greener and more efficient mode of transporting freight between the West and Southeast of the country. It will see the potential for over 5,000 truck movements a year to switch from road to rail, with a resulting reduction in road congestion, and 75% reduction in emissions per unit.

The new service comes as Iarnrod Eireann is finalising a new national rail freight strategy to identify growth and investment opportunities to significantly grow rail freight operations.

Iarnrod Eireann Chief Executive Jim Meade said, "We are entering a very exciting phase where rail freight can offer key solutions for the movement of freight as the country addresses both environmental and congestion challenges in this sector. We are currently finalising a very ambitious strategic plan for the growth of rail freight between key locations across the country. Today's announcement with XPO and Waterford Port demonstrates the viable opportunities that can be developed that will not just support industry and the logistics sector, but is also fully aligned with the country's climate action plan."

Dan Myers, managing director  UK and Ireland, XPO Logistics, said, "Climate change is a critical global challenge; the solutions will take a concerted effort, coordinated action and cooperation. Our collaborative, end-to-end service with Irish Rail  where XPO provides the booking of rail freight movements, drayage trucking of containers, and services such as cross-docking  is a double win. Our customers have new, eco-friendly transport options, and our planet wins as supply chains become greener. It's another step in our collective journey to a carbon-neutral future."

Port of Waterford Chief Executive Frank Ronan said, Port of Waterford welcomes the re-introduction of rail freight services to the Port at Belview. These trains, carrying container freight, will work very effectively with the Port's Lo-Lo shipping services to provide businesses in Ireland's West/North West with a compelling logistics solution to and from mainland Europe.

The excellent carbon emissions reductions we will achieve on this freight plus the alleviation of road and port congestion in Dublin make this a very worthwhile initiative. We wish XPO Logistics every success with this venture and look forward to working with them."

Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD said: The way we choose to connect communities and businesses will be critically important as we look to halve our emissions by 2030. Rail and other sustainable solutions will play an important role on our journey to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This new freight service offers a climate friendly option connecting enterprises from the West to the Southeast of the country and onwards to export markets ,and we look forward to growing our rail freight operations soon.

Iarnrod Eireann is continuing to work with existing and potential new customers and Freight Forwarders, Ports and the Irish Exporters Association to identify opportunities and trends for rail freight development within the Irish and European market.
Kilkennys make-up artists Michael Ryan and Carol Knox survive another week on RTE2 Glow up Ireland.

Michael sailed through and won the Drag Queen industry challenge, but with a turn of events when he ended up having a face-off with Megan O'Connor from Ballinamore . They were challenged to do a clumpy lash look and somebody had to go home. It was Megans turn to be eliminated from the competition, leaving our two Kilkenny stars still standing.

"I feel absolutely terrible. My heart is absolutely broken," Michael told us after the show.

"Of all the people in this competition that I could have been up against in a Face Off Megan is the purest, nicest soul I've ever met and she is insanely talented. This is not a feeling I want to have again. I'm not going to give up on this. I'm going to keep fighting for as long as I have to but it's not going to get any easier."

Episode four had the amazing guest judge and a national treasure Panti Bliss. "I am a tired old queen and so I was prepared to come in here and be a horrible cynic and think you were all terrible. And you all disappointed me by all being pretty bloody good! I was pretty impressed," said Panti.

Kilkennys other contestant and mother of two Carol Knox was pleasantly surprised to receive such high praise on her first attempt of Drag Queen make up, with Panti saying: Carol I have to say at the very beginning I was most worried about you because you had a rocky start but you recovered so well. I was actually very impressed with you. I suspect you are a fighter.

Carol also wowed the judges this week with her second challenge, which was to portray a look about facing your freedom. Carol based her look on what it felt like been in lockdown with two small children.

"Like so many parents it was hard going with small kids at home during lockdown; home-schooling, entertaining them, thinking of activities on top of feeding and keeping on top of the house. We had nowhere to go, with no break or help, she said.

Some people might look at freedom as getting away from it all and going to a beach or a desert island. To me its just silence and silence of the mind, silence to the ears. Its about not having to think of what we have to do next or having that responsibility of always trying to be organised and figure it all out. Freedom for me is when I stop thinking and theres silence in my head. Its the mental break as I am a natural over thinker.

Glow Up Ireland is presented by TV star, model and influencer Maura Higgins which airs on RTE2 from 9.35pm every Thursday.
Brandon Hill in Graignamanagh and the South Leinster Way are among 31 walking trails that will be funded as part of the Governments 'Our Rural Future' programme.

The funding was announced this morning (Wednesday) by Minister Heather Humphreys and includes the addition of 31 new walking trails to her Departments Walks Scheme and funding for a number of new Rural Recreation Officers.

Under the scheme, funding is provided to farmers and other landowners to maintain the trails that travel through their holdings.

Todays announcement means there are will now be 80 trails across the country under the Scheme, which is operated by the Department of Rural and Community Development in conjunction with the Local Development Companies (LDCs) and over 2,400 farmers and landowners in total.

The trails added today involve over 400 farmers and include the Dingle Way in County Kerry, St Declans Way in County Waterford, the Ballyhoura Way in County Limerick, the South Leinster Way in County Kilkenny and the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai in County Cork.

Additional funding will also be provided to the Local Development Companies that deliver the scheme locally, as well as for the salaries paid to the Rural Recreation Officers who play a vital role in delivering the Walks Scheme and developing the outdoor recreation sector locally. Minister Humphreys also today announced the creation of up to eight new Rural Recreation Officer posts in addition to the 13 already in place. These are designed to further enhance our outdoor amenities and the experience of visitors to Rural Ireland..

The announcement delivers on commitments in both the Programme for Government and Our Rural Future to increase the number of trails under the Walks Scheme in order to boost outdoor recreation and tourism in rural towns and villages.

Minister Humphreys also today published a review of the Walks Scheme, which sets out a number of recommendations aimed at enhancing the Walks Scheme and the role of Rural Recreation Officers, and will be implemented in consultation with key stakeholders.

Making the announcement Minister Humphreys said, "Our walkways, trails, greenways, blueways and cycleways are a defining feature of Rural Ireland. They have been a godsend throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic  providing so many of us with the opportunity to get out for some exercise and to meet up with family and friends.

Over the past number of months, we have seen unprecedented investment in our outdoor amenities, underpinned by the most ambitious ever policy for Rural Ireland, Our Rural Future.

Todays announcement is further action behind that policy. By adding 31 new trails to the Walks Scheme, we are opening up our rural countryside further to walkers, hikers, adventurists, cyclists, as well as domestic and international tourists.

Welcoming the news, Mayor Andrew McGuinness said, "this is fantastic news for County Kilkenny and I'm delighted to welcome it this morning as it will be of great benefit both in a tourism sense and for recreation.

"The pandemic has shown us the importance of our outdoor recreation spaces and we have all become very familiar with our many walkways and trails so this funding comes at a great time.

"I want to thank Minister Humphreys for considering Kilkenny in this tranche of allocations and of course encourage her to keep Kilkenny high on her agenda. I look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition."

Deputy John Paul Phelan said that, under the scheme, funding will be provided to farmers and other landowners to maintain the trails that travel through their holdings:

A total of 28 landowners will receive payment for maintenance of the 104km South Leinster Way, while an additional 9 landowners will receive payment to maintain trails along the 19km Brandon Hill loop walk, Deputy Phelan commented. Additional funding will also be provided to the Local Development Companies that deliver the scheme locally, as well as for the salaries paid to the Rural Recreation Officers who play a vital role in delivering the Walks Scheme and developing the outdoor recreation sector locally.

These trails will further enhance our outdoor amenities in Kilkenny and the experience of visitors to rural towns and villages, which we were all so grateful to have on our doorsteps during the Covid-19 pandemic."
Seafarers, truck drivers and airline workers have endured quarantines, travel restrictions and complex Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements to keep stretched supply chains moving during the pandemic.

But many are now reaching their breaking point, posing yet another threat to the badly tangled network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world.

In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a "global transport system collapse" if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.

"Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years' worth of strain on transport workers take their toll," the groups wrote. The letter has also been signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally.

"All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the pandemic, putting the supply chain under greater threat," it added.

Guy Platten, secretary general of the ICS, said that worker shortages are likely to worsen towards the end of the year because seafarers may not want to commit to new contracts and risk not making it home for Christmas given port shutdowns and constant changes to travel restrictions.

Fragile supply chains

That will heap pressure on stretched supply chains and could, for example, worsen current challenges with food and fuel supply in the United Kingdom.

"The global supply chain is very fragile and depends as much on a seafarer [from the Philippines] as it does on a truck driver to deliver goods," added Stephen Cotton, ITF secretary general. "The time has come for heads of government to respond to these workers' needs."

When Karynn Marchal and her crew were told that they wouldn't be allowed to go on shore upon docking in Hokkaido, Japan it was a big hit to morale.

"None of us knew how long it would go on for," the 28-year old chief officer of a car-carrying ship told CNN Business.

That was more than 18 months ago. Marchal  and hundreds of thousands of seafarers like her  have not been permitted shore leave since.

After weeks on board a ship, a couple of hours on shore provides much needed respite. But seafarers can only leave a vessel in order to travel elsewhere, usually to return home. Marchal considers herself "one of the luckier ones," because she has at least been able to make it home to the United States.

"There are people who have been stuck at sea for over a year," she said.

Early in the pandemic, many seafarers agreed to extend their contracts by several months to keep supplies of food, fuel, medicine and other consumer goods flowing around the world. The grounding of planes and border closures had made it almost impossible to move workers from one part of the world to another and to swap crews.

At the peak of the crisis in 2020, 400,000 seafarers were unable to leave their ships for routine changeovers, some working for as long as 18 months beyond the end of their initial contracts, according to the ICS.

Multiple vaccinations, repeated testing

While these numbers have improved, crew changes remain a major challenge. Some travel restrictions were reimposed as a result of the coronavirus Delta variant and transport workers continue to face a myriad of vaccine and testing requirements just to do their jobs. Often these are imposed at a moment's notice, said Platten.

Inconsistent requirements mean that some seafarers have been vaccinated multiple times because some countries have approved only certain vaccines, according to Platten.

He knows of at least one seafarer who has received six vaccine doses, or three two-dose regimens. "It's an absolute nightmare. I can't understand why we don't have some sort of global standard," he told CNN Business.

Meanwhile, the unequal distribution of vaccines globally means that only about 25% to 30% of seafarers, many of who are from India and the Philippines, are fully vaccinated, according to Platten.

Coronavirus testing is also a challenge. In February, Germany unilaterally introduced mandatory PCR testing with no exemption for truck drivers, leading neighboring countries including Italy to impose similar restrictions to avoid having thousands of drivers stranded in their own territory.

These measures affected thousands of truck drivers, particularly on the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria, forcing them to queue for days in sub-zero temperatures with no food or medical facilities. The EU Digital Covid Certificate has since eased some of the pressure, but bottlenecks remain.

"Drivers have faced hundreds of border issues and blockades through the pandemic," said Umberto de Pretto, IRU secretary general. "Truck drivers, and the citizens and businesses that depend on the goods they move, pay a heavy price for misguided Covid restrictions that do not exempt transport workers," he added.

Marchal, the chief officer, and her crew had to do 10 Covid tests in seven days before they were allowed to enter the shipyard in Singapore for repairs last month. Maintenance was delayed by a week following a coronavirus outbreak at the port and the vessel is not expected to leave before mid October. In the meantime, the crew must remain on board the ship.

Compulsory quarantines when disembarking and on arrival in their home countries can mean that pilots and seafarers spend a month of their vacation time stuck in a hotel room before they're able to see their families.

Seafarers "run the shipping industry," yet they have not been given the priority of frontline workers, said Shaailesh Sukte, the captain of Seaspan Amazon, a container ship. "If you want the world to [keep] moving, you need to relax travel restrictions," he told CNN Business.

The-CNN-Wire

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CHARLES CITY, Iowa  Sexually abuse in Floyd County has resulted in a 100-year prison sentence.

Joshua David Knutson, 41 of Clarksville, was arrested in October 2020 and charged with four counts of second-degree sex abuse and one count of incest. Authorities say the abuse took place between 2009 and 2012 and involved a juvenile victim.

Knutson pleaded not guilty and a non-jury trial was held in April. The judge then returned a verdict of guilty on all charges in June.

Knutson has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for each count of second-degree sex abuse and five years in prison for the incest charge. The 25-year sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 100 years, while the five-year sentence will be served at the same time.

Court documents state Knutson must serve at least 70% of his sex abuse sentences before being eligible for parole.
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - In some libraries, books like The Color Purple, Nineteen Minutes, The Hate U Give, and even The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may not be in stock because of their respective subject matter.

Tracy Smith remembers when she was younger and her library denied her permission to check out a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. It didn't sit well with her parents.

"They signed a paper and said, 'she's allowed to read anything she wants.' It was like a seminal work."

This week, the Clear Lake Public Library is participating in the annual Banned Books Week. The goal of this nationwide movement is to highlight the value of free and open access to information. A special section of the library is dedicated to genres spanning the gamut from religion and race to LGBTQ+ issues, fiction and non-fiction, and with audiences ranging from children's to adults.

Librarian Brianna Sholly organized the collection, and says these books, while controversial, can serve as valuable teaching tools, and introduce different viewpoints and topics we may not be familiar with.

"In our current society, we spend so much time moving around, interacting with other people. It's a matter of time until we have the real life version of all these things. I think it's a good idea to be broad in your reading, so that you're exposed to some of that before encountering it."

Smith agrees.

"We need those books showing diversity, if we can't show it in your community."

If you're not able to make it to the library this week to check out the books, don't worry. All of the books will remain available long after Banned Books Week concludes.

Banned Books Week launched in 1982, as a response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.
CERRO GORDO COUNTY, Iowa  One person was hurt in a single-vehicle crash late Tuesday in rural Cerro Gordo County.

The Sheriffs Office says Ricky Enere, 44 of Mason City, was driving east on 300th Street when he lost control in the 7600 block around 11:49 pm, went off the road, into the north ditch, and hit a power pole.

Enere was taken to MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center by Clear Lake Fire Department for treatment of what are described as minor injuries.

This accident remains under investigation and the Sheriffs Office says charges are pending.

The Iowa State Patrol and Iowa Department of Motor Vehicle Enforcement assisted at the scene.
NEW HAMPTON, Iowa  Almost four years after his arrest, a North Iowa man accused of child sex abuse is sentenced.

William Maurice Dooly, 41 of Nashua, has been given two years of supervised probation and a no-contact order will remain in place for five years. Dooly has also been ordered to pay damages to his victims.

He was charged in November 2017 with three counts of second-degree sexual abuse involving minor children, all felonies. Dooly was also accused of threatening one of his victims with a gun and telling the child to keep quiet about the abuse.

Dooly pleaded not guilty but after his trial was rescheduled eight times, he pleaded guilty to three reduced charges of child endangerment, all aggravated misdemeanors.
MASON CITY, Iowa  Two accused storage unit burglars are pleading not guilty.

Joel Allen Jaspers, 43 of Mason City, and Michael James Anderson, 33 of Mason City, are charged with third-degree burglary and possession of burglar tools.

Law enforcement says the men were caught breaking into a unit at Atlas Storage in Mason City on July 30. Investigators say Jaspers and Anderson used a bolt cutter and a pair of tin snips to cut through a padlock on a storage unit.

Anderson is scheduled to stand trial beginning October 26. No trial date has been set for Jasper
ROCHESTER, Minn. - Rochester Mayor Kim Norton is pushing for approval of President Bidens $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

The package is scheduled for a vote on Thursday. Mayor Norton was in D.C. earlier this week urging lawmakers to approve the package that would distribute more than a trillion dollars over an eight-year period.

Norton said, We've been push, push, pushing as we've moved and watched the bills and the discussions move through Congress and we hoped this would be the week that we would see that infrastructure bill, which we know is important to every local community across this whole country, we were hoping that would get passed.

According to a letter signed by 400 mayors, including Norton, the bills passage would make the economy more sustainable and resilient.

Norton added, We wanted to send them that message that we need you as a partner. Don't just leave us hanging and trying to solve everything ourselves. We want our state governments and our federal governments to be partners with local governments, to do what's best for the communities and we think being closer to the community we can help them understand that.

If passed Minnesota would receive a total of $6.8 billion to help with highways, bridges, public transit and other projects.

We have several very large projects going on in Rochester right now including our waste water treatment facility, said Norton.We have roads that we're redoing which are very visible to the community but what happens under those roads also aged.

The vote, scheduled for tomorrow, would come hours before government funding is scheduled to lapse on Oct. 1.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP)  The Minneapolis suburb where Black motorist Daunte Wright was killed by an officer has enacted its first step in a plan to change policing in the city.

Brooklyn Center announced Tuesday that officers are now instructed to release people who are cited for low-level crimes and only take them into custody if required by law. The policy also requires officers to attempt to deescalate situations. Mayor Mike Elliot says this is the first step in moving toward more equity in public safety.

The citation policy is part of a city plan to change policing, introduced after Wright was killed in April by an officer who said she meant to use her Taser instead of her handgun.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man charged with the sexual abuse of a child is pleading not guilty.

Eric Steven Merrill, 35 of Mason City, is accused of second-degree sexual abuse. Court documents state Merrill had sexual contact with an underage victim.

A criminal complaint against Merrill was filed on July 30 and said he had left the State of Iowa at the beginning of the investigation into him. A warrant was issued for his arrest and Merrill was apprehended in Arizona in early September.

His trial is set to start on November 2.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A Minnesota prosecutor is reviewing evidence in law enforcement's fatal shooting of Winston Smith Jr. during an arrest.

Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan said he'll review the evidence on his own and hopes to have a charging decision by mid-October. Ryan said he was asked to take the case because counties closer to the Twin Cities had conflicts. Members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force shot Smith in June.

Authorities have said Smith fired a gun, but a witness disputes that. Ryan said hes had a few police deadly force cases in his decades as Crow Wing's top prosecutor and doesn't recall ever bringing charges.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - U.S. Senator Tina Smith is backing an effort to expand the Supreme Court.

Smith is joining Senator Ed Markey's legislation to add four justices to the nation's highest court, becoming the bill's first cosponsor in the Senate. Minnesota's junior U.S. Senator says Republicans stole two Supreme Court seats during the previous administration, and balance must be restored to the court.

Republicans have been working to politicize the U.S. Supreme Court for forty years, with the help of dark money and the Federalist Society. With Donald Trumps help, they stole two seats, ensuring an ultra-conservative Court that is drastically out of step with the American people, said Sen. Smith. Allowing Texas extreme ban on abortion to stand is just the latest demonstration that much of the current Court has become dangerously unmoored from any reasonable principles of legal analysis. Doing nothing is not an option - we need to abolish to the filibuster and reform and expand the Court. We have to pass The Judiciary Act to restore the U.S. Supreme Court back to reflecting our nations principles and core beliefs.

The bill's author, Senator Markey says Republicans stole the Courts majority, with Justice Amy Coney Barretts confirmation completing their crime spree." He continued, of all the damage Donald Trump did to our democracy, this stands as one of his greatest travesties. Senate Republicans have politicized the Supreme Court, undermined its legitimacy, and threatened the rights of millions of Americans, especially people of color, women, and our immigrant communities. The Judiciary Act will restore the Courts balance and public standing and begin to repair the damage done to our judiciary, and we should abolish the filibuster to ensure we can pass it. I am thrilled to have Senator Smiths partnership and support on this critical legislation.

Senator Smith adds the number of justices who sit on the Supreme Court has changed several times. You can read the full text of The Judiciary Act, as it's called, by following this link.
United Airlines pilot Steve Lindland receives a COVID-19 vaccine from RN Sandra Manella at United's onsite clinic at O'Hare International Airport on March 09, 2021, in Chicago, Illinois.
In a description of his work on the murals included in the commissions March 30, 1995, minutes, Sidney Larson included these comments about the murals, according to the Columbia Missourian:

Symbolically represented are the first 75 years in the life of this area. As a social history painter, I can include only a few subjects and vignettes (from the early 1800s to 1892). However, I did paint over 200 figures, including, 11 horses, 2 dogs, 40 plus buildings, 3 seasons, both day and night, a boat, a steamboat, horse and buggy, a train with steam engine, the first resident homes for Stephens College and Christian College (now Columbia College), a tavern/post office, a bank and the bank robber, a merchant, a church, stores, 4 homes, a courthouse, a schoolhouse, an outhouse, a stockade and an Indian, also a hunter, slaves, a teacher, a preacher, a pioneer, kids, a woodcutter, a political convention with plenty of politicians and four actual portraits (Senator Thomas Hart Benton, James Sidney Rollins, Dr. William Jewell, and Bloody Bill Anderson). I added a blacksmith, a bloody massacre, and the countys first wedding.
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Noh Kyu-duk speaks to the press at Incheon International Airport before leaving for Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday. Yonhap



South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Noh Kyu-duk, held video talks with his Chinese counterpart Wednesday and discussed North Korea's latest missile launch and recent statements, the foreign ministry said.



Noh's talks with Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, came a day after the North test-fired a hypersonic missile into the East Sea.



The firing came only days after Pyongyang expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss a summit with Seoul, on the condition the South drops its double-standard and hostile attitudes against the regime.



During the talks, Noh "asked for China's constructive role in efforts to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue, as he underscored the need for the stable management of the peninsula situation and a swift resumption of the talks," the ministry said in a release.



Liu reaffirmed Beijing's willingness to cooperate to advance the peace process for the Korean Peninsula, according to the ministry.



The two also agreed to meet in person at an early date to continue the discussions.



On Tuesday, Noh also spoke by phone with his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, and discussed the North's missile launch. Noh departed for Indonesia later in the day for talks with Kim, slated for Thursday.



"We will put our heads together for in-depth discussions on how to break through the current situation based on the evaluations we have shared on the series of the statements by North Korea and its missile launch," Noh told reporters at the airport before leaving for Jakarta, where Kim doubles as the U.S. ambassador to the country.



Noh also noted that he will discuss with Kim the end-of-war declaration, proposed by President Moon Jae-in at last week's U.N. General Assembly, as a way to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table.



"I believe it's the most effective among the confidence-building measures, as we have discussed with the U.S. various measures, such as the humanitarian cooperation, and so I plan to discuss that as well," Noh added. (Yonhap)


On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the admission of the two Koreas to the United Nations, this is the second and last of two articles that will review the U.N.'s involvements on the Korean Peninsula since the two Koreas were established 73 years ago in the aftermath of World War II and deliberate on its future role.



By Park In-kook





The structural circumstances of the two Koreas reached a turning point when they simultaneously joined the U.N. in 1991. Given North Korea's persistent denial of South Korea's legitimacy, the two Koreas' simultaneous admission to the U.N. was a breakthrough. This development was made possible by the end of the Cold War and South Korea's zealous pursuit of a "northern policy" to improve relations with North Korea, and diplomatically engage with the Soviet Union and China.



This in part led to China's active engagement including Prime Minister Li Peng's visit to North Korea. The U.N.'s decision to admit the two Koreas to the U.N. highlighted a durable modus vivendi for their coexistence. Later that year, these events eventually paved the way for the conclusion of the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement.



After becoming a member of the U.N., North Korea's lack of experience in multilateral fora combined with its nuclear obsession limited its role to a "single-issue delegation," focusing only on issues related to its nuclear programs and regime survival. It should also be noted that even though North Korea later unilaterally nullified the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, it did not retract its U.N. membership. This may be because the North Korean permanent mission to the U.N. in New York could continue to function as the de facto North Korean Embassy to the United States.
Butler, IN (46721)

Today

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm during the morning, then some lingering showers still possible this afternoon. High near 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Thunderstorms this morning, then variable clouds during the afternoon with still a chance of showers. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Showers with a possible thunderstorm this morning, then variable clouds during the afternoon with still a chance of showers. High 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
(MARYVILLE, Mo.) More than 125 employers were in search of Northwest Missouri State for future workers.

Tuesday morning, Northwest Missouri State hosted their annual fall career fair day. Hundreds of students walked in the doors, resumes in hand, with companies ready to hire.

Theres a lot of jobs to fill," said Hannah Christian who works for Career Services at the university. "Before, there may have been 200 jobs, and now there's 600 jobs available. So really, if you're a student, this couldn't be a better time to come to a career day."

"There's double the companies that there were last year," said Logan Krohn, a senior at the university. "And if you got some interview experience under your belt, you're able to talk to more employers and with a purpose in mind to find a good job, it's more interesting to be here and more engaging."

Logan added that he landed two interviews after today's career fair.

Companies from across the region are looking to fill in-person and remote positions, some struggling more than others.

"We're short-handed at every location," Dain Henber of Farm Service Co-op. "We're trying to get traction to get people goingto get people hired. So that's what we're having the issue with."

Recruiters of Farm Service Cooperative and City Year are specifically looking for in-person hires, saying while hiring during a pandemic has been difficult, they are still holding out hope.

"Things have certainly shifted with the pandemic," said Jillian Bush of City Year. "People are interested in working remotely but there is definitely still that appetite for people who aren't necessarily education majors but want the opportunity to work in schools."

Students at the fair were open to in-person and remote positions, while others were in search of graduate school opportunities.

I am looking for an internship and I am an animal science pre-vet major so Im also looking at graduate programs that have veterinarian doctors of medicine that I can potentially go to to finish my veterinarian career," said sophomore Gabrielle Gray. What Im looking for in-person is just the hands-on experience. Like that is a big thing for me and my future career is hands-on experience, and so a lot of them had that which I was very beneficial for that."
(BARNARD, Mo.) A rural Missouri school district canceled classes due to COVID-19 cases and exposures this week.

In a statement posted online, South Nodaway School District Superintendent Dustin Skogulund said the district had decided to cancel classes Thursday and Friday after at least a quarter of the schools total population, 39 students and 3 staff members, were out due to quarantines or illness.

This decision was not made lightly and we apologize for any inconvenience or burden families must bear as a result of this closure, however, it is our belief that students are best served educationally through in-person learning and we hope to reschedule these days of school when more students are able to be present, said Skogulund.

The superintendent said staff would use the long weekend to sanitize and clean the schools for when class returned on Sept. 7.

Additionally, Skogulund said when students returned, they would be in masks. According to the statement, the district was implementing a 10-day temporary mask mandate to prevent more illness and quarantines in the schools.

The state does not require mask-wearing in K-12 schools, instead, it leaves that decision up to each individual school district. But districts forgoing mask mandates face stiffer quarantine requirements when a student or teacher tests positive.
MILAN, SEP 29 - A Napoli ultra got four years in jail on appeal Wednesday for running over and killing a Varese fan in scuffles ahead of the Inter-Napoli Serie A match at the San Siro on December 26, 1018. The verdict upheld that of the first-instance trial two years ago. The Napoli fan, 42-year-old Fabio Manduca, was convicted of the vehicular homicide of Varese fan Daniele Belardinelli, whose team is twinned with Inter. The incident took place amid clashes near the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, the alternative name for San Siro. Milan prosecutors had requested 16 years for Manduca for premeditated murder. The Napoli fan also had his driving license confiscated. The judge awarded damages of 80,000 euros to the civil plaintiffs: Belardinelli's wife, eldest daughter, and mother. (ANSA).
BRESCIA, SEP 29 - Brescia prosecutors on Wednesday ordered an immediate trial for two German citizens accused of crashing into a boat on Lake Garda and killing two young Italian people in June. Patrick Kassen, who was piloting a powerboat, and his companion Christian Teismann, are to face a fast-track trial over the deaths of Umberto Garzarella and Greta Nedrotti. Garzarella, 37, from Salo', is thought to have been killed instantly while Nedrotti, 25, resident at Toscolano Maderno, is thought to have been knocked into the water and drowned. Nedrotti might have been saved if the powerboat carrying Kassen and fellow tourist Teismann had stopped to help, prosecutors have said. Kassen, 52, was arrested at the Brenner Pass while returning to Italy to turn himself in to the authorities. Teissman, 50, a company manager like his friend, was arrested in Italy. The first hearing has been set for November 10. (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 29 - Expo 2020 Dubai kicks off on Friday and the Italy pavilion is set to be one of the star attractions. It uses architecture for a creative, innovative presentation of the pavilion's motto that "Beauty Connects People". Created by Carlo Ratti, Italo Rota, Matteo Gatto and F&M Ingegneria, it has been nominated in the Innovative Project of the Year category at the Construction Innovation Awards 2021. "The Ratti, Rota, Gatto and F&M project allows us to create not only an exhibitive space, but also a space that represents the height of Italian ingenuity," said Paolo Glisenti, the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai. "It will offer visitors an unforgettable experience, presenting to the world the multidisciplinary skills, talent and ingenuity that can act to promote new educational, professional and business opportunities. "The Italy Pavilion is created with contributions from partner companies of all dimensions, called to provide the best building, systems, technology and exhibition components, capable of demonstrating the highly innovative capabilities involved today in sustainability, circular economy and digital architecture". The Italy Pavilion is forecast to attract as many as 28,000 people a day for a potential total of more than five million visitors over the six-month period of the event, thanks in part to its strategic position, organizers have said. The pavilion is located between the "Opportunity" and "Sustainability" areas in the Expo 2020 Dubai site and it is close to the park enhances. This gives visitors an excellent view of the pavilion, as no structures are blocking vision of it from the front or side. Furthermore, the Italy Pavilion is also situated near the pavilions of India, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan and the United States. It sponsors include Bulgari, Eni, Ferrarelle, TIM, Lavazza, Leonardo, Fincantieri and Maserati. (ANSA).
BRINDISI, SEP 29 - A 42-year-old bricklayer, Benito Branca, died Wedmnesday while he was restructuring a house at Mesagne near Brindisi, local sources said - the ninth workplace accident death in Italy in two days. The man was reportedly on the pavement when the roof collapsed, bringing down his scaffolding and crushing him to death. Rescue workers extracted his body from the rubble. Earlier Wednesday a worker belonging to an external company was run over and killed by a heavy vehicle at a motorway worksite on the A14 Bologna-Taranto highway near Bari. Another worker was killed near Treviso on Wednesday. On Tuesday six workers lost their lives across Italy including four from falls and two dying of frostbite caused by leaked liquid hydrogen. The spate of workplace accidental deaths has continued despite promises to stem the rash of cases. Premier Mario Draghi on Monday sealed an accord with trade unions to up work safety by stiffening regulations and hiring thousands of new inspectors. Some 667 people lost their lives in workplace accidents in the first seven months of the year, sources said Tuesday. The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3. (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 29 - Bvlgari is set to bring its brand of style, design and ingenuity to Expo 2020 Dubai, which kicks off on Friday, as a Platinum Sponsor of the Italy Pavilion throughout the 6-month event. Visitors to the pavilion, which is expected to be one of the big attractions at the World Fair, will be able to marvel at the universe of Bvlgari's distinctive jewels in an experience of great visual impact heightened by a play of lights and contemporary art. The aim is to express Italian ingenuity "through a continuous dialogue between talent and design, between the present and the past" and "bring forth a mosaic of suggestions in the pursuit of endless discoveries". Bvlgari's rich programme of initiatives and events at Expo 2020 will also incorporate gourmet experiences thanks to the cooperation of Niko Romito. The Michelin star-winning chef will present his gastronomic project exclusively designed and produced for the Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts. The Italy Pavilion will also host the Spazio Niko Romito Bar and Cuisine, the gastronomic format developed by the chef to convey his idea of an Italian bar with informal cuisine. The world-leading maker of jewellery, watches, accessories and leather goods has also launched the "Bulgari Contemporary Art Award", a new prize offered in association with the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) with the support of the Italy Pavilion. "The Bulgari Contemporary Art Award embodies our Country's participation in Expo Dubai," said the Italian General Commissioner for Expo Dubai, Paolo Glisenti. "Creativity and ingenuity represent the Italy that we intend to narrate during the six-month Expo, in the course of which the display of the winning work will celebrate the long-standing relationship between Rome and Dubai". (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 29 - Italian police have opened a murder probe after a 68-year-old woman was found dead in her home near Rome on Tuesday. The woman was found at Tor San Lorenzo, in the comune of Ardea not far from the Italian capital. The body bore the signs of several injuries including one to the head, police from nearby Velletri said. An autopsy has been ordered. (ANSA).
BRINDISI, SEP 29 - Italy registered three more workplace-accident deaths on Wednesday after recording six on Tuesday. A 42-year-old bricklayer, Benito Branca, died Wednesday while he was restructuring a house at Mesagne near Brindisi, local sources said. The man was reportedly on the pavement when the roof collapsed, bringing down his scaffolding and crushing him to death. Rescue workers extracted his body from the rubble. Earlier Wednesday a worker belonging to an external company was run over and killed by a heavy vehicle at a motorway worksite on the A14 Bologna-Taranto highway near Bari. Another worker fell from the 11th floor of scaffolding in the EUR district of Rome and died. On Tuesday six workers lost their lives across Italy including four from falls and two dying of frostbite caused by leaked liquid hydrogen. The spate of workplace accidental deaths has continued despite promises to stem the rash of cases. Premier Mario Draghi on Monday sealed an accord with trade unions to up work safety by stiffening regulations and hiring thousands of new inspectors. Some 667 people lost their lives in workplace accidents in the first seven months of the year, sources said Tuesday. The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3. (ANSA).
BRINDISI, SEP 29 - Premier Mario Draghi decried what he called a "massacre" after Italy registered three more workplace-accident deaths on Wednesday after recording six on Tuesday. A 42-year-old bricklayer, Benito Branca, died Wednesday while he was restructuring a house at Mesagne near Brindisi, local sources said. The man was reportedly on the pavement when the roof collapsed, bringing down his scaffolding and crushing him to death. Rescue workers extracted his body from the rubble. Earlier Wednesday a worker belonging to an external company was run over and killed by a heavy vehicle at a motorway worksite on the A14 Bologna-Taranto highway near Bari. Another worker fell from the 11th floor of scaffolding in the EUR district of Rome and died. On Tuesday six workers lost their lives across Italy including four from falls and two dying of frostbite caused by leaked liquid hydrogen. The spate of workplace accidental deaths has continued despite promises to stem the rash of cases. Premier Mario Draghi on Monday sealed an accord with trade unions to up work safety by stiffening regulations and hiring thousands of new inspectors. Some 667 people lost their lives in workplace accidents in the first seven months of the year, sources said Tuesday. The issue has been top of public debate in Italy since the death of the 22-year-old mother of a five-year-old boy, Luana D'Orazio, in a textile mill accident near Prato on May 3. Draghi held a press conference at the premier's office in which he read out the names of the latest victims Wednesday. "It is taking on ever more the proportions of a massacre that is continuing every day", he said, voicing condolences. Draghi vowed that new measures on workplace safety would be in place by the end of next week. He said there would be "immediate and stiffer penalties" for those found to have neglected safety standards. (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 29 - There will be an extraordinary summit of the G20 on Afghanistan on October 12, Premier Mario Draghi said in Rome Wednesday. Draghi has said the summit is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Asian nation. Earlier Wednesday the EU launched an anti-terror plan for Afghanistan. US military officials said Tuesday the Taliban takeover of he country had been much faster than they had anticipated, and said they had recommended keeping some troops on longer. The upcoming extraordinary Group of 20 summit on Afghanistan will aim to avert a catastrophe in the Asian country after the Taliban swept back to power after a 20-year US-led mission there, Draghi told the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday. Draghi said the international community must act to avert "a social and civilian catastrophe". The summit's priorities, he said via videolink, would be humanitarian aid, security and human rights. The premier reasserted the need for multilateralism in dealing with global challenges including the COVID pandemic, the climate crisis, the economic recovery and the fight against inequality and food insecurity, as well as the resolution of conflicts and the fight against terrorism. "The last few months have confronted us with problems that we cannot solve on our own," he stressed. (ANSA).
PARIS, SEP 29 - The uncle of an 18-year-old Pakistani-Italian woman missing since April and believed to have been murdered by her family after refusing an arranged marriage on Wednesday denied killing her in a so-called honour killing. Danish Hasnain, who was arrested in Paris last week on suspicion of murdering his niece Saman Abbas at the family home at Novellara near Reggio Emilia on April 30, told a Paris court "it's all false, did someone see me, perhaps, did I leave the house?" Hasnain, 33, arrested a week ago, said he would not be extradited to Italy to face charges for the suspected murder. He is is one of five members of the woman's family who are under investigation over the alleged honour killing. Justice Minister Marta Cartabia signed extradition requests from Pakistan for her parents last Thursday, where they are believed to be hiding out. Hasnain was detained on the outskirts of Paris under a European arrest warrant. He was tracked down with the help of Carabinieri police investigators based in Reggio Emilia. Saman Abbas disappeared at the end of April from where her family lived in Novellara after rebelling against demands she have an arranged marriage in Pakistan. The woman's parents and one of her cousins fled from Italy after she went missing and are fugitives from justice. The parents, Shabbar Abbas and Nazia Shaheen, went to Pakistan on May 1. Another cousin, Ikram Ijaz, was arrested in relation to the case in France in May and is in jail in Italy. Investigators think Hasnain is the man who actually killed Saman. The woman's younger brother told prosecutors that he thought Hasnain strangled Saman to death. Reggio Emilia Chief Prosecutor Isabella Chiesi said Wednesday's arrest was "fundamental because it will enable us to have a (new) version of events, if he wants to give it". She said it would be then be possible to compare this with what Ijaz had told them. She also said she considered Hasnain to be "the mastermind of this insane criminal project". Chiesi added that she expects Hasnain to be in Italy within 10 days. Saman's mother reportedly lured her home from the shelter she had taken refuge in with a deceptive text message that said the family would respect her wishes. According to the Gazzetta di Reggio, Saman's mother sent her a text saying "please get in touch, come home. We are dying. Come back, we'll do as you say". Saman went home on April 22, a week before she disappeared. Her body has yet to be found. The Italian Union of Islamic Communities (UCOII) has expressed horror at the case and banned Muslims in Italy from forcing their children into having arranged marriages. (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 29 - Nationalist anti-immigrant League leader Matteo Salvini said Wednesday Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese had agreed to meet him and discuss the migrant issue "after (migrant) landing no.45,876". "Good, better late than never. Where and when?" he said. Far-right leader Salvini has been trying to get Lamorgese to meet with him for weeks, after slamming her alleged inability to stop migrants coming to Italy and an alleged failure to police a massive open-air rave party near Viterbo last month. (ANSA).
New quarantine measures introduced by the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka with effect from 28 September 2021.

For further information



Circular issued by Director General Health Services dated 28 September 2021 in English
The U.S. intelligence community recently reaffirmed its conclusion that senior officials in Russia were behind hacks during the 2016 presidential campaign into the Democratic National Committee and emails belonging to associates of Hillary Clinton.

But what exactly is the intelligence community? Its not just an amorphous term for all U.S. intelligence officials. Its a veritable alphabet soup of 17 agencies and offices. The group includes agencies strictly focused on intelligence as well as the intelligence arms of other government agencies and of the military. Its total budget in 2015 was $66.8 billion.

Here are the 17 offices:

1. Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Created by Congress in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the office coordinates intelligence collection and sharing among U.S. intelligence agencies. The director is the head of the intelligence community and the principal advisor to the president, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council on intelligence matters related to national security.

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2.Central Intelligence Agency

The CIA is the most recognized intelligence agency, known for spying on foreign governments and conducting covert operations, including funneling money to opposition groups in other countries to sway elections or oust certain foreign leaders.

3. National Security Agency

Once so secret it was referred to as No Such Agency, the NSA is the largest and perhaps most technologically sophisticated of all the intelligence agencies. It focuses on signals intelligence  monitoring, collecting and processing communications and other electronic information  and cracking secret codes. It also protects U.S. information systems from outside penetration. The NSA oversees PRISM and other mass surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. It is believed to employ more mathematicians than any other organization in the country  a fact not all math whizzes are happy about.

4. Defense Intelligence Agency

The Pentagons top spy agency, the DIA is the primary entity responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence on foreign militaries, with support from the intelligence offices of all the military branches. The DIA shares this information with military leaders, fighters and defense policy makers in order to prevent and decisively win wars, according to its mission statement.

5. Federal Bureau of Investigation

The FBI has both law enforcement and intelligence functions. On the intelligence side, it aims to protect the U.S. against terrorism, cyberattacks and foreign intelligence operations and espionage. It maintains the governments terrorist watch list and has been involved in the interrogation of high-value detainees, sometimes clashing with the CIA.

6. Department of State  Bureau of Intelligence and Research

This bureau collects and analyzes intelligence on global affairs and advises the secretary of State and other diplomats. It conducts foreign opinion polls and tracks and analyzes issues that may undermine U.S. foreign policy objectives, such as weapons proliferation, human trafficking and drug smuggling. Though its one of the smallest intelligence agencies, its assessment on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was not as inaccurate as that of other agencies.

7. Department of Homeland Security  Office of Intelligence and Analysis

The scope of homeland security includes emergency preparedness, border control, transportation security and biodefense (Ebola and SARS, for example), among other issues. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis is charged with gathering intelligence in these areas and sharing it with state, local, tribal, territorial and private sector partners through a network of fusion centers.

8. Drug Enforcement Administration  Office of National Security Intelligence

The DEA is the governments watch guard for drugs that are illegally manufactured, distributed or dispensed. It is also responsible for the seizure and forfeiture of assets connected with illicit drug trafficking. The Office of National Security Intelligence assists law enforcement with investigations and prosecutions. Most recently it has focused on the threat posed by a surge in heroin and counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl.

9. Department of the Treasury  Office of Intelligence and Analysis

Intelligence gathering at the Treasury dates back to its beginning, when Secretary Alexander Hamilton sent a tax official in disguise to investigate the whiskey rebellion underway in western Pennsylvania. Today the Office of Intelligence and Analysis sits within the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which works to prevent sanctioned countries, money launderers, terrorists, drug kingpins and purveyors of weapons of mass destruction from parking or moving their money through the U.S. financial system.

10. Department of Energy  Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence

Even the Department of Energy has an intelligence office. It traces its origin to the Manhattan Project, when the Atomic Energy Commission was charged with analyzing the Soviet Unions atomic weapons program. Today the offices role is to provide technical intelligence on foreign nuclear weapons, energy security, science and technology, and nuclear energy, safety and waste.

11. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Supporting the Defense Department, this agency is the principal provider of geospatial intelligence  analysis and information about Earths natural and man-made features and geo-tagged activities. This GEOINT is used for combat, humanitarian and disaster relief, border and transportation security and security planning for special events. One of the agencys claims to fame is pinpointing the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding; another is operating the reference system for GPS.

12. National Reconnaissance Office

The NRO was a secret agency for 31 years, until its existence was declassified in 1992. The office designs, builds and operates the nations reconnaissance satellites, providing the Pentagon, CIA and others precision navigation, early warning of missile launches and near real-time imagery to support anti-terrorism activities. On the civilian side, the satellites help survey damage from natural disasters and support environmental research.

13. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

The Air Forces intelligence branch, organized into the 25th Air Force, uses airplanes, drones and satellites to identify hideouts, bunkers, mobile launchers and weapons caches. It is also responsible for code-breaking activities within the Air Force. All that surveillance takes up a lot of digital space  in 2013, one wing alone received 20 terabytes of data daily, processed 460,000 hours of video and disseminated 2.6 million images.

14. Army Military Intelligence

The Armys intelligence branch intercepts electronic communications and provides maps, ground imagery and information on foreign forces to assist fighters in the battlefield.

15. Office of Naval Intelligence

The Navys intelligence branch keeps tabs on foreign scientific and technological research, analyzes the structure, tactics and readiness of foreign naval forces, and tracks merchant shipping to identify illicit activity.

16. Marine Corps Intelligence

The Marine Corps intelligence officers create military maps, intercept and translate radio and electronic signals, analyze images collected from sensors and carry out counterintelligence.

17. Coast Guard Intelligence

The Coast Guard, part of the military and the Department of Homeland Security, protects and defends more than 100,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways. On an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 45 search-and-rescue cases, seizes 874 pounds of cocaine, interdicts 17 migrants and helps move $8.7 billion worth of goods, according to its website. Its intelligence office helps with criminal investigations and provides other national agencies with intelligence from domestic and foreign ports, coastal waters and offshore.

nina.agrawal@latimes.com

Twitter: @AgrawalNina

Click here for a Spanish version of this story

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It seemed like the launch of another secessionist drive in Spain: Tens of thousands of people linked hands across Basque Country this month  forming a human chain that stretched 124 miles from the coastal town of San Sebastian to its capital, Vitoria  to demand a referendum on the regions political future.

The event was part of a campaign for what activists call the right to decide.

That effort comes less than a year after Catalonia declared independence and the Spanish government dissolved that regions government to quash the rebellion.

But the independence movement in Basque Country, a prosperous northern region of 2 million people, is unlikely to even get that far.

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Unlike in Catalonia, a northeast region of 7 million, most residents in Basque Country oppose independence. A December poll from the University of Deusto in the Basque city of Bilbao found that just 14% of respondents wanted independence, and just 17% felt only Basque and not Spanish.

The movement brings back painful memories for many residents, because separatism has a long and bloody history in Basque Country. The separatist terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom), better known as the ETA, killed 800 politicians, police officers and civilians between 1960 and its cease-fire with the government in 2010.

The issue is so sensitive that the politicians pushing for a referendum are intentionally vague about what it would actually ask voters or what the right to decide means. They tend to avoid the word independence.

Unilateral independence from Spain is not viable, said Andoni Ortuzar, the president of the Basque Nationalist Party, the dominant political force in the region and a key backer of the referendum drive.

We have to construct the country for everyone, including for those who feel Spanish, he said. We dont want a closed project, or a private club where, oh, you consider yourself Basque or no.

His party was founded in 1895 in hopes of creating an independent state that would include part of southern France, Navarra in northern Spain, and the three provinces that make up Basque Country today.

That never materialized. But Basque Country did gain more self-rule than any of Spains other so-called autonomous regions.

Nationalist sentiment swelled during the long dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, who banned regional languages, including Euskera in Basque Country. Basques were also forced to take Spanish names instead.

Activists take part in a human chain to demand the right to decide on Basque independence, in La Concha Beach, in San Sebastian, Basque Country, northern Spain. (Gorka Estrada/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutte / Gorka Estrada/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutte )

But after Franco died in 1975, the Basques received a series of benefits from the transition government.

The most important was a 1979 statute of autonomy, which laid out the governmental structure of the region and explicitly recognized the existence of a separate Basque identity.

The statute also provided Basque Country a taxation system that gives it enormous economic independence. The region collects its own taxes and determines how much to send back to the central Spanish government, depending on how much Spain has spent in the region. Nearly all other regions send all of their taxes to Spain, which redistributes the money according to the economic needs of the country.

Those changes help quell most of the support for separatism, though campaigns have periodically bubbled up. Proponents of an independent Basque Country formed a human chain in 2014 to draw attention to their cause but failed to gain any political momentum.

In an interview, Ortuzar said most people are in fact satisfied with the current level of autonomy. Then he contradicted himself and said they want more.

He said that while he personally favors independence, the only realistic goal for Basque Country in the short term is greater control of local institutions such as the courts.

The political situation is far different in Catalonia, which has seen a surge in support for independence over the last decade.

The independence movement there took off after a 2010 federal court decision striking down a statute that would have given the government in Catalonia greater autonomy.

Last October, the region held an independence referendum, which the central government declared illegal. Voter turnout was low, but the referendum passed.

Though the central government reasserted its control and ended the immediate crisis, the issue is far from resolved. In June, a new Catalan parliament convened under the leadership of a secessionist who promised to put Catalonia on the path to independence.

A poll in February found that 41% of Catalans supported independence.

The level of support is extremely unlikely in Basque Country for one main reason: its violent history. The Basque Nationalist Party long ago renounced the ETA, which announced last month that it was disbanding. But the tactics of the terrorist group have left many Basques unwilling to even consider independence.

For several years starting in the late 1990s, Maite Pagazaurtundua was a socialist member of the local council in the town of Urnieta and an outspoken opponent of the militants.

The ETA killed her brother, a police officer, in 2003. She faced frequent death threats and started taking taxis instead of driving her car for fear that it would be booby-trapped with a bomb.

They wanted to kill me, she said.

Now a member of the European Parliament, she said any talk of secession  including the right to decide  recalls that time and contaminates the regions politics with a toxic current.

Bernhard is a special correspondent.
They gathered at dawn in this railyard in southern Mexico, contemplating their next move: catching a ride on the roof of La Bestia (The Beast)  the name migrants use for the notorious freight train that winds its way through Mexico toward the United States.

Climbing on the top looks very difficult, especially with the kids, said a dubious Carlos Onan Galo Perez, who had traveled from Honduras with his wife and their three children. Im worried.

He had heard about the dangers: the criminal mobs that terrorize travelers, the risk of falling and losing an arm or leg, or worse. Mexican police recently reported that delinquents tossed several migrants from La Bestia in the state of Veracruz, leaving one dead and two with severed limbs.

But the train has reemerged in recent weeks as a preferred mode of travel for Central American migrants after the Mexican government, under pressure from the Trump administration, started making it more difficult for them to cross Mexico on their way to the U.S. border.

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Just last year, legions of migrants traveling in caravans passed from Guatemala through the Mexican state of Chiapas largely unimpeded. Thousands more were given humanitarian visas early this year allowing them safe passage northward, keeping in line with campaign promises from Mexicos new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that migrants would be treated with respect and compassion.

Now Mexican immigration agents and federal police staff checkpoints along the highways, and truckers and other motorists face fines if they give lifts to migrants. In April and May, Mexico detained a total of 43,258 foreigners, more than double the number during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, deportations have also risen significantly. The increases reflect both heightened enforcement and a surge in arriving migrants.

The trek north could become even more difficult this summer as President Trump has intensified efforts to strong-arm Mexico into taking additional action. On Thursday, he announced that the United States would impose a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico as of June 10 and that the tariff would increase to 25% by Oct. 1 until Mexico substantially stops the illegal flow.

Galo and his group viewed La Bestia as less likely to be subject to raids than public buses or other vehicles  which is why they wound up in this railyard, amid idle boxcars and stray dogs, waiting for the train.

Galo and his wife, Lidis Reconco, knew how difficult it could be to reach the United States, 1,000 miles from here.

They had both already made the long trek to Mexicos northern border earlier this year, leaving their children at home with relatives to join separate groups of migrants traveling en masse from Honduras.

I heard about the caravans and thought, This was an opportunity for me and my family, a chance to better ourselves, explained Galo, 35, a slim, energetic figure who was a laborer back in Tegucigalpa, the capital, but struggled to find work.

Galo made it to the city of Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas, where he was among some 1,800 migrants held in a factory-turned-shelter. His wife reached Tijuana, where she stayed with a brother she had not seen in six years.

Seeing throngs of migrants stranded at the border, Reconco said she experienced a kind of epiphany.

I first thought that the voyage would change our lives for the better, but then I felt differently, recalled Reconco, whose reserved personality contrasts with her husbands exuberant character. What would become of our children if we were away for a long time?

Her brother offered some counsel: Go back to Honduras, then bring the kids, and youll be able to cross much easier.

U.S. laws restricting child detention have helped fuel a surge in asylum-seeking families converging on the U.S.-Mexico border  to the ire of the Trump administration, whose officials have assailed the practice of bringing children as shields to get released in U.S. territory.

Trump accuses us of using children as shields, and maybe some do, Galo said. But Im doing this because it is the best hope for my family.

Galo and his wife reached a decision: The two would return to Honduras, rest, and embark on the long venture anew, this time as a family.

A crying child is handed up as migrants climb onto the roof of La Bestia for the trip across Mexico after the boxcars were locked to keep them from riding inside. (Liliana Nieto del Rio / For The Times)

They left Honduras in early April, soon arriving at Mexicos border with Guatemala, where they waited a month until the three children  Carlos, Sheri and Shirli, ages 15, 10 and 8  received visitor cards allowing them to travel in southern Mexico, but not beyond. Both parents already had temporary legal papers for Mexico  on humanitarian grounds  from their earlier attempts.

In early May, the family set out by bus for this sun-scorched town, a key terminus for La Bestia.

The comings and goings of the freight trains are a matter of mystery and speculation. There is no public schedule. But one evening, after Galo and his family had spent two nights outside a Catholic shelter here sleeping on cardboard mats and blankets, word filtered in: A train was expected to depart at 6 a.m.

At dusk, the migrants packed up their belongings, burned their trash and set out for the railyard, about a mile away. But there was an ominous portent: Galo had received a cellphone video clip of a police raid on a La Bestia spur outside the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

Leave us alone! a woman pleaded in the video as Mexican authorities ordered migrants to descend from the train.

That evening, the Central Americans, numbering about 100 or so, crashed in the central plaza of Arriaga, across the street from the railyard. The children played on the swing sets and jungle gyms before huddling beneath them to get some sleep.

Then, as roosters heralded daybreak, the train arrived, its whistles and groans piercing the predawn. The migrants quickly gathered their belongings and crossed the street to the railyard. Galo and his group of about two dozen huddled in prayer, illuminated by ghostly locomotive lights.

Stay together, Galo advised. There is safety in numbers.

An assemblage of young men with sticks served as an ersatz security squad. Exhausted families gathered on scattered railway ties and a graffiti-splashed platform, waiting for the train to come to a halt. Women cradled infants in their arms.

Soon, many scrambled across the tracks into open boxcars, which were coated inside with cement dust, remnants of the previous cargo. Women and children entered first. The men placed wooden ties and stones by the doors to keep them ajar. All were elated to be on their way, finally.

But then railroad security men decked out in black arrived and chased them away. They sealed the boxcars, warning of the dangers of suffocation should the doors slam shut.

Now, the only option was to ride on top of the train, a death-defying endeavor. La Bestia is renowned for sharp curves and sudden braking, capable of sending rooftop passengers flying onto the rails. Low-lying branches can suddenly sweep riders into the abyss. There is no relief from the sun, rain or evening chill.

Reaching the top was itself a challenge. A gap of about six feet separated the top rungs of the ladders built into the boxcar exteriors and the roofs.

Daylight had broken.The yellow locomotive was running its engine. Some families had already formed human chains to mount the cars.

Abruptly, Galo and his group decided it was a go: Men clambered first to the top. Migrants standing beside the tracks or poised atop metal couplers between the cars tossed backpacks and plastic bags filled with clothes, water and food to comrades above.

Galo and other men lay flat on their stomachs atop the boxcars, straining to extend arms to grasp women and kids that were passed up, fire-brigade style. Children screamed. People shouted instructions, often contradictory or unintelligible in the cacophony.

Were going to the U.S.A.! came an unexpected cry, in English.

That was from Julio Cesar Doblado, 44, a Honduran who said he had been deported from New York. He wore stars-and-stripes shorts and had only half a right arm  he said the rest was cut off when he fell from La Bestia four years ago in Mexico.

Galo and the others used yellow plastic rope to help secure children and luggage atop the cars. Finally, La Bestia began lurching north, its rooftop stowaways flashing smiles of relief. Ahead lay a voyage teeming with peril, but also the hope of fresh beginnings.

Special correspondents Liliana Nieto del Rio in Arriaga and Cecilia Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has sued President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday over claims that the White House is pursuing a "destructive and illegal" catch-and-release border policy.

DeSantis argued in his lawsuit that the said border policy is endangering Florida citizens, according to The Daily Wire report.

The Republican governor went on to say that the Biden administration's policy is a "total disaster." Speaking with him was Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

The catch-and-release policy allows captured illegal immigrants who claim asylum to remain in the United States until their claims can be heard in an immigration court, which can sometimes take months.

DeSantis added that he thinks it was intentional, adding that the current administration wants a massive illegal migration in the U.S.

READ NEXT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Wants Pres. Joe Biden to Stop Sending Illegal Immigrants to the State

DeSantis' Order

The Republican governor has also released an order prohibiting state agencies from helping with the relocation of undocumented immigrants arriving in Florida.

The order allows the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as well as the Florida Highway Patrol, to apprehend any aircraft, bus, or other vehicles in the state transporting illegal migrants to Florida from the border, according to an ABC News Go report.

DeSantis had also ordered agencies to collect information on the identities of immigrants arriving in Florida from the Mexico border, while telling those departments not to spend money assisting those immigrants unless required by law.

DeSantis' recent orders had garnered criticisms, with Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani saying that the governor is using the immigration issue to score political points with the conservative state.

Eskamani said that Florida has an affordable housing crisis, problems in finding good-paying jobs, and climate change, among others.

Moody's lawsuit noted that some are migrants with legitimate asylum claims, however, some are gang members and drug traffickers taking advantage of the crisis at the border.

The lawsuit also cited the rising amount of Fentanyl seized at the border this year.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki commented on the lawsuit and said that she had not seen the lawsuit.

However, Psaki said that the administration is open to have a conversation regarding solutions in addressing the migration issue.

DeSantis Vs. Pres. Joe Biden

The two politicians have hit the headlines when they exchange verbal tirades regarding the COVID restrictions implemented in the state of Florida.

DeSantis had earlier said that he does not want to "hear a blip about COVID" until the Biden administration's border policy is amended, according to a New York Post report.

DeSantis went on to say that Biden has imported more viruses from around the world with his border policies.

The governor went on to say that Biden is not shutting down the virus, rather he's helping facilitate it in the U.S.

Biden had responded to DeSantis' comments with "Governor who?" when he was asked by NBC News White House Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell for his response on DeSantis' statement, according to an NBC Miami report.

The exchange of comments started in August when Biden advised DeSantis and other Republican governors to "get out of the way" and stop resisting the administration's COVID guidance.

READ MORE: Immigrant Children at Border Have High Chance of Staying in the U.S.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Gov. DeSantis Sues Biden Administration Over Border Security, Signs 'Border Crisis' Executive Order - from CBS Miami






Republican officials are lashing out at President Joe Biden, saying that "Biden lied." This is after top military leaders had contradicted the president's statement regarding U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie testified under oath in front of Senate Armed Services Committee over the nation's withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to The Daily Wire report.

McKenzie said that he recommended to the president to maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, adding that pulling out all of the forces would inevitably lead to the fall of the Afghan military and government.

Milley noted that he agreed with that assessment.

McKenzie added that he recommended earlier in the fall of 2020 that the U.S. should have 4,500 troops stay in the country at that time.

Biden earlier said in an ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos that no military advisors told him to sustain a small military presence in the country and reconsider the withdrawal deadline, according to a National Review report.

Biden said that no one advised that to him that he can recall.

READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Admits Struggling to Fulfill Campaign Promises Due to Donald Trump Missteps, Anti-Vaxxers, Natural Disasters

Biden Under Scrutiny

Some Republican lawmakers have lashed out at Biden, dubbing the original televised statement as a lie, and have criticized Milley for continuing to serve despite Biden snubbing his military assessment.

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said that Biden lied when he claimed that nobody had recommended having 2,500 troops stay in the war-torn country. Sasse added that it is the worst American foreign policy disaster in a generation.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asked Milley why he had not submitted his resignation if his guidance was ignored. Milley replied and said that the president is not obliged to agree with or adopt military service.

He said that it would be an "incredible act of political defiance" for an officer to resign just because his advice was not taken.

Milley noted that the principle of civilian control of the military is absolute, adding that it is critical to this republic.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki took Twitter to express her comments on the matter.

Psaki said that leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan would have further the conflict with the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban in mind, according to The Hill report.

The press secretary added that the president is always going to welcome advice. She also said that it is up to Biden to ultimately decide what's in the best interest of the U.S.

U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Pew Research Center noted that 54 percent of U.S. adults say the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan was the right step, while 42 percent say that it was wrong. The survey was conducted on August 23-29.

However, the survey also found that the military pullout was deemed to have failed in achieving its goals, with 69 percent of the public saying so.

Only 26 percent have said that the Biden administration has done an excellent job, while 29 percent say the administration has done a fair job. Forty-two percent said that it has done a poor job.

READ MORE: Taliban Replaces Afghanistan's Women's Ministry With Ministry of Virtue and Vice, Bringing Back Religious Police

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Biden's response to US withdrawal in Afghanistan fuels fresh criticism | GMA - from ABC News


Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Tuesday that he planned to push the elections for their country and to modify their constitution by 2022.

Prime Minister Henry said that he plans to hold a referendum to modify Haiti's constitution by February next year. However, Henry did not mention the specific date when the country's elections would be held.

It can be recalled that Henry assumed the position of Haiti's interim prime minister, weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Al Jazeera reported.

READ NEXT: Haitian Migrants in Texas Border Camp Are Now Gone, but Probably Not for Long

Haiti PM on Referendum and Elections

According to Prime Minister Henry, the referendum for modifying Haiti's constitution is a priority, arguing that the current constitution was rejected by most of the political figures, as well as civil society leaders.

One proposed constitutional change will bar a country's president from taking the office for more than two terms. Other changes include compulsory military enlistment for those aged 18 years old and the creation of the position of the vice president that would replace the post of prime minister.

Another proposed change in the constitution is to create a unicameral legislature that would replace Haiti's Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

Despite planning to organize a referendum by February, Haiti's prime minister still face opposition and criticism from those who do not recognize him as the country's leader, Associated Press reported.

Aside from the referendum, Henry also pointed out that the elections should be held "soon" following the series of delays that occurred.

"The elections must be held as soon as possible," Henry underscored in the interview.

It can be recalled that Haiti's presidential and legislative elections were scheduled to take place on November 7, but the assassination of Jovenel Moise on July 7 postponed the said event.

Henry's comments on the election came a day after he dismissed the members of the Provisional Electoral Council (PEC), which postponed the votes indefinitely. The said members slammed the Haitian Prime Minister for his move, contending that only the president has the power to remove them from their post.

Despite being dismissed, the council noted that they will continue to organize the upcoming elections. It can be recalled that international observers such as the United Nations and the U.S. urged Haiti to hold the elections to regain some stability.

Haiti PM on Haitian Migrants Deportations

Prime Minister Henry also commented on the deportation of the Haitian migrants from the United States.

On Tuesday, Henry underscored that he understood why the U.S. is deporting thousands of Haitian migrants from the Texas border, adding that he wants to cooperate with the United States.

Henry also expressed his thoughts on how U.S. border agents on horses treated the Haitian migrants.

"We saw some of the mistreatment that these Haitians suffered, and it struck as a lot," the prime minister said, pointing out that there "will always be an appeal" on wealthier countries.

It can be recalled that 3,936 Haitian migrants were deported from the U.S. between September 19 and September 27.

As nearly 4,000 Haitian migrants were deported from the U.S., Haiti's prime minister pointed out that all the deportees would be welcomed.

READ NEXT: Biden Administration Eyes Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Hold Migrants, Says Guards Must Speak Haitian Creole, Spanish

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Amid Political Crisis, Haiti Appoints new Prime Minister - From Al Jazeera English
A lawyer for whistleblowers composed of doctors revealed that a Brazilian hospital chain had allegedly tested unproven drugs on elderly COVID patients without their knowledge.

The testing without consent was part of an effort to validate Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's claim of "miracle cure," according to a Reuters report.

Lawyer Bruna Morato told a Senate inquiry that at least nine people died of COVID during the said trials at the Prevent Senior hospital chain from March to April 2020.

However, their charts were changed to hide the cause of their deaths.

Meanwhile, the hospital had rejected the claims against them, saying that it had regularly reported all deaths, adding that seven percent of the 56,000 COVID patients it treated had died, which was said a better record than other public and private hospitals.

Owner and executive director of the hospital chain, Pedro Batista, acknowledged that the patients' charts were altered to remove any reference to COVID after they had been hospitalized for two weeks.

However, he denied allegations of testing unproven drugs on patients without their knowledge, according to a TRT World report.

Batista said that doctors had prescribed the medicines when patients asked for them. He said that everyone recalls comments from Bolsonaro and other influential people resulting in patients demanding the prescriptions.

Morato, who represents the 12 doctors employed at Prevent Senior, said that the company had threatened and dismissed doctors who disagreed with a predetermined COVID kit, which included hydroxychloroquine, erythromycin and ivermectin.

Morato added that very vulnerable elderly patients were told there was a good treatment. However, they did not know that they were being used as guinea pigs.

READ NEXT: Amazon Rainforest in Brazil Is Being Plagued by Armed Violence Linked to Illegal Gold Mining

Bolsonaro Touting Unproven Drugs

Bolsonaro has regularly promoted unproven and cheap drugs to his about 40 million social media followers, with his administration has spent millions of dollars to produce, procure, and promote pills such as the lice mediation ivermectin, according to an NPR report.

The Ministry of Health and other doctors had endorsed the use of a combination of these medications to treat COVID infections despite not having solid evidence that it works.

In Brazil, medical professionals were prescribing unstandardized drug cocktails to their patients, with mayors creating their COVID response around the unproven drugs.

Bolsonaro's government had spent at least $6 million worth of public funds to procure the bills, which is supported by the country's Ministry of Health and Federal Medical Council.

The Brazilian president had also openly declared earlier that he will not be taking the vaccine, further claiming that he was immune after being infected with COVID.

In addition, his administration had earlier ignored offers from Pfizer despite the vaccine-maker offering doses for half price of those sold to the U.S. and Europe.

However, vaccination has turned an about-face with a sudden increase in its vaccination rates.

Around 67 percent of Brazilians had received at least one dose of their vaccines, which was slightly higher as compared to the United States with 63.4 percent and Argentina with 63.8 percent, according to a France 24 report.

Meanwhile, 36 percent of the population was already fully vaccinated.

READ MORE: Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Says Only God Can Remove Him From Power Amid Rallies, Supreme Court Fight

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Bolsonaro touts hydroxychloroquine as Brazil virus crisis deepens - from Al Jazeera English






After the discovery of dismembered bodies found in a burning dumpster in Fort Worth, authorities arrested Monday a Texas man responsible for the killings and was charged with a triple homicide.

Suspect Involved in Other Killings

According to NBC News, Fort Worth Police Department identified the suspect as 41-year-old Jason Alan Thornburg, who confessed to two other killings. The suspect admitted that he did another one in the city of Fort Worth and another one in a different state.

In the court documents cited by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, authorities said that Thornburg revealed that the killings were part of a biblical sacrifice.

Police Chief Neil Noakes of the Fort Worth Police Department praised the efforts made by his detectives. He emphasized that it could have been a cold case if not for their diligent efforts.

Moreover, Noakes said during a news conference that the recent discovery was shocking and unsettling. He added that they knew that bringing someone to justice, in this case, was paramount.

Meanwhile, Police Sgt. Joe Loughman shared to the reporters that when investigators looked at surveillance video near the dumpster they immediately homed in on a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which is a model between 2005 and 2010.

When the Texas authorities searched the local records regarding the car model, they have found out that only 7,000 car models were made within those years. Despite the huge number of owners on the list, the name of one registered owner Jason Alan Thornburg got the attention of the detectives.

Sgt. Loughman stated that the detectives immediately connected Thornburg to the case because he was also the prime suspect in another murder this year.

After further investigation, detectives found out that Thornburg is currently living at the Mid City Inn in nearby Euless. Loughman said that a surveillance video in the place showed him carrying plastic bins with what we believe to be body parts of the victims.

READ MORE: Suspected Drunken Driver Arrested After Crash Kills West Texas Police Sergeant, Family Members

3 Burned, Dismembered Bodies Found in Texas Dumpster Fire

The Fort Worth firefighters made the grisly discovery last week after they found body parts inside a dumpster when they put out the fire. The dismembered parts were considered remains of a man and two women. The police confirmed that they were found burned in the dumpster.

Meanwhile, police initially said that a child was among the victims of the incident, but they now claimed that it was an incorrect interpretation of the evidence at the time.

The male victim in the incident was identified as 42-year-old David Lueras, NBC DFW reported.

Police said that Lueras was frequent in the Dallas area and has some ties to the Hurst, Euless, and Bedford areas.

Based on the court records, Lueras has a long criminal history. His crimes include charges of fraud, theft, and drug possession.

At the time of the discovery, the police admitted that they have been struggling to identify the other victims because they were badly burned by the fire and heavily dismembered.

READ NEXT: Florida Campsite Documents Reveal Brian Laundrie and His Parents Went Camping After Gabby Petito Vanished

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Fort Worth police asking for help after 3 dismembered bodies found in burning dumpster-WFAA


The man accused of fatally shooting two young individuals, including a rising TikTok star inside a Southern California movie theater last July, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Shooter Kills Tiktok Star and Another Victim

Based on the Press-Enterprise report, Jimenez did not speak during his hearing on Monday at the Riverside Hall of Justice and let his attorney enter the pleas.

According to NBC News, after facing two counts of murder, the 20-year-old suspect, Joseph Jimenez, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, John Hall, stated that the two different not-guilty pleas were necessary because there would be two phases if the case goes to trial. The first would be the guilt phase, and the second one would be the phase to determine whether Jimenez was insane.

The Press-Enterprise reported that both attorneys were scheduled to return to court on Oct. 22 to discuss the appointment of a defense psychiatrist during the trial.

Meanwhile, the victims of Jimenez were 18-year-old Rylee Goodrich and 19-year-old Anthony Barajas, who were shot July 26 at a theater at the Regal Edwards cinema in the city of Corona.

During the shooting incident, Goodrich died at the crime scene, while Barajas, who is a budding social media star and TikTok rising star, died at the hospital where he was brought. He was placed on life support, looking for a chance to save him, but he died a week after being brought to the medical facility.

The online star, Barajas, was known as 'itsanthonymichael' among his followers. The 19-year-old TikToker had nearly 1 million followers on the video-sharing platform and had more on other social media platforms.

Police said shortly after the shooting that the suspect acted alone during the shooting incident, and there was an indication that he had some information regarding the victims or the fame of Barajas as a TikTok influencer playing a role in the shooting.

READ MORE: This Amazonian Invades TikTok! Here's How She Became a Social Media Star

Suspect in California Theater Shooting Blames Voices in Head

After shooting the two victims, the suspect blamed the voices in his head, saying that it had tormented him for months.

"The voices said my friends and family were going to be killed," Jimenez said during an interview at a Riverside County Jail in Banning. However, he did not explain how killing other individuals would save his loved ones.

While giving a blow-by-blow description of the shooting incident, he also offered his condolences to the families of his victims and stated that he wished he didn't do it.

Based on the police report, the victims were shot in the head while watching a movie in a Corona theater. An employee found their bodies after the last showing of the night.

READ NEXT: Netflix's 'Squid Game' Accidentally Leaks Real Phone Number; Owner Bombarded With Annoying Calls

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Movie theater shooting: TikTok star on life support, young woman killed in Corona-FOX 11 Los Angeles
The new James Bond film new No Time To Die has staff at Portlaoise's main cinema making frantic preparations for a bumper weekend of 007 fans.

Staff at the Odeon Cinema at Bank Place are getting ready for the busiest weekend since 2019 when the latest installement hits the big screen with Daniel Craig bowing out in style.

The Odeon group say its had the highest presales for any Bond film since the chain arrived in Ireland in 2012 with 70% of the opening weekend tickets already sold across all 11 cinemas nationwide. MORE BELOW TRAILER.

Paul Wren and Olivia Fitzsimons said: Whats interesting to note that 40% of pre booked tickets are those that have not been back in a cinema since cinemas reopened and in particular the 66+ age bracket  so thats great news for the industry. However looking at group bookings the average party size is 4  which would be smaller than pre Covid times.

The Odeon say there may not be a Martini in sight but there is always buttered popcorn and ODEONS famous cheesy nachos for Bond fans to enjoy!
Part of a modern Portlaoise housing estate, and all of a newly built estate in Stradbally, are going under Laois County Council's care.

Phase 2, area 1 of Bellingham estate on the Mountrath road in Portlaoise will be taken in charge. The cost is estimated to be 1,500 per year to maintain 30 streetlights, and 5,000 per year to maintain roads and services. It was proposed by Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley.

Court View in Stradbally is a development of 16 bungalows for people who are older or have a disability. It was completed only last year is also ready to be taken in charge. It was a nominee for a national community housing award, built the the North & East housing association.

The cost of maintaining it into the future is estimated at 1,500 for roads and services and 450 for the nine streetlights.

It was proposed by Cllr Padraig Fleming, both at the September council meeting.

Cllr Paschal McEvoy praised former councillor Tom Mulhall for his work to see Court View built.

"It's a credit to Angela McEvoy and to Tom Mulhall and the housing association. It should be put up for other older developments to see, it's only 12 months done and it's taken in charge. Tom put an awful lot of work into this estate, and the people living in it are so happy. You wouldn't find it anywhere else in Ireland," Cllr McEvoy said.

Cllr Willie Aird agreed.

"I remember Tom bringing me over to show me it, it's an absolute credit to everybody, an absolute heaven to be living in. We're being pushed and shoved as regarding density but that's what we want, these houses are absolutely beautiful. It should be our target to get one in every community," he said.

Cllr John King asked what is the timeframe to take estates in charge.

Some other estates in Laois were built decades before they were taken in charge.

Senior planner and now Acting Director of Services for Housing is Angela McEvoy.

"it depands on the workmanship and the snag list," she said.
In November 2021 the parish of Rathdowney and Errill will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening and dedication of Our Lady Queen of the Universe Church in Errill.

To mark this Jubilee celebration the parish and local community are planning a number of events over the next few months.

The centrepiece of the celebrations is a Camino or walking pilgrimage over four stages.

Each of the four stages is inspired by the routes and locations associated with the faith history of the community during the three centuries leading up to the building of the church in Errill village in 1971.

The First Stage of The Camino from Errill to The Little Derries took place on Sunday, September 19th.

There was a big turnout for it. The stage was from Errill to The Little Derries where, during the 17th century, a priest braving all danger took his stand and celebrated Mass for his people in the Little Derry, a small bog island very close to the bounds of Co Tipperary.

Carrigans History of The Diocese of Ossory states, During the Cromwellian oppression of Irish Catholics in the mid 17th century the celebration of Mass would have ceased altogether in the parish of Rathdowney were it not for some zealous priest, who braving all danger, took his stand in what may well be called his last ditch and celebrated Mass for his people in the Little Derry, a small bog island very close to the bounds of Co. Tipperary. There was a small wooden structure set up here, but its use was merely to shelter the rude altar.

On Sunday, September 19 Fr Martin Delaney PP celebrated Mass once again in this special place remembering all those who had prayed there all those years ago.

After Mass a Camino passport was distributed to the congregation which was stamped with the parish stamp to signify that the first stage was complete. This passport will be stamped again on completion of each of the next three stages for pilgrims.

The second stage of The Camino will take place on Sunday, October 3 at 7am with the other stages happening on Sunday, October 10 at 9.30am and the fourth stage happening on Saturday, November 20 at 12 noon. Later on the 20th there will be Mass to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the church and this Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ossory.

If you missed the first stage of the Camino you can still join the pilgrimage at the next stage of Sunday, October 3 at 7 am from Our Queen of the Universe Church Errill.

Second Stage of The Camino: Graigueavallagh to Errill, Sunday, October 3 at 7am

Carrigans History continues: When the persecution abated, the woodwork and altar were removed from the Little Derry and set up in a more central place, in the townland of Graigueavallagh.

Tradition hands down that the work of removal was effected by staunch men named Maher, ancestors of the present Mahers of Coolkerry.

The Chapel Pit in Graigueavallagh, an old disused sandpit, then became the great Mass-Station for all of Rathdowney parish, and continued as such for about a hundred years. Its title Chapel Pit may be regarded as a misnomer, in as much as the so-called Chapel can have been nothing more, at best of times, than a miserable shed.

With an early morning start the second stage of the Camino leaves the site of the Chapel Pit in Graigugeavallagh through Kylemalawn and Borahan Lane, pausing for prayer at the monastic ruins of St. Kieran and the local cemetery, then arriving at Errill Church for a short service of Reconciliation and healing and the conclusion of the second stage of the camino

Third Stage of The Camino: Graigueavallagh to Grogan: Sunday, October 10 at 9.30am

Carrigans History continues: At length came the dawn of better days. Mr John Burke OFlaherty, a Catholic gentleman, having acquired the fee-simple of the townsland of Barney and Mount Oliver, made a free grant of an acre of land, in the latter, for the site of a chapel. This was about 1775.

''Fr. James Butler, the P.P. at once set about erecting a small temporary chapel on the new site. When the walls were built and roofing material could not be readily procured, the difficulty was solved by a number of strong men lifting off the roof of the chapel in the Chapel Pit, bearing it bodily and intact on their shoulders, and placing it again in the same condition, on the bare walls of the new chapel.

Such is the history of the foundation and completion of the first chapel in Grogan. This chapel was thrown down and another built on its foundations in 1791 by Father Purcell PP

''The present chapel, the third on the same site, was built by Fr. Tracey PP in 1826, around and over its predecessor, which was only taken down when the new edifice had been roofed in.

Fourth Stage of The Camino: Grogan to Errill, Saturday, November 20 at noon

The church built at Grogan in 1826 remained in use until 1971. In November 1971 the new church dedicated to Our Lady Queen of the Universe was opened in Errill village.

The beautiful stained glass windows from Grogan are now to be found in two churches in county Kilkenny, The Rower and Glenmore.

Two of the Grogan windows remain in the parish, one depicting St. Colmcille which is over the altar in Errill and another window dedicated to St. Vigilus (Fergal) is erected in the Religious Studies room in St. Fergals College, Rathdowney.

For our fourth and final stage of the Camino the community will gather for a short prayer in the grounds of Grogan church and then walk to Errill Church.

Later in the evening of Saturday 20th we will have a Mass to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the church and this Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ossory, said Fr Martin Delaney PP.

''Following the evening Mass there will be refreshments for everyone. We would particularly love to welcome those who were baptised, received First Communion, Confirmation or were married in Errill during the last fifty years to come and join us for this celebration.

Further details from Fr. Martin at 086-2444594 or the Parish Office in Rathdowney 0505-46282.
Laois is missing out on tourism because it is lacking serviced campervan parking, according to a local campervan driving councillor.

Laois County Council has revealed that it is looking into providing motor home parking, and it is also working on helping landowners create new campsites to attract tourists.

Fine Gael Cllr Aisling Moran is asking Laois County Council to install areas for motor homes to stop in towns and villages.

She has also asked if there are any grants for Laois landowners to develop campsites and boost tourism.

"I'm talking about parking on the street, three or four spaces. For example in Stradbally. You pull into a little village, you spend money. If there were only one or two in every town and village, they would always be full.

"It's really important to give grants to landowners to put a campsite on their land," Cllr Moran said.

She tabled a motion to the September meeting of Laois County Council, also requesting an update on the development of the Barrow Blueway section in Laois.

"Two years ago I brought this up. I am asking about the part from Athy to west Laois," she said.

Cllr James Kelly from Mountrath agrees.

"We need charging points, toilets and showers. Mountrath is a prime location for two or three charging points. I keep looking across the border at Kinnitty, they have everything there. The council could be a little more proactive," he said.

Cllr PJ Kelly from Ballybrittas suggests that GAA clubs could provide the parking.

"In my own GAA club they have a stretch of ground and they have toilet facilities, maybe that is a potential good area for parking," he said.

Cllr Padraig Fleming backs Cllr Moran's motion, which also sought an update on the Barrow Blueway.

"I've walked on them, they are fantastic. To get services in towns and villages for motorhomes and serviced campsites, it's the way Ireland needs to be going to make Laois more attractive for people to come in and visit us," he said.

"Everybody seems to be going to Kerry and Cork and to the greenway in Waterford and we're losing them. It would be nice to have toilets and then everywhere is benefiting. We have lovely areas and scenery," agrees Cllr Ben Brennan.

In reply, Laois County Council said that a preliminary scoping exercise on motorhome parking. They have considered locations, availability of services for water and wastewater, set up costs, operations and management.

"The Council is also engaging with private sector interests that may be in a strong position to delivery such services at key locations in the County. For example, discussions have taken place with Coillte with regard to the provision of such facilities as part of the Mountain Bike Trail development. This Council has no suitable land available for the provision of motor homes in the

County as existing land banks are for the provision of housing and development sites," they said.

They add that there are grants available from Laois Partnership for works associated with developing campsites by private land owners on their lands. 50% of the cost is available to a maximum of 200,000. Grants for feasibility studies are, also, available (75% for Private and 90% Community up to maximum of 30,000).

On the Blueway, the council note that a 6.8 million project was approved back in 2019, for 46km of the Barrow to be developed with walking tracks, and 13km of that is in Laois.

"Works from Courtwood to Fisherstown are complete and this stretch of the canal is opened. The stretch from Ballymanus to Vicarstown is also completed. Works continues between Fisherstown and Monasterevin, with a target completion date of the end of September 2021. Works will then return to Vicarstown," the council reported.
The State company that is trying to build a big electricity substation in Laois with the ESB has issued a warning about power problems facing Irelnad.

A new report from Eirgrid has warned that Ireland could be facing electricity shortages over the next five winters due to rising demand and the closure of older power plants.

The electric power transmission operator in Ireland has said the recent withdrawal of previously procured generation and a recent auction that did not clear the desired amount of electricity capacity could bring about energy shortages if no action is taken.

EirGrids chief executive Mark Foley said: "We expect system alerts to be a feature of the system over the coming winters and this winter is likely to be challenging"

The report found that despite a short-term reduction in electricity use due to Covid-19, demand in Ireland is on the rise and will increase significantly due to an increase in the number of large energy users  including data centres.

It is clear from the report that new, cleaner gas-fired generation plant is required now to address this issue, especially for when wind and solar generation is low, added the chief executive.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan, said he cannot "absolutely" rule out electricity blackouts in Ireland this winter.

"The main problem this winter is that two of our largest gas-fired most modern power plants have been out of action. They will come back into operation next month and the month after so that should allow us [to] manage. But this winter and the subsequent winters are going to be difficult."

Ryan also said the government knows what it needs to do, stating that it will have further auctions early next year with the goal of bringing additional backup power into place.

"It is going to be difficult but we will manage it," the minister added.

EirGrid and the ESB want to build an 110 million substation on the Kilkenny Laois line to improve and deliver a secure supply.

Local residents have campaigned against the project for more than a decade citing threats to the water supply as a reason why it should not be built.
Farmers should be asked publicly to cut hedges to make the roads safer for school busses, milk trucks and all road users, according to a Laois councillor.

Cllr John King, Fine Gael, called on Laois County Council to use local newspapers to get the message out when he tabled a motion at the recent Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District meeting.

Cllr King called for the trimming back the sides of all hedgerows on busy roads where school buses/milk trucks and patrons travelling to school on a daily basis to ensure better visibility and safety for all road users.

Cllr King said all farmers must be complying with the legal obligation to cut the hedges.

There is no point in half of them doing it and half not doing it, he said.

Cllr Seamus McDonald, Fianna Fail, supported. He said most farmers will cut the hedges.

A small minority wont, he said.

Cllr McDonald said it is very on fair on the drivers of trucks and school buses.

It is a good idea to get a notice out there, he said.

Cllr James Kelly, Independent, was told that the nesting season as now over meaning hedges can be legally cut.

Ms. Louise McEvoy of Laois County Councils Roads Section replied to Cllr Kings motion.

Arrangements have been made for public notice in newspaper and on Laois website informing landowners of their responsibilities under the Roads Act 1993, she said.
The profile of the scenic Leafy Loop walk in Durrow is set to be raised with more visitors likely to follow following its inclusion in the National Walks Scheme by the Government.

It is among 31 new trails added to the scheme by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys which it is hoped will boost outdoor recreation and rural tourism.

Under the scheme, funding is provided to farmers and other landowners to maintain the trails that travel through their holdings.

The announcement will see three landowners in the Durrow area being supported to ensure that walk is accessible to people who want to use the 23 km trail.

The Leafy Loop around Durrow is described a glorious walk through forests, by rivers, up hills to oversee the valley, and down into the charming village itself.

The Leafy Loop is said a longer version of the Dunmore Loop walk which follows the same route until a divergence just before Clonageera House on the other side of the village.

While described as moderate, it can take up to six hours to complete the trail which can also be enjoyed in shorter sections.

The scheme is administered by 16 Local Development Companies (LDCs) who deliver the scheme in their area on behalf of the Department. Laois Partnership Company oversees the scheme in Laois where the Rural Recreation Officer is Conor Browne. The other two Laois approved schemes are the Slieve Bloom Way, Offaly Way.

Laois Offaly TD and Minister of State Sean Fleming welcomed the inclusion.

"Laois Partnership will work with all involved in Durrow Leafy Loop to ensure the walkway is maintained to the highest standard.

"Durrow Leafy Loop offers beautiful views of Laois countryside and inclusion now in the Walks Scheme will mean it can be enjoyed and experienced by even more families, local walkers and tourists.

"These additional trails being added today are part of Phase 2 and were drawn from the Expressions of Interest previously submitted. I would like to congratulate all involved in this process and their success in their application," he said.

Minister Humphreys also today published a review of the Walks Scheme, which sets out a number of recommendations aimed at enhancing the Walks Scheme and the role of Rural Recreation Officers, and will be implemented in consultation with key stakeholders.

The Minister made the announcements during a visit to officially open St Declans Way in Co. Waterford, a 115km trail involving 45 farmers and landowners which is amongst the trails being added to the scheme.

Our walkways, trails, greenways, blueways and cycleways are a defining feature of Rural Ireland," said Minister Humphreys.

They have been a godsend throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic  providing so many of us with the opportunity to get out for some exercise and to meet up with family and friends.

Over the past number of months, we have seen unprecedented investment in our outdoor amenities, underpinned by the most ambitious ever policy for Rural Ireland, Our Rural Future.

Todays announcement is further action behind that policy. By adding 31 new trails to the Walks Scheme, we are opening up our rural countryside further to walkers, hikers, adventurists, cyclists, as well as domestic and international tourists.

And it means we are investing in some of the most picturesque locations in the country, so that they can be enjoyed and experienced by millions of people every year.

The Minister added:

In rolling out the Walks Scheme, my Department works closely with our Local Development Companies, community groups and rural farmers and landowners. We are indebted to our farmers and other landowners throughout the country that facilitate access to these wonderful trails and who now, through this scheme, are being funded to maintain the walks to the high standard we have all come to expect.

Another important part of todays announcement is the decision to appoint up to 8 new Rural Recreation Officers, as well as improving the salaries of the Rural Recreation Officers that are already carrying out great work across the country. These individuals are crucial in implementing the Walks Scheme and working with all stakeholders to enhance our outdoor amenities.

As Minister, I am committed to expanding the Walks Scheme so that more communities can reap the benefits.

I am also committed to looking at further increasing the number of RROs nationwide based on the outcome of our new National Outdoor Recreation Strategy, which is currently being developed and which will make Rural Ireland an even better place to live, visit and raise a family.

Minister Humphreys concluded:

I am also today publishing a review of the Walks Scheme, which was carried out by Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland (ORNI).

The recommendations in the review are extensive, covering every aspect of scheme delivery and impacting across a range of stakeholders.

Given the breadth of issues covered and that many impact beyond my Department, I intend to establish a stakeholder consultation group to explore the recommendations and how they could be implemented at a local level.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the Local Development Companies, Trail management groups and especially the farmers and landowners for their excellent cooperation with my Department.

The report on the review of the Walks Scheme can be on gov.ie here:

https://www.gov.ie/en/policy- information/942b4b-the-walks- scheme-and-rural-recreation- officers/#2021-review-of-the- walks-scheme
Abbeyleix was the hub for conservation experts from across Europe to see the work being done on wetlands around Ireland at the end of September.

The Natural Climate Buffer study tour saw wetland conservation and restoration practitioners from across Europe staying in Abbeyleix from Sunday, 26 September until Wednesday, 29 September 2021.

They were joined by Irish wetland and peatlands experts, representing non governmental organisations, community groups, government agencies, consultants, and academic institutions.

The study tour included 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 took part in a workshop at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel to reflect on the site visits.

Garry Luttrell is Acting Chair, Abbeyleix Bog Project, which helped to host the event. He said all in the Project were 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, 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.

It was supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage of the Government of Ireland and made possible with the financial support of the European Union.

Laois Offaly Green Party Minister Pippa Hackett attended part of the event with Malcolm Noonan at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel.

Minister Hackett praised farmers who work at protecting wetlands.

It is through work like this on the ground by farmers across the country that we can begin to see real progress, she said.

Minister Hackett, who has responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity, praised the Community Wetlands Forum and the Irish Ramsar Wetlands Committee for working to raise awareness of the importance of our wetlands.

Her comments focused on the part which farmers play in restoring wetlands, and follows on from the recently launched FARMPeat project, supported by her Department. This is an innovative, results-based scheme for farmers in the Midlands, who manage lands that surround some of Ireland's finest remaining raised bogs.

It is the role of the farming community in protecting the network of those lower profile or unknown wetland sites across our landscape that I would like to highlight today, she told the gathering.

Although there is continued work needed on awareness, policy and protection for these sites there is also excellent work being carried out by our farming community on the ground.

Techniques such as drain blocking and farm management practices that promote wetland restoration need that on the ground knowledge which farmers can provide.

"Other projects, such as the Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE IP, the Pearl Mussel Project and Hen Harrier Project all employ specifically adapted locally led results based agri-environmental schemes to benefit habitats and species.

This locally led and landscape scale approach means that farmers truly are at the heart of wetland habitat restoration and protection in these areas as they learn how best to sustainably manage their land through the support of the scheme, she said.

The gathering was also attended by Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan who paid tribute to the work the National Parks and Wildlife Service, state agencies, environmental organizations and local communities.
The death has occurred of Marie Keane (nee Meredith)

1376 St Evin's Park, Monasterevin, Kildare



Suddenly, at her residence. Loving sister of the late Denis (Dinny) (recently deceased). Deeply regretted by her loving family Elaine, T.J. and Mairead, grandchildren Brooke, Madison, Oran, Fionn and Eilidh, sons-in-law Ger and Pat, daughter-in-law Sharon, brothers Dominic and Charlie, sisters Rita, Sinead and Judy, brother-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends.

Rest In Peace.

Reposing at her residence on Thursday from 3pm with Rosary at 8pm (please wear face coverings and adhere to social distancing). Removal on Friday at 10am arriving St Peter and Paul's Church, Monasterevin, for Requiem Mass at 11am. Funeral afterwards to St Evin's Cemetery, Monasterevin.

Marie's Requiem Mass will be streamed live on http://www.monasterevinparish.ie/

You can leave your condolences on the online Condolence Book below. The family would like to thank you for your help and understanding at this sad and difficult time.

The death has occurred of Martin Brennan

32 Greenhills, Athy, Kildare



Husband of the late Bridget and father of the late John-Paul. Deeply regretted by his loving sons Anthony, Timmy, Joseph, Michael and Martin, brother Joe, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

Rest in Peace

Reposing at his residence on Wednesday (29th September). (Please wear face coverings and adhere to social distancing).

Removal at 10.30am on Thursday morning to arrive at St. Michael's Parish Church, Athy, for Requiem Mass at 11am (Church limited to 50% capacity). The Mass will be livestreamed, see www.parishofathy.ie

Burial afterwards in St. Michael's New Cemetery, Athy.

Those who would liked to attend the funeral but cannot due to current restrictions may leave a message in the condolence section below.

The death has occurred of Joseph (Joe) Costello

Henry Road, Newbridge, Kildare / Portlaoise, Laois



Late of Brisbane, Australia. Peacefully, in Australia surrounded by his wife and his family. Sadly missed by his loving wife Robyn, children Shane, Jacqui, Lee, Joanne, Stephen, Susan, Nevada, Clayton, Jason and Cody, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, his 22 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren, sisters Mary, Rosaleen and Beatrice, brothers Matt and Hugh, extended family, neighbours and friends.

May Joe Rest In Peace.

Joe's funeral will take place at a later date in Australia.

The death has occurred of Bill DEVERILL

Graiguecullen, Carlow / Castledermot, Kildare



Bill Deverill, Graiguecullen, Carlow and formerly of Abbeylands, Castledermot, Co. Kildare, passed away peacefully, in the arms of his family, following an illness bravely borne, in Waterford University Hospital, on September 28th, 2021.

Beloved husband and best friend of Martha, adored father of Frances, Madeleine and Anna, most loved GaGa of Brianna, Sadhbh, Holly and Lilly and cherished brother of Pat and late sister Mary.

He will be sadly missed by his loving wife, daughters, grandchildren, son-in-law Michael and Eamonn, brother, nephew Sean, relatives, good neighbours and friends.

May Bill Rest In Peace

Reposing at Carpenter Bros Funeral Home, Graiguecullen, from 4pm on Thursday with Prayers at 8pm.

Funeral Mass will take place on Friday at 11.30am in The Holy Cross Church, Killeshin and will be followed by burial afterwards in the Sleaty New Cemetery.

Due to Covid restrictions, the Capacity of The Holy Cross Church is limited to 50%.

Those who would have liked to attend, but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message in the 'Condolences' section below.

Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to The Irish Cancer Society.

The death has occurred of William (Willie) Mills

Rathernan, Kilmeague, Kildare



Mills, William (Willie), Rathernan, Kilmeague, Co. Kildare, September 28th 2021, peacefully in the loving care of the staff of Curragh Lawns Nursing Home. Beloved son of the late James and Rose. Deeply regretted by his loving brothers Jim, Tom and Jason, sisters Mary, Sheila, Ann, Bridget, Liz, Kathleen, Mag, Joney and Pat, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, relatives and friends.

Rest In Peace

Due to current government guidelines regarding religious ceremonies, Willie's Funeral Mass will take place on Friday at 12pm in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Allen. Family and friends are welcome to attend the funeral, but are reminded to be mindful of hand and cough etiquette and social distancing. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to the current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for the family in the condolences section below.

The church will be limited in capacity to 50%, but people are welcome to view Willie's Funeral Mass on Friday at 12pm by clicking on the following link : https://www.facebook.com/farewellfriendslivestreaming

Oliver Reilly Funeral Directors accept no responsibility for any live webcam interruptions or issues.

Willie will be reposing at his residence on Thursday from 2pm. Please respect HSE and Government guidelines whilst attending the reposing. Willie's Funeral Cortege will be leaving his residence on Friday morning at approx. 11:30am to arrive at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Allen for 12pm Funeral Mass followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. Those who would like to line the route, may do so in a safe and socially distanced manner.

For all enquiries, please contact Oliver Reilly Ltd. Funeral Directors on (045) 868230.
A Kildare councillor tweeted out a sly dig at An Taoiseach Micheal Martin over recent comments he made concerning Ireland's planning laws.

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said that a review of the country's planning laws will lead to fewer delays in the delivery of housing and critical infrastructure.

Social Democrats Cllr Nuala Killeen quote-tweeted an RTE News article about Mr Martin's comments and asked: "Critical for who..."

Critical for who ....... https://t.co/UBOFGuu84G  Councillor NualaKilleen (@Fionnuala____) September 28, 2021

Cllr Killeen was backed up by the Newbridge Community Development (NCD) group, who also commented in support of her differing opinion.

In addition, Cllr Killeen offered to work with NCD to expand the scope to the upcoming Newbridge County development plan.

We're developing a community scorecard to highlight community assets, highlights and deficiencies. It's a pilot.

Maybe give me a shout and we can expand scope to Newbridge

County development plan coming up. Might have scope for asking for enhancements? September 28, 2021

Chairperson of the NCD, Evonne Boland, doubled-down on the the group's support for the Leixlip/Celbridge Cllr, explaining that the group supports "open, constructive criticism" of political figures.

She told The Leinster Leader: "We support the sentiment expressed."

"We feel the current planning process (especially for SHD), is delivering a very poor outcome for Newbridge."

"We are getting thousands of houses, poorly located for the densities in question, and none of the associated critical physical or social infrastructure."

She added: "Infrastructure is already in deficit in the town."
A Kildare Deputy TD has told Dail Eireann that arranging treatment for those suffering from eating disorders must be "enhanced."

Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asks the Minister for Health to discuss the need to enhance availability of mental health services for children and adults with eating disorders.

The Fine Gael TD's topic of discussion was one of the Topical Issues selected by the Ceann Comhairle this morning.

Deputy Durkan explained his concerns to The Leinster Leader: "Its an issue of the most critical importance."

"Sadly the lack of adequate bed accommodation, appropriate treatment courses and general back up is causing huge trauma for the patients, the families and siblings of people who have mental health conditions arising from eating disorders or in some cases, addictions."

He continued: "It is impossible to source the appropriate treatment in the shortest possible time resulting in parents having to attend in hospitals, in many cases throughout the night, in order to try and ensure that their child receive the appropriate mental health treatment.

Similarly, adolescents and young adults, previously diagnosed with a mental health issue, face huge difficulties in obtaining treatment, particularly if they happen to have an addiction.

Again, their families valiantly strive to obtain treatment for them and give them every support but the fact that the mental health services and supports has not grown in line with the need leaves some patients ending up in Court or in prison, again due to the lack of adequate and available supports."

He concluded: "I am strongly of the opinion that prison is not the correct location to treat mental health patients, some of whom can be predisposed towards suicide and I therefore believe that the immediate response must be addressing the deficiencies in child and adult mental health services in the shortest possible time."

Deputy Durkan's comments follow the release of recent statistics under the Freedom of Information Act, which show that the eating disorder anorexia affects more girls than boys.

It also found that a total of 121 children under the age of 16 being hospitalised with the condition last year.

Deputy Durkan was recently named as one of the wealthiest TDs in the country in The Irish Independents Political Rich List, which established there are 68 millionaires in the Dail.

It was based on a detailed examination of the value of their properties, land, businesses, shareholdings and pensions.

The Leinster Leader reached out to him for comment on this news, but he has yet to respond.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call Samaritans Ireland at 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie, or you can find helpful resources on the official website of Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, by clicking here.
The Kildare Town local electoral area (LEA) which has a population of over 25,000 people has the highest Covid-19 rate in the county.

Newbridge has had the biggest concentration of infections for several weeks but has now been overtaken by the neighbouring town southbound along the M7.

Kildare Town saw 135 confirmed cases or a rate per 100,000 of 525.3 for the two-week period up to September 20.

This level represents an increase of over 35% on the average national Covid-19 rate of 390 per 100,000.

Naas was next highest in County Kildare with 185 confirmed cases or a rate per 100,000 of 472.8.

In Newbridge there were 154 confirmed Cases and a LEA rate per 100,000 of 434.

In Clane, there were 121confirmed cases or a rate per 100,000 of 425.5.

In Maynooth, there were 111 confirmed cases and a LEA rate per 100,000 of 373.4 while in Leixlip there were 46 cases and a rate per 100,000 people of 290.

In Celbridge, there were 56 confirmed cases and a rate per 100,000 of 258.9 while in Athy there were 79 cases with a rate per 100,000 of 297.

The Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health, Dr Tony Holohan reiterated at the weekend that full vaccination is the best way of protecting against the virus.

He said: At this point in the pandemic, we are all very familiar with the public health advice that will continue to keep us safe, both in school and as we take part in all of the other hobbies and activities that are available to us.

Vaccination remains our best means of protection against Covid-19. The vaccines available in Ireland are very safe and effective against Covid-19.

If vaccination is available to you, then I strongly encourage you to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

Continue to regularly wash hands, wear a mask when appropriate  particularly in retail settings, on public transport and in healthcare settings; keep your distance, open

windows and ventilate indoor spaces.

Action

The most important action to take is - if you display symptoms of COVID-19 like cough, fever, fatigue, headache, or sore throat - isolate and contact your GP who will advise if you need to arrange a test.
Kildare-based construction firm BAM hosted a trail walking day in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, raising over 10,000 for the All for Aidan charity.

BAM employees from around the country took to the hills to support the care of Aidan Kenny, a toddler who was diagnosed with a rare, incurable condition called Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) last year.

Three-year-old Aidan, from Co. Roscommon, requires around the clock care since his diagnosis in 2020, and a Go Fund Me has been set up to allow his parents Sean and Deirdre and brother Darren to spend as much time with him as possible.

In May, Aidan received the Young Engineers Award in honour of his curious mind and bravery. Engineers Ireland awarded him this through the STEPS programme as an individual award, the first of its kind, making him the youngest engineer in Ireland.

BAM Director Denis McCarthy commented; It was great to see so many of our colleagues come out today to support and raise awareness for such a worthy cause. Aidan, Sean, Deirdre and Darren are handling this situation with great courage, and we are proud to be associated with people of such strength and character. We know that the funds raised will be put to good use as the Kenny family continue on their journey.

More information on All for Aidan, including How to Donate, can be found at (Fundraiser for Paddy Finn by Jonathan Travers : All For Aidan (gofundme.com)
The Living Wage Technical Group (LWTG) has recommended the living wage in Ireland should rise by 60c taking it from 12.30 per hour to 12.90.

The 'living wage' is defined as the minimum income necessary for a single adult in full-time employment to meet their basic needs and afford an acceptable standard of living.

This is different from the National Minimum Wage, currently based at 10.20 per hour, which is not based on the cost of living, but rather evidence based rate of pay which is grounded in social consensus and is derived from Consensual Budget Standards research which establishes the cost of Minimum Essential Standard of Living in Ireland today.

The LWTG has said the increase is being driven by higher rents, transport and energy costs. Food, clothing and car insurance, however, decreased in price, off-setting to some degree these price increases.

[The Living Wage] represents the minimum required to meet physical, social and psychological needs, and enable a life with dignity, said Robert Thornton, VPSJ Senior Research and Policy Officer and a member of the LWTG.

Having an income below this standard of living means doing without goods and services which are essential for taking part in the norms of everyday life in Ireland.

In January, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar asked the Low Pay Commission to examine the issue and make recommendations to Government on how best to achieve this commitment.

The commission will investigate how an increase to a living wage could compare internationally, as well as its impact on the cost of labour, social welfare, health, education and housing.

It will also consider he possibility of introducing lower supplementary welfare payments if a living wage were to lead to a decrease in poverty among working people.
Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch, is being flown back to Ireland today to face court proceedings in connection with the gun attack at the Regency Hotel in Dublin five years ago.

After being arrested on the Costa Del Sol last month, a court in Spain ruled that Mr. Hutch could be extradited to Ireland to face charges over the murder of David Byrne.

Mr. Hutch, 58, will be escorted on the plane by Gardai from the extradition section and is due to arrive in Baldonnel later this evening where he will be met by officers from Ballymun who are investigating the murder of David Byrne and other offences at the Regency Hotel in February 2016.

From there, he will be brought directly to the Special Criminal Court to be charged and appear before three judges at a special sitting tonight.

A high-level security operation involving Gardai and the Defence Forces has been put in place to escort him from the military airbase to the Special Criminal Court.




A Senator from Kildare has called on the government to improve the school system for children from Traveller backgrounds.

Senator Fiona O' Loughlin expressed her frustrations with the findings of the recent 'Out of the Shadows' report, which detailed how many Traveller children do not feel included, wanted, or safe in school  especially at second level.

It also found that many of their parents fear for their safety and wellbeing while their children are in school.

The Fianna Fail politician said: "It is not good enough that we have an entire section of our society that are being deterred from engaging with our education system."

"Every child is entitled to an education and deserves to be educated in a positive and inclusive environment."

She added: "The Department needs to engage with representatives of the Traveller and Roma communities, and action needs to be taken to improve their educational experience."

Senator OLoughlin concluded: "I believe that we need to see greater engagement with representatives of travelling community, and we need to see changes on the ground to ensure that no child misses out on education as a result of the atmosphere in their school."

Out of the Shadows, which was conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017-2021, currently remains unpublished.

According to The Irish Times, the 124-page report by sociologist Dr Maria Quinlan draws on detailed consultations with 104 Traveller and Roma parents and students, and 28 teachers and principals between November 2019 and January 2020.

The 2016 Census found that the level of education among Travellers remained well below that of general population, with just 13.3 per cent of Traveller females being educated to upper secondary or above, compared to 69.1 per cent of the general population.

In addition, nearly 6 in 10 Traveller men (57.2 per cent) were educated to at most Primary level in sharp contrast to the general population (13.6 per cent).
A Minister from Kildare has expressed his condolences to the food company Glenisk following a devastating fire that broke out in its Tullamore factory on Monday.

It was reported that the fire alarm sounded at about 11am on Monday morning at the Glenisk organic yoghurt manufacturing facility at Killeigh, where all 50 staff were immediately evacuated.

Fine Gael's Martin Heydon, TD, who is the Minister of State at the Dept of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, quote-tweeted a message on the official Twitter account for Glenisk to offer his sympathies to the company.

He said: "The resilience and optimism shown by Glenisk in the face of adversity has been heartening."

"I have no doubt they will bounce back," Minister Heydon added.

The resilience and optimism shown by @Glenisk in the face of adversity has been heartening. I have no doubt they will bounce back. https://t.co/16EyiC8FuL September 29, 2021

Speaking on the fire, Glenisk director Gerard Cleary said on Monday that "basically everything" had been lost.

"It's devastating for all of us really at this point in time and we don't really know what to say," said Mr Cleary.

"We'll just have to see what we have and what we can salvage and then just start again. That's all we can do."

He added that he was glad the plant's safety and emergency plans worked effectively: "We're just grateful to all the services, the fire brigade and the ambulance."

"Luckily no one was injured in any way so we're very thankful for that."

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Minister Heydon recently made headlines when he was listed as one of the nation's wealthiest TDs in The Irish Independent's most recent Political Rich List.
Leitrim Development Company is to receive funding for the 4.23km Arroo Trail which involves up to 18 farmers and landowners helping to maintain the walking trail.

The Arroo Trail offers stunning views of Arroo Mountain, Keelogyboy, Truskmore and out to Mullaghmore.

The trail starts at the Aghanlish Community Centre in the beautiful Glenade Valley.

The moderate, linear walk follows an existing main road before continuing onto open hillside. Part of the walk is on paved paths and part on green roads that are surrounded by heather and hills.

The Arroo Trail is on is The Manorhamilton  Glenade Valley Scenic Looped Drive.

Minister Frank Feighan has welcomed the announcement both nationally as Minister responsible for Healthy Ireland and locally as a TD for the area.

I want to acknowledge the great work undertaken by our local development companies nationally and locally. We are indebted to our farmers and other landowners throughout the country that facilitate access to these wonderful trails and who now, through this scheme, are being funded to maintain the walks to the high standard we have all come to expect, concluded Minister Feighan.
Love Leitrim has joined Friends Of The Earth Ireland and others in a call for TDs to support Brid Smith's Planning & Development Bill which if successful would result in an effective moratorium on new data centres and large scale fossil fuel projects like LNG terminals.

The bill would prevent fossil fuel infrastructure and data centres from being designated as strategic infrastructure. It would also seeks to update the planning process and ensure that the States climate targets are taken into account. It will be before elected representatives in Dail Eireann on Thursday September 30th. People are also being asked to gather at at Leinster House at 5.30pm on the day in support of the bill. The Bill does not seek to remove existing infrastructure, data centres or stop necessary maintenance. It rather seeks to prevent new fossil fuel infrastructure and their associated polluting emissions from being locked-in to the energy system for decades to come.

Dr Patrick Bresnihan of NUI Maynooth has stated that If all the proposed data centres for Ireland were to be connected they could use as much as 70 per cent of Irelands electricity grid capacity in 2030. He also said "that while data centres currently represented 11 per cent of grid capacity, the energy used by those existing connections will rise to almost 30 per cent of overall capacity by the end of the decade. If all other data centres proposed for Ireland are allowed, their energy use would comprise 70 per cent of capacity on the national grid. This is compared to the worldwide situation where only 2% of electricity is consumed by data centres.

Love Leitrim Chairperson Jamie Murphy said "We are in an a climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. Following the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published in the summer the United Nations Secretary General described it as a code red for humanity." We need our government and all of our politicians to act like it is an emergency. Supporting Brid Smiths's bill is a wonderful opportunity for our government and all elected representatives to take real and practical action in the fight against the worst impacts of climate change. The development of new data centres ,which consume enormous amounts of energy, or new fossil fuel infrastructure is not compatible with building a sustainable future. We hope all TDs, including our representatives in this constituency, will grasp this chance to help make a difference for this and future generations.

People can contact their TDs at this link

https://www.foe.ie/takeaction/ no-new-fossil-fuel- infrastructure/
GARDAI have launched an investigation after members of staff at a busy service station in Limerick city were threatened with a hammer during an attempted robbery.

The robbery incident happened at the Inver station at Ballinacurra Road, near Punches Cross at the weekend.

"This robbery took place last Saturday morning (September 25) at 10.05," said divisional crime prevention officer Sergeant Ber Leetch.

"A male entered the service station, demanded money and threatened staff there with a hammer," she added.

According to gardai, nobody was injured and no cash was taken from the premises during the incident.

Detectives at Roxboro Road station are investigating and they are appealing for any witnesses who saw what happened to contact them.

They are also appealing to motorists with dash cameras who may have been in the area to make the footage available to them.

They can be contacted at (061) 214340.
AROUND 100 Shia Muslims have marched in the city to mark one of the religions most sacred festivals.

The Arbaeen Pilgrimage, or the Arbaeen Walk, is the world's largest annual public gathering. It is held in Iraq and can often draw more than 40 million people.

But with Covid-19 restrictions ruling out a trip eastwards, members of Limericks local Shia Muslim community on Saturday held an event in the city.

One of the organisers, Raza Navqi (pictured below with his son Ali Akber) said there are more than 40 Shia Muslim families in Limerick, and over 800 across Ireland.

Its the third year they have held a march in Limerick, having previously gathered in 2018 and 2019.

Prevailing coronavirus conditions ruled out any such event last year.

The march, which took place with the permission of Limerick City and County Council and the gardai, took place from the Potato Market and through into the heart of the city.
KELLEY Ni Airtneada, principal of Meenkilly National School thinks theres something mysterious bubbling in the local water supply.

And why wouldnt she? A staggering six sets of twins are in the infants classroom of her school!

Youd have to wonder is it something in the water out here, joked Ms Ni Airtneada who described how staff were shocked when three sets of twins enrolled in the junior infants class this summer, following in the footsteps of the three sets who enrolled the previous summer.

Its phenomenal. Ive never heard of it. Weve always nearly had a set of twins in the school and in nearly every school youd have a set of twins along the way but certainly not three sets followed by another three sets the following year. We were shocked, she explained.

In junior infants, the twin sets are all mixed - boy/girl- while in senior infants there is one set of girls and the rest are all boys - one of the boys attends the nearby Dromtransa school.

None of the sets of twins are identical which makes it a little bit easier for Ms Ni Airtneada and the junior and senior infants teacher Mrs OGorman.

But in saying that, one set of the twin boys look identical to me, but the mom tells me there are not, Ms Ni Airtneada pointed out. I have to tell them by their shoes sometimes, she laughed, who is wearing the Nike and who has the Adidas.

The boys and girls all love the fact that they are twins and they love telling people Im a twin.

The school, which is located outside Abbeyfeale, has 92 students in total with 26 students in the junior and senior infants classroom.

They are settling in fantastically - they are absolutely loving it. They are loving life and loving school in Meenkilly, said Ms Ni Airtneada of the new attendees.

To mark the fact we have so many sets of twins, we gifted all the 26 students in junior and senior infants with a Meenkilly teddy bear wearing a school jumper and crest. I just thought it would be a nice little touch, she smiled.

To see more smiling faces of young boys and girls from schools around the city and county, dont miss Our First Days of School supplement which will be free in next week's Limerick Leader which will be in shops on Wednesday, October 6!
TAKING over and running the citys iconic King Johns Castle would be a natural progression and a great opportunity for the council, director of services Gordon Daly told councillors this week.

It is a significant visitor attraction, he explained, regularly clocking up over 100,000 visitors a year and with a lot more potential to increase those numbers.

The castle is currently operated by Shannon Heritage but the proposal is that the council, through a fully-owned subsidiary company, would take over its operation and staff would transfer to this company.

Work is continuing on the due diligence process, Mr Daly said, and the target to complete the transfer, all going well, is January 1, 2022. However, he cautioned: We have to do risk assessment and be fully aware of what we are taking on. That is why it is taking time.

The council has asked its legal representatives as well as outside consultants to assist in the due diligence process, he added.

But councillors were concerned that the workers at the Castle were being kept in the dark about what was happening and about their futures.

When was the last time the council and Shannon Heritage met the workers? demanded Cllr Conor Sheehan. At this stage, they dont know who their employer is going to be. He was concerned if the transfer didnt complete by January 1, the castle would close until March and the Castle would become a seasonal entity.

It is strange the workers havent been talked to, said Sinn Feins Cllr John Costello who lives eight doors down from the Castle. The council needs to work hand in glove with the workers and ensure it was a full-time amenity, he argued, and more events and concerts were needed.

It was the intention of the chief executive to meet with the staff at the appropriate time, Mr Daly responded. There are unions involved, he added, but the target time would be October.

The Castle, he continued, had always been a year-round site but more recently had become more seasonal.

I am very disappointed to hear you are not completely ruling out operating the Castle on a seasonal basis, Cllr Conor Sheehan said. And he wanted the message to go out clearly that a seasonal operation would not be acceptable to him.

Many of the workers at the Castle have been there for 30 years, he added and bring such additionality to the Castle.

The council not giving the commitment you are looking for should not be interpreted as a negative,  Mr Daly replied. We do have serious ambitions for this.

Cllr Sharon Benson was also concerned on the workers behalf and asked for a briefing before January 1.

Cllr Stephen Keary however said any operation at the Castle would have to increase opening hours and continue past 5pm up to 8 or 9pm. But he warned: It cant be a burden on the coffers of the authority.

But Cllr Olivia OSullivan welcomed the proposal as very positive and something that had been welcomed by tourism and hospitality in the area.
RESEARCH into stress and pills has seen two Limerick lecturers break new ground in a highly-regarded science competition.

The Limerick heat winners of the worlds leading science communication competition, FameLab 2021 have been announced, with the national final to take place later this week.

University of Limerick PhD student Mariana Silva, originally from Portugal was announced as winner while Walter Stanley, a senior lecturer at UL, took home the runner up award.

Organised by the British Council Ireland and funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the FameLab 2021 competition teaches scientists and engineers how to convey their knowledge to others as the pandemic has highlighted the importance of clear, engaging science communication.

Both Mariana and Walter will compete virtually in the national final - this Thursday. The overall winner, chosen from the 12 finalists, will go on to participate in the FameLab International Finals in November.

Mariana came to Ireland as part of her PhD programme as a Marie Skodowska-Curie fellow. Her research focuses on developing a method to produce tiny particles of drug molecules that have the potential to transform daily pills.

It is hoped that it will make them a thing of the past by turning them into an injectable that is capable of treating a condition for months.

Walter is a senior lecturer in Mechanical/Aeronautical engineering at UL. He has over 25 years experience in the area of stress analysis, composite materials manufacture and mechanical testing.

This will be the final year of the FameLab competition which has enticed more than 1,000 early career Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) professionals from across Ireland to participate over the past nine years.

FameLab boasts a network of more than 90 Ireland alumni who continue to inspire engagement with science among the Irish public.

The FameLab Ireland final is hosted by TV and radio broadcaster Jonathan McCrea and can be viewed live on Thursday September 30th at 6 pm on the British Council Ireland Facebook page.
Almost 8 million was scammed from people in online investment fraud so far this year, according to new Garda figures obtained by RTE's Morning Ireland.

The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau has warned people to be more vigilant online to ensure their financial safety.

A new programme plans to give 230,000 older people digital and online skills so they can interact with services and avoid cyber scams is being launched.

Hi Digital, a nationwide social partnership between ALONE, Active Retirement Ireland, and Vodafone Ireland Foundation launched today to deliver online and in-person digital skills training for older people.

Garda figures show 7.9 million was taken from people in online investment fraud up to the end of July 2021.

That figure represents an 86% increase when compared to the same period in 2020.

Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau urged people to be "very, very careful".

During cyber security month, gardai outlined measures you can take to ensure online safety.

By following these four simple steps you can make your online work and relaxation more secure. #ThinkB4UClick



Step 1 - Stay Secure

- Beware of unsolicited emails or unsecured websites

- Update your software regularly

- Only use approved connections



Step 2 - Stay Connected

- Don't use public Wi-Fi for work or sensitive information

- Create strong passwords

- Change your password regularly



Step 3 - Stay Separate

- Keep your personal data separate from your business or work data

- Use encryption to protect your information



Step 4 - Stay Safe

- Back up your data regularly

- Report any suspicious activity or messages.
LIMERICK GAA's Gaelic Grounds will be known as the TUS Gaelic Grounds from this Friday October 1.

This Wednesday afternoon the new name for the Limerick GAA Headquarters was confirmed by LIT, ahead of their own name change this Friday to the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest.

Back in April 2019, it was announced that the Gaelic Grounds was to be renamed 'LIT Gaelic Grounds' with Limerick GAA and the Moylish based Third Level Institute signing a 10-year partnership. The LIT Gaelic Grounds name officially came into operation on May 1, 2019.

However, earlier this year, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD confirmed that the Limerick college had been granted technological university status.

This Friday October 1 is the official start of the new entity, which will see LIT partner with AIT, to become known as the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest.

And, all that means the Limerick GAA stadium will now be known as TUS Gaelic Grounds until the end of the 10-year partnership in 2029.

The first GAA fixture in the TUS Gaelic Grounds will be this Friday evening - Garryspillane and Kildimo-Pallaskenry meeting in the Limerick Senior Hurling County Cup final at 7.30.

And, the newly named TUS Gaelic Grounds is to host the graduation ceremony as the first graduands from the Moylish, Clare Street, Thurles, Clonmel and Ennis campuses of the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest (TUS), will be conferred this November.

The ceremony will take place at the Limerick GAA grounds to allow for the historic in-person graduation. Last year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, all LIT conferring ceremonies were held virtually.

The conferring ceremony will take place over four sessions during November 9 and November 10, with the students of each faculty (Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment; Limerick School of Art and Design; Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology; and Faculty of Business & Humanities) gathering with their families to receive their parchment in person.

"Graduation day is always a special day - for the graduands, their families and the LIT, soon to be TUS, community. Days like these mark significant milestones in peoples lives and they allow our soon to be graduates to recognise the commitment, ability and perseverance that got them to this day," said outgoing President of LIT and incoming President of TUS Professor Vincent Cunnane.

He added: "We are delighted to be able to gather again in person to mark this momentous occasion. It is important that our graduands can celebrate this day with their family and friends who supported them, and the staff who worked with them over the last number of years. November 9 and 10 2021, will celebrate the first graduates of the new TU in the newly named TUS Gaelic Grounds.

Limerick GAA chairman John Cregan welcomed the news.

"Limerick GAA are delighted to welcome the announcement by the new Technological University that the first graduation is to be held in the TUS Gaelic Grounds. This is a further example of the excellent working relationship that exists between Limerick GAA and Professor Vincent Cunnane and his management team," said Cregan.
A Chinese state-owned enterprise struck a deal to buy most of China Evergrande Groups stake in a commercial bank for $1.5 billion, the latest sign that the countrys authorities are trying to help the property giant resolve some of its financial troubles.

Evergrande said Wednesday that one of its units plans to sell nearly 20% of Shengjing Bank Co., which is based the Liaoning province city of Shenyang, to a company whose owners include the local branch of Chinas State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission as well as the local and provincial governments. The transaction would make the state-owned company the banks largest shareholder.

Evergrande holds 34.5% of the Hong Kong-listed regional lender, which it invested in five years ago. Its stake would drop to 14.6% following the deal, which needs regulatory approval. It said the sale was valued at about 9.99 billion yuan, the equivalent of about $1.55 billion.

Shengjing Bank has also demanded that Evergrande use net proceeds from the stake sale to repay what the developer owes it, according to a regulatory filing.

The real-estate conglomerates stock jumped 10% by noon in Hong Kong but remains down more than 80% for the year.

Evergrande, the worlds most indebted property developer, has struggled in recent months to raise cash and meet its financial obligations after borrowing heavily from large and small investors, banks, suppliers and home buyers who paid in advance for apartments that the company promised to build. It reported the equivalent of $304 billion in liabilities at the end of June, including $88.5 billion in interest-bearing debt.

Last week, the company missed a coupon payment on its U.S. dollar bonds, and it has another interest payment coming due Wednesday.

Construction of many of Evergrandes developments has been halted and the company has been paying some suppliers and contractors with unfinished apartment units.

Evergrande said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that its liquidity issue has adversely affected Shengjing Bank in a material way" and that the purchase of most of its stake by a state-owned enterprise would help stabilize the lenders operations.

The local government had little choice but to help Evergrande resolve its liabilities with the bank, said Li Gen, chief executive of Beijing BG Capital Management Ltd., a credit-focused asset manager. If the state-owned enterprise hadnt stepped in to buy some of Evergrandes stake, Shengjing Bank would likely have to book significant loan losses, which could affect its lending to other businesses.

Shengjing Banks net profit after tax fell 77% last year to the equivalent of about $191 million, according to the lenders regulatory filings. This year, its first-half net profit after tax dropped 63% to $162 million, as the banks interest margins shrank and it increased its expectations for loan losses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 24-year-old bank, whose business is mostly in northern and northeastern China, has 18 branches in five provinces and dozens of subbranches in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, according to its interim report. It provides deposit and lending services to individuals and companies, and has in the past lent money to Evergrande, its regulatory filings showed.

Shengjing Banks chairman, Qiu Huofa, previously worked as an executive vice president at Evergrande, as did the banks chief approval officer. Its board also has other Evergrande representatives who were appointed after the developer became its controlling shareholder.

In July, a Chinese credit-rating company downgraded Shengjing Bank to AA+ from AAA. China Lianhe Credit Rating Co. said the lender was facing certain customer and industry concentration risks," and that declining credit asset quality was hurting its profits.

Around 18.2% of Shengjings outstanding loans at the end of last year were to the real-estate and construction industries, versus 12.8% in 2018, according to the banks disclosures. The rating company said Shengjings exposure to one group of companieswhich it didnt nameexceeded a regulatory limit.

The buyer of the bank shares is Shenyang Shengjing Finance Investment Group Co., a company involved in industrial investment, capital management and asset management, Evergrande said Wednesday.

Evergrande has been trying to sell other assets, including stakes in an electric-vehicle business and a property-management-services firm, as well as an office building in Hong Kong.

We think that this disposal will help Evergrande address some of its upcoming liabilities, primarily those owed to Shengjing Bank, but will not be sufficient (to) fully address the companys tight liquidity position," analysts from CreditSights said in a report.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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For prioritising skill development among students as per National Education Policy (NEP-2020), Karnataka's Department of Higher Education and the Information Technology (IT) major Infosys would enter into three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) soon, said Minister for Higher Education Dr CN Ashwatha Narayana.

The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting convened with Infosys officials chaired by Narayana at Vikasa Soudha on Tuesday.

The Minister informed that the MoUs would help the Karanataka government utilise 'Infosys Springboard', comprising of over 3,000 skill development courses for college students, 'Campus Connect' for digital learning of college faculty and professional guidance for students, and for a donation of 15,000 de-bonded computers to colleges from Infosys."

"'Infosys Springboard' is an integrated digital literacy platform comprising effective digital learning solutions, technology-based life skill courses, gamification, live classes, industry certification, maker's lab, carrier guidance," he explained.

"Introduction of gesture computing and biometrics for smart classrooms, utilising virtual reality and augmented reality for training and linking learning data with performance outcome, utilising gamification and design principles to create healthy competition among students, utilising automation and robotic tools to create content will be part of the MoU," he added.

Narayana further stated that under the MoUs, the 'NEP community' will be established to facilitate the exchange of best practices among institutions.

"Institutions will be mentored and guided towards the implementation of the NEP framework and collaboration will be established between KDEM (Karnataka Digital Economy Mission) and Infosys to achieve talent acceleration," he added.

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The board of online news magazine Ozy Media said it was conducting an investigation into the companys business practices following a New York Times report that raised questions about the company.

In a statement, Ozys board, which includes Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, said it has hired the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP to conduct a review of the companys business activities."

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that Ozy Chief Operating Officer Samir Rao impersonated an executive from Alphabet Inc.s YouTube on a fundraising call with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Carlos Watson, Ozys chief executive, said on Twitter Sunday that Mr. Raos behavior on the call was deeply unfortunate" and attributed his behavior to a mental-health issue.

The board said it has asked Mr. Rao to take a leave of absence pending the investigation. The board said Harry Hawks, the former executive president and chief financial officer of Hearst Television, has agreed to serve as interim CFO during the review.

Tuesdays announcement marks an abrupt about-face for the youth-focused media startup, which on Sunday had said that its board had been made aware of the incident involving Mr. Rao and had approved of the way it was originally handled. In the statement Sunday, Mr. Lasry said that Mr. Raos behavior amounted to an unfortunate one-time event" and praised Mr. Watson for showing compassion toward Mr. Rao.

Mr. Watson, 51 years old, co-founded Ozy in 2013 after stints as a banker at Goldman Sachs and serving as an anchor on MSNBC. The companys name comes from Ozymandias," a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley about a statue of a ruler whose kingdom has been eroded by time. On its website, Ozy says it interprets the poem as a call to think big while remaining humble."

Ozy publishes articles, videos and podcasts focused on current events. Mr. Watson hosts a talk show that has featured sit-downs with musicians and actors including Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson and Hamilton" star Daveed Diggs. Ozy also hosts Ozy Fest," an event series featuring boldfaced names in entertainment, politics and business. The Daily Beast on Tuesday reported that a coming edition of Ozy Fest, originally slated for mid-October in Miami, has been postponed.

The company has raised money from backers including German publishing conglomerate Axel Springer SE and Emerson Collective, the philanthropic organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs. Ozy has also attracted investment from Mr. Lasry and David Drummond, the former chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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A scientist from Palo Alto may be behind two fires in as many days in the midst of a brutal California wildfire season. Court documents reveal that Alexandra Souverneva, a scientist arrested last week for allegedly starting the Fawn Fire in Northern Californias Shasta County on September 22nd, is believed by authorities to also be potentially responsible for setting a second blaze in the area the day before.

On Friday, Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett announced the arrest of Souverneva, 30, on felony arson charges for allegedly starting the Fawn Fire, which at the time had spread to nearly 10,000 acres and prompted mandatory evacuations. Bridgett said authorities believed the suspect could be linked to other fires in the state and that additional charges were likely, but she declined at the time to elaborate.

According to court documents, an officer from Cal Fire, the states forestry and fire protection department, questioned Souverneva about a fire started nearby the day before the Fawn Fire that was also believed to be the work of an arsonist. She had been in jail the day before for resisting arrest, but was released hours before the fire started. (The DAs office confirmed to Rolling Stone that a case is pending from the earlier arrest, but did not provide further details.) Based on the overwhelming evidence indicating Souvernevas responsibility for the Fawn Fire, it is my opinion there is a high possibility she is responsible for the vegetation fire in Shasta Lake City the previous evening, Cal Fire officer Matt Alexander said in the report. It is my experience that arsonists are responsible for multiple fires and will light multiple fires in a short timeframe.

Souverneva has not been charged in relation to the fire set on the 21st  which firefighters successfully extinguished. Shana Vegvary, the public defender representing Souverneva, said in an email to Rolling Stone, No evidence has been presented to support additional charges.

For the alleged starting of the Fawn Fire, Souverneva was arraigned on Friday on a felony arson charge and for committing arson during a state of emergency. She pleaded not guilty. My client, Ms. Souverneva, has entered a not guilty plea to arson and the enhancement, thereby asserting her innocence to these charges, Vegvary told Rolling Stone. No evidence has been presented to the contrary. We request that the public not prejudge this case.

The Fawn Fire, which started on September 22nd, is the latest of several fires to sweep the state this year. Blazes have burned 3,600 square miles so far in 2021 and destroyed more than 3,200 homes, commercial buildings, and other structures. As of Tuesday, the fire was 65 percent contained, according to Cal Fire, but still spanned around 8,500 acres. It has injured three firefighters and destroyed 185 structures.

On September 22nd, several people reported seeing Souverneva acting strangely in the area where the fire began, Bridgett said at a press conference. When the fire burns it leaves evidence behind, and were able to read those indicators and it takes us back to a general origin area, Cal Fire Battalion Chief JT Zulliger said at the press conference. We then look at any potential ignition sources within that area and in this particular case, we believe that the suspect was there.

According to Cal Fires report, Souverneva had been trespassing near a quarry and ignored workers who told her she wasnt allowed there. As she walked away, she dropped two small CO2 cartridges and a AA battery. After the fire started, Cal Fire officers encountered her coming out of the brush. She had a cigarette lighter on her, and a pink-and-white item containing a leafy substance that she said shed smoked earlier. She described the item as an incendiary device that she said was safe because shed removed the battery, officer Alexander said in the report.

Souverneva told the officer she had attempted but failed to light a fire in the woods. While trying to hike to Canada, she explained, shed become thirsty. She tried to start a fire to boil water from a puddle which she said had bear pee in it. She claimed it had been too wet to start the fire, but she drank the water anyway. The officer then arrested Souverneva, according to the report.

Souverneva majored in chemistry and biology at the California Institute of Technology and graduated in 2012, a school spokesperson confirmed to the New York Times. Her LinkedIn profile says she recently worked part-time as a tutor and as a researcher of medicinal chemistry at Gilead Sciences. Years earlier, shed been a camp counselor and a piano teacher. Shed also recently completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training program, the San Francisco Chronicle confirmed. It sounds absolutely 100 percent out of character, Steve Farmer, owner of Avalon Yoga International in Palo Alto, where Souverneva had completed her training, told the Chronicle. Maybe she was camping and was careless or something, but I cant possibly imagine that arson was involved. It wouldnt make any sense whatsoever.

If convicted, Souverneva faces up to nine years in prison. Shes being held on $150,000 bail at the Shasta County Jail. Shell next appear in court on October 5th.
Investigators in the disappearance of Gabrielle Gabby Petito announced Sunday that they have discovered a body fitting the description of the van life blogger in the national forest in Teton County.

The discovery of the body comes days after Petitos family reported the 22-year-old missing on September 11th, and weeks after they last heard from her while she was visiting the national park with her now-missing fiance Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in her disappearance.

The FBI, Jackson Police Department, Teton County Sheriffs Office, and the National Park Service confirmed the news at a press conference Sunday afternoon. While the coroner had not 100% positively identified Petitos body, her family was notified of the death. Cause of death has not been determined at this time, the FBIs supervisory senior resident agent Charles Jones said, visibly emotional. This is an active investigation.

The live update has concluded and we will share a recording soon. Our statement is attached & we have no additional comment at this time. #FBIDenver & our partners extend our condolences to Gabby's family. We thank the public for your generous support of this investigation. pic.twitter.com/kZiSVmJtqv  FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) September 19, 2021

A representative for Laundrie did not immediately respond to Rolling Stones request for comment.

Laundrie returned home to Florida on September 1st with Petitos van, but without his fiancee. After failing to get an explanation from the 23-year-old Laundrie about the status of their daughter, Petitos family filed a missing person report on September 11th. Laundrie lawyered up soon after and refused to speak to police about what occurred.

On Friday evening, September 17th, Laundries parents allowed North Port, Florida, police officers to enter their home; it was at that point that they revealed they hadnt seen their son Brian since Tuesday, September 14th. As of Sunday evening, Laundrie was still missing.

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, the North Port Police Departments statement said. Friday is the first time they have spoken with investigators in detail.

In the week since Petito was declared missing, social media, and especially TikTok, became fixated on the case, with the hashtags #findgabby and #gabbypetito generating tens of millions of views. (One TikTok user, in a series of videos, also detailed an encounter she and her boyfriend allegedly had with a hitchhiking Laundrie  but not Petito  on the evening of August 29th near Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park.)

On Saturday, the FBI announced they were beginning search efforts in the vicinity of Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area within the Grand Teton National Park:

The #FBIDenver Field Office and its Wyoming Resident Agencies, in coordination with the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Teton County Sheriff's Office & Jackson Police Department, have been conducting ground surveys at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area. pic.twitter.com/95HjWcEuDU  FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) September 19, 2021

According to an August 12th police report, the pair had fought in the weeks before Petito was reported missing. In Moab, Utah, a person called the police after witnessing some sort of altercation between Petito and Laundrie outside a shop. Officers pulled them over in the van, and decided the incident had been more of a mental/emotional health break than a domestic assault.

Laundrie and Petito both told officers Petito suffers from severe anxiety. According to a statement they made to officers, they had argued, and Laundrie had told Petito to take a walk and calm down. She had not wanted to be separated from him and had slapped him. He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van. Laundrie had tried to lock her out of the van but she entered through the drivers side door and climbed over him as he drove away.

Neither Laundrie nor Petito wanted to file charges against each other, so officers separated them for the night, sending Laundrie to a hotel and leaving the van with Petito.

Petitos family last received a text message from their daughters phone on August 30th, No service in Yosemite. Yosemite is approximately 900 miles away from Yellowstone, Petitos last known location. Petitos parents believe their daughter did not send that text message.
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The Paley Center for Media has promoted Rene Reyes to VP of public programming and festivals, and Elizabeth Rojas Levi has been named SVP of communications.

I am thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Rojas Levi to the Paley family and to recognize Rene Reyes for his outstanding work and dedication to raise the Paley Centers public programs and festivals to new heights, said Maureen Reidy, president and CEO of the Paley Center, in a statement. They are both an example of the extraordinary talent, expertise, and diversity of our leadership team, and reflect Paleys position as the standard of excellence in the industry now and for generations to come.

Rojas Levi will be based in New York City and will be responsible for leading the non-profit organizations brand and reputation efforts, corporate comms and the organizations external and internal communications. She joins the Paley Center from the Nokia Corporation, where she most recently led global communications for the company  including internal, external and financial comms. As the senior director of global public affairs for Nokia, she led its delegation to Davos and positioned the company in Washington, DC. Prior to Nokia, the multilingual Ecuadorian held numerous prestigious roles, including the Governor of Floridas representative in Washington, D.C., an appointee to the US International Telecommunications Advisory Committee, a member of the Meridian Leadership Council, and a mentor with the U.S. Department of State to help girls get into tech. At the Paley Center for Media, Rojas Levi will also work closely with the non-profits media council and international council, as well as its foundation and supporters.

As a historic institutional landmark, the Paley Center has a remarkable convening power to create community, elevate diverse voices, and advance the exchange of ideas, added Rojas Levi in a statement. Its an honor to join the team during an exciting time for the industry as technology continues to change consumer behavior, access to content, and todays cultural landscape.

In Reyes new position, he will oversee the successful implementation of the non-profits programs, such as the Paley Front Rows, Paley Lives, PaleyFest LA, PaleyFest NY and PaleyFest Fall TV Previews. He has been with the Paley Center since 2004 and has produced over 800 public programs, as well as establishing several collections in the Paley Centers archives, including the LGBTQ+ Collection, which chronicles five decades of LGBTQ+ achievements in media. Reyes is also a New York National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award-winning writer and producer.

It continues to be an honor to celebrate and preserve the creative legacy of television through the work of the Paley Center, and a privilege to collaborate with my talented colleagues at Paley and throughout an industry that I love, Reyes said.

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On Tuesday in the 49th District Court, the City of Laredo and Laredo Municipal Civil Service Commission were in court as each is being sued by a water plant employee for wrongful termination.

And in the most recent development, the city took a loss as they were told they must reinstate the worker at the same pay in another position.

In the wake of the city-wide boil water notice issued on July 4 which lasted for 10 days, Tony Moreno  a utilities supervisor  appealed his termination. And in Tuesdays decision, the court found in his favor.

The court finds that Mr. Moreno established he will probably prevail on the trial of this cause, and will probably establish that the city wrongfully terminated Mr. Moreno by failing to give him fair notice of the policies or standards he allegedly failed to meet and that the commission upheld the wrongful termination in violation of Mr. Morenos due process rights when it entered the August 20th final decision finding no facts that support the commissions decision, by failing to include credibility determinations regarding the witnesses testimony and by failing to state its reasons for its opinion in violation of the commission's rules, which were promulgated by the city and commission, stated a court order.

The court further finds that Mr. Moreno has vested property rights in his continued employment with the city. ... Based on the evidence received, applicable law, equity, and arguments of counsel, Mr. Morenos constitutional right to due process was likely violated and such violations as outlined herein caused Mr. Moreno imminent and irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy at law.

Due to the legal victory, the order stated Moreno is entitled to being reinstated as a city employee at the same rate of pay and benefits as he had earned before his termination. Additionally, he is entitled to all the pay he was slated to receive after his termination July 6, and his personnel records must show his reinstatement as a continuing and current employee.

The order also says Moreno must be provided a time and location for him to report to work and a place designated by the city, and a trial on the merits of all this is set for April 25, 2022.

The most recent decision has been appealed to the Fourth Court of Appeals as the defendants notice of interlocutory appeal has been accepted.

Following the courts decision, the City of Laredo put out a statement saying that it does not agree with (the judges) decision. And the city stated it has no intentions of reinstating Moreno.

Despite the courts ruling, the City of Laredo respectfully disagrees with the judges interpretation of the case and has filed interlocutory appeal with the Fourth Court of Appeals, whereby as a municipality it is entitled to stay all proceedings at district court pending ruling whether in fact the 49th District Court had jurisdiction, said the citys statement. As per Interim City Attorney, Sophie Garcia, the 49th District Courts decision to reinstate Mr. Moreno does not negate the actions that put this community and its health in jeopardy. Therefore, the City of Laredo has no plans to reinstate Mr. Moreno until the issue of jurisdiction is resolved. Todays court decision was based solely on due process and was not based on the facts on the case.

This is not the first statement of this nature the city has released. On Sept. 9, the city put together a press release stating that District Court Judge Joe Lopez had made the decision to reinstate Moreno to his position at the Utilities Department.

Despite the citys comments stating that Moreno had been reinstated, the register of actions listed for the case of Tony H. Moreno v. The City of Laredo never displayed that Moreno was reinstated on Sept. 9. However, a temporary injunction was listed as being granted that day, keeping the city from officially terminating him.

In that Sept. 9 release, the city was very critical of the decision it said the judge made that day, stating that there was overwhelming evidence presented at the Municipal Civil Service hearing to support termination and again claiming it would not reinstate Moreno regardless of the decision.

Despite the ruling, the city does not have an immediate plan to reinstate Moreno without further ruling of this presiding judge or a higher court, the city said in that statement. Reinstating Moreno will allow him to once again jeopardize the health and welfare of our community.

As the two parties were back in court Tuesday, the register of actions stated that Moreno was indeed reinstated at his previous pay but not to his previous position.

The city also motioned that the judge dissolve Morenos temporary injunction and restraining order. However, that request was denied as the temporary injunction was even reinstated with the same conditions.

The evidence at the hearing was described as Exhibit B  the citys disciplinary action form/termination letter to Moreno  Exhibit D  the citys Municipal Civil Service Rules and Regulations  and Exhibit E  the citys Municipal Civil Service Commission Final Decision.

Also included were six other exhibits labeled Nos. 1-6 including a transcript of the Sept. 9 proceedings, an Aug. 27 notice letter pursuant to SEC 2.4 of the citys municipal code, a Sept. 3 email from defendants attorney Kristina Hale with a notice of petition, a Sept. 7 fiat on a verified emergency request for a temporary restraining order/temporary injunction, an email to Hale with a copy of fiat on the verified emergency request for the TRO/temporary injunction, and an email showing the citys Sept. 9 press release.

Carlos E. Flores is representing Moreno in the case. Hale and Anna Sophia Garcia are representing both defendants.

zdavis@lmtonline.com
NEW YORK (AP)  Businesses that have announced vaccine mandates say some workers who had been on the fence have since gotten inoculated against COVID-19. But many holdouts remain  a likely sign of what is to come once a federal mandate goes into effect.

Even before President Joe Biden's Sept. 9 announcement that companies with more than 100 workers would have to require vaccinations, dozens of companies, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and Disney issued ultimatums to most workers. And smaller companies in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans have been required to implement mandates for customers and workers.

Some mandates seem to have converted hesitant workers, but employers are still dealing with holdouts. United said late Tuesday it will begin terminating 593 employees over the next few days for refusing to get vaccinated. Other companies are offering alternatives, including weekly testing or working remotely or away from other staff.

The federal mandate will cover as many as 100 million Americans  private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors. It is a high-stakes gambit by the president to boost the vaccination rate in the U.S. About 77% of American adults have had one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.

In August, San Francisco became the first major city in the nation to require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 for people dining inside restaurants, with employees having until Oct. 13 to get the shot. Akash Kapoor, founder of the Curry Up Now Indian restaurant chain, said more than 90% of his employees in his downtown San Francisco location are now vaccinated, with one or two per store refusing. Hes making unvaccinated workers get tested twice a week.

It lets the employees who are vaccinated feel safe, he said.

Alejandra Segura, 28, a senior learning and development coordinator at Curry Up Now, said she was worried about having a bad reaction to the vaccine, so she held off. But the vaccination mandate spurred her into action, and she received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Sept. 20.

It's a good thing we're required to get the vaccine, to ensure people's safety, Segura said.

The experience says these mandates do move the needle quite a bit on employees willingness to get vaccinated, said Laura Boudreau, an assistant professor at Columbia University who studies labor issues. She said she believes that only a tiny fraction of employees will quit  likely those already close to retirement and who strongly distrust vaccines.

The Biden administration has said that companies will face $13,600 fines per violation and mandatory weekly testing will be the alternative to being vaccinated.

The question of whether employers or the government will pay for mandatory tests has yet to be answered. Regulations from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the office charged with implementing the mandate, will be drafted over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are surging in the U.S. The seven-day average COVID-19 deaths climbed above the 2,000 threshold last week for the first time since March. And this week, a number of state deadlines arrive for health care workers to get vaccinated, raising fears of worsening staff shortages in hospitals and nursing homes if some opt to quit or get fired or suspended.

A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 59% of remote workers favor vaccine requirements in their own workplaces, compared with 47% of those who are currently working in person. About one-quarter of workers  in person and remote  were opposed.

United Airlines officials say their mandate has worked. About 96% of the airlines 67,000 U.S. employees have been vaccinated and another 3% are seeking an exemption, which could result in being placed on unpaid leave. Fewer than 1% will be fired, which officials said would not affect airline operations.

Pilot unions at American and Southwest are asking the Biden administration and Congress to have the option of weekly testing or showing immunity by previously contracting COVID-19. The president of the American Airlines union warned that mass terminations of unvaccinated pilots could cause a shortage of pilots during the December holidays. Neither American nor Southwest has said whether they will require vaccination or offer testing as an alternative.

Delta Air Lines stopped short of requiring vaccination but said that starting in November, unvaccinated workers on the company health plan will pay a $200 monthly surcharge.

Deltas chief health officer, Dr. Henry Ting said that about 20,000 employees werent vaccinated when the company announced plans for the surcharge. In the past month, nearly 9,000 of them received at least one shot. About 82.5% of Deltas 75,000 employees are fully vaccinated. Fewer than five workers have sought a medical exemption and no one has asked for a religious one, Ting said.

The first 20,000 were very eager, and we got to about 70% (vaccinated) rather quickly, Ting said, but the remaining unvaccinated employees are a very different group.

Ting said the holdouts are more likely to be Black, brown or younger than the first group. Many of them are not anti-vaxxers, he said. They were on the fence, theyre scared, they want to make their own decision on their own timeline.

Some other big companies who have announced rules requiring in-office workers be vaccinated now or in coming weeks include Google, McDonald's (U.S.-based office workers), Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs, among others.

Amtrak last week pushed back its deadline for all workers to be vaccinated by three weeks to Nov. 22. Currently about 60% of its workers have had at least one shot.

Meatpacking giant Tyson Foods, whose workforce has been hit hard by the coronavirus, is requiring all of its workers to be vaccinated by Nov. 1. About 80% of Tyson's more than 100,000 workers have received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from 50% when it announced the mandate on Aug. 3.

The company has introduced incentives for workers to get the vaccine. It's poultry division is running a lottery, once a week for five weeks, for $10,000 each week for workers who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

New York began enforcing a vaccine mandate for certain businesses on Sept. 13. Art Depol said that about 16 of his 24 staffers at Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes in Times Square were already vaccinated, three got the vaccine when it was required, and five refused.

Depol is working on setting up weekly testing for the unvaccinated workers so he can keep them on the schedule.

It's so difficult to find good people right now, I dont want to lose the good people I have over this."

-

Koenig reported from Dallas. AP Writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.
One organization set out on a mission Tuesday to register 2,022 new voters in honor of the upcoming 2022 elections.

The organization Powered by People arrived Tuesday at various locations around the city as they announced their plan to not just register people to vote on certain days but rather year-round, so turnout in the city can continue to grow. The events proved to be fruitful as they were able to register many young people who had just become eligible to vote.

It was still unclear if they had reached their goal as of Tuesday evening, but spirits were high following the first day of the push.

National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating our democracy, said Sylvia Bruni, the Webb County Democratic Party Chair and ambassador of Powered by People. First observed in 2012, it quickly gained momentum, with nearly 4.5 million new voters registered to vote on that holiday to date. According to the U.S. Census Data for 2020, as many as one in four eligible Americans find themselves unable to vote because they missed a deadline, didn't update their registrations or were not sure where to register.

According to Bruni, the main aim of the civic holiday is to make sure everyone who is eligible to vote has the opportunity to do so.

Our Webb County Powered by People Ambassadors, a non-partisan group of Webb County volunteers, are just as committed to giving all who are eligible to vote access to this precious right to raise our voice, Bruni said. Being able to celebrate this important national holiday at United High School was an especially momentous opportunity for all, both the Ambassadors and the UHS students.

One of the primary goals for targeting the high school and other locations year-round in the city was to help register 2,022 new voters as a reference to the crucial upcoming election year.

We set that goal because we were looking ahead to a momentous 2022 primary and mid-term election season. (There is a) need to raise the voice of our crucial Webb County, Bruni said. Even though Webb County realized the highest voter turnout in decades in 2020  50% of the eligible voters coming to the polls  that number still was too low. We can and should do much better, so the time to register voters should be year-round, not a seasonal objective.

According to Bruni, the voter turnout in Webb County has been around 38% for the past 20 years.

Rafael Benavides, the Spanish press secretary for the Texas Democratic Party and former City of Laredo public information officer, also provided congratulations to the efforts of the Webb County volunteers in getting together to register people to vote.

We commend the efforts by Powered by People and the volunteers at the Webb County Democratic Party for putting together a successful series of events in anticipation of National Voter Registration Day, Benavides said. It is encouraging to see so many new people excited to vote. By registering to vote and casting a ballot, we are taking on an active role in the democratic process and determining for ourselves just how our society is to be governed. By becoming involved, we have the opportunity to increase local funding, protect human rights and increase the quality of life for everyone.

Bruni said many people who registered Tuesday voiced how they felt great about finally being able to vote and showed their enthusiasm for the upcoming elections. Although students were the main objective of new voters to be reached, Bruni said the organization was able to gather and register many people including some older individuals who have never voted before but now feel the need to register.

We hear a variety of reactions  from the very proud young 18 year old who has been very immersed in public affairs and is concerned about the state of their country or simply wants to be sure that they are involved, to the older individual who had never been given the opportunity or felt that it wasn't important and now realizes that, yes, their vote does matter, does count, Bruni said.

The United High School location was not the only place in which members of Powered by People was registering voters as they also went to the Joe Guerra Public Library from 6-8 p.m. in the evening for another event.

While at the location, organization members also saw as Willie Vasquez, Your Vote is Your Voice was aired at the library to help show people who attended or those who were in the library the importance of voting.

We remind them that there have been times when just one vote made the difference in an election, Bruni said. We remind them that if they are concerned about their community, that silence and inaction will only compound the problem. We remind them that above all other precious rights as Americans, our most valuable one is our vote.

Powered by People expects to have other voter registration events soon in the city as well. On Sept. 30, volunteers of the organization are expected to help register people at Triumph High School from 11 a.m. to noon. On Oct. 1, they will be at Alexander High School from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then they will be at Nixon High School on Oct. 5 during a timeslot that is still pending.

More information about these events and others can be found by contacting Bruni at 956-763-3335 or by emailing her at either sylbru@aol.com or sylbru746@gmail.com.

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP)  Trying to ease a backlog in Mexicos asylum system and the resulting frustrations that drove thousands of applicants to head toward the U.S., Mexican officials opened a mammoth reception center outside a soccer stadium near the Guatemala border Tuesday.

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance, with the help of the National Guard and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, targeted those who had already made initial applications for protected status in Mexico but had waited months for an initial interview.

The site outside Tapachulas Olympic Stadium could handle as many as 2,000 people daily, said Alma Delia Cruz Marquez, the commissions local delegate.

Previously, huge crowds had packed the streets around the commissions downtown offices in Tapachula jostling for position.

The commission receives 75% of all the applications for protective status through its offices in the southern state of Chiapas, Cruz said. Through August, Mexico had received nearly 80,000 asylum applications.

The protection that we give is only for those people whose life, freedom or safety is at risk in their country of origin, Cruz said. It does not constitute any kind of travel permit or authorization.

In early September, groups of hundreds of migrants set out walking from Tapachula, in many cases fed up with waiting for the overburdened asylum system to process their cases. Each time, Mexican authorities broke up the groups.

More recently, some 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants appeared at the Mexico-U.S. border. Some of them also had open asylum cases in Mexico, but had grown tired of waiting. U.S. authorities spent a week clearing that camp in Del Rio, Texas, deporting some directly to Haiti and releasing others into the United States with the expectation they would appear before immigration officials at a later date.

Some of those migrants who were detained by Mexican authorities in Ciudad Acuna were shipped back south to Tapachula.

Some activists in Tapachula looked at the stadium effort skeptically, questioning whether the government is just trying to appear helpful while maintaining a policy of containing migrants in southern Mexico.

Luis Garcia Villagran, of the Center for Human Dignity, said Mexican officials are trying to turn Tapachula into a migrant detention center  it already hosts Latin Americas largest.

These (reception centers) are stopgap measures. This is make-up that tries to show that the Mexican state with its institutions is resolving or doing something with the immigration phenomenon, he said.

Fraindy Sainteme, a Haitian migrant, said he had been waiting three months for his asylum application to advance. On Tuesday, at the reception center they gave him an appointment to return Wednesday.

I need my protocol and my definitive (document) to be here, he said. Ive been here a long time and they dont give me papers.

He said he had spent five years in Chile before arriving in Mexico this year. Ultimately, he hopes to reunite with his wife and daughter in Miami, but meanwhile wants to have legal status in Mexico because now he lives in crowded conditions relying on support from relatives elsewhere and hasnt been able to find work in Mexico.

Chenet, another Haitian migrant who declined to give his last name for security reasons, said that someone outside the commission offices in Tapachula had offered to facilitate the application for himself, his wife and their two children. The person charged him about $300, but he later learned it was scam.

(They told me ) that Im not in the system, Chenet said. The (appointment) is false. An official from the UNHCR encouraged him to file a report with the local prosecutors office.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota's attorney general said Tuesday he is reviewing concerns from state lawmakers over a meeting Gov. Kristi Noem held last year that included both her daughter and a state employee who was overseeing her daughter's application to become a certified real estate appraiser.

I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators," Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement. "I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions.

Ravnsborg didnt immediately respond to a question about what steps he might take. The attorney general is tasked under state law with issuing legal opinions to lawmakers.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Noem held the meeting shortly after the state agency had moved to deny her daughter the license last year. Noems daughter eventually received her license four months later. Afterward, the state employee who directed the agency was allegedly pressured to retire by Noems cabinet secretary. The state employee, Sherry Bren, eventually received a $200,000 payment from the state to withdraw the complaint and leave her job.

Ethics experts said the episode raised concerns that the governor had abused the power of her office.

The governors office declined to answer detailed questions from the AP, and Noem's spokesman dismissed the AP's report as a political attack on the governor.

Noem, 49, is seen among a handful of early GOP hopefuls for the White House in 2024. In just her first term as governor after nearly a decade in Congress, her star has risen as she has honed a message of more freedom and less government  particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, when she decried restrictions being put in place elsewhere. Though Noem has said she's focused on re-election in 2022, she's visited key early presidential states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and shown a willingness to jab at potential rivals.

Though Ravnsborg and Noem are both Republicans, they have become political enemies over the last year after the governor pressured Ravnsborg to resign following a car crash in which he struck and killed a man walking on a highway. The attorney general pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors in the crash. The Legislature is planning to convene in November to consider whether to proceed with impeaching Ravnsborg.

Democrats in the Legislature, who hold just a handful of seats, have also called for an investigation into the governor's conduct during her daughter's appraiser certification application.
A court has heard how a woman was left bruised from head to toe after her former partner allegedly attempted to throw her down the stairs at their home in Longford town.

Karen O'Neill relived the morning of January 3 last at 9 The Hollows, Clonbalt Woods, Longford during which she was allegdly assaulted by Cliff Turner, Stoneylea Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow.

The case had been previously mentioned at a prior sitting of Longford District Court during which Mr Turner tendered a not guilty plea.

Presiding Judge Seamus Hughes, at the time, had indicated his desire to hear from the victim to determine whether the seriousness of the charge, an alleged section 3 assault, could be heard at District Court level.

At last Tuesday's District Court sitting, Ms O'Neill took the stand to tell Judge Marie Keane of the alleged incident at the then couple's home in Longford town during the course of January 2 and January 3 last.

She said on the morning of the alleged incident, she discovered her ex boyfriend in a drunk and aggressive state.

I woke up to my ex partner Cliff Turner obliviously drunk and he had stolen gifts and money from my car as well as other things from my car, she said.

Ms O'Neill said Mr Turner proceeded to attack her before telling her to get out of Longford.

She also alluded to how the incident was not the first time she had fallen foul to a beating by Mr Turner.

This is while I was living with him at the time and he had previously assaulted me before but I had dropped the charges in November and then he beat me again so I left him in January, she explained.

Ms O'Neill said the alleged assault initially took place in the bedroom of the house before spreading to other parts and almost resulting in her being thrown down the stairs.

He (Mr Turner) came into the bedroom and was violent, she said.

He tried to throw me down the stairs and dragged me around the house.

This was not the first time he had done it either.

Ms O'Neill,in referencing an alleged previous assault only a matter of months earlier, claimed she had been left  bruised from head to toe on both occasions.

Under questioning from Sgt Mark Mahon, for the prosecution, Ms O'Neill said she did not receive medical attention in relation to the chage before the court, opting instead to return home to her parents.

After a brief pause, Judge Keane said she would be accepting jurisdiction, meaning the case could be disposed of in the District Court.

As she did so, she hit out at Mr Turner after the accused turned up to court late.

Mr Turner you signed a bail bond as of June 8 under which you undertook to come back to court on the appropriate remand dates, she said.

You weren't here when your case was called this morning, you don't come here when it suits you, you come here at 10:30a,m.

Do you understand that?

Mr Turner replied with a casual sounding: Yeah as Judge Keane remanded him on continuing bail.

The case is to return before a sitting of Longford District Court on November 30 when a full hearing is expected to be heard.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) along with the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) have come together in a joint statement to demand the proposed Covid-19 bonus payment for their "extraordinary efforts" during the pandemic.

The three organisations have said their contribution to remote teaching and keeping schools open has been of crucial importance in meeting the needs of young people during this difficult time.

Teachers extraordinary efforts  both face-to-face with their pupils in crowded classrooms and in the online learning space  have allowed schools to continue to prioritise teaching and learning while meeting children/young peoples needs, they said, although no formal discussions have taken place with the government.

We would expect to be included in any discussions around the acknowledgement of workers contributions during the pandemic", they added.

The general secretary of TUI, Michael Gillespie, has suggested that one option could include "getting rid of unequal pay-scales", which has seen teachers hired since 2011 earn less than older colleagues.

Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath has warned that the bonus could cost 1 billion, while the bid by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and other health unions for 10 days extra leave brings significant costs.

Gardai have also insisted on receiving this bonus for frontline workers, arguing that the drop in crime over the pandemic is no reason to leave them out and they should receive "no more no less" than other State workers.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) have so far not raised the issue in talks with the Government.
(Sharecast News) - Botswana Diamonds announced on Wednesday that, following outside interest in acquiring its South African associate company Vutomi Mining, it had exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire the outstanding third-party interests in Vutomi and Razorbill Properties.

The AIM-traded firm said Vutomi held the mineral rights to the Thorny River Diamond Project, as well as other exploration assets.



It said the consideration for Vutomi comprised 56,989,330 new shares in the company which, at the closing mid-market price on 28 September of 1.1p per share, was valued at 0.63m.



The company said it had agreed that, immediately on completion, it would sell 26% of Vutomi for a deferred consideration of $0.32m to its local South African empowerment partner Baroville Trade and Investments 02, in order to comply with South African requirements on empowerment ownership, which would be funded by a loan from Botswana Diamonds.



On completion, the company would own 76% of Vutomi.



"Since working on Thorny River 30 years ago, we recognised potential for discoveries on a kimberlite system spanning 20 kilometres," said managing director James Campbell.



"Recent drilling vindicated this view and indicates potential for additional nearby discoveries."



Campbell explained that, following a third-party offer for Vutomi, Botswana Diamonds had exercised its pre-emption rights.



"This transaction streamlines exploration activities and involves the local community as supportive stakeholders in this development."



The acquisition of Vutomi remained conditional on customary regulatory and competition authority approvals in South Africa, including MPRDA Section 11 approval for the transaction, which was expected to complete during the first half of 2022.



"We are very positive on the production opportunities for the Thorny River properties owned by Vutomi," said chairman John Teeling.



"An outside company made an offer for Vutomi.



"Rather than accept the offer, we exercised our pre-emptive right to acquire the outstanding shares."



Teeling said that in turn, it then sold sufficient shares to a local South African group to ensure compliance with black empowerment regulations.



"The unsolicited outside offer reinforced our belief that there is something worthwhile in Thorny River.



"We acted to preserve shareholder value."



At 1005 BST, shares in Botswana Diamonds were up 2.73% at 1.13p.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Pittards PLC - producer of leather and leather goods for retailers - Reports revenue for the six months to June 30 up 46% to GBP9.7 million from GBP6.6 million a year ago. The company swings to pretax profit of GBP264,000 from GBP2.3 million loss posted in the first half of 2020. Pittards declares interim dividend of 0.5 pence per share versus none paid a year earlier. " We continue to see more opportunity than risk in the "new normal" that is emerging from the pandemic," says Chief Executive Reg Hankey.







Immupharma PLC - London-based drug discovery and development company - Reports widened pretax loss for the six months to June 30 of GBP3.9 million from GBP3.1 million posted a year prior, as revenue fell to GBP23,531 from GBP62,207 year-on-year. Research & development expenses rose to GBP1.3 million from GBP924,263 in the first half of 2020, while administrative expenses jumped to GBP1.5 million from GBP1.0 million. "We have created positive and constructive changes within the business, with a focus on delivery of product development, value added milestones and a much more commercially focussed corporate strategy," says Chair & CEO Tim McCarthy.







Eight Capital Partners PLC - London-based investment company - Reports a swing to profit in the six months to June 30 to GBP299,000 from a loss of GBP344,000 posted for the first half of 2020. This was due to a number of factors, including the agreement reached to sell the company's entire 29% holding in Finance Partners Group for EUR2.2 million, revenue from management services agreements and a reversal of some of the adverse currency movements that the firm suffered at the 2020 year-end. Going forward, the immediate future will focus on deriving value from the company's two wholly-owned subsidiaries: Epsion Capital Ltd and Innovative Finance Srl, it says.







All Star Minerals PLC - company seeking investment opportunities within the technology, mining and gemstone sector - Reports widened pretax loss of GBP112,000 for the six months to June 30 from GBP54,000 posted for the first half of 2020. During the half year, the company signed two non-binding heads of terms, one with a company with gemstone assets and another with a company with diamond assets. "We have successfully progressed our strategy in key diamond and gemstone markets over the period and our strategy for the second half of 2021 remains focused on identifying, evaluating and investing in financial and intellectual capital with diamond and coloured gemstone assets," says Interim CEO an Harebottle.







Armadale Capital PLC - investment company focussed on mining projects in Africa - Reports narrowed pretax loss of GBP27,000 for the six months to June 30 compared to GBP159,000 loss reported for the first half of 2020. The focus of the company throughout the half year was to obtain all required permits to commence development of the high-grade long life Mahenge Liandu graphite project in south-east Tanzania. Subsequent to the end of the half year the mining licence was granted for an initial 10-year term which can be extended. "The company is now well placed to proceed towards financing and development in an environment where there is increasing demand for graphite and we look forward to updating investors with regards to how our activities progress on this workstream as well as offtakes and additional development activities since the end of the 2021 half-year period," says Director Nick Johansen.







CMO Group PLC - Plymouth, England-based online retailer of general building materials - Says revenue increases by 63% in the six months to June 30 to GBP38.2 million from GBP23.4 million reported for the first half of 2020, reflecting strong organic growth and an GBP8.8 million contribution from the acquisition of Total Tiles. Like-for-like revenue growth is 27% year-on-year. The company swings to pretax profit of GBP522,000 from a loss of GBP651,000 a year ago. Going forward, the company says it continues to focus on demand planning to mitigate challenging market conditions.







Directa Plus PLC - London-based supplier of graphene-based products - Says revenue increases by 41% in the six months to June 30 to EUR4.0 million from EUR2.8 million posted for the first half of 2020. The company records narrowed pretax loss of EUR1.1 million versus EUR2.5 million a year prior. "The much improved financial figures are tangible proof of the progress the group is making in terms of market penetration, increasing collaborations and the strengthening of the awareness and adoption of Directa Plus's technology," says Founder & CEO Giulio Cesareo.







India Capital Growth Fund Ltd - investment firm - Reports net asset value per share as at June 30 of 122.18 pence, up from 97.70p posted at the end of 2020. The company's share price discount to NAV began 2021 at 14% and at June 30 stood at 12%. This discount is wider than the company would like, it said, thus it continues to look for ways to reduce the discount further over time. "The board believes that the company's focus on good quality companies with strong management capabilities and a clear path to growth continues to be the way to generate positive investment performance," says Chair Elisabeth Scott.







MetalNRG PLC - London-based investor in natural resources - Reports revenue of GBP38,422 for the six months to June 30 versus none a year prior. Pretax loss, meanwhile, widens to GBP890,354 from GBP386,304 posted for the first half of 2020, reflecting an increase in administrative expenses to GBP642,837 from GBP405,647 year-on-year and IPO costs of GBP257,000. The company says a number of projects have been evaluated and good progress has been made to date. Going forward, MetalNRG intends to continue to seek additional projects that meet its set investment criteria.







Futura Medical PLC - Guildford, England-based pharmaceutical company - Reports widened pretax loss for the six months to June 30 of GBP1.9 million compared to GBP1.4 million posted for the first half of 2020. Research & development costs increased to GBP1.2 million from GBP926,802, while administrative expenses grew to GBP709,301 from GBP466,065 year-on-year. "Futura is in the late stages of regulatory procedures to bring MED3000 to market for erectile dysfunction in the key US market and is targeting US submission by end of the third quarter of 2022. After CE mark approval by the European regulator the company is preparing for first product launches during 2022," says Chief Executive James Barder.







SEEEN PLC - London-based social media and technology platform provider - Reports revenue for the six months to June 30 of USD5.2 million compared to USD3.7 million posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax loss, meanwhile, narrows to USD1.5 million from USD2.0 million year-on-year. "Market demand for automating and harvesting video moments is only growing worldwide as brands and consumers seek customised content and an ability to readily transact online in a Covid-influenced world," notes Chair Patrick DeSouza.







TruFin PLC - London-based fintech and banking investor - Says revenue for the six months to June rises to GBP4.9 million from GBP4.2 million posted for the first half of 2020. The half year benefited from interest income from Distribution Finance Capital Ltd, the firm notes. Pretax loss narrows to GBP5.2 million from GBP5.5 million year-on-year. "Given the progress made at every level of the Group we believe there remains significant scope for value creation in the near and medium term and I look forward to updating shareholders on our continued progress before year end," says Chief Executive James van den Bergh.







Air Partner PLC - Gatwick, England-based aviation services firm - Reports revenue for the six months to July 31 of GBP33.6 million compared to GBP36.6 million posted a year prior. Pretax income declined to GBP3.5 million from GBP8.9 million year-on-year including amortisation of acquired intangibles, acquisition costs and release of deferred consideration. Air Partner reports recovery in Private Jets and a robust performance in Group Charter and Freight as they return to more normalised trading levels. The company declares interim dividend of 0.85p a share, up from 0.80p paid a year earlier. Going forward, Air Partner says it expects underlying pretax profit in the second half of the year to be strongly ahead year-on-year, which will result in performance for the full year being materially above current market expectations.







Aquila European Renewables Income Fund PLC - investment firm - Completes one new investment during the six months to June 30 and deploys further capital in its construction assets. NAV per share on June 30 stands at 99.4 cents versus 98.6 cents a year ago. Share price at the end of the first half of 2021 was at 111.0 cents, representing a 12% premium to NAV. The fund declares dividend of 2.5 cents a share versus 1.5 cents paid in the first half of 2020.







Universe Group PLC - Southampton, England-based financial technology company - Reports revenue up by 20% in the six months to June 30 to GBP11.7 million from GBP9.8 million posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax profit rises to GBP1.1 million from GBP826,000 a year earlier. Universe says there are further revenue of GBP10.0 million currently visible through existing recurring and repeatable revenue contracts and the order book to year end. "With a sound balance sheet showing an improving net debt position and undrawn banking facilities, we remain cautiously optimistic that we can meet the Board's expectations in 2021 and see growth in the coming years," says Executive Chair Andrew Blazye.







Windar Photonics PLC - Copenhagen, Denmark-based light detection and ranging optimization systems developer - Reports revenue for the six months to June 30 of EUR305,991 compared to EUR274,752 posted a year before. Pretax loss narrows to EUR962,340 from EUR1.1 million in the first half of 2020. The company warns on the ongoing delays seen in end-user projects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which include the on/off travel restrictions in place, particularly in Asian markets. The various cost cutting initiatives implemented during 2020 continued in 2021. Due to the delays detailed above, part of the order backlog of EUR2.2 million as per the end of the first half year is expected to be carried forward into 2022. The company currently estimates that recognised revenue will grow by 45% to 50% in 2021 year-on-year.







Providence Resources PLC - Dublin-based oil and gas exploration company - Swings to profit of EUR1.6 million in the first six months of 2021 compared to a loss of EUR9.3 million posted a year earlier. The company reports finance income of EUR3.8 million versus minor income a year prior. In addition, finance expenses narrow to EUR1.1 million from EUR8.2 million year-on-year.







RiverFort Global Opportunities PLC - investment company - Reports NAV per share as at June 30 of 1.57p, up from 1.36p posted at the end of 2020. The company declared a dividend of 0.04p per share on June 16, making a total of 0.06p per share payout for 2021. "Going forward, we believe that the company has a very attractive portfolio of investments which not only has the scope to achieve income with downside protection but the significant upside potential to generate substantial capital gains as a result of carefully chosen pre-IPO investments whilst, at the same time, being able to provide real cash returns to shareholders," says Non-Executive Chair Philip Haydn-Slater.







Glantus Holdings PLC - Irish data platform for accounts payable and shared services - Reports revenue for the six months to June 30 of EUR4.3 million compared to EUR4.1 million posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax profit, however, widens to EUR1.5 million from EUR669,000 a year ago, as expenses on exceptional items grow to EUR1.9 million from EUR570,000 in the first half of 2020. " The combination of our organic growth strategies and strategic acquisitions heralds a strong future for our company," says Chief Executive Maurice Healy.







MyCelx Technologies Corp - Georgia, US-based clean water technology company - reports revenue of USD4.2 million for the six months to June 30 compared to USD3.6 million generated a year ago. Pretax profit totals USD599,000, a swing from a loss of USD2.6 million in the first half of 2020. MyCelx says recovery in financial performance year-on-year was achieved primarily due to improving macro-outlook, but also the sale of the company's building in Duluth, Georgia. "As we see the global economy normalize, we will continue to stay close to our customers, and the markets we are focused on, which we believe will lead to further contract awards in due course," says CEO Connie Mixon.







Sumo Group PLC - Sheffield, England-based video games company - Reports revenue of GBP50.4 million for the six months to June 30 compared to GBP26.3 million posted a year earlier. Pretax profit rises to GBP3.7 million from GBP2.8 million year-on-year. Sumo Group notes its half year results include Pipeworks which was acquired in October 2020. Going forward, the company says strong underlying growth in videogames market expected to continue in the long-term. "We have an encouraging level of visibility on development fees for both 2021 and 2022 and, with our markets continuing to perform strongly, are very confident about the future of the business," says CEO Carl Cavers.







Lansdowne Oil & Gas PLC - Irish exploration company - Reports narrowed pretax loss of GBP149,000 for the six months to June 30 compared to GBP195,000 loss posted for the first half of 2020. The company says a considerable amount of new technical work is underway focused upon the eastern part of Barryroe oil field in the Atlantic ocean, which is targeted for the first phase of development. The concept of a phased development of Barryroe, commencing in the eastern part of the field, has long been advocated and a first well location was identified by the Barryroe Partners in 2017 - labelled the K location. A site survey application was lodged for this area in 2020 and approval to carry this out was granted in February. Planning for this survey is advanced and operations are expected to be carried out in October.







B90 Holdings PLC - Isle of Man-based online marketing company - Reports revenue for the six months to June 30 of EUR404,686 compared to EUR321,089 posted a year earlier after successfully re-launching marketing activities for the sportsbook and casino operations of Bet90. Pretax loss, however, widens to EUR1.4 million from EUR988,742 a year ago, mainly due to incidental expenses relating to fundraises and increased expenses to our B2B provider for the Bet90 platform. "We are very pleased with the progress the business is making, and we look forward with renewed optimism and confidence," says Executive Chair Paul Duffen.







Comptoir Group PLC - operator of restaurants with Lebanese and Middle Eastern offering - Reports revenue of GBP5.7 million for the six months to June 30, down by 6.9% from GBP6.1 million posted a year ago. The company says its loss narrows to GBP1.2 million from GBP5.0 million year-on-year. Comptoir currently owns and operates 21 restaurants, with a further 4 franchise restaurants. "With strong sales since the phased reopening began in April, a relatively strong balance sheet and the potential for new openings, we are optimistic for the future and the long-term prospects for the business looks extremely positive," says Non-Executive Chair Richard Kleiner.







1Spatial PLC - Cambridge, England-based IT service management company - Reports revenue for the six months to July 31 of GBP12.6 million compared to GBP11.7 million posted a year earlier. Pretax loss narrows to GBP261,000 from GBP1.4 million recorded for the first half of 2020. 1Spatial reports new customer wins in all regions over the half year and successful investments in partner collaborations. "The depth of the sales pipeline, positive market landscape, our expanding influential partner network and growing levels of recurring revenue, provide the board with confidence in the expected outturn for the year and an exciting long-term future for 1Spatial," says CEO Claire Milverton.







Forward Partners Group PLC - London-based venture capital firm - Says ventures portfolio value increases by GBP22.0 million over the six months to June 30 to GBP108.0 million, including GBP3.5 million of new investments during the period. The company's NAV per share at the end of the first half of 2021 stands at 104.1p. Forward Partners was admitted to trading on AIM on July 19 after it was incorporated on March 4.







Mobile Tornado Group PLC - Harrogate, England-based communications technology company - Says revenue was broadly flat in the first six months of 2021 when compared to a prior year. Pretax loss narrowed to GBP378,000 from GBP835,000 a year before as operating expenses reduced to GBP1.3 million from GBP1.7 million year-on-year. "I am hopeful that we may see some revenue growth in the second half as we continue to be engaged with some significant prospects across all key markets," says Chair Jeremy Fenn.







Ncondezi Energy Ltd - Maputo, Mozambique-based power development company - Reports narrowed pretax loss of GBP540,000 for the six months to June 30 versus GBP1.2 million posted for the first six months of 2020. The company is focused on providing energy to Mozambique, with an 300 megawatts thermal coal power plant and mine project located in the Tete Province, northern Mozambique. The first half of the 2021 has been focused on positioning the Ncondezi project within a challenging market for coal and coal power generation, as well as commissioning its first solar PV and battery storage project in the commercial & industrial sector.







Manx Financial Group PLC - Isle of Man-based financial services firm - Reports net interest income for the six months to June 30 of GBP8.6 million compared to GBP7.8 million posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax profit rises to GBP1.1 million from GBP1.0 million year-on-year. Manx notes its interest yield on loans fell slightly to 10.9% from 11.6% year-on-year, due mainly to its success in promoting the government-backed loan schemes and the company's move away from sub-prime lending to prime and near prime propositions. "Each of our business units is making steady progress. I have great confidence that the 2021 full year will see the group well on the way to recording the levels of growth and profitability we experienced prior to the onset of this awful pandemic," says Executive Chair Jim Mellon.







Alina Holdings PLC - Warminster, England-based real estate investment trust - Reports net rental income for the six months to June 30 of GBP146,000 versus GBP186,000 posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax loss narrows to GBP82,000 from GBP209,000 year-on-year as administrative expenses including non-recurring items reduce to GBP245,000 from GBP277,000. IN addition, Alina secures profit from change in fair value of afs investments of GBP125,000 versus no such gain recorded in the first half of 2020. The fair value of the property portfolio of six assets held at June 30 was GBP2.80 billion, down from GBP3.12 billion a year prior.







NetScientific PLC - London-based life sciences and sustainability, technology investment and commercialisation firm - Reports revenue of GBP407,000 for the six months to June 30 compared to GBP136,000 recorded for the first half of 2020. Pretax loss widens to GBP1.5 million from GBP1.3 million year-on-year. The company says it is now secure and well positioned for future success after turnaround which started in 2020 is largely complete. NetScientific says it has established a robust growth trajectory, with a pipeline of opportunities expected to materialise through the rest of 2021 and beyond.







Path Investments PLC - Bingley, England-based natural resources investment company - Reports pretax loss of GBP736,254 for the six months to June 30, widened from GBP163,699 posted of the first half of 2020. During the period, the company was exploring acquisition options and in August agreed to acquire DG Innovate Ltd for GBP32 million. The company believes that this transaction will result in a "fundamental" change in its business.







Harvest Minerals Ltd - Australian remineraliser producer - Says revenue from contracts with customers in the six months to June 30 rose to USD790,224 from USD299,449 posted for the first half of 2020. Pretax loss, meanwhile, narrows to USD1.1 million from USD1.8 million year-on-year. Harvest Minerals says sales of KP Fertil almost tripled to 26,726 tonnes in the half year over the same period of 2020. In addition, the company reports accumulated sales as at end of September 2021 reaching 93% of entire 2021-year target. "We anticipate sales to remain strong in the last quarter of the year and therefore expect to surpass our original sales target," says Chair Brian McMaster.







Chill Brands Group PLC - Colorado, US-based cannabidiol company - Reports revenue of GBP320,875 for the financial year to March 31, up from GBP92,606 posted the year before. Pretax loss from continuing activities totals GBP4.8 million versus GBP2.9 million in financial 2020. This is due to a higher administrative expenses, which increased to GBP2.2 million from GBP1.9 million year-on-year. The company says its current financial year has already seen positive, value-accretive change for the cimpnay with the acquisition of Chill.com, and it is confident that the future is "bright".







Mirada PLC - London-based media company - Reports revenue of USD11.13 million for the financial year to March 31, down from USD13.16 million recorded the year prior, in line with market expectations. The company swings to a pretax loss of GBP3.2 million from GBP275,000 profit a year earlier. "The past year has been challenging in many ways, but we emerge from it a stronger business with a powerful product offering that puts us at the forefront of the latest market trends; impressive references; a leaner, more efficient sales strategy; and a growing proportion of recurring revenues. We have ambitious plans to drive the business forward in the coming months," says CEO Jose-Luis Vazquez.







SolGold PLC - Brisbane, Australia-based mining company - Reports widened pretax loss of USD22.7 million for the financial year to June 30 from USD13.0 million posted the year before, as finance costs rose to USD10.1 million from USD425,440 year-on-year.







Manchester & London Investment Trust PLC - investment firm - Reports NAV per share of 665.43p as at July 31 compared to 625.23p recorded the year before. The trust keeps dividend unchanged at 14.00p per share for the year. The company's share price at the end of its financial year on July 31 stands at 574.00p, representing a 14% discount to NAV. The company underperforms its benchmark, with NAV total return for the year of 8.7% versus 26%, respectively.







British & American Investment Trust PLC - investment firm - Declares dividend per share of 3.5p for the six months to June 30, up from 2.7p paid a year prior. The dividend is the same for the company's preference shares, doubling from 1.75p paid for the first half of 2020. NAV per share as at June 30 stands at GBP0.20, down from GBP0.23 posted ta the end of the first half of 2020.







China Nonferrous Gold Ltd - Cayman Islands-based mineral exploration and development company - Says in the six months to June 30 a total of 343,403 tons of ore was extracted from the Pakrut gold mine in Uzbekistan, 363,030 tons of ore was processed at a grade of 1.95 grams per tonne, and 19,337 ounces of gold ingots were poured. During the half year, the company sold 17,288 ounces of gold ingots, achieving sales revenue of USD30.9 million, up from USD24.3 million reported for the first half of 2020. Pretax loss narrowed to USD644,000 from USD6.9 million year-on-year.







By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of London-listed company director and manager changes announced on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







Fintel PLC - Huddersfield, England-based - technology and support for retail financial services sector - Non-Executive Chair Gary Hughes steps down from board immediately, for "personal reasons", after only six months in post. Deputy Chair Ken Davy to be interim chair until a permanent successor is found.







Tracsis PLC - Leeds-based traffic data & transportation services firm - Hires James Routh to be senior independent director, starting immediately. Routh is chief executive officer of fellow AIM listing AB Dynamics PLC, which provides testing systems and measurement products to the automotive market.







Sanderson Design Group PLC - Buckinghamshire-based interior design and furnishings - Hires Mike Woodcock as chief financial officer, starting November 1. Current CFO Michael Williamson will leave the company on October 31 "to pursue new career opportunities". Woodcock was CFO for stationery retailer Paperchase and previously worked for Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA as CFO of Alfred Dunhill and of Montblanc. Chair Dianne Thompson said that Williamson successfully led the company's finances through the difficult periods of Covid and Brexit and that Woodcock's experience in luxury consumer brands will be valuable for Sanderson's growth.







National World PLC - UK newspaper industry investor that acquired JPIMedia Publishing in May - Hires David Fordham as non-executive director, starting Wednesday. Fordham will represent 24% shareholder Mediaforce (Holdings) Ltd. National World said Fordham is an experienced newspaper industry executive and currently is a director of Iiiffe Media Group Ltd.







Pensana PLC - miner of rare earth metals for electric vehicles and wind turbines - Hires Steve Sharpe as independent non-executive director, starting immediately. Sharp is a natural resources financier who is an executive board member of EIT RawMaterials and a partner at SLB Capital Management. Previously, he was a managing director at Canaccord Genuity and also worked at Standard Bank Group Ltd and NM Rothschild. Meanwhile, Sandra Bates steps down as non-executive director on Wednesday.







Instem PLC - Staffordshire, England-based IT provider for life sciences - Hires Riaz Bandali as independent non-executive director, starting December 1. Bandali is CEO of Canadian-listed Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc.







British Honey Co PLC - Buckinghamshire-based spirits and honey producer - Confirms appointment of Chief of Staff Alex Maurice as an executive director. The appointment was first announced earlier last week.







Alternative Income REIT PLC - invests in UK commercial property assets let on long leases - Hires Stephanie Eastment as independent non-executive director, starting on Friday and replacing Jim Prower. Eastment, an accountant, is a non-executive director for Murray Income Trust PLC, Herald Investment Trust PLC and Impax Environmental Markets PLC.







By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Hutchmed (China) Ltd on Wednesday said it has completed the sale of its stake in one of its drug joint venture businesses for USD169 million to focus on investment in its oncology and immunology assets.

The Hong-Kong based pharmaceutical company has sold its entire indirect interest in over-the-counter drug business Hutchison Whampoa Guangzhou Baiyunshan Chinese Medicine Co Ltd (HBYS) to GL Mountrose Investment Two Ltd, a company controlled and managed by GL Capital Group.

From the USD169 million aggregate amount, around USD127 million has been received by Hutchmed so far, with the USD42 million balance pending distribution of HBYS's declared dividends.

According to Hutchmed, the aggregate amount represents around 22 times HBYS's adjusted net profit attributable to Hutchmed's equity of USD7.7 million in 2020.

Also on Wednesday, Hutchmed presented data from its surufatinib and fruquintinib phase 2 trials.

The data comprised four different studies. Most patients, including 100% in two of the studies, experienced treatment-related adverse reactions from the drugs, such as hypertension and amylase.

Hutchmed launched a study earlier this month into the combined use of surufatinib and toripalimab in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumours who don't respond well to first-line chemotherapy.

Hutchmed holds all rights to surufatinib worldwide and the rights to fruquintinib outside of China.

Hutchmed (China) shares were up 1.7% at 547.00 pence in London on Wednesday.

By Josie O'Brien; josieobrien@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Anglo Asian Mining PLC - gold, copper and silver producer operating in Azerbaijan - Signs heads of terms with Azerbaijan government for three new concessions with a combined area of 882 square kilometres. Calls agreement "transformational milestone", and says the new concessions have considerable synergies and geographical proximity with existing mining properties. Two of the new concessions border the existing Gedabek and Gosha Contract Areas and the third new concession area is called Demirli and is adjacent to the Kyzlbulag Contract Area.

Current stock price: 132.50 pence

Year-to-date change: up 0.8%

By Lucy Heming;A lucyheming@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
The risk to Spains tourism prestige from a relocation of the UN World Tourism Organizations headquarters from Madrid to Riyadh would appear to have passed. Although Saudi Arabia had not formally presented a proposal for relocation, one had been on the cards for the upcoming general assembly.

For the Spanish government, this has been an unfriendly gesture on the part of the Saudis. Other UNWTO member countries may not have taken friendliness into account, but sources suggest that the Saudis dont have the necessary to support. Good.

Having the HQ based in Spain has no real direct impact on the countrys tourism, but it does carry kudos and reinforces Spains image as a global tourism leader. When the HQ was opened in 1975, Spain was hardly a shining example of democratic freedom, but the timing was right. Spain was ripe for transformation, and tourism was already playing its part.

Tourism is looked upon (has been looked upon) as a source of good in facilitating transformation through cultural exchange. Would a UN HQ in Riyadh have this effect in Saudi Arabia? Will the countrys tourism ambitions bring about transformation? I doubt it.

The whole thing sucks. A region by the Red Sea to be separated and to allow foreigners to behave as foreigners do - drinking alcohol and all. The UN might like to believe it could be party to a transformative process, but a Riyadh HQ would have been a step too far for a country with its human rights record.
Priyanka Chopra is now a global star who has not only proved her mettle in Bollywood but has also risen on the ladder of success with some mind-blowing international projects.



However, despite going abroad, Priyanka never left her 'desiness', which is what we witnessed in her recent post.

 Instagram/Priyanka Chopra

She boarded a private jet to Spain for her project Citadel, an upcoming spy series that is action-packed and yet, takes one on an emotional ride.

In the picture she shared, the actress is seen sitting in the typical Indian style, crossing her legs in the flight.

 Instagram/Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka was seen wearing a black and white striped shirt with beige pants and a brown jacket. However, the way she was sitting grabbed our attention.



As soon as she posted the picture, people started commenting on the post.

One user wrote, India wale," whereas another one said, Loved her style of sitting,.

A third user called the style the most comfortable. That's the most comfortable way to sit..kudos to you Priyanka..You still are our Desi girl."

 Instagram/Priyanka Chopra

This picture was clicked by Dr Madhu Chopra, Priyanka Chopra's mother.



Priyanka's co-star from the series, Citadel, Osy Ikhile, also shared a reel of the same flight.

For the uninitiated, Priyanka also attended the Global Citizen Live Event 2021 and wore a gorgeous, earth-themed outfit. She took to Instagram and shared a few images, standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

As for the show, she was one of the hosts, and she posted several BTS clips as well.

 Instagram/Priyanka Chopra

Apart from that, Priyanka was also a part of controversy due to the show, The Activist, which didn't go well with the audience, and they called out the makers as well.



After the backlash, there were changes made in the show. Priyanka also took to Instagram and apologised to her fans and followers.

 Instagram/Priyanka Chopra

On the work front, Priyanka will star Text For You and Bollywood project Jee Le Zaraa with Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif.


Bollywood movies are known for their romance, drama and happy endings. So much so, that almost every movie that we begin to watch, ends up having almost the same, predictable plot that has been overused by Bollywood one too many times.

via GIPHY

But while that may be true for most movies, it certainly wasnt the case with a select few that gave us plot twists we werent ready for. And we arent even talking about mystery thrillers here.



We are talking about the romantic comedies where certain main characters got friendzoned pretty hard and didnt see it coming from a mile away. But in their defence, neither did we.

Here are a few of the most unexpected friendzoned characters from Bollywood movies:

1. Rahul From 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'

 UTV Motion Pictures

The movie that revolved around the lives of two characters - Rahul (Imran Khan) and Riana (Kareena Kapoor), starts with the two getting married after one drunken night.



Of course, they regret it the next morning, but the movie has us rooting for them all throughout. Only to make us realise that while Rahul did fall for Riana, she didnt and stood her ground to staying just good friends.

2. Akira From 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan'

 Yash Raj Films

Yes, the movie established well within the first half that Samar (Shah Rukh Khan) and Meera (Katrina Kaif) were the OG pair, but from the moment Akira enters, so does the possibility of Samar finally picking Akira as the woman he wants to end up with.



Considering she didnt abandon him for years solely for a superstition. However, all Akira gets for staying by Samars side and jolting his memory back is the title of a very good friend while he rides off into the sunset with Meera.

3. Oleksander From 'Queen'

 Viacom 18 Motion Pictures

Having been stood up at her wedding, as Rani (Kangana Ranaut) decides to fly off to Paris to celebrate her honeymoon alone, she bumps into a few people she ends up befriending.



One of them being Oleksander, the Russian cutie who we were cheering on for till the end.

With the hope that Rani will see him for his kind heart and cute smile, their chemistry was brewing. However, neither Rani nor the movie explored that angle and Oleksander was left behind in the friendzone despite our romantic speculations.

4. Ayan From 'Ae Dil Hai Muskhil'

 Dharma Productions

Even though Alizeh (Anushka Sharma) makes it crystal clear to Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) that she loves him just as a friend, the entire movie revolves around his unending and relentless efforts to convert her no into a yes.



And so, after a while, we as the audience were also convinced that Ayan might perhaps climb out of the zone, but nope. Even being diagnosed with cancer didnt change Alizehs mind and all Ayan was left as was her best friend.

5. Laurent From 'English Vinglish'

 Hope Productions

A movie about a middle-class woman, a homemaker who believed there was no particular time in life to earn her self-respect back in front of her family.



As Shashi takes secret English lessons, she befriends a fellow French classmate Laurent who fell for her.

And while the audience may have cheered him on, the movie dumped his character into the friendzone as Shashi stayed true to her family and her husband.
The steelmaker has signed a letter of intent with the governments of Belgium and Flanders, supporting the 1.1 billion ($1.16 billion) project, it said on Tuesday September 28.

This will reduce CO2 emissions by 3.9 million tonnes per year by 2030 compared with 2018 at ArcelorMittal Belgium on a scope 1 (covering direct emissions from owned or controlled sources) and scope 2 (indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy) basis in accordance with the greenhouse...
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Announces Michigan Strategic Fund Projects Supporting Hundreds of Jobs and Water Infrastructure

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Announces Michigan Strategic Fund Projects Supporting Hundreds of Jobs and Water Infrastructure

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 28, 2021

Contact: Kathleen Achtenberg, achtenbergk@michigan.org

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Announces Michigan Strategic Fund Projects Supporting Hundreds of Jobs and Water Infrastructure

Support for Ford's continued growth and creation of 450 additional jobs underscores Michigan's ongoing leadership in advanced mobility and manufacturing

New biopharmaceutical C enter of E xcellence facility to bring 160 high-wage jobs to Ann Arbor, further strengthen ing Michigan's life sciences and professional services industries

Grants awarded to 11 communities around Michigan to make vital , water-related infrastructure improvements, improve quality of life for residents

LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined the Michigan Economic Development Corporation today in announcing Michigan Strategic Fund approval of projects that include crucial support for Ford's continued investment in electric vehicles in Michigan, a biopharmaceutical facility in Ann Arbor creating 160 jobs, and $14.9 million in grants to 11 communities around the state to support infrastructure improvements.

"We are focused on growing Michigan's economy by creating good jobs for our residents, building on our state's automotive manufacturing strengths, supporting vibrant communities, and continuing to promote Michigan as a premiere place to live, work, visit, and play," said Governor Whitmer. "Today's MSF projects and initiatives create hundreds of jobs, fix critical water infrastructure, and expand on our leadership in the future of mobility and electric vehicles. Together, we can build back our economy stronger than ever before."

Support for Ford's continued commitment to vehicle electrification underscores Michigan's leadership in advanced mobility and manufacturing

Since December 2019, Ford Motor Company has announced nearly $2.5 billion in investment in Michigan, largely around electric and autonomous vehicle manufacturing, supporting more than 3,700 new jobs for Michigan's manufacturing workforce.

Ford has recently announced plans to invest an additional approximately $250 million and add 450 more direct jobs across all three of its Michigan facilities in Dearborn, Ypsilanti, and Sterling Heights, increasing its production capacity to 80,000 trucks a year. This includes an expansion at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC), where the first F-150 Lightning pre-production trucks are leaving the factory for real-world testing.

The project builds on Ford's ongoing commitment to electrifying the future of mobility in Michigan, with the Ford Ion Park announced in Romulus this past July, and its transformation of the historic Michigan Central Station into an innovation hub for the company's future of transportation.

The investment at REVC will further expand Ford's electric vehicle manufacturing footprint in Michigan and create an extended ripple effect across the supply chain in the state. The project continues to solidify Michigan's reputation around the world as an electrification, mobility and automotive leader for generations to come.

To support this investment, the MSF has approved an amendment to Ford's existing REVC State Essential Services Assessment (SESA) exemption, increasing the qualified investment from $140 million to $265 million. By amending the qualified investment amount, the value of the SESA exemption will increase from $3,185,000 to $6,078,750.

Sartorius Center of Excellence rendering courtesy of Sartorius

New state-of-the-art Center of Excellence facility in Ann Arbor builds on Michigan's globally renowned life sciences sector

German company Sartorius BioAnalytical Instruments, Inc. is a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry. The company works with scientists and engineers around the world to quickly and safely develop and manufacture medications from the first idea to patient use. The company currently has 130 employees located at four sites in Washtenaw County and expects to create an additional 160 high-wage jobs with this project.

Sartorius plans to construct a Center of Excellence facility in Ann Arbor that will house lab processing services, manufacturing and assembly of highly technical instruments, reagents, research and development, marketing, human resources, accounting, training, customer visit center and more. The facility will consolidate existing business operations in Washtenaw County into the facility, a project that will generate a total capital investment of $57 million with the support of a $1.2 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. Michigan was chosen for the project over competing sites in Colorado and New York.

The project further strengthens Michigan's life sciences and professional services industries and will bring high-wage, high-skill jobs to area residents in a variety of positions including biomedical engineers, biological scientists, first-line supervisors, business operations specialists, among others.

Ensuring Michigan was chosen as the location for the Center of Excellence secures company's presence in the Ann Arbor region and supports the potential for future growth and investment. The company believes strongly in promoting from within and plans to work with Michigan Works! and Ann Arbor SPARK to reach local talent in disadvantaged areas.

"The new facility will consolidate existing business operations in Washtenaw County to create a center of excellence in Ann Arbor for the Laboratory and Bioprocess Products and Services in North America, which focus on providing innovative solutions to help customers develop drugs that cure, prevent, and halt the progression of diseases," said Mary Lavin, President of Sartorius North America.

The city of Ann Arbor has been working with the Michigan Department of Transportation on an application to the Transportation Economic Development Fund that would provide critical road improvements needed to support the development. The city also plans to consider a Brownfield TIF Work Plan and approval of a property tax abatement in support of the project.

Individuals interested in careers with Sartorius should visit https://www.sartorius.com/en/company/career.

"The staff at Ann Arbor SPARK has worked incredibly hard to bring this opportunity to the city of Ann Arbor and we thank the MEDC, the Michigan Strategic Fund, and Governor Whitmer for approving the business development grant in support of Sartorius's new facility," Paul Krutko, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK said. "The work to help Sartorius expand in Ann Arbor shows that when state and local partners work together, the community benefits, and that it takes this type of collaboration to ensure jobs and investment come to Ann Arbor over competing sites."

Infrastructure grants will assist Michigan communities in making much-needed improvements

The Michigan Strategic Fund also approved $14.9 million in Community Development Block Grant Water-Related Infrastructure (WRI) grants for 11 communities to make water-related infrastructure improvements. The purpose of the program is to accelerate economic development and assist low- and moderate-income communities in making improvements or upgrades to their existing water, sewer, and wastewater public infrastructure systems. Communities will use the grants to improve or replace water lines, water mains and related facilities, and sanitary and storm sewer lines and related facilities.

The communities receiving grants are:

Bangor

Escanaba

Fowlerville

Hart

Hartford

Houghton

Middleville

Morenci

Rogers City

Shelby

West Branch

In addition, MSF approved up to $550,000 in CDBG funds to provide administrative services to assist the communities with the compliance and administrative requirements of the awards.

MEDC continues to lead efforts to elevate Michigan's image as a premiere business location

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation continues to promote Michigan as a world-class business and travel destination - and connect Michigan businesses, entrepreneurs and communities to needed services - through compelling storytelling and sophisticated marketing campaigns. Today, the MSF Board approved a business marketing services contract with communications firm Lambert/9thWonder to support the growth of Michigan businesses and the attraction of new businesses to the state.

To read the full press release on contracts awarded for Michigan business and travel marketing, visit here.

"We are working hard every day to win the projects that will propel Michigan's economic recovery and momentum and be felt throughout every single region and community within the state," said Quentin Messer, Jr., CEO of the MEDC and President and Chair of the Michigan Strategic Fund. "From creating good-paying jobs and leading the world in electric vehicle development and manufacturing, to building on our globally renowned life sciences sector, to supporting our communities and promoting Michigan as a world-class travel destination and business location, the actions taken today underscore our commitment to making Michigan the No. 1 four-season state in North America for both business and travel opportunities."

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 Gretchen Whitmer joins MEDC to announce 11 Michigan communities receiving nearly $15 million to upgrade water systems statewide

Governor Gretchen Whitmer joins MEDC to announce 11 Michigan communities receiving nearly $15 million to upgrade water systems statewide

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kathleen Achtenberg, achtenbergk@michigan.org

September 28, 2021

Governor Gretchen Whitmer joins MEDC to announce 11 Michigan communities receiving nearly $15 million to upgrade water systems statewide

Michigan Strategic Fund approves CDBG funding for vital public infrastructure projects

LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined the Michigan Economic Development Corporation today in announcing that 11 communities around Michigan have been awarded nearly $15 million in Community Development Block Grant Water-Related Infrastructure grant funds to make necessary water-related infrastructure improvements.

"Improving and updating our infrastructure is vital to the health of our residents and critical to the economic success of our communities," said Gov. Whitmer. "These MEDC grants will support infrastructure improvements that will have an immediate impact and help ensure the long-term wellbeing of our residents and our communities. Today's investments will help 11 communities across the state bolster access to safe drinking water."

The CDBG Water-Related Infrastructure program assists low- and moderate-income communities in making improvements or upgrades to their existing water, sewer, and wastewater public infrastructure systems. Grants are awarded to eligible communities on a competitive basis and are able to be used to improve or replace water lines, water mains and related facilities, and sanitary and storm sewer lines and related facilities.

A total of 61 communities applied for grants totaling $87.5 million. The applications were scored with an emphasis on percentage of low- to moderate-income residents and improvements or repairs related to health, sanitation and security, aging infrastructure, and capacity concerns. To be considered for a grant, communities were required to have a locally approved Capital Improvements Plan, contribute a local minimum match of 10 percent of total project costs, demonstrate a maintenance plan for the project, and propose projects that benefitted the entire community. All projects must be completed by December 31, 2023.

The Michigan Strategic Fund also approved up to $550,000 in CDBG funds to provide administrative services to assist the communities with the compliance and administrative requirements of the awards.

"As we accelerate Michigan's economic growth, it's absolutely critical that we make investments in our infrastructure to support that growth and ensure a bright future for all Michiganders," said Quentin L. Messer, Jr., CEO of MEDC and President and Chair of the MSF Board. "Today's grants will allow these communities throughout our state to make the improvements needed to remain vibrant and attractive places for businesses to invest and where talent wants to live, work, visit and play."

2021 Water-Related Infrastructure Grant winners:

Applicant/Communities CDBG Request Total Local Match City of Bangor 969,112 184,593 City of Escanaba 1,800,000 600,000 Village of Fowlerville 1,900,000 896,069 City of Hart 810,000 270,000 City of Hartford 1,835,900 319,850 City of Houghton 1,035,000 345,000 Village of Middleville 750,000 150,000 City of Morenci 2,000,000 478,452 City of Rogers City 1,200,000 400,000 Village of Shelby 637,500 212,500 City of West Branch 2,000,000 1,500,000 TOTAL $14,937,512 $5,356,465

Quotes from Communities:

City of Escanaba

"The city of Escanaba is grateful to have been selected as a recipient of CDBG funding for improvements to our water plant," said Escanaba Water-Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi. "MEDC's contribution will be of great help in providing safe, quality drinking water to our community. This grant has helped make this project possible at this time."

City of Morenci

"The city of Morenci is very grateful to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for this grant and the investment that they are making in the infrastructure of our community," said Morenci City Administrator Michael Sessions. "This grant will benefit residents, as it will help the City of Morenci provide safe and reliable drinking water to all."

City of Rogers City

"The WRI grant will have profound impacts on Rogers City's entire water system. Not only will it allow us to replace nearly a mile of undersized 80-year-old unlined cast iron main through the heart of our water system, it will also create an appropriately-sized transmission line between all of the city water wells, improving the water service we provide our customers systemwide," said Joe Hefele, city manager of Rogers City. "This is such an important project and we are incredibly grateful to the folks at MEDC and on the MSF board."

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 Signs Budget that Puts Michiganders First, Helps Working Families, and Grows the Economy

Governor Whitmer Signs Budget that Puts Michiganders First, Helps Working Families, and Grows the Economy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 29, 2021

Contact: Press@Michigan.gov

Kurt Weiss, Weissk1@michigan.gov

Governor Whitmer Signs Budget that Puts Michiganders First, Helps Working Families, and Grows the Economy

Budget funds skills training programs, expands childcare to 105,000 more kids, repairs 100 bridges, and puts $500 million into rainy day fund

LANSING, Mich. - At the Lansing Community College West Campus, Governor Gretchen Whitmer today signed SB 82 and HB 4400 which ensure funding is now in place for Fiscal Year 2022 which begins on October 1. When combined with the K-12 school aid budget signed earlier this year, the total budget invests $70 billion into Michigan's future. The budget provides strong investments for the state's economy, lowers the cost of childcare for Michigan's working families, invests in education and skills for Michigan's workforce, protects access to affordable healthcare, prioritizes cleaning up our water and environment, and rebuilds crumbling bridges.

"This is a budget that puts Michiganders first. We are coming together to grow the middle class, support small businesses, and invest in our communities," said Governor Whitmer. "This is a comprehensive budget that builds on the school aid budget I signed this summer, which made the largest investment in K-12 education in Michigan history without raising taxes. The budget fully funds Michigan Reconnect and Futures For Frontliners, putting 167,000 people on a tuition-free path to higher education or skills training, fixes 100 crumbling bridges, expands low or no-cost childcare to 105,000 kids, replaces lead service lines in Benton Harbor and beyond, permanently raises hourly pay for direct care workers, puts $500 million into our rainy-day fund, and make additional investments to protect water and environment. The budget is a testament to what we can do when we work together. Now, we should continue in that spirit of collaboration to use the billions of federal dollars we have to help our families, communities, and small businesses thrive."

"There is no doubt that this is a budget that is going to make a real difference for families and businesses in Detroit all the way to the Upper Peninsula," said Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II. "From Grand Rapids to Traverse City to Saginaw to Flint, this is a budget that helps every corner of our state. Families win, businesses win, and our schools win. There is so much to like about this budget, and I am excited about what the future holds for us."

"I can't say enough about the working relationship I had with Sen. Stamas and Rep. Albert," said State Budget Director David Massaron. "Together we were able to develop a budget that is going to help families and businesses across our state. The pandemic has been hard for everyone, but now we have put so many resources to work that will make a difference. The state is well positioned for the future."

SKILLS

The budget fully funds Michigan Reconnect and Futures for Frontliners, providing direct support to help people get higher education or skills training as the state moves towards its Sixty by 30 goal of having 60% of working-age adults earn a postsecondary education or skills training by 2030. The investments in today's budget will help the 167,000 Michiganders who have signed up for Reconnect and Futures for Frontliners pursue their potential and provide employers with the talent they need to succeed. The funding for Reconnect will provide a tuition-free path to an in-demand industry certificate or associate degree for Michigan adults aged 25 and older, Futures for Frontliners will pay for frontline workers to attend local community college tuition-free, and there is also additional funding for the Going Pro program, which backs employer-based training grants to help workers earn industry-recognized credentials and certificates.

"Community colleges are a proud partner in the statewide effort to build a better Michigan," said Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea, Ph.D., Mott Community College President. "As a community college President, I am extraordinarily grateful to Governor Whitmer and a bi-partisan majority in the Michigan Legislature for approving a nearly 5% increase in funding this year for our institutions, especially in these very challenging times. This bipartisan, forward-thinking commitment to higher education and skills training will make our state stronger and ready for the challenges of the future."

"This sustainable, bipartisan budget will make key investments to address the number one issue for the business community: talent," said Rick Baker, President & CEO of the Grand Rapids Chamber. "From a historic investment to make childcare more accessible and affordable, to additional funding in important workforce development tools like Going PRO, this is a budget Michigan employers and employees can be excited about to help our state fully recover and thrive."

"Solidifying Michigan's role as the global mobility leader has to be a priority for our state, and that requires an investment in innovation and talent," said Glenn Stevens Jr., Executive Director of MICHauto and Vice President of Automotive and Mobility Initiatives for the Detroit Regional Chamber. "MICHauto applauds the important commitment that the Going PRO Talent Fund makes to the people of Michigan and the long-term competitiveness of our state's signature automotive industry."

CHILDCARE

The budget expands access to childcare, helping families get back to work by making 105,000 more children eligible for low or no-cost care and increasing rates and issuing stabilization and startup grants for childcare providers. It also delivers a one-time, $1,000 bonus to childcare workers, who work hard every day taking care of our kids. Investing in childcare is a shared priority that helps families and businesses thrive as we usher in a new era of prosperity for our communities.

"The unprecedented and strategic investment in child care is a game changer that will help parents get back to work, allow child care businesses to keep their doors open, address the low wages that have made it difficult to recruit and retain child care workers, and ultimately give children a high-quality early learning experience," said Pat Sorenson, Senior Policy Analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy. "We are grateful for the leadership of the governor and the broad bipartisan support for child care in the legislature."

INFRASTRUCTURE

The budget invests $196 million to repair or replace nearly 100 crumbling bridges in serious and critical condition and create 2,500 jobs. It also helps local governments prepare for climate change and extreme weather and fixes dams to mitigate flooding and other hazards.

"Smith's Bridge is vital to our community, for commuters, public safety forces and school bus drivers," said Ferrysburg Mayor Rebecca Hopp. "I appreciate the governor following through on her pledge to commit funds to replace this lifeline and MDOT's ongoing help and support for our community. The budget delivers on several key issues that matter most to families in Ferrysburg, including childcare, healthcare, skills training, and bridges. As an employee of the Ottawa County Careerline Tech Center, I know first-hand the importance of skilled trades. I am grateful to the legislature and the governor for coming together to get this done."

HEALTH

The budget invests in healthcare to keep Michigan families safe too. It makes permanent the $2.35/hour raise for direct care workers who have been on the frontlines of the pandemic, taking care of our most vulnerable. It also offers alternatives to traditional nursing homes for our seniors and funds treatment for sickle cell disease and expands the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program to ensure moms have the support they need.

WATER

The budget funds the replacement of lead service lines in Benton Harbor to provide access to safe drinking water and provides new funding for the Emergency Drinking Water Fund to help the state address drinking water emergencies. There is funding to clean up contaminated sites across the state, resources targeted for the Western Lake Erie Basin, and investments to eliminate lead poisoning in homes.

"When we invest in the environment around us, we invest in peoples' health. Our new budget does just that," said Conan Smith, Michigan Environmental Council President & CEO. "It protects Michiganders by fortifying homes against climate change; by removing lead from our walls; and by keeping manure, PFAS and other contaminants out of our drinking water. Together, these investments provide a solid grounding for even bolder future actions."

PUBLIC SAFETY

The budget makes investments to keep families and communities safe and reduce crime, with funding to hire and train state troopers and corrections officers, including resources to ensure every trooper is equipped with a body camera. The budget also provides funds for 911 system upgrades and improved training.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Finally, the budget puts $500 million into the state's rainy-day fund, the largest one-time deposit ever that brings the total rainy day fund balance to nearly $1.4 billion, the largest in state history. This fiscally responsible investment ensures the state has resources in place to prepare for potential crises, public health or otherwise. We are also enacting another fiscally responsible clause by passing tax legislation to save small businesses in Michigan $200 million annually and keep those dollars in the state instead of sending them to Washington, DC.

The governor looks forward to further collaboration with the legislature to spend the billions in federal funds available to the state from the American Rescue Plan. By working together in the same spirit of collaboration utilized to pass this budget, the governor is confident that state government can deliver meaningful change to uplift our families, communities, and small businesses and usher in a new era of prosperity for Michigan.

See below for a link to Governor Whitmer's transmittal letter on Senate Bill 82 and House Bill 4400.

###
The North Huron School District recently hired Rebecca Gettel to a newly created position. As the schools social/emotional specialist, she will be responsible for helping students and staff navigate stress during the year.

Gettel boasts more than 20 years of experience as a social worker. Before coming to North Huron Schools, she worked for Huron Intermediate School District and was the director of the of the Huron County Great Start Collaborative, a partnership focusing on early childhood education.

However, she wanted more direct interaction with students, so decided to take the position when offered. She was officially hired in August 2021 at that months school board meeting.

Superintendent Martin Prout said this is a position that North Huron Schools has considered for five to seven years.

Its something, especially at the elementary school, that the teachers and parents have been asking for, he said.

The original concerns were the effects of social media and other outside influences on the mental and emotional health of students. In a 2019 Pew Research study, it was found that 70% of American teenagers said that anxiety and depression were major problems among their peers.

However, with the COVID-19 epidemic, the board realized that it could greatly increase student anxiety levels. And with that, the board thought it was officially time to create the position.

The school board had already been saving money for this new position, but it was helped along by a grant from the ISD, which is specifically for helping social work assistance for non-special needs students.

The new position brought with it some new learning for the teachers, with a four-hour virtual training session provided by the Michigan Department of Education. The idea behind this was to be as cohesive a voice as possible for the student body; the new position would bring with it a new way of addressing and dealing with students and it was important for the rest of the staff to follow suit. According to Prout, it was a way of speaking the same language to their students.

The new position and programs arent strictly one-on-one therapy, but rather a new resource for helping North Hurons 250-plus students manage school.

Its changing our instruction to more project based, student centered, Prout said. Letting students make discoveries. And to do that, you have to have a safe, trusting environment.

The new position is all about helping students, as their performance in school, as well as their overall happiness, is affected by their emotional and mental health. With more training on what affects them and why, the students can hope to have a better time in and out of school.
FRANKFORT  The Michigan Convention of States will meet in Frankfort this weekend to discuss using Article V of the US Constitution.

Article V grants states the power to call a national Convention of States, where delegates can suggest and ratify amendments to the Constitution. Thirty-four states need to agree to call a convention and 38 states must ratify a proposed amendment for it to become law.
Banned Books Week is a celebration of the freedom to read. Launched in 1982 as a response to challenges made in schools and libraries, Banned Books Week strives to educate the public on the value of free access to information, expression and sharing of ideas.

Manistee County Library branches will offer displays and activities Sept. 26 through Oct. 7.

Manistee County Library strives to provide something for everyone. During Banned Book Week, one can support freedom of speech and freedom of choice by reading a banned book like the ones below.

This years theme is Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.

Statistics from the Office for Intellectual Freedom state that between 2000 and 2009, 5,099 challenges were reported. Listed as cause were sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence and homosexuality.

Numbers were lower for occult, satanic themes and religious viewpoint. Parents initiated the majority of the challenges in school libraries, classrooms and public libraries.

Throughout history books have been burned and banned. For example, the following titles were burned in the Nazi Germany period for being un-German.

 The Invisible Man and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Other titles considered to be classics are frequently challenged in classrooms throughout the United States.

 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was targeted at the Baptist College in Charleston, S.C. in 1987 due to language and sexual references.

 J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye was first banned in 1960 in Tulsa, Oklahoma after being listed as assigned reading in an eleventh grade English class. It has continued to be challenged, if not banned, in schools throughout the country with the most recent being the Big Sky School in Missoula, Montana in 2009 for profanity and obscenity.

 The 1961 Pulitzer Prize winner, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee frequently made the challenged booklist for offensive language, racial slurs and psychological damage to the positive integration process.

 George Orwells best known novels, 1984 and  Animal Farm, have been repeatedly challenged and banned due to their political nature, social themes and sexual content.

 The Lord of the Rings trilogy has been challenged as being anti-religious'' and satanic.

 More recent titles have also been challenged. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was challenged in 2014 in the Kennett Consolidated School District in Pennsylvania due to bullying, violence and sexual themes.

 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is a nonfiction book in which a woman attempts to live on a low-wage, working a dead end job. This book was challenged in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire due to anti-religious issues, biased portrayal of capitalism and being harmful to minors.

 A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer depicts the authors life as an abused and neglected child. The graphic descriptions led to the book being banned in Washington state in 2009 and Massachusetts in 2013.

 Many of the themes in young adult fiction are considered cause for challenging books. Author John Green, whose book Looking For Alaska was the most challenged title in 2015 because of offensive language and sexual situations addressed the issue. He pointed out that most parents base their opposition on having read one page without the benefit of the context of the novel.

 The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is listed as containing profanity and sexual references.

 Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher has been challenged for addressing teen suicide. It was pulled from schools in Florida and Kentucky. In 2015, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins was deemed offensive in a New Hampshire school due to insensitivity, anti-family and occult references.

 The popular Gossip Girls series by Cecily von Ziegesar was challenged by parents and religious groups in Picayune, Mississippi due to offensive language and sexual situations.

 Juvenile books often carry some of these same themes as well. The beloved Harry Potter series has long been a target of challenges due to its focus on wizardry and magic as occultism. Some parents also object to the use of nefarious means for personal gain and anti-family themes.

 And Tango Makes Three, the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who adopt a chick, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell has been targeted as unsuitable for children because of homosexual overtones.

  I am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel is the true story of a transgender child, a topic which was challenged as sensitive, controversial and politically charged.

 Daniel Haack wrote the childrens book Prince and Knight which is about sacrifice and love but is often criticized as a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children with the potential to cause confusion, curiosity and gender dysphoria; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint.

 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has frequently been challenged due to racial slurs. The adventures of a Siamese cat who thinks hes a chihuahua in Judith Schachners Skippyjon Jones picture book series has been challenged due to negative stereotypes of people with Mexican heritage and Spanish-speaking cultures.

Kim Jankowiak and Becca Brown of the Manistee County Library write the recurring On the Same Page feature that showcases the library's titles available surrounding a revolving topic. Jankowiak is a reference librarian and Brown is a circulation clerk for the library.
MECOSTA COUNTY  The Mecosta County Sheriffs Office responded to the following calls.

All calls may not be reported.

Tuesday, Sept. 28

 Malicious destruction of property was reported in the 800 block of Harley Road in Martiny Township. A man wanted to report the destruction, which the suspect smashed some of his property on Sept. 28.

 An assault was reported at Chippewa Hills High School. A female student assaulted another female student because of being blocked on social media.

 A student attempted to rip a soap dispenser off the wall at Chippewa Hills School District.

 Retail fraud was reported in the 21000 block of Perry Avenue. A man was identified and arrested while trying to get a ride from Dial-A-Ride at Meijer. He admitted to several retail frauds from Walmart and Meijer.

 A civil matter was reported in the 500 block of Sixth Street. A complainant advised authorities of a man putting things on his fence.

 A bond violation was reported in the 20000 block of 4 Mile Road in Aetna Township. A man was arrested after having contact with a woman and consuming alcohol while out on bond for a domestic assault with the woman.

 A woman was arrested in the 9000 block of West School Section Lake Drive in Morton Township for an outstanding warrant.
SUDBURY, Ontario (AP)  The last four miners trapped deep below the surface in the Totten Mine climbed to safety early Wednesday, the company that owns the mine near Sudbury, Ontario, said.

Vale said the 39 workers trapped by an accident on Sunday climbed a series of ladders with the aid of rescue crews.

Around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the help of the rescue workers, miner Kavin Joanette began the long climb up to the surface. Hed climb up in 30-metre bursts, then rest.

Youd take a break, collect your thoughts, get another burst and go up again, Joanette said. It was wet, it was dark, but it was necessary. It was a mind-over-matter game, youre just climbing up, if youre stopping, youre stagnant.

The entire climb up took about three hours, he said, to reach a point 200 meters below ground, where they could ride an elevator to the surface.

It was an ordeal, he said.

The last miner reached the surface shortly before 5 a.m. and was taken away in an ambulance as a precautionary measure, said company spokesman Jeff Lewis.

He walked onto the ambulance and was giving fist bumps to the mine rescue team," Lewis said.

It was a emotional ending to a very stressful exercise, said Gord Gilpin, head of mining for Vales Ontario operations. There were a lot of smiles, a few laughs and fist bumping and congratulations going on.

The workers became trapped on Sunday when a scoop bucket being sent underground detached and blocked the mine shaft while some were as deep as 1,200 meters (nearly 4,000 feet) below the surface, the company said.

Joanette rushed home after an arduous three-hour climb to hug his young kids before they went to school.

He was running on adrenalin after the rescue operation, worried hed miss his five-year-old girl Leighton and four-year-old boy Gordie, whom he hadnt seen in two days. But he managed to make it just before they got on the bus, wrapping his kids and wife in a tight embrace.

"They didnt quite know what went on, but they knew that dad was gone for two days and he should have been home  they knew something was up, Joanette said.

Joanette said his Sunday shift began like any other. He got to the mine around 6:30 a.m., with his lunch bag in tow, and headed 1,200 metres below the surface.

Around 11:30 a.m., we got wind we needed to get to a refuge station, said the 41-year-old. We werent too sure what happened, but knew something was up.

Joanette said he took a series of ramps up about 300 meters to a refuge station, which is like a lunchroom, where 10 others joined him. They were told to wait for instructions.

Their room had pretty decent Wi-Fi, he said, so the group watched videos on their phones to pass the time. The room didnt have extra food but the workers had their lunches, Joanette said.

We kind of pigged out at first, he said, laughing. We didnt anticipate being there as long as we were.

By early Monday morning, some rescue workers made their way down with sandwiches and chocolate bars, he said.

None of us were starving to death, but we were starting to get hungry, he said.

The rescue team needed time to set up a system of ropes along a series of ladders the workers would have to climb, Joanette said.

In the meantime, the miners were able to call their families, which helped keep everyone calm, he said.

When he eventually emerged, there was a burst of sunshine, a team of doctors and nurses, the scramble to get home to see his family and finally, a hot shower.

The provinces Ministry of Labor, Training and Skills Development said an inspection team will investigate the incident. Bartolomeo, who was on site, said Vale also will investigate so that the company can learn from it and take steps to ensure it never happens again.

The Totten Mine opened in 2014 and produces copper, nickel and precious metals. It employs about 200 people.
When Safe & Sound Child Advocacy Center needed help with a refurbishment project, Midland County Habitat for Humanity answered the call. The two nonprofits, along with a group of local volunteers, worked together repairing and restoring Safe & Sounds front and back decks and entrance ramps.

This summer, the decks wood had become soft after countless years of use, bolts started to rust through, and the entire structures had reached a point that constant maintenance was required. Safe & Sound Executive Director Michelle Waskevich secured a $5,500 grant to perform maintenance upgrades, but soon realized the funds would not be enough to cover materials and installation. The organization had a difficult time finding contractors who wanted to place a bid on the project, let alone agree to take it on.

At that point, Michelle and I were completely out of ideas. We were deflated by it all by that point. We got to talking about it and said we needed some volunteers, lets just find someone who can help us do it, said Kevin Crampton, facilities chairman of Safe & Sound.

Crampton reached out to Jennifer Chappel, CEO of Midland County Habitat for Humanity, with whom he had collaborated with in the past. To his relief, Chappel jumped on board and offered to have Habitat help in any way it could and assigned Erich Ostrander, construction manager, to coordinate efforts.

Were so incredibly grateful. It just went right into motion, Waskevich said. Without Habitat, without Erich, we could not have done this.

Ostrander was able to stretch out Safe & Sounds funding as far as it could go. He obtained materials from Lowes at a significant discount and helped build a pool of volunteers from local churches. A schedule was set to work two days a week for two weeks.

As a nonprofit and people who work with grants, we understand youre stuck with a certain cost, Ostrander said.

About a dozen individuals worked each day on the project, addressing the structural framing, redecking and installing new handrails. The finished structures will be made of composite decking, which will require much less upkeep.

Volunteers from Memorial Presbyterian and Trinity Lutheran churches worked side by side with Safe & Sound and Habitat staff members. The crew worked on the front deck two weeks ago and work on the back deck was scheduled to take place last week but was postponed due to rain. Construction resumed on Wednesday, and Ostrander expected it to be completed, or nearly completed, on Thursday.

The experience has inspired Crampton to volunteer with Habitats future projects. According to Ostrander, Habitat has performed $350,000 worth of repairs during the pandemic.

They are a fabulous organization doing unbelievably great things in our community, Crampton said. To help and volunteer after what theyve done for us, its fun  these are fantastic people to even spend the day with.

You (may) think you need to have a huge corporation to get things done, but this shows you that nonprofits working together can get just as much done, Waskevich stated.

For Ostrander, child advocacy is near and dear to his heart, so he was personally excited to help out Safe & Sound with this endeavor.

When youre a nonprofit, you feel like youre out there on your own island, trying to make it happen. Anytime that we can get together and make stuff happen and help each other out, its better for the community, for the nonprofit, for everybody, Ostrander said.
DETROIT (AP)  A judge dismissed a new batch of charges Tuesday in the government's investigation of genital mutilation against girls in a Muslim sect, saying prosecutors in Detroit retaliated after major courtroom losses.

It's another blow for the government, which broke new ground in 2017 when it charged a Detroit-area doctor with performing genital mutilation at a suburban clinic. The move was recognized as the first significant use of a federal law banning the practice.

The 1996 law, however, was declared unconstitutional in 2018 by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, who said genital mutilation, known as FGM, was a matter for states, not Congress. The government didn't appeal.

Friedman's latest decision came months after prosecutors filed a new indictment, this time charging four people, including two doctors, with conspiracy, making false statements and witness tampering during the investigation.

The judge said the new charges can't stand because prosecutors are tying them to a core underlying crime that was found to be unconstitutional.

The fifth indictment was "in retaliation for defendants past success in having other charges dismissed, Friedman said. "Such vindictive or retaliatory prosecution is a due process violation of the most basic sort.

Saima Mohsin, the acting U.S. attorney in Detroit, said she was disappointed with the judge's decision.

Child victims are vulnerable and they deserve our best efforts to hold accountable those who harm them, Mohsin said in a written statement.

Female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision or cutting, has been condemned by the United Nations. The practice is common for girls in parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

A new prohibition was signed into law by President Donald Trump in January, but the allegations in Michigan precede it.

Authorities alleged that mothers from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota brought their girls to Dr. Jumana Nagarwala when they were roughly 7 years old for the procedure.

Nagarwala and others denied any crime was committed. She said she performed a religious custom on girls from her Muslim sect, the India-based Dawoodi Bohra.

In a May court filing seeking the latest dismissal, defense attorneys said the government had manipulated the charges to try to win this case at all costs.

The government did not just go back for a second bite at the apple  it is working its way through the entire orchard, lawyers said.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
If you thought your mail delivery was slow, it's about to get even slower.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is implementing a part of their 10-year plan that overall will have longer first-class mail deliveries, cut back on location hours, and increase the price of stamps.

Friday marks the start of the longer first-class mail deliveries.

The 10-year plan from USPS says first-class mail has declined since 2007, and that ground deliveries have outperformed air deliveries. Statistics show ground delivery has 92% on-time delivery compared to air which has 89.4% on-time deliveries.

Most first class mail (61%) and periodicals (93%) will be unaffected, USPS spokesperson Kim Frum told USA Today. She also indicated that single-piece regional mail will still have a two-day delivery time.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy introduced the 10-year plan earlier this year in March.

We are the most trusted brand. I just want to become the most used brand," DeJoy told the Washington Post.

Overall the 10-year plan is projected to save the USPS $58 billion. The plan also shows the postal service could gain $24 billion in revenue from "self-help management initiative," including package growth, new competitive products and pricing changes. There could also be $34 billion that comes from "cost improvement." That includes mail processing, transportation, retail, delivery, and administrative efficiency.

New revenue in the form of $44 billion is estimated to come in via postage rate increases.

USPS also said in the 10-year plan they're hoping package business grows from 6% to 11%.
KENOVA, W.Va. (AP)  A West Virginia man has been accused of shooting and wounding three people from Michigan, police said.

Robert Leroy Roberts, 29, of Huntington, was arrested and charged with three counts of malicious wounding in the shooting Tuesday night in Kenova, news outlets reported.
BOSTON (AP)  Three more dancers have come forward to allege that an instructor and his wife, a former star with the Boston Ballet, sexually abused them, according to an expanded lawsuit.

Five dancers now say dance instructor Mitchell Taylor Button and his wife, former Boston Ballet principal dancer Dusty Button, exploited their position of power and influence in the dance world to sexually abuse young dancers across the country, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  Angry opponents of the Biden administrations new vaccine mandate forced the postponement of Wednesdays Executive Council meeting, further delaying a vote on $27 million in federal aid to boost New Hampshires vaccination efforts.

The Republican-controlled council, a five-member panel that approves state contracts and nominations to courts and agencies, had voted this month to table a request from the state Department of Health and Human Services to spend federal pandemic relief money on a public health program manager and a dozen workers to promote the COVID-19 vaccine and address public concerns about it.

Republican lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, which also must approve the request, have done the same.

The request was back before the council on Wednesday, but the meeting in Manchester was called off after protesters moved around the room, shouting, Shut it down, according to video shared by WMUR-TV. After Councilor David Wheeler said state employees attending to answer questions about agenda items were in fear for the lives, one man shouted, Mission accomplished!

Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said state police had to escort the employees to their cars after unruly and very aggressive" behavior.

We will not allow our state employees to be put in harms way simply for doing their jobs, he said at an afternoon news conference. Make no mistake, threatening any state employee or individuals involved in the process will not be tolerated, and we are going to continue to get the job done.

Councilor Cinde Warmington, the lone Democrat on the council, said the most difficult moment was hearing protestors tell state employees, We know where you live.

It was most disturbing to hear that they were really going after our state employees, she said in a phone interview. This is a group of really right-wing, fringe activists who are trying to disrupt our government. They ultimately will not succeed because we will meet and we will conduct the business of the state of New Hampshire as we were elected to do.

Officials with RebuildNH, an organization that actively opposed many of Sununus orders during the pandemic state of emergency, said they organized the protest outside the meeting but that those who caused the disruption inside were not connect to their group.

Despite efforts to direct public discourse by way of letters, emails, and peaceful demonstrations outside the building, these agitators were able to feed off peoples raw emotion and misdirect them, the group said in a press release.

Critics of the federal grants say they come with strings attached that amount to a usurpation of state sovereignty. They point to a provision in the grant paperwork that says the state would be required to comply with existing and/or future directions and guidance from federal health officials, but Sununu said the vague boilerplate doesn't infringe on the states ability to manage the pandemic as it sees fit.

That has never been the case. I would never allow that to be the case. Its unequivocally untrue, he said.

He said similar language has been included in other federal aid New Hampshire and every other state have accepted.

Its nothing unique. Its been approved by some of the same people now questioning the funds, he said.

Asked why he didnt have the protestors removed from the room so the meeting could proceed, Sununu said police were concerned things would get even more out of hand.

A new date for the meeting has not be set.

In other coronavirus developments:

___

THE NUMBERS

Nearly 120,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 443 new cases announced Wednesday. Two new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,479.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 433 on Sept. 13 to 494 on Sept. 27.
WEST HARTFORD  What might it feel like to be responsible for a cause, that if you fail you could be responsible for the end of an era, the death of a tradition, the demise of a heritage?

Even if you are not Don Quixote, you will surely feel an obligation to test your mettle and hope to succeed in your mission.

Playhouse on Park in West Hartford is inviting you to a front row seat until Oct. 10 for the altercation, for performances of Seth Rozins vaudeville-style play, Two Jews Walk Into A War 

Come meet Ishaq and Zeblyan, who have the unique distinction of being the last two Jews in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. They are busy burying their third compatriot, Yakob, and now there are only two. The Taliban is busy conducting a war around them, and have already destroyed their synagogue and stolen their Torah.

The future, if there is one, is solidly in their hands. And, did I forget to mention the two men hate each other, passionately and vociferously?

Mitch Greenberg is the polished professor and purist Ishaq, who matches wits with the more secular and skeptical businessman Bob Ari, as Zeblyan. The two bicker like old fish wives over everything from how to save the Jewish population, all two of them, to who had the worst experience surviving the Holocaust.

Ironically, their families lived to see another day only to come to Afghaniston for resettlement rather than go to Israel or America. A poor decision, indeed.

The big question is, can they work together long enough to save the Jewish people by creating a community in Kabul. Think of The Odd Couple meets the Borscht Belt. They need a plan, one they can agree on, if such is possible.

After discarding many unacceptable solutions, they decide that they need a synagogue and a Torah. Reluctantly, Zeblyan becomes a scribe, and records every word Ishaq dictates, down to each comma and period. After many false starts and interruptions as Zeblyan questions God, it appears they may actually accomplish their goal.

What happens next is more sorrow than shtick.

The playwright conceived this story from a newspaper account of two Jews in this religious predicament, so it is based on reality. How he injected humor into their situation, one based on mutual hostility, is interestingly problematic and worthy of a discussion, one that takes place after the Sunday matinees.

For tickets ($40 to $50), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford, at 860-523-5900, Ext. 10, or go online at tix.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Tuesday at 2 p.m., and Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

David Hammond directs this 90-minute show with no intermission. Masks, a government-issued ID, and proof of vaccination are required.

Watch how two men who only agree on their mutual hatred of each other grow in their faith and learn to respect and understand.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  The city of San Jose was once home to one of the largest Chinatowns in California. In the heart of downtown, it was the center of life for Chinese immigrants who worked on nearby farms and orchards.

More than a century after arsonists burned it to the ground in 1887, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution to apologize to Chinese immigrants and their descendants for the role the city played in systemic and institutional racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.

San Jose, with a population over 1 million, is the largest city in the country to formally apologize to the Chinese community for its treatment of their ancestors. In May, the city of Antioch apologized for its mistreatment of Chinese immigrants, who built tunnels to get home from work because they were banned from walking the streets after sundown.

Its important for members of the Chinese American community to know that they are seen and that the difficult conversations around race and historic inequities include the oppression that their ancestors suffered, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

The apologies come amid a wave of attacks against the Asian community since the pandemic began last year. Other cities, specifically in the Pacific Northwest, have issued apologies in decades past. California, too, apologized in 2009 to Chinese workers and Congress has apologized for the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was approved in 1882 and made Chinese residents the targets of the nations first law limiting immigration based on race or nationality

The city had five Chinatowns but the largest one was built in 1872. Fifteen years later, the city council declared it a public nuisance and unanimously approved an order to remove it to make way for a new City Hall. Before officials acted, the thriving Chinatown was burned down by arsonists, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and displacing about 1,400 people, according to the resolution.

An apology for grievous injustices cannot erase the past, but admission of the historic wrongdoings committed can aid us in solving the critical problems of racial discrimination facing America today, the resolution reads.

The Chinese started coming to California in large numbers during the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. They worked in mines, built the transcontinental railroad, toiled in farms and helped develop the abalone and shrimp industries. By 1870, there were about 63,000 Chinese in the United States, 77% of them residing in California, according to the resolution.

Chinese immigrants faced racism and were forced out of towns. They were denied the right to own property, marry white people and attend public schools. They also were subjected to violence and intimidation and denied equal protection by the courts.

In San Jose, an episcopal church where Chinese immigrants attended Sunday school was burned to the ground, Chinese laundries were condemned based on being housed in wooden buildings and the first state convention of the Anti-Chinese League was held there in 1886, according to the resolution.

Connie Young Yu, a historian and author of Chinatown, San Jose, USA, said her grandfather was a teenage refugee from the 1887 fire. Her father was born in the last existing Chinatown built in San Jose. The community was established in a new location with the help of German immigrant John Heinlen, despite threats to his life. But that Chinatown, known as Heninlenville, disappeared after the Chinese population dwindled.

Yu said the official apology gives her an enormous sense of reconciliation and a sense of peace.

This is beyond an apology. It is taking responsibility, which is a beautiful thing to me, Yu added.

Gerrye Wong, who helped found the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project in San Jose, said she, Yu, and other community members will formally accept the apology at a ceremony Wednesday near the former Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose, which was built where the destroyed Chinatown once existed. In 1987, city officials dedicated a plaque at the site to mark the fire's 100th anniversary.

Wong, a retired teacher, said the apology from the 10th largest city in the country is a teaching moment because this history was not in textbooks or taught in schools.

As a fourth-generation Chinese American myself, I didnt know any of this and Chinese people never talked about it, she said.

In this anti-Asian hate environment that we see today, its a great step forward because it will bring attention to not only our hardships but also what Chinese communities have contributed to this country, she added.

___

This story was first published on September 28, 2021. It was updated on September 29, 2021, to correct the timing of the largest Chinatowns destruction to 15 years after it was built, not five.
O&G Industries / Contributed photo

MIDDLETOWN  Middletown Public Schools will be offering guided tours of its brand new Beman Middle School Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at 1 Wildermans Way.

Tours during this final public open house will begin at 10, 10:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m. that day, and will last approximately 30 minutes, according to a press release.
TOWNSVILLE, Australia (AP)  The World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest is among four national parks to be handed back to traditional owners in a deal signed with an Australian state government on Wednesday.

More than 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) of land in northern Queensland state stretching from the Daintree, north of Port Douglas, to south of Cooktown will be jointly managed before a full handover is made to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.

The agreement was signed by government ministers and representatives from the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people at a ceremony in Bloomfield, north of the Wujal Wujal Indigenous community.

The Daintree is one of the worlds oldest rainforests, estimated to be more than 130 million years old, and is near the Great Barrier Reef.

The Daintree, Ngalba-bulal, Kalkajaka and the Hope Islands National Parks will now be jointly managed by traditional owners and the Queensland state government, while a new nature refuge will also be created.

The Eastern Kuku Yalanji peoples culture is one of the worlds oldest living cultures and this agreement recognizes their right to own and manage their country, to protect their culture and to share it with visitors as they become leaders in the tourism industry, Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said.

Eastern Kuku Yalanji representative Chrissy Grant said four years of negotiations have been an important process to establish the framework for when they solely and wholly manage the land.

Vast tracts of Australian wilderness have been handed back to traditional owners in recent decades, including the Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parks in the Northern Territory.
EAST HADDAM  The upcoming weekend features open houses for two local landmarks: the Palmer-Warner House on Saturday, and Amasa Day House on Sunday.

These free events, which will each run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., are part of the East Haddam fall celebration.

Visitors can walk through the first floor of the Palmer-Warner House, built in 1738, to learn about the work Connecticut Landmarks is doing to open the property, an announcement said. Guests are invited to explore the historic grounds at 307 Town St., take in the view from the back porch, visit the recently restored barn, and speak with evaluators to help the organization shape the propertys future, according to a press release.

At the Amasa Day House, at 33 Plains Rood in Moodus (an East Haddam village), visitors can explore the first floor, which is furnished largely with objects owned by members of the Day family, the announcement said. These include toys and locally produced ceramics and silver, as well as the original 19th-century floor and stair stenciling.

At 1 p.m., Kandie Carle, of the East Haddam Stage Co., and Marc Casslar, of the Vintage Dance Society of CT, will perform on the grounds. They will be highlighting circa 1860 social dances, including the waltz, polka and Schottische.

Both events will be held rain or shine. Registration for timed entry is recommended. Same-day, on-site registration will be allowed only if the event has not reached capacity. To register for the Saturday event, go to ctl-palmer-warner-ehfc.eventbrite.com and the Sunday event, ctl-amasa-day-ehfc.eventbrite.com.

Visitors are required to wear masks within the interiors, and masks are encouraged for outdoor programs where distancing is difficult.

For information about Connecticut Landmarks and these properties, go to ctlandmarks.org.
NEW YORK (AP)  George Frayne, who as leader of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen enjoyed a cult following in the 1970s with such party and concert favorites as Hot Rod Lincoln and Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)," has died.

Frayne died Sunday in Saratoga Springs, New York, according to his wife Sua Casanova, who did not immediately provide further details. He was 77 and had been diagnosed with cancer several years ago.

As I lay my head upon his shoulder/Georges soul took to flight/I am heartbroken and weary/And I know your hearts break too, Casanova wrote last weekend on her Facebook page.

Formed in 1967, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen drew upon influences ranging from Western swing to jump blues. They became a popular touring and recording act during the first half of the 1970s, getting around the country in a converted Greyhound bus. They specialized in uptempo remakes, notably the top 10 hit Hot Rod Lincoln; Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)," a novelty song from the 1940s; Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar and Diggy Liggy Lo." The sound was country-rock boogie and the mood lighthearted and ready to get wild, as defined by Frayne's witty talking-blues vocals.

Frayne was a native of Boise, Idaho, who grew up in New York City and Long Island and had an early interest in piano and art and design. He attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and graduate student and was still living in Ann Arbor when he helped form Commander Cody along with Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen and others he would call neo-radicals who specialized in a form of quasi-social mayhem." Their name was lifted from old movie serials  including a science fiction adventure from the 1950s featuring space fighter Commander Cody.

They resettled in the Bay Area in California in 1969, when a trippy name like Commander Cody and His Lost Plane Airmen fit well with such local groups as the Charlatans, Quicksilver Messenger Service and (more famously), Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. They had success in the early 1970s with Hot Rod Lincoln" and released six albums from 1971-75, including the acclaimed Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas," while resisting Warner Bros' efforts to model themselves on the commercial country-rock of the Eagles.

The band broke up in the mid-1970s, but Frayne (still calling himself Commander Cody) continued to tour and record, performing with Jerry Garcia, Elvis Costello and Sammy Hagar among others and releasing such albums as Dopers, Drunks and Everyday Losers and Worst Case Scenario. He also painted, made films, and taught at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

In 2009, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen was voted into Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

___

This story has been corrected incorrect several references to the Lost Planet Airmen.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  A riot in a penitentiary in coastal city of Guayaquil killed 24 inmates and injured 48 more Tuesday, Ecuadorian officials said.

A police and military operation managed to regain control of the Guayaquil prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuadors prison service.

Guayas state Gov. Pablo Arosemena said at a news conference outside the Litoral prison that order had been restored. The presence of the state and the law must be felt, he said.

The violence involved gunfire, knives and explosions and was caused by a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs, officials said.

Television images showed inmates firing from the windows of the prison amid smoke and the detonation of firearms and explosives. The Guayas state government posted images on its Twitter account showing six cooks being evacuated from one of the prisons wings.

In July, President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency in Ecuadors prison system following several violent episodes that resulted in more than 100 inmates being killed.

The bloodiest day occurred in February, when 79 prisoners died in a simultaneous riot in three prisons in the country. In July, 22 more prisoners lost their lives in the Litoral penitentiary, while in September a penitentiary center was attacked by drones leaving no fatalities.
Massachusetts State Police/AP

WESTON, Mass. (AP)  A Massachusetts State Police trooper seriously injured when his cruiser was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Weston has been released from the hospital, authorities said Wednesday.

The trooper, working a construction zone detail, was inside the stationary cruiser when it was struck at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to state police. The cruiser was unmarked but had it's emergency lights on and sustained heavy damage.
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
COVID-19 vaccination rates among active-duty airmen and Space Force Guardians have risen swiftly since the Air Force earlier this month set a tight deadline for them to get their shots.

And the quick increase may suggest that -- at least in the Air Force and Space Force -- vaccine hesitancy is largely falling away in the face of the military's vaccination mandate.

As of Monday afternoon, according to the Department of the Air Force's latest statistics, 93.9% of active-duty airmen and Guardians had received at least one shot, with 75.1% of those fully vaccinated.

That's an increase of 3.4 percentage points over the 90.5% who were at least partially vaccinated the previous week. And it's well above the 82% with at least one shot, and 68.6% fully vaccinated, the Air Force recorded Sept. 13.

On Sept. 3, the Air Force announced that active-duty airmen and Guardians would need to be fully vaccinated -- including a two-week period after their final shot for it to take full effect -- by Nov. 2.

Air National Guardsmen and reservists have an additional month, until Dec. 2.

Read Next: Contradicting Biden, Top Brass Testify They Advised Him to Keep Troops in Afghanistan

The Air Force is allowing service members to apply for medical or administrative exemptions from the vaccinations, including accommodations on religious grounds. But those who refuse the order could face serious consequences, including punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"We are taking an aggressive approach to protect our service members, their families and their communities from COVID-19 and the highly transmissible Delta variant," Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones said in the Sept. 3 news release announcing the deadline. "As members of the nation's armed forces, our airmen and Guardians must be able to respond to situations around the globe. Being fully vaccinated will help us safely meet the readiness requirements that our national security depends upon."

On Aug. 30, before the deadline announcement, 65% of airmen and Guardians were fully vaccinated, and another 6.2% were partially protected, for a total of 71.2%. That means vaccination rates have increased by 22.7 percentage points over the last four weeks.

Although some holdouts are likely, the growth in vaccination rates suggests nearly all active-duty airmen and Guardians could receive their two shots by Nov. 2.

But for the roughly 6% of the active-duty forces who had not gotten one shot as of Monday, time may be quickly running out to meet the vaccine deadline.

Because there is typically a three-week waiting period between the first and second injections for the two-dose versions of the vaccine, and another two weeks for the vaccine to fully take effect, the timetable from the first shot to full vaccination is actually five weeks. That means airmen or Guardians who get their first shots of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech, also known as Comirnaty, or Moderna vaccines later this week or next week may not technically be fully vaccinated by the deadline.

However, the Janssen, or Johnson & Johnson, vaccine requires only one shot, which would give them more flexibility to meet the Nov. 2 deadline.

The Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the Comirnaty vaccine, currently the only one that commanders can order a service member to receive.

The Moderna and Janssen vaccines are approved under an FDA emergency use authorization.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization, but not the FDA, and is available outside of the U.S. Those three vaccines would satisfy the Air Force's requirement, but commanders cannot order troops to get them.

Overall statistics in the Department of the Air Force -- including active-duty airmen and Guardians, Air National Guardsmen, and Air Force reservists -- are slightly lower, with 86.5% at least partially vaccinated. Of those, 71% are fully vaccinated. Separate statistics for Guardsmen and reservists were not available.

But those numbers also have greatly increased over the last month, from the 65.9% partially or fully vaccinated on Aug. 30.

In recent months, some troops have announced -- on social media, television and other public forums -- their intention to refuse the vaccine, despite the career consequences. Army Lt. Col. Doug Hague, for example, said in a recent interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News that he would not get the vaccine and planned to resign over the issue.

-- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenLosey.

Related: What Happens to Soldiers Who Refuse the COVID Vaccine?
An outbreak of COVID-19 has slowed training at the Marine Corps' Officer Candidates School, or OCS, in Quantico, Virginia, the branch confirmed in a press release issued Tuesday.

"Officer Candidates School has instituted a temporary reduction in training for all affected candidates and staff due to an ongoing COVID-19 situation," 1st Lt. Phillip Parker, a spokesman for the Marines, said in the press release.

It is unclear whether a student or staff member caused the outbreak, but Parker noted that both groups "are being monitored by trained medical personnel, and have all been tested for COVID-19 and placed in either isolation or quarantine based on their individual test results."

The Marine Corps has struggled to vaccinate existing troops. According to the latest Department of Defense figures, about 70% of Marines are fully vaccinated, while the Army, Navy and Air Force have surpassed 90% compliance. Just two months ago, about 57% of Marines were fully vaccinated, while the Navy was at 79%.

The Officer Candidates School is the first stop for prospective Marine officers. Graduates of the school are commissioned as second lieutenants and go on to further training before reporting to their first duty station.

The outbreak comes amid changes in how the officer training school deals with COVID-19.

Last year, the Marine Corps instituted a policy of quarantining OCS candidates on base before their training began to combat the pandemic. However, this class is the first to complete that quarantine at home rather than on base.

"One of the driving factors in that [decision was] that candidates in this newest class, those that were not already fully vaccinated before the class began, were required to receive their first dose of the vaccine for when they entered the initial screening process upon arrival at OCS," Parker explained in a phone call with Military.com.

He noted that candidates are tested for COVID-19 prior to the start of training, as well.

The Marine Corps did not reply to questions about the size of the outbreak, citing a policy of not releasing numbers of positive COVID-19 cases at the unit level out of privacy and operational security concerns.

Parker said the school will continue to take all "preventative medical procedures that are practical" to combat the spread of the disease, such as masking, temperature checks, and "targeted quarantine and isolation for the infected individuals."

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Sailors and Marines Have 90 Days to Get Vaccinated or Face Punishment
Fat Leonard, the Malaysian businessman at the heart of a corruption scandal that has brought down numerous U.S. Navy officials, is set to tell all for the first time in a nine-part podcast series beginning Tuesday.

In a brief and breathless trailer for the podcast, Leonard Glenn Francis, who has pleaded guilty and is helping prosecutors in exchange for a possibly reduced sentence, brags: I had the Navy by their balls. I turned my torpedoes, my guns, against them because they betrayed me.

The specifics of that perceived betrayal will apparently be revealed as the podcast, titled Fat Leonard, unfolds. What the teaser makes clear, however, is that Francis is anything but contrite over his misdeeds.

Everybody was in my pocket, he says in the trailer. I had them in my palm. I was just rolling them around, he says with a chuckle.

Francis operated Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which contracted with the U.S. Navy to provide food, water, fuel, tugboats and sewage removal for ships and installations in the Pacific.

Francis began recruiting Navy personnel to direct contracts toward his company around 2006. He bribed them with money, luxury items and prostitutes in return for classified information about the movement of ships and submarines in Southeast Asia, and routinely overcharged or fabricated invoices.

He pleaded guilty in federal court in January 2015 and began cooperating with investigators. He has not yet been sentenced.

With nothing to lose, Leonard is sparing no details, touts the podcast trailer.

In the first episode, listeners will meet the 300-pound Francis, who will talk about a troubled childhood. Episode two begins with his launching of a career as a defense contractor at age 21.

The podcast is a joint production of PRX, a nonprofit media company that specializes in audio journalism and storytelling, and Project Brazen, a firm founded by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, former reporters at The Wall Street Journal.

Francis has not spoken publicly about the sprawling corruption case that has led to federal criminal charges of more than 30 people, including 10 commissioned Navy officers.

In September 2018, however, the San Diego Union-Tribune obtained a transcript of a deposition given by Francis in the just-concluded court-martial of Navy Cmdr. David Morales, who had been charged with conspiracy and bribery but found guilty only of violating lawful orders and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Francis in the deposition said he was suffering from kidney cancer, out of federal prison on a medical furlough and under home confinement in San Diego. He said he was counting on receiving a lesser sentence made possible by a cooperation agreement he entered with the U.S. Justice Department.

Earlier this month, retired Marine Corps Col. Enrico DeGuzman, 63, entered a plea deal and admitted accepting $67,000 in gourmet dining, gifts and stays at high-end hotels in exchange for steering business toward Francis.

The disgraced Marine is among nine military officers who were all charged in a 2017 federal indictment.

Among those officers was Robert Gorsuch, a retired Navy chief warrant officer, who pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to taking more than $45,000 in bribes in exchange for sharing classified ship schedules.

The remaining seven defendants  including a rear admiral who was once the 7th Fleet intelligence chief  are scheduled for trial in federal court in February.
DETROIT  A registered nurse from southeastern Michigan has been arrested Wednesday in the theft of COVID-19 vaccination record cards from a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

Vaccine lot numbers also were stolen to make the cards appear legitimate before they were sold for $150 to $200 each, according to the U.S. Attorneys office in Detroit.

Bethann Kierczak, 37, of Southgate was charged in a federal complaint with theft of government property and theft or embezzlement related to a health care benefit program.

The thefts began at least as early as May. Buyers primarily were found over social media.

A second Detroit-area resident also was arrested Wednesday in a scheme involving the sale or distribution of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards.

Rapheal Smiley, 32, of Detroit was charged with fraud involving department or agency seals, identity document fraud and trafficking in counterfeit goods, authorities said.

The fake cards allegedly were imported from China and advertised for sale over social media.

Regardless of whether an individual chooses to get vaccinated, we urge everyone to avoid turning to schemes like these to evade vaccination requirements, acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin said in a release. Importing these cards is a crime. Selling these cards is a crime.
Privacy is myth in India, because we do not have any law pertaining to it. The Supreme Court declaring privacy as a fundamental right is a good thing, but where is the law and the implementation to protect this so-called fundamental right? questioned advocate Dr Prashant Mali. While speaking at a webinar organised by Moneylife Foundation, the cyber law & cyber security expert, spoke in detail how one can protect oneself from online crimes and what steps you need to take to get justice.

In an enlightening talk, advocate Mali explained in detail how greed or bait act as base for increasing number of online frauds, and how we must be careful and vigilant abot becoming a victim to such a cybercrime.

Starting with the basics, advocate Mali first explained the difference between various cyber-attacks such as phishing, vishing (voice-based phishing), smishing (SMS based phishing) and spear phishing (targeted phishing).

Deriving from the word fishing, phishing is like its original word, in the way that there is a hook, a bait and you essentially are the fish. The hook can be an SMS, a WhatsApp message, a call or an email, which lures you in, while the bait could a lottery, income tax refund, a job or even free COVID vaccine, explained advocate Mali.

Speaking about vishing attacks, he explained how fraudsters calling from call centres, sweet talk people, especially senior citizens into revealing their personal identification (PIN) numbers, passwords, and bank details. Nowadays, with the advent of technology and the availability of leaked data on the internet, it has become relatively easy for fraudsters to lure people with rosy messages, including some personal information, which coupled with ones greed or unawareness can lead to a devastating incident of phishing.

Advocate Mali also briefly touched upon Olx-and Quickr-based scams, where a buyer or seller is defrauded by extracting money from bank accounts using an innocent looking link for unified payments interface (UPI). People, who are new to UPI based payments or online transactions, often fall victim to such frauds on platforms, which allow users to sell or buy second-hand products.

For example, many victims misunderstood the collect payment notification as receive payment. In UPI, one can transfer as well as receive payment from other users. Scamsters send pay requests, which transfer money directly into his account instead of the victim receiving any money.

The simple precaution to take in all such cases, according to advocate Mali is to mistrust everything and anything that you receive either on phone, SMS or email. Do not click on links, which you have received, unless you are certain of their source and validity, as you do not know where they lead.

Clicking on unsafe links on a mobile device can trigger hidden installation of files which transforms your device into a server, allowing the attacker direct access all information on your phone. It is also important to understand that banks will never call a customer and ask for their PIN number or OTP password. Such information should be kept confidential and never shared publicly either over phone or in a message, the cyber lawyer says.

Advocate Mali goes on to explain that if you do somehow become a victim of such online fraud, the first and foremost thing is to write down in detail the nature of the crime and the losses incurred due to it. Copies of this written incident report should be given to the bank when filing a complaint and also to the nearest police station, when filing a first information report (FIR), ensuring that an acknowledgment is received from both parties.

In case money has been transferred from your account to a mule account, do not panic but immediately rush to the nearest branch of your bank and speak to the branch manager. Force upon them the emergency of the situation and ask them to freeze the mule account immediately, said advocate Mali.

Freezing the mule account will help you recover the money faster, while the police are investigating or while you are filing a court case seeking return of property.

However, advocate Mali also commented that in India it becomes very difficult for a cybercrime complaint to be taken up through the proper channels, when the police sometimes are disinterested and even if the criminal is caught, they do not face severe punishment. According to him, deterrence will only occur when you put scamsters in jail, punish them and make an example of it. That is not happening as these people are getting bail and when they are free, they commit the same crime in an adjacent jurisdiction.

Advocate Mali also referred to a few websites, where people can submit suspicious links, emails, or incidents of phishing, so that some awareness is created and appropriate action might be taken to take down a website or page which performs phishing attacks. Using https://www.reportphishing.in , which is specific to the state of Maharashtra, victims or even people who suspect phishing scams can report such incidents through the online portal. The Central government equivalent of this site is https://cybercrime.gov.in , which serves as the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal.

Although these sites are useful, advocate Mali cautions that reporting on these sites does not mean that a police complaint or FIR is registered. These sites only forward your incident report to the nearest police station, from where it becomes the responsibility of that particular station to allocate resources and investigate the crime.

He stresses that in almost all cases, it is important to file a complaint directly with the nearest police station, rather than waiting for action after reporting incidents through online portals.

Video Recording of the Session:
This story was originally published by ProPublica.

Secret IRS records show billionaires use trusts that let them pass fortunes to their heirs without paying estate tax. Will Congress end a tax shelter that has cost the Treasury untold billions?

Its well known, at least among tax lawyers and accountants for the ultrawealthy: The estate tax can be easily avoided by exploiting a loophole unwittingly created by Congress three decades ago. By using special trusts, a rarefied group of Americans has taken advantage of this loophole, reducing government revenues and fueling inequality.

There is no way for the public to know who uses these special trusts aside from when theyve been disclosed in lawsuits or securities filings. Theres also been no way to quantify just how much in estate tax has been lost to them, though, in 2013, the lawyer who pioneered the use of the most common one  known as the grantor retained annuity trust, or GRAT  estimated they may have cost the U.S. Treasury about $100 billion over the prior 13 years.

As Congress considers cracking down on GRATs and other trusts to help fund President Joe Bidens domestic agenda, a new analysis by ProPublica based on a trove of tax information about thousands of the wealthiest Americans sheds light on just how widespread the use of special trusts to dodge the estate tax has become.

More than half of the nations 100 richest individuals have used GRATs and other trusts to avoid estate tax, the analysis shows. Among them: former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg; Leonard Lauder, the son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder; Stephen Schwarzman, a founder of the private equity firm Blackstone; Charles Koch and his late brother, David, the industrialists who have underwritten libertarian causes and funded lobbying efforts to roll back the estate tax; and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

(Powell Jobs Emerson Collective is among ProPublicas largest donors.)

More than a century ago amid soaring inequality and the rise of stratospherically wealthy families such as the Mellons and Rockefellers, Congress created the estate tax as a way to raise money and clip the fortunes of the rich at death. Lawmakers later added a gift tax as a means of stopping wealthy people from passing their fortunes on to their children and grandchildren before death. Nowadays, 99.9% of Americans never have to worry about these taxes. They only hit individuals passing more than $11.7 million, or couples giving more than $23.4 million, to their heirs. The federal government imposes a roughly 40% levy on amounts above those figures before that wealth is passed on to heirs.

For her part, Powell Jobs has decried as dangerous for a society the early 20th century fortunes of the Mellons, Rockefellers and others. Im not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that, she told The New York Times last year. Steve wasnt interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me.

Nonetheless, after the death of her husband in 2011, Powell Jobs used a series of GRATs to pass on around a half a billion dollars, estate-tax-free, to her children, friends and other family, according to the tax records and interviews with her longtime attorney. By using the GRATs, she avoided at least $200 million in estate and gift taxes.

Her attorney, Larry Sonsini, said Powell Jobs did this so that her children would have cash to pay estate taxes when she dies and they inherit nostalgic and hard assets, such as real estate, art and a yacht. (At 260 feet, Venus is among the larger pleasure ships in the world.) Without the $500 million or so passed through the trusts, he said, Powell Jobs heirs would have to sell stock that she intends to give to charity to pay her estate tax bill.

Sonsini said Powell Jobs, whose fortune is pegged at $21 billion by Forbes, has already given billions away to charity and paid $2.5 billion in state and federal taxes between 2012 and 2020. When you look at an estate that may be worth multiple billions, and all the rest is going to charity, and you put it in perspective, what is the problem were worried about here? Sonsini asked. This is not about creating dynasty wealth for these kids.

In a written statement, Powell Jobs said she supports reforms that make the tax code more fair. Through my work at Emerson Collective and philanthropic commitments, I have dedicated my life and assets to the pursuit of a more just and equitable society.

Others whose special trusts ProPublica identified, including Bloomberg and the Kochs, declined to comment on why theyd set up the trusts or their estate-tax implications. Representatives for Lauder didnt respond to requests to accept questions on his behalf. Schwarzmans spokesperson wrote that he is one of the largest individual taxpayers in the country and fully complies with all tax rules.
We had mentioned in Tuesdays closing report that Nifty, Sensex may continue to be under pressure. On Wednesday, the indices opened lower and closed with minor losses. On the NSE, there were 1,145 advances, 865 declines and 4 unchanged.

The trend of the major indices on Wednesdays trading are given in the table below:

Godrej Properties has entered into an agreement to redevelop a land parcel in Wadala, Mumbai. Spread across 7.5 acres, this project will offer approximately 1.6 million square feet of saleable area comprising primarily of residential apartments of various configurations, as per the company's press release.

HDFC AMC promoter Standard Life Investments is likely to sell 5% stake consisting of 1.06 crore equity shares in HDFC Asset Management Company via open market transaction.

Blue Star plans to invest around Rs 550 crore over the next few years for setting up a greenfield manufacturing unit at Sri City, in Andhra Pradesh

BLS International won a contract with Embassy of Italy in Russia for visa processing for a period of 5 years in partnership.

Atul Auto has started commercial production at Bhayla plant for manufacturing three wheeler automobiles.

Jaypee Group-owned Andhra Cements' consortium of creditors plan to start anew the debt resolution process at the distressed company after receiving poor response from bidders to their first attempt to sell the asset, according to moneycontrol.

DB Realty has acquired additional equity in Neelkamal Realtors Tower Pvt. Ltd making it wholly owned unit of DB realty.

Morepen Laboratories shareholders have approved to shift its medical devices business into a newly incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary.

Piramal Enterprises completed payment for the acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), marking the first successful resolution under the IBC route in the financial services sector.

SVP Global Ventures will be foraying into technical textiles by investing around Rs 100 crore in setting up a 4,375 MT per annum green-field facility at Jhalawar, Rajasthan.

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below:

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below:
Read: Farmer Protest Perspective: The Fight Is No Longer between the Good and the Bad, but between the Corrupt and the Rapacious ). The farmers called for a Bharat Bandh on 27 September 2021. It was largely successful. What is amazing is that, despite the brute force with which the government tried to break the farm protests, the farmers remain defiant. They want the three farm laws repealed (

The Narendra Modi government cussedly refuses to do so. The Supreme Court has stepped in and has stayed the operation of the three laws. In all probability, the laws will be struck down by the Supreme Court, or they will be repealed just before the next national elections.

Too much is at stake for the farmers.

The trouble is that the farmers themselves do not know why the laws must be repealed. In fact, many of the farmer leaders may not like this article  and most certainly politicians across party lines too. The truth is that most farmers have been used and abused.

Despite platitudes, most politicians do not want small farmers to become financially independent. That would reduce their ability to entice farmers with doles.

Exploitation

The first two tables tell the story of how little the farmers earn. The first table gives farmer incomes state-wise. The most privileged are the politically well-connected and cossetted states of Punjab and Haryana. The most progressive are cash crop growers like those who grow spices and rubber (and even sugarcane, but more on this later). That can explain (largely) why farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Kerala remain wealthier than farmers elsewhere.

States like Maharashtra and Karnataka have encouraged sugarcane growers, who get better returns than other farmers. In Maharashtra, however, even though there is less water, governments have permitted sugarcane acreage to increase by over 125% between 1990 and 2020. So, other crops were denied water and irrigation.

But Uttar Pradesh (UP) has seen the worst exploitation of farmers. They are not allowed to form cooperatives  either for milk or for sugarcane. For milk, the farmer gets around Rs10 per litre less than his counterparts in other states. This is despite UP being the largest milk producer in the country.

Last week, the UP government, possibly with an eye on state elections, agreed to give the farmers Rs25 per quintal more for the sugar-cane growth. Even this is a pittance. The political setup in UP prefers keeping the farmers on doles so that their votes could be captured.

The second chart is about how little the farmers earn. As this table from NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) shows, the farmer earns quite a bit working as quite a bit working as a wage-labourer. That is more remunerative than cultivating his own field. Wage labour contributed to almost half the total household income. The second chart is about how little the farmers earn. As this table from NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) shows, the farmer earns quite a bit working as quite a bit working as a wage-labourer. That is more remunerative than cultivating his own field. Wage labour contributed to almost half the total household income.

And do bear in mind that this is the average for all farmers. If small farmers were to be classified separately, the figures for cultivation would become half the figures shown here.

Small farmers  who comprise almost 80% of all farmers  were brutalised.

Watch the earnings from livestock. Even a single cow can generate profit (all income less expenses) of Rs100 daily for 300 days a year, provided it is given decent cattle feed. That should have generated an income of Rs2,500-Rs3,000 per month.

Read: Who is Responsible for Keeping Farmers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Poor? ) But, as said earlier, UPs farmers get among the lowest milk prices. (

Rice and Wheat

The three farm laws talk about farmers selling to mandis and commodity markets. But they keep silent on the Union governments wheat and rice procurement policies. Much of the rice and wheat procurement  the only crops procured by the government year after year  clearly favour Punjab and Haryana (see chart). The three farm laws talk about farmers selling to mandis and commodity markets. But they keep silent on the Union governments wheat and rice procurement policies. Much of the rice and wheat procurement  the only crops procured by the government year after year  clearly favour Punjab and Haryana (see chart).

On paper, the governments arm, the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which oversees procurement of rice and wheat, does this work in partnership with other state procurement agencies.

One thing becomes quite clear when you look at the figures  which are the average annual figures for the period between 2014-15 to 2019-20.

Farmers in Punjab could ensure that over 85% of its rice and 69% of its wheat got picked up by government procurement agencies. Similarly, farmers in Haryana saw 78% of their rice and 67% of their wheat being procured.

Since rice and wheat procurement prices have gone up year after year without fail, these farmers faced little market price risk. In fact, the prices in India are higher than international prices. So, farmers in these two states, who are extremely well-aligned politically, have little to worry about  free water, subsidised electricity, remunerative and guaranteed prices.

Marginal farmers in Punjab and Haryana may get left out. But overall, the farmers there are a pampered lot.

Many farmers in these states are known to cheat, despite these benefits. They will persuade the procurement officers to purchase their crop as A-grade grain, even if it is B- or C-grade. The officials usually do so after their palms have been greased.

That is why FCI allows the grain to rot outside the warehouses so that audit of the grain procured is never possible.

Too Little Storage, Too Much Procurement

There is another problem which procurement officials see as an advantage. There is little storage capacity and too much procurement.

Consider the two tables that follow. One is the estimated storage capacity in India. Unfortunately, the government has not given out the latest figures and the figures in the chart have been culled mainly from data collated in 2011.

The next chart is about WDRA approved storage  possibly incremental storage  as of 2011. The next chart is about WDRA approved storage  possibly incremental storage  as of 2011. The WDRA (the Warehousing Development Regulations Act) was promulgated in 2010

The three laws enacted by the Union government do not talk about improving warehousing  critical for the preservation of farm crops  whether they are grains or vegetables and fruit.

All crops require warehouses  and different kinds of crops need different temperature and humidity controls for them. In fact, the government has kept silent about warehouses and has not breathed a word about strengthening the WDRA which is in charge of ensuring that every farmers produce is picked up.

The idea was to have a warehouse 5km or 10km from almost every farm. This way, the farmer could deposit his produce in the designated warehouse  depending on the crop he grows. At times, the farmer would grow the crop which the warehouse could pick up in his neighbourhood.

The warehouse evaluates the crop, grades it and gives the farmer a dematerialised warehouse receipt. The farmer takes this receipt to the bank and can encash it, based on prices ruling on commodity exchanges.

The WDRA was meant to break the need for mandis to be the sellers but saw their role primarily as aggregators. It decentralised the farming business into professional roles, reducing the need for political intermediaries. The WDRA was meant to break the need for mandis to be the sellers but saw their role primarily as aggregators. It decentralised the farming business into professional roles, reducing the need for political intermediaries.

The three farm Bills do not touch that.

Now look at the numbers. India produced around 111 million tonnes of rice each year (average) and around 98 million tonnes of wheat (average). Together, they account for over 210 million tonnes.

Now, compare these numbers with the storage capacity.

Unfortunately, the WDRA does not reply to emails, or provide clear figures about the state of warehousing in the country. But a document of 2010 shows that as of 10 July 2020, the WDRA had registered warehouses with a combined capacity of 95,07,621 tonnes (or 9.5 million tonnes).

Yet another document gives the figure of 14 million (see chart). Even if one takes the higher figure, the combined storage of 63 million tonnes, added to 14 million tonnes, would give the country barely 80 million tonnes.

So, you have grain production at 200 million tonnes and storage at just 80 million tonnes of rice and wheat. Procurement (hence, guaranteed prices) accounts for only 30%-35% of this quantity. So, 65% of the crop must be sold at distressed prices. The middleman is well in control. Political favouritism continues as before. In fact, as production volumes of rice and wheat have increased this year as well, the power of playing favourites becomes more potent.

The government does not dare use market mechanisms to reduce production volumes. It dares not tax water or electricity to wean farmers away from rice and wheat. It is, thus, leading farmers up a cliff till there is no going further. This must stop.

New Laws Needed

To make agriculture healthier, it needs to do many things. None of them is addressed by the three farm laws.

1. It must wean away farmers from rice and wheat production.

2. It must take all the warehouses (of FCI, SWCs and CWC) and put them with the WDRA. That will enable the WDRA to decide which warehouse is best suited for which crop.

3. All procurement by the FCI and state procurement agencies must now be done through the commodity markets. That will ensure that all farmers get an equal opportunity to sell their grain through commodity markets. To protect prices, the government may purchase grain from commodity markets and then give them to the FCI and state procurement agencies for distribution to public distribution shops (PDS) or ration stores. The procurement by the government creates a benchmark pricing that middlemen will have to accept; otherwise, they will lose their farmer customers who will sell to warehouses and through commodity exchanges instead.

4. Permitting contract farming without giving farmers the right to lease out their land can drive them from the village middleman to corporate middlemen like Reliance, Adani, or ITC. The small farmer may be wooed initially; but, as has happened in most countries, large organisations often compel farmers to sell their produce at low prices. The farmer must have a way out.

One way out is to allow him to lease out his land to a bigger player. This way, the farmer gets a minimum rent equal to or more than the value of his cultivation each month. He will continue to augment it with wage labour. But he retains ownership of his land which he does not want to lose. When he feels confident enough, he will resume farming. Give the farmer a choice to produce independently, or produce on contract, or give his farm on lease for at least five years. The other party needs this time span because it must first improve the land and make the required investments. That will take around a year to do so. It will then try to recoup the cost of investments in the remaining four years. This way, big players can bring in technology (hydroponics is one good example -- https://asiaconverge.com/2018/06/hydroponics-could-be-the-future-of-farming/ ). Small farmers cannot make such investments which can make even small farms profitable.

5. Focus on Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) as aggregators, which can collect small quantities from many small farmers and sell large quantities to warehouses that act as super aggregators for onward sale through commodity exchanges. Most importantly, set up super FPOs  like a federation  for each crop so that they can then, like Amul, set up (directly by themselves or in association with private parties) processing and marketing facilities. Eventually, as Dr Verghese Kurien often said, the farmer is the most crucial player in the food chain and, therefore, his profit must be the largest. The government has forgotten the relevance of that vision.

6. Under no circumstances must the government procure grain or agricultural crop directly from farmers. Just as the government has made assessments faceless for the income tax department, it must make procurement faceless and only through commodity markets.

7. Give the WDRA more powers and time-bound targets.

8. Mandate a minimum statutory price for milk so that farmers from Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere do not suffer. Allow agricultural subsidies and grants to be transferred from the Union government to the states only for cooperatives, not to state government departments.

9. Reduce the acreage of sugarcane in water-starved regions like Maharashtra.

These are things that the three laws dont do.

At present, the three laws tinker with agricultural produce so that state politicians are cut off from milking farmers. Still, the Union government is permitted to reward politically aligned farmers who grow rice and wheat.

This allows the Centre to make money and dispense favours, yet attempting to emasculate state political parties. This one-sided approach will just not do.

The three laws must therefore go.

(The author is a senior journalist)
OPEC sees oil demand continuing to grow to the middle of next decade, even as world leaders prepare for another attempt to avert catastrophic climate change.

Global fuel consumption will fully recover from its pandemic slump by 2023, and will keep growing until it hits a plateau shortly after 2035, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest long-term report. The forecasts suggest scant expectation that the COP26 conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in just over four weeks will culminate in a quick pivot from fossil fuels.

"There are still considerable doubts as to whether all these ambitious climate-mitigation commitments will be met in the proposed timeframe," the organization's Vienna-based secretariat said. The group's members include the biggest Middle East crude producers.

Global oil demand suffered an unprecedented slump last year as travel and economic activity were curbed by efforts to battle the coronavirus. OPEC forecasts that consumption will rebound above 100 million barrels a day in 2023, and continue to advance to 107.9 million a day in 2035. The projections are little changed from last year's report.

OPEC's World Oil Outlook, published on Tuesday, echoes comments from group leader Saudi Arabia earlier this year that hopes to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 by slashing fossil fuel investments are a "La La Land" fantasy. While the report acknowledges that renewables are the fastest growing energy source, it projects they will account for just 10% of the world's needs in 2045.

Before the current energy crunch that's helped drive Brent crude above $80 a barrel and European natural gas prices to record highs, OPEC had started gradually restoring the output that it shuttered when the pandemic erupted last year. It expects to be a beneficiary of the coming revival in fuel use.

The oil industry is at a critical juncture. Some energy companies and traders say the lack of spending on fossil fuel projects amid the fight against climate change will result in a supply shock, potentially driving oil prices even higher. On the other hand, governments, society and investors are pushing companies to produce cleaner fuels.

Made up 13 nations that rely on petroleum sales to fund their budgets, OPEC is hardly a neutral observer. Others in the oil market, like the International Energy Agency and TotalEnergies, expect demand will hit a limit earlier, somewhere around the end of this decade.

Demand for OPEC's combined crude oil and condensate supplies will climb from last year's 30.7 million barrels a day to 42.7 million in 2045, according to the report. Its share of world oil markets will expand from 33% currently to 39% by that year. However, the organization gave no separate projections for its crude production -- the component it uses to balance world supply and demand.

The group expects to initially face some competition from its key rival, the U.S. shale industry. American tight oil output will increase from last year's average of 11.5 million barrels a day to 14.8 million in 2026. But OPEC expects that growth in shale will taper off toward the end of the next decade, clearing the way for the organization.

"The burden is expected to be on OPEC members to provide much of the oil to meet the world's needs," it said in the report.
LONDON (AP)  Britain's royals joined Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux and the cast of "No Time to Die" on the red carpet for the new Bond film's world premiere Tuesday, a glittering event that marked the movie's release after multiple delays caused by the pandemic.

The film, the 25th in the long-running series and Craig's last outing as 007, was initially due to be released in April 2020.

Craig, who turned up for the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall in a pink velvet dinner jacket, told reporters how relieved he was that the film was finally making its way to cinemas.

A year ago, this was just a dream. It didnt look like wed get here. But we have and Im just happy that were here and we can celebrate with everybody, he said.

Seydoux echoed the sense of relief, saying: "Its been such a crazy time for all of us. And now to celebrate, you know, with this film, to reunite. And its great. Im really happy.

Craig, 53, has played the suave secret agent in five movies, beginning with Casino Royale in 2006.

Asked how he felt about saying goodbye to the role, he said: I'm good. Im really good about it. As for who would be his successor, he simply quipped: Not my problem.

Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Prince William and his wife Kate the Duchess of Cambridge made a rare joint appearance at the premiere, and Kate stole the show with a sparkling gold cape dress by designer Jenny Packham.

Actor Rami Malek, who joins the franchise as villain Safin, later met the royals. He was joined by Lashana Lynch, who plays the first Black female 00 agent Nomi, and Naomie Harris, who returns as Moneypenny.

Health care workers and members of Britain's armed forces were among those invited to Tuesday's premiere in thanks for their work during the pandemic.

The film will be released in U.K. cinemas on Sept. 30.
Hamp Team Real Estate

Calling all die-hard Houston Astros fanatics: Former Astro George Springers house is about to hit the market and it could be yours, if you have a couple million dollars lying around.

The Astros' 2017 World Series MVP recently listed his Missouri City home for $1.8 million, marking the final note of the outfielder's departure from Houston. After nearly seven seasons in the Bayou City, Springer signed a six-year, $150 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in January 2021.
GLENDALE, Ky. (AP)  When Ford revealed plans to ramp up its commitment to the fledgling electric vehicle sector, the automaker chose to create thousands of jobs and pump billions in investments into two states where Republican leaders have vilified the push for green energy and defended fossil fuels.

Teaming with its battery partner, SK Innovation of South Korea, Ford said Monday it will spend $5.6 billion in Stanton, Tennessee, where it will build a factory to produce electric F-Series pickups. A joint venture called BlueOvalSK will construct a battery factory on the same site near Memphis, plus twin battery plants in Glendale, Kentucky. Ford estimated the Kentucky investment at $5.8 billion. The single largest manufacturing venture in the iconic company's history will create an estimated 10,800 jobs.

Choosing Tennessee and Kentucky for the coveted mega-projects created an ironic disconnect between the automaker's high-stakes bet on the future of battery-powered vehicles and the rhetoric from many Republican leaders who have railed against a shift toward green energy and away from fossil fuels.

On Monday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell applauded Ford for giving an economic boost to Kentucky, saying it solidified his home state's position as a world-class automotive state on the cutting edge of research and development. McConnell sounded a different theme two months earlier, when he took to the Senate floor to blast Democrats for wanting to wage war on fossil fuels and tried to turn their efforts to promote electric vehicles into a wedge issue.

They want to further expand giant tax credit giveaways for costly electric cars  when 80% of it is going to households earning six figures and up, McConnell said in July. They also want money and mandates to push the entire federal government fleet toward electric cars, too. Wouldn't you just love to see an IRS auditor pull up to your tax audit in a $97,000 Tesla?

In Kentucky, where Republican state lawmakers recently joined Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in approving an incentives package credited with helping lure the battery project to Glendale, hostility toward green energy has focused on the decline of coal production and the erosion of good-paying mining jobs in regions that depended on them. The battery plants will be built in central Kentucky, a lengthy drive from the coalfields of eastern and western Kentucky.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who tweeted out his thanks to Ford for its latest investment in the state, routinely lambastes the Green New Deal. In 2019, he condemned it as an industry-killing, all-out assault on our way of life in Kentucky and an attack on automobile makers.

Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn said the project will transform the landscape of West Tennessee. Last month, in explaining her vote against a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, she said much of the legislation amounted to a gateway to socialism  a lot of Green New Deal in there. She said that Tennesseans dont want the Green New Deal.

Scott Jennings, a Kentuckian and former adviser to Republican President George W. Bush, said Tuesday that politicians generally support economic development however they can get it.

And as for Republicans, at least most of us, we support markets, he said. And if the market bears the production of electric vehicles then I dont think anyone will see this as an affront to their culture or energy heritage. Theres still a role for coal and other fossil fuels in this world ... and this plant wont change that. I've always viewed conservatives as being for all of the above energy strategies and this certainly fits that slogan.

Beshear, who led the push that landed the state's single largest economic development project ever with the Glendale battery production project, said the private sector is leading the conversion toward green jobs.

And so everybody else is going to have to get on board, Beshear told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "But let me say, theres a big difference between theoretical arguments that go on in Washington, D.C., and the prospect of thousands of jobs here at home.

Ford picked the Kentucky and Tennessee sites in part because of lower electricity costs, CEO Jim Farley said, as well as being less exposed to flooding and hurricanes than other states. Battery factories use five times the electricity of a typical assembly plant to make cells and assemble them into packs, so energy costs were a big factor, Farley said.

In an interview Monday, Farley said workers at the Tennessee and Kentucky plants will decide whether they want to be represented by the United Auto Workers union. It's common for political leaders in both states to actively campaign against unionization.

At the Tennessee news conference Tuesday, UAW President Ray Curry told The Associated Press that the union has a long history with Ford and he's optimistic about organizing the battery factories and assembly plant.

He conceded that there's no agreement at present between the union and Ford for the Tennessee site.

Both Kentucky and Tennessee have right to work laws, which stop companies and unions from signing contracts that require workers to pay union dues. Tennessee voters will decide next year on a constitutional amendment enshrining right to work and making it harder to repeal. Curry said the amendment doesn't complicate matters with Ford.

Asked if he thought Ford located plants in Tennessee to avoid the union, Curry replied: absolutely not.

In Glendale, a tiny community ringed by corn and soybean fields about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Louisville, residents seemed ready to embrace the newfound ties to the green energy movement and the fight against climate change.

Thats good for my grandkids, said Wayne Noe, a farmer and retired union carpenter.

Laura Tabb said it's fantastic that Ford's arrival will hoist Glendale onto the "cutting edge of a green technology. She said the fight against climate change shouldn't be a political issue.

Everyone should be on board with trying to save the planet," she said. Who doesnt want to save the planet? If youre opposed to measures that will help make things greener, youre on the wrong side of history.

Adam Lobert, who was in Glendale at the end of a biking excursion and who lives in nearby Elizabethtown, said he could get behind battery-powered vehicles, but objected to the government boosting EVs by dangling tax credits.

As a self-professed small government guy, he said: I think battery-powered cars are a wonderful idea. ... But theyve got to stand on their own.

___

Krisher reported from Detroit and Sainz from Stanton, Tennessee.
MIAMI (AP)  City of Miami commissioners held a special meeting in which they attacked the chief of police less than six months into his post, and voted to further investigate him and his appointment.

Police chief Art Acevedo had been criticized after firing two high-level police officials and relieving of duty a sergeant-at-arms. Acevedo also angered Cuban exiles earlier this month when reports emerged of remarks made by him saying the Cuban mafia ran Miami.

The Cuban-born chief apologized for the comments made to officers and said he didnt know that was a term former Cuban leader Fidel Castro used to refer to exiles, arguing he was raised in California. Three of the five city commissioners are Cuban-American.

On Friday, Acevedo sent an accusatory eight-page memo to the mayor and city manager saying those commissioners were hampering his efforts to reform the police department by eliminating positions and interfering with internal affairs investigations. Commissioners on Monday said these allegations would also be investigated by the committee they were forming.

At the special meeting on Monday, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo spent hours reading from a document that outlined instances where Acevedo was allegedly reprimanded in the past. He also questioned whether the city manager knew whether Acevedo had political aspirations.

At one point, Carollo played a video showing Acevedo entering the dance floor of a fundraiser to dance the cha-cha-cha and slapping a womans rear with a piece of paper, and another video of him impersonating Elvis Presley dancing the Jailhouse Rock in the iconic white jumpsuit.

The pants are so tight. Is this something you believe is appropriate for a police chief? Carollo said.

The Miami police union said this weekend that an internal survey showed many officers were not confident with his leadership and wanted Acevedos ouster or resignation.

Acevedo, 57, came to Miami after serving more than four years as police chief in Houston, where he gained national prominence by calling for gun control, marching with protesters after George Floyds death and criticizing former President Donald Trump.

Miami city mayor Francis Suarez then called him Americas best chief. And Acevedo vowed to reform the department, acknowledging communities of color are disproportionately impacted by bad policing. Suarez was not present at the commission meeting.

Ten years ago, city commissioners voted to oust a police chief, citing he violated orders about personnel moves. Miguel Exposito had drawn criticism over the fatal police shootings of seven Black suspects and had defended them saying they were part of a crackdown on high-crime neighborhoods.
CHICAGO (AP)  A historian devoted to keeping alive the stories of long-dead victims of racial violence along the Texas-Mexico border and a civil rights activist whose mission is to make sure people who leave prison are free to walk into the voting booth are among this years MacArthur fellows and recipients of genius grants.

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Tuesday announced the 25 recipients, who will each receive $625,000.

The historian and the activist are part of an eclectic group that includes scientists, economists, poets, and filmmakers. As in previous years, the work of several recipients involves topics that have been dominating the news  from voting rights to how history is taught in schools. Race figures prominently in the work of about half of them.

Overlooked populations also show up  from the art historian who shines a light on the visual art created by people who are behind bars to the blind researcher developing devices to help the visually impaired access technologies and digital information.

The selection process for the MacArthur grants is shrouded in secrecy. Instead of applications, anonymous groups make nominations and recommendations to the foundations board of directors.

COVID-19 was clearly on their minds. It comes up in the work of no fewer than four recipients, including a computational biologist building tools to track and forecast viruses and a physician-economist working to better communicate the need for the COVID-19 vaccine to communities that distrust medical institutions.

As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us re-imagine whats possible, said Cecilia Conrad, the foundations managing director of fellows.

Much of what is going on, from the COVID-19 pandemic to efforts in the U.S. to alter the way elections are held and the way students are taught in school, has added a sense of urgency to this year's awards, some recipients said.

There is clearly an organized effort by some people who dont want history to be learned, said Monica Munoz Martinez, a historian at the University of Texas, Austin, pointing to efforts in some states to limit how teachers discuss racism. Martinez was recognized, in part because of her book The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas," about a period a century ago when hundreds Mexicans and Mexican Americans were slaughtered by vigilantes as well as the Texas Rangers.

This award is so timely for me, personally ... to remain committed to make sure the public has access to the truth, true history, even when it is troubling (and) especially when that history can help us build a better future, she said.

Desmond Meade, who led a campaign that resulted in the passage of a measure in Florida that restored the voting rights of felons who have served their sentences, said the recognition  and the money  will help him continue his work to help former prison inmates. Meade's effort had a setback last year when a federal appellate court upheld the position of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-led Legislature that Florida felons must pay all fines before regaining their right to vote.

Meade noted that he struggled with drug addiction and homelessness and has served time in prison himself.

The country needs to see stories of triumph and everyday regular people who are impacting their communities, he said. This (genius grant) means that each and everyone in this country has the capacity to do something great."
NEW YORK (AP)  Destiny hangs over the characters of the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, but none more so than its creator.

David Chase revolutionized television with his monumental mob opera led by James Gandolfinis Tony Soprano, ushering in a new era of ambition on the small screen. But what Chase has really always wanted to do is make movies.

That was my whole goal. Its been that way my whole life, says Chase, who nevertheless spent his career in TV (The Rockford Files, Ill Fly Away) before creating The Sopranos. Film, cinema. Film, cinema.

Theres something about TV that will always for me have this kind of cheesy image, he continues. Its all about advertising, I guess. Thats really all it was for how many years  a machine to deliver sales pitches. It will always have that feeling. But theoretically, the television apparatus can beam anything to you. Great stuff. Things people havent even dreamed of yet. But what it was used for was Pampers commercials.

Since The Sopranos cut to black, Chase made one earlier film, the underrated 2012 rock-and-roll coming-of-age tale Not Fade Away, a movie that made explicit the connection music has to his filmmaking. Now, he's back with The Many Saints of Newark, with the added irony that because of Warner Bros.' strategy shift during the pandemic, the movie will be playing on HBO Max in addition to theaters when it opens Friday. Its tempting to quote The Godfather Part III: Just when you think youre out.

When I was in film school in 1969, 70, my friends and I would sit around getting high, says Chase. Wed talk about: 'You know, someday, man, movies are going to come into your house. Wouldnt that be cool?' Well, its not that cool. You're better off seeing them in the theater.

But big screen or not, why would Chase, 76, return to the world he so emphatically concluded? He seemed to leave The Sopranos behind for good at Holstens restaurant, an ending Sopranos co-writer Matthew Weiner called the TV equivalent of smashing your guitar.

I needed it, Chase explains over Zoom. I guess I personally needed it. I dont mean financially. I just needed it. I wanted to work on something that I knew was going to get produced.

Fourteen years after Journey sounded the final notes of The Sopranos, Chase has returned to North Jersey  partly out of necessity, partly because he still likes writing these characters. The Many Saints of Newark, though, rewinds The Sopranos to late 60s, early 70s Newark and a different generation of New Jersey mafiosos.

There are many familiar, if younger faces: Corrado Junior Soprano (Corey Stoll), Livia Soprano (Vera Farmiga), Silvio Dante (John Magaro) among them. But the lead role is a fresh one: Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti, the mythically spoken of father to Christopher Moltisanti (here just a baby). Dickie takes a teenage Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini, son of James) under his wing.

Davids one word of advice for me when we started shooting was: Dont pay any attention to what anyone says about Dickie in the series because theyre all liars, says Nivola.

While there are countless connections and callbacks to The Sopranos, fans will likely be surprised how much of The Many Saints of Newark uncovers new narrative territory. It's set against the fiery backdrop of racial unrest in Newark, and the tumult of the era. Leslie Odom Jr. co-stars in a pivotal role.

Lawrence Konner and I wanted to make a gangster movie. We didnt want to make an origin story, says Chase. In fact, I didnt know what origin story meant. I hadnt heard the term until we got into the marketing of this movie. 

After writing the film with Konner, Chase intended to direct before health issues forced him to appeal to Sopranos veteran Alan Taylor. Since helming a number of Sopranos episodes, Taylor moved on to shows like Game of Thrones and the big-budget spectacles Thor: The Dark World and Terminator Genisys." He was eager to return to a more familiar fiction world.

Its a certain mindset, a certain set of questions, a certain attitude toward human psychology. It feels like all the same things that drove the show are driving this movie, says Taylor. The way I understand this whole movie is that every character is trying to rewrite their destiny. Every character is trying to not be the character theyre told they have to be.

Whats perhaps most exciting about The Many Saints of Newark is how much it rekindles the storytelling grammar of The Sopranos: family sketched against an American backdrop; an old movie (Key Largo) playing momentarily in the background; the sometimes shattering music queues. Chase and Taylor elected for a soundtrack without score, with Gil Scott-Heron figuring prominently.

And while the film, like the show, is full of violence and genre convention, there is again, in Dickie Moltinsanti and others, the existential melancholy of trying to break free of family DNA, of trying to outrun your own demons, of trying  maybe vainly  to find something worth clinging to.

Ive read things that said The Sopranos got darker and darker, says Chase. Did it? I dont know. 9/11 had happened, so I guess it got darker. I was talking with someone the other day who said Jim may have gotten darker as things went on. All of that may be true. But what the show was about is: There is always a human connection and a humane connection, even if it might be terribly thin.

Chase had for years resisted entreaties for a Sopranos sequel, something that became a near-impossibility when James Gandolfini died in 2013. He's never been one for nostalgia. (Tony Soprano himself once said: 'Remember when is the lowest form of conversation.") In shaping a prequel, though, Chase struggled to cast a young Tony Soprano until he remembered that Gandolfinis son, now 22, had begun devoting himself to acting.

After three auditions, Chase cast Michael Gandolfini to play a younger, softer version of the character his father made iconic. By then, the decision seemed fated.

Being in this world, playing this character, it connected me to my dad as an actor  actor to actor, says Michael Gandolfini. Guessing what he went through and understanding a little more went he went through for nine years, and being really proud of him for that.

For Nivola, the project's scope only unfolded after he auditioned. His initial scenes were cloaked in typical Sopranos secrecy, with names altered and no sense that Dickie was even the main character. That only dawned on Nivola a few weeks after meeting with Chase and Taylor, when the script was emailed during a flight.

By the time I landed, I realized this was a much bigger deal than I thought, says Nivola. That was the moment I realized this was potentially the role that Ive been waiting for the 25 years of my film career.

The Many Saints of Newark could spawn sequels of its own. Will it? I dont know says Chase. He now finds himself surrounded and a bit overwhelmed by the small-screen landscape he helped build. Mostly, he doesn't keep up. He liked The Queens Gambit but most shows dont hook him, he says. Chase instead watches old movies on the Criterion Channel. Contemporary mainstream movies, he sees as much dumbed down.

Yeah, its fine to see superheroes and that, but were living in a cartoon universe. Except were not, says Chase, who says he spent the Donald Trump presidency glued to television news. Theres something else going on that were not seeing.

But its also clear that Chase still yearns for the big screen, even if his chances have been few and far between. Hes working on a script hed like to direct. He hasnt quite made his peace with being forever identified with television. But hell take it.

I mean, yeah. What are you going to do about it? says Chase. Its not the worst thing that ever happened.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Temperatures more common to summer are teaming up with low humidity and a lack of rain to create ideal conditions for unwanted fires, according to weather experts.

It has been pretty dry for this time of year, said Nicole Batzek, National Weather Service meteorologist.

The weather service recently issued an elevated fire danger warning for west-central Illinois, urging people to be cautious with anything flammable.

You definitely dont want to be throwing cigarette butts out of the car window, Batzek said.

As a standard gauge, the weather service issues such a warning when humidity is at 25% or less, winds are above 25 mph and the 10-hour fuel moisture is below 7%. Those factors give an indication of how much moisture likely is in shrubs and grass.

Dry conditions could turn shrubs and grass into fuel for fire and make a blaze spread.

As of Tuesday afternoon, humidity in west-central Illinois was at 36% with calm wind speeds, unlike Monday.

We had high winds (Monday), so that was a concern, Batzek said.

With fall a prime season for campfires and backyard bonfires, the weather service offered these tips:

 Keep an eye on the weather, particularly drought conditions.

 Build a campfire or place a fire pit in an open location far from flammable items.

 Extinguish your fire completely before leaving.

 Douse your fire until its cold.

Other suggestions to prevent unplanned fires are to:

 Keep vehicles off of dry grass.

 Regularly maintain equipment such as generators and vehicles.

 Keep sparks away from dry vegetation.

 If burning debris, make sure wind speeds are low.

 If using fireworks, check weather conditions and with your local fire department or city to see if there are any bans on non-professional fireworks.

The National Weather Service is monitoring conditions in the area for conditions; heavy rains that would help ease dry foliage are not in the forecast.
STAUNTON  After 77 years, Staff Sgt. Willard R. Best is home.

The Illinois native was a flower grower when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Corps on March 15, 1943, in Peoria.

The top turret gunner was among thousands of U.S. airmen on a massive Aug. 24, 1944, mission  a bombing raid to disrupt the Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie refinery, which was considered a major military target. According to Air Force records, 28 combat wings were assigned to drop nearly 3,000 tons of explosives.

Among those who took to the skies were members of the Army Air Forces 407th Bombardment Squadron. Their B-17 was hit by from behind by an ME-109 over Merseburg, Germany. The four-engine aircraft known as the Flying Fortress exploded and crashed.

Best, who was 24, was among five crew members who died; three of them were buried in Leipzig-Lindenthal Cemetery. Four others survived and were captured, according to records from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

He was a decorated soldier, receiving the Air Medal, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Army President Unit Citation and Army Good Conduct Medal either while in service or posthumously.

Years after the wars end, the three sets of remains buried in Germany were disinterred. One set was identified as bombardier Daniel P. Giove, but two of the three could not be identified, according to American Graves Registration Command records.

The unidentified remains were reburied in Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium, and Bests name was inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing.

On Sept. 3, 2019, Bests remains were positively identified by the U.S. Department of Defense. By the time arrangements could be made to return him to his hometown of Staunton, however, COVID-19 had started ravaging the world and delayed the efforts.

Until Friday.

Under the direction of Williamson Funeral Homes in Staunton, Best was honored with a military funeral that started with a procession through the city. Escorted by the Illinois Patriot Guard, the processional traveled along streets lined with those who turned out to show their respect, from fifth-graders in Staunton Elementary Schools Patriot Club to those who had heard about it as word spread in the Macoupin County city of 5,066.

Charles D. Dugger of Williamson Funeral Homes said they were honored to serve the family of Willard Best.

Best is survived by a son, Willard Dick Best of Decatur, three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren, as well as several nieces in Staunton, Gillespie and Springfield.

Bests final resting place is in Memorial Park Cemetery.

At the Tablets of the Missing, a small rosette has been placed next to Bests name, signifying a soldiers remains have been accounted for.

Staff Sgt. Willard R. Best is home.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  More than 75% of Maine's population that is age 20 and older is now fully vaccinated against coronavirus, the state's public health agency reported on Wednesday.

Maine has one of the highest rates of vaccination for COVID-19 in the country. About 65% of the state's total population is fully vaccinated. The nationwide rate is closer to 55%.

Despite the high rate of vaccination in the state, Maine is dealing with an early fall surge of new cases of the virus.

The state recorded 867 new infections on Wednesday, a daily record that topped the previous high of 834 on Jan. 14. No deaths were reported Wednesday.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 444 new cases per day on Sept. 13 to 522 per day on Monday.

The number of deaths from coronavirus has fallen over the past two weeks, however.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention also reported Wednesday there have been 1,022 deaths from coronavirus in the state since the pandemic started. There have been more than 88,000 reported cases of the virus, the agency said.

In other pandemic news in Maine:

CHILDREN IN HOSPITALS

More than 30 children have been hospitalized in the state due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said.

There were two children in hospitals in the state due to COVID-19 on Monday, Shah said. Neither child was in an intensive care unit, he said.

Over the past 30 days, five children have been admitted to hospitals, and one was admitted to an ICU, Shah said. Nine children have been admitted to an ICU due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, he said.

Right now in terms of the availability of ICU beds, children's hospitals in Maine are already stretched. Not because of COVID-19, but because of RSV and other viruses, Shah said. We're not in emergency mode, but I am keeping close tabs on it.

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RURAL COUNTIES

Some of Maine's rural counties continue to lag the more populated parts of the state in terms of coronavirus vaccine use, and those counties are the site of higher levels of the virus.

Maine's most populous county, Cumberland, has a positivity rate of a little more than 2%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 85% of the county's eligible population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus, the CDC said.

In more rural Somerset County, where about 60% of the eligible population is vaccinated, the positivity rate is more than 9%, CDC reported. Other mostly rural counties, including Aroostook, Washington and Hancock, also have lower vaccination rates and higher positivity rates than denser counties such as Cumberland and York.

We need to have equal coverage around the state and right now we have a variance, Shah said. It wont surprise anyone to hear there is a correlation between vaccination rates at the county levels and COVID-19 rates at the county levels.

Shah said the rural counties are also in need of more COVID-19 testing.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The Daily Stormer website advocates for the purity of the white race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated murders. It has also made its founder, Andrew Anglin, a millionaire.

Anglin has tapped a worldwide network of supporters to take in at least 112 Bitcoin since January 2017  worth $4.8 million at todays exchange rate  according to data shared with The Associated Press. Hes likely raised even more.

Anglin is just one very public example of how radical right provocateurs are raising significant amounts of money from around the world through cryptocurrencies. Banned by traditional financial institutions, they have taken refuge in digital currencies, which they are using in ever more secretive ways to avoid the oversight of banks, regulators and courts, finds an AP analysis of legal documents, Telegram channels and blockchain data from Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency analytics firm.

Anglin owes more than $18 million in legal judgments in the United States to people whom he and his followers harassed and threatened. And while online, he remains visible  most days, dozens of stories on the Daily Stormer homepage carry his name  in the real world, Anglin's a ghost.

His victims have tried  and failed  to find him, searching at one Ohio address after another. Voting records place him in Russia in 2016 and his passport shows he was in Cambodia in 2017. After that, the public trail goes cold. He has no obvious bank accounts or real estate holdings in the U.S. For now, his Bitcoin fortune remains out of reach.

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EDITORS NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and the PBS series FRONTLINE that examines challenges to the ideas and institutions of traditional U.S. and European democracy.

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Beth Littrell, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center who is helping represent one of Anglins victims, says its grown harder to use the legal system to stamp out hate groups because now they operate with online networks and virtual money. We were able to sue the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, in essence out of existence, she said. Doing the same today is much harder, she said. "The law is evolving but lagging behind the harm.

CURRENCY OF THE RADICAL RIGHT

In August 2017, a week after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Anglin received 14.88 Bitcoins, an amount chosen for its oblique references to a 14-word white supremacist slogan and the phrase Heil Hitler because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Worth around $60,000 at the time, it was his biggest Bitcoin donation ever and would be valued at over $641,000 at todays exchange rate. The source of the funds remains a mystery. Anglin now faces charges in U.S. court for conspiring to plan and promote the deadly march.

By the time of Charlottesville, Anglin had been cut off by credit card processors and banned by PayPal so Bitcoin was his main source of funding. In his Retards Guide to Using Bitcoin, published in April 2020, he claimed to have funded the Daily Stormer exclusively through Bitcoin for four years.

Ive got money now. Ive got money to pay for the site for the foreseeable future, he wrote in December 2020, as Bitcoins price surged.

Anglins former lawyer, Marc Randazza, argued that political censorship by financial authorities drove Anglin to cryptocurrency by shutting him out of traditional banking, which he said is more Nazi-like than Andrew Anglin could ever hope to be.

Dont create a black market and then be surprised theres a black market, Randazza added.

While Anglin likely turned to Bitcoin for practical reasons, part of the appeal of cryptocurrency to the radical right is ideological.

Bitcoin was developed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis when distrust of the global financial system was running high. It offers an alternative that doesnt depend on banks. Instead, transactions are validated and recorded on a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain, which derives its authority from crowdsourcing rather than a class of elite bankers.

As one white nationalist cryptocurrency guide circulating on Telegram puts it: We all know the Jews and their minions control the global financial system. When you are caught having the wrong opinion, they will take it upon themselves to shut you out of this system making your life very difficult. One alternative to this system is cryptocurrency.

Richard Spencer, an American white supremacist, has dubbed Bitcoin the currency of the alt-right.

Its hard to tell how large a role cryptocurrency plays in overall financing for the far right. Merchandise sales, membership fees, donations in fiat currencies, concerts, fight clubs and other events, as well as criminal activity, are also common sources of revenue, government and academic research has shown.

What is clear is that early adopters of Bitcoin, like Anglin, have profited handsomely from its increase in value over the years. Bitcoin prices are notoriously volatile. Since April, the currency has shed a third of its value against the U.S. dollar, then took a further drubbing last week when China declared cryptocurrency transactions illegal.

Chainalysis collected data for a sample of 12 far-right entities in the U.S. and Europe that publicly called for Bitcoin donations and showed significant activity. Together, they took in 213 Bitcoin  worth more than $9 million at todays value  between January 2017 and April 2021.

These groups embrace a range of ideologies and include white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and self-described free-speech advocates. They are united by a shared desire to fight the perceived progressive takeover of culture and the state.

These people have real assets. People with access to hundreds of thousands of dollars can start doing real damage, said John Bambenek, a cybersecurity expert who has been tracking the use of cryptocurrency by far-right actors since 2017.

Andrew Weev Auernheimer, Anglins webmaster for the Daily Stormer, has raked in Bitcoin worth $2.2 million at todays values. The Nordic Resistance Movement, a Scandinavian neo-Nazi movement thats been banned in Finland, Counter-Currents, a U.S.-based white nationalist publishing house, and the recently banned French group Generation Identitaire have each received Bitcoin that's now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Chainalysis data shows.

Two social media platforms that have been embraced by the far right, Gab and Bitchute, received a surge in Bitcoin funding in the lead up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Since 2017, Bitchute has gotten Bitcoin worth nearly $500,000 at todays values, about a fifth of which rolled in during the month of December 2020. Gab has gotten more than $173,000; nearly 40% came in during December 2020 and January 2021, Chainalysis data shows. On Aug. 1, Gab announced it was stepping up its fight against financial censorship and creating its own alternative to PayPal to fight against the tyranny of the global elites.

PRIVACY COIN

While cryptocurrencies have a reputation for secrecy, Bitcoin was built for transparency. Every transaction is indelibly  and publicly  recorded on the blockchain, which enables companies like Chainalysis to monitor activity. Individuals can obscure their identities by not publicly linking them to their cryptocurrency accounts, but with Bitcoin they cannot hide the transactions themselves.

Because of that public footprint, Anglin in November 2020  just as Donald Trump lost the U.S. presidential election  abandoned Bitcoin and asked his supporters to send him money only in Monero, a privacy coin designed to enhance anonymity by hiding data about users and transactions. He published a new guide in February 2021 on how to use Monero, which included instructions for non-U.S. donors.

Every Bitcoin transfer is visible publicly. Generally, your name is not attached to the address in a direct way, but spies from the various woke anti-freedom organizations have unlimited resources to try to link these transactions to real names. With Monero, the transactions are all hidden. Anglin wrote.

Monero, Anglin advised, is really easy. Most importantly, it is safe.

Others have reached the same conclusion.

Thomas Sewell, an Australian neo-Nazi currently facing charges, is soliciting donations in Monero for his legal defense fund. Jaz Searby, a martial arts instructor who headed an Australian chapter of the Proud Boys, is seeking donations  Monero only  to help spread our message to a generation of young Aryan men that may feel alone or fail to understand the forces that are working against us. The Nordic Resistance Movement and Counter-Currents also solicit donations in other cryptocurrencies, including Monero, and NRM has experimented with letting supporters mine Monero directly on their behalf.

Do you really think how we operate our economy is any of your business? Martin Saxlind, the editor of NRMs magazine, Nordfront, asked AP in an email. Swedish banks have abused their control of the economy to deny us and others regular banking accounts for political reasons. Thats why we use cryptocurrency ... you should investigate the corrupt banks instead of doing what I assume is some retarded hit piece on white dissidents.

The Global Minority Initiative, which describes itself as a prison relief charity for American white nationalists also takes donations only in Monero or by postal money order. And Frances Democratie Participative, a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ website that was banned by French courts in 2018, also solicits donations in Monero only, warning supporters not to contribute via a mainstream cryptocurrency exchange.

Money is the sinew of war, the site says on its fundraising page. Thanks to your support we can continue to prevent Jews and their allies from sleeping soundly.

The AP reached out to all the groups and individuals named in this article. Most did not reply to requests for comment. A few were unreachable. Others replied anonymously, sending anti-Semitic and pornographic content. One email, for example, read: Stay the f--- out of our crypto you demonic k--- ... DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOING GLOBAL

Shortly before his suicide, in December 2020, a French computer programmer named Laurent Bachelier sent 28.15 Bitcoins  then worth over $520,000  to 22 far-right entities. The bulk went to Nick Fuentes, an American white nationalist influencer who would spend the coming weeks encouraging his tens of thousands of followers to lay siege to the U.S. Capitol. One bitcoin went to a Daily Stormer account.

I care about what happens after my death, Bachelier wrote in his suicide note. Thats why I decided to leave my modest wealth to certain causes and people. I think and hope that they will make a better use of it.

Since getting Bacheliers money, Fuentes has ramped up recruiting for his America First livestream and expanded the reach of his political nonprofit, the America First Foundation, which says in corporate registration documents it advocates for conservative values based on principles of American Nationalism, Christianity, and Traditionalism.

The transactions only became public because of a tip to a journalist at Yahoo News and the fact that Bachelier happened to leave digital traces that linked his Bitcoin address with his email. The money trail offered clear evidence that domestic extremism isnt purely domestic and showed how wealthy donors can use cryptocurrency to fund extremists around the world with little scrutiny.

Bacheliers money slipped quietly into the U.S., not triggering alerts it might have had it landed via traditional banking channels. Thats because much of it  notably the Bitcoin donation to Fuentes, then worth $250,000  passed through accounts that were not hosted by regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, according to Chainalysis.

Those exchanges, which can convert Bitcoin into U.S. dollars and other currencies, are generally regulated like banks, allowing authorities to get access to information or funds.

But cryptocurrency wallets can also be unhosted, which means that users themselves control access. Unhosted wallets  like Fuentes  are akin to cash. They dont have to go through banks or exchanges that could flag suspicious transactions, verify a users identity or hand over money to satisfy a court judgment.

Financial regulators around the world are waking up to the threat. The Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based multilateral organization that sets global guidelines to protect against money laundering and terrorism financing, in June released its first report on far-right fundraising, which highlighted the groups use of cryptocurrencies and warned that transnational links among such actors are growing. The FATF also said there is a dearth of information about both cross-border fundraising and the scale of cryptocurrency use.

Similar to their jihadist counterparts, many of these groups have used the internet and social media to share propaganda and recruit ideologically-aligned supporters from around the world. They also may be looking to forge financial links, the report said. This trend has posed a challenge for law enforcement or security services which are used to combating ERWT (extreme right-wing terrorism) as a domestic threat with few transnational links.

As the COVID-19 pandemic sealed borders, white nationalists continued to gather in virtual communities that allowed them to connect with people from around the world.

On Telegram, posts tagged with different flags stream together: Theres a burly White Boys Club in Kyiv, a group of nationalists in Minnesota and a cluster of men with pixelated faces in Greece, each posing around White Lives Matter banners. Images of people stomping on or burning colorful LGBTQ buttons and flags roll in from Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Croatia. Men with skull masks and rifles pose after tactical training in the woods in Poland. A person with a fascist flag stands in the rain in France, and a man draped with a swastika banner looks out from a high hill somewhere in the woods of America.

The transnational links make people feel they are part of a much larger community, they can inspire each other and network, said Marilyn Mayo, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism.

They can also raise money.

Blockchain data shows that Andrew Anglins donors are part of a global community of believers who sent money to entities in multiple countries. Donors to Anglin since 2017 have also given Bitcoin to 32 other far-right groups and people in at least five different countries, according to Chainalysis data.

The data also shows that money flowed into the sample of 12 far-right groups from cryptocurrency exchanges that serve customers all over the world, with Western and Eastern European-focused exchanges playing a growing role. Chainalysis uses web traffic data and economic activity patterns to estimate where the customers that use a given exchange are located.

European groups like the Nordic Resistance Movement and Generation Identitaire also received donations from North America-focused exchanges. Similarly, U.S. entities like American Renaissance, Daily Stormer and WeAreChange got money via exchanges that serve customers in Western and Eastern Europe.

Kimberly Grauer, Director of Research at Chainalysis, said the shift to using global exchanges certainly could be in order to obfuscate detection, but it could also be a sign that increasingly donations are coming in from all over the world.

VIRTUAL JUSTICE

While Andrew Anglin remains physically hidden and his money remains virtually untouchable, his debt grows. Each day that ticks by, he owes Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent in Montana, another $760.88, interest on a $14 million court judgment he has failed to pay.

After Gersh got in a dispute with the mother of white supremacist Richard Spencer in 2016, Anglin published her contact information and used his website to whip up an army of trolls against her.

She received death threats, threats against her as a Jew and threats against her child. Sometimes shed pick up the phone and hear a gunshot. Gershs hair started falling out. She had panic attacks, sought trauma counseling and seriously considered fleeing.

The balm for all that came in 2019, when a federal court made clear that targeted anti-Semitic hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. But since that fleeting moment of victory, nothing has happened. Gersh has yet to see a penny of her $14 million.

She is not the only one.

Anglin also owes Muslim comedian Dean Obeidallah $4 million, and hes supposed to pay Taylor Dumpson, the first Black student body president of American University, $725,000  all the results of civil litigation in U.S. courts over libel, invasion of privacy, inflicting emotional distress and intimidation on the Daily Stormer.

Last September, Gershs legal team sent requests to six Ohio addresses and four emails demanding that he disclose his assets. Four were returned as undeliverable, one was refused. He didnt respond to the rest. The court then ordered Anglin to hand over information about his finances, but the April 1 deadline for that came and went. Her lawyers moved to hold him in contempt of court, which could lead to his arrest.

Anglins Bitcoin is his most visible asset. Gershs lawyers can see Anglins virtual fortune but so far they haven't been able to touch it. He also keeps his cryptocurrency in unhosted wallets, according to Chainalysis, complicating collection efforts.

Meanwhile, Gersh is running up legal bills at a rate of $980 an hour.

The problem with an unhosted wallet is what is your pain point? said Amanda Wick, who served as a senior policy adviser for the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and as a federal prosecutor before joining Chainalysis as chief of legal affairs. The only thing we have is civil contempt or criminal conviction. If someone is willing to sit in jail and the money is theirs on the other side because no one can access it, thats a problem.

The hunt for Anglin  and his pain point  continues. He may not be in the United States, but he is out there somewhere, Littrell said, and hes not untouchable.

He will be held accountable, she said. We will get his cryptocurrency.

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Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.
HOLBROOK, N.Y. (AP)  Lines of mourners paid their respects Sunday for Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old whose death on a cross-country trip has sparked a manhunt for her boyfriend.

Among those who congregated in Holbrook, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of New York City, were family members, friends, co-workers and people who were touched by Petito's story even though they didn't know her.

She was a beautiful soul; she was full of life, always smiling, said Desiree Keeffe, a friend of Petito's mother, Nichole. She gave you love. She was just a beautiful soul. She touched everybody like she did now.

Two fire trucks were positioned one on either side of the funeral home, each with its ladder extended, and a line of firefighters was seen filing into the building. Across the street, a chain link fence was adorned with posters featuring Petito's image and messages such as, She touched the world.

Petito was reported missing Sept. 11 by her parents after she didnt respond to calls and texts for several days while she and Brian Laundrie visited parks in the West.

Her body was discovered last Sunday in a remote area in northwestern Wyoming. Laundrie and Petito grew up on Long Island but in recent years moved to Florida.

Lexi Ruiz recalled working with Petito at a cafe in nearby Patchogue that Ruiz managed.

She was always willing to help someone else," Ruiz said. "She was just such a light. Anywhere she went the room lit up. Its nice to see so many people come together and support her family.

Inside the funeral home, dozens of floral arrangements and childhood photos of Petito lined the walls, some capturing her travels. One floral arrangement sent from Norwalk, Connecticut, read, I dont know you but your story broke me.

Mourners were greeted with a placard bearing a poem titled Let it Be that began with the line, Do not grieve for me for I am free.

Petitos death has been classified as homicide, meaning she was killed by another person, but medical examiners in Wyoming havent disclosed how she died pending further autopsy results.

The couple posted online about their trip in a white Ford Transit van converted into a camper. They got into a physical altercation Aug. 12 in Moab, Utah, that led to a police stop for a possible domestic violence case. Ultimately, police there decided to separate the quarreling couple for the night. But no charges were filed, and no serious injuries were reported.

Investigators have been searching for Laundrie in Florida, and searched his parents' home in North Port, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Sarasota.

On Thursday, federal officials in Wyoming charged Laundrie with unauthorized use of a debit card, alleging he used a Capital One Bank card and someones personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. They did not say who the card belonged to.

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This story has been corrected to show that the spelling of Gabby Petitos mothers first name is Nichole, not Nicole.
Millions of Americans, including Illinois residents, are now eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot to help increase protection against the worst effects of the coronavirus. Last week, health experts in the United States approved Pfizer boosters for some groups of people, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration.

Yet some confusion remains about exactly who can get them and where. Here's how boosters are being rolled out in Illinois, including in Jacksonville.

Who can get a COVID-19 booster shot?

People who got two Pfizer shots at least six months ago and who fall into one of several groups should get the booster. That includes people ages 65 and older and those living in long-term care settings such as nursing homes. People aged 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions  including cancer, diabetes, asthma, HIV infection and heart disease, as well as obesity  should also get Pfizer boosters.

Other qualifying conditions include cystic fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension, dementia, down syndrome, a compromised immune system, liver disease, sickle cell disease, being a current or recovering smoker, organ transplants, strokes and substance use disorders. Those who are pregnant also qualify.

Additionally, the CDC says people aged 18 to 49 who got Pfizer shots at least six months ago with risky health problems can consider the booster based on their own individual benefits and risks and anyone aged 18 to 64 with a risky job, including those in health care, education or other frontline jobs can consider boosters. People in prison or living in homeless shelters are also in this latter group.

Can those who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines get the Pfizer booster?

The FDA has only authorized Pfizer booster shots for people who received the first two doses of Pfizer, not those who received other vaccines. Health officials have stated that they don't yet have enough data on mix-and-match vaccinations to recommend them. Moderna has applied to U.S. regulators for a booster and the FDA is currently considering that application.

However, the FDA has already authorized those who got two doses of Moderna and are immunocompromised because of an organ transplant or some other conditions to get third doses of Moderna.

Johnson & Johnson has yet to file an application for a booster dose, although the company has provided data that shows an additional dose provided stronger immunity than one.

The Pfizer booster is also the same as the shots given for the first two doses.

How do I decide whether to get a booster?

People 65 and older and people ages 50 to 64 with medical conditions, who got their second doses of Pfizer at least six months ago, should get boosters according to the CDC.

Younger people who previously received Pfizer and have medical conditions or jobs that put them at greater risk of COVID-19 exposure are supposed to decide for themselves whether to get boosters based on their individual risks and benefits, according to the CDC.

"Its a bit of a challenging question to ask," Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Chicago Tribune. "We dont have enough data to know what the exact benefit would be in someone who is younger, even with (mild) underlying medical conditions and what the risks are."

The risks of the booster are likely very low, she said. The CDC has said its "actively monitoring" reports of myocarditis and pericarditis, especially in young men, after their second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. Instances of those conditions after second doses of mRNA shots have been rare, and more common in those with COVID-19 infections, and most people affected have recovered quickly, according to the CDC.

Khan recommended people consider how much COVID-19 transmission is occurring in their communities, how serious their underlying medical conditions may be and how much exposure to others they have in their lives. People may also want to discuss the question with their doctors if theyre unsure, she said.

Where can I get a Pfizer booster shot?

Multiple pharmacies in Illinois are now administering booster doses to Illinois residents, as Walgreens is accepting walk-ins but encouraging people to make appointments, CVS Health is strongly encouraging people to make appointments to ensure the store where they want to get a booster has the Pfizer vaccine available and Schnucks, Jewel Osco and Walmart are all accepting walk-ins and appointments.

A request form for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment with the Morgan County Health Department can be found here.

Boosters are free and you might not need to show proof of medical condition at some clinics to receive a booster dose. However, Amy Yeager, public information officer with the Madison County Health Department, said clinics will ask a series of questions to determine eligibility for a booster dose and that clinics have specialized nurses for the booster who may not be available at all clinics.
Today

Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents.

Blood Drive: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Police Department, 200 W. Douglas Ave. | To donate, contact Courtney Glass at 217-479-4630 or go to bloodcenter.org and use code 60161 to locate the drive. Masks and appointments required.

Story Time: 10 a.m., Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave.

Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers and can be picked up at side door.

Walking for Wellness: 12:30-3 p.m., First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. Free | Indoor walking program offered year-round Monday-Thursday. For more information, call 217-243-6445.

Commodity Food Distribution: 1:15 p.m., Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. Free | For income-eligible residents of Morgan County. Bring proof of residence and a box for food.

Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen: 3:30-4 p.m., Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, 105 E. Dunlap St. Free | Serving meals to go for anyone in need.

Jacksonville Area Employment Fair: 4-6 p.m., downtown Jacksonville. | Sponsored by Passavant Healthy Communities Collaborative.



Thursday

Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents.

Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers and can be picked up at side door.

Walking for Wellness: 12:30-3 p.m., First Christian Church, 2106 S. Main St. Free | Indoor walking program offered year-round Monday-Thursday. For more information, call 217-243-6445.

Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen: 3:30-4 p.m., Spirit of Faith Soup Kitchen, 105 E. Dunlap St. Free | Serving meals to go for anyone in need.

Illinois Products Farmers Market: 4-7 p.m., Illinois State Fairgrounds, 801 E. Sangamon Ave., Springfield. Prices vary.

County Line Dance Club Class: 6:30 p.m., VFW Post 1379, 903 E. Morton Ave., $3.



To submit items to the calendar, go to myjournalcourier.com and select calendar, or email jjcsocial@myjournalcourier.com. Items must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance.
Amid killings and COVID, Mexicos Yaqui people get pledges View Photo

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicos Yaqui people have been hit by a wave of killings and coronavirus deaths, so the countrys long-awaited public apology for centuries of abuses Tuesday rang a little hollow.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had hoped the ceremony would mark a turning point in the woes of what he has described as Mexicos most persecuted Indigenous group, which suffered a government campaign to exterminate or exile its members around 1900.

We are here to try to repair, to the extent possible, the damages that were done to the Yaqui peoples, Lopez Obrador said, calling the war against them one of the most shameful chapters in our countrys history.

In the 1960s, the Yaquis became known abroad for the mystical and visionary powers ascribed to them by writer Carlos Castaneda.

The somber ceremony Tuesday was marked by a moment of silence for a Yaqui leader who died Sunday of COVID-19.

Lopez Obrador came bearing gifts: His administration signed agreements to return almost 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) of Indigenous land to the community and make good on agreements to reserve half the water of the Yaqui River for Indigenous use.

The government also promised to build an aqueduct to bring drinking water to Yaqui communities in northern Sonora state that have long lacked it.

Known as the Plan for Justice, the moves are aimed at reversing long-standing abuses, like the fact that most of the water from the river that bears the Yaquis name is siphoned off to supply urban areas in Sonora.

The Plan for Justice is not a gift, it is not a handout, Yaqui leader Jesus Patricio Varela said at the ceremony. It seeks to return to us that which is ours: the territory that was taken from us, the use of water which has been limited for us, the dignity they wanted to take from us.

Justice begins today with the acres that are going to handed over, but we know we have rights to much more, Varela said.

Because some Yaquis live in the United States, Mexican officials said they invited Secretary of State Antony Blinken to participate but no U.S. administration officials came. The ceremony in the Yaqui town of Vicam was attended by Peter Yucupicio, chair of the tribal council of the Pascua Yaqui in Arizona and Arizona state Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales.

The meeting started with a moment of silence for Yaqui leader Agustin Gonzalez Estrella, who died Sunday, reportedly of COVID-19, which has also sickened other prominent Yaquis.

The area has some of Mexicos most productive farmland, where water  available largely from the Yaqui River  is a vital and precious commodity.

Alberto Vizcarra, a leader of the Sonora Citizens Movement for Water, said Lopez Obradors promises of water were deceptive. Recent droughts make it unlikely the government can actually fulfill promises to hand out more water rights.

It is a dead-end street to promise water that isnt available in exchange for Yaquis renouncing their rights to water stored in a dam upstream that is currently being used to supply the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo, Vizcarra said.

There was also no moment of silence for the five Yaqui men whose skeletal remains were found on a remote hillside last week. They were among 10 Yaquis who were abducted July 15.

Prosecutors said more bone fragments and possessions had been found in the rugged rural area, suggesting some of the five men still missing may also have died there.

The Sonora state prosecutors office has suggested that the murder of Yaqui leader Tomas Rojo Valencia in May and the abduction and apparent killing of the 10 Yaquis in July were the work of drug cartels or allied local gangs.

Leftist leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas said the killings cannot go unpunished, and demanded an end to siphoning water off for use in Hermosillo.

There has been a huge increase in violence in the area around Vicam and the nearby city of Ciudad Obregon in the last year, something authorities say is due to turf battles between rival cartels.

The skeletal remains of the five Yaquis were found near what prosecutors described as a gang hide-out. Investigators searching for the missing Yaquis came under automatic rifle fire Sept. 19 on the remote hillside near where the skeletons were found.

Prosecutors cited similar claims about the killing of the Yaqui rights leader in May. They said a gang killed Rojo Valencia because it wanted money that his Indigenous group had raised at highway blockades.

Rojo Valencia disappeared May 27 amid tensions over months of periodic blockades the Yaqui put up to protest gas lines, water pipelines and railway tracks that have been run across their territory without consulting them or giving them much benefit.

The Yaquis stubbornly fought the Mexican governments brutal campaign to eliminate the tribe in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But they were largely defeated by 1900 and dictator Porfirio Diaz began moving them off their fertile farmland to less valuable territory or to virtual enslavement on haciendas as far away as the far eastern state of Yucatan.

By MARK STEVENSON

Associated Press
Brazil doctors accuse health company of forcing chloroquine View Photo

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)  A Brazilian health care provider focused on elderly people has been targeted by a Senate investigation for allegedly obliging its doctors to prescribe drugs that arent effective in treating COVID-19.

Lawyer Bruna Morato, who represents 12 whistleblowing doctors currently or previously employed by the company Prevent Senior, told lawmakers on Tuesday her clients were repeatedly told to choose between prescribing chloroquine to COVID patients, along with other dubious substances, or else lose their jobs.

Prevent Senior owns several hospitals in Sao Paulo. The doctors remained anonymous due to fears of retribution.

Some were warned, and that happened in front of others. Other professionals were fired, the lawyer said. There was also a punishment that was common: they had their shifts reduced. If you didnt show loyalty to the company and obedience to those protocols, you got punished.

Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies have highlighted Prevent Senior as a role model in the fight against COVID-19 due to its advocacy for chloroquine as treatment, even as mounting evidence showed it to be ineffective. As recently as Sept. 21 at the U.N. General Assembly, Bolsonaro has insisted upon so-called early treatment  with hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic version of the same anti-malarial.

Morato said Prevent Senior gave doctors a kit with a total eight drugs and supplements, known as a COVID kit.

Prevent Senior said in a statement to The Associated Press that the lawyers testimony was false, and based upon messages that were either hard to understand or edited so they could then be leaked to the press.

Last week, a director from Prevent Senior told senators that patients had agreed to take their COVID kits, and argued doctors were free to make their own prescriptions.

Sao Paulo states prosecutors office said Monday it is investigating Prevent Senior for allegedly researching chloroquine effects on COVID-19 patients without clearly letting them know they were part of a trial.

Bolsonaro praised Prevent Seniors studies on chloroquine on his social media channels in April 2020. He suggested the trials by the health care company had shown patients taking chloroquine were spending seven days on ventilators, as compared to 14 days among those who didnt.

His son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a lawmaker, compared Brazil to Afghanistan under the Taliban regime Friday, saying there is too much outrage directed at those who admit they are using the COVID kit. A frequent advocate of Prevent Senior on social media, he tested positive for the coronavirus last week.

I am treating myself. You must guess with what.  The doctor prescribed it. And overnight I am feeling much better, Eduardo Bolsonaro said in a live broadcast. I have a runny nose, I am a little tired, but no fever. From now on, after I started the treatment, it can only get better.

Brazil has confirmed more than 590,000 deaths from COVID-19, marking the second highest tally in the world behind the United States. ___ Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

By DEBORA ALVARES

Associated Press
Active COVID-19 Cases July thru September 28, 2021 View Photos

Calaveras County Public Health reports 2 new deaths due to COVID-19, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s. A total of 73 Calaveras residents deaths are attributed to COVID-19. There are 55 new Covid cases since yesterdays report, over the weekend and Monday there were 8. Active cases decreased to 97, including 3 current Covid hospitalizations. There are 17 new cases age 0-17 and 5 new cases in individuals age 65 years old or older. Since the pandemic began Calaveras has had 531 Covid-19 positive children who are 17 and under and 603 Covid-19 positive people 65 and over. Calaveras has vaccinated 53.2% of their eligible population.

Tuolumne Public Health reports 50 new COVID-19 cases since Mondays report with 190 active cases including 7 who are hospitalized. Tuolumne Countys active community cases were above 200 for 49 days between August 2 and September 19 with a high of 407, during the previous surge active cases were above 200 for 36 days between November 15 and December 20 with a high of 350.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County is up to 44.9 from 44.1 per 100,000 population. A total of 4,590 have been released from isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, there have been 103 deaths and 1,620 inmate cases with 2 currently active, for a total of 6,503 positive COVID-19 cases. Of Tuolumnes population eligible to be vaccinated 55% have been vaccinated.

Todays newly reported cases include 17 cases age 17 or younger and 10 cases are age 60 and older. The gender and age breakdown is; 6 girls and 2 boys age 0-11, 7 girls and 2 boys age 12-17, 2 women and 2 men age 18-29, 7 women and 5 men age 30-39, 1 woman and 2 men age 40 to 49, 4 women age 50-59, 1 woman and 1 man age 60 to 69, 1 woman and 5 men age 70 to 79, and 2 men age 80 to 89.

Of the 50 new community cases, 43 were unvaccinated and 7 were vaccinated.

COVID-19 Testing Public health recommends if you believe you have been exposed to COVID, schedule an appointment to get tested 5 days after exposure and if you are having any symptoms, please get tested right away. The Tuolumne County State testing site is open 7 days a week beginning from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123 the same website and phone number can be used to schedule tests in other counties. Testing is also available through some pharmacies, at Rapid Care, the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider.

COVID-19 Vaccines Tuolumne Public Health says There are positive actions that we can take to protect ourselves and those around us from illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Vaccination is the most important step we can take to reduce the spread of disease, and reduce the impact to our healthcare system. In addition, the continued practice of other preventive actions like wearing a mask in public, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, washing hands, cleaning surfaces, and staying home when sick will help slow the spread of the virus.

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. In Calaveras, mobile vaccination clinics now do COVID-19 testing. For COVID-19 testing times and locations go to: https://covid19.calaverasgov.us/. Walk-ins only for COVID-19 testing. No appointment is needed. Register online to reduce waiting time: https://bit.ly/3wpNEUU. The Pfizer vaccine requires 3 weeks between doses and the Moderna requires 4 weeks. The J&J vaccine requires only one dose. Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot information is here. 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.

County/Date

Tier Color Active

Cases New Cases

Total Cases COVID

Deaths Amador 9/27 124 23 3,094 52 Calaveras 9/28 97 55 3,437 73 Mariposa 9/28 58 12 1,074 13 Mono 9/28 73 2 1,315 5 Stanislaus 9/28 1,944 146 73,709 1,264 Tuolumne 9/28 190 50 6,453 103
Mi-Wuk Village, CA  Two hot pursuits by deputies in one day with the first beginning in Mi-Wuk Village on Highway 108 and the second ending on Highway 120 at the Yosemite National Park gate with the woman handcuffed.

A report of a suspicious sedan parked in the Sonnys Mini Mart parking lot located on Highway 108 in Mi-Wuk Village last Monday around 1:15 p.m. brought Tuolumne County Deputies to the scene. While contacting 51-year-old Michelle Vermon-Vondra of Sacramento, deputies noticed signs of possible impairment, according to sheriffs spokesperson Nicco Sandelin. When informed she would be given a sobriety test, Vermon-Vondra started her car and took off. Deputies pursued her down Highway 108 and Sandelin noted that she observed all traffic laws in the process.

While waiting at the stoplight on Highway 108 and Mono Way, deputies attempted to block Vermon-Vondras vehicle in with theirs. Sandelin says that is when she hit the gas and struck one of them to get away. Deputies once again gave chase. This time she reached speeds over 90 mph while passing vehicles in the oncoming lane, prompting deputies to terminate the pursuit for public safety reasons. Sandelin relays that, at that point, a be on the lookout was issued for her vehicle.

A short time later, Vermon-Vondra passed another deputy patrolling along Highway 120 towards Groveland. The deputy followed her through Groveland and just past Tenaya Elementary School attempting to stop her for a second time, but she refused to stop and continued east on Highway 120. Vermon-Vondra was forced to halt at the Yosemite gate but remained in her sedan. After several minutes of negotiations, she eventually surrendered and was taken into custody. Vermon-Vondra was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and evading. She was placed on a $50,000 bail.

Sandelin added that alcohol nor drugs ended up being a factor in the case. It is unclear why Vermon-Vondra ran from deputies.
Map with green lines representing individual searchers, teams, and helicopters View Photos

Yosemite, CA  The two hikers went missing in Yosemite National Park at the end of the summer and exhaustive searches have turned up no clues on their whereabouts.

Park officials are turning to park visitors for help to locate the two men. Park officials detail that 69-year-old Richard Judd and 31-year-old Joel Thomazin are still missing in different areas of the park. They also include the maps in the image box showing how extensive the search and rescue crews have combed the park, as can be seen by the green lines representing individual searchers, teams, and helicopters.

Judd was the first to go missing and was last seen on July 25th. He was on a day hike from his camp, near Lower Merced Pass Lake, to Red Peak Pass, as earlier reported here. Judd is 5 ft 11 in and 150 pounds with brown eyes, short graying hair, and a beard. Park officials put out the photo included in the image box, noting what he was wearing when he went hiking. They also detailed that he was reportedly using white trekking poles and had a navy-blue day pack.

As earlier reported here, Thomazin had planned a solo hike from Hetch Hetchy on September 6th to fish in the Lake Eleanor area and return on September 9th. Park officials noted that he may have decided to stay out longer and extended his trip to Cherry Lake or to the north or east as far as the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River. Park officials are asking all wilderness travelers north of Tioga Road and between Cherry Lake and Tuolumne Meadows to report possible sightings of him or any unattended/possibly abandoned equipment. They added that he was likely carrying the kayak packed in a large red pouch attached to the exterior of his backpack.

His family provided this list of equipment he may have had with him:

Floppy boonie hat

Dark blue/green hammock

Large yellowish tan Kelty pack

US Army steel cup dated 1918

Camelback-type red/black daypack

Black and yellow collapsible sink

Bright red inflatable kayak (in photo)

Small collapsible stove in a black bag

Kayak paddle

Petzl Zipka headlamp

Yellow bear can

Garmin Tactix Delta solar GPS watch

Bright green mummy sleeping bag

Fishing pole, fishing gear

Park officials ask If any of these items are found to please leave them in place, note the location using coordinate is possible, take photos, and email the information to yosemite.search.rescue@gmail.com or call them at 209/238-7046 or call or TEXT the NPS Investigative Services Branch Tip Line at 888/653-0009.
Troubled Chinese airline group proposes paying 40% of debts View Photo

BEIJING (AP)  HNA Group, a Chinese airline operator that ran into financial trouble after a global acquisition spree, has proposed a plan to settle $61 billion in debts owed to thousands of creditors by paying 40% of the total.

The conglomerate warned in a statement Tuesday that it faces possible liquidation due to mismanagement and investment disorder. HNA Group said Friday its chairman and CEO were detained by police on suspicion of unspecified crimes.

HNA Group, which operates Hainan Airlines and other carriers, bought hotels, a stake in Deutschebank AG and other assets abroad starting in 2014, financed by bank loans and bond sales. The company was struggling to pay its debts when last years global travel shutdown to fight the coronavirus devastated its aviation business. The government of the southern province of Hainan took control in February 2020.

The repayment plan, released Tuesday by HNAs publicly traded Hainan Airlines Holding Co. subsidiary, said an administrator has asked a court to confirm the company is obligated to pay 161.2 billion yuan ($25 billion), or about 40% of the 397.2 billion yuan ($61 billion) claimed by 4,915 creditors.

Creditors would receive shares in Hainan Airlines and no more than 100,000 yuan ($15,500) in cash to settle one-third of the debt, the plan said. It said HNA Group and related companies will be responsible for two-thirds of the remaining debt.

HNA Group said Friday its chairman, Chen Feng, and CEO, Tan Xiangdong, were taken under compulsory measures by police due to suspicion of crime. It gave no details but said operations are not affected.

HNA attracted attention in Washington in 2017 when it agreed to buy a hedge fund from Anthony Scaramucci, who was due to take a White House post as then-President Donald Trumps liaison to Wall Street. The two sides called off the deal in 2018.
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP)  Multiple staff members at a Kansas juvenile facility engaged in a physical struggle with a 17-year-old youth who was restrained and died two days later at a hospital, authorities said.

Details of the events leading up to the in-custody death of Cedric CJ Lofton emerged late Tuesday in a news release from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that also identified the Wichita teen for the first time.

An autopsy has been conducted and a cause of death is pending further investigation and toxicology results, the agency said.

The Black teenagers encounter with law enforcement authorities began at about 1 a.m. Friday when officers from the Wichita Police Department responded to a disturbance call and found Lofton outside a house. The teen appeared paranoid and was behaving erratically, the KBI said. Officers tried to convince him to voluntarily seek mental health treatment before trying to take him into custody. He resisted by assaulting the officers, according to the release.

After a physical struggle, he was arrested on suspicion of battery of a law enforcement officer. A police report from that incident indicates all three police officers involved were white men.

Lofton was taken to the Sedgwick County juvenile intake and assessment center in a WRAP restraint system, a device described by the sheriffs office as a way to restrain a person whos out of control so they dont hurt themselves or others. The device is comprised of a locking shoulder harness, leg restraints and ankle straps.

Once he was at the facility, that device and handcuffs were removed and he was placed in a single holding cell, authorities said.

When we left the facility, the individual was upright and communicating, said police spokesman Charley Davidson.

Lofton was later allowed out of the holding cell to use the restroom. When a staff member at the juvenile center tried to escort him back to the holding cell, Lofton assaulted the staff member, according to the KBI news release.

The KBI said multiple corrections staff engaged in a lengthy physical struggle to get him into the holding cell and place him in handcuffs. A police report shows there were Black, white and Hispanic staff at the facility.

Once Lofton was under control, corrections staff monitoring him noticed he was unresponsive.

Life-saving measures were initiated, the KBI said. Emergency medical responders transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 1:55 a.m. Sunday.

A youth justice organization, Progeny, has called for a transparent and thorough investigation.

This is a tragic example of the immense harm caused when young people are placed behind bars, and much worse, restrained like animals under the supervision of adults who are supposed to keep them safe, the group said in a written statement. These facilities are devastating our community. They need to be stopped.

Wichita pastor Maurice Moe Evans, a director at the Community Empowerment and Resilience Coalition, called the WRAP restraint a torture device that restricts a persons comfort, breathing and circulation. He said authorities dont know if Loftons injuries came from the police officers use of the WRAP or from the later altercation at the intake center.

Something was clearly done incorrectly because the claim that he was just suddenly fine and then all of a sudden went unresponsive and then passed away two days later  that just doesnt happen, he said. There are some extenuating circumstances here that they are not yet sharing. We will get to the bottom of it.

The WRAP is used in more than 1,400 hospitals, youth detention facilities, sheriffs offices and police departments where people have to deal with combative subjects, said Charles Hammond, president and chief executive officer of Safe Restraints Inc., the company that makes it.

Its purpose is to quickly stop conflict to prevent injury and death, allowing a person to be seated upright so that medical care can be provided, he said, adding the restraint is not a pain tool. It reduces mobility with no breathing restriction, he said.

Evans has also set up a GoFundMe account for the teens mother, Sarah Harrison.

The community is preparing to organize around this so this is not something that is just going to go away, Evans said. We are going to find justice for the mom.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the name of the teens mother is Sarah Harrison, not Dreamacia Harrison. It also corrects that pastor Maurice Moe Evans is a director at the Community Empowerment and Resilience Coalition, not the pastor of Pure Heart Worship Center.

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

Associated Press
On the edge of a razor: Youngkin tests new Trump playbook View Photo

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Republican Glenn Youngkin needs Donald Trump. He just doesnt want to say the name.

On the debate stage Tuesday night, the Republican candidate in Virginias governors race repeatedly sidestepped comparisons to the former president. Youngkin avoided Trumps most aggressive talking points on election fraud, border security and critical race theory. He also tried to dodge a question about whether he would support another Trump presidential bid, though Youngkin ultimately said he would.

Youre running against me. Its Terry McAuliffe against Glenn Youngkin, Youngkin told his Democratic opponent. The only person invoking Trump is you.

Few Republicans in recent years have harnessed the energy of the Trump base with such cool rhetoric. And there is fear within Youngkins campaign that Trump or his loyalists could turn against Youngkin in the days before the Nov. 2 election. But if Youngkin is successful, his ability to navigate the delicate politics of the post-Trump presidency could offer the GOP a new playbook before next years midterm elections.

While there is no shortage of Republican candidates fighting for Trumps support, another wing of the party is eager to move on, especially in states where the GOP is reeling from painful losses under Trumps watch last fall. Control of Congress in 2022 will be decided not in Trump strongholds, but in swing states such Arizona, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

So far, Glenn Youngkin has danced on the edge of a razor, and hes not gotten cut, said John Fredericks, who led Trumps Virginia campaign last year. Hes holding the Trump base together.

Polls suggest that Youngkins strategy could work. He is in a close race with McAuliffe, a former governor and Democratic powerhouse in the state with decades of experience in national politics.

McAuliffe has a delicate balance of his own to navigate as President Joe Bidens favorable ratings fall and the Democrats agenda falters in Congress. Both sides privately acknowledge that Virginia Republicans seem to have an enthusiasm advantage in the campaigns closing days.

McAuliffe said in the debate that the price tag of Bidens wish list is too high.

The White House does not see the Virginia governors race as a referendum on Bidens agenda, press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, adding that the president is a big supporter of McAuliffe.

Biden campaigned in Virginia on McAuliffes behalf in July before the presidents numbers began to sink. The McAuliffe campaign said he would welcome another presidential visit, but nothing is scheduled.

Youngkin has had little to do with Trump publicly since securing the GOP nomination in May. The nominee has been content to let McAuliffes campaign highlight Trumps endorsement in Democrat-funded campaign ads. Youngkin is not planning to attend a rally next month hosted by Trump loyalists in which Trump is expected to make an appearance by phone.

Youngkins campaign remains in close contact with Trumps team behind the scenes, however. At least a dozen Youngkin staffers previously worked for the Trump campaign or in his administration. Lest there be any question that theyre in close contact, text messages sent by The Associated Press to a Trump aide in recent days were answered by Youngkin staff.

Youngkins campaign has been in regular communication with the presidents political team. Any suggestion otherwise is false, said Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich. The president is looking at the most effective options to help propel Youngkin to victory as his campaign continues to surge.

Of course, the Trump base may be more willing to forgive Youngkins strategy in Virginia than in other states.

While Virginia has long been considered a swing state, a Republican has not won statewide office in 12 years. Trump lost the state by 5 percentage points in 2016 and 10 points in 2020 as women and suburban voters in particular rejected his divisive leadership.

Weve got to get a win, Fredericks said in explaining his embrace of Youngkin. Lets fight later.

In recent months, Youngkin has focused on more traditional kitchen table issues such as taxes, crime and education, instead of Trumps brand of shock-and-awe politics. But that wasnt always the case.

Youngkin made election integrity  code for Trumps false claims of election fraud  the centerpiece of his campaign during the nominating contest in the spring. In February, when asked by The Washington Post if Biden was legitimately elected, Youngkin declined to say.

Since the nomination was settled, Youngkin has acknowledged Bidens win and mostly focused on other topics. He reiterated during Tuesdays debate that there wasnt material fraud and that the election was certifiably fair.

In his television ads, Youngkin has stayed away from culture war issues popular with the conservative base, focusing on his family and his biography, including his time as co-CEO of a private equity firm. Sticking to a traditional conservative policy agenda, he promises to cut taxes, create jobs and tackle rising crime.

In campaign speeches, he often says he will make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family.

As for Trump, Youngkin has said he was honored to receive the former presidents endorsement, though he avoided such statements on stage this week. In one interview often highlighted by McAuliffes campaign, Youngkin said Trump represents so much of why he is running.

Youngkin seemed to be less enthusiastic about the endorsement when pressed by a reporter during a campaign stop this month at a grocery store, where he was promoting a tax cut plan.

First of all, Im the one running for governor this year. Im on the ballot, Youngkin said when asked whether he was proud to have the endorsement. The reporter followed up twice, and Youngkin avoided answering directly.

With his forehead furrowed as he spoke, Youngkin said he was running for everyone. He said he had been endorsed by lots of people and repeated twice, Ive brought so many people together over this time period, before finally adding that he was very pleased to get Trumps endorsement.

Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, an ardent supporter of election fraud conspiracy theories, said Youngkin has done a really good job of trying to thread the needle.

Chase, who competed against Youngkin for the Republican nomination, said shes heard from some supporters who would like Youngkin to take a tougher stance on abortion, gun rights and election integrity. But, ultimately, she thinks Youngkin is building a winning coalition.

I really feel like Glenn is bringing together all parts of the Republican Party  the Trump supporters, the moderates, the business Republicans, all the groups, she said. I congratulate him on that.

___

Peoples reported from New York.

By STEVE PEOPLES and SARAH RANKIN

Associated Press
ORANGE, Calif. (AP)  A man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman at Southern Californias Chapman University was arrested Tuesday after he was turned in by a family member, police said.

The family member brought the 22-year-old man to the university Monday evening after seeing surveillance video of the suspect on TV, the Orange County Register reported.

School administrators contacted police and the man was arrested on suspicion of assault with intent to commit rape.

A woman told police she was making a phone call in a campus courtyard last Friday when a man wearing a skeleton mask jumped out of a bush and punched her in the face.

The student fell to the ground and was assaulted but fought back and managed to fend off the attacker, police said. She was not seriously injured.

The suspect identified himself to investigators as the man seen in surveillance footage recorded the night of the attack, Orange police Sgt. Phil McMullin said. That footage shows a man walking by a nearby business a couple of blocks off campus.

The suspect was not a Chapman University student and had no prior known connection to the school or the victim, McMullin said.

He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, the newspaper reported.
LONDON (AP)  The British government's reserve tanker fleet was deployed Wednesday to help deliver gasoline to empty pumps across the U.K., and military drivers will begin operating fuel tankers in the coming days to ease the country's fuel-supply crisis, a top official said.

The comments from Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng came as the fuel industry said in a statement that the crisis, triggered by a shortage of truck drivers, was easing.

Kwarteng said the first of dozens of troops trained to operate gasoline tanker trucks will start appearing behind the wheel on roads within days.

It takes, sometimes, a few days to get troops on the ground. We have decided to do that. I think in the next couple of days you will see some soldiers driving tankers, Kwarteng told reporters.

He added that the governments reserve tanker fleet, driven by civilian drivers, will begin providing additional logistical capacity to the fuel industry" beginning Wednesday.

Many gas stations around Britain have shut down in the past five days after running out of fuel, a situation exacerbated by panic buying among some motorists. Long lines of vehicles formed at pumps that were still open, blocking roads and causing traffic chaos. Some drivers have had to endure hourslong waits to fill up.

Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, which represents the majority of U.K. gas stations, said just 27% of members reported being out of fuel Wednesday.

A joint statement issued by Shell U.K., BP and other fuel companies said they were confident that the situation will stabilize further in the coming days."

The companies welcomed the deployment of the reserve tankers and said they were working closely with the government to maintain regular deliveries to gas stations. They reiterated that the truck driver shortage is the problem and there has always been plenty of fuel at our refineries and terminals.

Despite the optimistic outlook, a taxi drivers' union said about a quarter of its members were not able to work Tuesday and there appeared to be few immediate signs of the situation improving.

It has not got any better. The queues at the station  if you can find a station with any to queue up  are not getting any better," said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association.

The supply problems have stemmed from a shortage of as many as 100,000 truck drivers, due to a combination of factors including pandemic-related disruption to driver training, an aging workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britains departure from the European Union last year.

As well as getting help from the army, Britain's Conservative government is trying to entice former British drivers back into the industry, as well as accelerate the training of new drivers.

Its also offering visas to 5,000 foreign drivers to come to the U.K for three months, but critics and others like Romanian truck driver Bron Zoltan said that timeline is too short.

I heard about the 3-month visas," he said. If you give me a contract for 3 months, then what? What will happen to me?

___

AP videojournalist Nicolae Dumitrache contributed to this report.

-

Follow all AP stories on post-Brexit developments at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.
A jury that convicted rapper Carlos Coy of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl must now decide his punishment, which could range from five years' probastion to life in prison.

A young woman who gave birth at 14 to Carlos Coy's son testified Monday that the rap musician offered to marry her, but her parents did not approve.

"My family didn't want me to have anything to do with him," she said of Coy, 31, known professionally as South Park Mexican. It was her first sexual relationship, she said, and the couple neither used nor discussed birth control. At the time, he was about 22 and she was 13.

Asked by prosecutor Lisa Andrews if Coy knew her age at the time, the woman said she wasn't sure. But she said he sometimes picked her up at the intermediate school where she attended seventh grade.

Although the woman sued Coy two years ago for $28,000 in back child support, she said Coy had provided for her financially and emotionally since their son was born. "If I needed something, he would get it. Whenever I needed something, he was there for me and my son."

The woman is one of eight claiming Coy sexually assaulted them. Four of the women testified Monday in the punishment phase of Coy's trial.

The jury convicted Coy on Saturday of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl at his southeast Houston home over Labor Day weekend. Jurors, who were sequestered Friday night in a hotel, deliberated about seven hours over two days before reaching the verdict.

Another woman testified Monday that she was 12 when she first had sex with Coy. Although she initially told police she was 14, she testified Monday that she changed her mind about the date after thinking about it.

In answer to a question by Coy's attorney, Chip Lewis, the woman said she felt no animosity toward Coy after they stopped seeing each other.

Also a girl testified that she had sex with Coy several times at age 14 at Dope House Records, the Center Street recording studio the rapper co-founded in 1995.

The girl that Coy was convicted of assaulting is now 10. She testified last week that at one point she didn't remember what happened and that she could have dreamed Coy touched her inappropriately. She later said the incident was real.

The girl told jurors she went to Coy's house to spend the night with his 6-year-old daughter. As the children were playing in an upstairs bedroom, Coy told them to watch a movie, the girl testified.

The girls and Coy were on the bed watching the movie, she said, when Coy put his hand under the blanket and rubbed her buttocks for about five minutes. Later, she said, Coy came into the bedroom where she was staying, sat on the bed and touched her genital area.

+Coy's attorney, Chip Lewis, showed jurors portions of movies which the girl had watched, including: "Scream," "Scream 2" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

He also showed portions of "Scary Movie" and "Scary Movie Part 2," which Lewis said depicted the sexual acts the girl had alleged against his client.

"The principle is that a child who is not sure if (the alleged act) was a dream or reality has got to get the idea from somewhere," Lewis said. "It's fairly easy to draw an inference from the fact she was exposed to such violent, graphic sexual material."
Sept. 22

A theft was reported at the 1500 block of Yonkers St. on Sept. 22.

An assault was reported at the 1300 block of Independence Street on Sept. 22. A person assaulted another. A wallet was also reportedly stolen.

A burglary was reported at the 2500 block of Sabine on Sept. 22. An unknown person entered the habitat and took a 32-inch TV.

Theft was reported at the 1500 block of I-27 on Sept. 22. A woman was seen leaving Walmart with she had not paid for.

A theft was reported at the 1000 block of N. I-27. A known person took two waxing buffers.

Two people were arrested on Sept. 22 at the 1500 block of N. I-27. A woman was seen exiting the store without paying for the items. Officers arrested a 51-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman were both charged with theft.

A theft was reported at W. 8th and N. Columbia. The victim reported a stolen firearm. Plainview police arrested 24-year-old Dalx Charles Wayn Gary and charge him with two counts of theft of a firearm, which is a felony.

Animal cruelty was reported at the 200 block of SE 6th Street on Sept. 22. A person reported a serious bodily injury to their animal.

A burglary was reported at the 1000 block of Utica on Sept. 22.

An assault was reported at the 1200 block of Milwaukee Street on Sept. 22. A known person assaulted another resulting in the victim developing a black eye.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported at the 800 block of Quincy Street. No injuries were reported.

Shoplifting was reported at the 1500 block of I-27. A known person was seen leaving the store with stolen property.

Sept. 23

Officers were dispatched to the 200 block of SE 4th Street on Sept. 23 in reference to a vehicle hitting a pole. Officers found the driver to be intoxicated. The 26-year-old man was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Officers arrested a 38-year-old man at the 1900 block of Kokomo on Sept. 23 for multiple active warrants including for assault, and two for theft.

A crash was reported at W. 24th Street and Yonkers on Sept. 23. A gold Hyundai SUV failed to stop at the red light at the intersection and was struck by a First Student School bus occupied by just two adults. The driver of the Hyundai was taken to Covenant Plainview Hospital by EMS for non-life-threatening injuries.

Criminal trespassing was reported at the 1300 block of Nassau on Sept. 23. The reporting party noted the suspect tried to enter her home without permission and was later seen trying to take a hose from her yard.

A burglary was reported at the 300 block of Thomas Blvd. on Sept. 23. A man entered a residence without consent and took a pair of earbuds. Police arrested 33-year-old David Orona and charged him with burglary of a habitation, which is a felony.

Theft from a vehicle was reported at the 600 block of N. Date Street on Sept. 23.

A stolen vehicle was reported from the 900 block of Denver Street on Sept. 23. Police arrested Bertha Dominguez, 37, on Sept. 25 and charged her with unauthorized use of a vehicle, which is a felony.

Sept. 24

Officers responded to the 3400 block of Olton Road on Sept. 24 in reference to a public intoxication. Police arrested a 46-year-old man and charged him with public intoxication and with obstruction of justice for failure to identify.

A 35-year-old man was arrested on Sept. 24 at the 2500 block of W. 26th Street. Officers responded to the location in reference to a suspicious person. The man was found to be under the influence of an intoxicant and was charged with public intoxication.

Police arrested a 44-year-old man at the 1000 block of W. 5th Street for an active out-of-county warrant.

A burglary was reported at the 900 block of Fir Street on Sept. 24. Police arrested and charged 18-year-old Omar Jordan Garza with burglary of a habitation, which is a felony, and with three active warrants.

A crash was reported at W. 10th and Ennis on Sept. 24.

A crash was reported at the 4000 block of Olton Road on Sept. 24.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported at the 2600 block of W. 24th Street on Sept. 24.

Sept. 25

Police arrested an 18-year-old man at the 500 block of Vernon Street on Sept. 25 for assault. The individual was charged with assault causing bodily injury.

A theft was reported at the 1200 block of W. 11th Street on Sept. 25. An old set of license plates stolen from a vehicle were recovered and then returned back to the owner.

Theft was reported at the 2300 block of W. 20th Street on Sept. 25.

A crash was reported at the 3400 block of Olton Road on Sept. 25.

A theft was reported at the 400 block of W. 11th Street on Sept. 25. Someone stole a trailer from the location.

Sept. 26

Disorderly conduct was reported at the 800 block of Milwaukee on Sept. 26. A 27-year-old was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after breaking peace through vulgar language.

Harassment by phone was reported to police on Sept. 26.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported at the 2500 block of N. Columbia.

A sexual assault was reported on Sept. 26.

Theft from mail was reported at the 600 block of W. 27th Street on Sept. 26. The reporting party said someone stole a check and cashed it without permission.

Sept. 27

Stolen identity was reported at the 500 block of N. Broadway on Sept. 27. The reporting party says his name was forged on a marriage certificate.

Fraud was reported at the 700 block of W. 27th Street on Sept. 27. The reporting party told officers an unknown person used her credit card information to make a purchase without authorization.

Forgery was reported at the 1500 block of N. I-27. An unknown person passed two counterfeit $100 bills.

A sexual assault involving a child was reported on Sept. 27.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported at the 1900 block of W. 18th Street on Sept. 27.
San Francisco is in the grips of an unprecedented drug epidemic as fentanyl floods the street-drug marketplace, intensifying the peril of addiction and leading to a staggering number of overdose deaths.

While myriad other drugs such as cocaine, heroin and especially methamphetamine are part of the city's recreational drug supply, the number of accidental overdose deaths tied to the astonishingly cheap, potent and addictive synthetic opioid went up 483% from 2018 to 2020. Fentanyl was detected in the blood of 89 of the 260 total people who died from overdoses in San Francisco in 2018, while it was present in 519 of the 712 people who overdosed in 2020, data shared by the city with SFGATE showed.

Illicit fentanyl, which can be 50 times more powerful than heroin, emerged in San Francisco only a few years ago. As recently as 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it didn't seize any fentanyl in its Northern California region. The agency confiscated 15 kilograms in 2016 and numbers rose in following years. In 2020, the division seized 29 kilograms of fentanyl, and this year so far 74 kilograms have been confiscated  an amount that could kill up to 37 million people when you consider 2 milligrams is a lethal dose.

"Thats double what we seized last year and were not even done with the year," said Wade Shannon, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's San Francisco field division with a region stretching from the California-Oregon border to Bakersfield. "We are drowning in fentanyl."

Where is all the fentanyl in San Francisco coming from?

As with all illegal drugs, fentanyl flows into the United States through a complex underworld spread across the globe, passing through many different hands, its value increasing with each step.

China is the main source of ingredients used to make fentanyl and it also produces the drug in a completed form, usually powder. The Chinese government has recently cracked down on the drug, and India has emerged as a new player, the DEA said in a 2020 report. From China and India, the ingredients and powder are sent on container ships to Mexico. Much smaller amounts are sold over the dark web and sent through the mail, sometimes directly into the hands of people who intend to use the drug in the U.S.

Transnational criminal groups, also known as cartels, are the next step in the supply chain, and they're synthesizing the drug, producing mainly powder, packaging it to be sold in the U.S. in pure form and also lacing other drugs such as cocaine and heroin with it, the DEA said. Fentanyl is an inexpensive and easy way to pump up the potency of other drugs.

Cartels are also stamping fentanyl into pills made to look like legitimate prescription pills such as OxyContin, Adderall and Xanax.

The DEA launched a nationwide campaign this week to increase awareness about the increasing prevalence of criminal drug networks mass-producing fake pills, with the number of DEA-seized counterfeit pills containing fentanyl jumping nearly 430% since 2019.

Shannon said 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose and recent DEA lab testing revealed that two out of every five pills with fentanyl contained a deadly amount.

"The quality of these pills  its an inexact science," said Shannon. "The cartel who are stamping these pills dont have quality control. You can get what we call hot batches."

Unlike heroin, cocaine or marijuana, fentanyl doesn't require farmland, sunshine, rain or field hands. The highly potent and addictive drug is easily synthesized with few ingredients in a lab, making it a drug trafficker's dream.

Shannon said a cartel can purchase a kilogram of fentanyl powder for $3,000 to to $5,000 and that can make a half-million pills.

"This leads to a $1.5 million return on that investment," Shannon said. "Thats a huge benefit for the transnational criminal organizations."

The cartels are working with local distribution networks, street gangs or smaller entities in the U.S. to sell the drug on the streets and also through social media.

"For San Francisco, its usually coming through the Central Valley and working its way north into San Francisco," Shannon said.

Pills are sold on the streets of San Francisco for $4 to $10 each, Shannon said. People are also buying the drug in powder form, sometimes smoking it. Often they're getting the drug unknowingly when they purchase pills and other drugs.

How much of the use is intentional versus accidental? "The simple answer is that we dont know," Dr. Sarah Mars, a UCSF associate researcher studying fentanyl use with USCF professor Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, wrote in an email. "When people are able to buy fentanyl as fentanyl, use is clearly intentional but when drugs are mixed together, it is difficult to tell. Much of the data we have is obtained post mortem after overdoses and we do not know whether the person who took the drugs planned to mix them with fentanyl or not."

Fentanyl emerged on the East Coast before the West Coast

Up to 100 times more powerful than morphine, fentanyl, like all opiates, is a respiratory depressant and can impact a person's ability to breathe. In an overdose situation, a person's breathing can entirely stop with little or no oxygen reaching the brain and this can lead to a coma, irreversible brain damage and death.

Research shows that the potency of fentanyl is more likely to trigger an overdose than other opioids. One reason the risk for overdose is so high with fentanyl is it acts almost immediately. While a heroin overdose can take 20 to 30 minutes to progress to cardiac arrest, with fentanyl it can happen in minutes.

Fentanyl was initially created in the 1960s to manage pain after surgery, and its clinical use expanded in the 1990s with the introduction of the extended release patch for chronic pain, typically advanced cancer pain.

Illicit fentanyl first emerged on the East Coast in about 2014, mainly found as an adulterant in powdered heroin.

"They called it a poisoning epidemic because it was being called heroin but it had this 40 times more potent product in it and it was poisoning people," said Ciccarone, who specializes in addiction medicine and has followed the westward expansion of fentanyl. "After 2018 it started coming into the West."

Through their research at UCSF, Ciccarone and Mars have found evidence that people who use opioids on the East Coast may tend to actively avoid fentanyl, as test strips that alert consumers to its presence in their drugs have become more common.

Ciccarone said there's some evidence some people in San Francisco are seeking out and choosing to take fentanyl, but there's still a lot more research to be done. A 2021 quantitative and qualitative study on fentanyl use in the Bay Area found some people who use drugs were switching from injecting tar heroin to smoking fentanyl, citing benefits such as lower cost and less social stigma by reducing visible "track marks" from injections.

Researchers such as Ciccarone and Mars are launching studies to better understand how fentanyl is being used on the streets, while the DEA, in conjunction with the San Francisco Police Department, tries to get the drug off the streets. Meanwhile, city agencies are working hard to reduce drug use and prevent overdose deaths, helping get users into recovery and administering Naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication. Across the city, Naloxone is on hand everywhere from public libraries to bars. With fentanyl at the center of this effort, none of it is easy.

"Its like nothing Ive ever experienced in my career," Shannon said. "There have been drug overdoses ever since there have been drugs, but the data and deaths were seeing with fentanyl, its uncharted territory."
The people of San Antonio love a good food pop-up, and this weekend, they won't be disappointed.

Sijang Korean Corn Dogs, a flavor-packed corn dog concept, will debut at 7 p.m. this Sunday at Rumble, offering experimental decked out dogs, kimchi queso tater-tots, and a cute, Kewpie mascot-inspired logo.

If you're unsure about your stance on corn dogs, or perhaps have been freezer burned one too many times, the new pop-up may sway you.

Menu items include palate-pandering spectacles like "The SA" complete with Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Kewpie mayo and pork, along with more classic offerings.

"Its a great hand-held street food with the foundation for almost endless tweaking and expansion. Playing with different sauces, batters, toppings & proteins gives us a lot of room to grow and put our own spin on the idea of what a Korean corn dog is," says Brian Reese, Sijang co-founder and sous chef at The Hayden.

Courtesy of Sijang Korean Corn Dogs

The pop-up materialized when friends Reese and co-founder Eddie Barrera, a cook working out of Extra Fine, began brainstorming after the St. Mary's bar held an open call for pop-ups earlier this year. When finally approved by restaurateur Chad Carey and Sophie Gonzales from Rumble, Sijang was on its way.

"I was up one night, craving a cheesy Korean Corn Dog, but the issue was where do I get one? So I shot a message to Brian talking about how we need to bring these to San Antonio! And we had finally settled on one concept amongst the piles and piles of trashed and burned pop-up menus written. We knew we had an ability so we ran with it," says Barrera.

Courtesy of Sijang Korean Corn Dogs

During the pop-up, the bar will be serving up a complimentary drink menu featuring boozy Korean coffee, an ube daiquiri and yuzu margaritas. DJ sets will abound, including a multi-media performance by lzrcat. The Sijang duo will also be accepting donations on behalf of local disability and reproductive rights organizations, HEARD and Buckle Bunnies.

"All in all we just wanted to create a cool environment for all of our hardworking service industry brethren to come kick out after a rowdy week of service," explains Reese.

"I like the idea of keeping the integrity of a Korean Market dog and catering the palates of our fellow San Antonians. Shout out to Chef John Philpot for the introducing me to the K-Dog Circa 2019," says Barrera.

The pair plan on doing more Sijang focused events in the future.

Courtesy of Sijang Korean Corn Dogs

Also on Sunday, as in October 3, Gigi's Deli, the Italian sandwich concept by chef Matthew Garcia, will host its second event at the St. Mary's wine bar, Little Death. Instead of Sunday supper with the Sopranos, guests are encouraged to wear pink for a Mean Girls movie party.

The iconic Tina Fey film will be projected while guest dine on crispy Italian eggplant parmesan, sign a real Burn Book, and enjoy other delectable delights. Food will be served from 5 p.m. while provisions last.

Courtesy of Matthew Garcia
NEW YORK (AP)  Rudy Giulianis lawyers forced a much narrower review of his seized electronic devices after complaining that prosecutors looking for proof of a crime were going to see information going back to his early days as New York Citys mayor 26 years ago, court papers released Tuesday show.

The lawyers complained in late August to a Manhattan federal judge that devices seized from ex-President Donald Trump's former personal attorney during late-April raids contained at least 26 years of data stretching from Feb. 24, 1995, to midway through this year. Giuliani was New York City's mayor from 1994 through 2001.

The lawyers said the review of data on the devices should be limited to the time period specified in search warrants seeking information related to Giuliani's interactions with Ukrainian figures to see if he violated a law governing lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities.

The papers related to whether the search of data should be narrowed were unsealed Tuesday by the order of a judge who concluded they were documents the public was entitled to see.

Giuliani's lawyers said that prosecutors to the government's credit eventually agreed that they did not need to see documents and other materials created prior to 2018.

Giuliani's lawyers said data prosecutors are seeking might include his interaction with Ukrainian individuals, then-Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch and the office of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine; Giuliani's 2019 trip to Poland and issues involving Franklin Templeton, the U.S. financial firm.

Two weeks ago, Manhattan Judge J. Paul Oetken ordered that an ongoing review to exclude from prosecutors' eyes any materials that are protected by privileges such as attorney-client privilege be limited to documents dated on or after Jan. 1, 2018.

The materials are on 18 electronic devices seized from Giulianis residence and his firm, Giuliani Partners LLC. Some of the devices belong to employees of the law firm.

Giuliani, a one-time presidential candidate, has not been charged with a crime. He has said his activities in Ukraine were conducted on Trump's behalf. At the time, Giuliani was leading a campaign to press Ukraine for an investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, before Biden was elected president.

The privilege review is being carried out by a former Manhattan federal judge who Oetken appointed to the task at the request of prosecutors. A similar review was conducted after raids on Michael Cohen, who served as Trump's personal lawyer before his 2018 arrest.

He eventually pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including campaign finance crimes, lying to Congress and tax evasion and was sentenced to three years in prison. After serving about a year behind bars, he was freed to home detention after the coronavirus hit.
NEW YORK (AP)  Two Canadians detained in China on spying charges were released from prison and flown out of the country on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, just after a top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department over fraud charges and flew to China.

The frenetic chain of events involving the global powers brought an abrupt end to legal and geopolitical wrangling that for the past three years has roiled relations between Washington, Beijing and Ottawa. The three-way deal enabled China and Canada to each bring home their own detained citizens while the U.S. wrapped up a criminal case against a prominent tech executive that for months had been mired in an extradition fight.

The first activity came Friday afternoon when Meng Wanzhou, 49, Huawei's chief finance officer and the daughter of the company's founder, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors that called for fraud charges against her to be dismissed next year and allowed for her to return to China immediately. As part of the deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, she accepted responsibility for misrepresenting the company's business dealings in Iran.

About an hour after Meng's plane left Canada for China, Trudeau revealed that Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were also on their way home. The men were arrested in China in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng on a U.S. extradition request. Many countries labeled China's action hostage politics.

"These two men have been through an unbelievably difficult ordeal. For the past 1,000 days, they have shown strength, perseverance and grace and we are all inspired by that, Trudeau said.

News of Meng's pending return was a top item on the Chinese internet and on state broadcaster CCTV's midday news report, with no mention made of the release of Kovrig and Spavor.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian reposted on social media a report on Meng having left Canada, adding Welcome home.

Video was also circulated online of Meng speaking at Vancouver International Airport, saying; Thank you motherland, thank you to the people of the motherland. You have been my greatest pillar of support.

The deal was reached as President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have sought to tamp down signs of public tension  even as the worlds two dominant economies are at odds on issues as diverse as cybersecurity, climate change, human rights and trade and tariffs. Biden said in an address before the U.N. General Assembly earlier this week that he had no intention of starting a new Cold War, while Xi told world leaders that disputes among countries need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation.

The U.S. Government stands with the international community in welcoming the decision by Peoples Republic of China authorities to release Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig after more than two-and-a-half years of arbitrary detention. We are pleased that they are returning home to Canada, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

As part of the deal with Meng, which was disclosed in federal court in Brooklyn, the Justice Department agreed to dismiss the fraud charges against her in December 2022  exactly four years after her arrest  provided that she complies with certain conditions, including not contesting any of the government's factual allegations. The Justice Department also agreed to drop its request that Meng be extradited to the U.S., which she had vigorously challenged, ending a process that prosecutors said could have persisted for months.

After appearing via videoconference for her New York hearing, Meng made a brief court appearance in Vancouver, where she'd been out on bail living in a multimillion-dollar mansion while the two Canadians were held in Chinese prison cells where the lights were kept on 24 hours a day.

Outside the courtroom, Meng thanked the Canadian government for upholding the rule of law, expressed gratitude to the Canadian people and apologized "for the inconvenience I caused.

Over the last three years my life has been turned upside down, she said. It was a disruptive time for me as a mother, a wife and as a company executive. But I believe every cloud has a silver lining. It really was an invaluable experience in my life. I will never forget all the good wishes I received.

Shortly afterward, Meng left on an Air China flight for Shenzhen, China, the location of Huawei's headquarters.

Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone and internet companies. It has been a symbol of Chinas progress in becoming a technological world power  and a subject of U.S. security and law enforcement concerns. Some analysts say Chinese companies have flouted international rules and norms and stolen technology.

The case against Meng stems from a January 2019 indictment from the Trump administration Justice Department that accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. The indictment also charged Meng herself with committing fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company's business dealings in Iran.

The indictment came amid a broader Trump administration crackdown against Huawei over U.S. government concerns that the company's products could facilitate Chinese spying. The administration cut off Huaweis access to U.S. components and technology, including Googles music and other smartphone services, and later barred vendors worldwide from using U.S. technology to produce components for Huawei.

The Biden White House, meanwhile, has kept up a hard line on Huawei and other Chinese corporations whose technology is thought to pose national security risks.

Huawei has repeatedly denied the U.S. governments allegations and security concerns about its products.

Meng had long fought the Justice Department's extradition request, with her lawyers calling the case against her flawed and alleging that she was being used as a bargaining chip in political gamesmanship. They cited a 2018 interview in which then-President Donald Trump said he'd be willing to intervene in the case if it would help secure a trade deal with China or aid U.S. security interests.

Last month, a Canadian judge held off on ruling whether Meng should be extradited to the U.S. after a Canadian Justice Department lawyer wrapped up his case saying there was enough evidence to show she was dishonest and deserved to stand trial in the U.S.

Comfort Ero, the interim Vice President of the International Crisis Group, Kovrig's employer, said they have been waiting for more than 1,000 days for the news.

Michael Kovrig is free. To Beijing: We welcome this most just decision. To Ottawa: Thank you for your steadfast support for our colleague. To the United States: Thank you for your willingness to support an ally and our colleague. To the inimitable, indefatigable, and inspiring Michael Kovrig, welcome home! Ero said in a statement.

____

Tucker reported from Washington and Gillies from Toronto. Associated Press writer Jim Morris in Vancouver, Canada, contributed to this report.
A little more than a year ago, pop singer Becky G sang her own version of Selenas Dreaming of You at the 2020 San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. It was acoustic, heartfelt and beautiful.

It was also about seven years after she released Becky from the Block, her take on Jennifer Lopezs Jenny from the Block. She was around 15 at the time; in the video, she raps about her family living in a relatives garage, and her love of sushi, calamari and her Mamis cooking. She also warns potential boyfriends to ask her dad if they wanted to date her, otherwise they might meet her 22 tios in the alley. Lots of uncomfortably predictable tropes there, but those resonated with fans because a lot of us can relate. At the end of the video, she rides off in a lowrider with JLo, a sign that even back then, teenager Becky G was on her way, right behind Jennifer.
Yves here. It should come as no surprise the Milton Friedman was willing to get in bed with just about anyone to advance his libertarian anarchist agenda. This post shows how Friedman, even in the era when his economic theories didnt have much of a following, was nevertheless able to do real harm, here by backing school voucher schemes designed to preserve school segregation after Brown v. the Board of Education.

By Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy, Duke University. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

The year 2021 has proved a landmark for the school choice cause as Republican control of a majority of state legislatures combined with pandemic learning disruptions to set the stage for multiple victories. Seven U.S. states have created new school choice programs and eleven others have expanded current programs, with laws that authorize taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schooling, provide tax credits, and authorize educational savings accounts to invite parents to abandon public schools.

School choice sounds like it offers options. But my new INET Working Papershows that the whole concept, as first implemented in the U.S. South in the mid-1950s in defiance of Brown v. Board of Education, aimed to block the choice of equal, integrated education for Black families. Further, Milton Friedman, soon to become the best-known neoliberal economist in the world, abetted the push for private schooling that states in the U.S. South used to evade the reach of the ruling, which only applied to public schools. So, too, did other libertarians endorse the segregationist tool, including founders of the cause that today avidly pushes private schooling. Among them were Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Robert Lefevre, Isabel Patterson, Felix Morley, Henry Regnery, trustees of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), and the William Volker Fund, which helped underwrite the American wing of the Mont Pelerin Society, the nerve center of neoliberalism.

Friedman and his allies saw in the backlash to the desegregation decree an opportunity they could leverage to advance their goal of privatizing government services and resources. Whatever their personal beliefs about race and racism, they helped Jim Crow survive in America by providing ostensibly race-neutral arguments for tax subsidies to the private schools sought by white supremacists. Indeed, to achieve court-proof vouchers, leading defenders of segregation learned from the libertarians that the best strategy was to abandon overtly racist rationales and embrace both an anti-government stance and a positive rubric of liberty, competition, and market choice.

Friedman published his first manifesto for educational freedom in 1955just as conservative white leaders in Virginia were inciting a regionwide strategy of massive resistance to the mandate to desegregate public schooling. The success of massive resistance hinged on state provision of school vouchers to parents who otherwise would concede to desegregated schooling. Virginia and other states maintained the vouchers until 1968. That was when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a Virginia-based case, outlawed them as intentionally discriminatory. Yet Milton Friedman held up that purposefully discriminatory Virginia plan as a model for schooling everywhere in Capitalism and Freedom, now translated into eighteen languages, Whether the school is integrated or not, he wrote, should have no bearing on eligibility for the vouchers.

Black Virginians opposed these vouchers with near unanimity. Oliver Hill, the NAACP attorney who had co-led Virginias piece of the litigation folded into Brown, put the principle in an apt axiom: No one in a democratic society has a right to have his private prejudices financed at public expense.

In contrast, libertarian thought leaders and the neoliberal causes main funder at the time saw no problem with tax subsidies to segregation academies, even in states that denied voting rights to the African Americans harmed by the policy. While Friedman and most of his neoliberal collaborators made their case for privatization in race-neutral language and may not personally have been driven by racial animus, they had no scruples about exploiting white supremacy to move their otherwise unsaleable policy agenda. This history reveals how Milton Friedman and his allies provided aid and comfort to those who presided over a racial dictatorship in the Jim Crow South, an apartheid-like regime that stayed in power through state-sponsored repression, employer retaliation, and private violence.

The collaboration between neoliberal intellectuals and segregationists involved opportunism on both parts, to be sure. But what made it work was the overlap in their values and views of government. Each placed a premium on the liberty of those who had long profited from racial capitalism and sought to shield it from government action on the part of Americans, Black and white, committed to democratic values. At a moment when at least some whites in the South were prepared to accept a more equitable society, neoliberals lined up with the beneficiaries of the old order. Not surprisingly, the outcome was not freedom, but the entrenchment of structural racism.

And the sad fact of the matter is that improving education was never the true reason for free-market fundamentalists embrace of vouchers. As Friedman signaled in that first 1955 manifesto and argued for over a half century, school choice was a way station on the route to radical privatization. The vouchers were a tactic. The strategy they served was to stick parents with the full cost of their childrens schooling and the labor of finding and arranging it.

In my ideal world, government would not be responsible for providing education any more than it is for providing food and clothing, Friedman repeated in 2004 what he had long maintained. Private charity would be more than ample to assure that there were schools available for every child. He was as frank in addressing a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) four months before his death in 2006. Said Friedman: the ideal way [to give parents control of their childrens education] would be to abolish the public school system and eliminate all the taxes that pay for it. In the real world, this would be engineered inequality so staggering that it would make todays inequities look modest by comparison.

That is what todays libertarian billionaire backers of vouchers, with Charles G. Koch in the lead, are keeping from the unsuspecting parents on whom the cause relies for electoral success, now Black and Latino as well as white. Vouchers, like freedom, are a horse to ride somewhere. The destination would shock most people, but soon it could be too late to reverse course.
My position with Nashville Post has evolved since 2000 when I began work with the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister pub in 2008 (when I began some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have worked mainly with the Post since late 2011.

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(Natural News) A top Chinese diplomat says his countrys long-standing promise to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation should be reexamined in response to the new alliances forming in the region.

Sha Zukang, Chinas former ambassador to the United Nations (UN), is adamant that China must make the first nuclear strike against the U.S. if President Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.

The unconditional no first use is not suitable, unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first, or if the US will no longer take any passive measures to undermine the effectiveness of Chinas strategic forces, says Sha, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs from 2007 to 2012.

The strategic pressure on China is intensifying as the U.S. has built new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighborhood.

China became a nuclear power in 1964 and adopted the policy four years later. According to reports, China is constructing nearly 300 new nuclear missile silos. A paper published by the Chicago, Illinois-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has estimated that China has 350 nuclear warheads, significantly more than the low 200s estimated by the Department of Defense (DoD) in its 2020 report on Chinas military.

Chinese diplomats comments come as US fortifies presence in Asia

During last weeks meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) in Beijing, Sha acknowledged that the policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally. But he has also suggested the need to reexamine and fine-tune the policy because the U.S. will see China as its main competitor or even its enemy in the future.

His threatening remarks come ahead of a meeting hosted by Washington between the U.S., India, Japan and Australia  dubbed the Quad. The comments also follow the announcement of the AUKUS alliance, which has angered China. (Related: Most Americans dont realize that each new day brings us a little bit closer to war.)

The new defense partnership between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia is a response to Chinas growing power and assertiveness in Asia, particularly in the strategically important South China Sea. Under the pact, Australia will gain nuclear-powered submarine technology from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Well stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries to dominate weaker ones, whether through changes to territory by force, economic coercion, technical exploitation or disinformation, says Biden. But were not seeking  Ill say it again  we are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs.

Nuclear-powered vessels are faster, can stay submerged almost indefinitely and are bigger  allowing them to carry more weapons, equipment and supplies. Given Australias remote location and the fact its subs may operate in waters stretching from the Indian Ocean up to Japan, these are big pluses. Until now, only six nations  the U.S., U.K., France, China, Russia and India  have had the technology to deploy and operate nuclear-powered subs.

China has nuclear submarine that can slip past Americas first line of defense

On April 30, China launched a new nuclear submarine that can slip past Americas first line of defense and hit the American mainland.

Most U.S. cities are out of range of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) because of the first island chain  a series of bases dotted across the Pacific Ocean equipped with sophisticated submarine detection systems.

With the first island chain acting as the countrys first line of defense, hostile submarines are exposed to detection and attack by American P-8 anti-sub patrol planes, surface warships and other undersea reconnaissance capabilities before even coming close to striking distance of the U.S. (Related: China exploiting Caribbean nations to build military and missile bases that can threaten the continental United States.)

But Chinas new submarine can get past Americas first line of defense undetected. The Type 094A Jin-class, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) runs quieter than its predecessors and can render the first island chain useless.

It can also carry the JL-3 Julang nuclear missile that has a 6,200-mile range. The JL-3 can deliver the same number of warheads, including nuclear warheads, as its JL-2 predecessor. For context, the latter can be armed with either a single megaton-yield warhead 67 times more powerful than the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or three to eight smaller multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) that can strike different targets.

The Type 094A is one of the three new warships unveiled during the 72nd anniversary of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. The others are a new guided-missile cruiser known as the Type 055 Renhai-class and the Type 075 amphibious helicopter assault ship.

In April, former PLA instructor Song Zhongping said that the Type 094A SSBN would boost Chinas second-strike capability  its ability to retaliate after a nuclear strike.

The new SLBM with MIRVs and with a firing range of over 10,000 kilometers is the basic technical requirement for an upgraded Type 094 SSBN to cause nuclear deterrence, he said at the time. China promises not to use a nuke first but a powerful SSBN fleet will help the PLA strengthen their second-strike power against rivals.

China has six Type 094 and Type 094A SSBNs and plans to build two more to replace the Type 092 SSBNs.

China sends war planes into Taiwan airspace

On Sept. 23, China sent 19 war planes into Taiwan airspace before sending five more in a second surge later the same day. Tensions have risen since Taiwan announced its intention to join an 11-nation Pacific trade group that China has also applied to join. The independent state is the first link in Americas first island chain.

The Chinese Communists have continued to invest heavily in national defense budgets, its military strength has grown rapidly, and it has frequently dispatched aircraft and ships to invade and harass our seas and airspace, Taiwans Ministry of National Defense says.

In the face of severe threats from the enemy, the nations military is actively engaged in military building and preparation work, and it is urgent to obtain mature and rapid mass production weapons and equipment in a short period of time.

Taiwan has been keen to demonstrate it can defend itself, especially amid questions about whether the U.S. would come to its aid if China decides to attack.

The weapons Taiwan aims to buy include cruise missiles and warships, the ministry said. Taiwan has already unveiled a class of highly agile stealth warships, which it refers to as an aircraft carrier killer, and its also developing its own submarines.

Follow NationalSecurity.news for more news and information related to national security and nuclear weapons.

Sources include:

TheSun.co.uk

DefenseNews.com

SCMP.com

OutlookIndia.com
(Natural News) Chinas central bank has banned all cryptocurrency transactions in the communist nation.

In a statement, the Peoples Bank of China announced a blanket ban on all cryptocurrency-related exchanges  such as offering trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives. This ban also prevents any overseas-based cryptocurrency exchanges from providing services in mainland China.

Overseas virtual currency exchanges that use the internet to offer services to domestic residents is also considered illegal financial activity, read the statement. Any resident of mainland China who continues working for foreign cryptocurrency exchanges will be placed under investigation.

The Peoples Bank also announced that it is taking steps to improve its enforcement of the communist nations cryptocurrency ban.

Financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions cannot offer services to activities and operations related to virtual currencies, wrote the bank. This is seen as a warning for the countrys finance industry that they will be monitored closely to ensure compliance.

In the history of crypto market regulation in China, this is the most direct, most comprehensive regulatory framework involving the largest number of ministries, said Winston Ma, an adjunct professor for New York University School of Law.

Ma added that this blanket ban on cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges is the manifestation of the communist governments crackdown on cryptocurrency miners back in May.

The Chinese government said it was worried that mining, or the energy-intensive process through which new blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are minted, is hurting the countrys environmental goals. (Related: BITCOIN GREENWASHING: No, Bitcoin mining isnt mostly powered by clean, renewable energy, but the cult-like self-delusion of Bitcoin apologists is itself a fascinating science experiment.)

Government agencies have also raised concerns in the past that cryptocurrency speculation could disrupt the carefully cultivated financial and economic order in China.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Chinas main executive agency for economic management, announced that it was launching a nationwide cleanup of cryptocurrency mining.

In a memo to local governments, the NDRC said it was an imperative for them to comply with the national government and to wipe out all cryptocurrency mining operations. Doing so would supposedly promote high-quality growth in the Chinese economy.

Cryptocurrencies rally despite China ban

In response to the ban, bitcoin, the worlds largest cryptocurrency and one of several virtual currencies specifically mentioned by the Peoples Bank, initially dropped in value, trading at a low of $42,146. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also plunged in value to $2,844.

Many smaller coins, which usually rise and fall with bitcoin, also fell, many by as much as 10 percent.

Theres a degree of panic in the air, said Joseph Edwards, head of research at Enigma Securities, a London-based cryptocurrency broker. Crypto continues to exist in a gray area of legality across the board in China.

But despite the initial setbacks, these cryptocurrencies quickly rallied. Bitcoin rallied close to $44,000 on Monday, near the level it was before China announced its ban. Ethereum broke above its value last week of $3,100.

Cryptocurrency analysts believe the quick rally was at least partly due to people purchasing cryptocurrencies to support the market and to oppose the Chinese government.

Strategists from Fundstrat, a finance corporation, pointed out that this is not the first time that the Chinese government has attempted to crack down on cryptocurrencies.

If we broaden our definition of ban, then we can pinpoint seven dates, including today, in which we witnessed some semblance of a crypto crackdown, wrote the companys strategists.

Other users have pointed out that the Chinese government has in the past struggled to prevent its citizens from evading controls against making transactions with cryptocurrencies.

Chinas actions havent held back cryptos rise too much in the past so I wouldnt be surprised to see it bounce back once more, wrote Craig Erlam, an analyst for currency broker OANDA.

The losers in all of this are plainly the Chinese, wrote Christopher Bendiksen, head of research for CoinShares, a digital asset management corporation. They will now lose around $6 billion worth of annual mining revenue, all of which will flow to the remaining global mining regions.

Learn the latest news regarding cryptocurrencies and the crypto economy by reading the latest articles at Risk.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Reuters.com

NBCNews.com

Bloomberg.com
(Natural News) The Department of Defense is preparing for the possibility of a government shutdown by the end of the month if Congress is unable to agree to a deal to keep the federal government funded. The Pentagon told active-duty service members they will be required to keep working, but their pay might be delayed while the shutdown is ongoing.

We hope that Congress will prevent a costly shutdown, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby at a press conference. The administrations efforts remain focused on preventing a shutdown and a catastrophic default. In the meantime, OMB [Office of Management and Budget] is preparing for any contingency, as is consistent with long-standing practice across multiple administrations.

The White House later confirmed that OMB has already issued notices to federal agencies to prepare for a possible government shutdown.

The OMB itself is optimistic that Congress will pass a resolution that will allow the government to remain funded until the end of December.

Consistent with longstanding practice across multiple administrations, OMB is preparing for any contingency, and determinations about specific programs are being actively reviewed by state agencies, said OMB spokesman Abdullah Hasan. More importantly, there is enough time for Congress to prevent a lapse in appropriations, and we are confident they will do so.

Along with the potential government shutdown, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has sounded the alarm on the looming debt crisis, which she believes can be much more devastating to the United States if left unresolved.

Yellen warned that if Congress does not pass a bill to either suspend the debt limit or raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. could default on its debt. (Related: US will default on national debt by October, warns Treasury secretary.)

The U.S. has never defaulted. Not once, wrote Yellen in an opinion article. Doing so would likely precipitate a historic financial crisis that would compound the damage of the continuing public health emergency.

Armed forces will still defend the country in case of a government shutdown

A government shutdown prevents workers from working because the government would be unable to pay for their salaries. This affects everyone employed by the federal government, including the military.

Nobody wants to see a shutdown, said Kirby. And we obviously will take seriously, as we always do, and as I think youve seen through previous shutdowns, should there be one, that we have to continue to defend the nation, and we have to make sure that the capabilities, the resources, the people are in place to continue to look after our national security interests.

In a memo to employees of the Defense Department, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said that, in the event of a shutdown, the armed forces must continue operations necessary for the safety of human life or the protection of property.

This means active-duty service members will be forced to keep working. But they may experience delays in receiving their pay as a result of the government shutdown.

Reserve personnel that perform active duty functions will also be forced to keep working in a limited capacity. Their inactive duty functions will be canceled.

Civilian personnel who are necessary to carry out or support excepted activities will also be forced to keep working after Sept. 30 in the event of a shutdown. This exemption covers around 357,000 of the Defense Departments civilian workforce. The remaining 429,000 civilian workers will be furloughed for the duration of the shutdown.

The Pentagon has assured the armed forces that its military medical and dental care services will continue in the event of a shutdown. Childcare services and several essential family support services will also continue. But office hours could be shortened for many.

In addition, the Coast Guard, whose pay comes through the Department of Homeland Security, not the Pentagon, will also be forced to remain on duty. But like the other members of the armed forces, their pay could be delayed in the event of a shutdown.

Learn more about the possible effects a government shutdown will have on national security by reading the latest articles at NationalSecurity.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

MilitaryTimes.com
(Natural News) In his latest episode of the Thrive Time Show, Clay Clark talks to Mikki Willis about why those who have COVID-19 should not take hospital protocols of remdesivir and midazolam.

In their first segment, Clark talks about the three proven effective treatments of COVID-19: hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. They also shared the treatments that kill people: remdesivir and midazolam  which were used to end the lives of thousands who were said to have died of COVID-19. An NHS document also proved that hospital staff were ordered to do it.

Midazolam can cause serious or life-threatening breathing problems that could lead to permanent brain injury or even death.

Hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin for COVID treatment

Those with COVID-19 disease are managed by doctors with the help of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

Treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate of significantly sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In a large-scale analysis in 2020, results showed that 13 percent of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died, only half of the 26.4% were not treated with hydroxychloroquine. Moreover, those treated with azithromycin combined with hydroxychloroquine fared slightly better.

Our analysis shows that using hydroxychloroquine helped save lives, said Dr. Steven Kalkanis, a neurosurgeon and CEO of the Henry Ford Medical Group. As doctors and scientists, we look to the data for insight. And the data here is clear that there was benefit to using the drug as a treatment for sick, hospitalized patients.

Demand for ivermectin is also growing globally as some countries are recommending the drug as a treatment for COVID-19 patients. The drug, which was discovered in 1975 and commercialized in the early 1980s came into the picture when Australian researchers reported it could inhibit in-vitro coronavirus replications in large doses. It is now permitted as a treatment for COVID-19 patients in some of the worst-hit countries in the world. (Related: Hospitals are deliberately MURDERING patients by denying them access to ivermectin.)

Remdesivir should not be used on hospitalized COVID-19 patients, says WHO

The World Health Organization said that the antiviral drug, remdesivir, should not be used as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Remdesivir, known as Veklury, and the steroid dexamethasone were originally used to treat COVID-19 patients, but a recent global study of remdesivirs effectiveness showed that it had little or no impact on hospitalized patients.

Remdesivir has no meaningful effect on mortality or on other important outcomes for patients, such as the need for mechanical ventilation or time to clinical improvement, said experts from the WHO Guideline Development Group.

In light of the data from the WHOs trial, which included data from more than 11,200 people in 30 countries, remdesivir has been classified as a drug that should not be used in COVID-19 patients.

Midazolam under black box warning

Midazolam has been given a black box warning by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it has been associated with respiratory depression and arrest by slowing or stopping breathing. Black box warnings are usually issued to consumers when medications have serious or life-threatening side effects that could lead to severe illness, hospitalizations and death.

Midazolam can cause death  in fact, in recent years, it has been used as one of three medications that, when combined, are given to prisoners who are on death penalty executions.

Some reports have seen the use of midazolam in the U.K. to prematurely end the lives of thousands upon thousands of people who were said to have died of COVID. Midazolam was most likely used on ventilated COVID-19 patients as it is one of the two most commonly used benzodiazepine medications for sedation in the ICU. This is used frequently in critically ill patients to keep them calm and allow their bodies to recover.

Listen to the Thrive Time Show with Clay Clark as he speaks with his guests about COVID-19 and other important topics. Thrive Time Show airs Fridays at 3:30 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Get more news and updates about COVID-19 on Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

HenryFord.com

Pharmaceutical-Technology.com

NBCNews.com

Health-Desk.org
(Natural News) This week, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge refused to allow any delay of the states vaccine mandate that is set to begin on October 17th. The decision has already caused a wave of state troopers to file their paperwork to quit the force and even more are expected to resign before the mandate kicks in.

(Article by Julian Conradson republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

Dozens have already quit, according to the State Police Union boss, Michael Cherven.

We are disappointed in the judges ruling; however, we respect her decision. To date, dozens of troopers have already submitted their resignation paperwork.

Now that the judge had denied postponing or altering the mandate, troopers who plan to stay and have not received a vaccine have just days to choose which experimental jab they will take. Any officer who has not gotten their first shot by the deadline will lose their job  Around 20% of them are still unvaccinated.

Officers are completely fed up with Republican Governor Charlie Bakers order that requires them to take the jab. The policy was instituted on August 19th and applies to all Executive Branch employees  including the state troopers. The only people who can gain exemption from the order are those who have either a medical or religious justification  which is very rarely approved.

Its one of the most strict mandates in the entire country, offering no reasonable alternatives.

Cherven explained that the troopers only want to have the same choice that their fellow officers in other local municipalities have. The 1,800-member union has been willing to negotiate  in fact, its their preferred route  but the Governors office has refused to budge.

It is unfortunate that the Governor and his team have chosen to mandate one of the most stringent vaccine mandates in the entire country with no reasonable alternatives. Simply put, all we are asking for are the same basic accommodations that countless other departments have provided to their first responders, and to treat a Covid-related illness as a line-of-duty injury, Chevren said.

Several of the troopers will return back to their former police departments that are outside the purview of the Governors vaccine mandate and still allow for regular testing and masks for officers who dont want to take the rushed vaccine.

The departure of so many officers will become a massive burden for the already-depleted State police force. Special units that investigate homicides, terrorism, computer crimes, and human trafficking, among others, will be most heavily impacted.

One way or another, these vaccine mandates are successfully purging the ranks for the left.

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com and VaccineWars.com.
(Natural News) A writer at The New York Times named Apoorva Mandavilli was caught lying about a surge in Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) cases at schools in order to scare more people into getting vaccinated.

Mandavillis piece contained many of the usual talking points about how the need for people to get injected is urgent because [c]hildren now account for more than one in five new cases. The problem, of course, is that Mandavilli pulled this figure right out of her back end.

There is no evidence to suggest that children are getting sick from the so-called delta variant  or that the delta variant even exists, for that matter. But leave it to the Times to publish falsehoods on behalf of China Joe, who now says that 98 percent of America needs to be fully vaccinated before things can get back to normal.

Mandavilli specifically pushed the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, which is made with mRNA chemicals that permanently reprogram a persons genetic blueprint. This means that vaccine recipients become genetically modified (GMO), non-human chimeras.

Messenger RNA, we now know, is a pandemic nightmare as injecting it into peoples bodies only fuels the mutation of potentially deadlier viral strains.

Apoorva Mandavilli should be ashamed of herself

Another lie in Mandavillis article is her false claim that [n]early 30,000 children were hospitalized for Covid in August, and that the worst-hit states are those considered to be the least vaccinated.

Once again, there is no evidence to suggest that any of this is true. Further, Mandavilli made the unfounded assumption that children are being hospitalized for covid when, as we have learned over the past year and a half, most people are going to hospitals with covid, meaning they received a positive test result that nine times out of 10 is asymptomatic.

It turns out that Mandavilli pulled that 30,000 figure from another Times piece that actually stated with Covid as opposed to for Covid, meaning she either lied or does not understand the English language enough to know the difference between these two prepositions.

In any case, Mandavilli wrote fake news that was published by the Times, which is one of the worst fake news offenders. There is simply no truth to the claim that children are being hospitalized, or that their fictitious hospitalizations are the result of some people choosing not to get injected with experimental drugs from Operation Warp Speed.

Another glaring problem with Mandavillis reporting has to do with how she claimed that cases are surging in Mississippi because children are going back to school. The data actually shows that cases went down once children returned to school in September.

On and on the debunking goes with simple fact checks showing that the Times can no longer be trusted to report truth. Many already knew this, but Mandavillis fake news piece serves as yet another reminder that the Western media at large really is a pile of horse manure.

Hilariously, Mandavilli included a warning in her fake news piece about how parents who are concerned about the vaccine should stop worrying because they might be getting influenced by misinformation circulation on social media.

Somehow, it is impossible for reputable news outlets like the Times to ever get things wrong, let alone lie. And if someone comes to a different conclusion than the one being spoon-fed by the likes of the Times, well, then we are supposed to blame social media for spreading misinformation.

There has perhaps never been a time like this in history where the media has so blatantly insulted the intelligence of the public right to their faces. And they wonder why nobody is reading their rags anymore.

The latest news about Chinese Virus lies can be found at Propaganda.news.

Sources for this article include:

Newsbusters.org

NYTimes.com

WhiteHouse.gov

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The prevalence of serious adverse effects caused by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination is three times higher in Hispanic people than it is in white people, a new survey has found.

Big Data Poll found that people with brown skin are 300 percent more likely to become seriously injured or die post-injection than people with light skin, suggesting that Fauci Flu shots might have been designed with minority extermination in mind.

Richard Baris told Creative Destruction Media that Hispanic people reported the most severe adverse effects that prevent daily activity. Hispanics also experience the most mild and moderate symptoms associated with covid.

While the survey was merely that, a survey as opposed to a study, it does highlight the questionable disparities that exist in terms of how the jabs are affecting people differently based on their skin color.

This revelation could be partly why blacks are more unlikely to take the vaccine than whites, reported CD Media about another minority group that is highly suspicious of the shots.

African doctor declares covid vaccines are not a ploy to kill black people

We also know that for some time now, the powers that be have been trying to cover up all the injuries and deaths caused by the injections in black people, as well as in all people.

So many blacks especially are questioning the safety and effectiveness of the shots, and ultimately refusing them, that a prominent South African doctor actually came out and issued a statement suggesting that the shots were not designed to kill off black people, and that black people should just trust the authorities.

The reality of the matter is, if anyone wanted to kill South Africans using a vaccine, they could have achieved that long ago, stated Dr. Sandile Tshabalala at a vaccine promotional campaign held at UKZN in Pietermaritzburg.

So, it is mere fake news that now there is somebody who wants to kill South Africans using any vaccine for that matter. If youre saying its aimed at killing Black people  Everyone across the racial spectrum is getting vaccinated. Then, why would it kill only Black people? It does not make sense. So, there is nothing like that.

The fact that someone actually came out to say something like this shows what a joke this all is, and how there are likely many more hesitant people out there of all skin colors than the media is suggesting.

Some are speculating that if even half of the population is fully vaccinated as claimed, then perhaps the real figure is more like one third. This would explain why the government, the media, and conventional doctors are having meltdowns over widespread distrust in the injections  because very few people, likely in the minority, are actually taking them.

In years gone by, pregnant women and people with cancer or compromised immune systems were usually exempt from mandated or voluntary vaccines, wrote one commenter at Natural News about how quickly things have changed due to covid.

Yet everyone in the world is supposed to believe that bureaucrats are concerned about the good health of others. These snakes are usually largely to blame in some form or fashion for most people being sick, diseased or dead.

Another pointed out that around 70 percent of Americas black population has yet to receive any of the Chinese Virus injections.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children, Hosea 4:6, wrote another commenter about everyone who is just going along with the scheme.

To keep up with the latest news about Chinese Virus vaccine deception, visit ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

CreativeDestructionMedia.com

NaturalNews.com

IOL.co.za
(Natural News) A 19-year-old philology student is dead after defying his familys philosophical and religious objections.

(Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com)

Mr. Volodymyr Salo, also spelled Vladimir in some accounts, received his first Pfizer mRNA injection on September 13 at about 2:30 p.m. local time, according to the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Mr. Salo was a student there. His day continued as normal thereafter. He ate dinner in the student cafeteria at 6:30 p.m., then played board games with other students in the commons area. The situation quickly deteriorated from there.

A high fever and general malaise kicked in around 8 p.m. Mr. Salo collapsed and had a seizure at 8:15 p.m. and went into violent convulsions. University medical staff performed CPR as they waited for the ambulance to arrive. When paramedics arrived at 8:45 p.m., they applied a portable ventilator for an hour in an attempt to save Mr. Salos life. But he had no pulse by 9 p.m.

Mr. Salo was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

Aftermath

Mr. Salo was raised in a Christian household and was a member of a Seventh-Day Adventists church. That Protestant denomination recognizes Saturday as the Sabbath instead of Sunday. Mr. Salos entire family is staunchly against mRNA and viral vector DNA injections. His brother-in-law told Ukrainian online publication Obozrevatel the following:

He did not tell anyone from his family about the decision to be vaccinated. Perhaps he knew that everyone would be against [it] and would discourage such a decision. And he was so risky by nature, he could make spontaneous decisions. He could be very limited in his desires. They say that those who were not vaccinated will not be able to travel freely, go to cafes, etc. We think that this is what prompted him.

His death certificate says he died from cardiopulmonary insufficiency, pulmonary edema, and acute coronary insufficiency. In laymans terms, his heart and lungs were completely destroyed, likely due to blood clots. An official cause of death wont be known for months.

Mr. Salo was a third-year philology student at the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Philology is similar, but different from etymology. He was a regular blood donor and tutored younger students online who were learning English.

He is survived by his mother and four siblings.

Same song in Ukraine as everywhere else

Ukraine had a 1.7% fully vaccinated rate on July 1. The country had a seven-day average of 936 new COVID-19 case on that day. Thats the lowest seven-day average in the country since late July 2020. Ukraine is 12% fully-vaccinated today, with a seven-day average of 5,921 new COVID cases. Thats a 532% increase since July.



Yet somehow all the vaccine propaganda is still effective with the masses. Ukraine is still on an adaptive lockdown until at least October 1. Regional authorities have the power to tighten or loosen mask mandates, social distancing and other COVID measures based on the local situation. But gyms, movie theaters and large gatherings are essentially shut down across the country. Government employees and teachers face injection mandates in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile Scandinavia continues being the voice of reason in Europe. Sweden has been the target of propaganda by mainstream media because it neither locked down, nor issued mask mandates throughout the so-called pandemic. Its seven-day average for COVID deaths has been near zero since June. Sweden experienced no real COVID-19 spikes throughout 2020. Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg is now referring to COVID-19 as a simple respiratory illness. The country is lifting virtually all COVID-19 restrictions starting today.

Italian actress Ludovica Bizzaglia said she was proud to coax young people into getting mRNA injections behind their parents back. Mr. Salo was a young adult. But his family tried protecting him from the propaganda. COVID continues destroying families in two ways  disagreement on vaccines and death/maiming by vaccine. Weve reached the most critical stage yet in all this.

Stay vigilant and protect your friends and loved ones.

Read more at: TheCOVIDBlog.com and VaccineDeaths.com.
(Natural News) A recent report out of Canada showed a high number of people experiencing vaccine-related heart problems, and the majority of those affected were young people.

According to the report, which was released quietly by Public Health Ontario, there were 106 incidents of pericarditis and myocarditis in people in Ontario under the age of 25 as of August 7, which is just over half of the total of all heart inflammation hospitalizations there. Thirty one of these cases were seen in people aged 12 to 17, while 75 of the cases were noted in people aged 18 to 24. Eighty percent of all of these incidents were seen in males, and nearly 70 percent of the cases occurred following the second shot in the series.

According to the report, public health units there were instructed to raise their surveillance for this particular side effect after reports emerged from Israel and the United States of similar side effects. Public Health Ontario started requiring the same-day reporting of post-vaccination myocarditis and pericarditis in June. The symptoms may appear as early as a few minutes following vaccination up to around three months following the jab.

The report states: The reporting rate of myocarditis/pericarditis was higher following the second dose of mRNA vaccine than after the first, particularly for those receiving the Moderna vaccine as the second dose of the series (regardless of the product for the first dose).

According to Public Health Ontario, the reporting rate of heart inflammation among those aged 18 to 24 was seven times higher among those who received the Moderna vaccine than those who were given Pfizer. The Pfizer vaccine is the only one being offered to those in the 12 to 17 age group, so it is not possible to make a comparison among younger people.

Overall, they saw 202 visits to the emergency room across all age groups for heart problems following vaccination, 146 of which led to hospitalization and three of which required admission to the ICU.

Among older individuals, 54 people aged 25 to 39 were included in the overall count, along with 44 people aged 40 and over.

The two heart conditions being seen following COVID-19 vaccination are myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the hearts lining. The symptoms of these problems include shortness of breath, a fluttering or pounding heart, chest pain and malaise.

Additional studies support Ontario findings

Problems with post COVID-19 vaccine heart inflammation are being seen throughout the world, particularly in young men. In Israel, which is one of the worlds most vaccinated countries right now, a probable link has been established between the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and myocarditis, mainly in boys between the ages of 16 and 30.

Researchers there discovered that one out of every 3,000 to 5,000 young men between the ages of 16 and 24 could suffer from this condition following their COVID-19 shot. Because the harm is greater after the second dose, the country has been mulling giving teens just one shot to protect them from heart risks.

Meanwhile, a study carried out by researchers from the University of California that analyzed adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines in American children found that healthy young boys aged 12 to 15 are four to six times more likely to be admitted to a hospital with inflammation of the heart following vaccination than being hospitalized with COVID-19 itself.

These studies provide valuable insight that all parents should weigh when deciding whether or not the risks of the vaccine are worth it for their children, particularly parents of young boys.

Sources for this article include:

HumansAreFree.com

TorontoSun.com

TheGuardian.com
(Natural News) A U.S. Army doctor who is also a specialist in aerospace medicine has made an unprecedented call to Pentagon leaders, asking them to ground all pilots in all services who have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine.

In an affidavit, Lt. Col. Theresa Long lays out her reasoning, with citations and studies, stating that she is doing so under the auspices of the Military Whistleblower Protection Act.

Long then went on to lay out her credentials: She earned a bachelors degree from the University of Texas Austin, completed my medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School in 2008 then served as a Field Surgeon for ten years and went on to complete a residency in Aerospace and Occupational Medicine at the United States Army School of Aviation Medicine at Fort Rucker, Ala. Long wrote that shes been trained by the Combat Readiness Center at Ft. Rucker as an Aviation Safety Officer and has had additional training in the Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Causalities at Fort Detrick. Shes also board certified in flight Aerospace Medicine and board eligible in Occupational Medicine.

The Army doc noted that before the COVID-19 pandemic, she underwent specialized military training from Infectious Disease doctors from the Army, Navy and Air Force on emerging infectious disease threats, and has recently functioned as a medical and scientific advisor to an Aviation training Brigade seeking to identify risk mitigation strategies, and bio statistical analysis of SARS- Cov-2 (Covid 19) infections in both vaccinated and unvaccinated Soldiers.

Shes also both diagnosed and treated COVID-19 cases, so again, shes certainly qualified to offer an opinion.

I have observed vaccine adverse events following the administration of EUA vaccines, and followed the success of Soldiers who obtained various Covid 19 therapies outside the military. The majority of the service members within the DOD population are young and in good physical condition, she testified in her affidavit.

Military aviators are a subset of the military population that has to meet the most stringent medical standards to be on flight status. The population of student pilots I take care of are primarily in their 20s-30s, males and in excellent physical condition. The risk of serious illness or death in this population from SARs-CoV-2 is minimal, with a survival rate of 99.997%, she continued.

After taking in all the data and observing how the virus does  and, importantly, does not affect  military readiness, Long said she has since formed a professional opinion she is obligated to report to her superiors. The problem, she said, is that no one wants to hear about it.

I have done so with mixed results in terms of acceptance, rejection and threats of punishment for so sharing, she wrote.

The doctor went on to quote Army Training Doctrine regulations, which state that risk decisions are up to individual commanders to accept or reject, and that they, too, must either act on decisions or pass them further up the chain of command. Either way, she made clear that she is fulfilling her responsibilities in reporting what she has found and the conclusions she has reached.

The CDC and the FDA are civilian agencies that do not have the mission of National Defense that the DOD has. Guidance and recommendations made by these civilian agencies must be filtered through strategic perspective of national defense and the potential risks recommendations may have on the health of the entire fighting force, Long testified, adding:

The majority of young new Army aviators are in their early twenties. We know there is a risk of myocarditis with each mRNA vaccination. We additionally now know that vaccination does not necessarily prevent infection or transmission of SARs-CoV-2. Therefore individuals fully vaccinated with mRNA vaccines have at least two independent risk factors for myocarditis after vaccination. Additional boaster shots add more risk. It is impossible to perform a risk/benefit analysis on the use of mRNA as counter measures to SARs-CoV-2 without further data Use of mRNA vaccines in our fighting force presents a risk of undetermined magnitude, in a population in which less than 20 active-duty personnel out of 1.4 million, died of the underlying SARs- CoV-2.

The problem, she said, is that few of the young aviators would know if they had developed myocarditis, which could affect them negatively  including cause sudden death  while they are flying.

Her opinion:

I personally observed the most physically fit female Soldier I have seen in over 20 years in the Army, go from Colligate level athlete training for Ranger School, to being physically debilitated with cardiac problems, newly diagnosed pituitary brain tumor, thyroid dysfunction within weeks of getting vaccinated. Several military physicians have shared with me their firsthand experience with a significant increase in the number of young Soldiers with migraines, menstrual irregularities, cancer, suspected myocarditis and reporting cardiac symptoms after vaccination. Numerous Soldiers and DOD civilians have told me of how they were sick, bed-ridden, debilitated, and unable to work for days to weeks after vaccination. I have also recently reviewed three flight crew members medical records, all of which presented with both significant and aggressive systemic health issues. Today I received word of one fatality and two ICU cases on Fort Hood; the deceased was an Army pilot who could have been flying at the time. All three pulmonary embolism events happened within 48 hours of their vaccination. I cannot attribute this result to anything other than the Covid 19 vaccines as the source of these events. Each person was in top physical condition before the inoculation and each suffered the event within 2 days post vaccination.

The politicization of SARs-CoV-2, treatments and vaccination strategies have completely compromised long-standing safety mechanisms, open and honest dialogue, and the trust of our service members in their health system and healthcare providers, she added.

Now, the question becomes, is SECDEF Lloyd Austin going to listen to her? Doubtful.

Sources include:

TheWashingtonStandard.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Anyone who stays home with an illness is automatically associated with COVID and counted as being part of the outbreak, Albertas chief medical officer said last week.

(Article by Kennedy Hall republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

A clip from a Thursday press conference with Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw and Alberta Health Services president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu went viral on social media and showed Hinshaw stating how COVID cases are now determined.

The clip, posted by Ezra Levant of Rebel News, has received more than 500,000 views on Twitter. It contains an excerpt of Hinshaws answer to CBC reporter Janet French on what the Alberta government is doing to address COVID cases and breakthroughs in public schools.

Referring to the framework in place to manage outbreaks in schools, Hinshaw said, If individuals choose to not get tested for COVID but are home with an illness, they are now counted in the list as being part of that outbreak, and so its less dependent on needing a test to be a part of identifying where there is an issue.

According to Hinshaw, if there is an outbreak in an Alberta school, anyone who stays home with an illness and is associated with that outbreak through contact tracing will be counted as part of the numbers for that outbreak.

Reacting to Hinshaws statement made, Levant opined, To maintain a mass psychology of panic and fear, Albertas corrupt public health bureaucrat now automatically counts anyone staying home from any illness as a Covid case.

As part of Hinshaws answer to the same question, she said, Large-scale transmission in schools is not common  schools are impacted by community transmission. She added that because of privacy laws, individuals are not required to offer information on why they have stayed home from school  whether as a teacher or student  due to a respiratory illness. Since they do not need to disclose and are not required to test, it appears that anyone who does stay home when an outbreak is declared counts as a COVID case, even without a test.

At the beginning of the press conference, Hinshaw spent about five minutes explaining why in her opinion every eligible person should be vaccinated. She did not mention any of the risks associated with the jab, which include a growing list of severe complications that have so far caused thousands of injuries and deaths.

She addressed the notion that people who have recovered from a COVID-diagnosed illness are reported to have strong immunity. The bottom line is that my advice for those who have COVID-19 remains the same; it is still best for everyone to be fully vaccinated with two doses to obtain the greatest possible protection, she said.

Its also necessary to remember there is still some risk that anyone whether or not they have recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection or have received immunization could possibly be reinfected or could possible transmit COVID to people who may be vulnerable to severe outcomes.

There is evidence to the contrary about reinfection and vaccines offering the greatest possible protection. In May, Dr. Peter McCullough, who was the vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, said, COVID-recovered patients so far are racking up a terrific track record of freedom from reinfection. Its nearly airtight  The COVID patients who recover, they have antibodies, they have T-cell protection, and robust immunity. The antibodies are a pretty nice indication that youre protected, but these t-cell tests are terrific. These t-cell direct tests, thats actually next-generation sequencing. Thats your microbiologic evidence of permanent protection.

In August, mainstream journal Science  which has been in circulation since 1880  published an article that stated having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine. Referring to an Israeli study comparing vaccinated versus unvaccinated people, the article said,   never-infected people who were vaccinated in January and February were, in June, July, and the first half of August, six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who were previously infected with the coronavirus.

The same article went on to say that in one analysis, comparing more than 32,000 people in the health system, the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 was 27 times higher among the vaccinated, and the risk of hospitalization eight times higher.

The press conference was not the first time that Hinshaw made statements to contradict the opinion of world-leading scientific publications. In August, she wrote in an open letter to Albertans that she cannot stress enough that vaccines are our most powerful tool in the fight against this virus.

In the press conference, Hinshaw stated that 100% of new ICU admissions were people with no vaccine protection. According to the official Alberta website, on September 23 there were six more patients in the ICU than the previous day  the province of Alberta has almost 4.4 million people. This approximates to 0.000001 of one percent.

The resource states that ICU admissions in the tally include those who are numbered among COVID-19 cases. The resource does not state why the person was admitted to the ICU, but only that they are in the ICU and have tested positive to COVID while in hospital.

In June 2020, surgeries were cancelled at an Edmonton-area hospital due to a reported outbreak that was based on a false-positive COVID test. In July 2020, Ontario Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe made headlines when she admitted that the testing regimes used in Canada can produce upward of 50 percent false positives.

Read more at: LifeSiteNews and Deception.news.
(Natural News) Another mass shooting that didnt have to happen did happen last week  this time in Tennessee at a Kroger food store, part of a chain that has implored customers to shop unarmed, leading to the obvious question that corporate America refuses to address once again: How many more times do these shootings have to happen, how many more people have to die, before these CEOs get it and encourage people to prepare to defend themselves?

A shooter attacked a grocery store in an upscale Tennessee suburb on Thursday afternoon, killing one person and wounding 12 others before the shooter was subsequently found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the store, authorities said, The Associated Press reported.

Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said the shooting broke out at a Kroger store in his suburban community about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Memphis. He said the shooter shot 13 others and himself, and that 12 of the victims were taken to hospitals, some with very serious injuries.

One witness, Brignetta Dickerson, a checker, described what she thought was balloons popping.

And, here he comes right behind us and started shooting, Dickerson told the AP. And, he kept on shooting, shooting, shooting. He shot one of my co-workers in the head and shot one of my customers in the stomach.

The local SWAT team arrived and began clearing each aisle before finding the shooter dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The AP said police would go on to find customers hiding just about everywhere, including in coolers.

We found people hiding in freezers, in locked offices. They were doing what they had been trained to do: run, hide, fight, Lane said.

Glenda McDonald, another Kroger employee, described the violence and chaos to WHBQ-TV.

I was walking back towards the floral department and I heard a gunshot. It sounded like it was coming from the deli. And I ran out the front door and they had already shot the front door, she said.

Calling it a sad day in the communitys history, Lane added: Ive been involved in this for 34 years and Ive never seen anything like it.

Thats amazing, considering how many times Americans have seen something like this mass shooting (and thank God there werent more deaths). But we see them all the time because too much of our society is run or managed by people who, for some reason, want their patrons and employees to be sitting ducks waiting to be killed by other people who dont give a damn how many No Guns Allowed signs they hang in their businesses or jot down in employee handbooks.

The Kroger Company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, issued a statement that it was deeply saddened by the shooting and was cooperating with law enforcement. The company in 2019 asked its customers not to openly carry guns while visiting its stores, the AP reported.

But thats not all Kroger did to enable armed criminals and make victims out of its customers, as noted by Recoil Magazine, a noted gun publication:

Youve made a run to the grocery store to pick up a few supplies, and decide to swing by the magazine rack to see if the latest RECOIL or CONCEALMENT is out yet. Hmm, not there, must have sold out.

In fact, not selling out is the reason youre having trouble finding us, as the memo below affecting all gun mags points out. You see, Kroger, who own the Fred Meyer and Frys chains in addition to their eponymous grocery stores have decided to take it upon themselves to be arbiters of taste regarding what we put on our covers.

We think we put out some of the most kick-a** content in the gun world, so having an Arugula pusher look over our shoulders while we write and design it, didnt exactly sit well. So when faced with the choice of bowing to the corporate overlords or being left off the shelves, our answer was a full-throated f**k you. Wed rather take a hit to our bottom line than bend the knee.

Corporate America would rather see Americans killed than protect themselves, and that ought to tell you where our society is headed.

Sources include:

RecoilWeb.com

Fox17.com
(Natural News) Critical information exposing vaccine genocide is now emerging. Attorney Thomas Renz presented this bombshell information at the Clay Clark ReAwaken America Tour event in Colorado Springs this last Saturday.

The following text is sourced from the description to his video as well as LifeSiteNews which has covered these shocking revelations:

Thanks to a Whistleblower that came forth to Attorney Thomas Renz, the public is now seeing, for the first time ever, hard data from the largest database available in the U.S. to study the COVID-19 impact including deaths & injuries; The CMS Medicare Tracking System.

During an extraordinary speech at Clay Clarks ReAwaken America Tour, Attorney Thomas Renz shocked the crowd of thousands in attendance and millions watching via livestream as he revealed:

That data from the Medicare Tracking System reveals that 19,400 people less than 80 years old have died within 14 days of receiving the COVID-19 Vaccine.

In addition, 28,065 people have died that are over the age of 80 within 14 days of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Total number of American Citizens that died within 14 days of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is 48,465 according to hard data revealed in the Medicare Tracking System.

In July Attorney Renz Whistleblower, under penalty of perjury, stated that she estimated at least 45K people had died from the Covid-19 Vaccine. USA Today Fact Checkers and other fact checking services claimed that to be misinformation. Todays revelations solidify that the Trusted News Initiative is actually the source of misinformation and propaganda, and that Attorney Thomas Renz Whistleblower was correct all along.

After proving that over 45K people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine, Attorney Renz then moved his attention to focus on the amount of people that are being killed in American hospitals by Dr. Anthony Faucis instituted protocol of Remdesivir.

Attorney Renz is also in possession of Remdesivir death data from the Medicare Tracking System that has been withheld by the government from our citizens.

The Remdesivir data reveals of the 7,960 beneficiaries prescribed Remdesivir for Covid-19 2,058 died. That is 25.9%.

46% of people died within 14 days of the Remdesivir Treatment. The Remdesivir Treatment was established in U.S. Hospitals at the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Serious adverse events were reported in 131 of the 532 patients who received Remdesivir. That is 24.6%.

Attorney Renz says  This begs the question Why is this the protocol in American Hospitals? Does this appear Safe and Effective to you?

From LifeSiteNews:

A whistleblower has provided government data documenting 48,465 deaths within 14 days of COVID-19 vaccination among Medicare patients alone, according to medical freedom rights attorney Thomas Renz.

The announcement Saturday was made by the Ohio-based attorney, who remains involved in several major cases brought against federal agencies relating to fraud and violations of medical freedom rights.

In his presentation, Renz expressed his appreciation for whistleblowers who were coming forward to provide the public with such important information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS). He described the CMS database as the largest available in the U.S. for the study of COVID-19 trends because it contains the data of approximately 59.4 million Medicare beneficiaries.

One slide showed that the number of persons who died within 14 days of a COVID-19 vaccine equated to 19,400 for those younger than 81 years old, and 28,065 for those 81 and over, totaling 48,465 deaths.

This is raw data, Renz explained. Theres no analysis. And, he emphasized, these death numbers are from less than 20% of the U.S. population.

Do you want to know why 14 days is important? he asked. Because if you die with 14 days, youre not considered vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one is not considered as being vaccinated until 14 days after their completed injection regimen, raising the question of whether government authorities have been classifying these fatalities as something other than vaccination-related deaths.

Renz provided screenshots of the raw data from the Medicare servers, calling it a present for the scumbag fact-checkers who keep lying.

In July, a whistleblower who works professionally as a computer programmer in health care data analytics, made a declaration under penalty of perjury that CMS data revealed at least 45,000 vaccine-related deaths due to experimental COVID-19 vaccine injections. USA Today and others fact-checked the claim and called it misinformation.

A press release on Renzs website responds, Todays revelations solidify that the Trusted News Initiative is actually the source of misinformation and propaganda, and that [the] Attorney Thomas Renz Whistleblower was correct all along.

Since the roll-out of the COVID-19 gene-based vaccines began last December, with adverse reactions, including death, being passively reported on the CDCs Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), many have believed the actual numbers of injuries to be much higher.

The most recent data from the CDCs VAERS system released last Friday reveals reports of 726,965 adverse events in the U.S. following vaccination, including 15,386 reports of deaths and 99,410 reports of serious injuries, between December 14, 2020, and September 17.

Yet the presumption of significantly higher real numbers is supported by a 2010 Harvard Pilgrim study which found that fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries are reported on VAERS. In addition, even vaccine manufacturers have calculated at least a fifty-fold underreporting of adverse events on this system.
(Natural News) In the latest Dr. Hotze Report with Dr. Steve Hotze, he speaks with Trevor Loudon about the current situation of communism around the world, specifically, the Communist Chinese and their influence in the United States.

Specifically, the pair talks about how Communist Chinese have blackmailed U.S. politicians to the point that they can determine which legislations pass in congress. Loudon said that China was able to recruit many politicians this way: by buying them and giving them business deals and giving them a seat on the board of a Chinese bank.

China pushing back against Biden

However, it seems that there is a turn of the tides.

President Joe Biden has accused China of hacking and other moves, which surprised and angered Chinese leaders, who are now pushing back with punitive actions of their own.

The blows from the U.S. kept coming: sanctions and export control over the crackdown in Xinjiang; warning to international businesses about the deteriorating political climate in Hong Kong; rejection of visas for students and researchers suspected of having links with the Peoples Liberation Army.

The U.S. also rallied nations to accuse the Chinese Ministry of State Security of cyberespionage as well as hacking for-profit and political intrigue. These attacks have infuriated Beijing, but the Communist Party leadership is yet to find an effective strategy to counter Bidens strategies.

Biden has seemingly taken a more strategic approach by enlisting allies to join his campaign against Chinese behavior in ways that appear to have frustrated officials.

Both the U.S. and China said that they want to avoid a new Cold War, but the increasing ideological conflict shows little signs of easing, with a deterioration of relations that surprised Beijing.

The United States has declared its comeback, but the world has changed. The United States needs to see these changes, adapt to them, and reflect upon and correct its mistakes in the past, said Le Yucheng, the vice minister of foreign affairs.

It remains unclear whether Chinese leader Xi Jinping has formally signaled a change in foreign policy strategy, but based on his public statements, patience with the Biden administration is wearing thin. (Related: Criticizing communist China even outside of China is now a punishable offense.)

China has already retaliated against American and European sanctions over its political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang with its own sanctions. China has reined in offerings of Chinese companies on American stock exchanges and it has stepped up its military activity in the South China Sea as well as in the water and air around Taiwan in response to the American policy of support for the island.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also dismissed accusations that Americans made up out of thin air, saying that the U.S. was the world leader when it comes to cyber-attacks.

Deng Yuwen, a former editor of a Communist Party newspaper now living in the U.S., said that many in China believe the next five years to be the most tense period in relations.

Chinas view now is that We are so strong that its no problem for us to confront you. We can confront you for as long as is necessary,' he said.

Americans have negative views of China

A paper by Pew Research showed that negative views of China have increased since 2018, with 67 percent of Americans today indicating that they have cold feelings toward China on a feeling thermometer, where its rating is less than 50 on a 0 to 100 scale. The intensity of these negative feelings also increased.

When asked about the first thing they think of when they think about China, Americans rarely bring up the Chinese people, its long history or culture. Instead, they focus primarily on the Chinese government, its policies and how it behaves on an international scale.

Human rights, its economy and its political system are the most referenced by Americans.

Questions about Chinas early handling of the first known coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan also helped fuel a dramatic decline in feelings towards the country.

The growing dissatisfaction with Chinas human rights practices comes as Beijing defends its labor programs in Xinjiang and imposes national security laws in Hong Kong.

Listen to more of Dr. Steve Hotzes commentaries on The Dr. Hotze Report, on Brighteon.TV, Mondays at 5:00 p.m.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

NYTimes.com

PewResearch.org
(Natural News) The various COVID vaccines being rushed into existence do not operate as traditional biologics (vaccines) and are being falsely represented and regulated as such. Standard vaccines introduce attenuated (weakened) forms of a target virus, in conjunction with inflammatory adjuvant and other chemicals. These new mRNA, adenovirus-vectored, and DNA vaccines utilize the software of the virus, forcing the body to make copies of it.

Professor Jonathan Gershoni from Israels Tel Aviv University explains that three covid vaccines on the market are actually DNA vaccines. Inoculations manufactured by Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson contain DNA (not just RNA) that is inserted into the nucleus of human cells to ultimately translate and replicate lab engineered spike proteins.

India is getting a new type of DNA vaccine made by Zydus Cadila; it will be called ZyCoV-D. This vaccine contains less DNA than the other DNA vaccines and that DNA is not concealed by a viral vector (adenovirus). For these vaccines, the 1,200 amino acid sequence of the coronavirus spike protein is contained in a plasmid, and it is administered intra-dermally in a three dose, three-month protocol using a high-pressure stream of liquid containing the DNA.

Gene experiments, cellular reprogramming and the destruction of the innate immune system

The adenovirus-vectored covid vaccines all contain DNA from the engineered spike protein. These vaccines stealthily deliver DNA from the bioweapon, concealing it in an adenovirus shell. Once the spike protein DNA bypasses the innate immune system, its genetic instructions are transcribed into the human cells, mass producing lab engineered spike proteins.

The pharmaceutical media and the fact checkers continue to lie about the experimental, gene-altering science behind new COVID vaccines. In unison, they claim that the vaccines do not alter human DNA or change genetic expression. However, these vaccines are genetic experiments designed to keep humans dependent on vaccine updates; the inoculations were designed to breach the innate immune system for the purpose of altering how cells read the bodys own genetic code.

The adenovirus-vectored vaccines carry the spike protein DNA into the cell by using the adenovirus to subvert the innate immune response. The mRNA vaccines use lipid nano-particles to conceal the instructions and slip them into the ribosomes of the cell. In the initial process of subverting the immune system, these vaccines do not beckon a strong enough T cell response to elicit adequate T helper 1, T helper 2, and memory B cells. Because the innate immune system is not exposed to the whole virus, including the envelope and the nucleocapsid, the immune system SUFFERS. This incomplete and subverted immune response primes the body for severe disease upon subsequent re-infection.

No guarantee these gene-altering experiments are temporary

With this new vaccine technology, the messenger RNA or the DNA of a foreign, lab engineered spike protein is inserted into the body to overwrite the natural protein synthesis of the affected cells. Once this natural transcription process is re-engineered by the vaccines, theres no guarantee that the cells will stop using this foreign code. There are no studies mapping where the spike proteins travel to in the body, how long they might last, or if their replication alters protein synthesis indefinitely and becomes a part of human cells or human DNA.

Because DNA is unable to transcribe by itself, the DNA vaccines must insert the foreign DNA into the nucleus of the human cell. This allows messenger RNA to make a disposable copy of the DNA, preparing instructions for protein synthesis in the ribosome. The RNA has the ability to interact with the ribosomes of the cell, and is responsible for encoding the type of protein the cell is instructed to manufacture.

As predominant mutations of the spike protein are discovered in the wild, vaccine makers can study that DNA and retool the DNA and mRNA in their vaccines, to replicate new sequences of spike protein in humans each year.

Sources include:

JPost.com

HealthFeedback.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Todays Situation Update podcast (see below) is really an End Times comedy hour, given all the insanity that it covers. One of the big stories is how NY Gov. Hochul is now claiming God created vaccines and wants everybody to be injected with them. Those who dont take vaccines arent listening to God, claims the obviously Satan-infested witch posing as governor.

But the hilarity doesnt end there, of course. Fake president Biden recently received a fake vaccine booster shot while sitting on a sound stage with a fake Oval Office set constructed behind him, beginning the question: Why do they need to fake the White House for a fake vaccine booster photo op to help push a fake pandemic?



Check out some of the photos from the scene, revealing it was all staged with fake windows and everything:

It begs the question: If Joe Biden (is that even him?) really has access to the White House, why would they have to build a fake one to stage more vaccine propaganda?

Demon witch Hochul claims GOD wants you to take vaccines created from research on aborted human fetal tissue

Getting back to the demon-infested witch-thing known as NY Gov. Hochul  whos giving Michigan Gov. Whitmer a run for her money in the dark lord infestation gold medal category  she took to the podium at a church this last weekend and proceeded to declare that vaccines were Gods gift to humanity while claiming people who dont take vaccines, arent listening to God and what God wants.

Here are segments of the transcript from her jaw-dropping speech, courtesy of Information Liberation:

God let you survive this pandemic because he wants you to do great things someday. He let you live through this when so many other people did not and that is also your responsibility

God did answer our prayers. He made the smartest men and women, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers  he made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God. Thank you. And I wear my vaccinated necklace all the time to say Im vaccinated. All of you, yes, I know youre vaccinated, youre the smart ones, but you know theres people out there who arent listening to God and what God wants.

I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say, we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love but to care about each other enough to say, please get the vaccine

Just wow. So vaccines should be your new god, and Hochul is your Jesus!

If you ever wondered whether the vaccine death cult was really a cult, now you know for sure.

In Alberta, theyve thrown out all covid testing and now simply declare anyone whos sick at home to be covid positive

In todays final act of pure comedy, the Chief Health Officer (insert laughter here) of Alberta has now declared that everyone whos sick from anything yet hasnt been tested for covid will be declared covid positive anyway.

I mean, why not? Its all just made-up fiction anyway. The PCR test was a total fraud from the start, so why even bother pretending theres a PCR test in the first place?

Alberta Chief Health Officer Deena Hinshaw: Going forward, were counting all sick people who decline Covid tests as Covid-positive pic.twitter.com/mDZqT030Gh  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 27, 2021

I cant wait for Deena Hinshaw to soon declare something like, We can tell people are unclean just by looking at them. That will probably be the new consensus science in about two weeks, and YouTube will ban all videos that disagree with such assertions.

Bovine butt plugs to save the planet the hilarity never ends

Todays Situation Update, below, brings you even more hilarity, including Leftists saving the planet by serving as bovine butt plugs to stop all the cow farts that were told are destroying the planet. Its a dirty job, but someone has to do it

Also today: Maybe the solution to all this is for We the People to build back BUTTER and stop eating so much margarine. It will make more sense once you hear the podcast

If you want to get the full dose of todays comedy, including my South Park impression of Gov. Hochul, give todays podcast a listen:

Brighteon.com/bfa6ab4e-7f89-47ed-a7da-814cf266f7f7

Find new podcasts and interviews each day at Brighteon.com:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport
(Natural News) Billionaire George Soros has actively engaged in seditious, treasonous, traitorous activities against the United States for decades, but because he spreads his money around to all the right political leaders, he has gotten away with behavior that would have already landed an ordinary person in prison or on death row.

Which goes to prove how badly negligent voters have been for years, allowing political hacks and partisan elites to completely wreck the system of government our founders fought and died to bequeath us.

What to do about that is obvious  stop electing the same Marxist, elitist, America-last individuals to higher office. And when we replace them with leaders our founders envisioned, well be able to hold left-wing groups funded by Soros accountable when they actually call for the murder of lawmakers they disagree with politically.

The Washington Free Beacon has more:

A left-wing group funded by the Center for American Progress and George Soross Open Society Foundations submitted a letter to the government that advocated for murdering Republicans.

Free Press, a well-funded liberal group that aims to reshape media in the United States, sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission that included the question: Are we going to have to shoot Republican[s] to reclaim our democracy?

The Free Press letter, which called on the FCC to investigate its own history of racism and examine how its policy choices and actions have harmed black people and other communities of color, was signed by just under 5,000 of the groups members, who were given the opportunity to provide comment along with their signature. The call to shoot Republicans came from a California member named David Lyons, who further complained that racist horses**t like FOX and the other ultraconservative outlets and Christians owned most of our media.

And again, lets not forget whose organization funds these lunatics.

And while were at it, this is also a good time to point out, again, that the left always uses language that signifies the opposite of what they believe in; Free Press isnt really about freedom of the press, a la the First Amendment, as you can see. They want conservative and right-leaning outlets off the air, but not left-wing outlets because theyre not really about free press, they are about authoritarianism, which is typical for the left.

The Free Beacon said the organization formally withdrew its petition after one of the FCCs commissioners, Brendan Carr, said the murderous, violent rhetoric contained therein was disqualifying.
(Natural News) Fascism is really heating up in New York as the National Guard is now being deployed to replace all of the hospital and nursing home workers who refuse to get vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).

Fill-in Gov. Kathy Hochul  Hochul was appointed, not elected, to the position of governor after sexual predator Andrew Cuomo was ousted  announced on Monday that New York National Guard troops are being sent to every facility across the state where health care employees are refusing the Operation Warp Speed injections, no matter their reason.

Since there are suddenly no longer enough doctors, nurses and other medical staff to care for patients, Hochuls solution is to fill that void with National Guard troops  because why not?

Hochul invoked what she claims are legitimate emergency powers that allow her to hire government agents to take the place of actual medical professionals who know what they are doing in a health care setting. What this means is soldiers in fatigues will now be practicing medicine without a license in order to keep people safe against the unvaccinated health care workers they are replacing.

During her press conference, Hochul patted herself on the back for the move by claiming that it is nation-leading. She is quite proud of herself, in other words, for militarizing New Yorks health care infrastructure under the guise of fighting a pandemic.

Nearly 100,000 health care workers in New York face getting fired by Hochul for refusing the jab

Of the states 450,000 hospital personnel, upwards of 70,000 of them have chosen not to take the shots. Another 25,000 or so nursing home and adult care facility employees are doing the same.

This means that nearly 100,000 health care workers in New York are being fired by Hochul and replaced with National Guard troops who will soon be occupying health care facilities across the Empire State.

Hochul denies that she wanted things to be this way, claiming it was not my first position. Her desire, she says, is to have the people whove been out there continue to work in their jobs, work in them safely.

And to all the other health care workers who are vaccinated, they also deserve to know that the people theyre working with will not get them sick.

This latter statement suggests that the so-called vaccines do not actually work, otherwise it would not be a risk to the fully vaccinated to have them working alongside the unvaccinated.

Plainly stated, the jabs do not provide any protection whatsoever and the government is now fully admitting this. And in New York, preference is being given to those who took the jabs rather than those who made the wise decision to leave their immune systems and DNA alone.

Hochul claims that she had no choice but to ruin the lives of nearly 100,000 New Yorkers who were diligently doing their jobs before she interfered and told them they needed to be fired for refusing the Operation Warp Speed shots.

The biggest crisis New York has is its so-called leadership, which created the declared crisis, wrote one Natural News commenter about how Hochul has hit the ground running with a fresh wave of tyranny.

This new governor is an even worse communist than the last, wrote another about how Hochul is already much worse than Cuomo. I would rather quit my job than be forced to take the jab. Not to mention her trying to twist the word of God to get people to comply. Im not sure what god she is praying to, but its not the One True God. He will provide.

This latter comment references bizarre statements Hochul recently made about how god wants people to get vaccinated for Chinese Germs.

The latest news stories about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) tyranny can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

BigLeaguePolitics.com

NaturalNews.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) The latest threat to the governments Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic agenda is betadine, an iodine-based nasal spray that is helping people to stay safe and protected against the Chinese Infection.

Much like ivermectin, betadine is being called dangerous by the powers that be because it protects and heals without the need for hand sanitizer, face masks, vaccines, and lockdowns  and because a bottle of betadine costs just a few bucks.

It turns out that early treatment with betadine both as a nasal spray and an oral irrigation is one of the best preventative remedies for the Fauci Flu, helping to massively decrease viral load.

The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCC) recommends the following methods for using betadine to fight Chinese Germs:

Antiviral mouthwash: Gargle 3 x daily (do not swallow; must contain chlorhexidine, povidone-iodine, or cetylpyridinium chloride)

Iodine nasal spray / drops: Use 1% povidone-iodine commercial product as per Instructions 2-3 x daily. If 1%-product not available, must first dilute the more widely available 10%-solution and apply 4-5 drops to each nostril every 4 hours. (No more than 5 days in pregnancy.)

The below video from Dr. Jeffrey S. Rosenbloom, M.D., also contains instructions for how to properly irrigate your nasal cavity with betadine:

Mainstream media flips out about people using betadine

Newsweek is really upset about the fact that some people are now using betadine rather than masks and vaccines to cure the Fauci Flu.

In a hit piece entitled, Some anti-vaxxers are gargling the common antiseptic Betadine in an attempt to treat and prevent the coronavirus, Newsweek tried to make it sound like betadine is some kind of snake oil even though it has been used for such purposes since forever.

A randomized controlled trial out of Bangladesh recently found that nasal and oral iodine sprays help to reduce covid hospitalizations by 84 percent and covid mortality by 88 percent. Does this sound like a snake oil to you?

According to Newsweek, betadine could not possibly work for the Chinese Virus because it was never officially approved for this use. This is a sleight-of-hand because betadine is a general antiseptic that has been described in the academic literature as being the most potent antiseptic.

To claim that betadine does not work for the Wuhan Flu just because it was created before covid came into existence is to also claim that there is nothing that works to treat covid except for things that were invented and patented after it emerged.

This is nonsense, of course, but it is how the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex is able to rake in record profits on novel new medicines.

The problem is that much like with ivermectin, it poses a major threat to the system because it empowers people to control their own health and safety without making any of the cronies rich, writes Daniel Horowitz for The Blaze.

Dr. Eric Hensen, a board-certified ear, nose, and throat doctor from Texas, says that iodine is generally recognized and well-established as having a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria, viral, fungal, and protozoal pathogens and has been used as an antiseptic for the prevention of infection and the treatment of wounds for decades.

Hensen himself uses nasal and oral irrigation with iodine to keep himself protected, and because of this he has never once become meaningfully sick throughout this pandemic.

PVP-I (nasal and oral spray) has the ability for destruction of SARS-CoV-2; transmission of SARS- CoV-2 from patient will also be reduced, he says. Thus PVP-I oro-nasal spray can act as an effective shield for COVID-19 protection for health care workers, for all.

More of the latest news about the government assault on remedies for the Wuhan Flu that actually work can be found at Propaganda.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheBlaze.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Johnson & Johnson: Children Dont Need the F*cking COVID Vaccine Because There Are Unknown Repercussions Down the Road  Want to Punish Unvaccinated Adults and Turn Them Into Second-Grade Citizens for Not Complying with Mandates

(Article republished from CreativeDestructionMedia.com)

Brandon Schadt, Johnson & Johnson Regional Business Lead: Its a kid, you just dont do that, you know? Not something thats so unknown in terms of repercussions down the road, you know?

Schadt: Kids shouldnt get a f*cking [COVID] vaccine.

Schadt: Its a kid, its a f*cking kid, you know? They shouldnt have to get a f*cking [COVID] vaccine, you know?

Schadt: J&J is like stepping in the best smelling pile of sh*t you could step in.

Justin Durrant, Johnson & Johnson Scientist: Dont get the Johnson & Johnson [COVID vaccine], I didnt tell you though.

Durrant: It wouldnt make that much of a difference if children are unvaccinated for COVID.

Durrant: Inconvenience [the unvaccinated] to the point where its like, I might as well just f*cking do it [and take the COVID vaccine], you know what Im saying?

Durrant: Its almost like  youre almost like a second-grade citizen if youre not vaccinatedyou cant do anything that a normal citizen can do.

Durrant: If you cant work, I feel like thats punishment enough Only way people really act and comply is if it affects their pockets, like if youre working for a big company and youre going to lose your job, best believe youll be the first one in line [to take the COVID vaccine]Thats what were doing.

*CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO*

[NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.  Sept. 27, 2021] Project Veritas released the third video of its COVID vaccine investigative series today exposing two Johnson & Johnson [J&J] officials, who argue children do not need to take the COVID vaccine in part because of the potential long-term side effects.

One of the exposed J&J employees, a scientist by the name of Justin Durrant, laughs about inconveniencing unvaccinated adults if they refuse to comply with mandates being imposed upon them:

Justin Durrant, Johnson & Johnson Scientist: Inconvenience [the unvaccinated] to the point where its like, I might as well just f*cking do it [and take the COVID vaccine], you know what Im saying? Like I cant go out of state, I cant  my grandmas in Canada and I cant visit her, you know what Im saying? You cant go to France unless youre vaccinated  you know youve just got to keep doing things like that where youre almost like a second-grade citizen if youre not vaccinated, but I know thats awful. Veritas Journalist: Youre almost what? Durrant: Like a second-grade citizen, like you cant do anything that a normal citizen can do. Veritas Journalist: A second graded citizen? Durrant: Yeah like top grade, like the ones that get it, and the ones that just like  then you cant do sh*t.  Veritas Journalist: So then how do we punish [the unvaccinated]? Durrant: I mean if you cant work, I feel like thats punishment enough. Veritas Journalist: People what? Durrant: Only way people really act and comply is if it affects their pockets, like if youre working for a big company and youre going to lose your job, best believe youll be the first one in line [to take the COVID vaccine]. Veritas Journalist: Right, so if youre working for a big company and youre about to lose your job, youll be the first one in line? Durrant: Yeah. Veritas Journalist: Thats so true. Thats smart, thats what we need to do. Durrant: Thats what were doing.

Durrant said he does not recommend taking his own companys vaccine. He asked the Veritas journalist to keep that information private.

Dont get the Johnson & Johnson [COVID vaccine], I didnt tell you though, he said.

Both Durrant and Brandon Schadt, J&Js Regional Business Lead, said that applying the COVID vaccine on children would not move the needle in the battle against the pandemic.

It wouldnt make that much of a difference if children are unvaccinated for COVID, Durrant said.

Its a kid, you just dont do that, you know? Not something thats so unknown in terms of repercussions down the road, you know? Schadt said.

Its a kid, its a f*cking kid, you know? They shouldnt have to get a f*cking [COVID] vaccine, you know?

Schadt compared J&Js COVID vaccine efficacy to the other pharmaceutical companies.

J&J is like stepping in the best smelling pile of sh*t you could step in, he said.

Read more at: CreativeDestructionMedia.com and VaccineWars.com.
(Natural News) Jeff and Shady blast the mainstream media for trying to condition the minds of Americans ahead of Arizonas election audit.

The hosts of the Matrixxx Grooove on Brighteon.TV pounce on several reports claiming President Joe Bidens margin of victory over former President Donald Trump has actually widened following the audit  hours before the actual announcement of the official results.

I dont care what you call yourselves  CBS, PBS, NBC, Fox News  you are all going against the republic. A free press is supposed to help the people protect themselves against a tyrannical state, Shady says. What youre doing is you are helping a tyrannical state attack the people. I do not think we can call that a free press.

Jeff cites some headlines from different media outlets that either downplay the significance of the audit by calling it a sham among other things, or report the leaked information about the audit results. Thats the fake news media right there, Jeff says.

Trump has echoed that sentiment. The fake news media is already trying to call it again for Biden before actually looking at the facts  just like they did in November, Trump says in a statement. Biden is the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Maricopa County in 72 years, and with a rather stout margin of over 45,000 votes. Arizonas official results say Biden won the state by only 10,457 votes.

The Arizona recount efforts may not be over yet. On Friday, Sept. 24, secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem tweeted out a call to conduct a recount in Arizonas Pima County. (Related: Arizona Senate attempts to seize all Maricopa County voting machines for full forensic audit.)

Trump is not giving up the fight either. In his statement, the former president says the audit uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of fraud.

Audit uncovers irregularities in Arizonas election process

While its true that results of the hand recount in Arizonas Maricopa County have seen Bidens margin of victory increase by 360 votes, the bigger picture shows irregularities in the states election process.

Liz Harrington, Trumps spokesperson, has posted the draft of the Maricopa audit report on her Twitter account. She writes that none of the countys election numbers match; ballot images are either corrupt or missing; election data is apparently intentionally deleted; illegal ballots have been counted from people who had moved; ballots have been duplicated more than once; and serial numbers are missing.

In a series of tweets, Harrington expounds on those issues.

None of the various systems related to elections had numbers that would balance and agree with each other. In some cases, these differences were significant.

The numbers will never add up for Joe Biden.

There appears to be many ballots cast from individuals who had moved prior to the election.

Files were missing from the Election Management System (EMS) server.

Ballot images on the EMS were corrupt or missing.

Logs appeared to be intentionally rolled over, and all the data in the database related to the 2020 general election had been fully cleared.

[There are] 23,344 mail-in ballots counted from people that should not have received their ballots by mail because they had moved.

[There are] 10,342 voters with the same first, middle, last name and birth year voted in multiple counties.

The official results vs. Maricopa Countys final records of who voted are off by 11,592, which is more than the election margin.

How can you certify results that the county cant even back up? (Related: Wendy Rogers talks about election fraud and subsequent audits with Mike Adams  Brighteon.TV.)

Arizona election audit sparks similar efforts in other Republican states

The investigation, which lasted several months, has confirmed that Biden beat Trump in Maricopa County. Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, told the Arizona senate on Friday that the discrepancies were small. The hand recount has found 99 additional votes for Biden and 261 fewer votes for Trump.

The ballots that were provided to us in the coliseum very accurately correlate with the official canvas numbers that came through, Logan says. Cyber Ninjas is the Florida-based firm hired to lead the review.

Republican efforts to conduct similar reviews are underway. Republicans in both the Wisconsin and Pennsylvania legislatures are moving forward with similar investigations into the 2020 race.

In Wisconsin, two separate election reviews are underway. One is by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, and the other by a pro-Trump former state Supreme Court justice.

In Pennsylvania, Republican legislators in the Senates Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted earlier this month to subpoena voters personal information  including addresses, drivers license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers  in preparation for a new review of the states 2020 election results.

Reports have also emerged that the Texas secretary of states office would perform a review of the election results in four large counties  Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Collin. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to conduct an audit earlier on Thursday, Sept. 23, despite the fact that Trump won the state by a sizable margin in 2020.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans plans for election review include changing election laws in time for the 2022 mid-term elections. The Senate is likely to hold committee hearings and possibly recommend legislation before the Legislature gets back to work in January.

Watch the Sept. 24 episode of the Matriiix Grooove with Jeff and Shady here:

You can catch new episodes of the Matrixxx Grooove with Jeff and Shady from Monday to Friday at 12-1 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow VoteFraud.news for more news and information related to election frauds.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

BusinessInsider.com

12News.com
(Natural News) Sheriffs all over the United States are standing up to President Joe Bidens Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate. These law enforcement officers are refusing to enforce the mandate, calling it unconstitutional, tyrannical and an assault on freedom and liberty.

Bidens initial COVID-19 vaccine mandate, announced on Sept. 9, requires all federal workers and contractors to be fully vaccinated. It also requires healthcare workers whose employers receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding to be fully vaccinated.

The White House later announced an eventual expansion to this vaccine mandate. The expansion would impose vaccination or weekly testing requirements for all private businesses with more than 100 employees. Such a mandate would apply to more than 80 million Americans. It will also result in fines of nearly $14,000 per violation, which would cripple small businesses all over the country.

Sheriffs believe federal vaccine mandate is an assault on freedom and individual liberty

Pushback from sheriffs and other law enforcement officers came almost immediately after Biden expanded the vaccine mandate. They made their opposition to the mandate known in tandem with many leading Republican politicians who vowed to sue the president to overturn the mandate. (Related: Half of America gearing up to wage legal war against Biden over unconstitutional covid vaccine mandates.)

We, as Americans, must stand up to Government overreach that we witnessed yesterday, wrote Sheriff Casey Graham of Bollinger County, Missouri, a day after Biden expanded the vaccine mandate. He pledged that his office will NEVER enforce such mandates by our Federal Government.

Sheriff Chad Sheehan of the Woodbury County Sheriffs Office in Iowa said he wont force his 120 employees to comply with the federal vaccine mandate. He said he was elected to protect the freedoms and liberties guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States.

Logan County, Oklahoma Sheriff Damon Devereaux made a similar statement, saying that his sheriffs offices first duty is to defend the Constitution. This is why he will respect the choice of his employees to get vaccinated or not.

Im appalled at some of the absolute dictator-like tactics we are seeing from our federal government and several other state governments, said Devereaux. It flies in the face of everything our country has always stood for and is furthering the damage and division done to the people of this great nation.

Sheriffs Bo Stallman of Brazoria County, Texas and Tim Ryals of Faulkner County, Arkansas, released statements calling Bidens vaccine mandate tyrannical.

Stallman said the tyrannical vaccine mandate of the overreaching federal government was like a terrorist attack by a domestic enemy.

On 9/11 we experienced a foreign enemy. Today we have a domestic enemy: The potential of a tyrannical, overreaching government that threatens to violate the constitutional rights of our citizens, wrote Stallman.

In a letter to his employees, Stallman said they will not be required to abide by the federal vaccine mandate or any other mandate that would attempt to infringe on your individual liberties and freedoms.

Ryals called the federal vaccine mandate an attempt to enact tyranny by overreaching the governments authority.

It is in that defense and the defense of individual liberty that the Faulkner County Sheriffs Office will not mandate the COVID vaccine for any of our employees nor will we enforce any such mandate in Faulkner County, said Ryals.

Riverside County, California Sheriff Chad Bianco said the federal government has no authority to mandate a persons individual health choices.

It is time our government and our politicians come to the realization that the only reason they exist is because we the people formed our government to secure the blessings of individual liberty and freedom, wrote Bianco in a statement. As your Sheriff I have an obligation to guard your liberty and freedom.

In South Carolina, the South Carolina Sheriffs Association (SCSA), which represents the interests of the states 46 sheriffs and their departments, said the federal government has no authority over sheriffs in the state.

In South Carolina, the Office of Sheriff is established in the State Constitution and the South Carolina General Assembly determines the duties of the Sheriff through statute. Ultimately, South Carolina Sheriffs possess no statutory authority to enforce federal law, including Presidential Executive Orders, explained the SCSA in a statement.

The SCSA further stated that because neither the governor of South Carolina nor the South Carolina General Assembly have mandated COVID-19 vaccines, it will not be enforcing any kind of mandate in the state.

So, while South Carolinas Sheriffs encourage you to consult with your doctor about your individual medical situation and whether the COVID-19 vaccine is appropriate for you, they cannot enforce the executive orders issued by President Biden.

Learn more about the significant opposition building against COVID-19 vaccine mandates by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

MiamiHerald.com

FoxCarolina.com
(Natural News) Fake Vice President Kamala Harris had her flight out of Singapore delayed for hours recently when her staff was informed an anomalous health incident occurred from some kind of directed energy attack, possibly leaving her with long-term brain damage. Apparently this type of pulse or microwave energy attack on diplomats, intelligence officers, embassy staff, undercover CIA agents and high-level politicians is not uncommon, and the State Department is worried that fake VP Harris may now have Havana Syndrome caused by some secret pulse weapon deployed on Harris during her visit to Vietnam.

VP Harris suspected of being suddenly stricken with mysterious mental illness

Most people suffering from Havana Syndrome experience loss of hearing, loss of memory, loss of balance and long-term brain damage. Maybe Harris simply is NOT fit for office right now. If she is suffering Havana Syndrome, she may be just as senile as Resident Biden, making them both unfit for their high chairs. Over the past five years, a shockingly high number of Americas higher-ups, possibly hundreds, have suffered from these creepy directed energy attacks.

Research suggests VP Harris, if she was attacked by some concentrated energy force, may be suffering from mass psychogenic illness from the recent brain trauma, and that neuro-imaging studies of her brain tissues could help determine if she in fact suffered structural brain changes from the attack. This would critically affect her mental ability to do her job, which for millions is already in question.

Havana syndrome comes with a whole host of symptoms and medical signs, according to reports filed by the embassy staffs of the United States and Canada, dating back to an initial recognition of the disorder documented back in 2016 in Havana, Cuba (hence the name origin).

Who would want to attack fake VP Harris with an energy/pulse weapon and destroy her brain function, besides the Chinese, the Russians, the Taliban?

Research about Havana Syndrome and pulse-energy attacks has been documented in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) since 2019, where scientists discovered evidence that diplomats experienced at least some form of brain injury, and they suspected microwave weapons were a main suspect. Just last year, an expert from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that directed pulsed RF energy (sonic-style attack) is a likely cause of Havana Syndrome and the unexplainable health problems related to it.

Fake VP Harris will need to undergo MRI scans and have chief neurologists examine them to assess her possible brain damage. After the Cuba pulse attack, several diplomats were unable to continue working their jobs due to the severity of their mental health condition, along with other ailments. Should Harris go ahead and resign right now in the name of safety and the greater good of America?

CIA Director now escalating investigation into microwave energy pulse attacks on US officials

Theres a theory that Harris was somehow targeted and stricken by a sonic attack. NBC News reported at least two other U.S. personnel visiting Hanoi had to be MEDEVACED after the surge incident and once symptoms became more-than-obvious that Havana Syndrome had reared its ugly head. It has happened in China and Cuba, and now Vietnam. Could this be tied to the attacks on the US embassies? Did the US leave Afghanistan because everyone at the embassy took a sonic hit to the brain from some concentrated energy weapon? Maybe thats why the US military, under the CCP/Biden Regime, left without their fighter jets, rockets, tanks and ammunition  they were temporarily retarded by an anomalous health incident that left them all thinking-impaired.

Another study done on the Havana Syndrome diplomats revealed through MRI scans, specifically res-fMRI, diffusion MRI, and multimodal MRI, that they had experienced brain trauma. Differences appeared in their whole brain white matter volume and their cerebellar microstructural integrity that was severely compromised, affecting executive functions.

Dont forget, Kamala Harris is the one who wants to end all private health insurance. She may be needing her own coverage in a major way right about right now. Tune your internet frequency to Preparedness.news for updates on how to be sure youre ready for when SHTF, coming to a theatre near you soon.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

NPR.org

Independent.co.uk
(Natural News) The water levels at both Lake Powell and Lake Mead have reached new lows as the drought season in the western U.S. intensifies. The reduced water levels at Lake Powell threaten the Glen Canyon Dams electricity generation, which can produce enough power for almost half a million American homes. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) warns that the lakes levels may no longer be sufficient to produce power starting in July 2022 if its water continues to sink.

The USBR says that the dam will cease to generate power once its water level sinks below 3,490 feet. Once Lake Powells water level goes below 3,370 feet, it will no longer serve its purpose of holding and distributing water. However, the bureau establishes a higher safety threshold level of 3,525 feet for the lake  with an extra buffer before it stops generating power.

A Sept. 22 USBR statement said Lake Powell may no longer generate hydroelectric power as early as July 2022. The same statement adds that there is a 25 percent to 35 percent chance of the lakes water falling below 3,490 feet beyond 2022. It also mentions that there is an almost 90 percent chance Lake Powells water will go lower than the USBRs safety threshold level by 2022.

The bureau earlier recorded on Sept. 20 that the Glen Canyon Dams water elevation was 3,546.93 feet. The Sept. 20 elevation equated to just 30 percent of the lakes capacity.

USBR Upper Colorado Basin Regional Director Wayne Pullan says in the statement: The latest outlook for Lake Powell is troubling. This highlights the importance of continuing to work collaboratively with the Basin States, Tribes and other partners toward solutions.

In line with Pullans remarks, USBS has begun supplying water to Lake Powell from three reservoirs up the river  Flaming Gorge, Blue Mesa and Navajo. The water from these reservoirs will provide up to an extra 181,000 acre-feet of water to Lake Powell by the end of 2021, the statement adds. (Related: Running out of water: Two US water reservoirs hit record lows in June 2021.)

Lake Mead also faces dwindling water levels

Meanwhile, Lake Mead only holds 35 percent of its water capacity. The Sept. 22 USBR statement projected the same dire forecast. It mentioned that Lake Mead has a 66 percent chance of hitting 1,025 feet  the third shortage trigger  in 2025. Furthermore, it projects that the reservoir has a 22 percent chance of hitting below 1,000 feet in the same year.

The statement nevertheless remarks that USBR continues work with all seven states in the Colorado River Basin to address the conditions there. USBR Lower Colorado Basin Regional Director Jacklynn Gould says: Were providing detailed information on our modeling and projections to further generate productive discussions about the future of Lake Powell and Lake Mead based on the best data available. Being prepared to adopt further actions to protect the elevations at these reservoirs remains a [USBR] priority and focus.

Western Resource Advocates Water Policy Analyst John Berggren tells The Colorado Sun that snowpack is a major contributor to the Colorado Rivers water. He adds that the river basins latest snowpack is 100 percent of normal, but says that only half of this has flowed into the river and its reservoirs due to either evaporating or soaking into dry ground. (Related: Water shortage on Colorado River poses severe challenge for Arizona farmers.)

Thus, the analyst warns that both Powell and Mead lakes remain in deep trouble even though a a future snowpack promises more water. He also adds that major water cutbacks for the states in the Lower Basin are now an unavoidable reality.

Its startling how with each new projection, you had thought it cant possibly get worse. Even just a year or two ago, most people would have thought these projections are pretty far away from happening. This just shows that we no longer have the luxury of thinking [water shortages are] a decade down the road, Berggren says.

WaterWars.news has more articles about the water shortages that states in the Colorado River Basin face.

Sources include:

StrangeSounds.org

USBR.gov

ColoradoSun.com
The Atlantic churned another Subtropical Storm named Teresa on Friday afternoon, just 155 miles north-northwest of Bermuda, sustaining maximum winds of 45 mph. It has since weakened to a subtropical depression of 35 mph winds as of 11 a.m. EDT on Saturday, spinning 140 miles north of Bermuda.

The latest storm did not impose long-lived threats to the U.S. Nonetheless, it could still impact portions of Canada in the coming days.

"This storm is expected to track to the north and then northeast over the weekend before dissipating over the open waters of the Atlantic," AccuWeather Meteorologist Alyson Hoegg said. "Moisture from Teresa will be drawn northward along a lingering cold front along the East Coast into Atlantic Canada on Sunday."

Teresa becomes a post tropical cyclone

Short lived Subtropical Storm Teresa is forecasted to become a remnant low and "doesn't appear as though Teresa will impact Canada as it will start to move to the northeast," according to Meteorologist Eric Stone. It was described as "just a disturbance but now has developed a closed center... likely getting absorbed into another system off the New England coast in 48 hours."

However, the result of the storm could bring enhanced rainfall in Areas of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that could lead to flooding. Overall, however, Hoegg said the "storm is expected to be very short-lived with few impacts made to land."

"The storm will only be around for 36-48 hours at most and the rainfall that will occur in Atlantic Canada will only produce localized flooding," she said.

Bermuda could also face some increased surf as a result of the storm.

Meanwhile, AccuWeather watches out for Hurricane Sam, which underwent rapid intensification and made to seventh hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic tropical season.

Also read: New Research Shows Fast Increase in Global Light Pollution Over the Last 25 Years

The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season

Teresa is the 19th storm to form which is well above normal. This year's Hurricane season has trailed behind last year's record-breaking season which collected 23 named storms by Sept. 24 - most active and the fifth costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record. It had the highest accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) since 2017.

After running through the entire list of storm names for the year, the National Hurricane Center used Greek letters to name the end-of-season storms. Only two storm names are left for the 2021 season, Victor and Wanda.

If it goes beyond, the World Meteorological Organization' supplemental list of names will be utilized.

At this point, AccuWeather forecasters watch Sam turn into Category 1 hurricane which increased a maximum sustained winds of 35 mph or more within 24 hours, surpassing that benchmark.

The cyclone's development does not show any signs of slowing down any time soon and indicated strong outflow that meteorologists refer to as 'venting', a typical signature of an intensifying hurricane.

Also read: Experts Mapped Out Enormous Expanse of Ancient Polynesian Sea Voyages
An eagle fossil of about 25m years found on a distant outback cattle station in South Australia has been recognized as one of world's oldest raptor species.

Eagle Fossil

Palaeontologists found the eagle fossil on the coast of a dry lake referred to as Lake Pinpa in 2016. Since then they have identified it as a new species, Archaehierax sylvestris, in a study released in the journal Historical Biology.

A PhD candidate at Flinders University and also the first author of the study whose name is Ellen Mather said the old bird was a bit smaller than a wedge-tailed eagle, having a footspan of 15cm.

She said there is a possibility that it was one of the larger eagles existing at the time, according to what they know. Although Lake Pinpa is presently a sandy desert habitat, there is a chance it was a temperate rainforest with permanent water bodies 25m years ago.

In addition to other birds including ducks and perhaps flamingos, Mather said: "We believe that it would probably have been preying on most of the small-to-medium birds and mammals that were also alive at that time, so things like the ancestors of modern possums and koalas living in the forest."

Also Read: LOOK: Viral Photo Shows Big Eagle Grabbing A Boy's Head, But Why?

The Discovery

For its size, it possessed comparatively short wings, but long legs. Mather said that's quite common in forest eagles and it's an adjustment for essentially having to move through a more crowded space compared to eagles inhabiting less crowded spaces like woodlands or grasslands.

Mather said the finding revealed that Australia had a native lineage of eagles early animals' evolution history. The old bird is among a different branch of eagles and was not a direct forebear of any existing species.

She said it reveals that even 25m years ago, the Accipitridae family was widely distributed all over the globe but also already becoming more diverse, and it seems Australia has been a region of unique diversity even in the past.

Features of the Ancient Eagle

The ancient eagle possessed several features different from any noticed among modern eagles and hawks, including a larger foot-span for holding prey.

Mather said: "Some of the muscle insertion points on the leg were quite deep compared to most living accipitrids [the family of birds including hawks and eagles] so that could suggest quite a strong grip ... considering its quite slender build."

Researchers recovered over 60 bones of the ancient eagle, and this made it one of the most well-preserved fossils discovered at the Lake Pinpa cattle station. Forebears of many other Australian species, like platypus, wombats, and kangaroos, have also been found at the location.

There is a possibility that the eagle specimen was carried into a lake immediately after it had died.

Related Article: Mystery Behind Sudden Mass Deaths of Bald Eagles 27 Years Ago Finally Explained

For more news, updates about eagles and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
A group of leading researchers, vets and farmers from UK are urging ministers to lift gene-editing restrictions and unnecessary legal curbs to ease gene-editing rules adopted from EU.

This biotechnology is like the traditional breeding method, but a better version for people who believe that this preserves genetic diversity.

This method called gene-editing allows the creation of new animal breeds resistant to disease, heat and drought.

However, in a letter to the environment secretary, George Eustice, it looks like there is less interest in using the technology to creation of new breeds in livestock.

Great value of gene editing

"It is every bit as important that we use the enormous power of gene editing to create breeds of animals that are resistant to disease, droughts and heatwaves as it is to fashion new crop varieties," said Professor Bruce Whitelaw of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute. "This is particularly important as global warming intensifies and we strive to ensure we are protected against future outbreaks of zoonotic diseases."

In addition, scientists have identified a gene that may confer resistance to influenza. "We can now think about using gene editing to create breeds resistant to avian and swine flu, and so curb outbreaks on farms, while also reducing the risk of triggering future pandemics in humans," added Whitelaw, one of the letter's signatories.

Recent developments include gene editing on pigs to fight off a disease known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), a widely common disease among pig herds around the world.

"Using gene editing this way has enormous power to save billions of pounds and to stop animal suffering," said Whitelaw.

Also read: Eight Hatchlings from One of the World's Rarest Crocodile Species Found in Cambodia

Why gene-editing research has been lagging in the country

More recent gene-editing researches and techniques such as gene modification have been strictly regulated by EU. This is when European court of justice controversially ruled in 2018 that gene editing was essentially the same as genetic modification and should be subject to tight regulation.

"Gene-editing research in the UK has been hampered by the unnecessary and unscientific regulatory barriers we have inherited from the EU," said Professor Helen Sang, also of the Roslin Institute and a signatory of the letter. "This leaves us lagging behind the approach taken in other parts of the world, such as Japan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Canada."

Britain hopes this legislation will soon be eased and announced directly from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. However, the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform suggests more cautious reform on use of method on livestock, than in plants or crops.

This poses a 'lost opportunity' for Professor Lord Trees, an expert in vaccine parasitology, noting that this could have preserved rare breeds and promotes genetic diversity.

"This could have a very significant impact in reducing antimicrobial and antiparasitic drug usage and help overcome the challenges of resistance to chemical treatment, as well as the problem of environmental contamination with drug residues."

On the other hand, some people opposes to the idea of 'genetically altering animals'.

Also read: Leafcutter Ants' Jaws Found to have the Durability of Stainless Steel Knives
This week, showers and thunderstorms will frequently target areas from the Gulf Coast to the central Plains. It could bring needed rain in some regions but flash flood risk in other areas will also increase.

Torrential Rainfall

As winds steer moisture in the interior part of the region from the Gulf of Mexico, there could be a surge of rainfall this week across the southern Plains and South Central states and this could bring about rainfall amounts for the center of the US. There is also a chance this rain will produce flash flooding.

Matt Rinde, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist said: "The overall pattern in the Plains will remain fairly stationary, allowing for thunderstorms to develop over the same area through the rest of the week." Obstruction from systems to the east is slowing this pattern.

In a normal weather pattern, it is likely that these storms would get pushed eastward with the atmosphere's flow.

Rather, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be stable over the top of the south-central area. And this will allow showers and thunderstorms to constantly impact much of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana every day till this week ends.

Also Read: Unpredictable Weather May Lead to Flash Flooding and Rain Hazards

Thunderstorms

Showers and thunderstorms will also extend farther northward into the Plains by Wednesday and Thursday. Rinde said the day-to-day thunderstorms will not just allow for torrential rainfall totals, but training storms might bring their impact on any given day.

Any time storms "train" this implies that they propel over one region in a comparatively short period of time, almost the same as the way a train propels over its tracks frequently.

Rinde explained: "This means that during a particular afternoon, thunderstorms could repeatedly hit the same areas and cause flash flooding."

Flash Flooding Risk

As per the National Weather Service (NWS), flash flooding takes place within six hours of torrential or intense rainfall. Because of the unexpected nature of this event, forecasters encourage residents to ensure they have means of receiving weather warnings.

Additionally, residents should steer clear of the basements or any place underground if officials happen to issue a flash flood watch or warning in their area.

Drivers are cautioned to avoid driving through roadways that have already been flooded and to be mindful of changing visibilities when intense thunderstorms begin.

Just about 6 inches of water when there is flash flooding can make vehicles lose control or get trapped, as per the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One potential good thing with the rain is that it is moving to regions that haven't seen much rain this month.

Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist said: "Most of the rain will hit areas where drought has been re-emerging in recent weeks."

Since the 4th of September, places like Oklahoma City haven't witnessed measurable rainfall and this put the city at just 9% of normal rainfall for the month.

Related Article: Record Rainfall Causes River Levels to Rise, Flood Risk in Northeast China

For more news, updates about rainfall, flash flooding and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!


Norfolk nonagenarian makes dresses for Jordan Norfolk nonagenarian makes dresses for Jordan

Anna Bayles, a 96-year-old dressmaker from Wymondham, has sent her latest consignment of clothing as gifts to Christian refugees in Jordan.

We have just dispatched about 700 handmade items of childrens clothing to the 5th Gospel Christians, reports Arnie McConnell from St Thomas of Canterbury in Wymondham, where Anna is an enthusiastic member.

Anna works each day in her factory  the front room of her bungalow  where the walls are covered with photos of children wearing her beautiful products.



God has given me a gift, she said, and I could not live without it. Anna asks friends and fellow parishioners for second-hand pillowcases, curtains and tablecloths, which she turns into colourful, bright dresses.



5th Gospel Christians, who have received her latest products, is a charity giving direct support to Christian refugee families from Iraq, with a particular focus on the community of 400 people living in Madaba in Jordan. These refugees refused to renounce their faith and were forced to flee when the Islamist terror group ISIS (Daesh) seized the Nineveh Plains in the summer of 2014.



The charity also assists Jordanian parishes coping with the poverty in their own community and schools, with particular focus on the Catholic parish of St John the Baptist in Madaba.



You can read more about their work here.



Anna goes to Mass during the week when she can, and to the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on a Tuesday.



As soon as I come home from church I get onto it, she said. Seven days a week. I can make a dress in 45 minutes and a skirt in 20. But I dont force myself; it just comes naturally. I finish about 4pm. I belong to a couple of clubs, but I dont have time to go.



There is an important message here, comments Arnie, about the connectivity between compassion from an inspiring woman living out the Gospel, and a group of Christians supporting a traumatised group of people who have lost everything.



Pictured above is Anna Bayles in her workshop and, below, a consignment ready to go.





Eldred Willey, 30/09/2021
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced three new cloud-related offerings to more effectively protect data and make it more available to analytics.

The first is called HPE GreenLake for Data Protection that relies on the companys on-premises Greenlake data-center hardware sold on a pay-per-use model rather than purchasing everything upfront.

The service includes HPE Backup and Recovery Service for VMware and GreenLake for Disaster Recovery.

The backup and recovery service allows enterprises to back up on-premises virtual machines to the public cloud. This is purely a service with no hardware purchase requirements. Customers can recover instantly on-prem, and it is particularly aimed at protecting against ransomware attacks.

Greenlake for Disaster Recovery is based on the data-management platform HPE acquired earlier this month when it bought Zerto for $374 million. HPE plans to deliver Zerto's disaster-recovery platform as a service via GreenLake, with the promise of helping customers recover from ransomware attacks in minutes.

HPE also announced HPE Ezmeral Unified Analytics, an on-premises data-lakehouse service that enables enterprises to perform analytics using all their data regardless of what siloes they are stored in.

As part of the unified analytics offering, HPE launched Ezmeral Data Fabric Object Store, a Kubernetes-powered object-storage service where companies store information theyre processing as part of their analytics tasks. HPE has also added Ezmeral Marketplace, a catalog to purchase Ezmeral software from partners, including Nvidia and Apache.

Organizations have really struggled with the modernization of these data-intensive platforms, talking about these legacy warehouses, lakes and siloed deployments, Matt Maccaux, global field CTO for HPE Ezmeral, said on a Zoom conference.

When I talk to executives, they always say I need to get to the cloud, I want to go cloud native for these data-intensive workloads. But they've really struggled with how to do that. And so we see these fractured deployments, he added.

HPE also announced HPE Edge-to-Cloud Adoption Framework, a service for enterprises to assess their overall data-storage strategy with the idea of eventually moving to the cloud. The framework provides methodologies and automation tools to help that effort while focusing on the specific goals of each organization.

The framework consists of eight domains for building an effective cloud operating model: Strategy and Governance, People, Operations, Innovation, Applications, DevOps, Data, and Security. Each domain framework is designed to assess its maturity against similar organizations and other industry models, HPE says. It also aids in developing an actionable roadmap to meet critical benchmarks on the path to modernization, according to the company.
BOSTON (AP)  The highest court in Massachusetts has rejected a claim that county jails across the state violated the due process rights of inmates during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state public defenders agency and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the sheriffs who run the jails failed to implement regular across-the-board COVID-19 testing, and that they had not adequately followed an earlier court ruling to reduce their inmate populations, The Salem News reported.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday deemed some Republican-backed budget provisions to be unconstitutional attempts to restrict COVID-19 public health measures but allowed language limiting possible government vaccination requirements.

The Democrat's moves, which did not surprise GOP lawmakers involved in negotiations, came in conjunction with her signing off on $55 billion in spending two days before the start of the new fiscal year.

Whitmer's office already said she would block two sections affecting local health departments. One would have prohibited mask mandates for anyone under 18. The other would have stripped the agencies' funding if they had a pandemic order in effect as of this Friday, unless county commissioners voted to support it.

The legislature cannot unwind the Public Health Code in a budget bill or un-appropriate funds because they take issue with the actions of local health department, she wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Despite the language having no force, the Berrien County Health Department in southwestern Michigan quickly rescinded its prekindergarten through 12th grade indoor mask requirement, saying its hands were tied and it might lose nearly $1.5 million. It urged local school districts to require face coverings. The Dickinson-Iron District Health Department in the Upper Peninsula revoked its K-6 requirement last week, also citing the budget provisions that the state will not enforce.

The governor indirectly addressed a provision that attempts to require certain exemptions for students at universities with coronavirus vaccine mandates. The schools receive state funding but are independently operated.

She said any provision that deprives universities of their supervisory control and budgetary independence is unconstitutional.

They've got to decide how they're going to implement boilerplate. It's my understanding that none of the universities have policies that run contrary to the spirit of that boilerplate anyway, Whitmer told reporters before signing the bills.

Negotiated language that remains intact restricts state and municipal COVID-19 vaccine requirements  including for government employees  and bans so-called government vaccine passports. Whitmer is OK with the provision because it does not apply to medical facilities and it recognizes that President Joe Biden plans to implement a soft vaccine mandate  requiring that employers with at least 100 workers force them to get vaccinated or be tested weekly.

It provides a roadmap for public employers to ensure their employees either receive the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine or undergo regular testing to keep their co-workers safe, Whitmer wrote.

The pending federal regulations could affect government employees in Michigan. The governor did state that any provision infringing on the Michigan Civil Service Commission's exclusive authority to regulate conditions of employment is unconstitutional.

She also allowed a requirement that the state health department provide evidence justifying emergency epidemic orders and list what factors it will consider when deciding whether to terminate or modify them.

Whitmer, whose administration lifted pandemic orders three months ago, has repeatedly said she does not plan to issue broad vaccine or mask mandates. But she also has made clear that she will oppose GOP attempts to undermine or restrict basic lifesaving actions."

Republicans expressed disappointment that the anti-mask provision was nixed, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal masking in schools regardless of vaccination status.

Many parents are choosing to wear a mask and have their children wear one when possible, but it should be their decision to make for themselves and their family, said Republican state Sen. Michael MacDonald, of Macomb Township.

___

An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that Whitmer didn't deem as unenforceable a provision requiring universities with vaccine mandates to include certain exemptions, but that she said the universities have the autonomy to decide whether to abide.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
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One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has directly affected over 232 million cases and caused over 4.76 million deaths worldwide.

One of the first countries that implemented a nationwide vaccination campaign against COVID-19 was Israel, which was led by the Israel Ministry of Health. The campaign started on December 2020 and intended to administer two doses of the PfizerBioNTech BNT162b2 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine 21 days apart to all citizens who were 16 years old or above.

Study: Infections, hospitalisations, and deaths averted via a nationwide vaccination campaign using the PfizerBioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in Israel: a retrospective surveillance study. Image Credit: guteksk7 / Shutterstock.com

Vaccine campaign in Israel

The population of Israel is approximately 9.2 million, out of which 6.5 million are 16 years and above. The vaccine was first administered to target groups that comprised healthcare workers, immunocompromised individuals, long-term care facility residents, and individuals who were aged 60 years and above.

It was reported that by April 2021, 10 million doses of the vaccine were administered in Israel. More than 70% of the Israelis aged 16 years and older had received two doses of the vaccine, with more than 90% of adults aged 65 years and older receiving two doses of the vaccine.

The vaccination program was found to coincide with a large wave of SARS-CoV-2. This resulted in the implementation of a nationwide lockdown on December 27, 2020, a week after the vaccination program had started. The daily infections peaked during this time, with more than 10,000 cases reported on January 20, 2020.

The lockdown restrictions started to ease from February 7, 2020 and were eventually lifted on March 7, 2020. Following the lifting of lockdown restrictions, COVID-19 cases remained low until June 23. 2020. On June 24, 2020, the number of cases was found to increase again due to the introduction of the Delta variant of concern into the country.

The high vaccine uptake in Israel during the time of high SARS-CoV-2 circulation has helped to determine the real-world effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine. However, the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections, as well as the COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths that could be avoided due to vaccination, have yet to be determined. One recent study provided nationwide estimates of the burden of SARS-CoV-2 that could be averted by Israel's vaccination campaign.

About the study

The current study published in The Lancet journal took place between December 20, 2020, and April 10, 2021, and involved a randomized controlled trial of BNT162b2. Individuals aged 16 years or older who had received at least one dose of the vaccine were recruited in the study. A follow-up period of at least 14 days was also involved; therefore, the analysis of the study began on January 3, 2020, 14 days after the start of the vaccination program.

Furthermore, countrywide daily aggregate data of reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR)-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive cases were obtained from the national database of the Ministry of Health, along with data on vaccine uptake. RT-PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 was free of cost and widely available in Israel. Individuals who had close contact with COVID-19 infected individuals, who were returning from travel abroad, and who exhibited certain symptoms of COVID-19 were advised to undergo the RT-PCR test for confirmation.

The study estimated the averted burden of four outcomes: SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19-related hospitalizations, severe hospitalization, critical hospitalization, and death. Hospitalizations were considered to be severe if the patient had an oxygen saturation on room air of less than 94%, resting respiratory rate of more than 30 breaths per min, or ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen to fraction of inspired oxygen of less than 300 mmHg. Hospitalizations were considered critical if they involved mechanical ventilation, cardiac, renal, or hepatic failure, or shock.

Study findings

The results of the study indicate that by April 10, 2021, 80% of Israel's population aged 16 years or above were partially vaccinated and 74% were fully vaccinated. The vaccine coverage was found to be greater in individuals aged 65 years or above.

Cumulative proportion of the population who were at least partly vaccinated (A) and who were full vaccinated (B). Dec 20, 2020, was the start of Israel's nationwide vaccination campaign, but the analysis period started on Jan 3, 2021, which was the first day on which people could be at least partly vaccinated (defined as individuals who received at least one dose of BNT162b2 with at least 14 days of follow-up after the first dose). Fully vaccinated individuals are people who received two doses of vaccine with at least 7 days of follow-up after the second dose. Week time points are indicted with the week starting on a Sunday.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Israel had reported a total of 835,811 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 6,292 COVID-19-related deaths until April 10, 2021. Of these, 269,459 SARS-CoV-2 infections, 13,338 COVID-19-related hospitalizations, 8,429 severe or critical COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and 2,859 COVID-19-related deaths took place between January and April 2021 in individuals 16 years old or above. It was also determined that vaccination averted 158,665 SARS-CoV-2 infections, 24,597 COVID-19-related, hospitalizations, 17,432 severe or critical COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and 5,532 COVID-19-related deaths.

Cumulative SARS-CoV-2 outcomes over time comparing observed cases with nationwide vaccination and predicted cases without vaccination by outcome, Dec 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021. (A) SARS-CoV-2 infections. (B) COVID-19-related hospitalisations. (C) Severe and critical COVID-19-related hospitalisations. (D) COVID-19-related deaths. Lines are estimates over time with shaded areas showing 95% CIs.

Thus, the results indicate that Israel would have at least three times more hospitalizations and deaths if the vaccination campaign did not take place. Furthermore, the study also found that 73% of SARS-CoV-2 infections and 79% COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths could be averted in fully vaccinated individuals.

These data highlight the direct effect of the recommended two-dose schedule, but also elucidate the additional, incremental benefit of protection after only one dose while awaiting completion of the full two-dose schedule.

Limitations

Although the study was effective in determining the importance of the vaccination campaign, it had certain limitations. The analysis was stratified based on only age and date but did not include other important factors such as comorbidities, the likelihood of getting tested, or socioeconomic status between vaccination and unvaccinated individuals.

The analysis also did not include the potential indirect effects of the vaccine on the unvaccinated population. The analysis was conducted when the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant was in circulation in Israel; therefore, further modeling needs to be done when other variants of concerns arise.

Individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infections were excluded from the analysis. Also, since the timing of the vaccination campaign and nationwide lockdown coincided, it was difficult to differentiate the effects of vaccination from that of lockdown restrictions.
Child deaths from surgical conditions such as birth defects are too high in Sub-Saharan Africa compared with high-income countries because of a lack of focus on surgical diseases in children in the region, a study finds.

Researchers looked at some of the most common surgical conditions in children, including hernias, appendicitis, and intestinal defects, such as blockages. These can be present from birth or acquired at a later stage.

These conditions lead to preventable deaths if not adequately managed. Most children with an intestinal obstruction will die from hunger and thirst if not treated. However, surgical procedures on time can help relieve these obstructions and lead to a full productive life." William Appeadu-Mensah, coauthor of the study and senior lecturer, University of Ghana's department of surgery

Globally, 1.7 billion children do not have access to safe, affordable, surgical care when they need it, says Appeadu-Mensah. "Sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 50 per cent of the population are children, has almost one-third of the world's burden of surgical diseases and half of the world's under-five deaths," he adds.

The study published in the BMJ Global Health journal this month was undertaken in 51 hospitals providing paediatric surgical care across 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, covering the period October 2016 to April 2017.

Researchers identified paediatric surgical conditions such as gastroschisis  where the stomach wall separates  and anorectal malformation, a birth defect in the anus that negatively impacts the normal passage of stool. Researchers also compared deaths among children of up to 16 years old with those of similarly aged children in high-income countries.

According to the study, deaths from gastroschisis and anorectal malformation were 75.5 per cent and 11.2 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa compared with two per cent and three per cent respectively in high-income countries.

Appeadu-Mensah tells SciDev.Net that there is a need for increased investment and actions to improve surgical care in Sub-Saharan Africa if the region is to end preventable deaths in neonates and children under five by 2030, as targeted by the Sustainable Development Goals.

Appeadu-Mensah says that policymakers should do more to provide resources to help diagnose and manage children when they are born with surgical conditions.

Stephen Tabiri, a coauthor and dean of the University of Development Studies Medical School in Ghana, says that birth defects are now the fifth leading cause of death in children under five years of age globally, with most deaths occurring in the newborn period.

Birth defects involving the intestinal tract have particularly high death rates in low- and middle-income countries as many require emergency surgical care after birth, Tabiri adds.

"In high-income countries, most women receive antenatal ultrasound scan to assess birth defects," says Tabiri. "If identified, this enables the woman to give birth in a hospital with children's surgical care so the baby can receive help as soon as it is born."

Seyram Wordui, a paediatrician at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana, calls for the transfer of skills from high-income countries to Sub-Saharan Africa.

"There must also be partnerships among the different medical specialties to detect the foetal anomalies," he explains, adding that doing so would lead to improved and early diagnoses of paediatric surgical conditions.
Feeling happy about life slowed the cognitive decline among older adults in China, a new 12-year study suggests.

Researchers found that the odds of developing cognitive impairment, such as dementia, were lower in those with better psychological well-being.

While previous studies have reported the benefits of positive psychology on cognitive functions, the research only tracked individuals for a short time, which can underestimate the association between psychological well-being and cognitive change.

Knowing more about cognitive impairment is an important public health issue in an aging society, said Lydia Li, professor of social work at the University of Michigan and the current studys co-author.

The findings have implications for policy and practice regarding supporting older people to preserve cognitive function in older age, given that psychological well-being is modifiable. Lydia Li, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

In addition, enhancing the psychological well-being of older adults not only improves their quality of life, but may also lessen the burden and cost associated with cognitive impairment, Li said.

Data came from a subset of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. The sample included nearly 9,500 respondents aged 60 and older without any cognitive impairments at baseline (2002). The respondents were interviewed five times between 2002 and 2014.

About 2,640 respondents had onset of cognitive impairment at one of the follow-up interviews, and the numbers slightly increased over time, from nearly 11% during the 2002-2005 interval to 13.3% in the 2011-2014 interval.

To assess psychological well-being, respondents answered questions about their optimism, conscientiousness, loneliness, self-esteem and other factors. They also disclosed what social support they received, such as visits from family and friends, as well as their health status.

Although the research focused entirely on Chinese residents, Li said theres no reason the findings could not be applied to other racial, ethnic or geographic groups.

The studys contributors included lead author Jiaan Zhang, a researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and Sara McLaughlin, associate professor at Miami University (Ohio). Their findings appeared in the Journal of Aging and Health.
By quantifying the probability of infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in accordance with its viral load after a high-risk contact, researchers from France, Spain, and the United Kingdom show a substantial correlation of transmission probability and viral load increase in variants of concern. Their paper is published in the prestigious journal eLife.

Even though aerosols and respiratory droplets have been demonstrated quite early as principal routes of transmission of SARS-CoV-2  a causative agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19)  viral load as a driver of infectiousness has been established, but thus far not quantified.

In light of the fact that high-risk contacts are developed before the index case has been diagnosed, it's no wonder that we lack information on viral load levels at contact time. Moreover, since SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern are associated with larger viral loads, its exact contribution becomes a primary question of interest.

Moreover, as vaccines and antivirals have the potential to substantially reduce the amount of viral shedding, it is pivotal to understand how they may actually contribute to reducing viral transmission. All of this means that we need to take a deep dive into the available data to make any reliable conclusions.

In this new study, led by Dr. Aurelien Marc from the University of Paris in France, the impact of viral load on infectiousness was quantified with the use of a large amount of data obtained in prospective cohorts of index and contact cases.

Statistical models for viral transmission

For the purposes of this study, this research group used data from a clinical trial on hydroxychloroquine efficacy that was conducted in Spain between March 17 and April 28, 2020. In addition, detailed statistical modeling has been pursued.

Individual fits of viral dynamics in index cases and occurrence of high-risk contacts. Black dots represent the measured viral load. Squares indicate documented high-risk contacts, with empty squares representing contacts without transmission, and red squares representing contacts with a subsequent infection. Results obtained in the 41 index cases having three viral load measurements.

The role of viral load on the probability of spread was studied in detail by reanalyzing many different data points with the use of a within-host model of viral dynamics. In short, the researchers have reconstructed viral load levels of the index cases at the time of high-risk contact in order to infer its relationship with the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Furthermore, they have utilized the model to predict how changes in viral load levels actually impact the probability of transmission  both in instances when confronted with a variant of concern or when an individual has been given a vaccine to confer at least a partial protection against viral replication.

Model-based predictions of the dynamics of viral load and infectiousness over time. Prediction interval of the viral load (black) and the probability of transmission over time after a high-risk contact obtained from 1000 simulations of the model. The shaded area represents the 90% inter quantile range. Household contacts (Left). Non-household contacts (Right).

Viral loads and subsequent spread of SARS-CoV-2

The study has shown that the effect of viral load was much more significant in household contacts than in non-household contacts, with specific transmission probability that increased to as much as 48% when the viral load exceeded 1010 copies per milliliter. Furthermore, the transmission probability peaked at symptom onset, although there were significant individual variations.

As we already know that the viral load is increased by 2-8 times with variants of concern, and if we assume no changes in the pattern of contacts across these variants, the model in this study predicts that larger viral load levels could increase transmission probability from 24% to 58% in household contacts, as well as from 15% to 39% in non-household contacts.

Of course, reporting high-risk contacts can be prone to several biases, and household contacts may not be unique and could occur multiple times, which is something that will have to be addressed by studies in the future (as well as the use of face masks, which was not taken into account here).

Predicting infection patterns

In conclusion, this study quantifies the probability of infection in accordance with viral load level following a high-risk contact. This relationship is predictive of changes in virus paradigm, which is a result of emerging novel variants, as well as the rollout of vaccination.

"Vaccination rollout is expected to confer a large level of protection, partly due to lower virus carriage in infected individuals," said study authors in this eLife paper. "However, the exact magnitude of this decrease is difficult to quantify and depends on the design of the study that relied on systematic testing or included only symptomatic individuals," they add.

In any case, these findings may be of interest to infectious disease modelers and policymakers. Still, there is uncertainty on the predictions of individual trajectories, which is inherent to the nature of SARS-CoV-2; therefore, additional modeling studies on the topic will be needed to increase the prognostic potential of these types of approaches.
Researchers in Singapore have conducted a study showing active replication of a human coronavirus in bats that occurred without the viral spike protein binding to host cell receptors.

One key interaction required for coronaviruses to enter host cells is the binding of the viral spike protein to host receptors such as angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in the cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or aminopeptidase N in the case of HCoV-229E.

Now, researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Bioinformatics Institute have reported extensive mutations in the genome of HCoV-229E viruses that resulted in the loss of spike protein expression, without any loss in the ability to infect bat cells.

Martin Linster and colleagues say that to their knowledge, their study is the first to report active replication of a coronavirus without spike receptor binding being required.

A pre-print version of the research paper is available on the bioRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review.

More about coronaviruses and zoonotic spillover

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are members of the Coronaviridae family that can be divided into four genera: the alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gamma- coronaviruses.

There are four seasonal CoVs circulating globally  229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1  that together account for up to 30% of upper respiratory tract infections in adults. To date, three coronaviruses have spilled over from animals to humans (zoonotic viruses), namely SARS-CoV, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2.

Based on genetic analyses, all seasonal and zoonotic CoVs have been found to have an ancestral origin in bats.

For CoVs to emerge in humans, they need to overcome the host-species barrier by balancing conserved and modulating genes while retaining infectivity, replication and spread.

One key interaction that is required for coronaviruses to infect host cells is the binding of the viral spike protein to host receptors.

It has been proposed that alphacoronaviruses have a higher propensity for zoonotic spillover than betacoronaviruses, based on their broader range of host bat species and more frequent jumps in viral strains between bat genera.

The spike protein gene is highly variable

The gene that encodes the spike protein, particularly its receptor-binding domain (RBD), is highly variable, with multiple insertions and deletions having been observed.

Variants containing spike deletions have been documented in fatal cases of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 and these were attributed to escape from humoral (antibody) immunity.

While some bat sarbecoviruses can bind human ACE2, most cannot attach to this receptor due to variation or deletions within the spike RBD, thereby pointing to alternative receptors or cellular entry pathways.

What did the current study involve?

To help understand the adaptations required for coronaviruses to cross the species barrier, Linster and colleagues serially passaged six endemic HCoV-229E alphacoronaviruses in a newly established Rhinolophus (horseshoe bat) kidney cell line.

Rhileki cells are susceptible and permissive to 229E. a, Rhileki cells were inoculated with six 229E isolates at MOI = 0.01 and incubated for 6 days. Viral genome copies of the inoculum (circles) and at 6 days post-inoculation (square) are plotted. The inoculum for subsequent passages was standardized based on copy number. b, Viral titers (TCID50/ml) of C2, C2R10 and C2R10C1 viruses titrated in Caco2 cells. c, Viral titers of C2 and C2R10 viruses titrated in Rhileki cells. Black dashed lines represent the limit of detection

Stock viruses were derived from nasopharyngeal swabs and a reference strain passaged in human colon adenocarcinoma (Caco2) cells (denoted C2 viruses hereafter).

During virus passaging in Rhinolophus lepidus kidney (Rhileki) cells, the team observed an increase in viral genomic copies up to 6 days post-inoculation.

To determine the patterns of genomic changes that stem from the adaptation of 229E viruses to Rhileki cells, the team performed next-generation sequencing of full genomes recovered for Rhileki passage 1 (C2R1), passage 5 (C2R5) and passage 10 (C2R10) of the six viruses.

Remarkably, deletions of varying lengths were observed in the spike and open reading frame 4 (ORF4) as early as passage 1 in almost all of the Rhileki-passaged 229E isolates.

At passage 10, isolates SG/1197/2010, SG/1340/2010 and TZ/4033K/2017 exhibited major deletions in spike and ORF4, including deletion of the spike RBD.

Schematic of virus passage experiments. Succession of the virus cultures in our study, nomenclature of viruses, and tests performed on individual batches.

The team suspects that large virus-containing vesicles may play a role

The researchers say that studies have recently provided insights into coronavirus replication, including the description of large virus-containing vesicles (LVCVs) containing intact or spike-less virions.

The team says this might help to explain the spike-independent virus maintenance in Rhileki cells observed in the current study.

Linster and colleagues say that given the wide range of hosts that alphacoronaviruses infect, the ability to replicate without the spike protein could provide an alternative route for infection between different bat species and possibly other hosts that may not share common receptors.

The team says that in this scenario, infection could be initiated by endocytosis of shed virions within LVCVs in urine or stool, and then be significantly increased through acquisition of a matching receptor-binding protein, either from recombination with the host or other coronaviruses.

It is therefore critical that we gain a better understanding of the infection biology of host species, particularly the role of LVCVs, involved in the emergence of zoonotic coronaviruses, concludes Linster and colleagues.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Scientists around the world conduct extensive research to identify and characterize viruses to prevent future pandemics. The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been caused by a novel coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).

To date, COVID-19 has claimed more than 4.76 million lives and caused massive economic losses around the world. Therefore, it is extremely important to continuously identify viruses with the potential to cause pandemics.

Study: Closest known relatives of virus behind COVID-19 found in Laos. Image Credit: Martin Pelanek / Shutterstock.com

New viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2

A new study reveals that scientists have found three viruses in bats in Laos that exhibit similar characteristic features as SARS-CoV-2. These viruses were discovered by Marc Eloit, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and his colleagues in France and Laos.

In this study, researchers collected saliva, feces, and urine samples from three Rhinolophus bat species in caves in northern Laos. The researchers revealed that these viruses were found to be 95% identical to SARS-CoV-2 and were named BANAL-52, BANAL-103, and BANAL-236.

Eloit and his team of researchers have also shown the manner in which the receptor-binding domains (RBD) of the newly found viruses attach to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor in human cells is similar to that of some of the early variants of SARS-CoV-2. They have cultured BANAL-236 in cells and are plan to determine its pathogenicity using animal models.

Evidence of natural origin of SARS-CoV-2

The partial similarity in the genetic sequences of these viruses reinforces the belief that SARS-CoV-2 has a natural origin and did not escape from laboratories. The knowledge of the existence of numerous viruses that can infect humans has nurtured fear amongst people.

David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, stated that this finding is fascinating, and quite terrifying. The most concerning aspect of these viruses is that they have similar RBDs to the SARS-CoV-2; hence, they can infect human cells. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the RBD binds with ACE2 of the host cell to establish infection.

Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia also explained why people speculated that SARS-CoV-2 had been created in the laboratory. He said initially when this virus was sequenced, researchers found that the RBD did not seem familiar; thus, the idea of SARS-CoV-2 being created in the laboratory began gaining prominence.

However, the genomic similarities between the Laos coronaviruses discussed here and the SARS-CoV-2 defy this idea and confirm that SARS-CoV-2 existed in nature. This finding has also convinced other researchers including Linfa Wang, a virologist at DukeNUS Medical School in Singapore, about the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Alice Latinne, an evolutionary biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society of Vietnam in Hanoi, stated that many studies are available that are associated with the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 strains in Thailand, Cambodia, and Yunnan in Southern China. Therefore, she suggested that Southeast Asia is a hotspot of diversity for SARS-CoV-2 related viruses.

Another virus closely related to SARS-CoV-2 that was discovered in the previous year is RaTG13. This virus was also found in bats in Yunnan with 96.1% overall similarity with SARS-CoV-2.

Scientists claimed that these two viruses might have shared common ancestors 4070 years ago. The current study found that BANAL-52 and SARS-CoV-2 share an overall similarity of 96.8%.

Generally, viruses swap ribonucleic acid (RNA) segments with one another through a process known as recombination. Recombination in viruses occurs quite frequently, such that different components of the genome contain different evolutionary histories. According to Spyros Lytras, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Glasgow, a segment of BANAL-103 and BANAL-52 genome could have been shared with the SARS-CoV-2 genome less than a decade ago.

Conclusion and future research

The most important aspect of the present study is that it provided insights into the origins of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are some unanswered questions.

The Laos viruses lack the furin cleavage site on the spike protein, which assists the invasion of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses into human cells. Another missing link is to how the progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 could have reached Wuhan in central China, where this virus was first reported. Hence, scientists need to further clarify how this virus reached Wuhan via intermediate animals.

Recently, a new preprint publication was released on Research Square, which sampled around 13,000 bats between 2016 and 2021 in China and concluded that coronaviruses from bats are rare in this nation. The corresponding author of this study declined to respond to Natures questions about the findings, as their study is still under review. According to Wang, both studies could be extremely important to shed light on the origins of the ongoing pandemic.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) virus has mutated several times since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was first declared in March 2020.

COVID19 vaccines were introduced to reduce the otherwise increasing mortality and have since been scientifically proven to protect against severe disease, hospitalization, and death from SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, there have been reports of increasing breakthrough infections among vaccinated individuals.

Study: The Impact of New SARS-CoV-2 Variants on Vaccine Breakthrough: a pilot study on spreading infection in the communities. Image Credit: MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com

The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was first identified in India and has been considered the greatest threat in the worlds effort to contain COVID-19. The Delta variant appears to spread more easily and quickly than other variants. Furthermore, this variant is assumed to be capable of evading the vaccine-induced immune response and causing severe infections among vaccinated people.

In a recently published report on the preprint server medRxiv*, researchers from Texas assessed the incidence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in the communities in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). They conducted a pilot study to investigate vaccine breakthrough cases among samples with confirmed detection of COVID-19 variants in a local laboratory.

Study details

The researchers studied the viral whole-genome sequence from nasal swab samples collected from patients. Samples were collected from a total of 166 symptomatic cases of COVID-19 between June 1 and August 30, 2021. The variants were identified using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) cycle threshold (Ct) values and genotyping assays. Two nucleocapsid genes of the virus (N1, N2) were detected in all cases.

Researchers used the Ct values as primary determinants for virulence. In general, a lower Ct value reveals a higher viral load in the specimen, whereas a higher Ct value indicates a lower viral load. Patients with symptoms often exhibit lower Ct values as compared to those without symptoms.

Of all COVID-19 variants analyzed, 89.2% of the samples were found to contain genetic material from the B.1.617.2 variant. This was followed by the B.1.1.7 (4.8%) variant and a combination of the B.1.526.1 and B.1.617.2 (3%), AY.3 (1.8%), B.1.621 (0.6%), and P.2 (0.6%) variants.

COVID-19 variant distribution.

The researchers conducted a follow-up survey where 38% of patients indicated that they received either first dose (4%) or full dose of vaccine (34%), and 62% of patients were not vaccinated. Notably, 76% of vaccinated patients had received vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, 15% from Moderna, and 9% from Janssen.

Vaccine breakthrough cases occurred in all variants, with a majority of Delta variant (91%) followed by AY.3 (5%), B.1.1.7 (2%), and the double variant of B.1.526.1 and B.1.617.2 (2%). Patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 after 4 days to 31 weeks since the first day they received the full dose of their respective vaccine.

The Ct value was observed to be lower in the patients who received only the first dose than patients who received both doses. The Ct value was also lower in the patients who received the Janssen vaccine as compared to the patients who received vaccines from Modera or Pfizer-BioNTech.

Meanwhile, the Ct value was lower among males than among females. However, there was no statistical significance identified in these observations. The Ct value did not show a significant difference between vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups as well.

A) The pie chart represents the percentage of patients immunization status. B) The pie chart represents the percentage of vaccine manufactures patients received.

Implications

The current study made two key observations, the first of which is that it identified the Delta variant as the dominant variant spreading within communities. Second, the researchers identified the Delta variant as the causative agent behind vaccine breakthrough infections, albeit not linking any to a specific vaccine manufacturer.

The viral load (Ct value) was most likely to have an association with age; however, this will need to be further analyzed. Nonetheless, the current study findings are crucial in guiding vaccine development strategies to combat vaccine breakthrough infections.

The current study supported the laboratorys ongoing efforts to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 genome from COVID-19 patient samples to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 variants in the communities and possible vaccine breakthrough mutations. The study also stressed the critical importance of maintaining the public health mitigation measures by wearing masks, physical distancing, daily symptom screening, regular testing, avoiding crowds and unnecessary travel, and obtaining a full vaccination until herd immunity is reached at large.

*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 approval of a controversial new drug for Alzheimer's disease, Aduhelm, is shining a spotlight on mild cognitive impairment  problems with memory, attention, language or other cognitive tasks that exceed changes expected with normal aging.

After initially indicating that Aduhelm could be prescribed to anyone with dementia, the Food and Drug Administration now specifies that the prescription drug be given to individuals with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer's, the groups in which the medication was studied.

Yet this narrower recommendation raises questions. What does a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment mean? Is Aduhelm appropriate for all people with mild cognitive impairment, or only some? And who should decide which patients qualify for treatment: dementia specialists or primary care physicians?

Controversy surrounds Aduhelm because its effectiveness hasn't been proved, its cost is high (an estimated $56,000 a year, not including expenses for imaging and monthly infusions), and its potential side effects are significant (41% of patients in the drug's clinical trials experienced brain swelling and bleeding).

Furthermore, an FDA advisory committee strongly recommended against Aduhelm's approval, and Congress is investigating the process leading to the FDA's decision. Medicare is studying whether it should cover the medication, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has declined to do so under most circumstances.

Clinical trials for Aduhelm excluded people over age 85; those taking blood thinners; those who had experienced a stroke; and those with cardiovascular disease or impaired kidney or liver function, among other conditions. If those criteria were broadly applied, 85% of people with mild cognitive impairment would not qualify to take the medication, according to a new research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Given these considerations, carefully selecting patients with mild cognitive impairment who might respond to Aduhelm is "becoming a priority," said Dr. Kenneth Langa, a professor of medicine, health management and policy at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ronald Petersen, who directs the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, said, "One of the biggest issues we're dealing with since Aduhelm's approval is, 'Are appropriate patients going to be given this drug?'"

Here's what people should know about mild cognitive impairment based on a review of research studies and conversations with leading experts.

Basics. Mild cognitive impairment is often referred to as a borderline state between normal cognition and dementia. But this can be misleading. Although a significant number of people with mild cognitive impairment eventually develop dementia  usually Alzheimer's disease  many do not.

Cognitive symptoms  for instance, difficulties with short-term memory or planning  are often subtle but they persist and represent a decline from previous functioning. Yet a person with the condition may still be working or driving and appear entirely normal. By definition, mild cognitive impairment leaves intact a person's ability to perform daily activities independently.

According to an American Academy of Neurology review of dozens of studies, published in 2018, mild cognitive impairment affects nearly 7% of people ages 60 to 64, 10% of those 70 to 74 and 25% of 80- to 84-year-olds.

Causes. Mild cognitive impairment can be caused by biological processes (the accumulation of amyloid beta and tau proteins and changes in the brain's structure) linked to Alzheimer's disease. Between 40% and 60% of people with mild cognitive impairment have evidence of Alzheimer's-related brain pathology, according to a 2019 review.

But cognitive symptoms can also be caused by other factors, including small strokes; poorly managed conditions such as diabetes, depression and sleep apnea; responses to medications; thyroid disease; and unrecognized hearing loss. When these issues are treated, normal cognition may be restored or further decline forestalled.

Subtypes. During the past decade, experts have identified four subtypes of mild cognitive impairment. Each subtype appears to carry a different risk of progressing to Alzheimer's disease, but precise estimates haven't been established.

People with memory problems and multiple medical issues who are found to have changes in their brain through imaging tests are thought to be at greatest risk. "If biomarker tests converge and show abnormalities in amyloid, tau and neurodegeneration, you can be pretty certain a person with MCI has the beginnings of Alzheimer's in their brain and that disease will continue to evolve," said Dr. Howard Chertkow, chairperson for cognitive neurology and innovation at Baycrest, an academic health sciences center in Toronto that specializes in care for older adults.

Diagnosis. Usually, this process begins when older adults tell their doctors that "something isn't right with my memory or my thinking"  a so-called subjective cognitive complaint. Short cognitive tests can confirm whether objective evidence of impairment exists. Other tests can determine whether a person is still able to perform daily activities successfully.

More sophisticated neuropsychological tests can be helpful if there is uncertainty about findings or a need to better assess the extent of impairment. But "there is a shortage of physicians with expertise in dementia  neurologists, geriatricians, geriatric psychiatrists"  who can undertake comprehensive evaluations, said Kathryn Phillips, director of health services research and health economics at the University of California-San Francisco School of Pharmacy.

The most important step is taking a careful medical history that documents whether a decline in functioning from an individual's baseline has occurred and investigating possible causes such as sleep patterns, mental health concerns and inadequate management of chronic conditions that need attention.

Mild cognitive impairment "isn't necessarily straightforward to recognize, because people's thinking and memory changes over time [with advancing age] and the question becomes 'Is this something more than that?" said Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, a neurologist and director of Rush University's Rush Memory Clinic in Chicago.

More than one set of tests is needed to rule out the possibility that someone performed poorly because they were nervous or sleep-deprived or had a bad day. "Administering tests to people over time can do a pretty good job of identifying who's actually declining and who's not," Langa said.

Progression. Mild cognitive impairment doesn't always progress to dementia, nor does it usually do so quickly. But this isn't well understood. And estimates of progression vary, based on whether patients are seen in specialty dementia clinics or in community medical clinics and how long patients are followed.

A review of 41 studies found that 5% of patients treated in community settings each year went on to develop dementia. For those seen in dementia clinics  typically, patients with more serious symptoms  the rate was 10%. The American Academy of Neurology's review found that after two years 15% of patients were observed to have dementia.

Progression to dementia isn't the only path people follow. A sizable portion of patients with mild cognitive impairment  from 14% to 38%  are discovered to have normal cognition upon further testing. Another portion remains stable over time. (In both cases, this may be because underlying risk factors  poor sleep, for instance, or poorly controlled diabetes or thyroid disease  have been addressed.) Still another group of patients fluctuate, sometimes improving and sometimes declining, with periods of stability in between.

"You really need to follow people over time  for up to 10 years  to have an idea of what is going on with them," said Dr. Oscar Lopez, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Specialists versus generalists. Only people with mild cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's should be considered for treatment with Aduhelm, experts agreed. "The question you want to ask your doctor is, 'Do I have MCI [mild cognitive impairment] due to Alzheimer's disease?'" Chertkow said.

Because this medication targets amyloid, a sticky protein that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's, confirmation of amyloid accumulation through a PET scan or spinal tap should be a prerequisite. But the presence of amyloid isn't determinative: One-third of older adults with normal cognition have been found to have amyloid deposits in their brains.

Because of these complexities, "I think, for the early rollout of a complex drug like this, treatment should be overseen by specialists, at least initially," said Petersen of the Mayo Clinic. Arvanitakis of Rush University agreed. "If someone is really and truly interested in trying this medication, at this point I would recommend it be done under the care of a psychiatrist or neurologist or someone who really specializes in cognition," she said.

We're eager to hear from readers about questions you'd like answered, problems you've been having with your care and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit khn.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips.
One-third of children with a microdeletion of chromosome 22 will later develop a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. But how do we know which of these children might be affected? Today, various studies have contributed to the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that are associated with the development of psychotic illnesses. The problem is that the ability to identify those at risk and adapt their treatment accordingly remains limited. Indeed, many variables - other than neurobiological - contribute to their development.

This is why a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has joined forces with a team from the EPFL to use in a longitudinal manner an artificial intelligence tool: the network analysis method. This algorithm correlates many variables from different backgrounds - neurobiological, psychological, cognitive, etc. - over a period of twenty years, in order to determine which current symptoms are predictive of a psychotic illness in the child's future developmental trajectory. These results, to be read in the journal eLife, will enable early treatment of children deemed to be at risk of developing psychological disorders, with the aim of preventing or even avoiding them.

One in 4,000 people have a microdeletion of chromosome 22, which can lead to the development of psychotic illnesses, such as schizophrenia, in adolescence. However, only one-third of them will eventually be affected by a psychotic disorder. How can we determine which ones? "For the time being, the analyses are looking at the neurobiological mechanisms involved in psychological disorders, as well as the presence of certain symptoms that are assimilated to a psychological illness, without knowing which are the most relevant", explains Corrado Sandini, a researcher at the Department of Psychiatry of UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, to the Fondation Pole Autisme and first author of the study.

Not being able to take into account the degree of importance of each symptom can be problematic in predicting the course of the disease and providing the most appropriate treatment for the patient. "This is why we thought of using the network analysis method", he continues. This methodology, which is currently used on adults, makes it possible to combine variables from completely different worlds in the same analysis space while considering them individually.

Since the development of psychotic illnesses depends on many variables other than purely neurobiological ones, this algorithm would make it possible to highlight the most important symptoms to alert about the potential risks of a child becoming schizophrenic, for example." Stephan Eliez, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universite de Geneve

Finding the predictive symptoms

The Geneva team has joined forces with researchers at EPFL to develop this methodology and apply it to a cohort of children and adolescents suffering from a microdeletion of chromosome 22, some of whom have been followed for more than twenty years. "The aim is to adapt network analysis by tailoring it to young patients in a longitudinal manner, in order to obtain insightful statistics on highly intertwined variables throughout the child's developmental trajectory", emphasizes Dimitri Van De Ville, a professor in the Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and at the EPFL Institute of Bioengineering.

The aim is to find the variables in childhood that will foresay the development of psychotic illnesses. "We will therefore know which battle to fight, thanks to key factors that will enable us to act where and, above all, when it is necessary", explains Stephan Eliez. "If we can identify them, we can try to regulate the symptom to reduce the risk of developing a psychotic illness later on."

To test the methodology, 40 variables were taken into account for 70 children suffering from a microdeletion of chromosome 22, observed every three years from childhood to adulthood. "These variables included hallucinations, general mood, feelings of guilt and the management of daily stress", explains Corrado Sandini.

Questionnaires completed by parents also provided valuable data. Visual representations then shed light/highlighted/determined the most important variables that predict the development of psychological problems three years later. "We found that an anxious 10-year-old whose anxiety turns into an inability to cope with stress in adolescence is likely to develop a psychological illness. The evolution of anxiety is therefore a significant warning signal", continues the Geneva researcher. Similarly, sadness, which over time becomes a feeling of guilt, is also a very important symptom.

A personalized method for each child

In order to confirm the results of their algorithm, the researchers applied it to other cohorts vulnerable to psychotic illnesses that have been followed for many years and were thus able to confirm that the computer tool works. The aim is now to use it as a predictive tool, but also to refine it by integrating other variables, such as weight, to contribute to the clinical assessment. Finally, the interest of this method is obviously the prediction, with the aim of avoiding the disease, but above all its fully personalized quality that studies the developmental trajectory specific to each child.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and James Paget University Hospital are launching a new project to see whether Vitamin A could help people regain their sense of smell after viral infections including COVID-19. We also spoke exclusively to Professor Carl Philpott who is leading the study to find out more.

Image Credit: University of East Anglia

Smell loss is a common symptom of COVID-19, but even before COVID, many viruses had been causing smell loss and distortion and while most people naturally regain their sense of smell within a couple of weeks, many have been left with ongoing smell disorders.

We asked Lead researcher Prof Carl Philpott, from UEA's Norwich Medical School and James Paget University Hospitals NHS Trust why this is and he said the following;

Viruses may differ in their mechanisms of action but they are generally thought to cause the fine hair like endings (cilia) of the smell receptors to fall away, leading to loss of function. It is not clear why some people are left with ongoing smell disorders and others are not. It is possible some who have persistent problems have greater numbers of the ACE2 receptors that allow the spike protein to enter and infect the smell."

Previous research from Germany has shown the potential benefit of Vitamin-A, and the UEA team will explore how this treatment works to help repair tissues in the nose damaged by viruses.

They hope that the study, which has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), could one day help improve the lives of millions around the world who suffer from smell loss, by returning their fifth sense.

The Apollo research team will work with patients who have lost their sense of smell due to a viral infection.

They will either receive a 12-week course of nasal vitamin A drops or inactive equivalent drops and have their brains scanned before and after the treatment. The scans will be compared to those of a control group who have not been treated with vitamin A drops.

When asking Professor Carl Philpott about what the study will be looking for, and how to get involved, he said the following;

We will be measuring the size of the olfactory bulbs and also brain activity in response to varying smells. You can get involved in the Apollo Study using the following link: https://rhinology-group.uea.ac.uk/apollo-trial/"

Duncan Boak, Founder, and Chair of Fifth Sense said: At Fifth Sense we have engaged with thousands of people who have experienced changes in their ability to smell or taste as a result of the COVID-19 virus. They join an already large community of people with a smell disorder that pre-dates the pandemic.

The question we are most often asked is about available treatments to support recovery. Not being able to smell is not only physically distressing but can affect the enjoyment of social occasions and present hazards and risks that might never have been previously considered such as not being able to detect gas leaks or spoiled food.

Research into potentially successful interventions is vital to help people feeling the impact of smell disorders that affects the quality and enjoyment of their life.

To take part in this trial, patients need to be referred to The Smell and Taste Clinic at the James Paget University Hospital by their GP. Recruitment is expected to begin in December 2021.

Following this study, Professor Carl Philpott aims to "keep developing new treatment options and coping strategies".
The Family Health Centers at NYU Langone in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has been awarded a $24 million federal grant through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to advance COVID-19 vaccination and education and expand access to high-quality comprehensive care in some of New York City's lowest-income neighborhoods.

The 2-year grant is part of a $350 billion relief package allocated to state and local governments to help individuals and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant is the second largest awarded in New York State, and Family Health Centers at NYU Langone is 1 of 63 Federally Qualified Health Centers that received funds to bolster community-based healthcare.

"Strengthening healthcare infrastructure in underserved communities through this visionary plan improves New York City's health status overall," says Larry K. McReynolds, executive director of the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone. "This significant award recognizes the merit of each program outlined in our grant proposal and enables us to do much more to make a difference in thousands of lives."

The funding fortifies a range of programs at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, including the following:

COVID-19 education and vaccination: Increase community outreach, testing, and treatment.

Behavioral health staff and services expansion: Bolster an over-burdened network of mental health services and professionals by enhancing access to behavioral health screening, telehealth, and in-person treatment; improving care coordination and crisis response; supporting efforts to reduce substance abuse and social stresses; and reaching more New Yorkers who lack housing.

Technology upgrades that impact community health: Strengthen technology infrastructure, including testing equipment for chronic conditions exacerbated by COVID-19; increase access to broadband internet; provide computer hardware; and facilitate call center upgrades to improve the Family Health Center at NYU Langone's ability to efficiently assess and direct patients to services.

Dental training and care: Resume the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone dental education program, which was paused at the onset of COVID-19; grow enrollment to expand the pipeline of dentists who serve the surrounding community; and strengthen screening and oral health services for children and adults.

Pediatric and adult pulmonary programs: Enhancing lung disease screening, treatment, and prevention, and add new state-of-the-art pulmonary care equipment.

Social determinants of health: Expand community outreach programs, including job training, childcare, community health education programs, vaccine access, and The Table Food Pantry and emergency food distribution.

Broaden access to primary care services: Increase COVID-19-related support using nurse practitioners and community health workers to better manage care for high-risk patients with diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions, and expand medical and behavioral health services to five additional New York City shelters for people who lack housing.

Support community-based partners: A portion of the grant dollars has been designated to support local partners that provide medical and behavioral healthcare to historically underserved populations, including at-risk youth, unhoused individuals, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, among others; and address social determinants of health.

"This grant recognizes that our community is in desperate need of resources that contribute to wellness and overall wellbeing, including access to high-quality healthcare, social, educational, and emotional support," says Isaac P. Dapkins, MD, chief medical officer at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone. "The breadth and scope of programs supported by this award will allow us to reach more people through the pandemic and beyond."

"Our community faces many healthcare challenges amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic," says Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who helped secure the federal funding. "The American Rescue Plan funding ensures the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone continues their important work, providing crucial services during an unprecedented time."

Principally located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, one of the highest Medicaid-concentrated communities in the United States, the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone is a community-based program that provides high-quality primary and preventive outpatient care to adults and children, regardless of their ability to pay or health insurance status. The program serves approximately 100,000 people each year throughout Brooklyn and other parts of New York City.
A new paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that MRIs are cost effective for detecting breast cancer for women with very dense breasts detected by mammography.

About 10% of women have extremely dense breasts, and current mammography screening guidelines do not recommend additional imaging tests unless there is a strong family history or genetic risk for breast cancer. Such women face two problems. They have increased risk of developing breast cancer. Mammographic screening also tends to be inaccurate in detecting breast cancer for them.

At least in the United States, breast density notification legislation requires doctors to inform such women about their individual breast density and the diagnostic implication it has. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) screening strategies are better at detecting breast cancer in such women. However, an MRI is a much more expensive imaging method.

In this report, the authors used data from a large breast cancer screening trial previously conducted in women in the Netherlands, as well as other established approaches to modeling breast cancer outcomes, to examine the cost-effectiveness of adding MRI examinations to mammographic screening in women with dense breasts. For their analysis, the authors simulated several screening strategies with varying intervals that also included the screening mammography with MRI every 2 years compared with mammography alone every 2 years that had been part of the Netherlands screening trial.

The main outcomes of the study found that screening every two years with mammography alone resulted in the lowest total costs and the lowest impact on survival. Adding breast MRI examination every two years resulted in the highest costs but not the highest gain in quality-adjusted life years. Most strategies containing mammography alone were inferior, due to the limited sensitivity of mammography compared to MRI in women with dense breasts. However, alternating mammography and MRI every 2 years was most efficient. Lengthening the intervals resulted in lower total costs, and only a few cancers not becoming screen-detected. The authors concluded that MRI examinations every 4 years had the lowest incremental cost, but screening with MRI alone every 3 years also had an acceptable cost-effectiveness.

"Mammographic screening is not enough for many women  breast cancer has remained a major cause of cancer death also in women who undergo mammography," said Christiane Kuhl, who wrote an editorial to accompany the study. "We know that breast MRI does a much better job  but is also much more expensive. The results of this study show that the additional costs associated with MRI do indeed pay off: Breast MRI is much more effective in preventing death from breast cancer in women with dense breasts, and its additional costs are more than compensated for by its improved effectiveness."
A bespoke nationwide facility for testing innovative nanotechnologies for healthcare applications is to be established at the University of Strathclyde.

The University has been awarded 853,000 by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to create the Multiscale Metrology Suite (MMS) for Next-Generation Health Nanotechnologies.

The facility will provide scientists from across the UK with access to world-leading technology for the analysis of materials, supporting the discovery of diagnostics and therapies of the future. It will be a first-of-its-kind facility in the UK, enabling combined physical and chemical analysis of prototype nanotechnologies.

The combined investment by Strathclyde and the EPSRC is worth more than 1.6 million.

Dr Zahra Rattray, Chancellor's Research Fellow and Lecturer in Translational Pharmaceutics with Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, is the Principal Investigator on the project. She said: "Nanotechnology for health is a rapidly growing sector, as seen with vaccines developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased use of nanotechnologies in cancer diagnostics and therapies.

Before new medicines enter the clinical arena, early testing of their performance and properties is critical. This investment in the MMS gives us a unique capability to be at the forefront of analytical sciences and uncover a lot more about the design and performance of these therapies."

Dr Zahra Rattray, Chancellor's Research Fellow and Lecturer, Translational Pharmaceutics, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

"We are excited about the new opportunities the MMS will create with the proposal partners - the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, the Medicines Discovery Catapult and the Centre for Process Innovation  as well as the wider UK and international nanotechnology communities, in addressing the challenges faced in nanomedicine design."

Professor Peter Simpson, Chief Scientific Officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult, added: "At MDC, we have identified that in the UK there are technology, infrastructure, and expertise gaps that make it difficult for innovators to rapidly progress complex medicines towards validation and clinical evaluation, and we are committed to helping address this gap.

"So I am pleased to see this metrology suite being created. The facilities will enable improved analysis of physicochemical quality attributes for a diverse portfolio of new approaches to healthcare development."

The analysis of nanotechnologies for healthcare applications is currently a complex and challenging process, requiring the use of multiple technologies, which often leads to delays in the development of new medicines or failure of products at later clinical trial stages. As a modular suite combining the latest in detection technologies in a single setup, MMR will push the existing limitations in the analysis of new nanotechnologies through enabling multiple analyses to be performed on the same sample.

The data generated from these measurements will enable researchers to improve their understanding of what properties drive the performance and safety of new nanotechnology- based medicines. It will also provide an environment in which nanotechnology researchers from academia and industry sectors can access the facility, testing new prototypes and developing new workflows.

The research is linked to Strathclyde's HealthTech cluster, one of the University's six clusters of research capability and innovation focus. The cluster draws on interdisciplinary expertise in health, engineering, life sciences and social sciences, with industry-facing themes in Medical Diagnostics and Wearables, Digital Health, and Advanced Rehabilitation, as well as an underpinning focus on Healthcare AI, Machine Learning, Data Science and Data Analytics.
Persistent gaps in life expectancy between Black and white Americans have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, this gap has narrowed by nearly 50% in three decades, largely due to improvements among Black Americans, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Co-authored by researchers at Princeton University's Center for Health and Wellbeing, the study analyzed data from 1990 to 2018 to compare mortality rates between Black and White Americans, through the lens of place. They also compared the United States with Europe to provide a benchmark comparison.

They found that in 1990, Black Americans lived seven years fewer than whites. But by 2018, that number dropped to 3.6 years. Life-expectancy improvements in the poorest counties particularly helped narrow the gap, largely because Black Americans are more likely to live in the poorest areas. Reductions in Black deaths caused by cancer, HIV, homicide, and fetal and neonatal conditions were especially important in closing the gaps.

Yet, life expectancy has stalled for all groups in the United States since 2012, and, white Americans have lost ground relative to Europeans in both rich and poor areas. The U.S. opioid epidemic is one important cause of these declines, but the researchers suggest that more work should be done to investigate additional factors. If improvements had continued at the earlier rate, the racial gap in life expectancy would have closed by 2036.

It is important to recognize the very real gains that have occurred over the past 30 years, and to understand the reasons for them. Improved access to health care and safety-net programs all contributed to improvements in life expectancy among Black Americans. Yet, there is this perplexing reversal of the positive trends for all groups since 2012 that we need to better understand." Janet M. Currie, Henry Putnam Professor and Co-Director, Economics and Public Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement highlighted the disproportionate health gap between Black and white Americans, but the researchers wanted to quantify these differences in terms of trends in life expectancy in the years before the pandemic struck. To do this, they analyzed data from the National Vital Statistics System and the National Center for Health Statistics run by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Their goal was to see whether racial differences in life expectancy have evolved differently in richer and poorer parts of the United States. They ranked American counties based on their poverty rates and placed them into groups of fixed population size. This allowed them to analyze trends across ages and race in places with the same relative poverty rates. Factoring in age is important in order to account for whether changes in life expectancy are based on a person's stage of life; for example, people older than 65 qualify for Medicare, which could play a role in extending life expectancy.

They also wanted to understand how the United States compared to Europe to determine whether mortality in richer parts of the country is more similar to that of European countries, or whether both rich and poor Americans tend to lag behind. They collaborated with researchers in nine European countries, including Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain in order to analyze all of the data in a similar framework. These countries represent a range of economic conditions.

During the past three decades, white Americans have increasingly fallen behind Europeans. Within Europe, even relatively poor countries like Portugal, were able to catch up with richer countries by 2018 in terms of life expectancy, while the United States lagged behind. At the same time, life expectancy for Black Americans started far below both European and white American rates in 1990, but grew at a faster rate than European life expectancy.

Similar to the United States, European life expectancy also has stalled after 2014, suggesting that there may be a common element. Past work has linked the flattening of life expectancy in the U.S. to a lack of further improvement in the fight against cardiovascular disease, and this may also be true in Europe, the authors suggest.

Interestingly, there have been significant health improvements for infants and children, in all three groups, though especially among Black Americans. Safety-net programs such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Earned Income Tax Credit, as well as lower levels of pollution in poor areas, are all important contributors to reduced mortality. There also is potential for the U.S. to catch up to Europe by investing in maternal and child health.
When Britney Spears last went before a judge, in June, she bristled as she told of being forced into psychiatric care that cost her $60,000 a month. Though the pop star's circumstances in a financial conservatorship are unusual, every year hundreds of thousands of other psychiatric patients also receive involuntary care, and many are stuck with the bill.

Few have Spears' resources to pay for it, which can have devastating consequences.

To the frustration of those who study the issue, data on how many people are involuntarily hospitalized and how much they pay is sparse. From what can be gathered, approximately 2 million psychiatric patients are hospitalized each year in the United States, nearly half involuntarily. One study found that a quarter of these hospitalizations are covered by private insurance, which often has high copays, and 10% were "self-pay/no charge," where patients are often billed but cannot pay.

I am a psychiatrist in New York City, and I have cared for hundreds of involuntarily hospitalized patients. Cost is almost never discussed. Many patients with serious mental illness have low incomes, unlike Britney Spears. In an informal survey of my colleagues on the issue, the most common response is, "Yeah, that feels wrong, but what else can we do?" When patients pose an acutely high risk of harm to themselves or others, psychiatrists are obligated to hospitalize them against their will, even if it could lead to long-term financial strain.

While hospitals sometimes absorb the cost, patients can be left with ruined credit, endless collection calls and additional mistrust of the mental health care system. In cases in which a hospital chooses to sue, patients can even be incarcerated for not showing up in court. On the hospital side, unpaid bills might further incentivize a hospital to close psych beds in favor of more lucrative medical services, such as outpatient surgeries, with better insurance reimbursement.

Rebecca Lewis, a 27-year-old Ohioan, has confronted this problem for as long as she has been a psychiatric patient. At 24, she began experiencing auditory hallucinations of people calling her name, followed by delusional beliefs about mythological creatures. While these experiences felt very real to her, she nevertheless knew something was off.

Not knowing where to turn, Lewis called a crisis line, which told her to go to an evaluation center in Columbus. When she drove herself there, she found an ambulance waiting for her. "They told me to get into the ambulance," she said, "and they said it would be worse if I ran."

Lewis, who was ultimately diagnosed with schizophrenia, was hospitalized for two days against her will. She refused to sign paperwork acknowledging responsibility for charges. The hospital attempted to obtain her mother's credit card, which Lewis had been given in case of emergencies, but she refused to hand it over. She later got a $1,700 bill in the mail. She did not contact the hospital to negotiate the bill because, she said, "I did not have the emotional energy to return to that battle."

To this day, Lewis gets debt collection calls and letters. When she picks up the calls, she explains she has no intention of paying because the services were forced on her. Her credit is damaged, but she considers herself lucky because she was able to buy a house from a family member, given how challenging it would have been to secure a mortgage.

The debt looms over her psyche. "It's not fun to know that there's this thing out there that I don't feel that I can ever fix. I feel like I have to be extra careful  always, forever  because there's going to be this debt," she said.

Lewis receives outpatient psychiatric care that has stabilized her and prevented further hospitalizations, but she still looks back on her first and only hospitalization with scorn. "They preyed on my desperation," she said.

While it is likely that many thousands of Americans share Lewis' experience, we lack reliable data on debt incurred for involuntary psychiatric care. According to Dr. Nathaniel Morris, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco, we don't know how often patients are charged for involuntary care or how much they end up paying. Even data on how often people are hospitalized against their wishes is limited.

Morris is one of the few researchers who have focused on this issue. He got interested after his patients told him about being billed after involuntary hospitalization, and he was struck by the ethical dilemma these bills represent.

"I've had patients ask me how much their care is going to cost, and one of the most horrible things is, as a physician, I often cant tell them because our medical billing systems are so complex," he said. "Then, when you add on the involuntary psychiatric factor, it just takes it to another level."

Similarly, legal rulings on the issue are sparse. "I've only seen a handful of decisions over the years," said Ira Burnim, legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. "I don't know that there is a consensus."

People who have been involuntarily hospitalized rarely seek a lawyer, Burnim said, but when they do, the debt collection agencies will often drop the case rather than face a costly legal battle.

The media will be obsessed with Britney Spears' next day in court, expected to be Sept. 29. She will likely describe further details of her conservatorship that will highlight the plight of many forced into care.

Others won't get that kind of attention. As Rebecca Lewis put it, reflecting on her decision not to challenge the bills she faces: "They're Goliath and I'm little David."

Dr. Christopher Magoon is a resident physician at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry in New York City.
A new preprint shows that universal screening of all hospital admissions for infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly inefficient as a screening method in regions with a low prevalence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the absence of high-risk factors.

Study: Diagnostic Yield of Screening for SARS-CoV-2 among Patients Admitted for Alternate Diagnoses. Image Credit: SeventyFour/ Shutterstock

A preprint version of the study is available on the medRxiv* server while the article undergoes peer review.

Background

In 2020, healthcare facilities began to test all patients for COVID-19 at admission, whether symptomatic or not and irrespective of local prevalence rates. The rationale was the identification of asymptomatic cases that could drive hospital outbreaks.

However, real-time evidence fails to support this trend. Conversely, the cons of universal testing include crowding of the Emergency Department (ED) with patients waiting for their test results, with higher mortality and morbidity as a result, and the unnecessary isolation of patients during routine workups and treatment procedures.

This can cause holdups at all levels, impacting patient outcomes while potentially increasing the excessive use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during such precautions. Bottlenecks in COVID-19 testing may delay the identification of actual positive tests in symptomatic patients.

In addition, the resources required for universal testing could be spent more productively by healthcare centers.

Given all these concerns, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) advises that universal testing be carried out only when the number of active cases is >10%, or >10,000/100,000 population. This threshold was hardly ever met because of the active adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions to keep the active caseload low and ease the burden on hospitals.

The current paper describes the results of a study aimed at finding the number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients who were admitted with other unrelated diagnoses and to find the risk factors for a positive test.

What did the study show?

The results showed that of about 16,000 patients admitted for non-COVID-19 diagnoses, during a period of very low COVID-19 prevalence in Canada, those without symptoms suggestive of this infection made up over 3,000.

Of this number, only 0.4% (13 patients) had a positive test, compared to ~110 patients of the ~12,500 with suggestive symptoms, or 0.9%. Altogether, there were 122 COVID-19-positive individuals.

Over a quarter of these came from a region with a daily incidence of eight or more infections per 100,000. There was no significant difference in case yield among patients screened based on symptoms, whatever the type of symptom.

Positive tests were more likely for healthcare workers, those with a history of household or institutional contact with a SARS-CoV-2 positive individual, and those from a region with over eight cases/100,000 population on a moving weekly average. Especially at risk were those who were living with or caring for someone with COVID-19.

What are the implications?

The researchers aimed to determine what parameters could increase the diagnostic yield of SARS-CoV-2 testing when applied to hospital admissions in Canada in 2020. In this study, the positive case number was low among patients admitted for emergency diagnoses unrelated to COVID-19.

The lowest percentage of positive tests was among these patients when they did not report any symptoms found in COVID-19. In contrast, they found risk factors linked to a higher screening yield than a threshold of high COVID-19 incidence by a 7-day moving average.

These findings corroborate earlier studies that show a strong link between the diagnostic yield of screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection by nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) and the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. Again, a Cochrane systematic review suggests that the case yield is higher among those with a fever.

The authors suggest,

While the number needed to screen to identify one positive case among admitted patients in our study was between 110 and 250 among unvaccinated patients, we propose that the IDSA screening threshold likely needs to be adopted.

With this large study, based on multiple centers spread across various geographical locales and including a diverse set of patients, the findings merit attention, especially as vaccination becomes more extensive in its coverage.

*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.
(Newser)  Authorities in Malaysia say they don't want to "punish" transgender businesswoman Nur Sajat, only to "educate" her. Advocates say the 36-year-old is likely to face serious mistreatment if Thailand deports her back to her homeland. Sajat, a cosmetics entrepreneur who starred in a reality show in 2018, was arrested by Thai police earlier this month for having an invalid passport, the Washington Post reports. Earlier this year, she was charged under the country's Islamic laws with insulting Islam by wearing feminine clothing to a religious event. She failed to appear at a hearing in February and received death threats after she discussed the possibility of renouncing Islam in a now-deleted video on social media, reports the AP.

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Malaysiawhich canceled Sajat's passport after she apparently fled the countryhas asked Thai authorities to send her back, and Thai officials say the deportation process is underway, though it may take some time, reports the Bangkok Post. Human Rights Watch says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has granted Sajat refugee status. "Malaysias outrageous harassment and persecution of Nur Sajat highlights just how repressive and abusive that country is toward the LGBT community," Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy Asia director, tells the Post. Sajat is believed to be planning to seek asylum in Australia.

Around two-thirds of Malaysia's population is Muslim and required to obey Islamic laws. Activists say the increasingly conservative government has stepped up a crackdown on LGBT people this year. Idris Ahmad, a senior government official in charge of religious affairs, told reporters Sajat will not have a problem if she "admits wrong" and wants to return to her "true nature." If she is deported back to the country, Sajat will likely spend around three years in a men's prison, the Post reports.

Afiq Harraz, secretary general of a new Malaysian political party that describes itself as "science-based," tells the South China Morning Post that authorities have an "unnatural obsession" with Sajat because they hate the fact that she became a celebrity and a business success while living openly as a transgender woman. "The Malaysian public is fascinated with Nur Sajat mainly because hers is a success story. She made it as an entrepreneur and became a cosmetics millionaire," he says. (Read more Malaysia stories.)
(Newser)  Think you've heard every John Lennon bootleg, remaster, and import? There's a new tape in the mix, unheard for more than 50 years, though you'll have to convince the person who just bought it for $58,300 at auction to play it. The 33-minute recording made in January 1970 features an interview with the Beatle and his second wife, Yoko Ono, by four Danish schoolboys, as well as a Lennon performance of "Give Peace a Chance" and one of a never-released song, per Euronews.

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The AP reports that Lennon and Ono visited the town of Thy, Denmark, that year because Ono had a 5-year-old daughter living there with her ex-husband. During their stay, they were interviewed by local press, a group that included the four schoolboys, who'd skipped school to attend. On the recording, Lennon and Ono can be heard humming along to Danish Christmas songs, as well as talking about hair, before Lennon pulled out his guitar and started playing his anti-war tune "Give Peace a Chance," followed by "Radio Peace," which had been made as a theme song for a Netherlands radio station but never released.

"We were a bunch of 16-year-old hippies," Karsten Hoejen, who made the tape, tells the BBC, noting the teens were mostly drawn to the event due to Lennon and Ono's peace campaigns. The auction held by Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen featured the white cassette tape, marked with a misspelled "John Lenon" and kept in a safe deposit box for nearly 20 years; more than 20 accompanying photos; and a copy of the school publication in which the teens, now in their late 60s, published their interview with Lennon and Ono.

It originally believed the lot would fetch between $31,000 and $47,000. "It was extraordinary that it went above the estimate," the auction house's Alexa Bruun Rasmussen tells the AP, noting only that the buyer was international and put in a bid over the phone. Hoejen says he and the other two surviving members of his reporting group haven't decided yet what to do with the money. (Read more John Lennon stories.)
(Newser)  In what the Washington Post says is one of the largest mass terminations to date over a workplace vaccine mandate, a North Carolina hospital system on Monday announced that about 175 unvaccinated employees had been fired. Last week, 375 employees who had not yet complied with the health care system's vaccine mandate were suspended and given five days to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly 200 of them did. The system employs 35,000 people, and a spokesperson says nearly 99% of them had already complied with the mandate and that the percentage is now over 99%. Some employees do have religious or medical exemptions, and they are required to get tested for COVID weekly. Employees have until Oct. 15 to get their second dose and remain in compliance.

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Houston Methodist, one of the first health care systems to mandate the vaccine, lost 153 unvaccinated employees in June to firings or resignations; ChristianaCare in Delaware also recently fired 150 employees for the same reason. New York's statewide mandate for health care workers is now in effect, and CNN reports hundreds of unvaccinated employees were suspended Tuesday and could soon be terminated. In NY hospitals and nursing homes, 92% of staffers have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine; the percentage is 89% for adult care facilities. Connecticut's vaccine mandate for state employees and certain other workers also went into effect Monday, per NBC Connecticut; in Maine, health care workers have one month to comply with a vaccine mandate, per WGME; and in Ohio/Kentucky, workers at St. Elizabeth Healthcare are fighting a mandate, the Enquirer reports.

Many more mandates are still expected, and it's not just health care workers affected: United Airlines is laying off almost 600 unvaccinated employees, it announced Tuesday. That's less than 1% of the company's workforce, the Hill reports. Delta Air Lines is charging unvaccinated employees a $200 monthly health premium surcharge, while American and Southwest have taken no action other than recommending vaccines for workers. And the Massachusetts State Police union says dozens of troopers plan to resign over that state's vaccine mandate for state employees, CBS News reports. (Read more vaccine mandate stories.)
(Newser)  When Denmark's Kunsten Museum of Modern Art gave Jens Haaning $84,000, it expected the artist to recreate two of his previous works. Instead, the museum says, Haaning gave it two blank canvases. "The curator received an email in which Jens Haaning wrote that he had made a new piece of art work and changed the work title into 'Take the Money and Run,'" the museum director tells CBS News. The $84,000 was meant for Haaning to place in the canvases to reproduce his 2010 piece "An Average Danish Annual Income" and his 2007 piece "An Average Austrian Annual Income," both of which used real money to illustrate the aforementioned average incomes. In addition to that, Haaning was compensated for the work, the museum says.

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The contract stated Haaning was to return the $84,000 when the "Work It Out" exhibition, which opened Friday and is centered around the theme of the labor market, closes next year, and as such, the museum director notes Haaning hasn't actually breached the contract yetand the museum will take action if he does. As for Haaning, a press release says the new work aims to question "artists' rights and their working conditions in order to establish more equitable norms within the art industry." He says he was paid just $3,900, which is what it would have cost him to produce the work.

"In our society, work industries are valued differently," Haaning says in a statement. "The artwork is essentially about the working conditions of artists. It is a statement saying that we also have the responsibility of questioning the structures that we are part of. And if these structures are completely unreasonable, we must break with them." Haaning put it more succinctly in a radio interview cited by the Washington Post: "The work is that I have taken their money." According to Artnet, he has no plans to return it. The Guardian notes that the conceptual artist's work typically "focuses on power and inequality." For the museum's part, it says it is run on a "modest" budget and took the $84,000 from funds needed for building upkeep. (Read more strange stuff stories.)
(Newser)  Tesla calls its Autopilot feature the "future of driving," but it's a future that at least five Texas cops aren't keen on, unless Tesla remedies "known defects." KPRC 2 reports that those five police officers have now filed suit against the automaker, after they say a Tesla Model X in Autopilot mode crashed into them in February while they were dealing with a traffic stop in Splendora. The complaint notes all five cops were badly hurt, and that the accident was due to "the design and manufacturing defects known to Tesla, Tesla's failure to adequately warn of those defects, and Tesla's unwillingness to admit or correct such defects."

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Specifically, the Autopilot feature and the carmaker's collision avoidance system "failed to detect the officers' cars" and warn of the hazard. In their suit, the officers note there've been at least a dozen other such crashes involving Teslas in Autopilot mode and first responders at active scenes with clearly visible flashing lights on their vehiclesyet those lights seem to somehow render the police cars invisible to Teslas, says Tony Buzbee, an attorney representing the officers.

Also named in the complaint: Pappas Restaurants, with the officers alleging that the Tesla's driver in the February incident was overserved alcohol at a Pappasito's Cantina. The suit cites a police report that indicated the driver was arrested after the accident on suspicion of intoxication assault. The Verge notes this case is Tesla's "latest legal headache," with additional accidents tied to the Autopilot feature (i.e., other than those linked to first responders) also making headlines.

The outlet points out that the lawsuit comes right on the heels of Tesla offering access to the beta version of its Full Self-Driving feature, which is basically a more advanced version of Autopilot. The officersfour Montgomery County constables and one Splendora cop, per Houston Public Media"want to hold Tesla accountable, and force Tesla to publicly acknowledge and immediately correct the known defects," per the suit. The officers are seeking compensation for their injuries, which they say include permanent disabilities, with more than $1 million in damages listed, set at a maximum of $20 million. (Read more Tesla stories.)
(Newser)  The family of slain traveler Gabby Petito on Tuesday implored the public and news media to put the same energy into helping find other missing people as they did Petito, a 22-year-old woman who vanished on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend. Petito's parents and stepparents spoke to reporters at a news conference in New Yorkshowing off fresh tattoos based on her designs and mantra "Let it be"while announcing they'd started a foundation to support people searching for missing loved ones, reports the AP.

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Petito's case has led to renewed calls for people to pay greater attention to cases involving missing Indigenous women and other people of color, with some commentators describing the intense coverage of her disappearance as "missing white woman syndrome." Joseph Petito thanked the news media and social media for spotlighting his daughter's case, but he said all missing persons deserved the same attention. "I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help. It's on all of you, everyone that's in this room to do that," he said, pointing to reporters and cameras in front of him.

Joseph Petito said the Gabby Petito Foundation is in the formative stages and will seek to fill in any gaps that exist in the work of finding missing people. "We need positive stuff to come from the tragedy that happened," he said. "We can't let her name be taken in vain." Meanwhile, authorities in Florida continue searching for Gabby Petito's boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who is a person of interest in her disappearance and presumably also in her murder. Duane Chapman, known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, and longtime America's Most Wanted host John Walsh are among those working to track him down. (Read more Gabby Petito stories.)
(Newser)  Alabama lawmakers plan to use almost 20% of the state's federal pandemic relief money to build three new prisons and renovate four others. Lawmakers in the state, which has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the country, initiated a special session Monday to discuss the $1.3 billion plan, to be partly funded with $400 million of $2.1 billion received through the American Rescue Plan, with a vote expected by Friday, per AL.com and the Guardian. Details:

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Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has said federal relief funds will be used to address safety concerns in prisons "so we don't have to borrow quite so much money and pay all that money back," per AL.com.

Alabama has one of the most violent prison systems in the country. A Justice Department lawsuit describes prisoner-on-prisoner violence and sexual abuse and "excessive force at the hands of prison staff."

State Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn has argued the allocation could help with "systemic public health and economic challenges that may have contributed to more severe impacts of the pandemic among low-income communities and people of color" while noting that half of state inmates are "people of color."

But Democrat Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, argues expanding prisons "will particularly harm communities of color who are already disproportionately impacted by over-incarceration and this public health crisis," per the Guardian. He wrote to the Treasury Department on Monday to ask it to "prevent the misuse of [relief] funding by any state, including Alabama."

Other opponents say the relief funds are desperately needed elsewhere, including in hospitals facing an ICU bed crisis, per Alabama Political Reporter. "Building prisons was not the intended use of these funds and will leave our communities without the lifeline the American Rescue Plan was supposed to be," reads a letter signed by 40 groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, per Vanity Fair.

While the argument could be made that a less crowded prison system would be safer considering how COVID-19 spreads, prison capacity is not expected to increase under the construction plan as five smaller prisons would close, per the Guardian. However, the outlet notes the House is also debating two sentencing reform bills "that could offer reduced sentences to as many as 700 inmates."

(Read more Alabama stories.)
(Newser)  Update: Fumio Kishida has officially replaced Yoshihide Suga as prime minister of Japan. The country's parliament formally elected him to the position Monday, after Suga's resignation earlier in the day, the AP reports. Our original story from Sept. 29 follows:



Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the governing party's leadership election on Wednesday and is set to become the next prime ministerthe country's 100thfacing the tasks of reviving a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington, DC, to counter growing regional security risks. Kishida replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year. As new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida is certain to be elected the next prime minister on Monday in parliament, where his party and its coalition partner control both houses.

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In what NBC News calls "unusually suspenseful race for leadership of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party," Kishida defeated popular vaccinations minister Taro Kono in a runoff after finishing only one vote ahead of him in the first round, in which none of the four candidates, including two women, was able to win a majority. In a landslide 257-170 victory in the second round, Kishida received support from party heavyweights who apparently chose stability over change advocated by Kono, who is known as something of a maverick and a reformist but who polls showed had much more public support.

Kishida is under pressure to change the party's high-handed reputation, worsened by Suga, who angered the public over his handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Summer Olympics in Tokyo despite surging infections, reports the AP. Kishida said he heard many voters in the past year complaining that they were being ignored. "I felt our democracy is in a crisis," he said in his speech. "I, Fumio Kishida, have a special skill of listening to people. I am determined to make an effort toward making a more open LDP and a bright future for Japan together with you all."

The 64-year-old former foreign minister was once seen as an indecisive moderate. Lately, however, he has shifted to become a security and diplomatic hawk as he sought support from influential conservatives to win the party election. Kishida has called for a further increase in Japans defense capability and budget, and vowed to stand up to China in tensions over self-ruled Taiwan that China claims as part of its territory, and Beijings crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong. On the economy, Kishida has called for a new capitalism of growth and distribution to narrow the income gap. (Read more Japan stories.)
(Newser)  George Kalogridis, Chuck Milam, and Forrest Bahruth were among the 6,000 employees who opened the Magic Kingdom at Disney World to the public for the first time on Oct. 1, 1971. Now, they are among two dozen from that first day still employed at the theme park resort as it celebrates its 50th anniversary on Friday. Over those decades, Disney World added three more theme parks, two dozen additional hotels, and grew to have a workforce of 77,000 employees as it helped Orlando become the most visited place in the US before the pandemic.

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The employees who make up the 50-year club say the theme park resort has allowed them to grow their careers and try on new hats. Kalogridis worked his way up to be president of Walt Disney World and Disneyland in California. Milam went from a warehouse worker to a buyer of spare parts for rides and shows. Bahruth joined as a show director, responsible for staging and choreographing parades and shows. He was also given the opportunity to help open other Disney theme parks around the world over the past five decades.

Two things have stuck in the memories of the longtime employees from opening day, reports the AP. The first was the photo. It was an image of thousands of Disney World workers standing in front of the iconic Cinderella Castle with Mickey Mouse and other costumed characters holding hands in front. Two weeks later, it was featured on the cover of Life magazine. "They brought all the characters up, staged them first, and then they tried to keep all the different workers together based on the color of their costumes," Milam said. "If you were from Fantasyland and in yellow, you would go over there."

The second was the parade. It featured a 1,076-member marching band conducted by Meredith Willson, the composer of the Broadway show, The Music Man. There were 4,000 Disney entertainers marching through the theme park, a mass choir and trumpeters from the United States Army Band. Hundreds of white doves were released into the air, and less environmentally friendly, so were thousands of multi-colored balloons. "It was the biggest thing I had ever seen," Bahruth said. (Read more Disney World stories.)
(Newser)  Update: A cause of death has been determined for the Texas father found dead in Wyoming after the search for Gabby Petito brought fresh attention to the missing persons case. Robert "Bob" Lowery, 46, committed suicide via a gunshot wound to the head, NBC News and Yahoo News report. Lowery's sister says he had recently resigned from his real estate job and was doing some camping before starting a new job, but that his family got nervous when he stopped contacting his 12- and 15-year-old children. Our original story from Sept. 29, 2021, follows:

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The widespread attention paid to the Gabby Petito case has helped bring closure to another family with a missing loved one. The body of Bob Lowery, a 46-year-old Houston man who hadn't been seen since August 20, was found Tuesday in a forested area of Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, around 17 miles from where Petito's remains were found, the New York Times reports. The Teton County Sheriff's Office says it had been investigating the disappearance of the father of two, but it didn't deploy search teams until this week because it hadn't received any solid tips on his possible whereabouts, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports.

The Sheriff's Office said in a release that the "widespread news coverage of the Gabby Petito search helped bring light to Lowerys case, and resulted in at least two members of the public calling local authorities this past weekend with new information about his possible last seen point." His sister, Leigh Lowery, said the sightings of Lowery occurred on the popular Black Canyon trail. "The good news about [the Petito case] has been Bob got pulled into a bunch of articles, so it actually drew a bunch of attention from people," she says. Lowery was last seen carrying a black duffel bag containing his sleeping bag and tent, CNN reports. Searchers found his body "significantly off trail on a steep, wooded slope," officials say. No cause of death has been disclosed.

Petito's father says other missing person cases should get just as much attention as his daughter's case did. "I want to ask people to help all of the people that are missing and need help," Joe Petito said during a news conference Tuesday, per ABC. "It's on all of you, everyone in this room, to do that and if you don't do that for other people who are missing, that's a shame because it's not just Gabby that deserves that." The Times reports that authorities in Wyoming are still searching for Cian McLaughlin, a 27-year-old man from Ireland who was last seen on a hiking trail in Grand Teton National Park on June 8. (Petito's parents and stepparents are starting a foundation to help find other missing people.)
(Newser)  It may be of little solace to La Palma residents whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by the ongoing volcanic eruption, but their island is getting bigger. Lava from an eruption that began on the Spanish island 10 days ago has now reached the Atlantic Ocean, creating a pyramid of black rock. "It is now generating a structure that we call a 'lava delta' that is ... extending the island to the west," Juan-Tomas Vazquez, a marine geologist monitoring the situation from a research vessel, tells Reuters. The island's last eruption, 50 years ago, increased its land area by around 5%.

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The lava reached the ocean just before midnight Tuesday in what authorities described as a "very dangerous moment," reports the New York Times. Three villages in the area were locked down as authorities warned of possible explosions and clouds of toxic gas caused by the lava reaching cold water. Volcanologist Arnau Folch at Spains National Research Council says the main concern now is chloride clouds. "It is quite a complex situation, with many hazards occurring at the same time," he says.

The eruption has destroyed more than 500 homes and forced the evacuation of around 6,000 of the island's 85,000 residents. Previous eruptions in the Canary Islands region have lasted for months, and authorities don't know how long this one, which has already released more than 50 million cubic meters of lava, will last. "We dont know when this will be over," Stavros Meletlidis of Spains National Geographic Institute told state broadcaster TVE. "Volcanoes are not friends of statistics." (The lava has now destroyed a "miracle home" that initially escaped the flow.)
Ukraine is the best destination for you to employ any ideas in Web and Mobile software in 2021. The country has proved to be a top trusted software development partner. Thanks to its abundance of highly-skilled engineers, the country has become a leading software provider in Eastern Europe. Ukraine software development companies offer a rich list of advantages that can be divided into four groups: location, labor pool, work approach, and national mentality.

In this article, we have researched each of these groups of benefits in order to get to the essence of why outsource to a software development team in Ukraine. You will get to know about all the significant facts about why hire developers in Ukraine, location, education, work approach and mentality.

Hire Ukrainian Advanced Development team on the crossroads of Europe and ex Iron Curtain

Being located in the center of Europe, Ukrainian developers are always in the center of innovations and latest technologies, making great contributions to various industries digitalization and business growth. Here is the list of significant facts proving why the Ukrainian software development market is the best choice.

Suitable time-zone

Ukrainian time-zone is only one hour ahead of European countries and perfectly suits to customers from Australian and American time-zones, so you can get in touch with outsourced developers team with no impact on your own working schedule. In other words, hire a Ukrainian development team and get better operational monitoring, ease of communication and absolute project control.

Recruitment capabilities

The absence of strong legal restrictions or trade unions makes Ukrainian one of the Top 3 destinations for outsourced software development team. Ukraine is recognized as one of the best countries to outsource Web & Mobile development to. Despite all political instabilities, the Ukrainian software market is growing rapidly. For now, it's the only sector of the Ukrainian economy that is seemingly immune to the political and economic uncertainty and fluctuations. The sector is showing steady growth, which results in an increased number of jobs and higher salaries among the software development teams from Ukraine.

No rigorous visa requirements

Easy to apply and obtain a work permit/residence for foreigners. Ukraine is the largest country located in Eastern Europe. As it is located on the cusp of Europe - Russia - Central Asia - Middle East trade routes, the country appears to be perfectly positioned for a customer aiming to find a tech partner.

Western orientation

Ukrainian software engineering industry is focused on the U.S., European Union, and Australian markets. All major software development teams in Ukraine arepartnered with recognized brands and leaders in the Internet industry. They are cooperating with the likes of Microsoft & Skype, Deutsche Bank, Apple, Bosch, eBay, Dell and IBM. More than a hundred global major tech firms conduct R&D activities in Ukraine that leads to cost savings.

Why Ukraine is the second Silicon Valley - benefits of siding with a Ukrainian software development team?

There are over 15,000 registered software outsourcing companies in Ukraine, most of them are integrated into the western business world. Visa and Uber invest in Ukraine and they tend to increase their influence on the market pouring the latest electronics, marketing, and management trends into the country.

Labor pool

The professional workforce is the second major driver for the booming software product development sector in Ukraine. Hire a Ukrainian development team to enjoy the proficiency and intelligence of the country's engineers - the key element to great results and successes.

In 2018 there were over 160,000 tech workers in Ukraine, and in 2021, just the number of tech teams is expected to surpass the 200,000+ mark.

The high level of expertise of developers in Ukraine helps the country retain leadership in Eastern Europe by volumes of orders received by a country in the region. Not to mention that competitors: Russia, Poland and Belarus have established IT industries themselves. The fact that 18 Ukrainian companies were included in the top-100 best IT companies in the world speaks for the level of quality of the market.

Map with ranking by programmers efficiency

Strong skillset

Ukrainian software engineers and freelancers are skilled in a variety of technologies and often are familiar with multiple programming languages at once. Especially in web technologies as there is a long-lasting demand for such services on the inner market too. That is why it is advisable to opt for contractors for web software development in Ukraine.

Education





Thanks to the educational model with an equal interest in humanities and natural sciences, CIS engineers are well-known for their big-picture thinking and unconventional, outside-the-box approach to problem-solving.

At least 80% of developers in Ukraine hold a bachelor's degree. Over 80% of them are under the age of 30. That Y-generation is all but obsessed with technical innovations and implementing all novelties possible, thus hiring a Ukrainian development team is the best decision you can possibly come to.

In addition, many businesses recommended Ukrainian outsourcing software teams because they have advanced knowledge of English, which will make the communication process easier.

Work Approach of developers in Ukraine

The decision to hire a development team in Ukraine will pay off in the long run. It means that you choose the stability, high quality, low risks as well as opting for having the latest, most modern technological solutions developed fro you. Ukrainian development team has proved its credibility and efficiency on the world IT market, delivering the best possible solutions at a reasonable price. Here is the list of real benefits you will get:

Affordable prices

Developers in Ukraine, compared to cheaper offshore options like India, The Philippines, or China, offer a superior price/quality ratio. If you want to feel the difference between the quality of code between Ukrainian developers and those from India for example, you can always conduct a code review to appreciate the difference. We bet that you will be deeply awed by the results you will get.

Tech-savvy

Ukrainians are up-to-date with recent innovations, because of their location and western-oriented mindset. The broadband here is obscenely cheap and reliable, so there will be no issue in terms of connection and communication with the outsourcing team.

Security and Transparency

This is one of the biggest risks that a company takes with outsourcing. A big point of focus for many business owners is that they want to rest assured that their copyrights and secrets are safe. Unlike jurisdictions such as that in China (and their applicable law), the Ukrainian legislation system guarantees copyright and has regulatory systems in place that enforce all NDA commitments.

Efficiency

It can be proved by many success cases where software development results, implementation and integration didn't disappoint. A good example is Grammarly and Viewable startup, which developed the Face Detection/Recognition Technology that has become an integral and indispensable part of the Google ecosystem As part of your partnership with a Ukrainian dev company, you would most likely be provided with a project manager who will coordinate the whole process and serve as the bridge or liaison between you and your remote team. Compared to Western countries, where the going average hourly rate for developers can range anywhere from 60$ to 100$ per hour, developers from Easter Europe are paid from 25$ to 50$ per hour.

Mentality

Ukrainians have the ability, in addition to many others, to think from the client's perspective. You won't have any cultural barriers and our communication in traditional Western-style always fulfills with a sense of humor but maintain a professional attitude to tackle the tasks in a serious and focused matter is always a priority. Many software development companies in Ukraine provide "full-stack" development, mobile development, quality assurance. Therefore, you can entrust the whole life-cycle of the project to one company that becomes your reliable outsourcing partner.

Cultural similarities allow you to find the most reasonable solutions in a more collaborative and less process-driven business environment. Compared to other great developer hubs such as India or China, Ukraine has less cultural differences with their counterparts. So you can be sure that Ukrainians are capable of implementing any top-notch ideas, turning powerpoint into reality.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA) has extended sincere congratulations to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, on the occasion of His Royal Highness being awarded the C3 Leadership Award, granted by the 2021 C3 US-Arab Healthcare & Business Summit.

The SCIA said that the award is in recognition of HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Ministers efforts and achievements in various fields, as well as of HRHs wise leadership of the national efforts to confront the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which yielded huge successes, making Bahrain a global role model in combating COVID-19 and earning its wide international praise.

It affirmed that the well-deserved international honouring is a source of pride for everyone, noting that it crowns HRH Crown Prince and Prime Ministers tireless efforts in serving the nation and meeting His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifas aspirations.

The prestigious award also reflects the international appreciation of the dedicated efforts exerted by Team Bahrain to turn challenges into opportunities to attain accomplishments that enhance the comprehensive development march, led by HM the King, the SCIA also said during its regular meeting, held remotely today, under the chairmanship of its President, Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Khalifa.

The SCIA then discussed the topics on the agenda, including its plan to reconstruct the Maameer and Karzakan mosques, instructing the Secretariat-General to follow up on the implementation of the two projects and others so as to be completed as soon as possible to serve worshippers. The meeting also reviewed a draft law on stem cells, and decided to refer it to the Sharia Opinion Committee to study it and submit its report on it.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

A comprehensive plan has been introduced to improve Bahrains Identity (ID) card services, Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed announced. The move, which is in response to customer feedback on ID card services, appointments, eServices, and physical service centre visits, will provide between 600 and 1,000 appointments per day.

The plan includes reopening the ID card services centre in the Seef Mall  Muharaq Branch; increasing the number of Fast Track employees; improving electronic identity card services by making procedures more efficient and raising capacity; developing further electronic services.

Future initiatives include increasing the number of self-service kiosks, making them available at new locations within the kingdom closer to the public, and adding Advanced eKey registration services to these machines.

The kiosks, offer three types of services, ID card chip updates, registration for the Government Notifications Service, and card reading, all without the need to book appointments.

From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 26,000 chip data updates were carried out via self-service kiosks. Al Qaed stated that these improvements are in line with directives by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to develop and simplify the services provided to the public through various channels and to address the suggestions and complaints of the public and received through communication channels.

Customer suggestions for improvement, including feedback received via the National Suggestions and Complaints System (Tawasul), played a key role in the changes, which the iGA implemented this year.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Health Ministry will celebrate World Heart Day, which is observed annually on September 29. Todays celebration aims to assert the significance of increasing awareness of cardiovascular problems and promote joint efforts to fight heart and artery diseases.

The ministry has accorded great importance to improving preventive, therapeutic and diagnostic services related to heart disease through primary and secondary care.

This reflects the keenness of the leadership on the health and safety of the Bahraini community by providing many specialised medical centres and advanced therapeutic equipment and technologies that meet international standards in diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), represented by chairman Sameer Nass, signed yesterday two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in a bid to consolidate efforts with relevant societies and associations to achieve the mutual goals of promoting Bahrain and strengthening the national economy.

Nass signed an MoU with Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB), represented by chairman Adnan Ahmed Yousif. The memorandum aims at bridging the gap between banks and businesses to facilitate the financing of high-growth enterprises, foster the productivity and competitiveness, and stimulate the development of the national economy.

It stipulates knowledge transfer between both parties, joining efforts in holding business functions, and conducting joint market research. Nass also signed another MoU with Bahrain Insurance Association (BIA), represented by its chairman Jawad Mohammed.
Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The CIA in 2017 pitched senior Trump administration officials plans to kidnap or assassinate the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was holed up in a London embassy, a Yahoo News investigation found.

The report, which Yahoo News said was based on interviews with more than 30 former US officials, said the CIA was enraged by WikiLeaks' publication in 2017 of thousands of documents detailing the agency's hacking and covert surveillance techniques, known as the Vault 7 leak.

The Yahoo News report said senior officials inquired about "options" for what to do about Assange, including the feasibility of assassinating or kidnapping him.
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DANBURY  The school district is expecting a surplus in its prior years budget due to savings and grants related to COVID-19.

Administrators dont have exact numbers together yet due to turnover in the school finance department and the switch to a new software system. But Superintendent Kevin Walston said he anticipates close to a 2 percent excess, which is a greater surplus than in 2019-20.

There will be a substantial positive balance in the (Board of Educations) operating budget, and we will have a better handle on in [sic] over the next few weeks, interim Finance Director Frank Connolly said in a report presented to the school board last Wednesday.

With students learning remotely for several months last school year, the district saved money on electricity, supplies and special education transportation, according to the report.

Health insurance costs dropped, as well, because many employees delayed elective surgeries.

We expect this underusage is to be reversed with a possible heavy hit on the insurance fund, Connolly wrote. We are in discussion with the city on best way to handle this.

The school district received thousands of dollars in COVID-related grant funds from the federal government, which was a boon for the budget, he said.

Some school board members were disappointed that specific numbers werent available in the report.

Its a bit anorexic, board member Al Russo said of the one-page report that the board ultimately tabled approving.

Connolly told board members that hes still calculating the exact savings due to a myriad of challenges.

I was reluctant to come out in the public and say, Here is your number, and its still a little bit fluid, he said.

The finance department lost its director in June and its assistant finance director/bookkeeper on July 20, according to the report. The finance secretary position, shared with the special education, was vacant, too.

The loss of staff was further exasperated by the timing since it was the end of the fiscal year and the start of a new fiscal year, the busiest times of the year in the finance office, Connolly wrote in his report.

The department was also converting from the Phoenix financial software system to the Tyler Infinite Visions system. Both systems were used simultaneously last fiscal year.

Salaries were maintained in the Tyler system from Jan. 1 to June 30, while the Phoenix system was used for the full fiscal year for accounts payable and encumbrances. Both systems had to be reconciled for an end of the year picture, Connolly said in the report.

This combination of staff leaving and the merger to a new financial software system is making the closeout of the fiscal year somewhat complicated, he wrote.

Connolly is working with the new, permanent finance director, John Spang, who started last week.

The school district had a surplus in its 2019-20 budget, too, and worked with the city to put those funds in a reserve account. A $3.5 million surplus is part of this fiscal years budget.

Administrators have communicated with the citys finance director to coordinate putting the surplus in a reserve again.

We hope the city will continue to work with us in this regard, Walston told the school board. But those numbers are also not firmed up yet and we want to make sure those numbers are firmed up.
DANBURY  Danbury expects to keep its mask mandate in place for the foreseeable future, even as some area towns drop the requirement.

Ridgefield and Newtown have dropped their mandates because their COVID-19 rates have fallen below 10 new daily cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period. This means the towns are in the states less serious yellow alert zone.

Danbury is in the yellow, too, with its rate dropping to 9.7 new daily cases, as of the states report last Thursday. But the mayor said he and the health director are waiting for cases and hospitalizations to fall further before he tells residents they can remove their masks off indoors.

Until those numbers change and were absolutely certain this delta variant has moved through here, were going to take a cautious approach to this, Mayor Joe Cavo said. We dont need people getting sick. We dont need people dying.

Brookfield plans to keep its mask mandate in place until the case rate falls below 10 and the positivity rate is under 3 percent, First Selectman Steve Dunn said. That assumes the governor doesnt lose his emergency powers, which could affect towns authority on mask mandates, Dunn said.

People are getting a lot of mask fatigue, he said. A lot of businesses are having a hard time getting people to wear masks, especially when people come from outside of town, where they dont have a mask mandate.

Brookfield has the areas highest COVID-19 rate and is in the most severe red alert zone. Dunn said he isnt sure why, but he guesses people from other towns could be spreading the virus to residents at the towns large stores on Federal Road.

Thats the only thing I can think of that would cause our rates to be that high, he said. That 18.1 is higher than a year ago.

Bethel, with a case rate of 10.1, is on the border of the orange and yellow zones. The first selectman there has said hes waiting for the case rate to fall below 10 and for the positivity rate to drop below 2 percent for two consecutive weeks.

Redding and New Fairfield, which both have case rates of 11.8, have not announced plans to lift the mandate. Redding will consider removing masks once the town is in the yellow zone, said Doug Hartline, health officer.

Its just a matter of which way the cases go, he said.

As the highly contagious delta variant spread through the state, Danburys COVID rate rose, but not as high as some neighboring towns or other parts of the state.

Cavo attributes that to the mask mandate he implemented in mid-August, leading bordering towns to follow.

Im happy that we did that because I think thats what kept our numbers low, which has kept our hospitalizations lower, he said.

Kara Prunty, the citys health director, said shes watching contact tracing, case rates, and the positivity rate as she considers whether the mask mandate should remain.

The case rate looks to have leveled off over the past two weeks, but we are closely monitoring these numbers to see if it continues as a trend, she said in an email.

Customer confidence

Diners at Castello Restaurant were just getting back to an every day, normal life when Danbury instituted its mask mandate, said Nori Balidemaj, manager at the Italian restaurant and wine bar on Padanaram Road.

It hasnt affected business, per se, he said. It more affects customers confidence.

The restaurant has had to remind some customers to mask up, and most diners comply, Balidemaj said.

But I cant say there hasnt been days when people just walk straight in, he said. But some people, theyre just over it. They got their vaccine. In their minds, its over. They got it. Theyre done.

Danbury and Reddings health department investigate businesses when they get complaints about mask violations.

It hasnt been that many, but we have received complaints, Reddings Hartline said.

Danburys health department has received and followed up on 46 mask-related issues since Aug. 15, Prunty said.

Cavo said hes asked the citys health director to let him know when shes confident cases are trending down, so he can lift the mandate as soon as possible.

I dont like the masks, he said.

But wearing one is a simple way to keep everyone healthy, he said.

I dont think its the worst thing in the world to ask you to do, Cavo said. Id rather do this and keep our kids in school. Id rather do this and keep our businesses open.

When the state dropped indoor masking in May, Castello Restuarant still required face coverings for staff for another couple weeks. Balidemaj expects hed do the same once Danbury drops its requirement.

You kind of judge how the people are feeling, how theyre walking in, he said. We deal with a lot more people than they deal with. On any given day youre serving a table, but youre serving 100 others. Its a little more important for the workers to keep their masks on for a little longer because we deal with so many more people.

The colder months make outdoor dining more challenging for restaurants and customers. But for Castello, winter is a busy time with holiday parties.

If they lift the mask mandate, I suspect itll get busier because people will have more parties, Balidemaj said. In their mind, if theres no mask mandate, its safer to be outside and safer to be around people.

Lifting the mandate wont have a large effect, however, he said.

Itll definitely help business, but I dont think keeping the mask mandate on will hurt business, he said. The people that are going out are going to go out regardless.
NEW MILFORD  Soon, if youre caught smoking marijuana on town-owned or town-leased properties in New Milford, you might get slapped with a fine.

During an hourslong Town Council meeting Monday, members unanimously voted to continue creating an ordinance restricting marijuana use on town properties. The council will bring the ordinance to a public hearing before its next meeting on Oct. 12. The public hearing will take place just before the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

The proposed ordinance would allow law enforcement to fine people found smoking or vaping marijuana on or inside town properties. The state already prohibits its usage in state parks and on state beaches and waters.

New Milford Mayor Pete Bass said the goal is to basically just continue to make it safe for young children that use our town parks, our green, to make sure that its safe, that theyre not subject to cannabis smoke.

At its next meeting, the council likely will take a final vote.

Cannabis was legalized in Connecticut on July 1, meaning adults could possess up to one-and-a-half ounces of cannabis on their person, store up to five ounces in a locked container at home, or transport five ounces in a locked glovebox or trunk, according to the states maijuana explainer site.

Marijuana retail is not expected to begin until late next year.

In July, council members discussed Connecticuts decision to legalize cannabis and its implications for the town. At that meeting, they tried to figure out what the law could mean for New Milford and how they should approach usage regulations.

Bass told the council he was looking for a regulated experience.

While the amount of the fine has not been established, it could go as high as $250, the highest one allowed by state statute.

I think that its going to depend upon what happens at the public hearings, what the citizens want, town attorney Randy DiBella said.

Most of the money collected from the fines would go to the state, but the town would benefit, DiBella said, because fines would be paid through a state ticketing procedure.

Moving into the future

During Mondays meeting, council members heard from DiBella.

DiBella said the Zoning Commission did not want to enact a moratorium, but thought it would make sense to amend existing regulations to meet the recreational marijuana-use statutes.

The law is clear, its absolutely clear, you can prohibit vaping, smoking and the use of marijuana, actually, on town property, DiBella told the council. So, I drafted an ordinance in accordance with the authority of the statute and Ive given it to the mayor.

Councilmanr David Lawson asked DiBella if it still counted if a resident was in their private car on town property, to which DiBella said, Yes.

When asked for input about enforcement concerns, local Police Chief Spencer Cerruto said that he hadnt yet read the proposed ordinance.

In speaking with the chief at least two or three times a week, I have not heard of any major issues at all when it comes to cannabis, Bass said.

The town has not yet decided on cannabis sale or business regulations, and awaits recommendations from the Zoning Commission.

One of the things that we wanted to make sure was that the town spoke in unison, Bass said.

But next year, when the state really opens up to sales and more opportunities to purchase cannabis, we want to make sure we have our ducks in a row so it doesnt become an issue, he added.

Other towns in the area are still determining marijuana regulations, with some postponing decisions so they can get community input and determine a course of action.

Newtown has banned cannabis establishments, while Ridgefield and Danbury have imposed one-year moratoriums. Southbury passed a nine-month moratorium earlier this month, according to meeting minutes.

DiBella said a number of towns are opting for a moratorium while they await possible regulations from the state Department of Consumer Protection.

With every town and city making its own rules, Bass said the start of cannabis sales next year likely would be very complicated. This sentiment was echoed by DiBella, who said that of the five towns he represents, three have already approached him with different ways to regulate marijuana within their limits.

With 169 municipalities in the state, theres going to be 169 variations, Bass said, from highly restrictive, to no restrictions at all.

Still, Bass said he appreciated that municipalities have been given the opportunity to take the regulations into their own hands. In that way, New Milford will be able to tailor its regulations to the wants and needs of its residents, he added.
DANBURY  Visitors to Nuvance Health hospitals and facilities must soon be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or provide a negative COVID test.

The rule announced on Wednesday takes effect Oct. 5.

Visitors must show they have both of their COVID vaccinations or negative result from a test taken within 72 hours to enter inpatient and emergency departments, Nuvance Health Medical Practices and ambulatory services.

Special populations and visitors with extenuating circumstances may be asked to provide documentation, but it is not a requirement to visit.

This visitation change is a very important way to limit the risk of our patients, visitors and staff to COVID-19, Chief Experience Officer Steve Meth said. We know visitors and loved ones play an essential role as partners in healing and wellness, and we continually evaluate these guidelines with experts from nursing, infection prevention and physician leaders to craft the safest possible path to keep a loved one at our patients side in their moment of need.

Nuvance Health includes Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon hospitals, as well as three hospitals in New York.

The health system announced in August that it would require its employees to get vaccinated, but its the first in Connecticut to require the shots for visitors. Masks continue to be required.

To be considered fully vaccinated, visitors must have had a second Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna dose or a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two weeks prior to their hospital visit.

Acceptable types of documentation include a physical or digital copy or photocopy of the visitors vaccine card or documentation from the visitors health care provider showing dates of vaccination, provider name and World Health Organization-approved vaccine administered.

Antigen and molecular tests are acceptable forms of COVID-19 testing, as is any at home test that is observed and verified  with results showing name, date and negative result  by a health care provider or licensed COVID-19 testing center.

Nuvances visitation policy permits one support person per day for patients not suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19. Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 will be allowed visitation only in extenuating circumstances and for special patient populations.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico election regulators are delaying the initial nomination process for congressional and state legislative candidates for as long as three months to allows more time for the political redistricting process.

The first step toward running for public office is to gather signatures on petition forms from registered voters.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced Tuesday that petition forms will be available only for candidates aspiring to statewide office on Oct. 1. Other candidates seeking districted offices such legislative seats are likely to wait until January 2022 for the forms to begin gathering signatures to run for office next next year.

Pandemic-delays to the 2020 census have spilled over into the political redistricting process. The Legislature is tentatively scheduled to convene in December to approve new political districts for Congress, 112 legislative seats and a Public Education Commission that oversees charter schools.

A Citizens Redistricting Committee authorized by lawmakers is collecting public comment on several redistricting concepts, including proposals from 20 federally recognized Native American communities from across New Mexico.

The committee's recommendation are due to the Legislature at the end of October. The Legislature can adopt the recommendation or start from scratch.

Proposed adjustments to a congressional swing district in southern New Mexico are under scrutiny.

Last year, U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell ousted a first-term Democrat from the 2nd District seat. The district's boundaries are likely to shift and contract to offset population gains in a oil-producing region in the southeastern corner of New Mexico.
PHOENIX (AP)  A judge has blocked a key portion of a new Arizona law that would have let prosecutors bring felony charges against doctors who knowingly terminate pregnancies solely because the fetuses have a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes on Tuesday also threw out another provision that would have let prosecutors bring charges against anyone who helped raise money or pay for abortions done solely because of genetic abnormality.

The judge said the laws criminal provisions were likely unconstitutionally vague, explaining its unclear at what point in the process doctors can be deemed to be aware that fetal genetic abnormality exists.

Rayes also said another portion of the law made an incorrect statement by saying the statute requires providers to tell women that the law bars abortions because of genetic abnormality.

The judge made clear the new law didnt prohibit abortions because of a fetal genetic abnormality, nor did it necessarily bar doctors from performing such abortions. Instead, the law would prohibit doctors from performing such abortions if they know the womans motive, Rayes said.

The provision essentially requires providers to mislead their patients into believing that their constitutionally protected choice is unlawful and would make it less likely that women will know they have the right to terminate a pregnancy because of a fetal genetic abnormality, wrote Rayes, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The ruling, however, did bring a partial victory for abortion opponents.

The judge refused to put on hold a personhood provision that says the state will interpret all laws to confer the rights of people on unborn children, subject to the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovichs office, which defended the law against the legal challenge, didnt return a call seeking a comment on the ruling.

Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, which sponsored the legislation, said the ruling was only the first review of the law by the courts.

We remain confident the law will be upheld and ruled enforceable in its entirety, Herrod said in a statement.

Emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Courts turn to the right during former President Donald Trumps administration, Republican-controlled legislatures around the country have embraced efforts to further restrict or outright ban abortion. States enacted more than 90 new restrictions on abortion this year, the most in decades, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

The high court in May signaled its willingness to reconsider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion before a fetus could survive outside a mothers womb, generally around 24 weeks.

And this month, the justices declined to block a Texas law that bans abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is usually around six weeks into a pregnancy  before some people know theyre pregnant.

Down syndrome abortion bans have gained traction recently in several GOP-controlled states, such as Arizona and South Dakota.

A three-judge federal appeals court panel has put on hold a sweeping 2019 Missouri law that includes some of the same provisions as Arizonas, including the ban on abortions based on genetic abnormalities. That ruling is now being considered by the entire 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ruling on the Arizona law was issued just eight hours before it was to take effect. The measure was signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey during the spring after it passed the GOP-controlled Legislature in party-line votes.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups that challenged the law said it was so vague that it would dissuade doctors from performing abortions anytime theres an indication that the fetus might have a genetic problem for fear of criminal prosecution.

Attorneys for the state argued the measures upholds Arizonas interest in protecting the disability community from discrimination, preventing doctors from coercing women to abort fetuses believed to have genetic problems and upholding the integrity of the medical profession.

The states lawyers also argued the law wont block any woman from getting an abortion, though she might have to refuse to tell her doctor why she wants to terminate her pregnancy.
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP)  Police fired tear gas and water cannons in Slovenias capital on Wednesday at thousands of protesters who oppose tough anti-coronavirus measures in the small European Union nation.

The protesters responded by throwing bottles and other objects at the riot police.

About 10,000 protesters, chanting Freedom! Freedom!" tried to block a major highway north of Ljubljana when the police intervened, the second such incident in Slovenia within a month.

The protest, organized mostly by groups against the use of COVID-19 vaccine passes, took place as Slovenia suspended the use of the Johnson & Johnson shot on Wednesday while it investigates the death of a 20-year-old woman who had received one.

The suspension of the J&J vaccine will be in place until experts determine whether there was a link between the woman's death from a stroke this week and the vaccine shot she received two weeks earlier, Health Minister Janez Poklukar said.

However, the vaccine's benefits continue to outweigh the risks, Poklukar said.

The one-dose J&J vaccine became more popular after Slovenian authorities introduced new requirements for the use of COVID-19 passes, including for going to work in all state-run firms. People must show that they are either fully vaccinated or that they have taken an expensive PCR test.

The government approved the purchase of an additional 100,000 J&J doses from Hungary in response to the growing demand.

The woman who died was the second recipient of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Slovenia to have experienced a serious health condition that wasn't COVID-19, the official STA news agency reported. About 120,000 people in Slovenia have received the vaccine.

Earlier at the protest, participants observed a moment of silence for the young woman.

The protesters carried banners reading Stop Corona Fascism and demanded equal rights for both those who are vaccinated and those who are not.

I am here for the future, the future of my kids, future generations, because this craziness needs to be stopped, protester Katja Zupan said. If we dont stand up for ourselves and for mankind, then we are done, we are lost."

Like much of Central and Eastern Europe, Slovenia in recent weeks has seen a rise in new coronavirus infections. The country of 2 million people has fully vaccinated nearly 48% of its population, a smaller share than in many other EU nations.

Slovenia has recommended Johnson & Johnson vaccines for all people over 18, while some countries have limited its use to older people.

___

Read all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
BRIGHTON, England (AP)  The leader of Britains opposition Labour Party took aim Wednesday at a Conservative government that has presided over empty gas pumps and one of Europes worst coronavirus death tolls  but still holds a lead over Labour in most opinion polls.

That sums up the dilemma for Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has struggled to break through to a largely indifferent public despite the many problems besetting Prime Minister Boris Johnsons administration.

Starmer sought to change that with a hefty speech at the partys annual conference in the seaside English city of Brighton, arguing that Labour is back in business after a decade of election disappointments. He argued that his personal story  a working-class lad who went to law school and became a public prosecutor  made him a better leader than posh, blustering Johnson, whom he dismissed as a trickster who has performed his one trick.

I dont think Boris Johnson is a bad man, Starmer said. I think he is a trivial man. I think hes a showman with nothing left to show.

Labour has been out of office since 2010, a decade that has brought the country three Conservative prime ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson.

Johnsons Conservatives won a thumping 80-seat majority in Parliament in December 2019 by winning over voters in post-industrial northern England towns who had voted Labour for decades but felt neglected by successive governments. Those areas also voted strongly to leave the European Union, a cause Johnson championed and Labour largely opposed.

Starmer wants to win those voters back by showing that Labour is not the party of urban left-wingers its detractors like to depict. In his speech, he tackled many voters biggest concern about Labour  that the social democratic party will hike taxes and hobble the economy.

Too often in the history of this party, our dream of the good society falls foul of the belief that we will not run a strong economy, he said. But you dont get one without the other."

He promised to improve workers conditions and the economy with the blessing of British business, in a step back from the class-conflict rhetoric of the partys left wing.

A 59-year-old former national chief prosecutor, Starmer was elected Labour leader in April 2020 to replace hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had led the party to two heavy election defeats in 2017 and 2019 and was accused by critics of tolerating anti-Semitism in party ranksa.

Yet Starmer has struggled to make an impact while the countrys attention was consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left at least 135,000 people in Britain dead -- the highest death toll in Europe after Russia. In recent days a fuel-supply crisis triggered by a truck-driver shortage has shut down thousands of gas stations and led to long lines of frustrated motorists around the country.

Starmer said that made a mockery of Johnson's promise to level up the country by spreading economic opportunity.

Level up? You cant even fill up," he said.

The televised speech to hundreds of party members was Starmer's attempt to break with the Corbyn era and set out his own vision of a party in touch with mainstream voters.

But Starmer remains caught between fueding Labour camps. Many Labour members think the party must veer to the center to win, as it did under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who won three successive election victories. But Corbyns still-numerous supporters loathe Blair and want Starmer to stick to his predecessors socialist policies of nationalization and spending hikes.

Labour's splits were clear as Starmer was sporadically heckled during a speech that lasted almost 90 minutes. Starmer spoke beyond the room to the wider British public, taking aim at both the Conservative government and critics within his own party.

He depicted Johnson's administration as a chumocracy that awarded its friends with contracts while inequality in British society grew  something he linked to the countrys high coronavirus toll.

There were cracks in British society and COVID seeped into them, Starmer said.

He took on his hecklers by asking delegates whether they preferred shouting slogans or changing lives. He also set out a series of election-style promises to improve social care, education, working conditions and innovation and to fight climate change.

Britain is not scheduled to hold a national election until 2024, though many expect Johnson to call one at least a year sooner. The governing Tories hold their own four-day convention in Manchester starting Sunday.

Some Labour members were convinced by the heartfelt, policy-heavy speech from a leader often depicted as staid and dull.

I think he's going the right way, said Katherine Harlow, a member of Labour's youth wing. I think he's still got to do a lot to win over the left, but if he focuses on young people and giving us what we need, I think a lot of people will be persuaded by it.

But Starmer's speech didn't sit well with all of Corbyn's supporters.

I was disgusted by it, said Sandra Wyman, a delegate from Leeds in northern England. I'm very proud to be a socialist. And I feel like an endangered species at this conference.
From its first Bell 206B Jet Ranger aircraft produced in 1986, through new helicopter development programs like the Bell 429, Bell has been instrumental for vertical flight technology in Canada. Certifying single and twin-engines rotorcraft over the last 35 years, Bell has produced more than 5,600 commercial aircraft operating around the world, among which 1,000 are in the Canadian market today.

"For three and a half decades, Bell Textron Canada has produced and delivered leading-edge commercial helicopters to provide vertical lift solutions to operators, businesses and government agencies all over the world. Along the way, we've built a remarkable legacy in Canada," said Mitch Snyder, Bell president and CEO.

With a renowned reputation for safety and reliability, Bell Textron Canada has partnered with the Canadian and Quebec governments over the years to produce and support the Royal Canadian Air Force's Griffon fleet, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Surete du Quebec. According to OMX, with its Supply Centre in Calgary, Alberta, and Commercial Assembly and Delivery Centre in Mirabel, Quebec, Bell sustains more than 6,200 jobs in Canada, has 550 suppliers across the country and contributes $848M to Canada's GDP per year.

"35 years ago, Canada's strong interest in establishing itself in the helicopter industry, their support and funding for construction, research and technology development, attracted Bell to this region and eventually enabled the company to build a robust commercial helicopter line. Today, the Bell team is a driving force for aerospace innovation in Canada and throughout the aviation industry, delivering safe and reliable aircraft, and offering superior customer experience," said Steeve Lavoie, President of Bell Textron Canada.

Bell Textron Canada is represented by 1,300 highly skilled employees focused on innovation, product development, airframe design, world-class composite production, complete integration, certification, customer experience, and superior service and support for customers in country and around the globe.

"At Bell, innovation is in our DNA. We have extremely bright minds who are passionate about pushing the limits of vertical flight as we know it today. Here's to another 35 years," added Lavoie.

To read more about Bell's impact in Canada, visit Bell's webpage at https://www.bellflight.com/company/canada

ABOUT BELL

Thinking above and beyond is what we do. For more than 80 years, we've been reimagining the experience of flight  and where it can take us.

We are pioneers. We were the first to break the sound barrier and to certify a commercial helicopter. We were aboard NASA's first lunar mission and brought advanced tiltrotor systems to market. Today, we're defining the future of on-demand mobility.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas  as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Textron Inc.,  we have strategic locations around the globe. And with nearly one quarter of our workforce having served, helping our military achieve their missions is a passion of ours.

Above all, our breakthrough innovations deliver exceptional experiences to our customers. Efficiently. Reliably. And always, with safety at the forefront.

ABOUT TEXTRON INC.

Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, Textron Off Road, Arctic Cat, Textron Systems, and TRU Simulation + Training. For more information, visit: www.textron.com.

Certain statements in this press release may project revenues or describe strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update them. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Please note:

A video for the 35th anniversary of Bell in Mirabel can be found at https://www.bellflight.com/company/canada

SOURCE Bell Textron Canada Ltd.

For further information: B-roll and other visual assets are available. For more information, please contact: Patricia Bergeron, PRESS CONTACT, [email protected], 514-242-4213

Related Links

http://www.bellhelicopter.com/


Some initial data from the Market Research Study has uncovered:

86% of adults interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in microdosing.

49% of those interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in outcomes such as increasing creativity (35%), exploring their mind (29%), and exploring spirituality (29%).

Oregonians who are not interested in Psilocybin Services because they don't want to pay for them list their largest concern is supporting Big Pharma.

84% of those interested in Psilocybin Services are interested in outcomes to help with their mental health.

While nearly half of all adults (49%) are interested in paying for Psilocybin Services, 37% of adults do not know what psilocybin is. In addition, women, people who have not completed a college degree, and Asian minorities are less likely to understand what psilocybin is.

On average, people would like to pay around $100 for a psilocybin therapy session and approximately $50 for a microdosing session. However, there is a significant difference between those in lower-income brackets and higher-income brackets ( $93 vs. $223 , respectively).

for a psilocybin therapy session and approximately for a microdosing session. However, there is a significant difference between those in lower-income brackets and higher-income brackets ( vs. , respectively). A trend shows that younger adults are more interested in microdosing than Boomers (94% Gen Z, 74% Boomers), although it did not reach statistical significance in the sample size.

Based on this data, Red Light Oregon has:

Launched a community outreach program to educate the public and health care providers about the latest scientific research around psilocybin and the opportunities of Measure 109. Red Light Oregon will be focusing on reaching out to underserved populations, as seen in the data, which have not had the privilege to be exposed to the potential benefits of psilocybin. The program will utilize Wisdom, a VR app that explains the effects of psilocybin on the brain. You can register to receive more information on: https://redlightoregon.com/.

will be focusing on reaching out to underserved populations, as seen in the data, which have not had the privilege to be exposed to the potential benefits of psilocybin. The program will utilize Wisdom, a VR app that explains the effects of psilocybin on the brain. You can register to receive more information on: https://redlightoregon.com/. Launched an advocacy program to educate the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board and Oregon health officials around the potential benefits of microdosing and the ability to increase the equity of Measure 109 with regulation specifically addressing microdosing, which is a lower-priced service. Red Light Oregon aims to work with Oregon authorities utilizing Red Light Oregon's legal advisor to bridge the gap between regulations and what the people in Oregon want.

View some of the answers from the 49% of adults in the sample from Oregon interested in paying for Psilocybin Services in our image carousel.

"The data Red Light Oregon has received, so far, from Oregon is showing the immediate need people have for psychedelic services to help with mental health. The data also shows many of them are interested in microdosing," said Todd Shapiro, CEO and Director of Red Light Holland. "Measure 109 is focused on equity, and equity starts with education, which is why we have launched our community outreach program. Oregonians have also shown us their genuine concern around supporting Big Pharma and Red Light Oregon is committed to being the people's company starting by listening to what the people want while advocating for legal access through education, information, and responsible use."

"With 51% of adults interested in Psilocybin Services and 88% of those respondents being interested in microdosing, we believe there is a huge opportunity for a company with our shared expertise to provide the people of Oregon with the best services," added Katie Field, Co-President of Red Light Oregon and President and Executive Director at Halo Collective.

"Psilocybin has meaningful potential to help people grow and heal, and it's everyone's responsibility to make sure the benefits from this natural substance are available to everyone even if they don't make six figures. We are impressed with the OPAB's emphasis on equity and hope this data will help them come up with recommendations that will ensure this goal. For Measure 109 to be equitable, it should also take into account the wants of the younger generation and make sure that group sessions and microdosing are clearly defined in the regulation to increase accessibility to lower-priced Psilocybin Services," said Sarah Hashkes, Co-president of Red Light Oregon and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Red Light Holland.

Further data from the survey continues to be analyzed. An official report is estimated to be released to the public, the OPAB and health officials in mid-October.

Measure 109 will make Psilocybin Services available to 21 years and older in Oregon who think they can benefit from them without a need for medical diagnosis. The service must include a required prep-session, psilocybin session in a licensed facility supervised by a licensed facilitator and a possibility of an integration session. On December 31, 2022, the Oregon Health Authority will prescribe forms and regulations necessary for the exact implementation.

About Red Light Oregon

The Oregon-based company is a 50/50 joint venture of Halo Collective Inc. and Red Light Holland Corp. Red Light Oregon is developing a commercialization strategy for Psilocybin Services in Oregon utilizing a holistic approach based on the latest neuroscience research and in accordance with measure 109, which is legalizing Psilocybin Services. In addition, Red Light Oregon focuses on increasing accessibility and equity to Psilocybin Services in Oregon by promoting education, research, and accessible pricing.

About Halo Collective Inc.

Halo is a leading, vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures, and distributes quality cannabis flower, oils, and concentrates and has sold approximately eleven million grams of oils and concentrates since inception. The Company continues to expand its business and scale efficiently, partnering with trustworthy leaders in the industry who value Halo's operational expertise in bringing top-tier products to market.

Halo currently operates in the United States in Oregon and California, Canada, Southern Africa in the Kingdom of Lesotho, and the United Kingdom. The Company sells cannabis products principally to dispensaries in the U.S. under its brands Hush, Mojave, and Exhale, and under license agreements with Papa's Herb, DNA Genetics, Terphogz, and FlowerShop*, a cannabis lifestyle and conceptual wellness brand that includes G-Eazy as a partner and key member.

As part of continued expansion and vertical integration in the U.S., Halo boasts several grow operations throughout Oregon and two planned in California. In Oregon, the Company has a combined 11 acres of owned and contracted outdoor and green house cultivation, including East Evans Creek, a six-acre grow site in Jackson County with four licenses owned and operated by Halo and two third-party licenses under contract to sell all of their product to Halo; Winberry Farms, a one-acre grow site located 30 miles outside of Eugene in Lane County with a license owned and operated by Halo; and William's Wonder Farms, a three-acre grow site in Applegate Valley, under contract to sell all of its product to Halo pending the closing of Halo's acquisition of its licenses and business assets. Halo has recently acquired Food Concepts LLC, a master tenant of a 55,000 sq.ft. indoor cannabis cultivation, processing, and wholesaling facility in Portland, Oregon operated by the Pistil Point entities (the "Pistil Point Acquistion").

In California, the Company is building out Ukiah Ventures, a planned 30,000 sq. ft. indoor cannabis grow and processing facility, which will include up to an additional five acres of industrial land to expand the site. Recently, Halo partnered with Green Matter Holding in California to purchase a property in Lake County, developing up to 63 acres of cultivation, comprising one of the largest licensed single site grows in California. Halo also plans to expand its operations in California by opening three dispensaries in North Hollywood, Hollywood, and Westwood, one of which may serve as the first FlowerShop* branded dispensary.

In Canada, Halo acquired three KushBar retail cannabis stores located in Alberta as a first in its planned entry into the Canadian market, leveraging its Oregon and California brands. With the KushBar retail stores as a foundation, the Company plans to expand its foothold in Canada.

Halo has also acquired a range of software development assets, including CannPOS, Cannalift, and, more recently, CannaFeels. In addition, Halo owns the discrete sublingual dosing technology, Accudab. The Company intends to spin-off these assets and its intellectual property and patent applications into its subsidiary Halo Tek Inc. and expects to complete a distribution to shareholders on a record date to be determined by Halo.

Halo has recently announced its intention to reorganize its non-U.S. operations into a newly formed entity called Akanda Corp., whose mission will be to provide high-quality and ethically sourced medical cannabis products to patients worldwide. Akanda will seek to deliver on this promise while driving positive change in wellness, empowering individuals in Lesotho, and uplifting the quality of the lives of employees and the local communities where it operates, all while limiting its carbon footprint. Akanda will combine the scaled production capabilities of Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness Pty. Ltd., Halo's Lesotho-based cultivation and processing campus located in the world's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) containing a cannabis cultivation operation, with distribution and route-to-market efficiency of Canmart Ltd., Halo's UK-based fully approved pharmaceutical importer, and distributor that supplies pharmacies and clinics within the U.K. With a potential maximum licensed canopy area of 200 hectares (495 acres), Bophelo has scalability that is arguably unmatched in the world today.

For further information regarding Halo, see Halo's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

Connect with Halo Collective: Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

About Red Light Holland Corp.

The Company is an Ontario-based corporation positioning itself to engage in the production, growth and sale (through existing Smart Shops operators and an advanced e-commerce platform) of a premium brand of magic truffles to the legal, recreational market within the Netherlands, in accordance with the highest standards, in compliance with all applicable laws.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Halo's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Halo's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to theprospects of Red Light Oregon and the regulatory regime in Oregon with respect to psilocybin and other psychedelics, the Company's plans to expand in Canada and California, the expected size and capabilities of the final facility planned at Ukiah Ventures, the size of Halo's planned cultivation facility in Northern California, the ability of Bophelo and Canmart to serve the U.K. market, the proposed spin-off with Halo Tek Inc. and Halo's proposed plans to re-organize its non-U.S. operations via Akanda Corp.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Halo is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Halo has made certain assumptions. Although Halo believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Among others, the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: changes in the consumer market for cannabis products, changes in the expected outcomes of the proposed changes to Halo's operations, delays in obtaining required licenses or approvals necessary for the build-out of Oregon operations, the proposed spin-out with Halo Tek Inc. or the proposed re-organization with Akanda Corp., delays or unforeseen costs incurred in connection with construction, the ability of competitors to scale operations in Northern California, delays or unforeseen difficulties in connection with the cultivation and harvest of Halo's raw material, changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; and the other risks disclosed in the Company's annual information form dated March 31, 2021 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Halo does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Halo or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

SOURCE Halo Collective Inc.

For further information: Halo Collective, Investor Relations, [email protected], www.haloco.com/investors

Related Links

https://haloco.com/


VIENNA, Sept. 27, 2021 /CNW/ -- Vienna got through the pandemic better in comparison to other European cities - thanks to a specially developed PCR test by the Austrian company LEAD Horizon, which is already used in 13 countries. Every day, 150.000 Austrians carry out a corona test by using the gargle method. This test offer is also available to travelers. These low-threshold corona tests could also be expanded to other countries.

Even if the number of vaccinations increases, regular testing for Covid-19 will continue to play a key role in combating the pandemic. Austria ranks among the leaders in the tests carried out worldwide  thanks to the initiative "Everything gargles". Every day, 150.000 Austrians use this specially developed PCR test  the "gold standard" of corona tests  to inquire their Covid-19 status. Since February, more than eight million people  including tourists  have made use of this low-threshold opportunity. In addition to Austria, the product is already available in 13 other countries.

This is made possible by the Austrian company LEAD Horizon, which developed the high-quality PCR test using a throat rinsing fluid and a web app. Means: You get free tests, gargle at home by opening the web app and following the instructions and then return the sample tube to one of the 681 pick-up stations. From there it is brought to certified laboratories and evaluated by means of PCR procedure. The test result as well as a medical report and the certificate for the Green Pass or EU Digital COVID Certificate can be accessed via web app withing 24 hours.

The PCR gargle tests are also available to travelers in Vienna and Upper Austria. Already 80.000 tests from tourists were carried out. The tests are carried out independently by the guest in the hotel room and then handed in at various acceptance points. The result is available within one day and functions  in addition to the vaccination  as an "entry test" for gastronomy, theatre and other holiday activities.

Especially with a view to autumn, which is the traditional time for city trips, LEAD Horizon provides travelers a free and easy opportunity to enjoy a safe and relaxed holiday in Austria.

More information: www.allesgurgelt.at and https://youtu.be/rQ3BiXfKVUE

Inquiry note

Veronika Beck, MA

CONSULTANT

m +4366488975829

[email protected]

Milestones in Communication

Alser Strae 32/19, A-1090 Vienna

SOURCE LEAD Horizon
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhus resignation from his post has not been accepted and the matter will be resolved soon, said party MLA Bawa Henry on Tuesday. Navjot Singh Sidhus resignation has not been accepted. The matter will be resolved soon. There are 3-4 issues. They are being discussed in the party forum. Party high command will resolve them, Henry told reporters.

Meanwhile, Punjab Ministers Pargat Singh and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring met Sidhu at his residence in Patiala. There are some minor issues that arose out of some misunderstandings and will be resolved tomorrow, Warring told reporters while leaving Sidhus residence.

In a dramatic turn of events in Punjab, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu tendered his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday afternoon. The collapse of a mans character stems from the compromise corner, I can never compromise on Punjabs future and the agenda for the welfare of Punjab. Therefore, I hereby resign as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Will continue to serve the Congress, Sidhu said in his resignation letter.

However, sources close to Congress said that Sidhus resignation has not been accepted. Top leadership has asked the state leadership to resolve the matter at their own level first, they said. Sidhu was appointed as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) on July 23.

A series of resignations poured in after Sidhus resignation. A minister and three Congress leaders, considered close to Sidhu, stepped down from their posts delivering a big blow to the Congress high command that was hoping of resolving the tussle between Sidhu and captain Amarinder Singh after Navjot was appointed as Punjab Congress President ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.

Punjab Cabinet Minister Razia Sultana resigned from her ministerial post in solidarity with Sidhu. While Gautam Seth resigned as General Secretary (in-charge training) of Punjab Congress, Yoginder Dhingra resigned as General Secretary of the partys state unit. State party treasurer Gulzar Inder Chahal also stepped down from his post.

Sidhus resignation came just before former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singhs visit to the national capital, who was visiting Delhi after he resigned on September 18. The tussle in Punjab Congress escalated in August when the partys central leadership sought to bury the hatchet by appointing Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Congress chief apparently against the desire of the Chief Minister.
Underlining his view over the pullout, McKenzie said that the full US withdrawal would lead to the collapse of Afghan forces and government.

Top US military generals on Tuesday told the Congress that they had advised President Joe Biden to keep nearly 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, contradicting what he had said earlier on the subject, a media report stated. During public congressional testimony on Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and head of US Central Command General Frank McKenzie had advised that they agreed with the recommendation of Army General Austin Miller that 2,500 troops be left in the country, though they denied to given details of what they advised Biden directly, reported The Hill.

Back in April, Biden announced his decision to end US military involvement in Afghanistan. I wont share my personal recommendation to the president, but I will give you my honest opinion, and my honest opinion and view shaped my recommendation, McKenzie said, I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. And I also recommended earlier in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time. Those are my personal views.

It was the first testimony of the US top military generals after the Afghanistan withdrawal. Underlining his view over the pullout McKenzie said that the full US withdrawal would lead to the collapse of Afghan forces and government.

Declining to comment on his direct conversation with Biden over the matter McKenzie told the committee that he agreed with that assessment and that it was his personal view dating back to last fall that the US should maintain at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan to move toward a peace agreement between the Taliban and Afghan government.

In August, during an interview with ABC, Biden denied that his top military commanders recommended him to leave 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said that ending the war in Afghanistan was in our national interest.

Referring to Bidens previous remarks to ABC, Psaki tweeted, He (Biden) said advice was split, but the consensus of top military advisors was 2500 troops staying meant escalation due to deal by the previous admin. @SecDef, the Chairman, and GEN McKenzie all reiterated.
Balochistans perpetual state of conflict offers the most suitable conditions for foreign powers to engage in a proxy war, akin to what the US and Russia did in a war-torn Syria. Balochistan is a region of interest for both India and China.

Balochistan has a major reserve of untapped mineral resources. It is a region with historical and cultural significance. However, most people around the world know Balochistan as a land of armed conflicts and gross human rights violations by the Pakistani state. The major reason for conflicts in Balochistan is the ethnic composition of the province. The largest and most influential ethnolinguistic group in Pakistan is the Punjabi-speaking Sunni population of the country whereas the two majority groups of Balochistan are Baloch(35.49%) and Pashtuns(35.34%). The Punjabi-dominated military and political leadership of Pakistan has systemically persecuted Baloch in order to crush the separatist movements in the province.

Balochistans perpetual state of conflict offers the most suitable conditions for foreign powers to engage in a proxy war, akin to what the US and Russia did in a war-torn Syria. Balochistan is a region of interest for both India and China. India is often accused of using Balochistan to foment tensions in Pakistan in return for Pakistans misadventures in J&K. On the other hand, Chinas interest lies in exploiting Balochistans vast mineral resources and its strategic location.

The Gwadar Port developed in Balochistans coastal city of Gwadar, by China under CPEC, is under the operational control of China and could prove to be the maritime trade gateway for landlocked Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban. The Chinese were the first to welcome a Taliban delegation as state guests. If it officially recognizes the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, China, in lieu of developing infrastructure in Afghanistan, will try to get the nation to be an extended part of the CPEC, a part of its expansionist Belt & Road Initiative.

Ethnic cleansing by the Pakistani establishment and now a virtual invasion by China have compelled the Baloch insurgents to sabotage Chinese investments and projects in Balochistan. Chinese nationals have been targeted by the insurgents, in a bid to discourage Chinas investments and growing influence in the region. These disruptive attacks have more often than not been pinned on alleged Indian-funded Baloch separatist groups.

Chinas influence in Balochistan as well as its maritime control in the Arabian Sea, through the Gwadar Port, need an effective check to maintain regional peace and security in South and Central Asia. The QUAD needs to take up the task at hand and achieve the objective of countering Chinese expansion in the region, through all means at its disposal. India can use its covert assets in Balochistan to damage China-Pakistan relationships in the region. All the four nations of QUAD have impressive naval strength and this can be used to tackle Chinese naval presence in the Arabian Sea, in the guise of anti-piracy efforts in the region.

A concerted diplomatic effort by QUAD members to lend support to Baloch advocacy groups throughout the world can prove to be effective in strengthening separatist groups in Balochistan, which in turn will help develop a more fierce resistance to Chinese ambitions in the province.
The missile was newly developed and test-fired by the Academy of Defence Science, Xinhua reported citing the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea on Wednesday said that it test-fired its newly developed Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile in Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County of Jagang Province on Tuesday morning, a media report said on Wednesday. The missile was newly developed and test-fired by the Academy of Defence Science, Xinhua reported citing the official Korean Central News Agency.

In the first test-launch, national defence scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section and also its technical specifications including the guiding manoeuvrability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead, Korean Central News Agency said.

It also ascertained the stability of the engine as well as of missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time, KCNA said, adding the test results proved that all the technical specifications met the design requirements.

Pak Jong Chon, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea, watched the test launch with leading officials in the sector of national defence science.

Denuclearisation talks between the US and North Korea have stalled. The Biden government has said it is ready to hold talks with the North anywhere, at any time, but the communist country has remained unresponsive to US overtures.
The bill carries provisions for sanctioning persons and governments lending support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, along with entities that have had an active role in supporting the terror organization from 2001-2020.

A group of US lawmakers have moved a bill intended to sanction state and non-state actors who have supported the Taliban in Afghanistan. The legislation named the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight and Accountability Act of 2021 was moved by 22 Republican Senators. The bill carries provisions for sanctioning persons and governments lending support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, along with entities that have had an active role in supporting the terror organization from 2001-2020.

The bill mandates the US Secretary of State to submit a report on Pakistans role in the Talibans advance in Afghanistan, within 180 days of enactment of the legislation. The act will also empower the US President to sanction individuals involved in lending financial, logistical, and military support to any terror organization operating in Afghanistan.

The legislation is also aimed at deterring the Taliban from gaining international legitimacy. The bill calls for not recognizing a Taliban-appointed envoy of Afghanistan to the US or to the UN. It also advocates for a comprehensive review of foreign assistance to entities that support the Taliban.

Pakistan has never hesitated from supporting the Taliban, both covertly and overtly, in the terror groups offensive in Afghanistan and against the Panjshir resistance force. Pakistan faces serious allegations of using military drones and helicopters to assist the Taliban in the last standing province of Afghanistan. The chief of ISI, Faiz Hameed, was being hosted by Taliban leader Mullah Bardar in Kabul while the terror organization was trying to invade Panjshir. In the recently concluded UNGA session, Pak PM Imran Khan in his address asked the global community to strengthen and stabilise the Taliban-ruled government in Afghanistan. Pak foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a meeting with the foreign ministers of China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Uzbekistan, batted for the inclusion of Taliban in future regional gatherings.
Yale University Ph.D. student Matthew Amodio defended his crown and carried on his quiz show conquest to a 36th consecutive game won, tallying a $16,600 victory. His latest victory has also pushed his cumulative earnings to $1,417,401. The artificial intelligence student has also surpassed previous "Jeopardy!" contestant James Holzhauer on the show's list of all-time consecutive games won. Amodio previously told Hearst Connecticut that hes still getting used to all the attention hes received during his time on the show.

I have been very uncomfortable! he said in an email of his newfound fame. Im an introverted person at heart, and maybe over enough time I would get used to this amount of attention, but that time has certainly not come yet. I still get chills when I see an article written about me. Me? Me, me?
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Bidens plan for a massive expansion of social programs is being framed by supporters as such a high-stakes endeavor that its too big to fail. It also may be too big to describe.

Thats a particular challenge as the White House struggles to sell the public on a wide range of initiatives packaged under the imprecise slogan of Build Back Better.

A series of crises, from Afghanistan to COVID-19, along with the convoluted legislative process have hampered the White Houses ability to promote the $3.5 trillion package or even say definitively whats in it. The price tag is sure to shrink and it's possible that components could change.

The package, now the subject of furious negotiations on Capitol Hill, would fundamentally transform the governments relationship with its citizens and dramatically expand the social safety net.

It sets out to broaden well-known programs  for example, adding dental vision and hearing aid benefits to Medicare and continuing the Obama-era health law's temporary subsidies that helped people buy insurance during the pandemic,

But anxiety has risen among congressional Democrats during the negotiations, with some blame placed on Biden. He had planned to spend recent weeks driving support for the legislation but was sidetracked by the tumult in Afghanistan and the surge in coronavirus cases.

Some Democrats worry the president's pitch on the package doesn't always click with people looking for a more concrete idea of what's in it for them.

This is a case where the parts are greater than the sum: Its important for people to know what the parts are, they are very popular and would have a very positive impact on peoples life, said David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama. But its become a battle over price tag and thats unappealing. Thats the battlefield where Republicans want Democrats to fight.

Polling suggests that elements in the bill such as child care and infrastructure are popular with large parts of the public. But advocates worry the voters dont know that those things are in the plan.

Building Back Better doesnt say to people what we are building back  at least when you talk about bridges, people have an idea, said Robert Blendon, a longtime public opinion analyst at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Its the price you pay when you are not dealing with a single issue. ... Building Back is the slogan, but theres just no evidence that the public grasps what is in this bill.

The need for a reset was so clear that the West Wing decided that White House press secretary Jen Psaki would begin her Monday briefing by delivering a detailed rundown of just what's in the bill. That's according to two of the more than a half-dozen White House aides and Democrats close to the West Wing who were interviewed for this story but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

Psaki began the briefing by stating: I wanted to take the opportunity just to remind everyone, specifically in the public, of what were talking about in these packages and why the president is fighting so hard to get his agenda forward.

Then she went through elements of the package, including plans to address climate change, lower education costs and promote access to child care.

White House aides say this is not the right time for Biden to be barnstorming to promote his agenda. They note that key Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are not generally responsive to national political pressure  and certainly not to presidential demands.

Aides believe it's a better for Biden to talk through exactly what will be necessary to get those two Democrats on board. The president canceled plans for a Wednesday visit to Chicago to promote vaccinations so that he could remain in Washington as negotiations reach a critical stage.

The Biden administration has found itself constantly pulled off its intended message of a nation rebounding to new heights. Initial signs of an economic boom from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package ran headfirst into a shortage of computer chips and other goods that have caused higher inflation, a persistent problem that was largely unforeseen by Bidens team, according to one administration official.

Some Democrats are pushing back on the hand-wringing over how to sell the big bill, believing the details should not come as much of a surprise.

Beyond the new programs, the package is made up of long-standing Democratic priorities on health care, education and climate change on which many lawmakers have campaigned.

This agenda is not some fringe wish list: It is the presidents agenda, the Democratic agenda, and what we all promised voters when they delivered us the House, Senate, and White House, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement.

That hasn't satisfied some Democratic allies.

For example, $10 billion for high-speed rail was shifted from a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into the larger package of spending initiatives. Andy Kunz, president and CEO of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, urged Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to more forcefully sell it If they were talking about it more, that would definitely help in letting the American people know whats at stake here, he said.

With hurricanes, floods and wildfires dominating local news most of the summer, the machinations in Washington have not broken through to where people are actually following the debate.

The top concern about messaging is that its not getting far and wide enough, said Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, a coalition backing a component of Bidens bill, authority for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.

Mostly people in the states have not been reading about the content of the bill, Jorge said. If theyre reading anything at all its about the size.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Hope Yen, Lisa Mascaro and Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has subpoenaed 11 officials who helped plan rallies in support of former President Donald Trump ahead of the attack, including the massive event on the day of the siege at which the president told his supporters to fight like hell.

The announcement follows a first round of subpoenas last week that targeted former White House and administration officials who were in contact with Trump before and during the insurrection.

The committee said in a release Wednesday that the subpoenas are part of the panel's efforts to collect information from the organizers and their associated entities on the planning, organization, and funding of those events. In letters to the subpoenaed officials, the committee's chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, demanded that they provide documents to the panel by Oct. 13 and appear at separate depositions that the committee has scheduled from late October through the beginning of November.

Thompson cites in the letters efforts by representatives of the group Women for America First to organize the rally on Jan. 6 and to collectively communicate with senior White House officials. The subpoenas also mention other events the group planned in the weeks between Trump's November election defeat and the January attack.

The House committee of nine lawmakers  seven Democrats and two Republicans  has ramped up its investigation in recent weeks as it attempts to dissect the origins of the insurrection by Trumps supporters and find ways to prevent it from ever happening again. The Trump loyalists beat and injured police as they battled their way inside the building, destroyed property and sent lawmakers running for their lives. Repeating Trumps lies about widespread election fraud, they interrupted the certification of President Joe Bidens victory and left those in the U.S. Capitol deeply shaken.

Included on the list of subpoenas are Amy Kremer, founder and chair of Women for America First; Kylie Kremer, founder and executive director of Women for America First; Cynthia Chafian, an organizer who submitted the first permit for the rally; Caroline Wren, who the committee says was listed on permit paperwork for the Jan. 6 rally as a VIP Advisor"; and Maggie Mulvaney, who the panel says was listed on the permit as VIP Lead.

Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, was a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the presidents reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee. The AP has previously reported that Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to organize credentials for VIP attendees.

Amy Kremer, who the committee says was listed as one of several designated points of contact for the rally, denounced the assault in a statement issued on Jan. 6 and said it was instigated after the rally by a handful of bad actors, while seeming to blame Democrats and news organizations for the riot. She is also the cofounder of the Women for Trump PAC and the former chair of the Tea Party Express.

Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, according to her LinkedIn profile. Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on Jan. 6, including one from the president that urged support for the Capitol Police.

Also subpoenaed was former Trump campaign official Katrina Pierson, who the committee says was reportedly involved in the organization of the rally on Jan. 6 and a smaller one the day before. The panel said in its letter to Pierson that it is aware of reports that she met with Trump in the days before the rally.

The remaining names on the list were involved in the management and production of the rally and dealt with scheduling, operations and logistics. Those individuals are Justin Caporale and Tim Unes of Event Strategies Inc., Megan Powers of MPowers Consulting LLC, Hannah Salem of Salem Strategies LLC and Lyndon Brentnall of RMS Protective Services.

Event Strategies says on its website that it has played a significant role in every US presidential campaign since its founding. Caporale and Unes were listed on Jan. 6 permit paperwork as the rallys project manager and stage manager, per the committee.

Powers, who served as the 2020 campaigns director of operations, worked as a White House press aide and at NASA, and was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event. Salem, a former special assistant to the president and director of White House press advance, was the rallys operations manager for logistics and communications, according to the permit paperwork.

The panel said Brentnall was listed on the permit paperwork as On-site supervisor. He is the owner of Florida-based RMS Protective Services, which advertises protection, investigations, surveillance and bug sweeps.

It is unclear if any of the 15 people whom the committee has subpoenaed will resist the demands. Members of the committee have said they are prepared to fight for the testimony and will use the courts to do so if necessary. None of the subpoena recipients contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday evening responded for requests for comment.

Many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol walked up the National Mall from the rally as Trump spoke for more than an hour and told the huge crowd to fight like hell." He repeated his baseless claims about widespread election fraud, despite the fact that they had been refuted by election officials and courts across the country.

At the rally, Trump suggested the protestors march to the Capitol from the staging area near the White House to encourage GOP lawmakers to step up and overturn the will of voters to grant him another term in office. Many did, and he was still speaking as people started rushing the building.

The House Jan. 6 committee last week issued subpoenas to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The four men are among Trumps most loyal aides and some of them talked to him or were with him that day.

In July, the committee held an emotional first hearing with four police officers who battled the insurrectionists and were injured and verbally abused as the rioters broke into the building. They spoke of their lingering physical and mental injuries and described in detail how they were attacked by the rioters. One officer said he was called racial slurs as he held the insurrectionists back.

At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies. Two police officers died by suicide in the days that immediately followed, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

The Metropolitan Police announced this summer that two more of their officers, Officers Kyle DeFreytag and Gunther Hashida, had also died by suicide. Both had responded to the insurrection.
MILFORD  The city is now home to a national political action committee  one that puts an onus on public service as well as political affiliation.

The PAC, Democrats Serve, has endorsed 27 federal, state and local candidates, according to the committees executive director and founder, Brett Broesder, and all are Democratic candidates who have a public service background.

We are talking firefighters, nurses, social workers, prosecutors, police officers and others who have been essential workers in government, said Broesder, who is an alderman in Milford.

He said oftentimes, people who have a background in public service make for great candidates, but most of the time they dont have the connection with wealthy donors to support their campaigns. That is where Democrats Serve comes in, he said.

Public service candidates have seen first-hand what the impact of policies is on their communities, having worked in their communities, he said. They also can connect well with democratic and independent voters. That being said, they often dont have access to the strategic guidance or wealthy donor networks that many non-working class candidates do.

Broesder has been involved in politics and local government roles for years. He is a former director of communications for both the city of Bridgeport and the city of Hartford.

Connecticut Republican Chairman Ben Proto said this is another example of how far to the left the Democratic party has moved.

This is no longer the party of John Kennedy, Bill Clinton or even Barack Obama, Proto said. This is a party that has moved so far to the left that they are looking to create a completely socialistic form of government in the United States.

They claim to be an organization that supports frontline workers, (but) other than a former teacher and Harry Rilling, who is a (former) police chief, everybody else is a politician and political operative, who worked for a congressman, lieutenant governor or worked for any other number of politicians, Proto said.

Broesder said Republicans continue to turn their backs on public service professionals.

Talk is cheap, he said. Republicans continue to turn their backs on public service pros, especially law enforcement by refusing to investigate the role politics played in allowing right-wing extremist insurrectionists to kill a Capitol Police officer and injure more than 140 others.

Republicans have made their priorities clear  appeasing right-wing extremists trumps law and order and public service, Broesder added.

Getting its start

Democrats Serve launched in mid-May. Broesder said he got the idea to start a new PAC while he was a candidate for the Planning and Zoning Commission in Milford. It was then that he met Cindy Twiss, who was then a first-time candidate for the Board of Education.

In 2019, I ran for planning and zoning in Milford, and a very dear friend of mine now, who I met on the campaign trail, Cindy Twiss, was running for school board, and it was her first time running, he said.

In early September, Broesder and Twiss were paired up to knock on doors because they were in the same district.

She was given the walk-sheets and was told what should be done when knocking on doors and talking to voters, but there is still some ambiguity in it, said Broesder. After knocking one time together, I think we learned two things. One is that we were going to become life-long friends and, with a bit more one-on-one guidance, a candidate like Cindy, who has 30 years of education experience and is incredibly interpersonal, became an unbelievably good candidate. From there, we knocked on thousands of doors together, and she ended up being the highest vote-getter in 2019 in the city.

In 2021, a close friend of Broesder, Achim Bergmann of Bergmann Zwerdling Direct, which is a Democrat direct mail and political strategy firm based in Washington, D.C., contacted him and had an idea to help public service-oriented candidates.

It just so happened that it was serendipity, we each were very interested in it, and we came up with a plan, and by May, we had also partnered up with Kari Chisholm (Mandate Media, a political consulting firm in Portland, Ore.), Broesder said. So the three of us put together a plan we launched in May, and weve been honored and humbled by the amount of folks who have reached out, applied for endorsements, sought our counsel and candidate supporters and donors alike have been overwhelmingly supportive.

To better serve the candidates they endorse, Broesder and his team decided to make Democrats Serve into a hybrid structure, which allows them to have both a traditional PAC and a super PAC.

In the traditional PAC side, we can contribute directly to candidates and work directly with their campaigns allowing us to have a seat at the table on the strategic guidance side, he said. On the Super PAC side, we can raise and spend contributions and funds from corporations or individuals in support of candidates, but we cant work directly with candidates on the Super PAC side.

Making endorsements

Five out of the 27 candidates Democrats Serve is endorsing are from Connecticut.

They include Stamford mayoral candidate Caroline Simmons, who is running against Independent candidate Bobby Valentine; New Haven Alderman Daryl Brackeen, who is running against Republican Joshua Van Hosen; and Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, who is running against Republican John Riddle.

They have also endorsed Sam Carmody for Town Council in Wallingford and Jimmy Tickey, district director for Congressman Jim Himes, who is running for a seat on the planning and zoning commission in Shelton.

We are looking to potentially have another wave of endorsements at the state and local level prior to the Nov. 2 election, said Broesder. But we are really excited about the candidates we have endorsed. The federal-level folks are so important as are the state and local positions that are really making decisions where the rubber meets the road.

On the congregational level, Democrats Serve has endorsed Representative Jahana Hayes of the Fifth Congressional District, a former teacher.

Not a new angle

Paul Herrnson, professor of political science at the University of Connecticut and Fellow at OpenSecrets.org, said PACs that support candidates with public service backgrounds are common.

I would guess that every one of those occupations has some political action committee supporting its candidate already, said Herrnson. Not sure how original it is. I think the National Education Committee has a political action committee so they support teachers, so I dont know how unusual it is. There are political action committees that support ideological causes, candidates of one party, there are political action committees that support folks who are strong on labor, strong on business, and as well as, Im sure public service. So thats not a new angle.

Even though Democrats Serve would like to endorse and help every Democratic candidate, they cant because of logistical reasons, funding and more, Broesder said. Thats why the Democrats Serve team has criteria they look for in a candidate.

Theres a laundry list of thresholds that need to be met in order for us to support, said Broesder. But overall, the crux can be boiled down to, do you have a front line public service professional background and can we be of service because helping support great candidates will make for great policymakers.

Herrnson said it is not unusual for local PACs to endorse candidates from different parts of the country and at different levels of government.

In terms of the federal level, theres a national economy of campaign finance, and political action committees from across the country will often endorse candidates in different locations. Their goal is to encourage their contributors and followers to contribute to the candidates they support no matter where those candidates are located, he said.

So if you think in terms of Political Action Committees associated with trade associations, they represent members across the country and maybe across the world, Herrnson said. So an endorsement for a candidate located in Alaska may, in fact, have a contributor who is located in Texas.

Democratic Serve isnt a policy-oriented organization, but as a Democratic organization, they look for candidates who align with their political policies.

The main piece of it is if youre a Democrat, a front line service pro and if your policies are in line with working families across, whether the locality, state or country, are in line with, he said.

Overall, were thrilled with the support we have received thus far and whether its folks with public service backgrounds looking to run for office, or if its candidates who are running for office, or contributors who like the mission and want to support the cause, we are open and here to help, Broesder said .
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli sparred in an at-times testy and raucous debate Tuesday in the first of two meetings in this year's campaign for governor.

Murphy, a first-term Democrat, and Ciattarelli, a former GOP Assembly member, met at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark in a debate interrupted continuously by cheers and boos from the audience despite pleas from moderators.

Murphy's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak took center stage early on, specifically his management of the pandemic in nursing homes, which account for roughly a third of the state's 27,000 deaths. Ciattarelli criticized Murphy's order in early 2020 requiring nursing home residents to return from hospitals regardless of their COVID-19 status.

Murphy defended the order, as he has for months, saying the facilities were the residents homes and management was required to keep returning residents separate from other residents. Murphy pivoted quickly, though, to mask and vaccine mandates, which his opponent has been skeptical of.

Saying that its your call and government cant mandate a vaccine or no masking is akin to drunk driving, Murphy said. It impacts the person whose driving drunk and all of us.

The governor also attacked Ciattarelli for saying that whether people get the vaccine is up to them. Murphy has mandated the vaccine or regular testing in a number of industries in the state, including health care, schools and day cares.

Ciattarelli said he has been vaccinated and thinks people should get vaccinated, but he draws a distinction at what government should be requiring.

Do I believe government has a right to tell people that they have to take a medicine? He said. No.

On whether young children should wear masks in schools, Ciattarelli said it should be up to parents. Murphy has signed an executive order requiring masking in day cares, as well as in the state's schools.

Ciattarelli said he agreed, though, with Murphy's requiring teachers to get vaccinated or undergo testing. People should have a choice, he said.

Packed into an hourlong debate were seemingly endless clashes.

There was little the candidates found common ground on  except they both praised the diversity of the state.

On taxes: Ciattarelli repeated a campaign-long criticism of Murphy that seized on a clip of him saying that if taxes are your issue, then we're probably not your state," saying the comment was disqualifying in a state like New Jersey leads the nation in property tax rates.

Murphy cast the election repeatedly as a question of continuing to move forward or going back, an allusion to former GOP governor Chris Christie as well as former President Donald Trump. He touted the hike in taxes on those making more than a $1 million a year on his watch, an increase in school aid and the state fully funding public workers' pensions.

He also pledged that if reelected he would not raise taxes again.

Ciattarelli wasn't alone in labeling actions disqualifying. Murphy said a Jan. 6 rally, in which clips show Ciattarelli speaking in front of someone holding a Stop the Steal sign made Ciattarelli unfit for office. Ciattarelli has said he didn't know the event was being held in support of Trump's false contention that the 2020 election was stolen. On Tuesday, he acknowledged that Biden was the president and said Trump's rhetoric led to the Capitol insurrection that same day.

On abortion, Murphy pointed to Ciattarelli's votes in the Assembly against funding women's health services, including for Planned Parenthood. He said his opponent wanted to turn New Jersey into Texas.

Ciattarelli disavowed the Texas law and said he supports Roe v. Wade, but not late-term abortions.

On gun control, Ciattarelli contended that Murphy would probably like to end the 2nd Amendment. Murphy protested, but touted laws he signed to tighten the state's gun laws, red-flag legislation and a bill that limits magazine clips to 10 rounds.

Murphy is trying to become the first Democrat in 44 years to win reelection and to buck a trend going back to 1985 that has seen the party of the president lose the New Jersey governorship.

Ciattarelli faces headwinds of his own. Down by double digits in publicly available polls, he faces a Democratic registration advantage of 1 million more voters. He's also not a universally known figure in the state.

Ciattarelli is a former state Assembly member and the founder of a medical publishing company. He has an accounting background and hinges his campaign around affordability, arguing New Jersey's taxes are too high.

Becoming governor is Murphy's first elected political position. He's served as Barack Obama's ambassador to Germany and before that was an executive at Goldman Sachs.

New Jersey will have early in-person voting from Oct. 23-31. Election Day is Nov. 2.

The debate was produced by New York and Philadelphia ABC affiliates, along with Twitter, Univision, WBGO radio, NJ.com and Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics.

A second, final debate will be Oct. 12.
Ocean County Jail / Contributed Photo

A New Haven man who was arrested after forcing his then-girlfriend at gunpoint to drive him from Connecticut to New Jersey in 2019 was sentenced to 14 years in prison Monday, a New Jersey prosecutor said.

Miguel Angel-Villegas, 31, of New Haven, was sentenced to 14 years in New Jersey state prison in connection with an incident that occured in November 2019 in Tuckerton, N.J., according to a release from the office of Orange County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer. Angel-Villegas previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder in August.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Republican Glenn Youngkin needs Donald Trump. He just doesn't want to say the name.

On the debate stage Tuesday night, the Republican candidate in Virginia's governor's race repeatedly sidestepped comparisons to the former president. Youngkin avoided Trumps most aggressive talking points on election fraud, border security and critical race theory. He also tried to dodge a question about whether he would support another Trump presidential bid, though Youngkin ultimately said he would.

Youre running against me. Its Terry McAuliffe against Glenn Youngkin, Youngkin told his Democratic opponent. The only person invoking Trump is you.

Few Republicans in recent years have harnessed the energy of the Trump base with such cool rhetoric. And there is fear within Youngkins campaign that Trump or his loyalists could turn against Youngkin in the days before the Nov. 2 election. But if Youngkin is successful, his ability to navigate the delicate politics of the post-Trump presidency could offer the GOP a new playbook before next years midterm elections.

While there is no shortage of Republican candidates fighting for Trumps support, another wing of the party is eager to move on, especially in states where the GOP is reeling from painful losses under Trumps watch last fall. Control of Congress in 2022 will be decided not in Trump strongholds, but in swing states such Arizona, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

So far, Glenn Youngkin has danced on the edge of a razor, and hes not gotten cut, said John Fredericks, who led Trumps Virginia campaign last year. Hes holding the Trump base together.

Polls suggest that Youngkin's strategy could work. He is in a close race with McAuliffe, a former governor and Democratic powerhouse in the state with decades of experience in national politics.

McAuliffe has a delicate balance of his own to navigate as President Joe Biden's favorable ratings fall and the Democrats' agenda falters in Congress. Both sides privately acknowledge that Virginia Republicans seem to have an enthusiasm advantage in the campaigns closing days.

McAuliffe said in the debate that the price tag of Biden's wish list is too high.

The White House does not see the Virginia governors race as a referendum on Biden's agenda, press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday, adding that the president is a big supporter of McAuliffe.

Biden campaigned in Virginia on McAuliffe's behalf in July before the president's numbers began to sink. The McAuliffe campaign said he would welcome another presidential visit, but nothing is scheduled.

Youngkin has had little to do with Trump publicly since securing the GOP nomination in May. The nominee has been content to let McAuliffe's campaign highlight Trump's endorsement in Democrat-funded campaign ads. Youngkin is not planning to attend a rally next month hosted by Trump loyalists in which Trump is expected to make an appearance by phone.

Youngkin's campaign remains in close contact with Trump's team behind the scenes, however. At least a dozen Youngkin staffers previously worked for the Trump campaign or in his administration. Lest there be any question that they're in close contact, text messages sent by The Associated Press to a Trump aide in recent days were answered by Youngkin staff.

Youngkin's campaign has been in regular communication with the president's political team. Any suggestion otherwise is false, said Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich. The president is looking at the most effective options to help propel Youngkin to victory as his campaign continues to surge.

Of course, the Trump base may be more willing to forgive Youngkin's strategy in Virginia than in other states.

While Virginia has long been considered a swing state, a Republican has not won statewide office in 12 years. Trump lost the state by 5 percentage points in 2016 and 10 points in 2020 as women and suburban voters in particular rejected his divisive leadership.

Weve got to get a win, Fredericks said in explaining his embrace of Youngkin. Lets fight later.

In recent months, Youngkin has focused on more traditional kitchen table issues such as taxes, crime and education, instead of Trump's brand of shock-and-awe politics. But that wasn't always the case.

Youngkin made election integrity  code for Trump's false claims of election fraud  the centerpiece of his campaign during the nominating contest in the spring. In February, when asked by The Washington Post if Biden was legitimately elected, Youngkin declined to say.

Since the nomination was settled, Youngkin has acknowledged Bidens win and mostly focused on other topics. He reiterated during Tuesday's debate that there wasn't material fraud and that the election was certifiably fair.

In his television ads, Youngkin has stayed away from culture war issues popular with the conservative base, focusing on his family and his biography, including his time as co-CEO of a private equity firm. Sticking to a traditional conservative policy agenda, he promises to cut taxes, create jobs and tackle rising crime.

In campaign speeches, he often says he will make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family.

As for Trump, Youngkin has said he was honored to receive the former presidents endorsement, though he avoided such statements on stage this week. In one interview often highlighted by McAuliffe's campaign, Youngkin said Trump represents so much of why he is running.

Youngkin seemed to be less enthusiastic about the endorsement when pressed by a reporter during a campaign stop this month at a grocery store, where he was promoting a tax cut plan.

First of all, Im the one running for governor this year. Im on the ballot, Youngkin said when asked whether he was proud to have the endorsement. The reporter followed up twice, and Youngkin avoided answering directly.

With his forehead furrowed as he spoke, Youngkin said he was running for everyone." He said he had been endorsed by lots of people and repeated twice, Ive brought so many people together over this time period, before finally adding that he was very pleased to get Trump's endorsement.

Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase, an ardent supporter of election fraud conspiracy theories, said Youngkin has done a really good job of trying to thread the needle.

Chase, who competed against Youngkin for the Republican nomination, said shes heard from some supporters who would like Youngkin to take a tougher stance on abortion, gun rights and election integrity. But, ultimately, she thinks Youngkin is building a winning coalition.

I really feel like Glenn is bringing together all parts of the Republican Party  the Trump supporters, the moderates, the business Republicans, all the groups," she said. I congratulate him on that.

___

Peoples reported from New York.
MONROE, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina father was arrested after he boarded a school bus and cursed at a group of elementary school students over how they had treated his child, according to a sheriff's office.

The Union County Sheriffs Office said in a news release that Demor Lee Brooks of Monroe was charged with trespassing on a school bus, refusing to leave and disorderly conduct on a school bus.
ATLANTA (AP)  A group of state senators say the Georgia Senate will hold hearings on allowing the upscale Buckhead neighborhood to secede from the city of Atlanta in a November special session on redistricting.

However, the senators, including Republican Brandon Beach of Alpharetta, said Wednesday that there will not be a vote on any secession bill until the 2022 regular session at the earliest. Supporters hope that Buckhead voters will be able to decide whether to leave Atlanta in a referendum in November 2022.

However, it remains unclear whether Gov. Brian Kemp or House Speaker David Ralston, both Republicans, will support allowing the affluent community to exit the state capital. A departure is complicated by questions over everything from how debt will be shared to what school district would serve Buckhead children to how much Atlanta would charge for water and sewer service.

Supporters of a new city of Buckhead City  there's already an incorporated town called Buckhead in Morgan County  say they could work through those questions after a vote.

The breakaway effort's leaders are using crime as the main motivation for the mostly white area of about 100,000 people to pull away from the 500,000-resident city of Atlanta. They're promising to hire a large police force to crack down on crime.

Local lawmakers who represent the areas, all Democrats, oppose the effort. It's unusual to pass a local bill in the General Assembly over the protests of the lawmakers who represent the area, but the all-Republican group pushing for a vote on Buckhead City argue the area is in the grips of such a crime emergency that extraordinary measures are merited.

We're talking about local legislation, that if not passed, costs lives, causes children to be killed, causes elderly people to be shot at daily, causes people and their animals to be murdered in a public park, said Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican, on Wednesday.

Opponents of Buckhead City say it would wreck Atlanta's finances and leave the metropolitan area and state weaker.

Carving up the city of Atlanta would be a race to the bottom for everyone involved. It's not just bad policy for the city of Atlanta and Buckhead, but for the state of Georgia, said Billy Linville, a spokesperson for the Committee for a United Atlanta, an anti-cityhood group.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
SHELTON  Work on Fountain Square, - which has remained dormant for more than a year, is back underway.

The sites developers, Fountain Square, LLC, recently announced that construction of the 710 Bridgeport Ave. property has resumed. The site, at the intersection with Parrott Drive, was formerly occupied by the United Illuminating Co.

The developers of Fountain Square have secured all necessary funding and investors needed to complete the project, the company said in a written statement. The restart of construction has already commenced and should be in full swing over the next few weeks.

This update on the sites status comes as many residents have spent months questioning the developments future in letters to the editor and social media posts.

In early 2020, prior to onset of the pandemic, Daniel Witkins, Sr., of DFW Building Co., who has been the construction manager for the Fountain Square project, said lease agreements were in place for about 70 percent of what will be the available space at the 19.1-acre site.

Since that point, little to no work has taken place on site, leaving residents clamoring for answers and asking why the city has not forced the issue.

The Fountain Square project was first presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2017. The project was split into five phases, and final development plans for all phases were approved separately between 2018 and 2020.

Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Virginia Harger said some of the final development plans were also modified during that time due to tenant changes. After detailed development plans were approved, the plans were treated as an approved site plan, in accordance with city regulations, Harger said.

Harger said state statutes and city regulations give an applicant five years to complete construction from plan approval.

If the applicant does not do so, the commission may invalidate its approval of detailed development plans, Harger said.

That leaves a minimum of two years left for the Fountain Square project to be completed, Harger said. In addition, due to COVID-related executive orders issued by Gov. Ned Lamont, a 15-month grace period may be in effect.

In view of the significant site improvements and building construction completed to date, it is very unlikely that the developers would have any intention of abandoning the project, Harger said.

The original approval allowed for three restaurants, a pharmacy, bank, coffee shop, other retail, a small office building and a 123-room Marriott hotel. Since that time, there were changes in the list of tenants, headed by the addition of a Chick-fil-A.

In early 2020, along with Chick-fil-A, other tenants were to be Panera Bread, which will have a drive through; Jersey Mikes Subs; Mission BBQ; DQ; The Goddard School; Pokemoto, along with an unnamed jewelry store, a hair salon, a Korean BBQ restaurant, a fitness operation and an Italian wood-fired tapas restaurant.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the national assembly to adopt electronic transmission of results in the electoral act am...

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the national assembly to adopt electronic transmission of results in the electoral act amendment bill.

In July, the senate and the house of representatives passed the electoral act bill  but with different versions on the contentious issue of transmission of election results electronically.

Lawmakers of the upper chamber proposed that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) must certify that national coverage is adequate and secure while the national assembly must give approval before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can transmit results.

The lower chamber, meanwhile, adopted that the commission may transmit results of election through electronic means where and when practicable.





The bill will be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent after the harmonisation of the two versions by the conference committee of both chambers.

Jonathan spoke on the issue while delivering a lecture on Wednesday at the inauguration ceremony/lecture of the National Defence College (NDC), Course 30, in Abuja.

He said the adoption of electronic transmission of results will improve transparency in the electoral process.





The former president urged Nigerians to have confidence in INEC to avoid crisis each time there is a general election.

Where there is no confidence in the electoral umpire, people resort to crisis. But unfortunately, sometimes when the result come out, the damage would have been done, he said.

I urge the national assembly, while looking at the law, they should allow the use electronic means of transmitting results for the sake of transparency as well as avoiding electoral crisis

Commenting on the security situation in the country, Jonathan said security is the business of every Nigerian, noting that government should not be left alone to secure lives and property.

He said: It is very obvious that these days people dont go to farm anymore because of one fear or the other. Everybody should be involved in securing the country. Yes, government will do its part but we as individuals should also do our own part.

My humble suggestion is that government and stakeholders should do a lot of dialogue, when you start talking sometimes it reduces the anger in people. We must build this issue of human security and the security of the country.
The federal executive council (FEC), presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, approved 14-day paternity leave for civi...

The federal executive council (FEC), presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, approved 14-day paternity leave for civil servants.

Folasade Yemi-Esan, head of civil service of the federation, disclosed while briefing state house correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting.

Yemi-Esan explained that paternity leave will allow fathers to properly bond with their newborn babies or adopted children.

According to her, it is important for the newborn or adopted baby to properly bond with the father at the early stage.

More to follow..
The Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Nigeria, Mr Cui Jianchn, has said the Chinese government is ready to help Nigeria reduce...





The Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China to Nigeria, Mr Cui Jianchn, has said the Chinese government is ready to help Nigeria reduce the level of poverty in the nation.

Jianchn made this known on Tuesday in Abuja during the closing of the Nigeria-China Cultural week and award ceremony, a line-up of activities to commemorate the October 1 National Day of both countries.

On the celebration of Chinas 72 anniversary, Jianchn said his country has recorded robust growth and successes in its economy, innovation, poverty eradication, the Belt and Road Initiative, amongst others.

Jianchn said that part of his strategies as an Ambassador is to replicate Chinas success in Nigeria by sending young Nigerians to China, understudy the system, get the experience and infuse them into the Nigerian system, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

He said, This February 25, the Chinese President declared to the International Community that we have accomplished the eradication of extreme poverty. I want to share with you that this is really the biggest achievement of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese as a nation.

I will like to share with you that we can do this together because poverty elimination, reduction or eradication really needs the leadership that has been shown by the Chinese President who had the strong will.

The ambassador continued, How can we achieve this difficult target? We can see that a lot of project policies are in place. The most important aspect is that we mobilize the whole society to work together to eradicate poverty from rural areas.

I am hoping that next year after COVID-19, I am thinking of a possibility of how we can get young people from Nigeria to go to China and learn from the Chinese side, get experience. I believe that if China can do that, Nigeria can also.

We can apply Chinese not only model but a way of eradicating poverty. I think there is a need for the two countries to work on this poverty eradication. You know you have your goal. I think this is a very meaningful thing not only for the Nigerian people but also for the international community.

Jianchn commended the strong bilateral relations between China and Nigeria over the past 50 years and called for a more holistic, comprehensive approach to build our bilateral relations in another 50 years.

In his remarks, Otunba Segun Runsewe, Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, commended Jianchn for his efforts in strengthening the Nigeria-China ties with so many strategies and commitments.

Since His Excellency came to Nigeria, I have seen a man who is ready to make sure Nigeria catches up with some of the developmental achievements of China. Today, His Excellency mentioned the issue of US$ 10 billion, which made a stretch of 18 years to US$ 16 trillion. I want to assure you that it is a wake-up call, Runsewe said.

Runsewe said that the NCAC is also ready to strengthen cultural ties with China, adding that Nigeria will build a cultural village during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, China, to celebrate cultural ties.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has been named Golden Symbol of Nigerian Youths. T...

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has been named Golden Symbol of Nigerian Youths.

The AGF remains a controversial figure over his comments on a number of national issues.

Malami condemned the Southern Governors opposition to open grazing and maintains states cannot collect Value Added Tax (VAT) collection by states.

The minister, who insists the federal government will not reveal Boko Haram sponsors names, has been accused of disregarding court orders, among others.

But on Tuesday, a non-governmental organisation praised him for exhibiting charismatic leadership qualities that culminated into monumental contribution to the dispensation of justice system.

A statement by the ministers spokesman, Umar Gwandu quoted the director, Abubakar M. K. as saying Malamis hard work, honesty and enthusiasm demonstrates as a man of amazing legal acumen.

Abubakar said the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) has been fighting corruption under the Buhari administration with doggedness.

The entire Nigerian Youth are also not unaware of your immense, notable and laudable contribution to economic growth, political stability and support for the survival of democracy in Nigeria, he said.

Also on Tuesday, 54-year-old Malami from Kebbi was conferred with the Omoluabi of Oduduwa Youth Worldwide.

The leader, Akinyele Olasumbo described the AFG as a patriotic and selfless Nigerian who ensures constitutional democracy and that justice is served without fair or favour.
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take over the ...





The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take over the conduct of elections at the third tier of government across Nigeria.

President of the union, Ambali Olatunji, who disclosed this in a press conference in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Wednesday as part of activities marking the first NULGE National women conference, attributed the near-collapse state of local governments in Nigeria on the mode of the emergence of council chairmen, whom he said emerge through coronation, appointment and promotion, devoid of any form of credibility.

He insisted that only a democratically elected local government administration would be accountable to the people, therefore the state electoral body should not conduct the elections.

Olatunji also called for full autonomy to enable local government allocations to be paid directly into council accounts.

Reacting to the theme of the conference The role of women in engendering peace and security, the NULGE National President said the LG system was set up to provide employment for youths and empowerment for the women, while the state government should ensure an enabling environment.

He called on anti-corruption agencies to have units in local government headquarters where Nigerians at all levels could demand accountability from LG administrators.

The statement read: We Clamour for political autonomy for Local Government whereby Independent National Electoral Commission will be conducting the Local government Elections.

The creation of state electoral commission has brought in a lot of abuse and lack of transparency in the conduct of LG elections. What they are doing now is not an election, it is a coronation, appointment, and promotion of political jobbers and political cronies into the administration of Local Government, thereby creating an avenue to siphon local government resources.

That is why NULGE clamour for the conduct of credible and acceptable Democratic election at the LG level. if the process is thorough, the leadership would be a leadership voluntarily elected by the people that would be accountable to the people, not to the state government.

NULGE is also clamouring for full financial autonomy for the Local Government Area. it is an absurdity to have a meal between a lion and a dog, and you put it in the center to allow the lion and the dog to share the food, when the lion finishes the meal, he will also go for the dog.

So the local government allocation should be directly paid to the Local government account. The lacuna in the 1999 constitution called the Joint allocation account is no longer acceptable to the Nigerian public and NULGE. It must be scrapped, it gives room for local government funds to be diverted and stolen by state political actors.

The problem affecting LG is as a result of paucity of funds, if you want them to perform, then pay their allocation to them and hold them accountable. All anti-corruption agencies must have their headquarters at the Local Government levels to be the financial watchdogs that would put political actors on their toes.

In the constitution, the collectibles of LG are fully listed, these include rate, taxes, advertisement rates, radio and television fees and so many others, but states have swept most of these, how do you want the Local Government to function?

The local government system has been consistently raped, as the Local Government allocation has been diverted and misused by the state political actors, we say no to that and as a union we reject it.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied killing Chike Akunyili, husband of the late Dora Akunyili, ex-minister of information and ...





The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has denied killing Chike Akunyili, husband of the late Dora Akunyili, ex-minister of information and communication.

Akunyili was shot dead, on Tuesday at Umuoji, Idemili North LGA of Anambra state.

His police escort and one Aloysius, his driver, were also reportedly killed.

Speaking on the incident, Emma Powerful, in a statement, on Wednesday, said the group has no issues with Akunyili and does not know him, adding that those behind his murder should stop using the name of the group.

The proscribed group alleged that the killings in Anambra are pure political assassination, designed to paint IPOB bad in the face of its supporters.

IPOB said it has not issued any official statement that the Anambra governorship election will not take place, adding that those peddling the rumour are not its members and should be ignored.

We, the great family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Okwuchukkwu Kanu, wish to dissociate ourselves from the senseless killing of innocent citizens in Anambra state, the statement reads.

We have no hands in the political killings going on in Biafra land. We have, on several occasions, raised the alarm that some cruel politicians are hiding under the cloak of the situation in Biafra land to eliminate their political enemies and blame it on IPOB.

We dont know why wicked politicians especially in Imo and Anambra States will choose to slaughter their opponents and turn around and point accusing fingers at IPOB or the operatives of Eastern Security Network (ESN).

Politicians should leave us alone and settle their scores. No IPOB member or ESN operative is involved in such barbarity. We have no interest in zoo politics. Restoration of Biafra is our mandate!

We also wish to clarify that IPOB has never issued any official statement that there would be no governorship election in Anambra state.

Those peddling such rumour are not our members, and should be ignored. Our position on Anambra election will be made public at the right time through our normal channels of information dissemination. Anything to the contrary should be disregarded.

Members of the public should stop believing social media fake stories purported to have emanated from IPOB. We are an organized movement and we dont hide our position on any matter.

Those who killed Dora Akunyilis husband killed his wife with poison from Fulani because she exposed the death of Yaradua to Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to take over President of failed Nigeria, they know themselves those conspired to poisoned prof. Dora Akunyili, theyre contesting the governorship election in Anambra state today.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna has clarified the position of Northern Governors Forum on power shift. At a meeting in Kaduna on M...

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna has clarified the position of Northern Governors Forum on power shift.

At a meeting in Kaduna on Monday, the governors had said rotational presidency was against Nigerias constitution.





They said this in reaction to the demand of their Southern counterparts who have demanded that their region must produce Nigerias next president.

In a chat with select journalists, El-Rufai said no one should assume that they can sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and decide what the north should do or who the north should vote for.

He said if the south wants power, it should be prepared to sit with the north, dialogue and negotiate then agree on who should be voted but not use compulsion to demand power shift.

We are not saying there cannot be rotational presidency, it can be done but you have to come and sit with the politicians in the north and dialogue and then we agree to give our support to the south but no one has the right to sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and say whether northerners want it or not, they must relinquish power to the south, that is wrong, it is not how we do politics and in fact, it is foolish.

El-Rufai was one of the first governors to suggest a power shift to the south.

In 2020, he had said it would be in the interest of fairness and unity for the north to relinquish power to the south after eight years under President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buharis second tenure will end in 2023.

After El-Rufai, similar statements have been made by other northern governors such as Babagana Umara Zulu of Borno State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State and Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State.

However, some of the governors were part of the meeting of the Northern States Governors Forum in Kaduna which on Monday.
The Nigerian government has commenced the implementation of security reform recommendations. Defence Minister, Bashir Magashi assure...

The Nigerian government has commenced the implementation of security reform recommendations.

Defence Minister, Bashir Magashi assured citizens of a rejuvenated and repositioned military.

The retired General spoke at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

Magashi inaugurated a 24-member committee to administer recommendations of the Reform Committee for the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

The report was submitted in April. Major General Alwali Jauji Kazir (rtd) chairs the committee to effect a 7-point terms of reference.

Masashi noted that the onus is on the Implementation and Advisory Committee to institute necessary mechanisms.

The team will examine the recommendations and classify them into immediate, short, medium and long term as appropriate.

It will monitor progress in the implementation at Defence Ministry, Defence Headquarters and Services Headquarters; develop strategies to tackle any envisaged bottlenecks, and perform other functions as may be assigned.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Musa Istifanus charged members of the committee to see their assignment as a call to render selfless service to Nigeria.

Retired General, Kazir assured the government of his teams total commitment to diligently carry out the assigned task.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 74F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 59F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Why is Korea still divided?

As calls for peace talks are revived, heres what an end to the 71-year Korean War would mean
The new Latin fusion restaurant Santos in Luling had been open for a mere matter of days before Hurricane Ida arrived, dealing particularly harsh damage to its River Parishes community.

Now though, the inventive restaurant is back open and gradually working back to full steam.

Its starting with a limited menu and hours, and plans to expand both week by week through the next month. Its serving takeout and family meals for neighbors looking for a dose of comfort food, and still giving a taste of its Latin-meets-Louisiana fusion concept.

Think boudin tacos, pork chops with bacon jam pico and Latin-oodles, a take on pasta-laya with shrimp, chorizo and thin, Filipino pancit noodles (see menus here).

Santos made a splash during its brief run before the storm. It was created by a pair of LaPlace natives who wanted to bring something different to their River Parishes neighbors. Its a modern, stylish restaurant and bar set on a stretch of U.S. 90 where mom-and-pops, seafood joints and national chains comprise much of the dining options.

Its the brainchild of chef Natasha St. Pierre Clement, a home cook who proved her chops on a string of Food Network competition shows and started her own catering company.

She and business partner Buddy Boe formed a new company, Sophisticated Hospitality Group, which includes Santos, the catering firm Sophisticated Southern Plates and the Garyville restaurant Buddy Bs, which Boes parents had operated for decades.

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Buddy Bs is slated to reopen after Ida repairs on Oct. 4.

Santos, meanwhile, reopened Sept. 27 with limited hours but some new options for takeout and family meals.

This week, the restaurant is serving lunch Monday through Friday; next week it will add Friday dinner. Days of service are set to expand week by week until the full schedule resumes Nov. 1.

Santos

12713 U.S. 90, Luling, (985) 308-0048

See the expanding schedule of hours at santosrestaurantla.com.

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+15 Food prices, Ida impact force New Orleans ramen master Kin to change concepts In the wake of Hurricane Ida, more New Orleans restaurants are assessing the toll the storm took on businesses already battered by the pandemi
LSU HEALTH COVID-19 RESEARCH: The current issue of the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society includes two papers by LSU Health New Orleans authors:

An Internal Medicine Residency Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Louisiana describes the response of LSU Health New Orleans internal medicine residency program in its three teaching hospitals in metro New Orleans.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Undergraduate Medical Education Experience at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans describes the impact of COVID-19 on medical education.

The issue is available online.

LSU HEALTH CELL BIOLOGY: Suresh Alahari, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, is one of only 14 Fellows of the American Society for Cell Biology for 2021, and the only one from Louisiana. Alahari, who joined the LSU Health New Orleans faculty in 2004, is a professor in the department of genetics and is also a member of the LSU Health New Orleans Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center. His research interests include the biochemistry of cell adhesion and the mechanism of action of the novel protein he discovered, Nischarin, in biological processes such as breast cancer cell migration, tumor suppression and metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
A man accused of five rapes in New Orleans admitted guilt Tuesday under an agreement to receive a 32-year prison sentence.

Daniel Meridy, 37, who was arrested in 2018 after DNA linked him to a string of attacks on women at knife- or gunpoint, pleaded guilty to five counts of second-degree kidnapping and second-degree rape. Meridy is set to receive the agreed-upon sentence at an Oct. 14 hearing, said Mary Glass, chief of sexual assault kit investigation division in the Orleans Parish district attorney's office. The case is in front of District Judge Darryl Derbigny.

Man charged in serial kidnappings, rapes of 5 women in New Orleans Daniel Meridy, the man authorities have accused of raping at least eight women in two states, was formally charged Thursday (Mach 21) in five 

When authorities unveiled the allegations against Meridy, they said he was connected to a long string of violent assaults in two cities. Between 2004 and 2005, police said, DNA tied Meridy to three unsolved stranger attacks on women in Kansas City, Missouri, then five more assaults in New Orleans between 2015 and 2018:

The gunpoint rape of a woman who'd agreed to have sex with him for cash against the wall of an apartment building in the 1800 block of Bayou Road in Treme on June 7, 2015

The gunpoint rape of a woman in the 600 block of South Genois Street in Mid-City on May 26, 2016. He had spotted her after she exited a bus nearby.

The gunpoint rape of a woman behind an abandoned house in the 2200 block of Fourth Street in Central City on June 10, 2018

The gunpoint rape of a woman he spotted walking home in Central City on Sept. 21, 2016

The knifepoint rape of a woman he'd offered a ride home in the 2400 block of South Johnson Street in Central City on Oct. 13, 2018.

Meridy's plea agreement spared him the mandatory life sentences that would have come with his original charges of first-degree rape and aggravated kidnapping.

Prosecutors in Jackson County, Missouri, didnt immediately comment on Meridys cases there. His defense attorney, Miles Swanson, declined to comment.
A Mississippi man will serve a 35-year prison sentence in Louisiana after coordinated hearings in two states wrapped up murder cases tied to a trio of Simon City Royals gang affiliates.

Drew "Creep" Bourgeois pleaded guilty this week to the 2016 killings within days of two men who  like him  were affiliated with the gang, which has a heavy presence in Mississippi prisons.

The first hearing happened Monday in Hancock County, where Bourgeois was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Jeremy Fountain, whose body was found in a wooded area near Waveland on July 11, 2016. Fountain, who was shot in the head, had disappeared a week before.

Bourgeois, 33, claimed that he and Fountain, who were friends, went into the woods while Bourgeois was high on methamphetamine. They planned to shoot a gun, Bourgeois said, and then he accidentally shot Fountain. Ten years of Bourgeois' sentence were suspended and he was ordered to spend 10 years on supervised release when he leaves prison, Assistant District Attorney D. Christopher Daniel said.

On Tuesday, Bourgeois appeared in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court for sentencing in the fatal shooting of another Simon City Royals affiliate.

Matthew "Sir Twig" Spooner, who was from the same area of Hancock County, was found in a house in the 2100 block of N. Miro Street in the 7th Ward on July 6, 2016.

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Bourgeois was charged with second-degree murder and pleaded guilty in July to an amended count of manslaughter. Under the terms of an agreement between prosecutors and Bourgeois' defense attorney, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Camille Buras handed him a 35-year sentence.

Buras said it was "distressing" to hear from Spooner's family that he left behind an 8-year-old, 13-year-old and 16-year-old. "Your sentence is not forever, but the impact is forever, to all the people that you destroyed," she told Bourgeois.

Bourgeois is set to spend his prison time in Louisiana, Buras said. Prosecutors in both states coordinated on resolving the cases, Orleans Parish Assistant District Attorney Matthew Derbes said.

Investigators never established a definite connection between the killings besides the trio's friendship, their affiliation with the Simon City Royals and the short time between the shootings, said Daniel. "That was it. There was no apparent motive that connected the two," he said.

Meanwhile, Fountain and Spooner weren't the only men tied to the case to die of foul play. A cooperating witness in the case, 28-year-old Brad Fitch, was stabbed 10 times in the back by fellow members of the Simon City Royals the day he arrived at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in 2018.

Investigators never conclusively linked Fitch's death to the earlier killings, Daniel said.
This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with WRKF and WWNO.

The ACLU of Louisiana is calling on federal prosecutors to launch an investigation into the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office following a report by WWNO/WRKF and ProPublica that revealed stark racial disparities in shootings by deputies and systemic transparency problems.

The news organizations ongoing investigation into the Sheriffs Office found that more than 70% of people who deputies shot at during the past eight years were Black; that figure is more than double the 27% of the parish's population that is Black. In addition, 12 of the 16 people who died after being shot or restrained by deputies during that time were Black men.

In response to public records requests, the office could not account for how often its deputies use force. It denied a request for copies of all complaints against Sheriffs Office employees during the past two years and couldnt even say how many had been filed, stating such a number does not exist.

Alanah Odoms, the ACLU of Louisianas executive director, asked the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana to scrutinize the data and evidence collected by the news organizations and to review three pending lawsuits filed by the ACLU against the Sheriffs Office.

It is no secret that the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office has a deep-rooted history of racial discrimination and cruelty toward residents of color, Odoms said. The harsh political reality is the sheriff of Jefferson Parish is wholly unaccountable to the people.

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The Sheriffs Office did not immediately respond to a reporters voicemail or email about the ACLU statement. Sheriff Joe Lopinto previously declined to be interviewed about the news organizations findings, saying only that when his deputies commit serious misconduct, they are arrested, noting that at least nine had been booked since he became sheriff in 2017.

The U.S. Attorneys Office declined to comment on Odoms request for an investigation.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the parent agency of the U.S. Attorneys Office, launched an investigation into the neighboring New Orleans Police Department over a decade ago and found problems similar to those identified by the news organizations investigation into Jefferson Parish. The NOPD had failed to properly track and review when its officers used force, its internal investigation system was deeply flawed and its officers were disproportionately shooting and killing Black people, the DOJ reported.

But, despite years of complaints by Black community leaders in Jefferson Parish, the DOJ has not intervened.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, called the news organizations findings disturbing.

I do not, and our society should not, condone any violence, misconduct or excessive use of force by those sworn to protect and serve, said Carter, who this month called for a DOJ investigation into the Louisiana State Police, which has come under heavy scrutiny recently over a pattern of violence directed at Black arrestees.

I am hopeful that the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office will use all resources available to thoroughly and transparently seek out the truth, wherever it may lead, Carter said.
Authorities have arrested a second suspect accused in the death of James White, who was gunned down while riding his motorcycle near Westwego last year.

Jacorey Davis, 19, was booked Sept. 6 with second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon in White's killing, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, a spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

+3 Bridge City man booked with murder of motorcyclist gunned down on West Bank street last year Just over a year after James White was shot to death while riding his motorcycle on a West Bank street, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office inve

Vincent Goffner Jr., 24, the first suspect to be booked in connection with the murder, was taken into custody on Aug. 16.

White, 34, an Algiers father of three, was shot the evening of July 31, 2020. He was riding his motorcycle on Wayne Avenue near the intersection with the Westbank Expressway when someone began shooting at him, according to authorities.

White was hit several times and died at the scene.

The Sheriff's Office hasn't released any details about a suspected motive or the evidence that allegedly implicates Davis and Goffner in the killing.

Davis was arrested by Gretna police Sept. 6, about a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall, following a disturbance at a convenience store in the 1000 block of Franklin Avenue, according to Gretna Police Deputy Chief Jason DiMarco.

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Davis is accused of threatening to shoot up the business during an argument with the manager. He was still inside the store when Gretna officers arrived, DiMarco said.

+4 No motive or suspect in West Bank shooting death of 34-year-old motorcyclist: JPSO Authorities still don't know who gunned down a 34-year-old man as he was riding his motorcycle near Westwego last week or why someone would ha

Davis walked out of the business, and officers were watching as he put a gun into a vehicle, DiMarco said. He was detained, and officers discovered the warrant for his arrest in the homicide investigation.

There was no information available about whether the gun seized during Davis's arrest is linked to the White's death.

In addition to the murder charge, Davis was booked with aggravated assault and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, DiMarco said.

Davis pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon on school grounds in May 2019, according to Jefferson Parish court records. He had been arrested earlier in the year after a school resource officer saw cell phone video of Davis flashing a stolen 9mm pistol while in a Marrero classroom.

The video had been uploaded to the social media app Snap Chat. The officer immediately went to Davis's classroom, confiscated the gun and arrested Davis, court records said.

Davis was sentenced to two years of probation in the gun case.

He was being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on a $601,675 bond.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration is planning to plug $77 million into the municipal budget for 2021, boosting spending on emergency services and reversing spending cuts made earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The midyear adjustments include a handful of new items such as the first money for a program to provide an alternative to sending the police on mental health calls. But for the most part the changes would simply restore money that was eliminated when the City Council approved the current budget.

Were not doing shiny new programs, chief administrative officer Gilbert Montano said. Were trying to maintain structure with some of the programs we have.

The proposed changes will be presented to a City Council committee on Wednesday for a vote at a future meeting.

City Hall regularly adjusts the annual budget to account for new revenue, changes in spending and other unanticipated events. But this change is far larger than is typical, driven by a greatly reduced budget due to the sharp drop-off in tourism revenue earlier in the pandemic and by New Orleans' share of the federal stimulus meant to alleviate those financial concerns. Because of the earlier drop in revenue, the budget that the City Council approved for 2021 is about $633 million, roughly $100 million less than the 2020 spending plan.

Money for the increased budget is coming from the more than $380 million that New Orleans is scheduled to receive from the coronavirus stimulus passed Congress earlier this year. City Hall has half that money in hand, with the remainder expected.

The largest chunk of the new money will go toward paying employees who, in the 2021 budget, were to be furloughed for two weeks. Cantrell did away with those furloughs for public safety employees early in the year and canceled them for other employees after the federal stimulus was approved.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration outlines plans to spend $70M in COVID stimulus money New Orleans is looking to spend $70 million this year of the roughly $388 million it was promised in the coronavirus stimulus passed in the sp

Overall, this will add about $32 million to the budget, most of it directed toward the Police Department, the Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services.

Another $3.1 million will go toward covering police overtime that wasnt in the original budget, and $300,000 will fund promotions and pay increases aimed at keeping 164 officers from retiring. City officials have long sought to increase the size of the police force, but staffing has remained relatively stable for years as officers have left or retired at about the same rate as new ones have added.

Another $6 million will go toward overtime, training and promotions for the Fire Department. EMS will get $1.3 million to increase pay, hire more staff and pay for training, after staffing shortages became a significant problem during the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Our EMTs are being plucked off left and right by hospitals; theyre augmenting their nursing staffing with EMTs, Montano said. We have to be able to offer some promotional opportunities and training opportunities for our EMTs.

The administration also plans to spend $1 million adding another 150 license plate cameras, a technology that police officials have said is useful for flagging vehicles wanted in crimes.

The Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office will get about $7.4 million to balance its budget and hire more deputies. The district attorneys office will get about $1.4 million, about 10% of which will go toward redirecting cases that otherwise would have resulted in criminal charges.

Despite stimulus money, New Orleans' revenue not expected to rebound from pandemic until 2025 New Orleans does not expect its revenues to fully bounce back from the pandemic until 2025, Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano told 

The public defenders office is to receive about $260,000 to hire more lawyers and create a program for Municipal Court defendants suffering from mental health issues. The administration also plans to put $275,000 toward starting its alternative dispatch program, which will send non-police teams to aid with mental health calls.

A number of the expenditures are aimed at improving staffing. The Planning Commission, for example, which has been hampered by staff shortages, will get five new employees, as will the office charged with enforcing short-term rental rules.

The budget adjustment does not include money for the estimated $94 million that New Orleans has spent on Hurricane Ida matters, such as the $20 million in contracts announced last week to help remove garbage that piled up due to failures by the existing collection contractors.

As New Orleans Council pushes for spending federal aid, Cantrell administration urges caution New Orleans is set to receive $388 million from this years coronavirus stimulus package, and while council members are calling to spend at le

Ida expenses generally are eligible for reimbursement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So New Orleans can recoup its hurricane expenses if FEMA approves, Montano said.

The CleanUPNOLA program, focused on illegal dumping, will get $3 million more.

The budget increases also include $3.6 million for the Sanitation Department, although thats money aimed at shortages within the agency itself rather than the continuing garbage collection problems.
Sep 29, 2021 KRR

Actor Jayasuryas 100th film Sunny, which was released on Amazon Prime Video last week, has been selected to the Asian Cinema competition section at the 20th Dhaka International Film Festival. Directed by Ranjith Sankar, the film tells the tale of a musician, who returns to Kerala from abroad during the Covid-19 period.

So excited to announce the second festival selection for Sunny. This time at Dhaka International Film festival. Sunny will be screened in competition under the Asian films section. Congrats again to team Sunny for this marvellous achievement, Jayasurya tweeted on Wednesday.

Earlier, the film was also selected to the Competition Section at Calella Film Festival, Spain. Sunny is the only Indian film to be screened at Calella Film Festival.

The film has cinematography by Madhu Neelakandan and music by Sanker Sharma. Click the Movie button below for more info:

Sunny
Solar District Cup Unveils Class of 20212022 Student Participants

In Its Third Year, the Competition Will Challenge Students To Design and Model Distributed Energy Systems for a Campus or Urban District

Sept. 29, 2021

The infrastructure that defines the U.S. electric grid is based largely on pre-digital technologies and is now faced with increasingly difficult load and power quality demands. New tools are required to create a flexible and modern electric grid, and the next generation of renewable energy professionals are here to help.

Students from across the country will compete in the Class of 20212022 Solar District Cup competition, where they will design and model optimized distributed energy systems for an assigned campus or urban district.

In the third year of the program, 65 student-led teams from 64 collegiate institutions will participate in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition Class of 2021-2022, developing solutions around the renewable energy needs of campuses or urban districts.

The Solar District Cup challenges multidisciplinary student teams to design and model distributed energy systems that integrate solar, storage, and other technologies across mixed-use districts.

As we work to achieve aggressive climate goals over the next few years, the need for creative energy solutions and a dedicated, passionate workforce is greater than ever, said Garrett Nilsen, acting director of the Energy Departments Solar Energy Technologies Office. The work these students are doing through the Solar District Cup is so valuable in preparing them for careers in the energy industry and beyond. Im excited to see the designs that come out of this cohort of participants.

Throughout the competition, student teams are challenged to design, model, and present the most innovative and cost-effective system possible. Teams compete in one of three divisions, each of which is structured around a specific district. A winner is selected for each division based on the quality of their solar energy system design.

Each team is assigned to a district use case around which it will base its energy system design. Data on each district is provided to teams, allowing students to reimagine how energy is generated, managed, and used within their district.

The three district use cases for the 20212022 program are Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and The Ohio State University.

The collegiate institutions participating in the Solar District Cup Class of 2021-2022 include:

Alfred University

Ana G. Mendez University, Gurabo Campus

Appalachian State University

Arizona State University

Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology

Bergen Community College

Boise State University

California State University, Los Angeles

Carnegie Mellon University

Clark Atlanta University

Columbia University

Cornell University

Creighton University

Drexel University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Grambling State University

Illinois State University

Miami University

Michigan State University

Morehouse College

NC State University

New York University

Northeast Lakeview College

Norwich University

Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College

Ohio Northern University

Oregon State University-Cascades

Pittsburg State University

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

San Antonio College

San Jacinto College South

Santa Clara University Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Spelman College

Stevens Institute of Technology

Stony Brook University

Tennessee State University

Texas A&M University

Texas Southern University

Texas Tech University

The George Washington University

The Ohio State University

The University of Alabama

The University of Arizona

The University of Memphis

The University of Minnesota Duluth

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities

The University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Triton College

Tuskegee University

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Denver

University of Maryland

University of Massachusetts, Lowell

University of Notre Dame

University of Pennsylvania

University of Portland

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus

University of South Florida

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Vanderbilt University

In our third year of the program, we are thrilled to see several collegiate institutions returning to the competition, while also seeing a high number of new schools joining for the first time, said Joe Simon, Solar District Cup organizer.

The Solar District Cup is designed to inspire students to consider new career opportunities, learn industry-relevant skills, engage with the professional marketplace, and prepare to become leaders in distributed solar energy. The program encourages collaboration between academia and industry.

Throughout the competition, students are provided with resources and tools by partnering organizations, including Aurora Solar Inc., Energy Toolbase, HeatSpring LLC, and Solar Power Events. These partners provide benefits including access to design software, online educational courses, and networking opportunities with industry professionals. Their support is critical to student success in the competition as well as continuing their education and entering the renewable energy workforce.

Between October and November 2021, teams will work on their designs before reaching their first milestone, the submission of their Progress Deliverable Packages. Finalist teams moving on in the competition will be announced in December.

If you are interested in getting involved with the Solar District Cup as a partner or industry mentor, contact the Solar District Cup organizers. You can also follow the Class of 20212022 as they advance through the competition.

Learn more about the Solar District Cup.
He said that there were no homosexuals in Iran  not one  and that the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, aired those and other bewildering thoughts in a two-hour verbal contest at Columbia University yesterday, providing some ammunition to people who said there was no point in inviting him to speak. Yet his appearance also offered evidence of why he is widely admired in the developing world for his defiance toward Western, especially American, power.

In repeated clashes with his hosts, Mr. Ahmadinejad accused the United States of supporting terrorist groups, and characterized as hypocritical American and European efforts to rein in Irans nuclear ambitions.

If you have created the fifth generation of atomic bombs and are testing them already, who are you to question other people who just want nuclear power, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, adding, pointedly: I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs, politically, theyre backwards. Retarded.
Meningitis itself isnt a disease, just a description meaning that the tissues around the brain and spinal cord have become inflamed. In the United States, bacterial infections can cause meningitis, as can enteroviruses, mumps and herpes simplex. But a high proportion of cases have, as doctors say, no known etiology: No one knows why the patients brain and spinal tissues are swelling.

This was the case with the Dhaka outbreak. C.H.R.F. is one of the premier microbiology labs in Southeast Asia and is in charge of tracking meningitis in the country for the World Health Organization. Every meningitis case that comes in, we culture, Saha told me. We do antigen tests for pneumococcus, Neisseria meningitidis, Hemophilus influenzae and G.B.S., or Group B streptococcus  the four infections most likely to cause meningitis. Then we do a much more sensitive and specific test for Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, since that causes the highest proportion of cases. And then we also do real-time P.C.R. looking for fragments of DNA from any of these pathogens.

When the outbreak began, it was assumed that the cause would again be bacterial, but none of the tests could pinpoint a pathogen. Over the next year, Saha worked to solve the mystery, at times in collaboration with other labs. One partnership, with an organization in China, fell apart when the group wasnt willing to share its techniques. Another set of researchers, in Canada, ran their own tests on the meningitis samples, but couldnt figure out the cause either. Not long after, Saha attended a conference at the British Museum, where she gave a presentation titled The Dark Side of Meningitis. It was a negative talk, Saha recalls. Like: Why does everybody talk only about the successful cases? We need to talk about the thousands of cases every year where we have no idea whats causing the disease.

Before meeting DeRisi, Saha was skeptical about yet another collaboration. But the two instantly hit it off. Though DeRisi could be impatient, Saha liked that he was direct, and appreciated that his ethics are very strong. In his head, hes like: This is right; this is wrong; this is what Im going to do. Still, she proceeded carefully. Because IDseq was new, and because I am very meticulous, I included a lot of controls, she told me. Of the 97 samples of cerebrospinal fluid, only 25 were from actual mystery-meningitis cases. The rest were either from cases for which Sahas lab had already identified the cause, or werent meningitis at all. Several were simply water. The idea was that all of these would be tested, and the process would be blinded, Saha says. Because I had to see whether the platform worked or not.

When Saha and her team ran the mystery meningitis samples through IDseq, though, the result was surprising. Rather than revealing a bacterial cause, as expected, a third of the samples showed signs of the chikungunya virus  specifically, a neuroinvasive strain that was thought to be extremely rare. At first we thought, It cannot be true! Saha recalls. But the moment Joe and I realized it was chikungunya, I went back and looked at the other 200 samples that we had collected around the same time. And we found the virus in some of those samples as well.

Until recently, chikungunya was a comparatively rare disease, present mostly in parts of Central and East Africa. Then it just exploded through the Caribbean and Africa and across Southeast Asia into India and Bangladesh, DeRisi told me. In 2011, there were zero cases of chikungunya reported in Latin America. By 2014, there were a million.

Ordinary chikungunya can cause lasting neurological damage and lifelong joint pain. DeRisi called the disease hugely devastating and noted that chikungunya, in the Kimakonde language, spoken in Tanzania, means to become contorted. But a neuroinvasive version that caused brain damage and primarily affected children and infants was especially alarming.
The largest U.S.-built ships designed for doing offshore construction work are about 185 feet long and can lift about 500 tons, according to a Government Accountability Office report published in December. That is far too small for the giant components that Mr. Eleys team was working with.

So Dominion hired three European ships and operated them out of the Port of Halifax in Nova Scotia. One of them, the Vole au Vent from Luxembourg, is 459 feet (140 meters) long and can lift 1,654 tons.

Mr. Eleys crew waited weeks at a time for the European ships to travel more than 800 miles each way to port. The installations took a year. In Europe, it would have been completed in a few weeks. It was definitely a challenge, he said.

The U.S. shipping industry has not invested in the vessels needed to carry large wind equipment because there have been so few projects here. The first five offshore turbines were installed in 2016 near Block Island, R.I. Dominions two turbines were installed last year.

Had the Jones Act not existed  it was enacted after World War I to ensure that the country had ships and crews to mobilize during war and emergencies  Dominion could have run European vessels out of Virginias ports. The law is sacrosanct in Congress, and labor unions and other supporters argue that repealing it would eliminate thousands of jobs at shipyards and on boats, leaving the United States reliant on foreign companies.

Demand for large ships could grow significantly over the next decade because the United States, Europe and China have ambitious offshore wind goals. Just eight ships in the world can transport the largest turbine parts, according to Dominion.
Even before the summit between the United States and Russia got underway on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials played down the prospect for a breakthrough on one of the thornier issues on the agenda: ending the war in eastern Ukraine, the only active conflict in Europe today.

Ukraine said it would not accept any arrangements made in Geneva between President Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin on the war, which has been simmering for seven years between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian Army, officials said.

Before the summits start, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlins spokesman, said that Ukraines entry into NATO would represent a red line for Russia that Mr. Putin was prepared to make plain on Wednesday. Mr. Biden said this week that Ukraine could join NATO if they meet the criteria.

The Ukrainian government has in recent years dug in its heels on a policy of rejecting any negotiation without a seat at the table after worry that Washington and Moscow would cut a deal in back-room talks. The approach has remained in place with the Biden administration.
North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, said that lapses in his countrys anti-pandemic campaign have caused a great crisis that threatened grave consequences, state media reported on Wednesday.

Mr. Kim did not clarify whether he was referring to an outbreak in North Korea, where the authorities had said there were no cases of the virus. But state media reported that the matter was serious enough for Mr. Kim to convene a meeting of the Political Bureau of his ruling Workers Party on Tuesday, during which Mr. Kim reshuffled the top party leadership.

Senior officials neglected implementing antivirus measures and had created a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people, Mr. Kim said.

Mr. Kim also berated party officials for their ignorance, disability and irresponsibility, said the official Korean Central News Agency.
WASHINGTON  Amid deadly heat waves and new evidence showing that wildfire smoke may contribute to premature births, the Biden administration is creating a new federal office to address the health consequences of climate change and their disproportionate effects on poor communities.

The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, which the administration announced on Monday, will be the first federal program aimed specifically at understanding how planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels also affect human health. It will fall under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Its an area that medical experts have urged the government to take more seriously, and public health leaders said the new office was long overdue.
Ethiopian critics responded angrily to Ms. Powers comments, accusing her of weaponizing aid and supporting terrorism.

But the interview by her subordinate in Ethiopia this week conveyed a more conciliatory tone, one that suggested the Americans were reaching out to the Ethiopians, hoping to defuse the animosity.

While acknowledging some strain and some stress with the United States, Mr. Jones stressed his good relations with Ethiopian officials, called its government one of our finest and most important partners, and likened any tensions to a marital dispute.

Sometimes, like in a good marriage, we have to say what we are feeling at that moment, he said.

Those remarks drew an angry response from the T.P.L.F., highlighting the great difficulty in maintaining good relations with both sides in the Ethiopian conflict.

On Twitter, the main T.P.L.F. spokesman, Getachew Reda, lashed out at the American characterization of his fighters as opportunists, and blamed any looting in Amhara on local forces.

While we cannot vouch for every unacceptable behavior of off-grid fighters in such matters, we have evidence that such looting is mainly orchestrated by local individuals & groups, Mr. Reda wrote.

Amid the bickering, the war in Tigray is spreading and humanitarian needs are soaring.

The Ethiopian government says it needs help for 500,000 people in the Amhara and Afar regions, where fighting spread in July after Tigrayan fighters recaptured most of Tigray from government forces.
This was not part of any previous playbook, but weve got to literally change the whole way of thinking, he said. Because as good as some of the projections are, they cant always keep up with weather.

Anger seemed particularly palpable in Queens, where 12 people perished as water gushed into subterranean spaces, leaving residents to drown in their own homes. Many of those basement apartments were illegal, according to the citys Department of Buildings.

It is unacceptable that we did not prepare for Ida with the same rigor that we did for Henri, and that is a failure on the citys part, said Francisco Moya, a city councilman from Queens. No one should have been driving, trying to escape the storm or stuck at work because of dangerous flooding, and no one should be at home getting flooded not knowing when the water will stop or what to do, and risk losing their life.

The destruction and human toll in the New York region seemed especially striking considering that Ida had already blown through the Gulf Coast, hitting New Orleans on Sunday with far stronger winds but with fewer deaths.

The city issued official warnings early Wednesday morning, when the citys Office of Emergency Management cautioned that the remnants of Ida could cause flash flooding. The city said it also activated its flash flood emergency plan, which involved cleaning out clogged catch basins. It put its downed-tree task force on alert.

State transportation officials were dispatched to clear culverts and other drainage systems of debris, according to the governors office, with inspections and patrols to assess rising waters. An array of equipment  from chain saws to hand tools  was deployed, as well as pumps and generators.

By Wednesday evening, the predictions had grown more dire. New Yorkers were warned of tornadoes and urged to move to higher ground. Calls to the citys 911 emergency system and 311 help line began to surge around 8 p.m., according to city officials.
Residents were made to sleep on mattresses on the floor and relieve themselves in five-gallon buckets, Ms. DeRosia said by phone on Friday from Mississippi, where she had taken refuge amid an ongoing power failure in southern Louisiana. It turned out to be a nightmare.

Image Loretta Duet and her daughters. Credit... via Renetta DeRosia

Ms. Duet was among residents of seven privately run nursing homes who were rescued by state officials from squalor inside the warehouse this week. Five people died there, including three whose deaths were classified by state officials as storm-related. More than a dozen others had to be hospitalized after being taken from the warehouse.

The emerging accounts of family members about their loved ones harrowing experiences came as the state continued to grapple with the effects of Ida, which made landfall Sunday as an intense Category 4 storm. On Friday, the St. John the Baptist Parish coroner reported the death of a 59-year-old man from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator; he was among at least 13 killed across the state in the wake of the storm.

Louisianas largest electric utility, Entergy, on Friday released its first timeline for complete power restoration in the wake of Hurricane Ida, indicating that it expected to have electricity flowing throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area by Wednesday  10 days after the storm struck.

The Louisiana attorney general, Jeff Landry, said in a video statement Friday that his office had launched an investigation into the warehouse debacle in Independence, which is about 75 miles north of New Orleans. We must determine the facts surrounding these tragic deaths, he said.
The Taliban claimed on Monday to have captured the Panjshir Valley, raising their flag over the last Afghan provincial capital not firmly under their control, even as representatives of the opposition forces there maintained that they would fight on from the mountains.

If the Taliban manage to keep Panjshir under control, it would be a symbolic capstone to the groups lightning-quick conquest and return to national power.

The Taliban never managed to control Panjshir the last time they ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, and it was the launching point for the U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Soviet forces, during their occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, made advances into the territory on at least nine occasions, only to be repelled each time, sometimes after suffering heavy casualties.
The Democratic advantage among college graduates may be a new phenomenon, but the relative liberalism of college graduates is not. College graduates have been far likelier than voters without a college degree to self-identify as liberal for decades, even when they were likelier to vote Republican.

College graduates attribute racial inequality, crime and poverty to complex structural and systemic problems, while voters without a degree tend to focus on individualist and parochial explanations. It is easier for college graduates, with their higher levels of affluence, to vote on their values, not simply on economic self-interest. They are likelier to have high levels of social trust and to be open to new experiences. They are less likely to believe in God.

The rise of cultural liberalism is not simply a product of rising college attendance. In fact, there is only equivocal evidence that college attendance makes people vastly more liberal. Far from the indoctrination that conservatives fear, liberal college professors appear to preach to an already liberal choir.

But it is hard to imagine the last half-century of liberal cultural change without the role played by universities and academia, which helped inspire everything from the student movements and New Left of the 1960s to the ideas behind todays fights over critical race theory. The concentration of so many left-leaning students and professors on campus helped foster a new liberal culture with more progressive ideas and norms than would have otherwise existed.

If you live in a community which is more liberal, theres a self-reinforcing ratcheting effect, said Pippa Norris, a professor and political scientist at the Harvard Kennedy School who believes that the rise of higher education contributed to the rise of social liberalism throughout the postindustrial world.

As college graduates increased their share of the electorate, they gradually began to force the Democrats to accommodate their interests and values. They punched above their electoral weight, since they make up a disproportionate number of the journalists, politicians, activists and poll respondents who most directly influence the political process.
OZARK, Mo.  Brad Cole is a fiery defender of the Second Amendment, a set-jawed lawman with a lacquered alligator head on his desk, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum on his hip and a signed picture of himself with former President Donald J. Trump on his office wall.

Sheriff Cole, of Christian County, considers himself part of the constitutional sheriff movement, which contends that the federal government is subordinate to local authorities in most law-enforcement matters. Yet this year he found himself in the unusual position of pushing back against Republican state lawmakers ramming through a bill to punish local departments for collaborating with federal authorities on gun cases deemed to be in violation of Second Amendment rights.

Anytime you take away a tool from us to do our job and protect the people we serve, well, Im going to have a huge problem with that, said Sheriff Cole, a Republican who worked with several other sheriffs from deep-red southern Missouri to modify the bill before it passed in May on a party-line vote.

Its just a terribly written law, he said.

Even with the changes, the Second Amendment Preservation Act represents a challenge to federal authority that Biden administration officials and other critics see as a clear-cut violation of the Constitutions supremacy clause, which prohibits states from passing laws that nullify federal statutes.
An Alaska lawmaker has asked to be excused from legislative sessions until next year, saying she has no way to fly to the state capital after she was barred from Alaska Airlines for violating mask policies.

The lawmaker, Lora Reinbold, a Republican state senator, was captured on video in April arguing with employees at Juneau International Airport about mask rules.

After the confrontation, Alaska Airlines said it had notified Ms. Reinbold that she was not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy.

Ms. Reinbold had previously complained about Alaska Airlines on Facebook, saying it was part of mask tyranny.
The rulings appear to provide social media companies additional protections for making decisions on moderating content related to elections  as long as such choices are in service of a companys commercial interests. Federal election law is decades old and is broadly outdated, so decisions by the election commission serve as influential guideposts.

Campaign finance law does not account for the post-broadcast world and puts few restrictions on the behavior of social media firms, said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University. There is a real mismatch between our federal campaign finance laws and how campaigns are run.

Still, the Republican National Committees complaint stretched the boundaries of campaign finance law, she added. The choice to delete or suppress certain content on the platform is ultimately going to be viewed through the lens of the First Amendment, Ms. Torres-Spelliscy said. I dont think that type of content moderation by the big platforms is going to raise a campaign finance issue.

Some Republicans are seeking to take a broader cudgel to the big internet companies, aiming to repeal a provision of communications law that shields them from liability for what users post.

In the case of the Hunter Biden article, Twitter reversed course within a day of its decision to block distribution of the piece, and its chief executive, Jack Dorsey, has called the initial move a mistake.

The Federal Election Commissions official vote on the case  the commission is split equally between three Democratic-aligned commissioners and three Republicans  is not yet public, nor are any additional statements written by commissioners. Such statements often accompany the closure of cases and can provide further insight into the commissions reasoning.

In addition to rejecting the R.N.C. complaint, the commission dismissed other allegations that Twitter had violated election laws by shadow banning Republican users (or appearing to limit the visibility of their posts without providing an explanation); suppressing other anti-Biden content; and labeling Mr. Trumps tweets with warnings about their accuracy. The commission rejected those accusations, writing that they were vague, speculative and unsupported by the available information.
Im not going to put a date on it, he told reporters, but we are getting closer to the point at which a strict return to compliance with the old deal does not reproduce the benefits that agreement achieved.

He said that as time goes on and as Iran continues to make advances in its nuclear program, including spinning more sophisticated centrifuges, enriching more material, learning more, there is a point at which it would be very difficult to regain all of the benefits of the restrictions Iran agreed to six years ago. Were not at that point yet, but its getting closer, he added.

The next few weeks are regarded as critical. The opening of the United Nations General Assembly is traditionally a moment for back-room diplomacy, especially on Iran, and officials of the new Iranian government, including the new foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, are expected to make debut appearances. Considered a hard-liner, the 56-year-old Mr. Amir Abdollahian has indicated a willingness to renew the agreement  but on terms that the new government can say are vastly improved.

Outside experts say that both Iran and North Korea, which fired a new cruise missile on Sunday that demonstrated an ability to avoid missile defenses, see this as a moment to test the Biden administration.

Theres an eerie similarity between what were seeing in Iran with enrichment and in North Korea with the cruise missile test, said Rose Gottemoeller, a former arms control official in several administrations who now works at Stanford University. Theyre both trying to set the negotiating table in their favor as the Biden administration finally turns to them.

On Sunday, Iranian officials reached a temporary agreement with the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael M. Grossi, to let the agency reset monitoring devices that help measure the progress of the countrys nuclear program. In recent months, agency inspectors have been blinded in their efforts to monitor some facilities, a growing source of concern to American officials, who fear that nuclear material could be diverted.

The accord heads off an immediate inspection crisis, assuming the inspectors are allowed to gain access to their cameras and other equipment and get them operating again. But it does not address the countrys drive to restore its uranium production  and to enrich at levels far higher, and thus far closer to bomb-grade material, than it did before 2015.
Presidential decisions about Afghanistan were often framed in terms of their accordance with military advice. For example, debate over President Barack Obamas troop surge in 2009 was shaped in part by the leak of a grim review of the situation in Afghanistan by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. And many observers believe that in 2017, Trumps generals persuaded him to send more troops to Afghanistan.

There is some evidence that military leaders and veterans are less willing than civilians to initiate use of force but, once it is engaged, prefer higher levels of it. It is not surprising that military leaders would be reluctant to give up on a mission their organization had invested so much in. But the issue is not the content of the military advice itself  there were certainly plenty of voices in civilian policy circles supporting a continued effort in Afghanistan.

The bigger concern is that in the context of the trust gap, this framing suggests that the public should be concerned not with evaluating the policy itself but rather with whether the military gets its way. Military expertise has an important place in sound policymaking. But in a democracy, it cannot be substituted for value judgments made on behalf of society by their elected leaders.

In addition, service members and veterans have a perceived moral competence. There is a perception that their service and sacrifice mean they have earned the right to weigh in on conflicts in a way civilians have not. But this impulse risks downplaying the importance of other forms of public service and civic engagement.

These troubling trust gap trends may have far-reaching effects. When the military is seen as the most competent, trustworthy government institution, it becomes tempting to invite the military to undermine civilian control and democratic governance. This was evident in public speculation about the role the military might play in adjudicating or enforcing the 2020 presidential election and in recent reports that largely portray Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a check on an out-of-control president in the final days of the Trump administration.

So what can be done? We would benefit from efforts to demystify the military and re-emphasize the role of civilian policymakers. Making military bases less isolated from their surrounding communities and more accessible to civilians  as the congressionally mandated National Commission on Military, National and Public Service recommends  could be part of a strong foundation for such a change. The Defense Department could also do more to publicize the role of civilians in the conduct of the nations wars and emphasize the degree to which the day-to-day experience of many military jobs is relatable to civilians.

In the long term, as difficult a challenge as it may be, we should make every effort to shore up confidence in civilian democratic institutions and to elevate other forms of public service, which can be done without denigrating military service.
The gala was to commemorate the 240th Anniversary of the Battle of the Capes, celebrating the French navys help in a 1781 battle during Americas fight for independence.

Philippe Etienne, the French ambassador to the United States and the host of the party, said on Thursday that he learned about the deal from news reports, followed by a call from Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to Mr. Biden.

A senior American official said that the Biden administration had made efforts to inform the French government about the presidents announcement earlier Wednesday morning, but had been unable to schedule the discussions with their French counterparts before the news reports appeared online.

The indignation from Mr. Etienne and Mr. Le Drian reflected the fact that France had its own deal with Australia, concluded in 2016, for conventional, less technologically sophisticated submarines. That $66 billion deal is now defunct, but a harsh legal battle over the contract appears inevitable.

A knife in the back, Mr. 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.

French officials in Washington 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.

Mr. Etienne, one of Frances most experienced diplomats, acknowledged in an interview on Thursday that there had been discussions with the Australians over the rising price tag of the submarines that France was supposed to deliver to Australia  which were not nuclear-powered, even though France has its own fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
Ms. Valinas said the panel is continuing to investigate the crimes identified in that report, but added that the second report, which it will present to the Human Rights Council next week, focused on the workings of Venezuelas judicial system and conducted a detailed analysis of 183 detentions.

Venezuelan authorities did not allow panel members into the country and did not reply to any of the 17 letters they sent to the government over the past year asking for information. The panel based its conclusions on 177 interviews with current and former judges, prosecutors and others within the judicial system, as well as with lawyers for the victims of abuse. They also read thousands of pages of legal case files, including arrest and search warrants.

Of the 86 judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers the panel interviewed, virtually all  98.2 percent of them, the panel said  reported that political cases were not investigated or prosecuted in accordance with the law.

Judges and prosecutors received instructions on how they were to proceed, the panel said, and often appeared to have played key roles in covering wrongdoing  for example, enabling arbitrary detention by resorting to unjustified arrest warrants, lengthy pretrial detentions, and criminal charges based on illegally obtained or falsified evidence, including evidence obtained by torture.

Many of the defendants in the 183 prosecutions analyzed by the panel said they had been tortured or subjected to brutal treatment, including sexual violence, and 67 of the defendants had appeared in court exhibiting clear marks of mistreatment.

The actions and omissions of judges hearing torture allegations had devastating consequences on victims, including continued torture and deteriorating health, the panel said. One detainee had suffered a miscarriage from torture inflicted after a judge returned her to the custody of the military counterintelligence agency, which she claimed was abusing her.

But resistance by judges, prosecutors and lawyers to political interference is also risky, the panel concluded. More than half the defense lawyers who responded to a questionnaire said they had faced threats and harassment, and nearly half the former judges and prosecutors the panel contacted had fled the country out of safety concerns.
In this extremely fluid context, things could end with the election of a Republican president after Macron is defeated because Zemmour picks up a few points, Mr. Lebourg added, referring to the Republicans, the party of the traditional right.

The poll released Wednesday showed 10 percent of voters supporting Mr. Zemmour in the first round of the election, up from 7 percent a week earlier and 5 percent in July. He is one of the few candidates registering in the double digits, outscoring some from Frances established parties, including the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

According to a poll published on Monday, Mr. Zemmour is one of the few candidates to draw support from both the French traditional right and far-right  a point he underscored in the interview, saying that the far-right National Rally puts off the French bourgeoisie, while the Republicans have only an extremely aging constituency and dont connect with the young or the working class.

The poll also showed he is strong with the working class, men and young voters.

His straight talk appeals a lot to a generation that has been very disappointed by politicians lies and that is very mistrustful of the media, said Francois de Voyer, a host and financial supporter of Black Book, a seven-month-old YouTube channel that has featured long interviews with Mr. Zemmour and other personalities, mostly from the right and far right. He said Mr. Zemmour gives the impression of never hiding what he thinks, even if it means making controversial remarks, adding, I think it has the effect of creating trust.

Still, a run by Mr. Zemmour  whose hard-line views on immigration, Islams place in France and national identity are regarded as being to the right of Ms. Le Pen  would immediately inject into the election some of the most explosive issues in an increasingly polarized society.
WASHINGTON  The summer was a rough one for President Biden.

Another pandemic surge prompted Mr. Biden, a veteran moderate, to attack Republican governors and embrace vaccine mandates. A bipartisan infrastructure deal hung in the balance. The American withdrawal from Afghanistan, during which 13 service members were killed in a terrorist attack, was criticized as violent and haphazard.

But the events left another Biden feeling bruised.

I love him, and its hurtful, Jill Biden said in an interview, the first she has granted to a newspaper since becoming first lady. I do feel the sting of it. I wouldnt be a good partner if I didnt.

Eight months into Mr. Bidens presidency, both husband and wife are finding that winning the battle for the soul of the nation is perhaps his most elusive campaign promise. In Washington, an outrage-driven approach to politics has replaced Mr. Bidens rose-colored belief that bipartisan deal making can be an art form. As he tries to prove that this is still possible, his wife is not a bystander.

Dr. Biden, an English and writing professor who made history as the only first lady to keep her career while in the White House, has traveled to 32 states, many of them conservative, to promote school reopenings, infrastructure funding, community colleges and support for military families. She has also traveled to states where low numbers of eligible people have received the coronavirus vaccine.
No animal in the batch has been sought more passionately than the ivory-bill, the largest woodpecker in the United States. Once inhabiting old growth forests and swamps of the Southeast, the birds declined as European settlers and their descendants cleared forests and hunted them. The last confirmed sighting was in Louisiana in 1944.

But in 2004, a kayaker named Gene Sparling set off a flurry of searching when he saw a woodpecker that looked like an ivory-bill in an Arkansas swamp. Days after hearing about it, two experienced birders, Tim Gallagher and Bobby Harrison, flew in to join him on a search. On Day 2, paddling in their kayaks, they were getting ready to stop for lunch when suddenly a big bird flew right in front of them. Tim and I both yelled Ivory-bill! at the same time, Mr. Harrison recalled.

In doing so, they scared the bird away.

But the men are adamant that they got a crystal-clear look at the distinctive wing markings that distinguish an ivory-bill from its most similar relative, the pileated woodpecker. It was unmistakable, Mr. Gallagher said.

A host of Cornell University ornithologists, several more searches, a few reported sightings and a blurry video later, a 2005 paper in the journal Science declared Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America.

Controversy ensued. Some experts argued that the video was of pileated woodpeckers. Repeated attempts by state and federal wildlife agencies to find the bird have been unsuccessful, and many experts have concluded that it is extinct.

When Amy Trahan, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, completed the most recent species assessment for the woodpecker, she said, she had to make her recommendation based on the best available science. At the end of the report, she checked a line next to the words delist based on extinction.
Nor do we tend to hear that the cops kill vastly more white than Black people. Or, if we do, the issue of disproportion comes up, just as it must on redlining. But then comes poverty  leaving us again with a more complicated picture than many seem to find convenient.

In 2020, a plurality of the more than 1,000 people shot and killed by the police, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, were white (459); Black people were about a quarter. That is typical year after year. From these statistics some people might wonder why we consider killings by cops a Black problem.

But not so fast. Black Americans account for about 13 percent of the countrys population, but they are more than two times as likely as white Americans to be fatally shot by police officers. This must be attended to, even if it isnt that Black men are all, or even most, of those killed. The disproportion is typically taken to suggest that racism leads cops to value our lives less.

So: Just as racism was why most Black people lived in redlined, even if mostly white, neighborhoods, racism is why Black people are killed by cops disproportionately, even if they kill more white people numerically. Right?

Yet poverty is germane in the police-killing case as well. Black Americans are more than two times as likely as white Americans to be killed by cops, and also more than twice as likely to be poor. And crucially, as a report on policing, poverty and racial inequity in Tulsa makes clear, policing is concentrated in poorer neighborhoods, which are more frequently communities of color and which receive more frequent calls for service. And the horrors of modern war on crime-style policing are focused on poverty.

Just as racism certainly operated within the housing loan system, racial bias certainly operates within policing. Solid evidence shows racial bias in who gets pulled over (Black people are less likely to be pulled over after dark, when the drivers race is harder for officers to discern), searched (the bar for searching Black drivers is lower than that for searching white drivers) and verbally abused.

Yet data also suggests that when it comes to police shootings, with all factors taken into account, such as whether the suspect was armed and whether the officers had just cause to fear for their lives, cops kill white people in greater numbers than Black people, but they kill Black people to a disproportionately far greater degree. White cops may not like Black people much in many cases  and they show it  but when it comes to ending Black lives, just maybe we can open up to the possibility that they hold back on resorting to shooting just as much as they do with white men?
WASHINGTON  The talks between the Justice Department and a top executive from Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications giant, had stretched over more than 12 months and two presidential administrations, and boiled down to one overarching dispute: whether Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huaweis founder, would admit to any wrongdoing.

Since her arrest in 2018, Ms. Meng had refused to admit that she had misled the global banking conglomerate HSBC about Huaweis dealings with Iran a decade ago, even though that was the key to her release from detention in Canada, where she was out on bail at an imposing gated mansion in Vancouver. In mid-September, with a Canadian judge expected to rule by the end of the year on whether she would be extradited to the United States, federal prosecutors told Ms. Mengs lawyers that they were ready to walk away from settlement negotiations, and bring Ms. Meng, tech royalty in China, to trial in Brooklyn.

Then came a breakthrough: On Sept. 19, after a new lawyer entered the case on her behalf, she agreed to a statement of facts that the Justice Department believed would be valuable in their ongoing case against Huawei itself  a company that had been in the cross hairs of the Justice Department and American national security agencies for years.

Five days later, Ms. Meng was on a plane back to China, to a heros welcome. Two Canadians, essentially taken hostage on trumped-up charges, were on their way back to Canada, along with two young Americans who had been denied exit from China for three years because of a case involving their father, sought by Chinese authorities.
WASHINGTON  Pentagon leaders publicly acknowledged on Tuesday that they advised President Biden not to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan ahead of a chaotic evacuation in which 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bombing and 10 Afghan civilians were killed in an American drone strike.

During an expansive Senate hearing on the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also defended his actions in the tumultuous last months of the Trump administration, insisting that calls to his Chinese counterpart and a meeting in which he told generals to alert him if the president tried to launch a nuclear weapon were part of his duties as the countrys top military officer.

General Milley was adamant that he did not go around his former boss. My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasnt changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give, he said. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle essential to this republic and I am committed to ensuring the military stays clear of domestic politics.

Some six hours of public testimony from senior Pentagon leaders were at times acrimonious and at times verging on political theater. Republican senators who had in the past defended President Donald J. Trumps desire to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan demanded resignations from military leaders who carried out a Democratic presidents orders to withdraw. Democrats, who are traditionally tougher on military leaders, on this occasion, provided solace in the form of softer questioning and traced flaws back to the Trump administration.
Mehdi, the cool, collected thief at the heart of the French Netflix series Ganglands, is haunted by his brothers death. Guilt drives Mehdis decisions as he becomes embroiled in a violent dispute among rival drug traffickers.

And yet we know nothing about that lost sibling. The show doesnt dwell on how he died. There are no convenient explanations or evocative flashbacks.

We did write those scenes, but we thought we shouldnt underestimate viewers, said Julien Leclercq, the seriess director and co-creator, speaking in French on a recent video call from Paris. Its not a bad thing to leave a back story to the imagination, to not always explain.

And this is why his movies have one of the lowest B.M.I.s in the action business: He cuts the flab. Since his debut, the 2007 sci-fi thriller Chrysalis (running time: 1 hour 34 minutes), he has built a reputation as a director of efficient, no-nonsense rides. Even when he lands international names, like Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 2019 film The Bouncer (also 1:34) or Olga Kurylenko in the 2021 Netflix film Sentinelle (good to go at 1:20), Leclercq resists the temptation to give them more dialogue, more exposition or more fights.
Return of the Shiva sculpture marks the third time in as many years that the Met Museum has repatriated an item from its collection to Nepal. In 2018, the cultural institution repatriated two stone sculptures: a 12th-century stele of Uma Mahesvara (Shiva and Parvati) and a 10th-century sculpture of Buddha. There are currently more than 200 Nepali objects in the collection, according to a museum spokesman.

The museum is committed to the responsible acquisition of archaeological art, and applies rigorous provenance standards both to new acquisitions and the study of works long in its collection, said the Met in a statement. In returning this sculpture to Nepal, the museum is acting to strengthen the good relationship it has long maintained with scholarly institutions and colleagues in Nepal.

In March, the Dallas Museum of Art repatriated a deity sculpture to Nepal with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and earlier this month, officials from the Denver Art Museum returned another sacred statue to Nepal.

Most of these objects were stolen and have gone through traders and auction houses, said Roshan Mishra, director of the Taragaon Museum in Kathmandu and a member of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign. We have so many objects like the Shiva statue on our list. One by one, they will end up returning.

The 13-inch-tall artifact at the Met was once housed in the Kankeswari Temple (Kanga-Ajima), a local shrine not far from the historic Durbar Square of Kathmandu. According to Mishra, the sculpture was likely stolen about 50 years ago; eventually, it was sold to a collector, who gave the artifact to the museum in 1995.
THE HEROINE WITH 1001 FACES

By Maria Tatar

In her introduction to The Heroine with 1001 Faces, Maria Tatar tells the story of a Sarah Lawrence student who marched into Joseph Campbells office and told the author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces that she had heard enough about the hero in his class on comparative mythology. What about the women? she asked the professor, whereupon Campbell explained that the women were the heros mother, his protectress and the prize at the end of his quest. What more did she want? I want to be the hero, his student replied.

The Heroine With 1001 Faces offers a response to that request  an erudite but frustratingly unfocused one. Campbell distilled the myths and legends of many cultures into a sequence of three stages, each with multiple steps, to form what he called the heros journey. Syncretism like this has a long history that includes the archetypes theory of Carl Jung and Sir James George Frazers The Golden Bough, but academic anthropology now frowns on its habit of bulldozing the particularities of specific cultures. Hollywood screenwriters feel differently, and have further boiled down Campbells formula to create a narrative template that has proved enormously successful, most famously in the Star Wars films. Tatar, a Harvard folklore scholar, is understandably troubled that such a pervasive blueprint for popular culture was first developed by a man who saw no role for women as protagonists of their own stories.

[ Read our profile of Maria Tatar.]

One solution is to simply send a female character on the same journey, but feminist critics have pointed out that through much of history, women have been barred from the exploits that legendary heroes typically engage in, such as traveling alone and combat. Why not expand our definition of the heroic to include a wider scope of virtues and strengths that can be tested by other challenges? Of these two strategies, its hard to say what Tatar chooses, as The Heroine With 1001 Faces wanders aimlessly over the vast territory she stakes out for it, ranging from the folklore of Western, Native American and Asian cultures to 19th-century novels, biography, movies and TV. The book is a treasure trove of examples in search of an argument. In the epilogue, when the reader hopes to find some synthesis of whats come before, Tatar is still introducing new material on a hodgepodge of subjects: Cassandra, cave paintings, the Inquisition, Florence Nightingale.
Congressional Democrats have been conducting an unusual kind of negotiation over the central piece of President Bidens agenda. As they try to write a bill that can pass both the House and the Senate, they are talking about removing some of the plans most popular provisions.

An overwhelming majority of Americans favor government action to reduce drug prices, but that policy may not be included in the final bill. Tax increases on the wealthy are also very popular, but it is unclear how many of them will make it, either. The same goes for a proposed expansion of Medicare to include dental, hearing and vision coverage.

It is even possible that the entire bill  which would expand pre-K, community college, Medicare, Medicaid, paid family leave, child tax credits, clean-energy programs and more, while significantly increasing taxes on people making more than $400,000  will fail. Yet polls have consistently showed it to be popular, more so than some past Democratic priorities, like Bill Clintons or Barack Obamas health care bills. And if this bill fails, Democrats are likely to enter next years midterm congressional elections looking divided and unable to govern.

Its still too early to be sure about any of this. Democratic leaders may find a way to keep their party unified enough to pass a major bill, despite their narrow control of Congress. If that happens, the squabbling of recent weeks may not matter much.
AT&T announced on Wednesday that it was extending its coronavirus vaccination requirement to tens of thousands of employees who are members of the Communications Workers of America union.

Unionized workers who enter work locations and client or customer sites, or who are temporarily working from home, must be fully vaccinated by Feb. 1 unless they qualify for an accommodation, the company said. AT&T did not provide details on the exemptions.

The company had previously required that most managers be vaccinated by Oct. 11.

AT&T held negotiations with the communications workers union over the new policy this month. A union official who was not authorized to discuss the details said the company had made a handful of concessions, including pushing back the vaccination deadline and granting employees who dont get vaccinated before the deadline an unpaid reconsideration period. But the union official said that the two sides had later reached an impasse and that the company had imposed the policy on its own.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the bargaining.

AT&T had about 230,000 employees as of Jan. 31, according to its most recent annual report, of which about 37 percent were unionized. It operates the only major wireless carrier that is heavily unionized. A large majority of unionized employees are represented by the communications workers union.
WASHINGTON  President Biden and his aides mounted an all-out effort on Wednesday to salvage Mr. Bidens economic agenda in Congress, attempting to forge even the beginnings of a compromise between moderates and progressives on a pair of bills that would spend trillions to rebuild infrastructure, expand access to education, fight climate change and more.

Mr. Biden canceled a scheduled trip to Chicago, where he was planning to promote Covid-19 vaccinations, in order to continue talking with lawmakers during a critical week of deadlines in the House. One crucial holdout vote in the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist from Arizona, was set to visit the White House on Wednesday morning, a person familiar with the meeting said.

Ms. Sinema was one of the Democratic champions of a bipartisan bill, brokered by Mr. Biden, to spend more than $1 trillion over the next several years on physical infrastructure like water pipes, roads, bridges, electric vehicle charging stations and broadband internet. That bill passed the Senate this summer. It is set for a vote this week in the House. But progressive Democrats have threatened to block it unless it is coupled with a more expansive bill that contains much of the rest of Mr. Bidens domestic agenda, like universal prekindergarten and free community college, a host of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tax breaks for workers and families that are meant to fight poverty and boost labor force participation.

Ms. Sinema and another centrist in the Senate, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, have expressed reservations over the scope of that larger bill and balked at the $3.5 trillion price tag that Democratic leaders have attached to it. Moderates in the House and Senate, led by Ms. Sinema, have resisted many of the tax increases on high earners and corporations that Mr. Biden proposed to offset the spending and tax cuts in the bill, in order to avoid adding further to the budget deficit.
Evergrande, the embattled Chinese real estate developer, said Wednesday that it was selling a stake it held in Shengjing Bank for about $1.5 billion, with the proceeds going toward paying down its debts.

A Chinese state-owned enterprise is buying the stake, worth around 20 percent in the commercial bank.

Evergrande, which has unpaid bills totaling more than $300 billion, missed an interest payment on a U.S. dollar bond last week. It had another $45 million payment on an international bond due Wednesday.

Evergrande has yet to address either payment publicly, and it has a 30-day grace period before a missed payment results in a default. Investors have been looking for signs that the Chinese government might step in to bail out the company.
United Airlines said it would terminate about 600 employees for refusing to comply with its vaccination requirement, putting the company at the forefront of the battle over vaccine mandates as the economy moves through a bumpy pandemic recovery.

The airline also said that 99 percent of its U.S. work force of 67,000 had been vaccinated, a sign that mandates can be an effective way for companies to prod their employees to get shots.

More large companies have announced vaccine requirements as the government puts increasing pressure on them to help the country increase its inoculation rate. This month, President Biden mandated that all businesses with 100 or more workers require their staff to be vaccinated or face weekly testing, helping propel new corporate vaccination policies.

Some companies are still trying to encourage their employees with a mix of incentives and deterrents, but many others have made vaccination compulsory as a condition of work. On Wednesday, AT&T said it was extending its vaccination requirement to tens of thousands of unionized employees.
These days, with climate change such a pressing issue, people often think its the main cause of animal and plant extinctions. Its true that it will play an increasingly devastating role. But for now, the biggest driver is simply people taking over or changing the habitats of wild animals on land and at sea.

That dynamic was on full display on Wednesday when federal officials announced a batch of new extinctions. In all, 22 animals and one plant should be declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list, they said.

It might be a glimpse of the future. The announcement comes amid a worsening global biodiversity crisis that threatens to make a million species vanish, many within decades.

I interviewed biologists, federal wildlife officials, activists and birders. Some choked up as we talked. Many hoped that these extinctions would serve as a lesson to humans. Please read the full article here.
Disasters never really make sense. Part of the brilliance of Damon Lindelofs HBO adaptation of Watchmen was its ability to recognize this, and weave the purposefully inane chaos of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbonss comic into ordinary human experience. In the original story line, half of New York City is killed by a giant squid, a plot point so sociopathically goofy that Zack Snyders 2009 movie replaced it with a tasteful explosion. But Lindelof followed through. What would the aftermath of that attack look like  the trauma, the fear, the desperate tourism campaign?

In the shows fifth episode, we see a focus group watching a proposed ad. We came back for all the hit Broadway shows! says a woman in front of a theater, Playbill in hand. We came back to hike through Central Park for hours and not see another soul, says a man in full hiking gear. Its so romantic! The dorky, tragedy-blind campaign contrasts with the terror everyone still carries about post-squid New York. One character, watching the focus group pretend-chuckle at a joke about calamari, looks ready to dash his head against the wall.

When this episode first aired, in 2019, it felt like a framework for grappling with 9/11. But by the time I first saw it, in the summer of 2020, the squid had become a metaphor for the coronavirus. And by June 2021, the New York Department of Economic Development had released an alarmingly similar ad. Slow pan over the skyline as Sinatras New York, New York trickles in. Central Park. A lingering shot of the Statue of Liberty at evening. Come back, the Watchmen ad begged. Come be a part of it, the real ad pleads.

The states $40 million blitz was paired with $30 million from the city, in what The Times called a Please Come Back campaign. The Broadway League threw in a $1.5 million sweetener with its This Is Broadway campaign. In one of its ads, Oprahs voice reassures viewers that its safe to return, as archival photos flood the screen, essentially asking: Dont you trust Lin-Manuel Miranda and the dancing sailors from that Cole Porter thing? In Times Square this month, there was a three-day extravaganza of panels and show-tune singalongs, with Miranda himself rushing out of the Richard Rodgers Theater to lead a surprise rendition of New York, New York.
As the knots in the plot are straightened out, the intricacies of spycraft recede in favor of a ponderous, familiar drama of sacrifice and revenge. The gloomy alpha villain (an ultra-gothy Rami Malek), who wants to wipe out much of humanity and is a mixture of curdled idealism and unhealed trauma, may remind you of Thanos in the final Avengers movies. And the overall vibe  a look that is both opulent and generic; a tone that mixes brisk professionalism with maundering self-pity; an aggressive, exhausting fusion of grandiosity and fun  is more superhero saga than espionage caper.

Still, you cant quite hate the player, even if you suspect he may be in the wrong kind of game. Bond, now officially retired from MI6, refers to himself tongue-in-cheekily as an old wreck, and unlike some of his predecessors, Craig makes no attempt to seem more youthful than he is. (Craig is 53. The character, conceived by Ian Fleming as a man who had seen action in World War II, must be somewhere around 100 by now.) Which is not to say that Craigs magnetism has dimmed or that his gym membership has lapsed.

An ideal man of the 21st century, his Bond has always had the hardest body and the softest heart. Casting aside the suave, playboy misogyny of the earlier incarnations, he grieves and pines and says I love you in several languages.

In French, for example, to Lea Seydoux. She plays Madeleine Swann, a possible femme fatale whose back story links her with the main bad guy, Maleks Lyutsifer. He takes a while to emerge, which gives the movie time to unravel an intricate skein of double-crosses and also to check in on some old friends and enemies. The specter of SPECTRE resurfaces, as does its erstwhile mastermind, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), and Bonds salty old C.I.A. pal, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemys enemy is my girlfriend. Or something like that. By the time that Billie Eilish song is over, James has split from Madeleine and settled into a quiet compound on a Caribbean island. But then a biological weapon is snatched from a London laboratory, and we are off and running, with a new set of cars and watches and smartly tailored suits.
All of a sudden, there were consequences, and consequences make a difference, said Dr. Sheldon Landesman, an infectious disease specialist and professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. Losing your job, losing your paycheck, thats a serious consequence. The economic reality erased holdouts fears that the vaccines were not safe and resentment that they could be required to take them, he said.

Opposition to the vaccine mandate persists, as it does in other states. At least eight lawsuits challenging it have been filed, some citing First Amendment objections and others claiming that the state should recognize immunity from prior infection as equivalent to vaccination. In several federal cases, health care workers demanding religious exemptions have won the right to keep working for now.

Still, it was clear that once-reluctant health care workers had changed their minds as the deadline approached. In the New York City public hospital system, more than 8,000 workers were unvaccinated a week ago. By Monday, the number had dropped to about 5,000  or just over 10 percent of the work force. City officials said they could manage the gaps and that the system would continue to function safely.

The number of unvaccinated employees at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx had also plummeted in the last few days. Dr. Eric Appelbaum, the chief medical officer, said some employees  anxious about getting a shot, for whatever reasons  had apparently ignored the mandate when it was announced last month.

But the deadline was impossible to ignore, he said. As recently as last Wednesday, more than 20 percent of the hospitals roughly 3,000 staff members had yet to get their first dose. By Tuesday, just 3 percent remained unvaccinated.
The Vatican investigation into both allegations cleared Bishop DiMarzio this month, but a lawyer for both accusers said on Wednesday that lawsuits they had filed against him would continue to work their way through the courts in New Jersey.

The retirement of Bishop DiMarzio will not prevent the two separate civil lawsuits against Bishop DiMarzio from proceeding, Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer, said in a statement.

The recent finding of the Vatican clearing Bishop DiMarzio of sexual abuse was the result of a biased investigation rendered by a self-serving Vatican court with a predetermined agenda, Mr. Garabedian added.

Bishop DiMarzio said on Wednesday that he did not expect Mr. Garabedian to drop his cases because I am retired, and that he believed the lawsuits will keep me in my retirement busy, I am sure.

Bishop Brennan declined at the news conference to address the civil suits against his predecessor but he said he had great confidence in the findings of the Vatican investigation.

The church paid an outside law firm, Herbert Smith Freehills, and a consulting group led by Louis Freeh, a former F.B.I. director, to conduct the investigation. The findings were then reviewed by the Vaticans powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which formulates church doctrine.

The church has been working hard over these 20 years to address the problems of the past, Bishop Brennan said. What do I say to those who still dont have trust? I would say very simply that I understand, that I am sorry, and that I hope as you look at what has been done and what we seek to continue to do that we can rebuild that trust.
When we talk about Tish, we are talking about someone who has a solid record of supporting the trade workers unions and the labor movement, he said. Kathy Hochul has made promises that she is a true blue supporter of workers, but we will see if thats true.

Carlo A. Scissura, the head of the New York Building Congress, said after a recent Zoom meeting with Ms. Hochul that many of the large construction and development firms his organization represents would be inclined to support her if she maintained her predecessors focus on large capital projects, like the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and Kennedy Airport in Queens.

If the commitment to all of these things continues, then I think shes got an opportunity to be a great governor, he said. If she chooses to remove projects or change projects, then people will start questioning where the priorities are.

Ms. Hochul is trying to force their hands, planning a fund-raising blitz in the weeks ahead, part of an intense schedule that has also been packed with public events.

Invitations have gone out for an October event hosted by the state and city chapters of the building and construction trades councils, with a minimum donation of $5,000 from a supporter and $25,000 from a friend.

Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying and public relations firm that has a large political practice, is planning another fund-raiser for Ms. Hochul in October. Tickets start at $15,000, and organizers are hopeful it will net a total in the six figures, according to people familiar with the planning. Other fund-raisers are in the works.

Earlier stops in August took Ms. Hochul to the Hamptons and to Buffalo, where she lives and where there was so much interest in the run-up to her swearing-in that organizers had to turn one fund-raiser into two: an invitation-only cocktail hour honoring her birthday that cost $2,500 to attend and a larger party at a picnic ground that drew hundreds paying $50 and up.
I am humbled and honored to return to my home state of New York to lead the Department of Health at this pivotal time, Dr. Bassett said in a statement.

Dr. Bassett was praised for her handling of the Ebola scare in 2014, as well as for steering the citys response to an outbreak of Legionnaires disease and to the threat of Zika. She was known for taking racial justice and social equity into consideration when setting the citys health policy, developing neighborhood health centers in an effort to better serve the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

But the health department also came under scrutiny during her tenure for its handling of lead paint inspections in New York Citys public housing system.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, she was one of the authors of an op-ed urging Mr. Cuomo, who was then governor, to release older and high-risk inmates, as well as those incarcerated for noncriminal parole violations and those nearing release, from the states jails and prisons.

This is not only an issue about the health of people in prisons, but also a public health crisis that threatens to become a humanitarian disaster, the op-ed warned.
Still, among those who spoke, several clear debates emerged that are likely to shape the implementation of congestion pricing.

Some say Manhattan residents should be exempt.

During the three meetings last week, speakers who favored a congestion pricing plan appeared to outnumber those who did not.

Still, even some supporters did so conditionally, arguing that certain exemptions be added.

Under the congestion pricing plan approved by the state legislature, vehicles entering the tolling zone would be charged once per day. Toll prices have not been set; those will be recommended later by a six-person board.

But Allison C. de Cerreno, the M.T.A.s deputy chief operating officer, has said at public meetings that rates were expected to range from $9 to $23 for passenger vehicles using the E-ZPass toll system, with possible discounts overnight or during off-peak hours. If there are more exemptions, officials said, the base rate would likely be higher.

Currently, emergency vehicles and those transporting people with disabilities are exempt from fees, as are vehicles that travel on the F.D.R. Drive or West Side Highway but do not exit onto city streets. Residents who live in the tolling zone and earn less than $60,000 would also qualify for a tax credit.

But at the hearings many argued that those exemptions and credits did not go far enough.

People who live within the tolling zone in Manhattan wanted an exemption, arguing that because they used their cars infrequently and only to make trips outside the tolling zone, they were not contributing to the congestion targeted by the tolling plan.

We dont feel that we should visit family on holidays outside the district, and have to pay what is basically a ransom to get home, said Howard Babich, who lives in Chelsea.
The Chamber of Commerce argues that a federal ban is unnecessary because noncompete clauses are already subject under antitrust law to rule of reason analysis, which requires courts to look at the facts to weigh the competitive effects of a contract against its anticompetitive effects. Where concerns go beyond antitrust, the chamber says, they should be judged by courts under contract law or left to state legislatures.

Shierholz and others say a ban is appropriate. Employers are adequately protected from rogue former employees by other provisions, such as trade secrets law, says Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the Open Markets Institute. If employers want to keep their employees from going to competitors, the best way to do that, Vaheesan says, is to treat workers well, offer regular promotions and raises, instead of locking them down through these one-sided contracts.

Contrary to Shierholz and Vaheesan, Russell Beck, a lawyer in Boston, says trade secrets law isnt a complete substitute for noncompete agreements because its very hard for an employer to know if an employee has taken information with them when they leave. And employees may not fully understand whats allowed and not allowed, says Beck, a founding partner of Beck Reed Riden, who has represented employees, former employers and new employers in noncompete cases.

In 2019, during the Trump administration, the Federal Trade Commission looked into adopting new rules against noncompete agreements, but the effort went nowhere. Its gearing up again now that Joe Biden is president and Lina Khan, a fierce enemy of monopoly, is chair of the Federal Trade Commission. In July Biden issued an executive order promoting competition in the American economy. It encouraged the commission to curtail the unfair use of noncompete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may unfairly limit worker mobility.

Its going to take awhile, though. Supporters of strong action, including people at the Open Markets Institute and the Economic Policy Institute, were hoping the F.T.C. would put out a rule for comment, building on its extensive data-gathering in 2019. Instead in August the commission merely began gathering fresh data with a docket inviting public comments on contract terms that may be harmful to fair competition.

California, North Dakota and Oklahoma have banned noncompete agreements since the 19th century. Beck, the lawyer in Boston, says that by his count, three-quarters of states have fiddled with their noncompete laws in recent years, most in the direction of restricting their use, though none going as far as joining the three states with bans.

In a little-noticed but important development, this year the Uniform Law Commission wrote a model law restricting noncompete agreements that state legislatures are free to enact. The law requires that employers give potential hires early notice of noncompete agreements and prohibits the agreements from being used with workers earning less than the average pay in a state. (A majority of workers earn less than the average pay because a small number of very highly paid people pull up the average.)
As New York pushes forward with some of the toughest and farthest-reaching vaccine mandates in the nation, thousands of health care workers in the state appear to be willing to be fired rather than get vaccinated.

So, too, do thousands of people who work in New York Citys public schools.

How sad that many of these vaccine holdouts are supported by their unions. Talk about a lack of solidarity.

For years, these unions defended the health and safety of their members. They fought for better wages and protected workers rights. They built the middle class. Now they are fighting state and city vaccine mandates aimed solely at keeping workers and communities safe and healthy. So much for the old union idea that an injury to one is an injury to all.

At least city and state government officials have the best interests of the public in mind, even if some in the labor movement have forgotten which side theyre on.
In sum, their research shows that

interventions can reduce both attitudinal and behavioral indicators of affective polarization without reducing anti-democratic attitudes. This calls into question the commonly-held assumption that anti-democratic attitudes are downstream consequences of affective polarization.

Cynthia Shih-Chia Wang, a professor of management and organization at Northwesterns Kellogg School of Management, agreed that the Broockman and Voelkel articles suggest that analysts

proceed with caution with the amount of weight we have placed on affective polarization  while disdain for the other side has risen, there certainly needs to be a deeper analysis of the downstream consequences of affective polarization.

But, she added, it may be a bit early to dismiss affective polarization as a predictor of anti-democratic attitudes and other potentially pernicious outcomes.

I asked Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth, about the Broockman and Voelkel articles, and he wrote back: These papers are very important. Though more research is needed, I am convinced that we have potentially overstated the causal role of affective polarization in many negative phenomena in American politics.

The Broockman and Voelkel papers suggest, Nyhan continued, that we should renew our scrutiny of the role of elites and political systems in fomenting illiberal behavior and that the problem is not affective polarization as such; its a political system that is failing to contain significant democratic erosion and illiberalism being driven by G.O.P. elites (though affective polarization may help encourage and enable such tactics).

Erik Peterson, a political scientist at Texas A&M University, elaborated in an email on the significance of the Broockman paper:

Broockman, Kalla and Westwoods paper convincingly shows a change in affective polarization does not immediately translate into some of the political repercussions researchers had previously suggested. Most importantly, they show those who move toward a more negative view of their political opponents do not become more partisan in their voting behavior or more accepting of cues from co-partisan politicians.

Peterson cautioned, however, that research he and Westwood performed for an October 2020 article, The Inseparability of Race and Partisanship in the United States, found that shifts in affective polarization do influence attitudes and behavior towards racial out-groups.

What this suggests, Peterson continued, is that affective polarization

could still have plenty of indirect consequences for politics. At present, the evidence seems to point toward affective polarization as most closely related to the intrusion of partisanship into social and interpersonal settings.

Asked what explains the continued belief by Republicans in false allegations of widespread voter fraud in 2020  if it isnt affective polarization  Peterson emailed to say that he thinks that

this is something that is best explained by Republicans taking cues from political leaders and partisan media expressing skepticism in election results. Even if affective polarization does not amplify this process, cues from co-partisan politicians are still an important part of how people form their opinions about politics.

Mina Cikara, a professor of psychology at Harvard, replied to my inquiry by pointing out that there was reason to doubt some of the claimed consequences of affective polarization before the publication of the Broockman and Voelkel work:

Im not surprised that reducing affective polarization leaves anti-democratic preferences unaffected. The first piece of evidence is that we frequently see equivalent degrees of out-party dislike on both sides, but theres only one party seeking to curb voting access and throw out election results. The second piece of the puzzle is that far more people dislike the other side than say they would take up arms against them. This suggests that while out-party dislike may be necessary for, for example, support for violence, it is clearly not sufficient. Other factors are doing the heavy lifting in correlating with support for and engagement in political violence, so we should be working to characterize and intervene on those.

The publication in May 2019 of a seminal essay in the Annual Review of Political Science, The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States, by Shanto Iyengar of Stanford, Lelkes, Matthew Levendusky of the University of Pennsylvania, Neil Malhotra of Stanford and Westwood, reflects the prominence of the theory of affective polarization before the release of the Broockman and Voelkel papers.

Iyengar and his colleagues wrote:

While previously polarization was primarily seen only in issue-based terms, a new type of division has emerged in the mass public in recent years: Ordinary Americans increasingly dislike and distrust those from the other party. Democrats and Republicans both say that the other partys members are hypocritical, selfish, and closed-minded, and they are unwilling to socialize across party lines. This phenomenon of animosity between the parties is known as affective polarization.

Most recently, the issue of polarization and violence has become particularly salient. On Sept. 15, Westwood, along with Justin Grimmer of Stanford, Matthew Tyler of Stanford and Clayton Nall of the University of California-Santa Barbara, published an essay, American Support for Political Violence Is Low, arguing that claims by sociologists and political science of a growing threat of political violence are exaggerated.

They write:

Political scientists, pundits, and citizens worry that America is entering a new period of violent partisan conflict. Provocative survey data show that up to 44 percent of the public support politically motivated violence in hypothetical scenarios.

Careful examination of the data on which these claims are based, however, shows that

depending on how the question is asked, existing estimates of support for partisan violence are 30-900 percent too large, and nearly all respondents support charging suspects who commit acts of political violence with a crime. These findings suggest that although recent acts of political violence dominate the news, they do not portend a new era of violent conflict.

Insofar as there is a relatively small constituency that supports violence, the authors contend that this support is not directly linked to politics:

Our results are robust to several other predicted causes of political violence. We find that several standard political measures, i.e., affective polarization and political engagement, are less predictive of support for political violence than are general measures of aggression, suggesting that tolerance for violence is a general human preference and not a specifically political preference.

I asked Westwood and Broockman about what they think the cause of our political dysfunction is if, as they say, affective polarization is not the cause.
Improved disclosure requirements are helping to expose conflicts of interest, but they are only serving to highlight the inadequate, inconsistent and poorly enforced state of current law.

When caught, officials tend to insist that the conflicts are unwitting.

R. Brooke Jackson, a federal judge in Colorado who oversaw 36 cases involving companies in which he and his wife happened to hold shares, told The Journal he doesnt pay attention to his investments. I have preferred to stay unknowledgeable, he said.

Ms. Loeffler, one of the wealthiest people ever to serve in the Senate, similarly insisted that the trades were made without our input, direction or knowledge.

Given that the alternative is confessing to malfeasance, the emphasis on ignorance is not surprising. It may even be true. But thats not nearly good enough.

One of the Fed officials who is resigning, Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, bought shares of Apple stock while the Fed was buying the companys bonds as part of its wide-ranging campaign to prop up financial markets. Mr. Kaplan says that he didnt break any rules and that hes stepping down because the public uproar is a distraction from the Feds mission. But the point is that Fed officials shouldnt be allowed to engage in this kind of distraction. If Mr. Kaplan didnt break any laws, thats only because the laws are far too accommodating.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the Democrat who heads the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the Fed, said this week that he planned to introduce legislation barring senior Fed officials from owning shares of stock in individual companies.

That ban should apply to Mr. Brown and his colleagues, too. It should apply to judges. It should apply to the executive branch. There is no good reason to let public officials trade securities. Indeed, such a law might have financial benefits for honest public officials. Putting money into an index fund is generally a better investment than buying individual assets  unless, of course, one is trading on the basis of insider information.
Michigan

In 2018, over 60 percent of voters amended the state Constitution after nearly a decade in which Democratic State House candidates regularly won more votes but Republicans always won more seats. Jeff Timmer, the Republican mapmaker who was involved in drawing those lines, later apologized for the extremism his work helped unleash.

Voters wanted partisans out of the room  but they have still found a way in. When it came time to hire a litigation counsel, the redistricting commission ended up with a firm, BakerHostetler, that has a history of defending extreme partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It will not draw the maps (and it said that Republican clients would not influence its defense of the commissions work). Still, the commissions draft congressional maps suggest a strong Republican bias. On Twitter, Mr. Timmer wrote that he wouldnt have dared make public something this gerrymandered. I know, because I drew maps this gerrymandered and we buried them in a drawer.

Virginia (and Colorado)

The presence of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Virginias redistricting commission mired early meetings in so much bitter partisanship that they could not agree to hire a single law firm or mapmaker  so they went for two, one for each party. (A potential compromise map has been recently proposed.)

I think this is not what citizens voted for when we started this process, said Greta Harris, a commission co-chair. Last week, a Princeton Gerrymandering Project analysis showed that maps drawn by both parties would reduce the number of districts where minority voters could sway the election.

There are similar concerns in Colorado, where earlier this month the Campaign Legal Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens asked the commission to rethink a congressional map they suggested would aid Republicans and dilute Latino votes by splitting them across three districts.

Democrats arent entirely immune to these games in the states where they might be able to control the process. In New York, with full party control in Albany, Democrats have reportedly been tempted to scrap the work of the states independent redistricting commission and draw their own deeply gerrymandered congressional map.

Part of the problem is that theres too much riding on these lines. Republicans need to flip just five seats to regain control of Congress. With few remaining swing seats, both parties will look to make gains any way they can.
Tax-time voter registration would build on the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which brought easy registration to departments of motor vehicles and other government agencies across the country. Taxes are filed annually, far more frequently than most peoples trips to the D.M.V. About 90 percent of the U.S. population appears on an income tax return each year, and 99.5 percent of us are estimated to appear on at least one federal tax document (like a W2 or a 1099), which is higher than the declining fraction of Americans who hold drivers licenses. The tax system has played a vital role in Covid relief delivery precisely because few agencies can match the reach of the Internal Revenue Service.

Yes, adding voter registration to the tax filing process would represent a substantial increase in responsibility for the I.R.S. But there are precedents for the I.R.S. assisting tax filers in participating in important civic endeavors. In 1972, 1975 and 1980, Form 1040 included questions on behalf of the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, Form 1040 still has a check box allowing tax filers to donate three dollars to public campaign finance via the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. As Congress considers adding $80 billion to the I.R.S. budget, it should not overlook the full potential of tax filing to help shore up our democracy.

Voter registration at tax filing would also conform to President Bidens mandate for new federal action to promote voter registration and turnout. Mr. Bidens Executive Order 14019 calls upon the heads of each federal agency to produce a comprehensive plan for how they can provide access to voter registration services and vote-by-mail ballot applications in the course of activities or services that directly engage with the public.

For the I.R.S. to collect voter registration information and work with the states to update the voter rolls would require legislative action. But there are still immediate steps that can be taken. Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, and Charles Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, can mandate that voter registration services be provided at the nonprofit Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites that work with the I.R.S. to provide free tax preparation to over one million households a year.

We already know that a program like this would reach underrepresented voters. In an experiment one of us conducted in 2018, tax filers at five sites in Dallas and Cleveland were offered voter registration forms. The participants were predominantly Black and Hispanic tax filers with an average household income of less than $30,000. The program doubled the likelihood that an unregistered person would get onto the voter rolls.
This summer, Bahar Jalali watched anxiously as the United States withdrew its military from Afghanistan and the Taliban began to reassert control over the country. Women were told to stay home and to cover themselves  an early indicator that other rights, protections and services for women would soon be eliminated, including, this week, the right to attend Kabul University.

Ms. Jalali, a visiting associate professor at Loyola University Maryland, is a member of the Afghan diaspora  born in Kabul, raised in the United States, but connected still to her home country, where she returned in 2009 to teach at the American University of Afghanistan. She left again in 2016 after surviving a violent attack at the university by the Taliban.

When reports surfaced this summer that, with the Taliban takeover, Afghan women were shredding their education degrees and that safe houses for women were closing their doors, she was distraught.

Then, on Sept. 11, she saw images of hundreds of women in Kabul wearing all black in full veils and long robes in a pro-Taliban demonstration. (The timing of the demonstration  on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks  along with the presence of Taliban fighters and official Taliban statements released afterward suggest that the demonstration was organized by the Taliban.)
There are times when words feel inadequate  when ones dread, shame, exhaustion or discomfort seems too immense to be captured in written language.

Thats where the melting face emoji comes in.

The face, fixed with a content half-smile even as it dissolves into a puddle, is one of 37 new emojis approved this year by the Unicode Consortium, the organization that maintains the standards for digital text. Other emojis that made the cut include saluting face, dotted line face and a disco ball.

These new emojis will roll out over the course of the next year. But already the melting face has found fans on social media, who see it as a clear representation of the coronavirus pandemics vast psychological toll.

This melting smiley face is quite the pandemic mood, one Twitter user said.

Others viewed the new emoji as a visual proxy for climate anxiety. Something tells me that in this climate change apocalypse era, were going to be using the new melting face emoji a lot, another user wrote.
In Brooklyn, Emily Fischer, 41, the founder of the design studio Haptic Lab, collaborates with Balinese artisans to craft whimsical airborne objects made from colored ripstop nylon and bamboo that she describes as Trojan horses: Fashioned after everything from ghost ships to broad-winged cranes, her kites comment on issues such as gender inequality and the climate crisis. The Flying Martha, for example, is a windup flying bird, or ornithopter, that can also be used as a kite and was designed to match the exact dimensions of the passenger pigeon, a once endemic species in North America that was hunted to extinction by 1914.

And in Ossining, N.Y., the Colorado-born visual artist Jacob Hashimoto, 48, makes massive installations from dozens of hand-assembled, palm-size kites; the finished works, which hang from the ceiling of his studio or gallery, resemble three-dimensional paintings. He inherited his interest in kite making from his father, whose own father taught him the techniques hed learned as a boy in Japan, and today the artist draws inspiration from a range of different traditions, but especially from the history of the circular kite, which likely originated in Weifang, China. For Hashimoto, who is one of the few kite artists to have broken into the mainstream art world, practicing this craft is a way to honor his heritage and cross-cultural upbringing. To look at his works, such as The Eclipse (2017), which comprises roughly 16,000 black-and-white disk-like kites that form a swooping cloud evoking the texture of a birds wing, is to feel momentarily surrounded by a flock of fluttering creatures or swept up by some collective, greater upward motion. That kite making is one of the most pan-cultural practices out there makes it a beautiful, democratic thing, Hashimoto says. In many ways, its a global property  we all own the relationship between us and the sky. I think, in some sense, its only a matter of time before more people start tapping into that. His work is a reminder that, especially after a period when so many people were forced to stay rooted in place, kites offer us a means to defy gravity. In the hands of a willing flier, they give us a way up  and out.
It looked like a calculator app. But it was actually spyware recording my every keystroke  the type of data that would give a stalker unfettered access to my private life.

Thats what I concluded after downloading the free app Flash Keylogger onto an Android smartphone this week. The app described itself as a tool to monitor the online activities of family members by logging what they type. Once it was installed from Googles official app store, its icon could be changed to that of a calculator or calendar app. In my tests, the app documented all of my typing, including web searches, text messages and emails.

Flash Keylogger is part of a rapidly expanding group of apps known as stalkerware. While these apps numbered in the hundreds a few years ago, they have since grown into the thousands. They are widely available on Googles Play Store and to a lesser degree on Apples App Store, often with innocuous names like MobileTool, Agent and Cerberus. And they have become such a tool for digital domestic abuse that Apple and Google have started in the last year acknowledging that the apps are an issue.

From last September to May, the number of devices infected with stalkerware jumped 63 percent, according to a study by the security firm NortonLifeLock. This month, the Federal Trade Commission said it had barred one app maker, Support King, from offering SpyFone, a piece of stalkerware that gains access to a victims location, photos and messages. It was the first ban of its kind.
YouTube said on Wednesday that it was banning the accounts of several prominent anti-vaccine activists from its platform, including those of Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as part of an effort to remove all content that falsely claims that approved vaccines are dangerous.

In a blog post, YouTube said it would remove videos claiming that vaccines do not reduce rates of transmission or contraction of disease, and content that includes misinformation on the makeup of the vaccines. Claims that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that the vaccines contain trackers, will also be removed.

The platform, which is owned by Google, has had a similar ban on misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines. But the new policy expands the rules to misleading claims about long-approved vaccines, such as those against measles and hepatitis B, as well as to falsehoods about vaccines in general, YouTube said. Personal testimonies relating to vaccines, content about vaccine policies and new vaccine trials, and historical videos about vaccine successes or failures will be allowed to remain on the site.

Todays policy update is an important step to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and well continue to invest across the board in policies that bring its users high-quality information, the company said in its announcement.
If youre a theater company that sets as its mission creating a more equitable community, then you want to bring people along, Martin Miller, the theaters executive told me. He had found me on the cafes patio, in early September, demolishing some local goat cheese. Id come to northwest Arkansas for a few days of table work and rehearsal because I had wanted to see if an 80s sensation, a sensation I had loved as a kid, still had anything to say to a 2020s audience. And, if Im honest, I wanted to know just what this sensation was doing in Fayetteville.

In Designing Women  the theatrical version  the diversity centers on the class backgrounds of its characters, their religious beliefs, their voting patterns, as the TV one had. Set in the very recent past, the script eavesdrops on the women and a few new characters as they contend with the pandemic, the possible financial collapse of their firm and the 2020 presidential election. It is no spoiler to say that the women ultimately triumph, bridging their differences stylishly. The creators and producers hope that it will encourage audiences across the political spectrum to build some bridges, too.

We just need to look at each other with more grace and more love, thats what Im gathering from this play, Carmen Cusack, the Tony-nominated actress who plays Julia in the theatrical version, said. At the end of the day, whats most important is just appreciating that were all in this together.

The original Designing Women wore the skirt suits and heels of a workplace comedy. But the workplace occupied Julias living room, so it was a domestic comedy, too. Part of a late 80s boom in women-centered shows that included Roseanne and Murphy Brown, it wrestled  sometimes explicitly, sometimes obliquely, often in heels  with the feminist discourse of the day.

Joan Williams, the director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, described the series as a helpful fiction suggesting that women could have both careers and families without apparent conflict. It opened a fantasy, a conceptual space, an idealized image that it was going to be possible for women to be very successful professionals and very successful mothers, Williams said.

The fantasy largely favored an empowerment agenda, implying that if a woman just tugged on her big-girl panties and stood up tall in them, she could bend the world to her will. But episodes also exposed systemic problems  sexual harassment, violent pornography  without offering easy answers.
We knew we would not get the vaccines as quickly as America and Europe, said George Gituku, the owner of Sandrage Safaris in Kenya, so under the circumstances we are thankful that we have some business.

In 2019, Kenya received more than two million international visitors, a record number and a nearly 4 percent increase from the year before. In 2020, overseas arrivals plummeted by 71.5 percent to 579,600, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Between January and June this year, the country welcomed just over 300,000 travelers, the state-run Tourism Research Institute reported.

Since June, Sandrage Safaris in Nairobi has received about 30 guests a month, a significant drop from the 100 guests they were averaging in the 2019 high season. Most of the visitors were Americans who were feeling optimistic after getting vaccinated, Mr. Gituku said, but Kenyas low vaccination rate  currently just over 3 percent of the population  has caused many of his clients to postpone.

We are learning to live with this virus, and we are constantly adapting our protocols to ensure our guests have a comfortable and safe experience, Mr. Gituku said. So far, everyone has had a great time, the migration has been amazing this year, there have been so many animals to see, and thankfully no one tested positive for Covid when they got back.

Kathy Freedman, a retired architect from Boston, said she felt safer on her recent 10-day safari with her husband in the Masai Mara than she did on a hiking vacation an hour away from her house, where she stayed in a hotel full of guests who, she said, were not wearing masks or social distancing.

Our kids were so worried about us traveling so far to Kenya, but Covid is worse at home than most places, Ms. Freedman said. We chose the best time to do a safari when there were no crowds. It was just us and our guide out in the wild with the animals.

Safari workers are hoping that when their clients go back and share their positive experiences with friends and family, it will encourage more people to book trips. Many companies are paying their employees daily rates based on bookings they receive, which, workers say, is not enough for them to pay their bills and the debt they accumulated last year.
The widespread attention surrounding the case of Gabrielle Petito helped the authorities find a body believed to be a man who had been missing since last month, in the same national forest in Wyoming where Ms. Petitos remains were discovered, officials said.

Search teams on Tuesday found the body of a man fitting the description of Robert Lowery in Teton Pass, a heavily forested area in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, according to Teton County Search and Rescue. The area is about 17 miles from where Ms. Petitos remains were found on Sept. 19.

Mr. Lowery, 46, from Houston, was last seen on Aug. 20. A cause of death is under investigation, officials said.
Californias mandates

California is once again at the forefront of the pandemic conversation.

Los Angeles is considering a sweeping law that would make people show proof of vaccination to enter indoor public places like gyms, shops, restaurants, movie theaters and museums.

The new order would be one of the most stringent laws in the U.S. The move comes as California became the state with the lowest per capita infection rate in the nation.

To catch us up on the virus situation in the state, we spoke to Soumya Karlamangla, who writes the California Today newsletter.

What was the summer like in California?

On June 15, when everything opened up, it felt like people were nervous. But a lot of people were also really ready to do things they hadnt done in a year and a half. It felt like everyone I knew in California, from people my age, to my parents and others, were out there living life and feeling good about the vaccines. Then Delta came and it kind of shifted. When the case numbers started going up there was this creeping dread, and youre asking people like, Where have you gone? How many people are we going to have indoors?
Greyhound Lines will pay $2.2 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by Washington State that accused it of allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to conduct warrantless immigration sweeps on its buses, state officials said this week.

Washington States attorney general said the settlement would be used to provide restitution to passengers who were detained, arrested or deported after immigration agents boarded their buses at the Spokane Intermodal Center, and for partial reimbursement of his offices litigation costs.

Greyhound failed to warn customers of the sweeps, misrepresented its role in allowing the sweeps to occur and subjected its passengers to discrimination based on race, skin color or national origin, according to the attorney general, Bob Ferguson.

Mr. Fergusons office estimates that since 2013, as many as 57,000 passengers may have been on buses that were boarded by immigration agents at the Spokane Intermodal Center. The office said that about 250 of those passengers might have been detained.
PHOENIX  Jade Duran once spent her weekends knocking on doors to campaign for Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the stubbornly centrist Democrat whose vote could seal the fate of a vast Democratic effort to remake Americas social safety net. But no more.

When Ms. Sinema famously gave a thumbs down to a $15 minimum wage and refused to eliminate the filibuster to pass new voting rights laws this year, Ms. Duran, a Democrat and biomedical engineer from Phoenix, decided she was fed up. She joined dozens of liberal voters and civil rights activists in a rolling series of protests outside Ms. Sinemas Phoenix offices, which have been taking place since the summer. Nearly 50 people have been arrested.

It really feels like she does not care about her voters, said Ms. Duran, 33, who was arrested in July at a protest. I will never vote for her again.

Ms. Sinema, a onetime school social worker and Green Party-aligned activist, vaulted through the ranks of Arizona politics by running as a zealous bipartisan willing to break with her fellow Democrats. She counts John McCain, the Republican senator who died in 2018, as a hero, and has found support from independent voters and moderate suburban women in a state where Maverick is practically its own party.
Let me be clear that I support the presidents decision to end the war in Afghanistan. I did not support staying in Afghanistan forever. And let me also say weve talked about the process that we use to provide input to the president. I think that process was a very thorough and inclusive policy process. I will always keep my recommendations to the president confidential. But I would say that in my view, there is no was no risk-free status quo option. I think that the Taliban had been clear that if we stayed there longer, they were going to recommence attacks on our forces. I think, while we  its conceivable that you could stay there, my view is that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any missions that we would have been assigned. My assessment is this is a 20-year war, and it wasnt lost in the last, you know, 20 days or even 20 months, for that matter. Theres a cumulative effect to a series of strategic decisions that go way back. You know, Bin Laden, right on the Tora Bora, for example, we knew where he was, we were 1,000 meters away, could have ended it, perhaps right there. I dont think that whenever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost, and it has been in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly, the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted. So whenever a phenomena like that happens, is an awful lot of causal factors, and were going to have to figure that out. A lot of lessons learned here. I think the Doha Agreement and the signing of the Doha Agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military, psychological more than anything else. But we set a date certain for when we were going to leave, and when they could expect all assistance to end. The other point would be it has been my position and my judgment that if we went below an advisory level of 2,500, I believe that the government of Afghanistan would likely collapse and that the military would follow, and one might go before the other. But I believe that was going to be the inevitable result of drawing down to zero.
Were working to keep that number as low as we possibly can, he said.

A few House Republicans who are members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have announced their support for the measure, including Representatives Tom Reed of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Don Bacon of Nebraska.

On Monday, Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska and the longest-serving member of the House, announced his support with an impassioned speech on the House floor.

Another member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Representative John Katko, Republican of New York, said on Wednesday that he, too, would vote for the bill.

To me, its inherently bipartisan, its good policy, and we should all vote for it, he said.

But so far, such declarations are few. On Wednesday, Third Way, a centrist Democratic group with corporate backing, released a testy letter its president had written to 26 Republican Problem Solvers demanding they live up to their name.

You have run for office and raised campaign funds on the promise that you are there to solve the nations problems and put country over party, wrote Third Ways president, Jonathan Cowan. Anything other than declaring your support now and voting for the bill, in turn, would signal clearly to your constituents that you support nothing more than faux bipartisanship.

Representative Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat who is part of the Problem Solvers Caucus, has pressured her leadership to trim back the social policy bill. She was fuming on Wednesday over how the Republicans in the caucus were not similarly bucking their leaders. Asked about where those Republicans were on the bill, she responded, That is an excellent question.

Moderate Democrats say as many as 20 Republican votes could materialize if Ms. Pelosi can win over enough liberals to keep it close. But Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a leader of the effort to keep liberals from voting for the bill, said Wednesday that would not happen.
In Missouri, some school officials have been making twice-weekly runs to Sams Club to stock up on frozen pizzas and hot dogs. In Kansas, a district ran out of vegetables twice last month. And in St. Paul, Minn., one district has an emergency supply of frozen grilled cheese sandwiches.

The pandemic is mostly to blame.

Widespread labor shortages have rocked food distributors and manufacturers, and there arent enough workers to pull products from warehouses, staff assembly lines or drive trucks.

As a result, good food and even plastic cutlery are harder to find. According to a recent survey, 97 percent of directors of school meal programs reported having concerns about supply-chain disruptions.

Ive never seen the supply chain in this much chaos, and Ive been doing this for 30 years, said Michael Rosenberger, the executive director for food and child nutrition services in Dallas.

The district, which normally has about a months worth of cutlery stocked, is now down to a nine-day supply. So on Tuesdays, all lunches consist solely of finger foods: carrot sticks and apple slices instead of tossed salad and apple sauce; chicken tenders instead of spaghetti and meatballs.
TUNIS  Tunisias president appointed a new prime minister on Wednesday amid growing criticism that he has embarked on one-man rule in the Arab Springs sole remaining democracy.

The newly named head of government, Najla Bouden Romdhan, believed to be the Arab worlds first woman prime minister, is a former geology professor and current director-general at the Ministry of Higher Education. She runs a World Bank-financed program designed to support the modernization of the countrys higher education system.

Her appointment came more than two months after the president, Kais Saied, suspended Parliament, fired the prime minister and seized power in what opponents called a coup.

He went further last week, declaring that he alone would have the authority to write legislation, enact political reforms, propose constitutional amendments and suspend parts of the Constitution.
ARZO, Afghanistan  When Muhammad Akram Sharifi returned to the village he was forced to flee over a year ago, he was devastated. The mosque, the school and the shops in the bazaar were all in ruins. So was his house.

My children, my grandchildren  22 people used to live here, Mr. Sharifi said last week. And now it is all reduced to rubble. My pockets are empty. What will we do?

It is impossible to say how much ammunition was spent in the fight between the Taliban and the Afghan government over the village, Arzo. It is just a dusty settlement of about 300 houses perched on a rolling hill. But it is also a strategic entry point into Ghazni city, a prize in the long war in Afghanistan.

Bullet holes and caved-in structures are visible at every turn. The destruction is everywhere, seemingly frozen in time.
On the pandemic, Mr. Kishida may initially escape some of the pressures that felled Mr. Suga, as the vaccine rollout has gathered momentum and close to 60 percent of the public is now inoculated. But Mr. Kishida has offered few concrete policies to address other issues like aging, population decline or climate change.

In a magazine questionnaire, he said that he needed scientific verification that human activities were causing global warming, saying, I think thats the case to some extent.

Given the enduring power of the right flank of the Liberal Democratic Party, despite its minority standing in the party, Mr. Kishida closed what daylight he had with these power brokers during the campaign.

He had previously gained a reputation as being more dovish than the influential right wing led by Mr. Abe, but during the leadership race, he expressed a hawkish stance toward China. As a parliamentary representative from Hiroshima, Mr. Kishida has opposed nuclear weapons, but he has made clear his support for restarting Japans nuclear power plants, which have been idled since the triple meltdown in Fukushima 10 years ago.

And he toned down his support for overhauling a law requiring married couples to share a surname for legal purposes and declared that he would not endorse same-sex marriage, going against public sentiment but hewing to the views of the partys conservative elite.

I think Kishida knows how he won, and it was not by appealing to the general public, it was not by running as a liberal, but courting support to his right, said Tobias Harris, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington. So what thats going to mean for the composition of his cabinet and his priorities, and what his partys platform ends up looking like, means he could end up being pulled in a few different directions.
The Daintree Rainforest in Australia  a world-famous travel destination and, at an estimated 180 million years old, one of the worlds oldest forests  was one of four national parks returned to their traditional owners on Wednesday under an agreement signed with the Queensland state government.

Nearly 400,000 acres of land in northeast Australia, consisting of dense forests, sprawling mountain ranges and white sand beaches, was handed back to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people, believed to have lived in the area for more than 50,000 years.

The Eastern Kuku Yalanji peoples culture is one of the worlds oldest living cultures and this agreement recognizes their right to own and manage their country, to protect their culture and to share it with visitors as they become leaders in the tourism industry, Meaghan Scanlon, the Queensland environment minister, said in a statement.

In addition to Daintree, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Ngalba-bulal, Kalkajaka and the Hope Islands National Parks will be managed together by the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people and Queensland government. The government said in a statement that the parks would eventually be solely and wholly managed by the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.
Justice is served, Ms. Obono, who represents Paris in the lower house of Parliament, said on Twitter. We are here, we are here to stay, and we wont leave. And in the end, we will win.

The publication of the article came as France is having a growing and often difficult reckoning with its colonial and slave-trading past. Many say that painful history is too often ignored; figures on the right and far-right complain that it is too often exaggerated.

The article by Valeurs Actuelles, published last August, was part of a series of short narratives, written by an anonymous author, that depicted contemporary political figures in earlier historical periods.

The narrative about Ms. Obono, set in the 18th century, placed her in a small village in present-day Chad, where it said she was initially delighted to reconnect with her roots before growing disillusioned by the villages patriarchal order. The narrative continued by portraying her as captured and falling into the inter-African slave trade, before being bought by a French cleric who frees her and takes her to a monastery in France to recover from the experience.
Ten days into a volcanic eruption on the Spanish island of La Palma, a pyramidlike structure formed on Wednesday just off its coast as lava started pouring into the ocean.

The local authorities called on residents on Wednesday morning to keep their windows shut because a mix of toxic gases and small particles may be released when molten lava comes into contact with cold water. Scientists have also been warning that the chemical reactions between lava and water could cause powerful underwater explosions.

The lava entering the water should be treated as a very dangerous moment, said Angel Victor Torres, the regional leader of the Canary Islands, an island grouping off northwestern Africa that includes La Palma.
LONDON  Sarah Everard was walking home after visiting a friend in her south London neighborhood when a police officer stopped her. He waved her toward his car, pulled out his police identification card and swiftly handcuffed her.

It was the middle of a national coronavirus lockdown in March, and the police were charged with enforcing restrictions on movement. The young woman, according to a video of the encounter, did not argue. She got in the car and the officer drove off.

Seven days later, her charred remains were found stuffed in green trash bags in the woods some 60 miles away.

The crime horrified Britain. For any woman who has looked over her shoulder walking home alone, it struck a raw nerve. And even before it was revealed that the killer was a police officer, it raised profound questions about how the authorities handle incidents of violence against women and galvanized a national movement demanding better protections.
Sundays election in Germany ended in victory for the countrys Social Democratic Party and its candidate, Olaf Scholz. It was a remarkable comeback for a center-left party, which like many of its counterparts across Europe has been bleeding support at the ballot box for the past decade or more.

So the question immediately arises whether Mr. Scholzs victory in Germany may be a harbinger of revival more broadly for the center-left parties that were once mainstays of the continents politics.

Inside Germany, Mr. Scholz is preparing for negotiations to form a left-leaning coalition government with the Greens and the libertarian Free Democrats. After his centrist campaign, just how left-leaning remains an open question. And nothing is guaranteed: His conservative rival, who lost by just 1.6 percentage points, has not conceded and also wants to try to form a coalition.

Though the results have thrown Mr. Scholzs conservative opponents into disarray, the landscape for the center left also remains challenging. Elsewhere in Europe, many center-left parties have watched their share of votes erode as their traditional base among unionized, industrial workers disappears and as political blocs splinter into an array of smaller parties.
As news of the conference spread, the Iraqi government and authorities in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar Province issued arrest warrants for at least six Iraqis they said were involved in the conference, though one warrant was later withdrawn. Other attendees were dismissed from their government jobs.

At several checkpoints between Baghdad and Anbar province, militia fighters erected huge banners with the faces of those on the arrest warrants, declaring them guilty of treason.

The main speaker at the conference, Sheikh Wissam al-Hardan, from Anbar, is now under Kurdish protection along with other conference attendees facing threats. But the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is semiautonomous from Baghdad, is also under threat.

The region, which broke away from Iraqi government control with U.S. help three decades ago, has faced increasing attacks, including drone strikes, linked to Iranian-backed militias because of a U.S. military base in Erbil.

We will not delay in burning all the traitors locations with smart missiles and drones, a group called Guardians of the Blood Brigade, which has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Erbil, warned after the conference.

In his keynote speech to the conference, Sheikh Wissam described the expulsion of Iraqi Jews after the creation of Israel in 1948 as a major tragedy and said Iraq should recognize Israel, as the United Arab Emirates and several other Arab countries did last year. He warned against Iraq becoming like Lebanon, which he said had been swallowed whole by a militia  a reference to Hezbollah, backed by Iran.

After the speech, Sheikh Wissam, who was wounded fighting ISIS, was dismissed from the leadership of the Sunni Awakening movement, a collection of tribal forces that fought with the United States against Al Qaeda and later took on ISIS The sheikh said he was deceived by the conference organizers and did not write the speech that he gave.
They all spoke about unity, shared values and the common enemies Covid-19 and climate change. But in speeches this past week by dozens of leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, many simply talked past each other when it came to the many regional conflicts percolating around the world.

Intransigence, and sometimes even hardened positions, permeated the words from antagonists in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe. And that doesnt include any words that might have been spoken by government envoys from Afghanistan and Myanmar, who did not even address the gathering because of disputes over who should rightfully speak for those conflict-ridden countries.

While the General Assembly has always been a forum for venting grievances, analysts who monitor the speeches saw fewer hints of compromise this year. Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting organization, said the stubbornness appeared to reflect a sense of greater impunity among rogue actors given less coordinated engagement and leadership from the United States and allies.
As Hurricane Ida brought torrential rains into the Northeast, flash floods overwhelmed cars, trapped passengers and caused people to drown.

In the aftermath of the storm, emergency rescue workers and safety experts are urging people to learn how to stay safe in dangerous storms.

Their advice starts with a warning: Do not try to cross a flooded road. Most vehicles, from tiny sedans to large trucks, will be swept away in just one to two feet of water.

But during flash flooding, many drivers do not realize the danger at crossings.

It is difficult to determine a precise number of accidental drownings in cars because vehicle fatalities are classified differently from region to region, said Gordon Giesbrecht, a professor at the University of Manitoba who has studied drownings and human responses to extreme environments. But he estimated that about 350 to 400 people a year drown in their cars in the United States and Canada after their vehicle falls into a body of water or becomes stranded in flooding.
SEOUL  During a party congress meeting in January, Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, offered an unusually detailed list of weapons that he said his country was developing to help counter foreign aggression.

Mr. Kim has spent much of the year putting some of those new weapons on display.

North Korea has conducted six missile tests since the congress, violating multiple United Nations resolutions that ban the country from developing ballistic missiles. This week the North said it had test-launched what it called its first hypersonic missile. The new weapon, the Hwasong-8, was a ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic gliding warhead designed to detach midair.

The South Korean military said that the Hwasong-8 was in an early stage of development, indicating that North Korea was still years away from joining elite military powers like the United States and Russia. But the test was the latest signal that North Korea was developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads that would be easier to hide and harder to intercept.

President Biden has warned of responses if North Korea continued to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but has not imposed fresh sanctions, even as the country routinely violates the U.N. resolutions. The United States has tried both sanctions and dialogue to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Neither has worked.
When the Taliban reformed as an insurgency, Mr. Baradar was Mullah Omars principal deputy, and he led the movements military operations. He oversaw a sharp escalation of the insurgency in 2006 but was also engaged in secret consultations with the emissaries of President Hamid Karzai and international assistance organizations.

He was detained in a joint U.S.-Pakistani raid in 2010, which Pakistani officials later said had been to end his dialogue with the Karzai government. Because of his respect within the Taliban and his previous openness to dialogue, however, the United States pressed Pakistan to release him so he could help lead the talks that began in 2019 and reached a troop withdrawal deal with the Trump administration.

During the talks, he struck up what several officials described as a warm relationship with the U.S. envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad. And in recent days, his movements within Afghanistan  first to Kandahar, the wellspring of the Taliban movement, and then to Kabul, where he began conducting leadership meetings  were seen as confirmation that the Talibans new government was near.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, interior minister

Image Sirajuddin Haqqani. Credit... FBI

Mr. Haqqani, who is thought to be 48 and is the son of the mujahedeen commander and Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, is emerging as one of the biggest winners in the return of the Taliban to power. He will be the acting interior minister, in charge of law and order and possibly even local governance, and has also ensured his commanders positions in other key departments of the government.

In 2016, he became one of two deputies to the Talibans supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, overseeing a sprawling web of fighters and religious schools, and leading much of the Talibans military efforts.

His Haqqani network, known for its close ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, was the most dogged opponent of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. It was responsible for hostage-taking, targeted assassinations and suicide bombings, including some of the huge truck bombings that killed civilians in Kabul.
There are many Soviet-era remnants scattered all over the Russian Federation, but few as blatant as this old Zighuli car covered in Persian-style rugs that recently went viral on social media.

The Zhiguli VAZ was a popular car model produced in Soviet Russia and exported all over the world. Outside of the Soviet Union, it was sold under the LADA brand, so it might look familiar even if youre not from Russia. It was always considered a reliable vehicle that could take some punishment and still run, but overall it was one of the many symbols associated with the Soviet Union. Still, no model was ever as Soviet-ized as Carpets, a unique VAZ 27011 that captures viewers imagination with its unusual exterior  a layer of old Persian-style rugs that were once all the rage in communist countries.

Photo: Georgy Makarov/Instagram

Carpets is the creation of Georgy Makarov, an automobile enthusiast and student at the Moscow Automobile and Highway State Technical University, who wanted a car that was cheap but that could also stand out. He inherited the love for old Russian cars from his father, who has been involved in vehicle restoration for 30 years and is one of Russias vintage car experts.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by   (@just_goshan_)

Georgys first car was a 1981 Zhiguli 2702, which he had rebuilt almost from scratch, with his father, in the family workshop. Unfortunately, he crashed it in an accident, and putting it back together involved too much work. However, a friend of his had a 44-year-old VAZ 27011 that was gathering rust and suggested he breathe new life into it using his restoration skills. Its safe to say that Georgy did just that, and then some!

View this post on Instagram A post shared by   (@just_goshan_)

Carpets is my vision made real. It is made up of three concepts: the Soviet Union, the Zhiguli brand and carpets, Makarov said. For me, these are inseparable things, so I connected them in one car. Now it is an art object, a historical monument, and just a means of transportation.

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The VAZ was already a quintessentially Soviet vehicle, but by combining it with the Persian-style carpets that many Russians and other Eastern-Europeans grew up with, Georgy Makarov raised the nostalgia factor to critical levels. At least thats how he explains why his unique vehicle has been drawing so much attention on Russian social media.

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Georgy doesnt plan on embarking on a project similar to Carpets in the near future, but he does want to get deeper into the world of car restoration and see where that road takes him.
A Danish museum loaned artist Jens Haaning tens of thousands of dollars and asked him to recreate two of his most popular artworks, which involved the use of real banknotes, only he took the money and ran, an act he describes as an original work of art.

The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg asked Jens Haaning to recreate two of his most popular artworks, one he had produced in 2011 called An Average Danish Annual Income, which featured krone banknotes in a frame, and an earlier version, An Average Austrian Annual Income. For the original works, Haaning had borrowed the money from banks, but this time the museum agreed to loan him the cash from its limited reserves. He required 328,000 kroner for the Danish annual salary and 25,000 for the Austrian salary. Only instead of recreating the artworks, he just sent the museum two empty canvases, and the message that him keeping the money they had lent him was the actual artwork.

Photo: Kunsten Museum

The work is that I have taken their money, Haaning told the Danish radio program P1 Morgen last week. Its not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.

Of course I will not pay it back, the artist added. The work is that I took the money and I will not give it back.

Lasse Andersen, the director of the Kunsten Museum, claims that a day before a new art exhibition was to open, Jens Haaning had the commissioned artworks delivered, only when the package was opened, it contained just two empty frames. He also bothered sending an email saying he thought it was more interesting to do a new work called Take the Money and Run.

I absolutely want to give Jens the right to say that a new work has been created in its own right, which actually comments on the exhibition we have, but that is not the agreement we had, Andersen said, adding that he does not intend to go to the police about this just yet, as the artist has until January 16, next year, to return the money he was lent.

Haaning, on the other hand, has made it very clear that he has no intention of returning the money to the museum.

No, its not going to happen. The work is that I have taken their money, he told national broadcaster DR.
The Rockefeller Foundation has hired SKDKnickerbocker for a communications campaign to educate the public about the impact of the expanded Child Tax Credit that was part of president Joe Bidens American Rescue Plan.

The plan boosted the credit to from $2K to $3K for children over the age of six and from $2K to $3,600 for children under six. Working families with incomes up to $150K for a couple received the full credit.

The expanded credit applies for 2021.

House Democrats propose extending the child tax credit until 2025 under the partys $3.5B tax and spending package.

SKDK is receiving a $140K grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to fund the campaign.

That funding, which falls under the Foundations commitment to equity & economic opportunity, covers the period from June 1 though the end of the year.

Mark Penns Stagwell owns SKDK.
NOTHING should stand in the way of Glenisk's efforts to rebuild the milk and yogurt plant destroyed by fire this week, Offaly TD Barry Cowen told the Dail on Wednesday morning.

Deputy Cowen placed a particular focus on the role of the planning authorities and said a path should be cleared for the Killeigh-based company to get planning permission.

I had hoped in the context of the Planning Reform Bill that is forthcoming this year that an idea might be forthcoming in relation to companies that find themselves in this bind, that a pathway for planning might be more readily available than the one that they have to travel down, which might for example meet with the disapproval of the likes of An Taisce who held up Belview in Glanbia for the last five years, said the Fianna Fail TD.

Glenisk managing director Vincent Cleary has said that a full rebuild of the organic production plant will be necessary after Monday's devastating blaze.

Deputy Cowen said the Clearys had indicated their high standards will be maintained when they set about planning their new facility.

I'm sure it will be done so at a facility which will be commensurate to their place in the sector and will be rebuilt as soon as is practicably possible, he said.

To that end I would hope and expect the local authority of course to work hand in glove with the company to ensure that every pathway is cleared to ensure that that happens efficiently and quickly.

Speaking when the Glenisk fire was raised during topical issues in the Dail, Deputy Cowen

said he had met Mr Cleary and some of the staff on Tuesday.

They are shook but resolute and resilient as they have proven previously. A hugely popular company and family, very professional in the way they have grown the business to be world renowned and today, leaders in their own field in relation to the promotion of dairy organics, he said.

They were in that field long before others could even spell the word. They've acted as mentors to many other people in my constituency and beyond. It's now time for that to be reciprocated in their hour of need.

He said he was proud of the local support for the company from the faithful people that we are and said he had spoken with the Taoiseach's office.

I know contact has been made by him with the company and with the managing director, assuring them of every effort on the part of the State to help and assist in their hour of need.

Deputy Cowen asked Minister of State Sean Fleming, who was representing the Government in the Dail this morning, to give an assurance that the Government will ensure all arms of the State will immediately assist Glenisk to rebound and regain its place as a world renowned company.

Minister Fleming said Glenisk is a long established client of Enterprise Ireland and officials have been in contact with the company.

Enterprise Ireland has indicated the company will have the full support of the agency as they build and recover, said Minister Fleming.

He assured Deputy Cowen that all State agencies will assist in every way possible because it is a brand leader, not just locally but internationally and across the EU as well.

Deputy Brian Stanley, Laois-Offaly Sinn Fein TD, said he had been in contact with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment stressing the importance of Glenisk and he also urged the Department of Social Protection to provide a liaison person to the company if there are implications for employees.

He praised Glenisk as a company which showed the green economy in action.

This is exactly the type of company we want in Ireland. A local company, providing a service locally, providing jobs, using local products.

He said no stone should be left unturned to get Glenisk back up and running fully.

The will is there, the workforce is there. We must move heaven and earth.
THE annual Jordan Murphy Memorial Fundraiser has been inundated with donations in recent weeks.

Over 10,000 has been raised in three weeks and there have been so many donations of prizes for the draw that the family are busy sorting through them.

Alan Murphy, father of Jordan who was tragically killed in a road collision three years ago, said he hopes to set a date for the draw soon.

They will not be accepting any further donations of prizes but instead continue to ask any businesses who wish to donate to do so online at www.idonate.ie/JordanMurphyACT2 or by email at tjmmfundraiser@gmail.com

This is the third annual Jordan Murphy Memorial Fundraiser and all proceeds go directly towards Accessible Counselling Tullamore which is a local non-profit, non-government funded counselling service providing counselling to the Tullamore community and beyond.

Jordan Murphy died on September 11, 2018 while he was crossing a pedestrian crossing on his way to Athlone Institute of Technology to help First Year students.

The driver John OShea of Ballinahown, Athlone, had driven through a red light.

He received a two and a half year suspended sentence and was banned from driving for 10 years in 2020.

In 2019, the fundraiser raised 5,700 for the Institute of Technology and 12,000 in Jordans memory for Accessible Counselling Tullamore.
A n Offaly motorcyclist was rushed to hospital with serious injuries following a crash on the Birr / Roscrea road over the weekend.

The motorcyclist is a Croatian national who has been living and working in Birr for some years.

The middle aged man broke his leg and arm and is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Gardai sealed off the road on the N62 at Boveen Birr following the crash as the victim was taken to hospital in Tallaght.

Saturday's accident happened between the Birr man's motorcycle and a car, which was being driven by a female driver. There were no reports of the female driver receiving any injuries.

A garda spokesman said: "Gardai and emergency services attended the scene of road traffic collision on the N62 at Boveen in Birr, Co.Offaly, yesterday, 25th September 2021.

"The two vehicle collision occurred at approximately 6pm and involved a car and a motorcycle.

"The motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, was later taken to Tallaght Hospital where he is receiving treatment for serious injuries."
After the exciting final of the Boylesports derby last Saturday, racing was back to a much calmer state this week.

Another of the great classics got underway in Cork, the Laurels. Sadly Offaly winners were scarce this week but when they happened we had a few decent ones.

Friday Racing

We had to wait until Friday for our first winner most unusually there were no Offaly winners early in the week. In Shelbourne, in an A2 race, Highview Jewel had her seventh career win in 29.08 by one length at 3/1 for Croghan trainer Gerry Merriman. Also in Shelbourne, in the first round of an A2 sweepstake, where there were four heats, Grangeview Mags went fastest in 28.34 by one length at 2/1 for Lorrha owner Michael Hogan.

In Kilkenny, in the final of their biggest event of the year, the Kilkenny A1 derby, once again sponsored by Jag Building services and K.G.O.B.A took place. As usual a top class field. A shock result as Hollyhill Sonny (Kinloch Brea - Boom Time) stole a march on his rivals and was never caught in 29.20 (20 slow) at 10/1. The first prize of 9k went to trainer Paraic Campion. Paul Hennessys Hello Diamond was second and won himself 3k.

In Clonmel, in the final of the Killee Town ON2 unraced stake, the 1.2k cheque went to Fleeting Angle (Droopys Jet - Bewitching), in 28.95, by five lengths for Waterford trainer Declan Byrne.

Saturday Racing

In Curraheen Park in Cork, the entire card was taken up with the first round of the 2021 Irish Laurels. Twelve heats, with most of the dogs fresh from running in the derby over the previous few weeks. Seventy two dogs all trying to get their names on this famous trophy, won last year by Runninta Seeya for John Linehan. There were joint fastest heat winners on the night, both in 28.19, Skywalker Barry for Mark ODonovan and Ballymac Wild for Liam Dowling. Runner up in the derby Singalong Sally was one spot slower when winning her heat in 28.20 for Pat Buckley. There was a double on the night for Buckley and Graham Holland. Long way to go in this stake yet.

In Limerick, in the first round of an A1 600 yard sweepstake, three heats with Yellow Brick having the best run for Mullingar trainer Francie Murray, in 32.52, by three lengths at 5/2.

In Mullingar, one Offaly winner, Denise Rose won an A4 contest in 30.05 (50 slow) by two lengths at 2/1 for Tubber owner Joe Keyes. Thurles hosted the first round of the Kasco Food ON2 unraced, four heats with Boherna Sydney havingthe fastest time for local owner Frank Dwan in 29.26 (20 slow) by seven lengths at a well backed 4/5.

Some great racing in Shelbourne Park, in the second round of the SIS Juvenile derby. Six magical heats, all won in blistering times. Fastest on the night was Feora Chris for Con Guiney in 28.12 by two lengths at 4/5. Next fastest was Droopys Soldier for Rathangan trainer Robert Gleeson, in 28.15, by one length at 6/1. Twenty four dogs remain now all vying to take over from last years winner Skywalker Barry.

Sunday Racing

Only one Offaly winner at the matinee meeting in Mullingar, in an A6 contest Lingrawn Niamh was an easy six-length winner in 30.00 (60 slow) at 4/5 for Moneygall owner Liam Jones.

Upcoming Events

Friday, semifinals of an A2 525 stake in Shelbourne. Saturday, semifinals of the A1 600 in Limerick, semifinals of the Kasco unraced in Thurles, second round of the Laurels in Cork and quarterfinals of the Juvenile derby in Shelbourne.

Tribune Offaly dog of the week

Highview Jewel gets the vote this week for Gerry Merriman, winning an A2 race in Shelbourne in 29.08 on Tuesday and winning three of her four last starts. Well done.

Offaly Winners

Just three Offaly winners this week, well done to all concerned.
The alleged theft of weapons components from Army stores has been investigated by the Irish Defence Forces (IDF) and gardai for a number of months.

According to The Irish Times, it has been reported that hundreds of pages of documents have been examined as part of the investigation.

These include records showing weapons and their components being signed out and back in.

It is understood gardai became involved on foot of a request by the Defence Forces.

Investigations of alleged crimes on military property are typically handled by the Military Police (MP), but the organisation also has the option of going to the gardai for assistance when it comes to serious offences.

A report by Irish MP is due to be finalised in the near future for both the IDF senior leadership and the Department of Defence.

No arrests have been made to date and inquiries are ongoing.

The Irish Times also reported that a spokesperson for the IDF made no comment in relation to the news about the investigation, while the Dept of Defence did not respond to a request for comment.

Weapons and weapon parts going missing from military bases in Ireland is not unheard of: several years ago, gardai conducting a drugs raid in Kildare found a military issued non-lethal grenade in a house.

Arguably the most well-known case occurred in 1973, a high-powered general-purpose machine gun was stolen from Clancy Barracks in Dublin.

It was believed to have later been sold to the Official IRA.

MP Corporal Michael Donnelly was later dishonourably discharged over this, and although he appealed his dismissal, the Supreme Court ruled against him.
A total of 31 new trails across 13 counties are to be added to the Walks Scheme, which aims to open up our countryside to local walkers, hikers and tourists.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD announced the major initiative for Rural Ireland today (Wednesday), which includes the addition of 31 new walking trails to her Departments Walks Scheme and funding for a number of new Rural Recreation Officers.

Under the scheme, funding is provided to farmers and other landowners to maintain the trails that travel through their holdings.

Counties Cavan, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Louth, Roscommon, Sligo, Waterford and Wicklow have all had trails included in the scheme.

Todays announcement means there will now be 80 trails under the Scheme, which is operated by the Department of Rural and Community Development in conjunction with the Local Development Companies (LDCs) and over 2,400 farmers and landowners in total.

The trails added today involve over 400 farmers and include the Dingle Way in Kerry, St Declans Way in Waterford, the Ballyhoura Way in Limerick, the South Leinster Way in Kilkenny and the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai in Cork.

The Cavan Way in Cavan, the Wicklow Uplands Way in Wicklow, the Lung/Lough Gara Way in Roscommon and the Durrow Leafy Loop in Laois are also among the trails being added to the Scheme.

Additional funding will also be provided to the Local Development Companies that deliver the scheme locally, as well as for the salaries paid to the Rural Recreation Officers who play a vital role in delivering the Walks Scheme and developing the outdoor recreation sector locally.

Minister Humphreys also announced the creation of up to 8 new Rural Recreation Officer posts in addition to the 13 already in place. These are designed to further enhance our outdoor amenities and the experience of visitors to Rural Ireland.

The announcement delivers on commitments in both the Programme for Government and Our Rural Future to increase the number of trails under the Walks Scheme in order to boost outdoor recreation and tourism in rural towns and villages.

Minister Humphreys has also published a review of the Walks Scheme, which sets out a number of recommendations aimed at enhancing the Walks Scheme and the role of Rural Recreation Officers, and will be implemented in consultation with key stakeholders.

The Minister made the announcements during a visit to officially open St Declans Way in Co. Waterford, a 115km trail involving 45 farmers and landowners which is amongst the trails being added to the scheme.

Our walkways, trails, greenways, blueways and cycleways are a defining feature of Rural Ireland," Minister Humphreys said.

They have been a godsend throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic  providing so many of us with the opportunity to get out for some exercise and to meet up with family and friends.

Over the past number of months, we have seen unprecedented investment in our outdoor amenities, underpinned by the most ambitious ever policy for Rural Ireland, Our Rural Future.

Todays announcement is further action behind that policy. By adding 31 new trails to the Walks Scheme, we are opening up our rural countryside further to walkers, hikers, adventurists, cyclists, as well as domestic and international tourists," she said.

And it means we are investing in some of the most picturesque locations in the country, so that they can be enjoyed and experienced by millions of people every year.

"We are indebted to our farmers and other landowners throughout the country that facilitate access to these wonderful trails and who now, through this scheme, are being funded to maintain the walks to the high standard we have all come to expect," Minister Humphreys said.
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LatAm Diversifies as Multinational Content Provider Pariplay Joins Forces with Brazilian Studio Caleta.

Published September 28, 2021 by Lee R

Diversification breeds expansion in new Pariplay-Caleta deal in Brasil.

LatAm is getting a diversification boost from a new Pariplay deal with a Brazilian development studio.

The Deal

The intriguing deal has leading aggregator and content provider Pariplay expanding the selection of games it offers to the LatAm region through integrating offerings within Brasil-facing Caleta Gaming's content portfolio.

Integration

In advance of Pariplay launching in regulated markets globally, the new partnership agreement adds Pariplay HTML5 games join Pariplay's already substantial Fusion platform offering.

Fusion Drives Pariplay

Aspire Global subsidiary Pariplay established the success of the Fusion platform by aggregating scores of titles from other leading iGaming industry studies via partnerships with Quickspin; iSoftBet; Microgaming; NetEnt; and Evolution Gaming.

Pariplay's Goals

Pariplay has forged its leading market position through a unified single approach to content delivery, and enhanced its technology through ongoing integration of conversion, retention, and bonus tool mechanics to achieve licensure in more than 16 regulated markets to date.

Pariplay Leader Speaks

Pariplay Business Development Director Jose Micallef lauded the huge potential of the LatAm region as vital to offering operators the largest selection of appealing games.

Perfect Fit

Micallef further praised Caleta deal as an ambitious provider renowned for producing high-quality content with a strong focus on LatAm markets, with the deal fitting in perfectly with Pariplay's strategy, concluding we look forward to achieving great things together.

About Caleta

Caleta Gaming forged it's position as a premium content provider since 2013 with the establishment of holdings in Florianopolis, Brazil and Gibraltar.

Caleta Proprietary Tech

Caleta Gaming's broad range of games were built in-house it's through proprietary technology iGP5 (Gaming Platform HTML5), with slots; video bingo; keno lotto; and instant games in HD already delivering16 top titles certified for Columbia's emerging market.

Recognition

Caleta is also currently under nomination for the 2021 EGR Bingo Supplier of the year.

Caleta Leader Speaks

Caleta Gaming CEO Fabiola Jaeger expressed his excitement with the new partnership, looking forward to the expanded reach the Pariplay deal provides:

Very soon, more than 75 of our games will be available to various operators that are part of the Pariplay partner network.

Outlook

With Pariplay expanding its global reach at the same time, this brings increasingly popular local-global partnerships to the next level: the merging of expansion goals.
40,000 Donated by Pragmatic Play to Charities in Romania, Malta and Gibraltar

Published September 29, 2021 by Florin P

Pragmatic Play steps up its efforts to promote European charities, with 40,000 donated to organizations in Malta, Gibraltar and Romania.

PragmaticPlay is one of the most active software developers in Europe and an important supplier of games to top casinos. Its presence in Romania, Malta and Gibraltar is particularly strong, as these are countries where the producer of casino games is also licensed. The company has a tradition in giving back to local communities and it comes as no surprise that these nations were chosen for the latest donations. A combined $40,000 was donated to good causes in these countries to help the dedicated charities.

Protecting Animals and Vulnerable People in Romania

Pragmatic Play has long partnered with the Homeless Animal Hospital foundation in Romania. Recently, the company donated an additional $7000 so the team can do its job even better. Company representatives visited the charity and were impressed by the dedication of the volunteers working here.

The other good cause that benefited from financial support is the ANAIS Association. It has a decade of experience in promoting and defending the rights of children, young people and abused women. The charity will be able to use the money to promote the rights of women at the highest levels of government.

Supporting Health Charities in Malta and Gibraltar

Pragmatic Play donated $5000 to the Step Up For Parkinsons charity in Malta. The organization raises awareness and improves the lives of those who suffer from this disease. YMCA Malta also benefited from a generous donation of $10,000 that will be used to help members of the disadvantaged communities.

Calpe House in Gibraltar received a 11,000 donation to build a dedicated business suit in London. It will accommodate patients traveling here under the Gibraltar Health Authority and provide them with a place where they can work remotely while away from Gibraltar.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Boston growth equity firm Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners (PSG) has raised $4.5 billion for its private-equity strategy that backs software makers and technology-heavy service providers.

The fifth flagship private equity fund, PSG V, targets investments in middle-market software and technology-enabled services companies.

Existing and new investors, including state and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices, contributed to PSG V.

"Through PSG V, the firm will continue its commitment to its founding 'buy and build' strategy focused on helping middle-market software companies grow through strategic value creation initiatives in addition to sourcing and facilitating add-on acquisitions," the private equity firm said in a press release.

Investors in the latest fund include State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison; Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Juneau; South Carolina Retirement Systems, Columbia; and Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, Harrisburg.

The previous fund in the series, PSG IV, closed on $2 billion in capital commitments in 2019. The new fund brings PSG's aggregate capital commitments across the U.S. and Europe to more than $10 billion. Earlier this year, PSG also closed its debut European fund at 1.25 billion.

"Since inception, we've been extremely thoughtful in charting PSG's expansion and we're thrilled to arrive at this milestone with continued conf......................

To view our full article Click here
ISTANBUL, TURKEY  September 29, 2021  Animation International Turkey strengthens the KONDOSAN brand with the start of their most recent YouTube channel, KONDOSAN English - Fairy Tales & Stories for Kids, where children can watch uniquely created cartoons dubbed in English. The channel includes not only classical fairy tales such as Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood, but also new and surprising series filled with fun characters. Kids from 
Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh reached the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Wednesday amid a fresh crisis in the ruling Congress in the state.



Amarinder Singh, who stepped down as Chief Minister earlier this month, had reached Delhi on Tuesday. The Congress leader had told reporters on his arrival in the national capital that he had come to Delhi to vacate Kapurthala House. He had also said that he was not going to meet any political leader.



"I am here to vacate Kapurthala House (the official residence of Punjab Chief Minister in New Delhi). I am not going to meet any politician here," he had told reporters.



Singh's visit to Delhi has coincided with Congress in Punjab reeling under fresh crisis following resignation of PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday. A minister and some other leaders considered loyal to Sidhu also subsequently resigned.



Capt Amarnider Singh had taken a dig at Sidhu over his resignation, saying that he is not a stable man.



"I told you so...he is not a stable man and not fit for the border state of Punjab," Amarinder Singh had said in a tweet.



While stepping down as chief minister, Amarinder Singh had slammed the party leadership saying he had been let down.



The former chief minister had also said that he felt "humiliated" adding that he had been summoned thrice by the central leadership in the past two months



His media advisor Raveen Thukral had played down his visit to Delhi.



"Too much being read into Cap Amarinder Singh's visit to Delhi. He's on a personal visit, during which he'll meet some friends and also vacate Kapurthala house for the new CM. No need for any unnecessary speculation," Thukral said in a tweet yesterday.



Sidhu was made PCC chief by Congress leadership in July to stem infighting in Punjab Congress ahead of next year's assembly polls but the party is now grappling with a fresh crisis. (ANI)




Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel skipped the meeting on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, citing a caste convention reflects his insensitivity to the Maoist's issue.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's absence from the high-level meeting on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Sunday (September 26) is becoming a predicament for him. Now Baghel is on the target of the opposition BJP for his absence during this meeting. Alleging the Chief Minister on this matter, BJP has presented a complete account of the Maoist incidents during Bhupesh Baghel's tenure. Describing the Chief Minister as insensitive towards Left Wing Extremism, BJP has released all the data related to Maoist activities during 2019-20 and 20-21.

Data released by the BJP states that 69 and 41 Maoists have been confirmed neutralised in 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. At the same time, there has been no significant difference in the death toll of the tribes. In 2019-20 and 2020-21, Left-wing terrorists claimed the lives of 55 and 51 tribes, respectively.

Apart from this, BJP has also released data regarding the Maoists' massive damage to government property. Accusing the state Congress government of showing a soft attitude towards Maoist violence, the BJP said that during the Bhupesh Baghel government tenure in the year 2019-20, over 9 crores 56 lakh government property was damaged by the Maoists.

The leftist violence did not stop during the Corona period, when the whole country was locked up. In 2020-21, government property worth more than one crore 39 lakhs has been destroyed by left-wing terrorists. During this time, the Maoists wreaked havoc on government properties in Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada. They also caused significant damage to the development works in these areas. Rajnandgaon MP Santosh Pandey said that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's non-participation in this high-level meeting shows his insensitivity to such a serious issue even in such a grave situation.

It should be noted that the Chief Ministers of 10 Naxal-affected states, including Chhattisgarh, were invited by the Home Minister to the meeting on Sunday, during which Shah was to take stock of the ongoing operations against the ultras and the development work done at the ground level.

Briefing the media on the issue, an official of Chhattisgarh State Public Relations Department said, "Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain and Director General of Police DM Awasthi have gone to the national capital on behalf of the Chief Minister to attend the meeting." Chief Minister Baghel could not attend this meeting because of a conference of Chandranahu Kurmi Samaj in the Mahasamund district of the state on Sunday afternoon. It should be noted that the Chief Minister skipped the crucial meeting when the Left Wing Extremism situation in Chhattisgarh could be a major agenda for discussion as the state has witnessed several deadly attacks on security forces by Maoists in the past few years.

According to the recently released National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) annual report, Chhattisgarh has recorded the highest number of crimes committed by Maoists in 2020. According to data released by the Chhattisgarh Police, 1,237 security personnel, mostly paramilitary forces and 1,615 civilians, have been killed in Maoist violence in the state from 2001 to June this year. During the same period, bodies of 1,027 Left-Wing terrorists were also recovered after encounters with security forces, while 4,552 militants have surrendered.

Eight districts of the state - Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma (all in the Bastar region) and Rajnandgaon - are among the most Maoist-affected districts in the country and have been battling this menace for over three decades. Now, at such a crucial time, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's avoidance of such an important high-level meeting citing a caste convention reflects his insensitivity to the Maoist's issue.
The protesting farm bodies fear that the new farm enactments would take away the existing and the well-entrenched APMCs and MSP. Neither of these two Acts mentions a word about dismantling the APMC, so the Central Government has devised no means in law that would do away with the APMCs and the MSP.

Given the turmoil caused by the new farm enactments, particularly in Punjab, these new farming laws must be understood clearly and in their correct perspective, without wearing the googles of any hue. Various farm bodies have raised serious concerns that need to be addressed to help return to order and tranquillity.

The foremost fear of the protesting farm bodies has been that the new farm enactments would take away the existing and the well-entrenched Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) and, along with it, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime. This, it is feared, will force the farmers to sell their produce to corporate sharks at whatever price they would dictate.

It is therefore very important to know what exactly is provided in these new farm laws. A comprehensive study of the two relevant Acts, i.e. "The Farmers (Empowerment And Protection) Agreement On Price Assurance And Farm Services Act, 2020" and "The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020", would reveal that nothing can be further from the truth. Neither of these two Acts mentions a word about dismantling the APMC regime anywhere in their texts, which means that the Central Government has devised no means in law that would do away with the APMCs and the MSP. Therefore, the simple conclusion has to be that the present system of APMCs and the MSP of food grains is not going anywhere and is staying put. This assertion is further confirmed by the Government's willingness to give written assurance to agitating farmers on the continuation of MSP for the food grains and APMCs, along with the private mandis.

The second serious concern about the new farm laws is that big corporate houses or companies will take over their lands, and farmers, being comparatively on weaker grounds, will not be able to fight them off. To effectively alleviate this fear, it is important to examine the provisions of "The Farmers (Empowerment And Protection) Agreement On Price Assurance And Farm Services Act, 2020" in this regard. Section 8 of the said Act provides as under; -

8. Sponsor (i.e. a person who has entered into a farming agreement with the farmer to purchase farming produce) prohibited from acquiring ownership rights or making permanent modifications on farmer's land or premises.No farming agreement shall be entered into for the purpose of 

(a) any transfer, including the sale, lease and mortgage of the land or premises of the farmer or

(b) raising any permanent structure.....

Section 8 of the Act, governing Contract farming, thus makes it very clear that there will be no farming agreement between the farmer and the sponsor (i.e., the Corporate body) that will include in its scope, in any manner, the transfer of farmer's land or his premises or sale or lease or mortgage of his land or premises. After that, S. 15 of this Act makes it further explicit that even if any order is passed against the farmer, in the process of dispute resolution, between the farmer and the sponsor (or the Corporate body), for the recovery of any dues against the farmer, no action shall be initiated against the agricultural land of the farmer.

15. No action for recovery of dues against farmer's land. Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 14, no action for recovery of any amount due in pursuance of an order passed under that section shall be initiated against the farmer's agricultural land.

It is clear that the Act pertaining to contract farming already has ample provisions to safeguard all the interests of farmers regarding their land. The same is not going anywhere owing only to contract farming. There already is a prohibition in the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) against the attachment of the house and the land attached to the house of an agriculturist, under Section 60 (c) CPC.

Apart from the provisions mentioned above, there are other safeguards contained in these farming Acts to protect the interests of the farmer, such as Section 5, which contains a provision to the effect that the price to be paid for the purchase of farming produce be mentioned in the agreement itself and if fluctuation in the price is feared, a guaranteed price for the agricultural produce, can be laid down in the agreement itself, which the sponsor or the corporate body will have to pay, even if the price of the Agri-produce, contracted for, later hits rock-bottom levels.

As already provided in both the Acts mentioned above, the dispute resolution mechanism seems to be very effective and ought not to be sought to be altered by the farm bodies. The formation of a "conciliation Board" consisting of the parties' representatives, as in arbitration, will facilitate effective and quick resolution of disputes. On the other hand, the civil court route for dispute resolution will be very cumbersome and expensive and will suffer from perpetual delays.

The third legislation is by way of an amendment in "The essential Commodities Act, 1955, which makes the supply of foodstuffs free of regulations, except only in "extraordinary circumstances" such as war, famine, extraordinary price rise, etc. It is so done because it has been felt for some time now that farmers have been unable to get remunerative prices due to lack of investment in cold storage, where houses and processing, etc. This provision has the potential of empowering the farmer in the real sense, as ample storage capacity will enable the farmer to control pricing in the farm sector; for instance, when a farm market is likely to be flooded by particular products, the farmer can check the glut of the produce in the market by holding on to the product and storing the produce in cold storages or warehouses for the time being.

It will be fair to say that there has been a consensus between the various Political parties and the farm experts/ farm bodies now for quite some time that the farm sector is long due for an overhaul by the introduction of a liberalised regime, which will give farmers the freedom to trade even outside the APMCs. In fact, the Congress Party, in its election manifesto of 2019, promised to altogether abolish APMC Acts. In contrast, the new farm laws have not repealed APMCs and the MSP and have only made it possible for private marketing yards to co-exist along with APMCs. Chapter 7, clause 11 of Congress's election manifesto reads as under; -

"11. Congress will repeal the Agricultural Produce Market Committees Act and make trade in agricultural produceincluding exports and inter-state trade - free from all restrictions."

Does the question then arise why are farmers opposing these salutary new provisions in the Agricultural sector? While attempting to answer this question, it must be kept in mind that there is a section amongst the Punjab people who have always been distrustful of the Union Government. Please remember the movement started in the early eighties by a political class in Punjab on the grounds of alleged "WITKRA" (discrimination) by the then Central Government that went horribly out of control. It is quite clear by now that this movement also contains elements other than mere farmers. Some political parties or outfits of left orientations think that they now finally have a stick to beat the Prime Minister with, even if they, to achieve their purposes, have to mislead or fool the naive farmer, who mostly would not have cared to read and acquaint himself of the actual text of these new farm laws, they will go right ahead and do just that.

(The writer is an Advocate at Punjab & Haryana High Court, and Ex. Additional Advocate General Haryana)
The Afghan cadets and officers are at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun, the Officers' Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai, and the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla in Pune as part of the capacity-building programme started in 2001.

New Delhi: India would grant six months' e-visa to around 180 Afghan soldiers and cadets being trained in different military academies in the country after they complete their courses here.

Defence forces in India have been training Afghan soldiers and officers as part of the capacity-building programme started in 2001. The Afghan cadets and officers are at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun, the Officers' Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai, and the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla in Pune. The Indian government bears these officers' training and other expenses as part of nation-building efforts in Afghanistan after 2001.

The government will provide E-visas for six months to all the Afghan cadets and soldiers training in the academies. However, they have the option of deciding upon their course of action regarding their future in this period, sources said. However, over 100 Afghan soldiers and cadets have applied for visas for other western countries, including Canada, England and Germany.

They have applied for 'asylum' in different countries, and some of them also want to stay in India. They have been put in touch with agencies who have been working with Afghans already living in the country.

Understandably, the future of these cadets became uncertain as the Taliban strengthened their grip over Afghanistan and formed a 'new government'. It may be mentioned that during the takeover of Kabul, several Afghan army soldiers and officers had 'defected' and joined hands with the Taliban. Some had also joined the ranks of the resistance forces in the Panjshir Valley.

Besides assessing the security situation in Afghanistan and assisting them, the Indian government and the erstwhile Afghanistan government had been exploring ways to enhance military cooperation in areas such as training. For India, a key security concern is the presence of thousands of terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in Afghanistan. This has been an issue of security concern for Indian authorities.

In July, Afghan Army Chief Gen Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai was scheduled to arrive in India on a three-day visit to explore ways to deepen bilateral military ties, but the trip was later cancelled.
The government has formed a three-member committee to scrutinise its content after the Kerala police have said that the book motivates youngsters in joining terrorist organisations.

The police department has asked the Kerala government to ban the circulation of 14th-century Arabic text Mashari al-Ashwaq Ila Masari al-Ushaaq, better known as the 'book of jihad'. Kerala police have said that the book motivates youngsters in joining terrorist organisations. Following the request, the government has formed a three-member committee to scrutinise its content.

As per an order (GO (Rt) No. 2628/2021/Home) issued by the home (secret section) that deals with sensitive matters and intelligence inputs, on September 25, a committee has been constituted to examine whether the book contains any incriminating material which is in conflict with any law in force and to make recommendations accordingly. The committee headed by PRD Director S Harikishore also consists of Internal Security IG G Sparjan Kumar and National University for Advanced Legal Studies former vice-chancellor N K Jayakumar.

Former state police chief Loknath Behera in 2020 and incumbent chief Anil Kant in July this year recommended a ban on the book's circulation on all platforms. They had written to the government that the book contains extremist literature and lures youth into extremism.

Mashari al Ashwaq is a medieval text written by Damascene scholar Ahmad Ibrahim Muhammad al Dimashqi al Dumyati, popularly known as Ibn Nuhaas. He is said to have been killed while fighting the Byzantine army in 1411. The IS sympathisers in Kerala had, meanwhile, brought out the book's Malayalam translation, which was named Vijayathinte Vathil Vaalinte Thanalil, and circulated online.
Lal Bahadur Shastris death continues to baffle us. Despite mounting body of evidence, there has been no effort to find the cause of death

Former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of the most trusted politicians. His diminutive physique and quiet nature belied his strong resolve, determination and incisive political vision. He led India to a military victory against Pakistan, notwithstanding the external pressures.

It is often said that Nehru died too late, while Shastris end came too early. Reporting on Shastris death, New York Times wrote: Lal Bahadur Shastri died at a pinnacle of popularity that no one in India believed possible when he succeeded the late Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister barely nineteen months ago.

As a pragmatic politician, Shastri was embarking on a massive economic reform, a departure from Nehruvian model, to put India on a growth trajectory by promoting private enterprises instead of public sector. Several observers suspect his plans for India has not gone down well with certain world powers which led to his death.

How did Shastri die? The mystery around Shastris death continues to baffle us even today  it is likely to remain so for long, despite the mounting body of evidence leaves enough room for suspicion and speculation. Had the successors of Shastri shown the will, the puzzle could have been solved. But there was a concerted effort to hide the facts from public.

There are several unanswered questions. Going by the official accounts, Indira Gandhis Government that succeeded Shastris short-lived administration -- though it brought out a white paper on the turn of events -- did more to manipulate information rather than bringing facts to the fore. The white paper had several discrepancies, deficiencies and contradictions. It did not have the most important aspect  the medical report. Later, the then Cabinet Minister Swaran Singh, who did the fire-fighting for the Government in the Parliament, admitted that the medical report was taken out from the white paper. The Government failed to give answers to some of the questions raised by Opposition leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Ram Manohar Lohia.

Quoting Press reports, Vajpayee told the Parliament that the last thing that Shastri consumed before retiring to bed was a glass of milk. But the Governments statement did not have any mention of this. Till this date, there is no clarity as to who offered the glass of milk to Shastri. On this, Swaran Singh, the then foreign minister who accompanied Shastri to Tashkent, told the Parliament: I cant deny or confirm it. Because I dont have any information as to what was the last thing he took and who gave it to him.

Dr Lohia always maintained that Shastri did not die, he was killed. He had demanded an investigation which the Government did not accept. Lohia had indicated that Dr E G Yeremenko, who was the Russian attending doctor and the first Russian doctor to arrive, did not sign the medical report. Moreover, there were two medical reports  one in Russian and the other in English -- and the signatories on them varied. The content of the reports are not identical. The Government had hid this fact for four years. There were questions on whether oxygen was administered when Shastri complained of breathlessness.

Then there were suspicions on the role played by external agencies such as KGB, CIA and foreign powers. The Government of India refused to declassify certain files because it thought the move would spoil relations with some friendly countries.

Whatever might have been the compulsions, India deserves to know the truth.


The Pala Bishops statement to act against Narcotic Jihad and Love Jihad has triggered a massive controversy. While Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan is feigning ignorance by describing them as non-issues, facts tell a different story

Consequently, when the Bishop of Pala diocese of Syro Malabar Church in Kerala, Mar Joseph Kallarangatt spoke out recently against the narcotic jihad and love jihad being waged by radical Islamists against Christian and Hindu girls in Kerala, it kicked up a political storm. The CPI(M) and the Congress denied it outrightly. Only the BJP supported the bishop.

Despite the word narco-terrorism or narcotics jihad currently being the buzzword among national security experts worldwide and the global media, including the Arab media widely reporting it, the State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan feigned ignorance about it. In response to the Bishop, he said he had never once heard the word.

Dismissing the genuine demand to act on the statement, the CM said both love jihad and narcotic jihad were not based on any statistics or facts. How can we call an all-party meeting on such non-issues? Both are non-existent. We dont want to call a meeting on non-existent issues. Some people are trying to exploit the situation by whipping them up and we have to isolate them first.

Debunking the love jihad theory, the CM said if the data on those involved in religious conversions and narcotics are analysed, it becomes clear that minorities do not have any special role in such activities. On the fact that few Christians and Hindus who converted to Islam joined the IS from Kerala, he said none of this has any religious involvement, nor can it be included in the category of religion.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader VD Satheesan of the Congress also condemned the statement of the Bishop. The BJP Kerala president K Surendran said the link between terrorism and drug trafficking is as clear as daylight. He categorically extended BJPs support to the Bishop on the issue. Meanwhile, Muslim organisations in Kerala demanded that the Bishop should disclose the details on the narco jihad in Kerala.

Evidence of Narco Jihad

Is there evidence of Narco Jihad in India, including Kerala? The answer is in the affirmative. Indias national media has extensively reported it; recently, the Indian Navy was widely quoted by the media on narco jihad. A statement issued by the Indian Navy at Kochi on April 19, this year, said the spoils of the narcotic trade feed syndicates involved in terrorism, radicalisation and criminal activities. The statement was issued after a haul of drugs worth Rs 3000 crore was illegally kept in a Sri Lankan fishing vessel off Minicoy in the Arabian sea. The Indian Navys warship INS Suvarna intercepted the boat, and the drugs were seized in a search.

In March 2021, the Indian Coast Guard intercepted another Sri Lankan boat off the Kerala coast and seized 300 kg of heroin, and five AK-47 rifles kept illegally. The media reports said that the seizure of drugs points to the narco Jihad in South Asia, covering India and Sri Lanka. Pakistans intelligence agency, the ISI, has created sleeper cells in the neighbouring countries and exported narcotics sourced from Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan to all over South Asia, including Kerala, to fund illegal activities, including radicalisation and terrorism.

Modus Operandi

The sheer volume of drugs seized from Kerala and a variety of drugs trafficked which includes cocaine, hashish oil and MDMA, prove the international links of the drug mafia operating in the State. The risks and uncertainties involved in trafficking make political support, nexus with corrupt officials and protection from armed and well-entrenched terrorist groups sine qua non for drug trafficking.

The Islamic terrorists, LTTE and Maoists are all involved in the drug peddling network in Kerala. In July, the Q branch of Tamil Nadu police, in coordination along with the anti-terrorist squad of Kerala Police, arrested three Sri Lankan nationals who were illegally staying in Angamaly, near Kochi in Kerala. Of the arrested, Suresh Raj, aka Chinna Suresh, was a kingpin of the drug trade in South Asia with close links to the Sri Lankan drug mafia, Pakistans drug cartels and the ISI. Media reports said he has confessed to the NIA his incriminating role as a handler of drugs and illegal arms sent by Pakistans narco jihadi groups. The fact that he stayed in Kerala with forged documents means he got help from the local associates, including politicians and officials. It would be puerile to think that he would not sell the drugs in the local market or refuse to be part of the ISI to spread the terror network in Kerala.

The recent arrest of a gang including a controversial lady Tayyiba Oulad, a native of Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district, with Rs 11 crore worth MDMA from Kakkanad, Kochi, shines light into the dark alleys of Narco Jihad and Love Jihad and the influence of drug cartels in Kerala politics. She is reported to be a convert with links to an extremist group. Tayyiba was present when the Kochi excise arrested her gang members and seized drugs. Still, she was let off initially, presumably following pressure from a leader of the ruling front, and her name was not included in the FIR. This led to an uproar, and later the crime branch of the state excise department arrested her.

Take the example of Muhammad Siddique aka, Snipper Sheikh, who was arrested by the state excise in May 2017.He agrees with the opinion of Pala Bishop about narco Jihad. Muhammad, the kingpin of a drugs racket, deals in synthetic drugs, mainly Nitrazepam, which focuses on ladies and students, especially girls. A handsome youngster with effeminate manners and long silky hair, Muhammad and his cohorts would lie in ambush in ice cream parlours and bakeries in Aluva to strike friendship with girls and lure them.

After establishing a friendship, they would lace sweets and soft drinks with synthetic drugs that would easily dissolve and give them to unwitty victims free of cost. The customers would feel special energy after the intake and would soon become regulars at the parlours. Later they would willingly spend and would graduate to other drugs. Those unable to pay would become carriers. Reports said those who got addicted were sexually exploited and radicalised.

When Keralas excise department seized around Rs 200 crore worth of ecstasy drug MDMA from a courier company office in Kochi in 2019, it shocked the country. Such vast amounts of MDMA has never been seized from the State. The drug was to be sent to Malaysia. The mastermind of the racket, Abdul Rahman alias Ali was later arrested from Trichy airport Tamil Nadu. The media had reported that he was associated with extremist groups.

Concept of Narco Jihad

The bishop of Pala does not invent the term narco-terrorism or narco-jihad. Even the United Nations Office widely uses it on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The UNODC considers narco-terrorism a global threat and works together with different nations to curb the menace. Narco-terrorism originated in South America and then spread to West Asia. Colombian Leftist guerrilla groups like FARC and M-19 once depended on narcotic money. Now the ISIS, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Haqqani Network and to a certain extent The Al Qaeda depends on it for funding. Even the Saudi Arabian media, including the Arab News and Al Arabiya television, use the term while reporting terrorism.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena had confirmed the involvement of international drug cartels in organising the Easter Sunday blast using the local Islamic terrorist group of National Tawaheed Jamaat (NTJ). The war against terrorism and the war against drugs have merged into one in many countries. Sri Lanka is the nearest example. However, political leaders of the CPI (M) and the Congress in Kerala are yet to hear about it.

Suppressing the truth

Terrorism is the elephant in the room in Kerala. Political parties, media and the police know precisely about the terrorist groups operating in the State, their wide network, their links with drug syndicates, investments and the full scope of their nefarious activities. But, even when cases are charged against terrorist groups, the security agencies never investigate their funding, relation with local authorities or political parties. Similarly, while charging cases against drug peddlers and seizing drugs, the police are not found to investigate the money trail of the drugs trade. The source of drugs that come to Kerala or lower-level peddlers links is not even discussed.

The former state police chief of Kerala Loknath Behera recently admitted the presence of sleeper cells of ISIS in Kerala, but Chief Minister Pinarayi contradicted him later and categorically denied it. Instead of acting on the facts, the Left and Congress in Kerala deny the truths about terrorist groups and the drug trade in the State. The result is both menaces are engulfing the State.
A CISF sub-inspector noticed the presence of a metal in a passenger and was taken to the medical exam room for an X-Ray of his lower body when he did not come up with a 'satisfactory' answer.

Imphal: A gold smuggler was held in Imphal airport while trying to smuggle 900 gm of gold hiding inside his rectum. Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) deployed in airport security on Monday (September 27) evening, arrested Mohammed Sheriff of Kozhikode, Kerala from Imphal airport while trying to board a Delhi bound flight.

A statement issued by the paramilitary force says the gold has been weighed 909 grams and valued at approximately  42 lakh.

A CISF sub-inspector reportedly noticed the presence of a metal in passenger Mohammed Sheriff's rectal cavity. When asked about the metal, authorities said he did not come up with a 'satisfactory' answer.

Sheriff was then taken to the medical exam room for an X-Ray of his lower body, and the reports showed that he had concealed metallic items (gold paste) in the rectum of his body. The man eventually confessed, after which senior CISF officials and the customs department were alerted.

A resident of Kozhikode in Kerala, Shereef, was to fly from Imphal to Delhi on an Air India flight at 2:40 pm on Monday. A senior police source in Imphal says that many gold smuggling rackets from Kerala are active in Manipur. Because of the strict vigil of police, the smugglers now try bizarre ways to smuggle gold. Kerala has been the hub of smuggled gold; these gangs are quite active in Manipur. Police are investigating the matter to nab the gold smuggling racket from Kerala.
The new university policy echoes the Taliban's first time in power in the 1990s when women were only allowed in public if accompanied by a male relative and said women would be indefinitely barred from the institution either as instructors or students.



In yet another move by the Taliban to curb women right in Afghanistan, the group's new chancellor for Kabul University announced on Monday (Sept 27) that women would be indefinitely barred from the institution either as instructors or students.

"As long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first," said the chancellor of Kabul University, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, on Twitter on Monday.

The new university policy echoes the Taliban's first time in power in the 1990s when women were only allowed in public if accompanied by a male relative and would be beaten for disobeying and were kept from school entirely.

"There is no hope, the entire higher education system is collapsing," said Mr Hamid Obaidi, a former spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education who was also a lecturer at the Journalism School of Kabul University. "Everything was ruined."

However, the Taliban's chief spokesperson, Mr Zabihullah Mujahid, tried to soften Mr Ghairat's announcement that women could not return to Kabul University, telling the Times, "It might be his own personal view."
US Air Force chief General Charles Brown said China is testing the responsiveness and speeds of reaction not only of the US Air Force but also the air defences of Taiwan and Japan.



Washington: US Air Force chief General Charles Brown is very focused on the growing challenge and assertiveness of China's military airpower over the Western Pacific and toward Japan and Taiwan, Sputnik reported.

General Charles Brown said on Tuesday (September 28) that China is operating "increased capability in some of their platforms [and on] their propensity to fly over the water a bit more and challenge in areas around the region".

Expressing view over China's rising capabilities, Brown said, "I am still hyper-focused on the capabilities of the PRC [People's Republic of China] and how they are operating, increased capability in some of their platforms [and on] their propensity to fly over the water a bit more and challenge in areas around the region, according to Sputnik."

Emphasising China's increasing flights in international waters, he said, "By stepping up its flights China is testing the responsiveness and speeds of reaction not only of the US Air Force but also the air defences of Taiwan and Japan."

Underling Beijing's continuous violation of Taiwan's air defence zone, he said that China challenges Taipei in internal space every day. "It's not just Taiwan. Japan sees some of the same things," he said.

US forces are also observing the "increased tempo" of longer-range operations by the PLA Air Force, he said, adding that the Chinese force attempt to see "how American units respond and react".

Courtesy: ANI
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DALLAS (AP)  Eight people, including four firefighters, were injured Wednesday morning in an explosion at an apartment complex in south Dallas, authorities said.

Three firefighters were critically injured, while the other was discharged after receiving hospital treatment for minor injuries, said Dallas Fire-Rescue Jason Evans. Four civilians were hospitalized in stable condition.
A survey, published last week by Small Business Association of Michigan, shows labor shortages remain a top concern for a majority of small businesses statewide.

Because of this, more than half of the businesses surveyed (62%) say they've had to increase wages to attract and maintain employees since the start of 2020.

For instance, The Amazing Deli, a restaurant that crafts made-to-order sandwiches located in Midland, has boosted its starting wage for employees since 2020, according to General Manager Kevin Haggart.

Haggart said that despite having to raise the starting wage a bit, the main challenge is getting people to work.

The worker shortage is most visible in food and retail businesses, according to the survey.

"We're hearing all over the place, and in nearly every industry, that increases, even very substantial increases in salaries are still not attracting many applicants in the work place," Brian Calley, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan, told WOOTV.

The survey also asked small business owners their stance on the federal vaccine mandate.

It was revealed that owners oppose the mandate by a margin of 2:1, with nearly 30% in support and the majority (58%) in opposition and 13% of owners having no opinion.

Its not surprising that most business owners oppose the vaccine mandate, especially given the worker shortage, Calley said in a press release. This federal overreach threatens to make a difficult staffing situation even worse.

The survey was conducted Sept. 10 to 17 and included 680 Michigan small businesses. Read the full results here.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea said Wednesday that it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile it implied was being developed as nuclear capable, as it continues to expand its military capabilities and pressure Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons.

The missile test early Tuesday was North Korea's third round of launches this month and took place shortly before North Koreas U.N. envoy accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration permanently end joint military exercises with South Korea and the deployment of strategic assets in the region.

A photo published in North Korea's state media showed a missile mounted with a finned, cone-shaped payload soaring into the air amid bright orange flames.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the missile during its first flight test met key technical requirements  including launch stability and the maneuverability and flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the missile to be at an early stage of development and said North Korea would need considerable time to be able to deploy it operationally.

The Norths announcement came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected North Korea firing a missile into its eastern sea. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch highlighted the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the reports very disturbing" and said: We remain convinced that the only way forward for the Korean Peninsula is for diplomatic engagement by the parties."

In a separate report, KCNA said the Norths rubber-stamp parliament opened a session on Tuesday and discussed domestic issues such as economic policies and youth education and that the meetings would continue.

Some experts speculate the North might use the session to address the deadlock on nuclear diplomacy, but the state media report did not mention any comments made about Washington and Seoul.

At a ruling party meeting in January, leader Kim Jong Un named hypersonic glide vehicles, which are launched from a rocket before gliding into a target, as among a wish-list of sophisticated military assets. KCNA described the new missile as an important addition to the countrys strategic weaponry, implying that the system is being developed to deliver nuclear weapons.

The report also said the test confirmed the stability of the missiles fuel capsule, indicating a technology to add liquid propellant beforehand and keep it launch-ready for years. And a North Korean official said the North planned to expand the system to all of its liquid-fuel missiles.

Liquid-fuel missiles are more vulnerable than solid-fuel missiles because they need to be fueled separately and transported to launch sites using trucks that can be seen by enemy satellites or other military assets.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea is trying to improve the mobility of these weapons.

North Korea last week made offers to improve relations with South Korea under certain conditions, apparently returning to its pattern of mixing weapons demonstrations with peace overtures to wrest outside concessions.

Negotiations over its nuclear program have been in a stalemate since February 2019. North Korea has demanded the lifting of U.S.-led sanctions while insisting it has the right to nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have made it clear that the sanctions will stay in place until the North takes concrete steps toward denuclearization.

Kim Jong Un in recent political speeches has vowed to bolster his nuclear program as a deterrent to the U.S.

His government has so far rejected the Biden administrations offer to resume talks without preconditions, saying that Washington must abandon its hostile policy first, a term North Korea mainly uses to refer to sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korea military drills the North considers to be an invasion rehearsal.

Kim's influential sister reached out to Seoul twice last week, saying her country was open to resuming talks and reconciliatory steps if conditions are met.

Analysts say North Korea is using the Souths desire for inter-Korean engagement to pressure Seoul to extract concessions from Washington on Kim's behalf as he renews an attempt to leverage his nuclear weapons for badly needed economic and security benefits.

North Koreas weapons displays could also be aimed at shoring up domestic unity as Kim faces perhaps his toughest moment nearing a decade in rule, with pandemic border closures unleashing further shock on an economy battered by sanctions and decades of mismanagement.

Experts say the North will likely continue its testing activity in the coming months as it dials up its pressure campaign, at least until China begins pushing for calm ahead of the Beijing Olympics early next year.
NEW YORK (AP)  The spread of COVID-19 vaccination requirements across the U.S. hasn't had the desired effect so far, with the number of Americans getting their first shots plunging in recent weeks. And some experts worry that the move to dispense boosters could just make matters worse.

The fear is that the rollout of booster shots will lead some people to question the effectiveness of the vaccine in the first place.

Many of my patients are already saying, If we need a third dose, what was the point? said Dr. Jason Goldman, a physician in Coral Springs, Florida.

The average daily count of Americans getting a first dose of vaccine has been falling for six weeks, plummeting more than 50% from about 480,000 in early August to under 230,000 by the middle of last week, according to the most recently available federal data.

An estimated 70 million vaccine-eligible Americans have yet to start vaccinations, despite a summer surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the delta variant.

This is the case despite a growing number of businesses announcing vaccination requirements for their employees, including Google, McDonald's, Microsoft and Disney. Also, big cities such as New York and San Francisco are demanding people be vaccinated to eat at restaurants or enter certain other businesses.

Separately, President Joe Biden announced sweeping new vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans on Sept. 9. Employees at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll will have to get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. But the mandates have yet to go into effect; the necessary regulations are still being drawn up.

Allie French, of Omaha, Nebraska, said the move toward booster shots only reinforced her strong belief that vaccinations arent necessary, particularly for people who take care of themselves.

It comes back to a mindset of not needing your hand held through every situation, said French, founder of a small advocacy group called Nebraskans Against Government Overreach.

Tara Dukart, a 40-year-old rancher from Hazen, North Dakota, and a board member for Health Freedom North Dakota, an organization that has fought mask and vaccine mandates, said: "I think that there is a tremendous amount of hesitancy because why get a third shot if the first two shots didnt work?

Scientists have emphasized that the vaccine remains highly effective against serious illness and death from COVID-19, noting that the unvaccinated account for the vast majority of the dead and hospitalized recently. But experts have also seen signs that the vaccines protection may be slipping, and they want to get out ahead of the problem.

Experts have long said the key to ending the U.S. epidemic is vaccinating the vast majority of the American public  perhaps as much as 90%. But of the more than 283 million Americans age 12 and older who are eligible for shots, only about 65%  184 million  are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Children under 12 are not yet eligible to get vaccinated, meaning only about 55% of the U.S. public is fully protected.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that health officials have not lost sight of that problem. The booster effort will not distract us from our most important focus  to get as many people as possible vaccinated with a primary series, she said.

White House officials said they doubt the need for boosters is a real concern among the vast majority of the unvaccinated, who for a variety of reasons, including misinformation, have continued to resist getting their shots despite nearly a years worth of data showing their lifesaving potential.

They argue, too, that as the pool of unvaccinated Americans gradually shrinks, there will be declines in the numbers of new people getting shots. They say the latest numbers should not be read as a sign that mandates aren't working, noting that most businesses havent yet put in place the Biden administration's vaccinate-or-test policy.

Indeed, despite the downward vaccination trends seen in CDC data, they say there is evidence employer mandates are already working. White House officials cited a number of success stories, including strong increases in the percentage of vaccinated employees at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, United Airlines and the Defense Department.

Noel Brewer, a University of North Carolina professor of health behavior, said the mandates show promise and there is good reason to be optimistic.

I think were heading into a great season for vaccinations. Everything is lining up in a good way, said Brewer, who advises the CDC and the World Health Organization on COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC authorized booster doses of Pfizer's vaccine for tens of millions of Americans who are 65 and older, have underlying health conditions or work in jobs that put them at high risk. The extra dose would be given six months after the two-shot regimen.

Regulators have yet to take up the question of booster shots for people who got the Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

More than 400,000 Americans got boosters at drugstores over the weekend, and 1 million more have signed up for them, according to White House officials.

But some members of an expert panel that advises the CDC worried last week that the booster discussion was a distraction from the more pressing need to get more Americans vaccinated.

We have a very effective vaccine, and its like saying, Its not working, said Dr. Pablo Sanchez of Ohio State University.

At that meeting, a CDC official presented unpublished data from a recent 1,000-person survey that suggested that offering boosters would make 25% of unvaccinated Americans much less likely to get a shot. This week, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll of more than 1,500 adults found that 71% of the unvaccinated say the recent news about boosters is a sign that the vaccines arent working.

Some outside experts saw this coming.

Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin, said last week that if vaccine-hesitant people "start to get the idea that this is only going to last for six or eight or 10 months, they may be further soured on the whole idea.

Meanwhile, the pandemic's summer surge has shown signs of easing. Deaths are still running high at over 2,000 a day on average, but cases and hospitalizations are trending down.

While any ebb in COVID-19's toll is welcome, it also may undercut health officials' effort to instill a sense of urgency in the unvaccinated. That could be a difficult task even when cases were exploding.

Dr. Alex Jahangir, director of orthopedic trauma surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the head of a coronavirus task force in Nashville, Tennessee, recalled operating on an elderly man injured in a car wreck over the summer. The man survived those injuries but ended up dying from COVID-19.

Jahangir said he was struck by how the mans family seemed to absorb the facts about the COVID-19's dangers only at the very end.

Only when they were negatively impacted did they seek the truth," Jahangir said.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington; Grant Schulte in Omaha, Nebraska; and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this story.

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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A joint statement issued by 50 national health care organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, in support of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all workers in health and long-term care shows there isn't much argument from the medical community that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and crucial for preventing serious illness from the virus.

However, when it comes to mandating the vaccine for health care workers in hospitals that are already facing staffing shortages, major Michigan health systems are divided on the decision to require it.

As of late August, three major Michigan health systems had announced policies to require COVID-19 vaccinations, including Beaumont, Henry Ford and Spectrum. Their deadlines varied, stretching through the fall and into early 2022, but all of them require full vaccination as a means to protect staff and patients alike from COVID.

Additionally, Henry Ford is believed to be the first major hospital system in Michigan to require COVID-19 vaccinations of all its team members, students, volunteers and contractors. The announcement came June 29.

After the federal vaccine mandate was announced on Sept. 9 requiring that hospital workers be vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, more major health systems in the state implemented vaccine mandates. But, not all of them have.

Last Wednesday, Sept. 22, Munson joined the list of health systems with a vaccine mandate. Prior to that, Ascension also moved to require its employees to be inoculated against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, four major Michigan health systems remain without a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. They include Detroit Medical Center, McLaren, MidMichigan Health, and Sparrow health systems, MLive reported.

The conversation around vaccine mandates will continue for these health systems, as they strongly encourage their employees to be vaccinated. Magen Samyn, regional vice president of marketing and business development for McLaren Health Care, cites a concern for losing staff members while already dealing with a shortage of workers as a possible reason to avoid a vaccine mandate.

Many doctors are concerned that COVID-19 vaccine mandates may lead to an employee exodus that would affect patient care, according to CEOs of Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland-based University Hospitals and Johnson City, Tennessee-based Ballad Health.

The CEOs said they worried that some healthcare workers would rather quit or be fired than get inoculated. Dr. Mihaljevic, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic, said hospitals are already understaffed, and losing healthcare employees during a public health crisis would jeopardize the clinic's ability to provide care.

While some of these large hospital systems havent decided to require the shot, that could change over time. Last week, Lansing-based Sparrow informed its employees that it would be required to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, MLive reported.

Additionally, MidMichigan's Public Relations Manager Millie Jezior said despite no vaccine mandate for the hospital, "we are continuing to monitor the situation closely."

Overall, in the U.S, a recent American Medical Association study revealed some 96% of physicians are now vaccinated. Rates are significantly lower for nurses, although estimates of hesitancy vary from study to study.

Across the spectrum of healthcare workers, a study published in August found the vaccination rate to be 73%.

To find a vaccine near you, visit Michigans COVID-19 vaccine website here or go to VaccineFinder.org.
It started with a doctor noticing Martina Ricards name, having known her retired nurse mother and him being impressed with the work of Sanford Strong.

Midland doctor Mark Ostahowski, of The Physicians Association of Mid-Michigan Communities Medical Foundation, contacted Ricards in April and commended her on the work she and the other members were doing with Sanford Strong. He said he had followed all the work and he was part of a newly-formed team of doctors donating their time and resources. He asked Ricards if the village had any medical needs.

Ricards, a Sanford Village Council member, who along with her sister, Emily, and resident Teresa Quintana, created Sanford Strong, centered around rebuilding the village after the May 2020 mid-Michigan dam failures. When the Sanford Dam failed, the entire village experienced devastating flooding.

Many relationships were formed following the dam failures, including the connection between Ostahowski and Ricards. From that connection, the Jerome Township Fire Department is slated to be awarded nearly $17,000 to purchase the Lucas Device. The check is scheduled to be presented on Oct. 23.

Im continually humbled, Ricards said of how Sanford Strong has gained momentum to become what it was intended to be  to aid in the rebuilding of Sanford and aiding those impacted by the dam failures.

Ricards said getting the equipment is important to the fire department. Jerome Township Fire Department Lt. Marc Thrush, who is also the medical officer and has been a paramedic for 20 years, explained why it was so important.

For the past few years, weve been hoping to purchase a Lucas Device, which is a mechanical chest compression system, Thrush said. This device assists in providing high quality chest compressions, which are essential to modern 'lifesaving CPR.' Unfortunately, due to current budget constraints, along with the recent flooding from the dam failures, we do not have the funding available to make this purchase.

Until now, when they receive the funds from on Oct. 23. The department will be one of the first, if not the first, to receive a grant from the Physicians Association of Mid-Michigan Community Medical Foundation.

Im ecstatic to be able to help the people of Sanford that much faster, Thrush said Tuesday. Anything I can do to help the people of Midland County, I want to do it.

Thrush said the Jerome Township Fire Department regularly responds to cardiac related medical emergencies, many of which are cardiac arrests. He said the mechanical chest compression system will assist in providing high quality chest compressions which are essential to modern lifesaving CPR.

Jerome Township firefighter Kevin Nillis said he watched the device bring a man back from a heart attack.

Its quite amazing, Nillis said.

Because the machine does not stop or tire, it can ensure the implementation of high-quality compressions with sufficient depth, and lack of interruptions, some studies have also shown the mechanical compression can achieve higher intrathoracic pressure then manual compression, thereby increasing blood flow and perfusion pressure in coronary and systemic circulation and improve long-term survivability- high-quality CPR improves recovery and survival rates.

Thrush cited some Midland and Gladwin County patient stats. Both counties began using the device in 2019.

 In 2017-18, prior to having the Lucas Device, Midland and Gladwin EMS crews had a return of spontaneous circulation rate of 13%, which is close to the national average in 2017-18. That increased to 44% when the Lucas Device was introduced in Midland and Gladwin counties in 2019.

 Midland and Gladwin EMS had a discharged alive rate of 24%  almost triple the national average. In 2020, Midland and Gladwin EMS achieved a ROSC rate of 39%, with 16% of patients being discharged alive  this is double the national average

Thrush said the numbers demonstrate the importance of high-quality CPR.

I believe that if the Jerome Township Fire Department could obtain a Lucas Device, this would further help these already impressive number, Thrush said.

He said with a busy, overtaxed EMS system, the fire department frequently beats the ambulance to the scene of the emergency.

We could get this life saving equipment on the patient and start unwavering, non-tiring, high-quality CPR and hopefully improve the quality of care and patient outcome, Thrush said.

Thrush notes that in addition to routine cardiac medical responses, the area also has many acres of state land. They occasionally respond to cardiac issues in the wooded areas.

It is virtually impossible to perform CPR while extricating the patient out of the woods, Thrush said. The Lucas Device would allow us to deliver high-quality CPR while extricating and removing the patient from the woods.

Adding to the benefits, the Lucas Device eliminates rescuer fatigue during an arrest. Various studies have found that rescuer fatigue can occur within one minute, coupled with a decay in the quality of chest compressions. The Lucas Device would be applied to the patient at the scene and would stay on the patient throughout transport and be taken off at the hospital. This care would give our potential patient the best care that they can receive while have an emergency.
LONDON (AP)  Britains government plans to allow researchers to use gene-editing techniques to develop crops that can increase yields, reduce the need for pesticides and cut greenhouse gas emissions as the U.K.s exit from the European Union allows it to deviate from the blocs rules.

Gene editing could help scientists to quickly breed crops that are more nutritious or resistant to pests and diseases, the government said in announcing its plan to make it easier for scientists to conduct research in the field.
PORTAGE, Ind. (AP)  U.S. Steel says a northwestern Indiana plant's discharge of elevated levels of iron were the cause of an orange plume that entered a Lake Michigan tributary, prompting the closure of several nearby beaches and a water treatment facility.

Company spokeswoman Amanda Malkowski said in a statement late Monday that an analysis of the discharge from the U.S. Steel Midwest plant in Portage revealed elevated concentrations of iron causing the discoloration" in the the Burns Waterway.

The company did not indicate what concentrations of iron were detected in the discharge, and it was not immediately clear whether the release posed any threat to public health, the environment or wildlife.

U.S. Steel idled the plant about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Chicago as a precaution after it said the wastewater treatment facility experienced an upset condition that sent the rusty colored plume into the waterway Sunday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it was awaiting results from its own samples of the plant's discharge and would provide an update once those results are analyzed.

The EPA did not respond to a question from The Associated Press about what impact elevated iron levels could pose to humans, animals or the environment.

Gabriel Filippelli, a professor or earth sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said the test results released by U.S. Steel were vague but that, in general, iron itself is just kind of a nuisance rather than a contaminant that requires a significant amount of intervention."

With testing still underway, however, Filippelli said it remained to be seen whether the discharge could have contained toxic heavy metals such as mercury or lead, or other contaminants.

Who knows what else it was carrying? Usually when you find iron you find some other nasty stuff," he said.

An Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokesman said Tuesday that the agency was investigating and would provide an update after it receives and analyzes sampling test results.

Neither the EPA, IDEM or U.S. Steel indicated if any type of cleanup was planned.

Indiana Dunes National Park closed all of its beaches and the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk on Sunday until further notice as a precaution, while Indiana American Water shut down its Ogden Dunes treatment facility Sunday night, also as a precaution.

The discharge plant comes weeks after a federal judge approved a revised settlement with the company, more than four years after the Portage plant discharged wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into the Burns Waterway.

U.S. Steel agreed to pay a $601,242 civil penalty and more than $625,000 to reimburse various agencies for costs associated with their response in April 2017 after the plant spilled 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of hexavalent chromium  or 584 times the daily maximum limit allowed under state permitting laws.

Malkowski said in Monday's statement that sampling of the discharge found no indications of permit level exceedances for hexavalent and total chromium, as those sampling results came in well below permit limits."

She said preliminary sampling results showed that the Portage plant remains in compliance with numeric permit limits.
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Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Urgent support is needed for tens of thousands of missing migrant families who are often forced to rely on smugglers and other informal networks, to trace loved ones, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday
Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritius Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) were approved on Tuesday by the Inter-Ministerial Council on Climate Change meeting in the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis, the Government Information Services (GIS) said
Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese authorities say security units apprehended 11 terrorists related to Islamic State (ISIS) in a raid on Tuesday at their hideout in Khartoum, the national capital
Photo: (Photo : Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

A new report has confirmed that the child who plunged to her death from one of the rides at the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Following an investigation, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment found that Wongel Estifanos, six years old, sat on her seatbelt when she joined the Haunted Mine Drop. No one from the operators noticed that she wasn't securely strapped to her seat.

The control system would have prevented the ride's dispatch when passengers were not buckled. However, because two of the staff assigned on the Haunted Mine Drop were new and didn't have any training, they released the ride without ensuring that the passengers were safe and secure.

According to CNN, the Haunted Mine Drop, which opened in 2017, is a tower-style ride that drops 110 feet to the ground. It can simulate a freefall as it carries six passengers at a time.

However, since the child was not strapped with her seat belt, she was separated from her seat and fell down the shaft. The report also cited those new operators were focused on the steps to release the ride, distracting them from checking the safety of the passengers.

Read Also: Halloween 2021: CDC Director Says Trick-Or-Treating Possible With Some Safety Guidelines

Haunted Mine Drop Closed

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has not yet opened the Haunted Mine Drop after the accident on September 5. The state's Department of Labor and Employment said they have yet to reissue the ride's permit.

Steve Beckley, the founder of the adventure park, confirmed that they had received the safety report from the state. He extended his sympathies to the girl's family.

"We want the Estifanos family to know how deeply sorry we are for their loss and how committed we are to making sure it never happens again," Beckley said in a statement.

However, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park should expect to receive a wrongful death lawsuit from the Estifanos family. Their lawyers are in the process of talking to witnesses who may have had some problems and experiences at the Haunted Mine Drop before Wongel died.

The popular ride was last inspected by a third party three months before the accident and was found to be in compliance with all the safety regulations. According to the International Association of Amusement Rides and Attractions, park attraction injuries one in 15.5 million rides taken at a given year. Across 440 facilities in North America, only 1,200 injuries are reported annually.

Who is Wongel?

Wongel visited the park with her family for a brief vacation before the start of school. Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park was located in a mountain resort some 40 miles away from Aspen.

Those who know the family described Wongel as "a beautiful, caring, and cheerful girl" who was devoted to Jesus at such an early age. She was supposed to return to the Stetson Elementary School in Colorado Springs after the family holiday.

Reports cited that the amusement park's personnel administered first aid after Wongel fell, but the paramedics who arrived on the scene pronounced her dead. The coroner said that Wongel suffered from multiple blunt force injuries.

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has been in coordination with the Estifanos family since the accident, while the Colorado Springs community launched a GoFundMe page for those Wongel left behind.

Related Article: How to Prevent Salmonella in Kids as Mysterious Outbreak Impacts 29 States
In March, it was revealed that Apple was in talks to finance the film "The Greatest Beer Run Ever, with Russle Crowe and Zac Efron. At the time, the deal was nowhere near being closed. Apple obviously closed the deal shortly thereafter because we're learning today that the original Apple Film has added four new cast members: Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux and Kyle Allen.

Beer Run tells Donohues story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army  while they are fighting in Vietnam. Donohue took a good idea to the extreme, hitching a ride on a Merchant Marine ship, then carrying the beer through the jungle as he tried to track down his three friends. Dressed in shorts and Hawaiian shirts, he was mistaken for CIA, which made his effort a bit easier. Finally, when he completed his beer run, the Tet Offensive happened. Efron will play Donohue. For more, read the full Deadline report.

New Apple TV+ Comedy Series: Amber Brown

Greys Anatomy alumna Sarah Drew and child actor Carsyn Rose (The Rookie) headline Amber Brown, an Apple TV+ single-camera comedy series based on the bestselling books by Paula Danziger. The series, which co-stars Darin Brooks (Blue Mountain State) and newcomer Liliana Inouye, is written and directed by Bonnie Hunt (Life with Bonnie), who also serves as executive producer and showrunner. Filming on the series, produced by Boat Rocker, is underway in Salt Lake City.

Amber Brown is described as an unfiltered look at a girl finding her own voice through art and music in the wake of her parents divorce. Rose plays Amber Brown, an everykid who is going through what many children experience, and making sense of her new family dynamic through her sketches and video diary. Drew plays Ambers mother Sarah, a good, caring mom with strict rules. Brooks plays Sarahs boyfriend, Max; Inouye plays Ambers friend Brandi Colwin. For more, read the full Deadline report or the Apple TV+ press release.

Blush  Official Trailer

In mid-April, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Original Films announces the Short Animation Film 'Blush' from Skydance Animation is coming to Apple TV+." In mid-June we reported that "Blush" was premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Apple has officially released the official trailer for Blush. The story is about an astronauts chance encounter with an ethereal being leads to an astonishing adventure about life and love.

Archive: Apple TV News
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, known as the "Maker of Modern India" and "Father of the Bengal Renaissance", advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology. For this objective he established the Hindu College in Kolkata in 1817.

His progressive views were bitterly opposed by the orthodox Hindus. However, after some years his unorthodox views of advocating Westernized education prevailed and helped India and Bengal become modernized.

Syed Ahmad Khan, born on 17th October, 1817 (the year of the establishment of Hindu College), founded the Muslim School in 1875 with the same ideas and objectives as that of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Sir Syed was also bitterly opposed by orthodox Muslims. Both Syed and Roy, the great reformers of their times, were abused by religious bigots but undeterred, they did not surrender to them. Fortunately, Hindu opposition died down after sometime but Muslim opposition continued for a long time. The result was obvious. Muslims lagged behind to their Hindu brothers in modern education.

According to Hunter Survey Report released in 1878, the total number of Graduates (Arts, Science, Law, Engineering and Medicine) produced in North India during ten years (between 1855 to 1875) were counted as 3155 out of which only 57 were Muslims. With a population of about 30%, Muslim representation in modern education was hardly 1.6%. (The Aligarh Movement, Tariq Khan, 2006).

Sir Syed Ahmed championed the cause of modern education at a time when all the Indians in general and Indian Muslims in particular, considered it a sin to get modern education through English language. It was in this context that Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru described Sir Syed as "an ardent reformer who wanted to reconcile modern scientific thought with religion by rationalistic interpretations and not by attacking the basic belief. He was anxious to push new education. He was in no way communally separatist. Repeatedly he emphasized that religious differences should have no political and national significance."(Discovery of India).

Similar views were expressed by Mr. I.K. Gujral, former Prime Minister of India, when he stated "Sir Syed's vision and his laborious efforts to meet the demands of challenging times are highly commendable. The dark post-1857 era was indeed hopeless and only men like Raja Mohan Roy and Sir Syed could penetrate through its thick veil to visualize the Nation's destinies. They rightly believed that the past had its merits and its legacies were valuable but it was the future that a society was called upon to cope with. I offer my homage to Sir Syed for his vision and courage that withstood all obstructions both from the friends and the foes". (Message to Sir Syed Scientific Society, Lucknow).

The great visionary Iqbal expressed his opinion that "the real greatness of the man (Sir Syed) consists in the fact that he was the first Indian Muslim who felt the need of a fresh orientation of Islam and worked for it".

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad expressed similar views 'Sir Syed had established at Aligarh not only a college but an intellectual and cultural centre in tune with the progressive spirit of the times'.

Mr. Somnath Chatterjee also made the observation that "He wanted the College (now transformed into this University), to act as a bridge between the old and the new and the East and the West. He actively advocated the necessity of modern and scientific education. He wanted that the students of the college should preach the gospel of free enquiry, of large-hearted toleration and of pure morality. (Address to Aligarh students, 2001).

India was passing through a very difficult period after the failure of so-called 1857 Mutiny. British Rulers became more confident of their Raj over the country as they had planned meticulously to divide the Indians on the basis of their religion. But Sir Syed cautioned people, particularly Muslims, against the designs of their Masters. He declared ''Remember the words Hindu and Muslim are only meant for religious distinction: otherwise all persons who reside in this country belong to one and the same nation.'' He considered Hindus and Muslims as the two eyes of a bride who would look miserable if one is lost or weakened. Thus highly secular in his approach, he pleaded to Muslims to be more practical, rational and aware of the changing society. Old values of education had become outdated in his opinion. He wanted Muslims to have scientific temper and modern attitude in life and for this he asked them to learn Science and Engineering, the subjects which unfortunately became alien to them.

He founded the School Aligarh for this purpose in May 1875 with barely fifty students on role. He left his government job and settled in Aligarh to fight for the battle against those who were deadly against the English 'Talim' (education). In the process, Sir Syed had to swallow insults and decrees of some misguided Muslims who denounced and called him atheist, an enemy of Islam, slave of English masters and what not. In one such decree (Fatwa) he was declared the agent of Devil.

Undaunted and unconcerned with titles like atheist, Naturi, etc., Sir Syed dedicated himself still more towards the cause of education. His voice ultimately made a dent in the Indian social structure and Hindus and Muslims of the country helped him in large numbers to further his cause.

It is very important to note that amongst the first 120 people who gave valuable donations for the construction of the school building were several Hindus like Choudhary Sher Singh, Kunwar Lekhraj Singh, Raja Shiv Narain Singh, Raja Ghanshyam Singh, Raja Uday Pratap Singh, Lala Phul Chand, Lala Vasudeo Sahai and others. Their names still decorate the old buildings of the Aligarh Muslim University.

Sir Syed firmly believed that ''acquisition of knowledge of science and technology is the only solution for the problems of Muslims.'' Through Aligarh Institute Gazette, Sir Syed succeeded in agitating the minds in the traditional Muslim Society. Dream of Sir Syed, i.e., the Aligarh Muslim University, produced intellectuals in large numbers who served the country in various capacities. It is a tribute to Sir Syed that the first graduate of Aligarh University was the great revolutionary Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh. No one can forget persons like Dr. Zakir Husain and Dr. Syed Mahmood, the products of Aligarh, who adorned the high offices of the country.

Sir Syed felt the necessity to harmonize Islam with modern science and rationalism. He wanted Muslims to develop a spirit of enquiry and research because in his opinion Islam was no barrier to scientific inquiry and social progress. In the opinion of Sir Syed, superstitious beliefs and the aversion to Western education were the main causes for the backwardness of the Indian Muslims. In all his actions and beliefs, Sir Syed was a true follower of Raja Ram Mohan Rai.
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward.

Once Bihar, known then as Magadh, was famous as a great centre of learning. It boasted one of the largest universities in the world in Nalanda District, housing more than 10,000 students and over 2,000 teachers and attracted students from such far away places as China and Mongolia. At present, with 47.53 percent, Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in the country.

Today Bihar has over 2.7 million children who do not go to school. In Bihar, 60 percent of children drop out of school at the primary level and around 75 percent at the middle level. The proportion is higher for girls. In 2002, Bihar had more than 190,000 vacancies for school teachers. The state has, on an average, 1 teacher per 84 pupils. The national average is 1 teacher per 40 pupils. In 2002-2003, UNICEF worked with the government to recruit and train 42,000 teachers. In 2005, UNICEF urged the government to begin teachers recruitment and training again. The government of Bihar is going to recruit 2.35 lakh teachers in the vacant seats in the schools of Bihar. It will bring teacher-pupil ratio to the national figure of 1:40. This would be the largest exercise, ever undertaken, in terms of numbers, and also a major breakthrough in regard to decentralization and devolution of powers to the Panchayati Raj institutions for management of school education as envisaged under 73rd and 74th amendment of the Constitution.

This is high time when one should focus on policies leading to quality teachers and teaching. Largest source of variation in student learning is attributable to differences in what students bring to school  their abilities and attitudes, and family and community background. Of those variables which are potentially open to policy influence, factors to do with teachers and teaching are the most important influences on student learning. It is difficult to predict who is going to be a good teacher just by considering the more measurable characteristics of teachers (e.g. qualifications, teaching experience, and indicators of academic ability and subject-matter knowledge). There are many important aspects of teacher quality that are not captured by the more measurable characteristics, such as:

 Ability to convey ideas in clear and convincing ways;

 To create effective learning environments for different types of students;

 To foster productive teacher-student relationships;

 To be enthusiastic and creative;

 To work effectively with colleagues and parents.

Policies for developing more effective teachers and teaching have intensified in recent years due to the profound economic and social changes underway and the imperatives for schools to provide the foundations for lifelong learning.

Some of the teacher and teaching related policies are suggested as follows. These policies have general relevance for teachers urban areas but take on special significance in rural and remote areas.

A. Teacher Recruitment

Improve selection into teacher education

 Information and counselling

 Assessment

 Early school experience

 Incentives for high potentials

 Put basic teacher salaries in periphery at parity with urban areas.

 Provide salary differentials and/or hardship pay for teaching in difficult areas.

 Develop programs to increase teachers social status and recognition

B. Developing Teachers Knowledge and Skills

1. Developing teacher profiles

Clear and concise standards of what teachers are expected to know and be able to do.

 reflect broad range of competencies.

 provide framework to guide and integrate initial

 teacher education, certification, induction and on-going professional development.

 should be evidence-based and reflect student learning objectives.

 should be built on active involvement by teaching profession.

2. Teacher education:

Provide more flexible forms of initial teacher education

 Modular, part-time, distance education

 Alternate routes for mid-career changers

Strengthen partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools

 Overt and deliberate partnerships

 Earlier and broader field experience

Subsidize teacher enrollment in courses for earning/upgrading credentials. Associate teacher education with credentials, pay raises, promotion, and job security. Empower and train school principals as instructional leaders/ supervisors. Use distance/ extension education programs so that teachers can upgrade credentials without too much disruption to family life.

3. Strengthening induction programmes

 Formalise induction programmes

 Qualify mentor teachers

 Provide sufficient resources for induction and reduced teaching obligation for mentors and beginning teachers

 Link successful completion of induction to certification

4. Integrating professional development throughout the teaching career

Provide incentives for lifelong learning of all teachers

 Entitle teachers to release time and/or financial support for professional development

 Create incentives: e.g., link professional development to teacher appraisal and career advancement

 Link individual teacher development with school improvement needs

5. Broaden the range of different professional development opportunities, e.g.

 Peer review and action research

 Mutual school visits

 Teacher and school networks

6. Provide more coherent framework for professional development, develop teachers learning communities

 Training, practice and feedback

 Follow-up rather than one shot events

 Teacher portfolios

C. Teacher Deployment

 Offer extra credit toward promotion for teaching in peripheral areas.

 Create organizational mechanisms to ensure that teachers recruited and trained for work in the periphery are indeed placed there.

 Provide special preparation for teaching in the periphery prior to teachers taking up assignments (including training in multigrade teaching and working under difficult conditions).

 Develop means of overcoming the image of social isolation.

 Develop strategies to support deployment of husband/wife teams.

 Offer subsidized housing as part of teaching contract.

 Cover moving costs to remote locations.

D. Teacher Retention

 Payment of overtime for extra work/preparation. Bonus for regular attendance. Bonus for student achievement.

 Improved management of automatic promotion systems (eliminate paperwork bottlenecks).

 Community contributions toward teacher welfare/earnings.

 Organize school clusters and/or working groups for peer support and group problem solving.

 Empower teachers as co-developers of school curriculum and in service education programs.

 Solicit community for teacher aids and guest instructors.

 Promote special recognition of teachers by community.

 Use decentralized systems of resource (e.g., textbooks) provision and distribution.

 Provide access to teacher education/ teacher upgrading courses (through distance or extension education).

 Make in-service teacher education relevant to teacher needs in the periphery.

 Involve teachers/teacher groups in the planning and implementation of their own in-service education.

 Maintain housing subsidies.

 Cover costs of occasional home visits for those not originating in school vicinity.

 Provide assistance for health care and education of family members.

 Scholarships for children and free books.

E. Providing Schools with More Responsibility for Teacher Personnel Development

Schools need to have more responsibility and accountability for working conditions, and development.

Pre-requisites:

 Developing school leaders skills in personnel management;

 Providing disadvantaged schools with greater resources;

 Monitoring the outcomes of a more decentralised approach;

 Creating independent appeals procedures to ensure fairness and protect teachers rights.

F. Evaluating and Rewarding Effective Teaching

There needs to be a stronger emphasis on teacher evaluation for improvement purposes. Opportunity for teachers work to be recognised and celebrated and help both teachers and schools to identify developmental needs.

Pre-requisites:

 Teacher appraisal to occur within a framework provided by profession-wide agreed statements of standards of professional performance;

 Evaluators need to be trained and evaluated themselves;

 Evaluation frameworks and tools need to be provided.

G. Providing More Opportunities for Career Diversification

Teaching would benefit from a career ladder based on skills, responsibilities and performance. There needs to be more opportunities for career diversity and mobility (between schools, between roles, and between teaching and other careers).

H. Teaching Needs to Become a Knowledge-rich Profession

Teaching needs to become a knowledge-rich profession in which individuals continually develop, and have the incentives and opportunities to do so, research is integrated into practice, and schools become professional learning communities that encourage and draw on teachers development.

I. Improving Leadership and School Climate

A range of initiatives should be taken to strengthen leadership in schools:

 Improve training, selection and evaluation processes for school principals;

 Establish leadership teams in schools;

 School leaders to be trained and supported in conducting evaluations and linking them to school planning.

J. Improving Working Conditions

 School facilities

 Classroom facilities

 Number of students

 Age range of students

 Collegiality

There needs to be an explicit recognition of the wide variety of tasks that teaching actually entails. Well trained support and administrative staff can help to reduce the burden on teachers and free them to concentrate on the tasks of teaching and learning Better facilities at school for staff preparation and planning would help in building collegiality and in programme provision.

K. Redefining Management Roles

To raise the quality of teachers, teaching and learning at the school level, new school level management roles are evolving, and low-cost alternatives to current practice are need to be explored. The traditional role of head teachers focuses on routine administrative tasks. New functions may include instructional leadership; community liaison and mobilization; stimulating and monitoring innovations (e.g., multigrade classrooms, teacher assistants); generating, understanding, and utilizing information on interventions in progress; and responding to the emergence of new priorities.

L. Monitoring and Sustaining Quality Improvement

To help monitor and sustain continual improvements, there is need at all levels but particularly at the local level for both practical technology and, within contexts of decentralization, for participatory decision processes. Head teachers, in order to provide leadership and mobilize community support, should be able to assess the quality of their schools and utilize such information in local strategic planning.

Working toward the Future

To ensure a highly qualified supply of special education teachers in the future, policymakers should consider the following strategies:

1. Create programs to encourage experienced teachers to stay on beyond retirement, perhaps as part-time teachers or mentors;

2. Promote the use of less traditional methods of recruitment, such as the use of web sites or professional recruiters;

3. Examine State and local policies that affect paperwork burden to see if some requirements can be reduced, making the jobs of special education teachers more manageable;

4. Work with school districts and teachers preparation programs to provide more training in areas in which teachers feel their skills are weakest, that is, using technology in education, interpreting results of standardized tests, accommodating diverse students, learning needs, and using literature to address problems; and

5. Help school districts tailor continuing professional development to the needs of special education teachers and ensure that those programs use best practices, including time for teachers to implement what they have learned.

Bihars future depends on how well we educate our children. To provide every child with a class education we need to start sooner, set standards higher and provide opportunities to all. We need excellent teacher and teaching methodology. We need to restructure the school day and the school year. Money alone wont solve the problems facing our schools, but a policy of reforms without resources mocks the scope of our challenge.

Good Teachers are Costly, but Bad Teachers Cost More!

--------------

The author is a research scholar at IIT Madras and can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Original publish date: Sept. 13, 2006
Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan is the sweetest of festival  solemn, sacred and simple that registers and testifies the chaste bond between brother and sister, and perhaps found nowhere in any other human civilization the world. This is a great Indian social bonding and a very special occasion. The thread is symbolic, but the love it carries is noble and deep. The meaning of protection lies in the true love and bonding a brother feels for his sister, not on this day only but for the whole of life. It signifies, without doubt, that a brother must protect his sister from all the evils. It demands that the stronger must protect the weaker.

As a child I admired and cherished when I used to see all my friends running in ecstasy with colourful Rakhi tied on their wrists. It was indeed a wonderful sight. Later on, when I read how Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore popularized Rakhi Utsavas. During the tragic partition of Bengal, by the British authorities, in the year 1905 Tagore had experienced a great setback to his idea of a united India. In order to create a real sense of brotherhood among the people, he suggested the use of "Rakhi Bandan," the tying of the ancient ochre-coloured thread around the wrist.

Rakhi is observed on the full moon day of the month of Shravan, on which sisters tie the sacred Rakhi string on their brothers' right wrists, and pray for their long life. Rakhis are ideally made of silk with gold and silver threads, beautifully crafted embroidered sequins, and studded with semi precious stones.

In Northern India, Rakhi Purnima is also called Kajri Purnima or Kajri Navami, when wheat or barley is sown, and goddess Bhagwati is worshipped. In Western states, the festival is called Nariyal Purnima or the Coconut Full Moon. In Southern India, Shravan Purnima is an important religious occasion, especially for the Brahmins.

Raksha Bandhan is known by various names: Vish Tarak - the destroyer of venom, Punya Pradayak - the bestower of boons, and Pap Nashak - the destroyer of sins. Though Rakhsa Bandhan as Punya Pradayak or the bestower of boons seems a little understandable because of the festivity or exchange of gifts, the other names need research and exploration. If Rakhsa Bandhan is Vish Tarak or the destroyer of venom, then whose venom is it talking about? And what exactly is the venom? If Rakhsa Bndhan is Pap Nashak or destroyer of sin, then whose sin is it talking about? And what exactly is the sin? Are both the connotations meant to exorcise the venom and sin from the person of a brother who ties the thread? These are absolute questions that need scholarly study. When a brother (of a sister) rapes a sister (of a brother) the essence of Rakhsa Bandhan gets a big jolt. Loving ones own sister is great, but greater is respecting other sisters.

On the other hand, hating the sisters of other brothers, as we have experienced in countless wars, conflicts and riots over the centuries, to such extremes that helpless and hapless girls become the target of mass rapes is against the grand ethos of Raksha Bandhan. So why do brothers become ruthless monsters when it comes to treat with an enemys sister? Why dont brothers remember the sacred Rakhi when they are busy committing the heinous crime of rape?

Rakhsa Bandhan is not a celebration, in fact; it is a bond that reminds every brother to refresh his commitment as to how strong or weak he is when he deals with girls (sisters) in the social spectrum, and what more he should do to bolster that commitment.

If the strong bond of Rakhsa Bandhan could result in innumerable political ties among kingdoms and princely states in yester years, then it can do the same magical effect in modern times as well. If the Rajput and Maratha queens had sent Rakhis to Mughal kings who, despite their differences, have assuaged their Rakhi-sisters by offering help and protection at critical moments and honoured the fraternal bond, then the same could be accomplished in this turbulent times between Muslims and Hindus. If Rakhi could help establish matrimonial alliances between kingdoms, then it can bring different communities nearer.

Legend has it that the great Hindu King Porus refrained from striking Alexander, the Great because the latters wife had approached this mighty adversary and tied a Rakhi on his hand, prior to the battle, urging him not to hurt her husband.

The culture of brother-sister relationship needs to be strengthened with renewed commitment in order to safeguard the honour and modesty of women in view of the growing atrocities being unleashed on them in modern culture. This Rakhi can be more joyous if the brothers make a new resolution to bestow the boon of true love upon sisters.

If we look at the crimes committed against our sisters, we will be ashamed of ourselves as brothers. For example, a total of 1,54,333 incidents of crime were reported against women in India in 2004 as compared to 1,401,601 in 2003, according to National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. Major crimes against women include: rape, kidnapping, homicide for dowry, dowry deaths, molestation, sexual harassment, importation and eve teasing of girls, etc. There were 18,233 cases of rapes, 15578 cases of kidnapping, and 7026 cases of dowry deaths apart from 34567 molestation cases and 10001 cases of sexual harassment in 2004 bears testimony to the ground reality how women are ill-treated in our country. Moreover, out of the total victims of rape in 2004, about 8.9% (1,622) were teenaged girls of 15-18 years of age.

Recently, the Minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, "58,310 cases relating to rape were pending trial in various courts of the country as on December 31, 2005".

So this time, when we tie the bond of Rakhi, we need to pledge for protecting not only our own sisters, but also those who belong to others. The ultimate objective of Rakhi dies down when a brother loves and adores his own sister and thinks just the opposite for all the other sisters in the country. A solemn vow to protect our own sister or sisters is a personal responsibility fulfilled; our social responsibility remains incomplete unless we feel a sense of protecting other sisters as well. This is not easy to feel the same feeling for the sisters of other brothers, but at least every brother could share the feeling of love and respect for girls as sisters.

It wont be wrong to say the fashionable friendship band in vogue today is an extension of the Rakhi custom. When a girl feels a friend of the opposite sex has developed a kind of love too strong for her to reciprocate, she sends the guy a Rakhi and turns the relationship into a sisterly one. This is one way of saying, "lets just be friends", without hurting the other person's soft feelings for her.
Uncharacteristically, the mainstream media in Bihar has been reporting news on Bihars corruption and urban chaos in Patna for the last few months. While the muck raised by the opposition on the score of dozens of scams could be dismissed as malicious propaganda, the admission of Sri Jitan Ram Manjhi, the CM of Bihar, that corruption had gone up in and in fact as a minister in the previous government he himself had to pay a bribe of Rs. 5000 to get his electricity bill rectified cannot be dismissed lightly.1

Bihars mythical rise from the ashes as the model of good governance - its peace and tranquility, double digit growth, transparency in governance - had caught the imagination of the nation. So the two views of the Bihari reality are deeply confusing. Is it a crisis in mimesis or is this apparent free fall for real?

In November 2005 the Nitish Kumar government came to power in Bihar riding the popular wave of anger against the RJD regime which had acquired a place in the history of political infamy for corruption, mismanagement and lawlessness. An abundant fund of goodwill had accrued to the incumbent regime even before it had given any account of itself - good or bad - merely because it had dispatched the seemingly invincible RJD regime into oblivion. It also carried a heavy burden of public expectation and the government did take up the task of rapid development and good governance in right earnest.

The post Animal Husbandry scam RJD regime had severely restrained public spending; it was difficult to get past the treasury for anything but the most essential housekeeping expenses and regulatory functions like police etc. Deferral of financial decisions became the norm in bureaucracy for anyone who valued his career. However, a confident government armed with peoples trust and mandate for rapid development was not afraid to unshackle its bureaucracy and the financial rules were liberalized much beyond their dreams.

The several fold increase in public spending in Bihar dramatically enlarged the corruptive interface for the public servant. More and more areas of our concern became the subject matter of bureaucratic scrutiny and control due to the enactment of many new, legislations and regulations etc. The opportunities for rent seeking and corruption increased enormously. So did the need for much greater vigilance. But there was a huge asymmetry between the capability of the anti-corruption agencies - ill equipped, poorly staffed, unprofessional, disheartened and above all placed largely under risk-averse officers - whose own past record could not bear much scrutiny - and the enormous challenge at hand. The situation was ideal for the loot to commence and the need of the hour was to crack the whip in earnest.

The government seemed to be serious about its efforts. But at the same time it was even more serious to be perceived to be doing that much  often more - to earn the maximum political dividend. So with equal energy it set about the task of building its image on a global scale. In a professional manner, it set about projecting the change in government as a millennial event. 25th November 2005 became the temporal marker separating two distinct periods in history, two different modes of being in Bihar. As a matter of considered strategy Biharis were never allowed to forget the nightmare that they had left behind nor of the ever present danger of reverting to the same state of undifferentiated chaos, should the governments hands be weakened.

Aware of the huge potential and global reach of the social media the non-resident Biharis were feted and treated by the government like royalty at the state sponsored annual conclaves. They in turn, became the greatest messengers of the gospel of resurgent Bihar to the four corners of the earth. They patrolled the social media sites with great energy and hundreds of guardian spirits would materialize from the cyberspace to stamp out with finality even mildly critical references to the government on the social network sites. (They seem to have departed now or have they taken up other causes.) It was a fertile climate for mythologies and superstitions to grow and proliferate! One of them was that the public sphere had been cleansed and this transparent government free from corruption was a model to be emulated.

The media was more than compliant in reinforcing the beliefs. Its efforts were supplemented by the implacably hostile elements of privileged society, civil servants, industrialists, businessmen, and intellectuals who had been tirelessly reporting about the misrule of Lalu Prasad .Their opinion constituted the common sense on Bihar and now they became the self-appointed troubadours, the intellectual outriders of the new regime.

The media appeared keener than the government itself to propagate its drive against corruption. It recycled and endlessly highlighted seizure of one house, raid against one IAS or IPS officer creating an illusion of a hyperactive vigilance. Instead of deploying its resources to verify the extravagant official claims, expose the fake and fictitious and of course endorse the sincere efforts, a large section of the media generally took the government hand outs as the authorized version of truth. Non-official versions of reality were all but obliterated through a clever sleight of hand.

Reporting of news can make inroads in the public consciousness only if relayed on particular frequencies; there are levels above which they are reduced to being endless background chatter just as the low key positioning of others drowns it in a cacophony of insignificant verbiage. This became a specialized media industry.

On the other hand to advertise the Bihari millennium became a collective, coercive creed imposing a moral obligation linked as it became with the issue of Bihari pride. Some said it was voluntary servitude; others called it paid labour. That Bihar was in the grips of a different kind of tyranny was soon evident - the tyranny of (manufactured?) public opinion.

Sadly, the government of the day had begun to live by the image of its infallibility and incorruptibility created by the media. The consequences were disastrous. In absence of uncomfortable questions to the government, as the years passed by, the crowd sourced version of the extent of corruption in Bihar diverged more and more with the official reality, much to the delight of the corrupt. In the fissure between the fact and the projection of it they could operate peacefully, thank you very much.

The same tendency to earn money through misuse of public office made worse by a noticeable slide towards unashamed casteism, whose reality no one had imagined or foreseen, became evident to neutral and impartial observers quite early. But those who reported contrary to the official line ceased to be credible witnesses. In the absence of standard outlets it spawned a samizdat whose co-evolution took place with the over ground story. But this one was whispered behind the ears. Or published in little known news portals - notably Bihar Times  which kept flagging off issues of urgent concern for the more resourceful media to pick up. They rarely did.

To illustrate the point two quotes from media insiders, reporting back to us about what they think, and also as outsiders, as shocked and angry about it as ordinary citizens might be quite apposite. Amarnath Tewari quoting2 Press Council of India wondered aloud: Has the fourth state in Bihar been sold out?... The state government is using media for its own publicity and propaganda and the newspapers in the state have totally surrendered to the government for their only sources of revenue, government advertisements.

Saroor Ahmad, another well respected journalist from Bihar, was even more forthright and blamed the media for being complicit in the loot by refusing to highlight repeatedly ..rampant loot right from secretariat to panchayat level . 

Nine years down the line there was the devil to pay on both sides. The ruling party took its punitive drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections 2014 for rampant corruption as a verdict against transparency and good governance. So it appears to have, more or less, abandoned the agenda of good governance and reverted to its old terms of appeal: in caste identity, in the priming of the latent psychological markers, and exploiting the innate hostility and suspicion between castes.

We in Bihar discovered at considerable cost to ourselves that if the media essays the role of a lap dog instead of its appointed role of a watch dog it can have disastrous consequences for democracy as well as for media itself. Marching confidently all the while, to the applause and encouragement of a large section of the media, we have hit the tunnel at the end of light!

1 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/when-bihar-cm-manjhi-had-to-pay-a-power-bribe/1/377015.html

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/bihar-cm-confesses-nitish-couldnt-cut-graft-i-paid-a-bribe/



2 http://asiancorrespondent.com/97706/bihar-an-indian-state-muzzles-its-media/



India Today magazine once referred to Manoje Nath, a 1973-batch IPS officer, as being fiercely independent, honest, and upright. Besides his numerous official reports on various issues exposing corruption in the bureaucracy in Bihar, Nath is also a writer extraordinaire expressing his thoughts on subjects ranging from science fiction to the effects of globalization. His sense of humor was evident through his extremely popular series named "Gulliver in Patiliputra" and "Modest Proposals" that were published in the local newspapers.
At a Glance Experts Rating Pros Excellent speeds

Enough features to appeal to power users and novices

No-logs policy

Diskless servers Cons Expensive Our Verdict NordVPN offers a lot with its service. There are specialized servers for multi-hop connections, P2P file sharing, and dedicated IP addresses at an extra cost. It also offers a ton of country connections, and the ability to drill down to a specific server if you want. It also works with Netflix and has malware and ad blocking. NordVPN is expensive, but you get a lot of value.

Best Prices Today

Retailer Price Delivery NordVPN $84 View

NordVPN in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes. Dedicated servers

Yes. Dedicated servers Business location: Panama

Panama Number of servers: 5,000+

5,000+ Number of country locations: 59

59 Cost: $59 (first year only, billed annually)

$59 (first year only, billed annually) VPN protocol: NordLynx (default, based on WireGuard)

NordLynx (default, based on WireGuard) Data encryption: ChaCha20

ChaCha20 Data authentication: Poly1305

Poly1305 Handshake: ECDH/curve25519

NordVPN has long earned top marks among the VPNs Ive reviewed. Its notable for its incredible speeds, a generous country and server count, and the choice of WireGuard or OpenVPN protocols. It has also removed the hard drives from its servers to increase privacy and security. And in its aim to be more than just a VPN, the service is but one product under the larger umbrella organization Nord Security, alongside other services such as the NordPass password manager, NordLocker for secure file storage, and business tools like NordLayer and NordWL.

Note: This review is part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.

Features and services

When you first open NordVPN on Windows, you get a very user-friendly interface. The left-hand rail includes a list of all available countries in alphabetical order. This section also has quick links to NordVPNs specialty servers, such as Onion over VPN and P2P-friendly servers (for NordLynx and OpenVPN), as well as dedicated IP (for an extra cost) and double-hop VPN when using OpenVPN. The rest of the app window contains a map that you can drag around to select a specific country.

NordVPN with an active WireGuard connection.

Both the list and the map let you quickly decide where to connect. Two interface options are a bit redundant, but this approach accommodates both power users and novices.

The list in the left-hand rail is where most of the power user advantages reside. Hover over a country listing and click on the three dots to the left of the country name. This reveals a pop-up window where you can choose the region of a country (if applicable), as well as any of the servers listed in that region.

If you choose to connect to the U.S., for example, youd pick the region, which is really one of a number of major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, or Phoenix. Then you can pick any of the servers listed there; each server in the list displays its current load. If you dont want to drill down that deep, NordVPN picks the fastest connection for you based on your country of choice.

Dipping into settings, there are a number of features worth knowing about. The first is CyberSec under Settings > General, which blocks ads and protects against malware and phishing. Its turned off by default, but is well worth using. Theres also an internet kill switch, and an app kill switch under Settings > Kill Switch. The latter stops any app from connecting to the internet if an active VPN connection drops, while the former does that for the entire PC.

NordVPNs general settings.

There are also options to go invisible on the local area network, and a specialized auto-connect feature. Auto-connect not only connects you to the VPN automatically but lets you customize that connection. You can, for example, automatically connect to a double VPN or a specific country. You can also choose whether to connect whenever the app starts or only on unsecure networks. The ability to customize the automated connection is an awesome little power-user feature that you dont often see on other VPNs.

You can also set your own DNS provider if you like, as well as use obfuscated servers if youre trying to use NordVPN in a place that blocks it. Nord also has a split-tunneling feature to specify which apps should (or should not) use the VPN connection.

NordVPN advertises that its compatible with Netflix, and it worked well this time around in my tests, though in the past there have been issues. This is not uncommon as theres a continual cat-and-mouse game between the the long arm of Netflixs anti-VPN enforcement and VPN service providers that oppose it.

Privacy, anonymity, and trust

Selecting a granular connection with NordVPNs advanced features.

To create an account, NordVPN requires an email address. It accepts payments via credit card, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and cryptocurrencies. NordVPN costs $59 as an introductory price for the first year, and the current renewal price is $99 for a year. There is also a first-time deals for a two-year subscriptions: $89, and a month-to-month option of $11.95.

NordVPN has come a long way in identifying its leadership. After years of not publishing the names of its owners, the information is out there. This happened around the same time that NordVPN became just one product in a larger portfolio of products under the Nord Security brand. Nord Security doesnt have an official head office, or at least the company declined to say where it was, but it does have offices in Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

Officially, Nord Security doesnt own NordVPN. That honor belongs to a company called nordvpn s.a. based in Panama. Despite all that legal stuff, the management team of Nord Security effectively runs NordVPN and the other products, as far as we understand it. Whether those people are acting as employees of Nord Security or nordvpn s.a. when they make business decisions is irrelevant for our purposes. Nord Security lists 10 people on its management team all with links to their LinkedIn pages. The management listing includes the three founders Tom Okman, Eimantas Sabaliauskas, and Jonas Karklys. Okman is based in the U.K., while the other two are in Lithuania, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

NordVPNs privacy policy says it has a strict no-logs policy, meaning it does not store time stamps, browsing data, used bandwidth, traffic logs, IP addresses, and so on. Third-party audits in 2018 and 2020 confirmed this.

Nord does keep some information for very short periods of time. It keeps the username and timestamp of the last session to monitor simultaneous connection limits. This information is deleted 15 minutes after a session is terminated. It also logs whether a user has logged on in the last 30 days. The company says it needs this data to prevent abuse and to be able to dispute unfair chargebacks.

NordVPN also harvests some data about usage such as app diagnostic data, but you can opt out under Settings > Advanced. It also takes in telemetry data such as opening push notifications, search, and so on. This can also be opted out of by turning off the setting mentioned above. Those who are concerned about the privacy implications of the CyberSec feature can read about it in the privacy policy under Threat Protection feature.

NordVPN also jumped on the trend of running diskless production servers similar to companies such as OVPN and ExpressVPN. Diskless servers dont store any information on them at all. They are controlled and booted from a remote server and everything then runs in RAM. That makes it mighty difficult to pull any user data from these servers.

Landing page for the VPN Trust Initiative.

Another step NordVPN takes to increase trust is the VPN Trust Initiative, an effort that includes ExpressVPN, Golden Frog, IPVanish, Ivacy, PureVPN, (of VyperVPN fame), SaferVPN, Strong VPN, and others. The VPN Trust Initiatives goal is to strengthen trust and mitigate risk for VPN users.

The company also published a blog post detailing how it prevents vulnerabilities like the one that occurred in 2018 (it was only reported in 2019). The plan includes penetration testing, a bug bounty program, the new infrastructure audit, vendor assessments, and the aforementioned diskless servers.

Thats a lot of effort to get users to trust NordVPN, and were happy to see the company finally revealing its top leaders. Its also being more transparent about the company structure, but to be honest theyre still being a little cagey about the details and the organization seems to be more complicated than necessary. Regardless, anonymity for the people running a company that is supposed to be all about trust just never sat well with us, and were glad to see this change.

Performance

NordVPNs speeds are excellent. In our tests using default settings over multiple days and multiple connect locations, NordVPN was able to maintain 49 percent of the base speed. Thats fast enough to qualify among the top five speediest VPNs. Were certain that NordVPN is fast enough for doing pretty much anything reliably.

Conclusion

NordVPN is a fantastic service that keeps getting better. The price is on the high side, but you get a lot more for that money than with other services.

Nevertheless, while NordVPNs excellent service cant be ignored, there are better options, like Mullvad, if maximizing your anonymity is a priority. But if you want something that appeals to power users, has multi-hop, solid speeds, and works with Netflix, then NordVPN is a solid choice.

Editors note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.
Microsofts latest premium notebook, the Surface Laptop Studio, borrows the best from Microsofts other products: the flexibility of the Surface Studio, the convenience of the Surface Laptop, and the power of the Surface Book. It might not be the Surface Book 4 we were expecting, but with a new pull-forward display, Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics, Thunderbolt, Windows Hello 2.0, and a high-refresh-rate screen, its both an interesting fusion of other Surfaces as well as a physical avatar for many of the new capabilities within Windows 11.

The Surface Laptop Studio wont come cheaply, though. Microsoft has priced the notebook at $1,599.99 and above, with prices climbing to $3,099.99 for the most premium model. The Surface Studio Laptop is available for preorder beginning today, and will ship on Oct. 5.

Content creation improves via the new display

With the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft has simply swapped one iconic hardware design for another. The original Surface Book defied description. Though it was probably most often used as a traditional clamshell notebook, a detachable hinge allowed it to be used as a tablet. The drawback was that the tablet component lacked a kickstand, making the tablet a bit awkward to tote about and actually use, save for inking. The Surface Laptop, by contrast, is a simply a traditional clamshell notebook PC, and as our Surface Laptop 4 review shows, a pretty good oneeven it faces some tough competition.

Microsofts new dynamic woven hinge on the Surface Laptop Studio solves that problem. In both its design as well as its name you can see how the Surface Laptop Studio has evolved from the design of the Surface Studio all-in-one. The Surface Laptop Studio operates in Laptop mode, but the 14.4-inch PixelSense display can pull forward into what Microsoft calls Stage mode, where the display is thrust forward, covering the keyboard.

The hinge on the Surface Laptop Studio can support the display, though its not the best angle for inking.

Here, the Surface Laptop Studio looks very reminiscent of the HP Elite Folio, though it appears that the metal hinge may be able to support the display somewhat as it pulls forward. When fully pulled forward and pressed down flat, the Surface Laptop Studio can also operate in Studio mode for inking. PCWorld was offered a bit of hands-on time with the Surface Laptop Studio prior to the launch, and we can report that the hinge seems extremely sturdy, with additional support in the pull forward and Studio modes,

The hybrid concept extends to other aspects of the Surface Laptop Studios design, as well. For one, the Surface Laptop Studio is offered in just one size: a 14.4-inch display neatly combines the Surface Books former 13-inch and 15-inch form factors into a single PixelSense Flow touchscreen display with 2,400 x1,600 resolution and Dolby Vision HDR support. PixelSense Flow apparently refers to the new Dynamic Refresh Rate feature built into Windows 11. When enabled, the feature allows displays that support it to run at a higher refresh rate for smoother inking. In the case of the Surface Laptop Studio, the display can run up to 120Hz.

Nevertheless, thats a step down from the Surface Book 3, which offered either 30002000 (267 ppi) for the 13.5-inch display or 32402160 (260 ppi) for the 15-inch option. At 201 ppi, Microsofts Surface Laptop Studio appears to be trading pixel resolution for refresh ratenot unheard of, to be fair, in a world where 300Hz 1080p gaming laptops exist.

This, too, may indicate that Microsoft is fixing one of the Surface Book 3s flaws: battery life. The Surface Book 3 lasted about 12 hours on batterynot bad at all, but not on par with previous Surface Books. Microsoft is claiming that the Surface Laptop Studio will yield between 18 and 19 hours of battery life, an untested claim that, if true, would outperform the Surface Book 3 by a substantial margin.

There, Microsofts port choice plays a role. The Surface Laptop Studio includes a Surface Connector, allowing it to take advantage of earlier chargers. (The Core i5 model includes a 65W power supply, however, while the Core i7 model includes a hefty 102W power supply.)

A pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports are on the side of the Surface Laptop Studio.

But the Surface Laptop Studio also marks Microsofts conversion to Thunderbolt, with a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports that can be used for charging or for I/O purposes. Essentially, a Surface Laptop Studio owner will have a choice between using an existing Surface Dock or investing in the small but growing ecosystem of Thunderbolt 4 docks.

Theres also a new Surface Slim Pen 2 hidden beneath the keyboard. Microsofts Surface Slim Pen 2 doesnt come bundled with the Surface Laptop Studio, but theres a new magnetic cubby underneath the keyboard that can be used to dock and charge the new pen. Microsofts Slim Pen 2 supports 4,096 levels of pressure, smooth inking, as well as a new haptic motor that simulates the feel of inking on different surfaceswhich felt a bit gimmicky during our hands-on time.

Theres another small twist to the physical design: the thickness. The Surface Laptop Studio measures 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 inchesslightly thinner than a Surface Book, but also chunkier than the Surface Laptop 4, which measures 0.57 inches thick. That appears to be due to thermal venting around the bottom outside edges of the Surface Laptop Studio. That, plus any additional cooling needed for the RTX hardware, likely contributed to the extra depth. The Surface Laptop Studio also weighs between 3.83 pounds and 4.00 poundslighter than the Surface Book 3, but heavier than the Surface Laptop 4.

Microsofts Surface Laptop Studio hides a pen cubby underneath the keyboard.

Windows Hello 2.0 boosts Teams calls, logins

If the pull-forward display improves inking for content creation, then Microsofts improvements in its camera and input system should improve your next Teams callkey changes considering that Teams chat will be front and center in Windows 11. For one, Microsoft included what executives are calling Windows Hello 2.0: the depth camera goes beyond the visible range to identify you, but the facial tracking is now smart enough to factor in beards, glasses, even surgical masks. Even better, the 1080p front-facing camera on the Surface Laptop Studio can now adjust for the lighting on your face, so that youll be in focus and well exposed.

Likewise, audio has improved. Microsoft drilled additional mics into the Gorilla Glass to more clearly pick up your voice, and the Surface Laptop Studio now includes quad Omnisonic speakerstwo near you, two further backplus Dolby Atmos sound for clear conferencing audio and music playback.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio in laptop mode.

If you need to chat, the Surface Laptop Studios keyboard includes 1.3mm of key travel. Thats a big step down from the luxurious 1.5mm that the Surface Book 3 offered, unfortunately. On the other hand, the Laptop Studio now offers whats known as an haptic trackpadclickable all the way to the very top.

RTX hardware makes this a gaming PC

Throughout the past few years, the internal upgrades dominated the conversation of any new Surface. With the Surface Laptop Studio, both the internal and external improvements are worth talking about.

The Surface Laptop Studio is one of the first major PC platforms weve seen that uses Intels Tiger Lake H35 chip, a quad-core, 11th-gen CPU that Intel launched in January. The Surface Laptop Studio will ship in two configurations: a Core i5-11300H, and an Core i7-11370H. The H35 was designed for ultraportable gaming, with a target of over 70fps at 1080p resolution, generally at high graphical settings. Thats in line with the other major addition to the Surface Laptop Studio: A discrete GeForce RTX GPU from Nvidia.

Only the latter Core i7 model will ship with the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. When Nvidia launched these new GeForce GPUs this past May, the company noted that the new RTX 3050 Ti chips would come with a marked step down in gaming performance on traditional games, with roughly a third of the CUDA cores and half of the tensor cores found in the GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. The Dynamic Refresh Rate feature, too, will be used to enable smooth frame rates at up to 120Hz.

RTX hardware of any stripe qualifies the Surface Laptop Studio as a gaming machine, even if its more of an entry-level offering than we had previously hoped for.

Dont forget about Windows 11

Microsoft didnt overwhelm us with talk of Windows 11, but its definitely there. Remember, three key hardware featuresDynamic Refresh Rate, AutoHDR and DirectStorage, all take advantage of hardware features inside the Surface Laptop Studio. The Studio Laptops Dolby Vision display will support AutoHDR, and the Surface Laptop Studios SSD optionswhich go all the way to 2TB!will support DirectStorages 1TB requirement.

Weve included the Surface Laptop Studios basic features below, followed by the prices. Our earlier Surface Book 3 review includes those features for comparison.

Surface Laptop Studio features:

Display: 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow touch display (24001600 (201 PPI), 120Hz)

14.4-inch PixelSense Flow touch display (24001600 (201 PPI), 120Hz) Processor: Intel Core H35 i5-11300H, H35 i7-11370H

Intel Core H35 i5-11300H, H35 i7-11370H Graphics: Iris Xe (H35 i5-11300H), Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti w/4GB GDDR6 DRAM; Commercial: RTX A2000 with 4GB GDDR6 GPU

Iris Xe (H35 i5-11300H), Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti w/4GB GDDR6 DRAM; Commercial: RTX A2000 with 4GB GDDR6 GPU Memory: 16GB/32GB LPDDR4X RAM

16GB/32GB LPDDR4X RAM Storage: 256GB , 512GB, 1 TB, 2TB SSD (all removeable)

256GB , 512GB, 1 TB, 2TB SSD (all removeable) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4/USB 4.0), 1 Surface Connect, 3.5mm headphone jack

2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4/USB 4.0), 1 Surface Connect, 3.5mm headphone jack Camera: User-facing: 1080p

User-facing: 1080p Battery: Core i5 (up to 19 hours), Core i7 (up to 18 hours)

Core i5 (up to 19 hours), Core i7 (up to 18 hours) Wireless: 802.11 ax (Wi-Fi 6); Bluetooth 5.1

802.11 ax (Wi-Fi 6); Bluetooth 5.1 Operating system: Windows 11 Pro/Home, or Windows 10 Pro

Windows 11 Pro/Home, or Windows 10 Pro Dimensions (inches): 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7in

12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7in Weight: 3.83lb (Core i5), 4.00 lb (Core i7)

3.83lb (Core i5), 4.00 lb (Core i7) Color: Platinum

Platinum Price: Starting at $1,599

Surface Laptop Studio configurations, prices

Core i5/16GB memory/256GB SSD/integrated GPU: $1,599.99

Core i5/16GB/512GB/iGPU: $1,799.99

Core i7/16GB/512GB/RTX 3050 Ti: $2,099.99

Core i7/32GB/1TB/ RTX 3050 Ti: $2,699.99

Core i7/32GB/2TB/GeForce RTX 3050 Ti: $3,099.99

Editors note: This article originally published on Sept. 22, but was updated on Sept. 23 to include a video of our hands-on impressions.
Microsoft announced three new Surface tablets on Wednesday, including a larger, more powerful Surface Pro 8, a new Surface Go 3 that boasts options for a faster Intel Core i3 processor, and an updated Surface Pro X. Microsofts Surface Pro 8 boasts Thunderbolt ports for the first time, integrated LTE, Slim Pen integrated storage and charging, as well as a new display that can run at up to 120Hz.

The new updates to Microsofts tablet lineup are on par with what we expected from this Surface launch, with Windows 11 looming on October 5, though Microsofts quick pace of recent tablet introductions means that theres not as much of a performance gap as with prior generations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Surface Pro 8

Microsofts Surface Pro 8 will go on sale today, and ship on Oct. 5. Prices will begin at $1,100, and go up to $2,600 for consumers.[ Further reading: Our picks for best PC laptops ]

Microsofts Surface Pro 7+ for Business tops our list of the best Windows tablets, as did 2020s Surface Pro 7 for consumers. Microsofts new Surface Pro 8 improves over both, inside and out. Microsofts Surface Pro 7+ and the new Surface Pro 8 both use Intels 11th-gen Core chips, though the Surface Pro 8 boasts more powerful processor optionstopping out at a Core i7-1185G7, versus the Core i7-1165G7 found on the Surface Pro 7+. Naturally, the Surface Pro 8 includes options to run Windows 11, too.

However, the new Surface Pro 8 is arguably defined more by its external features, a welcome update to a Surface Pro lineup that has remained somewhat static in its look and feel for several years. Interestingly, Microsoft disclosed that the Surface Pro 8 is part of Intels Evo platform, reserved for special, intensive collaboration between Intels engineers and the laptop manufacturer.

Microsofts Surface Pro 8, with the pen cubby exposed.

Here, Microsoft is introducing a slightly larger 13-inch (2,880x 1,920) multitouch PixelSense Flow display that preserves the 3:2 screen ratio, versus the 12.3-inch (27361824) displays weve traditionally expected as part of the Surface Pro lineup. Microsoft says the screen will run up to 120Hz, a first for the Surface tablets, designed around the new Dynamic Refresh Rate technology that Microsoft implemented for smoother e-ink experiences. The Surface Pro 8s display is up to 12.5 percent brighter (versus what, we dont know) with an ambient sensor that will detect both external lighting and color to adjust the display accordingly. Finally, Microsoft has added Dolby Vision HDR support, not surprising given the AutoHDR feature thats arriving with Windows 11.

Microsofts new Surface Pro 8 also includes a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, indicative of how its Surface Pro X tablet has influenced the design of the Surface lineup.

As it did during the transition between USB-A and USB-C ports, Microsoft is treading lightly here. In addition to the two Thunderbolt 4 ports, the Surface Pro 8 tablet still includes a Surface Connect port. This will presumably allow the Surface Pro 8 to charge itself either via the included 65W Surface charger, or via a more conventional USB-C chargerMicrosoft said that youll be able to quick-charge your Surface Pro 8 to 80 percent in just over an hour, with a total of 16 hours of available battery life. The addition of Thunderbolt 4 also means that users will have a choice between the pricey Surface Dock and the broader ecosystem of Thunderbolt docks, as well.

Physically, the Surface Pro 8 is surprisingly a bit smaller than its predecessor, even with the larger screenthat likely means that the bezels have shrunk significantly. But at 1.96 pounds, its also slightly heavier. Black isnt a color option this time around, with Platinum and Graphite as the available choices.

Microsofts new Surface Pro Signature Keyboards now include a pen cubby, another way in which the Surface Pro X paved the way for the Surface Pro 8. Here, Microsofts cubby hides and charges the new Surface Slim Pen 2 (sold separately). The pen has haptic motor inside that simulates the way in which real pens interact with paper. The Surface Slim Pen 2 will also offer greater precision and lower latency when inking compared with its predecessor, the Surface Slim Pen, Microsoft said, sensing up to 4,096 levels of pressure. Microsoft didnt reveal key details, such as the charging time and battery life of the Slim Pen 2. However, Microsoft did say that the new haptic experiences will only be available with the Surface Pro 8 and its stunning new Surface Laptop Studio.

A closeup of the Surface Slim Pen 2.

We do know, however, that the new Surface Pro Signature Keyboards will still be sold separately, as well as the Slim Pen 2. Youll still have the option to use older Surface Pro Type Covers with the new Surface Pro 8, but you obviously wont be able to take advantage of the new pen cubby or charging features with those.

Finally, there a few other subtle bonuses: Cellular connectivity appears on the majority of the Surface Pro 8 models, though theres still a Wi-Fi only option on the low end of Surface Pro 8 commercial offerings. Inside the Surface Pro 8 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, supporting both removable SIM and eSIMs. Microsoft doesnt list a SIM slot among its port selection, however, so its possible only eSIMs will be supported.

Microsofts Surface cameras have been beefed up too, with a more powerful 10 megapixel rear camera. Interestingly, Microsoft has taken the user-facing camera and has added sensors that adjust for exposure and color. In other words, the display will now expose your camera during a Teams call properly, lighting your face to best advantage. The Surface Pro 8 also includes a color sensor that will adjust the displays color to compensate for the ambient light, a nifty touch.

Microsoft doesnt appear to have made many other changes to the Surface Pro 8 hardware, especially in terms of memory and storagethough only the low-end 128GB and 256GB SSDs are removeable. Weve included what we know of the Surface Pro 8 specifications, below. Feel free to review our Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ review from 2021 and our Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review from 2020 for additional detail.

Microsoft Surface Pro 8 specifications

Display: 13-inch PixelSense Flow (28801920, 267 PPI)

13-inch PixelSense Flow (28801920, 267 PPI) Processor: Consumer: (Core i5-1135G7, Core i7-1185G7) Commercial: (Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1185G7)

Consumer: (Core i5-1135G7, Core i7-1185G7) Commercial: (Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1185G7) Graphics: UHD (Core i3), Iris Xe (Core i5, i7)

UHD (Core i3), Iris Xe (Core i5, i7) Memory: 8/16/32GB LPDDR4x RAM

8/16/32GB LPDDR4x RAM Storage: 128GB/256GB removable SSD; 512GB/1TB

128GB/256GB removable SSD; 512GB/1TB Ports: 2 USB-C (USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4), 1 Surface Connect port, Surface Type Cover Port, 3.5mm jack

2 USB-C (USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4), 1 Surface Connect port, Surface Type Cover Port, 3.5mm jack Security: Camera (Windows Hello)

Camera (Windows Hello) Camera: 5MP/1080p (user-facing), 10MP (rear-facing)

5MP/1080p (user-facing), 10MP (rear-facing) Battery: Up to 16 hours of battery life

Up to 16 hours of battery life Wireless: WiFi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1; LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 66

WiFi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1; LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 66 Operating system: Consumer: Windows 11 Home; Business: Windows 10 Pro or Windows 11 Pro

Consumer: Windows 11 Home; Business: Windows 10 Pro or Windows 11 Pro Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37in.

11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37in. Weight: 1.96lb

1.96lb Color: Platinum, Graphite

Platinum, Graphite Price: Starting at $1,099.99

Starting at $1,099.99 Optional accessories: Surface Pro Signature Keyboard, Surface Slim Pen 2

Microsoft Surface Pro 8 prices

Core i5/8GB RAM/128 GB SSD: $1,099.99 USD (Platinum)

Core i5/8/256: $1,199.99 (Platinum, Graphite)

Core i5/8/512: $1,399.99 (Platinum, Graphite)

Core i5/16/256  $1,399.99 (Platinum, Graphite)

Core i7/16/256  $1,599.99 (Platinum, Graphite)

Core i7/16/512  $1,899.99 (Platinum, Graphite)

Core i7/16/1TB  $2,199.99 (Platinum)

Core i7/32/1TB  $2,599.99 (Platinum)

Microsoft Surface Go 3

The most noteworthy feature of the new Surface Go 3 is its updated processor, which now includes a quad-core 10th-gen Core i3 in addition to a dual-core 10th-gen Pentium Gold 6500Y processor. If youre willing to risk owning a Windows tablet with just 4GB of RAM (we wouldnt) then prices will start at $399.99 and go up from there. Otherwise, the Pentium Gold model with 8GB of memory is $549.99. You can preorder today, with delivery on Oct. 5.

Microsofts Surface Go 3 now has a more powerful processor option: a 10th-gen Core chip.

Interestingly, Microsofts LTE options now extend down to the minimum configurations, too, rather than remaining a premium offering. Microsoft executives said that had been a customer request for the Go 3, which is now seen as a PC for individuals within a family, rather than sharing a family PC. Theres a new 256GB storage option. But Windows 10 Ssorry, Windows 11 Sis still the default consumer OS.

Otherwise, the Surface Go 3 appears to be largely unchanged from its predecessor, the Surface Go 2an otherwise nifty little tablet that still had some price/performance issues in its previous generation.

Microsoft Surface Go 3 specifications

Microsoft Surface Go 3 prices

Pentium Gold/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, WiFi: $399.99

Pentium Gold/8GB/128GB, WiFi: $549.00

Core i3/8GB/128GB, WiFi: $629.99

Pentium Gold/4GB/64GB, LTE: $499.99

Core i3/8GB/128GB, LTE: $729.99

Microsoft Surface Pro X

Microsofts Surface Pro X tablet has been left largely unchanged since its launch in 2019 and the somewhat middling review of the Surface Pro X we handed out later. Since then, its been updated with a faster SQ2 processor in 2020.

Now, in late 2021, Microsoft is adding a Wi-Fi only option to its former LTE lineup. Microsoft would also like you to know that Windows 11 on ARM includes 64-bit X86 emulation by default now, so Windows emulation problems on Arm chips should hopefully go away, mostly. Were told that some apps still wont work because of incompatible graphics drivers.

Weve included the specifications of the Surface Pro X below, followed by the new prices. The Surface Pro X can be preordered today and will ship on Oct. 5.

Microsoft Surface Pro X specifications

Display: 13-inch (28801920) PixelSense display, multi-touch

13-inch (28801920) PixelSense display, multi-touch Processor: Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2

Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2 Graphics: Microsoft SQ1 Adreno 685/SQ 2 Adreno 690

Microsoft SQ1 Adreno 685/SQ 2 Adreno 690 Memory: 8GB/16GB LPDDR4x RAM

8GB/16GB LPDDR4x RAM Storage: 128GB/256GB/512GB SSD

128GB/256GB/512GB SSD Ports: 2 USB-C, 1 Surface Connect, 1 optional nanoSIM, Surface keyboard connector

2 USB-C, 1 Surface Connect, 1 optional nanoSIM, Surface keyboard connector Camera: 5MP/1080p (user facing); 10MP autofocus with 1080p/4K video options

5MP/1080p (user facing); 10MP autofocus with 1080p/4K video options Battery: up to 15 hours of use

up to 15 hours of use Wireless: Wi-Fi5/802.11ac; Bluetooth 5; Snapdragon X24 LTE modem with nanoSIM or eSIM

Wi-Fi5/802.11ac; Bluetooth 5; Snapdragon X24 LTE modem with nanoSIM or eSIM Operating system: Windows 10 Home onArm

Windows 10 Home onArm Dimensions (inches): 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 in.

11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 in. Weight: 1.7 pounds

1.7 pounds Color: Black, Platinum

Black, Platinum Optional accessories: Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard with Slim Pen Bundle ($270)

Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard with Slim Pen Bundle ($270) Price: $899.99 on up

Surface Pro X pricing

SQ1/8GB/128GB SSD, WiFi: $899.99 USD (Platinum)

SQ1/8GB/128GB, LTE: $999.99 USD (Black)

SQ1/8GB/256GB, WiFi: $1,099.99 USD (Platinum)

SQ1/8GB/256GB, LTE: $1,249.99 USD (Black)

SQ2/16GB/256GB, WiFi: $1,299.99 USD (Platinum)

SQ2/16GB/256GB, LTE: $1,449.99 USD (Platinum, Black)

SQ2/16GB/512GB, WiFi: $1,499.99 USD (Platinum)

SQ2/16GB/512GB LTE: $1,649.99 USD (Platinum, Black)

Accessory pricing

Microsoft also provided prices for its various accessories, including the new Surface Slim Pen 2, a standalone Slim Pen 2 charger, the new Signature Keyboards, and more. A new Ocean Plastic Mouse is made of 20 percent plastic that Microsoft and its partners reclaimed from the oceannot oceangoing plastic like some competitors use, but actual plastic reclaimed from the ocean.

Microsofts Ocean Plastic Mouse has an interesting sand/soapy texture.
Information Minister, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has stated that Government was focused and was stimulating the quick recovery of the Ghanaian economy from the devastating impact of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.



However, he said, that would be achieved if the country was able to vaccinate the majority of its citizens against the COVID-19 pandemic.



He consequently, appealed to the public to embrace the Government's COVID-19 vaccine roll-out for it to achieve the end-of-year coverage target of 20 million people, to expedite the countrys economic recovery plan.



Speaking at a media briefing in Cape Coast as part of his working tour to the Central Region on Thursday, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah underscored the importance of a fully vaccinated population in building a strong robust economy.



He said about 1.5 million Ghanaians had either been fully vaccinated or taken the first jab and expressed optimism that with collaborated efforts, the 20 million targets would be achieved.



Additionally, he said the National Vaccine Manufacturing Team was working assiduously for the country to produce its own vaccine.



Government is making all the necessary efforts but in all of this, people must take the necessary precautions, we must make a point to remind people of their responsibility to protect themselves, he said.



Mr. Oppong Nkrumah also reminded the people of the Central Region about the threats of terrorism in the West African Sub-Region and admonished the media to create the necessary awareness for people to become conscious of it.



He encouraged media practitioners in the region to take advantage of the media capacity enhancement and support programmes being rolled out by the National Media Commission (NMC) to build their competencies and skills in the ever-changing profession.



Reacting to concerns about journalists brutalities in recent times, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah reiterated Governments commitment to protect and guarantee the safety of journalists in the country.



The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Justina Marigold Assan, highly commended the media in the region for their contribution towards its development.



She urged them to continue to project the Central Region in a positive way that would attract more investors into the region.



The Minister later interacted with staff of institutions and agencies that fall under the Ministry including the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation (GBC) and the Information Service Department (ISD) and assured them of his outfits support.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), has reduced its $624 million trade debt to $39 million within the past four years.



Seventy-three per cent of the debt was paid from the companys internally generated funds.



This was disclosed by the Managing Director of BOST, Mr. Edwin Alfred Provencal at a press conference in Accra on Sunday, 26 September 2021.



BOST, he noted, has also succeeded in reducing the claims from Bulk Distribution Companies from $37 million to $11 million.



Touching on more success stories of the company, Mr Provencal also said pipes and other accessories that were bought in 2011 are finally en route to Ghana from Houston, USA adding that BOST has recorded an increase in revenue-earning assets from 17 per cent to 75 per cent within two years.



BOST was incorporated in December 1993 as a private limited liability company under the Companies Act,1963 (Act 179) with the Government of Ghana as the sole shareholder.



BOST has the mandate:



To develop a network of storage tanks, pipelines and other bulk transportation infrastructure throughout the country. To rent or lease out part of the storage facilities to enable it generate income To keep Strategic Reserve Stocks for Ghana To own, manage and develop a national network of oil pipelines and storage depots To manage the Zonalization policy of the National Petroleum Authority(NPA) and To develop the Natural Gas Infrastructure throughout the countryIn this regard, BOST is responsible for building strategic reserve stocks to meet a minimum of six weeks of national consumption in the short and medium term and to increase stock level to 12 weeks in the long term.



To adequately fulfil its mandate, BOST has developed a network of storage and pipeline infrastructure throughout the country. The Company currently has six depots nationwide located in the Accra Plains, Mami Water, Akosombo, Kumasi, Buipe and Bolgatanga. Pipelines link the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to the Accra Plains Depot which in turn is linked to the Mami Water Depot and ends at the Akosombo Depot.



Another pipeline links the Buipe Depot to the Bolgatanga Depot. For petroleum products to reach the northern parts of the country, it is conveyed by pipeline from the Tema Oil Refinery through the Accra Plains Depot and Mami Water to Akosombo where it is loaded onto River Barges to Buipe. It is then conveyed to Bolgatanga by 261km-8-inch pipeline.



The Depot in Kumasi receives products by Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs) from the Accra Plains Depot. BOST has built four barges to convey petroleum products from Akosombo to Buipe for onward transmission to Bolgatanga. However, the Bolgatanga Depot was recently recommissioned after several years of inactivity thus making it necessary for Buipe to feed Bolgatanga by pipeline.









Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Davidson Afotey Odai, an electrician who had sex with his own daughter and caused two abortions for her, has been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court.

Odai, charged with defilement, incest and two counts of criminal abortion, pleaded guilty.



Even when family members had conducted purification for his wife and daughter when the matter was first reported, Odai continued to have sex with the victim.



He told the court that he did not know what came over him and that anytime he had sex with his 14-year-old daughter, now 16 years, he regretted his actions.



According to him, he paid GH1,100 for the abortion to be carried out for her daughter and spent GH65.00 for medication.



In the first abortion, Odai said he gave the victim, who is his first child, drugs to swallow and insert for the first abortion and the second, he paid GH1,100 at LEKMA Hospital so a safe abortion could be conducted.



Odai, answering questions from the trial Judge, Mrs Christina Cann, admitted that his wife had been denying him sex but, That was not the reason why I had sex with my daughter. I have prayed and pleaded with God.



I am pleading with the court to forgive me and have mercy on me. I heard about safe abortion on the radio so that was why I took my daughter to the hospital, the convict told the Court.



The Court, in handing down the sentence, indicated that it considered the gravity of the offence, the degree of revulsion by the law, increase in the menace, the age of the victim and the trauma she had suffered as a result of the act.



According to the Court, Odai, did not show remorse as he gave a detailed account of what he did to his daughter. The accused is a father to the victim and instead of protecting her dignity and sanctity, he used her as his sex mate.



The Court was informed that Child Rights International had taken up the matter and had promised to provide counselling to the victim who is in Junior High School three.



The Police also indicated their readiness to offer counselling to the victim and her family. The victims mother, a tomato seller, told the Court that she never deprived her husband of sex.



She said she also provided the victim with all her needs.



Chief Inspector Agartha Asantewaa, prayed the Court to hand down a deterrent sentence to ward off like-minded persons.



Narrating the facts, the Prosecution, said the complainant (name withheld) was the mother of the victim, now 16 years.



It said the complainant had been married to Odai, now convict, for the past 17 years and they were blessed with four children, with the victim being their first child.



The Prosecution said when the victim was 14 years and the family was living at Odais mothers house at Teshie Tebibiano in a single room, the complainant detected that the victim was pregnant.



The Prosecution said when the victims mother asked who was responsible, she mentioned her father (Odai).



It said when the victims mother confronted Odai, he admitted the offence and pleaded for forgiveness.



The Prosecution said before the victims mother could decide on her daughters predicament, she saw the victim bleeding.



It said the victim later told her mother that Odai had given her some tablets to swallow and some to insert into her vagina to abort the pregnancy.



The Prosecution said the victims mother reported Odais conduct to family members and a ritual was conducted to pacify her and the victim after the family had moved to Tafo in Teshie when the convict lost his mother.



It said three months later, the victim was pregnant again and when asked, she mentioned one Abraham.



The Prosecution said Abraham, however, denied being responsible saying the victim had confided in him and mentioned Odai, her father, as the one who had been having sex with her.



When the accused heard the young man had denied responsibility, he took the victim to LEKMA Hospital at Teshie Nungua and aborted the pregnancy in July this year, it said.



The Prosecution said Odai told the doctors the victim had been impregnated by an irresponsible young man and that the victim was a BECE candidate hence the need for the abortion.



It said in August this year, the second abortion was done after Odai had had sex with the victim in their sitting room whiles the victims mother was in the bedroom.



The Prosecution said the victims mother and the children relocated and the matter was reported to Child Right International, which also petitioned the Director-General of CID and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit to investigate the matter and a medical form was issued to the victims mother to send the victim to the hospital.



The medical report form was endorsed by a medical practitioner and same returned to the Police. Later, the accused person was picked up, it said.





Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Researchers at a Sustainable Education and Development Conference have called for the need to attach importance to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as it plays an important role in equipping young people with the required skills needed for the job market.



TVET is placed to bring about the skills and entrepreneurial workforce that is needed to create wealth, the researchers maintained.



The conference, which brought together researchers from the academia, was aimed at strategizing ways to build a resilient and sustainable economies in Africa.



It was organized by the Applied Research Conference in Africa (ARCA), a group of researchers from some Universities across Africa with the participants drawn from Ghana, Benin, South Africa and Nigeria among other countries.



In an address, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Professor Eric Nyarko Sampson called on researchers to direct their efforts at finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of African economies.



Speaking on The Role of Universities in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Professor Eric Nyarko Sampson indicated that research findings from institutions of higher learning should be discussed to contribute to policy directions and strategies aimed at solving problems.



The Chief Executive Officer of St. Andrews Group of Schools and Companies, Dr. Richard Kofi Asiedu maintained that there is a mismatch between the skills supplied and the skills needed in the job market, hence contributing to the high unemployment rate in the country.



He hoped reorienting of TVET will be a major means to assist small to medium scale enterprises to meet the emerging sustainable economy.





Source: Sally Ngissah/Peace News









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Rice farmers in Kajebi in the Oti region have been given some respite regarding the acquisition of agricultural machinery.



The farmers have been urged to at least make an initial half payment of the total cost of agricultural machinery including tractors and power tillers that they will need to boost production. Each of these machines cost between GHC24,000 and GHC31,000.



The relief package was announced by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto on Tuesday, September 27, 2021, when he paid a working visit to rice farms in Kajebi and also interacted with the farmers.



The respite followed an appeal by the rice farmers to the sector minister to be given the machinery on credit.



In addition to the half payment, the minister asked the rice farmers to write a letter through the Kajebi District Director of Agriculture for the machines to be given to them on credit.



The visit formed part of the ministers phase two agricultural tour of farms in the Oti Region.



On the matter of fertiliser shortage, Dr Afriyie Akoto attributed the problem to the Covid-19 pandemic.



According to him, most of the fertiliser producing factories have shut down due to Covid which situation was affecting the global market for fertiliser, adding that available fertilisers will not be given out on credit but will be on cash and carry system.



From the Kajebi rice farms, he went to the Volta Red Oil Palm Processing Mill also in Kadjebi where he inspected the process of milling palm oil.



The Director of Volta Red Oil Palm Processing Mill, Nicholas Kwame Foto, highlighted some of the challenges bedevilling his company.



Among these challenges, he said, included intermittent power outages, hence pleaded with the government to help remedy the situation.



The minister also paid a courtesy call on Chief of Dambai, Nana Kwaku Biano II, together with his Council of Elders.

The agric minister was accompanied by the Oti regional minister.



In the course of the meeting, the elders of Dambai laid some issues affecting agriculture n the region.



These included #machines to help assist in crop harvest, especially harvesting of yams in large quantities in the region, they stated.



We are also pleading with the district director of agriculture to organise a forum to help educate the youth in the region to let them know new techniques that could be adopted to help improve the agricultural yields in the region, they appealed.



Early on Sunday, Dr Afriyie Akoto was in the Volta region where he visited the Global Agricultural Development Company (GADCO), a major rice-producing company in Sogakope, INVITRO Labs Free Zone Company, a Dutch company, also in Sogakope, and inspected a tissue culture facility and nursery.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. is pleading with State authorities not to punish Josephine Panyin Mensah, the suspect in the fake pregnancy story.



Mrs. Panyin Mensah was arraigned before the Takoradi Circuit Court for charges of deceit of public officer, publication of false news with intent to cause fear and panic.



She has been granted bail to the sum of GHC 50,000 but is still in Police custody for not being able to meet the bail conditions.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Kwesi Pratt appealed to the authorities to take the woman through psychological therapy to assess her mental health.



To him, Mrs. Panyin Mensah is only a disturbed woman caught up in a difficult situation, so doesn't deserve prosecution.



"Maybe if this woman undergoes psychological evaluation, we will realize she needs help. Maybe she hasn't balanced well. Because if you do a psychological evaluation, you will know she doesn't have to go to court but rather take her to the hospital. These are the small things we should consider so that you don't punish innocent people. For all you know, this is an innocent woman.



"If she's disturbed, why do you punish her for being disturbed. Do you get punished when you contract malaria? . . . Let's ensure we don't worsen the woman's condition," 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.

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The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Ghana has held a days Stakeholder Consultative workshop to comprehensively review the draft Operational Manual for the implementation of the programme.



The objective of the workshop was to ensure broader engagement with Regional Coordinators, Zonal Coordinators and other regional staff to solicit input to enrich the content of the Manual. It was also meant to brief participants about the GSFP revised operations manual and its implications for staff, stakeholders and strategic partners; solicit regional staff input before validation to ensure shared ownership of the manuals; stimulate participants commitment and support in the new direction of implementing the program with laid down procedures; and to address pertinent implementation challenges on the programme.



Speaking at the workshop, the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah said that her Secretariat is working hard to give school feeding a new face.



She therefore urged all the stakeholders including Regional and Zonal Coordinators to adjust to the new operational approach in order to help change the image of school feeding programme.



According to her, the roles of the Regional and Zonal Coordinators are very crucial in ensuring the smooth implementation of the school feeding programme.



Mrs. Quashigah noted that there had been several agitations from caterers and the general public about the operations of Ghana School Feeding Programme because some Coordinators at the Regional and Zonal level have not been able to thoroughly discuss and disseminate information on the programme

It is the collective responsibility of all of us to play our roles dutifully and to make sure that the face of school feeding programme is lifted and made attractive.



She emphasized that most of the problems of Ghana School Feeding Programme could be minimized or avoided if the Regional and Zonal Coordinators were living up to expectation.



However, Mrs. Quashigah disclosed that her outfit was in talks with the Government for the release of funds to pay caterers for their 2nd term arrears of 2021 academic year.



She noted that efforts are also being made by the current Government to procure new vehicles for the field operations and monitoring of the programme.

Mrs. Quashigah took the opportunity to commend UNICEF for their wonderful support to the programme especially in the area of technical assistance and capacity building.







The GSFP National Coordinator called for cordial relationship between all regional and zonal coordinators on one hand and all the caterers on the other hand - in order to ensure efficiency and unity in their work.



The participants were taken through PowerPoint Presentations by the Consultant, Mr. William Niyuni on how the GSFP Operational Manual would be implemented at the National, Regional and District levels.



He disclosed that the Manual is divided into six (6) chapters which describe the operations of the GSFP and explained the specific modalities and guidelines for the planning, implementation, monitoring and sustainable operation of the GSFP in all districts.



The Director of Operations at the GSFP, Mrs. Doris Gaba strongly decried the practice where caterers for no obvious reasons easily sideline their Zonal and Regional Coordinators to report their concerns to the National Secretariat.



She also added her voice to call for unity urging the Zonal Coordinators to learn to work under instructions from their Regional Coordinators. If you have accepted to work with School Feeding, we have rules and regulations. We have supervisors [Regional Coordinators] so zonal coordinators work under regional coordinators per our organogram.



Therefore, if youre not ready to take instructions from your regional coordinator; if you are not ready to give her your monitoring reports; if you are not ready to come for meetings anytime she invites you, then we have to take action against you.



On her part, the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for GSFP, Mrs. Akyere Manu-Frimpong encouraged the Regional Coordinators to take special interest in monitoring and recording non-cooking days against caterers who fail to cook for a number of days.



The workshop was organised for stakeholders in the Southern Zone comprising Western, Western North, Central, Greater Accra, Eastern, Volta and Oti Regions. Similar workshop was held in Sunyani for those in the Northern Zone comprising: Ashanti, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah and North East regions.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The British High Commission in Ghana has stated that it is working with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to ensure Covid-19 vaccination certificate issued in the country is recognized by the United Kingdom (UK).



A press statement issued by the High Commission in Accra, acknowledged the frustration of the public concerning the new UK travel rules coming into force on October 4, 2021.



Per the new UK travel rules, travelers to the UK from Ghana will be required to self-isolate despite having received two doses of recognised Covid-19 vaccines in Ghana.



The UK is working to recognise vaccine certificates from other countries as part of a phased review of the many Covid-19 vaccine certificates issued across the world. This includes recognising Ghanas vaccine certificate, the statement indicated.



It further assured that the UK recognises the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccines in Ghana, irrespective of where they are manufactured, as being the same as those administered in the UK.



The high vaccine coverage will open the door to further economic recovery, international travel, and allow the UK and Ghana to build back better.



The UK is committed to opening up international travel and we are using our Covid-19 vaccine certification process to enable all those wishing to enter the UK to do so safely, it added.



Akufo-Addos Covid-19 Vaccine Charge



President Akufo-Addo, this week during the 76th United Nations General Assembly, currently ongoing in New York, in the U.S. decried moves by some countries in Europe not to recognise Covishield, the Indian version of the AstraZeneca vaccine.



He said, one unfortunate development appears to be the recent measures on entry into some countries in Europe, which suggest that Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India, is not recognised by some countries in Europe.



President Akufo-Addo stressed that what was intriguing is the fact that this vaccine was donated to African countries through the COVAX facility.



The use of vaccines as a tool for immigration control will be a truly retrogressive step, the President noted.



















Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A total of 790 students (28%) out of the 2,824 who sat the 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exams passed, official figures reveal.



The figure is a 10% drop from the total number of LLB candidates who passed in the previous year. A total of 1045 out of 2,763 students passed the 2020 exams.



In 2019, only 128 candidates out of a total of 1,820 passed the exams which has over the years become a matter of national discussion.



Protest

In the past law students have staged open protest against the mass failure presenting petition to Parliament to get the General Legal Council to address what they termed as a systemic problem at the Ghana School of Law.



Admission to the Ghana School of Law for professional legal education requires that successful candidates obtain a minimum rank of 50%.



Key among their concerns were the mass failure, the fees charged for resit and remarking, as well as the policy of rewriting all papers if a student fails more than three papers.

Source: asaaseradio.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Public sector workers should have had no pay rise this year, former GIMPA rector Prof Stephen Adei has said.



He noted in an interview with Class FM that no group of workers should have had any salary increase considering the fact that Ghanas economy was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the country got plunged into an economic crisis.



On 18 August 2021, some aggrieved public sector workers demonstrated in the national capital, Accra, against the 4 per cent and 7 per cent rise in their base salary for 2021 and 2022, respectively.



They were also not in favour of the 6 per cent and 8 per cent rise in the national minimum wage for 2021 and 2022, respectively.



One of the demonstrators told Class News: We only want to tell the politician that the country does not belong to them alone and that public sector workers also deserve a bit of the cake and that 4 per cent is nothing to write home about.



So, we just want at the end of the protest, to hear from the government that they have changed their decision, they are going back to the negotiation table and they are giving us nothing less than 25 per cent.



However, Prof Adei said rather than agitate, the public workers should count themselves lucky to have even had a 4 per cent pay rise.



 The people saying [the] 4 per cent [pay rise] is not enough; actually, to be honest, it should have been zero per cent. Yes, Prof Adei told Kofi Oppong Asamoah in the pre-recorded interview that was aired on Wednesday, 29 September 2021.



The situation in the country is such that except that  I must qualify it  you cannot say zero per cent for them and other people get 70 per cent or get an increase, the former Board Chair of the Ghana Revenue Authority clarified.



It should have been zero across the board because the message should have been sent that we are in a crisis, so, we cant have Monkey dey chop baboon dey work, he explained.



He said the presidents decision not to accept a pay rise for himself and the executive was enough to have signalled to the rest of the country that it was time to make sacrifices.



The president has come out and yet, in Ghana, good news is not good news. The president has said that all the increase which was recommended, he is not going to accept it; as well as his vice and his ministers, and you know, it was just a flash in the pan, Prof Adei observed.



He [president] gave the instruction right from the beginning and what he has done is that, still, automatically, the Controller and Accountant General paid it into his account so he was refunding it. But whatever it is, whether it is from the outcry [of Ghanaians] or not, if you are a leader, its a good example. It says that: We are in difficulty and, therefore, Im  whether he was prompted or reacting  going for zero. Then the other people should know that their 4 per cent is actually higher, Prof Adei said.



But the parliamentarians should come out and say something quickly, he noted.









Source: classfmonline.com









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Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Natures Hand Therapeutic Centre, one Dr. Jonathan Ohene Nkunim has been arrested by the Police following a sexual assault report by investigative journalist Manasseh Awuni, of TheFourthEstate.

The suspect who describes himself on social media as a doctor by profession and a gosple [sic] minister by calling, was caught on video raping some female clients who had visited his facility for medical attention.The video also revealed how he connived with state officials to acquire fraudulent certificates from the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC).The TMPC in response to the report said it had given Jonathan Ohene Nkunim and his facility two licences. The TMPC said it gave him a licence as a Herbal Medicine Practitioner and that of his facility as an Indigenous Facility. The two licences would expire on 30th May 2021, the letter signed by the TMPC director of administration, Nelson Menorkpor, said.According to our records, T/Dr. Ohene Nkunim is not a Doctor of Alternative Medicine but a Herbal Medicine Practitioner, the letter emphasised.On the scope of practice authorised by the licences, the TMPC letter said he can only work generally on a patient using traditional medicine.However, the expose indicated that checks with the Odorkor Divisional Police Command, which oversees the operations of the Gbawe Police, also revealed that three suspects were being investigated on the same case.According to the police, their investigation had revealed that an individual named Hilary took GHc3000 from Jonathan Ohene Nkunim as the fee for the licence. (Ohene Nkunim later said he paid GHc3,500 to the secretary of the association.)Hilary then paid one Anthony Agyapong of the TMPC GHc1000 to process the licence. Anthony Agyapong, in turn, paid GHc750 to the TMPC as the official charge for the licence, which was processed and printed out for Ohene Nkunim.The disputed license was duly signed by the registrar of TMPC, Torgbuiga Yaka IV. But the licence that was issued to Jonathan Ohene Nkunim by the TMPC, had the same serial number as the one that had been issued to another alternative medicine practitioner named Dora Ntiamoah, a female, leaving a contention over who was issued the fraudulent license.After being cautioned on the charge of rape and taking witness statements, including one from his victim.Put before the Kaneshie District Court, Dr. Akunim was charged with rape and was denied his bail plea.Video Credit: Manasseh Azure

Source: Daily Guide/The Fourth Estate









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The supposed heavily pregnant woman who claimed she was kidnapped and her fresh baby taken away, has said she bought the pregnancy prosthetics, popularly called silicon belly, which she has been wearing to make her look pregnant, for GH30.



According to Josephine Panyin Mensah, who has told the police she is 27 years, she bought the silicon belly at the Takoradi Market Circle but threw it into the bush while on the Takoradi-Agona Nkwanta trunk road when she was faking her kidnapping.



The accused person has also admitted that the MTN number 0599601438 through which the supposed kidnappers spoke to the mother, Agnes Essel aka Aunty Aggie, was her own old SIM card which she later discarded.



These revelations were contained in the accused persons statement which was attached to the charges filed in court yesterday.



Preferred Charges



Appearing before the Circuit Court A in Takoradi yesterday, Josephine Mensah, whose self-kidnapping sparked public outrage after sending the police on a wild goose chase, was charged with publication of false news and deceit of public officer.



She pleaded not guilty to the charges and the court presided over by His Honour Michael Cudjoe Ampadu, granted her bail in the sum of GH50,000 with two sureties and one to be justified.



Facts of case



According to the prosecutor, Supt Emmanuel Basintale, the accused resides at Old John Sabbah Road in Takoradi, and on September 16, 2021, at about 4.05pm, Michael Simons of Columbia, Takoradi, who is the husband of the accused, informed the police that his wife who was 10 months pregnant and lived with her mother, Agnes Essel left home for a health walk but could not return.



Ransom Call



The prosecutor said the mother of the accused also added that same day at about 3:30pm, an unknown caller called her on MTN number 0599601438 and she only heard the voice of accused crying that she had been kidnapped and taken to an unknown location.



In the course of investigations, the police discovered that the said number called from Agona Nkwanta in the Ahanta West District and was registered in the accused persons own name. Police trailed the number there but did not find the accused.



The prosecutor continued that on September 21, 2021, at about 11:15am, while a massive search was in progress, police had Intel which indicated that accused had been found at Axim, the Nzema East Municipality of the region.



The police in Axim was informed and the accused was conveyed from the premises of the Jehovah Witnesses Kingdom Hall to Axim Government Hospital for treatment.



Accused Speaks



The prosecutor told the court that the accused later narrated that she was pregnant and kidnapped during a walk on September 16, 2021, at about 4:30am, by unknown people who covered her mouth with cloth making her unconscious.



She added that she met about 12 other unknown women kidnapped by her captors and they were all killed except her, and that she gave birth to a baby girl and afterwards falling unconscious for the second time and had no idea how she got to Axim.



Doctors Examination



The prosecutor said doctors who conducted examination on the accused at the Axim Government Hospital told police that they did not notice any postpartum sign. The doctors stated that the accused had not given birth within six days that she went missing and resurfaced.



The doctors added that no mark of violence was also noticed on the accused.



On September 21, 2021, the accused was discharged from the Axim hospital after she was attended to by Clinical Psychologists.



The police then took the accused person to Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi where she was again examined by doctors who also concluded that accused did not give birth to any baby within the six days that she went missing and resurfaced.



The doctors added that no mark of violence was detected on the accused.



Records at the Takoradi Hospital, also called European Hospital, where the accused claimed she attended antenatal care, revealed that on September 11, 2020, she attended gynaecological clinic with complaints of lower abdominal pain and had pelvic ultra sound which showed that she had pelvic inflammatory disorder and not pregnancy.



5 Lawyers



As many as five lawyers in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis represented the woman in court yesterday. The lawyers, led by Fiifi Buckman, claimed that they are representing the accused person pro bono.



They argued that the police were the custodians of the law and that they knew that all the confession statement they claimed the woman had made should have been in the presence of the accused persons counsel.



The facts by the prosecution cannot be the whole truth. We are here not to be carried away by sentiments. I pray this honourable court to grant her bail and that Josephine will not jump bail. She will cooperate effectively with whatever the court will say, one of the lawyers, Joseph Abekah, said.



Another counsel, Samuel Agbotah, also prayed the court to exercise its discretion in favour of the accused and grant her bail since the charges preferred against her were the simplest of all the offences that warrant the grant of a bail.



Prosecutor Reacts



However, the prosecutor made it clear that the accused person was not in police custody seven days before she was brought to court as had been perceived.



He said the suspect was at the Axim Hospital and the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital after she was found and not in police custody.



She was only released to the police on Friday and so she was in our custody for two days and not seven days, Supt Basintale said.



According to the prosecutor, the suspect was informed of her constitutional rights to engage a lawyer and so her constitutional right was not violated and that her statement was not taken under duress.



The accused confession statement was taken at the hospital in the presence of her own mother, Agnes Essel, and she voluntarily gave the information, the prosecutor revealed.



Court Decision



Granting the bail, the judge said, As submitted by the lawyers, the offences are all bailable and that the accused person was not guilty until proven guilty.



He said in the mind of the court the two offences are the least of all but because it had been connected to kidnapping, It would have been a simple issue between a husband and a wife.



The judge then granted the accused person bail to reappear on October 14, 2021.



Lead Counsel



The lead counsel, Mr. Buckman, explained to journalists after the proceedings that the case was adjourned to enable the prosecution to bring all their documents that they intend to rely on for the matter to proceed.



He said it is the court that would determine whether the alleged confession statements by his client were done under duress or not.



Many people thronged the courts premises to catch a glimpse of the lady whose claims sparked outrage.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commenced consultative meetings with ministers of state at the Jubilee House to ensure that they continue to be in tune with his agenda for the second term in office.

The three-pronged meeting also include discussion of their budgetary requirements ahead of the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and to assess their work programme for the remainder of the year.



The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, disclosed this during a briefing of the Presidential Press Crops at the Jubilee House on Monday (September 27).



As of press time Monday, President Akufo-Addo, who returned earlier in the day from a one-week trip to the United States for the 76th United Nations General Assembly, had met 14 of his ministers.



They were the Ministers of Trade and Industry, Energy, Employment and Labour Relations, Fisheries and Aqua Culture, Public Enterprises, Youth and Sports, Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs.



Other ministers are expected to appear before the President today and tomorrow.



US trip



Touching on the trip to the US, Mr Arhin said aside from addressing the world body, President Akufo-Addo had meetings with other global leaders on the sidelines.



They included the Vice-President of the United States of America, Mrs Kamala Harris; the Prime Minister of Barbados, Ms Mia Mottley and the President of Guyana, Mr Irfaan Ali.





He added that President Akufo-Addo also held two fundraising activities for the National Cathedral in New York and Houston and met with the Director of the World Trade Organisation, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.



Mr Arhin said the meeting with the WTO boss centered on strengthening the Africa Continental Free Trade Area which is housed in Ghana.



Ghana commended



The communications director said the US Vice-President commended Ghana for entrenching democratic credentials through the conduct of free and fair elections in December 2020.



She praised President Akufo-Addo for creating a conducive business atmosphere in the country which had led to significant levels of American investment in Ghana.



He said Mrs Harris assured that the US government was willing to extend support to businesses owned by women in Ghana and small and medium enterprise.



Mr Arhin explained that during President Akufo-Addos meeting with the Barbados Prime Minister, the two agreed to conclude the necessary bilateral air services agreements and the designation of a carrier to fly between Accra and Bridgetown to open up people-to-people relations.



Mr Arhin noted that another issue that was discussed was the possibility of increasing the number of Ghanaian nurses that had been sent to Barbados.



He said the Barbados Prime Minister indicated that the cultural similarity and the widespread acceptance of the initial deployment of Ghanaian nurses to Barbados had been a good basis to grow that particular cooperation.



He said there was request for possibility of sending Ghanaian doctors to Barbados.



Again,President Akufo-Addo indicated that he would put his Ministers for Health and Transport in touch with the Prime Minister for further discussions on the request.



Oil and Gas



The President of Guyana, according to Mr Arhin, requested for Ghanas technical assistance in the oil and gas sector, as well as support for the industry as a whole, while President Akufo-Addo also confirmed the need for the two countries to establish a framework for technical consultation.



He said President Akufo-Addo assured that Ghana had the required capacity for Guyanese trainees in the oil and gas industry.



New Regions



Mr Arhin said President Akufo-Addo, who had toured 12 out of the 16 regions within this year, was extremely delighted as to what was taking place in the newly created regions, especially with the massive infrastructure development.



He said in fulfillment of his pledge to spread development in the newly created regions, regional offices and directorates of various government agencies were being spread in various towns in the regions instead of concentrating all the infrastructure in the regional capital.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has debunked claims the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that President Nana Akufo-Addos unbridled proclivity for chartering luxurious jets for his foreign trips, is raising concerns among the air force.



GAF, in a statement issued today and signed by Commander Andy La-Anyane, Acting Director Public Relations, stated "unequivocally that this allegation is untrue and without basis.



For the avoidance of doubt, the morale of personnel, not only in the Ghana Air Force, as is being alleged, but the entire Ghana Armed Forces, has never been at a very higher level.



Akufo-Addo Engaged In Arabian-King-style Cruises



The NDC MP, has in recent times focused his lenses on the President's foreign travels, and believes the latter is wasting taxpayers money on his Arabian-King style cruise instead of using the existing presidential jet.



According to him, when President Akufo-Addo was travelling to the UK and Germany for the global education summit and G20 Compact with Africa summits respectively, he used ultra-luxury aircraft, LX-DIO Boeing operated by Global Jet Luxembourg.



He said this same aircraft was used by the President to the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in the United States.



Disquiet Within Air Force?



Hon Ablakwa further alleged that this decision by the Executive to sideline the "celebrated Air Force professionals with unquestionable loyalty" for the services of luxurious jets operated by foreigners has caused consternation among the air force.



Ghanaians deserve and demand to know from you why you prefer alien luxury aircrafts operated by foreign crews when our celebrated Air Force professionals with unquestionable loyalty trained at significant expense to the taxpayer guarantee better security for our presidents  an action creating considerable disquiet within the ranks of the Ghana Air Force, he said in a recent open letter to the president.



He also asserted that President Nana Akufo-Addos three recent foreign trips cost the taxpayer GH10 million.



Treat It With Contempt



But the GAF, in a strongly-worded statement, dispel any allegations of agitation among its ranks, and further cautioned against the tendency to drag the military into issues of partisan politics by some Ghanaians, including politicians.



"Ghana Armed Forces wishes to advise the general public to treat the allegations of disquiet within the ranks of the Ghana Air Force with the contempt it deserves.



"Additionally, we wish to entreat all Ghanaians, including politicians, not to drag the Ghana Armed Forces into partisan politics. Our mandate as captured in the 1992 constitution is to defend the territorial integrity of Ghana and we should be allowed to focus on our mandate," portions of the statement read.





Read the armys full statement below:



RE: THERE IS DISQUIET WITHIN THE RANKS OF THE GHANA AIR FORCE  ABLAKWA ALLEGES



The attention of the Ghana Armed Forces has been drawn to a disturbing story carried on Ghanaweb on Tuesday 28 September 2021 which was sourced from the Facebook timeline of Honourable Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, alleging there is some form of disquiet within the ranks of the Ghana Air Force with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos preference for luxurious aircraft operated by a foreign crew.



We wish to state unequivocally that this allegation is untrue and without basis.



For the avoidance of doubt, the morale of personnel, not only in the Ghana Air Force, as is being alleged, but the entire Ghana Armed Forces, has never been at a very higher level.



Personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces appreciate the numerous additions that the government has made for the smooth running of operations, including accommodation for troops and their families, vehicles to enhance mobility, review of salaries amongst many others.



Troops also appreciate the efforts being made by the government in retooling the Force with the acquisition of a number of platforms including warships for the Ghana Navy, Armoured Personnel Carriers for the Ghana Army, various aircraft including a strategic lift for VIPs for use by the Ghana Air Force and many others.



It is also important to state that the fighter squadron of the Ghana Air Force is currently being retooled by the government to augment the professional posture of the Ghana Air Force.



The Ghana Armed Forces wishes to advise the general public to treat the allegations of disquiet within the ranks of the Ghana Air Force with the contempt it deserves.



Additionally, we wish to entreat all Ghanaians, including politicians, not to drag the Ghana Armed Forces into partisan politics. Our mandate as captured in the 1992 constitution is to defend the territorial integrity of Ghana and we should be allowed to focus on our mandate.



Finally, we wish to assure the general public once again that the morale of troops is very high.



SIGNED



ANDY LA-ANYANE



Commander



Acting Director Public Relations





Source: Peacefmonline.com/GHANA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has accused government of creating an erroneous impression that the intention to purchase a new Presidential aircraft has to do with the limited capacity of the current aircraft.



According to him, ample evidence also abound to deflate the argument that Ghana's current Presidential jet is incapable of going on long journey foreign trips.



Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Ablakwa claimed that in the President's recent trips to Germany, the U.K and USA, all the chartered private jets were in the same range as the Presidential Falcon.



The President, not once did he charter a bigger aircraft, say a 30-seater or 40-seater or even a 60-seater aircraft for his foreign travels because if you look at all the aircrafts he has chartered, they are a 17-seater aircraft.



"The recent chartered private jet is a 19-seater and not a 30-seater or a 40-seater aircraft. It is all within the same range of our Falcon, which is a 17-seater plus crew. So, nobody can convince me that the President went to charter these private jets because of their size and so he wants a bigger aircraft, he argued.



Providing further particulars to buttress his point, the North Tongu MP added that the engine capacity of Ghana's Presidential Falcon is even bigger than the private jets President Akufo-Addo has been hiring.



To him, if it is luxury the president is interested in, a state of the art bathroom and private movie room can be fixed in the current Falcon aircraft to suit his taste.



Our falcon is far superior to the rest of the private jets he has chartered so far. We can fix bathroom in the Presidential Jet and so all we can do is to reduce the number of seats in the aircraft from maybe 17 to 15-seater with crew to create a space for the bathroom for the President or even if he wants a movie room in the falcon. It can be done; reconfiguration is done all the time. There is a market for reconfiguration of aircraft, he noted.



Hon Ablakwa further stated that the idea of the President traveling with his entourage at the same time puts him at risk as it is the practice everywhere in the world for the security and some of the ministers to travel ahead of the President to secure the grounds before his arrival.



This business that they are going to buy a bigger aircraft, lets not create the impression that it is because of the size. In any case, there is no President in this world who travels with his entire entourage with him at the same time. If our President is being treated this way, we are not being fair to this President; we are exposing him to danger, he intimated.



Watch video below





Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Many players have talked extensively about the reasons the Ghanaian movie industry is in decline and veteran actor/producer Kofi Falconer is the latest to wade into the discussions.



In an exclusive interview with Graphic Showbiz recently, Kofi Falconer said while people may point to lack of funding, poor storylines and lack of professionalism, he puts the biggest part of the blame at the doors of producers.



According to him, most producers these days are more interested in what they will gain rather than telling good stories.



If anyone tells you there are no good stories, the person is lying. There are good stories. There are good story writers but the producers are interested in those that will give them money quickly, they are focused on what they will gain when they invest and so these good stories are shelved.



They do not think about the future, they do not think outside the box and they do not like going for actors who are skilled. It is only a few such as Shirley Frimpong Manso who are going for quality.



In my days, when you wrote a script, you gave it to people to critique. Even as an actor, when you were given a script, you could give suggestions and all those steps made our movies excellent, he said.



When Graphic Showbiz sought Kofi Falconers opinion on the current crop of actors, he indicated that some of them lacked principles.



Most of the people we have now are not disciplined. They do not understand that acting is a profession so having a minute role doesnt make you an actor. When I say discipline, it encompasses a lot - the way you walk, talk, dress, etc.



Some of the young ones do not respect time. You will give them a call time and they will come at whatever time they want. In my time, as soon as you showed such traits, the director or producer would just kill your character there and then.



I had that experience with one actor and he got angry but I told him my piece of mind. Why will you not pick your calls on a day you are supposed to shoot? he stated.



He was, however, quick to add that he couldnt blame them much as well.



I do not blame them too; it is because of where we find ourselves and the world we are in. Now anything goes. Its all about money unlike previously when passion was the driving force. Again, the laws in the country do not work. In other countries, you cannot just go there and start shooting movies but in our country, it is like that. Everything goes, he said.





Kofi Falconer also urged the National Film Authority to be up and doing to revive the movie industry.



Its been a while since it was established; its purpose was to scrutinise the movie industry so that people would not just take a camera and go shoot anything or people would not just call themselves actors but till date, we have not heard anything.



"In addition to all that, maybe, just maybe, we had to suffer for the new ones to come and enjoy. We paid our dues by following our passion so they could come and make money, he said.



Kofi Falconer has starred in several productions including EOCO Boss, Chronicles of Odumkrom and Big Man Wahala.

Source: Graphic Showbiz









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Gospel musicians Saraphine Afari and Florence Afari have launched their maiden album titled Tumi Wura.



The event, which took place at the Church of Pentecost in Accra Sunday, formed part of the vision of their ministry to preach to everyone and to the most distant part of the earth.



Speaking exclusively with The Finder, Saraphine Afari explained that the album is made up of songs such as Yesu Mogya, Tumi Wura, Jesus, Kronkron, Ayeyi, Obekasa and Ofata'.



She further stated that the songs came as a sign of Gods act of kindness, mercy and love for them, adding that they want people to feel the impact of God in their lives.



Ms Afari noted that the album means everything to them and highlights how God's favour has been extended to their family.



We want our songs to come out to teach people about the works of God and make them know that He is really working in our lives and that of others, she explained.



She added that Saraflo Ministries has been in existence for the past three years, and our hope is that through our music people will hear about God and change their bad ways."



Speaking on what inspired the songs, Florence Afari indicated that the lyrics were revealed by the Holy Spirit to Saraphine Afari, after which they came together to compose the songs.



According to them, they were inspired after Saraphine Afari fell sick and they saw the manifestation of God's hands in the family.



"Only God can see us through a holy life, she emphasised.



She was optimistic that people would acknowledge God's presence in their lives after listening to their songs.



"We pray that people will take good care of themselves in order to stay out of trouble or even fall sick in this difficult time," she said.



According to them, the songs are currently available on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.



They called on sponsors to come to their aid as they have plans of composing more songs for the glory of the Lord and also make an impact on the lives of people.



Various gospel ministers, chiefs and dignitaries from the Church of Pentecost were present to grace the occasion.



The Saraflo Ministries expressed gratitude to God for making all things possible and also showed appreciation to all the special guests, pastors and everyone who made it to the event.



The Paramount Chief of the Kpalime Traditional Area, Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao VIII, called on everyone to support the work of Saraflo Ministries and pledged his support for the group.



He further urged everyone with the talent of song ministration to come together and praise the Maker with songs.



May the Almighty God see talents like Saraflo Ministry grow in our communities for people to look up to such conducts, he stressed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Tributes have been pouring in from all quarters following the demise of Ghanaian highlife legend, Nana Kwame Ampadu.



The veteran musician died on Tuesday morning, September 28th at the Legon Hospital. He was 76.



Head of Linguistics at the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Kofi Agyekum, speaking in a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show, 'Kokrokoo' paid glowing tribute to him.



Listen to him in the video below









Meanwhile, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper Kwesi Pratt Jnr and Nana Akomea, STC Managing Director, speaking on the same platform also eulogized the man many have described as very talented.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Mechanic is one of the programs offered at the Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence located on the Penticton campus of Okanagan College.
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An Aiken County man is wanted in connection to a July shooting that claimed the life of a 22-year-old man.

Toby Terrell Fuewell is wanted for involuntary manslaughter and weapon charges reltated to the July 7 shooting death of Jamar Bush.

According to Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables, the shooting occurred shortly after 6 p.m. at a residence in the 800 block of Dillon Avenue.

Police found the victim laying on the side of the roadway with a gunshot wound to the left side of the face, according to an incident report from Aiken Department of Public Safety.

The victim was transported to Aiken Regional Medical Centers where he was pronounced dead from at least one gunshot wound, Ables said.

The Aiken Department of Public Safety is requesting the communitys assistance in locating Fuewell.

In 2017, Fuewell was arrested and charged in an armed robbery outside the Lucky 7 store on Hampton Avenue. He is still currently on probation for the crime.

He was charged with two counts of armed robbery, pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to jail records.

Fuewell plead guilty to strong-arm robbery, a misdemeanor in South Carolina, and the weapons charges were dropped, according to the Aiken County Solicitor's Office.

On Aug. 10, 2018, Judge Keesley sentenced Fuewell to six years of suspended probation under the South Carolina's Youthful Offender Act, according to the detention center.

The YOA provides an option for young people convicted of non-violent crimes in South Carolina to receive probation as opposed to a jail sentence.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Fuewell should call Aiken Public Safety at 803-642-7620 or submit a tip anonymously through CrimeStoppers of the Midlands.

Tips could earn a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for this crime.

To leave a tip online, visit midlandscrimestoppers.com and click "Submit a Tip."

For a mobile tip, download the new P3 Tips app on your Apple or Android device.
A South Carolina attorney who uses a screeching hawk as his advertising mascot said he's being unfairly targeted by legal regulators, and he's pointing to a case involving a law firm using an even more dangerous animal  a man-eating tiger  as evidence.

John Hawkins alleges the S.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel is using selective enforcement when it comes to policing the types of advertising South Carolina Bar members are allowed to use to promote their businesses.

The office has threatened to sanction Hawkins for his TV ads featuring the squealing bird of prey and actors flapping their arms in hawk-like fashion to celebrate their seven-figure personal-injury case settlements  ads the watchdog group has termed distasteful and objectionable to the legal community.

But in court documents filed Sept. 28 in federal court, Hawkins said the disciplinary counsel is letting another law firm  Texas-based Kirkendall Dwyer LLP  use the jungle's most powerful cat in advertisements for its affiliated Law Tigers network of motorcycle injury litigants.

Hawkins said the office reached a "secret settlement" with the Law Tigers after the firm fought the regulator's attempts to halt its ads. The Hawk Law founder is seeking a copy of the agreement to help back up his claims that the disciplinary counsel's marketing rules violate his constitutional rights to free speech and equal treatment.

"If ODC has reached an agreement that allows Kirkendall Dwyer to use its Law Tigers brand that includes pictures, depictions and recordings of tigers, it cannot constitutionally investigate and prosecute John Hawkins for using pictures, depictions and recordings of hawks in his advertising," Hawkins said in a court document.

"After all," he added, "a 400-plus pound animal that is known to maul, attack and eat people implies a greater ability 'to obtain results' than does a three-pound bird that eats mice, squirrel and other small animals."

The office did not respond to a request for comment. In court filings, it has denied any wrongdoing.

Hawkins  a former state legislator who represented Spartanburg County for a dozen years in the House and Senate  had been practicing law for 23 years when, in 2017, a rival lawyer filed a complaint with the disciplinary counsel over his firm's ads. Two more complaints  one by a former Hawk Law associate, the other by another competitor  followed.

The office filed formal charges this year against Hawkins, threatening sanctions up to disbarment. That's when Hawkins filed his lawsuit alleging constitutional violations.

The Hawk Law founder said in a court filing that the disciplinary counsel is stonewalling his request for documents that could be related to his case, including the alleged "secret settlement" with Kirkendall Dwyer after the Texas firm filed a similar First Amendment lawsuit in 2020. That complaint was settled and dismissed in December, but the terms were not made public.

Hawkins, in his court filing, said Kirkendall Dwyer is currently advertising in South Carolina, and photographs of a commercial van with a South Carolina license plate and wrapped in Law Tigers logos  what Hawkins terms "a rolling billboard"  is included as an exhibit.

"Lawyers and attorneys who advertise are entitled to know what the rules are and how those rules will be enforced," Hawkins said in the court filing, adding the current rules are vague and legally questionable.

He has vowed to continue his fight even though the disciplinary counsel recently dismissed one of the three formal charges that stemmed from the earlier complaints. The others are pending.

The dismissal "does not change the constitutional issues or constitutional analysis in this action," the court filing states, adding that the charge that was dropped can be refiled at any time. "In essence, the ODC is holding the (charge) as a sword hanging over Mr. Hawkins' head."

Hawk Law has four South Carolina offices, in Columbia, Greenville, Moore and North Charleston. Kirkendall Dwyer has no physical locations in the state, according to its website.
A new furniture store is now open in downtown Charleston.

Teak + Table Outdoor recently leased 9,500 square feet at 658 King St., near The Daily restaurant. The site will serve as the flagship location for the Charleston area and house its corporate offices and e-commerce business, said Trevor Ferguson, co-founder.

The retailer's other showroom is in Bluffton.

The company had operated a site in Mount Pleasant on U.S. Highway 17, but it is no longer open.

Joseph Purze of the real estate firm CBRE Inc. represented Teak + Table in its King Street lease transaction.

"We are continuing to see population growth and an uptick in retail activity in the Charleston area," Purze said.

Hours of operation are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. The company hopes to grow into other markets.

On the way

A fast-food eatery is on the way to North Charleston, and an oyster bar is headed to West Ashley.

A Cook Out restaurant will be built on a 1.1-acre site at 5730 Rivers Ave. near Remount Road, according to the commercial real estate firm NAI Charleston.

"It is great to see the fast-food industry still continuing to grow during these times," said NAI broker Jack Owens, who represented the seller, Mims Amusement Co. Jay Rodger of Trident Commercial Inc. represented the buyer, Cook Out  Charleston Inc.

Cook Out currently operates six restaurants in the Lowcountry, in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Summerville and Walterboro. The chain was founded in Greensboro, N.C., in 1989.

Also on the way is a second Charleston-area restaurant from an Upstate-based oyster bar chain.

Jason Thorpe plans to add a new Shuckin' Shack location at 40 Grand Oaks Blvd. in West Ashley. He currently owns the Summerville site at 114 Central Ave., and has plans to open two additional locations over the next few years.

He leased the 2,463-square-foot outparcel space earlier this year in the Harris Teeter-anchored West Ashley Circle Shopping Center.

The new location will be the fourth in South Carolina. Others are in Greenville and Easley, its home base. The company has 16 restaurants, including sites in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Maryland. Five others are planned for North Carolina, Florida, Illinois and Missouri, according to the restaurant's website.

The new Shuckin' Shack is expected to open later this fall in November. An opening date has not been announced for the new Cook Out restaurant.

New food hall

A Greek restaurant plans to open in downtown Charleston in October in a revamped venue with four other eateries near the historic City Market.

Bapko Grill House (pronounced Var-ko) will serve what it calls "authentic" dishes in the new Port of Call food and brew hall in the former Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. site at 99 South Market St.

Among the other dining spots coming to the site are seafood restaurant Empire Oyster, Asian fusion eatery Bok Choy Boy, Palmira Barbecue and Iaca acai bowls.

The food hall's website shows it opening Oct. 19.

The new Greek eatery comes from the family that owns and operates My Big Fat Greek Trailer.

Owner David Leon will offer Greek dishes familiar to Charleston-area residents along with a few variations and some additional menu items.

Among the offerings will be spit-roasted pork and chicken gyros, souvlaki, salads and plenty of feta on fries as well as tzatziki and Greek dressing recipes.

"Much of the authentic, Hellenic heritage has been lost or diluted outside of Greece, but the Greeks' love for food has remained," Leon said. "With the opening of Bapko Grill House, we will revitalize that aspect of Greek culture in Charleston."

Leon said his father-in-law and family patriarch, chef Konstantinos Kakaziotis, will join Bapko.

Ribbon-cutting

The Charleston area's first drive-thru grocery store opened Sept. 28 and will have a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 5.

Opie can be found at 1735 Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant. It is open around the clock seven days a week.

Customers can call ahead and pick up orders made on the stores app or drive up and place an order and be served in 5-10 minutes, according to co-founder Tyler Sones.

Now open

The Whale, a craft beer collective, officially opened Sept. 28 in The Refinery at 1640 Meeting St. on Charleston's upper peninsula.

Owned by Jesse Van Note and Andrew Ross, the collective is not a brewery but offers curated beers from around the globe for drinks on site or to take home.

In addition to a list of 20 rotating draft beers and 150-plus cans and bottles, The Whale will serve Haus Lager produced exclusively for them by Fonta Flora Brewery in Morganton, N.C. Customers also will find wines, ciders, mead, Saki and non-alcoholic options. A regular schedule of on-site food trucks will be announced in coming weeks.

The Whale is open 2 p.m.-midnight Monday through Thursday, noon-midnight Friday and Saturday, and noon-10 p.m. Sunday. Parking is free.

It's the third location for the beer collective. Others are in Asheville and Greenville.

New affiliation

Title Boxing Club at 1000 Nexton Square Drive in Summerville is now affiliated with Rock Steady Boxing, a nonprofit founded in 2006 to provide an effective form of physical exercise to people with Parkinson's disease, according to owner Rick Jarrell.

In addition to traditional boxing and kickboxing classes, the club offers Parkinson's sessions with certified trainers three days a week at 11 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
CAYCE  Wells Fargo is turning its fee earnings from processing federal small business coronavirus relief loans back to small and minority-owned companies, including about $3 million to those in South Carolina.

"It's hard to believe that it's been 18 months since COVID-19 began and it kind of continues," said Wells Fargo Region Bank President Justin Hawkins.

"It's affected our businesses," he said. "It's affected our day-to-day lives in countless ways. And while many businesses have recovered, there's still many small business owners trying to rebuild what they've lost."

In particular, the pandemic highlighted that more needed to be done to reach a diverse pool of small business owners in need of capital.

Issues with rollout of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable loan program administered by the Small Business Administration to help companies keep workers on the payroll and off unemployment rolls, left many minority-owned businesses out.

With that in mind, Wells Fargo launched its Open for Business Fund, donating $420 million nationwide.

In the Palmetto State, three Community Development Financial Institutions  private entities focused on lending to businesses and people in underserved and low-income communities  received funding.

The South Carolina Community Loan Fund and Community Works both received $1 million, and another $750,000 went to the CLIMB Fund.

Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette lauded the $3 million donation for the impact it could have on any number of the 735 minority-owned certified small businesses in the state.

"It's those small businesses that change lives, change families and change communities," she said. "When you bring business you bring opportunity, and when you bring opportunity you bring hope. When you bring hope, you change the landscape of the community."

Wells Fargo is joined by a number of other national banking giants in these efforts.

Bank of America, the country's second largest distributor of PPP loans, also has pledged to donate its earnings from the program, which Standard and Poor's has estimated to be in excess of $755 million, in a similar fashion. So has Citibank, with it's estimated $25 million in earnings.

SC Community Loan Fund Communications Director Holly Shinn called the donation, which her organization received as part of a competitive grant process, "a huge step towards helping to build the small business economy that we all serve."

That includes small businesses like home gasoline delivery service Fuel Flo, founded by Amber Murray of St. George to serve Chester, Berkeley, Orangeburg and Charleston counties.

"The struggle to find funding for this business, especially during the pandemic, was extremely hard, but they believed in me," Murray said of the Community Loan Fund.

Fernando Soto, founder of New Digital Press and Nuestro Estado, a four-person statewide news service for Spanish speakers and the Latino community, was another funding recipient.

Soto used a low interest loan from CLIMB to diversify his revenue stream, as many news outlets were hit by decreased advertising revenue amid the pandemic. He purchased extra equipment and began offering alternative media services to companies in addition to news gathering and livestreaming.

"Our state will never live up to its full potential unless every one of its citizens has a realistic shot for success. The opportunities we are creating today are small, but very important, steps towards making that goal a reality," said CLIMB Fund CEO Cindi Rourk.

CommunityWorks has put its funding to use in a slightly different way, giving out 29 grants to companies in towns like Hartsville, Greenwood, Clemson and Florence.

As one of the only community loan funds in the state that did its own Paycheck Protection Program lending  $9 million to 600 businesses  CommunityWorks CEO Tammie Hoy Hawkins said her organization saw first hand the number of companies that were shut out from that funding.

"What was missing was access to capital and relief to our rural communities," she said. "It was a huge gap in the market."

Grants ranged from $3,000 to $5,000, behaving similarly to the forgivable PPP loans, Hoy Hawkins said. The remainder of Wells Fargo's donation of CommunityWorks will be used to offer revolving low interest loans.
COLUMBIA  One of South Carolinas largest school systems is joining the growing roster of districts formally calling on legislators to scrap a ban on mask mandates, while the state Supreme Court decides the fate of the law.

Richland Two trustees approved a resolution Sept. 28 calling for the repeal of a budget amendment prohibiting local governments from setting mask mandates at the risk of losing state aid. The state's high court is weighing the Columbia-area district's suit against the ban on school face covering requirements.

With the General Assembly not expected back in until December, the vote was more a symbolic gesture than anything else.

It's a show of good faith that I personally am not OK with the government of our state tying our funding to local school board decisions, Richland Two trustee Amelia McKie said ahead of the 4-1 vote.

Parent Larry Smalls said language in the resolution saying the district ultimately bear the responsibility for the well-being of students should have been removed.

"The responsibility for the well-being of our children is the parent," he said. "Your responsibility is to be managers and facilitators to make sure the kids get a quality education without indoctrination."

Trustee Lindsay Agostini opposed the resolution for that reason.

I'm not an advocate of repealing it," she said. "I, too, side with the parents who think it's a parents decision."

The one-year ban legislators inserted into the state budget took effect July 1. It bars school districts from using state and federal money authorized by the Legislature to impose or enforce masks. Districts have been warned that defying the law puts their funds at risk.

Soon after the vote, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in a separate case against the ban filed by parents of disabled students. Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said the state ban discriminates against children with disabilities, comparing it to passing a law that would prevent the installation of access ramps at schools.

Even with the backing of the courts, Richland Two vice chairman James Manning said mask mandates may not be coming to the 27,000-student district.

We would have decision within the district whether or not we mandate masks or how we enforce that policy, he said.

Richland Two had 525 students in either quarantine or isolation and 70 positive COVID cases, with eight confirmed cases in staff and five in close-contact quarantine, according to the latest data. Since the school year started in mid-August, Richland Two has seen 1,100 total COVID cases among students and staff, and more than 4,000 quarantines.
COLUMBIA  Masks are back in one of South Carolinas biggest school districts.

Richland Two district leaders announced that starting Sept. 30 face coverings will be required at all facilities, following a federal court order that ruled a state law barring mask mandates violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman opened the door even wider for districts implementing masks, saying in a Sept. 29 memorandum all of them have discretionary authority to do so based on U.S. Circuit Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis Sept. 27 ruling, which temporarily halts a provision in the 2021-22 budget barring K-12 schools from using public funds to enforce mask mandates.

Richland Two, with 27,000 students, is the states ninth largest district. Since classes began Aug. 18, it has seen more than 1,100 positive COVID cases among its staff and pupils, and more than 4,000 have been either isolated or quarantined due to close contacts.

The Richland Two Board of Trustees and school district leaders are extremely grateful for the temporary restraining order, district officials said in a statement. Requiring masks, in addition to the existing health and safety protocols already in place, strengthens Richland Twos ability to fulfill our most important obligation to our families  providing a safe and healthy learning environment for all students.

District leaders are also waiting on the state Supreme Court to decide on an appeal filed in August seeking an exemption from the budget amendment until its constitutionality is decided.

Like many other local school boards, Richland two trustees are clamoring for lawmakers to strip the mask mandate ban from its budget, approving Sept. 28 a resolution to support its repeal.

Its a show of good faith that I personally am not OK with the government of our state tying our funding to local school board decisions, Richland Two trustee Amelia McKie said ahead of the 4-1 vote.

In Richland One, where masks have been required for several weeks due to states of emergency in the City of Columbia and county, district leaders said they also welcomed Lewis findings.

This ruling is a win in our overall efforts to protect our students and staff during this pandemic, Richland One spokeswoman Karen York told the Post and Courier.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Cloudy early, then thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
The S.C. Department of Education released guidance saying that school districts now have the "discretionary authority" to require masks in school.

The guidance was sent out shortly after a Sept. 27 court ruling in which U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis issued a restraining order and injunction that put a temporary end to a provision in the state's 2021-22 budget that prohibited K-12 schools from using public funds to enforce mask mandates.

"The immediate effect of the Courts order is that both the state and local school districts are prohibited from enforcing Proviso 1.108 and school districts now have the discretionary authority to require masks," S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman wrote in a letter to districts.

More Coverage To read more in-depth stories from The Post and Courier's Education Lab, go to postandcourier.com/education-lab.

The decision comes after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents of students with disabilities who claimed the provision violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. They pointed out that many students with disabilities are more susceptible to severe illness from COVID-19 and argued that school districts were unable to provide a safe educational environment for these children.

The lawsuit named Gov. Henry McMaster, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, Spearman and a number of school districts in the state.

In a video McMaster posted to his Twitter account in the afternoon on Sept. 29, he said that he 100 percent disagreed with the district judge's opinion.

"I believe parents should have a final word in whether their children should be required to wear a mask in school. We will take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary," McMaster said.

McMaster and Wilson filed an appeal to the judge's decision on shortly after the governor's video was posted.

The decision does not mean the school districts are now required to enforce mask mandates, but it does give them the option. Charleston County, Colleton County, Marlboro County, Lexington 2, Richland One, Chester County and York County school districts all had mask requirements prior to the decision. On the afternoon of Sept. 29, Richland School District Two officials said the district will start requiring masks on Sept. 30.

Several districts contacted by The Post and Courier said they are still debating what to do about the judge's ruling and recently released guidance.

Spearman said districts should work with their lawyers to determine how they should make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Representatives from Horry County School District, Greenville County School District, Dorchester School District 2, and Charleston County schools are meeting with attorneys to establish next steps in response to the ruling.

So far, a couple of districts have remained firm in their decision to make masks optional. Lexington District 1 and Oconee County School District both said Sept. 29 that students would not be required to wear masks.

Lexington 1 officials interpret the decision to only apply to students with disabilities. The district will provide accommodation for those students if they provide a doctors note showing their need, said Superintendent Greg Little.

Claire Raj, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said that she did not believe all the districts will immediately issue mask mandates.

"Schools are going to take a minute and take the pulse of what's going on in their schools to see whether this accommodation is necessary," Raj said.

The state's largest school district, Greenville County, is holding a closed-door meeting at 9 a.m. Sept. 30 so that board members can receive legal advice in light of the ruling.

"Our general counsel will discuss the temporary restraining order with our elected officials and go over the options, explain what it all means, what is likely to happen next," district spokesman Tim Waller said.

The parents involved in the lawsuits are eager to get their students back in school, said ACLU lawyer Allen Chaney. Many of the students involved in the lawsuit are learning virtually after receiving advice from doctors that being in school with unmasked students is unsafe.

"They get to go back to their classrooms, they get to see their friends again, they get to learn from their teachers instead of from their parents, and get access to services they have historically gotten in a school building that aren't available at home," he said.

In her opinion, Lewis acknowledged McMaster's argument that it should be a parent's right to choose whether their student wears a mask.

"It is also generally true that parents are the ones who know their children best, what is best for their health, and their ability to learn," Lewis wrote. "But, those same truths apply equally to all parents including the parents of children with disabilities, such as the minor plaintiffs here."

School officials in Richland One and Charleston County, where masks have been required for weeks despite the budget rule, expressed appreciation for the decision.

"This ruling is a win in our overall efforts to protect our students and staff during this pandemic," Richland One spokeswoman Karen York said.

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State officials also went to social media to share thoughts on the decision. Rep. Stewart Jones, R-Laurens, posted on his Facebook page that school districts that implement mask mandates should expect "massive budget cuts" as soon as the General Assembly reconvenes. Jones was the author of the budget proviso that prohibited districts from using funds to enforce mask requirements.

"Don't act surprised. The state budget is about to shrink big time," he wrote.

Parents and their lawyers are confident that Lewis' decision will stand in the court of appeals. Chaney said the parents hope that districts respond to the decision with universal mask requirements so their students can return to the classroom.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Cloudy this morning with thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 76F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm this evening, then some lingering showers still possible overnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
An arrest has been made in an assault on a former West Ashley High School swimmer at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

The St. Cloud police department announced the arrest of 20-year-old Ezayah Marcell Gomez Oropreza on Sept. 28. Oropreza is listed as a sophomore on the St. Cloud State wrestling team in the 285-pound weight division. He is from Burnsville, Minnesota.

Oropreza was arrested on charges "related to felony assault" in a Sept. 18 incident involving Chad Waldrop, a home-schooled student from Hanahan who swam for West Ashley High School. Waldrop, also 20, was a member of the St. Cloud State swim team in 2019-20.

Waldrop, named to The Post and Courier's All-Lowcountry swim team during his West Ashley career, was badly injured in the assault, suffering extensive facial injuries requiring emergency surgery, according to his parents.

During the 10-day gap between the assault and arrest, Waldrop's parents posted an on-line petition asking for "Justice for Chad."

"My family is elated," Jerry Waldrop, Chad's father, said on Tuesday night. "It's hard to explain, to tell you the truth."

"We're just crying and thanking God," said his mother, Annette. "We thank the St. Cloud police officer who took our son to the emergency room that night. And we're thankful that the St. Cloud police did their due diligence to get this guy off the street.

"We couldn't have done this without the help of so many friends and family and people that we don't even know. We had a lot of people praying for us, and we're so happy that we did."

A statement from St. Cloud police said Oropreza was apprehended at 6:10 p.m. on Sept. 28, taken into custody without incident and transported to the Stearns County Jail, where he will be held on charges. A copy of the criminal complaint will be available on Sept. 30, the statement said.

According to his parents, Chad was at his house on Sept. 18 when he heard what he thought were screams from a woman in distress. Jerry Waldrop said witnesses told them what happened next.

"He approached the couple to see if he could help her," his parents' statement said. "He was told to mind his own business, then jumped and violently attacked by the male, a fellow student from St. Cloud State University."

A fall to the concrete rendered Waldrop unconscious, and he was beaten while unconscious. Witnesses saw the couple drag Waldrop back to his house and called police, the statement said.

He literally just dragged Chad's unconscious body inside and threw him in our house and just left him there, Jake Hendrickson, Waldrops roommate, told KSTP-TV.

Police responded quickly, and the parents credit a St. Cloud officer with saving Waldrop's life.

"Chad was scared and disoriented, and didn't want to seek medical attention or press charges at the time," his parents said. "The officer insisted on taking Chad to the hospital."

The police statement said officers were dispatched to a "fight" at 1:41 a.m. on Sept. 18. They eventually located "a 20-year-old male in a nearby home that had injuries to his head and face. The male was brought to the St. Cloud Hospital for medical care of injuries that were determined to be serious but not life-threatening."

St. Cloud police said they had been investigating since the incident, and on Sept. 28 developed "probable cause" to make the arrest.

On Sept. 25, St. Cloud State issued a statement saying it has suspended a student-athlete involved in the off-campus incident.

"SCSU is aware of an off-campus incident with a student athlete & student on 9/18," the statement said. "It is under investigation by the St. Cloud Police Dept. SCSU takes these incidents seriously. Safety is a top priority. The student athlete has been suspended from the team as SCSU investigates."

Chad Waldrop saw a plastic surgeon Sept. 27, his father said.

"He's got multiple, multiple fractures in his face," Jerry Waldrop said. "I mean, (the doctors) couldn't even do what they wanted to do last night. They couldn't get the screws in because it's so bad."

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help with Waldrop's medical expenses. A "Justice for Chad" petition at change.org had more than 6,800 signatures on Sept. 28.
Charleston City Council members tabled final approval of a mask mandate Sept. 28, opting instead to keep the ordinance in their collective back pocket in case its really needed during the winter, when coronavirus infections could spike.

Michael Sweat, faculty director of the Medical University of South Carolina Center for Global Health, suggested to council that mandates ought to be used strategically in case of emergency. He noted that the tri-county region now has an infection rate of 47 per 100,000 per day  down from 133 just a couple weeks ago.

At its Sept. 14 meeting, council passed the first reading of an ordinance that would require the use of masks in businesses and schools. The vote was 10-3, with Councilmen Harry Griffin, Karl Brady and Kevin Shealy opposing the measure. Second and final approval was set for Sept. 28.

Immunity is up and hospitalization rates are declining, though medical staff still are severely burdened with cases, he said.

A vast majority of COVID-19 infections, 85 percent, are among the unvaccinated, who also comprise 71 percent of those hospitalized and 75 percent of those who have died because of the virus, Sweat said.

The most important protection available is the vaccine, he said. The aggressive delta variant of the virus remains in circulation, so people ought to avoid crowds, too.

Mask use is critical, Sweat said. They really work.

Meanwhile, a federal judge on Sept. 28 issued a temporary restraining order to the state of South Carolina that blocks a one-year budget proviso banning schools from imposing mask mandates. U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said the state ban discriminates against children with disabilities and therefore violates federal law.

Other issues considered during the meeting included zoning changes on the Charleston peninsula and in West Ashley, the creation of a municipal improvement district on Johns Island, various property annexations, funding distributions to city government agencies, and a 30 percent pay raise for council members, from $17,500 to $25,000 a year.

On that last item, Councilmen Keith Waring and Peter Shahid argued that the current salary is a deterrent to some who might want to serve on council but cant afford to do so.

Griffin pointed out that the schedule is demanding and time-consuming, often requiring afternoon meetings, and that, too, is a deterrent. On the other hand, council members receive excellent health benefits worth a significant amount of money, he said.

Council decided to form a committee to look into the proposal, compare Charleston council salaries and schedules with other city councils, and report back to the full body.

The meeting moved along at a quick clip, unlike the last two, which dragged on late into the evening, upsetting council members and the public alike.

Mike Seekings reported that Charleston County is pursuing two projects, one that would add a bike and pedestrian path to the North Bridge, which spans the Ashley River, connecting Cosgrove Avenue in North Charleston to Sam Rittenberg Boulevard in West Ashley, and another  funded by the 2016 half-cent sales tax referendum  that would reconfigure the Savannah Highway-Magnolia Road intersection in the Avondale neighborhood.

After approving a number of annexation items, Mayor John Tecklenburg asked for a motion to defer the vote on the second reading of the mask mandate.

The numbers are moving in the right direction, he said, referring to Sweats medical update.

Vaccination rates are up in Charleston, with 67 percent of all residents now inoculated, he said. A mandate requiring masks in city and county buildings, and in schools, remains in effect, as does a resolution recommending mask-wearing in places where people gather.

We will continue to watch numbers, he said. If there is turn for the worse, the ordinance will remain on the list of items for second reading and council can move quickly to vote on it.

The motion was made, seconded and passed. And it wasn't yet 7:30 p.m.
Black men are five times more likely to be accused of a crime than White men in Charleston County, a racial disparity that increases significantly with drug and gun offenses, according to a new report from the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office.

After arrest, White and Black men are treated similarly in the court system, according to the report, which is based on an analysis of prosecution data. Black and White men are similarly likely to have their charges reduced or increased during the prosecution of a crime, and Black men have a slightly higher chance of having their case dismissed altogether.

Black and White men with similar criminal backgrounds and facing similar charges also have roughly the same chance of being sentenced to jail or prison, the report states.

But prosecutions begin with arrests, and the significant racial disparity in who gets arrested in Charleston County has a "downstream" effect on prosecutors' decisions, the report finds.

Black men account for just 12 percent of Charleston County's population, yet they are defendants in 53 percent of all 2019 General Sessions Court cases, according to the report.

In 2020, there were 2,654 General Sessions cases involving Black men, compared with 1,324 General Sessions cases involving White men.

The disparity exists across all crime types, but is especially high in crimes involving guns, drugs and "persons," a category which includes violent crimes and sex crimes, the report states.

"The increased likelihood of being arrested starts a cycle for Black men that leads to longer criminal histories, closer scrutiny by the police, and harsher punishments for future arrests resulting in Black men being sentenced to over 70% of all sentenced time in Charleston," the report states.

At the request of 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, researchers from Justice Innovation Lab and Loyola University in Chicago analyzed more than 24,000 criminal charges from January 2015 to February 2020 to determine whether racial disparities exist in criminal prosecutions.

The Sept. 29 report is the first in a series that will explore the issue, Wilson said at a press conference announcing the findings.

The prosecution data supports findings from the racial bias audit conducted by the Virginia-based nonprofit CNA on behalf of the North Charleston Police Department.

That study found that while 45 percent of North Charleston population is Black, Black people made up 63 percent of the people arrested from 2016 to 2020.

The study also found racial disparities in traffic stops, field interviews and uses of force.

A racial bias audit completed in 2019 by CNA for the Charleston Police Department did not look at disparities in arrests.

Elizabeth Cutler, communications program manager for CNA, said Sept. 29 that the organization was not contracted by the city to analyze arrest data.

While prosecution data did not show significant racial disparities in charging, dismissals and sentencing, the report did find that Black men on average wait six weeks longer than White men to have their cases dismissed.

Wilson said further analysis will be conducted to identify what is causing that disparity.

"We, as the prosecutors, are not going to be able to fix the whole justice system, but we can fix our corner," Wilson said.

Wilson said the analysis has also shown that Black defendants are three times more likely to have their cases dismissed because of insufficient evidence.

Custodial sentence rate, 2015 to 2020 All defendants: 65.2 percent Black defendants: 65.5 percent White defendants: 64.2 percent

"Surely, we can help law enforcement do something about that, and either make a case that sticks, because the person deserved it, or dissuade charges from being made on flimsy evidence," the solicitor said.

Wilson said her office has launched an initiative with the Charleston Police Department to review cases sooner in the judicial process to determine whether they should be dismissed.

The report is available at charleston-disparity-in-prosecution.org.
NEAR PINEVILLE  Two natural forces tend to obscure history: time and water.

Both were factors in the disappearance of the Old Santee Canal, a feat of engineering and human labor 22 miles long that connected the Santee and Cooper rivers, sparking efficient movement of goods  mostly upland cotton  to Charlestons commercial wharfs.

The canal opened for business in 1800, and its 10 locks functioned as designed for more than 50 years, allowing shippers to avoid sending their boats all the way into the Atlantic Ocean and then south 60 miles, past Bulls Bay, Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island and into Charleston Harbor.

The new route was faster, safer, cheaper.

The project was expensive, and it never generated a profit for its investors. Unexpected repair work added to the financial and logistical challenges. By the mid-1800s, steamboats and railway trains emerged as the preferred means of transport, effectively making the canal obsolete.

It languished for nearly a century.

Then it was drowned almost completely when Santee Cooper created Lake Moultrie in 1941.

Just the first two locks remained above water. Lock No. 1, the Guard Lock, has since collapsed. Lock No. 2, the White Oak Lock, is well-preserved and, thanks to a new easement recently secured by Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, will remain protected in perpetuity.

The verdant property, owned by Cathy Edwards Wingate and Ken Wingate, has been mostly left alone for years, according to Chris Vaughn, the Trusts executive director. The S.C. Conservation Bank provided essential funding. The Wingates sold the development rights to the land at a discount  about 40 percent of its fair market value. The difference between the value and the sale price is the tax-deductible charitable donation.

The 675-acre property had been purchased in the early 1980s by Cathy Wingate's father, Gov. James B. Edwards, and his friend Exo Hilton for use as a hunting grounds. Cathy inherited her father's 50 percent share upon his death in Dec. 2014. The Wingates were delighted by the history embedded in the land.

"We realized what a rare jewel we were blessed to own," Ken Wingate said.

As they investigated their options, they became convinced that a conservation easement was best because it protected the historical structures, resulted in a tax benefit and provided an intangible reward: "the feeling ... that comes form knowing the property will never be subdivided and developed. ... It will always remain in its current condition."

Located on the property is the gravesite of English botanist Thomas Walter, who arrived in Charleston in the 1760s, acquired a rice plantation on the Santee River, performed a meticulous survey of the flora within a 50-mile radius of his home and died in 1789, two years after completing his manuscript.

The work described more than 1,000 plant species in 435 genera, including 200 previously unknown species and four new genera.

Some of those plants now are assimilating the White Oak Lock, but the structure is clearly discernable among the foliage.

Vaughn and Wingate said that, while the lock remains on private property, arrangements are being made to organize limited educational tours and to provide access to a campsite along the river where the bluff rises just a few feet above the bank.

Building a lake

Lock No. 3 was destroyed when the lake was constructed. Seven other locks are submerged  although in years of drought, if the water level drops 10 feet or so, Lock No. 4, Friersons Lock, is exposed.

Lake Moultrie and its powerhouse transformed the state, but at a cost. Whole communities were uprooted, their residents paid to relocate. Graveyards and landmarks were drowned in the rising waters of the lake.

The project, backed by the Depression-era federal Works Progress Administration, led the General Assembly to pass an act establishing in 1934 the South Carolina Public Service Authority  popularly known as Santee Cooper. Local utilities complained and took legal action, arguing the project was too expensive and harmful to local interests. The budget of $31 million was five times bigger than the 1934 state budget, and 2 times bigger than the 1939 state budget, according to a history of Santee Cooper by Walter Edgar.

The Public Service Authority acquired 1,100 tracts  177,000 acres in all  and it contracted for the excavation work and construction of the Pinopolis Dam, which finally began in 1939. The government moved more than 900 families from the flood zone. The newly bulldozed lake basin was filled with river water in 1941. Four turbines generated 128 megawatts of electricity. Workers built a huge new lock, 75 feet from the tailrace canal at the base of the dam to the surface of Lake Moultrie.

A new era of power generation had begun.

The Old Santee Canal soon was forgotten.

Connecting rivers

It had been a technological wonder of its time.

Before the formation of the S.C. Public Service Authority there was the Company for the Inland Navigation Between the Santee and Cooper Rivers, chartered in 1786. Its officers included Revolutionary War leaders Francis Marion, John Rutledge, William Moultrie and Thomas Sumter.

Talk of a canal had started back in 1770, and a French-educated engineer, Henry Mouzon, published in 1775 a map showing five possible routes. Progress was halted by the Revolutionary War, but the canal project gained some traction 1787 when John Christian Senf was hired as lead engineer.

He had his own ideas about the construction project, rejecting Mouzons recommendations and selecting a less practical route of his own.

Laborers  some imported from Europe, others enslaved people borrowed from planters in the area  toiled from 1793 to 1800. Two dozen died during construction.

Richard Porcher, co-author of The History of the Santee Canal, said this was the first summit-level canal built in North America. Its akin to the 17th-century Canal du Midi in southern France and part of the larger Canal de Deux Mers which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

Like the Canal du Midi, the Santee Canal extended up and over a rise in the land, then descended to its terminus  which is why traveling it depended on a series of locks.

The Santee River is 35 feet higher than the Cooper River, Porcher said. The first three locks raised boats 34 feet, to the summit, and the next seven locks lowered boats 69 feet.

It functioned as designed (though needed maintenance) except for three years during a bad drought when the reservoirs that fed the canal dried up, Porcher said. Cotton was the main commodity transported down river, but timber and rice also found its way to Charleston via the canal.

Tolls initially were $10 or $25 per vessel, depending on size. By 1821, the toll had been standardized at $15 per vessel, according to Porcher. Most boats by then carried 120 bales of cotton or 25 tons of cargo, and paid about half the amount required for overland transport.

In 1807, the Company for the Inland Navigation Between the Santee and Cooper Rivers collected nearly $13,000 in tolls. By 1814, around 1,000 vessels made way through the canal. The best year financially was 1830, when 720 boats transported 70,000 bales of cotton to Charleston.

But cost overruns and repairs hobbled the operation and denied its subscribers any return on their significant investments. The Santee Canal was estimated to cost $278,000. The actual cost was more than $650,000, roughly equivalent to $15 million today.

Wear and tear, damage, drought and even a January 1827 freeze disrupted the flow of traffic  and income.

By the 1820s, the steamboat was making quick work of moving cargo. By 1830, the Charleston-Hamburg railway line was up and running. In 1840, the South Carolina Railroad to Columbia was operational. In 1853, the train to Camden was running. Demand for the canal from commercial carriers all but evaporated.

The steep decline in income made it difficult to justify maintaining the Santee Canal. In 1853, to the swelling accompaniment of coal-fired engines on water and land, the canal company surrendered its charter.

Before long, the canal fell into disuse, and the green foliage asserted its command.
South Carolina ranks sixth-worst in the nation for women killed by men, according to a new report.

There were 57 women killed by men in South Carolina in 2019, the most recent year of available federal data, according to the annual "When Men Murder Women" report published Sept. 28.

The states rank comes despite its 11th-place grade in 2018, which spurred hope South Carolina had reached a turning point in its persistent domestic-violence death rates. It was the first time since 1996 South Carolina was not among the top 10 states in the U.S. for intimate-partner deaths.

In 2018, 44 women were slain by men in South Carolina, according to last years report.

The Violence Policy Center, based in Washington, D.C., has compiled the report annually for the past 23 years. The centers analysis is based on the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report, which documents killings involving a single male attacker and single female victim.

Approximately 2.15 of every 100,000 women in South Carolina were killed by men in 2019, which is well above national average of 1.18 per 100,000.

Alaska had the highest homicide rating at 5.19 of every 100,000 women, while Hawaii's four killings was the lowest rate at .57.

In 2013, South Carolina ranked No. 1 for the most killings  a spot it has held four times from 1996 to 2019. South Carolina was also among top five states on the list 14 times since 1996.

Sara Barber, executive director of the S.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said last years ranking did not impress her.

When you look at statistics from over two decades, you have to look at the pattern, not one year, because that one year is an outlier, Barber said. So when I look at the pattern over the past two decades, I see the same story.

In September 2019, Ebony Clare, a 37-year-old hairstylist from North Charleston, died from multiple gunshot wounds. Her husband, Romane Clare, was charged with her murder by the North Charleston Police Department.

Ebony Clares death came after Romane Clare had previously shot her in the leg, according to a 2014 Hanahan police report. Police charged him in 2014 with attempted murder, unlawful carrying of a pistol and discharging a firearm in a home. But he ended up pleading guilty to second-degree assault and battery and unlawful carrying of a pistol, according to court records.

Clares death reflects a pattern of intimate-partner killings. Nearly all of the women in South Carolina knew their killers in 2019, according to this years report. About 65 percent of the victims who knew their killer had romantic relationships.

Barber said economic hurdles and inefficient access to financial resources is a factor in the states high homicide rate.

Often people will say: Why didn't she leave? Barber said. I say, Leave and go where? We have a real crisis in affordable housing. We have a crisis in the availability of child care.

Many women in violent relationships also do not have access to mental health resources in addition to financial resources, said Becky Callaham, director of Safe Harbor, a domestic violence shelter in Greenville. Mental health resources often are needed for victims who are in a middle of a crisis, she said.

Coupled with the finite funding for shelters across the state, Callaham said she was not surprised South Carolina was the sixth-worst in the nation for women killed by men.

The Violence Policy Centers report also highlighted a nationwide disparity: Black women were twice as likely to be killed by men compared with White women. Though Black people make up 14 percent of the population, 28 percent of 2019 homicides where race could be identified involved Black women as victims, according to the report.

In South Carolina, 46 percent of the women who died were Black.

Statistically, not only is South Carolina the worst in the nation for women but it's one of the worst in the nation for women of color, Callaham said. That's not something we should be proud of.

And approximately 40 percent of South Carolinas total cases arose from arguments between the victim and her killer. Of all of the slayings, nearly 79 percent of the women were killed with guns.

When The Post and Courier published "Till death do us part," its Pulitzer-winning investigation into violence against women in 2014, lawmakers vowed to implement reforms to address these killings.

South Carolina has implemented reforms since 2014 to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, such as a lifetime gun ban for the worst abusers, and those convicted of other serious felonies against their loved ones can lose their firearms for up to a decade.

But the law gives judges discretion whether to impose the gun ban in misdemeanor domestic violence cases, which make up the overwhelming majority of abuse crimes that pass through the states court system system.

Deja Dantley, 23, was shot in the Citadel Mall parking lot in March 2019. Her boyfriend, Cary Kejuan Janai Stephens, was charged with her murder. Stephens had previously been charged with third-degree sexual violence in 2018  a misdemeanor charge  that is also working its way through the court system.

Multiple witnesses said Dantley and Stephens were arguing in the parking lot before they got into separate cars. As Stephens drove past Dantley, a witness heard one gunshot, according to an affidavit. Dantleys car continued forward before it crashed into several parked vehicles, and Stephens fled, the affidavit said.

South Carolina lawmakers have implemented other changes following Till death do us part. Then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed a statewide task force to study domestic violence deaths.

The Palmetto State also hired additional prosecutors to ensure domestic violence cases were being properly handled in lower-level courts back in 2016.

Officials cautioned that it might be a few years before the state saw the benefits of these changes. South Carolinas regression to sixth place in U.S. ranks further muddles whether the states measures have been effective at capping bloodshed of women killed by men.
A federal judge has ordered Gov. Henry McMaster and the state of South Carolina to temporarily stop enforcement of the one-year state law that forbids local school districts from using state funds to require students to wear masks.

The Sept. 28 decision comes after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of the parents of children with disabilities that sought to overturn South Carolinas ban on mask mandates in schools. The lawsuit argued the state law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because students with disabilities are more susceptible to harm from COVID-19 and could not safely attend schools where many students were unmasked.

The lawsuit named McMaster, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman and a number of school districts across the state as defendants.

U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis wrote that her decision was not a close call."

It is noncontroversial that children need to go to school. And, they are entitled to any reasonable accommodation that allows them to do so, Lewis wrote. No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities.

McMaster has spoken repeatedly against schools requiring masks and said the decision whether children wear a mask should be left up to parents.

The governor strongly disagrees with the courts decision and will defend a parents right to decide whats best for their children up to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary, McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said.

Lewis issued a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. She wrote that children with disabilities are likely to suffer irreparable harm if the state law continues to be enforced.

"This case presents a legal question, not a political one, the order stated. And, the question is quite simple: whether the Court will allow Defendants to continue to discriminate against the minor plaintiffs here based on their disabilities. The answer is, of course, a resounding 'No!'"

She likened a mask requirement to requiring wheelchair ramps as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and other federal laws.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers included an amendment in the annual budget that banned local school districts from using state funds to enforce a school mask mandate. The Sept. 28 order bars the state from enforcing that law, at least temporarily.

Greenville County Schools, one of the defendants in the case because some of the plaintiffs children go to public school in Greenville County and the district doesnt require masks, said it was aware of the court order but didnt plan any immediate response or action, said Tim Waller, the school district spokesman.

Its too early for us to even being to think about a response, he said.

Leaders at the state's largest school district would review the decision and decide whether to take any action, he said. The school board met Sept. 28 but didnt discuss the court order since it wasnt on the agenda, he said.

The district's Board of Trustees scheduled a closed-door meeting for Sept. 30 to receive legal advice about the decision.

Randall Dong, legal director for Disability Rights South Carolina, one of the plaintiffs, said Lewis' ruling highlighted weaknesses within the proviso that districts across the state have noted as well.

"The problem with the (amendment) is it purports to be a statewide prohibition of mask mandates. We think, first of all that should be a local determination. The basis of our lawsuit is that the people we represent are children who have special health concerns that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19," Dong told the Post and Courier Sept. 28. "And because of their specific vulnerabilities, they need to be in an environment where all the students are masked."

Last month, the Richland Two School District asked the state Supreme Court to exempt it from the ban on mask mandates as the law's constitutionality is examined. Dong said Lewis' order could influence that. South Carolina Supreme Court justices have not issued a decision on the lawsuit brought by Richland Two.

"I think that people can read (the federal order) for themselves. And I think that it is pretty logical that if a federal court says that a particular state law violates a federal statute, then it is it not enforceable in any event," Dong said.

Adam Benson and Andy Shain contributed to this story.
North Augusta, SC (29841)

Today

Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High around 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
After teaching for 39 years, Wednesday marked the first time I was glad not to be a classroom teacher.

The mask mandate by the Charleston County School District is a right step to control the spread of a virus that has killed close to 700,000 Americans.

The Legislature has refused to make this a statewide mandate. So the school district had no choice but to be proactive in trying to curb the spread.

Tuesday, some parents and students in the Wando High School attendance area claimed that the mask mandate is interfering with the learning process.

Teachers, administrators, security personnel, office secretaries and clerks were spoken to by parents and students in a disrespectful manner, just because they were following the districts mandate.

Last year, school employees were seen as heroes for keeping schools safe and open.

Now teenagers or parents are harassing teachers for performing their duty and threatening to sue.

The only disruption to learning that occurs now is caused by the presence of parents and students not complying with the districts policy.

I now understand why there is a shortage of teachers and why some are leaving the profession.

But I am very proud of all the Charleston County School District employees.

DIANE MCGEE

Magazine Street

Charleston

The myth of I-526

Columnist Brian Hicks piece in last Sundays paper perpetuates a myth that the I-526 extension will somehow be completed only if the current plans can go forward.

Real interstates have speed limits between 55 and 70 mph and do not have intersections with traffic lights.

In its present form, the project is not a completion of a real interstate highway. It is, at best, a very expensive and flawed short-term imitation of one.

In reality, it is a low-speed parkway stuck between I-526 and its counterpart, the James Island Connector.

It will have speed limits of between 35-45 mph and a Riverland Drive traffic light.

Once it is built, people will likely conclude that it needs numerous upgrades. The plans re-create the unsafe intersection it is bypassing at Maybank Highway and Riverland.

The project also does nothing to improve the already inadequate intersection with Lockwood Drive and Calhoun Street, which often causes backups toward James Island. To really complete I-526 would require connecting it to the end of Interstate 26 across the peninsula.

This project has the potential of becoming Charlestons version of Bostons multigenerational Big Dig.

That project became a permanent construction zone. It was decades before its promises were realized.

So lets lose the I-526 completion myth: This is only the beginning. Lets also remember how it got funded and the deceptive promises that were made and broken before we approve another sales tax.

RANDY HOUSER

Sterling Drive

Charleston

Sentence too light

If breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, attacking its security forces and attempting to disrupt the constitutionally mandated process of certifying the presidential election doesnt fall under the treason, sedition and subversive activities chapters of federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, I am not sure what would.

On Sept. 13, Andrew Hatley of Newberry received only six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for his participation in the storming of the Capitol. This was an act of sedition and ought to be punished as such.

Actions should have serious consequences or they invite more ill-informed, anti-democratic behavior. Those who rant about their fear of communism should see the Jan. 6 debacle as the true attack on our democratic way of life.

DAVID M. FURCHGOTT

Concord Street

Charleston

EMTs to the rescue

I was recently riding my bike on the West Ashley Greenway.

On the way back home, I stopped at Sylvan Shores to allow a car to pass.

Unfortunately, I stopped next to a drainage ditch, lost my balance and fell head first into the ditch. I heard bones in my neck snap when I hit the bottom.

Immediately, two young men who were riding behind me came to my aid.

Dont move. We are EMTs and will help, they said.

I couldnt move anyway. They gave me a quick check and called Charleston County EMS, which, along with the Charleston Fire Department, arrived in minutes.

Firefighters pulled me out from the ditch and walked me to the EMS vehicle.

Emergency medical technicians checked me over and convinced me to go to the emergency room, where I was diagnosed with two fractured vertebrae in my lower neck. Roper personnel applied a neck brace and I was home in a few hours.

When I got home, my bike was in my driveway, courtesy of the EMTs who were behind me when I fell. They never left until they had my address and were sure I was out of danger.

In times of todays political vitriol, it was exciting and comforting to see we have folk who really care and give of themselves when needed.

Thanks, guys. Ill never forget your kindness and concern for a stranger in need.

BOB BOWDEN

Rookery Lane

Charleston
Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning followed by thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
Doctors, nurses and other eligible employees at the Guam Regional Medical City have started getting their booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine today, according to state surgeon of the Guam Army National Guard Dr. Michael Cruz.

Cruz, the governor's chief medical adviser, shared the information during Wednesday's meeting of the Guam Recovery Task Force.

At the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority, the booster shot rollout for hospital staff will begin Thursday morning, GMHA spokesperson Mai Habib said.

Habib said GMHA will also be assisting in providing the booster shot to eligible Guam Police Department and the Guam Fire Department staff.

"We're currently not scheduling and will be operating on a walk-in basis, as we plan to run the clinic Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. We know that we have 700 eligible staff at GMHA altogether," she said.

Cruz, at the task force meeting, said while booster shots are being rolled out, health professionals continue to encourage initial vaccination.

"In addition, today, we started the overall booster, third dose program for the Pfizer vaccine. Today, the healthcare institutions, specifically GMH, GRMC have already started giving the boosters out to their workers as well," Cruz told the task force. GMH later said theirs would begin Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the Pfizer booster for essential workers such as doctors and nurses, those at least 65 years old and other vulnerable people.

Cruz said the rollout of the booster shot will be in phases starting with health care professionals and those with high exposure to COVID-19 because of their occupation and those at least 65 years old.

This is similar to the prioritization of the initial vaccination in 2020, to avoid a "mad rush," Cruz said, adding however that the booster program "should move very quickly" compared to the initial shots.

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The Department of Public Health and Social Services as of Tuesday night was finalizing the plan to roll out the booster shots, and there's no update as of Wednesday morning on the plan.

The CDC has said "more data on the effectiveness and safety" of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots are "expected soon."

People who are eligible to get the Pfizer booster shot, according to the CDC, are those who got their second Pfizer dose at least six months ago and are:

65 years old and older;

living in a long-term care setting;

1864 years old with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney or lung disease, cancer and heart conditions, among other things; or

18-64 years old who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission, including essential and health care workers such as doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, congregate care staff, teachers and day care workers.

At the Recovery Task Force meeting, Chairman Sam Shinohara of United Airlines asked Cruz whether any of the Air V&V or vaccination and vacation program tourists from Taiwan could have spread COVID-19 into the community.

Cruz said he's not aware of any such situation.

Guam Visitors Bureau Vice President Gerry Perez said Guam remains a safe destination because of its COVID-19 containment, robust monitoring and high vaccination rate.

More than 87% of Guam's vaccine-eligible residents or those at least 12 years old have been fully vaccinated. The government has reported 195 COVID-19-related deaths since March 2020.

This story will be updated.
Insights

Lately, weve been hearing a lot about the unhappy fate of women and girls in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has again assumed power. The ed Read more
The FBI has fallen into disrepute, especially with conservatives. But its annual report on crime in America is a treasure trove of information, compiled from thousands of local sources. The data are not perfect: not all agencies report, and information is sometimes incomplete. But the data are solid enough to permit many conclusions. The FBIs report on crime in 2020 was released yesterday.

The Bureaus press release recites the basic data: Violent crime rose by 5.2% over 2019, and, shockingly, the homicide rate increased by 29.4%. That is the largest increase in homicides on record. Property crimes declined for the 18th consecutive year, but interestingly, auto theft rose by 11.8%. Apparently all those carjackings add up.

Some try to argue that homicides spiked because of covid, but Hans Bader decisively debunks that theory. In most parts of the world, violent crime went down, not up, during the epidemic. It seems obvious that the causes of the unprecedented rise in the murder rate were the George Floyd riots, the Black Lives Matter movement, ceaseless attacks on law enforcement by politicians and others, a consequent pullback in policing, and a general societal tendency toward lawlessness that is condoned, in many instances, by liberals.

If you drill into the FBIs data, a number of interesting patterns emerge. Activists argue that black men are shot by law enforcement at a higher rate than their percentage of the population, which must be conclusive proof of systemic racism. This argument is ridiculous to anyone with a basic knowledge of reality, as the FBI numbers confirm. Blacks might only be 12% of the population, but they commit a minimum of 39% of the murders; 57% of the murders where the race of the killer is known. On that basis, they are actually under-represented as victims of police shootings.

It is noteworthy that the other category includes Asians, who comprise around 6% of our population, about half the number of blacks. Yet they (together with whoever else is in the other category) commit only 2% of homicides, a small fraction, per capita, of black murders.

We have heard heated rhetoric over the last year or two about how blacks are being hunted and can barely venture outside their homes. This sort of talk hasnt fooled anyone who lives in the real world, and the FBI data show that there are twice as many whites killed by blacks as there are blacks killed by whites:

Year after year, the FBI data fail to align with the manias of the gun control crowd. For some reason, the gun grabbers are obsessed with Modern Sporting Rifles (AR-15s) even though such rifles have never had much to do with crime. We see that again this year.

For reasons that are easy to understand, firearms are the most popular murder weapons. But they are almost exclusively handguns, which liberals for some reason havent tried to ban. (Give them time.) Their target is rifles; or, rather, a subset of a subset of riflessemiautomatic rifles that have various features characteristic of AR-15s.

But, as the data show, you are almost four times as likely to be murdered with a knife as by a rifleany rifle. You are also much more likely to be beaten to death by someones bare hands than to be killed with a rifle, and about as likely to be murdered with a club or hammer.

So it is hard to imagine the Democrats anti-assault rifle campaign having any impact on the homicide rate.

One last data point: the number of felons killed by police officers dropped sharply in 2020:

Justifiable homicidesThe killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of dutyare down 32% since 2017. Given the sharp rise in homicides since 2017, that decline is obviously not due to fewer police encounters with dangerous felons. Rather, it is due to reticence on the part of police officers, who dont want their lives, and their families lives, to be destroyed by Black Lives Matter.

We will never know exactly how many innocent people lost their lives in 2020 because of Black Lives Matter, the defund the police movement, and liberalism in general. But the FBI data suggest that this number is in the thousands.
There are lots of moving parts to the Democrats struggle to spend trillions of dollars via bipartisan infrastructure legislation and Democrat-only-backed reconciliation. The debt ceiling has now been thrown into the mix for good measure. This piece in the Washington Post does a good job describing the Democrats quandary.

It simplifies things considerably if one starts from the reality we have emphasized throughout  Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are in total control of what can and cannot be enacted through reciliation. For purposes of a reconciliation package, it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks.

Recognizing this reality, belatedly it seems to me, Joe Biden spent part of his day negotiating with Manchin and Sinema in what the Post reports as a series of meetings. According to the Post, however, these negotiations did not immediately appear to produce an agreement over the final size of the spending package.

Biden and congressional Democratic leaders feel an urgency in reaching an agreement on the final size of the reconciliation package. Thats because the vote on infrastructure is set for Thursday, and leftists in the Democratic House caucus dont want to vote for that package until they know what will be in the reconciliation deal. In fact, some of them have said they wont.

The Democrats could have avoided the time crunch. They could have accepted reality and worked from the beginning to come up with a reconciliation package agreeable to Manchin and Sinema. But the leftist tail (quite large to be sure) wanted to wag the dog, and Joe Biden was fine with that. Now its two centrists non-leftists who are doing the wagging.

Will leftist Democrats vote down the infrastructure bill in the absence of an agreed upon number for the reconciliation package? I doubt it.

One trillion dollars for infrastructure isnt peanuts. Its likely that House Dems will snap it up when push comes to shove. Indeed, Nancy Pelosi wouldnt be allowing the vote to take place on Thursday if she thought the infrastructure bill would be nixed.

Some lefty Dems will vote against the infrastructure bill. But this legislation probably has enough Republican support to pass nonetheless. Or so it seems to me.

But what about reconciliation? What will Manchin and Sinema accept in a reconciliation deal?

The Post reports that, according to three Democrats, Sinema has told Biden she wants a package of less than $2 trillion. As for Manchin, its not even clear he wants any package at this time on top of the $1.1 trillion for infrastructure. Once he gets that, he may call time out on reconciliation. However, I think theres a good chance he would go along with a package of $2 trillion or less.

But agreeing on an amount is just the beginning of a solution for the Dems. They must also agree on what gets cut, and that means saying no a lot. The Post outlines some of the difficulties in this regard:

A group of Democrats led by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Thursday, for example, stressed that the party needed to expand Medicaid as part of their upcoming package, hoping to stave off cuts in health-care provisions that count among the most expensive in the still-forming bill. A wide-ranging group of liberal lawmakers, led by Reps. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Katie Porter (D-Calif.), sent their own letter last week to protect billions of dollars in new child-care assistance, citing the hardships many working parents faced during the pandemic. Still a third group including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote a missive to strongly urge Democratic leaders to preserve $30 billion for a civilian climate corps that might allow young people to help fight global warming.

One way to lower the price tag is to limit eligibility for programs like free community college. However, its doubtful that means-testing alone will suffice to slash a $3.5 trillion program almost in half.

Can the Democrats work through the difficulties and get a reconciliation package through both chambers? Maybe, but it could take a long time. And once the infrastructure legislation is passed (assuming this happens) there probably will be less urgency about passing reconciliation.

This, I assume, is why Bernie Sanders today urged House Democrats to vote against the infrastructure bill. He wants them to preserve their leverage in securing their other spending priorities in talks with non-leftists like Manchin and Sinema. But I dont believe they have appreciable leverage in any event. Not over Manchin, anyway.

Are the Democrats behind the eight-ball, then? It looks like they might be, but Im not sure they really are. They might still end up with a total spending package (infrastructure plus reconciliation) of around $3 trillion.

That would be a major accomplishment for a party that controls as few Senate and House seats as the Democrats do. Parties with considerably larger margins have accomplished considerably less.
In an interview with ABCs George Stephanopoulos last month, President Biden denied ever having received military advice to maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan  not that he recalled, anyway. The generals who testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday wanted it to be known that the debacle in Afghanistan was not their fault. It was Bidens. They had recommended the maintenance of 2,500 troops in the interest of stability. Paul Mirengoff noted their testimony and commented in real time yesterday.

Secretary Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley, and Centcom Commander Mckenzie all but cried out the old Freddie Prinze catchphrase Its not my job! For good measure, Milley added that the evacuation represented a logistical success but a strategic failure. He wasnt responsible for the strategy.

The New York Post puts the story on its cover this morning to flag the editorial Liar in chief: Military brass urged Biden to keep US troops in Afghanistan along with Michael Goodwins column Tragic cost of Bidens Afghanistan lies. Following up on the testimony yesterday afternoon, the psychedelic Jen Psaki performed the obligatory gaslighting.

So did Biden lie or did he forget? When Biden told Stephanopoulos No, no one said that to me that I can recall, I thought he was lying then and still do now. Given his diminished mental capacity, however, he might have a case. Maybe it just slipped his mind.

Video via Thaleigha Rampesad/Washington Free Beacon.
If you are looking for the reasons why Joe Bidens approval numbers are nose-divingI know, they are legionone explanation among many is that Hispanics cant stand him. These numbers relate to Hispanics in Texas, who have been exposed to Bidens disastrous border policies:

What's driving Biden's declining popularity with Texas Hispanics? The poll found that *two-thirds* disapprove of his handling of the border crisis. Approve: 25%

Disapprove: 66% Contrary to myths peddled by liberal commentators, Hispanics oppose open borders. pic.twitter.com/pZDBxrhVIA  Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) September 28, 2021



Actually, on those numbers well over 2/3 of Texas Hispanics disapprove of Bidens border policies. This shouldnt be surprising. Why would anyone living anywhere near the disaster that Joe Biden has created at the Southern border approve of his performance?

Lots of people are slicing and dicing the poll data that show Joe Biden in a steep decline, which is understandable. But few are willing to offer the obvious explanation for his cratering poll numbers: he is doing an unbelievably bad job as president, and his limited mental capacity offers little hope that he will be able to improve.
Kamala Harris has been out of the news for quite some time, surely the result of a decision (perhaps by Joe Bidens handlers) to lower her profile. However, Harris appeared at George Mason University in Northern Virginia on Tuesday in a surprise visit to a political science class. She said she was there to promote voter registration and discuss voting rights.

During her visit, Harris took questions from students. As a result, shes back in the news.

One of the students used her time to attack Israel. According to this report in the Guardian, the student said:

I see that over the summer there have been, like, protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine, but then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because its ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and Im sure youre aware of this.

(Emphasis added)

Harris reportedly nodded as the student said this.

The student went on to express her belief that the funding would have been better spent helping Americans struggling with housing and health care costs instead of inflaming Israel and backing Saudi Arabia and what-not. She added that she needed to raise the issue because it affects my life and people I care about lives.

Harris responded:

Im glad you did. And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth, should not be suppressed and it must be heard, right? And one of the things were fighting for in a democracy, right? Unity should never be at the expense of telling anyone personally that, for the sake of unity, Oh, you be quiet about that thing. You suppress that thing. Lets not deal with that thing. Thats not unity. True unity is everyone in that room has a voice. The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobodys voice should be suppressed on that.

This is classic evasion. Instead of responding to the anti-Israel students substantive point, Harris launched into a defense of the students right to express her opinion, which very few would question.

Note, too, that Harris calls the students opinion your truth. This is another evasion.

Harris doesnt want to disagree with the students anti-Israel rant, not even the absurd claim that Israel is engaged in ethnic genocide. Harris probably agrees with much of it and, in any case, doesnt want to alienate the sizeable anti-Israel faction of her party. At the same time, Harris doesnt want to express agreement with it because doing so would alienate Jews and other supporters of Israel.

We hear the phrase your truth  an unfortunate one as a a matter of epistemology  more and more often, but only when people are spouting leftist dogma. Has anyone called claims that the last presidential election was stolen Trumps truth or that of his most ardent supporters? Of course not. Thats called the Big Lie.

By calling anti-Israel opinions the speakers truth, Harris is giving some credit to the claim that Israel is practicing ethnic genocide. She would not have called it your truth if the speaker had denounced coronavirus vaccines or abortions.

The same double standard applies when it comes to defending free speech. If Harris has suddenly become an advocate of open discussion on every controversial topic, with no voice suppressed, thats great.

But I dont believe she has. Does she oppose campus speech codes? Does she support the drive to promote free discussion and the expression of diverse opinions on college campuses? Has she backed model legislation to make the free-speech aspiration she expressed to the anti-Israel student a reality?

The answer to each question is no.

Harris is not a free speech advocate. She seized on free speech advocacy to avoid talking substantively about Israel.

Thats not how a public figure who supports Israel behaves. If the questioner had denounced a cause Harris favors  for example, Black Lives Matter  or a nation Harris considers a true ally, the vice president would have made her disagreement clear. She might (or might not) have added that the student is entitled to her opinion (she wouldnt have said her truth), but that would have been a secondary point.

That Harris nodded her head when the student told her she was aware of the various things she was talking about, including the so-called ethic genocide, doesnt conclusively show she agreed that genocide was occurring. Harris may have indicated only that she agreed she was aware of funds being allocated to Israel notwithstanding claims of genocide.

But Harris unwillingness to disagree with claims that Israel is engaging in ethnic genocide, coupled with the head nodding, strongly suggests that deep down, the vice president of the United States shares the students anti-Israel truth at least to some degree.
Its common, and correct, for conservatives to call the non-stop attacks on Donald Trump for allegedly colluding with Russia a hoax. To me, though, it was worse  a double hoax.

The first part of the hoax was the knowingly false allegation of collusion  the claim that, in exchange for Russian help in winning the election, Trump agreed, at a minimum, to eschew the tough-on-Russia policies required by American interests. The second part of the hoax was the pretense that Democrats want a tough-on-Russia policy.

We know the second part was a hoax because now that Joe Biden is in office, theres no tough-on-Russia policy coming from the White House and no objection by Democrats or their media allies to its absence.

Jim Geraghty writes:

On the campaign trail, Joe Biden pledged to get tough with Russia, boasting that he had served as a founding member of a Trans-Atlantic Commission on Election Integrity to fight back against Russias attacks on Western democracies. Shortly after taking office, Biden called Vladimir Putin and, in the White Houses characterization, made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies. And in March, Biden promised Putin will pay a price for Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election. But as president, Bidens actions towards Putin and Russia havent always been so tough or uncompromising. The Biden administration did enact additional sanctions in April and offered statements of support and more funding for Ukraine. But even when announcing sanctions, Biden was quick to emphasize that he wants to avoid any larger conflict with Putin. I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further, but I chose not to do so, to be  I chose to be proportionate. The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship Throughout our long history of competition, our two countries have been able to find ways to manage tensions and to keep them from escalating out of control.

Thats what Donald Trump wanted  no large conflict with Putin and sound management of tensions with Russia.

Geraghty continues:

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is crucial in any comparison of Trump and Biden when it comes to Russia policy. Trump opposed the pipeline, which is vital to Russian interests. Biden dropped that opposition, thereby assisting Russia to the detriment of Europe.

Theres more:

[N]ow we learn that the Biden administration wanted to use Russian military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as part of the over-the-horizon approach to terrorism threats in Afghanistan  making U.S. counterterrorism operations dependent upon Russian cooperation.

This can be viewed as a form of collusion with Russia, and a very dangerous one. As Geraghty says, Vladimir Putin or his successor could pull the plug at any time, giving him enormous leverage over Americas ability to respond to terrorist threats in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. The move would also ensure that Russian intelligence knows everything the U.S. is doing on those bases.

It would be interesting to hear Democrats and media types reconcile their rants against Putin during the Trump years with Bidens willingness to make him a trusted partner in Asia.

If Trump had given Russia control over our anti-terrorism fight in Asia and okayed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Democrats would still be screaming and citing this as evidence of collusion. But Trump never did these things. Its Joe Biden who has.

None of which bothers the hoaxers who railed against Trump for supposedly being too cozy with Putin and falsely attributed the non-existent coziness to Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Nor does it seem to bother the many gullible people they duped.
Voths BrandSource is the 2021 SCBEX Hall of Fame inductee. Pictured during the Sept. 16 announcement, from left to right, Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce board member Kelsey Adam and CEO Karla Wiens with Voth's BrandSource owner-operators Mark and Thom Voth
Nigerian stocks made a resounding rebound on Wednesday, climbing 1.89 per cent in its biggest performance in many days, which saw equities generally appreciate by N382 billion.

The benchmark index touched its peak since August 19, drawing support from investors vast demand for the shares of FBN Holdings, Nestle and Dangote Cement.

In the final trading session for the week, we anticipate an extension of this positive momentum as investors snap up bargains ahead of the weekend, analysts at broker Afrinvest said of Thursdays trade.

Market breadth, often used to measure investors attitude towards trade, closed in the positive after 23 advancers were reported compared to 15 advancers.

The all-share index lifted by 733.30 points to 39,592.29, while market capitalisation scaled up to N20.63 trillion.

The index is down by 1.68 per cent year to date.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

NNFM led gainers, appreciating by 6.88 per cent to close at N8.55. FBN Holdings grew by 6.62 per cent to end trade at N8.05. Dangote Cement went up 6.53 per cent to N261. Nestle rose to N1,489, notching up 6.36 per cent in the process. Courteville traded up 6.06 per cent to N0.35.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

Mansard topped the losers chart, declining by 10 per cent to close at N2.43. Julius Berger shed 10 per cent to end todays trade at N24.30. Vanleer fell to N5.45, losing 9.92 per cent in the process. Sovereign Trust slumped to N0.22, recording 8.33 per cent depreciation. Consolidated Hallmark closed at N0.53, going down by 7.02 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

Altogether, 474.4 million shares estimated at N4 billion were traded in 3,547 deals.

FBN Holdings was the most active stock with 264.7 million of its shares worth N2.1 billion traded in 264 deals. Universal Insurance traded 76.7 million shares priced at N15.3 million in 17 transactions. Mansard had 13.1 million shares valued at N31.8 million exchange hands in 141 deals. Zenith traded 12.1 million shares estimated at N283.3 million in 298 transactions. Fidelity traded 11.2 million shares valued at N27.5 million in 96 deals.
Financial Service Innovators and the Nigeria Association of Computing Students are set to host a hackathon to address the dominance of cash transactions within the informal channels in the suburban parts of Nigeria, including university communities.

The FSI and NACOS Innovative Challenge, themed #TechonDemand, will virtually hold from October 1 to 9, 2021, and physically from October 12 to 14 at Nile University, Abuja, with over N2.5m prize money up for grabs, according to a statement issued on Monday by Plexus Media Interlinks, the public relations agency to FSI.

The aim of the event is to address the dominance of cash transactions, manual processes and access to financial services among retailers, small enterprises and individuals in the suburban parts of Nigeria, including university communities and environs.

It will focus on the digitisation of key sectors such as education, health, financial services and transportation in a manner that makes them all-inclusive, improving access, removing barriers and lowering costs, thereby achieving social, digital and economic inclusion, the statement read in part.

It pointed out that the FSI and NACOS challenge would be used to provide solutions to activities that include buying and selling of goods and services, savings, investment, remitting of money and commuting from one place to another without the use of cash.

The organisers stressed that the event was informed by the need to provide the best, simple and easy-to-use solution for the unbanked and under-banked communities.

Cash remains the preferred and dominant option for micro and small businesses, retailers, entrepreneurs and others in the suburban areas, and thus value chain integration will not be maximised. Low adoption of financial services will have a negative impact on the financial inclusion drive.

Opportunities for businesses to scale are minimal as access to credit is limited, given the challenges associated with manual processes for cash transactions. This also has a negative socio-economic impact on the nation, they stated.

According to the statement, registration is open to participants till October 1 via bit.ly/TECHONDEMAND.

The participants are to focus at least on one sector by providing a solution that can solve the problem of cash dominance, access to services in that sector, and manual processes, among others.

The solution should focus on addressing the dominance of cash collections and the integration of a digital system in the transportation sector; an on-the-go learning solution that campus students and lecturers community will gladly embrace in the education sector; digitising the healthcare services and making it more efficient and affordable, it explained.

FSI and NACOS disclosed that team members, whose entries were adjudged the top three would receive prize money, while the fourth to tenth positions would receive consolation prizes.

The prizes include N1m (overall winner), N500,000 (first runner-up), N300,000 (2nd runner-up). The fourth to tenth positions will get consolation prices of N100,000 each.

The partners include EFInA, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, Flourish Ventures, Flutterwave, Wema Bank, Sterling Bank, Zenith Bank, Capricorn Digital Ltd and AXA Mansard.

The Executive Director, FSI, Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, said, Nation building is our primary focus and we will continue to work with stakeholders in the financial services and tech ecosystem at large to build an integrated, innovative and collaborative ecosystem.

We are a shared infrastructure for the financial services ecosystem and our primary goal is to discover and nurture talents, even from tertiary institutions, because we believe in home-grown innovative solutions.

According to her, FSI is set to keep the Nigerian technology flag flying high, while assisting more Nigerian startups to join the global tech community.

Technology is a veritable tool to take Nigerian citizens out of poverty as well as drive financial, social and economic inclusion, she added.
A popular radio presenter, Chinedu Emmanuel, popularly known as Nedu of Wazobia FM, has refuted reports that the police seized his kids from his ex-wife, Uzoamaka Ohiri, and handed them over to him.

He said: Neither I nor the police forcefully took my kids away from my ex-wife. It was a unanimous agreement. Please feel free to read her handwritten statement and also see the bag with which she brought their clothes.

Nedu and Ohiri wedded in 2013, but their marriage crashed in 2018.

The union produced three children.

The couple has been locked in a war of words and a paternity scandal for some time now. It came to the fore on September 3 when Ms Ohiri accused her ex-husband of domestic violence and battering her a few weeks after she was delivered of their child by a cesarean section.

Nedu would later respond to her claims saying their marriage was plagued with a lot of issues.

The radio personality and Instagram skit maker, also said, The continuous infidelity from her side made me conduct a paternity test on our kids which led to the revelation that our first son is not my biological son.

Ohiri responded saying that she wasnt aware of the paternity of their first child until a DNA test was conducted. She said this during two separate interviews she granted Punch Newspaper and Goldmyne TV.

According to a Punch report, policemen attached to the state criminal investigation department (SCID) in Panti, Yaba seized two children from Ohiri amid the paternity controversy.

It is reported that in a letter of invitation with reference letter CR:3000/LSX/D10/Vol.3/71, which was signed by Fayoade Adegoke, the deputy commissioner of police at the SCID, Ohiri was directed to Margaret Ighodalo (CSP) with respect to the matter.

She was subsequently asked to stop making disparaging comments against the comedian on social media.

Mrs Ighodalo was said to have told Ohiri to bring her three kids to the SCID, where two were handed over to Nedu. However, in an Instagram post, Nedu said the police never forcefully took his kids from his ex-wife but it was a unanimous agreement.

Rebuttal

Reacting to the issue on his Instagram page on Wednesday morning, Nedu lamented the sensational manner in which the news is being dispersed.

He also reiterated the fact that he does not grant interviews or speak on the matter to the press and advised his ex-wife, her cousins, and sister to follow suit.

He said: I am sad that once again, I need to clear the air on what I consider a private matter. But for the sake of all the parties involved, it is pertinent that I do so. Contrary to the rumours being peddled around, I do take care of my children and will continue to as it is my duty.

Nedu also revealed that his ex-wife took their children to Owerri to live for over a month without his consent or permission. He also said he funded their return flight after the parties involved agreed that it was better for the kids to return to Lagos especially as they school in Lagos.
The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the reports of cargo flights leaving Nigeria empty because of alleged extortion by government officials at the airports.

The House mandated its committees on customs, finance, aviation, and agricultural services to investigate the impact of extortion on the export of local products.

This resolution was sequel to a motion moved by the Deputy Minority Leader of the House, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu), on Wednesday during plenary.

Mr Okechukwu said his motion is based on a report on the Guardian newspaper, which said that foreign cargo airlines were departing Nigeria empty due to extortion and multiple charges.

He informed his colleagues that export is supposed to be free in Nigeria under extant laws and regulations, except for the airlines charges and payments to ground handlers.

Citing the report further, he said 11 out of 16 sundry charges lined up against air cargo are illegal and that official bottlenecks, extortion, exorbitant and multiple charges are discouraging cargo airlines from operating in Nigeria as they prefer cargos from other African countries which offer them more favourable conditions.

He said Nigeria is losing $250 billion of its agro-allied market potential due to import-to-export airfreight ratio imbalance. According to him, the import-to-export ratio stands at 87:13.

Meanwhile, Shamsudeen Bello (APC, Kano) called for the involvement of the Independent Corrupt and other Related offences Commission (ICPC) in the investigation.

Henry Nwawuba (APC, Imo), stated that extortion was used in the context of multiple charges, not an act of corruption.

Also, Mr Okechuckwu prayed that the House condemn the multiple charges.

However, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, moved an amendment that the prayer should be deleted until the investigation is conducted by the committees.

The committee was mandated to report back to the House within two weeks.
Unidentified hoodlums on Sunday attacked a police team at their checkpoint along Obasanjo-Itele road, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

It was gathered that the attackers swooped in on the officers at about 3.11 a.m. while they were on duty, leaving one severely injured.

The police team was headed by one Nasiru Azeez, an assistant superintendent of police, and Olabisi Lawrence and Atari Friday, two inspectors.

A police officer told PREMIUM TIMES that the police is not saying anything on the matter despite losing an AK-47 rifle to the attack.

The officer, who does not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said the missing rifle is marked, Breach No. 804611, with 30 rounds of live ammunition.

The injured police officer was rushed to the State Hospital, Ota for treatment, he said.

READ ALSO:

Instead of the police authority to make this public, so that the members of the public can understand, when their hideouts are bursted, and to also know what the police are suffering, No, they didnt. They kept mute on the matter.

Phone calls to Abimbola Oyeyemi, the police spokesperson in Ogun, were not answered.

Ogun State is not new to daring attacks by armed men.

Last month, the police said it killed two suspected kidnappers in a gun battle that lasted 40 minutes in Ewekoro local government of the state.
Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late boss of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dora Akunyili, was murdered by gunmen in Anambra on Tuesday.

Reports on Wednesday said he was shot dead while returning to Enugu from an event to honour his late wife.

His son, Obumneme Akunyili, confirmed the incident to BBC Igbo on Tuesday.

A gruesome video showing his corpse is being shared on social media. However, PREMIUM TIMES cannot confirm the authenticity of the video at the moment.

Residents of the South-east told PREMIUM TIMES that the medical doctor was killed by gunmen suspected to be members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The militant group has vowed that the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State will not hold and has been blamed for a series of attacks on politicians and their supporters campaigning for the election.

The armed group, which has been accused of attacks on police stations and other security agencies in the region, is also using violent means to enforce a sit-at-home order, which it has decreed for every Monday in the five South-east states.
A judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Inyang Ekwo, on Wednesday, barred the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from retrying a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, who was earlier convicted of N7.1 billion fraud.

Mr Kalu, a serving senator representing Abia North, was already serving a 12-year jail term for the offences when the Supreme Court, on 8 May 2020, nullified the proceedings leading to his and his co-defendants conviction.

The Supreme Courts judgment delivered on an appeal by Mr Kalus co-defendant, Ude Udeogu, had ordered a retrial at the Federal High Court.

Mr Orji Kalu, who is the incumbent Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, got out of prison based on the apex courts judgement, but quickly filed an application before the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop his retrial.

Ruling on the application on Wednesday, the judge, Inyang Ekwo, granted the ex-governors request.

The judge held that the apex courts verdict did not order the retrial of Mr Kalu.

The judgement of the Supreme Court on this matter is final.

On the whole, the fact that there is no order for retrial of the applicant (Mr Kalu) in the judgement of the Supreme Court, or by the virtue of Section 36 (9) of the 1999 constitution as amended, or Section 283 (2) of the ACJA (Administration of Criminal Justice Act), has allowed prayer two of the applicant to succeed.

Going by the facts and circumstances of this case, I find that the case of the applicant (Mr Kalu) has succeeded, the judge said.

He also cited section 36 (9) of the Nigerian constitution and Section 238 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (2015), in saying, no person can be retried on the offence upon which he has been convicted.

The chequered history of the case is well known, he said and went on to grant presiding judge granted some of Mr Kalus prayers.

The order of prohibition is hereby made, prohibiting the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and agents, officers, servants, persons or bodies deriving authority from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from retrying the applicant in charge number: FHC/ABJ/56/2007 or any other charge based on the same facts de novo (afresh). There has been no extant judgement or ruling of a competent in Nigeria mandating same. That is the judgement of the court, Mr Ekwo said.

However, the court ordered the retrial of Udeh Udeogu, which he slated for January 11, 2022.

Picking, choosing

The judgement immediately struck a chord with those who followed the argument of the prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, pointing out contradiction in Mr Kalus argument during the hearing of the application to stop retrial in May.

The plaintiff (Orji Kalu) and his co-defendant are enjoying the benefit of the Supreme Court judgement, but they are avoiding the burden that comes with it.

The Supreme Court ordered that plaintiff and his co-defendant be tried denovo (afresh). So, there must be a conviction or an acquittal by a competent court, Mr Jacobs had said.

Defiant EFCC to appeal judgement

Shortly after the judgment was handed down, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, EFCCs lawyer, told journalists that the verdict would be challenged.

Most likely, we are going to appeal the judgement. That is certain, Mr Atolagbe said.

Background

Mr Kalu was tried based on amended 39 counts in which they were accused of stealing and mismanaging funds belonging to Abia State during his days as governor between 1999 and 2007.

He was tried alongside his company, Slok Nigeria Limited, and Udeh Udeogu, who was Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalus tenure as governor.

In December 2019, Mohammed Idris, then a judge of the Federal High Court in Lagos, (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal) sentenced Mr Kalu, to 12 years in prison for N7.1 billion fraud.

The judge sentenced his co-defendant, Udeh Udeogu, to 10 years in jail for diverting Abia States funds.

The court also ordered Slok Nigeria Limited to be wound up and its assets forfeited to the federal government.

But, ruling on Mr Udeogus appeal, the Supreme Court on May 8, 2020, set side the conviction and sentence, on the grounds that the judgment of the trial court delivered by Mr Idris after he had been elevated to the Court of Appeal bench, was unconstitutional.

Ejembi Eko, a Supreme Court judge, who delivered the lead verdict, held that a Justice of the Court of Appeal cannot operate as a judge of the Federal High Court.

He ruled that section 396 (7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, on which the then president of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, relied on to authorise the trial judge to return to the high court to conclude the trial was unconstitutional.

He then ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the case to another judge of the court for retrial.

Following the nullification of his conviction by the Supreme Court, the former governor filed an application at the federal court seeking an order for his release from the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Kuje, Abuja.

A judge, Mohammed Liman, in June 2020, granted the application and ordered the immediate release of Mr Kalu from custody.

As EFCC commenced move to have the defendants retried, Mr Kalu rushed to the court to file an application stopping his retrial.

His lawyer, Awa Kalu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the Supreme Court never ordered the retrial of the erstwhile governor of Abia State as he was not a party in the matter that nullified the entire proceedings at the trial court.

The Supreme Court never ordered the retrial of the plaintiff (Mr Kalu). Our application is anchored on the fact that my client was tried, convicted and sentenced. He spent five months in prison. Therefore, a retrial will amount to double-jeopardy.

The plaintiff stood trial for 12 years. His trial terminated in 2019. I urge the court to grant our application, he said

The judge, Mr Ekwo, agreed with the application and prohibited Mr Kalus retrial on Wednesday.
The Kaduna State Government has asked telecommunications firms to suspend their services in the state from September 30, towards checking the activities of bandits.

The States Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said this while addressing journalists on Wednesday.

He also said the use of motorcycles for transport services has also been suspended across the state.

Mr Aruwan said the state government has formally requested the Federal Government to enforce the shutdown of telecom services in parts of the state identified by security agencies as requiring such measures.

Mr Aruwan said other security measures earlier announced by the state government remain in place and urged the residents to comply with the directives.

The state government had earlier said it had no plan to shut down telecoms network despite the spike in crimes.

Kaduna joins northern states like Zamfara and Sokoto who have initiated a similar measure to curb banditry and rising insecurity.

Read the full statement below:

Protocol:

I am here to inform you of, and to formally announce the implementation of certain measures to assist the security agencies in parts of the state.

You will recall that Governor Nasir El-Rufai announced in a media chat yesterday (28th September 2021) that the state government has formally requested the Federal Government to enforce the shutdown of telecom services in parts of the state identified by security agencies as requiring such measures.

The relevant federal agencies have today informed the Kaduna State Government that the processes for telecoms shutdown in parts of the state have commenced.

As part of the steps to address the current security situation in Kaduna State and neighbouring states in the North-West and North-Central regions, KDSG has held several meetings with security agencies to adopt critical measures towards crushing bandits in their identified hideouts.

The military and other security forces have been carrying out assaults on the identified locations. The state government is advised that certain measures are now necessary to assist the spirited efforts of these security agencies.

The following measures become effective from Thursday, 30 September 2021:

1. The complete ban on the use of motorcycles (Okada), for commercial or personal purposes, for three months in the first instance.

2. Ban on possession of or wielding of dangerous weapons.

3. Tricycles are allowed to operate only from 6am to 7pm. All tricycles must remove all curtains. Movement of all tricycles are restricted from dusk till dawn (7PM to 6AM).

4. All vehicles used for commercial transport must be painted in yellow and black within 30 days. Vehicles that are part of ride hailing services are to carry yellow and black stripes.

5. Ban on the sale of petrol in jerry-cans or other containers in Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Chikun, Igabi, Kachia, Kagarko and Kajuru LGAs.

Other containment measures previously communicated by the Kaduna State Government remain in place. These include:

a. Ban on felling of trees and forestry activities in Birnin Gwari, Giwa Igabi, Chikun, Kachia, Kagarko and Kajuru LGAs.

b. Ban on firewood and charcoal transportation.

c. Ban on the transportation of livestock into and out of the State.

d. Cessation of weekly markets in the frontline local government areas of Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Chikun, Igabi, Kajuru and Kawo weekly market of Kaduna North local government.

The Kaduna State Government regrets the severe strain and inconvenience these measures will place on peaceful and law abiding citizens. The Government therefore appeals for the understanding and cooperation of all residents of the affected areas, and indeed across the State. These difficult times have demand that difficult decisions be made.

The measures have been adopted purely in the interest of our collective safety and security, and to aid our brave forces in their fight against these mindless criminals.

Too many lives have been lost, and too many families have been shattered. Small groups of wicked persons cannot continue to hold us to ransom, and force us to live in perpetual fear.

Once again, the government craves the understanding of all citizens. The hardship we face will be temporary, and we are confident that in the end, it will pay off. Good will prevail over evil.
The Nigerian government has approved two weeks of paternity leave for new fathers.

This was disclosed by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan, at the end of Wednesdays Federal Executive Council meeting.

Mrs Yemi-Esan said the approval of paternity leave is one of the major reforms introduced to the Nigerian civil service.

She said the last time Nigeria reviewed its Public Service Rules (PSR) was in 2008, thus the need for the latest review.

She also spoke on why the government approved paternity leave.

Paternity leave is the leave that is approved for men, when their spouses or wives have given birth to a newborn baby; or if the husband and wife have just adopted a baby of less than four months, then the man is entitled to paternity leave of about 14 days.

So, that is what has been approved for men. So that the men and their babies also can bond well together. Its important because we want the young children and the youth to really bond properly with their fathers, just as they bond well with their mothers.

So, this is the time that has been approved now, for men to bond at the early stages, especially at the early stages of a childs life, that is when its very important for this bonding to take place, she said.

Nigerias current civil service rule allows for four months of maternity leave for new mothers.

A month is given to pregnant mothers before birth and three months after birth.

Also, nursing mothers are also permitted to close early upon resumption until the baby is six months old.

Other contents of new PSR

Mrs Yemi-Esan further explained that the new additions to the service rules increased its chapters to 17 instead of 16.

She said the chapter on Annual Performance Evaluation Review (APER) and promotions have been replaced by a new chapter on a newly introduced performance management system.

There is also a chapter that has also been reinvigorated, that is, the chapter on training. This is an all important chapter because of the importance that training has in the public service.

We also have a new chapter on virtual meetings. You would recall that there was a policy document that was approved by the Federal Executive Council. So we put some of the guidelines from that policy document into the new public service rules. And so we have accepted virtual meetings as a tool to be used in service. And theres some guidelines there, she said.

The head of civil service of the federation also explained that workers leave is now calculated based on working days, not on calendar days.

She added that the new PSR has also introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service.
Although the Nigerian government is committed to removing the dichotomy between BSc and HND holders, the dichotomy will remain until an ongoing review of the Scheme of Service is completed, an official suggested on Wednesday.

Currently, Nigerian polytechnic graduates are awarded HND while university graduates are awarded BSc or its equivalent. However, HND holders are often discriminated against when joining or exiting the public service as they are placed at a level below their BSc counterparts.

Many Nigerians including the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) have called for the removal of that dichotomy and the federal government has expressed its interest in doing so.

On Wednesday, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan, restated the federal governments commitment to removing the dichotomy. She, however, said the removal was not contained in the just-completed review of the Public Service Rules (PSR) but will be included in the review of the Scheme of Service which, she said, is currently ongoing.

On the discrepancies between HND and degree programme. Its in the Scheme of Service that this will be reflected not in the PSR. Its the Scheme of Service that describes entry points and things like that. And currently, were reviewing the scheme of service, its just that we did this first, and then well do the scheme of service. So thats where that will be reflected, Mrs Yemi-Esan told journalists in Abuja after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

Background

Currently, in Nigerias civil service, the practice is that a new employee with a BSc is placed on a salary grade level 8 while the HND certificate holder counterpart is placed on a level lower.

ALSO READ: Nigerian polytechnic student commits suicide

In the security service, a BSc holder is recruited as a commissioned officer, while an HND holder is also placed on a step lower. Also, an HND graduate is also not expected to go higher than GL 13 in the service while a B.Sc graduate can attain Level 17.

The development formed the basis of the agitation by the relevant individuals and groups including the leadership of the National Association of Polytechnic Students ( NAPS), the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), among others.

However, recently, Nogerias upper chamber of the National Assembly passed a bill prohibiting employers in the country from discriminating between Bsc and HND holders.

The Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, said the passage of the bill would serve as a motivation to graduate from polytechnics.

This bill may also form part of what the government is expected to factor in its attempt to address the challenge.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has vowed to appeal against Wednesdays ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja stopping the retrial of a former Governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, on N7.1billion fraud charges.

EFCC said in a statement that the judge, Inyang Ekwo, erred in his application of the law by failing to abide by the Supreme Courts earlier order a retrial in the case.

EFCC believes the judge erred in this ruling as Section 36(9) of the 1999 constitution is applicable only where the previous judgment was by a court of competent jurisdiction.

In this case, the apex court had in the said judgment described the process that led to the conviction of Kalu as a nullity because the judge came from the Court of Appeal to decide the matter, EFCCs statement signed by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, read in part.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the court stopped EFCC from prosecuting Mr Kalu, a serving senator, despite a Supreme Courts judgment ordering a retrial of the N7.1 billion case in which he had been previously convicted and jailed 12 years.

He was already serving the 12-year jail term for the offences when the Supreme Court, on 8 May 2020, nullified the proceedings leading to his and his co-defendants conviction.

The Supreme Courts judgment delivered on an appeal by Mr Kalus co-defendant, Ude Udeogu, had ordered a retrial at the Federal High Court.

Mr Kalu, who is the incumbent Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, got out of prison based on the apex courts judgement, but quickly filed an application before the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop his retrial.

The judge, Mr Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in his ruling on the application on Wednesday, said Mr Kalu could not be prosecuted since the Supreme Courts judgment did not contain an order for his retrial.

EFCC in its reaction argued that the judge failed to abide by the Supreme Courts decision.

It also accused the judge of cherry-picking by giving effect to the apex courts decision nullifying the previous conviction, but refusing to implement the aspect of the verdict that ordered a retrial.

The commission further avers that the court erred in its ruling that the Supreme Court did not order the retrial of Kalu; that it amounts to cherry-picking for Kalu to profit from the decision of the apex court nullifying the conviction of his co defendant, Ude Udeagu but is not prepared to face the burden of retrial, the statement added.

The statement added: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will appeal the ruling today by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court stopping the Commission from retrying a former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.

READ EFCCS FULL STATEMENT

EFCC Press Release

EFCC to Appeal Court Ruling on Orji Kalus Retrial

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will appeal the ruling today by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court stopping the Commission from retrying a former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu

Kalu was serving a 12-year jail term for N7.1billion fraud when the Supreme Court, ruling on an appeal by Kalus co-defendant, Ude Udeogu, on 8 May 2020, nullified the proceedings leading to their conviction.

The Supreme Court had ordered a retrial at the Federal High Court. But kalu who profited from the ruling to secure release from Kuje Correctional Centre, filed an application before the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop his retrial.

Ruling on the application today September 29, 2021, Justice Ekwo, granted the ex-governors request on the grounds that the apex courts judgment did not order the retrial of Kalu and that by virtue of Section 36 (9) of the 1999 constitution as amended, or Section 283 (2) of the ACJA (Administration of Criminal Justice Act), no person can be retried on the offence upon which he has been convicted.

EFCC believes the judge erred in this ruling as Section 36(9) of the 1999 constitution is applicable only where the previous judgment was by a court of competent jurisdiction. In this case, the apex court had in the said judgment described the process that led to the conviction of Kalu as a nullity because the Judge came from the Court of Appeal to decide the matter.

The Commission further avers that the court erred in its ruling that the Supreme Court did not order the retrial of Kalu; that it amounts to cherry-picking for Kalu to profit from the decision of the Apex court nullifying the conviction of his co defendant, Ude Udeagu but is not prepared to face the burden of retrial.

Wilson Uwujaren

Head, Media & Publicity

29 September, 2021
The police in Lagos on Tuesday said they had deployed all their machineries to rescue Sikiru Smith, a retired Air Vice Marshal, from the hands of gunmen who abducted him.

The spokesman of the command, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said this while reacting to the kidnapping of the retired Air Chief.

We are on it working to rescue him, he said.

Some masked gunmen reportedly abducted the retired air force officer on Monday night along the Ajah-Badore Road, in Lagos State.

The SOS audio released by his driver, identified as Corporal Odiji, said Mr Smith was abducted from a project site in Ajah and forcefully taken away in a boat that sailed towards the Ikorodu area of the state.

In the one minute and four seconds audio, the corporal said: Good evening house. Please, this is an emergency. I am Corporal Odiji, attached to AVM Smith. Oga was just moved from the site we were working. Some gunmen wearing mask just came, pulled him out of the site.

They shot everywhere and took him away. I was nearby where he asked me to fix his vehicle. I am his driver. As I was coming back, I saw them where they went on a boat through the water.

 I was not armed. So, I ran to the site and found Ogas glasses and where he struggled with them before they took him off.

Please, somebody should pass the message. They went from Blenco area in Ajah and rode towards Ikorodu area on the water.

READ ALSO: Gunmen abduct retired Air Vice Marshal in Lagos

Mr Smith is a cousin to a former Inspector-General of Police and current Chairman of the Police Service Commission, retired I-GP Musiliu Smith.

Prior to his retirement, Mr Smith held several positions including Chief of Defence Communications, Commander 401 of The Aircraft Maintenance Depot and Chief of Logistics at The Nigerian Air Force.

He is also the author of the non-fiction book Civil Militia and Nigerias National security, unveiled in Lagos in 2013.

He currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Double Wealth Ventures Limited.
The LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho, chapter of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has condemned the persistent assaults on its members by some members of the host community.

A statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Michael Olamoyegun, and Secretary, Ayobami Alabi, and made available to journalists on Tuesday said members of the association were withdrawing their services over an attack on a doctor by a politician, on Sunday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the group withdrew their services, pending the arrest of the politician and the provision of adequate security for its members.

The group said their lives were no longer safe while on duty, calling for the intervention of Governor Seyi Makinde, and other stakeholders in the state.

We have immediately withdrawn our services, until the perpetrators are brought to book and when we can be guaranteed of safety and protection of life.

Our life is priceless and worth more than what should be sacrificed by hoodlums, it said.

The MDCAN recalled the sad event of Sunday, 26 September , at the Accident and Emergency unit, where doctors were assaulted while lawfully and professionally attending to their patients.

It is on record that this is not the first time such an incident will be happening in our emergency unit, but we always consider the life of our esteemed patients that we care for as essential, the group said.

The association expressed displeasure at the persistent assault on its members, calling on every member of the host community to publicly condemn the barbaric act.

It also urged them to rescue them from the persistent assaults and prevail on perpetrators to desist from this horrific act.

The MDCAN called on the governor, legislators, traditional rulers, religious and opinion leaders, to rise up and condemn these recurring barbaric acts.

The association also called on Mr Makinde and other leaders to prevail on security agents to protect their members from the assaults.

We demand the arrest of perpetrators and they should be made to face the full wrath of the law. We demand armed security men to be posted to the hospital for 24 hours, to ensure protection and guarantee safety of staff as well as property, the association said.

The association said the politician had allegedly led a group of relatives and well wishers on a visit to a patient in the hospitals emergency unit.

The politician allegedly demanded that his friend on admission be placed on oxygen and sent to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) whereas his oxygen saturation (level) was optimal, the association said.

The association added that the politician refused to accept the explanation and verbally assaulted the doctor on duty, threatening to deal with her.

It said the same politician allegedly directed his followers to descend on the second doctor, who had come around to check on another patient.

The doctor was allegedly pursued, beaten and his two phones collected forcefully.

(NAN)
A third defence witness took the stand on Tuesday in the ongoing war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi to claim that Hassan Bility, the human rights advocate whose work gathering evidence has been instrumental in the trials of a dozen accused war criminals in international courts, had asked him to tell lies that would implicate Alieu Kosiah who was convicted of war crimes in Switzerland in June.

The witness, codenamed L3 to protect him from retaliation, undermined his own testimony by insisting Bility made the request in May this year, a month after trial of Kosiah had ended.

Kosiah, a former commander of the Ulimo rebel group, was prosecuted and convicted of war crimes committed in Liberia by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court.

The trial ran over two periods because of Covid. It began in December 2020 and ended in early April, 2021.

But L3 insisted to the Finnish court, conducting hearings at a secret location in Monrovia, that Bility had made the request.

We met at a funeral in Black Gina yard and we talked for five minutes, and he told me he had a job for me to do, said L3. He told me to work for him and testify against three persons  Alieu Kosiah, Issa Kabbah and Yousuf Massaquoi  but when I told him I did not know the two men Kabbah and Massaquoi, he said he was going to tell me what to say and he gave me $US20. Bility promised that if I testify against the people he asked me to, he was going to pay me $20,000 and make my family and I leave Liberia.

Me Massaquoi is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including committing and inciting the murders of civilians and enemy fighters, aggravated rapes, aggravated war crimes, and aggravated violations of human rights in Liberia.

He is standing trial in Tampere, Finland where he was living under an agreement with the Special Court for Sierra Leone for which he was an informant.

Prosecutor Tom Laitinin presented a summary of an interview L3 did with Finnish police investigating the case where L3 said the alleged conversation with Bility about a contract took place in 2015 and not 2021.

L3 replied, Sometimes during discussion you are not able to explain everything.

Mr. Laitinin pointed out that in the police interview L3 did not mention anything about Bility promising to pay him $20,000.

L3 said Bility did not give him details about the testimonies he wanted him to provide against Kosiah and others.

Unhappy with the encounter, L3 said he told a fellow witness about it. On Friday that witness made his own claims in court about Bility offering him bribes. L3 said the fellow witness had connected him to Finnish investigators.

L3, who told the court he fought separately for ULIMO and Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, known by the acronym LURD, also confirmed speaking to Alan White, a former chief investigator for the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. Two earlier witnesses have said they were also called by Dr. White.

The actions of the former investigator may come under scrutiny if Mr. Massaquoi, a Sierra Leonean former commander of the Revolutionary United Front rebel group, is found to have committed the crimes of which he is accused. Witnesses say the crimes took place in Liberia in June to August 2003 while Mr. Massaquoi was supposedly in a Sierra Leone safe house under witness protection overseen by Dr. White while he was informing on former combatants including Liberian President Charles Taylor.

I talked with White constantly on the phone, L3 told the court. I was connected to him by my friend. I spoke with Dr. White on April 10, 2021 in Ganta, Nimba County, when he called on my colleagues phone and he (colleague) put me on with him. I do not know what they talked but I guess it was about this same issue.

When he called, I told him I was in a meeting and could not talk but he should discuss it with my colleague and he was going to relay it to me. My colleague told me Mr. White told him to carry me to talk with some people.

A second witness appeared behind closed doors with no press allowed. No reason was given but the Finnish court has previously allowed survivors of sexual assault to testify to a closed court.

The trial continues tomorrow with three Sierra Leonean witnesses set to appear.

Prosecution and defence teams will be seeking to probe the question of exactly where Mr Massaquoi was during the period of June to August 2003 when witnesses say he committed atrocities in Liberia.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday, delegated its committee on Solid Minerals to investigate cases of illegal gold mining activities in Osun State.

The committee was mandated to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals to determine holders of mining licences operating in the axis.

This resolution was adopted after a motion moved by Lawrence Ayeni (APC, Osun) was considered and adopted.

Mr Ayeni, in his motion, said some individuals and organisations had embarked on illegal exploration of land, not just in Ilesha, but the entire Ijesha land.

He said the activities of illegal miners have caused untold hardship on the villagers who have been forcefully displaced and dispossessed of their lands.

In addition, he said the illegal mining is causing environmental hazards/natural disaster such as landslides, earthquakes, erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals released during the mining processes.

The motion was put to vote without debate as Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila described it as straight.

Illegal mining

Despite several legislative interventions in the mining sector, illegal mining remains rampant across the country.

Two weeks ago, the Minister of State for Mines and Steel, Uche Ogah, said illegal miners are conniving with security-officers in carrying out their activities.

He disclosed this at the investigative hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals into the alleged $9 billion lost to illegal mining.

In April, the governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, inaugurated a committee called the Osun Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO) with the mandate to tackle illegal mining.

PREMIUM TIMES also reported the influx of illegal miners from Zamfara State to Osun State, after the federal government came down hard on miners in the North-west region.
A preliminary inquest into the death of Monsurat Ojuade, an 18-year-old girl, who was shot by a police officer in Surulere, Lagos, was held Wednesday with the deceaseds family demanding a photograph of the killer cop.

Israel Mbaebie, the lawyer to the family, told the coroner that the public needs to know the identity of the police officer.

Mr Mbaebie said the police had arraigned six men on September 24 over the teenagers death.

Late Monsurat was not killed by six men, just one person whom the police have identified as Sergeant Philip, but have failed to provide his picture or even his service number, the lawyer said.

The family is demanding that they know what the killer of their daughter looks like.

After initial attempts to shield the identity of the trigger-happy officer and claiming that the deceased was killed by a stray bullet, the police announced it had dismissed the culprit identified, as Samuel Philip, a sergeant.

Last week, a magistrate court in Yaba ordered the officers remand for 30 days, pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution.

Mr Mbaebie, through a letter presented to the court, demanded the body of the victim should be released to the family for burial.

The coroner, Bola-Folalarin Williams, explained that the purpose of the inquest is not to make accusations.

When we talk about an inquiry to know how things happened, why did it happen and how to avert it from happening in the future. From the trial and inquiry, the court advises the state government on measures to take (so) as to make the state safer for all of us, she said.

Mrs Willams instructed the counsels to provide the names of their witnesses and all necessary documents for the case to the court before the inquest properly begins.

She also directed the police to ensure that the body of the deceased is released to the family for burial and adjourned the matter till October 20.
The Corporate Affairs Commission has completed the Incorporation of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.

The PIA was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16.

Section 53(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, requires the Minister of Petroleum Resources to cause for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited within six months of the enactment of the PIA in consultation with the Minister of Finance on the nominal shares of the Company.

The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Garba Abubakar, confirmed the incorporation in Abuja while speaking at the quarterly meeting of heads of agencies in the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment.

He further stated that the registration was completed the same day after fulfilling all requirements set for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited.

The registrar-general, while updating the gathering on the digitisation of the Trademark and Patent Registry, said that the digitisation was being pursued by the CAC in a bid to ensure synergy and eliminate other possible conflicts.

He said the project was awaiting clearance from NITDA which was studying the statement of requirements submitted to it.

Speaking also on the free federal government sponsored 250,000 business names registration; the Registrar General noted that despite suffering a delay from one of the selected Aggregators, the Commission has less than 3,000 applications to wind up the project.

He, however, gave a commitment to ensure completion by the first week of October, 2021.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, said the event holds quarterly to assess among others the journey so far, challenges and way forward for the agencies under the ministries purview.

Mr Adebayo charged the agencies to ensure more commitment and dedication to service for the overall growth of the economy.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Maryam Katagum, gave an update on the implementation of the Covid-19 Survival Fund which she described as a tough and challenging experience.

Mrs Katagum, however, added that the programme was a huge success and would wound up soon.

The meeting was attended by no fewer than 18 heads of agencies and directors in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

NAN reports that on August 18, Mr Buhari approved a steering committee, headed by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva to guide the effective and timely implementation of the PIA in the course of transition to the petroleum industry envisaged in the reform programme and ensure that the new institutions created have the full capability to deliver on their mandate under the new legislation.

Other members are Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director, NNPC, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Representative of the Ministry of Justice, Representative of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Natural Resources, Olufemi Lijadu as External Legal Adviser, while the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, will serve as Head of the Coordinating Secretariat and the Implementation Working Group.

The committee has 12 months duration for the assignment, and periodic updates will be given to Buhari. The Petroleum Industry Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.

The Senate had passed the Bill on July 15, while the House of Representatives did the same on July 16, thus ending a long wait since the early 2000s, and notching another high for the Buhari administration. (NAN)
The Nigerian Army has debunked claims by a dismissed soldier, Temple Ahunanya, a trooper, that he was arrested, tried and sentenced to death for requesting better weapons to fight Boko Haram Insurgents.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, a brigadier general, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

Mr Ahunanya had narrated his experience at the war front in the battle against Boko Haram terrorists and how he was arrested for requesting for better weapons to fight.

But Mr Nwachukwu said the dismissed soldier came up with the lies to whip up sentiment and defraud members of the public.

He said that Mr Ahunanya passed through the rigorous military training but lacked the requisite qualities to progress within the profession.

According to him, Mr Ahunanya is a bad egg and a cancerous element that negatively infiltrated the ranks, corrupting the good conduct and morale of troops in the process.

It is also important for the public to note that dismissed Trooper Ahunanya was enlisted in the Nigerian Army on August 20, 2012, and passed out from training on December 17 of same year.

He was arrested in 2014, tried and dismissed for conduct prejudicial to military discipline and cowardice.

He was convicted, but escaped while awaiting the Army Councils approval of his verdict. This singular act portrays a tendency for evasion of justice and criminality.

Hence the general public must beware not to be misguided by his misconstrued narratives as a failure on the part of the military or the government.

It is a ploy to create and peddle falsehood in the media space to gain undeserved sympathy, he said.

Mr Nwachukwu claimed while in service, Mr Ahunanya was rude, undisciplined, criminally minded and a very uncultured individual, who failed to imbibe the basic ethics and regimentation of the military profession.

He said that Mr Ahunanyas unpatriotic and cowardly tendencies manifested when he was deployed for a mission to counter Boko Haram Terrorists attack and save lives of innocent Nigerians.

He said that the dismissed soldier disobeyed and led other cowardly soldiers to disobey duly constituted authority against extant military laws.

According to Mr Nwachukwu, Mr Ahunanya still displayed his criminal tendency in his video, as he disparaged the Nigerian Army to spike sympathy and whip up sentiment.

This was to lure unsuspecting members of the public to raise funds for his criminal activities by posting his bank account details alongside his video.

He described the video as an attempt to financially hoodwink members of the public.

On efficacy of weapons and their effective ranges, the army spokesperson stated that the Nigerian Army was an organised institution that conforms with the dictates of international laws of armed conflict and institutionalised order of battle.

He explained that troops were not terrorists or insurgents who could use all manner of unlawful and unconventional arms.

He added that its troops were better trained, equipped and professional in the conduct of campaigns and operations.

According to him, it is surprising that Mr Ahunaya compared a group of misguided elements operating under the influence of drugs and twisted ideologies to Nigerian Army troops.

It is also sad and unfortunate that a respected media organisation would publish and promote such distorted narratives without recourse to the authorities of the Nigerian Army

(NAN)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned political parties participating in the 6 November governorship election in Anambra State to bury any plan to engage in identity theft during the poll.

INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye, gave the warning at a one-day forum organised by the Commission Press Corps in Abuja on Wednesday.

The event was organised by members of the corps to discuss the forthcoming election in particular and future ones.

Mr Okoye, who represented INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said all is in full gear to attain the commissions objectives in the state.

He expressed confidence in the new device introduced by the commission, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which he said would end double voting.

The Commission will also deploy relevant and appropriate technology for the conduct of the Anambra State Governorship election. To this end, the Commission will deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the accreditation of voters.

The bimodal accreditation system will use fingerprints or facials for efficient voter accreditation. Therefore, those engaged in identity theft must steer clear of the polling units in Anambra State as only voters that are properly authenticated using their fingerprints or facials will be allowed to vote, he warned.

Mr Okoye, flanked by the Inspector General of Police Representative, Muyiwa Adejobi, and the Chairman of Albino Foundation, Jake Epele, pegged the total number of currently registered voters in the state at 2,447,996.

He added that the commission has recorded substantial breakthroughs in replacing some of its assets and election materials torched by arsonists in the state earlier this year while those yet to be completed will be delivered in a matter of days.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in May that the commissions facilities in the state were set ablaze, accounting for the loss of six utility vehicles, 326 generating sets and non-sensitive materials meant for the Anambra election.

However, the Commission, on Wednesday, expressed its willingness to conduct the state election amidst the threat of insecurity in the state but will not compromise the safety of not only the electorates but also its staff and corps members who will be serving the nation through the exercise.

The Commission needs a safe and secure environment for efficient and professional deployment of staff and materials. We must realize that young men and women doing their National Youth Service form the bulk of our Presiding Officers.

Some of them are the only sons and daughters of their parents. Some of them graduated from school through determined perseverance in the face of hardship. Some of them are the products of community effort while some of them did menial jobs to graduate.

We therefore have a responsibility to protect them in the performance of this national assignment. No form of insurance can cover for the loss of one life and the Commission will on no account compromise on the safety and welfare of these individuals and all other staff that will be deployed for the election, Mr Okoye said.

He appealed to all stakeholders, including security agencies, to help the agency to attain a smooth electoral process in Anambra.

We are ready for Anambra poll  IGP

In response to some of the concerns raised by journalists in respect to the coming poll, Mr Adejobi said the force is ready for the poll and will not tolerate any threat from any individual or group against the countrys democratic process.

He dismissed speculation of possible militarisation of the state during the election but vowed to be firm and precise to ensure safety of lives and properties in Anambra.

Nigeria is a sovereignty, a nation, such will not be tolerated in any part of this country. We are not aware of any seat at home order from anybody.

We are working round the clock to ensure there are Anambra governorship elections come November 6, that is our stand, Mr Adejobi said against the backdrop of the sit-at-home order from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The group had threatened to distort the poll and warned the residents to stay off the exercise.

Mr Adejobi warded off the threat from the group and highlighted other measures the police would take to ensure adequate coverage and safety of lives of the electorates.

As I speak to you, the IGP is working to repair some of our helicopters so as to help us cover more areas in this regard. I think about six helicopters are under repair as directed by the IGP to fortify our fleet and ensure smooth Anambra election and our other conflict theatres around the country.

We are very prepared. We believe in 5 Ps  Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. We are working with other security agencies to assist us and ensure we have a good outcome.

We are not militarizing any electoral process in Anambra. Perhaps some people got our message wrong, he said.
A police officer was feared dead as some suspected armed robbers on Tuesday attacked a first generation bank in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the robbers arrived at the bank around 3:00 p.m. and operated for about 30 minutes.

NAN further gathered that some people also sustained various degrees of injuries while the operation lasted.

A witness, who spoke with NAN on condition of anonymity, said the armed robbers first attacked a police station in the town before they carried out their operations on the bank.

The witness said in the process of attacking the police station, a police officer was killed.

According to the witness, an unspecified amount of money was carted away from the bank.

NAN also learnt that the armed robbers shot sporadically into the air and engaged the police in a gun duel before they fled the scene and escaped through Ada Road.

Confirming the incident, the Spokesperson, Osun Police Command, Yemisi Opalola, said she could not yet ascertain the number of casualties.

Ms Opalola said the police tactical team had been deployed to the area.

We are already there. We have deployed our tactics team to the area. We are on the top of the situation.

We will give you full details later, the police spokesperson said.

Last month, armed robbers attacked two banks in the same local government, killing two and carting away an unspecified amount of money.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, says the Nigeria Police will soon begin the recruitment of 20,000 junior police officers.

The IGP gave the hint on Tuesday evening, when he paid a working visit to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State in Ibadan.

Mr Baba informed the governor that the Nigeria Police remained committed to increasing its strength in terms of the recruitment of junior police officers.

He said the force was able to overcome all the issues that had been delaying the recruitment process, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for the recruitment.

He assured the state government that every local government area would benefit from the recruitment, saying that the recruited officers would serve in their respective local government areas after training.

The IGP said the recruitment exercise would not only expand the capacity of the force in combating crime, but also embolden its community policing strategy.

Mr Baba said that his working visit was to interact with the police personnel to boost their morale after the EndSARS protest.

He said the visit was to also engage some other stakeholders on the issue of community policing, which, according to him, is an adopted strategy policing in Nigeria.

We have not just started now; it has started as far back as 2004, but it has not been effectively used by both government and members of the public.

He implored the governor to continue supporting and assisting the police.

Responding, Mr Makinde informed the IGP that the Police Command in Oyo State had been trying its best, cooperating with the people of the state and all other security agencies.

The governor said the police were hostile when Amotekun was established, because they felt that Amotekun came on board to take up their jobs and responsibilities.

But over these few months, with the leadership of the police in the state, we have serious cooperation and the inter-agency rivalry has been reduced to the barest minimum in the state.

We also know that this is a challenging period for the country, the resources are dwindling, but we have challenges all over, especially the insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, kidnapping in the South and ethnic tension everywhere.

So, we have to keep supporting the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force, he said.

The governor used the opportunity of the visit to request the establishment of another Mobile Force Squadron in Oyo Town, promising that his government would provide the basic infrastructure for its take-off.

He said the 72 Squadron in Ago-Are, which was approved by the former IGP, was assisting in addressing security challenges in Oke-Ogun axis of the state.

(NAN)
The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the purported security advisory pamphlet of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The pamphlet contains items 65 (e), advising corps members and staff on security and other safety measures.

The handbook, entitled, Security Awareness and Education Handbook for Corps Members and Staff, listed some high-risk routes and suggested what corps members and staff should do in the event of kidnap.

NYSC had initially denied the existence of the pamphlet, describing the report as fake.

However, the Corps later admitted the existence of the pamphlet and announced the commencement of probe into the pamphlet.

The decision to investigate the matter by the House followed a motion moved by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, on Tuesday.

Moving the motion, Mr Elumelu said the inclusion of the said section shows a complete collapse in the architectural system of the countrys security forces and a major worry for friends and family as to why their children should be allowed to participate in this compulsory exercise.

He added that the insertion of such a clause by the NYSC in its security tips manual portrays the inability of the government to provide security on the highways as well as a surrender by the

government to kidnappers and bandits.

Reacting to the motion, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, said since the NYSC already denied the bill, hence, no need for investigation.

Mr Elumelu responded that he has a copy of the pamplet obtained from NYSC.

Responding to the information supplied by the Minority leader, Mr Gbajabiamila said NYSC lied to Nigerians by denying their document.

The House consequently resolved to mandate the House Committee on Youth Development to investigate the matter and also ensure that adequate measures are put in place to provide safety for corps members across the country.

When the motion was put to vote by the Speaker, it was unanimously adopted.
The Senate has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, declare bandits as terrorists and wage a total war against them.

The lawmakers also urged the president to immediately declare all known leadership of the bandits wanted, and track them wherever they are for arrest and prosecution.

They asked Mr Buhari to order the military to eliminate them by bombing their hideouts.

These are some of the resolutions taken by lawmakers on Wednesday after a deliberation on a motion on the activities of bandits in Sokoto State  sponsored by Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto East).

His motion comes barely a day after bandits killed at least 20 people and abducted others in Gatawa, a village in Sabon Birni Local Government Area of the state.

The community was considered to be one of the few secure villages in the state where bandits have been very active.

The attack also came barely 24 hours after another one in Gangara, in the same local government area.

Mr Gobir, in his motion, complained that his senatorial district has now become a haven for bandits, following a crackdown on them by the military in Zamfara State while he made reference to Tuesdays attack.

This has gone to portray the seriousness of the problem which require concerted and urgent action by the declaration of total war on banditry.

Losing such numbers of trained security personnel will further deplete the numerical strength of the security personnel we have in the country, therefore jeopardising the security architecture of the country.

Most of the bandits have now relocated to Sabon Bimini and Isa local Government due to the sustained military operation at the Zamfara axis, he said.

The lawmaker said while the crackdown on the bandits was taking place in Zamfara State, no concrete measures have so far been taken in Sokoto State, leaving it totally exposed to the activities of bandits.

The present military onslaught on the bandits, he said, is not well co-ordinated because it is only being orchestrated in Zamfara State, instead of all the frontline states ravaged by bandits.

He called on the military to carry out operations on frontline states such as Sokoto, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna in order to produce effective and the desired results.

On her part, Uche Ekwunife (PDP, Anambra), said focus should not be on the South-east region alone.

She also said it is time for the president to address the nation on the state of insecurity in the country as his silence has been discouraging.

While the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, commended the efforts of the armed forces in the sustained fight against insecurity in the country, he called for increased funding for the military.

He mandated relevant committees of the National Assembly to ensure that funds appropriated to the armed forces are judiciously applied for the purpose for which they are budget.

I think the issue of insecurity is one issue we will never get tired of debating here, and we must commend our armed forces and other security agencies.

They give their lives in trying to secure this country, and that is the ultimate sacrifice anybody could pay.

I believe that they are doing their best, but we also need to do our best as a government by giving them the kind of resources that they need. I believe we have done that in the supplementary budget as pointed out, but we also need to improve the annual appropriation for them.

If we could pass over N800 billion in the supplementary budget, I dont see why we cannot improve the resources up to N1 trillion and then hold our security agencies accountable.

[And] I believe that we need to monitor the procurement processes when we give such kind of resources to our Armed Forces.

The Senate thereafter, directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other federal government agencies to give all the necessary support to the victims of bandits in Sokoto and other parts of the country.

It also observed a minute silence in honor of the fallen heroes and civilians who lost their lives due to the activities of the bandits.

The Senate had several times in the last two years asked the federal government to tackle the lingering security challenges in the country.
Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has called on the National Assembly to allow the use of electronic means of transmitting results of future elections in the country.

Mr Jonathan made the call on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the inauguration Ceremony/lecture of the National Defence College (NDC), Course 30, in Abuja.

The former president, who was the Special Guest of Honour and Guest Speaker at the occasion, spoke as the Harmonisation Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives prepares to meet to resolve the differences in the bill passed in July.

A major and controversial provision in the bill is Section 52, which deals with electronic transmission of results of elections.

During the consideration and passage, the Senate changed this Section from; The Commission may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable to The commission may consider electronic transmission provided the national network coverage is adjudged to be adequate and secure by the Nigerian Communications Commission and approved by the National Assembly.

But the House, however, retained the former.

Mr Jonathan, who lost the 2015 presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, and quickly conceded, urged the lawmakers to allow electronic transmission elections result for transparency and to avoid crisis.

He also urged Nigerians to have confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avoid an electoral crisis each time there was a general election.

Where there is no confidence in the electoral umpire, people resort to crisis. But unfortunately, sometimes when the result comes out, the damage would have been done.

I urge the National Assembly (NASS), while looking at the law, they should allow the use of electronic means of transmitting results for the sake of transparency as well as avoiding electoral crisis, he said.

Insurgency, insecurity

Mr Jonathan also called on Nigerians, civil society groups, among others, to join hands in securing the country against the activities of insurgency and banditry.

The former president noted that security is the business of every Nigerian, whether in media, civil society, traditional rulers, religious leaders and politicians.

He said security should not be left in the hands of the governments alone.

Mr Jonathan added that security was not just about defending the borders, but that the people needed to join hands too in securing lives and properties of the citizens, especially in areas of access to food, water, and education, among others.

It is very obvious that these days people dont go to farms anymore because of one fear or the other. Everybody should be involved in securing the country. Yes, the government will do its part but we as individuals should also do our own part.

My humble suggestion is that the government and stakeholders should do a lot of dialogue. When you start talking sometimes it reduces the anger in people. We must build this issue of human security and the security of the country, he said.

The former president, however, stressed the need for Nigerians to come together to develop a certain culture that would make the country grow and develop better.

This, he said, would go a long way in reducing tension, crisis and other social vices among Nigerians, especially the youth.

Mr Jonathan urged the participants to avail themselves of the knowledge acquired during the course of the training into carrying out their lawful and professional duties.

Also, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lucky Irabor, a general, said that though there were still pockets of attacks by the insurgents and bandits, generally, insecurity had drastically reduced, especially with the induction of the Super Tucano aircraft.

He urged Nigerians to oblige the security agencies relevant information as the nations quest to tackle insurgency and other criminal activities are sacrosanct.

Mr Irabor, however, urged the participants to make the best use of the knowledge acquired during the course of their training to add value to their operations and the country at large.

Meanwhile, the Commandant of the college, Oladele Daji, a rear admiral, noted that the inauguration was an enduring tradition to formally launch participants into the course as well as admitting them into the culture of excellence of the college.

According to him, since the inception of the college in 1992, it has continued to deliver on its core mandate of providing strategic level training in the area of management of defence and research.

(NAN)
If Yobe State is to get it right in the coming decades, it has to place priority on education and agriculture. But if I could say it again, they key to developing the State is and remains education. Right now, Yobe Stateis adopting a new approach to developing education, with the declaration of an emergency in the sector.

Yobe is one of the states created on August 27, 1991 out of the old Borno State, which then had one of the the largest landmasses in the country. The part that became Yobe was quite remote, distant and far away, and its creation was greeted with hope and expectations. People then felt they would be closer to governance and they will get all the development they had been yearning for. Even though states, unlike human beings, need dozens of decades to realise their potentials, but even 30 years is such a long time and enough time for a state to achieve a lot, to develop and grow; to make lives better for its people through education, agriculture and healthcare. How could the journey be said to have been for Yobe State in the past 30 years? What has the State achieved? What are the expectations? What went wrong? What can the State do better?

Yobe shares a large stretch of border with Niger Republic. It is largely an arid state consistently facing threats of desertification. Right from its early days, one of the States major problem has been environmental. Many parts of the State are surrounded by moving sand dunes that increasingly swallow farmlands and deprive farmers of their means of livelihood.

Since 2009 when the ruthless Boko Haram insurgency became deadly, the impact of the conflict has been affecting the lives of peoples in so many ways. With the murderous insurgents attacking schools and killing students and teachers, education has suffered a huge setback in Yobe. On February 25, 2014, Boko Haram fighters attacked Federal Government College Buni Yadi and killed 59 students. They also burnt the school. From time to time, the insurgents attack communities, loot foodstuff and burn public buildings. Between 2013 and 2014, the impact of the insurgency in Yobe State became staggering. The setback created by the violence of Boko Haram on local governments like Gujba, Geidam and Yunusari will take decades to fully recover from.

Education has remained a constant challenge and will continue to be the area that demands more investment and more support, not only of the government but also the well-to-do and non-governmental interventions. Only an investment in education can bolster economic empowerment and opportunities.

Yobe like many states is also being affected by a rapid population rise and impact of climate change, with both making governance more tasking and the securing of means of livelihood by the people more daunting.

From 1991, both civilian civilian and the military governments in the State have faced the same challenges of meagre resources in the face of the increasing demands of a rapidly rising population. Still, over the past 30 years, there have also been missed opportunities and outright failure of leadership that deprived the State of the chance to move forward and be the first in development, among its peer States. Education has remained a constant challenge and will continue to be the area that demands more investment and more support, not only of the government but also the well-to-do and non-governmental interventions. Only an investment in education can bolster economic empowerment and opportunities.

If Yobe State is to get it right in the coming decades, it has to place priority on education and agriculture. But if I could say it again, they key to developing the State is and remains education. Right now, Yobe State under the leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni is adopting a new approach to developing education, with the declaration of an emergency in the sector. This is aimed at improving the standard of education in the State, the boosting of enrollment in schools, as well as the provision of infrastructure that will move Yobe State forward educationally. Rightly, emphasis has been placed on giving the people of the State a better foundation by revamping primary and secondary school education across the state. Strategically, the State embarked on the construction of model schools in the major towns, such as Buni Yadi, Damaturu, Gashua, Potiskum and Nguru. Each school has 30 classrooms and computer centres. These schools are aimed at decongesting classrooms and encouraging enrollment, and also as a way of addressing the number out-of-school children, while ensuring that no child is left out of school.

The next decade will see Yobe State competing in a digital economy that is knowledge-driven. Here again, the emphasis on education. On September 13, the constituting of Yobe State Education Council by Governor Buni also showed that the state is not relenting in putting concrete emphasis on education.

Governor Bunis emphasis on education is already making impact with the improvement in the overall performance of Yobe State in WAEC/NECO. In the last two years, the State had awarded hundreds of scholarships for foreign and local studies of the people, in the areas of healthcare, engineering, technology and agriculture. With two universities: Yobe State University, Damaturu and Federal University, Gashua, educational opportunities have been expanded. New modern markets are also being built in the major towns of the state. This was part of Governor Mai Mala Bunis plan to create the right environment for self-employment and self-reliance, which can as well boost economic activities.

The next decade will see Yobe State competing in a digital economy that is knowledge-driven. Here again, the emphasis on education. On September 13, the constituting of Yobe State Education Council by Governor Buni also showed that the state is not relenting in putting concrete emphasis on education. What Yobe State has been able to achieve so far, and especially in the last two years is a proof.

Isa Sanusi writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
In the long run, the effort to achieve a robust public service reform catalysed by the power of digital transformation through e-government that empowers citizens by giving them improved access, prompt services, saves cost and time, facilitates transparent processes, and makes government more accountable promises a win-win situation for both the citizens and the government.

Digital technology and social media have transformed the way people live, communicate and conduct economic activities with one another. Through the power of these two phenomena, people are gaining widespread access to information and global connections, irrespective of their geographic locations.

Thanks to the pervasive power of the internet, the appropriate application of digital or electronic government has become vital for satisfying the yearning and aspirations of modern citizens.

Citizens are using technology to hold governments to account and exercise their civic rights. Their expectation is for the government to deliver the same service standards as offered by the private sector.

As a result, governments everywhere are undergoing digital transformation and using the digital route to deliver services more efficiently, transparently, and cost-effectively to the citizens. Governments around the world are recognising and leveraging e-government to optimise their services to citizens.

The World Bank defines e-government as the use of information technology by government agencies, which are responsible for transmitting information to those within its ambit, businesses, and all other governmental stakeholders.

As such, e-government is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to government functions and procedures, with the purpose of increasing efficiency, transparency, and citizen participation.

Objectives of e-government include the better delivery of public services to citizens, the enhancement of business and industry collaborations, citizen empowerment through access to information, and ultimately more effective governance.

E-government is the practical demonstration of how ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of government use ICT as a support tool in the development of good governance by entrenching higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency in governmental operations, the improvement of processes and procedures, and increase in the quality of public services.

Nigeria is currently undergoing the transition from the traditional economy to the digital economy, with the objective of aligning the public sector operations and processes with the Digital Nigeria project and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

Aside from deploying e-government to achieve cost-effectiveness and citizen inclusion, governments are also innovating solutions to provide the optimum delivery of services, establish advanced systems of procurement, foster higher transparency, and curb corruption and wastages.

Despite the fact that technology has the potential to boost government responsiveness, productivity, and citizen trust, governments in many developing countries are reluctant to deploy technology towards the reform of their public sector.

While effective governments remain the cornerstone of poverty reduction and inclusive growth, most African governments rely on weak and opaque public institutions to push their personal agenda, without concern for their citizens welfare.

Nigeria is currently undergoing the transition from the traditional economy to the digital economy, with the objective of aligning the public sector operations and processes with the Digital Nigeria project and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).

The implementation of digital transformation in the public sector is being spearheaded by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), with the technical support of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

Indeed, technology is imperative to sustainable public service reforms and the proper repositioning of the public sector for quality service delivery through the digital transformation of government services, in conformity to international good governance practices.

The BPSR was established to coordinate and ensure the full implementation of reform initiatives of agencies of government to enhance service delivery and streamline the public service into a highly professional, functional, smart, and result-oriented institution.

It stands in the vanguard of leveraging technology to achieve its goals of turning around the public service for meaningful engagement and communication between the government and citizens.

In October 2020, NITDAs Director-General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi had assured the BPSR that his agency would deploy its IT competencies in reforming the entire public service saying that, information technology is key to meaningful reforms in the public service.

This much was underscored by the Director-General, Mallam Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi when he paid a courtesy visit to the corporate office of Image Merchants Promotion Limited, publisher of Economic Confidential and PRNigeria, among other publications in its stable.

Mallam Arabi acknowledged that the public sector has no excuse whatsoever not to embrace technology and digital transformation to ensure the digitisation of governance and elimination of paper-based operations.

He expressed the readiness of the BPSR to vigorously pursue the digitisation of all agencies and institutions of government through the upgrade of ICT facilities and capacity-building programmes to help public officers operate digital tools for productivity and safe record keeping.

He said, the whole world has been disrupted by technology. We (BPSR) have digitalised all our processes. We are advocates of the actualisation of the e-government master plan of the government, which is looking at the departments and agencies of government.

A lot of work is going on underground to upgrade the ICT facilities. The central tech agencies, NITDA and Galaxy Backbone, are doing a lot of work to provide the software and hardware that we need to transform.

In October 2020, NITDAs Director-General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi had assured the BPSR that his agency would deploy its IT competencies in reforming the entire public service saying that, information technology is key to meaningful reforms in the public service.

In the long run, the effort to achieve a robust public service reform catalysed by the power of digital transformation through e-government that empowers citizens by giving them improved access, prompt services, saves cost and time, facilitates transparent processes, and makes government more accountable promises a win-win situation for both the citizens and the government.

As a citizen, all you need is a smartphone with a strong internet connection to enjoy the gains of e-government, because you will no longer stand in long queues or be physically present to access government services, except when it becomes extremely necessary.

Inyene Ibanga writes from Wuye District, Abuja.
The current government and governor have a golden opportunity to get it right. The building of a bridge of this scale is a once-in-a-generation (if not a lifetime) opportunity. It would be great if policymakers used this to deliver a great service for Lagosians, now and in the future. It is not only up to the governor and his team to get it right, it is up to the people to demand that the governor and his team get it right.

With Lagos scheduled to start its Fourth Mainland Bridge this year, the governor and his team could examine a number of areas to make the bridge a success, offering value for money and serving the mobility needs of those in Lagos.

Expert negotiation: Lagos has very likely not negotiated a contract this large, with the implications enormous for the coming century. Yes, an entire century. As the bridge itself should have a planned existence of at least 100 years, the government needs to consider all of the potential angles of negotiation regarding its building. These aspects include Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessments (ESHIA), any potential displacement of people following the International Finance Corporations Performance Standards, as well as operation, maintenance, material integrity (particularly with the stress of the bridge in Lagos climate). I have not even discussed the scheduling, the financial modelling and the potential tools for financing the bridge. One potential is a public-private partnership, which sounds good, but has not always served the government or its people.

In addition, operation and maintenance clauses need to be water tight. A road can have lapsed maintenance  more potholes. However, to ignore a bridges maintenance could lead to significant fatalities, liability and traffic in the future. In addition, although for the next generation, this issue cannot kicked into the long grass. It must be addressed up front, in the contract.

Materials: The circular economy, there is no away, is increasingly taking hold in policy circles. In this respect, all materials (steel and concrete) should have their own passport (including CO2 footprint), in which it is clear how the materials could be potentially reused in the future, as well as during the construction phase.

Building for the long-term and for flexibility: No one knew of a pandemic 18 months ago and almost no one could have guessed its impact. Since then, the world has changed dramatically, with urban centres seriously considering whether a car-free city provides a better quality of life than the convenience and storage challenges of cars (not to mention the go slows). While cars may be the default for the moment, lanes should have flexibility to be adjusted, once traffic patterns and use have been studied. The glaring example in San Francisco includes the Bay Bridge between the city and Oakland. When first built in the lates 1930s, train tracks ran over it. However, within years, the car culture took hold, resulting in the removal of those tracks. With no tracks (and no bike lane crossing the bridge), the retrofit of the bridge has been a headache. To complete the bike path alone across the four miles linking San Francisco and Oakland is $400 million. In addition, it is crucial for those to remember that the bridge will be built in 2021 and only coming into operation some years after. What will change in the (traffic) habits of Lagosians? What is the difference between the Lagos of 2010 and 2020?

Soft policy: The bridge is Lagoss largest piece of hardware, but what of the software  the policy aspects of that use? As mentioned above, other modes of transport are crucial, particularly public transport (buses are significantly cheaper than any potential tram or train), as well as bikes and cargo. For cars, the policy of having carpool lanes (and VERY STRICT enforcement) is an important aspect. Depending on how the bridge is built, the eight lanes could have flexibility  five lanes going into the city (at least one, if not two for public transport) in the morning, with the reverse in the afternoon. Building a bridge or a freeway is important, but there is a host of soft policy tools to use to avoid the worn-out record of the freeway is already full  we need to build another lane. This has been the practice in Los Angeles, which has solved nothing.

Aesthetics and Value: Switzerlands Othmar Ammann, responsible for half of New Yorks suspension bridges, lays it out plain and simple  to be an ugly bridge is a crime. Fritz Leonhardt took that phrase and turned it into a seminalarticle in February 1968, called Aesthetics of Bridge Design in Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institutes Journal.

What is the percentage of local goods and services that are being used for the bridge? There are many ways to measure that and the devil is in the contract details. Is it people working? Is it hours worked? Or is it materials procured (in tonnes)?

The design may be more expensive, but the potential value addition for the city is enormous. The Bay Lights Project for the Bay Bridge included not only the technological sublime in the Self-Anchored Suspension bridge, but also an art installation that is not only beautiful, but valuable. A number of leading valuators created a back-of-the-envelope estimate that topped $100 million which the project brought to the city. The criteria ranged from direct views to the bridge, showing apartments at night and the Bay Areas push towards branding. All of these helped to support San Franciscos coffers in increased property taxes.

Energy: With significant amount of space on the bridge, it is possible to mount a solar farm on it to collect energy, which would at the very least run the lighting on it.

Local Content: What is the percentage of local goods and services that are being used for the bridge? There are many ways to measure that and the devil is in the contract details. Is it people working? Is it hours worked? Or is it materials procured (in tonnes)? Even for the United States, the Single Anchor Suspension bridge had a considerable amount produced in China, which was seen as a failure of American innovation. The reality was that the Americans could not produce a bridge on that large a scale.

Bridge as carrier: This is about the pipes for water, wire, sewage or whatever should be part of the bridge (underneath). This is a great opportunity to build in future needs. The bridges right of way could be worth billions in the future in saved time, effort and, of course, money. As in any piece of infrastructure, the three most important aspects are right of way, right of way, right of way.

Force Multiplier: The Fourth Mainland Bridge is a lighthouse project and as such will be a microcosm of everything. Its construction will set the tone, volume and speed of many aspects in the country, not just in infrastructure. Some aspects include:

Construction  would every person have personal protective equipment (helmuts, gloves, etc.) and will international standards regarding safety be religiously followed? If they are not, then the authorities would be giving the green light for a similarly slipshod approach towards health, safety and the environment.

Transparency  contracts for steel and cement could be the largest contracts out in Nigeria. Who are be bidding for those contracts and who are the company s beneficial owners (the actual shareholders)? Are the authorities adhering to transparency procurement methods , particularly with regards to ownership?

Accountability  who is ultimately responsible for the bridge s timing and delivery? Is it the governor or a Ministry? Whoever it is, the buck has to stop somewhere.

Sustainability  what materials will be used  sustainable cement, recycled materials, etc.?

Renewable Energy  as mentioned above, can the bridge s lighting at least be run partially with renewable energy?

Bridges are expensive, that is clear. What are some of the very cheap alternative ways to increase mobility in Lagos and bridge various parts of the city? Would a gondola be a practical aspect linking Victoria Island with Lagos proper? Could a gondola reduce traffic and increase the quality of life in the city?

Selling the project: With hopefully an aesthetic design, the bridge will sell itself. However, the use of a well-placed drone will help to provide the scope and scale of what it hopes to accomplish  keeping Africas largest city mobile. An exhibition in the Lagos Science Centre, with a beautifully designed wooden model, blueprints, over-sized reproductions of piers, would be an excellent opportunity to explain bridge building to the next generation of civil engineers and generally provide an impetus to consider a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). Such an exhibition could also travel to other cities around Nigeria, Africa and indeed the world.

Venders and Walking: What is the citys tolerance level for those walking and selling on the bridge? What are the hard (high fences) and soft measures (fines and an alternative place to sell) for the governor to consider? Will this long-accepted informal aspect of the economy be formalised?

Public service or private good: A balance needs to be struck between incentivising those to use the bridge with public transport and those who use it as a private good with their individual cars. The latter causes more traffic, contributes to noise and air pollution, but provides revenue. Many times these economic externalities are not considered. They need to be part of any economic equation from here on out.

Under promise and over deliver (not the opposite): the States governor would have broken the mirror of reality. There is no such thing as good, quick and cheap. As my urban planning professor said, Richard, you can have two, but not all three of them. You can have good and cheap, but it wont be quick. Cheap and quick, but it wont be good. This, to me, is the most truthful phrase ever spoken about infrastructure. In that respect, the authorities must make a choice about what they want, and at the same time, what their legacies will be.

Experimenting with other modes of mobility: Bridges are expensive, that is clear. What are some of the very cheap alternative ways to increase mobility in Lagos and bridge various parts of the city? Would a gondola be a practical aspect linking Victoria Island with Lagos proper? Could a gondola reduce traffic and increase the quality of life in the city? Gondolas/ropeways running above a city are increasingly being seen as an alternative across small bodies of water as a way to connect, reduce traffic and save citizens time in traffic.

The current government and governor have a golden opportunity to get it right. The building of a bridge of this scale is a once-in-a-generation (if not a lifetime) opportunity. It would be great if policymakers used this to deliver a great service for Lagosians, now and in the future. It is not only up to the governor and his team to get it right, it is up to the people to demand that the governor and his team get it right.

Richard Dion is a co-initiator of Which Way Nigeria  Citizen Scenarios to 2060.
Bandits on Tuesday night killed at least 20 people and abducted several others in Gatawa, a village in Sabon Birni local government area of Sokoto State.

The agrarian community was considered to be one of the few secure villages in the eastern part of the state where bandits have been very active.

The deadly attack came barely 24 hours after another in Gangara, in the same local government area.

A local resident, Bashir Gobir, said his younger sister was among those kidnapped.

An anonymous source said the attack was one of the most horrendous.

They came on motorcycles as usual and started shooting sporadically. They went from house to house checking for food and other things but they also killed 20 people during the attack, he said.

Mr Gobir said he did not know how many people were killed in the attack.

The terrorists raided Gatawa yesterday night. They stole almost everything of value in the village, killed many and abducted several others. My sister, Rahila Galadima, was one of the women taken away by the bandits, Mr Gobir said.

READ ALSO:

When contacted, the police spokesperson in Sokoto, Sanusi Abubakar, said he was attending a meeting and promised to call back.

He, however, did not call back or respond to an SMS sent to him.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview, a member representing Sabon Birni South at the Sokoto House of Assembly, Saidu Ibrahim, said the attacks have become unbearable.

What is happening is very disheartening. I know many people who have been killed and wounded in this attack (Gangara one).
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has forwarded the names of eleven commissioner-nominees to the state House of Assembly for confirmation, just as he appointed two Special Advisers

This was contained in a statement signed by the Secretary to the Edo Government, Osarodion Ogie, and made available to journalists on Wednesday, in Benin.

According to the statement, the two Special Advisers are Crusoe Osagie and Sarah Esangbedo, who were appointed Special Adviser, Media Projects and Special Adviser, Strategy, Policy, Projects and Performance Management, respectively.

As for the commissioner-nominees, the statement identified them as: Oluwole Osamudiamen Iyamu, SAN; Obehi Akoria; Joan Osa Oviawe; Osaze Ethan Uzamere and Monday Osaigbovo.

Others are: Marie Edeko Joseph Eboigbe; Moses Agbukor; Isoken Omo; Andrew Emwanta and Mrs. Otse Momoh-Omorogbe.

Mr Obaseki was sworn-in for a second term on 12 November, 2020. He has administered the stats without commissioners and other aides since then.

The governor had dissolved the state executive Council on 11 November, a day before he and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, were inaugurated.

At the valedictory executive council session at the Government House in Benin City, Mr Obaseki expressed appreciation to the council members for their selfless service to the state.

Since I became governor, I didnt sack any commissioner, but rather, they sacked me by resigning from my cabinet. What is important in government are the core values of truth, justice and fairness, he said.

(NAN)
Sit-at-home orders enforced by the pro-Biafra group, IPOB, have had more negative economic impacts on Ebonyi State than other states in the South-east region, a report says.

Over 83 per cent of interviewed respondents in the state said they were economically affected by the directives that repeatedly halt economic activities in the region most Mondays, the report by SB Morgen said.

The impact is also severely felt in Enugu, Anambra and Imo states in that order. Abia State has seen the least disruptions, residents said.

Of the five states in the South-east, the sit-at-home order was most effective in Ebonyi State with 98.07 per cent of the respondents affirming that it was observed, said the report by the Lagos-based research firm, SB Morgen.

Ebonyi, which has large salt deposits, is a leading producer of rice, yam, potatoes and cassava in the country. Complying with frequent no-work orders handed out by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra means production in these factories is stalled.

The group wants an independent Biafra nation and has been branded a terrorist group by the Nigerian government. Mr Kanu has been held by the government in detention since June when he was arrested in Kenya.

His supporters routinely direct residents of the region to stay at home on Mondays as a sign of protest. The campaign has affected economic and educational activities.

While the group is popular in the region, most residents are believed to comply with its disruptive orders for fear of being attacked or victimised by an organisation that has been linked to several acts of violence especially in recent months. There have been reports of defaulters being attacked.

READ ALSO:

Not surprisingly, Ebonyi State was most affected economically by the protest with as many as 84 per cent of the respondents admitting so, followed by 74.42 per cent of respondents in Enugu State. Anambra and Imo were tied at 55 per cent of respondents economic activities being affected by the protest, while Abia State had the least disruption to economic activity with only 42 per cent of respondents affected by the protest, SB Morgen said.

In terms of occupations, the worst affected are self-employed persons followed by transporters and then blue-collar formal sector workers.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the augmentation of five contracts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, briefed State House correspondents on behalf of the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, after the FEC meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.

The council meeting was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Mr Mohammed said the significant thing about the contracts was that they were awarded by the university itself; some in 2007, some in 2010, some in 2012 and some in 2015.

He said due to the inability of the university to execute the projects for reasons ranging from lack of funding to other sundry reasons, it appealed to the federal government to help complete the contracts.

The contract, which was then awarded at the sum of N2.5 billion due to contract variation, cost of materials has now been jacked up to N4.6 billion.

In other words, the federal government is making available to the university the sum of N2.1 billion to augment the contract, which it awarded between 2007 and 2015, but was unable to complete.

The five contracts are the construction of students hostels, Type D, at Awka, which was augmented in the sum of N120 million; construction of students hostel, Type A, at Nnewi, for which we have to provide an extra N385 million.

Construction students hostel, Type A, Awka; also, here weve provided an extra N104 million and then construction of Faculty Building for Physical Science and Biosciences in the sum of N1.2 billion, raising the contract sum from the original N983 million to N2.243 billion.

Finally, construction and completion of min-stadium complex in favour of another contractor, which we had to augment with the sum of N510 million.

The minister said the contracts were accommodated under the Needs Assessmentan intervention fund that the Federal Ministry of Education made available to assist the educational institutions all over Nigeria.

Mr Mohammed said the Federal Ministry of Education presented another memo for approval for the procurement of a landed property for the residence of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.

This is a very short memo, which actually sought councils approval to provide accommodation for the vice chancellor; and of course, it means the university was purchasing a property in Dutse, which will serve as the official accommodation of the vice chancellor.

After due process has been observed, including whether the seller has title and whether it was adequately covered by Certificate of Occupancy, council approved that a property be purchased for the sum of N161 million, inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT.

It comes with the delivery period of two weeks for the official residence of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Dutse, Jigawa State.

Mr Mohammed said that Minister of Communication, Isa Pantami, also presented a memo.

He said the memo sought councils approval for the award of contract for the provision of project management services for the implementation of the Local Area Network infrastructure, upgrade project in identified ministries, departments and agencies.

The minister said the contract was in the sum of N847, 000, inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT, and this is to be delivered within a period of 12 months.

Mr Mohammed said the council had already, through an intervention project, approved money for the upgrade of infrastructure of the Land Area Networks.

According to him, the purpose of the upgrade is to improve Nigerias communication infrastructure between ministries, departments and agencies of government.

(NAN)
Jinhua's GDP expanded 14.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, ranking second in Zhejiang, Chen Long, Secretary of Jinhua Municipal Party Committee, told Global Times Online in an interview, adding that several major economic indicators registered double-digit growth, which is also among the top in the province.

The city has spared no effort to open air, land and internet passages, Chen noted, explaining that a rail-sea intermodal route linking the city has ranked among the top in China in terms of freight volume, and the city's cross-border e-commerce trade volume accounted for nearly half of the total in Zhejiang.

After years of development, Jinhua is becoming a pacesetter of opening-up and innovation and a popular investment destination, Xing Zhihong, the city's mayor said in the interview.

Xing introduced that the city boasts prominent advantages in five aspects: highly efficient logistics network, vibrant commerce markets,thriving featured industries, reform measures that give people a greater sense of gain, and open development platforms.

Jinhua will step up efforts to promote high-quality development and build it into a pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity.

To achieve the goal, high-quality talents will play a big role in the process. Fortunately, Jinhua is known for its pioneering and enterprising residents, who have already made positive contributions to the development of the city and the province.

Located in the central part of Zhejiang province, Jinhua is an ancient with modern vigor, a historical and cultural city under national-level protection, and one of the top tourist cities in China. Meanwhile, county-level cities including China's small commodity hub Yiwu, China's largest distribution center for high-tech hardware Yongkang and "Chinese Hollywood" Dongyang, are under jurisdiction of Jinhua.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq83azyC2Eo

SOURCE Global Times Online
Qatari Diar will implement Yardi Voyager for commercial and residential asset and property management; Yardi Lease Manager to manage the leasing process; Unit Sales CRM to streamline residential sales; Yardi Forecast Manager to create faster, more accurate budgets and rolling forecasts; Yardi Orion Business Intelligence, a mobile-enabled platform that provides a holistic view of asset performance; Yardi Document Management for SharePoint to centralise content management; Yardi Advanced Maintenance to increase visibility and automate maintenance; and Yardi Procure to Pay, a centralised procurement solution that includes vendor management, procurement and electronic invoice processing.

"From our beginnings, Qatari Diar has been committed to bringing our vision for real estate to life. We work on projects that improve quality of life and contribute to community on an international level," said Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, CEO of Qatari Diar. "Utilising Yardi's best-in-class technology to digitalise our real estate operations through a single connected solution will further help fulfil these goals."

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Qatari Diar," said Neal Gemassmer, vice president of international for Yardi. "Yardi is excited to continue our role as a key contributor to the digitisation of real estate technology in Qatar, helping our clients meet strategic goals and better serve customers and communities."

See how Yardi could help digitise your real estate operations through a fully connected solution.

About Qatari Diar

Qatari Diar Real Estate Company was established in 2005 by the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar. Headquartered northeast of capital, Doha, on the coast of the Arabian Gulf. Qatari Diar was entrusted to support Qatar's growing economy and to coordinate the country's real estate development priorities. For more information, visit qataridiar.com.

About Yardi

Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide from offices in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. For more information, visit yardi.ae.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638251/QatariDiar_Logo_Regular_Color_Gradient_sRGB_Logo.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737275/Yardi_Logo.jpg

Related Links

https://www.yardi.ae



SOURCE Yardi
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroSense Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company in the field of CNS, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Leuchtenberger as its new Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Leuchtenberger has over 25 years of experience as a senior executive in the biopharmaceutical industry where he has led companies through private financings and initial public offerings, taken products from IND through to commercialization and achieved M&A exits.

Mark was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors at several publicly traded companies, among them Chiasma, Acusphere, Inc. and Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Melinta Therapeutics, Inc.).

Mr. Leuchtenberger served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Targanta Therapeutics Corporation, where he led the company's initial public offering in 2007 and its acquisition by The Medicines Company in 2009. Mr. Leuchtenberger served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of cancer vaccine company, Therion Biologics Corporation. Prior to Therion, Mr. Leuchtenberger was a senior officer at Biogen Inc., where he led the late-stage development of Avonex and its launch in the United States and subsequently managed North American and international commercial operations as well as business development. He is a director and past chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council Board of Directors, and is a past trustee for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Mass Development Emerging Technology Fund. He is a cofounder of Albor Biologics, Inc. and Alvos Therapeutics, Inc. He served as nonexecutive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Xenetic Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation biologic drugs and novel oncology therapeutics, from May 2014 to April 2015. Mr. Leuchtenberger received his MBA from the Yale School of Management and his BA from Wake Forest University.

Alon Ben-Noon, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated: "I'm excited to welcome Mark to the company's board as our new chairman. Mark has vast experience as an executive board member and chair positions of biotech companies - both private and public. We believe Mark will be an enormous contributor as we continue to develop our growing pipeline for the benefit of patients in need."

Mark Leuchtenberger, NeuroSense's new Chairperson stated: "I am thrilled to be joining a company such as NeuroSense Therapeutics, with its great science and translational research, motivated team and inspiring vision to bring benefit to patients with fatal diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer's. Following a careful due diligence that I conducted with external clinical thought leaders, I am happy to take part in leading the Board of Directors and company's strategy."

As mentioned, Mark will start his new role on October 1, 2021.

About NeuroSense Therapeutics

NeuroSense Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing treatments for patients suffering from debilitating neurodegenerative diseases. We believe that these diseases, which include ALS, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, among others, represent one of the most significant unmet medical needs of our time, with limited effective therapeutic options available for patients. Due to the complexity of neurodegenerative diseases, our strategy is to develop combined therapies targeting multiple pathways associated with these diseases.

For more information, contact: [email protected]

SOURCE NeuroSense
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AntStack, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Bengaluru, India announced today that is an Advanced Consulting Partner in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). APN Consulting Partners help customers design, architect, build, migrate and manage cloud solutions built on AWS.

This highly valued status highlights AntStack's commitment to client success and satisfaction by helping our customers of all sizes design, architect, build, migrate, and manage their workloads and applications on Amazon Web Services.

AntStack has put together a top-notch team of AWS certified engineers, architects, and consultants who continuously push themselves to learn advanced technologies and create innovations to help drive client initiatives without any limits and constantly innovating. We aim to help customers solve business problems.

"We are proud to have achieved the AWS Advanced Consulting Partner designation," said Jeevan Dongre, CEO of AntStack Technologies. "It's a recognition of our overall driven approach to cloud solutions as a key part of any business's overall architecture, and an indicator of the trust from our customers for the work and solutions we deliver for them. Becoming Advanced Consulting Partners is a massive endorsement of the work we have been doing and the skill and experience we have across the board when it comes to our team and we are excited to reach this mark and continue to stride forwards."

Advanced Consulting Partners status allows AntStack to work more closely with AWS  their account managers, solution architects and a broader product team  which will allow for more collaborative work to deliver best in class solutions and offer an absolute customer-first approach.



About AntStack



Antstack is a cloud computing service and consulting company primarily focusing on enabling tech and digital transformation for businesses of all sizes with Serverless at its core. From startups, small and medium businesses to large enterprises, we let organizations leverage the power of serverless computing across multiple cloud providers. We believe in working together in a highly organized way, sharing a common purpose. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka - India.

For more information, visit antstack.io. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media Contact:



Deen E David

AntStack

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/antstack-technologies/r/antstack-earns-advanced-consulting-partner-status-in-the-aws-partner-network,c3423981

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/20980/3423981/1474970.pdf Press release (PDF)

SOURCE AntStack Technologies
Zhang is a NAPFA-registered, fee-only financial advisor. NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisors are financial planners who adhere to the industry's most demanding practice requirements, including fee-only compensation, and meet NAPFA's rigorous accreditation standards. Through membership in the NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor program, Charles Zhang and Zhang Financial have endorsed a powerful message from the financial planning industry regarding the high level of responsibility and care that must be exercised on behalf of each client.

A financial planner who has a financial stake in the course of action that they recommend to a client faces an inherent conflict of interest and should not be considered objective or unbiased. Unfortunately, the vast majority of financial advisors in the United States today are also sellers of financial products. Some or all of their income may be dependent upon their ability to steer their clients to invest in a specific subsector of the thousands of financial products available today. NAPFA and Zhang Financial believe that many of the difficulties and issues that Americans face when dealing with their financial affairs are directly related to the conflicts of interest that pervade the financial planning sphere.

"Fee-only" is a term signifying that a given financial advisor does not receive commissions or additional revenue from financial product providers. This eliminates any potential bias when allocating assets and ensures that the advisor can focus solely on servicing client interests. By contrast, fee-based advisors receive fees from clients as well as commissions from selling financial products or from participation in revenue sharing agreements with product providers. A fee-based structure, therefore, introduces unwanted monetary influence in the way advisors manage client portfolios.

Zhang Financial, with over $4.5 billion dollars in managed assets, sets a new standard in both professionalism and client service within the wealth management landscape. Established three decades ago, Zhang Financial has developed into a prominent industry leader while still maintaining its client-centered focus. As a symbol of their commitment to community support, Charles Zhang and COO Lynn Zhang have personally donated over $10 million dollars to charitable causes in the Portage, Kalamazoo, and greater Grand Rapids region, as well as throughout Michigan. Zhang Financial's comprehensive fee-only solutions are built upon an academic, evidence-based investment philosophy aimed at providing each client with the highest probability of success.

*As reported by Barron's on September 17, 2021. Please see www.zhangfinancial.com/disclosure for full ranking criteria and disclosure.

Elizabeth Edgerton

269.385.5888

[email protected]

SOURCE Zhang Financial

Related Links

https://www.zhangfinancial.com/


HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- World-renowned Celebrity Artist, Albina Zorina is known for her outstanding paintings of Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Kathleen Cleaver, Al Pacino, and other A-listers. www.artzorina.com . In honor of her mother Vera who had breast cancer at 51-years old and is now breast cancer survivor, Albina has donated an Angelina Jolie painting to raise funds for a charity dear to her heart, The Tutu Project. The Tutu Project was founded by Linda Carey also a breast cancer survivor and her husband Bob Carey a photographer, who give rides to chemo patients, provide financial and emotional support to patients. www.thetutuproject.com The auction will run from Sept. 27- Oct. 28, 2021.

Angelina Jolie painting by Albina Zorina

"Breast cancer affected my mother but the whole family is still recovering from the drama we all went through. My mother had an operation where one of her breasts was completely removed and she had 6 chemotherapies," says Albina Zorina. "If I can help save or help one life, that is my goal."

The fundraising event on https://fundduel.com/index.php/duel/699 will include the auction of the Angelina Jolie painting as well as other items including: records from the Beatles, Prince, and Eminem by local artist Alison Rivera of Ali Cuts Records, feature interviews in Formidable Woman Magazine, Spa & Gift Basket, and more!"

What is the power of Fund Duel? "Fund Duel'' is team-based competition and video/photo-based challenges that are shared on social media. The magic comes in chain-reaction sharing that causes a campaign to virtually explode. Most of the campaigns on Fund Duel expand across the globe and potentially reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of participants. Fund Duel mobilizes the masses to act, donate and share," says Linda Hansen CEO of Fund Duel. Fund Duel has brought huge success to charities with campaigns raising $100,000+ www.fundduel.com .

Linda Carey of The Tutu Project, "2020 and 2021 were challenging years, however people were generous with their donations. Because of those donations we were able to release an immediate 15K when the stay at home was enforced to help those patients unable to work during the pandemic. We continue to offer grants throughout the year."

"This year has been a little slower, since our annual fundraiser, Dare Tutu on Sept. 15th which runs for Two Months, adds Carey. That is why we are excited to join forces with Artist Albina Zorina and her team at Fund Duel to raise funds for October Breast Awareness Month on September 24 on Fun Duel, Be generous."

The Tutu Project is also looking for Team Captains and Sponsors to join our cause. You can reach Linda Hansen at Fund Duel [email protected] or Press contact Jules Lavallee [email protected]

Media contact:

Hayden Hammerling

[email protected]

973-405-4600

SOURCE The Tutu Project
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As social media use and influence grows among young people and COVID-19 still circulates within our communities and schools, focusing on young children and teenagers' mental and behavioral health is vital.

Crowded school hallways, smaller social circles and virtual learning fatigue can all contribute to students' fear, anxiety, stress and depression.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) is excited to announce a partnership with the teen-led campaign #ZeroReasonsWhy to make the campaign available to additional schools in the Kansas City metropolitan area through funding and sponsorship.

#ZeroReasonsWhy is a community mobilization and storytelling campaign working to prevent teen suicide by driving conversations that remove the stigma around mental health struggles.

The campaign focuses on three strategic pillars  Remove the Stigma, Build Community Support and Commit to Education.

The Blue KC partnership will give school districts access to all campaign materials including the organization's storytelling campaign, community mobilization, #ZeroReasonsWhy "Street Team" and a School Activation Kit for implementation in the community.

"We want to provide tangible solutions to help our school district partners with this ever-growing need," said Jenny Housley, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Blue KC. "We won't be able to truly address this problem until we can have open, honest and candid conversations about the things we all struggle with but are afraid to talk about."

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT8TebigFQQ

Anna Hamilton is a #ZeroReasonsWhy teen and student in the Blue Valley School District. Blue Valley USD participates with the #ZeroReasonsWhy campaign via sponsorship from the Johnson County Community Mental Health Center.

"We are so excited to have ZRW spread to even more communities, enabling even more teens to become involved and help remove the stigma surrounding mental health.

The more teens that are involved in the campaign, the more teens can begin to feel comfortable talking about their struggles and those conversations can be normalized and let people know that it's okay not to be okay," said Hamilton.

Suicide remains a major health concern. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, youth suicide was already at a record high. It's the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-24 and rates have increased every year since 2007.

Campaigns like #ZeroReasonsWhy work. Ninety percent of teens and young adults who are depressed research mental health online according to a survey by Hopelab, a foundation set up to help young people with chronic illnesses, and the Well Being Trust, which is focused on mental, social and spiritual health.

A recent study in California also found that an anti-stigma social media campaign worked to help people understand the symptoms of behavioral health issues and increased awareness of resources to help. The study concluded that the campaign increased the likelihood of getting help by close to 10 percent.

Additional information regarding #ZeroReasonsWhy can be found at https://www.zeroreasonswhy.org

Blue KC is dedicated to cultivating a healthier Kansas City and making mental and behavioral health a priority. Blue KC is a longstanding partner with the Kansas City Royals, recently working together to Shut Out the Stigma around behavioral healthcare and recognizing first responders who are advancing behavioral health conversations in the community.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City, has been part of the Kansas City community since 1938. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City provides health coverage services to more than one million residents in the greater Kansas City area, including Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and 30 counties in Northwest Missouri. Our mission: to provide affordable access to healthcare and to improve the health of our members. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information on the company, visit its website at BlueKC.com.

About Zero Reasons Why

#ZeroReasonsWhy is a teen-led storytelling and community mobilization campaign to remove the stigma of mental health, increase help-seeking behavior and prevent teen suicide. There are many reasons why a teen might struggle with mental health, but there are zero reasons why they should have to go through it alone.

SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
TSX Venture Exchange: BSK

Frankfurt Stock Exchange: MAL2

OTCQB Venture Market (OTC): BKUCF

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Blue Sky Uranium Corp. (TSXV: BSK) (FSE: MAL2) (OTC: BKUCF), "Blue Sky" or the "Company") announces that the Company has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") with AGV Falcon Drilling S.R.L. ("AGV"), an arm's length party, pursuant to which the Company has agreed to issue common shares in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") in satisfaction of ongoing drilling services provided by AGV (the "Services") in the Ivana Central and Norte Projects located in the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina. It is expected that Blue Sky will owe AGV up to an aggregate of US$590,265 as payment for the Services, depending on the number of meters drilled, which is expected to be settled by the issuance of a maximum of 6,356,700 Common Shares in three tranches.

The Company has received an initial invoice in the amount of $343,843.20 from AGV for Services performed from August 1, 2021 to August 31, 2021 (the "Initial Services"). The Company proposes to issue 1,666,714 Common Shares (the "Shares") to AGV at a deemed issue price of $0.2063 per Share in settlement of the Initial Services. The Agreement, the proposed issuance of the Shares and future issuances of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement are subject to the acceptance of the Exchange.

The Company has a right of first refusal until January 20, 2024 to arrange for the purchase from AGV of any Common Shares issued pursuant to the Agreement, and all Common Shares issued pursuant to the Agreement will be held in escrow by the Company for a period of the earlier of: (i) January 20, 2024; or (ii) the date of completion of the Services.

About Blue Sky Uranium Corp.

Blue Sky Uranium Corp. is a leader in uranium discovery in Argentina. The Company's objective is to deliver exceptional returns to shareholders by rapidly advancing a portfolio of surficial uranium deposits into low-cost producers, while respecting the environment, the communities, and the cultures in all the areas in which we work. Blue Sky has the exclusive right to properties in two provinces in Argentina. The Company is a member of the Grosso Group, a resource management group that has pioneered exploration in Argentina since 1993.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Nikolaos Cacos"

______________________________________

Nikolaos Cacos, President, CEO and Director

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.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects" or "it is expected", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. This document contains statements about expected or anticipated future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, regulatory processes and actions, technical issues, new legislation, competitive conditions, the uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, the occurrence of unexpected events and the Company's ability to execute and implement its future plans. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, the completion of the issuance of the Shares and the approval of the Exchange to the Agreement, to the issuance of the Shares and to the future issuance of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include that the Company does not complete all or any part of the issuance of the Shares or the Company does not receive regulatory acceptance to the issuance of the Agreement, the issuance of the Shares or the future issuance of Common Shares pursuant to the Agreement. Accordingly the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward looking statements, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Blue Sky Uranium Corp.

Related Links

www.blueskyuranium.com


HOUSTON and DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation ("Cabot") (NYSE: COG) and Cimarex Energy Co. ("Cimarex") (NYSE: XEC) today announced that both companies' shareholders voted to approve the pending transaction.

At the special meeting of Cabot shareholders held earlier today, more than 99% of voted shares (approximately 89% of outstanding shares) were in favor of the merger. At the Cimarex special meeting of shareholders, more than 90% of voted shares (approximately 79% of outstanding shares) were in favor of the merger.

Dan O. Dinges, Chairman, President and CEO of Cabot, said, "We are pleased that Cabot shareholders recognize the considerable opportunities ahead for our combined business. We are excited to build on this momentum and our strong foundations as we progress towards closing the transaction and creating a premier, diversified energy company."

"We thank Cimarex shareholders for their support of our value creating transaction," said Thomas E. Jorden, Chairman, President and CEO of Cimarex. "Our combined business will have top-tier assets that will generate substantial cash flow to drive peer-leading returns through commodity price cycles. We look forward to completing this transaction and delivering these compelling benefits to our shareholders."

Cabot and Cimarex both anticipate filing the final certified vote results for their respective special meetings on a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction is anticipated to close on October 1, 2021. Following the closing of the transaction, the combined business intends to change its name and ticker symbol.

As previously announced, Cimarex and Cabot entered into a definitive agreement on May 23, 2021, whereby the companies will combine in an all-stock transaction. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, each eligible share of Cimarex common stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the transaction will be exchanged for 4.0146 shares of Cabot common stock.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor to Cabot and Baker Botts L.L.P. is serving as its legal counsel. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. and Evercore are serving as financial advisors to Cimarex and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as its legal counsel.

Cabot Oil & Gas

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas is a leading independent natural gas producer, with its entire resource base located in the continental United States. For additional information, visit the Company's homepage at www.cabotog.com.

Cimarex Energy

Cimarex Energy Co. is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with principal operations in the Permian Basin and Mid-Continent areas of the U.S. For more information about Cimarex, visit www.cimarex.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, plans, outlook, will, should, may and similar expressions may be used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and reflect Cabot's and Cimarex's current views about future events. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the benefits of the proposed merger involving Cabot and Cimarex, including future financial and operating results; statements about the expected timing of completion of the transaction and the changing of the name and ticker symbol of the combined business; and other statements that are not historical facts. No assurances can be given that the forward-looking statements contained in this communication will occur as projected and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and assumptions that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the risk that the businesses will not be integrated successfully; the risk that the cost savings and any other synergies from the transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; the effect of future regulatory or legislative actions on the companies or the industry in which they operate, including the risk of new restrictions with respect to well spacing, hydraulic fracturing, natural gas flaring or other oil and natural gas development activities; disruption from the transaction making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; the diversion of management time on merger-related issues; the volatility in commodity prices for crude oil and natural gas; the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact thereof on Cabot's and Cimarex's businesses, financial condition and results of operations; actions by, or disputes among or between, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producer countries; the presence or recoverability of estimated reserves; the ability to replace reserves; environmental risks; drilling and operating risks; exploration and development risks; competition; the ability of management to execute its plans to meet its goals; and other risks inherent in Cabot's and Cimarex's businesses. These risks, as well as other risks related to the proposed transaction, are described in the registration statement on Form S-4 and preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus that was filed with the SEC and the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus in connection with the proposed transaction. While the list of factors presented here is considered representative, no such list should be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those indicated. For additional information about other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, please refer to: (1) Cabot's annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC, which are available on Cabot's website at www.cabotog.com/investorrelations and on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov; and (2) Cimarex's annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC, which are available on its website at www.cimarex.com/investor-relations and on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov.

Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management at the time the statements are made. Except to the extent required by applicable law, neither Cabot nor Cimarex undertakes any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

SOURCE Cimarex Energy Co.; Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cabotog.com

http://www.cimarex.com


During the pandemic, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder 1 , yet no drug-free alternative existed to restore calm and balance on the spot until CalmiGo . Invented by a biomedical engineer and physician team, CalmiGo is designed to help extend the exhalation of the user, which naturally activates the parasympathetic system to counteract the fight or flight response brought on when the sympathetic nervous system takes over. CalmiGo's technology learns the user's personal breathing pattern and, in response, adapts its breathing prompts to ensure optimal exhalation. The device also utilizes multisensory stimulation -- a commonly used technique to treat anxiety -- with light cues for breathing regulation, a scented element available in lavender, peppermint or bergamot, and a vibration mode.

"Many people are struggling to cope with the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic and the pressure of returning to the office and classroom. CalmiGo is a supportive tool that can help manage this stress and anxiety," said Adi Wallach, Founder and CEO, CalmiGo. "We are thrilled that CalmiGo is now available at CVS Health stores, as part of their commitment to mental health and wellness."

Safe for people of all ages, from children as young as 6 years old to seniors 65+, CalmiGo is proven to help students, athletes, parents, veterans and anyone else who commonly suffers from anxiety and stress symptoms. The device helps calm nerves and boost focus in high performance situations, such as an important meeting, public speaking engagement, social gathering, competition or exam.

"Everyone can benefit from taking a mindful moment to regulate their breathing to regain calm. However, that sounds easier than it actually is when someone is in the midst of experiencing a stressful or anxious situation. CalmiGo is designed to do just that, bring you back to calm," said Dr. Gigi Hamilton, Ph.D., LCMHC-S, NCC, BC-TMH, CDAC, CRS, a private-practice psychotherapist with over 25 years of experience working with individuals, couples, military personnel, professional athletes, and business executives. "I highly recommend CalmiGo as an effective tool to help manage overwhelming feelings of stress and anxiety and navigate back to a calm state."

Studies show that using CalmiGo 3 times per day provides a significant reduction in anxiety in just a few weeks and is more effective than breathing techniques alone. The device is currently the subject of clinical studies conducted by the Mayo Clinic , Northwell Health (Lenox Hill), and among veterans suffering from PTSD.

CalmiGo has sold more than 40,000 devices to date and is backed by leading investors and an advisory board that includes experts from major pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical device companies, and academia. For more information, visit www.calmigo.com .

1KFF. " The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use. " February 2021.

About CalmiGo

Launched in 2019, CalmiGo is a scientifically proven, drug-free device that provides immediate relief for all levels of anxiety, stress, difficulty sleeping and more. CalmiGo was founded by Adi Wallach, a biomedical engineer, who invented the device to help with her own severe anxiety. CalmiGo regulates breathing patterns to restore calm within just 3 minutes of use. At the core of its technology is exhalation prolongation and multi-sensory stimulation to activate the parasympathetic system that counteracts the fight or flight response brought on when the sympathetic nervous system takes over. Rooted in neuroscience, CalmiGo fills the whitespace between prescription drugs and unproven alternative solutions to instantly relieve anxiety, stress and related conditions.

SOURCE CalmiGo

Related Links

calmigo.com


Most building professionals are adjusting workspaces to make them safer, while accommodating hybrid work Tweet this

"The COVID pandemic will have a lasting impact of redefining how and where people work. It also placed a new lens on the health, safety, wellness and productivity of employees," said Maureen Ehrenberg, FRICS, CRE, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Skyre. "The workplace seems to be well-prepared for a re-occupancy, which is healthier and occupant-friendly with more wellness and concierge services. With the challenges of reliable high-speed internet serving employees at home, it's arguable as well that the workplace at times may be more productive, especially when meeting and collaborating through video conferencing is a critical component of remaining visible and engaged with clients and team members."

Kimmel added, "The hybrid workplace clearly has arrived and will not go away. The next step is to conduct additional research on how to make the hybrid work arrangement most successful. I expect that to do this, there will be studies on the types of work and workers best suited for office and remote work locations, and what can be done to enhance productivity for each."

According to the survey, 68% of companies have created a return to occupancy task force and nearly all crosscut many corporate functions, including property and space management, human resources and IT. Additionally, a large majority of building managers have or are preparing a documented return to office plan (84%) and are confident in the plan (90%). They also are preparing for potential COVID surges; 60% already have a documented contingency plan and 30% are preparing one.

"This insightful survey clearly demonstrates the justified importance placed on health, well-being, safety and the workforce experience now and post pandemic, as well as the need for technology and data to thoroughly understand behavior and develop the metrics needed to effectively manage our facilities for our workforces," said Peter Ankerstjerne, Chief Strategy Officer of Planon, a global leader in digital workplace and smart building solutions, and Chairman of the Global Board of Directors at IFMA.

Remote work is the new competitive advantage, but companies face productivity challenges

When asked how companies are planning to retain talent, 58% of those surveyed say they will allow employees to choose how many days to work remotely. Other top strategies companies are choosing to retain talent include providing amenities for well-being through incentives (49%), allowing employees to work remotely from anywhere (48%), and paying for relocation expenses for key talent (46%).

Companies also plan to support work from home by providing or reimbursing employees for software (70%), office equipment such as printers, computers and mobile or landline phones (69%), and well-being reimbursements (46%). Nearly half (45%) said they will offer new work from home financial subsidies for existing home expenses, such as rent or mortgage reimbursement and insurance.

However, 40% of respondents estimate at least half of the employees at their facilities lack high-speed internet connectivity at home that would better facilitate remote work.

Re-occupancy plans put safety first

Although many factors played a role in return to occupancy planning, the safety, health and well-being of employees, occupants and visitors ranked highest with 86% of the managers responding it was leadership's top concern. Returning the building/office space to pre-pandemic occupancy ranked lowest in terms of importance to top management at 64%.

Nearly half of the companies are planning to increase the budget by more than 10% for security systems, technology and wellness amenities. In addition, 61% said they have or are planning to add health and wellness services.

Nearly all respondents (94%) said their buildings either have been or are being equipped with improved HVAC air filtration systems. This was followed by additional security measures, including automated biometric and temperature scanners and desk and meeting room reservations. Two-thirds of buildings will have hand sanitation stations and frequent cleaning of high-touch areas, and 62% of those surveyed say temperature checks will be required to enter the office.

"With the majority of survey respondents ranking safety, health and well-being of the people in the building as the top concern in return to the office, there is a clear opportunity for leading building professionals to also serve as health professionals. Building health impacts human health. It is important we provide the information and tools to position them to do so at their best," said Whitney Austin Gray, Senior Vice President and Lead of Research at the International WELL Building Institute.

Goodbye private offices, hello smaller networked meeting spaces

A majority of those surveyed (55%) say their return to office plan is to have over half of their staff spend at least three days in the office with 23% saying workers will spend 50% of their time in the office and 21% expecting most staff to work remotely most of the time.

Nearly an equal amount of survey respondents foresee a reduction in the number of conference rooms for more than 10 people (54%) and private offices (53%) in the next two years. Three-quarters of respondents plan to increase the number of conference/meeting rooms with networked audio and visual capabilities, while nearly two-thirds foresee both more conference rooms for 10 or fewer people and an increase in outdoor meeting areas.

Despite the changes to the workspace, more than half (54%) say their organization is not planning to change their real estate footprint by either adding or giving back square footage.

"The workplace will no longer facilitate focus and learning activities  those things can happen remotely. What successful future offices will do is enable the activities for people to connect  group problem-solving, collaborative innovation and social activity. Likewise, the space types in every office will need to change to support that shift in employee experience," said Michael Casolo, Chief Revenue Officer of Unispace.

Methodology: Blue Skyre IBE LLC commissioned HarrisX to conduct a survey of commercial real estate professionals. The total sample size was 458 facility and building managers and real estate consultants across the U.S. and Canada. The survey was conducted online from June 28-Aug. 12, 2021. The sampling margin of error of this poll is plus or minus 4.58 percentage points.

About Blue Skyre IBE

Blue Skyre IBE, LLC is a commercial real estate and facilities management advisory and service company dedicated to leveraging technology and decades of industry insight to help occupiers, owners, asset managers and investors maximize the performance of their teams, properties and portfolios. As a strategic partner of Colliers, Blue Skyre is able to leverage the resources and talent of one of the leading global real estate services providers.

About Peter S. Kimmel & Associates

Peter S. Kimmel & Associates consults to facility management organizations that are seeking more efficient ways to run their operations as well as to those offering services to FMs, thereby ensuring that they are offering ideal solutions to their clients and optimizing the way they market them.

For more information contact: Janice McDill, [email protected]

SOURCE Blue Skyre IBE

Related Links

www.blueskyre.com


HOUSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CEMEX USA announced today it has earned twelve prestigious awards from the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) that recognize the company's strong commitment to environmental excellence and outstanding community relations efforts at several of its aggregate operations.

NSSGA representatives presented CEMEX with the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards during the NSSGA's Legislative & Policy Forum this month in Washington, D.C. CEMEX USA aggregates operations earned seven NSSGA Environmental Excellence Awards, including one Gold Environmental Excellence Award for CEMEX's Brooksville Quarry in Brooksville, FL. CEMEX USA operations also earned three Excellence in Community Relations Awards, including one Platinum Excellence in Community Relations Award for 474 Sand Mine in Clermont, FL. Two CEMEX USA operations received added recognition, earning National Stars of Excellence Awards.

"At CEMEX, we continually strive for environmental excellence while working to be good neighbors in the communities where we live and operate," said CEMEX USA President Jaime Muguiro. "We're proud of our employees at these award-winning operations for setting and maintaining high standards while having positive impact on the environment and their communities."

The following CEMEX USA operations were recognized with NSSGA Environmental Excellence Awards for actively demonstrating a commitment to the exemplary use of environmental controls and systems:

Gold Silver Bronze







Brooksville Quarry SCL Quarry Krome Quarry Union Sand Mine Plant Brooksville, FL Miami, FL Miami, FL Ludowici, GA









Alico Quarry Palmdale Sand Mine Deerfield Sand Mine

Ft. Myers, FL Palmdale, FL Tillman, SC

474 Sand Mine earned the NSSGA Gold Excellence in Community Relations Award, and additionally, it was recognized with the NSSGA Platinum Excellence in Community Relations Award for earning top honors in the Community Relations Category. Brooksville Quarry also earned a NSSGA Gold Excellence in Community Relations Award. These awards recognize producers whose community involvement enhances the public's perception of the aggregates industry.

Platinum Gold





474 Sand Mine 474 Sand Mine Brooksville Quarry Clermont, FL Clermont, FL Brooksville, FL

The NSSGA also recognized 474 Sand Mine and Brooksville Quarry with NSSGA National Stars of Excellence Awards for the operations having earned multiple gold awards in environmental excellence and community relations respectively within the last five years.

About CEMEX USA

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high-quality products and reliable services with a rich history of improving the wellbeing of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements and sustainability efforts. Its U.S. network includes 10 cement plants, close to 50 strategically located cement terminals, nearly 50 aggregate quarries and more than 280 ready-mix concrete plants. CEMEX USA has been repeatedly recognized for its efforts in sustainability and energy management, including earning U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

SOURCE CEMEX USA

Related Links

https://www.cemexusa.com


ZURICH, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Amcor plc (NYSE: AMCR; ASX: AMC) today announced that Achal Agarwal has been nominated as a non-executive director for election at the Company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday November 10, 2021.

Mr. Agarwal most recently held several Global Executive Leadership roles at Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC) from 2008-2021, including Global Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer and President of KCC's Asia Pacific region. Before joining Kimberly-Clark, Mr. Agarwal held various regional leadership positions at PepsiCo, including Chief Operating Officer of its beverages business in Greater China from 2002-2008. Mr. Agarwal holds a degree and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Delhi, and an Advanced Management Program degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Chairman of the World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore (WWF-Singapore) and a non-executive director on the Board of SATS Ltd.

The Board believes Mr. Agarwal's four decades of experience in the consumer goods industry and deep knowledge of developed and emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region will complement the Board's existing skill set and provide invaluable knowledge and perspectives moving forward.

Amcor also announced that Philip Weaver will retire from the Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting. Mr Weaver has been a valued member of the Amcor plc board and served as a member of the Compensation Committee. Mr Weaver's extensive knowledge and experience in finance and accounting have been an asset to the Board and his fellow directors express their thanks for his thoughtful insight, sound counsel and important contribution to the Board during his tenure.

For further information please contact:





Investors Damien Bird

Vice President Investor Relations Amcor +61 3 9226 9070 / +1 224 478 5790

[email protected] Media Ernesto Duran

Head of Global Communications Amcor +41 78 698 69 40

[email protected]

About Amcor

Amcor is a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, home- and personal-care, and other products. Amcor works with leading companies around the world to protect their products and the people who rely on them, differentiate brands, and improve value chains through a range of flexible and rigid packaging, specialty cartons, closures, and services. The company is focused on making packaging that is increasingly light-weighted, recyclable and reusable, and made using a rising amount of recycled content. Around 46,000 Amcor people generate US$13 billion in sales from operations that span about 225 locations in 40-plus countries. NYSE: AMCR; ASX: AMC

www.amcor.com I LinkedIn I Facebook I Twitter I YouTube

SOURCE Amcor plc

Related Links

www.amcor.com


DALLAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Consilium Staffing, a premier locum tenens healthcare staffing firm bringing doctors and advanced practitioners to facilities nationwide, announced that it has donated 1,564 snack bags ("Bye-Bye bags") to Vogel Alcove, a nonprofit established to support children of Dallas-area homeless families. Through Consilium Cares, the firm's dedicated philanthropic initiative, Consilium has broken the record for the highest one-time donation to date. The bags were filled with ready-to-eat, non-perishable snacks and drinks. In 2020, Consilium employees donated 858 bags.

"As a company of 120 employees, the amount we donated this year equates to 13 bags per person," explained Jennifer Pruitt, director of learning and development for Consilium. "This illustrates how much dedication and love was poured into the project by team members as they decorated and filled the snack bags."

The snack bags are one of the tools Vogel Alcove uses to help feed families that benefit from having supplemental snacks to offset food instability at home.

"Our employees spent hundreds of hours on this project and demonstrated our core value of being a service-minded firm," said Matthew Baade, Executive Vice President of Consilium. "We are proud to support Vogel Alcove by bringing some nutrition and levity to families in our community."

ABOUT CONSILIUM STAFFING

Consilium Staffing is a locum tenens company offering temporary healthcare providers to medical facilities nationwide. For more information, please visit Consilium Staffing and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.

ABOUT VOGEL ALCOVE

Vogel Alcove is a nonprofit organization with the goal of helping young children overcome the lasting and traumatic effects of homelessness. It is our vision that every child in our community has a home, a self-sufficient family, and a foundation for success in school and life. Programs include Early Childhood Services, School-Age services, Mental Health Services, Health Services & Family Support. For more, visit Vogel Alcove.

Media Contact:

Stephan Terrill, Creative Director

[email protected]

877-536-4696

SOURCE Consilium Staffing

Related Links

www.consiliumstaffing.com


SANTA ANA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DATAMARK, the public safety geographic information systems (GIS) team of Michael Baker International, announced today the promotion of John Joseph, ENP, to Program Manager - Strategic Partnerships. In his new role, Mr. Joseph will continue to leverage 20 years of experience in graphic information systems (GIS), as well as a decade of working with 9-1-1 and public safety professionals nationwide, to support DATAMARK's clients.

As Program Manager for Strategic Partnerships, Mr. Joseph will centralize partnership development and expand DATAMARK's business-to-business offerings integration into a single role. He will lead the acceleration of the DATAMARK Partnership Program and align the company with technology leaders in GIS, public safety and federal market segments.

"At DATAMARK, our top priority is to make every client successful, and John has become a trusted partner to his clients in his two years with the company. He truly understands their needs and works diligently to ensure they have the services and solutions to meet those needs," said Robert Murphy, Director of Business Development at DATAMARK. "John likes to roll his sleeves up and solve complex public safety GIS challenges in innovative ways. This promotion reflects the deep bench of high-caliber team members we have at DATAMARK. We are excited to have John to lead our Partner Program as we continue to expand our market segments and continue advocating for our customers."

Mr. Joseph joined DATAMARK in 2019 and has served as a Business Development Manager and Public Safety Expert. During this time, he has helped accelerate the firm's business development efforts in strategic markets throughout the Western United States including California, Idaho, Montana and Colorado. Prior to joining DATAMARK, Mr. Joseph was a Senior Account Manager for Motorola Solutions for the 9-1-1 call handling business and a Territory Sales Manager for GeoComm covering the western region. He developed his GIS expertise in roles spanning 14 years at ESRI, eTerra and GeoNorth.

Mr. Joseph is certified by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) as an Emergency Number Professional (ENP). He also served as a member of the Washington State 911 GIS Advisory Board, which assisted in developing the Data Standards for NG9-1-1 as part of the State ESInet, and was Vice President of the Washington Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Joseph studied Business at Green River College.

About DATAMARK

As trusted advisors in public safety, DATAMARK brings comprehensive, real-world expertise in police, fire, EMS and 9-1-1 leadership roles to Next Generation 9-1-1 transitions. The DATAMARK team leads the industry by shaping rules and legislation, and by building a suite of products and services that ensure accurate emergency response location data in life-critical situations. DATAMARK empowers its team and stakeholder partners to foster trusted relationships and cultivate data integrity for informed decision making. DATAMARK, the public safety GIS team of Michael Baker International, has decades of proven experience in mission-critical government addressing projects. The team works with clients to solve their complex needs, from data quality checks and addressing to workflow analysis and more. Learn more about the company at www.datamarkgis.com and follow DATAMARK on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About Michael Baker International

Michael Baker International is a leading provider of engineering and consulting services. The firm's Practices encompass all facets of infrastructure, including design, civil engineering, planning, architecture, environmental, construction and program management. For more than 80 years, the company has been a trusted partner, providing comprehensive services and solutions to commercial clients and all branches of the military, as well as federal, state and municipal governments. Embracing emerging technologies and the latest innovations  like intelligent transportation and design-build project delivery  Michael Baker is an industry leader that delivers expertise and quality. The firm's more than 3,000 employees across nearly 100 locations are committed to Making a Difference for clients and communities through a culture of innovation, collaboration and technological advancement. To learn more, visit https://mbakerintl.com/.

Contact: Julia Covelli

[email protected]

(866) 293-4609

SOURCE DATAMARK

Related Links

https://datamarkgis.com


TSX.V: DME

U.S.OTCQX:DMEHF

Frankfurt:QM01

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - DESERT MOUNTAIN ENERGY CORP. (the "Company") (TSXV: DME) (U.S. OTC: DMEHF) (Frankfurt: QM01) From the President of the Company.

Desert Mountain Energy Corp. (DME-TMX.V) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Earl Resources Ltd. (ERL-TMX.V), to provide geologic, land, well planning, drilling and completion for the purposes of developing bedded and domal salt cavern energy storage in Arizona and the southwest. The Company will be reimbursed for all expenses and a modest handling charge. For those efforts the Company will receive a carried override position on any projects without any financial input. Likewise, if during drilling operations for Earl Resources Ltd., helium is discovered, then Earl Resources Ltd. will have an equivalent carried position on any production by the Company.

"DME is pleased to announce the joint venture with Earl Resources Ltd. and the opportunity to participate in their energy storage business," says Robert Rohlfing, CEO of Desert Mountain Energy Corp. "The expansion of the DME team has provided the resources to contribute to the joint venture and participate in its future success. Our treasury is committed to our plan of becoming a vertically integrated helium producer with the discovery of the McCauley Field and our decision to put it into production in 2022. DME intends to produce, process and sell finished processed helium directly to domestic helium consumers in the US."

The Company is excited to provide these services and looks forward to development of our long-term strategic goals in the Southwestern United States. Furthermore, the Company has acquired specific leases and will be assigning those to Earl Resources Ltd. Currently all the leases to be assigned fall outside of the Company's current operational area.

ABOUT DESERT MOUNTAIN ENERGY

Desert Mountain Energy Corp. is a publicly traded exploration and resource company focused on the discovery and development of rare noble and hydrogen gas fields in the U.S. The Company is primarily looking for elements deemed critical to the renewable energy and high technology industries.

We seek safe harbor

"Robert Rohlfing"

Robert Rohlfing

Executive Chairman & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in polices of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The statements made in this press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from the Company's expectations.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward looking statements and information herein include but are not limited to statements regarding the Company's anticipated performance in the future the planned exploration activities, receipt of positive results from drilling, the completion of further drilling and exploration work, and the timing and results of various activities.

Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company and its operations to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Such factors include, among others, changes in national and local governments, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada and the United States; financial risks due to helium prices, operating or technical difficulties in exploration and development activities; risks and hazards and the speculative nature of resource exploration and related development; risks in obtaining necessary licenses and permits, and challenges to the Company's title to properties.

Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to the continued operation of the Company's exploration operations, no material adverse change in the market price of commodities, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause results to be materially different from those anticipated, described, estimated, assessed or intended. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company does not intend to, and nor does not assume any obligation to update such forward-looking statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Desert Mountain Energy Corp.

Related Links

https://desertmountainenergy.com/


BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, IMPACT - the virtual first care (V1C) initiative co-hosted by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and American Telemedicine Association - introduced the Payer-V1C Contracting Toolkit . The Toolkit provides a fit-for-purpose guide that can be used when contracting with V1C solutions, offering a vital resource to accelerate the adoption of V1C and thus improve outcomes, access, and patient experience. A public meeting for industry leaders in virtual care will detail the Toolkit and accompanying resources on October 1, 2021.

V1C is medical care for individuals or a community accessed through digital interactions where possible, guided by a clinician, and integrated into a person's everyday life. In the midst of a global pandemic that has forced millions of healthcare professionals to become increasingly virtual, V1C became both a vital and winning approach. As a result, the industry has begun to recognize when healthcare is built around the patient, not the clinic, a new caliber of experience, efficiency, and quality can be provided.

To establish V1C as a new standard of care that is accessible at scale, third-party payer reimbursement for these solutions is critical. However, existing payer processes have not been able to keep pace with the rapid V1C innovations, and V1C solutions do not fit into the traditional contracting structures.

IMPACT's Payer-V1C Contracting Toolkit offers a suite of action oriented resources, such as a Guide to Payer-V1C Contracting, a Guide to V1C Payment Models and a V1C Coding Library that highlights V1C-reimbursable codes. The Toolkit will support alignment between payer systems and processes supporting new modalities of care to facilitate contracting and ultimately drive more effective adoption of V1C.

"We have an unprecedented opportunity to scale V1C as an option for all patients," says Claire Meunier, COO at DiMe. "Yet there is currently a critical friction point: payers need to be able to contract with V1C solutions as easily as they can contract with providers and vendors. Aligning payer systems and contracting processes will drive more deals and continue the expansion of V1C. Without this, V1C's promise risks being limited to direct-to-patient or only the most progressive self-insured employer models, falling woefully short of its potential."

"Our usual contracting approaches require us to classify a solution for contracting as a provider or a vendor, and we work through many revisions to make the contract fit what the V1C solution is offering and to pay for V1C services," describes Marcus Thygeson, Chief Health Officer at Bind Benefits. "IMPACT's work on the Payer-V1C Contracting Toolkit provides a third path payers can take, and presents an opportunity for more effective contracting as we lean into the V1C category."

"We are excited to get this resource out into the field," says Sean Duffy, Co-Founder and CEO of Omada Health. "Since Omada contracted with its first customer in 2013, we've been working with our customers to effectively contract as a V1C provider. This Payer-V1C Contracting Toolkit builds on that, and provides a valuable resource for virtual-first companies and payers alike. By using this Toolkit, we can all focus on the real reason V1C is here  to serve patients with solutions that work."

To learn more, visit impact.dimesociety.org or attend the public meeting on October 1, 2021 which will detail the Toolkit and accompanying resources.

About IMPACT: Hosted by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), vIrtual first Medical PrActice CollaboraTion ("IMPACT") is a pre-competitive collaboration of leading digital health companies, investors, payers, and consultants dedicated to supporting virtual-first medical organizations and their commitment to patient-centric care. To become a member, visit impact.dimesociety.org to learn more and inquire today .

About the Digital Medicine Society: The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) is the professional society serving the digital medicine community, driving scientific progress and broad acceptance of digital medicine to enhance public health. At DiMe, our commitment to fully integrating experts from all of the disciplines comprising digital medicine is unwavering. From regulators to white-hat hackers, ethicists to engineers, and clinicians to citizen scientists, we are proud to welcome all experts committed to ensuring that digital medicine realizes its full potential to improve human health. Join us !

About the ATA: As the only organization completely focused on advancing telehealth, the American Telemedicine Association is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to safe, affordable, and appropriate care when and where they need it, enabling the system to do more good for more people. The ATA represents a broad and inclusive member network of leading healthcare delivery systems, academic institutions, technology solution providers and payers, as well as partner organizations and alliances, working to advance industry adoption of telehealth, promote responsible policy, advocate for government and market normalization, and provide education and resources to help integrate virtual care into emerging value-based delivery models. @americantelemed #telehealthishealth #ATApolicy

Media Contact: Jamie Gray, [email protected] , 310.699.3163

SOURCE Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)

Related Links

http://dimesociety.org


GLENVIEW, Ill., Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Envoy Solutions, a diversified distribution company, has entered into an agreement to acquire Penn Jersey Paper Co. ("PJP"), based in Philadelphia, PA. The nearly 60-year-old company has a significant presence in the Mid-Atlantic as a market leader in cleaning products, foodservice disposables, and janitorial supplies. PJP prides itself on finding solutions for customers with the company's rich expertise and specialized equipment for small cafes, large catering facilities, and everything in between. PJP also takes a thoughtful and creative approach with disposable packaging that serves a wide range of functions, from improving safety to enhancing marketing. This acquisition is part of Envoy Solutions' ambitious approach to build a national platform offering facilities supplies, foodservice disposables, packaging solutions, and specialty marketing solutions. With this new partnership, Envoy Solutions is well-positioned to achieve its vision of making buildings cleaner and more sustainable, people safer, and operations more productive, every day.

PJP is the latest in a series of companies joining Envoy Solutions' growing portfolio, which includes North American, WAXIE, Southeastern Paper Group, and recently announced, Daycon. PJP currently supports 2,000 customers from across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Virginia. The combined company will employ more than 2,200 workers, operate a network of 42 distribution centers, and support more than 45,000 customers nationwide.

"I couldn't be happier that the Furia family has put their trust in Envoy Solutions. I look forward to working with the whole PJP team," said Mark M. Fisher, CEO of Envoy Solutions. "As we continue to expand our footprint from coast to coast, our customers will increasingly benefit from more products and more solutions, supported by more knowledgeable category experts. Our goal is to leverage best practices from each family-owned business to create the best customer experience, along with the strongest supplier partnerships in the industry."

PJP's owner, Thomas R. Furia Sr., founded Penn Jersey Paper Company in 1963. Through his leadership, the company expanded from a small packaging supplier for supermarkets to a significant distributor of essential products for restaurants, hospitals, schools, and more. The company's success now spans three generations; Thomas R. Furia Jr. is President and COO and Thomas Furia III is Vice President of Supply Chain Management.

"Our objective was to align ourselves with a partner who values the strength of the PJP brand and whose culture aligns with our Think Customer First strategy," said Thomas R. Furia Jr. "Envoy Solutions provides us with the resources to broaden our position in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast marketplaces. With the addition of PJP, the Envoys Solutions team is enhancing their product offering of foodservice disposables. By joining Envoy Solutions, we are well-positioned to expand our jan-san and commercial foodservice equipment and supplies business. We are excited about our future!"

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of proper hand hygiene and facility cleanliness where people live and work. As PJP joins the Envoy Solutions team, this partnership will dramatically increase resources to support heightened demand of essential products to ensure people are safe and healthy and facilities are clean.

About Envoy Solutions:

Envoy Solutions, the nation's premier specialty distribution platform, is helping businesses thrive through a multi-faceted approach to make buildings cleaner and people safer, every day. Our wide array of essential products including sanitary supply, packaging solutions, and foodservice disposables are improving the quality of life at schools, hospitals, offices, and other institutions.

Based in Glenview, Ill., Envoy Solutions is the parent company of North American Corporation, WAXIE Sanitary Supply, Southeastern Paper Group, Daycon, PJP, and NVISION. For more information, please visit www.envoysolutions.com

About PJP:

PJP is a market leading distributor that provides essential supplies and services to some of the largest businesses in the U.S. Restaurants, bars, supermarkets, schools, and hospitals depend on our vast portfolio of disposable packaging products to operate every day. We take a creative approach with our packaging by deliberately focusing on presentation to enhance the customer experience.

PJP was founded in 1963 and is based in Philadelphia, Pa. For more information, please visit www.pjponline.com

SOURCE Envoy Solutions
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unique collaboration with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), EQ Office today unveiled the UNLV Incubator, a new student-focused incubation space located at Hughes Center .

A first for UNLV, this Incubator will bridge the gap between business ideation and its acceleration to realization. The three-step process of innovation:

Ideation. First, undergraduate and graduate students will develop their ideas through one of UNLV's innovation classes, a thesis, or a research project.

First, undergraduate and graduate students will develop their ideas through one of innovation classes, a thesis, or a research project. Incubation. Students and recent graduates with promising ideas are then encouraged to apply to the Incubator. Accepted applicants will join a cohort and have access to the Incubator space, curriculum, technology, and a support network to help them refine their concept and business plan.

Students and recent graduates with promising ideas are then encouraged to apply to the Incubator. Accepted applicants will join a cohort and have access to the Incubator space, curriculum, technology, and a support network to help them refine their concept and business plan. Acceleration: Students and researchers who develop their ideas in the Incubator are encouraged to apply to an accelerator program, where they will showcase their final or near-final product, network, and commercialize.

"Las Vegas is a remarkably experiential place and huge consumer of innovation, particularly in hospitality, technology and gaming. We want to invest in this community, help attract and retain key talent in this region, while also expanding the start-up ecosystem," said Lisa Picard, CEO, EQ Office. "By teaming up with leading universities like UNLV that are pushing the envelope in student-led innovation, we want to be a catalyst for job preparation, entrepreneurial training, and, importantly, business formation."

Designed by Las Vegas-based architecture firm EV&A, the Incubator is a 5,500-square-foot space within Hughes Center, a 68-acre collaborative and innovative office campus in the heart of the city that EQ recently re-positioned to attract and empower Las Vegas' top talent. In addition to the Incubator, the campus includes HC Social, an inviting tenant lounge and HC Oasis, a park situated in the center of the campus. Both were created to promote collaboration and ideas sharing.

UNLV is an R1 research university  characterized by very high research activity  with William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, a top-rated hospitality college. The Incubator will leverage these prestigious research and academic programs to help UNLV's diverse student body thrive in the world of entrepreneurship. Moreover, its placement at Hughes Center, just a few minutes from both UNLV and the Las Vegas Strip, will provide access to networking opportunities and job prospects.

"Many brilliant ideas that emerge from students' minds each year have been shelved and left for someone else to re-invent because they don't know how or don't have the resources to bring their concepts to life," said Robert Rippee, executive director of Black Fire Innovation and head of the Incubator program. "The Incubator is the solution for that in-between phase when students need to hone their business plans and design. Thanks to EQ's vision, students now have a space to work on innovation projects, while also providing access to important entrepreneurial tools and programs."

Additionally, Blackstone Charitable Foundation is welcoming UNLV into its LaunchPad network, an on-campus curated content and resource network that delivers experiential learning and entrepreneurship skill-building for students. There are more than 30 participating schools and 900,000 students with access to the LaunchPad network today.

"We are thrilled to partner with UNLV and EQ Office to bring a new Blackstone LaunchPad to UNLV students. With access to Blackstone LaunchPad entrepreneurial skill-building content, programs and networks, students can build a foundation for future career success," said Erica Lock, vice president, Blackstone Charitable Foundation. "This collaboration represents the best of Blackstone LaunchPad: building an ecosystem committed to expanding opportunity and career mobility."

This involvement complements Blackstone Real Estate's long track record of investment in Las Vegas and Nevada. Blackstone Real Estate owns nearly $20 billion of real estate in Nevada, across major asset classes.

Hughes Center and its new Incubator is evidence of EQ's investment in the Las Vegas community and aims to nurture talent and grow local skillsets -- both of which are at the core of EQ's ESG program. For more information, pictures of the UNLV Incubator, Powered by Hughes Center, and to learn how to apply as a student, visit https://www.hughescenter.com/.

About EQ Office

EQ focuses on the experience of its 29 million square feet - how space feels, activates and performs to amplify the human experience. We're proud to work hand-in-hand with more than 1,500 customers of all sizes, from Fortune 100 companies to emerging startups, to bring humanity back to the workplace. Our diverse team of more than 200 professionals is responsible for creating inspired office environments in major cities across the country including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. As a U.S. office portfolio company wholly owned by Blackstone's real estate funds, we have the resources to lead the changes happening in work space. Explore your space for greatness at www.eqoffice.com .

About UNLV

UNLV is a doctoral-degree-granting institution of more than 31,000 students and 3,900 faculty and staff that has earned the nation's highest recognition for both research and community engagement from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. UNLV offers a broad range of respected academic programs and is committed to recruiting and retaining top students and faculty, educating the region's diverse population and workforce, driving economic activity, and creating an academic health center for Southern Nevada. Learn more at unlv.edu.

SOURCE EQ Office
BRUSSELS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine policy measures can put Europe's economy on a steady path to net-zero, highlights Eurelectric's Power Barometer 2021, an analysis of industry-wide trends in the EU power sector.

Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of EDF and Eurelectric's President said:

"With the Fit for 55 Package, Europe's electricity could be carbon free five to ten years earlier than previously anticipated, thus helping transport, heating and industries accelerate their decarbonisation. We are ready and committed to play a leading role and deliver the carbon-free electricity needed for achieving the Green Deal's ambition".

Kristian Ruby, Eurelectric's Secretary General added:

"To deliver on the ambition, it is critical to have the right investment signals and remove all barriers stalling progress. Especially permitting lead times for new power projects must be shortened as a matter of priority."

However, in less than a decade, electricity capacity must increase by 27% versus 2020. This corresponds to a 93% growth in renewable capacity, achievable only if Europe's permitting processes radically change.

Investment must ramp up to close the ambition gap. By 2030, investments in distribution must double the average of last decade to 55bn annually, whereas clean generation capacities need 75bn per annum. Key enablers will be: predictable market-based frameworks; a functioning Emissions Trading System; modernised network tariffs, and comprehensive regulation for flexibility solutions, like battery storage.

Electrification of end-use sectors must grow at warp speed. Unless annual emission reductions nearly triple to 160 MT CO2-equivalent, the 55% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target will be met by 2045  15 years too late. The key to these decarbonisation objectives is increasing electrification rates to minimum 33% of the economy by 2030, up from today's 23%.

Taxes and levies applied to electricity must also be reduced. Having risen 29% since 2010, they burden consumers seeking to adopt carbon-free alternatives for transport, heating and cooling, and industrial processes. EU policymakers must end this to allow for the tripling of electric heat pumps to 45 million and bring the EVs market share to 60%, up from 10% in 2020, as the Fit for 55 Package intends.

SOURCE Eurelectric
DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE:FPI) (the "Company") will host a conference call on Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) to provide a company update. During the call, management will refer to the presentation "Series B Preferred Conversion" that was posted on the Company website, www.farmlandpartners.com, under the section "Investor Relations  Presentations and Other Materials."

The call can be accessed live over the phone toll-free by dialing the following numbers and referencing the Farmland Partners Inc. Investor Update Call.

USA: 1-866-262-6804

Canada: 1-855-669-9657

International: 1-412-902-4107

The conference call will also be available via a live listen-only webcast and can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, www.farmlandpartners.com.

A replay of the conference call will be available beginning shortly after the end of the event until October 14, 2021, by dialing the following numbers and using the passcode 10160631.

USA: 1-877-344-7529

Canada: 1-855-669-9658

International: 1-412-317-0088

A replay of the webcast will also be accessible on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website for a limited time following the event.

About Farmland Partners Inc.

Farmland Partners Inc. is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland, makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate, and manages farmland for third parties. As of the date of this release, the Company owns and/or manages approximately 166,000 acres in 16 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia. We have approximately 26 crop types and over 100 tenants. The Company elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014.

SOURCE Farmland Partners Inc.

Related Links

http://www.farmlandpartners.com


Flowhub, founded when the first legal adult-use stores opened in Colorado in 2014, created technology to disrupt antiquated systems and replace them with innovative, modern tools that redefine the cannabis space. Like Flowhub's quest, Uber uprooted a bureaucratic system and reimagined the entire transportation sector with their technology. With Johns on-board, Flowhub will continue to push boundaries with their technology with the ultimate goal of federal legalization.

"Flowhub is working to make safe cannabis products accessible to every adult on planet Earth. Mainstream adoption and legalization has been and always will be our main mission, and we will continue to push the industry forward with market-defining technology. Flowhub's platform is a vehicle for legalization by providing ID checks, transparent transactions, simple compliance automation for business owners, all-the-while while creating a seamless experience for the consumers shopping in stores and online," says Kyle Sherman, Flowhub's Founder & CEO. "We are excited to have someone on board who has a proven track record of breaking barriers with technology and redefining an entire industry."

"The legalization of cannabis not only has far ranging implications on mainstream industries such as alcohol and tobacco, pharma, and health and wellness, but also on society from a policing and prison standpoint. There is no other industry as exciting and dynamic as cannabis right now. That's why I'm thrilled to join Kyle and the Flowhub team," said Johns. "Their retail platform sets the benchmark in the industry, and the team's passion for their work combined with the company's innovation is unmatched."

As General Manager at Uber and an early executive, Johns helped build the ride-sharing app into the powerhouse company it is today. Johns joins Flowhub with over 15 years of experience across finance, operations, strategic development and investing in the transportation and technology sectors. Outside of overseeing operations, he will also focus on strategic decision-making and team structuring to maximize customer success. He currently serves on various non-profit boards and is an active investor and advisor to several startups.

"There is an optimistic, yet cautionary lesson we learned from the pandemic: Dispensaries were deemed essential, yet here we are in a world where cannabis is still federally illegal," said Sherman. "We have a lot of work to do."

About Flowhub

Flowhub is the cannabis retail software company that helps dispensaries by providing compliance, point of sale, inventory tracking, and business intelligence solutions. As the first Metrc integrator with first-to-market mobile check-in, point-of-sale, and inventory management applications, Flowhub processes over three billion dollars in cannabis sales annually and empowers more than 1,000 cannabis retailers to simplify their daily dispensary workflows. Flowhub is proud to be a founding member of the Cannabis Trade Federation and the US Cannabis Council committed to advancing social equity and federal cannabis legalization, and has awarded over $1 Million in free software through its Social Equity Program. Flowhub is a privately held company headquartered in Denver. Investors include Poseidon, Evolv Ventures, Headline and Green Lion Partners. For more information visit flowhub.com.

Media Contact

Renee Cotsis

[email protected]

SOURCE Flowhub
SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Metaverse Blockchain Fusion NFT company, Coinllectibles, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings Inc. (OTC: COSG), is pleased to announce that it will launch Series 2 of the Fusion NFTs Bronze Collection on 1 Oct 2021 (Fri) at 12pm (GMT+8). Adding significance to the Bronze Series 2 is the inclusion of 2 rare Qing Dynasty era ceramic collectibles  collectively known as the "Heritage Pieces". This follows the very well received launch of Series 1 that is trading at an approximate average of 5.8X its launch price.

Coinllectibles Fusion NFT Bronze Series 2 consists of 5 exquisite ceramic art pieces with independent valuations ranging from US$32,000 to US$85,000 on each item. Collectively, the Fusion NFT Bronze Series 2 is priced at US$820,000. The 2 items that form the "Coinllectibles Heritage Pieces" are:

1. Qing Dynasty (19th Century) Wucai Five Blessings Longevity Foliate Mouth Plate.

2. Qing Dynasty (19th Century) Carved Red Lacquer And Cloud Dragon Stick Mallet Vase.

Commenting on the "Coinllectibles Heritage Pieces", Nancy Wong, Chief Assets Officer of Coinllectibles said, "I am delighted that Coinllectibles is showcasing such rare pieces. These items were certified by renowned Hong Kong appraisers as being made in the 19th Century and are heritage items. These are wonderful collectibles and we believe the Fusion NFT Series 2 launch will excite some interest."

Apart from the "Heritage Pieces", the other 3 ceramic collectibles within Fusion NFT Bronze Series 2 are:

3. Meiping With Traditional Chinese Phoenix And Flower Pattern.

4. Wucai Solitary Vase Designed With Window, Flower, Character Story, With Human Foot And Animal Ear.

5. Modern Meiping Vase In Fa-Lang-Tsai Enamels With Figures.

Details of the 5 Fusion NFTs for Bronze Series 2 can be accessed from the following link: https://www.coinllectibles.art/en/new-launch.

Commenting on Bronze Series 2 collection, Nancy said, "Overall, this series is a special collection and the key attraction to these items is how exquisitely they were made. If you visit our website and look at the 3D images embedded in the Fusion NFTs, you will be able to zoom in and see all the intricate details. It is as if you are looking at the actual piece and it will give potential collectors an appreciation of the painstaking efforts those master craftsmen had put in to make those works of art."

"Apart from being able to view the 3D image from our website, we have added a new function that will vary the exposure and intensity of the lighting on the items. This will give Fusion NFT owners' an additional way to appreciate these images. Whether it is for the Heritage Pieces or for the rest of the Bronze Series 2, you will be able to zoom in as well as change the lighting to get a realistic sense of how it will look," added Nancy.

Akin to the inaugural Fusion NFTs, buyers will get both the digital Fusion NFT as well as the physical art piece. Similarly, Fusion NFT owners may choose to either take possession of the art piece or showcase the physical item in Asia's first Fusion NFT gallery in K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong. All the pieces for Fusion NFT will be sold on a fixed price basis.

Commenting on how Coinllectibles Bronze Series 2 is expected to do, Gerald Gn, Head Corporate Finance said, "Looking at how our first batch of Fusion NFTs did, we expect this series to do equally well. Our inaugural Fusion NFTs was collectively sold for about US$250,000. Since then it has attracted a lot of interest and they are trading for well above that initial amount. At last count, the total value of the first batch of items is US$1.46million, representing capital appreciation of more than 580% in under 3 weeks. Ultimately, we are thrilled to see our community grow and enjoy these pieces. Whether it is for short or longer term horizon objectives we hope people will enjoy our quality Fusion NFTs and pieces."

For pre-registration of interest for Coinllectibles Bronze Series 2, please visit www.Coinllectibles.Art or join the Coinllectibles Telegram Channel at https://t.me/Coinllectibles.

About Cosmos Group Holdings Inc

Cosmos is a business group that operates in two business segments:

Arts and Collectibles

Financing

Through CoinllectiblesTM, the group provides authentication, valuation and certification (AVC) service, sale and purchase, hire purchase, financing, custoday, security and exhibition (CSE) services to art buyers through traditional channels, as well as through leveraging blockchain technology through the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

With subsidiaries licensed under Hong Kong's Money Lenders Ordinance, the group currently primarily provides unsecured personal loan to private individuals, with a small portfolio of mortgage loans.

The group is integrating the two business segments by offering secured financing services to prospective art and collectibles purchasers to provide a one-stop arts and collectibles purchasing and financing experience.

About the Company  Coinllectibles

Coinllectibles is an ACT (Arts and Collectibles Technology) company, which is redefining how the world thinks about art and collectible ownership in the digital age.

Their minted curated Fusion NFTs, capture all the rights and independent valuation and ownership of physical arts and collectibles securely underpinned by smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs bridge the physical and virtual dimensions of the arts and collectibles market, providing a pleasurable, transparent, and frictionless experience to customers from all walks of life.

Website: www.coinllectibles.art

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coinllectibles

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coinllectibles/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coinllectibles

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinllectibles

Telegram: https://t.me/Coinllectibles

About Coinllectibles Fusion NFT

Coinllectibles prides the Fusion NFT as the industry "Gold Standard". Being a Gold Standard, a Fusion NFT contains the following on the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS)  (1) a sale and purchase agreement reflecting the purchase, by the person minting the Fusion NFT, of the underlying asset at a fair value with all rights and restrictions clearly detailed, (2) bailment terms governing the rights to possession whilst the underlying asset remains with Coinllectibles, (3) a transfer deed reflecting the transfer of the ownership of the underlying asset (together with all rights and restrictions) by the transferor to the holder of the Fusion NFT, (4) ownership title deed written into the description of the Fusion NFT and (5) the unequivocal identification file of the underlying asset, whose ownership is reflected in the title deed represented by the Fusion NFT.

Contact: Ms Rachel Lim, Director of Sales and Marketing, +852-28398100, [email protected]



SOURCE Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.
Data centers have harbored inefficiencies for decades. Silos of resources create stranded capacity, while at the same time creating overhead for managing each silo independently. While silos have proliferated due to the unique needs of each application, workloads have also grown more and more data-centric. This has fueled the accelerated growth of infrastructure spending, while generalized hardware has become less effective at meeting the needs of these modern workloads.

Fungible has answered these challenges by creating the world's most powerful Data Processing Unit, the Fungible DPU, a new category of processor purpose-built for data-centric workloads. Fungible offers technology to unlock the capacity stranded in silos by disaggregating these resources into pools, and composing them on-demand to meet the dynamic resourcing needs of modern applications. While pooled storage has long been an answer to eliminating local storage silos, it is typically implemented at the expense of performance. This tradeoff is no longer necessary. Built to run on standard NVMe/TCP, The Fungible Storage Cluster enables the benefits of pooled storage without sacrificing performance. Now, with the announcement of Fungible's Storage Initiator, NVMe/TCP is even easier to adopt, easier to deploy and even more powerful.

The Fungible Storage Initiator solution is delivered on Fungible's FC200, FC100 and FC50 cards. Each of these cards is powered by the S1 Fungible DPU, and a single FC200 card is capable of delivering a record breaking 2.5 million IOPS to its host. These cards, and the Fungible Storage Cluster, are managed by Fungible Composer, which orchestrates the composition of disaggregated data center resources on demand.

Fungible's SI solution offers a hardware accelerated, high performance approach to disaggregating storage from servers. The SI cards are available in a standard PCIe form-factor, allowing effortless deployment into existing servers. The cards manage all NVMe/TCP communication for the host, and in turn present native NVMe devices to the host operating system using standard NVMe drivers. This approach enables interoperability with operating systems that do not natively support NVMe/TCP. When paired with a Fungible FS1600 or other non-Fungible NVMe/TCP storage targets, the SI cards enhance the performance, security and efficiency of those environments as well as providing the world's highest performance implementation of standards-based NVMe/TCP.

The benefits of the Fungible Storage Initiator solution include:

Simplicity - Allows modern data center compute servers to finally get rid of ALL local storage, even boot drives, allowing the complete disaggregation of storage from servers. Security - Seamless, high performance, multi-tenant encryption of data from the moment it is first transmitted over the network through its lifetime retention on the Fungible storage target. Flexibility - Expands the usability of NVMe/TCP to a broader set of customer environments, even those without native NVMe/TCP support. Savings and Performance - Offloads the processing of NVMe/TCP from the host, freeing up approximately 30% of the general purpose CPU cores to run applications. This provides significant cost and environmental savings to customers.

"With our high-performance and low-latency implementation, Fungible's disaggregated NVMe/TCP solution becomes a game changer. Over the last five years, we have designed our products to support NVMe/TCP natively to revolutionize the economics of deploying flash storage in scale-out implementations," said Eric Hayes, CEO of Fungible. "In addition to industry leading performance, our solutions offer more value and the highest levels of security, compression, efficiency, durability and ease of use. At Fungible, we continue to disrupt the traditional rigid models by disaggregating compute and storage using available industry standards like NVMe/TCP."

"NVMe/TCP is rapidly gaining adoption and is a key driver in storage innovation today," said Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group at IDC. "It excels in highly demanding and compute-intensive enterprise, cloud and edge data center environments. Companies, such as Fungible, are leveraging NVMe/TCP to deliver the highest throughput, fastest response times and unrivaled economics for all types of workloads."

For more information, read Fungible's blog on NVMe/TCP or contact [email protected] .

About Fungible Inc.

Silicon Valley-based Fungible is revolutionizing the performance, economics, reliability and security of scale-out data centers. Visit Fungible to learn more. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn .

Fungible, Fungible Data Processing Unit, Fungible DPU, Fungible Data Center, Fungible Composer, and TrueFabric are registered trademarks of Fungible Inc. All registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Gary Bird

Fungible Media

831.621.5661

[email protected]

SOURCE Fungible
ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In preparation for the impending vote on the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) alongside local stakeholders joined the offices of United States Senators Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock for a roundtable discussion about renewable energy expansion. Senators Ossoff and Warnock, both supporters of the infrastructure package in the Senate, addressed the benefits of increased renewable energy investment for Georgia's workforce and economy.

"I am leading the effort to supercharge American solar because we must transition to clean energy and we must make it in America," said U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff.

Watch a recording of the event here.

"The country is at a brink of an infrastructural revolution," Allison Kelly, Advocate and Executive Director at The Ray said. "The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would not only update our roads and bridges but will catapult clean energy jobs statewide."

"Clean energy initiatives not only bring environmental benefits to our communities; they also bring an influx of stable, good-paying jobs," Jonnell Carol Minefee, Managing Partner for Solar Tyme USA said.

The state of Georgia has already accomplished great strides in renewable energy. The clean power industry has invested $4 billion in renewable energy projects while host communities have seen $23.2 million in state, local, and property tax payments. The budget reconciliation bill calls for a long-term clean energy tax platform, which would level the playing field for renewable energy businesses and boost investment for the industry. Both will help accelerate our workforce and provide communities nationwide with economic and environmental benefits.

"Solar energy's record-low prices are putting Georgia in a prime position to invest in a clean energy infrastructure without raising utility prices for communities throughout the state," Montana Busch, Co-Chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association and President of Alternative Energy Southeast said.

The renewable energy industry supports 7,300 jobs in the state. Georgia has 2,305 megawatts of operating wind, solar, and energy storage projects, which is equivalent to powering 375,000 homes.

"Renewable energy expansion will allow for Georgia communities to see a boost in jobs during a time when economic recovery is needed," State Representative Demetrius Douglas said.

"Accelerating renewable deployment in Georgia will result in more high-quality jobs. With the right policies in place, the renewable industry can put millions of Americans back to work, achieving the greenhouse gas emissions reductions necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change," said Gregory Wetstone, President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

About ACORE:

For more than 20 years, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) has been the nation's premier pan-renewable nonprofit organization. ACORE unites finance, policy, and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy.

For more information, please visit www.acore.org.

SOURCE American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)

Related Links

http://www.acore.org


DUBLIN, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market (2021-2026) by Product Type, Application, Sales Channel, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market is estimated to be USD 40.21 Bn in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 59.36 Bn by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.1%.



Due to Covid-19 caused lockdowns around the globe, the art & crafts supplies market may earn a greater hand in terms of expansion on the rising demand. People are using this period to fulfill their interests like crafts, drawing, painting, etc. This trait may ping enormous progress prospects for the art & crafts supplies market.



Due to the rising alertness about nature, bio-degradable art & crafts supplies have achieved significant drive over the years, and the advancement of ethnic and traditional art types in numerous nations may greatly boost the art & crafts necessities market. There are a wide variety of substitutes accessible, which hampers the expansion of the market through the forecast period.



Recent Developments



1. Faber-Castell the world's leading stationery giant has launched a product made of recycled paper, Paper pencils. - 19th November 2020.

2. Kokuyo Camlin, the premier stationery brand has launched the ' 2 in 1 Geometry and Pencil box'. - 30th May 2019.



Company Profiles



Some of the companies covered in this report are CSS Industries Inc., Crayola, The Art & Craft Limited, Hobbycraft, Walnut Hollow, Creative Company Ltd, etc.



Competitive Quadrant



The report includes the Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains a competitive analysis using the Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Report Highlights:

A complete analysis of the market, including parent industry

Important market dynamics and trends

Market segmentation

Historical, current, and projected size of the market based on value and volume

Market shares and strategies of key players

Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description

2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Size and Segmentation

3.3 Market Outlook



4 Market Influencers

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Growing Online Market Presence of Arts & Crafts Manufacturers

4.1.2 Increasing Desire of Consumers to Spend on Luxury Art Supplies

4.1.3 The Focus of Educational Institutes on Art & Craft Activities

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Availability of Broad Range of Substitutes

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Introduction of Attractive & Innovative Products

4.3.2 Development of Eco-Friendly Products

4.3.3 Increase Use of DIY Kits

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 High Competition in the Market with Increasing Number of Players

4.5 Trends



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market, By Product Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Color Pencil

6.3 Crayon

6.4 Art Marker

6.5 Craft Tools

6.6 Drawing Pen

6.7 Paints And Stains

6.8 Others



7 Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Home

7.3 Commercial

7.4 Educational

7.5 Others



8 Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market, By Sales Channel

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Stationery Stores

8.3 Departmental Stores

8.4 Supermarkets

8.5 Online Sales

8.6 Others



9 Global Arts & Crafts Supplies Market, By Geography



10 Competitive Landscape

10.1 Competitive Quadrant

10.2 Market Share Analysis

10.3 Strategic Initiatives

10.3.1 M&A and Investments

10.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

10.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



11 Company Profiles

11.1 Ningbo Haishu Qiao Stationery Co., Ltd

11.2 Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini S.p.A

11.3 CSS Industries Inc.

11.4 Crayola

11.5 The Art & Craft Limited

11.6 Hobbycraft

11.7 Walnut Hollow

11.8 Creative Company Ltd

11.9 Access Companies, b. dazzle, inc

11.10 China Towns Gifts & Toys Co. Ltd

11.11 Coliro Pearlcolors

11.12 Craftslane

11.13 Craft India

11.14 eeBoo Corp

11.15 Ethnic Kraft

11.16 Himalaya Fine Art

11.17 Hygloss Products Inc

11.18 Nex Products Inc

11.19 Night Light Designs

11.20 Poloppo Inc.

11.21 Sabmatt Corporation

11.22 Scratch-Art Co., Inc.

11.23 The Silver Moccasin

11.24 Societe BIC SA

11.25 Kokuyo Camlin

11.26 Faber-Castell

11.27 STAEDTLER Mars GmbH & Co. KG.



12 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/huhb95

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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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 on pros and cons of prevalent pricing models.

Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers.

Get a free sample report for more information

Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers:

Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for the PVC market. The report also aids buyers with relevant PVC pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives.

For more insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers, www.spendedge.com/report/pvc-market-procurement-research-report

Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth:

The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers.

Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. During the forecast period, the market expects a change of 3.00%-6.00%.

Identify favorable opportunities in PVC TCO (total cost of ownership).

Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes.

Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities.

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Some of the top PVC suppliers listed in this report:

This PVC procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd

Formosa Plastics Corp

INEOS Capital Ltd

Get the Details That You Are Looking for:

Buy our detailed market analysis report to uncover:

Changing market landscape with yearly forecast till 2025.

Analyze the market's competitive and vendor landscape.

How much marketing budget to set aside for geographical market expansion.

Understanding the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries.

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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

SOURCE SpendEdge

Related Links

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Jim started his Illustrious career in 1972, in Lancaster, PA. He was recruited by his American Legion baseball coach, who was a Kay Jewelers manager. From the baseball diamond to selling diamonds, Jim quickly advanced to become a Kay's manager in Cornwell Heights, PA. He managed the store for one year before he accepted a position with J. E. Caldwell as their Merchandise Coordinator. J. E. Caldwell promoted Silfies in 1976 to the role of store director in Harrisburg, PA. He advanced within the company through 1992, moving from Pennsylvania, to the Wilmington, Delaware Dupont hotel, to Washington, DC on Connecticut Avenue, where he was the Director of Operations. He finished his career at J.E. Caldwell overseeing two stores in King of Prussia, PA.

After Jim's track record of success in the industry, a colleague of his informed him of an opportunity with Hamilton Jewelers. In 1992 he interviewed with Martin and Hank Siegel and accepted a role in Princeton, New Jersey as Store Director. He was promoted to the Regional Director of Hamilton's two Florida Stores in Palm Beach County in 1994 and led the region through 2021, assisting countless clients and mentoring countless Hamilton team members along the way.

Hamilton Jewelers COO Andrew Siegel said, "When I started in the industry, both my father and my late grandfather told me that if I wanted to learn something, I should watch Jim Silfies. I spent many days watching, and listening to, Jim's interactions with clients and team members and quickly realized that there's simply no one quite like Jim. The ease with which he makes you the center of his attention means that you'll always feel good after an interaction with Jim. I'll miss watching him work but am so happy for him as he begins his well-deserved next chapter."

Through his 30-year career with Hamilton, Jim has mentored hundreds of employees, represented Hamilton in the industry and community, built wonderful relationships with clients, and been involved in selling many millions of dollars in fine jewelry and watches.

Hamilton President and CEO Hank Siegel commented, "it has been an honor to count Jim Silfies as a member of the Hamilton family for 30 years. Jim possesses characteristics which have served him well as a leader from the start... fierce loyalty, commitment to doing what is best for the business, unconditional support for his team members, and a desire to go to extraordinary lengths to please the client. His humor, reliability, and vast industry knowledge have been tremendous assets through his career. Through his tenure with Hamilton, Jim wore many hats - leader, closer, recruiter, trainer, and all around good guy. The entire Hamilton team joins the Siegel family in wishing Jim and his wonderful wife, Michelle, much enjoyment in this next phase of their lives together".

www.HamiltonJewelers.com

SOURCE Hamilton Jewelers

Related Links

http://www.hamiltonjewelers.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HOPE Chicago is a first-of-its-kind scholarship model serving Chicago students and their parents. Led by former Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Dr. Janice Jackson, HOPE Chicago is committed to raise, invest and deploy $1 billion in college scholarships and support funding over the next decade, effectively creating pathways to economic success for multiple generations of Chicagoans.

Today, more CPS students are graduating from high school than ever before, and 90 percent of surveyed CPS 9th graders aspire to go to college. However, significant barriers exist between these students' dreams and earning a diploma; just 63 percent of CPS students enroll in college and only 27 percent earn a degree, according to a HOPE Chicago survey.

According to an EdSurge article, InsideTrack reported that finances are one of the top three reasons traditional and post-traditional age students drop out of college, and historic methods designed to support students, like state grants, cover just one-third of the cost of today's tuition at Illinois public universities. HOPE Chicago seeks to bring together the civic community to invest in the city's students and drive multi-generational change.

"As a life-long educator, I understand the barriers that college students face as they enter the higher education system. Many of those  financial, social, psychological and emotional have been further exaggerated by the COVID-19 pandemic hindering student success," said Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO of HOPE Chicago. "HOPE Chicago has a bold vision and an ambitious goal. However, through a generous initial investment, our operating and administrative costs are covered for the next three years meaning we can ensure every penny raised will go directly towards educating underserved Chicago families. With the help of the community, civic and business leaders, we have the opportunity to redefine the education landscape in our city."

Higher education has proven to increase the likelihood of employment and higher earnings, according to Labor Department data reported by the Wall Street Journal. The impact of HOPE Chicago  and the opportunity to increase college completion rates  will be significant for CPS students, of whom 90 percent are students of color and 80 percent are low-income, according to Chicago Public Schools.

"Education is the essential key to bridge that can move underserved communities toward prosperity. I know this first-hand the impact of HOPE Chicago will change this city for the better, especially for Black and Brown families who are often left behind by the education system," said City of Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. "By investing in Chicago students, parents and their futures, HOPE Chicago is also investing in the future of our city's social and economic outcomes  one with a qualified, skilled and educated workforce. And with Dr. Janice Jackson at the helm, the sky's the limit for this important new venture."

Debt-Free College & Support that Goes Beyond Tuition

Through its unique and holistic approach to supporting students and parents in every aspect of their education journey, HOPE Chicago aims to increase the district's college completion rate. HOPE Chicago scholarships will cover the full cost of attendance at participating two-and four-year non-profit higher education institutions. Students may also pursue post-secondary industry certification programs.

"The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is excited to be a partner in HOPE Chicago's visionary new pathway to college access and attainment for Chicago Public Schools students. This is some of the best news I have heard in this space for years and this is a transformational moment for so many Chicago families," said University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones.

With the goal to raise $1 billion over ten years to cover both tuition and non-tuition expenses, HOPE Chicago can provide scholarships for approximately 24,000 first-year college students and aid more than 6,000 parents/guardians through the two-generation model. The two-generation model has proven to increase the likelihood of completion, which sets a new standard of success for the entire higher education sector and creates lasting economic impact for families.

In addition to supporting the cost of tuition, HOPE Chicago is committed to helping students combat loneliness and psychological stress, factors that contribute to college dropout rates. By forging partnerships with like-minded community organizations and outreach programs, HOPE Chicago can reach an additional 71,000 high school graduates with comprehensive support services including counseling, mentoring and career guidance.

In the 2021-2022 school year, HOPE Chicago will focus on raising its first $100 million and identifying priority schools and communities most in need. Through investments totaling more than $20 million by The Kadens Family Foundation and HOPE Chicago Co-Founder, Ted Koenig, HOPE Chicago's operational and administrative costs are fully funded for the next three years so that every dollar raised will go directly to the scholarship fund and back to students.

The first cohort of Hope Chicago Scholars will be selected in late spring 2022 and begin their post-secondary education in the fall of 2022.

"HOPE Chicago's visionary mission sets our students and their families up for success. Like many of our students, education was my way out of poverty. As I embark on my work with CPS, programs like HOPE Chicago motivates us to help students complete their education and ultimately get on the pathway for economic success," said incoming CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

HOPE Chicago Leadership

HOPE Chicago brings together a world-class group of highly diverse and experienced leaders in education, business and philanthropy from all over the U.S. who believe in its mission to break down education barriers.

"A scholarship program of this magnitude has never been done before, but we are betting big on Chicago's families most in need. With that in mind, it's our goal that HOPE Chicago will positively disrupt the post-secondary education system and serve as a potential model for the nation," said Pete Kadens, Founder and Chairman of HOPE Chicago. "With leaders like Dr. Jackson at the helm and a community of support across public and private sectors, we can achieve our bold vision  to help thousands of students and their parents realize their dreams and earn a degree  and have a significant impact on generations to come."

HOPE Chicago Board of Directors include:

Pete Kadens , Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of HOPE Chicago

, Ted Koenig , Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of HOPE Chicago , President & CEO of Monroe Capital

, President & CEO of Monroe Capital Constance Jones , Vice Chair of HOPE Chicago , CEO of the Noble Network of Charter Schools

, , CEO of the Noble Network of Charter Schools Charlie Desmond , Ed.D, CEO of Inversant

, Ed.D, CEO of Inversant Laura Frerichs , Executive Director of University of Illinois Research Park

, Executive Director of Research Park Adolfo Hernandez , Director of Pritzker Community Health Initiative

, Director of Pritzker Community Health Initiative Julie Hoffman , Director of The Kadens Family Foundation and Partner of J.H. Philanthropy

, Director of The Kadens Family Foundation and Partner of J.H. Philanthropy Lynn Jerath , President Citrine Investment Group

, President Citrine Investment Group Joyce Johnson-Miller , Chairman & Chief Investment Officer of Pacific Gate Capital

, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer of Pacific Gate Capital John C. Jones , CEO of HOPE Toledo

, CEO of HOPE Dorri McWhorter , CEO of YMCA Greater Chicago

, CEO of YMCA Greater Chicago Wes Moore , Former CEO of Robin Hood Foundation

, Former CEO of Robin Hood Foundation Julian Posada , President & CEO of Lift Up Enterprises

, President & CEO of Lift Up Enterprises Eric A. Reeves , Managing Director & Head of Private Capital Investments of Duchossois Capital Management

, Managing Director & Head of Private Capital Investments of Duchossois Capital Management Jonathan Reinsdorf , CEO of FroogalPay

, CEO of FroogalPay Lee Rosenberg , CEO of Rosenberg Advisory

, CEO of Rosenberg Advisory Von Washington , Executive Director of Community Relations of Kalamazoo Promise

"We look forward to providing high school students in the greater Chicagoland area a roadmap for higher education, personal achievement, and future employment. We are hopeful that through our financial support and guidance, we will be able to help students bring their vision for a successful future to life," said Ted Koenig, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of HOPE Chicago and President & CEO of Monroe Capital.

About HOPE Chicago

HOPE Chicago is a non-profit 501(c)(3) scholarship-granting organization committed to serving Chicago students and their parents in pursuit of higher education. Through its holistic and multi-generation approach, HOPE Chicago is committed to raise and invest $1 billion in college scholarships and support funding over the next decade, effectively creating pathways to success for multiple generations of Chicagoans. Learn more at hopechicago.org.

For Media Inquiries Contact:

Clare Marshall

[email protected]

SOURCE Hope Chicago

Related Links

http://www.hopechicago.org


TEL-AVIV, Israel, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HUB Security ("HUB" or the "Company"), announces today the acquisition of Comsec Global for NIS 70 million, of which HUB will pay NIS 40 million in cash and NIS 30 million in its own shares. The Shares consideration are under a share sale lock-up provision for a period of 6 months post closing of the transaction.

The main goal of the acquisition is to dramatically increase HUB Security 's global sales and distribution infrastructure by over 40 countries, which will enable the Company to more than double its revenues and significantly accelerate penetration of HUB's unique cyber-security solutions in global enterprises.

"HUB has developed a technology that can cause a paradigm shift in the Cyber Security market," commented Mr. Rony Sternbach, Comsec Chairman and controlling shareholder. "HUB's solution was considered to be the Holy Grail long awaited by governments and enterprises worldwide. The combination between the two companies creates a unique entity that has a strong foundation of global cyber business coupled with an unparalleled growth potential that leverages upon a 40-country sales infrastructure. In our opinion, this is a classic case of 1+1 equals 10 and not two."

Comsec is one of the leading companies in Israel's cybersecurity sector. Founded in 1987, the company was a pioneer in data security and now has an extensive customer base spanning over a thousand leading companies in 40 countries across five continents. It operates four consulting and distribution companies and has subsidiaries in the UK and the Netherlands.

The company offers a broad spectrum of services to its clients, providing comprehensive solutions in application security, security, and source code testing. These include application lifecycle development consulting, infrastructure security, and communication security. It further provides security auditing via several models; Threat Modeling, penetration tests, Black Box and comprehensive White Box audit Design Review, and more.

Comsec's annual sales turnover is approx NIS 120 million. Its customers include banking, insurance, hi-tech, communications, industrial, retail, large-scale infrastructures, and local and central government bodies and ministries. Comsec is a one-stop shop for all their cybersecurity needs.

HUB Security was established in 2017 by veterans of the IDF's 8200 and 81 intelligence units. The company specializes in protecting sensitive commercial information and has an advanced encrypted computing solution for companies and organizations aimed at preventing hostile intrusions and the theft of sensitive commercial information.

Hub offers cybersecurity solutions to, amongst others, the AI, Fintek, and critical infrastructure sectors. The company employs 400 employees, and its offices are located in Israel and the United States.

SOURCE Hub Security
ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ), a leading global asset management firm announced today its progress on ESG (environmental, social, governance) initiatives, highlighting its recent global expansion of the ESG team.

"ESG is a commercial imperative for Invesco as we see increasing interest from our clients. We have a clear plan in place to accelerate our progress and expanding the team is just one important piece of the puzzle," said Lance DiLorio, Head of Investment Specialized Services for Invesco. "I am excited to welcome eight additional members to the Invesco team and know these individuals will continue to help our clients meet their ESG investing goals."

The following new team members have joined the firm over the last three months and will report to Cathrine de Coninck-Lopez, Invesco's Global Head of ESG:

Mayde Sykora ( Atlanta ): Senior ESG Analyst, Fixed Income

( ): Senior ESG Analyst, Fixed Income Mark Duffy ( Boston ): ESG Analyst

( ): ESG Analyst Alexander Chan ( Hong Kong ): Head of ESG Client Strategy, Asia Pacific

( ): Head of ESG Client Strategy, Sophie Conyngham Greene ( London ): Junior ESG Analyst

( ): Junior ESG Analyst James Sieyes ( London ): Junior ESG Analyst

( ): Junior ESG Analyst Conor Hartnett ( London ): ESG Client Strategies Manager

( ): ESG Client Strategies Manager Maximilian Kufer ( London ): Head of ESG - Private Markets

( ): Head of ESG - Private Markets Sudip Hazra ( London ): Director of ESG Research

At Invesco, we approach ESG investing in two ways:

The firm's investment teams are working to integrate ESG factors into their investment processes. Invesco looks at the potential impact of the E, the S and the G on the performance of any investment. This is a value analysis that can also help align investments with client values. The firm's aiming for all of its teams to be fully integrated by the end of 2023.

The firm offers a growing range of investment products that enable its clients to express their values in ways that may drive portfolio value. With Invesco's comprehensive range of capabilities, clients can incorporate ESG-aligned ETFs, mutual funds, SMAs and custom indexes into their portfolios.

"Invesco has a strong, time-tested ESG track record, with some products exceeding more than 15 years in the market," said DiLorio. "We work hard to understand our clients' investment needs, which is central to our ability to deliver differentiated products that meet market demand."

To reinforce our commitment to ESG this year, Invesco has accomplished the following:

Increased its ESG AUM to $52.7 billion as of June 30, 2021 .

as of . Recently signed the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, joining other asset managers to support the global goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Launched nine ESG ETFs in Europe and three ESG ETFs in the US.

To learn more about ESG investing and Invesco's comprehensive range of ESG-focused capabilities, please visit: https://www.invesco.com/corporate/about-us/esg

About Invesco Ltd.

Invesco Ltd. is a global independent investment management firm dedicated to delivering an investment experience that helps people get more out of life. Our distinctive investment teams deliver a comprehensive range of active, passive and alternative investment capabilities. With offices in more than 20 countries, Invesco managed $1.5 trillion in assets on behalf of clients worldwide as of June 30, 2021. For more information, visit www.invesco.com.

Disclosures

Not a deposit | Not FDIC Insured | Not Guaranteed by the Bank | May Lose Value | Not Insured by any Federal Government Agency

Invesco Advisers, Inc. is an investment adviser; it provides investment advisory services to individual and institutional clients and does not sell securities. Invesco Distributors, Inc. is the US distributor for Invesco's retail products. Each entity is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd.

Contact: Gina Simonis [email protected] 917-715-8339

SOURCE Invesco Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.invesco.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Long Point Capital is pleased to announce it has acquired an interest in the privately held firm, MNS Engineers, Inc. Headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, MNS is a multi-service infrastructure consulting firm offering construction management, civil engineering, and surveying services throughout California. The transaction closed in August and represents a substantial investment by both firms to accelerate MNS' growth within California and other geographies nationally.

MNS' organic and M&A based growth strategy has proven successful, more than doubling corporate revenue since 2016. "We had already successfully acquired S&C Engineers in 2018. We knew that to remain competitive in the market space, we needed to continue to grow and diversify our service offerings," said MNS President & CEO, Jim Salvito. "Our partnership with Long Point provides us with a platform for meaningful growth and expansion while maintaining our firm culture and legacy."

The MNS legacy dates back well over 100 years and has long been the cornerstone of the Central Coast community. With nearly 200 professionals located in nine (9) offices throughout California, the firm has provided services to the transportation, water resources, government services, and federal markets for nearly 60 years. "Our strategic partnership with Long Point will allow MNS to continue to build upon our history and collective expertise, deepening our resources and specialties through acquisition," said Miranda Patton, Vice President Business Development at MNS.

Ira Starr, Long Point Founding Partner commented, "MNS was an ideal match given our prior experience in growing similarly sized architectural / engineering firms. We look forward to working with MNS' management team, combining our capital and operational expertise, to accelerate growth and drive financial performance."

Add-On Acquisition Criteria

MNS is actively looking to acquire construction management and/or engineering firms focused on transportation and water infrastructure with EBITDA of at least $1 million. Please reach out with any acquisition ideas to Ira Starr at [email protected], Norm Scherr at [email protected] or Niall Garrahan at [email protected]

About MNS

MNS Engineers, Inc., is a multi-service infrastructure consulting firm, specializing in construction management, civil engineering, and land surveying services. Incorporated in 1962 and headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, MNS serves the transportation, water resources, government services and federal markets.

About Long Point Capital

Long Point Capital, with offices in New York and Michigan, seeks to partner with and invest in leading founder, family, and management-owned businesses operating in defensible niches with stable demand, highly capable management teams and strong growth prospects. Long Point focuses on professional services companies and opportunistically niche manufacturing and distribution companies, typically with $5 million to $30 million in EBITDA. For more information please visit our website at www.longpointcapital.com.

SOURCE Long Point Capital

Related Links

http://www.longpointcapital.com


CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Through collaborations in each state, both Louisiana and Mississippi are taking steps to improve the quality of the future workforce for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and computer science careers by offering the online learning platform Learning Blade to schools statewide. Studies have shown that many students do not enter these careers because they can't picture themselves in those jobs. Learning Blade will develop students' interest in high-demand careers by increasing awareness of these careers and by relating academic skills to solving social issues that young students care about.

Boeing and LaSTEM are working with the LA Board of Regents, the LA Department of Education and the Foundation for East Baton Rouge School System to bring Learning Blade to Louisiana. Boeing helped to pilot Learning Blade in Alabama where hundreds of thousands of lessons were completed. Learning Blade will be available at no charge to all middle schools in the state and schools can begin the process by filling out the form at www.learningblade.com/LA.

"We are pleased to be a part of an initiative that will make such a timely impact on students by supporting Learning Blade," said Tina Watts, Boeing Global Engagement Community Investor. "Our company relies on a highly trained workforce, and in order to build that pipeline, we believe students gaining exposure earlier to these STEM careers will provide that. Seeing the extreme success in Alabama encouraged us to consider this for Louisiana."

Louisiana state superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley remarked, STEM offers our students a chance to problem solve, to think critically, and ultimately to access high-wage, high-demand careers. A key step to engaging students in STEM work is to expose them to STEM careers, and Learning Blade is another tool in our teachers toolboxes to do just that. We are excited and grateful that the Board of Regents and Boeing are as committed to STEM opportunities for Louisianas students as we are.

State Senator Sharon Hewitt, the author of the legislation that created LaSTEM, Louisiana's statewide STEM initiative remarked, "STEM is simply taking math and science skills and applying them to real-world situations. Learning Blade makes learning fun and opens the door to possible STEM careers. Being a STEM woman myself, I understand the value of students learning about STEM and computer science and am proud to support this initiative for Louisiana."

The University of Southern Mississippi, in collaboration with the MS Department of Education and with funding from Governor's Emergency Education Response (GEER) Fund program brought Learning Blade to Mississippi. Learning Blade will be available at no charge to all middle schools in the state and schools can fill out the form at www.LearningBlade.com/MS.

"We are excited to help support the Learning Blade resource for Mississippi, which will be a great tool to expose students earlier to what computer science and cyber security careers really are and help show them what path to take sooner," said Dr. Sarah Lee, Director of the School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering at USM.

Dr. Carey Wright, Superintendent of Education in Mississippi shared that "Learning Blade is a great addition to our initiatives to help improve student achievement in Mississippi, especially as they support core academics which helps increase proficiency. Students having a chance to see the relationship between these academics and careers will better prepare our future workforce."

The Learning Blade system includes an online platform for educating middle school students about a wide variety of STEM and computer science careers, while reviewing academic standards. Learning Blade leads students though human-centered missions, and includes over 400 interactive online lessons, teacher lesson plans, and printable at-home activities for 5th to 9th graders, where students learn how exciting STEM and Computer Science careers help solve these. The program also practices basic academic skills along the way. With the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Learning Blade has been shown to be especially useful for providing quality STEM engagement in both classroom and blended learning settings in states across the country.

To date, students have completed a remarkable over 5 million online lessons in the Learning Blade platform. The program has been deployed in more than 40 states, include existing statewide efforts in Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri and South Carolina. New efforts have been forged with Idaho, Mississippi and Louisiana for statewide implementation of Learning Blade beginning this school year.

Earlier in 2021, Learning Blade also released a Chromebook app, the Learning Blade Backpack, which helps bridge the digital divide by enabling students to access and complete Learning Blade's interactive lessons, even with limited or no internet access. This is a true game changer for both rural and urban students!

Many other states are considering this resource due to the unprecedented funding as a result of the pandemic through the various Federal Acts. "Learning Blade is a tool that can lower some of the barriers to entry for rural and underrepresented populations, making education technologies more accessible and inclusive for students who are interested in exploring STEM and CS careers and technologies," stated Zach Wamp, Board Chair and Former US Congressman.

About Learning Blade

Learning Blade, a product of Thinking Media, is a system of interactive online lessons, teacher lesson plans and printable at-home activities for 5th to 9th graders, where students learn about STEM and Computer Science careers while reviewing academics. Students can use over 400 online lessons in human-centered "Missions" or stories to explore these exciting careers aligned to all state standards.



Educators in the following states can easily request their free license by visiting the Learning Blade website: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Follow @LearningBlade on social media or email [email protected] for information.

Thinking Media is proud to have recently been named to Inc. 5000  as one of the top private growing companies in the US.

The Boeing Company

As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future and living the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity. Learn more at www.boeing.com .

About LaSTEM

Act 392 created the Louisiana Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Advisory Council and provide for its membership, powers, duties, and functions; to create and provide with respect to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Fund; to provide for a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics high school diploma endorsement; and to provide for related matters.

The University of Southern Mississippi- School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering

The School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering is committed to broadening participation in computing and developing the technical leaders of tomorrow. Offering multiple computing majors including computer science, computer engineering, and information technology, and bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs, the faculty work with undergraduate and graduate students to develop the next generation of innovative researchers, and many graduates are furthering their education at USM or other institutions across the country.

Media Contact

Sheila Boyington, 423-309-3667

[email protected]

SOURCE Thinking Media

Related Links

learningblade.com


BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report released today by 360PR+ finds brand leaders are feeling more focused than ever and, as a positive sign of things to come, planning to increase their marketing spend in 2022. There's broad consensus that the challenges of the last 18 months made marketing and communications leaders better at what they do. Three-quarters (76%) said the pandemic has helped them prioritize objectives, more than half (57%) said the experience has opened their eyes to new approaches, and four in 10 (42%) agree that they are more nimble today as a result.

The report sheds light on what's working in the new normal for marketing and communications leaders and what they're planning to do more of in the year ahead. Of note, it points to the rise of the CEO as brand storyteller. Nearly all marketing and communications leaders surveyed (95%) recognize the importance of their organization's top executive being an effective storyteller, with two-thirds (68%) planning to increase use of their most senior executives in brand communications in the coming year.

"We've witnessed this first-hand at 360, with the pandemic becoming a trigger-moment for thought-leadership and executives playing a more active, ongoing role in speaking for their brands and organizations, not just tied to expected financial events," commented 360's Mike Rush, Partner & EVP. "That helps elevate a brand message in the marketplace with customers and other stakeholders and can benefit company culture, too, as employees see their organization's executives as insightful and inspirational leaders in the larger landscape."

According to 360's research, marketers are more conscious of the role of company culture in brand-building today. Nine in 10 (91%) believe company culture plays a role in setting their brand apart. Related, marketing and comms leaders surveyed put purpose at the top of the list of things they'll look to focus more on in 2022, with 58% saying communicating brand purpose is a priority.

Additional Study Highlights

Brands are doing a better job of increasing their reach and relevance with diverse groups of consumers. Forty percent say they have partnered with diverse influencers and slightly more (42%) say they're focused on creating content that represents all audiences. Sixty-eight percent have used diverse media for brand outreach, including advertising (49%) and/or earned media/publicity with diverse media (37%).

Even with the promise of in-person returning, many brands are doubling-down on virtual experiences, with 44% planning to hold more virtual events in 2022.

Eighty-two percent say they expect their brands to take more stands on social issues moving forward, and 57% wish their organization was willing to take more risks.

The full, free report is available here.

Methodology

360PR+ partnered with ENGINE GROUP to survey 200 marketing and communications decision-makers, including CMOs, CCOs, Senior VPs of Marketing/Communications, VPs of Marketing/Communications, and Senior Directors/Directors of Marketing/Communications at companies with at least $50 million in annual revenue. The interviews were conducted June 23-July 9, 2021.

About 360PR+

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, 360PR+ is an award-winning leading independent agency recognized for its bold, headline-making, business-driving campaigns for some of the most trusted global brands and forward-thinking marketplace challengers. 360PR+ clients include ADT, America's Test Kitchen, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Hasbro, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Netflix, Nintendo of America, illy caffe, Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs, Drizly, Mass. Bay Brewing Co., Sagamore Spirit, The Rockport Company, Trek Bicycle, Vrbo and Wellness Natural Pet Food, among others. 360PR+ is a partner in PROI Worldwide, bringing clients expertise in 100+ cities globally. For more, visit www.360PR.plus.

SOURCE 360 Public Relations LLC

Related Links

www.360publicrelations.com


One of the enduring goals throughout the Muirfield Fund's history has been to improve investor outcomes by helping investors remain committed to their investment strategy throughout a full market cycle. "Throughout the history of the fund, we have successfully navigated through bull and bear markets, the tech bubble, the financial crisis, and most recently, the COVID-19 global pandemic. We are honored to have the opportunity to assist our clients in achieving their goals and look forward to working alongside our clients each and every day," says Bob Meeder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Meeder Investment Management.

Per the 10-year rankings as of August 31, 2021, the Muirfield Fund (Ticker: FLMIX) was ranked in the top 1 percent of open-ended mutual funds among the 128 strategies ranked in the Tactical Allocation category, according to Morningstar, Inc. With the recent anniversary celebration, Bob Meeder comments, "while focusing on performance is never a winning strategy, we believe the performance is a validation of our investment process and our commitment to continuous improvement." In Morningstar's Tactical Allocation category, the Muirfield Fund ranked in the 14th percentile for the 1-year, 13th percentile for the 5-year, and top 1 percentile for the 10-year out of 255, 226, and 128 strategies, respectively.

Learn more about this important Fund milestone on the Meeder Muirfield Fund's 33rd Anniversary landing page (meederinvestment.com/MuirfieldFund33rdAnniversary).

The Meeder Muirfield fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation using a Defensive Equity Strategy that can shift between 0-100% equity, fixed income or cash depending on its quantitative assessment of the risk-reward relationship of the stock market. Within the equity portion of the Defensive Equity Strategy, the fund may invest in various market capitalizations and industries, as well as international equities.

To learn more about Meeder Investment Management, the Muirfield Fund and its Defensive Equity Strategy, please call (614) 760-2100 or email [email protected]. Learn more at MeederInvestment.com.

About Meeder Investment Management

Meeder Investment Management is dedicated to helping financial advisors and their clients reach their goals. Using a model-driven, multi-discipline/multi-factor approach to investing, the objective is to improve outcomes for investors with varying goals.

Years of navigating various market cycles have influenced Meeder's holistic approach to managing money. Meeder's investment philosophy encourages a multidimensional view, as the firm believes there are multiple forces that influence the market, and many ways to achieve investment objectives. This wide view of the markets, and Meeder's quantitative process, allows the firm to customize solutions and services for a variety of clients.

Meeder offers a full spectrum of mutual funds, including asset allocation, global/international, equity, and fixed income funds. Asset allocation portfolios are constructed using proprietary mutual funds and combine Equity, Defensive Equity and Fixed Income strategies, which are designed to complement one another to achieve client objectives.

Meeder Investment Management has been helping clients successfully reach their financial goals since the firm's inception in 1974. Located in Dublin, Ohio, Meeder has over 100 professionals dedicated to serving the financial needs of individuals, corporations, and government entities, with over $25 billion in assets under management, advisement, and administration. Meeder Investment Management operates as the parent entity to affiliated registered investment advisers Meeder Asset Management, Inc., Meeder Advisory Services, Inc., and Meeder Public Funds, Inc. Meeder Funds are distributed by Meeder Distribution Services, Inc., a broker-dealer affiliate of Meeder Investment Management. Meeder Asset Management, Inc., serves as the investment adviser to Meeder Funds and affiliated entity Mutual Fund Services Company serve as the administrator, accountant, and transfer agent for the Meeder Funds.

Important Disclosures

Rankings data represents past performance, which does not guarantee future results. Investors are advised to consider carefully the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the funds. Contact us at the address below to request a free copy of the prospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and not intended as investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

Morningstar Peer Group Percentile Ranking displays the Fund's actual rank within its Morningstar Category based on average annual total return and the number of funds in that category. The returns assume reinvestment of dividends and do not reflect any applicable sales charge. Morningstar Peer Group Percentile Rankings are the Fund's total return rank relative to all funds in the same Morningstar category, where 1 is the highest percentile and 100 is the lowest percentile. Funds with the same performance figure are assigned the same absolute rank.

The inception date for the Institutional Class is 10/31/16. The inception date for the Retail Class is 8/10/ 88. For periods prior to inception of the Institutional Class, returns utilized to rank performance reflect an estimate based on performance of the fund's oldest Retail Class, adjusted for fees.

2021 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Morningstar information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

Meeder Funds are distributed by Meeder Distribution Services, Inc., Member FINRA. An affiliated registered investment adviser, Meeder Asset Management, Inc. serves as the investment adviser to the Meeder Funds and is paid a fee for its services

0174-MAM-09/08/2021-13406

 2021 Meeder Investment Management, Inc.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Meeder Investment Management

Leah Curtis, CMO

(614) 760-2100

[email protected]

SOURCE Meeder Investment Management

Related Links

https://www.meederinvestment.com


LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- School is back in session, but COVID-19 is still a very real threat. myLAB Box, the nation's first at-home testing-to-treatment service, offers COVID-19 and flu testing solutions to help ease the minds of high school and college students who are starting the new school year. Grades often weigh heavily on the minds of young adults but their health should not. myLAB Box's at-home tests are available to anyone 14 years of age and older.



COVID-19 and Flu Testing



"myLAB Box was the first company in the nation to offer a COVID + Flu combination test," said Lora Ivanova, myLAB Box's CEO and co-founder.



In 2021, returning to school amidst reports of rising cases can be daunting for students. Fortunately, as a trusted company that offers home testing-to-treatment options, myLAB Box offers a variety of COVID-19 and Flu testing solutions. For COVID-19, myLAB Box offers an FDA-authorized non-invasive shallow nasal swab test. It can detect an infection in as little as 48 hours.



Says Ivanova: "These tests can help concerned students learn whether their recent symptoms are a sudden cold or are actually COVID-19. When it comes to your health, knowledge is power. We want students armed with all the information they need before heading back to class. With on-demand wellness testing, that power is available with just a few clicks."



Test with Confidence



These tests take five minutes to complete and are shipped in discreet packaging. They can be taken at any time and in any place  even a dorm room.



All myLAB Box tests include free shipping and telemedicine consultations. Consumers who receive a kit from their preferred physician can enjoy seamless support by automatically sharing results with their providers.



To take control of your health before heading back to school, visit mylabbox.com.



About myLAB Box

Founded in 2013, myLAB Box pioneered the first nationwide at-home testing-to-treatment platform for infectious diseases and the longest-running service of its kind. The company's at-home health tests are designed by top US medical experts and are validated by fully specialized CLIA-certified lab affiliates with extensive experience in testing for infectious diseases. From affordable screening to complimentary physician consultations for positives, every aspect of the myLAB Box service is designed to be safe, effective and efficient. Today, the company offers over 50 at-home tests including COVID, sexual health, fertility, nutrition, allergies, hormone health, diabetes, toxicology, STDs and more. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California and women-owned. For more information, visit: http://www.mylabbox.com.



Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12886052



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE myLAB Box

Related Links

http://www.mylabbox.com


BEACHWOOD, Ohio, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroWave Systems Inc. is pleased to announce the FDA clearance of its NeuroSENSE NS-901 Monitor  a new generation brain function monitor for assessing the adequacy of anesthesia and sedation in clinical settings. NeuroSENSE aids clinicians in monitoring the state of the brain in anesthetized patients (18 years of age and older). The system acquires bilateral EEG signals and calculates bilateral WAV CNS indices, one for each brain hemisphere. The WAV CNS (Wavelet Anesthetic Value for Central Nervous System) is a proprietary processed EEG parameter that quantifies the hypnotic effect of anesthetics on the brain. Powered by wavelet-based leading-edge signal processing technologies tailored to EEG signals, NeuroSENSE provides immediate and delay-free tracking of changes in patient state. The monitor also provides a high-resolution bilateral density spectral array and bilateral suppression ratios.

NeuroSENSE NS-901 Brain Function Monitor

NeuroSENSE is a unique bilateral brain function monitor for anesthesia specialists that simultaneously provides independent indices of anesthetic effect for each side of the brain. This offers greater insight into the brain of anesthetized or sedated patients and assists clinicians in detecting brain function asymmetry (due to, for example, unilateral pathology) and in making optimal decisions for safer and improved patient care.

"Our NeuroSENSE monitors have successfully been used in Europe over the last decade. We are particularly proud and excited for the opportunity to bring this technology to the domestic US market and to continue leveraging its advances for our closed-loop total intravenous anesthesia system," commented Ms. Tatjana Zikov, the President of NeuroWave Systems Inc. She added: "This next generation brain function monitor offers unique features to this space such as an instant response, individual anesthetic depth index for each brain side, linear response to increasingly deep anesthesia, and superior discrimination between consciousness and unconsciousness."

Dr. Stephane Bibian, NeuroWave's Vice President, Engineering and Clinical Research, further commented: "We are deeply committed to innovation in anesthesia care, and this FDA clearance is a cornerstone towards our overarching goal of automating anesthesia drug delivery. I would like to thank the University of British Columbia (UBC) for helping develop and validate the NeuroSENSE technology. We eagerly continue the development of our closed-loop anesthesia system integrating NeuroSENSE and UBC's clinically validated control algorithms and are grateful for the continued support from the U.S. Department of Defense[1] and National Institutes of Health[2]. Our current focus is the development and regulatory clearance of a 2channel infusion pump system under the administration by the Naval Medical Research Center's (NMRC) Naval Advanced Medical Development (NAMD)[3]. Our vision is to vertically integrate all these technologies into a pioneering anesthesia product."

"We are thrilled our team has achieved such an important milestone and I would like to thank each one of our employees for all their hard work and commitment. We expect that the unique performance features brought by NeuroSENSE will have significant positive impact on the brain function monitoring space. We look forward to partnering with hospitals and distributors to expand the use of our novel technology," concluded Mr. Robert N. Schmidt, NeuroWave's Chairman.

For more information, visit www.NeuroWaveSystems.com.

Contact:

Dr. Brian Kolkowski, VP of Business Development, NeuroWave Systems Inc., 216-649-0376, or [email protected].

[1] NeuroSENSE clinical validation study was funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command under Contract no. W81XWH-06-C-0016, and the analysis of data acquired in this study was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract no. N00014-14-C-0324. Closed-loop anesthesia research mentioned in this press release was supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command under Contract No. W81XWH-11-C-0078. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this press release are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Navy or Department of Defense position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation.

[2] Closed-loop anesthesia research mentioned in this press release when relating to pediatrics is supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R43GM112358. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

[3] The 2-channel infusion pump mentioned in this press release is supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command under Contract No. W81XWH20C0115. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this press release are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation.

SOURCE NeuroWave Systems Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Nevada Lithium Resources Inc. (the "Company") announces that it has now received final approval from the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") and the Company's common shares will commence trading on the CSE on September 29, 2021 under the symbol "NVLH".

"We are very pleased to announce Nevada Lithium Resources entrance onto the Canadian Exchange", said CEO, Stephen Rentschler. "We are extremely optimistic about the lithium industry and the role that the Bonnie Claire Project can play in its future."

For further information concerning the Company and its business, please see the long form prospectus dated September 14, 2021 (the "Prospectus") supporting its application for listing on the CSE. A copy of the Prospectus was filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

In connection with the CSE listing, the Company also announces that 3,900,000 incentive stock options were granted to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company in accordance with the Company's stock option plan (the Option Plan"). The options vest immediately, have an exercise price of $0.20 per share and are exercisable for a period of five years unless terminated pursuant to the terms of the Option Plan. The options and any shares issued upon exercise thereof will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of grant. In addition, the Company has awarded 190,000 restricted stock units to an executive officer of the Company pursuant to the terms of the Company's restricted share unit plan.

About Nevada Lithium Resources Inc.

Nevada Lithium Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company in the business of acquiring, exploring, evaluating, and developing natural resource properties. The company has acquired, or has under option to acquire, a 50 percent interest in the Bonnie Claire Project located in the Sarcobatus Flat, Nye County, Nevada. The Bonnie Claire Project is prospective for sediment-hosted lithium and lithium brines.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD of DIRECTORS

Nevada Lithium Resources Inc.

"Kelvin Lee"

Kelvin Lee,

CFO and Director

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). The use of any of the word "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon.. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

SOURCE Nevada Lithium Resources Inc
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Freenome, a privately-held biotech company, presented new research today at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer. The data demonstrated the potential of extending Freenome's multiomics approach into other cancers, such as pancreatic cancer, with biomarkers already embedded in the existing platform.

Freenome's platform uses a routine blood test to detect cancer.

"An accurate blood-based test like this could be a powerful tool for early diagnosis and treatment, impacting so many patients," said Randall Brand, M.D., professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-author of the study. "We are hoping to further validate the findings through additional studies, which are already underway."

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, with an overall five-year survival rate of 11%. If detected at an early stage, the five-year survival rate increases to 42%.[1] The only FDA-authorized test for pancreatic cancer is the carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), which is only cleared for monitoring response to therapy.

This retrospective study of 75 participants evaluated whether Freenome's multiomics approach of combining methylation and CA19-9 signals together (as a subset of existing analytes in the platform) detected pancreatic cancer in stages II, III and IV with higher sensitivity than either alone.

Across all stages studied, Freenome's approach achieved a sensitivity of 93% at a nominal specificity of 96%. At an identical specificity, the sensitivity of methylation or CA19-9 alone was 74% and 87%, respectively. In stages II, III and IV, the multiomics approach achieved a sensitivity of 82%, 89%, and 100%, respectively.

This new study demonstrates that Freenome's platform can be used to detect pancreatic cancer in addition to colorectal cancer (CRC). Last year, Freenome presented data showing a sensitivity of 94% at a specificity of 94% for early-stage (I/II) CRC using their multiomics platform.[2] Freenome's CRC test is currently undergoing analytical and clinical validation.

"We're demonstrating success in detecting CRC and advanced adenomas in blood. We're now expanding our platform to detect additional cancers," said Mike Nolan, chief executive officer, Freenome. "Our goal is to transform the way cancer of all types is managed by enabling early detection, and this data on pancreatic cancer is an important step in that direction."

About Freenome

Freenome is a biotechnology company with the most comprehensive multiomics platform for early cancer detection using a routine blood draw. The company combines its deep expertise in molecular biology with advanced computational biology and machine learning to detect disease-associated patterns among billions of circulating cell-free biomarkers. Freenome is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

[1] National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) July 9, 2021.

[2]Girish Putcha, Tzu-Yu Liu, Eric Ariazi, Marvin Bertin, Adam Drake, Michael Dzamba, Greg Hogan, Steven Kothen-Hill, Jeffrey Liao, Kang Li, Shivani Mahajan, Krishnan K. Palaniappan, Poonam Sansanwal, John St. John, Peter Ulz, Nathan Wan, Hayley Warsinske, David Weinberg, Rui Yang and C. Jimmy Lin. Blood-Based Detection of Early-Stage Colorectal Cancer Using Multiomics and Machine Learning. Poster presented at: American Society of Clinical Oncology, Gastroenterology Symposium; January 2020.

SOURCE Freenome Holdings, Inc.
BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Perfect Day , the animal-free dairy leader and consumer biotechnology company, has partnered with Villa Dolce to introduce more sustainable gelato and bakery items to the food service industry, including seven gelato flavors and four Ready to Bake Desserts that incorporate Perfect Day's innovative animal-free dairy protein.

Villa Dolce is the company's first entrance into food service with new applications of its animal-free whey protein. With less fat and lower air content, gelato relies on milk proteins for its dense texture and rich flavor, and Perfect Day delivers an animal-free option which lives up to Villa Dolce's standards. The same is true of its bakery items, a new category for Perfect Day, in which its protein allows for ready-to-bake dessert mixes that don't require the addition of any animal products, like milk or eggs. This gives Villa Dolce's food service partners a fully shelf-stable mix which bakes into animal-free, delicious desserts.

As the #1 premium gelato brand in food service, Villa Dolce is well-positioned to introduce Perfect Day to the $969.4 billion US food service industry and the nearly 25 million consumers it serves every year. With Perfect Day, gelato favorites like Villa Dolce don't need to sacrifice taste and texture to deliver animal-free products that are more sustainable and lactose free.

The new gelato flavors using Perfect Day ingredients include: Sea Salt Vanilla & Honeycomb, Caramel Cold Brew, Chocolate all'Arancia, Strawberry After Dark, Burnt Caramel Praline, Pistachio Latte, and Tahitian Vanilla Bean; and the ready to bake desserts include: Cookie Dough, Pistachio Cake, Southern Brown Butter Cake, and Lava Cake.

The new products will be available through DOT foods, North America's largest food industry redistributor, which has stocked the seven-flavor collection of Villa Dolce x Perfect Day gelato and four Ready to Bake Desserts, offering it to over 2,000 distributor customers nationwide. Villa Dolce services many of the country's top restaurants, casinos, hotels, and universities. Students at Arizona State University and UCLA, vacationers at Ocean Properties in Florida and New England, Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, and more will soon be enjoying Villa Dolce products made with Perfect Day protein.

"We're thrilled to be able to offer our food service partners an option that can meet their need for sustainable, animal-free products, without compromising the taste and texture we are known for. We've been looking for a solution that lives up the Villa Dolce name, and we've found it through Perfect Day," said Villa Dolce's CEO Monte Marcaccini of the launch.

Ravi Jhala, Perfect Day's Global Head of Commercial, said, "We're thrilled to partner with Villa Dolce to create kinder, greener gelato and bakery products. With Villa Dolce's broad reach to customers across the country, and their premium products, this collaboration is ideal for our first foray into the food service space."

The partnership with Villa Dolce to produce new Gelato and Bakery items is the latest in a series of Perfect Day product collaborations. The brand continues to innovate across the dairy space to create a kinder, greener tomorrow by developing animal-free foods that people love today.

About Perfect Day

Founded in 2014 by bioengineers Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi, Perfect Day is on a mission to create a kinder, greener tomorrow through the thoughtful use of biology. Leveraging expertise across biological engineering, food innovation, and consumer products, Perfect Day is helping companies big and small develop, scale, and commercialize next-generation products that satisfy consumers' demands and champion a path toward a sustainable future.

The company's flagship product, the world's first precision fermentation protein, debuted in 2020. Instead of relying on cows, Perfect Day utilizes microflora to create proprietary animal-free protein. Perfect Day's protein can be used across a range of products to deliver the same taste and texture without compromise. An ISO compliant, third-party reviewed life cycle assessment (LCA) found that Perfect Day's whey protein reduces blue water consumption by up to 99%, greenhouse gas emissions by up to 97%, and non-renewable energy use by up to 60%, compared to conventional production methods. To learn more, visit perfectdayfoods.com or follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About Villa Dolce

Villa Dolce is the premier producer of artisanal gelato and sorbetto in the US and supplies many food service channels across the country. They are proud to be an Italian family-owned company and have received numerous trade awards, most recently being honored as one of the nation's fastest-growing private companies on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list and one of the "Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America" by Entrepreneur magazine in both 2018 and 2019.

SOURCE Perfect Day

Related Links

http://perfectdayfoods.com


CUMBERLAND, Md., Sept. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Perineologic, a subsidiary of Corbin Clinical Resources, Inc., today announced the appointment of Evan Brasington as chief commercial officer. In this role, Mr. Brasington will be a member of the executive leadership team and will lead the company's commercial strategy including operations, marketing, sales and distribution of the PrecisionPoint Transperineal Access System, the only FDA cleared, CE marked, Class ll medical device for performing freehand transperineal prostate cancer biopsies.

"We are very pleased to welcome Evan to the Perineologic team. He brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in the medical device sector, including planning and execution of global marketing and sales strategies to grow marketplace adoption of new technological solutions," said Matthew J. Allaway, M.D., president and founder of Perineologic. "Our company is dedicated to bringing patients a better, safer and more precise option for prostate biopsy, and Evan's deep knowledge of the urology market will be invaluable in expanding adoption of the PrecisionPoint system in the years ahead."

Before joining Perineologic, Mr. Brasington was with Boston Scientific Corporation from 1997-2021 where he held senior level positions in sales, marketing and international market development, most recently serving as division vice president, global market development, acquired technologies, urology and pelvic health. During his time at Boston Scientific, he guided product commercialization strategies at all phases of growth from pre-commercial through launch. He also managed the successful adoption of new technologies acquired by Boston Scientific through the acquisitions of American Medical Systems' (AMS) urology portfolio, NxThera, and Augmenix, Inc. Under his leadership the division consistently achieved topline and bottom-line double-digit growth. Earlier in his career, Mr. Brasington held progressive senior sales management positions at Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, Inc. He received his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has held board positions with The American Heart Association and Celsion Corporation. He received the distinguished World Congress of Endourology Industry Award in 2012 and holds a U.S. Patent (7655021) for a urological medical device.

"I believe very strongly in the work that Dr. Allaway and his team are doing and that Perineologic is well positioned to shift the way clinicians perform prostate cancer biopsies with the innovative and proven-effective PrecisionPoint technology. We have the potential to transform prostate biopsy with an approach that is shown to result in better cancer detection and reduced infection rates," said Mr. Brasington. "I am incredibly excited to join this talented team at a pivotal time for the company and look forward to helping accelerate adoption of this disruptive technology that can make a meaningful difference in patients' lives."

About Perineologic

Perineologic, a subsidiary of Corbin Clinical Resources, Inc., is a private, self-funded innovative medical device company focused on developing and delivering technology to improve the safety, precision, and efficiency of healthcare options primarily in the field of urology. The company is initially focused on pioneering a new and disruptive approach to cancer detection. Its first product, the PrecisionPoint Transperineal Access System for prostate cancer biopsy, received U.S. FDA clearance in 2016 and is available in 13 other countries. For more information, visit https://perineologic.com/.

Media Contact

Jenna Urban

Berry & Company Public Relations

212-253-8881

[email protected]

SOURCE Perineologic

Related Links

https://perineologic.com/


CLIFTON, N.J., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Efforts to clean-up and restore the New Street Reservoir following flooding from Hurricane Ida reached a significant point late last week. Water in the 52-million-gallon reservoir has been brought back to the high-quality water standards that existed prior to the hurricane.

Reaching this milestone allowed Passaic Valley Water Commission (PVWC) to shift its focus to restoring the distribution system. This step involves flushing out 550 miles of water mains and over 4,000 hydrants. The flushing effort, which began on Saturday, will run 24-hours a day, 7-days a week until it is complete.

PVWC estimates the flushing phase of the clean-up could take another 7 to 10 days to complete. After that, extensive testing will ensure the water is clean and meets all quality standards. Once the water quality is confirmed, the Boil Water Advisory can be lifted and water use can return to normal.

Knowing this has been a challenging situation, PVWC wishes to thank its customers for their understanding and their patience. PVWC remains committed to providing clean, high-quality drinking water for its more than 800,000 customers in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties.

For more information, customers may visit www.PVWC.com for additional information and to sign-up for emergency notifications via voice, text and/or email.

Media Contact

Lendel Jones

JGSC Group

Passaic Valley Water Commission

609-332-4821

[email protected]

SOURCE Passaic Valley Water Commission

Related Links

www.pvwc.com


ROSSLYN, Va., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Rosslyn BID announced the expansion of O2: Outdoor Office in Gateway Park, providing an innovative solution to meet the future of work. Following the successful launch of O2 in September 2020, and subsequent reopening in Spring 2021, the current expansion plans are focused on more permanently meeting the evolving needs of workers in Rosslyn and beyond.

Remote work has been an overwhelming success for both employees and employers; however, the office is here to stay even though its role is evolving. According to PwC's 2021 U.S. Remote Work Survey , over half of employees (55%) would prefer to be remote at least three days a week post-pandemic. Businesses and communities everywhere are trying to figure out how to optimize the hybrid workplace while balancing employee wellness and productivity. Rosslyn's O2 2.0 is the new hybrid workplace solution now available to fill that gap.

"The initial launch of O2 was focused on helping people get out of their homes in the middle of the pandemic and to offer an extension of the office environment and collaboration people were missing. But as the nature of work continues to evolve, leaders and employees alike are struggling to find balance", said Mary-Claire Burick, President of the Rosslyn BID. "This expanded O2 was designed to provide a critical link between holistic wellness and productivity to better meet the future of work."

A key goal in this expansion is to incorporate year-round amenities into the park to make it more comfortable and conducive for individuals to use the park as a fresh-air workplace whenever the park is open, regardless of when O2 is staffed by the BID.

During this Fall pop-up of O2, a Rosslyn Ambassador will be onsite to oversee safety, sanitation, and to provide additional amenities of those present during business hours. Additionally, during operating hours, WednesdayFriday the week of October 11th, and TuesdayThursday for the weeks following from 10am4pm, anyone using the space will be able to check out portable chargers, blankets, and more, free of charge. Upon request from businesses in the area, The Rosslyn BID can also set up specified meeting areas, supply tools and equipment, and cater to the unique needs of any team.

O2 2.0 represents The Rosslyn BID's commitment to stewarding the wellbeing of the Rosslyn community and a recognition of the benefits of outdoor public spaces. In fact, O2 is just the beginning. The organization is looking to expand amenities in a variety of public outdoor spaces, starting with bringing Wi-Fi to Rosslyn's Central Place Plaza and Dark Star Park.

"Since its launch, O2 has been a valuable part of my ability to find balance in the work week. Being able to work outside with access to everything I need in a clean, innovative environment made a huge difference to my productivity over the last year," said O2 super user Sara C. "Hybrid work in my office will be ongoing, so I absolutely plan to continue using O2 and encouraging my friends and colleagues to do the same."

To kick off the O2 evolution, The Rosslyn BID is hosting a variety of events and activations throughout the month of October. A few of the events include:

Regular happy hours | October 14 , 15 & 28, 4-7 p.m.

, 15 & 28, An outdoor bodyweight HIIT class with Gold's Gym | October 15 , 12-12:30 p.m.

, Yoga classes with Mindful Modern Living | October 13 , 12-12:40 p.m. (afternoon stretch); October 19 , 5-6 p.m. (Yoga after Work); October 26 , 5-6 p.m. (Yoga Flow)

, (afternoon stretch); , (Yoga after Work); , (Yoga Flow) Special giveaways from Compass Coffee, South Block & Snarfies pet treats | Stay tuned for details!

In the last year, The Rosslyn BID's O2 received the prestigious Downtown Achievement Award by the International Downtown Association (IDA). Many other BIDs and associations have since launched initiatives that follow O2 as an example, both nationally and abroad (including Downtown DC, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada).

For more information about Rosslyn BID's planned activations for O2 this year, subscribe to the BID's weekly e-newsletter and please visit: www.rosslynva.org/o2.

About the Rosslyn BID:

The Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID) is a designated 17-block mixed-use, urban center in the heart of Rosslyn, Virginia. Through a public/private partnership with Arlington County, the Rosslyn BID provides services for our 25,000 employees, 15,000 residents, and 1.2 million visitors a year to enhance, grow, and connect the neighborhood.

SOURCE Rosslyn BID
ATLIT, Israel, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Salt of The Earth, Ltd., has teamed up with Tel Hai College Institute, Upper Galilee (Israel), to bring innovation to the table. This partnership focuses on salt- and sodium-reduction innovation and connects the academy and its students to the food industry.

Salt of The Earth Team Up with Tel Hai College Institute to create food innovation center

The academic initiative was devised by Dr. Ofir Benjamin, PhD, lecturer and researcher at Tel Hai College, supported by Roee Weiser, VP Business Development of Sugat- Salt of The Earth. 2 out of 15 groups were selected to participate in this program and work with Salt of the Earth . The 2 groups were instructed to create innovative products with a focus on sodium-reduction and flavor-enhancement. The students were guided by Rakefet Rosenblatt, R&D Technologist and Application Manager for Salt of The Earth.

"We are excited to collaborate with the Salt of The Earth team," says Benjamin. "One of the goals of the collaboration is to establish a dialogue between academia and the food industry."

"This collaboration is a great opportunity for us to engage with students who have the desire and creativity to come up with great ideas," notes Weiser. "The goal is to accelerate product innovation and highlight new challenges in producing better-for-you foods."

Rakefet, who holds a BA in Food Science from Tel Hai, adds, "This journey with the students is very special for me; we presented our company, product line, and marketing and technological capabilities to stimulate the students and connect them with what the industry is really about. The students pitched their ideas for products they wanted to develop with the ingredients presented, and a suitable product was chosen by us and the academic lecturers."

Seaweed Salt project

The goal of the first group's project was to design a salt that is enhanced with seaweed to enrich the total mineral content. The main challenge was to neutralize the strong iodine flavor in seaweed and minimize the impact on color. The students developed salt with two different species of seaweed that underwent a process of oil treatment and ethanol extraction. The new seaweed salt demonstrates the students' capabilities to develop innovative concepts that answer food trends and consumer needs.

Chickpea chips project

The goal of the second group's project was to develop a savory vegan snack based on chickpeas. The main challenge was to attain a crunchy texture while meeting typical flavor expectations in the snack and eliminating any off flavors from the chickpeas.

The students came up with a great chip made from chickpea flour and other starches. Mediterranean Umami Bold , the clean-label, plant-based solution for flavor enhancement and sodium reduction, was incorporated into the application to reduce the salt and enhance the desired salty flavor. The project was so successful the group won a bronze medal at the Tel Hai College conference competition.

"One of biggest challenges was developing a product that was not only edible and functional, but met sensory and technical goals set in the specifications set at the beginning of the project," notes Benjamin.

Tel Hai College is part of the new foodTech ecosystem in the Galilee. However, the partnership between Tel Hai College and Salt of The Earth extends beyond student projects. "We're connecting with Tel Hai in multiple ways, such as testing our ingredients at their analytical lab," explains Rosenblatt.

The food laboratory's infrastructure provides advanced services to the industry and will grow significantly with the expected establishment of an international food institute created in collaboration with the MIGAL Research Institute.

About Salt of the Earth, Ltd.:

With innovation and quality as its driving principles, Salt of the Earth has been producing sustainable sea-salt solutions for the global food industry since 1922. Salt of the Earth's customers spans more than 20 countries on 5 continents. The company controls and tracks sustainable salt resources and works to promote balanced salt consumption through innovative sodium reduction solutions.

Salt of the Earth's flagship product, Mediterranean Umami Bold, is a clean-label, plant-based solution for flavor enhancement and sodium reduction . It can lower-sodium up to 45% in a variety of products.

Salt of the Earth was acquired in 2019 by Fortissimo Capital Fund, and later that year the group purchased Sugat Industries Ltd., Israel's leading brand for non-perishable food, including sugar, rice, and legumes from the British conglomerate ED&F MAN. In mid-2021, the group purchased the retail business of Shemen Industries, Ltd., a leading edible oils and olive oil brand.

Company contact: Press Contact: Salt of the Earth NutriPR Ms. Tali Feingold Business Unit Director Ms. Liat Simha Tel: 972-4-954-9555 Tel: +972-9-9742893 E-mail: [email protected] www.saltoftheearthltd.com E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @LiatSimha www.nutripr.com

SOURCE Salt of the Earth, Ltd.
NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SCADAfence, the global technology leader in cybersecurity for Operational Technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) environments, announced today that it has been awarded the "Global Entrepreneurial Company of the Year" by research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan . SCADAfence was acknowledged for its game-changing OT security platform, customercentric approach, and strong overall performance in the critical national infrastructure cybersecurity industry.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that demonstrates excellence in devising a strong growth strategy and robustly implementing it. The recipient must show strength in product and technology innovation, leadership in customer value, as well as speed in responding to market needs.

In a report accompanying the award, Frost & Sullivan highlights the role of SCADAfence's OT security platform as it offers unparalleled endpoint detection, inventory management, threat detection, vulnerability management, and compliance governance solutions for OT and IoT environments. Additionally, according to the advanced eight key criteria set by Frost & Sullivan, SCADAfence's revolutionary and comprehensive OT and IoT cybersecurity solutions continue to demonstrate industry excellence.

According to the Frost & Sullivan report, SCADAfence brings innovation and bestinclass solutions to the critical national infrastructure industry through its unique, comprehensive, and brandagnostic OT and IoT cybersecurity platforms.

"Equipped with advanced analytics, AI, and ML capabilities, the SCADAfence Platform and SCADAfence IoT Security solutions continuously monitor a client's environment to detect unauthorized or abnormal device and network activities or misconfigurations," said Tara Semon, Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Research Team Leader. "The solutions provide security operators with complete network visibility and realtime risk alerts, enabling them to remediate vulnerabilities quickly and efficiently before security events escalate."

SCADAfence currently protects some of the largest industrial facilities in the world. Notable customers include the largest manufacturing plant in Europe , a Fortune 100 oil and gas enterprise in the United States, multiple power plants , water and wastewater facilities , and the largest building management systems (BMS) operator in Japan .

"We are thrilled to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan for this outstanding award and humbled by the industry validation of our vision, market momentum and customer-centric approach," said Elad Ben-Meir, CEO of SCADAfence. "We believe this recognition from Frost & Sullivan further validates our commitment to investing in, innovating, and improving the industrial cybersecurity industry."

Further validating this industry recognition, SCADAfence has experienced another year of phenomenal success in 2021 and is planning to continue expanding its sales and development teams to support the high demand for its OT and IoT security platforms and Governance Portal as well as its expanding product offering.

The Frost & Sullivan report can be downloaded here .

About SCADAfence

SCADAfence is the global technology leader in OT & IoT cybersecurity. SCADAfence offers a full suite of industrial cybersecurity products that provides full coverage of large-scale networks, offering best-in-class network monitoring, asset discovery, governance, remote access, and IoT device security. A Gartner "Cool Vendor" in 2020, SCADAfence delivers proactive security and visibility to some of the world's most complex OT networks, including the largest manufacturing facility in Europe. SCADAfence enables organizations in critical infrastructure, manufacturing, and building management industries to operate securely, reliably, and efficiently. To learn more, visit our website , blog , and follow us on LinkedIn .

Contact:

Zev Brodsky

[email protected]

SOURCE SCADAfence
New funding will further international expansion as company eyes new partnerships and acquisitions

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Semios, a leading precision-farming platform and one of the world's largest independent agtech solutions providers, today announced it has raised $100 million in funding led by Morningside Group , a Boston-based private equity and venture capital firm committed to investing in socially responsible businesses. This funding will enable the agtech provider to accelerate its R&D and deployment of solutions to help growers worldwide reduce chemical inputs, better manage water, organize farming data and improve crop outcomes.

"Semios is on a mission to simplify the grower's experience, leveraging big data analytics and machine learning to help them mitigate crop risk so they can focus on growing more food, more sustainably," said Dr. Michael Gilbert, CEO of Semios. "We have seen first hand the challenges our customers are facing in the field  from severe drought and devastating fires, to frost, reduced profitability and an increasing regulatory burden. But, in the face of these challenges, farmers are adapting to meet the nutritional needs of our growing population with new technologies. Our recent acquisitions are aimed at bringing the tools farmers need to manage their crops under one roof. This latest round of funding will help us continue to support the agricultural industry as it faces some of its toughest challenges yet."

To-date, Semios has raised over $225 million in external capital. Last year, Semios announced $100 million in funding , also led by Morningside Group, that bolstered the company's balance sheet for the acquisitions of Altrac , Centricity and Agworld in 2021. The integration of third-party agricultural solutions into its crop management platform is helping growers get the most accurate view of their crop's development as it happens, all in one place, leading to improved decision making and ultimately better crop outcomes amidst a more volatile climate and challenging growing conditions.

"Morningside invests in companies committed to tackling pressing global challenges head on," said Mick Sawka, Investment Manager at Morningside Group. "The ability to not only maintain but also enhance the sustainability of our food systems amid the complex dynamics of a changing climate is one of the world's most pressing needs of our time. Semios is a leader in helping farmers respond to this challenge and we're proud to stand beside them."

With more than 120 million acres of row and permanent crops under management today, Semios serves growers, agronomists and ag retailers across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South Africa with solutions as diverse as farm management planning, logistics and execution, record keeping, agronomy and automation.

UBS Investment Bank acted as the exclusive placement agent for Semios.

About Semios

Founded in 2010, Vancouver-based Semios offers Precision Agriculture as a Service that started with real-time crop data and pest management tools for growers of tree fruit, nuts and other permanent crops. Leveraging a network of sensors that provide more than 500M data points measuring climate, soil moisture, insect and disease activity daily, we apply big data analytics and machine learning to reduce and mitigate crop risks for growers. Semios has been named to the Global Cleantech 100, an annual list of the 100 most innovative cleantech companies globally, and the Thrive Top 50, list of the 50 leading global AgTech companies. In 2021, Semios acquired Altrac, Centricity and Agworld to form one of the world's largest independent AgTech solutions providers.

Learn more about Semios at www.semios.com.

About Morningside Venture Investments:

Morningside is a diversified investment group founded in 1986 and engaged in private equity and venture capital investments. Morningside is an active investor in early-stage life science companies formed around new technologies that represent a high degree of novelty over existing technologies.

More information is available at www.morningside.com.

SOURCE Semios
LIANYUNGANG, China, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 18 September 2021, SHOW JIANGSU Media Tour was held in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. Jiangsu Suyun Medical Materials Co.,Ltd is a medical material supplier that produces blood-infusion sets, tubes, catheter and other medical equipment, according to the Information Office of Lianyungang Municipal People's Government.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=402500

Caption: A woman works in a Suyun factory for medical supplies.
LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hon. Mark Brantley, St Kitts and Nevis' Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation, has engaged in several high-level diplomatic meetings against the backdrop of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), currently underway in New York, United States. Minister Brantley led the delegation on behalf of St Kitts and Nevis and tweeted that he was "honoured" to represent his nation, followed by the hashtag "Diplomacy Matters."

The UNGA is the organisation's primary policy-making organ. It remains the one place on Earth where all the world's nations can gather together, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This year's session is based on "Building resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations."

"This year's General Assembly is critical for the world, but specifically for our region as we battle with COVID-19 and the ongoing threat and, of course existential threats to our survival, such as climate change," he said. "As part of what I'm doing here, I have a number of bilateral engagements, engaging with Egypt, Azerbaijan, entering into various arrangements. We have had an engagement with the United States through Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Ruth Sherman, with all of CARICOM, and we will continue to engage."

As a result of these diplomatic engagements, Minister Brantley established formal diplomatic relations between the Federation and the Arab Republic of Egypt. Similarly, during a meeting with his counterpart from Azerbaijan, Minister Brantley also spoke about deepening the relationship between the two countries.

Over the last five years, the island nation has formalised diplomatic relations with 41 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. This means that all St Kitts and Nevis citizens, including those who earned their citizenship through the country's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, can enjoy traveling and doing business abroad in places where "St Kitts and Nevis is known, is well-respected, and continues to be a responsible member of the international community," said Minister Brantley.

St Kitts and Nevis has the world's first and longest-standing CBI programme that enables extensively vetted foreign investors and their families second citizenship in exchange for an investment in the country's economy. The programme has been ranked the best in the world by the annual CBI Index, which has commended the nation for its quick application process of three months or less, strict due diligence and most importantly, its growing global mobility offering.

Contact: [email protected], www.csglobalpartners.com

SOURCE CS Global Partners

Related Links

http://www.csglobalpartners.com


Known for a strategic approach to expansion, the Milwaukee addition is a bold, calculated acquisition that is informed by the same measured decision-making that has become a hallmark of the StorageMart brand since its inception more than two decades ago.

"Whether it's a one-property deal or a multi-property acquisition, StorageMart is looking for the same base characteristics: Well-maintained properties at locations that are conducive to business with the right blend of market demand, zoning regulations, and competitor positioning." Cris Burnam, CEO, StorageMart.

The new stores push StorageMart over the 250+ locations milestone and are located throughout the greater metro area, including Milwaukee, Cudahy, Franklin, New Berlin, Caledonia, Waukesha, and Muskego. All the recently acquired properties have been evaluated and will be upgraded with enhancements consistent with the StorageMart promise  easy, clean storage solutions and friendly customer service.

About StorageMart: Dedicated to providing clean, well-lit storage units and friendly customer service, StorageMart is the largest family operated self storage company in the world, and is led by the Burnam family, which has been in the storage industry for four generations. Through the "Store it Forward'' charitable giving program, StorageMart gives back to the many communities it calls home. In recent years, the company donated more than half a million dollars to charities, in addition to donating storage space to charitable organizations throughout the US, UK, and Canada. Find out more at https://www.storage-mart.com.

Contact: Sarah Little

573.449.0091

[email protected]

SOURCE StorageMart

Related Links

http://www.storage-mart.com


JERSEY CITY, N.J., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Supply Chain Analytics Market" By Deployment Model (On-premise and Cloud-based), By Service (Support and Maintenance Services and Professional Services), By Vertical (Healthcare and life sciences, Manufacturing, Automotive), By Component (Sales & Operation Planning, Manufacturing Analytics), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Supply Chain Analytics Market size was valued at USD 5.06 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 13.68 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 13.22 % from 2021 to 2028.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=3027

Browse in-depth TOC on "Supply Chain Analytics Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Supply Chain Analytics Market Overview

Analytics is the ability to make data-driven decisions based on a summary of relevant often using visualization in the form of graphs, charts, trusted data and other mean. Supply chain generate huge amount of data and supply chain analytics helps to make sense of all the available data by covering patterns and generating insights.

Supply chain analytics offers advantages such as accurate forecast, risk management, planning and scheduling, order optimization, inventory management, and real-time supply chain execution in end-use industries. Rising consumer and government preferences for artificial intelligence boosting the demand for supply chain analytics in the market.

Rising government initiatives in the supply chain management to recover the global economy from the covid-19 pandemic driving the growth of the supply chain analytics market across the globe. For instance, in April 2021, Japan, India, and Australia have launched a supply chain resilience initiative in the Indo-pacific region. This initiative aims to support the utilization of digital technology, attract FDI, and reduce dependency on China to have sustainable, balanced growth in the region.

Furthermore, the international labor organization (ILO) provides guidelines to governments, private enterprises in the framework of focusing on foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade through the global supply chain to make economic stability across the globe.

Key Developments in Supply Chain Analytics Market

Key players are adopting new growth strategies such as new technology development, product innovation, mergers, and acquisitions to gain market share, and business expansion in the global supply chain analytics market.

In April 2020 , Capgemini SA ( France ) acquired WhiteSky Labs ( Australia ) information technology and Services Company to focuses on expanding its business in the Asia Pacific region for digital transformation. With this acquisition Capgemini SA enabling their customers to unlock their data across cloud apps and devices to make smarter and faster decisions to save time and cost.

The major players in the market are Birst Inc., Capgemini, Genpact, IBM Corporation, Kinaxis Inc., MicroStrategy, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, SAS Institute Inc., and Tableau Software.

Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Supply Chain Analytics Market On the basis of Deployment Model, Service, Vertical, Component, and Geography.

Supply Chain Analytics Market, By Deployment Model

On-premise



Cloud-based

Supply Chain Analytics Market, By Service

Support and maintenance services



Professional services

Supply Chain Analytics Market, By Vertical

Healthcare and life sciences



Manufacturing



Automotive



Retail and consumer packaged goods



High technology products



Aerospace and Defense



Others

Supply Chain Analytics Market, By Component

Sales & Operation Planning



Manufacturing Analytics



Transportation & Logistics Analytics

Supply Chain Analytics Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japa





Indi





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

Browse Related Reports:

Spend Analytics Market By Analytics Type (Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive), By Business Function (Information Technology, Finance, Procurement), By Organization Size (Large Enterprises and Small and Medium Organizations), By Component (Software and Services), By Deployment Mode (Cloud-based and On-premises), By Application (Financial Management, Demand and Supply Forecasting), By Vertical (Healthcare, Government and Defense, IT and Telecom), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Supply Chain Big Data Analytics Market By Solution Outlook (Logistics Analytics, Manufacturing Analytics, Planning and Procurement), By Service Outlook (Professional & Support and Maintenance), By End User (Retail, Transportation and Logistics, Manufacturing), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Shared Services Market By Number (One, Two, Three), By Application (Finance & Accounting (F&A), Human Resource (HR), Supply Chain Management (SCM)), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Supply Chain Blockchain For Automotive Market By Product (Hardware Devices, Solution, Software), By End User (Blockchain Specialists, Software Developers, IT Companies, Automotive Retailers), By Geography, Forecast, 2021-2028

Top 7 supply chain AI companies: Harbinger of just-in-time framework

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DUBAI, U.A.E, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the latest study published by FMI, the global supply chain management market is expected to reach US$ 62.6 Bn by the end of 2031. Surging demand for supply chain management (SCM) solutions across small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises is favoring the market growth. On account of this, the market is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 11.4% CAGR over the forecast period between 2021 and 2031.

Request a report sample to gain comprehensive insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-13958

Shift in consumer preference in favor of online shopping, especially during COVID-19 times, has substantially bolstered the e-commerce industry. SCM solutions assist in the management of potential e-commerce challenges such as inventory and labor shortages, demand spike, and transportation disruptions, along with efficiently mitigating supply chain disturbances. Thus, rapidly expanding e-commerce industry is expected to provide immense sales opportunities to the market players.

Increasing need for effective demand management solutions among enterprises and the rising adoption of SCM software across healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are boosting the market. With the integration of big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management (LSCM), the demand for SCM is anticipated to increase by year-on-year (YoY) growth of 8.7% in 2021

Among the various industries, the retail & consumer goods sector is anticipated to emerge as the leading end user, accounting for 26.1% of the total sales in the market in 2021. Increasing demand for SCM solutions to counter the complexities of retail supply chain networks, owing to the presence of large number of products, channels, and value-added offerings, are spurring the sales across the segment.

"Growing adoption of cloud-based supply chain management solutions and increasing efforts to integrate advance technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and internet of things (IoT) to provide real-time supply chain visibility will accelerate the market growth in the coming year," says the FMI analyst.

More Details Full Reports Preview Analysis: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/supply-chain-management-market

Key Takeaways from Supply Chain Management Market Analysis

The U.S. is anticipated to account for the highest share in the North America market, accounting for more than 79% of the sales in the region through 2031.

market, accounting for more than 79% of the sales in the region through 2031. Favored by the increasing spending on logistics & transportation, Germany is expected to account for 22.2% of the revenue share in the Europe market.

is expected to account for 22.2% of the revenue share in the market. India is forecast to register fastest growth in the Asia Pacific market, expanding at a CAGR of 20% between 2021 and 2031.

is forecast to register fastest growth in the market, expanding at a CAGR of 20% between 2021 and 2031. Japan is projected to emerge as a highly lucrative market for supply chain management, accounting for a total sale of nearly US$ 1.28 billion by the end of 2021.

is projected to emerge as a highly lucrative market for supply chain management, accounting for a total sale of nearly by the end of 2021. In terms of software, integrated supply chain management platform/suite is estimated to lead the segment, accounting for nearly 54.1% of the global sales in 2021.

Key Drivers

Integration of blockchain technology with supply chain management systems to reduce errors and delays, faster identification of errors, minimized transportation cost, and increasing focus on sustainability is driving the growth of the market.

Increasing number of small and medium enterprises and large enterprises across developing economies such as India , China , Japan , South Korea , and others is expected to facilitate the market expansion in Asia Pacific .

Key Restraints

Rising cases of data breaches and theft affecting enterprises adopting cloud-based supply chain management solutions is hampering the growth in the cloud-based deployment segment of the market.

High cost of supply chain management is hindering the sales of these solutions across small size enterprises due to their cost-sensitive constraints.

Let us know about your challenges and our trusted advisors will connect with you: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-13958

Competitive Landscape

Some of the key companies in the market are IBM Corporation, Oracle, SAP SE, Manhattan Associates, and E2open LLC among others. As per FMI, top 15 players are estimated to account for over 60% of the revenue share in the global market.

Leading players are emphasizing on adopting strategies such as product innovations and technological advancements to improve their product portfolio. Some of the other companies are engaging into strategic collaboration, agreement, and partnerships to strengthen their market shares and enhance their profitability. For instance,

In June 2021 , SAP, a German multinational software corporation, announced creating the world's largest business network at its global SAPPHIRE NOW conference. The company also announced launching new innovations, designed to assist the companies to digitalize and modernize their business processes.

, SAP, a German multinational software corporation, announced creating the world's largest business network at its global SAPPHIRE NOW conference. The company also announced launching new innovations, designed to assist the companies to digitalize and modernize their business processes. In December 2020 , Infor, a multi-national enterprise software company, announced partnering with a Healthcare technology company, MphRx and developed a global solution to assist healthcare organizations manage their COVID-19 vaccine inoculation with the real-world clinical data.

Some of the leading players in the market profiled by FMI are:

IBM Corporation

Oracle Corporation

SAP SE

Manhattan Associates

Descartes Systems Group Inc.

Kinaxis

E2open, LLC

Basware Corporation

WiseTech Global

Infor

Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (JDA Software)

Epicor Software Corporation

Logility, Inc.

Jaggaer

Ivalua Inc.

More Valuable Insights on Supply Chain Management Market

Fact.MR, in its new report, offers an unbiased analysis of the global supply chain management market, analyzing forecast statistics through 2021 and beyond. The survey reveals growth projections on in supply chain management market with detailed segmentation:

By Solution:

Software

Integrated SCM Platform/Suite



Standalone Solutions



Supply Chain Planning





Warehouse Management Software





Transportation Management Software





Sourcing & Procurement





Order Management





Others

Services

Outsource Supply Chain Management Services



Professional Services



Integration & Implementation





Support & Maintenance





Consulting Services

By Deployment:

Cloud-Based

On-Premises

By Enterprise Size:

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Large Enterprises

By Industry's:

Retail & Consumer Goods

Manufacturing

Automotive

Healthcare & Pharma

Food & Beverages

Transportation & Logistics

Others

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia & Pacific

& Pacific Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Purchase a copy of complete Research Report at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/13958

Key Questions Covered in the Supply Chain Management Market Report

The market survey also highlights projected sales growth of the supply chain management market between 2021 and 2031

The report offers insight into supply chain management demand outlook for 2021-2031

Supply chain management market share analysis of the key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, collaborations or partnerships, and others

Supply chain management market analysis identifies key growth drivers, restraints, and other forces impacting prevailing trends and evaluation of current market size and forecast and technological advancements within the industry

Browse Extensive Coverage of our Ongoing Reports:

Commodity Supply Chain Management Solution Market : Supply chain is a vital part of business enterprises of any product be it tangible or intangible products. Manufacturing of products becomes complex if the manufacturers do not have appropriate supply chain management system for their product distribution.

Supply Chain Analytics Market : Supply chain optimization remains a top priority for organizations trying to cut operational cost, sustain business growth and increase customer satisfaction. Major factors such as low supply chain visibility, shortening product life cycles, high warehousing costs, inefficient supplier networks, ineffective forecasts, and changing customer demands are making supply chain optimization a challenging task for enterprises.

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, and has delivery centers in the UK, U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.

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SOURCE Future Market Insights
CLEVELAND, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- US demand for motor vehicle biofuels is forecast to increase 3.4% yearly in volume terms through 2025, according to Motor Vehicle Biofuels: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Gains will reflect recovery from a 2020 base depressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For comparison, demand is expected to see annual gains of less than 1.0% between 2019 and 2025. Apart from recovering from the pandemic, advances will stem from growth in the biodiesel and other biofuels segments, spurred by tax credits and government-mandated blend levels for advanced fuels in the US fuel supply. Nonetheless, increases will be limited by some of the segments reaching the 'blendwall', a percentage of biofuels inside fuel that cannot be exceeded due to motor vehicle specifications and refiner/blender unwillingness to mix proportions of biofuels above the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate into their fuel supplies. In 2021, demand for motor vehicle biofuels is expected to rise 7.9% above 2020 levels. As vehicle miles traveled and freight volumes recover from 2020 lows, more fuel will be consumed. Faster gains will be curtailed by increasing penetration of alternative fuel vehicles.

US production of motor vehicle biofuels in volume terms is forecast to see annual increases of 3.5% through 2025. This trend will reflect moderate growth in domestic demand for biofuel, largely in response to government mandates for higher biofuel volumes and a strengthening export market. While the US will remain a leading supplier of biofuel to the world market  supported by well-developed production capacity and abundant, inexpensive feedstock  faster production gains will be restrained by moderated growth in demand.

These and other key insights are featured in Motor Vehicle Biofuels: United States. This report forecasts to 2021 and 2025 US motor vehicle biofuels demand and production in gallons. Total demand and production are segmented by product in terms of:

fuel ethanol

biodiesel

other biofuels, such as renewable diesel

To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total production, and the various segments are provided in annual series from 2010 to 2020.

This report focuses on biofuels used in the motor vehicle market. With the exception of renewable jet fuel  a small amount of which is included in the Other Biofuels aggregate  biofuels for other markets, such as heating, are excluded. Biogas  a methane-rich fuel derived from the breakdown of organic matter  is also excluded. Figures exclude the fossil fuel portion of blended fuels.

In this report, the term "fuel ethanol" denotes ethanol produced from biological raw materials (i.e., biomass). Synthetic ethanol, such as that derived from the direct hydration of ethane, is excluded from the scope of this report. Other common fuels and chemicals bear the "bio-" prefix when derived from biomass and used either directly or as components of motor vehicle fuel.

More information about the report is available at:

https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Motor-Vehicle-Biofuels-United-States-FF45035/?progid=91541

About Freedonia Focus Reports

Each month, The Freedonia Group  a division of MarketResearch.com  publishes over 20 new or updated Freedonia Focus Reports, providing fresh, unbiased analysis on a wide variety of markets and industries. Published in 20-30 pages, Focus Report coverage ranges from raw materials to finished manufactured goods and related services such as freight and construction. Additional Energy & Resources reports can be purchased at Freedonia Focus Reports or MarketResearch.com.

Analysis is intended to guide the busy reader through pertinent topics in rapid succession, including:

total historical market size and industry output

segmentation by products and markets

identification of market drivers, constraints, and key indicators

segment-by-segment outlook in five-year forecasts

a survey of the supply base

suggested resources for further study

Press Contact:

Corinne Gangloff

+1 440.842.2400

[email protected]

SOURCE The Freedonia Group
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) today launched the new Culinary Arts & Food Operations online diploma program, offering aspiring culinary professionals the opportunity to access comprehensive training from their own kitchens. The 16-month program is currently available to California residents and is on track to soon become accessible in eight additional states with more to follow.

Derived from ICE's award-winning, on-campus program and developed by the chefs and educators from its New York City and Los Angeles locations, the online curriculum provides professional training in the foundational principles of culinary arts. Students will explore the theory, science and techniques that form the basis of major cuisines. In addition, students will study the fundamentals of pastry and baking and restaurant management.

Each week students will cook a variety of dishes and cuisines during culinary labs, attend interactive lectures and discussions, work on projects, watch videos, read texts, explore techniques and hone skills that are the foundation of fine cooking. ICE has partnered with meez, the all-in-one recipe tool for professional chefs, to give students access to digital, interactive recipes with photos and videos embedded and built-in yields and conversions for scaling and costing.

To facilitate continuous learning, ICE students will be assessed through multiple weekly touchpoints with their chef-instructors, receiving regular personalized feedback throughout the course. After completing the curriculum, students will be matched with a restaurant or food-related business, with help from ICE's career services team, where they will apply the principles and techniques they studied to a hands-on externship to gain experience in the field.

"While we believe the best culinary education is achieved in person, we are confident our online program is the best alternative for aspiring culinary professionals who are unable to attend classes on campus," said ICE CEO Rick Smilow. "There's no need to put your culinary ambitions on hold, this program provides specialized foundational knowledge, skills and essential training that can be accessed from the comfort and convenience of your own home."

As the only culinary institute located in two of America's major culinary capitals, NYC and LA, ICE has a vast and growing professional network that all students can take advantage of. The career services team has connected thousands of graduates with jobs throughout the industry, and now they will be available to offer continued assistance to ICE's online diploma graduates as well. More than 15,000 students have graduated from ICE, and alumni have gone on to become award-winning chefs, successful culinary entrepreneurs, esteemed food writers and talented pastry experts.

"As a student of ICE, you're not just gaining access to a professional and comprehensive education, students can tap into the extensive network of ICE alumni, career services and extracurricular activities for enriched learning and career advancement," said Lachlan Sands, President of the Los Angeles Campus. "Experts from all over the world come to ICE to teach, lecture and cook for students providing exclusive learning opportunities with successful chefs and culinary entrepreneurs."

Students of the Culinary Arts & Food Operations online diploma program can take part in events and continuing education opportunities at the NYC and LA campuses, including graduation, professional development classes, demonstrations, lectures and additional career programs.

About the Institute of Culinary Education

The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) is one of the largest and most diverse culinary schools in the world with campuses in New York and Los Angeles. Established in 1975, ICE offers award-winning six to 14-month career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Health-Supportive Culinary Arts, Restaurant & Culinary Management, and Hospitality & Hotel Management, in addition to professional development in Artisan Bread Baking, The Art of Cake Decorating and Intensive Sommelier Training  with more than 15,000 alumni, including many who have gone on to become leaders in the industry. ICE also offers continuing education for culinary professionals, hosts over 400 special events each year and is home to one of the world's largest recreational cooking, baking and beverage programs with 26,000 students annually. ICE's 74,000-square-foot, cutting-edge campus in New York City and its 38,000-square-foot Los Angeles campus were designed for inspiration, creativity and community. ICE continues to grow and evolve with the launch of its LA campus in 2018, the addition of the Health Supportive Culinary Arts program in 2019, an agreement with the International Culinary Center in 2020 and the introduction of sommelier training and associate degrees in 2021. Visit us at ice.edu or join us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube at @iceculinary to find your culinary voice.

CONTACT:

Cory Sale

Public Relations Manager

Institute of Culinary Education

(212) 847-0742

[email protected]

SOURCE The Institute of Culinary Education

Related Links

http://www.ice.edu


6:00 PM: Red Carpet Walk with directors Roshan Sethi, Naman Gupta and filmmakers

6:30 PM: Film Screening of Coming Out with the Help of a Time Machine (Tasveer Film Fund 2020 winner) and post-film Q&A with Janki Parekh, cast and crew

7:30 PM: Film Screening of 7 Days, starring Karan Soni of Deadpool and Ghostbusters



FULL PRESS KIT AVAILABLE HERE



For the first time, three beloved festivals have joined forces for one incredible event. Tasveer Festival highlights three themes "Watch | Read | Talk" that combines the 16th Tasveer South Asian Film Festival (TSAFF), 3rd Tasveer South Asian LitFest (TSAL), and a brand new and exciting platform that includes comedy workshops and South Asian pride narratives through the Desi Girl Comedy Project. 7 Days director Roshan Sethi and Coming Out director Naman Gupta will attend for a live Q&A on opening night!



OPENING NIGHT FILMS

Coming Out with the Help of a Time Machine  Science Fiction/Comedy by Naman Gupta, United States, 30 min.



When Sid is finally able to tell his parents that he loves a HE, not a she, their angry reaction forces him to press reset on his time machine again and again. What follows is a deep and emotional dialogue that brings the family closer together. Friday, October 1, 2021, 6:30 PM, Broadway Performance Hall. In-person Q&A moderated by festival director Rita Meher.



7 Days - Romantic Comedy by Roshan Sethi, United States, 86 min.



Produced by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass, the film picks up during a pre-arranged date by old-fashioned Indian parents, Ravi (Karan Soni) and Rita (Geraldine Viswanathan) seemingly have nothing in common, making for an afternoon that couldn't be more awkward. As the COVID outbreak intensifies, the shelter-in-place mandate is issued, forcing Ravi and Rita to spend a week together. In the face of a heartbreaking turn of events, their bond grows into something stronger.. Friday, October 1, 2021, 7:30 PM, Broadway Performance Hall. Director Roshan Sethi and filmmakers will be in attendance for the Q&A.



Tasveer Festival would like to thank its supporters: WA State Department of Health, Group Health Foundation, Netflix, and Amazon. Desi Girls Comedy Project is funded in part by a Neighborhood Matching Fund award from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

SOURCE Tasveer

Related Links

https://tasveer.org


RAIPUR, India, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Type 1 Pressure Vessels Market by Application Type (Life Support {Fire Fighting and Medical Applications}, Transportation, Recreational {SCUBA, Paintball, and Others}, Industrial {Oxygen, Nitrogen, CO2, Helium, Argon, Acetylene, and Others}, Gas Carrier & Storage, and Others) and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Size, Share, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2021-2026.

This strategic assessment report, from Stratview Research, provides a comprehensive analysis that reflects today's type-I pressure vessels market realities and future market possibilities for the forecast period of 2021 to 2026. The report segments and analyzes the market in the most detailed manner to provide a panoramic view of the market. The vital data/information provided in the report can play a crucial role for the market participants as well as investors in the identification of low-hanging fruits available in the market as well as formulate growth strategies.

Type 1 Pressure Vessels Market: Highlights from the Report

Pressure vessels are enclosed containers used to hold fluids, fumes, and gases at a pressure significantly higher or lower than the ambient pressure. They are widely used in various industries, such as transportation, petrochemical, oil & gas, chemical, and food processing. The first descent of the modern pressure vessel was designed in the 1800s, after which a lot of evolution took place and various codes, and standards were implemented to make the vessels safer for users and make them the best fit for various applications.

Type-I pressure vessels accounts for the largest share of the overall pressure vessels market. It is a well-established and mature market and is slowly losing market traction in the developing markets of pressure vessels due to the advent of other lightweight and advantageous type-II, III, and IV pressure vessels. The outbreak of the pandemic further dented the demand for the type-I pressure vessels market, especially in 2020, in the wake of the enormous decline in industrial and automotive production across regions.

Based on primary interview results coupled with the analysis of the leading companies' revenues, it is estimated that the type-I pressure vessels market nose-dived at a double-digit rate of -10.4% in 2020. It is also estimated that the market may need a greater time than that of previous downturns to reach back its pre-pandemic levels. An expected recovery in the automotive and industrial production coupled with a paradigm shift from gasoline and diesel to alternative fuels such as LPG, CNG; will surely help the industry stakeholders including type-I pressure vessel manufacturers to log a quick recovery from the pandemic. Overall, the type-I pressure vessels market is likely to rebound at a promising CAGR of 5.3% in the near term to reach US$ 4.5 billion in 2026.

Click Here and Run Through the TOC of the Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/toc/1975/type-I-pressure-vessels-market.html

Based on the application type, the type-I pressure vessels market is segmented as life support, transportation, recreational, industrial, gas carrier & storage, and others. Transportation is expected to maintain its unassailable lead in application type classification of the market during the forecast period, owing to the changing preference of customers for gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles to alternative-fueled vehicles due to the higher price of gasoline and diesel coupled with growing concerns regarding CO2 and NOx emissions. All the leading players of type-I pressure vessels are serving the transportation segment.

In terms of regions, Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the largest as well as the fastest-growing market for type-I pressure vessels during the forecast period, driven by the presence of large number of industry stakeholders, making the region a growth engine of the transportation industry and industrial applications. China, Japan, and India are likely to be the key countries/markets for the region. Beijing Tianhai Industry and Everest Kanto Cylinder are the major companies manufacturing type-I pressure vessels in the region.

Register Here for a Free Sample of the Detailed Report: https://www.stratviewresearch.com/Request-Sample/1975/type-I-pressure-vessels-market.html#form

Key players in the market are performing acquisitions either to expand their product portfolio or widen their geographical reach. Most of the major players are providing different types of pressure vessels apart from type-I pressure vessels. Following are the key players in the type-I pressure vessels market:

Beijing Tianhai Industry Co., Ltd.

Cylinders Holding a.s.

Worthington Industries, Inc.

Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd.

Norris Cylinder (A TriMas Company)

Faber Industrie SPA

Catalina Cylinders

Luxfer Holdings PLC

FIBA Technologies, Inc.

Grupo Mat

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis.

Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis.

Market trend and forecast analysis.

Market segment trend and forecast.

Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.

Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities.

Emerging trends.

Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players.

Key success factors.

This report studies the type 1 pressure vessels market and has segmented the market in two ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the two ways in which the market is segmented:

Type-I Pressure Vessels Market, by Application Type

Life Support

(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)



(Application Type Analysis: Fire Fighting and Medical Application)

Transportation (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Recreational

(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)



(Application Type Analysis: SCUBA, Paintball, and Others)

Industrial

(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)



(Gas Type Analysis: Oxygen, Nitrogen, CO 2 , Helium, Argon, Acetylene, and Others)

Gas Carrier & Storage (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Type-I Pressure Vessels Market, by Region

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , The UK, Italy , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , India , and Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World (Country Analysis: The UAE, Saudi Arabia , Brazil , and Others)

About Stratview Research

Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.

We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.

Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.

Stratview Research has launched 'Composights', an online portal which offers free thought leadership reports, whitepapers, market report synopsis and much more for Composites and allied industries, worth US$ 20,000 every year.

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For enquiries, please contact:

Stratview Research

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SOURCE Stratview Research
"We're constantly exploring new and different ways to elevate our presence and enhance experiences for our age 21+ nicotine consumers," said Leila Medeiros, Senior Vice President of Next Generation Products for Reynolds. "This partnership is a natural fit for VELO. The World Series of Poker is the game's most anticipated event. It provides the perfect backdrop for VELO to give a hand to the fans and players enjoying the tournament experience while interacting responsibly with age 21+ nicotine consumers."

VELO will kick-off its sponsorship with first-time $50,000 total in cash prizes for the Player of The Year and No Limit Leaderboard winners. The brand will be featured in all Poker Central content, including on the main stage and in television coverage. Branded signage, banners, and advertisement placements will also be featured at McCarran International Airport to reach adult travelers coming in for the WSOP tournament as well.

"The World Series of Poker is the ultimate expression of pushing your limits to achieve your goals," said WSOP Executive Director, Ty Stewart. "With VELO as a primary partner of this year's tournament, we're able to further elevate the experience for our participants and bring new life to this classic event as we return to an in-person format."

The world-famous tournament series experienced record participation in 2019 and adjusted to a hybrid format to accommodate 2020. The dynamic calendar of events begins Thursday, September 30, with all play concluding on Tuesday, November 23.

About VELO/Modoral Brands Inc.

VELO is the industry-leading global modern oral nicotine brand. VELO-branded products in the United States are designed to provide age 21+ nicotine consumers with innovative, enjoyable alternatives to traditional combustible and smokeless tobacco. VELO products are marketed in the United States by Modoral Brands Inc. (Modoral), an operating company of Reynolds American Inc., a member of the British American Tobacco Group. Modoral remains committed to responsibly marketing VELO products. To learn more about Modoral, visit ModoralBrands.com. To learn more about VELO products, visit VELO.com.

About the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker is the largest, richest, and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $3.29 billion in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport's top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker's longest-running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970. In 2019, the event attracted 187,298 entrants from 118 different countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and awarded more than $293 million in prize money. In addition, the WSOP has formed groundbreaking alliances in broadcasting, digital media, and corporate sponsorships, while successfully expanding the brand internationally with the advent of WSOP Europe in 2007 and the WSOP Asia-Pacific in 2013 and the WSOP International Circuit Series in 2015. All WSOP events are subject to the then-current and applicable WSOP tournament rules. For more information, please visit www.wsop.com.

SOURCE Modoral Brands Inc.

Related Links

https://www.modoralbrands.com/


ZHUHAI, China, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 28 September, the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition or AirShow China officially opened in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province. This year, 700 companies from nearly 40 countries and regions participated in the exhibition, and a number of new products, technologies, services and achievements representing the world's advanced level will be exhibited for the first time in China and the world, according to Executive Committee of the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition.

The civil aviation industry, dual-use technology, aviation manufacturing facilities, MRO, unmanned systems, maritime defense and other theme exhibition areas will be on show, covering land, sea, air, space, and electricity sectors. The spectacular air shows and the dazzling array of advanced equipment demonstrate the confidence and openness of China's aerospace industry.

The event's increasing scale and international influence make Airshow China an important opportunity for enterprises to enter Asia-Pacific and the Chinese market. According to the organizer, the number of exhibitors and exhibition area this year have exceeded expectations. The number of pavilions has increased from 8 to 11, with all the world's famous enterprises in the industry participating. Boeing's exhibition area increased by 11% and Airbus's by 65% compared to last year.

Leading enterprises are the "weather vane" of market trends, and the established aviation enterprises choose to come to Zhuhai, where the air show is held, to develop their business, making the city a "new star" in the aerospace industry.

Since 2003, Germany's largest engine manufacturing giant MTU Aero Engines and China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd. have established a joint venture engine maintenance company in Zhuhai Free Trade Zone. Now, the company has completed the third phase of expansion and set up a branch plant in Jinwan District.

The decision to invest in a new plant stems from the company's confidence in the recovery and development of the Asian market and the growing demand for narrow-body engine services, according to Jaap Beijer, president and Chief Executive of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai Co. Ltd.

"We are happy that we have a lot of partners and customers on the airshow. It gives us a big chance to come together with a lot of people on the short time," he said.

Given the excellent market expectation and the city's foresight, various forms of the aviation industry, such as agricultural UAVs, aviation new materials, engine maintenance services, aviation training and research experience, are developing in well in Zhuhai. Data shows that in 2020, the aviation industry output value in the Jinwan district alone has increased by 58.6% and that the aviation industry in Zhuhai continues to grow.

Industrial growth reflects the skyrocketing level of urban openness. As one of the first four special economic zones in China, Zhuhai has been at the forefront of international exchanges and cooperation in its rapid development over the past 40 years. Airshow China's growing brand recognition has a close link to Zhuhai's open attitude.

Currently, the Chinese government is promoting the construction of the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, Zhuhai, aiming to explore new paths and new models for deepening reform and opening up for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even for China. It is foreseeable that Zhuhai will usher in a new round of opening opportunities, and this time it will not only attract the aerospace industry. A more open and efficient city, a high ground in line with international standards of global investment, is rising.

SOURCE Executive Committee of the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition
The NFT collection "Eternal Love" is the first of its kind in Asia that features a same-sex couple. Created in partnership with CAPSULE Taiwan, the collection features CACA&BELLA, a much-loved lesbian couple and YouTuber in Taiwan. It aims to celebrate the second anniversary of Taiwan's historic legalization of the same-sex marriage as well as the couple's YouTube channel reaching 300k subscribers, with all funds going to LGBT charity.

100 sets of the NFT collectables, alongside the physical copies, were released in the global debut, with each set containing nine CACA&BELLA studio photos. The NFT artworks depict the couple in white wedding dresses, embracing, kissing and walking in the wonderland of love under the eternal sun and moon floating in the purple clouds.

The CACA&BELLA collection

Issuers: CAPSULE Taiwan and Ace Exchange

NFT Title: "Eternal Love"

Issuer Number: The NFT collection is limited to 100 sets, with the physical copies of the nine photos included in the global debut.

NFT Market: https://opensea.io/accounts/CACAxBELLA

NFTs revolutionize the art industry

Powered by blockchain technology, NFTs are shaking up the art world and stirring up a revolution in art creation and collecting in the digital space. Whether it is a piece of digital art, a meme, a clip or even a tweet, NFT grants those digital assets a "digital certificate of authenticity" and allow them to be bought and sold without the concern about fraud and counterfeit.

NFTs experienced an explosive growth in 2021. According to Non-Fungible, the traction volume of NFTs in the first month of this year shot up to 200 million USD, in a striking contrast to 250 million USD recorded in the entire year of 2020.

CACA&BELLA strives to support LGBT families

CACA&BELLA whose real names are Caroline and Bella run a YouTube channel CACA&BELLA to document the journey of their relationship and daily lives. Their videos which are full of love, warmth and joy, have captured the hearts of fans from Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia as well as Europe and North America.

CACA&BELLA's aim is to call for wider support for LGBT families through empowerment and education. As such, all profits from the sales of CACA&BELLA NFT trading cards will be contributed to Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy, an organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBT families in Taiwan.

About ACE Exchange

Established in 2018 by David Pan, former COO of KPMG Innovation and Startups, ACE Exchange is one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms with best-in-class digital security measures in Taiwan. It currently ranks second in Taiwan in terms of trading volumes in Bitcoin, Ethereum and StableCoins. The brand is committed to building the most professional Fiat to Crypto exchange and providing a channel for all Taiwanese people to access cryptocurrencies easily.

SOURCE ACE Exchange
SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Home care, home health, and hospice now account for more than $458 billion in the US economy in 2021. Analysts expect the home care industry to continue to grow for two main reasons:

The number of Americans aged 65 and older has increased by 31.4% since 2000 and is expected to increase by 64.5% by 2040 (US Census Bureau, Urban Institute)

87% of Americans want to age in place with caregiver support (AARP)

This creates big opportunities for home care providers to expand their customer base, but also challenges. Finding quality employees to provide compassionate care has become increasingly difficult.

AidQuest: Attracting Higher Quality Home Care Leads and Job Seekers

AidQuest helps home care agencies overcome challenges by providing a fully-staffed Live Chat solution on client websites. By adding a snippet of code, home care agency websites will have skilled agents available 24/7 to hold discrete and private conversations with prospects.

AidQuest is the only human-powered live chat solution that is HIPAA-compliant and staffed with agents specifically trained to handle home care agency needs.

Providing Answers

By the time family members are searching online for home care, they've likely been thinking about it for months or years. When they visit a home care agency's website, they want answers. If a home care agency isn't able to provide the information they want, they move on to competitors. Using lead generation forms or chat bots doesn't cut it.

AidQuest's live chat let searchers talk to a real person about their concerns. Trained agents answer questions and guide them through the process. Conversations are captured and the home care agency is notified, providing higher-quality leads and guiding follow-ups.

AidQuest clients are seeing significant increases in high-quality leads and conversion rates of 50%.

Home Care Staffing

AidQuest live chat also connects job seekers with agents trained in recruiting.

More than 60% of job seekers abandon job applications before completing them  many times because they have questions. When home care agencies have live agents standing by to provide answers, they can significantly increase applicant pools.

Studies show that home care agencies have about eight seconds to capture someone's attention when they visit their website. Nearly 90% of visitors leave a site without taking any action. AidQuest's live chat service engages visitors, produces more leads, and attracts more job seekers.

About AidQuest

AidQuest is the only human powered live chat solution that is specifically designed for the home healthcare industry. With our HIPAA compliant platform we support Home Care, Home Health, and other senior care service providers. Our research has shown that with a highly professional and personalized live chat solution, agencies can significantly increase the number of customer leads and caregiver applicants from their own websites. For more information visit https://aidquest.com.

For more information contact

Kamran Nasser

Founder

[email protected]

650-477-8125

https://aidquest.com

SOURCE AidQuest

Related Links

https://aidquest.com


STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aircastle Limited ("Aircastle") announced today that it plans to release its second quarter financial results for the period ended August 31, 2021 on October 13, 2021.

In connection with the financial release, management will host a conference call on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 9:00 A.M. Eastern time. A copy of the press release and accompanying presentation will be posted to the Investor Relations section of the Aircastle Limited website provided below. All interested parties are welcome to participate on the live call. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (800) 437-2398 (from within the U.S. and Canada) or (786) 204-3966 (from outside of the U.S. and Canada) ten minutes prior to the selected start and referencing the passcode "2526167".

A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available on a listen only basis at http://www.aircastle.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download the necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast.

For those who are not available to listen to the live call, a replay will be available until 12:00 P.M. Eastern time on Friday, October 15, 2021 by dialing (888) 203-1112 (from within the U.S. and Canada) or (719) 457-0820 (from outside of the U.S. and Canada); please reference passcode "2526167".

About Aircastle Limited

Aircastle Limited acquires, leases, and sells commercial jet aircraft to airlines throughout the world. As of May 31, 2021, Aircastle owned and managed on behalf of its joint ventures 259 aircraft leased to 77 customers located in 43 countries.

Contact:

Aircastle Advisor LLC

Jim Connelly, SVP ESG & Corporate Communications

Tel: +1-203-504-1871

[email protected]

SOURCE Aircastle Limited

Related Links

http://www.aircastle.com


CHARLESTON, S.C., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcami, a leading United States-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced today an additional $31 million investment to expand its sterile development and manufacturing operation in Charleston, SC. The investment will add a second production line consisting of a vial washer and depyrogenation tunnel, with an isolator filling line containing two lyophilizers, substantially increasing fill-finish and lyophilization capacity. In addition to the new production line, investment has been made in enhanced semi-automated visual inspection equipment to support the additional manufacturing capacity. The new equipment will be qualified and ready for contract cGMP manufacturing in 2022.

Alcami's previously announced $17 million investment in Charleston, which is now completed, expands development and manufacturing capacity with a new 1,000L cGMP compounding suite.

Operating in South Carolina since 2001, Alcami offers individualized and integrated services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of all sizes. In addition to the new equipment and increased capacity, Alcami also opened a 12,000 square foot administration complex, and a 16,000 square foot warehouse will be commissioned in 2022 to support their continued growth.

"This expansion further reinforces our commitment to our parenteral manufacturing clients' current and future requirements. With the acquisition of TriPharm in 2020, Alcami will soon offer six sterile fill-finish manufacturing lines, supporting both vial and syringe filling capabilities from our Charleston, SC, and Research Triangle Park, NC facilities," commented Ken Domagalski, Chief Operating Officer.

About Alcami:

Alcami is a contract development and manufacturing organization headquartered in North Carolina with over 40 years of experience advancing products through every stage of the development lifecycle. Leveraging four US-based scientific campuses, Alcami serves biologics and pharmaceutical companies of all sizes providing customizable and innovative solutions for development, clinical to commercial sterile and oral solid manufacturing, packaging, and analytical services. Alcami's private equity owners include Madison Dearborn Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners. For more information, please visit alcaminow.com, mdcp.com, or ampersandcapital.com.

SOURCE Alcami Corporation

Related Links

http://www.alcaminow.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alice Aspen March is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Top Public Speaker for her decades of work in the television and broadcast industry.

As the host of the radio broadcast "The Attention Factor," Ms. March entertains listeners while helping her guests get "the attention they need." She inspires her readers and listeners to discover greater personal empowerment and find success in their lives.

Alice Aspen March

She is an Executive Director of a Los Angeles Non-Profit Organization, Focusing Awareness on Children & TV (FACT).

She has established herself as a forerunner in publicizing the need for adequate child care in the United States. In 1981, Ms. March created and co-produced the 1981 Emmy Award-nominated film "Latch-Key Kids." She successfully lobbied to keep the popular kids show "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" on Public Broadcasting and KCET. To display the impact of television on children, she commissioned a satirical play called "Boxed-In." The play was presented throughout the Los Angeles County School system, demonstrating the social, physical, and emotional role that television can play in a child's life.

Ms. March served on the Commission on Future Funding of Public Broadcasting in California. She served on the Board of Directors for KCET-28 Public Broadcasting in Southern California, the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, and the International Institute of Los Angeles.

She runs a blog, "Alice At Attention," highlighting clips from "The Attention Factor" and writing personal blog posts on various subjects. Ms. March is dedicated to sharing innovative content that has changed her life and the lives of countless readers and listeners. She teaches managers tools to improve employee morale, shows teachers how to reach challenging or at-risk students, and shows parents how to have empowering relationships with their children. There is room for improvement for every business, and Ms. March wants to highlight the power of positive thinking and taking steps to make everyone feel important. She believes that attention is a core need we all have. She has a loyal following of professionals from many industries that use Ms. March's techniques in their everyday life.

She was appointed twice by the California State Senate to State Commissions to advise on the future funding of PBS and the National Conference on the Family. She served as a programming consultant for PBS's KCET and KHJ networks. She enjoys making TV and radio appearances, providing interviews and presentations about her tips for empowerment.

She has written two books: "Attention: It's the Problem, it's the Solution" (1995) and "Attention: Secrets for Making it in College and Beyond" (2010). She wrote "The Attention Factor" workbook. She has written many articles for a variety of magazines and blogs like EZine Articles, American Chronicle, Personal Wealth Journal, and Grandparents.com. Ms. March has been awarded for her work, receiving an International Year of the Child Award, and was praised in the Congressional Record in Washington D.C.

Ms. March has lived in Michigan, California, New York, and Japan. Her work has taken her worldwide to deliver her message. She attended the University of Michigan, majoring in English. In her spare time, Ms. March enjoys weaving, painting, and exploring other art forms. She loves to spend time with her three sons, three grandchildren, and her great-grandchild.

For further information, please visit https://www.theattentionfactor.com/home.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]



SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


"This research exemplifies the impact that AU has on the world's most pressing problems," said President Sylvia M. Burwell. "Our expert scholars bring unique interdisciplinary approaches to critical challenges and create knowledge that translates into action. The NSF grant continues our leadership in sustainability and leads on the change we know can't wait."

Under the grant, researchers from American University and 13 other institutions have established the first national academic research network on wasted food. The network will deepen understanding of how the causes of wasted food are interconnected and how they intersect with other regional systems beyond food. Researchers will take a systems approach to improving data on wasted food, with the goal of designing and strengthening sustainable solutions to reducing food waste.

"To make sustainable, long-term decisions about local, regional and national food systems, we need better data," said Sauleh Siddiqui, associate professor of environmental science in AU's College of Arts and Sciences and principal investigator on the NSF grant. "Food encompasses health, culture, the environment, and the economy, and intersects with other systems, such as transportation, energy and water. We need to make connections between data from these different sources to improve our food systems and reduce wasted food."

Siddiqui will lead a team of co-principal investigators from across AU and with partners from Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, Ohio State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Additionally, researchers from Maryland Institute College of Art, World Wildlife Fund, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, University of Albany, Louisiana State University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, Duke University and University of California-Davis are taking part.

The project scope includes work in the following areas and will engage communities, frontline workers in food industries, and non-profit, government and private-sector stakeholders to create knowledge and drive solutions.

Smarter data and predictive modeling. In the pursuit of efficiency and sustainability, Siddiqui said, inequitable decisions can occur, such as diverting low-quality foods to low-income neighborhoods. New math models can integrate data and take multiple factors into account and show the way to food systems solutions that balance sustainability, resilience and equity outcomes. Food rescue, a policy action, will be evaluated for amount of food rescued, environmental quality, population health and equity outcomes. Environmental racism and equity when matching rescued food to communities will be explored.

In the pursuit of efficiency and sustainability, Siddiqui said, inequitable decisions can occur, such as diverting low-quality foods to low-income neighborhoods. New math models can integrate data and take multiple factors into account and show the way to food systems solutions that balance sustainability, resilience and equity outcomes. Food rescue, a policy action, will be evaluated for amount of food rescued, environmental quality, population health and equity outcomes. Environmental racism and equity when matching rescued food to communities will be explored. STEM K-12 and post-secondary education. A general education course and open educational resource, Wasted Food 101, and the first undergraduate student science journal on food systems will be created; there will be a curriculum for elementary school students; and partnerships with minority and disability serving institutions to engage Black, deaf, and hard of hearing students in research experiences.

A general education course and open educational resource, and the first undergraduate student science journal on food systems will be created; there will be a curriculum for elementary school students; and partnerships with minority and disability serving institutions to engage Black, deaf, and hard of hearing students in research experiences. Strategies to minimize household-level food waste. As consumer behavior plays a role in wasted food, research will be conducted on wasted food prevention campaigns in cities. Mapping trends and other digital tools will be used to assess wasted food and design educational and social marketing campaigns aimed at preventing waste and addressing the social determinants of health in communities.

As consumer behavior plays a role in wasted food, research will be conducted on wasted food prevention campaigns in cities. Mapping trends and other digital tools will be used to assess wasted food and design educational and social marketing campaigns aimed at preventing waste and addressing the social determinants of health in communities. Study new technologies on wasted food and their integration with regional infrastructure. Technologies like composting and anaerobic digestion are leading options for wasted food management, but their adoption is limited.

The project, Multiscale Resilient, Equitable and Circular Innovations with Partnership and Education Synergies for Sustainable Food Systems, or RECIPES, was awarded under NSF's Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks program. NSF research networks create knowledge and solutions that enhance sustainability, equity and resilience of regional systems in the United States. To learn more, visit wastedfood.american.edu and follow @WastedFoodNtwk

About American University

American University leverages the power and purpose of scholarship, learning, and community to impact our changing world. From sustainability to social justice to the sciences, AU's faculty, students, staff, and alumni are changemakers. Building on our 128-year history of education and research in the public interest, we say 'Challenge Accepted' to addressing the world's pressing issues. Our Change Can't Wait comprehensive campaign creates transformative educational opportunities, advances research with impact, and builds stronger communities.

SOURCE American University

Related Links

http://www.american.edu


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global aquaculture vaccines market size is expected to reach USD 605.4 million by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2021 to 2028. The advent of vaccines for fish has significantly reduced the dependency on antimicrobial agents. Vaccination programs help in protecting the animal health and livelihoods of those who work with livestock as well as aid in ensuring food security. The development of some aquaculture sectors, such as the salmon industry in Norway, wherein fish farmers in the country moved from using antibiotics to vaccines by 1994, demonstrates the potential of vaccines in reducing the dependence on veterinary medicines.

Key Insights & Findings:

Based on product, the inactivated vaccines segment held the largest share in 2020 owing to its high acceptance globally

By route of administration, the injected segment held the largest market share in 2020 owing to its easy availability

The bacterial application segment held the largest revenue share in 2020 owing to the high prevalence of bacterial diseases in aquatic species

In 2020, Europe held the largest revenue share owing to the increasing adoption of aquaculture vaccines, especially in countries such as Norway and the U.K.

North America held the second-largest revenue share in 2020. The key driver in this regional market is the presence of major market players, especially in the U.S.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness lucrative growth over the forecast period owing to the rise in aquaculture production and favorable government initiatives, especially in developing countries

Read 163 page market research report, "Aquaculture Vaccines Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Inactivated Vaccines, DNA Vaccines), By Route Of Administration (Injected, Oral), By Application (Bacterial, Viral), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028", by Grand View Research

Similar to other markets, the market for aquaculture vaccines has also been significantly affected. Some of the major impacts of COVID-19 on the market include supply chain disruptions, a decline in sales, low demand, growing awareness of animal to human disease transmission risks, and operational hurdles due to changing policies and restrictions.

The growing demand for aquatic animal-derived food products, such as oil, caviar, protein powders, and meat, is encouraging farmers to use vaccinations for aquaculture to gain higher profitability. Due to the rising urbanization, consumers are becoming more aware of the nutritious value of animal protein. The demand for healthy, sustainable, and high-quality meat products that have fewer or no drugs is also increasing rapidly. Thus, the need for healthy breeding of aquatic animals is increasing, which is expected to fuel the demand for aquaculture vaccines, thereby boosting the market growth.

The market for aquaculture vaccines is fairly competitive. The most notable participants in the market are Zoetis; Merck & Co., Inc.; and Elanco, along with other manufacturers of aquaculture vaccines. These players are involved in new product launches, acquisitions, and partnerships to gain a competitive edge over each other. For instance, in July 2020, Zoetis acquired Fish Vet Group from Benchmark Holdings, PLC. This added to the company's Pharmaq business, which is involved in fish vaccines and services.

Grand View Research has segmented the global aquaculture vaccines market report on the basis of product, route of administration, application, and region:

Aquaculture Vaccines Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Attenuated Live Vaccines



Inactivated Vaccines



Subunit Vaccines



DNA Vaccines



Recombinant Vaccines

Aquaculture Vaccines Route Of Administration Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Oral



Injected



Immersion & Spray

Aquaculture Vaccines Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Bacterial



Viral



Parasitic

Aquaculture Vaccines Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



U.K.





Germany





France





Italy





Spain





Norway





Denmark





Ireland





Eastern Europe





Croatia







Czech Republic







Hungary







Poland







Russia







Romania







Bulgaria



Asia Pacific



Japan





South Korea





Taiwan





Indonesia





Malaysia





Singapore





Thailand





Philippines





Vietnam



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico





Argentina





Chile





Colombia





Peru





Ecuador



Middle East & Africa

&

South Africa





Saudi Arabia





Israel





Egypt

List of Key Players of Aquaculture Vaccines Market

Zoetis

Phibro Animal Health Corporation

Elanco

Merck & Co., Inc.

KBNP

CAVAC

Kyoto Biken Laboratories, Inc.

Nisseiken Co., Ltd.

Vaxxinova International BV

HIPRA

Check out more studies related to animal vaccine, conducted by Grand View Research:

Animal Vaccines Market  The global animal vaccines market size was valued at USD 9.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% from 2021 to 2028. The perpetual introduction of technologically advanced vaccines and the outbreak of livestock diseases have contributed to the changing market dynamics.

 The global animal vaccines market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% from 2021 to 2028. The perpetual introduction of technologically advanced vaccines and the outbreak of livestock diseases have contributed to the changing market dynamics. Poultry Vaccines Market  The global poultry vaccines market size was estimated at USD 2.0 billion in 2018 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period. Rising vaccination to curb avian disease outbreaks and soaring demand for poultry-related food products are primarily driving the market.

 The global poultry vaccines market size was estimated at in 2018 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period. Rising vaccination to curb avian disease outbreaks and soaring demand for poultry-related food products are primarily driving the market. Foot & Mouth Disease Vaccine Market  The global foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine market size was valued at USD 1.5 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.1% over the forecast period. Growing livestock population and increasing demand for animal products are some of the factors contributing to the increased adoption of these vaccines globally.

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the Global Animal Health Industry

Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
DALLAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Argano announced today Tim Harris has been appointed Group Chief Strategy Officer. As CSO, he will report to Argano Group CEO Chip Register.

Harris will work with Argano's Executive Team to drive corporate strategy with a focus on how clients can best leverage Argano's unique platform and operating model to build the foundations that turn the promise of the digital renaissance into reality. He brings a successful track record of developing strategies for fast-growing organizations as well as deep experience in the services industry, providing him with a unique perspective that aligns very well with Argano's goals and vision. Harris will also continue in his role of CSO for Argano platform company Arbela Technologies.

"The complementary strengths of the teams that make up the Argano platform can be harnessed to deliver enormous impact for our clients," said Argano Group CEO Chip Register. "Tim will further develop our ability to configure solution packages that help businesses bridge the gap between the opportunities within their reach, and their capacity to execute and be market leaders. He brings experience moving up the pace of discovery, innovation and results that transforms clients' core operations into engines of success."

"I am looking forward to collaborating with the complete Argano team and harnessing the amazing capabilities the joiners have brought to the full platform," said Harris. "We're a high tempo, high performance unit, engaging with all of our clients to build the digital foundations that make businesses run better today, and define the markets of tomorrow."

Argano brings together specialized firms on an integrated platform. This model offers clients access to a unified set of unique business and technology solutions that are core to a strong digital foundation including:

Enabling sales and services to deliver frictionless customer experiences that optimize revenue.

Architecting integrated logistics and supply chains that are resilient and flexible.

Delivering agile planning systems and analytics that drive a more strategic approach to financial management.

Implementing ERP systems and processes that improve data visibility and integrity across core operations.

Building workforce solutions that enhance employee engagement, productivity and value.

Creating modern, easily adopted user experience.

About Argano

Argano is a next-generation business and technology services provider that builds the Digital Foundations that make businesses run better. Argano is purpose built for the Digital Renaissance, leveraging insight and innovation to help leaders design and implement the complex solutions necessary to not just survive but thrive and improve financial and operational performance. Argano believes a firm's core operating technologies should be enablers of commercial innovation, not a constant source of limitation, and is committed to helping clients think differently about how they deploy and manage people, processes and technology. For more information visit argano.com.

Contact:Chris Gale, [email protected]

SOURCE Argano

Related Links

http://www.argano.com.


WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, two dozen Arizona leaders and activists launched a conditional campaign on Crowdpac targeted at Senator Kyrsten Sinema. The campaign, Either Sinema Votes to End the Filibuster OR We Fund a Primary Challenger, aims to collect 1,000 pledges totaling $100,000 By October 6. As a conditional campaign, these pledges will be collected only if Senator Sinema does not vote before the end of 2021 to support President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and vote to end or reform the filibuster. In its first few hours, the campaign has collected nearly 200 pledges totaling $10,000.

Arizona Democrats have become increasingly disillusioned with Senator Sinema's obstruction to ending or reforming the filibuster, and her opposition to the commonsense provisions in President Biden's Build Back Better agenda. "Arizonans are disappointed and angry," said Belen Sisa, a founder of the campaign. "Senator Sinema has proven time and time again with her actions and votes that she is out of touch with the people she's supposed to represent. It is shameful that she has time to meet with all of these corporate donors, yet she has not held a single town hall or public meeting with constituents since taking her seat. The voters did their job by getting her elected, now it's time she does her part. Our message is clear: end or reform the Jim Crow filibuster or become a one term senator."

The campaign is modeled in part on the Crowdpac campaign started by Andy Barkan in 2018 to target Senator Susan Collins after her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court. That effort raised $1 million in pledges in its first few weeks, and ultimately reached $4 million. Those funds were used by Sara Gideon, Collins' 2020 opponent in the 2020 Maine US Senate election.

"Somehow Kyrsten Sinema thinks she can stand alone against President Biden and the entire Democratic Party and block the life-changing reforms that tens of millions of Arizonans and Americans voted for and face no consequences," said Kai Newkirk, another founder of the campaign. "Our message is clear: listen to your base, join your party, back Biden's agenda, and help remove the filibuster as an obstacle to the urgent legislation Arizonans need."

"Campaigns like this are what Crowdpac is all about," said Crowdpac's Christopher Tavlarides. "Unlike other political platforms, activists can use our streamlined platform and unique set of features to launch highly effective campaigns in minutes and begin making meaningful change immediately."

The Sinema fundraiser is backed by a large committee of Arizona leaders from community organizations, the Democratic Party, and elected office, including Belen Sisa, former National Latino Press Secretary for Bernie 2020 and co-founder of USEE ASU*, Karina Ruiz, Executive Director of ADAC*, Brianna Westbrook, former Arizona Democratic Party Vice-Chair, Steven Valencia, leader of Tucson Jobs with Justice*, Dan O'Neal, Arizona Coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America, and Kai Newkirk, founder of For All and a lead organizer of the Arizona Coalition to End the Filibuster*. (*Note: organizations are included for identification only and do not represent these organizations' opinions or endorsement of the campaign.)

About Crowdpac

Crowdpac was launched in 2014 to support progressive candidates and causes and to date has raised over $32 million in pledges and contributions with donations averaging $53.37. To learn more, visit www.crowdpac.com.

SOURCE Crowdpac
This new brief illuminates the journey for teachers, as well as school and district leaders, who are working toward deeper competency-based practice and systemic transformation.

In A Mastery-Based Math Teacher's Journey, author Ashley Ferrara, a founding faculty member and math teacher at the Academy for Software Engineering (AFSE), a public high school in New York City, shares a refreshing and candid account of her transition to mastery-based learning with her students. Lessons learned from Ferrara's transition can be applied beyond mathematics to inform mastery-based learning in all academic disciplines.

"Ashley Ferrara's story of deep devotion, reinvention, and improvement using mastery-based learning provides guidance and inspiration for all education stakeholders working toward deeper competency-based practice and transformation of the education system," said Eliot Levine , Aurora Institute Research Director. "The field of competency-based education is very fortunate that Ashley Ferrara has shared her journey with us."

About the Aurora Institute: Aurora's mission is to drive the transformation of education systems and accelerate the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all. Aurora is shaping the future of teaching and learning for more than 14 million students through its work in policy advocacy, research, and field-building/convening. We work on systems change in K-12 education, identify root causes in structures, promote best practices, examine policy barriers, and make recommendations for change. Aurora has a national and global view of education innovation and lifts up promising policies and practices that yield improved outcomes for students. Aurora envisions a world where all people are empowered to attain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to achieve success, contribute to their communities, and advance society. For more information visit www.aurora-institute.org .

SOURCE Aurora Institute

Related Links

https://aurora-institute.org/


AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --During National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8, seven Austin doctors are being honored as "Best Physicians" for providing exemplary health care to their senior patients. David Gabriel, M.D., Andrew Papendieck, M.D. and Gurneet Kohli, M.D., Premier Family Physicians; Michelle Markley, M.D., Azim Shekarchi, M.D. and Hillary Gwen Miller, M.D., Austin Regional Clinic; and Liam Fry, M.D., Austin Geriatric Specialists; were chosen out of a network of more than 1,000 independent primary care physicians nationwide for helping to improve the lives of their senior patients.

A total of 32 physicians were selected as winners by medical directors at agilon health (NYSE: AGL), a company transforming health care for seniors by empowering primary-care physicians to focus on the entire health of their patients. The criteria for selection included how frequently they met with patients, how much time spent with those who are chronically ill and their efforts to keep patients out of hospitals and emergency rooms.

"These exceptional physicians are really lighting the way and showing how primary care doctors can make a meaningful difference in the lives of their senior patients," said Ben Kornitzer, M.D., chief medical and quality officer at agilon health. "We believe the movement to value-based care like that embraced by these physicians, is a fundamental part of the solution."

Value-based care is a healthcare delivery model that puts doctors in the "driver seat" of patient health outcomes. Also known as advanced primary care or coordinated care, doctors are rewarded for preventing and managing chronic diseases and helping patients improve their health.

Studies have shown a significant relationship between the investment in primary care services and improved efficiency with better patient outcomes. Still, a concerning trend documented by the Primary Care Collaborative shows the decline in funding allocated to primary care services nationwide. This comes at a time when the nation's senior population is rising and there is an even greater need for primary care physicians.

National Primary Care Week highlights the importance of primary care in the overall U.S. healthcare system.

For more information about agilon health, visit www.agilonhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube.

SOURCE agilon health

Related Links

http://www.agilonhealth.com


ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association for Business Resources has released their summer 2021 Best and Brightest Companies To Work For in the Nation (see following list of honorees). After securing the coveted Best and Brightest recognition for the City of Atlanta, Aventis Systems, Inc. made the national list for the second consecutive year as well.

The winning companies for the summer of 2021 were assessed by an independent research firm, which reviewed a number of key measures relative to other nationally recognized winners. The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners are not ranked.

The Best and Brightest Companies To Work For in the Nation offers different timelines of applications throughout the year: spring, summer, fall and winter. The spring's Best and Brightest National winners honored 184 winning organizations from across the country out of 1,500 nominations. The fall and winter application process is still currently open. Winners for those seasons will be released in December.

With over 20 years of experience conducting the Best and Brightest competitions, the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) has identified numerous best human resource practices and provided benchmarking for companies that continue to lead in employment standards.

"The Best and Brightest is a powerful community of elite leaders who share ideas and practices, and have proven they are employers of choice. Best and Brightest winning companies have also been a voice for important actions in creating a sustainable culture that works, ensuring the well-being of their employees come[s] first," said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO, Best and Brightest Programs.

Aventis Systems leadership was elated to discover that they placed not only in the City of Atlanta as one of the Best and Brightest, but also nationally.

"The Best and Brightest does a service to business leaders by setting a definitive standard for the thriving office environment," remarked Tiffany Bloomer, President of Aventis Systems, "At Aventis Systems, we take a ground-up approach that focuses on developing our people first as the most vital business resource. It filters into how we talk to our customers and every experience had with our company. Once that foundation is laid, problems get tackled hard and challenges fall into line because our satisfied personnel feel invested and want to help. I'm beside myself with pride knowing that Aventis made the second cut and climbed to the national level in the Best and Brightest. I'm overjoyed, but not surprised."

"With the growth plans we have underway right now, I'd keep an eye on Aventis and see where we climb in the years to come. We're all excited," added Hesam Lamei, Founder and CEO of Aventis Systems. "We really love our team and they pay it forward to the customer."

Aventis Systems offers a number of perks that distinguish them from the competition:

Unlimited PTO

Remote work

Incentivized airline tickets

Corporate personal trainer

Company cell phone plan

Student debt relief program

Team building events

Volunteer opportunities

Tesla auto program

Child care stipend

During onboarding, Aventis Systems affords their new hires all the resources they need to succeed within a two-week technical boot camp encompassing the Aventis brand, customers and the technical specifics of the product line. Aventis Systems then supplements the onboarding with quarterly check-ins to discuss employees' accomplishments, opportunities, career growth plans and expectations for employee development through conferences, workshops and online training.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation Winners will be honored during the virtual Illuminate Business Summit week in November of 2021 and in the spring of 2022. During the Illuminate Business Summits, the 101 highest-scoring national winning companies and the Elite awards will also be awarded to the highest-winning companies demonstrating exceptional innovative human resource practices and setting high standards for all businesses.

All 2021 companies selected to be recognized nationally as a Best and Brightest Company to Work For will be featured in the online edition of Corp! Magazine.

About the Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in operations and employee enrichment leading to increased productivity and financial performance. This competition scores potential winners based on regional data of company performance and a set standard across the nation. This national program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. There are numerous regional celebrations throughout the country such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego and San Francisco. Nominations are now being accepted for all programs. Visit thebestandbrightest.com to nominate your organization.

More About Aventis Systems

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Aventis Systems, Inc. offers custom IT solutions to build and operate complete physical and virtual infrastructures. Their comprehensive solutions include high-quality refurbished and new hardware, system and application software, along with an array of in-depth managed services  including Cortavo, an all-inclusive Managed Services Provider that offers all the hardware, software and cloud services necessary to address small businesses' technology needs at a predictable monthly cost. Since 2008, thousands of small business owners have entrusted Aventis Systems as their preferred IT provider because they "Get IT Done."

For customer service or media inquiries, please call 1-855-AVENTIS, visit www.AventisSystems.com or connect with Aventis Systems on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

Media Contact: Drake Dunaway, Content Marketing Specialist at Aventis Systems, Inc., [email protected]

SOURCE Aventis Systems, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.aventissystems.com


Sea-Reina is the perfect, clean, crisp, dark lager that everyone craves during this season. Not quite black, but a deep dark mahogany colored lager, Sea-Reina takes many notes from SouthNorte's flagship lager, the classic Sea Senor. This lager has a bit of depth with its tasty sweetness of a caramel malt and a hint of chocolate that makes for easy drinking.

Meanwhile, the Sea Chelada Michelada takes a natural tomato puree, lime and SouthNorte's Sea Senor lager to create an authentic Michelada anyone can enjoy. The Sea Chelada contains a hint of spice and sea salt combining natural ingredients to elevate it while staying true to the classic Mexican drink.

The debut of these product innovations come on the heels of SouthNorte recently placing for the third time at the 2021 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) making it SouthNorte's second bronze medal in the specialty beer category for its Agavemente Hibiscus Lager that celebrates the blending of cultures by infusing a traditional pilsner with Mexican agave syrup and hibiscus. Playing on traditional agua de jamaica (hibiscus in English), Agavemente brings a playful, refreshing twist to beer.

"All good things come in threes," said Ryan Brooks, Brewmaster and Founder, SouthNorte. "As this year was GABF's largest competition to-date, Agavamente taking home an award for the third time was a great validation for us, and it goes to show that Agavemente has the credibility to stand on its own as one of the best beers in America."

With the release of the two new flavors and the GABF win, SouthNorte is ready to continue to explore new innovations for beer explorers to continue to discover new flavors of Mexico that will provide the ultimate authentic experience.

"Since the brewery's inception, Ryan has shaped and meticulously crafted SouthNorte's portfolio to reflect the taste of what he experiences when he's in Mexico  authentic, amazing flavor combinations and unique ingredients crafted with respect and brewed with the highest quality," said Paul Cummins, President, SouthNorte Beer Co. "Sea-Reina and Sea Chelada are the latest testaments to that winning strategy, sparking a new chapter in innovation for the brewery. As we continue to focus on growth and expansion, I'm confident that our team's commitment to authentically deliver premium crafted experiences poised to satisfy consumers' 'thirst' for discovery, will continue to inspire future medal momentum."

Sea-Reina and Sea Chelada are now available in selected stores across Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, San Diego and Arizona. Check out SouthNorte's website for more information: southnorte.com.

About SouthNorte

Established in 2016, SouthNorte was born at the crossroads of cultures, where the blend of energies, wisdom, and talents equal more than the sum of the parts. Recognized for brewing excellence under founding partner and Brewmaster, Ryan Brooks, with a gold medal for Sea Senor Mex Lager (Cream Ale category) and a silver medal for Agavemente Hibiscus Lager at the prestigious 2019 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), we are brewers, makers, and travelers wanting to bring the flavors of Mexico to crafted beer. We invite you to explore SouthNorte, so you can satisfy your thirst for adventure one sip at a time. For more information, visit southnorte.com.

SOURCE SouthNorte

Related Links

https://www.southnorte.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, announced an expanded partnership with the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) to bring its Domestic Harmonizer Program (DHP) to more middle school students in Southern California and across the United States through a new Virtual Center. Bank of the West team members will also have the opportunity to support WPDI through volunteering.

The DHP is an innovative conflict-resolution education program for middle schools in the United States. Grounded in peace education and restorative justice, its curriculum is designed to create more peaceful learning environments. The program is currently in place at three Los Angeles area schools and will soon be available to schools nationwide through a new Virtual Center, which will feature the DHP's curriculum, animation videos, and educational game.

"Teaching peace and conflict resolution in schools is one of the most efficient and empowering ways to prepare our children and youth for their responsibilities as citizens for today and tomorrow," said Forest Whitaker, artist and WPDI Founder and CEO. "Our schools need more support nowadays than ever before in helping students feel safe, connected, and energized. This program is critical in helping students achieve all of these goals and providing them with lifelong skills. I want to thank Bank of the West for joining me in this endeavor, which will help to make the world a more peaceful place".

Recently, an independent evaluation of the DHP reported the program provided helpful tools for educators to support their students' critical needs during the COVID crisis, when many students struggled to transition to virtual learning. As one student put it, "We got to understand the different emotions we go through when being in a conflict, when we show empathy, etc. I got to learn that how we act can have a big impact on the situation we are in and can have an effect on the solution."

"Banking can be a force for good. Through our support of WPDI's Domestic Harmonizer Program, Bank of the West is helping young people succeed," said Nandita Bakhshi, CEO and President of Bank of the West. "We have the ability to partner with organizations locally and scale these relationships globally through our parent company, BNP Paribas. By addressing pressing social issues and fostering youth inclusion, we can make progress towards building a more sustainable world."

Today's social and environmental challenges require financial organizations take a pivotal role in civic responsibility and contribute even more actively to sustainable growth. As a banking leader in sustainable finance, Bank of the West is taking action to enact positive change on a global scale, including supporting the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals to transform our world by 2030. A key part of this initiative is solving public health problems, like youth violence, to create sustainable cities and communities. By helping students to better manage and prevent conflicts before they escalate to violence, Bank of the West is working to fulfill this pledge and facilitate improved, more peaceful societies.

This two year partnership expansion is the result of a longstanding relationship between Bank of the West, BNP Paribas and WPDI. In 2018, the Bank of the West Charitable Foundation pledged a three-year commitment to support the DHP in the Los Angeles Area, while BNP Paribas concurrently announced a five-year commitment to fund the expansion of the organization's Youth Peacemakers Network to Cape Town in South Africa.

Since the inception of the program in 2016, WPDI has reached 8,790 students, 158 peer mediators, 247 teachers, and 14 counselors through a combination of in-person and virtual trainings since the onset of the pandemic.

About Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI)

The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) was founded in 2012 by artist, social activist Forest Whitaker, who is the UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace & Reconciliation as well as member of the United Nations Advocacy Group for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). WPDI is a non-governmental organization that operates in countries and regions impacted by violence and poverty. We are a 501(c)(3) registered in California. Our mission is to empower young women and men living in vulnerable places to become leaders, peacemakers and entrepreneurs in their communities. We help them become mediators who will address tensions and conflict between and within communities with competence and confidence. We help them become community organizers who are equipped to reach out to other youth and undertake educational and cultural projects to promote peace, dialogue and tolerance. We help them become entrepreneurs who can create economic opportunities for themselves and their communities.

Our work is guided by our CEO/Founder's philosophy that, in communities affected by endemic violence and long-standing poverty, change must come from within. We believe that local youthas stakeholders who are both native to their communities and nonetheless open to new perspectives and ideasare transformative insiders uniquely positioned to be powerful agents of peace and sustainable development.

For more information, please visit https://www.wpdi.org or connect with WPDI on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

About Bank of the West

At Bank of the West, we know money deposited in a bank has the power to finance positive change. So we are taking action to ensure our activities help protect the planet, improve people's lives, and strengthen communities. We are redefining banking for a better future by focusing on areas where we believe we can have a real impact: supporting energy transition, helping enable women entrepreneurs, and financing innovative start-ups. As the bank for a changing world, Bank of the West is committed to sustainable finance along with our parent company BNP Paribas. Through Digital Channels and offices across the U.S., Bank of the West provides financial tools and resources to more than 2 million individuals, families and businesses.

 2021 Bank of the West. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Doing business in South Dakota as Bank of the West California.

Connect with us

SOURCE Bank of the West
HOUSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The national law firm of Bailey Cowan Heckaman PLLC has filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of a Texan man injured through a device explosion and fire.

BCH filed the lawsuit against Texas Vape Stores LLC in the 45th District Court of Bexar County, Texas. The allegations set forth center on defective design, failure to warn, and negligence.

Per the complaint, Plaintiff was handling the SMOK X-Priv vaping device in his home when the device exploded, and fire erupted from the device. While the device was on fire, it stuck to Plaintiff's hand resulting in serious second-degree burns to the hand, palm, and fingers.

Plaintiff was immediately driven to a nearby hospital in New Braunfels, Texas. Thereafter, transferred via ambulance to a medical center in San Antonio, Texas for more complete evaluation and treatment.

SMOK X-Priv is a vaping device manufactured by Shenzhen Ivps Technology Co., Ltd. located in Shenzhen, China. According to the suit, Defendant Texas Vape Stores LLC is liable for marketing, placing, and selling the unreasonably dangerous SMOK X-Priv in the stream of commerce. Furthermore, Defendant's negligence to warn of dangers or risks of harm and provide instructions for the safe use of the product were the producing cause of the incident in question.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages of $250,000 or less for the Plaintiff's injury. Plaintiff and his attorneys demand a jury trial.

Based in Houston, Texas, Bailey Cowan Heckaman PLLC is a national civil trial practice regarded for its skill in handling complex litigation. To learn more about the firm, kindly go to bchlaw.com.

Media Contact:

Aaron Heckaman

[email protected]

SOURCE Bailey Cowan Heckaman PLLC
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hello Gloss Creators has recently emerged as the new home for beauty influencers to share their experiences, support each other, and make valuable connections with brands and other creators. Hello Gloss and community founder, Alex Avritch, says "it's the genuine love of beauty that drives our community to create rather than compete. I wanted to design a safe space where creators can meet new people, ask for help, share knowledge, look for collaborators, and hear directly from brands about what they're looking for and how to work with them."

Hello Gloss Creators

Avritch has been an avid beauty enthusiast for as long as she can remember and had been looking for a way to break into the industry herself, but getting started proved difficult since community spirit and resources were scant. She notes further that it wasn't all that long ago that top influencer, Jeffree Star, famously tweeted "The beauty community is dying and is ready for a rebirth. Who will rise like a Phoenix?" Avritch, being a long-time fan of Star, soon realized she could leverage her experience as a community builder for Silicon Valley startups to bring about this long-overdue change, to rise up, and the result was Hello Gloss Creators.

Hello Gloss Creators arrived on the scene and quickly amassed a diverse membership of nearly 2,000 nano and micro influencers who are eager to grow their social followings and collaborate with both indie and mainstream beauty brands. "We have beauty brands actively posting in the forums and scheduling live stream events," says Avritch. "This is exactly why we're all here, and I'm hoping to see even more brands participate as they learn about us. It's a great platform for getting out in front of promising creators and talking about new products, or simply sharing some insights that our members are hungry to learn." It's this sense of true community that makes Hello Gloss Creators so appealing to its members, affectionately known as Glossies.

Looking forward, Avritch plans to accelerate the community's growth by hosting a series of sponsored makeup challenges which have proven to be incredibly popular with its members.

Press Contact

Alex Avritch, Founder

[email protected]

(415)894-0372

https://creators.hellogloss.com



SOURCE Hello Gloss
The Series F round was led by Treasury, with participation from existing investors, including Kinnevik, Bessemer Venture Partners, Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Anthemis Group, Globespan Capital Partners, Citi Ventures, and The Private Shares Fund, as well as new investors Aflac Ventures and ID8 Investments. The financing valued the company at nearly $1.3 billion.

The $100 million credit facility was established with ORIX Corporation USA's Growth Capital group and Runway Growth Capital. ORIX's Growth Capital group acted as lead arranger and agent.

The additional funding will be used to accelerate the record growth Betterment has delivered year-to-date across its core retail investment products and advisor solutions, and particularly its rapidly growing 401(k) offering for small and medium sized businesses.

"From day one, Betterment's mission has been to make people's lives better with easy-to-use, personalized investment solutions. The record growth and demand for Betterment products and services proves how well we deliver," said Sarah Levy, Betterment's CEO. "We are thrilled to have the support of new and existing investors who believe in our business model and are excited by the opportunity to support our growth. We're using these funds to further cement our category leadership with rapid innovation on top of our already differentiated product suite and unique, multi-pronged distribution model that serves retail investors, advisors and small businesses."

"I've seen first hand the strength of Betterment's business model since its founding over a decade ago. Participating in Betterment's next chapter as an investor is an exceptional opportunity," said Eli Broverman, a co-founder of Betterment and a founder of Treasury. "I believe in Betterment's team and vision, and we are thrilled to support the company's future success."

For more information, please visit www.betterment.com .

About Betterment

Betterment is the largest independent digital investment advisor , offering investing and retirement solutions alongside their everyday services for spending and saving. Since 2010, Betterment has had one mission: to make people's lives better with easy-to-use, personalized investment solutions. Using cutting-edge technology, they empower hundreds of thousands of customers to manage their money  for today, tomorrow, and someday  with expert advice; automated money management tools; and tax-smart strategies that help keep taxes low. Learn more www.betterment.com .

Investing in securities involves risks, and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. Investment advisory services are provided by Betterment LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Brokerage services are provided to clients of Betterment LLC by Betterment Securities, an SEC-registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA / SIPC .

Contact Info

Danielle Shechtman, [email protected]

Arielle Sobel, [email protected]

SOURCE Betterment

Related Links

http://www.betterment.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fact.MR projects the bio-based platform chemicals market to exhibit 8% CAGR between 2021 and 2031. Sales of bio-based platform chemicals is expected to total US$ 23 Bn through the assessment period. The increasing application in pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries will continue driving sales in the market.

Rising consumption of C-3 platform chemicals, coupled with the growing demand for environmental-friendly and bio based chemicals in diverse end-use industries will push growth in the bio-based platform chemicals market.

Besides this, the market will continue gaining from product innovations such as development of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs). These polymers exhibit superior capability of water absorption and are therefore extensively used in the production of diapers, adult incontinence pads, absorbent medical dressings, and controlled release drugs.

Sales of bio-based platform chemicals are expected to rise considerably, thanks to the implementation of favorable government initiatives supporting sustainability in chemical production and encouraging research initiatives in the field of green chemistry.

Request a report sample to gain comprehensive insights at

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=5366

Based on these factors, the demand for bio-based sorbitol and C-6 platform chemicals will continue increasing, enabling growth in the market through 2031.

"Due to depletion of fossil fuels and growing demand for eco-friendly and bio-based chemicals, adoption of bio-based platform chemicals has increased exponentially across various industries. In order to capitalize on existing opportunities, the market players are likely to partner with international organizations. This will also help them expand their portfolio," says a Fact.MR analyst.

Key Takeaways from Bio-based Platform Chemicals Market Survey

Based on chemical type, C-3 platform chemicals segment is projected to exceed US$ 10 Mn by 2031-end

by 2031-end Over 40% of bio-based platform chemicals sales will come from polymer industry

The U.S. is expected to be one of the most lucrative market on the back of rising demand for eco-friendly chemicals within cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry

China is expected to spearhead the growth of East Asia bio-based platform chemicals market, topping roughly US$ 5 Mn by 2031-end

is expected to spearhead the growth of bio-based platform chemicals market, topping roughly by 2031-end Germany is expected to emerge as the most lucrative market of Europe , exhibiting growth at 6% CAGR through 2021 & beyond

Key Drivers

Implementation of stringent regulations on the use of conventional petroleum-derived chemicals will spur the adoption of bio-based chemicals

Growing inclination of consumers towards environment-friendly products and bio-based chemicals, especially within pharmaceutical industry will drive the sales

Key Restraints

Easy availability of alternatives and low-cost products will restrict the sales of bio-based platform chemicals

High cost production of C-3 and C-4 platform chemicals is the major factor restraining market growth

To learn more about Bio-based Platform Chemicals Market, you can get in touch with our Analyst at

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=5366

Competitive Landscape

Presence of numerous players has led to intense competition in the market. Key companies are emphasizing on product launches and collaborations to gain competitive edge. They also are collaborating with other bio-based chemicals suppliers to sustain their position in the industry

For instance,

Recently, Lygos Inc. announced its collaboration with bio-based chemicals manufacturer, Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem to improve prototyping and reduce commercialization costs for bio-based platform chemicals.

In October 2020, another leading player, Virent Inc. announced its merger with Cargill Inc for the development and production of drop-in, low-carbon biofuels, and biochemical for applications such as jet fuel and gasoline.

Some of the leading players operating in the bio-based platform chemicals market profiled by Fact.MR are:

BioAmber, Inc.

Cargill, Inc.

BASF SE

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

PTT Global Chemical Public Co. Ltd.

DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products Company LLC

Braskem SA

Evonik Industries AG

DowDuPont, Inc.

GFBiochemicals Ltd.

Koninklijke DSM NV

Myriant Corporation

Novozymes A/S

Prinova Group LLC.

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.

Succinity GmbH

Others

More Valuable Insights on Bio-based Platform Chemicals Market

In its latest report, Fact.MR report on global bio-based platform chemicals market offers unbiased analysis, presenting historical demand data (2016-2020) and forecast statistics for the period from 2021 and 2031. The study also provides detailed analysis on the market which is segmented on the basis of:

Type:

C-3 Platform Chemicals

Bio-based Glycerol



Bio-3-Hydroxypropionic Acid

C-4 Platform Chemicals

Bio-based Succinic Acid



Bio-based Fumaric Acid



Bio-based Malic Acid



Bio-based Aspartic Acid

C-5 Platform Chemicals

Bio-based Levulinic Acid



Bio-based Glutamic Acid



Bio-based Itaconic Acid



Bio-based Xylitol

C-6 Platform Chemicals

Bio-based Sorbitol



Bio-based Glucaric Acid



Bio-based 2,5-Furan Dicarboxylic Acid

Application:

Polymers

Plastic Formulation

Bio-fuel

Cosmetics

Paints & Coatings

Solvents

Pharmaceuticals

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia

Oceania

Middle East & Africa

Key Questions Covered in the Bio-based Platform Chemicals Market Report

The report offers detailed insights into bio-based platform chemicals demand outlook for 2021-2031

The market study also highlights projected sales growth for bio-based platform chemicals market between 2021 and 2031

Bio-based platform chemicals market survey identifies key growth drivers, restraints, and other forces impacting prevailing trends and evaluation of current market size and forecast and technological advancements within the industry

Bio-based platform chemicals market share analysis of the key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and others

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Chemical & Materials Domain 

Cosmetic & Toiletry Chemicals Market- Due to significant population expansion in the recent decade and income rise of middle-class groups in emerging nations, the cosmetic and toiletry chemicals market is expected to see high demand over the forecast period. With a growing consumer base, there is a growing need for high-quality cosmetics, which is expected to become a trend in the cosmetics and toiletry chemicals market. Furthermore, urban women in well-developed urban cities use at least five cosmetic and skincare products each day, presenting considerable prospects for the cosmetic and toiletry chemicals market.

Bio-Based Acetic Acid Market- The market for bio produced acetic acid is primarily driven by demand from the food and chemical industries. One of the causes for overall market growth in terms of value is a significant increase in sales of sugar-based bio-acetic acid. The cause for market expansion is an increase in bio-based acetic acid production across the globe, as well as an increase in the acceptance of bio-based chemicals across industries, ranging from personal care to chemicals. The need for bio-based acetic acid will be boosted by the demand for polymeric binders in paints and coatings applications.

Biofuels Market- The worldwide effort to replace fossil fuels with biofuels for a more sustainable ecosystem has resulted in a huge growth in biofuel output. Environmentalists and policymakers throughout the world are concerned about greenhouse gas pollution, fossil resource depletion, and reliance on unreliable foreign suppliers, which is likely to drive up biofuel production and consumption. The most profitable region for biofuel demand will continue to be North America. Sugarcane, corn, and soybean production have enough harvest land in North America. As a result, it is self-sufficient in terms of biofuel feedstock.

About Fact.MR

Market research and consulting agency with a difference! That's why 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies trust us for making their most critical decisions. We have offices in US and Dublin, whereas our global headquarter is in Dubai. While our experienced consultants employ the latest technologies to extract hard-to-find insights, we believe our USP is the trust clients have on our expertise. Spanning a wide range  from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare & chemical and materials, our coverage is expansive, but we ensure even the most niche categories are analyzed. Reach out to us with your goals, and we'll be an able research partner.

Contact:

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US Sales Office

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Rockville, MD 20852

United States

Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583

E: [email protected]



SOURCE Fact.MR
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioAdvance, a $70 million early-stage life sciences fund with a focus in the mid-Atlantic region, announced today that it has added six new companies to its portfolio in the last 18 months and has made follow-on investments in eight of its existing companies. Combined, these investments represent a commitment of $6.875 million to the success and growth of life science companies in the region. BioAdvance also announced a transition in leadership with long-time Managing Director and CEO Barbara Schilberg retiring and Shahram Hejazi, Ph.D., appointed as incoming Managing Director and CEO effective October 1, 2021.

"Like many investors, when the COVID pandemic began, we focused on helping our existing companies survive the various disruptions to product development and product sales," said Schilberg, outgoing CEO of BioAdvance. "Within six months, we were able to resume investing in new companies and also have a robust pipeline of opportunities in active diligence."

The new companies and commitments are:

Vesteck, Inc. ( $500,000 )Developing a device that integrates the delivery of nitinol sutures into a catheter to improve clinical outcomes for endovascular aortic aneurysm patients.

)Developing a device that integrates the delivery of nitinol sutures into a catheter to improve clinical outcomes for endovascular aortic aneurysm patients. RightAir, Inc. ( $1,000,000 )Developing a fully-mobile, non-invasive ventilator called AIR-AD, based on a proven respiratory assist technology called cuirass ventilators.

)Developing a fully-mobile, non-invasive ventilator called AIR-AD, based on a proven respiratory assist technology called cuirass ventilators. SIRPant Immunotherapeutics, Inc. ( $115,000 )Developing a novel autologous cell therapy for solid tumors. The company has announced the initial close of a $25 million Series A financing, led by Bios Partners.

)Developing a novel autologous cell therapy for solid tumors. The company has announced the initial close of a Series A financing, led by Bios Partners. ImmunoGenesis, Inc. ( $1,500,000 )Developing a platform of therapeutic agents that address "cold" or immune-resistant tumors, focusing on a PD-L1/PD-L2 dual specific approach.

)Developing a platform of therapeutic agents that address "cold" or immune-resistant tumors, focusing on a PD-L1/PD-L2 dual specific approach. Phrase Health, Inc. ( $500,000 )Commercializing SaaS-based products for hospitals to enable healthcare quality improvement using electronic health records (EHR) data and collaborative tools to drive clinical quality measures and outcomes.

)Commercializing SaaS-based products for hospitals to enable healthcare quality improvement using electronic health records (EHR) data and collaborative tools to drive clinical quality measures and outcomes. Crossbridge Health, LLC ( $150,000 )Developing a specialty-decision support SaaS solution for improving outcomes and lowering the cost of treating chronic inflammatory disease.

Recent follow-on investments in existing BioAdvance portfolio companies include:

Halo Labs, Inc. ( $246,000 )Commercializing high throughput of biopharmaceutical quality control analytical instruments.

)Commercializing high throughput of biopharmaceutical quality control analytical instruments. Bainbridge Health, Inc. ( $249,999 )In partnership with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia , developed technology solutions to reduce medication errors and medication waste in the infusion pump department of hospitals.

)In partnership with Children's Hospital of , developed technology solutions to reduce medication errors and medication waste in the infusion pump department of hospitals. Ride Health, Inc. ( $100,000 )A HIPPA-compliant platform enabling healthcare providers to schedule, request and pay for rides on behalf of patients.

)A HIPPA-compliant platform enabling healthcare providers to schedule, request and pay for rides on behalf of patients. IO Biosciences, Inc. ( $340,000 )Developing a novel, proprietary, genetic cell modification technology (GEMS) , allowing efficient, plug-and-play manufacturing of cell therapies and biomolecules.

)Developing a novel, proprietary, allowing efficient, plug-and-play manufacturing of cell therapies and biomolecules. ENB Therapeutics, Inc. ( $575,000 )D eveloping therapeutic agents to treat drug-resistant cancers b y targeting critical components in the microenvironment of the tumor, enabling the body's immune system to do its job in combating cancer.

)D y targeting critical components in the microenvironment of the tumor, enabling the body's immune system to do its job in combating cancer. Envara Health, Inc. ( $480,000 )Marketing a medical food-based on a novel formulation of medium chain fatty acids that provides better absorption and clinical benefits to malnourished patients.

)Marketing a medical food-based on a novel formulation of medium chain fatty acids that provides better absorption and clinical benefits to malnourished patients. Wellsheet, Inc. ( $450,000 )Developing a SaaS product that customizes EHR content based on the patient/practice environment and provides the physician with a one-sheet view of the patient.

)Developing a SaaS product that customizes EHR content based on the patient/practice environment and provides the physician with a one-sheet view of the patient. Palvella Therapeutics, LLC ( $750,000 )Developing new therapeutic agents for rare and ultra-rare diseases.

The Board of Directors of BioAdvance also announced today that Schilberg is retiring after serving almost 20 years as Managing Director and CEO. Since the beginning of operations in 2002, she has led BioAdvance to invest more than $50 million in almost 100 early-stage life sciences companies and technologies. Those companies have gone on to attract $3.75 billion in subsequent capital, including proceeds from the exits of 18 companies. Five companies have gone public, and more than 46 products have been introduced to improve human health. Schilberg will remain on the Board of Directors and will assume an advisory role with BioAdvance going forward.

"I have mixed emotions about retirement particularly because the regional life sciences picture is so vibrant with a new generation of companies going public, private investment coming in to build R&D space, and a surge in venture capital attracted from outside the region at record levels," said Schilberg. "But thanks to the incredible efforts over the years by our talented team and advisors and our passionate and resilient entrepreneurs, BioAdvance has greater resources than ever before to help emerging companies and entrepreneurs. Shahram is the right person to take the organization to the next level, and I'm excited to see the next chapter."

The Board of Directors appointed Shahram Hejazi, Ph.D., Managing Director and CEO, effective October 1, 2021. Hejazi is a life science investor and entrepreneur with general management experience in both early-stage ventures and large global companies. Since 2008, he has been an active investor and Partner at BioAdvance where he currently serves on the Board of Directors of seven portfolio companies. He is also the Chairman of Pennsylvania Pediatric Device Consortium at CHOP and Chairman of the advisory board of Integral Molecular, Inc. Hejazi is the 2014 James Wei Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Princeton University where he is currently a part-time faculty and have been teaching a well-regarded course on the topic of venture capital for the past eight years. Previously, he was the President of Kodak's life science division (later called Carestream Molecular Imaging); CEO of Zargis Medical Corporation, an early-stage medical device company that spun-off from Siemens; and Head of Strategic Business Development at Siemens where he was instrumental in establishing Siemens first corporate venture fund. Hejazi also spent four years as an FDA industry advisory panel member for Molecular and Clinical Genetic Devices. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering with emphasis in biophysics from SUNY at Buffalo.

"Under Barbara's leadership, BioAdvance has become a foundational fixture in early-stage Life Sciences investing," said Hejazi. "We look forward to accelerating BioAdvance investment and expanding our recognition on the national level as a regional leader of bio/health innovation by enabling entrepreneurs through investment and support. Our mission at BioAdvance will be to retain the best entrepreneurial talent in the region, provide support for entrepreneurial academics and attract even more innovators to this region by expanding the support ecosystem that enables innovation."

About BioAdvance

BioAdvance is a $70 million early-stage life sciences fund with a focus in the mid-Atlantic region, investing up to $1.5 million initially and up to $5 million in the lifetime of companies that have the potential to improve human health. Since making its first investments in 2003, BioAdvance has committed more than $50 million in funding to approximately 100 organizations developing more than 160 products in the diagnostics, therapeutic, medtech, research tools and digital health sectors. BioAdvance portfolio companies have leveraged $3.7 billion in subsequent capital, including proceeds from acquisitions. Eleven products have received FDA approval. For more information, please visit www.bioadvance.com.

Contact

Jennifer Guinan | Sage Strategic Marketing | 610.410.8111 | [email protected]

SOURCE BioAdvance

Related Links

https://www.bioadvance.com/


TRENTON, N.J., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioNJ, the life sciences trade association for New Jersey, today released a new white paper, "Prescription Drug Affordability Boards: Myths vs. Facts on Drug Supply Chain," that corrects the record on several common myths about Prescription Drug Affordability Boards (PDAB) and their harmful impact on Patients and the medical innovation ecosystem. The BioNJ white paper concludes that policymakers should avoid the creation of a PDAB as a means to control drug costs and should instead adopt solutions that will improve Patient access and deliver savings to the health care system, such as capping Patient out-of-pocket costs and using negotiated rebates to provide savings to Patients.

"Prescription Drug Affordability Boards threaten Patient access to existing treatments and dampen future medical innovations for hard-to-treat conditions," said BioNJ President and CEO Debbie Hart. "BioNJ is committed to working with New Jersey policymakers to implement solutions that ensure Patients have meaningful access to their medicines, reduce health care costs, and support innovation necessary for future cures and treatments."

The newly released BioNJ white paper provides background on the complex drug supply chain and addresses the ongoing concern that legislators across New Jersey and other states express: ensuring that their constituents have access to the latest and most effective therapies to help them manage medical conditions.

The BioNJ white paper addresses four specific misconceptions around the basis of using PDABs:

MYTH: Government is the primary funder of research.

Government is the primary funder of research. FACT: The private sector provides a significantly larger percentage  by orders of multitudes  of biopharma research and development funding than government sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).



The private sector provides a significantly larger percentage  by orders of multitudes  of biopharma research and development funding than government sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). MYTH: Government price controls will not harm innovation.

Government price controls will not harm innovation. FACT: Innovation ecosystems where artificial price constraints are in place inevitably see a decline in investment.



Innovation ecosystems where artificial price constraints are in place inevitably see a decline in investment. MYTH: Manufacturers control when Patients pay the "list" price.

Manufacturers control when Patients pay the "list" price. FACT: Patients almost never pay the list price for a prescription due to the complicated drug supply chain where entities such as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) stand between the manufacturer and the Patient.



Patients almost never pay the list price for a prescription due to the complicated drug supply chain where entities such as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) stand between the manufacturer and the Patient. MYTH: Prescription spending is rising in the U.S.

Prescription spending is rising in the U.S. FACT: Drug prices and spending remain relatively flat. In fact, spending on U.S. medicines only increased 0.8 percent in 2020 and has only increased by a total of $56 per capita since 2010.

Download a copy of the white paper here .

Download an infographic featuring the Myths vs. Facts here .

About BioNJ

BioNJ is the life sciences trade association in New Jersey with nearly 400 Member companies representing research-based life sciences organizations and stakeholders across the ecosystem from the largest biopharmaceutical companies to early stage start-ups. BioNJ is dedicated to ensuring a vibrant ecosystem where Science is Supported, Companies are Created, Drugs are Developed and Patients are Paramount. Because Patients Can't Wait, BioNJ supports its Members in the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies and cures that save and improve lives and lessen the burden of illness and disease to society by driving capital formation, fostering entrepreneurship, advocating for public policies that advance medical innovation, providing access to talent and education and offering a cost-saving array of critical commercial resources. For more information about BioNJ, please visit www.BioNJ.org .

Click here to read the white paper.

Contact

Randi Bromberg

Vice President, Communications and Marketing

(O) 609-890-3185

(C) 609-955-1067

[email protected]

SOURCE BioNJ

Related Links

www.bionj.org


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blo Blow Dry Bar , North America's original blow dry bar and the world's largest blow dry bar franchise, has partnered with Saks Fifth Avenue to create the 'Blo American Dream Pop Up' located in the American Dream Mall at 1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. This 5-week partnership brings a pop up Blo Blow Dry Bar location to the mall's luxury wing dubbed 'The Avenue', offering visitors a destination for quality blow outs now through Monday, October 25.

Behind Blo Blow Dry Bar's first steps onto this new pink carpet is multi-unit franchisee, Kari Valcich, who owns and operates locations in Greenwich, CT, Franklin Lakes, NJ and Jersey City, NJ. Having opened her first Blo Blow Dry Bar less than three years ago, Valcich has already grown to become amongst the company's top performing franchisees who cultivates success and innovation in each of her locations. Valcich's own career journey has had highs and lows over the last two decades but ultimately has come full circle, resembling the true American Dream.

"Collaborating with Saks to bring a one-of-a-kind Blo Blow Dry Bar pop up location holds a special meaning to me," shared Valcich. "Within each of my locations, I aim to create an experience that is specifically tailored to meet the needs and wants of the surrounding community. I look forward to the Blo American Dream Pop Up becoming a beauty destination for both local and visiting luxury-minded shoppers."

The brand has implemented a collaborative environment since inception, welcoming franchisees to share ideas and new business strategies. Franchisee ideas are encouraged and all proposals are carefully evaluated. Strong ideas, such as adding makeup services to the menu, often become brand staples and business successes. Blo Blow Dry Bar looks forward to evolving this pop-up model into a brand-building opportunity for franchisees in additional markets.

"We believe that innovation and experimentation are keys to success, and that partnerships with brands that align with our values and mission are crucial opportunities for us to grow," said Vanessa Yakobson, CEO of Blo Blow Dry Bar. "The chance to participate in high-profile projects is desirable to our franchisees and we look forward to exploring the potential of expanding partnerships, like this one with Saks, across our system."

The Blo American Dream Pop Up reaps benefits for the brand, franchisees and for partner, Saks Fifth Avenue. Blo Blow Dry Bar looks at this initiative as an opportunity to expand the brand in existing locations and make all services accessible to more people. Franchisees have the opportunity to grow outside their brick-and-mortar locations with an additional revenue stream. The collaboration with Saks Fifth Avenue is a perfect match because target audiences and business goals are well aligned.

As e-commerce takes shoppers out of the mall, Blo Blow Dry Bar's services represent an important strategy to attract customers back into the retail environment. The American Dream Mall itself represents this strategy through the offering of experiences that can't be replicated at home.

The growing franchise is just at the start of the runway, staking its claim as a leader in the $47 billion a year industry and continues to expand at a rapid rate. Every year, more cities across the globe are painted pink. Every day, a new guest discovers how wonderful the Blo Blow Dry Bar experience is. Superior service and consistent results are a top priority for all guests as well as franchisees. The brand goes beyond beauty  it is strategically positioned to meet growing customer demands within the wellness and self-care industries with an established foundation for business success.

Blo Blow Dry Bar is currently seeking single- and multi- unit operators to join the brand's rapid expansion. For more information about franchise opportunities visit https://franchise.blomedry.com/ .

About Blo Blow Dry Bar

Blo Blow Dry Bar is North America's original blow dry bar and the world's largest blow dry bar franchise. The company transformed beauty norms and reinvented the salon industry when it launched the "no cuts, no color" concept: only blow outs. Since opening its first location in Canada in 2007, Blo has grown to over 130 locations across the U.S. and Canada and continues to expand rapidly. With a mission to enhance the lives of those in the community through the power of flawless blow outs and beauty services, Blo Blow Dry Bar offers perfectly styled hair and exceptional customer experiences seven days a week. For more information visit www.blomedry.com .

Media Contact: Marisa Beaumont, Fishman Public Relations, (414) 366-3317, [email protected]

SOURCE Blo Blow Dry Bar

Related Links

http://www.blomedry.com


The goal of the Any Care Counts campaign is to highlight and address the impact that unpaid caregiving has on the Commonwealth and connect more of this population to available support resources. ARCHANGELS will offer free access to their Caregiver Intensity Index , an online quiz that evaluates the drivers of intensity that many caregivers experience on a daily basis, such as family disagreements and financial stress, that can often lead to mental health impacts. Upon completion of this two-minute quiz, caregivers will receive their own 'Caregiver Intensity Score', find out if they are 'in the green' 'yellow' or 'red', and which four factors are driving and alleviating that intensity. Caregivers can also be immediately connected to the Commonwealth's existing support resources in their communities, like mental health support and home care services.

For every caregiver who gets their Intensity Score, a donation will be made to an organization supporting unpaid caregivers in Massachusetts. Each caregiver will have the option to make the donation in honor of a loved one.

In a study published in June, the ARCHANGELS' Caregiver Intensity Index was used in a national study of 10,000 participants conducted as part of the COVID-19 Outbreak Public Evaluation Initiative and co-authored by public health officials at the CDC. The data revealed that approximately 70% of all caregivers (parents, guardians, and/or those caring for someone aged 18+ years) reported adverse mental health symptoms, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Moreover, 85% of surveyed parents/guardians who are also adult caregivers (aka 'sandwich generation') reported adverse mental health symptoms; nearly 52% reported recent serious suicidal thoughts.

This campaign will initially be shared with Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts employees and will also target other Massachusetts employers and community organizations to raise awareness for unpaid caregiving. The Mass Caregiving Initiative at MassTech will support the Any Care Counts Campaign through an award to support promotion, outreach and awareness activities related to the campaign.



The Any Care Counts campaign will begin as a multi-media campaign to reach caregivers through different platforms, including e-mail and social media ads. Multiple employers and community leaders have also pledged to support the campaign  doing their part to provide invaluable recognition and support to the well over one million unpaid caregivers across our Commonwealth.

Click here to view the Any Care Counts Media Kit

"Unpaid caregivers are all around usyou might be one yourself. These extraordinary humans serve as the backbone of our communities and invest enormous physical and emotional energy in caring for loved ones," said Alexandra Drane, Co-Founder/CEO of ARCHANGELS. "Being a caregiver is one of the most important jobs most of us will ever have, but it can also be one of the hardestresulting in serious mental health impacts. In fact, recent data shows that 1 in 4 caregivers currently have an intensity score that is in the red. This campaign will amplify that effort in Massachusetts  providing vital support at a critical moment. We are beyond grateful to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Caregiver Initiative, and our partners for supporting this campaign  it will make a difference."

"Caregivers need help now more than ever, as we are experiencing staggering mental health impacts. But if we want to help caregivers, first we have to find them," said Anna Gosline, senior director of strategic initiatives at Blue Cross and executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care. "The Any Care Counts campaign is exciting because it's a new way to help caregivers raise their hands, reflect on the vital work they do and, importantly, start getting connected to support. Blue Cross is thrilled to be a part of this crucial work in reframing what it means to be a caregiver today."

"By providing support for caregivers through efforts like Any Care Counts, we can boost the Massachusetts economy by helping ensure a healthy and stable workforce," said Carolyn Kirk, Executive Director for Mass Tech Collaborative. "Technology and online tools like this can alleviate caregiver's health, financial, and emotional burdens, bringing about improved economic and social outcomes. This effort will raise awareness among our business community and our workforce, helping caregivers be seen and heard, while also connecting them to critical resources."

"The challenges of unpaid caregiving know no boundaries and have become increasingly difficult for individuals and families due to COVID-19," said Rev. Dr. Donnie Anderson, Interim Minister of Pilgrim United Church of Christ, New Bedford. "I applaud the Any Care Counts Campaign for banding together partners from the private and public sectors to reach unpaid caregivers in every community to raise awareness and promote positive change and encourage more employers and community leaders to learn more about this effort. Through knowledge, support and community, we can identify more caregivers of all backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses and empower them with critical resources to make a meaningful difference."

"At Community Servings, we believe that health and wellbeing is a fundamental right for everyone, and we wholeheartedly support the mission of the Any Care Counts campaign to raise awareness and support for unpaid caregivers and their families across Massachusetts," said David Waters, CEO of Community Servings. "Our teams see unpaid caregivers all around us and are proud to lift them up one meal at a time to provide essential nourishment to chronically and critically ill individuals and their families, and we're committed to a movement that can recognize and empower more people to get the support they need and deserve to lead a healthier life."

About ARCHANGELS:

ARCHANGELS is a national movement and a platform that is reframing how caregivers are seen, honored, and supported using a combination of data and stories. ARCHANGELS believes that shining a light on caregivers is the first step, and has created a software platform, called the Caregiver Intensity Index (CII), as an online tool to engage all caregivers-- even if they don't see themselves in that role. This platform provides a 'score' that not only validates the caregiver experience, but crosswalks them over to a wide range of existing resources that often already exist but go underutilized due to lack of awareness. ARCHANGELS is dedicated to working with states, communities, employers, healthcare providers, and payers in providing greater awareness, access, and a data-driven approach that improves caregiver's lives for the better. Join the movement today and learn more about ARCHANGELS at archangels.me .

About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (bluecrossma.org) is a community-focused, tax-paying, not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Boston. We are committed to the relentless pursuit of quality, equitable and affordable health care with an unparalleled consumer experience. Consistent with our promise to always put our members first, we are rated among the nation's best health plans for member satisfaction and quality. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

About the Mass Caregiving Initiative:

The Mass Caregiving Initiative at the MassTech Collaborative is designed to support caregivers in their communities and workplaces by working with public and private sector partners and collaborating across industry, academia, and government to turn shared challenges into economic opportunity.

The broad goals of the Initiative are to: 1) increase critical supports for family caregivers in Massachusetts; 2) support the Massachusetts economy and ensure a healthy, stable workforce; 3) grow the tech and innovation ecosystem in the Commonwealth; and 4) advise on policy recommendations to better support family caregivers.

Learn more about the Mass Caregiving Initiative and MassTech at https://masstech.org/about-masstech/programs-accelerating-innovation-commonwealth/mass-caregiving-initiative.

SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Related Links

http://www.bluecrossma.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capella Space, an information services company that provides high-quality, high-speed Earth observation data on demand, today announced the appointment of Amy Hopkins as vice president and general manager of its U.S. government services. Hopkins joins a growing team of industry experts as customer demand grows for Capella's high-resolution, high-quality synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data.

With over two decades of experience in the defense and intelligence industry, Hopkins will help further support Capella's U.S. government customers and deepen the company's presence in the defense and intelligence market. Hopkins joins the team after working as the senior director of Boeing's Phantom Works defense and security strategy. Prior to Boeing, Hopkins held senior positions at both private and public sector defense and intelligence organizations, including Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the United States Pacific Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"I've seen how immensely valuable SAR data is for tactical and intelligence decision-making. Capella is the first U.S. company to commercialize SAR, and scaling this technology will give our intelligence community an informational edge," said Amy Hopkins, Capella's new vice president and general manager of U.S. government services. "Capella is already doing great work with several U.S. Department of Defense agencies, and I'm looking forward to helping the team continue to grow and deepen its partnerships within the U.S. government."

"Our entire team at Capella Space is excited to welcome Amy Hopkins to the company," said Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella Space. "Amy has firsthand experience as both the tactical user and the policymaker. She brings deep knowledge of the customer's challenges and how we can help them extract greater intelligence as well as operational, planning and policy value."

In addition to Hopkins joining the team, Capella also announced the company has hired a new government programs manager, Stosh Kowalski. Kowalski brings over two decades of experience in both satellite engineering and the U.S. Air Force and joins Capella's team of highly experienced leaders serving U.S. government customers.

Capella Space has partnered with several U.S. Department of Defense agencies, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Space Force. Capella's technology innovations and the strategic growth of its federal team position the company to provide its growing list of U.S. Government customers with fast, direct access to reliable SAR data to solve a variety of challenges from tactical users to global policymaking.

To learn more about Capella Space's high-resolution data and offerings, please visit the Capella website .

About Capella Space:

Capella Space is an information services company that provides on-demand 50cm high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Earth observation imagery. Through a constellation of small satellites, Capella provides easy access to frequent, timely and flexible information affecting dozens of industries worldwide. Capella's high-resolution SAR satellites are matched with unparalleled infrastructure to deliver reliable global insights that sharpen our understanding of the changing world  improving decisions about commerce, conservation and security on Earth. Learn more at www.capellaspace.com .

Capella Space Media Contact:

Alex Nelson

[email protected]

SOURCE Capella Space

Related Links

http://www.capellaspace.com


AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BAT Investments, Inc. has acquired Capital Bank of Texas (CBOT), headquartered in Carrizo Springs, TX, as part of an effort to expand and strengthen the role of community banks in the state.

BAT Investments, Inc. Co-founder Bobby Priestley, who will serve as Capital Bank of Texas Chairman and CEO BAT Investments, Inc. Co-founder Tanya Miller, who will serve as Capital Bank of Texas President and Chief Risk Officer

Founded by entrepreneurs and long-time bankers Bobby Priestley and Tanya Miller, BAT Investments was backed by more than 180 local investors who contributed in excess of $28 million in capital. "The level of support we received is a testament to the enduring influence that community banks have on their local economies," Miller said. "We're looking forward to fulfilling the trust our investors have placed both in us and in the role of community banks."

BAT Investments' expansion plans include an Austin branch in early 2022. "It's exciting to be a part of such a robust market," said Miller, who will serve as President and Chief Risk Officer. "We're looking forward to serving the small businesses and families of Central Texas."

With the acquisition, Capital Bank of Texas assets are just over $100 million, which includes branches in Carrizo Springs and Crystal City, as well as a loan production office in Austin. Co-founder Bobby Priestley, who will serve as the bank's Chairman and CEO, said existing customers should expect no interruptions in service. "The branches will remain open and the staff will continue to provide the quality service that customers are accustomed to receiving," he said. "However, new product and service enhancements will be forthcoming."

Priestley and Miller are backed by a board of directors composed of civic leaders, business owners and financial services professionals representing both the Central and South Texas markets. They include George "Hal" Davis, Jr., Mark Mangum, Kevin Hunter, Delores Crum, Mohammed Ali, Fred C. Allen, Jr., and Von Box.

BAT Investments entered into an agreement to purchase on Jan. 15, 2021, and the acquisition was finalized on Sept. 28, 2021. The transaction was represented by attorney Bruce Toppin III with Langley & Banack, Incorporated of San Antonio.

About BAT Investments, Inc.

Composed of principals Bobby Priestley and Tanya Miller, BAT Investments represents nearly four decades of banking and financial services experience. Founded with a mission to foster community banking and the small businesses it supports; BAT is dedicated to revitalizing the concept of local banks supporting local businesses.

Media Contact: Motley Crew Media for BAT Investments, Inc.

Nicole Shiro | 512.740.6665 | [email protected]

Amy S. Layton | 512.695.0799 | [email protected]

SOURCE BAT Investments, Inc
DALLAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Compass Datacenters' Chief Innovation Officer Nancy Novak is the inaugural winner of the Exceptional Woman in Building Award given out by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). The Exceptional Woman in Building Award recognizes a trailblazing woman who has made outstanding contributions to the built environment. NIBS instituted this award to recognize and celebrate the construction industry's remarkable female thought leaders, entrepreneurs and champions of change. NIBS announced the winners of this and other awards yesterday evening in an awards ceremony during its Building Innovation 2021 conference.

The National Institute of Building Sciences brings together labor and consumer interests, government representatives, regulatory agencies and members of the building industry to identify and resolve problems and potential issues around the construction of housing and commercial buildings. NIBS is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization. It was established by the U.S. Congress in 1974.

"Nancy has been a pioneer in so many ways in our industry. She has held senior leadership positions at some of our industry's most influential companies  paving the way for other women in the industry by example and through her tireless advocacy for women in STEM," said Lakisha A. Woods, CAE, President and CEO of NIBS. "She fights for greater diversity and opportunity in our industry and beyond, and we appreciate her contributions to NIBS. Congratulations, Nancy, and thank you for everything you do."

"This is a tremendous honor, particularly coming from the extraordinary team at NIBS, which does so much for our industry and for building professionals," said Nancy Novak. "For decades, NIBS has been a powerful voice in support of building sciences. Its work has made our industry more innovative, more diverse, safer and more collaborative. I'm honored to be a member of NIBS, and I encourage everyone  particularly young professionals  to join and be part of shaping the future of our industry."

For more information about the awards and NIBS' mission, visit www.nibs.org.

About Compass Datacenters

Compass makes lives better by providing the world's technology leaders a secure place to plug in wherever they grow. We provide custom, move-in ready data centers from edge deployments to core facilities serving hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers. Since our inception, we have embraced sustainability with the efficient use of land, green energy, water free cooling and building materials. Our campus approach empowers customers with easily-scalable capacity, high levels of control and ultimate flexibility with the long-term perspective and financial strength of private investors, RedBird Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Azrieli Group. For more information, visit www.compassdatacenters.com.

SOURCE Compass Datacenters

Related Links

http://www.compassdatacenters.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) today announced that its board of directors approved a quarterly dividend payment of $0.3125 per share of CAG common stock to be paid on December 1, 2021 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 1, 2021.

About Conagra Brands

Conagra Brands, Inc. (NYSE: CAG), headquartered in Chicago, is one of North America's leading branded food companies. Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit, Conagra Brands combines a rich heritage of making great food with a sharpened focus on innovation. The company's portfolio is evolving to satisfy people's changing food preferences. Conagra's iconic brands, such as Birds Eye, Marie Callender's, Banquet, Healthy Choice, Slim Jim, Reddi-wip, and Vlasic, as well as emerging brands, including Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Duke's, Earth Balance, Gardein, and Frontera, offer choices for every occasion. For more information, visit www.conagrabrands.com.

For more information, please contact:

MEDIA: Mike Cummins

312-549-5257

[email protected]

INVESTORS: Brian Kearney

312-549-5002

[email protected]

SOURCE Conagra Brands, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.conagrabrands.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Almost 11,500 property owners who overpaid their First Installment taxes will automatically get back $25.4 million in refunds this month, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today.

Almost 4,000 refunds go to homeowners who are receiving property tax exemptions. The value of those exemptions is applied to the Second Installment tax bill, reducing the total taxes due.

Pappas has tried to make homeowners aware of potential exemptions as she attends community events throughout Chicago and suburban Cook County.

"The outreach efforts of my office, along with the Black and Latino Houses Matter program, are helping homeowners become more aware of how they can reduce their property tax burden," Pappas said.

To see if you are receiving a portion of the refunds, visit cookcountytreasurer.com, select the purple box labeled "Your Property Overview" and enter your address.

The refunds, which the Treasurer's Office will begin issuing this week, include:

5,137 homeowners who paid their property taxes online or by check will see funds electronically deposited to their bank or credit card accounts totaling $14.9 million

5,484 homeowners who paid their taxes through a bank/mortgage escrow account will be mailed refund checks totaling $10.1 million

808 homeowners who paid taxes totaling $412,177 in cash and will be mailed a refund application to ensure the proper party receives the refund

Pappas launched the automatic refund program in July 2018. Since then, 121,000 property owners have received about $82 million in refunds without having to fill out an application.

As a reminder, Second Installment 2020 property taxes are due Friday, Oct. 1.

Information: Maria Pappas (312) 603-6202

SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office

Related Links

www.cookcountytreasurer.com


SEATTLE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Member Access Processing (MAP), the nation's leading provider of the Visa DPS Debit, Credit, ATM, Prepaid, and Mobile Processing platform, today announced the launch of their Visa Prepaid Virtual cards. Virtual cards are issued and stored digitally with no corresponding physical plastic.

"At MAP, we are speeding up the process for credit union members to have access to prepaid funds," states Cyndie Martini, MAP's Chief Executive Officer. "The Visa Prepaid Virtual cards gives members the ability to make online purchases with a desktop computer or mobile phone right away without the plastic prepaid card."

The Visa Prepaid Virtual works anywhere Visa is accepted and works exactly like a Visa debit card. It has the first name, last name, expiration date, and a secure CVV code. At the point of purchase, the cardholder's Visa account information is entered online for purchases. MAP also provides online access for cardholders to access their account and transaction information in real-time.

The safer choice, the Visa Prepaid Virtual card is backed by Visa's fraud technology and the cardholder can access their virtual card on multiple devices. Credit Unions also benefit by not having to order plastic cards for their members. MAP's best-in-class customer service team is always there to support credit unions and their members with their Prepaid programs.

About Member Access Processing (MAP)

Member Access Processing (MAP) is the nation's only card processing aggregator of the Visa Debit Processing Service platform for credit unions. MAP's special role in the marketplace provides our client credit unions the unique opportunity to leverage the Technology, Security, and Service of Visa for their members. MAP is a subsidiary of Currence Payment Solutions, a Credit Union Service Organization, with an unrivaled committed to the credit union movement where credit union are valued first and foremost. Working directly with Visa, MAP offer customized, turn-key Debit, Credit, ATM, Mobile, Prepaid-Reloadable, and Gift solutions  all supported by MAP's five-star training, support and service.

Media Contact:

Lexie Robinson

(253) 315-9193

[email protected]

SOURCE Member Access Processing (MAP)

Related Links

http://www.mapacific.com


First held in 1996, Cine Gear Expo is a global event for the technology, entertainment, and media industry, offering artists and technicians the opportunities to discover and learn the latest technology and techniques in content capture hardware, workflow software, support equipment, and production service. Together with Prolycht, EcoFlow joined Cine Gear Expo's most recent list of exhibitors, bringing a combo of portable power and full-color lighting to the event's 2021 edition.

"We are thrilled to join forces with Prolycht and bring more possibilities to the cinematography world," said Boyang Zhang, Director of Enterprise Business at EcoFlow. "The DELTA Max simplifies the process of large shoots and brings more flexibility by providing a portable and renewable power source. It frees photographic equipment like an Orion 300 FS from the grid and enables filmmakers to explore untapped territories."

Launched in July 2021 on Kickstarter, the EcoFlow DELTA Max became the most funded tech project on the crowdfunding platform along with the EcoFlow DELTA Pro. With a base capacity of 2016Wh expandable to 6048Wh, the EcoFlow DELTA Max can serve as a backup power solution or power professional tools, one of which would be the Prolycht Orion 300 FS. Revolutionary in its own way, the Prolycht Orion 300 FS can emit almost any color and accurately emulate any light source via its Hyperlight color engine. The extreme accuracy, combined with its ability to shape and control light in a multitude of ways, offers cinematographers new creative opportunities.

"The DELTA Max and the Orion 300 FS are a natural fit, and there are a lot of similarities between EcoFlow and Prolycht. Both companies are young and innovative and look to transform businesses and industries with their technology. We saw many positives during the two-day exhibition as the combo drew a great deal of attention from the Hollywood community, and many insightful exchanges were made with exhibitors, leaders, and professionals from different industries," said Zhang.

About EcoFlow

EcoFlow is a portable power and renewable energy solutions company. Since its founding in 2017, EcoFlow has provided peace-of-mind power to customers in over 85 markets through its DELTA and RIVER product lines of portable power stations and eco-friendly accessories. EcoFlow's mission is to reinvent the way the world accesses energy by innovating lighter-weight and longer-lasting clean, quiet and renewable power storage solutions.

SOURCE EcoFlow Inc.
Houston is home to more than 160,000 businesses, bringing together leaders in the financial, energy, biomedical, aerospace, and healthcare sectors. As these industries scale and incorporate multi-faceted IT architectures, innovation and technology adoption are changing the face of Houston and increasing demand for high-performance data center services. "Businesses have experienced a seismic shift toward digital advancement and require the always-on availability and proven operational expertise that our purpose-built Houston facility provides," says Ken Parent, CEO of Element Critical.

The expansion project at Houston One broke ground on September 22nd, celebrating the project's commencement and selection of Executive Construction Inc. as the general contractor. "Executive Construction's impressive portfolio of over 150 mission-critical projects and the successful completion of our Chicagoland data center expansion makes them a great partner for our first development collaboration in Texas," says Matt O'Hare, Director of Design and Construction Operations.

Houston One's first construction phase will extend the original building's core and shell 33,000 sq. ft. to envelope two new 5 MW dedicated data halls. The projected completion in Q2 of 2022 will raise Houston One's total capacity to 32 MW. Each new data hall will provision fully customizable space, delivering customers complete autonomy and flexibility in their own highly secure environment, while leveraging the lowest total occupancy cost in Houston. Element Critical further enables customization, installing a dedicated power transformer fit-out so customers can prioritize energy savings with a choose-your-own-power provider option.

Customers of Houston One can further capitalize on a full suite of telecom solutions to better connect their business's critical applications. The carrier-neutral site hosts 15+ carrier partners, multiplying solutions for our customers in a way that is difficult to achieve with an on-premises data center environment. Critical network interconnection positions Texas businesses to accelerate key initiatives, delivering increased bandwidth to support a remote workforce and leveraging broad interconnection capability to reach multi-cloud providers and connect their distributed IT environments.

As businesses continue to migrate to this area and Texas gains in economic strength, Element Critical is pleased to grow this cutting-edge facility and provide ample disaster recovery space for Houston customers in our companion site in Austin, Texas.

About Element Critical

Element Critical is a leading provider of tailored data center services backed by our solutions engineering expertise. Element Critical's Tier III facilities are hybrid IT-ready, network-rich, concurrently maintainable, and available in various deployment sizes and densities. Element Critical cares as much about the people we serve as the servers we house. For more information, visit www.elementcritical.com or connect with our team at [email protected]

About Executive Construction

Executive Construction is a general contractor whose work is underscored by a highly principled approach to business. At the core of each Executive Construction project is an unwavering integrity that champions clear process, operational excellence, and collaborative teams committed to shared success. With annual revenues above $300M, team members lead builds within the new construction, interiors, renovations, and mission critical markets. Collaboration is in their DNA. Over the past 45+ years, they have established themselves as a trusted partner to nationally recognized architects and engineers, creating unique spaces for notable clients and Fortune 500 companies.

Media Contact:

Nisa Hunt

[email protected]

SOURCE Element Critical
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Elios Therapeutics, LLC, an immuno-oncology company focused on the development and commercialization of next-generation, immune-mediated technologies for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Michael Caprio, C.P.A., an accomplished business executive, to the Company's Board of Directors. For over three decades, Michael has demonstrated leadership in guiding business strategy for many organizations, including business development, quality control and personnel development.

"Michael has exceptional experience in guiding the financial strategy of high-growth and businesses which will be invaluable as we advance our lead vaccine candidates into a Phase III registrational trial and expand our therapeutic platform into other indications," said Buddy Long, chief executive officer of Elios Therapeutics. "On behalf of the leadership team, we are pleased to welcome Michael to our Board of Directors during this important period of growth and evolution for Elios."

About Michael Caprio

Caprio currently serves as an independent consultant providing financial and litigation expertise after a 32-year career as an audit partner with KPMG, an international accounting and advisory firm. At KPMG, Michael held several leadership positions, including National Industrial Markets Audit Leader, Partner in Charge - Audit of the New England Business Unit, Managing Partner of the Providence, Rhode Island office and Global Lead Partner for several exchange listed companies. Michael has served on the board of directors of professional, philanthropic, and social organizations, including KATANA Safety and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, RI. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, operating multi-site professional services, SEC Regulations, Initial Public Offerings, private equity, board and investor communications, litigation support, accounting and internal control. Michael is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and is a certified public accountant.

"I am delighted to have the opportunity to join the Elios Board at this pivotal time in the Company's life cycle," said Michael Caprio. "Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide and Elios has made great strides in advancing its immunotherapy platform of therapeutic cancer vaccines which may transform the way we treat cancer. I look forward to contributing my experience and helping to further the Company's efforts to deliver promising therapeutic options for the cancer community."

About Elios Therapeutics, LLC

Elios Therapeutics, LLC is an immuno-oncology company focused on the development and commercialization of next-generation, immune-mediated technologies for the treatment of cancer, developing a portfolio of innovative personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines targeting unmet medical needs across a broad range of tumor types.

Elios holds exclusive licenses for two lead therapeutic candidates, the TLPLDC (tumor lysate, particle-loaded, dendritic cell) vaccine and TLPO (tumor lysate, particle only) vaccine, personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines that use a proprietary particle delivery system to stimulate the body's immune system to recognize cancer cells as foreign pathogens and fight a patient's specific cancer. Elios is investigating the clinical potential of TLPLDC and TLPO in U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trials. For more information, please visit www.eliostherapeutics.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains forwardlooking statements relating to the Company's strategy, objectives, business development plans and financial position. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this document, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's future financial position, strategy, anticipated investments, costs and results, status and results of clinical trials, size of patient population, plans, outcomes of product development efforts, and objectives of management for future operations, may be deemed to be forwardlooking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" or the negative of those terms, and similar expressions that convey uncertainty or future events or outcomes.

These forwardlooking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to be materially different from those contemplated, projected, forecasted, estimated or budgeted, whether expressed or implied, by these forwardlooking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forwardlooking statements as a prediction of actual results. None of these forwardlooking statements constitutes a guarantee of the future occurrence of such events or of actual results. These statements are based on data, assumptions, and estimates that the Company believes are reasonable.

The forwardlooking statements contained in this document are made only as of the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates of any forward-looking statements contained in this document to reflect any change in its actual results, assumptions, expectations or any change in events, factors, conditions, or circumstances on which any forwardlooking statement contained in this document is based.

Contacts:

Media Relations

Melyssa Weible

Elixir Health Public Relations

+1 (201) 723-5805

[email protected]

SOURCE Elios Therapeutics, LLC

Related Links

http://www.eliostherapeutics.com


NAMMBA partners with banks, lenders, and fintechs to foster diversity and inclusion within these firms, bring financial literacy education to consumers, and mentor students and recent graduates into future innovation, diversity, and financial literacy leaders. Through this partnership, Equifax will work to expand access to credit to underserved and marginalized borrowers while also working to deliver differentiated data to align with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

"The Equifax purpose is to help people live their financial best. We are committed to working with the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), lenders and organizations like NAMMBA to help unlock homeownership for all," said Craig Crabtree, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Equifax Mortgage & Housing Services. "Expanded inclusion starts with expanded visibility, and Equifax can provide differentiated consumer credit, consumer and marketing insights as well as income and employment information from The Work Number database. As a leader in the mortgage industry, it is our responsibility to deliver solutions and opportunities to benefit the diverse make-up of the communities we serve."

According to NAMMBA, over the next five years, 75 percent of all first-time home buyers will be women, millennials or people of color. Additionally, according to NAMMBA's most recent mortgage market forecast, the three largest diverse borrower groups (Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics) generated more than $292 billion of purchase opportunity in 2020, which amounts to 24.2 percent of all purchase dollar opportunity.

"We are proud to be partnering with Equifax," says NAMMBA Founder/CEO Tony Thompson, CMB. "Their pledge to NAMMBA's mission of strengthening the mortgage and finance industry with a more diverse and inclusive workplace culture shows that they are looking to the future of homeownership in America."

About NAMMBA

The National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America is a purpose-driven organization that is dedicated to the inclusion of minorities and women in the mortgage industry who are advocates for sustainable homeownership in local communities. To fulfil its mission, NAMMBA provides programs and initiatives to introduce minorities and women into the mortgage industry, including recruiting, advisory, networking and training for enterprises and individual professionals. For more information, visit: http://www.nammba.org .

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by more than 12,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Kate Walker for Equifax

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.

Related Links

http://www.equifax.com


https://medium.com/@ericjiasobota/new-white-house-pandemic-preparedness-plan-something-for-everyone-312da05e63bc

"EverGlade is excited to launch this new initiative and support the pandemic response," explained Jerry Jia-Sobota, Chairman of EverGlade. "Start-ups and small companies often have the most innovative technology, and we want to do everything we can to help the US Government have every possible tool to combat this pandemic," he concluded.

The website was launched on September 22, 2021, and its goal is to provide a platform for companies to submit online applications to seek advice and counsel from EverGlade.

For more information, visit:

https://www.EverGladeCares.org

About EverGlade Consulting

EverGlade Consulting is a Washington, DC based consulting firm that helps clients navigate the federal landscape. EverGlade is inspired by technology-driven companies whose focus is to secure non-dilutive funding through the federal government. EverGlade offers services ranging from proposal support through the implementation of systems to comply with federal regulations at agencies including BARDA, the DOD, HHS, NIAID, and DTRA.

For additional information about EverGlade Consulting, visit:

https://www.EverGlade.com

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE EverGlade Consulting

Related Links

https://www.everglade.com/


LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BIOTRONIK announced today it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its Orsiro Mission bioabsorbable polymer drug-eluting stent system (BP-DES). The company also announced the first U.S. implant and full commercial launch of the new DES system, which offers advanced deliverability and an ultrathin strut design considered the thinnest available in the United States.

"We welcome the availability of the Orsiro Mission DES in the US as a novel percutaneous coronary intervention device offering better outcomes," said Dr. David Kandzari, Chief of the Piedmont Heart Institute and Cardiovascular Service Line; Director, Interventional Cardiology of the Piedmont Heart Institute; and Chief Scientific Officer for Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta, USA, whose facility is among the first to receive the newly approved device. "The outstanding deliverability and the extensive clinical data give strong evidence for continued Orsiro Mission adoption."

The Orsiro DES is one of the most studied stents available today throughout numerous randomized controlled trials (RCTs), registries and meta-analyses1. The Orsiro Mission DES features the same proprietary stent design and innovative bioabsorbable coating with controlled drug release as the Orsiro stent. Improvements to the new Orsiro Mission DES system include a re-engineered delivery system and a new deep embedding process to further improve deliverability, including 'best in class' trackability and crossability2.

The key highlights from the Orsiro drug-eluting stent clinical program demonstrating outstanding outcomes3:

BIOFLOW-V three-year study with 1,334 patients shows that Orsiro DES offers a 40% lower target lesion failure rate (TLF) than Abbott's Xience DES, 46% lower target vessel myocardial infarction (TV-MI) rate and 52% lower ischemia driven target lesion revascularization (TLR) rate. These findings suggest a new direction in improving next-generation drug-eluting stent technology and indicate that thinner struts are associated with improved clinical outcomes 4 .

. An extensive network meta-analysis of 77 RCTs published in JACC Cardiovascular Interventions with over 99,000 patients demonstrates that Orsiro DES had the highest probability of ranking as the best stent and was associated with a statistically significant lower rate of target lesion failure (TLF) than Abbott's Xience or Medtronic's Resolute 1 .

. A systemic review and meta-analysis published in the European Heart Journal with more than 20,000 patients demonstrated that ultrathin strut Orsiro DES was associated with a 15% reduction in long-term TLF compared with conventional second generation DES5.

"We will continue to bolster our interventional cardiology portfolio with innovations like the Orsiro Mission and state-of-the-art PK Papyrus covered stent system to support and improve patient care," said David Hayes, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, BIOTRONIK, Inc. "This emphasizes our commitment to excellence and reinforces our vision to ensure the highest quality."

Orsiro and Orsiro Mission are trademarks or registered trademarks of the BIOTRONIK Group of Companies.

All other trademarks or registered trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners.

References:

Taglieri N, Bruno AG, Ghetti G, Marrozzini C, Saia F, Galie N, Palmerini T. Target Lesion Failure With Current Drug-Eluting Stents: Evidence From a Comprehensive Network Meta-Analysis. JACC Cardiovasc Interv. 2020 Dec 28;13(24):2868-2878. doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2020.09.014. PMID: 33357524. In comparison to Xience Sierra, Resolute Onyx and Synergy for bench tests on pushability, trackability and crossability. BIOTRONIK data on file. Kandzari DE et al. Ultrathin, bioresorbable polymer sirolimus-eluting stents versus thin, durable polymer everolimus-eluting stents in patients undergoing coronary revascularisation (BIOFLOW V). Lancet. 2017; 390(10105): 1843-1852. Kandzari D et al. D et al. Ultrathin bioresorbable-polymer sirolimus-eluting stents versus thin durable-polymer everolimus-eluting stents for coronary revascularization: 3-year outcomes from the randomized BIOFLOW V trial. JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. 2020. Supplementary material. Mahesh V Madhavan, James P Howard, Azim Naqvi , Ori Ben-Yehuda , Bjorn Redfors, Megha Prasad , Bahira Shahim , Martin B Leon, Sripal Bangalore, Gregg W Stone, Yousif Ahmad , Long-term follow-up after ultrathin vs. conventional 2nd-generation drug-eluting stents: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, European Heart Journal, 2021; ehab280, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab280

About Orsiro Mission:

https://us.orsiro.com/orsiromission

About BIOTRONIK:

BIOTRONIK is a leading medical device company that has been developing trusted and innovative cardiovascular and endovascular solutions for more than 50 years. Driven by a purpose to perfectly match technology with the human body, BIOTRONIK innovations deliver care that saves and improves the lives of millions diagnosed with heart and blood vessel diseases every year. BIOTRONIK is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and is represented in over 100 countries.

Follow us on:

SOURCE BIOTRONIK

Related Links

www.biotronik.com


SHANGHAI, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FinVolution Group ("FinVolution", or the "Company") (NYSE: FINV), a leading fintech platform in China, today announced that it has completed the issuance of RMB200 million asset-backed securities ("ABS") which will list and trade on Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The issued ABS will be a fifteen-month consumer loan-backed financial security under the title Tian Feng - FinVolution Group Phase 1 Trust Beneficiary Right Asset Support Special Plan, with Tian Feng Securities undertaking responsibility for the management. In addition, as of June 30, 2021, FinVolution Group 90-day-plus delinquency ratio reached a new historical low to 1.01%.

Mr. Feng Zhang, the Chief Executive Officer of FinVolution, commented, "The successful issuance of our first ABS is an important milestone that validates our successful transition to better quality borrowers supported by our leading cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated credit risk management framework. As institutional funding partners' interest and trust in the quality of our assets thrive, ABS also serve as an important channel for high quality funding in the future. Building on our technological capabilities and in-depth cooperation with our channel partners, we will continue to attract new borrowers with better credit quality and deliver a sustainable return for all of our stakeholders."

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in 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," "target," "confident" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, uncertainties as to the Company's ability to attract and retain borrowers and investors on its marketplace, its ability to increase volume of loans facilitated through the Company's marketplace, its ability to introduce new loan products and platform enhancements, its ability to compete effectively, laws, regulations and governmental policies relating to the online consumer finance industry in China, general economic conditions in China, and the Company's ability to meet the standards necessary to maintain listing of its ADSs on the NYSE, including its ability to cure any non-compliance with the NYSE's continued listing criteria. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and FinVolution does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

About FinVolution Group

FinVolution Group is a leading fintech platform in China and internationally connecting underserved borrowers with financial institutions. Established in 2007, the Company is a pioneer in China's online consumer finance industry and has developed innovative technologies and has accumulated in-depth experience in the core areas of credit risk assessment, fraud detection, big data and artificial intelligence. The Company's platform, empowered by proprietary cutting-edge technologies, features a highly automated loan transaction process, which enables a superior user experience. As of June 30, 2021, the Company had over 130.8 million cumulative registered users.

For more information, please visit: http://ir.finvgroup.com.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

In China:

FinVolution Group

Head of Investor Relations

Jimmy Tan

Tel: +86 (21) 8030 3200- Ext 8601

E-mail: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Jenny Cai

Tel: +86 (10) 6508-0677

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE FinVolution Group
FORT WORTH, Texas and DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chisholm Energy Holdings, LLC ("Chisholm Energy" or the "Company") announced a partnership to install real-time air emissions monitoring devices on select production facilities in southeastern New Mexico with the goal to receive independent operational certification from Project Canary.

Project Canary to provide independent, real-time emission monitoring services and certification of operations in southeastern New Mexico .

. Environmental performance measurements further supports Chisholm Energy's commitment to ESG.

Backed by Warburg Pincus and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Chisholm Energy is the first independent exploration and production company operating in the New Mexico portion of the Delaware Basin to seek independent certification of its operations from Project Canary.

"We believe that by combining our operational expertise with sound environmental best practices, we can deliver value and develop our assets in the most responsible, efficient manner," said Scott Germann, Chisholm Energy CEO said. "Through this agreement, we aim to improve our operations further, and gain access to premium domestic and international certified low emission commodity markets, and we're excited to be an early Permian mover in this rapidly growing market."

Through the pilot agreement, Project Canary will deploy its Canary X continuous, real-time emissions monitoring technology at a location in Lea County New Mexico. Project Canary's continuous air monitors utilize a precise, laser-based technology that accurately measures, detects, and alerts operators to methane and other emissions.

Chisholm Energy will also seek Project Canary's Upstream (TrustWell) Certification of its operations. This independent, well-level certification provides third-party verification that the operator has utilized the highest environmental standards and ESG practices in all phases of their operations. Together, monitoring and certification provide both producers and buyers with an independent assessment of the soundness of production operations while enabling improved performance and access to differentiated product markets.

"The market for independent continuous monitoring and certification of responsible operations is growing exponentially. As a result, forward-thinking operators like Chisholm Energy are taking action to strengthen their ESG profiles and enhance environmental performance," said Project Canary co-founder and CEO Chris Romer. "Chisholm Energy's action sets a new benchmark for its Permian peers."

As detailed in the agreement, which includes options to extend to additional pads, the companies expect the 'Canary X' units to be installed in Q4 with TrustWell by Project Canary certifications complete by Q1 2022.

Contacts

Project Canary

Brian Miller  [email protected]

VP Growth & Policy



Chisholm Energy

Aaron Gaydosik  [email protected]

Chief Financial Officer

About the Pilot Participants

Chisholm Energy is a privately held, Fort Worth, Texas based, independent exploration and production company with operating assets in Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico. The Company is focused on pursuing unconventional resource opportunities in the northern Delaware Basin. Chisholm Energy is led by a seasoned team of oil and gas executives in partnership with Warburg Pincus and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. For more information, visit www.chisholmenergy.com.

Project Canary is an independent certification organization that measures, tracks, and delivers trusted ESG data across the energy value chain. They are the leaders in the rating and certification of responsible energy operating practices and provide science and technology-backed emission profiles via continuous monitoring hardware synced with a real-time dashboard. Project Canary Upstream (TrustWell) Certifications, Midstream Certifications, and Canary Continuous Monitoring help identify the most responsible energy supply chain operators. Formed as a Public Benefit Corporation, Project Canary's team of scientists, engineers, and seasoned industry operators have earned recognition for their uncompromising standards, including being named "Best for the World 2021" B Corp. For more information, visit www.projectcanary.com

SOURCE Project Canary
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) announced that its largest subsidiary, First National Bank, was named the winner in the best mobile experience category as part of the Bank Customer Experience (BCX) Awards. One of only four 2021 winners, FNB joins some of the largest and most renowned financial institutions, globally and in the U.S., in being recognized for its innovative customer experience.

FNB was named a Bank Customer Experience Award winner in the best mobile experience category for its Clicks-to-Bricks strategy, including its unique Solutions Center e-Store.

The BCX Awards are presented by Networld Media Group to honor the most unique, innovative and pioneering financial institutions and technology providers whose branches and technologies are having the greatest impact on consumers around the world. FNB received the award for its multi-channel Clicks-to-Bricks strategy, which includes a fully digital bank to integrate the in-branch, online and mobile banking experiences. Clicks-to-Bricks provides customers with a personalized shopping experience featuring product recommendations, interactive video content and the ability to apply for loans, deposit accounts and other services online. FNB's significant investments in digital solutions enable the Company to accommodate changes in technology, educate consumers and improve access to financial products and services, including credit.

"Receiving this latest recognition for our world-class mobile platform affirms that our significant investments in technology have resulted in a customer experience that sets FNB apart," said Samuel D. Kirsch, Chief Digital Officer of First National Bank. "FNB's Solutions Center e-Store gives clients the ability to filter and compare accounts, utilize tools to find products that best match their needs and make purchases via a shopping cart. We provide a simplified experience that is unique to banking but similar to other online retail experiences."

FNB's most recent award builds on extensive third-party recognition it has received for its exceptional customer service and commitment to innovation. For example, the Bank consistently receives top scores for features and innovation among Mid-Atlantic regional banks as part of S&P Global Market Intelligence's annual Mobile Banking Market Report. Additionally, in the 2021 American Banker/RepTrak Survey of Bank Reputations, FNB received a top five score for innovation based on non-customers' perceptions of FNB as "innovative, known for being first to market and adapting quickly."

To learn more about innovation at FNB, visit fnb-online.com.

About F.N.B. Corporation

F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB), headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a diversified financial services company operating in seven states and the District of Columbia. FNB's market coverage spans several major metropolitan areas including: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and the Piedmont Triad (Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point) in North Carolina. The Company has total assets of more than $38 billion and nearly 340 banking offices throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Virginia.

FNB provides a full range of commercial banking, consumer banking and wealth management solutions through its subsidiary network which is led by its largest affiliate, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, founded in 1864. Commercial banking solutions include corporate banking, small business banking, investment real estate financing, government banking, business credit, capital markets and lease financing. The consumer banking segment provides a full line of consumer banking products and services, including deposit products, mortgage lending, consumer lending and a complete suite of mobile and online banking services. FNB's wealth management services include asset management, private banking and insurance.

The common stock of F.N.B. Corporation trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FNB" and is included in Standard & Poor's MidCap 400 Index with the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) Regional Banks Sub-Industry Index. Customers, shareholders and investors can learn more about this regional financial institution by visiting the F.N.B. Corporation website at www.fnbcorporation.com .

SOURCE F.N.B. Corporation

Related Links

http://www.fnbcorporation.com


VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - On the heels of the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women's Empowerment that was held on August 26th, where the G20 EMPOWER Alliance delivered its Final Communique to G20 leaders, the alliance is pleased to announce the launch of its G20 EMPOWER Best Practices Playbook, available from the G20 website .

Assembled in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the G20 EMPOWER Best Practices Playbook 2021 groups over 150 best practices from 23 countries and a variety of industries, providing examples of policies and actions adopted by the private sector to strengthen companies' commitments and performance to the advancement of women as leaders. The Playbook focuses on three pillars of the G20 EMPOWER Alliance under the 2021 Italian G20 EMPOWER Presidency: Measuring to improve, building and nourishing an efficient and sustainable women talent pipeline, and enabling women to lead the future.

The Playbook is designed to:

Present best practices/policies from G20 countries across private sector industries and organizations, in order to acquire ideas and insights which can be adopted and implemented in the context of each organization;

Enable G20 countries' governments to learn about the best practices implemented across the private sector and inspire policies to reinforce the best practices at the country level;

Enable G20 EMPOWER Advocates to share their best practices publicly with organizations and countries promoting women's leadership and empowerment;

Connect companies and leaders to learn from each other and reinforce the G20 EMPOWER network across G20 countries, and ultimately drive actionable, measurable progress as it relates to women's representation in leadership now and in the future.

"Business leaders have exceptional power to enable the advancement of women as leaders in their organizations, and a vital part of progress is providing a blueprint for success," commented Shahrzad Rafati, Chairperson and CEO of BBTV, and Co-Chair of G20 EMPOWER. "The Best Practices Playbook is more than a guide, it's a wealth of proven case studies to help leaders set relevant goals for their organizations, measure their progress, and track to success. Diverse leadership is vital to a more holistic and successful global economy, and the playbook is a vital keystone at a time when the world needs to build back better."

The 2021 Playbook builds on the practices collected in 2020, supported by the OECD, ILO, and McKinsey, and led to the publication of the G20 EMPOWER report 'Policies and Practices to Promote Women in Leadership Roles in the Private Sector.' It aims to be a living knowledge sharing platform for organizations and leaders working on accelerating women's leadership and empowerment in the private sector and beyond.

About G20 EMPOWER

The G20 Alliance for the Empowerment and Progression of Women's Economic Representation (G20 EMPOWER) was launched at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, following the suggestion of Canada. Under the Italian Presidency, the G20 EMPOWER is led by Paola Mascaro, President of Valore D, with the support of the Italian Department for Equal Opportunities. The purpose of the Alliance is to build and maintain a network within the private sector to identify the challenges, share the lessons learned and the best practices to support greater equity in the advancement of women's leadership. The G20 EMPOWER Alliance is working to deliver its proposals at the G20 Leaders' Summit.

For Further Information

Dan Gamble

[email protected]

+1778 873 0422

SOURCE G20 EMPOWER
DUBLIN, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Cell And Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Market 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global cell and gene therapy clinical trials market size is expected to reach USD 45.4 billion by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 22.3%

Increasing funding, investments in research and development, and successful product launches are boosting the market growth.



Cell and gene therapies (CGTs) signify the next great movement of therapeutic innovation and have resulted in the development of promising therapies around the world. Although a few of the early therapies have got marketing approval in the U.S., there are numerous promising therapies in development across the world.



The market of cell and gene therapy has witnessed significant growth over the past few years with pharma firms partnering to create effective and accessible therapies for patients. As reported by PhRMA in 2019, there were 362 cell and gene therapies in clinical development in the U.S. representing a 20% increase from 2018.

In addition, by the end of 2019, there were more than 1,000 cell and gene therapy clinical trials in the process including 452 gene-modified and cell-based immune-oncology, 352 gene therapies, 216 cell therapies, and 46 tissue engineering.



Besides, investment is rolling into companies of various types, ranging from startups to major acquisitions by significant biopharmaceutical companies. In 2019, 19 deals of M&A worth over USD 156 billion were completed.

The largest of these was the acquisition of Celgene and its pipeline of numerous cell therapy assets by Bristol-Myers Squibb for USD 74 billion is expected to boost its participation in oncology treatments. Hence, representing a noteworthy increase since 2015, when M&A activities in these are totaled about USD 4 billion.



Cell And Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Market Report Highlights

By phase, the phase II segment held the largest share of over 50.0% in 2020 owing to the large number of therapies currently in development in phase II

Based on indication, the oncology segment held the largest share of 47.0% in 2020 as oncology alone contributed to 600 CGT clinical trials out of around 1,000

North America dominated the global market with a share of 48.3% in 2020. This is largely attributed to a large number of clinical trial activities in the U.S. and favorable government support

dominated the global market with a share of 48.3% in 2020. This is largely attributed to a large number of clinical trial activities in the U.S. and favorable government support The Asia Pacific region is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 23.1% over the forecast period owing to the increasing number of biotechnology companies focusing on CGTs

Cell & Gene Clinical Trials Market: Variables, Trends, & Scope

Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

COVID-19 pandemic impact on clinical trial activity

Obstacles in clinical trials:

Disrupted clinical trials:

Companies with Phase I trial disruption

Companies with Phase 2 trial disruption

Companies with Phase 3 trial disruption

Market Driver Analysis

Growing interest in CGT

Favorable regulatory environment

Increasing R&D funding

Market Restraint Analysis

Recruitment obstacles

Industry Challenge

Creating a high-touch treatment center model

Collecting raw materials

Commercialization issues

Opportunity

Drug approval and a strong pipeline of cell & gene therapy

Trends in the CGT

Regulations

COVID-19 Impact on the industry

Time-sensitive CGTs during the pandemic

Cell & Gene Therapy Clinical Trials Market Analysis Tools

Porter's Five Forces Analysis

PESTEL Analysis

Major Deals & Strategic Alliances Analysis



Companies Mentioned

ICON plc

IQVIA Holdings Inc.

PAREXEL International Corporation

Covance Inc.

Syneos Health

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.

Medpace Holdings, Inc.

Novartis

Novotech

Veristat, LLC

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/j211tb

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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DUBLIN, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Automotive Dealer Management System Market Research Report by Type, by Application, by End User, by Region - Global Forecast to 2026 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market size was estimated at USD 2,917.46 Million in 2020 and expected to reach USD 3,225.69 Million in 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) 10.90% to reach USD 5,428.51 Million by 2026.



Market Statistics:

The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major currencies - USD, EUR GBP, JPY, and AUD. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2018 and 2019 are considered historical years, 2020 as the base year, 2021 as the estimated year, and years from 2022 to 2026 are considered the forecast period.

Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Automotive Dealer Management System Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.



Market Share Analysis:

The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits.



Company Usability Profiles:

The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market, including Autofusion, Inc., BiT Dealership Software, Inc., Blue Skies Business Solutions Inc, CDK Global LLC, COGXIM Softwares Pvt. Ltd., Cox Automotive Inc, ELVA BALTIC SIA, GaragePlug Inc., Gateway DMS Pty Ltd, International Business Machines Corporation, Quorum Information Technologies Inc., Ramco Systems Limited, RouteOne, SAP SE, Solera Holdings, Inc., The Reynolds and Reynolds Company, and Wipro Limited.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players

2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets

3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments

4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players

5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?

6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?

7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Automotive Dealer Management System Market?



Key Topics Covered:



1. Preface



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Overview

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19



5. Market Insights

5.1. Market Dynamics

5.1.1. Drivers

5.1.1.1. Growing Need for Enhanced Sales Tracking and Inventory Management

5.1.1.2. Increasing Focus on Improving Customer Relationships

5.1.1.3. Rising Need for Workflow Automation

5.1.2. Restraints

5.1.2.1. Risk of Cyber Attacks

5.1.3. Opportunities

5.1.3.1. Expanding Automotive Dealer Network

5.1.3.2. Organization Emphasis on Cost Optimization and Profitable Growth

5.1.3.3. Technological Advancement in the System

5.1.4. Challenges

5.1.4.1. Limited Awareness and Adoption in Developing Economies

5.2. Porters Five Forces Analysis

5.2.1. Threat of New Entrants

5.2.2. Threat of Substitutes

5.2.3. Bargaining Power of Customers

5.2.4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

5.2.5. Industry Rivalry



6. Automotive Dealer Management System Market, by Type

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Cloud-based

6.3. On-premise



7. Automotive Dealer Management System Market, by Function

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Customer Service

7.3. Data Reports

7.4. Inventory Management



8. Automotive Dealer Management System Market, by Application

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Customer Relationship Management

8.3. Dealer Tracking

8.4. Finance

8.5. Inventory

8.6. Sales



9. Automotive Dealer Management System Market, by End User

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Automotive Rental Services

9.3. Dealership Repair Shops

9.4. New Automotive Dealer

9.5. Used Automotive Dealer



10. Americas Automotive Dealer Management System Market

10.1. Introduction

10.2. Argentina

10.3. Brazil

10.4. Canada

10.5. Mexico

10.6. United States



11. Asia-Pacific Automotive Dealer Management System Market

11.1. Introduction

11.2. Australia

11.3. China

11.4. India

11.5. Indonesia

11.6. Japan

11.7. Malaysia

11.8. Philippines

11.9. South Korea

11.10. Thailand



12. Europe, Middle East & Africa Automotive Dealer Management System Market

12.1. Introduction

12.2. France

12.3. Germany

12.4. Italy

12.5. Netherlands

12.6. Qatar

12.7. Russia

12.8. Saudi Arabia

12.9. South Africa

12.10. Spain

12.11. United Arab Emirates

12.12. United Kingdom



13. Competitive Landscape

13.1. FPNV Positioning Matrix

13.1.1. Quadrants

13.1.2. Business Strategy

13.1.3. Product Satisfaction

13.2. Market Ranking Analysis

13.3. Market Share Analysis, By Quadrant

13.4. Competitive Scenario

13.4.1. Merger & Acquisition

13.4.2. Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership

13.4.3. New Product Launch & Enhancement

13.4.4. Investment & Funding

13.4.5. Award, Recognition, & Expansion



14. Company Usability Profiles

14.1. Autofusion, Inc.

14.2. BiT Dealership Software, Inc.

14.3. Blue Skies Business Solutions Inc

14.4. CDK Global LLC

14.5. COGXIM Softwares Pvt. Ltd.

14.6. Cox Automotive Inc

14.7. ELVA BALTIC SIA

14.8. GaragePlug Inc.

14.9. Gateway DMS Pty Ltd

14.10. International Business Machines Corporation

14.11. Quorum Information Technologies Inc.

14.12. Ramco Systems Limited

14.13. RouteOne

14.14. SAP SE

14.15. Solera Holdings, Inc.

14.16. The Reynolds and Reynolds Company

14.17. Wipro Limited



15. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/71u5wo

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


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- COVID, while devastating some industries, was not so bad in 2021 for many companies selling cloud and premises PBX telephone systems.

With employees returning to the office - the US government reports less than 15% worked remotely last month - the Eastern Management Group is forecasting robust global phone system shipments in a new report, "Worldwide Hosted and Premises PBX Market 2021-2027 and Managed Services."

Surveys from 1,500 communications managers found that in 2021:

The PBX industry slowed but performed well overall

Cloud (UCaaS) systems were a third of all new PBX sales

Premises PBX system sales declined less than expected and accounted for 40% of all shipments

Hybrid PBX and virtualized PBX showed resiliency with a 25% combined overall PBX market share

In prior decades the PBX industry might not have withstood COVID. Yet more than 50 million employees benefited from a new phone system in 2021 for multiple reasons:

A dozen productivity improvement features on new phone systems like mobility and video kept companies humming so employees could work-from-anywhere For as little as $20 a month, an employee could benefit from a new unified communications cloud phone system able to drive a 50% increase in productivity Premises PBX equipment prices continued their slide, thus buttressing system sales

"We expect continued PBX growth throughout the decade said John Malone, President of the Eastern Management Group. New PBX sales should surpass 50 million seat/line licenses every year. No matter the phone system platform, there's not a bad PBX market to be in today."

About The Eastern Management Group: The Eastern Management Group is an American research and consulting company. Founded in 1979, the company is one of the oldest and most experienced communications research firms today. The Eastern Management Group investigates and advises businesses on communications market behavior. The company has offices in the United States and Japan. See us at www.easternmanagement.com

Contact: John Malone

[email protected]

2127389402

ext. 2201

SOURCE The Eastern Management Group

Related Links

www.easternmanagement.com


"It's one of the largest shows in the convenience industry and we are excited to showcase our newest products and brands to retailers and distributors at NACS," said Vince Gillen, Vice President of Sales for Global Widget. "As the CBD category leader, we look to rapidly gain market share in other convenience categories outside of CBD. Retailers recognize our proven go-to-market strategy and count on us to bring products to retail that meet consumer demand."

New products being launched at the 2021 NACS Show include:

Hemp Bombs: Gummies featuring mango, mixed berry and peach flavors

Mystic Labs: MIT 150 Mitragyna speciosa extract shot

150 Mitragyna speciosa extract shot hyper brain iQ: 8-count and 30-count gummies and capsules featuring a proprietary nootropic formula

Also at NACS, retailers will see Global Widget's newest health and wellness brand, Forever Well Nutrition, developed in partnership with America's Personal Trainer, Tony Little. The Forever Well Nutrition line will launch with five varieties of gummies:

Glow Well: featuring biotin, hydrolyzed collagen and vitamin E in a strawberry flavor

Focus Well: featuring ginseng, taurine, L-Theanine and several B and C vitamins in a peach flavor

Sleep Well: featuring melatonin, L-Theanine, lemon balm, chamomile and Passiflora in a blueberry flavor

Energy Well: featuring apple cider vinegar, vitamin B-12, beetroot powder and pomegranate powder in an apple flavor

Immune Well: featuring elderberry, echinacea, vitamins C and D and zinc in a mixed berry flavor

"Our 347 employees include in-house formulation, research and development, quality, compliance, manufacturing and distribution teams. All our products are made in-house, are independently third-party lab tested and meet the highest standards for quality and taste," said Gillen. "Retailers provide tremendous feedback on our products. Their feedback is essential for Global Widget's continued product innovation."

About Us

Global Widget, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and marketer of CBD and health and wellness products, and a leader in gummy production and packaging. The company is the trusted powerhouse behind CBD brands Hemp Bombs and Nature's Script and the wellness brand, Defense Boost. With more than 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space and over 300 employees, Global Widget is one of the nation's largest CBD companies and a leading contract manufacturer providing quality products and support services to retailers, distributors and private brands worldwide. https://globalwidget.com/.

Media Contact:

Joe Agostinelli, PR Manager

813.497.5752 | [email protected]

SOURCE Global Widget

Related Links

global-widget.com


"These are the first holes drilled at Mololoa which show a vein structure with high grades of silver and gold that we believe will add additional ounces and grade to the upcoming initial resource at Los Ricos North," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. "We encountered numerous old workings while drilling Mololoa and will attempt to drill below the level of the old workings, so we are able to see the full extent of the intact mineralized zone."

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

Hole ID Area/Vein From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2



(m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGM-21-001 Soledad Vein 8.6 18.5 9.9 0.21 67.1 1.10 82.6

including 15.0 17.2 2.2 0.46 163.5 2.64 197.7 LRGM-21-002 Mined Void 14.1 18.5 4.4 * * * *

Soledad Vein 18.5 21.4 2.9 0.18 100.0 1.51 113.3 LRGM-21-003 Soledad Vein 34.5 42.3 7.8 0.38 162.2 2.54 190.5

including 35.4 37.7 2.3 1.08 456.2 7.16 537.4 LRGM-21-004 Mined Void 45.0 48.6 3.6 * * * *

Soledad Vein 48.6 61.6 13.0 0.06 86.3 1.21 90.6

including 52.3 55.4 3.1 0.13 182.6 2.56 192.1 LRGM-21-005 Soledad Vein 46.5 61.3 14.8 0.02 49.0 0.67 50.6

including 57.0 61.3 4.3 0.05 89.3 1.24 92.9 LRGM-21-006 Mined Void 104.0 109.7 5.7 * * * *

Soledad Vein 109.7 115.8 6.1 0.95 454.7 7.01 525.7

including 110.8 112.8 2.0 2.58 1,177.5 18.28 1,371.2

including 111.8 112.8 1.0 3.95 1,660.0 26.08 1,956.3 LRGM-21-007 Soledad Vein 9.9 17.5 7.6 0.34 83.1 1.45 108.7

including 14.0 16.0 2.0 0.66 137.0 2.49 186.5 LRGM-21-008 Soledad Vein 18.1 29.1 11.0 0.83 276.3 4.51 338.5

including 23.9 26.1 2.2 2.11 774.5 12.43 932.4

including 23.9 24.5 0.6 3.63 1,180.0 19.36 1,452.3 LRGM-21-009 Mined Void 6.3 9.0 2.7 * * * *

Soledad Vein 13.1 25.1 12.0 0.16 58.1 0.93 69.8

including 20.3 24.1 3.8 0.32 78.9 1.37 102.9 LRGM-21-010 Soledad Vein 22.0 33.5 11.5 0.09 26.3 0.44 33.4

including 23.0 25.0 2.0 0.47 67.5 1.37 102.5

and 81.9 83.0 1.1 0.37 128.0 2.08 156.0 LRGM-21-011 Tamara Vein 26.0 31.4 5.4 1.02 196.0 3.63 272.2

including 28.5 30.4 2.0 1.68 317.4 5.91 443.3

including 28.5 29.0 0.6 3.46 418.0 9.03 677.5 LRGM-21-012 Soledad Vein 114.2 121.8 7.6 0.14 80.0 1.21 90.5

including 118.7 120.3 1.6 0.32 197.3 2.95 221.5 LRGM-21-013 Tamara Vein 26.4 31.8 5.5 1.64 298.9 5.62 421.8

including 28.5 31.2 2.7 2.96 532.2 10.06 754.4

including 28.5 29.5 0.9 4.50 607.0 12.59 944.5

and 41.6 42.8 1.2 0.54 143.0 2.44 183.2 LRGM-21-014 Soledad Vein 28.4 41.0 12.7 0.42 178.0 2.79 209.5

including 33.7 36.3 2.6 1.56 595.0 9.49 711.7

including 33.7 34.6 0.9 1.67 922.0 13.96 1,046.9 LRGM-21-015 Tamara Vein 46.1 46.7 0.7 0.10 39.4 0.62 46.5 LRGM-21-016 Soledad Vein 42.9 47.7 4.9 0.29 69.8 1.22 91.5

including 43.6 46.7 3.2 0.39 93.6 1.64 123.0 LRGM-21-017 Soledad Vein 116.0 120.0 4.0 0.79 263.8 4.30 322.9

including 116.0 118.3 2.3 1.33 437.4 7.16 537.1

including 116.9 117.6 0.7 3.67 1,080.0 18.07 1,355.3 LRGM-21-018 Tamara Vein 30.2 32.0 1.8 0.44 45.5 1.04 78.2

and 98.0 99.0 1.0 0.39 117.0 1.95 145.9

and 107.0 107.9 0.8 0.80 152.0 2.83 212.1

and 143.0 144.5 1.5 0.01 218.0 2.92 218.8 LRGM-21-021 Mined Void 43.2 44.5 1.3 * * * *

Soledad Vein 89.0 89.5 0.5 0.07 92.0 1.30 97.3 LRGM-21-022 Soledad Vein 53.0 58.5 5.5 0.34 145.4 2.28 170.7

including 54.3 56.5 2.3 0.74 280.2 4.48 336.0 LRGM-21-023 Soledad Vein 7.7 9.0 1.3 0.34 40.6 0.88 66.0 LRGM-21-024 Tamara Vein 116.9 120.9 4.0 0.29 63.4 1.14 85.1

including 116.9 118.5 1.6 0.55 128.4 2.26 169.4 LRGM-21-025 Soledad Vein 16.9 23.5 6.7 0.22 66.4 1.10 82.8

including 19.9 21.9 2.0 0.54 132.0 2.30 172.1

including 19.9 20.9 1.0 0.60 165.0 2.80 210.0 LRGM-21-026 Soledad Vein 10.7 16.3 5.6 0.25 54.4 0.98 73.3

including 13.5 16.3 2.9 0.38 77.7 1.41 105.8 LRGM-21-027 Soledad Vein 87.5 120.5 33.0 0.02 30.2 0.43 32.0

including 94.6 97.4 2.8 0.03 71.3 0.98 73.2

1. Not true width 2. AqEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 at recoveries of 100% 3. Hole LRGM-21-019 and LRGM-21-020 are excluded as they did not intercept significant mineralization

Figure 1: Mololoa Plan View

Figure 2: Cross Section LRGM-21-006 & LRGM-21-014

Figure 3: Plan View  La Trini to El Favor Area of Los Ricos North

Table 2: Drill Hole Locations

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGM-21-001 584713 2337783 1040 245 -60 154.4 LRGM-21-002 584726 2337761 1034 240 -60 109.5 LRGM-21-003 584966 2337646 1013 210 -60 160.5 LRGM-21-004 585168 2337668 964 210 -50 160.0 LRGM-21-005 585169 2337668 964 180 -50 172.5 LRGM-21-006 584926 2337808 1038 240 -50 200.0 LRGM-21-007 584731 2337737 1032 240 -60 118.0 LRGM-21-008 584707 2337814 1043 240 -60 107.1 LRGM-21-009 584887 2338029 1019 240 -50 194.0 LRGM-21-010 584897 2338089 993 240 -50 221.0 LRGM-21-011 584891 2338277 901 240 -50 54.2 LRGM-21-012 584935 2337788 1047 240 -55 209.2 LRGM-21-013 584890 2338276 901 240 -55 228.5 LRGM-21-014 584761 2337727 1039 240 -50 83.0 LRGM-21-015 584803 2338305 913 240 -50 173.2 LRGM-21-016 584773 2337706 1046 240 -50 113.0 LRGM-21-017 584947 2337776 1050 240 -55 164.0 LRGM-21-018 584773 2338342 942 240 -50 151.7 LRGM-21-019 584770 2337774 1026 240 -60 101.0 LRGM-21-020 584695 2337832 1045 240 -50 89.0 LRGM-21-021 584772 2338342 941 240 -80 163.5 LRGM-21-022 584782 2337683 1043 240 -50 101.0 LRGM-21-023 584676 2337853 1036 240 -50 98.0 LRGM-21-024 584810 2338338 936 240 -50 184.9 LRGM-21-025 584713 2337843 1035 240 -50 110.0 LRGM-21-026 584746 2337778 1031 240 -60 86.0 LRGM-21-027 584913 2337842 1016 240 -55 152.0

VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation

VRIFY is a platform being used by companies to communicate with investors using 360 virtual tours of remote mining assets, 3D models and interactive presentations. VRIFY can be accessed by website and with the VRIFY iOS and Android apps.

Access the GoGold Company Profile on VRIFY at: https://vrify.com

The VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation for GoGold can be viewed at: https://vrify.com/decks/10437 and on the Company's website at: www.gogoldresources.com.

Los Ricos District Exploration Projects

The Company's two exploration projects at its Los Ricos property are in Jalisco state, Mexico. The Los Ricos South Project began in March 2019 and an initial resource was announced on July 29, 2020 which indicated a Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource of 63.7 million ounces AgEq grading 199 g/t AgEq contained in 10.0 million tonnes, and an Inferred Resource of 19.9 million ounces AgEq grading 190 g/t AgEq contained in 3.3 million tonnes. An initial PEA on the project was announced on January 20, 2021 indicating an NPV 5% of US$295M.

The Los Ricos North Project was launched in March 2020 and includes drilling at the El Favor, La Trini, Mololoa, Casados and El Orito targets. During 2020, GoGold's exploration team identified over 100 targets on the Los Ricos North properties, demonstrating the significant exploration potential. The Company plans to drill 10 of these targets as part of its 2021 drilling program which is planned to exceed 100,000 metres of drilling and will be one of the largest in Mexico.

Procedure, Quality Assurance / Quality Control and Data Verification

The diamond drill core (HQ size) is geologically logged, photographed and marked for sampling. When the sample lengths are determined, the full core is sawn with a diamond blade core saw with one half of the core being bagged and tagged for assay. The remaining half portion is returned to the core trays for storage and/or for metallurgical test work.

The sealed and tagged sample bags are transported to the ALS Chemex facility in Zacatecas, Mexico. ALS Chemex crushes the samples and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 150 mesh (106m). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 30-gram charge by fire assay (Code AA23) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code ME-GRAV21). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code ME-ICP61 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (ME-GRA21).

Quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") procedures monitor the chain-of-custody of the samples and includes the systematic insertion and monitoring of appropriate reference materials (certified standards, blanks and duplicates) into the sample strings. The results of the assaying of the QA/QC material included in each batch are tracked to ensure the integrity of the assay data. All results stated in this announcement have passed GoGold's QA/QC protocols.

Mr. David Duncan, P. Geo. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release.

About GoGold Resources

GoGold Resources (TSX: GGD) is a Canadian-based silver and gold producer focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring high quality projects in Mexico. The Company operates the Parral Tailings mine in the state of Chihuahua and has the Los Ricos South and Los Ricos North exploration projects in the state of Jalisco. Headquartered in Halifax, NS, GoGold is building a portfolio of low cost, high margin projects. For more information visit gogoldresources.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any of GoGold's securities in the United States.

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Los Ricos South and North projects, and future plans and objectives of GoGold, including the intention to undertake further exploration at Los Ricos North, and the prospect of further discoveries there, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of GoGold and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of mineral resource estimates, and the performance of the Parral project. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from GoGold's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with GoGold's projects, the failure to establish estimated mineral resources or mineral reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. For additional information with respect to risk factors applicable to GoGold, reference should be made to GoGold's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with securities regulators, including, but not limited to, GoGold's Annual Information Form. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release.

SOURCE GoGold Resources Inc.

Related Links

https://www.gogoldresources.com/


Company will use the funds to expand rollouts of its robots used for sanding and finishing parts on manufacturing lines. Tweet this

GrayMatter has developed proprietary AI algorithms that enable industrial robots to program themselves. GrayMatter packages its software with commercially available robots, sensors, and tools to deliver smart robotic assistants to manufacturers for use in surface-finishing applications. GrayMatter-powered robots are intelligent and can learn to work on a new part they have never encountered before in a matter of minutes. The company's turnkey robotic solutions help manufacturers grow capacity, maintain consistent quality, and keep a digital trace for improving operations.

"It is shocking that millions of people still manually work on extremely tedious tasks that can be harmful to their health; younger generations do not want such jobs," said Ariyan Kabir, co-founder and CEO of GrayMatter Robotics. "We want to improve shop workers' lives, enhance their productivity, and enable them to focus on higher-value tasks. Manufacturing drives our economy, and without automating surface finishing and treatment, there is a significant risk the global economy may suffer due to an increasing labor shortage."

Surface finishing and treatment in the manufacturing sector includes such applications as sanding, polishing, deburring, and spraying. In the US, more than 1.5 million workers now perform these tedious and ergonomically challenging tasks by hand, finishing all manner of parts and products in many shapes and sizes. More than 10,000 baby boomers are retiring everyday and it is increasingly difficult for manufacturers to find skilled workers for such applications. Manual surface treatment puts workers at risk due to repetitive movements and often leads to injuries. GrayMatter is building smart robotic assistants for surface-finishing applications that can be used by shop-floor operators with no training in robotics.

"Finding and retaining employees willing to do sanding has always been challenging and in the current labor shortage it has prevented us from growing," said Francis Hu, president of Performance Composites, a GrayMatter customer. "GrayMatter's Scan&Sand automation solution has allowed us to free up current sanding employees to work on higher-value tasks and provides a good return on investment."

"We're seeing a tremendous acceleration in customer demand towards robotics and automation solutions, helping to improve safety, productivity, quality, and cost savings," said Debarati Sen, President, 3M Abrasive Systems Division. "Investment in GrayMatter supports 3M's efforts to drive growth of higher-value-add digital and automated abrasives solutions to support end customers in industrial, aerospace, automotive, and renewable energy segments with high part mix or high part variability."

"Across America, purchase orders are going unfilled because manufacturing companies lack the labor supply necessary to fulfill demand. GrayMatter's robots replace some of the dullest, dirtiest, and most dangerous work previously done by humans, allowing high quality products to continue being made in the US," said Alex Rubalcava, managing partner of Stage Venture Partners.

"Customers who adopt GrayMatter's robotic technology not only reduce labor costs, they can fulfill orders faster while carrying less work-in-progress inventory," said Kevin Dunlap, managing partner of Calibrate Ventures. "They will eliminate operational bottlenecks, generating more revenue from the same fixed cost base. And they will compete for, and win, business returning to North America that has been outsourced in prior decades."

About GrayMatter Robotics

GrayMatter Robotics' goal is to improve the quality of life of workers by leveraging robotics and artificial intelligence. The company creates robotic solutions to assist humans in tedious and ergonomically challenging tasks. GrayMatter makes AI-Brains for robots to make them smart, easy to use, and rapidly configurable for complex operations. Our solutions combine commercially available robots and multi-modal sensing with proprietary AI to create smart robotic assistants well-suited for complex operations in high-mix manufacturing and service applications.

Media Contact:

GrayMatter Robotics

[email protected]

SOURCE GrayMatter Robotics Inc.

Related Links

www.graymatter-robotics.com


Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will foster cultural exchange with a mission to contribute to and stimulate expansive perspectives on the history of art. Presenting a global collection with a specific focus on West Asia, North Africa, and South Asia (WANASA), Guggenheim Abu Dhabi fosters a deeper understanding of how different art perspectives have shaped the interconnected histories and cultures of our time. With both Emirati and regional experts playing a key role in the development of the museum's collection and programmes, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will provide a first-of-its-kind platform for artists from the UAE and the Gulf, the WANASA region and the world to create commissioned works and engage with global audiences.

H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: "Guggenheim Abu Dhabi advances Abu Dhabi's position as a dynamic centre for arts and culture. The region's pre-eminent museum of global modern and contemporary art, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will present an equitable platform for art from all over the world. The museum will also play a civic role through its mission to spark wider interest in global modern and contemporary art, fostering diversity and inclusion in a meaningful cultural exchange. As we move forward with our plans, it is crucial to recognise the impact of this museum in realising our vision for the Emirate's culture and creative industries. Investing in these industries is pivotal to the economic development of our Emirate, and to our contribution to the global art world. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, along with other cultural institutions such as Louvre Abu Dhabi and Zayed National Museum, will undoubtedly contribute significantly to a thriving creative scene."

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is being established and developed by DCT Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum is set to be the largest and most expansive of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's constellation of museums, which includes the Guggenheim Museum in New York designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheim Bilbao designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice.

Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation stated: "Today's announcement represents a significant milestone in the realisation of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a landmark new museum. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, housed in Frank Gehry's distinctive building, will be home to an expansive and evolving collection of artworks that advance multiple perspectives on the global histories of modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on art from West Asia, North Africa, and South Asia. Abu Dhabi is a vibrant and diverse cultural centre with a global outlook and rapidly growing creative economy, making it the ideal location for a new international museum. We are grateful to the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, our partners in this bold collaboration. It is with great enthusiasm that we look forward to sharing the museum's collection, programming, and building with the public at the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi."

Frank Gehry, commented: "It is truly thrilling to see this project enter into this new phase. I am immensely proud to work closely with our partners, DCT Abu Dhabi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to create a home for their ground-breaking cultural program. I hope that this building is embraced by the people of the UAE and that this work will endure as a landmark for the country for many years to come."

As part of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's commitment to support artists in the region, the museum has been curating and delivering engaging public programming for its audiences since its inception. This includes three exhibitions held in Abu Dhabi featuring select works from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection in a bid to represent the future museum's curatorial vision. In addition, the museum organised a dynamic public programme highlighting contemporary artists from around the world. Most recently, the museum launched its 'Spotlight' video series on the Abu Dhabi Culture social media platforms, which explores a selection of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi works on loan across the world.

Located in the heart of the Saadiyat Cultural District, the museum will be an architectural landmark inspired by the vernacular architecture of the UAE and the region. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be a part of Abu Dhabi's growing network of cultural institutions, including Louvre Abu Dhabi, New York University, Manarat Al Saadiyat and the Cultural Foundation. Upcoming cultural institutions set to join the Saadiyat Cultural District include Zayed National Museum dedicated to celebrating the life and achievements of the Founding Father of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and the Abrahamic Family House, a multi-faith place of worship.

For media inquiries please contact:

Sherine Nour

Culture Sector Marketing & Communications Director

Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi

[email protected]

Nada ElBarshoumi

Weber Shandwick

[email protected]

+971 50 274 0741

SOURCE DCT Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim
FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Harvest Returns, an agriculture investing platform, announced it has partnered with Bear Hug Cattle Company, a non-profit providing veterans with opportunities in the ranching community.

The companies will give veterans the resources, knowledge and funding necessary to be successful in the ranching industry. Transitioning service members are offered a 10-week intensive course where attendees gain confidence in horsemanship, ranch tasks, basic ranch economics, and receive field training at historic operational ranches in the western U.S.

Bear Hug Cattle Company provides veterans in their program with a four week intensive on basic horsemanship. Ben Minden, veteran and Founder of Bear Hug Cattle Company

"Culturally, ranching is very similar to the military," said Benjamin Minden, Founder of Bear Hug Cattle Company. "Veterans and ranchers alike are selfless, value driven, leadership focused, hardworking, outdoor oriented, and mission centered. Veterans are trained to get up early, work long hours in tough environments, and function as part of a small team. This military work ethic is something highly sought after by ranch owners across the country, but many service members typically lack the knowledge and resources to learn how to make this transitional leap."

Harvest Returns will teach a ranching-based finance course. The company is also offering graduates discounted fund-raising services on their platform.

"As a company founded and run by veterans, our partnership with Bear Hug Cattle Company is a natural fit," said Chris Rawley, a 29-year Navy veteran and CEO of Harvest Returns. "We are excited about working with new veteran ranchers and helping them fund their operations."

About Harvest Returns

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Harvest Returns, Inc. is a financial technology marketplace created in 2016 by two military veterans to bring agricultural producers together with investors. The company's pool of 8,000 investors have provided more than $17 million in funding to early stage agribusinesses.

For more information, please visit harvestreturns.com.

About Bear Hug Cattle Company

Bear Hug Cattle Company is a transition assistance tool available to veterans to help them learn new skills, and provide the opportunity to gain experience at ranches across the U.S. The non-profit believes the cowboy lifestyle and team environment will help excite the soldier's integration into civilian life, and potentially save lives in the future through newfound passion and purpose.

For more information, please visit bearhugcattlecompany.com.

For more information about Harvest Returns, please contact Allison Stewart at 844-673-8876 or [email protected].

For more information about Bear Hug Cattle Company, please contact Benjamin Minden at [email protected].

SOURCE Harvest Returns
TRUMBULL, Conn., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthPlanOne, a leading sales and marketing organization operating across multiple segments of the Medicare and health insurance marketplaces, announced today it is on track to achieve its ambitious 2021 Licensed Health Agent hiring goal, and has partnered with accredited universities in key markets to prepare for the 2022 recruitment period.

HealthPlanOne foresees an active 2021 Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), and anticipates assisting a record number of customers with Medicare enrollment and supporting health plan decisions. AEP takes place from October 15 to December 7 and it allows Medicare beneficiaries to make changes to their plan, switch plans, or disenroll from a plan.

"We set high expectations for our recruiting teams, and they've delivered a record number of agents to serve our customers with health insurance decision making," said HealthPlanOne Founder and CEO Bill Stapleton. "We see this as an opportunity for our agents to achieve the American Dream  giving them the tools to succeed and the opportunity for upward mobility and a lucrative career  while also assisting others by simplifying difficult healthcare decisions."

To meet ambitious goals and support future recruiting efforts, the company has partnered with accredited universities like Arizona State University, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as others to offer recent graduates viable career opportunities. HealthPlanOne will host job fairs and hiring events across the country with affiliated schools in order to continue hiring talented individuals.

The company prioritized hiring in key markets like Texas, Arizona and Florida, where HealthPlanOne was recently named one of Orlando's Top Workplaces by The Orlando Sentinel.

In addition, HealthPlanOne emphasized supporting military members and their families throughout the recruitment period. The company is building relationships with organizations supporting veterans in order to expand career opportunities for veterans and their families.

"During the pandemic, recruiting became more challenging than ever, but the team rose to the challenge and is closing in on achieving its hiring goals," said HealthPlanOne Senior Vice President for Human Resources Jennifer Fox. "The response has been invigorating and we're pleased about the quality and quantity of our candidates."

HealthPlanOne's mission is to help 65+ consumers choose the right Medicare plan at the right price, to support better health and deliver peace of mind. Key benefits include:

High earning potential : Top agents earn more than $100,000 per year.

: Top agents earn more than per year. Rewards : The company offers high performers free vacations and more.

: The company offers high performers free vacations and more. Flexibility : Workplace and hours are flexible.

: Workplace and hours are flexible. Best-in-Class Training : Get licensed for free and receive training to succeed quickly and become a Medicare expert.

: Get licensed for free and receive training to succeed quickly and become a Medicare expert. Analytics Advantage : A proprietary, AI-based platform delivers agents higher quality leads to make sales easier.

To apply for a position with HealthPlanOne, visit HealthPlanOne.com/careers . To receive updates on HealthPlanOne's ongoing recruitment campaign, follow HealthPlanOne on Facebook, Instagram , LinkedIn , and Twitter .

About HealthPlanOne

HealthPlanOne is a leading Medicare and health insurance sales and marketing organization. HealthPlanOne's mission is to "de-complexify" Medicare for customers across the country to match each customer with the optimal plan, with a focus on the long term, to support better health and deliver peace of mind. Since 2006, HealthPlanOne's highly experienced agents, uniquely personal service, diverse solutions, and proprietary analytics have made the company one of the highest performing lead generation, member acquisition and retention teams in the industry. With nine locations across the country, HealthPlanOne serves consumers in every state. In 2020, HealthPlanOne announced a recapitalization of the company with Lightyear Capital, which led to a cash investment supporting future growth and strategic objectives. For more information, visit HealthPlanOne.com.

Contact:

Corey Carmichael

Robin Communications

901-481-5108

[email protected]

Greg Wiley

Robin Communications

215-840-8843

[email protected]

SOURCE HealthPlanOne

Related Links

http://HealthPlanOne.com


Drivers and Challenges

Technavio has identified the major drivers and challenges that impact the heat-not-burn tobacco products market. According to our research, the cost-effectiveness of heat-not-burn tobacco products is driving market growth. However, the rising popularity of smokeless tobacco products may hamper market growth during the forecast period.

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COVID-19 impact

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill and impacted many markets and industries in different ways. Technavio's report provides a thorough analysis of the effect of the pandemic on the heat-not-burn tobacco products market. The business impact of COVID-19 on the heat-not-burn tobacco products market during 2021-2025 is expected to result in neutral and at par growth.

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Market Segmentation

The heat-not-burn tobacco products market has been segmented by geography into APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America. APAC will lead the market during the forecast period, with Japan and China being the key revenue-generating economies.

Based on product, the market has been segmented into devices, capsules, and vaporizers. The market share of the devices segment will be the highest during the forecast period.

Some of the Key Vendors and their Offerings:

Technavio has identified key vendors operating in the market. These include Altria Group Inc., British American Tobacco Plc, Fog, and Frog Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Imperial Brands Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc., KT and G Corp., Mysmok Electronic Technology Co. Ltd., Philip Morris International Inc., and Shenzhen Yukan Technology Co. Ltd. The key offerings of some of these vendors are mentioned below:

Altria Group Inc. : The company offers a heated tobacco system through its brand Iqos.

: The company offers a heated tobacco system through its brand Iqos. British American Tobacco Plc: The company offers a wide range of heat-not-burn tobacco products such as vapor products, tobacco heat products, and modern and traditional oral products.

The company offers a wide range of heat-not-burn tobacco products such as vapor products, tobacco heat products, and modern and traditional oral products. Fog and Frog Technology ( Shenzhen ) Co. Ltd.: The company offers a wide range of electronic devices used for heat-not-burn tobacco products through its brand QOQ.

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Related Reports:

Flavored Cigar Market by Type, Flavor, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Hookah Tobacco Market by Product, Application, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Scope of Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco Products Market Report:

Report coverage Details Base Year 2020 Forecast Period 2021-2025 Incremental Growth $ 26.01 billion CAGR Accelerating at 26.45% No. of Pages 120 Segmentation By geography:-  APAC  North America  Europe  MEA  South America By product:-  Devices  Capsules  Vaporizers Drivers  Cost-effectiveness of heat-not-burn tobacco products  Heat-not-burn tobacco products are relatively safer than conventional cigarettes  Growing number of organized retailing outlets Challenges  Rising popularity of smokeless tobacco products  Distribution challenges  Stringent regulations on heat-not-burn tobacco products worldwide

Table of Content:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

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Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.



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SOURCE Technavio
DALLAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN or "First Horizon") is pleased to announce that Key Coker has joined the Company as Dallas/Fort Worth Market President. In this role, he leads the banking team and is responsible for the Company's growth and expansion plans for the Dallas and Fort Worth markets.

Coker is a results-driven Dallas chief executive with more than 35 years of banking experience, most recently serving as the Dallas CEO of BBVA. Over his long and distinguished career, he has built and led numerous finance teams in various verticals for top International/U.S. banks with responsibility for Dallas, North Texas and East Texas markets. Coker is an established expert and leader in a wide variety of client segments including Corporate, Middle Market, Global, Business Banking and Wealth.

"We are very excited to welcome Key to our team," said First Horizon President and CEO Bryan Jordan. "His extraordinary experience and strong connectivity will help us capitalize on the incredible client opportunities available in the dynamic Dallas and Fort Worth markets."

Karl Hoefer, Regional President of Texas and Louisiana for IBERIABANK/First Horizon added, "Key is the perfect leader to expand our D/FW presence. Under his leadership and based on his longevity in the industry and the market, we will be able to advance our plans to add talent and broaden our client base."

IBERIABANK and First Horizon recently merged and will soon operate as First Horizon in Texas and other markets across the U.S. The combination of the two companies creates a full-service, $85 billion regional bank, operating in 12 states, with over 130 years in the banking industry.

"I'm thrilled to be joining IBERIABANK/First Horizon during this exciting time in the Company's history," said Coker. "I was attracted by the opportunities created by the newly combined organization and specifically, their growth strategy and commitment to the Dallas/Fort Worth market."

Coker's leadership in the community is evidenced by his active involvement as a board member and chair of many local organizations including Boys & Girls Clubs, American Heart Association, Dallas Symphony Association, Dallas Citizens Council, Habitat for Humanity, North Texas Food Bank, Junior Achievement and Better Business Bureau.

Coker graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with honors Finance Degree.

About First Horizon

First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN), with $85 billion in assets, is a leading regional financial services company, dedicated to strengthening the lives of our associates, clients, shareholders, and communities. Headquartered in Memphis, TN, the banking subsidiary First Horizon Bank operates nearly 500 bank locations in 12 states across the Southeast. With more than 288 years of combined First Horizon Bank and IBERIABANK financial experience, the Company and its subsidiaries offer commercial, private banking, consumer, small business, wealth and trust management, retail brokerage, capital markets, fixed income, mortgage, and title insurance services. First Horizon is recognized as one of the nation's best employers by Fortune and Forbes magazines and a Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. bank. More information is available at www.FirstHorizon.com.

Insurance Products, Investments & Annuities: Not A Deposit | Not Guaranteed By The Bank Or Its Affiliates | Not FDIC Insured | Not Insured By Any Federal Government Agency | May Go Down In Value

Insurance Products and Annuities: May be purchased from any agent or company, and the customer's choice will not affect current or future credit decisions.

First Horizon Advisors is the trade name for wealth management products and services provided by First Horizon Bank ("First Horizon") and its affiliates. Trust services and financial planning provided by First Horizon. Investment management services, investments, and annuities available through First Horizon Advisors, Inc., member FINRA, SIPC, and a subsidiary of First Horizon. Arkansas Insurance License # 416584. Insurance products are provided by First Horizon Insurance Services, Inc. ("FHIS"), a subsidiary of First Horizon. Arkansas Insurance License # 100102095.First Horizon Advisors, Inc., FHIS, and their agents may transact insurance business or offer annuities only in states where they are licensed or where they are exempted or excluded from state insurance licensing requirements. First Horizon Advisors does not offer tax or legal advice. You should consult your personal tax and/or legal advisor concerning your individual situation.

2021 First Horizon Corporation

SOURCE First Horizon Corporation

Related Links

http://www.firsthorizon.com


JERSEY CITY, N.J., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Identity As A Service Market" By Component (Provisioning, Directory services, Password management), By End User (Telecom and IT, Retail and consumer goods, Public sector), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Identity As A Service Market size was valued at USD 4.008 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 19.40 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 22.0% from 2021 to 2028.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=41581

Browse in-depth TOC on "Identity As A Service Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Identity As A Service Market Overview

Identity as a service (IDaaS) refers to the integration of solutions that provide cloud-based solutions for identity management and access management. IDaaS is employed in public, private, and hybrid networks and is employed in almost all industries that require monitoring of data which involves sensitive information, verify user's identities, understand and improve user behaviors.

IoT adoption is on the rise with the development in IoT and increasing use cases and benefits with the integration with existing technology. According to Forbes, security, uncertain ROI, and integration with existing technology are the biggest barriers to the adoption of IoT. Enterprises today are investing hugely in security which calls for the use of IDaaS integration with the existing systems. The rise of cloud-based applications is on the rise due to flexibility and reduced hardware investment attached to it.

Due to this, there is a raising need for cloud-based authentication and identity management to ensure proper and effective control over the usage. IoT requires giving access to software applications, files, and resources at the right time. Often these devices are employed on-site which requires cloud-based integration. Public network clouds prove to be more vulnerable than private clouds due to the increased cyber risks and reduced protection measures.

Key Developments in Identity As A Service Market

In May 2018 , Avaya publicly shook hands with Post Quantum by including Identity as a Service Market capability in its product portfolio.

, Avaya publicly shook hands with Post Quantum by including Identity as a Service Market capability in its product portfolio. In July 2019 , Google shook hands with Atos to broaden its strategic partnership. According to the partnership, both companies would offer clients identity management, access management, governance, and administration across a plethora of domains.

, Google shook hands with Atos to broaden its strategic partnership. According to the partnership, both companies would offer clients identity management, access management, governance, and administration across a plethora of domains. In June 2019 , Ping Identity agreed to a partnership with TIBCO Software, a proven leader in the fields of integration, application program interface (API) management, and analytics. The partnership was with the vision to deploy cutting-edge API cybersecurity to end-users.

The major players in the market are iWelcome, JumpCloud, Okta, Inc., OneLogin Inc, CA Technologies, Centrify Corporation, ILANTUS Technologies, Ping Identity, Salesforce.com, Exostar, Oracle Corporation.

Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Identity As A Service Market On the basis of Component, End-user, and Geography.

Identity As A Service Market, By Component

Provisioning



Directory services



Password management



Single sign-on



Advanced authentication



Others

Identity As A Service Market, By End User

Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)



Telecom and IT



Retail and consumer goods



Public sector



Others

Identity As A Service Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

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Corporate Identity Design Market By Type (Logo Design, Identity Design, and Brand Design), By Application (Business, Government, and Others), By Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027

Identity Access Management Software Market By Deployment (Cloud and On-Premises), By Organization Size (Large Enterprises and SMEs), By Vertical (BFSI, Hospitality, Healthcare and Life Science, Retail and CPG, Public Sector), By Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027

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Leading online reputation management software building multiple brands' reputation

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SOURCE Verified Market Research
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new community-based approach to helping children manage their asthma symptoms will launch in up to 40 public, charter, and parochial schools across the Bronx, and enroll 416 students aged 4-12 years old. The five-year study, titled "Evaluation of the Asthma Management Program to Promote Activity for Students in Schools" (Asthma-PASS), is supported by a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM). The research will be led by Marina Reznik, M.D., M.S., Vice Chair for clinical and community-based research, CHAM and Einstein, and professor of pediatrics at Einstein.

Montefiore-Einstein research shows the rate of asthma prevalence in the Bronx is as high as 25% in some neighborhoods, the highest rate of all New York City boroughs. The Bronx also has the highest overall rates of asthma hospitalizations and deaths, in New York.

"We developed Asthma-PASS in collaboration with Bronx elementary schools, parents of children with asthma, and community members, and then conducted a pilot study in four schools, which showed an increase in symptom-free days and children's physical activityan important component of asthma management," said Dr. Reznik. "Our goal with the expanded study is to see if we can reduce asthma symptoms among high-risk urban school children."

The new cluster-randomized controlled trial will assign participating schools to either the Asthma-PASS intervention or the Asthma Management comparison group.

Schools randomized to Asthma-PASS will receive an asthma workshop for school personnel and hold an asthma awareness week where students will participate in hands-on activities, such as writing poems, making posters, and learning facts about asthma to reduce stigma about the disease and bring asthma awareness to everyone at the school. Asthma-PASS families will also work with a Community Health Worker (CHW) to address care coordination needs or concerns about physical activity.

All schools, regardless of their assigned group, will continue to offer ongoing classroom and school-based opportunities for physical activity. After students in Asthma-PASS schools complete the intervention and final assessment, children in the Asthma Management comparison schools will be offered asthma workshops and asthma awareness week activities. Additionally, children and caregivers enrolled in both groups will receive asthma education and COVID-19 support from a CHW. At the end of the study, researchers will assess outcomes for children in the Asthma-PASS group compared to the children in the Asthma Management comparison group.

"During the pilot Asthma-PASS study, we were blown away by the creative ways children learned and shared information about asthma during the awareness week," said Dr. Reznik. "We hope that all the students participating in the study will find it an engaging and enjoyable way to learn how to better manage their condition and improve their long-term health."

In prior research, Dr. Reznik and colleagues found that urban minority children with asthma face barriers to physical activity, including asthma-related stigma reported by children, parent/child fear of an asthma attack caused by physical activity, and lack of teacher confidence in assisting students with acute asthma. Asthma clinicians and researchers support physical activity for children with asthma as it is associated with decreased severity of asthma symptoms, as well as improved disease control and quality of life.

Another prior study led by Dr. Reznik showed that CHWs delivering home-based asthma education can decrease symptom days and reduce disparities in children's health outcomes. The new Asthma-PASS program combines both elements of the successful prior studies, aiming to enhance the support and outcomes for children with asthma and their families.

Dr. Reznik has dedicated her career to caring for patients with asthma in her clinic, but also to finding ways to improve the socioeconomic and environmental factors that influence children's asthma management. To date, she has conducted 10 community-based asthma interventions, enrolling approximately 3,000 children and/or caregivers and collaborating with several community-based organizations to create and assess practical, actionable ways to improve children's asthma, and reduce exacerbations and hospitalizations.

Grant details: NIH/NHLBI R61/R33 HL147908

About Montefiore Health System

Montefiore Health System is one of New York's premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 10 hospitals, including the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information please visit www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter and view us on Facebook and YouTube.

About Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2020-21 academic year, Einstein is home to 721 M.D. students, 178 Ph.D. students, 109 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,900 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2020, Einstein received more than $197 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit einsteinmed.org, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook , and view us on YouTube.

SOURCE Montefiore Health System; Albert Einstein College of Medicine
SAN FRANCISCO and SUZHOU, China, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovent Biologics, Inc. ("Innovent", HKEX: 01801), a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high-quality medicines for the treatment of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases, released the preliminary results of the Phase Ia study of IBI315 (first-in-class anti-Her2/PD-1 bispecific antibody) in an oral presentation at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO).

By data cutoff date of May 25, 2021, 27 patients have been enrolled and received IBI315 at one of seven pre-specified dose levels of 0.03mg/kg QW to 15mg/kg Q3W. No dose limited toxicity (DLT) was observed, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) has not been reached. Among 15 patients who have completed at least one post-treatment tumor assessment at active dose levels (1mg/kg), objective response rate (ORR) was 20%. Biomarker analyses also supported the clinical results that clinical responders showed higher proliferation and activation of peripheral immune cells.

Professor Xichun Hu from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, stated, "The satisfying safety profile and preliminary efficacy data of IBI315 seen in current study support the concept of bispecific antibody designed with targeted- and immune- therapies. We are confident to expect more positive results from the upcoming trials of IBI315 in more types of tumors expressing Her2. "

"IBI315 is a first-in-class anti-Her2/PD-1 bispecific antibody. We are excited to see that IBI315 was well tolerated with a manageable safety profile. The efficacy signal was also encouraging," said Dr. Hui Zhou, Senior Vice President of Innovent. "These results have proved the druggability and developability of IBI315. We will start a phase Ib study of IBI315 promptly to further explore the efficacy of IBI315 monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy in Her2 positive and low-expressed tumors. We are expecting to enlarge the anti-Her2 therapeutic area with our first-in-class agent IBI315 and benefit more patients in the near future."

About CIBI315A101 Study

CIBI315A101 is a phase Ia/Ib open label, dose escalation and expansion study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of IBI315 monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy in advanced Her2 expressing solid tumors. This is the first-in-human study of IBI315. The phase Ia part of the study has 7 prespecified dose levels from 0.03mg/kg to 15mg/kg with dosing frequencies of QW, Q2W, or Q3W. The dose escalation follows a classic 3+3 design. The phase Ia part is ongoing. The phase Ib part is cohort expansions of IBI315 monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy in specific tumor types.

About IBI315

IBI315 is developed through the collaboration between Innovent and Hanmi, and Innovent is leading its clinical development in China. IBI315 is a first-in-class recombinant fully human IgG1 bispecific antibody that targets PD-1 on the surface of T cells and HER2 expressed by tumor cells simultaneously. In preclinical studies, IBI315 has demonstrated potent anti-tumor activities with blockade of PD-1/PD-L1 and Her2 pathways, as well as a bridging effect between T cells and tumor cells.

About Innovent

Inspired by the spirit of "Start with Integrity, Succeed through Action," Innovent's mission is to develop, manufacture and commercialize high-quality biopharmaceutical products that are affordable to ordinary people. Established in 2011, Innovent is committed to developing, manufacturing and commercializing high-quality innovative medicines for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, metabolic and other major diseases. On October 31, 2018, Innovent was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code: 01801.HK.

Since its inception, Innovent has developed a fully integrated multi-functional platform which includes R&D, CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls), clinical development and commercialization capabilities. Leveraging the platform, the company has built a robust pipeline of 26 valuable assets in the fields of cancer, metabolic, autoimmune disease and other major therapeutic areas, with 5 products  TYVYT (sintilimab injection), BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection), SULINNO (adalimumab biosimilar injection), HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection) and Pemazyre (pemigatinib oral inhibitor)  officially approved for marketing, 1 asset's NDA under NMPA review, sintilimab's Biologics License Application (BLA) acceptance in the U.S., 5 assets in Phase 3 or pivotal clinical trials, and an additional 15 molecules in clinical studies.

Innovent has built an international team with advanced talent in high-end biological drug development and commercialization, including many global experts. The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with Eli Lilly and Company, Adimab, Incyte, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Hanmi and other international partners. Innovent strives to work with many collaborators to help advance China's biopharmaceutical industry, improve drug availability and enhance the quality of the patients' lives. For more information, please visit: www.innoventbio.com. and www.linkedin.com/company/innovent-biologics/.

Note:

The PFS data comes from label of TYVYT (sintilimab injection).

TYVYT (sintilimab injection) is not an approved product in the United States.

BYVASDA (bevacizumab biosimilar injection) is not an approved product in the United States.

SULINNO (adalimumab biosimilar injection) is not an approved product in the United States.

HALPRYZA (rituximab biosimilar injection) is not an approved product in the United States.

Pemazyre (pemigatinib oral inhibitor, Incyte Corporation). Pemazyre was discovered by Incyte Corporation and licensed to Innovent for development and commercialization in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

About Hanmi Pharmaceutical

Hanmi Pharmaceutical is a Korea-based global pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines, fully integrated from R&D through manufacturing, marketing and sales with an established presence in Korea as well as China. The Company invests over 20 percent of its sales in R&D and currently has over 30 programs in its clinical pipeline covering 3 major fields: 1) novel long-acting biologics based on the Company's LAPSCOVERY platform applied in the key target areas of diabetes, obesity and rare diseases; 2) novel targeted agents against oncology and auto-immune diseases; and 3) Fixed-dose combination programs. The company has worked closely with global partners in various co-development collaborations. More information on Hanmi is available at www.hanmipharm.com

About Innovent Biologics' strategic collaboration with Hanmi

Hanmi pharmaceutical and Innovent Biologics on March 30, 2017 announced a strategic collaboration on a global basis. IBI315 was constructed using the PENTAMBODYTM platform technology that was developed by Hanmi's subsidiary, Beijing Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. PENTAMBODYTM is a next generation bispecific platform technology that allows binding pairs of various targets for both immunotherapy and targeted therapy. It follows a naturally occurring IgG-like antibody format while demonstrating good stability and other important biophysical properties. Multiple bispecific antibodies directed towards various targets using PENTAMBODYTM are being developed by Hanmi.

Innovent Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. The words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify certain of such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements regularly.

These forward-looking statements are based on the existing beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates, projections and understandings of the management of the Company with respect to future events at the time these statements are made. These statements are not a guarantee of future developments and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control and are difficult to predict. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of future changes or developments in our business, the Company's competitive environment and political, economic, legal and social conditions.

The Company, the Directors and the employees of the Company assume (a) no obligation to correct or update the forward-looking statements contained in this site; and (b) no liability in the event that any of the forward-looking statements does not materialise or turn out to be incorrect.

SOURCE Innovent Biologics
LUND, Sweden, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To join the telephone conference  hosted by Alfa Laval's President and CEO Tom Erixon and CFO Jan Allde  sign up in advance via the link below. Once registered, you will receive a phone number, a participant pin, and a conference pin. Please dial in 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the event.

http://emea.directeventreg.com/registration/4686502

You can also follow the conference via a live webcast. A webcast link will be available on

Alfa Laval - Investors.

Contacts:

Johan Lundin

Head of Investor Relations

Phone: +46 46 36 65 10

Mobile: +46 730 46 30 90

Beata Ardhe

Phone: +46 46 36 65 26

Mobile: +46 709 36 65 26

www.alfalaval.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/alfa-laval/r/invitation-to-alfa-laval-s-third-quarter-conference-call,c3423497

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/905/3423497/1474622.pdf Invitation Q3 2021

SOURCE Alfa Laval
DALLAS, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacobs (NYSE:J) has completed front-end engineering design for a new biopolymer production plant in Thailand for NatureWorks, the largest supplier of polylactic acid (PLA), a low-carbon bioplastic derived from renewable, agricultural resources. Now, Jacobs will begin final detailed engineering design for NatureWorks' new plant, located at the Nakhon Sawan Biocomplex in Nakhon Sawan province.

NatureWorks was the first and largest company to produce biopolymers at commercial scale at its facility in Nebraska. While most plastics are made from non-renewable fossil-based products like oil, NatureWorks' Ingeo biopolymer is made by using plants, like corn or sugarcane, to capture and sequester carbon dioxide into sugars that are fermented to make lactic acid. Partner companies transform the pellet product into a range of consumer goods, from compostable food containers to filament for 3D printers.

"NatureWorks' global expansion is a major step forward for sustainable production of biopolymers from renewable resources, and Jacobs is working in lockstep with them as they innovate," said Jacobs Advanced Facilities Senior Vice President Koti Vadlamudi. "We have built a collaborative relationship with a strong culture of transparency and trust, which has enabled us to support NatureWorks as it expands to meet demand for sustainable, biobased materials."

The plant is the world's first to be designed to be fully integrated, featuring full cycle operations from the fermentation of sugar through to the production of the Ingeo biopolymer product. NatureWorks estimates that the plant will be operational by 2024.

"As we approached the project to begin the global expansion of our manufacturing capabilities, we sought out an engineering partner that had deep expertise in both life science and polymers. Bringing these disciplines together is fundamental to the design of our new facility, which will be integrated from fermentation through to polymerization," said NatureWorks Vice President of Operations and Project Program Manager Steve Bray. "Through the selection process and in our previous work with Jacobs on our first site in Blair, Nebraska, we found that Jacobs understands the unique requirements of implementing our manufacturing technology."

Jacobs began work on the project in 2019 and leverages its experience with NatureWorks to continue delivery of the detailed engineering design phase.

At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $14 billion in revenue and a talent force of approximately 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector. Visit jacobs.com and connect with Jacobs on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements as such term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provided by the same. Statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management's current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the emergence and spread of variants of COVID-19, and the related reaction of governments on global and regional market conditions and the company's business. For a description of some additional factors that may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements, see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 2, 2020, and in particular the discussions contained under Item 1 - Business; Item 1A - Risk Factors; Item 3 - Legal Proceedings; and Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 2, 2021, and in particular the discussions contained under Part I, Item 2 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations; Part II, Item 1 - Legal Proceedings; and Part II, Item 1A - Risk Factors, as well as the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is not under any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results, except as required by applicable law.

For press/media inquiries:

Kerrie Sparks

214.583.8433

SOURCE Jacobs

Related Links

http://www.jacobs.com


"Like many Texans, we love H-E-B and are excited to partner with this iconic brand to make shopping even more convenient for our Customers," says James Avery Director of Customer Service and Marketing Communications Lindsey Avery Tognietti. "While shopping at H-E-B, pick up flowers and a card for a loved one, plus a meaningful gift from James Avery!"

To celebrate the opening, visitors from Sept. 29 through Oct. 9 may enter a drawing for a chance to win one of 60 James Avery gift cards valued at $50, $100 or $500.

"We are thrilled to welcome James Avery into select H-E-B stores across the state," said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. "With our shared Hill Country beginnings, we look forward to continue serving Texans for generations to come."

In addition to the new Portland location, the company recently opened a store on Sept. 15 in League City. The next store will open on Oct. 13 in San Antonio at the 211 and Potranco location.

Putting customer and associate safety first, the Portland store is following recommended COVID-19 health protocols and guidelines implemented in all James Avery stores. Operating hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. James Avery store Manager Sommer Mello and her team are ready to welcome customers to shop in the new store or use Buy Online, Pickup in Store options at JamesAvery.com.

About James Avery Artisan Jewelry James Avery is a vertically integrated, family-owned company located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We offer finely crafted jewelry designs for men and women in sterling silver, 14K and 18K gold, bronze and gemstones. James Avery jewelry is designed and crafted by our own skilled artisans in Kerrville, Comfort and Hondo, TX using the finest materials sourced worldwide. We are a multi-channel retailer with over 100 James Avery stores in four states. Our jewelry is also available at JamesAvery.com, more than 200 Dillard's locations and Dillards.com. You can also find our designs at airport stores in Austin and Houston and at the AAFES locations in Fort Hood, Fort Sam Houston and Fort Belvoir.

About the Drawings  Forty-eight $50 gift cards, six $100 gift cards and six $500 gift cards. Entries accepted Sept. 29 through Oct. 9. Hourly drawings on Oct. 2 and Oct. 9 between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. during the Grand Opening Celebrations at the Portland James Avery Artisan Jewelry store. Thirty James Avery gift cards will be awarded on each drawing day: twenty-four $50 gift cards, three $100 gift cards, and three $500 gift cards. No purchase necessary. Must be at least 13 years old to enter. Only one entry per person per day. Winners not eligible to win a subsequent gift card in the same promotion. Winners need not be present to win. Associates and immediate family members not eligible for this gift card promotion.

Follow us @JAMESAVERY on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for updates and behind the scenes.

SOURCE James Avery Artisan Jewelry

Related Links

http://www.jamesavery.com


"We are happy to have Keith rejoin our team, as he is an integral part of Innova's history," said Ieon C. Chen, CEO, Innova Electronics, Corp. "Keith brings unmatched experience to our product development team with a unique resume encompassing automotive repair shop ownership; as well as dealership, OEM engineering and technical roles, emissions certification and automotive technology instructor experience. A lifelong car guy with a proud Navy background, Keith understands what U.S. vehicle owners and technicians need to fix their vehicles more efficiently. I can't think of a better person to lead Innova's product development into the future."

Andreasen's career spans more than four decades in the automotive industry, including development and testing of new products, user interfaces and web-based services. Most recently, Andreasen provided technical support for Hyundai Motor America GDS diagnostic tools, equipment and web-based systems to dealers. Prior to that he was the owner of Andreasen's Japanese Car and SUV Center, a Fountain Valley, Calif-based automotive repair shop, which built and maintained the Isuzu SCORE off-road and Pikes Peak hill climb race trucks, and later Andreasen's R&D for automotive diagnostic product development as well as ASE certification curriculum, teaching and support. He is a member of SAE International and a National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) committee participant.

An ASE Certified Advance-Level Double Master Technician, Andreasen has earned 26 patents from the USPTO in automotive diagnostic innovation that encompasses vehicle on-board, off-board and PC applications. He is also licensed in the state of California to teach the Bureau of Automotive Repair emission program, perform emission inspections, and repair emissions-related faults. Additionally, Andreasen is an expert in the field of OEM diagnostics, specifically for General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda vehicles. This experience has been invaluable to Innova when inking licensing agreements with the OEMs to ensure Innova's OBD tools provide end users with safe and honest access to vehicle data.

He originally joined Innova in November 1996 where he served in several technical support and product development, managerial and director roles until December 2012. During this time, Andreasen oversaw the company's development of several industry-leading advancements, including professional timing lights with swivel-head design and DIS reading capabilities, and the patented single-screen display with LED emissions test inspection logic that has made Innova's on-board diagnostic tools the most popular in the industry. Under Andreasen's leadership, Innova also became the first automotive aftermarket supplier to offer ASE Certified Technical Support telephone support. Most notably, he led the charge in conceptualizing, building and maintaining Innova's OBD database, which today encompasses a vast knowledgebase able to match DTCs to most likely fixes using technicians' real life experiences. This database and the methods Andreasen developed to process diagnostic data and determine most likely fixes, cost and service needs, have supported Innova's RepairSolutions2, the CarMD Vehicle Health Index, OBDFix and a range of industry solutions.

"I'm proud to rejoin Innova  a truly unique breed of company when it comes to developing products the right way, not necessarily the easy way," said Andreasen. "Innova is committed to the ground-up development and support of products from right here in the USA."

About Innova

Innova Electronics Corporation is a leading supplier of test equipment and diagnostic reporting for the automotive aftermarket, offering high-quality products, innovative diagnostics and value to customers. Innova products are distributed from facilities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as by major customers including AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts, NAPA Auto Parts, CarQuest, Canadian Tire, Pep Boys and others. All Innova products are researched, developed and designed from the ground up at the company's headquarters in Irvine, Calif, and feature licensed information. A pioneer in on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems, Innova has obtained more than 80 US patents related to automotive diagnostic tools and diagnostic processes for different applications, including diagnosing current defects, predicting future defects and autonomous/e-commerce solutions for facilitating sales of parts and services associated with vehicle present and future defects. For more information, visit www.innova.com .



PR CONTACT:



Kristin Brocoff

C: 949-400-4899

E: [email protected]



SOURCE Innova Electronics Corporation

Related Links

http://www.innova.com


ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kloosterboer International Forwarding LLC (KIF) and Alaska Reefer Management LLC (ARM) were denied a swift resolution of their request for a temporary restraining order to stop a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement action in an order issued today by U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Alaska, Sharon L. Gleason.

In a mixed ruling, Judge Gleason found that in terms of functionality, "the BCR [Bayside Canadian Rail] rail line would appear to be substantially identical to other Canadian rail lines on which merchandise is carried solely to comply with the Third Proviso." However, the Court also concluded that contrary to prior CBP rulings on the issue, the Third Proviso does require a tariff to be filed to cover the transportation route. The Court then invited KIF and ARM to renew their request for injunctive relief after updating their tariff filing and pursuing administrative remedies with CBP.

These remedies will be addressed within a week and the original motion filed by KIF and ARM will be renewed with the Court at that time.

"As a result of this outcome, which in large part is positive, we will not be able to resume trucking goods as fast as we had hoped," said Per Brautaset, President of ARM. "However, we are encouraged and will continue to pursue the available legal and administrative options to resolve this issue."

About Kloosterboer International Forwarding

Kloosterboer International Forwarding is a specialized freight forwarding business formed in Alaska, which arranges all supply chain services to transport conditioned seafood cargos from Dutch Harbor, Alaska -- the heart of the Bering Sea fisheries  to strategic markets and seafood buyers around the world. Together with its affiliate, Alaska Reefer Management, it contracts high quality, temperature-controlled logistics services from trusted partners on behalf of the Alaska seafood industry and their customers.

About Alaska Reefer Management

Alaska Reefer Management LLC, a member of the 360 Quality shipping association, is a private reefer carrier servicing the Alaska seafood industry and other global trades, providing temperature-controlled transportation between ports and terminals specializing in the distribution of conditioned cargoes.

SOURCE Kloosterboer International Forwarding; Alaska Reefer Management
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A lawsuit filed Monday night alleges that the Catholic Diocese of Nashville and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church knowingly failed to stop a director of religious education from repeatedly raping and sexually exploiting a child on church property from 20142017. The alleged perpetrator, Michael D. Lewis, faces trial in February 2022 in Rutherford County on felony sex crimes charges related to this abuse.

Allegations in the lawsuit

The Diocese employed Lewis, now 43, as Director of Religious Education at St. Rose, in Murfreesboro. Plaintiff, who has filed this lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Doe to protect her privacy, was a parishioner, student, and dedicated volunteer at St. Rose.

Lewis "groomed" Jane Doe for abuse beginning in the fall of 2013 by ingratiating himself as a father figure. He began sexually abusing Jane Doe in 2014, when she was 13. Lewis raped and sexually exploited Plaintiff in the St. Rose church building and parish offices, among other locations.

The defendants knew of Lewis's alarming and inappropriate conduct with Jane Doe through numerous verbal and written complaints from parishioners and staff from 20132016. As these witnesses reported, Lewis repeatedly took Jane Doe to isolated locations at St. Rose and inappropriately touched her in public. Yet the defendants merely gave Lewis token reminders to follow Diocesan policies, which Lewis said he would ignore. Lewis continued to abuse Plaintiff through 2017.

In 2020, a grand jury indicted Lewis on felony sex crimes charges related to the abuse, after Jane Doe courageously came forward. The Diocese has repeatedly and falsely claimed it had no warning the abuse would occur.1

Statement by Jane Doe's lead counsel

"The allegations in this lawsuit raise disturbing questions about the Diocese of Nashville's commitment to protect children from being terrorized by its employees," said Patrick A. Thronson, an attorney in the Janet, Janet & Suggs Sexual Abuse Division who is representing Jane Doe. "As the complaint alleges, the Diocese received numerous eyewitness reports of Lewis's flagrantly inappropriate conduct, yet knowingly failed to act. As a result, Plaintiff suffered in silence as Lewis raped her for years at her own church."

The case number for the lawsuit is 21C1675. The complaint is available on request.

About Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC

The Sexual Abuse Division of Janet, Janet & Suggs has represented hundreds of men and women across the nation who were abused as children by trusted authority figures, and has represented thousands of men and women who were sexually abused as adults. Among many notable cases, the firm represented 139 survivors of sexual abuse by Dr. George Tyndall in litigation that produced an unprecedented $842.4 million settlement against the University of Southern California.

1 See, e.g., https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/religion/2020/06/30/murfreesboro-churchs-former-sunday-school-director-indicted-rape-sexual-battery-authority-figure/5350991002/; https://tennesseeregister.com/former-st-rose-staffer-indicted-on-sex-abuse-charges/.

Contact: Sandra Colclough

[email protected]

(877) 692-3862

SOURCE Janet, Janet & Suggs

Related Links

https://www.jjsjustice.com


ANAHEIM, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Levoit, the #1 selling air purifier brand in the US*, donated 316 air purifiers to the Lake Tahoe unified school district in support of the South Lake Tahoe residents, following the impacts of the Caldor Fire. To date, Levoit has donated nearly 1,000 air purifiers to Northern California school districts, including recently donating more than 600 purifiers to the Susanville school district.

"This year's fire season has caused air quality to reach high and dangerous levels and is not predicted to ease up anytime soon. Levoit does not have the ability to directly put out fires, but we can give our support to the surrounding communities by providing them with targeted localized clean indoor air solutions, " said Grace Yang, Founder, Chairperson, CEO, and Executive Director of parent company VeSync. "Levoit air purifiers remove harmful airborne pollutants, viruses, and bacteria. Students and faculty no longer have to worry about their health on a daily basis while they are at school; instead, they can return their focus on learning and teaching." *

The Caldor fire has burned over 220,000 acres, causing dangerously high AQI levels and forcing evacuations as well as the postponement of the school year. In light of COVID restrictions and wildfires season, Levoit saw the unique challenges schools face in returning to in-person learning and wanted to ensure students in Lake Tahoe would return to a safe and healthy learning environment.

"Children spend a significant amount of time in school. Poor air quality can lead to sick days, impaired learning and overall fatigue. Both indoor and outdoor academic environments need to have quality air to nourish children's developing minds and bodies. The devastating wildfires in Northern California combined with the pandemic has impacted the children," says Dr. Todd Cutler of Lake Tahoe School District. "These air purifiers are one step towards providing The Lake Tahoe children with a safe and productive learning environment." *

Based on needs identified by the school district, Levoit donated 197 Vital 100 air purifiers and 119 LV-H134 air purifiers, totaling 316 purifiers. These two models feature smart technology and energy-efficient capabilities designed to allow for air in large areas such as classrooms to be cleaned quickly. These top-rated air purifiers trap 99.97% of airborne particles and pollutants, such as pet dander, pollen, mold spores, and dust, and feature a custom High-Efficiency Activated Carbon Filter to help neutralize smoke and fumes.

The models are ideal for different size classrooms, for instance, the LV-H134 purifier is best suited for larger classrooms cleaning a 1,170 square-foot room in 30 minutes; whereas, the Vital 100 is ideal for smaller areas such as reading nooks or cubby rooms cleaning a 500 square-foot room in as little as 30 minutes. The LVH-134 air purifier is energy star certified and the Vital 100 has a low operating cost and can run twenty-four hours a day for only $1.66 a week. These purifiers provide constant protection throughout times of high pollution, such as wildfire season.

Both models come equipped with a three-stage filtration system, providing students and faculty with exceptionally fresh air throughout the day. Additionally, the LV-H134 gives real-time readings of PM2 and automatically adjusts to make sure the quality of air remains safe at all times. Both the LV-134 and Vital 100 were selected for donation because of their low operation volume of 23 decibels, eliminating distracting noise and maintaining a quiet environment for learning. no disruptions to their learning.

"These purifiers will be essential in keeping our classrooms, staff, and students safe throughout every school day. On behalf of the Lake Tahoe School District, and the community at large, we are immensely grateful to Levoit, and credit our newfound peace of mind to these air purifiers," added Dr. Cutler, Lake Tahoe School District Superintendent

About Levoit:

Launched in 2016, Levoit connects homes with smart products to create clean and comfortable atmospheres. The brand's collection of air purifiers and humidifiers features industry-leading technologies and smart home applications. As part of the VeSync Family of Brands, Levoit has received worldwide recognition for its continued innovation in reliable, intuitive designs. To learn more, visit www.levoit.com.

Media Contact:

Jackie Dadas-Kraper, Director

3472065651

[email protected]

* According to CDC, portable HEPA filtration units that combine a HEPA filter with a powered fan system are effective at cleaning air within spaces to reduce the concentration of airborne particulates, including SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) viral particles. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html#refphf; https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7027e1.htm. However, Levoit has not tested its air purifiers for effectiveness against Sars-CoV-2 and makes no claims that these air purifiers help reduce the spread of COVID-19.

SOURCE Levoit
BOSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeNet Health is highlighting its advanced solutions for fusion during the North American Spine Society (NASS) 2021 Annual Meeting in Boston Sept. 29-Oct. 1 (Booth #2719). The global leader in allograft biologics is featuring innovations that include the world's most versatile osteobiologic, PliaFX Prime; the clinically proven portfolio of VertiGraft structural allografts; and the new, first-of-its-kind ViviGen MIS Delivery System that optimizes the proven power of lineage-committed bone cells for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures.

NASS attendees can experience these unique solutions live at LifeNet Health's exhibit or visit its online showcase to see more about how they support cost-effective care and exceptional patient outcomes.

"LifeNet Health's technologies are designed to deliver better biologics that support healing," said Daniel Osborne, Vice President of Global Marketing and Commercial Strategy. "We look forward to sharing with clinicians at NASS how these solutions can bring unsurpassed effectiveness to their patients and unrivaled efficiency to their procedures."

In addition, visitors to LifeNet Health's exhibit have the exclusive opportunity to try the ViviGen MIS delivery device. This new system brings the clinical advantages of ViviGen into a format specifically designed to make graft delivery faster, more predictable, and more precise in MIS procedures.

Backed by Data

NASS participants can explore peer-reviewed publications with compelling data about the clinical effectiveness of LifeNet Health's solutions. This includes published data showing that patients who received VertiGraft implants experienced significantly lower rates of pseudoarthrosis and reoperation than patients who received PEEK implants, as well as data that demonstrates how ViviGen supports successful outcomes even in complex, multi-level fusions and in patients with comorbidities known to hinder bone healing.

Delivering Extraordinary Value

Throughout the exhibition, LifeNet Health also will highlight the unique combination of efficacy and economic value found in biologics such as PliaFX Prime and ViviGen. With no carrier to dilute its bone-healing potential, PliaFX Prime's all-cortical-fiber design is driven by data showing that 100 percent-bone grafts grow more bone than those with a carrier.1,2 That also means PliaFX Prime delivers 100 percent value by providing more bone by volume than grafts that rely on a carrier to improve handling.

Similarly, ViviGen Cellular Bone Matrix has been shown to deliver not only exceptional clinical outcomes  with complex, multi-level fusion rates as high as 98 percent  but also significantly lower hospital charges than other grafting solutions. A 2019 study showed that charges associated with ViviGen were as much as $50,000 lower than those associated with a leading growth factor-based bone graft substitute.

Learn more about LifeNet Health portfolio of biologics for fusion and the data supporting them at www.lifenethealth.org/NASS2021.

About LifeNet Health



LifeNet Health helps save lives, restore health, and give hope to thousands each year. It is the world's most trusted provider of transplant solutions  from organ procurement to bio-implants and cellular therapies  and a leader in regenerative medicine, while always honoring the donors and healthcare professionals who enable healing. For more information about LifeNet Health, go to www.lifenethealth.org.

1. Boyan BD, Ranly DM, McMillan J, et al. Osteoinductive Ability of Human Allograft Formulations. J Periodontol. September 2006. 2. Data on file LifeNet Health TR-0446.

SOURCE LifeNet Health

Related Links

https://www.lifenethealth.org/


Varzino's appointment aligns with LineDrive's current growth objectives. During his impressive 27-year tenure at JPW Industries where he ultimately served as Senior Vice President of Sales, Varzino developed an extensive knowledge of B2B-focused industrial products and services, introducing and implementing an array of new differentiation initiatives for the company across multiple departments. His innovations in product positioning, e-commerce marketing and sales, as well as in distribution and operations, resulted in driving brands to top market share in their category and $132M in revenue growth for JPW.

LineDrive CEO Michael Abdella commented, "We are thrilled to welcome Bob to the team. His cross-functional expertise in sales and e-commerce technologies, outside-the-box thinking on product positioning, combined with decades of experience in our industry, ensures that LineDrive will have the very best business acumen in the industry to help lead the continued growth and development of our customers and distribution partners."

Varzino resides in Nashville and will join the LineDrive team on September 13th. He will oversee the entire LineDrive sales and marketing team and their management.

For media inquiries regarding this release please contact Anthony Crissie, COO, at (847) 531-0512 or via email at [email protected].

About LineDrive:

LineDrive is a nationwide consulting agency backed by Mauve Capital Partners. With a focus on outsourced sales, marketing, and data services, LineDrive drives profitable growth for the best industrial brands by making each the #1 choice of distributors and users for safety and productivity. Our business model is defined by industry leading innovation and consistent growth for over 20 years. LineDrive is trusted industry and nationwide for "Elevating Brands and Creating Raving Fans". For more about LineDrive visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearelinedrive

About Mauve Capital Partners:

Mauve Capital Partners is a privately held investment firm organized to partner with and operate an established privately held business in North America with annual revenues between $5 and $25 million. We aim to provide a meaningful partnership for business owners who care about the legacy of the business they have created. For more about Mauve Capital Partners visit: https://www.mauvecapitalpartners.com/about

SOURCE LineDrive

Related Links

linedriveu.com


PITTSBURGH, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockton, the world's largest privately-held insurance brokerage, continues its ongoing mission to grow their Pittsburgh footprint by hiring Senior Vice President, Jonathan Mycyk.

Mycyk joins with over 15 years at Aon, where he worked with business leaders at firms ranging from small to global in size, to deliver unparalleled value to their employees. In his new role, Mycyk will work with clients across a variety of industries to lead their property, casualty, employee benefits and retirement strategy.

"Hiring Jonathan as Senior Vice President offers us the opportunity to grow our Pittsburgh presence while also delivering best-in-class solutions to our clients," said Kevin McDaniel, President of Lockton's Midwest Expansion. "Our office is committed to retaining top talent and Jonathan's leadership will support our goals," McDaniel added.

Since Lockton established itself in Pittsburgh in 2019, the firm has invested in local talent to advise it's clients and engage with local stakeholders. In 2020, the firm announced an initiative to increase its annual staff 30% through 2025.

Lockton Pittsburgh empowers organizations through the optimization of risk management and human capital strategies by offering data-driven, tailored plans to protect people, property, and reputations. With a strong entrepreneurial culture that is complemented by the scale and expertise of over 100 worldwide offices, Lockton offers something different in the insurance and consulting industry - local partners with the focus and freedom to do what's right for clients that can also draw on deep global resources to deliver the best results.

ABOUT LOCKTON

What makes Lockton stand apart is also what makes us better: independence. Lockton's private ownership empowers its 7,500 Associates doing business in over 125 countries to focus solely on clients' risk and insurance needs. With expertise that reaches around the globe, Lockton delivers the deep understanding needed to accomplish remarkable results. For 31 consecutive years, Business Insurance magazine has recognized Lockton as a "Best Place to Work in Insurance."

To view and apply for open positions in Lockton's Pittsburgh office visit lockton.com/careers

SOURCE Lockton

Related Links

https://global.lockton.com


HOUSTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- McDermott has joined AquaVentus, a growing consortium of more than 70 companies, organizations and research institutions collaborating toward green hydrogen energy production in the North Sea.

AquaVentus unites international industry leaders with a shared vision for advancing hydrogen's role as a low-carbon, affordable energy solution-combining their unique expertise to make that future a reality.

"McDermott brings a long history of thinking differently about energy deliveryand unrivaled expertise in offshore infrastructureto this dynamic group of visionaries," said Samik Mukherjee, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "This is a critical piece of the puzzle as we work together to make offshore production of green hydrogen a reality."

AquaVentus aims to develop 10 gigawatts of generation capacity for green hydrogen from offshore wind turbines in the North Sea by 2035. The expectation is that the wind power generated will be used to produce up to one million tons of production capacity of green hydrogen, which will be used to decarbonize Heligoland and transported to land via pipeline.

McDermott's involvement will bring the consortium comprehensive engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) experience in the onshore, offshore, subsea and storage markets, from concept to completion.

"The German North Sea Offshore Wind sector will be instrumental to meeting the renewable energy demand for the Northern European industry and other markets," said Tareq Kawash, Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East, Africa. "AquaVentus' network of members, collaborating across the supply chain, is the type of collaboration needed to make green hydrogen a commercially viable energy resource of the future."

About AquaVentus

Aquaventus is a strong consortium that currently includes over 70 leading international companies, organizations and research institutions. Together we want to make a decisive contribution to the implementation of the German and European hydrogen strategy. The aim of AquaVentus is to generate one million tons of green hydrogen with 10 GW of electrolysis capacity from offshore wind energy in the North Sea by 2035. The project family around the AquaVentus initiative includes numerous sub-projects. They range from the production of hydrogen in the North Sea to its transport to customers on the mainland. Coordinated consortia synchronize demand and generation and thus enable a rapid market ramp-up. The AquaVentus project family includes, for example: the development of offshore wind turbines with integrated hydrogen generation (Aqua-Primus), a large-scale offshore hydrogen park (AquaSector), a central supply pipeline (AquaDuctus), port infrastructures (AquaPortus), a research platform ( AquaCampus) as well as maritime hydrogen-based applications (AquaNavis).

About McDermott

McDermott is a premier, fully-integrated provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. Our customers trust our technology-driven approach engineered to responsibly harness and transform global energy resources into the products the world needs. From concept to commissioning, McDermott's innovative expertise and capabilities advance the next generation of global energy infrastructureempowering a brighter, more sustainable future for us all. Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally-focused and globally-integrated resources include more than 30,000 employees, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world. To learn more, visit www.mcdermott.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

McDermott cautions that statements in this communication which are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties that may impact McDermott's actual results of operations. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the goals, expectations and intended benefits of the consortium discussed in this press release. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: adverse changes in the markets in which we operate or credit or capital markets; scientific or technological developments, evolving sustainability strategies, evolving government regulations, our inability to successfully execute on contracts in backlog; changes in project design or schedules; the availability of qualified personnel; changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, change orders and other modifications and actions by our customers and other business counterparties; changes in industry norms; actions by lenders and other creditors of McDermott and adverse outcomes in legal or other dispute resolution proceedings. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. This communication reflects management's views as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, McDermott undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.

Contacts:

Global Media Relations

Reba Reid

Senior Director, Global Communications and Marketing

+1 281 588 5636

[email protected]

Local Media Relations

Barbara Knight

Senior Director, Area Communications and Marketing

+971 56 403 2903

[email protected]

SOURCE McDermott International, Ltd

Related Links

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BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- McGee Avenue Baptist Church is proud to announce our recent investment in the Clorox Total 360 System, an electrostatic sprayer, to provide more comprehensive surface disinfection coverage to help our customers prevent the spread of germs on hard, nonporous surfaces that can cause illness.

At McGee Avenue Baptist Church, we are committed to doing everything we can to help enhance the safety and well-being of our congregation and staff all year round. With the Clorox Total 360 System, we have enhanced our infection prevention offerings and protocols to help prevent the spread of germs on hard, nonporous surfaces that can cause illness including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Our goal at McGee Avenue Baptist Church is to help maintain a safer and healthier environment by offering one of the best disinfection technologies available and enhanced and effective infection control protocols," said Anita Patterson Baker, Volunteer at McGee Avenue Baptist Church. "The Clorox Total 360 System allows us to more effectively and efficiently cover high-touch and hard-to-reach surfaces for a more enhanced comprehensive disinfection."

The Clorox Total 360 System works by charging and atomizing the Clorox disinfecting solution, delivering a powerful flow of charged droplets that are attracted to surfaces with a force stronger than gravity. This allows the disinfecting solution to reach and uniformly coat surfaces, including areas where conventional trigger sprays may easily miss.

McGee Avenue Baptist Church will use the Clorox Total 360 System to treat a wide variety of surfaces including the church's kitchen, bathrooms and other spaces where the congregation gathers.

"The Clorox Total 360 System will enable us to provide our local community with greater peace of mind when visiting our facility," added Baker. "We are proud to serve our local community with this premium technology and help provide them with enhanced safety against the spread of germs that can cause illness."

The Clorox Total 360 Disinfectant Cleaner 1 used with the Clorox Total 360 System has been approved by the EPA to kill SARS-CoV-2 on hard, nonporous surfaces.

To learn more about the Clorox Total 360 System, please visit www.CloroxTotal360.com.

Refer to product label for guidance on approved use sites and surfaces.

About McGee Avenue Baptist Church

McGee Avenue Baptist Church is a Christ-Centered, Spirit-Led family of faith located in Berkeley, CA. Over the years, McGee's congregation continues to love God, to praise God, to serve God and to love and serve the people. McGee's ministry reaches people through worship, teaching, service, and praise. McGee is excited for the community to spend time with them as they share the love of Jesus Christ, and prides itself on providing a ministry where all are welcome in Jesus.

SOURCE McGee Avenue Baptist Church
DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC), one of the nation's leading homebuilders, will release its 2021 third quarter earnings before the market opens on Thursday, October 28, 2021. MDC will host a teleconference the same day at 12:30 pm ET. The live teleconference will be available by calling 844-757-5733 and requesting to join the M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. conference call. A replay of the teleconference will be available through November 4, 2021 by calling 877-344-7529 and entering Access Code # 10160602.

A webcast of the teleconference will be available live at www.mdcholdings.com, and beginning two hours after the call, a replay of the webcast will be available on the website.

About MDC

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1972. MDC's homebuilding subsidiaries, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American Dream for more than 220,000 homebuyers since 1977. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in each home its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Orlando, Jacksonville, Seattle, Portland, Boise and Nashville. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC." For more information, visit www.mdcholdings.com .

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

https://ir.richmondamerican.com/


PUNE, India, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to latest study on "Medical Aesthetics Market Forecast to 2028  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  by Product, Application, and End User," the market is projected to reach US$ 16,034.87 million by 2028 from US$ 7,039.06 million in 2021; it is expected to register a CAGR of 12.5% from 2021 to 2028. The market growth is mainly attributed to the rising adoption of minimally invasive and non-invasive aesthetic procedures, and increasing use of dermal fillers and botulinum toxin for enhancing facial aesthetics.

Strategic Insights:

Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 7,039.06 Million in 2021 Market Size Value by US$ 16,034.87 Million by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 12.5% from 2021-2028 Forecast Period 2021-2028 Base Year 2021 No. of Pages 258 No. Tables 196 No. of Charts & Figures 93 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Product; Application; End User Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina

Get Exclusive Sample Pages of Medical Aesthetics Market - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Insights at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPHE100000984/

North America is expected to hold the largest share of the medical aesthetics devices market during the forecast period. The US is the largest contributor to the regional market, and the market in the country is likely to continue to grow in the coming years due to the existence of modern healthcare infrastructure, capability of spending significant amounts on healthcare, availability of advanced technologies, and greater emphasis on cosmetic plastic and minimally invasive surgeries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes waste reduction in healthcare delivery as an important aspect of strengthening health systems. Technological advancements have led to the development of surgical approaches that minimize waste and achieve better results with the available resources. Minimally invasive surgeries are among the approaches that result in low waste generation and reduced medical expenses; moreover, these surgeries ensure low absenteeism at the workplace, which has a net positive effect on the productivity of an economy. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 17.7 million surgical and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in the US in 2018. The use of these surgeries rose sharply by 228% during 20182000 in the US, and they now account for ~90% of aesthetic interventions in the country. Minimal invasiveness results in faster recovery, lesser scarring, limited stress, and better patient satisfaction.

Based on product, the medical aesthetics market is segmented into facial aesthetic products, cosmetic implants, body contouring devices, skin aesthetic devices, hair removal devices, tattoo removal devices, and others. The facial aesthetic products segment is expected to hold the largest share of the market in 2021, and it is also expected to witness the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2028. Based on application, the medical aesthetics market is segmented into facial and body contouring, facial and skin rejuvenation, breast augmentation, hair removal, reconstructive surgery, tattoo removal, and others. The breast augmentation segment is estimated to hold the largest share of the market in 2021, and it is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Based on end user, the medical aesthetics market is segmented into hospitals, dermatology clinics, medical spas and beauty centers, and home care. The hospitals segment is expected to be the largest shareholder in the market in 2021, and it is expected to register the highest CAGR in the market during 20212028.

Growing Developments in Medical Aesthetics Technology Boost Market Growth

Over the past two decades, there has been an unprecedented surge in the popularity of elective aesthetic procedures. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for less invasive aesthetic procedures such as dermal fillings and botulinum toxin A (BoNTA). The global statistics of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery indicates the rise in the aesthetic applications of BoNTA and dermal filling implants by 7% and 18%, respectively, during 20152016. Nonsurgical facial rejuvenation using botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid has become highly popular in the Middle East and other parts of the world in the last 10 years. The correction of facial rhythm and loss of volume is the basic principle of aesthetic rejuvenation of the face. Botulinum toxin injections are primarily indicated to correct dynamic rhytides, while dermal fillers aim to increase volume and improve static rhytides. Botulinum toxin, a powerful neurotoxin, causes chemodenervation of muscles. Dermal fillers is a non-energy-based procedure that adds volume and fullness to a person's skin. The cost efficiency and increasing aging population are the key factors driving the demand for dermal fillers.

Download the Latest COVID-19 Analysis on Medical Aesthetics Market Growth Research Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/covid-analysis-sample/TIPHE100000984/

Further, surge in demand for superior materials and techniques required for dental aesthetics procedures has spurred research into the same. However, nonsurgical facial aesthetic procedures received less attention from the dental community until chemicals such as hyaluronic acid fillers and botulinum toxin were requested by patients, which led dental manufacturers to add these materials to their catalogs and advertisements. The increasing number of accredited basic and advanced hands-on training courses in the use of such materials has been advertised in most dental journals and journals that are currently available. Facial rejuvenation has become a major issue of psychosocial wellbeing in this era of fashion, beauty, and trends. Thus, the increasing use of dermal fillers and botulinum toxin for enhancing facial aesthetics is fueling the medical aesthetics market growth.

Medical Aesthetics Market: Segmental Overview

Based on end user, the medical aesthetics market is segmented into hospitals, dermatology clinics, medical spas and beauty centers, and home care. In 2021, the hospitals segment is estimated to hold the largest share of the market, and the market for the same is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during 20212028.

Medical Aesthetics Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

ALLERGAN, Hologic Inc., Mentor Worldwide LLC, Lumenis, Cutera, Solta Medical (Bausch Health Companies Inc.), Alma Lasers, Galderma Laboratories (Nestle), Sientra, Inc. and EL.EN. S.P.A. are among the key companies operating in the medical aesthetics market. Leading players are focusing on the launch of products, expansion and diversification of their market presence, and acquisition of new customer base, thereby tapping prevailing business opportunities.

Order a Copy of Medical Aesthetics Market Shares, Strategies and Forecasts 2021-2028 Research Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPHE100000984/

In March 2021, Solta Medical announced the launch of the Clear + Brilliant Touch laser, the company's next-generation Clear + Brilliant laser. The Clear + Brilliant Touch laser delivers a customized and more comprehensive treatment protocol by providing patients of all ages and skin types the benefits of two wavelengths.

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SOURCE The Insight Partners
DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. ("Mercer Advisors"), a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), today announced the acquisition of Quest Capital Management, Inc. ("Quest"), a respected wealth management firm located in Dallas, Texas. Quest serves approximately 660 clients with assets under management ("AUM") of approximately $1.5 billion. Quest was founded in 1987 and is managed by its six shareholders Kalita Blessing, CFP, CAP, AEP, CSRIC, President, Dennis Moore, CFP, MBA, Chief Operating Officer, Robert Cox, CFP, CDFA, Wealth Advisor, Chandler Ferguson, CFP, CIMA, Wealth Advisor, Carl Kunhardt, CFP, CIMA, AEP, Wealth Advisor, and Chris Young, CFP, CPWA, AEP. Quest offers comprehensive wealth management services to high-net-worth individuals, families, and their businesses. Quest's shareholders and seventeen staff members will all be joining the Mercer Advisors' team.

Commenting on the transaction, Kalita Blessing stated: "We are very proud of the firm we have built and remain dedicated to serving our clients with excellence. As a fiduciary to our clients, we have an obligation to ensure their needs are met for generations to come. With that in mind, we needed to consider partnering with a national firm that could deliver on that promise beyond our lifetimes. My partners and I have no intention of exiting our practices anytime soon but solving for succession sooner rather than later brings immediate benefits to our clients by accessing Mercer Advisors' in-house family office services such as estate planning and tax return preparation. This merger will also provide career development opportunities for our staff beyond what we could offer and that is most important to us." Dennis Moore, Chief Operating Officer, added: "We were keen to expand our service offering, and add real horsepower to our middle and back-office resources to create scaled efficiency. Dave Barton, Mercer Advisors Vice Chairman, whom we worked with to complete this business combination, communicated this strong value proposition early and often, and the Quest partners agreed it was best for Quest, our loyal clients, and our staff."

David Barton, Vice Chairman, added, "Kalita, Dennis, Chris, Rob, Chandler, and Carl, have built an incredible business with a strong brand in Texas. They represent the very definition of trust, dependability, and exceptionalism. We are proud to partner with them and increase our already strong presence in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. We make each other better."

Dave Welling, Chief Executive Officer of Mercer Advisors said, "The Quest leadership group have assembled a strong team and are highly respected in our industry. Their involvement and contributions to their community and local philanthropic organizations demonstrate their strong character. This is the type of talent we seek to add to our team and we look forward to expanding on the services to help better serve the current and future Quest clients."

About Mercer Advisors

Established in 1985, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ("Mercer Advisors") is a total wealth management firm that provides comprehensive, fee-based investment management, financial planning, family office services, retirement benefits and distribution planning, estate and tax planning, insurance solutions, and corporate trustee and trust administration services. Mercer Advisors Inc. is a parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (RIA), majority owned by both Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital, one of the largest Registered Investment Advisors and financial planning firms in the U.S. with over $32 billion in client assets. Headquartered in Denver, Mercer Advisors is privately held, has over 560 employees, and operates nationally through 55+ offices across the country. For more information, visit www.merceradvisors.com.

Data as of August 31, 2021. AUM includes affiliates and wholly owned subsidiaries.

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and delivers all investment-related services. Mercer Advisors Inc. is the parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and is not involved with investment services.

Mercer Advisors is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice to clients. All estate planning documentation preparation and other legal advice is provided through its affiliation with Advanced Services Law Group, Inc.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) owns the CFP certification mark, the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification mark, and the CFP certification mark (with plaque design) logo in the United States, which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements. The CDFA and CAP marks are the property of The American College, which reserve sole rights to its use, and is used by permission. Investments & Wealth Institute (the Institute) is the owner of the certification marks "CIMA," and "CPWA" Use of CIMA, and/or CPWAM signifies that the user has successfully completed the Institute's initial and ongoing credentialing requirements for wealth advisors. The AEP mark is the property of The National Associate of Estate Planners & Councils, which reserves sole rights to its use, and is used by permission. The CSRIC mark is the property of The College for Financial Planning, which reserves sole rights to its use, and is used by permission.

Contact: Chris Tofalli

Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC

914-834-4334

SOURCE Mercer Global Advisors Inc.

Related Links

http://www.merceradvisors.com


YOKNEAM, Israel, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MetoMotion, a developer of advanced, intelligent robotic systems to help growers operate farms of the future, announced that it has completed an investment round of $5 million led by Ridder, a leading greenhouse technology company, and Navus Ventures, the family investment office of Lely, investing in unique high-tech and sustainable start-ups and scale-ups that drive the transitions in food and energy. Sirius VC also participated in the round. The funds will be used for finalizing R&D activities, setting up production and marketing activities and launching the commercial product.

MetoMotions GRoW robot in a cherry tomato greenhouse

Greenhouse labor costs comprise up to 50% of total production costs. Even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, greenhouse growers faced critical labor problems, namely increasing labor shortages and a challenge to retain skilled workers, which contribute to economic damage and raise risks to yields. MetoMotion was established to leverage technology to solve these challenges. Greenhouse equipment companies are seeking technological developments that expand their product offerings and the demand for sustainable vegetable harvesting all year round.

MetoMotion's GRoW robot brings state-of-the-art technology into the greenhouse, making use of latest Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based computing for 3D perception. Specially designed, flexible motion control and path-planning algorithms give the robot precise motion between plants and a unique design that fits the modern greenhouse environment. Dual arms enable harvesting on both sides of the greenhouse row.

The MetoMotion platform automatically collects information during harvesting providing valuable insights, such as yield forecasts and yield distribution analyses, for improved crop management. The GRoW robot packs the crops into standard industry boxes for easy and seamless integration with existing production procedures. The robot's capabilities include adapting its robotic technology to other labor-intensive greenhouse tasks such as pruning, pollination, de-leafing and data collection for cultivation analysis.

Commenting on the investment, MetoMotion CEO Adi Nir said, "This investment by Ridder and Navus is an exciting development for MetoMotion. Beyond the funding, our investors bring a combination of rich knowledge, experience and understanding of the greenhouse and ag robotics industry that provides us with an unparalleled partnership in launching a system that is a great match for market needs and truly helps growers solve pressing issues in greenhouse farming."

Joep Van den Bosch, Chief Innovation Officer at Ridder underlines the importance of the partnership with MetoMotion. "Growers have to do more with less. Automating labor is a key component in that. By adding greenhouse robotics to our Ridder product portfolio, we lower the threshold for growers to step into the robotic age and integrate the generated data with all other Ridder systems in the greenhouse environment."

About MetoMotion

MetoMotion has developed advanced, intelligent robotic systems to help growers operate the farms of the future. The company aims to transform indoor farming production in modern greenhouses through its smart robotics platform that enables farmers and growers to solve labor shortages, reduce costs and improve yields. MetoMotion was established in 2016 as a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group Ltd. (SGX: 42T) (OTCQX: TRNLY) with support from the Israel Innovation Authority and with investment from the Technion DRIVE Accelerator. MetoMotion received a 2 million grant from the European Commission in 2019.

Contact Information

Adi Nir

+972.50.403.9286

[email protected]

https://metomotion.com/

SOURCE MetoMotion
"We received hundreds of applications for Community Grants, and every single one of them was a reminder of the unique impact and powerful personal connections local community efforts can make happen. Making a decision on the first cycle of 18 organizations selected was certainly not easy." said Craig Williams, President, Jordan Brand, "We are thrilled to not only stand behind them, but based on the volume of applications received, we look forward to continuing to offer this program each year in support of local grassroots efforts that create real, meaningful change for people and communities."

"OBBF has had the opportunity to partner with some of the country's leading companies and financial institutions to support Black entrepreneurs in the Bay Area while addressing systemic biases that perpetuate the funding gap for Black businesses," said OBBF Co-Founder Trevor Parham. "We are grateful to the Jordan Brand for their support as we continue to cultivate a resilient and sustainable ecosystem of local Black businesses based on a proven model that improves neighborhoods, creates jobs, builds wealth, and provides strong and meaningful financial returns to our communities."

OBBF is the only Black-led fund providing business grants and larger investments that address the historical lack of access to capital and control of real estate. The fund supports a broad array of businesses and nonprofits with a focus on scaling its city-specific model to other municipalities across the country.

Businesses interested in receiving capital or technical support can apply directly at www.oaklandblackbusinessfund.org/apply. Investors or organizations interested in contributing to OBBF can contact [email protected] for more information on partnership opportunities.

About the Jordan Brand Black Community Commitment

Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand are committed to leading sustainable and impactful change to end systemic racism for the Black Community.

Through the 10-year, $100 million Black Community Commitment, Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand identified three main focus areas that are critical to improving outcomes for Black Americans in the following areas: Social Justice, Education & Awareness and Economic Justice.

The Community Grants program provides micro-funding grant awards to grassroots non-profit organizations with a total operating budget under $3 Million with proven track records of success and demonstrated paths to sustainable change.

Click here for more information on the fight to end systemic racism and here to access the funding application.

About Oakland Black Business Fund

Oakland Black Business Fund redefines capital deployment systems to create possibilities for Black economic growth that defy the confines of systemic racism. The fund supports Black businesses with capital and technical assistance to elevate Black entrepreneurs as thriving leaders in the local economy.

Oakland Black Business Fund offers opportunities for tax-deductible donations through its 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, Alliance for Community Development, whose mission is to increase access to capital and support for local, underrepresented entrepreneurs. Follow OBBF on Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . More information available at www.oaklandblackbusinessfund.com .

SOURCE Oakland Black Business Fund

Related Links

http://www.oaklandblackbusinessfund.org


VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mission Ready Solutions Inc. ("Mission Ready" or the "Company") (OTCQX: MSNVF) (TSX-V: MRS), a provider of comprehensive government contracting solutions, today announced that Buck Marshall, President and CEO of Mission Ready will present live at OTC Markets Small Cap Growth Virtual Investor Conference on October 7th.

The Company invites individual and institutional investors, as well as advisors and analysts, to attend real-time, interactive presentations on VirtualInvestorConferences.com

DATE: October 7th, 2021

TIME: 12:30 PM ET (9:30 AM PT)

LINK: https://bit.ly/2XDPsP9

Recent Company Highlights

Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) Award for Support of Afghan Refugees

o The Company will provide the DLA with commercial commodities used for housing, including blankets, pillows, sheets, and sets of those items

o The Company will provide the DLA with commercial commodities used for housing, including blankets, pillows, sheets, and sets of those items Extension of Cold Weather BPA

o Mission Ready received a 3-year extension to a previously-awarded Blanket Purchase Agreement for the procurement and supply of cold weather equipment

o Mission Ready received a 3-year extension to a previously-awarded Blanket Purchase Agreement for the procurement and supply of cold weather equipment Listing in Mergent Manuals

o Enabling Mission Ready to increase its Blue Sky status in the United States , adding key jurisdictions such as Florida to its list of Blue Sky compliance

o Enabling Mission Ready to increase its Blue Sky status in , adding key jurisdictions such as to its list of Blue Sky compliance Enhanced Advisory Committee

o A strategic panel of trusted advisors and leaders in the fields who will provide valuable insight and guidance to Mission Ready through future phases of growth

o A strategic panel of trusted advisors and leaders in the fields who will provide valuable insight and guidance to Mission Ready through future phases of growth North American Communications Strategy

o Aimed at increasing Mission Ready's visibility in various channels to reach the Company's stakeholders, through institutional investor outreach, conferences and trade shows, connection with Key Opinion Leader (KOL), and investor roadshows

The interactive online event will be live, and investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at https://www.virtualinvestorconferences.com/.

About Mission Ready Solutions

Mission Ready specializes in providing comprehensive government contracting solutions through its privileged access to a host of federal contracting vehicles, including Multiple Award Schedule ("MAS") contracts awarded and administered by the United States General Services Administration ("GSA").

Mission Ready's wholly-owned subsidiary, Unifire, Inc. ("Unifire"), is a designated Small Business and an industry-leading manufacturer and distributor of over 1.5 million military, fire and first-responder products. With extensive knowledge and experience in providing turnkey solutions to the United States Federal Government, Unifire utilizes its time-proven industry relationships and proprietary technology infrastructure to efficiently source and deliver critical, life-saving products in cooperation with government program managers, military and federal contracting offices, base supply centers, and other federal, state and local supply agencies.

For further information on Mission Ready Solutions Inc., please visit MRSCorp.com.

About Virtual Investor Conferences

Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly-traded companies to meet and present directly with investors.



A real-time solution for investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences is part of OTC Market Group's suite of investor relations services specifically designed for more efficient Investor Access. Replicating the look and feel of on-site investor conferences, Virtual Investor Conferences combine leading-edge conferencing and investor communications capabilities with a comprehensive global investor audience network.

SOURCE VirtualInvestorConferences.com

Related Links

https://www.virtualinvestorconferences.com/


KAMAKURA, Japan, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

- Parkinson's Disease, Viral Pneumonia, Pancreatic Cancer, Chronic Kidney Disease, Artificial Dialysis -

A paper titled "The overlooked benefits of hydrogen-producing bacteria. -Super beneficial Bacteria-," submitted by MiZ Company Limited (MiZ Co., Ltd.) and co-authored by the University of California, Berkeley, and Keio University, was accepted in Medical Gas Research (STM Publishing Group Ltd.) on August 30, 2021. In addition, a paper on substances that inhibit chronic inflammation before the onset of disease was published on July 4, 2021 ("Molecular Hydrogen as a Novel Protective Agent against Pre-Symptomatic Diseases," International Journal of Molecular Science). In order to achieve a long and healthy life, chronic inflammation, the cause of all diseases, must be quelled. The prolonged state of chronic inflammation is called "Mibyou" in Oriental medicine, but modern medicine has no means to cure Mibyou. MiZ Co., Ltd. has recently discovered a method to suppress this chronic inflammation and has published a comprehensive review. The viewpoints of MiZ Co., Ltd.'s review articles and other papers are as follows.

Super beneficial bacteria

While intestinal bacteria can be classified into "beneficial bacteria" and "harmful bacteria," it is difficult to clearly explain the mechanisms by which "beneficial bacteria" bring benefits to human health. This issue can be addressed by focusing on hydrogen produced by hydrogen-producing bacteria in the intestines. Since the concentration of hydrogen in exhaled air is high in Japanese centenarians, hydrogen produced by hydrogen-producing bacteria is thought to contribute to their longevity. In addition, patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia have a low percentage of hydrogen-producing bacteria, Bacteroides, which suggests that hydrogen protects the brain. Hydrogen may contribute to the longevity of naked mole rats because hydrogen-producing bacteria predominate in the intestinal bacteria of the animal that Calico LLC is studying.

*Reference

1. Yusuke Ichikawa et al. The overlooked benefits of hydrogen-producing bacteria. -Super beneficial Bacteria-. Medical Gas Research, in press.

Transcending the Limits of Modern Medicine



Modern medicine is rushing to develop a single drug or treatment for a single disease. MiZ Co., Ltd. would like to argue loudly that modern medicine based on such "elemental reductionism" has reached its limits. The causes of Parkinson's disease, cancer, and mental disorders, including dementia, which modern medicine cannot alleviate, can be attributed to hydroxyl radicals (-OH) generated inside mitochondria. MiZ Co., Ltd. has discovered a molecule that converts hydroxyl radicals (-OH), the causative agent of all intractable diseases, into water molecules (H2O) inside the mitochondria where they originate. That molecule is molecular hydrogen (H2).

*Reference

1. Shin-ichi Hirano et al. A "Philosophical Molecule," Hydrogen May Overcome Senescence and Intractable Diseases. Medical Gas Research 2020, vol 10, (1) Pages 47-49 (URL: https://www.medgasres.com/text.asp?2020/10/1/47/279983)

Overcoming chronic inflammation and pre-symptomatic diseases



Mibyou, or pre-symptomatic disease, refers to a state of health in which a disease is slowly developing in the body, yet the symptoms are not apparent. In modern medicine, a typical example of an undiagnosed disease is an inflammatory disease caused by chronic inflammation. Since chronic inflammation is involved in many diseases, it is not an exaggeration to say that "chronic inflammation is the root of all diseases." Modern medicine can control acute inflammatory diseases, but it cannot control chronic inflammatory diseases. Molecular hydrogen (H2) has been shown to be effective in treating chronic inflammation by removing hydroxyl radicals (-OH), a reactive oxygen species in mitochondria. Although modern medicine cannot detect or treat "Mibyou," H2 can inhibit the pathogenesis of untreated diseases, and is therefore expected to be a new protective agent.

*References

1. Shin-ichi Hirano et al. Potential Therapeutic Applications of Hydrogen in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases: Possible Inhibiting Role on Mitochondrial Stress. International Journal of Molecular Science, 2021, 22, 2549. (URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/5/2549)

2. Haru Yamamoto et al. Molecular Hydrogen as a Novel Protective Agent against Pre-Symptomatic Diseases. International Journal of Molecular Science, 2021, 22, 7211 (URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/13/7211)

The safety of hydrogen



Hydrogen does not have any of the side effects of pharmaceuticals, but the only thing to be aware of is its explosive nature. Although it is dangerous to use explosive materials in hospitals and homes, MiZ Co., Ltd. has discovered that hydrogen does not explode if the concentration is less than 10%. Although there are hydrogen gas inhalers with explosive concentrations on the market, such potentially explosive hydrogen gas inhalers should be removed from the market.

*Reference

1. Ryosuke Kurokawa et al. Preventing explosions of hydrogen gas inhalers. Medical Gas Research, 9 (3):160-162, 2019. (URL: https://www.medgasres.com/text.asp?2019/9/3/160/266996)



YouTube: Hindenburg Disaster and Hydrogen Medicine - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUPGRegumsM&t=1s

Challenges for neurological diseases



Parkinson's disease is also caused by hydroxyl radicals generated in the mitochondria. Parkinson's disease is particularly troublesome because the substantia nigra of the midbrain, the focal point of Parkinson's disease, is located in the center of the brain. It is difficult to deliver drugs to the center of the brain because of the blood-brain barrier and the invasive nature of stem cell transplantation. Molecular hydrogen solves all of these problems. In the substantia nigra of the midbrain, the neurotransmitter dopamine is produced, but in the midbrain of Parkinson's disease patients, iron ions that catalyze hydroxyl radicals accumulate in the substantia nigra, and the hydroxyl radicals produced by the Fenton reaction destroy dopamine. Molecular hydrogen quickly reaches the substantia nigra due to its excellent diffusivity, and converts the hydroxyl radicals generated there into water molecules. Metabolites of drugs that have completed their role as medicines require drug design to eliminate them from the brain, but this is not necessary for molecular hydrogen. However, this is not necessary with molecular hydrogen, as excess hydrogen is naturally released by diffusion, and the metabolites of hydrogen and hydroxyl radicals are water molecules. There are many famous people, such as movie actors, who suffer from Parkinson's disease, and hydrogen could be of help to them.

*Reference

1. Yusuke Ichikawa et al. Provisional title: Realizing Brain Therapy with "Smart Medicine" (in preparation)

About MiZ Company Limited (MiZ Co., Ltd.)

For 30 years, MiZ Co., Ltd. has been conducting research and development in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on ways to fundamentally treat diseases caused by chronic inflammation, with the theme of "healthy longevity." In April 2021, MiZ Inc. was established as a new base in Silicon Valley. MiZ Co., Ltd. focused on molecular hydrogen as a molecule that has the potential to cure diseases caused by chronic inflammation. In the first place, primitive life on the ancient earth was born from hydrogen and used hydrogen as an energy source. The chemical structure of molecular hydrogen is the simplest diatomic molecule, but MiZ Co., Ltd. has discovered that this simplicity can be a substance that can break the conventional wisdom of modern medicine.

Official website:

MiZ Co., Ltd.: https://www.e-miz.co.jp/english/index.html

MiZ Inc.: https://miz-inc.com

SOURCE MiZ Company Limited

Related Links

https://www.e-miz.co.jp


FRIBOURG, Switzerland, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Swiss high-tech company, Morphean, a leader in Security-as-a-Service and cloud analytics, has announced a programme of growth to meet demand for hosted security services across Europe. The opening of offices in the UK as well as Denmark and the Netherlands, places Morphean in a strong position to serve its growing customer base. With a number of appointments taking up key positions, Morphean is on target to deliver its product road map and meet channel growth.

The benefits to business of cloud technologies are now understood, particularly as a result of the pandemic, enabling the faster delivery of services to market, reducing risk and ensuring easy scalability. Cloud platforms also support analytics that would be impossible with traditional platforms. This looks set to substantially disrupt the physical security market with rapid growth forecast in video surveillance as-a-service (VSaaS) and access control-as-a-service (ACaaS).

The opening of the new office in Leeds, in addition to those in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, will help Morphean provide localised support to Northern Europe more broadly. In addition, newly appointed personnel bring expertise to sales, account management and finance roles including Philippe Gieseler, Chief Financial Officer; Paul Green, Head of Sales in the UK and Ireland; Noura Sakhsoukh, Sales Executive for Benelux; Lauren Irwin, Sales Executive in the UK; Peter Werner, Sales Executive in Germany; and Tim Bach Bjerg, Key Account Manager for the Nordics.

Martyn Ryder, VP Sales and Marketing, commented: "The acceleration by business leaders in their digitisation journeys and transition to cloud platforms is driving demand for intelligent physical security solutions. Morphean is transforming this market and making rapid progress towards becoming a leader in the hosted security and business intelligence field. Our expansion will enable our growing partner base to benefit from our solutions, while ensuring their customers enjoy a return on investment through improved operational insights."

Digitisation and cutting-edge technologies using the cloud, IoT and AI are changing security and business intelligence, with organisations recognising the need to look to the providers of cloud-enabled platforms and systems to meet their physical security requirements. Morphean's solutions are built around an affordable operational expenditure model and are fully scalable to protect against the challenges of today as well as future uncertainty.

Discover more: https://morphean.com

SOURCE Morphean

Related Links

https://www.morphean.com


DENVER, Pa., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An exciting array of antique and vintage automobilia, petroliana and railroadiana is revved up and ready to power across the auction block at Morphy's Lancaster County, Pennsylvania gallery on Sunday and Monday, October 3 and 4. All remote forms of bidding will be available for those who cannot attend in person, including live via the Internet through Morphy Live.

Rare and outstanding Bruinoil & Bruin Gasoline double-sided die-cut tin flange sign, circa 1920s, Butler Oil Co., Butler, Pa. Likely new/old stock and one of the best of all known examples. Estimate $35,000-$50,000 Rare and exceptional Mohawk Gasoline circular porcelain neon service station with Native American graphic and original cast-metal mounting stand. Produced in the 1930s for Mohawk Oil Co., Bakersfield California. 9.0+ condition. Estimate $80,000-$120,000

More than 1,100 premium-quality lots will be offered, including 471 gas/oil signs, 59 gas pumps and 53 globes; 40 branded product cans, and much more. A special highlight of the October 4th session is a private collection of approximately 50 breathtaking neon signs led by two different designs touting Mohawk Gasoline, and a 134-inch-long porcelaipn "torpedo" sign from Bob McDorman Chevrolet, a legendary Ohio dealership founded in 1965. In addition, there are 397 golden-era railroadiana lots that run the gamut from functional items such as colored-glass lanterns, locomotive steam whistles and ornate fire gongs to scarce and pristine signs representing storied railroad lines.

Many of the colorful petroleum signs in the October sale are from collections that were established decades ago. Absentee bidders are already lining up to vie for a Bruinoil and Bruin Gasoline double-sided die-cut tin flange sign with the image of a ferocious bear with its mouth agape. The circa-1920s sign was produced for Butler Oil Co., of Butler, Pa., and based on its exemplary condition, is likely from new/old stock. Estimate: $35,000-$50,000.

A double-sided Good Gulf Gasoline & Supreme Auto Oil service station advertising sign has an appealing primitive look that collectors really go for. In an unusual black and red color scheme, it has bright, clean milk glass lettering on each side and illuminates beautifully. Estimate: $25,000-$50,000

Morphy's gallery is aglow with neon colors from a stellar selection of signs advertising various car manufacturers, gasoline brands, service and parts retailers and gas stations. Leading the group is a fantastic Mohawk Gasoline circular porcelain neon service station with the image of a Native American brave, mounted on its original cast-metal stand. Made in the 1930s for Mohawk Oil Co., of Bakersfield California, it is in 9.0+ condition and estimated at $80,000-$120,000. A different Mohawk neon sign, double-sided with a bullet shape, is on target to reach $20,000-$35,000.

A statement piece for any collector's man cave or hobby room, a massive double-sided "torpedo" porcelain neon dealership sign for Bob McDorman Chevrolet dealership in Ohio exhibits beautifully illuminating bright pink neon on each side. Estimate: $25,000-$40,000.

Those who like movement with their neon might steer their bidding toward a United Service Motors porcelain and neon advertising sign that depicts an early open-top car in profile. When the sign is activated, the neon around the car's tires "spins," rendering the illusion of a car in motion. Estimate: $20,000-$40,000

A very rare Wayne Boyle Dayton Model #1950 clock-face gas pump in excellent condition, with a milk glass clock face on both sides, is set to hit $15,000-$30,000. A highly desirable 1930s Marland Aviation Gasoline (Ponca City, Okla.) gas pump globe lens depicting a single-engine airplane in flight is cataloged with a $15,000-$20,000 estimate, while a lens created for the venerable Oklahoma brand Kerr McGee Oil Industries / Sooner Supreme Products may settle in the $15,000-$25,000 range.

Online: www.morphyauctions.com.

Media Contact:

Sarah Stoltzfus

877-968-8880, email [email protected]

SOURCE Morphy Auctions

Related Links

https://www.morphyauctions.com/


WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Event:

The National Press Club is marking the 3rd anniversary of the murder of Washington Post Opinion Contributor Jamal Khashoggi with a moment of silence Friday, Oct. 1 followed by brief remarks from Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews. (Note: the actual anniversary of Mr. Khashoggi's murder is Saturday, Oct. 2.)

When:

Friday, Oct. 1 at 3 p.m.

Where:

The National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20045. The event will take place in the lobby of the Club by the staircase on the 13th Floor.

Details:

Club members will gather for a brief moment of silence to mark the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in Istanbul while visiting the embassy of Saudi Arabia there on official business. At the time Mr. Khashoggi was living in Virginia and working as a contributor to Washington Post Opinions. In November 2018, the Club honored Khashoggi, with the John Aubuchon Award for Press Freedom which was accepted by Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan on behalf of the Khashoggi family.

Lisa Nicole Matthews is the 114th President of the National Press Club and Assignment Manager, U.S. Video Associated Press.

Contact: Bill McCarren, [email protected] or 202-662-7534 for the National Press Club

SOURCE National Press Club

Related Links

http://press.org


ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Two new studies presented today at the 2021 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo reveal how antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus can vary among recipients of different COVID-19 vaccines and naturally infected individuals. The findings provide critical data about the immune response to COVID-19 vaccines that could inform future diagnostic research and vaccination efforts.

Vaccines have become essential tools in the fight against COVID-19, but it's still unclear exactly how the antibodies generated from different vaccines change or wane over time. Meanwhile, the spread of the Delta variant and the rising number of breakthrough infections have both highlighted the importance of characterizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Knowing more about antibody patterns could also help clinicians assess individuals' immunity to SARS-CoV-2, in addition to helping with the diagnosis and management of patients.

The Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines: Immune Response and Side Effects

Researchers led by Michael Kelliher, PhD, of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, have now shown how antibody responses and adverse reactions can differ in recipients of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. In 78 individuals who received Moderna and 70 individuals who received Pfizer, Kelliher's team collected blood samples before the second vaccine dose, 14 days after the second dose, and 30 days after. The study participants also took a survey where they rated the severity of adverse effects and symptoms after vaccination.

Overall, individuals who received the Moderna vaccine showed a higher antibody response against the viral spike protein compared with those who received Pfizer (4,244 U/mL vs. 1,986 U/mL 30 days after dose two) and also reported stronger side effects. Kelliher cautions these differences could arise from confounding variables such as the higher mRNA dosage in the Moderna vaccine. His team also found that antibody responses had dropped 30 days after the second dose, regardless of the vaccine given.

"We can't claim Moderna is better than Pfizer based on these results  but it does seem there is more of a response from Moderna at least in terms of the assay that we used," said Kelliher. "How that correlates with the total adaptive immune response is unknown, and there's still a decent amount of research that needs to be done on this topic."

Differing Antibody Profiles Among the Vaccinated and Naturally Infected



A separate research group led by Xiaochun Zhang, MD, PhD, of University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center set out to define differences in antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

The scientists tested for antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, receptor-binding domain (RBD), nucleocapsid protein, and the spike protein's S1 and S2 subunits in three study groups: 33 fully vaccinated healthcare workers, 52 healthcare workers who had recovered from natural infection, and 34 patients with active infections. The test results revealed that the fully vaccinated individuals had an average of 50-fold higher antibody levels than naturally infected, unvaccinated individuals. Antibodies from the vaccinated group also reacted far more strongly to the RBD and S1 viral antigens, suggesting that antibodies against these proteins could be the best targets for tests developed in the future.

Follow-up studies that profile changes in SARS-CoV-2 antibodies over time for vaccinated individuals and those with breakthrough infections could yield further insights, according to Zhang. "With the 3rd dose of mRNA vaccine on the horizon, this type of study may help identify a practical indicator in optimizing booster-dose planning if an association between antibody level and infection risk is proved," she said.



Abstract Information

AACC Annual Scientific Meeting registration is free for members of the media. Reporters can register online here: https://www.xpressreg.net/register/aacc0921/media/landing.asp

Abstract B-108: SARS-CoV-2 antibody response and adverse reactions following administration of either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines will be presented during:

Scientific Poster Session

Wednesday, September 29

9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. (presenting author in attendance from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.)

Poster Hall

Abstract B-148: SARS-CoV-2 antibody profile of naturally infected and vaccinated individuals detected using qualitative, semi-quantitative, and multiplex immunoassays will be presented during:

Scientific Poster Session

Wednesday, September 29

9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

ePoster Station in the Poster Hall

Both sessions will take place in Exhibit Hall C of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

About the 2021 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo

The AACC Annual Scientific Meeting offers 5 days packed with opportunities to learn about exciting science from September 26-30. Plenary sessions explore COVID-19 vaccines and virus evolution, research lessons learned from the pandemic, artificial intelligence in the clinic, miniaturization of diagnostic platforms, and improvements to treatments for cystic fibrosis.

At the AACC Clinical Lab Expo, more than 400 exhibitors will fill the show floor of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta with displays of the latest diagnostic technology, including but not limited to COVID-19 testing, artificial intelligence, mobile health, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, point-of-care, and automation.

About AACC

Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.aacc.org .

Christine DeLong

AACC

Senior Manager, Communications & PR

(p) 202.835.8722

[email protected]

Molly Polen

AACC

Senior Director, Communications & PR

(p) 202.420.7612

(c) 703.598.0472

[email protected]

SOURCE AACC

Related Links

http://www.aacc.org


$7.5 million growth facility plus the $2.5M debenture unit private placement previously announced brings the Company's total growth financing to $10 million

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Newtopia Inc. ("Newtopia" or the "Company") (TSXV: NEWU) (OTCQB: NEWUF), a tech-enabled habit change provider focused on disease prevention, today announced it has entered into an agreement (the "Amending Agreement") with a leading Canadian Schedule I Bank (the "Lender") amending a commitment letter between the Company and the Lender dated October 2, 2020 (the "Original Commitment Letter" and together with the Amending Agreement, collectively, the "Amended Commitment Letter"). The Amended Commitment Letter provides for an increased revolving credit facility of $7.5 million (the "Enhanced Facility"), up from the $5.0 million in funding secured previously. This new credit facility, along with the $2.5 million private placement offering, doubles the amount of growth capital available to the Company for working capital and general corporate purposes.

"We are very pleased to announce this increase in our growth facility and are grateful for the ongoing support we have received from our banking partner," said Jeff Ruby, Founder and CEO of Newtopia. "This growing support is a true testament to the tremendous progress we have made to date and reflects the bank's ongoing confidence in Newtopia's ability to successfully execute against our long-term growth strategy."

Mr. Ruby continued, "We plan to make good use of the additional liquidity as our business returns to growth in the second-half of the year following a 300% increase in Welcome Kits sold in the second quarter. We will strategically leverage these funds to: (1) hire additional Inspirators for our growing and highly engaged participant base; (2) expand our sales and marketing teams, to broaden our business development into additional health insurer verticals and, importantly; (3) continue to advance our one-of-a-kind habit change technology to improve efficiencies and drive increased margins. This expanded facility, along with the overall growth of our business, will enable us to continue delivering meaningful cost savings and ROI to our health insurer customers, while working towards preventing, reversing and slowing the progression of physical and mental health risks linked to chronic disease."

The terms of the new Enhanced Facility are materially unchanged from the Original Commitment Letter. Principal terms of the Original Commitment Letter are set out in the Company's previous press release dated October 5, 2020 and available under Newtopia's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The Enhanced Facility is subject to approval of a 50% guarantee by Export Development Canada ("EDC") through the Export Guarantee Program ("EGP") which the Company anticipates in the coming weeks. The facility advanced pursuant to the Original Commitment Letter was subject to a 50% guarantee previously approved by EDC through the EGP. The Enhanced Facility will continue to be secured by a first ranking security interest over all of the present and future property of Newtopia.

About Newtopia

Newtopia is a tech-enabled habit change provider focused on disease prevention and reducing the cost of care for health insurers. As a provider of whole person care, we prevent, reverse, and slow the progression of chronic disease while enriching mental health, resilience and overall human performance. Newtopia's programs leverage genetic, social, and behavioral insights to create individualized prevention programs with a focus on type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and weight. With a person-centered approach that combines virtual care, digital tools, connected devices and actionable data science, Newtopia delivers sustainable clinical and financial outcomes. Newtopia serves some of the largest nationwide employers and health plans and is currently listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSXV: NEWU) (OTCQB: NEWUF). To learn more, visit newtopia.com, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, and forward looking statements, within the meaning of applicable United States securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), which reflects management's expectations regarding Newtopia's future growth, results from operations (including, without limitation, future production and capital expenditures), performance (both operational and financial) and business prospects and opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as "predicts", "projects", "targets", "plans", "expects", "does not expect", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "anticipate" or "does not anticipate", "believe", "intend" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative or grammatical variation thereof or other variations thereof, or comparable terminology have been used to identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect Newtopia's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to Newtopia, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that Newtopia believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet Newtopia's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of Newtopia to differ materially from its expectations. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, the use of proceeds from the Enhanced Facility, approval of the 50% guarantee by EDC through the EGP, statements relating to Newtopia's business plans, growth and outlook. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee and are based on a number of estimates and assumptions management believes to be relevant and reasonable, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet Newtopia's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of Newtopia to differ materially from its expectations. Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from Newtopia's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation: the termination of contracts by clients, risks related to COVID-19 including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in Newtopia's disclosure documents, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com including Newtopia's final long form prospectus dated March 30, 2020.

Should any factor affect Newtopia's in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward- looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, Newtopia does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and Newtopia undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

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.

SOURCE Newtopia Inc.

Related Links

www.newtopia.com


DUBLIN, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "2021 North American Generator Set Market with COVID-19 Impact" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The North American Generator Set Market research report includes market size, growth rates, end user split, competitive market share data and revenue forecasts from 2020-2027 for the United States and Canada.

Furthermore, profiles of key companies, growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and quotations from industry participants are also included.



This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the North American Generator Set Equipment Market along with qualitative trends for the year 2020.



The market numbers included in this report represent revenues generated by companies operating in the generator set market in the United States and Canada. The base year for the study is 2020 and the forecast period is from 2020 until 2027.



This study captures the following information on the North American Generator Set Equipment Market:

Market Size, Growth Rate, Revenue Forecasts (2020-2027)

Growth Drivers & Restraints

Market Data

Market Share Analysis

Market Trends

Key Topics Covered:

I. Research Scope, Methodology

II. Segmentation by Equipment Output Range, End User and Application

III. Executive Summary

a. Revenues by end user

b. Major Data Points

c. Revenue

d. Major trends

e. Market drivers

f. Market restraints

g. Main market participants

IV. Market Drivers

V. Market Restraints

VI. Market Trends

b. Distributed generation

c. Paralleling

d. Natural gas generators

e. Increasing competition from alternative technologies

f. Rental market

g. Telematics

h. Pricing trends

VII. Market Data

a. North American market revenues

b. United States revenue forecast

c. Canada revenue forecast

d. Market share by end user

e. Market share by fuel

f. Market share by output

g. Market share by application

VIII. Diesel Generator Set Market

a. Diesel market revenues

b. Diesel market revenues by output

IX. Natural Gas Generator Set Market

a. Natural gas market revenues

b. Natural Gas revenues by output

X. Competitive Landscape

a. Market share by company

b. Major acquisitions

c. Competitive factors

d. Quotes from the industry

XI. Companies Profiles

a. Caterpillar Inc

b. Cummins Inc

c. Generac Holdings Inc

d. Kohler Co

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/il1ii2

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


GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The shareholders of Vitrolife AB (publ) are hereby invited to the Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders ("EGM") on October 20, 2021. The EGM will be held by advance voting (postal voting).

Shareholders who wish to attend the EGM must:

be entered in the register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB on October 12, 2021 and

and notify their attendance by submitting their postal votes in accordance with the instructions in the Notice.

Shareholders that have their shares registered in the name of a nominee must temporarily record their shares in the share register kept by Euroclear Sweden AB in their own names to be able to attend the General Meeting.

The following proposals will be amongst those presented at the EGM:

The Election Committee proposes that the Board should be extended with one Board member and consist of six Board members.

Remuneration to the Board members is proposed to be SEK 2,440,000 . The proposal entails an increase of SEK 275,000 due to the proposed increased number of Board members.

. The proposal entails an increase of due to the proposed increased number of Board members. The Election Committee proposes election of Vesa Koskinen , Partner and member of the global healthcare sector team at EQT, as a new Board member.

, Partner and member of the global healthcare sector team at EQT, as a new Board member. The Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting resolves to approve the Board's proposal on a new issue of shares (non-cash issue) related to the acquisition of Igenomix (see press release dated July 8, 2021 ).

Attachment: Full notice

Gothenburg, September 29, 2021

VITROLIFE AB (publ)

The Board

Contact:

Jon Sigurdsson, Chairman of the Board, email: [email protected]

Mikael Engblom, CFO, phone +46 31 721 80 14

The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 10.00 am CET on September 29, 2021.

This is a translation of the Swedish version of the press release. When in doubt, the Swedish wording prevails.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/vitrolife-ab--publ-/r/notice-of-extraordinary-general-meeting-of-vitrolife-ab--publ-,c3423494

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1031/3423494/1474621.pdf Notice to attend EGM 2021-10-20

SOURCE Vitrolife AB (publ)
RESTON, Va., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OVHcloud, a leading global cloud services provider, today announced a partnership with Peachtree Corners, one of the nation's first 5G smart cities powered by real-world connected infrastructure. Together, the partners will accelerate the pace of innovation across the city, including on Peachtree Corner's autonomous vehicle test track and at the Curiosity Lab Innovation Center.

OVHcloud will deliver compute, storage, and other cloud platform resources, which will allow the city and select technology partners to manage, analyze, gain critical insights, and make informed decisions from the massive amounts of data generated from the autonomous vehicles.

"We've watched with interest as Peachtree Corners has established its position as the leader for autonomous mobility and smart city technologies testing and we are excited to serve as the exclusive cloud technology partner to both startups and enterprises within their ecosystem," said Jeffrey Gregor, General Manager, OVHcloud US. "We're eager to provide the cloud platform to support companies and agencies who are developing the next generation smart city technology that will ultimately serve communities across the country and around the world."

Peachtree Corners and Curiosity Lab Innovation Center members will be able to leverage OVHcloud's global cloud infrastructure. OVHcloud is a global player and Europe's leading cloud provider operating over 400,000 servers within 33 data centers across four continents.

For 20 years, the Group has relied on an integrated model that provides complete control of its value chain. From the design of its servers to the construction and management of its data centers, including the orchestration of its fiber-optic network. This unique approach allows it to independently cover all the uses of its 1.6 million customers in more than 140 countries.

"Our vision for Peachtree Corners as a living lab is tied closely to the partners who gather here to collaborate with other industry leaders and focus their research on immediate challenges and results," said Brandon Branham, chief technology officer and assistant city manager of Peachtree Corners. "OVHcloud will be a major contributor to the ultimate realization of that vision, and we are excited to have them join as the exclusive cloud partner of the Curiosity Lab Innovation Center."

"The partnership with Peachtree Corners represents an important step toward being recognized as a leading cloud provider in the US," said Pascal Jaillon, Senior Vice President, Product and Digital Accounts, OVHcloud US. "Our presence in Silicon Orchard represents a unique opportunity as a hub for collaboration among existing Curiosity Lab Innovation Center members and the cultivation of new relationships with startups, investors, policymakers and community builders worldwide."

About OVHcloud US

OVHcloud US is a subsidiary of OVHcloud, a global cloud provider that specializes in delivering industry-leading performance and cost-effective solutions to better manage, secure, and scale data. OVHcloud US delivers bare metal servers, hosted private cloud, and public cloud solutions, and was recognized in 2020 as a "Strong performer" in Forrester's Hosted Private Cloud Services in North America (2Q2020) and as "Contender" in IDC Worldwide Public Cloud as a Service Vendor Assessment (2020). OVHcloud manages 33 data centers across 12 sites on four continents, manufacturing its own servers, building its own data centers and deploying its own fiber-optic global network to achieve maximum efficiency. Through the OVHcloud spirit of challenging the status quo, the company brings freedom, security and innovation to solve data challenges  today and tomorrow. With a 21-year heritage, OVHcloud is committed to developing responsible technology and strives to be the driving force behind the next cloud evolution. https://us.ovhcloud.com.

About the City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia

At the heart of what is being called #SiliconOrchard in the metro-Atlanta region, Peachtree Corners, Georgia is a vibrant municipality that is home to more than 45,000 residents and an innovation hub that houses some of the world's most disruptive technology companies. As the United States' premier smart city powered by real-world connected infrastructure and 5G, Peachtree Corners serves as the model for how government and private industry can better collaborate to create a better future for society and business. From the world's first deployment of teleoperated e-scooters to fully autonomous shuttles being utilized by actual residents, and from a solar roadway to the largest electric vehicle charging hub in the region, Peachtree Corners is where the most future-forward Internet of Things (IoT) and sustainable technologies come to life. For more information, visit http://www.peachtreecornersga.gov.

About-Curiosity-Lab-at-Peachtree-Corners

Curiosity Lab is a 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle and smart city living laboratory located in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The centerpiece of the lab is a 1.5-mile test and demo track which provides a real-world environment to explore emerging technologies. Additional infrastructure includes a network operations center, smart poles, DSRC units, dedicated fiber and a 25,000 square foot tech incubator. Additional information can be found at www.curiositylabptc.com.

SOURCE OVHcloud

Related Links

https://us.ovhcloud.com/


HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Executive Council's officers and vice presidents, representing more than 700,000 working people across the Commonwealth, issued endorsements for Pennsylvania's general election. Endorsed candidates must receive a two-thirds supermajority vote of the Council. The following appellate court and special election candidates received the Council's support.

The endorsed candidates for 2021's Appellate Court seats are:

Maria McLaughlin for PA Supreme Court Justice;

for PA Supreme Court Justice; Timika Lane for PA Superior Court Judge;

for PA Superior Court Judge; Lori Dumas for Commonwealth Court Judge; and,

for Commonwealth Court Judge; and, David Lee Spurgeon for Commonwealth Court Judge.

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO supports the following judges for retention:

John Bender , Superior Court Judge;

, Superior Court Judge; Mary Jane Bowes , Superior Court Judge;

, Superior Court Judge; Anne Covey , Commonwealth Court Judge; and,

, Commonwealth Court Judge; and, Renee Cohn Jubelirer , Commonwealth Court Judge.

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Executive Board also endorsed candidates in special elections for the State House of Representatives:

Thom Welby for HD 113; and,

for HD 113; and, Gina Curry for HD 164.

State Federation President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder issued the following joint statement on the election endorsements:

"Every year is an election year, and every election matterscourts matter. In Pennsylvania, working people elect the justices and judges who make decisions that impact everyone. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO proudly endorses these pro-worker candidates who will protect people's rights on the job and in the community. This commitment to fair representation is reflected in one of the most diverse slates of endorsed candidates of any organization. All elections have consequences, and therefore we can never neglect our duty to participate in the democratic process."

SOURCE PA AFL-CIO
SANTA CLARA, Calif. and PUNE, India, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistent Systems (BSE: PERSISTENT) (NSE: PERSISTENT) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Charlotte, North Carolina-based Software Corporation International (SCI) and its affiliate, Fusion360, and the business of East Brunswick, New Jersey-based Shree Partners including its subsidiary in India.

Founded in 1990, SCI brings deep domain consulting capabilities specializing in Payment solutions, integration, and support services for an impressive portfolio of leading US Banks. Additionally, Fusion360 provides application development, maintenance, and support for leading Payment platforms including IBM's Financial Transaction Manager (FTM).

Payments deliver foundational functionality not only for Financial Services, but across all industries, as they accelerate the adoption of digital to improve customer experience. SCI enhances Persistent's capabilities and will serve as the foundation of a dedicated Payments business unit. According to Everest Group, the Payments IT services market is expected to grow by 12.5% in 2021 to reach $16.8 billion.

Ronak Doshi, Partner, Everest Group

"Evolving regulations, accelerated adoption of real-time Payments, and customer demand for a seamless Payments experience across all channels are pushing the industry to invest heavily in modernizing its technology. Persistent Systems' acquisition of SCI and Fusion360 will help position it to take advantage of the Payments modernization demand acceleration."

Shree Partners, established in 2005, is a digital transformation and technology solutions company that helps clients in BFSI and other industries increase profitability by implementing and maintaining innovative Cloud, Infrastructure, Data, and AI/ML solutions that reduce costs and drive revenue.

Sandeep Kalra, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Persistent Systems

"We continue to see rapid acceleration of digital transformation with our financial services clients, requiring not only technology but domain expertise in areas like Payments and regulatory compliance. With the addition of SCI and Fusion360, we are forming a new Payments business unit and expanding our BFSI expertise as well as client portfolio. Similarly, Shree Partners expands our Cloud and IT Infrastructure capabilities in BFSI and Travel & Hospitality. Importantly, these acquisitions bring us new points of presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the National Capital Region (NCR), India, bringing in new digital transformation talent to serve our clients."

D. Keith Sides, Chief Executive Officer, SCI

"I am excited about our future as part of Persistent and the many benefits it provides for both our clients and our employees. Combining our deep Payments domain knowledge with Persistent's digital engineering, next-gen cloud services and global footprint allows us to deliver immediate value to any Payments modernization initiative."

Rajiv Dahiya, Chief Executive Officer, Shree Partners

"At Shree Partners, we have consistently helped our clients lower their TCO through continuous innovation, leveraging the latest disruptive technologies. By joining Persistent, we will be able to expand the business value we are delivering to our clients by tapping the expertise of over 14,500 Digital Engineers. At the same time, we look forward to bringing our cloud, infrastructure, security and AI capabilities to many new organizations looking to accelerate their digital transformation."

About Persistent:

With over 14,500 employees located in 18 countries, Persistent Systems (BSE: PERSISTENT) (NSE: PERSISTENT) is a global services and solutions company delivering Digital Engineering and Enterprise Modernization. Persistent was named to the Forbes Asia Best Under a Billion 2021 list, representing consistent top-and bottom-line performance as well as growth.

www.persistent.com

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements

For risks and uncertainties relating to forward-looking statements, please visit persistent.com/FLCS

Media Contacts:

Emma Handler

Persistent Systems (Global)

+1-617-633-1635

[email protected]

Manohar Dhanakshirur

Archetype

+91-750-644-5361

[email protected]

SOURCE Persistent Systems
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashith Mally, M.D., Preferred Primary Care Physicians (PPCP) has been chosen out of more than 1,000 independent primary care physicians nationwide to be honored as a "Best Physician." He is being recognized during National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8, for providing exemplary care to his senior patients.

A total of 32 physicians nationwide were selected as winners by medical directors at agilon health (NYSE: AGL), a company transforming health care by empowering primary-care physicians to focus on the entire health of their senior patients. The criteria for selection included how frequently they met and how much time they spent with patients and their efforts to keep them out of hospitals/emergency rooms.

"Dr. Mally knows that working as a partner with patients will help lead to better outcomes," says PPCP Chief Executive Officer Gregory Erhard, Jr. "His clinic staff is warm and welcoming, and he is engaged in strategic and innovative initiatives to improve care at skilled nursing facilities."

Value-based care is a healthcare delivery model that puts doctors in the "driver seat" of patient health outcomes. Also known as advanced primary care, doctors are rewarded for preventing and managing chronic diseases and helping patients improve their health.

"These physician winners are lighting the way and showing how primary care doctors can make a meaningful difference in the lives of their senior patients," said Ben Kornitzer, M.D. chief medical and quality officer at agilon health.

Studies have shown a significant relationship between the investment in primary care services and improved efficiency with better patient outcomes. Still, a concerning trend shows the decline in funding allocated to primary care services nationwide. This comes at a time when the nation's senior population is rising and there is a great need for primary care physicians.

National Primary Care Week highlights the importance of primary care providers to the U.S. healthcare system.

With 20 locations in or around Pittsburgh, PPCP provides patients with the preferential treatment they deserve -- from general primary care to managing chronic conditions.

For more information about agilon health, visit www.agilonhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube.

visit today or hospital stay tomorrow, our comprehensive team of more than 100 doctors and specialists is here to treat you well with compassionate, coordinated care that always strives to keep you healthy.

SOURCE Preferred Primary Care Physicians
MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philippines' largest fully integrated telco PLDT received the most number of citations among ASEAN telcos at the 2021 World Communication Awards (WCA), with a total of five nominations at one of the most revered award programs in international telecommunications.

Established in 1999 by London-based publication Total Telecom, the WCA recognizes innovation and excellence based on a set of criteria that reflects the dynamic nature of the industry.

PLDT is up for the Best Operator in an Emerging Market title, awarded to the telco that has best adapted to evolving market characteristics to achieve commercial success and improve the lives of customers. Wireless arm Smart Communications Inc. is also highly commended in the category's esteemed WCA Honor Roll for consistently being shortlisted for the said award throughout the years.

PLDT and Smart's flagship advocacy, the #NoLearnerLeftBehind omnibus education program, is shortlisted for WCA's Social Contribution Award. Initiatives include #CyberSmart CyberSecurity Awareness Caravans, Central Visayan Institute Foundation - Dynamic Learning Program implementation, LearnSmart eStorytelling Sessions, PLDT Infoteach, School-in-a-Bag, Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program, and Smart Prepaid Innovation Generation.

Smart's GigaLife App is nominated for WCA's Platform Award, citing the best commercially deployed IoT solutions. The app allows users to subscribe to various GIGA promos that let them discover and enjoy their passions, top-up using a debit or credit card, or via the GigaPay e-wallet powered by PLDT affiliate PayMaya, and more.

With over 2,000 global points of presence, international arm PLDT Global is up for WCA's Beyond Connectivity Award for its FreeBee mobile application. The app keeps migrant Filipinos close to home with free international calls to the Philippines , online bills payment, digital gifting services and a curated content platform.

, online bills payment, digital gifting services and a curated content platform. PLDT Global President and Chief Executive Officer Katrina Luna-Abelarde is nominated under the Women In Telecoms category. The concurrent head of PLDT's Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development Unit has been key to leading PLDT Global's digital transformation. She also chairs Conexus, one of the largest mobile alliances in Asia , pushing for the development of 5G in the region.

PLDT Group's WCA 2021 bid follows its recent win at Asiamoney's 2021 Outstanding Companies Poll. PLDT won the Most Outstanding Company in the Philippines award under the Telecommunications Services Sector for excelling in financial performance, management team excellence, investor relations, and corporate social responsibility.

SOURCE PLDT Inc.
LACEY, Wash. and NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Posh Technologies, a Conversational AI company, and Glia, a leading provider of Digital Customer Service , are helping seven additional credit unions deliver a more frictionless, convenient member experience, creating better member service for a digital-first world.

Langley FCU, Credit Union of Colorado, NASA FCU, Hudson Valley CU, One Nevada CU, Service CU and Interra CU have partnered with Posh and Glia to embrace Digital Member Service, leveraging a strategic combination of AI and the human touch. Posh's chatbot will be available from the credit unions' digital channels, responding to member inquiries, and when more complex inquiries occur, seamlessly transitioning the interaction to a representative through Glia's live chat. This eliminates the need for members to ever reauthenticate, provide context or leave the digital channel, boosting speed and efficiencies all around.

"The easy integration between Glia and Posh allows us to coordinate the interactions our members have with the natural language bot and transfer to a seamless co-browsing agent experience when their needs require a personal touch," says Kelly Wagner-Grull, Director of Innovation and Member Experience at CU of Colorado.

"Leveraging AI to boost efficiencies is a significant value within Digital Member Service," said Dan Michaeli, CEO and co-founder of Glia. "However, such technology must complement, not replace, personal connections within the digital domain. Alongside Posh, we're providing these seven credit unions with the ability to accomplish both, meeting members where they are with quick and convenient yet meaningful interactions that build loyalty and strengthen relationships."

"It's exciting to see so many credit unions recognizing the necessity and value of Conversational AI. We love being at the forefront of this digital transformation alongside Glia, who we're now partnering with across many deployments," says Karan Kashyap, co-founder and CEO of Posh. "Between automated chatbots and live agents, credit union members are embarking on their best banking experiences yet."

About Posh: Posh Technologies is a Conversational AI company that helps credit unions and banks automate their contact center work, saving and making financial institutions money while fostering the most enjoyable and efficient banking experience for users. Posh's product suite consists of three intelligent bots: (1) Website Chatbot that answers FAQs and generates sales leads (2) Online Banking and Mobile Bot that answers questions, executes transactions, acts as personalized financial managers and markets products (3) Phone Bots that operate through verbal command rather than touchpads to authenticate callers, answer questions, execute transactions and contextually route to reps when needed, Posh has grown to 30+ customers across 60+ product deployments since spinning out of MITs AI Lab in 2018. Visit posh.tech to learn more.

About Glia: Glia is reinventing how businesses support their customers in a digital world. Glia's solution enriches web and mobile experiences with digital communication choices, on-screen collaboration and AI-enabled assistance. Glia has partnered with more than 200 banks, credit unions, insurance companies and other financial institutions across the globe to improve top and bottom-line results through Digital Customer Service. The company has won numerous awards for its innovation - most recently recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor for 2020 , and raised over $100 million in funding from top investors. Visit glia.com to learn more.

Contact: Maggie Wise, [email protected]

SOURCE Glia

Related Links

www.glia.com


OXFORD, England, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PQShield , the cybersecurity company specialising in post-quantum cryptography, today announces a reciprocal agreement with Kudelski Security , the cybersecurity division within the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) to work together to address data protection as we near the era of quantum computing.

Within the agreement, PQShield will offer expert training and advisory services to Kudelski's clients, alongside post-quantum cryptography solutions for both software and hardware, to make preparations to address quantum threats. In addition to advisory services, there will be a collaborative referral and co-marketing relationship to support Kudelski Security's go-to-market strategy.

Kudelski Security launched its quantum security practice in December 2020 in recognition of the threat quantum technology raises in the future. Working with PQShield will bolster the practice by expanding availability of expert advisory and applied security resources, as well as providing clients the potential to utilise PQShield's quantum-ready cryptographic solutions for both software and hardware.

Headquartered in Oxford, with additional teams in the Netherlands and France, PQShield is helping businesses prepare for the quantum threat by pioneering the development and commercial deployment of quantum-ready cryptographic solutions for hardware, software and communications. With one of the UK's highest concentrations of cryptography PhDs outside academia and the classified sector, the PQShield team is also a leading contributor to NIST's post-quantum cryptography standardisation project , now in its concluding stages, having contributed two of the seven finalist algorithms.

Several leading device manufacturers have already chosen PQShield's PQC IP for integration into hardware security solutions that will be compliant with upcoming US NIST/FIPS post-quantum cryptography standards, as well as localised standards from the likes of BSI in Germany.

Dr. Ali El Kaafarani, CEO and Founder of PQShield, said:

"Our partnership with Kudelski Security offers a great opportunity for us to educate the wider business world on the risks quantum technologies pose to secure data. We want to support Kudelski Security - whose commitment to empowering businesses to tackle the quantum threat is laudable and necessary - in advising companies looking to take a proactive approach in mitigating new risks.

"I am proud of the endorsement in PQShield's expertise in quantum-resistant cryptography indicated by this partnership, and am excited to see where the relationship takes us."

Andrew Howard, chief executive officer, Kudelski Security, said:

"This partnership will build on our internal knowledge across our teams of researchers, analysis and cryptographers and bolster them with the industry leading expertise from PQShield."

Tommaso Gagliardoni, Senior Expert in Quantum Security and Cryptography at Kudelski Security, added:

"There are certain sectors in business and government where there is a desire to secure sensitive data over a longer time span. These sectors are already starting to address the quantum threat to prevent bad actors from leveraging this technology against their encrypted data. I look forward to working alongside the experts at PQShield to educate industry and share best practice to help organisations secure their sensitive information now and for years to come."

About PQShield

PQShield is a cybersecurity startup that specialises in post-quantum cryptography, protecting information from today's attacks while readying organisations for the threat landscape of tomorrow. It is the only cybersecurity company that can demonstrate quantum-safe cryptography on chips, in applications and in the cloud. Headquartered in Oxford, with additional teams in the Netherlands and France, its quantum-secure cryptographic solutions work with companies' legacy systems to protect devices and sensitive data now and for years to come. PQShield is principally backed by Kindred Capital, Crane Venture Partners, Oxford Sciences Innovation, and InnovateUK. Its latest white papers are available to read here .

www.pqshield.com

Public Press contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE PQShield

Related Links

.


NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- We The Patriots USA, Inc. (WTP USA) will be hosting a press conference on the front steps of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, New York, NY tomorrow, September 29, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. The press conference will be held immediately following the oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to decide whether WTP USA's request for a preliminary injunction should be granted against the State of New York's healthcare worker regulation, which mandates COVID-19 vaccinations for all healthcare workers in the state without allowances for religious exemptions. Attorney Cameron Atkinson, lead counsel for WTP USA and the three nurses who filed the lawsuit, will be leading the press conference.

Earlier this month, WTP USA filed a lawsuit challenging the regulation for healthcare workers in the state, followed by an emergency petition for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. Eastern District of NY Judge William Kuntz denied the petition, and WTP appealed to the Second Circuit. On September 24, 2021, the Second Circuit granted a stay of the regulation pending the September 29, 2021 appeal hearing, but then dissolved their very own stay just last night, waiting until the last possible moment and essentially opening the door for Governor Hochul to fire healthcare workers without regard for their sincerely-held religious beliefs. WTP USA fully intends to appeal to the United States Supreme Court should it receive an unfavorable decision from the Second Circuit.
DAYTON, Ohio, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- During National Primary Care Week, Oct. 4-8, six Dayton doctors will be honored as "Best Physicians" for providing exemplary health care to their senior patients. Teresa Menart, M.D., Mark Schloneger, M.D., William Randall, M.D., Thomas Greer, M.D., Jannette Froehlich, M.D., and Andrea Dillon M.D., PriMED Physicians, were chosen out of more than 1,000 independent primary care physicians nationwide for helping improve the lives of their patients.

A total of 32 physicians nationwide were selected winners by medical directors at agilon health (NYSE: AGL), a company transforming health care for seniors by empowering primary-care physicians to focus on the entire health of their patients. The criteria for selection included how frequently they met with patients, time spent with those who are chronically ill and efforts to keep patients out of hospitals/emergency rooms.

"I am very proud of this impressive group of PriMED physicians who demonstrate a commitment to providing exceptional and efficient care to senior patients," acknowledges Mark Couch, M.D., president of PriMED Physicians. "From fostering patient engagement in wellness visits and screenings to personal contact with high-risk patients who need attention, these physicians are changing the healthcare landscape for the better."

"They are really lighting the way and showing how primary care doctors can make a meaningful difference in the lives of their senior patients," said Dr. Ben Kornitzer, chief medical officer at agilon health. "We believe the movement to value-based care, like that embraced by these physicians, is a fundamental part of the solution."

Value-based health care puts doctors in the "driver seat" of patient health outcomes. Studies show a significant relationship between the investment in primary care services and better patient outcomes. Still, a concerning trend documented by the Primary Care Collaborative shows a decline in funding for primary care services nationwide. This comes at a time when the nation's senior population is rising and there is a great need for primary care physicians.

National Primary Care Week highlights the importance of primary care in the overall U.S. healthcare system.

PriMED is made up of a team of healthcare professionals in Dayton, OH who share a commitment to provide the best possible care to patients. Follow us on Facebook.

For more information about agilon health, visit www.agilonhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and YouTube.

SOURCE PriMED Physicians

Related Links

https://www.primedphysicians.com


Pulmotect's PUL-042, an inhaled immunomodulatory agent to prevent and treat coronavirus infections was delivered by PARI's LC Sprint Reusable Nebulizer. PARI Nebulizers and systems are the most widely used nebulizers by pharmaceutical companies developing new nebulized medications for delivery to the lungs.

"We have demonstrated PUL-042's unique ability to stimulate the immune system in the lungs to protect against a wide range of pathogens in multiple animal models," said Colin Broom, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Pulmotect. "We are delighted to follow up with evidence of clinical activity from our double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with early COVID-19. PUL-042 was administered by nebulization on Day 1, Day 3, and Day 6 of the trial with patient follow up to Day 29.

"PARI's LC Sprint Nebulizer equipped with a PARI Filter Valve Set to reduce potential fugitive aerosol emission and the Vios PRO compressor (now PRONEB Max) exclusively delivered PUL-042 to subjects in the Phase 2 study. We want to congratulate the Pulmotect team on the positive topline results of the PUL-042 program which could provide a significant benefit to those with COVID-19.", said Lisa Cambridge, MSHS, RRT, Director of Medical Science at PRE Holding, Inc. "It is another great example of PARI's nebulizers being used successfully in new clinical trials for respiratory indications, including COVID-19".

About PARI Respiratory Equipment, Inc.

PARI is a leading worldwide developer and manufacturer of fast and efficient aerosol delivery systems for patients with asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and NTM. PARI's mission is to improve the lives of those affected by respiratory diseases and those who provide care for them. This is reflected in our comprehensive portfolio of innovative products and services. PARI's North American headquarters is in Midlothian, VA with worldwide headquarters in Starnberg, Germany. Online at www.pari.com

About Pulmotect, Inc.

Pulmotect is developing PUL-042, a clinical stage, first-in-class, inhaled, immunomodulatory agent. A synergistic agonist that amplifies the innate immune defenses of the lung epithelial mucosa to provide broad-spectrum, pathogen-agnostic protection against respiratory infections. Invented at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center/Texas A&M University, PUL-042 has patents issued in 27 countries, both as a stand-alone composition of matter product and in combination with antivirals. PUL-042 R&D has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIAID, NIGMS), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), other funding agencies, and the Fannin Innovation Studio. For more information, visit www.pulmotect.com.

SOURCE PARI Respiratory Equipment, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pari.com


Soon after the unveiling of the plan on Sept. 6 to construct Qianhai into a top strategic platform for Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation, a mega hub for the modern service industry, finance and technology, Hong Kong entrepreneurship service provider Wang Kai, who co-founded GBA Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, said he was thrilled to expect the last barrier for the free flow of talent, technology and capital to be broken, creating a greater opportunity for Hong Kong and Macao youth.

"The plan aims not just to simply expand Qianhai's physical space, but reach to more people and resources," said Wang. "It encourages more incubation platforms and venture capital companies to settle in Qianhai, which has boosted us to set up more entrepreneurship spaces for Hong Kong and Macao people."

Witman Hung Wai-man, principal liaison officer for Hong Kong at Qianhai Authority, said those who responded to the plan first in Hong Kong were the leading figures in professional fields. "A friend of mine from the medical industry consulted me immediately after the plan was disclosed. He was hesitant before to set up a hospital in Qianhai."

Hung said that Qianhai has become a "shop" for Hong Kong, who plays a "white-collar producer and supplier" role.

Yu Gwong-tou, who set up a startup Cooh Science Biology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. in Qianhai last year, said the plan will facilitate his company to conduct more cooperation with first-tier institutions.

"The plan supports Qianhai to introduce new types of R&D institutions and will help them cooperate with advanced hospitals and renowned universities from Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries, which is a great opportunity for us," he said. "Besides, we may be able to cultivate talents we need with those institutions."

With the help of Qianhai Authority, Yu has established partnership with Googol Tech and South China Agricultural University.

"The agglomeration effect will attract people, especially those with technology support skills to come," said Lo Yuen-lai from BM TeK, a Qianhai-based AI algorithm-focused company. "New products such as charging piles, service robots and parking lot management systems will be more widely applied as the plan mentioned the integration of modern service and advanced manufacturing industries." He said.

Shenzhen Daily news report:

http://szdaily.sznews.com/PC/layout/202109/09/node_03.html#content_1091319

SOURCE Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- QisstPay , Pakistan's first and fastest growing buy now pay later platform (BNPL), today announced that they have raised $15M across its seed & pre-seed rounds with a mix of equity and debt. MSA Capital led the round, with institutional investment participation from Global Founders Capital; Fox Ventures, First Check Ventures; and a series of strategic angel investments from Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, Co-Founders of Scalapay, who recently raised a $155M Series A round at a $700M valuation; Ashley Davies, former CFO of Venmo and current Sylp CFO; former C Suite at Affirm; Adam Mawdesley, VP of Partnerships & Product at Splitit; and United Bank Limited of Pakistan.

QisstPay is an installment payment service for emerging markets. They are addressing the lack of flexibility, integration, and the hidden fees currently plaguing Pakistan's payments landscape by giving customers an efficient, adaptable, interest free platform. When chosen at checkout, QisstPay allows customers to pay for their purchase in installments with 0% interest and no late fees.

QisstPay allows Pakistanis to pay for everyday necessities, effectively building better cash management in what is otherwise considered a very cash-driven society. The majority of people in Pakistan don't have the financial background to get approved for credit cards and therefore rely on QisstPay to help them manage their day to day expenses. QisstPay helps address this by letting people buy the things they actually need like phone service and food, and pay for it over time.

Co-Founder and CEO Jordan Olivas is a former Klarna employee who supported the launch of the company's Pay In 4 solution, one of the world's biggest BNPL platforms. After moving to Pakistan in 2021, he noticed the lack of working financial services plaguing the fifth largest population in the world. He decided to build a platform with his co-founder, Saad Ahmed, that took the globally successful blueprint of BNPL, and altered it to fit the needs of Pakistani citizens.

"After moving here to Pakistan, I noticed how badly the people of this country need a financial tool to help them purchase goods and services that they not only want, but actually need," says Olivas. " Over 60% of Pakistan's population is under the age of 30, which means that the majority of the country is adopting new technologies. Yet, so many people still believe that Pakistan isn't ready to adopt a BNPL system. The rapid growth and use of a platform like QisstPay proves otherwise."

QisstPay is growing rapidly and has seen a 92% growth rate week to week. Currently, they serve over 500 retailers in Pakistan, including the likes of Samsung, Camelbak, Diesel, Philips, Xiaomi, and Lenovo and regional leaders such as Sapphire, Uniworth, Logo Shoes, and the largest Shopify store in the country, elo.

"Export leftovers has recently seen another high of hitting the fastest spike of 85% on average order value ever since we have started to offer Qisstpay BNPL to our customers," says Umar Qamar Co-Founder of Elo, the largest shopify Ecommerce brand in Pakistan.

The funding from this round will go towards the expansion of QisstPay's services and team. This includes the funding of transactions and partnerships with traditional Pakistani financial institutions. They are also expanding their services to include Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. By the end of this year, they are looking to expand their Islamabad-based team to over 100 people.

"Pakistan is one of the most often overlooked countries when it comes to fintech investments," says Tim Chen, General Partner at MSA Capital. "However, it's also one of the countries with the most potential. We're excited to be working with QisstPay to help bring one of the biggest global populations some much-needed financial services and tools. We're not only investing in the company and its founders, we're investing in their impact."

To learn more, please visit https://qisstpay.com/ .

About QisstPay

QisstPay is an installment payment service for emerging markets. QisstPay is a Buy Now, Pay Later platform that, when chosen at checkout, allows customers to pay in installments with 0% interest. They are addressing the lack of flexibility, integration, and the hidden fees currently plaguing Pakistan's BNPL landscape by giving customers an efficient, adaptable, interest free platform.

Press Contact: Kathy Osborne, [email protected]

SOURCE Qisstpay
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow, the rare disease community will celebrate the third annual Rare Cancer Day. Spearheaded by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) Rare Cancer Coalition, Rare Cancer Day is observed on September 30 to highlight the challenges patients face and to unify individuals living with rare cancers for awareness and early diagnosis. NORD's Rare Cancer Coalition, composed of 27 NORD member organizations, was formed in 2017 to collaborate on issues facing the greater rare cancer community.

"The Rare Cancer Coalition is proud to unite more than two dozen organizations working in rare cancers to collaborate, host important conversations and celebrate Rare Cancer Day," said John Hopper, Co-Chair of NORD's Rare Cancer Coalition and President, Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation. "Together, let's continue to strengthen our community and its individual members through capacity building, networking, peer to peer mentoring and shared discoveries."

On Thursday, September 30 at 2pm ET, NORD is hosting a free webinar, Rare Cancers: Breaking Down Barriers to Diagnosis, Treatment and Research to explore rare cancer challenges and offer insights to assist those who are impacted. Registration is still open! NORD is also asking the world to commemorate the day by using the #RareCancerDay hashtag on social media, posting messages of support for the community and sharing/retweeting facts about rare cancers.

"Rare Cancer Day is an important day for advocacy, fundraising and awareness of rare and deadly cancers and the issues people living with them face," said Peter L. Saltonstall, President and CEO of NORD. "Increasing awareness of rare cancer symptoms could lead to improvements in survival for individuals living with rare cancers. Members of the rare community, I urge you to tell your story, and together we can drive innovation to discover treatments and cures for rare cancers."

Approximately one in five people living with cancer in the United States are diagnosed with a rare cancer. All pediatric cancers are rare. The five-year survival rate is lower for patients with a rare cancer than for those diagnosed with a more common cancer. Efforts to increase awareness of rare cancer symptoms in patients and clinicians could lead to earlier detection and improvements in survival.

"Rare Cancer Day is a celebration of the inspiring stories of patients, families and physicians, but so too is it a commitment to establishing a brighter future," said Jim Palma, Co-Chair of NORD's Rare Cancer Coalition and Executive Director, TargetCancer Foundation. "Today is about awareness, action and a reminder of how much further we have to go to establish effective treatment options for all rare cancers."

Throughout the months of August and September, NORD has highlighted the powerful, important, and inspiring stories of the rare cancer community on our blog. Rare Cancer Day is sponsored by Foundation Medicine. For more information on #RareCancerDay or to download resources, including a social media toolkit, visit NORD's website.

About the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is the leading independent advocacy organization representing all patients and families affected by rare diseases in the United States. NORD began as a small group of patient advocates that formed a coalition to unify and mobilize support to pass the Orphan Drug Act of 1983. Since then, the organization has led the way in voicing the needs of the rare disease community, driving supportive policies, furthering education, advancing medical research and providing patient and family services for those who need them most. Together with over 330 disease-specific member organizations, more than 15,000 Rare Action Network advocates across all 50 states, and national and global partners, NORD delivers on its mission to improve the lives of those impacted by rare diseases. Visit rarediseases.org.

SOURCE National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

Related Links

http://www.rarediseases.org


DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RE/MAX, LLC announces the first-ever Global RE/MAX Day, to be held on Wednesday, October 6. This worldwide community service event will activate the RE/MAX network and its nearly 140,000 affiliates in over 110 countries and territories in a coordinated effort to give back to the communities in which they live, work and serve. To participate, RE/MAX affiliates and the approximately 700 RE/MAX Holdings staff members are encouraged to volunteer at a charity of their choice or through a community service project on Global RE/MAX Day.

"The goal of this day is to come together, harness the power of our expansive network, and help others," says Shawna Gilbert, RE/MAX Vice President of Global Development. "We're encouraging hyper-local participation and for members of the RE/MAX network to consider what their community needs at this time, whether it's food bank donations, city cleanup or something completely out of the box. It's a way to help people and businesses we've come to love and serve over the years."

RE/MAX has a long history of giving back. Since 1992, the brand has partnered with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals to raise funds for children treated at pediatric hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. In the nearly 30-year partnership, RE/MAX affiliates have donated more than $170 million in North America to CMN Hospitals. They also support many other programs, including those dedicated to children, environmental activities, education and outreach, throughout the global network.

"Giving back is built into the RE/MAX culture," says Mike Reagan, Senior Vice President of Industry Relations and Global Growth & Development. "Being connected to the impact RE/MAX affiliates make all around the world  no matter the country, culture or language  is one of the greatest benefits of being with the global network. Community service is universal."

Follow hashtag #GlobalREMAXDay on social media on October 6 to see how participants are giving back to their communities worldwide.

About the RE/MAX Network

As one of the leading global real estate franchisors, RE/MAX, LLC is a subsidiary of RE/MAX Holdings (NYSE: RMAX) with nearly 140,000 agents in more than 110 countries and territories. Nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX, as measured by residential transaction sides. RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, with an innovative, entrepreneurial culture affording its agents and franchisees the flexibility to operate their businesses with great independence. RE/MAX agents have lived, worked and served in their local communities for decades, raising millions of dollars every year for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other charities. To learn more about RE/MAX, to search home listings or find an agent in your community, please visit www.remax.com. For the latest news about RE/MAX, please visit news.remax.com.

SOURCE RE/MAX, LLC

Related Links

https://www.remax.com


NAPA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Sherwood has joined Rocca Family Vineyards as head winemaker in time for the 2021 harvest. Picking at the estate vineyards began in mid-September in Napa Valley at Rocca's Grigsby Vineyard in Yountville and then moved to the Collinetta Vineyard in the Coombsville AVA (American Viticultural Area), the following week.

Tom Sherwood, Rocca Family Vineyards in the Grigsby Vineyard, 2021 Harvest

"We are thrilled to have Tom join our team at Rocca. His level of enthusiasm, deep dive into the vineyards, and most importantly, his thoughtful and skilled winemaking style will create some of Rocca's best wines to come," said General Manager Angelique Ball.

Sherwood received his Bachelor's of Science in Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Adelaide in Southern Australia and started his production experience in the Barossa Valley. For the past seven years, he has worked for several premium wineries in the Napa Valley and collaborated with some of Napa's most respected vineyards, where he nurtured his own personal style and philosophy behind winemaking.

"My goal is to continue Rocca's tradition of creating balanced, age-worthy, site-specific wines that are sustainably made. It is clear that every vine is cared for and nurtured by our wonderful team, led by our vineyard manager Sergio Melgoza," Sherwood said.

Rocca Family Vineyards was founded in 1999, when Mary Rocca and her husband, Dr. Eric Grigsby, acquired a 21-acre vineyard in the heart of the Yountville AVA in Napa Valley. The vineyard was soon converted to a sustainable, organically farmed operation, planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Petit Sirah. The Grigsby Vineyard quickly became a high-quality grape supplier to various Napa Valley wineries while the family embarked on creating their own wine label, harvesting the first vintage in 2000.

"We bought our first vineyard with overwhelming enthusiasm for our new role as farmers. Back then, we didn't know much about grape growing, but knew if we put together a great team, excellence in farming and winemaking would follow," stated Mary Rocca.

In 2000, Rocca Family Vineyards acquired an 11-acre hilltop in the Coombsville AVA and planted their new Collinetta Vineyard with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc vines. Twenty-two years later, Rocca wines are still made from these estate vineyards, both of which are Certified Organic, Napa Green, and Fish Friendly Farming.

"We focus on crafting estate Cabernet Sauvignons which perfectly reflect the unique characteristics of each vineyard," said Dr. Grigsby.

With harvest complete, Sherwood will turn his attention to creating beautifully expressive wines, and immersing himself in the nature of Rocca's estate vineyards.

Rocca Family Vineyards : Organically Farmed, Hand Crafted, Family Owned

Since its founding in 1999, Rocca Family Vineyards has organically farmed two estate vineyards in the Yountville and Coombsville appellations of Napa Valley. The Grigsby and Collinetta vineyards are tended by hand, with every row and vine known by heart. The expert farming produces premium quality grapes from which to craft Rocca wines, including single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons, made with dedication to showcase each vineyard's unique qualities and characteristics. Producing only 1,000 cases annually, Rocca Family Vineyards wines are allocated and only sold directly from the winery.

Media Contact:

Angelique Ball

707-257-8467

[email protected]

SOURCE Rocca Family Vineyards
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. , Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sangter is a brand with a simple mission: to enhance male energy and performance. The libido booster uses 100% natural pills that lean heavily on the ancient herbal aphrodisiac Damiana Leaf. From its lack of side effects to its powerful results, Sangter offers a natural solution to the common issue of erectile dysfunction that plagues so many American men.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common issue. The National Institute of Health reports that the condition affects as much as 30 million men in the U.S. alone . ED can impact a wide variety of individuals and can develop for several different reasons.

For instance, ED can become an issue due to taking certain medicines or struggling with specific diseases or conditions as well as being overweight or smoking. It can also be brought on by psychological and emotional struggles. Iconically, it can also simply develop due to age.

While common, the NIH also clarifies that ED is not a normal part of aging and a healthcare professional should be consulted for treatment if ED symptoms appear. The most common of these symptoms is what the NIH terms "an unfulfilled sex life."

This doesn't just revolve around the ability to achieve and maintain an erection. It also includes the passion and drive to pursue sexual intimacy.

It's this primary struggle of ED to have a fulfilling sex life that has fueled the vision behind the innovative titular product developed by the Sangter brand. The innovative brand is well aware of the concern of those struggling with ED. It also knows that modern, informed consumers are less than thrilled to pursue chemical- and synthetic-based prescription solutions to address the issue.

Instead, Sangter has created an exquisitely simple alternative: a single herbal pill principally derived from the powerful ingredient Damiana Leaf . The ancient herb has long been known as an effective aphrodisiac, something that Sangter deploys to its full potential.

The brand's power pill is designed to deliver 72 straight hours of increased libido. Since the solution is herbal, it also comes with a much lower risk threshold than stronger medications and can even be used if someone has recently consumed alcohol. The only condition warned against is that those with blood pressure concerns steer clear of the passion-stirring elixir.

ED is an ongoing concern for millions of American men. It's a narrative that Sangter is looking to rewrite, not with nerve-racking modern medications, but rather with a potent natural solution that has been tested by time.

About Sangter: Sangter is a Venezuelan company created by Roger Flores. The growing enterprise has operated in its home country for over a decade energizing and revitalizing the lives of countless Venezuelan men. In 2018, the brand entered the U.S. intent on offering a safe, healthy alternative to chemical male performance boosters. Learn more about Sangter's long-lasting libido booster at sangter.com .

Please direct inquiries to:

Gabriel Custi

(954) 479-7682

[email protected]

SOURCE Sangter
SKANES FAGERHULT, Sweden, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- David Bessant has decided to leave his position as Senior Vice President of Europe and Rest of the World. His last day with the Company will be 29 September 2021, when John Beadsworth, formerly the Managing Director of Concentric Birmingham & Pune, will assume his position on an interim basis. The work to recruit a permanent successor is underway.

David Bessant commented, "My journey with Concentric has been enjoyable and I would like to thank the team for all their support over the last 12 years."

David Woolley, CEO of Concentric, commented, "Ever since joining Concentric in 2009, Dave has made a significant contribution to our Group, firstly as CFO and latterly as SVP and we all wish him every success for the future. We expect to announce a permanent successor in the near future."

This information is of the type that Concentric AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, at 08.00 CET on 29 September, 2021.

For additional information please contact: David Woolley, Telephone - +44-121-445 6545

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/concentric-ab/r/senior-management-change-at-concentric-ab,c3423113

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Concentric AB
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/-- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a national securities firm rated Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report and headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Austerlitz Acquisition Corp. I ("AUS" or the "Company") (AUS) relating to its proposed merger with Wynn Interactive. Under the terms of the agreement, AUS shareholders will own approximately 18% of the combined company.

The investigation focuses on whether Austerlitz Acquisition Corp. I and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, and 2) whether the transaction is properly valued.

Click here for more information: https://www.monteverdelaw.com/case/austerlitz-acquisition-corp-i. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

About Monteverde & Associates PC

We are a national class action securities litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders from corporate wrongdoing. We were listed in the Top 50 in the 2018-2020 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. Our lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions. Mr. Monteverde is recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013, 2017-2019, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017-2020 Top Rated Lawyer. Our firm's recent successes include changing the law in a significant victory that lowered the standard of liability under Section 14(e) of the Exchange Act in the Ninth Circuit. Thereafter, our firm successfully preserved this victory by obtaining dismissal of a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted at the United States Supreme Court. Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, 139 S. Ct. 1407 (2019). Also, over the years the firm has recovered or secured over a dozen cash common funds for shareholders in mergers & acquisitions class action cases.

If you owned common stock in the Company and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2021 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Artisanal soaps are popular. However, few of the brands available on the market go about their business as thoroughly as Siliski Soaps. The growing company is a rising star in the soap industry. Its hand-made soap bars utilize key ingredients like olive oil while avoiding things like SLS and artificial fragrances. Though Siliski offers an amazing soap for all, its products are life-savers for anyone with dry or sensitive skin.

Siliski Soaps is a brand that began with a purpose. In the words of company founder Andrew Siliski, the company "started out as a search for high-quality soap to help with our longtime battle with eczema."

Even when Siliski tried Castile soaps, which are traditionally made with olive oil , he found that most versions on the market had replaced that critical ingredient with palm- or coconut-based oils. While better than mass-market soaps, the lack of gentler olive oil meant even Castile soap was harsh and left the skin dry and irritated.

Siliski sums up the experience by stating that, "We searched and looked and tried at least a hundred different products, but could not find anything that fit our needs."

With no real solution in sight, the entrepreneur took matters into his own hands. "We finally decided that we would have to build the better soaps we needed," the owner explains, "This kicked off years of research and formulation and Siliski Soaps was born."

Siliski's eponymous brand strictly adheres to several important standards. For instance, the brand's soaps are:

Free of the harmful surfactant SLS ;

Made with 100% natural ingredients;

Entirely manufactured by hand;

Non-toxic, palm-oil-free, and GMO-free;

Cruelty-free and responsibly made with 100% recyclable packaging and a low carbon footprint.

All of these factors come together to create a fantastic soap that is as pleasant to use as it is easy on the skin. Siliski describes the culmination of his years of development by stating that, "all of my products are made by people who have eczema and multiple chemical sensitivities," the owner drives the point home by describing that his products "are great for people who have normal to dry skin, but game changers for people who have lots of skin irritation."

And it's that concept of a "game changer" that really sets Siliski Soaps apart. From a gentle approach to skincare to high standards and a low price point, Siliski Soaps is making its case as the best sudsy solution out there, particularly when it comes to addressing dry skin issues.

About Siliski: Siliski Soaps is owned and operated by Andrew Siliski. The company operates outside of Pittsburg, PA, where Andrew and his staff create their soaps by hand. The brand adheres to the strictest transparency and quality standards and is Pennsylvania Department of Health compliant. Learn more about Siliski Soaps at siliskisoaps.com .

Please direct inquiries to:

Katie Etheridge

(954) 642-8572

[email protected]

SOURCE Siliski Soaps
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Soft-Tex International, Inc. is pleased to announce it has been named the exclusive license for La-Z-Boy top of bed products and will be unveiling a number of new concepts during the Fall New York Home Fashions market week taking place October 4-7, 2021. Soft-Tex will be exhibiting the new collection at its 230 Fifth Avenue showroom offering both in-person and virtual appointments for retailers who are not traveling to the market.

Under the license, Soft-Tex will develop a comprehensive collection of comfortable utility bedding products including; bed pillows, mattress toppers, mattress pads, comforters, warming blankets, and more.

"We are thrilled to partner with the team at Soft-Tex. At its core, La-Z-Boy is about bringing comfort to consumers through quality products. Soft-Tex's commitment to quality and innovation in the bedding market fits perfectly with our brand, and the collection of La-Z-Boy bedding products will offer consumers a new level of comfort as only La-Z-Boy can," said Rob Sundy, Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer at La-Z-Boy.

"La-Z-Boy is an iconic American brand with instant brand recognition among consumers and is the ideal choice for retailers to energize their bedding floor with solutions delivering superior comfort and innovation. We are excited to commercialize new bedding products with cutting-edge technologies, premium fabrics, and superior packaging designs to help consumers sleep comfortably and live better," said Mark Smiderle, Chief Executive Officer at Soft-Tex.

For retailers looking to make market appointments to see the new La-Z-Boy collection, retailers can make an appointment by contacting [email protected] .

About Soft-Tex International, Inc.

Soft-Tex International is an innovation company focused on building the most comfortable products to help the world sleep and live better. With proprietary technologies spanning categories like personal climate control, wellness, antimicrobials, & allergen barriers, coupled with coveted national brands like SensorPEDIC, SensorGel, BioPEDIC, & DreamSmart, Soft-Tex offers its retail, distributor, and other partners the highest quality, most comfortable products with best-in-class, in-house merchandising, digital marketing, customer service and global supply chain capabilities.

About La-Z-Boy

La-Z-Boy Incorporated is one of the world's leading residential furniture producers, marketing furniture for every room of the home. The Wholesale segment includes England, La-Z-Boy, American Drew, Hammary, and Kincaid. The company-owned Retail segment includes 157 of the 352 La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores. Joybird is an e-commerce retailer and manufacturer of upholstered furniture. The corporation's branded distribution network is dedicated to selling La-Z-Boy Incorporated products and brands and includes 352 stand-alone La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores and 560 independent Comfort Studio locations, in addition to in-store gallery programs for the company's Kincaid and England operating units. Additional information is available at http://www.la-z-boy.com/.

SOURCE Soft-Tex

Related Links

https://www.soft-tex.com


The plot of the movie follows the relationship of Aaron and Jane, as one is on top of the world, having the best years of their life, while the other is struggling with their mental health and well-being.

Sorry For My Loss stars Jared Becker , Claire Pegram , Rylie Decocq and Cheree Ramon . This will be Becker's first screenwriting credit. In addition, the film employed 40+ ensemble cast members. The film will also feature original music co-written and performed by Jared Becker, and will be available on all streaming platforms.

"It was important to make this movie to showcase how strong we are as individuals, and how we can learn, through experience to set healthy boundaries for ourselves," said Jared Becker, writer and star of Sorry For My Loss. "This project explains how we can go from feeling so little and guilty by the amount of space we take up in the world to walking with confidence and knowing our worth. I know a lot of people, myself included, who don't know how to set healthy boundaries and can let people walk all over us. This movie is a letter to all of us, especially to myself."

Story Lit Films , Jared Becker and D'Adonis Moquette produced the film. The film is directed by D'Adonis Moquette (For Whom The Bell Tolls, Shattered Pieces).

About Story Lit Films:

Story Lit was founded by Joseph Katches, a Sacramento-based cinematographer and colorist. Katches specializes in narrative, documentary, promotional, commercial and creative films. As seen in his work, Joseph aims to execute the director's vision through the camera. Having worked in the theater and film industry, Katches is able to execute both the creative and the technical side of the production, creating impactful stories that connect with and inspire audiences.

About Jared Becker:

Raised in Du Quoin, Illinois, Jared Becker is an actor, writer and producer. The youngest of four boys in his family, Becker graduated from Du Quoin High School in 2012 and went on to join the Air Force in 2013 and served as an Air Force Intelligence Sergeant stationed at Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, CA until 2019.

Becker received his Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and Master's Degree in Project Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Recently, Becker has written, produced and starred in multiple short films such as Deadlines, Shattered Pieces and Reset.

Becker is represented by Courtney Peldon of Aqua Talent, Jennifer Milner of Panache Talent Managers and Diana Bassett of DBPR.

Media Contact:

Diana Bassett

DBPR

[email protected]

516.697.7677

SOURCE Jared Becker

Related Links

https://storylitfilm.com


VIENNA, Va., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SourceAmerica calls on lawmakers to include the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Restoration Act in the Build Back Better Plan. This act would revamp the Supplemental Security Income Program for the first time in three decades and positively impact the lives of thousands of people with disabilities.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio.) and Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) have introduced the Supplemental Security Income Restoration Act of 2021 in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The SSI Act would enhance the SSI Program and adjust the total amount of benefits for people with disabilities across the nation, increasing their economic security and mobility.

"Time and time again people with disabilities have shown their dedication and desire to enter the workforce," said Stacy Palmer Barton, Vice President of Government Affairs at SourceAmerica. "Without an overhaul to current SSI program benefits, these individuals will remain trapped in a system that discourages work and upward mobility. They're forced to choose between employment and the loss of much-needed benefits including healthcare and housing. This legislation will help ensure that people with disabilities can have both meaningful work and keep these important benefits."

As a leading job creator for people with disabilities, SourceAmerica advocates for the reevaluation of and necessary changes to policies that impact the employment of this segment of the population. Although people with disabilities make up approximately 12% of the U.S. working age population, they account for more than half of those Americans living in long-term poverty. "SSI benefits have not been adjusted for more than three decades, resulting in more people having to chose between work and benefits -- leaving them at a greater risk of poverty," added Palmer Barton.

Archer Hadley is one of the individuals who had to make that difficult choice. He has cerebral palsy and is a 25-year-old recent college graduate. Due to current SSI limitations, Hadley has had to turn down a variety of jobs and has been limited in his ability to earn a livable wage. His story is just one of thousands across the nation.

"The current SSI system is broken, and it is time for change," he said. "Instead of empowering us, this disempowers us. I want to work, be productive, successful, and pay taxes, but our current system doesn't allow it. A job has the unique ability to define each individual and give them a purpose in their community and this nation. That opportunity should not be hindered by outdated policies."

People with disabilities continue to enter the workforce through initiatives like the AbilityOne Program, one of the largest sources of employment for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. SourceAmerica and its network of nonprofit agencies believe enhancement of the SSI Program will lead to true inclusion in the workplace for all.

About SourceAmerica

SourceAmerica connects government and corporate customers to a national network of approximately 700 nonprofit agencies that hire a talented segment of the workforce  people with disabilities. Established in 1974, SourceAmerica is committed to increasing economic and social inclusion and advocating for a more accessible future of work for people with differing abilities. As a leading job creator within the disability community and distinguished as an AbilityOne authorized enterprise, SourceAmerica harnesses the momentum and boosts the capability of its network and customers. To learn more, To learn more, visit SourceAmerica.org and follow @SourceAmerica on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

SOURCE SourceAmerica

Related Links

http://www.sourceamerica.org


BETHLEHEM, Pa., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Luke's University Health Network is pleased to announce that its 17,000 employees have complied with its previously announced Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

"St. Luke's is grateful to its employees who are doing their part to end this Covid-19 pandemic," said Evan Ochs, St. Luke's Senior Vice President of Human Resources. "St. Luke's is proud that its lofty vaccination rate places it among a handful of elite health care institutions worldwide."

Vaccination against various diseases has long been a pillar of public health practice in this country, as well as a condition of employment at St. Luke's, Ochs noted. "Once again, St. Luke's has proven that it is among the world's most successful health networks when it comes to its safety and quality practices," Ochs said.

St. Luke's, an integrated network of 12 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, announced its vaccine mandate on August 9, requiring that all employees without exemptions or deferrals be vaccinated by September 25. As of September 25, only 68 full time employees and 87 part time / per diem employees chose not to become vaccinated and resigned from St. Luke's.

Forty-six employees received a medical exemption, 406 employees were granted a religious exemption, and 216 employees were granted a temporary deferral for pregnancy or a positive Covid-19 test within the last year. Those with exemptions or temporary deferrals will undergo weekly Covid-19 tests as a condition of continued employment.

Earlier this month, President Biden announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate that will apply to tens of millions of Americans employed in both the public and private business sectors, including those in health care. St. Luke's adoption of a mandate prior to the President's announcement enabled the Network to complete the difficult work of compliance that some other health care organizations have only recently begun.

"St. Luke's continues to demonstrate through our decisions and actions that we are a leader in the fight against Covid-19," Ochs said. "Our 100% compliance rate ensures that St. Luke's is providing the safest environment for its employees and for its patients and visitors."

Media Contact: 484-526-4134, [email protected]

About St. Luke's

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 17,000 employees providing services at 12 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue in excess of $2.6 billion, the Network's service area includes 11 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.

SOURCE St. Luke's University Health Network

Related Links

http://www.sluhn.org


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation ("Taylor Morrison"), the nation's fifth largest homebuilder, announced today that it will release its third quarter 2021 results before the market opens on Wednesday, October 27, 2021. Taylor Morrison will hold a conference call to discuss its third quarter results the same day at 8:30 a.m. ET.

A live audio webcast, as well as an archive of the conference call, will be available on Taylor Morrison's website at investors.taylormorrison.com.

For call participants, the dial-in number is: 1 (855) 470-8731 or 1 (661) 378-9962 and the audience passcode is: 5489466. This call will be recorded and available for replay at investors.taylormorrison.com.

Taylor Morrison's filings will be available at investors.taylormorrison.com or with the SEC at sec.gov.

About Taylor Morrison

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is a leading homebuilder and developer operating under our family of brandsincluding Taylor Morrison, Esplanade and Christopher Todd Communities built by Taylor Morrison. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and 55-plus active lifestyle buyers. From 2016-2021, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America's Most Trusted Builder by Lifestory Research. Our strong commitment to sustainability, our communities and our team is highlighted in our 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report.

For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com.

CONTACT:

Investor Relations

Taylor Morrison Home Corp.

(480) 734-2060

[email protected]

SOURCE Taylor Morrison

Related Links

www.taylormorrison.com


Questions Egregious Breach by CN of Timely Disclosure Regarding Julie Godin's Resignation from Company Board of Directors

LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TCI Fund Management Limited, on behalf of itself and as investment manager of long-term shareholders CIFF Capital UK LP and The Children's Investment Master Fund (TCI Fund Management Limited, CIFF Capital UK LP and The Children's Investment Master Fund are referred to collectively as "TCI"), today delivered the following letter to the Board of Directors (the "Board") of Canadian National Railway Company (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) ("CN" or the "Company") raising serious concerns about its integrity and commitment to proper corporate governance practices.

Specifically, CN failed to disclose the material development that Julie Godin had resigned from the Board on September 16, 2021 in an appropriate and timely manner. The full text of the letter is included below:

Board of Directors

Canadian National Railway Company

935 de La Gauchetiere Street West

Montreal

Quebec H3B 2M9, Canada

Attn: Robert Pace, Chairman of the Board

September 29, 2021

Dear Chairman Pace and members of the Board of Directors (the "Board") of Canadian National Railway Company ("CN" or "Canadian National").

We believe the Board has been responsible for selective, inconsistent and potentially misleading disclosure of information.

It has come to our attention that Julie Godin, CN's youngest female director, resigned from the Board on September 16, 2021 - the same day TCI formally requisitioned a special meeting to replace four Board directors, and the day before CN announced its new strategic plan.

Her resignation and CN's failure to publicly disclose it by way of press release raise serious securities and corporate governance issues:

CN did not immediately issue a press release to announce the resignation of Julie Godin from the Board as required. CN only posted a mention of her resignation on a webpage about board mandates and committee membership, which does not satisfy the requirement under applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules that material information be broadly disclosed.

from the Board as required. CN only posted a mention of her resignation on a webpage about board mandates and committee membership, which does not satisfy the requirement under applicable securities laws and stock exchange rules that material information be broadly disclosed.

The lack of a public announcement of Julie Godin's resignation by way of a press release is a departure from CN's prior practice with regard to communicating changes to the board or senior management (see examples in Appendix A). We note that CN issued a press release on April 25, 2017 when Julie Godin joined the Board.

resignation by way of a press release is a departure from CN's prior practice with regard to communicating changes to the board or senior management (see examples in Appendix A). We note that CN issued a press release on when joined the Board.

The failure to issue a press release is even more serious and the information about the departure of a board member is even more material in the context of a public announcement on September 13, 2021 by us regarding the composition and performance of the Board and a requisition being made for a special meeting of shareholders, and a strategic plan having been approved by CN in the same time frame.

by us regarding the composition and performance of the Board and a requisition being made for a special meeting of shareholders, and a strategic plan having been approved by CN in the same time frame.

On September 17, 2021 , in its press release announcing its strategic plan, CN specifically mentioned adding two new directors in 2021 and the retirement of the Board Chair, but made no mention of Julie Godin's resignation. This shows a deliberate lack of transparency and a selective approach to disclosure with respect to governance matters.

, in its press release announcing its strategic plan, CN specifically mentioned adding two new directors in 2021 and the retirement of the Board Chair, but made no mention of resignation. This shows a deliberate lack of transparency and a selective approach to disclosure with respect to governance matters.

The resignation notification posted to CN's website seems to have been created on September 24, 2021 , more than a week after Julie Godin resigned, with CN having announced its strategic plan and holding calls with market participants on September 17, 2021 and thereafter.

, more than a week resigned, with CN having announced its strategic plan and holding calls with market participants on and thereafter.

Julie Godin's departure clearly conflicts with claims of Board progress and unity.

departure clearly conflicts with claims of Board progress and unity.

The Board has been unable to maintain its target of 10 independent directors.

In summary, the manner in which Julie Godin's resignation was dealt with, including the failure to inform the market by way of press release in a timely manner, especially in the existing context, raises serious questions about the integrity of the Board and its commitment to good corporate governance.

Furthermore, this conduct is another example in a long list of corporate governance failures at CN and illustrates why urgent change to the Board and leadership is necessary to put CN back on track.

TCI has serious concerns about this failure to disclose and intends to report Canadian National to the relevant Canadian securities regulators and stock exchanges today.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Hohn Ben Walker

Appendix A

Name of New or Departing

Director or Executive Effective Date of Appointment

or Departure

Date of Press Release





Luc Jobin June 1, 2009 April 29, 2009 Luc Jobin June 30, 2016 June 27, 2016 Claude Mongeau July 1, 2016 June 7, 2016 Mike Cory July 1, 2016 June 27, 2016 Ghislain Houle July 1, 2016 June 27, 2016 Jim Vena July 1, 2016 June 27, 2016 Shauneen Bruder April 25, 2017 April 25, 2017 Julie Godin April 25, 2017 April 25, 2017 Luc Jobin March 5, 2018 March 5, 2018 Jean-Jacques Ruest July 24, 2018 July 24, 2018 Margaret A. McKenzie October 6, 2020 October 6, 2020

About TCI Fund Management

Founded in 2003 by Sir Christopher Hohn, TCI Fund Management Limited, the investment manager of CIFF Capital UK LP and The Children's Investment Master Fund, is a value orientated, fundamental investor which invests globally in strong businesses with sustainable competitive advantages. Using a private equity approach, TCI Fund Management Limited conducts deep fundamental research, constructively engages with management and adopts a long-term investment horizon. For more information on TCI Fund Management Limited and its ESG policy, visit www.tcifund.com/ESG

Disclosures

TCI has been a CN shareholder since 2018. TCI currently owns more than 5% of the shares outstanding (valued at $4.3 billion) and is committed to the long-term success of CN.

Contacts

Kingsdale Advisors:

Ian Robertson

President, Canada

Direct: 416-867-2333

Cell: 647-621-2646

Email: [email protected]

Hyunjoo Kim

Director, Communications, Marketing & Digital Strategy

Direct: 416-867-2357

Cell: 416-899-6463

Email: [email protected]

TCI Media Contacts:

ASC Advisors, New York

Steve Bruce: [email protected]

Taylor Ingraham: [email protected]

203-992-1230

Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation

The information contained in this news release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy by TCI within the meaning of applicable corporate and securities laws. Although TCI has requisitioned a meeting (the "Special Meeting") of the shareholders of CN for the purposes of refreshing the Board, there is currently no record or meeting date and shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of TCI's nominees or any other resolutions set forth in the requisition. In connection with the Special Meeting, TCI has filed a preliminary information circular dated September 27, 2021 (the "Circular") and expects to issue a supplement thereto or amendment and restatement thereof (the "Final TCI Circular") containing further disclosure concerning TCI's proposals, together with additional details concerning the completion and return of forms of proxy and voting information form ("VIF") to be provided by TCI for use at the Special Meeting.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, TCI is voluntarily providing the disclosure required under sections 9.2(4) and 9.2(6) of National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations in accordance with corporate and securities laws applicable to public broadcast solicitations.

This news release and any solicitation made by TCI in advance of the Special Meeting is, or will be, as applicable, made by TCI and not by or on behalf of the management of CN.

Shareholders of CN are not being asked at this time to execute proxies in favour of TCI's nominees (in respect of the Special Meeting) or any other resolution that may be set forth in the requisition. TCI intends to make its solicitation primarily by mail, but proxies may also be solicited personally by telephone, email or other electronic means, as well as by newspaper or other media advertising or in person, by TCI, certain of its members, partners, directors, officers and employees, TCI's nominees or TCI's agents, including Kingsdale Advisors, who has been retained by TCI as its strategic shareholder advisor and proxy solicitation agent. Pursuant to the agreement between Kingsdale Advisors and TCI Fund Management Limited, Kingsdale Advisors would receive a fee of up to $3.5 million, plus customary fees for each call to or from shareholders of CN, and would be reimbursed for certain out-of-pocket expenses, with all such costs to be borne by TCI. In addition, TCI may solicit proxies in reliance upon the public broadcast exemption to the solicitation requirements under applicable Canadian corporate and securities laws, by way of public broadcast, including press release, speech or publication, and in any other manner permitted under applicable Canadian laws. Any members, partners, directors, officers or employees of TCI and their affiliates or other persons who solicit proxies on behalf of TCI will do so for no additional compensation. The costs incurred in the preparation and mailing of the Circular and the Final TCI Circular, and the solicitation of proxies by TCI will be borne by TCI, provided that, subject to applicable law, TCI may seek reimbursement from CN of TCI's out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of the Board.

TCI is not requesting that CN shareholders submit a proxy at this time. A registered shareholder of CN who has given a proxy may revoke the proxy at any time prior to use by:

(a) depositing an instrument or act in writing revoking the proxy, executed or, in Quebec, signed by such registered shareholder or by his, her or its personal representative authorized in writing or by electronic signature or, if the registered shareholder is a corporation, by an officer or attorney thereof properly authorized, either: (i) at the registered office of CN at any time up to and including the last business day preceding the day of the Special Meeting or any postponement(s) or adjournment(s) thereof, at 935, rue de La Gauchetiere ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3B 2M9; or (ii) with the chairman of the Special Meeting prior to commencement of the Special Meeting on the day of the Special Meeting or any postponement(s) or adjournment(s) thereof; or

(b) revoking the proxy in any other manner permitted by law.

A non-registered shareholder may revoke a form of proxy or VIF given to an intermediary or Broadridge Investor Communications (or any such other service company) at any time by submitting another properly completed form of proxy or VIF, as the latest form of proxy or VIF will automatically revoke any previous one already submitted, or by written notice to the intermediary in accordance with the instructions given to the non-registered shareholder by its intermediary.

Based on information provided to TCI by each respective nominee, none of TCI's nominees, nor any of their associates or affiliates, has had any material interest, direct or indirect, in any transaction since the commencement of CN's most recently completed financial year or in any proposed transaction which has materially affected or would materially affect CN or any of its subsidiaries.

Based on information provided to TCI by each respective nominee, none of TCI nor any member, partner, director or officer of TCI, nor any of TCI's nominees, nor any associates or affiliates of the foregoing, has any material interest, direct or indirect, by way of beneficial ownership of securities or otherwise, in the matters currently known to be acted upon at the Special Meeting, other than in respect of TCI's ownership, control or direction of an aggregate of 36,699,825 common shares of CN, and the removal of certain incumbent directors and the election of the nominees as directors of CN.

CN's registered office address is 935, rue de La Gauchetiere ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3B 4M9. A copy of the Circular which contains the information required by Form 51-102F5 Information Circular in respect of each of TCI's nominees may be obtained on CN's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE TCI Fund Management Limited

Related Links

http://www.tcifund.com/ESG


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cannabinoid Institute (TCI) announced today it is offering its cannabis training certification courses free of charge to 100 medical students in the state of New York. Courses will be awarded to the first 100 applicants who supply proof of their status as enrolled NY state medical students at [email protected] .

With more states legalizing cannabis for medical and recreational use, TCI recognizes the critical role that education plays in reducing patient adverse outcomes and ensuring the safe use of cannabis. Since less than 10% of medical schools teach about the endocannabinoid system and cannabis from a scientific and objective lens, TCI is offering its courses free of charge to medical students since they represent the next generation of physicians who will benefit from understanding the complexities of the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis and in order to meet the needs of patients who are increasingly looking to plant-based alternatives as part of their treatment plans. Medical students who register for the program will have access to eight hours of medical cannabis education, including the latest scientific research on the endocannabinoid system and the known effects of cannabis on the human body. This certification course is also offered to practicing physicians who are eligible to receive ACCME tier-1 credit. In order to offer its courses more widely, TCI is in discussion with additional potential underwriters of its courses to provide students across healthcare disciplines with the education they need to meet the changing landscape concurrent with the legalization of cannabis.



TCI was founded by Drs. Jan Roberts and Stacia Woodcock with the objective of reducing adverse reactions for patients and ensuring clinicians can provide their patients with the most knowledgeable guidance available. With patient safety at the center of its mission, TCI was created to educate healthcare professionals on the risks and benefits of medical cannabis, now legal in the state of New York and beyond. Historically treated as a Schedule I drug which prevented medical cannabis research for the past 50 years, TCI's certification courses teach the science of the body's endocannabinoid system, medicinal uses of the plant, and the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use, including drug to drug interactions, among other topics.

"When I conducted my academic research on clinicians' knowledge and attitudes on medical cannabis, it became apparent many clinicians had not heard of the endocannabinoid system or how different methods of consumption and dosing impacted patients and their outcomes. The data revealed that clinicians who had never experienced cannabis firsthand viewed it much more negatively and stigmatized, whereas clinicians who had experience firsthand with cannabis understood the potential medical benefit for some clinical conditions," noted Jan Roberts, Founder of TCI. "Our concern for patient safety and creating positive outcomes has informed TCI's goal to arm healthcare professionals with the latest information on the endocannabinoid system and medical cannabis. We are delighted to be able to offer certification courses to NY state medical students who will be on the front line of patient care as medicinal cannabis research unlocks potential treatment options."

About The Cannabinoid Institute

TCI is a global women-led medical cannabis education company that specializes in teaching science-driven, web-based, and live education to medical students, and other health care professionals by providing accredited certification programs and individual courses for clinicians. TCI offers cannabis medical education in both English and Spanish.

About Dr. Jan Roberts

Jan Roberts, DSW, LCSW is the founder of The Cannabinoid Institute (TCI), a licensed clinical social worker, and an educator at NYU Silver School of Social Work. Dr. Roberts also serves as the Faculty Advisor for NYU's CannaHealth Student Group, which is part of the larger NYU CannaNetwork, and is a clinical supervisor for MSW interns. In addition, Dr. Roberts sees patients at her private practice in Manhattan.

Media Contact:

Joe Flattery

917.474.2689

[email protected]

SOURCE The Cannabinoid Institute

Related Links

https://thecannabinoidinstitute.com


EVERGREEN, Colo., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Functional Chocolate Company  has been named the winner of a Bronze Stevie Award for Startup of the Year - Consumer Products Industries in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Additionally, CEO of The Functional Chocolate Company Nicole Smith was recognized as Bronze Female Entrepreneur of the Year  Consumer Products.

The Functional Chocolate Company offers ethically-sourced, vegan dark chocolate paired with nutraceuticals - vitamins, minerals, botanicals and amino acids, to help address a variety of everyday health realities - from sleep to energy, stress to focus and much more.

"It's truly an honor to be featured in this prestigious, global awards program at such an early stage in our venture, having only sold our first bars earlier this year," said Nicole Smith, CEO, The Functional Chocolate Company. "These recognitions and our successful growth highlight that customers are increasingly benefiting from our sweet and simple way of addressing everyday health realities."

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and the companies they run worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world's premier business awards.

Maggie Gallagher Miller, president of the Stevie Awards, said, "We thought the remarkable stories of achievement we saw in last year's awards couldn't be topped, but we were wrong. Women-owned and -run organizations have contributed significantly to the increase in innovation and entrepreneurial activity we've seen globally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nominations submitted to the 18th Stevie Awards for Women in Business that attest to this are inspiring, humbling and motivating. We congratulate all of our Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners. We look forward to celebrating them during our January 13 virtual ceremony, and to hearing from some of them during our Women|Future Conference."

Featured Products from The Functional Chocolate company include:

The Functional Chocolate Company was also recently named a shortlisted finalist in The Global Vegan Awards .

For more information about Functional Chocolate or to set up an interview, please contact Graham Sorkin at [email protected] .

About The Stevie Awards:

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com .

About The Functional Chocolate Company:

Founded in 2020, The Functional Chocolate Company is headquartered in Evergreen, Colorado. We believe that treating your health should be a treat. With a team from consumer product development, confectionery, nutraceutical and nutrition backgrounds, we've learned that there is a better way to treat everyday health realities.

Flexible, fully customizable individual boxes, subscriptions, and gift options are available at funcho.co , as well as popular retail locations .

For wholesale inquiries, please contact [email protected] or find us on RangeMe , Faire & Abound .

Supporting Resources:

Details about the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women .

. Learn more about the science of Functional Chocolate on our blog -- https://funcho.co/blogs/articles

Follow @FunctionalChoc on:

SOURCE The Functional Chocolate Company

Related Links

https://funcho.co


PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support at Saint Joseph's University is expanding its commitment to college students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by offering an on-campus residential option that builds community and provides increased support. The residence hall is a new frontier for autism at college as it will be located on a traditional college campus and is set to open in fall 2022. This new option will be available to undergraduate students enrolled in the ASPIRE program , an immersive program led by Kinney's team of trained professionals that provides students with ASD with a wide-range of personalized support services. The expansion of services aims to enhance the transition from adolescence into adulthood for individuals on the spectrum, as the number of young adults on the spectrum continues to grow.

"The supported residence hall builds on the success we've had in the ASPIRE program and will provide a new layer of support for our students on the spectrum," says Angus Murray, executive director of the Kinney Center. "As our program has grown over the last decade, so has the amount of support services. We've seen an increase in the number of students who have expressed a need for more support around independent living as they initially transition from home to college, and as a way to further build community and enhance connection."

The residence hall will be staffed with a team of resident assistants and graduate assistants trained in supporting college students on the spectrum. It will allow students to choose to build deeper relationships with other neuro-diverse peers, while working towards independence with practical applications of lessons learned in ASPIRE skills courses, including topics like personal care, problem solving and communal living.

Students living in the residence will have the opportunity to attend weekly structured social events and student life activities to help them get acclimated to a vibrant college campus. The Kinney Center will also host an array of programming and social activities for residents and other students at the residence hall to further community building efforts.

"All students are encouraged to be involved across campus, but now ASPIRE students interested in this option will have another way to help set themselves up for success," says Murray.

The residence will be located at Saint Albert's Hall, with building renovations being completed prior to the opening. The Kinney Center has plans to work with Thomas Jefferson University's Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce on sensory-friendly design options.

ASPIRE program participants continue to achieve high graduation and employment rates. To learn more about the supported residence hall and the Kinney Center, visit sju.edu/kinney .

SOURCE Saint Joseph's University

Related Links

http://www.sju.edu


As an extension of The Menkiti Group's mission to transform lives, careers, and communities through real estate, the expansion of the capital and investments team provides an opportunity for the enterprise to deploy capital in new markets while maintaining its commitment to local communities. The firm's experience working in emerging neighborhoods, double bottom line approach, and current pipeline of projects leaves them poised for rapid growth.

"Expanding our capital and investments team is an initiative driven by our commitment to advancing economic equity and our desire to bridge the gap between societal impact with traditional real estate. Melissa Lee has had an exemplary track record in delivering strategies and analytical solutions to both community and government organizations," said Bo Menkiti, CEO and Founder of The Menkiti Group. "As an enterprise we are growing rapidly and with ample opportunities in the pipeline we knew it was time to expand the capital part of our platform."

Ms. Lee, who will lead the MG Capital and Investments division, joins the enterprise with over two decades of finance experience with expertise in investment management and treasury management across multiple industries. In previous roles Ms. Lee oversaw a $2+ billion real estate portfolio at the Maryland State Retirement & Pension System with the responsibility for advancing the asset class strategy through the deployment of capital into domestic and global private real estate funds. Ms. Lee also served as the Director of Treasury Operations at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), where she executed the organization's cash, debt, and investment strategy. In addition, she served as a Trustee on several of WMATA's Retirement Plans. Most recently, Ms. Lee served as the Founder and Managing Principal of Lee Squared Consulting Group, LLC where she developed financial strategies for community development organizations.

As the Senior Vice President of Capital and Investments, Ms. Lee will lead all structure and growth of the capital, investment, and fund management activities. Her institutional investment and treasury background will serve as a means to cultivate existing investor relationships and build new partnerships that align with forthcoming investment funds. She will be supported by Mr. Daniels, who most recently worked in private equity for Vista Equity Partners. Mr. Daniels will leverage his proptech, real estate development, acquisitions, and management consulting experience to support the deployment of capital as the firm continues to scale.

"This is an exciting time to join The Menkiti Group. We have an amazing opportunity to advance our thought leadership around transforming the lenses through which we approach real estate and neighborhood investment. We are looking forward to the collaborative ways in which we can shift the real estate paradigm to create multi layered investment opportunities that unlock the overlooked potential of places and people," said Melissa Lee, Senior Vice President of Capital and Investments. "The ability to connect social impact and financial returns only makes what we are charged with more compelling and personally fulfilling."

Over the last 17 years, The Menkiti Group has established a strong track record of success and developed over two million square feet of catalytic projects in Washington, DC and Worcester, MA. By expanding their capital and investments team, the enterprise is formalizing their successful performance in investing in emerging neighborhoods and talented entrepreneurs. The capital and investments team is focused on working with investment partners to deepen the reach and impact of their real estate investment strategies, with an emphasis on supporting diverse developers in the real estate space.

About The Menkiti Group:

Founded in 2004, The Menkiti Group is a 100% minority-owned Certified Business Enterprise headquartered in Washington, DC, with additional offices in Worcester, Massachusetts. The organization was founded with the mission to transform lives, careers, and communities through real estate. The Menkiti Group is a double bottom line company, measuring success in terms of financial and positive social impact. The company's approach to urban neighborhood transformation and investment is centered upon residential and commercial development, residential sales, and commercial brokerage.

The Menkiti Group invests in abandoned and underutilized properties and transforms them into exciting and affordable homes and workspaces. Projects range from single-family residential renovations and the development and tenanting of main street commercial properties to large-scale, mixed-use, transit-oriented development projects. Over the past 17 years, The Menkiti Group has invested over $225MM in DC's emerging neighborhoods, worked on the development of over 2.1MM SF of real estate, and has assisted over 2,000 families in purchasing their first homes.

SOURCE The Menkiti Group

Related Links

www.MenkitiGroup.com


" Get Into Nature is rooted in revitalizing the wonder so many of us felt as kids when we were out in the yard or at the park and delivers on our greater mission to help solve some of the world's biggest problems," said Esi Seng, General Manager at Tom's of Maine. "Tom's has always worked to produce effective and natural products that are good for people and the planet. We believe protecting the planet is in our hands, and we should work to make it be at the center of all children's lives, too  no matter where they live. If kids don't play in or connect with nature, our planet will lose its next generation of champions."

Kids today actually spend 95% of their time indoors*  and for many, because of barriers like transportation or access to safe outdoor spaces, easy access to the outdoors is not within reach. Tom's of Maine is working to change that.

Long-standing environmental activist and celebrated actress, Rosario Dawson, is partnering with Tom's of Maine to launch Get Into Nature nationwide. Rosario, who grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City, believes that kids everywhere should have access to the great outdoors. "Growing up, activism was always an important part of my family's life thanks to my Mom. She helped me create my first campaign at 10 years old to save trees." said Dawson. "Initiatives like Get Into Nature are deeply connected to this legacy, and my hope is that every child is given the opportunity to step up, get outside and rally for our planet."

Alongside Dawson, Tom's of Maine's is teaming up with the National Recreation Foundation (NRF), a non-profit dedicated to creating more just and equitable access to recreation programs. Together with local communities, Get Into Nature is set to bring the joys of nature to 150,000 kids across the country. Over three years, and with a commitment of $3 million dollars, Tom's of Maine aims to introduce the next generation to the vital role they play in protecting the planet. This is critical because 87% of children who play and explore outside are more likely to cherish, protect and care for nature when they grow up**.

Get Into Nature funding will go toward the kids who live in underrepresented communities across the country that often lack the resources to access nature and get outside. The initiative will provide support to local community organizations to increase and expand their programs like access to summer camps, such as Audubon Texas's Conservation Leaders Program for Young Women , and improve nature-based programming for extracurricular youth groups like Denver-based Environmental Learning for Kids , and the national Children & Nature Network . Other recipients of the first Get Into Nature grants include the Greater Newark Conservancy's Newark Youth Leadership Project , the Outdoors Empowered Network's BIPOC-Led Gear Libraries , and Rippleffect's Senior & Freshman Adventure Quests at Casco Bay High School in Portland, ME.

The NRF is dedicated to enhancing the role of recreation as a positive force in improving the quality of life of youth. For over 50 years, NRF's grantmaking has supported outdoor recreation programs that build critical life skills by getting kids active and outdoors. "With study after study demonstrating the myriad of mental and physical health benefits of time in nature, NRF is thrilled to collaborate with Tom's of Maine to increase equitable access to meaningful and culturally relevant experiences in the outdoors for youth from across the country," said Sophie Twichell, NRF's President and CEO.

Tom's of Maine is urging everyone to join in and #GetIntoNature by going out and enjoying the great outdoors on a hike, a picnic, or learning about Mother Earth. You can share outdoor adventures with Tom's by tagging us on TikTok (@TomsofMaine), Instagram (@Toms_of_Maine), or other favorite social media platforms. Posts may be featured on the Tom's of Maine account and celebrated around the world!

About Tom's of Maine

We made our mark making natural products like toothpaste and deodorant. But what is most important to us? Working to make positive change by doing good. This has been our focus for over 50 years, and for the next 50, we're challenging ourselves to solve some of the world's biggest social and environmental problems through our products, our policies, and our partnerships. We make natural products that really work  including toothpaste, deodorant, mouthwash, antiperspirant, bar soap, body wash, dental floss, and toothbrushes  by combining naturally derived ingredients and scientific know-how. Most Tom's of Maine products are vegan, kosher, halal-certified and gluten-free. As a Certified B Corporation, we are held to the highest social and environmental standards and donate 10% of our profits to nonprofits addressing issues facing our health, our environment, and our kids. Visit us online at https://www.tomsofmaine.com.

Contacts

Rob Robinson, Tom's of Maine

(207) 467-2268, [email protected]

Paola Reyes, BCW Global

(512) 542-2809, [email protected]

*Study from National Recreation and Park Association's policy paper "Children in Nature"): https://www.nrpa.org/uploadedFiles/nrpa.org/Advocacy/Children-in-Nature.pdf

**2020 study from Frontiers in Psychology: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00276/full .

SOURCE Tom's of Maine

Related Links

https://www.tomsofmaine.com/


RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Transmira, Inc., the Raleigh-based start-up pioneering Experiential Reality (XR) technology on the BSV blockchain, today announces it has opened a multi-million-dollar seed funding round. Transmira has attracted commitments from several prominent investors as part of the ongoing funding round, including Ventek Ventures, Ayre Ventures and other family offices, with opportunities now available for new participants to join the round.

Transmira is spearheading development of the Metaverse, in which the reality of the physical world meets the infinite space of digital gaming. Transmira's Omniscape platform brings location to life, allowing businesses to engage with consumers by combining Augmented Reality (AR) with Virtual Reality (VR) in the exciting new XR environment.

Transmira CEO Robert Rice, who Advertising Age recognized as an Internet Gaming Pioneer, has described XR as branded AR combined with geolocation. Rice says XR helps businesses grow by putting content where their ideal customers are located.

"Transmira's groundbreaking patent on virtual goods and 3D non-fungible tokens (NFTs) linked to real-world assets will be fundamental in driving the new virtual economy and commerce in the metaverse. Transmira is beginning to roll out early features for Omniscape, starting with tokenized virtual real estate, a 3D NFT Marketplace, MetaPets, and much more. Some of this will be on display at CES 2022 in Las Vegas in January."

The funding round's supporters include Los Angeles-based Ventek Ventures, an early stage cross-border venture capital fund focusing on the US, China, and Southeast Asia.

Founding partner Tony Zhang said that since Ventek was "the first investor in China's social metaverse Soul (now majority owned by Tencent), we are very excited to work with Transmira and be part of the coming metaverse revolution. We have met multiple companies in this space, but we were by far most impressed by Robert and his team. Their unique understanding of XR and its applications, combined with years of experience in the industry, will allow them to aggregate brands and IPs to monetize metaverse technologies seamlessly."

Ayre Ventures founder Calvin Ayre said he was "proud to support Transmira, an innovative start-up using the power and versatility of the BSV Enterprise Blockchain to explore exciting new ways for businesses to connect with consumers, particularly with younger demographics. Robert is a visionary with the drive to realize Omniscape's fusion of the physical and the virtual worlds."

Rice said Transmira was "very excited to welcome a group of investors who bring global perspectives, experiences and deep networks of resources that we will be able to leverage as we begin releasing various elements of the Omniscape platform in Q4."

Rice said the new capital will give Transmira "the ability to scale quickly as we prepare to disrupt the market and seize a leadership position as the first fully blended AR/VR metaverse platform that truly bridges the real and the virtual."

To learn more about Transmira, attend (in person or virtually) the CoinGeek New York conference, the year's biggest BSV blockchain event (October 5-7, 2021), at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. Transmira CEO Robert Rice will detail his vision for blockchain-based AR, VR and the Metaverse on Tuesday, October 5.

About Transmira

Transmira, Inc. are a Raleigh, North Carolina-based start-up monetizing Metaverse XR technologies. The company is the developer of Omniscape, the first blockchain-based XR platform that blends augmented and virtual reality together with a focus on location, virtual goods, and commercial opportunities for brands, businesses, smart cities, and content-creators.

About Ventek Ventures

Ventek Ventures is an early stage cross-border venture capital fund focusing on companies with the technology, team and timing to capture sustainable markets in the US, China, and Southeast Asia.

About Ayre Ventures

Ayre Ventures, founded by celebrated entrepreneur and philanthropist Calvin Ayre, provides capital to scalable, high-growth businesses within the BSV blockchain ecosystem, the only infinitely scaling enterprise public blockchain. The Group targets investment in innovative ideas and ambitious projects that are 'positively disruptive', supporting their expansion with the Group's extensive network and industry partners.

SOURCE Transmira
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TruLife Distribution is a fast-growing marketing and distribution agency that specifically caters to the health and wellness market. One of its primary methods of placing new clients is via the various programs set up by ECRM throughout the year. September 2021 is a big month for TruLife Distribution as they prepare to work the virtual floor of the conference's Vitamin, Weight Management & Sports Nutrition program .

TruLife Distribution is a company that understands how hard it is to get a new product to market. No matter how good an idea may be, it requires a competent team, a solid supply chain, and a foolproof marketing strategy to move goods through retailers and into the hands of consumers.

The company offers a suite of services that help with this process. Some of these focus on marketing aspects such as PR, influencer, and social media marketing. Other elements include warehousing, shipping and handling, and e-commerce.

Where TruLife Distribution really swings big for its clients, though, is at the ECRM programs that take place throughout the year. ECRM (Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing) is a series of revolving events that, in the words of the conference , serve as the bridge between the two worlds of product creation and retailers. The conference sums up its service by explaining that "we put you in front of the right people at major chains at the right time  when they're actively searching for new products to sell."

TruLife Distribution takes full advantage of ECRM's ability to provide valuable access to high-profile retailers. In the past, company founder Brian Gould has expressed the importance of the conference for his wunderkind enterprise, stating that, "It's about networking, but it's really about building trust." Gould adds that "we take care of every step to help get our client's products on American shelves."

TruLife represents an array of impressive, growing brands from all around the world. The ECRM conference is one of the prime opportunities to showcase these movers and shakers and offer retailers a chance to get in on the ground floor as they take off in the larger North American health and wellness market.

About TruLife Distribution: TruLife Distribution was founded in 2019 by Brian Gould. Gould comes from three generations of manufacturing and retail distribution professionals. His self-started company offers a full-service experience that includes sales, marketing, and distribution. Learn more about TruLife Distribution at trulifedist.com .

Please direct inquiries to:

Kendal Holland

(954) 637-4932

[email protected]

SOURCE TruLife Distribution
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and former vaper turned activist Daniel Ament, took to The Atlantic Festival stage during a session called Thrive: A Youth Mental-Health Summit to draw awareness to the connection between vaping and the worsening youth mental health crisis, which peer-reviewed studies indicate are interconnected. The speakers highlighted well-established research that shows nicotine both harms developing brains and can negatively effect mental health by worsening symptoms of anxiety and depression.

A recently published study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that youth depression and anxiety doubled during the pandemic, compared to pre-pandemic estimates. Meanwhile, youth vaping remains at epidemic levels, with 20% of high schoolers vaping, and nearly 40% of those who vape, doing so on a regular basis, which may worsen their mental and physical health.

The Surgeon General appeared on Truth Initiative's panel segment, titled Exposing Vaping as a Mental Health Issue, as his seminal 2016 report on e-cigarette use among youth and young adults approaches its fifth anniversary. As the first-ever federal report on youth e-cigarette use, it sounded the alarm on the uniquely damaging effects nicotine has on young people. During the discussion, Dr. Murthy commented on the association between nicotine and symptoms of depression and other mental health concerns. "Nicotine is highly addictive, it harms the developing brain, which is one of the reasons why we're particularly concerned about it with adolescents," said Dr. Murthy. "E-cigarettes, have sadly been yet another pathway through which young people have been exposed to nicotine-containing products. There is a growing body of science that is showing us nicotine may also impact our mental health. We all know that the pandemic has taken a real toll on our mental health and physical health and we have to do everything we can to make sure we're bolstering our health at this time of crisis."

The Atlantic Festival convenes the biggest names in politics, media, business, tech, and the arts to discuss the most consequential issues of our time. Underwritten by Truth Initiative, Thrive: A Youth Mental-Health Summit also featured Zak Williams, son of Robin Williams and a mental health advocate who recently told his compelling story in "The Me You Can't See." The summit also brought together advocacy groups, researchers and young people to talk about ways to find hope and solutions amid the growing youth mental health crisis.

The Atlantic Festival panel comes on the heels of "It's Messing with Our Heads" the latest campaign from truth  the proven-effective and nationally recognized youth smoking, vaping and nicotine prevention campaign from Truth Initiative. During the panel discussion, Robin shared details of this effort to give young people facts about vaping. "Our organization cares deeply about the physical and mental wellbeing of our nation's youth and young adults," said Robin Koval, President and CEO of Truth Initiative. "COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health issues for young people and, unfortunately, the very thing many young people are turning to for relief can actually making it worse. The tobacco industry has invested significant resources to connect tobacco with mental well-being but the science is clear that vaping nicotine can amplify and worsen symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our latest truth campaign helps call attention to and raise awareness of nicotine's problematic impact on young people's mental health."



During Truth Initiative's discussion, Daniel told his harrowing story about how he went from being a healthy four sport varsity athlete to one of the first recipients of a double lung transplant during his junior year of high school after vaping e-cigarettes for nine months. "Most teenagers I've met who are still addicted to vaping know they have a problem and want to quit but do not have the mental power or enough of a reason to do so," said Daniel who is sharing his story in hopes that it will inspire, educate and encourage others to quit, or better yet never vape in the first place, in order to avoid the harmful mental and physical effects of vaping that he has experienced first-hand.

As part of this youth vaping education and prevention effort, Truth Initiative released a white paper, Colliding Crises: Youth Mental Health and Nicotine Use, which examines years of data on nicotine's role in exacerbating mental health issues. These important data linking nicotine to mental health demonstrates the urgency to help young people quit vaping, especially in light of data showing that 90% of those who quit said they felt less stressed, anxious or depressed. Truth Initiative's innovative youth engagement can help. More than 370,000 young people have enrolled in This is Quitting the proven-effective, free and anonymous text message quit vaping program for teens and young adults from Truth Initiative. A recent clinical trial shows This Is Quitting increased e-cigarette quit vaping rates by nearly 40% compared to a control group. truth also offers a free, comprehensive digital program curriculum, Vaping: Know the truth, that gives students the facts about the health dangers of e-cigarettes and the help they need to quit. Teens and young adults can text "DITCHVAPE" to 88709 and get immediate help and those struggling with mental health or who want to learn more about quitting can access free resources at thetruth.com.

More information about the impact nicotine has on mental health can be found at TruthInitiative.org.

About Truth Initiative

Truth Initiative is a national public health organization that is inspiring lives free from smoking, vaping and nicotine and building a culture where all young people reject tobacco. In 2020, we celebrated 20 years of saving lives and preventing millions of youth from smoking. Our impact has helped drive the teen smoking rate down from 23% in 2000 to 4.2% in 2020. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized truth public education campaign. truth has also recently taken on the youth epidemics of vaping and opioids. Our rigorous scientific research and policy studies, community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco and innovation in tobacco dependence treatment, are also helping to end one of the most critical public health battles of our time. Based in Washington D.C., our organization, formerly known as the American Legacy Foundation, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. To learn more, visit truthinitiative.org.

About truth

truth is the longest-running and most successful national tobacco prevention campaign for youth and young adults. The campaign delivers the facts about tobacco use and the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry so that young people can make informed choices and influence others to do the same. We are credited with preventing millions of young people from becoming smokers and are equally committed to achieving the same results in ending the youth e-cigarette epidemic, including by helping young people quit with our first-of-its-kind quit vaping program for teens and young adults This is Quitting. truth is part of Truth Initiative, a national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine. Learn more about truth and the organization behind it at thetruth.com and truthinitiative.org.

SOURCE Truth Initiative

Related Links

https://truthinitiative.org


"I am honored to begin this journey with the team here at UNICO 2087, and excited to have the chance to share my passion while incorporating my unique culinary techniques with Cueva Siete," said Chef Lula Martin Del Campo. "My most important ingredient is to respect everything that surrounds us. With this we will be able to maintain the Culinary Heritage of Mexico."

Known for her influential cookbooks and her most recent restaurants, Cascabel and Marea, Chef Lula was born in Mexico City where she cultivated a passion for the culinary field through her professional and family experiences. The vision behind Chef Lula's dishes comes from her culinary expertise and passion to promote gastronomic culture of the country through what she recognizes as the Culinary Heritage of Mexico. Her daily motto, "En la vida y en la cocina...menos es mas" which translates to 'Less is more...in life, and in the kitchen' Chef Lula highlights her passion for creating dishes that embody people's identities and "not just to sell food, but to sell experiences."

Her menu concepts prioritize preventing the extinction of key, authentic Mexican ingredients such as beans, corn and endemic grains. Embracing the local art and culture, Chef Lula aims to carry the region's authenticity into her dishes by implementing her version of the different textures and colorful flavors of Mexican cuisine. UNICO 2087 's Cueva Siete is not a singular experience, but rather designed as a multi-sensory adventure with constantly changing tastes, textures and sensations. With cuisine ranging from simple and healthy to outstandingly indulgent, Cueva Siete provides a wealth of carefully executed options while incorporating an exciting rotating chef concept.

Inspiration derived from all that is Yacatecan, this regionally focused concept aims to channel the mysticism and reverence of Mayan culture, highlighting Mexico's culinary diversity. During their takeover, each chef integrates locally sourced ingredients to design a unique menu to offer guests a mix of the distinct international flavors this country has to offer.

A couple of her signature dishes on Cueva Siete restaurant's menu include Palm Hearts with Red Onion, Tomato, Green Chili, and House Clamato. Traditional Mexican Stew with Shredded Chicken, Red Rice and Native Beans from the pot, Conchita Tacos with Creole Corn Tortillas and traditional Yucatecan pork cooked in a ground oven.

UNICO 2087 Hotel Riviera Maya is delighted to welcome Chef Lula into the kitchen at Cueva Siete restaurant, and is devoted to continuing to provide elevated cultural immersion through Chef Lula's exclusive Mexican recipes.

To book a stay at UNICO 2087 Hotel Riviera Maya and experience Chef Lula's authentic cuisine, please visit www.unicohotelrivieramaya.com .

About UNICO 2087 Hotel Riviera Maya

Equal parts international outpost and local getaway  UNICO 2087 Hotel Riviera Maya  embraces the contemporary culture of the region. This one-of-a-kind, all-inclusive hotel for the sophisticated traveler offers vacationers a real, unfiltered experience in the backdrop of relaxed luxury complete with locally sourced art and thoughtfully considered artisanal design elements. Guests are encouraged to fully immerse themselves through exclusively developed off-property private excursions, from exploring the region's lesser-known alcoves with local hosts to dining at local tastemakers' preferred restaurants and bars. On-property culturally inspired experiences include live artistic demonstrations from musicians and painters, and an Executive Mixologist infusing local flavors and ingredients to craft specialty cocktails throughout the hotel. For more information, please visit www.unicohotelrivieramaya.com . Follow UNICO 2087 Hotel Riviera Maya on social - @UNICO2087 ( Facebook , Instagram , Twitter ).

SOURCE AIC Hotel Group

Related Links

aichotelgroup.com


DETROIT, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Unity Rd., the cannabis dispensary franchise from Item 9 Labs Corp. (OTCQX: INLB), continues to lead at the forefront of the industry. As part of the brand's commitment to cannabis education and franchise expansion, Unity Rd. will be presenting at the virtual MLive Cannabis Insights event on Thursday, October 7, which kicks off at 4:00 p.m. EDT. The presentation will include a live Q&A with Unity Rd.'s VP of Franchise Development, Justin Livingston, and Unity Rd. franchise partner Nate Wetzel, who recently opened the doors of his Unity Rd. shop in Boulder, Colorado.

The virtual event's theme is Grow Your Brand, and will cover practical tools, tactics and insights on effective marketing strategies in the cannabis industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from six speakers, some of whom include: David Herrold, Director of Audience Target Strategy at Advance Local; Andrew Brisbo, Executive Director of Michigan's Marijuana Regulatory Agency; and Tatiana Grant, President of Cultivate MI Solutions. Unity Rd.'s presentation will cover how to Grow in Cannabis with the Proven System of a Franchise, featuring an authentic Q&A session with Livingston and Wetzel, providing insight into the franchise partnership process, while exploring potential questions and other considerations that prospective operators may have.

Register for the October 7 virtual MLive Cannabis Insights Event

for free here.

Learn more about Unity Rd. franchise opportunities,

contact [email protected] or 720-923-5262, or visit franchise.unityrd.com.

"Before finding Unity Rd., I was fully prepared to take on the burden of launching a dispensary from scratch  I'm so glad I didn't," shared Wetzel. "Opening a dispensary has been a goal of mine for years. After putting in the research, that goal became increasingly daunting. Unity Rd. helped make the opening process as smooth as possible. Looking back, I can't even imagine having to navigate that on my own. That said, before signing on with the team, I had plenty of questions. Our goal with this Q&A is to answer the questions that interested investors likely have in hopes of helping them decide what route they'd like to take."

The cannabis industry is notoriously complex, which is why Unity Rd. has developed a streamlined and straight forward approach to opening a dispensary. The brand's team boasts a combined 120-plus years of legal cannabis and franchising experience, and provides guidance every step of the way  from securing a dispensary license to managing cash flow and product selection. The veteran team passes on their knowledge and trusted resources, as well as provides the ongoing support needed to successfully operate a dispensary.

"Franchising is a solid way to bring support and structure to any industry, but for years, leaders have shied away from franchising cannabis  no doubt due to its complexity. Yet, franchising dispensaries is the only way we're going to see explosive industry growth with business ownership in the hands of the local operator," explains Livingston. "So, whether you're interested in learning about franchising in cannabis, or are looking to take some best practices back to your business, I encourage you to attend this event. There are so many nuances in cannabis, so this event is sure to be filled with helpful insight."

Unity Rd. has pinpointed Michigan for growth as statewide adult-use cannabis sales are projected to total upwards of $2.4 billion by 2024. In 2020 alone, combined cannabis sales were $984.6 million, with medical accounting for $474 million and adult-use generating $510.7 million. The brand is actively seeking qualified franchise partners in target development markets including Detroit, Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids.

ABOUT UNITY RD. :

Unity Rd. is bridging the two previously disconnected worlds of cannabis and franchising. The industry trailblazer is the first to bring the cannabis dispensary franchise model to the United Stateswith duality of prowess in both industries to back it up. Built up from a collective 200 years in the legal cannabis industry and franchising, the company helps eager operators enter the complex industry with ease. The marijuana franchise pioneer offers its partners the knowledge, resources, and ongoing support needed to compliantly and successfully operate a dispensary. Launched in 2018, Unity Rd. has signed multiple agreements with more than 10 entrepreneurial groups across the country. Recently, it was named one of the top cannabis retail leaders in the nation by MJBizDaily magazine and one of the "Best Cannabis Companies to Work For" in both the dispensary and cultivation categories in Cannabis Business Times' elite 2020 list. The company is also the first cannabis business to earn a Franchise Times Dealmakers award. For more information, visit unityrd.com.

MEDIA CONTACT : Liz Robinson, Fishman PR, [email protected], 847-702-8099

SOURCE Unity Rd.
TOKYO, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- University of Electro-Communications publishes the September 2021 issue of UEC e-Bulletin

September 2021 issue of UEC e-Bulletin

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/

The September 2021 issue of the UEC e-Bulletin includes a video profile of UEC Associate Professor Shouhei Kidera where he describes his recent research on "Radar-based human recognition for self-driving cars".

The Research Highlights are Radar-based human recognition for self-driving cars,' Shouhei Kidera; and 'Getting the most out of quantum systems,' Jun Suzuki.

The Topics column is an interview with Yoshihiro Nakata, Associate Professor at the School of Informatics and Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, offering insights into 'creating robots to coexist in harmony with humans in the real world'.

The News and Events describes research by Hiroshi Kohsaka on the 'relationship between the speed at which insects move and the environmental temperature'.

Research Highlights

Recognition technology: Radar-based human recognition for self-driving cars

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/research-highlights/202109/a.html

Self-driving car technology requires detectors capable of sensing a car's environment, also in situations of limited visibility like bad weather conditions. Radar-based sensors have emerged as an essential component of driver assistance systems and self-driving vehicles, as they can robustly distinguish nearby pedestrians and other traffic-relevant objects. Apart from being applicable in bad weather, artificial recognition systems also need to be capable of dealing with so-called non-line-of-sight (NLOS) situations, when the line of sight between detector and object is obstructed. In traffic, NLOS situations occur when pedestrians are blocked from sight; for example, a child behind a parked car, about to run suddenly into the street. Now, Shouhei Kidera from the University of Electro-Communications and colleagues have developed a radar-based detection method for recognizing humans in NLOS situations. The scheme is based on reflection and diffraction signal analysis and machine-learning techniques.

The researchers performed radar experiments in an anechoic chamber (a room completely absorbing reflections). The working principle of a radar is to send radio waves to a target object and then analyse the reflected waves (e.g. changes in frequency), which provides information about the object, such as its distance to the source.

Kidera and colleagues put a metallic plate in the chamber so that a NLOS situation arises when the target object is behind the plate from the radar's point of view. The radar's frequency was 24 GHz, and two target objects were used in the experiments: a 30 cm long metallic cylinder, and a human wearing light clothes. Three regimes were investigated: complete NLOS, partially NLOS (target object positioned at the border between the NLOS and the LOS zone) and complete LOS. The signals received by the detector were intrinsically different for the metallic cylinder and the human. Even if a human stands still, breathing and small movements related to posture control cause changes in the reflected wave signals. The scientists found that the differences are enhanced by diffraction effects: the 'bending' of waves around the edges of the metallic plate.

The researchers applied a machine-learning algorithm to the reflection and diffraction signals in order to let their sensing device learn the difference between a human and a non-human object. A recognition rate up to 80% was achieved. They also performed experiments with an actual car as the shielding object, which led to similar results and additional understanding of the dependence of the recognition success rate on the radar's position relative to the target. Also, by carrying out additional experiments with a human performing a stepping motion, the scientists were able to recognize whether a human is standing still or walking, even in complete NLOS situations.

The results of Kidera and colleagues signify an important step forward to feasible self-driving car technology. Of course, in order to fully control realistic situations, more research is needed. Quoting the researchers: " there should be further investigation using other classifiers or features, which is our important future work".

Figure link

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/topics/assets_c/202109/img1.jpg

Caption: Experimental setup used by Shouhei Kidera and colleagues. [Fig. 1b from the paper]

Reference

Jianghaomiao He, Shota Terashima, Hideyuki Yamada, and Shouhei Kidera, Diffraction Signal-Based Human Recognition in Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Situation for Millimeter Wave Radar, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 14, 43704380 (2021).

URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9405398

DOI: 10.1109/JSTARS.2021.3073678

Quantum state estimation

Getting the most out of quantum systems

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/research-highlights/202109/b.html

Quantitative information about a physical system comes in the form of numbers following from the system's mathematical description  equations capturing the physical processes involved. In classical physics, it is in principle possible to retrieve, by means of measurements, the complete information of a system. According to quantum mechanics, however, one can never obtain all information of a system with infinite precision because of the quantum-mechanical uncertainty principle stating that certain pairs of quantities (e.g. momentum and position) cannot be measured simultaneously with absolute certainty.

Also, in quantum mechanics, measurements affect the state of a system, so it is actually impossible to determine a system's state without prior knowledge about it. Quantum state estimation is the statistical framework addressing the question how to obtain the most  but, unavoidably, still incomplete  information about a quantum system from measurements.

Now, Jun Suzuki from the University of Electro-Communications and colleagues have extended the framework to include the situation of so-called 'nuisance parameters': parameters that are not really of interest but do affect the precision of estimations of other parameters that are of interest.

Nuisance parameters have been extensively studied in the context of classical physics and statistics. A key theoretical result is the Cramer-Rao inequality, providing a lower bound on the variance of the estimated value of a parameter. (The variance of a parameter is the expectation value of the square of the deviation from its mean value.) Suzuki and colleagues derived a scheme to obtain quantum Cramer-Rao bounds in the framework of quantum state estimation taking the presence of nuisance parameters into account.

After developing the general formalism, the researchers focused on the one-parameter case: the situation where only one parameter is of interest, but one or more nuisance parameters exist alongside. They succeeded in obtaining a straightforward 'recipe' for calculating the ultimate precision limit for the one parameter of interest. They applied their scheme for the description of a noisy quantum clock, as well as that of a so-called 'qudit', a multi-state generalization of a qubit. (The latter refers to a quantum-mechanical two-state system, like the spin of an electron, and is the fundamental concept underlying quantum computing.)

Suzuki and colleagues point out that their findings are relevant for quantum metrology. Quantum metrology essentially deals with estimating, with high sensitivity and high precision, parameters in quantum-mechanical physical processes by utilizing quantum resources. One of the main issues in this field is to perform quantum metrological tasks in a noisy environment; the noise thus depends on unknown nuisance parameters. Quoting the researchers: "Suitable extensions of the tools presented  will, therefore, be able to quantify the effects of nuisance parameters in quantum metrology."

Reference

Jun Suzuki, Yuxiang Yang, and Masahito Hayashi, Quantum state estimation with nuisance parameters, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 53, 453001 (2020).

URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1751-8121/ab8b78

DOI: 10.1088/1751-8121/ab8b78

Researcher Video Profiles

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/researcher-video-profiles/202109/a.html

Shouhei Kidera, Associate Professor Department of Informatics Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering.

Radar-based human recognition for self-driving cars

Shouhei Kidera and his group is focusing on recognizing pedestrians using millimeter wave radarthat enables sensing in darkness, fog, or rainfor self-driving cars. "We use millimeter wave radar because it is effective for recognizing pedestrians even in non-line-of-sight sensing scenarios by exploiting diffraction signals," explains Kidera. "Most other radar based human recognition methods use micro-Doppler analysis. However, this approach needs higher Doppler velocity, temporal, and range resolution. Our approach is based on raw data machine learning, assuming Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) scenarios."

Kitera and his colleagues use Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Millimeter Wave (FMCW MMW) radar with 24 GHz center frequency, 700 MHz bandwidth, and horizontal and vertical beam widths of the radar of  45 degrees and  6.5 degrees, respectively.

In recent research they studied two different types of targets: a metallic cylinder, and a human with static motion and breathing [1].

In a Line of Sight scenario the team compared reflection responses from a human and metallic cylinder. "We obtained Gaussian distribution reflection spectra for a specific range," says Kidera. "We confirmed the temporal variation of the response of a stationary human body in both amplitude and phase, which did not appear in cylinder target. These differences are promising for discriminating between human and metallic cylinders."

Finally, the team investigated support vector machines (SVM) based machine learning using a variety of features with corresponding raw data (Details in the video).

Notably, the results on the recognition rate between human and metallic cylinder and SNR, and showed perfect recognition in LOS or partially NLOS situations. Also, in completely NLOS case, the recognition rate increased to 80 % by exploiting multiple temporal features, even in very lower SNR situations.

Reference

Jianghaomiao He, Shota Terashima, Hideyuki Yamada, and Shouhei Kidera, Diffraction Signal-Based Human Recognition in Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Situation for Millimeter Wave Radar, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 14, 43704380 (2021).

URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9405398

DOI: 10.1109/JSTARS.2021.3073678

Website: http://www.ems.cei.uec.ac.jp/index_e.html

Topics

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/topics/202109/a.html

Creating robots to coexist in harmony with humans in the real world

Yoshihiro Nakata, Associate Professor, School of Informatics and Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering

"The is extensive research on autonomous robots and androids that look and behave like humans", says Yoshihiro Nakata, an associate professor at the School of Informatics and Engineering, UEC Tokyo. "Ultimately, in order for robots to become an integral and functional part of modern society, they must be able to move freely within everyday social settings alongside humans, without danger or concern. The key to realizing such a society is for robots to be able to "gently interact" with humans without the unnatural rigid movements associated with conventional robots. To achieve a society of "gentle robots" it is necessary to develop new generations of actuator technology. This is the goal of my research. Namely, to develop actuators for powering "gentle and socially acceptable robots."

Nakata's research can be divided into three types: actuators, mechanisms, and humanoid robot research. In actuator research, Nakata and his colleagues have focused on making actuators that mimic the flexibility, power, and agility of human muscles, with the goal creating machines with a gentle touch.

Research on mechanisms he has been trying make a "body that can tolerate various forms of contact from the environment and "feel" the force not via joints but by the whole bodythe goal is to create machines that gently feel such forces.

The third is research theme is on humanoid robots, with the goal of creating robots that can be part of the natural world without feeling the burden on people in society.

"I started research on actuators when I was an undergraduate student," says Nakata. "For flexibility and agility, I developed linear motors as actuators for robots. And since linear motors do not have an intrinsic deceleration mechanism and is direct drive, it is possible to devise actuators with flexibility against external forces, with high response and high accuracy by driving with electromagnetic forces."

Now, since moving to UEC Tokyo in March 2021 Nakata has defined three goals for this research for the development of robots that behave in a human-friendly manner in the real world.

Read more

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/topics/202109/a.html

News and Events

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/e-bulletin/news/202109/a.html

September 28, 2021

Relationship between the speed at which insects move and the environmental temperature

Hiroshi Kohsaka an associate professor at UEC Tokyo, and colleagues report that the speed of movement of fly larvae varies from species to species. Furthermore, they found that larvae in cold regions tend to move slowly, and those in warm regions move faster. These results suggest that environmental diversity has contributed to the evolution of the diverse movement patterns exhibited by animals.

Reference

Yuji Matsuo, Akinao Nose, Hiroshi Kohsaka, Interspecies variation of larval locomotion kinematics in the genus Drosophila and its relation to habitat temperature, BMC Biology 19, 176 (2021). DOI: 10.1186/s12915-021-01110-4

https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-021-01110-4

Figure link

http://www.ru.uec.ac.jp/topics/assets_c/202109/img_news1.png

Caption: Summary of research details

Further information

University of Electro-Communications

1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://www.uec.ac.jp/

About the University of Electro-Communications

http://www.uec.ac.jp/

The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo is a small, luminous university at the forefront of pure and applied sciences, engineering, and technology research. Its roots go back to the Technical Institute for Wireless Commutations, which was established in 1918 by the Wireless Association to train so-called wireless engineers in maritime communications in response to the Titanic disaster in 1912. In 1949, the UEC was established as a national university by the Japanese Ministry of Education and moved in 1957 from Meguro to its current Chofu campus Tokyo.

With approximately 4,000 students and 350 faculty members, UEC is regarded as a small university, but with expertise in wireless communications, laser science, robotics, informatics, and material science, to name just a few areas of research.

The UEC was selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities as a result of its strengths in three main areas: optics and photonics research, where we are number one for the number of joint publications with foreign researchers; wireless communications, which reflects our roots; and materials-based research, particularly on fuel cells.

Website: http://www.uec.ac.jp/

SOURCE University of Electro-Communications
ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, has developed and installed a Cold Truth temperature-tracking solution for Mydin, one of Malaysia's leading halal grocery chains, to monitor interior temperature levels at one of their hypermarkets in the north, in Bertam, Penang, outlet's refrigeration units. The solution has successfully helped Mydin reduce the risk of food spoilage to deliver more consistent quality to customers and has led to improvements in the completeness and simplicity of the grocer's regulatory reporting and compliance.

UST Cold Truth solution is a state-of-the-art, cloud-based advanced temperature monitoring solution that intelligently detects temperature fluctuations and sends an alert for quick action. It offers greats savings on products for retailers that would otherwise be discarded due to temperature fluctuation or freezer failure.

"We chose to work with UST because they are experts in retail technology and business operations," said Azmin Bin Saduruddin, Executive Director, Mydin Northern Region. "As a global corporation, UST can provide Mydin with the service we need as a leading retailer in Malaysia."

Temperature probes are placed at various locations inside their refrigerator or freezer to monitor temperature at a constant interval to ensure that the temperature in all parts of the unit remains within the designated range. If any of the probes record a temperature out of range, the sensor node sends an alert to the UST Cold Truth gateway, which UST implemented on an Intel NUC Kit with an Intel Celeron processor.

UST Cold Truth records the data in the cloud and alerts the store manager, who can take immediate action. The solution also records temperature readings of all refrigeration units throughout the day. The data is retained in the cloud, ready to be retrieved and communicated on-demand to Malaysia's governmental health inspectors and auditors. Before implementing UST Cold Truth, the store maintenance staff checked each sensor five times each day, exceeding the twice-daily checks required by law in Malaysia. The staffer logged temperature readings at every location in every refrigeration unit. This manual process was time-consuming and inefficient and kept the maintenance team from performing other duties in the store. Further, the mandatory temperature logs were susceptible to human error, increasing the risk that a problem might be overlooked, or the store might fail an inspection and face significant penalties.

"UST offers a variety of cutting-edge retail solutions to our clients across the world. We have products that are custom designed for multiple customers, and our enterprise products are gaining huge popularity. Intel provided a great selection of hardware and software platforms, as well as engineering support during the development phase," said Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, General Manager, Emerging Digital Technology, UST. "Since we launched UST Cold Truth, its inclusion as an Intel IoT Market Ready Solution has helped us to communicate the benefits of our product to a wider audience."

UST plans to expand the solution beyond retail stores to any venue or industry where temperature monitoring is a business-critical aspect of the operation.

"With UST Cold Truth, we can provide our clients with a cost-effective and time-saving solution," said Gilroy Mathew, Vice President and Head of Semiconductor, UST. "New technology gives retailers the shelf-level temperature readings they need to track equipment performance in real-time, reduce labor costs, and simplify compliance with government regulations."

For more information about UST Cold Truth, download UST Cold Truth brochure.

About UST

For more than 20 years, UST has worked side by side with the world's best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. We identify their core challenges and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life through our agile approach. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients' organizations  delivering measurable value and lasting change across industries and worldwide. Together, with over 26,000 employees in 25 countries, we build for boundless impact  touching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at ust.com.

Media Contacts, UST:

Tinu Cherian Abraham

+1 (949) 415-9857

Neha Misri

+91-9972631264

[email protected]

Media Contacts, U.S.:

S&C PR

+1-646.941.9139

[email protected]

SOURCE UST
NOVATO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- We're excited to announce the latest release of Uvara. This release focuses on providing the ability to edit attributes of any of their thousands of assets (pipes, cables, valves, etc.) and manage the commits to the core database. Municipal water/wastewater, electrical cooperatives, healthcare, commercial real estate are examples of industries that will benefit.



Users gain an easy-to-use desktop and mobile experience for work crews and managers to update missing or incorrect information about assets attributes. Users can edit, update, and roll back data in the field or back in the office. Managers can review edit logs to approve and keep the changes done to the master database, or to roll back if they see that edits were done erroneously. Existing users logging into the various browsers will notice they already have access to the new editing and administrative functions.



"For many facility managers, incomplete or incorrect data in water, electric, or telecom networks is a big issue," says Moufid Charafeddine, CTO, BetterGIS. "It takes time and planning effort to collect and prepare changes in batches and perform the data uploads. We are giving the users another way to incrementally update the information of an unlimited variety of structures and utility networks."



Uvara is designed for facility managers to subscribe and have up-to-date information, analysis, and planning for their existing infrastructure built from scratch in a few weeks and stay updated. Assets information are digitized by the Uvara professional services team, integrated from paper maps or CAD/GIS drawings with tabular attributes such as size, year, maintenance schedule, etc.



"We designed editing to fit smoothly into the normal workflow of engineers and technicians," adds Moufid. "With a simple search in tens of thousands of network elements or point-and-click on a map, users can immediately update information as it is discovered to be instantly accessible to all authorized internal and external parties. Managers can make changes in a simple dashboard interface at their own pace."



Data accuracy is enhanced by obtaining drone high-resolution images and performing field-verification walks. Once the data is integrated, IoT and AR information can be tied together for a spatial digital twin. This live and current twin of infrastructure is used by facility managers for scheduling maintenance, responding to emergencies, preparing budget and capital plans as well as guiding new opportunities for construction.



About BetterGIS



BetterGIS is a San Francisco area startup company. Uvara addresses the full lifecycle of the assets starting with the engineering, planning, and construction phase and continues through operation and maintenance and financial planning. For more information, visit www.Uvara.com.



Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12887352



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE BetterGIS

Related Links

https://uvara.com/


"The work Atlohsa does for the Indigenous community in and around London is profound and meaningful," says Ann Walton , Vice President, People & Operations at Voices. "It is imperative that those of us who live on Indigenous land and have enjoyed success as a result of historic and present-day colonialism not only acknowledge that our prosperity has a foundation of colonization, but that we actively put in effort to uplift the Indigenous Peoples and voices who are doing the arduous and crucial work of healing generational trauma, repairing the systems on which our communities are built, and educating the non-Indigenous public. We are particularly grateful to Atlohsa and organizations like it who offer insights and education surrounding the experiences of Indigenous Peoples and how we can and should play our role in reconciliation."

The core of Atlohsa's mandate is the understanding that family violence is not traditional in First Nations cultures, but rather is a result of colonialism and intergenerational trauma.

"We're trying to re-strengthen the fabrics that exist within the makeup of a family unit and extended family unit. If we can do that, and our belief and our mandate is to do that, that will then create a healthier community, an Indigenous community but a community at large, also," shares Raymond Deleary , Executive Director, Atlohsa Native Family Healing Services Inc.

According to Atlohsa, a 1991 survey revealed that 90% of First Nations women had been physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually abused by former or current partners. 63% were still being abused at that time. Today, Indigenous women in Canada are 2.5 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence and six times more likely to be killed than non-Indigenous women.

To make a donation to Atlohsa, please visit https://atlohsa.com/donate/ .

To participate in London's Turtle Island Healing Walk on the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, please visit the Turtle Island Healing Walk event page .

To learn more about the history of the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Islandpresent-day Canadayou can read more from Facing History and Ourselves .

About Atlohsa

Atlohsa was founded in 1986 as an outgrowth of a Needs Assessment Survey, which indicated a severe need for family violence services catered specifically to First Nations communities to promote the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of First Nations women, men, and children. The organization provides programming and services to aid with healing and recovery from the effects of family violence through protection, support, and education.

About Voices

Voices is the world's #1 creative services marketplace, with over 2 million registered users. Since 2005, the biggest and most beloved brands have entrusted Voices to help them find professionals to bring their projects to life. Headquartered in London, Canada, Voices helps match clients with voice over, music, audio production, and translation professionals in over 160 countries.

SOURCE Voices
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wider Circle, an innovative tech-enabled community health organization working with health plans and providers to connect neighbors for better health, today announced it has closed a $38m Series B funding round led by AmeriHealth Caritas, a national leader in Medicaid managed care and other solutions for those most in need. The AmeriHealth Caritas investment was made through the company's new wholly owned subsidiary, Social Determinants of Life, Inc. Blue Venture Fund, Chicago Ventures and other previous investors also participated in the round, which Wider Circle will use to build out its national infrastructure, team and technology to support its expansion plans.

Only between 10% and 20% of a person's health is reportedly tied to factors like clinical care. The other 80 to 90% can be broadly attributed to social determinants of health (SDoH) which affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes.

"Wider Circle was founded with the mission to build and cultivate trusted peer-to-peer relationships, engaging Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries at a local level to drive health literacy and adherence and improve access to social determinants of health resources to address challenges ranging from food insecurity to social isolation," said Moshe Pinto, CEO, Wider Circle. "With the closing of this Series B funding round, we are even better positioned to address health equity and SDoH needs at scale as we connect neighbors for better health."

"We are very excited to partner with Wider Circle. Our two companies know the power and impact that social networks can have not only on health, but to elevate life outcomes and create mobility out of poverty. AmeriHealth Caritas was an early pioneer in addressing the health outcomes of people who are challenged by poverty and disability. Today we know the future must focus on moving from wellness to resilience, and that neighborhood-level social support is a key foundation," said Paul A. Tufano, Chairman and CEO of AmeriHealth Caritas. "By building strong social networks and focusing on the underlying root causes of poverty, we can help to ensure that the American Dream is in reach for all."

In 2015, Wider Circle set out to find a better way to help Americans thrive at any age. Through rigorous analysis and testing, their team learned that the most effective approach to enabling better health and independence is to integrate support and services at the community level, making it easier for neighbors to take the best care of each other. Today, Wider Circle offers its innovative programs to more than 320 communities nationwide.

Central to Wider Circle's DNA is its evidence-based, data-driven approach to identifying and grouping like-minded health plan members at the hyper-local level, and then empowering those neighbors to support one another through tailored in-person and virtual programming. Wider Circle programs have helped Medicare and Medicaid plan members improve preventative care utilization and vaccine adoption rates while reducing hospital days. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization has played a critical role in supporting vulnerable populations facing isolation - delivering more than 180,000 meals to those in need and driving comprehensive social support services.

"Empowering peer-to-peer social support networks can overcome systemic economic and health inequities," said Darin Buxbaum, president and chief operating officer of Wider Circle. "With the support of AmeriHealth Caritas's new Social Determinants of Life, Inc., Blue Venture Fund and others Wider Circle is well positioned to extend our proven hyper-local engagement model to improve health outcomes in communities nationwide."

Research has demonstrated that robust social networks underpin many other social determinants, not only contributing to better health but also enhancing resilience and positively altering life trajectories. Yesterday, AmeriHealth Caritas announced the launch of Social Determinants of Life, Inc., a new wholly owned subsidiary that will invest in, support, and deploy solutions to help people in need build resilience and help improve life outcomes. The funding is the company's first investment and will support Wider Circle as they continue to lay the groundwork for leveraging the power of community and peer networks to positively influence life outcomes.

About Wider Circle

Wider Circle works with health plans nationally to deliver unique hyper-local care programs that connect neighbors for better health. The company's trusted delivery network has been proven to drive resilience, improve member experience and engagement and reduce hospitalizations. Today, Wider Circle offers its innovative programs to more than 320 communities nationwide, including specialized COVID-19 support for vulnerable populations in isolation and peer-to-peer community support. To learn more, please visit www.widercircle.com.

SOURCE Wider Circle
SEATTLE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DroneSeed today announced it has raised $36 million in its Series A funding round. The round was led by Social Capital and Seven Seven Six, with participation from new and existing investors. Part of these funds were used to acquire Silvaseed, a 130-year-old forestry company, to expand DroneSeed's seed collection and seedling cultivation services.

A pioneer in climate tech and post-wildfire reforestation, DroneSeed is the only company approved by the FAA to deploy a fleet of heavy-lift drones to reforest after wildfires, enabling healthy forests to grow back. This year, wildfires across the U.S. have already burned nearly six million acres of land, demonstrating the growing need for a full suite of vertically integrated reforestation services like those DroneSeed offers.

DroneSeed can drop seed vessels within 30 days after a fire, compared to traditional methods which can take years of waiting to replant. After it reforests burned land, DroneSeed sells the resulting carbon credits to organizations looking to go carbon neutral or negative.

"Global reforestation is key to our fight against climate change," said Jay Zaveri, a partner at Social Capital. "We've supported DroneSeed from the very beginning given its promise to terraform our planet for good. Since then, DroneSeed has scaled its effort to reforest land, found a profitable model through carbon markets, and transformed the experience of forest development for landowners."

"DroneSeed is using technology to restore forests faster and help save our planet. Their team's mission-driven approach is what made this investment and partnership a natural fit for Seven Seven Six," said Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six who is joining the board as an observer. "DroneSeed has recruited fantastic talent from diverse communities and disciplines, and we are thrilled to support them as they take on an incredibly important global challenge: climate change."

DroneSeed has expanded Silvaseed, which grows millions of trees per year, to become the largest private seed bank west of Colorado. The acquisition positions DroneSeed as a one-stop-shop for reforestation services including seed collection, seedling cultivation, aerial drone-based seeding, and financing with carbon credits. DroneSeed plans to further expand, doubling its capacity to address increased demand for reforestation services by the middle of next year.

"Recent data has shown that natural forest regeneration is in significant decline due to the size and severity of fires which destroy seed sources. Fire season is expected to only get worse because of climate change," said DroneSeed CEO, Grant Canary. "This funding round, coupled with the acquisition of Silvaseed, enables us to scale up the infrastructure needed for reforestation to meet this skyrocketing demand and customer need. That starts with seed."

In addition to acquiring Silvaseed to expand its seed supply, DroneSeed will use this funding to respond to the 2021 fire season already underway, adding on more reforestation projects, generating carbon credits, and expanding its services geographically in the future.

Along with Social Capital and Seven Seven Six, new investors in this raise include DBL Partners, which was an early investor in Tesla and SpaceX; Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify; Resilience Reserve; and Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures. Existing investor Spero Ventures also participated with Marc Tarpenning, the co-founder of Tesla, continuing his role as a board observer. More than 60 percent of the capital invested in the round came from investors with a climate and impact fund focus.

Additional investors and syndicates include Gaingels with Flight.vc, HBS Lady Angels, Julia Lipton's Awesome People Ventures, and the Coalition angels including Ashley Mayer. Four of nine angel list syndicates are LGBTQ+ or female-led. This round includes continued participation from prior investors Massive, Drone.vc, and Rob Ness Syndicate who have supported the company since DroneSeed completed Techstars Seattle in 2016.

About DroneSeed:

DroneSeed is scaling reforestation to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. The company is the first and only FAA approved for heavy-lift drone swarms in all states west of Colorado. After its recent acquisition of Silvaseed, DroneSeed is now the first vertically integrated reforestation company in the industry and one of the largest private seed suppliers in the nation. The company is actively developing projects in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, British Columbia, and Hawaii. DroneSeed's current reforestation customer projects include tribal nations, three of five of the largest timber companies, nonprofits such as The Nature Conservancy, government agencies, and family forests. For more information, visit https://droneseed.com/ . Download photos and videos here .

Media Contact:

Mary Caroline Pruitt

[email protected]

SOURCE DroneSeed

Related Links

droneseed.co


WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of U.S. freight rail coupler producers filed petitions on September 29, 2021 to counter unfairly traded imports that are injuring the American industry. The U.S. producers filed the petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) following years of significant volumes of unfairly priced imports of Chinese freight rail couplers. The petitions allege that the state-supported Chinese industry is dumping freight rail couplers in the United States, distorting the U.S. market and resulting in a significant loss of American jobs.

"The Chinese industry's use of unfair pricing is hurting American companies and workers, as well as the communities in which they operate," said Daniel B. Pickard, a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley and lead counsel for the Freight Rail Coupler Coalition, an ad hoc coalition of U.S. coupler producers. "Filing the petitions today is the first step in combatting these unfair trade practices and ensuring that American producers are able to compete on a level playing field. Foreign countries and producers that do not abide by international trade rules must be held accountable and that includes the Government of China and the Chinese freight rail coupler industry. Trade remedy measures that we hope result from the petitions filed today aim to do just that."

"The Government of China, through its extensive state planning programs, is attempting to assert its dominance throughout the entire global freight supply chain," added Robert E. DeFrancesco, III, partner in Wiley's International Trade Practice.

Background :

Antidumping and Countervailing Duties: Antidumping duties aim to offset the amount a product is sold at less than fair value, or "dumped," in the United States. The margin of dumping is calculated by the Department of Commerce. Estimated duties in the amount of the dumping are collected from importers at the time of importation. Countervailing duties are intended to offset unfair subsidies that a foreign government provides in the production of a particular good. The ITC, an independent agency, determines whether the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of the unfairly traded imports.

Freight Rail Couplers: Freight rail couplers are used to connect freight rail cars together and absorb shock as the train brakes. Each train car typically has two couplers  one in front and one in back. Couplers are primarily made of cast steel parts, including coupler bodies, knuckles, coupler yokes, and follower blocks.

The petitions were filed by the Freight Rail Coupler Coalition, an ad hoc coalition of U.S. coupler producers. The Coalition is represented by Wiley Rein LLP.

Next Steps: The Department of Commerce will determine whether to initiate the investigations within 20 days of today's filing and the ITC will reach a preliminary determination of material injury or threat of material injury within 45 days. The entire investigative process will take approximately one year, with final determinations of dumping, subsidization, and injury likely occurring in late-2022. However, duties can attach to imports of the subject couplers as of the time of the preliminary determinations in the case.

Contacts:

Dan Pickard

202.719.7285 | [email protected]

Maria Woehr

202.719.3132 | [email protected]

SOURCE Wiley Rein LLP

Related Links

www.wileyrein.com


Widmer joined the board in August of 2017. She currently serves as Company Group Chairman, North America and Latin America, Johnson and Johnson Consumer Health, which provides health and wellness solutions to consumers through brands such as Neutrogena, Tylenol, Aveeno, Band-Aid, Zyrtec, and Listerine. Widmer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1983 and served five years in the US Army as a Field Artillery officer.

Hunzeker joined the WWP board last year. He is the former CEO and president of Vectrus, an infrastructure and global logistics company. Previously, Hunzeker served as vice president of government relations at ITT Defense following a 35-year career in the Army. He commanded forces at every level from Platoon to Army Corps (3-star Command), culminating his career as deputy commanding general of all U.S. forces in Iraq. Hunzeker was recently honored as a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an honor bestowed to very few Alumni on an annual basis.

"Kathleen and Ken's extensive military, corporate, and veteran experience will help guide our board of directors," said WWP CEO Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Mike Linnington. "We are in a vital time for today's generation of wounded veterans. As their needs change, we have to evolve organizational support accordingly."

The national charity also added two retired generals with extensive medical experience to its board to better serve injured veterans and their families.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Patricia D. Horoho served as our nation's 43rd U.S. Army Surgeon General and Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command, making history as the first woman, first nurse, and first non-physician to hold those positions. She is currently the CEO of OptumServe, the federal business of Optum and UnitedHealth Group. During her 33-year Army career, Horoho helped implement new efforts around behavioral health, health readiness, and improved health care for military women.

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Caravalho Jr., M.D., is president and CEO of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, a Congressionally authorized not-for-profit that supports specific medical research worldwide for the benefit of military and civilian health. Besides specializing in cardiology, Caravalho served as medical officer at nearly every level, from Special Forces Battalion to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon during his 38-year Army career. He also commanded the Army's medical research command and served as the Army deputy surgeon general.

While welcoming new members to its board, WWP also bid farewell to Dr. Jonathan Woodson and Cari DeSantis. Woodson, who served as board chair for the past three years, has served as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs in the U.S. Department of Defense. He is also a Major General in the U.S. Army Reserves, and Commander of the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Command. Woodson is currently the Larz Anderson Professor in Management and Professor of the Practice at Boston University's School of Business; professor of surgery at Boston University's School of Medicine; and professor of health law, policy, and management at Boston University's School of Public Health.

DeSantis served as a WWP board member since 2017. She recently retired as CEO of Melwood, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for people of differing abilities. One of the ways the organization helps the community is through Melwood Veterans Services LLC, which assists veterans in their transitions to civilian life. It helps with career exploration, job training, and job support. It offers a weeklong program known as Operation Tohidu that helps veterans and active-duty military overcome obstacles to their recoveries. That gathering is similar to WWP's multiday, outdoor, rehabilitative mental health workshops. Both use challenges and educational opportunities to work through symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

WWP's board of directors helps the organization fulfill its mission to honor and empower wounded warriors through guidance and leadership. Learn more about the board here.

About Wounded Warrior Project

Since 2003, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has been meeting the growing needs of warriors, their families, and caregivers  helping them achieve their highest ambition. Learn more.

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

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CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Janet, Janet and Suggs, LLC, a national plaintiff's law firm, filed a lawsuit last night in the death of a Virginia woman in a multi-car pile-up in a crash-plagued construction zone along I-85 South this summer.

The suit was filed on behalf of Thomas Goggin whose wife, Karen Goggin, 60, was killed July 15, 2021, when the couple's car was hit from behind by a semi at 60 miles per hour. At the time of the crash, their Ford Escape was stopped in a line of vehicles in a cars-only traffic lane, or "chute," made of concrete barriers. The barriers, which were erected to control the flow of traffic through an I-85 South construction project near Gaffney in Cherokee County, not only created the conditions that led to the crash, but also delayed emergency crews from reaching Mrs. Goggin in time to save her life.

The truck's driver, John Allen Ferguson, was driving a commercial Peterbilt tractor-trailer in the same 'cars-only' lane after failing to take the exit that funneled commercial vehicles into a separate lane. Along with Ferguson, also named as defendants are Blythe Construction, Inc., Zachry Construction Corp., Johnson, Mirmiran and Thompson, Inc., and, Cowan Systems LLC.

"It's recklessly irresponsible to trap motorists, including families, between walls with no way to escape from being hit, and on top of that, to have a total failure of enforcement of lane restrictions and a 60 mile per hour speed limit. Add a speeding, inattentive tractor trailer to the mix and this kind of carnage is inevitable," said Kenneth Suggs, partner of the Janet, Janet & Suggs law firm of Columbia, SC.

"The companies in charge of this construction project knew that the "chute" was a death trap. No one else should have to go through what we did that day. They must be held accountable for injuries and all the lives lost, including Karen's," said Mr. Goggin.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Spartanburg Division. The case number for the lawsuit is 03157.

More than 300 crashes with injuries have occurred on I-85 South in Cherokee county since 2020, including six fatalities since construction began, according to county records.

About Janet, Janet and Suggs, LLC

Janet, Janet, and Suggs, LLC. (JJS) is a national firm with offices in 10 states and Washington D.C. The firm has decades of experience handling catastrophic injury cases and has won over three billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients across a wide range of serious and complex cases.

Full complaint available upon request.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tammy Huoni

[email protected]

443-973-6126

or

Teresa Kelly

[email protected]

512-217-8051

SOURCE Janet, Janet & Suggs

Related Links

https://www.jjsjustice.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wunderkind , a leading consumer engagement platform that scales one-to-one messages for top brands, today revealed the marked success it has helped achieve for valued partner and iconic musical instrument-making brand, Fender . With Wunderkind's support, Fender launched Fender Play, a subscription service for acoustic and electric guitars, bass and ukuleles, and to-date has grown its audience 5X to nearly one million users.

The two companies will detail their partnership, key success metrics achieved and tips for other brands during a fireside chat today, September 29 at CommerceNext IRL , a leading retail and eCommerce conference. Molly Bruttomesso , SVP of Client Success at Wunderkind, and Matt Annerino , VP of Growth, CRM & Media at Fender, will host the session.

Like many brands, Fender has long focused on driving customers into brick-and-mortar retail locations. Forced to pivot due to COVID-19, Fender partnered with Wunderkind as part of its long-standing efforts to address the "guitar retention problem" and hyper-personalize its communication to reach the right guitar player at the right time, with the right message.

Fender launched Fender Play in 2017, a subscription service and complete learning app for guitar, bass and ukulele. In 2020, the "Play Through" campaign was launched as an act of goodwill during the initial pandemic lockdown during which Fender offered three months of free lessons to 1 million people. As a result of the strategy and Wunderkind's platform, Fender was able to use targeted, real-time SMS and email engagement with its customers to grow the Fender Play user base 5X, from more than 150,000 people in March 2020 to nearly one million in the app at the time of the Play Through initiative.

"Retailers are increasingly embracing digital to engage their consumers. Top brands understand that prioritizing consumer engagement online is critical to driving loyalty," said Molly Bruttomesso, SVP of Customer Success at Wunderkind. "Wunderkind's platform was able to support Fender in building a loyal community of musicians by using real-time engagement and personalized messaging."

Fender's mission to get more people through the initial phase of learning to play guitar drove Wunderkind's approach to identifying more users on Fender's site and understanding their playing abilities, ultimately achieving a 4X boost in Fender Play sign-ups after going live. In addition to growing Fender's audience to nearly one million users, the success of the campaign also resulted in a 6.4X performance over return on ad spend projection (ROAS) and provided Fender an opportunity to leverage community commerce as a brand engagement strategy.

"One of our biggest initiatives over the next three years is welcoming new and aspiring players by simplifying and demystifying the guitar buying process," said Matt Annerino, VP of Growth, CRM & Media at Fender. "Wunderkind's powerful capabilities have already helped us grow our Fender Play member base by over 4X, and we look forward to working with them to achieve our goals and make an even bigger impact in 2022."

Wunderkind and Fender will reveal the full case study at CommerceNext IRL today at the Sheraton New York Times Square hotel. Click here to access the full case study or sign up for a performance projection .

About Wunderkind

Wunderkind is a leading consumer engagement platform that scales one-to-one messages for top brands. Digital businesses use Wunderkind to remember who site visitors are better than ever before, allowing them to deliver high-performing, one-to-one messages on websites, through emails and texts, and in ads at a scale that's not otherwise possible. Wunderkind drives $2.8 billion dollars annually in directly attributable revenue for top eCommerce brands like Uniqlo, Sonos and HelloFresh, often ranking as a top-3 revenue channel in their own analytics. Wunderkind is maniacally obsessed with ROI and aims to be the infrastructural interface between individuals and brands in a world where consumers choose what they want, from whom, and when. Learn more by visiting the Wunderkind site .

About Fender

An American icon, Fender was founded in Southern California and has established a worldwide influence that extends from the studio to the stageand beyond. Everyone from beginners to the world's most acclaimed artists have used Fender instruments, amps and gear, making the company not only a revered industry leader but a cultural symbol that resonates globally. Nearly seven decades since founder Leo Fender built his first electric guitar, Fender's reach transcends instruments and accessories, encompassing a range of innovative digital experiences that fuel musical expression and serve players at every stageon every stage.

Media Contact

KCSA Strategic Communications

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SOURCE Wunderkind

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Washington, Sep 29 : General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said during a Senate hearing that it is a "strategic failure" with the Taliban back in power and US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and US Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, testified for the first time before Congress since the United States ended its longest war in Afghanistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is obvious, the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, with the Taliban now in power in Kabul," Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

"Strategically, the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success," he said, referring to the massive personnel evacuation since mid-August.

Milley and McKenzie said they believed the US should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and a quick drawdown from the country could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military.

Such comments seemed to contradict President Joe Biden's words in an interview last month, in which he said no military officials advised him to keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline.

Meanwhile, Milley and Pentagon chief Austin stressed that the sudden collapse of the Afghan military was beyond their expectation.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise," said Austin.

Milley noted that most intelligence assessments indicated the collapse "would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring." Top military commanders pointed to the agreement reached between the United States and Taliban in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions, had a demoralizing impact on the Afghan military.

The US military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 30 under Biden's order, ending 20 years of occupation. The hasty and chaotic evacuations drew fierce criticism from both home and abroad.

Milley admitted in the hearing that the withdrawal damaged US credibility. "Damage is one word that could be used." He also raised terrorism threats that could potentially emerge from Afghanistan in the near future.

Reflecting on the Afghan war, Austin questioned if the United States had the right strategy in the past two decades, adding that Washington might never fully comprehend the situation on the ground, including the depth of corruption in Kabul.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Centre showed only 26 per cent of Americans believed the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, and 69 per cent of the public said the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar who has joined the Congress said that he has joined the party to save the country's democracy.

After joining Congress, Kanhaiya said, "I bow down to Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh. Some people want to destroy the culture and character of this country. When a fire breaks out in the settlement, only the bedroom cannot be saved. I want to join the most democratic party of this country. The Congress party holds the history of this country in itself." "Congress party is a big ship, if Congress party survives, Bhagat Singh's dreams will survive," he added.

On joining the Congress on Tuesday, he said, "I have joined the Congress Parivar... I have not come to save the party... whatever the party will do to save the democracy, I will work with it." "I fought against Congress in JNU elections. Individuals come and go is not bigger than the organization. But the way the Left party is fighting, it should increase the speed," he added.

Dalit leader from Gujarat, MLA Jignesh Mevani also joined the Congress on Tuesday.

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, Organisation General Secretary KC Venugopal and Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das welcomed the two leaders into the party fold.

Before joining the party, the two leaders met Rahul Gandhi at the Congress headquarters for about 30 minutes. During this, Kanhaiya Kumar filled up the primary membership form of the Congress party and Kanhaiya presented a photo of Gandhi-Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh to Rahul Gandhi.

Randeep Surjewala said: "Today is a special day for the Congress party. Kanhaiya and Mevani continuously raised their voice against the policies of the Modi government. They will work as one and one eleven against the Modi government." Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, "These two youths worked in a very revolutionary manner in the country. Congress party wholeheartedly welcomes Jignesh and Kanhaiya." At the same time, Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das said, "On the birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, both the leaders along with Rahul Gandhi garlanded him. Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani met Rahul Gandhi several times. It is hoped that both the leaders will unite with the Congress. Will act as a strong link. The land of Bihar is waiting for Kanhaiya." Jignesh Mevani has been the face of the Dalit movement in Gujarat. Before joining politics, he worked as a journalist, lawyer and Dalit activist. He has often been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies.

At the same time, Kanhaiya, who emerged from the students' movement, also contested from Begusarai in the Bihar Lok Sabha elections but lost to BJP's stalwart Giriraj Singh. However, Kanhaiya had caught the attention of the entire nation during his election campaign.
Dakshina Kannada : , Sep 29 (IANS) The five Bajrang Dal activists, who were taken into custody in connection with a moral policing case, were released on station bail, police sources said on Wednesday. The opposition parties, however, have objected to this.

The accused activists were released late on Tuesday. The Congress and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) condemned the ruling-BJP government over the issue.

The accused had allegedly stopped a group of medical students of a reputed college, including three women, returning from a trip and had questioned them for travelling with boys belonging to different religions on Sunday. The incident had taken place in front of a traffic police inspector and the video had gone viral on social platforms.

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah questioned the government, saying, "Whether the assault on innocent students by Sangh Parivar goondas was part of a culture propagated by RSS." Muneer Katipalla, the President of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) stated that the incident took place in broad daylight in front of a police officer. "Even as the police officer intervened, the accused tried to attack the medical students. They also held a girl students' hands and tried to drag them out of the car. The police have not added proper legal sections to make the case weak. Since the public pressure was there, the accused were taken into custody and released on station bail," he charged.

"It is a shameful act. How can they be released on station bail? The police have totally surrendered to the political pressure. It is very clear that local MP and MLA have got them released. We demand the accused should be arrested and local MP and MLA should apologise," Muneer explained.

The accused had stopped the vehicle in which six students, including three girls, studying in a reputed medical institute were travelling on Sunday. They had gone to the Malpe beach area on a trip and were returning. The accused had stopped the vehicle midway near Surathkal and took details from the students.

One of the students was injured in the incident while being dragged out of the vehicle. A complaint was registered from students in this regard. It was mentioned in the complaint that they were manhandled and abused by the group.

Police Inspector Sharif, attached to the traffic station, who was passing on the same road in his private car stopped the vehicle and controlled the situation. The students were then taken to the police station.

The accused have told the police that they stopped the car as they got information that a group of boys was behaving vulgarly with girls.

The video of the incident taken by one of the passers-by went viral on social media. Sources said that the medical students had gone to an island near Malpe Beach on a trip. They were observed and followed by the accused persons. The investigation is on.
Lucknow, Sep 29 : The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is expected to launch its poll campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections on October 9 with party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressing a public rally in Varanasi.

Former Varanasi MP Rajesh Mishra confirmed that preparations for the rally have begun and added that the event was being organised to give a message of change to the people across the state.

The Congress has also decided to bet on young candidates for the 2022 Assembly elections and sources said that the party may give 60 per cent of its tickets to those in the age group of 30 to 40 years.

Priyanka, who is in Lucknow on a five-day visit, is said to have given her consent for this.

The Congress is inviting applications from prospective candidates till October 10.

"Focus on the youth and their issues is clear in various strategy, election, campaign and manifesto meetings. The leadership feels that this is the group which has suffered most at the hands of the myopic vision of the BJP government and, therefore, wants change. Putting up good candidates with whom the public can relate is a natural thought," a party functionary said.

Veterans in the party, however, believe that the Congress needs more than a formula for its revival in Uttar Pradesh.

"The party is still struggling to put things in an affirmative and clear perspective. The formula may not find many buyers in a highly caste and religion sensitive UP unlike Kerala where development and candidates are considered over traditional factors," said a party veteran.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Sep 29 : With the Central government giving in-principle approval for setting up a medical devices park and providing Rs 100 crore grant, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to set it up in Oragadam in Kancheepuram district.

According to Chief Minister M.K.Stalin, the government will set up the medical devices park at an outlay of Rs 450 crore on 350 acres.

The proposed park will have all basic infrastructure facilities and special infrastructure such as testing labs, product development and prototyping centre, calibration facility and skill development centre.

This Park will house companies manufacturing medical devices such as ventilators, pacemakers, surgical equipment, ophthalmic and dental implants and other medical devices.

The park aims to attract around Rs 3,500 crore of investment creating direct and indirect employment opportunities for nearly 10,000 persons, Stalin said in a late night statement issued on Tuesday.

The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (SIPCOT) will develop this park.

The Central government has also given its nod for a medical devices park for Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Chennai, Sep 29 : Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday will hold a meeting of top state government officials on the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) proposed in the fragile tiger corridor in the Western Ghats in Theni district, sources said.

A delegation from Tamil Nadu led by former Union Minister T.R. Balu had earlier met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi. The state had strongly objected to the Neutrino Observatory project being operational from the Western ghats.

A high-level meeting of PRAGATI (Pro-active Governance and Timely Implementation) chaired by the Prime Minister is to be held at New Delhi on Wednesday and one of the agendas could be the Neutrino Observatory project, sources said.

Stalin has already written a letter to the Prime Minister stating that the project cannot be implemented at the proposed site.

Sources said that Piyush Goyal, head of the Project Monitoring Group had reportedly told the officials of Tamil Nadu in a meeting held in July that the Central government would stall central schemes and projects to Tamil Nadu if the state opposed the Neutrino Observatory project.

The Tamil Nadu side led by T.R. Balu had in its meeting with the Union Minister, conveyed that the Centre "cannot threaten the state into submission on the project. The project cannot move forward without the clearance of the Tamil Nadu pollution control board and the National Board for Wildlife".

Presently, the project is pending before the State Board for Wildlife, chaired by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

The INO project has been in cold storage for the past two decades due to several court cases and ecological issues creating a barrier for the project.

The Tamil Nadu government is opposing the project mainly on the ecological grounds as the sizeable part of the project would pass through the Project Tiger and the fragile Western Ghats.

Officials in the know of things told IANS that the project which has an underground component would create an imbalance in the fragile eco-system of Mathikettan Shola through which the project passes and would undermine the Tiger population in the area that has a common tiger corridor with Kerala forest land.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : In yet another measure to facilitate small and medium exporters, government is looking to get them competitive exchange rates from banks.

Exporters have to deal with exchange rate variations for dealing in foreign currencies and its conversion into rupee. However, while large exporters get forex access at lower exchange rate from banks, smaller ones make payments at higher exchange rate thereby losing competitive advantage on their products and services.

Sources said that the Commerce Ministry has approached the State Bank of India and Indian Banks' Association to remove this anomaly so that all exporters get similar treatment on exchange rate or differential is reduced to the minimum based on risk assessment of banks.

A plan on fair rate has been sought by the ministry so that exporters are put to least disadvantage on their forex earnings. It has asked banks to revise this fair rate and implemented it in a uniform manner across the country among all banks.

The move for bringing uniformity in exchange rate also follows complaint of exporters about shipping lines quoting higher exchange rates. This issue is being dealt separately by the Commerce Ministry that had asked Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to take up the issue with the Shipping Ministry. Here as well, proposal is to have uniform rates for all using shipping line and paying in foreign exchange.
Mumbai, Sep 29 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned five-time Shiv Sena MP from Yavatmal-Washim constituency Bhavana Gawali for probe in an alleged case of financial misappropriation, official sources said here on Wednesday.

Gawali was summoned to the ED office on Monday (October 4), a day after her close aide Saeed Khan was arrested in a money-laundering case by the central probe agency.

This is the third consecutive day that the ED has summoned senior Sena leaders for probes in various cases lodged against them.

On Monday, the ED had raided the home of former Union Minister of State for Finance and Sena ex-MP Anandrao V. Adsul and his son Abhijit in connection with allegations of frauds of Rs 900-crore in the City Cooperative Bank Ltd, in which they are the Chairman and Director, respectively.

The next was Transport Minister Anil Parab -- called on Tuesday -- who was grilled for nearly eight hours by the ED sleuths on the allegations of corruption levelled by sacked Mumbai cop Sachin Vaze, currently in custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

On Wednesday, the ED asked Gawali to appear before it in connection with investigations into alleged frauds of several crores of rupees in a trust in which Khan, the MP and her mother are said to be members, and a business firm owned by the Sena leader.

Late in August, the ED had raided some premises linked with Gawali, but she dismissed all allegations claiming no wrongdoings on her part.

Senior party leader Kishore Tiwari, accorded the MoS status, slammed the ED's move for continuously targeting the Shiv Sena leaders on the basis of complaints lodged by the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leaders.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Delhi government has decided to extend the validity of all transport documents, including existing driving license, and permits, till November 30.

According to Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, this step has been taken keeping in view the problems of the common people, especially during the Covid times, and to reduce overcrowding at zonal offices.

The transport department will issue necessary orders regarding this extension soon, an official said.

In recent times, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has taken several steps to avoid people's gathering at zonal offices for licence related queries and tasks. Under this initiative, soon Delhiites will be able to get a learning driving licence at home as most of the transport services will be brought under the ambit of the online system.

The Delhi government is also planning to include around 88 Delhi University colleges in license making task which will be open for college students as well.

In a bid to make the whole system more efficient and readily available, the government has also come up with the DigiLocker platform or the mParivahan mobile app, after the installation of which car or two-wheeler owners will not have to carry their Driving License (DL) and Registration Certificate (RC) all the time. Instead, they can provide a soft copy of these documents to the traffic police or transport department.

Meanwhile, in order to help Delhi find the pollution that emerges out of vehicles, it has been made mandatory for vehicle owners to carry valid pollution under control (PUC) certificates or pay a fine of Rs 10,000 and an additional action of a suspended driving license for three months.

"The Transport department, Government of NCT of Delhi, in its ongoing efforts to control pollution and improve air quality in Delhi, requests all motor vehicle owners in the city to ply their vehicles only with valid PUC certificate," said a notice issued by the Delhi Transport department on September 20.
New Delhi, Sep 29: The acute power shortage in China, which could even dent the countrys economic growth, is a wake-up call for the world including India. While it is critical to keep an eye on the climate goals set under the Paris agreement, energy experts said that the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy must be done in a calibrated and scientific manner. A hurried and half-hearted approach to switch to renewables by cutting down usage of conventional energy would have far reaching implications and may even be counter-productive.

China is the largest producer and consumer of coal. Its power generation is primarily dependent on coal. A surge in coal prices following a drastic slash in the import of this energy source amid Chinese President Xi Jinping promising to reduce carbon emission has created worries not only for Beijing but across the globe. China's factory output reduced due to the extensive power outage.

Analysts said that while China needs to focus on reducing its coal consumption, the increased clampdown has been prompted by the Winter Olympics that the country is hosting. Bloomberg in a report also said that "China's energy crisis is partially of its own as Xi "tries to ensure blue skies at the Winter Olympics in Beijing next February and show the international community he's serious about de-carbonizing the economy." One of the analysts India Narrative spoke to said that in an attempt do so, policymakers in the country have taken knee jerk decisions which have led to a shortage of coal supply and a rise in its price. The result is a dent in economic growth.

Xi Jinping has set a target to reduce energy intensity and bring carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.

"Renewables need to be prioritised and fast-tracked, but not at the cost of conventional fuels like oil, gas and coal. The world will need to handle this energy transition scientifically and not emotionally. Even a little mistake can disrupt equilibrium and cause the kind of energy crisis you see today in Europe and China," leading energy expert Narendra Taneja told India Narrative.

Need to move towards green energy China Power wrote that Beijing's economic growth has primarily been powered by coal, which constituted an average of 69.9 per cent of the country's energy consumption between 1985 and 2016. "Burning coal comes at a steep environmental cost, as it produces up to twice the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) as other fossil fuels," it noted.

According to the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, renewables -- solar energy, wind, bio energy, hydropower among others -- made up 26.2 percent of global electricity generation in 2018.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) noted that renewables could supply four-fifths of the world's electricity by 2050, massively cutting carbon emissions and helping to mitigate climate change. But to achieve that level, solar and wind power have to be fully integrated, with sustainable bioenergy providing another key part of the mix.

"All this means speeding up innovation in business and technology. Above it all, it means taking action to promote renewable energy today," it said.

The lesson therefore is to put in place well thought out strategy enabling a smooth switch to greater usage of renewable energy, which would not only help in boosting greener environment but also provide adequate ecosystem for economic activities.

India's plans for renewable energy India is planning a $ 3.5 billion package "for the auto sector to boost production of electric vehicles," as the government "seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Paris climate accord." Sources said that though the government has said that the move will help India "leapfrog to environmentally cleaner, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles" there could be other problems. "India needs to watch what is happening in these countries and take a few lessons," Taneja said.

At a time when the world is just recovering from an unprecedented economic shock, policymakers across the globe need to carefully carve out policies.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Seoul, Sep 29 : The hypersonic missile unveiled by the North Korea on Tuesday appeared to be in an early stage of development, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Wednesday.

The JCS said in a statement that when assessing the collected data, such as the detected speed of the hypersonic missile, which the DPRK test-fired and unveiled, it appeared to be in an early stage of development and may take a considerable time to be deployed for combat.

It noted that the missile could be detected and intercepted by the military assets of South Korea and the US, Xinhua news agency reported.

The statement came hours after the North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that the country test-fired the hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 in Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County of Jagang Province on Tuesday morning.

It was the first test-launch, in which the country's Academy of Defence Science ascertained the stability of the engine as well as missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time, the KCNA reported.

The test-launch came after the North Korea tested cruise and ballistic missiles earlier this month.
New Delhi, Sep 29: Over several months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, their spokespersons asserted that they were now a "new" Taliban--a Taliban who would be moderate in doctrine and accommodative of the countrys diversity. During the last six weeks, there have been few indications of change. On womens education and employment, the Taliban have not yet taken a final view: though women at present are not permitted access to higher education or employment, the door has not been finally closed on these claims.

In the broad area of ideology, there have been three developments: one, there are reports that numerous Salafi mosques and madrassas in 16 provinces have been shut down. Two, Taliban militants have committed themselves to conflict with the ISK, which the latter has cheerfully accepted.

Three, the Taliban have made no call for jihad or for attacks on western targets; in fact, the emergence of Taliban in power suggests the efficacy of dialogue with major powers. This is affirmed by the Taliban's recent engagements with Russia and China, both of which have been important interlocutors for the nascent administration, despite being associated with abiding hostility to their domestic Muslim communities - the Uyghurs in China and the Chechens in Russia.

What implications does this have for Afghanistan emerging as the bastion of violent extremism? The Taliban's hostility to Salafi influences in Afghanistan and specifically the ISK would suggest that it is unlikely to provide sanctuary to jihadi groups and allow the country to become the playing field for extremist activity. In fact, the Hayat Tahreer al-Sham (HTS), the erstwhile Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Nusra in Syria, has seen the value of re-inventing itself on the Taliban precedent - confine its activities to Syria, back Turkey and Russia in fighting extremist groups at Idlib, and seek international recognition and support as a legitimate opposition movement in Syria.

While HTS cadres have welcomed the Taliban's success, their leaders have cautioned that they view Afghanistan as a refuge for them as civilians and not as a base for violent attacks as the Taliban will not tolerate them.

The crucial issue is that of international recognition - like any liberation movement that has come to power after prolonged struggle, the Taliban would like broad international acceptance. Failure in this regard could have serious consequences: as Russian commentator Kiriil Semonov has noted, if international recognition is not forthcoming, the Taliban could use extremist groups to perpetrate violence in neighbouring countries, posing a particularly serious threat to the Central Asian republics.

The success of the Taliban in Afghanistan is thus a victory for freedom from foreign occupation, but it is not yet a triumph for representative governance. Developments over the next few months will tell us in which direction that country will move.

Outlook for political Islam: Today, in West Asia, neither jihad nor the Brotherhood have the state sponsors they had earlier. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, that, besides Pakistan, had been the only countries to recognise the "emirate" at Kandahar, now espouse moderate Islam; neither has shown any enthusiasm for the Taliban victory in Kabul. The UAE has given sanctuary to former president Ashraf Ghani, while the kingdom has called for an "inclusive" government in Kabul.

A Saudi commentator has said Saudi Arabia would like to see an Afghanistan that is not driven by extremist religious ideology. It now only views the country through the prism of its geopolitical competition with Iran and is expected to work with Pakistan to stem Iranian influence rather than back extremist ideological politics in that country Again, Turkey and Qatar, both champions of Brotherhood-affiliated political Islam, are shaping fresh ideological approaches. Both have called for an inclusive government in Kabul; in fact, Turkey has made its management of Kabul airport conditional on the fulfilment of this requirement.

Turkey has also been similarly cautious in its criticism of the Tunisian president's attack on Ennahda, despite close ties of the AKP with its ideological partner. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remained silent, in contrast with the rallies he had personally led when President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt was ousted. Turkish spokespersons have merely described events in Tunisia as "worrisome", "illegitimate" and a source of "deep concern".

Turkey's low-key responses reflect its interest to revive its ties with Egypt and Saudi Arabia and promote a new political order in Libya in cooperation with Egypt. A commentator has noted that Turkey will sacrifice the Brotherhood to appease Cairo and Riyadh "in the hopes of securing new friends in the region".

In an ironical twist, Saudi Arabia is also reviewing its ties with the Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Islah party in Yemen. Contrary to its traditional hostility to the Brotherhood and its off-shoots, the kingdom has maintained close relations with the Al-Islah for several decades and has in recent years used the party in its fight against the Houthis. This is an opportunistic alliance as the two sides differ on important matters: Al-Islah rejects the sectarian approach of the Saudis and supports a united Yemen made up of all its diverse groups and ideologies.

These differences have come to the fore in recent months: Saudi Arabia has voiced strong criticisms of Al-Islah as an Islamist organisation. The kingdom's clerics have called it a "terrorist" organisation and accused it of "sedition, wreaking havoc, committing violence and terrorism". Al-Islah member and Nobel laureate, Tawakkol Karman, has responded sharply by calling the Saudi clerics "hypocrites for bin Salman and his shoe polishers", pointing out that the Brotherhood is struggling for freedom, and that Saudi Arabia is "the mother and father of terrorism". This divide has pushed Al-Islah closer to the Houthis.

These developments reflect a region in the throes of uncertainty as the US prepares to disengage from the region's competitions and conflicts. But they certainly do not portend the demise of political Islam, even if its principal parties are experiencing pressure from authoritarian rulers.

Despite severe repression in Egypt, the Brotherhood remains resilient today largely due to the depth and spread of its leadership, the discipline and commitment of its members, and the free debate that is going on through social media on how the movement should face the current challenges and where it should affect major changes.

Ideas being discussed include: accommodation with the al-Sisi government; recourse to violent opposition; and even a shift away from Islam towards the adoption of a broader agenda that would include matters that concern the global South: issues of culture and identity; ethnic, communal and sectarian extremism; poverty, inequality and exploitation, and environmental degradation and food security, etc.

In order to understand the place of Islamism in West Asian affairs we should see it, not as movements with diverse expressions, but as a solid platform of resistance to authoritarian rule. The only relevant political issue in West Asian politics, as Peter Mandaville has learnt from Brotherhood activists, is whether one supports or opposes the authoritarian regime -- Islam, he points out, "provides a culturally and politically permissible means of registering dissent".

Recent developments in Tunisia and Morocco are setbacks in the struggle for popular participation in governance. However, given the persistence of authoritarian rule in the region, political Islam will remain for several years the principal and enduring instrument of resistance in West Asia.

(The author, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, holds the Ram Sathe Chair for International Studies, Symbiosis International University, Pune. This is the second and concluding part of his article. Views expressed are personal. The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Gurugram, Sep 29 : On the occasion of world health day on Wednesday the Health Department in Gurugram has said it is going to start a WhatsApp video call facility for heart patients to consult cardiologists soon.

However, through video calls, if the doctor feels a need for physical check-up, the patients will have to visit nearby government health centres.

This initiative of the health department will benefit people more living in rural areas as after consultation with the doctor, they can visit nearby health centres, primary and community health centres for checkups.

Also, If the doctor feels that the patient needs the advice of a cardiologist, then a WhatsApp video call will be made from there. However, this facility will be available only on Friday.

"Patients coming to health centres will avail the benefit of this facility. To make a WhatsApp call, the number will be given to the patient from the hospital. Cardiologists will talk to patients in the cath lab running on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in district hospital, Gurugram. Many people have complaints related to heart disease but they are not able to go to the doctor," Yadav said.

Once a week an OPD of cardiologists will also be started in Sector 31 polyclinic. Which day of the week this facility will be provided is yet to be decided, he added.
Seoul, Sep 29 : South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Noh Kyu-duk, held video talks with his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday and discussed North Korea's latest missile launch and recent statements, the Foreign Ministry said.

Noh's talks with Liu Xiaoming, Beijing's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, came a day after the North test-fired a hypersonic missile into the East Sea, Yonhap news agency reported.

The firing came only days after Pyongyang expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss a summit with Seoul, on the condition the South drops its double-standard and hostile attitudes against the regime.

During the talks, Noh "asked for China's constructive role in efforts to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue, as he underscored the need for the stable management of the peninsula situation and a swift resumption of the talks," the ministry said in a release.

Liu reaffirmed Beijing's willingness to cooperate to advance the peace process for the Korean Peninsula, according to the ministry.

The two also agreed to meet in person at an early date to continue the discussions.

On Tuesday, Noh also spoke by phone with his US counterpart, Sung Kim, and discussed the North's missile launch.

Noh was set to depart for Indonesia later in the day for talks with Kim, slated for Thursday.
Chennai, Sep 29 : Tamil Nadu Police has arrested a man, Logesh, who was found assaulting a woman at a park in Chennai. A passersby found the youth hitting the lady with his bare hands and alerted the police.

The Abhiramapauram police took him into custody and produced him before a court that remanded him to judicial custody. The incident occurred on Tuesday.

Ths incident comes close on the heels of one in Chennai a few days ago when a youth repeatedly stabbed and murdered his former lover who was a student at Madras Christian College.

Police said that Logesh, 23, and the woman were schoolmates and were in a relationship. After school and college, the woman got a job in a software firm and during the pandemic, they were not able to meet each other.

The woman slowly avoided Logesh and did not take his phone calls and told him that she has ended the relationship. On Tuesday, Logesh called her and invited her to a park informing her that he would return all the gifts that she had given to him. The woman went there in good faith, Police said.

However, on reaching the park, Logesh tried to rekindle the relationship which she refused flatly. This infuriated Logesh who started hitting the woman with his bare hands in full public view. Local people alerted the Abhiramapuram police who reached the spot and arrested him. He is now lodged in the Puzhal central prison.
Bhubaneswar, Sep 29 : Two persons have been arrested for forcibly collecting money in the name of Durga Puja from a businessman in Cuttack town of Odisha, police said on Wednesday.

"We have arrested Sarat Kumar Behera and Rakesh Kumar Behera, two members of the College Square Puja Committee of Cuttack yesterday, for forcefully asking for Rs 13,000 donation from a business man for the Durga Puja," said Cuttack Zone-I ACP Amarendra Panda.

Panda said both the accused were allegedly forcing the businessman, Ratan Kumar Agrawal, of College Square of Cuttack city, to pay the donation for the upcoming Durga Puja.

Based on the complaint lodged by the businessman, the two accused were arrested and have been forwarded to court, the police official said.

The urban police have kept a tight vigil to ensure that no one can extort money from anyone in the name of Puja, added ACP Panda.
Lucknow, Sep 29 : An MBA graduate joined hands with his science graduate brother and a techie friend to float fake websites.

The three have now been arrested, but it is believed that they earned around Rs five crore in the 'business', said police sources.

The group made replicas of websites of major companies and gave out fake franchises to people in return for money.

Those arrested on Tuesday include Vivekananda, an alumnus of a private MBA college in Bhopal, Shivendra, a B.Tech graduate from a Gurugram private institute and Sachidananda, a science graduate from the Magadh University.

All three are natives of Bihar.

According to police, Vivekananda joined hands with his brother Sachidananda after he lost his job during the pandemic. Techie Shivendra also joined in.

The cyber cell nabbed the gang after one Devrat Chaturvedi was duped of Rs 3 lakh in the name of allotting the franchisee of a famous snack company in Lucknow's Aashiana locality.

While working on the case, the cyber cell also got a similar complaint from Jaunpur, where businessman Vinod Gupta was duped of Rs 2 crore on the pretext of allotting him the franchisee of a US auto company.

ACP cyber cell, Vivek Ranjan Rai, said, "Vivekananda and Sachidananda roped in Shivendra who used to design websites akin to original ones and in return, was given a heavy share of the money earned." To appear genuine, the gang members used to pose as top bosses of the company and talk to people.

The ACP said, "The bank accounts in which the gang asked victims to transfer money were all based in Maharashtra, Delhi or metropolises like Bengaluru." "We will take all three on remand to know more about the case," he said.

Two more members of the gang -- Kanhaiya Kumar and Suman Kumar -- are absconding.
Lucknow, Sep 29 : A government doctor has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman constable in Lucknow.

The doctor was arrested late on Tuesday night after the victim allegedly accused him of raping her after intoxicating her in Krishna Nagar locality.

According to police reports, the incident took place on September 7, but the case was registered only on September 23.

The accused, who has been identified as Ashish Kumar Singhiya, is a resident of the area falling under the SGPGI police station.

The accused is a doctor in the Lucknow jail and he also runs a clinic in Baldi Kheda locality.

The woman constable visited Ashish's clinic on September 7, where she was raped by him after being given some sedatives.

"He force-fed me some psychotropic substance and raped me," the woman alleged.

After the incident, the woman lodged her complaint, following which the police registered the case and arrested the accused.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), central zone, Rajesh Srivastava said that Ashish has been arrested under charges of rape, causing hurt by means of poison and criminal intimidation.
Lucknow, Sep 29 : In another effort to keep the Ganga clean and pollution-free, the Uttar Pradesh government, under the Namami Gange campaign, will begin the practice of river ranching.

An action plan has been formulated, according to which about 15 lakh fishes of different species will be released into the river by the Department of Fisheries.

This will help in sustaining and conserving the biodiversity in the river and will ensure its cleanliness under the Namami Gange campaign.

These fishes will be released in about 12 districts ranging from eastern Uttar Pradesh to the western Uttar Pradesh.

These districts are Ghazipur, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Kaushambhi, Pratapgarh, Kanpur, Hardoi, Bahraich, Bulandshahr, Amroha and Bijnor.

Nearly 1.5 lakh fishes each will be released in Ganga from Varanasi and Ghazipur districts.

River ranching will help in achieving sustainable fisheries, reducing habitat degradation, conserving biodiversity, maximising social-economic benefits and will also remove factors causing pollution.

To ensure the cleanliness of the river, the state government has also constructed sewage treatment plants (STPs) to eliminate flow of untreated sewage into Ganga under the Namami Gange campaign.

To monitor pollution along the river, the government also deployed the Ganga Task Force.

Principal Secretary, Namami Gange, Anurag Srivastava said that the practice of river ranching is a part of the efforts being made for cleanliness of Ganga and conservation of groundwater.

N.S. Rahmani, Deputy Director, Department of Fisheries said that the activity of 'river ranching' is also used to control pollution and to improve marine life in the river. In this activity, different species of fish are released in the river, which destroy the factors that increase the levels of nitrogen.

These fish will also aid in maintaining the cleanliness of the river as they feed on organic remnants. He added that due to overfishing and pollution in the Ganges, fish population was also decreasing.

Rahmani, further informed that about 1500 kg of fish, present in an area of about 4,000 square metres, controls about 1 mg per litre of nitrogen waste.

Therefore, the government has decided to release nearly 15 lakh fish into the Ganges to control excess nitrogen in the river. If nitrogen exceeds 100 mg per litre or more, it becomes highly detrimental to the fish diversity of the river.

Consequently, the fish cannot reproduce and lay eggs which leads to their extinction.

Through this practice, the released fish will be made to grow and proliferate for restoration of the fish stock, which will not only protect the aquatic organisms but will also reduce the pollution. The fish to be released include Rohu, Catla and Mrigal.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : Karnataka Police on Wednesday arrested five persons for trying to extort a young couple after taking their private video while they were sitting in their car on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

The accused are identified as Ashif (29), Nawaz Pasha (22), Liyakhat Pasha (30), Salman Khan (28) and Roohid (26). All of them are drivers and residents of Handenahalli village near Hosakote on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

According to police, the incident took place on September 25. The young couple had gone to a private place in their car where they wanted to spend some time together. At about 12 noon, the accused persons came as a gang and told the couple that they have taken video of their private moments.

The miscreants demanded Rs 5 lakh and threatened the couple that if they failed to pay the money, their video will be made viral on the social media, the police said.

By that time, the miscreants noticed few local people approaching them and escaped from the spot on bikes. The woman has stated in the complaint that miscreants had held her hand and tried to drag her out of the vehicle. She also mentioned that miscreants used vulgar words, police say.

The Anugondanahalli police in Bengaluru Rural district have registered a case under IPC sections 354 (A) (sexual harassment), 354 (D) (stalking), 354 (B) (assault or using criminal force), 354 (C) (voyeurism), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 384 (extortion).

After getting details from the victims the police launched a hunt for the accused persons and arrested them.
September 29 : Kangana Ranaut was spotted and clicked at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday, when she was set to jet off from the city. Paparazzo shared pictures and videos of the actress on their social media accounts.

In one video, Kangana was seen flashing the victory sign as she stepped out of her car and walked inside the airport. However, fans have spotted that the actress was without a mask and entered the airport without wearing it. The paparazzi video also flashed the board outside the gate of the terminal where it was written in big and bold that one cannot enter the airport without a face mask. The huge signboard read as, no mask, no entry. Kangana had tested Covid-19 positive in May this year. She had recovered within a few days.

Reacting to the post, Instagram users dropped several comments. Waah No Mask No Entry ko kya ignore kiya gaya. Jaise party vote baad janta ko karti hai (Kangana has ignored the no mask, no entry sign just the way political parties ignore the voters after the elections), commented a user. Another wrote, No mask no entry, is it only for normal people and not these celebs?

Meanwhile, Kangana, who played former late Chief Minister of Tamil Nady, J Jayalalitha in the biopic, thanked her team for making a film which is a shining brightly in her filmography. As the film was received warmly by film critics and audiences, Kangana penned a note of gratitude as it started streaming on Netflix. Taking to her Instagram stories, Kangana wrote, Rarely a film loved passionately and unanimously And Thalaivii is one such film I am glad people getting to know Purchai Thalaivi Dr J. Jayalalithaas story. also big thanks to my team for making a film which is a shining diamond in my filmography. #gratitude.

Meanwhile, on work front, Kangana Ranaut has recently bagged the role of Sita in Sita: The Incarnation. The actress has a number of films in the pipeline. She will be seen as a spy in the action thriller Dhaakad, and as an Indian Air Force pilot in Tejas. The actress will also direct and star in Aparjita Ayodhya and Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda. Kangana will produce Tiku Weds Sheru starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, which will also marks her foray into the digital space.
Ayodhya, Sep 29 : Ayodhya seer, Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj, has announced that if India is not declared a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) by October 2, he will take 'Jal Samadhi in the Saryu river.

'Jal Samadhi' is when one ends his life by immersing himself in water.

The seer has also asked the central government to terminate the nationality of Muslims and Christians. This is not the first time that Paramhans has issued such threats.

Earlier, he undertook a 15-day long fast into death over the Hindu Rashtra issue, and he broke his fast after he got the assurance from union home minister Amit Shah.

Earlier, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has asserted repetitively about the Hindu Rashtra. He also said that Hindutva is a word that expresses our identity along with the continuity of spirituality-based traditions and an entire wealth of value system in the land of Bharat.

Therefore, this word is applicable to all the 1.3 billion people, Bhagwat had said in his Vijay Dashmi speech in 2020.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
September 29 : Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Kemmu's daughter Inaaya Naumi Kemmu turned four today. Taking to her Instagram stories, Soha shared a bunch of pictures, giving glimpses of the little princess birthday celebrations. Kareena Kapoor Khan also shared a beautiful picture of the birthday girl on social media and wished her.

Sohas pictures give glimpses of Inaaya's 'unicorn land' party. The place can be seen decked up with pink balloons and customised family photo books. In one picture, the room can be seen decorated with balloons of different colours. "Birthday eve," was written on the picture. Inaaya looked cute in a pink frock along with her teddy bear and customised cushion. In another picture, the little angel was seen sitting at a table in front of a tablet.

Image Source: Instagram/kareenakapoorkhan Kareena Kapoor Khan wishes Inaaya on her birthday

Soha also shared some video clips on her Instagram stories. In one video, Inaaya was seen looking at some photos featuring her family members as the Happy Birthday song played on. Soha captioned the clip as, "She loves these!!!!" In the last clip, Inaaya stood in front of a board that read, "welcome to Inaaya's unicorn land," as she blew on a whistle. The birthday song was played in the background, as Soha wrote, "And so it begins."

Kareena Kapoor Khan also took to her Instagram handle and wished Inaaya. Sharing a black and white picture of Inaaya, she wrote, Happy birthday to our little princess... Inaaya! Reach for the stars always beautiful girl. She credited Kunal Kemmu as the photographer.

Reacting to the post, Malaika Aroras sister Amrita Arora wrote, "Happy happy birthday Inaaya." Sohas elder sister, Saba Ali Khan also commented. "Love you inni jaan .. Happy Birthday. God bless."

Saba also shared a throwback picture of Inaaya on her Instagram stories, and wrote, "Happy 4th Birthday my Inni Jaan. I love you..always."

Soha and Inaaya recently returned to Mumbai after spending time with veteran actress Sharmila Tagore at the Pataudi Palace.
Patna, Sep 29 : Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly, wrote to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, urging him to seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a meeting with an all-party delegation from the state.

In a two-page letter, Tejashwi Yadav has pointed out the problems arising every year due to the floods in more than 20 districts of the state.

"Bihar is the only state in the country which faces flood-like situation every year. Crores of people are affected and they suffer loss of crops and properties. Now, Bihar has a double-engine government and so many announcements were made, but no solutions have been found," Yadav said.

"In 2011, an announcement was made for river-linking projects in Bihar. It was said that rivers like the Bagmati would be linked with the Burhi Gandak and further with the Ganga river.

"Similarly, the Mechi river will be interlinked with the Koshi river. Besides, there was also a proposal to link the Kamla Balan, Mahananda, Ghagra, and other rivers of the state through canals and barrages. Unfortunately, these proposals were put in cold storage and nothing has happened on the ground," Tejashwi said.

"If the river-linking proposal is implemented in Bihar, it will help minimise damage due to the floods. Moreover, it will also lead to the flourishing of industries, create job opportunities, reduce drinking water problems, and form good transportation routes through rivers as well as the roads," Tejashwi said.

"We want to meet the Prime Minister on this issue and request him to speed up the river-linking projects of Bihar," Tejashwi said.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : A Swedish delegation met Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Bengaluru and interacted with several major Swedish and Indian companies for fostering investment in the state. The foreign delegation was on a two-day visit to Karnataka from September 27-28, according to a press note released on Wednesday by the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi.

The Swedish delegation led by Ambassador Klas Molin, the new Trade Commissioner Cecilia Oskarsson along with new counsellors for science, innovation and trade, among others, met Bommai. They attended an investment facilitation seminar with Karnataka Industries Minister and senior state government officials, as also the 'Invest in Karnataka' programme.

On Monday, the delegation along with the heads of several Swedish companies attended an investment facilitation seminar with the Karnataka Industries department where company leaders operating in the state highlighted their presence, and discussed investment and future plans that will help them realise their full potential in the state.

Bommai said both Sweden and India are time-tested allies and the bilateral ties need to be further strengthened.

The Karnataka government has prioritised sustainable growth and investments and is willing to collaborate with Sweden on new technologies. Research and development (R&D) will be prioritised in the future and incentives for industries to invest in R&D will be introduced. The Chief Minister indicated that employment, investment and innovation are the three guiding principles for boosting partnership between India and Sweden.

At present, there are more than 200 Swedish companies in India employing two lakh people. As many as 96 Swedish companies have employed more than 42,000 people in Karnataka alone. Forty companies have their head office in Karnataka and 14 companies are manufacturing in the state.

Swedish Ambassador Klas Molin said, "I'm inspired by the very constructive and forward-looking dialogue with Chief Minister Bommai. From Swedish brand names such as ABB and Volvo to H&M and IKEA -- and now Truecaller and several start-ups, Swedish companies continue to thrive in Karnataka. Helping support their communities during the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, they continue to invest, expand and believe in India." The delegation met Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji and visited 'PlaySimple', which was recently acquired by Swedish gaming giant 'Modern Times Group'.

It also visited IIM Bangalore, CampX by Volvo, ArtPark and ISRO.
Bhubaneswar, Sep 29 : The Odisha Police would seek help from the Interpol for identification of a suspected female operative in the DRDO espionage case, a senior police officer here said on Wednesday.

The police on September 14 had arrested five former contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit at Chandipur on charges of sharing classified defence information with unknown foreign agents, who were suspected to be from Pakistan.

During the investigation, the police found that a suspect woman was chatting and making video calls with the accused on social networking sites like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, using a UK mobile phone number.

As per the established procedure, the Odisha crime branch would seek help from the Interpol to get details of the UK mobile number, which was used by the mysterious female handler, said Additional Director General (ADG) of the Odisha Police (crime branch) Sanjeeb Panda.

The Dubai-based bank account details from which money was transferred to the bank account of one of the accused has not been established so far, he said, adding, "It may be the account of any associate of the suspected woman." One team of the Odisha crime branch is camped in Balasore and investigating whether the accused have received money from any other sources, Panda said.

Earlier, the Additional Director General of the Odisha Police had said the 'mysterious' woman had made video calls to two of the accused in Hindi and she was in contact with the five accused through seven Facebook accounts under different names and profile pictures.

The suspected woman operative had also given marriage proposals to two of the arrested accused and promised to visit the house of another accused located in Chandipur.

The Crime Branch had taken the five accused on a seven-day remand. After doing further verification of the statements and technical data given by the accused, if required, the Crime Branch will seek further remand of the accused, he said.

The police are now working on how to frame the charge sheet as soon as possible in this case, he added.
Jakarta/Seoul, Sep 29 : North Korea's latest missile launches will not affect the U.S.' determination to seek diplomacy with the North for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the US nuclear envoy for Pyongyang said on Wednesday.

Sung Kim, US special representative for North Korea, made the remark at a press event in Jakarta, a day after the North test-fired a hypersonic missile into the East Sea.

The firing came after the regime's test-firings of two short-range missiles on September 15 and a new type of cruise missile days earlier, Yonhap news agency reported.

While describing the missile launches as a "threat" and "a violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions," under which the North is banned from testing or using nuclear and ballistic technologies, Kim said that does not "deter" the US from continuing to pursue a "diplomatic path." "We're strongly committed to finding a diplomatic path to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," he said at the event with foreign journalists.

"That has not changed at all. These missile activities do not change our determination." "We're waiting to hear back from Pyongyang. We have proposed dialogues on a wide range of topics ... we hope to hear back soon," Kim added.

The missile launches came amid Seoul's efforts to explore ways with Washington to resume the stalled dialogue with Pyongyang.

Since last week, Pyongyang has expressed a willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and even discuss a summit with Seoul, but on the condition that the South drops its double standard and hostile attitudes against the regime.

Kim is set to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, to discuss North Korean issues in Jakarta on Thursday.
September 29 : Yami Gautam had started work right after her wedding in June this year. Since then, the actress has been shooting for her films back to back. The actress shared a cute picture on social media today which shows that despite her round-the-clock work, she did take out some fun time on the sets.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Yami shared a picture, where she can be seen gearing up for makeup while she takes a little time out to cuddle a cute puppy at the set. An elated Yami shared a picture of her hugging the puppy, while seated on her makeup chair. For the caption, Yami wrote, I don't mind working round the clock if my visitors are so paw-dorable, with the hashtag Chloe, which seems to be the name of the puppy.

Image Source: Instagram/yamigautam Yami Gautam doesnt mind working round-the- clock if her visitors are paw-dorable

Meanwhile, on the work front, Yami Gautam, who was filming her forthcoming film Lost in Kolkata, has wrapped it last month, after which she was busy promoting her recently released film Bhoot Police. In Aniruddha Roy Chowdhurys directorial Lost, the actress played a crime reporter.

Besides Bhoot Police, Yami has a number of projects in her kitty. The actress is a part of Dasvi, where she played a police officer. In the film, Yami will co-star with Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur. Yami also has in her kitty A Thursday. Produced by Ronnie Screwvala and directed by Behzad Khambata, the film will feature her as a playschool teacher.
Alliance gives new meaning to political boundaries on physical maps empowering coalitions with political preferences to work together. President Biden does "not seek a new Cold War", clearly expressing at the UNGA and many other leaders are with Biden, including Indian Prime Minister Modi, where the world divided into two rigid blocks will only limit progress and prosperity to many nations. In reality, Cold War structures will resurrect when the rules-based order is threatened, and robust partnerships are required to maintain the security balance.

President Biden established a more structured alliance, the AUKUS, a week before the first-ever in-person Quad Summit in Washington DC on September 24. AUKUS, the security alliance, will enhance the capability of the US, the UK and Australia on deterrence, an expansion of underwater warfare capabilities of the nuclear-powered submarine fleet to Australia for extended patrols. With more military capacity in Indo-Pacific and substantial naval presence, the like-minded nations in the new security alliance will deter China's aggressiveness in the South China Sea and the surrounding waters. Many like-minded nations with democratic values who subscribe to Free and Open Indo-pacific (FOIP) norms will be part of the AUKUS security structure in the future. While the security alliances are usually heavily structured, the primary informal structure with a non-militaristic space will be the Quad which is more informal. Michael J. Green from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) argues, "It's like a dimmer, not an off-on switch... It's a flexible tool, including who joins. It's flexible for a Korea or a New Zealand or the UK. If they decide they're upset with China, they can send a frigate to the next exercise." The flexibility of the Quad made it easier for nations like Singapore to join military exercises a few years ago with the Quad and many other nations to follow bilateral or trilateral naval exercises to enhance the value of a critical Quad goal, to maintain a free and open Indo Pacific (FOIP).

In the Western diplomatic toolkit, Quad is at the forefront due to the assertiveness of China in the Indo-Pacific from military expansion and stealth economic takeover, 'strategic trap' to shackle nations under Chinese 'BRI' orbit. "The Quad has come together due to china's assertive behaviour... and economic dependence of some countries", explains ORF scholar Druva Jaishankar. The Quad is a non-security arrangement due to India's appeal to leave security out of its core agenda. Focused more on securing supply-chain security, semiconductors and vaccine diplomacy was the primary focus. China was not mentioned during the summit due to the Biden administration's idea of Quad to project a positive vision towards a vaccine, climate change, critical technologies and not a grouping to contain China.

However, Raja C. Mohan from ISAS Singapore observed, "China's peaceful rise has not been peaceful, a concern to many nations... having bitten once [by China] people are finding alternatives." China's assertiveness with military expanse, the concern of human rights and coercive economic practices with stealth takeover of strategic assets promoting alternative governance structures with more militaristic regimes such as in Sri Lanka would alter the core agenda of the Quad. India, which preferred a non-military configuration for the Quad, would perhaps be forced to bring insecurity to the Quad agenda in the future to defend and protect the regional balance due to China in its immediate neighborhood.

Quad, initiated in post-Asian Tsunami in 2004, has been at the forefront during the pandemic to "play the role of a force for global good". Explains Prime Minister Modi, "I'm confident that our cooperation under Quad will ensure prosperity and peace in the Indo-Pacific and in the world." Quad's informal arrangement will allow other non-Quad nations to join and support the norms and values of democracy and international law in the future. The countries that have been direct victims of China's aggressiveness will join the Quad to deter China in the future. The informal structure of Quad to protect and bring democratic nations together, to give protection to nations that have become victims of China's "debt trap", such as Sri Lanka. It will also be a balancing counterweight to Chinese expansion. The "strategic trap" is visible in Sri Lanka from its long term 99 years leased out strategic infrastructure. The Hambanthota port and Colombo Port City were the best examples of strategic expanse. While accepting and expanding the Chinese loans, Sri Lanka rejected substantial grants such as the US MCC. Recently at Carnegie Endowment, the Sri Lankan Foreign secretary explained the rejection of the US MCC grant of $480m by the government was due to "democracy and people's power" that scrapped the project, defending that there was no China hand behind. The foreign secretary has forgotten the concocted Presidential expert commission report projecting a national security threat.

Chinese sphere of influence has now enlarged into Sri Lanka's democratic space, where the Sri Lankan regime defends Chinese human rights in Xinjiang, clear signs of reciprocal arrangements to receive assistance from China to defend the grave human rights concerns in Sri Lanka raised by the UN High Commissioner at the 48th UNHRC session a few weeks ago. The recent expression of Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage was "we wish to remain neutral in our foreign policy", which contravenes with the Chinese bandwagoning foreign policy posture taken by the same regime. Colombage further explained that Chinese warship arrivals are far less than India and Japanese warship arrivals to Sri Lanka, where 563 warships have visited since 2009-hinting a less significance of Chinese presence and interest from the volume of warship arrivals. Unfortunately, the ill-logical view does not capture the broader strategic danger to the Island nation and its neighbour India.

India will have two concerns with Chinese aggression and the strategic takeover of its neighbouring nations. First, to strengthen its external alliance structure, such as from Quad to bring in nations like Sri Lanka towards the norms and values of the international system rather than allowing drift from a Quasi-democracy to military control autocratic regime. This drift towards China will pose a direct threat to India's security. While economic practices and standards are also part of Quad dialogue, supply chain security shows groups intention to work together in the economic arena where China's place in the world economy would limit how far the Quad could achieve success in bringing standards to economic practices. Biden administration's focus on the B3W (Build Back Better World) initiative will complement the economic infrastructure standards and supply chain security in the coming years.

Biden administration will focus more on Quad and the G-7, the two core organizing bodies that will centre on the global international system to achieve tangible results. India has a strong position and voice in both of these platforms than any South Asian nation. As mentioned by PM Modi, India is a "natural ally for the G7 countries in the fight againstauthoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation, and economic coercion, among other threats".

Second, to partner and support security alliances, a more formal structure such as AUKUS will be of India's interest since the mini-lateral compliments India's vision towards achieving a rules-based Indo-Pacific. ORF scholar Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan aptly capture "AUKUS is an important development because it signifies the capability augmentation of one of India's closest strategic partners, with whom it has just started a 2+2 ministerial dialogue. A strong and capable Australia is in India's interests, that of the Quad and the broader Indo-Pacific region".

These mini-lateral platforms will crisscross the Indian Ocean, where Sri Lanka, an important maritime nation located geo-strategically in the Indian Ocean, will be a crucial maritime partner to consider, unfortunately in the present context drifting towards Chinese orbit. Nations like Sri Lanka are essential due to their open access to the Indian ocean, where naval exercises and maritime security will be primary drivers for sustaining the mini lateral military arrangements. Sri Lanka's security trilateral signed by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime with India and Maldives is a mini lateral in the right direction and will benefit Sri Lanka. India would require a two-pronged strategy to its northern borders and its South, the Indian Ocean. India, the only nation among the Quad nations that share a physical geographical border with China, is more vulnerable than the other Quad partners for confrontation, just like in the past. India's challenges from its western flank, from Af-Pak, will grow with the Chinese footprint expanding in Afghanistan. From India's South, the security balance of the Indian Ocean will be of primary interest where Sri Lanka, Maldives and other literals cannot be ignored.

The efforts of mini lateral democratic alliances such as Quad should focus more on targeted nations like Sri Lanka by the Chinese "debt and strategic trap". Sri Lankan regime seeping away from democratic norms to a militarized rule has drifted from the Indo-Pacific configuration, a geographical flashpoint in India's vicinity. The Quad should actively engage and seek commitment from nations like Sri Lanka, pulling towards the norms and values of a rules-based order. The country-specific strategic push from the Quad will assist Sri Lanka to recalibrate its foreign policy towards a more balanced and progressive path with international norms and values.

(Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is a geopolitical analyst, strategic advisor on security from Sri Lanka)
Srinagar, Sep 29 : The process to build 'Naya Jammu and Kashmir' commenced much before August 5, 2019 -- when New Delhi announced its decision to abrogate J&K's special status and divided it into two union territories. After the change of guard in the Centre in 2014, the dispensation led by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, focused on reaching to the root causes of the problems in J&K.

The government identified lack of proper road connectivity as one of the major issues that needed to be addressed. Just within a year, i.e., in 2015 the Prime Minister announced road infra projects worth Rs 40,900 crore for J&K, out of which work on projects of about Rs 38,000 crore is already underway. Till 2014, there were only seven National Highways in the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir, including Ladakh but in 2021 J&K alone has eleven National Highways.

To give impetus to the ongoing development works Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, and J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha laid the foundation stones for four National Highway projects worth Rs 3,612 crore in the J&K UT on September 28, 2021.

Gadkari, who was on a 2-day visit to J&K in connection with the Centre's outreach programme, stated that there was no dearth of funds. He assured that every possible logistic support would be provided to the J&K Government to overcome the challenges in building new highways and roads.

"The new projects will further strengthen the road connectivity in J&K. It will open up new livelihood avenues for the local population, enhance tourism and business activities and improve the quality of life of the people," he said.

The Minister stated that the government is working on a comprehensive plan to lessen the travel time between the cities. "Be it Delhi-Jammu, or Jammu to Srinagar, the time to travel would be reduced to half by providing expressways and better road connectivity to the people. Mega highway road and tunnel projects will reduce the travel time from Delhi to Kashmir to 8 hrs in coming years," he announced. (1) Road connectivity has remained a major issue for Kashmir since 1947. The 300 kilometre Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, only all-weather road connecting the Valley with the rest of the country, has been the most unreliable highway. Its frequent closure, especially during the harsh winter season leads to shortage of everything, including the essential commodities, but during the past seven years work on this highway has been expedited and it's likely to become a four lane express highway within two years.

At present the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on the 'treacherous' terrains on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. The 36 kilometre long Ramban-Banihal stretch is full of 'trouble points'. This stretch was realigned and the work on it is likely to get completed by December 2024. The danger points, including Marog, Panthial, Khuni Nullah, Digdol, and Battery Chashma, have been bypassed after realignment. To avoid landslide-prone and sinking areas, tunnels and bridges are being constructed as per realigned project (2).

Work on the widening of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway had started in 2011. Two major tunnels, Nashri tunnel and Banihal-Qazigund tunnel, have been thrown open for the general public and this has reduced the travel time and distance between Jammu and Srinagar. Four laning work from Srinagar to Qazigund and from Jammu to Udhampur was completed long ago. The NHAI is hopeful about completing the remaining work within the stipulated time.

New highways in Jammu region Earlier this month, the Union Ministry for Road, Transport and National Highways had approved two projects worth Rs 2,556.36 crore on the Samba-Jammu and Akhnoor-Poonch National Highways.

The ministry had also approved development work of the Jakh (Vijaypur)-Kunjwani section of National Highway-44 to six-lane Expressway. Jakh-Kunjwanifalls on Samba-Jammu road and is part of the Pathankot-Jammu National Highway. which is presently four-lane.

The ministry had also approved Rs 734.64 crore for work of rehabilitation and upgradation to two-lane with paved shoulders from existing chainage, including the construction of Bhimber Gali Tunnel under 31 TF on Akhnoor-Poonch road (National Highway 144A).

Prior to this the Central Government had already approved widening of Jammu-Akhnoor road followed by Akhnoor-Poonch road via Nowshera and Rajouri.

Zojila and Z-Morh tunnels Srinagar-Leh National Highway remains closed nearly four months during winter due to heavy snowfall at Zojila, but the under construction 13.2 kilometre Zojila tunnel would provide all weather connectivity to the union territory of Ladakh. It will be India's longest road tunnel and Asia's longest bi-directional tunnel.

Several bridges are being constructed along this route. The Z-Morh tunnel is being constructed in the Zojila Ghats between Sonamarg and Kargil. The entire work is divided into two divisions in the 33 km span.

The project site of Zojila tunnel is located at existing highway (NH-1) starting from Sonamarg (UT of J&K) and ends at Minamarg (UT of Ladakh) at an elevation ranging from 2700m to 3300m, thus making the Zojila Tunnel the longest tunnel at this elevation in Asia. The present site location falls into seismic zone IV and all precautionary measures have been provisioned to safeguard the structures in the project.

According to Brigadier Gurjeet Singh Kamo, executive director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), work at Z-Morhtunnel is expected to be over by next year against the target of December 2023 while the Zojila project would be over by 2026.

During his recent visit to the tunnel, Gadkari described Zojila tunnel as a landmark project (3).

Earlier Gadkari had stated that a hill station, more enchanting than the world-famous Davos in Switzerland, is being planned in the picturesque landscape between the 18-km stretch of Zojila tunnel in Ladakh and Z-Morh tunnel. Once the project is completed it will change the dynamics of both Ladakh and J&K and create huge employment.

Mughal Road This 84-kilometre long road which connects Kashmir with Poonch district in Jammu was opened in 2009 for light motor vehicles. However, it remains open only in summer months.

When it was thrown open for public, politicians in Kashmir had termed it as their "dream project" and had promised the people that it would serve as an alternative all-weather road for the Valley. However, not much headway was made in this regard even 10-years after it was thrown open for the public. In December 2019, the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited engaged a Spanish Consultancy firm and an Indian private consultant to prepare a report for the construction of a tunnel near Peer-Ki-Gali which receives massive snowfall during winter.

It is a historical route and is known for its beautiful sights and scenes, which can persuade the tourists across the country to visit this area. It is surrounded by snow laden mountains which glitter like silver throughout the year. The work on this road is all set to be expedited in coming months.

In 2020-21, 3300 km rural roads were constructed In 2020-21, a record 3,300 km of roads were constructed in remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The purpose of these roads was to provide safe and secure all-weather connectivity to far-flung areas across the Union Territory.

Former J&K Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam in May this year had stated that most of the work was undertaken under the flagship programme 'PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana' (4).

Addressing the issue of road connectivity to Kashmir is a leap towards bringing the Valley closer to New Delhi and the government is working on it. The projects that have been undertaken during the past seven years have helped in changing the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir. People too have responded positively and have boarded the bandwagon of peace, prosperity and development.

1. https://preciouskashmir.com/2021/09/28/gadkari-lg-sinha-lay-foundation-for-4-nh-projects-worth-rs-3612-cr-in-jk/ 2. https://www.ibtimes.co.in/jammu-srinagar-highway-hits-many-roadblocks-deadline-set-december-2024-amid-challenges-837637 3. https://www.risingkashmir.com/-Road-network-will-boost-tourism-sector-in-J-K--Ladakh--Nitin-Gadkari-92634 4. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-completed-record-3300km-rural-roads-in-2020-21/articleshow/82992720.cms
Patna, Sep 29 : The lack of proper facilities for the Election Commission staff was in full public view in Araria district of Bihar when polling and presiding officers were not given tables and chairs to conduct the second phase of the Panchayat election.

As a result, the polling officers had to put the EVMs and ballot boxes on the ground and ask the voters to exercise their voting rights.

Such an arrangement was seen in booth number 87 at Raghunathpur Panchayat in Bhargama block.

"The district administration had claimed adequate arrangements in every booth during preparations for Panchayat elections. Now, we do not have tables, chairs and benches to at least put EVMs, and ballot papers on them. We have put EVMs, ballot boxes and other equipment on the ground and are sitting alongside them to conduct polling. There is no secrecy maintained here due to lack of facilities from the district administration. Voters are coming here and casting their votes openly," said a polling official.

The officials at the booth made videos and took photos of the poor arrangements and uploaded them on social media.

"Conducting elections is a responsibility of the DM of every district," another official said.

The second phase of the Panchayat elections is currently underway in 48 blocks in 34 districts of the state. The polling time is from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a week's time to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to clarify whether there was any irregularity while conducting any rituals at the Tirupati Balaji temple.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana told the petitioner, Srivari Dadda,: "If you are a Balaji devotee then you must be patient. Every day you cannot threaten registry to list the petition. This is not done. We are also devotees of Balaji".

Dadda, a devotee of Lord Venkateshwara Swamy alleged irregularities in conduct of 'sevas' and rituals at the Tirupati Temple.

The bench also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli asked the petitioner, who was continuously pressing his prayers alleging irregularities in the conduct of rituals at the temple, to be patient and listen to the court.

Justice Ramana queried Dadda, how could the court interfere in puja and how it should be conducted? He emphasized that the apex court is a constitutional court and not a local court, where the petitioner could do whatever he intends to. To which, Dadda replied that it was about his fundamental right.

The Chief Justice replied, "How to conduct pooja is a fundamental right?" The bench also emphasized it expected that all rituals will be conducted according to the traditions.

The bench queried the standing counsel appearing for the respondent TTD, what happened to Dadda's representation? The top court asked the counsel to take instructions in the matter and scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 6.

The bench told the TTD counsel that petitioner is bringing to its notice and court's that there are some irregularities in the conduct of ceremonies and pujas. The bench clarified that it is not about legal right. The bench told the counsel, "You find out what happened to his representation and get back to us." Briefly the chief justice spoke with the petitioner in Telugu and explained to him to be patient, as the court also needs to hear the other side. Dadda sought directions to the TTD to rectify method of performing rituals and seva of Lord Sri Venkateshwara Swamy at the temple.

Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed the PIL filed by Srivari Dadda on the same issue and had held that the procedure of conducting rituals is the exclusive domain of the Devasthanams and it cannot become a matter of adjudication, unless it impacts secular or civil rights of others.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : A day after former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh arrived in the national capital, sources said that he is in touch with Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Rawat.

Amarinder's media advisor Raveen Thukral had earlier tweeted that the former is on a personal visit to Delhi to meet close friends and there are no political meetings scheduled.

According to the staff of Delhi's Kapurthala House, Amarinder Singh reached here late on Tuesday evening.

Amarinder Singh had announced that he will vacate the Punjab Chief Minister's residence at Kapurthala House for incumbent CM Charanjit Singh Channi.

However, speculation is rife about the political future of Amarinder Singh following his visit to Delhi.

Amid the political developments after Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation from his post, Amarinder Singh had said, "I had told you so that Sidhu is not a stable man. He is not fit to lead a border state like Punjab." Sources said that Harish Rawat and Amarinder Singh are in touch with each other. After this meeting, Harish Rawat is likely to meet Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi late on Wednesday evening.

Amarinder Singh is unhappy about his unceremonious exit as the Punjab Chief Minister. He had made scathing attacks on Sidhu, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Singh has announced that he will not allow Sidhu to win the state Assembly elections at any cost. The former CM's role will be crucial keeping in view the current political equations in the poll-bound state.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a fresh status report about alleged construction of a housing project within the prohibited area of two wildlife sanctuaries in Haryana.

The tribunal was hearing a petition on Monday seeking execution of its earlier order dated March 25, 2021 in connection with the Bir Shikargarh and Khol Hi-Raitan wildlife sanctuaries in Panchkula district in Haryana. The tribunal directed the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the Chief Wildlife Warden of Haryana to look into the matter and take action as necessary.

The development came after the applicant, during the hearing on Monday, told the Tribunal that a joint committee, which was tasked to look into the matter and take necessary action, had failed.

"We consider it appropriate to require the SEIAA, Haryana and the Chief Wildlife Warden, Haryana to file a status report in the matter by email before the Tribunal," NGT principal bench headed by its Chairman Adarsh Kumar Goel said.

Earlier in August this year, the wildlife and the forest department had issued notice to Panchkula Municipal Corporation for turning 12 acres of forest land into a municipal waste dumping zone at Khol Hi-Raitan Wildlife Sanctuary.

The notice was issued on the NGT's direction as the residents of nearby areas had alleged that the civic body had converted the forest land into a dumping ground, posing a severe threat to wildlife and people living in the vicinity.

Both the Wildlife Sanctuaries -- Khol Hi-Raitan and Bir Shikargah are spread over three kilometres aerial distance from each other and these are located only a few kms away from Kalesar National Park, all of which are located in the Shivalik hills of Haryana.
London, Sep 29 : Fresh tensions erupted between Britain and France over post-Brexit fishing rights after the UK granted just 12 licences from 47 bids for smaller vessels to fish in its territorial waters.

French Sea Minister Annick Girardin reportedly said: "French fishing must not be taken hostage by the British for political ends." "It is a new refusal of the British to apply the conditions of the Brexit accord despite all the work undertaken together," a French newspaper quoted Girardin as saying.

"I have only one watchword; to obtain definitive licences for our fishermen as the accord foresees." The UK said it would consider further evidence to support remaining bids, the BBC reported.

Fishing was one of the most contentious issues in the post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and the EU, and it continues to be a source of tension.

Both sides have substantial bargaining chips: many European boats have traditionally relied on fishing in British waters, while many British companies rely on selling their catch in European markets.
Islamabad/New Delhi, Sep 29 : Chairman of Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on Planning Salim Mandviwala recently said the Chinese Ambassador and companies had complained about the slow pace of work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. "They are crying. Chinese Ambassador has complained to me that you (Pakistan) have destroyed the CPEC and no work was done in the past three years," he disclosed.

Chinese are very angry with the present dispensation of Pakistan led by Imran Khan. Out of 77 CPEC projects in the country, just 15 could be completed since it was started in 2015, according to media reports. Even Pakistan's Planning and Development Minister Asad Omar accepted the fact that Pakistan could complete the only first phase of the CPEC and is entering into the second phase.

In a hurriedly-called press conference recently to dispel the impression of slowing down CPEC, the Minister claimed the major work on the corridor projects had been completed during the tenure of the current PTI government. However, Umar observed that security threats had increased in the country because of opposition by international powers to the CPEC and the latest situation in Afghanistan.

"Security threat is elevated," he said adding that no doubt development on the CPEC was looked upon with aversion by big global powers who wanted to sow dissension in the country. The challenges are also there because of the uncertain Afghan situation.

"So there are not only security challenges, but these are at an elevated level," he quipped.

The CPEC is a part of China's most ambitious project Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at renewing the country's historic trade routes in the coastal countries of southeast Asia. In 2015, China announced the 'China Pakistan Economic Corridor' (CPEC) project which is worth over $60 billion. With the CPEC, Beijing aims to expand its influence in Pakistan and across Central and South Asia to counter the influence of the US and India.

The CPEC would link Pakistan's southern Gwadar port (626 kilometres west of Karachi) in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China's western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail, and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East. The CPEC is part of the BRI initiative has been introduced as a geo-strategy of China to get control on the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), expand access to the Middle East and Central Asian Region, and most particularly to encircle India and its energy supplies.

However, the issues of corruption, security costs and debt-related stress of Pakistan have increasingly affected the Chinese stance and made it reluctant from investing in the CPEC which has affected the all-weather friendship of China-Pakistan.

On July 14, nine Chinese workers were killed in Dasu, in northern Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The blast took place on a bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani workers to the site of a hydroelectric dam being built by China as part of the CPEC. Work on the project has been suspended since the blast, and Islamabad has been at great pains to reassure Beijing of the safety and security of its projects in Pakistan.

Moreover, many Chinese nationals working for CPEC projects across Pakistan have been attacked recently.

The growing mistrust between China and Pakistan over the implementation of projects make these flagship initiatives into the doldrums as China is reluctant from investing in the second phase of the CPEC construction projects. There are multiple reasons for the eroding Chinese investment such as the increasing debt burden of Pakistan, corruption of the CPEC authority and Chinese companies residing in Pakistan, attempts to expand military control in the Pakistan government over the CPEC projects, and finally, the worsening security scenario in the country where the Chinese projects are being targeted by the elements opposed to Chinese investment in the country.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Delhi government launched the Deshbhakti Curriculum from nursery to class 12 - across all public schools in the national capital on September 28 - the 114th birth anniversary of young freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. The main aim of this educational programme is to inculcate the feeling of patriotism in students from young age and make them feel proud of their nation, people and culture. Post the 'Happiness Curriculum' and 'Entrepreneur Mindset Curriculum', this is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government's third such experiment.

As per Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia, this curriculum will bring in a "sense of belongingness" amongst students - the future of India.

So, what is this curriculum all about? Aim of Deshbhakti Curriculum:

*To inculcate the feeling of love, respect and pride for the country in the mind of every child.

*To make every child aware of his responsibility and duty towards the country.

*To ensure that they should not only become sensitive to the various problems of the country but also take a pledge to solve them.

*To develop children's sense of belonging towards the country.

*To develop a sense of sacrifice and respect for those who give up in every child *To help them realise that patriotism should not be reserved for some special occasions like Independence Day and Republic Day.

*To help children realise that even our small actions help our nation grow.

Constituents of Deshbhakti Curriculum: *Deshbhakti Dhyaan: In the beginning of the class of patriotism, children will practice mindfulness for 5 minutes and focus their attention on the country. They will take a pledge that they will respect their country and will express their gratitude by remembering five patriots daily.

*Deshbhakti Diary: Children will maintain a reflective journal to pen down their personal thoughts and feelings along with their learnings, reflections and experiences related to the activities, discussion and homework under this curriculum.

*Classroom Discussion: Teachers will facilitate a group and individual discussion on the daily topics in their 40-minute class. The children will be encouraged to speak their minds and listen to others. This activity will help children learn to express themselves and that others may have a different opinion.

*Homework: Main questions based on class discussion will be given to children. They will be required to talk to three adults, one from a family and two others outside of family (relatives or friends) and note down their viewpoint.

*Group Discussion and Reflection: Group discussions based on the homework will be carried out on a daily basis for reflection.

*Class Activity: Children will be required to express their understanding of a subject discussed in the class via speaking, writing or any other creative medium. This will help them develop their understanding.

Subject matter for Class 6-8: *Understanding whether a child loves his/her country

*What does it mean to love one's nation

*To make children understand what does a nation mean to them and what does it mean to love one's country

*To be able to express their love and respect for the country in their own wordsSubject matter for Class 9-12:

*Understanding the concept of a nation

*Meaning of loving and respecting one's country

*Ability to express the difference between loving and respecting one's nation

*Ability to tell which of their acts show respect to their country Do's and Don'ts for teachers:

*Read the chapters carefully before teaching and understand its objectives

*Jot down the main questions on the board and ask students to answer them

*Give them time to think about the questions

*If students are unable to answer, then use prompts to guide them in the right direction

*Encourage every child to participate in the discussion, accept every child's answer without any discrimination

*Don't label children's answers 'right' or 'wrong'

*Don't answer children's questions, allow them to develop their understanding

*Listen to the children attentively and appreciate their efforts

*Provide a proper space for children to share their thoughts

*On sensitive topics, don't give your opinions. Let children reach their own conclusion *Encourage children to share their homework in the classroom. If someone is lagging behind, give that student some extra timeEvaluation: No formal examination or grading system has been made mandatory in the programme. Instead, a 360-degree evaluation on the basis of self-assessment, peer assessment and assessment by the teachers will be done. The curriculum will emphasise observing and assessing development of values, behaviour and actions.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The steam engine shot out of the tunnel, snorting, and puffing like a green, black, and gold dragon, a beautiful monster out of Ranji's dreams.

Fascinated by the midday train, Ranji would find himself waiting near the tunnel to catch a glimpse of the engine come roaring out of it. But the tunnel has more surprises for him. From a jungle full of lush green trees, comes a timeless tale of unexpected friendship, curiosity, duty, and wildlife.

Peppered with delightful illustrations and woven as a heart-warming story, Ruskin Bond, in "The Tunnel" (Penguin) is a charming chapter book intended for intermediate readers aged seven upwards -- a perfect introduction for beginners to the world of India's favourite writer for children.

Written in Ruskin's inimitable charm, this chapter book has a unique cast of characters and is a timeless story brought to life through a simple and endearing narration and gorgeous illustrations highlighting the nail-biting scenes making readers fall in love with nature and wildlife.

Born in Kasauli in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. His first novel, "The Room on the Roof", which was written when he was 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then, he has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas (including "Vagrants in the Valley" and "A Flight of Pigeons") and more than 40 books for children.

He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999, and the Delhi government's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his extended family.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit the famous Kedarnath temple in poll-bound Uttarakhand on October 7 this year, which also marks the completion of 20 years of his political career while holding a constitutional post.

The social and political career of Prime Minister Modi began early in the 70s, but he held a constitutional post for the first time only on October 7, 2001 when he became the Gujarat Chief Minister.

By winning three consecutive state elections till 2014, Modi continued to be Gujarat's Chief Minister and after winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, he became the country's Prime Minister. Winning the Lok Sabha elections for the second time in 2019, he became the Prime Minister for a second term.

On October 7, 2021, Modi is set to complete 20 years of holding a constitutional post (first as the Gujarat Chief Minister followed by Prime Minister of the country). On this occasion, he will visit the Kedarnath temple and seek the blessings of Lord Kedarnath.

Speaking to IANS, a BJP leader said Modi is a devotee of Lord Kedarnath and therefore he is going to seek his blessings on this important occasion.

Responding to whether PM Modi's visit will pay the BJP electoral dividends in the poll-bound state, the BJP leader said, "Prime Minister Modi is undoubtedly the most popular leader in the country and also the party's star campaigner. The people of Uttarakhand like him very much." Modi will also launch and inaugurate several development schemes for the people of the state.

The Prime Minister will inaugurate an oxygen plant at the AIIMS Hospital in Rishikesh as well as a terminal at the Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun. Modi will also be addressing a public rally in Rishikesh.

The Assembly elections are going to be held in Uttarakhand in early 2022. Breaking the electoral trend of electing alternate governments in the state after every 5 years, the BJP wants to form the government for the second time in a row by winning 2022 Assembly polls. In view of the 2022 polls, Modi's visit is extremely significant.

The BJP is continuously organizing several programmes at the party and the state government level. Recently, a National Executive meeting of BJP Mahila Morcha (women wing) was also held in Uttarakhand. BJP National President JP Nadda on Wednesday had virtually addressed the meeting of the state's central in-charges.

Apart from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, many other BJP ministers are also scheduled to visit Uttarakhand in October.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Centre on Wednesday approved capital infusion of Rs 4,400 crore to the ECGC, formerly known as the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, over a period of five years.

The investments will be made from FY2021-2022 to FY2025-2026.

Besides, the approved infusion, along with the company's listing process through the Initial Public Offering (IPO), is expected to increase the underwriting capacity of the ECGC to support more exports.

"ECGC plays a wider role in supporting exports from labour-intensive sectors and encourage bank lending to enterprises of small exporters, thereby leading to their revival. Capital infusion in the ECGC will enable it to expand its coverage to export- oriented industry, particularly labour-intensive sectors," an official communique said on Wednesday.

"The approved amount will be infused in instalments thereby increasing the capacity to underwrite risks up to Rs 88,000 crore and this will enable the ECGC to issue covers that can support additional exports of Rs 5.28 lakh crore over the five-year period in line with the existing pattern." According to report "Exports to Jobs" by the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation, Rs 5.28 lakh crore exports will lead to formalisation of 2.6 lakh workers.

Further, the total number of workers both formal and informal will increase by 59 lakh, as per the report.
Panaji, Sep 29 : If Kolkata-based Trinamool Congress can contest elections in Goa, why shouldn't the Shiv Sena which is based in neighbouring Maharashtra, the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said here on Wednesday.

Raut also said that the Sena will contest 22 out of the 40 seats which make up the state legislative assembly.

"Shiv Sena will contest 22 seats. We will give it all. We do not want an alliance. Our organisation is strong enough. If Trinamool Congress from Kolkata can contest in Goa, then Maharashtra is right alongside. You have seen how well we have performed in Maharashtra," Raut told reporters at Goa's Dabolim international airport.

Raut also said that if elected to power the Shiv Sena will replicate the Maharashtra governance model in Goa.

"The kind of work carried out by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, we will work in the same way in Goa. Shiv Sena and Goa share an emotional bond," Raut said.

The Shiv Sena leader also said that the party had received no proposal for an alliance from any political outfit in the state, but added that he was scheduled to meet president of the Goa Forward party Vijai Sardesai and former state Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Subhash Velingkar during his visit to Goa.

"Vijai Sardesai, Velingkar is meeting me now. Old and new workers and leaders are meeting me," Raut said.

Despite contesting several state assembly elections in the state, the Shiv Sena is yet to win a single seat in state assembly elections in Goa. Goa goes to polls in early 2022.
Hyderabad, Sep 29 : A woman was allegedly gangraped by four unidentified men at a private hospital in Telangana's Nizamabad town late on Tuesday, police said.

The culprits forced the woman to consume liquor before committing the rape. The incident occurred in a room in the hospital near the bus station.

The accused escaped after committing the crime. After coming to know about the incident, the security guard at the hospital alerted police.

Police were trying to identify them by scanning CCTV footage from cameras installed near the bus station.

A police officer said they could not gather more details about the incident as the victim was still in an unconscious state.

The victim was shifted to government-run district hospital for treatment. A case was registered at One Town Police Station.

It was immediately not clear if the woman is an employee of the hospital and how the accused brought her into the room.
Panaji, Sep 29 : Tourists who ride two wheelers and cars on Goa's beaches will be booked, Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said on Wednesday, after a video of tourists riding scooters on a public beach went viral on social media.

"Those who drive vehicles on the beaches will be punished. The police should file a case," Ajgaonkar told reporters at the state Secretariat.

Earlier on Wednesday, a video showing a group of tourists riding several scooters through the sea water along an unidentified beach in Goa went viral.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has also warned of action against such misdemeanours by tourists.

"They should follow the law of the land. Again and again we have requested tourists (against such misdemeanours). If they do not listen we will have to take strict action," Sawant said.

Earlier this month, a 25-year-old tourist was arrested and later released on bail after he tried to drive his rented car along Morjim beach, before the car got stuck in the wet sand.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi and wondered who in the party is taking decisions. He said that the party leaders' demand of organisational elections has not been met even a year after the letter was written by G-23.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sibal said, "There is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don't know, one of my senior colleagues perhaps has written or is about to write to the interim president to immediately convene a CWC meeting so that a dialogue can be initiated." He appealed to those leaders who quit Congress to come back to the fold and said, "its ironic to say that we are going to leave the party. Those who were considered close to the top leadership have left the party and those who were not considered close are still standing with the party. We are G-23 and not Ji-huzoor 23." Taking cue from the Punjab crisis, Sibal said that the border state where this is happening is an advantage to the ISI and Pakistan as everybody knows the history of Punjab and the rise of extremism in the state. Congress should ensure that they remain united to safeguard the interests of the state, he added.

Sibal said that he is speaking on behalf of those Congress members who wrote the letter in August 2020 and are waiting for the action to be taken by the leadership in respect of the election of the office of the president, to CWC and central election committee.

In August last year, a group of 23 leaders wrote to Sonia Gandhi demanding elections in the party and for visible and effective leadership. The Congress has said that party will move forward but it has not conducted elections.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Sep 29 : After the CBI's preliminary report indicted six leading firecracker units for violating the top court's order on use of barium and its salts, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued show cause notice to manufacturers, and sought an explanation why contempt proceedings should be not initiated against them, and why their licenses not be cancelled.

A bench comprising Justices M.R. Shah and A.S. Bopanna noted the CBI's report on use of toxic chemicals in manufacturing of firecrackers is very serious and there is also "prima facie" violation of the court's orders on use of barium and labelling of fireworks.

"Why cannot these companies be punished and why their licenses cannot be cancelled? They have purchased banned substance from market to manufacture crackers," the bench said, emphasising that the report has been received from government labs, therefore it is reliable.

The bench also noted that the CBI's preliminary enquiry report has come out with a finding that banned harmful chemicals have been used by manufacturers in several crackers. The report claimed that firecracker manufacturers were also not disclosing the correct ingredients on the labels of the product.

Pointing at the air pollution caused by bursting of firecrackers, the top court observed that it has to take balanced view looking at the country, as every day, there is a celebration. It further added that the court cannot allow people to suffer and die due to air pollution.

"Only those suffering from asthma can feel this.. We have to take a balanced view looking at the country because every day there is a celebration..but we have to see other factors also and we cannot allow them to suffer and die," it said.

The bench observed, if it were to issue orders for only green crackers, it may end up flouted, and the manufacturers may continue to use banned chemicals.

The top court allowed the firecracker manufacturers to peruse the CBI report and file a counter on it, and scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 6.

When counsel representing a firecracker manufacturer asked the court to hear her client, the bench remarked: "Yes, we will hear you, before sending you to jail." Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

The report of the Joint Director, CBI, Chennai on Standard Fireworks said: "Chemical analysis revealed that 11 finished firecrackers and one sample of raw material contained barium salt, out of which four finished firecrackers which tested positive for barium were manufactured in the year 2020, i.e. after the ban on barium salt was imposed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India vide its order dated October 23, 2018. Remaining seven samples of finished fire crackers were collected in loose form, hence the date of manufacturing and the details of the chemical composition were not known."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
September 29 : Ever since the Maharashtra government has announced reopening of theatres in the state from October 22, producers are in a rush to announce release dates of their films. Some producers are even changing their already announced release dates. Makers are also blocking dates for their film releases for next year.

A day after Tiger Shroff announced that his upcoming film Heropanti 2 will hit the cinemas on May 6, 2022, the actor took to social media once again to share that the release date of the film has been preponed by a few days. Heropanti 2 will now arrive in theatres on April 29, 2022.

Image Source: Instagram/thejohnabraham John Abraham and Arjun Kapoor starrer Ek Villain Returns to release on July 8, 2022

Makers of Ek Villain Returns also took on social media today and announced that their film will be released in theatres only on July 8, 2022. Directed by Mohit Suri, the film stars John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani, Tara Sutaria among others. John Abraham took to his Instagram handle and made the announcement. "Iss baar eidi villain dega! Tareek aap yaad rakhna - 8th July 2022. #EkVillainReturns on EID 2022," he wrote along with a new poster. Ek Villain Returns was slated to release on February 11 next year.

Earlier, Aditya Roy Kapoor was a part of the film, but due to creative differences with Mohit Suri, Aditya quit the film and was replaced by Arjun Kapoor. The film is jointly produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and T-Series.

Ek Villain Returns is the sequel to the 2014 film that starred Shraddha Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, and Riteish Deshmukh. While Ek Villain was about a conflict between hero and a villain, Ek Villain Returns is about two villains. Both Arjun and John are playing negative characters. The film had gone on floors earlier this year. The first schedule was shot across multiple locations in Mumbai, while the second schedule was filmed in Goa. The makers wrapped the second schedule last month.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Delhi Police on Wednesday said they have arrested four people on the charges of burgling several houses in the national capital.

According to the police, they received a complaint of burglary on September 18. According to the complainant, her house was burgled in her absence.

After registering her complaint, the police immediately constituted a team of six policemen and started analyzing footage of the CCTVs installed close to the place of incidence.

Through CCTV footage, the team noticed four boys, identified as -- Nitin, resident of Ambedkar Colony, Chhatarpur Pahari, Anoop, Irfan and Ashu, all three residents of Kapashera Gaon, who were seen roaming recklessly carrying a polybag.

When the footage was shown to the complainant, she identified the bag that was stolen from her house. On analyzing other cameras installed on Ravidas Marg, it came to notice that the alleged persons took an auto whose registration number was identified.

"Through its handy sources, the team found itself able to know the key facts that the accused persons used to live in Mehrauli but now, they are residing somewhere in Ambedkar Colony at Andheria Mor," the police said.

The police team introduced themselves as counterparts of MCD and checked the suspected houses in the densely populated colony and finally one accused person Nitin was apprehended. He revealed the identity of three others and they were also arrested from their residences.

On sustained interrogation, all the accused disclosed that they were addicted to alcohol and smoking and used to target unmanned accommodations to steal valuable articles. Further, accused Ashu, Irfan and Anoop disclosed that they came in contact with Nitin who was already involved in other offences.

The police have recovered two bangles made of gold, one gold chain, four pairs of silver anklets, and four pairs of silver toe rings from their possession.

Of the four accused, Nitin and Anoop had prior records of burglary and theft. The police have registered a case and further probe is on.
New Delhi/Chennai, Sep 29 : The Centre on Wednesday approved capital infusion of Rs 4,400 crore to the ECGC, formerly known as the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, over a period of five years.

The investments will be made from FY2021-2022 to FY2025-2026.

Besides, the approved infusion, along with the company's listing process through the Initial Public Offering (IPO), is expected to increase the underwriting capacity of the ECGC to support more exports.

"Currently the maximum liability that the company can underwrite will be about Rs 1.1 lakh crore. With the additional capital of Rs 4,400 crore, the maximum liability that can be underwritten will be about Rs 2 lakh crore. The company's net worth is Rs 5,600 crore," Chairman-cum-Managing Director M.Senthilnathan had told IANS earlier.

According to him, the company's current equity base is Rs 3,450 crore and the solvency ratio will be about 10-11 times against the prescribed level of 1.5 times.

The ECGC promotes exports by providing credit insurance services. Its products support around 30 per cent of India's merchandise exports.

"ECGC plays a wider role in supporting exports from labour-intensive sectors and encourage bank lending to enterprises of small exporters, thereby leading to their revival. Capital infusion in the ECGC will enable it to expand its coverage to export- oriented industry, particularly labour-intensive sectors," an official communique said on Wednesday.

"The approved amount will be infused in instalments, thereby increasing the capacity to underwrite risks up to Rs 88,000 crore and this will enable the ECGC to issue covers that can support additional exports of Rs 5.28 lakh crore over the five-year period in line with the existing pattern." According to report "Exports to Jobs" by the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation, Rs 5.28 lakh crore exports will lead to formalisation of 2.6 lakh workers.

Further, the total number of workers both formal and informal will increase by 59 lakh, as per the report.

About the business, Senthilnathan had said the Covid-19 pandemic has affected exports and in turn, the company's business.

For FY21, the company had earned a premium of Rs 1,062 crore and the claims outgo was about Rs 900 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.

The premium income for FY20 was Rs 1,075 crore and the claims was about Rs 400 crore.

"The market is recovering. We hope to log positive growth. While there is export growth, there is no growth in export credit by the banks. Two thirds of our business is derived from export credit by the banks and the balance from the exporters," Senthilnathan said.

Targeting a premium income of Rs 1,200 crore this year, Senthilnathan said the investment income will be similar to last fiscal's figure of about Rs 850 crore.
London, Sep 29 : More than 2,000 young leaders and youth-led organisations from across the Commonwealth are urging governments to respect the needs and contributions of the world's most vulnerable groups in the lead up to the global climate talks in Glasgow in November.

The Commonwealth Youth Statement on Climate Change, released on Wednesday, appeals to governments to include youth, women, the elderly and people with disabilities in decision making on climate change-related policies.

Noting that 1.5 billion people in the Commonwealth are under the age of 30, young people called on the leaders to ensure additional, predictable finance for youth-led climate action, as well as adequate social protections for vulnerable groups to cope with the climate crisis.

"We demand an end to climate inaction. Our generation will have to deal with more frequent and severe climate impacts than ever, making us one of the groups most vulnerable to its impacts," said the statement.

Seven key recommendations have been put forward to feed into global discussions at the Youth4Climate Summit this week in Milan.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland welcomed the proposals, saying: "Young people are the true heroes in the fight against climate change. They have demonstrated a tremendous capacity to grasp the reality of the climate crisis and mobilise crucial support for climate action across groups, sectors and nations.

"Without the contributions and innovations of young people from all Commonwealth regions, the world would not have achieved the progress it has today on climate action. We need them at the table so that their voices can be heard as discussions continue on the development of effective climate policies and strategies." Pan-Commonwealth coordinator of the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network (CYCN), Leneka Rhoden said: "Never in history have young people been empowered with the social and technological tools to effect change, as we are today. We are equipped with the platform to launch projects that can help in securing our environment, our people, and our future." Commonwealth youth also propose capacity-building programmes to enhance youth-led 'green' and 'blue' enterprises, focusing on climate and ocean action, particularly in post-pandemic recovery efforts.

Highlighting the economic opportunities the 'blue economy' and renewable energy sector can offer local communities and youth, the statement calls for further commitments to ocean protection and an inclusive and equitable transition to clean energy.
San Francisco, Sep 29 : Facebook has announced a new segment of subsea cable called 2Africa Pearls, which connects three continents - Africa, Europe, and Asia. This extension will bring the total length of the 2Africa cable system to more than 45,000 km, making it the longest subsea cable system ever deployed.

The 2Africa initiative's goal, as its name suggests, is to provide internet connectivity to people in Africa, which is currently the world's least connected continent.

The 2Africa subsea cable system will provide nearly three times the total network capacity of all the subsea cables serving Africa today. With 2Africa, the social media giant had planned to increase connectivity to 1.2 billion people.

"We continue to invest in subsea cables in Africa and beyond as communities and businesses flourish when there is widely-accessible internet. Facebook is continuing to build innovative solutions such as these critical fiber optic superhighways so that everyone can benefit from the economic, educational, and social advantages of a digitally connected world," the company said in a statement.

With the addition of Pearls, the system will provide connectivity to an additional 1.8 billion people, totaling 3 billion people, or about 36 percent of the global population.

The 2Africa Pearls branch adds several new landing locations in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia. In its entirety, 2Africa will significantly increase connectivity within Africa and better connect Africa to the rest of the world, as it will ultimately interconnect 33 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
Chennai, Sep 29 : A special court on Wednesday sentenced former Tamil Nadu Minister, R. Indira Kumari, and her husband Babu to five years jail after convicting them for misappropriation of funds.

The special court for MP/MLA cases judge Alicia also sentenced former bureaucrat, Shanmugham, to three years in jail while Indra Kumari's personal assistant, Venkatakrishnan was let off with a fine of Rs 10,000.

Charges against another bureaucrat Kirubhakaran were dropped as he had passed away during the trial.

The prosecution contended that there was misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs 15.45 lakh to a trust run by the minister's husband Babu for establishing a school for the hearing and visually impaired, as the funds were never used for establishing the school and were, instead, siphoned off.

Indira Kumari was Social Welfare and Justice Minister in the cabinet of J. Jayalalithaa from 1991-1996 but later on, switched sides to the DMK.

On hearing the verdict, she complained of breathlessness and was rushed to a private hospital from where she was taken to the Royapettah Government Hospital.
Mumbai, Sep 29 : Veteran actor Raza Murad is now all set to appear in a web show. The 70-year-old actor has been recently shooting for his web series named 'Swaad' which is a series of emotional short stories and will be releasing soon on an OTT platform.

He will be playing a grandfather who loves his granddaughter unconditionally.

While sharing his experience for shooting the web series 'Swaad', he said that: "It's been a long time since I played something emotional on screen and that is why I was very fond of playing this particular role. I am playing the character of an old man who has always loved his granddaughter more than anyone in his life." The story that revolves around a grandfather and his granddaughter is all about how the old man feels when his loving grandchild was set apart for her work. The character that Raza Murad is playing is a bit different from what he played in his earlier films. His co-actor Aneri Vajani has played the role of his granddaughter.

'Swaad' is a compilation of short stories that revolve around different aspects of life. Four different stories are explaining four different bonds. Each story has its own kind of narrative. It was produced under Treasure Tales Media and Chilsag Movies in Mumbai.
Kolkata, Sep 29 : As expected the two-time Chief Minister of Goa and former Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro joined Trinamool Congress on Wednesday in Kolkata. Ten other Congress leaders also joined Trinamool along with Faleiro.

Flanked by Trinamool Congress All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, State Minister of Panchayat Subrata Mukherjee and the party MP Sougata Roy, Faleiro took the flag of the party from Banerjee and said that his primary job is to fight the divisive policies, vengeance and the culture of intolerance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Addressing a press conference, Faleiro said, "I would like to quote the last testament of Mahatma Gandhi -- the Father of the Nation. Just three days before his heinous assassination he had said -- 'Congress which is the oldest national political organisation and which have fought many battles in a non-violent way cannot be allowed to die. It can only die with the nation. A living organism ever grows or dies'." Expressing his profound happiness to join Congress, the seven-time MLA of Goa said, "My resignation is the beginning of the unification of the congress family. I have started my journey from the west coast and have reached the east. I am a Congressman and I have lived with that for the last 40 years. I have the same ideology, principles and programs that Congress has. When I am joining Trinamool Congress it is to fulfill my dream to bring the congress family together".

"Today Congress family is fragmented. There is YSR Congress, Sharad Congress and Indira Congress. My dream is to bring the Congress family together," he added.

"I will strive to consolidate Congress but before that my main mission is to fight the divisive policies, vengeance and the culture of intolerance of the BJP," he said.

"Like the country Goa is also suffering because of the BJP. There is economic meltdown, administrative collapse and sharp unemployment. In Goa, 65 per cent of the population is living below the poverty line. The BJP has taken our country 45 years back," the former veteran Congress leader said.

Before addressing the chief minister, Faleiro met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat in Nabanna. After meeting with Banerjee, Faleiro tweeted, "Meeting the Hon Chief Minister of Bengal, Smt @MamataOfficial with my compatriots. We pledge to protect the people of Goa against divisive and fascist forces. The fight for a new dawn in Goa begins today".
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the launching of a new meal scheme -- 'Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman' scheme -- for government and government-aided schools for the next five years.

Addressing the media, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the new scheme has a financial outlay of Rs 1.31 lakh crore in the next five years and the existing 'Mid Day Meal' scheme will be included in this scheme.

The meal facility will be extended to government-aided schools and the pre-nursery schools will also be included in the PM-Poshan scheme for classes 1 to 8, Thakur added.

"This will benefit crores of students from poor families studying in 11.2 lakh schools across the country. This will improve the attendance in government schools and will also reduce the gap in education inequality in the society along with nutritious food to children," the Union Minister added.

The concept of 'Tithi Bhojan' will be encouraged extensively. 'Tithi Bhojan' is a community participation programme in which people provide food to children on special occasions/festivals.

The social audit of the scheme has been made mandatory in all districts while special provision has been made for providing supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with high prevalence of anaemia.

The national scheme for PM-POSHAN in schools for the five-year period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 is with a financial outlay of Rs 54061.73 crore from the Central government and Rs 31,733.17 crore from state governments and Union Territory administrations.

The Union government will bear an additional cost of nearly Rs 45,000 crore on food grains amounting to a total outlay of Rs 1,30,794.90 crore. According to the officials, during 2020-21, the Centre invested more than Rs 24,400 crore in the scheme, including nearly Rs 11,500 crore on foodgrains.

Under the new scheme, the involvement of farmers' producer organisations (FPOs) and women self-help groups in its implementation will be encouraged. Use of locally grown traditional food items for boosting the local economic growth will be encouraged as well.
Mumbai, Sep 29 : The first-ever MitraClip heart surgeries in western India on two senior citizens were performed at the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital (SHNRFH), with the duo going home in 48 hours, officials said here on Wednesday.

The novel procedures were carried out by a team of cardiologists comprising Maulik Parekh, Nihar Mehta, S.R. Handa, Harvesp Panthaky and Kritika Sharma, said Tarang Gianchandani, CEO, Reliance Foundation Hospital.

The two male patients are Sudhir Mehta (78), who was suffering from heart failure plus chest infection, and Ramesh Radia, 80, with swelling of legs, palpitation with erratic heartbeats and breathlessness.

MitraClip is a highly specialised and sophisticated treatment to repair a leaking mitral valve without the need for an open-heart surgery by 'clipping' of the two leaflets of the valve at the spot from where it leaks.

Leakages occur in the mitral valve for a variety of reasons like heart blockages, dilatation of the heart chambers, valve leaflet prolapse etc., and MitraClip is possible for most such cases with encouraging results, the hospital said.

Widely used in the advanced countries, the treatment is now available at the SHNRFH with benefits like reduction in valve regurgitation, decreased changes of breathlessness and hospitalisation, favourable reduction in heart size, avoidance of a risky open-heart surgery and improved life quality.

While Mehta, diagnosed with severe leakage of mitral valve, was operated on August 23, Radia was found to have mitral valve prolapse with severe regurgitation and was operated on August 24.

Both patients were up and about soon after the surgeries and were discharged from the hospital within two days.

Parekh said that MitraClip would benefit scores of elderly patients suffering from severe mitral regurgitations.

Mehta said the patients suffering from mitral valve leaks who require repeated hospitalisation with breathlessness can now be treated without the risks involved in open-heart surgery.

The SHNRFH is a 345-bed multispecialty, technologically advanced tertiary care hospital accredited by the Joint Commission International and NABH.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : A day before polling for bypoll in Bhabanipur assembly, the BJP has alleged that the attack on party national vice president Dilip Ghosh was orchestrated by the ruling Trinamool Congress to create an atmosphere of fear among voters.

BJP West Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar told IANS that violence was staged to intimidate voters ahead of polling.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost to leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, is contesting against BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal. Polling for Bhabanipur assembly will be held on September 30 and counting of votes will take place on October 3.

Majumdar claimed that the attack on Ghosh was pre planned with intention to kill him. "Opposition has been suppressed in Bhabanipur and there was conspiracy to kill Dilip da. It was only to create an atmosphere of fear," he said.

Majumdar, newly appointed BJP West Bengal chief, demanded that the Election Commission (EC) should take strict measures to enforce law and order in the constituency.

Majumdar, however, doubted that free and fair elections would be held in Bhabanipur. "There is little chance of fear and fair polls the way TMC has created an atmosphere of fear by violent attack on our leader in the constituency. Voters especially belonging to the business community felt threatened and that was the plan of the ruling party," he said.

BJP West Bengal chief claims that all acts of violence by TMC was done to ensure low turnout on polling day so that the ruling party rigged the process in its favour.

"They created the atmosphere of fear so that people would not come out to vote and in case of low turnout they can easily send someone else behind a mask following Covid protocol to vote for the chief minister," he said.

In the wake of violence in Bhabanipur, a BJP delegation on Tuesday met Election Commission of India and demanded deployment of micro-observers and 40 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to ensure free and peaceful elections.
Panaji, Sep 29 : Four persons from Rajasthan have been arrested in Goa for running an Indian Premier League (IPL) betting racket from a guesthouse located in the popular beach village of Candolim, the police said on Wednesday.

"Upon conducting a raid at the D'Souza Guest House in Calangute, four persons from Jaipur were found operating an IPL betting racket using apps and software on their computer devices," a spokesperson for the Crime Branch of the Goa Police said.

"They had set up a base in Goa in order to avoid detection in Rajasthan. It was revealed that they had taken bets worth over Rs 4 lakh in one game. Their computer devices were seized and all four were arrested," the official said.

On September 24, six persons were arrested by the Goa Police for accepting bets linked to the ongoing IPL matches.
Chennai, Sep 29 : Tamil Nadu will conduct its fourth mega Covid-19 vaccination camp on October 10, after three successful previous efforts on September 12, September 19, and September 26, it was announced on Wednesday.

State Health Minister, Ma Subramanian, in a statement, said that the mega vaccine camp will have a target of 15 lakh inoculations. The previous camps had, however, seen administrations of far more vaccines than the target.

In the first camp of September 12, the state Health Department arranged 40,000 centres to administer vaccine and according to the report, 28,91,021 persons benefitted, as against the target of 20 lakh beneficiaries, with the department not expecting such a huge turnout.

The second camp, held on September 19, had set a target of 15 lakh beneficiaries while the total turnout reached 16,43,879 - well over a lakh more than expected.

In the third camp held on September 26, the target was 15 lakh but the turnout was even larger at 24, 85,814 people, an increase of 9,85,814 beneficiaries.

"The heavy rush at the vaccination centres is due to the proper awareness campaigns conducted by the state Public Health Department. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has taken the initiative for a massive drive to vaccinate people in the state and the success of such a drive is for everyone to see," Subramanian told IANS.

He also expressed confidence that the fourth vaccination camp would also be a massive success and the government is expecting to inoculate the entire eligible population of the state with at least one dose of the vaccine by the end of December 2021.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) is among the recipients of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award for its grassroots approach of empowering vulnerable communities to protect their livelihoods and claim their right to a clean environment.

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award honours and supports courageous people solving global problems and come with a cash prize of 1 million SEK (around 100,000 EUR or 115,000 USD) and long-term support to highlight and expand Laureates' work, a release from Stockholm said on Wednesday.

Despite a robust environmental protection law framework, access to justice for those intending to protect India's remaining forests and biodiversity is often limited. LIFE was founded by lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary in 2005 to fill this gap.

Since then, LIFE has fought against some of India's most significant environmental threats, including helping local communities stop the construction of a large-scale bauxite mine in the eastern state of Odisha and halt a hydro-power project in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

With many more significant legal victories, LIFE has ensured the rights of vulnerable communities to a clean environment, protecting India's biodiversity and safeguarding people's livelihoods.

Right Livelihood's jury said that LIFE was receiving the Award "for their innovative legal work empowering communities to protect their resources in pursuit of environmental democracy in India." "We are extremely thrilled to receive the Right Livelihood Award," LIFE founder Ritwick Dutta said. "This is our first international prize, and it means a lot to us and to all the local groups across India that we are supporting. The Award will help us increase the impact of our work, empowering more people to protect nature and livelihoods." "Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment works for justice and the protection of nature in the name of communities all over India," said Executive Director at Right Livelihood, Ole von Uexkull.

"From dams to mines, LIFE's lawyers have fought both governmental and corporate interests that threaten peoples' survival and rights. They empower citizens' groups to claim their right to a clean environment, on which their livelihoods depend," von Uexkull added.

The other 2021 Right Livelihood Laureates are Cameroonian women's and girls' rights activist Marthe Wandou, the first person to receive the Award from Cameroon; Russian environmental activist Vladimir Slivyak, and Canadian indigenous rights defender Freda Huson.

The 2021 laureates would be honoured during a televised Award Presentation in Stockholm on December 1.
Kanpur, Sep 29 : As educational institutions reopen, the Kanpur Police Commissionerate has launched an initiative to prevent ragging in the institutes of the city.

The campaign titled 'Rag Nahi Swag - Milkar Karenge Ragging End' will run with the tag line #RagNahiSwag.

It may be recalled that an alleged ragging incident took place at the Harcourt Butler Technical University (HBTU) on Saturday. Sleuths of the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) had also visited the campus and collected inputs.

The Police Commissionerate, in view of the alleged ragging incident at HBTU, has also released posters with catchy slogans.

"Change your nature, become the elder brother and sister of juniors. On being ragged, dial 112 for police help," read one posters.

The police have also suggested the seniors to help the juniors in a way that they feel at home.

"Go around and show them the college, drink tea with juniors and indulge in healthy talks," said another such poster.

Police Commissioner Asim Kumar Arun said, "The tradition of ragging has to be completely abolished. Ragging often leads to intimidation, which is a crime. I am hopeful that from now onwards, no one will be ragged."
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi for early meet of the Congress Working Committee which is the highest decision making body of the party.

Azad in his letter pointed out the need for permanent president and to discuss party affairs in the present scenario and has reiterated his demand for organisational elections in the party.

Earlier on Wednesday, Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi and wondered who in the party is taking decisions. He said that the party leaders' demand of organisational elections has not been met even a year after the letter was written by G-23.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sibal said, "There is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don't know, one of my senior colleagues perhaps has written or is about to write to the interim president to immediately convene a CWC meeting so that a dialogue can be initiated." He appealed to those leaders who quit Congress to come back to the fold and said, "its ironic to say that we are going to leave the party. Those who were considered close to the top leadership have left the party and those who were not considered close are still standing with the party. We are G-23 and not Ji-huzoor 23." Sibal said that he is speaking on behalf of those Congress members who wrote the letter in August 2020 and are waiting for the action to be taken by the leadership in respect of the election of the office of the president, to CWC and central election committee.

In August last year, a group of 23 leaders wrote to Sonia Gandhi demanding elections in the party and for visible and effective leadership. The Congress has said that party will move forward but it has not conducted elections.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : To boost the exports sector, the Centre on Wednesday approved the continuation of the National Export Insurance Account scheme with infusion of Rs 1,650 crore grant-in-aid over 5 years.

Capital infusion in NEIA Trust will help tap the huge potential of project exports in focus market.

"Government has today approved... contribution of 'Grant-in-aid' (corpus) of Rs 1,650 crore to NEIA over a period of five years, i.e. from FY 2021-2022 to FY 2025-2026," an official comminuque said.

The NEIA Trust was established in 2006 to promote project exports from India that are of strategic and national importance. The trust promotes medium and long term (MLT) project exports.

"The capital infusion in NEIA Trust will help the 'Indian Project Exporters' (IPE) to tap the huge potential of project exports in focus market. Support to project exports with Indian content sourced from across the country will enhance the manufacturing in India." "Corpus contribution of Rs 1,650 crore will enhance the underwriting capacity of the Trust and will enable the NEIA to support project exports worth Rs 33,000 crore at full capacity utilisation that, in turn, will translate into an estimated output of domestically manufactured goods to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore approximately."
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Days after he was "humiliated" and asked to quit as the Punjab Chief Minister -- months before the Assembly polls -- veteran Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Wednesday called on Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah in Delhi on Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, IANS had first ran the story -- "'Upset' Amarinder likely to meet Shah, his office denies".

There was mounting speculation about Amarinder Singh's first visit to Delhi after he stepped down, with meetings with Shah and BJP chief J.P. Nadda indicated, amid speculation about his future plans.

However, Amarinder Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral had said that he is "on a personal visit to Delhi to meet some friends".

"Too much being read into @capt_amarinder's visit to Delhi. He's on a personal visit, during which he'll meet some friends and also vacate Kapurthala house for the new CM. No need for any unnecessary speculation," Thukral had said in a tweet.

On stepping down, Amarinder Singh had said that all options were open for the future.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Amid speculations, former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday evening called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The meeting is underway at Shah's official residence here.

Since Tuesday, there has been speculation going on about a likely meeting between the two leaders as IANS had reported. Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral, however, denied his meeting with Shah and BJP chief J.P. Nadda, saying he's on a personal visit to Delhi to meet some friends.

"Too much being read into @capt_amarinder's visit to Delhi. He's on a personal visit, during which he'll meet some friends and also vacate Kapurthala house for the new CM. No need for any unnecessary speculation," Thukral had said in a tweet.

Later in the evening, Singh also said that he is on personal visit. There is also speculation that former Punjab chief minister, who was recently asked to resign, may join the saffron party.

The BJP leaders, however, are tightlipped about Singh joining the party. A party leader said that any decision will be taken only by the central leadership and it will be appropriately communicated to everyone, if it happens.

Sources said that the main agenda of discussion is ongoing farmers' protest in Punjab and the political situation in the state.

"Singh can play an important role in placating the farmers, who are protesting against three farm laws for the last ten months, and also convince them to end the ongoing protest. Political situation in the state will also be discussed," sources said.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli, co-creator of the James Bond movie franchise, had the foresight to see that the 007 films, like the fine tastes of the super spy, were going to be too expensive to be sustained by box-office collections alone.

The Italian-American therefore launched the Bond tradition of product placements, aggressively continued till this day by his daughter Barbara, making brands such as Aston Martin, Omega, Dom Perignon, Beluga caviar and, yes, Smirnoff vodka a part of every cinema buff's vocabulary.

A vodka brand that originated in Tsarist Russia but has been made in America over the last eight decades, Smirnoff was a struggling spirit label in its adopted country - it was being marketed as "a white whiskey" - till the No. 21 made its first movie appearance in 'Dr No' in 1962.

And it shows up in the 25th Bond film, the Daniel Craig-starrer 'No Time to Die', strategically placed in a bar scene between the actor and 'Blade Runner 2049' star Ana de Armas, who plays the "badass" CIA agent, Paloma. Bond films, in fact, turned the idea of a martini - London dry gin plus dry vermouth - on its head by popularising the genre of vodka martini.

It is said that if the invention of the cocktail Moscow Mule gave Smirnoff its first big push in America, the association of James Bond with vodka martinis turned it into a global brand.

Ian Fleming's Bond would have balked at the idea, for he drank mainly the old English favourite, Gordon's gin, drove Bentleys and smoked Moreland cigarettes, and his firearm of choice was a Smith & Wesson. He did occasionally quaff a Russian or Polish grain vodka, but the only brand to ever find a mention in a Fleming novel - in 'Moonraker', his third - was the Wolfschmidt, which used to be distilled in Riga, Latvia, and patronised by the Tsars, and is now owned by the American liquor giant, Beam Inc.

In a scene that drinks enthusiasts love to recall from the novel 'Moonraker', set in Blades, the fictional gentleman's club patronised by the spymaster M on Park Street, "a quite backwater off St James's", Bond has a Wolfschmidt straight up with slices of raw salmon.

Bond doesn't have the drink without first stirring a little bit of pepper into it in deference to an old Russian practice - pepper was meant to soak up the impurities in the spirit in the days when it wasn't filtered multiple times as it is done today (10 times in the case of Smirnoff, as its makers would have us know).

Interestingly, the first cocktail to ever find a mention in an Ian Fleming James Bond novel - his first, 'Casino Royale' - is the Americano, a refreshing summer drink that combines a measure each of Campari and Cinzano served with a generous helping of ice and a slice of lemon.

In the 1953 novel, the Americano precedes the famous Vesper, named after the Russian agent Vesper Lynd, whose ingredients include three measures of Gordon's gin, one of vodka (no brand names mentioned), half a measure of Kina Lillet (a French aperitif, which in England of the 1950s was a much favoured addition to gin), shaken until ice cold and served in a deep champagne goblet with a large thin slice of lemon peel.

Sadly for Ian Fleming followers, the Vesper was overshadowed by the ubiquitous vodka martini, and although Finlandia ('Die Another Day', 2002) and Belvedere ('Spectre', 2015) have stepped in as the principal vodka brands in the rare absence of Smirnoff, the original favourite of James Bond since the time of 'Dr No' is one name that follows 007 wherever in the world his 'licence to kill' takes him.

(Tomorrow: The other 'spirited' diversions of James Bond)
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Physical classes from nursery to Class 8 will not resume yet in Delhi, and any decision regarding their reopening will be taken post-festive season, Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided in a meeting on Wednesday.

The schools will be opened in a phased manner, an official said.

Classes 9 to 12 have already been kick-started from September 1 onwards with no compulsion on attendance. Covid-19 guidelines like maintaining social distancing and use of face masks and sanitiser are mandatory in the school premises.

After a meeting chaired by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, the DDMA has also given nod to Dussehra and Durga Puja celebrations in October, with restrictions on crowds, and number of eateries, and requirement of separate entry and exit points. Compliance with Covid-19 guidelines is mandatory.

Delhi on Tuesday reported two Covid deaths - after a gap of 10 days, along with 34 fresh Covid cases, in the last 24 hours, as per the Health Department bulletin.

With the latest Covid fatalities, the city's death toll has climbed to 25,087, and the death rate continues to be at 1.74 per cent.

Time and again, health experts have cautioned people against attending fairs, visiting families and friends in the upcoming festive season to prevent a surge in infection cases.

In a media briefing early this month, Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said that India is still reeling under the second wave of pandemic as it is continuously reporting over 10,000 cases on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, India reported less than 20,000 Covid-19 cases for the third straight day, recording 18,870 new cases in the last 24 hours and taking the total caseload to 3,37,16,451, according to Union Health Ministry data released on Wednesday.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Patna, Sep 29 : A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) managed to arrest one of the main accused of Srijan Scam of Bihar on Wednesday.

The accused, Vipin Kumar Sharma was traced in Bhagalpur. He was produced in special court and session judge Sunil Dutt Mishra sent him to judicial custody. The next hearing of this case is on October 1.

Earlier, his wife Rubi Devi was also arrested from Tilka Manjhi locality in Bhagalpur, two weeks ago.

According to an official of the ED, Sharma was instrumental in distribution of money to many prominent persons including leaders of ruling parties. He was having close links with the ex-president of Srijan Sahyog committee, late Manorma Devi, her son Amit Kumar and his wife Rajani Priya.

The ED has found properties of these accused in several locations of the country including in Bhagalpur, Noida, Gurugram and other cities.

Besides ED, CBI had registered four FIRs in this multi crore scam. Several officials of the district welfare office had illegally withdrawn Rs 99,88,69,830 between 2007 and 2017.

The money was withdrawn from Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Indian Bank of Bhagalpur branch. The alleged officials of Bank of Baroda, RP road branch, Indian Bank, Patal Road branch, Bank of India, Triveni apartment branch, Srijan women development cooperative committee (SWDCC) members and district welfare association of Bhagalpur are facing charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery.

In other two FIRs, alleged officials had withdrawn Rs 221.60 crore and Rs 121.71 crore.

These two FIRs were registered on the complaint of Shyam Prasad Yadav, the district welfare officer of Bhagalpur on December 23, 2020. The fourth FIR was registered in Bhagalpur's Kotwali police station as well.
Mumbai, Sep 29 : Maharashtra will soon get its first army museum and a state war memorial to commemorate the glorious achievements of the Indian Army and showcase the experiences of its bravery, prowess and restraint, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced on Wednesday.

Planned to come up in Mumbai, the museum - a part of which will be opened to public by August 15, 2022 - will be dedicated to the 75th anniversary of India's Independence.

The decision was announced after Thackeray presided over a meeting with GOC, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa area, Lt Gen S.K. Parashar and Brig Achalesh Shanker, BMC Commissioner I.S. Chahal, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Bhushan Gagrani, CMO officials Ashish Kumar Singh, Vikas Kharge and others.

Thackeray directed the formation of an advisory and design committee with the participation of army officers to decide the look of the museum and what should be included in it.

He suggested that people visiting the museum should get information and a feel of how army bunkers look, the survival of soldiers in extreme weathers like minus degrees in Siachen Glacier or the walking through scorching deserts with heavy weapons, and the dense jungles.

The museum would highlight success stories of the heroism of the defence forces, the soldiers and officers from the state who participated and fought in various wars, display the weapons and ammunition, tanks, planes, boats, medals, uniforms and rank structure of the soldiers.

Besides, there will be replicas of aircraft, boats, helicopters, tanks placed there with historical information about medal winners and their heroic exploits, and an amphitheater.

The CM directed an activity area for the youth to get information and guidance on physical fitness, motivate them to join the armed forces, along with some basic practical courses.

"A system should be in place to provide a rich and wholesome experience to the visitors and tourists through comprehensive information on the overall strength of the Indian Army and the defence forces," he urged.

Presently, Maharashtra has one full-fledged dedicated Cavalry Tanks Museum in Ahmednagar, said to be the first of its kind in Asia.

It has on display military tanks like the British Mark I, one of the earliest and devastating tanks used in the World War I, armored class of the type used by the Brigadier Reginald E. H. Dyer, notorious for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the Stuart used by Indian Army at the Zojila Pass in 1948.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 : Kerala Social Justice and Higher Education R. Bindu on Wednesday released the first Malayalam uniform sign language alphabet, saying that it would bring about a qualitative change in the lives of the hearing-impaired, and promised to look into its use in special schools.

"Discussions will be initiated with the General Education Department regarding the use of Malayalam alphabet in sign language in special schools across the state," said Bindu while releasing the sign language alphabet developed by the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH), in collaboration with the All Kerala Association of the Deaf.

"It is the result of the dedicated effort of NISH, taking into account the difficulties of the hearing-impaired, who communicate by making gestures with their hands in the air. Currently, English and Hindi have alphabets in sign language. The newly developed alphabet in Malayalam will open up immense possibilities for the deaf community," he added.

NISH Executive Director M. Anjana said that the development of the sign language in Malayalam is a significant achievement and addresses a long-felt void.

NISH's Centre for Assistive Technology and Innovation's K.G. Satheesh Kumar said that like other global languages, sign language is an independent language. With the advent of Malayalam alphabet in sign language, the hearing-impaired will be able to read and write Malayalam.

The Malayalam alphabet, consisting of vowels and consonants, is finger spelled in sign language. Its primary phase has been designed exclusively for the deaf schools across Kerala. The new sign language alphabet in Malayalam will eliminate the challenge of teachers in conveying messages through lip movement.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The CEOs of some of the largest businesses in India are confident and ready for a recovery that is digitally driven and purpose-led to build better and stronger than ever before. Having identified operational risk as the biggest threat to organisational growth they are ready with aggressive growth strategies while also focusing on building digital resilience along with agility.

The 'KPMG 2021 India CEO Outlook: Towards a digitally driven and purpose-led recovery', gathers viewpoints on the future from 125 CEOs in the country.

82 per cent CEOs in India have confidence in the growth prospects for their company. This number is marginally lower compared to where it stood in March 2021 this year at 92 per cent (Basis the March 2021 Pulse survey) and much higher than 42 per cent last year in (August 2020). Despite this, they are ready to face all kinds of risks and disruptions to recover better.

The survey found that leading CEOs in India are looking to sharpen their digital edge further. Having focused on accelerating digital transformation for the last 18 months, CEOs in India are now focusing on building digital resilience along with agility. About two-thirds of CEOs in India (64 per cent) are ready with a plan to address a ransomware attack if faced with one.

The results of the survey also show that the path to recovery is guided by purpose. Even though ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) continues to be a business priority for CEOs in India, the focus towards the social component of their ESG program has decreased significantly after the second wave of COVID-19.

55 per cent CEOs in India showed greater confidence in the prospects for the global economy and expressed readiness to combat risks and disruptions to make progress faster.

Furthermore, 9 out of 10 CEOs in India are slightly more optimistic that the headcount of their organization will increase over the next three years, and hence are investing more in developing their workforce's skills and capabilities. Interestingly CEOs globally (60 per cent) are more focused on buying new technology.

35 per cent CEOs in India believe that organic methods such as innovation, Research and Development (R&D) and capital investments will be crucial for organizational growth objectives for the next three years.

At the same time, the survey found high M&A appetite, with 55 per cent CEOs in the country stating they are likely to undertake acquisitions which will have a significant impact on the overall organisation (higher than CEOs globally at 50 per cent).

Despite a solid roadmap to recovery, pandemic-related issues are still a cause for concern for CEOs in India. While supply chain, cyber security, regulatory and environment continue to be risks to organisational growth, 19 per cent CEOs in India (up from 6 per cent in March 2021 and 11 per cent this time last year in August 2020 perceive the most threat from operational risks.

Whereas the risks perceived by CEOs in India in the areas of cyber security (14 per cent), regulatory (13 per cent), supply chain (10 per cent), reputational risk - including misalignment with customer/public sentiment (10 per cent) and climate change (6 per cent) has either declined or remained similar to findings from March 2021 this year.

A sectoral view on risks in India reveals that at 32 per cent, operational risk is highest for the manufacturing sector, compared to only 9 per cent for the infrastructure sector and 17 per cent for the energy sector.

Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India said: "While the global crisis has led to a significant decline in confidence in organisational and sectoral growth, CEOs in India much like their global counterparts, are quite optimistic about the prospects for the global economy. Living through an unprecedented crisis, they had to constantly reassess their strategies for business continuity and growth." "With the threat of new variants and advent of a third wave in India expected anytime now, we may not be back to business as usual just yet. But what makes me immensely happy is that the CEOs in India are ready to strategize and combat operational risks despite the demanding times. Over a year later, we now have the opportunity to build a stronger, more sustainable future only if we work together, and most importantly, build back better."
Belagavi : , Sep 29 (IANS) In a shocking incident, a retired soldier on Wednesday attacked his wife with a machete in the premises of a court in Karnataka's Belagavi, severing her leg, police said.

The condition of victim, identified as Jayamala, is said to be serious and she has been admitted to a hospital. The retired soldier, Shivappa Adaki, has been taken into custody.

According to police, Adaki and Jayamala, who were married 11 years ago, had a family dispute and the matter had gone to the court. On Wednesday, both had come for the hearing of the case in Bylahongala court, and he attacked her right there, striking her all over her body.

Further investigations are on.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The government has extended, till March 31, 2022, the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to support liquidity needs of small and medium businesses impacted by the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

Since its launch, the ECGLS has extended relief to over 1.15 crore micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and businesses. It has provided support to eligible borrowers in meeting their operational liabilities and restarting their businesses in the wake of disruptions caused by Covid-19.

As on September 24, loans sanctioned under the scheme have crossed Rs 2.86 lakh crore, and out of total guarantees issued, about 95 per cent are for loans sanctioned to MSMEs.

"With a view to support various businesses impacted by the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, it has been has decided to extend the timeline of Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) till March 31, 2022, or till guarantees for an amount of Rs 4.5 lakh crore are issued under the scheme, whichever is earlier. Further, the last date of disbursement under the scheme has also been extended to June 30, 2022," a Finance Ministry statement said.

The government had been receiving demands from various industry bodies and other stakeholders to extend the scheme to ensure continued support to eligible sectors and businesses.

The scheme operation has also been modified to maximise the beneficiaries under it. Accordingly, existing borrowers under ECLGS 1.0 and 2.0 would now be eligible for additional credit support of upto 10 per cent of total credit outstanding as on February 29, 2020 or March 31, 2021, whichever is higher.

Also, businesses, who have not availed assistance under ECLGS 1.0 or 2.0), can avail credit support of upto 30 per cent of their credit outstanding as on March 31, 2021. Businesses in sectors specified under ECLGS 3.0, who have previously not availed ECLGS, can avail credit support up to 40 per cent of their credit outstanding as on March 31, 2021, to the maximum of Rs 200 crore per borrower.

The government has also decided that incremental credit can be availed within these limits by existing ECLGS borrowers whose eligibility increased because of change in cut-off date to March 31, 2021 from February 29, 2020. Accordingly, borrowers who have availed assistance under the ECLGS and whose credit outstanding as on March 31, 2021 (excluding support under the ECLGS) is higher than that on February 29, 2020 shall be eligible for incremental support within the cap stipulated under the ECLGS 1.0,2.0, or 3.0.

The modification introduced would ensure that businesses adversely impacted by the second wave of Covid-2019 get enhanced collateral free liquidity. Further, this provides much needed support to all the ECLGS borrowers (which mainly consist of MSME units) in time for the busy/festival season, the statement said.

The revised operational guidelines in this regard are being issued separately by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : Reacting to opposition leader Siddaramaiah equating the RSS and BJP to the Taliban, Karnataka state BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel on Wednesday termed the senior Congress leader as a terrorist.

Hitting back at Kateel for his remark, the Congress said that the BJP has been 'Talibanised'.

Kateel alleged that during Siddaramaiah's tenure as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, maximum number of murders took place in the state. He further claimed that during that period, as many as 24 Hindu youth were lynched in the Dakshina Kannada district alone.

He also alleged that a young girl was murdered in front of her college in Sullia, while everyday there were reports of cow slaughter from across the state when Siddaramaiah was at the helm.

"For all these reasons, I call Siddaramaiah a terrorist," Kateel said.

Siddaramaiah's position is unstable in his own party, and the Congress' status is also unstable in the state, he added.

Hitting back, the Congress attacked the ruling BJP by stating that the terrorist groups allegedly nursed by the BJP unleashed 'goondaagiri' in the state.

The Congress claimed that just like the Taliban, the BJP is attacking the sons and daughters of others, adding that the saffron party has been Talibanised.

Countering the comment by the BJP on Siddaramaiah's 'dhoti' coming off during the Assembly session last week, the Congress said that 'dhoti' is a symbol of Karnataka's culture, which sometimes comes off and people tie them again.

But BJP leaders videos after removing their pants are not natural, the Congress said, adding that BJP leaders approaching the court to bring a stay on the broadcasting of their CDs is unnatural too.

The Congress made these remarks in the backdrop of the alleged sex CD case involving former minister Ramesh Jarakiholi, when many state BJP ministers obtained stay orders from the court against broadcasting of CDs or DVDs on them.

Reacting to this, senior BJP leader D.V. Sadananda Gowda said that had the Taliban been ruling the state, Siddaramaiah would have been tied and dragged in the streets.

On Tuesday, Siddaramaiah had stated that the country got Independence because of the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, and not because of the RSS.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : American Senators have tabled a bill in the US Senate, demanding a deeper investigation into the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan and sanctions on the group as well as those who assisted them in driving out the Ashraf Ghani-led regime, Geo News reported.

The 'Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act' seeks to establish a task force that will focus on continued evacuation of American citizens, legal permanent residents and Special Immigrant Visa holders from Afghanistan.

Introduced by 22 American Republican Senators, the bill seeks to tackle issues related to the Afghan withdrawal, such as counterterrorism strategies and sanctioning the Taliban for alleged human rights abuses in the country.

"Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently than annually thereafter, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Defence and the Director of National Intelligence, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on entities providing support to the Taliban," the bill read, the report said.

It added that further assessment of "support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020, provision of sanctuary space, financial support, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operational, or strategic direction" should be held.

The bill seeks a probe into the "support by state and non-state actors, including Pakistan, for the 2021 Taliban offensive that helped topple the Afghan government led by Ashraf Ghani, adding that the areas to be probed are provision of sanctuary of space, intelligence support, financial support, logistics, training and medical support for the group", the report said.

The bill further seeks a probe into support for the Taliban, allegedly by non-state actors and the government of Pakistan, in the Panjshir Valley operation by the group and against their military offensives targeting the Afghan resistance.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence to serial rapist and killer Umesh Reddy on Wednesday, rejecting his petition to commute it to life imprisonment.

A division bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Pradeep Singh Yerur also gave six weeks to Reddy for filing an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Reddy argued through his counsel that the mercy petition before the President is taking time and he is not in a sound state of mind.

His mercy petition was rejected by the President in 2013. Presently, he is lodged in the Hindalaga Jail in Belagavi in a separate barrack earmarked for death row convicts, where he was shifted from Bengaluru Central Prison on October 26, 2006.

Reddy, who, according to police, has confessed to killing 18 women, has been convicted in nine cases.

The police say that he raped at least 20 women across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, and it is suspected that several of his crimes have not been reported as victims feared social stigma.

Hailing from Karnataka'S Chitradurga district, he was posted in Jammu and Kashmir after being selected in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). While on duty as a guard at the house of a commandant, he tried to rape the commandant's daughter. Later, he fled and managed to join the Karnataka Reserve Police.

Reddy targeted housewives between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., getting into the house on the pretext of asking for water or an address. He then threatened them with a knife, forced them to remove their clothes, tied them up, and raped them.

He often choked his victims and raped them while they were unconscious. After the rape, Reddy killed his victims and robbed their jewels. He escaped with his victims' undergarments.

He was arrested and dismissed from service when his one of the victim identified him at a Republic Day police parade. Reddy was found wearing women's lingerie under his clothes.

After escaping from prison, he killed an income tax officer's wife in Bengaluru, a girl in Ahmedabad, two girls in Baroda and a widow in Kunigal, Karnataka.

He was again arrested by Bengaluru police in july 1997 for stealing women's undergarments. The police recovered a sack full of lingerie from him.

Reddy was sentenced to death on October 26, 2006, by a Bengaluru fast track court. On October 4, 2007, a division bench of the Karnataka High Court differed on the death sentence, and Justice S.R. Bannurmath, appointed to resolve the matter, upheld the death sentence. The Supreme Court also upheld capital punishment.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : The Defence Ministry approved proposals including for Advanced Light Helicopters, guided munition and rocket ammunition valued at Rs 13,165 crore on Wednesday.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for Capital Acquisitions proposals for modernization and operational needs of the Indian Armed Forces amounting to approximately Rs 13,165 cr.

Of the total amount approved, procurement worth Rs 11,486 crore (87 percent) is from domestic sources.

Key approvals include helicopters, guided munition and rocket ammunition.

Looking into the need of the Indian Army for an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Squadron to improve its integral lift capability to ensure its operational preparedness, the DAC accorded approval of procurement of 25 LH Mark III helicopters from HAL under Buy Indian-IDDMA at an approximate cost of Rs 3,850 crore in keeping with the continued thrust towards 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (Self Reliant India) and 'Make in India'.

Giving a boost to Indigenous Design and Development of ammunition, the DAC accorded approval for procurement of Terminally Guided Munition (TGM) and HEPF/RHE Rocket Ammunition under Buy (Indian-IDDM) category at an approximate cost of Rs 4,962 crore from domestic sources.

Other proposals worth Rs 4,353 crore were also accorded AoN by the DAC.

In addition, the DAC also approved a few amendments to the DAP 2020 as a part of Business Process Re-engineering to ensure further ease of doing business for the industry as well as measures to enhance procurement efficiency and reduce timelines.
Colombo, Sep 29 : Sri Lanka banned import of organic fertilisers manufactured in China after state agriculture authorities detected harmful bacteria in them for the second time.

Director General (DG) of Agriculture, Ajantha De Silva, on Wednesday urged the government to cancel the fertiliser contract with China and insisted that he would never allow organic fertiliser with harmful bacteria to enter the country.

Sri Lanka was to import 99,000 metric tonnes of organic fertiliser at a cost of $63 million from China's Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co Ltd.

On September 17, agriculture scientists in Sri Lanka found that China manufactured organic fertilisers contained a microorganism identified as 'Erwinia'.

Agriculture experts warned that China's organic fertiliser importation would create an agricultural disaster in the island nation. The Agriculture Ministry too confirmed this later but the Minister alleged that the samples which came to Sri Lanka could have been tampered.

Subsequently, fresh samples of China's organic fertiliers were brought to Sri Lanka and the DG Agriculture told the media that the new samples too were infected with bacteria.

De Silva said though the presence of Erwinia could not be confirmed, the presence of harmful bacteria in this new sample was confirmed.

Subsequently, the Agriculture Ministry stated that it would halt the importation of Chinese organic fertilisers.

With an ambitious plan to go full organic, Sri Lanka has stopped importing chemical fertilisers and induced the farmers to make their own organic fertiliser.

The hasty decision has created chaos as rice farmers who were to start the biggest Maha season in September were without fertiliser. Economists, however, opined that the government decision to stop chemical fertiliser was a result of forex shortages and a lack of dollar reserves for imports.
Hyderabad, Sep 29 : In a politically significant development, the Prashant Kishor team on Wednesday called on YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) President Y.S. Sharmila.

The team met Sharmila at her Lotus Pond residence here and they are believed to have discussed the strategy to strengthen and expand the party.

Sharmila, sister of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, is understood to have discussed with the team the plans for her upcoming 'padyatra', route map and future course of action.

The meeting set off speculations that political strategist Prashant Kishor has joined hands with Sharmila to prepare its strategy.

Prashant Kishor and his team had planned and executed the election strategy of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, and it had stormed to power by winning 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly.

Sharmila, who floated the YSRTP in July, recently announced that she will undertake the 'padyatra' from October 20.

YSRTP leaders have also announced that the party will organise a public meeting for self-respect of backward classes at Kosagi in Kodangal constituency on October 3.

Sharmila's meeting with the PK team also assumes significance in view of the next month's bye-election to Huzurabad Assembly constituency. It came a day after the Election Commission announced the election schedule.

In order to highlight the issue of unemployment, the YSRTP has decided to field unemployed individuals in October 30 bye-elections. The party has constituted a committee to file several nominations on behalf of unemployed.
Chennai, Sep 29 : Tamil Nadu will soon have a special law to control organised crime, just like Maharashtra and Karnataka, the state government told the Madras High Court on Wednesday.

The Tamil Nadu Control Of Organised Criminal Act, similar to the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act, 1999 (MCOCA), and the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, 2000, will be tabled in the next Assembly session, it submitted, against the backdrop of multiple judgments calling upon the state government to formulate such a law that would give more teeth to the state police and prevent 'goonda' elements from causing damage to the peace and tranquility of the state's people.

On November 30, 2018, the high court, while hearing a habeas corpus petition in a case related to the preventive detention of a person involved in a clash between rowdy gangs, had asked as to why Tamil Nadu should not come up with an exclusive law to tackle organised crimes.

"The case on hand was demonstrating as to how rowdy gangs and paid killers are active in Tamil Nadu, destroying the law and order situation in the state and creating panic in the minds of the common man in Tamil Nadu as well as in other parts of the country," it had said, adding that the clash between the gangs had led to the death of several persons and affected the tranquility and peace of the state.

Lashing out at the political patronage to the criminal elements, it said: "Even some of the MPs and MLAs who are elected to the houses of democracy have a criminal background and the goondas are associated with political parties, police, and community leaders." The court had also expressed concern that Tamil Nadu was turning into a safe haven for terror elements, with modules of Jihadi terrorist organisations being unearthed.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Ramleela, Durga Puja and Dussehra celebrations have been allowed in Delhi this year, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided after a meeting here on Wednesday.

After the meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the DDMA has decided that festivals will be celebrated with restrictions on crowd gatherings, number of eateries, fairs and separate entry and exit points. Compliance with Covid-19 guidelines is mandatory.

The DDMA will soon issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document about the other restrictions, if any, said a DDMA official.

Last year, while Durga Puja committees were prohibited from erecting pandals, Ramleela committees were asked to go for live streaming. Restrictions were imposed on burning of effigies in Dussehra also.

Both Durga Puja and Dusshera festivities will take place in mid-October.

Meanwhile, the DDMA has also said that it will decide on reopening of schools for nursery to Class 8 post the festival season.

According to an official, the schools might be reopened in a phased manner.

The national capital on Wednesday reported 41 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total tally to 14,38,821, but there were no new fatalities, as per the Delhi Health Department bulletin.

Latest updates on Navratri Festival 2021
Srinagar, Sep 29 : The Press Council of India has constituted a Fact Finding Committee to look into allegations by PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti about harassment of journalists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba Mufti tweeted a letter of the Press Council which said that it, while taking suo moto cognizance of her communication concerning intimidation and harassment of journalists, has constituted a three-member Fact Finding Committee consisting of Dainik Bhaskar Group Editor Prakash Dubey (Convenor) and New Indian Express journalist, Gurbir Singh, and Jan Morcha Editor, Dr Suman Gupta, to inquire into the matter. The Committee will regulate its own procedure.

"The authorities of Jammu and Kashmir are requested to extend full cooperation and assistance to this Fact Finding Committee for the discharge of its function.

"The Fact Finding Committee is required to make a thorough probe into the matter holding discussion with the concerned authorities and the affected journalists and collect such information as it deem fit to submit its report to the council at the earliest," the letter said.

Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: "Thankful to the Press Council for their decision to constitute a fact finding committee to probe about journalists being harassed in J&K. Hope the local administration ensures their full cooperation so that this committee can discharge its duties".

On Monday, the PDP President in a letter had urged the Press Council to probe into "intimidation, snooping and harassment" of journalists in Jammu and Kashmir.
Amaravati, Sep 29 : Hitting back at Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan for his harsh comments, senior YSRCP leader K. Parthasarathy said on Wednesday that the actor-politician is acting in real life too, speaking out of frustration as he failed to win public mandate.

The MLA said that Pawan Kalyan has been unnecessarily taking dig at the state government and trying to create a rift among different communities. He said that people are not ready to believe his words and would never elect him as the Chief Minister, as they are always with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Refuting the allegations that the government is against Kammas, he said that the YSRCP is not an enemy to any particular community and recalled that prominence was given to all the communities, prioritising the weaker sections.

He said that Pawan Kalyan must understand that he cannot benefit by lashing out at the state government and targeting the Chief Minister, as people would never ever elect him. He said that Pawan doesn't have the required qualities or the body language to be the Chief Minister.

The MLA said the Jana Sena chief remained silent on the murder of Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy and the attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy, which occurred when his allies (TDP-BJP) were in power.

Now he is targeting the YSRCP government alleging that the cases have been put aside, Parthasarathy said. He clarified that it was YSRCP leaders who requested an inquiry by the central agencies for transparency.

Parthasarthy also said that Pawan Kalyan has gained a lot from the Telugu film industry, but not vice-versa.

Parthasarthy's comments came after the war of words between Pawan Kalyan and leaders of YSRCP continued on Tuesday with the Jana Sena leader slamming Andhra Pradesh's ruling party for what he called its "policy terrorism".

Pawan Kalyan tweeted that YSRCP's "policy terrorism" is destroying all sectors and all communities and remarked that the time has come to counter it.
Guwahati, Sep 29 : With by-elections to five Assembly seats in Assam to be held on October 30, the main opposition Congress is likely to go alone to take on the ruling BJP, which would contest in four seats, leaving one seat to its ally United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL).

According to the Election Commission announcement on Tuesday, bypolls to Gossaigaon, Tamulpur, Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra would be held on October 30.

Congress' chief spokesman Bobbeeta Sharma said on Wednesday that as of now, her party would contest the bypolls alone.

"However, senior party leaders would discuss all the aspects of the by-elections," Sharma told IANS.

The Congress, which ruled Assam for 15 years (2001-2016), managed 29 seats in the March-April Assembly elections, three more than 2016 polls, when it lost power in the state to the BJP.

Of the other partners of the Congress led 10-party 'Mahajot' (grand alliance), the All India United Democratic Front won 16 seats, the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) got four seats, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist won just one seat.

The Assam Congress earlier this month announced that the Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF and tribal-based party BPF would no longer be partners of the 'Mahajot' in the state.

In the March-April Assembly polls, the Congress had left the Bhabanipur seat to the AIUDF while the Gossaigaon seat was contested by the BPF.

Recently, four-time Congress MLA from Mariani, Rupjyoti Kurmi, and two-time party legislator from Thowra, Sushanta Borgohain, had resigned from the party and joined the BJP.

Phanidhar Talukdar, the lone Hindu MLA of the Muslim-based AIUDF from Bhabanipur, had resigned from the Assembly before recently joining the BJP.

Tamulpur MLA Leho Ram Boro of the UPPL and Gossaigaon legislator Majendra Narzary of the BPF died of Covid-19.

After being elected to the Rajya Sabha uncontested, Union minister and former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal resigned from the Majuli Assembly seat on Tuesday. However, Majuli is not in the list of by-elections to be held on October 30.

BJP sources said that the party would field candidates in four seats and leave the Tamulpur constituency for UPPL.

BJP's state unit chief Bhabesh Kalita has claimed that the party would win all the five seats in the by-elections.

In the 126-member Assam Assembly, BJP won 60 seats, which is similar to the number it won five years ago. BJP allies Asom Gana Parishad won nine seats against 14 last time, while the new alliance partner, UPPL, got six seats.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : With the UN's annual climate change negotiations meet barely a month away, all eyes are on the deliberations at the 'Adaptation Futures Conference', a flagship event devoted entirely to climate change adaptation, to be held here from October 5.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will be the host, while the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) would be the co-host of the international event happening for the first time in Asia. The biennial International Adaptation Futures Conference will be held virtually from October 5-8, a year after its scheduled time that was cancelled owing to the pandemic induced lockdown.

Talking about the event that will facilitate dialogues towards action oriented solutions from a diverse range of stakeholders that include academia, practitioners, scientists and policy makers from across the world, former diplomat and distinguished fellow, TERI, Manjeev Singh Puri, said, "COP26 is considered as an Adaptation COP. We are sure that the deliberations during this conference will be helpful towards that end." The UN's annual climate change talks - termed as the Conference of Parties (COP26) - are to be held at Glasgow in the UK from October 31. There is a global endeavour to come up with mitigative action and adaptation measures that will ensure to restrict the global temperature rise to 1.5-degree Celsius as compared to the pre-industrial era.

Highlighting the urgency for the need to recognise and act on climate change adaptation, TERI Director, Earth Science and Climate Change Division, Suruchi Bhadwal, told mediapersons, "Adaptation is a necessity and not a choice for all countries. As a large developing country with a large number of people depending on climate sensitive sources for their livelihoods, India needs to take cognizance and respond to the risks related to climate change." India's Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, would inaugurate the event that will have six plenaries and multiple content driven parallel sessions.
Dhaka, Sep 29 : Two cases have been filed against arrested controversial Islamic orator Mufti Kazi Ibrahim under the Digital Security Act and for fraud, and he has been sent to police custody for questioning.

He is also accused of being behind the assassination of progressive popular Islamic preacher Maulana Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi in 2014. In a case of murder against six presenters, including Ibrahim, of Islamist programmes, organised by Jamaat-e-Islami and paid by Pakistan, on different private Bangladesh television channels, it was alleged that Ibrahim of the Zakir Naik-run Peace TV had threatened to kill Faruqi in 2012.

Known for his "misleading" speeches in congregations and social media, Ibrahim gained notoriety after claiming Antarctica was a continent hidden by global superpowers, and that side-effects of the Covid vaccine are that men are developing feminine voices, while women are growing beards.

Detective Branch's Deputy Commissioner, Cyber, Special and Serious Crime unit, Shariful Islam told IANS that police had sought 10 days custody of Ibrahim, who was arrested from his Mohammadpur residence for interrogation and presented before court on Wednesday. However, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sufian Md Noman only granted two days, while rejecting the preacher's bail plea.

Another Dhaka court has granted the police two days to interrogate Ibrahim in custody.

Z.M. Rana filed the fraud case at Mohammadpur police station on Tuesday night while a Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer filed a DSA case on Wednesday, Mohammadpur police station officer in charge, M. Abdul Latif said.

Before being detained on Tuesday, Ibrahim in Facebook Live said some plainclothesmen were knocking at his door to take him away.

Ibrahim, besides being a Peace TV anchor, is one of the key players behind the establishment of 'Peace International Schools', which came under the police's scanner for involvement in militant activities.

In 2016, police shut down one such school in Dhaka's Lalmatia, founded in 2011 by Abdullah Zaman, who was its Managing Director, and Ibrahim, its Principal.

PIS had two campuses in Dhaka's Lalmatia and Uttara. Later, the Uttara campus was renamed "Leader's School".

Peace School, Peace School and College, and Peace Islamic School were established countrywide and which used to misguide people by their name, while preaching radical Islam and instigating students to commit militant activities.
Guwahati, Sep 29 : Twelve militants of newly-formed ultra outfit United Liberation of Bodoland (ULB) surrendered on Wednesday and deposited arms and ammunition at Udalguri district bordering Bhutan, officials said.

The police said that of the surrendered militants led by the outfit's self-styled commander-in-chief Pinjit, six belong to Kokrajhar district, three are from Chirang, two belong to Udalguri while one is from Chirang.

After laying down of their arms, the 12 extremists were sent to Guwahati under tight security.

The police said that they had earlier arrested 12 ULB cadres while two militants had died in an encounter with the security forces.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted: "Continuing our outreach to bring home youths from the path of militancy, all the cadres of newly-formed group United Liberation of Bodoland have returned home today. We welcome them to join our efforts to build a beautiful and prosperous Assam." Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief executive member Pramod Boro said in a tweet: "Appreciate the decision of all cadres and leaders of the newly-formed ULB to shun violence and return to mainstream today."
New Delhi/Chennai, Sep 29 : The Centre on Wednesday approved capital infusion of Rs 4,400 crore into the ECGC, formerly known as the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, over a period of five years.

Accordingly, the investments will be made from FY2021-2022 to FY2025-2026.

The approved infusion, along with the company's listing process through initial public offering (IPO), is expected to increase the underwriting capacity of ECGC to support more exports.

The ECGC promotes exports by providing credit insurance services. Its products support around 30 per cent of India's merchandise exports.

"ECGC plays a wider role in supporting exports from the labour-intensive sectors and encourages bank lending to enterprises of small exporters, thereby leading to their revival. Capital infusion in the ECGC will enable it to expand its coverage to the export-oriented industry, particularly the labour-intensive sectors," an official communique said on Wednesday.

"The approved amount will be infused in instalments, thereby increasing the capacity to underwrite risks up to Rs 88,000 crore and this will enable the ECGC to issue covers that can support additional exports of Rs 5.28 lakh crore over the five-year period in line with the existing pattern," it added.

As per a report titled 'Exports to Jobs' prepared by the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO), Rs 5.28 lakh crore exports will lead to formalisation of 2.6 lakh workers.

Further, the total number of workers, both formal and informal, will increase by 59 lakh, as per the report.

On the listing approval, the communique said that the process will enable ECGC to mobilise fresh capital from the market either through the same IPO or subsequently through a 'Follow-on Public Offer' and thereby help increase the 'Maximum Liability' cover for it.

"The disinvestment proceeds will be used for financing of social sector schemes. The company intends to increase its maximum liabilities to Rs 2.03 lakh crore from Rs 1 lakh crore by 2025-26," it said.

ECGC Chairman-cum-Managing Director M. Senthilnathan had told IANS earlier: "Currently the maximum liability that the company can underwrite will be about Rs 1.1 lakh crore. With the additional capital of Rs 4,400 crore, the maximum liability that can be underwritten will be about Rs 2 lakh crore. The company's net worth is Rs 5,600 crore." He had also said that the company's current equity base is Rs 3,450 crore and the solvency ratio will be about 10-11 times against the prescribed level of 1.5 times.

About the business, Senthilnathan had said that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected exports and in turn, the company's business.

For FY21, the company had earned a premium of Rs 1,062 crore and the claims outgo was about Rs 900 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.

The premium income for FY20 was Rs 1,075 crore and the claims were about Rs 400 crore.

"The market is recovering. We hope to log positive growth. While there is export growth, there is no growth in export credit by the banks. Two thirds of our business is derived from export credit by the banks and the balance from the exporters," Senthilnathan had said.

Targeting a premium income of Rs 1,200 crore this year, Senthilnathan said the investment income will be similar to last fiscal's figure of about Rs 850 crore.
New Delhi, Sep 29 : An activist, who was part of an old inspection panel of the World Bank, has alleged that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change went ahead to suggest that seven hydropower projects in the upper reaches of the Ganga can be constructed only because the World Bank's inspection panel willfully undermined its own policy.

He also appealed to the World Bank to withdraw finance to such disastrous projects.

Drawing attention to several of his communications earlier that had pointed out issues regarding the hydropower projects in the upper reaches of Ganga and how the World Bank inspection panel disregarded those, activists A.K. Roy aka Dunu Roy said in a letter to the chief of the World Bank Panel, "As a consequence of the inspection panel's willful undermining of Bank policy, the Ministry of Environment here has been emboldened to give permission to construct another seven hydropower projects in Uttarakhand." He further drew attention to the fact that the Tehri Hydropower Development Corporation (THDC), the builder of the Vishnugad Pipalkoti plant, has started to bulldoze houses for construction of the projects.

"This is being done despite vehement opposition by the residents, despite an ongoing case in high court on this project, and despite the ongoing case in Supreme Court on the larger policy issue with regard to the construction of dams in the Ganga basin," Roy said.

As reported last month, eight years after the Supreme Court moratorium on dam construction in the upper Ganga region, three Union ministries and the state of Uttarakhand had reached a "consensus" to allow construction for as many as seven hydropower projects, one of them destroyed in the February 2021 flash floods.

The Ministries of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Jal Shakti, and Power and the state of Uttarakhand together had reached the consensus on the seven projects to be implemented, according to an affidavit filed by the joint secretary in the Environment Ministry, Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, in August in connection with an ongoing case regarding dam projects in Uttarakhand post the 2013 disaster which had witnessed over 5,000 deaths, damage to property and infrastructure projects.

The seven projects are 1,000 MW Tehri stage II project, 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad project, 444 MW Vishnugad Pipalkote project, 99 MW Singholi Bhatwari project, 76 MW Phata Buyong project, 15 MW Madhmaheshwar project and 4.5 MW Kaliganga II project.

Of these, the Tapovan Vishnugad project was destroyed by flash floods in the Dhauli Ganga basin in Chamoli district in February.

Roy was one of the consultants to the inspection panel when it took up a complaint with respect to the Vishnugarh Pipalkoti hydel project in Uttarakhand in 2012.

He had earlier written to the World Bank in connection with his disagreement with the findings of the panel, which had ignored his arguments in its final report.

In his letter of protest in November 2015, he had mentioned how the so-called 'cumulative' impact assessment was only a 'consolidated' one and in complete violation of World Bank policy that required a regional environment assessment for multiple projects.

In the current letter, Roy also drew attention to how the World Bank's progress report last year had incorrectly mentioned the developments on the ground and said, "I strongly recommend that the inspection panel under your able guidance should review both the findings in the 2014 report as well as the subsequent reports of management with respect to carrying out the recommended measures over six years of constant delay and misreporting. It is time that the World Bank withdrew its financing of such disastrous projects."
Dubai, Sep 29 : An all-round performance by Royal Challengers Bangalore helped them cruise to a seven-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in Match 43 of IPL 2021 at Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. Chasing a modest score of 150, Bangalore hunted down the target with 17 balls to spare. The win now strengthens Bangalore's chances of making it to the playoffs.

Bangalore were off to a flying start as Virat Kohli slammed Chris Morris for three boundaries in the opening over. Devdutt Padikkal crunched Kartik Tyagi for two boundaries in the second over before slamming Mustafizur Rahman for a brace of boundaries in the next over.

Bangalore were 48 for no loss in five overs before Padikkal, dropped at six, swung across the line, only for Rahman to disturb the stumps. In the next over, Kohli tried to sneak a run on a misfield by Riyan Parag at backward point. But a direct hit from Parag caught Kohli short of the crease at non-striker's end.

KS Bharat and Glenn Maxwell stitched a stand of 69 runs for the third wicket. The duo smashed boundaries while rotating the strike, which kept the asking rate under check. Bharat was more impressive of the two, slog-sweeping Chris Morris for a big six before playing a gentle reverse sweep off Rahul Tewatia.

Rahman broke the partnership in the 16th over as Bharat pulled to fine leg. After Bharat's dismissal, Maxwell whipped Morris for a six over mid-wicket followed by three fours, the last of which brought up his fifty in 30 balls. AB de Villiers finished off the chase with a sweep through square leg off Parag to seal an easy win.

Earlier, Rajasthan suffered a spectacular batting meltdown to end at a below-par score of 149/9 in 20 overs. From 100/1 in eleven overs, they lost next eight wickets for 49 runs in the last nine overs to squander hopes of a big total.

Evin Lewis and Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed seven boundaries between each other to take Rajasthan to 56/0 in power-play. Five of those boundaries belonged to Lewis, who was the more aggressive of the two.

Lewis smacked debutant George Garton for two pulled sixes on either side of a cut through backward point in the fourth over. Lewis picked Harshal Patel for a four and six in the fifth over to bring the half-century of the partnership.

Post power-play, Jaiswal went after Dan Christian, slamming him for two fours in the seventh over. Jaiswal started the ninth over by whacking Christian for a six over extra cover. But the all-rounder had the last laugh as Jaiswal mistimed to mid-off on the next ball, ending the opening stand at 77.

Lewis reached his half-century in 31 balls with a pull through square leg. Garton had his first wicket of the IPL in the 12th over with Lewis top-edging a pull to keeper KS Bharat. Mahipal Lomror's promotion to four ended cheaply with Yuzvendra Chahal getting him stumped.

Wickets continued to tumble for Rajasthan as Samson holed to deep cover off Shahbaz Ahmed. Five balls later, Ahmed had his second wicket of the over as Rahul Tewatia top-edged a sweep to deep backward square leg.

Chahal has his second wicket of the match as Liam Livingstone holed out to long-on in the 17th over. Patel came back in the final over to take out Riyan Parag and Chris Morris on consecutive deliveries before dismissing Chetan Sakariya on the final ball to complete a Rajasthan implosion.

Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 149/9 in 20 overs (Evin Lewis 58, Yashasvi Jaiswal 31, Harshal Patel 3/34, Shahbaz Ahmed 2/10) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 153/3 in 17.1 overs (Glenn Maxwell 50 not out, KS Bharat 44, Mustafizur Rahman 2/20) by seven wickets.

Latest updates on IPL 2021

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Patna, Sep 29 : Violence and bogus voting were reported in several places in Bihar during the second phase of Panchayat election on Wednesday.

An Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police was brutally assaulted by supporters of a candidate in East Champaran district.

The incident was reported at booth number 48 of Rupaulia panchayat under Fenhara block in the district, where the ASI, along with a team of security personnel, was deployed.

As per the statement of injured ASI, the voting was underway peacefully when at around 1 p.m. supporters of mukhiya candidate Sheetal Pandey came to the booth and indulged in bogus voting. When he tried to stop them, he was brutally assaulted, and even his uniform was torn. Other security personnel were also targetted.

"As soon as we learnt about the incident, we reached there with additional police force and arrested one person. The efforts are on to nab other accused involved in the crime," Superintendent of Police, East Champaran, Navin Chandra Jha, said.

Another incident of violence was reported in Chanpatia block in West Champaran district where two groups clashed.

The incident occurred at booth number 146 of Ghogha village after supporters of two candidates accused each other of bogus voting, and the dispute turned violent. A number of others voters also received injuries.

The violence led the voting being disrupted for over two hours. The situation was normalised after the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police reached the spot.

A candidate for the district council was arrested in Nawada.

The second phase of the Panchayat election spanned 48 blocks of 34 districts with 71,467 candidates, including 40,169 women, in the fray for 23,161 posts under six categories. The State Election Commission is using EVMs for the posts of panchayat member, mukhiya, panchayat committee member and district council member, while voting for panch and sarpanch is underway through the ballot box.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : A consensual agreement has been reached between the Karnataka government and private colleges to not hike the fees in engineering courses in private colleges, state Minister for Higher Education, C.N. Ashwath Narayan, said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting with representatives of private engineering colleges. Following the agreement, the fees for engineering courses in private colleges for students who secure admission this year under government quota will continue as earlier in two different slabs of Rs 65,340 and Rs 58,806, the Minister said.

"The other important decision drawn in the meeting was that maximum cap of Rs 20,000 each has been fixed for fees collected in the form of 'miscellaneous fees' and 'skill fees'. This decision has been taken as per the recommendations of a committee headed by Karisiddappa, the Vice-Chancellor of Vishwesharaiah Technical University (VTU)," Narayan said.

"The other major decision is that starting from this year, the admission fees, miscellaneous fees and skill fees should not be remitted at colleges. Now, these should be remitted at the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA). Earlier, 'miscellaneous fees' used to vary from college to college starting from Rs 10,000 to up to Rs 70,000. But now this should not exceed Rs 20,000.

"Before prescribing the 'miscellaneous fees', colleges should notify the purposes for which it is being collected. The same information needs to be provided to the KEA, Department of Technical Education and VTU and published on the website. This also should be remitted with KEA," the minister elaborated.

Earlier, there was a provision to pay admission fees at colleges, but now onwards this also should be paid at the KEA, he said, adding that this decision has been taken to eliminate the confusions that existed.

Some colleges also used to collect 'skill fees' for providing additional skill training to increase the employability of students. This was optional and the fees for this used to vary from college to college.

Now, a a cap has been fixed of a maximum of Rs 20,000. This will have three slabs of Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. A team of VTU will inspect the colleges and fix any one of this depending on the standard of training facilities and quality, which also should be remitted to KEA, the minister said.

While the private colleges had pressed for increase in fees by 30 per cent, the committee headed by Karisiddappa had recommended a hike of 15-25 per cent.

But in view of the Covid situation, the representatives of private colleges were convinced against a hike, the minister informed.

Narayan also said that engineering education in Kannada will begin in four colleges from the current year itself.

Bheemanna Khandre Institute of Technology, Bhalki (Civil); BLDAE VP Dr. P.G. Halakatti College of Engineering, Vijayapura (Civil); SJC Institute of Technology, Chikkaballapura (Mechanical); and Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysuru (Mechanical) will start to teach in Kannada, he said.
Bengaluru, Sep 29 : The Chief Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Gaurav Gupta, on Wednesday ordered to re-conduct the survey of dilapidated buildings in Bengaluru, following two incidents of building collapse in the city wherein families narrowly escaped moments before the tragedies.

Gupta has instructed the zonal joint commissioners and chief engineers to form a committee led by the special commissioner of the project department within 15 days to re-conduct a survey of dilapidated buildings in the city and submit a report on the same.

In 2019, the BBMP had conducted a survey and identified 185 such buildings, of which 10 have been demolished.

The chief commissioner conducted a virtual meeting on surveying dilapidated buildings in the BBMP limits. He obtained information on the survey conducted in 2019 as to how many dilapidated buildings have been issued notice, how many have been demolished across eight zones etc.

The chief commissioner instructed the zonal commissioners and zonal joint commissioners to take measures to issue notice to the owners of 175 dilapidated buildings identified in the 2019 survey.

He said the concerned engineers in each zone must visit the sites of dilapidated buildings, review and submit accurate information on the same.

He also instructed the officials that following the re-inspection of the dilapidated buildings, contractors must be hired in each zone within 15 days to demolish the buildings.

The meeting was attended by zonal special commissioners, joint commissioners, head of the engineering department, zonal chief engineers, divisional executive engineers and others.
Dubai, Sep 29 : Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli on Wednesday expressed his delight over his team's thumping win over Rajasthan Royals, saying the Red Army is "slowly but surely getting in groove".

The win now strengthens Bangalore's chances of making to the IPL 2021 playoffs.

"The break was tough as you saw initially. We were blown away in game 1. That defeat gave us confidence though. The second game we were not quite there either, left 25-30 out there with the bat. But the last two games we are going in the right direction. Slowly but surely, we are getting in groove," Kohli said after the match.

All-rounder Glenn Maxwell starred for Bangalore on Wednesday's win. He stitched an important stand with KS Bharat after Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal were dismissed. Bharat got out by Mustafizur Rahman for 44 but Maxwell smashed Chris Morris for 22 runs in the next over to finish off the chase.

"We've got a few good opening starts. Devdutt and I have focused on giving the team good starts so that the middle-order with AB, Bharat and Maxwell can make more. Boys have stepped up, so that's been key for us," Kohli added.

Latest updates on IPL 2021
Chennai, Sep 30 : Around a year after the brutal murder of her husband, the President of Kunnathur panchayat in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, K. Chithra was elected unopposed to the post.

P. Krishnarajan, 51, and his accomplice A. Munayasamy, 40, were hacked to death in the outskirts of the village on October 11, 2020.

Krishnarajan was popular in the area and was elected unopposed as panchayat President in his maiden attempt in the rural local body elections of 2019.

Police said that Krishnarajan and Muniyasamy were murdered by K. Senthil, the brother of criminal Varichiyur Selvam, and Balaguru, as Senthil's wife Malarvizhi, had contested the post of Panchayat Union Chairperson but lost after Krishnarajan did not extend his support to her. Balaguru was nursing a grudge against Krishnarajan as he was not given a contract.

Talking to IANS, Chithra, 50, said: "My husband had a lot of dreams on developing the panchayat but he was murdered for no reason and now I will take up the mantle and carry forward the good work that he had done for the people of the village. We will not be cowed down by any threats and for your information, the entire village is supporting me." She said that she would strive to bring in development to the village as it was the dream of her husband and that she would also nurse the same dream and work hard for the uplift of the village and its population.
Amaravati, Sep 30 : BJP Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday claimed victory in Andhra Pradesh High Court as police informed the court that the picture of Jesus Christ was never used on the website of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) as reported by a Telugu daily in 2019.

The police also conveyed to the court that it was framing charges against three persons of the newspaper for carrying a report which incited people.

Subramanian Swamy, who argued the case on behalf of TTD, termed it as a victory as trial will now begin in the case.

He alleged that 'Andhra Jyoti' indirectly managed by former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu carried a report which incited people but turned out to be a lie.

The former union minister told a television channel that he had taken up the case on the request of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He said 'Andhra Jyoti' had carried a front page story that TTD board, which is the custodian of the famed Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, displayed on its website a picture of Jesus Christ. He said the newspapers did not have even the basic courtesy speaking to TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy Swamy said this had led to tremendous upheaval among Hindus but the investigations revealed that the report was totally fabricated.

Subba Reddy had filed a defamation suit against the daily for Rs 100 crore.

Swamy recalled that he had also filed a hate speech petition under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153, 153A, 295, 295A, 500 naming editor, journalists having committed act which incited people.

The TTD has filed a complaint with the police there was no investigation and nothing happened for next one-and-a-half year due to Covid-19 pandemic.

He later went to the High Court seeking court monitoring of the investigation. In response to the court notice, the DGP informed the court that the investigations concluded that there was never a picture of Jesus Christ on TTD website.

Police said a case was registered and persons involved were summoned to police station. The police also conveyed that they are now framing charges against three people.

Terming this as a victory, Swamy said trial will now begin in the case.
"Im excited to see ObserveID leading the market in CIEM. With the ever-increasing move towards cloud, the need for a CIEM solution integrated into your broader IAM program is fundamental to ensuring you are granting the right privileges to the right resources and at the right time. Tom Malta

ObserveID, Inc. proudly announced today the introduction of four newly appointed members to its Board of Advisors. These strategic advisors will leverage their collective industry knowledge, skills, and expertise to provide guidance to the companys executive team as it is poised to maintain its leadership position in one of the fastest growing categories of cybersecurity: Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM).

Our executive team is excited to welcome this diverse group of talented and experienced leaders to advise and guide our company through future phases of growth, said Axay Desai, Founder & CEO of ObserveID. We could not be happier to have found such a qualified group of advisors. Their combined expertise in key areas of our industry will play a valuable role in guiding strategic decisions and broadening our client relationships. I am confident our advisors will give rise to new and exciting opportunities and help strengthen ObserveIDs commitment as the trusted cybersecurity leader in the fast-growing CIEM marketplace.

Joining the Advisory Board (in alphabetical order) are:



Aarti Gadhia  Enterprise Sales Canada & APAC, Bugcrowd.

Tom Malta  CEO and Principal, IAM Experts, LLC, a boutique cybersecurity startup focused on helping international clients with IAM design, strategic advisory, and execution.

Stephenie Southard  Vice-President & CISO, Baxter Credit Union (BCU).

John Stauffacher  Regional Director, Security Operations Center/Product Security Incident Response, Panasonic North America.

Aarti Gadhia Highlights: As the Founder of SHE and Standout To Lead, Aarti is a recognized champion for empowering women in cybersecurity. Aarti has dedicated her career to breaking down barriers to achieve equality for underrepresented groups in STEM providing a collective voice within the organization, leadership, and the boardroom, and in closing the gender diversity gap. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aartigadhia/

Tom Malta Highlights: With a storied career in financial services technology and cybersecurity, Tom has led many successful IAM programs utilizing custom build as well as off-the-shelf technology supporting internal, external, customer, and third-party cloud identities alike. With his unparalleled passion for the space, Tom is a recognized Subject Matter Expert in IAM and a recent winner of the 2021 IAM Evangelist of the Year award. https://www.linkedin.com/in/identitymgmtexpert/

Stephenie Southard Highlights:

With an impressive 25+ years of IT and Security industry experience, Stephenie is an accomplished professional who is well-known by industry peers for her successful leadership and expertise. A highly demanded public speaker, Stephenie was a 2020 Chicago CISO of the Year Nominee, ranked 10 Best CISOs of 2021 by Tech Magazine, and most recently, recognized by Global Touch, Inc., as an IT Wondrous Woman. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenie-southard-b16a8021/

John Stauffacher Highlights:

A rare bread that is as much comfortable in the boardroom as he is on-stage speaking at some of the worlds most prominent security conferences, John has spent over 25 years in the security industry breaking, building, and empowering teams to do better. He is the best-selling author of 'Web Application Firewalls: A Practical Approach' and has earned a reputation amongst his peers for truly understanding the adversarial mindset. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jstauffacher/

About ObserveID, Inc.:

ObserveID is a leader in Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) and plays a critical role in the overall IT security posture of on-premises and hybrid cloud architectures. The platform provides a comprehensive entitlement management solution that protects user identities, controls privileged access, and maintains appropriate permissions. ObserveID serves an essential bridge to the cloud for any company transitioning from on-premises to cloud or hybrid cloud infrastructure.

ObserveIDs innovative platform leverages its real-time identity-centric intelligence and automation. Its Universal Connectors provide seamless integration with existing IAM/PAM/SIEM solutions, whether on-premises or in the cloud, as well as with private and public cloud service providers (CSPs).

ObserveID works in concert with organizations existing IT security solutions. Organizations do not need to replace their current IAM/PAM/SIEM solutions to benefit from ObserveIDs industry-leading IT security features. ObserveIDs flexible architecture reduces implementation time and cost without sacrificing functionality.

For more information about the company, leadership, and advisory board, please visit: http://www.ObserveID.com
Our healthcare clients that have embraced automation are realizing measurable savings through increased efficiency, reduced errors, faster collections, and improved accuracy with payer claims.

Element Blue, a leader in intelligent automation specializing in the healthcare sector, has retained its status as a UiPath Gold Partner. In 2017 Element Blue became a Gold Partner with UiPath  the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company  and has been developing strategic technology solutions for hospitals and healthcare systems for more than 20 years.

We are pleased to maintain our Gold tier status and to continue the growth of our healthcare practice with our talented colleagues at UiPath, said Steven Gerhardt, Managing Partner and CEO of Element Blue. After evaluating several top RPA platforms before selecting UiPath, weve never looked back. It has clearly been the right decision and technology partner for Element Blue and our healthcare clients.

Element Blue will feature some of its top healthcare automation use cases and success stories at UiPaths FORWARD IV conference on October 5-6. Emerald Sponsors of the conference and roundtable host, Element Blues team will share insights into its best practices for intelligent automation solutions in healthcare, including in the areas of patient access, the healthcare revenue cycle, telehealth, and COVID-19.

The opportunity to improve the overall patient experience through enterprise automation continues to expand and grow, said Gerhardt. Our healthcare clients that have embraced automation are realizing measurable savings through increased efficiency, reduced errors, faster collections and improved accuracy with payer claims. Patients appreciate the seamlessness of their encounters as automation helps to facilitate each step of the healthcare journey: from referrals and scheduling to pre-admissions and approvals to provider interactions in clinical settings, with telehealth, labs and testing, and more. Its a win for all involved, but especially for patients.

The healthcare industry is still facing tremendous challenges resulting from the ongoing pandemic and has proven resilient with problem solving technological and operational difficulties through automation, said Cheryln Chin, Vice President, Global Partners and Alliances at UiPath. Each process that becomes more efficient with automation means more time for patient care and lesser strain on healthcare workers who are freed from repetitive, tedious tasks. As a UiPath USN member, Element Blue is advancing successful automation initiatives among their customers and providing the expertise and support to enable these initiatives to have long-term benefits for healthcare organizations.

To learn more, visit Element Blues team at UiPath FORWARD IV, booth #E4.
Accounting evidence for professionals. Were always looking to support new, innovative solutions that will push the profession forward, said Erik Asgeirsson, President and CEO of CPA.com. Valid8 offers great potential for CPA firms looking to modernize and improve engagement quality for audits, forensics, advisory or tax practices.

Valid8 Financial, a company that streamlines the collection of accounting evidence to improve efficiency and reduce risk in audit, forensic, advisory or tax engagements, today announced it has closed on a round of seed financing. The company is part of the 2021 CPA.com and Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA) startup accelerator program.

Created by CPAs for CPAs, Valid8 Financial automates the collection and application of accounting evidence, resulting in time savings of 80% and the elimination of sample risk through testing of entire data sets. This allows accountants to spend more time on higher value activities.

Capital Midwest led the financing round with First Trust Capital, CPA.com, Green Cow VC and others. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate hiring throughout North America.

Weve spent the last few years refining and optimizing our patented data transformation algorithms, said Valid8 Financial CEO Chris McCall. These funds enable us to focus more deeply on our mission of helping CPAs and accounting professionals reduce risk in their engagements.

Used in thousands of professional accounting engagements in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, Valid8 allows customers to achieve higher quality output while automating the low level, mundane work that may hinder firms recruitment efforts. Types of engagements include:



Financial Statement Audits

Forensic Accounting

Federal and State White-Collar Crime Investigations

Chapter 11 Bankruptcies

Corporate Restructuring

High Net-Worth Divorces

Buy-Side M&A Diligence

Were always looking to support new, innovative solutions that will push the profession forward, said Erik Asgeirsson, President and CEO of CPA.com. Valid8 offers great potential for CPA firms looking to modernize and improve engagement quality for audits, forensics, advisory or tax practices.

The inspiration for Valid8 was based on experience working on Seattles largest-ever Ponzi scheme. Frustrated with the sheer volume of evidence collection required, cofounder Tod McDonald created Valid8 to automate the creation of a transaction database that could be used to compare information against audited financial statements and other management-supplied information.

Valid8 has been a real game-changer for us, said Matt Sutorius, an audit partner with Clark Nuber, a regional accounting firm based in the Pacific Northwest. Its enabled my team to instantly verify that everything that the client says happened on the bank statements, did happen.

To learn more about Valid8 Financial, please visit valid8financial.com.

About Valid8 Financial

Valid8 Financial, with headquarters in Boulder, CO, extracts accounting evidence from documents and systems to help eliminate or reduce sample risk from professional accounting engagements.
The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), the premier organization advocating strategic board governance in higher education, announced today that R. Barbara (Bobby) Gitenstein, PhD, and David Bass are joining the organization as senior vice president for consulting and executive director for philanthropic governance, respectively.

I am thrilled to have Bobby and David join our team, said Henry Stoever, AGB president and CEO. They are unparalleled experts in higher education governance who will serve to consequentially strengthen board governance of our institution and related foundation members at a critical time.

As the new senior vice president for consulting, Gitenstein will lead the consulting arm of AGB. She is charged with establishing a new strategic framework to enhance AGB Consultings portfolio of services, which include tailored support addressing governance policies, structure, and composition; board and presidential assessments; board development workshops and retreats; justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion; mergers and affiliations; strategic planning and transformation; and more for institutions, systems, and institutionally related foundations. Gitenstein has more than 40 years of experience as a college professor and administrator in both the public and private sectors, making her an ideal fit for the position.

Most recently, Gitenstein was a senior fellow and senior consultant for AGB. She is president emerita of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) where she served for nearly 20 years. Her time at TCNJ was transformational for the institution, with significant increases in enrollment (including Black and Latinx students), endowment and alumni giving, and student graduation rates. She also has experience in the development of strategic relationships, having overseen a public-private partnership to modernize and expand TCNJs campus footprint. Prior to being named president of TCNJ, Gitenstein served as provost and executive vice president at Drake University for more than six years. She was the first woman to serve as provost at Drake, and she was the first woman to serve as president of TCNJ. She has received recognition for her commitments to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion; shared governance; and prevention of sexual assault on college and university campuses.

Ive worked with AGB for many years as a college president and then as a consultant, said Gitenstein. I have seen first-hand how increasingly complicated the business of higher education has become in the past two decades. AGB Consulting has been a source of support and guidance for hundreds of institutions, and I am pleased to help further strategic board governance among our members.

As the inaugural executive director for philanthropic governance, Bass will provide thought leadership on board governance and leadership best practices that relate to philanthropy in higher education. He will spearhead the development of new resources that benefit institutionally related foundation boards, alumni boards, institutional governing boards, and other senior advancement leaders, leveraging his knowledge and a 22-year career at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and AGB.

Previously, Bass served as the senior director of research at CASE, where he developed a global research agenda for members. He managed the creation of a global pilot program for a series of advancement metrics that will enable international benchmarking of fundraising and alumni relations work. In addition, he initiated and contributed to multiple grant programs and research initiatives assisting minority serving institutions, U.S. public colleges and universities, and international institutions to bolster their advancement processes and opportunities. Prior to CASE, he served as senior director for foundation programs and research at AGB, where he oversaw the associations annual Foundation Leadership Forum and advised institutions and their foundations on advancement best practices and institution-foundation alignment. He has authored several publications about foundation board governance.

Im delighted to return to AGB, Bass said. Philanthropy is increasingly important in creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged and historically underrepresented students, for funding research and faculty, and for seeding centers of academic excellence. Board and presidential leadership is critical to building fundraising capacity. AGB recognizes that and is committed to helping members build sustainable and potentially transformative foundations and advancement programs.

Gitenstein begins her tenure on October 11, 2021. Bass will join AGB on November 15, 2021.

About AGB

The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) is the premier membership organization that strengthens higher education governing boards and the strategic roles they serve within their organizations. Through our vast library of resources, educational events, and consulting services, and with 100 years of experience, we empower 40,000 AGB members from more than 2,000 institutions and foundations to navigate complex issues, implement leading practices, streamline operations, and govern with confidence. AGB is the trusted resource for board members, chief executives, and key administrators on higher education governance and leadership.
Montie Apostolos, a senior fellow with the Academy for Urban School Leadership, Chicago publicist for WNBA Seattle Storm player Jewell Llyod, and former school administrator for School District 65 in Evanston, Illinois, has completed her new book Beneath the Sycamore Tree: an evocative story celebrating the dreams and hard work of a young black girl growing up in late-twentieth century Jackson, Mississippi.

Beneath the Sycamore Tree is a period piece that spans from the 1960s to 1980s. While the novels setting is from that era, the ignorance and preconceived attitudes the protagonist as well as her family experience are all relevant today. It chronicles the life of a young black girl from a middle-class family in Jackson, Mississippi who through her relationship with her grandmother discovers dreams do not have to be deferred. It is an emotional journey as she travels the world, taking risks and finding what it takes to become successful. She discovers herself and love in the process with an unlikely, and at that time, forbidden lover and friend.

As a black woman, her tested growth leads her to have and relish a defining relationship with her friends and lover. Lisas familys experience with classicism and racism catapults her into the mindset that in order to transform the collective, she has to be willing to broach racism, sexism, and the social norms in places that perpetuated it with a clear understanding of who she is.

Beneath the Sycamore Tree is unique because it exposes the reader to and defies stereotypes about people of color during one of the most challenging eras of girded underbelly segregation in the South and around the world. A little black girl becomes a determined woman because she believes in herself and held on to her grandmothers words that she can become whomever she wants to become resulting from the love and dialogue beneath the sycamore tree.

Published by Page Publishing, Montie Apostoloss engrossing book is a superb choice for avid fiction readers.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Beneath the Sycamore Tree at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing understands that authors should be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
"We applaud the work ReWritten does in providing a support system to fatherless and underserved young people. We share a common goal of making our communities better." ~Brian Edwards, BluSky vice president

BluSky Restoration Contractors, LLC, a leading national property restoration company in the U.S., today announced it raised $18,000 for ReWritten, a nonprofit organization in San Bernardino, California, through a fundraising event held September 17, 2021.

We applaud the work ReWritten does in providing a support system to fatherless and underserved young people, said Brian Edwards, BluSky vice president. We share a common goal of making our communities better.

Since 2012, ReWritten has served over 400 at-risk youth ages 5-18 in Southern California and nationwide through its scholarship and mentoring program.

While its true BluSkys generosity will provide over 250 hours of mentoring workshops and essential academic support to fatherless youth, their efforts are doing so much more, said Frank Perez, ReWritten executive director and CEO. BluSkys kindness, quite profoundly, quite thoroughly, is providing freedom from a broken past and hope for a better future to the young men and women we serve. We are humbled by this incredible gift.

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About BluSky Restoration Contractors, LLC

Denver, Colorado-based BluSky Restoration Contractors, LLC is a full-service national restoration, renovation, environmental and roofing provider for properties damaged by water, fire, storms and other disasters across the Continental U.S. and Continental U.S. Island Communities. For more information about BluSky Restoration Contractors, please visit GoBluSky.com or call (800) 266-5677.
INC magazine brandon ivan pena one of americas fastest growing companies in america Our coffee is grown here, not imported here.

787 Coffee Ranks No. 591 on the 2021 Inc. 5000,

With Three-Year Revenue Growth of 8000 Percent

Inc. Magazine Reveals Annual List of

Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companiesthe Inc. 5000

Inc. magazine revealed that 787 Coffee is No. 591 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.

We are driven by our caffeinated customers and co-workers, without them there is no us.  Brandon Pena, CEO, 787 Coffee.

Pena is working hard to take Puerto Ricos Finest coffee to the world. I am work hard to bring value to the community that supports us, to our caffeinated customers and to my co-workers, we all work so hard to give that shot of energy to our amazing customers.

Brandon Pena decided to Double NYC Footprint During COVID. This decision took them to a very successful story as they now operate 10 coffee shops in New York City, two in Puerto Rico and have five other locations under construction.

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., which is now available on newsstands.

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.

CONTACT: Zach Woodcock / 646-869-0089

More about 787 Coffee

A from farm to cup coffee experience. Coffee farm is located in Maricao, Puerto Rico. They grow, process and roast their own coffee beans. Directly sourced to 10 coffee shops in NYC and 2 in Puerto Rico.

For humans, by humans.

http://www.787coffee.com

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including 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.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.
Broad Sky today announced that it has achieved 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization from Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions. The 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization identifies and recognizes partner organizations that are leaders in positioning and selling Cradlepoints 5G for business solutions by meeting a series of sales, technical, and business proficiency criteria.

Were pleased to work with Cradlepoint to bring 5G connectivity to our customer base, stated Ron Ireland, president at Broad Sky. This achievement serves as a great example of how we are meeting the needs of our enterprise customers and continuing to upgrade our capabilities to ensure their success  before they even know they need it.

By receiving the specialization, Broad Sky will support Cradlepoints efforts of selling the industrys most comprehensive portfolio of 5G solutions to meet the business imperatives of availability, interoperability, security, and manageability. Enterprise customers look to Broad Sky to ensure that their WAN infrastructures are future-proofed to take advantage of the faster speeds and lower latency of 5G.

EPIC IO is thrilled to see Broad Skys Cradlepoint 5G Status for Enterprise Branch specialization achievement, '' added Ken Mills, CEO of EPIC IO Technologies, parent company of Broad Sky. Cradlepoints advancements in 5G network edge solutions play a key role in EPIC IOs strategy to deliver advanced, fully-integrated AI, IoT, and 5G-focused connectivity solutions, globally.

By combining its NetCloud platform with a clean-sheet-of-paper design for its new 5G modems and antenna systems, Cradlepoint is the first to deliver comprehensive 5G solutions for business. Specific capabilities include combining LTE, Gigabit-Class LTE, and 5G in a single wireless WAN; supporting all 5G spectrums, interoperating with existing customer SD-WAN and router infrastructures; and simplifying the entire network management lifecycle.

Cradlepoint is committed to leading the evolution of Wireless WAN and 5G and is both the first and best choice for customers in this space, said Eric Purcell, senior vice president of global partner sales at Cradlepoint. Our reseller, service provider, and technology partners play a crucial role in this mission. The addition of [insert partner name] to our 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization program is another important step in leading the path to 5G for business.

For more information on [insert partner name]s work in the industry, please visit [insert relevant partner webpage]. For more on Cradlepoints 5G for Enterprise Branch Specialization and the Cradlepoint Partner Program, please visit https://cradlepoint.com/partners/for-partners/.

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About Broad Sky Networks

Broad Sky Networks is a leader in enterprise-grade managed wireless solutions leveraging 4G and 5G networks in a multi-carrier environment. It provides access to fast, high-performance networks designed for both short-term projects as well as long-term access with built in redundancy and security. Broad Skys portfolio also includes private LTE, CSD-WAN, LTE POTS replacement, and AI and IoT.

About Cradlepoint

Cradlepoint is a global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks. Cradlepoint NetCloud, the personification of the companys Elastic Edge vision, is a subscription-based service with purpose-built endpoints that delivers a pervasive, secure, and software-defined Wireless WAN edge to connect people, places, and things over LTE and 5G cellular networks. More than 22,000 businesses and government agencies around the world rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical sites, points of commerce, field forces, vehicles, and IoT devices always connected and protected, including 75% of the worlds top retailers, 50% of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 25 of the largest US cities. Major service providers use Cradlepoint solutions as the foundation for innovative managed services. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with a development center in Silicon Valley and international offices in the UK and Australia.

Broad Sky Media Inquiries

Beth Amorosi

beth@fastlane.co

917-208-7489

Cradlepoint Media Inquiries

Holly Langbein

Highwire PR

cradlepoint@highwirepr.com

+1 (916) 769-2199
Builders Insurance Group is celebrating recent growth and expansion by revealing a new brand identity and shortening its name to Builders. We look forward to continuing to grow Builders through strategic partnerships and acquisitions that will move Builders into additional markets and foster new opportunities, said Mark Gromek, senior vice president of marketing and underwriting for Builders.

Builders Insurance Group is celebrating recent growth and expansion by revealing a new brand identity and shortening its name to Builders. Builders, which has a 30-year history and long insurance expertise in the construction industry, is expanding through strategic diversification into new territories and additional verticals. Builders commercial insurance products include innovative Workers Compensation, General Liability, Property, Umbrella, and Builders Risk Insurance delivered through independent agents and managing general agents.

Builders has a reputation of partnering with insurance agents to provide workers compensation to employers and serve the needs of the construction industry. While we remain committed to serving our current policyholders, Builders expertise in complex, high-severity risks, along with our high-touch service platform, makes the company particularly suited to manage risks for businesses in a variety of industries, including retail, hospitality, and manufacturing, among others, said Mark Gromek, senior vice president of marketing and underwriting for Builders. We look forward to continuing to grow Builders through strategic partnerships and acquisitions that will move Builders into additional markets and foster new opportunities.

Builders modernized brand image and name change reflects the many internal transformations that have taken place within the company. The companys renewal is driven by a fresh vision, new leadership, improved technologies, updated systems and expansion into new markets. The new brand identity includes a redesigned logo that features a lowercase b built from triangles. As the conceptual development of a refreshed Builders identity came to life, the idea was built upon the organizations stability and strength, using the strongest and most stable geometric shape, the triangle. The triangle is structurally sound with its firm base and ability to hold its shape. Collectively, the triangles form the letter b, directionally playing on the concept of building and combining pieces together to form one strong unit. Shades of blue denote trust, dependability, stability, and the confidence to always do what is best for agents and their policyholders.

Builders new tagline, Insurance built strong, reflects Builders legacy of unwavering support to its agents and their clients, robust financial strength, exceptional expertise, and deeply supportive partnerships marked by highly personal service.

Todd M. Campbell, who assumed the role of president and chief executive officer on April 5, 2021, sees the new brand identity as a visual representation of the next bold chapter in the companys 30-year legacy. We are heavily investing in our growth, which first and foremost includes investing in our people and talent development, product innovations, service delivery, and technology advancements, said Campbell. We have the capital strength and the balance sheet to achieve our growth vision and to deliver on commitments for our policyholders and agents, added Campbell.

Builders has 154 employees and has exceeded $1 billion in total assets for a second consecutive year. The company recently achieved its highest ever surplus exceeding $300M. Builders also issued the 25th consecutive dividend in 2021, bringing cumulative dividends paid since 1997 to more than $53 million. There has been more than $67 million in growth in members equity over the past two years. Builders most recent growth and expansion includes new agency locations in Arizona, with Michigan and Indiana to follow in 2021. Builders products are currently offered through more than 350 agency locations in 17 states.

At the core of everything is our commitment to develop deeper relationships with agents to drive profitable growth for them and support them in better serving their customers, said Campbell.

For more information, visit http://www.bldrs.com.

ABOUT

Headquartered in Atlanta, Builders delivers innovative Workers Compensation, General Liability, Property, Umbrella, and Builders Risk Insurance through independent agents. Founded in 1992, the company has evolved into a dynamic, financially strong mutual with a philosophy of deeply supportive partnerships and exceptional expertise. Builders is an AM Best A rated company with more than $1 billion in total assets. The company has more than 17,000 policies in force. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.bldrs.com. Follow Builders on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
C-Strategies Inc., a strategic communications and public affairs firm, has been named the winner of two Gold Stevie Awards in the Communications or PR Campaign of the Year categories in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. C-Strategies Founder, President, & CEO Becky Carroll was also honored with a Silver Stevie Award for Woman of the Year - Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and the companies they run  worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the worlds premier business awards. Winners will be celebrated during a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, January 13, 2022 and registration for the ceremony is now on sale.

Considered one of Chicagos top public affairs strategists, Becky Carroll founded C-Strategies in 2015 to fulfill her vision of launching a communications and public affairs firm that works to make Chicago and Illinois better places for everyone. Since then, C-Strategies has consistently produced winning campaigns for clients in a diverse range of industries, including: construction, education, transportation, finance, healthcare, labor, women's health, and technology. Honored for her strong leadership, civic engagement, and ability to secure results for clients, this is Beckys first national award that recognizes her as a leader in public relations and public affairs.

As our firm grows, I am so grateful to continue representing organizations, corporations and nonprofits dedicated to creating opportunities to make our city and state more inclusive and equitable for everyone, said Carroll. I always encourage my team to view themselves as an extension of our clients operation, integrating and embedding themselves within these organizations and businesses so we can become their biggest advocates. That dedication is integral to our success as a team and in delivering results for our clients.

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year for consideration in more than 100 categories. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 160 business professionals around the world, working on eight juries. C-Strategies received wins in the following categories with the following campaigns:



Gold Stevie Award for Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Crisis Management with Returning Vaccines to Loretto Hospital

Gold Stevie Award for Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Public Affairs with Right to Return to Work

When news of misallocated COVID-19 vaccinations at Loretto Hospital on Chicagos west side began to spread rapidly in Spring 2021, C-Strategies stepped in after this news broke to mitigate the negative narrative and get them back on track to delivering vaccines as part of the Citys program. As a result of the firms crisis management efforts, C-Strategies moved Loretto off front page news, stopped coverage of a flurry of false and misleading stories and helped restore Lorettos ability to vaccinate vulnerable community members against COVID-19. A really difficult challenge bravely met, commented one judge on the campaign.

Throughout 2021, C-Strategies worked with Chicago labor union UNITE HERE Local 1 to drive the narrative around its Right to Return to Work ordinance. The ordinance, which would require hotels to reinstate previous employees before hiring replacement workers, was aimed at protecting hospitality workers  who were primarily women of color and immigrants  whose livelihoods were taken from them through no fault of their own due to the pandemic. After a successful public affairs campaign that included leveraging compelling personal stories of affected-workers, generating ample media coverage in Chicago to keep the passage of the ordinance top-of-mind, and combating false narratives surrounding the ordinance, the Hotel Workers Right to Return to Work Ordinance unanimously passed the Chicago City Council in June 2021. A judge for this entry commented that the campaign was expertly executed, well supported, and valuable.

Commenting on Carrolls Woman of the Year - Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations award, one judge wrote,Becky Caroll shows promising results with the PR & Marketing campaigns she leads. Her efforts to improve communication and understanding among the diverse communities  especially with her strong work ethics and women supporting work environment  makes her well suited to be nominated for the 'Woman of the Year' award. While another wrote, A strong candidate for woman of the year. Her nomination shows her to be a formidable voice in public affairs in Illinois.

Maggie Gallagher Miller, President of the Stevie Awards, said, We thought the remarkable stories of achievement we saw in last years awards couldnt be topped, but we were wrong. Women-owned and -run organizations have contributed significantly to the increase in innovation and entrepreneurial activity weve seen globally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nominations submitted to the 18th Stevie Awards for Women in Business that attest to this are inspiring, humbling, and motivating.

Details about the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in all categories are available at https://stevieawards.com/women/2021-stevie-award-winners.

About C-Strategies

C-Strategies is a strategic communications and public affairs firm whose leadership has served on the front lines of major public policy and political campaigns in Chicago and Illinois for nearly two decades. Employing results-driven tactics and utilizing its networks to build strategic plans, guide public opinion and manage through crisis, C-Strategies brings passion and veteran experience to help clients meet their business goals, turn big ideas into action and simply get things done. Learn more at https://www.cstrategies.com/.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

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This illustration shows how real-time passive SONAR data and detailed bathymetric data will be combined to create a truly three-dimensional operating picture for sensor analysts. "Together, Kongsberg's TerraLens and Avalon's Raydiance Engine are pioneering a new class of holographic situational awareness applications to transform 3D battlespace visualization, GIS and underwater warfare."

Kongsberg Geospatial announced today that it has partnered with Avalon Holographics to develop a revolutionary holographic sonar display for submarine warfare, in a project funded by the Canadian Department of National Defense IDEaS (Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security) program.

The system has been developed to reduce the cognitive load on passive SONAR analysts by visualizing complex undersea environments on a revolutionary new holographic display.

What currently we think of as 3D displays are, in fact, actually no more than two-dimensional projections of three-dimensional scenes on a flat monitor. The geometry in the scene is necessarily distorted to create the illusion of looking at a three-dimensional object. In order to understand what youre looking at, you have to manipulate the view to look around the environment. This makes typical 3D displays less than intuitive to work with - the operator often has to manipulate the camera view in 3D to assess the area from multiple angles to truly understand what they're looking at.

This is also limiting for situations in which multiple people are looking at the same display. Ideally, they would each want to control the view independently to make it make sense for themselves. A holographic display would provide a better solution for sharing 3D information, because the view on the data can be individualized, while the image itself remains static. Providing a shared, easily understood visualization of the operational area would enable faster joint decision-making in a Control Centre for tactical, operational analysts and strategic decision-makers.

Avalon Holographics has created just that: a display that uses a complex array of millions of holographic elements or hogels, to create a true, three-dimensional image that can be clearly seen from different angles  without requiring the use of headsets or goggles. This new display will combine passive SONAR data with three-dimensional bathymetric data to create an accurate sensor picture that can be used to locate and identify possible undersea threats.

Passive sonars are used by naval ships to locate targets around the ownship, (the platform on which the primary sensor is located), when active SONAR is not viable or tactically desirable.

Tactics using multiple passive SONAR sensors or Target Motion Analysis (TMA) are used to create multiple bearing lines to find the position of the target.

Although two-dimensional map displays can give trained analysts a good understanding on where these bearing lines intersect, three-dimensional displays provide a greater understanding of how detections may be affected by the bathymetric environment. The new holographic SONAR display created by Kongsberg Geospatial and Avalon Holographics is designed to increase underwater situational awareness with respect to target detection: supporting faster and more confident decision making when using passive SONAR systems.

The solution will consist of three components: a SONAR sensor system, a SONAR map rendering system, and the holographic display.

The SONAR sensor system is located on board a surface vessel which could include a towed array, hull mounted SONAR, or sonobuoy receiver. Data from the system is fed to the SONAR map rendering system containing the information required to create the operational images to populate the 3D holographic display.

Kongsberg Geospatial is contributing the SONAR map rendering system  a software system that leverages the companys ISR applications, real-time situational awareness capabilities, and real-time sensor integration technology.

Avalon Holographics will be contributing the holographic display used to visualize the processed data.

Were excited to be delivering a new and unique user experience on a ground-breaking new display technology for situational awareness, said Ranald McGillis, President, Kongsberg Geospatial. Our battlespace visualization systems draw on our technical legacy with defense system display projects to create a world leading capability to exploit SONAR data and will help users to more effectively exploit complex sensor data.

Our ground-breaking holographic display technology applies to a wide range of applications, but the battlespace has always been a primary user focus., said Russ Baker, Co-founder, Avalon Holographics. Together, Kongsberg's TerraLens and Avalon's Raydiance Engine are pioneering a new class of holographic situational awareness applications to transform 3D battlespace visualization, GIS and underwater warfare. These bold steps are just one way we're transforming the science-fiction of holographic visual experiences into science fact.

The initial phase of the IDEaS project will run until November, during which time Avalon Holographics will be refining the performance of the display device, improving the software tools, and working with Kongsberg on software integration. Kongsberg Geospatial will be developing trials of different use cases for the systems including multi-sensor operations and Target Motion Analysis (TMA). The goal is to proceed to the next phase of the project, which would involve enhancement of Kongsbergs software, a more comprehensive integration with the display, and porting to Avalons next-generation display technology.

ENDS ###

About Kongsberg Geospatial: Based in Ottawa, Canada, Kongsberg Geospatial (https://kongsberggeospatial.com) creates precision real-time software for air traffic control and UxS and situational awareness. The Companys products are primarily deployed in solutions for air-traffic control, Command and Control, and air defense. Over nearly three decades of providing dependable performance under extreme conditions, Kongsberg Geospatial has become the leading geospatial technology provider for mission-critical applications where lives are on the line. Kongsberg Geospatial is a subsidiary of Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

Media contact: 1-800-267-2626 or reach us by email at info@kongsberggeospatial.com

About Avalon Holographics: Based in St Johns, NL, Avalon Holographics (https://www.avalonholographics.com/) is a Canadian SMB leading the next wave of display technology by pioneering development of the world's first "true" 3D professional holographic displays that revolutionize the way people produce, view and understand visual content. By replicating the experience of looking at real objects, Avalons patented holographic displays produce realistic, comfortable, and headgear-free immersive experiences. Their display technologies will transform the way users view and interact with complex information, allowing users to experience accessory free natural 3D without the nausea, fatigue, and other physical effects of using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices. With a myriad of applications including defense, and consumer use cases, Avalon Holographics is poised to disrupt the industry while setting the standard for holographic displays.

Media Contact: marketing@avalonholographics.com

About IDEaS: Based in Ottawa, Canada, The Department of National Defense IDEaS program (https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/programs/defence-ideas.html) provides funding and testing opportunities for the development of defence science and technology.
Central Holidays Romance and Honeymoon travel programs present the of-a-kind or once-in-a-lifetime experiences couples are seeking today. Based on demand, we are seeing requests coming in from travelers who postponed their couple-focused vacations and are now ready to get to planning for the travel experience of their dreams  brimming with one-of-a-kind or once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Central Holidays is showcasing its inspired collection of romance travel and honeymoon programs in some of Europes recently re-opened destinations, catering to the increase in requests from travelers who postponed their travels and are now ready to take that dream vacation. The award-winning travel brand is pleased to present exclusive romance travel and honeymoon opportunities that combine amazing experiences, superb food and wine, unique and active excursions, as well as time for relaxation  all with the most advanced safety and cleanliness protocols in place.

Our destination specialists keep their pulse on the changing trends of romantic travel and honeymoons. Based on demand, we are seeing requests coming in from travelers who postponed their couple-focused vacations and are now ready to get to planning for the travel experience of their dreams  brimming with one-of-a-kind or once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Our fresh collection of romance travel and honeymoon packages deliver exactly what they are seeking, said Maria Jose Merino, Vice President of Operations at Central Holidays. These programs are all about making memories that couples will cherish for a lifetime  at a time when everyone is ready to revel in happy moments to remember.

In addition to these exciting featured destinations, currently seeing a boost in demand, travelers can access Central Holidays full range of the most blissful romantic vacations and honeymoons to destinations across Europe, Egypt, South Africa, and Latin America. Heres a look at some of the opportunities showcasing Greece and Italy.

GREECE



9-day Athens, Mykonos & Santorini from $2429  This dreamy romantic couples Greece vacation package takes travelers to Athens and the Greek Isles featuring stays in the countrys fascinating capital, Athens, as well as in the Cycladics Mykonos and Santorini with wine and flowers at each of your hotels and lots of alluring inclusions. centralholidays.com/Destinations/Mediterranean/Greece/ATHENS-MYKONOS--SANTORINI

Honeymoon In Greece from$473  The opportunities for postcard-perfect romantic vacations abound! Couples can enjoy the companys Romance & Honeymoon Greece Collection featuring: Athens, Mykonos & Santorini; Athens, Mykonos, Paros & Santorini; and Athens & Crete. Central Holidays' expansive range of Greece island hopping vacation packages as well as its vast itineraries throughout the Greek Isles can also be adapted to custom-create the ideal Honeymoon. centralholidays.com/Destinations/Mediterranean/Greece/Honeymooning-in-Greece

ITALY



6-Day Unforgettable Sicily from $2,564  Couples are sure to enjoy the timeless beauty and mystique that makes this romantic trip in Italy's Sicily simply amazing, featuring privately guided experiences in Palermo and Monreale as well as outdoor adventuring via elegant sail boat on Taormina Bay, plus so much more! centralholidays.com/Destinations/Mediterranean/Italy/Unforgettable-Sicily

6-day Sorrento and the Romantic Island of Ischia from $3199  On this romantic Italy vacation travelers will enjoy a full-day Sorrento and Positano tour by Vespa, an espresso break and limoncello tasting, a sunset boat trip from Sorrento with prosecco, tour of Ischia, plus full-day sailing around the island. centralholidays.com/Destinations/Mediterranean/Italy/Sorrento-and-the-Romantic-Island-of-Ischia

6-day Enchanting Venice and Picturesque Lake Como $3515  Chock-full of private excursions, wine tasting experiences and more, vacationers on this trip will revel in the magic of Italy with included activities as a gondola tour in Venice with musicians and a full day tour of Lake Como by private boat. centralholidays.com/Destinations/Mediterranean/Italy/Enchanting-Venice-and-Picturesque-Lake-Como

Couples and Newlyweds seeking to enjoy the experiences of a lifetime together can start the next exciting chapter in their love stories with these outstanding new Romance and Honeymoon travel programs. Call Central Holidays at 1-800-935-5000 or visit centralholidays.com for additional details.

About Central Holidays:

Founded in 1972, Central Holidays is an award-winning travel brand that offers superior travel programs, value, and service to enchanting destinations across Italy, Europe, Egypt, Africa, West Asia, and Latin America. As true destination specialists, this leader in travel offers an expansive range of Independent, Escorted, Hosted, and Land/Cruise itineraries. Central Holidays presents a wide array of diverse travel opportunities including cultural programs, culinary adventures, family vacations, romantic getaways, and active travel. Group Travel Experiences are a hallmark of the company, offering special interest travel, religious pilgrimages, and fully customized programs. Their newest brand, Journeys by Central Holidays, was created to orchestrate tailor-made travel experiences that redefine luxury. Central Holidays remains at the forefront of the tourism and travel industry, offering distinctive travel programs that support brand promises of reliability, expertise, and flexibility. For more information, contact Central Holidays at 1-800-935-5000 or visit centralholidays.com.
For Sock Rocket, this ClearAngel investment reflects our mission of helping small businesses increase revenue and attain resources, and will propel the brand to broaden its impact on footwear and those it benefits. - Andrew DSouza, CEO and co-founder, Clearco

Clearco, the worlds largest e-commerce investor revolutionizing the way founders grow their businesses, today announced that its industry-leading ClearAngel program is funding Sock Rocket, a creative footwear brand that also donates socks to various agencies who support those in need. ClearAngel gives early-stage companies access to revenue share capital, data-driven advice, and an extensive network of apps, agencies, and investors powered by Clearco.

Founded by Tommy Zizian in 2016, Sock Rocket donates three pairs of socks per every pair sold. It may come as a surprise to some that socks are one of the most needed items for institutions that help the less fortunate. Sock Rocket has been highly successful at closing some of this gap, having donated roughly 150,000 pairs to date, but they are looking to better their donation program in several ways. ClearAngel will enable them to grow in sales, which will increase the volume of socks they are able to donate.

ClearAngel is among just a few equity-free, flexible capital options for early-stage founders who lack the network to raise an angel round or join exclusive accelerators. Since its February 2021 launch, the program has already funded over 350 companies.

Clearco is helping us expand our operations and make an even bigger impact on those in need, said Tommy Zizian, co-founder, Sock Rocket. Its extremely important for us to be able to donate more and more, and growth means well be able to do just that.

In addition to $10,000 of flexible capital, Sock Rocket will also get access to a network of more than 500 investors, growth teams, agencies, apps, lawyers, and buyers; and data-driven advice designed to help scale and hit new revenue milestones. With ClearAngels funding, they will be able to pursue multi-channel revenue and master ad spend. More immediately, the brand is working to perfect its new wholesale partnership and promote their recently released Christmas collection.

Were proud to fund Sock Rocket in its ongoing mission to provide those in need with socks, which are often an underappreciated building block of a new start, said Andrew DSouza, CEO and co-founder, Clearco. For Sock Rocket, this ClearAngel investment reflects our mission of helping small businesses increase revenue and attain resources, and will propel the brand to broaden its impact on footwear and those it benefits.

To learn more about Sock Rocket and donate while shopping, visit sockrocket.ca.

ClearAngel is currently onboarding E-commerce and product companies. The program has limited spots available for SaaS, Apps, marketplace and stealth companies. To learn more about applying, visit angel.clearbanc.com.

About Clearco:

Co-founded as Clearbanc in 2015 by Michele Romanow from Canadas Shark Tank (Dragons Den), Andrew DSouza, Ivan Gritsiniak, Charlie Feng, and Tanay Delima, Clearco offers the most founder-friendly capital solutions for e-commerce, mobile apps, and SaaS founders as well as a full suite of products and access to a powerful global network, insights and data, and recommendations. Clearco has invested over $2 Billion in over 4,500 companies to date, including Leesa Sleep, fashion-rental service Le Tote, home goods company Public Goods, shirtmaker UNTUCKit, online speech therapy practice Expressible, and digital real estate marketplace SetSchedule. For more information visit clear.co and @getClearco.


Now campers can enjoy delicious, gourmet meals, such as Chicken Tikka Masala or Wild Alaskan Salmon, simply by boiling the pouch in water for two minutes. Campfare is reinventing camping food with its unique approach and gourmet menu, said Andrew DSouza, CEO and co-founder, Clearco. This ClearAngel investment is a fitting addition to our long history of support for CPG food and beverage innovation.

Clearco, the worlds largest e-commerce investor revolutionizing the way founders grow their businesses, today announced that its ClearAngel program is funding Campfare, the source for chef-quality, fully-hydrated, ready-to-eat camping meals. ClearAngel gives early-stage founders access to revenue share capital, data-driven advice, and Clearcos extensive network of apps, agencies, and investors.

Chef and outdoors enthusiast Andrew Sarda founded CampFare in 2019, after honing his culinary skills working in restaurants in New York and around the country. While traveling and spending time on the trail, he recognized an opportunity to provide a better dining option for campers and built Campfare: chef-crafted, minimally processed, shelf-stable camping meals. Now campers can enjoy delicious, gourmet meals, such as Chicken Tikka Masala or Wild Alaskan Salmon, simply by boiling the pouch in water for two minutes.

ClearAngel is one of a few equity-free, flexible capital options for early-stage founders who would benefit from raising an angel round or joining exclusive accelerators, but dont have the network to do so. In the short time since February 2021, the program has already funded over 350 companies.

Campfare is reinventing camping food with its unique approach and gourmet menu, said Andrew DSouza, CEO and co-founder, Clearco. This ClearAngel investment is a fitting addition to our long history of support for CPG food and beverage innovation.

In addition to $10,000 of flexible capital, Campfare will also get access to a network of more than 500 investors, growth teams, agencies, apps, lawyers, and buyers; and data-driven advice designed to help scale and hit new revenue milestones.

With interest in camping exploding during the pandemic, ClearAngel's funding comes at a crucial time, said Sarda. We will extend our online marketing reach to take advantage of the high consumer interest and grow our inventory to meet rising demand. We believe high-quality food should be convenient and easy for campers and were committed to providing a fine-dining camping experience.

To learn more about Campfare and experience the next big brand in camping food for yourself, visit Campfare.com

ClearAngel is currently onboarding E-commerce and product companies. There are limited spots available for SaaS, Apps, marketplace and stealth companies. To learn more, visit angel.clearbanc.com.

About Clearco:

Co-founded as Clearbanc in 2015 by Michele Romanow from Canadas Shark Tank (Dragons Den), Andrew DSouza, Ivan Gritsiniak, Charlie Feng, and Tanay Delima, Clearco offers the most founder-friendly capital solutions for e-commerce, mobile apps, and SaaS founders as well as a full suite of products and access to a powerful global network, insights and data, and recommendations. Clearco has invested over $2 Billion in over 4,500 companies to date, including Leesa Sleep, fashion-rental service Le Tote, home goods company Public Goods, shirtmaker UNTUCKit, online speech therapy practice Expressable, and digital real estate marketplace SetSchedule. For more information visit clear.co and @getClearco.
We are honored to be recognized by the prestigious Inc. Magazine for the first time in our companys history. This recognition demonstrates the dedication that we have to our clients, as well as the hard work and resilience displayed throughout the current pandemic.

ColinKurtis Advertising, a leading food industry agency specializing in strategic branding and communication solutions, has recently been named a 2021 Inc. 5000 Company. The Inc. 5000 list rewards the nations most successful and fastest-growing private companies and has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success.

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.

We are honored to be recognized by the prestigious Inc. Magazine for the first time in our companys history, said Colin Kampmier, President, ColinKurtis Advertising. This recognition demonstrates the dedication that we have to our clients, as well as the hard work and resilience displayed throughout the current pandemic. As a marketing agency thats focused on delivering high-impact innovative solutions, we celebrate this honor with our clients who have believed in our capabilities to deliver greater value to their marketing efforts. We also recognize and take great pride in our long-term client relationships; we wouldnt be here today without their partnership!

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list been very competitive within their markets, but this years honorees 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.

For more information on ColinKurtis or to be inspired by some of the agencys work, please visit http://www.colinkurtis.com.

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About ColinKurtis Advertising

ColinKurtis Advertising, a Rockford, Illinois-based company, is a full-service advertising and design firm. The agency strives to provide both business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients with strategic marketing solutions delivered through solid creative direction and concise communication messaging.

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 companies recognized in the Fast 40 are an exceptional group, and it is an honor to be among them. This years award is extra special given the collective challenge of our time and is reflective of the dedication of our employees and the resiliency of our customers.

For the ninth time, equipment and accounts receivable finance company, Commercial Credit, Inc., parent company of Commercial Credit Group Inc. (CCG) and Commercial Funding Inc., has made the Business North Carolina Mid-Market Fast 40 List. To qualify, a company must be headquartered in North Carolina, have annual revenue between $10 and $500 million and demonstrate sustained revenue and employment growth over the past three years.

In the ten years that the NC Mid-Market Fast 40 awards have been given, over 190 companies have been named to the list. Commercial Credit, Inc. is the only company to make the list nine times. Dan McDonough, president and CEO, states, The companies recognized in the Fast 40 are an exceptional group, and it is an honor to be among them. This years award is extra special given the collective challenge of our time and is reflective of the dedication of our employees and the resiliency of our customers.

The forty companies were recognized at a luncheon, hosted by Business North Carolina and Cherry Bekaert LLP, on September 27, and will be featured in the November issue of Business North Carolina magazine.

About Commercial Credit, Inc.:

Commercial Credit, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiaries Commercial Credit Group Inc. (including its division Manufacturers Capital) and Commercial Funding Inc., provides equipment loans and leases to small and mid-sized businesses in the construction, fleet transportation, machine tool and manufacturing and waste industries and accounts receivable factoring in a variety of industries. The companys sales force is located throughout North America. Commercial Credit, Inc. is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and operates full-service offices in Buffalo, NY, Naperville, IL, Hamilton, ON and Salt Lake City, UT. For more information, please visit http://www.commercialcreditgroup.com, and http://www.commercialfund.com.


Copp Systems, a regional and national provider specializing in facility and information technology services focused primarily on design, deployment, and support for these systems is pleased to announce that the company is now a Data Solution Partner for Rittal.

Rittal North America celebrates its 40th year of manufacturing in the United States. The global company, which is known for its pioneering role in modular enclosure technologies and its partnership in developing what has become the standard 19-inch server rack for the IT industry, launched its U.S. operations in Urbana, Ohio, in 1981.

Today, Rittal is known throughout the U.S. not only for its industrial enclosures and IT racks but also for its energy-efficient industrial climate control solutions and its role in helping American industries embrace automation.

"We are extremely excited about having Rittal in our mix," said Bill DeFries, CEO of Copp Systems. "This is just one of the ways we are enhancing our ability to bundle our products and services to provide 'end-to-end' solutions for our customers."

The Rittal Secure Edge Enclosures allows our customers to run enterprise-grade IT in close proximity to their operational technology environments, machines and equipment, said Paul Roy, President of Copp Systems. Enabling low-latency, secure and reliable digital processes.

Copp Systems is a systems integrator, managed service provider, software reseller, IT Network infrastructure, design, build, and installation provider to commercial, institutional, healthcare, government, retail chain, and industrial enterprises nationwide. Copp Systems is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio

For more information, contact Copp Systems toll-free at 1-877-450-2677, or go to http://www.copp.com.

Contact:

Bill DeFries, CEO

Copp Systems

Phone: 937-228-4188

Web:http://www.copp.com
This high-quality weighted blanket will make a difference in peoples lives by elevating the sleeping and relaxation experience while giving them the luxury they deserve.

Fall asleep faster, achieve a deeper sleep and wake up feeling more refreshed with Cottonball Home, a comfortably luxurious weighted blanket.

Cottonball Home is a revolutionary 9-layer weighted blanket with a double-sided cover designed with premium Egyptian cotton on one side and Bamboo fabric on the other side. The Cottonball Home weighted blanket relaxes the nervous system by simulating the feeling of being held or hugged, which increases serotonin and melatonin levels while decreasing stress levels, improving your mood and promoting restful sleep. Most weighted blankets pad their beads with polyester filling, but Cottonball Home includes glass beads padded with a feather-like filling for duvet-like ultimate comfort and a luxurious look and feel of Egyptian quality.

The American Institute of Stress says more than 70% of people express physical or psychological symptoms caused by stress. Weighted blankets are proven to be the most effective way to simulate deep pressure touch (DPT), a type of therapy that uses firm, hands-on pressure to reduce chronic stress and high levels of anxiety.

A good nights sleep is empowering in so many ways, but unfortunately many people have trouble sleeping and dont get the sufficient rest they need, said Ahmed Habib, co-founder of Cottonball Home. This high-quality weighted blanket will make a difference in peoples lives by elevating the sleeping and relaxation experience while giving them the luxury they deserve.

Cottonball Homes gentle pressure mimics the feeling of being held, which helps people fall asleep faster, achieve a deeper sleep and wake up feeling more refreshed. It has the plushness and luxury of a comforter combined with the benefits of a weighted blanket. Say goodbye to sleepless nights with Cottonball Home. To pre-order, visit http://pr.go2.fund/cottonball-home.

About Cottonball Home

Cottonball Home was created by the same founders that brought you Cottonball in 2013. For more than 8 years they have created products using pure Egyptian cotton with an emphasis on quality necessities and bare apparel. Cottonball Homes mission is to improve the quality of sleep across the globe by using the latest weighted technology and luxurious, high-end quality fabrics. For more information, visit https://www.cottonball.co/.
DAPCEP kicks off its 45th Fall Semester this month. The local nonprofit has prepared roughly 70,000 underrepresented students for STEM futures. "We are grateful to all our parents, partners and program providers, our Board and our staff who have supported DAPCEP for decades. Only with this support are we able to continue providing unique STEM experiences for nearly 11,000 students each year," said DAPCEP Executive Director Michelle Reaves

Since its beginnings in 1976, Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) has become one of the leading nonprofit organizations of choice for maximizing underrepresented youth potential for success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). DAPCEPs standards-based curriculum will expose students to unique STEM experiences including: Animation, Artificial Intelligence and Coding, Bioengineering and other Engineering disciplines, Chemistry, Cyber Security, Digital Tech, Mobile Apps, Accounting, Nuclear Power, SAT Prep, Urban Design and more.

DAPCEP Explorers eight-week modules that will expose PK through 3rd graders to various science and engineering concepts will be held on Saturdays beginning September 25th. DAPCEP Pathfinders six-week modules for grades 4th through 12th will be held on Saturdays starting October 9th. Semester classes will culminate in a final showcase event held November 13th. Interested parents and students can view the full list of Fall 2021 courses online and register at: https://dapcep.asapconnected.com/#CourseIndex, call the DAPCEP office (313-831-3050) or send an email to: info@dapcep.org. Registration for PK through 3rd grade classes ends September 17th and enrollment for 4th through 12th grade classes ends September 24th. Working with Bradley University, DAPCEP Fall virtual courses for 4th through 8th grade students are underway in Peoria, Illinois.

We are truly thrilled to kick off the Fall semester of DAPCEPs 45th year, said Executive Director Michelle L. Reaves. This Fall, we have collaborated with partners -- Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Altair Engineering and PriceWaterhouseCoopers -- and several area universities and educational providers to supply our students with a unique array of hands-on activities that acclimates them with STEM concepts and supplements their academic studies. We will continue with virtual programming to keep our students and instructors safe. We are grateful to all our parents, our partners and program providers, our Board and our staff who have supported DAPCEP for decades. Only with this support are we able to continue providing authentic, interactive STEM experiences for nearly 11,000 students each year.

Classes will be held online, primarily via Zoom. Course materials will be distributed the week prior to when classes start -- either by mail, or via scheduled safe pick-up at the DAPCEP office located in downtown Detroit. Thanks to the generous support of our corporate partners, most of the costs required to deliver DAPCEPs courses have been covered. There is a $75 fee for the Explorers program, and $25 fee for Pathfinders courses. Limited scholarships are available for eligible families.

DAPCEP is the brainchild of Mr. Kenneth Hill, who founded the nonprofit with 245 students in 1976. During a mission in Africa, Hill  an educator and engineer by trade - taught local students Calculus by candlelight. This experience motivated Hill to create a similar program in Detroit. Initiated with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, DAPCEP began in partnership with the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, one Detroit high school and two middle schools. Since then, DAPCEP maintains a 50:50 female-to-male ratio, a near 100 percent graduation rate and has amassed roughly 70,000 alumni.

To ready Cody Rouge community students for the 2021-2022 academic year, DAPCEP, together with the St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center, Global Automotive Alliance, Consumers Energys Minority Advisory Panel and the Detroit Police Department hosted a Back-To-School Fair late August.

The 10th annual DAPCEP Real McCoy Awards presented by DTE Energy will be held on Thursday, September 30th at 6:00pmET. Named after famed inventor and Detroiter Elijah McCoy, this annual event honors distinguished professionals and youth who have demonstrated excellence in STEM throughout the year and a commitment to motivate the next generation of STEM professionals. With continued precautionary measures in place, this years event will be pre-recorded and broadcast virtually via DAPCEPs Facebook page.

Reaves, the first woman to be named DAPCEPs Executive Director, added: A recent Pew Research Center report shows that African American and Latinx workers make up just 17 percent of the STEM workforce. If the pandemic has taught us anything, its that the world needs more scientists, more engineers and more researchers to support diverse communities.

About DAPCEP

Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) is an educational 501(c)3 organization that has prepared underrepresented pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students throughout Southeast Michigan for STEM futures since 1976. Using a standards-aligned curriculum, DAPCEP programs are designed to develop students school and life readiness skills such as critical thinking, creativity, confidence, communication and collaboration. Through the generous support of partners, schools and universities, alumni, parents and the community, DAPCEP engages 11,000 students each year. With more than 68,000 alumni, a 50-50 female-to-male student ratio and a near 100% graduation rate, DAPCEP remains one of the leading organizations of choice for maximizing youth potential for success. For more information, visit the DAPCEP website (http://www.dapcep.org), call 313-831-3050 and follow DAPCEP on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.


Floki Inu is assaulting the market with very targeted and aggressive marketing campaigns. This marketing is being used to target major metropolitan areas, assist in getting FLOKI listed on high level exchanges, and onboard a-list influencers. Only some of these initiatives have been announced.

To start, Floki Inu just signed a huge and strategic contract to advertise in the London Underground and across about 300 London buses. London has a population of about 9 million. In addition to its population, it gets over 21 million visitors annually. This potential exposure to a host of different people makes London Underground advertising a profitable and popular investment for many large businesses. The tube network covers over 402km, serves 270 busy stations, and carries a total of 4.8 million passengers daily.

The London bus system is also one of the most utilized transportation systems in London. Not only do millions of individuals use the London bus system on a daily basis, advertising on buses acts as mobile advertising opportunities.

Floki Inu has also signed a strategic marketing deal with Kevani and Vector Media in order to lock down Los Angeles for 3 months. This marketing initiative will start in October and run through the end of the year.

Los Angeles is in the heart of California and is a major economic and tourist hub to the entire world. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a population of about 18 million people. In addition to its residents, Los Angeles is also visited by 50 million annual visitors. Los Angeles boasts being the number 1 city in the world when it comes to purchasing power.

Floki Inu has signed a deal to advertise on 3 billboards in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, through Kevani. Floki Inu anticipates getting over 110 million impressions during the 3 months of its billboard campaign.

In addition to the billboard campaign, Floki Inu is also advertising for 3 months on 25 buses in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Floki Inu anticipates getting over 60 million impressions during the 3 months of its bus campaign.

This is just the beginning of the marketing push for Floki Inu. Several other initiatives have already been announced, like Dextool banners and Facebook ads. However, many major pieces to this massive initiative have not even been announced.

Website: theflokiinu.com
Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, co-chair of Greenberg Traurig, LLPs Appeals & Legal Issues group has been named to City & States 2021 Latino Power 100 list.

The Latino Power 100 List recognizes the most influential Latinos who are serving in public office, running businesses, leading nonprofits, and advocating for policy changes in New York, according to its website.

Ciparick, a former New York State Court of Appeals Senior Associate Judge, advises clients on appellate matters and litigation strategy and mentors the firm's junior lawyers. She is active in public service, serving on the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice, the New York Courts Historical Society, and the New York State Indigent Legal Services Board. Ciparick was appointed by the Chief Judge to co-chair the New York Justice Task Force that examines the causes of wrongful convictions. She was also appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve as chair of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Ciparick also serves as Chair of the New York State Board of Law Examiners.

About Greenberg Traurigs Diversity Initiative: From its inception, Greenberg Traurig has been committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Greenberg Traurig is a uniquely empowering and diverse firm built on a foundation of fairness, equality, and authenticity. Through its Social, Racial, and Economic Justice Action Plan, the firm has committed $5 million over five years to help combat systemic racism and support impoverished communities. In addition, the firms efforts have been recognized through its Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certification Plus, administered by The Diversity Lab, and by local, national, and global publications and organizations including Chambers and Partners. Web: https://www.gtlaw.com/en/general/our-firm/diversity Twitter: @GT_Drives.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2,300 attorneys in 40 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 n the Am Law Global 100. The firm is net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage and Mansfield Rule 4.0 Plus Certified. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com


"Love your neighbor." We do it by listening without judgment.

Mobilize Vaccine Turnout! is the title of a new handbook that will help congregations reach out to the unvaccinated, offering information and support for getting the COVID-19 shot. The 40-page guide, available as a downloadable PDF, is published by The Parish Paper, a monthly resource newsletter serving rural and urban congregations in many of the states hardest hit by COVID-19.

Right now everyone is concerned about low vaccination rates. Congregations are uniquely poised to help, as many of them are located in areas that are under-vaccinated or socially vulnerable. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) identifies as socially vulnerable those communities that deal with low pay, job loss, family responsibilities, and racial disparities in health care.

Everywhere anger at the unvaccinated has reached a boiling point. This handbook takes a different tack, advocating compassion, curiosity, and a willingness to listen in talking with the unvaccinated.

The handbook takes a whole-church approach to the problem, offering how-to steps for health-focused workshops, community forums, and vaccine clinics, as well as community surveys and door-to-door canvassing. The handbook also explains in depth how to talk to friends and family who are vaccine hesitant.

Jesus message is clear: 'Love your neighbor,'" says Dana Horrell, Coeditor of The Parish Paper (http://www.theparishpaper.com). For us at this moment, it means saying no to judgmentalism toward the unvaccinated. This handbook helps congregations take a more compassionate approach.

The handbook offers great tools for our organization, according to Cheryl Lascher, a staff member at RISSE, a faith-based non-profit operated by Emmaus United Methodist Church in Albany, New York. We are helping refugee families to accept the value of vaccination. This handbook helps with factual information and a variety of approaches.

Mobilizing Vaccine Turnout! can be downloaded at http://www.vaccineturnout.com. Register for a webinar on how to use the handbook, set for Wed., Nov. 17, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ElSQ1-aCTDOfTX66lOcyYg

What Is The Parish Paper?

The Parish Paper (http://www.theparishpaper.com) is a monthly newsletter that provides research and insight for leaders in 6,500 congregations across the United States. Broadly ecumenical in scope, its primary readership derives from the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church USA, United Methodist Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), American Baptist Church, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Coeditor, Dana Horrell, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor serving in Cooperstown, New York. He is the author of Engage!: Tools for Ministry in the Community (Fortress Press, 2019). For webinars on vaccine access or hesitancy, contact him at danahorrell@theparishpaper.com or 315-439-9154.
For anyone looking to locate an inmate, the most essential piece of information to know is exactly what facility the inmate is in. There are 1,833 state prisons, 3134 local jails, and 110 federal prisons in the USA. Knowing where to start your inmate search online will save a lot of time and headaches. Each of these correctional systems has its own inmate database, and figuring out exactly which one a particular person is in or finding old inmate records can get complicated without the right tools. Visit https://sheriffsdepartment.net/inmate-search/ to discover all the inmate locator tools available to the public.

Prison Inmate Search

Any inmate who gets sent to prison is typically serving a sentence of over 12 months. Inmates incarcerated in prison have already gone through the court process and are officially convicted of a crime. In most cases, these are felony-level offenses. Around 1500 inmates get transferred every week for many reasons like overcrowding or security reasons. So it can be challenging to locate inmates who have been serving a while. But for the most part, each state offers its own Department of Corrections inmate locator.

Jail Inmate Search

Jail Inmates are located in local holding facilities, and the sheriff's department usually operates these facilities. For the most part, jails are used as short-term holding facilities. Inmates located in jails have either been convicted and are serving a sentence under 12 months or are going through the court process and haven't been convicted yet. Another set of inmates housed in jail are people who have been arrested but will typically be released the same day or the next day after going through the booking process.

Most counties will have a current inmate database online. If there are no online inmate search options, a call to the local jail should be made. To find jail inmate databases visit https://sheriffsdepartment.net/inmate-search/.

Inmate Background Check and Inmate Court Information.

State prison and jail databases won't be very helpful to discover more detailed background checks or inmate court information. Different databases need to be used for those needing to take a closer look into an inmate's background. Many public records resources are available at the national, state, and county levels for more detailed information. For anyone who needs to learn more information regarding and incarcerated inmates, try https://sheriffsdepartment.net/. Search billions of public records with the instant search option by name. The background report reveals arrest, criminal, court, bankruptcies records, addresses, phone numbers, and more.

Is There A Free Nationwide Inmate Search?

Because prison and jail databases are separate from one another, the only way to do a nationwide inmate search online is to use a service. The only way to do a free inmate search is to do an individual database lookup maintained by the department of corrections, federal prisons, and local jails.

Helpful Terms For Inmate Lookup.

Inmates ID Number / Doc Number

The inmate ID number is comparable to the individual's social security number. It's the number the Department of Corrections or Federal Bureau of Prisons utilizes to distinguish an inmate within their documents, used for all prison procedures that the inmate is engaged in.

Inmate Charges

A criminal charge is an allegation of a criminal offense per probable cause. A conviction happens in the future when possibly the accused pleads guilty for the charges, or perhaps a judge or jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant perpetrated the charged criminal offense.

Inmates Release Date

An inmate's release date is available to the general public and is acquired with a telephone call or online search. Regardless of whether you are a member of the family or a victim of a crime perpetrated by the inmate, knowing when the inmate will be released is important.

Inmates Court Date and Time

A person can discover details on an inmate's court date on the webpage of the court that's hearing the case. The person could also call, email, or go to the court to determine the inmate's court date.

Inmate Booking Number

Whenever an individual is taken to a jail, that individual is provided an inmate booking number. The inmate booking number is actually a method to record the individual's specifics and functions as a solution to identify the inmate.

Inmate Mugshots

Mugshots are photos police take right after booking and arrest. After arrest, a person is booked, fingerprinted, and photographed for recognition intentions. You may see mugshots online by examining one of many web pages.
As the industry evolves, we will continue to provide products and support to help our technicians be successful. We are very excited about our current connected product offering as well as what the future holds.

Since PRO1s inception, it has been dedicated exclusively to the professional HVAC industry. Its full line of thermostats simplifies installations and generates future business. However, you will not find any of these products in big box stores. All are sold exclusively through the professional HVAC channel. This conscious choice has made PRO1 the preferred brand for technicians across the country.

At PRO1, all of the features, products, and engineering efforts are focused on making professional installers lives easier. Features like the universal subbase system, magnetic private label badge, and simple user interface provide technicians (and homeowners) with a simple and straightforward experience day after day. PRO1 also has a strong network of local representation across North America, including an experienced technical support team located in the United States.

With the growing demand for smart homes and energy conservation, PRO1 has directed its focus to smart thermostats. While other brands focus on complicated features and high-priced designs, PRO1 strives to be the easiest-to-use solution on the market. The setpoint slider, intuitive scheduling, dynamic fan, and system buttons make managing comfort fun and convenient.

Today, PRO1 offers three separate Wi-Fi models including the popular T855iSH. All three are controlled by the stand-alone PRO1 Connect app. Each of these models share similar features as well as the overall dedication and exclusivity to professional HVAC technicians.

All PRO1 products are sold exclusively through the professional HVAC distribution channel. To learn more about PRO1 and how to purchase its please visit:

https://pro1iaq.com/products/wifi-thermostat

I am extremely proud of what PRO1 has accomplished while staying 100 percent loyal to our values and the professional HVAC channel, says PRO1 president Steven Mykytyn. As the industry evolves, we will continue to provide products and support to help our technicians be successful. We are very excited about our current connected product offering as well as what the future holds.

About PRO1

PRO1 is a USA-based technology company founded in 2007. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, PRO1 manufactures HVAC controls and other indoor air quality products. Since inception, it has been dedicated to the professional HVAC industry and has grown to be one of the largest and most popular thermostat brands in North America.

About Mediaplanet

Mediaplanet specializes in the creation of content marketing campaigns covering a variety of industries. We tell meaningful stories that educate our audience and position our clients as solution providers. Our unique ability to pair the right leaders with the right readers, through the right platforms, has made Mediaplanet a global content marketing powerhouse. Our award-winning stories have won the hearts of countless readers while serving as a valuable platform for brands and their missions. Just call us storytellers with a purpose. Please visit http://www.mediaplanet.com for more about who we are and what we do.

Press Contact:

Geoff Goss

417-861-4733

ggoss@pro1iaq.com
Abel Olivera, CEO of Jensen Meat at ribbon-cutting ceremony for new Jensen Plant-based Division We want to use our knowledge of burger production to help plant-based companies achieve the best looking, tastiest patty, and now, we are opening our first plant-based production facility, said Abel Olivera, CEO of Jensen Meat.

Jensen Meat, a leading processor of quality ground beef products for the foodservice distribution, restaurant, retail, and school markets, announces the opening of its first plant-based production facility. Its new production plant represents a milestone for the company, which announced its plan to manage co-packing opportunities for plant-based beef alternatives three years ago.

We want to use our knowledge of burger production to help plant-based companies achieve the best looking, tastiest patty, and now, we are opening our first plant-based production facility, said Abel Olivera, CEO of Jensen Meat. We set our sights on a new industry, and we knew that our expertise could increase national production of plant-based products. Ultimately, we will create more food for a growing population through cost-effective, innovative initiatives.

The newest plant at Jensen Meat Co., which was celebrated at a ribbon cutting on September 23, 2021, will produce plant-based products at a rate of 25 million pounds annually, allowing the company to increase its production of affordable protein sources. It will include multiple processes, including blending, cooking, dry mixing, emulsifying, and hydrating, in addition to bulk and patty forming for food service and retail finished products. Production began on September 24, 2021.

We have diversified, added Mr. Olivera. We feel there is room for both industries  traditional and plant-based  to thrive in a sustainable manner. Our new plant will produce sustainable protein while driving down costs for smaller companies.

Jensen Meat Company, founded in 1958 by Reggie Jensen, has experienced exponential growth in recent years, including development of new products and job creation. The company continues to redefine its commitment to sustainability through new initiatives, including strategic partnerships.

Additional details about Jensen Meats new production plant are available upon request. To schedule an interview, please contact Trisha Lavigne at (619) 754-6400 or media@designapolis.com. For more information about Jensen, visit http://www.jensenmeat.com or find Jensen Meat at http://www.facebook.com/jensenmeat.

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About Jensen Meat, Company

Jensen Meat, Co. is a privately held, leading processor and marketer of high-quality ground beef products. Located in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego, CA, the company has strong branded products sold under Fat Burger, Great Value, Kroger, Sams Choice, and Sysco, as well as other licensed product extensions. Jensen Meat products are sold through retail, foodservice, and club store channels throughout the United States. Founded in 1958 by Reggie Jensen, it produces 75 million pounds of ground beef annually from its new 150,000 sq. ft., state-of-the-art plant. In addition, it manufactures 250 SKUs of retail and foodservice products such as individually quick-frozen and fresh patties. Jensen Meat products are sold through retail, foodservice, and club store channels throughout the United States.
Jordan W. Cowman, a Labor & Employment Practice shareholder in the Dallas office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, will speak at the Texas General Counsel Forums (TGCF) statewide virtual continuing legal education (CLE) program, Sept. 29 at 12 p.m. CDT.

Cowman will discuss Top Ten Ethical Traps for In-House Counsel. The presentation will provide an understanding of how the rules of ethics apply to in-house counsel, some of the most common pitfalls that may land in-house counsel in ethics hot water, and how to stay on the right side of applicable ethics obligations.

TGCF has been committed to serving in-house leadership in Texas since 1998. The forum has more than 650 general and senior managing counsel members representing over 450 companies throughout the state, according to the TGCF website.

Cowman co-chairs the firms Labor & Employment Practices International Employment, Immigration & Workforce Strategies group. A long-time U.S. business representative to the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, Cowman is sought by businesses when issues arise concerning labor and employment litigation, counseling and compliance, including international and cross-border employment matters, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate campaigns, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues. He has assisted clients both domestically and internationally with business combinations, merger and acquisition due diligence, supply chain issues, the linkage between labor rights and trade, the eradication of forced labor and USMCA issues.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP  Texas: Texas is important to Greenberg Traurig, LLP and part of its history. With approximately 130 Texas lawyers in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Greenberg Traurig has deep roots in the Texas business, legal, and governmental communities. Greenberg Traurig Texas works with clients to address their interdisciplinary legal needs across the state utilizing the firms global platform. The Texas attorneys are experienced in industries key to the states future, including: aviation, chemicals, construction, education, energy and natural resources, financial institutions, health care, hedge funds, hospitality, infrastructure, insurance, media, medical devices, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, real estate, retail, sports, technology and software, telecommunications, transportation, and video games and esports.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2,300 attorneys in 40 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. The firm is net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage and Mansfield Rule 4.0 Plus Certified. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com
Advisor, Katie Hayse of Engel & Volkers Jacksonville I wanted to leverage the momentum Ive had to grow my business, but I was looking for the right combination of support, systems, tools and materials that a brand like Engel & Volkers can offer.

Engel & Volkers Florida today announced Katie Hayse has joined Engel & Volkers Jacksonville, one of several franchised real estate brokerages in northeast Florida.

This has been a fantastic year, said Hayse. I wanted to leverage the momentum Ive had to grow my business, but I was looking for the right combination of support, systems, tools and materials that a brand like Engel & Volkers can offer. At my previous brokerage, I was on my own when it came to marketing and branding. I feel as if I have joined a winning team. Now, Im confident I can expand my professional sphere and conduct over $28,000,000 in sales within the next year.

Hayse comes to Engel & Volkers from Keller Williams Realty, where she was affiliated for the last four years. During that time, she facilitated nearly 80 transactions, totaling more than $40,500,000 in sales volume. Her specializations include beachfront property, first-time homebuyers, relocation, and investors with a focus in short term rental ownership in Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Vedra. She earned the Nocatee Agent certification earlier this year, in order to better serve her clientele interested in one of the best-selling master-planned communities in America. Prior to becoming a realtor, she enjoyed a successful career in the banking industry for 16 years and sold software to banks for 6 years.

We couldnt be more excited to have Katie join us at Engel & Volkers Jacksonville, said Corey Hasting, License Partner of Engel & Volkers Jacksonville. She is exactly what we are looking for when it comes to adding top talent around the city to continue to grow our market presence in northeast Florida. I believe Katie will thrive in our growing culture and benefit greatly from our systems and tools. I cant wait to see her business grow!

Prior to partnering with Engel & Volkers to open his first franchised real estate brokerage, Hasting was a top-producing agent with Keller Williams Realty. He has since grown his regional presence to include 4 Engel & Volkers shops, located in Amelia Island, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune Beach. Altogether, he manages 80 advisors, who are on pace to close over $700,000,000 in sales and more than 1,500 transactions in 2021.

Corey continues to demonstrate that his brokerage is the current and future place for the area's top performing real estate agents to grow their business, said Peter Giese, Chief Growth Officer at Engel & Volkers Florida. The combination of his local leadership along with Engel & Volkers unique technology and marketing systems, makes Engel & Volkers Jacksonville the exciting brokerage to work for that will continue to have exponential growth.

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Press contact:

Linzee Werkmeister, Junior Vice President, Marketing & Franchise Support

Email: Linzee.Werkmeister(at)evrealestate.com

Tel: (239) 348-9000

About Engel & Volkers:

Engel & Volkers is a global luxury real estate brand. Founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1977, Engel & Volkers draws on its rich European history to deliver a fresh approach to luxury real estate in the Americas with a focus on creating a personalized client experience at every stage of the home buying or selling process for todays savvy homeowner. Engel & Volkers currently operates approximately 240 shop locations with 5,000 real estate advisors in the Americas, contributing to the brands global network of over 14,000 real estate professionals in more than 30 countries, offering both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of luxury services, including real estate and yachting. Committed to exceptional service, Engel & Volkers supports its advisors with an array of premium quality business services; marketing programs and platforms; as well as access to its global network of real estate professionals, property listings and market data. Each brokerage is independently owned and operated. For more information, visit http://www.evrealestate.com.

About Engel & Volkers Florida:

Engel & Volkers Florida is the Master License Partner of the global luxury real estate brand Engel & Volkers in the state of Florida. Recognized for uniquely recruiting, training and equipping some of the top professionals in the real estate industry, Engel & Volkers Floridas exclusive franchise model positions its license partners at the top of the premium market to gain market share and support their bottom line. The company represents franchise locations in: 30A Beaches, Amelia Island, Belleair, Boca Raton, Bonita Springs-Estero, Cape Coral, Clermont, Delray Beach, Destin, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers Downtown, Gainesville, Hollywood Beach, Islamorada, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Jupiter, Madeira Beach, Marco Island, Melbourne Beachside, Melbourne Central, Melbourne Downtown, Miami Coconut Grove, Neptune Beach, Olde Naples, Orlando, Orlando Downtown, Orlando-Winter Park, Palm Beach, Palm Coast, Ponte Vedra Beach, Sarasota, South Tampa, St. Augustine, St. Pete, St. Pete Beach, Stuart, Tampa Water Street, Venice Downtown, Wellington, and Windermere.

Engel & Volkers Florida is continuing to strategically strengthen and expand its presence in premium real estate markets across the state of Florida. If you would like to know more about the Engel & Volkers brand or how to join its global networkwhich is known for demonstrating competence, exclusivity and passion, feel free to call our corporate office, located at 633 Tamiami Trl N, Suite 201, Naples, FL 34102 USA. Tel: +1 239-348-9000.

For more information about Engel & Volkers Florida, please visit http://www.florida.evrealestate.com
Carlos Diez de la Lastra Managing Director Les Roches Marbella at SUTUS 2021

Conceived under the slogan Tourism beyond natural borders, each year at the autumn equinox, SUTUS (Space & Underwater Tourism Universal Summit) becomes the focus of the emerging space and underwater tourism sector, where innovative projects and startups showcase their solutions to the challenges that lie ahead in the coming decades. Questions like what is the next step for private space travel?, Is it possible to grow seeds on the moon?, How are non-professional astronauts trained?, Can we live underwater? and, What archaeological treasures do our oceans hold? take center stage in one of the most fascinating tourist industry events. SUTUS is the only tourism industry-focused event in the world that brings together representatives from the most cutting-edge projects related to space and oceanographic exploration, among them Sam Scimemi (NASA), Bernard Foing (ESA), Tony Gannon (Space Florida), Hiroko Ajusakura (JAXA), Fabien Cousteau (Proteus), Aaron Olivera (Earth300) and Hector Salvador (Triton Submarines).

According to Carlos Diez de la Lastra, Managing Director of Les Roches Marbella, in the next decade tourism will conquer space and the depths of the Earths oceans We know that space tourism could grow by around 17% each year in the next decade. It is a staggering number. We are in one of the most exciting times in the industry, and we have an opportunity to train those who will be its leaders. Les Roches is one of the three best universities in the world in the training of management professionals for the hotel and tourism sectors, and SUTUS serves to draw their attention to one of the areas the industry still has to explore.

In total, SUTUS 2021 brought together more than 500 professionals from 43 countries and aroused the interest of media spanning all five continents. The events success reinforces and position Les Roches at the forefront of specialized hospitality education.

SUTUS 2021. An international team

During the three-day conference, more than 500 attendees followed top-level international speakers on space tourism from NASA, ESA, JAXA, Axiom Space, Space Perspective, Space VIP, Space Florida, and other companies. Also participating were Spanish startups Zero 2 Infinity and Green Moon Project, whose international recognition within the private space industry was given a platform to introduce the broader tourism sector to their innovative projects.

SUTUS 2021 also featured Natalia Bayona, Director of Innovation, Education, and Investment at the World Tourism Organization. Bayona spoke about the importance of the oceans in tourism. Fabien Cousteau followed her lead by presenting his project, Proteus, built the international space station of the deep sea. Earth 300, another of the innovative projects featured at SUTUS 2021 and led by Aaron Olivera, plans to build seven underwater locations around the world. In addition, other speakers included underwater archaeologists Carlota Perez-Reverte, Michele Stefanile, and Javier Noriega who presented the Costa del Sol project Senda Azul.

The 2nd edition of SUTUS, held on Les Roches campus, housed an extensive demo area where different companies, both national and international, exhibited various tech applications and educational tools related to tourism issues. Among these companies, the Chill-ICE habitat designed by ESA was exhibited in Marbella for the first time and was roundly considered a great success by the attendees. Also included in the demo area were the "City of Stars" portable education-focused planetarium, subaquatic drones, a zeppelin, models of spaceships, and virtual reality simulations.

For more information: http://www.sutusummit.com

Access to all key notes sessions recordings, pictures, and videos, here.

FOR MEDIA ASSISTANCE AND INTERVIEW REQUESTS, PLEASE CONTACT:

media@sommet-education.com

prodiles@lesroches.es

About Les Roches

Les Roches is a Swiss institution focused on creating the innovative and entrepreneurial minds of tomorrow. Founded in 1954, Les Roches offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hospitality, Tourism, and Event Management following the Swiss model of education. With three campuses across Switzerland, Spain, and China; a student body of more than 100 different nationalities, the institution provides students with a unique culturally diverse experience.

Les Roches ranks worlds top four for higher education institutions in Hospitality Management, and top three for Employer Reputation (QS World University Rankings, 2021). Part of Sommet Education, worldwide leader in hospitality education, Les Roches is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

For more information, visit Les Roches.
This campaign will act as a resourceful guide for homeowners and consumers on how they can better reduce their environmental footprint and live a more sustainable life, especially in a time of so much environmental uncertainty and turmoil.

In the midst of a historic drought, record-setting heatwaves, unrelenting wildfires, and devastating storms, Americans are more cognizant than ever of how their decisions can directly impact their homes and lives. A GreenPrint study found that more than half of Americans are willing to pay more for sustainable products, but that 74 percent of Americans dont know how to identify sustainable products.

This campaign will act as a resourceful guide for homeowners and consumers on how they can better reduce their environmental footprint and live a more sustainable life, especially in a time of so much environmental uncertainty and turmoil. We seek to connect readers with cost-efficient, sustainable solutions that will help them preserve the environment and their peace of mind without sacrificing quality of life.

Interior designer and star of HGTVs The Rehab Addict Nicole Curtis shares why she loves preserving a homes history and how it benefits our environment. We focus on repairs versus replacement. We don't flip old homes  we preserve old homes. It's so important for people to realize that you don't have to destroy the original features of a house to make them appealing to buyers. We will never have the ability to recreate these unique homes. Homeowners are so quick to replace when all thats required is simply repairing and maintaining. These houses were built rock solid, and with the right love and care, theyll be around long after we are all gone.

The print component of Sustainable Living is distributed within todays edition of the Los Angeles Times, with a circulation of approximately 180,000 copies and an estimated readership of 540,000. The digital component is distributed nationally through a vast social media strategy, and across a network of top news sites and partner outlets. To explore the digital version of the campaign, visit:

https://www.impactingourfuture.com/campaign/sustainable-living/

This campaign was made possible with the support of Nicole Curtis, Kathryn Kellogg, Pedro Andrade, Lea Michele, Dani Schaffer, Water Witness International, Alliance for Water Stewardship, Water Footprint Implementation, Marine Stewardship Council, American Clean Power, Fashion Revolution, Oral Health Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, Colgate, Kohler, Orbit, Enel X, and Phillips & Temro Industries.

About Mediaplanet

Mediaplanet specializes in the creation of content marketing campaigns covering a variety of industries. We tell meaningful stories that educate our audience and position our clients as solution providers. Our unique ability to pair the right leaders with the right readers, through the right platforms, has made Mediaplanet a global content marketing powerhouse. Our award-winning stories have won the hearts of countless readers while serving as a valuable platform for brands and their missions. Just call us storytellers with a purpose. Please visit http://www.mediaplanet.com for more on who we are and what we do.

Press Contact:

David Wagner

david.wagner@mediaplanet.com

(646)-922-1413


Central Florida recipients award badge Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce Central Floridas recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

The Central Florida market is a competitive job markets in the U.S. South, employing more than 1.5 million people. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for Central Florida employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for the Central Florida area as follows:



Brown & Brown Insurance

Insurance Office of America

Cross Insurance

LassiterWare Insurance

Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

McGriff

HUB International

The Enterprise Team

Hylant

USI Insurance Services

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of consultants in the Central Florida area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
Los Angeles recipients award badge We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the Los Angeles, California area recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California market is a competitive job market in the U.S. West, employing more than 6 million people. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for Los Angeles area employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for the Los Angeles area as follows:



Alliant Employee Benefits

Lockton

Bolton

Marsh & McLennan Agency

Burnham

SullivanCurtisMonroe

BXA | Benefits Exchange Alliance

United Agencies Inc.

Epic Insurance Brokers & Consultants

USI Insurance Services

Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

Willis Towers Watson

HUB International

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of consultants in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
San Jose recipients award badge The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the San Jose, California areas recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara market is a competitive job market in the U.S. West, employing more than 1 million people with a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for San Jose area employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for the San Jose area as follows:

-Advanced Estate & Insurance Services (AEIS Inc.)

-McGriff

-Filice Insurance Services

-Newfront Insurance

-Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

-Rogers Benefit Group

-Johnson & Dugan Insurance Services Corporation

-Vita

-KBI Benefits

-Willis Towers Watson

-Lockton

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of consultants in the San Jose area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
Seattle recipients award badge Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the Seattle, Washington recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue market is a competitive job market in the U.S. Northwest, employing more than 2 million people with a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for Seattle area employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for the Seattle area as follows:

-AHT Insurance

-Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

-Alliant Employee Benefits

-HUB International

-Aon

-Parker, Smith & Feek

-AssuredPartners

-Propel Insurance

-Brown & Brown Insurance

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of consultants in the Seattle area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
Social and emotional learning is critical to the success of children with autism...It supports children in connecting with others, developing social skills, and managing their emotions so they can problem solve, learn, and thrive socially and academically."

Educators will gain new insights into supporting students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in navigating classroom dynamics, academics, and social and emotional learning (SEL) at the upcoming Conscious Discipline for Autism Spectrum Disorder Workshop. An estimated 1 in 54 children in the United States have ASD. Understanding how to help these children connect, develop social skills, and manage emotions is critical to their academic and life success.

The workshop, to be held December 3-4, 2021 in Orlando, FL, will feature Conscious Discipline founder and SEL pioneer Dr. Becky Bailey, Conscious Discipline Master Instructor Kim Jackson, and Conscious Discipline Certified Instructor Cheryl Cotter. Jackson has extensive experience working with children with ASD, and Cotter is a special educator with advanced training and certification in numerous therapeutic interventions for people with ASD.

Conscious Discipline is a trauma-responsive, comprehensive SEL program that combines evidence-based practices in SEL, equitable school culture, classroom management, and self-regulation.

Social and emotional learning is critical to the success of children with autism, says Conscious Discipline founder Dr. Becky Bailey. It supports children in connecting with others, developing social skills, and managing their emotions so they can problem solve, learn, and thrive socially and academically.

The two-day workshop is intended for educators, administrators, parents, special education teachers, school counselors, school psychologists and social workers seeking strategies for effectively supporting children with ASD. Attendees will gain a better understanding of brain development as it relates to autism and will learn best practices that create the structure, safety, and connection that students with ASD need to learn and succeed. They will also have the opportunity to visit a model classroom and see the application of new strategies firsthand.

Conscious Discipline has the structure and left-brain information that is common to autism interventions, says Cotter. The difference is that it also has the right brain piece, which emphasizes connection. Thats the piece that is missing in other interventions. It allows children to experience connection in a way that is predictable, comfortable, and safe for them. It also gives adults the tools to support children through their upset, so they come out of it feeling safe rather than feeling bad about themselves.

Individuals interested in attending the December workshop can register on the Conscious Discipline website: https://consciousdiscipline.com/professional-development/event/conscious-discipline-sel-for-students-with-autism-spectrum-disorder/.

About Conscious Discipline

Conscious Discipline is a trauma-informed, adult-first methodology that integrates social and emotional learning, school culture, and discipline in order to create collaborative learning communities that support all members in reaching their highest potential. In 2020, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) named Conscious Discipline a SELect Program, its highest designation for effective, evidence-based SEL. Research shows that Conscious Discipline decreases aggression, impulsivity, and hyperactivity while creating a positive environment in the school or home. In schools, Conscious Discipline has been shown to reduce discipline referrals while increasing academic achievement. Learn more at http://www.consciousdiscipline.com.

Media Contact

Conscious Discipline

media@consciousdiscipline.com

(407) 366-0233, ext. 228


Dr. Samuel Mann headshot Arlene Feinblatt, a New York State Psychologist who worked with Dr. John E. Sarno, professor, author and innovative leader in the field of Mindbody Medicine, commented: Dr. Samuel Mann is one of the few MDs who has always administered care with the total human being in mind.

On this coming World Heart Day (September 29th), Dr. Samuel Mann, a physician, researcher and prominent hypertension specialist from New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical College announces the planned release of his newest book Hidden Within Us. The book highlights a radically different understanding of the link between our emotions and our physical health and how this new understanding can lead to new treatment solutions.

Dr. Manns book launch aims to leverage a national awareness day to convey to patients, physicians and psychologists the powerful, yet rarely considered link between emotions that are hidden from our awareness, often related to a history of trauma, abuse or overwhelming stress, and many inadequately explained chronic medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, migraine, autoimmune diseases, and possibly many others.

In his new book Dr. Mann lays out compelling evidence and case histories that vividly convey to readers how the repression of potentially overwhelming emotions is an almost completely overlooked key component of both our emotional resilience as well as the mind/body connection. More importantly, he highlights how this understanding can empower readers to seek healing pathways or pharmacologic approaches that would have not been considered.

Dr. Mann comments: My findings demonstrate the long-lasting and unrecognized effects on our physical health of emotions that are hidden from our awareness, and offer an explanation for many patients who are suffering from commonly encountered medical conditions whose cause has remained an enigma. I am confident that many readers will see themselves in the book and that the book will trigger insights that can either lead to rapid improvement or to more effective choices in their treatment. It will offer a fascinating read, and open the door to readers, physicians and psychologists to a radically different understanding of the mind/body connection, and its important treatment implications.

Arlene Feinblatt, a New York State Psychologist who worked with Dr. John E. Sarno, professor, author and innovative leader in the field of Mindbody Medicine, commented: Dr. Samuel Mann is one of the few MDs who has always administered care with the total human being in mind. He is acutely aware of the psychological factors affecting medical conditions and the interactions of mind and body on the health of the individual. This book reflects his expert medical perspective about the mind/body connection and its ramifications for health and well being. It is a joy to read particularly with the case histories included which clarify his unique insights.

The book will be available on Amazon in February 2022. To pre-order and sign up for Dr Samuel Manns upcoming talk, visit https://www.drsamuelmann.com. Trends, insights and scientific studies are showcased on his social media channels.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samuelmannmd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samuelmannmd/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-j-mann-m-d-409a2532/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamuelMannMD

ABOUT DR. SAMUEL MANN

Dr. Mann is a physician, researcher, and author specializing in the management of hypertension. He is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical College. He is a leading authority on the medical management of hypertension and can provide a new understanding of the mind/body connection that is relevant to hypertension and many other common, inadequately explained chronic medical conditions. He has released two pioneering, well-reviewed books on these topics: Healing Hypertension. A Revolutionary New Approach (Wiley, 1999) and Hypertension and You: Old Drugs, New Drugs, and the Right Drugs for your High Blood Pressure, which can be found on Amazon.

Notes to Editor:

To request further information, a complimentary copy of the book or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Cat Jennings

917-809-0284

catreneejennings@gmail.com
The new health and wellness show you don't want to miss!

Lifes Tough Media is proud to announce our collaboration with Dr. Christina Rahm on the launch of her new podcast, Scientifically Beautiful. Internationally acclaimed research scientist and environmental health consultant, if its scientific fields Christina knows front to back, its psychology, bioscience engineering, and nanotechnologyhaving advanced degrees in all three. Christinas also mastered the art of living a beautiful life in the face of great personal challenges, including Lyme disease and multiple bouts with cancer. She is a brave overcomer, and shes aiming to support and inspire others to triumph.

Scientifically Beautiful is a conversational podcast applying scientific education to strategies that can empower listeners by helping them get rid of negative forces that prevent them from living a healthy and beautiful life. Christinas wholistic approach focuses on curing the causes of disease and illness, not simply treating the symptoms. Despite the wisdom of her straightforward, science-based approach, shes often been maligned, even by those within her discipline. And shes had to learn to rise above criticism as well.

Professional and academic accomplishments aside, Christina is a dedicated mom of four children in Nashville, Tennessee. On her podcast, she invites listeners to meet and learn from her friends, family and colleagues who have faced similar situations. Additionally, listeners will benefit from her alternative approach and broad perspective based on years of extensive international travel and study of other cultures healing modalities.

Produced by Life's Tough Media, the Scientifically Beautiful podcast launches on Friday, October 1, 2021, and will be available on all your favorite podcasting platforms and at lifestough.com each week.

Subscribe now and follow us on social media to learn about all the ways were growing and making an impact here at Lifes Tough Media!

About Life's Tough Media:

Founded in 2019, Life's Tough Media is a media production company that is on the rise with a mission of connecting people back to themselves and to each other through innovative podcasts, films, documentaries, and books. The brand is focused on building community, empowering audiences, and teaching people how to be tougher than their circumstances and how to reinvent themselves. Founder Dustin Plantholt declares, We are sparking a movement and we're changing the world, one heart at a time, freeing others from shame, guilt and anger. Its life  life is tough  but YOU can be TOUGHER! For more information on their Podcast Services Division offerings, please visit lifestough.com or email to info@lifestough.com.

About Dr. Christina Rahm:

Dr. Christina Rahm is a research scientist, product formulator, business owner, author, educator, speaker, and mom of four. Through years of laboratory research and ethical observations, she has developed a personalized and predictive approach to healthcare. Her consulting practice, centered around environmental and human detoxification, aims to educate and empower people, corporations and societies to remove toxic forces from their lives. She holds Doctorate Degrees in Counseling Psychology and Strategic Science having done postdoctoral research in Nano-biotechnology and Bioscience Engineering at Harvard University. She has spoken and lectured at environmental, health and medical conferences in 78 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Her book, Cure the Causes, is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. To learn more visit drchristinarahm.com.
Our goal with PensacolaBeach.com was to create an online platform to share Pensacola Beach with the rest of the world and enrich the experiences of visitors and locals.

Pensacolabeach.com, a one-stop resource for all things Pensacola Beach, announces its official launch on September 13, 2021.

A true island destination known for its pearly white sand beaches and turquoise waters, Pensacola Beach is a prime location for soaking in the surrounding beauty, beach hopping, ocean exploration, and so much more. Offering expert advice on places to stay, local dining options, and profiles of local personalities, chefs, and key community members, the new website allows visitors to explore, learn about, and even book everything they need for a great stay at Pensacola Beach.

Built from the perspective of a local team of experts, Pensacolabeach.com is unapologetically authenticrelying not on actors or paid talent but real locals who remain close to the action.

In addition to tips and booking deals, Pensacolabeach.com will also feature interviews with local chefs and bartenders as well as profiles of Pensacola heroes, like Chappie James, Tuskegee Airman and the first African American to reach the rank of four-star general in the US Armed Forces, and local seafood empire entrepreneur Joe Patti.

Pensacolabeach.com was created in partnership with Jacksonville-based web development agency Drawing Lines Media. In fact, many of the sites builders originally hail from the Pensacola Beach area.

Its an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to develop a digital platform that showcases the beauty and stories behind Pensacola Beach and the surrounding area, said Lead Web Developer and Pensacola native Justin Weber. Our goal with PensacolaBeach.com was to create an online platform to share Pensacola Beach with the rest of the world and enrich the experiences of visitors and locals.

To help website visitors capitalize on those enriching experiences, Pensacolabech.com features a deep booking function, enabling users to follow through to complete bookings for hotels, vacation rentals, tours, as well as concerts, sporting events, and performance arts. The website will also include a Hot Deals section, the contents of which will be dispatched to email newsletter subscribers early.

By assembling a talented team of locals and Florida creatives to develop an authentic brand, create original content, weve built a website that is welcoming and easy to navigate, said Weber. This is the beginning of a new chapter, much like in 1931 when the original bridges opened and connected Pensacola Beach to the mainland.

Pensacolabeach.com will launch with a multi-channel ad campaign, including social ads, billboards, and more. For more information, visit Pensacolabeach.com.

###

ABOUT PENSACOLABEACH.COM

Pensacolabeach.com is a one-stop resource for all things Pensacola Beach. Launched in the Summer 2021, the website features places to stay, dining options, and local events, as well as the ability to book online. Pensacolabeach.com is unapologetically authenticrelying on local perspectives rather than on paid talent.

Created in partnership with Jacksonville-based web development agency Drawing Lines Media, Pensacolabeach.com proudly presents a forward-thinking online destination that will be constantly updated with new stories and opportunities. For more information, visit pensacolabeach.com.
1st Place Winning Essay; Tina's Gift by Abigail Clary This years first place winner, Abigail Clary, is grateful for the phlebotomist who soothed her anxiety as a child. Its amazing how much healthcare professionals helped me overcome my fear of procedures. Tina was my true hero.

Renal Support Network (RSN) celebrates its 19th year of providing a place for people to share their inspirational stories of living with chronic kidney disease. The theme of this years essay contest  Who is Your Healthcare Hero?  encouraged people who have kidney disease to express appreciation for a healthcare professional who improved their experience of care. Its all about the champions on their healthcare team. Entrants needed to meet only one criterion  to have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.

Facing the reality of living with kidney disease is hard, says Lori Hartwell, President and Founder of RSN, and learning how to manage your care can be challenging. No one can do this alone. We received close to 100 essays from people across the United States writing about how their healthcare providers became their heroes while leading them on the journey of managing their health. We are grateful to everyone who took the time to share their personal story. It was tough to choose our winners, because in this time of the coronavirus, all healthcare providers are heroes.

This years first place winner, Abigail Clary, is grateful for the phlebotomist who soothed her anxiety as a child. Its amazing how much healthcare professionals helped me overcome my fear of procedures. Tina was my true hero.

Mike Gothard described his healthcare hero Mary as a gun-toting, rum-drinking pirate nurse and wrote a great pirate-themed poem dedicated to her in his second-place essay, Ode to Nurse Mary the Pirate.

Third place tie winner Phil Minnich was starting a new job while trying to learn NxStage. His Dialysis Wonder Woman Judy arrived literally at 5:00 AM to do my NxStage training before I had to go to my new job. Thanks to her, I was able to do my home therapy training and my new job training simultaneously. Joy Araujo, who shared the third-place tie, described how her transplant nephrologist cheered her up with a live video of a concert she had to miss due to procedure scheduling.

2021 Essay Contest winners and Presidents Pick are:



1st Place  Tinas Gift, by Abigail Clary, Healdsburg, CA

2nd Place  Ode to Nurse Mary the Pirate, by Mike Gothard, Beaufort, NC

3rd Place (Tie)  24k Magic, by Joy Araujo, Fishers, IN

3rd Place (Tie)  Dialysis Wonder Woman, by Phil Minnich, Whitehall, PA

Presidents Pick  Tabatha Taught Me to LIVE, Not Just Survive, by Georgene Sims, Hammond, IN

RSN has also selected 10 more outstanding essays, awarding them Honorable Mentions:



Honorable Mention  Head and Shoulders Above the Rest, by Jasmine Lee, West Columbia, SC

Honorable Mention  Heroes Come in Many Different Forms, by Chelsea Roman, Sacramento, CA

Honorable Mention  My Doctor, My Protector, by Yessenia Gutierrez, Miami, FL

Honorable Mention  Hornets and the Rose-colored Stethoscope, by Elizabeth Howard Usher, Barboursville, WV

Honorable Mention  Human, by Stephen Weed, Oak View, CA

Honorable Mention  Dr. K, by Angela Humble, Kokomo, IN

Honorable Mention  Brighter Skies, by Shar Z., Milpitas, CA

Honorable Mention  Lucky, by Duane Busa, Clearwater, FL

Honorable Mention  Hope by Shelia White, Greenville, NC

Honorable Mention  You Saved My Live, and for that I am Grateful, by David Gutierrez IV, Lake Elsinore, CA

Honorable Mention  The Day My Life Got Interesting, by Sandra Kisselback, East Berne, NY

Honorable Mention  Nurse Judy, by Megan Delaney, Smithville, NJ

Hartwell says her Presidents Pick, Tabatha Taught Me to LIVE, Not Just Survive, by Georgene Sims, of Hammond, IN, resonates with me because I know how it feels to be the new kid in a dialysis clinic. Georgenes nurse, Tabitha, and her healthcare team were her lifeline. My healthcare team was my lifeline too; they became my family. In fact, I had more healthcare professionals at my wedding than family members.

The RSN Essay Contest provides a much-needed platform for individuals with kidney disease to share their stories and connect through writing. It takes a team to fight kidney disease, and this year's topic provided a chance to honor the healthcare workers who do so much for us.

Cash awards were given for First Place ($500), Second Place ($300), Third Place ($100), and Fourth Place ($100). Honorable Mentions and the Presidents Pick also received gift cards ($100 each). All participants in the essay contest will receive a small gift in the mail. RSN top essay winners will be translated into Spanish version and accompanied by an audio version read by the author.

The large number of high-quality essay submissions RSN received this year illustrates the potential for hope and inspiration. Through their words, these writers are encouraging others to tell their stories of struggling with chronic kidney disease. Winning essays, and additional information about kidney disease and organ donation, can be found at https://www.rsnhope.org/essay-contest/.

RSN would like to thank Fresenius Kidney Care, Akebia, U.S. Renal Care Inc, Dialysis Clinic Inc., Ardelyx, and AstraZeneca, for their support of this valuable patient engagement program.

RSN is a nonprofit patient-run organization that provides nonmedical services to those affected by chronic kidney disease. RSN strives to help kidney transplant recipients, and those who are newly diagnosed or on dialysis, develop their personal coping skills, special talents, and employability by educating and empowering them to take control of the course and management of the disease. http://www.RSNhope.org.
Shawn M. Galloway Most organizational leaders dont openly accept a level of failure in their safety efforts, but they often do, or fail to do, the things that ensure excellent performance.

ProAct Safety, a recognized pioneer of leadership and safety excellence strategies, announced the companys CEO, Shawn M. Galloway, will lead several sessions at the NSC Congress and Expo. The conference will take place on October 8-14 in Orlando and virtually.

Oct 11 (1-2pm): Leveraging Commanders Intent for Success in Safety

Description: How clearly have you communicated your intentions for safety? Does your team know why safety is important, not only the business but also to you personally? Knowing the only constant in business is change, do they know what to do to reach or accomplish the safety objective when conditions or plans do not work out as conceived? Commander's intent (CI) is a military method that explains what must be accomplished and why. It also clearly defines what success of the mission looks like. Explore the five areas to focus on to leverage CI in your efforts to achieve excellence in safety performance and culture in the workplace.

Oct 13 (10-11am): A Tolerance for Failure

Description: If you accept any level of failure in safety performance as inevitable, you will always have that level of failure or a higher one. Most organizational leaders dont openly accept a level of failure in their safety efforts, but they often do, or fail to do, the things that ensure excellent performance. Learn what the most common errors leaders make that lead to substandard safety performance and lack-luster lagging indicators.

Oct 14 (8am-4:30pm): Building Your Bridge - From Compliance to Safety Excellence

Description: With talk about moving from a have-to to a want-to culture, from compliance to culture, or from good to great, it is much more productive when there are visual models that allow leaders to identify precisely where they are and where they are trying to go, and what to focus on to get there. Since 2008, the Bridge to Safety Excellence model, has been a visual representation thousands of organizations have leveraged to convey the precise elements to be addressed, to close the gap between compliance and culture, and discover where they are on the path to sustainable excellence. Explore where you and your organization are within this model, and learn how to address each component, step by step.

ABOUT SHAWN M. GALLOWAY

Shawn M. Galloway is CEO of the global consultancy, ProAct Safety, Shawns consulting clients include most of the best safety-performing organizations within every major industry. He is a trusted advisor, professional speaker and author of several bestselling books on safety strategy, culture, leadership and Behavior-Based Safety. He is a monthly columnist for several magazines and one of the most prolific contributors in the industry, having also authored over 700 podcasts, 200 articles and 100 videos. He has received awards and recognition for his significant contributions from the American Society of Safety Professionals, National Safety Councils Top 40 Rising Stars and Top Ten Speakers, EHS Today Magazines 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS, ISHN Magazines POWER 101  Leaders of the EHS World and their newest list: 50 Leaders for Today and Tomorrow and Pro-Sapiens list of The Top 11 Health and Safety Influencers. Read more about him and his work at http://www.ShawnGalloway.com.

ABOUT PROACT SAFETY

ProAct Safety is a global safety excellence consultancy. The company has completed more than 2,000 successful safety strategy, leadership, culture and behavior-based safety projects in nearly every major industry worldwide. Learn more at http://www.ProActSafety.com.
One Hundred or So Reflections from the Pastors Desk Taken from Sixty Years of Ministry in Minnesota and Pennsylvania: an encouraging selection of reflections taken from a lifetime of devoted ministry. One Hundred or So Reflections from the Pastors Desk Taken from Sixty Years of Ministry in Minnesota and Pennsylvania is the creation of published author Rev. Daniel W. Reid, a loving husband, father, and grandfather who was born in Germantown Hospital in 1933.

Rev. Reid shares, The author retired on June 11, 2017, on the sixtieth anniversary of his ordination to the Presbyterian ministry in the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Philadelphia. Over the course of some forty years, serving congregations in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, each month he contributed an editorial for the monthly congregations newsletter. This book contains what he considers to be the best hundred or so of those writings.

Within these pages, you will find reflections on history; the traditional hatch, match, and dispatch columns; some humor (The Twelve Days of a Lenape Valley Christmas); some spiritual insights into temporary personal setbacks (auto breakdown, open-heart surgery); as well as challenges to better investments of time, talents, and treasure; and, undergirding it all, inspiration for a deeper walk with Christ.

May these Spirit-inspired very human words draw you closer to fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rev. Daniel W. Reids new book is an encouraging and thought-provoking collection of writings created over the course of sixty-years of ministry.

Rev. Reid shares in hopes of continuing to inspire others on the path to accepting the love offered to creation by God through Jesus.

View a synopsis of One Hundred or So Reflections from the Pastors Desk Taken from Sixty Years of Ministry in Minnesota and Pennsylvania on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase One Hundred or So Reflections from the Pastors Desk Taken from Sixty Years of Ministry in Minnesota and Pennsylvania at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about One Hundred or So Reflections from the Pastors Desk Taken from Sixty Years of Ministry in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
RFPIO is proving that response management is more than niche software in a week of wins These recognitions are particularly meaningful coming from the community where it all began for us, said Ganesh Shankar, CEO of RFPIO. Portland in particular has played a strong role in our companys growth, and Im excited to continue to be a part of Oregons thriving tech industry.

On the heels of being named in the top 5% of fastest growing companies nationwide by Inc. Magazine, RFPIO, the leader in response management software, has been recognized by the Portland Business Journal and Technology Association of Oregon for its positive contributions to the Oregon technology and business communities.

This year has been significant for RFPIO as the company achieved several milestones and led the way for innovation in the future of sales enablement technology including:



Acquired a strong competitor, RFP360

Launched new solutions like LookUp and Autograph, filling a major gap in how sales teams create, store, and use content

Doubled its employee count to support the growing business

Collectively saw an impressive growth rate of 1,649% over the last three years

RFPIO has been recognized as one of Oregons fastest growing private companies in the Portland Business Journals Private 100, ranking No. 7 among 100 other leading companies in the area. Portland Business Journal ranks privately-owned companies according to revenue growth and employment figures between 2018 and 2020. Last week, RFPIO was recognized as a top-performing private company at Portland Business Journals largest in-person event of the year.

Just a week ago, RFPIO was named Technology Company of the Year in the Accelerate category at the 2021 Oregon Technology Awards. For 37 years, the Oregon Technology Awards has celebrated excellence in the region's technology industry. The recognition acknowledges RFPIOs accomplishments, leadership, and commitment to the industry and to the tech community.

RFPIO is honored to be the recipient of these awards. We echo our commitment to making a positive impact for customer facing teams everywhere. These recognitions are particularly meaningful coming from the community where it all began for us, said Ganesh Shankar, CEO of RFPIO. Portland in particular has played a strong role in our companys growth, and Im excited to continue to be a part of Oregons thriving tech industry.

For the full list of Portland Business Journals Private 100, visit https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2021/09/24/p100-final-2021.html.

For the full list of winners of The 2021 Oregon Technology Awards, visit https://www.techoregon.org/blog/2021-oregon-technology-awards-winners-announced/ [https://www.techoregon.org/blog/2021-oregon-technology-awards-winners-announced/ __title__ https://www.techoregon.org/blog/2021-oregon-technology-awards-winners-announced/ .

To learn more about RFPIO, please visit http://www.rfpio.com/.

About RFPIO

RFPIO is the market leader in response management software, trusted by some of the world's smartest companies to support RFP and security questionnaire response, create and manage sales proposals, and resolve inefficiencies rooted in decentralized and inaccessible content and knowledge. The software's robust and bi-directional integrations, along with an open API, allow teams to digitally transform response management processes and to harness the power of the knowledge and content across their teams. RFPIO supports response management for growing organizations of all sizes including Google, Adobe, Atlassian, Microsoft, Tenable, Zoom Video and others. For more information, visit rfpio.com or follow @rfpioinc on Twitter.
Shipshape has been transformational for my business as it has enhanced my ability to look after the best interests of my customers. With Shipshape we have identified many issues before the homeowner had an inkling that anything was wrong, saving our customers thousands of dollars in the process.

Shipshape, a company on a mission to make homes smart enough to take care of themselves, today announced the addition of Mold and Mildew Solutions to their service provider network. Shipshape will provide home assistant and monitoring solutions to Mold and Mildew Solutions customers across the state of Alabama.

Shipshape provides homeowners with the ability to monitor and manage all of their homes' critical systems.

Shipshape has been transformational for my business as it has enhanced my ability to be a trusted advisor and look after the best interests of my customers. It seemed like a lot of our customers were reactive, sometimes reporting problems after the damage was already done. With Shipshape we have identified many issues before the homeowner had an inkling that anything was wrong, saving our customers thousands of dollars in the process. said Lee Ramey, Managing Member of Mold and Mildew Solutions in Birmingham, Alabama.

In this partnership, Mold and Mildew Solutions will join Shipshapes Service Provider Network and offer Shipshapes sump pump and dehumidifier upgrade solutions to their customers. In addition, the partnership will run co-marketing and other incentive campaigns to Mold and Mildew Solutions and Shipshape customers.

Shipshapes next-generation intelligent features include:



Service Provider Network  Network to maintain relationships with local service providers and facilitate a seamless connection to those service pros when homeowners need help.

The HomeHealth Record - Complete performance history for each system in the home.

MyCoverage - Warranty and maintenance plan information is stored in the Shipshape App to facilitate a seamless connection to service pros.

MyBudgeting - Visibility into the financial demands of homeownership.

Proactive AlertActions  Notifications that offer actionable recommendations to help the homeowner reduce risks and/or improve performance associated with the homes critical systems.

Shipshape Assisted Maintenance aka SAM  A virtual assistant that helps resolve issues and connects homeowners to service pros when needed.

We want to help local businesses grow and thrive. They are the experts at home services and we are the experts at technology. Our job is to help homeowners by empowering them with information to make smarter decisions with their maintenance or repair needs, while simultaneously lifting up the businesses of our partners, said Dale Johnson, Director of Marketing at Shipshape.

This partnership offers Alabama homeowners a complete solution to protect their crawl spaces and basements.

About Shipshape Solutions Inc.

Shipshape is on a mission to make homes smart enough to take care of themselves. Shipshape believes every home should be safe, reliable, efficient and well maintained. The company operates a first of its kind proprietary smart home predictive maintenance platform that offers solutions to homeowners to reduce the costs of home maintenance and operations. The Shipshape platform integrates an ecosystem of smart home hardware to enable advanced analytics and recommend actions that will reduce risks and improve system performance. Shipshapes software platform unlocks the value of sensor data to enable a whole new era of the smart home.

Shipshape is based in Austin, TX. For more information, visit https://www.shipshape.ai/.

Shipshape Media Relations:

Adam Morrisey

614-315-1687

adam@shipshape.ai
Were thrilled to receive this recognition, said CEO Jose Tribuzio. With our flagship product SpearClaims being built on the Power Platform, our customers can immediately take advantage of the significant progress Microsoft has made in regard to AI, business intelligence, and automation.

Spear Technologies is proud to announce that it has been recognized by CIOReview as one of the 50 Most Promising Microsoft Solution Providers in 2021. CIOReview is a leading technology magazine, guiding enterprises with forward-thinking insights and information on todays leading solutions.

CIOReview recognized Spear Technologies because the company has helped to address issues in the property and casualty insurance industry. To date, this is one of the last segments of the financial services market that has yet to upgrade to modern technology. As a result, many insurance organizations are stuck in time, using legacy systems that are difficult to adapt to todays business challenges.

Co-founders Jose Tribuzio and Brian Mack launched Spear Technologies in 2020 to provide insurance organizations with a modern solution to this longstanding predicament. By leveraging the Microsoft Power Platform  one of the best low-code/no-code platforms in the market  the company has helped organizations to modernize and transform their operations.

Were thrilled to receive this recognition, said CEO Jose Tribuzio. With our flagship product SpearClaims being built on the Power Platform, our customers can immediately take advantage of the significant progress Microsoft has made in regard to artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and automation. With these advanced capabilities, insurance companies have the infrastructure to reach the next level of growth and success.

CIOReview noted that the Spear Technologies team has in-depth insurance experience coupled with an innovative mindset. This translates into knowing exactly where and how to leverage Microsoft technologies and capabilities to profoundly impact insurance performance.

Imagine your insurance processes being driven by the Microsoft Power Platform  this would enable an unprecedented level of speed, control, and results, said Brian Mack, CRO at Spear Technologies. And we will continue to launch and enhance features and capabilities that leverage the cloud, robotic process automation (RPA), and virtual agents (bots)  all of it designed to support our clients unique objectives in a competitive landscape.

Using SpearClaims on the Microsoft Power Platform, customers can take advantage of the following benefits:



EXTENSIBILITY. Organizations achieve tremendous control. They can easily configure and extend SpearClaims to support specific business needs. And using Power Apps, they can deploy even more capabilities.

PERFORMANCE. Companies bask in the simplicity of one user interface (UI) across a variety of devices, from desktop to mobile. A superior software-as-a-service (SaaS) data service translates into a solution thats easy to use, easy to manage, compliant, secure, fast, scalable, and globally available.

INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION. Everyday business users may use tools like AI Builder and Power Automate to implement unique workflows and business processes with ease. These citizen developers, as well as other trained resources, can launch capabilities quickly, effectively and at a lower cost.

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT. Providing insureds and claims stakeholders with the information they need is vital to an efficient insurance and claims operation. Using Portals and Virtual Agents, organizations can launch their own portal and use bots to enable and streamline virtual interactions.

INTEGRATION. Insurance companies often have hundreds of data sources and applications. Now with an extensive library of pre-defined connectors, they can easily integrate SpearClaims with their other solutions.

ANALYTICS. Customers can build and customize their own dashboards using Power BI. By consolidating and visualizing key performance metrics in one place, they have the insights to target problem areas and improve overall outcomes.

TRUSTED CLOUD. These days more companies are moving to the cloud. Spear customers benefit from cloud hosting on Azure. Backed by the Microsoft Trust Center, which ensures security, privacy, compliance, reliability, and resiliency, a companys intellectual property is well protected.

ABOUT SPEAR TECHNOLOGIES

Spear Technologies aims to provide property and casualty insurance companies with an enterprise claims management system for the future. Developed on the Microsoft Power Platform, SpearClaims delivers unparalleled control, speed, and results. By leveraging this top-rated low-code/no-code development platform, Spear Technologies empowers companies with the ability to easily and quickly configure and tailor SpearClaims to meet their unique needs. SpearClaims architecture provides the capabilities for using built-in AI and automation tools to extend capabilities for competitive differentiation and results. For more information, visit http://www.spear-tech.com.


Although affordable car insurance for high-risk drivers is not that easy to find, there are certain strategies that can help them obtain a more advantageous policy, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com has launched a new blog post that explains how high-risk drivers can obtain better car insurance rates.

For more info and free quotes, please visit https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/tips-that-can-help-high-risk-drivers-get-affordable-car-insurance/

Affordable car insurance for high-risk drivers is not that easy to obtain. There are many reasons why car insurance companies classify drivers as high-risk. Usually, teen drivers, drivers that caused accidents, drivers that were involved in DUI incidents are seen as high-risk by the insurers.

High-risk drivers can find affordable car insurance if they follow the next tips:



Check for specialized non-standard carriers. These insurance companies are specialized in insuring high-risk drivers. Many standard insurance companies have subsidiaries that are non-standard carriers. Although standard insurance companies can provide insurance to high-risk drivers, many prefer to not be associated with this type of driver.

Buy a cheap car to insure. The last thing a high-risk driver need is a car that is expensive to insure. Instead, high-risk drivers should look at slightly used sedans, minivans, or SUVs that are already equipped with several safety devices.

Check the available discounts. There are many discounts available for high-risk drivers. Some of the most popular discounts are low-mileage discount, safety devices discount, or bundled policies discount

Maintain a good credit score. In most states, insurance companies are allowed to look at the drivers' credit scores before determining their insurance rates. Drivers with a good credit score will pay less on their premiums, so it's important for high-risk drivers to maintain a good credit score or even improve it.

Compare online quotes. Even though there are still several standard insurance carriers willing to insure high-risk drivers, their premiums are very high. High-risk drivers should focus on comparing online quotes offered by non-standard carriers.

For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/

Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com 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.


UPSTACK Acquires IT Consulting Firm Open Communications "Open Communications is an exciting addition to UPSTACK. Amanda and her team have grown Open Communications steadily through their hard-earned relationships and vast referral network. UPSTACK gives them the platform and processes to grow even faster. We look forward to working together."

UPSTACK, a profitable, fast-growing platform that transforms the architecture and sourcing experience for businesses seeking cloud and internet infrastructure solutions, announced today that it has acquired Open Communications LLC, an IT consulting firm specializing in network, contact center as a service (CCaaS) and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) for businesses of all sizes  from SMB to enterprise. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

UPSTACK's acquisition of Utah-based Open Communications is part of its strategy to accelerate the growth of its industry-transforming platform, which combines leading internet infrastructure advisors with proprietary software and dedicated support resources.

The growth strategy is supported by a $50 million equity investment from Berkshire Partners, announced in April, which will enable UPSTACK to continue to scale its platform through technology expansion and partner acquisitions.

As part of the deal, Open Communications founder Amanda Heinritz will join UPSTACK as a Partner and a true equity stakeholder. She will serve as an advisor to business customers that are sourcing data center, colocation, cloud, network connectivity and other technology solutions through the UPSTACK platform.

"Open Communications is an exciting addition to UPSTACK," said Christopher Trapp, CEO of UPSTACK. "Amanda and her team have grown Open Communications steadily through their hard-earned relationships and vast referral network. UPSTACK gives them the platform and processes to grow even faster. We look forward to working together."

Heinritz founded Open Communications in 2012 after two years as a Senior Account Executive at Integra Telecom (now AllStream), where she was named Rookie of the Year. Heinritz made the decision to venture out on her own as a sales agent so she could sell to enterprise accounts without commission splits, accelerating her revenue potential.

Open Communications signed with master agency Carrier Sales, earning Presidents Club honors multiple years in a row. The company experienced significant growth, and as a result, expanded its team to better serve businesses of all sizes.

Open Communications success caught the attention of an IT firm that was acquiring agent customer bases. While that offer wasnt the right fit, it got Heinritzs wheels turning about avenues for scale and her long-term goals. That is when she met UPSTACK.

"UPSTACK not only had a clear understanding of what my business is and how much its worth but provided a game-changing technology platform that literally cuts out five steps of our sales process, saving my team tons of time, said Heinritz.

Every agent knows that getting quotes from providers can be time-consuming. Through UPSTACKs platform, I can submit a deal and generate multiple quotes without having to have conversations with each supplier that I select to bid. All the information is provided to them through the platform, allowing those suppliers to turn around pricing quickly. From a customer experience standpoint, our clients will receive faster, higher-end support and more streamlined processes through UPSTACK.

For more information about the UPSTACK Advisory Partnership, visit upstack.com/for-advisors or contact partners@upstack.com.

About Open Communications

Open Communications was founded in 2012 to provide businesses with professional design and sourcing of their mission-critical voice, Internet and cloud solutions. While their vendor representatives come and go, businesses can count on our telecom consultants to deliver vendor-neutral advice on the best solutions to meet their requirements even as they change over time. The companys expert staff includes specialists in a range of technologies, such as network, SD-WAN, security, mobility, voice, cloud, colocation, contact center and IoT from more than 250 providers worldwide. We offer one point of contact for quoting, selecting a provider, provisioning services and resolving service issues. For more information, visit us at https://opencomm.net/.

About UPSTACK

Launched in 2017 in New York, N.Y., UPSTACK is transforming the way cloud and internet infrastructure is sourced and sold. The company uses advanced technology to enable an extensive team of cloud infrastructure advisors to offer customized solutions for businesses of all sizes. With UPSTACK, business buyers streamline IT procurement by tapping into a single source for mission-critical technology services from hundreds of proven providers along with the professional guidance to identify and evaluate the best solutions. UPSTACK's service portfolio includes colocation and data center, network connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, cloud contact center, private and public cloud, security, mobile, business continuity, IoT and more. For more information, visit us at http://www.upstack.com.
UPSTACK Acquires Telecom Management Firm Legacy Solutions "We are excited to welcome Michael and Lauren Sanders of Legacy Solutions to the UPSTACK family. This father-daughter team has turned telecom expense auditing into trusted telecom consulting and management relationships. We hope to build on that legacy with even greater success."

UPSTACK, a profitable, fast-growing platform that transforms the architecture and sourcing experience for businesses seeking cloud and internet infrastructure solutions, announced today that it has acquired Legacy Solutions, a telecommunications consulting firm specializing in forensic telecom expense audits and vendor management. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

UPSTACK's acquisition of Chicago-based Legacy Solutions is part of the company's strategy to accelerate the growth of its industry-transforming platform, which combines the industry's leading internet infrastructure advisors with proprietary software and support resources.

UPSTACK's growth strategy is supported by a $50 million equity investment from Berkshire Partners, announced in April, which will enable the company to continue to scale its platform through technology expansion and partner acquisitions.

As part of the investment, Legacy Solutions co-founders Michael Sanders and Lauren Sanders, a father-daughter team, will join UPSTACK as Partners and true equity stakeholders. They also will serve as advisors to business customers that are sourcing data center, colocation, cloud, network connectivity and other technology solutions through the UPSTACK platform.

"We are excited to welcome Michael and Lauren Sanders of Legacy Solutions to the UPSTACK family," said Christopher Trapp, CEO of UPSTACK. "This father-daughter team has turned telecom expense auditing into trusted telecom consulting and management relationships. We hope to build on that legacy with even greater success."

Michael Sanders joined the newly competitive telecom industry in 1984, enjoying a 19-year sales career with companies such as Ohio Bell, BellSouth, Ameritech and AT&T. In 2003, he formed Legacy Solutions to explore the then-emerging opportunity in VoIP communications as an agent for master agency MicroCorp.

To gain credibility with large enterprises, Sanders expanded the company's focus to include telecom expense auditing, finding savings for companies before earning their trust for sourcing network providers. The approach also includes return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) evaluations for emerging technologies and has driven Legacy Solutions' growth over nearly two decades. In 2018, Lauren Sanders joined the company as a subagent to learn the business and ensure a succession plan.

Legacy Solutions' long-term success and unique business model recently caught the attention of potential buyers. While at first, Michael Sanders dismissed the calls, concerns about supporting customers and subagents long term prompted him to hear them out. While some suitors only wanted Legacy Solutions' monthly recurring revenue, UPSTACK sought a true partnership.

"UPSTACK's philosophy resonated with me; they want to grow together and share success with their advisors," said Michael Sanders. "They were also excited to welcome Lauren into the team to support my succession plan."

In addition, Michael Sanders finds himself once again at the beginning of a new market opportunity. "The UPSTACK entrepreneurial spirit is invigorating and exciting," he said. "It's disruptive but will prove beneficial as the channel needs to evolve."

For more information about the UPSTACK Advisory Partnership, visit upstack.com/for-advisors or contact partners@upstack.com.

About Legacy Solutions

Legacy Solutions empowers enterprises to make smarter telecommunications decisions. The company was founded in 2003 to provide technical and financial justification support for enterprises' most complex telecommunications issues. Today, the company uses proven, collaborative processes and resources to deliver a comprehensive suite of professional services that address the challenges enterprises face in securing optimal cost-management practices when bridging the gap between legacy infrastructure and emerging technology services. Our team has a deep background in leading verticals, including banking, retail, health care and government. We bring insights to solve the most complex technology requirements and tailor solutions for each enterprise's specific needs. For more information, visit https://legacy-solutions.net/.

About UPSTACK

Launched in 2017 in New York, N.Y., UPSTACK is transforming the way cloud and internet infrastructure is sourced and sold. The company uses advanced technology to enable an extensive team of cloud infrastructure advisors to offer customized solutions for businesses of all sizes. With UPSTACK, business buyers streamline IT procurement by tapping into a single source for mission-critical technology services from hundreds of proven providers along with the professional guidance to identify and evaluate the best solutions. UPSTACK's service portfolio includes colocation and data center, network connectivity, SD-WAN, unified communications, cloud contact center, private and public cloud, security, mobile, business continuity, IoT and more. For more information, visit us at http://www.upstack.com.
Veem, a leading provider of online payment solutions, today announced the release of its quarterly report, State of Small Business. The report, which surveyed over 700 American small business owners, focused on how SMBs are preparing to implement their return to work policies as vaccinations increase and restrictions are lifted. In addition, the report covers how SMBs are responding to the Delta variants rise and economic confidence levels.

Below are some key findings:



Work from home could be here to stay. Close to 60% of respondents are planning to offer remote work options long-term.

Roughly, 43% of small business owners are not requiring their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and an overwhelming 62% are not requiring customers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Small business owners remain sharply divided on an economic recovery, with 29% of respondents feeling fairly confident compared to 28% feeling somewhat confident.

64% of small business respondents expect an increase in government mandated COVID-19 regulations based on the surge of the Delta variant.

Small businesses remain cautious of a robust economic recovery and are closely monitoring ongoing developments as it relates to COVID-19 and emerging variants, said Marwan Forzley, CEO of Veem. Even though vaccinations may be increasing and government restrictions are being lifted, its no doubt that the pandemic continues to be an ongoing concern among the small business community. For small business owners, COVID has pushed entrepreneurs into adjusting to a new normal where work from home is no longer a perk, but a necessity. I think well continue to see more small businesses remain agile as they continue to adjust to a fluid environment.

To download State of Small Business: Return to Work Edition, please visit here.

About Veem

Veem simplifies the way businesses send and receive funds globally. Trusted by more than 300,000 businesses in over 110 countries, Veem offers a suite of payment services to establish and strengthen partner and supplier relationships. Veem's secure, trackable transactions combined with seamless integrations with popular business applications enable businesses to save time and money, while mitigating risk generally associated with international funds transfers. Veem is licensed and regulated in each country and state it serves.
TAIT AXIOM Wearable

Tait Communications, a leading provider of critical communications solutions for the public safety, utilities and transportation industries, announced today the TAIT AXIOM Wearable, a compact, broadband-connected device that allows mobile teams to work beyond the radio network edge and in challenging areas like building interiors, automatically switching communications bearers.

Emergency response can send workers into areas where radio communications are suddenly not available, and critical conversations between the dispatcher and team members stop, said Yoram Benit, Tait Communications Chief Executive Officer. The Wearable provides an alternate communication path through broadband networks to ensure the conversations keep going.

The lightweight, standalone device mounts on a uniform like a radio speaker microphone and accesses TAIT AXIOM cloud-based Push-to-Talk services using broadband networks, including public/private LTE, WiFi and Ethernet. Heads-up operational controls, like a rotary dial and large dedicated buttons for PTT and distress calls, keeps eyes looking safely forward. Interoperability with Tait LMR networks allows companies to invite broadband-connected workers outside the LMR network into radio conversations regardless of their location, and without the expense of a dedicated radio or network expansion.

Now, support personnel can become part of the larger conversation, helping front-line workers be safer and more productive by communicating one-on-one or through talkgroups, without the added step of sharing information through a dispatcher, said Benit.

When attached to a Tait TP9000 Series portable radio via cord or Bluetooth, the Wearable performs the function of a powerful speaker microphone, delivering exceptional audio via a 3W front-facing speaker and three active noise cancellation microphones. In the event the portable radio loses connection with the LMR network, communications automatically switch to the Wearables broadband connection, providing a path for voice conversations as well as emergency alerting and location information.

Tait announced and began demonstrating the TAIT AXIOM Wearable at the 45th Annual International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) show in Las Vegas. The device will begin shipping in December of this year.
Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, today announced its Technology Evangelist Gene Torres will be speaking at VMworld 2021, the premier multi-cloud event being held Oct. 5-7, 2021. Torress session, No VM (or Container) Left Behind with Zerto 9, will focus on how Zerto can help organizations protect virtual environments from ransomware, natural disasters, outages, or deletions. During his session, Torres will also provide a sneak peek into whats new for Zerto for Kubernetes with VMware Tanzu.

Additionally, Microsofts Principal PM Ramprasad Gowrishankar will discuss Zertos integrations with Azure for disaster recovery and backup in a session entitled, Azure VMware Solution: Platform Deep Dive.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) also recently completed its acquisition of Zerto. Attendees can join HPEs John Blumenthal who will be discussing HPEs VDI and Container Storage solution. During the session, attendees will learn how Zerto and HPE deliver ransomware protection, disaster recovery, and cloud-native data protection services for VMware customers that eliminate complexity and ensure data is recoverable and secure across hybrid cloud environments.

Zerto is a gold sponsor and HPE is a platinum sponsor of this years event. Attendees who visit Zertos virtual booth and participate in the Live Chat will be entered to win a $250 Amazon.com gift card.

WHAT: Zerto and HPE VMworld Sessions

No VM (or Container) Left Behind with Zerto 9

Join Gene Torres, technology evangelist at Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, as he discusses how reducing data loss and downtime of virtual applications is crucial for any organization. Whether from ransomware, natural disasters, outages, or deletions, businesses need to protect and be able to consistently recover virtualized applications at the core, edge, and cloud. Session attendees will gain insights on how Zerto 9 delivers ransomware resilience for VMware vSphere environments on premises and in the cloud, simple protection and recovery of VMsjust a few clicks with automated protection and orchestrationand continuous data protection for VMware on public cloud users.

Defend and Protect Your Data from Edge to Cloud with HPE GreenLake

Virtualized and container workloads continue to evolve, making IT infrastructures more complex to defend and recover from both predatory and inadvertent disruptions. Ransomware is a growing security problem and one of the biggest forms of cybercrime. Every day, news feeds feature stories of criminals who brazenly announce they're holding business-critical data hostage until a ransom is paid. Together with newly-acquired Zerto, HPE offers ransomware protection, disaster recovery, and cloud-native data protection services for VMware customers that eliminate complexity and ensure data is recoverable and secure across hybrid cloud environments. Learn what steps you can take to protect your business with HPE GreenLake solutions that offer the agility of the cloud for your on-premises environments.

Azure VMware Solution: Platform Deep Dive

Ramprasad Gowrishankar, principal PM, Microsoft, will explore the latest releases from Azure VMware Solution, including technical overviews for new integrations of popular disaster recovery and backup solutions such as VMware Site Recovery Manager and Zerto. Learn how to take advantage of new connectivity between your Azure VMware Solution environment and other Azure services for storage, management, security, and more.

WHERE: VMworld

WHEN: Oct. 5-7, 2021

About Zerto

Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, empowers customers to run an always-on business by simplifying the protection, recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications. Zertos cloud data management and protection platform eliminates the risks and complexity of modernization and cloud adoption across private, public, and hybrid deployments. The simple, software-only platform uses continuous data protection at scale to converge disaster recovery, backup, and data mobility. Zerto is trusted by over 9,500 customers globally and is powering offerings for Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and more than 350 managed service providers.
Startup leaders from Purdue University and across the state of Indiana will provide insights into technology transfer during The Frameworx Tech Transfer in Indiana virtual panel event. (Purdue University image)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Startup leaders from Purdue University and across the state of Indiana will provide insights into technology transfer during a virtual panel event Feb. 18.

The Frameworx Tech Transfer in Indiana panel also will feature startups from Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame. BioCrossroads, which released a report on tech transfer in Indiana, is hosting the event.

Tech transfer programs at universities across Indiana are vital components to drive innovation and commercialization for the state and the nation, said Brooke Beier, vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, who will be a featured speaker at the event.

Novosteo Inc., a Purdue-affiliated preclinical-stage biotechnology startup focused on the development of bone-targeted therapeutics, will be among the featured startups for the event. Registration information for the event is available online.

BioCrossroads, a public-private collaboration that supports Indianas existing research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development, released a report called Tech Transfer in Indiana: An Overview for the Life Sciences Industry. The report highlights the technology transfer processes and approaches used by Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame to facilitate commercialization of research-driven discoveries and innovations.

About BioCrossroads

BioCrossroads is Indianas initiative to grow, advance and invest in the life sciences, a public-private collaboration that supports the regions existing research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development. BioCrossroads provides money and support to life sciences businesses, launches new life sciences enterprises (Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, BioCrossroadsLINX, OrthoWorx and Datalys Center), expands collaboration and partnerships among Indianas life science institutions, promotes science education and markets Indianas life sciences industry.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 5 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer: Chris Adam, cladam@prf.org

Source: Brooke Beier, blbeier@prf.org
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Want to save big on your air conditioning bills? Wait a few years to coat your home with the worlds whitest paint, which may dramatically reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning.

The paint, developed at Purdue University, has earned a Guinness World RecordsTM title. The record appears in the 2022 edition of Guinness World Records, available for purchase starting Thursday (Sept. 16).

Breaking a record for the whitest paint wasnt a goal for the researchers  curbing global warming was.

When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind, said Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, in a podcast episode of This Is Purdue.

Ruan invented the paint with his graduate students. The idea was to create paint that would reflect sunlight away from a building. Making this paint really reflective, however, also made it really white. The formulation that Ruans lab created reflects 98.1% of solar radiation at the same time as emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.

Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler. Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80%-90% of sunlight and cant make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.

Using this new paint formulation to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts, Purdue researchers showed in a published paper. Thats more powerful than the air conditioners used by most houses, Ruan said.

This white paint is the result of research building on attempts going back to the 1970s to develop radiative cooling paint as a feasible alternative to traditional air conditioners. Ruans lab had considered over 100 different materials, narrowed them down to 10 and tested about 50 different formulations for each material.

Two features make this paint ultra-white: a very high concentration of a chemical compound called barium sulfate  also used in photo paper and cosmetics  and different particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint. What wavelength of sunlight each particle scatters depends on its size, so a wider range of particle sizes allows the paint to scatter more of the light spectrum from the sun.

There is a little bit of room to make the paint whiter, but not much without compromising the paint.

The researchers have partnered with a company to scale up the paint and put it on the market. Patent applications for this paint formulation have been filed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. For further discussion on this intellectual property, contact Will Buchanan at wdbuchanan@prf.org and reference track code PRF 2018-RUAN-68168. Information for this and other Purdue technologies can be found online.

This research was supported by the Cooling Technologies Research Center at Purdue University and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (Grant No.427 FA9550-17-1-0368). The research was performed at Purdues FLEX Lab and Ray W. Herrick Laboratories and the Birck Nanotechnology Center of Purdues Discovery Park.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/.

Writer, media contact: Kayla Wiles, 765-494-2432, wiles5@purdue.edu

Source: Xiulin Ruan, ruan@purdue.edu
Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), the Italian national public broadcaster, is using NAGRAs NexGuard forensic watermarking and Anti-Piracy Services Platform to protect its streaming content and related advertising revenues.

As a free-to-air public service provider, RAI is one of the major content producers and broadcasters in Italy operating numerous terrestrial television channels and radio stations.

In line with the evolving industry landscape, NAGRA forensic watermarking and anti-piracy solutions are delivering ways to secure content and advertising revenues for content owners, broadcasters and service providers. For RAI, NAGRAs solution inserts NexGuard forensic watermarks into the broadcasters content available to consumers via the RAI OTT web and app service.

The NAGRA Anti-Piracy Services Platform is also used, providing the crawling engine to monitor the web and pirate IPTV services, searching for illegal publications of the original content. The crawled content is then inspected to detect watermarks and validate when content is illegally redistributed. The solution also provides valuable data insights of illicit activity that enables actionable business decisions. The result is a comprehensive solution that ensures complete coverage against illicit attacks on valuable content.

Thierry Legrand, SVP sales EMEA at NAGRA, commented: Our watermarking-based anti-piracy solutions are essential for RAI to effectively monitor copyright infringements and secure the value of the content distributed over OTT/AVOD. Like many other customers, RAI relies on NAGRAs strong reputation in media content security and anti-piracy expertise to not only understand the current challenges the industry is facing, but more importantly provide the necessary tools and solutions needed to keep pirates at bay.
The new programme comprises more than 200 hours of fresh unscripted content from both new titles and returning series across a variety of different genres, as well as a new kids series. With the new slate the company says that it is signalling a heightened focus on premium factual with the acquisition of two powerful new feature docs and a milestone investigative series.Leading the autumn slate are feature docs Facing Monsters and Milked, both 1 x 90. From sister company Beyond West, Red Eye Productions and Veerhuis Pictures, Facing Monsters digs deep into the psyche of free surfer Kerby Brown as he pursues the ultimate ferocious and deadly slab waves along the coast of his native Western Australia.Milked is a topical, investigative film, led by young activist Chris Huriwai, that exposes what is alleged to be a whitewash of New Zealands multi-billion-dollar dairy industry. Featuring interviews with high-profile contributors such as Dr Jane Goodall, environmentalist and former actress Suzy Amis Cameron, and Cowspiracy co-director Keegan Kuhn, Milked reveals the behind-the-scenes reality of the Kiwi dairy farming fairy-tale. It uncovers alarming information about the impacts of the industry on the environment and health, leading up to the assertion of a country on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history. The film points to what New Zealand and other countries can do to change their fate.Other leading productions include The Costa Concordia: Why She Sank, a 2 x 60 programme from ITN Productions, will tell the story behind one of the biggest maritime disasters since the Titanic in forensic detail. Combining exclusive first-person testimony from survivors and rescuers with previously unseen footage, graphic reconstruction and expert insight, the documentary series investigates why she sank in January 2012 with the loss of 32 lives, what lessons should have been learned from previous disasters, and if such a catastrophe could happen again.Automotive meets science with the launch of Motor MythBusters (8 x 60), produced by Beyond Media Rights. With former MythBusters presenter Tory Belleci, along with sassy mechanic Faye Hadley, and engineer extraordinaire Bisi Ezerioha, the series delivers undiscovered facts and applies rigorous science to everything from Hollywood car stunts to everyday automotive questions that grind the gears of car owners and enthusiasts.Explaining what the slate aimed to do, Connie Hodson, head of partnerships and business development at Beyond Rights said: During a year that has seen both production hiatuses and reduced commissions, we are thrilled to launch such a healthy slate this autumn, welcoming a number of new producer partners to the Beyond Rights business, as well as s upporting our existing partners with their successful returning series."Premium factual is an important part of our business, so we are especially proud to launch two such compelling and intelligent new feature documentaries as Facing Monsters and Milked. With a wealth of new opportunities on linear channels and a constant demand from SVOD platforms for unique and powerful stories, told in-depth, we are confident that these two remarkable and memorable films will readily find new homes in the international marketplace this autumn.
Federal lawsuit aims to unlock the potential of millions of students

The past two years have shined a bright light on widespread inequalities in education. As state after state dealt with pandemic disruptions, weve seen painful reminders of whats always existed: some kids have access to great schools, multiple options for learning, and abundant resources like computers and high-speed internet access, advanced courses, online classes, and modern buildings with science labs and excellent libraries.

And other kids are left behind, decade after decade, assigned to government-run underperforming and failing schools, without a chance for anything better. Thats painfully true in Michigan, where a students ability to move to a better school is limited by antiquated state laws that dont serve the needs of each and every individual student.

Consider Michigans failure in teaching students to read according to the Nations Report Card. For a dozen years, Michigans 4th grade reading scores have been below the national average, and, in 2019, six out of 10 Michigan 4th graders were not proficient in reading. These scores touch all parts of Michigan, including the urban centers of Detroit, Flint, and Grand Rapids, and rural communities throughout the state. Math scores are below the national average, and theres a growing achievement gap between white and Black students.

But why?

If weve learned one thing from the pandemic, its that our education system must be flexible and centered around students. A single, one-size-fits-all pathway for every kid will never deliver great results. A quality education that meets a childs needs unlocks countless doors. It can break cycles of poverty, lift up communities, and help ensure all students can reach their God-given potential.

But in Michigan, special interestssome fueled by religious bigotryhave funded education in a way that ignores what parents want and shuts down flexibility and options. It prizes one system alone over the needs of individual students, ignoring what Florida and other states have proven to be true: that it shouldnt matter the type of school a student attends. What matters is whats best for each child.

Michigan can do better for her kids. But, so far, the state has failed to modernize its industrial-age education system.

Now Michigan families, like the Hile family in Kalamazoo, the Bagos family in Royal Oak, and the Lupanoff family in Grand Rapids, are fighting a legal battle to break down the barriers that limit options for Michigans kids. They are part of a lawsuit challenging religious-based restrictions that limit their access to better schools. Winning this lawsuit could transform their childrens lives. It could transform Michigan.

Jill Hile works for the public school system, but after COVID-19 forced her kids to learn remotely, she saw deficits of the one-size-fits-all model and decided to enroll her kids in a local private Christian school. The new school resulted in a remarkable benefit for their daughter, who was struggling with remote learning at her local public school. But like many families, opting for a new school wasnt easy, and it came with a hefty price tag since Michigan doesnt allow for education funds to follow the child to the school of their choice. Nor does Michigans outdated Constitution allow parents to use their 529 Education Savings Plans to pay for their childs education. In fact, the Michigan Constitution specifically prohibits it, despite federal law making it an allowable expense.

Right now, millions of families like the Hiles are denied their rights, denied their freedoms, denied access to an education of their choice. That's not acceptable. Its time for a change in how we deliver education to our kids. Students need more choices, and theres simply no downside to providing that.

In recent decades, states around the nation have taken steps to open up more options to parents who want to choose the best school for their kids. Michigan is alone among its neighborsIndiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinoisin not offering students more educational freedom. The current lawsuit, if successful, will tear down a wall thats holding too many kids back.

Todays challenges in education are real, but I believe the future is bright. We must continue working toward a world where school options are available to all, where our education dollars can follow a student anywhere. Thats the golden key that will unlock doors otherwise closed, unlock potential otherwise ignored, and unlock a world where all students have a chance to excel in a learning environment that serves them best.
The classrooms of modern America are marked by various iterations of the age-old pedagogical conflict: should teachers lecture at their students to communicate timeless truths clearly and efficiently, or should they turn the classroom over to the students, trusting that collaboration will allow them to discover ideas for themselves? Though the gap between these two teaching methods seems unbridgeable, one potential resolution can be found in the educational philosophy of Martin Buber, whose understanding of dialogic education attempts to carve out a via media that balances between them.

An Austrian Jew born in 1878 who lived most of his adult life living and working in Germany (before being forced to flee to modern-day Israel in 1938), Buber developed a deep appreciation for man as a relational being. Though his philosophy admits existentialist tendencies, for Buber, individuals cannot exist in the absence of relationships  with other people, with objects in the natural world, and with God.

Bubers most famous philosophical treatise, I and Thou, describes two primary modes in which these relationships can be conceived, namely as either the relationship of an I to an It (Ich-Es) or as the relationship of an I to a Thou (Ich-du). In I-It relationships, the two entities do not come to know each other in an authentic or meaningful way; it is a relationship of ease and utility in which each party treats the other as an object. In I-Thou relationships, however, the two beings truly encounter one another, experiencing a mutual subjectivity that serves as the foundation for ethics, culture, and human love.

True education, then, according to Buber, must seek to teach the child how to press past the utility of the I-It world and learn how to enter into the I-Thou relationships that form the basis of true human life. Pedagogically, this is not something students are able to learn on their own. The only way to come to understand the relationship of an I to a Thou is to experience such a relationship firsthand through the person of the teacher.

It is the teachers job, then, as Buber sees it, to cultivate an I-Thou teacher-student relationship in which both parties enter into a lived communion with the other. This cannot be done primarily through indoctrination, lecturing, or the preaching of dogma (as those methods lie squarely within the I-It realm), but it also cannot be done with a hands-off approach that shifts the teacher to the background and thus eliminates the relationship entirely. Rather, education must be mutual, a partnership between teacher and student characterized by trust, community, vulnerability, and openness to the presence of the other party.

Practically, the key to such a teacher-student partnership, according to Buber, lies in dialogue and conversation. While he might not have used the term Socratic dialogue, Buber was a strong advocate for a classroom setting based on interactive, teacher-led discussion where both teachers and students are active participants. Dialogue is an essentially mutual endeavor, requiring teacher and students to do things together  diving into great texts, exploring great ideas, questioning one another, sharing thoughts, and testing ideas in the crucible of conversation. It is both teacher-led and student-driven.

Bubers emphasis on dialogue gives his insights particular relevance today. Not only does this form of education imprint upon students a vision for how they can respond to everything they encounter in the mode of I and Thou, it also encourages authentic conversations between students and teachers  something sorely needed in American classrooms today. Rejecting both the teachers lecture as compulsory and authoritarian as well as the students free exploration as aimless and individualistic, Bubers approach bridges the extremes of dogmatism and hyper-subjectivity that grip our current educational landscape.
A new Treasury Department report tells us what we already know: Child care costs are unaffordable for many families. In response to this, lawmakers have included $250 billion in child care subsidies in the $3.5 trillion spending bill currently under consideration.

While this effort might strike many Americans as a well-intended hand up to working parents, it comes with a significant downside, and not just the price tag to taxpayers. The most serious problem with government-funded child care is the downstream effect on the quality, variety, and independence of child care providers in todays robust  although expensive  marketplace.

In other areas, government funding has proved to function like a Trojan horse. Colleges gladly welcome federal funding via student loans and Pell grants, while hospitals do the same for Medicare and Medicaid dollars. But these institutions, awash in government money, are now beholden to government rules, even if the rules arent to the benefit of students or patients.

In higher education, any school that receives federal funding  not just public colleges and universities  must comply with federal statutes and regulations (and even weaker guidance like Dear Colleague letters). This includes nearly all private colleges, too.

This means complying with Title IX, and not just the provisions that relate to giving women equal roster slots in sports. It means complying with whatever the current administration says about campus sexual assault, or what constitutes hate speech. Schools risk losing federal funding by challenging any federal rule, which is why they dont do it. Government money has become the means for government control of higher education. Very few schools are able to provide student aid on their own, but they do it as a matter of principle, to maintain their independence.

Similarly, federal funding of health care has increased tremendously in recent years (but that isnt going to stop lawmakers from including $1.1 trillion in new health care spending in this enormous spending bill). Alongside federal funding of health care, primarily through the Medicare program, federal control over patient care has increased. In order to participate in Medicare, doctors and hospitals have to follow a host of rules and requirements, including asking certain questions, performing certain tests, and even encouraging certain treatments.

Sometimes government meddling in health care, even when well-intended, can have disastrous effects: For years, Medicare included questions about pain management in their patient satisfaction surveys  which are linked to payment  and its easy to imagine how this fueled the opioid epidemic as providers faced greater pressure to patient-please by overprescribing.

Just as a small group of colleges refuse to accept government funding, so too a small contingent of doctors  about 1%  have opted out of Medicare. This frees them from compliance with the program (and its low and slow reimbursement system). But Medicare and Medicaid, which together insure more than one in three Americans, represent such a large market share, its hard for most doctors to even consider swearing them off.

Child care centers might be watching the current debate and salivating over the $25 billion that might help them expand or improve their facilities. Families with young children might be hoping for a $225 billion break on one of the largest line items in our personal budgets. But both providers and parents should be warned that when government offered fistfuls of cash for colleges and health care providers, they also ended up strong-arming them into compliance.

Child care should be the last place we invite politicians to meddle. Our youngest children should receive care based on their parents preferences, not based on what bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., decide they want kids taught. After all, state governments are already in charge of K-12 education, and we all find it hard enough to agree on what is best for those schools.

Importantly, neither the cost of college nor health care has become more affordable, even as government spending in these areas has skyrocketed. In fact, the opposite has happened. The subsidies are captured by middlemen rather than trickling down to the families who really need them, and prices continue to go up. The same would likely happen in child care.

If policymakers really wanted to help families with the cost of child care, they would put money directly into parents' pockets through tax relief, so that we can determine what kind of care is best. We can direct those dollars to the providers we deem most deserving. And we can hold them directly accountable for the quality of care they provide without Washington wading in.
The Biden administration never expected congressional oversight to be comfortable, but even as lawmakers were busy grilling top military brass Tuesday about their handling of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Jen Psaki said the hearing was necessary and good.

We feel this is a part of democracy, the press secretary explained from the White House podium. After all, she continued, President Biden welcomes the candor and welcomes the debate. That candor is a reflection of his leadership, and thats the kind of president that he will continue to be.

All the same, this hearing was particularly problematic for the president. Just hours before Psaki embraced the oversight, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that they had recommended keeping at least 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to prevent the country from collapsing. The obvious problem: Biden had gone on the record in August saying he never got that advice.

The president told ABC News George Stephanopoulos that his military advisers did not recommend leaving a residual force, insisting that no one said that to me, that I can recall. Now, the White House says a closer reading of the transcript shows Biden was referring to a split between generals who argued a residual force was necessary and those who said it was not. So, what should everybody take from that? Psaki asked reporters, setting up the answer to her own question. There was a range of viewpoints.

Milley and McKenzie, as their testimony made clear Tuesday, were on the losing side of that argument. Who were the military commanders who won the debate? For now, that remains a mystery.

When pressed by a reporter from ABC for that information, Psaki refused to name names. The president made clear that the advice was split. He didn't outline what every individual conveyed to him in private, she replied, adding that Pentagon officials were testifying before Congress today. They're answering questions accurately. They're providing more detail on their advice, as they should.

She added that these conversations don't happen in black and white or like you're in the middle of a movie. Biden is presented with a range of options about what the risk assessments are about every decision.

The response was not well received in some corners of Capitol Hill. Accountability isnt possible when the White House wont provide basic information, complained a senior congressional aide after Milley and McKenzie wrapped up their testimony. If were going to get to the bottom of what went wrong here, the White House needs to come clean about who was in Bidens ear.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren apparently did not see a contradiction. After questioning the military leaders at the hearing, the Massachusetts Democrat tweeted her two takeaways:  1) Leaving a few thousand US troops would not have changed the outcome  but would have resulted in more Americans dying. 2) President Biden followed military advice on the withdrawal and evacuation.

While Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the committee that leaving a residual force would lead to a fight with the Taliban  a statement White House aides rushed to promote on social media Tuesday evening  he and the other Pentagon officials who testified declined to discuss specific conversations with the president.

Biden came into office promising to be a straight shooter with the American public. He was barely president two weeks when he issued a memorandum announcing as much transparency as possible regarding the work of our national security institutions, consistent with legitimate needs to protect sources and methods and sensitive foreign relationships.

Throughout the withdrawal, even after the country fell to the Taliban, Biden repeatedly made his thinking clear in speeches and press conferences. He refused to continue the war by sending troops lurching into the third decade of conflict. And as the fourth president to preside over the conflict, he promised not to pass this responsibility on to a fifth.

Now that the last U.S. soldiers have left Afghanistan, why wont the White House reveal which generals were on either side of the split regarding the need for a residual force? Doesnt the public deserve to know who was advising Biden during that final chapter of history?

What the American public can know and understand is that the president will welcome and take and ask for and push for a range of opinions on every national security decision that he makes, Psaki said in answer to a question from RealClearPolitics. She reiterated, however, that we are not going to detail those private discussions, private decisions that happen in the situation room, for the public.
Presidents and policymakers in Washington place tremendous demands on the nations all-volunteer military, whether its a U.S. Navy carrier group providing tsunami relief on the far side of the Pacific Ocean or special forces units on horseback hunting terrorists in the Hindu Kush. According to a new RealClear Opinion Research poll, Americans support the entire array of these military undertakings  and, for the most part, trust the men and women in uniform to carry them out.

This confidence spans the political spectrum, which is reassuring in a political environment so polarized that war itself is now evaluated through a partisan prism. Asked their views about missions ranging from protecting human rights abroad to defending Taiwan against an invasion from China, significant majorities of registered voters expressed support for all of them.

Highest on the list at (82%) was using the military to protect human rights like the rights of women, children, religious or ethnic minorities. Responding to natural disasters was tied for second place at 76% with the more traditional military duty of curbing aggression by U.S. adversaries.

The American electorate is supportive of a wide range of military missions, said John Della Volpe, director of polling for RealClear Opinion Research. We found, though, that when asked about how they prefer to see our armed forces deployed, voters are more likely to support use of soft power than hard power. (Click the chart image to enlarge it.)

This expressed willingness to use military power in support of human rights has limits, however, especially when it runs into the harsh realities of long wars. The dichotomy reveals itself when Americans are asked about ending the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. By a margin of 52% to 38% (with the rest undecided), voters support President Bidens decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Certainly, the U.S. military presence there represented an effort at protecting the rights of women, children, religious, or ethnic minorities. But public support wanes even for a goal favored by 82% of Americans when its perceived as an endless commitment. The U.S. role in Afghanistan began as a hunt for 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and to punish and replace the Taliban extremists who harbored his terrorists. It eventually devolved into a seemingly permanent occupation while the U.S. tried to impose a working democracy on a tribal society, an elusive goal that entailed costly efforts to liberate Afghan women and girls. For most Americans, 20 years was enough.

Even though the Afghanistan withdrawal was negotiated by Donald Trump and carried out by Joe Biden  meaning it was literally a bipartisan decision  deep partisan divides revealed themselves in the survey, with Republicans being far more critical of the current commander-in-chief than were Democrats.

While much of this gap is attributable to our own brand of tribal politics, the chaotic and deadly nature of the U.S. retreat is also driving Republicans attitudes.

It was a surrender and not a withdrawal, one 63-year-old Republican poll respondent commented. Biden left Americans behind, he armed terrorists, and got 13 of our service members killed.

But it wasnt only Republicans who expressed this view of Biden. The way he handled it was terrible, said a 47-year-old female independent from New Jersey.

The way they did it, added a male Democrat, 64, from Pennsylvania.

Other findings from the RealClear survey also suggest that the Trump-Biden decision to quit Afghanistan would be even more popular had the evacuation gone more smoothly. Queried in an open-ended question about why they opposed the withdrawal, fully 40% of respondents gave some version of bad planning/failed execution/happened too fast. Another 18% cited Americans or allies being left behind. Only 14% expressed worries about the Taliban coming to power or the U.S. abandoning the Afghan people. Even fewer (12%) mentioned terrorism or national security concerns.

In other words, Biden (and Trump) appear to have read the mood of the electorate properly.

Other highlights of the most recent survey include the following:

Pronounced generational gaps characterize voters views of foreign policy and the military. China, for instance, was named as Americas most significant foreign adversary (from list of seven choices) based on strong feelings from Republicans and older voters. Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z are more likely to list terrorist groups and the Taliban. Another example: By a margin of more than 2-to-1, Millennials and Zoomers favor teaching critical race theory at the U.S. military academies, while a majority of the Silent Generation/Baby Boomer cohort are opposed.



A majority of respondents say the divided nature of American politics makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the military to do its job well, win wars and defend Americas interest around the world. Democrats, led by African Americans, are more willing to believe the military can find ways to remain above the fray, but even among Democrats, the concern is widespread.



Doubts are more pronounced as voters are asked to go up the chain of command. Asked whether they trust the rank-and-file military to do the right thing when it comes to making military decisions, the trust is overwhelming: Some 74% of all voters answered affirmatively, led by Republicans (83%). When the same question was asked about the generals, this trust declined precipitously  to 55%. It went down even further when the question was phrased to ask about the Pentagon (47%) and, predictably, even more when the current or previous command-in-chiefs name was invoked (39% for both Biden and Trump). Congress is even lower: 34% for Democrats on Capitol Hill; 31% for Republicans.





Although young voters  those who would be most impacted  oppose the draft 61% to 24%, this issue is one of the few in which Democrats and Republicans are almost completely aligned, noted Della Volpe. Opposition to the draft is steadfast.

What Lincoln Foresaw

When members of this all-volunteer military force are performing humanitarian missions with unrivaled speed and know-how, they show America to its best advantage. This was certainly the case when an armada of ships in the U.S. Navys Lincoln Strike Group, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, brought fresh water, food, and medicine to thousands of people stranded and battered by the 2004 tsunami that wreaked such death and carnage in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. This is the kind operation that unites Americans across party lines.

Thinking of it that way, the aircraft carrier is well-named. Abraham Lincoln knew earlier than most of his countrymen that even in the mid-19th century, America was a nation so powerful that anyone who attacked it wouldnt get very far.

That didnt mean there was nothing to fear. In January 1838, a 28-year-old Abraham Lincoln exhorted Americans to not let their political passions lead them to mob rule.

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? he asked in a speech in Springfield, Ill. Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the Earth (our own excepted) in the military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, would not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

No. The threat, Lincoln told us, was from domestic terrorism. From mob rule, and a willingness to act lawlessly to further our political aims. All these years later, Americans sense the truth of this warning.

Asked in the RealClear Opinion Research survey to name the United States most formidable current foreign adversary, voters dutifully ranked China first (28%), followed by terrorist groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda (20%); the Taliban (10%); Russia (8%); cyber-terrorists (7%); North Korea (6%); and Iran (2%). This makes sense. But when asked an open-ended question without mentioning the foreign angle, the answers were different, and revealing.

Asked What do you believe to be the greatest threat to America today? the highest percentage answer (14%) was Islamicist terror groups such as ISIS and the Taliban. But four of the next five answers were domestic in nature and the fifth, the coronavirus pandemic, is both a foreign and domestic threat. And when asked directly whether they were more concerned about foreign or domestic threats facing the country, 58% said domestic, with 42% answering foreign.

We are worried, in other words, about our neighbors and our dysfunctional politics. The greatest threat to America today is political extremism, replied a 57-year-old Georgia woman, a political independent. It seems we can't accomplish anything in a bipartisan way. Our energies and resources are spent in arguments rather than rational conversations about complex and nuanced issues. This domestic bickering leaves us vulnerable to threats from abroad.

Although they tend to point fingers across the political divide rather than at those on their own side, many Democrats and Republicans concur.

I believe that the greatest threat to America today comes from within our own boundaries, added a male Republican, 59, from North Carolina. This instability does not create the strong social fabric that is necessary when being faced with political attacks from outside our boundaries.

The greatest threat to America, warned a 22-year-old female Democrat from Ohio, is America.

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.


Eminem is teasing his new song for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

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The 48-year-old rapper and actor will release a song with Skylar Grey , Polo G and Mozzy for the upcoming Venom sequel.

The 18-second teaser features a beat but no vocals.

Eminem previously released the 2018 single "Venom" for Venom. The song also appeared on his 10th studio album, Kamikaze.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is based on the Marvel Comics character Eddie Brock, aka Venom, an investigative journalist who is the host of an alien symbiote that gives him superhuman powers.

The new film is directed by Andy Serkis and stars Tom Hardy Reid Scott , Stephen Graham and Woody Harrelson

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens in theaters Friday.

Eminem released his 11th album, Music to Be Murdered By, in January 2020. He will return to acting as a guest star in Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's series Black Mafia Family.
G-Eazy and Demi Lovato teamed up to perform their song "Breakdown" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

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G-Eazy and Lovato took up different sides of the stage on Tuesday and performed in front of their own personal video screens, which showed past headlines about the performers, alongside images of the ocean.

"I got big plans, but none of them feel like mine/ And I miss days where I used to feel like me," Lovato sang at the end before meeting G-Eazy in the middle of the stage for a hug.

"Breakdown" appears on G-Eazy's newly released fourth studio album titled These Things Happen Too. He last released Everything's Strange Here in June 2020.

Lovato is hosting a new unscripted series on Peacock titled Unidentified with Demi Lovato, which premieres on Thursday. Lovato will be searching for the truth regarding UFOs alongside their sister Dallas and best friend Matthew.
The owner of four hydroelectric dams on the Kennebec River have sued two agencies on Monday alleging they improperly cooperated on fish passage regulations that impact the future of the dams and fish populations
Fungi pottery on display at Brattleboro Claywork as organizers get ready for the inaugural Fungi Fest that starts on Oct. 8 and runs to Oct. 30.
A COVID-19 outbreak affecting 24 people and suspected in the deaths of two residents this month has been reported at the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation: three staff and the remainder residents.
A handgun belonging to a student was seized by police from a vehicle parked at Brattleboro Union High School after school staff were notified by the community about its presence on campus.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Should the U.S. Supreme Court find abortion unconstitutional, abortions would automatically be banned in Ohio under nearly all conditions, including in cases of rape and incest, under newly proposed state Senate legislation.

The only exception would be if a doctor determined the abortion was needed to save a pregnant womans life or protect her from serious harm.
MIAMI (AP)  Beachgoers along the east coast of the United States should beware of life-threatening surf and rip currents this weekend as Hurricane Sam turns northward, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

Forecasters expect the Category 4 hurricane to remain at sea, but with top winds of 130 mph (215 kph), it's already sending dangerous ocean swells to islands hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.

Right now we're not forecasting it to make landfall over any coastal locations, but it's certainly a big hazard for ships at sea, and again those swells are impacting a large area of the western Atlantic, National Hurricane Center senior specialist Richard Pasch said.

Sam was located about 385 miles (620 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands, traveling northwest at 9 mph (14 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said Wednesday evening. Hurricane-force winds were extending outward 40 miles (65 kilometers) from its center, with top winds expected to grow to 140 mph (225 kph) in the coming days. The storm is expected to turn to the north by Friday.

Forecasters said large swells are affecting the Leeward Islands and will spread to portions of the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas, and Bermuda by Thursday or Friday as the storm curves northward. Rough surf is expected along U.S. east coast beaches and Canada's Atlantic provinces by the weekend.

Another system, Tropical Storm Victor, has also formed over the eastern tropical Atlantic about 540 miles (870 kilometers) south of the Cabo Verde Islands.

The storm carries maximum winds of about 40 mph (65 kph) and is traveling northwest at 13 mph (20kph), officials said. Forecasters expect Victor to strengthen over the next several days to become a hurricane by Friday. There are no coastal warnings or watches in effect for either storm.

Victor is the 20th named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season. 2020 is the only other year in which 20 named storms had formed by Sept. 29, according to a tweet from Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Indiana's high rate of people who have resisted getting vaccinated for COVID-19 has the state's top health official worried that this distrust will bleed into getting vaccinated for other diseases, including the flu.

Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner, said Wednesday that Indianas hospital system remained stressed even though the steep surges in COVID-19 illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths since late July have declined slightly over the past couple weeks.

Box spoke at a drive-thru clinic near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that is one of the sites around the state where the health department is offering free COVID-19 and flu vaccinations and COVID-19 testing.

Indiana has the countrys 14th lowest rate of people who are fully vaccinated, at 48.3%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In comparison, the national average rate is 55.8% and the country's highest rate, Vermont's, is 69.4%.

Box said Indianas COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths could rise again as they did during last winter's major surge, and she urged more people to get vaccinated.

I do have some concerns about that, that this bleed off with COVID vaccines and the political nature that has surrounded that will then bleed off into other childhood vaccines and influenza vaccines that people tend to get on a yearly basis, Box said.

Indiana hospitals were treating about 2,100 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday, according to the state health department. That was about 20% fewer than two weeks ago but still five times more than the number in early July, before the latest surge fueled by the more contagious delta variant.

The states rolling seven-day average of daily COVID-19 deaths has declined to about 30, after being more than 40 a couple weeks ago. The death rate is far below the December peak of more than 100, although Indiana was averaging fewer than five daily deaths as recently as mid-July. The state has recorded at least 15,625 confirmed or probable coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Indiana hospitals have been treating more patients, overall, as of late than it did at any time during 2019 or 2020, as patients are receiving necessary medical procedures such as cancer care and orthopedic surgeries that were delayed because of the pandemic, Box said.

The Indiana National Guard has sent four teams, each consisting of four medics and six general support staffers, to assist hospitals that face staffing crunches. Those include Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Jeffersonvilles Clark Memorial Hospital, and the Methodist Hospital campuses in Gary and Merrillville.

Despite the recent improving COVID-19 trends, Box said the virus is not done with us yet but she hoped not to see another significant winter surge.

We will see times where this will elevate and go back down, Box said. It will be kind of that waveform that other states have seen and so it is not the time to drop our guard, to stop the mitigation measures that we know are working like masking in schools and other places.
HARTFORD  Sixty percent of state executive branch employees have shown proof they are vaccinated and another 10 percent have agreed to weekly COVID testing, but thousands of others opposed to those requirements may remain on the job for another week or more, Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Wednesday.

The total who have shown proof of vaccination is about 19,000. About 3,000 have indicated they will comply with testing mandates, while more than 10,000 of 32,000 employees in executive branch agencies controlled by Lamont  such as the Department of Transportation and the Department of Social Services  have not yet indicated what they may do and have not submitted documentation, risking unpaid suspensions if they fail to comply.

Higher education and Judicial Branch officials have ordered similar requirements for those employees.

Within the statewide working-age population of 25 through 64, the state Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported that 77 percent are fully vaccinated.

Lamont said that the vaccination and testing requirements are the key to the states defense against COVID and the rampant delta variant. Employees will now have until the end of the workday on Monday to comply with the order to choose vaccines or tests, or face unpaid suspensions.

It was unclear Wednesday how many state employees have refused to be vaccinated or tested; and whether the rate of vaccinations among state employees is higher or lower than the rate among Connecticut adults as a whole.

Look, there will be some people who say hell no, and Im sorry but that means youre not safe, youre not safe to the people around you and youre not safe to the people youre treating and they cannot come into work, Lamont said. Connecticut, for the last year, has always done the right thing. And we have done it with some pushing, weve done it with some explanation and I think Connecticut and our employees are always going to do the right thing.

Unpaid leave will be the initial price to pay for workers opposed to the requirements, following by possible losses of health care coverage and retirement contributions. Unemployment benefit may also be unavailable. While the suspensions could take effect as soon as Oct. 4, they would occur no later than Monday Oct. 11.

We still have thousands coming in every day, Lamont said of workers filing information with the Department of Administrative Services. It is going to take us a few more days to sift through that to see exactly what the status is. Labor is busy explaining this to state employees going forward. We want you to get vaccinated, to tell you the truth.

Josh Geballe, Lamonts chief operating officer, said that negotiations continue with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition over issues including whether the state will pay for testing employees after the first month of the new executive orders.

While workers in state-owned hospitals and long-term care facilities must be vaccinated or claim religious or medical exemptions to allow them to submit to weekly tests, the vast majority of state employees in other agencies have to decide only between inoculations or weekly tests.

Geballe said that interim data indicates 19,000 employees are fully vaccinated. Were still sorting through the paperwork and following up with the remaining 30 percent, he said, adding that some union workers who are fully vaccinated have not yet been listed because of problems reporting in the computer system.

Were very optimistic that the number of people ultimately in noncompliance status at the end of the day on Monday will be relatively small, Geballe said. We are anticipating that there will be some and our agencies are making contingency plans and planning for those risks, accordingly, just in case there are.

Im concerned about making sure were well prepared if there is another delta, Lamont said, thanking the General Assembly for approving an extension of his civil preparedness and public health emergency powers until Feb 15. Im really concerned about keeping our schools open and our economy going. I think the vast majority of the people of Connecticut know were doing this right, with an eye on public safety, and keeping your kids in school and you at your job.

He said that in nearby places such as New York State, vaccination requirements with price tags put on noncompliance, are proving effective in people finally agreeing to inoculations. I think we have seen some signs of that in Connecticut as well, the governor said.

State health officials on Wednesday reported a net decrease of nine patients in state hospitals, bringing the statewide total to 250 patients. There was a daily COVID positivity rate of 1.78 percent. Over the seven-day period, there were 3,508 positive COVID tests out of a total of 160,485, for a 2.18-percent rate. The fatalities are announced on Thursdays, so the death toll still remains at 8,483 pending the next report.

In recent weeks, about 15,000 new vaccinations occur each week. There are about 300 testing sites in the state, said Dr. Deidre Gifford, the former acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, who appeared at the news conference with Lamont, Geballe and Dr. Manisha Juthani, the newly named state health commissioner. Gifford, the commissioner of the Department of Social Services, estimated that by the end of the week there will be 23 state-sponsored testing sites.

Further information is available through the states 2-1-1 website.

Juthani said that as the weather cools and humidity plummets, viral particles stay in the air longer. This is when we anticipate respiratory viruses to circulate, said the veteran infectious disease expert from Yale. I am hopeful that maybe we will just get away with a steady, maybe a slight uptick because of the very high vaccination rates we have in the state of Connecticut.

She said that when vaccines are approved for children below age 12, within the next few weeks, that will mean an additional cohort of 400,000 people can join the ranks of the inoculated. Its very difficult to predict the future, at this point, Juthani said.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP)  As her beloved grandmothers health declined, Lauren Pfenning's family insisted that she get a COVID-19 vaccine before paying her a final visit.

She spent over a week researching vaccines on the internet and anguished over the decision during and after 12-hour shifts at her job hauling coal in an open-pit mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Her grandmother died earlier this month before she made a decision, but Pfenning stands by her choice to not get vaccinated.

Pfenning embodies the fiercely independent, deeply conservative Wyoming way of life that has defined the states response to the pandemic and made it the second-least vaccinated state as of Tuesday, behind only West Virginia. Only 23% of residents in her county have been vaccinated, putting it among the bottom handful of places in America that have not cracked 25% with their COVID-19 immunization rates.

The vaccine hesitancy in Gillette is emblematic of the live-free, mind-your-own-business mentality toward the pandemic that is dominant across conservative America at a time when the delta variant is tearing through unvaccinated communities.

For every 100 people spotted around town in Gillette, the number wearing masks can be counted on one hand. Among a group of six people on a smoke break downtown, all said they had too many concerns about the vaccine to mess with it. Down the street, a black shirt displayed in a storefront warned, ATTENTION SNOWFLAKES: THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE.

People bristle at the workplace vaccine mandate being pushed by President Joe Biden. When asked about workplace mandates and the option to bypass the requirement with regular virus testing, Pfennings immediate response: Test away!"

Anger over presidential meddling in Wyomings affairs is dominant across the state, but in Gillette, it gets personal.

The areas vast coal industry has suffered a decade of decline amid competition from renewable energy and inexpensive natural gas, and coal regulations imposed by President Barack Obama  and lifted by President Donald Trump  have provoked fury among residents.

It just feels like one attack after another. I think were just wanting to fight back harder at this point. Wyoming as a whole is just sick of being pushed around, said Pfenning.

All the while, COVID-19 patients have been filling several of Wyomings hospitals including the one in Gillette, the states third-largest city.

At Campbell County Memorial Hospital, 17 of 27 intensive care and medical-surgical unit patients recently had severe COVID-19, leaving just two beds open while the very worst coronavirus cases got flown to more intensive treatment in neighboring states.

Meanwhile, a local surge  up 34% in a week  drove up COVID-19 cases to almost four times the national rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Statewide, more than 96% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. Yet the daily flow of COVID-19 failed to persuade many Campbell County Memorial Hospital employees to get the vaccine.

Only 39% of the hospitals workforce is vaccinated, and there are no plans to require or incentivize it, said the hospitals chief medical officer, Dr. Attila Barabas. Wyomings statewide vaccination rate of 41% is well below the national rate of 55%.

Im a big believer in freedom of choice. I honestly think thats a fundamental aspect of being an American. And I think mandates can be troublesome and can cause a pushback to some degree, Barabas said.

The doctor got the vaccine and has encouraged relatives and patients to do the same. Ultimately, though, that has to be a choice that you make, Barabas said.

Wyomings view of vaccine mandates could come to a head soon. Wyoming officials are promising a vigorous fight against Bidens vaccine mandate, with talk about using the presidents coronavirus relief funds to compensate businesses for fines levied against them for defying the mandate.

At the same time, they are gently encouraging people to get the jab.

In a television ad showing people line dancing to country music, a woman says she got vaccinated to be able to have ladies night out. Wyoming has spent $900,000 and plans to spend another $685,000 on such ads, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.

Striving for balance with COVID-19 policies has whipsawed Republican Gov. Mark Gordon at times. Preparing to impose an unpopular statewide mask mandate last year, Gordon lashed out at people who refused to take steps to control the virus, calling them knuckleheads.

This year, as the delta variant brought more death and illness to the state, Gordon promised no mask mandate but said people should get vaccinated if youre willing.

Vaccine resistance during the pandemic reflects a broader dilemma for public health officials in a region where prevailing attitudes cause high smoking and low flu immunization, cancer screening and seat belt use rates, said the departments interim director, Stefan Johansson.

We just have a population that I think is indicative of the Mountain West culture that, you know, lives free and doesnt always take the health advice, Johansson said.

For Pfenning, the coal mine worker, the decision to not vaccinate came down to her belief that the approval process was rushed and there are too many risky side effects, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people have safely gotten the shots and avoided serious illness and hospitalization.

It has nothing to do with politics. Im even picky on what I give my horses, Im picky on what I give my dogs. And we over-vaccinate, said Pfenning.

And while Pfenning said her decision wasnt political, politics pervades. In November, Wyoming gave Trump his widest margin of victory of any state, 70%. Campbell County gave Trump his one of his widest margins of victory in Wyoming, 87%.

The people are so conservative here that they have these grass roots of saying, Look, I dont like the government regulating my life, summed up Campbell County Commissioner Del Shelstad.

Scott Clem, pastor of Gillettes Central Baptist Church, is among the many in the city who are not vaccinated. The former Republican legislator led a mask-burning protest at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne in January and says he trusts his immune system to protect him.

It's none of your business whether I'm vaccinated or not, said Clem. That, I think, in some sense, is being a busybody in other men's matters. I think that's some of the sentiment out here in Wyoming. We're pretty rugged individuals out here in the West.

___

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HARTFORD  A city man will spend several years in federal prison on narcotics and firearm offenses, according to prosecutors.

Kendall Wolf Jones, 32, was sentenced by Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford on Tuesday to 84 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.

Jones pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute crack and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime on April 29, officials said.

In September and October of last year, the Drug Enforcement Administrations Hartford Task Force and local and state law enforcement investigated a recent spike in drug-related violence in the Hartfords North End. During that investigation, Jones was identified as an active drug seller, prosecutors said.

On Oct. 7, 2020, authorities tried to arrest Jones on a state warrant when he was seen at a gas station on Albany Avenue engaging in what prosecutors said appeared to be drug transactions. As task force officers approached Jones, he ran off and tossed away a shoulder bag. After a brief chase, officers took Jones into custody.

When investigators searched Jones, they found about eight grams of crack cocaine, authorities said. The discarded bag has a loaded semi-automatic handgun, prosecutors said. The gun had been reported stolen from North Carolina in July of last year.

While Jones was released on bond in this federal case, he was arrested on state narcotics charges on April 9 after he was again seen making drug sales in Hartford, prosecutors said. He has been detained since that arrest.

Jones criminal history includes state convictions on drug, firearm, robbery and larceny offenses.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP)  A Texas inmate was executed Tuesday evening for fatally stabbing two Houston-area brothers during a robbery in their home more than 30 years ago.

Rick Rhoades, 57, was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the September 1991 killings of Charles Allen, 31, and Bradley Allen, 33. The brothers were killed less than a day after Rhoades had been released on parole after serving a sentence for burglary.

Rhoades, strapped to the death chamber gurney, turned his head and looked briefly at relatives of his victims as they walked to a window in a witness area a few feet from him. Asked by the warden to make a final statement, he declined.

Then as the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing through needles in each of his arms, Rhoades took several deep breaths, gurgled twice and began snoring, each breath becoming less pronounced. Within about a minute, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. CDT, 17 minutes after the lethal injection began.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to delay Rhoades execution over claims his constitutional right to due process was being violated because he was being prevented from pursuing allegations that some potential jurors at his trial might have been dismissed for racially discriminatory reasons.

We hope the Allen family finds peace after nearly 30 years of waiting for justice for their loved ones, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who attended the execution, said in a statement.

The death penalty should be reserved for the worst of the worst, and a Harris County jury determined long ago that this defendant fits the bill. Let us honor the memory of the victims, Charles and Bradley Allen, and never forget that our focus has and always will be on the victims.

Marley Allen Holt, Bradley Allens daughter who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and who was born during Rhoades trial, said she attended Tuesdays punishment because Rhoades watched her father die and I wanted to watch him die.

It's a weird feeling, Kevin Allen, whose two brothers were slain, said after witnessing the execution. I cant really describe what it's like. Its the most solemn thing I think Ive ever been part of, if that's the word that's even appropriate.

In July, Rhoades attorneys had filed a federal lawsuit against state District Judge Ana Martinez in Houston over a request they had made that the judge order prosecutors to release information related to allegations some jurors were dismissed based on racial discrimination.

Martinez ruled she lacked jurisdiction to consider the request. The suit was dismissed earlier this month by a Houston federal judge, who also declined to stay the execution. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the suits dismissal and also declined to stay the execution. The appeals court in 2019 had previously denied a similar claim by Rhoades attorneys on allegations that two Black jurors were dismissed due to racial bias. Rhoades is white.

Rhoades attorneys had previously unsuccessfully argued in other appeals: that his constitutional rights were violated when childhood photos depicting Rhoades in normal, happy activities and designed to show he was nonviolent and would do well in prison were excluded during his trials punishment phase; that a state investigator gave false testimony at his trial over whether Rhoades could receive an unaccompanied furlough if sentenced to life in prison; and that evolving standards of decency prohibit executions as a punishment for murder.

A 2020 Gallup poll on Americans attitudes regarding capital punishment shows that public support for the death penalty is at its lowest in a half-century, with opposition higher than any time since 1996, David Dow and Jeffrey Newberry wrote in a court motion last month.

Rhoades had a long criminal history, including convictions for burglary and auto theft in Florida, Iowa and Texas, when he broke into Charles Allens house in the Houston suburb of Pasadena.

The home, located near where the siblings parents lived, had just been custom built for Charles Allen and he had invited his brother to temporarily live with him. The two brothers had recently gone through separate divorces.

Charles Allen, who played the piano and had dreams of a musical career, worked as a chemical operator at a local refinery. Bradley Allen worked as a freelance artist.

At trial, prosecutors told jurors the siblings were asleep when Rhoades broke into their home in the early morning hours and attacked Charles Allen as he was in his bed. Bradley Allen was killed when he came to his brothers defense.

An arrest in the case wasnt made until about a month later when Rhoades was caught burglarizing an elementary school. While in custody, Rhoades confessed to killing the brothers. But he claimed it was done in self-defense after exchanging words with Charles Allen as Rhoades took a walk at 2:30 a.m.

I was tired of running. I wanted to tell what happened, Rhoades said in his confession.

Rhoades was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas and the sixth in the U.S. Four more executions are scheduled for later this year in Texas, the nations busiest capital punishment state.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Connecticut State Police / Contributed

CHESTER  State and local agencies are investigating the discovery of a mans body at the Pattaconk Recreation Area Tuesday.

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officers and state police joined members of the Chester Fire Department in an area of Cockaponset State Forest after receiving reports of an unresponsive man, DEEP said in a press release late Tuesday.
Daniel Craig is gearing up for his James Bond swansong in style. The actor, who is set to bid adieu to the iconic spy, laid the platform for his last venture as Bond in No Time to Die. He, along with the other members of his team, dazzled at the world premiere of the movie at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday.

Daniel Craig arrived for the event in style in a dark pink velvet suit and was accompanied by his leading ladies. Lashana Lynch, who is a new secret agent of the franchise, stunned in an off-shoulder gown while Lea Seydoux donned a shimmery dress with a cape and a train. The highlight of the evening, however, was the presence of the royals.

No Time to Die gears up for release with grand premiere in London

Prince William and Kate Middleton, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Charles and Camilla, Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall made a stylish appearance on the red carpet.

Rami Malek, who plays the role of the antagonist Lyutsifer Safin, was among the others to star at the premiere. Naomi Harris, who returns as Moneypenny for the third time in the franchise, too was snapped at the event.

Billie Eilish, who has composed the theme music of the movie, too was one of the attendees of the premiere and even performed.

The premiere was initially scheduled for release in March last year, ahead of the April venture. However, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed all plans for the release last year

No Time to Die is the 25th installment of the James Bond franchise.

Craig, who has starred as James Bond four times before the latest release, had earlier stated, on a show, that he felt grateful for being given the opportunity to enact the role. He stated that he felt Spectre, which released in 2015, would be his last outing.

No Time to Die releases in the United Kingdom on Thursday. In the United States of America, the release is scheduled for October 8. Advance bookings are predicting intense buzz for the action film with some reports claim that it has been the best since Avengers: Endgame.
As infighting in the Punjab unit continues, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday said that the Indian National Congress had now become the 'Indian National Circus'. Speaking to media, AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha accused the ruling party in Punjab of humiliating the Punjabis and added that the state has now chosen to change the 'ship', so changing the 'captain of the ship' won't help.

"There is no future of Congress and it cannot give any future to India. We all should say 'bye-bye' to Congress now," Raghav Chada further added. The statement of Chada comes at the time the AAP is striving hard to take over Congress in the upcoming 2022 assembly elections in Punjab. The party has claimed that someone, who is the 'pride of Punjab', will be chosen as the CM face for the assembly elections.

Congress Infighting continues

Citing humiliation, the former Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh had informed Congress President Sonia Gandhi that he cannot run a government when not given freedom. Terming Sidhu as an incompetent, anti-national, and pro-Pakistan man, Captain Amarinder Singh had said that he would oppose if Sidhu was picked as the next CM. However, the grand-old party picked 58-year-old Charanjit Singh Channi, who was sworn in as the 16th Chief Minister of Punjab, though the possibility of Sidhu being the CM face for the upcoming elections was still open then.

Days thereafter, Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from the presidentship of Punjab Pardesh Congress Committee (PPCC) citing that "the collapse of a man's character stems from the compromise corner". After Sidhu's resignation, many of his loyalists like Razia Sultana also tendered their resignation. It is not clear what specifically Sidhu has fallen out with the Congress High Command over.

Sources have informed Republic that the Congress high command has decided not to indulge any further in talks with Sidhu. Talking with Channi, the high command hopes to come to a plausible solution, sources said.

Meanwhile, seeing the deteriorating state of affairs in Congress, senior party leader Kapil Sibal held a press briefing on behalf of the G23 leaders, who wrote to the High Command a year back seeking radical changes. "I am here today with a heavy heart. In past, we were proud of Congress leadership but can't look at the situation my party is in today. It breaks my heart. It is saddening," Kabil Sibal said.

"Today Congressmen are leaving Congress. Sushmita Deb, Former Goa CM, Jitin Prasad, Scindhia, etc have left Congress," he added, with a question, "Why are leaders leaving Congress? We have to introspect, maybe Congress is also at fault."
Addressing the second day of a week-long hearing on a 2018 antitrust penalty case, technology giant Google has slammed its rival Microsoft and claimed 'Google' is the most searched term on their search engine.

"We have presented data proving that the most popular search inquiry on Bing (Microsoft's search engine) is by far Google," Bloomberg quoted a lawyer for the Alphabet Inc. unit as saying at the European Unions General Court in Luxembourg.

The argument from Google came in response to the antitrust penalty imposed by the European Commission for stifling competition through the dominance of its Android operating system, Bloomberg reported. The European Commission had fined Google 4.34 billion (Rs 37,634 crore) for breaching EU antitrust rules in 2018. According to a press release by the EU, Google has forced unlawful restrictions on Android gadget makers and mobile network operators to cement its authoritative position in a general internet search.

"Google has used Android as a medium to fasten the dominance of its search engine. These exercises have denied opponents the opportunity to innovate and fight on the merits," Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, had said during his 2018 judgement. "They have discarded European consumers the benefits of efficient competition in the important mobile sphere. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules," Vestager had aded.

Microsoft Bing is not in the competition for Google: Advocate in Court

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Alphabet Inc., Alfonso Lamadrid, on Tuesday, asserted to the court that the people were using Google as their search engine because they felt convenient and easy to operate, not because the tech giant forced them to use it. He informed the court that the market share of the Googe is much beyond the capability of Bing- a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft.

"More than 95% of people prefer using Google over Bing and other rivals companies," informed Lamadrid to the EU's General Court in Luxembourg. Notably, this was not the first time when rival companies challenged Google's working module. In June 2017, the Europen Commission fined Google 2.42 billion for abusing its dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to Google's own comparison shopping service.

(With inputs from AP, Image: Unsplash)
NASA is not holding back in its preparations to head for Mars as the agency, on September 29, announced another Mars-oriented simulated programme. The agency also revealed the names of the four volunteers who will bring this project to life that is meant to last for a total of 45 days. NASA said that data from this mission will add to the information required for future endeavours to Moon under the Artemis mission and long-duration Mars missions.

A simulated journey to Mars moons

As per the revelations made by NASA, the project will be executed inside the ground-based habitat at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston starting October 1. Named the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, the habitat has been designed to stimulate deep space environments such as isolation, confinement, and remote conditions in exploration scenarios.

Putting the HER in HERA.



The new crew for the upcoming mission of NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, has been selected for a 45-day simulated journey of the long trek to Mars moon Phobos.



Meet the crew members: https://t.co/sD2Hbeefbh pic.twitter.com/IZk5UPFOIs  Women@NASA (@WomenNASA) September 28, 2021

The agency revealed that the volunteers have signed up for a simulated deep-space journey that will eventually end on Phobos, a moon of Mars. It further stated that the crew members, who are scheduled to stay inside HERA till November 15, will experience space-like conditions like communication delays that will amplify as the crew starts getting closer to Phobos. Amid these conditions, the members will be faced with challenges like gaining autonomy during the mission and practising communication with the least impact on mission operations.

Meanwhile, these are the volunteers NASA has selected for the simulated trip to Phobos.

Lauren Cornell

Dr. Lauren Cornell is a research scientist who is currently serving the U.S. Air Force, in San Antonio, Texas, in the research, development, and evaluation of innovative technologies. Besides, she is a graduate of Texas A&M University and holds a bachelor's and masters degree in Genetics and Biomedical Engineering respectively. She also has a Ph.D. in translational science and is co-founder of NovoThelium, a company focussed on improving womens health care.

Monique Garcia

Monique Garcia is a contributing factor in the U.S Space Force where she assists with developing task automation systems on satellites. Apart from this, she is also contributing to the development of NASAs Deep Space Network telescope at The MITRE Corporation where she is designated as human factors engineer and systems administrator. Interestingly, along with these credentials including 12 years of military service with the Air National Guard, Garcia is also a certified personal trainer with specialisations in health and performance-based cognitive and behavioural techniques.

Christopher Roberts

This Texas-based project engineer is responsible for the end-to-end integration and on-orbit operations of the hardware of the International Space Station and the spacecraft visiting it. A Physics graduate from St. Johns University in New York City and a masters degree in engineering physics, Roberts has won accolades like the NASAs Spaceflight Awareness Award 2021 for his dedication and flight safety during the missions.

Madelyne Willis

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Willis is a microbial ecologist who has extensive field experience owing to her multiple expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. As per NASA, Willis is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Science at Montana State University, which focusses on polar ecology.

Image: Twitter/@WomenNASA
A new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research revealed that an increase in global warming by one to two degrees Celsius by mid-century might put around 25% more people in danger from tropical cyclones. The study, published in Nature Climate Change journal, also found that emission reductions that keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius might safeguard almost 1.8 billion people from tropical storms until the end of the century.

The findings noted that population growth, apart from climate change, further increases the risk of tropical cyclones exposure, particularly in coastal areas of East Africa and the United States. The researchers looked at the combined effects of demographic development and climate change on those who are vulnerable to tropical storms, and discovered that the timing of the warming levels becomes crucial.

"If we combine population growth with two degrees Celsius of global warming, we could see at least a 40% increase in people exposed to cyclones by 2050," stated Tobias Geiger, the lead author of the study.

He further went on to say that more people will be exposed to powerful cyclones due to climate change, as the world population is expected to peak around mid-century, putting the higher population in greater danger. The worldwide goal is to keep warming below two degrees Celsius, but when compared to unabated climate change, even two degrees Celsius of global warming could result in a very different outcome 50 years later, claimed the study.

It also noted that on a global scale, demographic models predict an unforced, regular decline in population in cyclone-prone locations until 2100.

'The findings are applicable to a range of other climate extremes'

The findings further noted that delaying two degrees of warming until 2080 or 2100, in accordance with projected population decline, would result in a reduction of 'exposed population' in the Caribbean and East Asia, particularly in Japan, China, and the Korean peninsula.

Meanwhile, researchers claimed that their computer model can evaluate the global and country-level impacts of any given warming scenario, as well as the consequences for the number of people in danger from tropical storms. The findings are most likely applicable to a range of other climate extremes too, whose occurrence is solely determined by absolute warming rather than time, the study stated.

(Image: Pixabay/Representative)
In the third terror attack in a month, at least five armed personnel were killed by unidentified gunmen in Dideni area of Mali. Four others were also wounded in the ambush on an army-escorted convoy on Tuesday, ANI reported citing Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) statement. The incident took place about 188km north of Bamako between Sebabougou and Kwala.

According to FAMa, the attack was carried out by the rebels backed by the jihadist forces. The assailants also burned down 11 trailers in the area, the military confirmed. However, FAMa refused to divulge information about the identity of the gunmen quoting security reasons. Meanwhile, the Moroccan embassy in Mali assured that there were no Moroccan casualties in the incident that took place on September 28.

Five soldiers killed in an ambush

On September 12, as many as five soldiers and three terrorists were killed when an armed terrorist group attacked a military patrol in central Mali, reported Xinhua news, citing a Malian Armed Forces statement. The ambush was set by the terrorist group on Sunday morning at 11:45 am (local time), to which the army's Operation Maliko patrol team retaliated courageously, FAMa added. On the same day, two drivers of Moroccan origin were killed by the armed men in Dideni town about 100kms from the Malian capital Bamako.

Earlier in August, another terrorist attack had ravaged the country when as many as 51 civilians were killed. The terrorists had set ablaze several homes after infiltrating remote villages on motorbikes in the country's northwestern region. Later, a patrol team from the Malian military rushed to the regions to counter the attacks.

The Malian Conflict

According to the Sipri organisation, the "multidimensional" Malian crisis began after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya. The volatility in western parts of Mali, mostly the Sahel region has continued to escalate since 2012. This has plunged the nation into a multifaceted crisis like an appalling economy and humanitarian crisis. Local incursions and inter-communal violence fuelled by jihadists have also led to the deaths and displacement of thousands.

With inputs from ANI and AP

Image: AP/PIXABAY (representative)
A team of scientists have discovered an eagle fossil in the South Australian Outback which has been classified as one of the world's earliest raptor species. The team of palaeontologists from Flinders University in Adelaide has released research a report revealing that an eagle fossil was discovered in the year 2016, which is a new species that goes back 25 million years to the late Oligocene period. The report was published in the Historical Biology journal on Monday.

The Flinders University palaeontologists unearthed dozens of bone fragments from the archaeological site in Lake Pinpa which is a dried Salt Lake in the desert of South Australia. According to the new research, the fossils belonged to the Archaehierax sylvestris, or old forest hawk.

The characteristics of the new eagle species

The Xinhua website reported that Ellan Mather, the report's primary author informed the new species, Archaehierax sylvestris, had a 15-centimetre foot span which was used to grasp large prey. She went on to say that this bird species was somewhat shorter and leaner than any of the wedge-tailed eagles, yet it was Australia's biggest eagle during that era. At that period, the largest marsupial predators were roughly the size of a small dog or a large cat, therefore Archaehierax was unquestionably in charge.

Mather further added that the combination of these characteristics implies that Archaehierax was an ambush predator who was nimble but not exceptionally quick. It was among the most powerful land predators of the late Oligocene, swooping down on birds and animals. The scientists claimed that the historic raptor species thrived through swooping on prey like birds, possums, and even koalas. They even informed that the eagle's strong wingspan, broad legs were suitable for hunting and gliding within forests.

'Exceptional partial skeleton' of the new eagle species

According to BBC, Associate Professor Trevor Worthy stated that as their limited proportions of the bird species at the era, it was "rare to find even one bone from a fossil eagle". He also said that scientists have been studying this system for a long time, this is the most spectacular fossil ever discovered.

The scientists believed that the bird species which were from the Oligocene period in history used to live in an environment more like a rainforest rather than the dry state around Lake Pinpa. Scientists discovered nearly 63 bones of the fossil which they describe as an "exceptional partial skeleton".

Mather further revealed that the eagle's remains were most likely swept into the lake when it died and buried in silt as the surrounding environment was a rainforest. She even stated that the Archaehierax fossils allowed the scientists to figure out where it belongs in the eagle family history. It has a variety of characteristics that aren't found in modern hawks and eagles. As per the research, Archaehierax certainly doesn't belong to any of the current genera or groupings. It is appeared to be a separate branch of the eagle family.

(Image: Unsplash/ Representative Image)
Greenland Foreign Minister Pele Broberg has been fired on September 27 over his 'Inuit-Only Independence Referendum' remark on the Arctic territory's independence from Denmark. After a contentious interview by the Minister of the Autonomous Arctic area, Prime Minister Mute Egede, who favours autonomy but not independence, stated the ruling coalition has agreed to a reshuffle. Broberg has been named Minister of Business and Trade, while Egede has been named Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Taking a dig at Broberg, the Prime Minister, who took power in April after a snap election, emphasised that "all residents in Greenland have equal rights." In an interview with Berlingske, Broberg stated that any future referendum on independence should be limited to Inuits, who make up more than 90% of Greenland's 56,000 residents.

He had stated, "The aim is not to let people who colonised the country to decide whether or not they may stay."

In the same interview, he expressed opposition to the term "Community of the Kingdom," which officially refers to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, claiming that his country has "nothing to do" with Denmark.

Greenland was a Danish colony till 1953

Greenland, the largest island in the world, was a Danish colony until 1953, when it was granted semi-autonomy in 1979, after gaining home rule. Since then, various pro-independence parties have raised their voices in support of full independence. The Arctic territory continues to rely heavily on Copenhagen's subsidies, which amount to over 526 million euros ($638 million) and account for roughly a third of its budget. But, as indicated by former US President Donald Trump's abruptly rejected request to buy it in 2019. Its geostrategic location in the Arctic, as well as enormous mineral riches whose production has been delayed by a lack of infrastructure, have bolstered its chances of independence.

Greenland wants to expand its economy by developing its fishing, mining, and tourist industries, as well as agriculture in the southern half of the island, which is ice-free year-round after Mute Egede won the election in April by campaigning against a controversial uranium mining project.

(Image: GreenlandMFA/Twitter)

(With inputs from Berlingske)
United Nations (UN) agencies on September 29 warned that over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are experiencing deteriorating conditions leaving nine out of ten of them in extreme poverty. The depleting conditions in the Middle Eastern nation come despite the assistance sent for Syrians living in Lebanon which is engulfed in crisis. As per a rrpoert by Associated Press, one in four citizens is a refugee in Lebanon. Among the Syrians, child marriage and labour is on the spike and thousands of others face the risk of eviction.

The yearly report on the conditions of Syrians living in Lebanon was published jointly by the UNs refugee agency United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), its World Food Program, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In a statement, the UN agencies said that the cost of essential food items has spiked over seven times in late 2019 when the financial crisis in Lebanon began to unfold.

The report said that the subsistence food basket includes only 13 items such as potatoes, bread, eggs and powdered milk. The UN described it as the minimum to survive not live in dignity. Meanwhile, Lebanon is witnessing a historic economic crisis triggering the currency to crash and losing almost 90% of its value. This has further pushed 55% of the Lebanese population below the poverty line and shooting up the prices and unemployment rate.

The crisis prevailing in Lebanon have made the situation of Syrian refugees far more worse with many of them living in temporary houses with low paying jobs. As per AP, Ayaki Ito, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon warned of long-term consequences. Ito also called for increasing the support of Syrians in the foreign nation adding, we cannot fail them now.

UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF jointly said that Syrian children are facing a lot of hardships as the attendance in schools has dropped significantly. As per the report, school attendance for children between 6 and 14 years old has plunged by 25% in 2021 while nearly 30% of children in school-age have never attended any institution. Meanwhile, thousands of other children from Syria living in Lebanon are engaged in child labour and one out of five girls between the age of 15 and 19 were married. The UN agencies noted that the same trend was persistent for at least three years.

IMAGE: AP

(With AP inputs)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI admitted to the country's role in the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attack on a debate with Arnab Goswami on Wednesday. In a debate moderated by Republic Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson Abdul Samad Yaqoob accepted that Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab and other terrorists involved in the Mumbai terror attacks were Pakistani.

"There is no harm in accepting that Kasab and others who committed the 26/11 terror attack were Pakistani, but they were not sponsored by Pakistan," Pakistan PM Imran Khan party's spokesperson Abdul Samad Yaqoob said. He further, shockingly, said that what is wrong in carrying out terrorist attacks.

Lashing out at Pakistan, Major General (Retired) GD Bakshi said that Islamabad nurtured terrorists, citing Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden skulking near Pakistan military campus. "They had Osama within 1 km of a Pakistan military campus; It was claimed he was in the caves of Tora-Bora while he was actually in a bungalow they had built for him and his wives," he said.

The 26/11 attack is a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008 when 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out 12 coordinated shootings and bombings in Mumbai. In the attacks, 174 people died, including 9 terrorists. The only terrorist captured alive by police was Ajmal Kasab. He was executed by hanging on November 12, 2012, at 7:30 am.

'Pakistan Army, ISI Trained Me': Captured Lashkar Terrorist Confesses

Imran Khan-led Pakistan's role in spread terrorism is not new. Ali Babar Patra, a 190year-old terrorist captured by Indian Amry, confessed on camera that he was trained by Pakistan Army and its intelligence - Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Speaking to reporters, the captured terrorist said that he was given financial help of Rs 25,000 for his ailing mother's treatment. He also revealed that the Pakistan Army was aiding terrorists to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir.

"Without Pakistan Army, no terrorist can sneak into ISI. We were given firearms and training by ISI. We were told to go for the mission and asked to stay out of detail. I was recruited by Lashkar. There were overall 6 terrorists launched by Pak Army for infiltration. Most instructions are given by Pakistani Army personnel," the surrendered terrorist said.

Exposing Pakistan's modus operandi, he said that the young people were told that Islam is in danger. "I was poor and mislead. I met a boy who was from Lashkar-e-Taiba. After my father's death, I started working. I have an elder sister and my brother has died," he said.
In a second shocking instance of a physical altercation on the parliament floor, Taiwans fuming lawmakers on Tuesday, Sept. 28 abandoned dialogue and charged at each other exchanging punches as the brawl broke out between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). The two parties debated the COVID-19 policies and containment efforts when the oppositions assailment of government triggered the lawmakers that shouted slanders and went berserk.

Ultimately, some of the party members breached the protective barrier and dragged a few lawmakers on the ground and hurtled blows, while others poured the water from the bottles at each other escalating the verbal argument into a physical fight. Some even rushed to the podium and asked the speaker to resign on spot, Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

[Opposition Nationalist party lawmaker Chen Yu-jen, in the white shirt, is grabbed by ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers as she tries to climb onto the podium during a parliament session in Taipei, Taiwan. Credit: AP]

Argument descends into full-blown 'rowdy brawl'

Taiwans entire legislature descended into a rowdy brawl as the chamber's head, Su Tseng-chang, was opening his annual address on the governments performance with respect to the policies related to national security, economy and the COVID-19 pandemic, the AP agency stated. As the members of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang lost calm and exchanged blows, the speaker was able to deliver his speech amid the hoots and calls for his dismissal.

Nationalist party members flashed signs condemning the ruling governments bias for COVID-19 quarantine policies for the pilots, reducing the isolation time period. During the initial days of the outbreak, Taiwan had exercised sweeping containment efforts such as mandatory 14-day quarantine for all Chinese pilots and grounding the foreign airline, effectively to control the spread. Taiwan at the time was hailed for keeping the pandemic well under control, although, recently, the island recorded 800 fatalities in one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in May and June since the onset of the disease.

[Premier Su Tseng-chang, in the purple mask, tries to make a policy speech amid a scuffle between the opposition Nationalist party and ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers during a parliament session in Taipei, Taiwan. Credit: AP]

Last year, similarly, the Parliamentarians in Taiwan had hit the headlines for throwing pig guts at each other over an argument on US policy that would allow pork and beef imports into Tokyo. Opposition Chinese nationalist party (KMT) threw the intestines, offal, and exchanged punches shortly after the premier, Su Tseng-chang started the policy speech. Initially, the KMT members were reported blowing whistles during the session but due to the intervention of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, the clash blew into a chaotic fistfight as raw guts were flown in the air from the bucket and were later seen strewn all across the parliament floor in the visuals that were broadcasted.

[Taiwanese lawmakers in November last year got into a brawl, throwing pig guts and insides on the parliament floor. Credit: AP]
An official of the Mexico Police Agency, Marcela Figueroa stated on Wednesday that 37 police officers and citizens were injured during marches by the feminist movement in Mexico City in support of abortion legalisation. Figueroa took to the microblogging site Twitter and wrote, "Report at the end of the march: 37 people injured. Of these, 27 fellow police officers, one colleague from the Secretary of Government and nine civilians (5 women and 4 men). Of all of them, four fellow police officers required hospital transfer."

Police and business leaders began preparing for the marches in Mexico City as early as the previous night. Metal shields were placed over shop windows and doors, while landmarks, historical buildings and the National Palace which serves as the rally's final destination, were fenced, as per Sputnik.

Abortion is currently illegal in most Latin American countries

Female extremists wearing balaclava helmets and equipped with paint sprays, chains and hammers always attend these events, according to Sputnik. On International Safe Abortion Day, held on Tuesday, feminist organisations from Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala and Salvador protested for the legalising of abortions, which are currently illegal in most Latin American countries.

Abortions in Mexico are governed by municipal laws and were formerly authorised in four of the country's 32 states. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled the ban on abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy as unconstitutional on September 7, but the precedent has yet to be reflected in the legislation of 28 states, where the medical procedure is punishable by up to three years in prison unless it is performed in cases of rape or in cases of certain medical conditions.

Thousands of Latin American women die each year as a result of unsafe abortions

Thousands of Latin American women die each year as a result of unsafe abortions, at a time when the region's adolescent pregnancies and sexual assaults are on the rise. In Colombia, where abortion is only permitted in cases of rape, danger to the mother's life or birth deformities, some 800 women marched through the city centre. Protesters brandished banners that read "Legal Abortion Now," "Right to Decide," and donned green scarves that are emblematic of the global movement to decriminalise abortion.

Image: AP
The head of the Northern Division at the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, arrived in Nepal on Tuesday, 28 September. An official from the Indian Mission in Nepal confirmed that the Srivastava arrived in Kathmandu and will now be holding series of discussions during his visit. He will also be participating in a meeting of the mechanism formed to oversee the execution and operationalisation of India funded projects.

The official told ANI, Series of meetings with secretaries at various ministries has been fixed for Wednesday.

Another MEA official separately added, He (Srivastava) will be participating in a meeting of mechanism formed to oversee the execution and operationalisation of India funded projects. Meetings with other officials are sideline meetings which have been taking occasionally in between the two nations but were stalled for few years attributing to various reasons.

It is worth mentioning that Srivastava's visit to Nepal is the first visit by an Indian government official after Sher Bahadur Deuba succeeded KP Oli as Prime Minister. The relation between Nepal and the Indian government was bittered last year after the former had released the revised political and administrative map incorporating the disputed territories of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani. At that time, India had said that Nepal's unilateral action was "not based on historical facts and evidence" and reiterated a solid objection to the hill country's move.

Nepal acknowledges Indias continued support

However, earlier this month, Nepal acknowledged India for its continued support towards the infrastructural development of the Himalayan nation. India expressed its delight at the productive collaboration with the Nepal government and the joint efforts made towards strengthening connectivity infrastructure between the two countries.

The discourse took place during the 4th Joint Project Monitoring Committee on 'Strengthening of Road Infrastructure' in the Terai region of Nepal which was held through video-conferencing.

Srivastava, along with the Joint Secretary from Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport of Nepal Keshab Kumar Sharma co-chaired the fourth Joint Project Monitoring Committee (JPMC) meet. The meet evaluated the overall implementation of the Government of India-funded Terai Roads Project in Nepal while expressing pleasure at the satisfactory progress achieved with the fulfilment of 13 out of 14 road packages under the project. Both nations noted that despite the hazards posed by the COVID pandemic, the initiative has made good progress and has finally reached the final stage of completion.

(With inputs from ANI)




As Jordan lifted COVID-related curfews following decreasing infection rates in the past months, Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II tested positive for the virus, the Royal Court notified. In a statement, the authorities said that Prince Hussein displayed mild symptoms of COVID-19 but "remains in good health." Meanwhile, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania tested negative for the virus and will remain under precautionary quarantine for five days.

Prince Al Hussein will remain under isolation and medical observation, the Royal Court said in its statement. According to Arab News, the Royal family members have been inoculated with both doses against the Coronavirus. "His Highness Prince Hussein, who had received the vaccine against the Coronavirus, showed mild symptoms and is in very good health," the Royal statement asserted.

Who is Prince Hussein?

Prince Hussein is the first-in-line to ascend his father's throne. A member of the Hashemite dynasty, Prince Hussein is the 42nd descendant of Prophet Muhammad. Recently, he has been on the side of his father, King Abdullah, in almost all public appearances and delegation meetings with local and foreign dignitaries, Al Jazeera reported. The 27-year-old Prince is also the first lieutenant in the Jordanian armed forces. In 2019, Hussein became the youngest person to chair a UN Security Council session at the age of 20. He made his global debut in 2020 at the United Nations General Assembly.

Jordan revokes COVID-related curfews

Earlier in the month of August, Jordan authorities abolished partial curfews ending a year-and-a-half-long COVID-19 lockdown in the country. Citing the epidemiological improvement, the Jordanian government also reopened the majority of work sectors with full capacity.

On the COVID-19 infection front, Jordan has reported 1,042 fresh cases on September 28, said a bulletin released by the Ministry of Health. The fresh cases pushed the weekly average to 899 cases and total cases to 8.22 lakhs. On the same day, Jordan recorded six COVID-related deaths taking the total death tally to 10,703.

On the vaccination front, the Kingdom has been able to completely vaccinate at least 32.5 lakh citizens which amount to at least 32,35,830 people. Additionally, another 36% has successfully been inoculated with at least one dose.

Image: AP/ PIXABAY (representative)
Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, in association with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is all set to launch 5 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) in the first half of 2022. The missions will include 2 manned flights in Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft to the ISS on March 18. Additionally, three cargo missions in Progress MS 19, scheduled for February 15.

The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft will take flight with astronauts Oleg Artrmyev, Denis Maryeyev, and Sergey Karsakov onboard. Following this, another Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will carry astronauts Sergey Prokopyev, Anna Kikina and Dimitry Petelin to the ISS on September 21. Meanwhile, in 2021, Roscosmos is preparing to set a course for four space launches with two Progress, one Soyuz and one Nauka module of spacecraft.

Soyuz MS-19 at ISS redocks to free Rassavet port

The Soyuz MS-18 crew ship docked to @Roscosmos' Nauka module at 9:04am ET today opening up the Rassvet port for the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship next week. https://t.co/SxltDNQGac  International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 28, 2021

At the ISS, the previously launched spaceflights are making shifts to allow space for the scheduled launches. On September 28, the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that first launched and arrived at the International Space Station on April 9 has now successfully relocated with its crew aboard from the stations Earth-facing Rassvet module to the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module. The Russian Soyuz MS-18 had undocked from the Rassvet module on the International Space Station at 8:21 am, NASA said in a statement. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, who is the commander of the Soyuz spacecraft, and Pyotr Dubrov along with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei were onboard to ensure successful relocation of the spacecraft. the trio made a victorious attempt and completed relocation at 9:04 am. Nauka arrived at the station in July and was attached to the stations Zvezda module, providing a new laboratory and robotic arm aboard the orbiting outpost to conduct experiments, store scientific instruments and provide additional sleeping and bathroom for the onboard spacemen.

"It is the first time a spacecraft has attached to the new Nauka module, which arrived at the station in July, and is the 20th Soyuz port relocation in station history and the first since March 2021," the space agency added.

According to NASA, the relocation has freed the Rassvet port for the arrival October 5 of another Soyuz spacecraft, designated Soyuz MS-19. The spacecraft moves from Earth with Soyuz commander and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and spaceflight participants Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild onboard. Meanwhile, Vande Hei and Dubrov are scheduled to remain aboard the station until March 2022. They are scheduled to return to Earth in the Soyuz MS-18 in October 2022.

With inputs from ANI

Image: @Nasa/Twitter
In a development overseas, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen extended her gratitude to Nicaragua's Minister of Foreign Affairs Denis Moncada Colindres for voicing his support for Taiwan's participation at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Colindres advocated for the 'principle of universality' and Taiwan's inclusivity in the intergovernmental apparatus. Colindres' support and Tsai Ing-wen's subsequent gratitude surfaced owing to the contentious status of Taiwan in the United Nations.

Taking to Twitter, the Taiwan President shared, "Thank you to Minister Denis Canciller Moncada for voicing Nicaragua's support for Taiwan's international participation at the UNGA. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Nicaragua for the mutual benefit of our countries & peoples."

Thank you to Minister @DenisCanciller Moncada for voicing #Nicaragua's support for #Taiwan's international participation at the #UNGA. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Nicaragua for the mutual benefit of our countries & peoples. pic.twitter.com/h1khtchxMy   Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) September 29, 2021

Owing to its limited international recognition, each year since 1992, Taiwan has petitioned the UN for membership and entry, however, it has not made it past the committee perusal and consideration stage.

Why is Taiwan's international recognition contentious?

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island that shares maritime borders with China (People's Republic of China, PRC). The political, social and international status of the island state continues to be contentious as a result of the Chinese Civil War and a subsequent split of China namely, ROC and PRC. The question persisted through decades whether Taiwan should remain a territory of ROC or merge with the mainland under the newly-formed PRC. The Taiwan issue subsists in the international organisational system and points out whether Taiwan's existence as a sovereign state as part of both ROC and PRC should be legitimised and currently, the Taiwan identity row hinges on subjects and matters of international law as well.

In 1971, after the vote by majority in the UN, PRC was recognised. However, ROC continued to claim itself as the legitimate representative of China compelling Taiwan to maintain unofficial and representational ties with states and institutions. While the island is claimed by the PRC, the Xi Jinping-led regime refuses to acknowledge and recognise Taiwan's independent diplomatic relations with foreign entities. Domestically, the major feud is between sides and political parties that either favour the Chinese unification notion as opposed to those aspiring a formal international recognition and legitimacy in a bid to attain Taiwanese identity.

Image: AP
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), on Tuesday, asked for the release of Imad al-Harathi, Director of the National Youth League (NYL), who was reportedly kidnapped by unknown armed individuals from his office in Tripoli on September 26.

In a statement on Twitter, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed concerns over the safety and security of al-Harathi. The UNSMIL demanded the immediate release of al-Harathia and asked for a fast and complete investigation into his abduction. According to the statement, al-Harathi was kidnapped from his NYL office in Tripoli after calling for peaceful protests in support of the December 24 general election.

Al-Harathi's current location remains unknown

The UNSMIL informed that Al-Harathi's location remains unknown as of now. The UN body wrote on Twitter that the rights to freedom of expression and assembly are basic and guaranteed under national and international law. Read the UNSMIL statement here:

1/3 UNSMIL is concerned about the safety and security of Imad al-Harathi, Director of the National Youth League (NYL). Mr. al-Harathi was reportedly abducted by unknown armed men from his NYL office in Tripoli on 26 September --> pic.twitter.com/sQmcc5xuBI  UNSMIL (@UNSMILibya) September 28, 2021

Libya elections

Jan Kubis, special representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) had on September 10, briefed ambassadors on developments ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place in the country on 24 December.

The UN had informed that the elections in Libya were agreed "under a political roadmap stemming from the historic October 2020 ceasefire between Libyas rival authorities, and the establishment of a Government of National Unity (GNU), this year."

UNSMIL is a UN advanced mission in Libya that was established following the Libyan Civil War. UNSMIL is not a military operation, but rather a political one. Assisting Libyan transitional authorities in "post-conflict operations," offering mediation in the implementation of Libyan political agreements, supporting important Libyan institutions and monitoring and reporting on human rights is among the core parts of its UN-defined mandate.

US House passes an altered version of Libya Stability Law

Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives Press Office said on Tuesday that the House has passed an altered version of the "Libya Stability Law," which seeks to sanction foreign parties who interfere in Libyan affairs. Supporters of mercenary soldiers and militias, violators of the UN arms embargo, and perpetrators of human rights crimes in Libya are all subject to the Libya Stability Law. It also focuses on improving the public sector's financial management, particularly the Central Bank and the Libyan National Oil Corporation.

(Image: @UNSMIL/Facebook)
In a dramatic development in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition case, a report submitted before a UK court stated that the United States' premier intelligence agency, the CIA, under the Trump administration was pondering and discussing 'options' to abduct and even assassinate the Australian activist. suggest that the US was hell-bent and outrightly desperate to end the asylum of Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy.

According to the report, the US intelligence considered the killing of Assange in 2017 when the WikiLeaks founder was entering the fifth year sheltering at the Ecuador embassy in London. The CIA officials along with the then director, Mike Pompeo, tabled their intentions after being infuriated by WikiLeaks' publication of 'Vault 7', a breach which is considered as the biggest data loss in history. 'Vault 7' is a series of documents detailing the activities and capabilities of the US intelligence agency CIA in relation to cyber warfare. In fact, in March 2017, then US President Donald Trump had said, "the CIA was hacked, and a lot of things taken."

US considered killing Julian Assange: Report

While the CIA has declined to comment on the grave allegations, the report suggested that the plan of action to assassinate Julian Assange had been laid out and the Trump administration went as far as requesting for his 'sketches' or 'options' with 'no boundaries' for killing Assange. The latest on the purported plot to assassinate Assange adds to incidents that surfaced in this regard in 2020 as well. In September 2020, the internet witnessed global outrage after an employee of a Spanish security company, UC Global, had come to the fore and highlighted details of an alleged attempt to spy on Assange.

Purportedly, microphones were concealed to monitor Assange's meetings with his lawyers, and his fingerprints were obtained from a glass. The aforesaid information was read out in the Old Bailey in London on September 30, 2020, by one of Assange's lawyers, who is fighting his extradition to the US on charges relating to leaks of classified documents that exposed the alleged US war crimes and abuses.

'If reports are true, I am horrified': Dutch MP

The counsel appearing on behalf of Assange in the recent extradition hearing told local media persons, "As an American citizen, I find it absolutely outrageous that our government would be contemplating kidnapping or assassinating somebody without any judicial process simply because Julian Assange had published truthful information."

Pieter Omtzigt, an MP of the Netherlands, while addressing the Parliamentary Assembly expressed grave concern at the US' consideration of ultra-judicial assassination and detention of whistleblowers.

"If these are reports are true, I am horrified," Omtzigt said. "Reports that high-level US officials may have considered such an option are deeply worrying."

Additionally, the MP pointed out a resolution of the Assembly passed in 2020 which called for Assange's extradition to the US to be barred and urged his prompt release from the asylum in the UK too.

Julian Assange WikiLeaks case

The 50-year-old Australian editor has been under arrest since April 2019 when he finally left the Ecuadorian embassy he had occupied for years in the capital city of England. He had taken asylum in the Ecuador embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden in a 2010 rape case against him. He was later charged with rape, however the charges were dropped by Swedish prosecutors in 2019.

WikiLeaks hit the limelight after releasing a series of significant and inaccessible documents and caches. From equipment, arms in possession during the Afghanistan war, or the corruption investigation in Kenya to the operating procedures manual at the US-operated prisons in Guantanamo Bay, the non-profit organisation accessed and published reams of classified documents. Soon after the leaks of diplomatic cables began in 2010, the US had begun a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday charged six foreign nationals and a Swiss company with conspiracy to evade tax payment. The entities were booked for attempting to defraud Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by helping three large-value US taxpayer-clients conceal more than $60 million in income and assets held in undeclared, offshore bank accounts and to evade U.S. income taxes, the DoJ said in a statement. The indictment was unsealed by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Departments Tax Division and US Attorney for Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss.

According to the indictment, from 2009 to 2014, Ivo Bechtiger, Bernhard Lampert, Peter Ruegg, Roderic Sage, Rolf Schnellmann, Daniel Walchli and Switzerland-based Allied Finance Trust AG allegedly defrauded the IRS by concealing income and assets of certain US taxpayer clients with undeclared bank accounts located at Privatbank IHAG (IHAG), a Swiss private bank in Zurich, and elsewhere, DoJ informed.

"One such U.S. customer, Wayne Chinn, pleaded guilty to his participation in the so-called Singapore Solution, forfeited more than $2 million to the United States, and awaits sentencing for his admitted crime, US Attorney Audrey Strauss said.

Accused concealed bank accounts of the US-based clients

"In order to assist those clients, the defendants and others allegedly concocted a plan and used a scheme called the Singapore Solution. The indicted frauds used the scheme to conceal the bank accounts of the US-based clients, their assets, and income from US authorities, the DoJ statement explained. The defendants and others "allegedly conspired to transfer more than $60 million from undeclared IHAG bank accounts of the three U.S. clients."

The transactions were carried out through a series of nominee bank accounts in Hong Kong and other locations before transferring the funds in small amounts to newly opened accounts at IHAG. Additionally, the alleged fraudsters also paid off several high-level officials at IHAG to ensure the smooth functioning of the scam.

Indictment Unsealed Against Six Individuals and Foreign Financial Service Firm for Tax Evasion Conspiracy



Defendants Allegedly Used Singapore Solution to Enable U.S. Clients to Evade Taxes on Over $60 Million Hidden Offshorehttps://t.co/IxndDKeVVj  Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) September 28, 2021

Talking about the case, Deputy Goldberg said, Prosecuting offshore tax evasion remains one of the Tax Divisions highest priorities." He also warned potential tax evaders saying that those who are planning to "design and execute strategies to assist their evasion  should know that the Tax Division and IRS have the investigative resources and expertise to unravel even the most elaborate schemes."

If and when convicted, the defendants will face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Additionally, they will also be listed under supervised release and monetary penalties.

(With inputs from ANI, Image: Unsplash/Representative)
A second person stands trial under the national security law, while nine more people are charged under it.

A woman wears a 'Free Hong Kong' face mask at a vigil outside the Chinese embassy in London on June 4, 2021, the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

National security police in Hong Kong have frozen the assets of a group that organized vigils for Tiananmen massacre victims, as the city's public broadcaster was warned on Wednesday that its reporting must 'safeguard national interests.'

"This morning, the liquidator of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Mr. Cheng Yiu-cheong, received a notice from the national security police notifying him that all of the Alliance's assets, including those of the June 4th Memorial Hall, were frozen," the Alliance said in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

National security police officers took Cheng Yiu-chang to the June 4th Memorial Hall and handed him the letter of notification, the group said.

"Cheng expressed surprise and disagreement with the [move]," it said, adding that Cheng planned to go to the national security police headquarters to request the assets be unfrozen pending the dissolution of the group.

The Alliance voted to disband at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 25, following an investigation by Hong Kong's national security police under a law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

The Alliance stands accused of acting as the agent of a foreign power, with leaders Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan arrested on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," and the group's assets frozen under the national security law.

At a special general meeting held at the June 4th Memorial Hall under heavy police watch in Mong Kok district, members voted 41-4 to disband after 32 years of supporting victims of the Tiananmen killings, demanding accountability, and advocating for an end to one-party rule.

The national security law ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run and with the government insisting that further legislation on espionage is needed to continue the crackdown on what Beijing insists was an attempt by hostile foreign powers to foment a "color revolution" in Hong Kong.

Journalists warned

Government broadcaster RTHK on Wednesday issued a new set of guidelines to its staff, warning them that their work must always serve China's national interests, on pain of disciplinary action.

Journalists have also been warned to be careful what they say on social media, "to protect the station's integrity and reputation," RTHK reported on its English-language news page.

The rules mean that opposition or critical voices are likely to be unwelcome on RTHK programs.

Under no circumstances should our programs provide a platform to encourage, incite, promote, glorify, endorse, or sympathize with any act or activity endangering national security or otherwise contain any contents which are contrary to the interests of national security," the station quoted the guidelines as saying.

RTHK programs must not provoke or deepen hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the central government or the Hong Kong government, the rules say.

Staff must also avoid any contact with foreign governments or political organizations, and should take at face value Beijing's territorial claim on the democratic island of Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.

In an apparent reference to reporting linked to the 2019 protest movement, staff must make sure they don't sympathize with, justify or glamorize "criminal acts."

'Inciting secession'

The warnings came as a former protester stood trial under the national security law in Hong Kong's District Court, for "inciting secession."

Ma Chun-man, known by his nickname Captain America 2.0, is accused of inciting others to commit secession by shouting "Hong Kong independence is the only solution," and "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" at protests and in shopping malls between August and November 2020.

Motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit was jailed for nine years in July for "inciting secession" and "terrorism" after he flew a flag with the "Free Hong Kong, revolution now!" slogan while riding his bike at a protest against the national security law on July 1, 2020, the day it took effect.

National security police have also charged seven other people including a 16-year-old with "conspiracy to incite the commission by other persons of the offence of subversion."

The group, aged 16-25, are members of the pro-independence group Returning Valiant, and were arrested in July on suspicion of terrorism and amid allegations of a bomb plot.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.




Meng had been held been under loose house arrest pending an extradition request from U.S. federal investigators, who have charged her with misleading HSBC Holdings about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.



She reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 24, in which she admitted to wrongly claiming that Iran-based Skycom was only a business partner of Huawei, rather than its wholly-owned subsidiary.



Meng landed at Shenzhen's Bao'an International Airport on Sept. 25 on a government-chartered jet to a red-carpet welcome, with her livestreamed return watched by around 400 million viewers, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported.



It described her return as "a hard-fought victory for the country and its people against the Western hegemony."



The Ganxi Vocational Institute in the eastern province of Jiangxi said it had gathered its students together to watch the livestream, and to provide patriotic analysis of the reasons behind Meng's "unprovoked detention."



It quoted students as saying they shed tears to see Meng arrive back in China, and that "it is an honor to be part of such a great and powerful country" that protects its citizens overseas.



"If Canada wants to mess around and make unreasonable demands, China will never agree to it!" a report on the college website quoted one student as saying.



Supporters wait for the arrival of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Bao'an International Airport in Shenzhen, Sept. 25, 2021. Credit: AFP 'Patriotic education' Students in China are being taught the "correct" patriotic response to the return of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou to China following her release from house arrest pending an extradition process requested by U.S. federal investigators.Meng had been held been under loose house arrest pending an extradition request from U.S. federal investigators, who have charged her with misleading HSBC Holdings about Huawei's business dealings in Iran.She reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 24, in which she admitted to wrongly claiming that Iran-based Skycom was only a business partner of Huawei, rather than its wholly-owned subsidiary.Meng landed at Shenzhen's Bao'an International Airport on Sept. 25 on a government-chartered jet to a red-carpet welcome, with her livestreamed return watched by around 400 million viewers, the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported.It described her return as "a hard-fought victory for the country and its people against the Western hegemony."The Ganxi Vocational Institute in the eastern province of Jiangxi said it had gathered its students together to watch the livestream, and to provide patriotic analysis of the reasons behind Meng's "unprovoked detention."It quoted students as saying they shed tears to see Meng arrive back in China, and that "it is an honor to be part of such a great and powerful country" that protects its citizens overseas."If Canada wants to mess around and make unreasonable demands, China will never agree to it!" a report on the college website quoted one student as saying.

Meng's case has now been included for discussion in "ideological and political" class debates, as part of "patriotic education," the report said.



Meanwhile, the U.S.-based China Digital Times (CDT) published several photos showing a primary school assignment at a school in Zouping city in the eastern province of Shandong, that asks students to answer questions about Meng's case.



"Who is Meng Wanzhou? Who detained her? Why was she detained? How was she rescued?" the assignment asks, including: "What can we learn from the Meng Wanzhou incident."



An employee who answered the phone at the Zouping No. 2 Experimental Primary School on confirmed that the photo was genuine.



"This was just for classwork; it's not a school-wide assignment," the staff member said.



There was no mention in official reports that the Chinese authorities arrested eight Canadian nationals, including Kovrig and Spavor, and handed down a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug trafficker Robert Schellenberg, who had been serving a 15-year jail term, just days after Meng's arrest.



The CDT also published a translation of a leaked central propaganda department directive to news platforms dated Sept. 25, calling on editors to limit reporting on Meng's arrest and return to copy pre-approved by the foreign ministry.



"Give the matter generally low-key and watered-down treatment; do not extrapolate, interpret, or comment without prior arrangement; and do not cite information from foreign sources," the leaked directive said.

Outside China: 'hostage diplomacy'

The arrests and re-sentencing sparked criticism around the world that the moves were a form of "hostage diplomacy" on the part of Beijing, and raised concerns that Beijing might seize nationals of other countries with disputes with China.



Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said the Meng Wanzhou case was a natural choice for the "patriotic education" program at every level of education in China.



"[They will treat it as being about] patriotism, love for the CCP, and the rise of a superpower," Hu said.



"Many people believe that Meng Wanzhou is a hero who stood firm for the national interest, and that the countermeasures have meant that the U.S. has paid a huge price for containing China."



"They have no understanding of the CCP's hostage diplomacy," he said.



U.K.-based writer Ma Jian said the propaganda around Meng was like a "political joke."



"Online surveillance and the governments nationalistic brainwashing have been so successful that these kids have no way of knowing the truth," Ma told RFA.



"[China's] 1.4 billion people are completely cut off from the outside world, and everyone who grew up in that environment has a different way of thinking [from those outside it]," he said.



"Nobody dares to speak, nobody dares to think, and everything gets distorted," he said.



But Ma said Meng herself could face political repercussions, including restrictions on her movements, after her usefulness as a propaganda topic expires.



"Nobody -- not the parents, not the children -- gets that the entire Meng Wanzhou affair was about an exchange of hostages, about state terrorism," Ma said.

"The CCP threw everything into getting her back, but it will all die down in a month or so, and she will disappear, only to live like a bird in a cage."



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Four years after company executives were jailed, investors say they still have not received back any of their money.

Four years after hundreds of Laotians staged a protest demanding repayment of money they lost in a pyramid scheme, many of those who were defrauded say they have little hope of recovering their investments, even though government officials have begun selling off the firms assets to repay them.

More than 200,000 Laotians invested over U.S. $100 million in the PS Agriculture and Industry Promotion Import-Export Company of Laos. The company, registered as an agricultural firm in 2012 to produce purified drinking water and noodles, run a rice mill, and farm organic chickens and vegetables, promised to pay investors up to 4.8-percent interest a month if it generated a profit. Executives claimed it never reported a profit, however.

After the fraudulent scheme was uncovered and its executives were arrested, hundreds of investors staged a protest in the Lao capital Vientiane on Sept. 11, 2017, calling for the return of their deposits. More than 30,000 investors have filed statements of loss with the police.

On the fourth anniversary of the protest, one former investor, who requested anonymity as did others who spoke to RFA, said he had not heard anything about the return of their money.

I dont think well get anything back because its been so quiet, he said. It might be because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The investor, who lives in Vientiane, said he had invested 100 million kip (U.S. $10,260), but received no interest payments because the company claimed that it wasnt making a profit.

Another investor in Luang Prabang province told RFA that he had filled out all the necessary forms in 2018 to get back his 8 million-kip investment, but hasnt received anything yet.

Its been quiet since then. Ive received nothing. Ive lost all hope of getting my money back, he said.

Im urging the authorities to find a resolution that will pay money back to all investors, he said. Why havent we been informed of any progress?

An investor in Borikhamxay province who along with his daughter invested 10 million kip in the company in 2016, said the protest to demand the moneys return was in vain.

Now, Ive lost all hope of getting any money back, he said. Im still waiting though; I dont know whats going on with the authorities at the upper levels. Are they still working on this?

The Prime Ministers Office has set up a special task force committee comprised of officials from the National Bank of Laos, Economic Police Department, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and the Finance Ministry, to handle reimbursements, said an official in Vientianes Industry and Trade Department.

The committee is working on collecting the assets of both the company and its executives, but I cant tell you right now when it will be able to pay any money back to investors, said the official who declined to be named in order to speak freely.

The process is that the committee will sell the assets, then pay the money back, he said, adding that the committee has already sold some of PSs assets, including 100 hectares of land, equipment, cows and horses, and the personal property of the two co-presidents, Por Her and Souknaly Thepsimuang. Their personal assets included necklaces, bracelets, and cars.

The committee has not disclosed the value of the sold assets, however.

The Vientiane Peoples Court sentenced Por and Souknaly to 15 years in jail each on Nov. 21, 2018, and fined them 2.8 billion kip for committing fraud, money laundering, campaigning against the state, causing social disorder, possessing weapons, and participating in in illegal wildlife and human organs trade.

The pair were detained in September 2017 after investors protested at the companys headquarters in the capital.

The court also handed down prison sentences of from 2.5 to 10 years for the same crimes to 10 other PS executives and fined them between 5 million and 700 million kip.

Reported and translated by RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Observers say the move is part of a bid to focus on eradicating the Peoples Defense Force.

Soldiers take part in a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the Karenni Army in Kayah state near Myanmar's border with Thailand, Aug. 17, 2021.

Myanmars junta has announced a goodwill cease-fire with all ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), but observers say the move is part of a bid to take pressure off the military, which faces multiple domestic conflicts, and focus its efforts on eradicating the countrys Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militias.

In a statement released late on Monday, the juntas Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces announced a unilateral, five-month cease-fire beginning Oct. 1 and lasting until the end of February 2022.

According to the statement, the cease-fire was made as a gesture of goodwill to welcome the 75th anniversary of Myanmars Union Day on Feb. 12, when the Panglong Agreement was signed in 1947 and Myanmar became a unified country, and to promote the prevention and control of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the cease-fire, the military will suspend all operations, aside from defensive measures and administrative work, it said.

The announcement was immediately viewed with suspicion by analysts, as well as PDF groups and EAOs, who said it was aimed at relieving tensions between the military and ethnic armies and focusing troop efforts on crushing the militias who oppose its rule.

Myanmars military has attempted to justify its Feb. 1 overthrow of the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government by claiming the party had stolen the countrys November 2020 ballot through voter fraud.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,139 people and arresting 6,891 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

On Sept. 7, the shadow National Unity Government (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.

Many EAOs have been fighting against Myanmars military for the more than 70 years since the countrys 1948 independence. In the aftermath of this years coup, several groups have thrown their support behind anti-junta resistance fighters, while others are joining forces with the local PDF branches to fight the military.

Only 10 EAOs have signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government since 2015, when the document was inked in the presence of international observers and Myanmars highest legislature.

The 10 groups suggested in June that the deal remains in place, despite an already flailing peace process that was all but destroyed by the unpopular juntas coup. However, they say they will not pursue talks with the military, which they view as having stolen power from the countrys democratically elected government.

Dialogue instead of conflict

On Tuesday, Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thaninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a group of former military officers, said the junta had opened the way for dialogue because it wants peace.

The military  has become more and more inclined to hold dialogue instead of armed conflict and is always open to opportunities, he said.

There are different types of ethnic armed groupssome are NCA signatories, and some are not. If lasting peace is the goal, every group must be involved in the process. It shows there still is a place for those who want peace.

Thein Tun Oo added that suspending conflict with the EAOs could allow the military to better understand the international perspective on developments in Myanmar.

The militarys statement on Monday had referred to a meeting earlier this month between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Special Envoy Erywan Yusof and Myanmars military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, during which the former proposed a cease-fire and the military accepted it.

Erywan Yusof, Bruneis second foreign minister, was appointed special envoy to Myanmar in early August, months after ASEAN leaders agreed to a five-point consensus that would see the junta end violence in the country, enter into dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the countrys political crisis, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. However, the junta has taken few steps to implement the measures.

On Tuesday, Thein Tun Oo said the military would continue to crack down on the PDF, which the junta has declared a terrorist organization, and warned that if AEOs were to join forces with the PDF, they would inevitably face pressure from the military.

United Wa State Army (UWSA) soldiers participate in a military parade, to commemorate 30 years of a ceasefire signed with the Myanmar military in the Wa State, in Panghsang, April 17, 2019. Credit: Reuters Call for detailed plan

Representatives of AEO and PDF groups told RFA that they see the militarys announcement as deceptive and largely self-serving.

Colonel Naw Bu, spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), told RFA that the military is facing a crisis that it hopes to solve through the cease-fire.

I think they set a time limit of five months to deal with the nationwide military operation by the PDFs, he said.

I dont believe this will lead to a [full] cease-fire and lasting peace.

He said that if the military was committed to ending conflict, it should release a detailed plan to suspend all operations across the country.

A spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF), speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military is trying to divide the opposition with its announcement.

What we see here is that the military is doing its usual thing, he said. It sows discord among existing forces.

This has been its way of negotiating cease-fires with some ethnic armed groups in the past. But now, it is offering negotiations with the EAOs with one hand and working to wipe out the newly formed resistance groups with the other.

The KNDF was formed in Kayah state after the coup and serves as a local defense force affiliated with the NUG.

No national cease-fire

The military has announced some 20 cease-fires with EAOs since December 2018, but regularly excludes groups with which it is involved in heavy conflict, such as the Arakan Army in Rakhine state and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in northern Shan state.

Political analyst Maung Maung Soe said the latest cease-fire would be ineffective because PDF groups were not included.

Such cease-fire announcements in the past have left out certain groups  and therefore, a cease-fire has never been achieved on a national scale, he said.

Because they have declared the PDF as a terror group, there is very little chance a real cease-fire will be achieved.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Muhib Ullah had spoken out against violence in the camps and in support of the human rights and protection of refugees.

US President Donald Trump meets with survivors of religious persecution, including Rohingya activist Muhib Ullah (second from right), at the White House in Washington, July 17, 2019.

Md. Muhib Ullah, a prominent Rohingya activist who represented his community in international settings including at the United Nations and the White House, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen Wednesday night at a refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, police confirmed.

At least five men gunned down the Rohingya leader at close range after bursting into his office at the Kutupalong camp in Coxs Bazar, said Naimul Haq, commanding officer of the Armed Police Battalion Unit-14.

Primarily, we suspect that members of a rival group killed the Rohingya leader who was very active over the issue of repatriation. The other Rohingya group is against repatriation, Haq told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, without naming the rival group.

The miscreants shot at least five rounds targeting Muhib Ullah, Naimul said.

The victim, who served as chairman of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 8:30 p.m. (local time), the police spokesman said.

Syed Ullah, secretary for the organization, said his colleague was killed because of his work for the Muslim minority group.

The miscreants are trying to stop the voices of the people who are talking about the rights of Rohingya, he told BenarNews.

In response to the shooting, officers were deployed to search for the killers in the camps in and around Coxs Bazar that house 1 million Rohingya refugees near the Myanmar border, said Rafiqul Islam, an additional police superintendent in Coxs Bazar.

Muhib Ullah, 50, was among about 740,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims who crossed into the southeastern Bangladeshi district four years ago as they fled a brutal offensive launched by Myanmars military in their home state of Rakhine in August 2017.

Over time, he became a popular leader among the Rohingya people because of his initiatives to ensure their rights.

In August 2019, he organized a massive rally at Kutupalong to mark the second anniversary of the exodus.

One month earlier, he told then-U.S. President Donald Trump about his concerns for Rohingya in Bangladesh. He met Trump at the Oval Office during a meeting about international religious freedom hosted by the State Department at the White House.

In December 2019, BenarNews reported that Muhib Ullah had been receiving death threats in recent months. In addition, a police spokesman said he had been missing since the August rally and his groups office had been closed.

After he was gunned down, other Rohingya leaders said he had escaped previous assassination attempts.

One refugee leader, Muhammad Rafiq, said Muhib Ullah spoke out for others.

The popular Rohingya leader represented our community at the United Nations in Geneva and at the White House in Washington, Rafiq told BenarNews. He called Muhib Ullahs killing a great loss for the community.

Rohingya activist Md. Muhib Ullah checks data from other refugees about alleged abuses by Myanmar soldiers, at his office at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh, July 19, 2018. [AFP]

In the hours after he was killed, tributes to Muhib Ullah poured in from abroad, particularly from human rights advocacy groups.

This is terrible. Muhib Ullah provided crucial leadership to the #RohingyaRefugees in Bangladesh, repeatedly saying that they want to go home, but with dignity and safety. He always thanked the Bangladeshi people for providing refuge, but also asked for rights protections, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, tweeted.

Matthew Smith, co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights, said Muhib Ullah was not properly protected by Bangladesh authorities.

Militants in the refugee camps in #Bangladesh had threatened Muhib Ullahs life before, forcing him into hiding at times. He never received the protection he needed and deserved, Smith tweeted.

Saad Hammadi, Amnesty Internationals South Asia campaigner, called on Bangladeshs government to expedite the investigation and to have fair trials for those suspected of the killing.

Muhib Ullah was a leading representative of the Rohingya community, who spoke out against violence in the camps and in support of the human rights and protection of refugees. His killing sends a chilling effect across the entire community, Hammadi said in a news release.

Violence in the refugee camps in Coxs Bazar has been a growing problem. Armed groups operating drug cartels have killed people and held hostages. The authorities must take immediate action to prevent further bloodshed.

The United Nations relief agency, UNHCR, noted its sadness over Muhib Ullahs death.

We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps, a UNHCR spokeswoman told news media.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Police keep Tibetan gatherings out of the public eye to avoid offending Nepal's powerful northern neighbor China, an important source of foreign investment.

Police are seen at the Boudhanath Stupa in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, Sept. 2, 2021.

Tibetans living in Nepal observed Tibets Democracy Day under close watch by local police who kept Tibetan gatherings out of the public eye for fear of offending Nepals powerful northern neighbor China, an important source of foreign investment in the Himalayan country.

Thursday marked the 61st anniversary of the seating of Tibets first India-based parliament-in-exile, a first step in the political development of the Tibetan diaspora community that now includes the election by popular vote of their political leader, or Sikyong.

Nepalese authorities concerned that Tibetan residents might stage protests outside Nepals Chinese consulate deployed large numbers of police to guard the building, Sangpo Lamaprogram coordinator for the Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON)told RFAs Tibetan Service.

One could also see many police officers both in uniform and in plain clothes stationed around the Boudhanath Stupa and other Tibetan settlements, Lama said, referring to a large religious structure central to the social and commercial life of the Tibetan community in Nepals capital Kathmandu.

Around 20 officers were also deployed, and a police truck stationed, outside the Jawalakhel Tibetan settlement, also in Kathmandu, he said.

The Jawalakhel Handicraft Center office hosted the [Democracy Day] observance within its own premises, offering prayers and reading a statement from the Kashag, the cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibets India-based exile government, Lama said.

It has been hard for Tibetans to do anything freely [in Nepal], Lama said. No arrests or disruptions by police of community events on Thursday were reported, though, he added.

Courage, determination

In its Sept. 2 statement, Tibets India-based Kashag sent greetings and messages of support to Tibetans still living in the formerly independent Tibet, which was invaded and forcibly annexed by China in 1950.

Tibetans inside Tibet have maintained indomitable courage and determination in the face of Chinas continued policy to exterminate the Tibetan identity, and they have been making all-round efforts to protect Tibets religion, culture, language and tradition, for which we remain deeply grateful, the Kashag said.

It is this strength that unites the Tibetans in exile and keeps alive the freedom struggle. It is the common wish in our heart to reunite in Tibet, and we would like to appeal to our brethren in Tibet not to lose their determination.

Nepal, which shares a long border with Tibet, is home to at least 20,000 exiles who began arriving in 1959 when a failed uprising against Chinese rule forced Tibets spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to take refuge in Indias Himalayan foothills.

Nepal is seen by China as a partner in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost global trade through infrastructure investment, and Nepal's government has cited promises of millions of dollars of Chinese investment in restricting Tibetan activities in the country.

Nepals close political ties with China have left Tibetan refugees in the Himalayan country uncertain of their status, vulnerable to abuses of their rights, and restricted in their freedoms of movement and expression, rights groups say.

Reported by Lhuboom for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.
An exterior view of the mosque and Uyghur cultural center on the outskirts of Toronto, Canada, Sept. 27, 2021.

With Koranic recitations and the raising of the blue and white crescent moon and star East Turkestan flag, Uyghurs in Canada opened a mosque and community center on the outskirts of Toronto in a renovated 150-year-old Roman Catholic Church to serve a community of 2,000 members of the Turkic ethnic group.

The East Turkestan Association of Canada  which uses Uyghurs preferred name for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China conceived the idea of a Canadian Uyghur center in 2008 and 13 years later bought the church building it for CAD $610,000 (U.S. $482,000) with donations from as far away as Germany and Australia, said Tuyghun Abduweli, president of the group.

For Canadian Uyghurs, this shows what kinds of results unity and solidarity can and cannot achieve, he told RFAs Uyghur Service.

The unity here in Canada [that] ultimately led us to purchase such a large church, which we then turned into a mosque to use for our own cultural, historical, and religious matters, is very exciting and inspiring to Uyghur Canadians.

The opening ceremony drew members of the Uyghur community in Canada, a Canadian lawmaker, diplomats and officials, and leaders of two major Uyghur exile groups  Dolkun Isa, president of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, and Rushan Abbas, executive director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs.

The East Turkestan Association of Canada also invited the Catholic pastor and former congregation of the church to raise awareness of the plight of the Uyghurs in the XUAR, said association member Itbiar Artish.

The Catholic congregation had been getting older, and church administrators could not afford to keep up the building, said Robin Wilkie, the last pastor of the church, after the opening ceremony on Sept. 25.

And with COVID, they decided that it was time to sell. So thats when the Uyghur community purchased the building from us, and so we hand the baton on to them to carry on their faith, he said of the Italian Romanesque-style building built in 1873-1874.

Uyghurs, officials, and invited guests attend the opening ceremony of the mosque and Uyghur cultural center on the outskirts of Toronto, Canada, Sept. 25, 2021. Credit: World Uyghur Congress





Documented abuse

Xinjiang came under Chinese imperial rule during the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. An East Turkestan state was declared in 1944, but was forcibly absorbed by the new Peoples Republic of China five years later.

China has come under criticism for heavy-handed policies targeting the 12 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, destroying mosques, making Mandarin Chinese the main language in schools, monitoring Uyghurs moves with a pervasive and intrusive surveillance system, and using forced Uyghur labor at factories and farms.

Researchers have documented the incarceration by Chinese authorities of as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention camps that Beijing claims are vocational training centers.

China rejects widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated Muslims living in Xinjiang and keeps the region closed to independent researchers and journalists.

The United States and the legislatures in several European countries have deemed the treatment of Uyghurs and others in the XUAR as constituting genocide and crimes against humanity.

In February, the Canadian parliament passed a unanimous nonbinding motion declaring Chinas treatment of the Uyghurs in the XUAR a genocide, becoming the second country after the U.S. to make that determination.

Lawmakers also included an amendment to the motion, calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if the Chinese government continued its maltreatment of the minority group.

At the time, China strongly condemned and opposed the moves from Ottawa, saying Beijing had lodged representations with Canada.

About 2,000 Uyghurs  or 600 to 700 families  live in Canada, a country of 38 million people, Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project in Canada, told the Canadian womens magazine Chatelaine in March.

Reported by Jelil Kashgary for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The Vietnamese fishermen were sent home on a charter flight arranged by Hanoi.

An Indonesian official checks the body temperature of a Vietnamese fisherman after Indonesian authorities arrested five foreign boats for illegal fishing, in Batam, March 4, 2020.

Indonesia this week repatriated 200 Vietnamese fishermen who languished at immigration detention centers for months amid the coronavirus pandemic after local authorities confiscated their boats on suspicion of poaching in Indonesian waters, officials said Wednesday.

Another 216 fishermen from Vietnam will be sent home in October, according to a senior official at Indonesias Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

The first batch of 200 was flown home when Hanoi sent a chartered plane to pick them up from Batam Island, where they were staying, said Adin Nurawaludin, director general of marine and fisheries resources monitoring at the ministry.

As many as 200 people have been repatriated via Hang Nadim Airport, Batam on Monday on a Bamboo Airways  flight to Quang Ninh, Vietnam, Adin told reporters in Jakarta.

The plane was specially prepared by the Vietnamese government to take them home.

Since the start of the pandemic, at least 500 Vietnamese fishermen have been stranded in Indonesia, some having languished for more than a year in shelters and detention centers run by the fisheries ministry and immigration authorities across the archipelago.

Indonesian officials had said earlier that pandemic-induced lockdowns had prevented the fishermen from being sent home more quickly, and that the Vietnamese government had made no attempt to arrange a repatriation flight.

The reason they were only sent home yesterday is that during the pandemic, flights are scarce and countries are on lockdown, Didik Agus, a spokesman for the fisheries ministry, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

We took the initiative to raise this issue diplomatically and Vietnam responded by carrying out this repatriation.

Officials at the Vietnamese embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Wednesday.

Ticket cost

Meanwhile, around 30 fishermen are still stranded at a detention center in Tanjung Pinang in Riau Islands province, due to lack of available seats on this weeks flight, or not having enough money to buy a ticket home, which costs around VND30 million (U.S. $1,320), RFA's Vietnamese Service learned.

Danh Chien, 45, who has been detained in Tanjung Pinang since March 2020, said he could not buy a ticket on the recent flights home because his father in Vietnam could not manage to earn or borrow enough money to repatriate him.

I am very sad and upset, and I am asking for help to find a way to return to Vietnam. Life is so miserable here, as I dont have money to buy food and lack everything, he told RFA.

Fellow inmates who have money do give me food . I am very grateful for that. I dont receive any money from home.

Vietnamese fishermen stranded in Indonesia had earlier complained about poor living conditions in detention centers, including not getting enough food or being given bad food.

Indonesias government dismissed the complaints.

We feed them and there are quite a lot of them. No one is hungry. They can eat three to four times a day, Pung Nugroho Saksono, a director at the fisheries ministry, told BenarNews in May.

In December 2020, detainees at Tanjung Pinang sent videos of themselves to RFA to highlight their poor living conditions.

An inmate, who asked to be identified as Mr. Bien, told RFA in May that the Vietnamese officials had visited the detention center before the lunar New Year in early February 2021, to collect information after the videos had been published.

In May, Vietnamese fishermen were also being held at facilities in Pangkal Pinang, off the east coast of Sumatra; in Pontianak, West Kalimantan; and in the Natuna Islands, according to Nugroho Aji, director of enforcement at the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

This year, Indonesia has seized 48 foreign boats suspected of engaging in illegal fishing  25 from Vietnam, 17 from Malaysia, and six from the Philippines, according to the fisheries ministry.

Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Indonesian government continued to communicate with the Vietnamese authorities so that more Vietnamese could be repatriated.

There are still plans for more repatriation in the future, he told BenarNews.

Mohammad Abdi Suhufan, the coordinator of Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia, an NGO, welcomed the repatriation of the Vietnamese fishermen.

They should have been sent home a long time ago, but it seems like Vietnam neglected them, and this has created a burden for Indonesia, he told BenarNews.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Jailed Kazakh dissident poet Aron Atabek, who has been behind bars since 2007, has been hospitalized for unknown reasons amid a series of reports that the 68-year-old's health is failing.

Yelena Semyonova, a human rights activist in the northern city of Pavlodar, told RFE/RL on September 28 that she learned a day earlier from prison authorities at the AP-162/1 correctional facility that Atabek had been rushed to the hospital several days earlier.

"He is being fully examined and is receiving vitamins now. After a full set of examinations and tests, the diagnosis will be made and treatment will be determined," Semyonova said, adding that she has no detailed information on Atabek's health situation.

Neither medical personnel at the hospital nor officials of the State Penitentiary Service would comment on Atabeks condition.

Officials at the AP-162/1 correctional facility told RFE/RL that they will provide information on the situation only after questions regarding Atabek's case are submitted in written form.

Atabek's hospitalization comes as a petition signed by more than 2,500 people was sent to President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, urging him to release Atabek due to his deteriorating health.

The poet, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer, is said to be suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.

Atabek has maintained his innocence. He rejected a 2012 government pardon offer that would have required him to admit guilt.

Kazakh authorities have shown little, if any, tolerance toward criticism, whether it comes from the independent press, activists, or political opponents.

Human rights groups in Kazakhstan have said that Atabek has been constantly tortured in prison, with guards intentionally splashing water with high concentrations of chlorine on the floor of his cell to damage his health.

For years domestic and international rights organizations have demanded the Kazakh government release Atabek.

Last month, a picture of Atabek, taken by human rights activists who visited the dissident poet in prison, caused a public outcry. The poet looked extremely exhausted, sick, and in poor shape.

Atabek was transferred to solitary confinement in December 2012 and spent two years there after an article he wrote critical of then President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government was smuggled out of prison and published online.

Atabek and his relatives said in 2014 that prison guards had broken his leg, which the authorities denied.
MINSK -- The Belarusian Committee of State Security (KGB) says one of its officers and a resident of Minsk were killed in a shoot-out during a raid on September 28.

The KGB did not identify the man by name or profession in a statement, but said he was a "terrorist" -- a term it often uses to describe protesters and those voicing opposition to the regime of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

RFE/RL could not independently verify the statement or alleged footage of the incident that was aired on Belarusian state television. Several people have questioned what they say are inconsistencies in the video footage that they say cast doubt over the incident.

Crisis In Belarus Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka ramps up pressure on NGOs and independent media as part of a brutal crackdown against protesters and the opposition following an August 2020 election widely considered fraudulent.

"During special measures on checking addresses where persons involved in terrorist activities could be located, an extremely dangerous person opened fire on law enforcement officers from one of the apartments, resulting in the fatal wounding of an officer of the Committee of State Security," the KGB said in a statement, adding that the assailant was killed by security officers.

Franak Viacorka, a senior adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said on Twitter that the man killed was an IT worker with software company EPAM Systems, which is also based in the United States.

"There are so many questions. Andrey Zeltsar, shot by KGB today, was working at one of the biggest Belarus IT companies @EPAMSYSTEMS. He was also reportedly a U.S. citizen. According to his friends, he supported [the] democracy movement in Belarus. His wife has been detained," Viacorka said. He did not reveal the source of his information.

"The violence must stop! The regime hopes that violence can split society and threaten opponents. But violence cannot be the solution to the crisis. Enough victims. The rule of law must return to the country. Lukashenka must step down," Viacorka added.



Euroradio also identified Zeltsar as the man who was killed during the shoot-out.

Julie Fisher, the U.S. ambassador to Belarus, told Reuters that Washington is seeking additional information on whether a U.S. citizen was involved in the incident.

Belarus was engulfed by protests last year after a presidential election in August -- which the opposition and West say was rigged -- gave Lukashenka a sixth consecutive term.

In response, the government has cracked down hard on the pro-democracy movement, arresting thousands of people and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any fraud in the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on a political transition and new elections.

The KGB said in a separate statement that a probe was launched into the killing of the KGB officer. According to the statement, the suspect who died was 31, while his 40-year-old wife was arrested on a charge of being an accomplice in the killing because she was filming the shoot-out.

With reporting by Euroradio and Reuters
MINSK  Belarus's Information Ministry has blocked access to the website of the Belarusian version of the popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.



The ministry justified its September 29 decision by saying materials on the site "could produce threats to national security, including through the artificial irritation of tensions and conflicts in society."



The publication posted on its Telegram channel that it had not received official notification that its site, which receives about 20,000 visitors a day, had been blocked.



Belarus has been in the throes of a political standoff since a disputed presidential election in August 2020 handed a sixth term to authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.



Massive protests following the election were met by an often-brutal crackdown by security forces, while prominent nongovernmental organizations and independent media were closed.



The move against Komsomolskaya Pravda's website came after the website published on September 28 comments by an acquaintance of Andrey Zeltsar, a Minsk resident who some opposition figures have identified as the man who was shot dead by security forces in a shoot-out in the capital.

Pro-government Telegram channels harshly attacked the womans comments, after which the website reportedly made changes to the text.



In 2020, the print version of the newspaper was banned in Belarus.



The country is becoming more and more like a besieged fortress, said Vladimir Sungorkin, the longtime editor in chief of the Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda.



"It's getting tougher, tougher, and tougher there," he added.
ZHANAOZEN, Kazakhstan -- More than 250 ethnic Kazakhs have left Turkmenistan this month to resettle permanently in their ancestral homeland, Kazakhstan.

One train carrying ethnic Kazakh emigrants was cheered by a large crowd of relatives already in Kazakhstan as it arrived at the railway station in the southwestern city of Zhanaozen late in the evening of May 13.

Im excited that I've returned to my homeland for good and am reunited with my children, said Zeinesh, an elderly woman who was greeted by her family on the railway station platform.

Zeinesh says that on the other side of the border, she was sent off by a group of relatives and friends she left behind in Turkmenistan.

Azhargul, another recent emigre, says she has mixed feelings about relocating.

Azhargul says she is happy to start a new life in Kazakhstan, but disappointed that several of her relatives were not able to leave Turkmenistan with her.

Because of them, I wasnt sure if I wanted to emigrate, she said. Otherwise, Ive been waiting for this day for more than a year.

More than 400 ethnic Kazakhs were meant to relocate in Kazakhstan by early 2020, after their resettlement documents were approved by both countries. But their travels -- set to take place in two groups -- were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The first group of about 200 people finally arrived in Kazakhstan in February 2021. They were followed by the second group, which arrived by train on May 13.

Kazakhstan offers citizenship to ethnic Kazakhs who emigrate to their ancestral homeland from abroad. About 1 million ethnic Kazakhs from Uzbekistan, China, and other neighboring countries have moved to the oil-rich Central Asian country since the 1990s.

Several people among the latest group arriving from Turkmenistan said that poverty, low wages, and a lack of freedoms in the country they left behind had played an important role in their decision to move to Kazakhstan.

But they say the key factor has always been a desire to reunite with family members whove already settled in Kazakhstan.

Azhargul said she plans to stay in the Caspian Sea town of Zhanaozen in Kazakhstans oil-producing Manghystau region. Thats because there are many members of her extended family whove been living there for several years.

Staying In Manghystau

Like Azhargul, many ethnic Kazakhs who emigrate from Turkmenistan have chosen Manghystau for permanent settlement -- despite a high unemployment rate in the province.

They dont want to go to other regions because they have many relatives in Mangystau who have already settled here, bought land, and built houses, says Raikhan Daribaeva, an activist who helps resettle the emigres, who are known as Qandas in Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh government offers financial incentives, subsidized housing, and other benefits for them. However, those state benefits come with a precondition. They must move to sparsely populated northern regions of Kazakhstan, where there is a shortage of workers.

Not everyone wants to move to the north, which is notorious for its harsh winters. Those who stay elsewhere in Kazakhstan do not receive support from the government. Most of them depend on their relatives in Kazakhstan for support until they are able to stand on their own feet there, Daribaeva explains.

They are required to register upon their arrival at the home address where theyre going to live, Daribaeva says. Its their relatives who offer them a place to live.

These relatives also help them with their paperwork -- getting new documents, registering with local doctors, applying for pensions and social benefits, or looking for jobs, she says.

Daribaeva emigrated from Turkmenistan in the early 2000s. She has since set up a nongovernmental group called the Munaily District Civic Initiative. It advises ethnic Kazakhs in other countries about emigration and resettlement issues.

Ethnic Kazakhs from Turkmenistan have been emigrating to Kazakhstan for more than 20 years, selling their homes and property and using the money to begin their new lives. However, many of the latest group that arrived from Turkmenistan described their financial situations as dire.



Several who spoke to RFE/RL said they had quit their jobs and sold their homes as soon as their resettlement paperwork was finalized in 2019. They had hoped they would move to Kazakhstan within months. But pandemic delays forced them to live off the money they received for selling their belongings.

I spent all my savings, and toward the end I had to borrow money for food, one woman told RFE/RL.

Still Worried For Those Left Behind

The fresh arrivals also spoke about the hardships people in Turkmenistan experience in daily life.

Jobs are very hard to come by in Turkmenistan, one young woman said. Many people have no work and no income. Wages are very low. Many people I know make about $20 a month. You cant get a job without paying a bribe.

The woman said a lot of people in Turkmenistan -- not only ethnic minorities -- want to leave the country if they can." And Turkmen students who study abroad dont want to return to Turkmenistan, she said.

Despite Turkmenistans vast energy resources, poverty is widespread because income from the countrys natural gas exports doesnt trickle down to ordinary people.

New arrivals also say they hope to enjoy relative freedom in Kazakhstan, which -- despite not being a model democracy  is considered less restrictive than Turkmenistan. Often compared to North Korea, Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive countries in the world. The government controls all aspects of peoples daily lives.

One woman who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity says she still fears for the security of her relatives in Turkmenistan. That sentiment is shared by many others.

An ethnic Kazakh family that just resettled in the Munaily district of Manghystau said they were summoned by the Turkmen security services before they made their trip to Kazakhstan. The family said officials check peoples mobile phones to see if they have been using proxy services to gain access to websites, applications, and social media that are blocked in Turkmenistan.

Despite being in a different country, many of the new arrivals refused to speak on the record about the situation in Turkmenistan. They said they fear that any criticism would lead Turkmen authorities to retaliate against their relatives still in Turkmenistan.

Written by Farangis Najibullah with reporting by RFE/RL Kazakh Service correspondent Baghdat Asylbek
Alleged abuses perpetrated by some Western Balkan states, as well as Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine, have prompted some European Union members to raise the possibility of canceling the visa-free travel regime to the bloc, according to an internal EU document.



Among the abuses cited are unlawful residency and unfounded asylum claims.



The document, seen by RFE/RL and dated September 27, comes as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tours the Western Balkans.



The EU visa regime for Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia was abolished in December 2009, followed by Albania and Bosnia in 2010, Moldova in 2014, and Georgia and Ukraine in 2017.



According to the EUobserver, visa-free travel to the EU for up to 90 days has been considered a "significant achievement" in the 27-member bloc's relations with the Western Balkans and the former Soviet states under its Eastern Partnership policy.



But according to the document, Germany, France, and Italy have recently become more and more frustrated with alleged abuses of visa-free travel. It mentions surges in "unauthorized residence offenses" perpetrated by citizens of Albania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Serbia.



The document also listed a more than 50 percent increase in Georgian asylum claims over the past three months, compared to the same period in the pre-coronavirus pandemic year of 2019.



Under the so-called Visa Suspension Mechanism, a rise of more than 50 percent in illegal stays or asylum applications with low approval rates can lead to visas being reintroduced.



Furthermore, refusal by governments to readmit their nationals can also see the return of visas.



In the document, Germany mentioned Moldova as a particularly serious case, with a 429 percent surge between June to August 2019 and June to August of this year.

Italy also took issue with Moldova, stating that human-trafficking networks operating through "neighboring countries" were abusing visa-free travel, raising the possibility of stripping Moldova of visa-free travel "in case of insufficient progress."



France mentioned problems caused by nationals from Albania, Georgia, and Serbia.



Belgium raised the problem posed by the "alarming increase" of asylum applications from Moldova this year, while the Czech Republic also said that unfounded asylum claims from Georgian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian nationals spiked recently.



The Netherlands is the only EU member to have asked for the suspension of the visa-free travel regime with Albania in 2019. But its request was rejected by the European Commission.



Von der Leyen will visit Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia on September 29, following her visit to Albania and North Macedonia a day earlier. On September 30, she will conclude her tour by visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina, just days before the EU is set to hold a summit with Western Balkans countries on October 6.
Russian security agents raided the Moscow offices of Group-IB, a leading Russian cybersecurity company known for its work in tracking down hackers and fighting theft and cyberfraud.

The companys founder and chief executive, Ilya Sachkov, was detained on charges of state treason and ordered held in pretrial detention for two months, according to Russian news outlets that cited a Moscow court.



In a statement to RFE/RL, Group-IB confirmed that the companys office had been searched on September 28 and said that law enforcement agents were on the companys premises for several hours.



The reason for the search was not clear, the company said.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin had no details about the case, while Russia's business ombudsman Boris Titov called for answers.



"It is necessary for investigators to explain themselves. Otherwise the sector and its investment attractiveness will be dealt a critical blow," Titov wrote on Facebook.



Sachkov is the latest in a series of prominent people, including scientists and cybersecurity officials, to be arrested in Russia on treason charges in recent years, while Moscow has faced numerous allegations of cyberattacks on Western countries -- which it has denied.



The news channel RTVI said its reporters saw plainclothes officers carrying boxes and other items to a van outside the Group-IB office on September 28.



Neither the Interior Ministry nor the main Russian security agency, known as the FSB, made any immediate public statement about the case as of September 29.

The press service for Moscows Lefortovo District Court, which Russian media reports said had ordered the pretrial detention for Sachkov, did not respond to e-mail queries.

A later statement issued by Group-IB said the company was studying the charges reportedly filed against Sachkov, and that the companys co-founder, Dmitry Volkov, would take over leadership.



Group-IBs team is confident in the innocence of the companys CEO and his business integrity, it said.

Not as well-known in the West as its bigger rival Kaspersky Lab, Group-IB, founded in 2003, has grown markedly over the past decade as cybercrimes have increased globally -- as well as demand for companies and consultants able to both thwart the crimes and help defend against them.



In addition to Moscow, the company now has headquarters in Singapore, London, New York, and Dubai.



While the details of the case werent immediately clear, the fact that Sachkov was reported by Russian media outlets to be facing charges of state treason was a signal of potential major legal problems for him.



In past years, Russian authorities have brought state treason charges against private-sector executives, as well as Russian intelligence officers involved in major cybersecurity investigations.



The FSB itself was roiled by a scandal in 2016 involving officers with the services cybersecurity unit.

Those officers were accused of passing classified information to Western intelligence services. Two of the officers, however, openly cooperated and shared tips and other intelligence with Western counterparts, including the U.S. Justice Department.

That led some experts to conclude they were being punished retroactively for cooperation that had previously been sanctioned by superiors.



One of the investigations that U.S. authorities pursued targeted a Russian man named Yevgeny Nikulin, who was arrested in the Czech Republic in October 2016 and extradited to the United States to stand trial on charges that he hacked the U.S. tech companies LinkedIn, DropBox, and Formspring, a lesser-known social-media company.

In 2020, Nikulin was convicted by a jury and sentenced to just over seven years in prison.

In April 2014, as part of the U.S. investigation, FBI agents traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian cybersecurity officials, a meeting that was sanctioned by Russian law enforcement.



Among the people who were interviewed was Nikita Kislitsin, who had been indicted by a U.S. grand jury on cybertheft charges the previous month.



At the time of the meeting, Kislitsin was employed by Group-IB.



Prior to that, however, Kislitsin had been well-known in Russias cyberunderground and was acquainted with Nikulin, whom he described as the Putin of the hacking world.



Nikulin and Kislitsin had attended a meeting at a Moscow hotel in March 2012, along with several other Russians and Ukrainians, at a gathering that was dubbed the "summit of bad motherf*****s, according to evidence submitted in Nikulins trial.



Kislitsin allegedly worked with another notorious Russian hacker, Aleksei Belan, to buy from Nikulin data from Formspring. Belan is now on the FBIs list of its most-wanted hackers.



In his meeting with FBI agents, Kislitsin was notified of his rights by the FBI agents, according to filings in U.S. federal court. Kislitsin then indicated that he was open for collaboration and wanted to mitigate problems.



Group-IB told RFE/RL last year that Kislitsin was hired in January 2013 and later became the companys director of network security.



Kislitsin could not be immediately reached for comment.



For some experts, the raid on Group-IB and the treason charges that Sachkov faces were a shock.



Andrei Soldatov, a longtime expert on Russian security services and cybercrimes, noted that in recent months there have been positive statements issued in Moscow and Washington about renewing cooperation in the area of cybercrimes, particularly regarding ransomware attacks.



Sachkovs arrest called that into question, he said.



All this talk of possible international cooperation in cybercrime investigations weve heard since the spring and the start of ransomware attacks -- all this optimism that this cooperation with the Russians is actually possible -- it seems to be completely misplaced, Soldatov told RFE/RL.

While Group-IB says its clients now include major Russian corporations and foreign companies, the company has also collaborated with Russian law enforcement and security agencies on cyber-investigations.



At a 2019 meeting at the Kremlin, where he was one of several entrepreneurs receiving an award, Sachkov explained the companys background to Putin.



"We started out with investigations of high-tech crimes, collaborating withthe Investigative Committee, the FSB, the Interior Ministry. And then we began to make products that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to prevent attacks at an early stage," Sachkov said.

With reporting by Kommersant and Forbes
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomes a group of artists and filmmakers while exchanging pleasantries and cracking a joke about reports a prominent filmmaker had received residency in Canada.



"I hear you've been Canada-ized," Khamenei says to the director in a documentary shown on state TV. He then pokes fun at another man who he says has been active since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, good-naturedly calling him a "taghouti" -- someone affiliated with the Pahlavi monarchy, which was ousted in the revolution.



Khamenei is also shown carefully listening to his guests, who are sipping tea and nibbling on cookies. Some participants at the meeting later praise the "warm" and "friendly" atmosphere and claim they were able to speak their minds freely. Another added that meeting Khamenei had given them all hope.



The scenes are part of a propaganda series called Informal that recently aired on state-controlled television and was shown on Iranian news sites.



Informal also includes Khamenei meeting with veterans of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War who reminisce about the tragic conflict and the "martyrs" they served with.



One man -- who lost his arms in an explosion -- says he was overwhelmed with emotion when Khamenei embraced him.



The creators of Informal say it shows "informal and intimate" weekly meetings that Khamenei has held in recent years with cultural activists, artists, scientists, and others.

Carefully Choreographed



Informal is, in fact, very carefully choreographed to portray Khamenei -- who has increasingly relied on his feared security apparatus to tighten his grip on power and silence dissenting voices -- in a positive light as an all-caring leader for Iranians who understands the difficult issues in their lives.



In the documentary, the uncompromising authoritarian leader who has ruled Iran for more than three decades says he reads reports from average Iranians "every day."



"Many of the reports [offer] criticism [about various issues] and we follow-up," Khamenei claims.



"It's not as if we imagine that we are living in the paradise of the Islamic republic that was created in our minds, no. We definitely have issues in our work [that we must deal with]," he says, claiming that the "problems" and "deviations" in society do not harm the much-criticized clerical establishment as a whole.

Participants in the meetings with Khamenei are reportedly handpicked from among supporters of the Islamic government and those close to the hard-line faction of the establishment, which Khamenei often sides with.



In the propaganda video published ahead of the country's June 2021 presidential vote, Khamenei also repeats his 2019 call for a young and ideologically committed president to be chosen amid growing media speculation that a "military" official could win the election on the heels of the hard-line takeover of parliament last year.



That victory was largely engineered by the mass disqualification of thousands of hopeful candidates, mainly reformists and moderates.



"God willing, we will move towards putting young people at the top of matters," Khamenei says in response to a young activist who complains that the youth are not being given a chance in politics.

Rising Dissent



The videos seem to clearly be an effort to improve the image of Khamenei, whose legitimacy has been significantly damaged in recent years and also to help create a positive legacy for the 82-year-old, who underwent prostate surgery four years ago amid rumors he was in ill-health.



Due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has hit Iran especially hard, the Iranian leader has in past months made very few public appearances while conducting most of his meetings with officials via videoconference.



Criticism of Khamenei is a red line in the Islamic republic, yet in recent years a growing number of Iranians have openly challenged him, including anti-government protesters who have set his image on fire and called for his downfall. Other activists have publicly called for him to resign.

The Informal series was broadcast amid increased public distrust with the clerical establishment, which in November 2019 used lethal force against demonstrators, slaughtering hundreds of people, including children.



The dismal state of the country's economy -- which has been crushed by U.S. sanctions reimposed after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal -- has resulted in increased public discontent.



Following the deadly 2019 crackdown on protests sparked by a sudden, steep rise in the price of gasoline, opposition figure and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Musavi compared Khamenei to the Shah of Iran who was toppled in 1979.

"The killers of the year 1978 were the representatives of a nonreligious regime and the agents and shooters of November 2019 are the representatives of a religious government," Musavi was quoted as saying by the opposition website Kalame. "Then the commander in chief was the shah and today, here, it is the supreme leader with absolute authority."



Musavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavad, and reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi have been under house arrest since 2011 for publicly challenging Khamenei and criticizing human rights abuses after protesting what they said was a fraudulent presidential election.



In a scene in the propaganda series, filmmaker Abdolhassan Barzideh -- who appears to be carefully choosing his words -- tells Khamenei that he feels the Iranian leader is closer to a certain segment of society.



"Special figures and groups are around you [while] you're expected to be the leader of all the people," Barzideh said, adding that "I don't feel you are sympathetic to each and every one of us and it is not implied that you love all the people."



It was a rare show of criticism.



"Whether people know it or not, I love each of them and I pray for them," said Khamenei, whose establishment has jailed scores of critics, activists, human rights defenders, and environmentalists and forced hundreds of others into exile. Khamenei then strangely added that he may be praying for some harder than he does for others.



Iran's supreme leader has in recent years reached out during election time to those who don't support the Islamic establishment, imploring them to vote. Iranian authorities want to use elections as a top claim to their legitimacy.



Barzideh told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that he issued the critical comment hoping it would help bring some change.



"If he can't do something [to bring change] then no one can. That's why I decided to speak up [during the meeting]. It remains to be seen whether it will be effective or not," Barzideh said in a telephone interview.

The propaganda documentary was released following the shock execution on December 12 of Ruhollah Zam, the administrator of the popular Amadnews channel that was accused of stirring up violence during protests that started in December 2017.



It also follows the September execution of 27-year-old wrestler Navid Afkari, who was hanged after being convicted of killing a state worker during 2018 protests despite a public and international outcry for officials to halt his execution.

Radio Farda broadcaster Babak Ghafouriazar contributed to this report.
NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's lower chamber of parliament, the Mazhilis, has approved the first reading of a bill that would allow the blocking of social networks and messaging apps if their owners fail to establish local offices in the Central Asian country.

According to a bill amending the law on the protection of children's rights, which was approved in its initial reading on September 15, foreign social networks and messaging services would be obliged to register in Kazakhstan and set up local offices to receive permission to operate in the country.

The bill still faces two further readings in parliament, and then must be approved by the legislature's upper chamber, the Senate, before it is signed into law by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

Companies affected will have six months to register in Kazakhstan and open local offices once the bill becomes law.

The bill was initiated by Mazhilis lawmakers Aidos Sary and Dinara Zakieva, who also proposed allowing regulators to block websites without a court ruling.

The leadership of the tightly controlled former Soviet republic has been concerned over anti-government rallies in recent years organized via Facebook and other social networks by the leader of the banned Democratic Choice Of Kazakhstan movement, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who lives in the European Union.

International human rights groups have said that Kazakhstan frequently blocks or restricts assessment to social networks. Freedom House in its annual report on the level of the Internet freedom in the world, defined Kazakhstan as a "not free" country.
BISHKEK -- Former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev's trial in a case related to a deadly two-day standoff between security forces and his supporters in August 2019 has been postponed again.



Atambaev's lawyer, Sergei Slesarev, told RFE/RL that due to his client's health problems he was unable to take part in the trial on September 29. The court postponed the trial until October 4.



Atambaev and 13 others are charged with murder, attempted murder, threatening or assaulting representatives of the authorities, hostage-taking, and the forcible seizure of power over the standoff, which led to the death of a top security officer and injured more than 170 people.



The trial that has been postponed several times since April.



In June 2020, Atambaev, 65, was sentenced to 11 years and two months in prison in a separate case for his role in the release of a notorious crime boss.



Five months later, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a Bishkek district court for retrial. It gave no reason for the decision.



Atambaev has long denied any wrongdoing.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are among dozens of members of the ruling United Russia party who will not take up the mandates they won during recent parliamentary elections.



The Central Election Commission said on September 29 that it has distributed among other candidates the mandates of a total of 66 members from the party who have refused to take up seats in the State Duma.



The refusal by Lavrov and Shoigu to not take up their mandates was not a surprise as their inclusion on the party list was widely seen as a way of boosting United Russia's popularity with high-profile candidates.



Others from United Russia who also gave up their parliamentary mandates include several regional governors; Vladimir Yakushev, the presidential envoy in the Urals Federal District, and Yury Trutnev, deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the far Eastern Federal District.



Three candidates from the Communist Party, Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot, Oryol regional Governor Andrei Klychkov, and the deputy chairman of the Moscow Regional Duma, Konstantin Cheremisov, also refused the mandates they won in the September 17-19 elections.



Of the 450 seats in the State Duma, United Russia won 324, which gives it a supermajority in the legislature allowing it to pass legislation unilaterally.



Some opposition parties and activists have called for the election results to be invalidated due to numerous violations and irregularities in the voting.



Many critics say the Kremlin carefully managed the elections from the start, with the opposition largely barred from running and a crackdown on government opponents that shows no sign of abating.



Despite the criticism, President Vladimir Putin declared on September 25 that the elections were "free and fair."

With reporting by TASS
During a visit to Pristina, the head of the European Union's executive branch called on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through dialogue and to de-escalate recent tensions over license plates.



European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Kosovo's capital on September 29 as part of her regional tour before an EU-Western Balkans summit next week.



"It is vital that Kosovo and Serbia normalize their relations," von der Leyen said at a news conference with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, describing the EU-facilitated dialogue as "the only platform to resolve the current crisis."



Both Kosovo and Serbia must improve mutual relations if they want to join the EU. Representatives of the two countries are meeting in Brussels this week, facilitated by EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak.



The renewed talks come as two border crossings between the two neighbors have been blocked by local Serbs since Kosovar authorities on September 20 required all drivers from Serbia entering Kosovo to use temporary printed registration details that are valid for 60 days.

The Kosovar government says the move is in retaliation for measures in force in Serbia against drivers from Kosovo since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo's independence and therefore its right to take official actions such as registering cars.



Kosovo's government has deployed special police forces to the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings to impose the new rule, while Serbian military jets and helicopters have been flying close to the border in an apparent show of force. The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo has stepped up patrols on the border with Serbia.



The EU, NATO, and the United States have urged Pristina and Belgrade to exercise restraint.



Von der Leyen is visiting the six Western Balkan countries just days before the EU is set to hold a summit with Western Balkans countries on October 6.



Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are at different stages on the EU membership path.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Tajikistan was the only one of Afghanistans neighbors that did not engage in talks with the Taliban prior to the militant groups conquest of most of Afghanistan.



Afghanistan In Turmoil: Full Coverage On Gandhara Read RFE/RL's Gandhara website for complete coverage of developments in Afghanistan. Gandhara is the go-to source for English-language reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and its network of journalists, and by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, which offers extensive coverage of Pakistan's remote tribal regions.

Dushanbe kept quiet about events in Afghanistan before the fall of Kabul and for many days after, but when Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on August 25, Rahmon said his country would not recognize a Taliban government that did not include representatives from minority groups, naming specifically Afghanistans Tajik population.



But even before Rahmon's comments, there were signs that Tajikistan did not welcome the Talibans successes in Afghanistan and was loathe to ever engage with the Afghan militant group.



On this week's Majlis podcast, RFE/RL Media-Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir moderates a discussion on Tajikistans stance on Afghanistan.



This weeks guests are: from Washington, Paul Stronski, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowments Russia and Eurasia program; from Prague, Khirimon Bakoeva, senior web editor at RFE/RLs Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi; and Bruce Pannier, the author of the Qishloq Ovozi blog.

Listen to the podcast above or subscribe to the Majlis on iTunes or on Google Podcasts.
CHISINAU -- During a visit to Chisinau, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier committed Berlin to an assistance package of 10 million euros ($11.6 million) to support the reform program launched by Moldovan President Maia Sandu.



"I brought with me a small package worth about 10 million euros through which we will provide expertise, because we know that when it comes to developing public sector reforms we need expertise, as well as to ensure security energy, health care, and regional cooperation," Steinmeier said following talks with Sandu in the Moldovan capital on September 29.



The European Union needs a stable and prosperous eastern neighborhood, and reforms in Moldova are important for the entire region, said Steinmeier, whose two-day visit is the first-ever by a German president to the Eastern European country.



Sandu called for increased German investment in one of Europe's poorest countries.



The Moldovan president took office after defeating Russia-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in an election in November 2020.



A U.S.-trained economist, she has since pushed for closer links between the former Soviet republic and the EU, and set the objectives of combating corruption and halting mass emigration that has hit the country's economy.



During his visit ending on September 30, Steinmeier is also to hold talks with Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita and to open a German-Moldovan business forum along with Sandu.



He is accompanied by a business delegation.

With reporting by dpa
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for what was considered the most consequential meeting between the two leaders in years.



The September 29 talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi follow two weeks of self-isolation for Putin -- a measure that came after dozens of members of his inner circle tested positive for COVID-19.



They also come 18 months after Putin and Erdogan held their last face-to-face meeting in Moscow, during which time issues between the two countries have only accumulated.

In addition to the conflicts in Syria and Libya, the two were expected to discuss the South Caucasus and Ukraine, expanding Russian gas exports, and the possible purchase by Turkey of a second batch of Russia's S-400 missile system despite objections from the United States.

As the two leaders sat down for about three hours of talks in Sochi, Putin said that relations between Moscow and Ankara were developing positively thanks to their ability to find "compromises."



"Negotiations are sometimes difficult, but with a positive final result," he said.



Erdogan said he believed that "there is great benefit in continuing our Turkish-Russian relations by strengthening them every day."

Neither leader made any detailed statements to the media after the talks, though Putin thanked Erdogan for the visit which he called "useful."



Erdogan tweeted that he left Sochi after holding a "productive" meeting with his Russian counterpart.

Syria

On Syria, where Ankara and Moscow are on opposing sides of the conflict even as they have coordinated and cooperated there in recent years, Erdogan told Putin that "the peace there depends on Turkey-Russia relations."

At the top of the agenda, Erdogan was expected to press Putin to abide by a cease-fire deal reached last year to halt a Russian and Syrian army assault on Turkish-backed rebel factions in northwestern Syrias Idlib Province.

Turkey has thousands of troops deployed at bases in Idlib to deter a Syrian army offensive, which it fears would push many of the provinces estimated 3 million people across the border as refugees. Turkey already hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees.



Ahead of the summit, Turkey reinforced troops in Idlib as Russia and Syria escalated air strikes on rebels.

There have also been reports of harassment air strikes near Turkish army observation posts.

In February 2020, an air strike killed at least 34 Turkish soldiers, prompting Turkey to pour in reinforcements into Idlib and conduct devastating strikes on Syrian army positions with armed drones and artillery.

The incident raised concerns of direct military conflict between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member.

"We hope that with the meeting our president will have with Mr. Putin, a return to peace will be possible as at the beginning of the agreement" on Idlib, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told journalists on September 28.

"We are abiding by the principles of the agreement reached with Russia," he added.

Russia considers most rebel factions in Idlib terrorist groups.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 25 that implementation of Turkeys own commitments under the 2018 agreement were going slow."

Erdogan was also expected to call on Putin to do more to clear Syrian Kurdish forces from areas near the Turkish border under control of Russian and Syrian army troops.

Under a 2019 agreement between Ankara and Moscow, Russian and Syrian troops were to remove YPG Syrian Kurdish militants from the border.

Turkey considers the YPG, which helped spearhead the U.S.-backed defeat of the Islamic State, as a terrorist group linked to its own PKK Kurdish separatist movement.

South Caucasus

The two sides were also expected to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh, over which Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war last fall, and efforts to revive diplomacy in the South Caucasus.

Turkey supported Azerbaijan's military assault that led to Bakus forces recapturing parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring districts that had been under Armenian control for nearly three decades. Moscow has a defense pact with Armenia, but also close relations with Azerbaijan.

The war ended with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire in November 2020, which among other things established a joint Russian-Turkish military observation center in Azerbaijan to monitor the cease-fire.

In the intervening months since the end of the war, there has been a flurry of diplomacy and even hints at reviving efforts to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia as part of a broader regional peace effort.

Turkey has kept its border with Armenia closed for nearly three decades, due to what it said was Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions, an issue that was resolved by the cease-fire deal.

One point of the tripartite agreement that ended the war includes the "unblocking of regional economic and transport links," including the possible creation of a rail or transport corridor that would connect Turkey to Azerbaijan through Armenia.

After Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian earlier this month said he was ready to improve relations with Turkey without preconditions, Erdogan suggested he may be ready to pursue diplomacy under multiparty regional talks including Russia.



Last week, Erdogan said that Pashinian was sending positive signals about multiparty talks and a possible transportation corridor connecting Turkey to Azerbaijan.

Now with these positive signals, we will take some steps in this regard. I hope we will have the opportunity to move the region toward peace. In my meeting with Mr. Putin, these will of course be discussed. In this way, I hope we will enter a much stronger and new period in Turkey-Russia relations, Erdogan said at an event in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Ukraine

Turkey considers Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea illegal, although it has not participated in Western sanctions against Moscow.

However, Turkey regularly comments on the Crimean issue, especially the treatment of Crimean Tatars, a Muslim Turkic ethnic group whose cause is important to Erdogans Turkish nationalist base.

While Turkeys statements on Crimea may anger Russia, Moscow is more concerned about Ankaras increasing cooperation with Ukraine in the defense field in recent years.

Turkey has sold Ukraine Bayraktar armed drones and Kyiv plans to buy dozens more to deploy to eastern Ukraine, where government forces are battling Russia-backed separatists.

Turkey and Ukraine have also signed or are pursuing other military cooperation and production agreements.

S-400 Missiles

Turkey bought Russian S-400 missile defense batteries in 2019, triggering U.S. sanctions and threats from Washington of further action if it bought more Russian equipment.

Washington says the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and to NATO's defense systems. Turkey argues it was unable to procure air defense systems from any NATO ally on good terms.

Erdogan last week indicated Turkey still intended to procure a second batch of S-400s, a move that would sharpen divisions in NATO. Turkish officials said the S-400s would be discussed in Sochi.

Libya

In Libya, Turkey's military intervention helped repel an assault on the internationally recognized government in Tripoli by the eastern-based forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar.

United Nations experts and the United States say Russia has sent paramilitaries from the Kremlin-linked Vagner Group to support Haftar's forces, while Turkey has sent Syrian rebel fighters to back the Tripoli government.

Under a cease-fire reached last October, foreign fighters were supposed to have left by January, although both sides have ignored that deal.

Natural Gas

Despite all the geopolitical issues between Russia and Turkey, one of Ankaras most pressing concerns is securing natural-gas supplies.

Turkey is highly dependent on Russian natural gas, which it gets from the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream pipelines running under the Black Sea.

Turkey earlier refused a long-term gas contract to supply Turkish Stream despite Russian insistence because it didn't like the terms and price.

Now, that looks to have been a mistake as Turkey finds itself in a vulnerable position with the world facing gas shortages and skyrocketing prices impacting the global economy.

With reporting by Reuters, TRT, BBC Turkish, AP, AFP, and TASS
A Russian court has ordered Google to pay another hefty fine for violating the countrys rules on banned content, as Moscow continues to push foreign firms to open offices in Russia and store Russians' personal data on its territory.



The magistrate court of Moscow's Taganka district on September 29 ruled that Google must pay a total of 6.5 million rubles ($89,400) for failure to delete banned content in two cases.



Court spokeswoman Zulfiya Gurinchuk said in a statement that the U.S. technology giant is facing a similar charge in another case to be heard on November 8.



In recent months, the same court ordered Google to pay fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over content, as well as for refusing to localize the personal data of its users in Russia.



Moscow courts have also fined Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and TikTok on similar charges.



Earlier on September 29, Russia threatened to block YouTube, which is owned by Google, after Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels were deleted from the video-sharing platform.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused social media platforms and other tech giants of flouting the country's Internet laws, including a push seeking to force foreign firms to open offices in Russia.



Many critics say the push has nothing to do with "Internet integrity" and instead accuse the authorities of trying to quell dissent amid a decrease in the popularity of Putin and the ruling United Party.

Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, TASS and Interfax
MOSCOW -- The Russian government has designated three prominent information outlets and 22 individuals as "foreign agents," continuing what critics say is a broad crackdown on independent media and civic organizations.



The Justice Ministry on September 29 added the parent company of the Mediazona website and the human-rights project Zona Prava to its list of foreign-agent media organizations.



The noncommercial information resource OVD-Info, which monitors the activities of law enforcement organizations, was added to the governments list of "foreign agent" unregistered organizations.



The Nizhny Novgorod Center for Germanic and European Culture and the Ivanovo Oblast-based Center for Gender Studies were designated "foreign agent" nongovernmental organizations (NGO).



In addition, 22 individuals, including several local coordinators of the independent Golos election-monitoring NGO were also added to the list of "foreign agent" media. Golos itself was added to the list in August.

Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov and its chief editor, Sergei Simonov, were also added to the list.



The Justice Ministry did not offer any explanations for its designations.



OVD-Info has been noted for its coverage of arrests during protests in Russia, while Mediazona specializes in covering Russian courts and the rights of prisoners.



Verzilov was a founding member of the Pussy Riot performance-art group and has been a vocal anti-Kremlin activist.

OVD-Info co-founder Grigory Okhotin said he saw the move as being part of "the pressure campaign against independent organizations and media."



"Its curious that it happened at the height of the public campaign to abolish the foreign agent legislation, in which OVD-Info was one of the key initiators," Okhotin told the Associated Press.



He added that 222 organizations have joined the campaign so far, and said that it couldn't have gone unnoticed.



Russia's "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires NGOs that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.



Later modifications of the law targeted allegedly foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time. Several RFE/RL correspondents have also been added to the list.



Human Rights Watch has condemned Russias "foreign agent" laws, calling them "another repressive tool the government can use to harass independent groups."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Ukraine must remain a transit country for Russian natural-gas exports during her final tour of European capitals before leaving office.

"I have made clear that it is our concern that Ukraine remains a transit country for Russian gas," Merkel told reporters at a news conference with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on September 11 in Warsaw.

Merkel is stepping down as German chancellor after federal elections on September 26 after 16 years in office.

In the weeks leading up to her departure, Merkel struck an agreement with the Biden administration that will allow Russia to complete a controversial gas pipeline to Germany.

The pipeline, known as Nord Stream 2, will reroute Russian gas exports under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Ukraine and depriving Kyiv of nearly $2 billion a year in transit revenue.

The project has divided Europe.

Ukraine and Poland vehemently oppose the project on the grounds that it is a national security threat, while Merkel has steadfastly supported it.

The U.S. Congress has sided with Kyiv and Warsaw, imposing two rounds of mandatory sanctions to stop its completion.

However, the Biden administration in May agreed to waive some of those sanctions in an attempt to improve frayed ties with Germany, a key NATO ally.

In exchange for the waiver, Berlin promised to invest in Ukraine's alternative energy sector and push the Kremlin to continue to export some gas through the country.

Experts have expressed strong doubts that Russia would agree to continue to ship gas export through Ukraine once the pipeline is launched.

Russia currently occupies Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and is backing separatist fighters in two regions in eastern Ukraine.

Russia on September 10 announced that it had completed construction of Nord Stream 2.

The project now awaits certification -- which could take several months -- before it can begin pumping gas to Germany.

Polish President Andrzej Duda cancelled his meeting with Merkel shortly after Russia's announcement.

The presidential office in Warsaw said that Duda would instead be in Katowice on September 11 for celebrations marking the anniversary of the Solidarity labor union.

Relations between Germany and Poland have been cool since the nationalist Law and Justice party took power in 2015, although top German officials had tried to thaw relations during repeated visits in recent years.

During her visit to Warsaw, Merkel is also expected to discuss migration from Europe's eastern borders -- and particularly, the situation on Poland's eastern border with Belarus.

The issue is of increasing concern in the European Union.

The governments of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have accused Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka of pushing large numbers of refugees from the Middle East across the Polish border in retaliation for EU sanctions against Minsk.

Officials said Morawiecki and Merkel also want to discuss developments in the coronavirus pandemic and the future of the EU.

Merkel's talks with the Polish prime minister also will cover the Polish COVID-19 National Recovery Plan, which has not been approved by Brussels because of concerns over Warsaw's commitment to the rule of law.

Poland, along with Hungary, is embroiled in a long-running dispute with the EU over a number of issues, including judicial independence, press freedoms, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.

The conflict recently intensified when Brussels took legal action against Warsaw and Budapest. Both have lashed out at the holdup of the stimulus plans as ideologically motivated and unconstitutional.

Merkel's farewell visit to Warsaw comes two weeks ahead of Germany's federal elections, which will draw the curtain on her 16 years in power.

Merkel's one-day visit to Poland began with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw -- an act of remembrance and remorse for Nazi Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland that started World War II.

Her tour will continue next week when she travels to Serbia, Albania, and France.

She is to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on September 13 before meeting representatives of civil society from a range of Balkan states in the Serbian capital, her spokesman announced on September 10.

Merkel is scheduled to travel to Tirana on September 14 for talks with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. She will also have discussions in Tirana on regional cooperation with the heads of government of six countries in the region.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and Deutsche Welle
At the age of 22, rapper Ivan Dryomin stood onstage in Moscow before a protest crowd of 50,000 people and issued a call for the Russian authorities to respect basic human rights.

"I am not good at politics," Dryomin, who goes by the stage name Face, said at the rally in August 2019. "But I can say one thing: freedom of speech and freedom of choice are the most fundamental things everyone should have, and I hope we will have them someday."

The Russian capital was engulfed at the time by demonstrations against the exclusion of opposition candidates from Moscow city-council elections, and Dryomin was among multiple celebrities speaking out against a perceived purge of the political field.

He was praised for his public stance at a time when protesters were facing long jail terms, and he later participated in other anti-government rallies, most recently in support of imprisoned Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny in April.

Fast forward two years, as a sweeping crackdown on dissent ahead of September 17-19 parliamentary and local elections shows no sign of abating even after the vote, and Dryomin appears to be facing punishment for that defiant activism.

"Over the past week, concert venues across the country have faced serious pressure that has made staging my concerts impossible," he wrote in an Instagram post on September 28, citing the cancellation of gigs in two large Siberian cities and saying that venues in other destinations on his big fall tour were also being pressured to cancel.

In the post, Dryomin claimed that regular attempts to scupper his performances had been going on for the past five years, but some of them had always managed to go ahead. Yet in recent weeks, he said he had received reports from multiple venues citing the same warnings from unnamed officials.

"The phrasing is everywhere the same," he wrote. "'It's highly inadvisable for you to host this specific artist. If you don't listen, you should expect serious problems.'"

He cited several examples. In Krasnoyarsk, he said, officials from the city administration called Dryomin's intended venue threatening to cut the electricity if it hosted the artist. In Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, concert venues had received a list of "undesirable performers" that included Dryomin, he wrote.

"Apparently they decided that the concert industry, which they've been dismantling for 18 months through various pointless restrictions, must be finished off with the help of blackmail and repressions," his post concluded.

'Sex, Drugs, And Protest'

The latest reports of politically motivated concert cancellations in Russia hark back to a similar trend in 2018, when rappers credited with channeling young Russians' frustration with the political system began coming under growing pressure to censor their statements.

A clampdown on the country's rap and alternative-music scene led to more than 40 concerts being cancelled that winter. A heated debate about the influence and utility of rap music even reached Russia's lower house of parliament -- and Putin called rap the music "of sex, drugs, and protest."

That November, the rapper Husky -- who is known for songs mocking the authorities and criticizing police brutality -- was dragged off a car roof by police in the southern city of Krasnodar and arrested after staging the impromptu performance because a local venue canceled his appearance.

Sentenced to 12 days in jail for hooliganism, the rapper, whose real name is Dmitry Kuznetsov, wrote in a post on Russian social network VK that his decision to cancel subsequent gigs was a response to "pressure imposed by you-know-who."

A concert in Moscow in support of Kuznetsov and other censored acts on November 26, 2018, sold out within hours. Responding to his Instagram post this week, fans of Dryomin suggested a similar event should be organized again, to express solidarity for his plight and decry the pressure on other performers amplifying views at odds with the official narrative.

But most expressed support for the rapper, who has galvanized protest sentiment and earned respect from prominent opposition activists.

One comment beneath Dryomin's post, which had received more than 200 likes by September 29, said simply, "I'll wait for your concert as long as it takes."

RFE/RL's Russian Service contributed to this report
MARIUPOL, Ukraine -- Inside a small community center on the outskirts of this city in eastern Ukraine, just 20 kilometers from the front lines of Kyiv's simmering conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, residents gather to learn the basics of first aid and prepare for the possibility of full-scale war with Russia. An eight-hour crash course conducted exclusively in Ukrainian teaches them methods to staunch blood flow, deal with shrapnel wounds, and administer emergency assistance to heart-attack victims. The participants -- yoga teachers, gym trainers, lawyers, policemen -- come from various walks of life. "We don't want war," Kateryna Sukhomlynova, the 42-year-old instructor and longtime volunteer for the Ukrainian armed forces, said during a coffee break between classes last week. "But we want to be ready if war comes."

The prospect of an invasion, unimaginable for most Europeans, has for the past seven years hung like a specter over this industrial port city located just 50 kilometers from Russian territory. Amid increasingly strained ties between Moscow and the West, a massive buildup of Russian troops along the border last month fueled fears of a military offensive, as well as speculation that the Kremlin was simply sending a signal of strength to Kyiv and its backers in the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Russia, which said the troops had gathered for military exercises, announced in late April that many units participating in the maneuvers had been ordered to return to their permanent bases. However, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said troops would remain "in a state of readiness for an immediate response" in connection with perceived threats from long-scheduled NATO exercises in Eastern Europe. But in Mariupol, a city well used to rumors of invasions and war, many seem inured to headlines announcing new negotiations or prophesying a fresh escalation. "Everyone's just tired," says Pavel Kovbasenko, a 23-year-old who works at the blast furnace plant of Azovstal, one of two steel factories that power the city's economy.

That's because the tension has rarely subsided since separatists in nearby Donetsk, capital of the surrounding Donetsk region of which Mariupol is the second-largest city, took up arms in April 2014, with Moscow's backing. Mariupol found itself in deadly proximity to a conflict that rapidly spiraled out of control in large areas of the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, and prompted concerns that Russia might seize swathes of Ukraine's southeast to gain control of the Azov Sea and land access to the Crimean Peninsula it seized from Ukraine that March. A shaky cease-fire declared in September 2014 raised hopes of an end to the fighting. Then, in early 2015, a massive salvo of Soviet-made Grad rockets rained down on Mariupol's eastern district, killing 27 people, wounding 97 others, and decimating a crowded open-air market. Ukraine accused the separatists of launching the attack with weapons supplied from Russia; the Kremlin has denied any involvement in a war that has now claimed some 14,000 lives and uprooted millions more.

The feared invasion of Mariupol never came to pass, and on the surface, the artillery strike seems a distant memory. The end of Ukraine's long coronavirus lockdown in early May brought crowds to the city's newly redesigned park and packed its bars and cafes with patrons. There are the usual gripes over corruption, stagnant wages, and the slow pace of reform since the Maidan revolution overthrew the pro-Russia government of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. But talk of Russia's latest saber-rattling was nothing new. "We've heard it all many times. We're used to it," Diana Berg, a graphic designer who left her native Donetsk when fighting erupted in April 2014, said in an interview outside a cafe overlooking Mariupol's bustling Prospekt Mira (Peace Avenue). "Yes, it's quiet now, but we know that can change at any moment. Everyone here has a suitcase packed." Away from the city center in Mariupol's eastern district, however, the muffled sounds of explosions can often be heard in the evenings, a deadly orchestra that resumes once international monitoring teams have left frontline towns. In Shyrokyne, an abandoned former resort east of Mariupol that sits just a kilometer from the front line, Ukrainian Army volunteer Oleh Horbenko operates a fleet of drones that surveil enemy positions. He analyses the data on a large screen in his makeshift office in a house vacated by fleeing civilians in 2015.

An ex-soldier who retired in 2016 because he had passed the age limit for active duty officers, the 60-year-old Horbenko believes Russia's recent troop buildup was aimed at facilitating a vast transfer of military equipment near insurgent positions. "They may have withdrawn the troops, but the equipment remained," he said, echoing an assessment backed by some Western analysts. Horbenko's wife and two sons, aged 17 and 21, live in Dnipro, a city four hours' drive north that he visits during lulls in fighting. He used to take orders from Moscow while fighting for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan; now he fights on the side of an independent Ukraine, against an enemy that Moscow backs. A Russian-speaker like most residents of Mariupol, he disapproves of Ukrainian nationalism. But he believes harsh Western sanctions against Russia are the only way to end the violence. "You can't win this war by military means. Russia understands that a full-scale assault on Ukraine will be a Pyrrhic victory," he says.

Horbenko's 80-year-old mother, who lives in Russia, used to visit each summer and stay in his dacha outside Dnipro. But her support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom many Ukrainians hold ultimately responsible for the war, means mother and son avoid discussing politics. She has not visited since 2014. "She tells me, 'When you finally stop your war and retire to the dacha, I'll come to see you,'" he says. "I always respond, 'OK, maybe when you get rid of Putin.'"
TEENAGE PAK TERRORIST CAPTURED ALIVE BY ARMY IN URI SECTOR IN J&K

Jammu: Recently a Pakistani terrorist was captured alive by the Indian Army during a live encounter in Jammu and Kashmirs Uri sector has asked his handlers in the neighboring country to take him back to his mother.

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I appeal to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) area commander, the ISI, and the Pakistan Army to take me back to my mother just like they sent me here (India), Ali Babar Patra, the teenage terrorist from Pakistan, said in a video message released by the Army here on Wednesday.

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Patra was caught by the Army during a live encounter in the Uri sector on September 26, when he asked for his life to be spared. Another Pakistani agent was killed in the nine-day operation that began on September 18.



In the video message, Patra said the Pakistan Army, the ISI, and the Let were spreading lies about the situation in Kashmir. We were told that the Indian Army is carrying out a bloodbath, but everything is peaceful here. I want to tell my mother that the Indian Army has taken good care of me, he said.

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He also said the behavior of the officers and jawans of the Indian Army with the locals who visit the camp where he was kept was extremely good. I can hear the azan (call for prayers) on the loudspeakers five times a day. The behavior of the Indian Army is opposite to that of the Pakistan Army. This makes me feel that there is peace in Kashmir, Patra said. On the contrary, they take advantage of our helplessness in Pakistani Kashmir to send us here, he added.



Giving details of his initiation into terror ranks, Patra said he lost his father seven years ago and had to drop out of school due to financial constraints. I took a job in a garment factory in Sialkot where I met Anas who used to recruit people for the LeT. Due to my situation, I went with him. He paid me Rs 20,000 and promised to pay another Rs 30,000 later on, he added.

Patra also shared the details of the weapons training he underwent with the Pakistan Army and the ISI at Camp Khyber Delihabibullah.
Petrol and diesel

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday were hiked for the sixth time this month, propelling prices to cross the Rs 100-a-litre-mark in places from Nanded in Maharashtra to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

Petrol price was hiked by 27 paise a litre and diesel by 30 paise per litre, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.

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Petrol and Diesel

The increase took petrol and diesel prices to their highest-ever level across the country. In Delhi, petrol now comes for Rs 91.80 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs 82.36.

This was the sixth increase in prices since May 4, when the state-owned oil firms ended an 18-day hiatus in rate revision they observed during assembly elections in states like West Bengal.

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The price increase led to petrol rates crossing the Rs 100-mark in more places of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Petrol and Diesel

Fuel prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT and freight charges. Rajasthan levies the highest value-added tax (VAT) on petrol in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh.

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Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan had the costliest petrol and diesel in the country at Rs 102.70 per litre and Rs 95.06 a litre respectively. Also in Rajasthan, petrol crossed the Rs 100-mark in Jaisalmer (Rs 100.71) and Bikaner (Rs 100.70) while it neared that mark in Barmer (Rs 99.82).

In six increases, petrol price has risen by Rs 1.41 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.63.
ESTRANGED HUSBAND TRACKED HIS WIFE

Gurugram: A man has been suspected of tracking his wife by installing a GPS tracker in a doctor's car. The estranged husband installed a GPS-enabled tracking device in his wife's car to track her location.

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According to the complainant, she had found a GPS S20 portable tracker in her car, a Maruti Suzuki S-Presso, on September 26 when she had accidentally dropped her mobile phone in the vehicle.

I was waiting for a patient inside my car and trying to keep my phone near the gearbox when it slipped from my hand, the doctor has told police. She claimed to have found a black-color box fixed inside the car. It was shocking and strange as I had never placed any such box in my car. Out of curiosity, I pulled out the box and found that it was a portable tracker, the doctor said.



The complaint which was registered addressed that she had shared photographs of the device with her brother, who then guided her to open it. I found a SIM card inside the device. It seems my movement and locations were recorded and transmitted to another device, the doctor said in her complaint, adding that her privacy had been breached.

In her complaint, the doctor stated that her estranged husband had installed the tracking device in connivance with her car cleaner, who has the access to the car's keys beside her. The couple is all ready to take legal action, police said.

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Based on her complaint, a case has been registered under the sections 354D (stalking), 354 (voyeurism), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and section 67 (publishes or transmits pr causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form) of IT Act at Sector 56 police station.

Station house officer (SHO) of Sector 56, Inspector Amit Kumar said, "We are investigating the case and trying to find out who had installed the tracker device, on whose direction and for what purpose." No arrests have been made in the case so far.
Employment Exchange to Employ Senior Citizens

New Delhi: Now the Government of India and the employment exchange have come up with good news of proving jobs to senior citizens. This exchange will start from 1st October i.e. this Friday. Apart from this, the government has also started a helpline for their convenience.

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Senior citizens will be able to find employment for themselves by registering themselves in this exchange. This type of opportunity has been opened by the employment exchange for the first time in the country. A portal has also been started for this.



Helpline Details -

Significantly, the government has started a nationwide toll-free helpline 14567 for senior citizens called 'Elder Line'. On this phone line, senior citizens get support like pension, legal issues, emotional support, help against harassment, help in homelessness, etc.

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The people above the age of 60 years of age who want to do a job can get themselves registered by visiting the Senior Able Citizens for Re-employment in Dignity (Sacred) portal which is being opened under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E) from October 1.



It will be a connected platform on which stakeholders will meet each other virtually and talk about employment opportunities. The ministry has also written a letter to industry chambers like CII, Ficci, and Assocham asking them to help senior citizens in getting employment.

On this portal, senior citizens have to give information about their education, experience, skills, interests, etc. The ministry has clarified that this exchange is not guaranteeing employment. It will be the choice of companies and employers to keep a senior's qualification keeping in mind his need and keep him in their job.

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This expectancy rate is worth noting that due to the increase in the average life expectancy, the age of living, the number of senior citizens is day by day increasing in the country. In such a scenario, Exchange can be proved to be very effective. The estimated expectancy showed that the number of senior citizens has increased to 10.4 crores in the year 2011 as compared to 76 million in 2001. The proportion of senior citizens in the country is projected to increase to 20 percent by the year 2050.
NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU

Chandigarh: Navjot Sidhu has issued his statement after resigning from the post of Punjab Congress President. Navjot Sidhu tweeted that he will continue to fight for the truth till his last breath. He also released a video message.

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Navjot Sidhu said, Improving the lives of the people of Punjab and taking a stand on the political issues. That was my religion and that was my duty. I did not fight personal battles. My fight is for a pro-Punjab agenda. There was no compromise. 



He further said, When I see those who gave clean chits to the Badals six years ago. The person who gave the blanket bell is the Advocate General. My soul works. I can neither mislead nor allow the High Command to be misled. I will sacrifice anything to fight for the Guru's justice. But I will stand on principles. I don't have to think about it."

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In his statement, Sidhu said, "The system of tainted leaders and tainted officers was broken. The system cannot be broken by bringing them back. I oppose them. Those who cry in the womb of mothers cannot be made guards. I will fight for it. Everything goes. "
NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU

Chandigarh: A new earthquake has shaken the Punjab Congress. The resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu raised a big question: What do the Congress leaders of Punjab want to do? The issues on which Capt. Amarinder Singh lost his government, the new government came into being, brought with it some problems but they have not been resolved yet while the infighting between the Congressmen has started coming to the fore. A government that has only 90 days to prove itself right in the eyes of the people, spent 10 days in electing the Chief Minister, the Ministries, and their Departments. But even after all that, it cannot be said that all is well in Congress.

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CAPTAIN AMARINDER SINGH



After being expelled from the ministry, Balbir Singh Sidhu has asked the question, what is my fault? He had to ask this question because under him Punjab had fought a great battle with Kovid in the health sector. The same question is with Kangar which is not being answered. His questions were correct because it was not clear on what basis the ministers were elected in this ministry.

Navjot Singh Sidhu

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To whom is loyalty? For some it was a reward for opposing the captain, for others it was a reward for remaining silent for four years in the Congress. Some names with stains were also included but many stains were also removed. It seems that this ministry has come out of the battle of one or two powers. When Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was made a googly, the bowler did not fully measure his game. Within two days, it was clear that the one who had been made the Chief Minister by calling himself his younger brother was not going to submit to anyone.

Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi



Within a week, the new Chief Minister had succeeded in winning the hearts of the people. As he declared himself a common man and went out of his way to meet the common man out of the circle of hundreds of policemen, the hopes of the people were raised for Congress. Charanjit Singh Channi did what big politicians could not do.

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Navjot Singh Sidhu and CM Charanjit Singh Channi



The new ministry that was formed was the result of a battle between the two powers. It was not the thinking of one but the victory of many powers and the picture after the war can never be beautiful. Navjot Sidhu's resentment was evident only yesterday when he moved to Patiala. His resignation is also understandable. Navjot Sidhu was brought in with the promise of becoming the Chief Minister of Punjab but within a week it became clear that Charanjit Singh Channi would be the face of the Chief Minister in the next elections.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi

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They also made efforts in adapting to new situations, maintaining production, creating jobs for workers, and contributing to socio-economic development, she remarked at the Government Portals online conference on September 27.

Foreign investors new capital registered in Viet Nam reached US$22.15 billion in the first nine months of this year, marking an increase of 4.4 per cent from the same period last year.

Ngoc said: The figures showed the Vietnamese Governments special attention to investors and business climate improvement.

There are 34,141 valid projects nationwide with a total registered capital of US$403.19 billion. Of which, realised capital is estimated at $245.14 billion, accounting for 60.8 per cent of total investment capital.

COVID-19 pandemic was having a very negative impact on the FDI sector, including attracting foreign investment. The 4th wave of the pandemic directly hit major industrial centres of the country such as HCM City, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, ong Nai and Binh Duong, where many FDI enterprises are based, disrupting production supply chains.

At the conference, representatives of participating FDI firms said they believed in Viet Nams business climate and hoped the authorities would continue prioritising vaccinations for workers, opening the market for production recovery, and simplifying administrative procedures.

Choi Joo Ho, President of Samsung Vietnam, said: Samsung will not change its investment strategy in Viet Nam.

Ho confirmed Samsung would continue to expand production and invest in equipment in its six factories operating in the nation while upgrading and investing more in research and development to make Samsung Vietnam a major production base in the world. He added Samsung Vietnam was building a $220 million R&D centre in Ha Noi.

Binu Jacob, CEO of Nestle Vietnam, said the group hdecided to invest $132 million in building a new plant in southern ong Nai Province over the next two years in a bid to become Vietnam Nestle's production centre in Asia and Oceania.

The vice chairwoman of ong Nai Peoples Committee Nguyen Thi Hoang said as of early September, 42 countries and territories had invested in the province with a registered capital of up to $32 billion, adding new investment capital increased by 25 per cent over the same period last year and reached 88 per cent of the years plan.

Hoang said the province pledged the local authorities support for enterprises and their production recovery, adding ong Nai would further create a favourable environment for FDI firms to invest in the southern locality.

According to local media, foreign investors added additional investment to expand production in Viet Nam, showing their trust in the countrys prospects for economic recovery.

Tetra Pak of Sweden has confirmed that it would pump 5 million EUR or $5.86 million to expand its existing 120-million-EUR plant in Binh Duong Province.

The investment demonstrates the companys trust in Viet Nams strong economic recovery after the pandemic, according to Managing Director and President at Tetra Pak Vietnam Eliseo Barcas.

In particular, the LG Display project in Hai Phong has received additional investment twice this year, with $750 million in February and $1.4 billion in August.

Earlier this month, authorities in the northern province of Quang Ninh presented an investment registration certificate to a $365.6 million project of Jinko Solar Vietnam Co. Ltd., an affiliate of the Jinko Solar Holding Co. Ltd. The firm channelled nearly $500 million into a project in the province in March.

Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Ha Noi Nakajima Takeo said Japanese firms are working to adapt and improve their production system in the new situation.

Meanwhile Alain Cany, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Viet Nam, said the European business community was determined to stand side by side with the Vietnamese Government in this tough time and believed that the Government would successfully bring COVID-19 under control as it did before.

As they have shown their determination to maintain operations in Viet Nam, most foreign investors hope that the Government will promptly devise a clear plan for reopening and economic recovery, or else current investment plans will be delayed and newcomers cannot enter the country to study investment possibilities.

In the first eight months, the total import-export value of the FDI sector surged 31.2 per cent to $297.43 billion.
Its been one of the most well-known landmarks in La Mesa since the 1960s. Soon, it will be a memory.

The Drew Ford Roundhouse of Values at 8970 La Mesa Blvd., once a highlight for drivers traveling along freeways and roads in La Mesa, is being demolished. Crews started tearing it down last week.

The iconic structure, built in April 1967, was designed by La Mesa architect James Hurley and built to resemble the Ford Rotunda from the Worlds Fair in New York in 1964.

It originally was known as the Drew Ford Rotunda and was renamed the Roundhouse of Values in the early 1970s, according to Jim Newland, a La Mesa planning commissioner and president of the La Mesa Historical Society.

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Many fondly remember not only purchasing cars, but attending high school proms and other community events at the iconic building, he said.

In 2014, SoCal Penske Dealer Group took over the Drew Ford dealership, a La Mesa staple that started in 1927 under businessman Elmer Drew. Elmer Drew passed the business onto his son, Joe, in the 1990s. After Joe Drew died in 2014, his son, Bill Drew, sold the dealership to Penske.

In a statement Monday, the company said a renovated service facility would be opening in 12-18 months.

The partial arch pillars  several long, upturned steel and concrete poles that gave the building its unique architectural style  were knocked down Monday.

Last week, windows had been smashed by construction rigs and the interior gutted. Piles of wood and glass littered the inside.

Elmer Drews daughter, Esther, told Newland that her father let it be known that the structure was built to be disassembled in case it needed to be moved some day.

The first day of demolition was wistful for many longtime employees, who either watched the glass being broken by a rig or showed up after the fact and saw the crumbled remains inside.

The roundhouse pillars at Penske Ford in La Mesa started going down on Monday, June 25. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Some of us have been emotionally connected to the building, said Mark Webb, who has worked at the dealership for 29 years. But we know that the Penske team has the right idea and want to make it more of a modern facility.

Room is needed for more cars to be put on display as the dealership is looking to transform itself and expand, Webb said. The dealership keeps some of its cars in other spots around the county on rented or leased land.

Webb said he remembered when there were old Ford Model A and Model T cars inside the buildings first floor. The structure had offices and tables where people sat down to talk to sales representatives and sign contracts to buy cars.

Gregory May started a petition last year on change.org at tinyurl.com/ybt4uzov to stop the demolition of the landmark. It is still online and there are more than 700 signees.

Its sad that Penske, the Drew family or the Ford Motor Co. has no creativity to use this unique building, May said. Nothing they build will be anything remotely interesting.

There is also a Facebook page devoted to keeping the roundhouse at facebook.com/savedrewfordroundhouse/

But those efforts have been for naught  and many from across San Diego County are mourning the loss.

For locals like Tina Culp Barton of Pacific Beach, whose parents still live in the foothills of Mount Helix near the dealership, losing the building is a sad occasion that brings back good memories.

After my father returned from Vietnam in 1968, we were transferred to Yuma, Barton said. Every time we drove back to San Diego to visit my grandparents, we would drive right by the Roundhouse. It was the first large and modern building we saw coming into San Diego. Once I saw it, I knew we werent far from seeing my grandma and the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

The iconic Roundhouse of Values started to be torn down on June 20 in La Mesa. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Since hearing the news and seeing a photo on social media of the demolition, hundreds of people have chimed in with memories of the roundhouse on Facebook.

Say its not so, Tom Lux wrote. I bought a car there in my youth!! PINTO!!!

Goodbye to an East County icon, wrote Dana Stevens.

One less landmark, Bob Gould wrote.

Many also remembered the loss in 1996 of the Aquarius Roll-A-Rena roller-skating rink, once a Food Basket grocery store. The structure was built in 1952 and leased a spot in the parking lot of the auto dealership. Al and Ruth Strunk opened the rink in 1978.

Omg, that is where I bought my first car and my parents bought a lot of theirs, Gwendolyn Poe wrote. Aquarius roller rink was over there, too. The roundhouse with those white pillars around it always reminded me of teeth as a kid.

Howard B. Owens III wrote that when he was younger, he was fascinated by the buildings unique design. But he said he didnt consider it of much significant architectural value.

Owens wrote that the location became really horrible as freeway construction around it grew and grew.

Interstate 8  and U.S. 80 roadway before it  was once the main thoroughfare next to the car dealership. State Route 125 was built in the 1980s and now mammoth bridges leading from Interstate 8 to the state Route 125 connectors heading north and south loom over the dealership.

Newland said the building should have been considered for historical eligibility in La Mesa, but a procedural loophole allowed the city to OK a permit for demolition.

Some of the gutted inside of the Roundhouse of Values in La Mesa at the Penske Ford dealership. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune )

In the 1980s, the city started a list of buildings and properties at least 50 years old that it would consider for historical designation. Although he has tried to make inroads, that list has not been updated, Newland said.

So while Drew Ford dates back to the late 1920s, the rotunda only goes back to the 1960s, and so it never made the original list.

Lori Walters, a historian and preservation specialist in mid-century modern architecture from the University of Central Florida, visited the roundhouse in March. Walters scanned and recorded 3-D imaging of the outside building.

She was also able to get inside the building with Penskes OK and procured and made copies of its original blueprints. Walters was also able to climb on the roof of the roundhouse. She will be sharing her findings with the La Mesa Historical Society at a later date, Newland said.

Newland said that as a historian it is tough when landmarks like the roundhouse go away.

Its one of those icons that has always been there, he said. Its one of those things that generations hold onto, a multigenerational thing for the last 50 years that anybody who drove down U.S. 80 or Interstate 8, when youd see the roundhouse, you knew you were in La Mesa.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com


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Living on a fixed income in retirement can be a challenge. About 40% of retirees say they spent more during their first few years of retirement than they did while working. When you have more time on your hands to eat out, travel, and engage in hobbies, it can be hard to keep your spending in check. However, with some careful financial planning, you can live on a fixed income of 60K without feeling deprived. Here are our tips on how to retire well on 60K per year.

Move to a Cheaper State

Although 60K per year is a comfortable retirement income in many parts of the country, it may not be enough if you live in a state with a high cost of living. According to GoBankingRates, youd need an income of $90,000 to $100,000 to live well in expensive areas like DC, New York, and California.

You can stretch your nest egg further by moving to a more affordable state like Texas or Wyoming. Since your housing costs will be cheaper, youll be able to enjoy some luxuries like travel and eating out during your golden years.

However, it can be hard to leave your current area if family and friends live nearby. An alternative to crossing state lines is moving to a 55 and over community in your city. They usually offer cheaper housing prices than regular neighborhoods, which can help reduce your monthly mortgage costs.

Get a Side Hustle

If you have big post-work plans like traveling the world, you may need to bring in extra money to supplement your retirement income. Getting a part-time job or starting a small business will give you more financial flexibility and allow you to enjoy a higher standard of living.

Not sure which side hustle is right for you? Here are some of the best part-time jobs for retirees according to Entrepreneur:

Tour guide

Pet sitter

Babysitter or caretaker

Teacher

Reseller

Build an Emergency Fund

Even during retirement, you should still have an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses. You dont want to be forced to withdraw extra funds from your investments if your car breaks down or you lose your part-time job.

Taking out more money from your retirement accounts than planned can cause your nest egg to run out in your twilight years. So you want to avoid dipping into your investments for emergencies as much as possible.

Financial experts recommend keeping between 3 and 6 months of expenses socked away in a savings account. That way youll have enough cash on hand to cover big home repairs, unforeseen medical bills, and anything else that pops up.

Be a Smart Shopper

Becoming a smart shopper can help you stretch your 60K income further and improve your lifestyle. One way to save money is to take advantage of senior discounts. Many stores, restaurants, hotels, cell phone carriers, and airlines offer discounts to people over the age of 65. Stacking your senior discount with coupons, storewide sales, and rebate apps like Ibotta and Fetch Rewards can help you save on essentials so you have more fun money.

Lifestyle creep is a common issue in retirement. But if you try to stay frugal and reduce your expenses, youll be able to live well on your nest egg and avoid running out of funds.

What are your best tips for retiring on a fixed income? Let us know in the comments section below!

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While many people move here during their retirement years, Arkansas offers a low cost of living and a great quality of life. In addition to all the outdoor activities you can enjoy in the Natural State, it also has a thriving art scene and many economic opportunities. While retirees receive significant tax benefits, Arkansas residents also pay one of the lowest property tax rates in the country. Heres a brief overview to help you find the lowest property taxes in Arkansas.

A Snapshot of Arkansas Property Taxes

Theres no way around them, taxes are simply a part of life. Each year, the Country Assessor estimates the value of your home and then determines how much you owe in property taxes. The taxes that property owners pay fund important public services such as education, public safety, and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. Although local governments each set their own taxation rates, Arkansas has the 5th lowest rate in the entire country.

As you would expect, residents in urban areas pay higher property taxes. However, the average resident paid $532 in property taxes for 2020. This figure is based on the states median home value which is $102,900, or 0.52% of the assessed fair market value. With an average income of $48,177 per household, residents pay 1.1% of their annual salary in property taxes.

Property Taxes by County in Arkansas

Arkansas is known for its parks and wilderness reserves, hence the name, the Natural State. Due to the geography and rugged terrain, it has a large rural population. There are slightly more than 3 million residents spread across 75 counties. However, the highest population concentrations are around Bentonville and Little Rock. Coincidentally, they also have the highest property taxes.

The exact taxation rates are determined by county and vary across the state. Benton County levies the highest taxes (0.6% of median home value) totaling about $929. Neighboring Washington County is only slightly lower with a rate of 0.59% or $909 annually. Similarly, Pulaski County, which is home to the state capital, has the highest actual rate (0.68%) which averages about $915 per year.

Lowest Property Taxes in Arkansas

Most counties outside of the large urban centers have reasonably low property taxes. The lowest property taxes in Arkansas are in the more rural and agricultural regions in the southern and eastern parts of the state. While it boasts one of the lowest rates in the United States, some counties are significantly lower year after year.

The three counties with the lowest taxes are all home to wildlife refuges and national forests. Calhoun County has the lowest property taxes in Arkansas. As the least populated county, it also levied the fewest taxes. Each household averaged $275, which translates to 0.53% of the median home value. Lee County residents only paid a little more at $286. Desha County, which borders the Mississippi River and the White River south of Lee County, collected an average of$322 or 0.58% in property taxes for 2020.

Property Tax Breaks

Special Exemptions

Like many other states, Arkansas offers special exemptions to senior citizens, the disabled, veterans, and their eligible dependents. One exemption that anyone over 65 should be aware of is the tax exemption for seniors. On your 65th birthday, the taxable assessed value of your home freezes. Likewise, the property value for homeowners with disabilities begins from the date when it occurred. The exemption also extends to their dependent children and widow(er) as long as they dont remarry.

The Homestead Tax Credit

Another property tax break Arkansas residents can claim is the Homestead Tax Credit. It provides up to $375 every year for those who qualify. In order to claim the credit:

you must be owner, be the buyer under the recorded sales agreement, or occupy the property as your primary residence.



There is no designated age to claim the tax credit. The property could be owned by a revocable or irrevocable trust. And, there are still ways to qualify once ownership and primary residence change. You can still claim it if you are the owner but reside in an assisted living facility, or deeded the home to someone else while you continue to use it as your principal residence. However, you must apply for the Homestead Tax Credit through the County Assessors office. And, you can continue to claim it every year you are eligible.

In addition to the eligibility requirements, there are other factors that could affect the total assessed value. If you have substantial improvements to the property including renovations, reconstruction, or refurbishment that increases the property value by at least 25%, it will also increase the amount that was frozen. But, Amendment 79 also limits how much the local government can increase the assessed value of a property from year to year. They can only increase homestead properties 5% per year until it reaches the full value. Meanwhile, commercial, agricultural, or vacant properties can only rise 10% per year. However, these caps dont apply when there have been substantial improvements.

Appeals to the County Assessors Office

Arkansas residents have the right to appeal every year if they feel their property valuation is too high. If you believe the amount is incorrect, start by combing through tax records and create an itemized list of the features and details of the property. Should you find inaccuracies or mistakes, it would give you grounds for an appeal. However, you can only appeal the assessed value, not the taxes charged.

After you choose to make an appeal, the next step is to contact the reappraisal board. Discuss your concerns with someone in the appraisers office and look for errors in the valuation process. Unfortunately, these meetings dont always lead to a satisfactory solution. So, you may need to make a formal appeal in person or send a letter of petition to the Board of Equalization. They even provide a guide to help you write your petition and make sure you include all vital information. You will then receive a date for the hearing with a judge. But, if you disagree with their decision, you can appeal it all the way up to the state supreme court.

If you have any specific questions or concerns about property taxes, it is always best to seek legal counsel. They can inform you of your rights and help you minimize your property tax bill to keep more of your hard-earned money.

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UofSC professor: Human-driven climate change devastating ocean ecosystems

Erin Meyer-Gutbrod researches the movement of right whales, reef fish in response to climate change

Warming oceans are driving some marine populations out of their habitats and into peril, according to new research by University of South Carolina professor Erin Meyer-Gutbrod.

The temperature change is affecting creatures large and small, from the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale to more common fish whose habitats are losing oxygen. Meyer-Gutbrod published two research articles this month that examine the oceans changes over the past 15 years and provide a cautionary tale for those who manage waterways and fisheries.

By understanding how ocean dwellers will move with the warming waters, we can more effectively preserve species that are important to the ecosystem and the economy.

The preservation of our ecosystems and the maintenance of biodiversity impact everyone. Human well-being is intricately connected with the environment.  Erin Meyer-Gutbrod

Right whales move to find food

At 140,000 pounds and 52 feet long, the North Atlantic right whale weighs in among the worlds largest creatures. It is twice the size of a humpback whale, but just under half the size of the blue whale.

But the species has long faced dangers from human activity. In fact, it got its name from being the right whales to hunt, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, an assistant professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, studies how warming oceans are driving some marine populations out of their habitats.

Meyer-Gutbrod, an assistant professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, started studying the effects of climate change on right whales in the North Atlantic as a doctoral student at Cornell University. Its an attractive species to study because long-term monitoring provides plenty of historical data to compare and its endangered status means people pay more attention to her findings.

The US and Canada maintain protective policies to reduce anthropogenic [human-caused] impacts on the species, she says. This means that my research can have a direct impact on conservation and management.

And that guidance couldnt come at a better time. In the summer of 2017, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service discovered 17 dead right whales, most of which had died from being hit by ships or tangled in fishing gear. Twelve were found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, hundreds of miles north from the whales normal summer feeding area in the Gulf of Maine.

Meyer-Gutbrod set out to find out why the whales were moving. Her findings, published in the journal Oceanography, trace the move to a regime shift, a prolonged change caused by elevated water temperatures.

What we are seeing is right whales responding to a climate-driven change in their prey environment.  Erin Meyer-Gutbrod

Meyer-Gutbrod's findings paint a grim picture for the right whale. She says a northward shift in the Gulf Stream warmed the Gulf of Maine from below, causing a decline in the zooplankton that right whales eat.

As the whales left their traditional foraging grounds in search of food, they left protected waters, causing more deadly ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements.

What we are seeing is right whales responding to a climate-driven change in their prey environment," Meyer-Gutbrod said. As they moved north to feed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, many individuals were killed by ship strikes or entanglement in fishing gear, largely because there were no protective policies in place in this unexpected habitat.

Compounding the problem, the lower food availability and disruption of foraging environments leads to lower calving rates. The calves that are born are more likely to die earlier and more often from malnutrition.

Estimates indicate that there are fewer than 360 right whales left. The population decrease is so severe that right whales were elevated to the critically endangered list in 2020.

But there is good news. Meyer-Gutbrods research identifies ways the United States and Canada can help protect right whales, such as monitoring ocean conditions and whale sightings to eventually predict changes in new right whale habitats. As the whales move, protective regulations should move with them, she says.

Meyer-Gutbrod urges quick action to to adapt regulations to the whales movement.

Canada and the U.S. will need to adopt more dynamic management plans, Meyer-Gutbrod says. Failure to adopt such measures and significantly reduce anthropogenic mortality sources could commit the right whale population to extinction before the end of the century.





Fish move to find oxygen

Meyer-Gutbrod's research also explores how the warming ocean affects underwater oxygen and the fish who depend on it.

Her recent research published in Global Change Biology, co-authored with a team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, reveals that oceanic oxygen concentrations are dropping. Lower oxygen levels are pushing some fish species into shallower waters while driving others deeper, which has ecological and economic ramifications.

Estimates indicate that there are fewer than 360 right whales left. The population decrease is so severe that right whales were elevated to the critically endangered list in 2020.

When fish move out of their normal foraging areas, it disrupts every other population that depends on those fish  and that includes us.

Their research is the first to track changes in fish distribution in the same location while also tracking the decline in oxygen over a period of 15 years.

Fish can drown if there is not enough oxygen in the water. So, they either move to more oxygenated areas or they risk dying from low oxygen. For some species, this means finding shallower water, where atmospheric oxygen mixes with surface water.

However, other research indicates that fish may need to move to deeper, cooler waters to avoid anthropogenic warming at the surface. When fish move up to avoid low oxygen and move down to avoid warm waters, this results in a compression of usable habitat.

The depth band that they can occupy is getting narrower and narrower through time, Meyer- Gutbrod says.

This shrinking habitat causes overcrowding, and it could affect fishing practices.

If you throw your net in the water, Meyer-Gutbrod says, and you get a ton of fish  more than youre used to getting  you may think, Oh, its a good year for the fish. Maybe the population is recovering. But instead, it could be that all the fish are just squished into a tighter area. You could have fishery regulations changing to increase fish allowances because of this increase in landings.

Scientists dont yet know the consequences of this narrowing band. What they do know is that fish are being forced out of their optimal habitats. And theyre not the only ones.





The local impacts of climate change

Meyer-Gutbrod's research is more than an esoteric look at changes deep under water and 1,500 miles away. It has impacts close to home.

For example, whale watchers often gather on the South Carolina coast to spot the right whale during breeding and calving season, meaning the speciess decline would be felt right here in the Palmetto State.

As for fish, if the compressed habitat leads to over-fishing, then it could affect human food supplies and the fishing economy. Despite different environments, humans, whales and fish inhabit an interconnected, global ecosystem.

But there are ways you can help.

Find ways to reduce the carbon footprint in your life and in your community. Communicate with your politicians about protecting our vulnerable ecosystems and reducing human impacts.

The preservation of our ecosystems and the maintenance of biodiversity impact everyone, Meyer-Gutbrod says. Earth's biosphere provides services that humans rely on, including producing oxygen and food. Human well-being is intricately connected with the environment.

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Geomagnetic storms are space weather events that come in the form of solar coronal mass ejection (CMEs) that cause disturbances on Earth's magnetic field.

Science Times previously reported that space weather agencies, such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the British Met Office have both predicted that there will be a moderate geomagnetic storm on Monday night, which could lead to an aurora.

The geomagnetic storm will only reach a level G2, which is considered to be a mild solar storm on a five-level solar storm scale, which may cause power grid fluctuations, and affect satellite orientation. NOAA wrote that the space weather event could cause aurora that could be seen as low as New York, Wisconsin, and Washington state.

Conditions Needed to Create Geomagnetic Storms

According to NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, geomagnetic storms occur when there is an efficient energy exchange from the solar wind to the space environment that surrounds the planet. They are a result of variations in the solar wind that cause major changes in the currents, plasmas, and Earth's magnetosphere.

Several hours of sustained high-speed solar wind and a southward solar wind magnetic field at the dayside of the magnetosphere create the perfect solar wind conditions that cause geomagnetic storms.

This condition transfers energy from the solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere, wherein the largest storms from this condition are linked to CMEs where billions of plasma from the Sun arrives at Earth. Past observations reveal that the most intense geomagnetic storms could arrive in 18 hours, while less intense solar storms could take several days to arrive on Earth.

Geomagnetic storms are rated from G1 to G5, wherein 1 is the weakest and 5 is the most damaging. They can cause considerable harm to electronics, electric grids, satellites, and radio communications.

ALSO READ: Aurora Borealis May Have Contributed to Sinking of Titanic, Suggests Meteorological Researcher

The Science Behind Northern Lights (Aurora borealis)

Galileo Galilei coined the term aurora borealis in 1619 after the Roman goddess of dawn Aurora and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas. The earliest suspected records of the northern lights were in a 30,000-year-old cave painting in Europe, but other civilizations have also marveled at this beautiful celestial phenomenon.

According to Space.com, the science behind the northern lights was only studied in the 20th century when Kristian Birkeland proposed that the aurora borealis is caused by electrons emitted from sunspots after striking the Earth's magnetic field. His theory was later on proven correct by succeeding scientists.

The solar wind from the Sun slams into the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere and creates the aurora, which could either be in the Northern Hemisphere or Southern Hemisphere (aurora australis). Geomagnetic storms also result in intense auroras that change in the radiation belts and ionosphere.

Astronomer Billy Teets said that particles from the solar wind are deflected towards the planet's poles and interact with the atmosphere, creating fluorescence in the atmosphere.

The chemical composition of the atmosphere dictates the color of the aurora. Teets told Space.com that every type of atom or molecule absorbs and radiates its own set of colors. For instance, the red hue is produced by nitrogen molecules, while oxygen molecules produce green lights.

RELATED ARTICLE: NOAA: G2 Level Geomagnetic Storm and Aurora Borealis Predicted to Head South



Check out more news and information on Aurora Borealis in Science Times.




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In mid-August, a man from Lake County, Illinois woke up to find a bat on his neck. However, he later died from rabies as confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported in its news release that this is the first human case of rabies in the state since 1954.

87-Year-Old Man Died From Rabies After Being Bitten By A Bat

According to the Daily Herald, the McHenry County coroner's office said that 87-year-old Thomas Krob died on September 20 at Northwestern McHenry Hospital.

The news outlet reported that the man woke up one morning in mid-August to find a bat on his neck. Upon testing, the bat was positive for rabies so health officials recommended postexposure rabies treatment to Krob. However, the man declined and began experiencing symptoms that are consistent with being infected by rabies after a month since the incident.

Health officials said that they are now paying close attention to people who had close contact with Krob, especially after wildlife experts found a bat colony in the man's home.

"Rabies has the highest mortality rate of any disease," IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike said in the news release. "However, there is a lifesaving treatment for individuals who quickly seek care after being exposed to an animal with rabies.

IDPH health officials urge anyone who has been exposed to rabies to immediately seek medical attention and follow the recommendations set by health care experts to prevent further problems.

They pointed out that although human rabies is rare in the United States with only 1 to 3 cases annually, rabies exposures are still dangerous because it infects the central nervous system and ultimately causes death. But preventive treatment could save lives.

Unfortunately, Krob's case underscores the importance of public awareness of rabies exposure in the country. Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister reminds the public that rabies is almost always fatal and it is vital to receive appropriate treatment as soon as possible.

ALSO READ: Rabies Can Be Transmitted Through a Simple Scratch

Rabies in Bats

The CDC shared that the most common source of human rabies in the US is bats. Previous cases reveal that 17 out of 19 naturally acquired cases of human rabies in the country from 1997 to 2006 were from bats. Most of them had encountered bats indoors, wherein about four people said that a bat landed on them and one said that he awoke because he was bitten by a bat.

In some cases, people are unaware that bats carry rabies and end up dying because they were not able to seek medical care immediately. Meanwhile, young children may have not awoken when the bats bit them or they did not inform their parents or guardian.

In a separate article, CDC said that transmission of rabies can occur from minor to unrecognizable bites from bats. That is why handling them by untrained and unvaccinated individuals is strictly prohibited. They are also not recommended to be kept as pets.

If ever human rabies is caused by bats, the bat in question should be safely collected to be submitted for rabies diagnosis then the person exposed will be given rabies postexposure prophylaxis.



RELATED ARTICLE: French Man Dies From Rabies After Contracting Bat Virus



Check out more news and information on Rabies in Science Times.
Le president mexicain Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a multiplie les demandes de "pardon" aupres des peuples autochtones cette annee. Ici, lors d

Le president du Mexique Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a demande pardon, mardi, pour les "crimes d'Etat" commis envers un peuple autochtone originaire du nord du pays, les Yaquis. Ils vont beneficier d'un vaste plan d'investissements.





Un discours prononce plus d'un siecle apres les faits. Le president mexicain, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a demande mardi 28 septembre pardon pour les "crimes d'Etat" que ses predecesseurs ont commis envers les Yaquis, peuple autochtone originaire du nord du pays. En guise de compensation, le Mexique s'est engage a mettre en uvre un plan d'investissements en distribuant des terres et en garantissant l'acces a l'eau et a la securite sociale.





"Nous desirons vous demander pardon pour les crimes d'Etat commis a l'encontre de vos ancetres", a declare le president lors d'une ceremonie publique a Vicam dans l'Etat de Sonora (nord).





Le chef de l'Etat issu de la gauche mexicaine a rappele que les abus ont principalement eu lieu pendant la longue presidence de Porfirio Diaz (1876-1880, puis 1884-1911), consideree comme une dictature par certains historiens.





Le gouvernement mexicain s'est engage a mettre en uvre un "plan de justice" en faveur des Yaquis, qui comptent quelques dizaines de milliers de membres dans un pays de pres de 128 millions d'habitants.





Il s'agit de distribuer des terres, garantir le droit a l'eau et a la securite sociale, a rappele le president mexicain.





Le plan prevoit un investissement de 11,6 milliards de pesos (488 millions d'euros), a avance Adelfo Regino Montes, directeur de l'Institut national des peuples indigenes.





"Il s'agit de nous rendre ce qui nous est propre", a declare Jesus Patricio Varela, un representant des peuples yaquis, en evoquant "les territoires dont nous avons ete spolies" et la "dignite que l'on a voulu nous voler".





"L'Etat mexicain ne doit plus jamais permettre la marginalisation, l'abus ni les injustices envers les Yaquis ni envers n'importe quelque autre groupe ethnique ou culturel de notre pays", a conclu le president mexicain.





Les peuples yaquis, regroupes en huit communautes, se battent pour la defense de leurs territoires et leurs coutumes depuis l'arrivee des Conquistadors espagnols au debut du XVIe siecle.





L'annee 2021 marque un double anniversaire largement commemore au Mexique : les 500 ans de la conquete de Mexico par Hernan Cortes et le bicentenaire de l'independance du pays.




On a recent August day, Leti Luna noticed that her cat Henry wasnt his usual self. The 11-year-old feline had suffered from hyperthyroidism for some time, and his medications had done a decent job of maintaining his quality of life. But suddenly, it was clear that Henrys health was tanking.

Luna rushed Henry to his usual veterinarian less than two blocks away from home, but the vet was overwhelmed with other patients and couldnt see Henry. Desperate for help, Luna, president of Gunters Legacy Animal Shelter in Vallejo, drove to an emergency pet clinic in Cordelia, where she was told it would be a three-hour wait.

By the time Henry was let into the clinic, it was too late.

They told me the best decision was to let him go, Luna said. It was frustrating to say the least.

The frantic search for emergency veterinary care has in recent months become a familiar process for Luna and other animal shelter administrators across the Bay Area and throughout the country.

Its been one adventure after another trying to get these dogs into emergency centers when they have emergencies, and were not the only ones, she said.

Pet owners across the region say they are frustrated and concerned about a worsening shortage of available pet care providers, especially in time-sensitive emergencies. Many have taken to social media to chronicle their distressing experiences trying to find care for their beloved companions, describing long trips to distant cities and nightmare wait times, sometimes upward of six hours.

For many, the anxiety was fueled in early September by San Francisco SPCAs announcement that it would shut down or reduce emergency care hours at its two locations in the city, citing staff shortages. Effective Sept. 13, emergency services would be discontinued at the Pacific Heights hospital, which previously offered 24/7 emergency care. The Mission hospital would shorten emergency hours to 8 a.m. to noon every day, from its previous 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule.

Those kinds of changes  and the ensuing challenges that pet owners and shelter administrators are facing  are the result of a mix of circumstances, including COVID-19, that in the past couple of years have wreaked havoc on an already stressed and short-handed veterinary industry, according to area vets.

We wanted to keep both of those services open but we were just inundated, said Jennifer Scarlett, president of SFSPCA. The team is just chronically stretched to the point where a lot of staff were having a huge amount of stress, and between that and the nursing and veterinary shortage ... we just couldnt staff it any longer.

Normally, SFSPCA might expect to have about 120 certified veterinary nurses on staff. These days, its two hospitals are operating about 20 to 30 nurses short. SAGE San Francisco  which was Animal Internal Medicine & Specialty Services, or AIMSS, until recently  is supposed to offer emergency services 24/7, but about 30% of the time, it cannot receive new patients overnight because of staffing shortages as it transitions from AIMSS to SAGE, said Beth Kollar, regional director at SAGE Veterinary Centers on the West Coast.

Many animal hospitals have stopped accepting new patients as they make their way through a backlog of appointments with fewer employees. Even for existing patients, the wait for a standard wellness appointment can be weeks, and for a specialist, up to a couple of months.

Both SFSPCA and SAGE, like many others, are relying on relief veterinarians from other locations to help fill shifts, but its not a sustainable model, Kollar said.

It is a lack of providers and theres no lever to pull on that, unfortunately, she said. I wish there was a way to suddenly increase the number of vets in the area, but theres not.

Vets are often having to triage during emergency care hours, giving preference to pets in more severe condition. Some animal hospitals will admit pets in life-threatening condition regardless of emergency hours or staffing levels.

Meanwhile, demand for veterinary services has soared, creating a perfect storm, Kollar said.

While pet adoptions across the country do not appear to have risen during the pandemic, overall pet ownership and the number of vet appointments booked have, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Working from home has allowed many pet owners to notice health issues in their animals that they may not have spotted otherwise, and they have scheduled 6.5% more appointments so far in 2021 than at this point last year, according to the AVMA.

Despite the increased demand, veterinarians say the shortage of care providers is really a symptom of underlying problems within the veterinary industry, and the still-raging pandemic has only exacerbated them.

COVID-19 has generated a host of challenges that have generally made vets less efficient, compounding the existing staff shortages. Curbside-pickup policies and an array of workflow changes forced by the pandemic mean that appointments take longer on average. Quarantining and contact tracing, paired with a newfound hypersensitivity to illness, have sometimes resulted in groups of vets and nurses having to take days off at a time. Previously, it was common for them to go to work when they were sick, Kollar said.

Some vets and nurses have taken breaks in their careers, needing to stay home as their children learned remotely. For those who have stayed in the field, burnout from a backlog of appointments and making up for absent staff has made work physically and emotionally draining.

Everyone is just working their tails off trying to take care of all these animals, Kollar said.

But even before the coronavirus arrived, many veterinarians were already struggling. According to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, vets and veterinary nurses suffer from relatively high rates of depression, anxiety and compassion fatigue. Female veterinarians were 3.5 times as likely, and male veterinarians 2.1 times as likely, to die from suicide as the general population.

Much of that stress, Kollar said, comes from the unique nature of the job and the people who choose to do it. Veterinarians care deeply about animals, and it can be especially difficult for them when they cannot treat a pet or when the owner is unable or unwilling to pay for treatment. They sometimes face harassment from pet owners frustrated about the price of treatment, and unlike doctors for humans, sometimes have to euthanize their patients.

Theres the stress of working long hours and then theres the stress of working long hours and not being able to serve people, Scarlett 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.

Turnover among vets in the United States stands at about 16%  twice that of physicians in medical practice. Turnover among veterinary nurses is at about 26%, according to the AVMA.

Veterinary medicine is tough, said Virginia Donohue, executive director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, which used to rely on SFSPCAs emergency clinics for the animals in its shelter and is now struggling to find replacements.

Its a tough, tough field to be in, but theyre essential, Donohue said. We really, really need them.

A 2020 study out of Banfield Pet Hospital, a national veterinary practice chain, predicted that a critical shortage of veterinarians could cause an estimated 75 million pets in the U.S. to lose access to veterinary care by 2030.

We have to do something about the way we work, Scarlett said. The level of mental illness, attrition and suicide in our profession cannot go on, so we have to think about: How do we create the future of work so that we stay in this field?

One possible solution could be veterinary telemedicine, Scarlett said. In California, per rules set by the states Veterinary Medical Board, vets can use telemedicine only to see an animal they have already seen in person within the past 12 months, and only for the condition for which that animal was originally seen.

But advocates, including Scarlett, argue that expanding it to serve more pets could benefit the animals, their owners and vets themselves by creating more opportunities for relatively quick appointments.

To help make up for its reduced emergency hours, SFSPCA partnered with a third-party vendor called Vet Triage, a video tele-triage service that connects pet owners to Vet Triage veterinarians. For a $50 fee, the vet can help the owner determine whether there is an emergency, or provide guidance for possible at-home care.

Until the vet shortage ends  This is not going to go away in a heartbeat, Scarlett warned  pet owners can take steps to reduce the chances of emergencies and be prepared in case there is one.

Be proactive, Kollar urged. Schedule wellness appointments weeks ahead of time and make a list of emergency care centers near your home. Keep your animals safe by hiding the kinds of things that most often land pets in the emergency room: chocolate, grapes and THC products, to name a few.

If you do have to take your pet to an emergency clinic, be ready for an hours-long wait. Bring a phone charger, food and something to keep you busy.

Its been a tough year and a half for everybody, and everyone here has been scrambling to keep up with everything, Kollar said. Know that everyone is doing the best they can.

Andy Picon is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon
Good morning, Bay Area. Its Wednesday, Sept. 29, and drag queens and condo owners are clashing in the latest San Francisco housing fight. Heres what you need to know to start your day.

After beloved San Francisco taqueria El Farolito was prevented from opening a 12th location in North Beach, a heated debate about the citys rules against chain stores has been intensifying.

A chain is defined as 11 or more locations worldwide, even if its a small, homegrown business. The rules for chain stores vary by neighborhood, with a few banning them altogether.

Despite its noble intentions, the laws have never really done what they set out to do, said San Francisco Realtor Pamela Mendelsohn. In some cases its kept out big chains, yes, but its also pushed out small local businesses simply because they have more than 11 locations. Thats not right.

Read more from Shwanika Narayan and Mallory Moench.

A housing fight with a twist

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Under a plan by owner Jimmy Consos, San Franciscos Grubstake Diner, which was a hangout for Harvey Milk and generations of drag queens and LGBT nightlife denizens, would be torn down for a proposed 21-unit apartment complex.

On Monday, prominent LGBT activists gathered in front of the diner with bullhorns  but not to rally against the condo development. Instead, they showed support because the plans would include a replica of the Grubstake on the ground floor. But the project faces strong opposition from nearby condo owners.

Read more from J.K. Dineen.

From Heather Knight: Supervisor Matt Haney, who is running for the California Assembly, said he is making building more housing of all types near jobs his priority. Is he a YIMBY?

Around the Bay

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

 Vet deficit: Pet owners across the Bay Area are expressing concern and frustration over the increasing shortage of available pet care providers.

 Encountering hate: A new UC Berkeley study finds that many Muslims in the U.S., especially women, experience Islamophobia. Also: Risk of dementia is 73% higher for people with these symptoms in early adulthood, UCSF study says.

 California drought: Wine growers can still make great wine even with limited water supply and droughts. Also: This is how much Bay Area water districts saved this year compared with the state average.

 End of mask mandate? San Franciscos strict indoor mask mandate could ease in the near future, but its unclear when.

 Combating retail theft: S.F. sheriffs deputies could soon be eligible to work part-time as security guards for private businesses under new legislation. Also: Longtime S.F. City Attorney Dennis Herrera was unanimously approved as the new head of the Public Utilities Commission.

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.

 Two decades imprisoned: San Francisco supervisors approved an $8 million settlement Tuesday for a man wrongfully convicted of murder.

 Stars and snubs: The Michelin Guide just announced which Bay Area restaurants received coveted Michelin stars. Heres who won, and who got skipped over. Also: The latest list of Bay Area restaurants that have permanently closed.

Santana just sold this Bay Area home

Courtesy of Blu Sky Films

Famed Bay Area musician Carlos Santana has sold his Tiburon home for more than $5 million.

The classic-meets-contemporary four-bedroom, three-bath home offers sweeping, dramatic views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. It also has a unique architectural highlight: an acoustic dome circular space with a microphone effect.

Annie Vainshtein takes you inside Santanas former abode.

Bay Briefing is written by Kellie Hwang and Anna Buchmann and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writers at anna.buchmann@sfchronicle.com and kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com.
Zainab Ramahi said she chose to attend UC Berkeley School of Law in 2016 because of its glowing reputation for social justice. Her father was less thrilled. He reminded her that Donald Trump was campaigning for the presidency and she was a Muslim woman.

Be vigilant about your surroundings, he counseled.

The paternal warning proved prescient.

During her years at UC Berkeley, Ramahi said she experienced aggressions both micro and macro. There were the students who used the small prayer room on campus as a general napping space, she said, trampling prayer rugs in the process. But what got to her more was hearing Islamophobic garbage from esteemed speakers invited to campus. One speaker, she recalled, called Palestinians animals.

That was so damaging to my soul, Ramahi said.

Her experiences are echoed by Muslims nationwide, especially Muslim women, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. The survey found that nearly 68% of Muslims in the United States have experienced bias, hate or exclusion  forms of Islamophobia.

For women, the numbers are especially staggering. Nearly 77% of Muslim women responded that they have faced some form of anti-Islamic prejudice, compared with 58.6% of men.

The survey also found that 93.7% of respondents said Islamophobia affects their emotional and mental well-being. Ramahi felt this daily, unable to shake a low-level fear that she might be deliberately run over while walking home from campus.

I dont know why, but that was always in the back of my mind, Ramahi said. And maybe I do know why. Maybe its because Muslims are constantly being talked about in this awful way. Theres this assumption that we are a threat to national security, that we are not indigenous to the United States.

Isra Wazna, a doctoral student at the California Institute of Integral Studies, can relate. Wazna immigrated to the Bay Area from Saudi Arabia in 2006.

Wazna told The Chronicle she had visited San Francisco as a child and always loved the beautiful vistas, the eclectic mix of people and especially the fog. Yet, as a young adult hijabi living in Berkeley, Wazna said she confronted Islamophobia routinely.

Its a place that is full of contradictions, she said.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

One of the scariest experiences involved a large pickup truck pulling dangerously close to her on Highway 17 and its driver rolling down the window to mimic a war cry. But Wazna also confronted more passive forms of bias, like the woman who expressed surprise at seeing her pet a cute dog since you guys think that dogs are dirty, to the questions she encountered whenever she attended events that werent specifically about Islam.

I couldnt get a breather, Wazna said. The last thing you expect to be asked is, Why are you here?

Then came the incident that made her reconsider wearing her hijab. It was night and she was on a local university campus with a friend. They had stopped to withdraw money from an ATM when they heard screeching tires. Waznas friend screamed as a car pulled close to Wazna. The car pulled away, leaving Wazna and her friend both shaken.

For Wazna, it was a clear act of Islamophobia, but some she told suggested she misunderstood, which she said left her feeling gaslighted. She didnt report the incident to authorities. Neither did more than half of those surveyed.

The Othering & Belonging Institute, which surveyed 1,123 Muslim Americans in late 2020, found that 40% of respondents have tried to hide their religious identity, while 91.8% of women censor their speech or actions out of fear of how people might respond or react to them.

Elsadig Elsheikh, director of the institutes Global Justice program, said this results in Muslims being afraid to connect with other Muslims. He attributed this to the element of suspicion injected into daily Muslim life after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when the FBI teamed with local law enforcement agencies to surveil Muslim communities, leaving many to think maybe its better for me not to have a connection with people that I dont know.

For him, it was one of the surveys sadder findings.

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.

Elsheikh hoped the survey would help Muslims realize they are not alone, but also enlighten the broader public about Islamophobia, where it comes from and how to combat it.

We need to expose and reject the logic of laws and legal affiliations that aim to single out Muslims and use them as a scapegoat for our own political, social and economic challenges and failures, he said. We really need to think about the visibility of Muslims in our media because that will help us to prevent normalizing fear and alienation of Muslims.

As a teenager attending high school in Canada, Ramahi took it upon herself to give talks about being Muslim. Shed speak at school assemblies and continued into college.

I just poured so much energy into proving that Muslims were deserving of being your neighbor and deserving of being dealt with kindly like anyone else, she said.

Now, fresh from clerking for a Ninth Circuit judge and ready to start a job at a San Francisco law firm, Ramahi laughs at how her earnest younger self tried to solve the systemic nature of Islamophobia.

While ignorant comments still bother her, Ramahi said she is more outraged by institutional acts of Islamophobia. In this category she includes her alma maters appointment of former U.S. Department of Justice attorney John Yoo to the position of Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law.

While serving in the George W. Bush administration, Yoo authored a legal rationale that came to be known as the torture memos because they exempted the U.S. from following the Geneva Conventions with detainees, clearing the path for waterboarding and other abuses. President Barack Obama later rescinded the memorandum through an executive order.

What really truly bothers me is a continuing ... state of acquiescence, Ramahi said. Lets have the endowed chair position go to this person whose legacy is horrific. That to me, as a Muslim, moving in that space is a reminder that my body is not as important as other bodies.

Deepa Fernandes is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: deepa.fernandes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @deepafern
San Francisco prosecutors charged a man with robbery and attempted robbery along with hate crime allegations on Tuesday, saying he targeted Asian women in a string of racially motivated crimes over the past six months.

OSean Garcia, 20, is facing four counts of felony robbery with hate crime allegations and three counts of felony attempted robbery with hate crime allegations in connection with seven separate crimes against Asian women, many of whom are monolingual Cantonese-speakers, district attorneys officials said.

Garcia was booked into San Francisco County Jail on Sept. 22 and scheduled for arraignment on Tuesday.

Deputy Public Defender Christopher Fox-Lent said in a statement to The Chronicle that public defenders just started representing Garcia, adding that its very early in the process.

Fox-Lent said that public defenders have not seen any evidence of racial animus or motivation related to this case. Garcia has denied involvement in the robberies, Fox-Lent said.

The charges come amid a surge of anti-Asian violence in the Bay Area and in the United States. Reports of violent attacks of Asian Americans have been recorded in San Francisco, Oakland and other cities in the Bay Area.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a statement Tuesday that We do not tolerate hate or violence in San Francisco, and those who commit violence or target our AAPI community members will be held accountable.

District attorneys officials said three of the seven crimes occurred on March 13, when authorities said Garcia robbed one woman and attempted to rob two other women. At around 7:30 p.m. that day, district attorneys officials said, a 40-year-old woman was pulled to the ground by one suspect outside of her home while another suspect helped take her backpack. About an hour later at 8:30 p.m., authorities said, an 18-year-old woman was walking home when a man ran up to her and tried to take her bag, but the woman pepper-sprayed the mans face, prompting him to let go of the bag and run away. At 9 p.m., authorities said, a suspect demanded that a 29-year-old woman give him her backpack and tried to take the bag, but the man ultimately gave up as she held onto it tightly. District attorneys officials said a red sedan was involved in these incidents.

On March 20, authorities said, two men grabbed the purse of a 52-year-old woman, pushing her to the ground and dragging her before taking her purse and driving away from the scene.

On the morning of August 5, district attorneys officials said, Garcia robbed two women within 10 minutes of each other. At 10:20 a.m., a 36-year-old woman was on her driveway when she reported feeling someone grab her backpack. Authorities said the woman dropped to the ground and screamed, prompting her mother to come out and yell at the two suspects, who drove away from the scene. Minutes later, district attorneys officials said, a 61-year-old woman was returning to her home when a suspect came up behind her and grabbed her bag from her hands.

On Sept. 21, district attorneys officials said, a 27 year-old woman was getting out of her car shortly before 6 p.m. when a suspect robbed her backpack.

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.

District attorneys officials said police used the the laptop in her stolen backpack to track and locate Garcia.

We know the pain that crimes like this can cause to the broader community; these attacks against Asian women occurred during a time when many in the AAPI community across the nation have felt especially vulnerable, Boudin said. We condemn these crimes and we will continue to work to protect the AAPI community and keep everyone safe.

Boudin urged Asian American and Pacific Islander residents, particularly older adults, to reach out for support if they feel unsafe and to learn about Self Help for the Elderlys escort program, which pairs residents with escorts to medical appointments, banks, grocery stores, laundromats and other activities.

Anyone who witnesses or is a victim of a hate crime should call the district attorneys office hate crime hotline at 628-652-4311.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez
Hayes Valley thought it had banned chain stores. Since 2004, the newly redeveloped shopping district, once shadowed by freeways and now dotted with boutiques, has barred the arrival of chains with more than 11 outlets.

That 11-store limit provides room for corporate giants such as Gap Inc. and well-funded startups including Warby Parker, Allbirds and Madison Reed to wiggle through. Now, even Trader Joes is slated to come to the neighborhood, having received a special exemption from the ban.

Why are they working hard to get into Hayes Valley, and how are they getting into a neighborhood that ostensibly bans what is officially known as formula retail?

Trader Joes took advantage of local politicians hunger for a grocery store, gaining Supervisor Vallie Browns support for a one-off exemption, which the full Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday.

Im definitely a supporter of what the neighborhood wants, Brown said, adding that the chain store ban has made Hayes Valley distinctive. But theyve also wanted an affordable grocery store.

Gap Inc. is another recent corporate infiltrator. It got around the chain-store policy by setting up a subsidiary, Hill City, that operates separately from its well-known Gap brand. The 500-square-foot store, which carries menswear, is the first location for Hill City  which means its well under the limit of 11 stores. Even though Hill City is owned by a chain, its not considered one under city rules.

When considering what is a chain, San Francisco takes into account whether standard looks apply to merchandise, facades, color schemes, signage, worker dress and decor. Stores with multiple locations and a recognizable look  like a Walgreens, Safeway or Macys  will constitute a chain.

The rules apply to tangible things like color scheme, the physicality of a store, the sameness of it, said Daniel Sider, director of executive programs at the citys Planning Department. The ownership or stock structure of a business, thats not something the code contemplates.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Other chains have found different loopholes.

Gant Rugger, a Swedish clothing store with many locations, opened in Hayes Valley in 2013. It was able to slip through because the zoning code did not address international chains. The store closed this year.

After Gant came in, we closed that loophole by making amendments to the code, Brown said. Now theres (Hill City). Everyone figures out a way around it.

An amendment to the code in 2014 addressed international chains. Yet another clothing chain, Canadas Kit and Ace, opened in the neighborhood in 2015. It was strongly opposed by the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, but the retailer went to the Planning Commission for approval and gained the go-ahead to open a store. It abruptly closed two years later.

San Francisco enacted its ban on chain stores in 2004 through a series of laws and a ballot measure. Hayes Valley, Chinatown and North Beach have a broad ban on chain stores, while some other neighborhoods observe a partial ban (Upper Fillmore, Taraval Street and the Mission District, for example, do not allow chain restaurants). The Board of Supervisors approves local zoning rules.

Proponents say banning chains preserves a shopping districts character by favoring small, local businesses. They say rents stay lower, too, if chain stores, which may have deeper pockets, stay out. Opponents point to the host of empty storefronts in San Francisco and say chains could help fill them.

Asking rents in Hayes Valley, on the main retail corridor, range from $75 to $150 a square foot. Thats typical for a neighborhood shopping district and much lower than Union Square, home of many high-end chain retailers, where rents are $150 to $650 a square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

For Hayes Valley, the chain-store ban has been a help, said Gail Baugh, president emeritus of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association.

Its the reason Hayes Valley is what it is today  a great shopping district with unique stores, she said.

But Ramiz Yousef, whose family owns Nabilas Naturals, a local grocery store thats been in Hayes Valley for 24 years, is disheartened to learn about Trader Joes impending arrival.

I cant compete with Trader Joes, Yousef said. Im shocked that city officials are catering to big corporations like them. This defeats the whole purpose of the ban. He said hes proud of how Hayes Valley has evolved with one-of-a-kind stores; back when he opened, he said, it was a dangerous place.

The neighborhood used to be blighted and seedy. Part of its retail corridor stood under the shade of the Central Freeway, built in the late 1960s, where drug deals, prostitution and crime were rampant, according to former longtime resident Madeline Behrens-Brigham, who lived in Hayes Valley for 30 years and ran a collectibles store, Modernology, in the early 1990s.

We seemed to attract independent folks who couldnt afford rents in other neighborhoods, said Behrens-Brigham, who retired to Santa Rosa.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Things changed after the freeway was torn down after severe damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

As the street became more pedestrian-friendly, the neighborhood quickly became a shopping destination with distinctive stores and trendy restaurants. Being near the performing arts venues of Civic Center helped. Longtime residents tend to be working-class immigrant families and elders who usually live in subsidized housing, while many newer residents are younger tech workers drawn to jobs at companies that have moved to Mid-Market, according to the neighborhood association.

Now, lots of high-end stores want space in Hayes Valley. Only 3% of its stores are empty, according to CoStar, a real estate data firm. In comparison, North Beach has a vacancy rate of almost 20%.

And so retailers are trying to elbow their way in, regardless of the ban.

Stores that sell mostly online but are branching into physical stores are using Hayes Valley as an early testing ground, before they get too big for the 11-store limit. New York eyeglass company Warby Parker, San Francisco shoe company Allbirds and salon operator Madison Reed opened outposts in Hayes Valley well before that point. Warby Parker now has more than 100 locations, Allbirds has more than 11, and Madison Reed plans to expand nationally with 600 salons. As long as they start out in Hayes Valley, though, they are grandfathered in.

The nonstop arrival of chain stores, or soon-to-be chain stores, has left some in the community questioning whether the ban is serving its intended purpose  keeping large companies out and small businesses in.

Whos advocating for small businesses these days? Yousef asked. When you bring in a Trader Joes, whats to stop other chains from coming in? And why are we picking which chains to let in and which ones to turn down?

Lloyd Silverstein, who runs the neighborhood associations merchant group, said that the ban increasingly seemed unenforceable, and its time to look at other options  such as keeping the ban on Hayes but lifting it for streets branching off the main drag. Silverstein owns Optical Underground, an eyeglass business thats been in his family for almost a century.

While I think its a noble cause, the ban we have now doesnt work because theres too many ways around it, he said.

Shwanika Narayan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @shwanika
Oaklands homicide rate increased at about the same rate as that of major U.S. cities overall in 2020. But so far in 2021, homicides are spiking in the city at a much higher rate than most other cities.

Thats according to preliminary data for 2021 collected by the consulting firm AH Datalytics, plus data released by the FBI on Monday as part of its 2020 Uniform Crime Report. The report shows that homicides were up by around 29% nationwide last year compared with 2019. Its the biggest single-year change since record-keeping began in 1960. And in cities with more than 250,000 residents that reported data, the FBI said murders rose by more than 35%. The FBI defines murder as the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.

The Chronicles analysis looked at data on homicides for the 20 largest U.S. cities  which include the Bay Areas two largest, San Francisco and San Jose  and added Oakland, the bays third-biggest city. From 2019 to 2020, homicides increased in all of these cities. The increases ranged from 9% in Jacksonville, Fla., to 115% in Columbus, Ohio.

Oaklands homicide rate increased by 31%  a large increase, but still less than the overall national change of 35% among the largest cities with 250,000 people or more that reported full data. Homicides in San Jose and San Francisco increased by 25% and 20% respectively, significantly smaller increases than the overall figure.

Despite the homicide spike each city saw in 2020, none is close to reaching their record rates. All three cities homicide rates peaked in the early 1990s, and have largely declined since then.

Even in Oakland, which saw the most significant rise, homicide rates are lower than they were in the 1990s and in a handful of years in the 2000s. Thats in keeping with national trends; the rate nationwide was about 6.5 per 100,000 people last year, about 40% lower than it was in the 1980s and 90s. (Californias homicide rate for 2020 was 5.5 per 100,000.)

While most criminologists agree that the coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on crime trends nationwide  and the data shows this plainly  most agree the pandemic has disrupted normal life so thoroughly that its difficult to pinpoint the specific factors behind the changes.

Crime numbers fluctuate under normal circumstances, and the pandemic has been a highly unusual and challenging time, researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California wrote in April.

The researchers noted that crime overall has declined across major California cities during the pandemic, driven by steep drops in larceny thefts, robberies and rapes  likely because these are often crimes that require people to be in close proximity to one another. Meanwhile, crimes that didnt require proximity, like car thefts and commercial burglaries, went up.

The researchers also noted the troubling rise in homicides within these cities. While they wrote that its still too early to understand why this is happening, they theorized that the spike could be due to the economic stress the pandemic has placed on those already most vulnerable to violent crime.

Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, agreed that COVID-related economic stresses like rising unemployment and poverty have certainly contributed to the problem. But so has a large, documented increase in guns on the streets that law enforcement agents began noticing last spring. Additionally, increased tension between civilians and police has likely had some effect, he said, a theory supported by the fact that the biggest jump in homicides occurred last summer.

The FBI hasnt yet released data on 2021 homicides yet. Its Uniform Crime Report for a particular year gets published nine months into the following year, making it difficult to analyze crime statistics in a timely manner. To make matters more complicated, the agency is currently switching to a new data reporting system, which has caused delays in the agencys quarterly crime updates for this year.

But Ashers firm has developed a tracker that draws data directly from local law enforcement agencies to compare homicides in 2021 to 2020 across major cities.

According to this tracker, nationwide homicides are up again 9.7% in 2021 so far, compared with 2020. Homicides are up by 9% in both San Francisco and San Jose, about on par with the national picture.

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.

Oaklands toll, however, has skyrocketed this year: The citys year-to-date homicide count as of Sept. 19 was 94, a 45% increase from the same period in 2020.

Its not yet clear exactly why Oakland has seen such a disproportionate spike in homicides over the pandemic. Antoine Towers, chair of Oaklands Violence Prevention Coalition, previously told The Chronicle that pandemic-era stressors like loss of income and rising substance abuse could have led to more killings.

Other community leaders and members of law enforcement have pointed to the shutting down of community spaces, like schools, that disproportionately impacted young people of color, who are most at risk of being involved in shootings in the city.

Oakland is also dealing with an influx of guns, which are used in a majority of the citys homicides. Oakland police recovered significantly more firearms through July 2020 than they did over the same period in 2019.

The deaths in Oakland have not been distributed equally across the city. An earlier Chronicle analysis found that areas of East Oakland, where the majority of the population is Black or Latino, have seen the largest spike in homicides.

Susie Neilson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: susie.neilson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susieneilson
Councilmember Loren Taylor, a third-generation Oaklander who represents part of East Oakland, said Wednesday he plans to run for mayor in next years election, making him the first candidate to enter the race.

Taylor said he filed papers Wednesday declaring his intent to run in the November 2022 election as current-Mayor Libby Schaaf completes her second term and is termed out of office.

As an Oakland kid, this is my town, this is my city, Taylor told The Chronicle. There is no waiting for Superman. There is no waiting for somebody else to come save us. I need to step up and take control of our city in the way that its needed in partnership with the community.

In 2018, Taylor beat 16-year incumbent Desley Brooks to take over the District Six seat of East Oakland. Taylor was backed by Schaaf, who met him when he served as president of the parent-teacher association at the elementary school their children attended.

Schaaf said she has not yet endorsed a candidate, but will at the appropriate time.

Ive been a huge fan of many of our councilmembers, Schaaf told The Chronicle on Wednesday at a news conference on teacher housing. The next mayor of Oakland is so important for continuing my values, my work. I am born and raised here. Im raising my children here, my parents are aging here. I care about this city more than anything.

Taylors run for mayor comes as the city confronts numerous crises. A spike in homicides, rising homelessness and a declining housing affordability are all likely to be top of mind as residents vote for their next leader. Taylor said he wants to move the needle and not just tread water on public safety, homelessness and affordable housing.

Last weekend, Oakland reached the tragic milestone of 102 homicides for the year. City leaders have fiercely debated how to stop the violence. In June, the City Council voted against a plan proposed by Taylor and two other councilmembers to add a fifth police academy in the citys two-year budget, saying that more officers wouldnt make the city safer.

Taylor and Council Member Treva Reid both voted against the budget, arguing that crime disproportionately impacted their constituents in parts of East Oakland. At the time, Taylor, who was also a co-chair of the Reimagine Public Safety Task Force, criticized the decision and said it ignores those impacted by gun violence.

Some councilmembers and residents have argued that more resources need to be invested in violence prevention and social services, including mental health services, parks, libraries and other programs.

Last week, the City Council approved a proposal, introduced by Councilmember Sheng Thao, to add a fifth police academy to the city budget amid escalating violence. In June, Taylor had proposed running three police academies in the first year of the city budget and one academy in the second year, but that proposal was rejected.

At the council meeting, Taylor spoke emotionally of going to the scene of a double homicide in his district, calling the situation heartbreaking. The victims were a mother and stepfather whose 8-year-old son witnessed the shooting, Taylor said.

The thing that stuck out to me was how this young boy, the same age as my son, (witnessed) this seriously traumatic, life-altering experience, Taylor told The Chronicle.

Taylor said he intends to hold police accountable as the department continues its 18th year under federal oversight. But he also wants to push for more police resources so that the city is not putting more lives at risk.

As the city confronts public safety concerns, homelessness is also top of mind. In 2019, the most recent figures available, Oakland had one of the highest two-year increases of any California city at 47%.

Last year, Taylor spearheaded the effort to pass a controversial policy that restricts homeless people living in encampments from sleeping in parks and near homes, businesses and schools but allows them to set up camp elsewhere.

At the time, advocates and homeless people said the policy criminalizes them and pushes them out of sight without providing opportunities for permanent or transitional housing. The city began enforcing the policy in January.

In addition, Taylor said hes worked with developers to ensure that new projects dont result in disproportionate displacement of Black and brown people. He said he wants to improve the permitting process and ease some requirements, like parking minimums, for affordable housing developments so that projects arent stalled.

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.

Taylor said he also plans to urge the city to disperse funds from impact fees more efficiently. He said hes absolutely committed to increasing impact fees to generate more affordable housing units.

Taylor pointed to his partnerships with community organizations, activists and other elected officials as one reason why hes fit for the job.

In August, Taylor announced that he worked with State Sen. Nancy Skinner to set aside $8 million in the state budget for small businesses in East Oakland. Earlier this year, he launched the ESO Ventures Program, a workforce development program that helps East Oakland entrepreneurs launch their businesses.

In July, Taylor voted to approve the citys terms for the As Howard Terminal ballpark against the teams wishes. At the council meeting, Taylor criticized the As.

If we were voting on the As and how they behave ... it would certainly be a no vote, he said. But we got to put Oakland first.

Taylor said he will support a ballpark deal that includes affordable housing, addresses seaport compatibility and traffic mitigation and a 25-year non-relocation agreement with the As.

Prior to running for council, Taylor worked as a biomedical engineer and management consultant. He met his wife in 2003 at an Oakland First Friday event, and the couple has an 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.

Its definitely exciting and nerve-racking, a little bit scary, Taylor said of running for mayor. Its all about moving Oakland forward. We need to come together as a city, and Im confident that I can pull Oakland together so we can address our tough problems.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Manresa Bread, the popular spin-off bakery from the Michelin-starred Manresa, is bringing its fresh-milled sourdough loaves and flaky croissants to Palo Alto.

The fourth location of the bakery will open in the former Mayfield Bakery space at Town & Country Village at 855 El Camino Real, according to the shopping centers website.

The team at Manresa Bread declined to comment but confirmed the opening.

Avery Ruzicka is the powerhouse behind Manresa Bread, which started in Los Gatos and now also has a second bakery in downtown Los Altos and an all-day cafe in Campbell. Its known for milling its own flour and using it to create top-notch naturally leavened baguettes and pastry classics like the kouign-amann (including a large Breton-style version the size of a cake) and ham and cheese brioche. Ruzicka has long played around with a range of grains, like einkorn loaves and hard red California wheat flour that go into the bakerys almond croissants.

The Campbell cafe offers the largest menu, with breakfast sandwiches in addition to baked goods. The space at Town & Country is relatively small, but its unclear whether it will be mainly pastries and bread or offer more menu items.

Ruzicka got her start as a food runner at Manresa in Los Gatos and worked her way up to head baker. She started selling bread and pastries at farmers markets before opening the first bakery in Los Gatos in 2015. It has grown tremendously since then, with national shipping in addition to the local bakeries. Food & Wine named Manresa Bread one of the countrys best 100 bakeries last year.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Manresa Bread is one of several new food tenants at Town & Country Village. Its opening next to Wildseed, the plant-based San Francisco favorite.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
Hospitals around the Bay Area will likely avoid the staff shortages and suspensions seen in other parts of the country as the states deadline arrives for health care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Under an order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom, all California health care workers must be fully vaccinated by Thursday. Unlike teachers, they do not have the option to test out of the vaccine requirement unless they get a medical or religious exemption.

We will continue to do what we can to make sure individuals get vaccinated, but this is a deadline we are watching closely and expect full compliance, said Dr. Tomas Aragon, the states public health officer. We cannot underscore enough that vaccinating health care workers is a key component of providing health care.

On Tuesday, the state also announced that workers at senior care facilities and those who provide in-home care must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Nov. 30.

Three of the Bay Areas largest providers  Sutter, UCSF and Stanford  said late last week that 95% or more of their workers are fully vaccinated ahead of the statewide mandate. A fourth, Kaiser, said 90% of its employees and 97% of its physicians are vaccinated.

Very few workers  3% or less, according to Stanford and UCSF  have sought or gotten religious or medical exemptions. All four providers required their health care workforce to get vaccinated even before the state mandate.

No large protests have broken out, as they did in New York state, where a vaccine mandate for health workers took effect on Monday. Still, as California hospitals struggle to retain staff after 18 relentless months of the pandemic, some feared it could hurt care in parts of the state.

While the importance of having all health care workers vaccinated is unquestioned, this is coming at a time when many hospitals are facing serious staffing shortages, said Jan Emerson-Shea, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association that represents more than 400 hospitals. Its hard to predict exactly how the vaccine mandate will play out  every hospital is implementing its own processes and procedures.

Californias overall vaccination rate is 59%, slightly higher than the 57% rate in the U.S. overall. However, the state Department of Public Health does not collect vaccination data for most health care settings  including a variety of outpatient clinics  although it does for nursing home staff.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

The state order does not spell out consequences for unvaccinated health care workers who do not get a religious or medical exemption. But some hospitals have already established their own policies.

We dont think health systems will ignore the mandate, but we are seeing major variation in how exemptions are being granted, said Renee Saldana, spokesperson for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers. She advocated for a more transparent, fair process for evaluating exemptions as the state order leaves much of it in the hands of employers.

At Stanford Medical Center, where over 90% of SEIU-UHW members are vaccinated, Saldana said management has been very open to meeting with the union and collaborating on a vaccination campaign to reach holdouts.

Some facilities in parts of the state where overall vaccination rates are lower also intend to heed the requirement.

Dr. Caroline Connor, a board member with the Humboldt-Del Norte County Medical Society, which represents over 200 physicians in rural Northern California, said although hospitals in the region were already dealing with significant issues before the deadline, that would not deter them from enforcing the mandate.

Staff who do not vaccinate will be put on temporary leave, she said.

Low vaccination rates in the general population allowed the delta variant to rip through Humboldt and Del Norte counties over the summer and strain already-limited resources, said Dr. Stephanie Dittmer, a family physician at Humboldt Medical Group.

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.

We are worried about how the mandate is going to affect our staffing, she said, noting that while most doctors are vaccinated, uptake has been lower for nurses, technicians, cooks and other workers.

But Dittmer added that despite the bumps the mandate could cause in the immediate future, theres no point in delaying it.

In Solano County, which has the lowest vaccination rate in the Bay Area with about 66% of the countys eligible population fully vaccinated, the public health administrator said vaccination rates for health care workers are similar to other nearby counties.

We have discussed this issue with health care partners, and it isnt anticipated that Solano County will lose health care workers due to the vaccine mandate, said Jayleen Richards.

The Biden administration also will require the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid to be fully vaccinated under a rule still in the works.

We will continue to do what we can to make sure individuals get vaccinated, but this is a deadline we are watching closely and expect full compliance, Aragon said. We cannot underscore enough that vaccinating health care workers is a key component of providing health care.

Chronicle staff writer Catherine Ho contributed to this report.

Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
ROSWELL, N.M. (AP)  A manhunt for a Texas homicide suspect ended Tuesday in rural southeastern New Mexico when ranchers detained the man at gunpoint and handed him over to sheriff's deputies, a sheriff's official said.

Kionne Devaughn Lewis, 29, of Midland was found about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Roswell in an area where officers had searched for Lewis late Monday after he abandoned his vehicle, officials said.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  Two people have been charged in the death of a woman whose body was found inside her home in North Carolina, police said.

Winston-Salem police said in a news release on Monday that officers responded to a home that morning to check on Michele Ruth Lowder, 45, after she failed to show up for work. When officers arrived, they found Lowder dead inside.
Regarding Lawmakers delay imperils bullet train (Front Page, Sept. 27): Cringing from the California High-Speed Rail Authoritys choosing a longer roundabout route and eschewing global rail expertise, California and the United States still need to jump start bullet trains  as economic, environmental and transportation investments.

With project costs swelling from the original $33 billion to todays $100 billion, some humility is not too late. In 2010, the rail authority rebuffed the French national railways recommendations for a beeline, north-south route along Interstate 5, connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles  as well as partnering with the French or other foreign rail operators to control costs. Japan, Spain, France, Germany and Italy have proven track records.

Chinas Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line (around 818 miles long) was constructed in 38 months, with modular track systems, advanced bridge and tunneling technology, costing almost $35 billion. Attracting private investors, a mandate of the rail authority bond measure, requires superior expertise, cost management and a profitable route. A new American exceptionalism requires conducting a symphony of global instruments.

Howard Wong, San Francisco

Shots are common sense

Regarding, Citing religion, 193 on police staff request shot exemptions (Front Page, Sept. 27): I generally have great respect for the police who face deadly hazards in their occupation. To cite religion as a reason for refusing a vaccination, however, suggests that these 193 police persons have put some form of alternate thinking in place of common sense. The only reason that I can see for ignoring a common, scientifically accepted, protection against serious illness, and the societal responsibility that it encompasses, is that these police have allowed politics to interfere with their performance.

This is unacceptable. They should find other employment in which their religious beliefs do not compromise the community. Perhaps these 193 could share the religious bases for their refusals to be vaccinated.

William Rosenberg, Kings Mountain,

San Mateo County

Religion not an excuse

I find the claim of religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine or even providing ones vaccine status from members of city departments not only disappointing but frankly absurd. What religion is opposed to such standard medical practice and on what grounds? Since these departments interact directly with the public, they are among those entitled even to booster injections, and should not be granted exemptions that pose a risk to the public. To accept any claim without reason, support or documentation is inappropriate. If such department members refuse vaccination, they are a hazard to the public and should be terminated. If this results in a substantial exit of department members, so be it. Notifying prospective department members that vaccination is required will avoid this problem in the future. The claim of this exemption is suspect on its face, and the loss of those making the claim may improve the quality of department staff.

Walter Mosley, San Francisco

Idaho stops are risky

Car drivers conflicting opinions about which car arrived first at a four-way stop create enough potentially volatile situations as it is should one car end up being T-boned after thinking they arrived first, or were on the right and arrived at the same/ahead of time as the one on the left.

A cyclist not stopping at all hugely increases the potential for accidents due to the absence of a complete stop to use as a visual standard for each to rely upon. The car on the left, arriving two seconds before the one on the right, currently has the right of way. A cyclist in motion would likely have less ability and/or perceived need under the Idaho stop law to make the fine visual and timing judgment of the right of way in such a situation  a recipe for disaster?
With state policy increasingly focused on boosting development to address the housing affordability crisis, California adopted measures Tuesday to combat discrimination in the housing market that supporters say is critical to ensuring the state not only builds enough homes but that everyone has access to them.

As part of a broad package of housing legislation, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than half a dozen bills to promote fairness and equity, including a requirement for local governments to consider racial integration in their development plans, a streamlined process for homeowners to remove historic racist restrictions from property deeds and new anti-bias training for real estate agents and appraisers.

Some communities have only built one sort of housing for one sort of person, Assembly Member Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, said. Its one thing to say we are not discriminating. Its a whole other thing to say we are dismantling discrimination.

Santiagos AB1304, which was among the bills Newsom signed Tuesday, has consequences for an ongoing process in which local governments must plan to meet ambitious state targets for new housing to accommodate population growth over the next eight years. It requires cities and counties, as part of that process, to analyze patterns of racial segregation in their communities and explain how their plans would address those disparities.

Doing so will force local governments to think about providing a range of housing options for the diverse populations of California, Santiago said. We want to make sure when were building, were building for everyone.

Two other bills target the unequal treatment that Black and Latino homeowners and buyers continue to face, which contributes to far lower rates of ownership than among white and Asian American Californians. During the pandemic real estate boom, Black homeowners in the Bay Area complained that they were shut out of favorable financing and major property gains because appraisers systematically undervalued their homes.

SB263 by state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park (Los Angeles), adds implicit bias training to the coursework for obtaining a real estate license. AB948 by Assembly Member Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, makes it illegal to base the market value of a property on factors including race, gender, religion, disability and sexual orientation of the homeowner or residents of the surrounding neighborhood. It also mandates cultural competency instruction for real estate appraisers and directs the state to collect demographic information in complaints of undervaluing.

Holden said his father worked on similar fair housing issues as a state legislator in the 1970s, a stark reminder that California must still do more to ensure opportunities for all people to have a roof over their heads.

It almost feels to some degree like this is Back to the Future, Holden said.

Newsom signed the measures during a visit Tuesday to a housing development in Oakland with a mix of market-rate and affordable units, which he praised as an opportunity to build trust and community.

I dont want to see people segmented in any way, shape or form, he said. I want people living together, advancing together, across every conceivable difference.

Other housing equity bills he signed include:

AB491 by Assembly Member Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, which requires mixed-income apartment buildings and condominiums to provide residents of affordable units equal access to entrances, common areas and amenities and prohibit developers from isolating all of the affordable units on one floor or in one section of the building.

AB1095 by Assembly Member Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, which gives more consideration to owner-occupied projects in state affordable housing programs, an effort to address the racial gap in home ownership.

AB721 by Assembly Member Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, which clarifies that 100% affordable housing projects can override size restrictions in property deeds and build as many units as local zoning allows, eliminating what Bloom says are the vestiges of racist historical efforts to keep multifamily housing out of certain neighborhoods.

One of the measures was inspired in part by an article written last year by Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips, about property deeds that still contain language prohibiting non-white people from buying them, decades after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled those type of racial covenants unenforceable.

AB1466 by Assembly Member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, makes it easier for homeowners to remove that language from their deeds and requires county recorders to set up programs to identify properties with racial covenants and proactively redact the deeds.

McCarty said the measure will provide a more comprehensive picture of where discriminatory policies existed that could inform future efforts to correct those past injustices.

This mapping will have significance for us as a state, he said.

The legislative housing package that Newsom signed Tuesday included an additional 20 bills addressing a wide range of development fees, affordability restrictions and programs to promote construction, including SB478 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, which would loosen local restrictions on square footage for small multifamily projects.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
A state school board association this week begged Gov. Gavin Newsom to order local law enforcement to protect education officials from assault and abuse as protesters increasingly lash out against pandemic policies and other issues.

In defiance of the law and their professional oath, officers have refused to enforce public health mandates or restrain those disrupting meetings in recent months, state school board leaders said.

We are increasingly witnessing active attempts to undermine the democratic process through intimidation, threats, and violence, said the California School Boards Association letter, sent on behalf of the 1,000 boards statewide. The hostile climate and reluctance of law enforcement to fulfill their duties, is putting school board members in unprecedented danger, it said.

The plea comes amid similar harassment across the country in recent months over school district policies, specifically regarding requirements for mask-wearing and vaccination, as well as classroom instruction on race or racism, including critical race theory.

On Thursday, a group representing school board members around the country similarly asked President Biden for federal help to investigate and stop threats over policies including mask mandates. The National School Boards Association likened the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism, saying parents and community members have been disrupting meetings and threatening board members in person, online and through the mail in a trend that merits attention from federal law enforcement agencies.

While in some places, including Oakland and San Francisco, raucous meetings are commonplace, public anger has exploded amid heated culture wars pent up in the pandemic and spilling over following a contentious election year.

Nazi salutes and we know where you live threats have infiltrated what typically have been sleepy school board meetings with plumbing problems or budget decisions on the agenda.

A simple scan of the news or conversations with school board trustees from any part of California will confirm that what we are seeing goes far beyond the normal, legal expression of First Amendment rights, which is to be encouraged and embraced, Vernon Billy, CEO and executive director of the California School Boards Association, wrote in the letter to Newsom.

In August, for example, five minutes into the first in-person meeting since the pandemic, the San Ramon school board adjourned as protesters shouted and called the elected officials cowards for supporting mask mandates.

In San Francisco, protesters frequently clashed with the board over the slow reopening of schools, but more specifically, two school board members were targeted in social media posts after voting to change the admission policy to academically elite Lowell High School. The post showed the faces of board members Gabriela Lopez and Alison Collins crossed off with Xs and swastikas on their foreheads, the image held by a bloody-gloved hand.

In Poway (San Diego County), anti-mask protesters forced their way into the school boards meeting room, even though the public was not allowed to attend in person because of health requirements, and refused to leave. They remained even after the meeting was called off, and conducting a mock election of new board members. The police did not remove them.

Its an exceptional situation for many of our school board members who havent experienced this level of hostility, said Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California school boards group. Theyre used to controversies, not the willful disruption of meetings that prevent them from conducting the business.

Disruptions across the country included one in Tennessee where protesters told the Williamson County board that masks deprive children of oxygen  health experts say thats not the case  and gave elected officials copies of the Bible, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution.

Board members and health experts were forced to flee, according to media reports, with parents yelling, We know who you are! You can leave freely, but we will find you!

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.

In California, calls for law enforcement to restore order during the melees or violations of health requirements have sometimes gone unheeded, Billy said.

He urged Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta to convince, command, or otherwise urge local law enforcement to uphold public health and safety orders, help maintain order at local school board meetings when requested, and enforce the law as they are sworn to do.

A spokesperson for the governors office said Newsom will work with the California School Boards Association to identify measures to protect school leaders and public servants.

Harassment and threats of violence against elected officials and educational leaders is unacceptable, according to the spokesperson.

Flint said the plea to state officials is not about silencing public input.

Free speech is absolutely to be encouraged and should not be squelched, Flint said. We want to preserve that while at the same time allow for the functioning of the school board, which is being derailed in a number of places.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Jilltucker
Mayor London Breed tapped Assembly Member David Chiu on Wednesday to be San Franciscos new city attorney, setting off a cascade of changes at the city and state level.

Chiu, who represents the eastern side of San Francisco, plans to take over Nov. 1 for longtime City Attorney Dennis Herrera. In a move that surprised many in City Hall this spring, Breed appointed Herrera to lead the citys Public Utilities Commission, an agency that has been roiled by a sweeping corruption scandal.

The SFPUCs previous director, Harlan Kelly, resigned Nov. 30 after the FBI charged him with accepting bribes from a city contractor and permit consultant.

Herrera, a fixture as city attorney for 20 years, will take the helm Nov. 1.

Coming back to City Hall will be a homecoming of sorts for Chiu, who is a former supervisor and board president.

In an interview Wednesday, Chiu  who will be San Franciscos first Asian American city attorney  said he was interested in the job because its one of the most impactful and interesting in San Francisco public service.

He traced his decision to enter public service back to a phone call he received during his freshman year in college about a group of Asian students being attacked on their way to a formal dance  a hate crime. That moment, he said, inspired him to become a student activist, and switch his major from biochemistry to government.

Ive been inspired by the fight for justice my entire life, said Chiu, a former public interest attorney. This opportunity is very much in line with my values and what Ive wanted to do with my career.

Chius appointment has been an open secret in City Hall for months, leading many to speculate about who would run to replace him in Sacramento. Even before Breed confirmed her nomination Wednesday, two prominent names in San Francisco politics already started plotting their runs.

David Campos, chief of staff to District Attorney Chesa Boudin and a former progressive supervisor, said he would run the the moment there is a vacancy. Chiu narrowly beat Campos for the seat in 2014.

Supervisor Matt Haney, who was elected to the board in 2018, confirmed his run to The Chronicle on Wednesday. If he wins, Breed will get to pick his replacement.

Of course, Chiu has to first officially leave his Assembly seat. Then, Gov. Gavin Newsom must call for a special election two weeks later. The election must be held between 126 and 140 days after that.

Chiu, who has represented Assembly District 17 since 2014, said he does not plan to endorse anyone for his seat at this time. He will have to quickly prove himself in San Francisco since hell have to potentially run to keep the city attorney position in the June 2022 primary or sooner.

The mayors decision to shift Herrera to the Public Utilities Commission has stirred things up in City Hall, where much of the focus has been on the pandemic for the last year and a half. Now the attention will turn to a flurry of campaigns and elections, which could test long-standing relationships and political allegiances in the small world of San Francisco politics.

Her appointment raised some concerns in City Hall, where some questioned the optics of the mayor appointing the leader of the City Attorneys Office  considering it has spent the past year and a half overseeing a wide-ranging City Hall corruption scandal.

When asked about how he would uphold the integrity of the positions, Chiu said, point-blank: The investigations will certainly continue.

The investigation was first made public in January 2020, when the U.S. Attorneys Office announced charges against former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru of fraud and lying to the FBI. Herrera said he launched his own separate investigation shortly before that announcement. Several department heads have resigned in the wake of the investigations.

At a news conference Wednesday, Herrera said, Our investigations continue, irrespective of whether Im in that office or not.

The new city attorney will continue to advise Mayor Breed about the best way to ensure that were living up to the truest and highest ethical ideals, he said. That work has not slowed down, it will not slow down, and it will continue.

Chiu reiterated he would remain independent. He pointed to his work in 2013 with Herrera on a number of of ethics reform proposals, which specifically targeted lobbyists and city contracting practices in the city.

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.

Clearly, more needs to be done, and from my perspective, the events of this past year have tarnished city government, he said. I will do whatever is necessary to continue to root out whatever corruption may continue to exist.

While in Sacramento, Chiu has served as the chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee and has worked on significant legislation, including limiting annual rent hikes for millions of Californians. Hes considered one of the most progressive members of the Assembly.

He will step into an office that has been nationally recognized under Herrera for its work on cases related to climate change, gun control, same-sex marriage and sanctuary policies.

Chiu previously served as a law clerk to Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has also worked as a criminal prosecutor at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and as a civil rights attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

Meanwhile, after months of negotiating his contract with the Public Utilities Commission, Herrera will now manage a department of 2,300 employees and an annual operating budget of about $700 million.

The agency manages contracts for water, power and sewer systems.

In a statement, Herrera said that he is confident hes leaving the office in good hands.

He said Chiu is committed to transparency and clean government. And he is independent. He is going to be a great city attorney.

Chiu, who lives in the Bayview, said it also will be nice not to have to commute to Sacramento several days a week.

Im really looking forward to being home with my family and in San Francisco, he said.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani
The former president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors illegally started construction at his Glen Park home without permits, the city ruled in April. Building inspectors are now investigating a second complaint filed last week alleging more work was done without permits.

Glen Park Association, a nonprofit neighborhood group, filed a complaint on Sept. 24 regarding 121 Moffitt St. after a member saw what appeared to be workers on the top story of the house without permits earlier this month.

The association also provided photos to The Chronicle that showed steel beams and a concrete foundation in the backyard dating to April, which led to a previous complaint. The city issued a notice of violation in April confirming illegal work.

The Department of Building Inspection received the new complaint last Friday and has opened an investigation, said Patrick Hannan, the department spokesman.

Marc Dickow, the 2020 president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, owns the home and denied any wrongdoing. He said an engineer had been conducting a soil analysis and he has filed for permits for the work and was fully cooperating with the city. Dickow said planned construction includes building a retaining wall to shore up the hill and to repair a leaking roof deck, not for renovations.

The Department of Building Inspection database shows a permit filed on Tuesday, Sept. 28, for a retaining wall with work valued at $10,000, meant to resolve Aprils notice of violation. Hannan said Dickow will be fined nine times the permit fee, which will be determined next week, for work without a permit.

Dickow blamed an unnamed, overzealous neighbor for the situation.

This is a neighborhood feud, he said. Someone in the neighborhood has problems, caused countless headaches, by filing complaints, including at other homes. Dickow declined to identify what other homes had been targeted.

Glen Park Association said it wasnt aware of any other buildings with complaints, but said numerous neighbors had complained about 121 Moffitt St.

The violation is the latest in a slew of building controversies that have included high-profile San Francisco residents and caused upheaval at the city agency.

School board member Alison Collins and her husband, developer Chris Collins, illegally merged two Russian Hill apartments into one mansion and did work without permits. The city is giving them until mid-October to resolve the issues.

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.

At 2869-2899 San Bruno Ave. in the Portola, developers including Yin Kwan Tam and Cindy Zhou Lee built 29 apartments in a building where only 10 units were allowed and violated other building laws. The plans were approved by former Senior Inspector Bernie Curran, who was accused of wire fraud by federal prosecutors last month.

Mayor London Breed issued an order two weeks ago to reform the department after it was engulfed in the Mohammed Nuru corruption scandal, resulting in the resignation of longtime DBI director Tom Hui last year.

Glen Park Association raised fears that violations could increase without city intervention.

The GPAs primary concern is that without clear enforcement and penalties for non-permitted construction, illegal activities will become increasingly commonplace in our neighborhood as they have been in others, the group said in a letter to the Department of Building Inspection.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
When affordable housing builder Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. first bid on the parking lot at Fifth and Howard back in 2007, there were plenty of reasons to think it was a crazy idea.

After all, at $12 million, the 32,000-square-foot parcel was expensive, and two well-capitalized condo developers were also chasing the property, bidding up the price. Furthermore, the Mayors Office of Housing didnt have the money to fund the development. Even if they were able to convince the city to fund the land acquisition, where would the money come from to construct it?

For TNDC executive director Don Falk, those were questions to be grappled with later. After all, how many chances do you get to buy a site smack in the middle of SoMa?

The Mayors Office of Housing had virtually no money but they had the vision and understanding to realize how important this project was, said Falk.

It took 13 years  and nearly as many false starts and dead ends  but on Thursday, Mayor London Breed joined developers and construction workers from Swinerton on the site to celebrate the start of construction of 203 apartments, which will be affordable to families earning between 75% and 120% of area median income, about $100,000 to $159,000 for a family of four people. The project is scheduled to open in the fall of 2023.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Breed emphasized that 40% of the residents would be picked from applicants living within one square mile of the site. She said she looked forward to welcoming the first residents to the building with a house key and gift basket.

There is nothing like seeing kids walk into their own bedroom and seeing that little bed made up with Smurf bedding  or whatever the kids are into these days, said Breed. Its going to put a smile on a lot of faces.

Even by the glacial standards of housing development in San Francisco, TNDCs efforts to build some affordable apartments at Fifth and Howard streets was excruciatingly slow. The project started when George W. Bush was president and Gov. Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco. The firm that TNDC originally partnered with, Citizens Housing, went belly up in the Great Recession.

TNDC brought in a new partner, Curtis Development, and spent years negotiating with four different market rate developers on a variety of mixed-income developments where high-end units would have subsidized the affordable ones. None of those deals came to fruition.

Meanwhile, South of Market transformed with an influx of tech workers and new offices and apartments to cater to them. Across Fifth Street street, an aqua-blue-and-white Intercontinental Hotel opened, lending the block a bit of a Miami vibe, while next door the Dugoni School of Dentistry built a campus. To the south, along the west side of Fifth Street, rose 463 swanky apartments with a French bakery and acai bowl spot downstairs, while to the north a new office building took shape.

The neighborhood building boom underscored the benefits of tying up land for future projects in a constrained market like San Francisco, according to Falk. The value of the Howard Street parking lot kept climbing  reaching $50 million at one point before the pandemic.

It shows the power of landbanking, said Falk. People criticize the fact that it takes so long but the other side of that is, imagine if we were buying the property right now?

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.

Meanwhile, San Francisco voters passed a $600 million affordable housing bond, which will pay off the project along with money from an array of other sources, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the California Housing Finance Agency Middle Income Program, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, and California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.

The long wait also paid off in other ways. The city upzoned the site from 80 feet to 300 feet, and it was also subdivided into two parcels, which will allow more housing. The 203-unit building will take up about 63% of the lot, leaving enough room for a second 30-story building with 240 units.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

For Rudy Corpuz, who grew up near the site and runs the SoMa youth organization United Playaz, the 203 units will help preserve whats left of what used to be a thriving neighborhood of predominantly Filipino immigrants.

We dont just want to have buildings named after Filipinos, we want the Filipino families to stay, be able to live and die in the community, he said. Over 200 units of affordable housing? Come on, man, you know that its needed here in San Francisco.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com
Longtime San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera was unanimously accepted as the new head of the Public Utilities Commission Tuesday, a move that will lead to a number of changes within City Hall.

The appointment has been a longtime coming: Mayor London Breed nominated Herrera to the position in April, after the agencys former chief, Harlan Kelly, resigned last year after the FBI charged him with accepting bribes from a city contractor and permit consultant.

After months of negotiations, the commission finally approved Herreras $395,000-a-year contract at Tuesdays meeting. In his new role, Herrera will manage a massive department with about 2,300 employees and an annual operating budget of about $700 million.

The agency manages contracts for water, power and sewer systems.

This is taking a little longer than I think we wanted to, but weve been diligent, Commissioner Tim Paulson said before the vote. I think its time to put this  into place, so that we have a general manager.

Now Herrera will step down from the City Attorneys office, which he has led since 2001. He will begin his new role Nov. 1.

I cant wait to roll up my sleeves and get to work for all of the SFPUCs ratepayers, Herrera said in a news release after the vote. Its an honor to have this unique opportunity to face the challenges of our time as the General Manager of the SFPUC.

In the meantime, Breed gets to choose a new city attorney. Her pick is widely expected to be Assembly Member David Chiu, and that announcement likely will come this week.

Two big names in San Francisco city politics are ready to fight for Chius vacant seat in Sacramento: current Supervisor Matt Haney and former Supervisor David Campos, whos now chief of staff to District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

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 Tuesdays vote, Breed said in a statement that she is glad the city can move forward with a new era for the SFPUC.

She said Herreras long track record of integrity and ethical leadership, as well as his experience leading on issues from civil rights to environmental protection to renewable energy, has demonstrated the type of leadership he will bring to this new role.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani
When owner Jimmy Consos proposed tearing down San Franciscos Grubstake Diner, it would be logical that the plan would spark outrage among the generations of drag queens and LGBTQ nightlife denizens who had gathered for decades in the fire truck red late-night lunch wagon near the intersection of Pine and Polk streets.

After all, the Grubstake was a hangout for Harvey Milk and was immortalized in the song The Golden Age of Hustlers by Bambi Lake. Until the 1990s it was the de facto clubhouse for the transgender street hustlers and the drag queens that performed at places like Kimos and Motherlode on Polk Street.

But on Monday, when prominent LGBTQ activists like Donna Sachet, Juanita MORE! and Gary Virginia gathered in front of the Grubstake with bullhorns, it was not to rally against Consos proposed eight-story development.

Rather, it was to support the development, which opponents have appealed to the Board of Supervisors.

I shouldnt be here today, you shouldnt be here, Sachet said. You know who should be here? U-Hauls and moving trucks, moving new people into new housing.

The support for the 21-unit project is driven by the fact that Consos plan would include a replica of the Grubstake on its ground floor. Some of the diners current funky interior would be preserved in the new space, including the globe lights, the small metal windows with stained-glass vents and the atmospheric murals. Other features  the red vinyl booths, the black-and-white checkered floors  would be replicated.

But while LGBTQ activists are backing the development, it faces strong opposition from homeowners in the 12-story Austin condo tower to the west. Residents there argue that the skinny eight-story structure  the lot is 25 feet wide and 120 feet deep  would wipe out the light and air for residents on the lower floors. The Austin owners have appealed the project, which the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to approve in July. The Board of Supervisors will hear the appeal on Oct. 5.

Attorney David Cincotta, who is representing the Austin condo owners, said the fight has nothing to do with the Grubstake.

No one on our side has ever said anything about not preserving the Grubstake, he said. Our only issue is with the building above the Grubstake.

Theresa Calderon, a software engineer who lives in a 630-square-foot studio on the fourth floor of the Austin, said she did her own analysis of the impact of the development on light. Currently her unit has a single east-facing window in the light-well that looks out at the Grubstake rooftop and beyond to Polk Gulch and Lower Nob Hill. If the replacement Grubstake is allowed she would lose 70% of her light and would be looking out at a white wall. Residents who face the light-well on the second floor will lose 99% of their light, she said.

A first-time homeowner who bought her unit for $700,000, Calderon said she was aware that Consos had submitted an application to erect a new building on the Grubstake site  like other buyers she signed a form saying she was aware of the development. But at the time the project was planning for six stories, not eight, and she said that the sales representative she dealt with told her it would be five floors. The developers were able to increase the height by two stories because of state density bonus laws that were not yet in place when the Austin opened in 2017.

I thought at five floors that the amount of light Id be losing wouldnt be too bad  as a first-time home buyer I didnt know that plans could change, she said. When I found out how tall it would be it really freaked me out. I dont think the planners really thought about the effects of this on our units.

She said that she would support a four-story building.

Meanwhile, Consos said the only way the Grubstake can survive is in a new building. While the current diner is beloved and has been celebrated on Check, Please! Bay Area and Guy Fieris Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, it is seriously dilapidated, with plumbing and electrical systems in need of replacement. It is also in violation of accessibility laws for people with disabilities.

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.

Consos said he has struggled to keep the building afloat during COVID as nightlife on Polk Street  which drives business  has not yet bounced back.

And while Austin residents see the Grubstake question as a sideshow the developers are using to distract from the environmental impact of the proposed building, LGBTQ activists say they support both the reincarnated diner and the 21 apartments.

Virginia said the Grubstake is one of the few late-night dining spots left after the demise of Sparkys Diner on Church Street in the Castro, and Its Tops at Market and Octavia.

Ive always felt welcomed and accepted at Grubstake as an openly gay man, as a long time AIDS survivor, and no matter what I was wearing  or not wearing, Virginia said. It has been a safe haven for minorities and alternative communities since it opened.

Sachet said the Grubstake was where drag queens would evaluate each others numbers over mounds of french fries after performing at Kimos.

We were always a rowdy group but they were always nice to us here, Sachet said. Late-night eating has never been easy to find.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
Three years ago, Supervisor Matt Haney trounced Sonja Trauss, co-founder of the YIMBY movement to build more housing everywhere, to win his seat representing District Six at San Franciscos City Hall.

In a debate, Haney questioned Trauss insistence that solving the citys dire housing crisis meant forcing every neighborhood to take on more housing units. He said hed focus on his district, which includes the Tenderloin and South of Market, not harangue others.

I am not going to pick fights on the other side of the city, he said. Im actually going to fight for all of you, the residents of District Six.

But now Haney has changed his housing tune, and for good reason. Hes making an open secret official. Hes running for state Assembly to replace David Chiu, widely expected to be named imminently by Mayor London Breed as city attorney. Chiu would take over from Dennis Herrera following his appointment to helm the Public Utilities Commission.

And in describing why he wants to head to Sacramento, Haney kind of sounds like, gasp, a YIMBY, the jab at NIMBYism that stands for Yes in My Backyard.

We have a housing crisis, a climate crisis and a homelessness crisis in our state, he said in an interview. When only a small set of areas are building housing or supportive housing services, its never going to solve the problem. Thats true in our city, and its even more true across the state.

He said building more housing near jobs will be his priority, helping to alleviate long, emissions-spewing car commutes and enabling more people to live in cities rather than wildfire-prone rural areas.

He backs the twin bills signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom  SB9 and SB10  to essentially eliminate single-family zoning throughout California and make it easier to build duplexes and small apartment buildings. He said the state needs to grow on that progress every year.

He supports the state taking stronger legal action against cities that dont meet their mandated housing requirements (San Francisco must build 80,000 more units by 2031), and he said he thinks the same idea could work for requiring cities to add more supportive services for homeless people and more mental health treatment beds.

Hes still the only supervisor to pledge support for Rafael Mandelmans legislation to allow fourplexes on any single-family lot in the city  or even just on corner lots.

And hes weighing in on projects outside his district, the same practice he dinged Trauss for in their race.

He supports the plan for a low-income housing complex in the Sunset District and the purchase of the Kimpton Buchanan Hotel in Japantown to turn it into permanent supportive housing for homeless people. Both are vehemently opposed by some neighbors.

Haney explained that he now has a deeper understanding that a supervisor must focus on local quality-of-life matters and push for housing and services to be added to all neighborhoods.

So is Haney that word that makes some wealthy homeowners who prize property values above all else shudder? Is he a YIMBY? He sounded surprised by the question, pausing and stumbling over his words before answering.

Ive never self-identified that way, but theres a lot I agree with from those folks, he said. Of course we need more housing of all types.

Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action, said it doesnt matter what Haney calls himself, but shes hopeful hes part of an increasing shift among progressives to adopt pro-housing viewpoints.

That is already starting to happen, and if he wants to be part of that evolution, thats great, she said.

Theres another label that makes Haney even more uncomfortable. Some political insiders speculate hes positioning himself more toward the moderate side of San Franciscos extremely narrow political spectrum in his bid for state Assembly. After all, his best-known competition is true-blue progressive David Campos, the former supervisor whos now chief of staff for District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Their other opponents are Bilal Mahmood, a scientist and startup founder, and City College of San Francisco board trustee Thea Selby, who owns a marketing firm and is a public transit supporter.

Haneys political consultant is Ace Smith, who has long worked for the citys more middle-of-the-road politicians including Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

While Haney didnt disavow the YIMBY label, he swears hes not a moderate  not even a little bit. His answer may have broken a record for the number of times it included the word progressive, and he cited a range of policies as proof: backing the operation and purchase of shelter-in-place hotels, championing the nations first tax on CEO pay, and introducing legislation urging the mayor to declare an emergency on drug overdoses and open the nations first safe consumption site.

He also pointed to practical improvements that are also progressive  like adding more Big Belly trash cans, more Pit Stop public toilets, more bike lanes and lower speed limits in the Tenderloin to make the neighborhood cleaner and safer for the residents often ignored by City Hall.

The 39-year-old said hell be the rare tenant who doesnt own a car to work in the Sacramento Legislature. He rents an apartment on Hyde Street and plans to commute on Amtrak.

I think our politics in San Francisco can often be more about what team youre on, and I think in Sacramento it has to be about what you can do, he 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.

If Haney wins, his legislative aide, Honey Mahogany, plans to run for his seat. She would be San Franciscos first transgender and first drag queen supervisor. Shes also an enthusiastic backer of her boss Assembly run.

Matt Haney is among the most brilliant and effective elected officials Ive ever met, she said. I know how hard he works to create positive change for our community.

I asked Haney a series of questions to get a sense of where he stands politically as he enters the assembly race. Car-free streets? He supports the Great Highway and JFK Drive becoming permanently car-free and wants more like them. High-speed rail? He wants to help get it, well, back on track after legislators ended their session without approving $4.2 billion in bonds to continue building it.

The El Farolito burrito shop brouhaha? He wants the board to introduce a ballot measure giving supervisors the power to tweak chain store controls rather than take them before voters each time. The school board recall? He will vote to recall Alison Collins, but not Gabriela Lopez or Faauuga Moliga, saying Collins anti-Asian tweets and $87 million lawsuit are not reflective of somebody who should be governing our schools.

He wants to continue to push for changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, a state law thats sometimes used to stop housing and transit projects. That includes making it harder for one person to stop emergency transit improvements, legislation he pushed with Breed, but which stalled at the board. Hell also take up Chius unsuccessful quest to get state approval for San Francisco to implement automated speed enforcement to slow traffic.

While Haney is widely described as friendly and likable, some of his colleagues on the board dont like what they view as his tendency to say what people want to hear and his short attention span. Mandelman, for example, said he appreciates Haneys tepid support of his fourplex legislation, but said he hasnt actually co-sponsored it or even had a meaningful discussion with him about it.

Im not going into battle with Matt Haney by my side on this and, frankly, were going to have to do a lot more than fourplexes, Mandelman said. Hes pleasant, and that goes a long way, because not all of my colleagues are pleasant. Hes very good at letting you believe he agrees with you.

Mandelman and five other supervisors are endorsing Campos. Just Shamann Walton has so far signed on for Haney. Mandelman called Campos a straight shooter.

The local YIMBY chapter is also torn in its endorsement process  battling over whether to endorse Haney, whose pro-housing stances are newer and less solid, or Mahmood, whos a certain ally but less known.

Haney countered that its not endorsements that will decide the race.

Im going to make my case to voters based on what Ive done and what Ill do for San Franciscans, he said.

One things for sure  its building toward a juicy election season.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf
At a Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting at the end of August, Supervisor Susan Ellenberg repeatedly pressed Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody on when the county's indoor mask mandate would be lifted.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Santa Clara County had started to slow at the time of the meeting, and when Ellenberg asked Cody how long the mandate would last, Cody seemed to suggest some degree of perpetuity. What followed was an exchange that grew increasingly tense with each reply.

"Masking is something that not only has been very effective in damping down COVID transmission, but we also virtually had no influenza last winter when we had widespread masking," Cody said when discussing the mandate. "So there were other important benefits from universal masking."

"I appreciate that comment about the flu, of course last year not only were we masked, but kids weren't at school and a lot of folks weren't at work, so we really had some additional protection there," Ellenberg replied. "... What do you recommend that we tell people who are asking, 'At what point do the masks come off?' If we're going to be living with this, as you say, for quite a while, are masks indefinitely in our future?"

"Well I would say we don't have a set metric," Cody said. "I would say we need to see our hospitals settle down, our cases low and flat, and some stability before we would recommend taking away this very important prevention measure. And the other thing I would say is that even without a requirement, people will continue to mask indoors, it's part of many cultures and may well become part of our culture or at least in some segments as well."

"Sure, if people are choosing it, that's not an issue," Ellenberg said. "It's those who don't choose. So what I heard is we're looking for 'settled down,' but our case rates are dropping, our hospitalization numbers are manageable. I know I'm pressing you on something you're unlikely to give me but it's really important to all of us to be able to maintain public trust. And I'm very concerned that without an endgame or a goal, that trust becomes more and more frayed."

In the weeks since that meeting, neither Cody nor any of the other health officers in the Bay Area counties currently enforcing an indoor mask mandate have commented on when that mandate will be lifted. Cases and hospitalizations have been declining for weeks in the region, but most counties have said there are no specific metrics that will determine when the mandate could be lifted.

As currently written in every Bay Area county except Solano, the mandate requires all individuals  regardless of vaccination status  to mask indoors unless actively eating or drinking. In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed was seen violating the mandate at a Tenderloin nightclub and seemed to question the logic of the mandate given her city's high vaccination rate and policy requiring many indoor businesses to screen customers for proof of vaccination.

"I'm vaccinated," she said. "I don't need to wear a mask to take a picture every single time. I don't want to."

While some national reporters and pundits framed the story as Breed violating "her own" mandate, that's not accurate. In California, county health officers  none of whom are elected  are given expansive powers during "health emergencies" and can issue public health orders without receiving permission from elected officials such as mayors or county supervisors.

Under California's health and safety laws, county health officers have the broad power to "take any preventive measure that may be necessary to protect and preserve the public health from any public health hazard" in the event of a state of emergency caused by the "existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state." Gov. Gavin Newsom still has yet to rescind the initial COVID-19 statewide state-of-emergency declaration issued in March 2020.

So long as California remains in a state of emergency, elected officials who are growing tired of the mask mandate, such as Ellenberg and Breed, are at the mercy of their health officers.

The only other option for elected officials is encouraging nonenforcement and noncompliance of the order. When Los Angeles County implemented an indoor mask mandate in July, Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced his department would not be enforcing the order, stating, "Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear face masks indoors is not backed by science."

While it may seem far-fetched for Bay Area elected officials  the vast majority of whom are Democrats and have been supportive of COVID-19 restrictions  to encourage nonenforcement and noncompliance, it's certainly less far-fetched than it was a few months ago. The Ellenberg and Breed episodes signal a clear tone shift as the proportion of eligible individuals who are fully vaccinated surpasses 80% in some Bay Area counties.

"I think we have done remarkable work. This community has pulled together in phenomenal ways, but there's also a lot of fatigue setting in," Ellenberg said to Cody. "I really recommend that if there's not an answer right now, that the public health officers from the region coalesce around [the mask] issue, have something, talk to us in some more certainty about where we're going in terms of mandates and requirements, than in terms of culture. If people want to wear masks for 10 years, God bless them."
BEIJING (AP)  Beijing said Wednesday it will block Taiwans application to join a Pacific Rim trade initiative, citing as its reason the island's refusal to concede that it is a part of China.

The Cabinets Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday said Taiwans participation in regional trade cooperation is based on the one China principle.

We oppose the Taiwan region participating in any trade arrangements of an official nature or signing any trade agreements of an official nature, spokesperson Zhu Fenglian told reporters at a biweekly briefing.

China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. It refuses to recognize the islands government and has increasingly sought to isolate the independence-leaning administration of President Tsai Ing-wen.

Taiwan announced on Sept. 23 that it had applied join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a week after China submitted its own application to join.

The 11-nation CPTPP, which took effect in 2018, includes agreements on market access, movement of labor and government procurement. Other members include Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and New Zealand. The U.K. also has started negotiating to join after it left the European Union.

The CPTPP originally was called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a group promoted by then-President Barack Obama. His successor, Donald Trump, pulled out in 2017. President Joe Biden has not rejoined it.

China and Taiwan split after the Communist Party seized control of the mainland in 1949 amid a civil war. They have extensive trade and investment ties but no official relations, and China has been using increasingly threatening language toward the island while applying military, diplomatic and economic pressure against it.

Zhu's comments follow earlier remarks by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian that China was firmly opposed to any official contacts between Taiwan and other countries, as well as Taiwans accession to any agreements or organizations that are of an official nature.

Taiwan's government expected China would seek to block its accession. It says its status as a democracy and market economy should count in its favor.

Taiwan and China follow different systems of organization. We are an integrated market economy, John Deng, a minister without portfolio, said at a news conference following last week's announcement.

Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP using the name Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. That is the name it used to join the World Trade Organization in 2002.

As it has gained economic and political clout, China has adopted an increasingly rigid attitude toward such organizations in recent years, particularly regarding Taiwan.
For years, the Honda CR-V has been one of the most appealing small crossover SUVs on the market. It boasts a smooth ride, enjoyable acceleration and handling, and lots of passenger and cargo space. However, Honda introduced this latest CR-V generation back for the 2017 model year and hasnt significantly updated it since. And that has opened the door for newer rivals to challenge its reign.

One of those hopefuls is the redesigned 2022 Hyundai Tucson. Some of its highlights include distinctive new styling and an impressive list of standard and available features. The experts at Edmunds examine both to determine whether the overhauled Tucson has what it takes to dethrone the 2022 CR-V.

COMFORT AND INTERIOR

First and foremost, a small crossover SUV must be practical. They are inherently smaller than midsize SUVs, so maximizing the amount of room is paramount. Both the CR-V and Tucson have a greater amount of passenger headroom and legroom than you might expect, allowing 6-foot-tall occupants to fit with ease. From an ergonomics perspective, primary controls in both vehicles are within the drivers reach.

SUVs should also transport passengers in comfort, and both of these superlative crossovers abide. They each feature cushy seats that conform to most body types as well as a ride that glides over even rougher road surfaces. Exterior noise doesnt seep into the cabin much in either vehicle.

Winner: Tie

UTILITY

As with passenger room, cargo capacity can sometimes be at a premium in a small SUV. Thankfully, the Honda CR-V and Hyundai Tucson have some of the largest cargo areas in the class. Most versions of the CR-V offer 39.2 cubic feet of storage behind the rear seats, just slightly more than the Tucsons 38.7 cubic feet. Lower the rear seats, and the CR-V gives you 75.8 cubic feet and the Tucson offers 74.8 cubic feet.

The CR-V does gain a slight edge when you consider storage inside the cabin. The Hyundai offers numerous small cubbies throughout the cabin in which you can place water bottles, a phone and other small items. But the Hondas bins are a bit larger and more useful. In particular, it has a sizable storage area under the armrest that features a sliding divider.

Winner: Honda CR-V

TECHNOLOGY

The CR-Vs age is most apparent in its technology package. The 7-inch touchscreen is slow to respond to user inputs, and the interface itself is crammed with small virtual buttons that can be distracting to push when driving. By contrast, the Tucsons standard 8-inch screen is more responsive. But its optional 10.25-inch screen does present some usability issues because the touchscreen and climate control panel feature no physical buttons. Both vehicles touchscreen interfaces require quite a bit of familiarization before theyre easy to operate.

Both SUVs come with a similar number of advanced driving aids as standard, such as forward collision warning and lane keeping assist, which steers the vehicle back into its lane if it begins to drift over the lane marker. While the Tucsons best features are reserved for models in upper trims, overall it offers a wider range of safety systems than the CR-V. The Tucsons driving aids also feel more natural in their operation than the CR-Vs, which can be overly abrupt and sensitive.

Winner: Tucson

PERFORMANCE

The Honda and Hyundai are both powered by four-cylinder engines and produce nearly identical levels of power. But the CR-Vs turbocharged engine develops peak torque earlier in the rev range, and the continuously variable automatic transmission keeps it in the sweet spot more easily. These two aspects explain why in Edmunds testing an all-wheel-drive CR-V accelerated from 0 to 60 mph in 8.3 seconds compared to an all-wheel-drive Tucson at 10.2 seconds to 60 mph. The CR-Vs steering and handling are also a bit sharper, making this family-friendly crossover a little more enjoyable to drive.

Winner: CR-V

VALUE

Value has always been a Hyundai strong suit, and the Tucson is no different. The Hyundais starting price is a bit lower, but it also comes with a stronger set of standard features. The base Tucson  $26,175, including destination charges  comes with a touchscreen, a six-speaker audio system, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity. You have to upgrade to the CR-V Special Edition at $28,175 for any of these, and the Honda doesnt have wireless smartphone connectivity at all.

In their fully loaded forms, the Tucson is a little more expensive than a comparable CR-V  $37,425 for the Hyundai versus $36,775 for the Honda  but comes with more features.

Winner: Tucson

EDMUNDS SAYS:

The 2022 Honda CR-V and 2022 Hyundai Tucson are both excellent choices. Its a close match, but we think the CR-Vs superior driving dynamics and more thoughtful storage are worth paying a little extra for.

_____

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Follow Cameron Rogers, senior news editor at Edmunds, on Twitter.

Related links:

Edmunds 2022 reviews: Hyundai Tucson; Honda CR-V; Best Small SUVs.
ZEELAND, Mich. (AP) _ Herman Miller Inc. (MLHR) on Wednesday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $61.5 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

The Zeeland, Michigan-based company said it had a loss of 93 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and amortization costs, came to 49 cents per share.
BEIJING (AP)  HNA Group, a Chinese airline operator that ran into financial trouble after a global acquisition spree, has proposed a plan to settle $61 billion in debts owed to thousands of creditors by paying 40% of the total.

The conglomerate warned in a statement Tuesday that it faces possible liquidation due to mismanagement and investment disorder. HNA Group said Friday its chairman and CEO were detained by police on suspicion of unspecified crimes.
No one knows when exactly Disneyland will release Genie Plus, the new paid FastPass that will allow park guests to pay per ride to skip long waits for rides, but there are hints coming from parks all over the world. They point to a release sooner than later for the new system.

With Genie Plus, Walt Disney World guests pay $15 per day and Disneyland guests pay $20 per day for access to a Lightning Lane, replacing what used to be a FastPass line. Those fees add up: for a family of four, it would cost $80.

However, that flat fee only includes some of the park rides and attractions. Many of the more in-demand rides, like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, will have an additional, as-yet-undisclosed per ride fee.

The first major clue that Disney is preparing to implement the new system has to do with that very ride. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is an immersive, 18-minute experience thats easily the most popular ride the company has ever built. Visitors wait through a virtual queue system since it debuted at Walt Disney World in December 2019 and at Disneyland in January 2020. On the virtual queue system, would-be riders log into the Disney app and try to get a coveted spot, all of which generally disappear within seconds (or sometimes even less).

As of Sept. 23, Walt Disney World ended the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance, switching to a regular queue that has been averaging about an hour-and-a-half wait time. Ending that virtual queue is the first step towards moving to the paid model, in which Genie Plus users can pay to skip that wait altogether. How much it will cost to ride is unknown, but Disneyland Paris offers clues as to what could happen at the American parks this fall.

Earlier this summer, Disneyland Paris rolled out a fee-based FastPass system called Premier Access, which has similar features to Genie Plus. Under this new system, guests can purchase entry to accelerated queues individually, per ride. The cost is dependent on the popularity of the ride and how busy the park is that day. Up until recently, that cost was between 8 euros and 15 euros ($9 to $18) per ride.

However, the pricing at Disneyland Paris offers up the second major indicator that Genie Plus is on the horizon. On Sept. 23, that park lowered its top-tier Premier Access cost from 15 euros to 12 euros, and its lowest-priced tier from 8 euros to 5 euros. Disneyland Paris did not comment on the price reduction, but it could make costs at that park more in line with what Lightning Lane access will cost at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

The third major indication: Signs for the Lighning Lanes are up across Walt Disney Worlds four Orlando parks, just in time for the 50th anniversary celebration that launches Oct. 1. That signage hasnt made its way to Disneyland yet, which seems to be an indication that the system will debut in Florida first and then be implemented in California shortly after.

Genie Plus is part of what Disney CEO Bob Chapek has called the companys more aggressive financial strategy after the parks pandemic closures. In a quarterly earnings call Aug. 12, Disney reported more than a $3 billion increase in revenue for the third quarter year-over-year.

In a February 2021 quarterly earnings call, Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy confirmed the strategy was working, saying that at Walt Disney World, people spent more money in the parks per day in 2020 than they did in 2019. We want to have people have a great time when theyre in our parks, she said. When they have a good time they tend to spend more money.

When Genie Plus debuts, there will undoubtedly be people who pay what could add up to hundreds of dollars per day to skip the lines and have a better park experience. But given the overwhelmingly negative fan reaction on the programs announcement, how visitors will receive the actual program is anyones guess.
When The Sopranos is brought up these days, its usually for the nebulous way it ended: That now-famous cut-to-black in a crowded diner while Journeys Dont Stop Believin plays. Whether Tony Soprano lived or died is still hotly debated.

The real death in 2013 of the great James Gandolfini ended hopes of putting that debate to bed, but David Chase, the creator and showrunner of The Sopranos, has intriguingly kept the show alive with the new prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

It's intriguing mainly because the film conjures the greatest character ever created for TV back to life but doesnt frame him in the middle. Tony Soprano is a cameo in his own origin film.

Instead, the guy in the center is Tony's so-called uncle, Dickie Moltisanti, played with real verve by Alessandro Nivola. Mafia boss Moltisanti is the guy young Tony looks up to. But he's riddled with the same flaws Tony will soon share: Possessiveness, quick to anger, methodical and yet impulsive, prone to affairs and eager to consume vast amounts of pork products.

In a stroke of genius, the older of two young Tony Sopranos in the film is played by Michael Gandolfini, the son of the late actor who share his fathers wide, sad expressive eyes and bearishness. He is riveting.

All the old gang  now made young with new actors, of course  are here: Uncle June, Livia Soprano, Paulie Walnuts, Silvio Dante, Pussy Bonpensiero, Janice Soprano, Jackie Aprile, Carmela and even Christopher Moltisanti, Dickie Moltisanti's son.

Michael Imperioli is back as the younger Moltisanti and he seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder about his one-time mentor, Tony Soprano, on account of the older man choking him to death in 2007. So he narrates unseen from the grave.

That leads to one of the funniest moments in the film: When an infant Moltisanti is displayed by his mother to the family but gets too close to Tony, the baby bursts into tears. Its like I scare him or something, Tony shrugs.

The danger here is that the new actors have a template of what their characters will look and sound like in the future. For the most part, they avoid caricature  like Vera Farmiga nailing Tonys fearsome mother and Corey Stoll brilliantly capturing the petty, irritable Junior. But John Magaro mugs a bit too much as Silvio, Stevie Van Zandts consigliere.

One problem here is time, something the film obviously plays with. The Many Saints of Newark arrives 14 years after The Sopranos ended and that may be too long for anyone but the most ardent fan to keep up. The brain strains trying to connect new faces with old ones.

The plot really is just a few slices of years in and around Newark, New Jersey, in the late 1960s and early 70s. The DiMeo crime family  of which the Sopranos are a crew  is trying to stay afloat during civil unrest that includes deadly 1967 riots. But the film sags in many parts, never achieving the focused tautness of the series and often seems aimless. If you're not a fan already, it might come across as Goodfellas lite.

A terrific Leslie Odom Jr. plays Harold McBrayer, a low-level debt collector who will soon try to run his own crew. Ray Liotta wonderfully plays not one but two characters  Dickies dead-eyed father and also Dickies philosophical, jailed uncle. If you're a fan of The Sopranos, you'll know that Dickie Moltisanti doesn't appear in the HBO series. You'll learn why.

But what about Tony Soprano? How does he become the anxiety-prone mobster and dad, caught in the old ways and the new, as liable to brutally garotte an informant as break down and cry while hearing The Chi-Lites Oh Girl on his car radio?

We leave him on the cusp of manhood, still teetering between criminality and innocence. Yes, he helps hijack a Mr. Softee truck, but gives away all the ice cream. Yes, he takes a pair of stolen speakers, but regrets it. I try to be good, he tells his uncle.

There's a reveal of what will become his hair-trigger temper, but also a willingness to embrace mental health help, which will one day lead to a psychiatrist couch. He's about 20 when the film ends, too soon to see what really made him.

Credit The Many Saints of Newark  screenplay by Chase and Lawrence Konner, and directed by series regular Alan Taylor  for attempting to tackle generational violence, structural racism and opening up a story to add more than just Italian Americans shooting each other while forking in plates of gabagool.

But it's not enough. Tony is as mysterious at the end of The Many Saints of Newark as he is at the sudden end of The Sopranos. Perhaps that's as it should be. Perhaps there's room for another prequel.

The Many Saints of Newark, a New Line Cinema release, is rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, sexual content and some nudity. It's in theaters and HBO Max on Friday with a running time of 120 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

___

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

___

Online: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/many-saints-newark

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
The thing that surprises Michael Bauer, three years after leaving his position as restaurant critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, is that people are still nice to him.

Now that Bauer is finally making reservations under his own name and isnt donning a series of disguises to write his restaurant reviews  more on that later  he professes to feeling shocked that they dont hate me.

More for you Easy herbs to grow for (and in) your kitchen

I really did think once I left, no one would care, Bauer told me during a recent interview. I know that I pissed off a lot of people, but kind of the opposite has happened: I go out and the restaurants are very nice and they're happy to welcome me back, and they have very nice things to say. So that was actually a surprise that the restaurants still haven't forgotten about me.

It seems a bit unlikely that restaurateurs would forget Bauer, but he promises he did try his best to be as incognito as possible during his 32 years at the San Francisco Chronicle. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by the same parent company, Hearst, but operate independently of one another.) A tough task, as technology evolved (especially in San Francisco) and as people snapped photos of Bauer as he traveled about town  photos that were often catalogued in online publications. In fact, Bauer said he heard quite a few restaurants around San Francisco kept a photo of him in the back of house, and that if someone recognized him, theyd get a bonus.



To this day, Bauer says hes photo shy, even if he no longer has a job that relies on relative anonymity. Still, he did what he could to avoid detection at restaurants. To go unnoticed, hed often try to avoid the hostess stand, he said, instead sending friends to check in before dipping in to join them at the table.

He had, by his estimation, anywhere between 100 and 150 different names he would book tables under, such as Mike Mackey. He also used different credit cards to pay the bill. The problem is, once in a while I would forget the name; I hadn't written it down and then Id try to go through [and find] which name I used, Bauer said.

Bauer later dipped a toe into the disguise game as a reviewer, even as he said the ruse sometimes made him uncomfortable and self-conscious. But remaining anonymous is among the items that some food writers value, to the point that Bauer recalled a conference he attended where someone from the CIA spoke and gave tips on how not to be recognized.

At the conference, attendees were instructed on how to not look people in the eye, and the type of body movements that make it harder for people to recognize you.

The problem, of course, is disguising your voice, because if you have a distinctive voice, that's difficult, he said. In my case when it was some place I did not want to be recognized, I would have someone else do all the ordering and not talk.

Many of Bauers disguises when reviewing restaurants were simple, such as glasses or a new hairstyle. One more full-bodied (ahem) disguise Bauer used was when he was visiting the then-new Michael Mina restaurant at the Westin St. Francis.

Once I dyed my hair and put on a fat suit to go to a really high-end restaurant that I knew I was going to be recognized at, because I wanted to see what the service would be, Bauer said, describing his outfit as a blue blazer, khakis, a briefcase and a freshly-dyed brown beard and head of hair.

Did Michael Mina ever hear this story?

I don't know, Bauer replied. Unfortunately, there was someone there who actually recognized me  I don't know if they told him.

By Bauers guess, he was seated without recognition about 90% of the time, and hed typically figure out when his cover was blown, especially given his rule of visiting a restaurant at least three times before writing it up. Often the tip-off would be a change in waiter, or faces peering out of the kitchen to catch a glimpse of him at a table (you just feel a little different energy in the room, he said). For the most part, restaurants respected the reviewer rules of not giving out complimentary dishes or off-menu items.

Bauer has remained active in writing since his retirement in 2018, notably contributing to Alta Journal, albeit at a much more relaxed pace than the previous 2-3 reviews per week he was publishing at the Chronicle. These days hes more preoccupied with simpler pleasures like a home renovation, a miniature Aussie puppy and a rigorous walking schedule where he averages over 30,000 steps a day.

Despite living a much more leisurely lifestyle, Bauer said he still goes out a few times a week to restaurants. Many of the dining habits he formed as a critic remain; he still will not order something another person at the table has ordered, for instance.

I now can make reservations under my name, which I do, and I always feel a little, I don't know ... I still feel guilty doing that, Bauer confessed. But for the most part, Bauer says he doesnt miss reviewing restaurants or the rigorous writing schedule, and in the meantime hes learned to enjoy more of the restaurant experience as a regular consumer.

It's nice just to go out for fun, Bauer said. I never got tired of going out. I never felt jaded in that way and it always felt like going to a restaurant was always a new experience; even at bad restaurants, I love going out. ... The other thing I learned is not being a critic is more [about] the fun of dining than it is about the food, and you can forgive a lot when you're with people you like. But as a critic, you can't consider that stuff, you have to just focus on what's on the plate and what the service is like, so you can't give the restaurants a break. I can do that now.

Its impossible to write a catchup piece without acknowledging the criticism of the critic himself, however. Bauer counts himself among the journalists who helped write the Code of Ethics for the Association of Food Journalists in the 1990s (an organization which, unfortunately, folded in August 2020). But by 2016, a critical San Francisco Magazine piece detailed the ethical gray area of chefs dealings with Bauer and his partner, Michael Murphy, who ran a luxury experiential service that offered, among other things, private chef meals, or a $2,000 dinner with Bauer himself. He has also defended his decision to review restaurants  and place them on his Top 100 List  whose chefs were accused of harassment.

In fact, many on the restaurant and food journalist scene were calling for Bauers retirement for many years before he eventually left the Chronicle. Upon the announcement, reviews of Bauers tenure were mixed (some were downright joyous he was leaving), with many saying he stayed too long as critic, noting that others in his position typically leave a city after five years or so.

Still, there was plenty for Bauer to brag about during his time at the Chronicle. Under Bauers steed, the Chronicle was nominated for multiple James Beard Foundation Awards, eventually snagging four medals. For the large part, Bauer said he doesnt think hed change much about how he reviewed restaurants or which restaurants made the paper, pointing out that while he would generally review the higher-end restaurants, another critic at the paper would review smaller neighborhood spots.

Since Bauer left the restaurant critic scene, (obviously) much has changed. Many more critics dont do the anonymity game these days  albeit perhaps mostly out of the impossibility to carry that out in the digital age  and then, of course, theres the pandemic. I asked Bauer if he feels there is still space for the restaurant critic, given the many restaurant closures and struggling restaurants.

I think during the pandemic, it was hard to criticize restaurants, and I wouldn't have done that, Bauer said. I think I still believe  but I think it's happening less and less  that a critic can kind of set the tone and give restaurants something to strive for."

As for whether there can be room for negative critic reviews, Bauer says yes, but with compassion.

I don't think as a critic, you can whitewash things, I think you've got to say what you feel, Bauer said. There is still room for negative, but I think there has to be compassion with that. And the thing is, although a lot of people might disagree, I never felt like I just tried to be mean or said something just to turn a phrase. I hoped that it would be constructive. Some people took it as constructive, other people didn't; so, as a reviewer, the only thing you can do is to be true to yourself.
A historic diner is at the heart of a debate on housing.

The Grubstake diner, located at 1525 Pine Street in the Polk Gulch neighborhood, first opened in 1919. It is a well-known LGBTQ+ late-night eatery, as well as a site that could see 21 units of middle-income housing built atop the diner, all while allowing the diner to "preserve the [restaurant's] menu, decor, history and soul."

The San Francisco Planning Commission first approved the eight-story redevelopment project in 2015. Since then, some neighbors  notably those in The Austin, a 103-unit apartment building next door  have written letters opposing the project, raising concerns on "the project's impact on the light, air and private terraces of the Austin's units" and claiming that it is an "oversupply of housing in the neighborhood," Socketsite reported.

Residents lodged an official appeal in August, and the project is now in limbo.

If Planning upholds the appeal, it is likely that Grubstake would be unable to survive with its current infrastructure. "Without crucial upgrades to the structures seismic and accessibility standards, as well as the buildings water and electrical infrastructure, Grubstake is unlikely to remain open," part-owner Jimmy Consos told SFGATE.

Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE

To protest the appeal and support the project, patrons and employees staged a rally on Monday in front of the Grubstake.

Gary Virginia, an LGBTQ+ activist and one of the rally organizers spoke to a crowd of about 25 people that showed up to support the Grubstake. The diner has long served as a community gathering space for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as a late-night spot for local night owls.

"Harvey Milk ate at the Grubstake Diner, political columnist from the Bay Area Reporter Wayne Friday used to come here and get the scoop on politics for his column," Virginia told SFGATE. "While it might look like it's just a 'come on in and grab a burger' [spot], there's a lot of networking and activism that's come out of this location."

"This is very important. It's very inspiring because San Francisco is really about the community," said Consos, who is also the managing partner of Pine Street Development. "I think that it's very important that we pay homage to what has already transpired in this diner. The important thing is to continue the sense of community in San Francisco, which the LGBTQ community is a huge part of."

Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE

Many people who showed up came to support the protection of queer spaces in San Francisco, including one local who gave their name as KT. They have been a Grubstake diner for 11 years, all while living in the nearby Tenderloin neighborhood. "It's important to keep those spaces here," they said to SFGATE. "Especially after so many of them disappeared because of the pandemic."

"There are so few queer bars and restaurants, especially late-night, in San Francisco," Virginia noted. "We've lost Sparky's Diner, which was a very popular late-night eatery in the Castro. Then we lost It's Tops Diner on Market Street. We really have to fight for these queer-owned businesses, or they're all going to be gone."

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is set to hear the appeal Oct. 19.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m., Oct. 5, to include the new date of the hearing after the Board of Supervisors moved to continue the appeal.
MANISTEE COUNTY  With the COVID-19 positivity rate nearly 3% higher in northern Michigan than the statewide average, local health officials are concerned about what that means for unvaccinated students heading into cold and flu season.

Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer with Munson Healthcare, reported an 11.7% positivity rate for the region, compared to 8.8% for the state.

I do want to point out something that's a little different with this surge than what we've seen with the previous surges in this pandemic, and that is our percent positivity rate is higher than the state's, said Nefcy at a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

The current surge in COVID-19 cases has also lasted longer than previous upticks, according to Nefcy.

This is a little different than what weve seen in previous surges where we saw a linear uptick in cases and then a decline, and weve really been fairly steady in our (hospitalization) numbers  for a while now, she said. We think this probably has something to do with the fact that we have so many people immunized, but were not entirely sure why this surge is behaving differently.

Michigan has also seen an uptick in the number of pediatric cases of COVID-19, which has health officials like Nefcy concerned.

We are seeing a lot of cases of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), which is typically a winter virus that we see in children and we have started to see some cases of flu. So there is a little bit of concern about having all three of those viruses happening simultaneously and what that could mean for our pediatric population, Nefcy said.

For the 10 counties that comprise District Health Department #10  which includes Manistee County  the number of children ages 0-18, has increased from a 1.7% positivity rate in early July to 14.3% in September.

That uptick is mirrored by increasing numbers of RSV cases among children, according to Dr. Jim Robertson, a pediatrician with Kids Creek Childrens Clinic in Traverse City.

About a year and a half ago we received very little in the way of respiratory illness probably because of everybody staying home and because of masking but as soon as school started this year it came back with a vengeance, Robertson said. The numbers are higher the last three weeks than they've been in eight years in terms of seeing kids for respiratory illness.

RSV is a respiratory virus similar to the flu and coronavirus, that is most active in fall through the winter.

This year, were seeing it way earlier than we ever have, Robertson said. For preschool/kindergarten kids, it's not going to seem a whole lot different than a regular cold. But when there's infants in the house, and that gets brought home, it can be a much more significant and serious illness.

We're just seeing numbers earlier than we ever have and a lot of it (is) in the community right now, he continued.

Nefcy said the data shows that schools with a mask mandate in place have had a lower positivity rate than those without the requirement.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services all strongly recommend masking in school, Nefcy said. That masking protects both the children, the teachers and the families of those children.  We continue to recommend that you follow the data and mask your children to prevent not only the spread of COVID-19, but the spread of influenza and the spread of RSV.

Influenza and RSV can have similar symptoms as COVID-19 and it's more transmissible Delta variant, so testing is paramount, according to Nefcy.

In order for you to know whats going on and whether you need to quarantine to protect those around you, we would recommend if youre having any symptoms of upper respiratory issues, runny nose, cough, fever, sore throat, the loss of smell, loss of taste any symptoms like that, please go get tested, Nefcy said.

Early testing is also vital, as monoclonal antibody therapies used to treat patients with COVID-19 must be completed within the first 10 days from the onset of symptoms to be effective in preventing more serious complications.

COVID-19 still has over 2% mortality rate, which is about 20 times more than what we typically see with our seasonal influenza rate, Nefcy said.

There are still plenty of resources for people to get tested for COVID-19, including at most primary care providers, some pharmacies and at the DHD#10 office, though Nefcy cautions people against visiting the hospital or emergency center for the administration of tests.

In our Munson Healthcare region as well as across the state, we are seeing a lot of issues with staffing and very busy emergency departments and urgent cares with illness, she said. When those urgent cares and emergency departments are filled with people waiting just for testing, who dont really need to be seen or treated ... obviously that delays the care that we could provide for people who need it more urgently.

Nefcy recommends people consider the emergency room in cases where they are having difficulty breathing, a high fever or are too weak to eat or drink.

If you have a lot of other comorbidities that make you at higher risk, and you are having symptoms that are impacting your ability to go to work, attend school, do your daily activities of living  those are all reasons wed want you to come in to (emergency care).

Related:

Manistee's region sees near four-fold increase in COVID-19 percent positivity

CDC: Manistee County at 'high' risk for COVID-19 transmission
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Southern California police agencies killed one person and wounded two others Tuesday in unrelated shootings, authorities said.

California Highway Patrol officers shot and killed someone at around 3:30 p.m. in the El Sereno neighborhood of East Los Angeles, authorities said.

No officers were injured.

Other details weren't immediately released.

In San Diego County, a sheriff's deputy shot and wounded a man who grabbed what turned out to be an air rifle, authorities said.

The man was expected to survive.

Deputies confronted the man sometime after 12:30 p.m. in Vista, north of San Diego, after a 911 caller reported that someone had slashed two of his car tires with a knife outside a convenience store, authorities said.

Deputies found the suspect in a backyard and ordered him to drop the knife but during the confrontation he grabbed the rifle and was shot, according to a Sheriff's Department statement.

San Diego police, meanwhile, shot and wounded a man shortly after 5:30 p.m. after he drove off after officers tried to stop his motorcycle in the City Heights area.

The man apparently got off the motorcycle at one point and was shot during a foot chase, police said.

A witness told KSWB-TV that she saw a man running and then firing a gun at several officers, who shot back.

There wasn't any immediate word on his condition.

However, police radio traffic indicated the man was shot at least once in the stomach and was conscious and breathing when officers took him into custody, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP)  Two women in their 80s died Wednesday when the car in which they were passengers crashed into a house in a suburban Boston neighborhood, police said.

The car, driven by an 89-year-old man, crashed into a home in Needham at about 10:20 a.m., police said on Facebook. The driver was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  New Zealand politicians on Thursday passed a law that makes plotting a terrorist attack a crime, fixing a legal loophole that was exposed earlier this month by a violent knife attack.

The new law had been months in the planning but was hurried through Parliament after an extremist inspired by the Islamic State group grabbed a knife at an Auckland supermarket on Sept. 3 and began stabbing shoppers. He wounded five while two others were injured in the chaos. All have been recovering.

Police officers shot and killed the extremist, Ahamed Aathil Samsudeen, after they said they confronted him in the supermarket and he charged at them with the knife. Authorities had been following him for 53 days straight, worried he planned to launch an attack at any moment after he was released from prison in July. However, police had found no legal reason to detain him.

A year earlier, prosecutors had unsuccessfully tried to charge Samsudeen with terrorism after he bought a large hunting knife and was found with violent Islamic State videos.

Prosecutors argued there was evidence he purchased the knife with the intention of killing people and to further an ideological cause. But a judge ruled the act of buying a knife wasn't enough to proceed with the case.

The judge found New Zealands anti-terror laws didn't specifically cover plots. That could be an Achilles heel, the judge acknowledged at the time, adding that it was not up to a court to create new laws.

After the attack this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed to pass the new legislation by the end of September. But Ardern also said that even had the new law been in place, it may not necessarily have stopped Samsudeen.

This bill strengthens our counterterrorism laws to better prevent and respond," said lawmaker Ginny Andersen, from the liberal Labour Party. And these changes will also enable police to intervene earlier. If it saves lives, and makes New Zealanders safer, I believe that is a good thing.

New Zealand's terrorism laws date back to soon after after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. Changes were recommended after a 2019 attack, in which a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers.

The conservative National Party joined Labour in voting in favor of the bill, which passed by 98 votes to 22. But some of Ardern's traditional liberal allies in Parliament voted against it.

The Green Party said their members were worried the new law had been rushed through without enough consultation, and that the definition of terrorism had been expanded to the extent it risked capturing direct action, activism, and protest.

The Greens said they were also worried that some experts had characterized the new offense as a thought crime," and that accompanying powers allowing authorities to carry out warrantless searches increased the risk for human rights abuses.

The new crime of planning a terrorist attack comes with a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment. The bill also criminalizes travel to or from New Zealand to carry out an attack, and weapons or combat training for a terrorist attack.

Ardern has also been examining whether changes are needed to New Zealand's deportation laws and policies after authorities canceled Samsudeens refugee status on the basis of fraud in 2019 and ordered him deported back to Sri Lanka. An appeal by Samsudeen was still pending when he launched his attack.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)  Two agencies in New Hampshire are working on resettlement plans for Afghan refugees.

The refugees are currently being screened at military bases before they arrive in New Hampshire.
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PITTSBURGH (AP)  Allegheny County government employees will be required to submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Dec. 1 or face termination under a policy announced Wednesday by the western Pennsylvania county's top elected official.

About 5,000 employees are subject to the new mandate, of whom more than 75% are already vaccinated. The rest will need to get the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines on or before Dec. 1 to be considered in compliance, officials said.
ZHUHAI, China (AP)  Visitors to China's major air show are getting a closeup look at the nation's latest military aircraft at the six-day event that runs through Sunday in southern China's Guangdong province.

The military's August 1st Aerobatic Team streamed red, blue and yellow smoke trails across the skies as its planes flew in formation at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition. The annual show in Zhuhai was postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sunday, Oct. 3

On this date in 1841, John Slaughter, founder of the San Bernardino Ranch and former sheriff of Cochise County, was born in Sabine Parish, La.

On this date in 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes, on a tour of the nation, stopped in Maricopa to confer with the Indians. Gen. William T. Sherman, traveling with the Presidential party, overheard the remark that all Arizona needed was less heat and more water. Sherman reportedly replied, Thats all hell needs.

On this date in 1907, the Yuma police stopped all poker games in saloons in the city and the towns of Bisbee, Globe and others were considering taking the same action.

On this date in 1908, Brewster Cameron of Tucson, brother of Colin Cameron who established the famous Cameron Ranch in the San Rafael Valley, was drowned when he was swept over Niagara Falls while in New York on a business trip.

On this date in 1918, the epidemic of Spanish Influenza reached Arizona. Many cities reported deaths, theaters and schools were closed, and the University of Arizona was quarantined for two weeks.

On this date in 1929, the first plane landed at the Bowie air field. Several spectators were on hand and the President of the Chamber of Commerce was treated to a flight over the town.

On this date in 1929, Phoenixs first aerial wedding took place in the monoplane Arizonan over the business district of the city shortly after 8 p.m.

On this date in 1934, the postmaster at Picacho and his newly appointed successor ended their quarrel with a gun battle in which both were killed.

Monday, Oct. 4

On this date in 1867, a bill to move the Territorial Capitol from Prescott to Tucson was approved by Gov. Richard McCormick.

On this date in 1876, the parents of Sen. Carl Hayden, Charles T. Hayden and Sallie Davis, were married.

On this date in 1883, two Florence-Globe stage robbers were killed in a gun battle with the sheriffs posse.

On this date in 1905, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors threatened to tear up the rails if the Phoenix Street Railway Company laid tracks on Grand Avenue in Phoenix.

On this date in 1908, a big black bear escaped from his cage at Elysian Grove Park in Tucson, pulled a 15-month-old baby from her carriage and crushed her to death.

On this date in 1929, an old adobe wall, originally built as a corral and was later part of the OK lumber yard in Globe, was torn down. It had once served as a gathering place for women and children of Globe during rumors of Apache attack.

On this date in 1929, the city of Casa Grande staged a three-day Prosperity Jubilee to celebrate the opening of its new airport.

Tuesday, Oct. 5

On this date in 1903, the U.S. Department of the Interior authorized the construction of Tonto Basin Dam, now known as Roosevelt Dam. This was the first large irrigation enterprise attempted by the federal government.

On this date in 1917, the main building of Sisters Hospital in Phoenix burned to the ground. All patients were safely evacuated.

On this date in 1929, Shirley Christy, long-time resident of Phoenix and founder of the Arizona School of Music, died.

Wednesday, Oct 6

On this date in 1906, fire destroyed the roundhouse and car shops of the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern railroads.

On this date in 1914, Pvt. Leroy Bradford, Troop B, 10th Cavalry, was killed in Naco, Ariz., in a battle with Yaqui Indians.

Thursday, Oct. 7

On this date in 1894, the Phoenix Daily Herald described a brilliant meteor which flashed across the sky at about 9 p.m. The meteor traveled from east to west, lighting the night sky until it finally burst like a rocket over the Superstition Mountains and appeared to strike the earth near Silver King.

On this date in 1922, a Bisbee man was shot to death in an argument over the price of tamales.

On this date in 1922, a New-Cornelia Copper Co. appropriated $4 million for the construction of a concentrator and the extension of its power plant in Ajo.

On this date in 1926, three massive teeth, 4 inches thick, 12 inches wide and 14 inches long, were discovered in a dry lake bed near Quitobaquito. The find recalled an old Papago legend concerning a monster which has been said to have once lived in the lake.

On this date in 1929, all court and law offices in Prescott and many in Yavapai County were closed for the funeral of Judge J. Sweeney, Yavapai Countys first superior court judge.

Friday, Oct. 8

On this date in 1878, Southern Pacific Railroad received a charter from the Territory of Arizona and permission to cross the Military Reservation at Yuma.

On this date in 1908, the announcement was made that as a result of the failure of the reverbatory furnace at Helvetia to give the proper results, 100 tons of ore would be shipped daily from Helvetia to the Old Dominion smelters at Globe. The ore would be freighted to Vail Station, shipped on the Southern Pacific to Bowie, then on to Globe over the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern R.R.

On this date in 1914, the Apache Trail Stage Co. was chartered to haul passengers from the railroad station at Globe to Phoenix, where passengers could resume their rail journey.

On this date in 1924, Louis Y.F. Jaeger who established the first ferry over the Colorado River, was born.

Saturday, Oct. 9

On this date in 1880, David K. Udall arrived from Kane, Utah, to serve as bishop of St. Johns Ward in Arizona.

On this date in 1898, St. Michaels Mission, a converted trading post building, was blessed and officially dedicated to St. Michael, the Archangel. The first masses were offered on Oct. 11 with a table to serve as an altar, and salt and pepper shakers as wine and water cruets.

On this date in 1921, the railroad police of the Tucson division of Southern Pacific reported they had removed 3,373 hobos from Southern Pacific trains in one month.

On this date in 1929, plans for a Nogales High School band came one step nearer to reality with the signing of contracts for the purchase of band instruments.

On this date in 2009, three people died following a sweat lodge ceremony in Sedona conducted by self-help author James Arthur Ray. Ray served nearly two years in prison after being convicted of negligent homicide charges.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP)  Fairfax County police have stopped publishing a weekly arrest blotter after county officials found it violated a policy that restricts the dissemination of personal information that could aid immigration enforcement.

Immigrant rights and civil liberties groups had been pushing for the change, arguing the weekly compilations that include arrestees addresses and other details could allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target immigrants for deportation and raise privacy concerns.

But open-government advocates and some politicians have criticized the move, saying it decreases police transparency and keeps critical safety information from the public, including details about some violent, sex and property crimes.

In a statement, ICE said that its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) does not use police blotter data to identify immigration enforcement targets in Fairfax County, Virginia, and that officers use intelligence-driven leads to identify specific individuals for arrest.

Fairfax County police said it will continue to proactively release details of arrests in serious crimes, including homicides, shootings and offenses committed by those in positions of trust. Virginia residents will still be able to file Freedom of Information Act requests to get details of other arrests but will have to pay a processing fee.

Fairfax County police began to post the blotter on its website in 2016, after inquiries from the media and public about arrests, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. It included a date of the offense, name of the alleged offender, date of birth, charge, last known address of the offender and arrest location.

Guglielmi said the lists stopped being published as of Friday, meaning there is no comprehensive list of every person arrested in the county. The data was also used to power online crime maps, so those will go dark, as well. Guglielmi said police are exploring ways to bring back the blotter minus names and other details that wont run afoul of county policy.

News outlets often use the blotter to guide reporting, and neighborhood groups use them to stay abreast of crime trends and offenses in a particular area. The crime blotter has been a staple at many departments in the D.C. region and around the country for decades.

It was decided by then-Chief Roessler that the public was entitled to know who was arrested in their community, and if we wanted the community to share information we had to do the same as their police department, Guglielmi said.

Fairfax County police said the disclosure of arrestees is required by the states Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), so the information cannot be restricted altogether. The department will continue to publish crime statistics and a weekly highlight of a selection of serious crimes.

The group ACLU People Power and others began lobbying for the change in arrest reporting after the county Board of Supervisors adopted a Trust Policy in January. The policy requires the county to cooperate with ICE when mandated by state or federal law but otherwise restricts the county from releasing the personal information of county residents that ICE could use to conduct immigration enforcement. The policy was a response to stepped-up ICE activity during the Trump administration.

In 2020, Fairfax County police also enacted a policy of barring officers from asking someone about their immigration status or giving information to ICE that would help it locate immigrants for deportation.

Diane Burkley Alejandro, executive director of ACLU People Power Fairfax, said she does not have evidence ICE is using the arrest lists in Fairfax County but argued the information provides a road map to the location of immigrants. She pointed out that ICE has begun employing tools that rely on data-mining in its enforcement efforts.

Alejandro said the lists create issues for nonimmigrants, as well, arguing they can act as a means of public shaming in the Internet era and are not updated to reflect when charges are dropped or people are acquitted of crimes.

Fairfax County has embraced the idea that it wont contribute to the harm caused by ICE enforcement, Alejandro said. If we find out there are situations that are like this with the police, we are going to raise these issues.

Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield), the lone Republican on the Board of Supervisors and the only one to vote against the Trust Policy, said in a statement that restricting the arrest information shows the Trust Policy is too vague and open-ended.

Removing this data sends the wrong message to our community on transparency, Herrity said. Not providing the public, the media, and organizations that utilize the data with information on crimes in our neighborhoods moves us drastically in the wrong direction. To expect people to file a FOIA request for such information is nonsensical.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey C. McKay (D-At Large) said in a statement the new policy strikes the right balance between sharing public safety information and protecting immigrants who are key to the countys diversity and economy.

Public safety officials will continue to share important information with the community and arrest data remains easily accessible via Freedom of Information Act requests, McKay said. The county is committed to the safety and security of everyone who lives, works and visits our community.

But Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition of Open Government, said efforts to restrict information because of potentially bad outcomes are problematic. She said police blotters have been important tools for the public to monitor how local police departments are operating. She said she was unaware of any other police departments in the state dropping the arrest blotter over immigration enforcement concerns.

Its kind of like the scanner  no one had to make it available, Rhyne said of the tools used by the public to monitor police radio traffic. Those are very important tools for . . . informing the public. Now, more departments are encrypting radio traffic. It would be very unfortunate if police blotters were taken away, as well.
EAGLE RIVER, Wis. (AP)  Three people have died in the crash of a small plane in northern Wisconsin, federal aviation officials said Wednesday.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said the information about the three fatalities comes from local law enforcement officials, who have not commented publicly on the deaths following Tuesday morning's crash.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a judge's decision to deny bail for a Massachusetts State Police sergeant charged with assaulting his girlfriend.

Bryan Erickson, 39, of Groveland, Massachusetts, is charged with second-degree and simple assault, obstructing report of a crime; disobeying an officer; criminal trespass; and reckless operation. Erickson pleaded not guilty. Hes been suspended from work and awaits trial, which is scheduled for November.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden is caught between a hard place and an even harder one when it comes to immigration.

Biden embraced major progressive policy goals on the issue after he won the Democratic nomination, and he has begun enacting some. But his administration has been forced to confront unusually high numbers of migrants trying to enter the country along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the federal response has inflamed both critics and allies.

Much of the anger is centered on the administrations immigration point person, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Getting hit from both sides in the matter of immigration is no surprise, Mayorkas said on NBC last weekend. We are in the epicenter of the countrys divide, regrettably.

The result is that immigration has become an early and unwanted distraction for an administration that would rather focus on the pandemic, the economy and other policy priorities.

Just 35% of Americans approve of Bidens handling of immigration, down from 43% in April, when it was already one of Bidens worst issues, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Immigration is a relative low point for Biden within his own party with just 60% of Democrats saying they approve.

Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback blocking Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande only added to the angst. While the widely shared photos incorrectly suggested that agents were using their reins to whip at mostly Black migrants, Mayorkas and Biden expressed outrage at the tactics and Homeland Security is investigating.

The outcry was such that Mayorkas was asked if his department was a rogue agency." He responded, I couldnt disagree more vehemently.

Some of Bidens strongest supporters on Capitol Hill and among outside immigrant advocates had already been expressing outrage about the administration's continued reliance on a Trump-era public health authority, known as Title 42, to rapidly expel migrants, including thousands of Haitians.

Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center and onetime co-chair of a task force on immigration meant to unite Biden supporters with more progressive primary backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders, noted that the White House has appointed some of the best people in our movement to help run immigration programs.

But she is among those opposed to Title 42, which the Trump administration invoked early in the pandemic, ostensibly to slow the spread of COVID-19. It prevents people from making claims for U.S. asylum.

This is the moment when friends need to have those courageous conversations with friends, Hincapie said. When theyre making the wrong decision.

The administration's refusal to halt Title 42  even appealing a court order to stop relying on it to expel families  along with the lack of progress in Congress on a sweeping immigration bill that Biden introduced upon taking office has prompted supporters to warn of a return to the enforcement-heavy policies of President Barack Obama.

Theyve been there for eight months, said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group backed by some of the nations largest tech companies. The policies that they are actively pursuing are very different than the ones they promised. The policies they are actively pursuing are failing. Yet the continued direction is in the wrong direction.

The Obama administration in its early years drastically increased the number of migrants it deported in hopes of showing Republicans it had stepped up enforcement while trying to get its own comprehensive immigration package through Congress. Officials ultimately expelled a record 3 million people, which led some activists to label Obama deporter-in-chief but still didnt produce congressional action on an immigration overhaul.

The calculation that the administration is making at the moment is that they will have a better chance of getting Congress to act on broader-based immigration reforms if they can get the border under control, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. That was really the theory of the Obama administration.

As did the Obama and Trump administrations, the Biden administration has been confronting an increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the border, either illegally or to present themselves to Border Patrol agents so they can claim asylum.

The total number of encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border reached just over 208,000 for August, a slight decline from July but still the highest since March 2000 and the highest since the last big increase in 2019, under President Donald Trump.

The current total is inflated by Title 42, with about a quarter of the encounters involving people who have been recaptured after they were previously expelled under the public health authority. The numbers also have been rising due to factors that include COVID-19 ravages on Latin American economies and a perception that Biden will be more welcoming than Trump.

Biden's response has been to try to address the  root causes  of migration by increasing aid to Central America, which was cut under Trump, and restoring a program that enabled children from the region to apply for visas to join their families in the U.S.

His administration has also proposed a federal rule to protect immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Im confident that the president will use every tool at his disposal, but the administrative tools are not sufficient to fix what needs to be fixed, said Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Obama. She blames staunch Republican congressional opposition, and Senate rules she says were incorrectly applied, for the expectation that immigration reform will not pass Congress as part of the budgeting process.

Legislative efforts aside, the administration has stopped the Trump-era practice of expelling children crossing alone from Mexico under Title 42, and has allowed thousands of migrant families to remain in the U.S. while they pursue asylum claims  a process that frequently ends in denial but can take years for a final decision.

It has, however, continued to use Title 42 to expel many families and nearly all solo adults, with Mayorkas repeatedly insisting it is a necessary public health measure, aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 in detention facilities.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, argues that relying on Title 42 causes more trouble than its worth by inflating the total number of encounters, which are still far below what they were 20 years ago.

Title 42 has created a significant amount of churn at the border, and the end result of this churn hasnt been a more secure border, Reichlin-Melnick said. Its been a reduction in the ability of people to seek protection and an overstressed Border Patrol, which doesnt have the capacity to deal with that level of activity.

A federal judge, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, recently declared the reliance on Title 42 to deny people the right to seek asylum is likely illegal, and said he would issue a preliminary injunction halting its use. The Biden administration appealed, further infuriating the critics.

Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director, said at a forum Monday that he is broadly supportive of administrative actions on immigration and of Mayorkas. But he said the ACLU, which filed more than 400 legal actions under Trump, wont hesitate to keep challenging Biden on Title 42 and other matters.

I think litigation is as important in holding the feet to the fire of our quote allies as it is about fighting the foes of civil liberties and civil rights, Romero said, because that is what creates the political will."

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Associated Press writer Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  The director of a state board that in early 2020 was forced to end a contract with a Democratic activist after his name surfaced in purported government coverups involving a rape and illegal state hiring has been removed from his job.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board voted to fire Executive Director Brent Fischer on Sept. 8, Fischer's interim replacement, Keith Calloway, said Wednesday.

State records indicate Fischer, 54, who made $156,780, had been on paid administrative leave since June. Calloway and the standards board's chairman said they could not comment on the reason for Fischer's dismissal because it is a personnel matter. It is unclear if it was connected to his leadership of the agency in January 2020 when an incendiary email surfaced naming contract worker Forrest Ashby, prompting the board to cancel Ashbys employment.

Ashby's connection to the board entangled it in the scandal in which a 2012 email was uncovered urging top staff members to then-Gov. Pat Quinn to be lenient with Ashby, then a state employee facing discipline. Written by Michael McClain, a retired lobbyist from Quincy and confidante of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, it said of Ashby: "He has kept his mouth shut on Jones ghost workers, the rape in Champaign and other items. He is loyal to the administration.

At the time that WBEZ radio uncovered the email through a public records request, McClain and Madigan were under federal investigation involving utility giant ComEd and an alleged bribery scheme.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the email horrific," noting that it referred to two crimes  a purported sexual assault and the alleged hiring of no-work employees by Jones, an apparent reference to former Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat.

Pritzker referred the matter to the Office of the Executive Inspector General for investigation. The office did not return a phone call seeking comment on the status of the investigation. His spokeswoman did not respond to questions on the matter.

Fischer, a Quincy resident who was Adams County sheriff for 17 years, was appointed in December 2015 as executive director of the Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, which authorizes training specifics for police and other law enforcement agencies statewide. Attempts to contact him on numbers listed in his name were unsuccessful.

Fischer was in charge when the agency hired Ashby, who also is from Quincy, on contract. After retiring from state government in 2018, Ashby worked on Pritzker's campaign. The standards board paid him $14,400 from October 2019 until January 2020.

Calloway, who was deputy director under Fischer during his 2 1/2 years with the standards board, has served as interim executive director since July 1. He said he did not know the details of the decision surrounding Fischer.

I'm not familiar with the reason," Calloway said. It's a personnel matter. You'd have to ask the board.

The chairman of the board is Mitchell Davis III, chief of police in the south Chicago suburb of Hazel Crest, who said in an email that Calloway is the contact person on this matter and the response that he provided represents the response of the ILETSB Board.

After the email came to light and Ashby's contract was canceled, a standards board spokesman told The Associated Press that the board had referred the matter for an independent investigation, but refused to elaborate or release any documents related to ordering the review. Calloway said Wednesday he is unaware of any such investigation.

In July 2020, ComEd acknowledged in a deferred prosecution agreement that it engaged in a decade-long bribery scheme with Madigan and others, including McClain, who was indicted in November. Madigan, who as a result of the scandal lost his bid for a 19th term as House speaker has not been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing. Madigan was the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history.

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Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)  All teachers and school staff in Delaware will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, Gov. John Carney announced Tuesday.

The requirement announced by Carney, the Division of Public Health and Department of Education will be formally issued by emergency regulation and takes effect Nov. 1. The requirement also applies to contractors and volunteers who work in K-12 public and private schools.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A Minnesota prosecutor is reviewing evidence in law enforcement's fatal shooting of Winston Smith Jr. during an arrest in June as he sat in an SUV at a Minneapolis parking ramp.

Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan told the Star Tribune he will review the evidence on his own and hopes to have a charging decision by mid-October.

Two members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force shot Smith on June 3 while trying to arrest him for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm, a preliminary investigation found.

Ryan, whose Brainerd office is 125 miles (201 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis, said he was asked to take the case because counties closer to the Twin Cities had conflicts. The Marshals Service task force members who fired their weapons were sheriffs deputies from Ramsey County and Hennepin County, both in the metro area. A third metro-area county also had at least one deputy on the task force.

Ryan said he's had a few police deadly force cases since he was elected in 1994 and doesn't recall ever deciding to charge an officer. Ryan said he understands that fatal police shootings have often prompted protests and civil unrest, but that won't affect his decision.

I have a case, Im going to review the evidence and will make the decision that the evidence calls for, he said.

Authorities said Smith, who was Black, showed a handgun and fired it. Attorneys for a woman who was with him, Norhan Askar, say authorities did not identify themselves as law enforcement as they surrounded the SUV and she never saw a gun on Smith or in his vehicle. She said Smith was shot after he held up a cellphone to begin recording.

Both deputies who shot Smith were working undercover so their names are barred from release under state law, authorities have said.

State investigators have also said they were unaware of any video of the shooting. The lack of video raised questions and Smith's family members and activists have called for transparency.

When Smith was killed, Minneapolis was already on edge following the death of George Floyd more than a year earlier, and the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by an officer in nearby Brooklyn Center in April.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  The first-degree murder trial of a woman charged in a 4-year-old Jefferson City boy's death will be moved to another county, a Cole County judge ruled Wednesday.

Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson said Quatavia Givens' case would likely be reassigned to a judge determined by the Missouri Supreme Court, KMIZ reported.
SHENYANG, China (AP)  People in northeastern China ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as much of the country enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas.

News reports blame high coal prices they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand, while economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

In Shenyang, the northeast's most populous city, restaurant owner Li Yufeng used a battery from an electric bicycle to run a pot for noodles after seeing a notice power would be switched off at 7:30 a.m. Li said he started work two hours early, at 6 a.m., to prepare chicken, sauces and other dishes.

There are some impacts, but not a big impact, Li said as customers ate by smartphone lights.

Factories in Chinas busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week, prompting concern global supplies of smartphones and other goods might be disrupted. Now, urban neighborhoods are being blacked out, triggering pleas on social media for the government to solve the problem.

Chinas power consumption is growing at almost double its usual rate, while the ruling Communist Party is trying to reduce energy intensity, or the amount used per unit of economic output.

The power cuts come as global leaders prepare to attend a U.N. environmental conference by video link on Oct. 12-13 in the southwestern city of Kunming. That increases pressure on President Xi Jinpings government, as the meetings host, to show it is sticking to emissions and energy efficiency targets.

The cuts are largely driven by energy consumption control measures, with power shortages affecting another few provinces, Lara Dong of IHS Markit said in an email.

This is in line with Chinas decarbonization ambitions, she said.

The Cabinets planning agency warned in August that 20 regions had exceeded energy use and pollution targets after manufacturing rebounded from the pandemic. The government has ambitious plans to make the economy cleaner and more energy-efficient, so failing to meet those targets can be a career-ending blunder.

The power cuts could be more disruptive than previous shortages, Bank of America said in a report. Due to shortages in some areas, it said, "a relaxation of the governments energy consumption goals may not immediately alleviate the power crunch.

China is one of the worlds biggest emitters of climate-changing industrial gases and consumes more energy per unit of economic output than developed countries. Given its huge population, on a per capita basis it ranks much lower.

China also is preparing for the Winter Olympics in the capital, Beijing, and the nearby city of Shijiazhuang in February, a period when it will want clear blue skies.

Officials in Jiangsu province, a manufacturing hub northwest of Shanghai, told state media some cities there have used up 90% of this year's quota for power use. The officials of the provincial planning agency were cited as saying individual city governments had to decide how to meet their targets.

The government of Guangdong province, China's biggest manufacturing center, has cited both official energy use limits and low water levels in hydropower reservoirs that provide a big share of its electricity.

In Liaoning province, where Shenyang is the capital, the government said in a statement Sunday that power demand hit a record high in the first eight months of the year. It said Liaoning has suffered shortages since then due to a decline in wind power and other sources.

The government of neighboring Jilin province blamed a shortage of coal. It said in a statement Monday its governor would visit miners in nearby Inner Mongolia to line up additional supplies.

Some advance warnings of power cuts to residents in Shenyang and other cities cited a need to ration power but didn't say why.

Li, the noodle restaurant owner, showed a reporter a notice circulated on social media that said power would be out in his neighborhood from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Shopkeeper Yang Chang had a generator running on the sidewalk to keep freezers full of meat cold.

As long as there is electricity we can sell things, unlike restaurants that need water, said Yang. Yang didnt know or care what the reason for the power outage was but said, its understandable.

I was born in the 90s. When I was little, electricity wasnt stable, said Yang. Although we are having difficulties, the government will find a solution.

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AP video producer Olivia Zhang in Shenyang and AP Writers Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed.
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP)  The Minneapolis suburb where Black motorist Daunte Wright was killed by an officer in April has enacted its first step in a plan to change policing in the city.

Brooklyn Center announced Tuesday that officers are now instructed to release people who are cited for low-level crimes and can only take them into custody if required by law, which would include cases of felonies or if someone poses a threat to themselves, the public or to property. The policy also requires officers to attempt to deescalate situations.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russia's Communist Party filed multiple lawsuits Wednesday to contest parliamentary election results from online voting in Moscow, which party members allege was rigged and blame for their defeat in races in the Russian capital.

The party, which placed second nationally in this month's election, usually toes the Kremlin's line but already had engaged in an active effort to invalidate the disputed Moscow returns. Senior party members organized street protests and joined a coalition of Kremlin critics that also is trying to annul the capital's results from online balloting, an option that was available to voters in the Russian capital and several other regions.

The moves prompted authorities to detain a number of Communist Party members  pressure typically put on supporters of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny and not the second-biggest political force in Russia's parliament.

Election results two weeks ago made the Kremlins United Russia party the winner. United Russia received 49.8% of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties and won 198 out of 225 seats for lawmakers who are chosen directly by voters. Together, the results gave the party a supermajority with 324 of the 450 seats in parliament.

The Communist Party came in second with 57 seats  an increase from the 2016 election. However, candidates put forward by the party lost 15 races in single-constituency districts in Moscow and blamed their defeat on the online balloting, alleging that it was rigged.

Russian election authorities have denied the accusations.

Critics pointed to a number of individual Moscow races as evidence of tampering. In those races, Kremlin-backed candidates were losing until the results of online voting came in, and they suddenly shot ahead.

The Communist Party has refused to recognize the results of the vote in Moscow and staged two street protests, after which police detained several party members.

The party planned to file over a dozen lawsuits contesting the results on Tuesday, but its members said police showed up at its Moscow office, paralyzing its work. On Wednesday morning, a lawyer in charge of the lawsuits was ordered to serve 10 days in jail.

Still, the party managed to file the suits later Wednesday.

From the tribune of the courtroom, we will spill light on all the methods that the authorities used to falsify the results of the election. This publicity, in front of the whole country and I daresay the whole world, terrifies them (the authorities) terribly, senior member of the Communist Party, Valery Rashkin, told reporters outside a Moscow courthouse.

Also Wednesday, the Communist Party's faction in Moscow's city council, the City Duma, walked out on a session to protest the election results in Moscow.

Rashkin, who was among those who lost individual races in Moscow at the last minute, said the party intends to fight until the end.

We wont stop. We wont be content with merely playing in court for a little and then stopping. No, this will not happen. We have stepped on the path of battling for justice, for the truth, for elections that are fair, open, transparent and competitive, he said.

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Daniel Kozin in Moscow contributed reporting.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  As conservative political groups mobilize to ban in schools what they call critical race theory, one prominent backer of Republican causes and candidates is notably absent.

Leaders in the network built by the billionaire Koch family say they oppose government bans over teaching about race and history in schools. While they note they don't agree with the ideas at the center of the fight, they argue the government bans, now enacted in 11 states, stifle debate essential to democracy.

Using government to ban ideas, even those we disagree with, is also counter to core American principles  the principles that help drive social progress, said Evan Feinberg, executive director of the Koch-affiliated Stand Together Foundation.

That position is in line with the network's long-held libertarian streak. But it has sparked fresh charges of hypocrisy from the megadonor's critics. After spending years pouring money into conservative groups, the Koch groups cannot distance themselves from the movement it helped build, they argue.

They have this nice position they want to tout from a P.R. standpoint. But their money has gone to these groups that have the opposite effect on that agenda," said Lisa Graves, board president for the liberal watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy.

The Koch organization first went public with its position last spring, as state lawmakers and conservative groups began passing legislation that bans from classrooms specific concepts, including the idea that racism is systemic in society and the U.S. legal system.

The efforts were prompted in part by backlash to The 1619 Project, a New York Times Magazine initiative aimed at rethinking the role of slavery in the nation's history and development.

In a letter published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in May, Charlie Ruger, the Charles Koch Foundations vice president of philanthropy, described Republicans' push to ban these concepts from schools as a gag on free expression.

Both learning and research require openness to new ideas and the ability to argue productively," Ruger wrote. That requires standing against censorship."

The Koch political behemoth  a multibillion-dollar umbrella of foundations and a political action committee  was built by brothers Charles and David Koch out of the familys Kansas-based business empire during the 1980s and 1990s. Though David Koch died in 2018, the network has continued to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into organizations and politics that push for small government, lower taxes, deregulation, free speech, academic freedom and a conservative judiciary.

The organization's opposition to the race and education bans has not kept the groups it has long supported out of the fight. In Wisconsin, parents seeking to recall school board members have received help this year from the Koch-supported Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law. The Milwaukee law firm received $310,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation for five years through 2019, the last year with public records available and before critical race theory flared as a GOP rallying point. The money was in the form of grants that were aimed at protecting free speech on college campuses, a Koch spokesman said.

The foundation and the Charles Koch Institute also contributed over the same period about $75,000 to State Policy Network, a conservative think tank that has promoted the bans. However, the grants, also before the 2021 wave of legislation, helped sponsor an annual meeting, an internship and a panel discussion on business, the Koch spokesman said.

Among the most prominent drivers behind the legislative bans was another Koch-backed group, the American Legislative Exchange Council. The Chicago-based conservative policymaking group provides model legislation for conservative lawmakers and has promoted measures to ban critical race theory in schools this year.

Stand Together and its related groups contributed $2.7 million to ALEC between 2015 and 2019.

None of it was targeted for limiting schools' curriculum on history and race, and was awarded before the issue became a Republican priority, Stand Together spokesman Bill Riggs said.

In 2020, ALEC continued to receive money from two Koch foundations, donations that were earmarked for trade, regulatory and fiscal policy, as well as advocating free speech and providing scholarships, Riggs said.

Riggs did not disclose the 2020 total given. Only contributions through 2019 are searchable through publicly available tax documents. Contributions for 2020 wont be available to the public until mid-November.

Riggs accused Koch critics of a misinformation game that suggests the network is secretly supporting a policy it does not. He noted Koch groups give to a broad spectrum of organizations that align with some of its founders values, if not all of their views.

The Charles Koch Foundation contributed to the Democratic-leaning Brookings Institution in 2018 and 2019 on issues related to foreign policy, Riggs said. Last year, the Koch network helped create Heal America, a faith-based program aimed at fighting racial injustice with love and redemption, according to its website. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and television commentator Van Jones, a Democrat, have both participated in events.

Riggs declined to say whether the Koch network would refuse to contribute to groups supporting bans on teaching critical race theory, such as ALEC, noting it prescribes in grant agreements the purpose of the money. He also declined to say whether they would rethink support for political candidates who also back the policy.

The Koch-backed political action committee Americans for Prosperity Action spent at least $9.7 million backing North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis in his tough campaign for reelection to the Senate last year, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

Tillis was prominent sponsor of a measure this year to prohibit using of federal money to teach the 1619 Project in elementary, middle and high school. The bill has not advanced in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Endorsements by Americans for Prosperity Action are based on several factors including voting records, statements, how they lead on lead on key issues, as well as how they distinguish themselves as leaders capable of bringing people together to drive solutions, Riggs said.

But there is no single litmus test issue. We recognize no one is going to agree on everything, he said.

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This story deletes an incorrect reference to Koch network leaders saying they oppose efforts to recall school board members.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin has prevailed against efforts to recall him from office as a county commissioner in southern New Mexico.

Recall committee spokesman Scott Fredrick said a petition drive collected 1,229 signatures from registered voters in Griffin's Otero County district, short of what they needed to trigger a special election.

New Mexico requires a number of signatures equal to one-third of participation in the previous election. The recall petition fell shy, with about one-quarter as time ran out on Wednesday.

Since we didn't meet the signature threshold, there is no next step, said Fredrick, conceding defeat Tuesday night.

A successful recall election would have allowed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to select an interim replacement. Griffin can run for reelection in 2022, but told The Associated Press last week that he's more interested in running for sheriff in his native Catron County or governor of New Mexico some day.

Griffin has resumed traveled to political speaking engagements  in Texas, Montana and Arizona  while burnishing his image in a new video documentary as a God-fearing peaceful patriot who stands in solidarity with about 70 defendants jailed on charges related to the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol.

The failed recall petition accused Griffin of failing to attend commission meetings, using his elected position for personal gain in promoting a support group for former President Donald Trump, improper travel vouchers and violating state restrictions on gifts to public officials.

Griffin described the charges as frivolous and blamed county staff for providing bad guidance on travel reimbursements.

Griffin formed Cowboys for Trump in 2019 with a group of rodeo acquaintances, vowing to hold horseback-riding parades nationwide in support of Trump. He is confronting misdemeanor criminal charges in the Jan. 6. insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, where he appeared on an outdoor terrace and tried to lead the crowd in prayer.

Griffin denies allegations that he knowingly entering barricaded areas of the Capitol grounds with the intent of disrupting government as Congress considered the 2020 Electoral College results, though he openly ascribes to unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

In a 50-minute online documentary and political origin story released in August, Griffin recounts his own travails inside a Washington, D.C., jail for nearly three weeks after his arrest in the run-up to President Joe Biden's inauguration. Griffin says he didn't directly witness violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but believes it was perpetrated by militant leftists and not Trump supporters, contrary to extensive evidence.

I myself wear Jan. 6 as a badge of honor, Griffin says in the film, infused with orchestral tones. Im glad that I went on that day. ... to stand with my fellow Americans in protest of what will one day be known as the biggest rigged election in American history."

Bidens victory was certified by officials in each of the swing states he won and by Congress on Jan. 6  after Trumps supporters, fueled by false allegations of widespread election fraud, stormed the House and Senate chambers in a failed attempt to prevent certification of how Americans voted nationwide.

Griffin says the film about him was put together by Trump-allied attorney Sidney Powell and her group, Defending the Republic.

Powell has filed a number of baseless lawsuits challenging 2020 election results and helped fund the recent Arizona election audit.

Griffin also is challenging directives by state election regulators to register Cowboys for Trump as a political committee, arguing that financial disclosures would subject contributors to harassment. Griffin insists Cowboys for Trump is exempt as a for-profit group and wants a 2019 state law concerning independent political expenditure groups to be declared unconstitutional.

Powell is representing Griffin in that case, now before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

A public fundraising effort to benefit Griffin is underway through the online crowdsource platform GiveSendGo that has raised at least $41,500  including a $10,000 anonymous donation and gifts as small as $5. The fund drive highlights a photograph from the White House Oval Office of President Donald Trump posing with Griffin, who wears a shirt with the Cowboys for Trump insignia.

Griffin says the money helped him travel to Phoenix last week for a Justice for January 6" rally.

Its just to help with the financial burdens of not only the legal defense, which that is part of it, but also just to survive, Griffin said of the donations. I make $23,000 a year (as a county commissioner) and I do a lot of traveling and I do a lot of work. ... Im really financially strained all the time. So its been a blessing.

A publicly appointed defense attorney is representing Griffin in the Jan. 6 case, and Griffin says he is represented by Powell free of charge in his lawsuit against the New Mexico secretary of state.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The foreign minister of the divided island of Cyprus is accusing Turkeys president of attempting to promote a new Ottoman empire in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East  and says such an approach to geopolitics could adversely impact regional security.

Nikos Christodoulides, whose Mediterranean island nation is divided into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south that is a member of the European Union, pointed to what he called aggressive Turkish behavior not only in Cyprus but in Syria, Iraq, Libya and other Arab countries in the region.

We see the militarization of the Turkish foreign policy, Christodoulides said in an interview with The Associated Press, and this is of great concern for all the countries in the region.

Christodoulides invoked the Ottoman empire, which controlled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries from Constantinople, which is now Turkeys largest city, Istanbul. The empire entered World War I on the side of Germany and the central powers that were defeated, leading to its breakup and the rise of the modern Turkish republic.

Christodoulides cited former Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglus policy of zero problems with neighboring countries, which was a flagship concept of the ruling Justice and Development Party led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

From zero problems with the neighbors we end up today with Turkey having problems with all neighbors, he said. There is not a single country that doesnt have problems with Turkey.

What we are witnessing from Turkey is an attempt to promote a new Ottoman policy in the region, the Cypriot minister said. Turkey wants to become the regional hegemony.

Christodoulides was interviewed Monday, the final day of the U.N. General Assemblys annual high-level gathering of world leaders, after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hosted Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in hopes of jump-starting a return to negotiations to reunite the Mediterranean island nation.

Numerous rounds of U.N.-mediated talks have ended in failure, with the last push for a peace deal in July 2017 ending in acrimony. That meeting also led to a shift by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots toward seeking a two-state deal rather than pursuing their stated aim of reunifying the country as a federation made up of Greek and Turkish speaking zones as called for by the U.N. Security Council.

Turkeys Foreign Ministry didnt immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Turkeys government, which takes pride in the countrys Ottoman past, denies it has expansionist ambitions in the region and insists that its actions in the Mediterranean are geared toward safeguarding its interests and those of Turkish Cypriots on the divided island against what it regards as Cyprus and Greeces disproportionate maritime boundary and energy exploratory claims.

Turkey maintains troops in northern Iraq and frequently conducts cross-border operations there to battle Kurdish militants. It has also sent troops to Syria with the stated aim to clear militia forces linked to the Kurdish insurgency from its borders. In Libya, Turkey provided military support to the countrys U.N.-backed government, helping to tip the balance in the conflict against the Benghazi-based forces that controlled the east. Turkey also signed an agreement with the Tripoli-based government delineating the maritime boundaries which triggered protests from Greece and Cyprus.

Christodoulides said Erdogans recent announcement of a drone base in breakaway northern Cyprus is an example of Turkeys Ottoman policy.

The main reason for establishing this drone base is to control the Middle East, is to control Israel, its to control Egypt, he said. Its not for Cyprus, actually, because you dont need a drone base in Cyprus in order to see the situation in the island.

Christodoulides said the Cypriot government vehemently opposes a two-state solution because it will give Turkey full control of a so-called Turkish Cypriot sovereign state, which isnt the case today because only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot north, not the international community.

So, they run with this to control the region, to promote its plan for the eastern Mediterranean, he said.

The top Cypriot diplomat said that to understand Erdogans policy in Cyprus it must be seen in the context of what Turkish forces are doing in northern Syria and Iraq, in Libya and in some African countries.

Christodoulides said Cyprus is working to bolster its security with its neighbors, especially Israel and Egypt, but also the United States, recalling that Cyprus signed a statement of intent for security cooperation with the U.S. in 2018 that is very important. Also important, he said: that the EU is considering developing a security wing.

The Cypriot minister renewed an invitation to Turkey  made last year by the leaders of Cyprus, Egypt and Greece  to become a partner in reaping the potential benefits of offshore gas deposits, while urging Ankara to end its aggressive actions in the eastern Mediterranean.

We dont exclude anybody, he said. We want all the neighboring countries to work in order to take advantage of the energy possibilities of our region.

Christodoulides said all countries in the region have delineated their maritime borders except Turkey, adding that it has refused to enter bilateral relations to determine its border with Cyprus or go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

We want and were ready to work with Turkey, he said. What were asking from Turkey  just to respect international law, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

He said all other countries in the region understand the benefits of cooperation, but also the fact that united we will be able to tackle the challenges of the region, to work together. He pointed as an example to this summers wildfires in Cyprus, Greece and Israel which saw many countries in the region offer help.

Cyprus long-term vision, Christodoulides said, is to establish a regional organization for security and cooperation.

Its the only region in the world that no such organization exists, he said. And we believe that all the countries of the region, they can see benefits out of this regional cooperation.

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Edith M. Lederer, chief U.N. correspondent for The Associated Press, has been reporting internationally for nearly 50 years. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EdithLedererAP
DAYTON, Ohio (AP)  An Ohio man and two women who pleaded guilty in what authorities called the extreme abuse death of the man's 10-year-old son were all sentenced Wednesday to lengthy prison terms.

Al-Mutahan McLean, 32, had pleaded guilty on Sept. 8 in Montgomery County court to murder, kidnapping, rape and child endangerment charges stemming from the December 2019 death of Takoda Collins. The pleas came shortly before he was due to go on trial, and he was sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.
DENVER (AP)  A judge on Wednesday dismissed an attempt by a group of Denver police officers to block the city's vaccine mandate from taking effect.

In a lawsuit filed last week, seven officers claimed that the city did not have the authority to impose the mandate under a local disaster emergency declared by Mayor Michael Hancock at the beginning of the pandemic, noting that Democratic Gov. Jared Polis rescinded his statewide emergency pandemic order in July.

The officers who sued claimed the city should have instead followed the more drawn out process laid out in state law to impose regulations.

However, Judge Shelley Gilman ruled that law only applies to state agencies. Under city law, the officers should have appealed the vaccine mandate, first issued on Aug. 2, to the health board before filing a lawsuit, she said.

Since they did not, Gilman said she had no jurisdiction to decide the case and dismissed it, granting a dismissal request made by the city in its response to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the city noted that four of the seven officers who filed the lawsuit have been granted unspecified exemptions to the mandate and a fifth was denied an exemption for failing to cite an accepted reason.

They also listed recent unsuccessful attempts to block vaccine mandates in state and federal court by teachers in New York and health care workers in Kentucky and Texas.

Under Denver's public health order, updated Sept. 1, all city employees, workers in public and private schools and people who work for private employers such as hospitals, homeless shelters, childcare centers must show proof that they are vaccinated by Thursday. City workers face dismissal for noncompliance.

Under a discipline plan released by the city attorneys office, the city plans to start issuing letters Friday to unvaccinated employees who have not been granted exemptions notifying them that will face discipline.

Workers who refuse to get vaccinated under any circumstance will be dismissed. Others will be suspended for 10 days without pay and dismissed if they remain unvaccinated.

The mandate comes as the city's police department struggles with a shortage of officers.

Police Chief Paul Pazen has acknowledged a higher number of resignations and retirements this year compared to previous years but told city councilors last week that the shortage of officers was the result of the cancelation of police academy classes because of pandemic budget cuts.
CAIRO (AP)  President Joe Bidens national security adviser held talks Wednesday with Egypts president that focused on regional tensions and the ties between Washington and its Mideast ally, the Egyptian leaders office said.

The meeting in Cairo with Jake Sullivan came as the Biden administration presses Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi's government to stop his crackdown on dissent. The U.S. announced earlier this month it would withhold $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.

The two sides discussed Egypts human rights strategy, and officials from the U.S. delegation highlighted the importance the White House sees of the el-Sissi government improving its record on the matter, according to a senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry attended the talks, which came after Sullivan paid visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for talks focused on finding an end to the war in Yemen.

El-Sissis office said in a statement the talks also addressed efforts to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians amid rising tensions between the Jewish state and the Hamas militant group.

The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent weeks, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction and heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank.

Egypt has long played a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. El-Sissis government brokered a cease-fire after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas erupted in May.

The statement said the talks also touched on the situation in Libya as the chaos-wrecked North African nation heads toward elections late this year.

The U.S., Egypt and other Western nations are pushing for holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya as scheduled on Dec. 24, hoping the vote will end a decade-long chaos in the oil-rich nation.

El-Sissi and Sullivan also discussed a decade-long dispute over a massive dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.

Ethiopia says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is crucial for its economic development. Egypt and Sudan, downstream countries, say the project is a threat to their water security and have called for a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dams reservoir.

El-Sissi urged the international community to play an effective role to resolve the dispute. Egypt will not accept damage to its water interests," he said.

The Biden administration sees the dam dispute as potential flashpoint in the turbulent Horn of Africa but has sought to take a back seat to the African Union in finding a resolution.

Sullivan told the Egyptian president that the U.S. wants to see a diplomatic solution to the Ethiopian dam issue, but also recognized Egypts concerns about access to Nile River waters, according to the Biden administration official.

The two sides also discussed promoting Iraqs stability and regional integration, addressing Lebanons financial crisis, promoting a return to constitutional order in Tunisia, and supporting a civilian-led transition of government in Sudan, the official said.

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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union's executive branch proposed Wednesday to tighten visa restrictions on members of President Alexander Lukashenkos regime as allegations mount that Belarus is using migrants to destabilize the 27-country bloc.

EU members Poland and Lithuania are struggling to cope with an unusually high number of migrants, most from Iraq and Afghanistan, arriving at their borders with Belarus in recent months. Poland deployed troops and declared a state of emergency. Dozens tried to cross into Lithuania overnight.

The migrant influx began a year ago after the EU slapped sanctions on Lukashenkos government over the August 2020 presidential election, which the West views as rigged, and the Belarus security crackdown on the opposition and peaceful protesters that followed.

Now, the European Commission wants EU member countries to consider suspending parts of a visa facilitation agreement with Belarus that took effect in July 2020. The deal was meant to improve ties and draw the former Soviet country closer to Europe.

The proposal would hit Belarusian officials, including members of the government, lawmakers, diplomats, and top court representatives. It would increase travel red tape and require them to provide extra documents and pay more for visas.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson described Lukashenko as really desperate, and claimed that he is even trying to make money off migrants who can afford to pay 10,000 euros (about $11,650) to go to Belarus.

He is trying to destabilize the European Union by bringing in migrants, and facilitating them, and pushing them into the European Union, Johansson told reporters as she announced the visa proposal. This is a way for Lukashenko to also earn money.

He is actually deceiving people to pay a lot of money just to be trapped and tricked, she said, citing reports from the EUs police and border agencies. Migrants are put up at a very nice hotel in Minsk, she said, and helped to the border, but then get trapped when they cant enter the EU.

But the commission is also concerned about developments along the Polish border. The government wants to extend the state of emergency there for another 60 days. Johansson will travel to Warsaw on Thursday for talks with Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski.

Around 1,400 people who entered Poland without authorization are being held in guarded centers for foreigners. The nationalist government alleges that some migrants have ties to terrorist and criminal groups and pose a security threat.

Polish authorities are also sending text messages to mobile phones in the border area. The Polish border is sealed. BLR (Belarus) authorities told you lies. Go back to Minsk! Dont take any pills from Belarusian soldiers, the messages read.

Asked whether she supports Poland extending the state of emergency at the border, where at least six migrants have died and about 600 border guards backed by about 2,500 troops are stationed, Johansson underlined the importance of transparency and respecting EU legislation and values.

It is important that we are firm towards Lukashenko, but it is also important that we show that this is a European border. Its not only a Polish border, she said.

In Lithuania, 63 people were refused entry from Belarus overnight in the biggest number of migrant arrivals on a single day this month. The Baltic country has been a favored target of Lukashenko since key Belarus opposition figures fled there last year.

More than 4,000 people have tried to cross the border since August. Lithuania has started building a fence along its 678-kilometer (424-mile) border with Belarus.

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Monika Scislowska reported from Warsaw, Poland. Liudas Dapkus contributed to this report from Vilnius, Lithuania.

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Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)  The head of the European Union's executive branch on Wednesday called on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through the dialogue and deescalate the recent tension over license plates.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, to meet with senior leaders as part of her regional tour before an EU-Western Balkans summit on Oct. 6.

It is vital that Kosovo and Serbia normalize their relations, she said at a news conference with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The EU-facilitated dialogue ... is the only platform to resolve the current crisis.

Representatives of the two countries were meeting Wednesday in Brussels, facilitated by the EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak.

Last week, Kosovo's government deployed special police forces to the border crossings to impose a new rule of removing Serb license plates from cars coming into the country, saying that a 10-year-old deal had expired. Pristina said they were replicating what Serbia had done for the last 10 years.

Kosovo Serbs blocked the border with trucks and people could only pass it on foot. Serbian military jets and helicopters have been flying close to the border with Kosovo in an apparent show of force.

We understand its not only a question of license plates, von der Leyen said. We all know that its more its a question how this region will move forward and whether we are going to be able to go together, the path toward integration and towards our European values here.

Kurti has repeated the offer that both countries drop the temporary license plate rule as a solution.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has demanded that Kosovo first withdraws all special police at the border before launching the EU-mediated negotiations.

The EU, NATO and the U.S. have urged Kosovo and Serbia to exercise restraint and refrain from taking unilateral actions.

Von der Leyen is visiting the six Balkan countries to assure their future is in the EU.

The Western Balkan countries  Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia  are at different stages on the EU membership path. The blocs stalled interest in enlargement and years of diplomatic turmoil with Britain over Brexit are some factors delaying their progress.

I am a staunch supporter of the process of enlargement. I want the Western Balkans by our side. Thats where you belong. We want you. We need you, she said.

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Llazar Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.
ELDRIDGE, Iowa (AP)  A former eastern Iowa police officer has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl while he was on duty.

Andrew Patrick Denoyer, 24, was arrested Tuesday night by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Quad-City Times reported. His arrest came a day after he resigned from his job as an Eldridge police officer in the wake of the investigation that began last week.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  A former Nebraska county prosecutor who resigned earlier this year following a string of scandals has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he used his office to stalk his estranged wife and her boyfriend.

Oliver Glass wife filed for separation in November 2018 and met her boyfriend almost a year later, according to the indictment. She filed for divorce in January 2020.

The indictment alleges Glass used his position as Dodge County Attorney and his police contacts to obtain information about and harass his estranged wife and her boyfriend from March through December 2020, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Federal prosecutors say Glass and two employees in the Dodge County attorneys office used a database for law enforcement to access personal information on his wife's boyfriend at least 16 times. Glass then used that information to threaten and degrade the boyfriend, including sending 46 text messages and making 10 phone calls to the man several days after learning of his wife and the man's relationship, according to the indictment.

Glass also asked police officers and sheriff's deputies to monitor his wife's and her boyfriend's homes and to try to catch them driving under the influence, the indictment says. Glass is accused of at one point telling a Nebraska State trooper that he was angry enough to "kill them both.

The indictment comes months after Glass resigned in February following his second drunken driving arrest. Glass refused to resign after his first DUI conviction in March 2020. He was arrested again in January after prosecutors said Glass drove drunk to his wifes house to pick up their two children.

Instead of charging Glass with a second-offense DUI, prosecutors charged him with a probation violation from the first DUI case. That's because the arresting Fremont police officers conducted only a preliminary breath test showing Glass blood alcohol content at 2 1/2 times the legal limit to drive. Police did not follow up with a more advanced blood test, and because breath tests aren't admissible in court, prosecutors said they feared they couldn't get a conviction on a DUI count.

Glass was sentenced to 18 months of probation in May after a judge found him guilty of the probation violation.

If convicted of the two counts of cyberstalking, Glass faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

An attorney for Glass, Clarence Mock, did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday by The Associated Press seeking comment.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  The family of a Black man who died in a North Carolina jail two years ago has filed a lawsuit saying his civil rights were violated when detention officers and a nurse ignored his medical distress and pinned him on a mattress as he yelled that he couldn't breathe.

Among the issues pointed out in the 74-page lawsuit was a handwritten note from a captain in the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office to emergency workers after John Neville reached the hospital on Dec. 2, 2019, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. The note said: Call if and when there is a time of death and if an autopsy is performed. We need to know yes or no. Thank you.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A federal utility is requiring its workers to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 22.

Tennessee Valley Authority spokesperson Jim Hopson says the nations largest public utility is working on developing the processes and procedures to implement the new requirement, including a secure system for employees to document their vaccination status.
EATONTON, Ga. (AP)  A Georgia prisoner found guilty of murder in the 2017 killings of two guards on a transport bus was sentenced Wednesday to serve life in prison without parole.

After taking only a few hours last week to convict Donnie Rowe of malice murder and other crimes, jurors could not agree on whether he should be sentenced to death, news outlets reported. Putnam County Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Trammell then sentenced Rowe to serve life in prison without parole. A death sentence requires a unanimous jury.

The jury included seven women and five men who had been brought to Eatonton from Grady County, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south, because of pretrial publicity. They deliberated for three hours Tuesday and five hours Wednesday, according to news outlets.

Rowe and fellow prisoner Ricky Dubose were accused of fatally shooting Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue while escaping from a prison transfer bus southeast of Atlanta in June 2017. They were arrested in Tennessee a few days later.

Dubose is to be tried separately and also faces the death penalty.

Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape while roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings from the back of the bus.

Rowes defense attorneys had argued he didnt know Dubose would kill the guards and should be spared a death sentence. District Attorney Wright Barksdale had argued that Rowe hatched the escape plot and the crime took both men to complete.

In addition to the security video, jurors got a firsthand look in the courthouse parking lot of the bus where the slayings occurred. They also heard from the man whose car the inmates stole right after fleeing the bus, as well as a homeowner in Rutherford County, Tennessee, who grabbed a pistol and called 911 after seeing Rowe and Dubose walking toward his house. He testified that the exhausted fugitives laid down and surrendered.

Rowe did not testify. His defense attorneys played the jury audio and video of Dubose saying he was the one who shot both officers. The defense lawyers then rested their case.

Rowe was already serving a sentence of life without parole for an armed robbery conviction when the guards were slain four years ago.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Iraqs top Shiite cleric called Wednesday for wide participation in next months parliament elections, saying that despite shortcomings, voting remains the best way for Iraqis to take part in shaping their countrys future.

Iraqis are headed to the polls Oct. 10 for early elections characterized by widespread apathy and concerns of low voter turnout. The elections are being held a year before they had been scheduled to take place in line with a key demand of protesters who filled the streets in October 2019 demanding change in the country, where corruption is widespread.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)  Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, hurling stones at cars and homes and leaving several people wounded, including a Palestinian toddler, activists said Wednesday.

Video of Tuesday's attack released by an Israeli rights group showed several shirtless settlers with scarves wrapped around their faces hurling stones at a cluster of homes and vehicles. Israeli troops stood among the settlers but did not appear to be taking any action to stop them.

The Israeli military declined to comment. Israeli police described it as a friction incident and said two Palestinians and a settler were arrested. It said people were wounded on both sides and that it is still investigating the incident after complaints were filed on Wednesday.

Later on Thursday police said officers arrested three people  one of them a minor  suspected of assault and damaging property in connection with the incident.

Sami Hureini, a local Palestinian activist, said a group of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd near the village of Mufaqara and slaughtered four of his sheep. He said they then stormed the village itself, attacking residents with clubs and stones.

He said a four-year-old boy, Mohammed Bakr, was hospitalized with a head injury.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem released video of the attack and provided a similar account. It said Israeli troops fired tear gas at Palestinian residents and arrested at least one Palestinian. An Israeli soldier can be seen throwing a tear gas grenade at the Palestinian who filmed the attack and then shoving him.

Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 war. The territory is home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.

In addition to more than 120 authorized settlements, more radical settlers have established dozens of outposts in rural parts of the West Bank. Israeli authorities are reluctant to dismantle them because doing so usually ignites clashes between the settlers and security forces. The Palestinians and the international community consider all settlements to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.

B'Tselem said the settlers who took part in the attack came from two nearby outposts, Avigayil and Havat Maon. The area has seen a series of recent settler attacks. B'Tselem and other rights groups say Israeli forces often turn a blind eye to settler violence or side with the settlers in clashes with Palestinians.

What Palestinians endured yesterday in the South Hebron Hills is is one of the biggest attacks in broad daylight by settlers on a Palestinian community, said Hagai El-Ad, the director of BTselem.

But it needs to be understood that this is not just random settler violence. This is strategic. Israel aims to forcibly transfer Palestinians from large parts of the West Bank.

The U.N. Mideast envoy, Tor Wennesland, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that he is deeply troubled" at the continuing loss of life and serious injuries in the Palestinian territories and appalled that children continue to be victims of violence."

Between June 12 and Sept. 27, he said, 27 Palestinians including two women and five children were killed by Israeli security forces and 1,445 were injured, including 10 women and 152 children, during demonstrations, clashes, security operations and other incidents.

The U.N. special coordinator said Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable in order to protect life."

Wennesland also expressed deep concern in the virtual briefing at continuing settler-related violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and said all perpetrators must be held accountable.

He also called for a halt to Palestinian attacks toward Israeli population centers using rockets and incendiary devices.

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Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss and Alon Bernstein in Jerusalem and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
PARIS (AP)  A French court on Wednesday asked Italy for more information before deciding whether nine Italian former militants should be extradited to serve prison terms for their roles in the extreme-left terrorism that bloodied Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Italians, now aged 63 to 77, were convicted in Italy of terrorism, murder or attempted kidnapping but fled and lived in freedom for decades in France until their surprise arrests in April. Their presence in France has long been a sore point in relations with Italy.

The Paris court held an extradition hearing in June and was expected to make a decision Wednesday, but instead demanded more information from Italy about their legal files and scheduled a new hearing Jan. 12. The overall extradition effort could last two or three years.

Jean-Louis Chalanset, lawyer for one of the militants, welcomed the delay and denounced the extradition request as political.

The activists were sentenced in Italy to terms ranging from 14 years to life in prison, but sought refuge abroad before they could be imprisoned for their sentences. They were active during the so-called years of lead, when Italy saw political violence by extreme-left and extreme-right groups.

In April, thanks to new European justice rules, Italy renewed an effort for their extradition. Seven were arrested in their homes in France, two others surrendered to police the next day. A 10th person was arrested later and is being considered in a separate extradition hearing.

At the extradition hearing in June, defendant Giorgio Petrostefani didnt appear because of grave medical problems. Petrostefani, from the far-left group Lotta Continua (The Struggle Continues), was convicted of the 1972 slaying of the Milan police chief.

At the June hearing, former militant Marina Petrella said she was so shocked by the turn of events that she couldnt answer questions.

She and four other defendants were members of the Red Brigades, which during the 1970s and 1980s carried out killings, kidnappings and knee-cappings, in which targets were shot in the legs. Those decades also saw Italy plagued by bombings and other terror attacks by right-wing extremists.

Under a 1980s policy known as the Mitterrand doctrine, named for Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, France refused to extradite Italian far-left activists who had fled to France unless there was evidence that they committed crimes of blood.

The past was the past. But Frances position was legally open to criticism, said William Julie, a lawyer for Italy.

In announcing the arrests in April, the French presidents office said that France, itself affected by terrorism, understands the absolute need for justice for victims.

The trial over the Islamic State attacks that shook Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, and killed 130 people is taking place in the same Paris courthouse as Wednesdays extradition hearing.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP)  Defense company Northrop Grumman knew for more than a decade that chemicals from a site it owns near the Springfield-Branson Airport were contaminating groundwater in surrounding property, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit claims Northrop Grumman, which is based in Virginia, did not notify residents their groundwater may be contain trichloroethylene, or TCE, which causes cancer.
NEW YORK (AP)  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has encouraged religious-minded people to get a COVID-19 vaccine by saying it is God's will that they get inoculated.

A lawyer argued before a federal appeals court Wednesday that the Democrat's comments about God could be encouraging hospitals and nursing homes to ignore court orders that  for now  are supposed to prevent them from punishing workers who won't take the vaccine because of religious objections.

Health care institutions across New York this week began suspending workers who failed to meet a state deadline to get a COVID-19 shot. Statewide, about 92% of hospital and nursing home staff had received at least one dose as of the vaccine as of Wednesday morning, according to figures from Hochul's office.

New York's vaccine mandate for health care workers doesn't include a religious exemption, but because of legal challenges, courts have temporarily barred employers from enforcing the mandate against people with a sincerely held religious belief against vaccination.

During court arguments Wednesday, the judges with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan did not appear to be particularly impressed by an argument by Cameron Lee Atkinson, an attorney with We The Patriots USA Inc., a group challenging the state mandate, that Hochul's comments about God were discouraging health care employers from granting religious exemptions.

One of three judges on a panel said Atkinson's claim that Hochul is telling people that God wants you to get the vaccine was not the same as ordering employers to fire workers.

Earlier this week, Hochul, who is Roman Catholic, told a gathering of people at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn that God answered prayers and made scientists, doctors and researchers successfully develop the coronavirus vaccine.

Those who are vaccinated are the smart ones," she said, and added that you know theres people out there who arent listening to God and what God wants. You know who they are.

Attorney Steven Wu, New York's deputy solicitor general, told the appeals court judges that the state is in full compliance with a temporary restraining order granted this month by U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd that prevents disciplinary action against health care workers who have sought a religious exemption.

Hurd is scheduled to rule by Oct. 12 on a request for a more permanent order.

The fact that Hurd's temporary order is already in place left the 2nd Circuit questioning Wednesday whether it needed to take action at all. It made no immediate rulings.

The state health department has set up an operations center to monitor health care staffing, and Hochul tweeted Wednesday that zero health care facilities across the state have been reported closed.

Our 24/7 Operations Center is constantly monitoring developments and working with facilities to troubleshoot any issues, she tweeted. We stand ready to take additional action as needed.
ELY, Nev. (AP)  A 67-year-old Nevada man with acknowledged bipolar disorder was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for ambushing and killing a veteran highway patrol sergeant on a remote state highway in March 2020.

John Leonard Dabritz, a former resident of the small White Pine County mining town of Ruth, avoided a death penalty trial when he changed his plea in July to guilty but mentally ill in the death of Sgt. Ben Jenkins, a decorated highway patrol officer from Elko.

White Pine County District Judge Steve Dobrescu told Dabritz at sentencing the shooting was haunting and pure evil, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Whatever was driving or not driving you makes no difference," the judge said. You took the life of a man who stopped to help you.

White Pine County District Attorney James Beecher had said he agreed to let Dabritz withdraw his earlier plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and avoid a trial to provide Jenkins family with swift and final closure, without protracted appeals or requiring them to relive the horrific incident.

Dabritz, shackled and dressed in orange jail scrubs, was swiftly led away by officers after sentencing.

Dabritz was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder and held in custody at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

He underwent about two months of treatment at a psychiatric facility before he was deemed competent last year to stand trial on murder, arson, vehicle and firearms theft charges.

Authorities said Dabritz was heavily armed and fled with Jenkins uniform and patrol pickup truck before crashing and surrendering as troopers and sheriffs deputies arrived not far from the White Pine-Lincoln County line.

Following the killing, the Review-Journal reported that Dabritz spent weeks leading up to the shooting on a paranoid quest to warn people of his theory that COVID-19 was spreading through the water and sewer systems.

His was treated at William Bee Ririe Hospital in Ely and at a behavioral health hospital in Las Vegas before his release one week before Jenkins was killed.

Jenkins, a 47-year-old married father of four, won the highway patrols highest honor, the Gold Medal of Valor, in 2011.

Officials said he stopped to check on an apparently stranded vehicle just before dawn on U.S. Highway 93 outside Ely  more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Las Vegas.

Jenkins was the ninth NHP officer killed in the line of duty since 1911. A 10th, Trooper Micah May, died July 29  just days after Dabritz changed his plea  when he was struck by a vehicle driven by an armed carjacking suspect trying to elude troopers on a busy freeway near the Las Vegas Strip.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  An apparently long-running extermination site has been found outside Mexico's northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, officials said Wednesday night.

The location was discovered some weeks earlier and is being investigated within the context of dozens of reported disappearances along a segment of the highway connecting Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey since 2012, the National Search Commission said.

The characteristics of the place allow the inference that it is an extermination site that has been used for years and until very recently, which will have to be confirmed by experts, the commission's statement said. This is the first site of these dimensions found in Nuevo Laredo.

Searchers found burned human remains on the ground, multiple possible clandestine graves and a clandestine crematorium, it said.

Drug cartels frequently use such sites to burn or dissolve the bodies of their victims.

Located across the border from Laredo, Texas, Nuevo Laredo has been dominated for years by the Northeast Cartel, a fragment of the old Zetas cartel.

The head of the governments National Search Commission, Karla Quintana, had told the W Radio station Tuesday that a clandestine crematorium of considerable size had been found just outside Nuevo Laredo, along with burned bone fragments. She said it had been set up and operated years ago, but had also recently been used.

Families of dozens of people who went missing on the highway between Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo this year expressed anger at the report, complaining that they had not been informed of the situation.

Angelica Orozco, who leads the relatives' group United Forces for Our Disappear in Nuevo Leon state, which borders Nuevo Laredo, said Wednesday that it is very worrisome for us that the commission has come out with such alarmist statements without informing us.

Her group said in a statement Tuesday that these statements totally re-victimize, and cause anguish and torture for the relatives of the disappeared," because many may assume their loved ones may have been killed and burned there.

The commission's statement Wednesday night called for the inclusion of families of the missing in the efforts to investigate the site.

At least 71 people went missing earlier this year as they drove on the highway between the industrial hub of Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo. The victims include at least a half dozen U.S. residents.

Most of the missing are men who drove trucks or taxis on a road that local media have dubbed the highway of death. But the missing also include women and children and men driving private cars. Activists say about a half dozen men have reappeared alive and badly beaten after being abducted on the highway, and all they will say is that armed men forced them to stop on the highway and took their vehicles.

Quintana said earlier this year the disappearances may be related to turf battles between the Jalisco and Northeast cartels.

Raymundo Ramos, a human rights activist in Nuevo Laredo, said authorities have released little information about the discovery, but that in the past such sites have been found with large metal drums where bodies are soaked in diesel and burned beyond recognition.

They should guarantee that (victim's) relatives have access to the information, Ramos said of authorities.

Despite alerts from relatives of the missing in May, the state government of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located, didnt warn people against traveling on the highway until almost a month later, activists say. Authorities have since increased policing and security on the highway.
GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP)  Supervisors in one Mississippi county have chosen a new site for a Confederate monument after more than a year of discussion, but the site will need state approval and it's unclear how much the move will cost.

The stone monument with multiple Confederate soldiers has stood since 1913 outside the Leflore County Courthouse in Greenwood, and it's one of about 50 Confederate monuments on public property in Mississippi. The majority-Black Leflore County supervisors voted in June 2020 to move it to a less prominent spot  a decision made amid international protests over racial injustice after police in Minneapolis killed a Black man, George Floyd.

Supervisors voted Monday to move the monument to Fort Pemberton Memorial Park, the Greenwood Commonwealth reported. That is a Civil War battle site on land now owned by the county, and it is about 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometers) west of the courthouse.

During the Battle of Fort Pemberton in March 1863, the Star of the West, a Union boat that had been captured two years earlier by Confederate forces, was sunk in the Tallahatchie River. That blocked the passage of some Union troops who were headed to Vicksburg.

Because of that history, Fort Pemberton would be a viable area for the monument," said Reginald Moore, president of the Leflore County supervisors.

The boards next step is to submit its relocation plan to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Then the board must do a cost assessment of the relocation with Willis Engineering, the countys engineering consultant.

Mississippi law says monuments to several wars, including the Civil War, may not be relocated, removed, disturbed, altered, renamed or rededicated, but it says a governing body may move a memorial to a more suitable location if it is determined that the location is more appropriate to displaying the monument.

A Confederate monument at the University of Mississippi was moved in 2020 from a central spot on campus to a secluded one. Supervisors in some counties have voted to move such monuments. In May, Lowndes County started moving one from the courthouse lawn to a cemetery that has graves of Confederate soldiers.

Confederate monuments have been taken down in recent years in other parts of the U.S., including a large statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that was taken down, cut into pieces and hauled away in early September in Richmond, Virginia.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Missouri law seeking to ban most abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy led to a legal battle Wednesday before the state's highest court over whether the people's right to overturn laws passed by the Legislature has been illegally limited by procedural hurdles.

The case before the Missouri Supreme Court won't ultimately affect the fate of the anti-abortion law  which currently is blocked by a separate federal court case  but could determine how easy or difficult it is for people to force a statewide vote on future laws they don't like.

The Missouri case is one of several battles around the nation over state election laws that supporters describe as safeguards but which opponents contend are unjustified limits on democracy.

Missouri's constitution includes a referendum right that allows people to challenge a law passed by Legislature by gathering petition signatures to put the measure to a public vote. Petitions must be submitted to the secretary of states office 90 days after the end of the legislative session during which the law passed.

A separate state law dating to 1997 requires petitions to contain an official ballot title certified by the secretary of state, and another law sets forth procedural deadlines for the secretary of state to approve that ballot title.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the group No Bans No Choice challenged those laws after Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft used much of the allotted time, leaving them little opportunity to gather enough signatures to force a referendum on the 2019 abortion law.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem struck down the laws in December, ruling that the State may not constitutionally delay the circulation of a referendum petition for the purpose of certifying a ballot title. The state appealed to the Supreme Court.

Attorney Jason Lewis, who argued on behalf of Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt, defended the laws as reasonable regulations of the referendum process. Schmitt's office argued in court filings that the ballot title requirement creates order and consistency, prevents voters from being confused or misled by complex bills, and promotes informed voter choices about whether to sign referendum proposals.

But the ACLU said in court filings that there is conflict between the Constitution, which reserves a right of referendum to the people, and the two statutes, which curtail that right.

The Legislature shouldn't be given the tools to narrow or broaden that right beyond what the constitution provides, said ACLU attorney Jessie Steffan, of St. Louis.

During questioning Wednesday, Supreme Court judges Brent Powell and Patricia Breckenridge honed in on where to draw the line between reasonable and unreasonable regulations of the referendum process. They noted that based on when a bill is passed by the Legislature, opponents might have several months to gather signatures  as was the case in a successful referendum overturning a 2017 labor union law  or a matter of just weeks, as was the case with the abortion law.

Steffan argued that any law impeding the gathering of referendum signatures should be unconstitutional. Lewis said the fact that scenarios exist allowing enough time for signature gathering means the laws regulating referendums cannot be declared unconstitutional on their face.

The 2019 abortion law that prompted the legal fight sought to ban the procedure at eight weeks of pregnancy, except for cases of medical emergencies. It included a stairstep of other abortion bans at 14, 18, or 20 weeks should one of the earlier-term restrictions get struck down in court. It also sought to ban abortions based solely on race, sex or a diagnosis indicating Down syndrome.

The abortion law has never been enforced, because a federal judge blocked it a day before it was scheduled to take effect. The full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments last week on an appeal of the injunction, but a ruling isn't expected for at least several weeks.

___

Follow David A. Lieb at: http://www.twitter.com/DavidALieb
More than 100 prison inmates have been killed and dozens more injured this week in one of the deadliest prison riots in Ecuador's history amid an ongoing turf war between rival gangs.

The violence erupted around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday as competing gangs exchanged gunfire and explosives in their battle for control of one of the units in the main prison in Guayaquil, police said. At least five of the inmates killed were decapitated, Gen. Fausto Buenano, a regional police commander, said Tuesday night. At least 47 others were injured.

On Wednesday afternoon, the country's director of prisons said that 40 people had been confirmed dead but that authorities had discovered dozens more bodies in one of the prison units.

"We're in the process of evacuating the dead, but we're surpassing 100," Bolivar Garzon, the country's newly appointed director of prisons, told an Ecuadoran TV news anchor Wednesday.

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso on Wednesday afternoon announced he would preside over the security committee in Guayaquil, "to coordinate the necessary actions to control the emergency, guaranteeing the human rights of all those involved."

Police entered the prison at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, evacuated personnel - including six cooks - and managed to regain control of the facility by 2 p.m., authorities said. More than 500 officers were involved in quelling the violence, and a contingent of military officers arrived to provide assistance the following morning.

Tuesday's riot came two months after a similar wave of violence broke out in two of the country's prisons, including Guayaquil's Litoral Penitentiary, killing 22 inmates and prompting Ecuador's president to declare a state of emergency in the prison system.

In February, brawls in three prisons on the same day left about 80 inmates dead, marking the worst prison riots in the country's history until that date. The fighting was prompted by a feud between rival criminal groups after the killing of the leader of Los Choneros, a local gang that has risen to prominence in part by controlling drug-trafficking routes between Colombia and Ecuador.

"It's an unfortunate fact that this is happening in our society, in our country," Garzon said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday night, calling it a "particularly difficult year."

Garzon stepped into the top role at 11 a.m. Tuesday, just as the prison riot was underway. Speaking hours later on his first day of work, the director said he aimed to find solutions to the growing violence in the country's prisons, which he attributed to battles between gangs linked to the country's drug trade.

"I hope we can begin to initiate a change," Garzon said, adding that he plans to travel to Guayaquil on Wednesday.

The country has struggled to reduce the fighting in its penitentiary system for years. While the government launched a new program in 2019 to boost infrastructure and technology in its prisons, it cut the project's budget the following year by more than 70%, according to Ecuadoran news site Primicias.

If authorities confirm the more than 100 deaths in this week's riots, the death toll in Ecuador's prisons will surpass 221 this year, violence that has been growing steadily since 2018, according to the country's Ombudsman's Office. More than 103 inmates were killed in 2020.

Earlier this year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the recent wave of deaths, attributing them to a "failure to adequately design, implement, and assess public policies targeting detainees."

Last month, the same commission, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States, called on Ecuador's government to increase prison security personnel and impose effective controls to prevent the entry of weapons and the activity of criminal organizations in its prisons.

Ecuador's prisons have long suffered from overcrowding and weak security, with an insufficient number of guards to control the country's prison population, according to Human Rights Watch.

Garzon said the president's state of emergency remains in effect in the penitentiary system.

"I want to tell the mafias that try to intimidate this country that they are wrong," Lasso said in July when he declared the emergency. "They are wrong if they think our hand is going to shake. We are going to use all our legal powers to impose the rule of law and guarantee peace and human rights in prisons in Ecuador."
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina couple has been convicted of getting around paying employment and income taxes for almost a decade to pay for boarding their dog, a country club membership and visits to a spiritual adviser, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

James and Susan Rice were convicted on conspiracy and tax evasion charges, the U.S. Attorneys Office for North Carolinas Middle District said in a news release.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  A German-Iranian professor at a Norwegian technical university was charged Wednesday with violating sanctions on Iran by inviting four guest researchers from the Islamic Republic and giving them access to a laboratory.

A Norwegian prosecutor said the visiting researchers had access to knowledge that could be useful to Irans nuclear program.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that during the period from February 2018 to 2019 the professor, who was not identified, invited four Iranian researchers to NTNU university in Trondheim, the Scandinavian country's third largest city. The duration of the guests' stay varied.

The serious thing here is that people from Iran had access to knowledge, and this is knowledge that could be useful to Irans nuclear program. We do not say that it is, but it is the potential danger here that is serious, prosecutor Frederik Ranke told NRK.

Ranke said the professor was charged with violating the Iran sanctions, export control regulations and Norway's data breach legislation. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Non-European Union member Norway has adhered to all U.N. Security Council resolutions on Irans nuclear program and has supported EU restrictive measures against Iran for a number of years.

According to his Norwegian lawyer, the professor denies wrongdoing. Lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told NRK that is client has left Norway but is willing to return to stand trial.

There is nothing in the information they have received and the projects they have worked on that enables them to contribute to the nuclear industry in any way, Risnes told NRK.

PST, Norways domestic security agency, suspected the professor of having contributed to a data breach by giving others unauthorized access to a computer system, NRK said.

The actual data breach occurred when a program  given by one of the guest researchers  was installed. He could then retrieve data, even if he was not affiliated with NTNU, according to Ranke.

Bjarne Foss, head of the engineering cybernetics department at NTNU, told the university newspaper that the professor and the Iranian guest researchers "used a special lab, called the nano-mechanical lab, relatively intensively over a short period.

The paper said that one can do advanced analyses of the properties of various metal alloys, such as their strength and hardness, in the lab.

After learning this, university officials contacted PST in early 2019, the Universitetsavisa said.
NEW YORK (AP)  Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency and signed an executive order expanding the use of virtual court appearances at New York City's Rikers Island jail on Tuesday, saying it would expedite hearings for inmates and lessen some of the burden on corrections officers at a facility in crisis.

The order allows a court to have virtual appearances from any party or witness instead of requiring them to be in person for a range of different kinds of hearings, even allowing pleas and sentences to be virtual with defendant consent.

In announcing the order, Hochul said allowing more use of virtual appearances instead of requiring inmates to be physically transferred would make the legal process go faster for them. She said corrections officers would be able to focus more on supervision and safety without having to spend as much time on transporting detainees.

Improving safety and justice at Rikers is about protecting human rights and human dignity," Hochul said in a statement. No incarcerated person, no corrections officer, and no family member should have to endure the reality of Rikers as it exists today, and we must do everything in our power to prevent New Yorkers from languishing in Rikers awaiting their day in court."

An email seeking comment was sent to the City Hall.

Calls for action have taken on extreme urgency at a jail that a court-appointed monitor and other voices have been loud in saying is in a dangerous state.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that Hochul is right to recognize that Rikers Island is a humanitarian disaster. We applaud the governor for expanding access to remote hearings to limit the time New Yorkers spend on Rikers awaiting trial."

But she also said officials in the city and the legal system had to do more to get people out of the jail.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP)  Seven students were arrested and two were taken to hospitals after a fight involving a knife broke out Wednesday morning at a Maryland high school, county police said.

Annapolis High School was locked down after the fight, which stemmed from a neighborhood dispute, Anne Arundel County Police spokeswoman Lt. Jackie Davis said at a news conference. The injuries, which included cut and puncture wounds, were not considered life-threatening, she said.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said Tuesday that he will not decide whether to spare Julius Jones from a lethal injection until after Jones has a clemency hearing before the state Pardons and Parole Board.

The board already had recommended that Stitt commute Jones death sentence to life imprisonment. The case drew national attention after being featured in 2018 on the ABC television documentary series The Last Defense.

In a Tuesday statement, though, the Republican governor said a clemency hearing, not a commutation hearing, would be the appropriate forum for death row cases.

Clemency hearings are more intensive and thorough than a commutation hearing and include the option for the inmate to speak publicly before the Pardon and Parole Board, as well as the victims family and attorneys from both sides," Stitt said. "The precedent in Oklahoma is for death row inmates to receive the clemency hearings to which they are entitled prior to their execution date.

Jones attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

State law requires clemency hearings at least 21 days before a scheduled execution date. Jones is scheduled to die on Nov. 18.

The case has drawn the attention of reality television star Kim Kardashian West and numerous professional athletes with ties to Oklahoma, who have appealed for clemency.

Jones, 41, has consistently maintained that he is innocent of the killing and alleged that he was framed by the actual killer, a high school friend and former co-defendant who was a key witness against him.

District Attorney David Prater of Oklahoma County, where the killing occurred, and Oklahomas former attorney general, Mike Hunter, have said the evidence against Jones is overwhelming.
WASHINGTON - Three-time Olympic swimmer Klete Keller, who notoriously wore his Team USA jacket to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one charge stemming from his role in the riot. The felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, though sentencing guidelines call for 21-27 months.

Keller, 39, entered the plea in a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon. As part of a plea agreement, Keller will cooperate with the government in additional prosecutions stemming from the attack on the Capitol in exchange for the government dropping the six additional charges against him.

No sentencing hearing was set, with assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Edwards Jr. asking Judge Leon for ample time to allow for Keller's cooperation in ongoing cases and the judge noting Keller's sentence ultimately could be lowered or increased based on the extent of his cooperation. More than 600 people have been charged for their participation in the Jan. 6 attack.

In a presentation to the judge, Edwards detailed the government's evidence, all of which Keller has admitted, saying that Keller spent nearly an hour inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, at one point yelling "F--- Nancy Pelosi!" and "F--- Chuck Schumer!" in reference to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and then-Senate minority leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. At another point, Edwards said, Keller yanked his elbow away from a police officer who was trying to remove him and other rioters from the building.

Keller, who won two gold medals and five medals overall as an Olympian in 2000, 2004 and 2008, did not speak before the judge, except to answer a series of yes or no questions to demonstrate his understanding of the charges and the terms of the agreement. Neither Keller nor his attorney, Edward MacMahon, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.

In remarks before the judge, MacMahon said his client was "trying to make amends for the terrible mistake he made," adding Keller is "embarrassed" and hopes to "start his life over."

Keller's involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection was first noted by members of the swimming community in the days following the attack and reported by the swimming website SwimSwam.com, after Keller, a Colorado Springs, Col. resident, was spotted in news videos of the mob surging into the U.S. Capitol. If Keller's 6-foot-6 frame and familiar features didn't give him away, the blue Team USA jacket he was wearing, with the U.S. Olympic Team patch on the shoulder, did.

The violent attack, spurred by then-President Donald Trump and his supporters, came as Congress was working to tally the electoral votes from the November presidential election, which Trump lost. Five people died as a result of the attack and dozens of U.S. Capitol police were injured.

Keller, who was not observed in any violent actions in the videos, was charged in U.S. District Court in Denver on Jan. 13, just a week after the assault on the Capitol, and turned himself in to authorities the next day. On Feb. 10, he was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts, carrying a maximum sentence of nearly 30 years. Keller initially pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors indicated in August that Keller had been offered a plea deal and informed Judge Leon he was prepared to accept it.

Keller swam for Team USA in three Olympics - Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 - and won a total of five medals, including two golds. He is perhaps best known within the sport for anchoring Team USA's gold-medal-winning 4x200-meter freestyle relay in Athens - a quartet that also featured Michael Phelps in the leadoff leg - by out-touching Australian legend Ian Thorpe in the adjacent lane.

A half-hour before Wednesday's hearing, Keller sat outside Courtroom 18 on the sixth floor of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse - unmasked, until MacMahon whispered to him and he put on a blue surgical mask. Keller wore a white shirt, blue blazer, patterned tie, gray pants and brown shoes.

Once the hearing began, Judge Leon told the participants that vaccinated individuals could remove their masks when approaching the bench, but the unvaccinated should leave theirs on. The attorneys for both the government and the defense removed their masks to speak to the judge, but Keller left his on.

The judge asked Keller, among other things, whether he understood that he was pleading guilty to a felony, that he was waiving the right to a trial, that there would be no chance of parole once his sentence was set and that as a condition of his guilty plea he would not be permitted to own a firearm. Each time, Keller answered, "Yes, your honor," or "Yes, sir."

Judge Leon explained that while the federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 21-27 months in prison, those guidelines are nonbinding, and the court would do its own "independent evaluation." He warned Keller to be on his best behavior during the interim period prior to sentencing, saying, "You're facing the possibility of incarceration. It would behoove you to be cautious in how you conduct yourself. The last thing you need it to be back here for [a hearing of violation]. This court takes a dim view of violations made while under its supervision."

Under the terms of the plea deal, Keller agreed to cooperate "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" with federal, state and local law enforcement authorities - including testifying in other trials and potentially "participating in covert law enforcement activities."

As the government detailed the evidence against him, Keller sat without expression at the defense table, surrounded by clear, anti-viral plexiglass partitions. According to Edwards, the assistant U.S. Attorney, Keller took videos and pictures during the attack, but later destroyed the phone and its memory card and threw away the Team USA jacket.

Asked by Judge Leon if he had had a chance to review the evidence and discuss it with his attorney, Keller said, "Yes, sir."

"Are you pleading guilty because you are, in fact?" Leon asked.

"Yes, your honor," Keller replied.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday he is working with legislative leaders on details about how the state will pay for a proposed medical marijuana program.

The Republican governor said he will call lawmakers to the Capitol for a special session sooner rather than later, but he has not decided when.

House and Senate leaders want to enact a medical marijuana program to replace an initiative voters approved in November. State Supreme Court justices overturned the initiative in May when they ruled that Mississippi's initiative process is outdated and unworkable.

Reeves said he has had productive talks this week with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn, who are also Republicans.

We are a long way towards getting to a final agreement, but we're not all the way there yet, Reeves said during a news conference.

Legislators next regular session begins in January. Hosemann and Gunn said last week that they want Reeves to set a special session soon because negotiators from the two chambers have agreed on a medical marijuana proposal, and they believe they've lined up enough votes to pass it.

But the leaders of the state Health Department and the state Agriculture Department both said this week that the proposal lacks a clear funding plan, leaving questions about how their agencies would pay for the licensing and regulatory roles.

The proposal would allow cities and counties to opt out of allowing the cultivation, processing or sale of medical marijuana, but it would also let local voters seek an election to reverse the decisions of those governing boards.

It also would set taxes, require that medical marijuana be grown only indoors and limit the amount of the drug that could be purchased each month by patients or their caregivers.

Hosemann and Gunn want a few other topics on a special session agenda. They want legislators to approve financial help for hospitals that are trying to keep enough nurses and other employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, authorize death benefit payments for law enforcement officers and first responders who die of COVID-19, and set aside money for shelters that help victims of child abuse and domestic violence.

Reeves on Wednesday did not say whether he will ask legislators to consider any topics other than medical marijuana during a special session.

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Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP)  An international representative of ethnic Rohingya refugees was shot to death in a camp in Bangladesh by unknown gunmen late Wednesday, police said.

Mohibullah, who was in his 40s, was a teacher who emerged as a key refugee leader and a spokesman representing the Muslim ethnic group in international meetings. He visited the White House in 2019 for a meeting on religious freedom with then-President Donald Trump and spoke about the suffering and persecution faced by Rohingya in Myanmar.

That same year, he was bitterly criticized by Bangladeshi media after he led a massive rally of 200,000 refugees to mark the second anniversary of the crackdown by Myanmars military that caused about 700,000 Rohingya, including Mohibullah, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

The unidentified attackers shot Mohibullah at the Kutupalong refugee camp at Ukhiya in Coxs Bazar district, said Naimul Haque, a commander of the Armed Police Battalion in Coxs Bazar. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead.

No groups claimed responsibility and it was not clear immediately who was behind the attack.

Human Rights Watch called Mohibullah a vital voice for the Rohingya community. He always defended the rights of the Rohingya to safe and dignified returns and to have a say in the decisions concerning their lives and future. His killing is a stark demonstration of the risks faced by those in the camps who speak up for freedom and against violence, Meenakshi Ganguly, the rights group's South Asia director, said in a statement.

Mohibullahs death undermines not only the struggle of Rohingya refugees for greater rights and protection in the refugee camps, but also their efforts to safely return to their homes in Myanmar. Bangladesh authorities should urgently investigate Mohibullahs killing along with other attacks on Rohingya activists in the camps," she said.

Amnesty International condemned the killing and urged Bangladeshi authorities and the U.N. Refugee Agency to work together to ensure the protection of people in the camps, including refugees, activists and humanitarian workers from both the Rohingya and local community, many of whom have shared concerns about their safety.

Violence in the refugee camps in Coxs Bazaar has been a growing problem," said Saad Hammadi, Amnesty Internationals South Asia Campaigner. "Armed groups operating drug cartels have killed people and held hostages. The authorities must take immediate action to prevent further bloodshed."

Overall, Bangladesh has been sheltering more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar after previous waves of persecution.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian authorities have arrested an executive of a top cybersecurity company on the charges of high treason, a move that has sent shock waves through Russia's business community.

A court in Moscow on Wednesday announced a ruling to place Ilya Sachkov, founder and CEO of the Group-IB, one of the leading cybersecurity companies in Russia, in custody for two months pending investigation and trial.

The court didn't offer any details about the case against the executive as the case files have been classified, the Interfax news agency reported  as is typical with treason cases in Russia.

According to Russian media reports, Sachkov was arrested on Tuesday morning and the law enforcement raided the offices of Group-IB in Moscow. The company on Wednesday confirmed that the raid took place.

In a statement Wednesday, Group-IB said the company's employees were sure of their boss's innocence and honest business reputation. The company refused to comment on the accusations against Sachkov or details of the case, citing ongoing legal proceedings.

Russia's state news agency Tass reported, citing anonymous sources, that Sachkov also insisted on his innocence. The agency's source alleged that Sachkov worked for foreign intelligence services and passed on cybersecurity data that constitutes a state secret.

Sachkov's arrest on treason charges surprised many. Russia's business ombudsman Boris Titov demanded that investigators explain themselves, given the caliber and the uniqueness of entrepreneur Sachkov for Russia's entire IT industry.

If the authorities don't explain their case against Sachkov, a critical blow will be delivered to the sector and its investment appeal," Titov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued Wednesday that Sachkov's case has nothing to do with (Russia's) business or investment climate, because accusations (against him) are not connected to the economy, they are connected to treason.

Group-IB specializes in combating cyberattacks, online fraud and investigating high-tech cyber crimes. Top Russian banks and companies, including state-run ones, are among the company's clients.

Group-IB helped Russian authorities investigate cyberfraud cases and is also said to be an official partner of the Interpol and Europol.
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (AP)  Investigators made an arrest in a 2004 fatal shooting at a South Carolina nightclub after people who were reluctant to talk to police at the time finally spoke to detectives, a sheriff said.

Fred Greene Jr., 28, was shot in a room full of people at a te Diplomat club near Ladson almost 17 years ago, Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said at a news conference Tuesday.
PIERRE, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is again applying to hold a fireworks display over Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day.

The Department of Tourism submitted its application for a special use permit to the National Parks Service Wednesday on behalf of Noem for fireworks next year.

The Parks Service in March denied the state's application for a fireworks display this year, citing safety concerns. South Dakota had been dealing with drought and wildfires that burned within the monuments boundaries earlier this year, forcing the park to close for several days.

Noem argued that if the fireworks were allowed, conditions would be monitored and organizers could cancel the show if the fire risk was too great.

Local Native American tribes also opposed holding the celebration on land they hold as sacred and were concerned about the spread of COVID-19.

Noem is currently in litigation with the U.S. Department of Interior over that rejection.

Despite their arbitrary decision to cancel the 2021 Fireworks Celebration, the Biden Administration has an opportunity to work with us to celebrate next year and for the years to come, the Republican governor said in a statement.

Noem successfully pushed for a return of the event in 2019 after a decadelong hiatus. It gave former President Donald Trump an opportunity to be featured in a patriotic display attended by thousands of people during the pandemic. Noem has said there were no COVID-19 outbreaks linked to last years event.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A lawsuit accuses the Catholic Diocese of Nashville of failing to protect a minor child from sexual abuse by an employee at a Murfreesboro church.

The suit filed on Monday in Circuit Court in Nashville claims the diocese received multiple warnings from parishioners and employees at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church that Michael Lewis had an inappropriate relationship with the plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym of Jane Doe. Doe says the abuse began in 2014 when she was 13 years old and continued until 2017, when her family cut off contact with Lewis for what the lawsuit says was his controlling behavior.

Several months before that, a parishioner who was also a licensed clinical psychologist had written to then-Bishop David Choby expressing concerns about the relationship between Lewis, then the church's director of religious education, and the girl.

In response, Lewis was given a letter from the diocesean attorney instructing him to follow diocesan safe environment policies and follow professional standards set forth in the Dioceses code of conduct, according to the lawsuit. Lewis refused to sign and resigned his positioin instead, the lawsuit states.

The diocese issued a statement on the lawsuit, saying it would in inappropriate to respond before the diocese's attorneys had a chance to review it.

We encourage everyone who suspects that abuse is taking place to report it to civil authorities, and we pray for everyone involved in this matter, it states.

The suit claims that the letter from the psychologist was just one of many warnings the diocese had about Lewis' behavior. For example, in 2014 a parish employee examined Lewis' diocese-issued cell phone and found he exchanged numerous text messages and pictures with the girl, according to the lawsuit. These exchanges were often lengthy and some occurred late at night, it added.

In response, according to the lawsuit, the parish priest met with Lewis, his wife, and his mother. They told the priest that Lewis loved the plaintiff and wanted to help her, and that she was like family," the lawsuit states. No further action was taken.

Twice, Lewis met with a coordinator for the diocese's Safe Environment Program, which is supposed to help protect children from abuse, according to the suit. It said the coordinator warned Lewis that he was not allowed to be alone with the girl.

Lewis responded by saying he would do what he wanted and he loved Plaintiff like a daughter, according to the lawsuit. No further action was taken, the suit states.

The girl did not fully understand that she had been abused by Lewis until 2019, according to the lawsuit. She filed a police report accusing Lewis of rape and sexual assault in January 2020. He was indicted in June on 10 counts of statutory rape by an authority figure and four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, all felony counts, The Tennessean has reported. Trial is scheduled for next February.

Lewis' attorney did not immediately respond to an email sent late on Wednesday.

It was not until September 2020 that a former parish employee informed Doe of the many letters of concern for her welfare the parish had received.

The lawsuit claims Doe experienced anxiety and panic attacks and has ongoing emotional problems stemming from the abuse she suffered. It seeks a jury trial and damages of an unspecified amount.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The newly installed chief of the U.S. Capitol Police says the force, still struggling six months after an insurrection that left its officers battled, bloodied and bruised, cannot afford to be complacent. The risk to lawmakers is higher than ever. And the threat from lone-wolf attackers is only growing.

In an interview with The Associated Press, J. Thomas Manger said his force is seeing a historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years ago. He predicts authorities will respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress in 2021  more than 4,100 had been reported from January to March.

We have never had the level of threats against members of Congress that were seeing today, Manger said. Clearly, weve got a bigger job in terms of the protection aspect of our responsibilities, weve got a bigger job than we used to.

Manger touted changes that have been made in intelligence gathering after the department was widely criticized for being woefully underprepared to fend off a mob of insurrectionists in January. Officials had compiled intelligence showing white supremacists and other extremists were likely to assemble in Washington on Jan. 6 and that violent disruptions were possible. Police officers were brutally beaten in the insurrection.

The events of that day have redefined how the U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies in Washington approach security. Extreme measures put into place two weeks ago for a rally in support of those jailed in the riot aren't a one-off, they might be the new normal. Propelled by former President Donald Trump, the awakening of domestic extremist groups and the continued volatility around the 2020 election have changed the calculus.

Manger said putting up temporary fencing around the Capitol and calling in reinforcements was a prudent decision. It may not be the same for every demonstration.

Its really going to depend on the intelligence we have beforehand, he said. "Its going to depend on the potential for violence at a particular demonstration."

With Manger, the police force got a longtime lawman. He served as chief in Maryland's Montgomery County, outside Washington, from 2004 to 2019. Before that, he led the Fairfax County, Virginia, police department. Those jobs, as well as a leadership position in the Major Cities Chiefs Association, have made him a familiar face in Washington law enforcement circles and on Capitol Hill.

He took over in late July, months after the former chief resigned amid the fallout from the insurrection. The Sept. 18 rally was Manger's first test  and he was taking no chances.

We just were in a position where we could not allow another January 6th," he said. "And I really needed to ensure that the men and women of the Capitol Police department understood that we had the resources we need, the training that we needed, the equipment that we needed, and the staffing that we needed to ensure that they could do their job and do it safely.

In the end, police far outnumbered the protesters and the Capitol officers were mocked by some for going overboard. But Michael Chertoff, a Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, said its just smart policing to learn from mistakes and be better prepared the next time, and so what if theres too many police milling around  if the result is no one is killed or hurt.

When you get demonstrations that are advertised or pitch to right wing or left wing extremists, I think youre going to see that theyre going to lean into a visible show of protection, maybe more than they need but enough to make it clear they wont be overwhelmed again, he said.

Chertoff, who now runs the Chertoff Group security and cybersecurity risk management, said such fortifications won't be necessary for every free speech event planned in the nation's capital, but law enforcement must be better prepared when it comes to people who have expressed sympathy for Jan. 6, because there is strong reason to believe they're sympathetic to the idea of using violent force to disrupt government. Because it already happened.

The Capitol Police are part security agency, part local police  it has an annual budget of approximately $460 million and about 2,300 officers and civilian employees to police the Capitol grounds and the people inside the building, including all the lawmakers and staff. By contrast, the entire city of Minneapolis has about 800 sworn officers and a budget of roughly $193 million.

On Jan. 6 at least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies. Two police officers died by suicide in the days that immediately followed, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters. A medical examiner later determined he died of natural causes.

The Metropolitan Police announced this summer that two more of their officers who had responded to the insurrection, Officers Kyle DeFreytag and Gunther Hashida, had also died by suicide.

A scathing internal report earlier this year found that serious gaps in tactical gear including weapons, training and intelligence capabilities contributed to security problems during the Jan. 6 melee. In his report, obtained by the AP, Capitol Police Inspector General Michael A. Bolton cast serious doubt on the forces ability to respond to future threats and another large-scale attack.

But then a second task force later charged with reviewing Jan. 6 said the Capitol Police already has the ability to track, assess, plan against or respond to threats from domestic extremists who continue to potentially target the building.

The report recommended a major security overhaul, including the funding of hundreds of new officer positions and establishing a permanent quick response force for emergencies.

But those changes would require massive influx of money. In a $2.1 billion measure in July, Congress delegated nearly $71 million, with much of that funding going to cover overtime costs.

Still, Manger said, I think that what we have in place today is an improvement over what we had a year ago or nine months ago.

The event, which Republican lawmakers and Trump and his allies have sought to downplay and dismiss, has prompted a surge in applications to join the force. Manger likened it to police and firefighter applications after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Manger also defended keeping on Yogananda Pittman, the Capitol Police official who led intelligence operations for the agency ahead of January's attack. Pittman, who was elevated to acting chief with a tenure marred by a vote of no-confidence from rank-and-file officers on the force and questions about intelligence and leadership failures, is back in charge of intelligence and protecting congressional leaders.

Manger pointed to Pittmans decision as acting chief to implement recommendations from the inspector general and to expand the departments internal intelligence capabilities so officers wouldnt need to rely so heavily on intelligence gathered by other law enticement agencies. A number of top officials had left their posts after Januarys attack.

But Manger shot back at critics who have said Pittman should have been let go after her stint as acting chief because she was the top official in charge of intelligence before the insurrection.

This notion that I should come in and just fire everybody on the leadership team because they failed on January 6th ... first of all, this department was in enough chaos without me firing everybody," Manger said, "and then where would I have been without any experience on my leadership team to rely on and to assist me going forward?
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  An eye surgeon is donating $95 million to the University of Alabama at Birmingham's medical school in what officials say is the single largest philanthropic pledge in the university's history.

University trustees announced the gift from Dr. Marnix Heersink on Tuesday. The medical school will be named for Heersink, and the money will be used to establish global health and biomedical innovation institutes, university officials said.

An additional $5 million is being contributed by Triton Health Systems, bringing the total pledge to $100 million.

On behalf of the School of Medicine and all the people we serve across Alabama, the nation and the world  now and in the years to come  I sincerely thank Dr. Heersink, medical school Dean Selwyn Vickers said in a statement. This act of tremendous generosity reflects his heart for service and the scale of our shared ambition for the UAB School of Medicine to be a global leader in biomedical discovery and innovation, medical training, and patient care."

The money will also help recruit and retain scientists and physicians in priority areas such as, pulmonology, oncology and neurology through endowed chairs and professorships, officials said.

Heersink, a cataract and laser refractive surgeon, is co-owner and chairman of Eye Center South in Dothan, Alabama, a medical practice with 12 offices in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. He also has an ownership stake in other companies.

Several of his family members have attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In a statement, Heersink said he and his wife, Mary Parks Heersink, are appreciative of the education his family received at UAB.

"I have seen that, in all it does, the school strives for excellence, works to expand its reach, and values collaboration and encompassing diverse backgrounds, voices and talents, he said.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  The Biden administration said Wednesday it will draft rules to govern the killing of wild birds by industry and resume enforcement actions against companies responsible for deaths that could have been prevented, a longstanding practice that ended under President Donald Trump.

The move came as North American bird numbers have plummeted in recent decades. That decline was punctuated by news Wednesday that the famed ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 other species of flora and fauna have gone extinct.

Conservation groups, which have urged President Joe Biden to take stronger action to protect wildlife, said the planned rules were urgently needed to hold companies accountable for bird deaths.

But the administration got immediate pushback from the oil industry, which has been subject to some of the most high-profile prosecutions under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Most notable was a $100 million settlement by energy company BP, after government investigators concluded the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.

The Trump administration ended enforcement against companies for accidental bird deaths in 2017, following pressure from oil companies, utilities and other industries.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America said resuming prosecutions would harm businesses that killed birds through no fault of their own. Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, top-ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the Biden administration seemed intent on making government as heavy-handed as possible."

Federal officials pledged to be judicious in prosecuting violations of the century-old bird law. Enforcement will be reserved for cases where companies could have foreseen bird deaths but did not take steps to avoid them, said Jerome Ford, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant director for migratory birds.

The new rule would be prepared over the next year.

In crafting the regulations, Ford said officials would look at a wide range of causes  from collisions with glass buildings, power lines and vehicles, to chemical poisonings and birds killed in oil pits. Hundreds of millions of birds die annually due to industry causes, according to government officials and researchers.

We've lost almost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, Ford said. We want to create a commonsense approach that works to both conserve birds and provide regulatory certainty to industry."

Under then-President Barack Obama, the Interior Department started to develop a permitting system that would have allowed industry to kill limited numbers of birds, but the work was not finished before the Democrat left office.

The American Bird Conservancy said a permit program would compel companies to take measures such as installing screens to keep birds out of oil pits and turning off or altering telecommunication tower lights to reduce collisions, according to the conservancy.

It's that deer in the headlights situation: The birds are attracted and then disoriented and collide with the towers, said conservancy spokesperson Jordan Rutter.

Trump's ending of prosecutions was among dozens of environmental actions by the Republican that Biden ordered reconsidered on his first day in office. Former federal officials, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress said many of the Trump rules were aimed at benefiting private industry at the expense of conservation.

More than 1,000 North American bird species are covered by the treaty  from fast-flying peregrine falcons to tiny songbirds and more than 20 owl species. Non-native species and some game birds, like wild turkeys, are not on the list.

Former federal officials and some scientists had said billions more birds could have died in coming decades under Trumps rule.

Researchers have said that cats in the U.S. kill the most birds  more than 2 billion a year.

In documents released with Wednesday's proposal, Interior officials said a future permitting system could include exemptions for non-commercial activities or homeowner activities," but did not define them.

Besides the BP case, hundreds of enforcement cases  targeting utilities, oil companies and wind energy developers  resulted in criminal fines and civil penalties totaling $5.8 million between 2010 and 2018.

Enforcement will resume once Wednesdays action goes into effect after 60 days, officials said.

Relatively few enforcement cases end with prosecutions because most companies are willing to take measures to address hazards that their operations may pose to birds, according to wildlife officials.

Courts have been split on whether companies can be prosecuted for unintentional bird deaths.

___

Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)  Vermonts top Democrats say they are not surprised by the lawsuits filed by the Republican National Committee against two cities that would allow noncitizens to vote on local issues.

A statement issued late Tuesday on behalf of Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, Attorney General T.J. Donovan, state Senate leader Becca Ballint and House Speaker Jill Krowinski says Vermont has a strong bipartisan track record of making it easier for people to vote in the state.
ATLANTA (AP)  Payment processor Visa Inc. said it will expand its operations in Atlanta, growing to about 1,000 employees at a new office in the city.

Atlanta has emerged as a center of financial technology and payment processing, one draw for San Francisco-based Visa to expand in Georgia.

The company said it will open a new office in Atlanta's midtown area in 2022. The neighborhood has been a magnet for corporate relocations in recent years. Visa didn't say how many people it now employs in Georgia.

Alison Wentley, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said she couldnt say how much incentives would be worth to Visa because the state has not yet signed a final agreement.

Visa could claim various tax breaks, including an income tax credit allowing it to deduct $1,250 per job annually from state income taxes, up to $6.3 million over five years, as long as workers make at least $28,000 per year and the amount deducted doesn't exceed more than 50% of the state income taxes Visa owes.

Atlanta or Fulton County could also give property tax breaks.

Visa said its Atlanta office will concentrate on technology and client service. The company said some corporate leaders will relocate to the Atlanta office, which will be led by Michelle Gethers-Clark, chief diversity officer and head of corporate responsibility.

Atlanta represents an epicenter of financial technology expertise, resilient entrepreneurs, diverse perspectives and a vibrant community culture, Gethers-Clark said in a statement.
WASHINGTON - A woman who said as she left the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6 that she had hoped to murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor charge.

"I would like to accept my responsibility for what I did, for my part in January 6," Dawn Bancroft, 59, of suburban Philadelphia, said in federal court in Washington as she admitted to illegally demonstrating.

Judge Emmet Sullivan questioned why Bancroft was not being asked to take more responsibility, given the comment she admits making in a video as she left the building during the storming of the Capitol: "We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain, but we didn't find her."

Calling those words "horrible" and "clearly troubling," Sullivan asked prosecutors why Bancroft was not charged with threatening a government official, a felony. Bancroft pleaded guilty alongside her friend Diana Santos-Smith, a fellow Bucks County resident, to a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Murphy said Bancroft made the comment while leaving the building and that there was no indication she intended to act on it.

"It was a dumb, stupid comment," Bancroft told the judge, one she said she made in jest. "I did not mean it."

Her attorney added that Bancroft did not post the video online; she shared it with her children and a few others, including a friend who provided it to the FBI.

Sullivan said Bancroft was "fortunate" not to face more charges but that the "outrageous statement" would come up again at her sentencing. He asked her to think about how "good people who never got into trouble with the law on Jan. 6 morphed into terrorists."

Pelosi, who on Jan. 6 presided over the ceremonial certification of President Joe Biden's election victory, was a particular target of the mob that overran the Capitol that day. Her office was ransacked, and rioters searched for her as they roamed the halls.

Sullivan was himself the target of a threatening voice mail in 2019, while he was overseeing the prosecution of former Trump appointee Michael Flynn. A Long Island man who told the judge that "a hot piece of lead will cut through your skull" was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Bancroft and Santos-Smith came to Washington together by train, according to court records, and twice entered the Capitol building through broken windows. They stayed for about a minute each time, they said, deterred from going further by the size of the crowd.

"You can't breathe, you can't see," Bancroft said in her video.

Sullivan told Santos-Smith that she would also face tough questions at sentencing.

"We're going to have a long talk . . . about what the heck you were thinking," he said. "How did you get yourself into this mess?"

Noting that on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks President George W. Bush had compared the danger of "violent extremists at home" to international terrorism, the judge said, "I agree with him."

Both women are set to be sentenced on Jan. 25.

Sullivan, a federal judge since 1991, was appointed to the district court in 1994. He is one of several members of the bench who have publicly questioned whether participants in the Capitol assault are being treated too leniently by the Justice Department.

"You disgraced this country in the eyes of the world, and my inclination would be to lock you up. But the government is not asking for me to lock you up," Judge Reggie B. Walton told another misdemeanor defendant on Friday. "Because it was an attack on our government . . . to see someone trying to destroy the Capitol of our country, and to see what you did is very, very troubling."

Read more:

Capital Gazette gunman sentenced to life in prison without parole

Right-wing says Jan. 6 defendants are being persecuted. Data shows otherwise.

First Jan. 6 defendants to plead guilty to a felony wants to take it back.
By Keith Burbank

Bay City News

BERKELEY (BCN)

Three suspects were arrested Wednesday afternoon after they led Berkeley police on a chase along state Highway 24, police said.

Events started unfolding at 1:48 p.m. when officers saw a vehicle involved in a carjacking Monday in Oakland, police spokesman Officer Byron White said.

White said officers had reason to believe the suspects were armed and they fled in an unsafe manner.

The same or similar vehicle may have been involved in three robberies Tuesday evening in Berkeley, White said.

Electronics were taken in each of the robberies, according to police. Two occurred downtown and the other at Caffe Strada, just south of the University of California at Berkeley campus, White said.

A victim in one of the robberies was injured by one or more suspects after chasing them.

The suspects were stopped near the off-ramp to Orinda and Moraga, White said. The California Highway Patrol assisted Berkeley police.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
By Victoria Franco

Bay City News Foundation

Lodi City Council member Shakir Khan and his brother, Zakir Khan, were arraigned Tuesday afternoon on over 50 counts related to illegal gambling, money laundering, unemployment claim fraud and tax invasion, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office.

The men were charged with 58 felonies for operating illegal gambling and money laundering out of their businesses in Stockton. Shakir also faces charges relating to fraudulent Employment Development Department filings during the pandemic.

The men are believed to have money laundered over $3 million, said the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office.

The defendants were released on their own recognizance, meaning they didn't have to post bail and are free until their next court date in October.

In conjunction with their release, the defendants will be searchable for any indicia of gambling, surrendered their passports, are not allowed to travel out of state and have been placed on pre-trial monitoring.

The third co-defendant in the case, Mohammed Khan, who is also the brother of Shakir and Zakir, will also be arraigned once he arrives to the United States from Pakistan, said the district attorney's office.

According to the sheriff's office, two years ago deputies began investigating illegal gambling in establishments in east Stockton and found that the three defendants were involved.

"Cases involving money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion are very complex and require an inordinate amount of resources to prove," District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said. "Integrity matters, the truth matters, and our office prosecutes those who prey on and take advantage of marginalized communities."

The defendants are set to appear in the San Joaquin County court on Oct. 26 at 8:30 a.m.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2021 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
- Info: Find the latest information on travel to the Islands from the Hawaii government's COVID-19 travel site.

- Testing: Get details on Hawaiis pre-travel testing program.

- Form: Fill out the health form needed to visit Hawaii.

There has been a lot of talk about testing requirements for travel to Hawaii as the federal government issued new rules for international travelers coming to the U.S. that are expected to make it easier for people from abroad to vacation in the Islands.

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Under the new guidelines for international travelers, people from many previously banned countries can visit the United States and the testing guidelines that will be placed into effect in November are standardized. Fully vaccinated foreigners will be able fly into the U.S. with proof of a negative COVID-19 test, while unvaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents flying into the United States will face tougher testing protocols. Two tests will be required; one before and another after arrival.

The changes have sparked a discussion around whether Hawaii should implement a similar two-test policy.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green told the Associated Press that decisions about testing are ultimately up to the governor, but noted Hawaiis single test policy is more than other states in the U.S. have done, helping keep the islands safe.

If the mayors want to do additional testing, I absolutely support that," Green said. "Offering voluntary take-home antigen tests upon arrival for vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers could offer additional protection given the delta variants highly infectious nature.

Currently, any fully vaccinated traveler can enter Hawaii without quarantining for 10 days, while unvaccinated visitors must take a pre-travel test to bypass the quarantine requirement.

Should you go to Hawaii right now?

Hawaii sounded the alarm bells last month around a surging pandemic, and Gov. David Ige urged tourists to stay away through the end of October.

"It's not a good time to travel to the islands," Ige said at an Aug. 23 press conference, adding that a lockdown could be on the table if the number of COVID cases continued to rise. "We know the visitors that choose to come to the islands will not have the typical kind of holiday they expect to get when they visit Hawaii."

While Ige told people to stay home, the state didn't take the extreme step of banning travel. Currently, Hawaii and its resorts, beaches and destinations all remain open on all the major islands including Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii (the Big Island), Molokai and Lanai.

Many travelers have already heeded the governor's call, and the state has seen a decline in the number of travelers.

For those who are still making a decision, SFGATE recently spoke with a medical ethicist about whether or not to travel to Hawaii.

The ethics of travel depend on who is making the decision and about what, Barbara Koenig, a medical anthropologist and registered nurse who recently retired as director of the UCSF Bioethics Program, told SFGATE. For instance, some may need to travel to Hawaii, especially in the case of loved ones who are ill.

The bottom line: If you do go to Hawaii, it is best to be vaccinated and to avoid places and activities that could send you to an overburdened hospital system.

Who can go to Hawaii?

Any traveler who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States or its U.S. Territories can enter Hawaii without fulfilling the 10-day quarantine requirement. Proof of vaccination will be asked for at the airport upon arriving in Hawaii. Travelers who were fully vaccinated in Hawaii and are returning from a trip will be expedited through processing after uploading their vaccination status digitally.

Any traveler who is not fully vaccinated is required to take a pre-travel test to bypass the 10-day quarantine requirement. The 10-day quarantine is required and enforced for all visitors who do not meet these vaccination or testing requirements.

Visit the Hawaii COVID-19 travel website for more information.

What steps must I take to enter the state?

There are a few important steps that are required to enter.

1. Travelers must fill out the Hawaii Safe Travel program application form.

2. A negative COVID-19 test result or a vaccination record document must be uploaded to the Safe Travel portal to obtain a QR code, a barcode that can be scanned and will significantly reduce processing time at the airport upon arrival. All travelers who wish to submit a negative test must take a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) that is certified from a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) lab. This type of test is done by swabbing the nose or mouth or collecting saliva.

For travelers uploading their full vaccination status, the documentation must be validated by any of the three Digital Health Pass Partners: CommonPass, AZOVA or CLEAR.

More information can be found on the State of Hawaii's COVID-19 portal.

What are the rules once I get there?

The rules that apply to travelers are similar to rules in other states. Masks are required indoors. When interacting with others outdoors, it is recommended you wear a mask.

There are also limitations on the number of people who gather together. Across the state, no more than 10 people should gather indoors, and no more than 25 outdoors.

What do I need to know about specific islands?

Recently, Oahu and Maui announced they are requiring proof of vaccination for entry to restaurants, bars and other indoor activities. The order began on Sept. 13. Children under 12, who are ineligible for vaccines, are exempt. Other islands have yet to announce such a mandate.

Each county has specific mask compliance orders. Read up on the county mandates for Kauai, Honolulu, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii.

What are the COVID numbers?

The numbers show that severity of the pandemic has decreased since Aug. 23 when Ige asked travelers to not visit. The statewide test positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive for the virus of all of individuals who are tested) was 7% on Sept. 13 compared to 9% on Aug. 23, according to John Hopkins University's COVID tracker. An average of 606 cases are being reported daily across the past seven days, compared to 711 daily cases nearly four weeks ago. Of the total population, 66% are fully vaccinated.

The state's website shows numbers on the county level.
LATEST Sept. 30, 9:15 a.m. The National Weather Service cancelled the red flag warning in effect for the North Bay Thursday morning.

"Given the improving conditions across the region since dawn (e.g. decreasing winds along the mountains and hills, improving humidities), the Red Flag Warning has been canceled," the weather service said on Twitter. "Winds will continue to weaken in higher terrain areas through the rest of the morning."

Samuel Corum / Getty

Sept. 27, 1:45 p.m. With hot, desiccating offshore winds expected to pick up Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service upgraded a fire weather watch to a more severe red flag warning due to critical wildfire conditions for parts of the Bay Area this afternoon.

More for you This is what you need in your wildfire preparedness kit

The warning is in effect for North Bay mountains from 11 p.m. Wednesday to 11 a.m. Thursday.

"It is primarily for the interior North Bay Mountains of Napa County due to dry conditions and offshore wind gusts up to 35 mph," the weather service said.

Fires are at a high risk for spreading with humidity levels rising, temperatures rising, winds kicking up and vegetation on the ground being dry and flammable.

Sept. 29, 7:30 a.m. Hot, desiccating offshore winds, warm temperatures and low humidity levels are expected to bring critical wildfire conditions to higher elevations of the San Francisco Bay Area Wednesday into Thursday, the National Weather Service reported.

The so-called Diablo winds blow hot air from inland areas toward the coast and are known for drying out the landscape, and essentially sucking the moisture out of the vegetation and leaving it tinder-dry and vulnerable to burning.

The National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch for North Bay mountains from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 11 p.m. Thursday.

Interior North Bay hills and mountains, especially throughout Napa county, are of particular concern. Areas in the Diablo Range in the East Bay and Santa Lucia in Big Sur are also at risk.

"We're looking at gusts potentially up to 30 to 35 mph and sustained winds to be anywhere from 10 to 20 mph," said Brooke Bingaman, a forecaster with the weather service. "Most of this is happening at the higher elevations above1,000 feet. That's where it will be drier. The primary focus being on the hills of Napa County."

The offshore winds will kick up as a trough of low pressure shifts into the Great Basin and high pressure builds over the eastern Pacific strengthening over Northern California. "The difference in pressure is what's causing those winds," said Bingaman. This is a typical weather pattern for California in fall when the state usually sees its most dire wildfire conditions. In Southern California, offshore winds are called Santa Ana winds.

"Typically we have your onshore winds [blowing from the coast toward inland valleys], where we're bringing in the moist marine air but we're in a situation where the pattern has changed," said Bingaman. "That means the wind direction has changed. We have these northern winds moving into the Sacramento Valley and then pushing into the Napa Valley."

Skies are forecast to be mostly clear and fog-free across the Bay Area Wednesday and inland areas will be in the 70s to 80s and coastal spots in the upper 60s to low 70s, the weather service reported.

As high pressure builds, temperatures will continue to rise higher Thursday with widespread 80s in inland areas and 70s near the coast.

The marine layer is expected to return over the weekend, bringing slight cooling to the coast while interior valleys remain warm.
The study commissioned by SAP Concur Respondents was carried out in India, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.AA

Over 78 per cent are "very willing" to get back on work trips which is higher than the global average.

New Delhi: About 99 per cent of Indian business travellers aim to resume work trips within the next 12 months, a new study showed on Monday.

While professionals are eager to restart in-person meetings soon, they also want greater control over how they will travel, so that their safety and health can be better safeguarded amidst the pandemic.

"While uncertainty continues to linger around travel curbs, firms can support business travellers by updating travel policies to provide more flexibility in flight and accommodation selection, better protecting employees' health and safety. Then as vaccinations progress and travel bubbles form in the coming months, they will be better positioned to enable safe travel, facilitating business growth and talent retention," Carl Jones, Vice President and Head of Strategy for SAP Concur Asia Pacific, said in a statement.

Travellers believe inability to travel will hurt them both professionally as well as personally like their global counterparts, over 84 per cent Indian business persons worry that the inability to increase travel will affect them personally.

These concerns include: the difficulty in developing and maintaining business connections (59 per cent in India compared to 45 per cent globally), not advancing in their career (43 per cent compared to 33 per cent globally) and making less money (40 per cent compared to 38 per cent globally).

On the business front, Indian respondents worry that if their organisation does not increase business travel, it will be difficult to sign new deals (47 per cent), build new relationships (41 per cent), and renew contracts with existing clients (43 per cent). Overall, in the Asia-Pacific region, 9 per cent are afraid their business will shut down, and 14 per cent worry that they will lose their jobs.
According to the police, the Court granted 10-day remand to all the seven suspects -- Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, Osama, Moolchand, Zeeshan Qamar, Mohd Abu Bakar and Mohd Amir Javed -- who were arrested on September 14 by the Special Cell of Delhi Police, while Osama's uncle Humaid-ur-Rahman was arrested later from Prayagraj.

New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) A Delhi court has sent seven suspects accused of planning terrorist attacks in the country during the forthcoming festival season to 10-day police remand, an official said here on Wednesday.

Earlier, the court had on September 15 given Delhi Police 14-day custody of all the accused which ended on Wednesday.

The Special Cell had busted a Pakistan-based terror module and arrested six persons, including two people -- Zeeshan and Osama -- who were trained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The terror operation was closely coordinated across the border with the whole operation being orchestrated by Dawood Ibrahim's brother, Anees Ibrahim.

Since September 15, several important points have come to the fore after sustained interrogation of the terror suspects.

The ISI had trained the two terrorists to blow bridges and railway tracks in India in order to cause mass casualties in the country.

The duo was also asked to acquire the details of the timings and routes of the trains with more passengers so that the blasts could result in inflicting high number of casualties.

A total of 1.5 kg of RDX was recovered from the terrorists' possession when they were caught by the Special Cell. Sources said this amount of RDX was enough to cause large-scale destructions.

On September 18, Osama's uncle Humaid-ur-Rahman surrendered before the Uttar Pradesh Police in Prayagraj. It is alleged that Rahman was coordinating the entire terror network in India.

A senior police officer privy to the probe had said that it was Humaid who had sent Osama and Zeeshan Qamar to Muscat in Oman to join training in Pakistan.

Once they reached Muscat, ISI took them to Gwadar port through the sea route to get them trained in making explosives.

Osama and Zeeshan were then imparted training of making bombs and IEDs and committing arson with the help of daily use items. They were also trained in handling and use of small firearms and AK-47.

During the interrogation, it was revealed that Osama left for Muscat in April where he met Zeeshan, who had also come from India. They were joined by 15-16 Bengali-speaking people and were divided into sub-groups where Zeeshan and Osama were placed in one group.

Over the next few days, after several short sea journeys, they were taken to Jioni town near Gwadar port in Pakistan. There they were received by one Pakistani who took them to a farmhouse in Thatta, Pakistan.

There were three Pakistani nationals in the farmhouse. Two of them, Jabbar and Hamza, imparted training to them. Both of them were reportedly from the Pakistan Army as they wore military uniforms.

Sources said that Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana had also questioned the seven terror accused on Monday evening.

--IANS

uj/arm
On Monday, while calling on Iran to "respect international law, the principles of good neighbourliness, and to resolve disputes through peaceful means", UAE's Minister for State Khalifa Shaheen Almarar had commented that it must end its occupation of three islands and agree to resolve this dispute through direct negotiations or referral to the International Court of Justice.

Nearly 10 days after it had slammed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for issuing "annoying and threadbare statements" on the ownership of three Persian Gulf islands, Tehran has now reacted strongly on the comments made by the Arab state from the podium at the UN headquarters.

"The UAE will never cease its demand for its legitimate sovereignty over the islands occupied by Iran since 1971, in flagrant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter," Almarar said during the General Debate.

Payman Ghadirkhomi, the Second Secretary of Iran's Permanent Mission at UN in New York, took the floor soon to respond to UAE's "unfounded" claims, saying that Tehran reiterates its consistent and principled position that it does not recognize the existence of any such dispute between Iran and the UAE.



In his statement while addressing the General Debate, the Iranian envoy said that the three islands have been an inseparable part of Iranian territory and, therefore, any claim to the contrary is categorically rejected.



"Nonetheless, and to show its utmost respect for the principle of good neighbourliness, Iran has always expressed its readiness to talk with the UAE bilaterally with a view to removing any misunderstanding that may exist on the part of the UAE over Abu Musa Island," said Ghadirkhomi.

Unofficial map for illustrative purposes only showing the islands of Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb (Map courtesy: UAE Foreign Ministry)

"The representative of the United Arab Emirates should also be reminded that the term 'Persian Gulf' has been the correct appellation for the body of water situated between the Arabian peninsula and the Iranian plateau since 500 B.C., and will remain so forever," he added.

The three islands are strategically located in the eastern Persian Gulf, near the mouth of Strait of Hormuz which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and is regarded as the world's most important 'oil chokepoint' because of the large volumes of oil that flows through it daily.

Innumerable oil tankers and merchant ships have passed through the region since 1971 when Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen had first approached the UN Security Council on request of the ruler of Ras al Khaimah who had accused Iran with aggression and invading the islands on 30 November 1971 after the withdrawal of Britishers from the Gulf and just two days before the establishment of the UAE.

The Strait of Hormuz (shown in the oval on the map), which is located between Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea (Map courtesy: US Energy Information Administration)

Responding to the charges, Tehran had then stated that there was "no doubt" that these islands belonged to Iran. The Iranian government told UN that whereas the arrangements made concerning Abu Musa had met with the approval of Sharjah, efforts to find a negotiated solution with regard to the Tunb islands had failed and Iran had "had no alternative but to establish the exercise of its sovereign rights over what was Iranian territory".

Iran said that it would not allow the territory of its off-shore islands to be violated; nor would it allow its sovereign rights over the islands in question to be infringed in any way. The Security Council had at that point deferred action to allow the countries an opportunity to negotiate.

However, even after nearly 50 years, the debate over the sovereignty of the islands still continues.

The UAE says that it has repeatedly sought to resolve the dispute "peacefully and conclusively" through the processes of international dispute resolution but Iran remains "obdurate".

It maintains that the islands were used, controlled and owned by the Qawasim tribe since the 18th century, more than 200 years before the Iranian occupation of 1971.

The Qawasim are the direct tribal predecessors of the current rulers of Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah, two of the UAE's constituent Emirates.

"Contrastingly, there is no historical evidence that any tribes, dynasties, or states other than Qawasim ever inhabited or claimed ownership of the islands, or indeed ever used the islands in any way other than in an occasional and sporadic manner," says the UAE Foreign Ministry.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
He is also accused of being behind the assassination of progressive popular Islamic preacher Maulana Shaikh Nurul Islam Faruqi in 2014. In a case of murder against six presenters, including Ibrahim, of Islamist programmes, organised by Jamaat-e-Islami and paid by Pakistan, on different private Bangladesh television channels, it was alleged that Ibrahim of the Zakir Naik-run Peace TV had threatened to kill Faruqi in 2012.

Known for his "misleading" speeches in congregations and social media, Ibrahim gained notoriety after claiming Antarctica was a continent hidden by global superpowers, and that side-effects of the Covid vaccine are that men are developing feminine voices, while women are growing beards.

Detective Branch's Deputy Commissioner, Cyber, Special and Serious Crime unit, Shariful Islam told IANS that police had sought 10 days custody of Ibrahim, who was arrested from his Mohammadpur residence for interrogation and presented before court on Wednesday. However, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sufian Md Noman only granted two days, while rejecting the preacher's bail plea.

Another Dhaka court has granted the police two days to interrogate Ibrahim in custody.

Z.M. Rana filed the fraud case at Mohammadpur police station on Tuesday night while a Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer filed a DSA case on Wednesday, Mohammadpur police station officer in charge, M. Abdul Latif said.

Before being detained on Tuesday, Ibrahim in Facebook Live said some plainclothesmen were knocking at his door to take him away.

Ibrahim, besides being a Peace TV anchor, is one of the key players behind the establishment of 'Peace International Schools', which came under the police's scanner for involvement in militant activities.

In 2016, police shut down one such school in Dhaka's Lalmatia, founded in 2011 by Abdullah Zaman, who was its Managing Director, and Ibrahim, its Principal.

PIS had two campuses in Dhaka's Lalmatia and Uttara. Later, the Uttara campus was renamed "Leader's School".

Peace School, Peace School and College, and Peace Islamic School were established countrywide and which used to misguide people by their name, while preaching radical Islam and instigating students to commit militant activities.

--IANS

sumi/vd
"We estimated an accelerated withdrawal would increase risks of regional instability, the security of Pakistan and its nuclear arsenals," Chairman of the Joint Chief General Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) Top US generals had warned US President Joe Biden that a rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan could increase risks to Pakistan's nuclear weapons and the country's security, Dawn reported.

"We need to fully examine the role of Pakistan sanctuary," the general said, while emphasising the need to probe how the Taliban withstood US military pressure for 20 years, the report said.

General Milley and General Frank McKenzie, the leader of US Central Command, also warned that the Taliban, which Pakistan will now have to deal, would be different from the one they dealt with earlier, and this would complicate their relations.

The Centcom chief also said that the US and Pakistan were involved in ongoing negotiations over the use of a vital air corridor to access Afghanistan, the report said.

"Over the last 20 years we've been able to use what we call the air boulevard to go in over western Pakistan and that's become something that's vital to us, as well as certain landlines of communication," he said.

"And we'll be working with the Pakistanis in the days and weeks ahead to look at what that relationship is going to look like in the future."

Both generals, however, declined to discuss more on their concerns about Pakistan's nuclear weapons and the potential that they could fall into the hands of terrorists.

They said they would discuss this and other sensitive issues in a closed session with the senators.

Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Americans to "consider some uncomfortable truths" before blaming anyone for the fall of Kabul.

"We did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks, we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by president Ashraf Ghani of his commanders," he added, the report added.

"We didn't anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement, and that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralising effect on Afghan soldiers."

The Americans, he said, also failed to understand that Afghan soldiers did not have the motivation to fight for a corrupt government.

"We failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which - and for whom - many of the Afghan forces would fight," he said.

General Miley noted that the vast majority of Afghan troops "put their weapons down and melted away in a very, very short period of time."

He too blamed the previous Afghan government for failing to inspire the soldiers.

--IANS

san/skp/
Due to the worldly pandemic, many companies have faced a significant breakdown throughout the previous year. When a pandemic hits, life is shattered into pieces, and only the people characterize some of the priorities.

The economic predictions come natural and economic clashes have been majorly seen during the previous year, but eventually, they will end. In the meantime, the SEO companies have played a significant role throughout the pandemic situation. they have shown a helping tool to the Australian businesses.Different Australian companies have introduced their initiatives to contribute their positive efforts in up-building the businesses. As a result, it helps many companies have online customer retention through SEO's efficient and intelligent use.

The Brisbane SEO expert companies also helped Australia build a sustainable position in the market by making some revolutionary stability efforts. some of the initiatives and techniques that the Brisbane SEO experts acquire are as follows:

Showing empathy

Business feels a bit relaxed when the other companies understand their situations and put a helping hand towards them. You must remember that quote "we understand, we care, we value and we value our customer" that's right. The Australian SEO companies Have to walk that talk and make different efforts to show empathy towards the Australian businesses. During the pandemic, they make a business's newsletter to keep their customer updated or drop comments on the discussion forums, share the newsletter on different pages, and leave great reviews on the business website. Through this thing, the SEO experts are helping businesses to prevail their sustainability and let them stand firmly in the pandemic.

Advancing with companies branding

SEO is the best branding tool, and it's showing its wonders. In contrast, in the pandemic situation. the SEO experts have thoroughly utilized their tricks to advance the branding of the products and services of different businesses while other businesses were facing a quarantined era. The SEO experts have suggested the companies share such messages that preferably reflect the situation of covid-19. They offered and used that word that is commonly searched in covid-19 and utilized in their content. In this way, people search for anything else related to covid-19, and your website will eventually pop out and get visibility. In the end, no matter your product is different from your topic, you will gain visibility.

Offering Australian businesses, a lifeline

SEO Experts had helped businesses when clients were no longer coming to see offices instead of staying at home and companies were crushing into pieces. At that time, SEO works as an optimistic hope for businesses acquiring different SEO strategies. The online platforms were the only place where the internet was busy despite worldly pandemics. SEO stayed relevant and got more results by sharing follow up emails adding different SEO marketing strategies, or

optimizing the right keywords in the content.

Providing the mind awareness

the SEO experts have shown a great responsibility by sharing awareness content on the companies' webpages like many companies have risked to invisibility the SEO help to dismiss such risky situation and makes an effective mind-blowing awareness content that helps the companies to stay active and un-forgetful during their lowest points.

Focusing less on competition

the SEO companies have put their steps back of having any competitive battle at the time of pandemic. All the SEO experts' companies of Australia have made constant efforts to help the economic survival of Australia. They have developed different strategies to keep their brand alive during a hard time of the covid-19 pandemic. They haven't shown any head-ups that resume competition after getting sustainably of business industries. They have continued their competitive approaches by challenging their competitors and making and keeping a healthy operation.

Investing in long term marketing strategies

SEO is the long-term marketing strategy. If you seed it is in the present, you will get results in the future. Sudden outcomes are not synod with the SEO strategies. The pandemic has no ending limit. No one knows when any businesses can face a significant rescission caused by the long not ending pandemic. Currently, it depends on the situation that when the nation has called out for any sudden pandemic, the SEO is the tool through which the business keeps them alive in the market.

Providing analytical insights into the trends

businesses are always in search of insight knowledge. SEO helps you get insight into the customers' demands and responses to your company's product and services. You can see how rapidly the customer is responding and dropping on your web page through SEO analytic tools. It helps to monitor the organic traffic on your page during the pandemic. The experts give SEO insights knowledge to their businesses. So, they will be able to predict their next moves.

Keeping commerce alive

The SEO has kept commerce alive by staying relevant and producing more outcomes. Many customers still can afford business products or services. The SEO enables them by keeping businesses instances and keeping their webpage ranked on the first Google list. The customers always land on that page that will pop out first in the list. A good SEO enables you to establish the best SEO-optimized content.

Constantly revealing new trends

The SEO expert keeps an eye on the current trending situation. They constantly search for new trends that might cause people to reinvent themselves despite experiencing the complex crisis of a covid-19 pandemic. People in quarantined have searched for different things that never search before, like people who have searched for toilet tissue papers and show interest in various other things. The SEO practitioner walked on that trend and designed their content according to that trending keywords. In the end, if you search for the particular, the optimized content will automatically be displaced.

Final words

The devastating situations faced during the pandemic have shattered humans mentally, physically, and financially. Many people have prayed of any of the mis happenings. For Australian businesses, SEO experts have shown their empathy towards them by making constant efforts during a pandemic.
Each country in the Schengen region has beautiful and unique destinations that will embrace you with an array of unforgettable experiences and excitements. The Schengen region has 26 countries, making it baffling to prioritize the countries you should visit during your trip. It might be impossible to cover all of them if you plan your trip to the Schengen region for just 10-15 days. However, irrespective of whichever country you visit in the Schengen region, youll gather a vast array of beautiful memories.

Every year, thousands of Indians travel to the Schengen region. However, as we all know, travelling in 2021 is not that easy as it used to be due to the pandemic. There are a lot of things which you should be aware of before flying to any foreign country. Especially while travelling to the Schengen region, do not miss out on applying for Schengen travel insurance, inclusive of travel medical insurance.

Besides Schengen travel insurance, weve put together other important things which you should be aware of while travelling to the Schengen region during 2021.

Different Types of Schengen Visas

If you are going to the Schengen region for tourism purposes, you can apply for a short-term Schengen tourism visa. Depending on your needs, you can either opt for a multi-entry or single-entry visa. Ideally, the validity of a multi-entry visa is upto 3 months. As you can visit multiple Schengen countries with one single visa, you can apply to the consulate/embassy of the county in which youve planned to stay for the maximum number of days. However, for applying for the visa for the Schengen region, you require a number of documents.

Documents Required for Availing of the Schengen Visa

Visa application form: Completed and signed

2 recent photographs: The photographs should have been taken within 3 months of applying for the visa

A valid passport: Your passport should not be older than 10 years and should be valid for at least 3 months beyond the date on which you are planning to leave the Schengen region

Round trip itinerary and reservation: This must include all your details, such as your trip dates, as well as flight numbers specifying exit and entry from the Schengen region.

Accommodation proof: It is important to have a document that shows where you will accommodate during your stay in the Schengen region. You should have one of the following:

A rental agreement A hotel/hostel booking An invitation letter from the host at whose home youll be staying

Proof of paid visa fee: 45 for children from 6 - 12 years old and 80 for adults.

Travel insurance policy: Travel insurance, inclusive of travel medical insurance, is one of the most important documents you should apply for well in advance for availing of the Schengen visa. The travel medical insurance should offer a minimum coverage of 30,000 euros so that it can support you in case of medical emergencies such as accidents, illnesses, or repatriation in case of demise.

In India, there are a number of insurance providers that offer Schengen travel insurance inclusive of different covers. For being worry-free throughout your trip, consider buying the travel insurance policy from a reliable insurance provider such as TATA AIG. They have a global presence and offer Schengen travel insurance in dollars. A few of the many benefits of their Schengen travel insurance are:

Medical assistance upto $5 lacs Baggage lost or delayed cover Reimburse bounced bookings of hotels & airline Compensation when a flight gets delayed Duplicate or new passport, in case it gets lost

For knowing about all the benefits of Schengen travel insurance in detail, head to their website and read through the policy specifications carefully to make an informed decision.
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Five weeks after its first shipment, the owner of the Shine iron ore project in Western Australias Mid West is reconsidering its operation as iron ore prices tumble.

Trading in Mount Gibson Iron Limited shares was halted on Wednesday morning ahead of an update by Friday morning on mining at Shine following recent iron ore price volatility.

Iron ore prices have tumbled in recent weeks. Credit:Michele Mossop

The main iron ore market price, the Platts Index for 62 per cent Fe iron ore, averaged $US154 a tonne during the 2020-2021 financial year and peaked at $233 a tonne in May. Since mid-July, the price has halved, and small miners without economies of scale are bearing the brunt of a boom deflated.

A week ago GWR suspended production at its Mid West C4 mine for 30 days while it monitored price movements.
Brand New Cherry Flavor, Netflix



There is so much content dropping onto the streaming services all the time that every now and then an absolute gem slides through to the keeper virtually unnoticed. Such is Brand New Cherry Flavor, an utterly bonkers noirish thriller that is one of the best shows on Netflix right now.

The eight-part series stars Rosa Salazar as Lisa Nova, a young writer-director who gets a call out of the blue inviting her to Hollywood to meet hotshot producer Lou Burke (Eric Lange). Hes seen her graduating student short film and hes blown away, and he wants her to turn it into a feature film. She can write, she can direct, and at their first meeting he slips her a $10,000 cheque to prove hes serious.

Rosa Salazar is electrifying as young writer-director Lisa Nova, a star on the rise. Credit:Netflix

Its an exhilarating start, every young filmmakers dream come true, but you dont need a crystal ball to see where its heading. Lou expects action from Lisa off set as well as on, and when she rebuffs his advances  gently, it must be said  he cuts her out of the picture, literally, by appointing another director.
The television remake of Nancy Mitfords wickedly snobbish The Pursuit of Love inspired British women to explore tea dresses, slips and florals in that countrys recent attempt at summer, but theres much more in it for Australian men looking to expand their warm weather wardrobe.

Andrew Scott who gained immoral attention as the hot priest in the comedy series Fleabag plays the eccentric Lord Merlin in the highly stylised BBC production and offers stylish clothing options that go beyond crumpled linen shorts, shirts and thongs.

Andrew Scott, who plays the bohemian lord of the next-door manor Merlin, and Lily James as Linda in The Pursuit of Love. Credit:Robert Viglasky/Amazon Prime Video

Merlin is based on the equally eccentric novelist and composer Lord Berners who lived at the Palladian marvel Faringdon House with his lover, his lovers wife and a flock of dyed pink pigeons.

Adding more style to the spirit of Lord Berners, costume designer Sinead Kidao injected a touch of Cecil Beaton, after seeing an image of the photographer in the 30s wearing tiny cotton shorts.
About 1.3 million Australian passports have expired during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to urge aspiring travellers to renew theirs now.

Those who dont are likely to face lengthy delays when borders reopen, with the department expecting high demand, as experienced in Britain and the US.

Shane Nicklos is itching to travel overseas, so he recently renewed his passport in anticipation of international borders reopening. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Americans wanting to renew or apply for a passport currently face up to an 18-week wait, while the British Passport Office says its citizens should allow up to 10 weeks to receive their new papers.

While the department is doing everything it possibly can to prepare for a similar eventuality, longer-than-usual processing times cannot be ruled out, a DFAT spokeswoman said.
A major report into the environmental impact of raising the wall of the Warragamba Dam has significantly reduced the expected toll on World Heritage bushland cited in a leaked consultants paper, prompting concerns over the accuracy of the study underpinning the controversial project.

The release of WaterNSWs long-awaited environmental impact statement into the $1 billion-plus proposal to raise the walls of Sydneys largest reservoir by up to 17 metres has drawn criticism from conservationists over the threats to endangered species, and encouragement from the property industry to build it as quickly as possible.

The report into the environmental impact of raising Warragamba Dam wall has provoked divided responses. Credit:James Brickwood

The report, released following revelations NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes refused to declare the project essential for the state over concerns for UNESCO-protected bushland, stated about 300 hectares of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area would be affected by raising the wall to mitigate floods downstream.

However, a draft September 2018 study conducted for SMEC consultants, the firm commissioned by WaterNSW, estimated the affected World Heritage area would be more than four times that, at more than 1300 hectares.
Both Keating and Turnbull criticise this governments knee-jerk policies and lack of strategic planning. Morrison is slowly being exposed for what he is  a short-term slogan-slinging marketeer who will do anything to get re-elected. He even hoodwinked Nancy Pelosi with we will meet it and beat it on climate change. Mark Nugent, Lugarno Thank you, Keating, Turnbull and Kevin Rudd (Letters, September 29), for your learned opinions. However, when it comes to China and submarines, surely the only ex-PM with first-hand knowledge is Harold Holt. Col Burns, Lugarno Devil is in the detail of NSWs emissions target The NSW governments goal to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 is welcome news, but like many, I have to wonder how this will be achieved alongside accelerated land clearing and coal mine expansions under this same government (NSW lifts emissions cut to 50% by 2030, September 29). I really hope to see investment in solar, wind and new technologies, and a lifting in design standards for developers that will result in more sustainable and passive buildings, rather than greenwashing through carbon credits and other dodgy schemes. Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park Laudable visions supported by motherhood statements are good and necessary but they only go so far. If the NSW Liberals and Nationals want to lock in support for their climate targets and initiatives they need to enunciate the actions they are going to take to retrain todays fossil fuel workers, such as coal miners. They need to start establishing and/or encouraging those industries that will be tomorrows employers in the affected regional areas. They need to start getting specific, what by when statements. Graham Hansen, Denistone

Another big announcement by the state government. But before we get carried away in jubilation, lets wait to see the fine print, especially in relation to agriculture and the coal industry. Rob Phillips, North Epping Nine out of 10 to Environment Minister, Matt Kean, and full marks if the reduction in emissions is achieved. Roger Epps, Armidale Well done John Barilaro, for supporting action on climate change . Now please call and have a chat to Barnaby Joyce (NSW proves Nationals can be sold on emissions action, September 29). Paul Doyle, Glenbrook Love the way NSW is doing the heavy lifting on climate change, but guess who gets the credit for that internationally? Dennis Fardy, Warriewood With the Coalition hopelessly divided on climate change, Scott Morrison considering squibbing the crucial Glasgow meeting, and the states showing up the Commonwealth on carbon emissions, surely they should represent us at Glasgow. Andrew Macintosh, Cromer

Scott Morrison doesnt need the support of the Nationals to bring in climate policy (Letters, September 29). All he needs is any legislation that heads us in the right direction and Labor will vote with them, as they do on most other matters. Graeme Finn, Summer Hill If the Prime Minister indeed chooses to stay away from the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow it will not only be a massive COP-out, but a humiliating public admission of his policy impotence as the putative leader of the Australian people. Don Squires, Lake Cathie Hospitality industry carries the can Most of us have witnessed the cool parent approach to teenage parties (Venues get ready to open up as police say theyll tread lightly, September 29. Its the one where mum or dad tells a group of teenagers at a house party that they have promised their parents that there will be no alcohol. Then they wink and leave the teenagers alone for the night. Most times it ends with a teenage hangovers, but sometimes the consequences are much worse. The NSW government is taking the cool parent approach to a new level when it comes to the public health orders on unvaccinated people accessing venues. With no fines and no proactive policing, it will be left to struggling businesses to decide whether to risk trade by being the strict parent or to flout the health orders, knowing that there will be no financial penalty. I fear the consequences. Tony Judge, Woolgoolga After reading about instructions regarding unvaccinated patrons and the confusion of hospitality owners regarding policing the policy, I am concerned my return to dining out will be health hazard or an exercise in listening to angry, aggressive unvaccinated customers causing a scene after being told they cannot be served. A bit of clarity or a legal back up for proprietors, please, so we can enjoy life after October 11. William Perry, Mount Keira

I am an older person, fully vaccinated but with significant underlying health conditions. While I have already made an appointment with my hairdresser, whom I know and trust, I would not feel comfortable going into a cafe or restaurant knowing that there is no penalty for allowing non-vaccinated clientele to enter. The government cant expect businesses to wade through this legal minefield alone and I for one will be staying away from hospitality venues and the like until I feel its safe to enter them with some surety. Maureen Partridge, Baulkham Hills Vaccine anomaly I am baffled by the reticence of some health workers to get vaccinated (Health staff told to get vaccinated or go on unpaid leave, September 29). Compulsory vaccination for medical and nursing students, and I imagine ambulance and paramedic trainees, has been mandatory for decades. Nobody is allowed set foot on the wards unless they can provide evidence of vaccination against a range of conditions, including hepatitis. So whats the problem with adding COVID to the list? Ross MacPherson, Seaforth Connolly is clueless We should not be putting people to death against their will because they are inconvenient, said Kevin Connolly (Premier may back vote of conscience on assisted dying, September 28). My family witnessed first-hand my mother-in-laws painful, undignified death in April. It was terrifying for her and for us to watch the needless suffering she endured. She was 93 when diagnosed with MND. Up until then, she was a typical elderly lady, dealing with the usual ailments of a nonagenarian. What followed was a painful and slow deterioration. Most distressing, however, was that she had her full faculties and was fully aware of what was happening. Several times she told us, begged, that she wanted to die. She slowly lost the use of every limb, becoming bedridden. She lost her voice and couldnt swallow.

Leading up to her diagnosis, she had been an active participant at her nursing home and would

willingly help others less fortunate than her. As a family, we witnessed what no one would wish upon any family: a loved one suffering in the most undignified manner and feeling absolutely helpless. We applaud Alex Greenwich for doing his utmost in attempting to pass a bill that every other state has passed. To quote Connolly: I want to see NSW remain the most civilised state in the country. What we witnessed was far from civilised. Nicole Sinclair, Sydney Connollys comment we should not be putting people to death against their will is just irresponsible and shows he doesnt understand the concept of voluntary assisted dying. Gillian van Rooyen, St Ives Some correspondents keep expressing the view that members of Parliament ought to act in accordance with the views of those who elected them (Letters, September 29). This just shows their lack of understanding of how our parliamentary democracy works. A member of parliament ought to act in what they believe are the best interests of the community. Not the same thing.

Alex Jones Kirribilli Flood plain folly Has the value of our collective national history been finally properly acknowledged in the states planning process (Minister refuses to declare dam wall critical, September 29)? By refusing to evoke the overriding legislative lever, the fate of the adjacent upstream of the World Heritage site is, at least, still pending. Why not concentrate on the core of the problem rather than tinker around the edges?

Allowing development to be built on fertile flood plains of the Hawkesbury Nepean defies sound common sense planning principles. Additionally, it denies our nations greatest metropolis a significant sustainable food source. Demand for sustainable food especially with the challenges of climate change will grow exponentially. Putting a stop to the scourge of rampant residential development on the citys edges and instead exploring opportunities for food production, represents innovative planning policy for our global city. Cleveland Rose, Dee Why Buy now, pay later Im a little confused. Credit card giant Mastercard is energetically gearing up to enter the so-called buy-now-pay-later market (Mastercard bets big on BNPL, September 29). Isnt buy-now-pay-later what a credit card already is? Adrian Connelly, Springwood Beat lives on I saw The Atlantics around 1963 at the Maroubra Surf Club (Drummer laid down beat for first wave of Australian rock success, September 29). I was 17, they played Bombora, we danced the stomp; it was one of the most exciting moments of my youth. Vale Peter Hood, your driving drum beat will live forever in my memory. Bruce Hulbert, Lilyfield

Cash flow Im OK with drinking recycled, purified waste water, but can someone advise me how to invest in household water filters (Letters, September 29)? I reckon those shares are about to go through the roof. Robert Hickey, Green Point Blundering Boris Thank you Michael Dobbs for the best laugh I have had since COVID arrived on our shores. I thought Boris Johnsons dismissive quip to the French President needed a response, and voila, cest vous! Ne wash pa has made my day (Johnson needs to sort Brexit mess not lecture France, September 29). Jan Carroll, Potts Point
Sydney students will return to school a week earlier than originally announced after the government reviewed its back-to-class plan amid faster than expected vaccinations, with kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 students now returning on October 18.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell also wants all schools across the city to reopen at the same time, in a sign that the government has stepped away from earlier plans to close those in areas with high rates of COVID-19 community transmission.

The NSW crisis cabinet made the decision on Wednesday, a senior government source who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed, and will meet later this week to consider an overhaul of the states contact tracing methods.

High school students will need to wear masks when schools reopen Credit:Getty

The initial back-to-school plan, announced in late August, was due to begin on October 25, based on expectations that community vaccination rates would reach 70 per cent on October 18. However, that target is expected to be met a week earlier.
Consternation among the hardworking team at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre.

The medical centre is doing its best to promote vaccinations during the pandemic while quietly freaking out about how to handle its patron who, when it comes to getting the jab, doesnt appear to be singing from the same songsheet.

The Melbourne-raised singer, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur, activist and medicinal cannabis advocate, who now resides at a Californian ranch, was frank earlier this year when she said she had no plans to take the COVID vaccine at this point.

Credit:Joe Benke

In the same interview, Newton-Johns heavily reworked daughter Chloe Lattanzi denied she was an anti-vaxxer, but opined she was anti putting mercury and pesticides in my body, which are in a lot of vaccines.
All identical twins share the same pattern in their DNA, a global coalition of researchers has found, giving them insight into how the phenomenon happens and bringing them closer to finding out why.

The key is in the epigenetics of twins  the parts of a persons genetic makeup beyond their DNA.

New research has found all identical twins share the same epigenetic pattern, providing a clue on how their cells split.

Genes are turned on and off by a process called methylation, and different methylation patterns cause genes to turn off and on in different sequences and in ways that are mostly unique to each person.

The researchers, led by scientists from the Netherlands and including colleagues from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, discovered there is a similar methylation pattern across all identical twins everywhere in the world.
The Gold Coast is on high alert after two COVID-positive people were infectious in the community, one day after the state recorded four new local cases.

Brisbane was already on edge after the four cases were recorded on Tuesday, including a truck driver from Sydney who was infectious in the community for eight days and stayed in three different hotels, including the Adalong Student Guest House in South Brisbane.

But south-east Queensland has avoided being plunged into a lockdown.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette DAth said a close contact of one of Tuesdays cases, a fully vaccinated man in his 30s who worked at an aviation training facility, had tested positive.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has defended comments she made about the AstraZeneca vaccine, after they were used in an anti-vax campaign.

Posters put up around Melbourne feature an image of Dr Young and a quote from one of her press conferences earlier this year, when she said: I dont want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldnt die.

The image of Dr Jeannette Young and a quote from one of her media conferences earlier this year has been used in an anti-vax campaign in Melbourne. Credit:Twitter/ Nadia Daly

Dr Young made the comment when she spoke at a media conference in June as part of a broader debate about who should get which vaccine and when.

Asked on Wednesday about the comments being used for an anti-vax campaign, she said she was speaking about choosing the right vaccine, not avoiding vaccines.
It is correct, as former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has asserted, that few of the questions raised by the governments announcement that Australia will acquire nuclear-propelled submarines (SSNs) have been answered.

The particular question Mr Turnbull raised goes to the nature of the nuclear industry needed to support the submarines but there are others that are just as essential to the success of the enterprise.

On this question, the government has suggested the game-changer enabling us to acquire SSNs is the development of reactors that dont need to be refuelled over the life of the submarines, meaning we dont need a civil nuclear industry to support them. However, operating submarines that dont need refuelling still requires a nuclear industry  it just isnt the industry you might first imagine.

We may not need civil nuclear power plants, or facilities that can enrich uranium to fuel the submarines reactor, but well still need to perform maintenance and repair on the submarines, including the reactor. You cant have an effective military capability if you need to return it to the US any time there is a defect. Deeper maintenance will require putting the boats in dry dock, shutting down the reactor, working on it and starting it up again in an absolutely safe manner. Well need to develop that maintenance workforce from a very low base.
Victorias international education industry is demanding urgent action on the return of overseas students, with principals warning schools may suffer permanent harm and some in the higher education sector growing increasingly frustrated with the state governments lack of a plan.

In a letter to the state and federal governments, obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, dozens of principals from some of the states most expensive schools warn Victorias once-thriving international student market will fall off a cliff if foreign students are unable to start school next year.

Victorias eduction industry has suffered a major hit due to closed borders. Credit:The Age

Without urgent action to develop a streamlined, workable plan for the return of school-aged international students to Victorian and Australian classrooms, the school sector may never fully recover, the letter says.

Fears are now growing that without a plan to bring back international students, Victoria will not only lose them to other countries but also to other Australian states and territories, deepening the biggest crisis universities have faced in decades.
Employers cannot force us to be vaccinated, but they do have property rights to manage their own businesses. They must also comply with work health and safety laws. So can you insist on showing up at work to earn your pay? Ms Kimber couldnt.

They say: We need you to do this so that we can guarantee that our clients and all your co-workers are kept safe. Perhaps, like Ms Kimber, you prefer naturopathic treatments. Or perhaps your religious beliefs dissuade you from having vaccinations. Or you claim a human right to refuse medical treatment.

Perhaps this will become one of those interesting test cases that go all the way to the High Court. Credit:

But lets take a practical look at the case. Lets say your employer has told you that you need to be vaccinated to attend work in their food processing plant, aged care home or on their aeroplanes.

The case of Jennifer Kimber, in which Kimber took her employer to court after being dismissed for refusing to get a flu shot, may have raised the hopes of workers refusing a COVID vaccination. Ms Kimber lost her unfair dismissal case before the Fair Work Commission, but she has signalled she intends to seek judicial review of that decision, no doubt encouraged by the vigorous dissenting judgment of deputy president Lyndall Dean.

Ms Kimbers employer told her on March 24, 2020 that she needed an influenza vaccination to keep working. She then took paid carers leave until 29 June. Then she was dismissed, and she lodged her unfair dismissal claim on 20 July 2020. She lost the case on 29 April 2021, nine months later. It took another five months before a full bench confirmed the decision. How many workers can survive without work for more than a year while they fight a case?

To succeed, Ms Kimber will need to establish that the FWC mistook their own jurisdiction.

Deputy president Dean said that she would have reinstated Ms Kimber, but in reality very few unfair dismissal claims end in reinstatement. According to the FWC Annual Report Access to Justice 2018-19, only 13 of the 229 cases arbitrated in that year resulted in reinstatement.

What about Ms Kimbers application to the Federal Court? To succeed, she will need to establish that the FWC mistook their own jurisdiction. It could take another two years for that matter to be heard and decided. And if she wins, the Federal Court will send the matter back to the FWC to do the job again. If she loses, but has the resources to continue her fight, perhaps this will become one of those enormously interesting test cases that go all the way to the High Court of Australia, like the case of Michaela Banerji who fought, and lost, a claim based on a right to free speech. If so, it will take years, and she is certain to lose, because the judges on the High Court have affirmed (in Workpac v Rossato), that employers enjoy freedom of contract.

Those workers who think they can fight vaccination by taking industrial action are mistaken. Unless you are in the middle of enterprise bargaining over an agreement which specifically includes vaccination requirements, you cant take protected industrial action over this issue. The employer will be able to get an immediate stop order from the FWC to order you back to work, if indeed they want you at work. They will save on their salary bill while you protest.
Federal police have not found any evidence of criminal conduct in a land deal that involved the government paying nearly $33 million for a block of land next to Western Sydney Airport that was valued at $3 million a year later.

The federal government bought the 12.28-hectare parcel of land, dubbed the Leppington Triangle, in July 2018 after months of negotiation. Part of the deal was an agreement to rent it back to the previous owners  the Leppington Pastoral Company owned by billionaire brothers Tony and Ron Perich  which led to the second valuation being done.

The federal government bought 12 hectares of land dubbed the Leppington Triangle, near Badgerys Creek, for $32.8 million in 2018. Credit:Wolter Peeters

A scathing audit report in 2020 led the Infrastructure Department to launch two reviews of the land transaction and the culture within its Western Sydney unit and an investigation of whether one of the public servants involved had breached the code of conduct.

The audit raised issues of integrity and found officials left key information out of briefs to their superiors.
Japans ruling party has elected Fumio Kishida as its leader, paving the way for the 64-year-old to become prime minister and guide the country out of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote followed the resignation of Yoshihide Suga from the top job in early September after less than a year as Prime Minister over growing dissatisfaction with the governments management of COVID-19, state of emergency measures and the Tokyo Olympics.

Fumio Kishida is to become Japans next prime minister. Credit:Bloomberg

Kishida moved quickly on Wednesday to focus the attention of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) MPs on a way through the multiple crises that had dogged his predecessor in the hope of pulling off a victory in a general election that must be held by November 28.

Our national crisis continues. We need to keep working hard on the coronavirus response with strong determination, and we need to compile a stimulus package worth tens of trillions of yen by the end of the year, he said.
The baffled expression on his face as he listened to Donald Trump launched a thousand memes; now Australian journalist Jonathan Swan has won an Emmy for his interview with the then-president of the United States.

In the News and Documentary Emmys announced on Wednesday morning AEST, the Axios news site and channel HBO won Outstanding Edited Interview for Swans quick-draw fact checking of Trumps claims that the American COVID death rate in August last year was not that bad.

Swan, who was a federal political reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age before moving to the US in 2015, challenged the President to speak factually to the American people about the coronavirus.

At one point, armed with a series of charts, Trump claimed the US was doing better than the world in numerous categories  only to be left exposed when he refused to account for the per-capita death rate in favour of selected statistics that he couldnt quite explain.

Swan challenged the Presidents charts, saying: Oh, youre doing death as a proportion of cases. Im talking about death as a proportion of population. Thats where the US is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.
~ PM did not see the letter before it was dispatched, meetings planned with Ombudsman and COM.~



PHILIPSBURG: --- Prime Minister of St Maarten Silveria Jacobs announced at the Council of Minister's press briefing on Wednesday that the Minister of VROMI Egbert Jurendy Doran has officially retracted the letter he sent to the Ombudsman of St. Maarten last week.

Jacobs said that the letter that made headlines last week was discussed in the Council of Ministers while the Minister of VROMI had time to reflect on the decision he took, and she is happy that the Minister apologized publicly on the floor of parliament while he sent another letter to the Ombudsman retracting the letter while he also apologized in writing. Jacobs said the Minister of VROMI has also dedicated himself to having a positive and collaborative relationship with the Ombudsman in the future which the Council of Ministers supports.

Jacobs said everyone should be able to reflect on decisions they have made and if necessary, retract those decisions and also apologize if necessary. She said the events between the Ombudsman and the Minister was a great learning experience and no one is too big to apologize neither are they too big to move forward after mistakes are being made. The Prime Minister further said that everyone should pay attention to how they communicate, and the events last week is not something new because it has happened before. However, the letter to the Ombudsman got the attention and she hopes this will allow a change in the culture on St. Maarten.

In responding to questions posed by SMN News regarding the letter, the Prime Minister confirmed that she did not see the letter prior to it being sent to the Ombudsman last week since there is communication between the Ombudsman and each Ministry to which she has no purview.

Meeting scheduled with Ombudsman and COM.

Jacobs said that after the letter was sent discussions took place in the Council of Ministers and they have decided as the Council of Ministers to have a meeting with the Ombudsman to further discuss communication between government and the Ombudsman since there must be understanding on both sides on how communication is perceived. Jacobs said the discussions and decision took place on Tuesday and there have been other recommendations and or concerns that were brought forward to the government. The Prime Minister said the last time government held a meeting with the Ombudsman was at the beginning of 2021 and she believes its time for another meeting to be held so parties can share concerns and work on their communication skills in general.

The Prime Minister also confirmed that the Minister of VROMI also finalized the answers to the questions the Ombudsman posed and that was sent to her last Friday while the retraction and apology letter was sent on Monday. Jacobs said that the Ministry of VROMI (Minister of VROMI) have updated the Council of Ministers whereby they are working on collaborating with the Ombudsman because the Ministry of VROMI is busy with its own systemic investigation since the entire Council of Ministers including her as Prime Minister is very much concerned that certain information is not available at the Ministry of VROMI but can be found in the public domain such as on social media, parliament or even at the office of the Ombudsman. The Prime Minister said that if a person files a complaint against the government and the government does not have the information in order to investigate then they would want to have a collaboration with the Ombudsman so that the information could be provided to the government. She urged everyone that has the information to send it to the relevant Ministries so that proper investigation.

Prime Minister Jacobs said it is quite alarming that St. Maarten has created a culture where information is leaked to members of the media, on social media, to politicians, and others. She said she should have opened her statements with the concerns she has with the leaking of information which threatens everyone's integrity. She said it is reprehensible for persons including media personalities to share government documents via social media. The Prime Minister said the burden does not only with reporters that have chosen to share government documents on social media, but she has seen this behavior by politicians, members of parliament, and also members of the community all of which borders on their integrity. Jacobs made clear she is looking into the legal ramifications of the leaking of documents that ended up in the public domain. She made clear that it is the governments responsibility to safeguard the integrity of government and reminded that all civil servants to an oath of confidentiality and not sharing government documents externally.

The Prime Minister said that if laws have to adjust for the perpetrators to be dealt with according to the law, then that too will happen.
Geneva, Sept 29, 2021 (SPS) - The baseless allegations, spread by three pro-Moroccan NGOs at the Human Rights Council in Geneva about the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, are politically-motivated and they "deliberately conceal the reason that led Western Sahara people to flee their territory to seek refuge in Algeria," Algeria's mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva said.

"Nongovernmental organizations, lovers of sensations and publicity seekers at the level of our Council, have evoked, with a criminal lightness, the issue of refugees in the camps of Tindouf, deliberately concealing the reasons that led the Saharawi people to flee their territory to seek refuge in Algeria, making this situation the first longer to date, under the mandate of the High Commissioner for Refugees," the Algerian delegation said, at the general debate of the 48th session of the Human Rights Council, in reply to the lies of the three NGOs,

"These organizations, whose bias is so eloquent and which is reflected in the unspoken speeches of the speakers, show their political motives even for the less informed by attacking, with vehemence, the Frente POLISARIO, a movement recognized by United Nations as a liberation movement and which advocates the decolonization of the territory of Western Sahara in the Committee of 24 and other international fora," the Algerian delegation said.

"The insolence of these missionaries does not seem to have any limits," since Algeria is also "quoted for its hospitality, its solidarity, in short the humanity shown by the Algerian people to the Saharawi people."

"Such interest would have been respectable on their part if they were on the side of the victims, the voiceless and the persecuted, but they come forward at the instigation of their mentor to corrupt the debate on the issues that challenge our conscience," the delegation stressed.

In this respect , the Algerian delegation mentioned "the relevant UN documentation, the most recent of which was just released last week, under the current session of the General Assembly, to highlight who is the victim and who is the aggressor."SPS

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New Britain Museum of American Art / Contributed photo

NEW BRITAIN  The Fryderyk Chopin Society of Connecticut recently announced its lineup of internationally renowned artists for the 2021-22 concert season. The concerts will combine in-person attendance with an option via Zoom.

The upcoming season will include six solo piano recitals: Michael Lewin on Sept. 26, Angela Cheng on Oct. 31, Gilbert Kalish on Nov. 21, Jay Hershberger on March 27, Piotr Alexewicz, winner of the 2020 Polish National Chopin Competition, on April 24, and Kate Liu on May 22.
STAMFORD  After a quiet summer, it was business as usual on Tuesday evening for Mayor David Martin.

The mayor slipped back into a familiar format for his first COVID-19 livestream in three months, using a familiar cast of health experts to outline the highs and lows of the pandemic from his period of digital absence.

"I'm tired of this pandemic," he said. "I'm tired of getting out of my car and realizing that I forgot my mask and got to go back and get it again. I'm tired of putting on these information meetings. But we're gonna keep doing it because it's important to keep the community safe."

Flanked on screen by a team of healthcare advisers  including interim Health Director Jody Bishop-Pullan and Stamford Health's Dr. Henry Yoon  the mayor spent close to an hour outlining how the delta variant has changed the city's coronavirus landscape. He touched on everything from the local coronavirus infection rate to vaccination uptake, flitting between the current moment and what Stamford's outlook was during the late spring viral lows.

The city was reporting 17 new cases per day as of Sept. 26, according to a 14-day average of cases. And by that same metric, Stamford saw a daily caseload in the mid-20s during the delta variant surge in August. But the mayor was quick to remind his audience of how contained the virus once was in Stamford.

"We came down to a very, very low number," Martin said. "In fact, June 21 was our lowest number, with less than a half a case per day."

He's still chasing those extreme lows, especially since new daily cases have been steadily declining since Aug. 8, something Martin linked loosely to the mask and vaccination mandates he implemented when cases were rising sharply. Stamford currently requires indoor masking throughout the city and in some public spaces. It also orders all municipal employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.

Though he stopped short of saying the mandates caused the decrease, Martin emphasized that cases had decreased 30 percent since he announced them.

"Overall though, since those mandates went into effect, we had a decrease, and we're showing a trend line down, which is very, very encouraging," the mayor said, adding that he would "reconsider some of (the) mandates" once the average number of cases per day reached about five.

Though the number of cases in Stamford jumped during the three months without regular updates, so did the overall vaccination rate. In every census tract, at least 80 percent of people older than 16 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Sept. 22. Across all Stamfordites, 77.1 percent of people have received at least one dose compared with 69.3 percent of Connecticut residents.

After expressing optimism over local vaccination uptake rates, Martin tempered the mood by passing the microphone to Director Bishop-Pullan, who briefed the virtual crowd on coronavirus protocols at Stamford Public Schools.

As of Sept. 24, SPS has reported 124 confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and staff since the beginning of the school year; 34 people have tested positive in the past week. Since July, the number of positive cases among school-aged children in Stamford has climbed slightly and slowly, which Bishop-Pullan attributed to the lower vaccination rates among kids. However, the same increase has not manifested itself in the general population.

"We want to just make sure that we're monitoring this very carefully," she said.

The mayor's next COVID-19 update is schedule for 6 p.m. Oct. 13.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
DENVER (AP)  Colorado's independent redistricting commission approved a new congressional map minutes before midnight on Tuesday, in the latest test of whether citizens can draw legislative maps that are fairer than ones sketched by politicians and a sign that the redistricting process has kicked into high gear.

The once-a-decade redistricting bonanza happens as states adjust the boundaries of their congressional and statehouse districts to keep pace with changes in population. Because the U.S. Census Bureau delayed releasing its new population numbers for several months due to the coronavirus pandemic, redistricting is happening at warp speed this year, as both political parties battle ferociously to shape maps that benefit them.

The new Colorado map must be formally approved by the state Supreme Court, but it culminates a breakneck process to redraw lines in the fast-growing state and add a new congressional district. That seat will go in the heavily-Latino suburbs north of Denver. The commission also made relatively minor changes to the state's other seats, preserving a 4-3 balance of districts in favor of Democrats.

In an evenly divided country, redistricting can give one party a significant leg up. Republicans only need to flip four seats to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year, for example, and several in the party anticipate being able to gain that many seats from redistricting alone.

Amid the partisan jousting, an increasing number of independent commissions have started drawing maps, hoping to take politics out of the process. Colorado is one of three states that has shifted to a commission system since 2010 after its voters in 2018 approved a pair of ballot measures laying out a new process. Democrats backed the measure, and the result is a congressional map that preserves four safe Democratic seats and three safe Republican ones, while creating a new, competitive district north of Denver.

That means the state, which voted for President Joe Biden by 13.5 percentage points last year, could end up with an evenly divided congressional delegation. It's part of the reason some Democrats have become queasy about their party's partial embrace of nonpartisan redistricting.

Still, Democrats in Oregon this week threw bipartisanship out the window, as the state's Democratic governor signed a map drawn by statehouse Democrats who rescinded their deal with the GOP minority to jointly draw maps. In New York, Democrats may overrule their own redistricting commission so they can eliminate more Republican congressional districts.

Meanwhile, Republicans in fast-growing Texas, which gained two congressional seats due to its population growth over the past decade, released a preliminary map that'd shore up their majority. In Georgia, where the GOP also controls the process, party leaders released a map that'd likely switch one Atlanta-area congressional district from Democratic to Republican control.

Because they control more state governments and have fewer commissions, Republicans hold the upper hand in redistricting, controlling the pen drawing 187 congressional districts while Democrats only have power to draw 75.

Still, Republicans are hemmed in by where growth has been happening  in big, multicultural cities and suburbs that lean Democratic like Houston and Atlanta. That's limited what Republicans can do during this cycle.

They're losing ground in suburbs, so if you try to do funny things in the suburbs, you put yourself at huge risks in the next election, said Jonathan Cervas, a redistricting expert at Carnegie-Mellon University.

In Colorado, Republicans have only won a single statewide election  for state university regent  since 2014. But the map the commission approved mainly preserves the status quo, with four safe Democratic seats, three Republican ones and the new eight congressional district swing seats that could theoretically leave Colorado's delegation split 4-4.

Its exciting to know that district eight is very competitive and it adheres to all our constitutional criteria that weve been charged with doing, said commissioner Paula Espinoza, a Democrat. The plan was not drawn to protect any incumbent, candidate or party.

The commission debated for six hours Tuesday night before approving the map on an 11-1 vote. The map will now go to the Supreme Court for approval, which is seen as largely a formality unless there's a legal challenge.

I hate this map, said Greg Brophy, a former Republican state senator, after the commission vote. It just doesnt treat ag (agriculture) the way it should. But Im happy they did their job and ultimately voted for a map.

So much better than 2011, added Brophy, alluding to the last redistricting cycle, where Democrats convinced the state Supreme Court to implement their maps.

Joe Kabourek of RepresentUs, which advocates for commissions to draw maps, said he was excited about the Colorado process. We hope it's going to be a contrast with partisan maps elsewhere, he said.

But Kabourek warned that it's hard to draw many conclusions about the direction of redistricting right now. We're just starting the process, he said, and there's a long way to go.
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP)  Massachusetts' first refugees from Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover of the country have arrived.

A family of three that includes a husband, wife and young child landed at Boston's Logan International Airport on Friday, according to state officials and local refugee resettlement groups. A family of five, including a couple and their three children, arrived Sunday.
STAMFORD  Three weeks after Mayor David Martins vaccine mandate for municipal employees went into effect, Stamford Government Center officials said 80 percent of its full-time employees report full immunization against COVID-19.

Of the approximately 1,202 people employed full-time by the municipal government, about 240 will instead undergo weekly coronavirus testing, according to Director of Human Resources Al Cava, for either not being vaccinated or not yet reporting their vaccine status.

Another 105 of Stamfords part-time employees are subject to the testing requirement as well.

To my knowledge, no employee has outright refused to test, Cava said.

Martins Aug. 6 executive order states employees who refuse to get vaccinated or partake in the testing requirement would be disciplined  up to and including termination  and new hires could have their job offers rescinded.

Stamford reported on Sept. 21 that 71 percent of its full-time employees proved that they were fully vaccinated.

All employees are currently being tested by the city through Yale Pathology and Progressive Diagnostics, though the city allows employees to submit their own negative tests. But special mayoral assistant Laura Burwick said the city is working on finding a more permanent vaccination partner as the number of employees that we are required to test continues to decrease.

Were trying to do this in the least expensive and more effective way, she said through mayoral spokesperson Rachel LaBella. The city anticipates having a final contract in place for employee vaccination by mid-October, she added.

The number of full-time municipal employees fully vaccinated far exceeds the number of fully vaccinated people citywide. Data released by the Connecticut Department of Health on Sept. 22 show that 69 percent of Stamford residents are fully protected against COVID-19. Just over 77 percent of the population has gotten at least one dose of a vaccine.

In early August, Mayor David Martin announced his vaccine mandate for municipal employees when the delta variant caused a full-fledged resurgence for coronavirus in Connecticut.

When the decree went into effect on Sept. 7, LaBella disclosed that 1,000 of the citys 1,900 employees had submitted proof of vaccination. The city later warned that the figure included part-time, seasonal and Board of Education employees, who have not returned in person after the pandemic and should not have counted toward the final count of official city employees.

veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com
WEST HAVEN  Last week, Guilfords Kathleen Esposito got into her car and drove to the West Haven Veterans Museum. On her passenger seat was a box containing her uncles Bronze Star and Purple Heart, as well as a cache of yellowed handwritten letters and newspaper clippings.

Esposito is the niece of Sgt. John Johnnie Hurlburt, a Madison native who was killed in World War II. Earlier this summer, she learned that a department of the Army had identified his remains after 77 years. In August, he was laid to rest in New Haven with full military honors.

A week or so later, museum manager Arlene DeGrand Painter contacted Esposito about having her uncle added to its Wall of Honor.

Id never heard of the museum and had no idea what to expect, Esposito recalled. But it seemed like another way to keep Johnnies memory alive.

She found the museum tucked away in a building on a side street behind the West Haven Railroad Station.

A hidden gem, she said later, of the 9,000-square foot warehouse that opened in 2010 as a repository for the uniforms, weapons, field gear and equipment of the Connecticut men and women who served the military from the American Revolution to the present.

It was so beautifully curated, it was history coming to life, she said. Like a little Smithsonian.

There were some notable Shoreline connections, including a 1945 wedding gown made from the nylon of a parachute that the groom, John Gambardella, used to save his life.

He and his crew were forced to bail out in the middle of the night over the border of French Indochina, said museum vice president Bill Benson, a Vietnam veteran who fought in the Tet Offensive.

He packed up the parachute and mailed it to his fiancee, who then had the chute made into a wedding gown, Benson said. They didnt have a lot of money back then.

The Gambardellas eventually settled in Branford, where John would found the East Shore Animal Hospital. Two of their daughters wore the parachute wedding gown. Eight decades later, the material is still being used as a christening gown to baptize their great grandchildren.

There was the tail wing from a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, a fighter plane shot down over the Philippines in February 1942 by the so-called Branford Battery Boys, a name given to the 211th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, Battery D.

The wing bears the names of the campaigns the Boys served in, the towns where they were stationed, and a record of the enemy aircraft destroyed.

The unit brought down more enemy aircraft than any other unit in the South Pacific, and had no casualties of its own in the process, Benson said. This was a tight-knit group of brothers and cousins in the prime of their lives doing what they could do to secure the peace.

There was the display case containing food rations, including a tin of Spam, an MRE, or meal ready to eat, of chicken and dumplings, and a 600-calorie Hersheys tropical chocolate bar.

Those chocolate bars fueled the troops storming the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day invasion, and they fueled us too, Benson said. They dont melt, and guys would put it in their pockets for last-minute energy. As for those MREs, they might not look so appetizing, but believe me, when youre hungry, youre really happy to eat it.

There was a Korean-era bunker, fortified with sandbags, with the interior bathed in kerosene light.

This is a communications bunker, Benson said. One guy would be on guard and two guys would be asleep.

That a group of veterans built the bunker sums up the peculiar magic of the museum, it seems, which subsists on a shoestring budget fed by monetary contributions and grants, on the donations of veterans and their families, and on the painstaking care taken by its volunteers, most of them veterans, in preserving, restoring and displaying the donated pieces.

One of those pieces is the uniform of James Gilbert from the Pennsylvania Military College Corps of Cadets, an elite school for military training. Gilbert would go on to serve as a 2nd lieutenant in World War II.

This uniform was donated by his family which is from West Haven, Benson said. Theyre a military family with someone whos served in every war, and James Gilbert is the only one whos MIA to this day.

Theres a story behind every piece, Painter, the museums manager, said. Thats our mission, to tell the stories of the men and women behind each piece, and to pay tribute. If it wasnt for them, we wouldnt be here.

Esposito, who was standing near the museums wall of honor, agreed.

The displays in this museum say more than 1,000 words in a history textbook, she said. It doesnt matter which war, they bring to life the reality of what my uncle, what everyone who served our country, experienced in combat, the bravery they showed, what they sacrificed.

It really brings it home, she added, wiping a tear from her eye.

The West Haven Veterans Museum is located on 30 Hood Terrace in West Haven. For more information, call 203-934-1111, email whmilmuseum@snet.net, or visit whmilmuseum.org.

Museum hours: Thursdays, Friday, Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Group tours available upon request. School groups welcome.

Admission is free. Volunteers needed. Donations welcome.
Published: 29 September 2021

Prices and sales volumes of old dwellings in housing companies continued to rise in August

According to Statistics Finlands preliminary data, prices of old dwellings in housing companies rose in August in all the biggest towns and in all major regions except for Eastern Finland compared with the previous year. Compared with July, prices fell in the whole country by 0.7 per cent.

Development of prices of old dwellings in housing companies by month in large cities in 2015 to 2021M08, index 2015=100

Among large towns, prices of old dwellings in housing companies rose most in Turku and Helsinki compared with the corresponding period of last year. Since 2015, prices have gone up by nearly 25 per cent in Turku and by over 26 per cent in Helsinki.

In Greater Helsinki, prices of dwellings in blocks of flats rose by 6.3 per cent and in terraced houses by 5.8 per cent from one year ago.

Examined by major region, prices of old dwellings rose in August on the annual level most in Southern Finland. Compared with 2015, prices have risen by 14 per cent in Southern Finland and remained almost unchanged in Northern and Western Finland. Prices have fallen by over 20 per cent in Eastern Finland.

Development of prices of old dwellings in housing companies by month in major regions 20152021M08, index 2015=100

In August, nine per cent more sales of old dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses were made through real estate agencies than one year ago.

Prices per square metre of old dwellings in housing companies, August 2021 1)

Area Price, EUR/m Index 2015=100 Monthly change, % Yearly change, % Whole country 2,294 108.5 -0.7 4.4 Greater Helsinki 4,164 120.4 -0.3 6.1 Rest of the country (whole country - Greater Helsinki) 1,753 98.1 -1.2 2.8 Satellite municipalities 2) 2,289 99.6 0.2 4.8 Helsinki 4,849 126.4 0.4 8.0 Espoo-Kauniainen 3,848 111.9 -2.6 3.9 Vantaa 2,931 109.5 1.2 1.4 Tampere 2,893 118.3 1.3 7.2 Turku 2,359 124.8 -1.2 8.5 Oulu 2,018 108.8 0.4 5.6

Number and total value of dwelling sales grew by around 40 per cent in the early part of the year 2021 from the previous year

1) Preliminary data2) Satellite municipalities = Hyvinkaa, Jarvenpaa, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijarvi, Riihimaki, Sipoo, Tuusula and Vihti

Preliminary data on the total number and value of dwelling sales have been supplemented for the early part of the year. In the second quarter, the number of dwelling sales in the whole country rose by 43 per cent from the corresponding period last year. The combined number of dwelling sales in large towns (Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulu, Turku) grew by 39 per cent in the second quarter. Outside large towns, the numbers of sales grew by 46 per cent. It should be noted that dwelling sales dropped during the corona shutdowns in April to May 2020.

In January to June, the value of dwelling sales amounted to EUR 10.5 billion, which is 39 per cent more than one year ago. In large towns, the value of sales increased by 36 per cent and in the rest of the country by 42 per cent from last year. In the early part of the year, the value of sales compared to the value of the whole country was 47 per cent in Greater Helsinki and 62 per cent in large towns.

Statistics Finland collects data on the total number and value of dwelling sales into StatFin table 12r3 . The data in the table are updated retrospectively in connection with monthly statistics as concerns old dwellings in housing companies and building permits granted. The total number of dwelling sales in the third quarter will be released in November and value data in December.

The statistics on the prices of old dwellings in housing companies are based on the Tax Administration's data on dwellings (data on ownership of dwellings in housing companies). The numbers published from data on dwellings should not be used to assess the activeness of transactions in the latest periods.

When the monthly statistics on prices of old dwellings in housing companies are published for the first time, they cover approximately 60 per cent of all transactions made in the latest statistical reference month. Particularly in summer months, the number of transactions in the latest release of the monthly statistics may remain lower than usual and become revised in the coming months. The monthly data become revised during the following months so that the final data for the year are published in the release concerning the first quarter of the following year. Further information about data revisions can be found in separate tables.

The numbers of old dwellings in housing companies sold through real estate agents are based on the data from the price monitoring service of the Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies. As a rule, these data do not become revised retrospectively.

Data on prices of dwellings in housing companies in different areas and by house type are available at stat.fi/til/ashi/tau_en.html. The tables also contain data on the prices per square metre at the municipal and postal code levels and on the numbers of transactions. If only a few transactions are known in the area, a couple of deviating cases may significantly affect the average price for an area and the price index. Instead of individual monthly and annual changes, the development of prices should be examined over a longer time period and not only for a particular point in time.

Source: Prices of dwellings in housing companies, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Petri Kettunen 029 551 3558, Elina Vuorio 029 551 3385, asuminen.hinnat@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (358.5 kB)

Updated 29.9.2021

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Prices of dwellings in housing companies [e-publication].

ISSN=2323-8801. August 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 8.10.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ashi/2021/08/ashi_2021_08_2021-09-29_tie_001_en.html
The Arad border police caught 30 migrants from Bangladesh, Turkey and Afghanistan trying to cross the border illegally into Hungary, hiding in trucks with goods or walking, agerpres reports.

Most of the migrants were caught at the Nadlac II and Nadlac I border crossing points, the Arad Border Police informed on Wednesday.

At Nadlac II, 12 migrants from Afghanistan and Turkey were found in two trucks driven by Turkish drivers carrying various mineral wool goods and products to Germany and Poland.Also in Nadlac I, border guards carried out a thorough check on a TIR truck driven by a Bulgarian, which was loaded with paper for a Swiss company. Five migrants from Afghanistan were found in the trailer.In the locality of Peregu Mare, the border policemen noticed 13 people walking."Because they did not justify their presence in the area, they were taken to the headquarters of the checkpoint. Following the investigation, it was established that they are citizens of Bangladesh," the Border Police said.In all cases, border guards are conducting investigations.
The volume of trade between Romania and Bavaria was almost 6 billion euros in 2020, Romania being among the top 20 economic partners of Bavaria worldwide, according to a statement from AHK Romania sent to AGERPRES.

According to the organization, in the first seven months of this year, imports and exports totaled 3.9 billion euros, 21.8% more than in the same period last year.

AHK Romania organized this week a virtual business trip in which about 20 Bavarian companies in the fields of environment, energy technology, mobility, industry 4.0 and research & development took part in this business delegation in order to establish new contacts in Romania, to present their products or to explore a new export market.Romania and Bavaria have close economic relations, based on a strong partnership and which have developed very dynamically, especially after Romania's accession to the EU (2007). This was also the context of this week's virtual business trip. The virtual delegation provided real opportunities for relationships."I was very pleased to receive information directly from market participants, as it is an important basis for the further development of business relations between Bavaria and Romania. This opportunity does not occur too often," said Roland Weigert, Secretary of State in the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, Regional Development and Energy.During the three thematic workshops - Production, Industry 4.0, Research & Development, Green Deal, Environment and Circular Economy - the companies had the opportunity to get to know better the challenges and opportunities of the Romanian market. The virtual visits of the companies served to strengthen the trust of Bavarian companies in the Romanian business environment."As the representative of Bavaria in Romania, we want to expand relations between Bavaria and Romania, especially in the field of research and development, to encourage partnerships between universities and companies and to continue to promote Bavaria as an interesting investment location among Romanian companies," explained Sebastian Metz, general manager and member of the Board of Directors of AHK Romania.AHK Romania is the official representative of the German economy and also the largest bilateral Chamber of Commerce in Romania. Founded in 2002, AHK has over 550 member firms and provides companies with an important platform for networking, information exchange and experience. Through the services it offers and the events it organizes, AHK Romania actively supports German companies in their entry on the Romanian market and is also a partner of Romanian companies interested in the German market.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the Republic of Cyprus Dan Mihalache expressed his country's support for the efforts aimed at solving the Cyprus issue in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, the Cyprus News Agency reported on Wednesday.

According to a press release issued by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus (unicameral parliament - ed.n.), Dan Mihalache was welcomed by the Speaker of the Chamber, Annita Demetriou, who expressed her gratitude for Romania's position of principle in relation to the Cyprus issue.

During the meeting, Demetriou conveyed the readiness of the Greek Cypriot side for the immediate resumption of UN-led talks for a solution to the Cyprus problem, in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions and EU values and principles, Agerpres informs.

Demetriou and the Romanian ambassador also stressed the long-standing friendships between Cyprus and Romania and the common will to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in various fields, including in the parliamentary one, through improved exchanges at various levels. There was also an exchange of views on issues of international interest, including the representation of women in decision-making centers.

In this context, Demetriou said that encouraging women's participation in politics, while there is a balance between family and professional life, is included among her priorities, along with other significant issues such as addressing serious challenges and building a better and more prosperous future, full of hope, in the post-COVID era, the press release further mentions.
During a meeting of the assembly of bishops of the Metropolis of Banat, the hierarchs studied the local arguments for glorifying the Very Rev. Protosyncellus Calistrat Bobu (1975) and Rev. Prof. Ilarion Felea (1961), basilica reports.

The bishops met at the metropolitan residence in Timisoara for a working session of the Metropolitan Synod of the Metropolis of Banat on September 25, 2021.

The meeting was chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Ioan of Banat. Participants included Archbishop Timotei of Arad, Bishop Lucian of Caransebes, Assistant Bishop Paisie of Lugoj (Timisoara Archdiocese) and Assistant Bishop Emilian of Crisana (Arad Archdiocese).

The files in favour of the canonization of the two clergymen will be forwarded to the Chancery of the Holy Synod.

Protosyncellus Calistrat Bobu from Vasiova Monastery (19001975) was a renowned missionary priest in Banat. He was born in Burdujeni, Suceava. He entered monastic life at Sihastria Monastery in Neamt County. In 1942, he was sent as a missionary priest to Banat. For 33 years, Father Calistrat was a torch always burning for the monks and the faithful of Banat. For the humility and meekness of his heart, he received from God the gift of healing and casting out unclean spirits.

Father Ilarion Felea (1903-1961) was a Romanian priest known as the spiritual father of youth in Arad. In 1938, he was appointed professor at the dogmatics and apologetics department of the Arad theological academy, where he taught until it was shut down in 1948. The communist regime sentenced him to 20 years in prison for intense activity against the working class and the revolutionary movement. The official reason was that he did not preach the so-called fight for peace. Initially held at Gherla prison, he was taken to Aiud, where he died in 1961. The cause of death was a rapidly progressing colon cancer left untreated; he was buried in a common grave for prisoners.
The Minister of Education, Sorin Cimpeanu, declared that according to the current "rules", if on Friday the infection rate with the new coronavirus is over six per thousand, starting on Monday the schools will move to online courses. However, personally, he chooses that the educational units carry out didactic activity with physical attendance, agerpres reports.

"My colleagues have centralized in the Ministry of Education the petitions received today: 183 petitions (parents, teachers) for passing to online school, 175 petitions for keeping the schools open with physical attendance. (...) There are many antagonistic proposals. Some want schools closed once the threshold of six per thousand is reached, they are very scared. (...) Others want them to stay open even after six per thousand. (...) In Bucharest, for example, where today we have 5.57, in Cluj we have 5.59, they are very close to six per thousand - the reference day is Friday - if on Friday it exceeds six per thousand, according to today's rules, in the evening, at the time we are talking, the schools go online, except for special schools. However, nurseries and kindergartens remain open with a physical attendance. (...) Now, we all wonder how we chose this limit of six in one thousand. (...) When that threshold of six per thousand was set, many people were convinced that we would never get close to it again," Cimpeanu said on Tuesday evening at Digi 24 private television broadcaster.

He said he would do "anything" to keep the schools open with a physical attendance."If by Friday a common opinion based on the experience of those with medical competence... what we, those in Education, want is less important, as if they asked me, apart from anything, I would say: 'yes, I want to do everything so that the schools stay open with a physical attendance. It's just that my point of view is not decisive, because I don't have medical, much less epidemiological competence," the representative of the Ministry of Education specified.Cimpeanu mentioned that a survey conducted at a school in Bucharest showed that 99% of parents do not want to test their children."I am very sad. I just found out the answer to a survey in a school in Bucharest in which 99% of parents said they do not agree with the tests, be they nasal, pharyngeal or saliva extract," he added.
As many as 204,000 doses of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine will arrive on Wednesday in Romania at the Unifarm National Corporation, according to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV).

Shipping is provided by the manufacturing company, and the vaccine doses will be brought to Bucharest by land.

The doses will be stored with the Unifarm National Corporation to be later on distributed to the existing regional centres nationwide.To date, 1,381,300 Janssen doses have been received and 749,799 have already been for mass immunisation.
Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) co-chair Dacian Ciolos said he is not taking into account being prime minister, as he has responsibilities in the European Parliament, and if he wins the USR PLUS presidency, he wants to take over the party.

"There are many options for prime minister. We said that if the PNL [the National Liberal Party] has no other option than Florin Citu - and as we cannot work with Florin Citu - we are willing to put a prime minister on the table. I didn't mean it as a joke. The important thing is to have trust between partners, that we can work as a team. Because there are more positions of political responsibility within the coalition, as well. Even if we had, let's say, the prime minister, there are many responsibilities in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies in Parliament. And Parliament has a key role to play in the functioning of a coalition, not just the government," Ciolos told private radio broadcaster Europa FM.

With regard to the refusal of PNL leader Florin Citu to negotiate with USR PLUS after a possible support of the censure motion, Ciolos declared that all the prime minister can do is to discuss with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Agerpres informs.

"He will then have to negotiate with PSD. I heard him say that he will not negotiate with any party that votes a censure motion against him. So I don't know what he has left. That's why I am saying that he is a little incoherent. It is not clear to me what the solutions are and what he wants. We proposed a solution to him. Florin Citu should take care of the party, now that he is the party leader - as there probably is work to be done there - and PNL should appoint a prime minister who will be able to work in coalition. We have been saying the same thing since the beginning of September. We are ready to have a discussion, if we have someone to talk to," said the USR PLUS leader.

Dacian Ciolos also stated that he "expects anything" from PSD, but that he supposes that the Social Democrats will vote in favor of the censure motion they submitted, because it would be "ridiculous" to do otherwise.
Several brown bears from hunting areas in Arges, Mures and Suceava counties will be shot, by orders of the minister of the Environment, Waters and Forests.

According to the minister's orders, the harvesting of bears by the "stakeout" method is done by derogation from the provisions of art. 33 paragraph (1) of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2007 on the regime of protected natural areas, conservation of natural habitats, wild flora and fauna.

"The derogation shall be established for 20 days from the date of entry into force of this order," reads each of the five normative acts signed by Secretary of State Robert-Eugen Szep, Agerpres informs.

The specimen of the brown bear species will be harvested only after it has been identified and carefully monitored, the task falling to the administrator of the hunting fund on which the animal to be shot is located.
Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu told a news conference on Wednesday that in the week ending on September 27, 1,700 school children got vaccinated against COVID-19 per day.

Thus, he added, the number of vaccinated students increased by 12,000.

"In the week September 13-20, an average of 1,000 students got vaccinated per day. In the week September 21-27, an average of 1,700 students got vaccinated per day. Basically, in the week September 21-27, the number of vaccinated students increased by 12,000 - 8,000 students in the age group 16-19 years, and over 4,000 students in the age group 12-15 years. (...) It is an upward trend, significant, it is progress that proves us that our actions are not in vain, they have an effect. There used to be a little over 100 students a day, now we have increased it to a thousand. Last week, we had 1,700 students getting vaccinated a day," Cimpeanu said at the Ministry of Education.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel extended his blessing to all students, professors and parents ahead of the new academic year 2021-2022, basilica reports.

In his message, His Beatitude asked for Gods help upon students during their study, research, and other activities that develop and deepen the scientific, educational, spiritual, cultural and practical values.

Blessing at the beginning of the academic year: Full text

At the beginning of the new academic year 2021-2022, we address a message of blessing to all students and professors in universities and postgraduate education institutions, wishing them much help from God during the study, research and activities that deepen the scientific, educational, spiritual, cultural, and practical values.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church declared 2021 as a Solemn Year of the pastoral care of Romanians outside Romania, wishing to highlight the importance of cultivating the Romanian Orthodox identity and communion.

The young Romanian Orthodox everywhere, confessors of the faith in word and deed, lovers of prayer and action, are missionaries of the Church in todays society, representing not only the future but also the active and creative present of the Church.

That is why the Church calls all young people to be seekers, recipients and confessors of Christs love for all people.

In this sense, for young people, Christ the Lord is the source of eternal love, sincere friendship and peace of mind.

He is the source of life, light and hope for all humans. Those who loved and followed the Lord Jesus Christ with excellent fidelity, from a young age, are the saints of the Church, bright portraits of sincere, humble and merciful love, teachers and intercessors for all people.

The Romanian Orthodox Church tries to respond to the educational needs of young people through programs that take place both in the country and abroad, adapted to each community, such as Meetings of Orthodox Youth from around the world, activities of the Romanian Christian-Orthodox Students Association (ASCOR), The National Catechetical Program Christ shared with children, the educational project Choose the School!, Youth camps, pilgrimages for pupils and students, scholarships and many social-philanthropic projects, developed by diocesan centres, deaneries, parishes and some monasteries.

Through all this, we cultivate self-confidence and fellowship, respect and love for people and nature  Gods creation. We strengthen the life of communion of young people, Christian solidarity, friendship, respect for the Church and the Nation, and dialogue with other peoples.

It is necessary that the spiritual and educational work of guiding and supporting young people be enlightened by the conviction that all the children and young people of the nation are a blessing of God for the Family, the Church and Society.

At the beginning of the new academic year 2021-2022, we congratulate all the young Romanians who obtained good results in their studies in the previous years, both in the country and abroad.

We pray to the Merciful God, the Source of Love and Wisdom, to bless all students, professors, and parents for many and excellent years!

With much appreciation and paternal blessings,

 Daniel

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Prime Minister Florin Citu said that it will not be possible for an interim government to adopt the decision approving "exactly the final form of the PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan]", noting that, in Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, he presented a calendar on the pieces of legislation that would allow the enforcement and implementation of the PNRR.

"PNRR will be tabled to the Council of the European Union, after which a Government Decision should be made to endorse exactly the final form," Florin Citu said Wednesday, in a press conference at the Victoria Palace (gov't's venue), at the end of the Government meeting.

The head of the Executive drew attention that the HG (Government Decision) on the PNRR he had made reference to, cannot be approved by an interim government, Agerpres informs.

"The problem is I don't think the Government Decision can be approved by an interim government because it's a decision that approves a new programme with implications for future budgets. We will see what happens, whether we can approve this Government Decision or not, it depends on what the situation of the government will be like then and, after that, of course, an emergency ordinance on the financial flows for the period 2021 - 2027 and the audit system. (...) The government decisions that have implications for next year's budgets must be given by a full government," the prime minister said.

Asked when the PNRR will be approved in the EU Council, Florin Citu said that the authorities in Bucharest have asked for the date of October 5, but it would be on October 10-15.

In his opinion, given the political situation in Romania, delays could occur.
The Romanian Skete of the Honourable Forerunner (Prodromos) denies the existence of an outbreak of Covid-19 in Mount Athos, basilica reports.

All the Romanian monks with whom we consulted, but also those of other nationalities, stated that no one is sick with Covid-19, the abbot of the monastic settlement, Archimandrite Atanasie, wrote in an official document.

It has been reported in the Romanian media that more than 1,000 monks on Mount Athos have been infected with coronavirus, and eight of them have died.

Archimandrite Atanasie of Prodromos denied this, as the number of 1,000 people is very large and represents about half of the total number of Athonite monastics.
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South Korea is spending a record $42.4 billion on defense in 2022, 4.5 percent more than 2021. Nearby (separated by the 65 kilometer wide Tsushima Strait) Japan is also spending more in 2022, a record $50 billion, which is four percent more than 2021. Japan has a larger navy and air force than South Korea but both nations build or buy similar ships and aircraft. Japan has had hostile relationships with both Koreas since World War II because of four decades of brutal occupation by Japan and attempts to make Korea a part of Japan. Even before that Korea and Japan had a long hate-hate relationship. The occupation just made it a lot worse. Yet North Korea has been hostile to South Korea since World War II and as North Korea developed ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, South Korea and Japan tried, with mixed success, to reduce their mutual hostility over the occupation and much else.

Meanwhile North Korea and China consider the combined military capabilities of Japan and South Korea as a single threat to Chinese domination of East Asia. The combined defense spending of South Korea and Japan is more than ten times what North Korea spends but only about a third of Chinese defense spending. What threatens Chinese military domination the most is the quality and quantity of the South Korean and Japanese air and naval power. Both nations are buying F-35 fighters and building their own submarines and aircraft carriers. Combine this with the military forces of other nations confronting Chinese aggression and expansion, a coalition that now includes India, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and American forces in the West Pacific, and you get a better idea of the Chinese predicament.

South Korea has a larger army than Japan because South Korea has to face the possibility of a land invasion by North Korea. South Korea also has a large and modern air force, including F-35s. Currently South Korea is buying at least 40 F-35s while also developing a modern jet fighter, the KF-21 for itself (about 120) and export. Many of the F-35s are needed for the DDH type (helicopter carrier) ships that can operate F-35Bs.

North Korea considers all these F-35 purchases a hostile act and direct threat to them. That about sums it up. In the event of a war, the U.S. plans to bring in over 200 more air force and navy F-35s for use against North Korea or China, depending on who is the aggressor.

South Korea and Japan are also building Aegis destroyers and more AIP powered submarines. Both Japan and South Korea are beginning to use lithium-ion batteries on subs, which are superior to current submarine batteries. Japan pioneered the use of lithium-ion batteries for submarines.

During the last decade, as North Korean and Chinese military threats became more obvious, Japan and South Korea have been increasing defense spending each year. North Korea openly complains about how unfair and unfriendly these increases are, but they are a direct result of the increasing threat from North Korea. Both Japan and South Korea each have annual defense spending that is more than a third larger than the annual GDP of North Korea. That is one reason North Korea spends about a third of GDP on defense compared to 1.2 percent for Japan and nearly three percent for South Korea.

The disparity in military manpower is also unusual. While North Korea has a nearly a million men (and some women) in its military, South Korea has 500,000 and Japan 247,000. While North Korea depends on a large number of poorly equipped troops, Japan and South Korea depend a lot more on high-tech weapons, and lots of them, plus lots of training for the all-volunteer Japanese force and South Koreas mostly conscript forces, which are trying to achieve all-volunteer status. A growing portion of the South Korean defense spending is going to improve the pay and living conditions of its career military personnel and conscripts. This, the South Koreans discovered, was one of the best ways to increase the number of conscripts accepting offers to make the military a career. If not, the improved morale improves the quality of the military reserves. Its the voters in both countries that are calling for more defense spending and improving the quality of the armed forces.

North Korea spends a disproportionate amount of its defense budget on ballistic missiles and trying to perfect nuclear weapons. Since Japan is an island, its army has only 150,000 troops. The structure of the Japanese army is also unique. It has nine divisions; eight infantry and one armored. There are eight independent combat brigades; five infantry, one airborne, one airmobile and one amphibious. The divisions are relatively small with 6,000 to 9,000 troops each while the brigades have 3,000-4,000 troops each. These brigades and divisions are heavy on firepower. All the infantry divisions and brigades are basically local defense units. The divisions have only three infantry battalions with artillery and other support units typical in larger Western infantry divisions. One of those three infantry battalions is usually mechanized and acts as a mobile reserve. These Japanese divisions depend on a lot of artillery and air defense weapons plus excellent communications. The brigades are basically divisions without most of the support units. The airborne, airmobile and amphibious brigades are mobile reserve forces. Another reserve force unit is an armored division with 6,500 troops, 230 tanks and 350 IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles) for its one infantry battalion and many of the support troops.

The Japanese navy and air force each have about 50,000 personnel with world-class ships, aircraft and other weapons. Most of the defense budget goes to equipping and maintaining these ships, aircraft and missile systems. The first line of defense is the fleet and air force. While the air force has 760 aircraft, the navy has 346, in addition to 154 ships. The air force is usually the first responder when any potentially hostile ships or aircraft come near any of the islands. The navy has a lot of combat ships, all of modern design. These include 37 destroyers, seven equipped with the Aegis air defense system that can also intercept ballistic missiles. Another Aegis destroyer will enter service in 2021 and two more are on order. There are also four helicopter destroyers that look like small aircraft carriers, which is what they are. The post-World War II Japanese constitution prohibits Japan from having aircraft carriers but the helicopter destroyers are being modified to use the vertical takeoff F-35B stealth fighter. Japan is making a big investment in these aircraft, with 147 in service or on order. Most (105) will be the land-based F-35A model but 42 will be F-35Bs, the version that can operate from carriers.

Ordering some F-35Bs makes it clear that Japan is going to experiment with some of these aircraft aboard the existing Japanese helicopter carriers. Since 2017 Japan has had operational two 27,000 ton destroyers (DDH type ships) that look exactly like an aircraft carrier. These Izumo class ships can carry up to 28 helicopters or up to ten vertical takeoff aircraft. The carriers are armed only with two 20mm Phalanx anti-missile cannons and a launcher with sixteen ESSM missiles for anti-missile defense. The DDH have powerful engines capable of destroyer-like speeds of over fifty-four kilometers an hour. There are also more medical facilities than one would expect for a ship of this size. Izumo does have considerable cargo capacity which is intended for moving disaster relief supplies quickly to where they are needed. Apparently, some of these cargo spaces can be converted to berthing spaces for troops, disaster relief personnel, or people rescued from disasters, as well as additional weapons and equipment needed to support F-35B fighter-bombers. Izumo can carry and operate at least ten of the vertical take-off F-35B stealth fighters now that modifications were made to the flight deck to handle the extremely high temperatures the F-35B generates when taking off or landing vertically, like a helicopter. When the first DDH entered service in 2015 Japan made no mention of buying F-35Bs or modifying the LPH flight decks to handle the F-35B. The Izumos already have an elevator (to the hangar deck under the flight deck) powerful enough to carry an F-35B fighter.

The air force handles the long-range air-defense systems, including Patriot batteries. Japan is developing more powerful air defense systems as well as new electronic warfare weapons. This includes some innovative jamming systems.

Japans submarine force comprises 18 very quiet and lethal diesel-electric boats, most with AIP (air-independent propulsion) that allows submerged operations lasting several weeks. This submarine force is being expanded to 22 boats.

There are 16 smaller (frigate and corvette) surface warships plus 30 minesweepers, three landing ships and lots of support ships.

The air force has 300 modern fighters, with the older ones being upgraded or replaced with F-35s. There are 13 AWACS (aerial radar and air control) aircraft, five intelligence collection aircraft and about 70 two and four-engine transports. The air force also has about fifty helicopters.

The army has about 490 aircraft, most of them helicopters. There are 17 V-22 vertical takeoff and landing transports on order.

The Japanese navy has 346 aircraft, 145 of them helicopters with most of those serving on ships. The fixed wing aircraft include 42 F-35Bs on order as well as about a hundred maritime patrol aircraft with the rest being transports and trainers.

South Korean forces long concentrated spending on the army, and buying modern weapons made in South Korea. That worked and now South Korea builds its own tanks and other armored vehicles similar, and sometimes superior, to what the United States has. South Korea ground forces are organized like the Americans and the U.S. still plans to send major ground combat units to South Korea if there is another war with North Korea or attack by China.

As a major commercial ship builder it was easy for South Korea to start building their own warships. Unlike Japan, whose post World War II constitution prohibited exporting weapons, South Korea became a major exporter of modern warships as well as combat vehicles and eventually military aircraft. This was one reason why Japan finally amended its constitution to allow military exports.

American, South Korean and Japanese forces still train together and war plans of all three countries are kept in sync so that wartime joint operations will happen without a lot of embarrassing incompatibilities or misunderstandings.
American efforts to increase cooperation between Arab nations and Israel triggered a major Iranian reaction in Iraq. Iran does not, under any circumstances, what Israel to be allies with more Arab states. This began six days ago when an unexpected peace conference was held in the autonomous Kurdish north, where some prominent Iraqis openly called for Iraq to join the growing number of Moslem states that are ending over 70 years of hostility towards Israel and establishing diplomatic relations. This effort, called the Abraham Accords, became official in mid-2020 after several years of unofficial negotiations. This came after decades of unofficial diplomatic, intelligence and economic relationships between Israel and the UAE (United Arab Emirates), Morocco and other Arab states that were officially at war with Israel.

The UAE has been, for centuries, an international trading center and had contacts with most nations and a lot of rebel groups. The UAE has been the most successful Arab oil state in developing an economy that can replace the oil income when it is gone. What really prompted the recent willingness to have Israel as an ally rather than an enemy was the growing threat from Iran. The Americans pointed out that the most successful weapons against the Iranian threat, especially missiles and UAVs, were developed and used by Israel, which has always been willing to cooperate on mutual-defense matters with other nations in the region. The UAE always recognized this, often quite openly and was the first to accept the Abraham Accords. O ther Arab states followed and a growing number of Moslem majority nations are at least considering doing the same.

For Moslem states in the Middle East, Israel is recognized as the most technically advanced country in the region and a primary target for Iranian aggression. Israel has also been the most successful at fighting back against Iran. This is popular in Arab countries, as is the Iranian inability to retaliate against Israel. Not only that but Israel, although majority Jewish, has a population where the majority is quite literally Arab, or Semitic. When founded in the late 1940s, over half the population consisted of local Semites, either Jews forced out of Arab countries where they had lived for over a thousand years, or Arabs who did not flee the newly created Israel when surrounding Arab nations declared war on Israel and told Arabs living there to leave until Arab armies could wipe out the Jews. That never happened and it took four failed attempts to convince Arab nations that the Israelis could not be defeated militarily. Today 20 percent of Israelis are descendants of Arabs who did not leave after Israel was founded. Most are Moslem, with the remainder Christian. The Jews whose ancestors came from other Arab states in the 1940s and 50s were later joined by more European, American and Russian Jews. There were few new arrivals from Moslem nations because nearly all the Jews had been expelled in the late 1940s. The majority of Israelis still resemble their ancient ancestors who were identical to their Semitic neighbors and spoke Aramaic, an ancient Semitic language that appeared in Syria a few centuries before Hebrew showed up. Until Arabic appeared about 1,800 years ago, Aramaic was a common language in the Middle East. Arabic, like Aramac, became the common language in nations that already spoke one of Semitic languages. Aramaic is still spoken by a few isolated minorities in the region. Two thousand years ago Hebrew was a related language used for religious occasions and few Jews knew it. When modern Israel was founded, Hebrew was revived as a national language that all Jews could accept. But half of Israelis still speak some Arabic and a minority still use it at home and among other Jews from families that never left the region when the Romans killed, enslaved, or dispersed the Jewish population after too many rebellions against Roman rule. The Middle East is one part of the world where old customs never entirely disappear, are often revived and are almost always respected.

The original population of the Middle East developed and diversified the Semitic languages while elsewhere in Eurasia and Africa other peoples did the same with locally developed early languages. The major language groups often developed among humans who had developed some unique physical features, like different skin tones. Darker skin was the default because humans originally evolved in tropical areas. Many other physical characteristics appeared that were evolutionarily useless, as was common with all other species. The Iranians are Indo-European, as are the Kurds. The Turks are central Asian although they have intermarried so much over the centuries, at least in urban areas, that genetic analysis often describes them as Greek or Armenian (another ancient Indo-European group). This ancient history, as defined by appearance and language, is still important in the Middle East, less so in Europe and least of all in the U.S. and other former English-speaking colonies. The Abraham Accords are based on the shared history and culture of Semitic speakers, not which religion they adopted. The Jews expelled from Moslem countries in the 1940s still remember that their families had always lived among fellow Semites and now more Arabs are recognizing that as well.

The September 24 conference was later condemned by the Shia dominated federal government. Iran still has a lot of influence in Iraq, mainly because of the common Shia Islamic religion. It does not go unnoticed in Iraq that the ancient Arab minority in Iran has always been poorly treated by its Indo-European majority. Therefore, Iran is losing its influence among Arab Shia in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Iran demanded that the Iraqi government punish those attending the conference. There were efforts to do that but as with similar Iranian demands, those who attended the Erbil conference believe they had more supporters in Iraq and Iran than the current Iranian religious dictatorship of Iran does.

Why Abraham?

One thing most Jews, Christians and Moslems agree on is that Judaism was codified by a native of Ur, one of the many cities in the Tigris-Euphrates rivers system that empties into the Persian Gulf. This area is generally regarded as one of the first places where cities, language and much else was developed by humans. One of those developments was a monotheistic religion that began as Judaism and later served as the basis for Christianity and Islam. All these religions recognize that the founder of Judaism was Abraham, according to religious texts and a growing body of archeological evidence, a Chaldean born in or near the city of Ur whose ruins were later found 360 kilometers southeast of Baghdad near the Euphrates River. Abraham spoke the Chaldean dialect of Aramaic, which was then spoken throughout the Middle East when Abraham was born over 4,000 years ago. According to legend Abraham was a descendent of the Biblical Noah who survived the great flood by following Gods instructions to build a large boat to save humanity and other species.

Abraham, like Noah, received instructions directly from God and was commanded to take his family and new religion to what is now Israel and make the new religion flourish. He moved and he caused the religion to evolve and grow, but there were complications. There always are.

Archaeologists eventually found evidence that the Persian Gulf was a fertile valley during the last Ice Age, during which so much water was locked up in glaciers and other ice that the ocean levels fell sufficiently to turn modern seas and gulfs with single, shallow, outlets to the oceans, into fertile lowland areas, often around a freshwater lakes or, in the case of the Persian Gulf, an extension of what became the fertile Tigris-Euphrates rivers system that is still a major source of food for large populations. The current theory is that the Ice Age valley explains how this region had a head start in developing cities and other advanced technologies. The last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago and ocean levels rose and resulted in several Great Floods and other major geographical changes. In the case of the ancient valley that became the Persian Gulf, those who noticed and survived the flood of salt water moved to higher ground on the new coast. That was why Ur was where it was. Over the next 4,000 years of more silt flowing down the enlarged Tigris and Euphrates rivers built more land that left Ur far from the coast. But at the time the city was founded, it was on the new coastline and that was a major advantage and why most of the world population still lives near coasts or along major rivers emptying into the oceans. The wealth of Ur and the other new cities of what became Babylonia attracted a growing number of terrifying, aggressive and very alien Indo-European, Turkish and Mongol invaders coming out of a more habitable Eurasian Plain. The earliest developed civilizations were in Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, northwest India (the Ganges River) and the great rivers of eastern China. China and India were able to absorb or merge with the alien invaders. The Semitic civilizations that eventually covered North Africa as well as the region between Egypt down to Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Tigris-Euphrates Valley were more successful at resisting, not always defeating three thousand years of alien invasions, both military and cultural. In turn, the followers of Abraham managed to convert about half the planets population. That wasnt conquest, but it was different and taught the many Semitic states that the best way to resist alien threats was to unite. Accepting the multi-ethnic state recently established by the Hebrew worldwide diaspora greatly reduces the threat from Iran, as well as Turkey and East Asians.

Good News

Deaths from religious violence continue to decline throughout Iraq, to the dismay of Iran and diehard Saddam supporters, now present as ISIL. The sharp fall in violent deaths began in 2017. That was when ISIL power in Iraq was broken. Ever since then small groups of ISIL fighters survive in the north and west, mainly by avoiding the security forces and concentrating on raising money via extortion and kidnapping so they can rebuild and recruit. The fundraising has been more successful than the recruiting and ISIL in Iraq is evolving into another organized crime network. Gangsters tend to prefer a lower body count than terrorists.

In 2017 there were about a thousand terrorism related civilian deaths a month, with a somewhat smaller number of deaths among the Islamic terrorists and the security forces. In 2018 monthly civilian deaths fell to less than 300 a month. In 2019 it was about 200 a month and in 2020 less than a hundred a month. The 2020 decline in deaths was partly the result of covid19 lockdowns and uncertainty about how bad the virus was. In 2021 the downward trend continues, despite Iranian efforts to get a major war going against Saudi Arabia and Israel. Bribery and threats against government leaders will only get you so far if most of the people in those countries want nothing to do with another aggressive warmonger.

September 26, 2021: The U.S. coalition officially denied having any prior knowledge about the pro-Israel Abraham Accords conference held in the autonomous Kurdish north two days ago. Back in the United States there is no official government response yet. Earlier today the Iraqi government issued an arrest warrant for the main speaker, Culture Ministry research director Sahar al-Taie who has long advocated peace with Israel. The other main speaker was Anbar province Sunni tribal leader Wisam al-Hardan, was ordered detained for questioning while Mithal al-Alusi, former Sunni member of parliament and early (1975) opponent of Saddam Hussein, was ordered arrested even though he wasnt at the conference. Alusi fled to Germany in 1978. He had been a graduate student for several years in Egypt where he became more open about his anti-Saddam attitudes. At the time the Egyptians were inclined to honor extradition requests from Iraq. Alusi lived in Germany until 2004, where he became a prominent critic of Saddam Hussein and even served three years in jail for taking part in the takeover of the Iraqi embassy. When Alusi returned to Iraq he was appointed to head the De-Baathification program, which was created to identify Saddam supporters so they could not get jobs in new government. This made him a target for assassination by diehard supporters of Saddam.

Suuni tribal leader Hardan had more contracts in the government than anyone else at the conference and quickly announced that he was misled about the purpose of the conference. The official government position, which took nearly two days to work out, was that the conference was treason. The Hardan clan had never been enthusiastic about Saddam Hussein because the Baghdadi Sunnis looked down on the more traditional Sunnis of Anbar province. The Baghdadi Sunnis led the coup against the constitutional monarchy in the late 1950s and murdered most of the royal family, who were selected by the British before they left in 1932 to make a constitutional monarchy work. The Iraqi royals were related to royals who continue to rule Jordan. Hardan agreed to help the Americans implement the 2005 American effort to convince Anbar tribes to oppose the Islamic terrorism campaign of Saddam Supporters and the vengeance against Sunnis being carried out by the Shia majority, now in power because democracy had returned to Iraq, after being extinguished, along with the royal family, in the 1950s. Hardan survived many Sunni assassination attempts, which continue because of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), which was organized by former Saddam government officials, is still active. Hardan had been a peacemaker between Sunni and Shia after 2003 and that made him an enemy of Iran and a supporter of what eventually became the Abraham Accords. Hardan tried to get a Saddam era law that made any support of Israel a capital offense, punishable by execution, repealed. The only progress in that area was a 2010 modification of the law that substituted life imprisonment for the death penalty. This change was made despite intense Iranian opposition. Since then a growing number of Iraqis, including Sunnis and Shia, Kurds and Arabs, have openly discussed improved relations with Israel without being prosecuted for treason. This was happening as there was growing popular support for Israel inside Iran. The Iranian government blamed a lot of this on Iranian and Iraqi Jews who had been forced, or persuaded, to flee their ancient homeland for the West or Israel. Jews had lived in Iran and Baghdad for thousands of years and that offended Islamic radicals who considered the re-establishment of Israel, 1,900 years after the Romans destroyed it, as anti-Semitic. Iran did not agree with that until the 1979 revolution, followed by an Iraqi attack to seize some oil fields, triggered an eight year war that Iran was unable to win. This allowed Shia religious leaders to establish a religious dictatorship that soon came to resemble Saddams Sunni dictatorship. The Sunni dictatorship lasted 46 years while the Iranian one is almost 40 years old. The Iranian rulers see the Abraham Accords as a death threat while a growing number of Iraqis and Iranians see it as a way out.

September 25, 2021: In the northeast (Diyala Province) an ISIL roadside bomb attack, backed up by snipers waiting to shoot those who came to help, killed an army officer and three civilians before fleeing. While the security forces have been successful at keeping ISIL out of major urban areas, ISIL is still active in rural areas between Baghdad and the Kurdish north.

September 24, 2021: In the north (Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish north) a reconciliation with Israel conference was held. The main speaker was the female Director of Research at the Iraq Ministry of Culture, who urged several hundred like-minded Arab, Kurd, Sunni and Shia Iraqis, including some tribal leaders, to support efforts to have Iraq join the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan and normalize diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.

Elsewhere in the north (Nineveh Province, 15 kilometers north of Mosul) someone fired rockets at one of the several Turkish military bases in the area. The unguided rockets caused no damage or casualties. ISIL and Iran-backed groups regularly carry out attacks like this.

September 22, 2021: In the far north (Duhok Province) Turkish warplanes carried out another attack on PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) Turkish Kurdish separatist camps and positions in the hills and valleys of this sparsely populated region. It is unclear if the Turks used one of the F-16s or one their growing number of armed UAVs. These UAVs are frequently seen in the area, usually just carrying out surveillance missions. Later in the day Turkish artillery across the border in Turkey fired several shells at a suspected PKK target. At least one of the 155mm shells hit and electricity distribution tower and cut out power to several towns and villages for several hours.

As many as 5,000 Turkish military and security force personnel are currently deployed in Iraq. Fire support is provided by artillery on the Turkish side of the border and airstrikes by Turkish Air Force F-16s and helicopter gunships as well as the new force of armed UAVs. Turkish special forces commandos often find PKK bases and call in the airstrikes or, if close enough to the border, artillery fire.

September 19, 2021: In the north (Sulaimani Province) Iran took credit for using cruise missiles to hit four Iranian rebel camps on the Iraqi side of the border. The nearby Mount Azmar area is a favorite with groups withing to remain hidden on the Iraq side of the border.

September 14, 2021: In the west (Anbar province) across the Syrian border (in Deir Ezzor province) an airstrike by two unidentified aircraft hit an Iran-backed militia facility and largely destroyed it. The air strike was near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. Iran is seeking to provide a safer environment for its Iraqi militias. Inside Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is subject to attack by security forces and pro-government militias. In eastern Syria the biggest threat is Israeli airstrikes and the occasional American one. The U.S. denied that this attack was theirs. Israeli airstrikes are more common in this area. There have been only two American airstrikes in Syria (February and June) since a new U.S. government took power in January and indicated it would no longer authorize such American airstrikes in Syria.

September 13, 2021: In Baghdad the government admitted that it reversed the decision to dismiss 30,000 pro-Iran PMF members and provide $28 million to cover the pay the dismissed PMF men did not receive.

September 11, 2021: In the north, Iran launched two armed UAVs to attack the airport outside E rbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq. The airport also hosts an American base which is defended by C-Ram and other defenses against air attack. The two UAVs were destroyed and a later examination of the debris confirmed that they were Iranian. Similar Iranian attacks on Kurdish towns and villages near the Iranian border usually succeed.
Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. ("B&W" or the "Company") (NYSE: BW) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VODA A/S, a leading multi-brand aftermarket parts and service provider for the waste-to-energy and biomass-to-energy markets based in Vejen, Denmark. The transaction is targeted to close at the end of October 2021, following the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory review in Denmark.

B&W will form B&W Renewable Service to integrate the VODA A/S and B&W Vlund aftermarket services businesses. This will serve as B&Ws platform for its renewable service business in Europe, significantly strengthening and expanding its ability to serve existing and new customers throughout this market, including for B&W-supplied and competitors technology. B&W Renewable Service will be led by VODAs Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Nysted Srensen.

This strategic acquisition brings together B&Ws and VODAs strengths and creates a solid foundation to further expand our service business in Europes fast-growing renewable energy market, said Kenneth Young, B&W Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Combining B&Ws financial strength, engineering capabilities and proven experience as an original equipment provider and service company with the capabilities and expertise of VODA creates a dynamic team ready to work together to serve our customers.

VODA has used a flexible and scalable business model to grow rapidly and efficiently, and we see many additional opportunities for our combined operations to grow synergistically, Young said. VODA employees are capable, responsive and experienced, and were pleased to welcome them to B&W.

VODA CEO Christopher Nysted Srensen said, VODA has grown substantially over the last three years and has built a reputation for providing customer-focused, market-driven service and solutions. This transaction will set the foundation for future growth and new possibilities for customers and our employees. We are excited and proud to be given this opportunity to expand further and to work together as part of B&W Renewable Service.

About Babcock & Wilcox

Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, Babcock & Wilcox is a global leader in energy and environmental technologies and services for the power and industrial markets. Follow us on LinkedIn and learn more at www.babcock.com.

About VODA A/S

VODA A/S focuses on energy producing incineration plants including Waste-to-Energy, Biomass-to-Energy or other fuels, providing service, engineering services, spare parts as well as general outage support and management. VODA has extensive experience within incineration technology, boiler / pressure parts, SRO, automation, and performance optimization. Headquartered in Vejen, Denmark, VODA also has locations in Aalborg, Denmark and Sweden.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Porter Wright joined the Mansfield Rule effort to help increase and sustain a more diverse and inclusive workforce within its law firm and beyond in the legal profession. In its second year of participation, Porter Wright is proud to announce it has again achieved Mansfield Rule Certification and Mansfield Rule Certification Plus for successfully reaching at least 30 percent diverse lawyer representation in a notable number of the firm's leadership roles.

"For Porter Wright as a firm to be a part of this imperative shift across the legal industry is invigorating and inspiring," shared Deb Boiarsky, Chief Operating Partner at Porter Wright. "Our firm has thoughtfully created and adopted policies, procedures and programs to weave diversity, equity and inclusion into our everyday practices. Achieving Mansfield Rule Certification Plus reminds us that while there is still work to be done, we are making strides toward systemic change in our own hallways and in the profession."

Porter Wright first sought Mansfield Rule certification as a way to work alongside other like-minded firms to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership. For two years now, it has collaborated with DiversityLab on multiple audits to share data towards achieving the Rules' requirements. This includes measurements of whether the firm has considered at least 30 percent women lawyers, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+ attorneys and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities and lateral hires.

"As a Mansfield Rule participant, our goal is to propel our firm forward in being the most welcoming, diverse place possible to work and do business with," said Joyce Edelman, partner and former chair of the firm's Women's Leadership Initiative. "Improving the recruitment, retention and promotion of underrepresented attorneys allows us to attract the best talent, enhance client services and enrich our workplace and communities."

"Participating in the Mansfield Rule certification process requires extreme transparency and holds us accountable to our DE&I goals," shared Karim Ali, partner and Chief Diversity Officer for the firm. "We will continue to push the envelope when it comes to elevating the diversity of our hiring practices and inclusivity of our workplace. The challenging work will continue."

More information about Porter Wright's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts may be found on our website.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/porter-wright-earns-mansfield-rule-certification-plus-status-for-second-straight-year-301387320.html

SOURCE Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- StemExpress announces it will be providing tours of its groundbreaking pandemic response Mobile Laboratory, Thursday, September 30th at its Rockville, Maryland location. Guests and press are invited to schedule a private tour to learn about this nationwide solution to the challenge of COVID-19 resource disparity.

StemExpress Mobile Laboratories are built to travel to any area impacted by COVID-19 to deliver vaccines and testing.

At the start of the pandemic StemExpress implemented a turn-key COVID-19 testing solution using ThermoFisher PCR technology. It quickly established itself as a preferred testing provider for state, local, tribal and territorial governments, public health departments, health care entities, private sector organizations, educational institutions, and the public across the country.

The vision for this project was brought to life by the CEO and Founder of StemExpress, Cate Dyer, in order to adapt to the unremitting pandemic and address the crisis on a national level. Nearly two years in, communities and governments throughout the nation continue to be immobilized by the pandemic's ever-evolving constraints on the economy.

"This idea was born out of being at the front lines of COVID-19 from the start, working with underserved communities, farmworkers, nursing homes, tribal territories, and witnessing the gaps in accessibility that still persist to this day," Dyer said. "This Biden administration has vowed to plan for effective, equitable distribution of testing and vaccines, and we are doing our part to make that plan a reality."

The StemExpress Mobile Laboratories are fully contained, all-weather deployment laboratories built to travel to any area impacted by COVID-19 to deliver vaccines and testing. The proprietary build includes:

Full-scale COVID-19 PCR testing laboratory:

High throughput gold-standard RT-PCR testing laboratory capable running up to 300 tests every 4 hours.



ThermoFisher Accula PCR rapid testing solution with highly accurate results in 30 minutes.

Properly outfitted to safely store and deploy COVID-19 vaccines, boosters, and COVID-19 antibody treatments, utilizing onboard refrigeration and freezers.

Additional generators and expanded gas tanks for the ability to run operations in locations where power is questionable or non-existent.

Disaster WiFi units designed to pick up a signal reliably anywhere in the world.

Immediate reporting to healthcare providers, public health departments and government agencies via the StemExpress Epic EHR system portal  which serves more than 200 million patients across the country.

StemExpress will host private guided tours of its pandemic response Mobile Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland on Thursday, September 30th at the StemExpress Stem Cell Collection Center, 9707 Medical Center Drive, Suite 230, Rockville, MD 70850 - located in the Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center. To schedule a tour, please email COVID@StemExpress.com.

For more information on the Mobile Laboratory, visit MobileLabUnits.com.To schedule a tour, email COVID@StemExpress.com For media inquiries, please email Press@StemExpress.com

About StemExpress:

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Sacramento, California, StemExpress is the leading global biospecimen provider of human primary cells, stem cells, bone marrow, cord blood, peripheral blood, and disease-state products. Its products are used for research and development, clinical trials, and commercial production of cell and gene therapies by academic, biotech, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and contract research organizations (CRO's).

StemExpress has fourteen (14) global distribution partners and eight (8) brick-and-mortar cellular clinics in the United States, outfitted with CLIA certified GMP laboratories. StemExpress runs its own non-profit supporting STEM initiatives, college and high school internships, and women lead organizations. It is registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is continuously expanding its network of healthcare partnerships which currently includes over 50 hospitals in Europe and 3 US healthcare systems - encompassing 31 hospitals, 35 outpatient facilities and over 200 individual practices and clinics.

StemExpress has been ranked by Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stemexpress-showcases-its-pandemic-response-mobile-laboratories-301387288.html

SOURCE StemExpress
TICKERS: WHN

Source: Streetwise Reports (9/29/21)

Westhaven Gold's 2021 exploration and resource drilling at its Shovelnose property resumes after wildfires halted the project temporarily this summer, continues to bear positive results this autumn.



Summer 2021 was hot and fiery in the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Northwest. So much so that Westhaven Gold's Shovelnose gold-silver project in British Columbia was affected as well. Drilling had to be curtailed in mid-August after an evacuation order due to a wildfire  but it's now back on track, Westhaven having resumed work in early September.

Ongoing positive drill results out of Shovelnose bode well for a rerating of Westhaven Gold Corp.'s (WHN:TSX.V) stock once the company releases a maiden resource, which is expected in the near term.

"Mineralization further supports potential for a bulk-tonnage resource at Shovelnose's South Zone."

So far this year, the Vancouver-based, gold-focused explorer completed more than half of its planned 40,000-meter Shovelnose drill campaign. Results are in for 17 holes drilled in the South zone, representing both exploration and resource drilling, and are reported in a news release. (Results of another 16 holes are pending.)

Including intercepts like 265m of 0.49 grams per tonne (0.49 g/t) gold and 1.84 g/t silver, these new results confirm that wide swaths of disseminated gold-silver are present along with the known high-grade gold-silver veins.

Drilling also confirmed the continuity of vein Zones 1, 2, and 3 and the presence of lower grade mineralization between vein zones 1 and 2. This appears to be a halo that could encompass all three vein zones.

This mineralization further supports potential for a bulk-tonnage resource at Shovelnose's South Zone.

Shovelnose is one of Westhaven's quartet of gold projects, all located along the Spences Bridge Gold Belt, Canada's newest gold district. There, the company controls a large land package of 37,000 hectares containing high-potential targets.

This 110 kilometer-long belt contains mostly unexplored intermediate to felsic volcanic rocks, highly prospective for epithermal-style gold mineralization.

Westhaven's other projects along the belt are Prospect Valley, Skoonka, and Skoonka North.

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Disclosures:

1) Doresa Banning compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Westhaven Gold Corp. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. An affiliate of Streetwise Reports is conducting a digital media marketing campaign for this article on behalf of Westhaven Gold Corp. Please click here for more information. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Westhaven Gold Corp., a company mentioned in this article.
TICKERS: NOC

Source: Streetwise Reports (9/29/21)

Dominant silver projects led by experienced, local teams in mining-friendly jurisdiction and proven locations are the foundation for Norseman Silvers plans for the next 12 months.



In a recent interview with Streetwise Reports, Sean Hurd, CEO of Norseman Silver [TSX-V: NOC], compared silver to a coiled spring. Hurd went on to say that when silver moves, pure silver plays really get alerted.

A 20-year veteran in the mining sector, Hurd talked with Streetwise Reports about several dominant silver plays Norseman has in its portfolio. Silver Vista, Silver Switchback, and Cariboo are all located near Smithers, British Columbia, Canada. The third project, Taquetren, is in Rio Negro province, Argentina.

In August 2021, Norseman announced the start of a 1,500 meter, eight-hole drill program at Silver Vista.

"Kyler Hardy, who serves on our board of directors ... was out at Cariboo, fell down a cliff, looked up and saw bright green mineralization staring him in the face."

The program will define the strike length and down-dip extensions of the already identified silver-copper mineralization on the property. We know from work done earlier by Hunter Dickinson that there is a strong geophysical anomaly, coincident to surface sediment-hosted mineralization, Hurd said. Citing a high potential for near-surface copper and silver, our goal in 2021 is to understand the mineralization system and expand on the known results. The company expects to release its first results in October.

It turns out he was looking at mineralization of 240 g/t silver and 5% copper over a run of about 7.5 meters.

Norseman has surface programs underway at Switchback and Cariboo. Outcrop sampling at Switchback includes samples that returned 626.3 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 4.39% copper at the center of the claim and 138 g/t silver and 4.02% copper in an outcrop approximately 100 meters to the north.

At Cariboo, we are building on work done by Kyler Hardy, who serves on our board of directors. He was out at Cariboo, fell down a cliff, looked up and saw bright green mineralization staring him in the face. Luckily he wasnt hurt, Hurd recounted. It turns out he was looking at mineralization of 240 g/t silver and 5% copper over a run of about 7.5 meters. The companys next steps at Cariboo include geophysical work, prospecting and staking.

When it comes to the technical price factor of relative strength, NOC has now risen to the top of its sector," says Mike Swanson of Wall Street Window.

These three projects, according to Hurd, have the advantage of being in superb locations in a mining-friendly jurisdiction. We have access to great people with family roots in mining, bright people who know the area, he said. Plus, Silver Vista is accessible year-round.

As work winds down in Canada, Norseman will shift focus to its Taquetren project in Argentina. Located in the Navidad-Calcatreau mining district in the southwest part of Rio Negro province, the project covers 285 square kilometers (150 square miles) adjacent to the Gastre Fault system. Norsemans team on the project includes Daniel Desandre, who participated in the discovery of the Navidad Silver deposit, at 600 million ounces silver, one of the largest silver deposits in the world.

On the financial side, Norseman recently closed a C$1.5 million private placement, in which current shareholders doubled down, according to Hurd. We are pleased that our investors have high confidence that their shares are in solid hands, that they see our big-picture vision and are with us for the long-term.

"Norseman is in position to become a leading mining stock . . . says Swanson.

We are looking for the big one here, Hurd said. Again, we have an experienced team working in an outstanding location. The team is taking grid samples now, to be followed by geophysics, trenching and a drilling program, we anticipate, in 2022. The complementary calendars of the companys efforts in North and South America, Hurd said, would provide a steady stream of results.

One of those shareholders is Mike Swanson, who made Norseman Silver one of his August 2021 stock picks in Wall Street Window. He noted, When it comes to the technical price factor of relative strength, NOC has now risen to the top of its sector. It is in position to become a leading mining stock . . .

At the time of publication, Norsemans market cap is at CA$15.49 million. With 47.6 million shares outstanding, share prices have been fluctuating in the range of CA$0.31 to CA$0.38. The 52-week high was CA$0.76 as of September 28, 2021.

[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Diane Fraser conducted this interview for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as a contractor. She owns, or members of her immediate household or family own, shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. She is, or members of her immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Norseman Silver Ltd. Please click here for more information. An affiliate of Streetwise Reports is conducting a digital media marketing campaign for this article on behalf of Norseman Silver Ltd. Please click here for more information. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

3) Sean Hurd is an officer of Norseman Silver Ltd. and owns securities of the company. Sean Hurd is paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: Norseman Silver Ltd.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this interview, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Norseman Silver Ltd., a company mentioned in this article.
A B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., returns to base after an Indo-Pacific mission, Sept. 9, 2021. (Devin Rumbaugh/U.S. Air Force)

Three Russian fighters intercepted a U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bomber Sunday near disputed territory that is claimed by Russia and Japan, according to Pacific Air Forces.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress positively identified and observed three Russian Sukhoi-35S fighters in the vicinity of Iturup over the Sea of Okhotsk in the early morning, 26 September, PACAF spokeswoman Capt. Veronica Perez told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday, using the Russian name for an island the Japanese call Etorofu.

PACAF did not identify the unit that the bomber is assigned to or say where it took off from or what its mission involved.

The incident was first reported by the Russian state news agency TASS on the day it occurred.

Three Russian Sukhoi-35S fighters scrambled to intercept the U.S. aircraft which approached Russia's airspace, the agency reported, quoting the countrys National Defense Command Center.

Russias military announced plans to expand its military facilities on Etorofu in August and troops have been conducting live-fire military drills there this month, the Reuters news agency reported Sept. 8.

In late November 1941, a Japanese fleet that included six aircraft carriers launched from Etorofu Islands Hitokappu Bay to attack Pearl Harbor.

After World War II, Russian troops occupied the island and three others nearby and expelled 17,000 Japanese residents. The dispute over the islands, which Japan calls its Northern Territories and Russia calls the Southern Kurils, remains a source of tension and the reason the nations have yet to sign a peace treaty 76 years after the war.

Before the U.S. bomber was intercepted on Sunday it was detected over the Pacific Ocean by air defense radars in Russias Eastern Military Region, TASS reported, quoting the command center.

"The fighters' crews identified the target as a strategic B-52H bomber of the US Air Force and escorted it over the Pacific Ocean. There were no violations of Russia's state border or dangerous proximity of planes in the air," the center said, according to the agency.

The Russian fighters returned to base after the U.S. bomber moved away from the Russian border, TASS reported, quoting the countrys military.

The U.S. bomber operated in a safe and professional manner in accordance with international laws for airspace operations, Perez said.

Our aircrews frequently encounter safe and professional intercepts, and when it is otherwise, we have procedures in place to address it, she said. We will continue to use international airspace in accordance with international law and expect others to do the same.

Russia has been restoring its military capability on Etorofu, which had degraded during the post-Soviet era, said James Brown, an international affairs expert at Temple Universitys Japan campus, in a telephone interview Wednesday.

In 2016, Russia deployed Bastion and Bal anti-ship missiles to the island and, more recently, added S-300 surface-to-air missiles. Sukhoi-35 fighters have also visited the island, Brown said.
U.S. Navy Adm. Bill Moran, the vice chief of naval operations, speaks with sailors assigned to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington on Jan. 10, 2018. Moran said Wednesday that the Navy is addressing new policy reforms in the wake of the Fat Leonard fraud and corruption scandal. ( Jamin Gordon/U.S. Navy)

WASHINGTON  Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations, said Wednesday that the Navy is addressing new policy reforms in the wake of the Fat Leonard fraud and corruption scandal.

Moran, who said he couldnt comment directly on the case because it remains an ongoing investigation, said there are changes and policy efforts underway to thwart a repeat of one of the biggest scandals to hit the Navy.

Among the changes, Moran, who made the comments during a congressional hearing, said the service has installed new layers of oversight in its contracting process for overseas ports.

Most of the issues involve contracting for services on overseas ports, he told a House Armed Services Committee subpanel. So we have taken a very strong turn on the process by which we do that. We put layers of oversight into how those contracts are issued and who is issuing them.

The massive Justice Department case involves Malaysian defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as Fat Leonard, who traded money, travel, gifts and prostitutes with officers in the 7th Fleet for classified material about U.S. ship and submarine schedules. More than two dozen have been criminally charged in the case, including a former Navy commander who pleaded guilty last week to a federal bribery charge.

The case is the biggest facing the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, which is the criminal investigative arm of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, said Glenn Fine, the DODs principal deputy inspector general. Francis contract firm, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, orchestrated a scheme to defraud the Navy of tens of millions of dollars by routinely overbilling for goods and services, Fine said.

The Navy has established a Consolidated Disposition Authority, or CDA, to determine whether hundreds of Navy officers should be charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or receive administrative action, Fine said. The CDA has already adjudicated more than 300 cases, he said.

This is one of the largest and most complex public corruption criminal cases in DOD history, Fine said. And it involves disturbing and widespread ethical lapses throughout the Navys 7th Fleet.

The comments on the case Wednesday came during a wide-ranging hearing before the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel that focused on a slew of senior officer misconduct problems.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the subpanel, expressed concern that a whistleblower didnt report the scandal early on since it entailed such a large network.

It is probably the most egregious case in the history certainly of the Navy if not the military in general, Speier said. Because so many people were involved and so many people corrupted by this individual, Im stunned there werent any bystanders that spoke up.

In an exchange with Speier, Moran agreed there will be an examination once the case is closed to identify the holes in the chain of command that allowed the corruption plan to move forward.

Were hopefully getting to the very end of this now, he said of the case. When it is done and all the files are turned over to us, we will do that. There is a process in place to make sure we evaluate every single case that comes to the Navy, whether they are handled by the Department of Justice or not, they come to us for final resolution.
In this undated photo, former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead poses with Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as "Fat Leonard," who admitted to bribing Navy officials with cash, luxury travel and prostitutes for classified or inside information that benefited his firm. Roughead was not implicated in the case. (Navy League of the United States)

Fat Leonard, the Malaysian businessman at the heart of a corruption scandal that has brought down numerous U.S. Navy officials, is set to tell all for the first time in a nine-part podcast series beginning Tuesday.

In a brief and breathless trailer for the podcast, Leonard Glenn Francis, who has pleaded guilty and is helping prosecutors in exchange for a possibly reduced sentence, brags: I had the Navy by their balls. I turned my torpedoes, my guns, against them because they betrayed me.

The specifics of that perceived betrayal will apparently be revealed as the podcast, titled Fat Leonard, unfolds. What the teaser makes clear, however, is that Francis is anything but contrite over his misdeeds.

Everybody was in my pocket, he says in the trailer. I had them in my palm. I was just rolling them around, he says with a chuckle.

Francis operated Glenn Defense Marine Asia, which contracted with the U.S. Navy to provide food, water, fuel, tugboats and sewage removal for ships and installations in the Pacific.

Francis began recruiting Navy personnel to direct contracts toward his company around 2006. He bribed them with money, luxury items and prostitutes in return for classified information about the movement of ships and submarines in Southeast Asia, and routinely overcharged or fabricated invoices.

He pleaded guilty in federal court in January 2015 and began cooperating with investigators. He has not yet been sentenced.

With nothing to lose, Leonard is sparing no details, touts the podcast trailer.

In the first episode, listeners will meet the 300-pound Francis, who will talk about a troubled childhood. Episode two begins with his launching of a career as a defense contractor at age 21.

The podcast is a joint production of PRX, a nonprofit media company that specializes in audio journalism and storytelling, and Project Brazen, a firm founded by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, former reporters at The Wall Street Journal.

Francis has not spoken publicly about the sprawling corruption case that has led to federal criminal charges of more than 30 people, including 10 commissioned Navy officers.

In September 2018, however, the San Diego Union-Tribune obtained a transcript of a deposition given by Francis in the just-concluded court-martial of Navy Cmdr. David Morales, who had been charged with conspiracy and bribery but found guilty only of violating lawful orders and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Francis in the deposition said he was suffering from kidney cancer, out of federal prison on a medical furlough and under home confinement in San Diego. He said he was counting on receiving a lesser sentence made possible by a cooperation agreement he entered with the U.S. Justice Department.

Earlier this month, retired Marine Corps Col. Enrico DeGuzman, 63, entered a plea deal and admitted accepting $67,000 in gourmet dining, gifts and stays at high-end hotels in exchange for steering business toward Francis.

The disgraced Marine is among nine military officers who were all charged in a 2017 federal indictment.

Among those officers was Robert Gorsuch, a retired Navy chief warrant officer, who pleaded guilty Aug. 31 to taking more than $45,000 in bribes in exchange for sharing classified ship schedules.

The remaining seven defendants  including a rear admiral who was once the 7th Fleet intelligence chief  are scheduled for trial in federal court in February.

Wyatt Olson
Sailors man the rails on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in San Diego, Feb. 26, 2021. (Jose Madrigal/U.S. Navy)

The U.S. Navy is expanding the number of credit hours covered by its tuition assistance program, but also raising the bar for sailors to qualify for the program, according to an announcement Tuesday.

Effective Friday, the number of credit hours the Navy pays for annually will increase from 12 to 18, according to a servicewide message from Vice Adm. John Nowell Jr., the chief of naval personnel.

We are committed to ensuring fully qualified sailors can take advantage of this increased educational opportunity in a manner that reinforces our commitment to professionalism, warfighting, and retention, Nowell said.

However, sailors are limited to two funded classes per fiscal quarter. Theyll also be required to have a minimum of three years of Navy service to qualify for the program, a one-year increase over previous requirements.

Nowells announcement made clear that sailors who previously used tuition assistance after two years of service must now wait until their third year.

Other new requirements include individual trait marks of 3.0 or greater on a sailors most recent evaluation or fitness report and no nonjudicial punishment or courts-martial in the past 12 months. Thats an increase of six months from the previous policy.

Additional requirements may also be implemented by commanders, Nowell said.

Operational readiness remains our top priority, he wrote. As always, commanding officers may establish benchmark qualifications for Sailors and officers under their command, and manage off-duty education pursuit, based on current or anticipated operational commitments.

The U.S. government offers tuition assistance for eligible service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard.

Of the approximately 1.4 million active-duty service members, 236,992 utilized tuition benefits between October 2019 and September 2020, according to a Sept. 3 report by the Washington Post. During the 2020 fiscal year, that equated to $488 million.

The Navys Tuition Assistance program offers up to $250 per semester hour, meaning qualified sailors would be covered for up to $4,500 per year under the new policy.
Buy Photo The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported another 1,004 people tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

TOKYO  The number of new coronavirus cases in Japans capital city continued their nearly monthlong decline Tuesday as U.S. bases in the country announced 20 new infections.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported another 1,004 people tested positive for the virus, the 23rd consecutive day that number is lower than a week prior, according to public broadcaster NHK and metro government data.

Yokosuka Naval Base, the homeport south of Tokyo of 7th Fleet, said 12 people tested positive for the coronavirus respiratory disease.

Seven unimmunized people, including one base employee, and two immunized people developed COVID-19 symptoms; two unimmunized people turned up during medical screenings; and one immunized base employee was discovered during contact tracing, according to news release from the naval base. Yokosuka has 38 coronavirus patients under observation.

Sasebo Naval Base on Kyushu Island had another four people test positive since Friday, according to a Facebook post by the base. Three turned up in a medical screening and one became ill. The base has 13 active cases.

Naval Air Facility Atsugi, southwest of Tokyo, identified four people with the virus since Friday, according to news releases Monday. All tested positive on tests administered at an airport upon their arrival in Japan. The base has five active cases.

Of four Defense Department schools at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, that canceled some classes Monday due to a spate of coronavirus infections, one returned to a normal schedule and two kept those classrooms closed, according to messages posted by school principals on Facebook.

Ryukyu Middle School resumed a normal schedule Tuesday, according to a message from principal Craig Maxey to families and staff. The messages were posted on the Marine Corps Community Services Okinawa, School Liaison, Facebook page.

Kadena Middle School continued contact tracing and kept four classrooms closed to complete contact tracing; Kadena High School kept eight closed for the same purpose, according to messages from principals Mynda Massey-Vukovic and Kristopher Kwiatek.

Okinawa prefecture, where the bulk of U.S. forces reside, reported 284 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, according to the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care.

Japan announced 4,165 new coronavirus cases Monday, and 50 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The nation has fully vaccinated 51% of its population, or 64.5 million people.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.

Aaron Kidd
Air Force veteran Scot Northcutt often stands on Yokota Air Base, Japan, holding a sign with a jarring message: If you are looking for a sign to not kill yourself today, this is it. He spreads his message on behalf of Mission 22, an organization aimed at bringing awareness to veteran suicide. (Jerome Ray)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  One day each month, for just an hour or two, Air Force veteran Scot Northcutt stands at one of Yokotas busiest intersections holding a sign with a jarring message.

If you are looking for a sign to not kill yourself today, this is it, it says.

Northcutt spreads his message on behalf of Mission 22, an organization aimed at bringing awareness to veteran suicide. He founded the local chapter, Yokota for Mission 22, in May, he told Stars and Stripes during an interview on Sept. 3.

Mission 22 is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes awareness of mental health treatment and builds memorials for veterans. At Yokota, Northcutt promotes Mission 22 on the street corner, through a Facebook group, and by manning a booth inside the exchange and at on-base events.

Some people seem to go out of their way to avoid looking at the sign, or very deliberately avert their eyes, he said. Occasionally I will get a couple honks or a thumbs up in passing. But anyone can approach me if they need someone to talk to.

Like Mission 22s namesake, Northcutt said he chooses the 22nd of each month to display his sign to represent the 22 veterans the Veterans Administration in its 2020 annual National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report stated die by suicide each day.

Because military bases are considered nonpublic forums, where the free exercise of speech, assembly and debate are restricted, Northcutt needs fresh approval each month from the private organization office at Yokota to stage his event.

Private organizations are approved in accordance with Air Force regulations, according to an email from the base legal office. Each organization must submit a written constitution, bylaws and documents outlining its intent and mission.

Air Force veteran Scot Northcutt often stands on Yokota Air Base, Japan, holding a sign with a jarring message: If you are looking for a sign to not kill yourself today, this is it. He spreads his message on behalf of Mission 22, an organization aimed at bringing awareness to veteran suicide. (Jerome Ray)

They operate on Air Force installations with the written consent of the Installation Commander, Vanessa Moran, the private organization coordinator at Yokota, told Stars and Stripes by email Sept 15.

She said her office approves events on base each year at which multiple organizations voice their interests and concerns. One, the Yokota LGBTQ+ Family, holds an annual Pride parade under the same regulations that allow Northcutt to air his suicide awareness message.

One stipulation all private organizations must follow is a Defense Department ban on displaying anything other than approved flags. That means LGBTQ+ Family may not carry rainbow flags during its parades, said Ashley Negrete, the groups vice president.

A July 2020 memo from the secretary of defense bars flags other than the American flag, organizational flags and unit guidons, although Northcutt sometimes displays a large Mission 22 flag.

Northcutt, a former B-1b Lancer crew chief at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and a mechanic at the base Aero Club, said the time he devotes to Yokota for Mission 22 comes from a personal sense of mission. He lost his cousin and two friends to suicide.

I got tired of watching leadership stand over coffins and talk about how great service members were, he said.

Yokota for Mission 22 is not a substitute for organizations like Military One Source and the Chaplain Corps, Northcutt said. But he hopes he can help guide people to resources, wellness checks and a sense of community.

During September, which is Suicide Awareness Month, Northcutt also stood at his information booth inside the exchange, and he hopes to sponsor more community events in addition to continuing his monthly vigil outside the base post office.

Computer trainings are not enough to bridge the gap of reaching down to people for as important of a topic as this one, he said. Its a tough topic, but I hope I can slowly get more reception and encourage people to stop by when they see me holding my sign.
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, the country had successfully tested a new hypersonic missile. (KCNA)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  South Koreas military says it noticed something different about a North Korean missile launch this week that, according to state-run media, was the successful test of a new hypersonic weapon.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries detected what appeared to be a short-range missile fired into the sea off the peninsulas eastern coast on Tuesday morning. A report the next day by Pyongyangs Korean Central News Agency described the weapon as a top priority work and of great strategic significance. Hypersonic missiles travel several times faster than the speed of sound and are harder to intercept. KCNA did not disclose the weapons technical specifications. The missile shows something different from the Norths previous launches, South Korean military officials told Stars and Stripes in a phone interview Wednesday. The officials, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, declined to provide additional details, noting that U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies were still analyzing the launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in an annual speech early this year, urged the country to boost its weapons program, including developing longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, tactical nuclear weapons and hypersonic aircraft. Tuesdays test ascertained the stability of the engine as well as of missile fuel ampoule that has been introduced for the first time, the KCNA report said. The test results proved that all the technical specifications met the design requirements.

Fuel ampoules, or airtight capsules, appear to be a big step for North Koreas weapons program and could reduce the time spent to launch a missile, said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, on Twitter.

An Associated Press report Wednesday described liquid-fuel missiles as more vulnerable than solid-fuel missiles because they must be fueled separately and taken to launch sites using trucks that can be seen by enemy satellites or other military assets.

Following the test, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in a statement said the missile launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory.

In separate tests earlier this month, the communist regime fired a ballistic missile from a train and launched long-range cruise missiles capable of reaching Japan.

The latest test-fire was conducted as North Koreas ambassador to the United Nations repeated allegations that the U.S. was conducting a hostile policy against the country. Ambassador Kim Song in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday said the countrys weapons program was developed purely as a defensive measure against the U.S. and South Korea.

David Choi
The Korea Military Academy unveils a plaque honoring 1947 West Point graduates killed during the Korean War, Sept. 24, 2021. (Korea Military Academy)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Twelve West Point graduates killed during the 1950-53 Korean War were memorialized in a plaque erected last week at South Koreas military academy.

The Korea Military Academy, about seven miles from Seoul, was established in 1946, one year before the 12 cadets graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

The 12 West Pointers from the class of 1947 took part in fierce battles during the Korean War, including the 55-day Nakdong River Defense Line Battle of 1950. Of the dozen killed from that graduating class, the remains of three have yet to be found.

We will admire their ultimate sacrifice and professional military spirit, said a statement from the Korea Military Academy. Their sacrifice reminds people of the importance of the [South Korea]-U.S. alliance.

Three other memorials honoring West Point alumni from other graduating classes are on the South Korean academy grounds and three more are to be constructed by 2023.

The academys superintendent, Lt. Gen. Kim Jeong-soo, said during the unveiling ceremony on Friday: Cadets, who are going to be key leaders in future national security, will realize the importance of the enhancement of the [South Korea]-U.S. alliance and strive more to grow up as elite officers, who devote to the state and the people.

More than 23,600 U.S. troops were killed in combat during the Korean War, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System. Thousands of service members from the war are listed as missing in action and unidentified remains are still discovered on the Korean Peninsula.

Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended a repatriation ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and received the remains of 68 South Korean troops from the U.S.s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. South Koreas Ministry of Defense also transferred to the U.S. the remains of six service members from unmarked graves.

What our heroes wanted to see on the Korean Peninsula was a complete peace, Moon said during the transfer ceremony.

Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.
Buy Photo Gen. Tod D. Wolters, commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, testifies at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in 2020. Wolters said during a Sept. 29, 2021, security forum hosted by the Center for European Policy Analysis that if NATO is going to remain successful, it will need more cyberwarfare capability to fight adversaries seeking to undermine the alliance. (Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes)

The top U.S. military commander in Europe said Wednesday that NATOs continued viability will require more cyberwarfare capability to oppose unspecified adversaries seeking to undermine the alliance.

Gen. Tod Wolters, the chief of U.S. European Command and the NATO supreme allied commander, made the remark in a speech at a security forum that was held virtually and hosted by the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Success in 21st century warfare demands that we evolve to compete in new domains, Wolters said. He added that a rise in cyberthreats means NATO must find ways to impose costs against malicious disinformation and behavior.

The three-day CEPA forum, titled Renewing the Transatlantic Alliance in a Contested World, featured a range of military and political officials grappling with the challenges posed by such adversaries as Russia and China.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, echoing Wolters, said NATO needs new tools to contend with Russian disinformation campaigns, which seek to cause political and social confusion in NATO member countries.

He said his country and others on NATOs eastern flank have seen an increase in hybrid attacks from the Kremlin.

Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, U.S. European Command chief and NATO supreme allied commander, speaks with Slovenian Defense Minister Matej Tonin on May 20, 2021. Wolters said during a Sept. 29, 2021, forum hosted by the Center for European Policy Analysis that if NATO is going to remain successful, it will need more cyberwarfare capability. (Paolo Bovo/U.S. Army)

NATOs new strategic concept must pave the way for a broad spectrum of responses to the threats and challenges we face, Blaszczak said.

In the Baltics, hoax news releases from fake government emails and phony stories posted to hacked mainstream newspaper websites offer examples of recent information warfare campaigns.

Disinformation there is often focused on discrediting U.S. and NATO military efforts in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Meanwhile, NATO members also have concerns about countering Russian electronic warfare capabilities, which could compromise the ability of allies to communicate with one another in a crisis.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former head of the U.S. Army in Europe and now a member of CEPA, said any conflict with Russia would involve operating in terrain where secured communications are under constant attack.

NATO is updating its strategic concept, which will lay out priorities in time for the next summit of member countries heads of state in 2022.

The strategy update is coming amid questions about cohesion within the security pact. The United States sudden and messy evacuation from Afghanistan has caused some NATO allies to question the reliability of their American partner.

And the recent nuclear submarine deal between the U.S. and Australia has caused significant strain with France, a key NATO member that was on the losing end of the deal.

But Wolters said NATO would need to be united to tackle new threats.

Transatlantic unity and solidarity are vital to ensure the defense and security of NATO allies, he said. We must always strive to strengthen the bond between Europe and North America and prepare the alliance for the future.
CAIRO  President Joe Bidens national security adviser held talks Wednesday with Egypts president that focused on regional tensions and the ties between Washington and its Mideast ally, the Egyptian leaders office said.

The meeting in Cairo with Jake Sullivan came as the Biden administration presses Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissis government to stop his crackdown on dissent. The U.S. announced earlier this month it would withhold $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry attended the talks, which came after Sullivan paid visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for talks focused on finding an end to the war in Yemen.

El-Sissis office said in a statement the talks also addressed efforts to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians amid rising tensions between the Jewish state and the Hamas militant group.

The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent weeks, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction and heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank.

Egypt has long played a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. El-Sissis government brokered a cease-fire after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas erupted in May.

The statement said the talks also touched on the situation in Libya as the chaos-wrecked North African nation heads toward elections late this year.

The U.S., Egypt and other Western nations are pushing for holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya as scheduled on Dec. 24, hoping the vote will end a decade-long chaos in the oil-rich nation.

El-Sissi and Sullivan also discussed a decade-long dispute over a massive dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.

Ethiopia says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is crucial for its economic development. Egypt and Sudan, downstream countries, say the project is a threat to their water security and have called for a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dams reservoir.

El-Sissi urged the international community to play an effective role to resolve the dispute. Egypt will not accept damage to its water interests, he said.

The Biden administration sees the dam dispute as potential flashpoint in the turbulent Horn of Africa but has sought to take a back seat to the African Union in finding a resolution.
Col. Enrico DeGuzman, center right, is honored as the senior Marine at a cake-cutting ceremony in honor of the U.S. Marine Corps 229th birthday aboard the USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the Seventh Fleet, in 2004 (U.S. Navy)

SAN DIEGO (Tribune News Service)  The anticipated criminal trial in the Navys sprawling Fat Leonard scandal continues to narrow, with a second military officer pleading guilty to bribery this week.

Retired Marine Col. Enrico Rick DeGuzman, 63, admitted in his plea agreement Friday to accepting $67,000 in fine dining, gifts and luxury hotel stays in exchange for steering business to Leonard Francis, a military contractor operating in the Eastern Pacific.

At least 27 people have pleaded guilty in the San Diego-based criminal prosecution, including Francis, since the case began in 2013. The case, which has captured worldwide attention as the Navys worst scandal in recent history, has become known for the schemes mastermind, the charismatic, larger-than-life figure known in military circles as  Fat Leonard.

According to the indictment, DeGuzman was one of Francis more enthusiastic cheerleaders, doing his bidding from the inside, supplying him with proprietary information and bad-mouthing his competitors to help give Francis an edge. That edge ended up costing the Navy at least $35 million, according to acknowledgements in court.

DeGuzman, a Las Vegas resident, is among nine military officers who were charged in the same 2017 indictment. The group is portrayed as a tight brotherhood working together on Francis behalf and enjoying grand outings at his expense.

On Tuesday, retired Navy Chief Warrant Officer Robert Gorsuch was the first in the group to plead guilty . Seven officers are still headed to trial, which was supposed to begin Nov. 1 but has now been postponed until February.

DeGuzman served as a Fleet Marine Officer from 2004 to 2007, coordinating missions for the Marines with the Navys Seventh Fleet, which became the center of the decades-long bribery scandal.

Prosecutors say DeGuzman attended fancy dinners in ports across the Eastern Pacific paid for by Francis. One dinner and hotel stay in Tokyo in 2006 cost Francis $30,000, according to the plea agreement. In another Tokyo dinner, in 2007, DeGuzman and other co-defendants posed for photos in custom neckties advertising Francis company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA.

In 2007, DeGuzman forwarded Francis an internal email in which a U.S. State Department official complained about an incident involving one of Francis staffers, the plea states. DeGuzman recommended quick damage control and separately advocated for GDMA to U.S. officials, laying blame on local Filipino personnel.

DeGuzman also helped keep the scheme going by evaluating other potential recruits. One shaping operation was focused on a Navy logistics official, according to the plea. In the indictment, that effort is further described as using the social charms of DeGuzmans wife to help ingratiate Francis to the official and his wife.

DeGuzman heavily lobbied Francis for a job with GDMA in 2008, according to emails, but later said he would be staying with the Marines for a while longer. He ended up serving as the assistant chief of staff of operations for the Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, based at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii until 2011. When his active service ended, he served as the civilian deputy chief of staff of operations in the same unit.

Before leaving for his Hawaii post, DeGuzman emailed Francis: (U)nfortunately, I dont think Ill be able to influence people (from Camp Smith) like I did there at 7th Fleet.

Francis, who has been cooperating in the case and been in poor health, has yet to be sentenced.



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Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Rod Lamkey/AP)

WASHINGTON  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday admitted the U.S. lost the war in Afghanistan but told House lawmakers that keeping troops in the country would not have led to a different outcome.

Army Gen. Mark Milley called the war a strategic failure, but he said it wasnt because of the individual efforts by U.S. troops  about 6,000 of whom helped evacuate 124,000 people from Afghanistan in the conflicts final weeks.

Strategically, the war is lost  the enemy is in Kabul, Milley told the House Armed Services Committee, referring to the Talibans Aug. 15 takeover of Afghanistans capital city. So, you have strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success by the soldiers on the ground.

The House hearing Wednesday was the second day of public testimony by Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East region. All three spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and revealed they initially wanted to keep at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

Though Milley originally had been against the decision by former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, he told the House committee that keeping a small military force in the country would not have prevented the Afghan governments collapse.

If we held the 2,500, which I stated was my position ... there would have been a clear risk that the Taliban would have begun to attack us after Aug. 31," Milley said, referring to the date Biden set as the withdrawal deadline.

Austin added more time would not have been helpful and explained that extending the war beyond the end of August would have greatly imperiled our people and our mission.

The Taliban made clear that their cooperation would end the first of September, and as you know we faced grave and growing threats from ISIS-K, he said, referring to the Islamic State group that killed 13 troops in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airports Abbey gate on Aug. 26.

Some House lawmakers expressed frustration over how the final month of the war played out. Images of chaos at the airport with desperate Afghans clinging to the sides of military aircraft and falling to their deaths and Americans and allies turned away from Taliban checkpoints in the city flooded the airwaves and social media during the 17-day evacuation mission at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

I think we can all agree that the withdrawal was an unmitigated disaster, said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. Hundreds of Americans were left behind, thousands of Afghan allies stuck with little hope of escape, potentially billions [of dollars] worth of U.S.-provided military equipment now in the hands of the Taliban [and] thousands of al-Qaida and ISIS terrorists freed from prisons.

Though U.S. and coalition forces evacuated about 124,000 people from Afghanistan in the final weeks of the withdrawal, some House lawmakers argued more should have been done to help Afghan allies and about 100 Americans left behind in the country.

In briefings and hearing since April, we've demanded to know a plan to safely evacuate Americans and Afghans  The response from the administration was, We're working on it, said Rogers, who is the committees ranking Republican. Now it's clear they never had a plan.

Austin said evacuation efforts continue without troops in Afghanistan. In the past 48 hours, the U.S. has helped get 63 Americans and 189 legal permanent residents out of the country, he said.

Still, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., called for Austin and Milley to resign at the hearing.

I believe you guys probably won't resign -- you seem to be very happy failing up over there, he said. But if we didn't have a president who was so addled, you all would be fired because that is what you deserve. You have let down the people who wear the uniform."

Milley said the war was lost long before he and Austin took the top jobs at the Defense Department, adding he knew it was a stalemate about six years ago.

This was a 20-year war and it wasnt lost in the last 20 days or even 20 months, for that matter, the general said. This was the cumulative effect of a series of decisions that go way back.

Milley rattled off several failures that he said lost the war, including Osama bin Ladens 2001 escape from U.S. forces at Tora Bora, the U.S. not effectively dealing with Pakistan as a sanctuary for terrorists, and removing U.S. advisers from Afghan forces.

The last decision essentially blindedour ability to see the will, the morale, the leadership and training of Afghan forces, he said.

We accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against al-Qaida, [but] certainly the end state is a whole lot different than what we wanted, Milley said.

With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, Austin cautioned that al-Qaida, the terrorist organization that planned the 9/11 attacks from the country, could see a resurgence there.

Al-Qaida has been degraded over time, he said. Now, terrorist organizations seek ungoverned spaces so that they can train and equip and thrive and so there is clearly a possibility that that can happen [in Afghanistan] going forward."

The U.S. loss also served as a morale boost for the Taliban, Milley said.

"It likely put a shot of adrenaline into their arm, he said. Their grandfathers defeated the Soviet Union in the war in Afghanistan many, many years ago and they are  declaring [the U.S. war] a major victory."

Caitlin Doornbos
The military's system of allowing juries to determine sentences at courts-martial may end under legislation in Congress supported by the Pentagon, advocates say. The proposal would require military judges to determine sentences using guidelines. (Donna L. Burnett/U.S. Air Force)

Court-martial sentencing by juries may go the way of flogging, a change many military justice experts say is long overdue.

Military judges instead would hand down sentences based on federal guidelines as part of military justice system reforms proposed in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. The act isnt expected to be signed into law until sometime after the new fiscal year starts Friday.

The proposal is supported by the Pentagon and is included in both the House and Senate versions of the legislation.

"I'm confident the sentencing portion will survive," said Don Christensen, a former Air Force prosecutor and president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sexual assault survivors.

Buy Photo Don Christensen, a former Air Force prosecutor and president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sexual assault survivors, says sentencing in military courts is inconsistent. (JoeGromelski/Stars and Stripes)

Supporters say the revision would make sentences in military trials fairer, as well as more consistent and predictable.

People convicted of sexual assault, one guy gets five years, the other guy gets no confinement, Christensen said. In drug cases, youd also see huge disparities with no justification. With shaken baby cases, sentences were all over the place.

Military defendants currently may choose whether a judge or a jury, called a panel, decides their cases, including sentencing.

Military jurors have little experience, context or guidance when determining sentences, Christensen said. That is magnified by the fact that under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, jurors sentences can range from no punishment all the way to lengthy prison terms, he added.

The system also allows for compromise verdicts, in which jurors agree to a guilty verdict in exchange for little or no punishment, Cmdr. Justin McEwen, a Navy judge advocate, argued in an undated paper titled Moving Towards Uniformity in Sentencing at Courts Martial.

Every year, accused Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines are sentenced to vastly different punishments for the same offenses based on virtually identical facts, McEwan wrote. These results cause many to question the fairness of a system that would allow for such disparities in sentences.

Earlier this year, the findings of an independent Pentagon board that reviews military sexual assault illustrated the inconsistencies in sentencing between the two formats.

Military judges sentenced defendants to confinement in 83.7% of sexual assault convictions, while panels of military members sentenced a defendant to confinement only 63% of the time, the commission determined.

Astoundingly, victims of sexual assault offenses where members handled punishment saw their perpetrator walk freely out of court in 37 percent of all cases, despite a conviction, the commission found.

Only a handful of states still allow jury sentencing, which has been called sanctified guessing, sentencing by lottery, a crapshoot and amateur brain surgery in various legal papers.

Proposals to end it in the military date to at least 1983. The Pentagon proposed an overhaul in 2016, but the idea was dropped.

However, traditionalists argue that jury sentencing allows military communities to be involved in the justice system and define their own punishment norms while balancing operational needs and military discipline.

The panel is in the best position to come up with a fair and just sentence because they are familiar with the requirements of justice and the requirements of military discipline, Dru Brenner-Beck, a former Army lawyer who now practices law in Colorado, told Stars and Stripes. People need to look at the existing system rather than say civilian good, military bad.
PEORIA, Ill. (Tribune News Service)  Kenny Cross lived a long time without knowing how deep his roots as a barber ran in his family. In fact he says it was unreal when he found out as an adult he was next in a generation of barbers that came before him.

That unreal story will be adding a Peoria chapter now that Cross has opened his newest barbershop just outside the city.

Cross spent eight years in the U.S. Air Force between 1993-2001, with deployments including Kuwait, Italy and Panama. When he returned home to Ohio he was not entirely sure what to do with himself.

He spent a year working as a lumberjack with his uncle and was planning on becoming an Ohio state trooper. But the odd hours of lumberjacking and policing were not very appealing to him. His brother-in-law, on the other hand, was working as a barber and seemed to live a very happy life with a relatively normal schedule. Cross thought he might try that.

Having enrolled in barber college, paid for by the GI Bill, Cross was driving with his uncle on his last day as a lumberjack when his uncle said something that shocked him: You know your dad and grandpa were barbers, right?

Cross didnt have a clue.

Both his father and grandfather died when Cross was young. His parents divorced when he was only eight months old, so he did not know much about either of them. But as coincidence or fate would have it, Cross had much more in common with both of them than he realized.

Its in the blood, you know, Cross said. It was crazy. It was hard to believe, it seemed unreal.

Cross Sportsmans Barbershop at 4712 W. Farmington Road just outside city limits, is not the combat veterans first venture into owning his own barbershop, but it will be his first in Illinois.

Cross opened his first store in Newton Falls, Ohio, and soon after that opened a second location in Howland, Ohio. He operated the stores for 12 years before he sold them and moved to Colorado where his wife got a job.

Cross daughter, one of four children he has, is in dental school in Peoria and seemed to be enjoying the area, so he and his wife moved to the River City.

An avid hunter and fisherman, all of his stores, including his Peoria location, are themed with hunting and fishing gear decorating the walls. ESPN or an outdoor channel can usually be found on TV.

Sportsmans Barbershop offers haircuts of any style, as well as beard trims and a shave with a straight razor, hot lather and hot towel.

Cross time in the military also has an influence on what can be seen in the shop. Patches from his time in the Air Force and other military memorabilia hang on the walls along with the hunting and fishing decor.

In the Air Force, Cross worked as an M-60 machine gunner, a 203 grenadier, an elite gate guardsmen and in nuclear weapons security in Minot, S.D. Some of what he learned in the military has translated into business ownership.

Discipline, organization, manners, Cross said he carries with him. It just gives me the discipline to take care of the priorities that are mandatory. But yeah, its great experience.

His time in the military is also the reason one of Cross other friends hangs out with him around the shop: his service dog Ripp.

Ripp is a friendly, 2 1/2-year-old, yellow Lab, who Cross says is a great dog. If you ever decide to go see Cross for a haircut or beard trim, be sure to say hello to Ripp also. That is, if he isnt napping on his bed in the corner.



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A deal has been finalised that will soon see the Port of Tauranga host the largest vessel to ever call at New Zealand for the loading of logs.

The deal between South Pacific Shipping and Oldendorff Carriers was brokered by Braemar ACMs Bruce McFarlane, a Mount Maunganui local.

We saw an opportunity to bring together two major players from the logs trade and dry bulk shipping to create new economies of scale through the utilisation of the new mobile shore cranes and larger vessels at Tauranga, says Bruce.

Braemar also negotiated the deal with ISO Stevedoring that delivered the mobile cranes from the manufacturer in Germany, to the port of Tauranga, New Zealand last year.

Were excited to be a part of this Post Panamax fixture with Oldendorff Carriers, says South Pacific Shipping chartering manager Cameron Mackenzie.

Not only will this be the biggest vessel to load logs from New Zealand, loading a gearless ship is also a first for the New Zealand log export industry.

Our objective is to make the supply chain as efficient as possible while maximising port throughput, as well as minimising the environmental footprint from the transportation of logs.

Plus as market leaders, we wanted to be the first to participate in something that has not been achieved before.

Post-Panamax refers to vessels that do not fall within the dimension criteria for the Panama Canal.

Oldendorff Carriers has been part of the New Zealand logs trade for decades. The opportunity to partake in the first Post-Panamax to load logs from New Zealand suited Oldendorffs flexibility and diversity.

With over 700 vessels in their operating fleet that range from 11,000mt deadweight through to 210,000mt deadweight, Oldendorff has been able to draw from its extensive fleet to quickly adjust to SPSs developing shipping requirements.

We are extremely pleased to have been able to combine our commercial, operational and technical expertise from our Melbourne office, with our large fleet, to bring new economies of scale to our clients, says Peter Twiss, Oldendorff Carriers CEO.

Oldendorff Carriers has now concluded two deals that will bring Post-Panamax vessels to load logs from Tauranga. Both fixtures will see Oldendorff provide ships that will be over 30,000mt deadweight more than the current largest vessel to have loaded logs from New Zealand.

Cameron Mackenzie says the news is also good for the environment and safety.

A Post-Panamax will carry underdeck twice the volume of a conventional logger, but will not require any fumigation by methyl bromide as no logs will be carried on deck, he explains.

This deal is also good for the environment.

The logs are sourced from Pacific Forest Products and supplied entirely from sustainable plantation forests.

The bigger vessels will allow ISO Stevedoring to utilise their new high capacity shore cranes, improving both loading speeds and stevedore safety. T

The vessel will transport the logs from the Port of Tauranga with no deck cargo fumigation or lashing required, which will mean faster and more efficient loading that increases berth utilisation.

Moving to the larger Post Panamax vessel will allow the logs to be transported with a lower carbon output per CBM, compared to shipping on a regular handysize logger, says Cameron.

If the Post Panamax loading goes to plan, and freight rates remain proportionate to current levels, SPS will look to charter further Panamax vessels to capture ongoing gains obtained from supply chain efficiency and safety.

The first vessel to load is scheduled to be the MV Clemens Oldendorff 92,759mt deadweight, which is due to load from Tauranga at the end of October, or early November 2021.
There has been a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the community with 45 new cases announced today.

There has also been an increase in testing in the Bay of Plenty region following the detection of Covid-19 in Tauranga wastewater, but the numbers could still be higher, according to Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

All of the positive results have been returned in Auckland and despite the incline, Bloomfield has attempted to quell fears over the jump.

He explains that 33 are known to be close contacts of previous cases and have been isolating throughout their infectious period. Of those, 26 are household contacts and Bloomfield says this rise was anticipated.

While the overall number today is obviously a lot higher it is important to note many of these cases are linked and in some sense they were expected, Bloomfield says.

Twelve cases are unlinked and interviews are underway with six potential links already established.

There has been a slight increase in testing numbers across the Bay of Plenty, with 400 tested since the wastewater announcement.

But Bloomfield is suggesting that figure could be higher.

We would like to see more, he says. I am just emphasising again that if anyone in that Tauranga and Mount Maunganui area have any symptoms then please go get a test.

He says there is increased testing capacity in the area and also implores people in Tauranga to get vaccinated.

At todays 1pm media update Bloomfield was asked why the positive wastewater result, which was known on Monday, was not released until Tuesday.

He says that the usual protocol is to wait for a repeat test regarding wastewater but on this occasion after discussions the decision was made to announce the result.

Further testing of Taurangas wastewater is underway and results will

The overall number of community cases is now 1230. There are 15 epidemiologically linked subclusters. Of these, three are active, eight are contained and four are dormant. There are 10 epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Of these, none are active, three are contained and seven are dormant.

There are 16 cases currently in hospital, seven in both Middlemore and Auckland and two in North Shore. Three are in ICU.

On vaccines, there were 44,649 doses handed out yesterday. Just 13,519 of these were first doses but second doses were at 31,130.
New data released by Statistics New Zealand shows that Bay of Plenty carbon emissions grew by 4.4 per cent in 2019.

The report shows the rise in emissions in Bay of Plenty is primarily due to increases in agriculture and manufacturing emissions.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council General Manager of Strategy and Science, Namouta Poutasi, says this is sobering news for the region when we all need to be focusing on how we can reduce emissions and mitigate the impact of climate change.

Transport is where Regional Council has the greatest ability to influence regional greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, we can see that transport related emissions make up 90 per cent of household emissions and have been on the rise over the last decade. This is a worrying trend, says Poutasi.

The data shows there was a two per cent increase in household transport emissions in 2019, as people continue to use their cars as their main way to travel, for example, to get to and from work.

Regional Council is working to make other travel options, such as public transport, more accessible and affordable so more people are able to ditch the car. These actions are good for the community, for personal health and wellbeing, and good for the climate.

One full bus can take more than 50 cars off the road so reducing the high dependence on car travel is key to addressing the challenge of rising greenhouse gas emissions.

We currently have five electric buses based in Tauranga, and will work towards having a fully electric, and/ or hydrogen fueled, fleet for the whole region by 2028 when the last current contract comes up for renewal.

Its a big investment, but electric buses are significantly cheaper to run than the diesel equivalents and offer a superior experience for passengers. A move towards zero emission buses will also be helped by financing available through the New Zealand Green Investment Fund, to which councils can apply for debt or possibly equity investments.

There is no silver bullet here, but all changes have potential to make a difference."

As a country were on a mission to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. If we are to truly influence climate change trends, we all need to play our part.

To view the data, please click here.

Summary

In 2019, Bay of Plentys total emissions increased by 4.4 per cent (147 kilotonnes), which was higher than the national increase of 2.1 percent.

This was driven by an 85 kilotonne increase in agriculture emissions and a 27 kilotonne increase in manufacturing emissions.

In 2019, 49 per cent of Bay of Plentys emissions (1695 kilotonnes) were from carbon dioxide and a further 39 per cent (1352 kilotonnes) from methane.

Over the 20072019 period, Bay of Plentys emissions increased by 431 kilotonnes (14 per cent).

In 2019, 82 per cent of Bay of Plentys emissions were from industry and 18 per cent from households.

Bay of Plenty had one of the lowest emissions intensities across regions as it produced 183 tonnes of emissions per million dollars of GDP and 11 tonnes of emissions per person. In economic terms, Bay of Plentys top industries are owner-occupied property operation, manufacturing, and construction.

Together these industries made up 24.3 per cent of the regions GDP in 2019.

In 2020, Bay of Plentys GDP increased 6.1 per cent ($1,078 million) and its population by 2.3 per cent (7,400 people).

Over the next year, Regional Council will be undertaking feasibility work to assess the scale of the decarbonisation challenge and potential costs of buses, additional power infrastructure and depots (required to house/ maintain an all-electric fleet).
Hauraki District Council has wrapped up its consideration of the Governments request for initial feedback on their proposed Three Waters Reform.

Mayor Toby Adams has voiced his concerns on behalf of Council in a letter to Te Tari Taiwhenua Internal Affairs today.

The letter is available on Councils website.

Its fair to say more investment and better regulation in this sector is needed, but it would be wrong for us to decide to opt in or opt out without talking to our community. We were given reassurance from Government that we would have time to do that, says Mayor Adams.

Weve made a commitment to have open-minded two-way engagement with our communities and now is not the time for the Government to change tact on that. Its crucial that we be allowed sufficient time to undertake this engagement as our communities are waiting to have their say.

The Three Waters Reform proposals are a once in a lifetime decision for councils and communities so we want to get it right.

Under the proposed Three Waters governance model, councils will have a significantly reduced (or no) level of direct control on the water service entities and thats a worry for Adams.

Were concerned that the proposed model will result in smaller councils voices being lost, which is unacceptable. Theres a chance that larger communities growth aspiration and community expectations will be given a higher priority than ours. We think it is essential for councils to have regular, effective communication with the local authority representatives on the Regional Representative Group and that means a local voice at the table."

Another aspect of the proposal will mean regional spatial strategies and land-use plans will have significant influence over water service entities asset management and investment decisions, as will water standards and regulations.

We believe the Future for Local Government Reform process should be completed, or at least be further progressed, before the Three Waters Reform and Resource Management Reform decisions are finalised.

Making sure councils plans for growth are appropriately integrated with water services planning is essential. Councils must be actively and effectively involved in developing regional spatial strategies and natural and built environment plans as a way to reflect local issues and ambitions and so we need local representatives at the governance table.

Our concern about the on-going delivery of land drainage and flood protection also adds to our concerns about the viability of our Council, post reform.

And closer to home, ratepayers need to know whether there will be harmonisation of charging across the proposed Entity and if that will increase Hauraki Districts household three waters cost or not.

As affordability is a key issue in the district, this uncertainty is a concern for us.

"We have calculated the household cost to be $1089, compared to the average $1610 per the Governments dashboard.

Ultimately, success looks the same to all of us. We all want to improve our rivers and waterways, we all want our communities to have access to safe and secure drinking water, we all want to support sustainable growth and development, and we all need new and large investment in our infrastructure to do it. How we do this is what our communities need to be part of."

Councils throughout New Zealand assessed the latest Government information in an eight-week review period which concludes on October 1.

Throughout that period, councils provided feedback to Government through Local Government New Zealand.

After October 1 councils will hear from Government and determine next steps on community engagement and any decisions which may need to be made.

For more information and to stay updated go to www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz
A $1 million grant awarded to Victoria University of Wellington will go toward a state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicle which will investigate relatively unknown areas of Whakaari/White Island.

It is hoped the work will allow previously impossible access to be unlocked for analysis that can assess volcanic activity and hazards.

The project has just been awarded its million-dollar funding through the latest round of Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Endeavour funding.

Dr Ian Schipper, a senior lecturer of geography, environment and earth sciences is the project leader and believes the result of the work will be a better understanding of underwater volcanic activity.

Although an estimated 90 per cent of the worlds volcanoes are underwater, they have long been difficult and expensive to access and study, says Ian.

By harnessing new developments in portable, economical, submersible technology, we now hope to expand our access to and understanding of underwater volcanoes.

Ian and his team aim to create the worlds first portable ROV-based instrument to investigate underwater volcanism.

The grant will enable us to equip a new portable ROV with instruments for the analysis and collection and analysis of volcanic gases that are discharged into the overlying water columns in lakes and offshore regions, he explains.

Once equipped, we will deploy this instrument suite to make the first comprehensive measurements of the amount and chemistry of gases and fluids that are being emitted from underwater volcanic vents.

This will mark a significant change in our understanding of the levels of activity and potential hazards associated with underwater volcanism in New Zealand.

The ROV itself was designed and built by BoxFish Research in Auckland.

Equipped with 4k video capability and able to operate at depths up to 300 metres below the surface it can offer a live video stream back to the surface.

The project will integrate a CO2 sensor, a gas/fluid collection device and a robotic arm.

This will allow us to calculate the amount of CO2 being emitted to and stored in the water, obtain undiluted samples from any underwater vents, and allow us to measure their chemistries back in the laboratory at Vic and to gather solid samples of minerals and deposits associated with the underwater vents.

Initial work will be undertaken to measure gas fluxes in Central North Island lakes before pushing boundaries into the more dynamic offshore environment in the Whakaari volcanic area.

The Bay of Plenty includes several known sites of submarine volcanic gas emissions, says Ian.

The shallowest of these vents have been studied sporadically by divers, but we have not had the technology and methodology to fully characterise these emissions with any regularity.

This will be technically challenging and difficult work, but the chemistry of gases and fluids emitted from submarine vents around Whakaari have potential to yield geochemical clues to the vitality and extent of the magmatic system below the island.

The hope is for the work to yield new tools and methods for characterizing underwater emissions in New Zealand whilst also placing Kiwi companies and scientists at the forefront of underwater exploration technology.
The clock is ticking on Port of Tauranga workers to receive a Covid-19 vaccination, with a mandate for all border workers to be vaccinated coming into effect at midnight.

However, despite a small number of workers set to risk their employment by refusing the jab, operations at the Port are unlikely to be significantly impacted.

All Government border workers are already required to get vaccinated but that mandate now applies to those privately employed.

They must have received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of today and will then have 35 days to receive a second dose.

Figures released by the Government yesterday show that nationwide, as of 8am September 29, 93 per cent of all border workers are double-vaccinated.

Five per cent have received one dose and just two per cent have received none.

However, maritime border workers figures are significantly lower than others with 80 per cent having received both doses, 15 per cent one and five per cent unvaccinated.

The nationwide figure of 95 per cent at least vaccinated with one dose is expected to ease some fears over vaccination rates at the Port of Tauranga.

Concerns were raised after a positive case of Covid-19 was identified on the Rio de la Plata container ship in August.

Just nine of the 94 workers told to isolate as a result of the case were vaccinated at the time and it soon emerged that 60 per cent of frontline workers at Taurangas port were unvaccinated.

A port worker, who remained anonymous, told SunLive at the time several workers were prepared to lose their jobs, rather than get vaccinated.

In August, ISO Limited, who employ stevedores and marshalls at Port of Tauranga, released their vaccination rates.

Four per cent of their workers were a firm no on getting vaccinated and a further 24 per cent undecided.

ISO offered no comment when asked for an update on those figures ahead of todays deadline. SunLive has reached out to several other companies regarding their figures but have received no comment.

However, regarding workers directly employed by the Port of Tauranga itself, most are vaccinated with conversations underway on how to address the small minority which will not make the cut-off.

We expect about 96 per cent of our eligible employees to have received their first dose by midnight tomorrow, says Port of Tauranga communications manager Rochelle Lockley.

We are discussing options with any workers that remain unvaccinated.

She adds that the Port of Tauranga is not aware of the overall vaccination rates for workers at the port, including independent companies.

However, any staff shortages related to the mandate coming into operation will be of minimal significance.

We dont expect any major impact to operations, says Rochelle.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has been providing on-site vaccination opportunities for port workers in Tauranga. Those came to an end last Friday.

Port workers can now access priority appointments at the community vaccination centres, says Rochelle, regarding any workers who wish to get vaccinated before todays cut-off.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says that the border worker figures, across the board, are promising and an improvement from the 82 per cent figure of double vaccinated workers in July.

Maritime border workers were previously at 53 per cent double vaccinated on July 14, so the current figures represent a 27 per cent increase.

All Government employed workers are now vaccinated, and this weeks deadline brings private employers in as well, says Hipkins.

This is a significant step towards protecting New Zealanders from Covid-19 now and into the future.

This is increasingly important as we look to how we reopen to the world. The border will continue to be our first defence against Covid-19 and the people who work there must be protected.

Hipkins is encouraging anyone who has not yet received their first dose to ask any outstanding questions and receive their first dose today.

You will then have 35 days to get your second one following the deadline, he says.

I encourage you to do this. It will keep you safe. I am extremely pleased and relieved this order comes into effect this week.
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Grand Vitesse Originally Posted by Dear mods, please move/delete this post if its not entirely fitting in to the theme of this thread. Essentially, we need some guidance here in the context of a possible Yaris purchase by my brother! He is thinking of replacing his Desire LX, that he has been using since 2012.



His requirements:

a. Needs an Automatic for a predominantly in-city usage  Office and hospital trips with parents with limited mobility. Usage is < 5k kms per year.

b. He is not an enthusiastic driver and wants a car that is reliable and durable

c. a car that provides a largely predictable ownership experience and costs.

d. Budget: 10 to 13 lakhs

e. has to be a petrol



Hence, I have suggested the following models to him:

1) Yaris CVT (one of the models offering a 3 airbag option): Has some concerns: (i) insufficient rear seat space (head room particularly), (ii) the lack of features in the entry level models and (iii) ultimately the fact that itd go out of sale soon! However, is it worth it given (a) Toyota reliability (b) possible discounts (c) build quality (d) safety  even for a 3 airbag model? (e) the 3 airbag model can be had for about 13.5 lakhs or 11.5 lakhs depending on the variant. However, concerns regarding the availability of stocks now, continued after sales service (after Yaris is shown the door) and spares availability. Kindly provide your views on these points. Not sure any model offers the pros it offers at this price range!



2) Suzuki S-Cross (AT): Safe bet for all the pros it offers. The fly in the ointment is of course the gear box. I have driven the S-cross and find that it is so much better in terms of the ride comfort, handling and experience it offers in comparison to the DZire.



3) Duster AMT (1.3 turbo): A unrealistic choice really. The two things going for it are the engine and ride comfort. Is it really worth it given how dated the product is (the chassis and interiors) and how the service experience compares to whatd be had from the aforementioned makers?



4) Ford Ecosport (petrol AT): If not for the realistic possibility of Ford leaving India, thisd be on top of the list. Does anyone have any info on this 



5) Jazz CVT  A good option except for my experience on how sitting in the back seat feels  plain painful with no adjustable head rest!



6) Nexon  not really an option in comparison to others as its an AMT umimpressive I reckon.



Models not considered include:

1) Rapid TSi AT  a no brainer if I were going for the vehicle. However, Skoda is associated with a perception of unpredictability in all aspects (except for a fun-to-drive experience). He doesnt want both!



2) Hyundais  Creta and Verna are out of budget and Venue is not considered for the poor space if offers. Similar arguments can me made about the Kia equivalents. I hope he doesnt like the aura as its not an upgrade over the Dzire and probably not as well built as the above choices!



3) Maruti Baleno CVT  A strict no.



4) Nissan Kicks is a no too



Im inclined to strongly suggest the Yaris. But, Is it a bad option? What say folks on this issue?
jithin23 BHPian



Join Date: Mar 2019 Location: KA-03 Posts: 555 Thanked: 1,793 Times

View My Garage





Re: Oil pressure problems in brand new Mahindra Scorpio S11 Quote: SS-Traveller Originally Posted by



It appears that multiple couplers (speedo console, VSS and perhaps the oil pressure sensor) were loose - a horrible goof-up at Mahindra factory QC. All it took was to push in and fit the couplers properly. No more oil pressure light, no disappearing gear position light, no sudden drop of rpm needle, and the car runs smoother than before, says Mr. D.



I suppose NR Auto employed engineers from some fake engineering college, while a little dealership ASS like Star Auto got someone who passed out from IIT - after all, IIT-KGP is right next door! Update from the owner, Mr. D: Issue resolved in 15 minutes by Star Auto, Kharagpur.It appears that multiple couplers (speedo console, VSS and perhaps the oil pressure sensor) were loose - a horrible goof-up at Mahindra factory QC. All it took was to push in and fit the couplers properly. No more oil pressure light, no disappearing gear position light, no sudden drop of rpm needle, and the car runs smoother than before, says Mr. D.I suppose NR Auto employed engineers from some fake engineering college, while a little dealership ASS like Star Auto got someone who passed out from IIT - after all, IIT-KGP is right next door!

Glad that the issue was resolved at last. The new gen cars need a lot of care w.r.t electrical and electronic components as a simple diode, wire twist as in the car of the OP's friend or a fuse outage would ensure that one has unnecessary Diwali lights in the instrument cluster.



The OP's friend should have tried another dealership in the 2nd instance itself.



One tip though, it's better to keep a diagnostic tool handy so that we can diagnose almost 80% of the issue from home itself. If you need the OE diagnostic tool, Mahindra I-scan or Garuda can be used.



On a lighter note, Star Auto really turned out to be the Star of the show! Glad that the issue was resolved at last. The new gen cars need a lot of care w.r.t electrical and electronic components as a simple diode, wire twist as in the car of the OP's friend or a fuse outage would ensure that one has unnecessary Diwali lights in the instrument cluster.The OP's friend should have tried another dealership in the 2nd instance itself.One tip though, it's better to keep a diagnostic tool handy so that we can diagnose almost 80% of the issue from home itself. If you need the OE diagnostic tool, Mahindra I-scan or Garuda can be used.On a lighter note, Star Auto really turned out to be the Star of the show! Last edited by jithin23 : 29th September 2021 at 09:37 . Reason: Added content
As featured in:

WhatsApp Beta for Android lets you enjoy the latest additions to the messaging service before they hit the final release on the Google Play Store. The latest Beta adds the long awaited Dark Theme feature. More instructions on how to enable it are in the description below.

WhatsApp is available for Android, iPhone / iOS and Windows & Mac. WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging service, so those devices can all message each other. Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

Features:

No hidden costs : Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: Edge/3G/4G or Wi-Fi when available.

: Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: Edge/3G/4G or Wi-Fi when available. Multimedia : Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.

: Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts. Group Chat : Enjoy group conversations with your contacts. Add or Remove group participants, change group subject and set a group icon.

: Enjoy group conversations with your contacts. Add or Remove group participants, change group subject and set a group icon. Personal : Set a profile photo which will be shown to all your contacts

: Set a profile photo which will be shown to all your contacts No international charges : Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs.

: Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs. Say no to pins and usernames : Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book.

: Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book. No need to log in/out : No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is always on and always connected.

: No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is always on and always connected. No need to add buddies : Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites, similar to a buddy list.

: Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites, similar to a buddy list. Offline Messages : Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your iPhone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use.

: Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your iPhone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use. And much more: Share location and places, Exchange contacts, Custom wallpaper, Custom notification sounds, Landscape mode, Message timestamps, Email chat history, Broadcast messages and media to many contacts at once, and much much more.

What's New:

The anticipated security feature is available in WhatsApp's latest beta version for Android. When activated, both chat and media history in your cloud backups can be protected using a password. This comes with a catch though: if you lose your phone and forget your password (or the 64-digit recovery key), it won't be possible to restore your backup.

You can now also remove sound when sharing videos. Tap the mute icon before hitting send.

Previous release notes:

WhatsApp is fast becoming a store counter to discuss products and coordinate sales. Catalogs have allowed people to quickly see whats available and helped businesses organize their chats around particular items. With more and more shopping happening through chats, we want to make buying and selling even easier.

Starting today, were excited to bring carts to WhatsApp. Carts are great when messaging businesses that typically sell multiple items at once, like a local restaurant or clothing store. With carts, people can browse a catalog, select multiple products and send the order as one message to the business. This will make it simpler for businesses to keep track of order inquiries, manage requests from customers and close sales.

For example, Agradaya, a sustainable herbs and spices business in Yogyakarta, Indonesia got early access to the feature and told us how carts are a convenient way to understand what the customer is ordering without all the back and forth communication.

Using carts is easy. Simply find the items you want and tap add to cart. Once your cart is complete, send it as a message to the business. More details on using carts can be found here.

Carts are going live around the world today -- just in time for the holiday season. Happy shopping on WhatsApp!

Advanced Search

Now when you search in Whatsapp, you can now also choose to search Photos, Videos, Links, GIFs, Audio or Documents.

Dark Mode is finally here! To install follow these instructions:

Download the file found here. Open Whatsapp, touch the three dot menu in the upper right corner and select Settings. In Settings, select Chats (Theme, wallpapers, chat history) In Chats, select Theme and within Theme you will find Dark.

Previous releases:

Added call waiting support so you can choose to accept an incoming WhatsApp call while you're already on another call.

You can now require a fingerprint to unlock WhatsApp. Tap Settings > Account > Privacy > Fingerprint lock and enable Unlock with fingerprint.

Fixed an issue which caused fast battery drain.

New Privacy Settings for Groups

WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, coworkers, classmates and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience. Today, we're introducing a new privacy setting and invite system to help you decide who can add you to groups.

To enable it, go to Settings in your app, then tap Account > Privacy > Groups and select one of three options: "Nobody", "My Contacts", or "Everyone". "Nobody" means you'll have to approve joining every group to which you're invited, and "My Contacts" means only users you have in your address book can add you to groups.

In those cases, the person adding you to a group will be prompted to send a private invite through an individual chat, giving you the choice of joining the group. You'll have three days to accept the invite before it expires.

With these new features, users will have more control over the group messages they receive. These new privacy settings will begin rolling out to some users starting today and will be available worldwide in the coming weeks to those using the latest version of WhatsApp.

Introducing Stickers

From emoji and camera features to Status and animated GIFs, were always looking to add new features that make communicating with friends and family on WhatsApp easy and fun. Were excited to introduce a new way for people to express themselves with stickers.

We've also added support for third-party sticker packs to allow designers and developers around the world to create stickers for WhatsApp. To do this, we've included a set of APIs and interfaces that allow you to build sticker apps that add stickers to WhatsApp on Android or iOS. You can publish your sticker app like any other app to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and users who download and install your app will be able to start sending those stickers right from within WhatsApp. You can learn more about creating your own sticker apps for WhatsApp here.

To use stickers in a chat, simply tap the new sticker button and select the sticker you want to share. You can add new sticker packs by tapping the plus icon.

Deleting messages. You can delete messages for everyone or just for yourself.

To delete messages for everyone

Deleting messages for everyone allows you to delete specific messages you have sent to either a group or an individual chat. This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake.

Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with "This message was deleted" in your recipients' chats (*). Similarly, if you see "This message was deleted" in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.

You can only delete messages for everyone for up to seven minutes after sending. Once seven minutes have passed, there is no way to delete messages for everyone. To delete messages for everyone:

Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.

Tap and hold the message > choose Delete from the menu. Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once.

Tap Delete > Delete for Everyone.

To delete messages for yourself

Deleting messages for yourself allows you to delete your copy of messages you've sent or received from your phone. This has no effect on your recipients' chats. Your recipients will still see the messages in their chat screen. To delete messages for yourself:

Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.

Tap and hold the message > choose Delete from the menu. Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once.

Tap Delete > Delete for Me.

Web client for desktop computers

The desktop app is available for Windows 8 and Windows 10, and Mac OS 10.9 and higher, and is synced with WhatsApp on your mobile device. Because the app runs natively on your desktop, you'll have support for native desktop notifications, better keyboard shortcuts, and more. Upon downloading and opening the app, scan the QR code using the WhatsApp app on your phone (look for WhatsApp Web menu under Settings).
SystemInfo is a component used in many of our benchmarks to identify the hardware in your system. It does not collect any personally identifiable information.

Freeware

Windows
(Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Google Docs New Feature Adds Image Watermarks to Protect Users' Property

Google Docs is adding a new feature that would allow users to add watermarks to their photos. This could be a very useful feature to protect owners of the image from unauthorized grabbers.

Google Docs Image Watermark Feature

According to the story by AndroidHeadlines, the whole process of adding image watermarks to Google Docs is quite lengthy, but with the latest update, the company is rolling out a new feature that would make everything much easier.

In the past, adding watermarks meant users would still have to create one through Google Drawings then copy and paste the document text into the Google Drawings file located inside the text box. Users would then still have to upload it to Google Docs.

Update for Google Docs

Thankfully, the new Google Docs update would help make it easier for users to add image watermarks without the long process. The new feature is already rolling out for those that are using Workspace. Google Docs isn't the only one getting new features, as Google Meet new features have been rolled out this August 2021.

With a few clicks, users will be able to add image watermarks to their documents. In the official blog post, Google explained how to add the watermarks. The feature is expected to roll out to a broader audience this October 11, 2021.

How to Add Watermarks

The blog notes that users will have to go to the new Watermarks option found under the Insert menu. This will open another side panel where users can easily upload image watermarks and adjust their opacity.

Once the process is done, users can click on the Done button, and Google Docs will then automatically apply this watermark to all of the pages. Users can also add their company brand logo with this feature, as well as marketing names or other custom designs to be used as watermarks for Google Docs.

Google Workspace and G Suite Basic and Business

XDA-Developers notes that image watermarks are actually preserved while importing or even exporting documents coming from MS Word. When it comes to the rollout, the brand new feature is now already live for users of Google Workspace.

The company reportedly plans to roll this feature out to the broader audience starting October 11. It will reportedly be available for all of the Google Workspace users as well as G Suite Basic and Business users. Google Messages also has a new feature that allows users to zoom in when needed.

Read Also: Google Stadia is Working on New Feature that Lets You Send Friend Requests to People You Know Via Email

Google New Feature

As of the moment, however, there is still no information coming from Google as to whether or not the feature will make its way to those that are just using a personal account. For this feature to be available, users will just have to wait and see what Google will do.

The feature is reportedly hot on the heels of a more recent rollout of the supposed Material You design refresh for the supposed Google Docs app. The new design brings Android 12 design language for the widely used Google Docs and also introduces a number of elements as well.

Related Article: Google Chrome Rolls Out New Feature That Captions Audio and Video in Real-Time

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Kleos Space, a data-as-a-service (DaaS) provider of space-powered radiofrequency reconnaissance solutions, has announced its plans for future growth, starting with the relocation of its Luxembourg headquarters to a new facility.

The bespoke facility will incorporate all of the company's key functions in one location and is set to begin on Nov. 1. Kleos will be moving into its newly-built facility in ParcLuxite Business Park in Kockelscheuer, Luxembourg. It hosts the company's operations and engineering facilities, environmental test chambers, and a dedicated cleanroom area for the assembly, integration, and testing of its sensitive space hardware and contains the mission control center.

With the new facility, Kleos will be able to scale its global geolocation data-as-a-service and boost its additional engineering teams both in the United States and the United Kindgom.

ALSO READ: NASA, NOAA New Satellite Datasets Show Earth's Doubled Heat Is Like Dropping Four Hiroshima Atomic Bombs Every Second!

The New ParcLuxite Facility

Kleos' new ParcLuxite facility is a 65-hectare complex considered as the Luxembourg equivalent of a mini-Silicon Valley. The venue is dedicated to housing innovation and high-tech companies on the historical site Poudrerie de Luxembourg.

"Our new Luxite facility will enable us to be immersed in a tech environment. It will provide Kleos with the right framework to foster innovation and the capacity to support our growing operations," explains Kleos COO Heribert Kraemer. As the new Kleos headquarters hosts the company's mission operations team, its global finance, and communications, the company is also looking to expand its teams to support its long-term global growth. Kraemer additionally notes that Kleos continues to build its network and commercialize its data products. The newly-built office is expected to provide a great working environment for everyone.

Kleos' Growing Satellites

Kleos develops satellites that detect and geolocate RF signals that improve the detection of illegal and prohibited activities such as piracy, smuggling of drugs and humans, illegal fishing, and border challenges. The independent geolocation data provided by these satellites work in conjunction with existing datasets and help improve governments and commercial entities' intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.

The company remains committed to the rapid development of its satellite constellation, with eight satellites currently in space flying in clusters of four close formations. A third cluster is currently in development and set for a launch in the following months onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Each cluster sent to space adds to the data products Kleos offers its customer base, with an overall target of launching up to twenty clusters for a near-real-time global observation.

"It's an exciting period for Kleos as we transition from an R&D company into a commercial provider of geolocation intelligence data," said Kleos CEO Andy Bowyer. He adds that the new facility is expected to support further its constellation's growth, which will improve Kleos' global coverage and provide its customers with access to services focused on areas of interest. Additionally, their data are already provided to early adopter customers and are currently in discussion with different European-based subscribers.

RELATED ARTICLE: NASA TESS Satellite Discovers Hidden Exoplanets Within a New Planetary System: Some Them Could Even Support Life!

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA's asteroid-slamming spacecraft known as DART or Double Asteroid Redirect Test's launch via the SpaceX Falcon 9 is on track, the United States space agency confirmed.

The update on the asteroid-hitting spacecraft was revealed during the live coverage of the Landsat-9 launch.

NASA's Asteroid-Slamming DART Spacecraft Launch

As per WTSP, the NASA DART spacecraft is meant to prevent an impactful asteroid crash on Earth, which could possibly take thousands of lives.

The asteroid of concern goes by the name Didymos.

However, it is worth noting that it is still 11 million miles away from our home planet. As such, the 780 meters big rock is not yet an imminent threat for now.

Nevertheless, NASA still wants to be ahead of the hazardous asteroid and is already planning on how to target it before it becomes a threat to the Earth.

The US space agency is looking into slamming the asteroid with the DART spacecraft to deflect its direction away from Earth, preventing any dangerous crash to our home planet.

Although the target launch of the asteroid-hitting spacecraft is on Nov. 23, it will still take years before the DART reaches 11 million miles away from the location of the Didymos.

NASA plans to lift off the DART spacecraft in November via the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Omar Baez, senior launch director for the Launch Services Program of NASA, said during the post-launch conference of the Landsat-9.

Baez further noted other upcoming missions, such as the Atlas 5 with Lucy on Oct. 16, the Falcon 9 with IXPE onboard on Dec. 9, and the Atlas 5 carrying the GOES-T on Feb. 16.

Related Article: NASA Plans To Study, NOT MINE, A 'Goldmine' Asteroid Worth QUADRILLIONS By 2026

NASA's Asteroid-Slamming Spacecraft Launch On Track

According to Teslarati, NASA, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration, confirmed the development of the DART spacecraft after the successful launch of the Landsat-9, the most powerful satellite of its kind.

What's more, NASA further revealed that the DART spacecraft has already arrived at the Vandenberg Space Force Base even if it is two months in advance of the Falcon 9 launch in November.

The target launch for the asteroid-hitting spacecraft was initially supposed to be in June 2021.

The original expected lift-off data was back when the space exploration firm of Elon Musk, SpaceX, won the NASA launch contract in April 2019, which was earlier worth $69 million but has been changed to $73 million later on.

Read Also: NASA to Develop an Asteroid Hunting Space Telescope to Watch for Possible Threats to Earth

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Intel and Google Cloud confirm their latest partnership, which is expected to enhance the performance of the upcoming Compute Engine N2 VMs (virtual machines).

If you don't have any idea what are VMs, they are the emulation of different computer systems. Each VM has its own specialized software, hardware, or a combination of these two components.

They allow you to work in different virtual spaces, even if you are using the same PC or device host.

"These new N2 VMs are offered at the same price as existing N2 VMs based on 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, and their usage can be discounted using existing N2 committed use discounts," said Google via its official Google Cloud blog post.

The giant search engine firm also proudly announced that consumers can use the new N2 VMs to achieve significant price-performance improvements for a variety of workloads.

Intel, Google Cloud Partnership

Google Cloud explained that its new collaboration with the giant SoC maker allows the company to take advantage of the advanced 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor called "Ice Lake."

Also Read: Intel Hires Former EA and AMD Managers Ahead of Its Arc GPU Launch as Company Steps Into PC Gaming Hardware

The giant tech firm added that this advanced chipset would greatly enhance its new VM model since the SoC could run at 2.6GHz base frequency and 3.4GHz sustained all core turbo, which leads to 30% better price-performance of its Compute Engine N2 VM.

When it comes to availability, Google and Intel's new virtual machine product is expected to arrive in the 4th quarter of 2021. However, the actual release date is not yet confirmed.

How Intel's Xeon SoCs Enhance Google's New VM Model?

According to Intel's official blog post, the company's 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors offer the following features, which are expected to boost further the performance of the new Google Compute Engine N2 VM:

Intel Deep Learning Boost (Intel DL Boost) provides flexibility to run complex AI workloads on the central processing unit and enhance inference performance by maximizing computing resources, improving cache utilization, and reducing potential bandwidth bottlenecks.

Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel AVX-512) boosts performance and throughput for the most demanding computational tasks in applications, such as modeling and simulation, data analytics and machine learning, data compression, visualization, and digital content creation.

Intel Crypto Acceleration engines enhance data protection and privacy by increasing the performance of encryption-intensive workloads, including SSL web serving, 5G infrastructure, and VPN/firewalls while reducing the performance impact of pervasive encryption.

For more news updates about upcoming innovations of Intel and Google, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Intel Once Again Beats AMD With New Alder Lake Benchmark Leak

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Subaru Solterra's new details were revealed in the newly unveiled teaser of the giant automaker. The Japanese car developer is one of the late bloomers in the rising EV market since it is still preparing to release its first electric car.

Ford and other giant traditional automakers already released various of their own EV models. Now, Subaru plans to join them as it is about to release its Solterra electric car model this coming 2023.

As of the moment, not many details about the new EV model are confirmed. But, consumers could expect more from the giant automaker as the launch date nears.

Subaru Solterra's New Leaked Details

According to Electrek's latest report, although the giant vehicle maker still hasn't confirmed the exact specs of the new Solterra model, its latest YouTube video still provides some of the EV's details, which could help consumers know what is coming to them.

The new Subaru teaser was published on the giant video platform on Sept. 28. It already generated more than 60,000 views, as well as attracted some opinions from the waiting consumers.

"Awesome! American Consumers keep asking for an EV from Subaru so this Car is going to sell very fast just like the CrossTrek Hybrid," said one of the YT users in the comment section.

On the other hand, some of them are hoping that the new Subaru Solterra will also be released in North America. They added that it would be exciting if the new electric car would be launched in both Canadian and United States markets.

Also Read: Lucid Air EVs Dream Edition Set to Roll Out to Customers in Late October from AMP-1 Assembly Line

Aside from Subaru, other giant automakers are also making new enhancements to improve their EV transitions. These include Ford's new EV battery initiative, which is expected to create new factories.

On the other hand, Tesla also decided to invest in China to strengthen its market in the Asian country.

Solterra's New Features

Based on the newly released YouTube promotional video of Solterra, the new Subaru EV is expected to have significant ground clearance.

This means that it could run on bumpy roads and even rocky areas. The said enhancement is a great innovation from Subaru since most EVs now have little ground clearance, limiting their road scopes.

The YT video showed that it has a similar appearance to the popular Subaru SUV when it comes to the design. As of the moment, these are only the details presented in the new footage.

For more news updates about Subaru and other automakers transitioning to zero-emission productions, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: New Tesla Cyberquad Trademark Application Filing Appears! Would the Electric Bike Arrive With Cybertruck?

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Environmental impact and carbon cost of innovation: towards Green AI

Guest Blog: Dr. Alessandra Tosi, Mind Foundry discusses the development of Green AI technology helping us tackle the problems associated with climate change as part of techUK's Data Analytics week #DataWeek

AI has the potential to help us tackle the problems associated with climate change and the warming of our Earth. The closer we get to the precipice, the greater the urgency. This has helped fuel tremendous growth in AI projects throughout government and the public sector, where AI is being used to make more accurate climate change predictions or to intelligently power the infrastructure that could support lower emissions on a global scale.

Amidst all this enthusiasm, the one thing often being left out of the conversation is the carbon cost of these compute-intensive solutions. At best, the adoption of AI might be slowed down because people hadn't adequately considered the cost (financial or environmental) of the solution required. At worst, it could accelerate the warming of our planet.

This is why it is so important to develop a Green AI technology: a technology that takes into account energy-efficiency as an important evaluation metric.

In anticipation of changes in regulation that will inevitably follow the current discourse surrounding the carbon cost of AI, and following increased interest from the general public on the topic of global emission and climate change, Mind Foundry is developing innovative solutions to bring a green AI to our customers. We know our users care about the carbon implications of their AI solutions, and we want to make this technology to make their procurement, design and management decisions easier. To do this, we will provide new functionalities to estimate, monitor and manage the accuracy-efficiency trade-offs for their AI.

The world is rapidly changing

97% of scientists agree that humans are one of the main drivers for climate change. The Paris Agreement attempts to hold governments accountable for their role in the crisis and sets a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, compared to pre-industrial levels. According to the European Union statements on Supporting the green transition [European Union Report, Feb 2020], today, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector accounts for 5-9% of all electricity use. This portion is equal to more than 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions and roughly the same as all air traffic in a normal, non-pandemic year. As AI gets integrated into more and more aspects of society, including smart cities and driverless cars, this portion will climb. Some see the ICT share of all electricity use increasing to 14% by 2040. The question is, what role can, and should, AI play in this?

Theres no free lunch

It has been clear for some time that AIs carbon footprint could eventually come to dirty the heralded fourth industrial revolution. AI growth currently comes at a cost: the algorithms behind AI solutions are computationally expensive to train and to deploy, which results in significant barriers to entry for smaller businesses and individuals, and the creation of a large AI carbon-footprint.

An alarming trend in published research for AI gives a glimpse of where this is headed. In 2018, 75% - 90% of publications focused on AI solutions that favoured accuracy over efficiency. When put into practice, the large machine learning models that emerge from this type of research consume massive amounts of energy. It has been estimated that the carbon footprint created by training one of these models is equivalent to 300,000 kg of carbon dioxide, which is the same as making 125 round trip flights between New York and Beijing.

The debate around the impact of digital technologies on the planet Earth has emerged in recent years and has been reported by many prominent institutions and governments. The recent report from The Royal Society on Digital technology and the planet, highlights that

Data-enabled technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence have also enabled efficiencies and optimisation across sectors. While some of these applications already contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, digital technologies also have an environmental cost which should not be neglected  from the extraction of minerals to the energy use and emissions of the technology Royal Society 2020, p6

One example above all is the blockchain technology associated with mining cryptocurrency, used to securely transfer, verify and record digital asset ownership. This technology involves heavy computations and a consequent high carbon footprint, which has been growing incredibly fast in the past years. It made the headlines in February 2021 when Bitcoins carbon consumption surpassed Argentinas as a nation (BBC), according to the Cambridge Bitcoin electricity consumption index CBECI.

Experts agree that the use of digital technologies and AI solutions can help reduce carbon emissions across industries. However, a too high computational cost of these technologies could slow down their adoption, with an impact on the effort to combat climate change. This is another reason why we believe it is so important to develop a Green AI technology.

What is Green AI?

Green AI is an emerging topic in the AI community, which started to gain popularity only recently. The early work of 2019 from Schwartz et al., at the Allen Institute for AI, ...advocates a practical solution by making efficiency an evaluation criterion for research alongside accuracy and related measures. This approach, at the core of the Green AI philosophy, will help to make AI both greener and more inclusive.

At Mind Foundry, we believe that making AI digital transformations sustainable can only be achieved by humans and AIs working together. This is why we are addressing the market need of enabling these workflows in our core product offerings, via the Green AI Auditor. Mind Foundry is committed to enabling humans and AI to work together to address the problems that impact peoples lives at scale, to enact positive change, and the Green AI Auditor will bring to our platform the capability to enable our users to predict, monitor and mitigate their carbon-footprint, generated through the computational requirements of their AI technology projects. Users will be made aware of the costs, both financial and environmental, of their model building and model deployment projects and provide them with tools for managing the resulting trade-off between how accurate their models predictions are and the amount of resources required to generate that accuracy.

The business use case: Reducing resource wastage when developing solutions

Building a bespoke AI solution is often an iterative process where the data scientist wishes to quickly assess many different approaches and develop only the most promising solutions. Determining an efficient strategy for assessing each solution is challenging for various reasons, related both to the data and the resources sides of the problem.

It is difficult to know in advance how much data is required to assess a solution. Too much data can lead to very expensive calculations, and too little data, on the other side, can lead to inconclusive answers. On top of this, access to big-data technologies has become more widespread, and there are many tools that make it easier to solve difficult problems merely by using more computation and therefore energy. There is often little consideration given to whether equally-good solutions can be reached using less data, and hence less computation and energy.

A key part of this process is incorporating a cost-benefit analysis into your system and accurately assessing what you're compromising. For example, if you can reach an equally-good solution with less computation, then surely that's better. But what happens if you can make a solution that's 2% more accurate but 20% less efficient. Is that an appropriate tradeoff for you? How does that stack up against your environmental obligations? Or your performance obligations? It's going to be different for each application and each industry. With the Green AI Auditor, Mind Foundry is providing the ability for businesses and data scientists to make informed decisions about these important business-critical decisions.

It is also difficult to allocate in advance an adequate amount of resources (time, memory etc) to perform a given calculation. The resource budgets are often not planned in advance, and it can happen that an experiment is launched and then fails because it hits memory limits. At this point the calculation is abandoned, resulting in a waste of resources (electricity and time).

The data scientists in charge of building a new AI solution have to face all these challenges and we want to empower them with the ability to focus on how to solve the problem and not on the practicalities of running the solution, including budgeting for limited memory, time or other resources.

Developing new technologies

To solve the problem described above, the Mind Foundry Green AI auditor develops several new capabilities within our platform, falling into two main categories:

Oversight: predicting and monitoring resource and carbon consumption during AI model building and deployment

Mitigation: managing the exploration of, or the optimisation for a position on the accuracy-efficiency trade-off.

With these capabilities, users of our platform will be both aware of the carbon and financial costs associated with developing and deploying their AI systems, and have tools to help reduce these costs when desired.

Our users will be explicitly made aware of the costs, both financial and environmental, of their model building and model deployment projects, and they will be equipped with the tools for managing the resulting trade-off between model accuracy and model efficiency.

The technology underpinning the Green AI solution includes a cost-aware Bayesian optimiser, which leverages a Bayesian approach to sequential decision making and allows the user to manage the accuracy-cost trade-off. We'll be publishing a piece on this in a few weeks so please subscribe to the blog if you'd like to get notified when that goes out.

A cleaner world

The digital revolution is coming at a cost for the environment, with an increase in CO2 emission caused by the digital sector, including AI.

Mind Foundry is developing a new technology that addresses the global need for sustainable innovation. With key features that allow a user to estimate, monitor, and manage the resources used to develop an AI solution, Mind Foundrys Green AI auditor, empowers people to deploy AI more responsibly by putting them in the drivers seat to make critical business decisions about the environmental ramifications of their investment in AI. We believe this is the best way to unlock the potential for artificial intelligence to be a key part of the solution to the climate crisis and not an unwitting cause.

To find out more about Mind Foundry's Green AI solutions, click here.

Author:

Dr. Alessandra Tosi

Dr. Alessandra Tosi is a leading researcher in Bayesian Optimisation and probabilistic machine learning at Mind Foundry, where she has been leading a range of government funded projects in the sector of Energy and Sustainability. Over her extensive career, her work has focused on pushing the boundaries of AI through the integration of software solutions and original research. She has a particular interest in exploring the important ethical and moral dilemmas that are emerging as the role of artificial intelligence in our world expands.

Katherine Holden Katherine joined techUK in May 2018 and currently leads the Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID programme. Prior to techUK, Katherine worked as a Policy Advisor at the Government Digital Service (GDS) supporting the digital transformation of UK Government. Whilst working at the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Katherine led AMRCs policy work on patient data, consent and opt-out. Katherine has a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Nottingham. Email: katherin [email protected] Phone: 020 7331 2019 Read lessmore
One of the two men awaiting trial in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and killing of a Highland Road couple claims he can't get a fair tr
Prosecutors disclosed Thursday they had recently received from Baton Rouge police a box of evidence regarding double homicide on Highland Road  six years after the killings and two months before the first trial is to begin.

Frank Garcia is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 27 on a first-degree murder charge following the 2015 robbery, beating, abduction and strangling of Denis and Suzanne Duplantier.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said he believes that Garcia's trial can still go forward.

+4 In 2015 killing of Highland Road couple in 70s, defendants to be tried separately A prosecutor disclosed Tuesday which of two men will be tried first in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and strangling of a Highland Road

"I don't believe this disclosure, although it's late, should delay the trial," he said.

The Baton Rouge Police Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Moore said the majority of the evidence delivered to his office Monday is "consistent with what's already been disclosed and is consistent with the state's theory of the case."

Moore noted, however, that a cellphone belonging to Garcia's cousin and co-defendant, Ernesto Alonso, was in the box of evidence delivered to his office, and a police detective is preparing a search warrant to obtain the phone's contents.

Depending on what is contained in the phone, the district attorney said, the defense may wish to ask for a trial continuance.

Alonso's attorney, Dwight Doskey, said the disclosure by Moore's office is "certainly not a good development for the prosecution."

"Quite obviously it opens up the line of questioning to the lead detective of `and what else are you forgetting/not telling the jury` and `six years from now will there be other evidence?'" Doskey said.

The "state's discovery disclosure" filed into the court record Thursday says the new evidence also includes security camera footage, more crime scene photographs, and detective case notes.

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The filing says the District Attorney's Office uncovered the missing evidence after reviewing the case file and concluding that "one or more pieces of evidence were not in the file or listed on the evidence list from Baton Rouge City Police."

"We have now inventoried the items in the box and are now providing to the defense items that were not previously in the possession of the District Attorney's Office," prosecutor Dana Cummings wrote.

The bodies of Denis "Bubbie" Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne "Suzy" Duplantier, 70, were found Oct. 19, 2015, in the back seat of their red pickup at a Hammond gas station.

+2 Duo accused of double killing can get fair trial in East Baton Rouge Parish, appeals court says The two men charged with the high-profile killing of a Highland Road couple can receive a fair trial in East Baton Rouge Parish, an appeals co

Alonso, 48, did landscaping work for the Duplantiers and lived on other property owned by them.

His white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couples vehicle into the Petro truck stop, authorities have said. Alonsos truck was later discovered at Garcias residence in Hollywood, Florida.

A safe inside the Duplantier home was found open, with cash missing. Blood was located in several rooms. Authorities believe the two men entered the Duplantier home and beat them to get the information needed to open the safe.

A large amount of cash and a number of unspecified items believed stolen from the home were found at Garcias home in Florida, authorities said.

Attorneys for Garcia, 53, have claimed in previously filed documents that he and Alonso have antagonistic defenses, and the lawyers anticipate that Alonso will try to "shift blame from himself to Garcia" at trial.

+3 Separate trials requested in 2015 Highland Road slaying of elderly couple Attorneys for one of the men accused in the 2015 beating, robbery, abduction and killing of an elderly Highland Road couple filed court papers

Prosecutors announced in 2016 they would not seek the death penalty against either man after discussions with the victims' families. They face mandatory sentences of life in prison if convicted as charged.
The daughters of slain Highland Road couple Denis and Suzanne Duplantier waited six years to confront their parents accused killers, and after one of those men pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter in exchange for a 30-year prison term, the women didnt hold back.

Standing a few feet from Frank Garcia in a 19th Judicial District courtroom, Lisa Duplantier called his actions in October 2015 soulless and said he caused immeasurable sorrow, grief and pain to so many.

I hope you spend the rest of your life  wishing you were dead, she said.

One of her sisters, Terri Duplantier, spoke of the fear her beloved parents must have experienced the day they were killed and told Garcia, I hope you have to watch over your back in fear while incarcerated.

I hate you from the bottom of my heart for the damage you have caused  she added. Youre evil! Bastard!

Garcia, 53, of Hollywood, Florida, would have faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison if he had been convicted of first-degree murder.

His trial ended before opening statements even began. The judge and lawyers took Monday and Tuesday to pick a jury, but shortly after the jury entered the courtroom Wednesday the lawyers gathered again to discuss a settlement.

Garcia's cousin, Ernesto Llerena Alonso, 48, who did landscaping work for the Duplantiers and lived on other property they owned, faces first-degree murder charges in a separate trial.

+4 In 2015 killing of Highland Road couple in 70s, defendants to be tried separately A prosecutor disclosed Tuesday which of two men will be tried first in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and strangling of a Highland Road

The bodies of Denis Bubbie Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne Suzy Duplantier, 70, were found Oct. 19, 2015, in the backseat of their red pickup at a Hammond gas station.

Prosecutor Dana Cummings disclosed Wednesday for the first time that zip ties were fastened around each of their necks and duct tape was placed over their mouths. Suzanne Duplantiers hands and feet also were bound with zip ties and her head and nose were bloodied, Cummings said, and Denis Duplantiers hands were zip-tied. His body was discovered on top of his wifes.

Authorities have said the Duplantiers were robbed, beaten and killed in their Highland Road home, where they lived almost all of their 48 years of marriage.

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A safe inside the Duplantier home was found open, with cash missing, authorities have said. Blood was located in several rooms. Authorities believe Garcia and Alonso entered the couple's home and beat them to get the information needed to open the safe.

+4 Trial starts Monday in Highland Road couple's 2015 deaths; new revelations out this week Six years after the strangled bodies of a Baton Rouge couple in their 70s were found in the backseat of their pickup at a Hammond gas station,

Cummings also revealed Wednesday that $160,000 in cash believed stolen from the Duplantier home, as well as valuable coins and jewelry belonging to the couple, was found at Garcias home in Florida.

Alonso's white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couples vehicle into the Petro truck stop in Hammond, authorities have said. Alonsos truck was later discovered at Garcia's home in Florida.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III, who lives only two blocks from the Duplantiers Highland Road home, called the manslaughter pleas and 30-year sentence a reasonable outcome in Garcias case based on what prosecutors thought they could prove in court. But he was quick to acknowledge that it wont bring the victims back and said their loved ones cant and shouldnt be satisfied with that amount of prison time.

Moore noted that the victims family had rejected Garcias offer to plead guilty in return for a 25-year sentence. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is 40 years. Garcia will be given credit for the six years hes already spent behind bars.

One of Garcias lawyers, Michael Distefano, told reporters outside the courthouse, Its a tough case and I think the outcome was good for everybody involved.

+6 Death penalty not sought against two men accused of killing Highland Road couple during robbery, DA decides Family members of an elderly couple killed in their Highland Road home made a gut-wrenching decision after meeting with prosecutors over whe

Alonsos attorney, Dwight Doskey, was in state District Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts courtroom when Garcia pleaded guilty and said afterward he felt such relief for the Duplantier family that this chapter of the ordeal has partly closed with Frank Garcias admission of guilt.

It is however still Ernesto Alonsos contention that his limited participation came only after Franks actions surprised him, and then Frank threatened the lives of Ernesto and his family, Doskey said.

Alonsos next court date is in December, and Moore said he expects his trial to take place next year.
A prosecutor disclosed Tuesday which of two men will be tried first in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and strangling of a Highland Road couple in their 70s.

Cousins Frank Garcia and Ernesto Alonso are charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Denis "Bubbie" Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne "Suzy" Duplantier, 70.

Their bodies were found in the back seat of their red pickup at a Hammond gas station.

Garcia, 53, will be tried first on Sept. 27, East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant District Attorney Dana Cummings told state District Judge Tiffany Foxworth.

+3 In 2015 slaying of Highland Road couple, two men get September trial date Two men accused in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and strangling of a Highland Road couple in their 70s were given a Sept. 27 trial dat

Alonso, 48, who did landscaping work for the Duplantiers and lived on other property owned by them, will later be tried separately.

Garcia's attorneys have claimed in previously filed documents that he and Alonso have antagonistic defenses, and the lawyers anticipate that Alonso will try to "shift blame from himself to Garcia" at trial.

Alonso's white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couples vehicle into the Petro truck stop, authorities have said. Alonsos truck was later discovered at Garcias residence in Hollywood, Florida.

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+6 Two cousins accused in abductions, murders of high-profile Duplantier couple plead not guilty in 1st Baton Rouge court appearance With a large group of family and friends of the victims looking on, two men accused in the robbery, abduction and strangling of an elderly Hig

A safe inside the Duplantier home was found open, with cash missing. Blood was located in several rooms.

Authorities believe the two men entered the Duplantier home and beat them to get the information needed to open the safe.

A large amount of cash and a number of unspecified items believed stolen from the home were found at Garcias home in Florida, authorities said.

Prosecutors announced in 2016 they would not seek the death penalty against either man after discussions with the victims' families.

They face mandatory sentences of life in prison if convicted as charged.

Issues with lawyers, evidence and appeals have scuttled previous trial dates in the case.
A jury was chosen Tuesday night in the case of a Florida man accused in the brutal 2015 slaying of a Highland Road couple in their 70s.

Opening statements at Frank Garcia's first-degree murder trial are set to begin Wednesday morning. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted as charged in the killing of Denis "Bubbie" Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne "Suzy" Duplantier, 70.

Garcia's cousin, Ernesto Llerena Alonso, who did landscaping work for the Duplantiers and lived on other property they owned, faces the same murder counts and will later be tried separately.

+4 In 2015 killing of Highland Road couple in 70s, defendants to be tried separately A prosecutor disclosed Tuesday which of two men will be tried first in the 2015 robbery, beating, kidnapping and strangling of a Highland Road

The couple's strangled bodies were found Oct. 19, 2015, in the backseat of their red pickup at a Hammond gas station.

Authorities have said the Duplantiers were robbed and beaten in their Highland Road home, where they lived almost all of their 48 years of marriage, before they were kidnapped and killed.

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A safe inside the Duplantier home was found open, with cash missing, authorities have said. Blood was located in several rooms. Authorities believe Garcia, 53, of Hollywood, Florida, and Alonso, 48, entered the couple's home and beat them to get the information needed to open the safe.

A large amount of cash and a number of items believed stolen from the home, including jewelry, were found at Garcias residence in Florida, according to authorities.

+4 Trial starts Monday in Highland Road couple's 2015 deaths; new revelations out this week Six years after the strangled bodies of a Baton Rouge couple in their 70s were found in the backseat of their pickup at a Hammond gas station,

Alonso's white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couples vehicle into the Petro truck stop in Hammond, authorities have said. Alonsos truck was later discovered at Garcia's home in Florida.

State District Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts is presiding over the case.
The two men charged with the high-profile killing of a Highland Road couple can receive a fair trial in East Baton Rouge Parish, an appeals court said Wednesday.

The Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeals reversed state District Judge Trudy White's decision in spring 2019 to change venues. The reversal came six days after another judge canceled a March 23 trial date  a new date was not set.

+3 In 2015 abduction and slaying of Highland Road couple, March 23 trial date canceled A March 23 trial date for two cousins accused in the 2015 kidnapping and slaying of a Highland Road couple was canceled Thursday.

Frank Garcia, 52, and his cousin, Ernesto Alonso, 47, are charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Denis "Bubbie" Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne "Suzy" Duplantier, 70.

Garcia filed the change of venue motion, and Alonso joined it.

White cited extensive pretrial publicity in deciding that jurors from outside East Baton Rouge would have to hear the case.

The 1st Circuit noted that the 40-plus newspaper articles cited by the defense in their change of venue motion spanned a period of more than three years.

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"Forty-three articles concerning a double homicide over such an extended period are less indicative of a hostile public atmosphere against defendant to overwhelm prospective jurors and witnesses than a media blitz," Circuit Judge Page McClendon wrote Wednesday.

The appellate court noted that the late serial killer Derrick Todd Lee was tried in 2004 by jurors from East Baton Rouge Parish, where many of his crimes occurred. Lee later died on death row.

The Duplantiers were robbed, beaten, abducted and strangled. Their bodies were found Oct. 19, 2015, in the back seat of their red pickup at a Hammond gas station.

Alonso performed landscaping work for the Duplantiers and lived on other property owned by them.

+6 Death penalty not sought against two men accused of killing Highland Road couple during robbery, DA decides Family members of an elderly couple killed in their Highland Road home made a gut-wrenching decision after meeting with prosecutors over whe

Alonso's white pickup was captured on surveillance video as it followed the couples truck into the Petro truck stop, authorities have said. Alonsos truck was later discovered at Garcias residence in Hollywood, Florida.

A safe inside the Duplantier home was found open, with cash missing, and blood was located in several rooms. A large amount of cash and a number of unspecified items believed stolen from the home were found at Garcias home in Florida, authorities said.

Prosecutors announced in 2016 they would not seek the death penalty against either man after discussions with the victims' families.
After a prominent rapper was arrested and accused of aiding a gang-related murder in Tangipahoa Parish last year, he posted a picture for his 2.4 million Instagram followers posing inside his Amite City jail cell.

Now the warden says a jail employee took the picture, and that employee has been fired.

The employee photographed Javorius Scott  who goes by the stage name JayDaYoungan  near the end of his four-day stint in the jail last week, according to warden Heath Martin. Scott shared the pictures soon after he posted bail.

The pictures have since disappeared from Scott's account.

Upon being notified of the posting of the photo, we immediately investigated, Martin said in a message to The Advocate. Investigations proved an employee took the picture just before his release. This employee was terminated for violating policy the same day.

Tangipahoa deputies booked Scott, a Bogalusa resident whose songs have millions of Spotify streams, on Sept. 16 as an accessory to a gang-related killing at a trail ride last summer, Chief Jimmy Travis told The Advocate.

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Popular rapper JayDaYoungan arrested as accessory in Roseland Trail Ride murder, sheriff says Sheriff's deputies arrested a popular Louisiana rapper in Tangipahoa Parish as an accessory to second-degree murder and obstruction of justice

The Instagram photo that cost the employee their job showed Scott sitting in his cell wearing a white T-shirt, shorts, and a white headband with orange sandals. A pile of what appears to be orange jail garb lies next to him.

All is well now, Scott wrote in the photos caption.

Martin declined to disclose the dismissed employees identity, saying their transgression was a policy violation, not a criminal one.

Scott did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
As the Tangipahoa Parish School District exits a 56-year-old desegregation lawsuit, NAACP leaders are pushing the district to change school board maps they say are gerrymandered to hinder Black residents representation in school politics.

A letter by the NAACP national Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Tangipahoa Parish chapter argues the school district map violates section two of the federal Voting Rights Act. A pattern of packing Black voters into swollen districts strips them of opportunities to elect candidates of their choice in others, the letter said.

The letter follows a federal judges statement in March that Tangipahoa Parish schools had made progress in one of the nations longest-lasting desegregation cases, filed in 1965. That suit scrutinized discriminatory hiring practices in schools.

Decades-long Tangipahoa desegregation case nearly resolved as federal judge acknowledges progress A federal court has indicated that one of the nation's longest-running desegregation cases is drawing to a close, the Tangipahoa School System said.

The NAACP letter says school board elections are one of few ways residents can directly influence decision-making about school curricula and programs. The parish will soon redistrict based on the 2020 census results.

What they said in March was that the district was making good faith efforts, said Michael Showers, president of the Greater Tangipahoa Parish NAACP Branch. If youre making good faith efforts, those efforts should transcend the classroom and the administration, and should reach the school board level.

Nearly a third of the rural parishs roughly 135,000 residents and over 50% of public school students in Tangipahoa Parish are Black. But two of nine elected school board members are Black.

Of Tangipahoas nine school districts, two are majority-minority districts  parcels where minorities comprise a majority of voters.

+5 Baton Rouge, suburbs grow in population while rural parishes decline, Census data shows East Baton Rouge remained Louisiana's largest parish in 2020 and grew slightly faster than the state over the past decade. But it also fell in

The current map disproportionately places Black voters into Districts A and G, where 69.33% and 62.01% of registered voters are Black, respectively, according to the NAACP study  something the Voting Rights Act does not require or justify, the authors said.

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They argued that Tangipahoas current school district map likely satisfies all three of the U.S. Supreme Courts rules that analysts use to identify breaches of the landmark voting ruling.

The Legal Defense Fund presented the school board a new map that would give the parish three majority-minority school districts instead of two. It would also make the districts closer to equal size.

In an Aug. 18 response to the NAACPs study, school board attorney Ashley Bass emphasized that the current redistricting plan  including parcels where the NAACP observed packing  earned preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012.

+5 Segregation erased generations of Black history. This Louisiana funeral home is rediscovering it In the 1930s, a woman named Janie Bell Williams got a job at a school in Butlertown, an African American community in Amite City.

Therefore, it is highly unlikely that a court would conclude contrary to the preclearance issued by the US DOJ, Bass said.

But the justice department granted that preclearance under the fifth section of the voting rights act  not the second, the NAACP later responded. That means a court could still hold that the map violated the Voting Rights Act under the second section.

Rather than seeing it as a continuation of the districts desegregation case, school superintendent Melissa Stilley described the NAACPs request as part of a process of re-evaluating representation in the parish each time redistricting happens.

Based on the new census, its time to redraw lines and look at representation of our people, Stilley said. I think its a natural process that happens.

Her new administration worked to close gaps in schools racial disparities in hiring, helping to end the desegregation case.
The U. S. Department of Education has approved Louisiana's plan for spending its latest injection of federal coronavirus aid, officials announced Friday morning.

The action paves the way for the state to get another $870 million out of $2.6 billion in money funded by the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ARP ESSER.

Louisiana was one of four states whose plans were approved, raising the total to 32 states.

Earlier this year federal officials distributed two thirds of the money to 50 states and the District of Columbia -- $81 billion.

"It is heartening to see, reflected in these state plans, the ways in which states are thinking deeply about how to use American Rescue Plan funds to continue to provide critical support to schools and communities, particularly as we move into the summer and look ahead to the upcoming academic year," U. S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

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$4B in federal aid is headed to Louisiana public schools, but how will it be spent? Public schools in Louisiana are getting more than $4 billion from three rounds of federal stimulus dollars to help combat the coronavirus pand

Public schools here are getting about $4 billion in coronavirus relief from three rounds of federal aid approved by Congress in 2021 and 2020.

The state plans focus on helping students living in poverty and other underserved populations whose instruction was interrupted; expanded summer learning; widened afterschool programs and a focus on early literacy, among other areas.

"These resources will help get us safely back to school this fall and address the learning loss and the social and emotional toll that the last year took on students, educators and our communities," said 2nd District U. S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, also in a statement.

State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said, "I'm excited to see the tremendous progress our students will make by school systems collectively focusing their funds, time and effort into areas that bolster student achievement."
Students, visitors and members of the LSU Greek Life community tailgate on the Parade Grounds, Saturday, September 18, 2021, before kickoff between LSU and Central Michigan in Baton Rouge, La. The fraternities and sororities were allowed back in the area after a three year hiatus.
Though stymied earlier this week by partisan bickering over technicalities, Sen. Bill Cassidy said Wednesday a measure that would provide disaster relief should clear the U.S. Senate late Wednesday night or Thursday.

We are speaking about something which has occurred but which has been worked out, said Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, during a town hall video conference moderated by The Advocate | The Times-Picayune.

On Monday, Republicans and Democrats forwarded competing legislation that would allow the federal government to continue operating until December and included funding for hurricane recovery. The key difference between the two measures was inclusion of a provision to increase the amount of money the federal government can borrow to pay its bills.

Can't see the video below? Click here.

Democrats sought to increase the debt limit to not only cover the trillions of dollars that Donald Trump added to the budget while president, but also enough to cover an additional $3.5 trillion that would become necessary to pay for proposed spending, which has not yet been approved, on social safety net programs.

Republicans opposed the proposed spending and said no to a continuing resolution that included an increase in the debt cap.

Without increasing the debt limit, Democratic senators wouldnt go along with a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating after 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Its going to come back up tonight or tomorrow without the debt ceiling, Cassidy said Wednesday. It will pass. We will have the aid for Laura, Delta and Zeta, the storms that came ashore last year.

Aid for Hurricane Ida, which hit Louisiana a month ago, is in a separate bill and that will pass too, Cassidy said.

Cassidy also has high hopes for another bill that would spend $1 trillion improving roads, bridges, and other infrastructure along with some funding to expand broadband internet and help harden the electrical grid.

A Senate amendment to a House-passed bill, which basically is a bipartisan agreement that Cassidy had helped negotiate, was supposed to be voted upon Monday in the U.S. House.

But House Republican leadership is raising issues that critics say basically boil down to their not wanting to give President Joe Biden a win. Left-leaning House Democrats, who say theyre afraid that approving the infrastructure bill will end any negotiations with the Biden administration on adding to the proposed $3.5 trillion social safety net budget, also have threatened to vote against the measure.

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has set a vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday.

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill includes $65 billion to expand broadband internet to areas without it.

Cassidy said local, state, and federal agencies primarily operate off the internet to communicate before and during a storm as well as to coordinate rescue and recovery operations. Internet also is essential for commerce, he added.

Cassidy recalled visiting Port Fourchon, where Ida came ashore with 150 mile per hour sustained winds. A commission employee voiced concern that the lack of internet would delay paying their Federal Insurance Contributions Act payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare.

This is such a wife thing, Cassidy said. All this disaster and everything else, but she was focused on the fact that they had to pay their FICA and she couldnt do her FICA because by this time the utility companies had cut the fiber optics and they no longer had internet. You cant do commerce without hi speed internet.

Several GOP members of Louisianas congressional delegation say one reason theyre not supporting the legislation is because the state will receive way too little of the money.

Cassidy disagrees, pointing out that two of the very few earmarks in the bill are directed to Louisiana: a ten-fold increase for the parishes bordering Lake Pontchartrain and millions to help clear up problems in the Calcasieu Ship Channel caused by last years storms.

The infrastructure bill also includes money for coastal restoration, flood mitigation and to improve the towers, poles and other equipment that keep the lights on during and after a storm.

While Louisiana isnt specifically mentioned in the legislation, the definitions identifying states that would qualify for the money prioritize areas subject to natural disasters.

It doesnt spell out Louisiana but it effectively says Louisiana, Cassidy said. Im pretty wound up about this bill because it would be so tremendous for Louisiana.

Cassidy recalled speaking with Biden during the presidents recent trip to Louisiana.

I said, Mr. President this infrastructure bill would harden the grid. It would help us in Louisiana. He goes, Youre absolutely right. So, to say somehow the president is going to do a dirty deed to Louisiana, its on his mind that this bill could help Louisiana.
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Community-based mental health services are reporting that they need more skilled staff to meet growing demand with estimates more than 150,000 people across Australia are missing out on crucial support, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Mental Health Coordinating Council (MHCC), the peak NSW group for non-government and community run organisations, commissioned a report which has identified the need for more skilled workers.

The councils chief executive Carmel Tebbutt said the recent Productivity Commission inquiry into mental health has also identified the need to expand community treatment and support for people who did not require hospital care, but who needed more help than a GP could provide.

Mental Health Coordinating Council chief executive officer Carmel Tebbutt. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Despite increased investment by both the NSW and Australian governments for additional mental health services during the pandemic, COVID-19 is having a profound impact on demand for services, Ms Tebbutt said. Its paramount we have the services and workers in the community sector for Australians seeking mental health support, now and into the future.
From the hypocrisy of progressives to the deadly choice of a desperate mountaineer; from the soaring success of an Australian tennis star to the shock of a brutal domestic tragedy: Melbourne Theatre Company promises a dramatic return in 2022.

This is the last program by outgoing artistic director Brett Sheehy, and he cant put his finger on a theme: MTC itself called the slate eclectic.

Touching the Void: Karl Richmond (centre) and Lucy Durack (right) will star in the MTC production based on a film docudrama and book. Credit:Jo Duck

Hes rescued pandemic-cancelled shows from 2020 and 2021 and added new local and international work.

There are no classics in the season. Sheehy wanted a thread of incredible currency and relevance; even COVID gets a look-in (included in Cyrano, denied its 2021 opening on the day Melbourne went into its latest lockdown).
The high cost if a company has to close due to COVID I am astounded that some small-business owners do not understand why they should only allow vaccinated patrons on their premises. Their responsibilities for the health and safety of their staff and customers should be front of mind. Cant they foresee the impact if staff or customers contract COVID-19, forcing the shutdown of their business, and negative reputational impact? Especially if some people become seriously ill. This is a pandemic. COVID-19 can make us seriously ill, or kill us. And it is already overloading our ambulance service and hospitals. We all have a responsibility to stop the spread and protect each other, business owners included.

Graeme Russell, Clifton Hill We all have the right to access free vaccines Some experts warn that insisting people get vaccinated for COVID-19 in exchange for jobs or services risks entrenching disadvantage (The Age, 28/9). This is incorrect and misleading.

Whereas disadvantage generally stems from lack of opportunity, or financial power, or education, none of these factors are present in relation to being vaccinated. Just because there may be a lower rate of vaccination in certain suburbs at the moment, and these suburbs have a higher proportion of disadvantaged residents, it does not mean they are disadvantaged in getting vaccinated. The vaccinations are free, everyone has equal opportunity to obtain them and you do not need education to access them. If vaccine passports are introduced, there will be no difference in a person obtaining one based on their education, wealth or postcode. In fact, the Victorian government is promoting vaccinations within some of the socially disadvantaged areas to improve the take-up.

David Ford, Camberwell THE FORUM Using us as guinea pigs Holly Lawford-Smith (Opinion, 27/9) says the objections to vaccination given by the two women she spoke to  one of them being that COVID-19 had not been around long enough for longitudinal studies on the vaccines effects  are reasonable, although she adds their concern may be misguided.

What if we all waited until that happened? Then there would be no one to be studied. What they are saying is we want to know if the vaccine is safe for everyone else before we will consider having it. That is as unreasonable (and selfish) as I have ever heard.

Don Jordan, Mount Waverley Logic and vaccination Hopefully, one of the lessons learnt from the pandemic, especially in relation to the question of vaccination, is the importance of critical thinking skills and the need to develop these as an essential component of the school curriculum.

Marcia Roche, Mill Park The tables have turned Now that Victoria is recording more daily COVID-19 cases (with significant less testing) than NSW, are those correspondents who were quick to praise Daniel Andrews and condemn Gladys Berejiklian on their handling of this third wave still keeping score?

Lindsay Cooper, Brighton East

My right to be masked I am a crippled, elderly woman who uses two walking sticks. I wear my mask and my shirt with Fully Vaxxed written on it because they reassure others and amuse them when I walk and shop. Now, I have been warned that to do so is dangerous because of recent assaults on law-abiding people like me. I will not be intimidated by mindless bullies and cowards. Is this not a shameful situation to find myself in in Australia?

Name withheld, Camberwell We must stand united There has been an enormous build-up of stress in the past 18 months and once restrictions are lifted, these fracture lines will widen dramatically when an us and them/vaxxed and unvaxxed community is created. If unrest continues, our only option will be to look to our leaders to maintain order. But with social media feeding and fuelling public opinion, and our leaders being referred to with emotive terms and name calling, it will make their job so much harder. Whether we agree with them or not, they are what we have right now, and this negative rhetoric needs to stop. Inflammatory name-calling only serves to create a rift in our community at a time when we should be standing together. Let our leaders do their job and judge them at the ballot box.

Noel Richardson, Mitcham

The good news stories Thank you for your series, Local heroes. The first thing I want to get to when I open The Age every morning is this. A simple reminder that there is so much good in our community. Thank you for highlighting this. Praise be.

Trang Nguyen, Sunshine North Resurrection of Keating? Paul Keatings piece (Opinion, 29/9) is a wonderful reminder of a time when our prime ministers had a vision and understood the need to work within our region. It has been 25 years since we have had a prime minister with Keatings ability to communicate the issues and the humour is the icing on the cake. Come back, Paul, as by world leadership age standards, you are a spring chicken.

Viviane King, Milawa Great versus insignificant

While John Hewson, Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating turn their considerable intellects to analysing the big strategic choices facing Australia, Scott Morrison stands smirking on the steps of Number 10 waving a packet of Tim Tams and Anthony Albanese asks himself what the bloke at the pub thinks. How on earth did it come to this?

Kairen Harris, Brunswick Prepare for future fires We watched The Drum (ABC TV) this week about the fire situation in our country. It is inevitable that fires and devastation will happen again and again. Hundreds and hundreds of homes will be destroyed and whole communities will be lost. Worse will be the loss of life. Why spend billions on nuclear submarines when 100 water helicopters would save homes and lives? Also if new dams were built strategically. Where is our compassion? Who is going to move on this?

Tui and Jim Beggs, North Balwyn Seeking customer service A curse on companies and government departments which are too cheap to hire enough telephone staff so we have to wait for hours on hold. An extra curse on those which do not tell us at the start whether the wait will be two minutes, two hours or infinite. And more curses on those which dont offer, Please leave a message and well get back to you. More curses to the designers of websites who make the process unnecessarily complicated, hide the important tabs and instructions in small type in some obscure position, and tell us that we have done something wrong but do not tell us what. You have only so much public goodwill, and when we get angry you lose it.

Marilyn Hewish, Darley

Your diary is free, PM The Prime Minister may not attend the Glasgow conference on November with other heads of state owing to other priorities. Who or what organisation would attempt to organise a meeting with him around that time?

Howard Brownscombe, Brighton An eye opener in Scotland As a Glaswegian, I feel it is probably best if Scott Morrison does not go to Glasgow. It will be too much of a head spin for him to be in a country where everyone enjoys free entry to art galleries and museums, tertiary education and if you want to send your kids to a school outside of the government system (if you can find one)  you pay the lot. He definitely will not want to see the charging points for electric vehicles sited outside government buildings and hooked up next to parking meters.

Simon Clegg, Donvale Not PMs doing, Nancy

Nancy Pelosi, like millions of Australians we have invested in solar panels for our homes. I can assure you that our Prime Minister had nothing to do with it.

Lawrence Ingvarson, Canterbury Spend the money wisely Why not get the $13 billion back from those businesses that made a profit out of the JobKeeper cash splash and give it to the coal miners who lose their jobs?

David Moore, Kew The type of MP we need Why is a trustworthy, clever and sensible person like Darren Chester being forced to consider his position in Parliament ( The Age, 27/9?) Dont leave the circus to the clowns, Darren, we need you more than ever.

Paul Chivers, Box Hill North

Melting glass ceiling At 53 years old, this was the first year I have ever watched the AFL grand final. What a brilliant game. It gave my family and me much needed joy in lockdown. I stopped being an active AFL supporter when I was told, as a child, that I could not play professionally because of my sex. I stopped engaging with the AFL when I was told I would be very unlikely to be employed in any high level, professional role in any club because of my gender. So despite enjoying the grand final, and the fact that I am thrilled there is now the AFLW, I will not be a paid-up member of a club, pay to attend a game, watch or listen to footy commentary or commercially support the AFL until there is pay equality between the AFLW and AFL and equal gender representation throughout the AFL. I will use my purse to fan the flames to melt the glass ceiling.

Kimberley Grieger, Berwick Just deliver my mail

My letterbox, empty on Tuesday, yesterday contained a leaflet featuring special offers if I take out insurance policies with Australia Post online  along with a large bundle of letters, some dated more than three weeks earlier. Is this service typical of the efficiency I may expect if I trust Australia Post in delivering new, great value home and car insurance? I would prefer it if they concentrated on their mandate to deliver mail.

Keith Tupper, Macleod Vaping and nicotine Re Vape rules will drive smokers back to old habits (Opinion, 27/9). From October 1, people who want to use vaping products containing nicotine as a means to quitting smoking will be able to do so under medical guidance through obtaining a prescription. This decision brings the importation rules into the line with state and territory regulations. We are taking measures to protect children and others from unrestricted access to vaping imports, which are already banned for sale in Australia without prescription. New Medicare rebates started in July for face-to-face, telehealth and phone consultations to support smoking cessation. Already, this new item has been used over 1000 times. Any of Australias almost 100,000 registered medical practitioners may currently prescribe nicotine containing e-cigarettes that can be used by consumers for personal importation.

It is ultimately up to a doctor whether prescribing products is medically appropriate. It should be noted that the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners smoking cessation guidelines state that nicotine-vaping products are not first-line treatments for smoking cessation. While I understand that these decisions are often contentious, they are made in the best interests of overall public health based on the expert medical advice.

Greg Hunt, Minister for Health Mysteries of the UAP After reading Craig Kellys full-page letter (The Age, 24/9) I responded to the email address, not to join the United Australia Party but to comment about his statements. I pushed send and up came a message telling me that my email had failed because it was an invalid email address. Strange.

Greg Bardin, Altona North AND ANOTHER THING Politics

It would be more sensible to invest in firefighting aircraft now rather than submarines in the future when theyre likely to be obsolete.

Noel McKinnon, Frankston Its hard to take a lecture from Bridget McKenzie on values.

Graham Parton, Beechworth Chester is too honest and skilful to be wasting his time with the Nationals.

Mark Hill, Middle Park Vote 1 Paul Keating (29/9) for prime minister.

John Harris, Williamstown COVID-19

Whoopee. At last weve got something bigger and better than NSW  more daily case numbers.

Myra Fisher, Brighton East Andrews road map is ridden with too many no-through roads, roundabouts and one-way streets.

Antonia Romanidis, Caulfield North I cant understand why anyone would refuse to accept a vaccine that might save their life or protect others.

Carole Nicholls, Surrey Hills Why the fuss about exclusions for unvaccinated adults? Children cant go to childcare unless theyre vaccinated.

Jennifer Monger, Benalla Climate change

Were talking about the future of humanity itself (Editorial, 29/9). Could Joyce, McKenzie, Canavan et al read and reflect on that powerful comment.

Tim Douglas, Blairgowrie Clearly McKenzie sees theres sport in claiming zero net emissions are a rort.

Andrew McFarland, Templestowe Many countries have carbon emissions schemes. Australia has a carbon omissions scheme.

Pete Sands Monbulk Is Morrison reluctant to go to Glasgow because he plans to announce an election date in November, for December?

Mike Puleston, Brunswick Climate change or ScoMos job? What is the priority?

David Baker, Parkdale
It will ask if that person needs support to help isolate at home, such as groceries, medication or income. It will ask if they are vaccinated and well confirm that against our own records, and ask if theres been any exposures to high-risk settings such as hospital, aged care, childcare, or at the moment, anywhere in regional Victoria. Everyone who tests positive will still get a phone call following that text message, but the phone calls will be prioritised in order of the highest-risk cases. Ms Matson said initial interviews with close contacts were now more of a household interview, as opposed to one-on-one interviews with every single primary close contact, as was the practice a couple of months ago. She stressed authorities would always continue to manage and treat differently sensitive settings such as hospitals and aged care facilities.

Loading Should case numbers increase further, although its all in our collective will and efforts to try and maintain them, we will adapt the approach again and again and refine it based on risk, Ms Matson said. The change in notifications came as seven people died with COVID-19. Five of those who died were from Hume in Melbournes north-west: two women in their 80s, one man in his 80s, a woman in her 70s, and a woman in her 50s. The remaining two people who died were a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s, both from Whittlesea in Melbournes outer north.

Health Minister Martin Foley said there were 371 people in hospital with COVID-19 in the state. Of those people, 81 were in intensive care and 55 were on a ventilator. Of the more than 15,000 people in Victoria who have contacted coronavirus since July 12, 88 per cent were unvaccinated at their time of diagnosis. Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie said 79 per cent of the cases since July were eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination but of the people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 since July, 86 per cent were not vaccinated. And 98 per cent of individuals admitted to our intensive care units with COVID-19 were unvaccinated - 98 per cent, Professor Cowie said.

So, [this is the sort] of data that [shows] how powerful all these vaccines are against preventing infection and especially, preventing serious illness, ending up in hospital and losing your life. Of todays 950 cases, according to Professor Cowie, there are: Hundreds in Melbournes northern suburbs, including 240 in Hume, 102 in Whittlesea, 63 in Moreland, and 28 in Darebin;

Thirty-one are from within Melbourne City Council;

In the western suburbs, 55 in Melton, 54 in Wyndham, 63 in Brimbank, 29 in Moonee Valley, and 22 in Maribyrnong;

In the south-eastern suburbs, 50 in Casey, 14 in Cardinia, 18 in Port Philip, 16 in Greater Dandenong, and 10 in Stonnington;

In the eastern suburbs, 15 in Manningham, and six in Boroondara;

In regional Victoria, 30 new cases, including nine in Mitchell; four in Warrnambool; two in Moorabool; two in Wellington; one each in Strathbogie, the Surf Coast, Ballarat, Murrindindi, Baw Baw, South Gippsland and Corangamite; and four in the Latrobe City Council area. Professor Cowie said there are now 225 active coronavirus cases in regional Victoria. Mr Foley said authorities had little or no choice to act quickly in the Latrobe Valley with a seven-day lockdown from 11.59pm on Tuesday after cases spiked in the regional area.

The cases have been linked to an illegal social gathering that was held over the weekend, with people from 19 households in the area testing positive for coronavirus. Mr Foley said given the gathering happened on Saturday night, police were investigating, and you could draw your links that [the gathering] might well have had some crossover with the AFL grand final. I apologise for the short notice but the strong advice from the public health team was given the rapidly deteriorating situation, these strong measures to keep that community as safe as possible were required, Mr Foley said. We really had little or no choice through the public health advice but to act, and to act quickly.

We expect that the testing demand is high and the reports that weve had this morning is that that is precisely the case. We ask those with symptoms, and those who have been contacted as close contacts of cases, of which there are a growing number  to come forward and get tested. As Latrobe City Council went into lockdown, moving under the same restrictions as Melbourne but without the curfew, restrictions eased elsewhere. The eased restrictions overnight mean the travel limit has been extended from 10 kilometres to 15 kilometres for residents of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, non-contact outdoor activities including golf are back on the agenda and long-suffering parents can again remove their masks to eat and drink at playgrounds.

Loading Wednesdays new coronavirus cases come from 61,322 tests. There are now 9890 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria while 90,066 vaccine doses were administered in the state on Tuesday, including 34,028 at state-run hubs. Just over 49 per cent of Victorians aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 79.43 per cent have received one dose. Professor Cowie said in the next seven days there were 7700 first-dose Pfizer appointments available in the state, and 8800 first-dose AstraZeneca appointments. The Victorian government is preparing to shorten the gap between first and second doses of Pfizer to speed up the states vaccine program and reach inoculation targets faster, as soon as it receives certainty of supply, Mr Foley said.

If that advice comes in and we can lock in those changes, we will lock them in the minute we possibly can, because everyone wants to bring forward those double-dose dates, Mr Foley said. But we cant do it at the expense of cancelling first vaccination programs. The government is waiting on formal confirmation of Pfizer supply for state-run hubs for the final week of October. Federal government sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Victorias hubs would receive 265,000 doses in both the last weeks of October. However, the Victorian government has only been notified of the third weeks supply.

Meanwhile, a regional hair salon, thrift shop and food store were among the more than 30 new exposure sites listed on Wednesday. Loading Victoria Racing club eyes Melbourne Cup crowds Victoria Racing Club is targeting crowds of 11,500 for some or all of the four days of Melbourne Cup week. In a statement, the clubs chief executive Steve Rosich said it continues to work closely with the Victorian government on its Melbourne Cup carnival scenario planning, but advised its members today of the 11,500 target.
West Australian Police Minister Paul Papalia says the actions of two Melbourne Demons fans who allegedly sneaked into the state to attend the AFL grand final were despicable and called for the pair to face jail time.

These two individuals and anyone else whos acted in that way, allegedly, are entitled, despicable criminals and I hope that the full force of the law is thrown at them, he said.

Melburnians Hayden Burbank, left, and Mark Babbage, right, pictured with Demons player Alex Neal-Bullen, were questioned by police after allegedly breaking restrictions to travel to the grand final in Perth. Credit:

It beggars belief that people would knowingly do this and threaten the livelihoods and the lives of millions of Western Australians  its extraordinary that someone from a state thats suffered so extensively as Victoria has would make this move ... its shameful.

Melbourne bar and restaurant owner Hayden Burbank, 49, and financial planner Mark Babbage, 39, are accused of falsely claiming to be Northern Territory residents to attend the AFL grand final in Perth on Saturday.
Federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor has warned the world will not hit net zero emissions without carbon offsets, telling a British audience he is focused on trying to find sensible compromises to support global action on climate change.

Ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, Mr Taylor told the Australian British Chamber of Commerce that the importance of implementing the Paris Agreement had been lost amid the ongoing debate about emissions targets.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor says carbon offsets will be the key to the world meeting emissions reduction targets. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

He has also called on the worlds largest economies to lift their emissions reporting thresholds, arguing Australia has among the most transparent systems which details the output of every sector on a quarterly basis.

Negotiators are working to agree at this years climate talks to a market-based mechanism that could allow countries to use international offsets to help them meet goals set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Federal financial support to Victorian businesses hit by COVID-19 lockdowns will be turned off once the state hits its 80 per cent vaccination target, pushing any further assistance on to Premier Daniel Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas.

In a sign of the federal governments expectations that the state economy will bounce back quickly from the current lockdown, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Wednesday confirmed the $2.3 billion financial lifeline it has delivered to Victoria will end within weeks.

The reopening of NSW as it hits vaccination targets will mean a reduction in federal government business support. Credit:Eddie Jim

Victorian businesses with payrolls of under $650,000 have been able to access payments of between $2800 and $8400 a week under the business costs assistance program. Certain cafes, restaurants and bars have been able to receive between $5000 and $20,000 a week as part of the licensed hospitality venue fund.

A small business COVID hardship fund worth more than $250 million has also been in place to offer grants of up to $14,000 to small and medium-sized businesses.
Last Thursday night when the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, whose seat of Kooyong has been targeted by Greens and cashed-up independents, rang the Resources Minister Keith Pitt to advise him he would deliver a speech the next day which effectively backed net zero by warning of serious economic and investment consequences if Australia failed to move, Pitt was not impressed.

Pitt warned Frydenberg he ran the risk of blowing up the show. Frydenberg knows only too well Pitt knows something about that. The Queensland National resigned as an assistant minister in 2018 in protest over the National Energy Guarantee that Frydenberg as environment and energy minister was negotiating.

Josh Frydenberg has thrown his weight behind the adoption of net zero emissions by 2050. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The breakdown over the NEG was the trigger which cost Malcolm Turnbull the prime ministership a week later. This time Pitt is waiting to see Scott Morrisons plan before he decides his next steps but makes no secret that he implacably opposes net zero.

It was shaping as deja vu all over again, then Gladys Berejiklian, John Barilaro and Matt Kean in NSW provided, without drama or conflict, a sensible roadmap which Morrison could follow to protect the economy and the environment to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. And it didnt sound that hard.
Victorias anti-corruption commission will call former Andrews government minister and Labor factional strongman Adem Somyurek to public hearings in the next fortnight to probe allegations of serious corrupt conduct and misuse of public money to build his power in the party.

It is the first time a former minister has been the primary target of an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) probe. The inquiry is also likely to expose a Labor Party underbelly that extends well beyond one individual.

Faceless man Adem Somyurek (left and centre) was caught handing over cash allegedly for branch-stacking operations to ministerial adviser Nick McLennan (right). Credit:Nine

The public hearings will begin on October 11 and will grill serving and former Victorian Labor MPs and staffers over allegations they engaged in corrupt conduct by directing taxpayer-funded ministerial and electorate office staff to perform party-political work.

IBAC will also investigate allegations that taxpayer money intended to fund community groups was misused for party-political or other improper purposes. IBAC has the power to compel witnesses to private or public hearings, where they must answer truthfully or face criminal charges.
Bucharest, Romania: In a packed intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in Romanias capital, Bucharest, 55-year-old Adrian Pica sits on his bed receiving supplementary oxygen to help him breathe. I didnt want to get vaccinated because I was afraid, he said.

Around 72 per cent of adults in the 27-nation European Union have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but a stubbornly low uptake of the shots in some eastern EU nations now risks overwhelming hospitals amid a surge of infections due to the more contagious Delta variant.

A member of the medical staff adjusts her gloves at the COVID-19 ICU unit of the Marius Nasta National Pneumology Institute in Bucharest, Romania. Credit:AP

Until now I didnt believe in COVID-19, said Pica, whose early symptoms left him sweating and feeling suffocated. I thought it was just like the flu. But now Im sick and hospitalised. I want to get a vaccine.

Bulgaria and Romania are lagging dramatically behind as the EUs two least-vaccinated nations, with just 22 per cent and 33 per cent of their adult populations fully inoculated. Rapidly increasing new infections have forced authorities to tighten virus restrictions in the two countries, while other EU nations such as France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal have all exceeded 80 per cent vaccine coverage and eased restrictions.
"She must have a mind of her own," says Captain Frederick Wentworth when he's asked about the kind of woman he would marry. Many men in 19th-century England might see independent thought in a woman as a liability, but then Wentworth is already in love with Anne Elliot, a highly intelligent woman who was persuaded to end her engagement with him eight years before  and has now come to think she's made a terrible mistake.

That is the romantic entanglement at the heart of Sarah Rose Kearns's faithful, insightful, and thoroughly delightful new adaptation of Austen's last and, I would argue, most relatable novel, Persuasion. Fortunately, Kearns's script has come into the hands of director Eric Tucker, whose theater company Bedlam has produced some of the most innovative and entertaining off-Broadway productions in the past nine years. Tucker and his troupe took on Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, in what became one of 2014's best off-Broadway productions, and Persuasion looks to be a worthy successor.

Kearns begins things slightly out of the novel's order of events by introducing Wentworth (Rajesh Bose) and Anne (an elegantly reserved Arielle Yoder) with the proposal scene that took place eight years ago in order to ground us in the main action before the play whisks us in all sorts of directions with its panoply of two dozen or so characters. We soon meet the austere Lady Russell (Annabel Capper) who discourages Anne from making a disadvantageous choice in Wentworth, a poor sailor with no money or family to recommend him. Anne regretfully turns Wentworth down.

Eight years later, a successful, well-off Captain Wentworth is back in town after his sister's husband, Admiral Croft (a hilariously chortling Yonatan Gebeyehu), rents the estate of Anne's father, the vain Sir Walter (Randolph Curtis Rand), who has run into debt and must remove to Bath temporarily to save money. Barely anyone seems to remember or even know that Wentworth and Anne were ever a thing, least of all Anne's unmarried elder sister, Elizabeth (Nandita Shenoy), or her younger, perpetually "ill" sister, Mary Musgrove (Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy), who constantly complains of being neglected by Anne and Mary's otherwise-engaged husband, Charles (Jamie Smithson). A trip to Lyme by several of the group leads to intrigue after one of Charles's flighty sisters, Louisa (Claire Hsu), tries to leap through the air into Wentworth's arms and is injured. Does Wentworth's great concern for Louisa's wellbeing indicate he's in love with her? Or might he be attracted to her babbling sister, Henrietta (Caroline Grogan)? Anne will not know until a chance conversation about the faithfulness of men and women reveals the answer.

Rajesh Bose, Nandita Shenoy, Annabel Capper, Shaun Bennet Faultleroy, Caroline Grogan, Randolph Curtis Rand, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Claire Hsu, Arielle Yoder, and Jamie Smithson (behind Yoder) in the Bedlam production of Persuasion, directed by Eric Tucker, at the Connelly Theater.

( Ashley Garrett)

You don't have to be an astute reader of Jane Austen's novels to have a good idea of how it will all turn out. Though Tucker directs the final scene with a poignancy that brings tears to the eyes, the real appeal of this show is the fun we have getting there  and the journey is hilarious. In usual Bedlam fashion, Tucker tosses theatrical surprises into the action at every turn, drawing us briefly out of the story and reminding us that theater magic exists beyond good plots and good acting.

Gebeyehu frequently bangs out a tune on the onstage piano, Hsu sings a beautiful aria, and the whole brilliant cast joins in a festive dance (amusing choreography by Susannah Millonzi). There's also an unexpected onstage balloon drop, Gebeyehu's insanely funny portrayal of Lady Dalrymple, and the various sounds that the actors make as the show's Foley artists, including bird calls (enhanced by Jane Shaw's clear sound design) and perhaps of one the funniest "sex scenes" you'll ever hear in an Austen adaptation (Jane never wrote such a thing).

To reveal more would ruin the surprises that Tucker and his team have in store. Aside from the director's playfulness, the rest of the creatives have conjured a world that carries us away for a remarkably swift two and a half hours. Charlotte Palmer-Lane's costume design reminds us of Anne's middle-class status (despite her father's ostentatious attire) and helps us keep track of characters when actors change from one to the next (all but Bose and Yoder play two or more roles). Les Dickert's lighting effectively delineates various locations on the Connelly Theater's modest stage, where John McDermott has assembled a bare-bones yet symbolic set: What's up with that big stuffed sheep that has been standing on a ledge in the back and presiding over everything the whole time?

Maybe the answer has something to do with why Bedlam thought now is a good time to stage this production. Because at its core, Austen's Persuasion is about how easily we are swayed by the words of others, and how men still try to shepherd the bodies and destinies of women. Perhaps the Wentworths of the world, those who value women with minds of their own, are rarer today than we'd like to think. Whatever the reason, one thing is clear: Persuasion marks the long-awaited return of one of New York's most talented companies.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--As the first-of-its-kind, high-capacity public charging station for medium- and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicles (EVs), Electric Island in Portland, Oregon, has earned honorable mention in the sustainability category of Fast Company magazines 2021 Innovation by Design awards.

Drawing on the power of creativity and collaboration as the market for battery electric truck models accelerates, Electric Island  opened in April 2021 near Daimler Trucks North Americas (DTNA) headquarters  began as a collaboration between the truck manufacturer and Portland General Electric (PGE). Black & Veatch, a global leader in EV infrastructure, completed the project design, engineering and construction.

Designed to handle megawatt-level charging, at a rate four times faster than most of todays fast-charging options, the Electric Island design also incorporates flexibility as a charging test bed. Plans for future on-site energy storage, solar power generation, and a product and technology showcase building are under development. Electric Island is a proving ground for innovation and scalability for various chargers, grid integration and reliability to meet the demands of commercial fleets.

As one of the industrys most-sought after design awards, Fast Companys Innovation by Design competition, now in its 10th year, honors creative work at the intersection of design, business and innovation, recognizing the people, companies and trends that have steadily advanced design to the forefront of the business conversation.

Judges include renowned designers from various disciplines, business leaders from some of the worlds most innovative companies, and Fast Companys writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key tenets of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, and cultural and business impact.

As countries, companies and communities around the world continue ambitious pursuits of decarbonization, Electric Island represents what the future of electrified transportation can and will look like, said Paul Stith, Black & Veatchs director of global transportation initiatives. This recognition by Fast Company affirms that were on a solid path to remove the infrastructure barriers through teamwork and innovation.

Design is not just a beauty contest, said Stephanie Mehta, Fast Companys editor-in-chief. Its something that can change the world and create solutions in a time when we face pressing global issues such as systemic racism, climate change and a global pandemic. Many of these entries showcase these challenges while providing hope for the future through their steadfast commitment to elevate design.

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2020 exceeded US$3.0 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies and thinkers on the future of business. The editor-in-chief is Stephanie Mehta. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication, Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.
Hyundai News: 2021 Hyunda Santa Fe Hybrid Limited AWD - Review by David Colman +VIDEO

Handsome and user-friendly but a bit wimpy on the up-tick

Story And Photos By David Colman

Special Correspondent to THE AUTO CHANNEL







Unless you're a drag racer, you probably don't know what a hole shot is. When two cars match race head-to-head, the faster car usually wins. But when the slower car beats the faster car off the line when the light turns green, it often wins the race because it gets to the finish line first. That's what's called the hole shot advantage. The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid tested this week will never win on a hole shot because it lags when you nail its throttle. That lag is excruciating when you need a quick burst of acceleration.

The problem is not that the Limited is slow. After all, it does the 0-60 mph sprint in 7.5 seconds, and hurtles through the quarter mile in 15.7 seconds at 90mph. But those impressive numbers become irrelevant when you demand instant engine response and don't get it. We experienced this same lag in both the Eco and Sport Driving Modes. Even diligent manual use of the paddle-equipped 6-speed automatic transmission failed to eliminate the infuriating throttle tip-in hesitation.

Aside from that rather significant shortcoming, the Limited proved itself a well executed design. The exterior is handsome if somewhat subdued. The interior treatment looks and feels substantially more expensive than what you would expect in a vehicle with a base price of $39,950. Dashboard ergonomics here are outstanding. Although we have yet to be sold on push button gearbox actuation, Hyundai has improved the selector panel by placing it on a tilted surface that hastens selection compared to the hard-to-decipher horizontal panels used by other manufacturers. Further accolades are due Hyundai designers for providing a complete array of HVAC and infotainment buttons splayed across the face of the dash to control all important operational functions.

The 12.5 inch digital gauge cluster directly in view of the driver is uncluttered and far superior to other examples we have recently experienced. We particularly enjoyed making lane changes in this SUV because rear facing cameras provide clear pictures of adjacent lanes whenever you engage your turn signal. The image disappears as soon as the turn signal clicks off. This is a brilliant new safety tool, though I did find it hard not to look over my shoulder for traffic and concentrate instead on the clear digital image shown on the dashboard.

The beautifully detailed leather trimmed beige front seats provide excellent lumbar support. Heating and cooling are part of their charm, as is the fact that you don't have to go searching through menus to activate these functions. The Limited also provides a heated steering wheel, which warms along its entire circumference, not just at the hand grasp areas. The driver's seat provides a pair of memory retention slots, and the passenger's seat adjustments are fully automated as well. Hyundai has also powered the rear seat release functions as well as provided a motorized hatchback door lift. The rear seats, which are divided into a 60/40 pattern, fold flat in an instant to provide enough storage room to insert a full size mountain bike without need for bike wheel removal. The interior treatment of the Limited is without question its strongest selling point. Hyundai designers have somehow managed to turn the interior of this $40,000 SUV into one that looks like it costs $60,000. In the past month I have tested 3 similarly priced hybrid powered SUVs that don't come close to the fit, finish, or comfort level of the Santa Fe Limited.

Dynamically, the Limited - once underway - is a pleasure to operate. When you dial up the Sport Mode setting, the steering instantly feels snappy and responsive. With HTRAC all-wheel-drive simultaneously apportioning torque to the Continental Cross Contact LX Sport radials (M+S rated, 235/55R19), this sizable and heavy (4,244lb) SUV quickly gains a grip on every road surface you can throw in its path. Although the Sport Mode setting does lead to sometimes harsh damper feedback, the security of the ride is well worth the trade-off in comfort. On freeways, resetting the dial to the Eco Mode setting softens the compliance noise. Now if only Hyundai could figure out a way to eliminate hole shot lag, the Santa Fe Hybrid Limited would be in a class of its own.

2021 HYUNDAI SANTA FE HYBRID LIMITED AWD



Engine: 1.6 liter inline 4, turbocharged and intercooled, 16 valve DOHC + AC Motor

HORSEPOWER: 226hp (Combined)

TORQUE: 195lb.-ft.

FUEL CONSUMPTION: 33MPG City/30MPG Highway

PRICE AS TESTED: $41,290

HYPES: Comprehensible Dashboard, Interior Attention to Detail

GRIPES: Falls Flat at Throttle Tip

STAR RATING: 8 Stars
Enroll Wyoming was recently awarded a three-year $1 million federal grant that will increase its workforce and outreach to Wyoming individuals and families who are seeking affordable health insurance.

The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Cheyenne Regional Medical Centers population health division serves as the lead agency for the grant.

With this funding, we will be able to quadruple the number of health insurance navigators who are working across the state to help Wyoming residents find insurance that best meets their needs, said Jason Mincer, Enroll Wyomings project director. This includes helping residents navigate the federal health insurance marketplace for comprehensive, affordable plans.

Currently marketplace plans across the nation cost an average of about $50 per month.

Open enrollment for the marketplace begins November 1 and runs through January 22, 2022.

Open enrollment is our busiest time of year since this is when people can easily make changes to their health insurance coverage on the marketplace, Mincer said.

People can only sign up outside of open enrollment if they have a major life event like having a child, losing a job, getting a job, getting married or getting divorced.

Mincer encouraged Wyoming residents who need insurance or who are looking for more affordable options to consider talking to an Enroll Wyoming navigator.

Enroll Wyoming services are free of charge and are available by dialing 211 from anywhere in Wyoming and asking for an insurance navigator.

We are here to help any Wyoming resident who needs assistance or has questions about their health insurance coverage, Mincer said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a press conference at the White House on Jan. 21, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

3 Shots Will Be Optimal Regimen of COVID-19 Vaccination: Fauci

Practically everybody will be directed in the future to get a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated on Sept. 28.

Ultimately I believe that the optimal regimen for the vaccine for the mRNAs is going to include that third booster shot, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a remote talk held as part of the Atlantic Festival.

Three doses will become the proper, complete regimen.

The two most widely used COVID-19 vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, use messenger RNA technology.

The vaccines were originally recommended as a two-dose regimen, but Biden administration officials recently allowed and recommended third shots for multiple population groups, including those 65 and older.

Experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that data so far show the vaccines continue to work well in terms of preventing hospitalization and death and argued there was little reason to boost many Americans. A minority believed boosters should be widely used to bolster protection against infection. The efficacy of the shots against infection has dropped dramatically since earlier this year.

Fauci is in the minority. He says that stopping infections is important, even though the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 dont require hospital care.

It is an assumption that its OK to get infected and to get mild-to-moderate disease as long as you dont wind up in the hospital and die. And I have to be open and honest: I reject that. I think we should be preventing people from getting sick from COVID even if they dont wind up in the hospital, he said.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Fauci also said that data are showing that protection from the vaccines against hospitalization is going down, starting with the elderly and occurring across other age groups. That wasnt known during clinical trials, he said. And it isnt known yet whether yearly boosters, backed by both Pfizer and Moderna, will be needed.

An Army veteran waits to see if he has a reaction after receiving a COVID-19 booster vaccine at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Hines, Ill., on Sept. 24, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

At the moment, the term fully vaccinated applies to people who have gotten the initial two-dose regimen, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week. But Faucis remarks signal that may not always be the case.

Fauci, Walensky, and other top government health officials in a joint statement in August said they were backing booster shots, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hadnt authorized third shots for anyone unless they had weak immune systems and at least one of a certain list of medical conditions.

They said the protection provided by the vaccines was waning and they were starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease, which led them to believe that protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead.

The FDA subsequently expanded authorization of Pfizers shot to enable third doses for millions of Americans. Walensky approved a set of recommendations pertaining to who could get a booster, overruling the CDCs advisory panel on a key motion.

A CDC study released on Sept. 28, relying on self-reported data among those who had received a third dose between Aug. 12 and Sept. 19, found that side effects from boosters were similar to the rate seen following the second dose. Scientists said they detected no unexpected patterns of adverse reactions after an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Fauci is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden. The president, who received his booster on Sept. 28, said on Sept. 24 that booster shots would be available basically across the board in the future.
Immediately bathe a pet that has been exposed to smoke, to remove toxic particulate matter from its fur. (Impact Photography/Shutterstock)

After a Home Fire, Bathe Pet and Visit Veterinarian

Q: When our house caught fire, the firefighters rescued our cat, Jinx, so all of us were safe. They gave her oxygen using a childs face mask and she recovered. They recommended we bathe her and take her to her veterinarian. She seems fine now, and the fire has given us a lot to do, so were wondering if its really necessary to follow their recommendations?

A: The firefighters gave you good advice. I assume you bathed Jinx immediately to remove toxic particulate matter from her fur so she doesnt ingest it when she grooms.

After her bath, Jinx needs to see her veterinarian. The effects of smoke exposure may not appear until up to six days after the fire, and immediate veterinary care can prevent these problems.

A pet exposed to smoke in a burning home or other enclosed space often develops problems with the skin, eyes, respiratory tract, and nervous system. Eye problems include corneal ulcers and decreased tear production that may not be obvious without diagnostic testing.

Jinx also may have suffered thermal burns of her airways, and she may have inhaled particulate matter, carbon monoxide, cyanide gas, and other toxic gases.

If any of these occurred, her airways will swell, reducing the oxygen to all her organs and possibly causing lung collapse.

In addition, carbon monoxide decreases oxygen levels in the blood by binding to hemoglobin, displacing oxygen. The neurologic effects of carbon monoxide may not appear until days after smoke exposure.

Cyanide gas, a toxin produced when rubber, wool, plastic, and other synthetic materials burn, interferes with energy production within cells.

Fortunately, with immediate care, the outlook is good for pets like Jinx.

If you wish to thank your firefighters and help others in your community, consider donating a set of pet oxygen masks to your fire department. To learn more, visit PetOxygenMasks.org.

Q: Bonnie, my 3-year-old West Highland white terrier, has been having bouts of lethargy, poor appetite, and diarrhea. Her initial blood work suggested Addisons disease, so her veterinarian scheduled an additional blood test to make the diagnosis. How serious is Addisons disease?

A: The disorder is difficult to recognize, so I commend your veterinarian for ordering the diagnostic blood test. Sometimes referred to as the great pretender, Addisons disease is characterized by intermittent, often subtle, clinical signs that are seen with many unrelated conditions.

Addisons disease is officially called hypoadrenocorticism because it reduces (hypo-) the production of hormones by the adrenal glands (-adreno-) cortex layer (-corticism). The adrenal glands are situated in the abdomen near (ad-) the kidneys (-renal.)

When levels of these adrenal hormones are low, dogs develop vague, intermittent clinical signs, such as lethargy, weakness, trembling, loss of appetite, diarrhea, or vomiting. Clinical signs sometimes are triggered by stressful events, such as when the dog is groomed or boarded, or even when unfamiliar guests visit the home.

Less frequently, the first clinical sign is collapse due to dehydration or a disturbance of the hearts normal rhythm. Addisonian dogs may also have a history of doing well during steroid hormone therapy for another condition, such as allergies.

The disease is caused by immune destruction of the adrenal cortex. More than 80 percent of dogs diagnosed with Addisons disease are 7 years or younger, and 70 percent are female. The disease is inherited in some breeds.

The breeds most often affected are the American cocker spaniel, bearded collie, Cairn terrier, great Dane, great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever, Leonberger, Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, Pomeranian, Portuguese water dog, Rottweiler, soft-coated wheaten terrier, standard poodle, and West Highland white terrier.

Fortunately, lifetime hormone replacement therapy is very effective, so Bonnie should do well.
Amazon UK to Hire 20,000 Temporary Workers for Christmas Season

LONDONAmazon said on Tuesday it has started recruiting for 20,000 seasonal positions across the United Kingdom to cover upcoming peak trading times, which include Christmas, joining a battle for temporary workers in a tight labor market.

The group, which has 55,000 permanent UK employees, said the temporary jobs would be in its network of fulfillment centers, sort centers and delivery stations.

Amazon UK said pay for operations roles would start at a minimum of $13.68 an hour, rising to $15.32 an hour in some parts of the countryrates in line with a pay rise given to permanent employees in June.

The group is also looking for people to deliver parcels in their spare time for between $17.59 and $20.29 per hour.

Reuters reported on Monday that warehouses in Britain are having to pay up to 30 percent more to recruit staff after a chronic shortage of workers exacerbated pressure on already buckling supply chains and threatened to derail the run up to Black Friday and Christmas.

The labor shortages in Britains logistics network come on top of a spike in European natural gas prices and a post-Brexit and COVID-19 shortage of truck drivers that has left fuel pumps dry across major cities.

Amazon UK has not experienced delays in deliveries to customers, a person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Pilots talk as they look at the tail of an American Airlines aircraft at Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport in Texas on Feb. 14, 2013. (Mike Stone/Reuters)

American Airlines Signs Code-Sharing Pact With Indias Largest Airline

American Airlines announced a code-sharing agreement with Indias largest airline IndiGo on Tuesday, with the U.S. airline gearing up to launch new flights between the two countries.

The agreement, which is expected to begin in October, will see Americans code on 29 of IndiGos domestic routes in India.

Code-sharing allows an airline to sell seats on a flight operated by its partner, so that it can fly passengers to destinations it does not serve.

The pact with IndiGo airlines, which is Indias largest airline by number of passengers carried and owned by InterGlobe Aviation, requires approval of U.S. and Indian authorities, American said.

The company is launching a new service between New York and Indias capital Delhi next month and between Seattle and the city of Bengaluru early next year.
A test tube is seen in front of displayed Alexion Pharma and AstraZeneca logos in this illustration taken on July 14, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

AstraZeneca Buys Rare Disease Drugmaker Caelum in Potential $500 Million Deal

AstraZeneca will take full control of Caelum Biosciences in a deal worth up to $500 million, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, sharpening its focus on rare-disease drugs following its purchase of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

The deal gives AstraZeneca access to another potentially lucrative rare disease drug that is undergoing late-stage trials and has a fast track status for regulatory review in the United States.

New Jersey-based Caelum will become part of AstraZenecas Alexion division, the rare diseases specialist it bought for $39 billion earlier this year.

Alexion will pay $150 million to buy the remaining stake it does not already own in Caelum and make future payments of up to $350 million, depending on milestones achieved. Alexion took a minority stake in Caelum in 2019.

Caelums drug candidate aims to treat AL amyloidosis, a rare, life-threatening disease that damages the heart and kidneys and affects an estimated 20,000 people across six Western countries.

The disease causes abnormal proteins called amyloids to build up in human organs and disrupt their normal function. Caelums drug is a type of monoclonal antibody that binds to amyloid deposits to reduce or remove them and improve organ function.

With a median survival time of less than 18 months following diagnosis, there is an urgent need for new treatments for this devastating disease, Alexion CEO Marc Dunoyer said in a statement.

Since buying Alexion, AstraZeneca has had mixed fortunes with rare disease drugs under development. While it reported promising results from trials of a Wilsons disease drug, it abandoned trials for an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug after it failed to show efficacy.

Shares in AstraZeneca were up 2.2 percent by 0900 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, in line with the broader market.

By Yadarisa Shabong and Sachin Ravikumar
An employee handles vials containing CoronaVac, Sinovac Biotech's vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Butantan biomedical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Jan. 12, 2021. (Amanda Perobelli/Reuters)

Australian Universities Push For Government to Approve Chinese Vaccines

Australian universities are pressing the federal government to approve the two Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm, after Australias drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), said that it would be advising the government on Chinese and Indian vaccines soon.

The regulator has so far approved Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.

Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognition of the Chinese vaccines and that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have already decided to accept Chinese students, the university sector is urging the government to move quickly on this issue.

We are encouraging the Commonwealth to move quickly on that, Professor Barney Glover, the convener of NSW Vice-Chancellors Committee, told The Sydney Morning Herald. It is not just important for international education. It is going to be important for short visitation and long visitation.

The comments from Glover comes after the New South Wales (NSW) state government confirmed last week that hundreds of vaccinated international students will return to the state by 2022.

However, the key market of Chinese students is unlikely to be included in the pilot program if they are vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm, which the TGA has not approved.

Concerns have long been raised about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines, with both Thailand and Indonesia reporting health workers fully vaccinated with Sinovac still got infected with the CCP Virus.

A health worker prepares a Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 18, 2021. (Rodrigo Paiva/Getty Images)

Brazil has also suspended the use of over 12 million doses of Chinese-made vaccines on Sept. 4 over concerns over the vaccines efficacy.

The WHO has approved the emergency use of two Chinese vaccines: CoronaVac made by Sinovac and BIBP made by Sinopharm/China National Pharmaceutical Group. However, a staff member of Chinas CDC system revealed that the data provided by Beijing to the WHO was falsified.

The staff member also noted that the actual rate of adverse reactions was much higher than officially announced.

The actual data of adverse reactions and deaths related to Chinese vaccines has been a growing concern for the international community after Hong Kong stopped releasing part of its vaccine-related death data in June.

The data was being used by the public to speculate the total number of deaths caused by Chinese vaccines in mainland China.

Professor John Skerritt, head of the TGA, said that one of the biggest challenges for the regulator is that Chinese and Indian vaccines do not have as much transparent information in medical literature and publicly available reports as vaccines approved in Europe, North America, and Australia.

Skerritt said more advice would be announced when the regulator gains new information.

But were also going to those governments and trying to get information  Thats also available, but isnt public on those vaccines, he told NCA Newswire.
Queensland Police stop trucks at the Queensland border in Coolangatta, Australia, on Aug. 25, 2021 (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Australian Police Break Up Trucker Protest Against Mandatory Vaccination, Lockdowns

Melbourne police have curtailed another protest against lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations after pulling over and fining a group of Australian truck drivers.

On the morning of Sept. 28, a convoy of eight trucks were moving slowly at 20 km/h (12.4 m/h) on the Tullamarine Freeway taking up one lane.

Several trucks were seen with banners saying Freedom for Victoria and Freedom of Choice plastered on the side of the vehicle, another had Free Victoria.

Busloads of police were subsequently transported to Port Melbourne in anticipation of the protest. Authorities eventually pulled the convoy over at around 8:30 a.m. and issued 16 fines for breaching public health orders.

The five-lane highway was reduced to two while police broke up the protest, causing morning peak hour traffic to move at a snails pace.

Truck drivers had originally planned to drive along the West Gate Bridge but later switched to Tullamarine Freeway.

Victoria Police will continue to have a highly visible presence in the area to maintain public safety, and to ensure any illegal protest activity does not impact on the broader communitys right to go about their daily lives, a Victoria Police spokesman said in a statement.

Victorian truck drivers are required to receive a COVID-19 vaccination before they are allowed to cross the border into the state of New South Wales.

These are national rules. Theyre applied to keep our important freight and logistic industries operating as the lifeblood of keeping shops full and food on our tables, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters in response to the protests.

If theres challenges for the freight industry, individuals, drivers, then Im sure we can work through those with the sector as we have.

The protest by the transport workers follows a week of civil unrest and large scale demonstrations by Australians in Melbournes central business district.

Protestors are seen marching down the Westgate Bridge as thousands march through Melbourne after State Government announces construction shutdown in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 21, 2021. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

The protest began when hundreds of construction workers gathered at the headquarters of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in Melbourne demanding the head of the organisation, John Setka, stand down.

The Victorian government soon after ordered the construction industry to shut down for two weeks as of Sept. 21, citing concerns with compliance with public health orders.

However, the protests escalated, and soon thousands took to the streets around Melbourne over several days, protesting in front of the state Parliament, along the West Gate Bridge, and the Shrine of Remembrance.

In response to the protests, the Victorian state government ramped up the police presence around the city.
A man crosses the normally busy intersection of Flinders street and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Australia on May 28, 2021. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Australian Police Officer Suspended Over Sling Tackle Incident at Melbournes Flinders Street Station

An Australian acting police sergeant from Victoria has been suspended after footage emerged on social media showing a civilian being thrown head-first into the ground by an officer.

The footage, which began circulating on Sept. 22, shows a male speaking to three uniformed police officers at Melbournes Flinders Street Station, in what appeared to be a calm conversation.

Then, a fourth police officer can be seen walking up behind him, before grabbing him around the torso, and then throwing him (in a sling tackle) to the ground face-first.

An audible sound could be heard as the mans head hits the floor. The man was motionless afterwards.

Police presence seen at Flinders Street Station during a proposed anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 11, 2021. Regional Victorias lockdown is over but people in Melbourne are still days from finding out when theirs will end. (AAP Image/Daniel Pockett)

The person who filmed the incident claimed he was unconscious, according to News.com.au on Sept. 23.

This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police, you can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground, the witness said.

You can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles. He was unconscious, blood, and urine everywhere.

Victoria Police said investigations were still underway, in a media release obtained by The Epoch Times on Sept. 29.

An acting sergeant from a specialist support unit has since been suspended as a result of early enquires, the statement said.

Victoria Police are also asking for anyone who witnessed the incident, including the person who filmed the event, to contact the Crime Stoppers hotline on 1800 333 000.

The suspension of the officer comes after protests led by members of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining, and Energy Union,(CFMMEU) kicked off a wave of anti-lockdown demonstrations across the southern Australian city of Melbourne last week.

Melbourne is currently on track to hold the title for the worlds longest number of days under COVID-19 lockdown, with residents of the city enduring 239 days of lockdown since the pandemic broke out last year as of Sept. 27just shy of the 245-day record set by Bueno Aires.

The lockdowns are favoured by Victorian Premier Dan Andrews as part of the state governments suppression strategy to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The strategy also sees the government readily deploy the highest level Stage Four restrictions, which include curfews, limits on movement within a 5km radius, and closing all non-essential retail outlets.

In contrast, the neighbouring state of New South Wales has avoided using harsh measures for the past year, only deploying them during an outbreak of the Delta variant in Greater Sydney in July, which forced a policy change.

Victoria Kelly-Clark Follow
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on June 02, 2021. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Australian Treasurer to End COVID-19 Payments, Puts Pressure on States to Open Up

The Australian federal government will pull back business and individual support payments once key vaccination milestones are reached, a move that could compel state and territory leaders to move away from readily locking down their jurisdictions each time COVID-19 cases emerge.

On Sept. 29, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg outlined a plan that would see billions in federal cash assistance phased out once 70 and 80 percent of the over 16 population is immunised.

These COVID disaster payments, these business support payments have been emergency payments and we cant continue them forever, he said in a statement.

Nor can we continue lockdowns forever. If you look abroad, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United Statescountries are starting to live with COVID.

Currently, COVID-19 Disaster Payments offer $750 per week to individuals who have lost more than 20 hours of work each week due to government-mandated restrictions.

A woman walks along a quiet street in Melbournes central business district in Australia, on August 11, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

A $450 per week payment is available for those that have lost between eight to 20 hours of work per week, while those on income support and who have lost eight hours of work per week can access $200 weekly payments.

These payments will be adjusted at each vaccination threshold.

Once a state or territorys population reaches the 70 percent double-dose vaccination target, workers will need to reapply each week for the payments and prove they are eligible.

At the 80 percent mark, the payments will be stepped down over a two-week period before ending.

In the first week, a flat payment of $450 will be available for those who have lost more than eight hours of work, while those on income support will receive $100.

In the second week, the payment will be brought in line with JobSeeker at $320 per week for those who have lost more than eight hours of work.

Currently, 1.5 million Australians under lockdown in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory are receiving payments.

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Goldie said there was a gaping hole in income support payments for people hardest hit by the pandemic.

Its unconscionable to be cutting off payments to people on low-payments when the government is not ensuring safe vaccination rates, she told AAP.

Senior Labor Party member Tanya Plibersek was concerned support could be withdrawn from areas still under restrictions.

We dont want to see support withdrawn from those areas too quickly, she told Sky News on Sept. 29.

Co-funded federal business support payments will also taper off under agreements to be decided with the states and territories.

The treasurer has also earmarked potential ongoing support for selected industries hit hardest by lockdowns and border closures, including hospitality and tourism.

The latest announcement comes as New South Waleswhich has grappled with an ongoing spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19edges towards the 70 and 80 percent vaccination target, which will see the state open up freedoms for vaccinated individuals.

It is also the first jurisdiction to set an official freedom date on Dec. 1, that will see all restrictions removed for vaccinated and unvaccinated Australians.

In response, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has been reluctant to commit to an open date.

I will not say to people, just wait five weeks and you will have all the freedoms. No, that is not a guarantee at all here, he told reporters on Sept. 29.

States with lower COVID-19 infection rates, Queensland, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and South Australia, meanwhile will likely continue pushing to increase vaccination rates.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is hopeful international borders could reopen around Christmas.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks during an interview at the Department of Commerce in Washington on Sept. 23, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Beijing Abandoned Its Commitment by Blocking Boeing Airplane Purchases: US Commerce Chief

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sept. 28 that China is holding back domestic airlines from purchasing tens of billions of dollars of U.S.-manufactured Boeing Co. airplanes.

Theres tens of billions of dollars of planes that Chinese airlines want to buy but the Chinese government is standing in the way, she said in a question-and-answer session after a Sept. 28 speech in Washington.

Raimondo said Beijing is reneging on its phase one trade deal with the former U.S. administration in 2020. The deal, signed by the Chinese regime, aimed to vastly increase Chinese purchases of U.S. manufactured products.

In mid-January last year, China committed to buy an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods and services over the following two years from the corresponding 2017 pre-trade war baseline level, including aircraft, pharmaceuticals, and industrial machinery. The agreement went into effect on Feb. 14, 2020.

Yet Beijings reluctance to meet its commitmentsdespite the deal still in effectbrought about disappointment in Washington.

The Chinese need to play by the rules. We need to hold their feet to the fire and hold them accountable, Raimondo said in a separate interview with National Public Radio broadcast on Sept. 28.

However, trade data for the first quarter in 2020 showed Beijing had already fallen behind 2017 values.

On Sept. 23, Boeing Co. raised its forecast for Chinas aircraft demand to 8,700 new airplanes for the next 20 years, worth $1.47 trillion based on list prices, the U.S. planemaker said in a statement.

The market was frustrated as the company was counting on Chinas rebound from COVID-19 and future growth in its budget airline sector and e-commerce. Boeing shares fell 2.6 percent to $218.41 on Sept. 28.

Boeing and the Chinese embassy in Washington didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Beijing Builds Ties With Foreign Officials to Infiltrate the West: Report

The Chinese regime has very specific tactics when it seeks out foreign politicians and individuals to do its bidding, according to a recent French report.

In the eyes of the regime, some foreigners can simply be used by Chinese agents to pass on messages or influence opinions. Another group consists of individuals who can be maneuvered, either by ideology or interest, into becoming useful idiots. A third group of people accepts the idea of promoting the regimes interests, and Beijing entrusts them with a more precise directive. Then there are those who are formally recruited by the regime.

This grouping was explained in the 650-page report published by the French Military School Strategic Research Institute (known by its French acronym IRSEM), an independent agency affiliated with the French Ministry of Armed Forces. The report maps out Beijings global influence operations, including those targeting ethnic Chinese living outside of China, and warfare doctrines underpinning its infiltration into the West.

The level of penetration, the number of politicians under [Beijings] influence, varies greatly from country to country. Many cases are known in Australia and New Zealand, but the phenomenon affects everyone, everywhere, the report reads.

John Zhang, former adviser to New South Wales state politician Shaoquett Moselmane from October 2018 to September 2020, was placed under investigation in 2020 for allegedly seeking to influence Australian politics on behalf of the Chinese regime. According to court documents, Zhang collaborated with Chinas Ministry of State Security and the United Front Work Departmenta Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that oversees the regimes foreign influence operation.

The report notes that local or municipal politicians have been Beijings primary targets, as theyre more accessible and can be approached at public events. As an example, it pointed to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) in Canada, an annual convention for local governments in the province of British Columbia. The CCP began sponsoring the event in 2012 before it ended in 2019 amid public criticism.

I think the fact that the only foreign government that does this is China is even more troubling, and thats because were in a situation where China is engaged in a number of actions that are completely hostile to Canadian interests, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West told The Epoch Times in 2019 regarding Chinese sponsorship of the UBCM.

He pointed to Chinas oppressive campaign in the far western Xinjiang region, where more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps. The U.S. government has called the campaign a genocide.

I cant for the life of me understand why some mayors and city councilors think that they should expect free food and free drinks and rub shoulders with officials with the government of China, West said.

Chinas effort at influencing regional U.S governments came to light in October 2020. That month, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would discontinue taking part in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between China and the United States in 2011, which supported the creation of a U.S.China National Governors Forum. The MoU was inked by the then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in 2011.

Pompeo said the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which co-convened the forum, had sought to directly and malignly influence state and local leaders to promote the PRCs [Peoples Republic of China] global agenda.

China experts say that CPAFFC is operated by the United Front Work Department.

Chinas effort to build ties with foreign politicians was done in part through Chinas International Department, an agency under the CCPs Central Committee, according to the report.

The departments networks allow it to identify and retain politicians who are willing to defend Chinas image in the local media or who can act behind the scenes on behalf of the CCP, the report reads.

According to its website, the International Department has built relationships with more than 600 political parties and political groups in more than 160 countries.
People at an internet cafe in Beijing, on May 12, 2011. (Gou Yige/AFP/Getty Images)

Beijing Pushes Citizens to Download Police-Developed Anti-Fraud App, Stirring Privacy Concerns

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been widely promoting a police-developed anti-fraud app that functions as spyware since March, residents described as they explained the degree of invasion the app allows on their phones.

The app, known as the National Anti-Fraud Center, masquerades as a protective system for Chinese citizens, but instead provides direct access to private content on users phones.

In a Sept. 15 report, the Chinese Epoch Times interviewed multiple individuals who had installed the app. One Beijing resident, surnamed Zheng, told The Epoch Times that the app tracks and monitors citizens, preventing them from access to overseas websites.

He said the Changping district police branch required students parents to install the app in the name of safeguarding personal information and property security. They also set a deadline for the download and required parents to report afterward to teachers in charge of their children.

While speaking over the phone to The Epoch Times, Zheng said the app flagged the internet call as potential fraud.

A picture of a screen shows a tracking mode from a Huawei device during the Huawei developer conference at the Huawei Campus in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on Aug. 10, 2019. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

In Henan Province, a resident surnamed Leng also said in an interview with The Epoch Times that a local school asked his child to download the tool. He called it an omnipresent spying eye on citizens.

Users have to provide their real names, full home addresses, ID numbers, face recognition, and consent to 29 requests by its developerthe Criminal Investigation Department under Chinas ministry of public securitybefore it works, some Chinese users said in April.

In central Chinas Hubei Province, a parent surnamed Wu with a similar story said the app is barring citizens from reaching foreign media outlets and pro-democracy organizations, which the CCP labels overseas hostile forces.

It issues warnings upon access to software bypassing the CCPs Great Firewall and foreign social media platforms like Telegram, Wu said.It blocks citizens from knowing truths.

Along with blocking content, the app requires permission for modifying system configurations, editing and deleting content in USB storage devices, accessing contacts, call logs, messages, images, videos, phone status, and identification.

As of Sept. 16, The Epoch Times found the official app had ranked as the No. 1 downloaded for the sixth day, according to Chinese app tracker Qimai. Despite its popularity, it had a score of 2.5 out of 5 and a thumbs-up percentage of 40, based on 84,925 comments available at the time.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.
Biden Agrees With Obama on Open Borders Being Unsustainable, Psaki Says

President Joe Biden agrees with former President Barack Obama on America needing to enforce its borders, the White House said Tuesday.

Obama told ABCs Good Morning America this week, in response to the flood of illegal immigrants into Del Rio, Texas, that immigration is a tough issue.

It always has been because, on the one hand, I think we are naturally a people that wants to help others. And we see tragedy and hardship and families that are desperately trying to get here so that their kids are safe, and theyre in some cases fleeing violence or catastrophe, Obama said. At the same time, were a nation state. We have borders. The idea that we can just have open borders is something that, as a practical matter, is unsustainable.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington that Biden was of the same mind.

We dont have open borders. So, yes, he agrees, she said.

Of approximately 30,000 illegal immigrants who streamed into the Del Rio area between Sept. 9 and Sept. 24, nearly half have been released into the U.S. interior, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Just 4,000 have been deported.

Border Patrol drops van loads of Haitians who crossed the U.S. border illegally at local NGO Border Humanitarian Coalition to catch a bus to San Antonio or Houston, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Thats because President Joe Biden and top administration officials like Mayorkas have loosened or reversed key Trump-era immigration enforcement policies like Remain in Mexico and expulsion of illegal immigrant children who arrive without a responsible adult, critics say.

This is the very definition of open borders. Pres Bidens reckless policies are incentivizing people from around the world to make the dangerous journey, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee said in a recent statement.

Bidens open border policies have created one of the worst border crises in history. We need to revert to Trump-era solutions like building the wall and the Remain in Mexico policy, Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.) added, highlighting how apprehensions at the southern border topped 200,000 for the second consecutive month in August.

Administration officials, though, say their goal of reforming the immigration system is working, noting that apprehensions dipped slightly from the month before.

Psaki, speaking on the same day Florida sued the administration over its enforcement policies, defended the widespread release of illegal immigrants.

Title 42, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order lets the administration expel immigrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But some are exempted from the order, including people who claim asylum, Psaki noted.

Those who are let go are placed into immigration proceedings and not all will be allowed to stay in the United States, she said.

So it is not accurate to suggest or for anyone who is contemplating coming to the border to think that theyre going to come to the border and be allowed to stay long term in the United States. Theres an immigration process, immigration proceedings, she said.

Were continuing to apply Title 42 at the border. We are continuing to convey through a range of means, communicating directly with people through paid media and otherwise, this is not the time to come, she added.
Border Patrol Agents Told to Get Vaccinated by November or Face Being Fired

Border Patrol agents have been notified by the Biden administration that they must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22 or face termination.

The notice comes on the heels of President Joe Bidens Sept. 9 executive order that all federal employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19. However, the executive order doesnt apply to members of Congress and their staff or U.S. Postal Service employees, although the latter group will be subject to weekly testing if not vaccinated.

In some cases, medical and religious exemptions are accepted, and The Epoch Times has learned that some border agents will be filing for an exemption.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote a strongly worded letter in opposition to the mandate to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

We have learned that the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to fire Border Patrol officials who refuse to comply with President Bidens vaccine mandate, Jordan wrote on Sept. 28.

Your failure to support these federal law enforcement officials will only make the Biden border crisis worse and make our country less secure.

Jordan said the mandate risks reducing the already-depleted Border Patrol workforce in the middle of the unfolding border crisis.

Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed all year as the border crisis has escalated. Agents have apprehended upward of 1.5 million illegal aliens along the countrys southwest border so far this fiscal year.

A Border Patrol agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, told The Epoch Times that he and thousands of other agents are prepared to be fired come November.

We took an oath to uphold the Constitution; to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, he said.

This is exactly the moment weve dedicated our lives to, the opportunity to stand tall, to stand firm for that which is good and right. To stand strong for freedom. The freedom to choosewhatever that choice is, it should be your own..

Several other agents have since told The Epoch Times that theyre expecting to be fired.

By contrast, the almost 15,000 Haitians that recently entered the United States illegally through Del Rio, Texas, after cramming into a squalid camp under the International Bridge, faced no COVID-19 testing or vaccination requirements.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Sept. 24 that COVID-19 vaccine requirements arent necessary for illegal immigrants because theyre not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time.

More than 12,400 of the illegal aliens under the bridge in Del Rio were subsequently released into the United States.

The National Border Patrol Council notified its members on Sept. 18 that it had explored every legal avenue to challenge Bidens vaccine mandate, but failed to find a viable avenue of challenge.

Representatives for the National Border Patrol Council didnt respond by press time to a request for comment on any new action the organization plans to take against the vaccine mandate.
People rally to show their opposition to vaccine and mask mandates in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. (Learner Liu/Epoch Times)

Boston Rally Protests Against Vaccine Mandate

Mary Gordon-Judge and Michelle Orfanos, registered nurses from Massachusetts, felt they were discarded like trash as hospitals in the state announced plans to discipline employees who would not comply with their vaccine requirements.

The nurses said their colleagues could easily get an exemption from flu shots in past years, but now only a percentage of them were able to be exempted from COVID-19 vaccines.

Either you get this vaccine, or you dont have a job, and thats not right, Orfanos said.

The two were among those who rallied in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. Thousands of people filled the street with signs like my body, my choice, no mandates, yes to freedom and freedom is the only mandate, voicing their opposition to vaccine and mask mandates issued by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

In an executive order issued last month, Baker has required 45,000 state employees and contractors to be vaccinated by Oct. 17. Otherwise, they risk discipline and termination. The order points out that the state is the largest employer in Massachusetts, and argues that the mandate is the best way to protect the health of both workers and residents.

Last week, the Massachusetts State Police Union sued over the states COVID-19 vaccine mandate. After a Superior Court judge denied their bid for an injunction on the policy, the union announced that dozens of the troopers have submitted their resignation paperwork, and some of them plan to return to other departments offering reasonable alternatives such as mask-wearing and regular testing.

Meanwhile, many local governments, hospitals, and other organizations also issued their own vaccine mandates, which were regarded by the protesters as modern-day segregation.

Jeff Kuhner, a well-known radio host, spoke at the rally in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

How this is not a form of modern-day apartheid, except this time they are discriminating and persecuting us, not based on the color of our skin, but based on our vaccination status, said Jeff Kuhner, a well-known radio host, and keynote speaker at the Sunday rally.

According to the Boston Broadside, organizer of the rally, the energized crowd included nurses, firefighters, police officers, first responders, workers, teachers, small business owners, veterans, and parents, who are the backbone of America.

The rally started with the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer for the 13 U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan.

Other speakers included Jim Lyons, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and Geoff Diehl, a Republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts.

Geoff Diehl, a Republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts, spoke at the rally in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

Jim Lyons, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, spoke at the rally in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

Citing speeches of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan, Lyons emphasized the need to protect liberty and restrict the power of the big government.

Freedom matters. And what theyre doing to us is hijacking our freedom, he said.

Donnie Palmer, a public school teacher, attended the rally in front of the Massachusetts State House on Sept. 26. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times)

Donnie Palmer, a public school teacher who presented at the rally, believed that being forced to get vaccines and wear masks infringes on his freedom.

We want to be freed. We dont want to be governed by a tyrannical government. We dont want communism. We dont want socialism. We want Americanism, freedom, he said.
Californias Eviction Protections Leave Landlords in Limbo: Eviction Attorney

With Californias new eviction protections for tenants with unpaid rent valid through March 2022, landlords struggle to stay financially afloat as they wait for rent relief funds.

Jonathan Madison, an eviction attorney, told The Epoch Times his clients have turned to taking out loans and filing for bankruptcy waiting to receive funds as their tenants fail to pay rent.

A lot of landlords and property owners will be left in limbo while they wait for the money, Madison said. They still cannot evict their tenants for unpaid rent, so the effects of that [are] landlords who are unable to pay their mortgage, landlords who have to take out loans, end up incurring more debt, dipping into their savings account, having their credit reports negatively impacted, and ultimately taking their properties off the market.

As the statewide eviction moratorium sunsets on Sept. 30, the new eviction protection is set to go into effect on Oct. 1, which will allow tenants to evade eviction by applying for COVID-19 rent relief until March 31, 2022.

While some landlords have viewed the ending of the moratorium as a relief to proceed with evicting unwanted tenants, Madison said the overlooked details with the newly implemented eviction protections essentially act as a continuation of the eviction moratorium.

There are a number of landlords and tenants who dont know or even understand that no eviction for unpaid rent during COVID-19 can take place through March 31 of next year, Madison said. Thats in large part because of the availability of rental assistance to cover the back rent, [but] theres no guarantee on when the landlord or property owner is going to receive that money.

On paper, the state is providing a guarantee that all landlords will receive the money applied for, Madison said. But it remains unclear exactly when landlords will receive the funds.

Following the original eviction moratorium declared on March 1, 2020, Madison has worked with landlords who are questioning their livelihood, as its been nearly a year and a half since applying for relief funds.

One of Madisons clients is a senior couple with one retirement property. The tenants occupying their home stopped paying rent when the pandemic began. The couple has since opted to take out loans and filed for bankruptcy.

Despite having applied for rental assistance, the couple is waiting to receive their funds while watching the potential of their retirement property fade. When the couple does receive the funds, theyll continue to remain at risk of financial instability, Madison said.

If the couple doesnt receive the funds, it will be over two years of waiting for rent relief when the March 31 deadline passes. However, Madison said that even if the couple does receive the financial assistance, it wont be enough the get landlords to where they once were.

Even the repayment of all that back rent owed is not going to compensate them for any interest on the loan, he said. Its not going to account for what they had to dip into for their savings. Interest on its own is over and above principal. The back rent is not going to fix their credit report and different things that happened to them as a result of not being paid.

Theres no sort of safety net for those individuals, landlords, or property owners who have had their applications denied.

It is an application; I think people are looking at this as a guarantee. I havent heard of anyone being denied yet; it doesnt mean its not happening.

Despite the government already extending the deadline to apply for rent relief, Madison foresees another extension to follow due to the potential inability to distribute money at a quick enough pace.

Theres a very strong possibility that theyre going to get extended again and again until they actually distribute all the money.

As of Sept. 29, the state has received over 300,000 applications for its COVID-19 Rent Relief program and has paid out nearly $650 million.
A CAIC Z-10K attack helicopter is displayed at the Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong Province on Nov. 6, 2018. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Bid for Russian Assault Helicopters a Threat to Taiwan: Experts

The Chinese military is reportedly set to purchase at least three dozen Russian attack helicopters to improve its amphibious assault capabilities. The deal would mark the third largest Sino-Russian arms trade ever and would bolster Chinas capacity for a potential assault on Taiwan, as well as power projection across the Indo-Pacific more generally.

It is currently unclear where the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is in the purchasing process, but reports by Chinese and Russian media outlets say that a delegation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently visited a production factory in eastern Russia where the helicopters are made.

A Boon to CCP Adventurism

The helicopter in question is the Ka-52K, a ship-based attack helicopter that would be flown from Chinas Type 075 landing helicopter dock, and used in close assault during amphibious operations.

Experts say that the Russian tech would shore up inadequacies in Chinese manufacturing capabilities.

Chinas initial purchase of three dozen attack helicopters represents a weakness in their military technology, said Casey Fleming, CEO of strategic advisory firm Black Ops Partners.

Sam Kessler, a geopolitical adviser at the multinational risk management company North Star Support Group, added that the deal would also improve Sino-Russian relations and meaningfully expand upon Chinese military capabilities.

The purchase of the Russian Ka-52K helicopters helps strengthen Chinas defense relationship with Moscow and would provide the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] with immediate access to stronger and heavier naval attack helicopters with extra capabilities than the Chinese Z-10 possesses, Kessler said, referring to the countrys native attack helicopter.

The Z-10 helicopter is not equipped to play the amphibious and island landing role that the Russian Ka-52K is capable of doing, Kessler added. This gives China the opportunity to establish both a short-term deterrent and amphibious assault capability, while they continue developing their future line of naval attack helicopters.

Purchase of the helicopter would significantly improve the aforementioned development of Chinese helicopters, as the PLA has historically worked to reverse engineer the superior Russian military technologies it has purchased.

In the case of the Ka-52K, such an effort would present a notable leap forward in Chinese military technology.

The helicopter carries a 30 mm automatic cannon with a maximum rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute. It can wield multiple types of ammunition such as armor piercing and explosive incendiary rounds, and can engage both infantry, light-armored vehicles, and other aircraft. The helicopter is also capable of launching air-to-surface or anti-ship missiles.

Vitally, the helicopter would greatly improve the PLAs amphibious capabilities with regard to seizing islands such as Taiwan.

The purchase of the Russian attack helicopters is primarily a threat to Taiwan and secondarily a tactic to patrol and enforce the CCPs interests in the South China Sea, Fleming said.

This is because the helicopters would meaningfully augment the PLA Navys (PLAN) expeditionary strike groups, a vital force structure in missions aimed at seizing islands such as Taiwan, in which they would be housed on amphibious assault ships.

The Russian Ka-52k helicopters were designed for amphibious island landing capabilities as well as meant to be housed on their Type-075 carrier ships designed for holding both helicopters and land vehicles, Kessler said.

The capability is there, whether its used for a potential conflict with Taiwan or somewhere else in the Indo-Pacific.

Thus, while the purchase most immediately jeopardizes the continued independence of Taiwan from the mainland, it could also enhance the PLAs presence throughout the region or even improve Chinese power projection in Africa, where the PLANs first overseas military base in Djibouti was expanded with a pier large enough to house aircraft carriers.

Chinese Peoples Liberation Army personnel attend the opening ceremony of Chinas new military base in Djibouti on Aug. 1, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Image)

Death of the West or a Marriage of Convenience?

The deal would mark Chinas third largest arms deal with Russia, likely costing over $720 million for the helicopters, though possibly more if there are additional weapons or services bundled with the package.

The first and second most expensive arms deals between the two nations were both finalized in 2015. One was a $2 billion purchase of 24 fighter jets and the other was a $3 billion dollar purchase of missile defense systems.

Russian-made aircrafts have long been the most technologically advanced in the PLA arsenal, and a British defense official recently warned that Sino-Russian air capabilities could soon overtake that of the United States and its allies.

Some experts fear, however, that U.S. and allied sanctions on Russia, still in place since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, have increased Russias desire and need to sell such technologies to China.

Kessler believes that the deal represented a quick fix to military and economic hardships by both countries.

The arms deal is an indication that Beijing needs a quick strategic fix and Moscow is willing to assist by selling their weaponry, Kessler said.

He also noted, however, that the two nations maintained differing visions for the future.

Although the [Sino-Russian] relationship has improved from an economic, defense, and strategic perspective, it is still a relationship with trust issues as well as long-term competing interests.

To that end, the CCPs desire to pull Russia closer, and Russias acceptance of that relationship of convenience, might be characterized as a knee jerk reaction against U.S strides in developing partnerships throughout the Indo-Pacific that would counter CCP ambitions.

Kessler said that the nature of the Sino-Russian relationship, and the differing long-term goals of the two nations, could result in conflict between the two nations later down the road as the CCP works to increase Russias economic dependency on China, but that such a conflict was likely a long way out.

The pivot to China can be viewed mainly as a survival policy after sanctions were placed on them as a result of the Crimean annexation, Kessler said. Both China and Russia have been upgrading their partnership agreements since the 1990s and theyre significantly closer now. However, there still remains a trust issue between the two while collaborating closely on strategic interests.

Its very possible [the deal could hurt Russia] if Moscow becomes too over-reliant on Beijing as economic trade, development, and defense relations between the two countries continue to increase, Kessler added.

Right now, Moscow is able to operate in their sphere of influence and on their terms, but that can change depending on the scenario with China, the U.S., and other players.

Fleming believes, however, that the relationship between the nations had grown too close, and that this latest arms deal presented yet further evidence of a growing anti-Western and anti-democratic alliance.

Over the past few years, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have all shared military technology, tactics, and training in an alliance against the West and democracies, Fleming said.

The key takeaway is that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have aligned against and consider the U.S. and our Western allies as enemies.
Two graduate pass through the big screen showing the centenary of the CCP in Wuhan University in Wuhan, China, on June 23, 2021. (Getty Images)

Chinese Universities Step Up Political Indoctrination Among Students

Beijing has been indoctrinating students in higher education with communist ideology

Various universities in Chinas northern Heilongjiang Province are closely monitoring their students progress in observing and upholding Chinese leader Xi Jinpings political ideology, according to leaked government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times.

One China analyst describes the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) objective of indoctrinating students across the country as brainwashing.

Xi Jinping Thought, dubbed socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, consists of 14 guidelines that the Chinese are expected to follow, including upholding the principles of marxism and communism, and ensuring that the CCPs leadership presides over all aspects of work and life.

These documents expose the CCPs fear of Chinese students, Chinese commentator Li Linyi told The Epoch Times. [The CCP] is obviously afraid that the June 4 student [pro-democracy] campaign will come back.

Thats why the regime is introducing Xi Thought in Chinese universities, attempting to strengthen its ideological and political work on studentsbrainwashing students, Li said.

In 1989, Chinese students protested peacefully in Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy and an end to government corruption. Then on June 4, tanks and soldiers marched into the square and attacked the protesters. Although there are conflicting estimates on the death toll, a secret British diplomatic cable alleged that at least 10,000 people were killed, citing a source within the CCP.

According to government documents obtained by The Epoch Times from a trusted source, universities in Heilongjiang Province employ several methods to ensure students absorb Xi Jinping Thought.

According to the document titled, 2019 Key Tasks, the provincial authorities want to step up the initiative of monitoring the political indoctrination at universities, which includes a cyber team to track and control information thats circulated among students and staff.

Harbin City Vocational College has implemented these key tasks since 2020, with plans to continue into 2022. One of the tasks, which it calls Young Marxists Scheme, is to create future reserve talents by indoctrinating at least 10 percent of first and second year students with Marxist ideology.

The universities also employ tutors to teach and enforce Xi Jinping Thought. They are also full-time staff members in tertiary educational institutions in China. The tutors communicate with the students on a daily basis and monitor their progress in accepting the teachings.

According to the documents, Harbin University of Commerce and Qiqihar Medical University require their tutors to closely monitor the students day-to-day activities, and to be solely responsible for the daily ideological and political education and management of students in their quarters. They are also required to do in-depth implementation of Xi Thought.

Qiqihar Medical University also requires its tutors to do a heart-to-heart talk with students at least once a week in their dormitories. There is a 24-hour roster of tutors who oversee the dormitories to ensure non-stoppolitical indoctrination of students, the documents said.

Heilongjiang Preschool Education College stated in its 2020 annual summary report on ideological and political courses that it set up a one-on-one scheme for veteran teachers to train new instructors.

Harbin University did a rolling survey in 2017 on the status of the ideological and political thinking of instructors and students. The university conducted an investigation on social issues concerning students, including elements that influence their notions, the current political views of educators and students, and their comments on the CCP.

Daniel Holl contributed to the article.
Climate Activists Block UKs Busiest Motorway Twice in One Day

Climate group Insulate Britain blocked the UKs busiest motorway twice on Wednesday.

Activists from the group blocked Junction 3 of the M25 in Kent at around 7.30 a.m. and glued their hands to the road surface, Kent Police said.

Eleven people were arrested at the scene on suspicion of obstructing the highway, conspiracy to commit public nuisance, and criminal damage.

A few hours later, the group again brought traffic to a halt on M25 by blocking the Swanley roundabout, also in Kent. Police said they arrested 16 protesters at the scene.

All 27 people are currently in police custody, the force said.

Insulate Britain, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, has been demanding that the government insulate all homes across the UK to cut carbon emissions.

After the group shut down parts of M25 five times in just over a week earlier this month, the government obtained an injunction against the protests and warned that activists would face possible imprisonment if they made further such attempts.

But the group was not deterred and swung back into action just two days later, blocking the Port of Dover in southeast England, the busiest ferry port in Europe, on Sept 24.

On Monday morning, more than 50 protesters from the group blocked the M25 again at the exit leading to the Heathrow Airport.

Insulate Britain said in a statement on Wednesday that they were going nowhere despite the threat of prosecution.

Kent Police said the force is working with prosecutors on how to deal with the arrested protesters.

Officers are continuing to conduct enquiries relating to those individuals arrested in connection with the protests in Dover and on the Kent section of the M25, Kent Police Superintendent Andy Gadd said.

We are liaising closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that the most appropriate outcome is sought, including if any charges can be made, he said.

But Lisa Townsend, police and crime commissioner for Surrey, which has also been affected by the road-blocking protests in recent weeks, said on Wednesday that it is very difficult to bring charges against Insulate Britain protesters.

She said her inbox had been inundated with emails from local residents asking: How are these people being arrested only to be released to do it again?

It has been very difficult for the police because if they charge the protesters with a relatively minor offence, it is likely to be discontinued. And if they try to elevate the charge to a more serious one, they are finding it is not reaching the necessary threshold, she explained.

PA contributed to this report.
Communist Chinas Grand Strategy for a Small African Country

A recent military coup in West Africa has put the Republic of Guinea in the worlds spotlight. While this small country ranks among the worlds poorest, its abundant mineral wealth, including bauxite and iron ore, make it strategically important to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Guinea is only 94,981 square miles in size and is home to a scant 12.7 million people. Located in the southeastern portion of this country is the gigantic untapped Simandou mine. A 2019 report by Winning Shipping of Singapore states this mine holds over 2.6 billion tons of superior-grade iron ore (more than 60 percent Fe content) that is shallow and easily accessible but remains untouched.

By comparison, China is ranked fourth in the world for its 20 billion tons of iron ore, but unlike Guinea, 98 percent of Chinas iron ore is graded as poor quality (35 percent Fe content) and buried deep making it difficult to access. For this reason, China has become the worlds top importer of iron ore since 2003. Eighty percent of the imports are being supplied by four major mining companies including Australian companies BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and FMG (Fortescue Metals Group); and Vale of Brazil.

Since April last year, the CCP has placed restrictions on imports of agricultural and livestock products from Australia in retaliation for their investigations into Chinas role in developing the CCP virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. To reduce dependence on Australias iron ore, the CCP began targeting the Simandou mine.

Although rights to mine Simandous iron ore have exchanged hands several times since 2003, none of the previous owners took action to extract the mineral substance. Rights to the sprawling property were divided into four large producer mines. Two in the north end of Simandou and two in the south.

Rights to the south-end mines were once wholly owned by Rio Tinto. It now holds 45.05 percent of the venture after allocating 39.95 percent in 2016 to a Chinese consortium led by the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco). The government of Guinea holds the remaining 15 percent.

Twenty-five-year mining rights to the two north-end mines were acquired in June of 2020 for $14 billion by the producer SMB-Winning, a consortium formed by Chinese entities and Singapores Winning Shipping. In September of this year, the consortiums work was interrupted by a military coup and the arrest of Guineas pro-China president, Alpha Conde.

Conde was first elected president in 2010. He subsequently sparked criticism and protests in Guinea by modifying the constitution so he could extend his third term in office. Within days of the coup, AFP News released a video showing the 83-year-old Conde being guarded by Guinean special forces. The coups leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said Conde had mismanaged the country, and despite Guineas vast mineral wealth, the people are still living in poverty due to Condes corruption.

Condes relationship with Beijing has remained close throughout his tenure. He traveled to China on multiple occasions and actively participated in the CCPs controversial Belt and Road Initiative. He was recently under investigation for transferring Simandous north end mining rights from the Israeli mining company, BSGR, to the Chinese consortium, SMB-Winning.

Simandou Is No Substitute for Australian Iron Ore

Consistent with the move to restrict Australian imports, the CCP state-run media has promoted the notion that China is no longer dependent on Australias iron ore. But the facts suggest that the Simandou mine does not compare to Australias iron ore mines in terms of total iron ore reserves and annual production.

A map produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed that in 2020 Australia had the worlds largest reserves of iron ore. Its 50 billion tons is 10 times more than Simandous potential, which is hardly sufficient to meet Chinas needs.

China has imported more than 1 billion tons of iron ore each year since 2016. This figure rose to 1.17 billion tons in 2020. Brazil supplied 21.1 percent, while Australia supplied 66.3 percent or approximately 776 million tons. The production of 100 million tons annually by Simandous two northern mines falls far short of what China needs and would only marginally reduce imports of Australian iron ore.

Simandous insufficient production of iron ore is not the only risk China faces. A study published in 2020 by Chinese academics examined whether operating in Guinea could jeopardize SMB-Winnings ability to repay its hefty five-year loan for mining rights. The study projected the cost per ton for production, investment amortization, and freight could reach a little more than $70 per ton and may reduce the profit potential. This is assured if Chinas demand for iron ore weakens or if mining companies join forces to reduce their asking price per ton.

The study suggested Chinas demand for steel from iron ore may weaken on a small scale within 5 years, and a much larger scale within 10 years. This would be caused by China nearing the completion of major construction and infrastructure projects, in which case, the price of iron ore on the international market is likely to drop.

Yet, another risk China faces is Guineas excessive operating fees and cumulative 66 percent tax rate for businesses. This is double the tax rate paid to Australia by Rio Tinto in 2019 (39.3 percent) and to Brazil by Vale in 2018 (32.3 percent).

Finally, there are the political risks to China posed by Guineas current military dictatorship, as well as environmental issues and labor disputes that could jeopardize mining rights if left unresolved.

Although the military junta in Guinea promised to establish a government of national unity, lead the transition to civilian rule, and honor all mining contracts, it raised suspicions on Sept. 9 by freezing government-related bank accounts. A spokesperson said this action was necessary to protect state assets.
This file photo shows landscape in Alaska. Alaska is rated No. 1 in Truth in Accounting's "Financial State of the States." (

Connecticut Displaces New Jersey as State With Biggest Taxpayer Burden

Connecticut received the dubious honor on Sept. 29 of displacing New Jersey as the state with the highest taxpayer burden, according to a new Financial State of the States report from Truth-in-Accounting (TIA).

Illinois, Massachusetts, and Hawaii follow in the 48th, 47th, and 46th positions among the nations 50 states, as calculated by the Chicago-based nonprofit that tracks government spending and debt at the metropolitan, state, and federal levels.

Each Connecticut residents share of the Nutmeg States total outstanding debt is $62,500, compared to $58,300 for New Jersey, $57,000 for Illinois, $38,100 for Massachusetts, and $37,000 for Hawaii.

Connecticuts money needed to pay bills increased by more than $10 billion to $79.6 billion mostly because the states pension and retiree health care plans actuaries determined future state contributions will need to increase because estimated future investment income will be less than previously expected, according to the report.

Despite being passed by Connecticut, New Jersey still faces a serious financial condition, the report says, because the state had no money set aside to weather the current or any future crisis.

At the other end of the ranking, the five states with the best financial condition posted surpluses, led by Alaska with a surplus of $55,100 per taxpayer, North Dakota at $39,200, Wyoming with $19,500, Utah with $6,500, and South Dakota at $5,200.

The report pointed out that Alaska had plenty of money to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic yet received federal aid.

The report singled out Utah for its financial management practices.

Utah has the best record among the 50 states in keeping expenses below revenues. In fact, Utah has done that every year since 2005, even during the Great Recession and now during the onset of a global pandemic.

The states with the healthiest financial condition are referred to by the TIA report as Sunshine States, while those at the bottom of the ranking are Sinkhole States.

To determine its rankings, TIA divides how much a state needs to pay its bills by the number of state taxpayers in order to calculate comparison data. States with money available after all bills are paid rank highest.

The overall financial condition of the states remained mostly negative in 2020 despite the federal governments providing massive amounts of money to help state officials cope with the COVID-19 pandemic that has to date killed more than 696,000 Americans. The disease originated in China and reached the United States in January 2020.

At the end of the fiscal year 2020, 39 states did not have enough money to pay all of their bills. This means that to balance the budgetas is required by law in 49 stateselected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers, the report stated.

State governments, in general, did not have enough money to pay all of their bills. The total debt of the 50 states amounted to $1.5 trillion. Our analysis does not include debt related to capital assets.

Like the federal government, which faces more than $100 trillion in unfunded pension and other mandated benefits, state pension costs are mounting rapidly.

Most of the states debt came from unfunded retirement benefit promises, such as pension and retiree healthcare liabilities. For 2020, pension debt was $926.3 billion, and other post-employment benefits (OPEB), mainly retiree health care, totaled $638.7 billion, the report calculated.

Sheila Weinberg, TIAs president, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 29 that if the federal government hadnt bailed out the states during the current crisis, things would be much worse, but she worries, asking, Should states be counting on money from an entity that has to print or borrow money to give to them?

Some of the states that received the most federal assistance, notably including California, are now declaring surpluses even though they have tens of billions of dollars of outstanding bills. California has the most unfunded debt at more than $200 billion, she said.

Weinberg decried the result of state officials misrepresenting their jurisdictions true financial condition. It is horrible that citizens cant knowledgeably participate in their states tax and spending policies, because they are not told the truth.

Our representative form of government is being harmed because people vote for elected officials based upon the wrong numbers and assuming that the current elected officials have been living within the states means.
COVID-19 Vaccine Should Not Be Mandated for Children: Dr. Scott Atlas

The COVID-19 vaccine should not be mandated for children since it does not necessarily benefit them like the vaccines required for school and child care, according to former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas.

Those vaccines that are mandated for children, even if you believe they should be mandated, are for diseases that are highly dangerous to children and highly communicable to other children, who therefore have a high danger from that virus, Atlas said in an interview with EpochTVs American Thought Leaders.

That is not the case with this disease. Children do not have a high risk from this disease. Children do not necessarily benefit themselves from the vaccination of this, he added.

Atlas, a senior fellow for the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, said that kids whose immune system is extremely compromised should consider getting vaccinated, but to require healthy children to receive the COVID-19 vaccines would violate the Declaration of Helsinki, a set of ethical principles developed by the World Medical Association to guide physicians and scientists conducting experiments involving humans.

In fact, the forced vaccines, particularly for children, violate several of the codes outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki from 1964, Atlas said. And I think, when you start having a society that violates some of the most basic codes of ethics, I think were in trouble.

Pfizer said that it had submitted preliminary data of its COVID-19 vaccine trial for children aged 5 to 11 to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Tuesday. This comes only two days after the vaccine manufacturers Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla told ABCs This Week that the company will soon request authorization of its vaccine.

A five-dose vial of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is held in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 21, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said that the data on the 2,268 children aged 5 to 11, who were given a 10-microgram dose of a two-dose regime, showed that the vaccine was safe and triggered an antibody response similar to that observed in those aged 16 to 25 from a previous trial, who had received 30-microgram doses. But whether the vaccine was effective in preventing disease in kids is still unknown as the companies did not release this data in their press release last week.

Pfizers vaccine is the only one granted emergency use in adolescents aged 12 to 15 and approved for people 16 and older.

Although kids are at extremely low risk from COVID-19 and do not significantly spread the disease, there is still a push to get them inoculated. One of the reasons for the push is that it could help protect society, which is a big concern for Atlas.

Are we a society, a civilization, where we are using our children, even if they did spread, as shields? Were going to inject our children with an experimental drug that they dont have a significant benefit from, to shield ourselves, Atlas said.

He added: I will never use my children as shields to somehow protect me. Thats really just a heinous violation of all moral principles in my view.

Opponents of vaccinating children say that the vaccine uses experimental technology and lacks long-term safety data. Pfizer states in its press releases that the vaccine may cause adverse events including heart inflammation and other serious and unexpected side effects that have not been reported yet, since the possible side effects of the vaccine are still being studied in clinical trials.

The vaccines have shown that they do not protect fully vaccinated people from getting infected or transmitting COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, after several months.

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)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 544 children aged 0 to 18 had died from confirmed or presumed COVID-19 between Jan. 4, 2020 and Sept. 18, 2021, out of a total of 672,020 deaths from all ages.

However, comprehensive studies from the United Kingdom that are still waiting to be peer-reviewed, found that the overall risk of dying or getting severely ill from COVID-19 was extremely low in children. The studies also found that COVID-19 caused 25 deaths in kids younger than 18 between March 2020 and February 2021.

Federal health authorities are likely to authorize the vaccine for children soon. The FDA said that it was prepared to complete its review as quickly as possible, likely in a matter of weeks rather than months and will carefully, thoroughly, and independently examine the data to evaluate benefits and risks.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the health agency will urgently review the data for children once theyve been reviewed by the FDA.

As soon as they get submitted to the FDA, I know the FDA is urgently planning to review these data, it will go from the FDA to the CDC, and we will review it with similar urgency, Walensky told Good Morning America on Monday.

Pfizer said that it will submit a formal request for emergency use of its vaccine for children to the FDA in the coming weeks, including to other regulatory authorities around the world.

Some medical experts are also questioning the need to inoculate children without long-term safety data.

Why would an EUA [emergency use authorization] for C19 vax for 5-11 yo be given, w/o any efficacy and long-term safety studies? Why is it OK to accept efficacy based on seroconversion, when Ab [antibody] status for naturally immune are not accepted? Dr. Mahesh Shenai, a neurosurgeon, asked on Twitter.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, professor of psychiatry at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine replied: Exactly. And we have not just antibody (or even T-cell) lab data for natural immunity, but also robust clinical evidence of protection against reinfection, hospitalization, and death. Vaccines for 5-11 yo receive approval without this yet NI [natural immunity] is ignored with this data?

Natural immunity from people who have recovered from COVID-19 continues to not be recognized by the federal government and businesses mandating vaccines and passports in the United States.

Atlas said that Americans should have the choice to decide whether they want to be vaccinated or not.

The CDC says that more than 183 million Americans are fully vaccinated as of Sept. 28.

Meiling Lee Follow Meiling Lee is a health reporter for The Epoch Times.
Democrats Are Criticizing the Supreme Court Emergency Procedures to Warrant Adding Justices: Sen. Grassley

Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said calling a normal Supreme Court procedure like the emergency docket (when the court hears last-minute cases in a shortened time frame) a shadow docket is the latest attempt by Democrats to change public opinion about the Court, so they can add more justices.

Some Democrats have said the court needs to, quote-unquote, heal itself, before the public demands that the court is restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics. Thats a fancy way of saying that if the rulings dont change, theyll try to pack the court. This campaign against the court and against individual justices has hurt the public. The dishonest rhetoric doesnt help the American people understand the issues. Ill continue fighting against the partisan efforts by dark money groups to attack our judiciary, said Grassley.

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), however, argued that the emergency docket is intended to be used only when the party seeking relief is likely to prevail and irreparable harm is likely to result if the temporary relief is not granted.

The Supreme Court has now shown that its willing to allow even facially unconstitutional laws to take effect. When the law is aligned with certain ideological preferences, constitutional rights for millions of Americans should not be stripped away in the dark of night, even at the Supreme Court. That is exactly what happened when  the Supreme Court did its bidding at midnight on Sept. 1, and the Supreme Court allowed it, said Durbin.

Durbin was referring to the ruling by the Supreme Court on the law passed by the Texas legislature that prohibits most abortions after week-six of the pregnancy.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) speaks in Washington, on Oct. 15, 2020. (Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

In response to the Texas abortion law, abortion providers and advocates alleged the law was unconstitutional in light of the Supreme Courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Whole Womans Health, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, and other providers asked the Supreme Court to stop the Texas law from going into effect, in an emergency appeal after the District Court canceled its state appeal.

In a 5 to 4 ruling (pdf), the Supreme Court said it would let the Texas law standahead of lower-court battles over whether it is constitutional.

The Texas law bars doctors from performing abortions unless they have tried to detect a fetal heartbeat and been unable to do so. Only if a heartbeat cannot be detected can the doctor perform an abortion, unless a medical emergency exists.

Durbin convened Tuesdays hearing to consider if the Supreme Court emergency docket ruling in favor of the Texas abortion law, shows the highest court in the nation needs to change its procedures or be restructured.

Its already too late for many Texans whose rights have been suspended, and who have been forced to leave the state to seek reproductive health care, (that) the Constitution has already guaranteed them, but it is not too late for the rest of the country and the Court to change course, added Durbin.

Republicans say that the emergency docket is not extraordinary or secret, but has its place in the judicial process.

What theyre calling a shadow docket is the ordinary operation of every court thats been in existence since the ratification of our Constitution, whether a District Court, a Court of Appeals, or the United States Supreme Court, said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Without the Supreme Courts emergency docket, how can litigants whose fundamental rights are at stake seek immediate relief? asked Grassley to Edmund Gerard LaCour, the Solicitor General of Alabama.

They can seek it from lower courts, but theres no principled reason why the lower court necessarily should have the last word as opposed to the highest court, replied LaCour.

Democrats argue that the use of the emergency docket has gone up since former President Donald Trump was elected, but witness testimony (pdf) from Stephen Vladeck, University of Texas School of Law professor, to the committee shows that the use of the emergency procedure by the court started going up in 2014, and has continued to go up after President Joe Biden was elected.

For a court that expressly defines its legitimacy by its ability to offer principled justifications for its decisions, its inability indeed its refusal to do so on the shadow dockethas equally troubling implications for the rule of law, said Vladeck.

(L-R) Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) hold a press conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, on April 15, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) echoed the assessment that Democrats want to restructure the Supreme Court because of the conservative majority in the court.

This hearings about threatening an institution of our government to rule the way the extreme left of the Democrat Party wants it to rule, said Hawley.

Hawley went on to say that Democrats have moved to the extreme left by passing the Womens Health Protection Act, which would allow abortions up to nine months if the doctor thought the womans health was at risk. One Democrat joined Republicans to oppose the abortion bill.

But Democrats argue a national abortion law that is broader than Roe v Wade is needed because of the restrictive anti-abortion laws states like Texas are enacting.

The protections in this measure are more necessary now than ever before in our history because an avalanche of restrictive, reprehensible state laws is drastically reducing fundamental health care rights, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a September press statement praising the Womens Health Protection Act.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Democrats will make a decision about whether or not to expand the court after the panel appointed by Biden issues its report on the legal ramifications of doing so.
President Joe Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (R), addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on April 28, 2021. (Melina Mara/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

OSHA Fines Would Jump by Tenfold If Reconciliation Bill Passes

On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden unveiled plans to order a vaccine mandate that would affect as many as 100 million Americans. This mandate would extend into the private sector, as Biden asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require vaccines or weekly testing. Now, Democrats in Congress have put a section into the Build Back Better Act that would increase fines for violating OSHA standards tenfold.

The new addition to the Build Back Better Act, the culmination of Bidens presidential agenda, comes amid a ramped-up push by the administration to increase vaccinations across the United States.

Biden Takes Expansive View of OSHA Jurisdiction

To enforce these incursions into the private sector, Biden is stretching the limits of a clause in the OSHA Act of 1970 that allows the organization to impose an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to deal with short-term crises. In the text of the original legislation, OSHA can only declare an ETS after determining that employees are exposed to grave danger from exposure to substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards, and that such emergency standard is necessary to protect employees from such danger.

Historically, such standards have been issued over toxic chemicals or similar hazards. For example, in 1975 the organization issued an ETS on a dangerous pesticide (pdf).

To respond to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party virus, OSHA issued a far more narrow emergency standard in June. This was a standard only applying to healthcare organizations, which were ordered to develop and implement a COVID-19 plan to identify and control COVID-19 hazards in the workplace and to implement other requirements to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in their workplaces.

While workplaces with fully vaccinated staff were exempt from the standard, it did not go so far as to mandate vaccination. Under Bidens request, every single private-sector employer with more than 100 employees would be forced to mandate either vaccination or weekly testing for their employees.

OSHA confirmed in a statement to The Epoch Times that they are in the process of crafting this rule. The ETS would require these employers 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.

Democrats Move to Increase Fines Tenfold

Under current law, employers are required to furnish to each of his employees  a place of employment which [is] free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees or face fines. The Build Back Better Act would significantly strengthen the original OSHA Act of 1970 by increasing most fines in the legislation tenfold.

Under the OSHA Act, violations of this requirement carry a minimum fine of $5,000 and a maximum fine of $70,000. Additional violations currently carry a $7,000 fine for each offense. Employers who fail to correct violations can face up to a $7,000 fine per day that violations are unaddressed.

Because the CCP virus will be recognized as a hazard under the rule, employers could face fines for failing to comply.

The budget bill would increase the fines for violations: the minimum fine would be increased from $5,000 to $50,000, while the max fine would be raised from $70,000 to $700,000. Additional violations would carry a $70,000 fine, and employers would face $70,000 fines for each day that such violations remain unaddressed, a $63,000 increase over the original bill.

These increased fines, if the law passes and if these provisions are not challenged in court, would take effect Jan. 1, 2022.

This move indicates solidarity between the Democratic Congress and the president on vaccine mandates. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has claimed in the past that every Democrat in Congress has been vaccinated. In the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) expressed support for the mandate, accusing Republican critics of exalting liberty over life.

While many Republicans have been vaccinated and support vaccines, they have been critical of Bidens mandate, and have indicated that they will be challenging the mandates in court.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said that the mandate is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster promised, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also expressed doubt that the mandates were legal. He said: I do not believe that people should lose their jobs over this issue, and we will fight that. If they try to do that through a rule like the Department of Labor, I dont think they have the legal authority to do that, but we obviously would want to support protections for people who are just trying to earn a living.

Still, if the Build Back Better Act is passed, these increased fines will provide an even stronger threat to non-compliant businesses, a move that would advance Bidens mandates in the future.
Democrats Urge Biden Not to Use Russian Bases to Launch Drone Strikes

Several Democrats are urging President Joe Biden not to follow through on plans to use Russian bases to launch drone strikes on Afghanistan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the idea during a recent discussion with Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told members of Congress this week. Gen. Mark Milley, the presidents top military adviser, confirmed Wednesday during another hearing that he spoke later with his counterpart to explore the idea.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told Milley that the idea caused the hair on our neck to start to go up, saying she was speaking for many members of Congress.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) also criticized the proposal, telling the Washington Examiner that the Russians arent trustworthy.

I cant see utilizing a base, he said.

I dont think Russia does anything anywhere except with the objective of undermining U.S. interests, added Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.). I wouldnt want any aspect of our security in that region to be dependent on Russia hosting us.

U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan William Moser told reporters Tuesday that there are not specific plans to use Russian bases, Russian state media reported.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), during one of the hearings in Washington, said that the talks were part of a pattern with the Biden administration.

I think what were seeing about the ask to use Russian bases, thats just another example that we see of the Biden administrationtheyve really left us in a terrible position, that we have to ask the Russians to be able to protect the United States from terrorists, and we have to ask them to use their installations, she said.

Austin said that the United States was not asking the Russians for anything and were not seeking Russias permission to do anything.

But Fischer said the current situation, with the U.S. pullout completed in late August, is already problematic.

Afghanistan is a land-locked country and we have to depend on Pakistan to give us airspace to get there, she said.

Gen. Frank McKenzie later agreed that the military must use Pakistani airspace and that the future of that use is not entirely clear.

I know that they were very supportive during the last phase of our engagement in Afghanistan, he said, adding that Pakistan is very conflicted because of their alignment with the Taliban terrorist group, which now controls Afghanistan.
An ambulance leaves from the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Angel DeJesus/AP Photo)

Ecuador Prison Riot Kills at Least 24 People, Injures Dozens More

Dozens of inmates were killed on Tuesday after gang members started a riot at a prison located in a coastal city in southwest Ecuador, officials said.

The violence erupted at a prison in the Guayaquil region and it took police and military officials five hours to regain control. The fighting involved gunfire, knives, and explosions and was caused by a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs, officials said.

As a result of the confrontations, 24 people died and 48 people were injured, according to an SNAI statement, the national bureau of prisons in Ecuador. Multiple reports cited local officials as saying the battle between prison gangs killed at least 30 people.

The Ecuadorian public prosecutors office wrote in a statement that six of the inmates that died during the clashes have been beheaded.

Video footage of the clashes that were shared on social media showed inmates firing from the windows of the prison as they detonate firearms and explosives. Regional police commander, General Fausto Buenano, said the prisoners had also thrown grenades.

#Guayaquil #Ecuador

Television images showed inmates firing from the windows of the prison amid smoke & the detonation of firearms and explosives. The Guayas state govt posted images on its #Twitter account showing six cooks being evacuated from one of the prisons wings pic.twitter.com/C5ajck2hZz   Sarwar  (@ferozwala) September 29, 2021

The Guayas state government also posted images on its Twitter account showing six cooks being evacuated from one of the prisons wings.

It took about 400 police officers to regain control of Penitenciaria del Litoral, the jail located in Guayas, a facility that has in recent months witnessed bloody fights between gangs for control of the prison, the regional governor said, BBC reported.

The facility houses prisoners with links to international drug gangs.

Relatives of inmates wait for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Angel DeJesus/AP Photo)

Relatives of inmates wait for news outside the Litoral penitentiary after a riot, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Angel DeJesus/AP Photo)

Riots broke out in February and July in the countrys prison system, which houses some 39,000 inmates. At least 79 people died in the February violence, and in July it was at least 22.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has previously condemned the violence and Human Rights Watch urged Ecuadors government to fully investigate the prison violence and bring those responsible to justice.

President Guillermo Lasso in August said the government would provide more funding for the overcrowded prison system to build new wards and install new equipment to improve security.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
U.S. and EU flags are pictured during the visit of Vice President Mike Pence to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 20, 2017. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

EU Backs US Tech Trade Declaration After French Concerns

BRUSSELSEuropean Union governments committed to a joint EUU.S. declaration on technology cooperation on Wednesday, just in time for a key transatlantic meeting, after France threatened to block it unless it was watered down, EU diplomats said.

Senior U.S. and European Union officials aim to discuss semiconductor shortages, artificial intelligence, and tech competition issues at the inaugural meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Wednesday.

The TTC meeting had been in doubt last week because of French anger over Australias scrapping of a $40 billion submarine contract and decision to opt instead for a deal with the United States and Britain to buy nuclear-powered vessels.

EU diplomats said France wanted to strike out a reference to a second meeting in spring 2022 when the French presidential election will take place.

It also sought to soften language on a proposed semiconductor supply chain partnership that said the EU and the United States were mutually dependent, the diplomats said.

After talks until late on Tuesday, reference to the second meeting was struck and the semiconductor passage was adjusted to highlight short-term, rather than long-term, supply dependency.

The revised text was cleared on Wednesday at a meeting of EU ministers on the competitiveness of the EU market.

Diplomats said French reservations were less related to the submarine dispute and more to Frances stronger belief in EU autonomy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will host European Commission vice presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager in a forum in Pittsburgh also designed to set tech standards.

By Philip Blenkinsop
A person holds a flower and wire during a protest against the state of emergency declared at the Polish border with Belarus, in front of the Parliament in Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 6, 2021. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

EU to Tighten Visa Rules for Belarus Officials Over Migrants

BRUSSELSThe European Union will tighten visa rules for Belarusian state officials, Europes migration commissioner said on Wednesday, in retaliation for what she called Minsks aggressive effort to destabilize the bloc by pushing in illegal immigrants.

The EU accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating a sharp rise in illegal immigration arrivals across the Belarus border with bloc members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. The increase happened after the 27-nation union slapped sanctions on Minsk over human rights abuses and an election widely deemed rigged.

We have an aggressive regime, Lukashenko, that is actually pushing migrants  to the European border to destabilize the European Union, the blocs Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told journalists. This is an act of aggression.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson speaks during a news conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 14, 2021. (John Thys/Pool via Reuters)

Johansson made the comments as part of an update on stalled efforts to agree a new EU migration system to replace the one that failed amid a 201516 spike in Mediterranean immigration.

Stressing that data from EU law enforcement agency Europol shows 90 percent of those arriving irregularly in the bloc have used people smugglers along the way, she proposed to EU states that they step up their fight against such traffickers.

For Belarus, she said tightening visa procedures for state officialsbut not ordinary Belarusianswas needed.

What we are seeing now is a desperate Lukashenko, she said. This is a regime that has denied its own people free and fair elections. This is a regime that is putting political opposition in jail.

This is a regime that has hijacked a passenger flight  and now is  using innocent people in an act of aggression. This is not a regime we should cooperate with.

Polish border guard officers stand next to a group of migrants stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland near the village of Usnarz Gorny, Poland, on Sept. 1, 2021. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Lukashenko has blamed the West for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter at the Belarusian-Polish border.

The EU and Belarus enacted a new visa facilitation deal in July last year to ease procedures and reduce costs for Belarusians willing to visit the bloc briefly.

But Minsk has since withdrawn from its linked EU readmission agreement, which establishes cooperation on sending away people who stay in the bloc without the formal right to do so.

That came as the EU sanctioned Belarus over a disputed election last August and a crackdown on protests after Lukashenko claimed victory and extended his 26-year-long rule.

The bloc then stepped up sanctions, introducing broader economic curbs on Minsk after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil last May to arrest a dissident on board.

Migrants from Iraq, Kurdistan, Congo, and Cameroon then started appearing on the Belarus border with Lithuania, which had no such immigration in the past, and then on its frontiers with Latvia and Poland.

Five people are reported to have died at the Polish-Belarusian border zone. Johansson demanded Warsaw investigate.

The nationalist, anti-immigration Law and Justice (PiS) party ruling in Poland has established an emergency zone along the frontier with Belarus, meaning no journalists or rights activists are allowed to witness developments there.

It is totally unacceptable that people are dying at our borders, Johansson said, adding she was traveling to Warsaw on Thursday to meet Polands interior minister.

By Gabriela Baczynska
A nurse administers a flu vaccination shot to a woman at a free clinic held at a local library in Lakewood, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Fair Work Commission Upholds Dismissal of Anti-Vax Aged Care Worker Who Refused Flu Shot

The Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) decision to uphold the dismissal of Jennifer Kimber, an aged care receptionist, who refused the influenza vaccination was likened to a system of medical apartheid, a commissioner said.

In April 2021, FWC rejected Kimbers application for unfair dismissal after ruling the dismissal was not harsh, unjust, or unreasonable, a decision that was upheld on Sept. 27.

Kimber received flu shots in 2015 and 2016 but soon developed severe skin inflammation all over her body that lasted 10 months. She considered her 2016 flu shot as the cause of her condition and refused subsequent flu shots.

However, in March 2020, the government made it mandatory for all aged care workers to receive a flu vaccination as part of its response to address COVID-19.

A worker is seen inside the Hardi Aged Care Nursing Home Facility at Summer Hill in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 2, 2021. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett)

FWC vice president Adam Hatcher and commissioner Bernie Riordan who refused Kimbers appeal, concluded that she held a general anti-vaccination position and was therefore unsuitable to work in an aged care position.

It also further points to the lack of utility in granting permission to appeal, since there could be no possibility of granting Ms Kimbers preferred remedy of reinstatement absent an advance commitment from her to take the COVID-19 vaccine, the majority wrote in their decision.

However, FWC deputy president Lyndall Dean strongly rejected the majority stance, writing she had never more strenuously disagreed with the outcome of an unfair dismissal application.

More egregious, however, is that the Majority Decision has denied Ms Kimber the protections afforded by the Fair Work Act in part because of an inference that she holds a general anti-vaccination position, Dean wrote.

Dean said all Australians should vigorously oppose the introduction of medical apartheid and segregation, which she described as the anthesis of the countrys values.

Australians should also vigorously oppose the ongoing censorship of any views that question the current policies regarding COVID, she said. Science is no longer science if it a person is not allowed to question it.

Dean also showed disagreement with politicians who have stated that unvaccinated individuals are a threat to public health and should be locked out of society.

[These] are not measures to protect public health, she said. These measures can only be about punishing those who choose not to be vaccinated.

Protesters march through the streets during a rally against government COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne on Sept. 18, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Hatcher and Riordan said it would be entirely against the public interest to grant Kimber permission to appeal.

We do not intend, in the circumstances of the current pandemic, to give any encouragement to a spurious objection to a lawful workplace vaccination requirement, they wrote.

But Dean believes that all Australians, regardless of vaccination views, are entitled to protections of the law, and hoped the majority ruling in Kimbers case is recognised as an anomaly and not followed by others.

Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox welcomed the sensible decision to support aged care employers rights to mandate influenza vaccinations.

This is the first FWC Full Bench decision on the issue of vaccination mandates to be handed down during the pandemic, Willox said. It is pleasing that the Full Bench has supported an employers right to mandate vaccinations where reasonable in the circumstances.
The Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery Alabama on May 19, 2019. (Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images)

Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Key Section of Arizona Abortion Law

Federal Judge Douglas L. Rayes threw out a key provision of Arizonas abortion ban on Tuesday that would have allowed prosecutors to bring charges against health providers for terminating pregnancies due to a diagnosis of genetic abnormality, except in a medical emergency.

Rayes also granted a partial preliminary injunction against a provision that would have let prosecutors bring charges against anyone who was fundraising or paying for the abortion.

The Reason Regulations do not ban women from terminating pre-viability pregnancies because of a fetal genetic abnormality; they prohibit providers from performing such abortions if they know the patients motive, Rayes wrote in the court order (pdf).

Rayes concluded that the new law will bring harm to the doctorpatient relationship if a woman wishes to terminate her pregnancy due to a fetal genetic abnormality, but conceals this information from her doctor instead.

Rayes issued the ruling eight hours before the new abortion laws were to come into effect.

The judge declined to grant an injunction against a section of the law that requires fetuses to be referred to as people from the point of conception.

The Arizona Medical Association, the Arizona National Organization of Women, and two doctors were among those who filed the legal challenge.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed the new abortion bill (pdf) in April 2021 to protect unborn children from abortions performed strictly on the basis of genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome.

The new law also prohibits public colleges and universities from performing an abortion, forbids mail delivery of abortion-inducing medication, and allows the father or maternal grandparents of an unborn child who was aborted due to a genetic disorder to sue on behalf of an unborn child.

The bill requires a doctor or abortionist to complete an affidavit stating that he or she isnt performing an abortion because of the childs genetic abnormality. It also requires the abortionist to inform the mother that its unlawful to perform an abortion due to the childs race, sex, or genetic abnormality, and report any violations of the statute.

Ducey said in April that the legislation will prioritize life in our preborn children and protect those with genetic abnormalities.

Arizona House Democrats, however, said on Twitter that the legislation was a forced-birth, personhood bill that targets doctors & women who miscarry.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the CARES Act, at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on Sept. 28, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via Reuters)

Feds Powell Faces Heated Questions on Trading and Regulation

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faced heated questions on Tuesday from senators criticizing the central banks trading guidelines and financial regulation.

Speaking to members of the Senate Banking Committee a day after two regional Fed presidents being scrutinized for their investment trades announced their retirements, Powell defended the central bank and vowed to improve policies where needed.

This is a blow to the image of the central bank, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said about the trading controversy. He asked Powell about what steps he is taking to protect the impartiality of the Fed.

This followed some criticisms shared at the start of the hearing, when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the head of the Senate Banking Committee, said he plans to introduce legislation that would ban Fed officials from owning individual stocks.

Powell, who earlier this month ordered a review of the Feds ethics rules, added that the central bank is also examining the trades done by regional Fed presidents to make sure they were legal and in compliance with current ethics guidelines.

Even if it appears to be the case that these trades were in compliance with existing rules, that just tells you the problem is the rules and the practices and the disclosure needs to be improved, Powell said in response to a question. We will rise to this moment and address this.

The Fed chief, whose term expires in February, also fielded harsh words from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who called him a dangerous man to head the Fed and said she would vote against his reappointment.
Residential buildings under construction are seen at Evergrande Cultural Tourism City, a project developed by China Evergrande Group, in Suzhou's Taicang, Jiangsu Province, China, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Fitch Lowers Evergrande Rating on Likely Missed Interest Payment

Rating agency Fitch has downgraded cash-strapped Chinese property giant Evergrande from CC, or a very high level of credit risk, to C, or near default.

Fitch said in a Sept. 28 rating action announcement it had downgraded both Evergrande and its subsidiaries Hengda and Tianji, due to a likely missed bond coupon payment.

The downgrades reflect that Evergrande is likely to have missed interest payment on its senior unsecured notes and entered the consequent 30-day grace period before non-payment constitutes an event of default, Fitch analysts wrote in the announcement.

Last week, Evergrande missed a Sept. 23 deadline on an $83.5 million coupon payment on a dollar bond, coming a day after its main property business in China said it had privately negotiated with onshore bondholders to settle a separate coupon payment on a yuan-denominated bond.

The company hasnt issued any public statements about the missed payment, though several bondholders were cited by Bloomberg as saying they had not received it.

Fitch analysts said they were unable to obtain confirmation that Evergrande had made the Sept. 23 coupon payment.

As such, it is assumed that the company has entered the 30-day grace period for interest non-payment before an event of default is triggered, Fitch said.

The embattled property giant also needs to make a $47.5 million bond coupon payment on Sept. 29 on a separate dollar bond. Evergrande left its offshore bondholders guessing whether it would pay interest on the bond despite agreeing to settle debt with a Chinese bank in a $1.5 billion stake divestment deal.

Evergrandes silence on its offshore payment obligations has left global investors wondering if they will have to swallow large losses when the 30-day grace periods end for missed coupon payments.

With a massive debt load of over $300 billion, Evergrande has been on the brink of insolvency for years.

There has been a lot of ink spilled on whether Evergrandes downfall would cause a Lehman moment for China. And it very well could, in the sense that recent developments could destabilize an already fragile Chinese property market, wrote finance expert and Epoch Times contributor Fan Yu, in a recent op-ed.

Beijings hope is to orchestrate an orderly restructuring of Evergrande to the extent its possible, in order to minimize the risk of contagion in Chinas property market, which has around 80 million excess supply of housing units and where urban apartments are in the range of 2040 times average workers annual wages.

Something has to give, Yu argued, as Chinese authorities seek to force a deleveraging of the countrys grossly indebted property developers and steer the property market away from the build build build model of the past that buoyed the countrys economic output numbers.

Reuters contributed to this report.
A file image of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at an event in Surfside, Florida on Aug. 10, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Florida Governor Signs Executive Order to Deal With Reckless Immigration Policies

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.To address what Governor Ron DeSantis called a brazen disregard for federal immigration law an executive order was signed and a new public safety czar announced on Tuesday.

DeSantis addressed what he called the Biden border crisis with his executive order that prohibits state agencies from providing support for the resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida.

The governor initiated the order because he says that illegal immigration is taking its toll on taxpayer dollars and overwhelming state agencies.

This executive order makes it clear that Florida resources will not be used to prop up the failed open border agenda enacted by this administration, he said.

The executive order (21-223) addresses several things including directing the Department of Children and Families to refuse to renew licenses to facilities that house unaccompanied minors. Then it asks that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conduct audits of companies in Florida to verify they do not employ illegal aliens.

The second half of the order requires the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to lawfully gather information on the number and identities of illegal aliens being transported from the border to Florida. It also encourages state law enforcement to detain any vehicle transporting illegal aliens if there is reason, suspicions, it is being used for human or drug trafficking.

The order additionally requests information from state officials on the number of illegal aliens who are pending criminal prosecution or have been convicted of a crime.

To ensure that the executive order is followed, DeSantis named Larry Keefe as public safety czar.

Larry Keefe was nominated by President Trump in 2018 to serve as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Florida, wrote DeSantis press secretary Christina Punshaw in a statement.

He resigned in February 2021 after Biden took office. Mr. Keefe was a trial lawyer for more than 30 years, during which he has tried criminal and civil cases in federal and state courts.

DeSantis told reporters during a press conference that Keefes appointment is part of the states efforts to protect Florida taxpayers from bearing the burden of reckless immigration policies.

We will continue to hold the federal government accountable for refusing to enforce the immigration laws of this country, he said.

Keefe will serve to ensure the actions directed by the executive order are carried out.

The former U.S. Attorney told the press conference that: I saw illegal aliens that would get deported and come back, and then get deported and come back in an endless cycle.

The states, including Florida, bear the brunt of this cycle. Over the coming weeks and months, our state agencies will be addressing the impacts illegal immigration has had on our state, he said.

Keefe said if people are illegally in the state, and they have broken (state) laws they will be punished.

He also made a promise to law enforcement.

We will support them (law enforcement) when they are attacked, Keefe said. And they will be attacked for trying to do their jobs.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Mancino said that people come to Florida for the sun as well as other things.

But they also know that this is a law-and-order state, we will deliver on our end, he said.

This all follows a letter that DeSantis sent to the Biden administration on Aug. 26, as was reported by The Epoch Times, asking for a meeting seeking more transparency regarding illegals being resettled in Florida. That letter went unanswered, according to DeSantis, which prompted him to act.
French fishing boats protest in front of the port of Saint Helier off the British island of Jersey to draw attention to what they see as unfair restrictions on their ability to fish in UK waters after Brexit, on May 6, 2021. (Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images)

France Says UK Breaks Brexit Pact by Rejecting Fishing Permits

France has accused the UK of breaking the UKEU pact on post-Brexit relations after most applications by French fishermen to fish in British waters were rejected.

The French government reacted angrily on Tuesday after it emerged that, out of 47 French applications for small fishing boats to operate in the UKs territorial sea, just 12 fishing licences were granted.

Frances minister for the sea Annick Girardin, quoted in Le Monde, said: It is a new refusal of the British to apply the conditions of the Brexit accord despite all the work undertaken together.

I have only one watchword; to obtain definitive licences for our fishermen as the accord foresees, she said. French fishing must not be taken hostage by the British for political ends.

French minister for Europe Clement Beaune said his government will not hesitate to take retaliatory action, collectively.

We understand and share the exasperation of our fishermen, he was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.

The UKs Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said its approach had been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments under the post-Brexit trade deal.

The row deepened further on Wednesday, when the government of Jersey said that of the 170 French boats which applied for licences, 75 had been rejected.

In reaction, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said: These decisions are totally unacceptable and inadmissible.

He said the ruling ran counter to the post-Brexit trade deal which Britain signed with the EU and that France would seek support from Brussel for potential retaliatory measures.

Jerseys external relations minister Ian Gorst said they have taken a pragmatic, reasonable and evidence-based approach on this issue.

The Jersey government said 64 French boats had their applications approved while a further 31 had been granted temporary licences to allow them more time to prove they have a track record of fishing in Jersey waters in line with the UKs trade deal with the EU.

Those boats which were not granted a licence were being given 30 days notice, after which they would no longer be allowed access to the islands waters.

The dispute over fishing rights has lasted for several months.

In May, French minister Girardin said she was disgusted to learn that Jersey had issued 41 licences with unilaterally imposed conditions, and threatened to cut off electricity supplies to Jersey, which imports 95 percent of its electricity from France.

French fishing boats gathered near Jersey in protest against the restrictions, and the UK government dispatched two Royal Navy ships to the island in response.

PA contributed to this report.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a congressional hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 29, 2021. (Rod Lamkey/Pool/Getty Images)

Gen. Milley Defends Talking to Political Reporters, Says Some Details in Book Are Wrong

Gen. Mark Milley on Sept. 29 defended talking to political reporters even as he asserted he was misrepresented by at least one of them.

Milley has acknowledged speaking to reporters for three separate books, including Peril, which was authored by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, though, has challenged some of the portrayals in the books, including claims he told a Chinese general that he would warn him if the United States were going to attack China.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), during a Sept. 29 House Armed Services Committee hearing, wondered why Milley would spend hours speaking to the reporters, who are all focused on politics.

I believe part of my job is to communicate to the media what we do as a military and the military. So, I do interviews regularly with print media, books, documentaries, TV interviews. I think its part of a senior officials job to be transparent, and I believe in a free press, Milley said.

Banks countered that Milley should be embarrassed about his portrayal in Peril. The book says Milley, speaking with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in January, agreed with her when she claimed that then-President Donald Trump was crazy.

I know that portrayal is wrong. I know what I said, which is, Madam Speaker, I am not qualified to determine the mental health or assess the mental health of this president or any president,' Milley said.

He also said he didnt recall mentioning two media organizations in notes about the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, which the book said he did.

Speaking before a Senate panel on Sept. 28, Milley said he speaks to reporters to make sure these authors have correct information. In the case of Bob Woodward, one of the authors of Peril, they approach my guys to say are these facts true?; this is what we heard, Milley said.

On Sept. 29, despite challenging key portions of Woodwards book, Milley said he doesnt regret speaking with him.

No. I think it is important for me to speak to the media, he said.

A number of Republicans have expressed disbelief that Milley took time to talk with the reporters, particularly in light of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal that Milley oversaw last month.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) holds up a copy of Peril during a congressional hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Sept. 29, 2021. (Rod Lamkey/Pool/Getty Images)

I think what you did with making time to talk to these authors, burnishing your image, building that bluster, but then not putting the focus on Afghanistan and what was happening there, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told him during the hearing with the Senate Armed Forces Committee.

This is causing just a lot of anger from people who have trusted the military. They have felt like the military was one of the most trustworthy institutions, but in order to get a name in the book, in order to not be drawn into a political fight, what you have managed to do is to politicize the U.S. military, to downgrade our reputation with our allies.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) charged, You spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban, didnt you?

Not even close, congressman, Milley responded.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee, on Sept. 29 spoke up in support of Milley.

I will note for the record that I was quoted in the book as well and a lot of what I said was conflated and not 100 percent accurately portrayed, he said. It does happen. Just because someone says something doesnt mean its an accurate portrayal. It could be a misunderstanding of what was actually said.

The authors of Peril didnt immediately respond to a request for comment sent to their publisher, Simon & Schuster.
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington on Sept. 21, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Government Workers in California and Oregon Take Fight Over Forced Union Dues to Supreme Court

Government workers involved in four separate lawsuits are asking the Supreme Court to compel labor unions to return forced fees illegally seized from their paychecks that they say the unions refused to refund after losing a major case in 2018.

The appeal from a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Brice v. California Faculty Association, was filed with the Supreme Court last week, a spokesperson for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation told The Epoch Times. As of press time, it didnt appear to have been docketed yet by the high court.

The cases were all filed with free legal representation from National Right to Work staff attorneys, with two filed in partnership with attorneys at the Freedom Foundation.

The two organizations are optimistic that the lawsuits together could empower thousands of public-sector employees who do not belong to unions to obtain refunds amounting to millions of dollars in union dues seized before the Supreme Courts landmark 2018 ruling, Janus v. AFSCME. In Janus, the court threw a wrench in how unions finance their operations, overruling Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), which held that public-sector unions could collect forced agency fees from non-members to finance their collective bargaining activities without infringing the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

For decades, union bosses dipped into the paychecks of many workers who were not union members and used their money to finance activities those workers fiercely opposed, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix said.

They continued seizing dues despite workers pleas and warnings from the Supreme Court that their actions were likely unconstitutional. Because of the statute of limitations, a ruling in these workers favor would only force union bosses to return a small portion of the billions of dollars nationwide they unlawfully stole from public employees paychecks.

The Supreme Court must not allow the lower courts to shield union bosses from accountability for years of violations. The Court should promptly take up these cases, and provide relief to the millions of public sector workers whose rights union bosses callously violated for years, Mix said.

The petition, filed on behalf of government employees in California and Oregon, combines lawsuits filed by William Hough; a worker at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority; William D. Brice, a professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills; and two suits filed by state employees in Oregon. The litigants argue that legal precedent allows victims of First Amendment violations to sue for damages or restitution and that public sector workers forced to pay union dues in violation of the First Amendment deserve to get the money back.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear several other cases seeking the refund of forced agency fees from unions in the wake of the Janus decision.

The Epoch Times previously reported on one of those cases, Danielson v. Inslee.

Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel in a 20-page decision, Obama appointee Jacqueline H. Nguyen determined the union had collected the agency fees in good faith and shouldnt have to return them.

The union is not required to forecast changing winds at the Supreme Court, she wrote.

It is true that, under current law, the employees suffered a constitutional wrong for which they may have no viable means of compensation if the good faith defense prevails, Nguyen wrote.

Nonetheless, it would not be equitable to order the transfer of funds from one innocent actor to another, particularly where the latter received a benefit from the exchange.

The Epoch Times reached out to Acting U.S. Solicitor General Brian H. Fletcher, who represents the federal government in proceedings before the Supreme Court, but had not received a reply as of press time.
Passengers prepare to board a Qatar Airways aircraft at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 9, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

Homeland Security Blocks Flight Carrying US Citizens From Afghanistan From Landing in US: Organizer

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wont allow a charter flight carrying U.S. citizens and other evacuees from Afghanistan to land in the United States, one of the flights organizers says.

Bryan Stern, who founded Project Dynamo, said that 117 people, including 59 children, are stuck at an airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, waiting to fly back to the United States. Project Dynamo is an organization that works to evacuate people from Afghanistan.

Stern told Reuters on Sept. 28, that DHS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were blocking the flight, saying the agencies will not allow a charter on an international flight into a U.S. port of entry.

Stern said he had permission to fly the evacuees to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, and that he was told by officials that the plane could land at Dulles International Airport near Washington.

I have a big, beautiful, giant, humongous Boeing 787 that I can see parked in front of us, he said. I have crew. I have food.

A State Department spokesperson said its working to verify the accuracy and identities of passengers on the charter plane commissioned by Stern.

Our embassy staff in the UAE has been working around the clock to verify the accuracy of the passenger manifest and is coordinating with DHS/Customs and Border Protection on the ground to ensure the passengers are screened and vetted before they are permitted to fly to the United States, the spokesperson said. The Epoch Times has contacted the agency and DHS for comment.

The spokesperson said that we expect the passengers to continue onward travel tomorrow morning.

All U.S.-bound flights must follow the established safety, security, and health protocols before they are cleared for departure, a DHS spokesperson told Reuters. This process requires flight manifests to be verified before departure to the U.S. to ensure all passengers are screened appropriately.

Project Dynamo posted to Facebook pictures of the children sleeping in the UAE airport.

Right now we have 59 children sleeping on airport chairs and cold airport floorsnot the warm bed with a hot meal that wed arranged for all of them statesidebecause the U.S. Government denied our flight clearance into ALL U.S. ports of entry. All of them. For a plane load of Americans, it said in the post.

The group further said that the evacuees escaped the regime they were running from only to have the government they were running HOME TO, turn them away.

Mass evacuations of Americans, special visa holders, and some Afghan refugees were carried out last month as the Taliban extremist group took over Afghanistan. It came after the U.S. military withdrew its forces after two decades.
Syracuse, NY, Hospital Suspends 122 Unvaccinated Health Care Workers

A hospital in Syracuse, New York, has suspended 122 health care workers who hadnt received a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27, the deadline imposed by the state to do so.

St. Josephs Health told local media that workers who dont receive the vaccine by Oct. 8 face termination. Suspended workers received their letters informing them that they wont receive pay, hospital spokeswoman Kelly Quinn said.

If they get vaccinated, they are eligible for rehire and we would welcome them back, Quinn told Syracuse.com, noting that suspended employees who get vaccinated and return within one year can retain their tenure.

The hospital said in a statement that it will examine all our options to help ease the burden this may put on our staff including pausing some services, consolidating our [operating rooms], and adjusting elective surgeries.

Thousands of nurses, doctors, and other health care workers face suspensions or potential terminations after a statewide mandate went into effect in New York state on Sept. 27. Due to a potential shortage of staff, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency to potentially allow for the hiring of National Guard members with medical training, retired nurses, nurses from out of state, or health care workers from other countries at hospitals around the state.

Last night, I took bold action and signed an executive order that will alleviate potential staffing shortages in our hospitals and other health care facilities across New York State, Hochul wrote on Twitter on Sept. 28.

According to the governors office, about 16 percent of all health care workers in New York havent been vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

Disruptions at some New York state hospitals already have occurred due to the mandate.

Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester announced a temporary pause to some elective procedures, and a spokesman for the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo warned that the facility could lose a significant amount of daily revenue.

We had to make a decision as to where we could temporarily make some changes so that we could ensure other areas of services are as little affected as possible, Erie County Medical Center spokesman Peter Cutler told news outlets this week, noting that the elective procedures bring in about $1 million per day. Financially, its a big deal.

Northwell Health, the states largest health care employer with two dozen hospitals and 74,000 staff, told The Epoch Times that some unvaccinated employees were told that they were no longer in compliance with the statewide mandate.

We have begun a process to exit all unvaccinated team members, using a carefully planned approach that both maintains continuity of care at all of our facilities and ensures the safety of all of our patients, spokesman Jason Molinet said in an emailed statement on Sept. 28.
Cement Creek, which was flooded with millions of gallons of mining wastewater, meets with the Animas River on Aug. 11, 2015 in Silverton, Colo. The Environmental Protection Agency accidentally released approximately 3 million gallons of wastewater into the creek from the Gold King mine, polluting the larger Animas River downstream. (Theo Stroomer/Getty Images)

House Committee Pushes for Change at Board for Investigating Chemical Spills

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) on Sept. 29, revealing some bipartisan consensus on the general need to improve the long-troubled agency while raising questions about its limited response to tens of thousands of reports, its vulnerability to political agendas, and its freedom to investigate chemical spills caused by other federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Modeled after the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), the CSB was authorized in 1990 and launched in 1998.

Charged with investigating major accidental releases of chemicals, such as the West Fertilizer Company plant explosion in Texas, the agency has had a notoriously contentious history, with one recent chair, Obama appointee Rafael Moure-Eraso, resigning in 2015 after an investigation led to accusations of mismanagement and punishing whistleblowers.

The hearing comes days after the committee approved three nominees to join the boards sole current member, Trump appointee Dr. Katherine A. Lemos. The board is supposed to have five members, according to its enabling statute.

One of those nominees, Jennifer Sass, was approved despite Republican opposition, which centered on a reported Twitter post attacking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its interactions with an industry trade association, the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

All three nominees await confirmation by the Senate.

We want to see this agency flourish, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said in her opening remarks. In recent years, board vacancies, unfilled staff positions, employee morale issues, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic have led to underproductivity at the agency.

The CSB faces a backlog of 18 investigations. While it has completed three investigations in 2021 to date, it completed zero in 2020.

While Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, tied the CSBs work to climate change, Republican leaders on the committee, including ranking member Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.), stressed the CSBs role as an independent investigatory body, not charged with developing regulations.

The CSB should channel its resources into conducting investigations, especially looking for ways to meet the baseline, McMorris-Rodgers said in her opening remarks.

It should not use its investigations and the recommendations in its reports to push certain agendas.

Committee members also questioned Lemos, who testified to the committee under oath.

In response to questioning from DeGette, Lemos said she has a plan to complete all 18 backlogged investigations.

Questioned by the ranking member for Oversight and Investigations, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R.-Va.), Lemos testified that the CSBs board is codifying unbiased, standardized requirements for the recommendations in its reports, saying that those requirements would be released within months.

She also told Griffith that every recommendation, report, safety bulletin, and safety alert is legally reviewed prior to release, stating that was not the case prior to her tenure.

Lemos was also questioned by Pallone on how industrial facilities should adjust to a changing climate.

We anticipate seeing more and more of these [extreme weather] events, so its going to become even more of a challenge moving forward, Lemos said.

In terms of what plants or facilities can be doing, following guidance that is out there to ensure that theyre not just preparing for todays historical but tomorrows, based on recent history, and predicted future, level of extreme events.

Questioned by Rodgers on whether new investigations can actually be completed in six to 12 months, Lemos said that six to 12 months is not the timeline that things have been closing, adding that the CSBs model, the NTSB, typically takes years to issue its full reports.

Part of the challenge is that our agency has moved to an all-or-nothing, full investigation 160-page report or not at all, Lemos said. Part of what Im trying to do is return to what the CSB used to do, and what the NTSB does, and provide a range of products such that we can get out immediate safety recommendations and products within that timeframe.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.) asked Lemos about the number of incidents reported to the CSB per year, When somebody calls up and says theres been a problem, how many are those?

20,000 or 30,000 a year, Lemos said, later adding that more staff are certainly needed to address more of these events.

Questioned further by Schakowsky on the tens of thousands of calls, Lemos said that under last years reporting criteria, just 88 reported incidents qualified for further investigation.

Our attempt to take a range approach of our products will allow us to address all of those 88, Lemos said.

Rep. Gary Palmer (R.-Ala.) asked Lemos about the CSBs duty and ability to investigate other federal agencies, citing the EPAs role in the 2015 Gold King Mine release of toxic wastewater in Colorado, as well as a spill in Greensboro, Georgia.

The Chemical Safety Board has the responsibility to investigatethat doesnt mean the EPA does not investigate as well, similar to the NTSB and the [Federal Aviation Authority], Lemos said.

The CSB is an independent investigation that is not focused on the oversight or punitive elementit is to determine the root causes ,  she said, later adding that in some investigations, the CSB defers to other federal agencies.
How the Taliban in Afghanistan Could Bolster Conflict in Indias Kashmir

News Analysis

SRINAGARWith the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, serious concerns have arisen over the security situation in the Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir, Indias northernmost territory.

Kashmiri insurgents have long received support and sanctuary from across the border, and with their reported links to the Taliban, the potential security threat to the region could result in a substantial number of confrontations with Indian security forces.

The Taliban, since taking over Kabul, has called Kashmir a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, but the terrorist group has said it will raise its voice for Muslims anywhere, and particularly in Kashmir and India.

India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars over Jammu and Kashmir since its inception. India maintains that it took possession of the region by treaty in 1947, whereas Pakistan calls it India occupied. Since 1947, the region has been split into several regions: one controlled by Pakistan that India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, an easternmost end thats called Aksia Chin that is under Chinas control, and the rest, which remains with India. The city of Srinagar, in particular, largely remains the fulcrum of debate between the nationalist and separatist elements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis government brought in constitutional changes in 2019 and abrogated Article 370, which granted special status to the region within the Indian nation, and instead created two federally governed territories called Union Terrorities of Jammu and Kashmir on the border with Pakistan and the state of Ladakh, which borders China.

The Epoch Times visited Srinagar to speak with political leaders, local journalists, and Indian government officials last week to understand the situation in Kashmir as it relates to Afghanistan.

While law and order inside Srinagar seemingly remained under control with free movement of residents and tourists (including very few foreign tourists), streets and neighborhoods remained guarded by the Indian military and paramilitary forces along with their riot control vehicles.

A highly placed source in the Indian government in Srinagar told The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity that Indias concerns about Kashmir and the situation in Afghanistan are essentially about men, materiel, and drugs.

He said there are currently 200 terrorists inside Kashmir including 80 foreign terrorists, but the latter are mostly Pakistanis of Punjabi origin and not Afghans. However, since the Taliban released many prisoners during its conquest, these hardened insurgents may likely be pushed into Kashmir.

Weapons left by Americans would be drone dropped. Even if 10 sorties out of 100 are successful, it could pose serious security risks. Both weapons and drugs have been drone dropped from across the border earlier, he said. Opium flows inside Kashmir from Afghanistan through the porous borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan and Pakistan and India, he said.

More than 300 drones were sighted in Jammu and Kashmir along the disputed border between India and Pakistan from August 2019 to June 28, 2021.

A map of Jammu and Kashmir (not on scale) shows how the state that in 1947 acceded to India is currently under the control of India, Pakistan, and China. In 2019, the Indian administration bifurcated the state into two federally governed territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. (Map adapted by Venus Upadhayaya)

Talibans Statements on Kashmir

In statements to the media, Taliban spokesmen have recently asked India and Pakistan to resolve the issues bilaterally and have also said that Kashmir isnt in their jurisdiction, interference in Kashmir is against their policy, and the Taliban have no policy of launching armed attacks against other countries.

However, in an interview, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told the BBCs Hindi service: As Muslims, we also have a right to raise our voice for Muslims in Kashmir, India, or any other country.

The Talibans interviews appear to be a diplomatic tactic as a 2020 report from the U.N. Security Councils analytical support stated that two insurgent groups operating in Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), have hundreds of armed fighters located with the Taliban forces in Nangarhar.

Both groups were named terror groups during the 2017 BRICS summit in Xiamen, China.

In a bloody conflict in 2020 in which the now-ousted Afghan forces lost four soldiers, 10 of the 15 men they killed were Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists being trained for operations in Jammu and Kashmir, as reported by Indian media.

The JeM was involved in an attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy that killed 40 soldiers in February 2019 in Kashmir. Two weeks later, India claimed it had conducted airstrikes targeting militant camps inside the Pakistan-controlled territory. Pakistan retaliated a day later, leading to a short air escalation.

The Talibans takeover has bolstered other militant groups operating in the region, with some releasing statements that describe the Taliban as a motivation for their respective causes.

Syed Salahuddin, the leader of an alliance of Kashmiri insurgent groups, called the Talibans victory extraordinary and historical, in a voice message shared across social media days after the fall of Kabul. Salahuddin, who is based in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, said he expected the Afghan group to aid Kashmirs insurgents.

Same way, in the near future, India too will be defeated by Kashmirs holy warriors, he said.

A Taliban terrorist walks on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 17, 2021. (WANA via Reuters)

Opinion Inside Kashmir

On Sept. 20, reporter Asem Mohiuddin of the local weekly newspaper The Legitimate wrote for its front-page story: In the aftermath of US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Pakistan taking the driving seat in the country, the militancy in Kashmir may rise in coming months with ostensible support from China. The article points to the Talibans tutelage under Pakistan and its Inter-Service Intelligence.

Mohiuddin quoted retired Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain, who has always opposed Indian troop withdrawal from Kashmir, as saying: There is no possibility of lowering the security grid in Kashmir. Kashmir will take a direct impact of the Afghanistan situation since Pakistan is backing the Taliban forces.

Mohiuddin wrote that since the abrogation of Article 370, the relationship between India and Pakistan has been at an all-time low, and amidst these strained relations, India must brace for larger security challenges pertaining to Afghanistan.

Ahmad Ali Fayyaz, a senior Kashmiri journalist, told The Epoch Times in Srinagar on Sept. 18 that more than 50 percent of people in Kashmir believe Afghanistan under the Taliban will not meddle with other countries affairs and will not be misused by countries such as Pakistan to intensify conflict inside Kashmir.

However, theres a section of the Kashmiri population today who, according to Fayyaz, believe the Taliban may enter Kashmir with guns and rocket launchers and create a situation for India that will be similar to what the United States faced inside Afghanistan.

Theres a difference between waging a guerilla war with an alien country inside your own land and waging a war with a country like India inside Kashmir. The responses can be completely different. Itll not be the way it was witnessed in Afghanistan, Fayyaz said, adding that he has received threats more than a dozen times from insurgents.

Surrounded by Pakistan on one side and Chinas expansionist agendas on the other side, a section of the population feel secure with the presence of Indian military forces in Kashmir, said Fayyaz, who estimates only about a third of the population in the Kashmir valley would like to be independent from India.

Indian policemen stand guard during a curfew in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, on Aug. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

From Kashmiri Politicians

Ghulam Hassan Mir, a senior Kashmiri politician and a founding member of the newly formed Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, told The Epoch Times in his party office on Sept. 20 that with the Taliban in Afghanistan theres an apprehension that militancy will be on the rise in Kashmir.

Itll not be from the Taliban government. Itll not be the Taliban support. But itll be a new system, Mir said, adding that militancy is an industry in the region and the Taliban are a part of that ecosystem. There are other shoots.

These things will happen. Those who were criminals yesterday are not criminals today. It is a simple thing.

Mir said theres substance to fears about the drug supply chain from Afghanistan to Kashmir through Pakistan increasing under the Taliban.

Sajjad Lone, the chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference and a former member of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 21 that there may be an ideological spillover in Kashmir of the Taliban taking over the power in Afghanistan.

The people who will be impacted by the ideological spillover from Taliban or their success are not in a majority in Kashmir, Lone said, referring to Islamic radicalization.

He said the Taliban probably wont do something that would invite intervention from the international community as it did in the past.

So in that scheme of things, I dont think they will repeat conditions, which would force the international community to come back and intervene again, which means not allowing their soil for attacks against other countries, he said.

But having said that, the whole Taliban concept is in itself that inspiring, great for some sections of society across the Muslim world who are radicalized or are on the verge of radicalization.

The Indian government should take care that its policies further dont allow the alienation and radicalization of Kashmir youth or create any conducive situations for Taliban or similar elements, Lone said.

People per se in Kashmir are moderate. We should do nothing to push them to the Taliban. Taliban thought cannot inspire the Kashmiris. They are too forward-looking to settle for a medieval inspiration, he said.

Kashmirs long-standing and only communist leader, Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 19 that the way the United States pulled out of Afghanistan has created difficult situations for India as well.

You have to recognize todays reality. Todays reality is  theres no America-supported regime inside Afghanistan. Theres some sort of regime that was not the choice of the Indian government or some other neighbors as well and some population of the whole of the region as well, said Tarigami, who was a four-time member of the legislative assembly of the Jammu and Kashmir, which no longer exists after the abrogation of Article 370.

Tarigami, whos a member of the Marxist Communist Party of India, is also the convenor and spokesperson of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, an electoral alliance of various political parties that want Article 370 to be restored.

He urged that the world must take care of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and India must be a part of that effort. He didnt specifically comment on the Talibans coming to power in Kabul spilling over in Kashmir.
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, leaves her home to appear in British Columbia Supreme Court, in Vancouver, on Oct. 27 2020. (Don MacKinnon/AFP via Getty Images)

Innocent Travellers Could Be Pawns in Hostage Diplomacy

Commentary

It was no coincidence that as Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huaweis founder Ren Zhengfei, was released from home detention in her mansion in Canada, two Canadiansformer diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavorwere also released from prison in China.

Meng, Huaweis chief financial officer, was being held on a U.S. extradition request relating to the Chinese telecommunications giants alleged attempts to undermine U.S. sanctions imposed by then-President Trump on Iran. In retaliation, the two Canadians were arrested on espionage charges by Beijing.

When Meng returned to the Peoples Republic of China, she declared, If it wasnt for a strong motherland, I wouldnt have my freedom today.

What she should have said was, If it were not for the fact Beijing was not concerned at all with international law or truth, I would have had to face justice in the United States.

Spavor, already sentenced to 11 years in prison, was released with Kovrig and flown to Canada and freedom.

Their charges were in no way justified. On the contrary, they were arrested to put more pressure on Canada, which had been subjected to trade sanctions just as Australia was for proposing an independent investigation into the CCP virus, or as Beijing named it COVID-19 (why, incidentally did the West follow?).

Clearly, there have been deals involving Ottawa, Beijing, and Washington. This was no doubt achievable because of the Biden administrations aim of returning the United States to the Obama-era deal with the Iranian regimewhich could see those same sanctions that Meng had been detained for, removed or changed.

As Australia has learnt, Huawei is an entity very close to Beijing and under its control. One of the 14 grievances Beijing outlined against the Australian government had been to let Huawei be involved in the nations 5G network.

Some powerful forces in Australia have favoured this.

Perhaps they were unaware that under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decree, executives of Chinese companies, even on foreign soil, must obey Beijings instructions.

It has long been evident that citizens and residents of Western countries going to China, and Hong Kong, face extreme danger, even if they are not involved in political activities.

They may be used as tools to extract concessions from their government. Already two Chinese-Australians are being held over alleged espionage offences, writer Yang Hengjun and broadcaster Cheng Lei.

And for anyone who criticises the activities of Beijing, whether for the persecution of Uyghurs or the trade-in organs from the bodies of religious dissidents, it could even be risky travelling to nations with strong ties to China. This is because the Peoples Republic of China, including Hong Kong, has extradition treaties with over 50 countries around the world.

In a moment of extraordinary naivete, the Australian government actually signed an extradition treaty with Beijing on Sept. 6, 2007.

Fortunately, the treaty was withdrawn, and the decision made not to ratify it on Mar. 28, 2017, after vigorous campaigning, saw the deal shelved.

Following unrest in Hong Kong, Australia also suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on July 9, 2020.

Nevertheless, travellers face a clear and present danger when visiting any country that has such ties to Beijing. In addition, citizens of a country that Beijing may want to pressure also run the risk of being taken as hostages.

The Huawei affair demonstrates yet again that the CCP presides over a country where the rule of law does not exist.

It would also be foolish indeed if democratic nations were to continue in the naive belief that granting concessions upon concessions will lead to the reform of communism. The system is inherently and by its very nature incompatible with reform.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The logo of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is seen at the company's Sagamihara plant in Sagamihara, Japan on July 4, 2016. (Maki Shiraki/Reuters)

Japan Protests South Korean Court Ordering Sale of Mitsubishi Heavy Assets

TOKYOJapan has protested a South Korean court order that assets seized from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries be sold off to pay compensation to two women subjected to forced labor for the company during Japans occupation of the Korean peninsula.

A support group for the South Korean forced labor victims welcomed the court decision as a step forward on compensation, but top Japanese officials warned of serious impacts to already strained diplomatic ties.

Japans foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said on Tuesday, the ruling a day earlier Japan warns of serious impact after South Korean forced labor verdict by the Daejeon District Court in South Korea was a clear violation of international law.

We must avoid serious impacts on Japan-South Korea relations, Motegi said, describing the courts decision as truly regrettable during a regular news conference in Tokyo.

Motegi said Japan called upon the vice consul at the South Korean embassy in Tokyo to protest the verdict, while Mitsubishi Heavy said it would appeal the court decision.

Relations between the two countries, both important U.S. allies in North Asia, have been dogged by the legacy of Japans 19101945 occupation.

Disagreements over recent rulings related to wartime forced labor, including in brothels, have been followed by a dispute over export controls which has yet to be resolved.

The two women, Yang Geum-deok and Kim Sung-joo, worked at a Mitsubishi aircraft factory in Nagoya, Japan when they were teens during World War II.

South Koreas Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mitsubishi Heavy to compensate the victims, but the company has not done so, with Japan arguing the matter was settled under a 1965 treaty.

A later series of South Korean court rulings allowed seizures of Mitsubishi Heavy assets in the country, drawing strong rebukes from Tokyo.

In the latest decision, the Daejeon District Court in South Korea ruled on Monday that Mitsubishi Heavy should liquidate two patents and two trademarks among those seized assets to pay compensation to the women, who are both in their nineties, according a court official.

The compensation for each woman was estimated at around $178,023, according to the Victims of Japanese Wartime Forced Labor support group.

The court official declined to confirm the value of the assets.
Princess Mako, the elder daughter of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko, and her fiance Kei Komuro, a university friend, smile during a press conference to announce their engagement at Akasaka East Residence in Tokyo, Japan on Sept. 3, 2017. (Shizuo Kambayashi/Pool via Reuters)

Japans Princess Mako to Give Up One-Off Payment in Marriage: NHK

TOKYOJapans Princess Mako is set to forego a one-off million-dollar payment for giving up her royal status to wed a college classmate, media said on Saturday.

The 29-year-old daughter of Prince Akishino and her former college classmate, Kei Komuro, announced their engagement in 2017.

But the marriage was put off after reports of a financial dispute between Komuros mother and her former fiance.

The government is set to agree that the princess forego the payment, worth up to 150 million yen ($1.35 million) for royals giving up their status to marry commoners, public broadcaster NHK and others said.

NHK said the wedding date may be announced in October.

Officials of the Imperial Household Agency were not immediately available to comment.

A Japanese broadcaster, anticipating an imminent wedding, recently tracked down Komuro in New York. He was shown sporting a ponytail, a detail that has caused an uproar among some Japanese users of Twitter.

Media have said the couple plan to live in the United States. Under Japans males-only royal succession law, female members of the royal family lose their status on marrying commoners.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley, and General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of United States Central Command, participate in a Senate armed services hearing to examine the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 28, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Milley Calls Afghanistan Withdrawal a Strategic Failure

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the evacuation of Americans, Afghans, and allies out of Kabul following the Taliban takeover last month was a logistical success but strategic failure, the Pentagons top military officer told Congress on Tuesday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley made the remarks during a Senate hearing by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he was questioned on the Afghanistan withdrawal alongside others including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command commander Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie.

The hearing saw lawmakers both criticize the handling of the final days of the 20-year Afghanistan war and praise the decision to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops by President Joe Bidens self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline. Some 124,000 people, including roughly 6,000 Americans, were evacuated from Kabul last month.

It was a logistical success but a strategic failure, said Milley, the nations top-ranking military officer.

Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failurethe enemy is in charge in Kabul; theres no way else to describe thatthat outcome is a cumulative effect of 20 years, not 20 days, Milley added.

Questioned on what could have been done differently to prevent the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, Milley said he believed U.S. troops should have maintained a presence of thousands in the country.

Gen. Scott Miller, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, also said he believed U.S. troops should remain in the country.

McKenzie meanwhile said he raised concerns that a complete withdrawal would lead inevitably to the collapse of Afghanistan military forces and eventually the Afghan government, and that he was confident his recommendations were heard by the president.

Amid mounting criticism from both sides of the political aisle, Biden has defended his handling of the withdrawal, touting it as an extraordinary success. The president has said his decision to end the two-decade conflict was a choice between either pulling out or committing further forces for years to come.

Pressed on whether top military advisers recommended keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, Biden told ABC News last month that no one said that to me that I can recall.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Tuesday said that he believes Milleys advice was rejected by the president.

It is clearPresident Biden lied to the American people and ignored military advice, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) added on Twitter.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the president made clear that advice from advisers was split and that Biden didnt outline what every individual conveyed to him.

Questioned on why he didnt resign in protest, Milley said that it would be an incredible act of defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken.

This country doesnt want generals figuring out what orders were going to accept and do. Thats not our job, Milley said. The president doesnt have to agree with that advice. He doesnt have to make those decisions just because we are generals.

It is obvious the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted, Milley told the hearing, noting that the Taliban terrorist group is now in power in Kabul.

We must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization and they still have not broken ties with al-Qaeda, he added. I have no illusions who we are dealing with. It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power, or if the country will further fracture into civil war.

Tuesdays Senate hearing was the first of two scheduled on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. A second session is scheduled in the House on Wednesday.

According to Austin, some 100 Americans who wish to leave Afghanistan still remain in the country.
Students, some wearing protective masks, arrive for the first day of school at Sessums Elementary School in Riverview, Fla., on Aug. 10, 2021. (Chris O'Meara/AP Photo)

Judge Blocks South Carolinas School Mask Mandate Ban

A federal judge on Sept. 28 temporarily blocked South Carolinas ban on school mask mandates.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary Lewis issued a temporary injunction against the law, concurring with the plaintiffs that the law discriminated against students with disabilities.

This is not a close call. The General Assemblys COVID measures disallowing school districts from mandating masks  discriminate against children with disabilities, Lewis wrote in an opinion (pdf).

It is true that the fundamental right of a parent to decide what is best for their child cannot be ignored. It is also generally true that parents are the ones who know their children best, what is best for their health, and their ability to learn. But, those same truths apply equally to all parents, including the parents of children with disabilities, such as the minor plaintiffs here.

A spokesperson for Gov. Henry McMaster told The Epoch Times in a statement that the governors office strongly disagrees with the courts decision and will defend a parents right to decide whats best for their children up to the United States Supreme Court, if necessary.

South Carolinas school mask mandate ban was written into the states budget last year. The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit (pdf) on Aug. 2, arguing that schools have an obligation to ensure that students with disabilities can attend school knowing that the school district has followed the recommended protocols to ensure their safety.

The minor plaintiffs, all of whom either have disabilities or underlying medical conditions, argued that their conditions increase their risk of contracting COVID-19 and/or increase their risk of serious complications or death from a COVID-19 infection.

The progressive American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represented the plaintiffs, lauded the judges decision.

Federal disability rights laws are clear: If students with disabilities need schools to require masks in order for them to have equal access to their education, the state cannot stop schools from requiring those masks, Susan Mizner, director of the ACLUs Disability Rights Program, said in a statement. The courts decision today makes clear that state legislators and Gov. McMaster cant sacrifice the health and safety of students with disabilities for the convenience of others.

The national argument over school mask mandates is split sharply along political lines, with Democrats favoring mandates and Republicans pushing back against them. Judges in several states, including Florida and Texas, have already blocked bans on school mask mandates.
View of Los Angeles from Griffith Park on July 5, 2019. (Steven Lek via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)

LA Nonprofit Launches Micro-Forest Initiative in City Parks

The Los Angeles Parks Foundation has embarked on an initiative to plant 10 micro-forests per year in the citys parks, imitating a similar project in Paris, as groups across the world promote forest growth with the aim of improving the natural environment and limiting climate change.

In the spring or summer of 2020, I read about Pariss micro-forests initiative, and I became very interested in doing something similar in Los Angeles, Carolyn Ramsay, executive director of the Los Angeles Parks Foundation, told The Epoch Times.

A lot of our parks are in areas with too little tree coverage and not enough shade, for a variety of reasons, and I thought it would be a good way to replace the shade cover and trees that have been lost because of insects and diseases.

Ramsay cited the shot hole borer as an especially damaging invasive species that has killed more than 120 million trees across California.

She hopes that the new micro-forests will both mitigate the urban heat island effect and help remove atmospheric carbon dioxide, as mature trees absorb roughly 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year

The plantings are also meant to beautify the parks and improve recreational opportunities.

Were planting some in picnic areas of parks so that people can enjoy them, throw a ball, have a barbeque, or whatever, Ramsay said.

While deforestation is an ongoing challenge in many parts of the world, global reforestation is occurring regardless of deliberate initiatives such as the Los Angeles Parks Foundations campaign.

Indeed, the worldwide rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide has coincided with a  global greening  over recent decades, with the increased vegetation also helping to cool the Earth.

As with the micro-forests created in Paris , the Netherlands, and other locales, Ramsays foundation has employed the  Miyawaki method , created by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. Used successfully at thousands of sites across the world, the Miyawaki method relies on native trees and shrubs, which are planted densely in such a way that growth is directed vertically rather than horizontally.

The organization has implemented the method at just one of its micro-forests thus far, a site located at the Bette Davis Picnic Area in Griffith Park.

Its doing very, very well, and we do hope to install more of them, Ramsay said.

Miyawaki also stressed the importance of soil stabilization and improvement, noting that field surveys have told us it is not climate conditions but soil conditions that matter.

The method, which can be applied on polluted or otherwise degraded land, can yield multilayered, biodiverse pioneer forests in just two to three decadesmuch faster than natural forests, which take hundreds of years to grow.

The resultant forests are also denser than monoculture forests, meaning that they capture more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Other forestry initiatives aimed at addressing climate change include the World Economic Forums Trillion Tree Campaign , which then-President Donald Trump supported through an executive order .

Additionally, the National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, has launched a campaign to plant 50 million trees throughout U.S. National Forests.

The LA Park Forest campaign plans to carry out its next planting on Sept. 30 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood at Hollenbeck Park.
Live Q&A: China Directs Military to Prepare for War; New York Faces Shortage of Health Care Workers

Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently instructed military officers and soldiers to make preparations for war while speaking at an undisclosed base in northwestern China. And in other news, New York is facing a shortage of health care workers as thousands refuse to comply with vaccine mandates. In this live Q&A with Crossroads host Joshua Philipp, well discuss these stories and others, and answer questions from the audience.

Were being heavily censored by Big Tech. Our solution? Create our own independent platform free of censorship. Join us today on EpochTV. Weve got a country to save: http://epochtv.com/Crossroads

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Martwaine Robinson works to marry the body structure with the battery pack and the front and rear sub frames as he and fellow workers assemble electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Ariz., on Sept. 28, 2021. (Caitlin O'Hara/Reuters)

Lucid to Start Deliveries of Electric Cars With Range Exceeding Teslas in October

CASA GRANDE, Ariz.U.S. startup Lucid Group Inc., said on Tuesday it will start delivering luxury electric sedans with a Tesla-beating driving range in late October, posing a major challenge to the market leader whose sales of premium models have stagnated.

The California-based Lucid began production of its long-delayed Lucid Air cars at its Arizona factory on Tuesday, and said it aims to ramp plants capacity up to 90,000 vehicles per annum in the next two years.

The top-end Lucid Air Dream Edition will be available in late October, followed by less expensive models: Grand Touring, Touring, and Air Pure. The company said it has received more than 13,000 reservations for Lucid Air models, and it has increased the planned total production of the Lucid Air Dream Edition to 520 vehicles.

A version of the Lucid Air Dream Edition, priced at $169,000, received an official U.S. government rating of a 520-mile (837 km) driving range, over 100 miles more than its closest rival, Teslas Model S, which is priced at $89,990. The higher range helped lead to a 23 percent jump in Lucids shares this month.

Speaking at the production site, Lucid Chief Executive Officer Peter Rawlinson, a former chief engineer on the Tesla Model S, said his companys cars have an advantage in battery technology and costs over the Model S.

People test drive Dream Edition P and Dream Edition R electric vehicles at the Lucid Motors plant in Casa Grande, Ariz., on Sept. (Caitlin OHara/Reuters)

Weve ridden customers of the fear of range anxiety, he said. The next big obstacle is cost effectiveness of electric cars. Weve got to get the cost down.

He said the Air Pure, the least expensive version with a price tag of $77,400, will go into production late next year.

Execution Challenge

The company, founded in 2007, received funding from Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund in 2018 before going public via a shell company in July.

(20)17 and (20)18 were brutal. The company was in a parlous state. And then Ive got to say, we met a perfect partner, he said.

Rawlinson, who left Tesla in 2012, faces tasks similar to those of Tesla in its early days, including how to address manufacturing challenges and scale up production.

I think the big challenge for Lucid will be execution, said Sam Abuelsamid, a principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights. I think that they have a very good car. Its very attractive.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in June that Tesla has canceled its plan to launch a Model S Plaid+, with a target driving range of 520 miles, saying the Model S Plaid itself is just so good.

Musk reiterated this month that production is hard.

Production with positive cash flow is extremely hard, he said, citing carmakers razor-thin margins.

Teslas combined sales of Model S and Model X luxury models stood at only 1,890 in the second quarter of this year, down from 22,300 during the same period three years ago. Tesla does not break out figures for the two high-end models.

A Tesla Model S electric car is seen at its dealership in Seoul, South Korea, on July 6, 2017. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

The Model S doesnt look fundamentally different from a Model S nine years ago, Abuelsamid said. In the premium market, customers are looking for the latest and greatest.

Musk in October 2020 cut the price of its Model S, shortly after Lucid announced the pricing of its base model. The gauntlet has been thrown down! The prophecy will be fulfilled, he tweeted at that time.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian, backed by Amazon.com Inc., and now preparing for a public stock listing, earlier this month started production of electric pickup trucks. That move came ahead of similar expected moves by Tesla, General Motors Co., and Ford Motor Co.

By Hyunjoo Jin
Made in China 2025: Another CCP Dream Dashed

News Analysis

From the beginning of his reign, Xi Jinping has been preaching Chinas need to end U.S. world dominance, create Chinese independence, and rewrite the global social order.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ascribes names to the various plans and initiatives that it hopes will culminate in Chinese global domination, including Made in China 2025 (MIC 25), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), common prosperity, dual circulation, and a host of other initiatives. Recently, Xi has stepped up the nationalist rhetoric, but it seems that MIC 25 and the BRI have fallen victims to Chinas zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy and Xis crackdown on everything.

Now, Xi is promoting an intensified version of his earlier independence and global conquest narratives, but he appears to believe China will achieve world domination by cracking down internally, rather than expanding abroad.

When MIC 2025 was announced in May 2015, the goal was to invest heavily in domestic technology development in order to end Chinese dependence on foreign technology, transforming China into a global powerhouse of high-tech industries. In this way, the CCP hoped that Chinese companies would be able to compete globally, moving China up the value chain from low-end manufacturing to high-end innovation. As each of these named goals is part of a larger government strategy, MIC 2025 is a significant component to Xis goal of China becoming a fully industrialized nation by 2035.

A screen shows news coverage of Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivering a speech during a Communist Party of China and World Political Parties summit, as people walk outside a shopping mall in Beijing on July 7, 2021. (Jade Gai/AFP via Getty Images)

The CCP planned to improve Chinas financial, education, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors, creating Chinese innovation, and improving manufacturing of both essential components and final products. Areas such as machine learning, which are difficult to reverse engineer, were a particular focus of these programs.

Other areas to be emphasized included wireless-sensor networks, 3D printing, industrial e-commerce, cloud computing, and big data. State banks and financial institutions made funds available to companies conducting research, particularly in the area of semiconductors. The specific target was to move China from its current level of 16 percent semiconductor self-sufficiency to a target of 70 percent.

Financial support from Beijing included grants, tax incentives, research subsidies, low-interest loans, and bonds. State funding and state plans led to a favoring of state-owned and state-controlled entities, as well as companies close to the regime. This already began to drive a wedge between the public and private sectors, which exacerbated over the intervening years.

Experts outside of China believed that, even before the pandemic economy and Xis recent crackdowns, MIC 2025 was not going to succeed. Basically, Chinas objective was to pump money into research and development in order to reach a level of development, which the United States, Germany, and Japan had already attained. That in itself would be very expensive, and in the end, would only level the playing field, not necessarily give China an advantage. Next, the United States, Germany, and Japan not only have the advanced technology already, but also have access to manufacturing in India, where labor costs are about half of what they are in China. Beijings goal, conversely, was to develop the technology and then manufacture in China. So it seems China still would not have had an advantage.

Now, it seems that MIC 2025 and some of the earlier programs have been completely abandoned. Before, Xi had been pumping money into technology research; now, he is demanding that technology giants give away large portions of their profits.

Under the new common prosperity plan, Alibaba, for example pledged to invest $15.5 billion in economic and social development. Tencent similarly pledged $100 billion toward various social initiatives, as have Pinduoduo, Meituan, and Xiaomi.

Chinese electronics company Xiaomis new smartphone Mi MIX3 5G is displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Feb. 24, 2019. (Lluis Gene/AFP)

Shifting from promoting and encouraging private sector technology firms to nurture and develop domestic technology, Xi is now cracking down on firms such as Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, and Didi. The last-minute cancellation of Ant Groups IPO is one of the largest examples of the CCPs crackdown on big tech. Xi is regulating the behavior of tech giants, while demanding that they give money away. This does not seem the best strategy toward developing domestic technology and innovation. Understandably, the markets are reacting negatively with the Hang Seng Tech Index dropping by 40 percent since February.

Xis quest for semiconductors, in particular, has gone completely off the rails. About nine miles outside of the Shandong Provincial capital of Jinan, a semiconductor plant was being built by Quanxin Integrated Circuit Manufacturing, funded by government money. A year later, the factory is still not complete, construction has halted, and the company is out of money. The high-quality talent that Quanxin recruited are all abandoning ship after the firm was unable to meet payroll.

Another company, Hongxin in Wuhan, similarly took initial government money but failed to produce anything in the end. Tacoma Nanjing Semiconductor Technology in Jiangsu and Kuntong Semiconductor Technology in Shaanxi Province were other examples of public-private partnerships that ran out of money and went bankrupt, before producing a final product. Solar cells and electric cars are other areas where companies have taken government money, but declared bankruptcy before completing their projects.

With a lack of government funding and support, it seems unlikely that Chinese technology companies can help the CCP realize the goals of Made in China 2025 or the goal of becoming a fully industrialized nation by 2035. Meanwhile, the crackdown on tech firms, the insistence that they maintain Party cells and Party members on their boards of directors, and that they redistribute their wealth according to government edicts all seem like policies that would move them away from achieving the regimes technological development goals.

Some experts believe that with increased government controls, these high-tech companies will become like quasi-state-owned enterprises, working toward the common prosperity and the greater good rather than toward technological independence.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Robert Aaron Long appears in front of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville at the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 30, 2021. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal Constitution via AP)

Man Charged in Georgia Spa Killings Pleads Not Guilty

The man accused of killing eight people in Georgia in March pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder and other charges on Tuesday.

Robert Aaron Long, 22, entered the plea through his attorney during a brief hearing in Fulton County.

Prosecutors say Long shot dead eight people at three spas in the Atlanta area.

Long already pleaded guilty to four of the killings. A judge in Cherokee County sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Daoyou Feng, 44; Paul Andre Michels, 54; and Xiaojie Yan, 49.

Long is charged in Fulton County with killing Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Suncha Kim, 69; and Soon Chung Park, 74.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, has said she will pursue the death penalty.

Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek it, she said earlier this year. And at that time, I did not. Unfortunately, a case has arisen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants it.

The decision that I made to seek death were with the complete support of the families [of the victims], and they continue to support this office, she added during a briefing last month.

Willis believes Long committed hate crimes, though prosecutors in Cherokee County said there was no evidence that was the case.

Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace, who worked with Longs attorneys to reach a plea deal, told reporters after the deal was struck that justice was served.

She said she could have pursued the death penalty but decided against it because victims and their families did not want her to in part because of how long a trial could take.

In a court hearing in Cherokee County in July, Long described how he purchased a firearm, a bottle of bourbon and set out to kill himself, claiming to feel remorseful for a self-proclaimed sex addiction.

Instead, he said he decided to carry out the spa shootings across two counties in metro Atlanta.

The next hearing in Fulton County is set for Nov. 23.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Our dreams reside in a place of hope and possibility, a place we can cultivate even as it transforms who we are. (Supinskaya Glashchenko/Shutterstock)

Metamorphosis: The Birth of a Dream

A dream takes a process of development that transforms the dreamer

What is your dream? Do you know at what stage it is? What do you need to do next?

In the past several years of my earth life, I have seen many of my dreams come to pass, and there are many more on the horizon. They are all at different stages of development and preparation, but I expect they will each be complete someday.

Lately, Ive been thinking a great deal about dreams, as in the desires of our hearts. All of us have a passion that determines and fuels our dreams. Dreams endure and beckon us to contemplate them often. What is your dream? Lets see how it will develop.

Our dreams take preparation before they can be realized. There is a perfect analogy to the development of our dream in the development of a butterfly.

Think of what must transpire for a lovely butterfly to emerge strong and free from its former not-so-beautiful state. It all starts with the egg. The embryo is formed from cells of the parents and incased in the egg. Our dream begins the same way: with the egg. This is our infant thought-dream: a contemplation of what we want, that thing that makes us feel completely alive and gives us much joy: our dream. It also aligns with our gifts and talents, and it involves something we want to do. But in this stage, we are immature dreamers. The dream, and our grasp of it, is unformed.

All that the egg does is sit in its shell and grow. Over the pre-determined time, the tiny embryo expands and becomes stronger until it is ready to break the eggshell with its increased strength and volume. Its the same with the first thought-dream that we have. It will grow and become stronger until we are ready to move it beyond the thought-dream stage to its next level of development.

After some days, a caterpillar breaks open its shell and sheds the egg. What does the caterpillar do once out of the egg? It eats! With a voracious appetite, it consumes mass quantities of food as its whole job now is to grow. Likewise, when our thought-dream develops to the next stage of growth, we must feed it with all the knowledge and training we can acquire. We must read books, take classes, attend seminars, study, study, and study some more. Just like that little caterpillar, as we eat, we grow and gain new stature.

Finally, when the well-fed and fat caterpillar has gained sufficient size and strength, it spins a cocoon all around itself where it will incubate safely for a while, secure from any outside harm or influence. Dreams too need a time of solitude. Some people wont understand your dream or doubt your ability to realize it. This is a time to grow, but often in a private way.

While in the cocoon stage, the caterpillar undergoes a major transformation, and a metamorphosis occurs. It becomes something completely new and different as everything in its life up to this point blends together to form the final result.

Our dream self develops in us the same way. All our gifts, talents, desires, knowledge, and training come into play to make us new persons capable of manifesting our dreams.

We know what comes next. The gossamer butterfly, long known as the symbol of resurrection, emerges from its temporary cocoon-home and gracefully wafts its way heavenward.

These newfound wings are our new capability to begin the journey toward a destination that was once impossible. Our dream, that part of us that hopes and seeks to realize itself in the world, has reached a new stage. Consider the migration of the monarch butterfly, which travels from its summer grounds as far north as Canada to its wintering grounds as far south as Mexico. This annual migration can reach 3,000 milestwice a year. No caterpillar, no matter how well-fed and how determined, could cover even a tiny fraction of that distance.

The dream must grow and transform the dreamer.

With some dreams, it can take years before we are sufficiently developed and ready for incubation. This incubation period may take months or years, but it cant be rushed. After a period of incubation, our goal will become something we can bring into reality. Its Gods design, and it assures the birth of our dream at the proper time, well prepared and ready to advance.

So, I ask you again: What is your dream? Do you know at what stage it is? What do you need to do next? Be encouraged and go after it with gusto.
Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, as he attends Microsoft's 'Young Innovators' Summit' in New Delhi, India on Febr. 26, 2020. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

Microsoft CEO Says Failed TikTok Deal Strangest Thing Ive Worked On

Microsofts near-acquisition of social media app TikTok last year was the strangest thing Ive ever worked on, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said on Monday.

TikTok had been ordered by then-President Donald Trump to separate its U.S. version from Chinese parent ByteDance because of national security concerns about the collection of U.S. users data. Microsoft in August 2020 began talks on the proposed acquisition but the deal collapsed by September.

Trumps divestment push ended by the time he left office in January and no potential suitor ending up acquiring TikTok.

Speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Nadella said he was looking forward to bringing Microsofts security, child safety, and cloud expertise to TikTok.

Its unbelievable, Nadella said of the experience during an on-stage interview. I learned so many things about so much, and so many people. First of all, TikTok came to us. We didnt go to TikTok.

TikTok was caught in between a lot of things happening across two capitals, Nadella continued. President Trump had a particular point of view of what he was trying to get done there, and then it just dropped off. The [U.S. government] had a particular set of requirements and then it just disappeared.

Nadella said what attracted ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming to Microsoft was the U.S. companys services related to content moderation and child safety, developed through products included in Xbox video gaming tools, and on business social network LinkedIn.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nadella said he has no idea whether the United States is still pushing for a deal under President Joe Biden. The Biden administration has said it is reviewing the national security concerns.

At this point, Im happy with what I have, Nadella said.

He also expressed support for greater government regulation of cryptocurrency rules, which could stifle ransomware attacks since the ransoms often flow through opaque systems.

By Paresh Dave
Moldovas First Female President Shifts Stance on China, Breaking Long Custom

Moldovas first female president, Maia Sandu, broke a long custom by not honoring the Chinese ambassador to Moldova at the end of his term in office. Analysts suggest this is an indication of Moldova changing its long-term pro-China position.

Sandu, 49, assumed office on Dec. 20, 2020, becoming Moldovas first female president by defeating Igor Dodon, the former President of Moldova and leader of the Socialist Party of Moldova, in its 2020 presidential election. Moldova is a post-Soviet state in Eastern Europe with a population of 4.02 million. It declared independence on Aug. 27, 1991.

On Sept. 20, Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news agency, reported that Dodon disclosed that Sandu had not honored the Chinese ambassador to Moldova, Zhang Yinghong, who had recently ended his term.

Dodon said that Sandus actions were provocative toward China, especially in recent months awarding honors to the United States, the European Union, and France. Dodon called China a strategic partner of Moldova and accused Sandu of disrespecting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

According to the official website of the Chinese embassy in Moldova, on Sept. 17, Zhang paid a farewell to Moldovas Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nicolay Popescu, but Sandu was not present.

Sandu graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova in 1994 and obtained a masters degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School in 2010. From June 2010 to July 2012, she served as an adviser to the World Banks Executive Director in Washington. From July 2012 to July 2015, she served as minister of education of Moldova, and from June to November 2019 as prime minister before her presidency.

On Aug. 27 this year, the 30th anniversary of Moldovas independence, Sandu told all citizens that Moldova would take firm steps to integrate into Europe and obtain a foothold in the European Union (EU). Sandu is the first Moldova leader to openly state a pro-EU stance and vision of entering the European Union, something she has done since 2016.

Moldovas Long Pro-communist History

According to Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moldova and the CCP established diplomatic ties on Jan. 30, 1992. Since then, the two sides have frequently cooperated in political and economic fields and frequently exchanged visits.

In September 2009, the CCP established its first Confucius Institute in Moldova. Confucius Institutes are commonly regarded as a way for Beijing to spread propaganda under the guise of teaching, interfere with free speech on campuses, and even spy on students. An investigative report issued by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 2007 stated that the CCP tried to use the Confucius Institute to exercise its soft power.

In September 2013, after CCP leader Xi Jinping first introduced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Moldova and six other countries in Europe and Asia signed a memorandum of understanding on co-construction of the BRI in cooperation with Chinas Ministry of Commerce.

Moldova had relied on Russia for a long time and actively supported the policies of the CCP. For example, in May 2010, under the CCPs intervention, the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet canceled two performances by Shen Yun Performing Arts.

On the morning of May 25, 2010, local time, the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe and orchestra arrived outside the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Moldova as scheduled, preparing to enter the theater to prepare for its 7 p.m. performance, NTD reported. However, the theater door was closed, and the theater staff waited more than 5 hours outside the door, but the theater office and the local government refused to respond.

The theater manager revealed to the public on May 24, 2010, that Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese embassy in Moldova exerted tremendous pressure on the Moldovan government to coerce the cancellation of the two Shen Yun performances.

Moldovas move was criticized by the U.S. State Departments 2010 International Religious Freedom Report. The report stated that although the Moldovan Theater signed a performance contract with the Falun Dafa Association on Jan. 20, 2010, the theater succumbed to pressure from Andrei Popov, the minister of foreign affairs and European integration, to cancel the scheduled performance. Popov said that the performance could have damaged diplomatic relations with the CCP.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts rose to become the worlds premier classical Chinese dance company within just a dozen years, reviving an ancient art form that was lost in China under communist rule. In 2006, artists from around the world, including some who escaped persecution in China, came together in New York to form an arts company to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and present true traditional Chinese culture to the world. The Chinese regime has long interfered with performances worldwide since Shen Yun began touring, attempting to discredit the company and pressure theaters and governments into canceling the show.
Monterey Medical Workers Protest Vaccine Mandates Ahead of State Vaccination Deadline

MONTEREY, Calif.Approximately 100 people, including hospital staff, their families, and other community members, held a rally in Monterey, California, on Sept. 26 to express their opposition to vaccine mandates.

The Oct. 1 deadline is approaching for California health care workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Hospital staff at the rally shared their stories as to why they choose not to or cannot be vaccinated.

Elizabeth Sims, a registered nurse at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP), is pregnant and is choosing to remain unvaccinated to protect her unborn child. She recounted her experiences as one of the nurses working the hospital floor when the pandemic first hit.

At the beginning of the pandemic  I was one of the first to volunteer to take COVID patients. Most of the people on my floor did not want to take COVID patients; they declined, she told The Epoch Times.

Sims cared for patients who were on room air (not receiving any extra oxygen) and did not require specific treatment.

I think the sad part about all of this is for those of us who were on a COVID unit, taking care of COVID patients, on the front lines  now we are the ones getting fired, said Sims. Definitely feeling betrayed, definitely feeling undermined.

Another registered nurse at CHOMP, Amy Landry, said she contracted COVID-19 while working at the hospital. She said the hospital did not provide her with N-95 masks while she cared for a COVID patient on New Years Eve.

The PPE [personal protective equipment] stuff was changing daily: Do you have to wear a N-95; you only have to wear a N-95 when you take care of patients that are on high flow; oh, you dont have to do that anymore. It was changing every time we went into the hospital, Landry told The Epoch Times.

She said five days after caring for the patient, she tested positive for COVID-19, and she is still recovering from lingering health impacts.

Multiple nurses and staff mentioned a lack of PPE and N-95 masks for first responders at the beginning of the pandemic.

Sydney Smith, a hospital technician, filed for a medical exemption, which is still under review. He described how he received one dose of the vaccine but experienced cardiac complications.

Two day[s] after the vaccination, [I had] cardiac issues: pressure, stabbing pain, and shortness of breath. You know, I like to work out, I like to stay active, my family and I, and it got to the point where it was affecting that, Smith told The Epoch Times.

He said he went to the emergency department to get treated and now has a cardiologist to monitor his cardiac issues. Smiths cardiologist signed his medical exemption request and advised him not to receive a second dose, which could be fatal for him.

Some staff have requested religious exemptions. Multiple nurses and hospital administrative staff said that they have strong religious faith and do not wish to take the vaccine, which they say goes against their beliefs.

Ive also put in for a religious exemption, because I sincerely believe that it is wrong to be forced to do this and that the state mandate allows me to wear masks and get tested twice a week, like I am now, said Theo Gibson, locksmith for the Engineering Department at Montage Health.

Some staff mentioned that the state order allows exempt employees to continue working.

Its so sad that were having to test, but the vaccinated arent having to test. And theyre having mild symptoms and theyre still coming to work, Estreya Pelayo, senior administrative assistant at Montage Health CHOMP, told The Epoch Times.

Nurses also expressed concern for the hospitals future staffing capabilities.

By forcing us to go through with this mandate, and choosing our livelihoods or getting the shot  theyre actually forcing the quality nurses out of nursing, Sarah Huseby, registered nurse at Montage Health CHOMP, told The Epoch Times.

She expects the hospital will likely recruit staff from other states or new graduates.

Approximately 60 to 70 hospital employees are now filing a lawsuit against Montage Health over its vaccination policies.

Were trying to support each other in different ways. We are also trying to stand up for our rights, so we have engaged an attorney. The attorney is currently the one that is in communication with Montage, Christine Kinkade, clinical educator at Montage Health CHOMP, told The Epoch Times.

People hold signs calling for freedom of choice during a rally protesting vaccine mandates in Monterey, Calif., on Sept. 26, 2021. (Cynthia Cai/The Epoch Times)

Montage Healths Policies

Per the California Department of Public Healths Aug. 5 order, Oct. 1 is the deadline for California health care workers to be fully vaccinated. Staff with exemptions would be required to get tested weekly for COVID-19 and wear N-95 masks to continue working in health care facilities.

However, Montage Health, based in Monterey, has a stricter policy.

In an email to The Epoch Times, Montage Health stated: Those who work remotely and applied were granted the exemption, and those that do not work remotely have been granted a six-month leave of absence.

It explained that staff who are pregnant will be offered a leave of absence with full medical benefits and are welcome to get vaccinated and come back to work after their maternity leave is over.

Montage Health CEO Dr. Steven Packer stated: We are grateful for the dedicated service provided by ALL of our staff members, [sic] however It is imperative that 100 percent of our staff working at our facilities after October 1 are fully vaccinated to ensure the highest level of protection of our patients, our workers, and our community.

The hospital also acknowledged that pandemic-related burnout is a real concern, and the hospital is now recruiting to fill vacancies. Around 200 of the roughly 3,250 hospital staff remain unvaccinated.
More Than 400,000 Americans Received COVID-19 Booster Shots Over Weekend: White House

Over 400,000 Americans received COVID-19 booster shots over the weekend, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday.

Speaking at a teleconference press briefing by the administrations COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials, Zients said the huge number of booster shots were provided by pharmacies alone.

Nearly a million people have already scheduled to get their booster jabs through a pharmacy over the coming weeks too, Zients said, noting that the administrations planning and preparationincluding working with governors, pharmacies, doctors, and long-term care facilitieson booster shots have propelled a strong start.

Zients said they were able to get booster shots in arms quickly on Friday, almost immediately after the Food and Drug Administration (DFA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed off on a series of recommendations allowing for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shots to be administered to people 65 years of age and older, those aged 18 to 64 years who are at high risk of severe COVID-19, and people aged 18 to 64 whose job may place them at high risk of contracting the virus.

Zients said Massachusetts and several other states were notifying eligible people by text message and email in an effort to get them in for a booster shot.

President Joe Biden receives a COVID-19 booster shot during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in Washington on Sept. 27, 2021. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

In New Jersey, three mass vaccination centers are opening to get booster shots administered, and the White House coronavirus response coordinator noted that all states, tribes, and territories can open up such centers with help from the federal government, including 100 percent reimbursement.

At the same time, our top priority remains first and second shots, Zients said.

Overall, more than three out of four eligible Americansthose Americans 12 and olderhave gotten at least their first shot. Importantly, 94 percent of seniorsthose 65 and olderhave at least one shot. And tomorrow, we will hit an important milestone: 200 million adults with at least one shot.

President Joe Biden received his COVID-19 vaccine booster shot on camera in the White House Monday, shortly after the CDC shared their series of recommendations. Prior to receiving the injection, Biden continued to cast blame on those who have yet to get the shot, which he says now makeup about 23 percent of the population.

That distinct minority is causing an awful lot of us an awful lot of damage for the rest of the country, he said. This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that herd immunity will not be able to be achieved through natural infectionwhen enough people in the population have recovered from COVID-19 and have developed protective antibodies against future infectionand that the only solution to ending the pandemic was to get enough people vaccinated.

As Ive said so many times, herd immunity is really a complicated issue of protection by vaccination and those who have continued in durable protection following infectionWe do not know what that number is right now, Fauci said.

You know when you are at herd immunity when the virus doesnt have opportunity to go from person to person. But right now, we dont know what that number is. And when you dont know what the number is, what do you do? You vaccinate as many people as you possibly can, as quickly and as expeditiously as you possibly can. Thats what we should be concentrating on, not any particular number.
Nearly 100 Illegal Aliens Nabbed at Two Stash Houses in Texas

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers apprehended almost 100 illegal aliens inside two stash houses in Laredo, Texas, during a 24-hour span last week, the agency announced on Sept. 28.

Officers nabbed more than 50 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras in a stash house discovered on Ligarde Street on Sept. 23. The next evening, CBP officers followed a tip about illegals being housed on Philadelphia Street to discover another stash house. Inside that residence, authorities found more than 40 illegal aliens from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.

CBP noted that all of the illegals were given face masks prior to being processed.

The substandard conditions typically encountered when stash houses are found can foster a breeding ground for illnesses or other communicable diseases, CBP said in a statement on Sept. 28.

Border patrol agents have discovered and dismantled 400 stash houses this fiscal year, resulting in the apprehensions of 7,400 illegal aliens in the Rio Grande Valley. The illegals tend to be from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. A stash house disrupted in August was run by two U.S. citizens with extensive criminal records, CBP said at the time.

In late May and June, CBP dismantled six stash houses over the course of less than a week, leading to the capture of 173 illegal aliens.

U.S. authorities have apprehended more than 1.2 million illegal border crossers this year, a number unseen in years. Many more evade capture.

Border Patrol agents have arrested 8,691 criminal aliens coming across the southern border in the past 10 months. Among them, the aliens have committed 12,685 crimes.

On Aug. 14, border agents in south Texas arrested two MS-13 gang members. One, a convicted murderer from El Salvador, was apprehended after illegally crossing into the United States with a group near Mission, Texas. The 44-year-old man had spent three years in prison for a murder in California in the late 90s and was imprisoned again in 2005 for re-entry of a deported alien, according to CBP.

Many criminal aliens are arrested while trying to evade Border Patrol or as they attempt to blend into large groups crossing the border. While Border Patrol agents are tied up dealing with large groups, the cartels and criminal organizations smuggle contraband and people through unpatrolled areas nearby.

Several Border Patrol agents told The Epoch Times that agents estimate theyre apprehending 10 to 20 percent of all illegal border crossers, although its impossible to estimate how many have avoided detection and capture.

Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.
Nearly 200 Minnesota Healthcare Workers Sue Employers Over Vaccine Mandates

Almost 200 Minnesota healthcare workers sued their employers in a bid to block COVID-19 vaccine mandates at their facilities.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of unnamed workers in various hospital systems across the state, identifies about two dozen healthcare institutions, hospitals, and federal officials as defendants. That includes the Mayo Clinic, Fairview Health Services, University of Minnesota Physicians, and Regions Hospital.

Plaintiffs employers are placing a substantial burden on their employees not to practice their religious-based objection to the COVID-19 vaccination or live under the threat of having their religious exemption withdrawn at any time, the lawsuit (pdf) said.

Employer mandates are forcing workers who have religious objections to the vaccine or who have recovered from COVID-19 to be vaccinated so that healthcare facilities and institutions can say they have higher vaccination numbers to get more money via federal subsidies, said the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions measure specification, in some cases, coerces Plaintiffs to change or violate their sincerely-held religious beliefs by requiring their employers in order to successfully participate in federal subsidies to report to the [Health and Human Services] employee vaccination rates including religious objectors in the denominator.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced new federal mandates stipulating that healthcare workers who work at facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding need to get the vaccine. Facilities that do not comply risk losing their federal funding.

Gregory Erickson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Star Tribune that those who joined the lawsuit include not only people with religious concerns but pregnant women and young people who are healthy.

The young people and pregnant women believe its a coin flip whether theyre in worse shape with COVID or the vaccine, Erickson remarked.

If a court doesnt grant an injunction soon, Erickson said that the vaccination mandates will exacerbate the already critical shortage of nurses in this country right now.

If people thought health care was being delayed from COVID, thats like a soft summer rain compared to whats going to happen when you fire all these people, he said, perhaps referring to warnings from hospitals in New York who said that certain services may be curtailed due to staffing shortages over a statewide mandate that went into effect Monday.

The Epoch Times has contacted Mayo Clinic, Fairview Health Services, University of Minnesota Physicians, and Regions Hospital for comment.

The vast majority of COVID patients hospitalized in the M Health Fairview system are unvaccinated, Fairview said in a statement earlier this month. We support the presidents executive order, because overwhelming evidence demonstrates the COVID-19 vaccines are very safe and they dramatically reduce the chance of spreading disease, hospitalization, severe illness and death.
Newsom Signs 31 New Housing Bills Into Law to Ease Housing Crisis

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 27 new housing bills into law on Sept. 28, marking a total of 31 housing bills recently signed that are intended to cut the red tape in building new housing. However, critics say the bills will lead to high housing costs for home buyers.

Former Mayor of Costa Mesa Jim Righeimer said the bills goals of making accessory dwelling units (ADUs) easier to build may lower the cost of rent, but will raise the cost of home prices making homeownership unaffordable.

This is the beginning of the end for Suburbia, Righeimer told The Epoch Times. Youll end up with less homeowners and more renters.

The governor is presenting the bills as part of the California Comeback Plan, which will invest $22 billion in housing and homelessness, leading to the creation of over 84,000 new housing units to help lead Californians away from homelessness. The plan will also fund a $100 million grant program for low-to-moderate-income homeowners to build ADUs on their properties, a type of secondary housing unit on a property that will increase density.

The acute affordability crisis we are experiencing in California was decades in the making, and now were taking the necessary steps to fix it, Newsom said in a statement after signing the bills at an affordable housing development in Oakland.

This package of smart, bipartisan legislation boosts housing production in Californiamore streamlining, more local accountability, more affordability, more density. These bills, plus this years historic budget investments in affordable housing, will directly lead to more inclusive neighborhoods across the state. Creating denser housing near jobs, parks, and schools is key to meeting our climate goals as well as our affordability goals.

The California Comeback Plan includes a $10.3 billion budget investment for affordable housing that will create more than 40,000 new affordable homes for low-income residents. Part of this includes $850 million for incentivizing infill development and smart growth, $800 million to preserve the states affordable housing stock, and $100 million to promote affordable homeownership as well as significant funding to scale up state efforts to increase accessory dwelling units.

Newsom announced the launch of a $100 million grant program for low-to-moderate-income homeowners to help build ADUs on their property, where homeowners can receive as much as $25,000 in assistance. This legislation is expected to help build 4,000 ADUs.

The process will help the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle, which requires every city and county in California to plan and zone for new housing, creating a problem for some cities in finding where to place and how to build the housing.

In combination, local governments will need to zone land for more than 2.5 million units statewidemore than double the obligation under the previous RHNA cycle. According to the governors office, the new bills signed Sept. 28 will help cities to meet those goals.

Also announced by Newsom on Sept. 28 is the launch of Californias new Housing Accountability Unit (HAU), which will ensure that local leaders are fulfilling RHNA allocations. The HAU will work with local governments to help provide technical assistance to comply with the legislation.

It is absolutely imperative to meet these housing goals if we are serious about building an equitable future, Newsom said. And it is similarly imperative to meet these housing targets because unaffordable housing leads to hours-long car commutesdirectly inhibiting our efforts to meet our climate goals. Creating denser housing closer to major employment hubs is critical to limiting Californias greenhouse gas emissions.

The bills signed by Newsom on Sept. 28 include:

AB 68 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton)  Department of Housing and Community Development: California Statewide Housing Plan: annual reports.

AB 215 by Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco)  Planning and Zoning Law: housing element: violations.

AB 345 by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton)  Accessory dwelling units: separate conveyance.

AB 447 by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord)  California Debt Limit Allocation Committee: income taxes: low-income housing tax credits.

AB 491 by Assemblymember Christopher Ward (D-San Diego)  Housing: affordable and market rate units.

AB 571 by Assemblymember Chad Mayes (I-Rancho Mirage)  Planning and zoning: density bonuses: affordable housing.

AB 602 by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord)  Development fees: impact fee nexus study.

AB 634 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles)  Density Bonus Law: affordability restrictions.

AB 721 by Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)  Covenants and restrictions: affordable housing.

AB 787 by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino)  Planning and zoning: housing element: converted affordable housing units.

AB 838 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale)  State Housing Law: enforcement response to complaints.

AB 948 by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena)  Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers: disclosures: demographic information: reporting: continuing education.

AB 1029 by Assemblymember Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco)  Housing elements: prohousing local policies.

AB 1043 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles)  Housing programs: rental housing developments: affordable rent.

AB 1095 by Assemblymember Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova)  Affordable rental and owner-occupied housing: equity in state and local programs.

AB 1297 by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena)  California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank: public and economic development facilities: housing.

AB 1304 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles)  Affirmatively further fair housing: housing element: inventory of land.

AB 1398 by Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)  Planning and zoning: housing element: rezoning of sites: prohousing local policies.

AB 1466 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento)  Real property: discriminatory restrictions.

AB 1584 by the Committee on Housing and Community Development  Housing omnibus.

SB 263 by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park)  Real estate applicants and licensees: education requirements: fair housing and implicit bias training.

SB 290 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley)  Density Bonus Law: qualifications for incentives or concessions: student housing for lower income students: moderate-income persons and families: local government constraints.

SB 381 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge)  Surplus residential property: priorities, procedures, price, and fund: City of South Pasadena.

SB 478 by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)  Planning and Zoning Law: housing development projects.

SB 591 by Senator Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park)  Senior citizens: intergenerational housing developments.

SB 728 by Senator Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys)  Density Bonus Law: purchase of density bonus units by nonprofit housing organizations.

SB 791 by Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose)  California Surplus Land Unit.

The Governor previously signed:

AB 1174 by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord)  Planning and zoning: housing: development application modifications, approvals, and subsequent permits.

SB 8 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley)  Housing Crisis Act of 2019.

SB 9 by Senator Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego)  Housing development: approvals.

SB 10 by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)  Planning and zoning: housing development: density.
North Carolina Congressman Proposes Federal School Choice Grants in Some Situations

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) has introduced legislation to allow students to change schools if mask mandates or critical race theory curriculum are implemented.

Bishop introduced the Masks Off Act and the No Corrupt Racist Training (No CRT) Act. The measures would allow parents to demand federal education dollars be redirected to a private school, homeschool, or other education expenses if a school enacts the mask and race theory policies.

Federal education dollars should follow Americas students, not the system, Bishop said in a statement. This should be true in all cases, but especially if a school is forcing masks on children or teaching divisive Critical Race Theory. If such mandates or indoctrinating curricula are in place, then families should be able to do what is best for their own kids and have the freedom to pursue alternative education options.

The Masks Off Act would allow students in school districts with mask mandates to be eligible for opportunity grants to seek other education options. The No CRT Act would provide the grants to students who attend schools promoting critical race theory. The federal government would redirect 10 percent of appropriated funding from Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Bishops office said the amount of the grants would be based on annual income.

Critical race theory is centered around the idea that race is a social construct used to oppress people of color. It was developed by legal scholars in the late 1970s and 1980s and concludes racism in America is systemic. The theory gained new notoriety in response to the 1619 Project, a New York Times multimedia piece that connects slavery to capitalism.

Critics say critical race theory employs heavy use of the Marxist struggle ideology and tactic that advocates for the destruction of history, traditions, and culture of a society.

The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly approved a bill Sept. 1 that would have banned some critical race theory concepts from being taught in public schools. It was later vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper.

North Carolina students and staff are not currently required to wear masks, but it is recommended under the states public health guidance. Cooper has allowed local school leaders to dictate protocols in their schools.

The number of children homeschooled in North Carolina jumped nearly 21 percent during the pandemic, a recent North Carolina Department of Administration report shows.

According to a John Locke Foundation and Civitas poll released from January, a majority of North Carolinians support school choice. The survey results showed 82 percent of 950 bipartisan voters believed parents should have the ability to select the school their child attends. Critics argue private schools promote religious agendas. Others say opportunity scholarships absorb funds that should be used for traditional schools.

These bills will reallocate a small percentage of federal K-12 dollars to give families in need greater educational freedom and opportunity, the American Federation for Children said.

According to the most-recent data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, 6,132 COVID-19 cases were reported among school-aged children the week of Sept. 12.

The agencys dashboard shows 21,005or 6 percentof the 350,086 North Carolinians who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are between 12 years old and 17 years old. The cohort accounts for 8 percent of the states total population.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
The newly developed hypersonic missile Hwasong-8 is test-fired by the Academy of Defence Science of the DPRK in Toyang-ri, Ryongrim County of Jagang Province, North Korea, in this undated photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency released on Sept.29, 2021. (KCNA via REUTERS)

North Korea Joins Race for New Hypersonic Missile With Latest Test

SEOULNorth Korea test-fired a newly developed hypersonic missile this week, state news media KCNA reported on Wednesday, joining a race headed by major military powers to deploy the advanced weapons system.

North Korea fired the missile off its east coast towards the sea on Tuesday, South Koreas military said, as Pyongyang called on the United States and South Korea to scrap their double standards on weapons programs to restart diplomatic talks.

North Korea has been steadily developing its weapons systems amid an impasse over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for U.S. sanctions relief.

Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, said the latest launch was destabilizing and posed a regional threat, but Washington would continue diplomatic efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

We are waiting to hear back from Pyongyang. We have made a number of approaches  and proposed dialogues on a wide range of topics, he told a virtual forum from Jakarta where he serves as U.S. ambassador to Indonesia.

Bonnie Jenkins, U.S. under-secretary for arms control and international security, told Reuters in reply to a question at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy that Washington was seeking more information on the latest tests.

The U.S. still is promoting a diplomatic solution. We still want to have an open door to diplomacy with North Korea. So we are hoping that in addition to the tests, that they will also say lets have some conversations again, she said.

Unlike ballistic missiles that fly into outer space before returning on steep trajectories, hypersonic weapons fly towards targets at lower altitudes and can achieve more than five times the speed of soundor about 3,850 mph.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Norths hypersonic missile was at an early stage of development, judging by detected velocity and other data, and would take a considerable period of time until it could be deployed.

The development of the weapons system increased North Koreas defense capabilities, KCNA said, describing the hypersonic missile as a strategic weapon.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not inspect the launch, according to the report.

In the first test-launch, national defense scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile, the report said.

It said the missile, called the Hwasong-8, performed to its technical targets including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead.

Next Generation of Arms

Hypersonic weapons are considered the next generation of arms that aim to rob adversaries of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.

The test could mean the North is entering an accelerating race to deploy the weapon now involving the United States, Russia, and China.

The United States on Monday said it had tested an air-breathing hypersonic weapon, marking the first successful test of the class of weapon since 2013.

In July, Russia successfully tested a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world.

Chang Young-keun, a missile specialist at the Korea Aerospace University, said the Norths test of the hypersonic gliding vehicle (HGV) was likely a failure, given the flight was clocked at Mach 2.5, citing a reported assessment by South Korean military intelligence.

The Norths HGV technology is not comparable to those of the U.S., Russia, or China and for now seems to aim for short-range that can target South Korea or Japan, Chang said.

North Korea last week said it was willing to consider another summit with the South if mutual respect between the neighbors can be assured, following South Korean President Moon Jae-ins call for a declaration to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The denuclearisation negotiations, initiated between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim in 2018, have stalled since 2019.

The two Koreas both test-fired ballistic missiles on Sept. 15, part of an arms race in which both nations have developed increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts prove fruitless to get talks going on defusing tensions.

By Sangmi Cha
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, in September 2020. (Google Maps/Screenshot via NTD)

Norway Charges Professor With Violating Sanctions on Iran

COPENHAGEN, Denmark A German-Iranian professor at a Norwegian technical university was charged Wednesday with violating sanctions on Iran by inviting four guest researchers from the Islamic Republic and giving them access to a laboratory.

A Norwegian prosecutor said the visiting researchers had access to knowledge that could be useful to Irans nuclear program.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that during the period from February 2018 to 2019, the professor, who was not identified, invited four Iranian researchers to NTNU university in Trondheim, the Scandinavian countrys third-largest city. The duration of the guests stay varied.

The serious thing here is that people from Iran had access to knowledge, and this is the knowledge that could be useful to Irans nuclear program. We do not say that it is, but it is the potential danger here that is serious, prosecutor Frederik Ranke told NRK.

Ranke said the professor was charged with violating the Iran sanctions, export control regulations, and Norways data breach legislation. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Non-European Union member Norway has adhered to all U.N. Security Council resolutions on Irans nuclear program and has supported EU restrictive measures against Iran for a number of years.

According to his Norwegian lawyer, the professor denies wrongdoing. Lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told NRK that is the client has left Norway but is willing to return to stand trial.

There is nothing in the information they have received and the projects they have worked on that enables them to contribute to the nuclear industry in any way, Risnes told NRK.

PST, Norways domestic security agency, suspected the professor of having contributed to a data breach by giving others unauthorized access to a computer system, NRK said.

The actual data breach occurred when a programgiven by one of the guest researcherswas installed. He could then retrieve data, even if he was not affiliated with NTNU, according to Ranke.

Bjarne Foss, head of the engineering cybernetics department at NTNU, told the university newspaper that the professor and the Iranian guest researchers used a special lab, called the nano-mechanical lab, relatively intensively over a short period.

The paper said that one can do advanced analysis of the properties of various metal alloys, such as their strength and hardness, in the lab.

After learning this, university officials contacted PST in early 2019, the Universitetsavisa said.
Medical workers bring in patients at a special coronavirus intake tent at Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park section of Brooklyn on April 2, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

NY Healthcare Workers, Teachers Likely Ineligible for Unemployment If Fired Over Vaccine Mandate

New York healthcare workers and teachers who dont want the COVID-19 vaccine will not only lose their jobs but could also be unable to get unemployment benefits.

Thousands of nurses and other hospital workers have been put on leave, slated to be fired, as the states vaccination mandate deadline for hospital staff passed on Sept. 27. At least some hospital systems have given their staff some time to still get the needle and return to work before facing termination.

In addition, New York City teachers have until Oct. 1 to get at least one shot of the vaccine lest they face a year of unpaid leave with health benefits or termination with a severance package.

Once fired, the workers could be left without access to unemployment insurance unless they legitimately asked for a health or religious exemption, according to the states Department of Labor (DOL).

Workers in a healthcare facility, nursing home, or school who voluntarily quit or are terminated for refusing an employer-mandated vaccination will be ineligible for UI absent a valid request for accommodation because these are workplaces where an employer has a compelling interest in such a mandate, especially if they already require other immunizations, says a guidance on the DOL website.

It explains that eligibility will depend on the circumstances as each claim is unique and reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Benefits may be denied to other government workers too.

A public employee who works in a public setting and is subject to a local government mandate to submit proof of vaccination or negative testing may be disqualified from the receipt of UI if they refuse to get vaccinated or tested, the guidance says.

Aside from exemption requests, another factor in play is whether the employee interacts with the public, according to the website.

A worker who refuses an employers directive to get vaccinated may be eligible for UI in some cases if that persons work has no public exposure and the worker has a compelling reason for refusing to comply with the directive, it says.

When asked for additional details, a DOL spokesperson referred The Epoch Times back to the guidance.

Some states are keeping the vaccines voluntary, noting that, at the very least, natural immunity induced by prior COVID-19 infection should be acknowledged alongside vaccination. New York, however, and New York City in particular, has been at the forefront of mandating the vaccines in a growing share of society. Besides the state mandate for healthcare workers, the city requires the vaccine for teachers, other school staff, government employees, staff and seated customers in restaurants, as well as staff and customers in theaters, gyms, cinemas, and other establishments.

The novel vaccines, developed in record time and still in the process of clinical trials, are known to cause severe side effects like myocarditis in young men and blood clots, though authorities and experts say these are rare and pose a lower risk than the disease itself. The vaccines also dont necessarily prevent one from contracting and spreading COVID-19. The clinical trials indicate they minimize the symptoms.

Update: The article has been updated to clarify the vaccine mandate situation in New York State and New York City.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors listen to Orange County residents at the Aug. 10, 2021, meeting in Santa Ana, Calif. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Orange County Officials Move to Alleviate Traffic in South County

The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved enhancing South Countys regional mobility by implementing three major transportation projects during a Sept. 28 meeting.

The proposed agenda itema cooperative agreement with the Orange County Transportation Authority and the city of San Clemente to assist with alleviating trafficby Supervisor Lisa Bartlett was met with contention by her colleagues.

South County is unique in that we dont have the mobility patterns that we have in other parts of the county, Bartlett said during the Sept. 28 meeting.

We have one freeway, basically the I-405 that turns into I-5, and thats pretty much it. In other parts of the county, youve got many more options. We have significant challenges in South County, and Im laser-focused on putting together good projects that will help regional mobility and also enhance public safety.

The project included the widening of Ortega Highway, the continuation of the HOV lane on I-5 from Avenida Pico to the county line in San Diego, and the extension of Los Patrones Parkway, which will create a non-toll county arterial from Cow Camp Road in Mission Viejo toward San Clemente.

According to Bartlett, a study conducted by the Transportation Corridor Agency indicated that regional traffic concerns can be solved through a three-pronged transportation solution.

These three projects will take us well into the future, probably for the next 50 years for regional mobility in South County, we dont need any other major projects, Bartlett said. These three projects  relieve a lot of the traffic on the residential streets and the streets throughout the cities. The traffic studies have proven that, so its not going to have an adverse impact to cities or neighborhoods.

Despite the appeal that the projects bring to the county, Supervisor Doug Chaffee questioned the agreement language regarding the binding of future boards, the ability for a party to withdraw, and the lack of an end date.

I hear intentions, but I dont see them in writing, Chaffee said. Were talking about three projects as being the subject matter without it clearly stating that is the subject matter.

Nicole Walsh, the chief assistant of the county counsel, confirmed that the lack of termination date was the result of not knowing when funding would be made available. Therefore, writing an accurate termination date wasnt feasible.

Out of concern for confusion among the board members, Supervisor Don Wagner suggested potentially pushing the agenda item back to ensure all issues were addressed.

Chairman Andrew Do requested more clarity regarding the countys obligation to the three projects before agreeing with his colleagues to revise the agreement during their lunch break and discussing it prior to public comment.

Despite the revisions made while the supervisors broke for lunch, Chaffee disagreed with the language within the agreement that suggested the project be expanded outside the listed three projects outlined.

Chaffee abstained from voting on the agreement while the other supervisors voted in favor after clarity was granted.
Ostracizing University Faculty With Nonconforming Opinions Has Become a Common Trend: Constitutional Lawyer

Having a dissenting view within the prevailing orthodoxies of many universities today can lead to a death by a thousand cuts, according to a lawyer who specializes in constitutional law.

Samantha Harris, with Allen Harris Law in Connecticut, represents Stephen Porter, a professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Porter filed a lawsuit on Sept. 14, alleging that faculty members in his department were discriminating against him, violating both his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by retaliating against his free speech.

In some ways, its nothing new, Harris told The Epoch Times, but what Ive observed in recent years is these institutions have gotten smarter in knowing that they cant just fire someone.

Over the last 20 years, Harris said shes seen multiple strategies on how universities censor unpopular speech of faculty and students.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Rather than termination or direct punishment, Harris said the latest is the adoption of an incremental strategy, in which the institution subjects the dissenter to investigations, removal from committees, and accusations of professionalism violations.

This subtle death by a thousand cuts can complicate the livelihood for someone who expresses an unpopular belief, Harris said, and blur the line between First Amendment rights and the institutions overreach.

It can make it difficult for people to advance their careers, as well as to get justice for whats happening to them, Harris said.

Race-Focused Worldviews

On the predominant social justice ideologies being debatedsuch as what Porter said he was contesting at NCSUHarris said she avoids using phrases like Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Marxist philosophy that suggests society is a class struggle between oppressors and the oppressed, labeling white people as the oppressors and all other races as the oppressed.

Thats become shorthand for what I would call this very race-focused view looking at how we should as a country deal with issues of race and identity, Harris said. As a result, people who ascribe to what I would call a more traditional civil rights view of treating people equally and viewing each person as an individual has fallen out of favor on many campuses and is often the accused of being racist itself.

Color blindness, which used to be the standard for not being racist, is now considered in many circles to be racist, she said.

Critical Race Theory is a school of thought that evolved out of the universities, and that has informed a lot of thinking, but what I really call it is this very race-focused view of the world, the way humans interact with one another, and the way policies should be made, Harris said.

Opinions Targeted

Most of her clients are people who have landed on the wrong side of these views by expressing opinions not in line with this very race-focused world view.

The same goes for gender identity, Harris said. Interestingly, Ive had clients who are feminist who do not ascribe to the current views on gender identity and have found themselves targeted for that.

Most frequently, Harris said what shes observed is the suppression of traditional, conservative views at liberal universities.

Before setting up her own firm, Harris worked for 15 years at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nonprofit academic and individual rights advocacy center set up to be a resource for students and faculty members who have had their freedom of speech infringed upon.

FIRE is a faculty rights organization that does some targeted First Amendment litigation at public universities, but they also advocate on behalf of the students and faculty at private universities who are facing censorship, Harris said.

On her transition from big-picture advocacy at FIRE to getting into the trenches to represent individual clients at her law firm, Harris said her focus is primarily on freedom of speech and due process, ensuring those who are accused of misconduct can go through an impartial investigation before facing disciplinary action.

Freedom of Conscience

The firm also defends freedom of conscience, or the freedom to hold ones own thoughts and beliefs free from governmental interference.

The seminal freedom of conscience case was when a court held that Jehovahs Witness students could not be forced to salute the flag in class, Harris said. That violated their freedom of conscience, the right to be free from compelled speech and compelled beliefs.

In the 1943 case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the board adopted a directive requiring all public-school students to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance or be expelled.

A group of Jehovahs Witness students challenged the directive on the pretense that saluting the flag conflicted with their religious beliefs prohibiting idol worship, therefore violating their freedom of religion and speech, and the Supreme Court concurred.

Similarly, the freedom of conscience comes into play with what Harris said are intrusive training methodologies in which world views and theories arent shared, but required.

In North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinsons Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force report, teachers and parents anonymously provided testimony and examples of curriculums of what they were seeing in North Carolina classrooms.

One teacher alleged in the report that white staff members were told that they were unaware of their racism and required to attend professional development sessions related to microaggression and equity as it relates to race and gender.

Porters Case

What brought Harris client, Stephen Porter, to the attention of his faculty members at NCSU was his blog posts challenging the social justice ideologies of his department.

Faculty at public universities have the right to speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, Harris said. When a faculty member or public employee has a private blog in which they express their opinions about important societal issues, they have the right to free speech to do that.

Porter told The Epoch Times that for three years his own department has been attempting to isolate and drain him of resources in retaliation for opposing the broader push for social justice ideologies within our college.

After writing a blog criticizing the Association for the Study of Higher Education research conference, which he said had become a woke joke, the president of the conference, during her keynote speech, had a picture of Porter behind her at the conference, where he said, she spent 10 minutes castigating me and my blog posts, accusing me of white fragility.

In addition, Porter said the department had engaged in untested research methodologies to inquire about diversity being taught in the classroom.

My background is in survey methodology, so, not realizing this would start a furor, I began asking simple questions, Porter said.

In the lawsuit, Porter alleged that he had been systematically excluded from meetings and activities related to higher education programs and the advising of students, which Porter said prevented him from getting new advisees.

As Porter experienced his own death by a thousand cuts, he said he slipped into depression, concerned that he was going to lose his job and the means to provide for his family.

After meeting with Harris and filing the lawsuit, he said hes in a much better place, particularly since we filed.

I feel like Im fighting back for my rights, and quite honestly, Im doing this to restore my job to what it was a few years ago, he said.

Another reason he filed the lawsuit was to give others the courage to take a stand.

This is happening in universities around the country, Porter said. People are afraid to speak up, and Id like to provide an example that says, Its possible to stand up for yourself and fight for your rights. Its OK to be a conservative in academia, although my colleagues would obviously disagree.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for NCSU said the university does not comment on pending litigation.
Police Commission OKs Plan for More Funding, Training for LAPD

LOS ANGELESThe Los Angeles Police Commission approved Sept. 28 an $18.5 million plan from the police department aimed at improving how it handles protests and civil unrest, but the City Council will need to approve

the funding increase.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)which has a $1.76 billion budget this fiscal yearhad initially submitted a proposal seeking an additional $66.7 million to incorporate 106 recommendations from three reports released in March and April claimed the department lacked preparedness, training, and unity of command when responding to protests.

The original request was reduced to $18.5 million when the police commission asked the LAPD to re-evaluate its recommendations and the cost.

The new proposal calls for nearly $12.6 million for training, with the top two priorities being mobile field force training and the use of less-lethal launchers, which the reports claimed officers werent properly trained in and in some circumstances used against peaceful protesters.

The report called for all department officers to receive mobile field force training every two years, with half the department being trained one year and the other half the next. Much of the funding for training is for overtime for officers, so that it does not cut into patrol duty.

The departments proposed recommendations also include more than $4.1 million for technology and equipment, including for four officers and four intelligence analysts to form a new team monitoring social media. The budget would also purchase social media software.

Commander Randy Goddard told the police commission that social media software helps the department due to the volume of information across so many platforms, channels, apps, and services.

Software assists a small group of trained personnel in vetting and making sense of this information, Goddard said.

The reduction from the original $66.7 million request was made available to the public on Friday afternoon, which drew some criticism because it left only one business day for people to review it before submitting public comment to the commission.

Both proposals were met with opposition from activists calling for a continued decrease to the LAPDs budget. Following the scaled-back proposal released Friday, activists reiterated their opposition to any additional funding for the LAPD.

This is yet another police money grab, using LAPDs violence to increase police resources and spy powers, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition said. This is the opposite of what our communities faced down LAPD violence last summer to demand: defunding the police.

Commissioner Eileen Decker responded to those concerns.

I do understand that there are many who believe that the money should not be spent on this department, that it should go elsewhere, Decker said. I understand that the city does need to invest in community resources, but I also believe the city needs to invest in the department, as well as in these training procedures. These issues I dont think are mutually exclusive.
An Army veteran waits to see if he has a reaction after receiving a COVID-19 booster vaccine at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Hines, Ill., on Sept. 24, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Poll: Vaccinated Older Americans Vastly More Worried About COVID-19 Than Unvaccinated

Older American adults who are fully vaccinated are more concerned about COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated, according to a poll released Wednesday by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll found that about 25 percent of vaccinated adults aged 50 and older said they are not worried about either them or a family member becoming infected with COVID-19. In comparison, 61 percent of unvaccinated Americans aged 50 and older said they arent worried.

Vaccination is not providing people with relief, AP-NORC said. Those who are vaccinated are more worried about infection from the virus, are more likely to practice social distancing, and are more likely to describe their mental health as worse than last year compared to those who are not vaccinated.

Overall, 1 in 3 American adults aged 50 and older have reported feeling socially isolated at least sometimes, the poll found, and 1 in 4 have said their relationships and social lives have worsened over the past year.

Due to isolation, older adults are more often using social media and video chat services since before the pandemic started, according to the survey.

Visiting with friends and family in person, doing volunteer work, attending religious services, and talking with neighbors have declined, it found.

The AP quoted 73-year-old Oliver Midgette, who is not vaccinated, as saying that he rarely uses a mask and doesnt allow COVID-19 to worry him.

I grew up in the old days. I ate dirt. I drank water from a hose. I played outside. I dont live in a cage right now, he told AP.

Lee Sharp, a 54-year-old information technology consultant who was seriously sick from the virus last year, told the news outlet that he wanted to get the vaccine but decided not to because of the forcefulness in which the vaccines were pushed.

As time has passed, I have less and less and less trust. Masks dont do anything! Masks do something! You need two masks! No, you need four masks! You need disposable masks! No, cloth masks are OK! he said. What the heck?

And Bronwyn Russell, 58, said she received the vaccine but always wears a mask when she leaves her home in Illinois.

Im worried. I dont want to get sick, said Russell, who said she is searching for part-time work while collecting disability benefits before appearing to cast blame on those who are not worried about the virus. The people who are going about their lives are just in their own little bubbles of selfishness and dont believe in facts.

Meanwhile, a poll released by Gallup this week suggests that most Americans vastly overestimate the hospitalization rate for COVID-19 among those who are unvaccinated. Citing federal health data and accounting for different scenarios, the pollster said that it concluded that the hospitalization-to-case ratio is fewer than 1 percent for both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals.

However, it found that around 92 percent of all Americans overstate the risk that unvaccinated people will be hospitalized while 62 percent overstated the risk for vaccinated individuals, according to a blog post. About 41 percent of Democrat voters thought there is a 50 percent chance that an unvaccinated individual would be hospitalized for COVID-19.

Democrats are more likely to overstate hospitalization risks for unvaccinated people, which may fuel efforts, often led by Democratic Party leaders, to enforce both mask and vaccine mandates, Gallup concluded, in part.

The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,000 people aged 50 or older and reported a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.
Michael Kovrig with his wife, Vina Nadjibulla, after arriving at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Sept. 25, 2021. Kovrig and fellow Canadian Michael Spavor were imprisoned in China on baseless charges for nearly three years. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

Post-Meng and Release of the Michaels, Canada Needs Tougher China Policy

Commentary

In his famous 1947 article The Sources of Soviet Conduct, the American diplomat and historian George Kennan described the innate antagonism between socialism and capitalism and how this had become deeply embedded in the foundations of the Soviet regime, making peaceful coexistence between the Soviet Union and the West difficult.

It means that there never can be on Moscows side any sincere assumption of a community of aims between the Soviet Union and powers it regards as capitalist, he wrote.

Kennans observation comes to mind as we observe how things have unfolded between China and the West, particularly Canada.

Feelings of mass elation swept Canada last week as Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were finally released after having spent over 1,000 days in captivity in China, right after Meng Wanzhou was released due to a deal struck with Washington to drop charges.

The swiftness with which Beijing released the two Michaelswhich state propaganda risibly maintains was by happenstance and had no connection to Mengs releaseacts as a tacit admission that the two Canadians were indeed political pawns all along.

Beyond that, it showcases that when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there is no going back. The regime continues to show us that it doesnt care much about what the democratic world thinks and will continue to use such tactics in order to get what it wants, since such bullying proves to have worked.

The question being asked across the spectrum is where we go from here in our relationship with Beijing.

In his address at the recent 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Xi Jinping put forth his usual fatuous proclamations that China seeks to help create a world that emphasizes dialogue and co-operation  over confrontation and exclusion. And create a new type of international relations that will expand the convergence of our interests and achieve the biggest synergy possible. Because, after all, China has never and will never invade or bully others or seek hegemony.

The entire speech, as are all Xis speeches at international forums, is an attempt to present China as a more virtuous partner and custodian of the international order than the overbearing, manipulative aggressors in Washington. Meanwhile, Chinese state propaganda has issued what amounts to threats against countries like Canada.

A Sept. 26 Global Times article accused Ottawa of serving as a lapdog of the U.S. government in the Meng case and insinuated that good-natured Canada-China relations depend on Ottawas strategic autonomy. It essentially means that Canada must side with Beijing over Washington if tranquil relations are to proceed in the aftermath of the Meng affair.

Disappointingly, some China enthusiasts in Canada are echoing this line, contending that our troubles with Beijing have stemmed not from the CCPs ruthlessness but our relationship with Washington. Academic Wenran Jiangwho has pushed for closer ties to China and defended Beijings Confucius Institutesoutlandishly stated in a column over the weekend that the United States, assisted by Canada, took Meng hostage and implied that we should try to reset relations with China with this problem out of the way based on the lessons we have learned instead of going the hawkish route.

This is all bilge, of course. Aside from the fact that Mengs time in Canada was something akin to an extended luxury vacation in comparison with the stark conditions the two Michaels endured in China, the column framed the retaliatory capture of the two men in the first place as an aberrant reaction to a perceived injustice. Canadian Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian and Uyghur Canadian Huseyin Cecil, as well as over a 100 other Canadians illegally imprisoned in China, would beg to differ, their stories being ample testament to the customary nature of this practice.

The lesson that should have been learned a long time ago, and that bears repeating, is that the CCP at its core is the most disruptive force in the world today and our policy toward it must now, more than ever, reflect that.

The Trudeau governments public pronouncements dont give any signs of imminent changes, however. Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said on Sept. 26 that Canadas eyes are wide open regarding China but maintains that the government will practise a policy oscillating between coexisting, competing, co-operating, and challenging.

This approach will continue to result in the same reluctance to take substantial action on Beijings transgressions, lest Ottawa offends the regime and ostensibly jeopardizes its co-operation on issues deemed a priority, such as climate change.

The CCP, however, has made it clear that it does not separate supposedly mutual concerns such as climate change from the broader geopolitical agenda. Like everything else, its claims to the contrary are a cynical ploy.

In his meeting on Sept. 1 with John Kerry, U.S. President Joe Bidens climate envoy, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated plainly that co-operation on climate change cannot possibly be divorced from other problems.

The U.S. side hopes that climate co-operation can be an oasis in China-U.S. relations, Yi said, but if that oasis is surrounded by desert, it will also become desertified sooner or later.

In other words, Beijings co-operation on climate change is contingent upon whether the United States and the West are willing to capitulate on other issues such as Taiwan and human rights. The cynicism is laid bare.

All of this once again underscores that, like with the Soviets during the Cold War, its unrealistic to expect there will be a sincere community of aims between China and the West. And given what we know of the nature of the CCP and how it operates, thats unlikely to change anytime soon.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Quebec, Alberta Laws Banning Some COVID Protests Raise Concerns

New laws in Alberta and Quebec that bar COVID-19-related protests from outside many public institutions raise concerns about curtailment of free expression, with one civil liberties lawyer describing the clamp-down as political in nature.

In Quebec, public security minister Genevieve Guilbault tabled Bill 105 on Sept. 23 to ban demonstrations in connection with health measures  vaccination  or any other recommendation issued by public health authorities within 50 metres of daycares, schools, publicly funded colleges, and all health and social service institutions, including COVID-19 screening and vaccination clinics, whether stationary or mobile.

Those who protest within those boundaries face fines of $1,000 to $6,000. Anyone who intimidates or threatens people coming to or leaving those sites or trying to access services there would face fines of $2,000 to $12,000. The bill bans organizing or inciting people to hold such protests and allows fine charges to be doubled for repeat offenders.

Bruce Pardy, professor of law at Queens University, told The Epoch Times that the Quebec law may have a weak spot.

Its vulnerability is that the ban extends not just to health-care facilities but also to schools and junior colleges, which weakens the argument that the purpose of the ban is to ensure safety and/or access to health care, but instead suggests that its real purpose is stifle expression of challenges to the governments COVID narrative, he said.

Public health orders that banned protests in British Columbia were struck down in March following a constitutional challenge by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. However, Pardy says thats no guarantee the Quebec law would fall.

The B.C. ban on outdoor protests that was struck down in March was broader in scope, he said.

Although the Quebec ban clearly restricts freedom of expression, it may not be found to be unconstitutional. Similar bans on the right to protest within a certain distance of abortion clinics have been upheld on the grounds that, although they violate freedom of expression under Section 2(b) of the charter, they are saved by the reasonable limits exception in Section 1.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced Sept. 28 that anti-vaccination protests and other demonstrations would be banned outside hospitals. The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act was amended to ensure that health-care facilities had the same legal protection as railways, highways, pipelines, and other essential public and private infrastructure. Repeat offences for trespassing, interfering with operations and construction, or causing damage could fetch fines of up to $25,000 as well as up to six months in prison.

Civil liberties lawyer Lisa Bildy of Libertas Law in London, Ont., believes the Quebec and Alberta laws are politically motivated.

These restrictions are selective and political in nature and are an opportunistic way for governments to ensure that non-conforming opinions cant be expressed through peaceful protest in places where they might actually reach the intended audience, she said in an interview.

In the face of such laws, democracy is the loser, Bildy said.

Peaceful assembly is constitutionally guaranteed because its an effective way for a disenfranchised minority to collectively express its views, she explains.

In a society where the majority doesnt want to hear opinions beyond its carefully curated echo chamber and isnt generally exposed to them through mainstream media, further limiting their expression is a concerning trend for a liberal democracy that thrives on the marketplace of ideas.

Punitive Overkill

The Quebec bill was fast-tracked into law the same day it was introduced, with the Conservative Party of Quebecs lone member at the Quebec National Assembly, Claire Samson, abstaining. Her successful amendment makes the bill expire in 30 days, though it could be renewed.

Its not a small thing, Samson told the assembly. Are we going to get a special bill every week to target a group of exhibitors?

A day after the bills passage, Andres Fontecilla, a member with the Quebec Solidaire party, told The Canadian Press the law was security and punitive overkill and said he was angry that it included public colleges since young adults are perfectly capable of being exposed to political debate and making informed decisions.

Cara Zwibel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association questions whether the Quebec law has a valid basis.

We already have laws that can allow the police to deal with access to a health-care facility being blocked, and I would think also access to an education facility being blocked. And I dont really see the justification for creating new laws to deal with this rather than enforcing the ones that already exist, she said in an interview.

Zwibel said that although governments have their own motivations for reining in protests, doing so is undemocratic.

Protests can be disruptive, and governments want to avoid disruption or what might appear like a sort of lack of order, but often the purpose of a protest is to disrupt, she said.

So disruption in and of itself is not a sufficient basis for passing a new law. And we have to recognize that in a democracy, sometimes were not going to like what people are saying, but that doesnt mean they dont have a right to say it.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) crest is seen on a member's uniform in a file photo. (Shannon VanRaes/File Photo via Reuters)

RCMP Union Will Back Officers Who Refuse Mandatory Vaccination

The union that represents 20,000 RCMP officers says it will back its members if they choose to refuse vaccination, and will help them should they face employment consequences.

The [National Police Federation] supports a members right to choose to be vaccinated or not, says a Sept. 23 email to members obtained by CBC News and reported on Sept. 29.

We will assist and represent members individually with their choice and its possible employment consequences.

During the federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said federal workers who decide not to get vaccinated could face potential consequences, but did not specify what the ramifications might be.

The bottom line is, if anyone who doesnt have a legitimate reason for not getting fully vaccinated, chooses not to get vaccinated, there will be consequences, Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Markham, Ont., on Aug. 17.

We will be working with the collective bargaining agents, with the unions, with the employers within the public sphere, the public sphere to ensure we move forward.

Trudeau reiterated this message on Sept. 28 during his first press conference since the Liberal Party won the election last week.

Were going to ensure that the federal public service is vaccinated. There is a clear requirement of vaccination for anyone who works for the federal government, he said.

The Epoch Times contacted the National RCMP headquarters to find out how mandatory vaccination would be implemented among their officers and what the related consequences would be for those who dont comply.

An RCMP spokesperson referred the questions to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, who said that the government will continue to engage with key stakeholders, including bargaining agents, as it plans for the implementation of this initiative.

As announced on September 28 by the Prime Minister, details will be communicated in the days and weeks to come, the secretariat said in an emailed statement.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a member of the Freedom Caucus and one of the supporters of ivermectin, speaks during an interview at the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington on Sept. 27, 2021. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

Republican Lawmakers Question Attacks on Ivermectin as COVID-19 Treatment

WASHINGTONA group of Republican lawmakers is supporting doctors who advocate for the right to use ivermectin, an inexpensive antiparasitic drug, for treating COVID-19.

Ivermectin is the latest drug caught in controversy after demand surged dramatically in August. Physician and pharmacist groups, including the American Medical Association, strongly oppose the prescribing of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients. Federal health agencies also issued warnings recently to prevent the use of the drug, stating that adverse effects associated with ivermectin misuse and overdose are increasing.

Critical care physician Pierre Kory, however, describes correctly administered ivermectin as a gift in the fight against COVID-19.

I know ivermectin works. Ive been using it to treat patients for 10 months now, Kory told The Epoch Times.

During the pandemic, Kory led intensive care units in several hotspots, including New York City. He is one of the founding members of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, which strongly recommends the use of ivermectin in both the prevention and treatment of the virus.

Kory briefed more than 20 members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Sept. 27 about the efficacy of the drug.

During the briefing, Kory claimed that ivermectin has helped reduce COVID-19 deaths by 88 percent with early treatment and cases of hospitalization by about 75 percent, based on data from Mexico City and Misiones, a province in Argentina where a large number of patients were treated with ivermectin.

Kory also said COVID-19 cases significantly dropped in Uttar Pradesh, which was the first state in India to introduce large-scale use of ivermectin during the peak of the Delta surge in the country.

Dr. Pierre Kory (C) speaks to members of the House Freedom Caucus about the efficacy of ivermectin against COVID-19 at the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington on Sept. 27, 2021. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who joined the briefing, criticized the efforts to quash access to the drug as a treatment for COVID-19. Johnson has been a vocal advocate for COVID-19 treatments beyond vaccines, including ivermectin. A possible explanation for the resistance has to do with money, he told The Epoch Times.

The vaccine has been worth billions to these companies. Is that whats driving this? I would like to think thats not the case, he said. How many lives could have been saved had our federal health agencies robustly explored all these generic drugs?

Ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic drug that has been used safely for more than three decades in the treatment of certain worm infections. The two doctors who developed ivermectin received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015 for improving the health and wellbeing of millions of individuals with River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis, primarily in the poorest regions of the world.

While ivermectin wasnt developed to treat viruses, an increasing number of doctors around the world believe in the efficacy of the drug against COVID-19.

More than 88,000 ivermectin prescriptions were reported in the United States in the second week of August, which is 24 times higher than the pre-pandemic level, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published an article warning against the use of the drug, stating that many have been taking a medicine intended for animals.

You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, yall. Stop it, the agency posted on Twitter on Aug. 21.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a member of the Freedom Caucus and one of the supporters of allowing people the right to try ivermectin, criticized federal agencies and the media for smearing the drug as a horse treatment.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Gohmert called the efforts to suppress the use of ivermectin as dishonesty, which is preventing people from having access to an FDA-approved drug that is inexpensive and widely available. He likened these efforts to the disinformation tactics used for decades by the tobacco industry to dismiss the health risks of smoking.

It goes beyond being wrong. It gets virtually to being criminal, Gohmert said.

The FDA warned that it hasnt yet approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19. The agency stated that the currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against the virus, adding that the clinical trials are ongoing.

According to Kory, FDA approval for ivermectin use to treat COVID-19 isnt required for off-label prescriptions. Off-label use refers to using an approved drug to treat a different type of disease that the drug isnt approved to treat. Nearly 20 percent of all prescriptions written in the United States are off-label.

There are now threats from medical boards to take away licenses from doctors who prescribe ivermectin, Kory said.

I cannot describe the harm, and the tragedy, and the actual humanitarian crisis that this is causing, he said.

NTD reporter Steve Lance contributed to this report
Amy Jonson, vice president of The Western Ranchman in Phoenix, Arizona, points to the empty shelf space that contained ivermectin for horses. The product is now sold out, due to demand from many customers who believe it's an effective treatment against COVID-19. (Allan Stein/Epoch Times)

Run on Horse Ivermectin to Treat COVID-19 Leaves Arizona Feed Stores in Short Supply

Amy Jonson pointed at an empty store shelf where the tubes of horse ivermectin paste used to be for sale and amply stocked.

Were sold out [again], said Jonson, vice president of The Western Ranchman Store in Phoenix, Arizona.

In fact, Jonson said the feed store has been sold out for weeks. Theres no way of knowing when the next shipment will arrive, she said.

Jonson said the shortfall appears to be due in large part to an unexpected run on animal ivermectin products by people who think it will treat or prevent COVID-19.

Its also become harder to obtain ivermectin for humans at some pharmacies, according to several physicians affiliated with the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), who prescribe ivermectin for their patients.

Yes, its harder to come by [ivermectin] as retail pharmacies are not filling our prescriptions. We use compounding pharmacies, said FLCCC-affiliated Dr. Jane Hendricks of Mesa, Arizona.

Unlike a regular pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy can customize a prescription, including ivermectin, based on a patients specific needs.

The media is focused on the fact that patients made a poor decision in choosing to get it on their own through a vet store instead of seeking a physician who is willing to prescribe it. So its a way of mocking these patients for getting the horse drug, Hendricks told The Epoch Times.

Horse people, as Jonson refers to customers who own horses, are now feeling the bite of the shortage of animal ivermectin, presumably for human consumption.

Its been crazy. Horse people are having to use different products for their animals, she said.

Amy Jonson, vice president of The Western Ranchman, holds the last two boxes of ivermectin for horses that were returned by a customer, in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Jonson said lately she will talk on the phone three, sometimes four times a day with people wanting to know more about the stores ivermectin products and how they work.

You can tell if theyre horse people or not from the questions they ask, Jonson said. When they ask how to dose it, horse people know how.

Were sold out of it. Our suppliers are sold out of it. Most of the people who buy it say its a treatment for COVID, said Joe Robinson, manager of The Western Ranchman Store.

They tell me there are doctors on the internet pushing this, Robinson told The Epoch Times.

Robinson said the store keeps trying every week to obtain new stock of four ivermectin productsin tablet, paste, injection, and pour-on formbut there is zero stock available.

In pharmacies, Ivermectin can also be hard to find. Pennsylvania resident Daniel K. said that he visited Giant, Acme, and CVS pharmacies to get Ivermectin. He had a prescription for the drugs use to treat COVID-19.

They all told me no for various reasons, he said. One of them even said that they had it. And then they asked me if it was in three milligrams or five milligrams, and I didnt remember.

When Daniel went home to check the prescription and returned to the pharmacy, the pharmacy told him they had run out.

Im like, How did you run out in 15 minutes? Daniel said. They said, All the other pharmacists looked at the shelf wrong. It was the wrong drug.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ivermectin hasnt been approved for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans.

Ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea, the FDA says on its website. Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. Clinical trials assessing ivermectin tablets for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in people are ongoing.

However, a number of frontline doctors continue to stand by ivermectin as a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19.

COVID-19 has been politicized, Hendricks said, so any medication used to treat it therefore will also be politicized.

The operations manager at another FLCCC-affiliated physicians practice in Arizona said the demand for ivermectin remains high given the publics uncertainty over the experimental COVID-19 vaccines.

The word is getting out that ivermectin is not just for horses, the operations manager told The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. Mostly, [people] did their research on their own and they are determined that the vaccines are not the safe way to go. Ivermectin is the way to go. My feeling is there are enough [medical] professionals that have researched this. They are, after all, doctors.

Though generally shunned and ridiculed as a horse de-wormer taken by people who dont know better, ivermectin appears to have had much success in treating and preventing COVID-19 in countries such as India.

In August 2020, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was declared COVID-19-free after the government authorized the use of ivermectin among its 240 million inhabitants.

The FDA, however, maintains that ivermectin is an unproven treatment for the coronavirus and can be dangerous to humans in large doses.

On Aug. 20, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) announced an increasing number of calls from people with potential ivermectin exposure, ostensibly to treat or prevent COVID-19.

At least 70 percent of the recent calls have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers, the agency said in a statement.

The agency noted that 85 percent of the callers had mild symptoms, but one person was told to seek further medical attention.

No hospitalizations due to ivermectin toxicity have been directly reported to the Mississippi Poison Control Center or the [MSDH], the agency said.

The American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) have all come out against prescribing ivermectin either to prevent or treat COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial.

We are alarmed by reports that outpatient prescribing for and dispensing of ivermectin have increased 24-fold since before the pandemic and increased exponentially over the past few months, the ASHP said in a statement.

As such, we are calling for an immediate end to the prescribing, dispensing, and use of ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial.

Meanwhile, Tractor Supply Co. of Fountain Hill, Arizona has posted an ivermectin safety alert on its website, stating that the drug is not approved for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans and could cause severe personal injury or death.

The FDA also points out that ivermectin intended for animals is different from ivermectin made for humans. One tube of Durvet Ivermectin Paste, for example, can treat a 1,200-pound horse, Jonson said.

Jonson said The Western Ranchman Store has probably sold 300 to 400 boxes of horse ivermectin paste over the past three months alone. Each box contains 12 tubes of paste.

One person asked to buy a case, but ended up not buying it, Jonson said. I think when the Delta variant came out, sales really increased. These people are getting their information from YouTube and from doctors. People are scared of getting sick.

At Mortar and Pestle Compounding Pharmacy in Flagstaff, Arizona, a pharmacist told The Epoch Times in a phone call: We wont be interested in participating [in any discussion about ivermectin]. Thanks.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, CVS Health said, The FDA has made it clear that people should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19. Our pharmacists are empowered to use their professional judgment when reviewing a prescription and a prescribers diagnosis.

Walgreens corporate headquarters didnt respond to a request for comment.

An Arizona resident who asked to remain anonymous said that the Safeway Pharmacy in Williams, Arizona, filled out his two prescriptions for ivermectin at about $88 each.

A single tube of Ivomec horse ivermectin at The Western Ranchman Store, on the other hand, costs just $8.99, Jonson said.

At Olsens Grain Inc., in Dewey, Arizona, spokeswoman Cheyenne Brown said the company is also saddled by the recent spike in demand for Ivomec.

Were having trouble [getting resupplied], she told The Epoch Times. Were selling a bunch of it. We dont usually ask [customers] if its for them or their horse. Its interesting, for sure.

At least two of the companys five stores in Arizona have been sold out of Ivomec in recent weeks, Brown said.

We have other types of dewormers, she added. [Customers] have options.

Ivomec manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim didnt respond to several requests for comment.

At Gordons Feed in South Phoenix, Arizona, employee Gordon Grantham said that while he has not yet seen an increase in demand for ivermectin products, the suppliers seem to be all done.

Theyre out of it, he told The Epoch Times. Ive had a couple of people on the phone that asked about it.

Jackson Elliot contributed to this report.
Police arrest a protester at St Kilda in Melbourne on Sept.25, 2021, during an anti-lockdown rally. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Safetyism Driving Australias COVID-19 Response: Psychiatrist

An obsession with safetyism has underpinned Australias response to COVID-19, which has seen state governments readily deploy public health restrictions to contain the virus at the expense of all elsea move that has garnered increasing global attention, according to one psychiatrist.

Tanveer Ahmed, an author and clinical psychiatrist, says Australias low COVID-19 infection and death rates by global standards has fostered an increasing belief in safetyisma culture where individual safety takes primacy over other practical or moral concerns.

I think as a country, we havent calculated the risks in a healthy way and its been disproportionate, he told The Epoch Times. We havent considered other important parts of life like sending our kids to school, for example. I think weve overreacted in some respects.

I do hope people dont come out of the pandemic in a state of fear, obsessed with health and safety, because Australia probably has some of the strictest controls around the world on health and safety, whether its speed limits or child helmets, you name it, he said.

Anti-riot police attempt to disperse demonstrators marching on the streets to protest against Covid-19 regulations in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 22, 2021. (Con Chronis/AFP via Getty Images)

He also said Australians had been willing to give up their liberties for safetyism.

Australia has seen some of the lowest infection and death rates from COVID-19 by global standards. In turn, this has spurred popular support surge for state and territory leaders who have readily used strict measures to combat the virus, including border closures and snap lockdownssometimes across entire cities over a single case of COVID-19.

Ahmed warned that this approach and perspective has meant Australians with genuine concerns, including over vaccine safety, are at risk of being ostracised.

A criticism of the safetyism dynamic, for example, is if I argue about the mental health effects of the pandemic on kids, that often has more impact than if I talk about liberty, he said. So, people who are angry, upset, or feel unheardthats almost not seen as an acceptable response. Thats not given the same validity.

So, weve been quite dismissive and people who are rightly angry and feel like theyre being treated unjustlywe write them off as anti-vaxxers, he said. Anti-vaxxers becomes this stigmatised label that is used to dismiss people.

Early protests in Melbourne on Sept. 20, involving blue-collar members of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) against vaccine mandates in the construction industry were initially dismissed by union leaders, some politicians, and media commentators, as conspiracy theorists, extremists, or anti-vaxxers.

However, the action soon evolved into larger protests involving thousands of individualsand isolated incidents of violencemarching across Melbourne over several days.

Protestors are seen marching down the Westgate Bridge as thousands march through Melbourne after State Government announces construction shutdown in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 21, 2021. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

The protests were the latest sign of visible frustration from Australians at government-mandated health orders, including vaccine mandates, passports, and lockdowns.

Melbourne, for example, has endured one of the toughest and longest lockdowns, with Labor Premier Dan Andrews relying heavily on a suppression strategy, such as imposing immediate Stage Four restrictions, including curfews, limits on movement within a 5km radius, and closing non-essential retail outlets.

The city is also on track to break the world record for the longest time in lockdown. As of Sept. 29, the city has endured 241 days of lockdown since the pandemic broke out last yearjust shy of the 245-day record set by Bueno Aires, Argentina.

Ahmed said an increasingly atomised or individualistic society meant the pandemic naturally ushered in heavy government intervention, which has resulted in more division in societywhether that be divisions between the vaccinated or unvaccinated; or between the knowledge industry (who could work from home), and those in the physical economy which need to travel and were hurting the most from restrictions.

Western society has become so individualised, they lack ties, whether thats extended families, nationalism, or religion, he said. I think that builds a degree of weakness where governments can impose themselves.

You know, you have individuals, the governments, and the market, he added. The good bit that cushions all thatfamilies, community, civil societyis getting weaker and weaker. So, governments are trying to fill that gap.
Mexican Marines stand next to sargassum removed from the sea in Cancun, Mexico, on July 20, 2021. (Paola Chiomante/Reuters)

Scientists Come Closer to Solving Caribbean Seaweed Mystery

Scientists were baffled when a band of seaweed longer than the entire Brazilian coastline sprouted in 2011 in the tropical Atlantican area typically lacking nutrients that would feed such growth.

A group of U.S. researchers has fingered a prime suspect: human sewage and agricultural runoff carried by rivers to the ocean.

The science is not yet definitive. This nutrient-charged outflow is just one of several likely culprits fueling an explosion of seaweed in the warm waters of the Americas. Scientists told Reuters they suspect a complex mix of Amazon rainforest destruction and dust blowing west from Africas Sahara Desert may be fueling mega-blooms of the dark-brown seaweed known as sargassum.

In June 2018, scientists recorded 20 million metric tons of seaweed, a 1,000 percent increase compared with the 2011 bloom for that month.

There are probably multiple factors driving the growth, said oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam at Columbia University. I would be surprised if there is one clear villain.

Still, a recent study examining the chemistry of seaweed from the 1980s up to 2019 offers the strongest evidence yet that water coming from city and farm runoff has been a major contributor to the expansion of the so-called Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, which now stretches for nearly 9,000 kilometers.

Tourists walk over sand strewn with sargassum at Ballenas Beach in Cancun, Mexico, on July 23, 2021. (Paola Chiomante/Reuters)

Nitrogen Runoff

That study, co-authored by biologist Brian Lapointe at Florida Atlantic University, found that sargassum collected recently in coastal waters from Brazil to the southern United States, and including several Caribbean nations, contained levels of nitrogen that were 35 percent higher on average than in samples taken more than three decades earlier. The findings were published in May in the journal Nature Communications.

Nitrogen is found in human and animal waste and in fertilizers. The results suggest that sewage and farm runoff thats flowing into rivers throughout the Americas and then on to the ocean is feeding offshore sargassum growth. Currents carry much of this seaweed to the Caribbean Sea, where its bedeviling the regions tourism-dependent coastal economies.

The samples also showed, for example, a 111 percent rise in the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus during the same time frame. That ratio has been nearly constant across the worlds oceans going back decades. The change suggests the water chemistry has been radically altered.

The researchers singled out the Amazon River for particular scrutiny.

A beach covered with sargassum is pictured near a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, on Aug. 21, 2021. (Paola Chiomante/Reuters)

Scientists believe that rainstorms are intensifying in certain areas of the globe, including over the Amazon. Those storms are increasing the frequency of extreme flooding, which likely is pushing more nitrogen-rich runoff out to sea, Lapointe told Reuters, in a sequence he calls a double whammy.

Experts note that peak Amazon River flooding pushes a plume of nutrients hundreds of kilometers out to sea in March and April, coinciding with major sargassum blooms. From there, currents push the seaweed around the coast of Venezuela into the Caribbean Sea and sometimes even farther north into the Gulf of Mexico.

African Dust and Ash

Scientists have also theorized that dust from the Sahara Desert, along with smoke and ash, could be contributing to the seaweed boom. As the particles are blown westward over the Atlantic Ocean, they run into clouds and get rained down as fertilizing iron and phosphorus deposits in the water.

Proving exactly how much each of these factors might be contributing to sargassums growth will take years of funding and research. But scientists say that doesnt mean governments cant act now to reverse the trend.

This phenomenon will continue until there is a change in public policy, said Carlos Noriega, an oceanographer at Brazils Federal University of Pernambuco. Brazil, for example, could slow deforestation, which has led to a boom in cattle ranching that allows loose soil, manure, and fertilizer to wash into rivers.

He also noted the burgeoning human population in Brazils Amazon region. The five largest cities there have grown by nearly 900,000 people since 2010, and much of the region lacks sufficient sewage treatment.

Treating sewage and stopping deforestation, thats the only way to control it, Noriega said.

The Epoch Times Staff contributed to this report.
People march down a street during a protest against government-imposed COVID-19 measures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Sept. 29, 2021. (Darko Bandic/AP Photo)

Slovenia Halts J&J Vaccine After Young Womans Death; Mass Protest Erupts in Capital

Slovenia has temporarily suspended the use of Johnson & Johnsons (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine after a 20-year-old woman who had recently received the single-dose shot died, officials announced on Sept. 29.

According to the notification of a serious adverse event after vaccination Janssen [J&J], members of the advisory group suggest that vaccination with this vaccine be suspended until the situation is clarified, Health Minister Janez Poklukar said in an official government statement.

The woman, whose identity has been withheld, was hospitalized on Sept. 27 with a severe condition, local media reported. She died of a brain hemorrhage and blood clots on the night of Sept. 28just days after receiving the single-dose vaccine, according to the reports.

She was the second recipient of the J&J vaccine in Slovenia to have experienced a serious health condition that wasnt COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, the official STA news agency reported.

We are all shaken and I wish to express my condolences to the family of the deceased. We concluded at the session of our task force that this incident might have been connected to vaccination and we decided to temporarily halt all vaccination with this particular vaccine, said Bojana Beovic, a government health worker in charge of vaccinations.

The suspension will be in place until experts determine whether there was a link between the womans death from a stroke and the vaccine shot she received, Poklukar said.

A large-scale demonstration that involved thousands of citizens erupted Sept. 29 on the streets of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia and the countrys largest city, against the latest government-imposed CCP virus restrictions.

Protesters gather during a protest against government-imposed COVID-19 measures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Sept. 29, 2021. (Darko Bandic/AP Photo)

People march down a street during a protest against government-imposed COVID-19 measures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Sept. 29, 2021. (Darko Bandic/AP Photo)

At the protest, participants observed a moment of silence for the young woman, saying she wanted to buy her freedom by getting the COVID-19 jab after the government announced draconic measures, including mandating COVID-19 vaccine passports for workers in all state-run firms.

The one-dose jab gained popularity in the Eastern European country after the government introduced the new CCP virus measures.

During the Sept. 29 demonstration, protesters carried banners reading Stop Corona Fascism and demanded equal rights for both those who are vaccinated and those who arent.

I am here for the future, the future of my kids, future generations because this craziness needs to be stopped, a protester named Katja Zupan said. If we dont stand up for ourselves and for mankind, then we are done, we are lost.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has currently authorized four COVID-19 vaccines in Slovenia: J&J, AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Moderna.

Poklukar said on Sept. 29 that almost one million people in Slovenia have been fully vaccinated, including 120,000 with the J&J vaccine, saying he believes that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.

Slovenia has previously recommended the J&J vaccine to all people over age 18, while some other countries have limited its use to older people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
A U.S. drone aircraft lands at Afghanistan's Jalalabad Airport where a U.S. C-130 military transport plane crashed in Jalalabad on Oct. 2, 2015. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)

Taliban Says US Will Face Consequences If It Continues Drone Activities in Afghanistan

The Taliban terrorist group on Wednesday demanded the United States, among other countries, to abort its drone patrols over Afghan airspace or face negative consequences.

Afghanistans sacred airspace is being occupied by U.S. drones, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter. These violations must be corrected and prevented.

We call on all countries, especially the United States, to act in the light of mutual commitments and commitments to Afghanistan  in order to prevent any negative consequences, he continued.

We call on all countries, especially the United States, to act in the light of mutual commitments and commitments to Afghanistan in the light of international commitments, commitments and laws, in order to prevent any negative consequences.  Zabihullah Mujahid (@Zabihullah_M3) September 28, 2021

Due to concern by U.S. officials over the resurgence of al-Qaeda and activities by the ISIS terrorist group in Afghanistan, the Biden administration has routinely said they will maintain over-the-horizon capabilities in the war-torn nation and monitor potential threats.

We know that al-Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS, in Afghanistan, and weve talked about that for quite some time. We do not believe it is exorbitantly high, but we dont have an exact figure for you, Defense Department press secretary John Kirby previously said.

The Taliban has repeatedly said there is no evidence of ISIS or al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, making the claims just days after ISIS claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Since toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul last month, the Taliban have faced pressure from the international community to renounce ties with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

President Joe Biden said in August following the withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan that the United States will continue to actively pursue terrorist groups like ISIS-K in the country, which is responsible for killing 13 U.S. service members at Kabuls airport last month.

We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries. We just dont need to fight a ground war to do it, Biden said during his Aug. 31 speech. We have whats called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground, very few, if needed.

U.S. officials were not immediately available to comment on the Talibans claims of recent drone operations in Afghanistan.

From NTD News
A Toronto District School Board logo is seen on a sign in front of a high school in Toronto in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn)

The Toronto District School Board Should Focus on Learning, Not Activism

Commentary

It looks like the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) still hasnt learned a very important life lesson.

Earlier this year, one of TDSBs social equity program advisors was caught distributing blatantly anti-Israel propaganda to its teachers. This educators material falsely accused Israel of apartheid and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

At first, TDSB appeared to take this incident seriously and suspended the educator. Sadly, it didnt take long for the school board to restore this educator to his position without so much as a reprimand. So much for taking a stand against anti-Israel propaganda.

Now TDSB is at it again. On Sept. 24, the school board hired a keynote speaker for a gathering of more than 600 teachers. The ostensible topic of this presentation was anti-black racism. Unfortunately, the speaker veered away from his prepared talk and launched into a passionate attack against Israel.

Among other things, the speaker accused Israel of engaging in settler colonialism and repeated the anti-Israel slogan Free Palestine. To be clear, the Free Palestine Movement is opposed to the very existence of Israel, and if this movement had its way, the nation of Israel would not even exist.

It should go without saying that public school teachers should not be forced to listen to a presenter who spews anti-Israel propaganda. One can only imagine how uncomfortable this presentation must have been for the Jewish teachers who were in the audience. They should never have been subjected to this rhetoric.

In fact, the speakers presentation caught the attention of several Jewish organizations. For example, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center issued an official statement denouncing the speakers anti-Israel statements, and raised concerns about implications to the TDSBs efforts to confront antisemitism and discrimination.

If TDSB truly believes in fighting racism, it needs to stamp out any antisemitism that rears its ugly head. This means preventing its educators from disseminating anti-Israel propaganda and it also means making better choices when bringing in guest speakers. TDSB staff and students from all backgrounds deserve a safe and inclusive learning environment.

Fortunately, there is a way for TDSB to make this happen. Instead of making social justice activism the focus of professional development for teachers, the school board should focus on helping all students gain the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to be successful in life.

For example, the science of learning is clear that background knowledge is key to reading comprehension. Immerse all students in a content-rich learning environment and they are far more likely to become fluent readers. Combine this with a solid phonics approach to reading instruction in the early grades and TDSB students would reap the benefits. Why not have an in-service on this non-controversial topic?

Now, consider the advantages of providing teachers with professional development that actually helps students become effective readers. Not only would students find it much easier to learn new things, but teachers would have a greatly improved sense of accomplishment. After all, there is no higher reward for teachers than to see their students succeed.

This type of professional development would have the added advantage of keeping TDSB out of unnecessary controversies. TDSB administrators should focus on the thing that matters moststudent achievement and how teachers can achieve that worthwhile goal.

The reality is that students are most likely to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging when they are in classrooms where genuine learning is taking place. When problems with student behaviour arise, teachers can deal with them on a case-by-case basis. This is far better than trying to implement a prepackaged anti-racism program that might not be relevant to every situation.

This doesnt mean that controversial issues shouldnt be discussed in class. Far from it. Rather, when students are in the process of becoming well-educated, they are better equipped to tackle challenging and controversial topics. The time for discussing the Middle East conflict is after students have acquired sufficient background knowledge, not before. Knowledge is the key to dispelling ignorance.

The TDSB needs to focus on learning, not on activism. Good educational practices should have a much higher place in the system.

Editors note: This article was updated on the evening of Sept. 29, 2021.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
A teacher and an autistic child work on lessons together, at the College du Parc in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, on Oct. 9, 2019. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images

UK Autism Cases Rose 787 Percent From 1998 to 2018: Study

Scientists dispute whether rise driven by increase in prevalence or greater recognition

Autism diagnoses in a large sample from the UK rose by a startling 787 percent from 1998 to 2018, according to a recent paper.

Published in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , the paper adds to a growing body of research showing increases in the diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) throughout the world , including in the United States yet the government agencies charged with protecting public health remain hesitant to acknowledge or explain the increase in underlying prevalence.

Scientists dispute whether the rise is driven by an actual increase in prevalence or a greater recognition of the disorder by mental health professionals.

The authors of the UK paper used data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink primary care database. The 6,786,212 patients included in the database in 1998 rose to 9,594,598 by 2018, of whom 65,665 were diagnosed with autism by that point.

The researchers documented a particularly stark rise in autism diagnoses among both females and adults, alongside smaller increases among males and other age groups.

One adult per 100,000 was diagnosed in 1998, versus twenty in 2018, the paper reads.

The researchers themselves seem to believe that the increase is based primarily on an increase in recognition of autism in patients, rather than an actual increase in prevalence.

As there is not really a plausible reason why autism should increase more in adults and females our study suggests the change is probably due to increased identification, and not more people with neurodevelopmental disorders per se. lead author Ginny Russell, from the University of Exeter, said in a statement .

The definition of what constitutes autism has changed over time, and females and adults were not often thought of as having autism 20 years ago. The vocal work of charities and media coverage, combined with changes in policy has led to more assessment [centers] for adults, and an autism narrative that many women and girls identify with. Consequently, demand for diagnosis has never been higher.

Russell further affirmed the teams conclusion in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

Our paper is about increased recognition and not at all about prevalence, she wrote.

The authors of the new study noted their works limitations, including the incompleteness of data.

Because of this potential for missing data, we chose not to concentrate on absolute incidence or prevalence rates, rather keeping the analysis focused on a comparative trend in diagnosis over time, the study reads.

While Russell and her coauthors pinpointed changing diagnostic practices as the key driver of the increase, other experts have stressed that prevalence is genuinely rising, identifying older parental age, environmental pollution, and other factors as potential explanations for the trend.

A 2012 meta-analysis, or analysis of multiple studies, authored by scientists in Sweden, Israel, the UK, and the United States linked advanc ing maternal age to autism spectrum disorder. A 2006 study from one of the meta-analysiss authors, Abraham Reichenberg, had previously linked advancing paternal age to the condition.

In the United States, the mean age of mothers increased to 26.3 years in 2014 from 24.9 years in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The mean age of fathers has also gone up, risin g to 30.9 years in 2015 from 27.4 in 1972.

Research has also revealed correlations between rates of autism and the presence of certain environmental pollutants, including the herbicide glyphosate, found in Monsantos Roundup pesticide.

Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who leads the New Jersey Autism Study, told The Epoch Times via email that the new UK study is in line with previous research.

Why dont thoughtful individuals accept the reality of increasing [ASD] prevalence in spite of overwhelming evidence? Zahorodny said.

I wish I knew with confidence the primary drivers of the increase in ASD prevalence.

Parent age, premature gestation/low birth weight, [and] prenatal exposure to antidepressants and anti-seizure medications are implicated for sure. There is also an indication that prenatal exposure to folic acid and acetaminophen may contribute.

More research into prenatal environmental exposures is needed. Obviously, genetic factors are NOT likely [to] explain the sharp increases in ASD prevalence since 2000.

Zahorodnys colleague Cynthia Nevison, a research associate with the University of ColoradoBoulder who has researched the link between autism and environmental pollution, also spoke with The Epoch Times via email.

With respect to what could be causing the increase, my comment is this: I think that is a question that reporters should be asking the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the equivalent agency in the UK, Nevison said.

The rise in autism has been going on for over 30 years and, at this point, the public deserves a thoughtful and well-researched answer to [the] causation question.

On its autism Frequently Asked Questions webpage, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that autism diagnoses are on the rise.

It is unclear exactly how much of this increase is due to a broader definition of ASD and better efforts in diagnosis. However, a true increase in the number of people with an ASD cannot be ruled out. We believe the increase in the diagnosis of ASD is likely due to a combination of these factors, the webpage reads.

The CDC didnt respond by press time to a request for comment on the causes of autism, whether the increase is expected to continue, and what its doing to curb the increase.

A spokesperson for the UKs public health agency, Public Health England, told The Epoch Times that the agency wasnt able to answer its questions on the causes of autism, whether the increase is expected to continue, and what its doing to curb the increase.
UK Energy Crisis Shows Danger of Net Zero Emissions Policies: Aussie Senator

The push for Australia to legislate a net zero emissions target has spurred discord from some government officials who firmly believe the climate policy could harm Australias energy security and industry amid the UKs own unravelling energy crisis.

Australia has faced criticism for not setting a 2050 net zero targeta goal already undertaken by many of the worlds developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

But Nationals Senator Matt Canavan suggested that the UKs unfolding energy crisis is a direct consequence of its net zero emissions plans via a shift to so-called renewables and banning coal power.

The UK has been trying to reach net zero. Theyve passed legislation to do that, Canavan told 2GB radio. Theyre not there yet, but theyre on the path. And already down that path, they are seeing a situation where industry is being asked to shut down just to keep the lights on.

Over the last 50 years, the UK has weaned itself of coal generation and become more dependent on gas as its primary source of electricity generationmuch of which is imported from Europe.

Further, heavy investment into renewables over the last decade has also boosted wind output, contributing to 24 percent of total generation in 2020.

The United Kingdoms coal, gas, nuclear and renewable energy consumption from 1965 to 2019. Source: Our World in Data. (The Epoch Times)

However, the UK has recently experienced a 400 percent spike in gas prices, and a 250 percent price rise for electricity after a confluence of unforeseen factors throttled the countrys supplyincluding record low wind levels, a fire at a major France-UK electricity interconnector, nuclear plant outages, and a gas shortfall sweeping Europe.

This has already led to the collapse of some energy providers while forcing other industriessuch as steelmaking and manufacturingto opt to shut down during peak hours to avoid paying exorbitant energy fees.

Canavan cautioned against a repeat of the policies that have led to the UK crisis, saying he disagreed with the current net zero approach, which does not include nuclear, as the legislation could undermine Australias critical infrastructure.

We should maintain the energy independencewe are lucky to have and grow our coal and gas production, Canavan told The Epoch Times.

Nationals Senator Matthew Canavan at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Jun. 22, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Canavan also said that Australia could not afford to lose its energy independence amid concern of growing hostilities from Beijing.

I just dont think this is the right decision for our country, especially at a time when our leaders and defence officials are very worried about the risk of conflict in our region, potentially being dragged into a risk of conflict with China. This is not the right priority, Canavan told 2GB radio.

The right priority right now, surely, is to get more things [that are made in Australia]. Thats what weve got to do.

If you do not have a strong industrial economy, you will not defend yourself. If you cannot be energy independent, you will not defend yourself, he said.

And so why would we seek to shut down our coal and gas industries which create an energy independence for us as a nation?

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the National Party, Barnaby Joyce, has not explicitly spoken against a net zero target, but has said that Australia should also consider the economic impact caused by a shutdown of the nations coal industry.

On the other hand, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that a lack of a concrete net zero deadline could undermine investments flowing into Australia.

Markets are moving as governments, regulators, central banks, and investors are preparing for a lower emissions future, Frydenberg said in an address to the Australian Industry Group. Increasingly, institutional investors are themselves committing to the net zero goal, like BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard, three of the biggest fund managers in the world.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speaks in Melbourne, Australia, on June 28, 2021. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Frydenberg said Australias economy relied heavily on imported capital to stimulate growth across the economyincluding foreign investment stock worth $4 trillion (US$2.9 trillion).

Australia has a lot at stake, Frydenberg said. We cannot run the risk that markets falsely assume we are not transitioning in line with the rest of the world.

Environmental groups have also pressed Australia to fast track its emissions reduction efforts to address their concerns around ecological damage and global warming.

Climate change advocacy organisation, the Climate Council, has urged Australia to commit to a net zero deadline ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Australia is refusing to increase its 2030 emissions reduction target, or commit to net zero emissions, said Climate Council spokesperson and Emeritus Professor at Australian National University, Will Steffen. The science is clear that the world urgently needs to reduce emissions this decade, but none of Australias commitments are a meaningful contribution to this goal.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside United Nations headquarters during the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly, in New York, on Sept. 20, 2021. (David 'Dee' Delgado/Reuters)

UK Motorists Urged to Stop Panic Buying as Drivers Unable to Work Amid Fuel Crisis

Ministers on Wednesday continued to urge motorists to return to normal fuelling habits. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the level of fuel at forecourts is stabilising amid calls to give essential workers priority access.

A taxi trade body boss said that at least a quarter of his members couldnt work on Tuesday, and one local council has asked petrol stations to give essential workers priority access after it had to cancel school buses.

Motorists in the UK, particularly England, have been rushing to petrol stations since Sept. 23 after a handful of forecourts ran dry due to chronic shortages of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers and media outlets reported on leaked content of a meeting saying BP might have to ration its deliveries.

Lengthy queues have been seen across the country, with a number of clashes breaking out.

James Spencer, managing director at Portland Fuel, told the BBC that sales at forecourts went up by 500 percent over the weekend.

The government has been forced to take a series of emergency measures as panic buyers drained the pumps, including suspending parts of a competition law and putting army drivers on standby.

On Wednesday, Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced that the governments reserve tanker fleet would start delivering fuel across Britain in the afternoon.

The trucks are driven by civilians and will provide additional logistical capacity to the fuel industry, Kwarteng wrote on Twitter.

We are now seeing signs that the situation at the pumps has begun to improve with more stations getting more fuel, the business secretary added.

The sooner we can all return to our normal buying habits, the sooner the situation will return to normal, he said, echoing the prime ministers earlier remarks.

Johnson said the ministers had heard from the industry that supplies started getting into forecourts in the normal way.

It was previously reported that some people, including medics, had been unable to go to work because they couldnt find fuel over the weekend.

Steve McNamara, the general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Wednesday that 25 to 30 percent of his members were unable to work on Tuesday.

McNamara called on the government to secure priority access to so-called essential workers, a request Johnson rejected, suggesting it was unnecessary given the easing of the situation.

However, there have been renewed calls for priority access as Buckinghamshire Council started its own priority system, according to The Telegraph.

The report said the Council wrote to petrol stations, asking them to cater for certain key workers, but the system only works when theres goodwill and when the list is limited.

Given that we have no actual powers, what happens when somebody who has been queueing for two or three hours suddenly sees somebody pushing in front waving a letter saying: Hey I stack shelves, Im a key worker? Councillor Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire Council, was quoted as saying.

Its really tricky, so weve tried to keep it limited at the moment and well just see how this works before we consider extending it, he said.
A Boeing 737 MAX airliner with United Airlines markings is pictured at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Wash., on Nov. 18, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

United Airlines Pauses COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Workers Seeking Religious, Medical Exemptions

United Airlines has agreed to temporarily pause its COVID-19 vaccine mandate until Oct. 15 for employees who submit religious or medical exemptions.

The company in early August became the first U.S. carrier to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all domestic employees. It announced that any employees not vaccinated by Sept. 27 would be terminated on Oct. 2 and those who refused the vaccine would be terminated outright. It then said that people seeking medical or religious exemption will be automatically placed on indefinite unpaid leave.

Six United employees last week filed a class-action suit against the airline, saying it failed to provide accommodation for workers who opted to not get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Attorneys representing the employees announced Tuesday that United agreed on Sept. 24 to halt its plan to effectively terminate some 2,000 of its employees who decline to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious or medical reasons, in a victory for employees seeking reasonable accommodations for personal medical decisions.

We are pleased that under a threat of a Temporary Restraining Order, United Airlines postponed its heartless and unlawful vaccine mandate that would impose on approximately 2,000 employees the unconscionable choice of violating their religious faith, violating their doctors orders, or essentially losing their job, Mark Paoletta, a partner at Schaerr Jaffe LLP who is representing the employees, said in a statement.

Uniteds hostility to their own employees exercising their civil rights is stunning  Now everyone can follow the courts decision to take the time and care needed to carefully consider the legitimate claims our clients have as we seek a solution that allows United to take necessary steps to combat COVID-19 while respecting the civil rights of valuable employees who have sincere religious objections or medical conditions that make them unable to take the vaccine, he added.

The temporary pause allows United Airlines to process the religious and medical exemption requests from employees. United officials said they comprise less than 3 percent of the airlines domestic workforce of about 67,000.

Texas Judge Mark Pittman is set to hear evidence and arguments in the lawsuit on Oct. 8.

United Airlines has yet to respond to The Epoch Timess request for comment.

A United spokesperson told Fox Business, Safety remains our highest priority. We will continue to vigorously defend our policyvaccine requirements have been around for decades and have served to keep airline employees and customers safe, adding that it remains convinced that its vaccine policy saves lives.

As of today, excluding employees who have submitted exemptions, 98.5% of Uniteds U.S. employees are vaccinated, the spokesperson said.

A company spokesperson told Reuters that the airline plans to hire about 25,000 people over the next few years, with COVID-19 vaccination as a requirement of employment. The spokesperson said the company also plans to require students at its pilot training school to be vaccinated.
A United Airlines agent helps a customer check in for his flight at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Nov. 25, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters)

United Airlines Set to Terminate 593 Workers for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

United Airlines is set to terminate 593 of its employees who have chosen to not comply with the companys vaccine mandate, it confirmed to The Epoch Times on Sept. 29.

The company was the first U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines for all domestic employees, having announced its mandate in August. Employees were required to be vaccinated by Sept. 27 or they would be terminated by Oct. 2. Those who refused the vaccine would be terminated outright.

In a memo sent to employees on Sept. 28 and obtained by The Epoch Times, United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said the company would start the process of firing the employees who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The United Airlines executives told staff that more than 99 percent of domestic employees chose to get vaccinated, excluding those who submitted for an accommodation.

For the less than 1 [percent] of people who decided to not get vaccinated, well unfortunately begin the process of separation from the airline per our policy, the memo reads. This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority. The pandemic is now killing more than 2,000 people per daya 65 [percent] increase in just the past 30 daysand the most effective way to keep our people safe, is to make sure theyre vaccinated.

Two major unions representing United Airlines workers, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Air Line Pilots Association, didnt respond to requests for comment by press time. They had said in previous statements that they supported the mandates.

The memo noted that those applying for a medical or religious exemption have had the deadline for implementing the accommodations extended due to a pending court case.

United Airlines officials said people who applied for religious and medical exemptions account for less than 3 percent of the companys workforce of 67,000 people. It was going to offer an accommodation of unpaid personal leave from Oct. 2. Doing so would mean that the employees would also forfeit their benefits, including medical coverage.

Six United Airlines employees filed a class-action suit against the airline last week, with attorneys arguing that the companys handling of its vaccine mandates violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The attorneys for the employees announced on Sept. 28 that the company had agreed to pause its plan until Oct. 15 to apply so-called accommodation for about 2,000 of its employees who have applied for religious or medical exemptions.

They hailed the move as a victory for employees seeking reasonable accommodations for personal medical decisions, and condemned the accommodation that United Airlines had initially offered as termination by another name.

Texas Judge Mark Pittman is set to hear evidence and arguments in the lawsuit on Oct. 8.

A United Airlines spokesperson told Reuters that the company plans to hire about 25,000 people over the next few years and that COVID-19 vaccination is a condition of employment. The spokesperson stated that the company will also require students at its pilot training school to get vaccinated.
A 100-tonne Caterpillar truck descends to the bottom of the Sue E open-pit uranium mine at Areva Resources Canada's McClean Lake site in McClean Lake, Saskatchewan, in this file photo. (David Boily/AFP via Getty Images)

Uranium Prices Surge on Financial Interest After Years in the Doldrums

Long-term demand for nuclear energy expected to grow; Canada is worlds second-largest uranium producer

Uranium is in the Canadian spotlight once again thanks to significant financial investor interest in the mineral. Uranium market participants say the nascent phenomenon has its benefits, but speculation abounds as to how the price surge will affect the utilities amid an excess of demand over supply.

Uranium prices have been extremely volatile in Septemberrising to above US$50 a pound by mid-monthup about 40 percent, which is more than all other major commodities, according to Bloomberg. Prices fell to around US$45 in late September, which is still up more than 30 percent in the month.

This is coming on the heels of very stable prices over the last five years, after a gradual decline over the five years prior. Prices peaked at US$136 a pound in 2007.

As of Sept. 28, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, a Canada-based exchange-traded fund, is up about 35 percent since its July 19 inception. It has amassed a uranium stockpile roughly 16 percent of the annual consumption of the worlds reactors, Bloomberg reported.

The fund gives investors a way to directly invest in uranium without having to take physical possession of the mineral, similar to gold funds.

The demand for uranium seems durable in a way that feels different this time, said Grant Isaac, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Saskatchewan-based uranium-mining company Cameco, during a Sept. 20 conference call.

He views Sprotts buying of the mineral as unequivocally beneficial to the uranium market, noting that its being done in the most transparent and verifiable way hes ever seen, with the prices paid being available to the public.

Isaac said hes happy that Sprott has taken over from Cameco as the biggest uranium buyer.

Uranium, in fact, does not trade on the open market like other commodities do. Rather, buyers and sellers negotiate longer-term contracts for the mineral privately. Thus its been said that the uranium market lacks price transparency.

One of the things that a lot of investors are expecting from the trust is it playing a greater role in that price discovery process, said John Ciampaglia, CEO of Sprott Asset Management, during a Sept. 14 webcast. And thats exactly what the trust has done so far.

Watching and Waiting

The utilities that need the mineral to power nuclear reactors are reportedly not actively buying or selling the product despite all the noise in the uranium markets. Economist Peter St. Onge says theyre not known for their financial acumen and could be deer in the headlights.

This hasnt happened [for] a long timeuranium has been asleep for at least five years, he told The Epoch Times. One of the concerns is that these guys [the utilities] get caught flat-footed, he added.

However, Per Jander, technical adviser to the Sprott uranium fund, said during the webcast that Im not worried that any utility is going to run out of material to run the reactors. He said the utilities are probably watching and waiting to see if the rise in prices is sustainable, as they have some inventory.

The Epoch Times contacted Ontario Power Generation for comment but did not get a response.

St. Onge, a research fellow with The Heritage Foundation and a former senior fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute, added that the price of uranium has plenty of room to run before the situation gets problematic, potentially prompting the government to get involved.

Isaac said the lack of a response from uranium fuel buyers shouldnt be surprising given that the uranium price moves have been very sudden, as it takes time to adjust to new facts.

Isaac also explained that one problem with the uranium market has been uncommitted production, which means the mineral could end up being sold below production costs, thus affecting the market pricing mechanism.

I dont think the full appreciation of that [Sprott fund] vehicle is imputed in the market at the moment, Isaac said.

A Glowing Future for Uranium?

As countries aim to move away from fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy, the role of nuclear energy garners consideration. Renewable energy like wind and solar has its shortcomings depending on the weather or time of day, and it can even create its own set of environmental problems.

In addition, an energy crisis is plaguing Europe. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil price has risen again and is hovering just below US$75 a barrel. And natural gas is well over US$5 a barrel, having reached its highest level since 2014.

Nuclear energy is dogged by a handful of disasters like Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island, but its proponents suggest that it is the safest and lowest-cost form of energy available.

However, nuclear energy remains politically unpopular, says St. Onge, adding that some hard choices need to be made as decarbonizing the entire economy does not come without some pain. Building more nuclear plants, which could address the energy gap, would take time, he said.

We can play games all day about solar panels and wind. It aint there yet. Maybe itll be in 20 years. The only way to do that feasibly in the near term is nuclear, and everybody hates nuclear. Nobody wants to endorse nuclear, St. Onge said.

According to Ontario Power Generation, about 60 percent of Ontarios power is provided by nuclear energy.

Uranium is expected to be in demand over the long term. Natural Resources Canada lists it as a critical mineral along with rare earth elements and with minerals like lithium, graphite, cobalt, and nickel, which are required for making electric vehicles, batteries, and electronic components.

Canada is the second-largest uranium producer in the world, at 13 percentthough its a distant second behind Kazakhstan, which produced 42 percent of the worlds supply in 2019.
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou receiving flowers following her release, in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, on Sept. 25, 2021. (A screen grab made from video released by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV/AFP via Getty Images)

Lawmaker Urges DOJ to Explain the Release of Huawei CFO

House Armed Services Committee member Jim Banks (R-Ind.) has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to explain the release of Huaweis CFO Meng Wanzhou, in an open letter (pdf) released on Sept. 28.

On Sept. 24, the Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed Meng to return to China after she was detained in Canada on behalf of the U.S. government nearly three years ago. Meng was waiting to be extradited to the United States for her role in Huaweis violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran through a shell company.

The DOJ said that it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Meng, in which she agreed to most of the charges against her while maintaining formal deniability regarding key charges relating to bank and wire fraud.

Shortly after Mengs release, the Chinese regime released two Canadians who had been detained in China soon after Mengs arrest in Canada. Its believed that Mengs release is a sign of victory for the Chinese regimes hostage diplomacy tactic.

Amid the controversy, Banks issued an official letter to Garland asking him to explain the DOJs deal to free Meng.

There is incontrovertible evidence that Huawei violated our laws and Meng Wanzhou attempted to cover it up, the letter reads.

Meng has acknowledged her role in helping conceal Huaweis direct dealing with Iran and violating U.S. sanctions, according to the letter.

Banks noted that in exchange, the DOJ deferred prosecution, let Meng return home to China, and the case against her could be dropped soon. Meng was welcomed back to China as a hero. He said Meng didnt even receive a slap on the wrist for such a serious crime.

Banks wrote that hes deeply troubled by the message sent to the world by the DOJs release of Meng.

The United States is broadcasting to any would-be criminals that we are not very serious about enforcing our sanctions laws, he wrote. This is a dream come true for Iran, Hamas, Russia, North Korea, and every other entity who have been slapped with our sanctions.

Banks also pointed out that two hours after Mengs release, the Chinese regime freed two Canadian citizens who had been arbitrarily detained in China since December 2018. The agreement with Meng and Chinas release of these two prisoners clearly suggests a prisoner swap, he said.

He expressed grave concern regarding communist Chinas hostage diplomacy and the safety of Americans in China.

Congress needs to know the details of the agreement made with the Chinese government and how it may lead to future hostage-taking by the Chinese Communist Party, he wrote.

Banks demanded that Garland share all documents and communications between the DOJ and the White House and the State Department about this case from January 20, 2021 to September 27, 2021 within the next 15 days.

The DOJ hadnt responded to Bankss letter by press time.
Vehicles for sale are seen at Serramonte Ford in Colma, Calif., on Oct. 3, 2017. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)

US New Vehicle Retail Sales Set to Fall 25 Percent in September: Data

U.S. retail sales of new vehicles are expected to fall nearly a quarter in September, hurt by depleting inventories, even as consumer spending remains strong, consultants J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said in a joint forecast on Tuesday.

New vehicle retail sales in the United States are seen dropping to 888,900 units in September, from 1,182,788 a year ago.

September results show that there are simply not enough vehicles available to meet consumer demand, J.D. Power said in a statement.

While demand remains sky high for personal transportation, with consumers set to spend billions in September, automakers are crimped by semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruptions.

The gap between demand and supply is leading to record vehicle prices, with average transaction price in September expected to reach an all-time high of $42,802, J.D. Power said.

Used vehicle prices are also starting to heat up as the fall season gets underway after cooling in late-June and July, J.D. Power added.

LMC Automotive warned that the recovery in the auto industry may be pushed until 2022, if not 2023, due to the worsening disruptions.

Septembers seasonally adjusted annualized rate for new vehicle sales will be 12.2 million, down four million units from 2020 and about 800,000 units less than 2019.

Major automakers, including General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc., are set to report monthly and quarter deliveries in the next two weeks.
Virginia Gov. Candidate Argues Parents Shouldnt Have a Say in What Public Schools Teach

Virginias Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe argued that parents should not tell schools what to teach, during the final debate before the upcoming Nov. 2 election.

The remark by McAuliffe, who served as governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018, came after Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin said he believes that parents should be given more say in the decisions of local school districts, including what kind of books their children are exposed to at school.

What weve seen over the course of this last 20 months is our school systems refusing to engage with parents, Youngkin said. In fact, in Fairfax County this past week, we watched parents so upset because there was such sexually explicit material in the library they had never seen, it was shocking.

He then pointed out that McAuliffe in 2016 put down what was known as the Beloved bill, a measure that would have made Virginia the first state to require schools to warn parents of sexually explicit content in books, and allow parents to block their children from reading those books.

You vetoed the bill that would have informed parents that they were there, Youngkins said to the former governor. You believe school systems should tell children what to do. I believe parents should be in charge of their kids education.

In response, McAuliffe said that parents would have had the power to remove books from library shelves if the 2016 bill passed.

It was not that the parents had the right to veto books  also take them off the shelves, he said. Im not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.

I stopped the bill and I dont think parents should be telling schools what they should teach, McAuliffe added.

The candaidates comments comes amid ongoing controversies around public education in Virginia, including the incorporation of critical race theory (CRT) in schools, and the Commonwealths new model policies encouraging school districts to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

McAuliffe during the first gubernatorial debate on Sept. 16 said individual school boards should be making their own decisions on whether to implement the model policies. Youngkin on Tuesday agreed with McAuliffes response, but added that parents should be included in the conversation, and that schools must consider concepts of safety, privacy, and respect when making decisions.

When it comes to CRT, McAuliffe reportedly dismissed the concerns as a right-wing conspiracy that was totally made up by Donald Trump. By contrast, Youngkin said the CRT is a real issue.

Virginia schools are in a state of chaos because of the left-liberal, progressive agenda that is being ramrodded across the Commonwealth of Virginia, Youngkin told The Epoch Times earlier this summer. We kept our schools closed so unnecessarily, and damaged kids across Virginia. We have infused a political agenda of critical race theory into the curriculum, and we are seeing parents stand up across Virginia, and acutely in Loudon County.
Whats Behind the Blackouts in China?

Beijing allows two American siblings to leave China and come home after three years. Their father is one of Chinas most-wanted corrupt officials. Beijing accuses him of committing major bank fraud.

Power shortages cause issues across China, and American businesses are feeling the pain. Coal shortages may play a role, but some say the real cause is the Chinese Communist Partys global ambition. A China affairs analyst breaks it down.

America is spending big bucks to kick Huawei out of U.S. networks. One government agency is now lending a hand to rural telecom carriers.

Heavy rains drench northern China. The continued downpours have already caused flooding and mudslides.

Chinas real estate industry seems to be booming, but many buildings are being ripped down. NTD looks at whats behind it.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter.
A medical worker takes a nasal swab sample from a woman at COVID-19 testing booth in New York on Sept. 20, 2021. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

WHO Reports Decline in COVID-19 Cases, Deaths Across the World

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reporting a 10 percent global decline in new CCP virus cases and deaths.

An estimated 3.3 million new COVID-19 infections and roughly 55,000 deaths were reported in the past week, WHO said on Sept. 28 in a brief statement. The largest drop-off in cases and deaths was in the Americas, Middle East, and Western Pacific.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The largest decrease in new weekly cases was reported from the Eastern Mediterranean Region (17 percent), followed by the Western Pacific Region (15 percent), the Region of the Americas (14 percent), the African Region (12 percent), and the South-East Asia Region (10 percent); while weekly cases in the European Region were similar to the previous week, the WHO said.

The total number of confirmed cases, WHO said, is now over 231 million, and the cumulative number of deaths has exceeded 4.7 million since the start of the pandemic about 21 months ago.

The U.N. organization said the number of cases in the United States fell by 31 percent in the past week, and all regions except for Europe and Africa reported declines in recent days.

Vaccine data provided by Oxford Universitys Our World in Data suggests that nearly 50 percent of the global population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. About 6.2 billion doses have so far been administered, it said.

Top officials at WHO have issued frequent warnings that wealthier nations shouldnt try to pursue a strategy to roll out booster doses, arguing that extra doses should instead be given to nations with low vaccination rates.

What WHO is arguing is that booster doses in the general population, who had wide access to vaccines, who have already been vaccinated, is not the best bet right now, Dr. Mike Ryan, director of the WHOs health emergencies program, said during a news conference last week.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus previously said that wealthier countries should put a moratorium on their respective booster programs until the end of the year.

I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the worlds poor should be satisfied with leftovers, he told a news conference. Because manufacturers have prioritized or been legally obliged to fulfill bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people.

The United States, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Germany, and Spain have begun or are considering plans to offer third shots of two-dose vaccines in recent weeks.
Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and former philosophy professor, among stacks of reference books at a library in Columbus, Ohio, on March 26, 2007. (Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)

Wikipedia Co-Founder Criticizes Site, Says It Has Slid Into Leftist Propaganda

Wikipedia has in recent years drifted away from neutrality and slid into leftist propaganda, according to its co-founder Larry Sanger.

Sanger, who parted ways with Wikipedia almost two decades ago over the projects direction, told EpochTVs American Thought Leaders that the online encyclopedia, which turned 20 years old earlier this year, has gradually shifted to follow the narrative of the news media.

Wikipedia made a real effort at neutrality for, I would say, its first five years or so, said Sanger. And then  it began a long, slow slide into what I would call leftist propaganda.

It began a long, slow slide into what I would call leftist propaganda. Wikipedia co-founder @lsanger argues that over the years, Wikipediaonce a neutral, free-for-all platformhas become increasingly authoritarian. WATCH on @EpochTVus: https://t.co/2lGftWyDx2 pic.twitter.com/c57Np6tcba  Jan Jekielek (@JanJekielek) September 25, 2021

Wikipedia has around 125,000 active volunteer editors who work on crowdsourced articles, and more than 1,000 administrators who can take actions such as blocking accounts or restricting edits on certain pages.

Sanger told EpochTV that particularly in the past five years, any individual who is on the right, or even contrarian, often finds themselves with an article on Wikipedia that grossly misrepresents their achievements, often just leaves out important bits of their work, and misrepresents their motives.

Wikipedia casts them as conspiracy theorists, are far right or whatever, when they and their friends and people who know them well would never describe them in that way, Sanger said.

Sanger criticized Wikipedia, suggesting that it has recently moved to follow the news media.

More recently, theyve gotten rid of almost all conservative news sources as sources for their articles, he explained. And so as the news media has shifted, and as the establishment, frankly, has shifted more to the left or to the left, the content of Wikipedia has followed suit.

He previously noted that Wikipedia has banned Fox Newss political reporting, the New York Post, and the Daily Mail from being used as sources.

Sanger said he is now working on creating a new decentralized network, a superset of all encyclopedias.

Were going to be putting all of the encyclopedic content and the world in a single network. Thats an extremely compelling vision, he said.

He first announced in March that he was working on developing technical standards that could strip power over social media from giant companies and give users more control over the content they produce and see.

Sanger created Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales in 2001, but left the project the following year and has subsequently criticized the website.

Wikipedia officials didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.

Isabel van Brugen Reporter Follow Isabel van Brugen is an award-winning journalist and currently a news reporter at The Epoch Times. She holds a master's in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.
World War II Fighter Pilot, 101, Recalls His Time in the Pacific

Arthur Leach is 101 years old. Sometimes, age is just a number. Sometimes, its a story. Leachs age is full of stories.

When I interviewed Leach recently for The Sons of Historys collection of military interviews, I was given a bit more perspective into his age. Before we began recording our conversation, he told me his first car was a 1924 Model T that he bought for $18; gas was 16 cents per gallon.

Leach, a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy in World War II, enlisted in February 1942 during his final semester of college at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

He was informed he would be in uniform before he could walk across the graduation stage. After some negotiating with the Navy office and some local leaders, it was agreed he could finish college before leaving for the service. He graduated on June 8 and was in uniform on June 10.

Leach at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, during his primary flight training in 1942 as a naval aviation cadet.. (Courtesy of the family of Arthur Leach)

His flight training took him to Iowa City, St. Louis, Pensacola, Miami, Lake Michigan, San Diego, Seattle, and eventually the Hawaiian Islands. It would take approximately a year before he would be commissioned.

The same day he was commissioned, he married Eileen Holforty. The very next day, he went to Miami for fighter training.

Leach flew open-cockpit biplanes such as the Boeing-Stearman and the N3N, then the SNJ Texan, the Brewster F2A Buffalo, and ultimately the F6F Hellcat, which gave America air superiority in the Pacific. The Hellcat is best known in World War II for its dominance during the June 1944 invasion of the Mariana Islands, which became known as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Before being stationed on the USS Yorktown, he made his first carrier landings on one of the two large ships refitted to be practice carriers, the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable. The practice landings were conducted on Lake Michigan and were absolutely pivotal to ensure pilots were capable of carrier landings and would have enough confidence to conduct such landings in the Pacific Ocean. Despite the ships massive size, landing on a carrier at sea was incredibly difficult.

The carrier is moving about 30-35 miles per hour with the wind over the deck, youre landing at about 90-100, he said. You come over the deck and circle and adjust on the downwind leg to get your position and your height in relation to the ship, and then youd start your turn to come up the back. But you dont want to a long straightway because your engine is big and you cannot see the deck when youre going straight up behind it playing catch up. If you came in too fast, youd be floating over the barrier and land on the guys who landed before you. That happens occasionally, and of course, kills everyone it hits.

Countless calculations had to be considered just to land, such as wind speed, carrier speed, plane speed, the tilt of the wings, the location of the landing, and the angle of the landing.

Taking off was no easy feat either. Often, poor landings ended fatally. Poor takeoffs were even more deadly.

The flight deck is a dangerous place, he stated. You take off at 3:30 or 4 oclock in the morning and you cant see the end, but youve got to get off. A lot of guys dont make it and, of course, you never see them again. The ship runs right over him. The airplane sinks in 15 seconds. Its going to sink even faster with the ship going about 30 miles or more. You hear it scrape all the way down.

When it came to flying, the Japanese Zeros were the superior fighter planes in the Pacific, at least for a while. The Grumman F6F Hellcat was introduced in late 1942, but saw most of its action beginning in 1943. This is the year Art began combat missions. During his time in the air, he was credited with 3.5 kills (the 0.5 being due to Leach and another pilot shooting down the same plane). He also took aim at destroying Japanese gunboats.

We could do 400 miles an hour, and were a little harder to hit when were going 300 or 400, he said about attacking the gunboats. Wed pick up a little ground fire and get bullet holes in the wings and fuselage. As long as it doesnt hit something life-threatening, it doesnt matter particularly.

Leach flew missions throughout many of the Philippine Islands, including Manila, Luzon, Mindoro, and Samar. He also fought in the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On one mission toward Tokyo, he said he noticed tracer bullets zoom past him. He suddenly felt something wet on his back.

I thought, Gee! Ive been hit and it doesnt hurt, he said. It was all just a cold sweat. I felt good that I was able to sweat.

Art Leach at the Pensacola Beach Air Show in July 2021. (Courtesy of the family of Arthur Leach)

He stayed in the Navy after the end of World War II as part of the Ready Reserves in Glenview, Illinois. After 14 years as a pilot, flying just about every plane the Navy had, he ended his career as a senior lieutenant. Shortly before he left the Navy, he was informed he was going to be promoted to lieutenant commander, which is equivalent to a major rank.

I didnt bother to accept it because I was going to quit and secondly, I wasnt going to get a pension anyway, so rank wouldnt mean nothing, he said.

Leach was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is awarded for heroism or outstanding achievement during an aerial flight. Charles Lindbergh was the first to receive the award after his flight across the Atlantic. Leach was also awarded two air medals.

Unfortunately, he doesnt have the medals and citations he received, or even his military uniform, because his house burned to the ground in the 1950s while he and his family were out of town.

Leach may no longer have any of his war memorabilia, but age hasnt hindered his ability to recollect those memories from before, during, and after the war. And those are memories are more than just stories. They provide perspective.
Young Mom in Menopause With No Chance of Pregnancy Gives Birth to Baby: Miracles Do Happen

A young mom of two who went into premature menopause at 28 thought her dreams of having a third child were crushed. However, she was in complete disbelief a year later when her pregnancy test came out positivethe news seemed unreal.

She went on to deliver a beautiful baby girl, but the journey didnt end there: she suffered a hemorrhage, losing two liters of blood and almost her life.

Jade Pankhurst, 31, lives with her husband, Gary Pankhurst, 40, in the English town of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. Together, they parent Jades two sons from a prior relationship: Aaron, 12, and Kaiden, 9. Their baby girl, Mireya, meaning miracle in Spanish, is 5 months old.

Talking to The Epoch Times, the proud mom said that not a day goes by that her family doesnt count their blessings.

Jade Pankhurst during her pregnancy. (Courtesy of Jade Pankhurst)

I was diagnosed with premature menopause in June 2019, Jade said. I was in a state of denial when the doctor told me.

Jade was devastated for Gary, as he had no children of his own. I felt like Id let him down, she said.

After almost a year of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Jade started feeling ill, nauseous, and so tired that she took to sleeping during the day. Perplexed, she took a pregnancy test. The result was positive.

I had to look twice; I didnt believe it, she recalled. I wondered if the HRT had somehow caused a false positive. I rang my mum and sister first. They were so happy for me and my husband, and said straight away the baby is a miracle.'

Jade Pankhurst with Mireya, her miracle baby daughter. (Courtesy of Jade Pankhurst)

Unable to wait, Jade called Gary on his way home from work; and he couldnt believe it either, she said. The pair was ecstatic.

Upon finding out they were expecting a girl, Jade was determined to find a special name. We were looking at unique names that had the meaning miracle, without it being too obvious, she said.

It was her mother who stumbled across Mireya, and it stuck.

Gary Pankhurst with his baby daughter, Mireya. (Courtesy of Jade Pankhurst)

Baby Mireya was born in April. However, Jade and Garys joy was quickly overshadowed by panic when Jade hemorrhaged after giving birth. She lost 0.7 liters of blood, but after an internal examination, doctors reassured her that the entire placenta had been delivered.

Jades blood loss was controlled by medication. But hours later, she suffered a second hemorrhage, collapsed, and had a mini seizure. After examining Jade again, doctors found two placental lobes and several blood clots inside her uterus.

At crisis point, Jades blood pressure was so low it was unreadable. She suffered hypovolemic shock and her organs started shutting down.

I had lost approximately 2 liters of blood in total, Jade said. I required an emergency manual operation in the labor room, which I was fully aware of, and ended up needing a blood transfusion. I was lucky to still be alive!

After spending two nights in the hospital, Jade was discharged. She self-administered injections for 10 days to prevent blood clots and took a 3-month course of iron tablets for low hemoglobin, but Jade was out of danger.

Reflecting on her journey, Jade claimed she feels truly blessed to have her baby and be able to regale their story to others.

Its been an emotional roller coaster, she said. From having to accept the fact I couldnt have any more children, which was heartbreaking for us, and then finding out I was pregnant. The events that happened after the birth were also very traumatizing for us all as a family.

The feelings I felt on that drive home from the hospital with Mireya, I will never forget! she said. I truly felt blessed, and that someone was watching over us that day.

Mireya has bonded beautifully with her parents and her proud, protective brothers, who help their mom every day.

LR: Aaron North, 12, baby Mireya, and Kaiden North, 9. (Courtesy of Jade Pankhurst)

The bond between Mireya and Jade is truly unbreakable. Part of me thinks that this is because she knows all the struggles weve been through, Jade said. Being blessed with a baby is something not every woman gets to experience, and for that matter, Ill never take her for granted.

Weeks away from starting a nursing degree when she fell pregnant with Mireya, Jade is now loving life as a stay-at-home mom in close proximity to family in Cheshunt.

My family always said to me, Dont give up hope on having another baby,' Jade said. I always had it in my mind that maybe I would have another baby when the time was right, and focused on my career instead. I never gave up hope.

It may feel difficult to accept circumstances that are out of our control, which is perhaps why sometimes we should leave the door open. Sometimes having faith in the unknown can catch us by surprise, and shows us that miracles do happen!

Gary and Jade with their children. (Courtesy of Jade Pankhurst)

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
YouTube Bans All Harmful Vaccine Content From Its Platform

Google-owned YouTube said on Sept. 29 that it will ban all harmful vaccine content from its platform, including claims that vaccines are ineffective at reducing transmission of disease, prompting concerns that the firm will escalate censorship of dissenting viewpoints.

Weve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and were now at a point where its more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines, YouTube wrote in a blog post.

So far, the Bay Area-based company said it has removed 130,000 videos for violating its policies that it claims were created in tandem with various experts to deal with alleged COVID-19 and medical misinformation.

Now it removes content that claims approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines, YouTube stated on its blog, saying that its policy will now apply to content that questions the efficacy of all vaccines, not just those for COVID-19.

These policy changes will go into effect today, and as with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement, the company wrote. Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, so long as the video doesnt violate other Community Guidelines, or the channel doesnt show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed to news outlets that accounts operated by Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who have frequently raised questions about vaccines over the years, were banned from the platform.

Russian state-backed broadcaster RTs German-language channels were also deleted from YouTube, the broadcaster announced. YouTube told Reuters that the channels violated its COVID-19 policies, while Russian officials threatened to block YouTube.

Russian President Vladimir Putins press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said the YouTube ban on RTs channel may have broken Russian law.

In fact, it has been broken very brazenly, he told reporters on Sept. 29. Because of this, it is a case of censorship, and of obstructing the dissemination of information by the media, and so on.

Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter were criticized months ago for blocking articles about whether COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, may have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Facebook in May confirmed it ended its ban on content that suggests COVID-19 emerged from the laboratory, coming as President Joe Biden announced he ordered an inquiry into theories about the origins of the CCP virus.

YouTube officials didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
Whether it was Beanie Babies in the 90s or Pokemon cards in the 2000s  and a resurgence in popularity during the pandemic when Pokemon cards were selling for six figures  collectable items have always found a way to fly off the shelves of stores. With companies throwing around labels like limited edition or ultra rare, the desirability only increases for collectors.

One of the newer trends to pick up steam during the pandemic are Squishmallows.

Described as soft, pillow-like stuffed animals with individual names and numbers, Squishmallows are like modern day Beanie Babies; their different sizes and variations cause collectors to flock to them. In Connecticut, there's a whole group of people on the hunt for the plush dolls.

Kayla Passmore, who is an admin for the Connecticut Squishmallow Scavengers Facebook group that has more than 700 members, estimates that she has 213 individual Squishmallows.

Contributed Photo/Kayla Passmore

It started just because I thought they were cute but its so much fun going out and hunting down some Squishmallows, finding them and screeching in the aisle like a maniac, then coming home and reorganizing the overabundance of them and taking pictures for my account, Passmore said.

Passmore credits TikTok as a catalyst for the popularity of Squishmallows, with videos tagged with Squishmallows currently amassing almost 2 billion views on the platform. There's even a TikTok account dedicated to Squishmallow "hunting," which has 18.5k followers.

Along with Squishmallows, other popular items such as Halloween ghost rugs, leggings, candy and even some pillows have seemed to gain massive popularity lately and are practically impossible to find in stores, especially in such a small state, Passmore said.

Squishmallos are sold at stores like Walgreens and Target as well as local toy stores. And they disappear from shelves just as quickly as they appear, according to Debbie Imperatore, manager and buyer for the Funky Monkey in Greenwich.

You cant keep them on the shelves. I get an order in and its gone within four to five days, Imperatore said. You can go on eBay and youll see some of the characters going for hundreds of dollars. Its crazy.

Imperatore also attributed the popularity of TikTok to the success of Squishmallows. And that success has translated to over thousands of Squishmallows sold at Funky Monkey as well as lines that wrap around the store.

Established in 2017 by KellyToy, the brand has evolved past its origins of offering animals such as Ben the Teal Dino to now include licensed products like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Toy Story Squishmallows. An individual Squishmallow can range in price from $3 to upwards of $60. As of this January, KellyToy reported to have sold over 71 million individual Squishmallows.

With over 1,000 individual plush designs across the Squishmallows brand, according to the company, many collectors attempt to grab as many of the designs as they can.

They are also great anxiety relievers and somehow seem to have a way of comforting me just by looking at them or holding one, along with my children who love cuddling them to sleep," said Passmore.

Squishmallows are selling at a greater volume for Funky Monkey in comparison to other recent trends such as Pokemon, according to Imperatore. She believes that people are also spending more on Squishmallows in comparison to Beanie Babies in the 90s because we do things in a bigger way now.

I think this is a true trend for kids whereas Pokemon, and sports cards in general, have become a dad and college graduate thing to make extra money, Impreatore said.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  Applying to be one of the first workers at Walt Disney World, high school graduate George Kalogridis made a split-second decision that set the course for his life: he picked a room where prospective hotel workers were being hired.

Chuck Milam got a tip about a job opening from a transplanted Disney executive whose new house he was landscaping. Earliene Anderson jumped at the chance to take a job at the new Disney theme park in Florida, having fallen in love with the beauty of Disneyland in California during a trip two years earlier.

At the time, the three were among the 6,000 employees who opened the Magic Kingdom at Disney World to the public for the first time on Oct. 1, 1971. Now, they are among two dozen from that first day still employed at the theme park resort as it celebrates its 50th anniversary on Friday.

Over those decades, Disney World added three more theme parks, two dozen additional hotels and grew to have a workforce of 77,000 employees as it helped Orlando become the most visited place in the U.S. before the pandemic.

What never changed was the original employees' devotion to the pixie dust, the dream machine created by Walt Disney and his Imagineers.

Disney has been my love, and it still is," Anderson said recently before starting her shift in merchandising at a Magic Kingdom hotel. I love Disney."

The employees who make up the 50-year club say the theme park resort has allowed them to grow their careers and try on new hats. Kalogridis worked his way up to be president of Walt Disney World and Disneyland in California. Milam went from a warehouse worker to a buyer of spare parts for rides and shows.

Forrest Bahruth joined the workforce at Disney World in January 1971 as a show director, responsible for staging and choreographing parades and shows. He was also given the opportunity to help open other Disney theme parks around the world over the past five decades.

There are people all over the world who get up to go work. Theyre unhappy about it. They dont really like their jobs, Bahruth said. As you can tell from us, theres an enthusiasm. We are privileged to be at a place where we love what we do."

There was no guarantee that Disney World was going to be a success 50 years ago. Walt Disney, the pioneering animator and entrepreneur whose name graces the Florida resort, had died in 1966, just a year after announcing plans for the East Coast Disneyland." The company had quietly acquired 27,000 acres (11,000 hectares) of scrub land outside Orlando for around $5 million via secret land purchases using fake names and shell companies.

The job of shepherding the project to Opening Day fell to his brother, Roy Disney, who with other company officials convinced the Florida Legislature to create a quasi-governmental agency that would allow Disney to self-govern when it came to matters of infrastructure and planning. Roy died almost three months after Disney World opened.

Just weeks before opening, construction at the Magic Kingdom was controlled chaos, and it seemed impossible that it would all come together in time.

It was like an army of ants. Everything was under construction. Interiors were still being put in. Roofing was still being put on top," Bahruth said. There was painting, landscaping. Things were arriving by the moment. It was like trucks going everywhere."

Bahruth rehearsed performers through parade choreography down Main Street, which cut through the center of the Magic Kingdom and resembled a turn-of-the-century small town from Walt Disney's childhood. Even though he was a busser, Kalogridis was drafted into laying down sod outside the hotel he was working in, hours before Disney World's grand opening.

Two things have stuck in the memories of the longtime employees from that opening day. The first was the photo. It was an image of thousands of Disney World workers standing in front of the iconic Cinderella Castle with Mickey Mouse and other costumed characters holding hands in front. Two weeks later, it was featured on the cover of Life magazine.

They brought all the characters up, staged them first, and then they tried to keep all the different workers together based on the color of their costumes, Milam said. If you were from Fantasyland and in yellow, you would go over there.

The second was the parade. It featured a 1,076-member marching band conducted by Meredith Willson, the composer of the Broadway show, The Music Man." There were 4,000 Disney entertainers marching through the theme park, a mass choir and trumpeters from the United States Army Band. Hundreds of white doves were released into the air, and less environmentally friendly, so were thousands of multi-colored balloons.

It was the biggest thing I had ever seen," Bahruth said.

Only around 10,000 visitors showed up on that first day  which at today's much larger Walt Disney World would represent about 90 minutes' worth of visitors entering. It wouldn't be until Thanksgiving 1971, almost three months later, when Disney executives had an answer about whether their new resort would be a success; that's when cars trying to get into the Magic Kingdom stretched for miles down the interstate.

It was very clear after that first Thanksgiving, that the public definitely liked what we were doing," Kalogridis said. That first Thanksgiving, that was the moment."

___

The spelling of Meredith Willsons last name has been corrected.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
STOCKTON, Mo. (AP)  A southwest Missouri prosecutor said Tuesday he has charged five employees of a private Christian boarding school with abusing students  far fewer than the number of charges recommended by state investigators.

The five employees of the Agape Boarding School near Stockton were charged with a total of 13 third-degree felony assault counts, Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither said.

The charges come after the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated allegations of abuse at the school.

Based on that investigation, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt recommended prosecuting 22 employees with 65 counts on behalf of 36 victims, including felonies for abuse of a child and tampering with a victim, and misdemeanors for endangering the welfare of a child and failure to report child abuse.

After Gaither said last week that he planned to charge far fewer employees than recommended, Schmitt asked Gov. Mike Parson to remove his office from the investigation because he didn't believe Gaither intended to seek justice for all the victims.

Gaither said this office believed "these to be the appropriate charges under the fact of the investigation, The Kansas City Star reported.

Although Gaither asked for the attorney generals assistance in the case, Missouri law gives county prosecutors sole authority in deciding what charges are filed.

A Missouri law passed in 1982 exempted religious residential care facilities from state licensure requirements. After the allegations of abuse at Agape arose last year, the Legislature passed a law that gave the state greater oversight of unlicensed residential care facilities for children.

Its unacceptable, said Brett Harper, of Oregon, who attended Agape from 1999 to 2003 and has pushed for three years for an investigation into abuse at the school.

Its one third of the people who should be charged and he lowered the charges," Harper said Tuesday. "Nobody would call that justice.

The Star reported that two former students contacted the FBI last week and were told the agency's office was looking into the Agape case. An FBI spokesman in Kansas City did not confirm or deny an investigation.

According to online court records, the probable cause statements describing the alleged offenses will be kept confidential to protect victims' rights.

Two of those charged are former students who became Agape employees: medical director, Scott L. Dumar, and Seth Duncan, the son-in-law of David Smock, a Stockton doctor who for years has provided medical care for Agape students. The others charged are Christopher R. McElroy, Everett L. Graves and Trent E. Hartman.

An investigation into the school began after The Star reported on the abuse allegations last year. Since then, former students testified at legislative hearings that they tried to report the abuse at Agape and the now-closed Circle of Hope Girls Ranch for years, but that Cedar County authorities and other officials did not respond to the complaints.

Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville was closed last year after authorities removed about 25 students amid an investigation into abuse and neglect allegations.

The owners, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, were charged in March and await trial on 100 criminal counts  all but one are felonies  including statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse and neglect. Both have pleaded not guilty and were released in July on $10,000 bond pending trial.
NORWALK  Incidents of misbehavior at the public schools are down from two years ago, despite the decrease in school resources officers working in the district.

Responding to reports on social media that incidents are up since students returned to school full time for the first time in over a year, Superintendent Alexandra Estrella presented data to show incidents over the first few weeks of school were down compared to the the same time frame in fall 2019.

Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 27, 2019, the district reported 71 incidents that included expulsions, in-school suspensions, and out-of-school suspensions. During the same time period this year, there were 46 incidents.

The number of incidents reported at Brien McMahon High School were relatively the same over the first few weeks of school (18 in 2019 and 17 in 2021), but Norwalk High School has seen its incidents drop by half so far this fall to 12 compared to 25 reported by this time two years ago.

As a result of social media, some things have been advertised and its created this perspective that there are more incidents and it has something to do with COVID, when in reality, the total count has been significantly less than prior years, Estrella said during a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

Obviously, our goal is to be having no incidents in our schools, but I think its important to have context relative to prior experiences, because I think there was this assumption, as a result of kids coming back from COVID, incidents in the district had risen and thats not factual.

Norwalk Public Schools is working with three full-time school resource officers in the district, down from as many as eight in previous years. The police department is also providing three officers to manage traffic issues around the school buildings for a total of six officers patrolling the NPS campuses.

The citys police cover the cost of the school resource officers. The decrease in SROs in the district is due to an overall decrease in staffing in the police department, according to Sgt. Sofia Gulino.

The decline in manpower resulted in transfers from many units to the patrol division to assure proper staffing of officers on streets. The police department is in the process of recruiting and selecting new officers to return personnel numbers back to previous levels.

Of course, the staffing the SRO positions is the highest priority for the department. We have several officers that have already received (National Association of School Resource Officers) training and are poised to assume the SRO positions as soon as manpower allows, Gulino said Wednesday.

School board member Suzanne Koroshetz said she was happy to see the district had six police officers around the school campuses but was anxious to get back to the previous level of school resource officers in the district, if not more. The former principal of Brien McMahon High School called the SROs really valuable members of our faculty and our Senator team.

It really helped us with the idea of showing policemen and policewomen in a different light and understanding that theyre friends and theyre people that students could go to, Koroshetz said. Any time you could build that support by having them in the building on a frequent basis and a daily basis, the better chance there is for those strong relationships to be formed.

Estrella added that the district has increased the number of social services providers in the schools and continues to embed social and emotional learning for students daily either through advisory, one-on-one guidance, school counseling support, or social services.

The school district plans to create a task force that will have deeper conversations surrounding school safety, as well as ways the schools can improve their practices to embed behavior interventions and find other ways to support students.

Not in the context of punitive behavior management, Estrella said, but really thinking through what are the root causes of the behaviors being exhibited and how can we effectively support students.

emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  Wilton Avenue received a scenic upgrade Wednesday as 18 trees were planted along the road.

City officials, the Norwalk Health Department, police department and Department of Transportation, Mobility and Parking teamed up for the planting occasion. The goal of the tree planting is to make Norwalk more walkable with the additional trees, according to a city statement.

Street trees are proven to encourage more walking, reduce the speed of motorists, and beautify neighborhoods, the statement read.

Half of the funds for the trees came from a grant through the state Department of Public Health and the remaining half came from the citys Transportation, Parking and Mobility budget, city spokesperson Josh Morgan said.

A variety of tree species were planted: Hackberry, American Linden, Red Maple, American Elm, American Sweetgum and Pine Oak.

Mayor Harry Rilling and Director of Transportation, Mobility and Parking Jim Travers were present for the planting, along with other city officials and community leaders.
In a time when there is plenty to fret about, it seems Illinoisans are almost as focused on crime as the pandemic.

A massive analysis by Safewise.com looked at the responses from more than 15,000 people nationwide to determine 64% of people in Illinois worry about their safety every day.

By contrast, 67% of Illinois residents say they worry daily about COVID-19 and the lingering pandemic.

Only New York  at 70%  was higher in crime concerns, according to the study. Vermont was the lowest in the nation, at 18%.

With the global pandemic and widespread civil unrest across the country in 2020, we expected to see general concern on the rise, but it rose by only one percentage point year over year, writes Safewise security expert Rebecca Edwards. We were surprised to see an 8% drop in the overall level of daily concern about safety over the past three years  even though nearly 7 in 10 Americans think crime is increasing.

Violent crime is the most significant fear for Illinoisans, according to the report, with 56% of people worried it could happen to them. That is tied with Nevada for second in the nation and is behind only New York, at 74%.

The worry is not misplaced. Although property crime has dropped 18.5% in Illinois, the violent crime rate per 1,000 people is up 4.1%, Safewise says. Some 13% of those surveyed said they experienced a violent crime in 2020.

About 54% of Illinois residents are worried about becoming victims of property crime  the same amount as is worried about package thefts. Some 23% and 22% reported being the victim of a property crime or package theft in 2020, respectively.

For the third consecutive year, property crime is still the crime Americans feel is most likely to happen to them, and theyre not wrong. In 2019, a property crime happened every 4.6 seconds in the U.S., Edwards writes. But the property crime rate fell 4% year over year  and dipped below 7 million total crimes for the first time in at least 20 years.

Car thefts and break-ins did see increases in some areas during pandemic lockdown, and the Safewise report says more people are concerned about things that may lead to crime this year  unemployment, drugs, homelessness, job and housing insecurity, and civil unrest were mentioned often.

The level of worry has not necessarily translated into more proactivity against crime, though. About 20% of Americans boosted security measures during the past year, and 38% of people said they do nothing to enhance security. Those who do rely on security cameras (28%), dogs and firearms (26% for each), and security systems (25%).

In Illinois, 43% of residents said they do not have any added security measures to protect their property. Some 32% report having security cameras, followed by security systems (27%), firearms (21%), and dogs or other guard animals (15%).

More than half  51%  of Illinoisans said they carry personal protection most or all of the time, compared to an average of 48% nationally.
EDWARDSVILLE  National Voters Registration Day Tuesday saw the League of Women Voters of Edwardsville Area and the Edwardsville branch of the NAACP helping to spread the word and register people to vote outside of Edwardsville High School.

Several deputy registrars from both organizations were available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The trained group of volunteers goal was to reach the younger population of voters on Sept. 28.

The pool of possible new voters this year is big, said League of Women Voters member Anne Masters.

She explained that those who will be age 18 on or before the Nov. 8, 2022, general election can not only register to vote for the general election, but also can vote in the primary election in June 2022. With Illinois making registration easier with online registration and registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles, Masters said that they chose to focus their efforts on the high school and new voters.

We need to do a better job of getting our young adults more involved, said NAACP Secretary Debra Pitts, who also is on the District 7 Board of Education. Thats a big task.

National Voters Registration Day is a national movement that is not associated with either organization. However, both the League of Women Voters of Edwardsville Area and NAACP consider encouraging voter participation a core value of their organizations, said the League of Women Voters member Susan Lucco. The organizations also believe in an informed voter, she said.

Lucco said the league sponsors a candidate forum before elections at which voters can ask questions and learn about the candidates in person. The NAACP assists in these forums. Lucco said the forums have become more digital in recent years, but she said there is a value to seeing a candidate in person.

Theres huge power in the ballot box, she said, regarding the importance of voting.

This is the second outdoor voters registration drive that the organizations have held at EHS. Last year the event was held over a two-day period and only 25 students registered. Masters said last year was also a little more exciting since the general election was six weeks after National Registration Day. She said that gave people more motivation to vote, but they were hoping to catch a few students Tuesday. One student registered to vote.

Dr. Steve Stuart has been very welcoming to us and were happy to be back there again this year, Masters said.
GLEN CARBON  Trustees approved three items related to Orchard Town Center at Tuesdays village board meeting.

Orchard Town Center is a 54-acre retail development targeted for the former Foucek property, surrounded by Governors' Parkway, Troy Road, Plum Street and Center Grove Road. It is the northernmost section of the village. A Menards will anchor the development, which will include three or four junior anchors and 12 outlots, with half of those along Troy Road and the other half along Governors Parkway.

Village trustees approved the rest of the Orchard Town Center development Aug. 24, despite some blowback from residents about the tax increment financing (TIF) and having a fourth lumber/home improvement store in town, which some said was not necessary. There were no questions asked about the development on Tuesday before the vote.

The first ordinance Tuesday was to authorize a redevelopment agreement between the village and TSG Orchard Town Center LLC, related to the sites TIF. Village officials agreed to reimburse the developer, the Staenberg Group, for reimbursable project costs not to exceed $4 million.

The first two items set up the funding mechanisms, said Village Administrator Jamie Bowden to the mayor and the board.

The entire undeveloped portion of the land, formerly known as the Foucek property, lies within the TIF district.

Next, trustees agreed to a similar redevelopment agreement between the same two entities for the business district, which is related to the sites business district. Village officials agreed to reimburse the developer for reimbursable project costs not to exceed $3 million.

The business district exempts the Menards section of the project, but the outlots along Governors Parkway and Troy Road are included, as are the junior anchors south of Menards.

The only tax revenue that will go into this project would be the additional taxes generated by this project, said Village Attorney James Schrempf.

In the case of the TIF, the property currently having a tax of less than $7,000 dollars a year, when built out, it would be several hundred thousand dollars a year and that money would go into the TIF fund, he explained, to be available to reimburse part of the expenses for improving the public roadways and improving some of the conditions that are already causing traffic jams.

In the case of the business district, that will only come from the special sales tax imposed on areas within the business district. It will generate some sales tax revenue that will be available to reimburse part of the expenses developer and builder incurred dealing with the mine subsidence issues and necessary infrastructures, all of which will remain private and the responsibility of the property owners.

Third, trustees said Yes to the first amendment to the TSG Project Funding Agreement, in which the developer has agreed to reimburse the village up to $200,000 for finalization for project funds.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-659-5735
NORMAN, Okla. (AP)  The University of Oklahoma's former top lobbyist who resigned last month won't face charges related to a woman's allegations that he sexually assaulted her, Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said Tuesday.

Mashburn said he determined the facts did not support a criminal charge against John Woods, 46.

This is a deal where he made two advances to her, and she successfully rejected those advances," Mashburn said. It does not rise to the level of a criminal prosecution."

Mashburn said both advances involved Woods trying to kiss the woman in the parking lot of a bar where the two had met.

Mashburn's decision was first reported by the online news outlet NonDoc.

The womans allegations were outlined in a petition for a protective order filed in Cleveland County last month. A judge granted the woman an emergency protective order, but she declined to pursue a permanent victim protective order.

Woods attorney, Steve Stice, says his client appreciates the prosecutors decision.

Its the decision that we expected," Stice said. My client was prepared to defend against the victim protective order and if criminal charges were filed.

Hes appreciative of the investigation and wants to move on from here."

In her request for a protective order, the woman claimed Woods sexually assaulted" her in a parking lot on July 27 and later sent her a sexually explicit video of himself. The woman also claimed Woods continued to harass her by sending her unwanted text messages. The woman filed her petition for a protective order and reported the incident to police about 11 days after the incident.

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual misconduct.

Woods worked for three Republican speakers of the Oklahoma House before stints as the president of the Norman Chamber of Commerce and as director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust. He was named OUs director of government affairs in 2018 by then-President Jim Gallogly.

The University of Oklahoma was rocked with sexual assault allegations in 2019 against its former President David Boren and one of Borens top administrators, Tripp Hall III. Both men denied the allegations, and criminal charges were never filed.

A lawsuit filed against the university by one of Halls accusers was settled, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP)  A humanitarian vessel on Wednesday disembarked dozens of African migrants in an Italian coastal town a week after they were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea off conflict-stricken Libya, a charity operating the vessel said.

The Geo Barents, a rescue vessel operated by Doctors Without Borders, docked in the port town of Augusta late Tuesday after Italian authorities gave it permission to offload passengers, the charity, known by its French acronym MSF, said.

There were 60 African migrants, including six women and a seven-week-old child, on board.

Migrants said they were relieved when Barbara Deck, MSFs project coordinator, announced that Italy had granted the vessel a port of safety. Many cheered and danced while others broke into tears when they saw the shore.

Some still have concerns however.

We will be fully relieved after we are free, said Kamal Mezali, a Tunisian migrant. Mezali, who lived and worked in Libya for years, said he plans to bring his two children and wife to establish a peaceful life in Italy.

Dr. Andolina Antonio from the Italian Health Ministry boarded the Geo Barents early Wednesday to oversee rapid COVID-19 testing for the migrants and the vessels crew. All tested negative for the coronavirus.

The migrants disembarked at the port where Italian police and representatives of the U.N.'s refugee agency and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, or IFRC, were present.

The youngest migrants and women have been taken for a 10-day quarantine in centers at the port, while the rest would spend their quarantine period aboard a vessel operated by the IFRC.

The migrants were picked up from two separate boats on Sept. 20, a day after they embarked on the risky voyage from the Libyan coastal town of Zawiya.

It was the third rescue mission for the MSF-run Geo Barents this year. The vessel has brought 792 migrants including 43 women to Augusta since June.

MSF said it plans to embark on another rescue mission in the Central Mediterranean route after a 10-day quarantine off Augusta, starting Wednesday.

The migrants disembarked in Augusta two days after an overcrowded fishing boat with around 700 people on board docked at the island of Lampedusa in what was the single biggest migrant arrival in Italy in years.

As of Monday, 44,778 migrants had disembarked in Italy this year, with the top nationalities Tunisia, Bangladesh and Egypt. The total is nearly double the number of arrivals in the first nine months of 2020 and five times the number of 2019, according to statistics from Italy's Interior Ministry.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate parliamentarian told Democrats on Wednesday that their newest proposal for helping millions of immigrants stay in the U.S. permanently could not be included in their $3.5 trillion social and environment bill, the party's latest setback on the issue.

Its unfortunate. I disagree with her, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., one of the partys pro-immigration advocates, said of the decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chambers nonpartisan rules arbiter.

The newly rejected language would have let immigrants in the U.S. before 2010 remain permanently if they met other conditions and could have helped 8 million people, said a person familiar with the plan who described it on condition of anonymity.

For many progressives and immigration advocates, one of the top goals of the $3.5 trillion bill has been to include a chance for permanent residence, and potentially citizenship, for millions of immigrants.

President Joe Biden proposed early this year seeking such a pathway for 11 million immigrants. While the House has approved legislation helping some of them, Republicans have bottled up those bills in the Senate and bipartisan talks there over potential compromises have failed.

Because of that blockade, Democrats have tried including their immigration provisions in the $3.5 trillion measure because it has special protections that prevent Republicans from using filibusters to kill it. Filibusters are delays that take 60 votes in the 50-50 Senate to halt.

Menendez and others said they would submit fresh immigration alternatives to MacDonough. He provided no specifics, and the chances that a subsequent Democratic proposal would survive were unclear.

Democrats must find a way to insert immigration language into the bill and deliver for the voters who elected them, a majority of whom demand a pathway to citizenship, said Sergio Gonzales, executive director of The Immigration Hub, a pro-immigration group. Otherwise, Democrats know the price to pay will be steep at the ballot box.

Menendez also issued a threat to the business community. Menendez said if Congress cant help immigrants remain in the U.S., he will oppose future immigration changes that help businesses.

Asked if other senators shared that view, Menendez said, In a 50-50 Senate, thats the only opinion that matters.

Democrats most recent rejected plan involved changing the 1929 Registry Act. Congress last updated the date in that law in 1986, when it said migrants in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1972, could qualify for permanent status.

Earlier this month, MacDonough rejected a Democratic proposal to provide permanent status to immigrants who are Dreamers brought to the U.S. as children, farm and essential workers and people whod fled certain countries battered by violence or natural disasters. It too could have helped 8 million people, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

MacDonough ruled that Democrats initial proposal violated Senate rules allowing language in special fiscal bills  including the $3.5 trillion package  only if its primary impact is on the federal budget, not on government policy.

The latest plan had only minor differences from the initial one, MacDonough wrote, according to language provided to The Associated Press.
Boys death leads to phone fraud arrest

BANGKOK: A 19-year-old teenage girl wanted in connection with a mobile phone sales fraud has surrendered to police in Chiang Mai.

crimedeathpolice

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 29 September 2021, 12:56PM

Piyada Thongkhampan is in police custody in Chiang Mai on Tuesday. Photo: Supplied via Bangkok Post

Police believe Piyada Thongkhampan cheated around 500 people, mostly students, by selling non-existent phones online. One of her alleged victims included a 14-year-old boy who died from a haemorrhagic stroke after learning he had been duped, reports the Bangkok Post.

Ms Piyada advertised the phones via an Instagram account, Phonebymint. The account has more than 60,000 followers which gave her online credibility, police said.

She allegedly targeted only students and lured them by selling phones at very cheap prices.

The fraud came to light after the death of Nong Kong, 14, a secondary school student in Chiang Mai.

His family said he paid B5,000 for an iPhone 7 which he needed for online classes. After paying the money, he could not get in touch with Ms Piyada after the phone was not delivered. The stress supposedly led to the haemorrhagic stroke that killed him.

On Tuesday (Sept 28), Ms Piyada surrendered to Chiang Mai provincial police to hear the charges. Police said Ms Piyada denied all charges and claimed she had never communicated with the boy. She did admit she was an online vendor of used mobile phones but stopped selling them last year.

Prior to her surrender, Naruemon Chamnan, 18 and Sainamphueng Chanamarn, 19, were arrested on suspicion of being hired by Ms Piyada to open bank accounts for her. Ms Piyada denied knowing the two suspects.

Police believe Ms Piyada has deceived more than 500 victims in the past five years. Each of her victims lost between B3,000 and B30,000.

Her property and other assets have since been seized by the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Police also found that Ms Piyada had other arrest warrants against her and was on a fraudster blacklist and was linked to dodgy schemes at the age of 16.

Besides the Phonebymint account, Ms Piyada is believed to have created other social media accounts where she offered cheap mobile phones and hired people for up to B8,000 a time to open bank accounts for her. Police believe she has had 150 accounts in total. One belonged to her dead mother.
Phuket Governor asks for Pfizer, Sinopharm for children aged 3-17

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew has requested that Phuket be provided vaccine doses to vaccinate children from 3 years old through age 17.

COVID-19CoronavirusVaccinehealth

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 29 September 2021, 10:33AM

A student in Bangkok receives a COVID vaccination. Photo: NBT World

The request came in two official letters sent yesterday (Sept 28), one addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, the other sent to the Ministry of Education.

In the letters, Governor Narong pointed out that Phuket was initially allocated Sinovac to vaccinate its residents in order to reopen the province to tourists under the Phuket Sandbox scheme, and allocated AstraZeneca to use as booster shots to counter the spread of the Delta variant of the virus across the island.

However, he added, One more factor that builds confidence for the people in Phuket is that the children would be more secure through receiving the vaccine.

Phuket has a total of 83,267 children aged 3-17 years old, with 49,937 of those aged 3-11 years old, and 33,330 aged 12-17 years old, Governor Narong noted.

His request was simple: We therefore ask for support as follows:

Allocate Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12-17 years to Phuket Province, to start injections together with the control and maximum control (red and dark red) provinces on October 4, 2021 Allocate Sinopharm vaccine or other vaccines for children aged 3-11 years as soon as the FDA has approved the use of the vaccine in young children.

Phuket Province [the provincial government] understands that when people in the province see comprehensive vaccination has been received in all groups, this will enable them to build confidence among the people and the parents in returning to open teaching as usual, which resulted in parents being able to return to work in support of the Phuket Tourism Sandbox project effectively, Governor Narong explained.

Therefore, please be informed accordingly. and if deemed appropriate, please refer to the Ministry of Health to please consider. We would be very grateful, the letter concluded.

The request follows the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) undertaking a pilot project, vaccinating 2,295 students in the risk group of those with any of seven diseases, among more than 5,000 students who have registered for inoculation.

The students, including 1,681 who received their first dose and 614 who received their second, were given the Pfizer vaccine at the Faculty of Medicine Vajira Hospital, Nawamintrathirat University. No side-effects were reported, said a report by state news agency NNT.

Deputy Government Spokesperson Ratchada Dhnadirek said the government is preparing to inoculate more than 4.5 million students aged 12-18 with the Pfizer vaccine.

The Ministry of Education is currently surveying the number of students, with parental consent, before opening vaccine units in the areas of the educational institutions in each province.
Phuket Sandbox island quarantine reduced to seven days

PHUKET: From this Friday (Oct 1), people wanting to enter Thailand through the Phuket Sandbox scheme will be able to apply for a Certificate of Entry that will require them to spend only seven days under island quarantine instead of 14 days.

tourismCOVID-19Coronaviruseconomics

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 29 September 2021, 08:00AM

The notice shared online by Phuket officials last night (Sept 28). Image: Royal Thai Embassy Canberra)

The notice shared online by Phuket officials last night (Sept 28). Image: Royal Thai Embassy Canberra)

The notice shared online by Phuket officials last night (Sept 28). Image: Royal Thai Embassy Canberra)

The news was announced by Phuket officials last night (Sept 28), by sharing a post online by the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

The post, in English, read, From 1 October 2021, the following quarantine period applies for entry into Thailand:

A quarantine period of 7 days for international travellers who have been fully vaccinated with vaccines approved by the Thai authorities.

*Travellers must be fully vaccinated at least 14 days prior to their departure date, the notice added.

A quarantine period of 10 days is required for unvaccinated international travellers and travellers who are not fully vaccinated.

A quarantine period of 10 days is required for unvaccinated children. If travelling with a fully vaccinated parent, the parent must also quarantine for 10 days, the post noted.

In a separate post, Phuket officials also noted, Visitors arriving on the Phuket Sandbox project must now stay at a SHA Plus hotel for 7 days before being able to travel on day 8 to other provinces in Thailand.
Same-sex marriage ruling stalls

BANGKOK: The Constitutional Court has postponed its ruling in a landmark LGBT marriage equality case from yesterday (Sept 28) to Dec 14.



By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 29 September 2021, 09:27AM

Campaigners call for public awareness on LGBT rights and same sex marriage during a parade from the Democracy Monument to Sanam Luang, organised by the Foundation for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights and Justice (FOR-SOGI), in 2015. Photo: Apichart Jinakul.

The Foundation for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights and Just, better known as the FOR-SOGI organisation, announced the postponement at a press conference yesterday, reports the Bangkok Post.

The court was acting on a petition calling for it to rule on whether Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code contravenes the charter. The section currently only recognises marriage between a man and a woman, he said.

The FOR-SORGI lodged a complaint with the Central Juvenile and Family Court to determine whether the current Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code is compliant with Section 27 of the 2017 constitution.

Sanya Eadjongdee, a lawyer representing the group, said the court announced the postponement without giving reasons.

He added there was no telling if a ruling would be handed down in December.

Mr Sanya explained revising Section 1448 and the draft bill to amend the Civil Partnership Act were two different issues.

Revising the section is our main goal, he said. By imposing this bill, it would make LGBTQ+ people become second-class citizens and having a family constitutes a fundamental right of being a human.

The Juvenile and Family Court acted more or less as a postman in submitting the constitutionality interpretation petition with the Constitutional Court at the groups request.

Mr Sanya said he viewed that the Juvenile and Family Court should act proactively on the matter as Section 1448 is thought to undermine the rights of people regardless of gender to marry and to start a family.

During the conference, he said if the Constitutional Court decided in the petitions favour, the ruling could be cited by the LGBTQ+ couples in compelling the marriage registrars to recognise their marriage.

However, the registrars would find themselves in a difficult situation because there is no law at present that certifies a same-sex marriage, he said.

Mr Sanya indicated the constitutional ruling and the bill are part and parcel.

The lawmakers need to hurry up and amend the law or find a way to fill the legal void that prevents the recognition of same-sex marriage, he said.

If the Constitutional Court eventually finds Section 1448 contradicts the charter, it might make it necessary to invoke Section 77 of the constitution, he noted.

Section 77 calls for laws to be repealed or revised if they are obsolete or pose an impediment to peoples livelihoods.

In the case of Section 1448, it falls in the latter category and should be modified accordingly.

Section 1448 clearly poses an obstacle to the LGBTQ+ couples being granted legal, married status, he said.

The push for legalisation of same-sex marriage in Thailand has gained momentum since 2012 with a proposed amendment to Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code at the forefront of the movement.
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Bill 105 limits Anti-Vax demonstrators

Chelsey St-Pierre / By Chelsey St-Pierre The Suburban Demonstration against government health measures on May 1st outside of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The vaccine clinic needed to close for the day as demonstrators flooded the area making it impossible for the clinic to operate for the day.

Quebecs National Assembly voted to pass a new bill that would prohibit anti-vaccine protesters from demonstrating near schools, daycares, hospitals, as well as COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites, on Thursday.

The newly established offence is punishable with fines ranging from 1,000  12,000 dollars.

Bill 105 was tabled by the provinces public safety minister Genevieve Guilbault. MNAs debated the new bill in a matter of a few hours. Police will now be allowed new powers to fine people for protesting within 50 metres of the places designated in the Bill and the amount of the fines will be based on officers interpretations of the behaviour of demonstrators.

Fines of $1,000 to $6,000 will apply to anyone protesting too close to forbidden areas and fines of $2,000 to $12,000 could be given to persons who intimidate or threaten people coming or leaving from those spaces. Fines can also be doubled for repeat offenders.

In Quebec in 2016 a similar Bill was passed to ban protesters from being within 50 metres of abortion clinics.

Following a recommendation from Liberal MNA Marwah Rizqy, the bill will also covers adult education centres and CEGEPs.

The bill will not apply to workers, who wish to protest for better working conditions outside of hospitals, schools and places of busniess.

Under the Bill, parents are prohibited from holding a protest for better ventilation in their childrens schools because the matter is related to COVID-19.

They will have to do so outside the 50-metre perimeter, Guilbault told reporters.
PRAGUE (AP)  The prime minister of Hungary on Wednesday brought his anti-immigration views to the Czech Republic, where a fellow leader has made migration a major campaign topic before the country's general election next week.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Hungary's Viktor Orban shared their views during a meeting in a northern Czech city. Orban called illegal migration a threat to the future of countries in Central Europe.

Orban said he expected millions of refugees from Afghanistan to try to reach the European Union as part of a new mass migration wave.

Babis, an admirer of Orbans hardline policies, said his government agreed this week to send 50 Czech police officers to help guard a fence built during Orban's tenure on Hungary's border with Serbia. The border also demarcates part of the European Union's external boundary.

Orban was set to join Babis later Wednesday at a rally of the Czech leaders centrist ANO (YES) movement, which is considered an election frontrunner.

Babis has campaigned on the migration issue even though the Czech Republic is not a leading destination for refugees and asylum-seekers.

Its an issue to which we keep returning, Babis said.

Migration is not the only topic on which the Czech and Hungarian governments, as well as their regional partners in Poland and Slovakia, often differ from the EUs mainstream.

Orban and Babis expressed strong disagreement Wednesday with the EUs plan to fight climate change.

___

Follow AP's coverage of migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  Dutch political party leaders met Wednesday to force a breakthrough in deadlocked negotiations to form a new ruling coalition  efforts that came more than six months after a general election left a deeply divided parliament in the European Union nation.

After hours of discussions, the leaders of smaller parties left, while the leaders of the three main parties that are expected to form the core of any new coalition government kept talking.

Its up to them to decide what they want, Jesse Klaver, leader of the Green Left party, told reporters.

We have today again said that we are prepared to form a Cabinet and negotiate about that, Klaver said, standing alongside the leader of the center-left Labor Party, Lilianne Ploumen.

The talks in The Hague come after attempts to form a majority or minority coalition to succeed the outgoing government of caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte failed, and amid speculation that a fresh election may be needed to break the impasse.

Our country urgently needs a new Cabinet and, in view of the time that has passed since the March 17 elections, the time has really come for ... all parties from the broad and constructive center to take responsibility, Johan Remkes, the official steering the talks, wrote in his invitation to nine party leaders.

A total of 17 parties from across the political spectrum won seats in the lower house of the Dutch parliament in the March 17 election. Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy emerged as the largest party, followed by the centrist D66 party led by former foreign minister Sigrid Kaag.

The most recent round of failed negotiations focused on a minority coalition of those two parties together with the Christian Democrats.

Those three parties were still talking Wednesday evening. While the Greens and Labor reiterated a willingness to join a coalition, the main parties have so far balked at such a broad coalition.

Rutte's current four-party coalition quit in January to take political responsibility for a scandal in which the country's tax authorities wrongly labeled as fraudsters many families who were claiming child welfare payments.
GENEVA (AP)  The French government called Wednesday on the head of the World Health Organization to uphold his pledge for an "action plan to combat sexual abuse and exploitation by WHO employees after independent investigators found scores of accusations stemming from the agency's response to an Ebola outbreak in Congo.

A WHO-commissioned panel reported Tuesday that it had identified more than 80 people accused of sexual misconduct and confirmed that 21 of them worked for the U.N. health agency during the outbreak. Some observers said the findings made Congo the scene of the biggest scandal of its kind in the history of U.N.-related field missions.

The French Foreign Ministry's call for WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to take action within 10 days comes less than a week after France, Germany and other EU announced that they had nominated him for a second five-year term.

France expects the WHO director-general to uphold his commitment on that 10-day timetable, the French Foreign Ministry said in an email.

The German Foreign Ministry and the German diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Word of the nomination came shortly after the candidacy deadline for the post expired on Sept. 23.

The investigative report released Tuesday, nearly a year in the making, said 21 workers for WHO had been accused of acts of sexual abuse or exploitation while in Congo, out of a total of 83 alleged perpetrators connected to the 2018-2020 mission.

Malick Coulibaly, a member of the panel that issued the report, said investigators uncovered a total of nine rape allegations.

In an internal e-mail to WHO staff following the report's release and obtained by The Associated Press, Tedros acknowledged WHO's past failures to address sex abuse problems.

We know the work we do in health emergencies is complex and dangerous, he wrote. But this is no excuse for sexual exploitation and abuse of the communities we serve, and no excuse for managerial inaction and delay.

Tedros also said that WHO wasn't always sure what sexual abuse was.

It is our responsibility to learn about what constitutes (sexual exploitation and abuse), and how to prevent it, he wrote in the e-mail sent jointly with WHO Africas regional director, Matshidiso Moeti. I remind you that all personnel are obliged to report any suspicions they may have.

Earlier this year, during a closed-door meeting with WHO member states, Tedros described the agencys response to the Congo sex allegations as slow.

The authors of the independent report that Tedros commissioned said that WHO often dismissed claims of sexual abuse unless they were made in writing.

The AP found in a May investigation that senior management was informed in emails of multiple cases of alleged sexual abuse, but that little was done. One of the managers who was told of the incidents was subsequently promoted.

Tedros and WHO have declined to indicate whether he would seek a second term at the agency's helm. The formal announcement of candidates isn't expected until November.

At a news conference Tuesday, Tedros declined to say whether he was considering resigning over the events in Congo but said that he perhaps should have asked more questions during the more than a dozen trips he took to the African country to oversee WHO's response to the Ebola outbreak.

During one of those trips, Tedros publicly commended and was pictured with one of the men who has been accused of rape.

The WHO chief apologized to victims in Congo on Tuesday.

What happened to you should never happen to anyone. It is inexcusable, he said.

___

AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed from London.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Madison County jury has found TAthony Brown, 26, of Minnesota, guilty of aggravated offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 2 felony.

According to trial testimony, on April 21, at 2:26 a.m., Brown led Pontoon Beach police officers on a high-speed chase involving a stolen vehicle from Fenton, Missouri. The vehicle reached speeds of up to 100 miles-per-hour before Brown crashed the vehicle and fled the scene.

Brown was apprehended by police later in the day. The same vehicle was involved in a high-speed pursuit with Collinsville police officers the previous week.

This defendant showed a blatant disregard for the safety of law enforcement officers and the general public with his actions, and Im pleased to see the jury returned the guilty verdict, said Madison County States Attorney Tom Haine. We will continue to aggressively prosecute crimes involving stolen vehicles, which must be reduced in Madison County.

A Class 2 felony is usually punishable by probation or up to seven years in prison, but Brown could face up to 14 years in prison because he is extended term eligible due to his prior criminal history.

Haine on Wednesday thanked Assistant Madison County States Attorneys Katie Wykoff and Cara Tegel, the Pontoon Beach and Metro East Auto Theft Task Force for their work in the investigation.
EDWARDSVILLE  A Madison County grand jury has indicted a Florissant, Missouri man on multiple felony counts in the Aug. 4 death of a Brooklyn police officer on the McKinley Bridge.

Caleb L. Campbell, 22, of Florissant, Missouri, was indicted Sept. 23 for first degree murder, a Class M felony, and failure to report an accident involving personal injury or death, reckless homicide, failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury or death, and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, all Class 4 felonies.

Pierce, 24, was struck and killed by a vehicle fleeing police on the McKinley Bridge early Aug. 4, according to the Illinois State Police. Charges were originally filed in mid-August.

According to court documents, Campbell drove a motor vehicle on the McKinley Bridge at excessive speeds, disregarded traffic laws and evaded attempts by peace officers to stop his vehicle, which resulted in Pierce being struck.

The incident began at about 3 a.m. Aug. 4 when the ISP responded to a request from Brooklyn Police to assist with an officer-involved death. According to the ISP, Pierce was struck by a vehicle involved in a car chase from a Brooklyn nightclub as he was deploying stop sticks.

In a separate indictment, Timothy J. Headrick, 28, of Bonne Terre, Missouri, was indicted for aggravated kidnapping, a Class X felony; vehicular hijacking, a Class 1 felony; three counts of burglary, all Class 2 felonies; and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony.

The kidnapping and vehicular hijacking charges stem from Headricks allegedly fleeing from the scene of a break-in at the Edwardsville Walgreens at 102 W. Vandalia, on Oct. 21, 2020.

After crashing his vehicle in Maryville, Headrick allegedly fled on foot, then carjacked a Nissan pickup truck and kidnapped the owner who suffered a fractured skull and brain bleed.

Headrick was apprehended about six hours later in St. Louis.

The burglary charges include break-ins at an Alton Walgreens at 2610 State St., a Granite City Walgreens and the Walgreens at 172 E. McArthur Drive, Bethalto  all on the same day.

A second suspect has also been charged in the burglaries.

Indictments were also issed for three others.

Charles B. Vandeusen, 44, of Granite City, who was indicted for being an armed habitual criminal, a Class X felony; unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony; and for possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, a Class 3 felony. Vandeusen was originally charged Sept. 8; the unlawful possession of weapons by a felon charge was added in the indictment.

On Sept. 7 Vandeusen allegedly was found to be in possession of a handgun without make or model markings and an obliterated serial number. The armed habitual criminal charge stems from his being a felon in possession of a weapon. His prior convictions include aggravated methamphetamine manufacturing, methamphetamine manufacturing, and unlawful use of weapons by a felon, all out of Madison County.

Kenneth D. Taper, 26, of St. Louis, was indicted for attempted armed robbery, a Class 1 felony; two counts of aggravated battery and one count of robbery, all Class 2 felonies; and aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. He was one of four people originally charged Aug. 18 after two incidents at the Collinsville Walmart on June 29 and July 8.

On June 29 Taper and three others allegedly tried to take Apple Watches from a Walmart employee by spraying mace or a foreign substance into her face. Taper was charged with attempted armed robbery and aggravated battery for shoving a security guard into a soda machine. On July 8 Taper and the others allegedly took miscellaneous items and struck and injured two Walmart employees and a security guard.

Randall J. Hanstein Jr., 41, of Granite City, was indicted for aggravated arson, a Class X felony. On Aug. 17 Hanstein allegedly set fire to a residence in the 2100 block of Delmar Avenue, Granite City, while two people were in the residence.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  The rise of the delta variant and beginning of the school year have dramatically increased the risks children face during the coronavirus pandemic, a group of pediatricians said in court documents submitted in the federal lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and its Iowa chapter filed a brief Tuesday with the federal court judge who is considering the lawsuit 11 parents of Iowa children and the disability rights group The Arc of Iowa filed last week. It seeks to strike down a Republican-passed measure that Reynolds signed into law in May that prohibits school boards from imposing mask mandates in schools.

The AAP said in the document filed with the court that their review of the research and the experiences of the front-line pediatric practitioners prove beyond any doubt that universal mask policies in schools significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19 in school populations. The group said the prevalence of pediatric COVID-19 has skyrocketed since the school year began, with 20% of all child cases since the beginning of the pandemic diagnosed between Aug. 13 and Sept. 16.

This surge appears to be due to two principal factors: the resumption of in-person schooling (and particularly schooling in places without masks), and the emergence of the delta variant, which is more than twice as contagious as previous variants, the AAP said in the court document.

The document said more than 5.5 million child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States as of Sept. 16, which is more than 15% of total cases in the country. Iowa has reported more than 56,000 child cases, the group said.

The testimonial challenges Reynolds longstanding opposition to mask mandates. She has questioned the effectiveness of cloth masks in schools and has suggested they may cause harm, saying parents should decide whether to mask their children.

The AAP said the state's claims that masks are harmful to respiratory function, to childrens social or language skills, or for children with anxiety lack any scientific basis.

The AAP said more than 3,200 children were hospitalized due to COVID-19 between Aug. 13 and Sept. 16 among 24 states and one city reporting child hospitalizations. That data coincides with reporting from Iowa hospitals that more children have been admitted for treatment of COVID-19 in recent weeks. Data released by state public health officials Wednesday indicated cases of COVID-19 in children age 17 and younger made up 24% of new positive virus cases in the state in the past week. Ten children age 11 or younger were hospitalized with the virus.

The AAP said since the beginning of August, more children have died each week than in all but one previous week of the pandemic. Nationally, among the 45 states, New York City, Puerto Rico and Guam reporting data, 498 children have died. The group's data shows three children have died in Iowa from COVID-19. Texas leads the nation in child deaths from the virus with 79 and Arizona has had 38.

The uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 poses a greater risk for children with certain underlying conditions including Downs syndrome, lung conditions, heart conditions and weakened immune systems.

Judge Robert Pratt issued a restraining order on Sept. 13 against Reynolds and Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo to prevent them from enforcing the law. He concluded that the law substantially increases the risk of several children with health conditions of contracting COVID-19 and may violate federal laws including the Americans With Disabilities Act.

He extended the order on Monday until Oct. 11 and is considering a preliminary injunction which would continue to halt enforcement of the law while the case works through the courts. Reynolds indicated she is determined to restore the law, saying she will appeal. At least 24 school districts have reinstated a mask mandate since Pratt issued a temporary restraining order.

All 99 counties in Iowa continue to see a high rate of virus spread, according to CDC data. The state Wednesday data update shows deaths from COVID-19 in Iowa increased by 81 to 6,563. The deaths occurred between Aug. 10 and Sept. 17, the state said.

The mask dispute is one of several playing out in school districts nationwide especially in Republican run states that have prevented local governments from imposing mask requirements.

On Tuesday a federal judge in South Carolina overturned that state's ban on mask mandates and on Monday a judge in Arizona struck down Republican-passed laws that block schools from requiring masks and restrict the power of local governments to impose COVID-19 requirements.
EDWARDSVILLE  The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) presented 74 students, comprising its Class of 2025, with their professional white coats during the 17th White Coat Ceremony held Sept. 17 in the Morris University Centers Meridian Ballroom.

The official garment acknowledges the students important entrance into the Doctor of Pharmacy degree program. During the ceremony, the students expressed their commitment to the service-focused profession by reciting the Pledge of Professionalism.

Todays ceremony symbolizes passage into the first phase of the life-long educational process that you will need as a pharmacist, said SOP Dean Mark Luer, PharmD, FCCP. Through your actions, you will soon be writing yourself into the stories of others lives. You will be intentionally inserting yourself into another persons life and not just in the way you fill a prescription, find a medication or dosing error, administer an immunization, teach someone to monitor their glucose, or use an inhaler. To each patient, your contributions may very well be the difference between a poor outcome and their well-being. Life is precious. Take pride in your work, and do not lose sight of the importance of your efforts.

The white coats symbolically represent the Class of 2025s transition from students to student pharmacists. A symbol of professionalism, the white coat represents the student pharmacists commitment to excellence in providing quality and compassionate patient care.

The evenings keynote speaker was SOP alumnus Dr. Cody Sandusky. He is currently the president of the Illinois Pharmacists Association and director of pharmacy at the Harrisburg Medical Center. Sandusky advised the student pharmacists to take care of themselves and encouraged them to develop a pharmacy practice philosophy.

Todays pharmacists improve patients lives through the medication and education they provide. Dedicated to developing a community of caring pharmacists, the School of Pharmacy curriculum is nationally recognized as a model that offers students a unique combination of classroom education, research, community service and patient care. Areas of excellence include a drug design and discovery core, pediatric practice, chronic pain research and practice and diabetes research and practice.
COLLINSVILLE  State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, will host a free FAFSA Workshop at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13 at Collinsville High School in partnership with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC).

Students need to know what financial resources are available and what they are entitled to, said Stuart. Having taught both high school and college students in the area, I find students unaware or misinformed on FAFSA. Many lack the support network necessary to guide them toward resources that may lessen their financial burdens or provide new opportunities.
Millions of Americans, including Illinois residents, are now eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot to help increase protection against the worst effects of the coronavirus. Last week, health experts in the United States approved Pfizer boosters for some groups of people, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration.

Yet some confusion remains about exactly who can get them and where. Here's how boosters are being rolled out in Illinois, including in the Metro East and the Riverbend.

Who can get a COVID-19 booster shot?

People who got two Pfizer shots at least six months ago and who fall into one of several groups should get the booster. That includes people ages 65 and older and those living in long-term care settings such as nursing homes. People aged 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions  including cancer, diabetes, asthma, HIV infection and heart disease, as well as obesity  should also get Pfizer boosters.

Other qualifying conditions include cystic fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension, dementia, down syndrome, a compromised immune system, liver disease, sickle cell disease, being a current or recovering smoker, organ transplants, strokes and substance use disorders. Those who are pregnant also qualify.

Additionally, the CDC says people aged 18 to 49 who got Pfizer shots at least six months ago with risky health problems can consider the booster based on their own individual benefits and risks and anyone aged 18 to 64 with a risky job, including those in health care, education or other frontline jobs can consider boosters. People in prison or living in homeless shelters are also in this latter group.

Can those who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines get the Pfizer booster?

The FDA has only authorized Pfizer booster shots for people who received the first two doses of Pfizer, not those who received other vaccines. Health officials have stated that they don't yet have enough data on mix-and-match vaccinations to recommend them. Moderna has applied to U.S. regulators for a booster and the FDA is currently considering that application.

However, the FDA has already authorized those who got two doses of Moderna and are immunocompromised because of an organ transplant or some other conditions to get third doses of Moderna.

Johnson & Johnson has yet to file an application for a booster dose, although the company has provided data that shows an additional dose provided stronger immunity than one.

The Pfizer booster is also the same as the shots given for the first two doses.

How do I decide whether to get a booster?

People 65 and older and people ages 50 to 64 with medical conditions, who got their second doses of Pfizer at least six months ago, should get boosters according to the CDC.

Younger people who previously received Pfizer and have medical conditions or jobs that put them at greater risk of COVID-19 exposure are supposed to decide for themselves whether to get boosters based on their individual risks and benefits, according to the CDC.

"Its a bit of a challenging question to ask," Dr. Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Chicago Tribune. "We dont have enough data to know what the exact benefit would be in someone who is younger, even with (mild) underlying medical conditions and what the risks are."

The risks of the booster are likely very low, she said. The CDC has said its "actively monitoring" reports of myocarditis and pericarditis, especially in young men, after their second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. Instances of those conditions after second doses of mRNA shots have been rare, and more common in those with COVID-19 infections, and most people affected have recovered quickly, according to the CDC.

Khan recommended people consider how much COVID-19 transmission is occurring in their communities, how serious their underlying medical conditions may be and how much exposure to others they have in their lives. People may also want to discuss the question with their doctors if theyre unsure, she said.

Where can I get a Pfizer booster shot?

Multiple pharmacies in Illinois are now administering booster doses to Illinois residents, as Walgreens is accepting walk-ins but encouraging people to make appointments, CVS Health is strongly encouraging people to make appointments to ensure the store where they want to get a booster has the Pfizer vaccine available and Schnucks and Walmart are both accepting walk-ins and appointments.

Additionally, vaccine clinics are open in Metro East and Riverbend counties in coming days and weeks.

St. Clair County Health Department - 330 West Main St., Belleville from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday - Appointments should be scheduled at www.co.st-clair.il.us/departments/health-department or by phone at 618-233-7703.

Madison County Health Department - A vaccination clinic will be held at Triad High School Thursday, Sept. 30, from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. - Appointments can be made at www.co.madison.il.us/departments/health or by calling 618-692-8954.

Jersey County Health Department - Drive-thru clinics are located behind the Jersey County Health Department every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. No appointment is necessary. COVID-19 registration forms must be completed for each dose and can be found here.

Macoupin County Health Department - The Maple Street Clinic in Gillespie is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., although for boosters a doctor's note is required. The Macoupin County Health Department will host a clinic on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at Macoupin County Fairgrounds with registration required. Registration can be found here.

Boosters are free and you might not need to show proof of medical condition at some clinics to receive a booster dose. However, Amy Yeager, public information officer with the Madison County Health Department, said clinics will ask a series of questions to determine eligibility for a booster dose and that clinics have specialized nurses for the booster who may not be available at all clinics.
MEG BEAL, Westerly volleyball, senior: Beal had 13 aces and 28 assists in three Westerly victories. Beal also contributed 15 digs for the Bulldogs.

ZOOT BOSCHWITZ, Chariho football, senior: Boschwitz completed 14 of 16 passes for 176 yards in the Chargers 42-6 win over Central Falls/Blacksone Valley Prep. Boschwitz threw three touchdown passes.

MADDIE PERKINS, Wheeler girls soccer, senior: Perkins scored two goals and assisted on another in the Lions 3-0 victory against Tourtellotte.

WILL SAWIN, Stonington boys soccer, senior: Sawin, a senior, scored four goals and assisted on three others in a pair of Stonington victories. For the season, Sawin has 11 goals and 10 assists for the Bears.

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Car production decline for a second consecutive month in August with outputs down 27 per cent with manufacturers still struggling to source semiconductor computer chips.

A combination of chip shortages and factories extending their summer shutdowns were the driving force behind the big decline, says the industry trade body.

Mike Hawes, chief executive at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the 'significant' fall in production is 'extremely worrying both for the sector and its many thousands of workers nationwide' with limited outputs expected to drag into next year and the furlough scheme ending today.

The chips are down: UK car production fell by more than a quarter in August as manufacturers struggled to get their hands on semiconductor chips

The chip shortage has been crippling motor manufacturers worldwide in recent months, with car firms struggling to get their hands on supplies as tech companies increase orders for the parts.

Makers have been forced to slow down their assembly lines, cut down on shift rotations and in some cases pause production entirely while chips are in short supply.

This has pushed delivery times for some new cars back by months, with buyers of some Jaguar Land Rover models told they will have to wait more than a year for their motors to arrive.

Car manufacturing is down 32% on 2019 and 42.8% behind the pre-pandemic 10-year average for the first eight months of the year, records held by the SMMT show

The chip shortage has pushed delivery times for some new cars back by a year, with buyers of some Jaguar Land Rover models told they will have to wait more than 12 months for their motors to arrive

Hawes said that while it was not the only factor at play, the impact of the semiconductor shortage on manufacturing 'cannot be overstated' and warned the issue with continue into next year.

With the furlough scheme being wound up today, the SMMT boss called on support from the Government to protect automotive jobs across the country.

'Car makers and their suppliers are battling to keep production lines rolling with constraints expected to continue well into 2022 and possibly beyond,' Hawes said.

Buying a new car in 2021 is harder than finding petrol during a fuel crisis- we explain why... A shortage in microchip supplies is crippling production lines across various industries right now - none more so than car factories. Read our special report to find out why there's a shortage, why they're so vital for new cars and what impact it is having on the used market.

'Job support schemes such as furlough have proven such a lifeline to automotive businesses yet its cessation today comes at the worst time, with the industry still facing Covid-related stoppages which are damaging the sector and threatening the supply chain in particular.

'Other countries have extended their support; we need the UK to do likewise.'

Jim Holder, editorial director at What Car?, said the latest data 'underlines again the crippling impact of the ongoing microchip shortage, and demonstrate how it is undermining the car industries ambitions to bounce back from the impacts of Covid-19'.

He told This is Money: 'Waiting times for some models have now been pushed beyond a year, making it difficult for retailers to manage customer expectations and demand.

'Our own research shows just 13 per cent of new car buyers are willing to wait more than 16 weeks for their next car before they consider alternatives.'

Richard Peberdy, UK head of automotive at KPMG, added: 'Chip shortages continue to bite, but manufacturers will no doubt be reviewing how many cars they make - so lower levels of production will likely persist.

'Fewer cars rolling out of plants has helped to bump-up retail prices and carmakers, alongside retail networks, will want to hold on to the margin theyve gained since the start of the pandemic.

'While production disruption will be hurting efficiency, a reduced volume focused on more profitable models will be an attractive balance that manufacturers wont want to let go of. Over the short term, its helping to cover the costs of huge underutilised plants while they review options to right-size.'

Electrified cars now account for more than one in four new cars built in the UK

While the headline figures around a total dip in outputs makes for concerning reading, there were some positives to take from August's production statistics.

Despite the challenges, outputs of electrified cars - including battery electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid vehicles (HEV) - surged to a new high, representing more than a quarter (27.6 per cent) of all motors made last month as 10,274 units rolled off production lines.

It means UK car factories have turned out 137,031 alternatively fuelled cars since January, which is 51,679 more than the same period in 2020.

Electrified cars, such as the Mini Electric produced at Plant Oxford, now account for more than one in four new models built in the UK as the transition to greener motoring accelerates

Manufacturing for export fell by a third last month, with orders from Australia, US and China all in significant decline

The industry stats released this morning also show that vehicle production for the home market grew 3.3 per cent year-on-year, signalling plenty of appetite for British-built motors from the driving public.

However, a decline of a third (32.5 per cent) in outputs for export hampered UK makers most in August, with faraway markets including Australia, the US and China down 74.9 per cent, 65.7 per cent and 58.7 per cent respectively.

Exports to the EU held up better, down just 4.9 per cent, accounting for almost seven in every 10 cars exported last month.

Production numbers remain higher compared to a Covid-limited 2020, with production 13.8 per cent ahead of a year ago.

However, casting an eye further back, vehicle manufacturing is down 32 per cent on 2019 and 42.8 per cent behind the pre-pandemic 10-year average for the first eight months of the year.
As sure as night follows day, every new batch of fraud figures tells us there has been a surge in scams and criminals have stolen another record amount of our money.

And, again without fail, every year we hear the same call to arms and promises of action.

The sums of money now routinely lost are so huge that it's almost incomprehensible. At this rate, fraudsters will have pocketed far more than 1 billion this year before Christmas.

Low risk: The Government's flaccid response to fraud means it is now so profitable and risk-free that criminals can hardly resist it

The latest figures show more than 4million is stolen every day  that's 166,000 an hour, 2,777 a minute, and 46 every second. So crime really does pay.

Enough is enough. How much more do we have to lose before ministers take this seriously?

Behind every loss is a heartbreaking injustice  grandparents conned out of life savings, young professionals deprived of a housing deposit, or a lonely widow who gave her last penny to a romance scammer.

It's now three years since we launched our Stop The Bank Scammers campaign.

Back then, customers were losing nearly 1million a day to transfer cons  a shocking 50 per cent rise on the year before. But the crime rate has since been allowed to soar 140 per cent.

The Government's flaccid response means fraud is now so profitable and risk-free that criminals can hardly resist it.

The pandemic gifted the crooks new opportunities. While we were stuck at home in lockdown, our phone lines were bombarded with terrifying threats.

Thieves can also grab our attention at any time with a baiting text sent to a mobile. Has anyone in Britain not received a scam text or call this year?

Let's not forget that every single scam text and call is an attempt to steal from us  a crime that shouldn't go unpunished.

But instead we have learned to live with fraud and forgotten that it shouldn't be happening on this scale.

There's been no effective attempt to stop scamming at the root cause. Fraud will continue to devastate us until we can cut off the free flow of cash to criminals.

Inaction is gifting criminals millions of pounds a day.

The more money lost to fraud, the more cash that ends up in the hands of organised criminals and even international terrorists.

Banks are finally starting to act, with new scam helplines launched this week. It had long seemed that they'd prefer to keep throwing money at refunding customers rather than do more to flag up suspicious transfers and help catch criminals in the act.

Fraudsters are sophisticated. If you haven't got your wits about you, you could easily be the next victim.

We need more game-changing arrests and tougher sentences  and we need to recover more of the millions fraudsters are making every single day.

Criminals need to know Britain doesn't tolerate fraud. We are at war with the fraudsters and so far we haven't even put up a fight.

Brutal 1m bill

Jane Horton's brutal 1million equity release bill is a stark reminder that there are still thousands out there who are locked into awful lifetime mortgage deals.

The industry likes to tell you how great the new products and rates are  but swathes of older borrowers on rip-off rates have simply been forgotten about.

The Financial Conduct Authority ought to exercise some muscle and make sure no more vulnerable homeowners are put through the same ordeal as Jane.

Try to stay cool

I'm living in fear that my energy supplier will be the next to go bust. It's a smallish supplier and I'm currently locked into a fixed energy rate until 2023 so, if the supplier survives, it will have worked out well.

But if my provider crumbles, I'm going to have to deal with a huge rise in energy costs.

That will certainly make me rethink which supplier gets my business in future. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

b.wilkinson@dailymail.co.uk
Lego has cemented its position as the worlds largest toymaker after posting bumper results in the latter half of the pandemic.

The Danish group doubled its earnings in the first six months of the year as customers flocked to its reopened stores to buy Star Wars sets, model Colosseums and flower bouquets made from bricks.

The toys have become popular with adults stuck at home during lockdown, and bosses believe they will remain fans.

Epic: A giant Lego Colosseum on display at a toy exhibition in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Danish toy maker doubled its earnings in the first six months of the year

Sales jumped by 43 per cent to 2.7billion, and the group posted a 140 per cent rise in profits to 730million.

Its profits are ten times higher than the worlds second largest toymaker Hasbro, the maker of Transformers and My Little Pony.

While parts of the global retail industry are still reeling from the pandemic and related supply chain issues, Lego said it benefited from its decade-old strategy of placing production close to its key markets, cutting logistical issues and costs.

Chief executive Niels Christiansen said: It has made us somewhat more resilient, since we have not had to send everything around the world.
One of the UK's leading technology companies has been snapped up by a US private equity shark  landing a trio of senior figures at the firm more than 130million.

Blue Prism has agreed to be taken over by Texas-based Vista Equity Partners for 1.1billion as yet another UK company falls into foreign hands.

The deal sees chairman and chief executive Jason Kingdon collect 66.5million for his shares.

Payday: Blue Prism chairman and chief exec Jason Kingdon (pictured) will collect 66.5m for his shares as the UK tech firm is sold to US private equity outfit Vista Equity Partners

Co-founders Alastair Bathgate and David Moss are set to earn 52million and 16million respectively.

But the tie-up has caused outrage, with Vista brazenly warning that there will be job cuts following the deal, while the firm's current headquarters in Warrington is also under threat. Critics slammed the plans, branding it 'private equity at its worst'.

Details from the offer document shows that Vista will merge Blue Prism with Tibco, a Silicon Valley-based data analytics firm it bought for 3.1billion in 2014.

This will result in 10 per cent of the 4,750 employees of the merged companies being axed. Blue Prism currently has 1,000 staff worldwide.

Once the deal is completed, Vista said it would 'explore the potential sale' in the enlarged Tibco, which 'may happen within the next 12 months'.

Vista also refused to commit to Blue Prism's headquarters in the UK, stating that it will 'evaluate the best location for the functions of the combined group's operations'.

Kingdon, a 59-year-old serial entrepreneur who joined Blue Prism in 2008, said: 'Vista and Tibco recognise the strength of what we have built and the exceptional products and services we provide our customers.

This is testament to the hard work and dedication of all Blue Prism team members over the years. Combining with Vista and Tibco will ensure we remain at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automation.'

Lord Vinson, who co-founded the Centre for Policy Studies with Margaret Thatcher, said: 'This is private equity at its worst.

'It is absolutely endless and can't go on. These companies are continually being taken over without good cause.'

Vista is run by US businessman Robert Smith who founded the private equity firm in 2000. Smith is one of the world's wealthiest financiers with a fortune of 5billion, according to media company, Forbes.

Blue Prism was founded by Bathgate, 57, and Moss, 46, in 2001 and listed on the London stock exchange in 2016.

The firm provides automation technology, selling virtual robots which undertake mundane tasks such as fulfilling customer orders and submitting expense claims. Blue-chip clients include HSBC, Barclays, and O2 owner Telefonica.

The deal is a hammer blow for the UK tech industry which is trying to establish itself as a global hub.

The UK market has been raided by overseas predators this year with cyber security company Avast agreeing an 6billion deal with NortonLifeLock.

Others to be approached by private equity include supermarkets Asda and Morrisons, security group G4S and defence firm Ultra Electronics.
Retail giant Next has warned that it faces having to hike its prices for shoppers by around 2.5 per cent up until the middle of 2022.

The clothing powerhouse revealed sales had jumped 62 per cent on last year and 8.per cent on 2019, with boss Lord Wolfson stating the Covid recovery was stronger than it had expected.

But Next said supply chain woes had seen higher freight costs push up prices by about 2 per cent in the first half, and cautioned this would continue into next year.

Next added that it was also seeing some areas of the business come under pressure from staff shortages, particularly in logistics and warehousing, which may affect its delivery service going into the peak festive season.

On the up: Retail giant Next has warned that it faces having to hike its prices for shoppers by around 2.5% up until the middle of 2022

The firm called on the Government to take action on the lorry driver crisis and wider skills shortages.

It said: 'We anticipate that, without some relaxation of immigration rules, we are likely to experience some degradation in our service in the run-up to Christmas.'

The HGV crisis was foreseen, and widely predicted for many months

The group added: 'The HGV crisis was foreseen, and widely predicted for many months. For the sake of the wider UK economy, we hope that the government will take a more decisive approach to the looming skill crisis in warehouses, restaurants, hotels, care homes, and many seasonal industries.

'A demand led approach to ensuring the country has the skills it needs is now vital.'

Next added that supply chain woes meant its stock levels were around 12 per cent lower than they were two years ago, before the pandemic hit.

Call for action: Next, led by Lord Wolfson, pictured, has called on the Government to take action on the lorry driver crisis and wider skills shortages

It added: 'These stock levels are far from optimal and have noticeably affected sales in some categories and in stores.

'However, our recent over-performance would imply that the business as a whole has not materially suffered, perhaps because, with so much choice available, it is easier to find alternatives on our website.

'The situation is currently improving and we expect stock to return to more normal levels by December.'

Despite experiencing stock issues and warning over price hikes, the retailer had a solid first half and has hiked its full-year outlook once again.

The group reported pre-tax profits of 346.7million for the six months to 31 July, down 16.5 per cent on a year ago but up 5.9 per cent on 2019 levels, after full-price brand sales jumped 62 per cent year-on-year and were 8.8 per cent higher versus 2019.

In Next's latest results, Lord Wolfson, the group's chief executive, said the retail bounce-back from the coronavirus pandemic was 'far stronger than we anticipated.'

He added: 'Sales in retail stores have done better than planned, while online sales have fallen back less than we expected.

'It appears that the wider economy has not suffered the long term damage many feared, for the moment at least. And, in particular, employment has held up well.'

Shares in FTSE 100-listed Next are up 3.8 per cent or 308p to 8,388p. A year ago the share price was 5,898.00p, meaning it has risen over 30 per cent in the past year.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: 'Next is a tightly run ship which is able to respond to a fluid trading environment both in terms of evolving fashion trends as well as financial challenges.

'The company is not only exceeding pre-pandemic levels of trading, but has also demonstrated that the measures it has taken in the interim leave it strongly placed to benefit from the new environment.

'The shares have also responded, having risen by 34% over the last year, as compared to a gain of 19% for the wider FTSE100.

'Equally noticeable is that after years of investors taking a neutral view on the stock, the potential for Nexts strategy is now being taken on board.

'The market consensus has at last improved to a buy on this renewed optimism on prospects.'
Texas-based Vista Equity Partners is buying UK software group Blue Prism for 1.1bn

A US private equity sharks takeover of a British software group faces stiff opposition after a leading shareholder and local MP spoke out against the deal.

Texas-based Vista Equity Partners is buying Blue Prism for 1.1billion with co-founders Alastair Bathgate and David Moss and chief executive Jason Kingdon set to share a pay pot of more than 130million.

But the takeover is likely to result in heavy job losses at the firms headquarters in Warrington, leading to accusations that the deal is private equity at its worst.

Top ten shareholder Hawk Ridge Capital Management slammed the plans, saying that the 11.25 per share offer was too cheap, and it will not support the transaction.

David Brown, portfolio manager at Hawk Ridge, which owns 3.5 per cent of Blue Prism, said: It is a very low price based on our analysis of comparable companies and transactions.

Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North, said: This windfall for the previous and current bosses of Blue Prism is a bitter wind for their employees.

We want to see growth and loyalty for good, skilled, well-paying jobs, not lose them as the financial toys of American asset strippers.
Divorcees are facing hardship in retirement by picking property over pensions, experts warn today.

Family law experts and financial advisers have told Money Mail that women are often too quick to accept the family home in a divorce settlement, overlooking the value of pension wealth.

But advisers and solicitors also say an increasing number of women are now the family breadwinners, so must pay up in divorce.

Hidden wealth: Family law experts and financial advisers say women are often too quick to accept the family home in a divorce settlement, overlooking the value of pension wealth

The latest figures show there were 107,599 divorces between men and women in 2019  up 18.4 per cent from 90,871 the year before.

The rise is partly down to a backlog of casework being cleared, the Office for National Statistics said.

An academic study this month found that many married men have considerably more pension wealth than their wives. Lots of women sacrifice work to raise children and also spend money on childcare.

But pensions are not always straightforward pots of money that can easily be divided. Instead, defined-benefit or final-salary schemes come with valuable guarantees and benefits that can be vital to a stable retirement.

So how can you avoid being short-changed?

Husbands tend to have more saved up

Researchers from Manchester University and the Pensions Policy Institute analysed the pension wealth of nearly 30,000 people over 30.

The study found that married men aged 45 to 54 had an average pension wealth of 86,000, compared with 40,000 for women, while men aged 55 to 64 had 185,000 and women the same age just 55,800.

Yet married men aged 65 to 69 had pension money worth more than 260,000 on average, compared with just 28,000 for married women.

The research also revealed that in half of couples with retirement savings, one partner has more than 90 per cent of the pension wealth. Less than 15 per cent of couples had roughly equal pensions.

The researchers said better sharing of pensions in divorce cases could have a 'considerable positive impact' on women's finances in later life.

Tim Pike, from the Pensions Policy Institute, says: 'All of these people could, in theory, distribute their pension assets in a fair way on divorce, yet the research found no evidence to suggest this was happening.

'Divorced women have very little pension and significantly less than married women.'

Beth Kirkland, of the charity Law for Life, adds: 'Many divorcing couples leave out their pensions when they decide how to divide their money and property, particularly if they can't afford a solicitor. But this can be a huge mistake.'

Married men aged 65 to 69 had pension money worth more than 260k on average, compared with just 28k for married women

A bad deal can ruin retirement

After illness, divorce is the second biggest cause of retirement plans going wrong, according to Interactive Investor.

The investment firm's survey of 12,000 people found that less than half of divorced retirees had discussed pensions when they separated.

Half of men said they discussed pensions, compared with fewer than one woman in three.

Becky O'Connor, head of pensions and savings at Interactive Investor, says: 'There remains countless examples of divorce settlements that leave one partner, usually the woman, worse off in retirement.

'This is partly down to lack of understanding of the value of a pension, but also a lack of awareness of rights to a spouse's pension on divorce, as well as greater emotional attachment to the family home rather than the pension.

'We often hear of cases where women choose the property and let their husband keep the pension.'

But she says this isn't likely to be the best decision  especially as women don't typically have the same level of private pension wealth as men and also have fewer state pension qualifying years.

Divorce cost me more than 1.5m Susan Riley* says she had to pay up more than 1.5 million when her 12-year marriage ended in divorce. The marketing professional was earning a six-figure salary and had a 1.5 million home in North London when she got married in 2004. But the judge ruled that, as well as her home, her former husband was entitled to half of the value of the office where she ran her advertising business, and a 1.5 million property she rented out to save for her pension. Susan says she stopped contributing to her private pension when she bought the investment property. She adds: We were just told to keep our pensions but that didnt include my pension property. The five-year divorce battle also ended up costing both her and her ex-husband some 700,000 in legal fees. Susan, who is in her 50s, has since had to move out of London to a smaller property. She says: It seems ridiculous that there is no legal protection for wealth you have accumulated before you met your spouse. * Name has been changed.

Pension versus property?

Maike Currie, director at Fidelity International, says: 'It's no surprise that in the middle of making custody arrangements and dividing up other assets, pensions can fall to the bottom of the list.

'But after property, the second largest financial asset for many households is often the pension fund  and it is vital to ensuring that both parties have savings for later life.'

She says it is common for the main pension-holder and breadwinner to retain most of this wealth, while the ex-spouse may receive a one-off lump sum or the matrimonial home.

But she says: 'Substituting a regular pension income for a house may not be the wisest move, given the volatility of property prices and forgoing a pension income for life.'

Amy Pethers, a financial planner at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin, says that as a house is not a liquid asset, women cannot rely on one as a source of income  and a property can have high running costs.

She points out that house prices are not certain to rise, while pensions are likely to benefit from steady growth and compound interest.

She also says pensions are not considered part of a person's estate and so don't qualify for inheritance tax.

If a divorcee were to keep the family home worth 600,000 while her ex-husband kept his pension worth 600,000, she might well have to sell up when she wanted to retire.

His pension could pay an income of 20,000 a year with an annuity. But even if she managed to buy a home for 200,000, the remaining 400,000 would only buy an annuity paying 13,325 a year, at today's rates.

If a divorcee were to keep the family home worth 600,000 while her ex-husband kept his pension worth 600,000, she might well have to sell up when she wanted to retire

How best do you split up a pot?

Gemma Hope, a specialist solicitor and director at Family Law Partners, says pensions are considered a joint asset by the courts.

She explains: 'This is considered fair, as a spouse who has stayed at home to look after the children, enabling the other spouse to build up their career (and pension fund), will often have done so at the expense of their own career and ability to build up a pension.'

Fidelity's Mrs Currie says there are two ways to divide a pension. 'Earmarking' means a proportion of the benefits are later paid directly to the former spouse.

This means that you could have a guaranteed retirement income until you die  but you will only get the money when the pension-holder decides to start taking it. So if they never take it, you will miss out.

The second way is to value the pension and divide it. Ms Currie adds: 'This gives both parties a clean break, whereby each receives their share of the pot, without the need for further negotiations.'

Former family solicitor Josephine Fay says that divorcing women could lose out if they don't take financial advice, especially about dividing pensions.

Miss Fay, now head of professional services at Brewin Dolphin, says difficulties are likely to arise if the pensions involved are complicated, such as final-salary deals with valuable benefits attached.

She adds: 'Historically, women have tended to invest less in pensions throughout their careers, so it is crucial that they obtain proper financial advice to understand the long-term implications of balancing pension assets with property and other assets.'

Break-up ruined ruined my finances When Sarah Walker* and her former husband separated after 13 years of marriage, they were quick to agree on how they would share custody of their children. But the battle over their finances would take two years and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees. Sarah, 47, says she sold her two-bedroom flat and contributed to repaying her ex-husbands mortgage on a four-bedroom family home in South-West London. Yet in the settlement, she received just 20 per cent of the value of the property, which is now worth more than 1 million. And she says her ex did not have a private pension, while hers was too small to worry about. Sarah, who works in advertising, says: The divorce has absolutely decimated my financial life and I was forced to spend my mothers inheritance on legal fees. It doesnt feel right to be awarded so little when my flat could have risen in value so much if I hadnt sold it. * Name has been changed.

More female breadwinners

Rising numbers of wealthy women are having to cough up in divorce settlements, advisers and lawyers have told Money Mail.

Miss Pethers, of Brewin Dolphin, says she has seen more female clients having to pay their former husbands in divorce settlements.

'A client of mine had to give her house and all her liquid assets to her husband after a recent financial remedy court case,' she says. 'This is becoming more and more common.'

Miss Pethers has also seen an increase in women who have more assets than their husbands: 'More women are building up solid asset bases before they get married, so they may have more at risk in divorce cases than they have in the past.'

Alex Davies, head of family law at Cripps Pemberton Greenish, says more young, wealthy women are wanting prenuptial agreements.

He says: 'We are seeing at least a 50 per cent rise in the number of prenuptial agreements we are asked to prepare for wealthy young women. Although much of that is inherited wealth, our clients seem to want to keep this for security against the effects of a costly divorce.

'It is common for them to actively manage their own inheritance, rather than rely on investment decisions made by their husband or wider family. They also often want to maintain their independence by pursuing their own careers.'

Ms Currie, of Fidelity, says research from her firm showed that more than a third of women were now the main breadwinner in their household. The figure rises to 43 per cent in those aged 18 to 34.

But she says: 'While more women may be bringing home a bigger proportion of the household income, this isn't always reflected in other assets, such as pensions or investments.

'Time spent out of the workforce or money diverted towards costs such as childcare or everyday living expenses could mean women have less saved overall.

'This is why it is incredibly important to be on top of all the assets couples hold, from salary and mortgage payments right through other assets including all pension savings.'

Brewin Dolphin's Miss Pethers says that getting a prenuptial agreement in place, especially if you have a property that you owned independently before getting married, is the best way to protect your assets. She adds: 'It's obviously not foolproof but it's a step in the right direction.'

Prenuptial agreements are not strictly legally binding in England and Wales. Yet a court will likely uphold one if it is not unfair to either party.
Google's plans to block a web tracking tool called cookies should be investigated, an industry group has demanded.

Movement for an Open Web (MOW), which represents advertisers, news groups and tech companies, has asked the EU Commission to rein in how the internet giant will tweak its search engine Google Chrome.

Google, which is owned by Alphabet, intends to phase out cookies on the Chrome browser.

Movement for an Open Web, which represents advertisers, news groups and tech companies, has asked the EU Commission to rein in how Google will tweak its search engine Chrome

Cookies are used by third parties to collect information about internet users browsing habits.

They are a crucial tool for advertising groups and for news publishers which offer free content online, because it means they can tailor ads more effectively to individuals.

Google intends to phase them out because they pose major privacy concerns.

But MOW insists that the proposed replacement  called the Privacy Sandbox  will hammer advertising and publishing groups while handing Google even more control over data.

A similar complaint raised in the UK led the Competition and Markets Authority to intervene  and Alphabet has offered concessions that would see the regulator work with the company to design the Privacy Sandbox.

These plans have not yet been finalised, however.

MOW director James Rosewell said: The internet was originally envisaged as an open environment outside the control of any single body.

Google maintains it is making these changes to protect privacy but if not properly policed, the move threatens digital media, online privacy and innovation.
The Chancellors coronavirus rescue plan for the British economy has been bold and big, but one important part of the workforce feels somewhat hard done by.

A chunk of the self-employed have been excluded from Rishi Sunaks support in a way that employees have not.

More than 9million employees are having 80 per cent of their wages up to 2,500 a month paid by the taxpayer under the furlough scheme, with no limits barring high earners from help.

In contrast, anyone who is self-employed and has made more than 50,000 in recent years gets no help whatsoever.

Those hit by the 50,000 cap are not the limited company directors who can pay themselves in dividends, they are sole traders paying national insurance and income tax in full on their earnings.

At a time when the government is throwing hundreds of billions of pounds at the coronavirus crash to support people and boost the chances of recovery, is it fair to exclude this group of the self-employed?

On this weeks podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Tanya Jefferies look at how this has happened and whether there is any hope left for those affected that things might change.

Tanya also updates listeners on her ground-breaking investigations into widows underpaid state pension, which have seen her win tens of thousands of pounds back for those who got less than they should have.

Simon reveals the best and worst performing funds of the year so far and tries to tackle the question of whether the US stock market can just keep on trucking.

And finally, recent podcasts have featured how Britain has gone mad for hot tubs in lockdown but there is a new hot property in town  the awfully-named shoffice.
The Chancellor has ordered an urgent capital gains tax review which could hit many homeowners and investors, depending on the outcome.

With Rishi Sunak and the Government looking at ways to foot the coronavirus bill, will CGT be changed and will they keep their manifesto pledge to not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT?

On this week's podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce, and Georgie Frost look at what could happen to CGT and why.

We discuss the problem facing 'cladding prisoners'  people who are trapped in flats wrapped in dangerous materials that are unable to sell, or take advantage of the stamp duty cut, with banks nervy to lend to would-be buyers.

A reader contacts us about an unusual letter from their bank seemingly randomly asking if they are a tax resident of Egypt, with no connection to the country whatsoever.

Are you an aspirational recycler? We talk you through our guide on how to recycle, properly (the full story is here  it is difficult to describe the Mobius Loop on a podcast).

Travel is still on our lips, with Georgie booking a trip to Spain: What do you need to consider if you're tempted to do the same?

And finally, we look at the cheapest cars to insure, with a surprising choice at number one: a sporty, two-seater convertible.
While the world worries about coronavirus, there is another decade-defining event going on  the US election.

Will Donald Trump win a second term as US President and have the world dance to his tune for four more years, or will Joe Biden take charge  and what on earth would that mean for people?

There is less than a month to go until the US election and under normal circumstances you would expect all the focus of stock market commentators to be on that.

Its not normal circumstances though. The second wave of coronavirus and renewed lockdowns have the worlds attention and the election, if not a sideshow, is definitely not as centre stage as we would usually expect.

Does that mean it doesnt matter for investors, or should be thinking about it and positioning themselves for the outcome?

Does it even matter if Trump or Biden wins, as long as the Fed keeps printing and stimulus keeps coming, and would any decisive win be better than a disputed result?

On this weeks podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Sarah Davidson, discuss the US election and what it could mean for our money over here in the UK.

And if two septuagenarians arguing about who is going to be the boss of the free world isnt your thing, what about investing in the future beyond that?

Keeping on the investment tip, the team dive into the world of green money and how to invest to back improving the world, or even get a green mortgage or current account.
Has the V-shaped recovery been put on hold?

Lockdowns across Britains major cities, the tier system and more businesses being forced to close their doors or operate far below usual business levels means the direction of travel has shifted dramatically from the summers optimistic reopening of the economy.

It's likely that the UK will emerge from recession with growth over this quarter, but is it on track to head straight back into another slump?

Coronavirus measures, rules that hobble some sectors and a renewed sense of fear will slam the brakes on  and the effect was great enough to make Rishi Sunak upgrade his support for jobs and businesses again this week.

On this weeks podcast, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert look at how bad this winter will be and whether Britain can battle its way out of the slump thanks to the resilience in parts of the economy that has surprised many this year.

One element of the economy that is doing much better than expected is the property market and Rishis stamp duty holiday has come under fire for driving up house prices, so is it time to make it permanent, ease the need to rush and encourage people to move more often?

Also on this weeks podcast, Georgie and Simon look at the latest temperature check of Britains retirement prospects and how hard the pandemic has hit them.

And finally, buy a new appliance and it comes with a guarantee but do you really need to fill in that little form or go online to register it? Or is that just a swizz to get your personal details?

GDP dived at the start of lockdown and then bounced sharply back - has that recovery now been put on hold?
For better or worse the internal combustion engined car has shaped economies and the way we live over the past century.

Now Britain has been told that new petrol and diesel engine cars will not be allowed to be sold in just nine years time.

But the car itself isnt going anywhere  just the way it is propelled and hybrids will still be allowed  so how much difference will the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars make?

Is the rise of the electric car inevitable anyway and even with Brexit is it more important what Germany, France and the rest of Europe choose to do, than what the UK decides?

On this weeks podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert talk electric cars: from what the shift to them means, to what they are like to drive, charge and live with.

Simon explains his experiences of charging electric cars without a home wallbox and why he thinks the Government needs to buck its ideas up on public charging and stop making policy only for those with a drive.

He also talks through what three popular electric cars, the Renault Zoe, Peugeot 208 and Tesla Model 3 are like to drive and why the Porsche Cayenne with a conscience shows the way forward for those who feel they need a big, fast, luxury SUV.

Also on this weeks podcast, the team discuss yet more pain for savers and the chaos at major port Felixstowe and why it matters to businesses and consumers.

And finally, Bitcoins back but as it climbs towards its previous peak, is it different this time?
The double dip recession is off... for now.

The GDP figures are in for the final three months of 2020 and the UK economy grew by 1 per cent, according to the ONS, despite widespread expectations that it would shrink again.

This means that even if the latest  and hopefully last  lockdown shrinks the economy in the first quarter of 2021 then we will avoid the dreaded double-dip  as you need two consecutive quarters of negative growth (forgive the economics speak) for a recession.

Of course, we dont know when this lockdown will end or how heavy an impact it will have on the economy, so what happens in the first half of 2021 is up in the air.

But why didnt GDP fall in the final stretch of last year, is there any way we could we claw our way to growth in the first chunk of this year, and how bad was the coronavirus year of 2020 for the UK?

The health sector was a a big contributor to growth in the last quarter of 2020 after being involved with running coronavirus testing and tracing schemes across the UK

On this weeks podcast, Georgie Frost, George Nixon and Simon Lambert dive into the GDP numbers to take a look at what this all means.

Also on the show, are we finally going to see an end to the scam refund lottery from banks for those conned into sending money to fraudsters? George explains what people need to know about that and also the issue of disabled children child trust funds.

Plus, why has Tesla bought bitcoin, what does it mean and what on earth is Elon Musk playing at with his crypto tweets at the moment?

And finally, should you head for Oxbury Bank  the farmer-focussed lender with a new top savings rate?
Is the economy primed to bounce back?

That might sound like a strange question when youve just had the news that UK GDP fell by 2.9 per cent in one month, but Januarys lockdown slump was nowhere near as deep as expected.

It seems that despite a tough lockdown being imposed, shops and big chunks of the economy being shut and schools being closed, the UK has adapted to restrictions better than thought when it comes to doing business.

On this weeks podcast, Georgie Frost, Jayna Rana and Simon Lambert discuss the prospects for recovery and also the businesses that have pivoted and started-up over the lockdown year.

While economies have suffered, stock markets have rebounded strongly  and in the case of the US and its growth star stocks, repeatedly surpassed previous record highs.

Thats been good news for UK investors backing the growth story, particularly the legions of savers with money in the giant Scottish Mortgage investment trust.

But a growth stock wobble in the US has sent Scottish Mortgage sliding  with the trust down 27 per cent at one point on its January peak  followed by a rapid bounce back to erase some of those losses.

Should investors be worried or is it a buying opportunity  and what is the one key investing lesson that Simon says this highlights?

Also on this weeks show, the mortgage that lets you fix for life  bringing potentially a 40-year fixed rate until 2061.

And finally, would you buy your local pub to rescue it from the threat of closure? If the answers yes then theres some good news: Rishi Sunak wants to help you.

UK GDP fell by 2.9 per cent in January as the latest lockdown hit the economy hard
This week saw the launch of new book - Never Go Broke: How To Make Money Out Of Just About Anything, co-written by This is Money personal finance editor Lee Boyce.

In this podcast special, Lee is joined from Los Angeles by his co-author, Storage Hunters TV star Jesse McClure, to explain all to Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert.

Jesse and Lee discuss how they met, how the book was created, and their three step approach to putting more money in your pocket with a little bit of entrepreneurial endeavour and reselling.

The book is broken down into three parts: how to build up a cash pot, learning the resale blueprint and investing the pot for resale profits.

Step one is all about properly selling items in your home, making cash legitimately  and safely  online, and even making money from stuff you might think is trash. This is good both for your wallet and the environment.

Step two sees Jesse outline some of the tips and tricks he uses everyday as a professional buyer and seller, while step three is all about hunting down spots to buy items to make even bigger profits  from car boots, to charity shops.

While it won't make you a millionaire overnight, the pair believe it can be a great hobby, a way to stay afloat, or to set the foundations to becoming a professional at it.

The authors also share some of Jesse's big wins and tips for getting started straightaway.

Never Go Broke: How To Make Money Out Of Just About Anything, by Lee Boyce and Jesse McClure (9.99, Cassell), is out now.

Never Go Broke: This week saw the launch of the book, written by Lee Boyce (left) and Jesse McClure (right)
Ministers want us to ditch gas boilers and line our houses with insulation to save the planet, but do the sums add up for cash-strapped homeowners?

Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost take a look at the Government's aims, if green measures in your home can pay for themselves in the long-run and what it could take to pull Energy Performance Certificate ratings for homes higher.

Simon takes aim at London's low emission zone expansion - it's less than three months away and riddled with inconsistencies.

It will leave at least 300,000 residents with older cars facing a fee of 12.50 each time they get behind the wheel  and these schemes could be coming to a town or city near you.

Value and quality are in, income and momentum are out we explain the latest investing trends - and bust some jargon too.

Tesco closes all its current accounts - so where next for their nearly a quarter of a million customers?

Is Barclays a good option? You can now earn Avios points and get a free upgrade once a year  but there's a catch
Why do people invest directly in shares rather than letting a fund manager do the work for them?

For some it is because they think they can beat the market and the manager, for others it's the attraction of owning a direct stake in a company, and for many share investors it comes down to the simple fact that they find it interesting.

Whatever an individual investor's reason, buying shares directly remains a resoundingly popular option  and it's something that has seen a resurgence over the past year.

Britain's biggest DIY investing platforms have reported increased interest in buying company shares during the coronavirus lockdowns  and a new breed of younger share investors coming through, dubbed the lockdown traders.

If you are interested in buying shares, want to understand the difference between investing and trading, or know more about unearthing good companies and valuing them, read our guide to share investing.

Investing in shares has seen a resurgence in interest as more people dabble in stock-picking and a new younger breed of share investors has emerged

Investing in shares

When you buy shares you are taking direct ownership of a small slice of a company. If that company does well, then the share price should rise and your stake will go up in value.

Pick the right company and share investing can prove highly lucrative, but pick the wrong one and you could lose much or all of what you put in.

When you read about the stock market you'll often hear two terms bandied about: trading and investing. Sometimes they will seem to be used almost interchangeably, but there is a key difference between the two in terms of intention.

There is no strict definition of what counts as trading and investing, but the former is considered a short-term endeavour, where the underlying qualities of a company matter less than making a profit and moving on; whereas the latter is considered a long-term game, where carefully weighing up a company's fundamental strengths and being patient matters more.

This guide focusses on the long-term game of investing in shares and building a portfolio that can profit through the years.

For many people, investing with a fund, investment trust or a good low-cost tracker is the best and most sensible option, but if you are interested in picking shares instead, read on.

Why invest directly in shares? But why would you invest directly in shares rather than let a fund spread risk for you? Statistics say that you won't beat the market, and you might be better off with a simple low-cost global tracker fund, instead of stock-picking. The answer for many lies in the interest they develop in it and the direct feeling of investment. The pay off may be the thrill of a company that you have researched and backed coming good on its promise, or announcing better than expected results, and having its share price rise. But what will also inevitably come too sometimes is a sinking feeling as a company disappoints and its share price slides. To be a share investor, you must learn to take the rough with the smooth, spread your risk across different companies and avoid emotional over reactions. Remember that it's also not an all-or-nothing endeavour. You can invest some of your portfolio in funds and investment trusts and some directly in shares in whatever proportions you choose. One sensible approach for those dipping their toes in, is to have a large core of holdings in reliable trackers, funds or investment trusts and a smaller satellite portfolio of share investments.

Time, effort, diversification and a little patience

The key to successful share investing is time, effort and diversification.

If you do decide to invest in individual shares, then you must be willing to take the time to research companies carefully and keep track of their performance; to make the effort to understand their balance sheets, results and trading statements; and you must make sure that the portfolio you build is properly diversified  spread across different companies that do different things.

Many companies also choose to pay out dividends to shareholders; these are regular payments that can vary in size and reward them for holding the firm's shares  and over the long-term reinvesting and compounding dividends has proven to be a major source of stock market returns.

You won't pick only winners along the way  there's always something that will go wrong that you haven't thought of  but by putting the work in and spreading your investments across a diversified portfolio of shares, you can increase your chance of making gains and lower your risk of losses.

The classic mistake made by many who hold shares is to buy too few different companies

The classic mistake made by many who hold shares is to buy too few different companies.

There is no magic number that tells you how many to hold; however, academic research on the number of stocks held vs risk by Elton & Gruber (in 1977 and followed later by others) suggests that at least 15 to 20 spread across different sectors is desirable. You can see how this lowers risk in the chart below.

It has also become substantially easier and cheaper in recent years for British investors to invest in the shares of companies listed on stock markets outside the UK, for example, Apple or Tesla in the US. Avoiding home bias and investing beyond your nation's borders is a vital way to diversify, although you may choose to use funds or investment trusts to do this more easily.

Read our guide: How many different shares does a portfolio need?

This chart shows how Elton and Gruber's Risk Reduction and Portfolio Size paper illustrated how holding more shares reduces total risk.

Where to buy shares

You can buy into a company when it first issues shares, known as a float or an IPO (initial public offering) but by far the most common thing to do is to buy shares already trading on the stock market  effectively buying stock second-hand.

Buying shares is simple and cheap  far more so than even in the relatively recent past  and you can manage them yourself on a computer or mobile phone.

The key to this is to use a DIY investing platform or app; some charge a fee to buy or sell, while a selection of newcomers offer free share dealing.

Some share investors may still prefer to pay a financial adviser or stockbroker to act for them, but for the purposes of this guide we will focus on DIY share investing.

The cost of buying and selling shares with established DIY investing platforms can be 11.95 but with some of the new apps trading is free

To buy and manage shares online you will need to sign up to an account with a DIY investing platform or one of the selection of new app-only platforms.

The major DIY investing platforms with a focus on share investing as well as funds include Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor, AJ Bell, Fidelity, Charles Stanley and Halifax-owned iWeb.

They charge share dealing commission at between 5 (for iWeb) and 11.95 (for Hargreaves Lansdown) each time you buy or sell shares and, in addition, have a variety of different ways of charging an admin fee for accounts, including percentage, capped and flat charges.

Challenging these established players are a selection of trading apps that offer free or considerably cheaper share investing, these include eToro, Trading 212 and Freetrade, which all offer commission-free share dealing and the opportunity to hold shares for free. With these apps some services or an Isa account can cost extra.

One of the great advantages of the free trading apps for share investors starting out or investing lesser sums is that fees eat less of your investment, whereas building a portfolio of 15 shares on a DIY investing platform charging 10 per trade will feel expensive.

Be aware that some free share investing apps also offer high-risk CFD trading  while this allows you to back stocks cheaply, this is not investing and warnings will often tell you that 70 or 80 per cent of customers lose money on CFDs. Heed them.

When you buy shares, you will also have to pay 0.5 per cent stamp duty  a tax on transactions that goes to the government. There is an exemption to this for the shares of most companies listed on the junior, high-growth Aim stock market index.

Signing up to a platform or app is usually easy and quick and depending on which service you choose, you can opt to pay in a lump sum to invest or make regular monthly direct debit payments into investments  or do both.

Most platforms are very simple to use and easy to get used to. They will offer varying degrees of tips, analysis, tools and service.

This is Money's best DIY investing platforms round-up, highlights some of our favoured platforms and explains how their charging works, while our cheapest share dealing guide hones in on stock picking charges.

Where to get investing ideas There is no shortage of places to get ideas on shares to buy. These range from observing the world around you and noticing what companies you think are doing well, to mulling what could happen in the future, reading share tips, analysis and investing ideas, running the numbers on a stock screener and sharing ideas with others, whether in person or via social media. You can read our guide on Where to find share investment ideas here. The common thread that runs through all of these places to get ideas is that you must do your own research The common thread that runs through all of these places to get ideas  and any other you can think of  is that you must do your own research. Never simply rely on a tip or recommendation from someone else, or the results thrown up by one bit of data screening. Beware FOMO  fear of missing out  when someone tells you that they've made a packet on a stock and you think 'I fancy some of that and need to act fast'. It is your money that is being put on the line, so make sure you properly research a company. For further sources of inspiration, This is Money's Investing section carries our weekly Midas Share Tips and Small Cap Share Ideas columns, along with other regular articles on investing ideas. This is Money's fortnightly Investing Show also features interviews with fund managers and professionals explaining how they invest.

How to pick and value shares

When you are weighing up a company's shares, look at the fundamentals  as its key financial metrics are known. Read the latest trading statements, results and annual report, and also look at what it says about itself and its prospects - and what others think.

Consider how that company is positioned in terms of financial strength, prospects for growth, ability to pay dividends, the success of its products and services, its management and how all this might change in the future.

Don't try to time the market but do consider whether the current share price offers a good entry point

Can it capitalise if things go its way - and has it got the robustness to survive if things go against it?

Don't try to time the market but do consider whether the current share price offers a good entry point, or perhaps you may be overpaying as sentiment is running hot.

Think about your investment aims and your time horizon, too, and how the company fits with this and the rest of your portfolio.

You should properly research all shares you invest in, but in reality people will do more work on those they are putting a substantial sum into.

You don't need to learn to understand complicated trading charts, but you should properly research all shares you invest in before you hit the buy button

Part of being a successful share investor is learning how to manage your own level of risk. Before you hit the buy button always weigh a share up against your risk appetite and ability to tolerate losses.

There are some things that can help you with this research: This is Money's market data and share pages feature fundamentals, charts, financial information and official company results, trading updates and announcements.

You will also need to get your head round some key valuation metrics for shares, such as price-to-earnings (PE) ratios, return on equity, dividend cover and earnings per share growth.

It's important to put all these things in context. For example, comparing the valuation of a company against the market and others in its sector and also weighing up how consistent and robust its business and profits will be.

Our guide How to tell if a share is good value can help and further resources can be found at paid-for share data sites, one that This is Money recommends for quality and ease of use is Stockopedia.

Growth, value and momentum Spend a little time reading about investing in shares and you'll start coming across terms, such as value, growth and momentum  often used without much explanation. Fortunately, while some investors dedicate their lives to digging as deeply as possible into these investing styles, they aren't that complicated to get your head round. In essence, the terms describe the dominant characteristic that a share is considered to have and thus the category it would fit into. It's worth bearing in mind though that stocks can get lumped into more than one category  and what defines each is somewhat subjective. Value Value investors aim to buy companies where they think their assets or potential for returns aren't reflected in the share price. There are plenty of other reasons that a share could be a value opportunity, but vitally value investors will crunch the numbers and look at the fundamentals of a company to try to establish what it is actually worth and compare that to the share price. Among key financial metrics, value investors use and compare to the market, sector, and long-term average for the company, are price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, the dividend yield, net debt and cashflow measures. Growth Growth investors are less concerned with picking up bargain shares (although they don't actively want to overpay) and instead focus on companies that can deliver consistent, above-average growth in revenue and profits for years to come. Growth shares will tend to be more expensive than the market average on a price-to-earnings basis, but investors are backing the ability of those earnings to keep rising  and beat expectations  over the long-term. Among key financial metrics, growth investors use are earnings-per-share growth, return on capital, return on equity, compound annual growth figures and cashflow. Momentum Momentum investors or traders worry much less about whether a company's attributes and simply buy the shares that are going up the most and then aim to sell up when the bandwagon starts to slow. The theory is that once a ball starts rolling it will keep moving for some time and the greater the amount of money that is being invested, the quicker an asset's value will rise. Momentum traders don't mind buying high if they can sell even higher. Buy at a lower point than you sell and you will make money. Momentum investing might sound daft to some but it has been proven to work, with one crucial caveat: momentum investors needs a system for identifying momentum, knowing when to buy in and when to sell out, and then must stick to it.

Think like you own the company  because you do

When you buy shares you take ownership of part of the company.

Fund managers and professional investors often advise small investors to remember this when they are making a buying decisions.

Considering that you are buying a company can focus the mind on whether you really want those shares and they are worth backing with your hard-earned cash.

Share ownership also brings important rights and Mark Northway, chairman of ShareSoc, a group that champions and lobbies on behalf of individual investors, says 'those rights come with equally important obligations'.

He adds: 'It's your company, and you should think and behave as an owner and as a steward. You should care how it behaves and use the levers of influence and control available to you. It's only right.'

It's your company, and you should think and behave as an owner and as a steward Mark Northway, chairman of ShareSoc

Shareholders have the right to attend general meetings of the company, the right to vote at those meetings, the right to propose change, and the right to call a general meeting.

Unfortunately, the structure of a great deal of UK share ownership has made these rights far harder to exercise. Unlike in days gone by when shares were held directly by small investors with paper certificates, DIY investing platforms hold customers' assets in pooled nominee accounts.

Mr Northway explains: 'Under UK law, investors who hold shares via nominee accounts are not the legal owner of them, and therefore do not enjoy the rights which accompany ownership.'

Those with shares held in DIY investing platform nominee accounts can exercise their rights, but different platforms approach this in different ways.

If you want to get involved as a shareholder, press your platform to give you your rights and also back campaigns to improve share ownership, for example, ShareSoc's campaign for direct ownership on a digital register.
LONDON (AP)  Britons are encouraged these days  though in most cases not required  to wear face coverings in crowded indoor spaces. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson regularly appears in the packed, poorly ventilated House of Commons cheek-by-jowl with other maskless Conservative lawmakers.

For critics, that image encapsulates the flaw in the government's strategy, which has abandoned most pandemic restrictions and is banking on voluntary restraint and a high vaccination rate to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

As winter approaches, bringing the threat of a new COVID-19 surge, Britain's light touch is setting it apart from more cautious nations.

The story of this government in the pandemic is too little, too late, said Layla Moran, an opposition Liberal Democrat lawmaker who heads the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus.

She said some U.K. hospitals are already seeing the number of virus patients in intensive care units that they would normally expect in the depths of winter, though overall daily hospital admissions are running at about a fifth of January's peak.

And while cases soared when restrictions were lifted this summer, deaths didn't follow at anywhere near the same pace. But the winter months, when respiratory diseases are usually at their highest, could bring an added challenge.

"Unless the government starts to do something differently, I dont think were going to be able to avert the worst this winter, Moran said.

The government argues that its plan is working so far  and it can change course if needed.

Britain has recorded more than 135,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe after Russia and about the same number per capita as the United States. Yet it also has organized a successful inoculation campaign that has seen 65% of the whole population fully vaccinated.

That relatively high rate led Johnson's government to decide in July that it was safe to scrap restrictions on business activity and daily life: no more social distancing, limits on gatherings or masks required anywhere in England. Businesses can impose their own measures, but otherwise Johnson has encouraged people to be sensible.

In contrast to many other European nations  even some with higher inoculation rates than the U.K.  proof of vaccination is not required in England to eat in restaurants, attend mass events or enter crowded venues such as nightclubs. Scotland, which is part of the U.K. but sets its own health rules, is being more cautious, introducing vaccine passports for nightclubs and keeping mandatory masks indoors.

Pupils and teachers in England's schools don't have to wear face coverings, despite the objections of unions and public health officials  a contrast to European countries including France, Italy and Spain that have kept mask requirements for schools.

While the U.S. has made vaccinations compulsory for millions of workers, Johnsons government requires proof of inoculation only for nursing home staff, and is considering it for health care workers.

Once the U.K. had some of Europe's strictest international travel rules, but it's easing quarantine and testing restrictions for many visitors starting next month.

The U.K. has often gone its own way during the pandemic. Health authorities gambled on a gap of two to three months between doses, rather than the three to four weeks recommended by vaccine makers, in order to speed the rollout. That paid off, with studies since suggesting the longer gap is at least as effective, and possibly more so.

Britain diverged from its peers again on the question of vaccinating kids. When the U.S., Canada and much of the European Union extended inoculations to children between 12 and 15, the U.K. held off, saying the health benefit to kids was marginal. Then Britain decided to vaccinate that age group after all  but initially with a single dose, rather than the usual two.

Britain has also gone further than most nations in giving vaccine booster shots, offering a third dose to everyone over 50. That puts it at odds with the World Health Organization, which has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries dont have enough vaccines for their first. In the U.S., authorities endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans.

Johnsons government is counting on vaccines to do the heavy lifting against the virus, supplemented by voluntary common sense behavior.

But after an exceptionally long and strict lockdown earlier this year, it's not clear Britons will freely choose any virus-prevention measures they're not forced to take. When restrictions were initially lifted, just under two-thirds of people said they planned to keep wearing masks in shops and on public transport. Now the number of people wearing coverings has declined sharply on the London Underground, which requires but barely enforces mask use.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Critics say the government has failed to learn from experience and seems to be fueled by optimism rather than evidence.

Stephen Reicher, a University of St. Andrews psychology professor who helps advise the government, recalled that a year ago, Johnson's team was slow to act when scientific advisers recommended a short circuit-breaker lockdown to curb fast-rising coronavirus cases.

As always happens if you wait and things get out of control, you have to impose greater restrictions, which is why we had a non-Christmas and such an awful winter and spring spent in lockdown, he told Sky News.

Moran, the opposition lawmaker, and other critics argue that moderate measures, such as better ventilation in schools and masks indoors, could avert the need for stringent restrictions this winter.

But the government notes that scientists most pessimistic predictions, which said cases could rise to 100,000 a day by the time schools reopened in September, haven't come true.

The U.K. is now averaging about 140 deaths daily  just over one-tenth of what it saw at the peak  and 30,000 new infections a day.

Johnson said restrictions such as mandatory masks and work-from-home orders could be reimposed if hospitalizations surge. But he hoped it wouldnt be needed.

The result of this vaccination campaign is that we have one of the most free societies and one of the most open economies in Europe, he said. And thats why we are now sticking with our strategy."

Standing beside him at a news conference, Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance applied the brakes. He said the lesson of the pandemic was that when you make a move, you have to go earlier than you think you want to, you need to go harder than you think you want to.

So if this goes in the wrong direction  its important that the measures are put in place early enough and theyre significant enough, he said.

___

Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
The latest in New York politics This article was featured in the Capitol Confidential newsletter. Sign up here to get it each morning.

On the first full day of the vaccine mandate, the state reported at least 92 percent of hospital staff have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the Capital Region, hospitals officials began placing hundreds of employees on unpaid leave after they failed to comply with the states new mandate requiring health care workers to get vaccinated against coronavirus.(TU)

Former Bishop Howard J. Hubbard has been accused of misrepresenting the Albany diocese's handling of sexual abuse cases, including making "at least one outright lie," in an Aug. 13 commentary in the Times Union in which he sought to explain the religious organization's cover-up of the abuse. (TU)
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Bidens national security adviser Jake Sullivan is heading to Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Egyptian government officials about rising tensions between Israel and Hamas.

The Biden administration is leaning heavily on Egypt, which has long played a role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, for help in maintaining stability in the region even as it presses Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to stop his crackdown on dissent.

Sullivan plans to follow up on the Egypt talks during a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata, next week in Washington, said National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne.

Egypt brokered a cease-fire after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas erupted in May.

Sullivan had already planned visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for talks focused on finding an end to war in Yemen.

The visit to Egypt comes after the Biden administration announced earlier this month it would withhold $130 million in military aid to the country over human rights concerns.

The region has seen an increase in fighting in recent weeks, with tensions fueled by Israeli settlement construction and heightened militant activity in the northern West Bank.

Israeli troops conducted a series of arrest raids against suspected Hamas militants across the occupied West Bank early Sunday, sparking a pair of gun battles in which five Palestinians were killed and two Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded.

Looming over the meeting in Cairo is the administration's recent decision to withhold some military aid to Egypt.

Congress had passed legislation calling on the administration to withhold $300 million in military aid to Egypt. In the end, $170 million was sent along as the administration used its authority to waive human rights conditions placed on the assistance by Congress.

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The Biden administration said it decided to release most of the military aid to preserve a U.S.-Egypt security relationship that it says is critical to Mideast stability. The remaining $130 million will be released if Egypt "addresses specific human-rights related conditions, according to the State Department.

At the same time, Biden advisers have praised Egypt for brokering the cease-fire that ended the latest Israel-Hamas war. The administration was also pleased that el-Sisi hosted Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Cairo earlier this month, the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to Egypt since 2007.

Egypt is pressing the U.S. to side with it in a dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a hydropower project on the Blue Nile that Ethiopia says is crucial for its economic development. Egypt says the dam would choke its economy and has threatened to use all available means to stop it.

The Blue Nile, a major tributary of the Nile River, originates in Ethiopia.

The Biden administration sees the dam dispute as potential flashpoint, but has sought to take a back seat to the African Union in finding a resolution.
3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Congregation Shaara Tfille Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Congregation Shaara Tfille Show More Show Less 3 of 3





SARATOGA SPRINGS - Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the well-known sex therapist and television personality, will talk about how to deal with hatred in a virtual program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, at Congregation Shaara Tfille and the Jewish Community Center of Saratoga Springs at 84 Weibel Ave.

The talk, Confronting Hate with Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein, will be livestreamed from the 92nd St. Y in New York City.
ALBANY  Esther Massry, who along with her late husband became one of the Capital Region's most generous philanthropists, has died at the age of 90.

Massry died Tuesday evening at Samaritan Hospital in Troy after a brief illness, according to her son Norman Massry.

The widow of Morris "Murray" Massry saw the family's business grow through the 1950s and '60s from a Troy children's clothing store called the Janie Shop  named for one of their five daughters  into Tri-City Rentals, a residential and commercial real estate empire.

"They were a team in the retail business," said Norman Massry. As his father's real estate business developed, Esther Massry turned to raising their six children.

"If you talked to anyone, they would tell you she was instantly loved by anyone," her son said. "She had a way of meeting and being around somebody and devoting herself to that person."

Born in Brooklyn  and like her future husband the child of Sephardic Jewish immigrants  Esther Massry was courted by her husband in what their son called "a fairy-tale romance" that included a pursuit to Florida.

"This was the one for him," Norman Massry said of his father's determination. They married in 1949, and initially moved to Saratoga Springs before settling in Troy. The couple moved to Loudonville in their latter years.

The Massry family's giving has supported dozens of organizations and institutions, including Albany Medical Center and St. Peter's Health Partners, Unity House in Troy and the Daughters of Sarah Nursing Center in Albany. Among several regional Jewish organizations they supported, the couple were members of Temple Beth El in Troy.

In 2014, the Massry family donated $5.25 million to the state University at Albany to fund various programs and infrastructure related to its business program  including the Massry Community Fellows program, which supports students' work with regional nonprofits. That gift was the family's largest single donation.

An art gallery at the College of Saint Rose bears her name, and is located within the Massry Center for the Arts.

The family grew to include 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Norman Massry said that his parents most important legacy was not simply their philanthropy itself, but the continuation of a spirit of giving carried down through future generations.

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Morris Massry died in 2018 at age 89 following a cruise to Israel  the sort of globe-trotting that the family took part in annually.

"Morris and Esthers partnership and bond served as an example for all to follow," his obituary noted. "Morris did everything for Esther and Esther did everything for Morris."

Norman Massry said his mother remained strong after the loss of her husband of almost seven decades.

"She gave her family the gift of herself," he said.
ATLANTA (AP)  Logistics company Radial Inc. plans to hire 4,000 entry-level workers outside Atlanta this year ahead of the busy holiday season, the company announced Tuesday.

The new employees will work out of two Atlanta-area fulfillment centers  one in Locust Grove and one in Buford  to process online orders from various different brands, Radial said in a news release. The company then plans to promote more than one-third of the seasonal employees to full-time positions, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  An Alabama man has been arrested in a deadly shooting nearly four years after it occurred, al.com reported.

Willie Richard Williams, 36, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Monday on a capital murder charged in the slaying of Laronald McDaniel, 21. McDaniel died at a hospital after being shot outside a home near Bessemer in January 2018.
ALBANY  The state Department of Healths COVID-19 Report Card is back online, enabling the public to track coronavirus cases at K-12 schools and colleges in New York.

In the Capital Region, Albany city schools have the highest number of coronavirus cases with 62 cases, including 56 students, two teachers and four staff members, reported by the Albany district as of Monday.

Cases are also climbing in Schenectady, where 40 students, three teachers and three staff members have tested positive, bringing the district's total to 46.

Both city districts enroll about 9,000 students.

The Troy district has seen 30 cases, 28 of them students.

Smaller districts have also had to contend with a disproportionate number of cases early in the school year. Galway, which enrolls 800 K-12 students, was forced to shift to remote learning in the first week of school after six people contracted the virus. The total number has risen to 13 with the majority of cases among staff members. Just four students and one teacher have tested positive as of Monday.

Schalmont, which enrolls 1,800 students, has had 31 cases, including 27 students, two teachers and a staff member.

In Bethlehem, one of a few districts where teachers, staff, and many athletes are required to be vaccinated, just four students and one teacher have been diagnosed with the virus since school began in early September. No staff in the district have been infected. The suburban district enrolls about 4,300 students.

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Other schools of similar size have seen slightly more cases this fall but school employees, who in most cases must be vaccinated or take weekly COVID-19 tests, have largely been spared. Positive cases are also less debilitating for schools since the state DOH's updated guidance does not require contacts of an infected person to quarantine unless they are symptomatic.

Guilderland, which enrolls more than 4,800 students, has had 21 cases, including 19 students and two staff members.

South Colonie has had 27 cases, including 26 students and one staff member as of Monday. The district enrolls about 4,700 students.

Saratoga Springs has seen 32 cases, including 29 students, two teachers and one staff member.
PHOENIX (AP)  Pulitzer Prize-winning Arizona photojournalist Nick Oza, who documented the lives of disaster victims and immigrants, has died after being hospitalized more than three weeks with serious injuries from a traffic accident. He was 57.

Since 2006, Oza had worked for The Arizona Republic, where he was beloved by colleagues and known for his documentary-style photojournalism.

Oza died early Monday after being hospitalized since Sept. 3. That morning, he was traveling on Loop 202 near the Vee Quiva Casino south of the Phoenix community of Laveen when the vehicle veered across all lanes of the highway and struck the center divider.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officials have said Oza was the lone occupant and no other vehicles were involved.

The cause of the accident has not been made public.

Oza's work was included in The Republics 2017 project called The Wall that examined then-President Donald Trump's planned border wall. It won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.

Earlier in his career, Ozas images were part of the Biloxi Sun Heralds Pulitzer-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation in Biloxi, Mississippi. At the time, Oza was working for sister newspaper The Telegraph of Macon, Georgia.

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Oza was born in Mumbai, India, and traveled as a young man to the U.S., where he became a citizen.

He attended Columbia College in Chicago with plans of becoming a commercial photographer. His instructors steered him toward photojournalism when they saw his ability to immerse himself into his subjects' lives.

Oza is survived by his wife, Jacquelyn, and daughter, Shanti, along with family in India.

There was no immediate word on services.
ALBANY  News cameras have been trained on the southern border throughout the pandemic, following migrants who enter the U.S. only to find themselves expelled, after being barred on public health grounds from making asylum claims.

Similar COVID-influenced policies of directing asylum seekers back are being applied  and challenged in court  in Canada. This is filling Buffalo and other New York hubs with migrants in limbo, many of whom are filling shelters and relying on information shared within their own ranks.

But absent thousands-strong encampments or photos of border patrol officers chasing migrants on horseback, the situation in New Yorks northern border areas often flies under the radar, with people tucked into shelters, detention centers, even hotels and private homes.

A lot of the attention of the media and policy makers is on the southern border, said Carl Hamad-Lipscombe, the executive director of Brooklyn Community Bail Fund. But there is an immigration crisis at our northern border as well.

Hamad-Lipscombe pointed to the treatment and number of detainees at centers like the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, a heavily guarded complex run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that houses hundreds of people. A number of migrants barred from immediately filing asylum claims in Canada during the pandemic have landed at the facility, joining other detainees who were either flown in from the south or picked up within the region.

In a series of legal challenges, refugee rights groups in Canada have pointed to the fate and treatment of detainees in these facilities as evidence that the U.S. is not safe for all refugees. They have argued that Canada should do away with two different decisions that are resulting in Canada-bound asylum seekers getting turned back at the border: one a treaty with the U.S. that is nearly two decades old; the other a pandemic-era order that draws its power from the countrys Quarantine Act.

In a 2020 article for the academic journal Frontiers, three scholars from York University argued that both norms involve Canadian politicians leveraging a crisis moment to offshore responsibilities for asylum seekers onto the United States.

When asked whether the most recent restrictions on such crossings were political in nature, public safety minister Bill Blairs staff pointed to the governments obligation to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19.

These measures remain in place to protect public health, said James Cudmore, the ministers communications director.

Not all migrants prevented from claiming asylum at Canadas land border during the pandemic are later detained. Some are simply released into the U.S. Many others only make it as far as Plattsburgh or Buffalo before waiting for a policy change that has yet to come.

Weve had to tell a lot more people we are full, said Matt Tice, director of Vive, a Buffalo shelter run out of a converted Catholic school building which has been saturated for months.

Many migrants arriving since March 2020 had planned to stop for short-term support on their way north, but became stalled when they realized that under current rules, they would be blocked from entering Canada.

People come here expecting that they're only going to be here for a couple days, or at most, a couple of weeks. And then theres a huge shock for them, Tice said. For Canadian claimants, its going to be months and months before theyll be able to take their next step.

Jennifer Connor, the executive director of Justice for Migrant Families in Buffalo, met Canada-bound Apollinaire Nduwimana while his own life was on hold. The Burundian man had fled danger in his home country  though he didnt like to talk about it  and, while temporarily in the border city, worked as a volunteer for the grassroots organization she led.

We were born in the same month of the same year, Connor said, remembering how they had shared meals and celebrated his birthday together during the first summer of COVID-19. But I always used to call him Professor Apollinaire. That was just the air he had.

Connor said that as a volunteer for the organization, Nduwimana spoke on the phone with Batavia detainees, connecting them to crucial resources like legal service providers. He knew how to speak with them, in part, because he had until recently been held there himself.

But the limbo got to him. Nduwimana grew anxious that he was at the mercy of U.S. authorities and in danger if they tried to send him back to Burundi, a possibility that was never far from his mind.

I knew they could take me and deport me any time, he said.

So in spite of knowing that Canada was still closed to most land crossers hoping to claim asylum, he left Buffalo in October 2020 to head to the best-known informal crossing point into the northern country: Roxham Road.

Facing off against asylum rules

Before the current border restrictions, crossing at Roxham Road in New York would have allowed Nduwimana to avoid the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), a treaty that bars most asylum seekers from making claims at one of Canadas official land ports of entry.

(The STCA) is kind of what led to the creation of Roxham Road in the first place, said Kate Webster, a Toronto-based immigration attorney.

The binational agreement notes that refugee status claimants may arrive at the Canadian or United States land border directly ... territory where they could have found effective protection, therefore they should not be allowed to choose to claim asylum in the other.

But some people know they wont be safe or eligible under the U.S. system, and after realizing that the treaty doesnt apply to those who enter Canada between official checkpoints, they choose to travel to the end of a northern New York country road and cross into the custody of Canadian federal police to be assured their day in Canadian immigration court.

When he first arrived in the U.S. in 2017 and tried to cross the border to claim asylum in Canada, Nduwimana did not know about the country road. He did not even know the treaty existed.

It wasnt easy over there when they told me I violated the agreement, he said. They ask you many questions about your family, your passport. Because I had a passport from Burundi, thats why they sent me back to the United States and they put me in jail, in detention.

The treaty has some exceptions, but none applied in his case.

That same year, several Canadian refugee rights groups  Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees, and the Canadian Council of Churches  took the government to court over the STCA.

Three years later, around the time Nduwimana was released under supervision from Batavia over coronavirus concerns, the Canadian Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald decided that the treatys application was unconstitutional. She wrote that the evidence clearly demonstrates that those returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials are detained as a penalty, interfering with Canadas guarantees of life, liberty and security.

In April, McDonalds judgment was overturned on appeal.

In a statement following the decision, Canadas immigration minister Marco E.L. Mendicino and public safety minister Bill Blair said that the STCA has served Canada well for 16 years, ensuring that our shared border remains well managed.

In their response, the Canadian Council for Refugees said the opposite was true: withdrawing from the agreement would allow people to present themselves in an orderly way at ports of entry, ending the need for irregular crossings.

For Nduwimana, he was determined to find any way possible to cross into Canada. Every day under ICE supervision was a day when he was afraid he would be sent back to danger in Burundi.

An exception to the exception

When COVID-19 started spreading rapidly in North America, Canada closed its borders to nearly all foreign nationals. Since the spring of 2020, while asylum seekers who meet STCA exceptions have been allowed to cross at formal ports of entry, the public health order has included a directive to send any migrant who tries to cross irregularly into Canada back to the U.S.

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In the journal Frontiers, Canadian legal scholars Sean Rehaag, Janet Song and Alexander Toope argued that similar to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which Canada negotiated in 2002 when the U.S. was reeling from 9/11 and preoccupied with border security, this latest rule of sending border crossers back to the U.S. has leveraged heightened anxieties about international travel. In so doing, they said, Canada has twice persuaded the U.S. to take responsibility for asylum seekers who would otherwise have been its charge.

The trio wrote that when it comes to outsourcing care for asylum seekers, the Canadian government is never letting a good crisis go to waste.

Describing the newer policy, Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Jacqueline Callin said that, unlike the STCA, the current ... process is a temporary agreement between Canada and the U.S. and those blocked from entering asylum claims under the regime will be able to claim asylum later.

Starting Aug. 4, Callin said, immigration authorities have been gradually issuing national interest exemption letters to allow people who had been directed back early in the pandemic to return to the Canadian border, starting with those who crossed in March 2020. As of Sept. 20, 2021, eleven claimants have returned.

When Nduwimana arrived at Roxham Road last October, he was picked up by Canadian police and brought to the Customs and Border Services Agency at the formal crossing point. They opened a file for him but directed him back to the U.S., saying he could return at a future date to file his claim.

But then he fell into trouble: U.S. border patrol agents at the corresponding frontier relayed him to ICE, who put him back in the same facility in Batavia that hed finally managed to leave only months earlier.

Once back in detention, he called his friends at Justice for Migrant Families to fill them in.

It was devastating, said Connor, the executive director. But incredible, because he didnt give up.

With their help, Nduwimana connected with Kate Webster, the Toronto-based immigration attorney, who is also the national advocacy chair for CARL. She, in turn, pushed the countrys immigration ministry to get a national interest exemption for Nduwimana to enter the country, a category that had been used to allow high-profile athletes and executives to bypass the closure.

Then he got to work finding other detainees with a similar story to his own.

There isn't really an application form for this thing, Webster said. But we sort of put together an application package explaining the risk of deportation they were facing and their circumstances in detention, why it was important that they be allowed to have access to Canada and why they would be deported before the border reopened.

Webster said five asylum seekers at risk of deportation were eventually granted the exception in December. But in spite of having proof that Canada would receive Nduwimana if he were released from Batavia, ICE officials would not let him leave, eventually trying to make him sign off on his own deportation to Burundi.

Jan. 6, when they tried to destroy the Capitol in Washington D.C., they took me from my unit and said that they wanted to deport me. The same day, Nduwimana said.

When he refused to sign, he was put in solitary confinement as punishment, he said. Then, later in January, they tried to deport him again.

ICE did not immediately respond to the Times Unions requests for comment.

Connor, who was involved in pushing for Nduwimanas release, confirmed that officials at the detention center were threatening to deport him in January and that he spent time in solitary confinement.

I would say they definitely were trying to get him deported before the new administration came in, Connor said. Thankfully, the attorneys were able to prevent it.

The Canadian Association for Refugee Lawyers (CARL) brought a case in Canadian federal court this spring to fight the country's pandemic-era policy, arguing that by forcing asylum seekers to return to the U.S.  a policy referred to as "direct back"  and landing some of them in a situation like Nduwimana's, the government is denying their right to a fair hearing.

A brief on the litigation against the Attorney General of Canada and two Ministers detailed the cases of six detainees, including Nduwimana's near-removal and solitary stays, as well as the case of an asylum seeker deported to Tanzania without warning in Dec. 2020  long before he could have been called back to resume his claim in Canada.

In their notice to Canadian federal court last May, CARL attorneys said that the temporariness of the direct back must be safeguarded, according to the Quarantine Act, and that when persons seeking refugee protection in Canada are detained in and/or removed from the United States, and so are unable to return to Canada, they have been deprived of a refugee hearing.

While the CARL case is still pending, Nduwimana was released from the Batavia-based detention center in the spring after pressure from all sides. He crossed the border into Canada, along with four other detainees he had identified and advocated for from inside the facility. He is living in Toronto while he waits for his immigration court hearing, and appreciating his return to liberty.

I saw some people, they came in jail, after two months they became crazy, Nduwimana said. When you have only been free, you dont know how much freedom costs. Freedom, you take it for granted.
EAGLE RIVER, Wis. (AP)  The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a plane crash that happened just before noon Tuesday in northern Wisconsin.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Emma Duncan said three people were on board the twin-engine Rockwell 690B when it crashed in a swamp 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of Eagle River.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota lawmakers on Monday rejected a handful of rules proposals governing medical marijuana from Gov. Kristi Noem's administration but approved the bulk of the program.

The Legislature's Rules Review Committee, which is responsible for approving administration rules, effectively told the Department of Health to try again on a number of controversial rule proposals. Most of the Department of Healths 124-page proposal got the sign-off from the Legislature, spelling out rules ranging from fees for cardholders to the heights of fences around cannabis growing facilities.

The rules they rejected included proposals that would have limited the amount of high-potency marijuana that patients could possess, required medical practitioners to write a recommendation for patients who wanted to grow more than three cannabis plants, and defined a list of conditions that would qualify for a medical marijuana recommendation.

The law allowing medical marijuana, passed by 70% of voters last year, has seen a halting acceptance from officials trying to balance a clear mandate from voters while placing restrictions on medical marijuana.

The rules set a $75 application fee for medical marijuana cards and discount the fee to $20 for low-income applicants. It also sets a state licensing fee of $5,000 for any medical marijuana facility.

Noem celebrated the Legislature's approval of most of the rules, saying that it put her administration on track to implementing the medical cannabis program.

I commend the Department of Health for its hard work to streamline the process," she said in a statement. "South Dakota will continue to implement the best, most patient-focused medical cannabis program in the country.

Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said she was "disappointed" the committee rejected the list of specific medical conditions, saying that it was based on public input.

A host of lobbyists, representing both medical groups and the cannabis industry, objected to some rules, though nearly all praised the Department of Health's rule-making process. For the most part, lobbyists from both the cannabis industry and medical groups convinced lawmakers to reject rules they raised issues with.

During a meeting that stretch over five hours, lawmakers questioned Malsam-Rysdon on the rule-making process. A rule proposal that would have limited the amount of high-potency marijuana that patients could possess drew considerable questioning.

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Concentrated cannabis in a smokeable form is shown to be more addictive, Malsam-Rysdon told lawmakers.

But they were not convinced by that argument and rejected the limitation on high-potency marijuana.

The Department of Health has held public town halls and meetings with industry groups throughout the summer. Malsam-Rysdon said her department had adjusted rules based on 42% of comments submitted by industry groups or individuals. She said the rest of the suggested changes were rejected either because they conflicted with existing state law, were deemed to have an impact on health and safety, or were found to be unnecessary.

We expect to see changes as this process evolves, Malsam-Rysdon said, referring to the Legislature considering potential changes to the law next year.

The Department of Health will have just weeks if it decides to rework the rejected rules and resubmit them to the Legislature. The medical marijuana law requires the state government to enact the rules by Oct. 29 and be ready to issue ID cards by Nov. 18.
ALBANY  Enrollment at State University of New York colleges and universities continued on a steady decline this fall.

The number of students enrolled at SUNY institutions is down 18,600 to 375,620 this year, a 4.7 percent drop compared to last fall, preliminary SUNY figures show.

SUNY trustees attributed the shrinking SUNY population to declining birthrates in multiple New York counties and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has dealt a significant blow to college enrollment for two consecutive years.

Since fall 2019, SUNY enrollment plummeted by 40,000, a 9.6 percent drop over two years, according to the data.

"When you consider this landscape and you add in the continuing impact of COVID, a preliminary continuing enrollment decline of 4.7 percent over last is definitely stronger than was anticipated and doing better than a lot of public higher education systems," trustee Stanley S. Litow said in a presentation to the board Wednesday.

The decline is steeper on the community college level. Community colleges have seen enrollment fall 6 percent since the fall of 2020 and 13 percent over two years. Four-year colleges saw a decline of 3.6 percent since last year.

To address the decline, SUNY is launching a $1.2 million branding and advertising campaign that emphasizes the quality and affordability of a SUNY education. The system is also investing in its online offerings and equal opportunity centers at community colleges, two areas of growth, to help drive enrollment.

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Meanwhile, enrollment rose slightly at SUNY's four research institutions at Stony Brook, Buffalo, Binghamton and Albany, which gained 1,134 students this fall compared to last year.

Over 10 years, these universities have seen enrollment grow by 12,000.
AMSTERDAM  Even though New York's ban on the use of polystyrene foam in certain kinds of packaging doesnt take effect until Jan. 1, thousands of food service operators, retailers and other businesses are already scrambling to find alternatives to the cheap but environmentally harmful material used in items like clamshell food containers and packing peanuts.

And suppliers of packaging, already coping with global supply chain snags expected to last at least another year, are telling businesses to be flexible and imaginative when looking for alternatives.

Have an option A and an option B and an option C, " advised Chris Parks, a sales manager for Pactive, which makes packaging items.

Parks spoke at a Wednesday webinar put on by Hill & Markes, the Amsterdam wholesale distributor of items like food packaging clamshells as well as office and janitorial supplies.

Bill Miller, Hill & Markes vice president for purchasing and marketing, said his business is already starting to phase out sales of some foam packaging in anticipation of the upcoming ban. They also are working to educate their customers, telling them the products won't be available next year. "Many are unaware of the upcoming ban and many of the options are in very tight supply right now," he said.

One challenge facing those in the food business is the higher cost of alternatives to polystyrene foam, which is not only inexpensive, but effective in keeping food and beverages hot or cold without melting or otherwise falling apart.

This is one of the concerns, Miller said, explaining that other options such as paper, aluminum or polystyrene resin, a cousin of polystyrene foam, are costlier.

For example, according to Hill & Markes, a single hinged polystyrene foam clamshell container costs 12 cents, compared to 18 cents for an aluminum one. A mineral filled polypropylene container is 21 cents and a fiber container is 29 cents.

A polystyrene lunch school lunch tray runs 6 cents while a fiber one is 13 cents.

Multiply these items by the millions and the cost becomes substantial.

Nor will all the alternatives be readily available. Many food service providers are probably looking at aluminum as an alternate form of packaging. But there is currently a global shortage of that material, much of which comes from China.

Moreover, Miller and others said that supply chain problems will likely persist through 2022. Part of that is due to recent cutbacks in electric power in China, which has slowed production at countless factories there.

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And the upcoming Chinese New Year, a two-week festival starting in February, and the Winter Olympics, also in February and taking place in Beijing, will likely lead to more snarls.

The ban on single-use polystyrene foam, often known as Styrofoam, was signed into law in late 2020 after environmentalists have long pushed for it. The substance can take hundreds of years or more to decay in landfills or the natural environment and it can leach into food and drinks. The manufacturing process also releases ozone air pollution. Other states as well as some municipalities in New York already have enacted bans.

The ban will apply to restaurants, food trucks, grocery stores, schools and hospitals to name a few.

Miller noted that there are some exemptions, such as food pantries. And organizations will be able to apply for hardship waivers to the ban, even though its unclear how many will be granted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which will oversee the ban. Those who have a waiver, though, will have to get their Styrofoam from out-of-state suppliers. Some containers such as those holding raw meat or fish, also are exempt.

He wasnt sure whether the ban would be delayed as was the case on the single-use plastic bag ban that was held up in 2020, amid court challenges.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU


ALBANY  Thousands of nurses and other medical personnel who work in state agencies that care for inmates or disabled and mentally ill individuals will not be mandated to receive coronavirus vaccinations or face the loss of their jobs  which was a policy that went into effect earlier this week for medical professionals in hospitals and other health care settings.

The stricter mandate imposed on Monday applies to workers in hospitals, including state-run facilities that fall under the authority of the state Department of Health or the state university system. It also extends to state-run optometry and dental schools, nursing homes and veterans facilities.

But a second mandate that's scheduled to take effect Oct. 12 will give all other state employees, including thousands of nurses and physicians in executive-controlled agencies such as the Office of Mental Health and Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, the ability to be tested weekly for COVID-19 in lieu of being vaccinated. The Oct. 12 mandate also will apply to medical personnel who work in patient-care settings in state prisons.

It remains unclear how the testing will be conducted, and whether the state will pay the cost  roughly $75 per test  for performing potentially tens of thousands of tests per month. A spokesman for the Governor's Office of Employee Relations said the state "is in the process of finalizing the details on the testing process."

The Public Employees Federation represents more than 5,000 nurses who work in the executive-controlled state agencies that will allow those employees to be tested weekly rather than be vaccinated.

The governor's office and the state Department of Health did not respond to questions about why only one set of medical professionals are being mandated to get vaccinated.

Late Wednesday, after this story was published online, the governor's office said the vaccination mandate, as issued, only applies to agencies subject to Public Health Law and regulated by the state Department of Health. The office also said that nurses who work in facilities such as OPWDD "might just be supportive staff" and a "nurse at a hospital is primarily providing care, in health care."

The governor's office added that the mandate applies specifically to "public health facilities (and) a wing in a prison that has a medical unit is not considered that."

At a news conference on Thursday morning, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she "did not have the authority" to mandate those other agencies' medical personnel be vaccinated. It's unclear why she should not have that authority, but the governor said she is working on a plan to have those employees also mandated to be vaccinated.

"I agree there's no reason to have an exception," she said.

New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy, who took part in a press conference Wednesday with unvaccinated nurses displaced from their jobs at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, said those workers are "being treated differently than people working on the governor's own staff" who are not being required to get vaccinated to keep their jobs. Langworthy said he strongly supports people getting vaccinated, but opposes firing someone who declines to get the shots.

Langworthy said he was not aware that thousands of nurses and other medical professionals in certain state agencies will not be required to be vaccinated.

"I think the administration is using a bullying tactic here," he said. "And those employees in the state system are being treated differently than these medical professionals in private and public hospitals. This is just so wrong-headed at a time where we can't afford it. ... It just defies logic why they are going to be forced out the door in a time where our labor market is terrible ... and here these people were held up as heroes."

Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, said she is not familiar with the reasons behind the policy allowing nurses in some state health care settings to test weekly in lieu of being vaccinated. But she said the union's position has been to "have consistency and uniformity" in the implementation of the mandates.

"Our nurses, the great percentage of them, are vaccinated and they need our support," Kane said.

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The state's requirement that some  but not all  nurses and medical staff who work in patient and congregate settings be vaccinated or face suspension and termination has left some labor union leaders questioning the inconsistency of the mandates, which are facing court challenges at the state and federal level.

"I would say that I find the distinction to be a bit baffling, because I certainly understand why theres a mandate for those who work in patient settings in hospitals, because there has to be the highest level of confidence that those who are treating them are vaccinated," said Frederick E. Kowal, president of United University Professions (UUP), the union representing nearly 13,000 employees who work at SUNY hospitals and their related medical facilities.

UUP, like other labor unions, is urging members to get vaccinations if they don't have legitimate health reasons to not do so. Still, the organizations have challenged the Department of Health's mandate  get the shots or be fired  that was handed down without negotiation.

Many hospitals across New York began initiating plans last week to curtail services as a deadline for health care workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus took effect on Monday, prompting some facilities to reduce their available beds and surgical rooms.

The medical staffing crisis, which began before the coronavirus pandemic, is unfolding as the leadership at the state Department of Health has been rocked by retirements and resignations. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced that she is appointing Dr. Mary T. Bassett, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to the position of state health commissioner. Bassett will succeed Dr. Howard Zucker, who resigned last week but had agreed to stay on until a successor was named.

Earlier this week, Hochul said she would pull backup medical personnel from the National Guard and from out of state to offset any staffing issues exacerbated by the vaccination mandate. But the competition for out-of-state medical personnel is fierce, as many other states are also facing critical staffing shortages in hospitals and health care settings.

There was a small surge in last-minute vaccinations for many of the medical workers facing termination on Monday, but many others were suspended from their jobs  and face termination after two weeks.

Groups of medical professionals and multiple labor unions have challenged the vaccination mandates  through negotiations, filings with the Public Employment Relations Board and court cases that invoke what they allege are violations of the Constitution and labor laws.
Pictured is William the goat and Patrick Brown at Williams temporary enclosure. The plan is to give William a big field with some friends to keep him happy at Browns rescue, Sugarcreek Sanctuary.
A new survey finds that vaccinated older adults are far more worried about COVID-19 than the unvaccinated are
Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin got off to a combative start in the second and final debate in Virginias closely watched gubernatorial election
The Maine Legislature has approved new congressional, legislative and county commission maps without bitter bipartisan fights or gerrymandering that have plagued efforts in other states
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled a driver who was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated had no reasonable expectation of privacy after he submitted a blood sample to the state for a blood alcohol concentration test
September 29, 2021





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But what is a time clock app, and how can it help increase your business efficiency? Well, lets find out.

What is a time clock app?

The time clock app is a system that allows employees to clock in and out of their work through devices such as a terminal or smartphone at the workplace. It automatically records the date and time the employees have clocked in and out. That data is incorporated automatically into the payroll system. This system is very reliable, flexible, and error-free, unlike the time card punch clocks, which are very time-consuming and unreliable.

If you are a business owner and still hesitant in utilizing a time clock app, keep reading this article as we give you various ways time clock app can help your business. Lets delve into them.

1. Reduces time spent processing payroll

Time clock app can significantly reduce the time spent on payroll no matter the number of employees you have in your company. A bulky workload basically means slower processing time, which can be quite costly, especially if you choose to hire a third-party bookkeeper or increase your current bookkeepers hours to keep up with the bulky work.

But with a time clock app, you will be able to reduce the amount of time spent on payroll, reducing wasted resources and improving efficiency.

2. Reduces payroll errors

Another significant benefit of a time clock app is how it reduces payroll errors. Of course, mistakes are bound to happen in payroll, and these errors can be costly. Money spent in overpayments, and time, as well as money spent fixing these errors, can quickly add up.

But with a time clock app that connects with your payroll processing software, you wont have to worry about potential mistakes arising from the transfer of information. Thats because the information from the employees punch in and out will be automatically transferred to the payroll system. It is as simple as that!

3. A higher level of security

Timecards filed out by employees have no guarantee that they are the factual reported time. Whether intentional or not, your workers may record shorter breaks or lunches and receive more pay than they should have earned. In addition to that, your company runs the risk of buddy punching, which happens when one of your employees decides to fill out a time card for another employee because he/she was either late to work or absent. But this kind of thing cannot happen with a biometric fingerprint on a time clock app, thus reducing buddy punching issues and time theft. A time clock app ensures that all employees are compensated for the work they have performed.

4. You can create better schedules for your employees

Once you start accumulating data about your teams work ethic, you can easily know what tasks your employees handle best and at what times of the day. With this data, you will be able to create a special daily work routine for all your employees.

This will not only improve your business performance but also employee engagement as they will spend more time on tasks they enjoy doing.

5. Helps to boost morale

While it may come as a surprise, a time clock app can help boost morale among your employees. Without accountability, your employees may feel pressured to cover for their colleagues who arrive late or dont report to work. This can cause frustration and stress. In addition to that, when your employees see their colleagues getting away with time theft, they will not only feel discouraged but they can also get tempted to involve in it themselves. This will lead to a loss of morale at work. But with a time clock app, it will be pretty hard for employees to cheat the system as they will be held accountable. This will improve fairness in the workplace and create a more productive environment.

6. You can manage employees remotely

Finally, using a time clock app allows you to manage your employees remotely. You wont always have to be on-site to ensure that all employees are reporting to work on time and working all through their shift. This is especially ideal for business owners with several businesses in different locations.

Final thoughts

Time clock app is a technology whose power can never be underestimated. The correct application of this technology can help increase your business output as well as employee accountability. So, if you havent started using this app in your company, this is the time to do so and start enjoying its incredible benefits.
September 29, 2021





What happens when AI technology is used to streamline business processes for startups? Well for starters: even during the pandemic when travel was restricted, and still is for foreign investors, the U.S. has seen record numbers of new company registrations. This is all thanks to AI-Powered giants like TRUiC that can help businesses get started with ideation, all the way through to picking a registered agent to manage certain affairs remotely.







Then, there is of course the customer service element. The way companies communicate to their customers have changed over the years, with social media being the go to method. Social media is not only the future of communication, but also of marketing, but being online 24 hours a day, seven days a week and personally responding to every request can be time demanding. Chatbots can help with this. A chatbot is exactly what it sounds like: a robot that converses.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most popular trends in almost every industry, especially in the registered agent service industry. Below, we compare registered agents that have been keeping up with the changes and adapted to include AI on their company websites.

ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness was founded in 2015 with the goal of assisting people in forming limited liability companies (LLCs). The company was created by a group of entrepreneurs who had battled to get their own business off the ground. Due to their low-cost formation services, ZenBusiness is at the top of the list. To incorporate your LLC, they charge a minimal fee of $39 plus the state fee. One year of free registered agent service is included with this price.

IncFile

When you sign up for IncFile, you simply have to pay a state charge. Yes, there is no registration fee, which means your LLC will be formed for free. The business is well-known for its excellent customer service. On ShopperApproved, they have a 4.8 out of 5 rating. They provide services that are similar to ZenBusiness. Operating agreements and registered agent services are handled by them.

Northwest

You certainly get what you pay for with Northwest. Although their costs are greater than ZenBusiness and IncFile, the features they offer compensate for this. The firm was founded in 1998 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest formation services in the United States.

Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer offers a variety of legal services in addition to LLC formation. If you ever find yourself in a scenario where you need to speak with an LLC attorney about a delicate legal subject, we recommend Rocket Lawyer. To participate, you must pay a $39.99 monthly subscription charge. Nearly the years, they've served over 20 million customers. It's safe to say they know how to deal with large amounts of data.

Legal Zoom

Legal Zoom is the most well-known of the companies on this list. They have a large presence in the United States. They don't offer the same value-for-money features or the same degree of customer support as ZenBusiness or Northwest, but they're a tremendously popular service. In order to reach clients, they use aggressive advertising.

BizFiling

Despite the fact that they provide services that span a wide range of topics, they do not stand out among the other service providers on this list. They are a more decent choice with acceptable costs and adequate customer service.

Nationwide Incorporators

The fact that every document they receive or document written on or for your firm is examined by an attorney before being sent is one of the things that sets Nationwide Incorporators apart. This feature is not available with any other service provider on this list. This distinguishes Nationwide Incorporators from standard document-filing services and a full-service law firm.

Advantages of AI

Incorporating AI technology in to your day to day business can be very beneficial for any company, here is why these 7 registered agents chose to go with AI:

AI reduces the time it takes to complete a task. It allows for multitasking and lightens the demand on current resources.

AI allows previously complicated activities to be completed without incurring significant costs.

AI is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no downtime.

AI improves the talents of people with varied abilities.

AI has a large market potential and may be used in a variety of industries.

AI aids decision-making by making the process more efficient and intelligent.

It's no secret that the business world as we know it has changed dramatically. It has become much more difficult for companies to succeed in these trying times. It is critical to stay current with the times. Life as we know it is changing, and the above mentioned US companies are definitely keeping up.

Suggested Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0drMjhhOYY&t=6s&ab_channel=TRUiC
[September 29, 2021] 3rd development summit to kick off in Jinhua, E China's Zhejiang province

JINHUA, China, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Times Online: the third Jinhua Development Summit will be held in Jinhua city, east China's Zhejiang province. With the theme of "promoting high-quality development and working together for a pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity," the summit will continue to serve as an important platform to bring back talents, capital and projects to the city. Jinhua's GDP expanded 14.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, ranking second in Zhejiang, Chen Long, Secretary of Jinhua Municipal Party Committee, told Global Times Online in an interview, adding that several major economic indicators registered double-digit growth, whch is also among the top in the province.



The city has spared no effort to open air, land and internet passages, Chen noted, explaining that a rail-sea intermodal route linking the city has ranked among the top in China in terms of freight volume, and the city's cross-border e-commerce trade volume accounted for nearly half of the total in Zhejiang. After years of development, Jinhua is becoming a pacesetter of opening-up and innovation and a popular investment destination, Xing Zhihong, the city's mayor said in the interview.

Xing introduced that the city boasts prominent advantages in five aspects: highly efficient logistics network, vibrant commerce markets,thriving featured industries, reform measures that give people a greater sense of gain, and open development platforms. Jinhua will step up efforts to promote high-quality development and build it into a pilot demonstration zone for common prosperity. To achieve the goal, high-quality talents will play a big role in the process. Fortunately, Jinhua is known for its pioneering and enterprising residents, who have already made positive contributions to the development of the city and the province. Located in the central part of Zhejiang province, Jinhua is an ancient with modern vigor, a historical and cultural city under national-level protection, and one of the top tourist cities in China. Meanwhile, county-level cities including China's small commodity hub Yiwu, China's largest distribution center for high-tech hardware Yongkang and "Chinese Hollywood" Dongyang, are under jurisdiction of Jinhua. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq83azyC2Eo

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[September 29, 2021] ADA Launches Index to Track Post-Pandemic Business Recovery in Southeast Asia

Dashboard provides data-driven insights on how consumer behaviour, mobility, and digital consumption are evolving due to COVID-19

Index combines online and offline trackers to give businesses on-the-ground visibility at the national and state level

Cambodia , Indonesia , and Malaysia are currently leading the pack in business recovery amid a huge divergence across Southeast Asia SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ADA has launched a new dashboard that offers data-driven insights for businesses in Southeast Asia as they navigate major disruptions to consumer behaviour caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging on ADA's in-house data management platform, XACT, the Recovery Index was built with anonymised data sourced from millions of mobile devices and apps. While not a traditional economic indicator, businesses can use the dashboard to guide their decision-making by observing consumers' mobiliy and digital consumption in near real-time.



Users of the dashboard, which is free to access, can drill down from the regional view to the national and state-level in eight countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Some notable insights from the dashboard (as of September 22) include:

Indonesia and Cambodia are around 90% back to normal having rebounded strongly from a low point in August caused by the Delta variant.

are around 90% back to normal having rebounded strongly from a low point in August caused by the Delta variant. Bangladesh has exceeded its pre-pandemic normal, while Indonesia and Cambodia are next in line to reach the "old normal".

has exceeded its pre-pandemic normal, while are next in line to reach the "old normal". Thailand , which was relatively unscathed by COVID-19 last year, lost its early gains and is now the furthest from normal in Southeast Asia . Mobility in most regions has dropped to 50% of pre-pandemic levels with only Rayong, Songkhla and some areas around Bangkok bucking the trend.

, which was relatively unscathed by COVID-19 last year, lost its early gains and is now the furthest from normal in . Mobility in most regions has dropped to 50% of pre-pandemic levels with only Rayong, Songkhla and some areas around bucking the trend. In Indonesia , mobility has recovered more quickly in Java where Jakarta is located compared to surrounding islands. Footfall at F&B outlets has climbed to 110% of pre-COVID levels while footfall at malls has fully recovered. Usage of business and productivity apps, however, has collapsed to 60% of pre-COVID levels, even as usage of fitness apps has surged to 140%.

, mobility has recovered more quickly in where is located compared to surrounding islands. Footfall at F&B outlets has climbed to 110% of pre-COVID levels while footfall at malls has fully recovered. Usage of business and productivity apps, however, has collapsed to 60% of pre-COVID levels, even as usage of fitness apps has surged to 140%. In Malaysia , the main economic hub of Klang Valley is leading the recovery vis-a-vis other corridors in the Peninsula and the Bornean states. The recent easing of lockdown measures has seen footfall in malls jump to 130% of pre-COVID levels, even as road density and other mobility indicators are yet to fully recover.

, the main economic hub of Klang Valley is leading the recovery vis-a-vis other corridors in the Peninsula and the Bornean states. The recent easing of lockdown measures has seen footfall in malls jump to 130% of pre-COVID levels, even as road density and other mobility indicators are yet to fully recover. In the Philippines , footfall at malls and F&B outlets had recovered fully in June before declining to 70% of pre-COVID levels currently following a recent shift in lockdown policies in Manila . Srinivas Gattamneni, Chief Executive Officer of ADA, said: "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused, and is still causing, major disruptions to consumers affecting how they shop, where they go, and what they do on a daily basis. We created this dashboard as a resource for businesses to make sense of and respond to the 'new normal' in consumer behaviour. The dashboard can serve as a guide to what has changed pre- and post-pandemic in terms of shopping, app usage, and mobility, allowing marketers to pivot their customer acquisition and retention strategies in an environment that continues to be volatile." Visit https://ada-asia.com/adas-recovery-index-covid-dashboard to find out more. About ADA ADA is a data and artificial intelligence company that designs and executes integrated digital, analytics, marketing, and eCommerce solutions. Operating across 10 markets in South and Southeast Asia, ADA partners with leading brands to drive their digital and data maturity, and achieve their business goals. We are anchored on the following main services: Providing business insights, data enrichment, and advanced analytics

Understanding the consumer mindset and designing data-driven creative marketing strategies

Executing end-to-end digital marketing solutions for growth hacking, funnel optimisation, and goal optimisation ADA complements its unique digital expertise with deep proprietary data of 375 million consumers. SOURCE ADA

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[September 29, 2021] Air Force Research Laboratory awards Battelle Major Contract to Conduct Human Performance Research and Engineering for Warfighter Readiness

Battelle has received a five-year, $89.6 million task order contract to conduct human performance research and engineering for the Air Force Research Laboratory's (News - Alert) (AFRL) 711th Human Performance Wing. "We are extremely excited to support AFRLs 711th Human Performance Wing mission by providing our research and engineering expertise from across Battelle to combine ideas, resources, and technologies to enhance AFRL's position as a world leader in the study and advancement of human performance," said Matt Zemanek, Division Manager in National Security. Continuing its long heritage of managing U.S. government laboratory programs, Battelle will support AFRL by administering a Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) test bed located within the Warfighter Interactions (News - Alert) and Readiness Division. The program utilizes a distributed, virtual environment to conduct research and training to support oth Conventional and Special Operations Forces (SOF) as they pivot their "train like you fight" focus from regional conflicts to Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) in Great Power Competition (GPC) environments. Because the test bed is an operational capability, Battelle developed an approach to mitigate the impacts of transition on the workforce, AFRL team, and military end-users who rely on the training.



Also on the team that will conduct the work with Battelle is Modern Technology Systems Inc (MTSI). About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries. For more information, visit www.battelle.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005710/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Altada Technology Solutions Announces $11.5 Million Funding Round

Altada Technology Solutions ("Altada" or "the Company"), a global artificial intelligence (AI) platform solution provider which creates operational efficiencies for clients by leveraging cutting edge AI to unlock value in data, announced today a USD $11.5 million funding round led by Rocktop Partners alongside Elkstone Partners and Enterprise Ireland. With over 70 employees across the U.S. and Europe, Altada is focused on building upon its work in financial services and responding to a rapidly increasing demand for AI solutions in healthcare, security, and travel. This new infusion of capital will support the hiring of over 100 new employees across Altada's global offices in the areas of quantum computing, engineering, data science, product development, blockchain engineering, and cloud platform management, among others. "We have reached an important milestone in the growth and evolution of Altada," said Allan Beechinor, Altada Co-Founder and CEO. "This funding is indicative of the investor confidence in our successful track record and our unparalleled experience in serving the financial services and security sectors in particular. Altada is in a state of perpetual innovation, and this is just the beginningof our journey. We are thankful to Rocktop, Elkstone and Enterprise Ireland (News - Alert) for enabling us to scale our growth and assume a leading position in the sector."



Worldwide spending on AI is expected to double over four years, reaching $110 billion in 2024, according to International Data Corporation. Indicative of the upward trending AI applications is Altada's work with asset managers, multi-family offices, institutional investors, and a growing indicated demand for its solutions from large enterprises in travel, healthcare, cybersecurity and security sectors, to name a few. "Our talented team has propelled us to become an emerging global leader in AI," said Niamh Parker, Altada Co-Founder and Chief Legal and People Officer. "The use of AI comes with great responsibility, and we are committed to empowering our clients to respond to the uncertainties of today and uncover the opportunities of tomorrow, in alignment with our core values and ethical business practices."

Diversity, privacy-by-design and AI applications across sectors are the bedrock of Altada's work. The Company uses its AI platform to embed effective AI at the heart of organizations. Its solutions reduce processing costs, create new levels of efficiency, optimize existing resource allocation and help generate and deliver alpha. Altada has successfully driven its clients' automation, data-driven decision making, enabled scale and has increased profitability through AI. "Altada's AI solutions have given our business the competitive edge in the market with transformational operational and cost efficiencies, such as the reduced cost of processing a loan file from $400 to $25 and reducing the time it takes to process a portfolio from 6-8 weeks to 48 hours," said Jason Pinson, CEO, Rocktop. Alan Merriman, Founder at Elkstone added: "Elkstone believes in Altada's solutions and capabilities and strongly supports its evolving vision for AI applications. This team understands that innovation is the key to success and how to leverage AI to uncover the power of combining cutting edge technology with a talented and experienced team to solve real world problems." In the last year, the Company opened offices in New York, San Francisco, Dublin, Malta and Barcelona and has plans to expand to Austin and in the APAC region in the near future. In 2021, Altada appointed four key executives to its management team, Denis Canty, Chief Technology Officer, Maire P. Walsh, Chief Commercial Officer, Trucle Nguyen, Chief Innovation Officer, and Brian McElligott, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel. Clearwater International acted as corporate finance advisor to Altada and will be advising on the Company's next funding round expected in Q2 2022. About Altada Technology Solutions (News - Alert) With offices in Europe and the U.S., Altada provides scalable artificial intelligence solutions to companies in financial services, travel, and security, among others. Altada's solutions are successfully driving data-driven decision-making. Its executive and technical team have over 75 years' experience of expertise in AI technologies. Altada holds itself to the highest ethical standards and code of conduct in all its business relationships and strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion. About Rocktop Rocktop Partners, LLC ("Rocktop") is an alternative investment manager and SEC (News - Alert) registered investment adviser based out of Dallas, Texas. Rocktop specializes in distressed consumer credit markets, in particular, the acquisition of large pools of performing and nonperforming first lien residential mortgage loans with title defects, compliance issues, or other collateral deficiencies. About Elkstone Elkstone is a leading Irish Multi-Family Office with a portfolio of close to 40 high-growth tech companies and was a seed-stage backer of several high-profile Irish start-ups including unicorns LetsGetChecked, Flipdish, Soapbox Labs and Manna. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005171/en/

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[September 29, 2021] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of MS First Capital Insurance Limited

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a+" (Excellent) of MS First Capital Insurance Limited (MSFC) (Singapore). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. The ratings reflect MSFC's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also factor rating enhancement from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company Ltd ( MSI (News - Alert) ), for which the ultimate parent is MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. (MS&AD). MSFC's balance sheet strength assessment is underpinned by risk-adjusted capitalisation that remained comfortably at the strongest level in 2020, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). Capital adequacy continues to be supported by the company's low net underwriting leverage and a conservative investment portfolio. In addition, strong retained earnings over the past five years have enabled the company to grow its shareholders' equity to SGD 989 million in 2020 from SGD 578 million at the end of 2015. An offsetting balance sheet factor is the company's high reliance on reinsurance to support the underwriting of large limit risks and to manage accumulation of catastrophe exposure; however, this is partly mitigated by the excellent credit quality of the MSFC's reinsurance panel and its long-standing relationship with the reinsurers. The company has a track record of strong operating performance and continues to outperform the industry benchmark, with a five-year average combined ratio and return-on-equity ratio of 68% and 12%, respectively (2016-2020). Excellent underwriting results are supported by the company's strong underwriting discipline and in-depth expertise in core lines of business and markets. A low management expense ratio and favourable reinsurance commission income also have contributed substantially to the company's technical results. While MSFC reported underwriting profits across the key lines of business in 2020, the company's credit and surety portfolios were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemi and consequential economic downturn.



MSFC's business profile is assessed as neutral. The company is a dominant non-life insurer in Singapore, supported by its strong brand and technical expertise. Its underwriting portfolio is well-diversified by geography, with the company also underwriting a large volume of business from overseas and a number of targeted markets in Asia. The company maintains long-standing relationships with brokers and reinsurers, which has supported its access to quality business in targeted markets. Additionally, MSFC also benefits from a growing level of business referral from affiliates of its parent group. AM Best views the company's ERM as appropriate, which is supported by its developed risk management framework and strong risk management capability. MSFC also continues to benefit from a level of risk management oversight, integration and support from its parent group.

Rating enhancement has been applied to MSFC's ratings in recognition of its ownership, integration and the support received from MSI, a member of the MS&AD group. MSFC benefits from common branding with the MS&AD group and continues to receive implicit parental support in terms of corporate governance, business synergies and technological developments. Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication. 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/20210929005754/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Ariva Coin, ARV now live on eight new exchanges

Kiel, Germany, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ariva, a next-generation tourism & travel blockchain protocol, has revealed the listing of its coin ARV on eight new exchanges. This development comes as part of its efforts to increase the adoption of ARV and expand its ecosystem.

According to the report, in addition to Probit Global, XT.com and PancakeSwap, ARV is now live on exchanges like Lbank, Whitebit, Hotbit, Azbit, Dsdaq, DodoBsc, SushiSwap, 1inch. With these listings, users can trade for the utility token and swap for other cryptocurrencies and fiat. ARV is a BEP-20 token that serves as the utility token on Ariva. Holders can use it to purchase products and services from merchants within the Ariva ecosystem. ARV has a total supply of 100 billion and a circulating supply of around 50 billion. According to the report, great surprises await ARV followers. The listing on these exchanges follows the initial listig of ARV on Tier-1 exchange listings would be announced on October 7, 2021.



A fast-growing ecosystem Ariva has experienced rapid growth in recent months due to its focus on the travel and tourism industry. It intends to modernize the travel and tourism industry by introducing a blockchain-based hub with different products and features.

To achieve its aims, Ariva is developing three key products, namely Ariva.World, Ariva.Club and Ariva.Finance. Ariva.World is the travel and tourism network that is designed to connect travellers with service providers in the tourism industry. It features an online store where merchants can list valuable goods and artefacts sold for cryptocurrencies. Tourists can also pay for tickets, vacation bookings and more using supported cryptocurrencies. Ariva.World also features a travel review blog that incentivizes both authors and contributors to share their travel stories. Ariva.Finance is the payment gateway that enables merchants to accept crypto payments. The payment gateway has different versions that can be deployed on websites, mobile apps and POS machines. Ariva.Club is a social media platform dedicated to the travel and tourism industry. It allows anyone to register and share their travelling stories. Users can also connect to other tourists and recommend service providers. About Ariva

Ariva is a blockchain ecosystem dedicated to building innovative products for the tourism and travel industry. Its ecosystem is fueled by the ARV coin, a BEP-20 token that serves as a payment and utility token within the Ariva ecosystem. You can learn more about Ariva by visiting the website https://ariva.digital/ . Media Contact  Email  arivacoin@gmail.com Company  Ariva.digital Source Link



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[September 29, 2021] Asensus Surgical, Inc. Announces Sapporo Medical University Hospital in Japan to Initiate Senhance Robotic Surgery Program

Asensus Surgical, Inc. (NYSE American: ASXC), a medical device company that is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and the patient to pioneer a new era of Performance-Guided Surgery, today announced Sapporo Medical University Hospital, located in Hokkaido, Japan, has entered into an agreement to lease and utilize a Senhance Surgical System. "The Department of Surgery, Surgical Oncology and Science at Sapporo Medical University Hospital is an outstanding institution which is well known for utilizing the most advanced surgical technologies, and we are very excited to partner with them to expand their existing surgical robotics program," said Anthony Fernando, Asensus Surgical President and CEO. "Japan remains a focus market for Senhance. With a dedicated training center and a growing number of active systems at prestigious institutions, we expect to further accelerate adoption in the region in the future.'' Asensus Surgical's technology platform, Senhance Surgical System, is the first of its kind digital laparoscopic platform that leverages augmented intelligence to provide unmatched performance and patient outcomes through machine learning. Senhance goes beyond the typical surgical robotic systems, providing surgical assurance through haptic feedback, eye-tracking camera control, and 3D visualization, and is the first platform to offer 3 mm instruments (the smallest instrument available in the world on a robotic surgical platform). The Senhance Surgical System is powered by the Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU). The ISU enables machine vision-driven control of the camera for a surgeon by responding to commands and recognizing certain objects and locations in the surgical field, and allows a surgeon to change the visualized field of view using the movement of their instruments. "We are highly focused on integrating state-of-the-art medical technologies into our hospital to provide our patients with the best possible outcomes," said Professor Dr. Ichiro Takemasa, Chairman of Surgical Oncology and Science. "We have run a successful robotics program at Sapporo for a number of years, and believe the Senhance is a great addition to that program which will expand the scope of procedures in which we can utilize robotics with and brings incremental surgical intelligence that we don't have access to with our other systems.'' About Sapporo Medical University Hospital Sapporo Medical University Hospital has facilities in 29 clinical divisions and 932 inpatient beds. It provids advanced, state-of-the-art medical care, such as emergency medical care, cancer treatment and regenerative medicine, and also plays a significant role as a medical institution that assists the development of local medical services and accepts patients from remote areas in Hokkaido in cases of disasters. In 1996, the hospital was certified as an advanced treatment facility capable of providing advanced medical treatment, developing medical technologies, and offering training. In 2002, Hokkaido's first advanced emergency medical care center was established within the hospital to accept critical emergency patients and provide advanced specialized medical treatment. In 2016, it was certified as the first tour facility to perform colorectal cancer surgery by a robot in northern Japan and has a dedicated robotic operating room. The hospital also functions as an AIDS treatment core hospital (HIV Hokkaido Regional Hospital), a core disaster medical hospital, the Hokkaido Rehabilitation Support Center, and a regional cancer center.



About Asensus Surgical, Inc. Asensus Surgical, Inc. is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and patient to pioneer a new era of Performance-Guided Surgery by unlocking clinical intelligence for surgeons to enable consistently superior outcomes and a new standard of surgery. This builds upon the foundation of Digital Laparoscopy with the Senhance Surgical System powered by the Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU) to increase surgeon control and reduce surgical variability. With the addition of machine vision, augmented intelligence, and deep learning capabilities throughout the surgical experience, we intend to holistically address the current clinical, cognitive and economic shortcomings that drive surgical outcomes and value-based healthcare. Learn more about Performance-Guided Surgery and Digital Laparoscopy with the Senhance Surgical System here: www.senhance.com. Now available for sale in the US, EU, Japan, Russia, and select other countries. For a complete list of indications for use, visit: www.senhance.com/indications. For more information, visit www.asensus.com.

Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes statements relating to the Senhance Surgical System and Sapporo Medical University Hospital initiating a program with the Senhance System. These statements and other statements regarding our future plans and goals constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict, are beyond our control and which may cause results to differ materially from expectations and include whether Asensus will be able to further expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region and whether the Senhance Surgical System will be a great addition to the robotics program at Sapporo Medical University Hospital . For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, please review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC (News - Alert) ), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2021 and our other filings we make with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which are based on our expectations as of the date of this press release and speak only as of the origination date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005516/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Blackstone LaunchPad To Expand To The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) and The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

Blackstone LaunchPad announced today that it is bringing its student entrepreneurship and skill-building program to students at the College of Southern Nevada and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Blackstone LaunchPad's network will provide students at these institutions with the resources and opportunities to help them build next-generation companies and careers. "Providing our students and business partners with the tools they need to succeed is critical, and this expansion by Blackstone LaunchPad helps us do just that," said CSN President Dr. Federico Zaragoza. "The resources in this program are proven to help develop entrepreneurial skills and the business acumen to succeed, which benefits our students, business partners and entire community." "This partnership taps into the entrepreneurial spirit of UNLV students and will help them strengthen their skills to compete in the global market - and to create and increase economic opportunities for others along the way," said UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield. "Blackstone LaunchPad's investment, in partnership with our Lee Business School's Troesh Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will help UNLV create a pipeline of savvy, innovative business leaders ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st century economy." For students at these schools, Blackstone LaunchPad will facilitate a global network of lasting professional relationships with mentors and faculty advisors through proven startup resources and unique virtual and physical convening opportunities. Students will have the opportunity to participate in pitch competitions, fellowships and live speaker series to pursue their desired career with the skills needed to succeed. "We are thrilled about Blackstone LaunchPad's expansion to support students and communities in Nevada," said Amy Stursberg, Executive Director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. "Though hit hard by the pandemic, Nevada is taking active strides towards economic recovery and we are excited to be part of the wave of entrepreneurship at the center of the plan moving forward. Through our partnerships with both CSN and UNLV, two Hispanic Serving Institutions, we look forward to building on the Foundation's commitment to providing access to critical entrepreneurial skill-building so that all students, no matter their starting point, background or future plans, can succeed in building startups and launching careers." The Nevada partnership is part of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation's $40 million commitment to expand Blackstone LaunchPad to higher-ed institutions that have a majority diverse population or are serving under-resourced communities. The initiative began with an expansion to bring Blackstone LaunchPad's network and resources to six additional campuses in the University of Texas system, designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). It has since expanded to three historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Atlanta and nine City University of New York (CUNY) schools. Blackstone LaunchPad is available to over one million students at 46 schools in the U.S. and Ireland and will increase its program to 75 campuses over the next five years.



About Blackstone Charitable Foundation The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has led Blackstone's philanthropic initiatives since 2007. We are driven by the firm's commitment to diversity and inclusion and providing access to opportunity in the communities in which we live and work. Blackstone LaunchPad helps college students learn entrepreneurial skills for success to build thriving companies and careers, with an increasing commitment to schools that have a majority diverse student population or engage with underrepresented communities. BX Connects engages Blackstone's global employee base to partner with non-profits, supporting their missions through volunteer opportunities, fundraising, board service and other charitable activities.

About The College of Southern Nevada The College of Southern Nevada empowers our students and communities to achieve, succeed, and prosper. Founded in 1971, CSN is a nationally recognized student success leader specializing in two-year degrees and a select number of bachelor's degrees in specialized fields. Connect with the state's largest and most diverse higher education institution on our Newsroom blog, via our press releases, or by following us on social media. About The University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV is a doctoral-degree-granting institution of more than 31,000 students and 3,900 faculty and staff that has earned the nation's highest recognition for both research and community engagement from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. UNLV offers a broad range of respected academic programs and is committed to recruiting and retaining top students and faculty, educating the region's diverse population and workforce, driving economic activity, and creating an academic health center for Southern Nevada. Learn more at unlv.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005557/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Blockchain.com Continues U.S. Rollout With Launch of Crypto Trading in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Blockchain.com , the world's oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency platform, announced its continued expansion into the Midwest, providing custodial and brokerage product eligibility to Iowa's three million residents. The news comes on the heels of the recent product availability rollout in Oklahoma, following expansion into Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, New Hampshire, and New Mexico over the past year. Currently available in approximately 30 states, the crypto platform plans to expand product availability to all 50 states through state-by-state license approvals. As a remote-first company, Blockchain.com will also look to the Iowa market for top talent across its open roles in compliance, customer success, data science, engineering, finance, legal, marketing, and more. All open positions can be found at Blockchain.com/Careers . "We're committed to making crypto easily accessible to everyone, everywhere, including all 50 U.S. states," said Brooks Wallace, Blockchain.com's Head of Communications. "Iowans now have the ability to buy and sell crypto on our platform, increasing their earning potential and financial reedom. In addition, we encourage Hawkeye State residents to apply for the many open remote roles as we create a financial system for the internet that empowers anyone in the world to control their money."



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 is home to a growing Institutional Markets business and more than 32 million verified users across more than 200 countries who monitor, buy, sell, trade, and store crypto using Blockchain.com's non-custodial Wallet, lightning fast Exchange, and renowned blockchain Explorer. 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

brooks@blockchain.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blockchaincom-continues-us-rollout-with-launch-of-crypto-trading-in-iowa-301387711.html SOURCE Blockchain.com

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[September 29, 2021] China Money Network Unveils Corporate Brand Upgrade As FutureLogic

HONG KONG, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- China Money Network Limited today unveils its new corporate brand as FutureLogic. FutureLogic, a premier intelligence, data and media platform bridging the Asian and global innovation economy, will fold numerous business units under its umbrella including its core asset, China Money Network, a platform tracking China's venture capital, fintech and technology sectors since 2011. Caishen.co, which uses natural language processing to provide market intelligence on China's secondary market, will be part of FutureLogic as well. The FutureLogic brand will also encompass other related media, intelligence, and data assets including China Money Podcast, a weekly podcast featuring China's venture capital and tech sector news; and Reports, which produces research reports related to the Asian and the global tech ecosystem. "By upgrading our brand to FutureLogic, we are conveying a new approach to our expert areas: to leverage our knowledge in the Asian tech space in a global context, and to broaden our horizon to help the global tech community in deciphering the future," says Nina Xian, founder and managing editor of FutureLogic.



China Money Network was founded in 2011 in Shanghai, and is headquartered in Hong Kong and operates from satellites in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. The company is independently owned by its founding team and employees. With a massive and deep database covering the Asian venture capital, fintech and tech sector over the past ten years, China Money Network has been a leading intelligence and data service provider to many leading global and Chinese corporations. The platform also boasts a global high-end user base spanning North American, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

"Going forward, FutureLogic will aim to provide unique insights, news, and intelligence rooted in our expertise in Asian tech to a wider global audience as the world's tech space enters a highly uncertain future amid geopolitical tensions," says Nina Xiang. "FutureLogic aims to be the place where executives turn to for real intelligence on the Asian tech space." For more information, please visit http://www.thefuturelogic.com About FutureLogic FutureLogic is a media, intelligence and data conglomerate bridging the Asian and global innovation economy. It encompasses a number of media and data assets, including China Money Network, a platform tracking the Asian venture capital and technology sectors since 2011; and Caishen.co, which uses natural language processing to provide market intelligence on China's secondary market. FutureLogic's asset matrix also includes China Money Podcast, a weekly podcast featuring China's venture capital and tech sector news; and China Money Reports, a think tank producing reports related to the Chinese and the global tech ecosystem. FutureLogic was founded in 2011 in Shanghai, and is headquartered in Hong Kong and operates from satellites in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou. It is an independent company owned by its founding team and employees. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-money-network-unveils-corporate-brand-upgrade-as-futurelogic-301387448.html SOURCE China Money Network

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[September 29, 2021] Cocoon Launches to Bring Clarity and Simplicity to the Employee Leave Experience

New employee leave platform, Cocoon, publicly launched today with the first full-suite software solution to completely eliminate the heavy lift from complex leave processes employers and employees are subject to today. The Cocoon platform is designed to address every type of employee leave (i.e. parental, medical, caregiver, bereavement or any other type) across all 50 states, handling everything from compliance to claims management to payroll calculations. It factors in state, federal, company and insurance benefits accordingly to demystify, simplify and streamline the leave experience for both employees and HR teams. By doing so, Cocoon empowers companies to better support their team members and alleviates the stress that employees feel around taking time off to deal with often unexpected life changes, such as managing a serious health condition or taking care of a sick family member. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005577/en/ Cocoon cofounders left to right: CTO Amber Feng, CEO Mahima Chawla, and COO Lauren Dai (Photo: Business Wire) The company also announced its $20 million Series A funding round, which was based on impressive momentum since the platform debuted to initial customers earlier this year. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from First Round Capital, SemperVirens, XYZ Venture Capital, Magnify Ventures, Springbank Collective, and prominent individual investors. Mark Goldberg, partner at Index Ventures who co-led Cocoon's $5.5 million seed round with Bill Trenchard at First Round Capital in December 2020, has joined the company's board of directors. Funds will be used for hiring and building out additional products. "Companies are fighting harder than ever to level the playing field for workers. Parental leave is the tip of the spear in this movement, but it's still shockingly hard to administer any type of employee leave given the web of paperwork HR departments and employees need to fill out to stay compliant with local and federal laws," said Mark Goldberg of Index Ventures. "With two young kids, I've felt this pain point personally. Cocoon has built a totally seamless experience for companies and employees that makes it absolutely painless. This is one of the biggest opportunities within the future of work, and the speed at which Cocoon is getting pulled into companies big and small makes it one of the fastest growing companies in our portfolio." The Problems With Leave Employee leave has long been one of the most antiquated aspects of HR, yet it is something every company has to deal with, as nearly every employee will go on leave at some point in their career. To date, the many moving parts of a leave have largely been managed manually with the heavy lifting handled by HR teams and employees. Given all of the differnt variables involved, from leave compliance to insurance claims, the process is extremely time consuming and riddled with human error that can yield significant and unnecessary costs to both employees and companies.



Still, new parents, caregivers or anyone dealing with a personal medical issue must juggle the alphabet soup of leave laws, dealing with the state and private insurance and spend a shocking amount of time on administrative tasks instead of being able to focus on the reason they took leave. Employers, on the other hand, are figuring out what an employee is eligible for, which compliance notices need to be sent and how to determine complex payroll calculations. This leaves little room to bring empathy into the experience and results in a completely broken system for all. Employee leave is at a unique inflection point driven by COVID-19 as well as a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. The pandemic created a more distributed workforce, which has forced employers to deal with leaves in many more geographies than they are used to and has added further compliance complexity. It also created a shift in mindset where employees looked to their employers to step up for them in pivotal moments like needing to take a leave. These moments may occur infrequently, but they are the ones that can make or break how an employee views their company. As such, leave benefits are becoming increasingly competitive and diverse as organizations look to attract and retain talent.

On the regulatory front, there has been a growing voice around the importance of paid family and medical leave, with an increasing number of states releasing their own paid leave programs (e.g. Massachusetts and Colorado) or constructing mandates around specific leave types, such as organ donation in California. There is a push at the federal level for paid leave as well through Biden's American Families Plan. These initiatives create an ever-evolving matrix for employers to navigate, forcing them to stay on top of policies while trying to abide by new programs to correctly administer these benefits. Cocoon was developed to address all of these issues, automating and simplifying leave with a platform that can be easily adapted at any time. The New Way to Do Leave Cocoon was founded by Mahima Chawla, Lauren Dai and Amber Feng - proven leaders who built their careers by reshaping the dusty, highly regulated industries of lending and payments through their work at Square and Stripe. Chawla, Dai and Feng came together to transform employee leave in a similar vein, creating a defining employee leave product and user experience. "Tools exist to streamline nearly every business process, and yet before Cocoon, no one had stepped up to digitize employee leave," said Bill Trenchard, partner at First Round. "When I met Mahima, Lauren and Amber, I knew they were the team to build something really impactful and novel here. Cocoon's platform coupled with the founders' vision and the strong team they've assembled puts the company on a trajectory to own a massive market and expand into new areas over time." The Cocoon platform removes all of the friction that exists today for both employees and employers through its proprietary technology, which serves every aspect of leave management from compliance to claims to payroll. Cocoon's rules infrastructure ensures compliance with the multitude of state and federal leave laws as well as employer and insurance policies, and adapts to the ever-changing leave landscape. This allows employees to self serve in a product that always shows the right options based on what they are eligible for, and Cocoon automates the rest of the highly tedious manual processes away. The platform, which integrates with existing payroll and HR management systems, can be up and running according to a company's specifications in a matter of minutes for employers and employees to start exploring and using the product. "We are deeply committed to the wellbeing of our people at Carta, and Cocoon has allowed us to take this commitment to a new level," said Suzy Walther, Chief People Officer at Carta. "Cocoon makes it exponentially easier for our HR team to support employees' leave by helping us manage claims, compliance, compensation and more. With Cocoon, our team can focus on supporting employees during some of the most important times in their lives." Cocoon was built with employee privacy at its heart, especially given the sensitive nature of many leaves. Employees can educate themselves and design the entirety of their leave in private before sharing with their employer, a departure from how leave is typically handled today. "Employees often need to take a leave at the most stressful or most personal moments of their lives. The last thing they want to worry about is filing paperwork or doing mental gymnastics to figure out how much they're getting paid and by who," said Chawla, co-founder and CEO of Cocoon. "After hearing countless nightmare stories about leave from employees as well as HR leaders, we didn't want anyone else to have to endure this unnecessary stress. We built a software platform that puts the employee first and allows them to focus on the reason behind their leave-- all the while removing headaches, costs and complexity for employers. Cocoon is a modern and empathetic solution to a longstanding pain point." To learn more about how Cocoon is transforming employee leave, please visit www.meetcocoon.com. About Cocoon Cocoon has created a defining product and experience for employee leave. The company's first-of-its-kind full-suite software solution eliminates complexity, errors and stress for both employers and employees. Up and running in minutes and simple to navigate, employee leave will never be the same. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA (News - Alert) and backed by Index Ventures and First Round Capital as well as other prominent institutional and individual investors. Learn more at www.meetcocoon.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005577/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Deloitte and OutSystems Extend Strategic Alliance to Include Industry-Focused Solutions on AWS

OutSystems, a global leader in modern application development, and Deloitte (News - Alert) Consulting LLP have expanded their 13-year alliance to include a Center of Excellence (COE) focused on providing cloud-based industry solutions utilizing Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) (AWS) on a global scale. Together, Deloitte, OutSystems, and AWS provide shared clients with the ability to develop and deploy new, innovative enterprise applications at a faster pace with fewer resources than ever before. Deloitte and OutSystems first joined forces in Portugal in 2007 and have since delivered more than 100 digital transformation and software development projects in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Canada, and the US through more than 300 Deloitte professionals certified on OutSystems. Deloitte is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner that provides specialization in a host of AWS-enabled business solutions, each of which can be efficiently integrated to meet clients' needs where and when they need it most. The Red Cross Netherlands recently tapped into the joint capabilities of OutSystems, Deloitte, and AWS to rapidly build new applications for volunteer management and coordination. The three organizations enabled the Red Cross to massively and effectively scale operations amid increased demand and rapidly changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. "By leveraging the power of the OutSystems platform, the experience of the Deloitte team, and the scalability of AWS, we were able to develop a user-centric and future-proof solution in only a matter of weeks. We're now developing digital experiences in weeks instead of months, connecting over 100,000 people in ways that we didn't think about a year ago. With OutSystems and Deloitte we're confident that we'll be able to adapt and meet the evolving needs of 2021," said Hans Goedhart, Manager Information Provision & ICT at the Red Cross. With this new agreement, Deloitte US, the largest Deloitte member firm, will broaden the Deloitte Global COE-Based Service Delivery and Software Productization Practice leveraging the OutSystems development platform. This alliance offers clients the ability to simplify project delivery efforts and realize business value faster by accelerating time-to-market, reducing ongoing application support and development costs, and retiring or replacing ineffective or inefficient applications and infrastructure, thereby accelerating transformation. Deloitte will offer acceleraors and assets across industries to deliver business value with the OutSystems platform.



"OutSystems is addressing one of the biggest problems facing businesses today - the lack of speed and agility of traditional software development," said Carlos Alves, COO at OutSystems. "Our high-productivity, modern development platform automates and simplifies complexity, but with the power and expressiveness of traditional development. This approach radically transforms the way our customers build, deploy, and most importantly, evolve their critical applications. Deloitte's deep industry and cloud expertise builds on top of the proven capabilities of the OutSystems platform, enabling our joint customers to realize the full strategic benefits of digital transformation." "Speed, architectural soundness, and continuous evolution are paramount for businesses to keep pace with the market and workforce needs," said Tim Smith, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and US Offering Leader - Core Industry Solutions of Deloitte. "The range of solutions we can help deliver with OutSystems is vast - from customer experience transformation and workplace innovation, to process automation, legacy modernization, and more. The ability to build and evolve apps in one platform is the reason we've teamed with OutSystems."

About Deloitte - Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and more than 7,000 private companies. Our people come together for the greater good and work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today's marketplace - delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthier society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Building on more than 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloitte's more than 330,000 people worldwide connect for impact at www.deloitte.com. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. About OutSystems - OutSystems was founded in 2001 with the mission to give every organization the power to innovate through software. The OutSystems modern application platform's high productivity, connected, and AI-assisted tools help developers rapidly build and deploy a full range of applications anywhere the organization requires. With over 500,000 community members, approximately 1,600 employees, more than 400 partners, and active customers in 87 countries and across 22 industries, OutSystems has achieved global scale while helping organizations change the way they develop applications. Visit us at www.outsystems.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @OutSystems or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsystems. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005121/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Discover Expands its College Payment Solutions through Partnership with Phood's Meal Delivery Program

Discover, a leading digital bank and payments company, will be supporting Phood's new meal delivery program for college students by opening up access to merchants that run on the Discover network. This industry-first partnership will provide a mobile app that allows higher education students to easily sign-up, and load their meal plan and flex plan dollars for use on meal delivery services, such as DoorDash food, groceries and convenience items on demand, and at local restaurants that accept Discover. Students will use a Phood Discover prepaid card loaded with their campus meal plan, as well as flex plan dollars that can be used for off-campus and delivery purchases, managed through an easy-to-use app. Both physical cards and digital cards will be available. The prepaid card will run on the Discover Global Network. This integrated prepaid payment solution looks to capture a share of U.S. contactless volume which increased more than 152% in the U.S. from 2019 to 2020. "Discover's latest step into simplifying payments on a college campus will provide increased food options for students," said Jason Hanson, senior vice president of global business development at Discover. "Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, how we order and where we eat food has changed. As they return to campus, students may be excited to eat at restaurants that have been closed for a while or may prefer ordering food rather than sitting in a crowded cafeteria. This new program gives them options while not spending money beyond their existing meal plan." "Discover is investing their resources into Phood by providing their expertise in partnerships in the college space to make it easier for campuses to adapt to new channels of revenue and for Phood to reach new customers," Alex Parmley, chief executive officer at Phood, commented. "We're excited to be partnering with Discover to shape a new future for the campus industry, and power an entirely new campus experience both on-campus and off." Initially, the program will lanch at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana and Radford University in Radford, Virginia. Throughout the school year, Phood and Discover will be looking to bring this first of its kind program to college students across the country.



"As students' tastes and preferences continue to change, Phood will allow students endless possibilities to create variety in campus dining," said Lucas D. Novotny, senior director of housing and auxiliary services. "Creighton University is looking forward to the partnership with Phood and the extended partnerships with known leaders like Discover and DoorDash, which provide the comfort of outstanding support expected from this innovative opportunity." "Combining Discover merchants such as DoorDash, the market leader in food delivery with Phood's technology and our OneCard program is a natural fit," said James Perkins, director of university services at Radford University. "Students can use this innovative partnership to use their Phood card for their on-campus meal plan, as well as to receive free delivery with the included DashPass. We see this as an option that students will use frequently on campus and off. The bonus is that it will seamlessly travel home with them during breaks, which is tremendous."

"RMC is excited about the expanded dining options the Phood and Discover partnership will offer our students both on and off-campus," said Shaydean Saye, director of residence life at Rocky Mountain College. "This advancement in technology coupled with dining programs across the nation is attractive to our students and families. RMC could not be more thrilled with our new and upcoming partnership with Phood." "Discover's commitment to the world of higher education and the surrounding communities takes into account how the pandemic impacted the need for expanded digital solutions," added Hanson. "Phood's app is an example of new modes of payment in the campus setting. Students are returning to campus with new expectations about how they can pay for things while at school, and Discover is eager to support innovations in the campus space." About Discover Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a digital banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers private student loans, personal loans, home loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit through its banking business. It operates the Discover Global Network comprised of Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance around the world. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company. About Phood Phood transforms the way students and parents interact with services on and off campus over their stay at university. Focused on providing payment integration, Phood establishes their value add in the dining department and will move on to larger spending verticals. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005203/en/

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[September 29, 2021] EquityBee Raises Additional $55 Million From Repeat Investor Group 11

EquityBee, the employee-focused stock options funding solution, announced $55 million in new Series B funding. The round was led by existing investor Group 11, with participation from new investors Israel-based Greenfield Partners, as well as existing investors Battery Ventures, Local Globe/Latitude, Altair and ICON. The investment will be used to advance development of EquityBee's proprietary technology platform, expand best-in-class product and service offerings, and accelerate leadership hiring in EquityBee's Palo Alto (News - Alert) - and Tel Aviv-based offices Group 11 led EquityBee's Seed and Series A rounds; the Series B-raised ahead of schedule and demonstrating significant confidence in the company's rapid and consistent growth-increases EquityBee's total funding to $83M. Through its proprietary financial technology-driven platform, EquityBee provides funding to startup employees of growth stage to pre-IPO companies. By working with EquityBee, startup employees receive capital to exercise stock options before they expire, which enables them to participate in their companies' liquidity events and actually get what they earned. Since 2020, EquityBee has seen over 500% year over year growth in total capital raised from its Investor Network to exercise employee stock options. The number of employees funded through the platform has increased by over 350%. EquityBee's Investor Network, including family offices, funds, and high net-worth individuals, grew by over 430%. EquityBee will leverage its Series B funding to scale its offering, launch additional industry-defining solutions and tools, and provide risk-free financial support to help startup employees exercise their earned options in the pre-IPO and high-growth marketplace. "With so many exit events occurring, including acquisitions and SPACs, the startup equity system remains inequitable," said Oren Barzilai, EquityBee co-founder and CEO. "We launched EquityBee to empower more employees to share in the success of the busnesses they helped build. EquityBee will continue to provide them the tools required to better understand their earned options and the freedom to take part in augmenting their net-worth."



"After leading EquityBee's Seed and Series A rounds, we have witnessed the company's continued triple-digit growth over the past year. The extraordinary founding team has demonstrated a great product-market fit, and their work continues to distance EquityBee as a true market leader," said Dovi Frances, Founding Partner of Group 11. "EquityBee's industry-defining tech solutions will help millions of tech employees gain access to liquidity in a market otherwise set up against them. Our decision to scale our investment so soon after our previous round is an easy one, and we are pleased to continue supporting the company and its unprecedented growth." About EquityBee

EquityBee empowers startup employees to exercise their stock options and participate in the success of the company they helped build. EquityBee's Investor Network provides the capital that startup builders need to exercise their stock options and become shareholders. Investors in the company include Group 11, Greenfield Partners, Battery Ventures, Latitude, Altair Capital and ICON Continuity Fund. For more information about EquityBee, please visit equitybee.com. About Group 11 Group 11 invests in revolutionary software companies that are redrawing the landscape of the financial services industry. As FinTech continues to gain momentum and to disrupt the traditional industry value chain, Group 11 has positioned itself as a partner of choice to provide capital and guidance to entrepreneurs that are creating the world's next generation of financial services industry leaders. Since its inception, the firm has deployed over $500 million in some of Silicon Valley's most prominent and disruptive financial technology companies, including Papaya Global, Tipalti, TripActions, HomeLight, SunBit, Next Insurance, Lili, Addepar, and EquityBee to name a few. Learn more: group11.vc and medium.com/group-11-vc. About Greenfield Partners Greenfield Partners is an investment firm focused on exceptional early growth stage technology businesses. With a dual presence in Tel Aviv and New York, the Greenfield team fuses deep local Israeli roots and an expansive global network to support its entrepreneurs in their quest to build thriving technology companies. For more information, please visit greenfield-growth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005278/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Global Survey: 87% of IT Decision-Makers Are Rethinking 2022 IT Investments Amid Market Shifts

Organizations know that having the right IT in place and leveraging a cloud-first and data-centric mentality is essential in today's digital economy. However, to advance their digital transformation initiatives and fully realize the possibilities that emerging technologies -- like AI, IoT and multi-cloud - offer, organizations must first reevaluate how they invest in IT. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005285/en/ Courtesy of Teradata (News - Alert) A new research report, commissioned by Teradata (NYSE: TDC) and conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne in August 2021, explores global sentiment around data-driven transformation investments this year and beyond, and reveals where organizations are placing their bets to set themselves up for success in the years to come. Market Volatility is Shifting 2022 IT Investments In the wake of the pandemic's economic impact, 87% of companies are reportedly rethinking IT investments for 2022 and beyond, mainly due to the recent, significant shifts in consumer spending and market uncertainty. 93% of respondents agreed that when re-evaluating their IT investments, modernizing cloud architecture, improving data management and analytics were among the top investment areas to accelerate their digital transformation efforts.

of respondents agreed that when re-evaluating their IT investments, modernizing cloud architecture, improving data management and analytics were among the top investment areas to accelerate their digital transformation efforts. Although 50% of IT decision-makers reported that their organizations had no plans to increasedata governance investments at this stage, 89% felt their organizations should still prioritize data governance/responsibility initiatives more.



Emerging Tech is a Global Priority Looking three years ahead, IT decision-makers also identified emergent technologies, such as multi-cloud infrastructure, IoT, 5G, edge computing, AI, and data analytics, as critical areas for increased future spend. This was a globally held view, with IT leaders from the U.S., Europe, and the Asia Pacific Japan regions citing emerging technologies as a top investment priority.

90% of respondents felt that emergent technologies, such as automation, would have a transformational impact on their organization in the next three years.

of respondents felt that emergent technologies, such as automation, would have a transformational impact on their organization in the next three years. 3 out of 4 IT decision-makers also agreed that their organization's digital transformation efforts or lack thereof could be a roadblock to realizing the full benefits of key emergent technologies, such as AI and machine learning. "Today, organizations understand that they must leverage key emerging technologies such as AI and multi-cloud infrastructure to maintain a competitive advantage. In fact, 87% of IT decision-makers felt they would be at risk of lagging behind the competition if they didn't," said Steve McMillan, President and CEO of Teradata. "To realize their full potential, companies must modernize their architectures to leverage the cloud and dial-up investments in other emerging technologies initiatives, like achieving AI at scale or leveraging the intelligent edge. In doing so, they can combine new innovative sources of data with their own to gain the necessary insights to pivot on a dime and continue to fuel innovation at scale." Lack of Cloud-Readiness Undermines Digital Transformation As IT leaders move forward with plans to pivot their digital innovation strategies in the wake of the pandemic, they also grapple with how quickly they make their leap to the cloud. For example, 82% expressed concerns that not being cloud-ready could be a significant barrier to accelerating their digital transformation efforts.

expressed concerns that not being cloud-ready could be a significant barrier to accelerating their digital transformation efforts. 85% of IT decision-makers also agreed that digital innovation strategies and transformation efforts were further compounded by significant shifts in consumer purchasing behaviors, with verticals like Retail, Distribution, and Transport (87%) among the most impacted. Methodology In August 2021, Teradata commissioned independent market research company Vanson Bourne to conduct a quantitative research study of IT and business decision-makers across the U.S., UK, France, Germany, China, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and India. Respondents were from organizations with 1,000 employees or more. The organizations could be from various private or public sectors, including Business and Professional Services; Financial Services; IT, Tech, and Telecoms; Retail, Distribution, and Transport; Manufacturing, and other Commercial Sectors. Interviews were conducted online using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates participated. About Vanson Bourne Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and their ability to seek the opinions of senior decision-makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors, and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com. About Teradata Teradata is the connected multi-cloud data platform for enterprise analytics company. Our enterprise analytics solve business challenges from start to scale. Only Teradata gives you the flexibility to handle the massive and mixed data workloads of the future, today. Learn more at www.Teradata.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005285/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Holiday Travel Forecast: Expedia Reveals the Top Trending Destinations

SEATTLE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New data released today by Expedia indicates holiday travel planning is underway and the top choices for Thanksgiving and Christmas escapes are sunny beachside destinations across Mexico, the southern U.S. and the Caribbean. Mountaintop getaways to Utah and Colorado are also shaping up to be popular for travelers this holiday season. While many of these destinations are already seeing strong demand, it's important to know that it's not too late to book. "Whether you're hoping to spend your holidays on the sand or on a ski slope, the best way to find a great value just requires a bit of flexibility in terms of your travel dates and taking advantage of the savings that are out there," says Christie Hudson, senior PR manager for Brand Expedia. "For example, members save 10% or more just by booking on the Expedia app, which is a great way to get more bang for your buck during the holiday season." Expedia breaks down the best times to travel, where to go and how to save on everything from flights to hotels, and car rentals. Plus, tried and true tips for ensuring holiday travels go smoothly. Holiday Trip Planning Tips Flight booking tips: Booking holiday airfare is all about timing. While booking well in advance can yield savings, often it's just as important to be flexible with travel dates to avoid the busiest travel days. According to Expedia data, the most expensive travel dates around the holidays are the Wednesday before Thanksgiving ( Nov. 24 ) and Thursday, Dec. 23 . And for those planning a post-Christmas trip, avoid departing on Tuesday, Dec. 28 . Here's when to fly:

Booking holiday airfare is all about timing. While booking well in advance can yield savings, often it's just as important to be flexible with travel dates to avoid the busiest travel days. According to Expedia data, the most expensive travel dates around the holidays are the Wednesday before Thanksgiving ( ) and . And for those planning a post-Christmas trip, avoid departing on . Here's when to fly: Historically, shifting departure dates to the week before or after each holiday will yield savings. For example, departing on or before Nov. 19 in 2019 resulted in a savings of nearly 15 percent compared to departing the day before Thanksgiving. For Christmas, departing between Dec. 13-17 could save travelers more than 10 percent. Traveling on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day also often results in cheaper fares.

in 2019 resulted in a savings of nearly 15 percent compared to departing the day before Thanksgiving. For Christmas, departing between could save travelers more than 10 percent. Traveling on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day also often results in cheaper fares.

Consider a trip in between the holidays: Currently, prices for domestic flights in early December (from the 6-17) are around 15-20 percent cheaper than they were for the same timeframe in 2019.



Start the year off right: The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is a very popular travel week and prices often reflect that. A more budget-friendly itinerary would be to depart on New Year's Eve and spend the first week of the year on vacation.

Getting the best value on accommodations: It's no secret that average daily lodging rates have gone up since travel began to recover earlier in the year, and the trend is likely to continue into the busy holiday season. Current demand data shows prices are generally lower during the Thanksgiving holiday compared to the week of Christmas. For popular resort destinations in Mexico or the Caribbean such as Cancun or Punta Cana , for example, those savings could amount to around $70 or more per night.

It's no secret that average daily lodging rates have gone up since travel began to recover earlier in the year, and the trend is likely to continue into the busy holiday season. Current demand data shows For popular resort destinations in or the such as or , for example, those savings could amount to around or more per night. Car rental: For travelers in need of a car during their holiday trips, pricing trends reveal that now is a great time to lock it in . Average rates per day for the holiday time periods are currently trending downward, but as pricing can fluctuate there's no guarantee how long these rates will last. Filter for options that allow "free cancellation" or "pay at pick up" to score even more flexibility when planning ahead.

For travelers in need of a car during their holiday trips, . Average rates per day for the holiday time periods are currently trending downward, but as pricing can fluctuate there's no guarantee how long these rates will last. Filter for options that allow "free cancellation" or "pay at pick up" to score even more flexibility when planning ahead. Budget-friendly destinations: City destinations like New York , San Francisco and Boston continue to offer up some the best deals around in terms of hotel prices, with savings for the holidays ranging from 10-35 percent compared to 2019. But if a beach escape is preferred, the winter months are a great time to go, with many warm-weather destinations like Miami , Orange County and Myrtle Beach offering better rates compared to the summer months. Top Destinations Beach destinations are always a favorite for the holidays and 2021 sees this trend going strong. The bottom line for travelers: if any of these hotspots sound appealing, be sure to firm up travel plans soon for the best options and availability.







Thanksgiving week Christmas 1. Cancun, Mexico 2. Nashville, Tenn. 3. Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Mexico 4. Oahu, Hawaii 5. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 6. Charleston, S.C. 7. Myrtle Beach, S.C. 8. Salt Lake City 9. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 10. Indianapolis, Ind. 1. Orlando, Fla. 2. Cancun, Mexico 3. Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Mexico 4. Oahu, Hawaii 5. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic 6. Kansas City, Mo. 7. Salt Lake City 8. Palm Beach area, Fla. 9. Rapid City  Mount Rushmore, S.D. 10. Sarasota area, Fla.

Trending Destinations Not all travelers are heading to their normal vacation spots, however. Looking at which destinations are seeing the biggest jumps in terms of search interest for Thanksgiving and Christmas proves some travelers are thinking outside the box. From an ecotourism mecca in Costa Rica to the ski slopes of Colorado, these trending destinations clearly have a lot to entice holiday travelers. Thanksgiving week Christmas 1. St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 2. Salt Lake City 3. Acapulco, Mexico 4. Estes Park, Colo. 5. Park City, Utah 6. Chatanooga, Tenn. 7. Monteverde, Costa Rica 8. Boulder, Colo. 9. Fresno, Calif. 10. Yucatan, Mexico 1. Gainsville, Fla. 2. Allentown, Pa. 3. Estes Park, Colo. 4. Knoxville, Tenn. 5. Chatanooga, Tenn. 6. Salt Lake City 7. Cherokee, N.C. 8. Oregon Coast, Ore. 9. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 10. Ocean City, Md. Flexibility is key for holiday and winter travel. Book refundable stays on Expedia by filtering for "free cancellation" or "reserve now, pay later" and select the refundable room option.

Try to avoid restrictive or non-refundable airfare. Expedia makes it easy to compare fares during the booking process by highlighting what is or isn't included with the ticket, such as seat selection, checked baggage or whether changes are permitted. Paying a bit more for flexibility can bring peace of mind, which is especially valuable during the holidays.

Take direct flights and avoid taking the last flight of the day whenever possible during the winter months to reduce the chances of missed connections or delays due to cancelled flights or winter storms.

Stay up to date on COVID-19 restrictions and requirements for airlines, hotels and destinations. Some hotels require proof of vaccination while others might require a negative test result from an approved list of providers. Travelers can use the Expedia COVID-19 travel advisor to find more information about travel advisories and health and safety guidelines. Notes to Editors: Traveler wellbeing is our priority. Expedia understands how the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect travelers everywhere, as well as the importance of abiding by government restrictions and practicing social distancing. Travelers can visit the Expedia COVID-19 travel resource page for information to make informed travel decisions. About Expedia.com Expedia.com is one of the world's largest full-service travel sites, helping millions of travelers per month easily plan and book travel. Expedia.com (https://www.expedia.com/, 1-800-EXPEDIA) aims to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of top vacation destinations, affordable airfare, hotel deals, car rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination activities, attractions, services and travel apps.  2021 Expedia, Inc., an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Expedia and the Airplane logo are trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. CST# 2029030-50. Flight pricing based on demand on Expedia.com from 2019. Average daily lodging and car rental rates based on Expedia.com demand for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas 2021. Top destinations based on fastest-growing lodging demand on Expedia.com for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas 2021 compared to the same time periods in 2019. Trending destinations are those seeing the biggest spike in search interest for Thanksgiving and Christmas 2021 compared with 2019. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/holiday-travel-forecast-expedia-reveals-the-top-trending-destinations-301387476.html SOURCE Expedia.com

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[September 29, 2021] Major US Healthcare Labor Shortages Projected in Every State by 2026, Mental Health Professionals Grow in High Demand, Mercer Report Shows

Even before COVID-19, the US healthcare labor market faced remarkable challenges with the demand for healthcare professionals outpacing supply. As the US continues to grapple with the pandemic, those healthcare professionals will get stretched further. Mercer's "2021 External Healthcare Labor Market Analysis" released today identifies four key trends impacting the US healthcare labor market over the next five and ten years, and reveals how the healthcare industry needs to adapt to address future labor shortages. "The healthcare workforce is burned-out following a nearly two-year face-off against COVID-19. The demands placed on healthcare workers since the start of the pandemic have been unrelenting and overall, this data shows that there will not be enough healthcare workers to fill demand in the near future," said John Derse, Healthcare Industry Leader, Mercer. "This impact will be felt by all of us, regardless of where we live or our field of work." The exact deficit depends on the specific role and geography, but a few common themes emerge: the US is losing healthcare professionals to burnout and at a rate faster than expected, a significant portion of physicians plan to retire, and there will be a sharp increase in demand for mental health professionals and low-wage healthcare workers in the near term. Every state is different, and every healthcare system should assess how anticipated projections to their external labor markets will ultimately affect workforce strategies and patient outcomes in the coming years. 1. There will be a shortage of healthcare workers at the low-end of the wage spectrum, which will directly impact access to home care

About 9.7M individuals currently work in critical, albeit lower-wage, healthcare occupations (e.g., medical assistants, home health aides, nursing assistants, etc.). The need for these workers is likely to grow in the coming years, as the aging population will increase demand for healthcare workers while healthcare labor is permanently leaving these occupations. In fact, Mercer's research shows more than 6.5M individuals will permanently leave this critical workforce in the near future. The result - a substantial shortage of workers in the next five years. New York and California will have the largest labor shortages of this workforce, each projected to fall short by over 500,000 workers by 2026. Only a few states in the country are projected to have surplus labor in low-wage healthcare workers, including Washington, Georgia and South Carolina. 2. Primary care will increasingly be provided by non-physicians

The primary care landscape and how primary care services are delivered is anticipated to change over the next five years as 21% of family medicine, pediatric and OB/GYN, and other primary care physicians will move into retirement age. Yet, demand for primary care physicians will grow by over 4% during the same time period. The result will be a shift towards primary care being provided by physicians' assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs). 3. There will be significant shortages of nurses in over half of US states, but surplus in some areas of the South and Southwest

Just over 3M (News - Alert) individuals work as registered nurses in the US and demand for these professionals will grow by at least 5% over the next five years. With nearly 1M workers expected to permanently leave the profession, over half of US states will not be able to fill demand for nursing talent. The largest projected shortages of nursing talent will be in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, and Massachusetts. However, in the South and Southwest, new entrants into the local nursing workforce are likely to outpace local demand due to new graduates and historical migration patterns. States like Georgia, Texas and South Carolina may start to build a surplus of registered nurses in the workforce. 4. A hiring rush for mental health providers will emerge by 2026

There will be a 10% increase in demand for mental health workers by 2026. During this time, 400,000 are anticipated to leave the occupation entirely, resulting in twenty-seven states that will be unable to meet hiring demands for skilled and semi-skilled mental health workers. While Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, and Colorado are expected to have the largest shortages of these professionals, Washington, Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia will each build surplus due to a steady flow of new entrants and that individuals in these regions are leaving mental health occupations at a slowerrate than in other states.



"While hospitals and healthcare systems cannot control what's happening in the external labor market, effective workforce planning and managing internal workforces can help mitigate their exposure to these risks. Workforce strategies that will position an employer for long-term success should focus on transforming care models, rethink compensation and benefits, and introduce more flexibility into staffing, development and rewards," added Derse. "Prior to the pandemic, the shortages were driven by a healthcare population that was trending older, sicker and more sedentary. Employers should not wait to transform their retention models to accommodate for all demographics in their workforce impacted by the pandemic, particularly ageing skilled professionals considering early retirement." Click here to see an interactive map of US healthcare labor projections over five years across six types of healthcare providers.

About the 2021 External Healthcare Labor Market Analysis Based on Mercer research, publicly available data, and data provided by Emsi, the 2021 External Healthcare Labor Market Analysis examined the changing healthcare labor markets of the next five to ten years in all 50 states at the country, state, regional and national levels. The interactive map here features a small subset of the healthcare workforce at a broad geographic level and insights from Mercer and other Marsh McLennan businesses on the proprietary database of over 80 healthcare roles, projected over 10 years at the county and metropolitan statistical area level. If you'd like to learn more, click here. About Mercer Mercer believes in building brighter futures by redefining the world of work, reshaping retirement and investment outcomes, and unlocking real health and well-being. Mercer's approximately 25,000 employees are based in 43 countries and the firm operates in 130 countries. Mercer is a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), the world's leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people, with 78,000 colleagues and annual revenue of over $18 billion. Through its market-leading businesses including Marsh, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman, Marsh McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment. For more information, visit mercer.com. Follow Mercer on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Marsh McLennan Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC) is the world's leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. The Company's 78,000 colleagues advise clients in 130 countries. With annual revenue over $18 billion, Marsh McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment through four market-leading businesses. Marsh provides data-driven risk advisory services and insurance solutions to commercial and consumer clients. Guy Carpenter develops advanced risk, reinsurance and capital strategies that help clients grow profitably and pursue emerging opportunities. Mercer delivers advice and technology-driven solutions that help organizations redefine the world of work, reshape retirement and investment outcomes, and unlock health and well being for a changing workforce. Oliver Wyman serves as a critical strategic, economic and brand advisor to private sector and governmental clients. For more information, visit mmc.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter or subscribe to BRINK. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005680/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Mountain Valley MD Holdings Announces Letter of Intent with Red White and Bloom Brands Inc.

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc. (the Company or MVMD) (CSE: MVMD) (FRA: 20MP) is pleased to announce that Mountain Valley MD Inc. (Mountain Valley) has entered into a letter of intent (the LOI) to complete a licensing agreement with Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (RWB), a publicly traded multi-state cannabis operator and house of premium brands that are available across the cannabis market in the United States.

Mountain Valley and RWB anticipate completing a Product Development and Commercial Licensing Agreement (the Agreement) before the end of October, 2021. The Agreement will set out the terms upon which Mountain Valley will develop one or more formulas using MVMDs Quicksome technology and novel cannabinoid solubilization technique to be applied by RWB to various cannabis product applications. RWB would have an exclusive license initially in Florida, Michigan and California to manufacture and distribute its cannabis products in exchange for payments, including research and development fees and royalties. We look forward to a great partnership with Mountain Valley MD as we leverage their technology in support of our strategy to bring premium, leading, and disruptive cannabis products to the marketplace, stated Brad Rogers, Chairman and CEO of Red White & Bloom Inc. Red White & Bloom has a very aggressive growth strategy for key markets in the United States and beyond, led by our commitment to offer high quality, innovative brands in the cannabis space. Through its research and development work, Mountain Valley had worked initially on a proprietary solubilization technique that was applied to both THC and CBD molecules. The solubilized cannabinoids were then applied to a unique Quicksome THC-based sleep formulation created for RWB, which is the initial formula to be developed by Mountain Valley pursuant to the LOI, to achieve the desired efficacy to support RWBs pursuit of the medical sleep market initially in Florida, Michigan and California. It is an honour to work with Brad Rogers and his team at Red White & Bloom given their impressive visionary work across the US cannabis landscape, stated Dennis Hancock, President & CEO of Mountain Valley MD. Brads demonstrated track record of building tremendously successful and profitable businesses in this high growth economic sector, and his initial vision to disrupt the medical sleep space in key U.S. markets, is a perfect bullseye as a starting place for our Quicksome technology. The Company is currently preparing a patent for submission to the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) to protect its cannabinoid solubilization work, which it believes will be a cornerstone for many unique product formulations in the cannabis marketplace. This partnership with Red White & Bloom is intended to showcase our technology and its nvel value proposition into the U.S. cannabis market. Seeing our Quicksome and solubilization technologies applied to what we see as a high growth space would be a validation of our formulation and licensing value proposition as we move into this important commercialization phase for MVMD, concluded Mr. Hancock.



ABOUT RED WHITE & BLOOM BRANDS INC. RWB is positioning itself to be one of the top three multi-state cannabis operators active in the US legal cannabis and hemp sector. RWB is predominantly focusing its investments on the major US markets, including Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Arizona, and California with respect to cannabis, and the US and internationally for hemp-based CBD products.

For more information about Red White & Bloom Brands Inc., www.RedWhiteBloom.com ABOUT MOUNTAIN VALLEY MD HOLDINGS INC. Mountain Valley MD is building a world-class organization centered around the implementation and licensing of its key technologies to global pharmaceutical, vaccine and nutraceutical third parties: patented Quicksome oral drug formulation and delivery technologies,

patented Quicksol solubility formulation technology. Consistent with its vision towards More Life, MVMD applies its Quicksome and Quicksol technologies to its work for advanced delivery of vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs as well as the development of products for pain management, weight loss, energy, focus, sleep, anxiety, and more. MVMDs patented Quicksome desiccation technology utilizes advanced liposomes and other stabilizing molecules to encapsulate and formulate active ingredients into highly efficient product formats that are consumed orally. The result is a new generation of product formulations that could be capable of delivering vaccines, drugs and nutraceuticals into the body faster, with greater impact, efficiency and accuracy. MVMDs patented Quicksol technology covers all highly solubilized macrocyclic lactones that could be effectively applied in multiple viral applications that could positively impact human and animal health globally. For more Company information and contact details, visit www.mountainvalleymd.com. SOURCE: Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company is making forward-looking statements, including but not limited to with respect to various matters related to the Agreement, including: entering into the Agreement by the end of October, 2021; the nature of the relationship between the Company and RWB; the preparation of formulations for RWB; the use and application of the formulations and generally rights intended to be granted to RWB; the products or types of products to be manufactured and distributed by RWB; the territories within which RBC will hold the licences granted to it under the Agreement; the intended pursuits of RWB; the growth and expansion of the sectors in which RWB operates or intends to operate; and the significance of and impact on the Company of the foregoing. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. www.mountainvalleymd.com

For further information: Dennis Hancock President and Chief Executive Officer Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc. Investor Relations @ 647-725-9755 Email: dennis@mountainvalleymd.com

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[September 29, 2021] Otava Named to 2021 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in Metropolitan Detroit

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Otava, a global leader in custom and compliant hybrid cloud solutions, has again been recognized as one of Metro Detroit's Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. A program of MichBusiness, The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. "Otava is honored to be named for the third year in a row as a Metro Detroit Best and Brightest Company to Work For," said Brad Cheedle, CEO of Otava. "We continue to grow our team in Michigan and around the world with talented, inspired, and dedicated employees. We are on a mission to make cloud easy with a people-first approach to business. Our culture of service is a priority for both our clients and employees, and it is our great team that drives our success and makes being an 'Otavie' an honor and a pleasure." An idependent research firm evaluates each company's entry based on key measures in various categories. They include Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; Strategic Company Performance and the Best of the Best Small Business, Medium Business and Large Business. Only companies that distinguish themselves as having the most innovative and thoughtful human resources approach can be bestowed this honor.



"The Best and Brightest is a powerful community of elite leaders who share ideas and practices, and have proven they are employers of choice. Best and Brightest winning companies have also been a voice for important actions in creating a sustainable culture that works, ensuring the wellbeing of their employees come first," said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO, Best and Brightest Programs. The annual symposium and awards program that recognizes the 2021 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in Metropolitan Detroit, will be a digital event on November 2, 2021. To see the full list of winners, visit: https://thebestandbrightest.com/events/metro-detroits-2021-best-and-brightest-companies-to-work-for/winners/

Best and Brightest Companies to Work For is presented annually in several markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and nationally. About Otava

Founded in 1994, Otava is a cloud solutions provider on a mission to make hybrid cloud hosting easy for service providers, public sector clients and enterprise organizations. Its portfolio of flexible and compliant solutions includes hybrid private and shared cloud hosting, colocation, data protection, backup and security offerings. Otava's high-touch, consultative team works closely with clients to deliver exceptional results every time. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/otava-named-to-2021-best-and-brightest-companies-to-work-for-in-metropolitan-detroit-301387444.html SOURCE Otava

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[September 29, 2021] Plasma Welding Machine Market to Reach $1.85 billion by 2030, Globally, at 4.9% CAGR: Allied Market Research

Rise in consumption of consumer electronics and electrical devices and the growth of the renewable energy industry are the key factors propelling the growth of the global plasma welding machine market PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Plasma Welding Machine Market by Control (Manual and Mechanized), Price Range (Low, Medium, and High), Distribution Channel (Online and Offline), and End User (Machinery & Equipment, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030." According to the report, the global plasma welding machine industry was worth $1.12 billion in 2020, and is anticipated to reach $1.85 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 4.9% from 2021 to 2030. Prime drivers of the market growth The global plasma welding machines market growth is driven by rise in the need for technical developments and automation. This will help in reducing labor costs and increasing quality control. Moreover, high production capacity and lightweight micro plasma welding machines are expected to open many doors of opportunities for the growth and extension of the global market throughout the forecast period. However, the downward growth of the automobile sector is likely to work as a key restraint for the expansion of the global plasma welding machine market.



Download Sample PDF (285 Pages with More Insight): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/8635 Covid-19 Scenario The Covid-19 pandemic halted the production of plasma welding machines, owing to consistent lockdown in key countries.

Market players altered their investment plans to survive in the weak economy.

Lifting lockdowns and Covid-19 vaccinations are further expected to enable production of plasma welding machine with full-scale capacities. The offline segment will maintain the leading position throughout the forecast period



Based on distribution channel, the offline segment contributed to the highest market share in 2020, accounting for more than four-fifths of the global plasma welding machine market, and is projected to maintain the leading position during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to the preference for physical inspection and authentication of products. Consumers in rural regions still depend on physical stores, hence, leading to the growth of offline stores. On the other hand, the online segment is anticipated to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.9% from 2021 to 2030, owing to the ease of shopping, elimination of mediator, doorstep delivery, and secure payment methods.



Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Plasma Welding Machine Market:

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/8635 The automotive segment will maintain the leading position throughout the forecast period







Based on end user, the automotive segment contributed for the highest market share in 2020, accounting for more than one-third of the global plasma welding machine market, and is anticipated to lead the market during the forecast period. The new production trend of electronic vehicles motivates the development of new tools, which in turn, drives the growth of the market. On the other hand, the aerospace and defense segment is anticipated to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.3% from 2021 to 2030. This growth is attributed to rise in defense budgets in the developing countries such as the Asia-Pacific region. Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, to maintain its lead by 2030





Based on region, Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, held the highest market share in 2020, contributing to more than two-fifths of the global plasma welding machine market, and is expected to dominate the market by 2030. The region is expected to manifest the highest CAGR of 5.3% from 2021 to 2030. Countries of the Asia-Pacific region such as China, South Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, and many others are the emerging hubs for plasma welding machines. The availability of labor and rise in industrialization propel the market growth.



Schedule a FREE Consultation Call with Our Analysts/Industry Experts to Find Solution for Your Business @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/connect-to-analyst/8635 Leading Market Players Banner Welder, Inc.

Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik GmbH

voestalpine Bohler Welding GmbH

EWM

Air Liquide

Fronius International GmbH

Panasonic Corporation

Illinois Tools Works Inc

DAIHEN Corporation

Technocrats Plasma Systems Private Limited Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter



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[September 29, 2021] PLDT Group leads ASEAN telco nominations at World Communication Awards 2021

MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philippines' largest fully integrated telco PLDT received the most number of citations among ASEAN telcos at the 2021 World Communication Awards (WCA), with a total of five nominations at one of the most revered award programs in international telecommunications. Established in 1999 by London-based publication Total Telecom, the WCA recognizes innovation and excellence based on a set of criteria that reflects the dynamic nature of the industry. PLDT is up for the Best Operator in an Emerging Market title, awarded to the telco that has best adapted to evolving market characteristics to achieve commercial success and improve the lives of customers. Wireless arm Smart Communications Inc. is also highly commended in the category's esteemed WCA Honor Roll for consistently being shortlisted for the said award throughout the years.

PLDT and Smart's flagship advocacy, the #NoLearnerLeftBehind omnibus education program, is shortlisted for WCA's Social Contribution Award. Initiatives include #CyberSmart CyberSecurity Awareness Caravans, Central Vsayan Institute Foundation - Dynamic Learning Program implementation, LearnSmart eStorytelling Sessions, PLDT Infoteach, School-in-a-Bag, Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program, and Smart Prepaid Innovation Generation.

Smart's GigaLife App is nominated for WCA's Platform Award, citing the best commercially deployed IoT solutions. The app allows users to subscribe to various GIGA promos that let them discover and enjoy their passions, top-up using a debit or credit card, or via the GigaPay e-wallet powered by PLDT affiliate PayMaya, and more.

With over 2,000 global points of presence, international arm PLDT Global is up for WCA's Beyond Connectivity Award for its FreeBee mobile application. The app keeps migrant Filipinos close to home with free international calls to the Philippines , online bills payment, digital gifting services and a curated content platform.

, online bills payment, digital gifting services and a curated content platform. PLDT Global President and Chief Executive Officer Katrina Luna-Abelarde is nominated under the Women In Telecoms category. The concurrent head of PLDT's Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development Unit has been key to leading PLDT Global's digital transformation. She also chairs Conexus, one of the largest mobile alliances in Asia , pushing for the development of 5G in the region.



the Philippines award under the Telecommunications Services Sector for excelling in financial performance, management team excellence, investor relations, and corporate social responsibility. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pldt-group-leads-asean-telco-nominations-at-world-communication-awards-2021-301387777.html

SOURCE PLDT Inc.

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[September 29, 2021] Promaxo Announces Financing Agreement with Kineo to Support Growth Plans

Promaxo, Inc. ("Promaxo" or the "Company"), a medical imaging, robotics, and AI technology company, today announced an asset financing agreement with kineo finance (kineo), a leading financing and working capital solutions provider for medical technology, robotics, and other high tech companies. The agreement allows Promaxo to expand its commercial and customer sales programs to include a direct leasing solution. "We are pleased to add direct leasing as an option to our growing network of physician practices and academic centers. kineo's expertise and understanding of the high tech medical imaging industry was a key consideration in our decision to partner with them to create a tailored sales-and-lease-back program to benefit our customers," said Dr. Amit Vohra, Founder, and CEO of Promaxo. "The financing program supports our growth initiatives, and we look forward to continued market penetration of our platform technology." "Promaxo has developed a proprietary system for point of care diagnostic biopsies and treatment of cancer, with a $3 billion addressable market for in-office urology procedures. We welcome the opportunity to support Promaxo as it drives a shift into in-office diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. We look forward to what the future holds for Promaxo," said Mr. Andrew Brigham, President USA at kineo finance.



About kineo finance

kineo finance is a Swiss-headquartered asset financing group with global reach and with subsidiaries in the USA and Germany. kineo provides tailor-made venture leasing and working capital solutions for companies which are starting the commercialization of new products and services with a hardware component. kineo enables young companies to offer their customers product/market-specific "equipment-as-a-service" solutions via pay-per-use, renting or subscription models. Backed by large institutional investors, kineo offers a broad industry network and know-how and actively supports high-growth companies to accelerate the market entry of their innovations. About Promaxo, Inc.

Promaxo was founded by a team of entrepreneurs and healthcare innovators to develop a minimally-invasive and patient-centric MRI and robotic platform. Based in Oakland, California, and backed by over 90 patents, the Company's mission is to improve lives through state-of-the-art medical imaging, robotics and AI capabilities. With a compact and adaptable MRI, Promaxo is redefining the standard of care by improving the quality and speed of patient diagnosis and interventions. The Company has formed numerous long-term and strategic partnerships with investor groups and corporation as it prepares to enter the US market.

To learn more about the technology behind the MRI system and its scope, please visit: Promaxo.com.

LinkedIn (News - Alert) : Promaxo

Twitter (News - Alert) : @Promaxo

Facebook (News - Alert) : Promaxo View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005333/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Puppet Rolls Out Malware Scanning for Newly Published Modules on the Forge

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puppet , the industry standard for infrastructure automation, today at Puppetize Digital 2021 announced a malware scanner feature for newly published modules on the Forge, Puppets module marketplace, in order to combat security risks and increase the security profile of customers using those modules. The rollout targets Supported modules and will cover all newly published modules by the end of the year.

In the first quarter of 2021, supply chain attacks rose by 42 percent and impacted roughly seven million people, leading IT admins to require more secure automation code. To avoid security vulnerabilities and actual intrusions into their infrastructures, users are expected to audit code, report and correct vulnerabilities, and avoid downloading modules with compromised systems. In addition, many site policies do not allow use of public code unless it has been scanned. With Puppets latest malware module scanning feature, users will have a more streamlined process for downloading pre-scanned modules in order to comply with strict site policies and consume modules more readily. Puppets new module malware scanning on the Forge gives users peace of mind when it comes to selecting and consuming our modules, says Ben Ford, Product Managerof Puppets Forge and Content Ecosystem. This extra layer of protection improves trust in our content, benefits customers and open source Puppet users, and encourages people to think and build more securely as they contribute to Puppets growing community.



Puppet has a robust and active community with nearly 10,000 people on Puppets Community Slack that provides automation content for infrastructures all around the world  and even helps CERN discover the mysteries of the universe . The rollout process for the malware scanning focuses first on Supported modules, then Partner and Approved modules. By end of year, the functionality will be available to new releases of all community modules on the Forge. The Forge currently hosts slightly more than 7,000 modules. Recently, the company started the work of rearchitecting its Puppet Developer Kit ? a unified interface with a set of helpful tools for anyone who writes or consumes Puppet code ? to help users develop high-quality Puppet modules or other kinds of content faster and more flexibly. Nearly 93 percent of modules released on the Forge come from the community. The community team also brought the PowerShell DSC Gallery to the Forge, providing seamless access to all the power of DSC Resources in the form of modules where they can be deployed and used just like any other content.

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About Puppet

Puppet helps enterprises modernize and manage their infrastructure with the solutions to automate anywhere, reliably scale, and integrate compliance and security across hybrid infrastructure. More than 40,000 organizations  including more than 80 percent of the Global 5000  have benefited from Puppets open source and commercial solutions to ensure business continuity, optimize costs, boost compliance and ensure security, all while accelerating the adoption of DevOps practices and delivery of self-service. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Puppet is a privately held company with offices in London, Belfast, Singapore, Sydney and Timi?oara. Learn more at puppet.com .

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[September 29, 2021] Reliability, Security, and Dedicated Customer Service - VP of IT at Wilson Logistics Discusses His Customer Journey with Bluebird Underground

Bluebird Network, a communications infrastructure provider, utilizes their robust fiber network, two data centers and dedicated employees to keep businesses and organizations connected, while providing their clients with unparalleled customer service. Bluebird understands the customer's successes are the company's successes, and they strive to help each customer succeed every day. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005588/en/ Wilson Logistics, a family-owned trucking company founded in 1980, located in Springfield, MO. (Photo: Business Wire) One such customer is Dan Brewer, Vice President of IT at Wilson Logistics - a family-owned trucking company founded in 1980, located in Springfield, MO. Recently, Dan voluntarily discussed the essential impact of the services his company receives from Bluebird's fiber network and the Bluebird Underground Data Center, and why these services are imperative to his company's day-to-day operations. According to Brewer, "Wilson Logistics is a multi-line trucking company, about 1,000 trucks with seven facilities west of the Mississippi. Believe it or not, trucking involves a lot of analytics and data reporting. Without the data, everyone's running blind, and we don't have the ability to evaluate the analytics into our trucks." Brewer understands the value of a data center partner, having leveraged business colocation services since 2007. Wilson Logistics teamed up with Bluebird in 2019, largely in part to the facility's reliabiity. Brewer continued, "I've worked with other data centers. But the reason I switched to Bluebird Underground was it was a little more of just a set it and forget it type data center. This is one aspect of our infrastructure that we, just quite frankly, don't have to worry about."



Brewer says Wilson Logistics uses more than just data center services: "We're also using Bluebird's broadband fiber services, not only in the data center, but also at some of our facilities. The best thing I like about Bluebird fiber is just the reliability. We have not seen downtime with that. And the performance has been beyond what we expected." Pivoting back to the data center, Brewer says, "One of the reasons I like Bluebird Underground so much is because here in the Midwest, we tend to have tornadoes and large storms. With this data center being underground, they can take stormy weather across the top, and it never affects any of our facilities or any of the runtime. After being in an underground facility and experiencing the comfort level when a storm rolls by, I cannot imagine having my equipment above ground ever again."

Brewer also mentions that he continues to use the Bluebird Underground Data Center to house his infrastructure because of the space and diligent security. Brewer shared, "In the previous data center I used, all the customers were grouped together on one big data floor. Here, everything is divided up, so I don't have nearly as many neighbors around me, which gives me a little more comfort of who's walking by my data center equipment as they come and go. Similarly, Brewer mentioned that for Bluebird Underground, "There's not a single door that you don't have to scan or have some kind of security measure or an alarm if you don't do something right." While the data center's technological benefits and physicality impress Brewer, he notes Bluebird's customer service is wonderfully dedicated and willing to go the extra distance in providing him what his company needs, including accommodating Brewer for an after-hours data center request. He further explains by saying, "Reliability here at Bluebird is not just technical, it's also the people running it are invested in what we're doing." Brewer continues, "They connect the dots of if we're successful, they're successful. Even though they're a world-class facility, it's still a personable group that truly cares about me and how they can help grow our business." When it comes to growth, Brewer feels confident in Bluebird's capabilities to keep pace with his company. He goes on to say, "Wilson Logistics is one of the top 10 fastest growing companies in southwest Missouri. One of the things that gives us comfort is knowing that as fast as we grow and expand, Bluebird Underground is going to continue to provide us the services and accommodations that we need for that growth." In a concluding statement Brewer said, "So, if a peer or someone else that was in my position asked me why they should use Bluebird Underground, I would ask, why would you not?" For more information about Bluebird, please visit: www.bluebirdnetwork.com. About Bluebird Network Bluebird Network is a communications infrastructure provider and data center operator. Since 1999, Bluebird Network, headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, has provided internet and transport services, via its fiber infrastructure, to Carriers and Enterprises in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, and the surrounding states. Bluebird owns two data centers: an underground facility in Springfield, MO, and a facility in the Quad Cities. Bluebird operates over 10,000 fiber route miles of high-speed broadband and fiber-optic connections with over 74,000 on-net and near-net buildings and 151 Points of Presence (PoP) sites spanning the Midwest, including the major cities of Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield (MO and IL), Tulsa, Peoria, Rockford, Bloomington, Normal and the Quad Cities. To learn more, please visit www.Bluebirdnetwork.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005588/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Ripple Announces $250 Million Creator Fund to Evolve NFT Utility

Ripple, the leading provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions that are faster, more transparent and more cost-effective, today announced a $250 million fund to provide creators with the financial, creative and technical support needed to explore and craft premium non-fungible token (NFT) and other tokenization projects on the XRP Ledger. The heightened interest and boom in NFTs globally has introduced new revenue streams and business models while deepening the mainstream's relationships with the communities, people and things they care about. However, when it comes to creating state-of-the-art NFTs, many creators face barriers to entry-including the fear their NFTs won't sell and a lack of understanding when it comes to navigating NFT concepts. Developers, meanwhile, are often burdened with high transaction fees and clunky user experiences on marketplaces or platforms. While digital art and collectibles have quickly captured public interest and popularity, the utility of NFTs goes far beyond these use cases. By providing creative and technical support to a diverse array of marketplaces, creators, artists and brands, Ripple's Creator Fund seeks to enable longtail use cases for tokenization-for example, interactive experiences and fractional ownership. Ripple is teaming up with innovative NFT marketplaces and creative agencies who recognize the potential of these unique tokenized assets and, as part of the launch, will have first access to the fund. Together, Ripple's Creator Fund and its partners are accelerating the evolution of NFTs while eliminating the pain points associated with crafting compelling projects: Mintable - "Everything we do at Mintable centers around accessibility, and it's time that we look at that holistically - creators of all disciplines and backgrounds need to have access to equal opportunities in the space," said Zach Burks, CEO of Mintable. "There are so many untapped opportunities within the constantly evolving NFT ecosystem, and we're excited to be deepening our partnership with Ripple to support their Creator Fund in order to encourage greater growth in the industry."

- "Everything we do at Mintable centers around accessibility, and it's time that we look at that holistically - creators of all disciplines and backgrounds need to have access to equal opportunities in the space," said Zach Burks, CEO of Mintable. "There are so many untapped opportunities within the constantly evolving NFT ecosystem, and we're excited to be deepening our partnership with Ripple to support their Creator Fund in order to encourage greater growth in the industry." VSA Partners - "NFTs have been a source of huge excitement for creators, enabling new ways to build communities and meaningful brand equity," said Sarah Lent, CMO of VSA Partners. "It's clear that when creators nd brands are deliberate with their NFT campaigns, it will have a long-lasting impact on their customers, partners, and the larger community. As a premier partner of the creator fund, VSA can help brands and artists think through the entire ecosystem of brand-building experiences, the community of fans to engage and deploy the strategic guidance and storytelling needed around NFTs to generate brand value."

- "NFTs have been a source of huge excitement for creators, enabling new ways to build communities and meaningful brand equity," said Sarah Lent, CMO of VSA Partners. "It's clear that when creators nd brands are deliberate with their NFT campaigns, it will have a long-lasting impact on their customers, partners, and the larger community. As a premier partner of the creator fund, VSA can help brands and artists think through the entire ecosystem of brand-building experiences, the community of fans to engage and deploy the strategic guidance and storytelling needed around NFTs to generate brand value." mintNFT - "mintNFT is honored to be selected as a key partner to build the next-generation NFT 2.0 experience leveraging the XRP Ledger to connect fans with premium brands, content owners, and talent around the world," said James Sun, founder and CEO of mintNFT.



Minting NFTs on the XRP Ledger will enrich the experience for creators seeking new ways of monetizing their works. For developers, the XRP Ledger's innate performance advantages-speed, low cost and built-in royalties-make it ideally suited to drive NFT utility at scale, and without the need for Layer-2 protocols. Library support is also available to simplify NFT integrations and bypass direct XRPL development. The XRP Ledger is a decentralized, open-source blockchain. Its built-in decentralized exchange (DEX) provides fast settlement for tokenized assets of all types-including NFTs-while its Federated Consensus mechanism eliminates gas fees and is 120,000x more efficient than blockchains that rely on proof-of-work validation.

For more information on Ripple's Creator Fund, visit www.ripple.com/creatorfund. Ripple Ripple is doing for value what the internet did for information: enabling its instant and seamless flow around the world. We call this the Internet of Value (IoV). Using blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, Ripple is dedicated to creating powerful gains in financial efficiency, equity and inclusion. In addition, Ripple is developing and enabling the future use cases that will catalyze the new digital economy for governments, businesses and consumers. Ripple has offices in San Francisco (HQ), New York, London, Mumbai, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Reykjavik, Washington D.C. and Dubai. Mintable Mintable is a next-generation non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace built on the blockchain. Launched in 2018, Mintable has pushed the NFT industry forward by being the first to design gasless minting, batch minting and royalties, empowering artists and creators to monetize their work via NFTs. Mintable's gas-free minting option allows the everyday person to get involved with NFTs without any prior knowledge in coding or upfront cost of minting an asset - a great way for everyone to get into crypto. In 2021, Mintable announced the backing of a list of high-caliber investors including renowned venture capitalist and television personality, Mark Cuban, Sound Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, and TIME Ventures, the investment fund for Marc Benioff (News - Alert) . To date, Mintable has sold and auctioned works by Grammy Award-winning artists, 20th-century avant garde artists, and various high-profile artists and celebrities. mintNFT mintNFT is a premium member-based marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFT) focused on bridging fan experiences with licensed content, brands, and talent. mintNFT integrates social, gamification, and a new patent-pending authentication process for NFTs. mintNFT makes collecting NFTs a fun and engaging experience and converts casual fans into collectors, creators and partners. mintNFT provides an unprecedented social experience for users with unique features such as exclusive digital events, NFT live auctions, and fan-generated campaigns all within a dynamic, interactive, and gamified platform. It also includes an integrated secondary marketplace allowing users to buy, sell, and trade NFTs. VSA Partners VSA Partners is a hybrid brand strategy and design agency with a 40-year history of solving complex business problems. We deliver design-driven experiences that perform in market, realizing the future of a brand for some of the world's most respected and forward-thinking organizations, including Google, Nike, IBM (News - Alert) , Robinhood and Affirm. Our approach hinges upon deep collaboration with our clients to identify, prioritize and convert individual interactions into a positive impact on long-term value in a highly transactional and noisy world. Global by trade, but unapologetically midwestern at heart, an intrinsic desire to help fuels our pursuit of solutions of substance. Amplifying brands - not to add to the noise - but to find a voice that rises above it. VSA Partners. Where brands breakthrough. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005132/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Rosslyn BID Announces Expansion Of O2: Outdoor Office To Better Serve Workforce Of The Future

ROSSLYN, Va., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Rosslyn BID announced the expansion of O2: Outdoor Office in Gateway Park, providing an innovative solution to meet the future of work. Following the successful launch of O2 in September 2020, and subsequent reopening in Spring 2021, the current expansion plans are focused on more permanently meeting the evolving needs of workers in Rosslyn and beyond. Remote work has been an overwhelming success for both employees and employers; however, the office is here to stay even though its role is evolving. According to PwC's 2021 U.S. Remote Work Survey , over half of employees (55%) would prefer to be remote at least three days a week post-pandemic. Businesses and communities everywhere are trying to figure out how to optimize the hybrid workplace while balancing employee wellness and productivity. Rosslyn's O2 2.0 is the new hybrid workplace solution now available to fill that gap. "The initial launch of O2 was focused on helping people get out of their homes in the middle of the pandemic and to offer an extension of the office environment and collaboration people were missing. But as the nature of work continues to evolve, leaders and employees alike are struggling to find balance", said Mary-Claire Burick, President of the Rosslyn BID. "This expanded O2 was designed to provide a critical link between holistic wellness and productivity to better meet the future of work." A key goal in this expansion is to incorporate year-round amenities into the park to make it more comfortable and conducive for individuals to use the park as a fresh-air workplace whenever the park is open, regardless of when O2 is staffed by the BID. During this Fall pop-up of O2, a Rossln Ambassador will be onsite to oversee safety, sanitation, and to provide additional amenities of those present during business hours. Additionally, during operating hours, WednesdayFriday the week of October 11th, and TuesdayThursday for the weeks following from 10am4pm, anyone using the space will be able to check out portable chargers, blankets, and more, free of charge. Upon request from businesses in the area, The Rosslyn BID can also set up specified meeting areas, supply tools and equipment, and cater to the unique needs of any team.



O2 2.0 represents The Rosslyn BID's commitment to stewarding the wellbeing of the Rosslyn community and a recognition of the benefits of outdoor public spaces. In fact, O2 is just the beginning. The organization is looking to expand amenities in a variety of public outdoor spaces, starting with bringing Wi-Fi to Rosslyn's Central Place Plaza and Dark Star Park. "Since its launch, O2 has been a valuable part of my ability to find balance in the work week. Being able to work outside with access to everything I need in a clean, innovative environment made a huge difference to my productivity over the last year," said O2 super user Sara C. "Hybrid work in my office will be ongoing, so I absolutely plan to continue using O2 and encouraging my friends and colleagues to do the same."

To kick off the O2 evolution, The Rosslyn BID is hosting a variety of events and activations throughout the month of October. A few of the events include: Regular happy hours | October 14 , 15 & 28, 4-7 p.m.

, 15 & 28, An outdoor bodyweight HIIT class with Gold's Gym | October 15 , 12-12:30 p.m.

, Yoga classes with Mindful Modern Living | October 13 , 12-12:40 p.m. (afternoon stretch); October 19 , 5-6 p.m. (Yoga after Work); October 26 , 5-6 p.m. (Yoga Flow)

, (afternoon stretch); , (Yoga after Work); , (Yoga Flow) Special giveaways from Compass Coffee, South Block & Snarfies pet treats | Stay tuned for details! In the last year, The Rosslyn BID's O2 received the prestigious Downtown Achievement Award by the International Downtown Association (IDA). Many other BIDs and associations have since launched initiatives that follow O2 as an example, both nationally and abroad (including Downtown DC, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada). For more information about Rosslyn BID's planned activations for O2 this year, subscribe to the BID's weekly e-newsletter and please visit: www.rosslynva.org/o2. About the Rosslyn BID:

The Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID) is a designated 17-block mixed-use, urban center in the heart of Rosslyn, Virginia. Through a public/private partnership with Arlington County, the Rosslyn BID provides services for our 25,000 employees, 15,000 residents, and 1.2 million visitors a year to enhance, grow, and connect the neighborhood. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rosslyn-bid-announces-expansion-of-o2-outdoor-office-to-better-serve-workforce-of-the-future-301387816.html SOURCE Rosslyn BID

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[September 29, 2021] SCAN Adds Intermountain Healthcare to 2022 Medicare Advantage Provider Networks in Nevada

Seniors who sign up for one of SCAN's new Medicare Advantage health plans in Nevada will soon have the option to receive care from one of the state's premier medical groups: Intermountain Healthcare. SCAN recently announced that it would expand its reach beyond California, simultaneously expanding its health plan offerings to millions of potential customers in Arizona and Nevada in 2022. By partnering with Intermountain Healthcare to provide clinical services to its Nevada members, SCAN is signaling that it intends to launch its presence outside of California with a bold commitment to quality care. "SCAN is proud to be offering healthcare services from Intermountain to our new members in Nevada," said Sherry Stanislaw, general manager of SCAN Health Plan. "This partnership will enable us to provide expanded choice to seniors across the state and deliver on our mission to keep older adults healthy and independent." Intermountain Healthcare is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs.The not-for-profit system serves 350,000 members and includes 63 clinics across Nevada. Its medical group in Nevada includes about 350 physicians and advanced practice clinicians.



"Intermountain is happy to be working with SCAN as an additional payer option for our Medicare Advantage patients in southern Nevada," Karim Kaissi, Intermountain Nevada Medical Group President, remarked. "We're looking forward to partnering our quality-based care with their award-winning services and believe the two will serve the Medicare Advantage population of southern Nevada well." Members can enroll in one of SCAN's health plans with Intermountain Healthcare for calendar year 2022 starting in October. Other provider groups are available in SCAN's network.

About SCAN Group SCAN Group is a mission-driven organization that is tackling some of the biggest issues in health care for older adults. SCAN Health Plan, one of the nation's foremost not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, serves more than 220,000 members in California. Independence at Home, a SCAN community service, provides vitally needed services and support to seniors and their caregivers regardless of plan membership. SCAN Group also invests in new companies to support healthier aging, offers education programs, community funding, volunteer opportunities, and other community services in support of its mission to keep seniors healthy and independent. To learn more, visit scanhealthplan.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @scanhealthplan. About Intermountain Healthcare Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit system of 25 hospitals, 225 clinics, a Medical Group with 2,600 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in Nevada, Idaho, and Utah. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005262/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Spire Global Appoints Vice President of Weather

Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) ("Spire" or "the Company"), a leading global provider of space-based data, analytics, and space services today announced that it has appointed Dr. Kevin Petty as Vice President of Weather. In his new role, Dr. Petty will oversee Spire's weather solutions worldwide, leading a powerhouse team of Spire weather scientists. He will additionally guide Spire's weather data offerings across the Company's other solution areas, including Maritime, Aviation, Earth Intelligence, and Space Services. Dr. Petty will be based in Boulder, CO. "Kevin brings with him deep scientific knowledge and extensive industry expertise, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Spire team," said Peter Platzer, Chief Executive Officer, Spire. "He will play an integral role in helping Spire provide our customers with even more accurate and valuable weather solutions, enabling them to meet the ever-increasing challenges associated with the impact of climate change on their organizations and in their communities." Dr. Petty was most recently at The Weather Company, an IBM (News - Alert) Business, where he served as head of science and forecasting an head of public-private partnerships. He was responsible for research and development for weather solutions and forecasting operations, including building a global team of meteorologists across IBM's Watson Media and Weather organization. Dr. Petty also managed the company's relationships with members of the national and global weather enterprise, which includes government agencies, academia, and other private-sector providers. He has a Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Ohio State University.



"It's a really interesting time in history to be an atmospheric scientist, and certainly to be joining a company like Spire, which is fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities associated with weather analysis and forecasting. A day doesn't go by without a news headline focused on the impact weather is having on humanity, the environment, and the global economy," said Dr. Kevin Petty, Vice President of Weather, Spire. "Spire is uniquely positioned to empower governments and companies around the world with space-based data that can help advance understanding and mitigation of the impacts of extreme weather." About Spire Global, Inc.

Spire is a leading global provider of space-based data, analytics, and space services, offering access to unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth from the ultimate vantage point so that organizations can make decisions with confidence, accuracy, and speed. Spire uses one of the world's largest multi-purpose satellite constellations to source hard to acquire, valuable data and enriches it with predictive solutions. Spire then provides this data as a subscription to organizations around the world so they can improve business operations, decrease their environmental footprint, deploy resources for growth and competitive advantage, and mitigate risk. Spire gives commercial and government organizations the competitive advantage they seek to innovate and solve some of the world's toughest problems with insights from space. Spire has offices in San Francisco, Boulder, Washington DC, Glasgow, Luxembourg, and Singapore. To learn more, visit http://www.spire.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005245/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Understanding Resilience: CoreLogic 2021 Wildfire Report Finds Idaho and Wyoming at Disproportionate Economic Risk for Wildfire

CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released its annual Wildfire Report for 2021, following a summer of smoky skies and nearly 80 days after the start of the Dixie Fire, now the second largest fire in California history. While California traditionally tops the list each year for wildfire risk simply because it's the most populous state, CoreLogic's approach for this year's report examined property-related wildfire risk alongside reconstruction resource availability, temporary housing capacity for displaced individuals, and community economic recovery potential among fire-prone regions. By analyzing this risk through a housing stock comparison lens, CoreLogic identified Wyoming and Idaho as the states most at risk for a prolonged wildfire recovery. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005158/en/ Top 5 States at Risk for Prolonged Wildfire Recovery (Graphic: Business Wire) Understanding Risk and Resilience

If a fire destroys 800 homes in California, the road to recovery and lasting impact is not synonymous with 800 homes burning in Wyoming, when considering the size of each state's housing stock. In states like Wyoming and Idaho, the number of homes at risk is a larger fraction of the total number of homes in the state. If a larger portion of the population is displaced at a single time, recovery times may be elongated, fewer local workers might be available - and likely distracted rebuilding their own lives - and fewer hotels and housing options may be available to outside workers due to local populace demand. "There's no denying a state like California is at severe risk for wildfiredestruction every year, as seen in the ongoing Dixie Fire," said Tom Larsen, principal, insurance solutions at CoreLogic. "But it's important to acknowledge that not all communities and their catastrophic events are the same, and the road to recovery can look drastically different. Resilience is often measured as how fast you can recover from a catastrophe - and the deeper the wound, the longer it takes to heal."



Within these states, CoreLogic identified the five counties at highest risk. These counties, if impacted by wildfire, would likely have a longer and more difficult road to recovery than counties in more populous states. Anticipating Climate Change Complications

The changing climate creates abnormal weather activity, like unusually high rainfall during seasons of vegetative growth, that then creates an overgrowth of plants known as ground fuels. The environment is changing too rapidly to rely solely on wildfire loss history to plan for future wildfire mitigation and response. Probabilistic risk models, which can evaluate simulations of weather variation in today's environment, can produce planning scenarios relevant to communities now.

Looking ahead, insurers, city planners and homeowners each play an important role in reducing the devastating impacts of wildfires and they can work together to mitigate future events. While these natural catastrophes are often unavoidable, they can be prepared for. By equipping clients with the latest data and insights, CoreLogic's goal is to help its clients better inform homeowners of their risk and accelerate their recovery. The full CoreLogic 2021 Wildfire Report, including maps, charts and analysis can be found here. To follow CoreLogic coverage of ongoing natural catastrophe events, including wildfires, visit the company's natural hazard risk information center, Hazard HQ at www.hazardhq.com. Methodology

CoreLogic used its Wildfire Risk model to identify a 1-in-50-year fire scenario in each of the 14 wildfire-prone states (13 western U.S. states plus Florida) to understand how many homes would be at risk of being damaged in a wildfire at least once in 50 years (the average length to which residential homes are built to last, via building codes). CoreLogic compared the number of homes at risk of damage from a 1-in-50-year fire (an extreme event) to the total housing stock in each state to determine the communities that have the most economic risk from wildfire. Wildfires that devastate large numbers of homes are infrequent. The number of homes included in the 1-in-50 year fire analysis has a 98% probability of not being exceeded in a single year (or the maximum number of homes that could burn in a single year). About CoreLogic

CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com. CORELOGIC and the CoreLogic logo are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005158/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Vymo cements its commitment in Indonesia with a robust local team and technologies for the financial industry

Vymo commits to deliver top-notch Customer Relationship Management solutions in Indonesia for AIA Indonesia

top-notch Customer Relationship Management solutions in for The firm sees Indonesia as a very important market in SouthEast Asia and is forecasted to grow its client base and revenues by 10x over the next 3 years. JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- San Francisco headquartered firm Vymo, the sales acceleration platform of choice for top financial institutions across Asia, announced today its commitment in Indonesia with a robust local team and technologies for the financial industry. The firm also announced it has been appointed by AIA Indonesia (PT AIA Financial) to deploy its remote-first sales distribution platform to improve the company's business profitability. Both these initiatives come at the right time for Vymo as the firm accelerates its growth strategy for Indonesia. Vymo is confident of growing its revenues from Indonesia manifolds in the next 3 to 5 years and as such will be investing in expanding and strengthening its team and partner ecosystem in the country by 10x over the coming years. Through the partnership with PT AIA Financial, Vymo will introduce its solution to serve over 7000 AIA salespeople and managers in Indonesia, in an effort to improve the company's sales performance and productivity. This development also re-affirms Vymo's foray into Indonesia to serve the fast-growing financial industry and fintech market to serve frontline personnel, sales managers, and business leaders through its services. Commenting on their Indonesia strategy, Rajesh Sabhlok, Managing Director - Asia Pacific, Vymo said, "Indonesia is a key driver in our overall Asia roadmap. With a robust financial industry and one of the largest digitally savvy populations, our solutions are apt for firms looking to our cutting-edge technologies in order to better serve the needs of their employees, partners, and customers. Over the months, we aim to accelerate our sales and marketing activities in Indonesia." "We are thrilled to welcome AIA Indonesia onboard our fast-growing family of esteemed and discerning clients in Indonesia. Customer-facing applications have transformed rapidly to become more intuitive and reliable in today's digital age. Yet, insurance workforce in Indonesia still relies on complicated legacy systems for day-to-day activities even today. The solutions provided by Vymo through this partnership will drastically improve AIA Indonesia's remote sales efficiency within its teams," further added Sabhlok. Vymo has been selected for its strong expertise and transformational technologies that have been implemented for over 60 global enterprises. Powered by Vymo's Sales Excellence Cloud, the AIA team will be allowed automatic capture of sales and engagement activities which will eliminate the need for salespeople to manually update their system of records daily. Managers will also gain end-to-end visibility on their teams' performances in real-time via the platform. The Sales Excellence Cloud features intelligent dashboards that can be accessed by the management team to identify certain engagement behaviors that may affect sales performance. As a whole, these new offerings will improve sales productivity and empower sales teams to correlate sales support activities with revenue outcomes. Over the past 4 years, Vymo has been deployed across geographies for its sales acceleration capabilities. With respect to the Indonesia landscape, Vymo has identified that engaging with distribution partners through an effective data strategy will be key to sustain AIA's rapid growth in Indonesia. In order to do so, AIA will leverage Vymo's deep industry knowledge and expertise, best practices, and playbooks around key sales levers, which will help the company to drive visible growth in effectiveness, efficiencies, and productivity. "Following India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, AIA Indonesia becomes the fifth AIA entity to deploy our solutions, further strengthening and deepening our partnership with AIA in South-East Asia. We will continue in our journey and mission to transform the development of enterprises, including AIA, within the Indonesian market and around the world," Sabhlok added. Headquartered in San Francisco, Vymo was launched in 2013 with a mission to deliver transformational value for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes through its unique solution that leverages automation and AI technology. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies in the world with offices in the USA, Japan, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. About Vymo

Vymo ( www.getvymo.com ) is the Sales Acceleration Platform trusted by over 200,000 salespeople across 60+ global financial institutions such as AXA, AIA, FE Credit, Generali, and Sunlife. Vymo is recognised by Gartner as a Cool Vendor and is funded by Emergence Capital and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit https://www.getvymo.com Useful Resources

Watch Vymo in action - https://youtu.be/DOFdcK8cUxw

Explore Vymo's capabilities - https://www.getvymo.com/request-a-demo/

Download logo - https://goo.gl/i6sEpi For press inquiries, please contact:







Gunjan Saha Vymo pr@getvymo.com Marsha Novianty APRW (Indonesia) marsha@aprw.asia

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1026997/Vymo_Logo.jpg

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[September 28, 2021] Lifebit raises $60m to make vital biomedical data securely accessible for life changing research worldwide

LONDON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifebit Biotech Ltd  the leading precision medicine software company democratising access to biomedical data for governments, healthcare providers and research teams worldwide  has raised a $60 million Series B funding round, led by global investment firm Tiger Global Management. Existing investors Eurazeo, Pentech Ventures, and Beacon Capital also participated. Unlocking access to biomedical data has the power to rid society of its most devastating diseases. Yet despite the rapid growth of biomedical data in recent years, only a fraction of it is being utilised for drug discovery and precision medicine. This is because the data needed for such vital work is often inaccessible and unusable. Whether that's down to governance, regulations, security concerns, or inadequate technology. Lifebit builds enterprise data platforms for use by organisations with complex and sensitive biomedicaldatasets. This patented technology solves the biggest roadblock for precision medicine - making highly sensitive biomedical data securely accessible by bringing researchers' analysis and computation to where data resides, instead of moving data around.



Lifebit's accompanying suite of AI-powered end-to-end software solutions provide faster data insights, accelerate drug discovery pipelines, and improve clinical trials success. This approach has seen Lifebit acquire high-profile clients across the public and private sectors including contracts to power the UK Government agency, Genomics England, and a long-term AI-partnership with German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim. "Making distributed highly-sensitive biomedical data usable while keeping it secure in-place and combining it with other data has never been possible, until now," said Dr. Maria Chatzou Dunford, Lifebit CEO. "It's great to see how excited our investors are to support our mission and first-of-its-kind transformative technology. With this new strategic backing, we will continue to expand our global presence, with a focus on customer success and accelerating the growth of our team."

Partner at Tiger Global, John Curtius, added: "We are confident that Lifebit's innovative and industry-leading software solutions, paired with their customer-first approach, will drive rapid global adoption and accelerate breakthroughs in precision medicine." For the full release, click here . About Lifebit Biotech, Ltd. Lifebit builds enterprise data platforms for use by organisations with complex and sensitive biomedical datasets. Lifebit's patented federated technology securely unlocks access to biomedical data. From providing Trusted Research Environments for national precision medicine programmes to enabling pharmaceutical companies to discover new drug targets faster, Lifebit empowers customers to transform how they leverage sensitive biomedical data. About Tiger Global Management, LLC Tiger Global is an investment firm focused on private and public companies in the software, internet, and financial technology sectors. The firm backs dynamic, market-leading companies in its core focus areas, with investments including Stripe, Databricks and Facebook. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1625884/Lifebit.jpg SOURCE Lifebit Biotech Ltd

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[September 28, 2021] Over 41,000 Seafarers For Hire On Marine Online's Platform

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The ongoing pandemic has badly aggravated the global crew change crisis since late 2019. The pool of available manpower is continuously contracting as employers prefer to hire vaccinated crew for safety precautions. That resulted in un-precedented rates of unemployment in major seafarer supplier countries. A ray of light arrived with Singapore's newly launched Sea Crew Vaccination Initiative (SEAVAX), which extends COVID-19 vaccination to eligible groups of non-resident foreign sea crew on a voluntary basis. Edmund Chik, Chief Operating Officer from Marine Online, remarked: "Vaccination is gradually becoming a mandate in the maritime industry. SEAVAX contributes to the population of vaccinated seafarers - facilitating their continuous employment after signing-off, and offers new jobs for crew looking to return to sea. The industry's recruitment is tremendously eased with Marine Online's platform filled with ualified professionals across the wide spectrum of maritime operations."



"Our platform is rich with experienced maritime professionals looking forward to their next voyage. Registered users are consistently increasing, and has over 41,000 actively looking for assignments. Additionally, our A.I. and Big Data embedded interface can perform swift and smart matching even with customised skillsets. Employers can enjoy a seamless recruitment experience with Marine Online," said Peggy Yang, Crewing Deputy General Manager from Marine Online. Marine Online is a client-centric platform providing maritime professionals with bespoke solutions. To date, Marine Online has served several global clients across a wide array of maritime-related services.



About Marine Online (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Marine Online is the world's first one-stop integrated platform specialising in maritime services for the global market. Launched in 2019, it has provided various maritime services through its revolutionary A.I and Big Data enabled platform to regional ship and cargo owners. With its portfolio of 8 major services, Marine Online shapes the future of maritime industry by using cutting edge technology to create business opportunities and connections. For more information, visit marineonline.com. For media queries, please contact Media Relations: Contact: Kai Shi Lim, +65 6571 5888

Email: marketing@marineonline.com SOURCE Marine Online (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

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[September 28, 2021] CYFIRMA Recognized for Intelligence-Led Cybersecurity by Leading Global Research Firm

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CYFIRMA, a threat discovery and cyber-intelligence platform company funded by Goldman Sachs, Zodius Capital and Z3Partners, today announced that it has been named in a newly published report, IDC Perspective: Intelligence-Led Cybersecurity  Examples of Two Asia-Headquartered AI-Enabled Security Providers (IDC Perspective - Doc # AP47757822). CYFIRMA is one of just two companies featured in the report that discusses the importance of threat intelligence in transforming a reactive cyber-defense strategy to a proactive cyber-resilience strategy. "It is interesting to note how some organizations in the region prefer to engage a niche thret intelligence solution provider compared with some big brand names," said Cathy Huang, associate research director, IDC Asia/Pacific Services & Security Research. "The solutions discussed in this document represent the latest innovation of AI-enabled cybersecurity solutions, in which they can significantly reduce investigation time compared with the conventional approach," Huang adds.



"Intelligence-led cybersecurity, when harnessed with the right platform, can deliver immense benefits to businesses. It can provide business and technology leaders the much-needed insights on their digital risk profile, help them maximize their cybersecurity controls investment, and guide both strategic and tactical cybersecurity management," said Kumar Ritesh, Founder and CEO, CYFIRMA. "We are honored to be recognized in IDC Perspective for our unique capabilities of empowering cyber-defenders with a holistic view into their external threat landscape. Our clients trust us to deliver personalized and predictive insights that blend attack surface discovery, vulnerability intelligence, brand intelligence, digital risk discovery, situational awareness, and cyber-intelligence into a single pane of glass. These actionable insights are powered by our AI and ML engines, and they provide early warnings on cyber threats that can disrupt businesses," Ritesh adds. ABOUT CYFIRMA

CYFIRMA is a threat discovery and cyber-intelligence platform company. We combine cyber intelligence with attack surface discovery and digital risk protection to deliver predictive, personalized, contextual, outside-in, and multi-layered insights. We harness our cloud-based AI and ML-powered analytics platform to help organizations proactively identify potential threats at the planning stage of cyberattacks. Our unique approach of providing the hacker's view and deep insights into the external cyber landscape help clients prepare for upcoming attacks. CYFIRMA works with many Fortune 500 companies. The company has offices located in the USA, Japan, Singapore and India. Official websites: https://www.cyfirma.com/ SOURCE CYFIRMA

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[September 28, 2021] Trane Technologies Spotlights - Innovations for Decarbonized Infrastructure at World Climate Forum Asia

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT), a global climate innovator, took the stage at World Climate Forum (WCF) Asia 2021. Sin Yew Cheng, vice president of Mature Market HVAC business for Trane Technologies Asia Pacific, participated in the panel session Building Climate Resilience: Embracing Innovations for Decarbonized Infrastructure, which included an in-depth discussion with executives from International Energy Agency, Infrastructure Asia under the Singapore government, and Resilient Cities Network. During the panel, Sin Yew highlighted how Trane Technologies creates green and lower carbon buildings with innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, advances the development of climate-resilient infrastructure, and how the company will meet its bold 2030 Sustainability Commitments. This is the second consecutive year that Trane Technologies has participated in the WCF Asia event. This year, the company's participation includes four themed events around the world, including WCF Europe in June, WCF North America and WCF Asia in September, and the World Climate Summit/Investment that will take place in November during the United Nations 2021 Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. Gigaton Challenge to Meet Sustainability Commitment Today, 15% of the world's carbon emissions come from heating and cooling buildings, with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) accounting for more than 40% of a commercial building's total energy use. The global demand for HVAC is expected to triple by 2050. There is an urgent need for systematic sustainability actions across industries and society to make infrastructure, including buildings, lower carbon and energy efficient, and resilient to the impact of climate change. In 2019, Trane Technologies announced its 2030 Sustainability Commitments, including Leading By Example by achieving net-carbon-neutral operations in our own global footprint and the Gigaton Challenge , a pledge to reduce customer carbon emissions by one billion tons (the equivalent of two percent of the world's annual emissions). This includes reducing emissions from its own products and services by nearly 50% by 2030. It is an ambitious targe based on a wealth of facts and data, which has been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) aligned with climate science.



"As a climate innovator, we are providing solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in HVAC," said Sin Yew. "The Gigaton Challenge is not only a big challenge we pose to ourselves and our customers, but also a part of our journey to respond to the escalating challenge of climate change. To achieve this bold Gigaton Challenge, we have developed a set of three innovative initiatives focusing on HVAC solutions, including refrigerant transition management, addressing system-level energy efficiency, and accelerating electrification of heating and refrigeration. These initiatives will help to comprehensively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating and air conditioning systems."

Trane Technologies has been leading the way of refrigerant transition for many years by developing HVAC solutions applying the next-generation low Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerant for buildings. This effectively guided the HVAC industry to transfer to chillers applying lower GWP refrigerant. Today, Trane Technologies next-generation chillers have been widely used in more than 30 countries. Although most of these countries do not have regulations on the phase-down of high GWP HFC refrigerants in place, Trane Technologies has made itself ready for greener and more energy-efficient building solutions. The company is also pioneering new ways to encourage the collection and destruction of the old high GWP refrigerant gases that are removed from these systems or sitting in containers no longer being used so as to further mitigate the environmental impact. Beyond the provider of energy-efficient HVAC equipment, Trane Technologies offers a full suite of services focusing on maximizing system-level energy efficiency while meeting our customers' expectations of climate experience and air quality. Additionally, the company's controls paired with building automation help to vastly reduce or even eliminate energy waste, while driving down the emissions intensity of a building or home. To accelerate the electrification of heating and refrigeration solutions, Trane Technologies already has efficient electrified products on the market, such as the dual-supply household air source heat pump system, to deliver heat for buildings and homes. Trane Technologies' experts can also design custom systems to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of heating systems that reduce fossil fuel use. Collaborating to Advance the Decarbonized Infrastructure "A core tenet of Trane Technologies' sustainability strategy is partnering with our stakeholders to minimize our environmental impact," said Sin Yew. "We hope to see more businesses join us. Ultimately, we can change an industry, and an industry can change the world." To meet the challenge of climate change, Trane Technologies works with a variety of external partners such as government regulators, environment agencies and opinion leaders, and non-governmental organizations on new solutions for the development of better climate-resilient environments. For example, in September 2020, Trane Technologies launched a new Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces (CHES) to convene both internal and external expertise, advocate for the right policies, and bring innovation to market to create a new normal of more sustainable buildings. The company is also a founding member of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), with the mission to improve human health and well-being in buildings. Trane Technologies has also joined a number of important sustainability pledges and coalitions. This includes a commitment to RE100 and EP100 (100% Renewable Energy and 100% Energy Productivity), the U.N. Environment Cool Coalition, as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Race to Zero international campaign to meet net-zero global emissions by 2050 for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery. In Asia Pacific, Trane Technologies partners with policy makers and associations including ASHRAE local chapters, HVAC and mechanical engineering associations to phase down high GWP HFC refrigerants, develop green building standards, advocate clean energy plans and electrification strategies. All of these will further accelerate the development of green buildings, strongly promote the construction of climate-resilient infrastructure across the Asia Pacific region, and advance the global decarbonizing process to build a more sustainable future. About Trane Technologies Trane Technologies is a global climate innovator. Through our strategic brands Trane and Thermo King, and our environmentally responsible portfolio of products and services, we bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes, and transportation. Learn more at tranetechologies.com . SOURCE Trane Technologies

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[September 28, 2021] UOB to invest $500m to ramp up digital capabilities across ASEAN as it aims to more than double its digital retail customers by 2026

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UOB today announced that it will invest up to $500 million in digital innovation initiatives as it seeks to double the retail customers it serves digitally to more than seven million customers across ASEAN by 2026. As part of its investment, UOB will bring together the innovation of its digital bank TMRW with the scale and product depth of its mobile app UOB Mighty on one platform  UOB TMRW. Against the backdrop of accelerated digital adoption as a result of the pandemic, digital banking is now the preferred choice for many of UOB's customers. In Singapore alone, adoption of digital payment channels such as PayNow and QR code increased by over 200 per cent while physical cash deposits and withdrawals decreased by more than 30 per cent in 2020. UOB was the first bank in the region to develop a new business model focused on customer engagement when it launched TMRW, ASEAN's first digital bank in 2019. UOB built TMRW with an AI-driven digital engagement engine that combines best-in-class financial technology solutions to categorise and to analyse large volumes of transaction data in real time. UOB's digital engagement engine is the power behind the Bank's ability to anticipate and to serve insights and solutions that are relevant to customers based on their banking patterns. Under the unified UOB TMRW platform, the Bank will continue to push the boundaries of innovation to create hyper-personalised banking experiences that are unique to each UOB customer. UOB was the first bank in Singapore to launch AI-driven personalised insights in November 2019, an innovation that was pioneered in ASEAN by its digital bank TMRW. Since then, more than 40 million insights have been served to and well-received by customers in Singapore. The UOB TMRW team, which brings together experts from areas including technology, behavioural science, data science and banking, will continue to drive an agile culture with new enhancements to the mobile app. Mr Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and CEO of UOB said, "Engagement is a key differentiator of UOB's digital banking experience. As part of our strategy to scale and to commercialise our digital bank capabilities across the region, in just two years we have successfully launched TMRW in Indonesia and Thailand. "In those two years, we also saw COVID-19 accelerate digital adoption to the point where digital is no longer one segment's preference but the dominant preference. Now is the right time to bring our digital bank capabilities together. By harnessing the best of TMRW and UOB Mighty in one platform, we can tap economies of scale to accelerate innovation especially in the area of hyper-personalised digital banking experiences and speed to market." TMRW remains one of ASEAN's most engaging digital banks, having won numerous awards including best digital bank in Indonesia and Thailand most recently. TMRW's customers have also rated the digital bank highly in terms of satisfaction, with TMRW's net promoter score amongst the top in both Thailand and Indonesia. UOB Mighty's unique all-in-one proposition has also been highly rated[1] by those who prefer to do all their banking, such as payments, investments and rewards, in a single app. In July 2021, UOB Mighty added another award to its list of accolades, winning 'Investment Product Innovation of the Year' for its digital wealth solution SimpleInvest. As part of its rollout of UOB TMRW, the Bank has launched a beta version of its new digital banking app which brings its digital bank capabilities to all its Singapore-based employees. Upon the successful completion of the beta pilot, UOB TMRW will be launched for all UOB customers in Singapore later this year. Singapore-based UOB Mighty customers will be able to transition to UOB TMRW at that time. Mr Kevin Lam, Head of TMRW and Group Digital Banking, said, "We are at the start of an exciting new phase in our digital retail journey. The launch of UOB TMRW in Singapore affirms our commitment to double down on our data-driven model which banks on creating hyper-personalised digital experiences for our customers. We envision a future where the UOB digital banking experience and the solutions and services we offer are adapted to each customer, based on their banking patterns. In this next phase, we are making it our goal to explore how technology can enable us to make the digital banking of tomorrow smarter and even more intuitive for our customers. We will not rest on our laurels but continuously enhance UOB TMRW every few months to make banking simple, engaging and transparent for all UOB customers." UOB will roll out UOB TMRW progressively across its key ASEAN markets, with the next markets expected to launch in the next 18 months. About UOB United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) is a leading bank in Asia with a global network of around 500 branches and offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Since its incorporation in 1935, UOB has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions. UOB is rated among the world's top banks: Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and AA- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings. In Asia, UOB operates through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as branches and representative offices across the region. Over more than eight decades, generations of UOB employees have carried through the entrepreneurial spirit, the focus on long-term value creation and an unwavering commitment to do what is right for our customers and our colleagues. We believe in being a responsible financial services provider and we are committed to making a difference in the lives of our stakeholders and in the communities in which we operate. Just as we are dedicated to helping our customers manage their finances wisely and to grow their businesses, UOB is steadfast in our support of social development, particularly in the areas of art, children and education.







[1] UOB Mighty is the top-rated full-fledged digital banking app on both the App Store and Google Play Store as at

24 September 2021.

SOURCE United Overseas Bank

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[September 28, 2021] Allvue Systems Announces Postponement of Initial Public Offering

Allvue Systems Holdings, Inc. ("Allvue" or "the Company"), a leading alternative investment technology solutions provider, announced today its decision to postpone its previously announced initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Allvue made the decision based on adverse market conditions despite receiving strong interest and positive indications from the broader institutional investor market. The Company will evaluate and consider the timing for a proposed public offering while maintaining a disciplined approach, which is the direct result of the Company's well-capitalized business model, operational soundness, and ability to execute against its near- and long-term business strategies. A registration statement relating to the proposed sale of these securities has been filed with the SEC (News - Alert) 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 jrisdiction.



The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, at Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, New York 10282, by telephone at 866-471-2526, by facsimile at 212-902-9316 or by e-mail at Prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; Barclays Capital Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: 888-603-5847 or by emailing Barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com; or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 6933 Louis Stephens Drive, Morrisville, NC 27560, by telephone at (800) 221-1037, or by email at usa.prospectus@credit-suisse.com. About Allvue:

Allvue is a leading provider of technology for investment managers in the private capital and credit markets industry. Its mission is to empower superior investment decisions by pairing modern cloud-based software solutions with capabilities across multiple asset classes. Allvue's software solutions serve the entire investment lifecycle and are seamlessly integrated to provide a comprehensive product suite, serving investment managers of all sizes worldwide, including general partners, limited partners, fund administrators and banks. Allvue was established in 2019 through the merger of Black Mountain Systems and AltaReturn, two leading providers of investment technology solutions. Allvue is based in Miami, FL with locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. With a commitment to innovation and a focus on multiple asset classes, Allvue's software solutions allow its clients to operate and grow their businesses more effectively by automating manual processes, improving data accuracy and consistency across workflows and delivering enhanced analytics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928006196/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Qianhai plan illustrates a better future for Hong Kongers

SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hong Kong entrepreneurs and office workers in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone said the newly released Qianhai plan was a shot in the arm for them to continue to pursue their careers in the area and to encourage their peers to find a niche in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Soon after the unveiling of the plan on Sept. 6 to construct Qianhai into a top strategic platform for Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation, a mega hub for the modern service industry, finance and technology, Hong Kong entrepreneurship service provider Wang Kai, who co-founded GBA Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, said he was thrilled to expect the last barrier for the free flow of talent, technology and capital to be broken, creating a greater opportunity for Hong Kong and Macao youth.



Hong Kong and Macao people." Witman Hung Wai-man, principal liaison officer for Hong Kong at Qianhai Authority, said those who responded to the plan first in Hong Kong were the leading figures in professional fields. "A friend of mine from the medical industry consulted me immediately after the plan was disclosed. He was hesitant before to set up a hospital in Qianhai."

Hung said that Qianhai has become a "shop" for Hong Kong, who plays a "white-collar producer and supplier" role. Yu Gwong-tou, who set up a startup Cooh Science Biology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. in Qianhai last year, said the plan will facilitate his company to conduct more cooperation with first-tier institutions. "The plan supports Qianhai to introduce new types of R&D institutions and will help them cooperate with advanced hospitals and renowned universities from Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries, which is a great opportunity for us," he said. "Besides, we may be able to cultivate talents we need with those institutions." With the help of Qianhai Authority, Yu has established partnership with Googol Tech and South China Agricultural University. "The agglomeration effect will attract people, especially those with technology support skills to come," said Lo Yuen-lai from BM TeK, a Qianhai-based AI algorithm-focused company. "New products such as charging piles, service robots and parking lot management systems will be more widely applied as the plan mentioned the integration of modern service and advanced manufacturing industries." He said. Shenzhen Daily news report:

http://szdaily.sznews.com/PC/layout/202109/09/node_03.html#content_1091319 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/qianhai-plan-illustrates-a-better-future-for-hong-kongers-301387440.html SOURCE Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone

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[September 29, 2021] Venmo Gives College Students Opportunity for Financial Support with the #VenmoU Cash Drop

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Venmo today announced a collaboration with Grammy nominated rapper Jack Harlow, to help college students offset costs as the school year begins through the #VenmoU Cash Drop. Through the 24-hour giveaway, students can visit venmou.com throughout September 29, 2021 and spin the wheel for a chance to win up to $500 in instant cash prizes and be entered for a chance to win one $10,000 grand prize.* With the cost to attend college in the United States continuing to rise, students and families have increasingly taken out student loans to help cover tuition, room and board and other school-related expenses. In 2020, 64% of college students who graduated took out loans totaling $29,927 on average, a 20% increase from the average amount borrowed in 2010.1 Back-to-college spending is also expected to rise about 13% from 2020, as students and families plan to spend an average of $1,200 on items like electronics and dorm furnishings.2 In addition to the financial stress students may experience, many are also heading back to campus with added pressures to manage, as 89% of college students shared that they have experienced stress or anxiety brought on by the pandemic.3 Through the #VenmoU Cash Drop, students will have the opportunity to put a little extra money in their pockets to start the school year off right. Students will have the chance to instantly win up to $500, to help them pay for anything from a $5 latte from their favorite coffee shop or $500 towards a new laptop, and will be entered for a chance to win a $10,000 grand prize, which could offset the cost of tuition or give them a head start on paying down student loans. "Getting a college degree comes at a high price tag that many struggle to afford, especially now more than ever, given the added hardships that the last year and a half has brought," said Harlow. "On top of adapting to the new ways of learning and living, so many college students are also facing new financial obstacles due to the pandemic. I salute each and every one of them who are working harder than ever, despite these challenges. That's why I'm thrilled to team up with Venmo t launch the #VenmoU Cash Drop to put a little extra money in some pockets to help make following their academic dreams a little easier."



How it Works College students can visit venmou.com, and enter the mobile number associated with their Venmo account to spin the wheel for a chance to instantly win $1-$500, sent from Jack Harlow to their Venmo account. Winners will receive a confirmation number and email. All customers who spin the wheel will also be entered for a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize.

Don't have a Venmo account? Creating one is easy and free - sign up online or download the Venmo app through the Apple or Google Play app stores. *NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. Promotion begins at 1:00 AM ET on 9/29/21 and ends at 12:59:59 AM ET on 9/30/21. Open only to college and graduate students enrolled at an accredited college or university in the 50 US/DC who are legal residents of 50 US/DC who are 18 years or older. Click Here for Official Rules, including how to enter, odds, prize details and restrictions. Void where prohibited. Msg&data rates may apply. Sponsor: PayPal, Inc., 2211 North First Street San Jose, CA 95131. About PayPal

PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering more than 400 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit paypal.com. Media Contact:

Jaymie Sinlao

jsinlao@paypal.com 1 According to data reported to U.S. News & World Report in its annual survey.

2 According to the National Retail Federation's Back-to-School 2021 trend report.

3 According to a nationwide survey of 2,051 students conducted by Active Minds in September 2020. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/venmo-gives-college-students-opportunity-for-financial-support-with-the-venmou-cash-drop-301387392.html SOURCE PayPal Holdings, Inc.

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[September 29, 2021] Short Term Course on Artificial Intelligence for Teachers commences with great zeal & enthusiasm at MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence

PUNE, India, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence (MIT FuSE) and MIT School of Education & Research - MIT Art, Design and Technology University, continues with its endeavour to train school teachers on Artificial Intelligence in Education with its exclusive Short Term Course on Artificial Intelligence for teachers. The course on Artificial Intelligence was inaugurated today with insights & blessings from the Top Global Artificial Intelligence Influencers and industry veterans, Mr. Utpal Chakraborty, Dr. Anoop V.S., and Mr. Arpit Yadav. The Short-Term Course on AI was initiated & curated by the MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence to bridge the gap between classroom teaching and the advancement in online teaching with the use of Artificial Intelligence. The course is being supported by CloudThat Technologies, CITIS Educon Pvt. Ltd., InnoWise, eduPeer, and Navabharat Group. MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence right from the inception, has been promoting awareness on adoption of emerging technologies to generate smart & employable technocrats with the aim to uplift, upgrade, and upskill the working professionals. Around 10,000+ students, tech enthusiasts, and working professionals have been benefited from the initiatives & certifications. The TEDx speaker & Former Head of Artificial Intelligence, YES Bank Ltd., Mr. Utpal Chakraborty, stated "We are in the golden era of the technological revolution. AI and other technologies form a part of big data and data analytics. These skills will be quintessential and crucial for career growth in today's world." He has also coined the word "Cognification" which merges the importance of cognitive elements in the current digital process. He also gave insights on use cases in AI like the banking system, security system, and customer support system like chatbots. He also congratulated & appreciated the endeavours by the MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence for upskilling and reskilling initiatives. Dr. Anoop V.S. Senior Scientist (Research & Training) from IIITMK Kerala, pointed out, "According to the World Economic Forum, 5 million jobs will be displaced by 2022 but 133 million new roles will be created, hence this is the right time to up-skill and re-skill." He emphasized that the role of present teachers is more significant in the education sector than new entrants as experienced teachers bring in invaluable knowledge coupled with technology. He also shared how the education system has been revamped with the new initiative of Digital University of Kerala.



Senior Data Scientist from INSOFE, Mr. Arpit Yadav said, "It's important to understand data science, how it comes into existence and how it is used by companies to make a business out of it. We are basically the free data generators on whom platforms like Facebook flourish." Mr. Arpit concluded his keynote address with how Data Science is an art of finding hidden information, predicting future data (ML/DL), and converting it into actions (AI). He also listed the top skills in demand in the job world viz., Python, AI, Data science, and so on. Dean Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Asawari Bhave has reiterated the importance of AI in every spectrum of education. She said, "AI will not only help improve classroom management but also boost its efficiency." She stressed the need for flexibility in adapting to technological advancements than just learning something new for work purposes.

Prof. Suraj Bhoyar, Project Director, MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence, extended heartfelt gratitude during his welcome address to the educators who always stand by every individual, to guide, motivate, and inspire. He salutes teachers who are ever ready to upskill and upgrade with changes in the education field today. He emphasized the National Education Policy 2020 and guidelines issued by the CBSE to mandate AI Training in Schools, Colleges. He also stated, "Artificial Intelligence in education can be customised for teachers to enhance their teaching. They can use artificial intelligence to not only teach but also research and refine their subject matter. This global pandemic crisis has also been an extraordinary time for learning." AI is not a futuristic vision, but rather something that is here today and being integrated with Education and deployed for better student-teacher interactions. and go hand in hand with exponential technologies like IoT, Data Analytics, Robotics, Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, etc. This short-term course spans over 5 weeks and engages teachers for 50+ hours with extensive practical training on Artificial Intelligence and its use cases. It elaborates on topics that will help the teachers and educators in getting hands-on training on Artificial Intelligence which they can use in their lesson plans and class delivery, online or offline. The training has received an overwhelming response and saw registrations from 300+ teachers, professors, research scholars, and educators from India and abroad. The inauguration ceremony concluded with great zeal, enthusiasm, and active participation from the participants. Ms. Smruti Shelke from MIT Centre for Future Skills Excellence (MIT FuSE) compered the ceremony and Prof. Komal Gagare from MIT School of Education & Research proposed the vote of thanks. About MIT-ADT University MAEER's Trust which is known to set the strong precedence for the privatization of Engineering education in Maharashtra had taken a first mover's advantage by establishing the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT-Pune), in 1983, which continues to remain the flagship institute of the group.



MIT Art, Design and Technology University, Pune has been established under the MIT Art, Design and Technology University Act, 2015 (Maharashtra Act No. XXXIX of 2015). The University commenced its operations successfully from 27th June 2016. The University is a self-financed institution and empowered to award the degrees under section 22 of the University Grants Commission act, 1956. The University has a unique blend of Art, Design, and Technology as the core of its academics.



Recently, MIT Art, Design and Technology University, Pune has accomplished the following accolades:

Ranked 26th for ARIIA 2020 by the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. Received 5 Star rating for exemplary performance by the Ministry of Education's Innovation Council, Govt. of India. Conferred with Best University Campus Award by ASSOCHAM, New Delhi Granted with Atal Incubation Centre under ATAL Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Govt. of India MIT Art, Design and Technology University has been taking a holistic approach towards imparting education wherein the students are being motivated to build a complete winning personality which is "physically fit, intellectually sharp, mentally alert and spiritually elevated". The students are being encouraged to participate in yoga, meditation, physical training, spiritual elevation, communication skills, and other personality development programmes. Currently, we have 7500+ students studying in various schools of higher education under the University viz. Engineering and Technology, Food Technology, Bioengineering, Arts, Design, Marine Engineering, Journalism and Broadcasting, Film and Television, Music (Hindustani Classical Vocal and Instrumental), Teacher Education, and Vedic Sciences Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1479539/MIT_ADTU_Logo.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1638403/STC_Inaugural.jpg

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[September 29, 2021] Kloosterboer International Forwarding and Alaska Reefer Management Denied Swift Temporary Restraining Order against U.S. Customs and Border Protection

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kloosterboer International Forwarding LLC (KIF) and Alaska Reefer Management LLC (ARM) were denied a swift resolution of their request for a temporary restraining order to stop a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement action in an order issued today by U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Alaska, Sharon L. Gleason. In a mixed ruling, Judge Gleason found that in terms of functionality, "the BCR [Bayside Canadian Rail] rail line would appear to be substantially identical to other Canadian rail lines on which merchandise is carried solely to comply with the Third Proviso." However, the Court also concluded that contrary to prior CBP rulings on the issue, the Third Proviso does require a tariff to be filed to cover the transportation route. The Court then invited KIF and ARM to renew their request for injunctive relief after updating their tariff filing and pursuing administrative remedies with CBP. These remedies will be addressed within a week and the original motion filed by KIF and ARM will e renewed with the Court at that time.



"As a result of this outcome, which in large part is positive, we will not be able to resume trucking goods as fast as we had hoped," said Per Brautaset, President of ARM. "However, we are encouraged and will continue to pursue the available legal and administrative options to resolve this issue." About Kloosterboer International Forwarding

Kloosterboer International Forwarding is a specialized freight forwarding business formed in Alaska, which arranges all supply chain services to transport conditioned seafood cargos from Dutch Harbor, Alaska -- the heart of the Bering Sea fisheries  to strategic markets and seafood buyers around the world. Together with its affiliate, Alaska Reefer Management, it contracts high quality, temperature-controlled logistics services from trusted partners on behalf of the Alaska seafood industry and their customers. About Alaska Reefer Management Alaska Reefer Management LLC, a member of the 360 Quality shipping association, is a private reefer carrier servicing the Alaska seafood industry and other global trades, providing temperature-controlled transportation between ports and terminals specializing in the distribution of conditioned cargoes. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kloosterboer-international-forwarding-and-alaska-reefer-management-denied-swift-temporary-restraining-order-against-us-customs-and-border-protection-301387490.html SOURCE Kloosterboer International Forwarding; Alaska Reefer Management

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[September 29, 2021] Reversing Asia Pacific's biodiversity and nature loss crisis could result in US$4.3 trillion worth of nature-positive business opportunities

A new study by AlphaBeta, Temasek and the World Economic Forum estimates that 63 percent of Asia Pacific's GDP, US$19.5 trillion , is threatened by biodiversity and nature loss

It also identifies 59 nature-positive business opportunities that can unlock US$4.3 trillion in business value and create 232 million jobs annually in Asia Pacific by 2030 SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia Pacific, a region rich in endemic biodiversity found nowhere else in the world, is at the heart of the biodiversity and nature loss crisis. It contains the world's largest concentration of hotspots with natural capital depletion[1], and under business-as-usual, up to 42 percent of all species in Southeast Asia could be lost, half of which would be global extinctions[2]. Systemic transitions are needed to enable a sustainable future for Asia Pacific, and innovative solutions can unlock the investment required to reset our relationship with the planet. These are among the findings of a new report by AlphaBeta, Temasek, and the World Economic Forum, 'New Nature Economy: Asia's Next Wave', launched today at Ecosperity Week 2021. The report makes the business case for nature-positive solutions in the region by exploring the risks, opportunities and financing needed for a nature-positive economy. Threats to nature are threats to business Three major socioeconomic systems in Asia Pacific pose the biggest threat to nature but also present the largest opportunities for nature-positive economic growth. Together, the value of these opportunities, US$4.3 trillion, is equivalent to 14 percent of Asia Pacific's GDP in 2019: Business-as-usual practices in our food, land and ocean use system are unsustainable. Changing both the way we farm and fish and the quantity of food and clothes we consume is imperative, given the challenges in sustaining the region's population, which is projected to grow to 5.5 billion by 2050 [3] .



We need to "spare" nature  by increasing the amount of land and water left undisturbed to allow natural ecosystems to thrive  and "share" space with nature  by ensuring that working land and water is more hospitable to biodiversity. Achieving this two-fold objective will require implementing and scaling 28 business opportunities that could create over US$1.6 trillion in business value and around 118 million jobs.





are unsustainable. Changing both the way we farm and fish and the quantity of food and clothes we consume is imperative, given the challenges in sustaining the region's population, which is projected to grow to 5.5 billion by 2050 . We need to "spare" nature  by increasing the amount of land and water left undisturbed to allow natural ecosystems to thrive  and "share" space with nature  by ensuring that working land and water is more hospitable to biodiversity. Achieving this two-fold objective will require implementing and scaling 28 business opportunities that could create over in business value and around 118 million jobs. Urbanisation has fuelled the rapid and often unplanned expansion of the infrastructure and built environment , which has led to substantial negative impacts on both nature and humanity. Asia is now home to 99 of the top 100 cities facing the largest environmental risks [4] , and as urbanisation continues to intensify, the built environment's contribution to biodiversity and nature loss will only continue to grow if left unchecked.



The built environment will need to be more hospitable to nature and wildlife, while reversing its negative impact on the surrounding natural environment. Achieving this reuires implementing and scaling 16 business opportunities that could create over US$1.2 trillion in business value and around 65 million new jobs.









, which has led to substantial negative impacts on both nature and humanity. is now home to 99 of the top 100 cities facing the largest environmental risks , and as urbanisation continues to intensify, the built environment's contribution to biodiversity and nature loss will only continue to grow if left unchecked. The built environment will need to be more hospitable to nature and wildlife, while reversing its negative impact on the surrounding natural environment. Achieving this reuires implementing and scaling 16 business opportunities that could create over in business value and around 65 million new jobs. While the energy and extractives system has been a key driver of the region's growth, energy, electricity, and industry together account for 79 percent of Asia Pacific's greenhouse gas emissions. Providing reliable access to energy while achieving decarbonisation targets in the region will be a significant challenge and meeting the needs of the region within the means of our planet will require the entire energy and extractives system to be radically revisited.



We need to improve consumption efficiency to reduce the amount of resources we need to extract, improve how we extract those resources to minimise impact on ecosystems, and shift to more renewable energy while not causing further harm to ecosystems. Achieving these will require implementing and scaling 15 business opportunities that could create over US$1.4 trillion in business value and around 49 million new jobs. In total, unlocking the 59 nature-positive business opportunities across these three systems will require an annual investment of US$1.1 trillion. While substantial, this is a fraction of the US$31.1 trillion announced by the Asian Development Bank's 45 member countries to combat the COVID-19 pandemic[5].

"We must halve carbon emissions and begin to reverse nature loss by 2030 to avoid catastrophic consequences, and this can be achieved with new business models that are economically self-sustaining and resilient," said Dr Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer at Temasek. "The business and investment communities must work together with governments and civil society, and together we can unlock the financing to help drive growth that delivers for people and the planet and the economy." Innovation and collaboration needed to catalyse investments for a nature-positive transition In an exclusive survey conducted for the report, investors and business leaders across Asia Pacific identified key challenges to overcome in the pursuit of nature-positive business models. These barriers can be broadly categorised into four areas: regulatory challenges, market barriers, information gaps, and the lack of supportive enablers for investment. To overcome these barriers, business and community leaders proposed a range of innovative solutions to galvanise the investment required in the coming decade. The top three suggestions include: New externality pricing models to capture the true cost of natural capital and environmental externalities;

Harmonised biodiversity reporting standards to ensure accountability towards biodiversity goals; and

New financial products and mechanisms, such as blended finance models as well as regulations to enforce compliance with existing and future environmental policies. More research and development, as well as greater public-private dialogue, will be critical to creating an enabling environment for investment in a nature-positive economy. "The COVID-19 pandemic has been the much-needed system shock forcing us to rethink humanity's relationship with nature. To recover towards a resilient future, we must suitably allocate our investment into protection, restoration and sustainable management of natural capital and valuing ecosystem services", said Akanksha Khatri, Head of Nature Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum. "Our research and engagement with governments, the private sector, investors, and civil society underscores the need to create new collaborative pathways for a nature-positive economy". "Biodiversity and nature loss is a core concern for businesses across the Asia Pacific region, and all available evidence indicates that business-as-usual is no longer an option", noted Dr. Fraser Thompson, Founder and Managing Director of AlphaBeta. "The good news is that this report demonstrates that there is a pathway for businesses that can not only strengthen the resilience of their operations and actively contribute back to nature, but also create major new growth opportunities. Multistakeholder action between businesses, government, and civil society in Asia Pacific can unlock these nature-positive opportunities." The report by AlphaBeta, the World Economic Forum and Temasek can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/NewNatureEconomy About AlphaBeta AlphaBeta is a strategy and economic advisory business serving clients across the world from its headquarters in Singapore. About Temasek Temasek is an investment company with a net portfolio value of S$381 billion (US$283b) as at 31 March 2021. Our Charter roles as an investor, institution and steward shape our investment stance, ethos and philosophy, to do well, do right and do good. We actively seek sustainable solutions to address present and future challenges, as we capture investment and other opportunities that help to bring about a better, smarter and more sustainable world. Headquartered in Singapore, Temasek has 13 offices around the world. For more information on Temasek, please visit www.temasek.com.sg. About World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org). [1] https://encore.naturalcapitalfinancealliance.org/map?view=hotspots [2] https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/rap/files/NRE/Forestry_Group/1_Forests_for_a_greener_future.pdf [3] https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/ [4] https://www.maplecroft.com/insights/analysis/asian-cities-in-eye-of-environmental-storm-global-ranking/ [5] https://covid19policy.adb.org/ SOURCE Temasek

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[September 29, 2021] In the last 5 years, Alstom has contributed 438M in indirect and induced GDP to India's economy, notes Ernst & Young report

- With an order backlog of 4.1B (end of March 2021) from its India operations, Alstom expects further growth in orders by 2025



- Over 106,700 direct, indirect & induced jobs supported in India; aims to increase women employees to 28% by 2025



- 10x lesser CO2 emissions from Alstom's mobility solutions compared to other modes of passenger and freight movement BENGALURU, India, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alstom, a global leader in sustainable and green mobility solutions, has released its first India Impact Report in partnership with Ernst & Young. The report captures the socio-economic contributions and ESG goals by Alstom in India until end of March 2021. Commenting on the release, Alain Spohr, Managing Director - Alstom India, said, "India has always been a pivotal market for Alstom, and we continue to deepen this partnership by customizing mobility solutions for the country. We are delighted to share the impact/contribution of our presence in India via this report, especially in the areas of job creation, sustainability, and to the larger community. All this is reflective of the hard work and dedication of our people, and all our stakeholders in this extraordinary journey. We are committed to provide our unflinching support as an enabler in India's growth story and help fulfil the government's key ambitions of 'Make in India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'." Cecile Texier, VP Sustainability & CSR, Alstom, said, "For almost 30 years, Alstom has partnered with India in the modernisation and development of its transportation revolution, making it safer and more sustainable. And going forward, we aspire to positively influence the Indian market with our products and operations." Highlights on economic contribution High localization & building a supply chain ecosystem Alstom India buys 331 million worth of goods and services, among which 75% is made with Indian suppliers. Overall, the company has invested 142M (INR 12,556 M) locally in the last 5 years. In addition, the firm has conducted 21 technology transfers across Alstom locations, to suppliers and other partners. Job creation and focus on Diversity & Inclusion As of March 2021, Alstom had 7,634 direct employees in India. Additionally, the company has supported 71,340 indirect & 27,770 induced jobs across the country. The company is committed to improving its diversity ratio and plans to include 28% women in management, engineering, and professional roles by 2025, while retaining its position as a Top Employer. Remarkable reduction in CO2 emissions and proven focus on sustainability 10X lesser CO2 emissions from Alstom built freight and metro trains vs other modes of transport. In comparison to the high CO2 emissions from cars (79.5 gCO2/passenger.km), Alstom's metro trains in India emit only 7.9 gCO2/passenger.kms. Similarly, the electric locomotives (e-Locos) deployed for high-speed freight transportation in India, emit 13.4 gCO2/ton.km of CO2, while goods trucks account for 92.3 gCO2/to.kms.



Sustainable products and services Alstom's eco-design approach focuses on continuously improving the sustainability of its solutions by tracking and minimising their environmental impact throughout their life cycles. For example, the mass of materials and components used in manufacturing rolling stock for Mumbai Metro Line 3 are 96% recyclable and 99% recoverable.

Decreasing the environmental impact of installations Alstom is committed to limiting the environmental impact of its operations in India and worldwide. As a part of its Green Energy Strategy, Alstom is also investing in linking renewable energy production systems to its locations, such as at the Sri City facility, where 1 MW of solar energy generation capacity has been built. The project will result in an annual reduction of 1,132 tonnes of CO2 emissions and reducing non-renewable energy consumption by 30% (by the end of 2021). Outlook for Alstom India Alstom will continue strengthening its contribution to socio-economic impact and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals.

By 2025, Alstom aims to reach 85% localisation on all domestic projects and increase digitalization of processes by 20% .

Alstom aims to reach and . The company will accelerate its move to maximum usage of Green/ Renewal Energy in Industrial operations and 100% of newly developed solutions will be eco-designed .

. Through its CSR initiatives, the company plans to reach 100,000 direct beneficiaries. The expanded Alstom in Motion (AiM) 2025 strategic plan will focus on leveraging the group's reinforced product lines and geographical presence, commit to accelerate smart and green mobility innovation with important R&D investments, and will extend its operational excellence efforts to a new scale. Link to download the full report - https://www.alstom.com/impact-alstom-india. Notes to the editor Methodology The numbers and statistics given are for up until ?scal year 2020-2021. It offers a consolidated representation of former Alstom and Bombardier Transportation statistics. In some cases, an * is attached to the number presented. For those numbers speci?cally, the scope considered is the former Alstom legacy scope and the ?gure is computed over the 2019-2020 ?scal year. The model used by EY to represent the socio-economic rippling effect within a given territory is based on the work of economist Wassily Leontief, who earned the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1973. This research is centred on the use of symmetric input-output tables to simulate the interdependence of all sectors of an economy. Moreover, since the model is linear, any economy of scale is ignored. By combining this modelling of the economy along with the employment intensity of each sector, it was possible to determine the indirect and induced socio-economic bene?ts. Those results are being derived from all Alstom's activities worldwide and all global procurement. They are displayed at an Indian level but re?ect the global supply chain of Alstom along with the goods and services exchange made between economic actors of all the countries in the world. Explanation of some of the terms Direct effects: The contribution of the activity/entity itself to the entire economy (e.g. in terms of the number of employees working for Alstom) Indirect effects: To "produce" direct effects, a company needs to acquire goods and services (e.g. scrap metal, electricity, technical analysis services etc.) from suppliers. Those suppliers increase their production and hire additional staff to meet the demand of Alstom, thus generating indirect effects on jobs. Suppliers themselves cooperate with additional ?rms (their suppliers), creating a second-rank effect that is also part of the indirect effects generated by the company. The model adds up ?rst-, second-, third-rank effects and so on, all along the supply chain. Induced effects: Induced effects are the results of increased household expenses caused by the labour income of direct and indirect jobs. The induced effects are generated by employees spending within the business' supply chain. Employee spending generates more demand in the economy, which leads to more production and, in turn, more pro?ts, value-added (GDP contribution), employment, taxes, and so on. About Alstom: Leading societies to a low carbon future, Alstom develops and markets mobility solutions that provide the sustainable foundations for the future of transportation. Alstom's products portfolio ranges from high-speed trains, metros, monorail, and trams to integrated systems, customised services, infrastructure, signaling, and digital mobility solutions. Alstom has 150,000 vehicles in commercial service worldwide. With Bombardier Transportation joining Alstom on January 29, 2021, the enlarged Group's combined proforma revenue amounts to 14 billion for the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021. Headquartered in France, Alstom is now present in 70 countries and employs more than 70,000 people. For more information, please visit www.alstom.com. About Alstom in India:



Alstom is the only multinational sustainable mobility provider in India, to have a comprehensive portfolio of offerings to meet customer specific needs, from cost-efficient mass-market platforms to high-end technological innovations. Synonymous with the country's 'Rail Revolution', Alstom continues to be a strategic partner in supporting India's freight revolution and passenger movement. With 6 industrial sites and 4 major engineering centers, the company not only caters to domestic project needs, but also delivers for many international projects. Supporting the government's modernization initiatives, Alstom has been at the forefront of introducing several breakthrough technologies in India with world class rolling stock, rail equipment & infrastructure, signaling, and services. Fully aligned with the country's vision of Make-in-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat, Alstom remains deeply committed to strengthening its local sourcing and supply chain ecosystem.

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[September 29, 2021] Neel Mehta and Charlie Klene Join G2 Venture Partners as Investors

Today G2 Venture Partners, a venture capital firm building and supporting technology companies digitizing traditional industries, announced the hiring of Neel Mehta and Charlie Klene. Neel Mehta joins G2 (News - Alert) as an Investor. Previously, Neel was an early operator at Zoox - a 1,000+ person start-up developing fully autonomous, all-electric vehicles for urban ride-sharing. During his five-year tenure, Neel led Strategy, Go-To-Market, Corporate Development, and FP&A teams, supported industry-record capital raises, and, most recently, served on the core deal team in Zoox's acquisition by Amazon. Prior to Zoox, Neel was at Morgan Stanley, where he covered automotive stocks with top Wall Street Autos Analyst, Adam Jonas. Neel holds a B.S. in Economics and Public Policy from Duke and sits on the Board of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross. "I'm excited to partner with startups that are accelerating the digital transformation of industris critical to society such as transportation, energy, logistics, and manufacturing. I can't think of a better platform for this work than G2 - a pioneer in sustainable tech investing with a highly experienced team that cares deeply about the future of our planet," said Neel Mehta.



Charlie Klene also joins G2 Venture Partners as an Investor. Prior to joining G2, Charlie was on the pricing strategy team at Salesforce, where he joined after spending three years at Morgan Stanley's Technology Investment Banking group. Charlie began his career as a Production Engineer at Shell and also spent time as part of the Boston Consulting Group's energy practice. Charlie holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT (News - Alert) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. "Having started my career in the traditional energy industry, I got to see firsthand the environmental toll it inflicts," said Klene. "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join the G2 team, with its decades of experience sustainably transforming traditional industries. There has never been a better time to invest in sustainable tech, and the G2 platform - its philosophy, experience, and network - is leading the way."

"We are pleased to welcome Neel and Charlie to the G2 team. Both are already making significant contributions leveraging their expertise and networks as we invest our $500M second fund into game-changing climate-tech companies," said Valerie Shen, G2's COO. About G2 Venture Partners G2 Venture Partners is a venture and growth firm focused on emerging technologies driving sustainable transformation across traditional industries. We support entrepreneurs who are unlocking new paths to environmentally and socially responsible economic growth. Learn more at www.g2vp.com and contact the team at info@g2vp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005341/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Enkasa Announces Closing of $3M Seed Financing, Launches Real Estate Platform to Help People Buy and Remodel Their Dream Home

Enkasa-a residential real estate platform that provides powerful new tools to help people remodel when buying a home-today announced its highly-anticipated public launch. ??Serving the Bay Area, Enkasa is a one-of-a-kind residential brokerage and technology platform that strategically pairs contractors as well as designers with agents to help homebuyers and owners plan improvements when buying or selling homes. Enkasa's launch comes on the heels of its $3 million Seed raise, led by leading venture capital firms MetaProp and Greycroft. The average age of American homes is now 43-years-old. With aging inventory and home prices at an all-time high, more and more people are purchasing homes they plan to remodel. Yet the problem before buying is it's hard to know what can be done to a home, how much it will cost, and who will do the work. As a result, a majority of homebuyers struggle to get work done on time and on budget. "We've created a platform for the millions of consumers who will need to buy, sell, and remodel their homes," said Joanne Bradford, Enkasa CEO and co-founder who has held executive positions at numerous startups and tech companies, including Pinterest, SoFi, and PayPal (News - Alert) . "We're helping people see the potential in a house-before they buy or sell-by bringing together teams of highly-skilled agents, contractors, and designers." Enkasa is the first company to assemble an all-in-one technology platform and support team to help homebuyers find homes with potential, navigate the transaction, and work with contractors and designers to plan and complete improvements. Most people only call anagent late in the process; Enkasa puts tools in the hands of prospective buyers early in their planning process, so that they can use the tools while evaluating a potential purchase.



"If you're not a contractor, it's overwhelming to consider a remodel while purchasing a home at the same time," said Jeff Stone, Chief Development Officer and co-founder of Enkasa and CEO of Diamond Construction, a luxury residential developer. "We help people spot red flags in disclosures, understand zoning and planning around a remodel, and manage subcontractors." Clients use Enkasa in place of a traditional real estate broker. Enkasa charges industry-standard agent commissions, so buyers and sellers don't pay anything more than they would with other agents.

"Without Jeff and his team, we would not have been confident buying a home that needed improvements," said Ann and Bennett Payne, early clients of the team. "Because we were prepared, this will be our dream home, not a money pit." Enkasa will initially serve the East Bay, with plans to expand further in California in the next year. The team has brokered, remodeled, or developed more than $200M in Bay Area homes in the past few years. "We're thrilled to be partnering with Enkasa," said Zak Schwarzman, MetaProp General Partner, who is joining Enkasa's Board of Directors. "They have a thoughtful vision addressing a real and practical need that a huge swath of the homeowner and buyer market struggles with. Backed by a team of experienced fintech, consumer tech, and real estate executives, Enkasa is in prime position to tackle an industry-wide problem long in need of a tech-based solution." Enkasa's Seed round also included notable participation from Maveron, Correlation, and several angel investors, such as Marqeta founder and CEO Jason Gardner, and MoPub co-founder Nafis Jamal. Along with Bradford and Stone, Enkasa was co-founded by Tram Nguyen, Chief Product Officer and a former Pinterest executive as well as Alan Donner, Chief Operating Officer and a former SoFi Marketing leader. About Enkasa Enkasa is a residential real estate tech platform that helps people remodel when buying or selling their home. Enkasa brings contractors and designers into the homebuying process to help people evaluate, buy, and improve their dream home. Enkasa has raised $ 3M (News - Alert) Seed financing from MetaProp and Greycroft. Learn more at EnkasaHomes.com. CA (News - Alert) DRE #02155340 About MetaProp MetaProp is a New York-based venture capital firm focused on the real estate technology ("PropTech") industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp's investment team has invested in 130+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages multiple funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors that represent a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 15+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market. The firm's investment activities are complemented by pioneering community leadership including the PropTech Place innovation hub, MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University programs, global events NYC Real Estate Tech Week and Propel by MIPIM NYC, and publications Global PropTech Confidence Index and PropTech 101. About Greycroft Greycroft is a seed-to-growth venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build transformative companies. The firm has deep experience in both consumer and enterprise technology, with a portfolio that spans the globe. Greycroft values building enduring relationships with founders and understands that they want more from investors than just capital. Greycroft has raised more than $2 billion in commitments and has over 200 active investments. The portfolio includes Acorns, Anine Bing, App Annie, Axios, Bird, BetterCloud, Braintree, Bright Health, Buddy Media (News - Alert) , Bumble, Flutterwave, Goop, Happiest Baby, Huffington Post, Icertis, Lightricks, Maker Studios, Medly, Openpath, Scopely, SEMrush, Shipt, TheRealReal, Thrive Market, Trunk Club, Venmo, and Yeahka. For more information visit greycroft.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005230/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Global WholeHealth Partners Corp (OTC: GWHP) Partners With Pan Probe Biotech and AvantGen to Develop the Newest COVID19 Antigen Test on the Market; 8k Filed on 09/21/2021

Global WholeHealth Partners Corp (GWHP) is confident in the new partnerships to produce the best COVID Antigen test on the market.

San Clemente, CA, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- COVID Antigen testing is not going away and has become the new test and vaccine for years to come. Global WholeHealth Partners Corp. (OTC: GWHP) offers one of the largest lines of COVID 19 tests. Global WholeHealth Partners Corp (OTC: GWHP) states that the Antibody IgG/IgM tests that they offer are capable of detecting all the current identified SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The strains identified in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), and Brazil (P.1) strain contains multiple mutations, most reflected in the S gene, which encodes the spike protein. Global understands the need to be ahead of the virus to conquer the virus. Now, with the vaccine, Global is offering one of the largest lines of products to fight this virus. Global understands that this is a war on COVID 19 and we are expanding our line of products to be able to fight. With a facility now in the Philippines, Global will be able to fight the COVID War better by taking the fight to some of the regions of the world which have not been serviced. Global WholeHealth Partners recognizes that there is a crucial need for faster testing and faster results when it comes to fighting the COVID. Global WholeHealth Partners knows that the quicker the test results can be reviewed by a Front-Line Healthcare Worker, the quicker we can stop the spread of this disease. With results in minutes versus hours or days with other diagnostic kits, the more lives that can be saved with the only FDA authorized COVID-19 POC serology Point of Care Test. With the new fingerstick test, healthcare providers can prick a patients finger and get results in minutes without having to wait for venous blood. Global WholeHealth Partners will be able to distribute these tests to more urgent cares, hospitals, and  to help curb the spread of CoViD19 SARS2. As a third surge of the coronavirus threatens much of the United States, public health experts across the country say there still arent enough tests available t keep the virus under control. With the continual mutation of the virus, Global is keeping up with demand and keeping up with the continual changes of the virus in the R & D of the tests.



Global WholeHealth Partners Corp. provides cutting edge technology using In-vitro Diagnostic (IVD) Real-Time PCR Machines for detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG antibodies in human serum, plasma, or whole blood. It has led the fight against vector borne terminal diseases such as Ebola, ZIKA, Dengue, Malaria, Influenza and Tuberculosis, Corona Viruses, and among other vector borne diseases FDA Certificate of Exportability (2260-11-2019). The company was founded on March 7, 2013 and is headquartered in San Clemente, CA. GWHP develops, manufactures, and markets in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests for OTC, or consumer-use as well as professional rapid diagnostic point-of-care (POC) test kits for hospitals, physicians offices, and medical clinics in the US and abroad. Notably, Global offers 56 products FDA approved and many are Approved for OTC use, and 25 POC products approved by the FDA.

The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the Covid-19 (or SARS-2 Coronavirus) at this time. Media Contact: Name: Charles Strongo, CEO, Global WholeHealth Partners Corp. Email: Sales@gwhpcorp.com Phone for Sales: 877-568-4947 www.gwhpcorp.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements. Such statements may be preceded by the words "intends," "may," "will," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "predicts," "estimates," "aims," "believes," "hopes," "potential" or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) market acceptance of our existing and new products, (ii) negative clinical trial results or lengthy product delays in key markets, (iii) an inability to secure regulatory approvals for the sale of our products, (iv) intense competition in the medical device industry from much larger, multinational companies, (v) product liability claims, (vi) product malfunctions, (vii) our limited manufacturing capabilities and reliance on subcontractors for assistance, (viii) insufficient or inadequate reimbursement by governmental and other third party payers for our products, (ix) our efforts to successfully obtain and maintain intellectual property protection covering our products, which may not be successful, (x) legislative or regulatory reform of the healthcare system in both the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, (xi) our reliance on single suppliers for certain product components, (xii) the fact that we will need to raise additional capital to meet our business requirements in the future and that such capital raising may be costly, dilutive or difficult to obtain and (xiii) the fact that we conduct business in multiple foreign jurisdictions, exposing us to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, logistical and communications challenges, burdens and costs of compliance with foreign laws and political and economic instability in each jurisdiction. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.



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[September 29, 2021] Instreamatic Joining Advertising Week New York 2021 to Discuss Voice Ad Innovation and How Brands and Agencies Are Advancing Consumer Engagement on Audio Platforms

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Instreamatic , providing an end-to-end voice AI platform for managing, measuring and monetizing conversations between brand and consumer, today announced participation in two upcoming events. Instreamatic will attend Advertising Week New York 2021 , where CEO Stas Tushinskiy will join Xaxis and Pandora at a panel discussion on the opportunity for brand advertisers, agencies, and audio media publishers to leverage interactive voice AI infrastructure. Advertising Week New York 2021 will be held as a live hybrid event October 18-21 in New York City. Additionally, Instreamatic is partnering with the ad personalization experts at A Million Ads to present the Audio Innovation Forum, held virtually on October 6  register for the free event here .





Advertising Week New York 2021  Instreamatic is participating in a panel on Wednesday, October 20 at 2:30 PM ET, discussing the advertising opportunity now offered by interactive voice ads and the AI infrastructure that supports them. Panelists include Tushinskiy, Roey Franco, the VP of Product & Innovation at Xaxis, and Claire Fanning, the VP of Ad Product Strategy at Pandora. The event will also cover case study results based on recent voice ad campaigns powered by the Instreamatic platform, with perspectives from Xaxis as a media company leveraging these ads and Pandora as a voice audio ad publisher.







Instreamatic is participating in a panel on Wednesday, October 20 at 2:30 PM ET, discussing the advertising opportunity now offered by interactive voice ads and the AI infrastructure that supports them. Panelists include Tushinskiy, Roey Franco, the VP of Product & Innovation at Xaxis, and Claire Fanning, the VP of Ad Product Strategy at Pandora. The event will also cover case study results based on recent voice ad campaigns powered by the Instreamatic platform, with perspectives from Xaxis as a media company leveraging these ads and Pandora as a voice audio ad publisher. Audio Innovation Forum  Together with A Million Ads, Instreamatic is presenting a 80-minute digital event on October 6 at 12pm ET. With content built for an audience of creative agencies, media agencies, and brand marketers, the Audio Innovation Forum will include discussion on how audio ads are being built into marketing campaigns, metric-driven case study presentations, and the results of a new voice marketing research that sheds light on broader industry perspectives around voice ads.

Were excited to share metrics on how brands, agencies, and audio platforms have been taking advantage of voice advertising, said Tushinskiy. There is a significant opportunity for brands to modernize how they reach consumers through digital audio platforms and voice-activated devices, and these upcoming events will highlight exactly how that is happening. We look forward to sharing case study results and the creative applications of voice ads at both our Advertising Week panel and the Audio Innovation Forum, as well as specifics of how powerful voice AI infrastructure enables voice ads versatile adaptivity and programmatic delivery. About Instreamatic Instreamatic is a voice AI infrastructure for media, enabling real-time voice conversations between brands and consumers across multiple media verticals. The company provides an end-to-end solution for managing, measuring, and monetizing voice-enabled audio and video advertising, including a programmatic ad exchange for assisting clients with advertising sales. People can speak with ads and the ads can talk back in an intelligent and adaptive way, connecting and engaging brands with the customers that love them. Founded in 2015, Instreamatic is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. To learn more, visit instreamatic.com

Contact Kyle Peterson kyle@clementpeterson.com

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[September 29, 2021] New Demand for Office Space Highest Since Pandemic Onset

Nationally, new demand for office space rose to a 15-month high in August and is now just 13 percent below pre-COVID-19 levels. New demand for office space is up 235 percent year-over-year, reflecting a strong recovery from last summer, according to the VTS Office Demand Index (VODI). The VODI tracks unique tenant tours, both in-person and virtual, of office properties in core U.S. markets, and is the earliest available indicator of upcoming office leases, as well as the only commercial real estate index to explicitly track new tenant demand. The VODI rose 3.6 percent from July to August - and with the exception of July when the VODI fell 1.2 percent - the national VODI has risen each month in 2021 since the most recent trough in December 2020. Office-using employment saw a strong rebound in July, with a monthly annualized growth rate of 4.3 percent, up strongly from June when office-using employment recorded the slowest growth in 12 months. Based on the July Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job report, the largest increase in office-using job growth came from an 11.8 percent annualized increase in information services and a six percent annualized increase in professional and business services, while employment in finance, insurance, and real estate fell by 5.2 percent. "When the pandemic first hit and the world came to a halt, there was a clear correlation between rising COVID-19 cases and falling demand for office space--as cases went up, demand went down," said VTS CEO, Nick Romito. "Now, even as cases have risen exponentially over the past few months due to the delta variant, we're not seeing the same correlation. While it may be a bit premature to say that there will not ever be a material impact on new demand and office-using employment as of right now, we're not seeing it. Companies, even if delayed, are making plans to get their employees back in the office and that bodes well for the office space market." Chicago and Seattle rise above their pre-pandemic levels After 17 months of lower-than-normal demand for office space, both Seattle and Chicago saw new demand for office space rise above their pre-pandemic averages with VODI scores of 110 and 104, respectively. The pre-pandemic average for all cities in the report is 100 and reflects the average rate of demand in 2018 and 2019. While positive for both Seattle and Chicago, it is unknown if the cities can consistently maintain higher than average new demand for office space given their recent volatility. Los Angeles and New York are also hovering near their pre-pandemic level at 97 and 96, respectively, but unlike Seattle and Chicago, both Los Angeles and New York City have spent the past three months around 100. Washington, D.C., an outlier among the cities in the report, witnessed its third consecutive month of falling new demand for office space, down 40 percent during the period. The VODI in Washington, D.C. fell to 57 in August from 78 in July. The decline began in May when its VODI of 95 was close to its pre-pandemic average. The last slide of this magnitude in Washington, D.C. was between April and July of 2020. "The health of individual office markets is hyperlocal. Local vaccination rates, government mandates, and local sentiment are just a few of the drivers of new demand for office space," said VTS Chief Strategy Officer Ryan Masiello. "That said, the wide-sweeping vaccine announcement made this month by President Biden - impacting up to 100 million U.S. workers employed with the federal government, could start to materially change the need for office space in the coming months across the nation, but especially in Washington, D.C. as institutions prepare for their employees' return to the workplace."







VODI Cities National Boston Chicago Los

Angeles New

York City San

Francisco Seattle Washington,

D.C. Current VODI (August) *A VODI of 100 represents the avg. VODI from 2018-2019 87 65 110 97 96 63 104 57 Month-over-Month Change (%) 3.6% 1.6% 27.9% -16.4% 4.3% 1.6% 36.8% -26.9% Month-over-Month Change (VODI points) +3 +1 +24 -19 +4 +1 +28 -21 Year-over-Year Change (%) 235% 59% 307% 169% 317% 600% 395% 58% Year-over-Year Change (VODI points) +61 +24 +83 +61 +73 +54 +83 +21

Trophy and Class A office space in New York City gets more popular Both the share of tours and the total number of tours in Trophy and Class A buildings in New York City increased in August from July. The share of tours in Trophy and Class A properties increased to 78.2 percent in August from 72.9 percent in July and the total number of tours of Trophy and Class A properties increased 19.4 percent from July to August, while tours of Class B and C properties fell by 10.5 percent during the same period. The average tour requirement size remained flat from July to August at 7,000 square feet. About VTS VTS is commercial real estate's leading leasing, marketing, asset management, and tenant experience platform where the industry comes to make deals happen and real-time data comes to life. The VTS Platform captures the largest first-party data source in the industry, which delivers real-time insights that fuel faster, more informed decision making and connections throughout the deal and asset lifecycle. VTS Data, the industry's only forward-looking market dataset, and VTS Market and Marketplace, the industry's first integrated online marketing solution, give landlords, brokers, and tenants unparalleled visibility into real-time market information and the direct connectivity to execute deals with greater speed and intelligence at every point in the planning, marketing, leasing, and asset management cycle. VTS Rise is the industry's most comprehensive tenant experience solution, offering occupiers, building operators, and visitors an immersive, tech-enabled experience. More than 60 percent of Class A office space in the US and 12 billion square feet of office, retail, and industrial real estate globally is managed on the VTS platform. VTS' user base includes over 45,000 CRE professionals including respected industry leaders like Blackstone, Brookfield Properties, LaSalle Investment Management, Hines, Boston Properties, Oxford Properties, JLL, and CBRE. To learn more about VTS, and to see our open roles, visit www.vts.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005207/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Wishpond Announces $6 Million Revolving Credit Facility from National Bank of Canada

Proceeds from the credit facility are expected to be used to support Wishpond's future capital requirements and aid in accelerating the Company's growth. VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (the "Company" or "Wishpond") (TSXV: WISH) (OTCQX: WPNDF), a provider of marketing focused online business solutions, is pleased to announce it has entered into a new credit facility pursuant to the terms of a credit agreement entered into between the Company and National Bank of Canada's Technology and Innovation Banking Group ("NBC") that provides for a 6 million dollar secured revolving operating line (the "Credit Facility"). The Credit Facility is undrawn as of today's date. "We are very pleased to be putting this credit facility in place and we are grateful for the support we've received from National Bank's Technology and Innovation Banking Group," said Ali Tajskandar, Chairman and CEO of Wishpond. "It's a great honor to be partnering with one of Canada's premier banks. This Credit Facility is a step forward in terms of accelerating Wishpond's future growth plans." NBC's Senior Director of Technology and Innovation Banking, David Looi commented "National Bank is pleased to be partnering with Wishpond to assist the Company in its continued growth and success. Wishpond is a great fit with our mandate of supporting innovative, rapidly growing technology companies across Canada." "The Credit Facility will provide us with an efficient way to optimize our working capital and the ability to retain our flexibility should we need to use proceeds for general corporate purposes or support future acquisitions," said Juan Leal, Wishpond's Chief Financial Officer. "We currently have over $7.5 million of cash and no debt on the balance sheet, combined with this new undrawn NBC Credit Facility of $6 million, we are in a strong position to execute on our future expansion and acquisition plans." Pursuant to the Loan Agreement, the Credit Facility is secured against the assets of the Company. The Credit Facility is expected to be used by the Company to fund working capital requirements in the ordinary course. The credit agreement will be filed under the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Ali Tajskandar"

Chairman, Director and CEO About Wishpond Technologies Ltd. Based out of Vancouver, Bitish Columbia, Wishpond is a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions. Wishpond's vision is to become the leading provider of digital marketing solutions that empower entrepreneurs to achieve success online. The Company offers an "all-in-one" marketing suite that provides companies with marketing, promotion, lead generation, and sales conversion capabilities from one integrated platform. Wishpond replaces entire marketing functions in an easy-to-use product, for a fraction of the cost. Wishpond serves over 3,000 customers who are primarily small-to-medium size businesses ("SMBs") in a wide variety of industries. The Company has developed cutting-edge marketing technology solutions and continues to add new features and applications with great velocity. The Company employs a Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") business model where substantially all the Company's revenue is subscription-based recurring revenue which provides excellent revenue predictability and cash flow visibility. Wishpond is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker "WISH" and on the OTCQX under the ticker "WPNDF". For further information, visit: www.wishpond.com.



About National Bank of Canada

With $354 billion in assets as at July 31, 2021, National Bank of Canada, together with its subsidiaries, forms one of Canada's leading integrated financial groups. It has more than 26,000 employees in knowledge-intensive positions and has been recognized numerous times as a top employer and for its commitment to diversity. Its securities are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA). Follow the Bank's activities at nbc.ca or via social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Forward-Looking Statements

Statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Company, its subsidiaries and the industries in which they operate, including statements about, among other things, expectations, beliefs, plans, future operations, origination of additional targets in which the Company may hold an interest and acquisition opportunities for the Company, business and acquisition strategies, opportunities, objectives, prospects, assumptions, including those related to trends and prospects, and future events and performance. Sentences and phrases containing or modified by words such as "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "intend", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targets", "projects", "is designed to", "strategy", "should", "believe", "contemplate" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions, are not historical facts and are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements relating to the use of proceeds of the Credit Facility. . Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking statements has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control, including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in the continuous disclosure materials of the Company which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. 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 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. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wishpond-announces-6-million-revolving-credit-facility-from-national-bank-of-canada-301387451.html SOURCE Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

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[September 29, 2021] Montrose Environmental Group Announces Pricing of Upsized Public Offering

Montrose Environmental Group, Inc. (the "Company" or "Montrose") (NYSE: MEG) announced today the pricing of the previously announced underwritten public offering by the Company of 2,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $62.00 per share (before underwriting discounts and commissions). The offering was upsized from the previously announced 1,750,000 shares. The Company has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 375,000 shares of common stock. All of the securities to be sold in the offering are being offered by the Company. The offering is expected to close on October 1, 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including, among other things, funding acquisitions or business expansion, working capital, capital expenditures such as investments in research, development and software, or the repayment of debt. J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities and William Blair are acting as joint leading book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters for the offering. Stifel, Needham & Company, Capital One (News - Alert) Securities and BNP PARIBAS are also acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering of these securities is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and related prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and prospectus relating to the offering can be obtained from: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, by telephone: 1-866-803-9204, or by email at prospectuseq_fi@jpmchase.com; BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43; 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, North Carolina 28255-0001, Attention: Prospectus Department or by email at dg.prospectus_requests@bofa.com; or William Blair & Company, L.L.C., Attention: Prospectus Department, 150 North Riverside Plaza, Chicago, Illinois, 60606, by phone at +1(800) 621-0687, or by email at prospectus@williamblair.com.



An automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 relating to these securities was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 11, 2021 and became effective upon filing. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Montrose

Montrose is an environmental services company that supports government and commercial organizations with a range of services, from air measurement and laboratory services to regulatory compliance, permitting, engineering, and remediation. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. 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. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "intend," "expect", and "may", and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or that are not statements of historical matters. Forward-looking statements are based on current information available at the time the statements are made and on management's reasonable belief or expectations with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from the belief or expectations expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Further, many of these factors are, and may continue to be, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional factors or events that could cause actual results to differ may also emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect future events, developments or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law. Investors are referred to the Company's registration statement for additional information regarding the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005447/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Eugenie Rives Joins TradeCafe Board of Directors

TradeCafe Inc., a B2B marketplace and technology platform for the trade of protein commodities, today announced that Eugenie Rives, Director, Early Stage Projects at X - Alphabet's moonshot factory where uncomfortably ambitious, world-changing ideas are developed and taken out into the world - has joined its board of directors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005332/en/



Eugenie Rives, Director, Early Stage Projects at X - Alphabet's moonshot factory where uncomfortably ambitious, world-changing ideas are developed and taken out into the world - has joined the TradeCafe board of directors. Eugenie adds a visionary approach to innovation to the TradeCafe Board of Directors as the company transforms the global trade of protein commodities through its B2B marketplace and technology platform. (Photo: Business Wire)

"Eugenie is a digital pioneer with two decades of deep technology expertise and global experience working with a broad range of industries including food supply and logistics, which closely aligns with the work we are doing to modernize the trade of protein commodities," said Nicholas Walker, CEO of TradeCafe. "As someone who is no stranger to incubating projects that have the potential to transform the lives of billions of people when commercialized, Eugenie is a remarkable new addition to our board of directors and will be invaluable as we examine innovative new opportunities for our technology platform." At X, Eugenie leads several early projects that are exploring radical new ways to solve some of the world's biggest problems using breakthrough technology. Prior to her work on early stage moonshots, Eugenie led a robotics moonshot in logistics. She led operations for Google (News - Alert) in France and Sub-Saharan Africa prior to joining X. Before Google, Eugenie worked for Alcatel in Mexico City, managing projects to connect cities and public infrastructure online. Commenting on her appointment, Eugenie said, "I'm pleased to be joining the TradeCafe board of directors. The company has the potential to fully transform the commodities market and to have a strong impact in reducing food losses and waste." Eugenie joins other notable executives on the TradeCafe board of directors, including Ciro Echesortu ex-CEO of Louis Dreyfus Group and Eric Demirian, President of Parklea Capital, Inc. About TradeCafe Founded in 2015, TradeCafe is a B2B marketplace and cloud-based technology platform that facilitates the global trade of protein commodities. It is used by primary producers and processors, retailers, and distributors around the world to conduct, finance, and fulfill protein trade transactions. Additional information is available at TradeCafe.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005332/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Egress Hires Mimecast's Steven Malone as VP of Product Management

Egress announced today that it has hired Steven Malone as its new VP of Product Management to spearhead the ongoing development of its industry-leading human layer security platform. Malone joins Egress from Mimecast, where he played a key role in delivering their email security product strategy and driving revenue growth during an eight-year tenure that saw them IPO in late 2015 . Malone's appointment supports a year of rapid growth for Egress, which included the acquisition of Aquilai, the launch of its anti-phishing solution Egress Defend, and the opening of its first New York office to further boost its continued expansion in North America. Working closely with Egress' Product Development and Operations teams, Malone will be responsible for spearheading product strategy and fostering continued innovation to fuel the company's future commercial growth. Prior to Egress, Malone co-founded InfoSec Technologies in 2006, guiding the business to a successful private sale in 2012, before joining Mimecast in 2013, where he played a key role in detrmining their long-term product strategy.



Egress CEO Tony Pepper comments: "Steven brings a wealth of experience in cybersecurity and will play a key role in driving product innovation as we continue to develop Egress as the market leader in intelligent email security. Steven's customer-centric mindset and product development experience will guide our technical vision as we continue to solve organizations' most complex security issue: insider risk." Egress VP of Product Management Steven Malone comments: "I was immediately drawn by Egress' unique approach to mitigating insider risk for their customers and their vision for the future. Egress is fostering true innovation in intelligent human layer security, and I'm excited to work with the Egress leadership team to drive even greater success for the business as we enter our next phase of growth."

For additional information and interview requests, please contact PR@Egress.com About Egress Our mission is to eliminate the most complex cybersecurity challenge every organization faces: insider risk. We understand that people get hacked, make mistakes, and break the rules. To prevent these human-activated breaches, we have built the only Human Layer Security platform that defends against inbound and outbound threats. Using patented contextual machine learning we detect and prevent abnormal human behavior such as misdirected emails, data exfiltration, and targeted spear-phishing attacks. Used by the world's biggest brands, Egress is private equity backed and has offices in London, New York, and Boston. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005415/en/

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[September 29, 2021] GuardianLink Announces Technology Partnership with Polygon

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GuardianLink, a No-Code NTF platform to create and launch curated NFTs, announces technology partnership with Polygon, Ethereum's Internet of Blockchain networks, to enhance the efficiency and hyper-real norms of the NFT sphere at a global scale. This partnership is bound to accelerate both the present and future prominence of the NFT ecosystem. Guardian's no-code NFT launchpad allows creators to launch their NFT platform readily with its high-end legitimacy protocol. Their custom templates and smart contract management allow the participants to publish, mint, preview, and manage the NFTs by themselves. Being a UI-driven platform, it is flexible for artists and brands to produce their NFTs with the automated management of royalty rights, Anti.Rip AI spyder engine and seamless payment systems. The aforementioned are the groundbreaking solutions offered by the platform to streamline the prevailing challenges in the space. Polygon, formerly known as Matic, is a framework that builds and connects Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. It is designed to regulate an environment where multifarious blockchain networks no longer function as closed-off silos but instead as networks that accommodae a wider interconnected spectrum. Its combination of industry presence, user-oriented work phenomena, and Ethereum compatibility will provide technological sovereignty.



This partnership of GuardianLink and Polygon with their set of unique features will create a technological revolution. It empowers artists and brands to conceive financial value for their work and results in a secure, interoperable, scalable and adaptable ecosystem. Polygon's high-speed and low-cost transactions will be an incredible advantage for the users of the platform. As technology partners, Polygon will work with GuardianLink to leverage the possibilities of NFTs and provide a prime arena for creators across the globe. The technology is highly efficient, secure and satisfies the rising demands for greater scalability. And this scalable framework bestows the NFT platform with the space for growth and assures that it could work smoothly without any delays. GuardianLink's legitimacy framework and Polygon's scalability will ensure the authenticity of the NFTs across marketplaces and blockchains.

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This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/guardianlink-announces-technology-partnership-with-polygon-301387317.html SOURCE GuardianLink

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[September 29, 2021] Antel of Uruguay Joins 5G Americas Board of Governors

BELLEVUE, Wash., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 5G Americas, the wireless industry trade consortium and voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas, today announced the election of Uruguay operator Antel to its Board of Governors. Antel joins other key stakeholder entities committed to the progress 5G in North, Central and Latin America. 5G Americas is pleased to welcome Antel to the Board of Governors, stated Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas. We are honored to have another technology leader from the Latin America region contribute their expertise and insight to our association. Antel, the state-owned Uruguayan full-service telecommunications provider, headquartered in Montevideo, is a technology innovation leader in Latin America. It was the first operator to launch commercial LTE services in the region in late 2011, as well as the first operator in the region to launch a 5G commercial network in April of 2019. The operator provides fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity to more than 80 percent of Uruguayan households. Antel recognizes wireless communications' pivotal role as a catalyst for digital transformation and economic grwth. We look forward to collaborating with other leading wireless companies from the Americas on technical and regulatory issues to help drive 5G adoption and promote measures that will help it meet its full potential, said Humberto Roca, Chief Technology Information Officer, Antel.



About 5G Americas: The Voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas

5G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organizations mission is to facilitate and advocate for the advancement and transformation of LTE, 5G and beyond throughout the Americas. 5G Americas is invested in developing a connected wireless community while leading 5G development for all the Americas. 5G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. More information is available at 5G Americas website and Twitter. 5G Americas Board of Governors Members include Airspan Networks Inc., Antel, AT&T, Ciena, Cisco, Crown Castle, Ericsson, Intel, Liberty Latin America, Mavenir, Nokia, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung, Shaw Communications Inc., T-Mobile US, Inc., Telefonica, VMware, and WOM.

Contact:

5G Americas

Viet Nguyen

+1 206 218 6393

Viet.Nguyen@5GAmericas.org About Antel

Established in 1974, Antel is a Uruguayan telecom company (Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones) with over 6000 employees and revenues near $900 million. Headquartered in Montevideo, the company provides various types of communications services throughout the nation of Uruguay including mobile, broadband, fixed and Internet services. Antel is committed to closing the digital divide in providing a wide array of communication services to individuals, households, and businesses. Contact:

Antel (Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones)

Humberto Roca

Chief Technology Information Officer

hroca@antel.com.uy



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[September 29, 2021] KE Holdings to Hold Extraordinary General Meeting on November 8, 2021

KE Holdings Inc. ("Beike" or the "Company") (NYSE: BEKE), a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services, today announced that it will hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (the "EGM") at 9:00 a.m. on November 8, 2021 (Beijing time) at the address of Oriental Electronic Technology Building, No. 2 Chuangye Road, Haidian District, Beijing, the People's Republic of China. The purpose of the EGM is to consider and, if thought fit, to approve the re-designation of shares (the "Share Re-designation") which has been proposed by the Company, pursuant to which 110,116,275 Class A ordinary shares that are held by Ever Orient International Limited and beneficially owned by Mr. PENG Yongdong, chairman and chief executive officer of the Company, and 47,777,775 Class A ordinary shares that are held by Clover Rich Limited and beneficially owned by Mr. SHAN Yigang, an executive director of the Company, shall be re-designated as Class B ordinary shares on a 1:1 basis. The Company also learned that Propitious Global Holdings Limited intends to convert 157,894,050 of its Class B ordinary shares into Class A ordinary shares on a 1:1 basis, conditioned upon the shareholders' approval of the Share Re-designation, and effective immediately prior to the Share Re-designation becoming effective (the "Share Conversion"). Propitious Global Holdings Limited, the Company's principal shareholder, is ultimately controlled by Z&Z Trust, the beneficiaries of which are the immediate family members of Mr. ZUO Hui, the founder and permanent chairman emeritus of Beike. Upon the completion of the proposed Share Conversion and the Share Re-designation, the total number of issued and outstanding Class B ordinary shares of the Company will remain unchanged and except for Ever Orient International Limited, Clover Rich Limited and Propitious Global Holdings Limited, the voting power of the shareholders will not be affected. The effect of the proposed Share Re-designation and Share Conversion for Ever Orient International Limited, Clover Rich Limited and Propitious Global Holdings Limited are set out in the table below.







Ordinary Shares Beneficially Owned Prior to the

Share Re-designation and Share Conversion Ordinary Shares Beneficially Owned After the Share

Re-designation and Share Conversion Class A

ordinary

shares Class B

ordinary

shares % of

total

ordinary

shares* % of

aggregate

voting

power** Class A

ordinary

shares Class B

ordinary

shares % of

total

ordinary

shares* % of

aggregate

voting

power** Propitious Global Holdings Limited - 885,301,280 24.8% 76.7% 157,894,050 727,407,230 24.8% 64.4%*** Ever Orient International Limited 110,116,275 - 3.1% 1.0% - 110,116,275 3.1% 9.5% Clover Rich Limited 47,777,775 - 1.3% 0.4% - 47,777,775 1.3% 4.1% Total of above 157,894,050 885,301,280 29.2% 78.1% 157,894,050 885,301,280 29.2% 78.1%

_____________________________________ * For each person or group included in this column, percentage of total ordinary shares is based on both class A and class B ordinary shares held by such person or group with respect to all of Beike's outstanding Class A and Class B ordinary shares as a single class as of June 30, 2021. ** For each person or group included in this column, percentage of total voting power represents voting power based on both class A and class B ordinary shares held by such person or group with respect to all of Beike's outstanding Class A and Class B ordinary shares as a single class as of June 30, 2021. Each holder of the Class A ordinary shares is entitled to one vote per share. Each holder of the Class B ordinary shares is entitled to ten votes per share. *** The Irrevocable Proxy and Power of Attorney executed and delivered by Propitious Global Holdings Limited to Baihui Partners L.P. on July 28, 2021 remains effective. The Board has fixed the close of business on September 29, 2021 (Eastern Standard Time) as the record date (the "Record Date") for determining the shareholders entitled to receive notice of, and to attend, the EGM or any adjourned or postponed meeting thereof. Holders of record of the Company's ordinary shares, par value US$0.00002 per share, at the close of business on the Record Date are entitled to notice of, and to attend and vote at, the EGM or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of the Company's ADSs who wish to exercise their voting rights for the underlying ordinary shares must act through the depositary of the Company's ADS program, the Bank of New York Mellon (the "Depositary"). The notice of the EGM, which sets forth the resolutions to be submitted to shareholder approval and other relevant information regarding the EGM, the proposed Share Re-designation and how to vote ordinary shares or direct the Depositary to vote the ordinary shares represented by the ADSs at the EGM, is available on the Company's website at http://investors.ke.com. About KE Holdings Inc. KE Holdings Inc. is a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services. The Company is a pioneer in building the industry infrastructure and standards in China to reinvent how service providers and housing customers efficiently navigate and consummate housing transactions, ranging from existing and new home sales, home rentals, to home renovation, real estate financial solutions, and other services. The Company owns and operates Lianjia, China's leading real estate brokerage brand and an integral part of its Beike platform. With 20 years of operating experience through Lianjia since its inception in 2001, the Company believes the success and proven track record of Lianjia pave the way for it to build the industry infrastructure and standards and drive the rapid and sustainable growth of Beike. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to 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," "confident," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to," and similar statements. Among other things, the remarks made by the management in this press release, as well as Beike's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Beike or its management may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) "), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about KE Holdings Inc.'s beliefs, plans, 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. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in KE Holdings Inc.'s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and KE Holdings Inc. does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005556/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Atlanta Film Director Captures Vital Work of Local Black Women's Health Imperative Through United for Equality Initiative

Strayer University is continuing its partnership with The Blackhouse Foundation-a leading voice working to elevate and increase the number of diverse voices in filmmaking-with the launch of United for Equality (UFE). UFE builds upon Strayer's work of infusing documentary-style short films into online course content by engaging students in the stories of three racial justice advocacy organizations told through the lens of Black filmmakers. In one of the films, directed by Atlanta-based filmmaker Lisa Cunningham, whose work spans hundreds of projects in film and television, students will explore the legacy of the Black Women's Health Imperative (BWHI) as the first non-profit in the country created by Black women to protect and advance the health and wellness of Black women and girls. The BWHI film can be viewed here. "At BWHI we take an integrated approach to our focus on the physical, emotional and financial wellness of Black women - and education is a key part of that approach," said Linda Goler Blount, MPH, president and CEO, BWHI, "The fight for racial justice has spanned centuries, yet still so many remain unaware of the inequities faced by Black women in particular. Examining this issue further is especially relevant now given the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on the Black community. We're proud to be featured in an academic program that instills the social awareness necessary to combat bias and join in the fight for racial justice." The BWHI film is one of three stories featured in Strayer's Sociology 210: Social Intelligence course, which launched this summer, allowing students to hear directly from BWHI, as well as the Urban League of Central Carolinas and FirstHand, on how each organization addresses racial inequities and empowers change in their local communities and society at large. "As an Atlanta native and active member of our community, working alongside the passionate, inspiring team atBWHI is always a powerful experience," reflected Cunningham, "BWHI is doing important work. By engaging with my film, students can learn about the heart of the organization in a more personal manner. My hope is that it resonates - that students get involved and truly become the change agents our society needs."



Through each documentary, students will gain practical tips for advocacy in their personal lives, explore critical thinking strategies that will help them understand different perspectives and discover how they, too, are agents of change who can contribute meaningfully to create a more united and equitable future. "The Blackhouse Foundation is proud to team up with Strayer yet again to drive awareness and action around the critical issues of equity and equality - and I'm personally thrilled to highlight the practices BWHI has put into place to support the Black community in my home city of Atlanta," said Brickson Diamond, board chair, The Blackhouse Foundation, "UFE not only lifts up the voices of Black creators and non-profit leaders by bringing their work into the classroom, but it also shows students the reality of what it's like to work in the trenches of the racial justice space."

The films are produced by Strayer Studios, a production arm of Strayer University that infuses curriculum with interactive, cinematic stories produced by award-winning filmmakers to engage students and help them grasp subject matter in more meaningful ways. Strayer and The Blackhouse Foundation began their partnership in 2020 with an activation at the Sundance Film Festival, celebrating diverse authorship in academic content and film. "Strayer's innovative approach to education provides students with dynamic academic experiences that resonate far beyond the classroom. Our UFE program truly embodies that model," said Andrea Backman, president, Strayer University, "Together with our friends at The Blackhouse Foundation, we invite students to explore new points of view and learn about the vital work taking place to combat systemic racism." To learn more about United for Equality, visit this website. About Strayer University: Founded in 1892, Strayer University is an institution of higher learning for working adult students. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business administration, accounting, information technology, education, health services administration, public administration, and criminal justice. Strayer University is an accredited institution and a member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), www.msche.org. Strayer University's accreditation status is Accreditation Reaffirmed. MSCHE most recently reaffirmed Strayer University's accreditation status in June 2017, with the next self-study evaluation scheduled for the 2025-2026 academic year. MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). For more information, visit http://www.strayer.edu. About The Blackhouse Foundation: The Blackhouse Foundation works to expand opportunities for Black content creators by providing pathways to opportunities within film, television, digital and emerging platforms. Blackhouse provides opportunities for minority creatives to learn about the financial, production, marketing and distribution resources that will raise the profile of their content, while also providing participants with a nucleus for continuing support, community and education. For more information, visit www.theblackhouse.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005195/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Seramount names Grant Thornton one of the 2021 '100 Best Companies'

Grant Thornton (News - Alert) LLP is one of Seramount's (formerly Working Mother Media) 2021 100 Best Companies, marking the 16th consecutive year the firm is receiving this recognition. The 100 Best Companies list, representing almost four million employees in the United States, recognizes companies for how they supported employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the inclusive benefits they offer families - including paid gender-neutral parental leave and backup childcare. "Our family-friendly benefits are a vital part of how we foster a kind, caring and people-first culture," said Mike Monahan, national managing principal of People & Community at Grant Thornton. "For years, the firm has worked hard to embrace all of our people for exactly who they are - and support each of them in their personal and professional journeys. That work is still ongoing, and recognition like this distinction from Seramount inspires us to keep working on behalf of every member of the Grant Thornton community - especially our working parents." Grant Thornton was also named one of Seramount's 2021 Best Companies for Dads for the third year in a row. Grant Thornton offers a range of benefits that helped the firm secure its spot among the 2021 100 Best Companies and Best Companies for Dads lists. Moreover, the firm rolled out several initiatives specifically to help working parents as they contended with the challenges posed by COVID-19. Grant Thornton's ongoing parent-friendly initiatives include: Grant Thornton provides paid gender-neutral parental leave, telecommuting, and flexible work arrangements, including reduced work schedules, compressed work weeks and flexible days. The firm also offers flexible time off, an industry-leading benefit enhancement that allows employees to take time off as needed to meet their individual needs instead of a predetermined set of paid time off (PTO) days. Grant Thornton offers a voluntary "Mentor Parents" program to help guide new parents through their transition back to work from parental leave. Grant Thornton covers the cost of breast milk shipping when employees are traveling for work. Grant Thornton offers 30 days of subsidized backup childcare - the firm provided an additional 15 days to help working parents balance work and childcare obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Grant Thornton colleague has free access to Care@Work's premium membership through Care.com, which provides Grant Thornton professionals with access to a network of caregivers and other services - including childcare, eldercare, pet care, housekeeping and other resources to support quality of life. Grant Thornton offers a Working Parents & Allies business resource group, which focuses on aligning parenting values to wokplace expectations, including best practices for successful work-life integration. Grant Thornton provides a food-delivery and meal-planning offering to reduce the burden the pandemic is placing on its workforce. In June 2021, Grant Thornton announced a flexible approach to office work, allowing the firm's professionals to have the option to handle meetings or day-to-day tasks remotely.



Barry continued by explaining how companies like Grant Thornton are listening to their professionals when it comes to workplace policies.

"Dads continue to be outspoken about wanting to be equal partners when it comes to parenting responsibilities and needing the flexibility from their employer in order to do so," Barry added. "Our Best Companies for Dads are listening to their employees. They've made their leave policies more inclusive and have increased the support offered to families during a time when parents and caregivers are constantly juggling home and work life." To learn more about Grant Thornton and its people-first culture, visit www.grantthornton.com/careers. About the Methodology

The 2021 Seramount 100 Best Companies application includes more than 400 questions related to leave policies, workforce representation, benefits, childcare, advancement programs, flexibility, and more. It surveys the availability and usage of these programs, as well as the accountability of the many managers who oversee them. The names of applicants that do not make the list are kept confidential. Company profiles and data come from submitted applications and reflect 2020 data. The 2021 Seramount Best Companies for Dads application includes more than 400 questions related to leave policies, benefits, childcare, flexibility, employee-resource groups for men and working parents, and more. It surveys the availability and usage of these programs, as well as the accountability of the many managers who oversee them. This year we added specific questions about how organizations helped parents and caretakers during COVID-19. All applicants receive feedback showing how they compare with other applicants; however, the names of applicants that do not make the list are kept confidential. Company profiles and data come from submitted applications and reflect 2020 data. About Seramount

Seramount, now part of EAB, is a strategic professional services firm dedicated to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Over four decades, partnering with some of the most iconic companies in the world, we've built a deep, data-driven understanding of the employee experience, which lays the groundwork for everything we do. Our comprehensive DE&I toolkit includes actionable research and insights, membership, strategic guidance and consulting, and inspiring events, meeting each client's needs no matter where they are on their journey and guiding them along an ever-changing landscape. Seramount has empowered over 450 organizations to realize the business benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Learn more at seramount.com. About Grant Thornton LLP

Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Grant Thornton, which has revenues of $1.92 billion and operates more than 50 offices, works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations. "Grant Thornton" refers to Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL). GTIL and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms. GTIL and its member firms are not agents of, and do not obligate, one another and are not liable for one another's acts or omissions. Please see grantthornton.com for further details. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005214/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Philadelphia Film Director Captures Vital Work of FirstHand Through United for Equality Initiative

Strayer University is continuing its partnership with The Blackhouse Foundation-a leading voice working to elevate and increase the number of diverse voices in filmmaking-with the launch of United for Equality (UFE). UFE builds upon Strayer's work of infusing documentary-style short films into online course content by engaging students in the stories of three racial justice advocacy organizations told through the lens of Black filmmakers. In one of the films, directed by Philadelphia-based director Andre Robert Lee, a professor, producer and acclaimed documentary filmmaker, students will explore the impact of FirstHand, an initiative from the University City Science Center that aims to spark an interest in STEM career pathways for middle and high school students. This program expands on the Science Center's larger effort to advance healthcare innovation from idea to the marketplace by providing startup support services, allocating capital, gathering the innovation community, and building inclusive STEM pathways for Philadelphia youth and adults. The FirstHand film can be viewed here. "We're thrilled to amplify FirstHand's mission to increase diversity in STEM fields and help educate Strayer students on the opportunities within the STEM industry," said David Clayton, director, STEM education, University City Science Center. "We hope the film resonates with Strayer students and that they're inspired by our work in exposing young adults to a wider variety of career opportunities through industry-informed curricula that provides real-world, hands-on experience in an effort to open doors for theminds of tomorrow."



The FirstHand film is one of three stories featured in Strayer's Sociology 210: Social Intelligence course, which launched this summer, allowing students to hear directly from FirstHand, as well as the Black Women's Health Imperative and Urban League of Central Carolinas, on how each organization addresses racial inequities and empowers change in their local communities and society at large. "Using film as a medium to showcase societal inequities is incredibly powerful," said Lee. "My work with FirstHand offers a glimpse into how local advocates can fight against inequities by providing support for under-resourced kids. Capturing these students' genuine passion and endless potential on film was such a joyful process. Strayer students will be able to feel that emotion while engaging with the film and I'm hoping it compels them to get involved in their own communities."

Through each documentary, students will gain practical tips for advocacy in their personal lives, explore critical thinking strategies that will help them understand different perspectives and discover how they, too, are agents of change who can contribute meaningfully to create a more united and equitable future. "By highlighting a diverse set of community advocacy groups, including the Science Center's team, UFE emphasizes why racial justice efforts must cut across industries to overcome structural obstacles that stand in the way of true equality," said Brickson Diamond, board chair, The Blackhouse Foundation, "The Blackhouse Foundation is proud to work with Strayer yet again to deliver this pivotal lesson to university students, while simultaneously lifting up Black creators, advocates and organizers in the process." The films are produced by Strayer Studios, a production arm of Strayer University that infuses curriculum with interactive, cinematic stories produced by award-winning filmmakers to engage students and help them grasp subject matter in more meaningful ways. Strayer and The Blackhouse Foundation began their partnership in 2020 with an activation at the Sundance Film Festival, celebrating diverse authorship in academic content and film. "Through UFE, Strayer University and The Blackhouse Foundation are showcasing the forward-focused approach that community organizations can take toward advancing the racial equality movement," said Andrea Backman, president, Strayer University. "By learning from their success, we hope students will be empowered to make a difference in their own communities." To learn more about United for Equality, visit this website. About Strayer University: Founded in 1892, Strayer University is an institution of higher learning for working adult students. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business administration, accounting, information technology, education, health services administration, public administration, and criminal justice. Strayer University is an accredited institution and a member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), www.msche.org. Strayer University's accreditation status is Accreditation Reaffirmed. MSCHE most recently reaffirmed Strayer University's accreditation status in June 2017, with the next self-study evaluation scheduled for the 2025-2026 academic year. MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). For more information, visit http://www.strayer.edu. About The Blackhouse Foundation: The Blackhouse Foundation works to expand opportunities for Black content creators by providing pathways to opportunities within film, television, digital and emerging platforms. Blackhouse provides opportunities for minority creatives to learn about the financial, production, marketing and distribution resources that will raise the profile of their content, while also providing participants with a nucleus for continuing support, community and education. For more information, visit www.theblackhouse.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005260/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Keith Andreasen Rejoins Innova as Product Development Supervisor

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Innova Electronics Corporation , a leading supplier of test equipment and diagnostic reporting for the automotive aftermarket, today announced that industry veteran Keith Andreasen has rejoined the company as product development supervisor where he will oversee proof of concept development, user interface modeling, and test and validation for the company's U.S. and global engineering teams. Andreasen is the visionary behind several innovative product developments, including Innova's industry-leading 3100 OBD tool, which has sold more than 2 million units; the company's revolutionary test equipment, diagnostic websites and OBDFix database, which have helped millions of people troubleshoot check engine light repairs. "We are happy to have Keith rejoin our team, as he is an integral part of Innova's history," said Ieon C. Chen, CEO, Innova Electronics, Corp. "Keith brings unmatched experience to our product development team with a unique resume encompassing automotive repair shop ownership; as well as dealership, OEM engineering and technical roles, emissions certification and automotive technology instructor experience. A lifelong car guy with a proud Navy background, Keith understands what U.S. vehicle owners and technicians need to fix their vehicles more efficiently. I can't think of a better person to lead Innova's product development into the future." Andreasen's career spans more than four decades in the automotive industry, including development and testing of new products, user interfaces and web-based services. Most recently, Andreasen provided technical support for Hyundai Motor America GDS diagnostic tools, equipment and web-based systems to dealers. Prior to that he was the owner of Andreasen's Japanese Car and SUV Center, a Fountain Valley, Calif-based automotive repair shop, which built and maintained the Isuzu SCORE off-road and Pikes Peak hill climb race trucks, and later Andreasen's R&D for automotive diagnostic product development as well as ASE certification curriculum, teaching and support. He is a member of SAE International and a National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) committee participant.



An ASE Certified Advance-Level Double Master Technician, Andreasen has earned 26 patents from the USPTO in automotive diagnostic innovation that encompasses vehicle on-board, off-board and PC applications. He is also licensed in the state of California to teach the Bureau of Automotive Repair emission program, perform emission inspections, and repair emissions-related faults. Additionally, Andreasen is an expert in the field of OEM diagnostics, specifically for General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda vehicles. This experience has been invaluable to Innova when inking licensing agreements with the OEMs to ensure Innova's OBD tools provide end users with safe and honest access to vehicle data. He originally joined Innova in November 1996 where he served in several technical support and product development, managerial and director roles until December 2012. During this time, Andreasen oversaw the company's development of several industry-leading advancements, including professional timing lights with swivel-head design and DIS reading capabilities, and the patented single-screen display with LED emissions test inspection logic that has made Innova's on-board diagnostic tools the most popular in the industry. Under Andreasen's leadership, Innova also became the first automotive aftermarket supplier to offer ASE Certified Technical Support telephone support. Most notably, he led the charge in conceptualizing, building and maintaining Innova's OBD database, which today encompasses a vast knowledgebase able to match DTCs to most likely fixes using technicians' real life experiences. This database and the methods Andreasen developed to process diagnostic data and determine most likely fixes, cost and service needs, have supported Innova's RepairSolutions2, the CarMD Vehicle Health Index, OBDFix and a range of industry solutions.

"I'm proud to rejoin Innova  a truly unique breed of company when it comes to developing products the right way, not necessarily the easy way," said Andreasen. "Innova is committed to the ground-up development and support of products from right here in the USA." About Innova Innova Electronics Corporation is a leading supplier of test equipment and diagnostic reporting for the automotive aftermarket, offering high-quality products, innovative diagnostics and value to customers. Innova products are distributed from facilities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as by major customers including AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts, NAPA Auto Parts, CarQuest, Canadian Tire, Pep Boys and others. All Innova products are researched, developed and designed from the ground up at the company's headquarters in Irvine, Calif, and feature licensed information. A pioneer in on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems, Innova has obtained more than 80 US patents related to automotive diagnostic tools and diagnostic processes for different applications, including diagnosing current defects, predicting future defects and autonomous/e-commerce solutions for facilitating sales of parts and services associated with vehicle present and future defects. For more information, visit www.innova.com .

PR CONTACT:

Kristin Brocoff

C: 949-400-4899

E: kristinb@innova.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/keith-andreasen-rejoins-innova-as-product-development-supervisor-301386801.html SOURCE Innova Electronics Corporation

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[September 29, 2021] The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics Launches a New Initiative to Develop the Human Proteoform Atlas

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics has launched a new Initiative to build the Human Proteoform Atlas, the definitive set of unique proteoforms capturing the diversity of proteins resulting from combinations of genetic polymorphisms, RNA splice variants, and post-translational modifications. This proteoform-specific information is critical to understanding the mechanisms of disease and to accelerate the development of more precise diagnostics and potential therapeutic agents.

The Initiative is being chaired by Prof. Hartmut Schluter of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Section Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and by Prof. Neil Kelleher of the Dept. of Molecular Biosciences, th Feinberg School of Medicine, and Director of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute at Northwestern University.



The Initiative will craft standardized representations, identifiers, and nomenclature to enable the facile sharing of data and information. The Atlas will be designed to interact with other important repositories and databases, and will benefit from broad community input that will be provided by the working groups in the Initiative. There is currently an alpha version of the Atlas, available at humanproteoformatlas.org. About the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics

The Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics is a 501c3 non-profit organization fostering collaboration, education, and innovative research to accelerate the comprehensive analysis of all human proteoforms, speeding developments in the fields of therapeutics, diagnostics, environment, and energy. It has members from academic institutions, corporations, and government agencies worldwide, and its work is supported by sponsorships from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bruker, SCIEX, Pfizer and Agilent.

Contact: Paul Danis Chief Executive Officer Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics, Inc. 617.336.3280 office@topdownproteomics.org

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[September 29, 2021] Lyniate Introduces Rapid, a Healthcare API Gateway

Lyniate, the worldwide leader of healthcare data interoperability, today announced the introduction of Lyniate Rapid. Rapid is a purpose-built healthcare API gateway and manager designed to help health teams create and safeguard APIs, including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-based APIs like those required by the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule. Rapid enables teams to manage, monitor efficiency, and protect against cybersecurity threats related to patient data access, creating protection for vulnerable health information. Knowing that teams, across the care continuum, are under pressure to quickly modernize platforms, Rapid accelerates time to compliance with pre-built provider directory and patient data access APIs. Lyniate Rapid is easily compatible with Lyniate Rhapsody and Lyniate Corepoint, the company's flagship integration engines. Rapid helps healthcare teams implement using Health Level 7 (HL7) FHIR.



"Our team respects the history of healthcare interoperability, and we also encourage new approaches," said Scott Galbari, chief operating officer at Lyniate. "With Rapid, we bring both to the table to help cover data and technology requirements so that each healthcare organization can focus on its business and deliver the best consumer experiences." "We will continue to develop additional software and services to help customers meet compliance requirements as they are defined," Galbari added. "We believe that some workflows are best addressed by transactional HL7 v2 messaging while other workflows are best addressed via API. Lyniate is a single trusted interoperability partner who meets the needs of both integration styles, giving teams the best experience and the most efficiency gain. Lyniate Rapid marks our continued commitment toward creating seamless, wide-spread data liquidity across the healthcare ecosystem."

Rapid can be quickly deployed, ensuring the flexibility to adapt to CMS and ONC compliance changes and meet regulatory requirements. With features like API security, a built-in FHIR server, audit logging, and monitoring, this healthcare API gateway protects vulnerable health information from outside threats and reduces the time-consuming and error-prone process of configuring and managing each API. Rapid serves as a secure, managed entry point for healthcare API authentication and communication. Lyniate Rapid is currently available. To learn more about this product and its benefits, click here. About Lyniate: Lyniate partners with healthcare organizations around the globe delivering cutting-edge solutions to address interoperability challenges. The company's industry-leading products, Corepoint and Rhapsody, are used by thousands of customers to send hundreds of millions of messages every day. Lyniate is committed to delivering the best interoperability solutions for healthcare organizations, from specialty clinics to large networks, from payers to vendors, and everything in between to build the future of interoperability. Visit: www.lyniate.com for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005632/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Emmanuelle Toussaint is named one of Canada's 2022 Clean50, celebrating Canadian leaders in sustainability and clean technologies

MONTREAL, Sept. 29, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Nova Bus, part of the Volvo Group and a leading North American transit bus manufacturer, is proud to announce that its Vice President, Legal, Regulatory & Public Affairs, Emmanuelle Toussaint, has been selected as one of the honourees of the 2022 Clean50 Awards (www.clean50.com). Canada's Clean50 Awards are announced annually by Delta Management Group and the Clean50 organization to recognize those 50 individuals or small teams, from 16 different categories, who have done the most to advance the cause of sustainability and clean capitalism in Canada over the past 2 years. "I'm truly honoured to receive this award in the Manufacturing and Transportation category, alongside with other leaders in sustainability. Nova Bus is committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with its zero-emission buses and to support the governments with their commitments to move to Net-Zero emissions by 2050 and I am proud to be part of this journey. I receive this award on my behalf, but I dedicate it to the hard work and collaboration of all the teams I work with", said Emmanuelle Toussaint. Gavin Pitchford, CEO, Delta Management Group, said "Emmanuelle Toussaint was chosen after rigorous screening and research by Delta Management, with advice from internal researchers and external advisors, and was among Honourees selected from an initial pool of over 1,000 well qualified nominees." Over the pst years, Toussaint has invested her time to advocate for green economy and zero emission buses to increase operational efficiency among businesses like Nova Bus and the Volvo Group. She currently serves on the boards of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FCCQ) and chairs the board of Propulsion Quebec.



"I congratulate Ms. Toussaint for her leadership and visionary work. The excellence of Quebec leaders like Ms. Toussaint helps to propel Quebec forward and to develop a green and resilient economy. The government is proud of its Quebec manufactures such as Nova Bus and Prevost, North American divisions of the Volvo Group, that are working to propose solutions for reducing our GHG emissions" , said Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Minister Responsible for the Fight against Racism and Minister Responsible for the Laval Region. "Emmanuelle advocates tirelessly for electric transportation in North America. We are very proud of this individual award which testifies to the performance and competence of our employees on topics that are crucial for the Volvo Group. This is a fantastic achievement" said Ralph Acs, President of Volvo Group Canada Inc.

"Emmanuelle is actively involved in numerous organizations and associations active in the field of the environment and sustainable economy, and in addition to having played a key role in the transformation project of Nova Bus. This personal distinction demonstrates the extent of her talent and role in the implementation of the acceleration of Nova Bus' electromobility strategy, added Martin Larose, President at Nova Bus. In choosing Toussaint for the award, organizers of the Clean50 Awards noted: "When you see a transit bus in Canada, chances are, two times out of three, it was built by Nova Bus. Emmanuelle advocated strongly for Nova Bus' greener future and has helped lead the acceleration of Nova Bus' electromobility strategy, finding a willing partner in the Federal Government transition with support for this $185M project that will help North American cities to operate hundreds of ZEBs (zero-emissions buses) as they hit the road across Canada and the USA." About Nova Bus

Nova Bus is a leading provider of sustainable transportation solutions in North America. Its portfolio includes electric buses and hybrid buses, high-capacity vehicles and integrated intelligent transport systems. As part of its Electro Mobility strategy, Nova Bus is moving forward with the electrification of key vehicle components to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Group. For more information regarding Nova Bus products and services, please visit www.novabus.com About Delta Management Group / Canada's Clean50:

Leading ESG, sustainability and clean tech search firm Delta Management Group founded, and remains the steward of the Canada's Clean50 awards, created in 2011 to annually identify, recognize and connect 50 sustainability leaders from every sector of Canadian endeavor, in order to facilitate understanding, collaboration and innovation in the fight to keep climate change impacts below 1.5 degrees C. Ancillary awards also recognize 20 Emerging Leaders and the Top Sustainability Projects of the year, as well as bestow Lifetime Achievement designations. SOURCE Nova Bus

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[September 29, 2021]

SHOW JIANGSU Media tour visit Port of Lianyungang and China-Kazakhstan Logistic Base

LIANYUNGANG, China, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 17 September 2021, during the SHOW JIANGSU media tour in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, a drone photo showed containers being loaded to the ships in the Lianyungang Port. China-Kazakhstan Logistic Base is an important seaport for Kazakhstan export and provides efficient transit for cargo and consumer goods from the central Asian country, according to the Information office of Lianyungang Municipal People's Government.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=402499

Caption: Containers are waiting for being loaded to the ships.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/show-jiangsu-media-tour-visit-port-of-lianyungang-and-china-kazakhstan-logistic-base-301387911.html

SOURCE Information Office of Lianyungang Municipal People's Government
[September 29, 2021] Melio Opens Western Headquarters In Denver To Support Rapid Growth

DENVER, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Melio, a leading B2B payments platform for small businesses, today announced the official opening of its western headquarters in downtown Denver, building upon the company's explosive growth in the United States. As part of the Denver opening, Melio is partnering with Denver's Office of Economic Development & Opportunity (DEDO) and its Technology Employment in Colorado Partnership (TEC-P) program to recruit and train 250 candidates to join the company's sales, payment operations, customer experience, and customer support departments. "Melio is a global business leader that will provide a major boost to our local economy and excellent-paying career opportunities for our residents," said Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. "This is the right move at the right time as Denver's economic recovery accelerates and capitalizes on the impactful workforce programming we've put into place. Welcome to Denver, Melio." Colorado's high density of small and midsized businesses provides the ideal market for Melio's rapid expansion. 98 percent of Colorado's businesses are small businesses, and 44,740 new businesses were formed in the first quarter of 2021 alone  a new record. The state has also been routinely ranked nationally as a top ten location for the creation of new companies. "I'm thrilled that in addition to officially opening its Western headquarters, Melio will help train 250 individuals for better paying jobs. We want to provide opportunities for individuals ho are interested in building their careers. Colorado continues to attract and grow world-class companies because of our unmatched quality of life and support for small businesses," said Governor Jared Polis.



"Melio is committed to supporting Colorado's vibrant small business community, which embodies the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that built Melio and aligns with its mission to help small businesses by providing them with an easy tool to manage payments remotely and maximize their cash flow," said Matan Bar, Melio's CEO and co-founder. "Mayor Hancock has been extremely welcoming and supportive of our mission to cultivate fintech talent in the Mile High City and we look forward to our continued partnership." In order to fully immerse itself in Colorado's small business community, Melio will participate in a roundtable discussion with local small businesses with support from DEDO and will also take part in Denver Startup Week on October 4 to meet the local entrepreneurial community.

"Melio is a people-first team, and building a strong and inclusive culture where people are proud to be and to build their careers is a top value and priority," said Bar. Earlier this month Melio announced it has raised an additional $250 million, which will help accelerate the company's integration with financial institutions, software providers, and marketplaces interested in enabling B2B payments for their customers. For more information about Melio's current career opportunities in the Denver area, visit http://www.meliopayments.com/careers . About Melio

Melio's mission is to keep small business in business, helping them to improve their cash flow and workflow, gain more control over their finances, and optimize their business's financial health. Melio was founded by CEO Matan Bar, CTO Ilan Atias, and COO Ziv Paz in 2018, with headquarters in New York and an R&D center in Tel Aviv. Melio also selected Colorado for its western U.S. headquarters and has begun recruiting for 250 new jobs in the state. The company has raised $506 million to date. Melio's smart B2B online payment solution is tailor-made for small businesses' needs. It is a free, simple, and secure solution that allows small businesses and their suppliers to transfer and receive payments quickly and easily.

Website: https://www.melio.com About Denver Economic Development & Opportunity

Denver Economic Development & Opportunity is leading an inclusive and innovative economy for all Denver residents, including local and global business development, workforce development programs, and stabilization efforts in Denver's diverse neighborhoods. Learn more at www.denvergov.org/economicdevelopment . View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/melio-opens-western-headquarters-in-denver-to-support-rapid-growth-301387786.html SOURCE Melio

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[September 29, 2021] Lovitt & Touche Boosts Hiring to Meet Pandemic Demand

Spurred by ongoing pandemic demand for its insurance and benefits services, Lovitt & Touche, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company, has expanded its Tempe and Tucson teams, further strengthening its footprint and competitive position in the Arizona market. "The economy is booming across Arizona and businesses of all industries are seeking an experienced, trusted broker to help them navigate the myriad challenges and risks in today's business climate," said Executive Vice President of Sales Jody Sarchett. "Lovitt & Touche has recruited exceptional professionals to meet this growing demand for our services." Lovitt & Touche's business growth stems primarily from industries that are driving much of Arizona's economic expansion - including transportation, technology and health care. New team members bring decades of experience in employee benefits and commercial insurance. The following professionals joined the Tempe office: Sales Executive Jeff Martin focuses on commercial lines, creating tailored solutions aligned to diverse business needs.

focuses on commercial lines, creating tailored solutions aligned to diverse business needs. Sales Executive Ken McKeon brings more than two decades of sales experience in a diverse set of industries including human resources, benefits, health care and finance.

brings more than two decades of sales experience in a diverse set of industries including human resources, benefits, health care and finance. Sales Executive JJ Joppru brings nearly a decade of experience i employee benefits, specializing in self-funding and insurance captive programs.

brings nearly a decade of experience i employee benefits, specializing in self-funding and insurance captive programs. Sales Executive Seppi Hoff focuses on employee benefits, bringing more than a decade of experience in business development and sales.

focuses on employee benefits, bringing more than a decade of experience in business development and sales. Client Executive Julie Winters focuses on employee benefits, crafting competitive benefits packages that attract top talent and contain costs.



Commercial Lines Manager Jill Brooks brings more than a decade of experience in the insurance industry. She manages the commercial lines team.

brings more than a decade of experience in the insurance industry. She manages the commercial lines team. Sales Executive Alex Rodriguez focuses on employee benefits, bringing more than a dozen years of experience in human resources.

focuses on employee benefits, bringing more than a dozen years of experience in human resources. Sales Executive Chris Monaco focuses on property & casualty insurance for clients in healthcare, manufacturing and financial industries.

focuses on property & casualty insurance for clients in healthcare, manufacturing and financial industries. Sales Executive Jeremy Wolf focuses on employee benefits, bringing diverse experience in business development and sales. Additionally, Lovitt & Touche added 22 support team members at its Tempe office and four in Tucson. In recent months, the firm has hired 35 new professionals in response to business demand.

To learn more about Lovitt & Touche, visit www.lovitt-touche.com. About Lovitt & Touche Lovitt & Touche, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company, is a subsidiary of Marsh LLC, serving Arizona and the Western region. The company offers comprehensive business insurance and risk management solutions, personal insurance, bonds and surety, and employee benefits. For more information, please visit www.lovitt-touche.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005224/en/

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[September 29, 2021] SEE Announces Pricing of Cash Tender Offer for Any and All 4.875% Senior Notes Due 2022

Sealed Air Corporation ("Sealed Air") (NYSE: SEE) today announced the pricing of its previously announced offer to purchase for cash (the "Tender Offer") any and all of its outstanding 4.875% Senior Notes due 2022 (the "Notes"). The Tender Offer has been made upon the terms subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated September 15, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase"). Capitalized terms used but not defined in this announcement have the meanings given to them in the Offer to Purchase. Certain information related to the Notes and the pricing of the Tender Offer is set forth in the table below, including the Total Consideration for the Notes.







Title of Notes CUSIP / ISIN Outstanding Principal Amount UST Reference Security Bloomberg (News - Alert) Reference Page(1) Fixed Spread (bps) Early Tender Payment(2)(3) Total Consideration (2)(4) 4.875% Senior Notes due December 1, 2022 CUSIP: 81211K AV2 (144A) and U81193 AM3 (Reg S) ISIN: US81211KAV26 (144A) and USU81193AM38 (Reg S) US$425,000,000 0.125% due August 31, 2022 FIT3 +50 $30.00 $1,039.26

_________________ (1) The page on Bloomberg from which the Dealer Manager (as defined below) quoted the bid side price of the U.S. Treasury Security. In the table above "UST" denotes a U.S. Treasury Security. (2) Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered and accepted for purchase. (3) Included in the Total Consideration for Notes tendered and accepted for purchase on or prior to the Early Tender Deadline. (4) Based upon a reference yield determined as of 10:00 a.m., New York City time, on September 29, 2021. Assumes an Early Settlement Date (as defined below) of September 30, 2021 for the Notes and does not include accrued and unpaid interest from the last date on which interest has been paid to, but excluding, the Early Settlement Date, that will be paid on the Notes accepted for purchase. The Tender Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on October 13, 2021, unless extended or earlier terminated by Sealed Air (the "Expiration Time"). No tenders submitted after the Expiration Time will be valid. Subject to the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, holders of Notes must have validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) on or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on September 28, 2021 (such date and time, the "Early Tender Deadline") and the Notes must have been accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer to be eligible to receive the Total Consideration (as defined below), which includes the Early Tender Payment set forth in the table above. Holders of Notes tendering their Notes after the Early Tender Deadline and on or prior to the Expiration Time will only be eligible to receive the Tender Offer Consideration, which is the Total Consideration less the Early Tender Payment. In addition, holders of all Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will receive accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes from the last interest payment date with respect to such Notes to, but excluding, the applicable Settlement Date (as defined below). The Total Consideration payable by Sealed Air for the Notes (the "Total Consideration") was determined in the manner described in the Offer to Purchase and is equal to a price per $1,000 principal amount intended to result in a yield to maturity equal to the yield to maturity of the U.S. Treasury reference securities specified in the table above, as determined at 10:00 a.m., New York City time, on September 29, 2021, plus the fixed spread specified in the table above. The settlement date for the Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Date and accepted for purchase is expected to be September 30, 2021, the second business day after the Early Tender Deadline (the "Early Settlement Date"). The settlement date for the Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Deadline but at or prior to the Expiration Time and accepted for purchase is expected to be October 15, 2021, the business day after the Expiration Time (the "Final Settlement Date," and along with the Early Settlement Date, each a "Settlement Date"). Any Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Deadline may not be withdrawn or revoked, except as required by law. This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell with respect to any Notes. No offer will be made, nor will Sealed Air accept tenders of Notes from, holders in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. Sealed Air has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. to act as exclusive Dealer Manager. Global Bondholder Services Corporation has been retained to serve as both the depositary and the information agent (the "Depositary and Information Agent") for the Tender Offer. For additional information regarding the terms of the Tender Offer, please contact: Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at (800) 558-3745 (toll free) or (212) 723-6106 (collect). Requests for copies of the Offer to Purchase and other related materials should be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation at contact@gbsc-usa.com (email), 1-866-470-3900 (U.S. Toll Free), 1-212-430-3774 (Banks and Brokers). None of Sealed Air, its affiliates, their respective board of directors, the Dealer Manager, the trustee of the Notes or the Depositary and Information Agent makes any recommendation to any holder of Notes in connection with the Tender Offer. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender their Notes and, if so, the principal amount of Notes to tender. About Sealed Air Sealed Air (NYSE: SEE) is in business to protect, to solve critical packaging challenges, and to make our world better than we found it. Our packaging technology, solutions, and systems create a safer, more resilient and less wasteful global food supply chain, enable eCommerce, and protect goods transported worldwide. Our globally recognized brands include CRYOVAC brand food packaging, SEALED AIR brand protective packaging, AUTOBAG brand automated systems, BUBBLE WRAP brand packaging, and SEE Automation solutions. SEE's Operating Model, along with industry-leading experts in materials, engineering, technology, and science are driving our innovative solution systems to be more sustainable, automated, and digitally connected. SEE is leading the packaging industry to create a more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable future and has pledged to design or advance 100% of its packaging materials to be recyclable or reusable by 2025, and a bolder goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions in its global operations by 2040. The company is also committed to a diverse workforce and inclusive culture through its 2025 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion pledge. SEE generated $4.9 billion in sales in 2020 and has approximately 16,500 employees who serve customers in 117 countries/territories. To learn more, visit sealedair.com. Website Information We routinely post important information for investors on our website, sealedair.com, in the Investors section. We use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC (News - Alert) filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning our business, consolidated financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by such words as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "assume," "could," "should," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "potential," "seek," "predict," "may," "will" and similar references to future periods. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding expected future operating results, expectations regarding the results of restructuring and other programs, anticipated levels of capital expenditures and expectations of the effect on our financial condition of claims, litigation, environmental costs, contingent liabilities and governmental and regulatory investigations and proceedings. The following are important factors that we believe could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements: global economic and political conditions, currency translation and devaluation effects, changes in raw material pricing and availability, competitive conditions, the success of new product offerings, consumer preferences, the effects of animal and food-related health issues, the effects of epidemics or pandemics, including the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), changes in energy costs, environmental matters, the success of our restructuring activities, the success of our merger, acquisition and equity investment strategies, the success of our financial growth, profitability, cash generation and manufacturing strategies and our cost reduction and productivity efforts, changes in our credit ratings, the tax benefit associated with the Settlement agreement (as defined in our 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K), regulatory actions and legal matters and the other information referenced in the "Risk Factors" section appearing in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as revised and updated by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement made by us is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether because of new information, future developments or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005762/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Apollo Technologies, Inc. announces acquisition by Nolan Capital, Inc.

Nolan Capital announces the acquisition of Apollo Technologies Inc., the leading Southern California-based water treatment service contractor providing preventative maintenance offerings specializing in the water related care of cooling towers and boiler systems. Apollo's water treatment programs service industrial and commercial facilities, primarily in the food-processing and cold storage end markets. Founder Bob Ricks has been CEO and co-owner of the business since its creation in 1989 and will assist the company with its acquisition strategy. Founder Bob Ricks of Apollo Technologies stated, "I was adamant in finding the right buyer, and I am confident that Apollo Technologies is in very capable hands. We believe Nolan Capital is the partner that can help not only to continue to grow the business but also maintain our philosophy of providing superior customer service. Apollo Technologies succeeds because of its service-first mentality, and I have no doubt the Nolan team will continue to emphasize this winning strategy. I look forward to following their success." "We are excited with the opportunity to invest in Apollo Technologies," said PeterNolan, Chairman of Nolan Capital. "Bob has built an impressive business focused on providing quality customer service, which we are privileged to build upon. Our goal is to acquire strategic partners who share our quality and customer focus philosophy. We look forward to working with the Apollo employees to grow the business by expanding on the best-in-class business model Bob and his wife LeAnn have created."



About Apollo Technologies, Inc. Apollo Technologies, Inc., is the leading water treatment service contractor in Southern California providing preventative maintenance offerings. Apollo's field technicians service highly-technical cooling tower and boiler systems with a high cost of failure dynamic. The company has a broad value proposition in that it prevents expensive equipment failures, mitigates costly microbiological liabilities, achieves important environmental considerations (minimizes water, energy and chemical usage), and allows clients to focus on core competencies by outsourcing preventative maintenance services with engaged technicians. Founded in 1989 by Bob Ricks, Apollo performs its services across both California and Nevada.

About Nolan Capital, Inc. Nolan Capital is the family office for Peter Nolan. Peter has over 39 years of investing experience and was the former Managing Partner of Leonard Green and Partners in Los Angeles, California. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Leonard Green. Peter has investment experience in a variety of sectors, such as consumer products and services, retail and restaurants, manufacturing, distribution, industrial products, business services, government services and healthcare. Nolan Capital partners with leading middle-market companies. Led by Peter J. Nolan, Nolan Capital executes and manages private equity, real estate and other investments on behalf of the Nolan family. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005352/en/

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[September 29, 2021] AM Best Revises Issuer Credit Rating Outlook to Stable for ERGO Insurance Pte. Ltd.

AM Best has revised the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) outlook to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term ICR of "bbb+" (Good) of ERGO Insurance Pte. Ltd. (ERGO Insurance) (Singapore). The outlook of the FSR is stable. The ratings reflect ERGO Insurance's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The ratings also factor in rating enhancement from the company's ultimate parent, Munich Reinsurance Company (Munich Re or the Munich Re group). ERGO Insurance is a wholly owned subsidiary of ERGO Group AG, which is the primary insurance arm of Munich Re. The revision of the Long-Term ICR outlook to stable from negative follows reduced volatility and pressure on the company's balance sheet strength and operating performance fundamentals. Prospectively, AM Best expects that ERGO Insurance's balance sheet strength will remain underpinned by risk-adjusted capitalisation at least at the very strong level, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). Whilst the company is expected to continue to face headwinds in achieving its targeted turnaround strategy due to persisting competitive market conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, its underwriting and operating results are expected to exhibit improvement over the medium term. AM Best assesses ERGO Insurance's balance sheet strength as strong. Despite operating losses over a number of years having materially eroded the company's shareholders' equity, financial support from the Munich Re group has aided to bolster capital adequacy. Other balance sheet considerations include the company's high reinsurance usage and dependence, albeit premium retention is expected to gradually trend upward going forward. In addition, the company continues to benefit from a conservative investment strategy and ongoing strong financial flexibility provided by the Munich Re group. AM Best views the company's operating performance as marginal. Despite a notable improvemnt in the company's loss ratio over recent years, as it has sought to reprice and/or non-renew underperforming business, the combined ratio has remained pressured as a result of reduced business scale, which has driven the expense ratio higher. Whilst investment operations have contributed positively to overall earnings, technical results have led to pre-tax operating losses in each year since 2016. A program of remedial action continues to be implemented by the company's management in conjunction with parent group support, with a target of returning the company to a position of technical and operating profitability over the medium term.



AM Best views ERGO Insurance's business profile as limited. The company is a non-life insurer in Singapore, with a market share of approximately 1%, based on 2020 gross written premium. The company's business portfolio continues to exhibit line of business and geographical concentration. The company receives rating enhancement from its ownership and integration with the Munich Re group. ERGO Insurance also benefits from implicit and explicit support from the Munich Re group, including recent and planned capital injections, as well as reinsurance protection.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication. 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/20210929005764/en/

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[September 29, 2021] At-Bay Collaborates with Microsoft to Raise the Bar on SMB Security

At-Bay, the insurance company for the digital age, today announced a collaboration with Microsoft (News - Alert) to strengthen the cyber security posture of their customers as attacks become increasingly prevalent. In order to encourage stronger SMB security, customers can now save up to 15% on their At-Bay cyber insurance policy premium by utilizing Microsoft 365's built-in security controls and comprehensive security services, while managing cyber risk with At-Bay's free active risk monitoring. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005791/en/ Working together, At-Bay and Microsoft are raising the bar for security among their customers. SMBs are most often targeted by opportunistic hackers exploiting common vulnerabilities; SMBs rarely face complex attacks from sophisticated adversaries. Many of these simple attacks can be mitigated by implementing a few high priority security controls available directly within Microsoft 365. A cyber insurance policy is an excellent mechanism to both educate and incentivize customers to implement key controls. At-Bay actively monitors the network security of every business it insures, at no additional cost, throughout the life of the policy. If a new cyber vulnerability is identified, At-Bay's security team notifies the insured and provides actionable recommendations to swiftly mitigate the risk. A combination of technical underwriting and active risk monitoring helps companies insured by At-By experience ransomware claims seven times less frequently than the industry average.



"An insurance policy is an effective tool to articulate the impact of cyber security choices on the financial risk of a company. By offering better pricing to companies who implement stronger controls, we help them understand what matters in security and how best to reduce risk," said Rotem Iram, co-founder and CEO of At-Bay. "Working with Microsoft enables us to educate customers on the powerful security controls that exist within Microsoft 365 and reward them for adopting those controls." "Being at the forefront of technology and innovation for more than four decades, Microsoft has watched cyber security grow from a highly specialized and niche topic to a daily concern for every business in America," said Ann Johnson, corporate vice president of Security, Compliance & Identity (SCI) Business Development. "As innovators in their own industry, At-Bay is in a unique position to help Microsoft drive meaningful change in consumer behavior and help more businesses stay secure."

Businesses that use Microsoft 365 are eligible for savings on their At-Bay cyber insurance policy premium if they implement certain security controls and solutions, including multi-factor authentication and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Microsoft 365 Business Premium comes standard with both controls in place out of the box. In addition to these security controls, the premium savings is subject to the loss history and individual risk profile of each business. For more details about the partnership and a complete list of security controls, visit at-bay.com/microsoft. At-Bay and Microsoft recognize that modern businesses need holistic strategies that address both cyber security threats and business risks. The two companies are actively working together to identify additional ways to improve the digital risk exposure of their customers, ranging from data sharing to new products and offerings. M12, Microsoft's venture fund, has been an investor in At-Bay since the company's Series B funding in February 2020. At-Bay recently closed a $185 million Series D funding round and is now valued at $1.35 billion. In Q2 of 2021, the company surpassed $160 million in annual recurring revenue on 800% year-over-year premium growth. About At-Bay

At-Bay is the insurance company for the digital age. By combining world-class technology with industry-leading insurance expertise, we designed an insurance company from the ground up that empowers businesses to thrive in the digital world. As a Managing General Underwriter (MGU), At-Bay underwrites insurance policies through HSB Specialty Insurance Company, rated A++ by A.M. Best Company and part of Munich Re. At-Bay is backed by Acrew Capital, the HSB fund of Munich Re Ventures, Icon Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M12, Qumra Capital and entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer. www.at-bay.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005791/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Wursta Brings on Peter Hoff as Vice President of Cyber Security and Risk

AUSTIN, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wursta , a premier Google Partner and technology advisor, announced the appointment of Peter Hoff as the company's new Vice President of Cyber Security and Risk. Hoff, who's collaborated with Google for more than a decade on security aspects of its business solutions, will expand Wursta's security products and advisory services. This will include risk assessments, as well as development of roadmaps to ensure compliance and protection from security threats, phishing attacks and complexities of evolving mobile workforces. "The rapid changes businesses of all sizes are currently experiencing, from remote and hybrid workplaces, to increasing needs for digital transformation, present new security risks that cannot be overlooked," said Matt Wursta, CEO and Founder of Wursta. "Peter Hoff brings to our team a tremendous amount of real-world experience and standout credentials that will greatly benefit our customers as they navigate the 'new normal' and adopt new technologies to make their businesses successful." Hoff has over 30 years experience working in Information Technolgy, beginning with the Air Force where he supported communications systems mainframes. Most recently, Hoff served as Senior Director, Information Security and Compliance, CISO at Pet Valu where he worked to expand and secure the company's eCommerce technologies and retail solutions. Hoff also served as Director of Information Security at JM Family Enterprises, a national automotive distributor, where he addressed technological challenges and emerging cyber threats. He also served as Executive Director at Kaplan Higher Education where he orchestrated the alignment of information security programs across five businesses, in 90 locations, throughout the US and EU. Hoff also held Information Security positions in the financial sector at both BankAtlantic and Alaska USA Federal Credit Union.



"As Wursta continues to grow, I am delighted to join its talented team to build an enterprise-class security practice and further expand the Wursta suite-of-services," commented Hoff. "I look forward to helping Wursta's customers confront their security challenges head on." Hoff received his Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Occupational Education from Wayland Baptist University. He holds a CISSP certification as well as a registered CMMC-AB Practitioner Certification.

About Wursta

Wursta is a Premier Google Partner and technology advisor that specializes in Google Workspace and Google Cloud products.They work side by side to help people make good technology decisions and grow their businesses in ways they wouldn't have the ability to do otherwise. This helps organizations develop cultures of continuous innovation powered by real-time collaboration. The company was founded in 2014 by Matt Wursta and for two years in a row ranked in the top 500 of Inc. 5000's fastest-growing private companies. For more information visit https://wursta.com/ . CONTACTS:

Emily Trofholz, Marketing Communications Manager at Wursta, (409) 333-2094, emily@wursta.com, press@wursta.com David Moore, Director of Marketing at Wursta, (561) 713-0790, david@wursta.com, press@wursta.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wursta-brings-on-peter-hoff-as-vice-president-of-cyber-security-and-risk-301388026.html SOURCE Wursta

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[September 29, 2021] CUPE BC Supports Vancouver School Board Mandatory Mask Mandate For K-3 Students, Urges All School Districts to Follow Suit

CUPE BC is renewing its call for making masks mandatory for all students in K-12, including students from Kindergarten to Grade Three. This call is being made with new urgency given the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in young school-age children who are still not eligible to be vaccinated. "Clearly the Delta variant has changed the situation in schools. An extra layer of protection is needed more than ever to protect everyone in the school system," said CUPE BC President Karen Ranalletta. CUPE BC, which represents more than 30,000 workers in the K-12 public education system, is applauding the Vancouver School Board's recent decision to expand the mask mandate to all students. "We thank the Vancouver School Board Trustees for their leadership on this, and we'r encouraging school trustees all over the province to do the same thing, so that all students and staff all across the province have the same level of protection," said Ranalletta.



CUPE BC is also advocating for additional measures to keep schools healthy, such as reinstating daytime cleaning by custodial staff to reduce the spread of disease through frequently touched surfaces. Increased ventilation and rapid tests could also be used to deal with the rising cases in schools. "At this time, it is more important than ever to use every measure available to protect children and workers in our school system," said Ranalletta.

ABOUT CUPE BC

CUPE BC is the largest union in British Columbia, representing more than 100,000 workers delivering important public services in nearly every community in the province, including more than 30,000 members in K-12 public education, including: education assistants, school secretaries, custodians/caretakers, Indigenous support workers, IT workers, Strong Start facilitators, trades and maintenance workers, and bus drivers. cope491 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005822/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Telehealth Summit to Explore Policies Impacting Access

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, October 6, Patient & Provider Advocates for Telehealth will virtually host a national policy summit, "Getting Telehealth Policy Right." The summit brings together patients, advocates, clinicians and policymakers to address key policies impacting access to telehealth and explore how policymakers can ensure continued and balanced access to telehealth after the public health emergency. The summit can be viewed live at summit.telehealthadvocates.org on October 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. Viewers are encouraged to RSVP in advance at telehealthadvocates.org/register. Summit Topics:

An Ounce of Prevention: Telehealth & Preventive Care

Policy Brief: State & Federal Policy Highlights

A Balancing Act: In-Person and Virtual Care

Lifeline: How Telehealth Policy Can Reduce Disparities

Quick Fix: The Pros an Cons of On-Demand Virtual Care





Before COVID-19, telehealth was considered a novel option for the few. But the pandemic made it an essential tool for the masses. The experience has opened the eyes of providers and patients to the value of telehealth in delivering timely, efficient, patient-centered care.

To ensure balanced access to telehealth beyond the public health emergency, policies must encompass certain basic provisions, including: Continued coverage for the broad range of telehealth services temporarily approved for the COVID-19 emergency.

Reasonable and fair reimbursement for virtual visits.

Continuation of a broad definition of telehealth services to include low-tech applications as needed.

Support for efforts to increase high-speed internet connectivity.

Easing of restrictions on sites of care and state licensing. Patient & Provider Advocates for Telehealth is a project of the Alliance for Patient Access. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT WATCH THE SUMMIT LIVE Patient & Provider Advocates for Telehealth advances policies that ensure robust coverage and minimal access obstacles for those who reply upon telehealth. The Alliance for Patient Access is a national network of policy-minded health care providers who advocate for patient-centered care and participate in clinician working groups, advocacy initiatives, stakeholder coalitions and the creation of educational materials. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/telehealth-summit-to-explore-policies-impacting-access-301387701.html SOURCE Patient & Provider Advocates for Telehealth

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[September 29, 2021] CUPE Nova Scotia Calls for Consultation and Balanced Approach to Implementation of Vaccine Mandate

The union representing more than 11,000 health care workers and 4,800 education support workers in Nova Scotia is calling on the provincial government and employers to take a balanced approach to implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, announced today by Premier Tim Houston and Dr. Robert Strang. "CUPE has always placed a priority on our members' health and safety. Our members have the right to be safe at work, and people have the right to receive public services in a safe environment," says CUPE Nova Scotia President Nan McFadgen. "The government has decided that a vaccine mandate is necessary, but it will be difficult, and we've asked our locals to reach out to employers to let them know that the union expects to be consulted ahead of time," says McFadgen. "Employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who cannot be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons." >



"We will continue to encourage our members to get vaccinated, as soon as possible, and we'll continue to work with employers in the rollout of this vaccination mandate," says McFadgen.

About CUPE Nova Scotia The Nova Scotia Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is the second largest union in the province, representing over 19,000 members who provide quality public services in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, municipalities, child care, universities, community services, home support, transition homes, and more. In health care, CUPE represents more than 11,000 members who work in hospitals, nursing homes, home support, and community services. CUPE's education locals, known collectively as the Nova Scotia School Board Council of Unions, represent over 4,800 members working for all seven Regional Centres of Education and the Conseil scolaire acadien, in all public schools across Nova Scotia. :sm/cope 491 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005927/en/

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[September 29, 2021] Mountain Valley MD Holdings Provides Business Update, Results of Shareholder Meeting

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc. (the Company or MVMD) (CSE: MVMD) (OTCQX: MVMDF) (FRA: 20MP) is pleased to provide a business update on key initiatives.

ONCOLOGY As announced on May 3, 2021, pre-clinical trials for triple-negative breast cancer, metastatic melanoma and Lewis Lung Carcinoma were conducted over the past several months. The results of the research conducted presented some noteworthy exploratory findings that have resulted in MVMD expanding its oncology work across these tumor types with further research studies being executed.

The Company is continuing to expand its relationships with experts in clinical and research focused oncology to pursue advanced understanding of Quicksol? technology applications across a broader array of insoluble molecules that have documented anti-cancer effects from prior independent research. HUSBANDRY ANIMALS The Company has completed the scheduled husbandry animal trials in Bangladesh, previously announced on March 16, 2021, that were conducted with MVMDs injectable solubilized Ivermectin technology, Ivectosol? 1%.

The studies were conducted under the supervision of The People's Republic of Bangladeshs Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock and have informed the requirements for final commercialization pathway. This will include working to complete and provide Ivectosol? 1% extended stability data and completion in parallel of dosing and formulation testing across a broad spectrum of animal species.

The Company has commenced its commercialization planning with local partners inside Bangladesh in anticipation of all necessary government approvals for full Ivectosol? 1% manufacturing and product distribution in 2022.

FARMED FISH The Company has been working with The People's Republic of Bangladeshs Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock on a unique project to evaluate the ability to administer its Ivectosol 1% formula in a farmed fish environment to explore its potential to impact positive health outcomes.

MVMD invented a novel fish food application that enables Ivectosol 1% to be delivered to fish in an aqueous environment, with the objective of helping to prevent parasitic outbreaks that cause mortality and limit healthy growth of fish. IVECTOL MVMD has garnered interest in its work with the ivermectin drug molecule and has had determined that there is immediate demand for generic ivermectin while the Company develops out its solubilized Ivectosol 1% applications.

To satisfy current business development discussions and requests for large scale production of ivermectin tablets, MVMD has coordinated pharmaceutical production of its own branded ivermectin product called Ivectol, which is packaged in a 20-tablet box containing Ivermectin USP 12 mg tablets.

Ivectol is finalizing registrations in key target markets to allow for export, as well as import and sale in approved countries.

We believe our science progress continues to validate the pathway we ar pursuing across broad husbandry animal and human applications, stated Dennis Hancock, President and CEO of Mountain Valley MD. I am very proud of the team and our research partners for this continuing progress across multiple lanes of innovation. We couldnt be more honoured to drive forward this important work.



The Company will provide further updates on its trials and developments as they become available. RESULTS OF SHAREHOLDER MEETING

The Company also announces the results of its annual general and special meeting of its shareholders, held today, September 29, 2021, as follows: The Companys shareholders re-elected Dennis Hancock, Kevin Puloski, Nancy Richardson and Paul Lockhard to its board of directors, also fixing the board at four (4) directors;

Shareholders appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, as the Companys independent auditors;

Shareholders approved by special resolution the continuance of the Company from the Province of British Columbia to the Province of Ontario as well as the by-laws which would take effect conditional upon the continuance;

Shareholders approved by ordinary resolution an amended 10% rolling stock option plan, which is substantially the same as the Companys previous stock option plan, which was sought pre-emptively in the event of a future up-listing by the Company; and

A special resolution for a common share consolidation, intended to provide for flexibility in connection with a potential future up-listing strategy as determined by the board of directors, on up to a 10:1 basis, failed to pass.

The presentation can be found on MVMDs website at www.mountainvalleymd.com and is titled MVMD - AGM Business Presentation. ABOUT MOUNTAIN VALLEY MD HOLDINGS INC. Mountain Valley MD is building a world-class organization centered around the implementation and licensing of its key technologies to global pharmaceutical, vaccine and nutraceutical third parties: patented Quicksome oral drug formulation and delivery technologies,

patented Quicksol solubility formulation technology Consistent with its vision towards More Life, MVMD applies its Quicksome and Quicksol technologies to its work for advanced delivery of vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs as well as the development of products for pain management, weight loss, energy, focus, sleep, anxiety, and more. MVMDs patented Quicksome desiccation technology utilizes advanced liposomes and other stabilizing molecules to encapsulate and formulate active ingredients into highly efficient product formats that are consumed orally. The result is a new generation of product formulations that could be capable of delivering vaccines, drugs and nutraceuticals into the body faster, with greater impact, efficiency and accuracy. MVMDs patented Quicksol technology covers all highly solubilized macrocyclic lactones that could be effectively applied in multiple viral applications that could positively impact human and animal health globally. For more Company information and contact details, visit www.mountainvalleymd.com. SOURCE: Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company is making forward-looking statements, including but not limited to with respect to various matters related to the Agreement, including: work, expanding relationships, timing and next steps in connection with its oncology work; work, timing and next steps in connection with its husbandry work; the final commercialization pathway and commercialization planning regarding its husbandry animal work following studies conducted under the supervision of The People's Republic of Bangladeshs Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock, and the steps related thereto, as well as timing for manufacturing and product distribution; further work related to the administration of Ivectosol 1% formula in a farmed fish environment and the implications thereof; and matters related to Ivectol, including application, business development, pharmaceutical production matters, registration for sale and markets. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. Neither the CSE nor OTCQX has reviewed or approved the contents of this press release.

For further information: Dennis Hancock President and Chief Executive Officer Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc. Investor Relations @ 647-725-9755 Email: dennis@mountainvalleymd.com www.mountainvalleymd.com

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[September 29, 2021] BlackRock to Report Third Quarter 2021 Earnings on October 13th

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that it will report third quarter 2021 earnings prior to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Laurence D. Fink, President, Robert S. Kapito, and Chief Financial Officer, Gary S. Shedlin, will host a teleconference call for investors and analysts at 8:30 a.m. ET. BlackRock's earnings release and supplemental materials will be available via the investor relations section of www.blackrock.com, before the teleconference call begins. Teleconference and Webcast Details Members of the public who are interested in participating in the teleconference should dial, from the United States, (800) 374-0176, or from outside the United States, (706) 679-8281, shortly before 8:30 a.m. ET and reference the BlackRock Conference Call (ID Number 5162309. A live, listen-only webcast will also be available via the investor relations section of www.blackrock.com.



Both the teleconference and webcast will be available for replay by 11:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 and ending at midnight on Wednesday, October 27, 2021. To access the replay of the teleconference, callers from the United States should dial (855) 859-2056 and callers from outside the United States should dial (404) 537-3406 and enter the Conference ID Number 5162309. To access the webcast, please visit the investor relations section of www.blackrock.com. About BlackRock

BlackRock's purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005946/en/

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[September 29, 2021] IDT Corporation's NRS Subsidiary Sells 2.5% Minority Stake to Alta Fox Capital Management for $10 million

NEWARK, NJ, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT), a global provider of fintech, cloud communications and traditional communications services, announced today that its National Retail Solutions (NRS) subsidiary has concluded the sale of a two and one-half percent stake (calculated on a fully diluted basis, including equity incentive grants) for $10 million to Alta Fox Capital Management, a private investment fund based in Fort Worth, Texas.

NRS operates a point-of-sale (POS)-based platform that enables independent retailers to operate and process transactions more effectively, while providing advertisers and consumer marketers with unprecedented reach into underserved consumer markets. NRS generated revenue of $21.2 million in the twelve months ended April 30, 2021, and increased quarterly revenue by 123% year over year. IDT holds an approximately 81% equity interest in NRS (on a fully-diluted basis) following the sale. NRS is a market-leading point of sale provider to bodegas and other independent convenience retailers, and we have only just begun to tap its potential, said Elie Y. Katz, President of NRS. Given IDTs strong balance sheet and ample cash flows from our mature businesses, we have been reluctant to accept outside investments in NRS, said Marcelo Fischer, IDTs Chief Financial Officer. However, Alta Fox has demonstrated a deep understanding of our markets and growth opportunities, including expansion into adjacent markets. We are excited to have their support. We are impressed by the quality of the NRS business and leadership team, said Connor Haley, Alta Foxs Founder and Managing Partner. NRS has many of the characteristics we seek in our portfolio companies including market leadership, multiple high-margin revenue streams, and a significant revenue growth rate. We believe that NRS has the potential to be worth many multiples of the over $400 million implied enterprise value from our investment as management continues to execute on its strategic roadmap. About IDT Corporation: IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT) is a global provider of fintech, cloud communications and traditional communications services. We make it easier for families to connect, support and share across international borders. We also enable businesses to transact and communicate with their customers with enhanced intelligence and insight.



Our BOSS Revolution branded money transfer , mobile top-up and international calling services make sending money and speaking with friends and family around the world convenient and reliable. National Retail Solutions  (NRS) point-of-sale retail network enables independent retailers to operate and process transactions more effectively while providing advertisers and consumer marketers with unprecedented reach into underserved consumer markets. net2phone s unified communications as a service solution provides businesses with intelligently integrated cloud communications and collaboration solutions across channels and devices. Our IDT Carrier Services and IDT Express wholesale offerings enable communications companies to provision and manage international voice and SMS services. All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words believe, anticipate, expect, plan, intend, estimate, target and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks, and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, IDT assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Bill Ulrey

IDT Investor Relations

Phone: (973) 438-3838

E-mail: invest@idt.net # # #



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[September 29, 2021] PKT Pal Presents the PKT Cube, a Bandwidth Mining Device, at CoinAgenda

MONACO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) CoinAgenda (www.coinagenda.com), the premier global conference series that has been connecting blockchain and cryptocurrency investors with startups since 2014, today hosted PKT Pal co-founder Josh Berger who announced the PKT Cube, a powerful edge computer designed to monetize unused internet bandwidth. This easy-to-use technology connects to the PKT blockchain, a layer 1 protocol powered by PacketCrypt, the worlds first bandwidth-hard proof of work (PoW). The PKT Cube is a whisper-quiet, plug-and-play mining device that enables anyone in the world to monetize their unused internet bandwidth, and compensates users in PKT Cash every 60 seconds for bandwidth that has already been paid for and is currently being wasted, according to co-founder of PKT Pal, Josh Berger, in his address to the audience of key cryptocurrency investors and influencers who gathered in Monaco for the European CoinAgenda event. From February 1996 to December 2020, prices charged by internet service providers have increased by 250 percent, which comes to 3.9 percent per year. These organizations have an 80 percent profit margin before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. And consumers are paying the price, as they are defenseless against rate hikes from their local providers and monopoly ISPs, Berger said. The good news for consumers is theres another way. PKT is an open-source community project offering an exciting solution that would monetize a households internet connection by enabling anyone to become an ISP to their local community and make passive income from their internet connection, which has always been viewed as a hard cost of living, he added. More than a mining device, each PKT Cube functions as an edge point powering the PKT Network. While mining PKT Cash does not require a PKT Cube, PKT Pal hardware devices come preloaded with a proprietary operating system called PkteerOS, designed to ake earning PKT Cash as easy as plugging in the device and using a mobile app. The PKT Cube is powered by the powerful 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 CPU, and provides an eye-pleasing dashboard and access to dApps, including Bill Pay, launching in 2022, which will enable people to pay their utility bills, such as their internet costs, using their PKT Cash earnings.



The first step in building the PKT Network is providing infrastructure through bandwidth mining. When mining, people are transmitting dummy data using the PacketCrypt algorithm, which plumbs the pipes by requiring consistent upload and down capabilities. This mining process accomplishes two things: 1) it establishes and sustains the high-speed bandwidth availability and connectivity of the PKT Network (currently pushing over 100gbps sustained), and 2) the PacketCrypt mining algorithm utilizes the same type of encryption used in VPN technology, which optimizes the PKT Network to soon provide low cost, high-speed VPN to consumers. Initially, peoples bandwidth is not being used to transmit any unique data, however, users will eventually be able to permission VPN usage to earn additional PKT Cash payments. The PKT Network is completely end-to-end encrypted, which provides users more privacy and safety than their current internet connection. The PKT technology roadmap will eventually enable people to provide internet access to their neighbors via localized mesh networks (worldwide) and wifi-sharing using cjdns technology. Through community participation and economic incentives, the PKT Network infrastructure is completely decentralized with no venture capital investment, no company, no CEO, and no pre-mine.

CoinAgenda is currently in progress at the Le Meridien Beach Plaza in Monaco. The event began on September 27 and is covering the future of cryptocurrency, blockchain and quantum technologies, decentralized finance (DeFi), fintech, privacy, scaling solutions, token economics, payment and infrastructure platforms, Web 3.0, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and legal and regulatory issues in blockchain investing. Future CoinAgenda Events are scheduled each month through December, delving into topics ranging from the European crypto market to the DeFi revolution. Each CoinAgenda Virtual Event will be recorded and available to members of the BitAngels investor network. To become a member of the BitAngels investor network, please apply here. ABOUT PKT PKT (https://pkt.cash/) is a decentralized high-speed data network that enables anyone to monetize their unused internet bandwidth. Powered by PacketCrypt, the worlds first bandwidth-hard proof-of-work, people who connect to the PKT Network are paid in PKT Cash ($PKT) every 60 seconds. PKT provides an economic incentive for people to grow internet connectivity and infrastructure with minimal technical knowledge. As the network grows, PKT drives bandwidth demand, which in turn drives down the cost of bandwidth, increases the speed of the PKT Network, and improves internet connectivity in both urban and rural areas worldwide. PKT is an extension of the cjdns mesh networking protocol, created by PKT Lead Developer Caleb James DeLisle in 2011. PKT continues the cjdns vision by allowing anyone to share their internet and become an internet service provider (ISP). ABOUT COINAGENDA Since 2014, CoinAgenda is the leading global conference series connecting professional investors, traders, family offices and digital currency funds with top entrepreneurs in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector.



Transform Group PKT@transformgroup.com

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[September 29, 2021] Everest Announces Pricing of $1.0 billion of Senior Notes by Everest Reinsurance Holdings

Everest Re Group, Ltd. ("Everest" or the "Company") (NYSE:RE) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Everest Reinsurance Holdings, Inc. ("Holdings"), priced a registered public offering of $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of 3.125% Senior Notes due 2052 of Holdings (the "Notes"). Holdings anticipates that the offering will close on October 4, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, and plans to use the net proceeds from the Notes for general corporate purposes and in line with the Company's long-term strategic objectives. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Wells Fargo (News - Alert) Securities, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering of the Notes is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement, previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) "). The offering of the Notes is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus which are part of the shelf registration statement. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement, final prospectus supplement (when available) and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained by contacting Citigroup Global Markets Inc., toll-free at 1-800-831-9146 or prospectus@citi.com or Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, toll-free at 1-800-645-3751 or wfscustomerservice@wellsfargo.com. Alternatively, you may obtain these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml



This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Everest Re Group, Ltd. and Everest Reinsurance Holdings, Inc.

Everest Re Group, Ltd. is a leading global provider of reinsurance and insurance, operating for close to 50 years through subsidiaries in the U.S., Europe, Singapore, Canada, Bermuda and other territories. Everest offers property, casualty, and specialty products through its various operating affiliates located in key markets around the world. Everest common stock (NYSE:RE) is a component of the S&P 500 index. Everest Reinsurance Holdings, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Everest. Holdings' principal business, conducted through its operating subsidiaries, is the underwriting of reinsurance and insurance in the U.S. and international markets. Additional information about Everest, our people, and our products can be found on our website at www.everestre.com. All issuing companies may not do business in all jurisdictions. This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements in the U.S. Federal securities laws. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements made on behalf of the Company, including the expected closing and use of proceeds from the debt offering. These risks and uncertainties include the impact of general economic conditions and conditions affecting the insurance and reinsurance industry, the adequacy of our reserves, our ability to assess underwriting risk, trends in rates for property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, competition, investment market and investment income fluctuations, trends in insured and paid losses, catastrophes, pandemic losses, regulatory and legal uncertainties and other factors described in our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K. Neither Everest nor Holdings undertakes any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005953/en/

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[September 29, 2021] iSIGN Media Announces a Restructuring of its Management and Board

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. (iSIGN or Company) (TSX-V: ISD) (OTC: ISDSF), a leading provider of interactive mobile proximity marketing and public security alert solutions announced management and Board changes.

The Board of Directors have accepted the resignation of Bruce Reilly as iSIGNs Chief Financial Officer and has appointed Bob MacBean in his place. The Board added David Beck and Alex Romanov as new iSIGN directors and accepted the resignations of Bruce Reilly and Mark Thimmig, both of whom resigned due to the demands of their other businesses. These changes were made effective September 21, 2021. The Board of Directors accepted Gregory Wade as a new iSIGN Director and has appointed Joe Kozar as Interim Chief Executive Officer, both effective September 29, 2021. Brief bios of all parties are: Joe Kozar previously served as iSIGNs Chief Executive Officer from March 1, 2017 to February 22, 2021. Joes background is the tech field. He has been and is involved with many high-tech companies covering a broad range of solutions. His educational background is the engineering field, with his main focus being electronic design. Joe sits on several boards and is involved with venture capital investing. Joe has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer while iSIGN conducts its search for an individual to handle the Chief Executive Officer position on a full-time basis. Bob MacBean has an extensive background in creating and building successful domestic and international, public and private businesses. He has experience in many sectors including venture capital, SaaS and software development and investment banking. He has developed, implemented and managed strategies balancing growth, profitability, scalability, cost control and performance. Bob is a director and officer of Environmental Waste International Inc. a TSXV reporting issuer. Bob is a Certified Management Accountant CPA, CMA and has served on iSIGNs board since March 6, 2019. Alex Romanov assumed his current role with iSIGN as Strategic Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer on August 20, 2021. Alex has served iSIGN sice November 2007, in a variety of positions, including Chief Executive Officer and as a director. He is an accomplished business executive with a history of identifying opportunities and turning them into high growth and profitable enterprises. Alex has diverse experience in a variety of industries, including National Sales Manager at Motorola; Chief Executive Officer at Alpine Electronics; Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Oak Marketing, with sales of $120 million annually, that was sold for $29 million and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spherex, that was sold for $5 million.



David Beck is currently the principle of a boutique advisory firm, Sprout Capital Corp., focused on bringing resources to innovative growth companies. Most recently, Mr. Beck was CEO and Chairman of 3 Sixty Secure Corp., a security services company with ~300 employees. Mr. Becks prior experience has primarily been focused on public and private capital markets. Public equity experience includes: Head of TMT (technology, media, telecom) Investment Banking at several boutique investment dealers, and consistently top-ranked technology Financial Analyst based in both New York City and Toronto. Private equity experience includes: Partner, Celtic House Venture Partners, and personal financial investments and advisory services to ~20 private growth companies. He is currently Director & Chairman of Deal Desk at DGTL Holdings Inc. (DGTL-TSXV). Prior public company BOD roles include 3 Sixty Secure Corp., Basis100 Inc., CRS Robotics Corporation, Pivot Technology Solutions Inc., and World Class Extractions Inc. Mr. Beck holds an MBA (Deans List) from Ivey Business School (University of Western Ontario) and a BSc Honours (Engineering Physics) from Queen's University. Gregory Wade is currently Managing Partner at NextBase Consultants. He has over 30 years of business leadership experience in multinational environments, helping businesses scale through expansion, partnerships and innovative solutions. He founded NextBase Consultants and serves as Managing Partner responsible for leading the companys senior-level engagement with global technology partners spanning sectors including telecommunications, cybersecurity, information and communications technology and transportation. Greg holds an MBA with a Marketing specialization from the Schulich School of Business. He is a volunteer board advisor at big data analytics firm AfterData.ai and digital marketing agency Dreamline Digital.

On behalf of the Board and the Company, I would like to thank Bruce and Mark for their time and dedication to iSIGN over the past years, stated Mr. Bob MacBean, iSIGNs Chief Financial Officer and director. We wish them both the very best in their future endeavors. About iSIGN Media iSIGN, a Canadian company based in Toronto (Richmond Hill), Ontario is a data-focused, software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that is a pioneering leader in the areas of location-based security alert messaging and proximity marketing utilizing Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity in complete privacy. Creators of the Smart suite of products, a patented interactive proximity marketing technology, iSIGN enables the delivery of messages to mobile devices in proximity, with real-time reporting and analytics on a variety of metrics. 2019 winner of Richmond Hills Innovator of the Year award. Partners include IBM, Keyser Retail Solutions, Baylor University, Verizon Wireless, and Mtrex Network Solutions. www.isignmedia.com  2021 iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Company contacts: Bob MacBean

iSIGN Media Solutions Inc.

bob@isignmedia.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 accuracy of this release.



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[September 29, 2021] Boston Properties Announces 10-Year Lease Renewal & Expansion With Wellington Management at Atlantic Wharf

Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE: BXP), the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of Class A office properties in the United States, and its partner, Norges Bank Investment Management announced today that Wellington Management has signed a long-term lease renewal at Atlantic Wharf located at 280 Congress Street, Boston, Massachusetts. The 524,000 square foot, 10-year lease agreement will commence in 2026 and includes a 66,000 square foot expansion within the building which commences in 2022. Wellington, one of the world's largest independent asset managers, has been headquartered at Atlantic Wharf since the building's opening in 2011, and will occupy 22 floors of the 31-story building. Atlantic Wharf, designed as Boston's "First Green Skyscraper," is consistent with Wellington's long-standing commitment to sustainable investing and practices. Certified LEED "Double-Platinum" for both Building Design and Construction as well as Operations and Maintenance by the U.S. Green Building Council, the building features a rain harvesting system that was designed to save more than 12.5 million gallons of water annually and a green roof that is home to four beehives that produce honey that is gifted to building occupants and the community. The building was ENERGY STAR (News - Alert) certified in 2020 and was a recipient of the 2012 ULI Global Awards for Excellence. In addition, Wellington's office space received LEED "Gold" certification for Interior Design and Construction. Atlantic Wharf features AquaFence portable storm barriers, which the Company purchased in 2018 to protect the property from storm-driven flood risks on the Boston Waterfront. BXP was one of the first developers to activate the AquaFence and support from Wellington was key to securing City approvals for this climate resilience technology. Today at least a dozen Boston Waterfront properties have added AquaFence to their emergency management plans. Atlantic Wharf is known for diverse community programming and hosts more than 100 public events annually, including community meetings, fitness classes, and children's festivals, many of which are in partnership with local organizations such as Boston Harbor Now, "e" inc., InnerCity Weightlifting, Ohana New England, Sae the Harbor Save the Bay, Brown Box (News - Alert) Theatre Project, and the BSA Space. Atlantic Wharf has been recognized by several neighborhood associations as an example of successful and consistent community programming and was awarded the 2017 Onboard Award by Boston Harbor Now.



"Since day one, Wellington has been an extraordinary partner and supporter in our commitment to sustainable innovation and bringing diverse public programming and access to the waterfront," said Bryan Koop, Executive Vice President, Boston Region, BXP. "Wellington's long-term commitment to Atlantic Wharf, Fort Point Channel, and the city of Boston is incredibly important, and we look forward to another ten years of successful innovation and community outreach." Located on Boston's Waterfront, Atlantic Wharf is steps away from the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor. The property features a 790,000 square foot office tower, creative office space, residential units, underground parking, a waterfront plaza, and onsite retail including Nebo, Sorelle, Smith & Wollensky, and Trade restaurants. Atlantic Wharf is conveniently accessible from I-90 and I-93 and is located within two blocks of South Station, one of Boston's largest commuter rail, Amtrak, and MBTA bus and subway transit stations.

About Boston Properties Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) is the largest publicly traded developer, owner, and manager of Class A office properties in the United States, concentrated in six markets - Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. The Company is a fully integrated real estate company, organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT), that develops, manages, operates, acquires, and owns a diverse portfolio of primarily Class A office space. Including properties owned by unconsolidated joint ventures, as of June 30, 2021, the Company's portfolio, totaled 51.5 million square feet and 197 properties, including nine properties under construction/redevelopment. For more information about Boston Properties, please visit our website at www.bxp.com or follow us on LinkedIn (News - Alert) or Instagram. About Norges Bank Investment Management Norges Bank Investment Management is the asset management division of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank. As manager of the Government Pension Fund Global, its mission is to safeguard and build financial wealth for future generations in Norway. The fund is invested globally in equity, fixed income, real estate and renewable energy infrastructure. It had investments worth 11,673 billion kroner, or $1,350 billion, as of 30 June 2021. The fund owns direct real estate investments worth approximately $32 billion, totalling nearly 800 assets across 13 countries. In the US, the fund owns direct real estate investments across 22 million square feet of office and retail properties in New York City, Boston, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. About Wellington Management Tracing its history to 1928, Wellington Management is one of the world's largest independent investment management firms, serving as a trusted adviser to over 3,200 clients in more than 60 countries. The firm manages more than US$1 trillion for pensions, endowments and foundations, insurers, family offices, fund sponsors, global wealth managers, and other clients. As a private partnership whose only business is investment management, the firm is able to align its long-term views and interests with those of its clients. The firm offers comprehensive investment management capabilities that span nearly all segments of the global capital markets, including equity, fixed income, multi-asset, and alternative strategies. For more information, please visit wellington.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210929005995/en/

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The ranks of KCPD are quickly withering amid more than a year of overwhelming criticism and a sweeping cultural shift.



Moreover . . .

Local institutions and big biz are joining activists in demands for reform against police. Real talk: This is all just a warm up for an inevitable fight for so-called local control.



Check-it . . .



"Trust and transparency are keys for change, according to leaders of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and Civic Council of Greater Kansas City. Both are asking the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners for fully independent investigations of complaints against officers."

The po-po can handle their own PR and TKC only serves to point out the reality of the situation.

Not so fun fact:

Every bit of this current wave of criticism was ENDORSED by Kansas City police union leadership when they backed Mayor Quinton Lucas.

Elections have consequences and police union leaders are misleading their constituency by FAILING to acknowledge this tactical error.

Like it or not . . . TKC and our blog community know local politics better than cops and several readers predicted this outcome.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

KCPD urged to change way it investigates use-of-force complaints Business leaders are urging the Kansas City Police Department to change the way use-of-force complaints are investigated.Trust and transparency are keys for change, according to leaders of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and Civic Council of Greater Kansas City.

Business Groups Urge Reform Of Kansas City Police Department As KCPD Worries About Staff Losses Business leaders on Tuesday called for independent investigations into excessive force cases by the Kansas City Police Department while Chief Rick Smith complained about a loss of employees.

Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department said it could have less than 1,000 officers by October 2022 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - At Tuesday's Board of Police Commissioners meeting, Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department Chief Richard Smith and other top officers spoke about their concerns regarding staffing within the department. Deputy Chief Michael Hicks presented the KCPD staffing numbers to the board.

Developing . . .


Re: What happens if you have temperature on arrival?

3. Re: What happens if you have temperature on arrival?

The below is from this link....

How do Health Officials decide who needs further testing on arrival?

A series of assessments will be undertaken by the Quarantine Authority or an authorized health officer, including interviews based on the completed Health Declaration Form, temperature checks and the intended place of stay to determine if persons should be tested on arrival.

Is there a cost for the test if I am asked to do one on arrival?

There is a cost of $100 USD for the test on arrival. The cost is payable to the Quarantine Authority.

How quickly are the results returned if I am tested on arrival?

The average turnaround time for results is 48 hours. Note that results can take up to 96 hours.

Where will I be asked to wait prior to and after testing when awaiting results?

Depending on the health screening results, you may be asked to await your test results at the port of entry, or you may be notified of the results the following day at place of stay. The Ministry of Health has indicated that results will be issued in approximately 48 hours, but can take as long as 96 hours.

If the test is given at the airport, and I test positive, what happens?

Arriving passengers who test positive for Covid-19 will be isolated as determined by the Ministry of Health Officials.

If I test positive on arrival, can I elect to go home on the first available flight?

Once the airlines are aware that the passenger is suffering from any infectious disease, they cannot accept you on flights.

What if I am asked to quarantine by Health Officials at the Government Facility; what will the cost be?

If you are advised by Health Officials to quarantine at the Government Facility, you will be required to pay a fee of $100 USD per day.
Ukraines counterintelligence operatives with the SBU security service say a Russian FSB agent has been charged with treason.

That's according to the SBU press center, Ukrinform reports.

It has been established that the perpetrator was a member of the so-called "hit duo", who in 2016 assassinated a Ukrainian spec-ops forces officer in Rivne region. The suspect is believed to have smuggled from Russia the weapon used in the crime.

Another member of the group was detained in November 2016 while trying to cross Ukraines border.

The court found the culprit guilty and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

According to the security operatives, two Ukrainian nationals were recruited by the Russian FSB for spying and sabotage missions to the detriment of Ukraine's state security.

It has been established that in April 2016 the two arrived from Russia to Ukraine to gather and pass to their handlers in the FSB intelligence about Ukrainian military and staff of defense firms.

Subsequently, members of the group executed an order to assassinate a Ukrainian spec-ops forces veteran.

A pre-trial investigation is underway as part of the criminal proceedings launched by the SBU.

The inquiry is overseen by the Rivne Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The SBU has told Ukrinform the victim in question is Ivan Mamchur, an Anti-Terrorist Operation veteran who at that time worked at the Rivne pre-trial detention center. He was shot dead just outside his apartment on September 16, 2016. The hitman shot Mamchur eight times.

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Washington supports Ukraine's right to determine its own collective defense choices.

Each country has the sovereign right to determine its own collective defense choices. We reaffirm our steadfast support for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and Euro-Atlantic aspirations, Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Ned Price posted on Twitter.

Thus, Price commented on the words of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba that Russian President Putins red lines are limited to the territory of the Russian Federation.

Putins red lines are limited to Russias borders. On our side of the Ukrainian-Russian border we can figure out ourselves what to do in the interests of the Ukrainian people, as well as Ukraines and Europes security, Kuleba stressed.

Earlier, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that, according to Putin, Kremlin would perceive the expansion of NATO infrastructure on the territory of Ukraine as an intention to cross Kremlins red lines.

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had agreed with Putin to take "some actions" against Ukraine in response to the alleged deployment of U.S. military bases there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that the main threat to Ukraine, Belarus, and the Belarusian people was currently posed by the Russian Federation.

"To preserve the sovereignty and independence of Belarus and not to become an appendage of Russia  that's what Minsk should really think about," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko.

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Ambassador of Ukraine to Japan Serhiy Korsunsky sees no obstacles to concluding a Free Trade Agreement with Japan.

Thats according to the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I really hope that the Japanese will agree to start free trade talks. From my point of view, there are no obstacles to this end, because both we and the Japanese have free trade with the EU, Britain, and Canada, for example, that is, our legal framework is almost the same," said Korsunsky.

The ambassador added that, in order to sign the agreement, the two countries need to agree on a limited range of protected goods, remaining convinced that these negotiations would be completed within two years.

"There are certain items, the automotive industry, for instance, which may be somehow protected, but I think in a year or two these talks could be completed and in this regard, we are in a serious discussion with the Japanese side," said the diplomat.

The ambassador also believes Ukraine may be of interest to Japan over its rare earth metals and food products.

In addition, Korsunsky stressed the importance of updating the double taxation convention signed with Japan in 1986, drawing attention to the current disadvantages facing Japanese companies.

"They pay three times more taxes on withdrawn capital than Europeans and therefore this restrains investment a lot Id like to believe that this year well see a third final round (of negotiations between the finance ministries of Ukraine and Japan - ed.), agree on this convention and amend it," the ambassador remarked.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in March 2021, Korsunsky said Ukraine was interested in starting negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with Japan.

im
Ukraine and Kuwait have significant potential to increase trade and cooperation in attracting investment.

This was discussed at the meetings of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Senik with Chairman of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce Mohammed Al-Sager, Chairman of the Union of Investment Companies in Kuwait Saleh Al-Selmi, and investment adviser to the Kuwaiti Investment Authority Yusef Al-Maskur, Ukrinform reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

"Ukraine and Kuwait have significant potential to boost trade and implement joint investment projects in the oil and gas sector, aviation, heavy industry, shipbuilding and information technology. We are ready to intensify our cooperation both at the state and the business level," the deputy minister stressed.

He suggested organizing a business mission of Kuwaiti companies to Ukraine in order to get acquainted with the countrys investment opportunities.

It is noted that Senik and Al-Sager paid special attention to the development of cooperation between the Exporters and Investors Council (EIC) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry. According to the Ukrainian diplomat, conferences on trade peculiarities, which have been repeatedly held by the EIC and the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry have proven to be an effective tool for reviving business ties and expanding the range of goods.

As reported, on March 14, 2021, the Exporters and Investors Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding. Since then, five online conferences on various aspects of trade relations between Ukraine and Kuwait have been organized jointly with the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry with more than 400 business representatives.

In January-July 2021, UkraineKuwait trade in goods amounted to $17.47 million. Exports of goods totaled $16.62 million, imports  $0.85 million. The balance of trade in goods is positive for Ukraine and amounts to $15.77 million.

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JSC Ukrtransgaz and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) have signed a memorandum of cooperation in studying the possibilities of the market of renewable gases in Ukraine, including hydrogen, biomethane and synthetic methane, Ukrtransgaz has reported.

"The document envisages strategic cooperation between the two independent operators in decarbonizing the energy sector, opening up the potential of renewable gases in Ukraine, researching technologies and the processes of their transportation and storage," the report said.

In particular, the companies will jointly conduct research, study market opportunities, and coordinate promising routes and pilot projects for the storage of renewable gases and their mixtures with natural gas.

In addition, Ukrtransgaz and GTSOU will work on the creation of new supply chains for hydrogen, biomethane and synthetic methane, including supplies to European countries. They will update energy and climate policies and promote the creation of regulations necessary for further synchronization of Ukraine's energy sector with the European market.

Earlier reports said that four European gas transmission system operators, including GTSOU, had combined efforts to create a hydrogen highway through Central Europe.

On August 22, 2021, on the day of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Kyiv, Naftogaz of Ukraine and Germany's gas trader RWE Supply & Trading signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of the hydrogen economy.

In 2020, the European Union approved its hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe until 2050, in which, in particular, Ukraine was identified as a priority partner due to its potential to produce green hydrogen and the availability of infrastructure connected to the EU.

Green hydrogen is a component of the European Green Deal in the transition from traditional energy sources to their complete replacement by renewable sources. This process can take up to 25 years. At least $ 100 billion worth of investment is required for Ukraine for such a transition.

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Ukraines energy regulator has extended until November 1 the ban, imposed in May this year, on electricity imports from Russia and Belarus.

The National Energy and Utilities Regulation Commission (NEURC) passed the relevant decision on September 29, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the memo to the decision, in the period from May 26 to September 23, the NEURCH did not receive any appeals regarding the need to resume electricity imports from countries that are not members of the Energy Community.

As reported earlier, due to the entry into force on May 15, 2021, of a new law amending legislation on certification of transmission system operators, the NEURC has been entitled to limit the available bandwidth allocated for daily and monthly auctions in 2021, as regards interstate crossings between Ukraine and countries that are not parties to the Energy Community.

In May 2021, the NEURC banned power imports from Russia and Belarus until October 1.

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Ukraine will be talking to the UN leadership about the latter ignoring the Crimea Platform inaugural summit that took place on August 23.

Thats according to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who spoke at an online briefing on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The top diplomat noted the UN's disregard for the summit, saying it was seen as an issue in the context of Ukraine's participation in the organization.

"This happened entirely for political reasons and well talk to the leadership of the organization about the inadmissibility of such an attitude because the UNs key task is to maintain peace and security," Kuleba said.

Read also: MPs call on the world to condemn new wave of repression in occupied Crimea

He noted that Ukraine had seen the participation in the Crimea Platform summit by such organizations as the Council of Europe, NATO, and GUAM, while the UN chose to deliberately ignore the event.

It tells us of the current state of affairs in the organization, as well as of the understanding of their global role and mission. I can openly, diplomatically say that this is a misunderstanding we will address because we need to protect the principles, not interests of individual states violating international law," said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy.

As Ukrinform reported, the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opened in New York on September 14.

The inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform took place in Kyiv on August 23 with the participation of 46 foreign delegations.

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Ukraine has slightly outpaced the conclusions of the European Court of Auditors, which criticized in its special report the effectiveness of the EU's efforts to support Ukraine in the fight against corruption, and began to follow the recommendations of European auditors before the document was published.

"It seems to me that the events related to judicial reform in Ukraine outpace all the conclusions of the Court of Auditors. Indeed, it is said that the European Union has invested heavily in technical assistance projects, in expertise, but above all in the reform of the judiciary and the rule of law  these are political processes I think this report is realistic, it has a right to exist. But today we are already moving in the direction reflected in the recommendations of this report," Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna said at a press conference following her two-day visit to Brussels, answering questions from Ukrinform.

As noted, the European Union, the United States, and the G7 countries provide political context to support Ukraine on this path. This topic was discussed with Vice-President of the European Commission Vera Jourova during the visit of the Ukrainian government delegation to Brussels.

"The conclusions [of report] only confirm that we are on the right track now. For us, first and foremost, it is important to have political support for the efforts of the President, who is committed to reforms in the justice system and who has strongly supported amendments to the legislation concerning the predominant role of international experts. Now these experts, with the political support of international partners, should help us move forward on this path," Stefanishyna added.

On September 23, the European Court of Auditors released a report on the ineffectiveness of the use of EU funds to support Ukraine's rule of law and anti-corruption programs, and provided recommendations for adjustments to EU policies.

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The Cabinet of Ministers has approved an action plan to implement the Strategy for Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Crimea.

The government passed the relevant decision at its regular meeting on Wednesday, September 29, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

I will tell you about the action plan for the implementation of the Crimea deoccupation strategy. The document has been submitted to the government today and it has been approved. Together with the relevant strategy, it will be our comprehensive roadmap, through which we will regain the Ukrainian Crimea, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

He reiterated comprehensive decisions the authorities have been making on the issue, involving world-renowned experts and analysts.

We are documenting all crimes committed by the aggressor power, and we will force Russia to pay for this in international courts. Were working with our partner countries and within the framework of international organizations and international agreements, so that the topic of Crimea remains on the global agenda," the prime minister stressed.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on March 24, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree enacting the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of March 11, 2021, "On the Strategy of Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol."

On August 23, Kyiv hosted an inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform initiative, attended by forty-six national delegations.

Read also: Zelensky calls on UN member states to join Crimea Platform

The Crimea Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to increase the effectiveness of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, increase international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations and protect victims of the occupation regime, and achieve the main goal of deoccupying Crimea and ensuring its return to Ukraine.

Photo: CMU

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Ukraine has expressed concern over Russia's build-up of nuclear capacities in occupied Crimea.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reported, a corresponding statement was made by Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Yuriy Vitrenko at the highlevel meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 28.

"We are concerned about the risks of the possible deployment of uranium enrichment facilities, the production of dual-use materials, and the use of nuclear-related technologies on the peninsula," Vitrenko said.

He recalled that the UN General Assembly in a number of resolutions expressed serious concern over the continued militarization of Crimea by Russia, in particular the deployment of nuclear weapons on the peninsula.

Russia's actions pose a direct threat to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, Vitrenko said.

He also noted that the prolonged occupation of the territory of Ukraine by a state that possesses nuclear weapons has actually expanded the territory of deployment of such weapons in the world.

In 1994, Ukraine took an unprecedented step by abandoning the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal and acceding to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Vitrenko noted.

However, "confidence in some key elements of the NPT and their effectiveness has been seriously undermined by one of the nuclear weapon states," the diplomat said, referring to Russia. He also recalled the 1994 Budapest Memorandum signed by nuclear powers, including Russia, on security guarantees provided to Ukraine in exchange for the renunciation of nuclear weapons.

Two decades later, the Russian Federation "occupied and tried to annex the Crimean peninsula, as well as unleashed a terrible armed aggression in eastern Ukraine," the diplomat said, noting that such security guarantees had proved ineffective.

Vitrenko urged to start "substantive work" of the UN Conference on Disarmament, as well as to draft and conclude a multilateral legally binding instrument on security guarantees for non-nuclear weapon states.

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Ukrainian political parties have spent more than UAH 3 billion over the past five years, using most of the funds for advertising, according to Oleksii Koshel, chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.

He said this at a press conference on Wednesday, September 29, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Over the past five years, Ukrainian political parties have spent more than UAH 3 billion. The lion's share of these funds is the funds received as part of state funding for political parties," he said.

CVU experts analyzed the costs of political parties since the introduction of public funding - for 2016-2020.

"According to the Committee of Voters, the analysis of official reports showed that Oleh Liashko's Radical Party and the Batkivshchyna All-Ukrainian Association have spent the most money over the past five years. In particular, Oleh Liashko's Radical Party spent UAH 644 million on statutory activities. The party also became the leader in terms of expenditures for the 2019 parliamentary election campaign, spending almost UAH 115 million during the election campaign," Koshel said.

The Batkivshchyna party spent UAH 631 million, including UAH 87 million on the 2019 parliamentary election campaign.

The European Solidarity party spent UAH 577 million in 2016-2020, and the Servant of the People spent UAH 513 million in 2019-2020.

"If we analyze other parties with significant costs, we point to the party Opposition Platform - For Life  UAH 190 million, Svoboda - UAH 119 million, the Ukrainian Strategy of Groysman  UAH 117 million. The latter did not receive funds as part of state funding," Koshel said.

At the same time, the Udar party spent only UAH 3 million.

"One of the negative conclusions we draw is that the lion's share of funds - 40% of political parties' expenditures  is spent on direct advertising. We have analyzed the financial reports and based on the results of state funding for 2016-2020, we can say that about 40% of funds are spent on direct advertising. And this is a rather modest assessment because it does not take into account propaganda activities, which can also often be direct advertising," Koshel said.

The Nashi party said in its annual report for 2018 that its expenditures totaled UAH 10.2 million, including UAH 10.1 million spent on billboard advertising. That is, in fact, 98-99% of the party's annual expenditures were used exclusively for direct advertising.

The Opposition Platform  For Life party spent a significant amount of funds on propaganda activities - over UAH 80 million. In 2019, the political party spent UAH 19.9 million on propaganda activities and UAH 13.4 million on television advertising.

Batkivshchyna and the Radical Party have spent significant funds on advertising over the past five years. In 2018, Batkivshchyna spent UAH 188 million, including UAH 155 million on propaganda activities.

In 2018, the Radical Party spent almost UAH 94 million, including UAH 58 million on advertising. In particular, UAH 36 million was spent on television advertising.

The Verkhovna Rada in 2015 passed a law on the financing of political parties from the state budget. The funds are distributed among the parties in proportion to the level of their support in the elections.

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The Ukrainian side has received no official signals from the European Commission about the threat of visa-free travel with the European Union being abolished.

Thats according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oleh Nikolenko who offered a comment to Ukrinform.

The comment comes in response to some media reports claiming a number of EU states see Ukraine among countries of concern in terms of its citizens abusing the visa-free travel privileges.

"The issue of visa-free travel from time to time arises in both the European and Ukrainian media. The Ukrainian side has not received official signals from the European Commission about the threat of the visa-free regime with the EU being recalled. There is no reason for such a move," Nikolenko said.

The official recalled that on August 4, the European Commission published a fourth report assessing the implementation of visa liberalization requirements in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries, including Ukraine, which covered the period of 2020 and the first half of 2021.

"The report contains a positive assessment of our countrys compliance with the visa-free travel criteria. Of course, there were also recommendations to continue doing our homework to improve management of migration processes and enhance our anti-corruption legislation," the spokesman said.

According to Nikolenko, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has already invited a number of EU member states and the European Commission to hold consultations to clarify certain provisions of Ukrainian legislation.

The ministry expects such expert consultations to be held in the near future.

Nikolenko added that Ukraine is at the same time finalizing its national report on the implementation of visa liberalization with the EU, where the Ukraine government will inform its European partners about the progress on fulfilling recommendations voiced by the European Commission.

"Ukraine is not a country of a high migration risk, while cooperation with the EU in the field of readmission, as one of the key factors toward proper functioning of visa-free travel, is at the appropriate level," the spokesperson said.

As reported earlier, RFE/RL said it saw a document in which several EU countries assessed the situation of the liberalized visa regime with the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Assessments were made by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and Slovakia. According to the report, Germany, France, and Italy have grown more frustrated with the alleged visa travel abuses, including by Ukrainian nationals.

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President of Israel Isaac Herzog will make his first state visit to Ukraine on October 5-7 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy.

As Ukrinform learnt from the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine, President Herzog will attend the events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, address the Verkhovna Rada, and meet with representatives of the Jewish community in Ukraine.

On the eve of his visit, Herzog underscored the need to continue talking about this terrible event and learning its lessons. "The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center is an important place to honor this painful memory and to make a statement that we must uphold together: never again. The only way to build the present and the future in which crimes against humanity remain unsupported is to study the past, including the Holocaust and the persecution of the Jewish people. I welcome President Zelensky's invitation and his commitment to combating antisemitism," the President of Israel said.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the tragedy of Babyn Yar must happen never again in Ukraine or somewhere in the world, and preserving the memory of the tragedy is a duty to future generations.

Two words with more than 100 thousand human lives behind. Two words with millions of crippled destinies behind. Two words with 80 years of common pain of Jewish and Ukrainian peoples behind. Babyn Yar Two short words that sound like two short shots but carry lengthy and horrible memories for several generations, the President posted on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

He noted that today all Ukrainian schools would hold a national lesson dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the great tragedy of Babyn Yar and added that, depending on age and upbringing, some will hear these two terrible words and these terrible numbers for the first time.

They will hear that 80 years ago, on September 29, 1941, the Nazi occupiers began mass executions in the Babyn Yar tract. That they killed almost 34,000 people in the next two days. That the Nazis, according to various estimates, executed from 100 to 200 thousand people in Babyn Yar over the next two years. Apart from Jews, they massacred Ukrainians and Roma, prisoners of war, and psychiatric hospital patients, Zelensky stressed.

The Head of State noted that at least 6 million Jews had fallen victim to the Holocaust in Europe, one and a half million of whom, every fourth killed, descended from Ukraine.

The President is convinced that future generations need to be aware of these terrible figures and the terrible crimes of Nazism in order not to repeat these terrible mistakes and terrible tragedies in human history.

Preserving the memory of World War II, in particular of the Babyn Yar tragedy and the Holocaust, is our duty to future generations. It is our duty to past generations to honor the memory of all those who died, he said

Zelensky assured that he had been making every effort to turn the Babyn Yar from a land of oblivion into a place of commemoration of the hundreds of thousands of victims killed in 1941-1943.

Babyn Yar are two terrible words that will always be in our past. Never again are two important words that will always be in our future. And the Babyn Yar tragedy which took place in Ukraine 80 years ago must happen never again in Ukraine, other parts of Europe, or somewhere else in the world. Never again, Zelensky stressed.

As reported, Ukraine is commemorating the Babyn Yar victims on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy.

During World War II, the German occupation forces used the Babyn Yar tract in the northwestern part of Kyiv as a place of mass executions of civilians, mainly Jews. On September 29, 1941, by order of the occupation administration, the entire Jewish population was obliged to appear in Babyn Yar. People were escorted in groups through the checkpoint, after which they were driven to the edge of the ravine and shot. On September 29-30, 33,771 people were killed.

The massacres in the tract lasted until the occupiers left the city. According to official figures, about 100,000 people were shot down there.

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To date, the Russian Federation has illegally imprisoned 121 Ukrainian citizens for political reasons.

To date, the Russian Federation has illegally imprisoned 121 Ukrainian citizens, including 86 Crimean Tatars, for political reasons. They experience reprisals because of their religious beliefs, are subjected to ill-treatment and torture, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova said at a meeting with OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Ukrinform reports.

According to her, the occupiers persecute Ukrainian citizens even for the pro-Ukrainian views of relatives living in the government-controlled territory.

Today it became known about the searches in the house of the mother of Ukrainian volunteer and civil society activist Stanislav Krasnov in the temporarily occupied Simferopol. They were conducted in violation of procedural rights, without the involvement of lawyers. At the same time, the property of the 74-year-old woman was damaged, and she was unjustifiably detained for several hours in the so-called FSB investigation department, Denisova said.

The observance of educational rights of the Hungarian national minority was also touched upon during the meeting. The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner noted that the Ukrainian-Hungarian interdepartmental working group on education with the involvement of the public has been working in Zakarpattia region since September this year to improve the quality of the educational process in the region's polyethnic environment.

Denisova also drew attention to the problems faced by the Roma community as access to information, social, educational, healthcare services, employment, and documentation became even more relevant amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ukrainian Ombudsperson and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities agreed on further cooperation and dialogue to protect the rights of national minorities and indigenous peoples in Ukraine.

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Ameen Jubran (centre), head and co-founder of Jeel Albena, talks to a displaced man at a camp near Hudaydah, Yemen.  UNHCR/Abdulhakeem Obadi

A Yemeni humanitarian organization that has provided a lifeline to tens of thousands of people displaced by the countrys conflict is the winner of the 2021 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.

The Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development, founded in 2017, won the prestigious award for its unwavering support for displaced Yemenis, even as shifting frontlines brought gun battles and explosions to its doorstep. Its founder Ameen Jubran, 37, has himself been displaced by fighting and nearly killed.

The areas where we work are considered to be among the most impoverished, and also the most dangerous, Jubran said. We felt the danger every day but, despite that, we had displaced people and others who needed our help. We couldnt just leave them behind without providing them with assistance.

The award to Jeel Albena draws attention to people displaced by conflict in Yemen, a country facing one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises. Four million people have fled their homes and are in dire need of protection and assistance. Yet the conflict and its human suffering are often ignored.

Jeel Albena employs more than 160 people and is supported by an additional 230 volunteers, many of whom are displaced themselves. Based in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, it has provided jobs and around 18,000 emergency shelters for people who are internally displaced and living in informal sites in the provinces of Hudaydah and Hajjah.

The organization also supports displaced women to become self-sufficient and renovates schools, benefiting both the local community and displaced populations.

The extraordinary work carried out by you and your team, and your perseverance in helping Yemenis from all backgrounds, is an example of humanity, compassion and dedication, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, speaking of Jubran.

The award also highlights the extraordinary work done by many local NGOs on the ground in Yemen.

The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award honours individuals, groups or organizations for going above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, other displaced and stateless people. There have been over 60 global winners from different countries since the award was first established in 1954.

This year, there were 200 nominations for the Nansen Refugee Award. There are also five regional winners:

Jorge Santiago Avila Corrales, 33, is a Honduran social worker and director of Jovenes Contra la Violencia. He is honoured as the winner from the Americas for his courage and dedication in challenging gang violence that blights the lives of many young Hondurans.

Doctor Saleema Rehman, 29, lives and practices medicine in Pakistan. She is honoured as the winner from Asia for her courage and dedication as a medical professional during the COVID-19 pandemic and as a changemaker in the promotion of girls education.

Nikola Kovacevic, 32, is an independent human rights lawyer from Serbia. He is honoured as the winner from Europe for advocating for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the Balkans region.

There are two winners from Africa. Roukiatou Maiga, 55, from Burkina Faso who has been advocating for internally displaced people and facilitating aid for them. Chief Diambendi Madiega, also from Burkina Faso, has also been honoured for advocating for the rights of people internally displaced by conflict and providing shelter.

Jubran will receive the award on behalf of his team at a virtual ceremony on October 4, 2021. The award will include a commemorative medal and a monetary prize of US$ 150,000. The five regional winners will also be recognized at the ceremony.

Established in 1954, the award celebrates the legacy of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian scientist, polar explorer, diplomat and first High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations.

NOTES TO EDITORS

More information and multimedia content can be found at the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award media page, available here

Media contacts:

About UNHCR:



UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water; help safeguard fundamental human rights; and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality. For more information about UNHCR, visit https://www.unhcr.org/about-us.html
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited the Turkish Red Crescent's community centre in Sanlurfa and met with refugees there.  UNHCR/Emrah Gurel

Turkey  During a three-day mission to Turkey, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised the country for its continued commitment to protecting refugees and asylum-seekers and including them in public services like education, health and livelihoods.

Turkey currently hosts some 3.7 million Syrians and around 330,000 others, the majority of whom are Afghans.

Turkey is an example to the world not only in that it continues to protect millions of refugees, but is also a leader in how it hosts them," the High Commissioner said. "The Government and people have included refugees in public services, offering important opportunities for them to achieve their potential.

Refugees have access to public services, such as education, legal work opportunities and national health care including testing and vaccination for COVID-19. This is real inclusion. However, responding to a refugee crisis and assisting refugees must be a global and shared responsibility as reiterated in the Global Compact for Refugees, Grandi added. Donors must also step up and help not just refugees but also the Turkish people who have generously hosted them.

The High Commissioners mission included visits to Ankara, Sanliurfa and Gaziantep. He was received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and held meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu.

During his meetings, Grandi emphasized the importance of global cooperation to find solutions to displacement and refugee flows as well as the importance of scaling up assistance both in refugee hosting countries and countries of origin.

The unfolding situation in Afghanistan was also a subject of discussions and Grandi briefed on UNHCRs operations inside the country to urgently help the 3.5 million displaced people ahead of the looming winter as well as UNHCRs activities in support of Afghan refugees and their hosts. Grandi also reiterated his public appeal to all member states to respect the right of Afghans to seek international protection.

While in Sanlurfa and Gaziantep, Grandi met the respective governors and mayors and thanked them for their leadership in promoting harmonious relations between Turkish and Syrian communities. He also met with refugees to listen to their perspectives and experiences as refugees and their hopes and aspirations for the future.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Internally displaced people arrive to work their land as part of an agricultural project in Lusenda, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  UNHCR/John Wessels

Today, more than 48 million people remain forcibly displaced within their own countries due to conflict and violence, with the majority women and children.

Amid ongoing conflict and persecution and a global deficit of peace, the rate of internal displacement is on a worrying trajectory.

Driven by crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, the Sahel, Mozambique, Yemen and several others, the number of internally displaced people rose by more than 2.3 million last year alone.

In the face of continued global inaction, fresh waves of displacement are inevitable while the plight of those already uprooted will become increasingly desperate.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes the protection and solutions recommendations made today by the UN Secretary-Generals High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement.

I echo the call to governments, civil society and the private sector to step up collectively to help prevent, respond to and resolve forced displacement.

UNHCR will continue to scale up its work in situations of internal displacement, together with affected communities, and UN, humanitarian and development partners, bringing to bear our long standing experience in refugee protection and solutions.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
When Ameen Jubran chose to stay in Hudaydah  the scene of some of the most intense clashes of Yemens six-year conflict  to help thousands of his compatriots who had fled violence, the decision was driven by his own experience of being forced to escape from the fighting.

The first time his family was uprooted came in 2015, at the start of an ongoing conflict that has created one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises and displaced more than 4 million people inside the country. As fighting engulfed their hometown of Saada in northwest Yemen, they joined others escaping to the nearby town of Razih.

There must have been 10,000 people fleeing the town on foot at the same time. Some of us were crammed into the boots of cars, and petrol stations along the way were burning, Jubran, 37, recalled. It was like something out of a movie scene.

His most terrifying moment came in 2017, when the neighbourhood where they were living in Razih came under heavy bombardment, and their house was rocked by a huge explosion.

All the glass shattered. I was in the same room as my daughter and saw blood on her hands, he said. As they rushed to get away, Jubran resolved to take his daughters prized bike with him.

In the sheer panic and chaos, there was dust everywhere and I grabbed my daughters bike and ran downstairs. Then I got to the first floor and realised I had taken the bike but forgotten my daughter.

After gathering the whole family, they set out once again in search of safety, this time settling in the capital Sanaa. But the memory of the blind panic and confusion that overcame him as the fighting drove them from their home remains fresh.

See also: Yemeni humanitarian organization wins 2021 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award

These experiences, together with a conviction that Yemenis must help each other through a war that has ground on for more than six years, led Jubran to establish the aid organization Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development.

The organization was founded by Jubran and 40 others who had worked together since their university days in 2007 to help fellow students displaced by long-running conflict. It currently employs more than 160 people and supports an additional 230 volunteers, many of them also displaced.

Based in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, which has experienced some of the worst clashes of the entire conflict, the organization has provided emergency shelters to more than 18,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) living in informal sites in and around Hudaydah and another city, Hajjah.

At the height of fighting for control of Hudaydah in 2018, Jubran and his colleagues were forced to relocate their office four times as the shifting frontlines brought gun battles and explosions to their doorstep. But despite the danger, Jubran said they resolved to stay and help.

The areas where we work are considered to be among the most impoverished, and also the most dangerous, Jubran explained. We felt the danger every day, but despite that we had displaced people and others who needed our help. We couldnt just leave them behind without providing them with assistance.

By housing displaced families in shelters made from woven khazaf palm fronds, which are more ecologically sustainable and better suited to the harsh local climate than man-made materials, they provide employment to hundreds of displaced people and locals  mostly women  who grow, weave, and sell the raw material.

Shelter is the most basic and important need for the displaced, Jubran explained. If they have adequate shelter, it protects the familys dignity, and they are no longer homeless.

An internally displaced family stand outside a shelter provided by Jeel Albena at a hosting site in Hudaydah, Yemen.  UNHCR/Abdulhakeem Obadi

Head and co-founder of Jeel Albena, Ameen Jubran, 37, pictured in Sana'a, Yemen.  UNHCR/Ahmed Haleem

Yemeni women at a displacement site near Hudaydah weave khazaf palm fronds used in the construction of environmentally sustainable shelters.  UNHCR/Abdulhakeem Obadi

Shelters provided by Jeel Albena to accomodate internally displaced people at a site in As Sukhnah near Hudaydah, Yemen.  UNHCR/Abdulhakeem Obadi

The organization manages around 90 informal sites hosting between 100 and 1,000 families, providing services such as sanitation and rehabilitating schools to accommodate displaced children. It also runs a community centre in Hudaydah that offers legal assistance, psychological counselling and vocational training to the displaced and the communities that host them.

In recognition of its dedication to helping internally displaced Yemenis during the conflict, Jeel Albena has been chosen as the winner of UNHCRs 2021 Nansen Refugee Award, a prestigious annual prize that honours those who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help forcibly displaced or stateless people.

The prize will be presented by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, at a virtual ceremony to broadcast at 18.30 CET on 4 October.

The Nansen Refugee Award is named in honour of Norwegian explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, the first High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Prize winner, who was appointed by the League of Nations in 1921.

Strolling through informal sites dotted with the woven shelters Jeel Albena has supplied, Jubrans infectious grin is reflected on the smiling faces of those who gather to greet him like an old friend. Many have known him for years and know he understands them.

We have faced many similar difficulties in terms of being away from loved ones, from friends, Jubran said. My experience with displacement impacted me positively in how I deal with other displaced people. I became more in touch with [them], and it gave me patience and determination  to listen to them, and to really get to know their true needs.

"Once the war is over, then I can relax."

Despite the enduring sense of optimism that Jubran says sets Yemenis apart and keeps alive their dreams of a peaceful future, he also knows the despair that can threaten to overwhelm those caught up in conflict and driven from their homes.

A few years ago, after six months working on the frontlines during which he was unable to visit his wife and daughters in Sanaa, Jubran suffered burnout and was ready to quit.

It was a conversation with his father that ultimately changed his mind.

He said, You cant quit when Yemen is going through its worst humanitarian crisis, displaced people are losing their homes on daily basis and you are still capable of helping them, Jobran recalled.

He got in his car, drove to Hudaydah and went straight back to work, and hasnt stopped since.

I said to myself that once the war is over, then I can relax.
Two decades ago, Seleema Rehman was one of only a handful of refugee girls attending classes at the Barakat Primary School in the city of Attock, west of Pakistans capital, Islamabad. Now, at the age of 29, she is standing before a class of about 30 young refugee girls at her old school, dressed in a white doctors coat.

Which one of you wants to be a doctor? she asks with a smile.

Dozens of hands shoot into the air. It is great that you want to become doctors. Study harder, and never give up, she tells them.

Saleema has been following her own advice since she was a small child and her family began calling her Doctor Saleema.

The nickname was a reference to her difficult birth in a refugee camp in Swabi in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Saleemas mother struggled to get medical assistance, and Saleema was not expected to survive.

Her father, Abdul, swore to himself that if the infant lived, he would make sure that he or she received an education and became a doctor.

He stayed true to that promise and supported his daughter through years of schooling, despite facing criticism from his own community. Many among them frowned upon the idea of a girl having aspirations outside the home and marriage.

In the early days, I was often the only girl on school benches, recalls Saleema. I remember how my community disapproved of my fathers decision to send a girl to school. Thats when I began to understand how important it was to make something of myself, set an example and dare young girls in my community to dream.

Saleema fulfilled her own lifelong dream earlier this year when she opened a private clinic in Attock in order to serve refugee and local women who struggle to access affordable health care.

It was the culmination of years of studying and dedication that involved more than just overcoming cultural norms. Her status as a refugee also threw up obstacles.

As a child, I was not aware of my refugee status, she says. But I came to know about it when my classmates were getting admitted to colleges of higher education, and I was not because Im a refugee.

Saleema kept applying for two years until she obtained the only seat reserved annually for a refugee to study medicine in Pakistans Punjab province. She later specialized in gynaecology after being selected for a residency at Rawalpindis Holy Family Hospital, also in Punjab.

In 2020, the last year of Saleemas training as a gynecologist, Holy Family Hospital was declared a COVID-19 response hospital, and she found herself on the frontlines of the pandemic, treating women with the virus who were giving birth. Many of her patients were refugees and locals who had contracted the virus because they relied on daily wage work outside the home and could not afford to isolate.

Leafing through an old photo album, Saleema describes her journey of becoming a doctor to some refugee girls.  UNHCR/Amsal Naeem

Addressing an assembly at her former school, Saleema encourages the young refugee girls to keep studying and following their dreams.  UNHCR/Amsal Naeem

Saleema examines a patient at her clinic in Attock, Pakistan.  UNHCR/Betsy Joles

Saleema and her father Abdul Rehman, 49, at the Holy Family Hospital. "If there is a problem in my community they ask me because I have a daughter who is a doctor. It's a great sense of pride for us," says Abdul.  UNHCR/Roger Arnold

Saleema on the ward at Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where she did her residency.  UNHCR/Roger Arnold

Saleema attends to women and their newborn babies on the postnatal ward at Holy Family Hospital.  UNHCR/Roger Arnold

Saleemas dream of opening a private practice so she could offer free care to those most in need in her community again came up against her status as a refugee. Since obtaining her first degree in medicine in early 2015, she had not been able to obtain a medical license, but her determination eventually paid off.

I applied again and again to get the license, she says. I got [it] in January 2021 after years of my medical education and training to become a specialized doctor. It was like a turning point in my life.

She opened the clinic in Attock in June of this year, and she now sees many refugee patients who would otherwise have had to travel long distances to the nearest hospital and be accompanied by someone who could interpret for them.

The opening of this clinic was a very happy event for us, exclaims Anila, one of Saleemas Afghan refugee patients. Many Afghans cannot afford expensive clinics, but Doctor Salma is helping us. It would be good if more of our girls would study and become doctors.

At her clinic, Saleema is also promoting hygiene practices and dispelling myths about the COVID-19 vaccine. This year, she welcomed the Government of Pakistans efforts to include refugees in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign as she believes no one is safe from the virus until everyone is safe.

"I want to prove that a girl can be anything."

Today, Saleemas story and work are bringing change. Some of the staunchest opponents of girls education in her community call Saleema to seek health advice for their wives, sisters and daughters. Many now send their daughters to school in the hope that they might follow in her footsteps.

Shes a trailblazer. Shes beaten the odds by becoming the first female doctor in her community. By achieving her dream of offering health care to the most vulnerable  refugees and Pakistanis alike  Saleema is a living testament to how women can contribute to the socio-economic development of their communities, said Noriko Yoshida, UNHCRs Representative in Pakistan.

For her outstanding service and commitment towards her community and some of the poorest people in Pakistan, Saleema has been chosen as the regional winner for Asia for UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award, a prestigious annual prize that honours those who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help forcibly displaced or stateless people.

The Award recognizes the powerful example Saleema has set for other women and girls and her dedication towards her patients, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I want to prove that a girl can be anything if provided with opportunities, says Saleema.

Whether I am in Pakistan or anywhere else, I want to serve humanity with my whole heart.
Community leader Diambendi Madiega, known by locals as 'Elephant Chief', at his home in Kaya, Burkina Faso.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

In early 2019, one or two newcomers each day began appearing on the dusty road leading into Bolle  a community on the outskirts of Kaya, capital of Burkina Fasos Centre-North Region  desperately seeking help after fleeing attacks by armed groups and national forces further north near the countrys border with Mali.

Last year, however, as the attacks to the north increased and insecurity spread, what began as a trickle of displacement became a steady flow. Unsure what to do with the scores of impoverished people arriving every day, the community turned to Diambendi Madiega for answers.

At that time the people began arriving in very big numbers in just a short period of time, Madiega explained. If you took the road leading [north], you would never stop meeting people coming here. It reached a point when I was overwhelmed.

Long-regarded as a bastion of stability in Africas volatile Sahel region, Burkina Faso is currently grappling with the worlds fastest-growing displacement crisis. In response to frequent and deadly attacks on civilians and security forces, more than 1.4 million Burkinabe have been driven from their homes over the past two years, including at least 350,000 since the start of 2021.

See also: Record numbers forced to flee ongoing violence in Burkina Faso

Madiega, 67, is instantly recognizable by the stick he leans on to walk following a motorcycle accident, and the brightly patterned hat atop his tall frame that marks him out as the communitys leader. Among the locals he is affectionately referred to as Naaba Wogbo, or Elephant Chief.

With so many arriving with nothing besides a few personal possessions, Madiega felt a responsibility to help. He bought provisions to stave off hunger and opened his large backyard to displaced families, who built temporary shelters there to protect themselves from the elements. When the yard quickly filled up, he directed hundreds more to his nearby field.

Before long he was hosting and feeding some 2,500 people, but more continued to arrive. With no more land of his own to offer, Madiega set about convincing 300 others in the community to take people in.

I asked for their land to install two or three tents, and they agreed, he explained. They are aware that if the current situation continues unresolved, in the future they could also find themselves in the same situation. There is no distinction between us.

Burkina Faso: A traditional chief who convinces his community to share their land with the displaced (Selim Meddeb,camera, Clementine Malpas, editor, Edith Champagne, producer)

While Madiega was marshalling his own communitys resources, a near identical scenario was playing out 170 kilometres to the northeast in Dori, near the countrys volatile border area with Mali and Niger that in recent years has become a hotspot for attacks and intimidation by armed groups.

As the towns population grew by a fifth in just two years with the arrival of 35,000 displaced people, dozens would gather each day outside the house of Roukiatou Maiga.

The unassuming descendant of one of the regions royal families, Maiga, 55, was born with a stubborn streak that led her to defy convention and her familys wishes to marry the man she loved.

My parents wanted me to marry someone from my own ethnic group, but I said no, its him that I want, Maiga explained. It wasnt easy It took time for my parents to accept.

Following a motorcycle injury 12 years ago, Diambendi walks with a stick and often hitches a scooter ride to get around.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

Community mobilizer Roukiatou Maiga outside her home in Dori, Burkina Faso.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

Fatoumata Diallo, 43, stayed with Roukiatou after fleeing her home with her family when their village was attacked.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

Maiga conducts an awareness session on the dangers of early marriage with tribal leaders and young women in her community.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

Maiga and members of her agricultural cooperative plant niebe beans, which are used to make fritters and other baked goods.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

Madiega sits with his neighbor, Soumaila Ourdraogo, who agreed to host two internally displaced families on his land.  UNHCR/Nana Kofi Acquah

The experience taught her to look beyond a persons ethnicity. I want to show that all ethnicities can live together in peace. Thats why I started helping the displaced.

People crowd into her sun-baked courtyard looking for her help with food, temporary shelter, and practical advice on how to register for assistance from UN agencies and other partners.

Maiga is particularly attentive to the needs of women and children who make up more than half of Burkina Fasos displaced population. Many of them have witnessed violence, including the killing of family and neighbours.

"If a woman can move forward, then so does her community..."

As well as establishing an agricultural cooperative to provide a living for displaced and local women, she also takes the time to sit with new arrivals and listen to their stories, reaching out a hand in comfort as they talk.

Many here have had extremely difficult experiences, and many have psychological problems, Maiga said. For me, if a woman can move forward, then so does her community and the whole country with her.

Fatoumata Diallo arrived in Dori a year ago and stayed with Maiga until she received her own shelter from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. She welcomed us, listened to us, helped us, Diallo said. Now she is like a mother to us.

Burkina Faso: Roukiatou helped hundreds of people displaced by terror to survive (Linda Muriuki Selim Meddeb, camera, Clementine Malpas editor, Edith Champagne, producer)

For their unswerving dedication to helping internally displaced people in Burkina Faso, Maiga and Madiega have been chosen as regional co-winners for Africa of UNHCRs 2021 Nansen Refugee Award.

Named after Norwegian explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, the first High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Prize winner, the prestigious annual prize aims to honour those who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help forcibly displaced or stateless people.

"It shows we are all the same people; we are all Burkinabe"

On learning he would receive the award, Madiega expressed personal joy but also deep pride in the way his neighbours had come together to help their compatriots. I am very happy for what this community has done. It shows we are all the same people; we are all Burkinabe.

Maiga described how her work with displaced people had given her life new meaning but expressed hope that her help would one day no longer be needed.

Ive experienced so much helping people and working as a humanitarian that its become my life, my passion, she said. My wish for the displaced is that they can return, that God will bring them back to their villages in good health, and that peace will prevail in Burkina Faso.
Nikola Kovacevic starts his workday as a lawyer not in a suit, but in a T-shirt and trainers. Day and night, he stands ready to jump in his car and rush to help asylum-seekers and refugees in need.

The 32-year-old has devoted his life to helping asylum-seekers and refugees. He offers not just free legal advice, but also helps them apply for asylum and find shelter, a job and access education and medical assistance in the hope they will find opportunities and a new life in Serbia.

Kovacevic, who has worked in refugee protection since 2012, has represented almost 30 per cent of asylum seekers granted protection in Serbia. He tracks cases long after they are resolved and remains friends with his clients, sharing food and learning about their culture.

Because of his exceptional dedication and substantial contribution to the improvement of asylum systems in Serbia, he has been chosen as the regional winner for Europe of the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award, a prestigious annual prize that honours those who have gone to extraordinary lengths to support forcibly displaced and stateless people. He is the first ever winner from Serbia.

Nikolas work contributed towards important improvements of the asylum procedure in Serbia, including an increase in the number of refugees being granted international protection. Francesca Bonelli, UNHCR Representative in Serbia said. His devotion to the refugee cause in Serbia showcases the importance of everyones involvement and contribution to protection of the people forced to flee their homes. Nikola's example serves as an inspiration to all those, especially the young, who are ready to go the extra mile in providing support to refugees in need.

"What we are witnessing is the twilight of rule of law at the border."

For refugees, access to a country is a precondition for being able to apply for asylum. States have the right to control their borders, but under international refugee law they also must ensure that refugees can access protection. This is not always respected. Many of Kovacevics clients have been exposed to violence during their search for safety. Some have even been pushed back by authorities as they attempt to cross borders.

What we are witnessing is the twilight of rule of law at the border. If we lose the battle at the borders, we will lose the battle for the entire system, said Kovacevic.

A Syrian asylum-seeker holds his son in front of the office of human rights lawyer, Nikola Kovacevic.  UNHCR/Vladimir Zivojinovic

Nikola Kovacevic looks at the injuries of an Afghan asylum-seeker who was pushed back from the border.  UNHCR/Vladimir Zivojinovic

A well-travelled path near the border in Adasevci, Serbia.  UNHCR/Vladimir Zivojinovic

Nikola Kovacevic talks to two Afghan asylum-seekers through an interpreter at a reception centre in Adasevci.  UNHCR/Vladimir Zivojinovic

Nikola Kovacevic and Andras Lederer, Advocacy Manager for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.  UNHCR/Vladimir Zivojinovic

Many of the asylum-seekers he has helped have been deeply affected by the experience of being violently pushed back from a border.

Recently, he met Abas, an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan, who had suffered serious injuries to his ribs and spine during a push back. Kovacevic offered him legal aid and arranged a medical examination. He is continuing to work with Abas to help him access asylum and make Serbia his new home.

Unfortunately, this is just another day in the office, said Kovacevic. This is something we see on a regular basis. It is very important to continue doing what were doing, because we need to find a way for this to stop.

"I was completely lost, it's like nobody could hear me."

Bilal, an asylum-seeker from Syria, recalls meeting Kovacevic at a dark time in his life in 2016. I was completely lost, it's like nobody could hear me, said Bilal, who was homeless at the time. But then there was this light at the end of the tunnel and there was Nikola.

The lawyer offered him free legal assistance and helped him to settle into a home in Serbia, vouching for him with his new landlord. He then referred him to UNHCR and to a psychologist for counselling. He also empowered Bilal to help others, by using his case for strategic litigation.

He is one of the bravest people I have ever met, Kovacevic says about Bilal. By allowing us to litigate his case, he contributed immensely to the protection of countless others.

In addition to his work with asylum-seekers, Kovacevic is building a community of young lawyers interested in human rights through his role as assistant law professor at Union University in Belgrade.

Jana, a former student, explains how his example inspired her to get into human rights law. Seeing somebody that believes so much in what theyre doing was what inspired me and made me want to do this as well, she said.

For Kovacevic, it is his interactions with refugees and asylum seekers that keep him motivated. When you speak with someone in a desperate situation, you explain who you are, what you do... they relax and appreciate that there is someone who wants to speak with them, he said.

This is the essence of the work that we do, to find humanity and to treat every human being with dignity.

All the names of asylum-seekers and refugees used in this article have been changed for protection reasons.


Nikola Kovacevic, awardee of UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award for Europe in 2021

Nikola Kovacevic, an independent human rights lawyer, who has tirelessly supported asylum-seekers and refugees, especially addressing the issues of access to territory and asylum procedure, as well as the practice of collective expulsions (pushbacks), has been named the 2021 Regional winner of the UN Refugee Agencys Nansen Refugee Award in Europe. This is the first time a person from Serbia and Western Balkans is granted with the award established almost seven decades ago.

Mr. Kovacevics work contributed towards important improvements of the asylum system in Serbia including increase in the number of refugees being granted asylum. He has assisted many asylum-seekers to access protection in Serbia, counselling them and helping them apply for asylum, to find shelter, job and access education and medical assistance, hoping they will find opportunities and a new life in Serbia.

Mr. Kovacevic met many who have been through a lot while escaping conflict and persecution, seeking protection. Many have been exposed to violence on their way to safety. His determination instigated their hope for better life.

I am very happy that the efforts of the Serbian human rights lawyer Nikola Kovacevic were recognized by the Nansen Refugee Award committee, said Francesca Bonelli, UNHCR Representative in Serbia, and added: For the persons forced to flee, one of the main preconditions for the continuation of the normal life is that their need for the international protection is recognized and thy can enjoy guaranteed rights. Nikola always went the extra mile in refugee protection. The Nansen award to him recognizes not only his devotion but also the efforts done in Serbia by all actors, responsible institutions and civil society, since the past decades to provide assistance and protection to many refugees from and outside of the region, showing solidarity and making possible for them to find safety and rebuild their lives here in Serbia.

Nikola Kovacevic has said that he is deeply honoured and grateful to receive the 2021 UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Regional Award:

It is hard to put this feeling into words, but this award represents the most important recognition in my life and a strong motivation to continue working in the field of refugee protection. I would like to thank UNHCR for nominating me for such a prestigious recognition and for providing me with the opportunity to find myself in the company of inspiring individuals who dedicated their lives to helping refugees and asylum seekers and who deserve nothing else but our deepest admiration and respect.

This Award places a huge responsibility on my shoulders, but also represents a genuine incentive to continue to fight for the legacy of the 1951 Refugee Convention and to assist those who are in need of international protection in times of increasing xenophobia, twilight of human rights at the borders and increasing lack of solidarity. It has always been an honor to stand by refugees and I dedicate this Award to all those people who were forced to flee their homes!, Nikola underlined.

Established in 1954, UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award honors individuals, groups and organizations who go above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, displaced and stateless people. As of 2017, it is awarded also on a regional level, for Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East.

I congratulate Nikola Kovacevic on winning this years Nansen Refugee Award, it is a well-deserved recognition of his extraordinary work in promoting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers and for his tireless efforts to mitigate and prevent harmful practices, said Geir Hakon Johansen, Deputy Head of Mission of Royal Norwegian Embassy in Serbia. For 66 years, the Nansen Refugee Award has honored extraordinary individuals and groups that have courageously and with integrity gone beyond the call of duty to help refugees or stateless people. The Nansen Refugee Award serves as a powerful platform to advocate for some of the most vulnerable people in the world, and it is a top priority for Norway to promote a comprehensive and rights-based approach for the protection of refugees and other displaced people, said Johansen.

The Government of Switzerland and the Canton of Geneva have supported the Nansen Refugee Award since its establishment in 1954. We are honored today to celebrate the granting of this prestigious award to a person from the Western Balkans for the first time. The Regional Winners are selected from more than 200 nominees for their outstanding work in supporting refugees, displaced and stateless people, stated H.E. Urs Schmid, ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia.

In light of the establishment of the Migration Partnership Agreement between Switzerland and Serbia back in 2009, we are glad to see that a professional from Serbia has been selected to receive the prestigious Nansen award for his extraordinary work and commitment. This also shows the responsiveness of the Serbian asylum system for working with civil society experts and confirms the necessity of continued engagement on this issue, concluded ambassador Schmid.

***

About UNHCRs Nansen Refugee Award

Established in 1954, UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award honors individuals, groups and organizations who go above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, displaced and stateless people. As of 2017, it is awarded also on a regional level, for Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East.

The Nansen Refugee Award program is funded in partnership with the Swiss Government, The Norwegian Government, the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Administrative Council of the City of Geneva and the IKEA Foundation.

About UNHCR

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance such as shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality.

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WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2021) US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met virtually with the G7 finance ministers and reached an understanding on several important global tax issues, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Earlier today, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen participated in a productive virtual meeting with her G7 finance minister counterparts to convene on the ongoing efforts to improve the international tax system to make it equitable and equipped to meet the needs of the 21st century global economy. A common understanding was reached on some of the important open issues, to support reaching final political agreement within the OECD Inclusive Framework in October," the Treasury Department said in a release on Wednesday.

Yellen reiterated the importance of reshaping global tax rules to make sure corporations pay their "fair share" and provide governments with the resources to invest in their people and economies, the release said.

On Tuesday, Yellen made similar statements during a call with European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, during which the two officials discussed international tax reform issues and the practice of governments undercutting the other's tax rates.

During the G7 meeting in June, the leaders of the world's advanced economies agreed to impose a global minimum tax on corporations' international earnings - a pact that was later supported by 134 countries representing more than 90% of the world's gross domestic product.
(@FahadShabbir)

The major hospitals of provincial capital have made elaborate arrangements to tackle corona and dengue cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where 242 corona and 28 dengue patients are under treatment in Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :The major hospitals of provincial capital have made elaborate arrangements to tackle corona and dengue cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where 242 corona and 28 dengue patients are under treatment in Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex .

According to the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) spokesperson currently 146 corona patients are admitted to the hospital including 27 on ventilators. He said that 38 ventilators are reserved for corona patients out of total 68 in the hospitals.

He said during the last 24 hours two patients died of corona while 14 were discharged following recovery while 18 new patients were admitted.

While in Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), 96 corona patients are under treatment. The hospital's spokesperson said there were 122 beds reserved for corona patients including 28 with ventilators.

He said that 18 patients are under treatment on ICU beds while 54 patients are under treatment at HDU beds. He said 24 patients are on low oxygen supply beds.

He said one patient died of corona while three new patients were admitted during the last 24 hours, adding 27 beds are currently lying vacant in the hospital for corona patients.

Giving details about the dengue disease, the KHT spokesman said that currently 15 dengue patients are under treatment in the hospital. He said that most of the cases had been reported from adjacent areas of Peshawar city including Tehkal, academy Town, Sufaid Dheri, Danish Abad, Sarband and Khyber Agency etc.

He said that a total of 907 tests were conducted for dengue during the last 24 hours, out of which 245 tested positive and 662 negative.

He said that best services and treatment facilities were being provided to patients at the medical ward of the hospital.

In HMC, there were a total of 13 dengue patients including the four who were admitted during the last 24 hours. He said that patients got quality treatment and one patient was discharged following recovery.

He said that the hospital conducted 369 tests for dengue out of which 86 came positive.
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Sep, 2021) Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO), and Dubai Municipality held a meeting to review the creative proposals presented by participants selected to redesign 10 public parks in the emirate.

The meeting, held at GDMO in the presence of Mona Al Marri, Director-General of GDMO, was aimed at supporting the 30 participants in aligning their designs with the citys broader urban redevelopment vision and the needs of the community.

Al Marri said, "We constantly seek to involve youth in projects that contribute to enhancing Dubais urban environment in line with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, which aims to make Dubai the worlds best city to live in. We were extremely impressed with the proposals that were submitted by the Emirati professionals chosen to participate in the redesign of public parks.

"The participants, who include architects, interior designers and event planners, have been able to add new dimensions of creativity to the project in their efforts to create compelling spaces that attract more visitors and enhance the sustainability of the city."

She noted that the latest joint project is part of an ongoing partnership between Brand Dubai and Dubai Municipality to undertake beautification projects to enrich the citys urban landscape.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, said, "This joint endeavour supports Dubai Municipality and Brand Dubais common goal of encouraging the participation of youth in the emirates development journey.

Through this initiative, we seek to preserve green spaces and enhance them in a way that allows members of the community to engage more creatively with their surroundings."

Shaima Al Suwaidi, City Branding Manager at Brand Dubai, said, "Over the last few weeks, we have been working closely with the participants in creating new designs for the parks and ensuring they meet the key objectives of the project. We have seen their enthusiasm and are extremely proud of the designs they have presented so far. We look forward to working with them during the next phase of the project as they finalise their proposals before the final showcase."

The project committee members who reviewed the proposals included: Asem Abdulrazzaq Alqassim, Acting Director of the Executive Planning Department at Dubai Municipality; Aisha Abdulrahim Abualshawareb, Acting Manager of the Planning Permits Section at Dubai Municipality; Mahra Salem Al Shamsi, Acting Manager of the Urban Design Section at Dubai Municipality; Ahmed Mohammed Al Marzouqi, Senior Manager, Events Operations, DTCM; and Emirati product designer Khalid Alshafar.

Under the 2040 Master Plan, green and recreational spaces and areas dedicated to public parks in Dubai are set to double in size to serve the projected growth in the number of residents and visitors.
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Sep, 2021) H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubais Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management opened the Central Operations Room of Dubai's Transport Security Department.

Sheikh Mansour was welcomed at the facility by Major General Awad Hader Al Muhairi, Deputy Director General of State Security in Dubai; Major General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs at Dubai Police; and Colonel Obaid Al Hathboor, Director of Transport Security Department in Dubai.

Sheikh Mansour toured the Operations Room which features state-of-art AI solutions.

He was briefed about the functions of the advanced facility, which operates round the clock. The Operations Room is part of a comprehensive infrastructure being developed by Dubai to achieve the UAEs leaderships objectives within the framework of the UAE Centennial 2071 plan and the development vision for the next 50 years.

The Central Operations Room features a smart reporting system that aims to further reduce the Transport Security Departments emergency response time as well as increase accuracy of incident reporting to 95%. The Room also features LTE communication devices that will help replace 80 percent of voice messages sent by the system with text messages.

He also reviewed the Transport Security Departments automated communication system and smart CCTV network, which features 8,000 interconnected cameras operating round the clock and drone operated surveillance cameras that cover large events.

During the visit, H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Mohammed also opened the Unified Call Centre (908) of the Transport Security Department, which seeks to streamline interaction with the public and improve services offered in 10 different languages.
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SHARJAH, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Sep, 2021) A local team from the Sharjah Archaeology Authority has discovered several old Islamic coins in the central region of Sharjah, consisting of rare silver Dirhams dating back to the Abbasid Dynasty.

The coins bear the iconography of five caliphs from the period, Caliph Abu Jaafar Al Mansour, Caliph Mohamed Al Mahdi, Caliph Haroun Al Rashid, Caliph Mohamed Al Amin and Caliph Abu Jaafar Abdullah Al Maamoun. They also include a silver "dirham-link" of Lady Zubaida (Umm Jaafar), the wife of Haroun Al Rashid. A copper Abbasid fils was also found.

Dr. Sabah Aboud Jasim, Director-General of the Authority, said that the discovery confirms the early presence of the Abbasid Dynasty in the region, noting that some coins were found in an Abbasid-style pottery jar dating back to the 9thl10th Century AD.

The coins were minted in several geographical and administrative areas, during the years 154-199 of the Hijri period, AH, (late 8th to early 9th Century AD). They include coins from Morocco (Al Abbasiya 154-166 AH), Persia (Kura Al Mahdiya 154 AH), Al-Rai (Al-Jibal) province (Al Muhammadiya City 192 AH), the Khorasan Region (182,186 and 194 AH), Armenia (191 AH) and Transoxiana (190, 198 and 199 AH).

The discovery documents a pivotal period in the history of Sharjah and the UAE during the Abbasid Dynasty, highlighting the commercial activity that took place in the UAE and in Sharjahs central region.

The coins, which travelled along several key trade routes to the Arabian Gulf and the UAE, confirm that the region was an important trading centre during that period.
Quito, Sept 29 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :At least 24 prisoners were killed in a battle between inmates equipped with firearms and grenades at a prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador, officials said Tuesday.

The national bureau of prisons (SNAI) confirmed the death toll in a statement and updated an earlier toll of wounded to 48 from 42.

The regional police commander, General Fausto Buenano, said that toll included prisoners shot to death and killed by detonating hand grenades.

President Guillermo Lasso re-tweeted an announcement from the prison bureau saying order "has been restored at the Littoral Penitentiary after the Tuesday incidents." Ecuador's prison system has become a battle ground between prisoners linked to Mexican drug gangs -- mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

Guayaquil, Ecuador's main port city, is a major hub for shipping South American cocaine to points north, especially the United States.

Last week, police confiscated two pistols, a revolver, some 500 rounds of ammunition, a hand grenade, several knives, two sticks of dynamite and homemade explosives at one of the Guayaquil prisons.

Two weeks ago, Guayaquil's Prison Number 4 was attacked by drones, part of "a war between international cartels," prison authorities said. There were no casualties in the attack.

Ecuador's prison system has about 60 facilities designed for 29,000 inmates, but is burdened by overcrowding and staffing shortages.

The country's human rights ombudsman said there were 103 killings in prisons in 2020.

Twenty-seven inmates died in prison riots in two jails in July, in an incident that forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
Thessaloniki, Greece, Sept 29 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :Youths making Nazi salutes and hurling Molotov cocktails clashed with left wing protesters at a school in Greece on Wednesday, forcing riot police to weigh in with tear gas, officers and witnesses said.

Two pupils were injured and treated in hospital after the clashes at a vocational high school in the northern city of Thessaloniki, local authorities said. Six people were arrested and 40 others detained, according to the police.

The attack on the left-wing protesters was backed by the youth wing of far-right political group Golden Dawn which in 2012 became the third largest party in the Greek parliament amid fury over the 2009 financial crisis.

Support for the party has since dwindled -- it did not make it into parliament in the last elections in 2019 -- but it nevertheless remains popular in some parts of northern Greece.

The group entered the school dressed in black, the youth's faces concealed behind masks, hoods and helmets, hurling Molotov cocktails and rocks at a rival group gathered outside the school, police and an AFP reporter said.

Some of the youths gathered inside the school are seen on videos, published in Greek media and seen by AFP reporters, making Nazi salutes.

"We are deeply concerned by the fact that (the group) entered and left the school undisturbed without any intervention from the school management," complained a regional parents and guardians association.

It was the latest in a series of violent incidents that took place in this school in recent days. Last week, left-wing students were assaulted, while distributing flyers against a recent education reform.

On Tuesday, a rally organised again outside the same school by left-wing groups to protest the assault turned violent as well.

The Greek education ministry has condemned the violence and called for a prosecutor's probe into the incidents.

A Golden Dawn youth wing issued a statement congratulating the perpetrators of the attack and expressing support.

Last year, a Greek court ruled that Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organisation, and sentenced members of its leadership including former lawmakers to up to 13 years in prison.

The extreme right party in the last national elections in 2019 didn't get the necessary support to make it to the Greek parliament. But it continued to be popular in northern Greece ranking in forth place in many cities, including Thessaloniki.
Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Wednesday presented his credentials to the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia Sir David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) in Canberra

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Wednesday presented his credentials to the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia Sir David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) in Canberra.

The ceremony was held in a virtual mode due to COVID-19 related restrictions, says a message received here from Canberra, Australia.

During the ceremony, the High Commissioner conveyed to the Governor General the greetings and best wishes from President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan for his good health, happiness, and well-being.

He also presented the letter of credence by the President of Pakistan addressed to the Governor General. Governor General Sir David Hurley expressed his gratitude to the President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi for his kind sentiments. He affirmed that Pakistan and Australia had a tradition of warm relations and expressed the desire for further strengthening relations between the two countries on bilateral and multilateral fora.

High Commissioner Chaudhri reciprocated Pakistan's desire to strengthen relations in diverse economic, trade, defence, agriculture, science, technology, education, health, and socioeconomic development fields between the two countries.

He recalled friendly longstanding relations between the two countries since Pakistan's independence.

He also conveyed invitation of the Prime Minister to the Governor General to visit Pakistan at his convenience.

The Governor General fondly recalled his earlier visit to Pakistan in 2013 and pleasant interaction with the people of Pakistan. He expressed his desire to visit Pakistan again.

The High Commissioner highlighted that Pakistani community in Australia was one of the most vibrant links between the two countries, contributing significantly in multiple fields in Australia.
Deputy Commissioner Rawalpindi, Muhammad Ali on Tuesday said strict action would be taken against those showing negligence in the anti-dengue campaign

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Sep, 2021 ) :Deputy Commissioner Rawalpindi, Muhammad Ali on Tuesday said strict action would be taken against those showing negligence in the anti-dengue campaign.

Chairing a meeting to review anti-dengue arrangements, he warned that October was crucial for dengue spread as the number of cases usually increased during this month due to changes in weather conditions.

The DC said staff deployed for the anti-dengue drive had been told that no negligence would be tolerated, adding, 100 per cent attendance must be ensured.

Ali said ratio of dengue patients was being increased with each passing day and there was a dire need to combat it on an emergency basis as prevailing weather was suitable for the breeding of dengue larvae.

He said area Incharges and supervisors at the Union council level were responsible for the elimination of dengue larvae and strict action would be taken against any negligence, he added.

Officials of Health, Environment, Rawalpindi Waste Management Company, Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation and other concerned departments were also present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Cant Nosheen Israr during her visit to the Saddar area sealed one tyre shop and imposed fine on four shops over violations of anti-dengue Standard Operating Procedures.
All the Russian armed forces' servicemen involved in the Zapad-2021 joint military drills in Belarus left the country and headed to their home stations, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) All the Russian armed forces' servicemen involved in the Zapad-2021 joint military drills in Belarus left the country and headed to their home stations, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The practical phase of the Belarusian-Russian drills was held from September 10-16 at nine training grounds in Russia and five in Belarus.

The exercises were aimed at testing the military command's readiness to jointly protect territorial integrity of the Union State.

"The Russian military contingent that took part in the Zapad-2021 joint strategic exercise of the Belarusian and Russian armed forces on the territory of our country departed to home stations," the Belarusian Defense Ministry wrote on Telegram.

"The last military convoy with Russia's servicemen and equipment crossed the state border of the Republic of Belarus," the ministry added.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of allegedly blocking the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM), which was scheduled to have been held in Warsaw on September 27.

"Yesterday, the premier human rights conference of the Europe-Eurasia region should have opened in Warsaw, Poland. Unfortunately, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) 2021 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) did not convene due to a decision by the Russian government to block the meeting," Blinken said in a statement.

"We deeply regret this attempt by the Russian government to block scrutiny of its worsening human rights record," he said.
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The Estonian Language Inspectorate has ordered Martin Helme, the chairman of the Conservative People's Party (EKRE), to add Estonian translations to their Russian-language campaign materials ahead of the municipal elections, Estonian broadcaster ERR reported on Wednesday

HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) The Estonian Language Inspectorate has ordered Martin Helme, the chairman of the Conservative People's Party (EKRE), to add Estonian translations to their Russian-language campaign materials ahead of the municipal elections, Estonian broadcaster ERR reported on Wednesday.

The department has reportedly detected violations of the language law by the party in the city of Narva, where its election posters contained only Russian text.

EKRE has never before translated its campaign materials into Russian on principle, stressing that all Russian-speaking nationals should know the Estonian language. However, on the eve of the October 17 elections, the party decided to conduct a campaign in Narva and other cities of the northeastern Ida-Viru county, populated mostly by Russian-speaking residents, and present its electoral list.

The language watchdog noticed 14 EKRE posters with only Russian text, and its employees have already helped the party translate them, according to the report. The nationalist party will now have either to provide Estonian translations for all posters within the next three days or remove them, the Language Inspectorate's chief, Ilmar Tomusk, wrote in a letter to Helme, as cited in the report.

If EKRE fails to meet the deadline, the Inspectorate will be eligible to fine it up to 800 Euros ($930), Tomusk told the broadcaster.

The Conservative People's Party, founded in 2012, is known for its nationalist rhetoric, xenophobic and anti-Semitic statements, as well as controversial statements about the Russian-speaking population of Estonia.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed confidence on Wednesday that Moldova would make every effort to avoid escalation of the longstanding conflict with the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria)

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed confidence on Wednesday that Moldova would make every effort to avoid escalation of the longstanding conflict with the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria).

The remark came as the German president is paying a two-day visit to Moldova starting Wednesday. During the trip, the official will meet with the Moldovan leadership, including President Maia Sandu, as well as open a business conference, among other things.

"I respect that the sitting president and the government focus on promoting reforms in Moldova. I am sure that Moldova will take all steps so that the conflict with Transnistria does not deteriorate," Steinmeier told reporters.

The German official believes that the so-called small-steps policy will allow the parties involved to settle the conflict in the future and deescalate the situation.

Sandu, in turn, noted that the Transnistrian conflict settlement was a complicated process that requires searching for a peaceful and diplomatic solution.

The breakaway region, predominantly populated by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, seceded from Moldova in 1990, fearing the latter's possible reunion with Romania. This resulted in an armed conflict which ended after a 1992 ceasefire agreement. Though the issue is not settled yet, de facto, Transnistria is out of Chisinau's control.

Efforts are currently being undertaken to settle the conflict in the "5+2" format, which in addition to Moldova and Transnistria includes Russia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Ukraine as mediators, and the European Union and the United States as observers.
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VILNIUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2021) Security will be strengthened in all Lithuanian camps housing illegal migrants to prevent further unauthorized crossing into other EU countries, the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday.

The security arrangements will include the deployment of more officers and patrol crews, and the appointment of a security coordinator for each of Lithuania's five migrant facilities, the ministry said. At the moment, camps are being guarded by the interior ministry's Public Security Service, the police, the State Border Guard Service, and the justice ministry's Prison Department.

"Migrants who have chosen the path of illegal migration, misled by the Belarusian regime and victims of human smuggling, are trying to get to richer European countries. Although many have applied for asylum, it is clear that some are not really seeking asylum in our country and are trying to leave without even waiting for a decision.

We cannot allow Lithuania to become a gateway. Illegal migration is unacceptable in the European Union," Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said.

She said the Lithuanian security services will need not only to increase their presence at camps but also improve coordination among each other.

More than 700 migrants have left the Lithuanian accommodation facilities without notice since the beginning of the year, and only 146 were subsequently found and returned, the ministry said.

Lithuania finished the registration of migrants last week, with 2,962 illegal migrants and 2,804 asylum applications. With 645 applications processed so far, none has been granted asylum.
Mauricio Arias Receives Gulf Research Program Award from National Academies of Sciences

Mauricio Arias, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, is one of eight scientists selected for the Gulf Research Program's Environmental Production and Stewardship track of the 2021 Early-Career Research Fellowship (ECRF), announced by the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today. During the two-year program, starting this month, fellows will pursue research that advances understanding of the changing ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and its U.S. coastal zones.

The Gulf is home to several ecosystems, including estuaries, oyster reefs, beaches and dunes, mangroves, and offshore shoals and banks. These ecosystems are instrumental to the socio-economic and cultural life of the region, providing benefits such as food, clean air and water, recreational opportunities and tourism, and raw materials.

However, these ecosystems will continue to shift with climate change, urbanization, and increased demand for food, water, and energy. For example, climate change may influence the sustainability of the water supply for ecosystems, which will have implications for the Gulf regions residents and marine life. There is a critical need to predict and anticipate these changes to allocate natural resources in an equitable way, while protecting the environment.

"I will use this opportunity to solidify my research in the Gulf of Mexico, which currently looks at how to minimize loads of plastics and nutrients from our waterways," said Mauricio. "One of the great benefits of this program is that it funds the fellow, not specific projects, so how I get to diversify the use of the funds. I also look forward to the opportunity to learn from my designated mentor, Distinguish Professor Susan Bell (Dept of Integrated Biology), who is a world renowned expert in Gulf coastal ecosystems."

The ECRF Fellows will investigate specific issues related to the Gulfs changing ecosystems, with the goal of producing research that informs decisions that enhance environmental protection and stewardship. Their research might consider how different ecosystems interact with one another; identify critical thresholds that, if met, may reduce or eliminate ecosystem services; and guide stakeholders in weighing trade-offs among the various ecosystem services to make better-informed decisions.

The ECRF award is not attached to a specific project, which allows fellows to explore bold, untested research ideas that they might not otherwise be able to pursue. All fellows are investigators, faculty members, clinician scientists, or scientific team leads at colleges, universities, and research institutions. Each fellow will receive a $76,000 financial award, mentoring support, and a built-in community of current and past cohorts.

Research that enhances environmental protection and stewardship requires both multidisciplinary thinking and the ability to build strong relationships with decision-makers. These exceptional fellows embody those qualities through their perseverance, creativity, and inventiveness, said Karena Mary Mothershed, senior program manager for the GRPs Board on Gulf Education and Engagement. One of the most unique aspects of the ECRF is that it supports people, not projects  and were excited to be a part of our fellows continued success and professional growth.

The incoming class of fellows is actively working on research projects related to ecosystem changes, including:
The latest version of the USF-invented NEWgenerator is on its way to South Africa to begin the process of entering mass production. The solar-powered machine generates nutrients, energy and water by safely recovering them from human wastewater  a technology built to address global sanitation concerns.

The USF Technology Transfer Office signed a licensing agreement with WEC Projects of South Africa in September 2020. Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Daniel Yeh and his team just shipped an updated version of the NEWgenerator to Soweto, a South African township that receives its water and sanitation services from the city of Johannesburg. The off-grid sanitation technology allows the community to become more self-sufficient without having to rely on a power grid or install a costly sewer system.

This latest milestone is a testament to the dedication, tenacity and creativity of the USF team and our partners abroad, Yeh said. It hasnt been easy for anyone the past year with COVID and the resulting global supply chain disruptions. Yet, the need for clean water and safe sanitation has never been more urgent given the global pandemic. We are driven by the mission to make our technology available worldwide to all those in need.

The latest NEWgenerator model is the most advanced and robust version yet, Yeh said, with a more intuitive control system that has full remote capabilities. It works by using a novel bioreactor to break down waste organic matter using microorganisms, followed by a fine-pore microscopic membrane filter that traps bacteria and viruses. Clean water that passes through is then disinfected with chlorine, similar to municipal drinking water. The recycled water can also be used for toilet flushing in the sanitation facilities and for irrigation, allowing plants to grow, even in a drought. By functioning remotely, operators can identify potential problems and create remedies, such as adjusting flow rates and chemical levels.

WEC Projects and stakeholders with the South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme will spend the next few months evaluating the NEWgenerator unit to use as a replica of what will be manufactured using local parts and labor. This follows the South African governments pledge to upgrade its sanitation system in schools, many of which dont have running water or electricity.

(L-R) Lindelani Xaba (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Adefunke Adeosun and Robert Bair (USF Environmental Engineering) in Durban, South Africa. A replica of the NEWgenerator will be used for commercialization in South Africa. The NEWgenerator began operating in Durban, South Africa in 2018.

While NEWgenerator addresses a number of urgent social needs, particularly in rural and informal settlements, it can also be used in other areas, said Gunter Rencken, technical director for WEC Projects. These can include eco-tourism, for schools, housing projects and in emergency situations. We are proud to be associated with a project such as NEWgenerator and look forward to its future development and deployment in Africa.

In addition to WEC Projects, Eram Scientific Solutions and Elefo Biotech, both of India, also signed agreements to commercialize the NEWgenerator. It was first tested in India in 2016 and has been operating in Durban, South Africa, since 2018. Yehs success follows a $2 million grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through its Reinvented Toilet program to address infrastructure problems caused by worldwide, rapid, unplanned urbanization.
Omaha, NE  A four-month operation led by the U.S. Marshals Service Metro Fugitive Task Force (MFTF), the Omaha Police Department, and Lincoln Police Department, to mitigate and dismantle gang activity in the Omaha metro area has resulted in 231 arrests, including 144 gang members, as well as the seizure of numerous firearms and illicit narcotics. Named in remembrance of fallen officers Deputy U.S. Marshal Paul Keyes and OPD Detective Kerrie Orozco, a task force officer on the MFTF, Triple Beam/Operation K.O. was conducted from May to August and focused on arrest warrants involving gang members, gang suppression, and gang intervention/prevention. Keyes, 41, lost a 15-month battle with cancer in February 2018. He was a team leader on the MFTF and specialized in threat management cases and protective operations. Orozco, 29, was shot and killed as she and other members of the task force attempted to serve a warrant on a man wanted for a shooting in September 2014. Operation Triple Beams mission is to dismantle gangs by arresting violent gang offenders, seizing firearms, and recovering assets used to further gang activity. During the early stages of Operation K.O. the MFTF and OPD were able to increase the number of arrests for gun related offenses which also decreased the amount of gun related offenses. This operation was dedicated to Deputy US Marshal Paul Keyes and Officer Kerrie Orozco for their tireless efforts on apprehending violent fugitives and serving their community, said U.S. Marshal for the District of Nebraska Scott Kracl. The United States Marshals Service is fortunate to have partners from OPD, LPD, Douglas and Sarpy county to achieve results that exceeded expectations. Im confident their efforts will reduce violent crime and have rightfully lived up to the memory of Kerrie and Paul. Operation K.O. resulted in the following: 231 state, local, and federal arrests

144 gang members arrested

86 firearms seized

18.997 kilograms (kg) of narcotics seized

838 Fentanyl pills seized

$821,774 illegal drugs seized (estimated street value)

$48,902 in U.S. currency seized

3 missing children recovered

2 stolen vehicles recovered During Operation K.O., of the subjects who were arrested, 36 were arrested for assault, 68 for weapon charges, two for sexual assault, five for failure to register, six for burglary, 53 for drug charges, 15 for robbery, three for vehicle theft, and 32 for other charges. Notable arrests: Maurice Coleman, a documented Flat Land Blood gang member with a violent criminal history involving assault, robbery, resisting arrest, and multiple weapon violations, was wanted for a supervised release violation out of the northern District of Texas. The OPD Gang Unit used air assets during its pursuit of Coleman which ended with a safe and successful apprehension. During the arrest, a missing child was recovered and a firearm was seized.

Tommy Meyer was arrested by the MFTF on May 18 for a Nebraska Department of Correctional Services absconding warrant issued on Feb. 13. Inside the vehicle in which he was arrested investigators found a total of 11.35 pounds of suspected methamphetamine and $18,451 in U.S. currency.

Jose Morales and Pablo Morales were arrested on May 24 on an attempted murder warrant out of Virginia. After conducting surveillance on a residence, investigators observed two subjects matching the description of both men. MFTF members approached the residence on foot and placed both subjects in custody without incident. Both were transported to the Douglas County Jail in Omaha. Participating agencies: Omaha Police Department (Gang Unit), Douglas County Sheriffs Department, Sarpy County Sheriffs Department, Lincoln Police Department (Gang Unit), and the Lancaster Sheriffs Department Imagery from OTB/Operation K.O. can be found here. https://www.flickr.com/gp/usmarshals/UtxCj4 Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov. ####



Americas First Federal Law Enforcement Agency


At his weekly General Audience, Pope Francis reflects on last weeks Apostolic Journey to Budapest and Slovakia, calling it a pilgrimage to the roots of prayer and hope.

By Devin Watkins

Pope Francis spoke about the meaning of his Apostolic Visit to Slovakia and Budapest in the catechesis portion of the Wednesday General Audience.

The papal journey, which took place on 12-15 September, was characterized by the word together, said the Pope, since it showed that the Church breathes with two lungsthe Latin and Greek riteswhile walking together with the Jewish community, other Christians, and the faithful of other religions.

I would summarize it as follows: it was a pilgrimage of prayer, a pilgrimage to the roots, a pilgrimage of hope, said the Pope.

Devotion to the Eucharist and Our Lady

The first stage of the journey, which took him to Budapest, Hungary, saw the universal Church gathered around the Lords sacrifice.

The holy people of God, on the Lord's Day, gathered before the mystery of the Eucharist, by which they are continually generated and regenerated, he said. They were embraced by the Cross that stood above the altar, showing the same direction indicated by the Eucharist, namely the path of humble and selfless love, of generous and respectful love towards all, of faith that purifies from worldliness and leads to essentiality.

Pope Francis added that his pilgrimage of prayer concluded on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, framing the visit with adoration and popular piety.

Because this is what the People of God are called to, above all: to worship, to pray, to journey, to wander, to do penance, and in this to feel the peace and the joy that the Lord gives us, he said.

Listen to our report

Roots of the faith

Pope Francis went on to say that his pilgrimage was one which took him to the roots.

The encounter with the Bishops of Hungary and Slovakia, he said, allowed him to touch the roots of Christian faith and life in the region, which reach back to the 9th century.

On several occasions I insisted on the fact that these roots are always living, full of the vital lymph that is the Holy Spirit, and that as such must be conserved: not like museum exhibits, not ideologized and exploited out of interests of prestige and power, to consolidate a closed identity.

Hope in the eyes of young people

The third aspect of his Apostolic Journey, said the Pope, was that it was a pilgrimage of hope.

He expressed his joy at seeing the hope in the eyes of young people in Kosice, where many young couples with children joined the Pope for a youth encounter.

I saw hope in many people who silently care for and are concerned about their neighbour, said Pope Francis, mentioning especially the Missionary Sisters of Charity who care for homeless people in Bratislava.

Pope Francis concluded his catechetical reflections offering his heartfelt gratitude to the Bishops and civil authorities of Slovakia and Hungary, and to the many faithful who took part in his papal journey.
Pope Francis calls for the safety of all Nigerians to be guaranteed in the wake of attacks by suspected Islamist militants which killed at least 40 people.

By Devin Watkins

Suspected jihadists carried out several attacks in northwestern Nigeria over the weekend, leaving over 40 people dead.

Pope Francis prayed for the victims of the attacks at the Wednesday General Audience, and called for the safety of all Nigerians to be protected.

I pray for those who have died, for the wounded, and for the entire people of Nigeria, he said.

I hope that the safety of all citizens in the country will always be guaranteed, added the Pope.

Attack and reprisal

An initial attack took place on Sunday in the village of Madamai in Kaura district, where 34 residents were murdered and 7 others injured, according to the security chief of Kaduna State.

The official said soldiers were dispatched to the scene of the attack, where they exchanged gunfire with the assailants before forcing the jihadist militants to retreat.

A later statement from the same official said militants carried out another attack in retaliation on the village of Kacecere, where 8 people were killed, 6 others were wounded, and several houses destroyed.

Waves of violence

Separately, the Nigerian military said suspected militants from the so-called Islamic State in West Africa attacked a military base in Sokoto State, also on Sunday.

Troops repelled the attack, but local residents told the AFP news agency that 17 soldiers were killed.

Northwestern and Central Nigeria has endured several years of violence, with herders and farmers competing for natural resources.

Sporadic violence by heavily armed bandits often lead to endless reprisals between communities.
When Pope Francis visits the Cathedral of St Martin in Bratislava on Monday, he will be presented with the reproduction of a renowned sculpture of St Martin and the Beggar, on the occasion of his Apostolic Journey to Slovakia.

By Lydia OKane - Bratislava

On entering St Martins Cathedral in the heart of Bratislavas city centre, its impossible to miss the imposing bronze sculpture which ranks among the greatest artistic treasures in the capital.

Its entitled St Martin and Beggar and is placed on a marble pedestal on the right side of the nave, in the southeast corner of the cathedral.

The work, which depicts St Martin sitting on a horse, holding a sword, and bending down to a beggar to give him a piece of his cloak, is the work of Austrian sculptor, Georg Raphael Donner who completed it in 1735.

Its message of charity and mercy mirrors that of the Gospels.

St Martin has become one of Europes most popular saints. He came from a pagan family but became a soldier and philanthropic Christian.

It seems fitting, therefore, that Pope Francis, who has made the care of the poor and marginalized one of the cornerstones of his pontificate, should receive a miniature reproduction of this sculpture during a visit on Monday morning to St Martins Cathedral, where he will also address priests and religious.

The work, made by Francesco Ciardiello, is a gift from the faithful here in Slovakia to a Pope who calls us not to identify almsgiving with the simple coin offered in haste, without looking at the person and without stopping to talk, to understand what he or she truly needs.
Global supply chain networks have been disrupted since the US-China trade war began in January 2018, prompting several foreign investors to look for manufacturing alternatives. Vietnam Briefing highlights three key steps if planning a supply chain shift to Vietnam.

Vietnam is not without its share of challenges. In the short-term, manufacturers may find the production shift daunting as supply chains have to realign. Companies often struggle to decide what to relocate, how they plan to enter the Vietnamese market, and where they will establish operations within the country.

Those that understand these issues will have a leg-up over their competition in the immediate term, but they will also make more informed decision that will position their operations for success over the their first few years of in-country business operations.

Step 1: Choose production elements to relocate

Companies should approach Vietnam, or any other China plus one investment destination, with a clear understanding of the production that they intend carry out in this market. For most companies, China plus destinations are chosen because of their lower costs, which are well suited for basic manufacturing and assembly.

Those targeting more complex manufacturing should conduct a thorough review of Vietnams current labor force, sourcing networks, and infrastructure to ensure that this production will prove feasible.

Companies planning to export finished goods from Vietnam to the US, the EU, or other markets should also have a clear understanding of how the processes carried out in Vietnam will influence the origin of the finished product, and how this will influence tariff exposure.

Step 2: Pick your entry strategy

Vietnam provides three main options for market entry: engaging local contractors to fulfill elements of production, establishing a new manufacturing facility, or conducting a Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) deal with an existing factory.

Representative Office plus local supply partner

Supply partners are a fast solution for companies seeking to restructure supply chains as quickly as possible. Under this model, the foreign company enters into a contract with a local factory to manufacture a set amount of goods meeting the foreign companys specifications.

Ordering from a local supplier does not require the presence of a local entity. Depending on the supplier in question, it may be possible to find a partner with a good understanding of local logistics and customs clearance.

Companies seeking to work with multiple suppliers on a long-term basis often choose to set up a Representative Office (RO) to oversee production within these facilities, and to act as a cost center for sales activities. This is particularly popular in the garments industry.

Unlike China, Vietnams supplier market still developing. Companies that are interested in entering Vietnam through vendors should understand the capacity of the local market to support their production needs.

100 percent Foreign Owned Enterprises

Foreign Owned Enterprises (FOEs) provide the greatest level of access to and maneuverability within the Vietnamese market, allowing investors to engage in profit generating activities across all unconditional investment sectors.

100 percent FOEs let foreign investors maintain full control of their Vietnamese entity. Companies that are listed, have strong supplier networks in China, or are targeting Vietnam as a long-term investment opportunity tend to prefer this method of entry.

Executives that elect to establish their own facilities will forge the ability to tap into the market knowledge of local partners. Companies should develop a clear understanding of Vietnams investment environment and make several trips to the country to vet potential locations, logistics providers, and infrastructure networks.

Manufacturing companies overwhelmingly choose to set up factories in Vietnam within Industrial Zones (IZs). The time to set up a legal entity for a 100 percent FOE takes between 4 to 6 months, while full production can take up to a year to get off the ground.

Companies that require a quick relocation often choose to work with local factories during the interim period and transition to full production upon completion of manufacturing facilities.

M&A

A M&A allows investors to gain access to the Vietnamese market quickly by acquiring the business licenses, factories, workforce, and connections of a local company.

The second potential benefit of an M&A strategy lies in the knowledge of the local company, since local partners can provide greater access to suppliers, customers, and sometimes improve a foreign brands reputation within the domestic market.

The setup time for M&A is two to four months. However, this does not include the lead-time needed to negotiate an agreement between Joint Venture (JV) stakeholders. Negotiations over stakes, leadership, and structure of stakeholder obligations can often delay setup; however, they are integral to a successful JV and should not be rushed.

Foreign investors engaged in M&A or JVs are exposed to the liabilities of the company that has been acquired and, in the case of a joint venture, may face operational constraints.

Vietnams legal and financial reporting systems are opaque and make it easier to conceal ongoing legal disputes and financial liabilities than may be the case in a companys home market. Companies considering an M&A entry strategy are strongly advised to thoroughly vet any targets.

Step 3: Identify an optimal location for investment

Vietnam has three Key Economic Regions (KERs) that host the majority of foreign investment and industrial activity within the country. Each KER provides a unique set of production conditions that lend themselves to different investment strategies. Companies should develop a clear understanding of each zone, the specific provinces within this zone and where industrial activity is carried out.

North

The Northern KER covers the provinces of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, and Vinh Phuc. Together, these provinces account for roughly 16.2 percent of Vietnams total population and 4.7 percent of its landmass.

Vietnams Northern KER is best positioned as hub for China plus one manufacturing investors with time sensitive production chains, especially when shipping components between factories in China.

Central

The Central KER covers the cities Da Nang, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, and Binh Dinh. As of the latest census data taken on a regional level, the region accounted for roughly 7 percent of the national population.

The Central KER yields an investment environment with comparatively less competition than investment hubs in the north and south of the country. In recent years, the regions largest city Da Nang has benefited from good urban planning and development.

Investors increasingly identify central Vietnam as a low-cost destination because the north and south have become saturated with investment, driving up costs and congesting logistics networks.

South

The Southern KER encompasses the provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Long An, Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai. Vietnams Southern KER is economically diverse. As a result, businesses from more niche sectors are likely to find that the south provides a more suitable environment for investment.

This is particularly true for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), since they are likely to benefit from a great degree of balance between support for small and large-scale investment. In recent years, Ho Chi Minh City has become a hub for start-ups and tech entrepreneurs for this exact reason.

Consumption is another major advantage for the southern region. Investors seeking to establish brand identity with Vietnamese consumers are sure to be able to find opportunities in the south, where the countrys largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, offers access to a large consumer base.

For this reason, Ho Chi Minh City is the preferred destination for companies trialing food and beverage products, pharmaceuticals, and luxury goods.
During the last decade, Vietnam has been experiencing rapid economic and population growth, making the country an attractive investment destination for foreign investors in the public healthcare sector. The Vietnamese healthcare industry is one of the countrys development priorities, having received an increasing level of financial support and incentives for investment from the government over the years.

In the healthcare sector, the medical device industry is one of the most promising subsectors for foreign investors since most medical equipment in Vietnam is imported from international multinational companies. In this Q&A with Filippo Bortoletti, Senior Manager, Hanoi Office, Dezan Shira & Associates, we glean insights about Vietnams healthcare industry including a general overview and opportunities for European businesses.

Can you give us a general overview of the healthcare industry in Vietnam?

Vietnams healthcare industry can be broken down into three segments: Healthcare services and facilities, pharmaceutical products, and medical devices and equipment. The industrys estimated turnover was US$17.4 billion in 2018 according to Business Monitor International report.

Factors helping the industry are Vietnams fast-aging population, rising per capita income, increasingly urban population, while some drawbacks include counterfeit drugs and a complex regulatory environment.

According to the local Ministry of Health (MoH), in 2017 public health organizations accounted for 280,313 hospital beds  about 96 percent, while private health organizations accounted for 11,762 hospital beds at 4 percent. While public health organizations account for most hospital beds, private health establishments are growing thanks to tax incentives and tax holidays deployed by the local government to stimulate growth in the segment.

In terms of medical devices, according to the local MoH currently, 90 percent of medical devices in Vietnam are imported, as local production of medical equipment has not been able to meet demand. In fact, local producers are only able to supply basic medical supplies such as hospital beds and disposables. For this reason, the local government encourages the import of medical devices and offers low import duties with no quota restrictions.

The market share of medical equipment is dominated by orthopedic and prosthetic materials at approximately 29 percent followed by paraclinical equipment at 16 percent.

As far as international trade, exports of medical devices have recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.46 percent from 2015 to 2019 while imports have recorded a CAGR of 12.29 percent in the same period. However, Vietnam remains heavily reliant on imports of certain products such as x-rays and radiation instruments, ultrasonic scanning, and magnetic resonance. Indeed, if we look at imports by products, electromedical instruments and x-rays dominate Vietnams import landscape mostly from the EU and the US. For Vietnams exports, this is dominated by plastic products and electromedical instruments to Japan and the EU.

What are the major trends of the industry?

There are four major trends currently: The first is good economic fundamentals with rising income per capita, an increasingly urban population, and an aging population as mentioned earlier, the second is heavy reliance on imported pharmaceuticals and medical equipment because local manufacturers cannot meet local demand, thirdly is digitalization, and lastly, is the high international integration of Vietnam through a wide network of free trade agreements aimed at reducing trade and non-trade barriers between Vietnam and other strategic markets.

If we look at local market trends, for medical devices, local manufacturers can only supply basic medical supplies such as scissors, rubber health products, scalpels, hospital beds, and other disposable supplies. Also, domestic drug firms mostly focus on generic products as they lack research and development capabilities as well as capital to invest in new compounds. Regarding healthcare, of the total 85,000 Parkinson cases in Vietnam, 10 percent of them have onset under the age of 40 as per statistics. Also, liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Vietnam killing up to 25,000 people every year. In addition, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and pancreas issues are challenges facing the countrys health sector.

In terms of digitalization, the local MoH has a plan for digitizing patient records and the application of artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and big data to create information management systems. Many hospitals have already adopted health IT systems such as electronic health records, e-Health, and telemedicine. In addition, each Vietnamese citizen will be issued with a unique health ID card which will be used nationwide connecting health reports.

Lastly, leveraging free trade agreements such as the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) is an important opportunity for investors. In the EVFTA framework, several tariffs have been removed at implementation, while others will be gradually removed in stages. However, it is important to note that, products must be wholly obtained or sufficiently processed in Vietnam or EU member states to qualify for preferential tariffs under rules of origin guidelines.

In addition, as per the EVFTA, intellectual property rights (IPR) will be intensified and therefore there will be opportunities for all foreign investors and not just for those in the EU. Vietnam will also align with international standards on both pharmaceutical products and medical devices which means that products already certified in the EU will not need additional testing and certification.

Could you describe some market barriers and entry strategies in Vietnam?

For investors considering Vietnam, there are several market entry strategies for entry. We will highlight three main ones.

Investors can enter Vietnam in the form of a representative office (RO) for promotion, marketing, and brand awareness. That said, it is worth noting that a RO is not allowed to conduct direct advertising and marketing for pharmaceutical products, and they are only allowed to provide information about drugs to doctors and sales representatives of licensed pharmaceutical distributors (information about the products must be confirmed by local competent authorities).

Secondly, they can invest by forming a trading company and enjoying preferential tariffs under several free trade agreements (FTAs) and not just the EVFTA.

Finally, businesses can open a manufacturing company in Vietnam with no restrictions on foreign ownership. Entry strategies for manufacturing can be a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or a joint venture (JV) with a local partner. Generally, M&As and joint ventures are effective as these save time to obtain permits, etc. But, before deciding on the investment, foreign investors should be aware of the restrictions applied to either pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

Specifically, as far as pharmaceuticals are concerned, foreign-invested enterprises registered in Vietnam can manufacture pharmaceutical products but are prohibited from distributing drugs in Vietnam.

Therefore, pharmaceutical companies with foreign ownership over 49 percent cannot distribute drugs and are only permitted to do conduct wholesale and retail activities with non-pharmaceutical supplements in the form of tablets, capsules, and powder. As a trend in this specific business, more and more foreign pharmaceutical companies are cooperating with local manufacturers to take advantage of cheap production costs and distribution systems.

On the other hand, as far as medical devices are concerned, there are no restrictions on foreign ownership and foreign-invested companies are able to directly distribute finished products in Vietnam without relying on a local partner.

Foreign manufacturers usually sell through local distributors since it offers immediate access to the customer network and knowledge. Nevertheless, investors can choose to invest in local manufacturing facilities to leverage low labor costs and exploit tax incentives.
Greater demand for healthcare services combined with strained government public resources provide opportunities for a growing healthcare industry in Vietnam.

The EVFTA and the amended Law on Investment will benefit foreign producers and suppliers wishing to enter the Vietnamese market, which still largely relies on imported medical equipment and medicines.

COVID-19 has accelerated created greater demand for technology-enabled services, a phenomenon that is likely to continue in the next decades with the arrival of Industry 4.0 innovations.

Vietnam is currently undergoing economic and demographic transformations that provide great potential for its healthcare industry. In 2019, Vietnams healthcare expenditure was approximately US$17 billion, equivalent to 6.6 percent of its GDP according to Fitch Solutions. The firm also expects that healthcare spending will reach US$23 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7 percent.

The COVID-19 outbreak certainly dampened economic activity in Vietnam, but it is unlikely to reverse ongoing socioeconomic changes. Rather, health stands firmly as the top priority and concern for both the Vietnamese people and the government.

We provide an overview of the opportunities for the healthcare industry in light of the current developments in Vietnam and survey three key sub-sectors: medical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals, and digital healthcare.

Changes in society create opportunities and challenges

Fast-growing middle class and aging population

The healthcare sector in Vietnam has a lot of potential due to the demographic and socioeconomic changes currently underway. Vietnams rapid economic development has boosted demand for higher quality and specialized healthcare services, especially among the growing middle class.

The COVID-19 outbreak has proven that health is, and will certainly continue to be, a priority for most Vietnamese. Moreover, growing concerns over food safety, pollution, and unsafe living and working conditions have also made people more willing to spend on medicines and healthcare.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the country has entered the aging phase since 2011. It is expected that by 2038, 20 percent of Vietnamese people will be over 60 years old. As more women join the workforce, a declining fertility rate will accelerate the aging of the population, straining the social welfare system.

Expansion of health insurance and hospital system

Social health insurance is the main public financing method for healthcare in Vietnam. With 87 percent of the population currently covered under this scheme according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the government continues to work towards achieving universal healthcare coverage.

Under a new document issued by the Ministry of Health (MoH), provincial departments of health and Vietnam Social Security branches are asked to encourage participation in and implementation of health insurance across the country. The government has also recently set new social insurance, employment insurance, and health insurance contribution rates that apply to both national and expatriate workers and employers.

To prevent overcrowding and ensure that both urban and local patients can access medical services, the government continues to finance the construction of new hospitals. Since public hospitals rely on a government budget, the country will need to mobilize various sources of investment to upgrade its medical facilities. Further, the healthcare system also suffers from a shortage of qualified physicians, especially those in specialized fields.

Meanwhile, private hospitals and clinics have sprung up in major cities to cater to the middle-class segment.

To help it shoulder the burden of rising healthcare costs, the government is increasingly looking at investment from the private sector and international firms. These changes mean that there will be more business opportunities in the healthcare sector in Vietnam in the upcoming years.

Medical equipment and devices

In February 2020, the government enacted Resolution No.20/NQ-CP to license the export of fabric face masks in response to high demand from different markets such as the US, the EU, and Canada. This has helped local businesses, namely textile and garment workers who reported rising orders after the enactment of the resolution. Face masks are not the only products that have been sought after during the pandemic: ventilators, gloves, gowns, and testing kits from Vietnam have also been accepted around the world. As a result, Vietnam shipped a total of 1.37 billion medical face masks as per the General Statistics Office (GSO) in 2020. Facemasks were exported to the US, the EU, Singapore, and South Korea among others

Although the MoH has predicted that the countrys medical equipment market will grow at a rate of 18 to 20 percent from 2016 to 2020, most medical equipment, however, needs to be imported. There are very few local manufacturers of sophisticated and specialized devices that meet international standards. In fact, more than 90 percent of medical equipment is imported from countries such as Japan, Germany, the US, China, and Singapore, while domestic enterprises account for only 10 percent of market share.

In public hospitals across the country, there is a lack of sufficient equipment for surgery and intensive care units. Furthermore, the existing equipment is outdated and needs to be replaced. As such, because local production cannot meet demand, the Vietnamese government encourages the import of medical equipment by setting low import duties and no quota restrictions.

Medical device producers can look forward to opportunities created by trade agreements such as the European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Improvements in regulatory standards, exchange of information on customs requirements, and the simplification of customs procedures are a few of the anticipated benefits from the implementation of the EVFTA.

Pharmaceuticals

Although the government aims to increase the share of locally produced pharmaceuticals to 80 percent, an average of 55 percent of medicines in Vietnam are imported every year. One of the reasons for Vietnams reliance on imports is that most domestic companies lack research and development capabilities, and do not meet the European Union Good Manufacturing Practice (EU-GMP) or Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme Good Manufacturing Practice (PIC/S-GMP) standards required to manufacture high-quality generic drugs.

Further, Vietnam imports more than 90 percent of drug inputs, half of which are from China. With the closure of many Chinese factories due to environmental concerns, the price of raw materials has surged, decreasing the profit margins of Vietnamese companies.

The implementation of the EVFTA will remove tariffs for pharmaceutical products from the EU, and allow foreign companies to import and sell pharmaceuticals to Vietnamese distributors and wholesalers.

Currently, there are only two multinational companies, Sanofi-Aventis (France) and AstraZeneca (Britain-Sweden), that have medicine import licenses. Although the presence of more foreign pharmaceutical companies will improve the supply of high-quality medicines, domestic companies may be negatively affected by the increased foreign competition.

Seventy percent of drugs in Vietnam are sold through hospitals, while the remaining 30 percent comes from pharmacies. The growing number of private hospitals and a greater concern for health among the public has led to an increasing demand for drugs.

Buoyed by increasing demand for medicine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical companies registered positive results in the first quarter of 2020. The countrys largest pharmaceutical firm, DHG Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company had a US$5 million profit, which represented a 31 percent year-on-year increase.

Other major firms also saw their profits going up from the same period last year. While its clear that the pandemic benefitted the pharmaceutical industry in the short term, firms may have to consider diversifying and importing raw materials from other regions rather than China in case a similar pandemic strikes again.

Hospital system

The hospital network in Vietnam is fairly extensive. There is a total of 1,531 hospitals, 86 percent of which are public and 14 percent are private mostly concentrated in major urban areas such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang. The 1,318 public hospitals are administered in a decentralized system, classified at the central, provincial, and district or commune level.

Though the system is well-established, Vietnamese hospitals are facing a number of important challenges. Most public hospitals in the country were built more than two decades ago and need to be upgraded.

Hospitals also face an overcrowding issue. The beds-to-inhabitants ratio, or bed occupancy rate in Vietnam far exceeds the threshold occupancy rate of 80 percent recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Adding to the problem is the inequality of care: patients would rather get treated in overcrowded national level hospitals than provincial or district level ones due to the availability of higher quality medical equipment and staff in the former. Meanwhile, doctors and nurses have to tend to a large number of patients, working long hours under stressful conditions with relatively low wages.

Thus, the Vietnamese hospital system needs an upgrade to its facilities, equipment, and services. The current gaps create opportunities for foreign investment in the construction and management of infrastructure facilities, medical equipment, and vocational training.

Digital healthcare

In light of the current challenges faced by public hospitals in Vietnam and the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital healthcare sector holds a lot of promise.

On April 18, 2020, the MoH in coordination with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) launched a telemedicine program. Developed by Viettel Group, the countrys largest telecommunications service company, the program provides remote healthcare services by connecting patients and doctors through a virtual platform. With 70 percent of the Vietnamese population living in a rural or remote area, telehealth will help improve access to quality healthcare while reducing its costs.

The private sector was also quick to take advantage of the shift towards technology-enabled healthcare services. Many start-ups already present in Vietnam before the COVID-19 outbreak have expanded and optimized their operations.

However, the burgeoning health tech sector is still in its infancy, attracting significantly less investment than other related sectors such as payments or e-commerce. The sector also largely depends on the development of Industry 4.0 technologies such as 5G networks, artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet of things (IoT).

To help the health tech sector sustain the momentum post-pandemic, companies not only have to appeal to investors and consumers but they also have to be integrated with Vietnams national health framework. The government will have to play a bigger role in encouraging collaboration between industry players and other stakeholders, provide incentives, and formulate clear policies.

On June 22, 2020, the MoH approved a five-year project on remote medical examination and treatment involving 24 hospitals. Apps and medical services will be developed to manage files and knowledge systems, as well as helping patients find medical information, make their appointments, and consult doctors.

These measures will accelerate the digitalization across Vietnams hospital network, which is currently fragmented and mainly implemented in central level public hospitals and private hospitals in major cities.

The private sector was also quick to take advantage of the shift towards technology-enabled healthcare services. According to a YCP Solidiance report, private hospitals have relatively advanced health management systems compared to their public counterparts for several reasons.

Their higher-income patients are more willing to pay for modern and high-quality healthcare services. Seeing digitalization as a competitive advantage, private hospitals have an incentive to invest and upgrade in their digital infrastructure. They also commonly use products and services from leading information and technology companies such as Oracle or SAP and have standardized systems in place across individual hospital branches. Therefore, the implementation of digital tools at private hospitals is less complicated compared with public hospitals.

A number of important barriers still hinder digital adoption in Vietnamese hospitals, both public and private. First, healthcare professionals and patients are reluctant to use digital-based systems due to unfamiliarity with these tools and technological constraints at home.

Second, unclear and complicated administrative processes slow digital adoption. Digital signature for national health insurance reimbursement is a notable example: doctors and nurses who are responsible for their registration need the approval of two different departments, the Electronic Health Administration under the MoH and the Vietnam National Security.

Thirdly, the output of data is not standardized across hospitals, and data security remains a concern for healthcare providers, weakening inter-hospital integration.

The start-up sector in Vietnam, albeit small in size compared to that of other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore or Indonesia, is also actively contributing to the digitalization of healthcare.

Many start-ups already present in Vietnam before the COVID-19 outbreak have expanded and optimized their operations. Some provide booking services that allow patients to schedule appointments with doctors without visiting hospitals, thereby reducing long queues and minimizing infection risks. Patients are able to discuss their health concerns and obtain answers from healthcare professionals, which is difficult in public hospitals where consultation times are limited.

Though these apps and services contribute to healthier lifestyles, their fees are considerably higher than those at public hospitals. Only a minority of middle to high-income urbanites are willing to pay for more convenience and flexibility. Start-ups also struggle to attract new customers due to limited brand awareness and a lack of engagement with well-known healthcare professionals.

Further, the burgeoning health tech sector is still in its infancy, attracting significantly less investment than other related sectors such as payments or e-commerce. To help the health tech sector sustain the momentum post-pandemic, companies not only have to appeal to investors and consumers but they also have to be integrated with Vietnams national health framework.

Like pharmaceuticals and medical devices, health tech start-ups operate in a highly regulated sector where there are still many uncertainties in the regulatory landscape. The government will have to play a bigger role in encouraging collaboration between industry players and other stakeholders, provide incentives, and formulate clear policies.

Thus, though there is still a lot of room for the health tech sector to grow, the digital transformation of healthcare in Vietnam is already well underway.

Opportunities: What do investors need to know?

Market access

Though the health sector in Vietnam is very attractive, policy barriers and a weak legal framework continue to make it challenging for inexperienced foreign investors. The industry is strictly regulated, yet investment procedures are still not very clear and specific.

The Law on Pharmacy sets out the legal framework for the registration, sale, and distribution of pharmaceuticals. Circular No. 32/2018/TT-BYT specifies the procedure regarding the registration of pharmaceutical products. Investors have expressed concerns over the ill-defined roles and responsibilities of foreign and domestic companies, and the cumbersome administrative process, which can delay access to the Vietnamese market.

Similarly, medical devices are subject to requirements set by the MoH. Foreign suppliers often work through local distributors or agents, as only companies with a legal business entity in Vietnam and an import license can distribute medical equipment. Imported devices, unlike those manufactured in Vietnam, are not required to be registered and only need a Certificate of Free Sale from the Embassy of Vietnam in the originating country.

In the digital healthcare sector, administrative complexity and an unintegrated system create a challenging environment for existing and prospective industry players. Furthermore, the future of digital health hinges on the availability of enabling technologies and infrastructures, such as high-speed networks, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing.

Mergers and acquisitions

Keen interest from private and foreign investors has benefited Vietnams healthcare industry. Private hospitals and healthcare providers such as Tam Tri Medical and Vietnam Integrated Medical Services received major investments from private equity firms.

Many major pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott (USA), Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Japan), and Sanofi (France) have been in Vietnam for several years, and some even decades. Not only have their products become available across the country, but they have also invested new plants and research and development (R&D) facilities.

Over recent years, there has been a growing number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with many foreign investors purchasing large amounts of shares in Vietnamese companies. These moves ease market access for foreign firms and help them avoid restrictions on foreign direct investment. For domestic companies, the integration creates more R&D opportunities and allows for the sharing of expertise and best governance practices, as well as access to foreign markets.

Amended Law on Enterprise and Law on Investment

The passing of the new Law on Investment (No. 51/2020/QH14) effective January 2021, incentivizes investment in five key sectors including healthcare. Projects in these sectors will benefit from preferred enterprise income tax, exemption or reduction of land lease fee, and credit support.

Previously, an ineffective private-public partnership (PPP) agreement made investment attraction difficult. However, the new law puts forth changes that eases risks for investors. It offers guarantees to PPP projects, including access to land, provision of civil service, right to the mortgage of property, revenue risk sharing, and foreign currency balance-ensuring scheme among others. The law also specifies the total investment capital requirement for a PPP project depending on its type and location. A projects value must be at least around US$8.6 million, but the threshold of healthcare projects is half that.

The law also requires projects to apply to an open bidding process for the selection of preferred investors except for those in priority areas. Foreign investors will be able to compete in good faith to win the bids of major projects.

The new law also lowers the foreign investor threshold from 51 percent to 50 percent. Foreign investors holding a majority equity stake in a company are treated as foreign investors for purposes of licensing and investment activities. This determines the conditions and procedures of establishing subsidiaries or acquiring shares or other equity interests, which are different and more cumbersome than for those considered domestic investors.

Regarding M&As, the law removes the need for approval if the transaction does not increase the foreign investors ownership ratio in the target company. The M&A approval requires a number of documents to be notarized and legalized by consular authorities in the foreign investors home jurisdiction, thus taking up a significant amount of time in the pre-completion process.

Overall, these measures confirm the Vietnamese governments commitment towards creating a favorable business environment, especially to meet demands in the growing healthcare industry.

Note: This article was first published in August 2020, and has been updated to include the latest developments.
High Privy Councilor Son Soubert remembers fondly the weekslong efforts in 1993 to compose the text that would ostensibly define post-Cold War Cambodia: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The very purpose back in time was to constitutionalize the ideas of honoring the peoples rights and freedom once violated by some previous political regimes, especially the Khmer Rouge, Soubert, 79, told VOA Khmer in an interview. We tried to prevent the return of those horrors. Soubert, the only son of late Cambodian statesman and former Prime Minister Son Sann, was part of the multi-party team that drafted the constitution, a process led by his father, who led anti-communism militancy against Vietnamese occupation in the 1980s on the countrys western jungle borders. Signed and promulgated on September 23, 1993, the Constitution restored the monarchy while also creating an electoral democracy with sweeping language on respect for human rights and freedoms. Now 28 years later, the Constitution still exists but the ideals of democracy and human rights are ever-more fragile and uncertain under Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, which has cemented its one-party rule and occupied all constitutional bodies, including the Constitutional Council, Cambodias version of the U.S. Supreme Court, Soubert said. It is becoming meaningless, he said, because we have a de jure multiparty system in the constitution, but in the current de facto reality, there is none. I am speechless. While many observers in Cambodia may quietly agree with Souberts analysis, a statement released by the U.N. made only a vague allusion to the recent democratic backsliding, saying Cambodia can build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure no one is left behind. Opposition politicians living abroad were more blunt in their statement making the anniversary, writing "The Phnom Penh regime has abused and savagely destroyed the original spirit of the Constitution. After the CPP-dominated National Assembly passed a pair of controversial amendments to the countrys political party law in 2017, a panel of judges  a majority of which were card-carrying CPP members  outlawed the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and then handed five-year political bans to 118 of the partys senior members. With its top institutional rival removed, the ruling party grabbed 58 seats at the 68-member Senate and all 125 seats at the National Assembly, giving the CPP more than enough seats to change the constitution as it wishes. Any constitutional amendment requires two thirds approvals from each of the two parliamentary houses. The ruling CPP can just arbitrarily amend anything with no opposition given its 100-percent control of the lower house, meaning no one shall be legitimate enough to justify its actions whether it can be done in the national interests, Soubert said.

The Constitutional Council could have prevented the dissolution of the CNRP in 2017 by ruling that the amendments to the political party laws were unconstitutional, Soubert said. But it didnt, which Soubert said shows the nine-member body's lack of political independence. Soubert himself was among the King-appointed members of the Council from 1998 to 2007. Each member has a nine-year term limit. The Council is tasked with assessing the constitutionality of any laws passed by the Senate and National Assembly before they are sent to the King for promulgation. It is also empowered to make an official interpretation of the constitution and laws. In the current Constitutional Council, there are three royally-appointed, apolitical members  each a member of the royal family. The remaining six are CPP stalwarts. The Councils chair, Im Chhunlim, was the former Land Management Minister and also stands on the CPP Permanent Committee, the partys powerful, 36-member top decision-making politburo. The other five CPP members  the former Justice Ministrys second-in-command Hy Sophea, former election commissioner Im Suosdey, former chief Appeal Court judge Ly Vuochleng, Uth Chhorn, and Sam Promonea  were all members of the CPP Central Committee, the ruling partys national rubber-stamp political organ. The ruling partys leader does not shy away from touting the partys ability to change the Constitution on a whim. In a response to counter opposition leader Sam Rainsys claim that the prime minister was seeking post-premiership immunity, Hun Sen admitted the obvious. In case I want to do it, I will not stop short at just legislating a law, but I will also go as far as writing it in the Constitution, Hun Sen said in fiery speech last week. Not just legislating a law; the CPP is capable of changing the constitution.

At 28 years old, the countrys sixth constitution has a longer lifespan than all of its processors. However, its a significantly different document  having gone through nine amendments, the latest in 2018. The ninth change involved the addition of clauses dictating that citizens and political parties must protect national interests and counter interference from foreign actors, as well as permitting the confiscation of voting rights from individuals ruled as unqualified  all measures that critics viewed as targeting the CPPs political opponents. The current constitution is just drifting too far away from the original concepts, Soubert said. Sok Eysan, a CPP Senator and party spokesperson, said the party has always respected and complied with the Constitutions spirit. Any parts of the Constitution, like any other laws, need to be amended if they are unfit with the new historic circumstances of our nation. But any amendments shall not touch on the provisions of constitutional monarchy, liberal and multi-party democracy, and market economic regime, he said. Eysan brushed off questions about the political independence of the Constitutional Councilors. I would like not to comment on the issues of political tendency. I only want to stress that the Constitutional Council shall properly execute its roles and duties as stated in its organic law, he said. Thus, there is no reason to make an accusation that the Constitutional Council is biased to the CPP. Marking last weeks anniversary of the Cambodian Constitution, the United Nations Cambodia office also issued a reminder of its basic tenants  and called for the government to respect them. As today Cambodia celebrates its Constitution Day in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN encourages Cambodia to uphold and respect human rights enshrined in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other international human rights treaties as well as liberal multi-party democracy as recognized and stipulated in its Constitution, it said in a statement. Through the promotion and protection of human rights for all, Cambodia can build back better and ensure no one is left behind, it added. CNRP President Kem Sokha, who has been accused of conspiring with the U.S. to overthrow the CPP, issued a slightly more strongly worded statement marking the constitutional anniversary. Please join together to stop violating our constitution by not abusing the constitutional monarchy and by not shifting away from the path of liberal and multi-party democracy as enshrined in our top law, Sokha wrote. CNRP officials abroad who are loyal to Sam Rainsy, Sokhas predecessor and the partys co-founder, were less reserved in their statement. The Phnom Penh regime has abused and savagely destroyed the original spirit of the Constitution, our nations top law. The Phnom Penh regime has subsequently amended the Constitution in ambition to prolong their grip on power.
Cambodia on Tuesday raised the minimum monthly wage for workers in its key textiles and footwear industry by $2 to $194, effective January next year, shy of a $12 rise sought by major unions.

Factory wages have long been a tricky balancing act for Cambodia's government, to keep costs competitive for investors and brands while satisfying influential unions representing 700,000 workers, which have held strikes in previous years.

Worth $7 billion a year before the pandemic, the garment industry is Cambodia's largest employer and provides vital income for rural families, in making apparel for brands that include H&M, Adidas, Nike and Gap .

The new wage announced by the labor ministry would be a struggle to live on, said Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union Movement of Workers.

"I request all relevant stakeholders, the employers and the government, to consider the possibilities of adding more to the workers' wage," Pav Sina told reporters.

However, Kaing Monika, Deputy Secretary-General at the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC), said the raise could be problematic with operating costs also expected to rise.

"Even a $2 increase would have a negative impact," Kaing Monika told Reuters.

Kaing Monika said employers would spend more on pension and healthcare contributions and workplace measures to counter COVID-19, including up to $4 monthly per head on tests.

As of April, garments and textiles were no longer Cambodia's dominant export product, with agricultural goods and other new products on the rise, such as luggage, which is free of duties in the United States, according to the World Bank.

Cambodia's exports of travel goods to the U.S. market were worth $3.5 billion in 2020, up 3.6% from 2019.

That compared to $2.6 billion to the European Union, a 35% contraction, in part due to a partial withdrawal of preferential EU tariffs over human rights and political concerns.
Tanzania's first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, this week named a woman as defense minister  the latest in a number of appointments of women to top government posts.

The appointment came as part of the second Cabinet reshuffle Hassan has made since the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, earlier this year.

At the swearing-in of Stergomena Tax as Tanzanias first female defense and national service minister, Hassan said she made the choice to shatter the myth that women cannot serve in such a position.

I have decided to break the longtime myth that in the Defense Ministry there should be a man with muscles. The ministers job in that office is not to carry guns or artillery," Hassan said, adding that Tax's main duty will be to coordinate and manage the administration of policies at the ministry.

Gender activists have welcomed the appointment but said more needs to be done to address the country's gender equality gap.

Anna Henga, who heads the Legal and Human Rights Center, says there must be an amendment of laws such as the marriage act and the education act, laws that put women in low decision positions. She added that the government should also allocate money through the Health Ministry to educate people that women can also be leaders.

Analysts say an increase in the political representation of women at the national level does not automatically lead to women having more power in daily life, especially in highly stratified societies.

Sociologist Nasor Kitunda says gender should be irrelevant.

I think this tries to show that there is a direction in gender equality though Im not a believer in gender. The primary criteria should be someones performance and their ability to implement those responsibilities," Kitunda said.

For Tanzanian human rights activist Aika Peter, appointing more women leaders is positive but there must be a rotation to allow others to show their leadership skills.

We really need to see new faces in these positions  when you see the same people being recycled every day it gives the impression there are people who are so good at this job, there are no others who can be good at it, Peters said.

Tax's appointment brings the number of women who hold ministerial positions in Hassans government to eight.
On this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Hayde Adams explores the growing call for climate justice across Africa. Our guests include Lily Odarno, director of Energy and Climate Innovation, Africa at Clean Air Task Force, Glory Oguegbu, a climate change activist, Elizabeth Wathuti, founder of the Green Generation Initiative, Kemo Fatty, executive director of Green-Up Gambia and Muthoni Masinde, creator of the ITIKI app.
The attack in Burkina Faso last month that killed 160 civilians was in retaliation for activity by pro-government civilian militias in the area, according to Human Rights Watch.

In the daytime, Daouda Diallo is a scientist. By night, he is one of Burkina Fasos most prominent human rights campaigners.

He runs the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, a campaigning group set up in the wake of the Yirgou massacre, an attack that saw around 200 people killed, mostly from the Fulani ethnic group, in early 2019.

In Burkina Fasos conflict with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, the number of civilians killed by security forces has often come close to the numbers killed by the terror groups.

Diallo has been deeply affected by this.

Im a very sensitive person  I like to help the widow and the orphan, the vulnerable.  Ive devoted my time to this, but it's not an easy job, and I go unpaid. I do it for humanitarian reasons, Diallo told VOA.

Diallo also points out that one of the governments most controversial policies is a law that allows preexisting civilian militias, known as koglweogos, to be armed and trained by the government.

The new force is called the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, or VDPs.

When the law was created in 2020, Human Rights Watch said arming poorly trained civilians could lead to abuses.

So far, at least 95 people have been killed in 38 incidents of violence against civilians by VDPs, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A man, whose full name has been withheld to protect his safety, says he watched as VDPs killed two of his neighbors after accusing them of being terrorists.

...Issa was sick and decided to go to the market. The VDPs shot at him there. Issa ran to his house, where they killed him. Bad things happen. Thats why I had to run away. The militias are chasing you; the terrorists are chasing you.

Burkina Fasos Ministry of Defense did not respond to VOA's interview request about the incident.

One VDP leader, who asked to not be named, said most VDPs simply want to defend their homeland, many having had terrifying encounters with terrorists themselves.

The terrorists came and burned my house. They were looking for me, but fortunately I was not around. They also killed some of my neighbors and burned their houses as well. Its because of that I really felt I had to join the VDPs, he said.

A leader of the ruling MPP party admits its possible VDPs commit abuses  but says they are necessary.

Within the framework of the fight against terrorism, we are obliged to face the fact that the VDPs make a very big contribution," said Lassane Sawadogo, MPP Party Executive Secretary.

As widespread protests against insecurity in Burkina Faso have swept the country in recent weeks, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said he will reform the VDPs as one way of improving security.

Diallo says the government should take corrective action quickly. However, the government has yet to say what its actions will be.
Kenya has hailed its efforts to crack down on poaching as it released the results of the country's first-ever national wildlife census, calling the survey a vital weapon in its conservation battle.

According to the census released late Monday, the country has a total of 36,280 elephants, a 12% jump from the figures recorded in 2014, when poaching activity was at its highest.

"Efforts to increase penalties on crimes related to threatened species appear to be bearing fruits," the report, which counted 30 species of animals and covered nearly 59% of Kenya's land mass, said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in March that poaching and habitat destruction, particularly due to land conversion for agriculture, was devastating elephant numbers across Africa.

The population of African savanna elephants plunged by at least 60% in the last half century, prompting their reclassification as "endangered" in the latest update to the IUCN's "Red List" of threatened species.

The census said the numbers of lions, zebras, hirolas (Hunter's antelopes) and the three species of giraffes found in the country had also gone up, but did not provide comparative figures from earlier years.

The state-funded survey counted 1,739 rhinos including two northern white rhinos, 897 critically endangered black rhinos and 840 southern white rhinos, and said the tourist magnet Maasai Mara National Reserve was home to nearly 40,000 wildebeest.

"Obtaining this level of information... allows for better policy, planning and assessment of areas that require focus in our interventions to maintain or improve our national conservation efforts," Wildlife Minister Najib Balala said in the report.

President Uhuru Kenyatta applauded conservation agencies for successfully clamping down on poaching and urged them to find newer, inventive approaches to protect wildlife.

"The reduction in losses in terms of elephants, rhinos and other endangered species is because of the great work that KWS [Kenya Wildlife Service], its officers and men are doing", he said late Monday.

'Our children's legacy'

Special attention should be given to antelope species such as sable antelopes and mountain bongos which already number less than 100 each, the report said, warning that they could become extinct unless urgent action was taken.

Exponential growth in human population and the accompanying rise in demand for land for settlement as well as activities such as livestock incursions, logging and charcoal burning are threatening to put brakes on the recent gains, it added.

Kenya, like several of its African peers, is trying to strike a balance between protecting its wildlife while managing the dangers they pose when they raid human settlements in search of food and water.

"[Wildlife] is our heritage, this is our children's legacy and it is important for us to be able to know what we have in order to be better informed on policy and also on actions needed as we move forward," Kenyatta said.

"It being a national heritage, it is something we should carry with pride", he added.
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.
Tight global energy supplies pushed oil prices above $80 a barrel for the first time in three years on Tuesday before retreating in a broader selloff in financial markets. Demand rose due to easing lockdown measures and wider rollouts of COVID-19 vaccinations, analysts say, as well as disruptions in supply due to hurricanes in the United States. Will OPEC+ increase supplies?

Goldman Sachs expects oil prices for benchmark Brent crude to hit $90 per barrel by the end of the year as supply tightens. The recovery from the impact of delta variant of the coronavirus was faster than expected especially with international travel, it said, while Hurricane Ida hit U.S. production.

Although some analysts find that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, known as OPEC+, have been slow to raise their oil output to address the shortfalls, others like Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy in London, told VOA that there is no real oil supply shortage.

I struggle to see how we have a shortage of supply when you have OPEC+ sitting on millions of barrels a day of spare capacity. Usually if you look historically when we have serious crises in oil markets and prices going significantly high, that spare capacity was very low. Today that is not the case. So, we have a voluntary decision not to put all that oil in the market and that is contributing to the current tightness. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait dont seem to be facing any problem. If they want, they can easily appease the pressure in the market, said Nakhle.

Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow at Londons Chatham House, told VOA that it is hard to say whether OPEC - which meets next week - will increase production. But he notes that U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this week.

"I would find it really hard to imagine, given where the price of oil is at the moment and that OPEC is meeting next week, that that didnt inform an important part of the conversation. Its hard to say, but the signals so far are that they are going to stick to where consumption currently is and keep in alignment with plans to increase production by 400,000 barrels each month until the end," he said.

Norbert Rucker of the Swiss private bank Julius Baer said that the deficit in world gas supplies is driving the global energy crunch. He told the Wall Street Journal that this is now spilling over into the oil market because of the expectation that this energy scarcity means were going to use oil for spillover demand. Oil can be used in some power plants to generate electricity when gas prices surge.

Nakhle said gas markets have no such OPEC+ entity. Currently, Russia is seen to be restricting some of its supplies to Europe to gain more support for its Nord Stream 2 pipeline and to take advantage of higher prices, but Russia does not have the same impact on gas prices as you have, for example, with OPEC+ in oil markets, she said.

Gas prices have risen in part due to a worldwide production deficit, depleted inventories as well Chinas turning to gas from coal. Analysts say the energy crisis will worsen if there is a very cold winter ahead in the northern hemisphere.
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.
Chinese state-owned media has claimed that Australian consultants in Papua New Guinea have been hindering the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines flown in from China. It was alleged that they had engaged in political manipulation and bullying there.

Australia has strongly denied claims it has tried to sabotage Chinas efforts to boost vaccinations in Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is currently using the AstraZeneca vaccine. Two hundred thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine have recently been flown in from China but have yet to be approved for use by local authorities.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned Australia to stop interfering with and undermining vaccine cooperation between China and Pacific Island countries.

Australias minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. all international assistance is welcome.

When it comes to the rollout, what we are focused on is making sure that we are providing as much assistance as we possibly can, Seselja said. If other countries want to provide assistance that is wonderful.

Papua New Guinea is Australias nearest neighbor and has recorded more than 17,000 coronavirus infections and 174 deaths since the pandemic began but it is hard to get accurate figures due to lack of testing, according to media reports.

The South Pacific nation has a population of about 9 million. It has administered just under 55,000 vaccine doses, faced with both hesitancy among Papua New Guineans and a lack of supply.

Australia has pledged to ship 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Papua New Guinea every week, along with medical support. It has also promised to donate tens of thousands of additional doses to other Pacific nations.

China delivered 50,000 Sinopharm doses to the Solomon Islands earlier this year.

The row over vaccines in Papua New Guinea is the latest dispute between Australia and China. Relations have soured in recent years over geopolitical flashpoints, including Beijings military ambitions in the South China Sea and allegations of Chinese interference in Australias domestic affairs.

Papua New Guinean health officials are trying to stay out of any diplomatic arguments between Australia and China. They have said they are not concerned about where their coronavirus vaccines come from but just want sufficient supplies to protect the countrys population.
Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife have recovered from COVID-19 and returned to their regular duties on Tuesday, three weeks after they had tested positive for the coronavirus, the presidents office said.

According to the statement, Syrias first couple had their PCR tests and the results were negative, and the mild symptoms of the virus that they had experienced before were now gone.

Assad, 55, and his wife, Asma, who is 10 years younger and had announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, had isolated themselves since testing positive on March 8.

Syria is witnessing a sharp increase in cases. Earlier this month, state media has reported that intensive care units in state hospitals in the capital of Damascus were full and that medical staff have been called to stay on alert to deal with coronavirus patients.

Syria has been mired in civil war for 10 years since anti-government protests that began as part of Arab Spring uprisings turned into an insurgency in response to a military crackdown. A decade of fighting has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Syrian authorities have so far registered more than 18,000 cases of the coronavirus and 1,247 deaths in government-held parts of the country, where the first case was reported in March last year.

According to the World Health Organization, there are nearly 21,000 cases in the last rebel stronghold in Syrias northwest along the border with Turkey, as well as some 9,000 cases in areas controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters in the northeast.

The real numbers are believed to be much higher, as testing is limited. Many Syrians cannot afford PCR tests amid the countrys severe economic crisis.

The pandemic, which has severely tested even developed countries, has been a major challenge for Syrias health care sector, already depleted by 10 years of conflict. The conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced half of Syrias pre-war population of 23 million.

WHO said last week it will oversee a coronavirus vaccination campaign in Syria that is expected to start in April, with the aim of inoculating 20% of the population by the end of 2021.
Nigerian authorities have reopened schools in northern Kaduna state after closing them for two months due to insecurity. The region has suffered a string of armed kidnappings and the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, says about one million Nigerian children are "afraid to return to school."

Nigerian educator Naomi Ibrahim opened Kewta Primary School in Kaduna state seven years ago, after an attack by Boko Haram militants forced her to flee her hometown in Borno state.

She says the aim is to help children affected by conflict get a basic education, but waves of violence and mass kidnappings are threatening her work and keeping students away.

"Some are from Borno, some Adamawa, Gombe and other places like that. We're just praying, it is God that is keeping us safe, said Naomi Ibrahim, an educator and school owner.

Ibrahim says only 50 of about 120 students appeared for the new term, which began last week. She blames insecurity in the region for the low attendance.

Kaduna is one of the states worst hit by mass school kidnappings that began in northern Nigeria late last year. Since December, the government reports more than 1,000 school children have been seized from schools in the region.

The kidnappings are usually carried out by bandits - local criminal gangs demanding ransom from the victims families. Other states affected include Niger, Zamfara, and Katsina.

To address the problem, Kaduna state authorities closed schools in July but reopened them this month, saying the situation had improved.

Community leader Abu Mohammed agrees.

"There's an upgrade really in terms of security attention from the government. Why? Because the government has made a clarion call for all the security apparatus and they have all gathered here in Kaduna, they have gone into the forests to see where their (bandits') stations are, he said.

But Aishatu Musa says the fear that bandits could kidnap her children from school has not gone away.

"I'm scared about what is happening now, that's why I don't want them to go to school yet.," she said.

Two weeks ago, UNICEF estimated one million Nigerian children could miss out on education due to security concerns.

The agency estimates Nigeria has the greatest number of out-of-school children in the world, about 13.2 million. UNICEF Nigeria's education manager, Rudra Sahoo, says the actual figure could be even higher.

"In the months of May, June and July, there were regular attacks particularly in the north central and northwest region, and as precautionary measure, 11,000 schools closed during that time," said Sahoo. "The schools are opening now but the apprehension on the minds of the parents is there."

For now, schools like Kewta Primary school will carry on with classes, despite uncertainty about whether it is safe to do so.
The International Rescue Committee says more than two million Kenyans are facing hunger due to poor rainfall. Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, declared a national disaster this month because of drought.

Thirty-six-year-old Suleiman Ahmed Osman lost 50% of his livestock to drought in the past six months. He says more are dying now due to worsening drought.



When we lost this number of animals there is no other source of income," he said. "To source our daily meal because we used to get milk and meat, sometimes selling the animals to get other food, sugar and other things. Now that the animals are very emaciated, nobody can buy them, no milk because the drought has affected them to the extent that no milk can come from the animal.



The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says Kenya received insufficient rainfall during the October to December 2020 and March to May 2021 rainy seasons, leading to the current drought situation.



The IFRC report said that arid and semi-arid areas received less than 50% of the average rainfall in June. The three counties in northeastern Kenya received less than 25% of average rainfall.



Abdullahi Musa has been buying animal feed and water for four months now for his more than 100 cattle in Garissa, along the Kenya and Somalia border.

There are two sets of livestock herders," he said. "There are those who the drought in Kenya has affected them there are those who crossed to Somalia to get pasture but came back due to lack of water. I am among the people who are not so affected. I have lost some animals but most of them are alive. But 90% of animal herders have lost their livestock. They got nothing.



The International Rescue Committee says 2.1 million people in Kenya are now food insecure.

The head of the organization in Kenya, Mohamed El Montassir Hussein, says he is concerned about the growing humanitarian situation in some 20 out of 47 counties.



Our concern overall is the protracted drought situation and protracted aspect of drought in Kenya thats been over the years coming again and again and also concern is extended to the growing humanitarian needs as people move out of their homes searching for places closer to water sources, he said.

The IRC says climate change is the main driver of the region's recurring drought and locust outbreaks.



Kenyas National Drought Management Authority predicts the food insecurity situation will persist until the end of the year.



The drought management authority says people's fortunes may change if the affected areas get rain in the next three months.


Journalists who cover China have been receiving notices from the networking site LinkedIn, informing them that their profiles are no longer accessible in China.

In a message to Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, LinkedIn said the block was in place because of prohibited content in the summary section of her profile page.

The journalist covers China for the news website Axios.

Allen-Ebrahimian, who shared a copy of the message with VOA, said LinkedIn did not state what posts or details on her profile were deemed prohibited.

When the journalist shared details of the message on her Twitter feed on Tuesday, other journalists and writers said they had received similar notices.

Melissa Chan, an independent reporter who works with outlets including the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said she also received a message on Tuesday, with LinkedIn saying her profile had been blocked because of prohibited content located in the Publication section.

And author Greg Bruno said on Twitter that his LinkedIn profile had also been blocked. In a tweet, he said the only item listed under publications on his profile was his book on Tibet, Blessings from Beijing: Inside Chinas Soft-Power War on Tibet.

In its messages to the journalists, LinkedIn said it would try to minimize the impact of the block and that it would review the profiles if the journalists updated or revised the posted content.

In a statement to VOA, LinkedIn defended its actions, saying that as a global platform it respects the laws that apply to us, including adhering to Chinese government regulations for our localized version of LinkedIn in China.

Profiles that have been limited in China are still visible across the rest of the globe, LinkedIn said.

However, Allen-Ebrahimian said that the block would make it harder for her to report.

Neither Chinas internet regulator nor its embassy in Washington responded to VOAs requests for comment.

Local laws

LinkedIn, which says it has over 774 million users in over 200 countries, launched a version of its site in China in 2014.

It is one of the few Western social media platforms allowed to operate in the country, where it has an estimated 45 million users.

But the professional networking site has run into issues with Chinas internet regulators. The New York Times reported in March 2021 that the regulator ordered LinkedIn to suspend new sign-ups for 30 days over content deemed political.

"The Chinese government is shaping the behavior of companies through clearly enforced laws and regulations, Axios' Allen-Ebrahimian told VOA via email.

The only way for democratic countries to push back and preserve freedom of speech is by responding in kind -- passing and enforcing laws and regulations that incentivize companies to stop complying with Chinese government censorship laws, she said.

Western companies often say they respect free expression, Angeli Datt, a senior research analyst for China at Freedom House, told VOA. But their actions show a disregard for the rights of Chinese users to seek and receive information and for individuals globally to speak or share information about China.

Lack of clarity

In its notices to the journalists, LinkedIn did not specify what content was prohibited, pointing only to the section where it appeared.

the profile for Allen-Ebrahimian, viewed by VOA, includes her role as lead reporter on the China Cables project, which examined leaked government files related to internment camps in the Xinjiang region, and an investigation in 2020 into a suspected Chinese intelligence operative in California.

Chan, from Deutsche Welle, said on Twitter that she believed her block was related to coverage of Uyghurs and reporting on democracy. Her profile includes links and descriptions of her China coverage.

In June, LinkedIn issued similar notices to a Swedish writer and photographer Jojje Olsson, who had included an essay on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement under the education section of his profile, and J. Michael Cole, a Global Taiwan Institute fellow.

Zhou Fengsuo, the founder of rights group Humanitarian China and a student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests, described the blocks as outrageous.

Chinas digital totalitarianism is not just confined within the borders of China, but companies in other places of the world also follow Beijings orders. Its unacceptable, he told VOA in a phone interview.

Zhous own LinkedIn account was blocked briefly in China in January 2019. LinkedIn said at the time that it was an error.

The rights activist said that rules on complying with local laws were vague.

There are no rules in terms of [Communist Party] censorship. Its very arbitrary, he said. We also want to know what those applicable laws are, if theres any, and in what ways Beijing pressures these multinational companies.

I think its all in the dark and at the discretion of the police, he said.

Content removal and blocked websites were cited by Freedom House this month when it described China as the worst abuser of internet freedoms for the seventh year.

Freedom on the Net, the groups annual analysis of digital rights, found that authorities regularly push social media companies to police content.

Datt told VOA that notices like those LinkedIn issued Tuesday were not new but they represent increased action by Western companies to censor users globally who talk about or work on China on behalf of the Chinese government.

The complicity of Western tech companies in censorship demonstrates how the [Communist Party] is expanding its internet controls system overseas by getting private companies to do it for them, she said.

Liam Scott contributed to this report, which originated in VOAs Mandarin Service.
Social media regulations are expected to be on the agenda for Turkey's national assembly when it reconvenes in October.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party is preparing a draft law covering false news and disinformation online.

Details of the proposal have not been shared publicly, but unnamed officials cited by local media have said the draft proposes making "disinformation" and "misinformation" an offense and includes prison sentences of up to five years for spreading false news on social media.

The draft also proposes establishing a body similar to the media regulator Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken against the danger of false news and misinformation online. His party's deputy chair Mahir Unal said in mid-July that the party was looking at legal measures, adding, "Combating disinformation is as important as fighting terrorism."

Journalists and media groups have voiced concern about the proposal, calling for authorities to make the plans public and warning that broadly worded regulations could be used to persecute critical reporting. Others cited the large number of lawsuits already filed against social media users.

"The government has a strange habit," said Turgay Olcayto, adding that everyone who criticizes it is viewed as "an enemy."

The president of the Turkish Journalists' Association was speaking at a press conference Monday alongside four other media unions and rights groups to voice opposition to the proposed law.

Online regulation

The proposed law comes a year after Turkey implemented regulations on social media platforms including requirements that sites have a Turkish representative to handle queries, and deadlines for responding to takedown requests.

In the first month after it was enacted, platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were fined $1.18 million for noncompliance, Reuters reported.

Turkey already has a poor press freedom record, ranking "not free" on the Freedom on the Net report, with a score of 34 out of 100. The annual report by Freedom House assesses countries on a series of factors related to digital rights.

Its most recent analysis, released in September, cited the blocking of hundreds of websites and the new regulations for platforms as reasons for the low score.

"I don't need to say anything about the state of our journalism," Olcayto said. "(The ruling party says) 'We will prevent fake news from being manipulated.' How will you prevent it? It is the government that manipulates and hides news the most."

Olcayto said he does not believe Parliament will pass the bill, but if it was made law, "We will continue to fight."

Authorities want greater control over social media, said Ugur Guc, the Istanbul representative for the Progressive Journalists Association.

"The media has been under pressure for a long time, and 90% of it has been under the control of the government," Guc told VOA Turkish after the press conference.

Social media provided more freedom, but thousands of lawsuits have been filed against social media users as more people moved online, Guc added.

"In the last year, at least 30,000 people were investigated and 5,000 were sentenced. We are talking about huge numbers," Guc said, adding that he believes the aim is to silence the opposition.

Guc has also faced legal threats over his work. He was accused of insulting state institutions in 2019 and acquitted the following year.

Erdogan has dismissed criticism of Turkey's media freedom record, saying "Turkey is incomparably free," in an interview with U.S. broadcaster CBS on Sunday.

When asked about data showing Turkey as a leading jailer of journalists, and comments from lawyers who say thousands are facing lawsuits for insult, the president said, "I know those credible international organizations that have no credit for me."

Media regulator

Journalists are wary of plans to create a social media regulator like RTUK. The nonprofit Human Rights Watch warned in 2020 that Turkey's regulator is "imposing punitive and disproportionate sanctions" on stations that report critically on the government.

The regulator issued more than 40 sanctions against seven independent stations, and ordered seven programs to be suspended in 2020, Human Rights Watch reported.

Guc said he believes the government will try to create a regulator like RTUK that can issue punishments or intimidate users with the threat of penalties.

"They want to put more pressure on people and silence people,'' he said.

The chair of the Turkish Writers' Union, Adnan Ozyalcner, also believes the draft law is an attempt to target the critical press.

"Measures are being taken against the critical press through arbitrary and administrative means, not by legal means. (This is) an attempt to counter the critical press," Ozyalcner told VOA Turkish after the press conference.

The union chair raised concerns over who would decide what content is false, and questioned what criteria would be used, saying, "I think all news against the government will be declared 'fake news'."

The journalist organizations have released a joint proposal recommending that the draft law be shared with the public, that journalism should not be criminalized and that freedom of communication and information not be limited.

This story originated in VOA's Turkish service.


U.N. human rights experts say the international community is abandoning millions of Yemeni civilians to a life of intolerable suffering and desperation as Yemen enters its seventh year of civil war with no end in sight. The statement comes as the three-member UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen presents its findings ahead of a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.

The United Nations estimates more than 1,200 civilians have been killed or injured in Yemen this year. This is on top of the more than 20,000 civilians who have been killed or injured since the war began in 2015.

Additionally, the U.N. humanitarian office reports about 233,000 people have died of causes related to hunger, disease, lack of health care, a collapsed economy, and other indirect causes.

Eminent expert Ardi Imsels says civilians continue to pay the highest price in this conflict, as they sink deeper into hunger, poverty, suffering and despair.

"This year, the group of Eminent Experts continues to have reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict have committed serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, some of which may amount to war crimes," said Imsels. "As we have said before, there are no clean hands in this conflict.

The group accuses the government of Yemen, supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of multiple atrocities. The report documents numerous airstrikes in populated areas by the Saudi-led coalition and indiscriminate shelling attacks by the Houthis.

The range of violations committed by all parties include arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and other forms of gender-based sexual violence. In view of the enormous suffering of the Yemeni people, Eminent Expert Melissa Parke says the situation in Yemen should be at the top of the international agenda.

"We are seeing a generation of children caused irreparable harm, forced to be child soldiers, denied their fundamental rights to food and education, to health care," said Parke. "Yemen was already patriarchal before the war, but the situation for women has only become worse with the conflict, and the associated displacement, extreme poverty and indiscriminate violence.

The group says impunity for these crimes must end. Perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to justice. The Eminent Experts are calling on states to stop all arms transfers to the parties, which they say are driving the conflict.

The report contains a so-called non-exhaustive list of countries that are providing weapons to Yemens warring parties. They include Canada, France, Iran, Britain, and the United States.


Since the military coup in February, Myanmars national army has cracked down on coup protesters, while deadly fighting continues to target rebel armies that oppose junta rule.



While fighting those battles, Myanmar also is fighting to get online, because dozens of towns reportedly are without internet access.



The country has suffered regular internet shutdowns for most of the year, which the junta says are for the sake of stability in efforts to prevent disinformation and fake news.



On Tuesday, Htaike Htaike Aung, an internet freedom activist in Myanmar, posted on social media that internet access in 25 towns and cities had been cut off.

The military government has denied responsibility for the blackouts, however, instead blaming Myanmars local citizen defense forces for the shutdowns, according to news organization Mizzima.

Myanmars internet woes this year have been made evident in a report from Freedom House, a nonprofit research institute. The organization ranks the internet freedom of countries, based on factors such as content limitation and violation of user rights, on a 100-point scale. Myanmar ranked 30th in 2020, but this year it rose to 17, which is categorized as not free.

The report said the junta began shutting down the internet shortly after the coup and soon took control of Myanmars telecommunication regulators. The political situation resulted in one of Myanmars major operators, the Norwegian group Telenor, quitting operations inside the country.

The military then blocked social media platforms and at least seven online news outlets. In March, five media outlets had their licenses revoked.

Pro-democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi told VOAs Burmese Service that the military was attempting a digital coup along with its political coup.

Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst from Myanmar, told VOA that internet shutdowns allow the junta to counter resistance in the countrys more defiant regions.



The main reason for [the] Internet shutdown is to control information from the problematic areas, especially video footage of fighting and human rights abuses," he said. "Additionally, the authorities can closely monitor those people who are still working under limited bandwidth.



Almost all of these areas are hotbeds of civilian resistance against the military, such as Kayah, Kachin states, and Sagaing and Magwe regions, he said.

People living in Myanmar rely heavily on internet access, especially social media platforms such as Facebook, to read the news. In many regions, internet blackouts mean there is no other way to independently learn of events throughout the country.

Managing money

The analyst added that in ethnic states, people rely heavily on the internet to manage their finances.

In rural areas, many people rely on the internet for their money transactions by Wave Money or KPay, et cetera. [They now must] rely on old ways of communication and stay disconnected, he added.

Its not the first time areas of Myanmar have experienced inaccessibility to the web. In 2019, Rakhine state endured the worlds longest internet shutdown according to Human Rights Watch.

Even then, the purpose was to limit information, according to Aung Thu Nyein.

The military did so earlier in Rakhine state a few years ago in order to obstruct among the activists and fighters of the movement to disseminate less information out online, the analyst said. As far as I understand, the government blocked the system of advanced 3G and 4G, but they allow 2G to barely communicate by phone and SMS.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun denied the military's involvement at the time.



Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, saw most of its modern history governed under military rule up until 2011.



After the November 2020 general elections, the military claimed unsubstantiated electoral fraud, removed the democratically elected government, detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and then followed with a slew of criminal charges.

Internet cuts also are forcing schools to cancel classes in a further blow to education. Some teachers now are working as self-employed instructors, after refusing to work within military-controlled schools.

Nway, an English primary teacher in Yangon, told VOA that classes have been affected because of regular internet shutdowns, while acknowledging other areas have it even worse.

I need to cancel some of my teaching sessions. We need to teach substitute sessions on weekends. Some parents understand the situation, but some dont understand, and they are not happy when the connection from my side is poor, Nway said.

Most people think that their children are lucky to have access to education in comparing with those in IDP [internally displaced people] camps, the teacher added.

Tens of thousands displaced

Tens of thousands of civilians reportedly have been displaced since the coup, mostly in Myanmars ethnic regions, including Karen state.

Wahkushee Tenner, the director of the Karen Peace Support Network, a civil society network providing support for the vulnerable, said communication with some is nonexistent.

[I] cant connect with people in Karen state, or families in Burma [Myanmar]. Their internet is off, cannot get updates from the ground, her message to VOA read.

The future of Myanmar has been a hot topic of debate during the U.N.s 76th General Assembly, which concludes this week. One of the key issues is who will take the countrys U.N. seat  either a representative from the military junta or an official from the former democratically elected government.

The National Unity Government, an inclusive shadow government made up of ousted democratically elected politicians, announced a defensive war against the military earlier this month.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed at least 1,139 people since the coup. The junta denies it.


North Koreas latest missile launch involved a new hypersonic weapon, state media said Wednesday, the countrys first test of an advanced missile system that would add yet another unpredictable component to its fast-expanding arsenal.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) posted its first picture of the hypersonic missile, dubbed Hwasong-8, being launched Tuesday against the backdrop of a cloudy morning sky in the northern North Korean province of Jagang.

The KCNA report claimed the test was successful, adding that the hypersonic weapon was one of five top-priority tasks of a five-year defense plan outlined by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a major political meeting in January.

[The test] confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section and also its technical specifications including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead, KCNA reported.

Defense experts say North Koreas development of the so-called hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is the latest evidence it seeks the ability to penetrate U.S. missile defenses, both in Northeast Asia and the U.S. mainland.

Like most ballistic missiles, HGVs fly at hypersonic speeds, or faster than five times the speed of sound. But HGVs are in theory more difficult to detect and intercept, since they can fly at relatively low altitudes and be maneuvered in flight.

A hypersonic missile would provide another means of precisely striking targets on the peninsula through allied missile defenses, says Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.

The big strategy: to evade, overwhelm

Since it resumed major missile tests in 2019 amid a breakdown in talks with the United States, North Korea has unveiled multiple weapon systems designed to overwhelm or evade U.S. missile defenses.

Those new systems include a long-range cruise missile tested earlier this month, as well as short-range ballistic missiles that can be guided in flight.

The North has also unveiled technology allowing it to launch missiles from road-mobile vehicles, trains, and eventually even submarines  making its arsenal more undetectable, and therefore more survivable in a possible war.

Though not all the weapons have been deployed or even fully tested, taken together they form a formidable threat to the United States and its allies, analysts warn.

With so many capabilities being demonstrated but not fully tested, the (U.S.-South Korea) alliance will have to be ready for anything in a crisis, Mount told VOA.

Why the latest missile is different

The hypersonic missile launched Tuesday appears to share some similarities with the KN-23, a short-range ballistic missile the North first tested in May 2019.

Like the KN-23, HGVs fly at a relatively low altitude and can be maneuvered in flight. However, the Norths newest missile features a warhead that detaches from the booster rocket before gliding to its target.

That feature may allow it to be attached to much bigger missiles than the KN-23, says Vipin Narang, a nuclear and defense specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This atop a mobile solid fuel (intercontinental ballistic missile) would pose a big problem for the U.S.  it could be hard to find, and the warhead difficult to intercept by homeland defenses, Narang told VOA.

A major step in missile fuel capabilities

Missile experts are also concerned about North Koreas claim of using a much quicker and more stable process to fuel its missiles.



The KCNA report Wednesday said North Korean scientists used the HGV test to introduce the ampulization of missile fuel.

The development means North Korea would be able to fuel missiles in a factory, seal them hermetically in canisters, and store them so that they can be moved out quickly and launched promptly, Narang says.

They have so many liquid fuel missiles. Now they may not take hours to fuel in the open where they are vulnerable. Big leap in survivability and promptness, he added.

The wider strategy

North Korea has now conducted three major missile tests this month. Few, if any, analysts think Pyongyang will stop the tests anytime soon.

In a speech late Monday at the United Nations General Assembly, North Korean diplomat Kim Song defended his countrys nuclear missile advancement, calling it a response to the hostile policy of the United States and South Korea.

Nobody can deny the righteous right to self-defense for (North Korea) to develop, test, manufacture and possess the weapons systems equivalent to the ones which are possessed or being developed by the United States and South Korea, Kim said.

The North Korean ambassador also condemned the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea, recent U.S.-South Korea military exercises and South Koreas military buildup.

The comments came just days after Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, held out the possibility of negotiations with South Korea.

The mixed messages are part of a time-tested strategy for North Korea, which wants to both build up its nuclear deterrent and divide the U.S.-South Korea alliance, says Mason Richey, a professor at South Koreas Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

The situation is especially difficult for South Koreas left-leaning administration, which wants to resume talks with North Korea before President Moon Jae-ins single term in office expires in May.

If it calls these tests provocative, the Kim regime can claim that South Korea is hostile, and shut the door to engagement; if Seoul refrains from language Pyongyang doesnt like, it will likely cause alliance friction with the U.S., Richey says.

There is no evidence the U.S.-South Korea alliance is fraying. But as Richey points out, the Norths strategy does seem to be intensifying a Korean arms race, which has destabilizing security implications for both the Korean peninsula and the Northeast Asia region.
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.
Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Rohingya Muslim leader Wednesday in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, a U.N. spokesperson and a local police official said, following months of worsening violence in the world's largest refugee settlement.

Mohib Ullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017.

Invited to the White House and to speak to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he was one of the most high-profile advocates for the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that has faced persecution for generations.

Rafiqul Islam, a deputy police superintendent in the nearby town of Cox's Bazar, told Reuters by phone that Mohib Ullah had been shot dead but had no additional details.

A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency was "deeply saddened" by the killing of Mohib Ullah. "We are in continuous contact with law enforcement authorities in charge of maintaining peace and security in the camps," the spokesperson said.

Documented atrocities

Mohib Ullah's group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, made its name documenting atrocities the Rohingya suffered during the Myanmar crackdown, which the U.N. has said was carried out with genocidal intent.

At the Bangladesh refugee camps, Mohib Ullah went from hut to hut to build a tally of killings, rape and arson that was shared with international investigators.

His organization worked to give refugees more of a voice inside the camps and internationally. Speaking to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he said the Rohingya wanted more of a say over their own future.

But his high profile made him a target of hardliners and he received death threats, he told Reuters in 2019. "If I die, I'm fine. I will give my life," he said at the time.

The sprawling camps in Bangladesh have become increasingly violent, residents say, with armed men vying for power, kidnapping critics and warning women against breaking conservative Islamic norms.

Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya civil society activist and an adviser to Myanmar's National Unity Government, the parallel civilian government established after February's coup, said Mohib Ullah's death was a "big loss for the Rohingya community."

"He was always aware there is a threat, but he thinks that despite the threat if he is not doing the work he is doing, no one else would," he said.
Russia threatened Wednesday to block Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube after Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels were deleted, and said it was considering retaliating against German media.

YouTube said on Tuesday that RT's channels had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy, a move Russia's Foreign Ministry described as "unprecedented information aggression."

Russian state communications regulator Roskomnadzor said it had written to Google and demanded the restrictions be lifted. It said Russia could seek to partially or fully restrict access to YouTube if it failed to comply.

Google declined to comment Wednesday.

The Kremlin said it may have to force YouTube to comply with Russian law, saying there could be zero tolerance for breaches.

"Of course there are signs that the laws of the Russian Federation have been broken, broken quite blatantly, because of course this involves censorship and obstructing the spread of information by the media," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The foreign ministry said Russian authorities had been approached with "a proposal to develop and take retaliatory measures against the YouTube hosting service and the German media."

Christian Mihr, executive director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany, said the threat of action against German journalists was "completely inappropriate."

Moscow has increased pressure on foreign tech firms in the past year, fining social media companies for failing to delete content Russia deems illegal and punitively slowing down the speed of Twitter.

That pressure led Google and Apple to remove an anti-government tactical voting app from their stores on the first day of a parliamentary election earlier this month, Kremlin critics said.

Berlin denied an allegation by the Russian foreign ministry that YouTube's decision had been made with clear and tacit support from the German authorities and local media.

"It is a decision by YouTube, based on rules created by YouTube. It is not a measure [taken by] the German government or other official organizations," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters.
The Taliban and China called Wednesday for the United States to stop flying drones over Afghanistans airspace, saying such actions were in breach of Afghanistans sovereignty and a mutual agreement.

We recently saw [the] United States violating all international rights, law and commitments [made] to the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] in Doha, Qatar, as Afghanistan's sacred airspace is being invaded by U.S. drones, the Taliban said in a statement.

The Islamist group referred to its February 2020 agreement with Washington that paved the way for U.S. and NATO troops to leave the country. The withdrawal process concluded last month, marking the end of nearly 20 years of international involvement in the Afghan war.

'Negative consequences'

We call on all countries, especially the United States, to treat Afghanistan in light of international rights, laws and commitments  in order to prevent any negative consequences, the Taliban warned without elaborating.

There were no immediate comments from U.S. officials. The warning was apparently issued in response to recent comments by the Pentagon saying Washington retains all necessary authorities to execute over-the-horizon counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.

We remain confident in these capabilities moving forward, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters on Friday. Without speaking to specific rules of engagement surrounding airstrikes, there is currently no requirement to clear airspace with the Taliban. And we do not expect that any future over-the-horizon counterterrorism strikes would hinge on such a clearance.

China also voiced opposition Wednesday to the U.S. drone operations in Afghan airspace.

The U.S. should earnestly respect Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a news conference in Beijing.

More importantly, the U.S. should stop habitually imposing wanton military intervention and forcing its own will on others, and avoid repeating the tragedies of plunging people into misery and suffering, she said.

The Taliban regained power in Kabul in August after U.S.-led NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, and the Western-backed government and its military collapsed in the face of increased attacks by the Islamist insurgent group.

Countering threats

Washington has said, however, that it will use its over-the-horizon capabilities to launch airstrikes from outside the country to counter terror threats from al-Qaida and the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISIS-K.

Last week, the Taliban rejected as baseless propaganda U.S. concerns that the two terrorist groups maintain a presence in the country, even as ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly bombings against Taliban fighters in the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar in the past week.

ISIS-K also took credit for an August 26 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, when thousands of foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans were trying to catch U.S.-run emergency evacuation flights out of the country. The attack killed more than 170 people, including 13 American service members.
Anger over the end of the United States two decades of fighting in Afghanistan turned into arguments during a second day of hearings by U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, with some demanding top officials resign while others praised them for making the best of a difficult situation.



The most vocal criticism came from Republicans, many of whom repeatedly chastised U.S. President Joe Biden for ending U.S. combat operations against the advice of senior military officials and pulling the last U.S. forces from Afghanistan last month.



Regardless of how you feel about the decision to remove troops from Afghanistan, I think we can all agree that the withdrawal was an unmitigated disaster," Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the leading Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.



"It was an extraordinary disaster...one of the greatest failures of American leadership," he added, saying, "I fear the president is delusional."



Florida Republican Matt Gaetz went further, demanding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, and General Kenneth Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, all step down immediately.



I believe you guys probably won't resign," Gaetz said. But if we didn't have a president who was so addled, you all would be fired because that is what you deserve.

The partisan attacks grew heated enough that the committees Democratic chairman, Representative Adam Smith, repeatedly interjected, countering what he described as arguments that were fundamentally disingenuous.



"Any implication that the gentlemen in front of us are not very capable, very intelligent and very committed to this country is simply partisan political opportunism," Smith said, at times having to talk over other lawmakers.



Pick your favorite general. Pick your favorite president. Pick your favorite leader, Smith said. "None of them could successfully do what so many members of this committee are sitting here telling these gentlemen that they're basically idiots for not being able to do."

During the approximately four hours of testimony, both CENTCOMs General McKenzie and the Joint Staffs General Milley confirmed they had advocated, consistently, for keeping about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, though such a plan would not have been without risk.



Had we held the 2,500, which I stated was my position, and as the secretary [of defense] has articulated, there would have been a clear risk that the Taliban would have begun to attack us, McKenzie told lawmakers.



"However, it was my judgment then that would still have given us a platform to continue negotiations with the Taliban to perhaps force a political solution," McKenzie said.

Milley told the panel that keeping 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan could also have helped bolster the Afghan government and the morale of the Afghan security forces, perhaps staving off their rapid collapse in mid-August.



But Milley also told lawmakers that U.S. military might would only have gone so far, saying he had concluded about five years ago that the war in Afghanistan, was unwinnable through U.S. military means."



"Success would have been a negotiated solution between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban for a power sharing agreement, he said. "I also assessed that the probability of that actually happening was low."



A day earlier, testifying during a six-hour-long hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Milley labeled the 20-year-long U.S. effort in Afghanistan a failure, despite evacuation efforts that saw the U.S. military airlift about 124,000 people, including some 6,000 Americans, out of Kabul in just 17 days.



The enemy is in charge in Kabul; there's no way else to describe that, Milley told Senators on Tuesday, though he said when it came to leaving Afghanistan, "I think the end state probably would have been the same no matter when you did it."

House lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the evacuation effort, saying Americans and many Afghans who helped the U.S. had been left behind.



Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised them the Pentagon would keep working to get as many people out as possible, even though there are no longer any U.S. troops on the ground.



"In the last 48 hours I think we've brought out an additional 63 American citizens and 169 legal permanent residents," Austin told committee members Wednesday.



He also said U.S. military would remain laser-focused on tracking any potential terror threats that could emerge from Afghanistan  whether from the al-Qaida or Islamic State terror groups  something officials have said could happen any time in the next three years.



For now, defense officials and the White House insist they have the ability to eliminate any potential terror threats with drone strikes from over-the-horizon, though military officials admit it will be more difficult now without having troops on the ground.



Asked if it was possible the U.S. might once again have to send troops to Afghanistan at some point in the future, Austin said he wont rule anything out.



I will just say its not preordained that we will go back or have to go back, he said.


U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned Wednesday of deteriorating health conditions in Afghanistan, which the Taliban seized in August following the pullout of U.S. and allied troops after 20 years.

At a daily briefing, Dujarric said there had been a decrease in access to health care, that cases of measles and diarrhea were rising, that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed and that there had been a resurgence of polio.

The U.N. spokesman said the World Health Organization had reported that only 17% of the more than 2,300 health facilities previously supported by the World Bank were fully functional and that two-thirds of them had run out of essential medicines.

The WHO is working with donors to sustain health facilities to prevent a surge in deaths, Dujarric said. He also said the World Food Program and UNICEF committed on Tuesday to scaling up their work in Afghanistan with up to 100 new mobile health and nutrition teams.

Dujarric also told reporters that the U.N. Population Fund had said that midwives throughout Afghanistan were continuing to operate, bringing lifesaving care to women and girls in need.

He said Afghanistans Flash Appeal was asking for $606 million to help 11 million people for the rest of the year by preventing avoidable deaths and displacement and reducing suffering. U.N. Flash Appeals are issued in response to new humanitarian crises, emergencies or disasters.

Afghanistans Flash Appeal is 22% funded, which, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, amounts to $135 million.

VOAs Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
If Congress fails to act, the U.S. government's authority to continue spending money will expire at midnight on Thursday, forcing more than 1 million federal workers and an untold number of contractors to stop working. Thousands more will be expected to continue working without clarity about precisely when they will be paid.

"The stakes are whether the United States government is able to answer the many challenges that we face as a country," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, an advocacy group for improved federal government.

And once the government shuts down, Stier said, restarting it isn't like flipping a switch.

"This is a multitrillion-dollar, very complex entity," he told VOA. "And so, turning it off and turning it back on actually takes a ton of energy and a bunch of time. So, it is highly costly  billions of dollars costly  when you have a shutdown, even if it's not for a very long period of time."

History of shutdowns

Since 1980, the federal government has shut down because of a lack of funding 21 different times.

This would be the first government shutdown of President Joe Biden's term in office. Going back to Jimmy Carter's term in office from 1977 to 1981, every U.S. president except for George W. Bush has experienced at least one such funding crisis, though the majority have lasted only a few days and several have been for a few hours.

The last time the government shut down was in 2018, when a dispute between then-President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over his proposal to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico resulted in a record-setting 35-day partial closure that stretched into January 2019.

Not a full shutdown

The term "government shutdown" is something of a misnomer. Under existing rules, when the government runs out of funding, federal agencies are required to furlough all "nonessential" employees. Doctors and nurses at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs will still be allowed to go to work. So will Transportation Security Agency officers, active duty members of the military and most federal law enforcement officers.

But employees deemed essential will still not be paid until the shutdown is resolved.

In a sign of the degree to which government shutdowns have been normalized as just part of how Washington does business, Trump in 2019 signed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, which guarantees that federal workers, essential and nonessential, receive the back pay they missed during the duration of any future government shutdowns.

However, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that a promise of getting paid eventually is cold comfort to a federal worker unable to pay their rent.

"So many of our members live paycheck to paycheck," Kelley told VOA. "Unless a creditor or landlord agrees to work with them, they're going to be in a terrible situation."

If financial distress winds up affecting a furloughed employee's credit rating, Kelley said, the damage can extend to their careers. "A lot of security clearances depend on your credit rating," Kelley said, meaning that workers whose credit suffers could lose their jobs.

What to expect

In past shutdowns, the most publicly visible effects were the closure of national parks and the museums near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Those would also likely happen this time around. But it's beneath the surface where shutdowns cause real turmoil.

About 60% of government employees would be barred from working during a shutdown, which means that any number of seemingly mundane procedures would stop happening. New passport applications wouldn't be processed; small business loans wouldn't be approved; requests for federal retirement benefits would stop moving through the system.

Most Americans would not be immediately affected by stalled government activity. But those who are  a person waiting for a passport, a small-business owner waiting for funding, a retiree needing income  could face anything from inconvenience to significant economic injury.

Employees of government contractors are particularly vulnerable. For example, Congress has contracts with private firms to supply the workers who provide food service on Capitol Hill and clean congressional offices. During a shutdown, those workers cannot work, and because they are paid an hourly wage rather than a salary, they rarely recover those lost wages.

Economic damage is limited and localized

The 35-day shutdown during the Trump administration was only partial, because before it began, Congress had passed funding measures for some agencies, most notably the Department of Defense.

Nevertheless, the Congressional Budget Office later estimated that the shutdown had "delayed approximately $18 billion in federal discretionary spending for compensation and purchases of goods and services, and suspended some federal services."

The overall impact on GDP was minor, the CBO found. During the shutdown and immediately following it, economic activity slumped noticeably, but much of that "lost" productivity was recouped later in the year. On balance, the CBO said that the 35-day shutdown cut 2019 GDP in the U.S. by just 0.02%

However, the CBO noted, the damage from the shutdown was not equally distributed.

"Underlying those effects on the overall economy are much more significant effects on individual businesses and workers," the agency found. "Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income."

'Completely irresponsible'

Kelley, of the American Federation of Government Employees, pointed out that it is unprecedented for the government to be shut down in the midst of a pandemic, calling it "completely irresponsible" to hobble agencies battling COVID-19 with staff shortages.

"Shutting down the government at this critical juncture, in this fight against the dangerous delta variant (of the COVID-19 virus) is simply unthinkable," he said.

Stier, whose organization prepared detailed guidance for government agencies navigating shutdowns, said all that guidance had to be rewritten to reflect employees working remotely, and that new measures remain untested.


Twenty years of American blood and treasure spent in Afghanistan was reduced Tuesday to about six hours of testimony in the United States Senate, with the nation's top military officer admitting that the war amounted to a "strategic failure" that in the end, perhaps, could never have been won.

The hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee with U.S. President Joe Biden's top military officials saw a staunch defense of the efforts and sacrifices of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with lawmakers both praising the decision to end the country's longest war and condemning its final days as a debacle.

In between, it featured sobering assessments of what, if anything, could have been done differently.

"It was a logistical success but a strategic failure," General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation's top-ranking military officer, told lawmakers of America's final days in Kabul, which saw the evacuation of 124,000 people, including about 6,000 Americans.

"Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure  the enemy is in charge in Kabul; there's no way else to describe that  that outcome is a cumulative effect of 20 years, not 20 days," Milley added.

Pressed on whether Washington could have done anything differently to prevent the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan from crumbling and stop the Taliban takeover, Milley was blunt.

"If you kept advisers there, kept money following, etc., then we could probably have sustained them for a lengthy or indefinite period of time," he said of the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces.

"If you would have had a different result at the end of the day, that's a different question," Milley added. "I think the end state probably would have been the same no matter when you did it."

Testifying alongside Milley, General Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said that in hindsight, the 2020 Doha agreement, which paved the way for the U.S. exit, "had a profound psychological effect" on the Afghan forces and may have hastened their collapse.

"The Taliban were heartened by what they saw happen at Doha and what followed and our eventual decision to get out by a certain date," McKenzie said. "I think the Afghans were very weakened by that morally and spiritually."

Republican anger

Such somber assessments did little to mollify some lawmakers, with at least two demanding the resignations of Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the way the U.S. ultimately left.

"Our exit from Afghanistan was a disaster," said Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer.

Another Republican, Senator Joni Ernst, called the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan "haphazard." She pointed to the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and close to 170 Afghans from a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport days before the last military plane took off.

"The loss of our service members and abandonment of Americans and Afghan allies last month was an unforced, disgraceful humiliation that didn't have to happen," Ernst said.

Some Democrats, however, praised Biden and his administration for finally ending the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.

"It took guts, and it was the right thing to do, and it should have been done earlier," Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said.

Others scolded their Republican colleagues.

"Anyone who says the last few months were a failure but everything before that was great clearly hasn't been paying attention," said Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

But most of the outrage was saved for the White House, with Republican lawmakers questioning the president's decision-making, and some accusing him of misleading the American public when he told ABC news last month that his top advisers did not recommend keeping about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

"No, they didn't," Biden said at the time. "It was split."

On Tuesday, both Milley and CENTCOM's McKenzie told lawmakers that in the early days of Biden's presidency, they advised keeping 2,500 to 3,500 troops in Afghanistan because the Taliban had not met their commitments under the 2020 Doha agreement.

"My view is that 2,500 was an appropriate number to remain and that if we went below that number, in fact, we would probably witness a collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan military," McKenzie said.

WATCH: US reflects on Afghan war

Cost of staying

At the White House on Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden and the decision to end the war in Afghanistan.

"There was a range of viewpoints, as evidenced by their testimony today, that were presented to the president, that were presented to his national security team, as would be expected, as he asked for," she said.

"It was also clear to him that that would not be a long-standing recommendation, that there would need to be an escalation, an increase in troop numbers," she said. "It would also mean war with the Taliban, and it would also mean the potential loss of casualties. The president was just not willing to make that decision."

Milley also cautioned that staying in Afghanistan once the U.S.-backed government had collapsed could have been done, but at a cost.

"On the first of September, we were going to go to war again with the Taliban. Of that there was no doubt," he told lawmakers, saying it would have required the U.S. to send in as many as another 25,000 troops.

"We would have had to reseize Bagram (Airfield). We would have had to clear Kabul of 6,000 Taliban," Milley said. "That would have resulted in significant casualties on the U.S. side, and it would have placed American citizens that are still there at greater risk."

Additionally, Milley and the other U.S. defense officials told lawmakers that even with troops and all but about 100 U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan and out of harm's way, dangers would remain from terror groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State Khorasan Province, also known as IS Khorasan or ISIS-K.

"A reconstituted al-Qaida or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility," Milley warned lawmakers, adding that the exact nature of the threat might not be evident for months or years.

"They're gathering their strength," CENTCOM's General McKenzie said of the threat from IS Khorasan, thought to have about 2,000 fighters now roaming Afghanistan.

"We have yet to see how it's going to manifest itself," McKenzie said. "We know with certainty that they do aspire to attack us in our homeland."

The U.S. first sent troops into Afghanistan to pursue al-Qaida, after the militant group used the country to plan the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Milley and McKenzie said that despite the Taliban's commitments under the terms of the Doha agreement, the group had yet to sever its long-standing ties with al-Qaida.

"I think al-Qaida is at war with the United States, still," Milley said.

No going back

For his part, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers that the Pentagon remains focused on the threat but will use its over-the-horizon strike capabilities to target al-Qaida and IS Khorasan as needed.

"We've not been tasked to construct any plans to go back," Austin said.

Austin also defended the evacuation, telling lawmakers that it went as smoothly as possible, and that no other military in the world could have done any better.

"It was the largest airlift conducted in U.S. history, and it was executed in just 17 days," he told committee members. "We planned to evacuate between 70,000 and 80,000 people. They evacuated more than 124,000."

"Was it perfect? Of course not," Austin added, describing as "difficult" the first two days of the airlift, when huge crowds had rushed to the airport following the Taliban's unexpectedly swift takeover.

"We moved so many people so quickly out of Kabul that we ran into capacity and screening problems at intermediate staging bases outside of Afghanistan," he said.

But some lawmakers, such as the committee's top Republican, Senator Jim Inhofe, were unconvinced.

"We all witnessed a horror of the president's own making," Inhofe said, accusing the Biden administration of failing to create a plan to counter the terror threats likely to emerge in Afghanistan with the Taliban in control.

"The terrorist threat to American families is rising significantly," the senator said. "While our ability to deal with these threats has declined decidedly."

Austin, Milley and McKenzie are all due to appear again Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.


The U.S. and Qatar together sanctioned seven individuals for supporting a financial network of the Islamist political party and militant group Hezbollah in the Arabian Peninsula.



The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement Wednesday that Qatari nationals Ali Reda Hassan al-Banai, Ali Reda al-Qassabi Lari and Abd al-Muayyid al-Banaiare were among the seven it identified as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for supporting Hezbollah financially or materially.



Treasury Department official Andrea Gacki accused Hezbollah of trying to abuse the international financial system by developing global networks of financiers to fill its coffers and support its terrorist activity.



The cross-border nature of this Hezbollah financial network underscores the importance of our continued cooperation with international partners, such as the Government of Qatar, to protect the U.S. and international financial systems from terrorist abuse, Gacki added in the statement.



U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Treasury Departments action was one of the most significant joint actions the U.S. has taken with a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and he called on other countries to also target Hezbollah.



The Treasury Department statement said the sanctions froze any U.S. assets the targets hold and generally prohibits Americans from conducting business with them.



There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, which the U.S. and several other Western countries consider a terrorist group.



Agence France-Presse and Reuters provided some information for this report.
Vietnams longstanding rivalry with China, which has featured years of tense standoffs in the South China Sea, is also playing out in another nearby forum  Laos.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phucs recent official visit to Laos shows how Vietnam is trying to maintain its traditional position and influence there in the face of Chinas expansion in the region, experts have told VOA.

Relations with Laos are considered one of Vietnams top foreign policy priorities, and the timing of Phucs Aug. 9 visit reflects the traditional regard the countries show each other. It was the first foreign visit by a senior leader of Vietnam since its 13th Party Congress in late January and Phucs first foreign trip as president.

Phuc was the first foreign head of state to visit Laos after its 11th Party Congress in mid-January. Phucs visit came six weeks after a visit to Vietnam by ruling Lao People's Revolutionary PartyGeneral Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulit.

This proves that both countries give the highest priority to consolidating and developing the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos, and demonstrating the unique relationship that is faithful and attached to each other like brothers, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said in an interview.

According to Le Hong Hiep, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, Phucs choice of Laos as his first country to visit after taking office shows the importance that Vietnam attaches to relations with Laos, and its desire to maintain its traditional position and influence there.

For Vietnam, relations with Laos and Cambodia play a very important role in all aspects, especially in terms of security and defense. Maintaining good relations with these two countries as well as keeping influence to the maximum extent can therefore be Vietnam's top foreign policy priority, Hiep said.

Over the last 10 years, this goal has been facing significant challenges due to China's increasing strategic competition in these two countries, he added.

China, he said, is richer, with more money to invest in relations with Laos and Cambodia, especially through aid packages, concessional loans and infrastructure investments.

China's territorial ambitions and recent aggressive moves in the South China Sea have Vietnam worried, according to Hoang Viet, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law. Memories persist of Chinese support for the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s before being ousted by a Vietnamese invasion.

Viet referred to rumors that China has established a secret military base at Ream, on Cambodias southwestern coast. If the rumors are true, he said, it will adversely affect the security and defense of Vietnam, as China intends to establish military bases in the world.

In addition, China is also taking many actions that threaten Vietnam's sovereignty, territorial integrity as well as maritime interests in the East Sea [South China Sea]. Therefore, if China can repeat the case of the Khmer Rouge in Laos and Cambodia, it will be a disadvantage for Vietnam, he said.

China has displaced Vietnam as Laos biggest investor. According to the Lao deputy prime minister and minister of planning and investment, Sonexay Siphandone, China is currently undertaking a total of 813 projects worth over $16 billion.

"China also plays a significant role in special economic zone investments, with the Lao government having authorized 89 projects worth over $215 million, Sonexay reportedly told a workshop between Lao and Chinese entrepreneurs on Aug. 17.

Vietnam worries too as it sees Laos reaching out not only to China but to Russia and other countries. Laos also wants to become more independent, thus trying to gradually reduce its dependence on Vietnam, Viettold VOA.

Viet, who watches international developments and Vietnams diplomatic affairs, said current Lao leaders are more pragmatic than their predecessors.

All of these things have made Vietnam-Laos relations not as deep as before. This is very evident in the economic field. Many economic projects between the two countries have been signed for a long time, but the movement is very slow, he said.

Being economically weaker than China, Vietnam has a different approach to maintaining and developing close relations with Laos.

Vietnam does not have many resources to compete with China economically but is also trying its best to do so through some private investment or selective aid packages  Vietnam also tries to take advantage of historical heritages, such as traditional relations, scholarship programs for students, or other economic cooperation activities, to develop relations with the two countries, Hiep said.

Links with Laos and Cambodia are also important to Hanois competition with China in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and over South China Sea issues.

The Laos and Cambodia will continue as important areas where strategic competition between Vietnam and China will continue to increase in the near future, Hiep told VOA.
A Yemeni humanitarian organization is this years winner of the U.N. refugee agencys prestigious Nansen Refugee Award. The Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development has provided life-saving assistance over the past five years to tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians forcibly displaced by conflict.

In announcing the award, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised the courageous work of the organizations staff and volunteers for providing a lifeline to thousands of Yemens most destitute people amid a raging conflict.

He said he hoped the award would put the spotlight on this countrys catastrophic situation, which has been all but forgotten by the international community.

The United Nations calls Yemen one of the worlds worst humanitarian crises. It reports nearly four million people have fled their homes in search of safety, more than five million people are on the brink of famine, and 80% of the countrys population of 29 million needs humanitarian aid.

Ameen Jubran who founded Jeel Albena in 2017 has himself been displaced by fighting and nearly killed. He says the dangers and obstacles he and his family have experienced have inspired him to devote his life to helping others in need. He speaks through an interpreter from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

We in Jeel Albena provide shelters for displaced people who have lost their homes. The materials that we use are locally grown and they are also woven by displaced individuals and members of the host community as well. They provided skills and sources of income to those who work on these shelter kits. We also try to support the local markets, Jubran said.

Jeel Albena is based in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah. It has provided jobs and around 18,000 emergency shelters for internally displaced people in the provinces of Hudaydah and Hajjah.

The Nansen award comes with a cash prize of $150,000 donated by the Swiss and Norwegian governments. Jubran says he will use the money to implement projects to support members of the community and the displaced.

He says one project will focus on skills training for women so they can generate income and become self-reliant. A second project, he says, aims to train and provide fishermen with essential items so they can restore their livelihood opportunities.

And lastly, he says Jeel Alben will give young people technical training they need to get jobs, earn a living, and look forward to a viable future.
Chief Justice Luke Malaba today swore-in nine new judges of the High Court, bringing to 43 the total number of judges in the High Court.

Of the nine, two are women and one is blind. The Judicial Service Commission says the appointment of the judges will reduce the backlog of cases in the High Court.

Meanwhile, the High Court has ordered Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, and Commissioner-General of Zimbabwe Republic Police, Godwin Matanga, to pay Linda Musiyamhanje US$12,000 as damages for violation of her fundamental rights when she was unlawfully arrested, detained and prosecuted 10 years ago for allegedly murdering a police officer.

High Court Judge, Justice Jacob Manzunzu, ordered Hon. Kazembe and Matanga to pay Musiyamhanje US$12,000 as damages for unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, malicious prosecution, pain and suffering and loss of income after the opposition MDC party supporter was apprehended and charged together with 28 other Harare residents with murdering Inspector Petros Mutedza, as defined in Section 47 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, and in the alternative with public violence as defined in section 36 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

However, Musiyamhanje was found not guilty by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu in 2013 and was acquitted at the close of the prosecution case.

According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), this prompted Musiyamhanje, who was represented by its attorneys, Jeremiah Bamu and Fiona Iliff and Rutendo Muchenje of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni Legal Practitioners, to sue Kazembe and Matanga for damages after she spent 11 months in prison in 2011 on charges of murdering Inspector Mutedza.

In summons filed at the High Court, Musiyamhanje argued that upon arrest, she was detained in cruel and inhuman conditions and was assaulted by police officers, who did not bother to verify her alibi.

She also argued that she had lost income as a result of the arrest and lengthy detention at Chikurubi Female Prison.

Justice Manzunzu ordered Hon. Kazembe and Matanga to pay Musiyamhanje US$12,000 payable at the prevailing official Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe exchange rate in full as compensation for the violation of her fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

VOA Zimbabwe correspondent Godwin Mangudya contributed to this article
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Photo: Tina Thorpe/FX

The new FX limited series Impeachment: American Crime Story  the third in a true-crime anthology that started with The People v. O.J. Simpson and continued with The Assassination of Gianni Versace  covers the events leading up to Bill Clintons impeachment in December 1998, with a heavy emphasis on the fallout from his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Fans of the brilliant Slate podcast Slow Burn will surely remember many details from its Leon Neyfakhhosted second season three years ago, which included among its eight episodes bonus interviews with major players like Ken Starr, the special prosecutor and author of the infamous Starr report, and Linda Tripp, who had befriended Lewinsky at the Pentagon and helped reveal her secret affair to the independent counsels office.

For all ten episodes of Impeachment, weve asked Madeline Kaplan, the researcher for the Clinton-Lewinsky season of Slow Burn, to fact-check the shows major events and minute details against her own understanding of the events. (Kaplan and Neyfakhs eight-book reading list can be found here and doesnt include the Starr report and its eyebrow-raising appendices.) Kaplan followed Neyfakh (and co-creator Andrew Parsons) to Prologue Projects, where she serves as a producer on Neyfakhs Fiasco and other podcasts.

In the fourth episode, The Telephone Hour, Tripp makes the fateful decision to start recording her phone conversations with Lewinsky as evidence of the affair between the former White House intern and President Clinton. She also gets a look at Lewinskys infamous stained blue dress. After repeated failed attempts to return to the West Wing, Lewinsky is handed over to Clinton lawyer Vernon Jordan (Blair Underwood), who has been tasked with securing a job in New York City. With the Paula Jones lawsuit hanging over Clintons head, Lewinskys appearance on a witness list threatens to bring their secret affair out into the open.

This week, inspired by the episode, Kaplan talked about the uncertainty and emotional turmoil facing Lewinsky at the time, the mounting tension between her and Tripp, and the complicated legal and personal implications of the taped calls.

The Big Stuff

The major plot and character beats that shape Impeachments narrative.

Lewinskys thwarted efforts to get back to the West Wing

The woman in the first scene is Marsha Scott, who worked in the Presidential Personnel Office. And she, as they mentioned in the episode, was a friend of Clintons from Arkansas. She knew him from when they were teenagers. And so shes very much in that Arkansas coalition of friends going back a long way. And interestingly, Linda Tripp actually worked for her for a few months, before she went to that Pentagon job. So [Lewinsky and Scott] had a couple of meetings and Lewinsky was in touch with her at various points during 1997, trying to get back into the White House. The meeting [on the show] is pretty close to Lewinskys recollection of it, which is that she showed up expecting that Marsha Scott had been told who she was and that she needed a job and that it was important to get her a job. And she walked out feeling really embarrassed and frustrated. She felt like, either [Scott is] lying and saying she doesnt know who I am, or the president lied and said that he was going to help me out with this, but didnt actually tell her.

Lewinskys relationship with Betty Currie

Betty Currie said they were friendly and they occasionally would meet up outside of the White House. But because of Monicas persistence in trying to get back into the White House and because Bettys role was facilitating these phone calls back and forth and trying to set up meetings, she was pretty annoyed with her at times. She definitely was frustrated with Monica and bet [Clinton] no longer thought that it would be a good idea for Monica to come back.

The angry phone call from Clinton over Lewinskys treatment of Currie

Theres a huge ordeal that happens in December of 97, and the show skips over a lot of it. In the Starr report its called the Northwest Gate Incident. [The writers are] just taking little bits, but basically Lewinsky showed up at the White House and tried to meet with the president and he was meeting with someone else. And she got really frustrated by this because Currie had lied to her about what Clinton was up to that day. And thats when she called Currie from a payphone and yelled at her. And it became this whole big thing at the White House gate, and some people noticed that theres some weird conflict happening here with this woman who was trying to get in, and that the president is somehow involved and upset that someone told her who he was meeting with. Then later that day after she calmed down, Lewinsky spoke to the president and she said he was extremely angry with her. And one of the things he brought up in that conversation was that she shouldnt talk to Betty that way. So that seems to be where this phone call scene comes from.

Tension between Tripp and Lewinsky over the Newsweek story

Linda Tripp felt very betrayed by what she had agreed to say and how she felt she was portrayed. And she ended up writing a letter to the editor with Lewinskys help about what was said about her in the piece and the comment about her from the presidents lawyer, where he basically called her a liar. It really freaked her out. So this was definitely a big turning point for Linda Tripp. But at this point in their friendship, it feels like their motivations for talking to each other about these things are starting to change. Tripp becomes much more focused on protecting herself. Im not sure specifically about tension between them over the Newsweek story. Lewinsky was sympathetic to Tripps fears about losing her job over it. It was really Tripps mention of writing a tell-all book that upset her, but she said Tripp tried to reassure her that she would never include anything about her in it. 

Vernon Jordan getting empowered to find Lewinsky a job in New York

As with a lot of these meetings, the intermediary was Betty Currie. Obviously one of the cruxes of the whole thing is whether the president was involved in setting this up. Clinton testified that he knew about it but didnt think he was the precipitating force behind it. But Jordan later said that he understood that the reason that this was being set up was because Clinton wanted it to happen. So there were intermediaries, but he basically said later, I understood I was being told to do this by the president. And that was because he had a lot of connections in New York, outside of government, so he could help find her job. He was on the board of directors at Revlon, as they say in the show.

She actually did get offered a job to work for Bill Richardson at the U.N. And she ended up deciding a few weeks later not to take that because she didnt want to work in government anymore if she couldnt be in the White House. Then there was this whole other drama that happens in January with her not having a very good first interview at Revlons parent company. Vernon Jordan gets involved again and calls an executive, and then eventually she does get a job offer at Revlon, I think just days before the [Lewinsky] story breaks.

The extent to which Jordan, Curry, and others knew about the affair

I think its safe to say Betty Currie understood at least the broad outlines of what was going on. In her grand jury testimony, Currie basically said that she might have suspected something, but that she tried to see the best in them and that the presidents privacy was important. And she said she believed in him on a fundamental level. But I mean, she obviously was fielding tons of calls from Lewinsky, passing gifts back and forth between them, and knew they were seeing each other alone sometimes. Vernon Jordan testified that he asked both Clinton and Lewinsky individually whether they had had a sexual relationship around this time, and that they both said no. Lewinsky said she thought that was like a wink wink, what will you say if you testify? question, not an earnest question. So potentially a miscommunication there. But in any case a lot of the specific facts of the relationship werent known to either of them, whether because Currie was looking the other way or Jordan was being told no, theres nothing there.

Tripp getting a document called Bill and Hillarys Body Count on her desk

Linda said in her posthumously published memoir that this happened in December of 97. That she showed up to work in her office and someone had stapled a piece of paper that said the Clinton death list to her chair that had all these names on it. I dont know if she reacted as angrily and publicly as she does [on the show]. She just kind of ends it abruptly in the book, like So needless to say, I didnt feel too good that day. She doesnt get into that much detail, really. But she always maintained that she felt actual harm could come to her because she was involved in this thing.

Lucianne Goldberg persuading Tripp to tape her calls with Lewinsky

It was definitely Goldbergs idea. She told Tripp that she should make tapes and have some kind of hard evidence, for the press to take it seriously and for her potential book deal. Goldberg has always said that the two-party consent issue was an honest mistake. Because New York, where she was calling from, was a one-party consent state. So the fact that Lucianne Goldberg is recording her calls with Linda Tripp, thats not a crime for her. She did not put herself in legal jeopardy. And Linda Tripp, for her part, seems to have always agreed that that was an honest mistake. She doesnt seem to have felt there was anything nefarious there.

The extent of Tripps legal jeopardy over the taped calls

She definitely put herself in legal jeopardy by doing this. And she actually ended up being charged with wiretapping in Maryland, though those charges were later dropped. A key part of that statute and what [prosecutors] were trying to figure out was, Can we prove that Linda Tripp knew that it was illegal when she did it? They actually interviewed Radio Shack employees at that store that she went to pick up the recorder. Radio Shack itself said, Its standard operating procedure for us to tell you when you buy it in Maryland, that you cant record without the other person knowing. And then they also said that theres some kind of disclaimer on the back of the packaging somewhere that says you should check what the rules are in your state. But Linda said she didnt hear any of that at the time. So the case really revolved around the very last tape she made, and whether she made that one after her lawyer told her it was against the law. But there were a lot of complications around the evidence because of the overlap with various immunity deals, and the case didnt go forward.

Tripps guilt over making the tapes

She said that this time was intensely difficult for her, and that she felt a lot of guilt about doing this to her friend. She felt that from the moment she started making these tapes, their whole relationship shifted and everything she did from that point on was a manipulation. She felt bad about it, but also felt that it was the right thing to do. Shes pretty solid on that point.

Was the first recording really that clumsy?

No. A lot of the tape stuff is conflated [on the show] because theres just so many hours of it. Tripp did say when she started taping, she knew shed have to get Lewinsky to repeat everything on tape, but the actual conversations were more natural than that, and sometimes more mundane. When Lucianne Goldberg listened to the first couple of tapes, she claimed her first reaction was like, Im so bored. This is just like two women chatting about their lives. But there were definitely points in the tapes, especially later on, where its pretty obvious that [Tripp] is saying things out loud, knowing that theyre going to be recorded. As if to imply, I want it to be very clear that Im saying Im not going to lie [for the Paula Jones deposition]. Im not doing this. So youre saying youre going to lie, but Im not going to. Theres definitely moments in the tapes that are that obvious in retrospect.

Michael Isikoff getting tipped early on the Lewinsky story

That happened. They did have this meeting in Jonah Goldbergs apartment, Luciannes sons apartment. [Yes, that Jonah Goldberg, of National Review fame.ed.] And they offered to play the tapes for Isikoff. And he basically said, I cant do that journalistically. Theres a point of real contention here, after the fact, because Linda Tripp said that Isikoff told her to keep getting hard evidence. He was like, I would never tell her to do that. But it is true that he was tipped off about this story at this point and the three of them had this meeting. And then he was like, Well, I cant use this material. So what are we actually going to do here? Then when it becomes clear that Newsweek is not going to be running a story and things arent moving forward, thats when they decide to go to the Jones lawyers and push things ahead that way.

Lewinsky showing Tripp the blue dress

Im not sure about the sleepover [on the show], but they did have this conversation where Linda was like, Ive lost some weight. And then Monica said, Why dont you come raid my closet? And so she came over and then Monica showed her the dress. Thats when Linda, obviously, realized that she had that physical evidence. It also seems accurate that Monica wasnt thinking that much about it or what should she do with it, or that its anything besides a dress that needs to be cleaned at some point.

Lewinsky sharing her relationship history, from losing her virginity via sexual assault by a camp counselor to her affair with a married man

Im not sure about the camp counselor thing. I dont know anything about that. But the married man, Andy Bleiler, after this whole thing becomes public, becomes a very minor character in the circus. Lewinsky talks about this a lot and how this relationship really deeply affected her. Andy was an older man that she met while he was working at her high school and they had this relationship that went on for years on and off, really complicated, very painful for her. And after [the Clinton affair] becomes public and she becomes really famous, Andy Bleiler comes forward and is like, I had an affair with her and I think its important for people to know that shes not telling the truth. She is a liar and shes a manipulator. Its pretty bleak, looking back.

Clintons team reacting to Lewinsky being on the witness list

They went through all the names on the witness list because those names would eventually become public as part of the case. [Clinton and Lewinsky] were very much on the same page at that time like, We dont want this to get out. So he probably assumed that neither of them would have to tell the truth about what happened, but obviously his insistence in that moment is striking. [The show uses] a direct quote from [Jeffrey] Toobins book when [Clintons] lawyer asks him about Lewinsky and he responds, Bob, do you think Im fucking crazy? He was saying, Im done with that stuff now, I know everyones watching me, I wouldnt just hand my enemies something like this. Which I think is a pretty interesting amount of denial in that moment to your own attorneys.

Odds and Ends

The details and embellishments that may or may not be rooted in the historical record but reflect Impeachments stylistic approach.

On Clintons gifts to Lewinsky being ugly

That was funny. I couldnt find anything specific about that. In her biography, she said that sometimes the assortments of gifts were kind of odd, but I couldnt find anything where she said they were ugly. The gifts were often just purely positive. Shed be sitting around worried like, Why isnt he contacting me? I cant get in touch. I dont even know what hes thinking or feeling. And then the gifts were a really concrete way for her to feel relieved, like hes thinking about me in this way. I couldnt find a lot of her being anything but positive about the gifts.

On Clinton giving her an Annie Lennox CD

Im not sure which CD it was, but he did give her an Annie Lennox CD. And theres a New York Times article [by Neil Strauss] after the Starr report came out that wrote up all the music that appears throughout the report. It was a way of analyzing the generation gap between these two people and how theyre thinking about music and giving music to each other. Its pretty interesting.

On Tripps strained relationships with her adult children

I think a lot of that is probably for the show, to dramatize her home life in that way. She did say that she started to become so consumed by talking to Monica and the tapes and everything that her attention to her home life suffered. Interestingly, her daughter, Alison, whos depicted in the show a lot, just gave an interview to Vanity Fair about this and only had very positive things to say about her moms behavior during this period. She said that after this whole thing went down, her mom apologized to them.

On the bookmark Lewinsky gifted to Tripp

Lewinsky wrote about this later. She said that she gave her an antique bookmark. They both loved antiques. One detail they didnt include here, maybe because it wouldve seemed too on the nose, is that the bookmark apparently was inscribed with a poem about friendship.

On Clintons walk of shame past portraits of revered former presidents to get to his bedroom

That was really funny. I tried to figure this out, but its difficult because they move the paintings around a lot and I couldnt really tell where he was walking. It looked like he was walking through a private corridor from the office up to the residence. I feel like those paintings are so good and so famous that they probably would be in a more public location, but I dont know. Thats a great painting of JFK looking like he was really disappointed in him.
Calhoun Community College opened its new, state-of-the art dental hygiene lab Tuesday, helping students in its new program be that much more prepared for the career field.

The 4,000-square-foot lab features 10 operatories, four radiology chairs and four simulators, the same equipment one would find in a modern dentist office, according to the College. Calhouns dean of health sciences, Bret McGill, said Calhoun is only the second higher education institution in Alabama to even offer a dental hygiene program, and with 14 students actively enrolled, the program is already off to a great start.

This ribbon-cutting means so much more to us aside from starting a new program and opening a new lab for students to learn, McGill said. We made this happen in the middle of a pandemic, which speaks volumes of the hard work and dedication of Calhouns facility. There were so many individuals instrumental in making this dream a reality, and for that, all of us at Calhoun are extremely grateful.

Sunnie McWhorter, Calhouns dental hygiene program director, said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic actually led to them postponing visits from the Commission on Dental Accreditation  several times. She said the program starting and the lab opening have been a long time coming, and now that the curriculum has been created and approved, she hopes Calhoun and the community are proud of what we built.

Calhoun said the goal of the two-year program is to prepare students with the theoretical knowledge and technical competencies needed for a job as an entry-level dental hygienist. More than that, the program aims to teach students how to provide safe, effective, ethical and compassionate care to future patients.

Students are currently practicing routine treatment sunder direct faculty supervision, such as dental cleanings, X-rays and mouth exams, according to the College. Once students advance to the next level of training, theyll begin accepting appointments and providing limited dental services to the local community.

Dental hygiene is one of the most vital components of everyones health, Calhoun Interim President Jimmy Hodges said. This program has a strong mission, and that is to graduate knowledgeable, skilled, professional and service-oriented dental hygienists to provide quality, patient-centered care that meets the needs of employers and promotes the health of our community.

The dental hygiene program has been granted initial accreditation by CODA and is expected to receive full accreditation after the first group of students graduate in 2023, according to Calhoun. To learn more about the program, including how to enroll, click here.
An aluminum plant worker died Tuesday in an accident at a plant in Scottsboro.

This happened at Imperial Aluminum on Roy Owens Boulevard.

Jackson County Coroner John Jordan said he is working to notify next of kin, and the victms name will not be released before that happens.

Scottsboro police responded to the scene.

WAAY 31 reached out to Imperial Aluminums headquarters in Illinois and were told the company had no comment at this time.
Mostly clear skies overnight will allow for another round of river valley fog Wednesday morning but coverage of dense fog should be lower than the last couple of mornings. It will also be noticeably warmer at sunrise Wednesday compared to the last 5 mornings. With temperatures at sunrise near the mid-60s, kids may not need the light jackets at the bus stop.

The story line for the rest of the week continues to be the battle between humid air to our southwest and drier air to our northeast. Which air-mass wins the battle? Well, at least for the short term, it might be a split decision. The more humid air tries to sneak into northwest Alabama starting Wednesday. This added moisture may set off an isolated shower or two in the Shoals both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Everyone else will likely see just a few more clouds with more warm temperatures in the mid 80s.

Looking ahead to the weekend, data sources are still undecided on how the humid and dry air-masses interact. One data source keeps the humid air in place for everyone through the weekend, meaning chances for spotty showers and storms by Sunday. Another source pushes drier air into northeast Alabama, which would minimize rain chances. For now, our forecast will split the difference. A stray shower is possible Sunday with slightly higher coverage Monday. Rainfall totals stay below a quarter inch for all of us in the next seven days.

Hurricane Sam is still churning over open water as a mighty Category 4 storm. Luckily, no direct impacts to any land are expected (latest track pushes Sam east of Bermuda), but it may stay as a major hurricane all the way into the weekend. The NHC is also watching three other areas of interest for possible development but no impacts to the US are expected for at least the next 10 days.
Caravaggio was born on this day in 1571.

Italy is celebrating 450 years of Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio, whose masterful paintings continue to fascinate more than four centuries after his death.

To mark the milestone anniversary both Italy and the Vatican have issued limited edition coins dedicated to the 16th-century artist.

The celebratory coins, for the collector market rather than general circulation, comprise a 25 rectangular Vatican coin - silver with a coloured depiction of The Deposition - and a 20 Italian gold coin.

Born in Milan on 29 September 1571, Caravaggio trained as an artist before moving in his 20s to Rome where he received a string of prestigious commissions.

His paintings combine a gritty, realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, and make dramatic use of chiaroscuro.

Caravaggio is also remembered as a wild, violent character who fled Rome after receiving a death sentence for killing a man in a dual.

The artist died in 1610 in Porte Ercole, in mysterious circumstances, aged 38.

Many of his paintings can be seen in churches, palaces and museums in Rome, see our guide.
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Boring and dependable is the new black for income-seeking real estate investors who forked out a total of $83.26 million at a super-size online auction on Tuesday, snapping up funeral homes, childcare centres, petrol stations and the Sunbury Ford dealership in Melbournes north.

Kingston Funerals home in Cheltenham sold to a Melbourne investor for $3.83 million. Credit:

The auction of 21 properties, conducted online with much of Sydney and Melbourne still in the grip of a pandemic lockdown, was fiercely contested. Another two auctions scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Brisbane and Sydney are expected to attract similar interest, agency Burgess Rawson said.

The auction extravaganza, when completed, will have put more than 60 properties under the hammer over three days.

Burgess Rawsons Billy Holderhead said the Melbourne event registered 189 bidders across 21 properties for sale, providing a level of pent-up-demand among investors that pushed the total price of all assets 11 per cent above the vendors combined reserve of $75 million.
However, the ads also indicate wider shifts within the $3.3 trillion super industry. As the default system is dismantled through the stapling measure, and union membership slides, funds must fight it out in new ways to gain market share.

In super, bigger means better. Funds are now seeking to grow by improving their services  spruiking strong performance records, innovating with digital products and personalising services to ensure workers seek out the right product for them, rather than passively taking what is given to them.

Over the past five years, AustralianSuper has steadily increased the number of its members joining by choice, as opposed to the default system, from 23 per cent to half. That hasnt been by accident, Kerlin says. We saw the writing on the wall a number of years ago, we started investing in our brand and building that out.

Successive government inquiries have revealed a concerning number of Australians languish in dud super funds, which can have drastic impacts on living standards in retirement. This, combined with rising account balances and the emergence of the responsible investor trend, have made people more engaged with their super than ever, Kerlin says.

We are expecting people will start making more choices, rather than pick up whatever fund they go to, Kerlin says. Its absolutely the future.
Entrepreneur Sam Barnett, son of ex-premier Colin Barnett, has accused The West Australian newspaper of defaming him by imputing he was engaged in criminal behaviour by breaching court orders.

In a letter seen by WAtoday, Mr Barnetts lawyers Laird Legal told The West Australian it had defamed him in a series of articles published between May and September this year. The publication has rejected the claim.

Sam Barnett has accused The West Australian newspaper of defamation.

The September 23 letter said each article conveyed the grossly defamatory imputation that our client has engaged in criminal conduct by breaching the freezing orders of the Supreme Court.

This imputation is exacerbated by the consistent publication of these articles.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Just before 8.45pm on December 12, 2020, a single bullet tore through the air at the Perth Motorplex, in the citys south, amid the roar of spectators and revving engines. Shot from a high-precision rifle, it zoomed across the bitumen tracks, grazing the body a five-year-old boy and hitting former Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin in the chest, before striking the arm of former Bandidos member Ricky Chapman, who was sitting behind him. Martin collapsed as panicked spectators scrambled to flee the speedway, fearing the shooter would pull the trigger again. Paramedics desperately tried to save the 51-year-old in front of horrified onlookers but he died in Rockingham Hospital shortly after. I tried, we tried so hard to keep you alive dad, Martins step-daughter Stacey Schoppe, who was sitting with him on the stand, later said. This is one of the most heartbreaking experiences Ive ever witnessed. The brazen killing sent shockwaves through Perth and triggered the largest crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs in years, amid fears retaliation attacks and friction between the groups could ignite a bikie war.

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More than 100 officers were assigned to a special police unit created for the express purpose of investigating the shooting. Taskforce Ravello raided the clubhouses and homes of gang members and associates, charging 102 people with 267 offences and seizing more than 50 firearms. But three months after the shooting, police had no news on the identity of the sniper, as tensions between rival gangs continued to rise. More than 400 mourners farewelled Martin in a flamboyant funeral at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park, in Perths north, on December 23. Curious members of the public watched on as 200 patched Rebels members gathered outside Purslowe & Chipper funeral home in North Perth before the rumbling motorbike procession escorted Martins coffin down Scarborough Beach Road, flanked by a dozen police cars and under the watchful eye of a police sniper in a helicopter above. Ambulance officers provide first aid to Nick Martin and Ricky Chapman after the Perth Motorplex shooting. Credit:Facebook / Dale Pilling The 51-year-olds coffin, decorated with prints of $100 bills and the confederate flag, was carried in on a red carpet under a guard of honour as Bob Dylans Hurricane played through the speakers. Friends and family took turns to share their tributes to Martin, who they described as a doting father and a cuddly teddy bear who had a sweet tooth and loved making trifle.

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Even ex-Rebels Australia president Alex Vella tuned in to share a poem via video link from exile in Malta, where he has been living since his visa was revoked by the Australian government on character grounds in 2014. The Rebels darling boy Despite the Rebels united front at Martins funeral, tensions inside the club had reached boiling point in the months leading up to the bikie boss killing, amid suspicions the 51-year-old had misappropriated club funds. Martin had recently been stripped of the presidency after a decade at the helm after being blamed for a mass defection of patched members to the Mongols in late 2020. Described as a darling boy, protector, and a rock by family, Martin rose to the top of the Rebels in 2010 as the club embarked on a bloody war with competing club Rock Machine, which saw accomplices gunned down and cars firebombed across Perth. Patched Rebels members carry Nick Martins coffin into Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park. The conflict came to a head in early 2011, when Martin was shot at by Rock Machine member Benjamin Sipkes as he pulled into the driveway of his Balcatta home on his motorbike, narrowly avoiding death. Barely a year later, his car was torched as tensions between gangs continued to grow.

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Fresh rivalries with the Comancheros emerged after 2015, which ended with a Rebels associate being shot in the stomach and arm on his way home. In November 2020, just weeks before his death, Martin was bashed by Hells Angels heavily tattooed sergeant-at-arms Dayne Brajkovich at a bar in Scarborough in front of horrified diners. The fight was caught on CCTV. Brajkovichs home in Ascot, near Perths Crown casino, was later peppered with bullets in what police claim was a targeted attack. In the days after Martins public assassination, officers turned their sights on the Mongols, Hells Angels, and Coffin Cheaters, with Police Commissioner Chris Dawson conceding in December there was friction and bad terms among all outlaw motorcycle gangs, particularly the Rebels. But as fractures inside Martins club emerged, police began to consider whether the killing could have been an inside job. Three months after investigations began, news of a fresh arrest emerged. This time, police had raided a property in a quiet suburban street south of Perth and a man had been taken in for questioning. A former soldier with a thirst for adventure, the man was believed to be the Motorplex sniper.

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The soldier link In a picture shared on social media, the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is laying on an operating table inside a private clinic in the outskirts of a big city in Iraqi Kurdistan. His T-shirt is pulled up to reveal his heavily tattooed torso which Kurdish medical students are using as a dummy to practise first aid. The image caption talks of his passion for teaching and expresses his thanks for being able to put his skills to use. Neighours said the man had previously been to Afghanistan. Shadows of Hope has given me the opportunity to pass on my otherwise useless combat skills and expertise to oppressed people across three conflict zones. Shadows of Hope, a registered charity, was founded in 2013 by Robert Hoey, a patch-eyed emergency doctor from the United States who claims to have extensive experience working in some of the worlds most dangerous places and fighting alongside rebel groups in Myanmar and Iraq.

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Mining wages in Western Australia have increased as much as 27 per cent for some professions in the past 18 months as companies fight for workers from a limited talent pool thanks to closed international and domestic borders and a bevy of projects.

Such is the demand and competition for workers that university graduates have received offers as high as $160,000 a year.

One WA university student was offered about $160,000 to take a graduate position with a mining company but turned it down.

The latest data from BDO Australias Remsmart national survey of the natural resources industry in June showed wages for some trades has increased by 12 to 15 per cent in the past 2 years.

BDO remuneration and reward services managing director Allan Feinberg said one of the most in-demand trades was heavy duty fitters, who could earn as much as $195,000 currently on a two weeks on, one week off roster.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the impact of climate change will not be limited to postcodes, hitting back at criticism from his Nationals colleagues that it is only an issue for voters in affluent electorates.

Mr Frydenberg, who represents Kooyong in Melbournes eastern suburbs, held a joint press conference with fellow cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie on Wednesday, a day after she took a swipe at her Liberal colleagues over a net zero emissions target.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says there are constructive conversations happening within the Coalition about a net zero emissions target. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Australia is facing growing domestic and international calls to increase its ambitions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the lead-up to a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow in November.

The government has set a target to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 but has not set a hard deadline to reach net zero emissions.
A COVID-19 outbreak has hit the Melbourne office of the construction union a week after a violent protest was held there, with several staff infected and those in attendance on that day, including union secretary John Setka, forced into self-isolation.

CFMEU Victoria and Tasmania president Robert Graauwmans is one of four union workers who have tested positive, with hundreds of others self-isolating for 14 days.

CFMEU secretary John Setka outside the unions Melbourne headquarters on Monday last week, before the protest turned violent. Credit:AAP

Union sources said they believed the cluster stemmed from the violent protest last week, when hundreds of construction workers faced off with Mr Setka outside the CFMEU office in opposition to the state governments vaccine mandate.

A text message sent to union delegates advised that two protesters in attendance last Monday had tested positive to coronavirus and, as a result, we strongly recommend, out of an abundance of caution, that you get tested.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP)  Thousands of people turned out Wednesday in Wichita to honor a Kansas priest as he was laid to rest 70 years after he died in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean War.

Mourners filled Hartman Arena for a funeral service for the Rev. Emil Kapaun and later lined streets to watch his body being carried by a horse-drawn caisson from Veterans Memorial Park to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where he was interred.

We are here today to provide for father what was not provided for him 70 years ago, a mass of Christian burial, Bishop Carl A. Kemme of the Wichita diocese told the crowd.

Speakers extolled Kapaun's Christian love and his courage during his days as a prisoner or war, which he spent providing comfort to his fellow soldiers. They also said it was appropriate that his body had finally returned to the state where he was born.

"Uncle Emil, welcome home. Home at last," said Kapaun's nephew, Ray Kapaun during the service.

He praised his uncle's fellow POWs who survived the war and the people of Pilsen, where Kapaun was born, who he said helped keep the priest's story alive in the decades since his death.

Kapaun, an Army chaplain, was captured in 1950 near Unsan, North Korea, while tending to fellow soldiers. He died in May 1951 at the POW camp while continuing to minister to fellow prisoners. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013.

In 1993, the Catholic church named him a Servant of God, the first step of a lengthy process that could lead to canonization.

During the funeral, the Rev. Matthew Pawlikowski read a statement from Col. Mike Dowe detailing how Kapaun volunteered to stay behind to care for the wounded before he was captured. He said at the prisoner of war camp, Kapaun stole food, volunteered to bury the dead so he could provide clothes to survivors and continually encouraged them to hold onto their faith.

Dowe said Kapaun was intentionally left to die in a structure known as the death house by the Chinese Communists who ran the camp not because of politics, not because he was a soldier but because he was a shining light in the darkness living out his faith as a Christian. They martryed him.

Kapaun's remains were positively identified in March and returned to his family last week during a ceremony in Hawaii. The body was flown back to Kansas, where more crowds gathered Saturday for a memorial service in Pilsen before his remains were returned to Wichita.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly proclaimed Wednesday Father Emil Kapaun Day in the state. She said in a statement that He served with honor and dignity, I hope his return home brings relief and closure to his family and his community.
"What we are seeing... is students damaging our bathrooms, taking soap dispensers off the walls, pouring out soap and then taking the items and placing them in their backpacks."
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Some patchy fog early, then becoming partly sunny and quite warm. .

Tonight

Becoming mostly cloudy with a spotty shower late at night.
Craft Medical is an online men's health clinic focused on testosterone therapy and other sexual health medications. Patients visit with a board-certified physician and get testosterone delivered to your door.
This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows inmate Rick Rhoades. Rhoades faces execution Tuesday evening, Sept. 28, 2021, for fatally stabbing two Houston area brothers during a robbery in their home more than 30 years ago.
Agroforestry Specialist, Kampala, Uganda

Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Country: Uganda

City: Kampala

Office: FAO Kampala, Uganda

Closing date: Friday, 1 October 2021

2102563

Agroforestry Specialist

Job Posting: 17/Sep/2021

Closure Date: 01/Oct/2021, 9:59:00 PM

Organizational Unit : FRUGA

Job Type: Non-staff opportunities

Type of Requisition : NPP (National Project Personnel)

Grade Level : N/A

Primary Location: Uganda-Kampala

Duration : 12 Months

Post Number : N/A

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture

Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply

Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination

All selected candidates, therefore, will undergo rigorous reference and background checks

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization

Organizational Setting

The FAO Representation in Uganda provides technical assistance to the Government of Uganda in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and related sectors. The Agroforestry Specialist will support the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agro-forestry related interventions under the following projects: GCP/UGA/043/LDF project entitled "Integrating climate resilience into agricultural and pastoral production in Uganda, through a Farmer/Agro-pastoralist Field School Approach; GCP/UGA/054/EC project entitled "Global Climate Change Alliance plus (GCCA+)"; and GCP/UGA/055/SWE project entitled "Climate Resilient Women Economic Empowerment (CRWEE)", funded by the Global Environment Facility, European Union and Government of Sweden, respectively. These projects aim to strengthen key government institutions at central and decentralized levels and build the resilience of communities in the face of a changing climate.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance of the FAO Representative in Uganda and in close collaboration with the Deputy FAO Representative, National Project Coordinators and other Technical Specialists, the Agroforestry Specialist will be under the direct supervision of the Team Leader, Climate Change Program and the Energy Specialist (2nd line Supervisor).

Tasks and responsibilities: The Agroforestry Specialist will:

In collaboration with FAO National Project Managers and Coordinators of GCP/UGA/043/LDF, GCP/UGA/054/EC and GCP/UGA/055/SWE lead efforts with the national and district stakeholders to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate agro-forestry-related interventions;

Provide advice on what agroforestry practices are the most resilient to climate change depending on the local context in the target project districts.

Provide advice on quality tree planting material for farmers

Train and advice project beneficiaries (farmers, communities) on tree planting, bio-energy plantation establishment and maintenance operations

Support overall planning to ensure implantation of activities related to bio-energy plantations and agroforestry (selection of beneficiaries, procurement of inputs) are timely initiated and effectively delivered to project beneficiaries within the project cycle

Provide support in the development of the Agro-Pastoral (AP) /Farmer Field School (FFS) trainings to ensure that proper agro-forestry practices are included in AP/FFS trainings.

Work with the District Natural Resources and Environment Officers to identify sites where the project can undertake agroforestry activities

Assess the capacity of farmers and/or farmer associations in target areas to participate in the project, and propose capacity building measures for these stakeholders in agroforestry

Propose agroforestry activities to improve sustainable land management practices in agricultural areas, in order to reduce downstream impacts while also improving incomes and food security

Propose project activities to improve market access / develop business plans for agroforestry, wood and non-wood agro-forestry products

Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Production and Fisheries (MAAIF), and target District Local governments with respect to planning and development of agro-forestry systems.

Carry out monitoring visits to implementing partners and project beneficiaries during project implementation.

Prepare project reports and other ad-hoc reports on project activities as and when required;

Perform any other duty

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

University Degree in Agroforestry, Forestry or related area

At least three years of relevant experience in Agro-forestry, Bio-energy plantations, Forestry plantations, Climate Smart Agriculture or related fields.

At least 5 years working with District Forestry services and other stakeholders in the forestry sector

Working knowledge of English

Ugandan National

FAO Core Competencies

Results Focus

Teamwork

Communication

Building Effective Relationships

Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

Extent of experience and knowledge in agro-forestry with farmers and organized farmer groups

Extent and relevance of experience and knowledge on climate change

Extent of knowledge and experiences in working with various stakeholders in Uganda including UN, Government, NGOs, private sector, academics, and others

Writing and communication skills

Ability to manage a high workload, meet tight deadlines and multi-task under pressure

Extent of experience with international organizations, non-government institutions/organizations, and donors in a multi-cultural setting.

Extent of experience in more than one location or area of work

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing)

Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you need help please contact: Careers@fao.org

Applications received after the closing date will not be accepted

Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

For additional employment opportunities visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/

FAO seeks gender, geographical and linguistic diversity in its staff and international consultants in order to best serve FAO Members in all regions.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile.

Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered

Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile.

If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1632159540328
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  More than a year after U.S. health care workers on the front lines against COVID-19 were saluted as heroes with nightly clapping from windows and balconies, some are being issued panic buttons in case of assault and ditching their scrubs before going out in public for fear of harassment.

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, a nurse works on a computer while assisting a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Los Angeles. Across the country, doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are dealing with hostility, threats and violence from patients angry over safety rules designed to keep the virus from spreading. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  More than a year after U.S. health care workers on the front lines against COVID-19 were saluted as heroes with nightly clapping from windows and balconies, some are being issued panic buttons in case of assault and ditching their scrubs before going out in public for fear of harassment.

Across the country, doctors and nurses are dealing with hostility, threats and violence from patients angry over safety rules designed to keep the scourge from spreading.

A year ago, were health care heroes and everybodys clapping for us, said Dr. Stu Coffman, a Dallas-based emergency room physician. And now were being in some areas harassed and disbelieved and ridiculed for what were trying to do, which is just depressing and frustrating.

Cox Medical Center Branson in Missouri started giving panic buttons to up to 400 nurses and other employees after assaults per year tripled between 2019 and 2020 to 123, a spokeswoman said. One nurse had to get her shoulder X-rayed after an attack.

Hospital spokeswoman Brandei Clifton said the pandemic has driven at least some of the increase.

So many nurses say, Its just part of the job, Clifton said. Its not part of the job.

Some hospitals have limited the number of public entrances. In Idaho, nurses said they are scared to go to the grocery store unless they have changed out of their scrubs so they aren't accosted by angry residents.

Doctors and nurses at a Coeur dAlene, Idaho, hospital have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who dont believe COVID-19 is real, said hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt. Others have been the subject of hurtful rumors spread by people angry about the pandemic.

Our health care workers are almost feeling like Vietnam veterans, scared to go into the community after a shift, Bobbitt said.

Keith Mathis holds a panic button he helped create as part of CoxHealth's Innovation Accelerators program. Nurses and hundreds of other staff members will soon begin wearing panic buttons at a Missouri hospital where assaults on workers tripled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Sara Karnes/The Springfield News-Leader via AP)

Over Labor Day weekend in Colorado, a passerby threw an unidentified liquid at a nurse working at a mobile vaccine clinic in suburban Denver. Another person in a pickup truck ran over and destroyed signs put up around the clinics tent.

About 3 in 10 nurses who took part in a survey this month by an umbrella organization of nurses unions across the U.S. reported an increase in violence where they work stemming from factors including staff shortages and fewer visitor restrictions. That was up from 2 in 10 in March, according to the National Nurses United survey of 5,000 nurses.

Michelle Jones, a nurse at a COVID-19 ICU unit in Wichita, Kansas, said patients are coming in scared, sometimes several from the same family, and often near death. Their relatives are angry, thinking the nurses and doctors are letting them die.

They cry, they yell, they sit outside our ICU in little groups and pray," Jones said. "Lots of people think they are going to get miracles and God is not passing those out this year. If you come into my ICU, there is a good chance you are going to die.

She said the powerful steroids that have shown promise often make patients angrier.

It is like roid rage on people, she said. Ive worked in health care for 26 years. and Ive seen anything like this. Ive never seen the public act like this.

Across the U.S., the COVID-19 crisis has caused people to behave badly toward one another in a multitude of ways.

Several people have been shot to death in disputes over masks in stores and other public places. Shouting matches and scuffles have broken out at school board meetings. A brawl erupted earlier this month at a New York City restaurant over its requirement that customers show proof of vaccination.

Dr. Chris Sampson, an emergency room physician in Columbia, Missouri, said violence has always been a problem in the emergency department, but the situation has gotten worse in recent months. Sampson said he has been pushed up against a wall and seen nurses kicked.

Dr. Ashley Coggins of St. Peters Health Regional Medical Center in Helena, Montana, said she recently asked a patient whether he wanted to be vaccinated.

He said, F, no, and I didnt ask further because I personally dont want to get yelled at," Coggins said. "You know, this is a weird time in our world, and the respect that we used to have for each other, the respect that people used to have for caregivers and physicians and nurses  its not always there, and it makes this job way harder.

Coggins said the patient told her that he wanted to strangle President Biden" for pushing for vaccinations, prompting her to change the subject. She said security guards are now in charge of enforcing mask rules for hospital visitors so that nurses no longer have to be the ones to tell people to leave.

The hostility is making an already stressful job harder. Many places are suffering severe staffing shortages, in part because nurses have become burned out and quit.

I think one thing that we have seen and heard from many of our people is that it is just really hard to come to work every day when people treat each other poorly," said Dr. Kencee Graves, a physician at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.

"If you have to fight with somebody about wearing a mask, or if you arent allowed to visit and we have to argue about that, that is stressful.

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.

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Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte

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Associated Press writer Rebecca Boone contributed to this report from Boise, Idaho. Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.

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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.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  A company that has already received preliminary approval to build a wind farm off the southern coast of New Jersey is planning a second project.

FILE - This Oct. 1, 2020 file photo shows windmills at a utility plant in Atlantic City N.J. Atlantic Shores, a company that already has approval to build an offshore wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City, is planning a second wind project. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, file)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  A company that has already received preliminary approval to build a wind farm off the southern coast of New Jersey is planning a second project.

Atlantic Shores, a joint venture between EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies US, already has approval from New Jersey regulators to build a wind farm about 8.7 miles off the coast.

But in a construction plan filed with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Atlantic Shores revealed it is planning a second such project, one it has not publicly announced.

That project could be considered in the next round of offshore wind project solicitations by New Jersey regulators in the third quarter of 2022.

Atlantic Shores second project, Project 2 ... is being developed to support these future New Jersey solicitations, the company wrote in its filing.

The company has not said how many megawatts of power the second project might provide.

It did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The company envisions power lines coming ashore at Sea Girt in Monmouth County, and in Atlantic City for one or more projects.

Thus far, New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities has approved three offshore wind energy projects: two by Danish wind developer Orsted, and one by Atlantic Shores.

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.

Those three projects combined aim to provide enough electricity to power over 1.6 million homes. New Jersey has set a goal of generating 100% of its energy from clean sources by 2050, and plans to solicit additional wind energy projects every two years until at least 2028.

In addition, a Massachusetts company plans to build a high-voltage line to bring electricity from a future New Jersey offshore wind farm onto land, and connect it to the power grid. Anbaric, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, has already obtained several permits from New Jersey environmental regulators for what it calls its Boardwalk Power Link project.

The federal government said Tuesday evening it will conduct environmental studies of both projects proposed by Atlantic Shores. It previously announced the same review for the two projects to be built by Orsted.

"Offshore wind holds enormous potential for our nation, and the wind resources offshore New Jersey are no exception, said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. As we kick off this process, the department will continue to do our part to ensure the development of our offshore renewable energy resources is done responsibly and sustainably.

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Objections to a historic settlement with Purdue Pharma are mounting in the form of appeals, with Rhode Island's attorney general saying Wednesday the plan doesn't hold the OxyContin maker or its owners accountable for its role in sparking the opioid crisis.

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. A judge formally approved a plan Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 to turn OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma into a new company no longer owned by members of the Sackler family and with its profits going to fight the opioid epidemic. A U.S. bankruptcy court judge signed the plan Friday, more than two weeks after giving it preliminary approval. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)

Objections to a historic settlement with Purdue Pharma are mounting in the form of appeals, with Rhode Island's attorney general saying Wednesday the plan doesn't hold the OxyContin maker or its owners accountable for its role in sparking the opioid crisis.

Rhode Island appealed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Separate appeals have already been filed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Washington state, plus some Canadian local governments and other Canadian entities.

Any successful appeal could undo the deal, not just that states piece of it.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Democrat, said he doesn't accept that the resolution between Purdue Pharma and thousands of state and local governments is sufficient. The Sackler family has not been transparent about its wealth, he said, so it's difficult to calculate how much punishment any resolution will inflict.

Estimates have put the collective wealth of family members who own the company at over $10 billion.

Neronha also said he dislikes that the settlement protects the Sacklers from lawsuits over opioids.

The state would be entitled to an estimated $21.6 million over nine years, or about $2.4 million annually, he said.

It's just not a lot, Neronha said. It may sound like a lot, I guess, but it's not a lot, given the scope of the problem, both past, present and future.

A federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan this month to turn Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, into a new company no longer owned by members of the Sackler family, with its profits going to fight the opioid epidemic.

The deal resolves some 3,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and others who claimed the companys marketing of prescription opioids helped spark and continue an overdose epidemic.

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Company profits and $4.5 billion in cash and charitable assets from members of the Sackler family will be used to pay some individual victims and help fund opioid treatment and prevention programs.

Members of the Sackler family have said that while they dispute the allegations made about their family, they embraced this path in order to help combat a serious and complex public health crisis.

Purdue has said the settlement averts years of value-destructive litigation and ensures that billions of dollars will be used to help people and communities hurt by the opioid crisis.

Purdue said in an email Wednesday that the bankruptcy court and the vast majority of its creditors believe the settlement is the only way to fund programs to end the opioid crisis.

Appeals will only further hurt the states, victims and creditors by delaying and eroding their recoveries, the email read. Now is the time for the remaining objectors to join the overwhelming majority of creditors so that billions of dollars can begin to flow as quickly as possible.

Rhode Island's case against opioid makers is scheduled for trial in state court in January. But the state's claim and all others against Purdue were put on pause when the company filed for bankruptcy two years ago. The state's only hope of being able to move ahead with a claim against the company would be winning an appeal.
SHENYANG, China (AP)  People in northeastern China ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as much of the country enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas.

A woman uses a light bulb powered by portable battery as she prepares dishes in an earlier morning at a restaurant during a blackout in Shenyang in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. People ate breakfast by flashlight and shopkeepers used portable generators Wednesday as power cuts imposed to meet official conservation goals disrupted manufacturing and daily life. (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang)

SHENYANG, China (AP)  People in northeastern China ate breakfast by the light of smartphones and shopkeepers turned on generators as much of the country enforced power cuts Wednesday to meet official conservation targets and ease shortages in some areas.

News reports blame high coal prices they say make power companies reluctant to meet booming demand, while economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

In Shenyang, the northeast's most populous city, restaurant owner Li Yufeng used a battery from an electric bicycle to run a pot for noodles after seeing a notice power would be switched off at 7:30 a.m. Li said he started work two hours early, at 6 a.m., to prepare chicken, sauces and other dishes.

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2019, file photo, smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province. Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet government energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark. (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang, File)

There are some impacts, but not a big impact, Li said as customers ate by smartphone lights.

Factories in Chinas busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week, prompting concern global supplies of smartphones and other goods might be disrupted. Now, urban neighborhoods are being blacked out, triggering pleas on social media for the government to solve the problem.

Chinas power consumption is growing at almost double its usual rate, while the ruling Communist Party is trying to reduce energy intensity, or the amount used per unit of economic output.

The power cuts come as global leaders prepare to attend a U.N. environmental conference by video link on Oct. 12-13 in the southwestern city of Kunming. That increases pressure on President Xi Jinpings government, as the meetings host, to show it is sticking to emissions and energy efficiency targets.

Steam billows out of the cooling towers at a coal-fired power station in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet government energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark. (Chinatopix via AP)

The cuts are largely driven by energy consumption control measures, with power shortages affecting another few provinces, Lara Dong of IHS Markit said in an email.

This is in line with Chinas decarbonization ambitions, she said.

The Cabinets planning agency warned in August that 20 regions had exceeded energy use and pollution targets after manufacturing rebounded from the pandemic. The government has ambitious plans to make the economy cleaner and more energy-efficient, so failing to meet those targets can be a career-ending blunder.

The power cuts could be more disruptive than previous shortages, Bank of America said in a report. Due to shortages in some areas, it said, "a relaxation of the governments energy consumption goals may not immediately alleviate the power crunch.

People line up at an Apple Store to buy the latest iPhone 13 handsets in Nanning in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Sept. 24, 2021. Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet government energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark. (Chinatopix Via AP)

China is one of the worlds biggest emitters of climate-changing industrial gases and consumes more energy per unit of economic output than developed countries. Given its huge population, on a per capita basis it ranks much lower.

China also is preparing for the Winter Olympics in the capital, Beijing, and the nearby city of Shijiazhuang in February, a period when it will want clear blue skies.

Officials in Jiangsu province, a manufacturing hub northwest of Shanghai, told state media some cities there have used up 90% of this year's quota for power use. The officials of the provincial planning agency were cited as saying individual city governments had to decide how to meet their targets.

The government of Guangdong province, China's biggest manufacturing center, has cited both official energy use limits and low water levels in hydropower reservoirs that provide a big share of its electricity.

In Liaoning province, where Shenyang is the capital, the government said in a statement Sunday that power demand hit a record high in the first eight months of the year. It said Liaoning has suffered shortages since then due to a decline in wind power and other sources.

The government of neighboring Jilin province blamed a shortage of coal. It said in a statement Monday its governor would visit miners in nearby Inner Mongolia to line up additional supplies.

Some advance warnings of power cuts to residents in Shenyang and other cities cited a need to ration power but didn't say why.

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Li, the noodle restaurant owner, showed a reporter a notice circulated on social media that said power would be out in his neighborhood from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Shopkeeper Yang Chang had a generator running on the sidewalk to keep freezers full of meat cold.

As long as there is electricity we can sell things, unlike restaurants that need water, said Yang. Yang didnt know or care what the reason for the power outage was but said, its understandable.

I was born in the 90s. When I was little, electricity wasnt stable, said Yang. Although we are having difficulties, the government will find a solution.

___

AP video producer Olivia Zhang in Shenyang and AP Writers Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed.
MILAN (AP)  Italys vaccination campaign is a key factor behind its economic recovery from the pandemic, Premier Mario Draghi said Wednesday after signing a document that forecast a higher-than-expected 6% growth this year.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, left, and Economy Minister Daniele Franco meet the journalists during a press conference at the of a cabinet ministers meeting in Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. (Massimo Percossi/LaPresse via AP)

MILAN (AP)  Italys vaccination campaign is a key factor behind its economic recovery from the pandemic, Premier Mario Draghi said Wednesday after signing a document that forecast a higher-than-expected 6% growth this year.

Draghi called vaccinations an ingredient that favored this recovery of the Italian economy."

The fact that you can work with tranquility at a business, that you can travel around, that children and students have returned to school ... this according to me is the fundamental ingredient for growth, which we must protect, he said.

Italy has vaccinated 78.4% of its eligible population who are 12 years old and over. Beginning on Oct. 15, health passes will be required for people to access all workplaces. The pass shows proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or proof of recent recovery from the virus and it's needed for indoor leisure activities like theaters, museums and dining, as well as for long-distance domestic travel.

Italian budget figures initially projected 4.5% growth, after a contraction of 9% in 2020 when Italy's economy was devastated by draconian lockdowns to contain the pandemic.

The Italian government boosted the 2021 forecast to 6% thanks to strong exports, the impact of government measures to support the economy, improved consumer and business trust and a strong reduction in new virus cases, Economy Minister Daniele Franco told reporters.

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The growth trend appears set to continue, with 4.2% increase in GDP expected in 2022.

There is trust in Italy, among Italians and from the rest of the world toward Italy. That is the other important news, Draghi said. Any new measures taken by the government must contribute to a growth that is equitable and sustainable and durable, he said.

Public debt is projected to drop to 153.5% of GDP this year, from 155.6% last year, which Draghi said was the first quantitative confirmation of what central bankers have long contended: that growth is the principal way to attack high public debt.

Draghi called offensive repeated questions about whether he would consider replacing Sergio Mattarella as Italian president when Mattarellas term expires next year.

It is parliament who decides the life, horizons and effectiveness of this government, he said. This government was created to respond to problems specific to a period, and it is doing its job."

He also made clear that the government, with a legislative mandate into 2023, would not hang on to power beyond its usefulness.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Enbridge announced Wednesday that construction on the upgrade of its Line 3 crude oil pipeline across Minnesota is substantially complete and that the company will start filling it with oil later this week.

FILE - In this June 29, 2018 file photo, workers are visible at the Superior terminal of Enbridge Energy in Superior, Wis. Enbridge says the upgrade and expansion of its Line 3 pipeline across Minnesota is complete and will become operational on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. The Canadian-based company's President and CEO Al Monaco said in a statement Wednesday that the pipeline will soon deliver the low-cost and reliable energy that people depend on every day. (AP Photo/Jim Mone File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Enbridge announced Wednesday that construction on the upgrade of its Line 3 crude oil pipeline across Minnesota is substantially complete and that the company will start filling it with oil later this week.

The Canadian-based company's president and CEO, Al Monaco, said in a statement that the pipeline will soon deliver the low-cost and reliable energy that people depend on every day.

The project was completed despite stiff opposition from tribes, environmentalists and others who argued that the 1,097 mile (1,765-kilometer) pipeline  including the 337-mile (542-kilometer) segment across Minnesota  would violate treaty rights, worsen climate change and risk spills in waters where Native Americans harvest wild rice. They note it would carry oil from Alberta's tar sands, a heavier crude that consumes more energy and generates more carbon dioxide in the refining process than lighter oil, making it an even bigger contributor to climate change.

Rep. Cori Bush and Rep. Ilhan Omar dip their hands in the Mississippi River following a press conference calling on President Joe Biden to cancel the Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. (Evan Frost/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

Line 3 opponents promised to keep fighting, though their legal options going forward are fading. And they vowed to hold President Joe Biden and other politicians accountable for failing to stop the project. More than 900 people have been arrested or ticketed at protests along the route since construction began in December.

This is not the outcome we hoped for, but the fight to stop Line 3 has always been a fight for climate justice and a future free from fossil fuels, and that fight will not stop just because Enbridge has succeeded in building this pipeline, Margaret Levin, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Sierra Club, said in a statement.

A leading face of the opposition, Winona LaDuke, executive director of the Indigenous-based environmental group Honor the Earth, paid tribute to the many people from across the country who came to Minnesota to protest.

Your brave efforts about Enbridges Line 3 have reshaped the worlds views on the climate crisis we are in, the Treaty Rights of the Anishinaabe, and the escalating divestment in fossil fuels around the world and here at home," LaDuke said in a statement. "You are the true heroes of this tragic saga.

FILE - In this June 7, 2021, file photo, actress and activist Jane Fonda, left, locks hands with Grandmother Mary Lyons after they prepared to perform a traditional water ceremony, on Monday, June 7, 2021, in Clearwater County, Minn. More than 2,000 Indigenous leaders and "water protectors" gathered in Clearwater County from around the country to protest the construction of Enbridge Line 3. Enbridge Inc. announced Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, that the upgrade and expansion of its Line 3 pipeline across Minnesota is complete and will become operational on Friday, Oct. 1. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP, File)

At a news conference later, LaDuke called on Biden to stand by his promise to be a climate president. But she said theyre pinning their hopes on the federal courts, which she noted have made rulings against the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and on the White Earth Ojibwe tribal court in northern Minnesota.

The main remaining tasks are cleanup and restoration along the route, Leo Golden, an Enbridge vice president in charge of the project, said in an interview. Some parts have already been completely restored with crops and native grasses growing on them, he said. But construction mats still need to be removed from wetlands and other cleanup and restoration work will continue through next summer.

We're not done restoring until we go to the landowners and we walk the land with them and they say Yes, youre done' and sign off," Golden said.

Enbridge said the project was necessary to replace a deteriorating pipeline built in the 1960s, which could carry only half its original volume of oil, and to ensure the reliable delivery of crude to U.S. refineries. Enbridge expects to start running the pipeline at its full capacity of 760,000 barrels per day in mid-October.

Line 3 starts in Alberta, Canada, and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing Minnesota en route to Enbridges terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The Canadian, North Dakota and Wisconsin segments were finished earlier and the Canadian and Wisconsin legs are already in service. The process of filling the line starts in North Dakota on Friday, Golden said. Enbridge puts the cost at $5.3 billion Canadian dollars for the Canadian section and $4 billion U.S. dollars for the work in the U.S.

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Opponents have challenged the pipeline's permits in court to no avail so far. They've also unsuccessfully sought to persuade Biden, who canceled a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline soon after taking office, to intervene.

A challenge is still pending in federal court to a permit granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but that case didn't block construction. Opponents can still ask the state Supreme Court to review a clean water certification granted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Also, a novel rights of nature lawsuit is pending in the White Earth tribal court. It names Manoomin  the Ojibwe word for wild rice  as one of the plaintiffs. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has asked a federal appeals court to block that case.

We are confident that the (tribal) court will hold that the rights of wild rice should supersede the rights of the Canadian multinational. ... And we will ask the federal government to uphold the decisions that are made in our court, LaDuke told reporters.

But LaDuke was vague when asked whether future protests and civil disobedience are planned.

We will see what our communities do," she said. "We will see.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A judge dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Evel Knievels son a year ago against the Walt Disney Co. and movie company Pixar over a Toy Story 4 daredevil character named Duke Caboom.

FILE - In this Sept. 8, 1974, file photo, Evel Knievel sits in the steam powered rocket motorcycle that will hopefully take him across Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho. A judge has dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Evel Knievels son against the Walt Disney Co. and movie company Pixar over a Toy Story 4 daredevil character named Duke Caboom. Kelly Knievel said Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, he's disappointed and may take the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. (AP Photo, File)

LAS VEGAS (AP)  A judge dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Evel Knievels son a year ago against the Walt Disney Co. and movie company Pixar over a Toy Story 4 daredevil character named Duke Caboom.

Were obviously disappointed, Kelly Knievel said in a Monday email. We are considering our options at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

FILE - In this Aug. 20, 1974 file photo Daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel poses at the open-air Canadian national exhibition stadium in Toronto. A judge has dismissed a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Evel Knievels son against the Walt Disney Co. and movie company Pixar over a Toy Story 4 daredevil character named Duke Caboom. Kelly Knievel said Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, he's disappointed and may take the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

U.S. District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas dismissed the case against Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on Sept. 23.

The judge wrote that while the Caboom character was reminiscent of Knievel, Disneys use of Evel Knievels likeness contains significant transformative elements and is not a literal depiction.

An email message from The Walt Disney Co. spokesman Jeffrey R. Epstein said he was traveling and unavailable for immediate comment.

Kelly Knievel, head of Las Vegas-based K and K Promotions, had characterized the Caboom character as a direct knock-off of the legend and historical significance of Knievels father, the famous stunt motorcyclist who died in 2007 at 69 in Florida of lung disease.

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The lawsuit filed in September 2020 accused Disney and Pixar of intentionally modeling the Toy Story 4 character on Knievel, whose stunts included motorcycle jumps in 1967 over the Caesars Palace fountain in Las Vegas  including a spectacular near-fatal crash  and in 1975 over a row of buses at Wembley Stadium in London.

Evel Knievel was seriously injured many times during more than 75 motorcycle jumps. He survived a 1974 rocket-motorcycle shot over Snake River Canyon in Idaho that ended with the machine parachuting to the riverbank below.

The lawsuit noted an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle toy released in 1973 featured a Knievel action figure clad in a white helmet and jumpsuit with red, white and blue embellishments on a motorcycle that could be propelled with a wind-up device.

The court filing pointed to the film character and his Duke Caboom Stunt Cycle, described by Disney Pixar as a 1970s-era daredevil based on Canadas greatest stuntman, clad in a white jumpsuit and helmet with Canadian insignia.

The judge said the film character has a different name and clothing, is Canadian rather than American, and wears a mustache and different hair color and style than Knievel.

Duke Caboom is not a carbon copy of Evel Knievel minus a few details, Mahan wrote. The Duke Caboom action figure is a representation of Disneys expression in the film and not an attempt to imitate Evel Knievel.
YouTube announced a sweeping crackdown of vaccine misinformation Wednesday that booted popular anti-vaccine influencers from its site and deleted false claims that have been made about a range of immunizations.

FILE - This March 20, 2018, file photo shows the YouTube app on an iPad in Baltimore. Video-sharing tech platform YouTube on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, announced immediate bans on false claims that vaccines are dangerous and cause health issues like autism, cancer or infertility. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

YouTube announced a sweeping crackdown of vaccine misinformation Wednesday that booted popular anti-vaccine influencers from its site and deleted false claims that have been made about a range of immunizations.

The video-sharing platform said it will no longer allow users to baselessly speculate that approved vaccines, like the ones given to prevent the flu or measles, are dangerous or cause diseases.

YouTubes latest attempt to stem a tide of vaccine misinformation comes as countries around the globe struggle to convince a somewhat vaccine hesitant public to accept the free immunizations that scientists say will end the COVID-19 pandemic that began 20 months ago. The tech platform, which is owned by Google, already tried to ban COVID-19 vaccine misinformation last year, at the height of the pandemic.

Weve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and were now at a point where its more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines, YouTube said in a blog post.

Up until Wednesday, anti-vaccine influencers, who have thousands of subscribers, had used YouTube to stoke fears around vaccines that health experts point out have been safely administered for decades. The YouTube channel of an organization run by environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of several popular anti-vaccine accounts that was gone by Wednesday morning.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, Kennedy criticized the ban: There is no instance in history when censorship and secrecy have advanced either democracy or public health.

YouTube declined to provide details on how many accounts were removed in the crackdown.

Under its new policy, YouTube says it will remove misinformation about any vaccine that has been approved by health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, and is currently being administered. False claims that those vaccines are dangerous or cause health issues, like cancer, infertility or autism  theories that scientists have discredited for decades but have endured on the internet  should also be removed.

The concept that vaccines harm  instead of help  is at the foundation of a lot of misinformation, said Jeanine Guidry, a media and public health professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

She added that, if enforced properly, the new rules could stop bad information from influencing a new parent who is using the internet to research whether or not to vaccinate their child, for example.

But, as is common when tech platforms announce stricter rules, loopholes remain for anti-vaccine misinformation to spread on YouTube.

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Claims about vaccines that are being tested will still be allowed. Personal stories about reactions to the vaccine will also be permitted, as long as they do not come from an account that has a history of promoting vaccine misinformation.

Despite tech companies announcing a string of new rules around COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, falsehoods have still found big audiences on the platforms.

In March, Twitter began labelling content that made misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines and said it would ban accounts that repeatedly share such posts. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, had already prohibited posts claiming COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility or contain tracking microchips, and in February announced it would similarly remove claims that vaccines are toxic or can cause health problems such as autism.

Yet popular anti-vaccine influencers remain live on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where they actively use the platforms to sell books or videos. On Facebook and Instagram alone, a handful of anti-vaccine influencers still have a combined 6.4 million followers, according to social media watchdog group the Center for Countering Digital Hate. And COVID-19 vaccine misinformation has been so pervasive on Facebook that President Joe Biden in July accused influencers on the platform of killing people with falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Other platforms have taken a harder line. Pinterest, for example, prohibited any kind of vaccine misinformation even before the pandemic began. Now, if users search for content about vaccines on the site, they are directed to visit authoritative websites operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the WHO. ___

Associated Press writers David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed to this report.
TOKYO (AP)  Japans former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the governing party leadership election on Wednesday and is set to become the next prime minister, facing the imminent task of addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington to counter growing regional security risks.

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2021, file photo, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga leaves after a news conference at his office in Tokyo. Japan's governing party will vote Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 to pick its new leader who is presumed next prime minister with crucial tasks such as addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring strong alliance with Washington amid growing security risks from China and North Korea.(Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP, File)

TOKYO (AP)  Japans former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the governing party leadership election on Wednesday and is set to become the next prime minister, facing the imminent task of addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington to counter growing regional security risks.

Kishida replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year since taking office last September.

As new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida is certain to be elected the next prime minister on Monday in parliament, where his party and coalition partner control the house.

Kishida beat popular vaccinations minister Taro Kono in a runoff after finishing only one vote ahead of him in the first round where none of the four candidates, including two women, was able to win a majority.

Results showed Kishida had more support from party heavyweights who apparently chose stability over change advocated by Kono, who is known as something of a maverick.

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2021, file photo, candidates for the presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party pose prior to a joint news conference at the party's headquarters in Tokyo. Japan's governing party will vote Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 to pick its new leader who is presumed next prime minister with crucial tasks such as addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring strong alliance with Washington amid growing security risks from China and North Korea. The contenders are, from left to right, Taro Kono, the cabinet minister in charge of vaccinations, Fumio Kishida, former foreign minister, Sanae Takaichi, former internal affairs minister, and Seiko Noda, former internal affairs minister. (Kimimasa Mayama/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The new leader is under pressure to change the party's high-handed reputation worsened by Suga, who angered the public over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and insistence on holding the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party desperately needs to quickly turn around plunging public support ahead of lower house elections coming within two months.

Kishida called for growth and distribution under his new capitalism, saying that the economy under Japan's longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had only benefited big companies.

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Votes are counted during the Liberal Democrat Party leadership election in Tokyo Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021. Japan's governing party is voting to pick its new leader, with the presumed next prime minister facing imminent, crucial tasks such as addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington amid growing regional security risks. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP)

Overall, little change is expected in key diplomatic and security policies under the new leader, said Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo.

All of the candidates support close Japan-U.S. security ties and partnerships with other like-minded democracies in Asia and Europe, in part to counter Chinas growing influence and a threat from nuclear-armed North Korea.

Wednesdays vote was seen as a test of whether the party can move out of Abes shadow. His influence in government and party affairs has largely muzzled diverse views and shifted the party to the right.

Kishida is also seen as a choice who could prolong an era of unusual political stability amid fears that Japan could return to revolving door leadership.

Concern is not about individuals but stability of Japanese politics," Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a telephone briefing ahead of the vote. It's about whether or not we are entering a period in Japanese politics of instability and short-term prime ministership, he said. It makes it very hard to move forward on agenda."

Suga is leaving only a year after taking office as a pinch hitter for Abe, who suddenly resigned over health problems, ending his nearly eight-year leadership, the longest in Japans constitutional history.
A junior mining company with one of the largest stakes of lithium properties in the province has signed a partnership deal with a major Australian lithium producer that could see it invest at least $4 million in the province over the course of the next three and a half years.

A junior mining company with one of the largest stakes of lithium properties in the province has signed a partnership deal with a major Australian lithium producer that could see it invest at least $4 million in the province over the course of the next three and a half years.

New Age Metals Inc., based out of Rockport, Ont., has entered into an agreement with Mineral Resources Limited (MRL), the fifth-largest lithium producer in the world, that will kick start exploration drilling in the next couple of weeks.

The terms of the agreement are such that if MRL pursues drilling and other development work on New Ages properties in Manitoba, it could earn up to a 75 per cent equity interest in the properties.

Lithium is a critical component of most modern batteries and with the almost across-the-board commitment from automakers to convert their production lines to electric, it will be a critical piece of the policy puzzle to help lower reliance on fossil fuels for energy. Just this week, Ford announced it was building three electric vehicle battery plants. Ford was the last of the major auto companies to formally announce their commitment to shift to electric vehicles.

Harry Barr, New Age Metals CEO, said the deal is "Good news for the company, good news for Manitoba."

He said the arrangement between a major producing mining company like MRL and a junior exploration company like New Age is the first to happen in the Canadian market for some time.

New Age has been acquiring exploration properties in Manitoba since 2016 and now has seven properties. It already has drilling permits for two of the properties and is in the process of acquiring a third one.

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The deal gives MRL the right to receive 51 per cent of the equity in New Ages Manitoba lithium properties if it spends $4 million on exploration over the next 42 months and contributes $400,000 in cash to New Age.

New Age has another project in Ontario, related to a platinum metals, which requires most of its resources and has been looking for a partner to fund exploration in Manitoba. New Age will continue to be the field manager on the drilling work MRL will be funding.

Lithium prices have soared up 30 to 40 per cent recently, but its exploration and production in North America has been modest. There are no lithium mines in the country although there is one nearing production stage in Quebec.

"North America, for whatever reason, has been slow to develop its lithium projects," said Barr. "Thats why we have been able to get in and get such a good land position in Manitoba. To me and most in the industry, it is an under explored mineral in Manitoba."

New Ages properties are close to the Tanco Mine, about 20 kilometres northeast of Lac du Bonnet. That property, which has been producing cesium since 1969, mines the same type of mineral that holds lithium.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
TORONTO - Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:

Toronto Stock Exchange (20,158.14, down 16.00 points.)

Bank of Nova Scotia. (TSX:BNS). Financials. Up nine cents, or 0.11 per cent, to $78.83 on 15.3 million shares.

Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up four cents, or 1.95 per cent, to $2.09 on 8.4 million shares.

Baytex Energy Corp. (TSX:BTE). Energy. Up two cents, or 0.57 per cent, to $3.52 on eight million shares.

The Toronto-Dominion Bank. (TSX:TD). Financials. Down three cents, or 0.04 per cent, to $84.93 on 7.7 million shares.

Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG). Energy. Up seven cents, or 1.22 per cent, to $5.81 on 6.1 million shares.

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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. (TSX:CM). Financials. Down 34 cents, or 0.24 per cent, to $142.50 on 5.5 million shares.

Companies in the news:

Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB). Up 25 cents to $50.79. Enbridge Inc.'s Line 3 pipeline replacement project, a critical piece of export infrastructure for Canada's energy sector, will be in service on Friday. The pipeline giant said Wednesday the 1,765-kilometre Line 3  which will carry oil from Alberta to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wis.  is "substantially complete." The $9.3-billion project is the first major Canadian pipeline project to be completed since Enbridge's Alberta Clipper project, which was finished in 2015. The replacement of Line 3 is expected to add about 370,000 additional barrels per day of crude oil export capacity from Western Canada to refineries in the U.S. Midwest. The Line 3 project was first announced in 2014, but ran into opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous groups along the way. Opponents of the project have said the Line 3 expansion will accelerate climate change and also poses a risk of oil spills in environmentally sensitive areas. The last leg of the project to be completed was the 542-kilometre Minnesota segment of the pipeline. Other segments had already been placed into service in Canada, North Dakota and Wisconsin, but in Minnesota Enbridge faced court challenges and protests by project opponents. In June, Enbridge was handed a victory by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which affirmed the approvals granted by independent regulators that allowed construction on the Minnesota leg to begin last December.

Spin Master Corp. (TSX:TOY). Down 37 cents to $41.25. Ahead of the release of the Paw Patrol movie this summer, Toys R Us Canada and toymaker Spin Master Corp. did something rarely seen before in the toy industry. They air freighted Liberty toys  the latest member of the animated search and rescue team  from China to Canada to get the new pup on store shelves in time for the films premiere. The unusual step underscores the enduring difficulty of operating amid a pandemic and its related labour shortages, escalating material prices, rising shipping costs and lengthy delays. It also foreshadows what the toy industry could be facing this holiday season, a time that accounts for as much as 70 per cent of all toy sales for the year by some estimates. Industry experts say toymakers and retailers are bracing for a potentially challenging run-up to Christmas this year, and are offering some advice to consumers: shop early, dont hold out for big blowout sales and  most importantly  find a good hiding spot until the holidays to deter snooping children. The toy industry group says there will always be toys on store shelves but recommends consumers start their holiday shopping as early as October to avoid being disappointed by potential inventory shortages of some items closer to the holidays.

Canadian National Railway Co. (TSX:CNR). Up 47 cents to $147.59. TCI Fund Management Ltd., which is seeking changes at Canadian National Railway Co., is accusing the railway of not disclosing the resignation of Julie Godin from CN's board of directors in an appropriate and timely manner. The British-based investment manager says CN did not immediately issue a news release about the resignation earlier this month. CN says Godin's resignation was posted on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders and its own website in an appropriate and timely manner in accordance with relevant securities law. The railway says Godin stepped down to focus on her expanding role as co-chair of the board and executive vice-president of strategic planning and corporate development of CGI Inc. TCI was a vocal critic of CN's attempted takeover of the Kansas City Southern railway and has asked for a special meeting of CN shareholders for the purpose of "refreshing" the railway's board by adding four members that it has nominated. It has also proposed Jim Vena, former chief operating officer at CN, as a potential replacement to current CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.
As the economy starts opening up, successive business surveys record that small- and medium-sized businesses are having a hard time filling positions.

As the economy starts opening up, successive business surveys record that small- and medium-sized businesses are having a hard time filling positions.

Some complain that the CERB (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) is providing a disincentive for people to go back to work. But according to an important report released by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) on Wednesday, that hardly compares to more severe structural issues that will continue playing out for a decade or more.

The report, called "How to Adapt to the Labour Shortages Situation: Hiring Difficulties Are Not Going Away" indicates that the scarcity of workers is reaching worrying heights, putting economic growth at risk and compromising the competitiveness of Canadian businesses.

In an interview with the Free Press, Pierre Cleroux, BDCs chief economist, said the bank was well aware of the challenge many employers have finding workers, but it was not prepared for the extent of the problem.

"Through our research we could see it was the No. 1 issue," Cleroux said. "But we did not expect to see that is having such a big impact. Two-thirds of business said that it is limiting their growth. That is maybe the most surprising result of this report."

The survey found 64 per cent found labour shortages were limiting growth, 61 per cent said they and their employees had to work longer hours, 46 per cent said they had to increase wages, and 44 per cent they had to delay orders or turn work away.

While the intensity of the problem is a surprise, Cleroux said the main cause of the problem has been well-known for some time  the aging population.

"In Manitoba, 16 per cent of the population is over the age of 65 and that number will keep growing and it is the same situation across the country," he said.

But the aging population is not the only reason why so many Manitoba businesses just leave the "positions available" signs up.

Because of the pandemic, immigration  an important source for key components of the Canadian labour force  has declined by about 50 per cent in 2020. It is not expected to be much better in 2021.

Cleroux said this "new normal" is forcing business to change the way it thinks because our labour force is not increasing as much now as it was.

"The solution in the future has to be different than what we did in the past," he said. "For years growth in Canada happened because we had growth in our population.

"When you wanted to sell more you just hired more people. This issue is related to our aging population and it is going to be the case for the next decade."

While the findings of labour shortages may not be a surprise, the report  which is based on two BDC surveys: one of 1,251 Canadian entrepreneurs on labour market conditions conducted in May 2021; and the other a survey of 3,000 Canadians on their jobs and related challenges conducted in June 2021  also tried to find the most effective solutions.

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It conducted an advanced statistical analysis to determine the most effective solution to hiring and retention problems and it found that adopting new technologies and automation was the most effective solution for difficulties in hiring, followed by the use of more formal hiring practices, and that offering a total compensation package was best for difficulties retaining workers.

Cleroux said that while investing in technology was the most effective  companies that invested in automation were twice as likely to find hiring easy and more likely to see sales growth above the industry average, compared to companies that had not automated  its not typically the first tactic companies try.

"The first reaction is to increase compensation," said Cleroux, "But the most efficient strategy is more on the tech side."

He does not dispute that investing in technology that can change a companys processes can be a daunting proposition.

But he said, "We have to change our mindset."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
NEW YORK (AP)  The spread of COVID-19 vaccination requirements across the U.S. hasn't had the desired effect so far, with the number of Americans getting their first shots plunging in recent weeks. And some experts worry that the move to dispense boosters could just make matters worse.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2021, file photo, Edward Williams, 62, a resident at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, receives a COVID-19 booster shot in New York. The number of COVID-19 vaccinations is falling in the U.S. And some experts worry that the decision to give booster doses could end up hurting efforts to get the unvaccinated to take shots at all. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP)  The spread of COVID-19 vaccination requirements across the U.S. hasn't had the desired effect so far, with the number of Americans getting their first shots plunging in recent weeks. And some experts worry that the move to dispense boosters could just make matters worse.

The fear is that the rollout of booster shots will lead some people to question the effectiveness of the vaccine in the first place.

Many of my patients are already saying, If we need a third dose, what was the point? said Dr. Jason Goldman, a physician in Coral Springs, Florida.

The average daily count of Americans getting a first dose of vaccine has been falling for six weeks, plummeting more than 50% from about 480,000 in early August to under 230,000 by the middle of last week, according to the most recently available federal data.

An estimated 70 million vaccine-eligible Americans have yet to start vaccinations, despite a summer surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths driven by the delta variant.

This is the case despite a growing number of businesses announcing vaccination requirements for their employees, including Google, McDonald's, Microsoft and Disney. Also, big cities such as New York and San Francisco are demanding people be vaccinated to eat at restaurants or enter certain other businesses.

Separately, President Joe Biden announced sweeping new vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans on Sept. 9. Employees at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll will have to get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. But the mandates have yet to go into effect; the necessary regulations are still being drawn up.

Allie French, of Omaha, Nebraska, said the move toward booster shots only reinforced her strong belief that vaccinations arent necessary, particularly for people who take care of themselves.

It comes back to a mindset of not needing your hand held through every situation, said French, founder of a small advocacy group called Nebraskans Against Government Overreach.

Tara Dukart, a 40-year-old rancher from Hazen, North Dakota, and a board member for Health Freedom North Dakota, an organization that has fought mask and vaccine mandates, said: "I think that there is a tremendous amount of hesitancy because why get a third shot if the first two shots didnt work?

Scientists have emphasized that the vaccine remains highly effective against serious illness and death from COVID-19, noting that the unvaccinated account for the vast majority of the dead and hospitalized recently. But experts have also seen signs that the vaccines protection may be slipping, and they want to get out ahead of the problem.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2021, file photo, Cristina Licup, left, waits to receive her COVID-19 booster shot where she works at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York. The number of COVID-19 vaccinations is falling in the U.S. And some experts worry that the decision to give booster doses could end up hurting efforts to get the unvaccinated to take shots at all. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Experts have long said the key to ending the U.S. epidemic is vaccinating the vast majority of the American public  perhaps as much as 90%. But of the more than 283 million Americans age 12 and older who are eligible for shots, only about 65%  184 million  are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Children under 12 are not yet eligible to get vaccinated, meaning only about 55% of the U.S. public is fully protected.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that health officials have not lost sight of that problem. The booster effort will not distract us from our most important focus  to get as many people as possible vaccinated with a primary series, she said.

White House officials said they doubt the need for boosters is a real concern among the vast majority of the unvaccinated, who for a variety of reasons, including misinformation, have continued to resist getting their shots despite nearly a years worth of data showing their lifesaving potential.

They argue, too, that as the pool of unvaccinated Americans gradually shrinks, there will be declines in the numbers of new people getting shots. They say the latest numbers should not be read as a sign that mandates aren't working, noting that most businesses havent yet put in place the Biden administration's vaccinate-or-test policy.

Indeed, despite the downward vaccination trends seen in CDC data, they say there is evidence employer mandates are already working. White House officials cited a number of success stories, including strong increases in the percentage of vaccinated employees at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, United Airlines and the Defense Department.

Noel Brewer, a University of North Carolina professor of health behavior, said the mandates show promise and there is good reason to be optimistic.

I think were heading into a great season for vaccinations. Everything is lining up in a good way, said Brewer, who advises the CDC and the World Health Organization on COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC authorized booster doses of Pfizer's vaccine for tens of millions of Americans who are 65 and older, have underlying health conditions or work in jobs that put them at high risk. The extra dose would be given six months after the two-shot regimen.

Regulators have yet to take up the question of booster shots for people who got the Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

More than 400,000 Americans got boosters at drugstores over the weekend, and 1 million more have signed up for them, according to White House officials.

But some members of an expert panel that advises the CDC worried last week that the booster discussion was a distraction from the more pressing need to get more Americans vaccinated.

We have a very effective vaccine, and its like saying, Its not working, said Dr. Pablo Sanchez of Ohio State University.

At that meeting, a CDC official presented unpublished data from a recent 1,000-person survey that suggested that offering boosters would make 25% of unvaccinated Americans much less likely to get a shot. This week, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll of more than 1,500 adults found that 71% of the unvaccinated say the recent news about boosters is a sign that the vaccines arent working.

Some outside experts saw this coming.

Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin, said last week that if vaccine-hesitant people "start to get the idea that this is only going to last for six or eight or 10 months, they may be further soured on the whole idea.

Meanwhile, the pandemic's summer surge has shown signs of easing. Deaths are still running high at over 2,000 a day on average, but cases and hospitalizations are trending down.

While any ebb in COVID-19's toll is welcome, it also may undercut health officials' effort to instill a sense of urgency in the unvaccinated. That could be a difficult task even when cases were exploding.

Dr. Alex Jahangir, director of orthopedic trauma surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the head of a coronavirus task force in Nashville, Tennessee, recalled operating on an elderly man injured in a car wreck over the summer. The man survived those injuries but ended up dying from COVID-19.

Jahangir said he was struck by how the mans family seemed to absorb the facts about the COVID-19's dangers only at the very end.

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Only when they were negatively impacted did they seek the truth," Jahangir said.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington; Grant Schulte in Omaha, Nebraska; and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this story.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

-
MONTREAL - TCI Fund Management Ltd., which is seeking changes at Canadian National Railway Co., is accusing the railway of not disclosing the resignation of Julie Godin from CN's board of directors in an appropriate and timely manner.

A CN rail worker stands on an idle locomotive in Burnaby, B.C., on Friday, November 27, 2020. TCI Fund Management Ltd., which is seeking changes at Canadian National Railway Co., is accusing the railway of not disclosing the resignation of Julie Godin from CN's board of directors in an appropriate and timely manner. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

MONTREAL - TCI Fund Management Ltd., which is seeking changes at Canadian National Railway Co., is accusing the railway of not disclosing the resignation of Julie Godin from CN's board of directors in an appropriate and timely manner.

The British-based investment manager says CN did not immediately issue a news release about the resignation earlier this month.

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CN says Godin's resignation was posted on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders and its own website in an appropriate and timely manner in accordance with relevant securities law.

The railway says Godin stepped down to to focus on her expanding role as co-chair of the board and executive vice-president, strategic planning and corporate development of CGI Inc.

TCI was a vocal critic of CN's attempted takeover of the Kansas City Southern railway and has asked for a special meeting of CN shareholders for the purpose of "refreshing" the railway's board by adding four members that it has nominated. It has also proposed Jim Vena, former chief operating officer at CN, as a potential replacement to current CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest.

CN announced a new strategic plan earlier this month including a plan to reduce capital spending, increase operating income and boost efficiency.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  The Biden administration said Wednesday it will draft rules to govern the killing of wild birds by industry and resume enforcement actions against companies responsible for deaths that could have been prevented, a longstanding practice that ended under President Donald Trump.

FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2021, file photo a cormorant flies in looking for an available piling on which to land, in Portland, Maine. The seabirds make a living of diving for small fish and crustaceans. The Biden administration said Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, it will draft rules to govern the killing of wild birds by industry and resume enforcement actions against companies responsible for deaths that could have been prevented. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  The Biden administration said Wednesday it will draft rules to govern the killing of wild birds by industry and resume enforcement actions against companies responsible for deaths that could have been prevented, a longstanding practice that ended under President Donald Trump.

The move came as North American bird numbers have plummeted in recent decades. That decline was punctuated by news Wednesday that the famed ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 other species of flora and fauna have gone extinct.

Conservation groups, which have urged President Joe Biden to take stronger action to protect wildlife, said the planned rules were urgently needed to hold companies accountable for bird deaths.

But the administration got immediate pushback from the oil industry, which has been subject to some of the most high-profile prosecutions under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Most notable was a $100 million settlement by energy company BP, after government investigators concluded the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.

The Trump administration ended enforcement against companies for accidental bird deaths in 2017, following pressure from oil companies, utilities and other industries.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America said resuming prosecutions would harm businesses that killed birds through no fault of their own. Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, top-ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the Biden administration seemed intent on making government as heavy-handed as possible."

Federal officials pledged to be judicious in prosecuting violations of the century-old bird law. Enforcement will be reserved for cases where companies could have foreseen bird deaths but did not take steps to avoid them, said Jerome Ford, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant director for migratory birds.

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2009, file photo, a flock of geese fly past a smokestack at a coal power plant near Emmitt, Kan. The Biden administration on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, said it is drafting rules to govern the killing of wild birds by industry and will resume enforcement actions against companies responsible for deaths that could have been prevented. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

The new rule would be prepared over the next year.

In crafting the regulations, Ford said officials would look at a wide range of causes  from collisions with glass buildings, power lines and vehicles, to chemical poisonings and birds killed in oil pits. Hundreds of millions of birds die annually due to industry causes, according to government officials and researchers.

We've lost almost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, Ford said. We want to create a commonsense approach that works to both conserve birds and provide regulatory certainty to industry."

Under then-President Barack Obama, the Interior Department started to develop a permitting system that would have allowed industry to kill limited numbers of birds, but the work was not finished before the Democrat left office.

The American Bird Conservancy said a permit program would compel companies to take measures such as installing screens to keep birds out of oil pits and turning off or altering telecommunication tower lights to reduce collisions, according to the conservancy.

It's that deer in the headlights situation: The birds are attracted and then disoriented and collide with the towers, said conservancy spokesperson Jordan Rutter.

Trump's ending of prosecutions was among dozens of environmental actions by the Republican that Biden ordered reconsidered on his first day in office. Former federal officials, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress said many of the Trump rules were aimed at benefiting private industry at the expense of conservation.

More than 1,000 North American bird species are covered by the treaty  from fast-flying peregrine falcons to tiny songbirds and more than 20 owl species. Non-native species and some game birds, like wild turkeys, are not on the list.

Former federal officials and some scientists had said billions more birds could have died in coming decades under Trumps rule.

Researchers have said that cats in the U.S. kill the most birds  more than 2 billion a year.

In documents released with Wednesday's proposal, Interior officials said a future permitting system could include exemptions for non-commercial activities or homeowner activities," but did not define them.

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Besides the BP case, hundreds of enforcement cases  targeting utilities, oil companies and wind energy developers  resulted in criminal fines and civil penalties totaling $5.8 million between 2010 and 2018.

Enforcement will resume once Wednesdays action goes into effect after 60 days, officials said.

Relatively few enforcement cases end with prosecutions because most companies are willing to take measures to address hazards that their operations may pose to birds, according to wildlife officials.

Courts have been split on whether companies can be prosecuted for unintentional bird deaths.

___

Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
MIRAMICHI, N.B. - The uncle of an Indigenous man shot dead by police in New Brunswick in 2020 told a coroner's inquest Wednesday his nephew would be alive today had a former community policing model not been disbanded.

MIRAMICHI, N.B. - The uncle of an Indigenous man shot dead by police in New Brunswick in 2020 told a coroner's inquest Wednesday his nephew would be alive today had a former community policing model not been disbanded.

Funding for the program that involved band officers and RCMP members was cancelled about eight years ago, Ken Levi told a five-member coroner's jury investigating the death of Rodney Levi. He said he's convinced community officers would have been able to defuse the situation.

A picture of Rodney Levi sits at the front of a conference room in Miramichi, N.B., on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, where a coroners inquest is underway into his death. Levi was shot dead by the RCMP on June 12, 2020 after police responded to the complaint of a disturbance at a home in Sunny Corner, N.B. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Bissett

"We would already know it was Rodney," Ken Levi, who was a member of the community policing program before it was disbanded, told reporters outside the hearing Wednesday. "We would have called family. We would have responded, and I'm pretty sure he would have come."

The 48-year-old from the Metepenagiag First Nation was shot dead by the RCMP on the evening of June 12, 2020, after police responded to a complaint about a disturbance in a home in nearby Sunny Corner, N.B.

Ken Levi, who is now a federal fisheries officer, said the special constables knew the people in the community and spoke their language. In most cases, he added, people causing problems would be calmed and taken home without serious confrontations.

The shooting was investigated by Quebec's police watchdog, the Bureau des enquetes independantes, which submitted a report to New Brunswick prosecutors in December. Quebec prosecutors have said officers at the scene believed Levi  who was wielding two large knives  was using force against them, and they shot him to protect themselves and others.

In January 2021, New Brunswick's Public Prosecutions Service said no criminal charges would be filed against officers involved in the shooting.

Police had tried to subdue Levi three times using an electroshock weapon before they shot him twice. An autopsy confirmed Levi had amphetamine and methamphetamine in his body at the time of the shooting.

Metepenagiag Chief Bill Ward said he knew Levi his whole life and had seen him under the influence of drugs, but he was never aggressive, mean or intimidating.

Ward testified that Levi came to visit him on the day of his death and said he was hoping to move to Western Canada for work and to get away from the people who were encouraging his drug use.

Ward said there is a need for more rapid help for people facing mental health issues in the province, and for greater help for people with addictions.

"There has to be availability of beds for detox," Ward told reporters outside the inquest. "And definitely longer term solutions to treatment centres rather than the traditional 30 days. There has to be something here in New Brunswick that offers three to six months, or even a year, to get away from this."

The inquest also heard Wednesday from forensic pathologist Dr. Ken Obenson, who conducted the autopsy on Levi and confirmed he died from two gunshot wounds to the chest.

Coroner John Evans said Tuesday he expects to hear from about 27 witnesses before the hearings conclude next week.

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The jury is composed of two men and three women. Evans said two jurors are Indigenous and another married into an Indigenous family. "Having a jury with gender balance and cultural balance I think is going to be very, very helpful," he said.

Levi's sister, Rhoda Levi, said Tuesday she was pleased with the jury selection and hoped the province would act on the inquest's recommendations.

"I hope that the government does everything it can to implement so that no one else is shot and killed by the RCMP," she told reporters.

Levi's killing came days after an Edmundston, N.B., police officer fatally shot Chantel Moore, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman, during a wellness check. The two killings sparked anger in the province's Indigenous community.

A coroner's inquest does not assign blame but issues recommendations intended to help prevent a death under similar circumstances in the future.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.
OTTAWA - The Conservative incumbent who was defeated in Calgary Skyview in last week's federal election is planning to ask a court to quash the result, given allegations of dirty tricks by the Liberal victor.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau holds a campaign event with Liberal candidate for Calgary Skyview, George Chahal in Calgary, Alberta, on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - The Conservative incumbent who was defeated in Calgary Skyview in last week's federal election is planning to ask a court to quash the result, given allegations of dirty tricks by the Liberal victor.

Liberal George Chahal was captured on a doorbell camera on the eve of the election removing a campaign pamphlet left by his Conservative opponent, Jag Sahota, and replacing it with one of his own.

He ultimately edged out Sahota by a margin of almost 3,000 votes.

A lawyer for Sahota said Tuesday he is now preparing an application to the Court of Queen's Bench to have the results in the riding quashed.

Kyle Shewchuk said he hopes to file the application within the next week.

The Calgary Police Service last week started an investigation but Shewchuk said the matter has since been transferred to the commissioner of elections, who enforces the Canada Elections Act.

Chahal, a former Calgary city councillor, could not immediately be reached for comment.

But his campaign manager, Randall Zalazar, has said Chahal removed Sahota's brochure because it contained inaccurate information about where to vote.

Sahota's campaign disputes that and maintains that it was actually Chahal's flyers that directed voters to the wrong polling station.

In the videotaped case of the brochure Chahal left on the doorstep after removing Sahota's flyer, Shewchuk's law office said in a written statement later Tuesday that the polling station address was "literally 18 kilometres away."

"Voters in Calgary-Skyview need to have answers as to whether this activity was widespread throughout the campaign," the statement said.

"Calgary-Skyview had a close result and this could have had an impact on the final outcome."

It is an offence under the Canada Elections Act to knowingly try to prevent anyone from voting.

Following the 2011 federal election, the RCMP and the elections commissioner investigated widespread complaints of robocalls that misdirected voters to the wrong or non-existent polling locations.

A junior Conservative campaign staffer in Guelph, Ont., Michael Sona, was eventually found guilty of orchestrating that effort. He was sentenced to nine months in jail and a year of probation, although the judge doubted that Sona had acted alone.

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The office of elections commissioner Yves Cote won't confirm whether it has received a complaint or started an investigation into Chahal, due to confidentiality requirements.

But the office has pointed out that the Canada Elections Act contains a prohibition on "impairing or preventing the transmission of election advertising  which would include, but is not limited to, defacing or removing election signs or other election advertising material."

Incidents involving the defacing or removal of campaign material have historically constituted one of the most common complaints the elections commissioner receives during a campaign, his office has said.

As the lone Liberal elected in Calgary and one of just two elected in all of Alberta, Chahal was widely expected to be a shoo-in for a cabinet post in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new government.

But the video of him removing Sahota's pamphlet and the ensuing controversy could kill his cabinet hopes, at least for now.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2021.
Ottawa failed to consult with Peguis First Nation in approving construction of a $500-million Manitoba-Minnesota hydro transmission line, Canadas federal court ruled in a decision issued last week.

Ottawa failed to consult with Peguis First Nation in approving construction of a $500-million Manitoba-Minnesota hydro transmission line, Canadas federal court ruled in a decision issued last week.

"In failing to substantively engage with Peguis during supplemental consultations, Canada did not adequately discharge its duty to consult," Justice Glennys McVeigh wrote in a 92-page decision issued Sept. 24.

In its decision, the federal court dismissed similar judicial review applications by Manitoba First Nations Roseau River and Long Plain, and Animakee Wa Zhing 37 in Ontario.

Because the transmission line has already been in operation for over a year, any remedy beyond a declaration of wrongdoing comes riddled with impracticalities, McVeigh said.

"In judicial review applications, the most common and just remedy is to quash the decision and send it back to the decision-maker for redetermination," the judge said.

"My finding is that Canada did not adequately consult with Peguis and quashing the decision would unfairly halt the operations of (Manitoba) Hydro, who is a party not at fault in this application."

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The transmission line runs from Winnipeg to the Manitoba-Minnesota border, crossing Treaty 1 territory, delivering energy to Manitoba and surplus energy to Minnesota.

"With this declaration, I would hope that Canada completes further consultation with Peguis and that one of the purposes of this consultation can be to determine if any accommodation is necessary," McVeigh said.

As the country prepares to mark National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the federal courts decision "clearly shows" Canada failed to implement reconciliation, Peguis Chief Glenn Hudson said.

"The teaching for Canadians should be that injustice by the federal government continues as a present-day problem," Hudson said in a news release.

"For our members, our administration diligently engages with all governments regarding all projects within our territory," he said. "Those responsible to consult with Peguis should know that our approach will always be the same."

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
RCMP are advising the public to trust their instincts when being asked to pull over, after the arrest of a carjacking suspect who reportedly impersonated a police officer.

RCMP are advising the public to trust their instincts when being asked to pull over, after the arrest of a carjacking suspect who reportedly impersonated a police officer.

According to Selkirk RCMP, two women driving an SUV were stopped by a vehicle with red and blue lights on Highway 59, just south of Ocean Drive, in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements at 12:40 a.m. Saturday.

A male suspect approached their vehicle asking for identification and registration, and flashed a firearm when they questioned him. He then forced the women to exit the vehicle, took their cellphones and stole the car.

The man was not wearing a police uniform.

Ryan Demchuk, 40, of Winnipeg, was later arrested after a spike belt was used to stop the stolen vehicle.

Demchuk allegedly assaulted an officer and a guard while at the Selkirk RCMP detachment. He faces charges including personating a police officer, robbery, prohibited firearm possession, and assaulting a police officer.

Hours later, a man and a woman were arrested in Selkirk driving the vehicle reportedly used in the carjacking. Weapons, cocaine, and a set of red and blue lights were recovered, police said.

Sean Demchuk, 38, and Chelsea Flewelling, 28, both of Winnipeg, face possession for the purpose of trafficking and weapons charges.

Impersonating a police officer for the purpose of committing a crime isnt something often seen, RCMP media relations officer Tara Seel said Tuesday. Incidents such as the one Saturday, however, can create confusion.

"If its a marked car, then the concerns arent quite the same, if you can see its a marked RCMP vehicle," she said. "The unmarked cars, I can understand the questioning for sure."

If the situation is concerning enough where a driver feels unsafe, police are required to allow a vehicle to get to a safe destination should the driver be asked to pull over.

"Slow your rate of speed, turn on your hazards, and drive to where you feel is a safe location, whether that be a well-lighted area, a police detachment, that kind of thing," Seel said.

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In May 2017, Sean Demchuk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in methamphetamine and cocaine and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Demchuk was one of 14 people arrested in a 2014 police sting operation targeting high-level drug dealers. He has been described in the past as a Hells Angels associate and member of the Zig Zag Crew street gang.

In February 2018, Ryan Demchuk was sentenced to four years in prison after police executed a search warrant at his Winnipeg apartment and seized a loaded 10-mm handgun. Two years earlier, Demchuk was sentenced to 18 months in jail for possession of a sawed-off rifle.

 with files from Dean Pritchard

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Shelly Glover may have been a cop, but when she squared off against rival Heather Stefanson at a townhall meeting Tuesday night, she was more of a street fighter.

Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Shelly Glover may have been a cop, but when she squared off against rival Heather Stefanson at a townhall meeting Tuesday night, she was more of a street fighter.

The former Conservative MP came out swinging, comparing her real-life experiences to those of the mild-mannered former health minister, whom she pilloried for staying in the backroom rather than leading during the third wave of COVID-19 when ICU patients were sent out of province.

The party needs a "head-snapping, significant change of culture," Glover said.

"If we don't change the party, Manitobans will change the government," said the former federal heritage minister. She criticized the PC government's track record and top-down leadership, which she said fails to consult with people at the grassroots level.

For the first time in many years, the PC party is having a leadership contest after years of its leaders being acclaimed, including former leader Brian Pallister who stepped down this month.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Heather Stefanson delivers remarks at the Conservative leaders debate at Norwood Hotel on Tuesday.

The Conservative Club of Winnipeg hosted the debate-style "discussion" at the Norwood Hotel ballroom, where public health orders limited the capacity at 200 and attendees were required to provide proof that they had been fully vaccinated. The event was livestreamed on Facebook.

Supporters of Glover and Stefanson packed the room and responded to each of their answers with cheers and hoots. There was no heckling or interruptions. While the event was civil, it was tense at times as Glover went after Stefanson and the PC government that she wants to lead.

The historic event was moderated by Susan Thompson, the first woman elected mayor of Winnipeg.

"This is a moment in history and I want everyone to understand that," Thompson said in an interview before the event. "I was the first woman to become mayor and that only took 118 years, and our province has only taken 151 years," to have a woman premier. "How marvellous is this? Two women candidates, one of them will be premier, I'm moderating this, and the city is ruling the roost tonight."

In opening remarks, Glover said she's got the real-life experience, empathy and understanding that will be needed to lead the party. Stefanson said she's always had a collaborative approach, has crisscrossed the province listening to Manitobans and has the experience in government to "hit the ground running as leader."

Glover, who trained as a health care aide to work at personal care homes during the pandemic, accused her opponent of staying in the backrooms during her stint as health minister during the third wave, rather than leading.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Shelly Glover speaks at the Conservative leaders debate Tuesday.

"I went to the front lines," Glover said. She took shots at the PC government for closing rural offices of government departments and not co-operating with municipalities on federal-provincial infrastructure projects.

Stefanson reminded her opponent that she's not the enemy.

"We need to work together and remember who the real enemy is  it's Wab Kinew and the NDP."

Stefanson said she would work to make the PCs a "bigger tent party" by renewing and modernizing it.

Both candidates have been accused of pandering to the opponents of vaccine mandates that require all provincial front-line workers who deal with vulnerable populations to be fully vaccinated or undergo COVID-19 testing up to three times a week. That subject didn't come up during the town hall.

Outside the hotel, there was no sign of protesters who had demonstrated after the PC party refused to allow Ken Lee, a critic of pandemic public health orders, to run for leader. Lee, the party's former chief financial officer, accused the party of dirty tricks for keeping him off the ballot even though he'd met all the requirements, including selling more than 1,000 party memberships and raising the $25,000 entry fee.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Susan Thompson, Winnipeg's first female mayor, moderates the Conservative leaders debate.

Organizers promised each contestant would have time to provide a "fulsome" answer. The first respondent to a question was aloted two minutes, 30 seconds to respond, followed by their opponent, who received three minutes and 30 seconds to answer, with the first respondent getting one minute for the last word.

Thompson said it was the first time she moderated a town hall event and only agreed to do it because it wouldn't be a debate but "an exchange of ideas."

The party is using a one-member, one-vote system to elect a new leader on Oct. 30.

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Pallister resigned on Sept. 1 and a caretaker premier  Steinbach MLA and government house leader Kelvin Goertzen  was sworn in. Either Glover or Stefanson will take on Kinew in the next provincial election on or before Oct. 3, 2023.

Earlier in the day, federal Tory Peter MacKay said on social media that he would not endorse either candidate.

"I want to be clear about the@PC_Manitoba leadership race. While I am supportive of both my former colleague Shelly Glover's candidacy as well as my friend @HStefansonMB who brings significant experience, as a Nova Scotian, I do not wish to insert myself in this important decision."

On Monday, Glover's campaign had sent a message, which was attributed to him, with the headline "Shelly Glover will make a great leader and premier."

"I am writing to voice my support for Shelly Glover as leader of the Manitoba PC party and the province's next premier," the message said. "I had the privilege of working with Shelly as a member of Parliament for several years and was always impressed with her dedication to service and her ability to bring people from divergent backgrounds together in search of solutions to complex problems." MacKay purportedly urges readers to buy or renew their party memberships.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
WINNIPEG - A man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six boys and showing pornography to them and other boys in a northern Manitoba community.

People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg on Feb. 5, 2018. A man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six boys and showing pornography to minors in a northern Manitoba community.THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG - A man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six boys and showing pornography to them and other boys in a northern Manitoba community.

Arnold Collier, 54, admitted in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday to the sex assaults between 2017 and 2020. Court heard the victims were all under the age of 16 and Indigenous.

Collier also pleaded guilty to breaching court orders that he not contact a previous victim from a 2018 conviction or associate with anyone under 16.

There is a publication ban on information that could identify the victims or witnesses. The Canadian Press is not identifying the community where the abuse happened.

The Crown prosecutor and defence lawyer said they will submit a joint recommendation of 22 years in prison, minus credit for time Collier has already served in custody.

He is to be sentenced in Thompson, Man., on Dec. 1.

Collier sat quietly in the back of the small courtroom as a long statement of facts was read into the record.

Collier is originally from New Brunswick. He moved back and forth from the Maritimes to the northern Manitoba community where he workedas a mechanic.

He was convicted of sexual interference in 2018 and was ordered not to have contact with children or the original victim.

Court heard that people still saw boys coming and going from his home after the conviction. Court also heard girls were never allowed at the house.

The boys were from impoverished homes, the statement said. It said Collier would give them marijuana, beer and cigarettes. He would also give them money and have them sleep over, court heard.

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He would ask the boys to watch a movie but instead put on pornographic videos, the statement said.

In some cases, Collier would ask the boys for sexual favours or if he could perform sexual acts on them, the statement said. Court heard some complied, feeling they had to to keep receiving gifts. Other times he would touch the boys while they were sleeping, court heard.

One of the boys told police about the abuse in August 2020. Soon after, several others came forward and Collier was arrested.

Following Collier's arrest, RCMP said that providing gifts is a common way offenders groom their victims.

"What occurred in this small community is devastating," RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said at the time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2021.
ROMAN Catholics in Manitoba will soon have a chance to participate in a three-year fundraising and education campaign to promote reconciliation.

ROMAN Catholics in Manitoba will soon have a chance to participate in a three-year fundraising and education campaign to promote reconciliation.

The campaign in partnership with Indigenous people and organizations will begin later this fall, says Archbishop Albert LeGatt of the Archdiocese of St. Boniface.

"We are going to start with education in the parishes, make the case to the faithful for why it is important to donate," he said.

The provincial campaign  part of a $30-million national fundraising and educational effort by the bishops across Canada  is "about more than raising money... its about showing, in word and action, that we want to pursue reconciliation through encounters between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people."

The effort will be a collaborative effort between the Archdioceses of St. Boniface, Winnipeg, Keewatin-Le Pas, the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg and the Archdiocese of Nunavut, which is headquartered in Churchill.

"In each diocese, the campaign could take different approaches," LeGatt said, noting the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas is about 90 per cent Indigenous.

"By working together, we will help each other through joint administration and other ways."

LeGatt emphasized the campaign will be done in consultation with Indigenous people and organizations provincially.

In the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, he will consult with the predominantly Indigenous parishes of Poplar River, Berens River, Bloodvein, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi, Hollow Water and Sagkeeng, along with their respective band councils.

"Whatever we do has to be built on collaboration and mutual respect," he said, adding nothing will be done without involving Indigenous people. "For this campaign to be successful, we have to listen to each other."

It also has to go beyond his office to the parish level. "It has to be more than the bishops word," LeGatt said, noting he is hopeful there will be broad support among individual Catholics in the provinces parishes.

Funds raised will be disbursed in each archdiocese, in consultation with Indigenous people.

The national campaign, which was announced Monday, follows the apology to Indigenous people by Canadas 90 bishops, meeting in plenary Sept. 20-24.

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It will be conducted for up to five years and will include initiatives in every region of the country.

Bishop Raymond Poisson, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed hope these efforts will make a significant difference in addressing historical and ongoing trauma caused by the residential school system.

"This effort will help support programs and initiatives dedicated to improving the lives of residential school survivors and their communities, ensuring resources needed to assist in the path of healing," he said in a statement, noting funding for projects will be determined locally, in consultation with First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples in each region.

In response to the apology and the decision to launch a national fundraising campaign, Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said he was "hesitant," noting he has "too many unresolved feelings over past atrocities."

At the same time, he acknowledged the bishops for "expressing profound remorse and for unequivocally apologizing for its role in running the residential schools. This is one small step on the long journey the Church must embark on for reparations to First Nations."

faith@freepress.mb.ca
STONY Mountain Institution correctional officers celebrated a five-day blood drive with a mass donation event Tuesday.

What was to be an annual event was first put together in 2019 but cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Loosened restrictions brought officers together again this year, Union of Canadian Correctional Officers local president Justin Kelsch said outside of the Canadian Blood Services building in Winnipeg, site of the blood drive.

"Theres some people that are still scared to get out, but the people that were here last time are here again," he said.

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The last blood drive drew around 45 officers, a number Kelsch said organizers were hoping to match before Friday.

Kelsch said he hoped the event would inspire solidarity between Stony Mountain correctional officers after dealing with the one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in a federal prison in Canada.

"Were not just officers behind the walls, were not just the hidden gems, we are out in the community and we are good people," he said. "We want to give back to the community, just as we want people to give back to us, too, some respect."

COVID-19 had a devastating effect on Stony Mountain Institutions population, with around half of its inmates contracting the coronavirus, including one death.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
The trial of a man charged in the alleged murder of a 22-month old boy has come to an abrupt end after the sudden death of the accused.

The trial of a man charged in the alleged murder of a 22-month old boy has come to an abrupt end after the sudden death of the accused.

Allen Beardy, 25, was charged with second-degree murder in the August 2018 death of Drake Catcheway, his then-girlfriends son.

The trial began in February and had been hearing testimony in fits and starts. It was set to resume last month before Beardy was killed in a motor-vehicle collision.

"Obviously, as a result, the Crown is no longer in a position to proceed and we are entering a stay of proceedings in the matter," Crown attorney Michelle Bright told Queens Bench Justice Ken Champagne at a brief hearing Tuesday morning.

Defence lawyer Bruce Bonney called Beardys death "a sad end to a sad story."

During the trial, the court heard paramedics were called to Beardys mothers Idlewild Bay home shortly before 11 p.m. and found Beardy in the living room performing CPR on the child.

Paramedics were unable to revive the boy and rushed him to Childrens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In a subsequent police interview, Beardy told investigators Drake had fallen on his head three times that day: once as he and the boys mother were packing to leave for his mothers house, a second time when he fell off a bed and a third when he was jumping on a couch.

Police arrested Beardy a month later, saying the boy died from blunt-force trauma to his upper body.

April Thompson, Drakes mother, testified at trial Beardy made no mention of Drake hurting himself until after paramedics arrived.

SUPPLIED Drake Catcheway with mother, April Thompson.

Thompson told court she, Drake and Beardy arrived at the Maples home of Beardys mother sometime before 10 p.m. with the intention of spending the night.

Thompson said she was in the kitchen washing dishes around 10 p.m. when Beardy took Drake to the basement to put him to bed.

Thompson said Beardy returned a few minutes later and they started watching a movie in the living room. After a few minutes, Beardy said he was going downstairs to change for the night, but returned minutes later wearing the same clothes, Thompson said.

"I said I thought you were going to change? He said, Oh, yeah, thats why I went downstairs."

Beardy went to the basement a third time, returned a couple of minutes later and "said he was worried about a bump on Drakes head," Thompson said. "I said, What bump?"

Thompson said she found Drake on a mattress not breathing.

"I saw my son sleeping in the corner," she said. "I tried to wake him up and he wasnt waking up."

Thompson said she called 911 before Thompsons sister, who arrived at the house with her boyfriend minutes earlier, took over the call.

"Allen brought (Drake) upstairs," she said. "He laid him down and started doing CPR on him. Im not sure he knew how."

Thompson said she continued to see Beardy off and on for the next month, not thinking he had anything to do with Drakes death, she said.

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But Beardy changed, she said.

"He was different, he was being aggressive, he was drinking more," she said.

After Drakes funeral, family members told Thompson of a cut to his head she hadnt noticed before.

"I didnt think anything of it until my cousin accused (Beardy) of hurting my baby," she said.

When Thompson confronted Beardy with the allegation, "he wasnt willing to discuss it," she said. "He got mad and just walked away."

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
A woman found dead after a fire in a Young Street bungalow last week had been slain before the home was set ablaze, police say.

The victim's identity has not been determined and police are asking for the public's help to solve the crime.

"The responsibility (fell) to WFPS to put out that fire, they entered the structure and found this person. Theres certainly a number of suspicious circumstances that led police to take more escalated involvement," Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jay Murray said Wednesday.

"Weve since determined it to be a homicide."

Firefighters were alerted to the fire at 510 Young St. around 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 21. The blaze was under control in about 20 minutes. After it was deemed safe, they entered the home and found the body. Another person had escaped without injury.

"Im not sure exactly of (the escapee's) involvement. I know weve interviewed a number of people as part of this investigation," Murray said.

Homicide detectives have asked for anyone with information about the crime to contact police. Murray requested anyone, including business owners, who may have surveillance footage to contact the homicide unit.

Asked whether the victim lived in the home, Murray said: "I think well wait to see if and when that formal identification occurs. We certainly have an idea of who this person is. Theres certain challenges when it comes to that forensic identification."

Murray said police are working with a pathologist and other experts to identify the victim.

Murray would not reveal where the fire started in the home, or how the victim was killed. He said investigators are holding back that information.

"Many transient individuals" stayed at the house, Murray said.

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"I think this house was well known to the people who lived on that block. They probably have an understanding of the transient nature of some individuals who stayed at that house," Murray said.

Last week, the planter box in front of the grey bungalow brimmed with yellow flowers. Orange handprints, a symbol of young residential school victims, were painted on the front windows.

The two-car garage was spray-painted "Bloodz" in red: the moniker of street gang factions from the North End. The tag was crossed out in orange spray paint.

A longtime resident of the area said she had seen police officers go to the home in the past.

Twitter: @erik_pindera

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
PolySeSouvient  a group that includes students and graduates of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, where a gunman killed 14 women in 1989  says it wants the re-elected Liberal government to appoint a public safety minister who " truly supports gun control ."

The Winnipeg Jets host the Edmonton Oilers in their second pre-season game of 2021 at 7 p.m. Canada Life Centres doors will be opened 30 minutes early to help alleviate delays caused by COVID-19 regulations, increased security measures  including a new bag policy facing criticism  and more early-arriving fans than before the pandemic.

Higgins Avenue has reopened to traffic in both directions this morning after a warehouse fire in Point Douglas that broke out Tuesday. The City of Winnipeg said firefighters are expected to remain at the scene extinguishing hot spots for most of the day. One firefighter was injured at the scene overnight. About 10 nearby homes were evacuated Tuesday. The building is a total loss.
AFTER 36 days of campaigning, we are left with basically the same minority government that existed prior to the federal election. While it is tempting to say that everyone lost, that would not be true. There were indeed many losers, but I believe that there also are upsides to the result, which was largely predictable.

Opinion

AFTER 36 days of campaigning, we are left with basically the same minority government that existed prior to the federal election. While it is tempting to say that everyone lost, that would not be true. There were indeed many losers, but I believe that there also are upsides to the result, which was largely predictable.

First, however, lets discuss who lost:

Justin Trudeau lost. His decision to plunge the country into a summer election during a pandemic was about his belief he could attain a majority mandate. This did not occur, but he remains prime minister, with far less authority both within his own party and Parliament as a whole.

Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin OToole could not move the yardsticks beyond the level attained by his predecessor in 2019, and he has angered his Conservative base. He, too, is in a weaker position than he was prior to the election, and likely has less job security than the prime minister.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh polled throughout the campaign as the most likeable federal leader, but he was unable to significantly increase his partys support and he will not have a stronger hand in the next Parliament.

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul entered the campaign with a party divided by its positioning on the Middle East, and she ran fourth in her third bid to win election in Toronto. After announcing her resignation on Monday, her career as a national leader is over.

The consortium of Canadian journalists charged with responsibility for staging two campaign debates lost big-time. The English-language debate was dominated by journalists who seemed to have more time to pose political arguments  I mean questions  than the leaders had to answer.

Debate moderator Shachi Kurl offered up an argumentative softball to Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, and he hit it out of the park, in defence of Quebecs honour.

While it was not wrong to raise Quebec legislation that outlaws the display of religious/cultural symbols by public employees (Bill 21) and protects the French language in the workplace (Bill 96), it was deplorable for a journalist to phrase her questions in what the Globe and Mail termed as "a conclusionary indictment."

The BQ leader and the premier of Quebec are both adept politicians, and they easily reacted by framing the question as an assault on all citizens of their province. More troubling was the silence on the part of all federal party leaders on the issue of Bill 21, as they sought to curry favour with Quebec voters.

Singh might have replied that, as a visible minority, it is wrong that he can offer himself up for the job of prime minister but Bill 21 means he could not be hired into the Quebec public service.

OToole and Trudeau were similarly silent on this fundamental question. I cannot imagine that Tommy Douglas, David Lewis, John Diefenbaker or Pierre Trudeau would have sat silent on this question. This refusal on the part of all federalist leaders to speak truth to the abuse of power by the Quebec government ought to worry all Canadians.

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was also a loser, in an election in which he wasnt even running. His fumbling of the COVID-19 file cost the Conservatives two seats in Alberta, and he is on pace to be a one-term premier in a province where four-decade runs in power were once the norm.

So, what does one make of our collective efforts in democracy-making? Well, there are upsides in the recent election result.

Canadians were, in the main, not in favour of the election call. Notwithstanding this, the politicians campaigned, Canadians listened, and then they voted. They decided on the status quo, and the collective message to all politicians was to get back to work, and work with one another. Any party that ignores this direction over the next two years will, in my view, be punished at the polls next time around.

The fact is that in the current pandemic, our health-care system and its dedicated workers have continued to function. Our governments, with all their warts, have worked, as well. Workers have received income supports, as have businesses.

And our democratic decision-making system has worked. The people have spoken, and the people they have elected had best respect the result, which means that they must work together and focus on serving the public interest.

Paul Moist is a retired labour leader.
QR codes have been in our lives for a long time. Before the pandemic, we used them a few times a year on average. Now, most Canadians will use a QR code almost every week and, in some cases, daily. Implications for the food industry could be significant.

Opinion

QR codes have been in our lives for a long time. Before the pandemic, we used them a few times a year on average. Now, most Canadians will use a QR code almost every week and, in some cases, daily. Implications for the food industry could be significant.

Once deemed a clever tool used occasionally, mostly for marketing, the QR code can not only change how the food industry exchanges data with consumers, it could also change our expectations of how transparent our food supply chain can really become.

QR (quick response) codes were developed in 1994 in Japan for the automotive sector, which needed a larger data storage capacity than offered by the standard UPC code found on most products we buy. Other sectors quickly took note of the QR codes advantages, including the food industry.

For years, the food industry has tried to figure out how to make the entire food chain more transparent, so consumers can understand whats in the food they purchase at stores and in restaurants. How to convey the origin of all ingredients embedded in food products is no easy task unless consumers can intuitively use a piece of technology.

The pandemic reminded us that we had the solution all along.

A recent survey by Dalhousie University estimates three in five Canadians have used QR codes at a restaurant or a grocery store in the last month. Theyve used them for payment services, marketing and other functions. That means almost 39 per cent dont use QR codes, although that percentage is much lower among millennials and members of Generation Z.

The overall rate of usage in Canada is arguably much higher than before the pandemic. To eliminate human contact, the QR code became a household application for much of the food industry during the pandemic. Since most of us have smartphones, access to data such as menus, prices, instructions or schedules via QR codes gave everyone a chance to live in a touchless world.

The technology was always available to eliminate paper-based documents. But QR codes can do much more. In fact, the possibilities are virtually endless.

For years, weve seen companies use blockchain technologies and QR codes as part of their food traceability strategy. With the hyper-digitization of the food industry, some retailers have used these codes, with mixed results.

In Europe and Asia, the use of QR codes is quite common. Retailers Carrefour in Europe and Germanys Metro are already using them for more supply chain transparency. In North America, it was seen more as a novelty and fun feature for tech-savvy consumers to use. This may well change after the pandemic.

COVID-19 has made the use of QR codes more of a mainstream application that can open doors to a variety of new possibilities.

The pandemic has made consumers more conscious of what goes on within the supply chain before food gets to store shelves or restaurants. People are concerned about workers wages and welfare in farm processing. To make better food choices, they also want to know more about ingredients and how they can increase their local purchases.

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In turn, the industry can learn more from consumers through more data trading between us and industry. This could lead to more market-based innovation, which is always beneficial. Better traceability can also eliminate food fraud and make the entire food supply chain more transparent. But the QR code cant guarantee this happens.

QR-based solutions, due to the inherent ease of imitation, might even encourage counterfeiting and turn out to be more hazardous than adopting no solution at all. QR codes are cheap and incredibly easy to make, and allow for data to be shared easily.

Within a few years, consumers will expect the entire food supply chain to be fully transparent in real time, and the industry will need to be ready. Because of the relevance we gave to the codes during the pandemic, QR could become the consumers portal to the obscure part of the food industry.

Regardless of whether QR codes become the preferred solution, consumers now know the food industry can provide more transparency by empowering them via their smartphones. And that will raise consumer expectations.

Sylvain Charlebois is senior director of the agri-food analytics lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.

 Troy Media
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, daytime and after-work crowds remain sorely missed at the Kings Head Pub.

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, daytime and after-work crowds remain sorely missed at the Kings Head Pub.

"Right now, our lunches are just an absolute struggle. We dont have the foot traffic downtown, we dont see the people that we need to downtown and the proof is in the numbers," said Chris Graves, who owns the pub at 120 King St. in the Exchange District, down the street from city hall.

Daytime sales have dropped about 75 per cent from pre-pandemic levels and the pub no longer posts happy hour specials since so few people are around to stop by after work, Graves said.

"We definitely need people to come back and work at the offices We need it to survive. Theres no doubt about it," he said.

On Tuesday, the City of Winnipeg was urged to bring its own staff back to their downtown workplaces so they can spend money at businesses.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Daytime sales have dropped about 75 per cent from pre-pandemic levels and the King's Head no longer posts happy hour specials since so few people are around to stop by after work, owner Chris Graves says. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

"In the short-term, we need to have bums in seats in downtown offices," Dayna Spiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, told councils innovation and economic development committee.

City staff should return to such offices as much as possible to help small businesses recover from COVID-19 and set an example for other organizations, she said.

"While corporations may want to give their employees flexibility, they just need to understand the consequences of those choices," Spiring told the Free Press after her presentation. "I believe that, as leaders, we have a role to play in helping the small businesses in our downtown survive."

A recent Downtown Winnipeg BIZ report found storefront businesses in the area, such as restaurants and personal services, lost $139 million of revenue during the first 15 months of the pandemic.

Keith LaBossiere, CEO and managing partner of TDS Law, said about 200 staff returned to his companys True North Square office on Sept. 13.

The key reason for the decision was to safely gather staff in a collaborative environment, while remote work could return if COVID-19 case numbers and restrictions change, he said.

City staff should return to offices as much as possible to help small businesses recover from COVID-19, says Dayna Spiring, president and CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Although not the top factor in the decision, LaBossiere said the impact on downtown was also considered in the choice to call workers back to the office.

"We wanted to be a part of what we saw as the transformation and revitalization of downtown and thats hard to do if people actually arent downtown. We wanted to lead in that regard," he said.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, the innovation committee chairperson, said he agrees the city must work on targets for its own staff to return downtown.

"There are still a lot of city workers working remotely... I think government does have a role in terms of bringing employees back," said Browaty.

However, he cautioned the city must consider the effect on safety as Manitobans cope with the fourth wave of COVID-19.

About 17 per cent, or 1,800 of the citys roughly 10,400 employees, have worked remotely at least part-time throughout the pandemic and no immediate changes are being considered to remote-work arrangements, the city confirmed in an emailed statement.

The Exchange District in April, 2020. When the coronavirus first hit, Winnipeg's downtown saw very little traffic. Many employees are still working remotely. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

"As the COVID-19 landscape continues to evolve, we will ensure that any return to the workplace will be done gradually, and with the health and safety of our employees as a top priority," wrote spokesperson David Driedger.

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Economic Development Winnipeg also urged the city to consider offering incentives to airlines to increase their investment in Winnipeg such as by adding new direct flights to assist in the recovery from COVID-19. Spiring suggested that could occur through a partnership with the province and airport.

"Investment follows connectivity. We cant bring companies to Winnipeg if they cant get here. And if its more than two flights to get here, theyre not coming," she said.

Browaty said he supports that idea, though any investment of tax dollars would need to be carefully considered.

"It has to be done thoughtfully... you dont want to be spending public money just to put something out there thats not going to be self-sustaining," he said.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
As the deadline approaches for front-line City of Winnipeg staff to get vaccinated, one union fears the policy could lead to service disruptions.

As the deadline approaches for front-line City of Winnipeg staff to get vaccinated, one union fears the policy could lead to service disruptions.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 estimates up to 20 per cent of its members have yet to receive the two doses required to be fully vaccinated, based on recent feedback from its members.

"As for the drivers standpoint, we have about 1,000 drivers, so (20 per cent would mean) about 200 arent vaccinated," said James Van Gerwen, the locals vice-president.

If the drivers can't work because they aren't vaccinated, service could be reduced if the city doesnt soon have a system in place to offer alternatives to vaccination, such as frequent COVID-19 testing, Van Gerwen said.

"If there is no testing and we lose 20 per cent of our driving staff, there will be a hazard to the system. The system would not be able to support having 20 per cent of the members not driving," he said.

The estimate is based on responses to a union query, which included drivers and maintenance staff, on the matter.

"It is normal (when compared) to the general population," Van Gerwen said of the vaccination numbers.

About two per cent of those who reported they werent fully vaccinated did have their first vaccine shot, he said.

The union had lobbied for bus drivers to be prioritized for early vaccination due to their risk of getting COVID-19 on the job, Van Gerwen noted.

The city has announced it will require key front-line staff, including those who work in public safety, community protection, recreation services, public transportation and public-facing customer service roles, to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15 (including two weeks after their second dose).

While officials promised to explore options for unvaccinated staff, including frequent COVID-19 testing, the municipal government is still determining how to implement that.

In an email, a city spokesperson wrote that vaccination is not a requirement for employment and that requests for vaccine exemptions will be considered on an individual basis.

Those who are exempt could be accommodated through regular testing (once thats in place), leaves of absence (if no other option is available) or additional work restrictions, said Tamara Forlanski.

At this point, the city won't release the percentage of all city employees it believes have been vaccinated, she said.

"We are still implementing our vaccine program and employees have until the beginning of November to provide proof of vaccination," she noted.

The city has scheduled three mobile clinics this week to make it easier for staff to get vaccinated, which could boost the numbers, said Coun. Sherri Rollins, city councils protection and community services chairperson.

The Winnipeg Police Service declined to comment on how many of its staff have been vaccinated, stating more information might be available in October.

The union that represents police officers said it doesnt collect vaccination details from its members; however, that status is not expected to affect police services, said Winnipeg Police Association president Moe Sabourin.

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"The service has indicated that they cant remove people from their duties. They feel it would cause a huge detriment to the service, especially with front-line members who dont have the ability to work from home," said Sabourin.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
ITS official: Tory Marty Morantz will remain the MP for west Winnipeg.

ITS official: Tory Marty Morantz will remain the MP for west Winnipeg.

The nail-biter race is over between the incumbent and Liberal Doug Eyolfson, who was beaten by Morantz in 2019. It means all of Manitobas 14 incumbent MPs won their seats on Sept. 20.

After the votes were counted, Morantz had a 24-vote lead over Eyolfson in CharleswoodSt. JamesAssiniboiaHeadingley.

Though both candidates expected the tight margin to trigger a recount, Eyolfson conceded Tuesday after a validated vote count found Morantz had secured the seat by 460 votes.

"Though we didnt get the results we were hoping for, Im very proud of the campaign we ran. I had a fantastic team around me who left no stone unturned and I have no regrets," Eyolfson tweeted Tuesday after congratulating Morantz.

Eyolfson, who plans to return to work as an emergency physician, held the seat from 2015 to 2019.

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In an email, Elections Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier explained the validated count  a routine process in which the returning officer checks the vote count for "errors in arithmetic, typos, data-entry errors and other issues"  revealed "one significant change" in the tally.

Gauthier said validation caught a "transcription error" involving results written out by hand.

"Preliminary results must be validated in every riding. Validation happens in front of observers from the candidates and/or parties, and is a normal and important part of the democratic process. It is very common to see changes in the count following validation," she wrote.

Validations are still taking place in ridings across the country, Gauthier said, and final tallies and automatic recounts will not be available until validation is complete.

Morantz said he feels great after a hard-fought campaign.

"The results took a little longer than everybody anticipated, but at the end of the day it worked out, so Im certainly very grateful."
Wits employees go the extra mile for students and academics stranded abroad

Dr Yan Yang and Alison Simons from the Wits Strategic Partnerships Office supported Witsies who were abroad at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amid the crippling uncertainty experienced at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, employees of the Wits Strategic Partnerships Office worked tirelessly to support students and academics located across the world. The goal was to ensure that students and academic staff returned to the country safely.

Dr Yan Yang, the Programme Manager for East Asia relations, and Research Manager, Alison Simons, supported Witsies who were either part of an academic exchange programme abroad or were visiting their home countries for the 2019 December break. Their dedication earned them nominations as Wits Covid-19 Heroes.

Yang managed several cases of Witsies abroad including that of a Wits academic who travelled to Wuhan in the second half of 2019 as part of an academic exchange programme. The academic had to remain in Wuhan, China after the city went into a hard lockdown in January 2020 and was only repatriated back to South Africa after two months. Another case she dealt with was of a student returning to South Africa after visiting her family in Wuhan. The student, who managed to leave Wuhan before the hard lockdown, returned to South Africa and remained in quarantine for two weeks.

It was [about] giving support but also looking at how we could protect the interests of Wits. Especially that of the students and staff as best as we [could] at that point, says Yang.

My job was to comfort the students who travelled far and with fear, all the way.

Those days, isolation were frightening especially if one had been outside of the country. Yang provided overall wellness liaising with Campus Health and other partners in the University.

I had to encourage her and also communicate with her every day to monitor her health conditions while she was isolating in her accommodation, she adds.

A Wits masters student found herself in Italy where the country was making waves with high numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Having arrived just before lockdown, the student had little time to find her bearings and establish communication channels with her family back in South Africa.

What heightened the gap was that her mom had a basic phone and limited technology skills leaving little chance for other forms of communication such as email or Facebook.

Simons, who has worked at Wits for 10 years, reached out to the partner organisation in Italy to locate the student and arranged for the mother to travel to Wits for a virtual reunion. This small gesture, which happened a month after separation comforted both mother and daughter who were oceans apart.

A mother of three, Simons says her maternal instincts kicked in.

I asked myself how would I want somebody else to treat my kids? and this question influences how she deals with students who come to the Office in Solomon Mahlangu House.

Yang and Simons acknowledge that the Universitys strong relationships with its partners, both internationally and locally, played a crucial role in supporting students and academics stranded abroad.

I feel very motivated to build links between people. [When] these links, are very productive and innovative they make me feel like Ive added value to peoples lives and my life, says Yang.

Simons concurs: Relationships within the institution are also important. And we mustn't underplay the value of [internal] institutional relationships.

About Wits Heroes

The Wits Heroes Series celebrates staff and students who went beyond the call of duty at the onset of Covid-19 in 2020. Wits Heroes were nominated by members of the Wits community.
R70m to transform the Bara Burns Unit into a world-class facility

New specialised Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit will treat burn survivors and will create a high-tech skin bank and tissue engineering laboratory in Soweto.

More than 250 adults and 500 children with severe burns are admitted to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) annually, from Soweto, surrounding areas and the continent, due to the highly specialised service offered by the Burns Unit. However, due to the increasing number of critically ill burn patients who are unable to access essential care, an extension of the facilities and services is urgently required.

To address this problem, a new wing of the Burns Unit, a partnership between Wits University and the CHBAH, will be built thanks to a donation of R70 million from the Roy McAlpine Foundation. This generous contribution will dramatically increase the Units ability to provide quality healthcare to patients, and will advance training and innovation in this particular area of healthcare, for the public good.

The Burns Unit is the only public health, specialised, burns unit located in Gauteng that serves all patients who cannot afford treatment at private facilities. The new building was officially announced at a sod-turning ceremony on 29 September 2021, where ground was broken on the building site in the CHBAH precinct. The Unit will be named the Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit after its benefactor.

Professor Martin Smith, the Head of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University, says that the CHBAH plays a vital role in the healthcare of communities in Gauteng and its neighbouring provinces, and explains why the new facility is essential: Burns are unfortunately a common component of our epidemic of trauma.

The Burns Unit is a unique facility that serves as a referral centre for the treatment of severely burned patients. It also provides essential training for all healthcare professionals involved in the complex care of severely burned patients and important evidence to assist in advancing the modern management of patients. This donation will greatly enhance each of these activities and improve access for many more patients. This donation is hugely appreciated by the Department of Surgery and all who work with burn patients.

Founded in 1991, the Unit is regarded as the pre-eminent burns treatment facility in Africa and is jointly managed by Wits University and the Gauteng Department of Health, which oversees public hospitals in the province.

Director of the Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit, Professor Adelin Muganza, whose research interests include skin substitutes for burn injuries and new technologies, explains the importance of the donation: The Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit is the start of realising our dream to establish a Centre of Excellence that will treat more patients and enhance research and training. One of our goals is to have a skin bank and a tissue engineering laboratory where synthetic and skin tissue for wound cover can be developed. This will greatly enhance the Units capacity and also allow for research to be performed to enhance the science and treatment of burns.

Architectural representation of the new Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unit

The donation is the largest ever made by the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation, which also bestowed a substantial amount to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in 2019. The Foundation is invested in health and education and deems these important aspects in promoting equality. This project is the largest project undertaken to date by the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation. The project fulfills one of the stated objectives of its founder, Roy McAlpine, namely the expansion and improvement of health facilities available to the South African public and the training of medical professionals. It also represents an expression of faith by the Foundation in the future of the country during these trying times, says Jamie Ingils, Chairman of the Foundation.

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal,says: We are grateful to Mr Roy McAlpine and the Charitable Foundation for this contribution that will undoubtedly save lives, advance healthcare and innovation on the continent, and benefit humanity. This is a major project for Wits in the lead up to our centenary in 2022, which demonstrates the value of public-private partnerships with academia, and we look forward to opening it in the near future.

The Acting CEO of the CHBAH, Dr Stephen Mankupane adds his gratitude to the Foundation: The CHBAH again expresses its gratitude for the massive support from the Roy McAlpine Foundation. This will help the hospital in its mission to consolidate excellence in the clinical care of patients. This donation helps the hospital in our ambition to remain one of the best in the world.

Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at Wits also welcomed the donation.

We are delighted to embark on this partnership with the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation and the Gauteng Department of Health. This donation represents a substantial commitment to furthering the cause of quality healthcare for all, and will provide the much needed access to resources that so many of the Provinces most vulnerable citizens deserve, said Madhi.

The Roy McAlpine Burns Unit at CHBAH demonstrates the importance of goodwill and philanthropy in improving society. Wits University as an institution with a history steeped in advancing the public good is working on a number of public-private partnerships in health that has the potential to transform the lives of South Africans. The trajectory of Wits University, which celebrates its Centenary in 2022, is tied to the success of South Africa, the continent and her people.
Evergrande has raised $1.5 billion in much needed cash. But that may do little to help it meet a new bond interest payment due Wednesday.

The Chinese real estate developer has agreed to sell off part of its stake in a local bank for nearly 10 billion yuan (about $1.5 billion). Evergrande made the announcement Wednesday, sending its shares up nearly 16% in Hong Kong.

The company will be selling a nearly 20% stake in Shengjing Bank to state-owned Shenyang Shengjing Finance Investment Group.

In recent days, speculation has been mounting that officials may ask state-owned businesses to support Evergrande.

Over a third of Shengjing Bank is owned by the property giant, and the lender has already been hurt by Evergrande's troubles.

In a stock exchange filing, Evergrande said that its "liquidity issue has adversely affected Shengjing Bank in a material way," and that the lender has demanded that all proceeds from the sale be used for resolving "financial liabilities" between the two parties. The conglomerate will still hang on to a 14.75% stake after the deal closes.

This means that Evergrande will likely not be able to use the money for any of its other debts. Last week, it failed to address an interest payment of $83.5 million on an outstanding dollar-denominated bond. The company faces another bond interest payment of nearly $50 million Wednesday.

While Evergrande has not publicly discussed payments due on its dollar-denominated bonds, the company did reach an agreement on interest due on a yuan bond last week.

Evergrande is China's most indebted developer, with more than $300 billion worth of liabilities. That includes nearly $20 billion in international bonds, according to data provider Refinitiv Eikon.

Investors are waiting to hear whether the company will meet its obligations to other bondholders, or slip closer to default. Some have even raised the possibility that such an event could turn into China's Lehman Brothers moment, though many analysts say that is unlikely.

Fitch Ratings further downgraded Evergrande on Tuesday, saying that the group was "likely to have missed [an] interest payment on its senior unsecured notes."

China moves to protect consumers

In recent weeks, following mass protests and a global markets rout, Beijing has turned its focus to limiting fallout from the crisis and protecting ordinary people, though the government has refrained from commenting on Evergrande directly.

In a statement this week, the People's Bank of China vowed to "maintain the healthy development of the real estate market and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of housing consumers."

While it did not refer to Evergrande specifically, the central bank has been pumping cash into the financial system over the last few days to help stabilize the situation and calm nerves.

On Tuesday, it announced that it had added 100 billion yuan (approximately $15.5 billion) to the system, saying it was to keep liquidity going.

Iris Pang, chief economist of Greater China at ING, said that the move was "a symbolic signal to the market, that the Chinese government is in control of the incident, and is not letting the incident become a crisis."

Some analysts have warned of potential shockwaves across the world's second biggest economy if the damage is not contained.

Evergrande employs some 200,000 people, and it has said that it indirectly helps sustain more than 3.8 million jobs each year.

In China, real estate, and its related industries, account for as much as 20% of the urban workforce, according to Christina Zhu, an economist at Moody's Analytics.

Boosting liquidity "will make sure that real estate-related suppliers and contractors stay afloat. This really prevents any large-scale layoffs from those sectors," she told CNN Business.

Zhu added that it would also help with another key priority, which is ensuring that work continues on property projects so that home buyers aren't "left on the hook."

According to recent analysis from Bank of America, Evergrande has sold 200,000 housing units that have not yet been handed over to buyers.

Authorities appear to be working to limit the fallout in Hong Kong, too.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had asked banks to report their exposure to Evergrande, citing unidentified sources.

In a statement to CNN Business, an HKMA spokesperson said that it maintained "regular dialogue with the industry," and would "not comment on the details of our discussions with the banks."

But the de facto central bank "has been keeping the credit risk facing the banking sector under close monitoring," the representative added. "Our assessment is that the overall risk to banking stability remains manageable."

But Pang noted that a central question remains: "what the government wants."

"[Is] the government being prepared for Evergrande to default from all these bonds? That will create volatility in the market. Or does the government want Evergrande to continue running and operating, and building and selling?" she said.

"We are still not sure of what the government wants ... That's the issue in the market right now."

 CNN's Beijing bureau, Diksha Madhok, Hanna Ziady, Laura He and Julia Horowitz contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire

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UTICA, N.Y.  A Utica man who loves trains was taking an Amtrak trip to the Pacific Northwest when his train derailed in a remote part of Montana Saturday.

Three people died in the incident, but Wayne Freed says hes alive because of a trip to the lounge car, where he went to charge his phone so he could take photos.

"I mean what saved me was I think, I had a table bolted to the floor right next to me, a little coffee table kind of thing and I just bearhugged that because now my legs were just dangling in the air and down below me are what should be this huge side windows but now theyre on the bottom of the car scraping through the stone and theyre all being broken out, he said. So now we had this gaping hole directly underneath me.

About a minute after he got to the lounge car, Freed says he knew something was amiss.

"I heard this loud metallic boom which was followed immediately by the sound of ballast, thats the stone under the ties, scraping on the car so I knew we were off the rails, he said. "The tilt was slow, the train was still going fast and it just kept going over more and more and more, and I just kept thinking surely its going to stop soon and it got to 45 degrees and at that point, I thought, if it doesnt stop now its going to go all the way and it just continued and then it just rolled over on its side.

Freed collects train memorabilia and displays it in his South Utica home.

He says this incident wont deter him from continuing to travel by train.

"I guess you just have to have some trust I mean proportionally or statistically its safer than driving, he said.

Freed even has another train trip to Chicago booked for October.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Last Friday a wiring malfunction set the Tastes of Chicago food truck on fire where it was parked in the owner's backyard just after working an event.

Neighbors called the fire department who eventually put out the fire.

But it was too late. The truck is now unusable.

"I just literally sat there and just watched it burn.," Morgan Pittman, co-owner of the Tastes of Chicago food truck, said. The loss was significant, as the food truck is the Pittmans' only source of income.

"We both quit our full time jobs to take this on," Morgan said.

She and her husband Reggie Pittman got their food truck in March.

"We put our heart and soul into it," she said.

Morgan was at home and called Reggie as the truck burned.

"Everything just went numb," she said. "I couldn't do anything. I couldn't stop it, I couldn't change it. I couldn't help."

Reggie rushed home when he heard the news.

"I just kept praying, saying 'I hope it's not bad, and let me hurry up and get home,'" he said.

Nobody was injured in the fire.

"The good, the great in this situation is none of us were on the truck," Reggie said. "So that's the great. Like I said this [truck] can be replaced but this [family] can't."

Reggie is a south side Chicago native and has been a chef for 27 years. He is no stranger to loss. He left Chicago after the deaths of his two sons and a brother. But he missed the food, so he and his wife took a risk to become their own boss and bring Chicago-style cuisine to Greater Lafayette.

"Trying and failing is better than not trying at all," he said.

The Pittmans said they won't let this setback keep them down.

"We are planning on definitely coming back, going bigger, better," Morgan said. "We've already started working on menus."

They feel Greater Lafayette is uplifting them during this time.

"We've had a huge support from the community," Morgan said. "I mean, even though we've only been going for three months. We've had a huge support team through Lafayette, even Boone County."
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at a central conference on talent-related work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held on Monday and Tuesday. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to implement the strategy on developing a quality workforce in the new era and to accelerate the work to build China into a major world center of professional talent and innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when speaking at a central conference on talent-related work, which was held on Monday and Tuesday.

Xi underlined the CPC's leadership over talent management.

Xi called for efforts to speed up China's upgrade toward a major world center of talent and innovation, to support the goals of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 and building a great modern socialist China in all respects by 2050.

The conference was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng. Wang Huning made concluding remarks.

The CPC has attached great importance to talent management during its century-long endeavor, Xi noted, adding that historical achievements and changes have been made in this regard since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

China now has a large number of well-trained professionals who play an increasingly prominent role in the country's development, Xi said.

Never in history has China been closer to the goal of national rejuvenation and never in history has it been in greater need of talented people, Xi stressed.

As the country's development and national rejuvenation depend on a quality workforce, China should pay greater attention to fostering people with talent through its own efforts and sharpening its competitive edge in human resources, he said.

Xi listed eight principles in this regard.

 Upholding the CPC's overall leadership over human resources work;

 Making human resources the priority in the country's development;

 Focusing on world-level cutting-edge technologies, the main economic fields, the country's critical needs, and the people's health;

 Promoting the comprehensive fostering of people with talent;

 Deepening institutional reform related to talent development;

 Assembling the best minds and drawing fully on their expertise;

 Creating a favorable environment in which people with talent are easily identified, well valued and respected, and fully display their talent;

 Promoting the spirit of scientists.

Specifying the objectives for talent-related work, Xi said that by the year 2025, China will have substantially increased its total R&D spending, attracted more top scientists, boasted a large number of scientists and technologists in strategically important and core technological fields, top-level sci-tech leaders and innovation teams.

By 2030, China will be significantly more attractive to global talent, boast some frontrunners in main sci-tech fields and pioneers in emerging frontier and interdisciplinary areas, Xi said.

By 2035, the country will have competitive advantages in talent competition in many areas, and its strategic sci-tech strength and high-caliber talent teams will be among the strongest in the world, he added.

Calling for making strategic plans, Xi said efforts should be made to build high-caliber talent hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Stressing further reforming the system and mechanisms for talent development, Xi said scientists should be given more power to decide on technological routes, and more funding and resources should be placed at their disposal.

Xi also called for better cultivating strategic scientists and letting them play their roles, and nurturing a large number of top sci-tech leaders and innovation teams, young sci-tech talent and outstanding engineers.

"We must strive to foster a team of engineers who follow the Party, are patriotic, devote themselves to their careers, have outstanding ability to make technological innovation, and are good at solving complex problems," he said.

Universities and colleges  especially those of "Double First-Class" (namely world-class universities and first-class disciplines)  should play a leading role in fostering talent in basic research, Xi said.

He stressed the need to cultivate a talent pool in various areas, such as philosophers, social scientists and artists, and the need to enhance international exchange.

Xi also called for establishing a trust-based human resources system that tolerates failures and encourages leading sci-tech professionals to take on new tasks and responsibilities.

He stressed maintaining a correct political orientation in talent-related work, fostering patriotism and the sense of responsibility among talented people, optimizing the commendation and reward system, and fostering a culture of respecting talent.

Li Keqiang, who presided over the conference, said that Xi's important speech sets the fundamental course for talent-related work in the new era. He stressed continuing to break new ground for talent-related work.

Wang Huning, in his concluding remarks, called for a thorough study and implementation of Xi's new ideas, strategies and measures in talent-related work in the new era. Wang also stressed the need to study, publicize and implement the guidelines of the conference.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks at a central conference on talent-related work in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held on Monday and Tuesday. [Xinhua/Yin Bogu]

Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, attends a central conference on talent-related work in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 28, 2021. Wang made concluding remarks at the conference. [Xinhua/Yan Yan]

(Source: Xinhua)
Weather Alert

...Patchy Dense Fog This Morning... Be careful if you are traveling this morning. Patchy fog is causing visibilities to vary widely from near zero to having no fog at all. Dense fog is most likely near rivers, bodies of water, and valleys. Be cautious driving this morning as visibilities can suddenly change to near zero. Keep plenty of distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. Avoid using high beams. The fog will dissipate by mid morning.
The Venture celebrates National Lottery grant success

A total of 319,101 National Lottery money has been shared out between 22 community groups and organisations in the North this month. Amongst the groups celebrating the news that their grant applications were successful are:

The Venture Wrexham Ltd  offering specialist play sessions for children and young people with neurodevelopmental conditions

Hope House Childrens Hospices  supporting families of children with palliative/complex care needs

Maes y Pant/Hollowfield Action Group Limited  creating a forest adventure trail for families to connect with nature

Ysgol Gymuned Bryngwran  creating an outdoor sheltered area for the school and wider community to gather and socialise.

The Venture Wrexham Ltd successfully applied for a grant of 9,900 to provide specialist play sessions for children and young people with neurodevelopmental conditions to combat isolation due to Covid-19.

Becky, a parent who attends the play sessions, said, Being able to come to The Venture has brought my daughter on leaps and bounds. Shes told me herself that, for the first time, she doesnt feel like a freak. Usually, she wont go anywhere without being by my side. At The Venture she leaps out of the car and enters the playground confidently, eager to play and meet her friends. Receiving the news that the project was continuing, thanks to funding from the National Lottery, has made our year! Being able to come to The Venture, no matter what else is going on in her life, provides a great sense of security.

Sion Edwards, Communications Manager at The Venture explains more about the project: The Play Inclusion Project has been an absolute game-changer for The Venture and the funding from The National Lottery Community Fund has meant we can extend our commitment to these wonderful children and young people for an entire year of play. During that time, we will use the stability and continuity this affords to not only develop the play sessions but also to explore additional and complementary provision, during the week, which can focus on the life skills and social opportunities the children and young people tell us they want to see.

Were also very excited to enable the parents/carers to establish a weekly peer-support group, around the fire, at The Venture. Using a play-work approach and our renowned adventure playground to address inequalities has been nothing short of transformational, both for these children and young people and for us as a childrens centre. We are in no doubt that the foundations we lay today will lead to a more prosperous future for everyone involved. It is nothing short of a privilege to be a part of it!

Hope House Childrens Hospices have received 81,363 to support families of children with palliative and complex care needs. The project will provide emotional and practical support to enhance the quality of life for the whole family.

Karen Wright, Director of Care at Ty Gobaith and Hope House Childrens Hospices, said: We are delighted the National Lottery is supporting us to develop Key Working with our Wrexham and Flintshire families. Providing a hospice Key Worker to be a single point of contact, who knows our seriously ill children and their families well and can provide both practical and emotional support, is vital for the wellbeing of those in our care.

Maes y Pant/Hollowfield Action Group Limited (MyPAG) in Wrexham are also celebrating their grant of 9,738 to create a Forest Adventure Trail to attract more families to the site to connect with nature.

Ian Happs, Chair of MyPAG, said, Were delighted that MyPAG has been awarded a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund for our new play area. The award will allow us to buy and install the play equipment weve planned for and we would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who has been involved.

Ruth Bates, Head of Communications at The National Lottery Community Fund in Wales, said: These projects are excellent examples of how community groups and volunteers support the people who rely on them. National Lottery players raise 36 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Last year we funded over 8,000 projects across the UK to bring communities together, over 7,500 supporting health and wellbeing. I hope this grant will enable the projects receiving funding this month to continue offering support to the people and communities who really need it, letting them continue to change lives.
Wrexham surgeon scoops top award for innovative technology use for kidney stone patients

A surgeon at Wrexham Maelor Hospital has been recognised for his use of innovative technology to improve patient care with a special award.

Consultant Urological Surgeon, Mr Mohamed Yehia Abdallah was joint winner in the Patient Impact Innovation Category at this years Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Boards Research & Innovation Excellence Awards.

Mr Yehia was praised by the judges for introducing MINIPERC Technology at Wrexham Maelor Hospital for kidney stone patients.

The MINIPERC technique uses smaller cameras and specialised tools to create a smaller incision in the skin to carry out minimally invasive keyhole surgery. This technique provides a much safer procedure and allows the patient to recover quicker with shorter post-operative hospital stay.

It would also help to attract more clinical fellows and training doctors in order to expand their knowledge and surgical skills.

Mr Yehia said: This service is one of a kind in North Wales and only available at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and in very few centres across the UK due to the training required to perform such minimally invasive surgery.

The management of kidney stones is very challenging for both the patient and the clinician. This innovation has helped to treat patients with kidney stones, relieve their pain while reducing their stay in hospital and risk of complications.

I am delighted to receive this award and extremely pleased we can offer this service for our patients across North Wales especially with Wrexham Maelor being recognised as a centre for treating complex kidney stones.

This achievement would have never been possible without the contribution of colleagues at various levels.

Associate Director for Research & Innovation at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Lynne Grundy, added: We are delighted to recognise our researchers and innovators who are making a real difference to patient care.

The judges had a very hard job identifying the winners as there is so much good work going on, and the awards are well deserved by all.

We are now looking forward to offering these awards each year.

Director of Health and Care Research Wales, Professor Kieran Walshe, said: We want to congratulate Mr Yehia and the team at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. We are very proud of the efforts staff have made to continue to provide world-class care during the pandemic.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) health authorities last month confirmed the Pacific countrys first case of the highly virulent COVID-19 Delta variant.

Medical staff of Papua New Guineas Defense Force receiving COVID-19 training last year (Credit: World Health Organization/PNG)

The 65-year-old Philippine captain of cargo ship, the Grand Tajima, which arrived in Port Moresby earlier in July was escorted to the Pacific International Hospital where he tested positive. Because the ship had previously docked in countries with known cases of the Delta strain, additional quarantine precautions were taken.

The PNG government only recently re-introduced strict border measures in a bid to prevent the Delta strain entering. Given PNGs close proximity to Australia and Indonesia, both facing uncontrolled outbreaks of the variant, it was only a matter of time before it appeared.

Even before the Delta strains arrival, however, PNG had experienced an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in recent months. After managing to keep the virus at bay for most of last year with strict border controls, PNG has now registered 17,774 cases and 192 deaths.

The vulnerable country is poorly equipped to deal with the deadly virus. National Pandemic Response deputy controller Daoni Esorom said the new case represented a serious threat. As we all watch the number of deaths continue to rise in Fiji, in India and right around the world, we should take this as a wakeup call for us all to vaccinate. The only way for our people to survive COVID-19 is through vaccination, he warned.

In fact, vaccination on its own is not sufficient to bring the deadly strain under control. The same strategy is being pursued by Fijis Bainimarama government. The Pacifics second largest country is in the grip of an uncontrollable health and social crisis after the Delta variant entered through a quarantine breach in early April. There are currently 22,800 active cases, 272 deaths and an average daily test positivity rate of 32.3 percent. The World Health Organisation's threshold, indicating widespread and out-of-control community spread, is five percent.

PNGs official figures vastly understate the real situation. For the past several weeks the government has not been testing for the virus, so the only information comes from people presenting at health facilities. The limited testing regime was scaled back on the pretext that it would allow authorities to shift focus to vaccinating vulnerable sections of the population.

However, less than 1 percent of the nearly nine million population has received a first dose of the vaccine. The government is blaming misinformation and widespread reluctance for the dangerous situation. Esorom said a survey had found that 62 percent of people do not think they will catch COVID-19, and that is why they have not come forward to be vaccinated.

In reality the fault lies with the crisis-ridden government of Prime Minister James Marape which has responded to the growing crisis with a mixture of incompetence and blatant self-interest. Like governments around the world, the PNG ruling elite is determined to prioritise business interests above public health.

In March, following a six-day surge that brought the total to over 4,000 cases, the government implemented a limited month-long isolation strategy. Restrictions were placed on travel, public gatherings and schools, but businesses, including markets and shops remained open, as did government departments. The measures inevitably failed to stem the outbreak, with cases exploding by over 6,000, including more than 40 deaths, during the four weeks.

While the virus ran rampant in the capital Port Moresby and elsewhere, Marape used the COVID-19 threat to abruptly suspend parliament in April to avoid facing a no-confidence motion. The move followed confirmation that a quarter of parliamentary staff and one MPthat is, 42 out of 167 peoplehad tested positive for the virus. As many as seven MPs had earlier tested positive.

During the surge in cases from March through May, infection numbers climbed at a rate of 1,000 a week, reaching nearly 17,000. This did not stop Health Minister Jelta Wong falsely declaring in early June that the government had the situation under control and the outbreak was not out of hand.

PNG is one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The working class and rural poor have an average life expectancy of just 65 years. Diseases including polio, malaria, and HIV-AIDS ravage the country, contributing to an annual death toll of more than one in every 13 children. The health system is now near collapse with hospital beds fully occupied and oxygen, gloves, antibiotics and other supplies running out. Over half the workforce at the main hospital in Port Moresby has tested positive for COVID.

Marape recently declared that the National Control Centre overseeing PNGs pandemic response, under police commissioner David Manning, is to be disbanded by the years end and integrated into the failing health system. With the economy collapsing and an election due next year, Marape flagged that reopening international borders will soon be considered and those who choose not to be vaccinated will have to face the consequences.

Against this background, PNG has become a major arena in the escalating diplomatic and economic confrontation between Australia and China as part of the US-led drive to war against Beijing. The local imperialist powers, Australia and New Zealand, are seeking to assert their domination in what they consider their own backyard and push back against emerging Chinese influence.

Last month the Chinese state-run Global Times accused Australia of sabotaging Chinas vaccine rollout in PNG. At a press conference a Foreign Ministry spokesperson criticised Australia for undermining vaccine cooperation in the region.

Amid the surge in cases in March, PNG agreed to offers of vaccine supplies from both China and Australia. PNG initially held off using 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine until they received emergency use approval from the World Health Organisation. By the time the vaccine was approved in May, PNG had found alternatives. Beijing claims Canberra was planting consultants in Australias former colony to obstruct the authorisation of the Chinese-supplied vaccines.

Australias minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, hit back at Beijings claims, telling CNN the countrys commitment to the Pacific is longstanding and comprehensive. We support Papua New Guinea making sovereign decisions, he maintained. In fact, Canberra has a long history of interference in PNGs affairs in order to protect its geo-strategic interests and the profits of Australias massive mining corporations.

Canberra has supplied 600,000 doses to its Pacific neighbors and Timor Leste and has promised to another 15 million doses to the region by mid-2022. PNG has also received 132,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from global vaccine alliance COVAX while New Zealand sent 146,000 doses in June. Last Tuesday, New Zealand sent 100,000 AstraZeneca doses to Fiji adding to an earlier promise of 500,000 doses.

China meanwhile has donated 270,000 vaccine doses to the Solomon Islands, PNG, and Vanuatu. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also offered to provide vaccines to Fiji and at an online meeting of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) leaders on July 17, announced a $US3 billion fund to combat the COVID pandemic.

None of these measures go anywhere near meeting the escalating disaster unfolding globally and in the impoverished semi-colonial countries of the Pacific. PNG and Fiji need vastly more financial, medical and aid resources than the paltry offerings provided so far.

Vaccines have not been distributed on the basis of need, let alone a global public health strategy, but to advance the economic and strategic interests of competing ruling elites. International tensions have only escalated as a result of the pandemic, heightening the danger of open military conflict.
Well-known international economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at New Yorks Columbia University, has weighed into the controversy surrounding International Monetary Fund managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, saying she is being targeted because she is not a sworn enemy of Beijing.

Sachs took up the issue in a comment published in the Financial Times on Monday entitled Anti-China hysteria lies at heart of action against IMFs Georgieva.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (Photo: World Bank Group/Grant Ellis)

The controversy erupted earlier this month when the high-powered US legal firm WilmerHale issued a finding which said that when Georgieva was chief executive of the World Bank she exerted pressure on staff to lift Chinas ranking from 85 to 78 in the banks influential Doing Business report.

It said that three indicators of business conditions  starting a business, legal rights, and paying taxes  were modified to increase Chinas score and lift its place in the rankings.

It claimed that Georgieva had taken this action because at the time she was seeking additional funds for the World Bank, including from China. Upon the issuing of the WilmerHale report, the World Bank said that after pausing the Doing Business report in 2020, it had decided to discontinue it because of ethical concerns over the conduct of current and former members of its staff.

Georgieva issued an initial brief statement on the findings denying the allegations but as the pressure against her continued to mount, she issued a further, more detailed, statement last Friday as the IMF board considers the WilmerHale report.

Let me be clear: the conclusions are wrong. I did not pressure anyone to alter any reports, she said.

There was absolutely no quid pro quo related to the funding for the World Bank of any kind. Reviewing the integrity of these reports was within my professional responsibilities at that time and, unlike what has been reported, I followed all the protocols for editing the report.

But there appears to have been some reaction from IMF staff over the allegations and Georgievas initial brief response which she acknowledged in her statement.

As much as I have strived to be open and inclusive, I was very sorry to learn that some staffers felt their concerns were not heard, she said. Moving forward, I will make sure to be even more attentive to hearing staff views.

In his FT comment, Sachs drew attention to a letter written by three Republican congressmen to US treasury secretary Janet Yellen which indicate the political forces at work in the Georgieva controversy.

It said that if the findings of the WilmerHale report were substantiated by the IMF Board then it should reassess Georgievas position leading the fund. But the congressmen have not waited for any review before drawing conclusions.

The findings by WilmerHale, they wrote, illustrate how the Chinese Communist Party, in pursuing its self-interest undermines multilateral institutions such as the Fund, the World Health Organization and the United Nations. China feels entitled to a greater say in how these international organizations operate; its lack of commitment to multilateral values demonstrates why it must not be allowed to do so.

The letter called on the Treasury to report on Georgievas interactions with Chinese representatives leading to the IMF decision on August 2 this year to approve a $650 billion increase in the IMFs Special Drawing Rights which included an allocation of $42 billion to China. The SDR allocations were determined by the countrys shareholdings in the IMF.

It also called for a probe into advocacy by China regarding shareholding changes at the IMF and an assessment of any inappropriate actions taken by Ms Georgieva as a result of such advocacy.

This is a highly sensitive issue for the US. By virtue of being the worlds largest economy it has the greatest shareholding in the IMF and exercises a virtual veto power over its decisions. But as the Chinese economy grows  it may soon even overtake the size of the US in dollar terms  the balance of power can shift.

The attacks on Georgieva over China are not confined to the Republicans. Maxine Waters, the Democratic chair of the House financial services committee has also taken up the issue.

This has undermined the reputation of the World Bank, and it has also called into question the current leadership at the IMF, where the integrity of data is critical to its mission, and where undue influence by any self-interested power could put the stability of the global financial system at risk, she said.

Sachs said the charge that Georgieva had violated the sanctity of the World Bank was hypocritical in view of the naked pressure applied by the US on the bank to send billions of dollars to American-backed regimes while trying to block funds to cash-strapped governments closer to China and Russia.

He noted that after Georgieva left the World Bank, Chinas ranking continued to soar reaching 31st in 2020 and 25th in the unpublished 2021 report now cancelled by World Bank president, David Malpass.

Malpass, who was nominated for the position by the Trump administration in April 2019 under the tradition that the position is occupied by a US pick, is well known for his anti-China views.

A Bloomberg article published on Friday recalled that in November 2018 in testimony to a Senate subcommittee he had bemoaned the substantial inroads China had been making into multi development banks (MDBs) like the World Bank.

We are working with allies and like-minded countries to guide the MDBs away from what could be viewed as endorsements of Chinas geopolitical ambitions, he said.

Georgieva has received strong support from Shanta Devarajan, the head of the World Bank Doing Business project in 2018.

Writing on Twitter last Thursday, the former acting chief economist at the World Bank said Georgieva had specified that Chinas data should be verified without compromising the integrity of the rankings.

The changes to Chinas score were either correcting coding errors or judgement calls on questions where judgement was required, he said. At no point did I feel I was being pressured, adding that the allegation that Georgieva had tampered with the data is beyond credulity.

Former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz called the WilmerHale report a hatchet job and said he had been told by staff working on the Doing Business report they did not feel pressure from Georgieva. He also questioned why there was no mention of Malpass regarding irregularities concerning Saudi Arabia under his leadership.

Sachs pointed to McCarthyite treatment of Georgieva, warning of the dangerous and costly capitulation to anti-Beijing hysteria that her removal would represent, sanctioned by all on the basis that for the good of the institution she had to go, with pundits adding weighty nods of approval.

The heads are already nodding. An editorial in The Economist said that the next time the IMF tried to referee a currency dispute or helped reschedule the debt of a country that had borrowed from China the critics were sure to cite the WilmerHale investigation. That is why Ms Georgieva, an esteemed servant of several international institutions, should resign.

Sachs concluded that ousting Georgieva would prove conclusively that the IMF is a US-directed institution with mere trappings of multilateralism.

The result would be that China, Russia and others would increasingly go their own way. We would be soon back to the naked financial and monetary nationalism of the 1930s that deepened the Great Depressions and set the world on to the path to total war.

If Georgieva is removed it will be the second time in a decade that a political operation has been launched to oust an IMF chief. In 2011 the head of the IMF Dominque Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign in a sexual sting operation involving the then president of France Nicolas Sarkozy who feared Straus-Kahns candidacy in the French presential elections of 2012. This time the stakes may be even higher.
Samoas Supreme Court on September 16 ruled in favour of an appeal by the opposition Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) and ordered the Speaker of the House to swear in the partys members.

The ruling was an attempt to resolve a prolonged political and constitutional crisis in the tiny Pacific island state that followed the April 9 election. The HRPP had been defeated by the newly formed Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua TasiFaith in the One True God Party (FAST) but had refused to accept the result.

FAST Party leader Fiame Naomi Mataafa (Source: FAST Party Facebook)

A protracted series of court cases eventually resulted in FASTs Fiame Naomi Mataafa being installed as prime minister. However, when the parliament first met on September 14, the Speaker refused to allow the HRPP members to be sworn in, claiming the party still refused to accept the election result.

Outside, members-elect of the HRPP, as well as party supporters, staged a march near parliament. Police had erected a barricade to prevent people from approaching the building and were under orders to remove protesters by force if necessary. Former prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi called the ban a sad day for Samoa and accused FAST of dictatorial behaviour.

The courts were also closed on police advice, due to threats made on social media. The courts had suspended operations in July following HRPP protests and its criticism of court decisions validating the FAST government. Tuilaepa is still facing contempt charges after initially refusing to quit office and claiming that the actions of the judiciary had shattered the constitution and imposed the law of the jungle.

Two days later, in the September 16 ruling, Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese declared that the Speaker had to administer the oath of allegiance to the HRPPs 18 parliamentarians in order to fulfil the requirements of Article 61 of the Constitution.

The following day as the HRPP members were sworn in, Fiame Naomi Mataafa and her predecessor, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, embraced to cheers in parliament. Radio NZ reported that there was considerable relief inside the chamber to see the leaders of the country finally meeting halfway, smiling and hugging.

With the opposition taking a reconciliatory stance, the parliament last Thursday passed a budget totalling 983 million tala ($US381.4 million), including a deficit of $US41 million.

Aprils election was a historic defeat for the ruling HRPP. Despite having only been formed in June last year, and running 50 candidates against HRPPs 100, FAST held the HRPP to a dead heat in the poll. Each party won 25 seats in the 51-seat parliament, with one seat going to the sole independent Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio, who subsequently declared his support for FAST.

Tuilaepa, who held office unchallenged for 23 years, flatly refused to stand aside. He told the Samoa Observer on May 12 he was appointed by God and the judiciary had no authority over him. FAST held a ceremony on May 23 to swear in its own members, with Mataafa as prime minister. Tuilaepa denounced the swearing in as treason and the highest form of illegal conduct.

The courts finally confirmed the FAST partys victory and a number of HRPP politicians were found guilty of bribery and cheating. Tuileapa only formally conceded after the remaining election petitions were decided in favour of FAST, confirming it had won 26 seats with the HRPP reduced to 18 seats. Seven by-elections are now required.

FASTs victory was a major shift in Samoan politics which was ruled as a virtual one-party state since formal independence in 1962. The result reflects growing political instability and social crises across the Pacific under the combined impact of the coronavirus pandemic, popular opposition and the rising geo-political tensions.

FAST was established last year as a breakaway from the HRPP, led by Mataafa, who was then the deputy prime minister. It undoubtedly benefited from opposition to growing inequality, poverty and the governments authoritarian measures. The HRPP was deeply unpopular over its disastrous handling of the 2019 measles epidemic when 83 people, mainly children, died. The government suffered further controversy over legislation changing the way land disputes are resolved. Moreover, while border closures have kept COVID-19 cases low, the tourism industry collapsed.

The subsequent crisis, however, involved a dispute between two competing factions of the ruling elite. The vast majority of the 250,000 population has no say in the undemocratic political structure. Matais, the countrys clan chiefs who wield immense power over family welfare, land, property, religion and politics, are the only people allowed to occupy seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Neither party contested the election with a program to address the deepening social, economic and health emergency. FASTs manifesto contained vague references to equitable development and a sustainable economy to benefit all people, while promising more support for businesses. FAST declared its aim was to ensure our people live in social harmony, through the promotion of culture and Christian practices.

The relief expressed in parliament as the FAST and HRPP leaders embraced reflected fears in the ruling elite that the protracted political crisis could open the door for the eruption of popular opposition by working people.

The intense geo-political rivalry in the region as the US ramps up its confrontation and war preparations against China was a central factor in the election outcome. Tuilaepa was regarded as a long-time ally of Beijing. Mataafas first act in office was to abandon a Chinese-backed port development, signalling a realignment towards Washington. She said the $US100 million project would have significantly added to the countrys exposure to China, which accounts for 40 percent of external debt.

The regional imperialist powers, Australia and New Zealand, promptly recognised the new government. In August NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said recognition of Samoas new government was swift and unequivocal, and that New Zealand had faith in the countrys judicial and law enforcement systems.

Tuilaepa hit back, attacking Mahuta and NZs Labour government for interfering in Samoas political affairs. He accused Prime Minister Ardern of being blinded by an obsession to ensure a female prime minister to lead the Pacific nation. He further claimed there had been an unprecedented and immediate grant of aid funding of $NZ14 million from Wellington, as soon as the courts had confirmed the appointment of the FAST government.

Whatever the truth in these accusations, Australia and New Zealand doubtless had an agenda to establish a government in Samoa more in line with their interests and those of Washington. Underscoring the considerable influence wielded by New Zealand, the Samoan Judicial Commission last month appointed five NZ High Court judges to provide external oversight for upcoming contempt cases, including the one against Tuilaepa.

Mataafa is regarded as a safe pair of hands. She is a member of the Samoan elite, a matai and the daughter of Mataafa Faumuina Mulinuu II, the countrys first prime minister at independence. Elected to the Assembly as a member of the HRPP in 1985, Mataafa was the first woman to hold the offices of cabinet minister and deputy prime minister. Educated in New Zealand, she has extensive international contacts.

Canberra and Wellington have no concern for the formalities of democracy in the impoverished former colonies of the southwest Pacific, which they regard as their own backyard. Their overriding calculations are to protect their own geo-political interests amid the rapidly sharpening tensions across the region and the rapid build up to a US-led war with China.
Amid the countrys worst COVID outbreak since the pandemic began, Australian governments are stepping up a campaign to lift limited lockdown measures, force workers into unsafe places of employment, and herd teachers and students into classrooms that will function as petri dishes for the virus.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today announced that the federal government will soon end disaster payments to workers who have lost their jobs or hours as a result of the pandemic. The measure is a transparent attempt to force workers into dangerous workplaces and low-paid jobs with inferior conditions, under threat of being placed on the poverty-level JobSeeker unemployment allowance.

Frydenberg in a meeting with the Business Council of Australia late last year (Credit: @JoshFrydenberg, Twitter)

The scrapping of the payments is tied to the National Cabinet plan for reopening the economy adopted by the federal government and all the state and territory leaders, mostly from the Labor Party. Under the roadmap, lockdown measures are to be terminated once adult vaccination rates reach 70 percent, with most other safety restrictions overturned at the 80 percent mark.

Governments admit that this program, which is based on corporate profit interests, not public health and science, will result in a major spike in infections under conditions in which the hospital systems of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria are already in crisis. Medical facilities in other states and territories are nearing capacity also, despite having limited or non-existent COVID transmission.

The ending of the payments is intended to serve as a battering ram against widespread opposition among workers and young people to the dangerous reopening drive. The payments were always grossly inadequate, being capped at $750 a week for those who had lost more than 20 hours of work a week, $450 for people whose shifts were cut by 8-20 hours, and $200 for anyone who lost more than 8 hours but received other federal income support, such as a student allowance or parenting payment.

Once states reach the 70 percent target, predicted to be early next month in NSW and late October in Victoria, the automatic renewal of the temporary payment will end and individuals will have to reapply each week that a Commonwealth Hotspot remains in place to confirm their eligibility. In other words, workers will be made to go cap in hand every week to request a payment, which could well be denied to them.

Once 80 percent vaccination is reached the temporary payment will step down over a period of two weeks before ending. In the first week, there will be a flat payment of just $450 for anyone who has lost hours, even if more than 20, and only $100 for those on any other form of income support. For many workers, the $450 will be less than half the wage they would otherwise have received from their employers.

The government statement contemptuously declared: For those who havent already returned to the workforce following the end of the temporary payment as the economy opens up, the social security system will support eligible individuals back into work. In practice, jobless workers will be on the $320 a week JobSeeker payment from the second week that the disaster supplement tapers off. For many, this will be less than required to meet mortgage or rent payments, let alone other expenses.

Frydenberg linked the cutoff to forcing the population to accept being threatened with illness, and even death, for the foreseeable future. As I have said before, we cant eliminate the virus, we need to learn to live with it in a COVID-safe way, he said.

Frydenberg said the move would aid an economic bounce back as restrictions ease.

This announcement demonstrates the content of the supposed recovery. On top of a deep-going social crisis that already exists, broad sections of the working class are to be pushed into poverty and social misery. They are to serve as a vast pool of cheap labour for the major corporations and businesses.

The governments move coincided with public complaints from business chiefs over a supposed labour shortage. Significantly, the executives who have spoken out include those of Australia Post and the major supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths.

Together with the trade unions covering Australia Post, its management has used the pandemic to impose a major restructure. The introduction of an alternative delivery model last year resulted in a massive increase to workloads as the national postal service focused on lucrative parcel deliveries in preparation for privatisation. While the delivery model is currently being recalibrated, in close collaboration with the unions, anecdotal reports indicate that the overhaul forced hundreds of longstanding posties, with full-time permanency, to leave the company.

While some of the shortages at Coles and Woolworths have been ascribed to staff being forced to isolate after potential COVID exposures, the two corporations also have deepened an offensive against full-time positions during the pandemic. Coles is in the midst of a restructure aimed at shuttering five warehouses in New South Wales and Queensland and replacing them with two automated facilities by 2024, at the cost of around 2,000 jobs. Woolworths is seeking to close four warehouses over the same time period, to the destruction of some 1,300 positions.

Both companies have sought to undermine the conditions of supermarket staff, including by slashing overtime payments.

In other words, the winding back of the disaster payments is one prong in a sweeping corporate restructuring being enforced by the unions. Throughout the pandemic, corporate publications and government leaders have described the crisis as an opportunity to institute pro-business changes to workplace relations, centring on the destruction of full-time positions and the few rights that workers retain.

Deaths and hospitalisations continue to increase in Australias two most populous states. Today saw record fatalities during the current outbreak, with 15 deaths in NSW and 7 in Victoria. Infections in NSW continue to be above 800 a day, amid lower testing rates than previously, while daily cases in Victoria are approaching 1,000.

Nevertheless, both state governmentsone Liberal-National and the other Laborare preparing to lift lockdowns from next month, on October 11 in NSW and later in the month or early November in Victoria.

Official modelling produced by governments in both states indicates that these policies threaten to crash their hospital systems. In NSW, doctors and nurses continue to speak out publicly about the unprecedented crisis they face, even before a predicted spike in COVID admissions late next month. In Victoria, Royal Melbourne, one of the states largest hospitals, was compelled to close its COVID-testing clinic yesterday so it could divert staff to overwhelmed emergency and intensive care units.

All the policies of the governments and the ruling class, from the assault on jobs and conditions, and refusal to provide workers financial assistance, to endangerment of health and safety, and chronic underfunding of the hospital systems, flow from the subordination of social need to private profit. The crisis, on multiple fronts, underscores the need for the establishment of workers rank-and-file committees to prosecute a struggle in defence of health and lives and social rights, guided by an opposed socialist perspective.
Protest against the unsafe conditions in British Columbia's schools (source: BC Safe Schools)

Members and supporters of the Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Committee are campaigning throughout the country to promote the October 1 school strike called for by British parent Lisa Diaz. The CERSC, which was set up by educators last spring, calls for the closure of schools to in-person learning with full compensation to all workers affected until the pandemic is brought under control.

Educators, parents, and students have responded with enthusiasm to the strike call. Lisa is urging parents to keep their kids home from school this Friday and post a picture of their school uniform to social media. The CERSC will be holding an online meeting to discuss the significance of this protest and the need for an international eradication strategy against COVID-19 this Sunday, October 3, at 1 p.m. Eastern. To attend, please email cersc.csppb@gmail.com .

A student from Ontario endorsed the strike, telling us, As a high school student in Ontario, I understand the barriers that COVID-19 has placed on education. However, Canadas response to helping students has been consistently disappointing these past months. I fully support Lisa Diaz in her call for a strike in order to push the government to take more action and protect me and my classmates from this deadly virus.

A parent from British Columbia, where numerous parents have announced on social media that they intend to participate in the strike Friday, commented, My name is Angel and I am the parent of 2 children in grades 1-3. I strongly feel that schools in BC and many other jurisdictions are not safe for children and the many staff who care for them. The lack of protective measures to mitigate the spread of Covid in schools is causing great harm to our children and to our communities. I am calling on fellow parents and caregivers of children to keep their kids at home this October 1st. Let your government know that we demand safe education for our children and safe work for our education staff.

The widespread support for the school strike reflects mounting popular opposition to the criminal open-economy/open-schools policy pursued by all governments across the country and which has now produced a deadly fourth wave of the pandemic. The epicentre of COVID-19 infections and deaths is currently Alberta, where the health care system is on the brink of collapse. In the provinces major hospitals doctors have begun implementing triage, choosing who cannot be offered life-saving treatment due to shortages of ICU beds, ventilators and staff. As of last week, more than one third of Albertas active cases were among children and young people aged 19 and under. Over 1,400 cases have been recorded in Ontarios schools in the three weeks since they reopened, including 174 last Friday alone. In British Columbia, the infection rate among children aged 0-19 rose from 12 per 100,000 on September 1 to 19 per 100,000 on September 23.

Articles and videos urging support for the strike have been shared widely online. Zero Covid Canada, an organization established to advocate for an elimination strategy, tweeted its endorsement of the protest. Zero Covid Canada supports the Oct 1st Parents Strike! Read our statement for ways to take action and please add your name and/or your organization in support of the strike, the tweet read.

In a longer statement, Zero Covid Canada explained, There is nothing inevitable about our children catching COVID-19. The Parents Strike is in response to the utter lack of measures in schools to protect children who are not and cannot yet be vaccinatedCanadaespecially the COVID provinces: BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebechave not put in place the necessary measures for our children to safely go to schools. It is well known at this point in the pandemic that COVID is airborne, that ventilation, filtration (with HEPA filters) and adequate mask wearing (M95 and equivalent) greatly reduce the risk of transmission indoors. It is also clear at this point that children are affected by COVID-19 too. Despite all this knowledge, our governments have refused to put [in place] measures, resources and equipment to protect people, especially unvaccinated children.

Ken, a parent from Toronto, said, Im supporting Lisa Diaz and the strike by choosing to keep my kids home and learning remotely. Schools are just not safe. Our lying provincial Chief Medical Officer, Kieran Moore, tells us that our kids dont spread the virus when the data shows that hes lying like a drunk in the ditch!

Another supporter of the strike sent the CERSC the following statement: I am an educator from Quebec and I fully support the strike movement initiated by the British parents. We are experiencing exactly the same reality in Canada. The federal government of Justin Trudeau and its provincial allies, regardless of their political color (Liberals, Conservatives, NDP or CAQ in Quebec), are pursuing a murderous policy that favors the profits of the banks and big business over human lives and the protection of workers. The unions, who are close collaborators of Trudeau, have done everything to allow the reopening of the capitalist economy and to force us back into unsafe schools. Over 27,700 Canadians have lost their lives prematurely because of these disastrous policies. How many people have suffered and will continue to suffer? How many children and youth will be threatened by the arrival of new variants?

My wife and my children caught the virus last year, but we have this permanent fear of catching the more virulent Delta variant. This has to stop! The October 1 strike is the beginning of an international counter-offensive. We will mobilize in Canada to spread the fight!

Malcolm, a teacher, wrote, Lisa, your call for a parent's strike is a beacon of light in a pandemic of darkness. Thank you! Every day it is becoming clearer that the only way to eradicate Covid-19 is through the organization of independent, grass roots, popular organizations that promote and advocate the health and safety of its members. The longer the ruling class promotes policies of disease and death, the more resistance calls such as yours, will grow! Thank you again for your courage.

A parent from Quebec who endorsed the strike explained some of her concerns. Knowing that our children aged 11 and under are not vaccinated and knowing that Long COVID affects an alarming number, I consider that the measures in place in our schools are insufficient, she said. The same goes for our older children who come back to their siblings every evening. She appealed for the precautionary principle to guide a series of mitigation measures to reduce the risk of infection. These include permanent masking (type N95) and recognition that the virus is spread by aerosols; bubble-classes, and isolation of people in contact with a positive case; adding air purifiers; compulsory vaccination for school personnel; regular screening of students using rapid tests.

The CERSC believes that these necessary mitigation measures can be effective only to the extent that they are deployed as part of a comprehensive strategy to eliminate and eradicate the virus. The current level of community transmission makes it unsafe for in-person learning to take place under any circumstances. Once infections have been reduced to zero, schools and other facilities can reopen with mitigation measures in place.

The closure of schools to in-person learning and of all nonessential production must be combined with full compensation for all affected workers, paid for out of the profits accumulated over the past 18 months by the pandemic profiteers among the super-rich oligarchy. This strategy requires the mass mobilization of educators, parents, students, and their supporters among all sections of working people to fight for a pandemic response that places the protection of human life ahead of the piling up of corporate profits.

As the CERSC wrote in a recently published statement, Scientists have convincingly demonstrated that by combining public health measures, school and business closures, travel bans, and vaccines, COVID-19 could be extinguished within two months. Since this strategy is only viable in the long-term on a global scale, the CERSC fights for its implementation in close collaboration with our sister educator rank-and-file committees in Britain, the US, Germany, and Australia.

For more information about the CERSC or to attend this Sundays online meeting, please email:cersc.csppb@gmail.com.
Hundreds of thousands of children are being infected with COVID-19 every week in the United States, driven by the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant and the reopening of schools to in-person learning throughout the country.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as of the week ending September 23, 2021, over 5.7 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. The number of pediatric cases exceeded 200,000 for the fifth consecutive week.

Kindergarten students at the Milton Elementary School in Rye, New York on May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Over the past week, the number of infections, according to official figures, was 206,864, bringing the total over the last five weeks to 1,131,958. In other words, nearly 20 percent of all childhood COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic have occurred in just the last five weeks. And though pediatric cases account for 16 percent of all infections in the US since the pandemic began, they accounted for 26.7 percent of all cases this week.

The AAP reports that 19 children died of COVID-19 over the past week, bringing the total death toll among children to 498. Nearly 20 percent of all child deaths, or 96 children, have occurred in the past five weeks.

Overall, the number of pediatric cases and hospitalizations appears to be slowly declining. In the South, the recent epicenter of the pandemic, schools have been opened for at least two months, and the reported incidence of COVID-19 among children has declined slightly.

However, the apparent decline is likely a consequence of how states are calculating pediatric cases in an effort to cover up the full extent of the pandemic among children to keep schools open.

Texas has provided an age distribution for only three percent of confirmed cases, and this only through August 26. The state of New York does not give an age distribution. Alabama, Rhode Island, Missouri, West Virginia, and Hawaii have revised the definition of child cases, reducing the age cutoff. Massachusetts has also changed its definition of probable child cases, leading to a reduction in total case counts. Florida has stopped reporting child hospitalizations, and Nebraska no longer has a COVID-19 dashboard.

The fact that the AAP is the only source of data on child infections is the product of a deliberate effort on the part of federal, state and local governments to cover up the true magnitude of the devastation caused by the pandemic, especially among children.

While the official figures of child cases are declining slightly, the number of hospital admissions is continuing to trend upwards or has stabilized at a very high rate, which provides a more accurate measure of infections.

Even though children make up a minority of those that die from COVID-19, the case fatality rate among those 16 years and younger has seen the highest jump during the Delta phase of the pandemic. As Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, epidemiologist and advocate for bringing cases of COVID-19 down to zero, said, When you compare it [case fatality rates among children in Florida] to the entire pandemic period, it is six to eight-fold higher in terms of actual deaths.

Almost 20 children have died each week for the last five weeks. This would mean that, at the present trajectory, nearly 1,000 children will die over the course of one year. Though vaccinations are being touted as vital to opening society, most children are unvaccinated, as the vaccine has yet to be approved for those under the age of 12.

As Feigl-Ding observed, exposing children to COVID-19 is dangerous and morally reprehensible under the present circumstances. In 2019, almost 3,400 children were killed with guns. A little more than half that number, or 1,780, died from cancer. The rate of COVID-19 deaths is comparable to these tragic figures.

The massive spread of the virus among children is being downplayed to ensure that schools remain open so that parents can continue to work and pump out profits for the ruling class. This policy is supported by the entire political establishment, along with the corporate media.

The Democrats under Biden are now spearheading the reopening of schools throughout the country, with the assistance of the trade unions. In particular, the teachers unions have campaigned aggressively for the full reopening of schools to in-person learning, endangering the health and lives of educators as well as students.

In the eight months of the Biden presidency, more than 280,000 people have died from COVID-19. As of July 2021, when Biden declared independence from the virus, 114,000 children in the US have been orphaned due to a caregivers death from COVID-19. What makes pediatric infections so concerning is that most of them are asymptomatic carriers and can readily transmit the disease to their families.

In addition to the immediate impact on the health of children, the long-term consequences of infection can be severe. In a recent study out of England, researchers found that one in seven children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 continued to have symptoms for 15 weeks after their diagnosis. These symptoms include headaches and unusual tiredness.

There is growing opposition in the US and internationally to the homicidal policy of school reopenings. Last week, British parent Lisa Diaz issued a video statement via Twitter calling for a nationwide school strike in the UK on October 1. Nearly 60,000 British children have been infected with COVID-19 in just the first two weeks of school reopenings.

The call by Diaz has been supported by parents and educators in the UK, the US and internationally.

Teachers, parents and the entire working class must come to the defense of children. The growing opposition in the international working class must be mobilized to oppose the homicidal policies of the ruling class and fight for the elimination and eradication of COVID-19.
Two months into the reopening of US colleges and universities for in-person learning, a disaster of mass infections is unfolding. US educational institutions have been transformed into incubators for the further spread of the coronavirus.

Outbreaks of COVID-19 have occurred on virtually every major college or university campus in the US. The universities are doing everything in their power to skew the data and obscure the severity of the campus outbreaks. The following is a small sampling of this criminal debacle.

Students wear masks on campus at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

The University of Texas San Antonio, which had 31,698 students enrolled in the spring semester, has only performed 2,210 tests on students, and a mere 35 on staff. The test positivity rate was recorded as 4.66 percent. Given these figures, the 123 officially reported COVID-19 cases since the start of classes on August 23 almost certainly represents a significant undercount of the actual number of cases.

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), which had almost 29,000 students enrolled in fall 2020, has seen more than 293 recorded cases. Suspiciously, information on test data such as positivity, number of tests, and other data is absent despite UTD having completed mandatory testing of all students as of September 10.

The University of Texas at Austin has recorded 341 cases since the start of classes on August 25, with a 3.17 percent positivity rate.

At Texas A&M University, which has almost 67,000 students, 2,970 cases have been reported since August 30 and a 7 percent positivity rate. One student has died, 20-year-old Kirstyn Katherine Ahuero. The callousness of the university administrationwhich continued in-person learning and did not bother to institute even token safety measures such as maskingled to protests by students who chanted, Not another Aggie! and Mask mandates are a must, and A&M is unjust!

Faculty have also denounced the administration, with physics professor Peter McIntyre stating last week at a virtual faculty senate meeting, How many Aggies must die before Texas A&M University mandates vaccinations and masks for its students and faculty?

When Duke University opened for the fall semester, the administration boasted the highest vaccination rate among major North Carolina universities. Within the first two weeks of opening, 349 students and 15 employees tested positive for the virus. All but eight were fully vaccinated.

Harvard Business School has been forced to move all first-year and some second-year MBA students to remote learning this week amid a steady rise in breakthrough COVID-19 infections. Harvard University said on its website that 95 percent of students and 96 percent of employees are vaccinated.

The University of South Florida has recorded at least 2,070 cases since August 24. The university is deliberately failing to report positivity rates, the number of tests, and the numbers of students in quarantine or isolation. The university claims that it is providing updates to the community regarding new cases, but students have not reported seeing any such updates. The university administration is thereby working to conceal community spread in a state in which there are no masking or vaccine requirements.

The University of Colorado Boulderwhich has 95 percent of its 35,897 students vaccinated in keeping with the University of Colorado Systems vaccine requirementhas carried out a mere 2,846 PCR tests since August 9. The school is reporting a positivity rate of around 2.3 percent. This translates to approximately 826 cases among students and 235 among staff and faculty, much higher than the official 66 officially reported cases.

Despite the growing number of cases, countless colleges have taken down their COVID-trackers and even implemented new policies that prevent faculty from informing students of outbreaks. Faculty at the University of Delaware, for example, are prohibited from telling their students when a classmate has tested positive for COVID-19.

The COVID cover-up extends to every facet of school and work life. The latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that multiple states have quietly changed their parameters for tracking child infections, hospitalizations and deaths in order to obscure the data.

Florida has stopped reporting child hospitalizations altogether. Arkansas has stopped reporting child deaths and hospitalizations. Nebraska has completely removed their COVID-19 dashboard from public viewthat is, the state is no longer reporting child cases, hospitalizations, or deaths. Despite their efforts, official data shows that child deaths continue to rise each week.

The widespread nature of the COVID-19 outbreaks at schools and its cover up, is an indictment of the entire American ruling class, Democrat and Republican alike. As for the ever-compliant bourgeois press, they have dutifully fulfilled their role in this sordid venture by maintaining a virtual news blackout on the extent of the outbreaks among students.

From the standpoint of the ruling class, there is nothing to report. The omnipresent danger of infection, sickness and death by a deadly contagion has been decreed to be the new normal in American society. The philosophy is that the cure cant be worse than the disease, and therefore workers and their children must learn to live with COVID-19 for the sake of the stock market.

The fact of the matter is that this disaster was the entirely predictable and logical outcome of crowding students and educators into classrooms under conditions in which the United States is again the epicenter of the pandemic, averaging more than 121,000 new cases per day, and more than 2,000 daily deaths. In this context, the US ruling class and its appendages bear criminal responsibility for the untold suffering wrought by their reopening policy.

The students and educators sent back into classrooms under these conditions are the victims of a barbaric experiment in herd immunity. The university administrations, driven by ruthless economic interests, are determined to obtain tuition funds from in-person learning, regardless of the cost to the lives and health of their students, faculty, and the wider population. This is a part of the wider policy of the entire American ruling establishment, which has determined to reopen the economy regardless of the cost in human life and suffering.

The legitimacy of the strategy of mitigation or learning to live with the viruswhich has been used by the ruling class and its media mouthpieces to justify the reopening of schools and collegeswas based on two lies: firstly, that vaccines would serve as a sort of silver bullet that would end the need for any other containment measures, and secondly that young people, even when infected, are not at any significant risk from COVID-19.

The reality is that while the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing severe illness, it is not a miracle cure. Experts have stressed that vaccines are most effective at preventing community spread only when combined with other containment measures such as lockdowns, masking and social distancing. The spread of the vaccine-resistant Delta variant dispels the myth, fueled by the fevered hopes of the bourgeois establishment, that the vaccine would bring an immediate end to the pandemic and allow a return to normalcy.

The claim that youths have nothing to fear from COVID-19 will go down in history as an infamous lie. It is now well known that young people are vulnerable to long COVID, the still poorly understood syndrome which afflicts as many as 30.3% of those who have suffered COVID-19 infection, according to a June study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Symptoms can last for many months following recovery, and the longer term health implications are as yet unknown. The health consequences, which include chronic pain and fatigue, and severe cognitive impairment, are debilitating. An entire generation of youths is thus having its long-term health sacrificed for the sake of private profit.

Students and workers must take up the demand for the eradication of COVID-19necessitating the shutting down of non-essential production, the closure of schools, and the deployment of billions of dollars for social programsas an expression of their vital interests, in this case their most basic social needs: the right to be able to live, work and study without endangering their lives and health as a result of exposure to an entirely preventable disease.

The taking up of this demand would bring students and workers into immediate conflict with the capitalist system, which has subordinated all of society to the profit motive and is incapable of implementing a rational response to the pandemic that prioritizes human life over private profit. A socialist response is required to bring an end to the pandemic.
While the corporate media maintains a stony silence on the sweeping implications of electoral laws rushed through parliament last month, workers and young people apprised of the legislation by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) are speaking out against its anti-democratic character.

The laws require the SEP and other parties without parliamentary representation to treble their membership in less than three months if they are to remain registered and to have their party name on the ballot in a federal election.

In addition to signing up to join the SEP and help it reach the requirement of 1,500 electoral members, growing numbers are making thoughtful comments on the political context in which the legislation has been passed. Many are noting the indistinguishable, pro-business policies of Labor and the Liberal-Nationals and are drawing the connection between the assault on democratic rights, the stepped-up drive to war and the attempts of the ruling elite to suppress opposition from the working class.

To sign-up as an electoral member and join the SEP campaign, click here.

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Mitchell Beer

Mitchell Beer, a 31-year-old chiropractor on the New South Wales Central Coast, commented: The first question that comes to my mind is why? Why have the government and Labor rushed these changes through now? Australia is always presented by the major parties as a representative democracy. Quite plainly the changes that have been pushed through, which attempt to prevent minor parties standing in elections under their name, are not in the interests of democracy.

With these changes it is the people who lose out, as it diminishes their election choices to just the official parties. This undemocratic move is aimed at maintaining the political status quo and is taking place under conditions where millions of people, and especially young people, are looking for alternate answers to the many serious social issues they face, including rising levels of inequality and the increasing danger of war, which are all linked to capitalism.

The two-party system offers no real choice. It does not matter if people vote in Liberal or Labor, nothing changes because both support the capitalist profit system and are determined to maintain it at all costs.

The ruling class is desperately aware that there is a growing opposition to its rule, with many looking for an alternative, and so they are determined to use all means to suppress this before it takes root.

Raising the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beer said, People are growing ever more aware that whilst millions of working people are suffering under the pandemic, big business has benefitted massively with many corporations making record profits. The rich have gotten richer.

People are also concerned and are becoming more critical about the issues of war, he added. These concerns have sharpened further with the recent events in Afghanistan. People have seen the destruction resulting from this 20-year US-led war and are looking at the vast destruction across the Middle East and what imperialism has done to it.

Also, when people realise what has been spent and continues to be spent on war it causes them to think. The question then arises, what essential social serviceslike health and educationcould these billions have been used to fund and support?

Beer concluded: More than anything the ruling class and the political parties that support it want to prevent a socialist perspective and Marxist analysis being presented in elections. Such an analysis presented by the SEP is essential to understanding the many burning issues that the working-class faces: war, social inequality, and the danger of the growth of the far-right and what the alternative is. When you read a Marxist analysis and the alternative it presents, it makes sense.

Batuhan

Batuhan, an 18-year-old computing student at the University of Melbourne attended an SEP public meeting against the laws on September 19 and recently joined as an electoral member.

The major parties in parliament are united in their attempt to remove all these smaller parties, he said. Theyre losing popularity due to multiple factors, including the pandemic. By removing smaller parties, they give the illusion that people only have a choice between the establishment parties rather than anything outside parliament.

Batuhan noted the media blackout on the legislation, and commented: The major media companies decide what the public sees. They have nothing to gain from the loss of support for the major parties. They are looking after their own profits.

The AUKUS [alliance] was something I learnt from the SEP public meeting Batuhan said. I would never have guessed the alliance would involve nuclear submarines. Referring to the threats of war against China, he added: I know that America has at least one military base in most countries around the world and Australia is definitely one of the most US-influenced countries in the world that is near China.

Paul Saxby

Paul Saxby, a Brisbane teacher and new SEP electoral member, also denounced the AUKUS alliance. Wheres the mandate to have a target painted on our backs? he asked.

Australia, as we know, is simply a defence force satellite state of Uncle Sam but with the purchase of these submarines we have fallen further into line with their imperialist agenda through the perpetuation of the military industrial complex and our continued subjugation to their aggressive foreign policy agenda.

This agenda has seen the abandonment of Afghanistan, has no consideration for human rights and by implication is in contravention of United Nations Policy on The Right to Democracy.

[Defence Minister] Dutton along with [Prime Minister] Morrison and [ex-Prime Minister] John Howard should be tried in an International Court of Law for crimes against humanity for the abandonment of people who should have been evacuated earlier. Blood is already on their hands, as we know, for the illegal invasion of Iraq and the resultant multiple deaths in detention of asylum seekers.

Saxby also condemned the new electoral laws saying, The recent passing of federal laws that require political parties to triple their membership overnight on the eve of a federal election is both cynical and sinister in intent. The two major parties have colluded to minimise opposition to their respective hold on power.

It is also an example of how the public remains largely ill-informed about how power-sharing in the public sphere remains in the hands of a relative few.
In the wake of school reopenings in the US in August and September, the latest wave of COVID-19 has seen a surge of protests and strikes by health care workers against the horrific consequences of the handling of the pandemic by the ruling class. Workers are being ordered to return to work and all concerns over safety have been cast aside to ensure profits. According to official figureswhich are undoubtedly a vast underestimatenearly 700,000 people have died from the disease in the US alone. The normalization of death, witnessed by health care workers at unprecedented levels, has driven massive discontent among these workers.

EMT Giselle Dorgalli, second from right, looks at a monitor while performing chest compression on a patient who tested positive for coronavirus in the emergency room at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

No serious mitigation measures have been taken, let alone any efforts to eliminate the pandemic. Hospitals and emergency rooms, which were already vastly understaffed before the pandemic, have filled to the point where they are being forced to turn patients away. Many have run out of beds, and patients are made to sleep in hallways. Hospital staff are forced to resort to triageto decide who gets care and who does not, who lives and who might diebased on the limited resources they are provided. Such morbid choices are some of the top grievances raised by health care workers. The demand for safe staffing ratios is essentially the demand for the health care system to complete its official mission: To care for the sick.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) presides over the staff at Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch, California, where health care workers have voted for a strike to begin in October over safe staffing ratios. Marissa Currie, spokesperson for Sutter Delta, responded to the announcement of the strike with condescension, saying that management and the union will continue to try to reach a deal to avoid a costly strike and remain focused on our shared commitment to patient care at a time when our communities need us most.

Jennifer Stone, an ER technician at Sutter, told Beckers Hospital Review, Were wearing too many hats, were talking down angry COVID patients, then were rushing to a code, then were talking to family members who just lost a loved one. We cant give adequate care. Were being neglected and left to fend for ourselves, and we cant do it all anymore.

This was not the first eruption of health care worker anger in California over staffing ratios. In July, 1,400 nurses from USC Keck & USC Norris Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles carried out a two-day strike against unsafe staffing ratios.

The SEIU has a long history of strangling health care workers struggles. In June alone, the SEIU called off three separate strikes by nursing home workers in Connecticut. All of these strikes were driven by the demand for safe staffing ratios.

The call for safe staffing was also raised at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo, New York, where workers have been forced to work through lunch hours and breaks to make up for the lack of staff. On top of this, medical supplies are running low, a problem commonly reported by health care workers throughout the pandemic. New York has 2,410,000 recorded COVID-19 cases, with some 55,000 deaths and a 7-day average of 2,224 hospitalizations. Last year at least 2,334 adults who died from COVID-19 were reported to have been placed in a mass grave on Hart Island, and many bodies of dead victims were stored in refrigerator trucks for long periods of time.

Oregon is now requesting refrigerator trucks to store the multitude of bodies that have piled up due to herd immunity policies, which have allowed the free spread of infection and death. Hospitals in Oregon are averaging 1,000 hospitalizations every day, with only 8 percent of beds available. A survey at Kaiser Permanente hospital in the state showed that 42 percent of its resident nurses are thinking of leaving the profession due to the high burnout rate from the pandemic. Nurses are trying to reach a new contract agreement as the current one expires on Thursday. Kaiser is only offering a measly 1 percent raise for all nurses and a 1 percent lump-sum raise for every subsequent year of the contract.

Earlier this month, Alabama resident Ray Martin DeMonia died after suffering a cardiac event. He did not have COVID-19, but was turned away from 43 separate hospitals across three southern states in search of help for his condition. He died some 200 miles away from home in neighboring Mississippi, looking for a hospital with the capacity to treat him.

Nurses at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) hospital conducted a one-day walkout on September 6, saying they were understaffed, overworked and underpaid. Some 20 emergency department staff clocked into their shifts two hours late in solidarity. Dr. Lindsey Harris, speaking for the Alabama Nursing Association, made an appeal to the university, saying that if those problems are not addressed UAB and state hospitals face losing their nurses to jobs in other states.

In Massachusetts, where there have been over 800,000 recorded cases and 18,500 confirmed deaths, the longest nurses strike in the history of the state is continuing at Tenet Healthcare-owned Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester. Again, the nurses main demand is for safe staffing ratios. While the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has negotiated for over six months, behind closed doors, to reach a deal, nurses have yet to receive strike pay. Tenet has brought in 164 scabs in an effort to permanently replace the strikers. The strategy of the MNA has been to carry out protracted negotiations while the workers it nominally represents are slowly starved on the picket lines.

Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and US Representative Jim McGovern met with the MNA earlier this month, the day after the six-month anniversary of the strike, to align themselves with the union bureaucracy and posture as defenders of the nurses. This follows several visits by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in which she told the nurses she would stand with them until Tenet cuts a deal. These are the representatives of the same party that called out the national guard on the nurses strike in Connecticut earlier this year and which is now threatening to do the same in New York.

Health care workers are not only battling COVID-19 and the private healthcare system, but the unions, who at every turn sabotage their struggles and work to prevent them from linking up with their brothers and sisters across the country. To advance their struggle, health care workers must break from the pro-corporatist unions and form rank-and-file committees, unite internationally with workers of all industries to eradicate COVID-19 and put an end to the for-profit health care system.
Kevin Mustafa, a former London bus driver, has campaigned for health and safety protections for bus workers throughout the pandemic. He published a Facebook video on Saturday calling on bus drivers to get behind the fight to reinstate Cricklewood driver David OSullivan.

Until June this year, Mustafa worked at Potters Bar garage owned by Metroline, the same company that dismissed OSullivan in February for invoking his rights to a safe workplace under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act.

London bus safety campaigner Kevin Mustafa calls on colleagues to defend David OSullivan

In my opinion the jumped-up charges that David OSullivan was dismissed over are an absolute joke, Mustafa says in the video. What we need to do now is stand together, we need to stand alongside David, because David doesnt deserve to be treated the way he has. And we need to fight to get him reinstated.

In March and early April 2020, as the first wave of the pandemic claimed the lives of 14 bus drivers across London, Mustafa waited for the company to act.

But even after a belated national lockdown was introduced by the Johnson government on March 23, Mustafa was stunned at Metrolines ongoing failure to produce a COVID-19 risk assessment to protect its workforcea failure matched by Unite the union. Metroline accounts for the highest number of workplace fatalities from COVID-19 among London bus operators.

In mid-April, following the death from Covid of a much-loved controller at Potters Bar and of 36-year-old Holloway driver Emeka Nyack Ihenacho, Mustafa decided he had to do something. Experienced in health and safety, he drew up a risk assessment for Potters Bar at his own initiative and presented it to management on April 14. Mustafa proposed a range of safety protocols, including one-way systems and social distancing to help prevent virus transmission.

He became a thorn in managements side.

As Mustafa told the World Socialist Web Site this week, Its my opinion that London bus drivers were failed by the bus companies, they were failed by TfL, they were failed by the Labour Mayor of London and failed by Unite the union. It was all about mileage and profit and I believe we were treated as collateral damage, our lives meant nothing.

Against high-level efforts by TfL and the bus companies to conceal the spread of infections, Mustafa fought to expose the truth, initiating several Freedom of Information requests showing the extent of disease and death among London bus workers. He publicly opposed Unites collusion with the bus operators and TfL including their denial of PPE and face masks to drivers.

Officially, 69 London bus workers have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

In January this year, with a second wave of the pandemic underway and infections spreading at his own garage in Cricklewood north west London, OSullivan tried to alert his co-workers and informed them of their rights under Section 44, including the right to remove themselves from imminent danger.

In a Facebook message accompanying his video, Mustafa wrote to drivers, To be dismissed in a pandemic for clearly raising what was a massive concern at Cricklewood was IMO disgraceful. All bus workers suffered traumatic stress early in the pandemic and preservation of ourselves and others was our only aim.

If Unites reps had stepped up and shown balls like David and I, maybe there wouldnt be 60 mourning families right here and now.

The WSWS urges London bus workers to share Kevin Mustafas video and take up his call for OSullivans reinstatement.

As Mustafa told the WSWS, David is not just one man acting. He was acting and everyone else was feeling the same. Some werent brave enough to step forward, but David was. He shouldnt be shot down for that.

What you can do
The derailment of an Amtrak passenger train in northern Montana Saturday, which killed three people and injured at least 50, is the latest in a string of accidents and disasters that are the result of the decayed, underfunded and underdeveloped infrastructure in the United States.

According to investigators, the train, known as the Empire Builder, was traveling below the tracks speed limit of 79 miles per hour when eight of its ten cars went off the rails at a switch with a side rail just outside the community of Joplin, Montana. Several cars tipped on their side, trapping passengers and crew who were rescued by residents rushing to the scene with ladders. The railroads owner, BNSF, reported that the switch had just been inspected two days before the accident.

Overturned cars from an Amtrak train that derailed near Joplin, Montana, killing three people and injuring others on September 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

While Amtrak is subsidized by state and federal funds, the trains mostly ride on rails that are privately owned by freight railroad companies like BNSF, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, and are used for both passenger and freight traffic. BNSF reported a net profit of $5.48 billion in 2019, while its parent company reported a net profit of $42.5 billion 2020.

Passenger and freight rails services are now blocked on a key transit artery between the Midwest and West Coast as the investigation and clean up continues. The Empire Builder takes passengers on a 2,200 mile route from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon via St. Paul, Minnesota. On average, more than 400,000 passengers ride the cross country train every year.

The three victims have been identified as husband and wife Don and Margie Varnadoe from Glynn County, Georgia, who were celebrating their 50th anniversary, and 28-year-old software engineer Zach Schneider from Fairview Heights, Illinois.

Even as the investigation into the cause of the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in its initial stages, with a preliminary report expected in 30 days, there are already indications of what possibly went wrong.

Former NTSB rail accident investigator Russ Quimby told the Associated Press that the derailment appeared to be the result of a heat related failure of the track. This has all the earmarks of a track buckle also, Quimby explained. Sometimes a locomotive, which is heavier, will make it through a buckled track, but the cars following wont. You saw that in this accident, he noted.

Temperatures in Joplin Saturday exceeded 84 degrees Fahrenheit. This summer brought record-breaking, prolonged heat to Montana as part of a broader heat wave that hit the northwestern US and Canada. The extreme heat, driven by man-made climate change, resulted in hundreds of deaths and stressed infrastructure to the breaking point across the region.

Railroad safety expert David Clarke, director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee, told the AP that it is possible that a defect in the track or switch, which would not have been detected by a routine inspection, could have triggered the crash. Did the switch play some role? It might have been that the front of the train hit the switch, and it started fish-tailing and that flipped the back part of the train, Clarke said.

The Montana derailment is only the latest deadly Amtrak accident in the last decade. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured in 2015 when the Amtrak Northeast Regional flew off its rails in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; three were killed and 57 injured when the Amtrak Cascades derailed just south of Tacoma, Washington; and two crew members were killed in 2018 when the Amtrak Silver Star collided with a stationary CSX freight train after being misdirected onto a sidetrack.

Decades of cutbacks and underinvestment have hobbled the United States' rail system. Railroad infrastructure and railroad workers have been put under increased stress as rail companies have reduced the number of crew on freight trains, sometimes to just one, while increasing their length, with trains reaching up to three miles in order to deal with port congestion along the West Coast.

High speed train travel, common in Asia and Europe, is all but non-existent in the US. Only a single train can reach speeds up to 150 mph, the Acela, which connects Boston to Washington D.C. However, the ability of the train to run at peak speeds is limited by the fact that it operates on lines also used by freight and regional passenger trains. Plans for a high speed line in California have been hobbled by repeated delays and cost overruns. The first segment of the line is set to begin operation in 2029, nearly two decades after the project was approved by voters.

As the rich pile up ever greater amounts of wealth, allowing billionaires to fly on private rocket ships to space, the public infrastructure that tens of millions rely on every day is crumbling, with deadly effects. Pockmarked freeways, train crashes, bridge failures, condo collapses, mass power outages and major flooding are just some of the consequences of decades of systematic deregulation and defunding for the enrichment of the financial oligarchy.

The 2021 review of the nations infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the United States a C-. The ASCE found that the passenger rail system has a $45.2 billion repair backlog, with just $713 million spent on repair projects by Amtrak between 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile the countrys roads were given a failing D grade, with 43 percent of public roadways in poor or mediocre condition and a $786 billion backlog in road and bridge repairs or enhancement needs.

Last week, the House passed a $768 billion budget for the Pentagon for 2022, $15 billion more than requested by President Biden, including $24.7 billion for nuclear weapon modernization. Just one year of the funding which is spent on war and preparations for military aggression abroad could fill the road repair backlog.

According to the Costs of War Project, the so-called global war on terror launched by US imperialism in the aftermath of 9/11, which killed more than 1 million people, has cost the country $9 trillion over 20 years. The ASCE estimates that less than one third of the money spent on the wars, $2.6 trillion, is needed to repair all of the infrastructure problems in the US.

Despite the burning need for a major overhaul of the countrys infrastructure, the Democratic-controlled Congress is haggling over a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will barely scratch the surface, with billions of dollars to be funneled into the banks and private corporations. The main purpose of the measures under discussion is to prepare for war with China, a prospect that places tens of millions of lives at risk.

The deadliest outcome of the subordination of everything to the interests of Wall Street has been the collapse of the countrys public health and health care system under the pressure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bipartisan herd immunity and back to work, back to school policy pursued by the ruling elite has resulted in the deaths of at least 700,000 Americans, more than one out of every 500 residents.

With the abysmal state of infrastructure, the ongoing consequences of the pandemic and continued rise of massive social inequality the ruling class prove the bankruptcy of capitalism, the social and economic order on which it rests.

The solution to the social crisis in the United States, as it is for the world, is the transformation of society under the democratic control of the working class to run on the basis of human need and not private profit. Trillions must be expropriated from the rich and the big banks, while the largest corporations are turned into public utilities run by workers themselves, on the basis of a socialist program.
The reopening of K-12 schools this fall has produced a dramatic and inexcusable increase in infections among children and young people, with three children now dying of COVID-19 every day in the United States.

Photo by Stu Seeger

Schools are particularly potent vectors for infection, as COVID-19 is more transmissible among unvaccinated, asymptomatic children. With the cross-section of teachers, children and parents from various workplaces and communities themselves, schools play a central role in the community spread of COVID-19. This pattern is reflected at universities on an even greater scale, considering that student populations number in the tens of thousands.

San Diego State University (SDSU) was home to one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States last year before universities were forced to move online during the spring. SDSU was the site of more than 1,300 cases, occurring as the university had a hybrid-model, where most classes were online yet the campus and dorms were still full of students and staff.

The current situation at SDSU, like many US universities, forewarns of a serious spread of the virus among students, staff and the wider community. With the university now offering only in-person classes, students are packed into classrooms and public spaces with no physical distancing, improved ventilation and sanitation, or any other proven methods of prevention aside from mask wearing, as they are seated within inches of each other in their classes.

Students at the campus spoke to the WSWS this week, voicing their concerns and highlighting the dangerous conditions that students face across the United States.

Ben, a graduate student, explained to the WSWS that classrooms are packed to the brim just like pre-pandemic [classrooms] and that it is left to the discretion of instructors for how well masking is enforced during class. Outside of class, Ben explained that  no one wears a mask as soon as they step outside a building  and students are crowded into spaces to commute.

In public spaces like the gym, where hundreds of students spend time every day, masking is not enforced. When asked if he felt safe on campus, Ben offered a resounding absolutely f***ing not.

Manuel, a senior at SDSU, said, There is no enforcement of the [COVID] rules whatsoever. Like Ben, Manuel explained that there are no distancing measures on campus, and masking is optional in nearly all settings. Knowing that there is an increasing risk, I feel like the school should be more responsible in protecting students by actually trying to enforce their own rules, he added.

Erick, another graduate student, said that the rules feel like they were a minimum that [SDSU administration] had to provide. ... If they actually cared, every class would have the option of being hybrid rather than force students on campus. Like many other students, he said he felt the university leadership was largely leaving students and staff to their own devices, while giving them no truly safe or even relatively safe option.

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, is a freshman at SDSU living in a dorm with roommates this semester. The student described being particularly anxious about the spread of the Delta variant on campus. Echoing the concern of many other students, she explained that SDSUs rules seemed like theyre just for show.

She went on to describe the lack of sanitation and ventilation measures in classrooms, the lack of social distancing and the weak masking rules on campus. She relayed a serious concern that the sheer volume and closeness of students on campus itself is a great danger. The student predicted that at this rate, we may be sent home soon due to a growing number of cases on campus.

SDSU currently lists 187 confirmed cases from its campus. The universitys list of potential exposures includes exposures in more than 90 different courses, many of which have several different dates of potential exposures, each within days of each other. Nearly every non-classroom building also has listed potential exposures.

The SDSU library by far has the most potential exposures, documenting almost two weeks in a row now where students at the library were potentially exposed to COVID-19 every day. The university does not actively communicate to the student body that there are potential exposures every day. Instead, they intentionally downplay and cover over the information.

The same student also spoke at length about her safety in the dorms. Similar to last fall, SDSU has gone to great lengths to get as many students in dormitories as possible, as the on-campus living fees are the universitys financial lifeblood. Students are crammed into dorms with as many as three students in a bedroom at a time for more than $10,000 each.

This effort has, once again, produced a catastrophe. The freshman spoke to the WSWS about her concerns having a roommate that is unvaccinated. She explained that the university did not notify her of the risk, despite its obvious relevance to her personal health and safety. She has since put in a request with the housing department at SDSU to change rooms for her own safety.

The student also made a Reddit post on a forum popular with SDSU students seeking advice. The post received a great deal of engagement from fellow students, who criticized SDSU leadership for neglecting her safety. One student commented, This is just wrong. SDSU should be ashamed for allowing this.

SDSU, like most universities and institutions across the United States, is knowingly putting the health of its students and workers at risk for the sake of profit. The mitigation of COVID-19 has largely been taken up by the working class, forced upon them as personal responsibility measures, rather than the systematic, large-scale efforts required to actually eliminate and eradicate the virus.

The university bureaucracy does not provide rules or enforcement measures that would ensure a safe campus, let alone effectively communicate to students when their health might be put in danger by a positive COVID-19 individual in their classroom, dorm, or shared spaces, as contact tracing and general communication are not being carried out effectively.

The willing negligence of the administration is entirely to blame for the looming disaster in the community. Any attempt to blame student parties, the inconsistency of mask wearing, or even an unvaccinated student misses the social reality of the situation: This is not a question of personal responsibility, but instead is the responsibility of these institutions and administrations with vast financial resources who are intentionally putting students at risk by not enforcing COVID-19 precautions.

The resources exist to eradicate the virus and save lives, but instead the ruling class is condemning the working class to death and disease to maintain its profits. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at SDSU calls for the eradication of COVID-19, which requires a global strategy and the use of all public health measures including lockdowns, the closure of all schools and non-essential workplaces, and an effective international vaccine distribution.

Science and technology exist to drive new cases down to zero, not just in individual countries but across the globe. Such an eradication strategy can only be fought for by the international working class and youth. We encourage all students to get involved with the IYSSE in your area and contact us today.
Singapore, which has been regarded as a model in combatting COVID-19, has been compelled to tighten public health restrictions amid a surge of cases and deaths related to the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus.

The government had begun lifting restrictions, having adopted a living with COVID policy based on the fact that more than 80 percent of the citys population is fully vaccinated. As new cases rapidly multiplied, however, health authorities have been forced to reverse course.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong greeted by ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi in April 2021 (Photo: Wikimedia commons)

Yesterday, the number of cases set a new daily record of 2,236 by noon, with five more deaths. Of those, 2,226 were local cases, comprising 1,711 in the community and 515 among migrant workers living in dormitories. Since the pandemic began, Singapore has had 91,775 cases overall and a death toll of 85.

The latest surge has taken place over the past month, from just 32 cases on August 20 to a daily figure of more than 1,000 by September 19. The daily case numbers have more than doubled over the past 10 days and are predicted to rise to more than 6,000. As of yesterday, the death toll for September was 30a record monthly figure and over a third of all COVID deaths.

Health authorities were at pains to play down the significance of the latest outbreak, pointing out that the majority of cases were asymptomatic and mild. The five people who died were elderly and had underlying conditions, but no details were provided.

Nevertheless, 1,325 COVID-19 patients were in hospital. While most were described as being well, 209 required oxygen supplementation and 30 were in critical condition in an intensive care unit (ICU).

The new restrictions came into force on Monday and are due to remain in place until October 4. Working from home is now required for those who can do so. Previously, the restrictions had been loosened to allow businesses to return up to half of their employees to workplaces.

Gatherings in restaurants or other social settings have been reduced from a maximum of five to two people for those who are vaccinated, and limited to one a day. Primary school and special education students will continue to learn from home until at least October 7.

The health ministry is also widening the availability of rapid antigen testing and access to vaccine booster shots. The vaccines most widely used in Singapore have been Pfizer or Moderna, whose efficacy is known to wane significantly over time. From October 4, people aged 50 to 59 will be able to get a vaccine booster, currently only available for those over 60.

Speaking of the new restrictions, Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong, one of the co-chairs of a virus taskforce, told the media: While doing so may not reduce the number of daily new infections immediately, it will allow us to slow down the speed of increase and avoid overtaxing our healthcare workers.

The government was clearly responding to growing public concern about the pandemic. According to a Bloomberg article, the surge in cases has begun to stir anxiety in Singapore. Residents are airing grievances over not being able to reach the health ministry quickly to discuss their concerns and fretted over the long lag between testing positive for COVID-19 and getting sent to a recovery facility.

The trade minister indicated that the government is under pressure from businesses to open up, saying: This was a very difficult decision for us as we know that this would affect many businesses and people.

The government has promised handouts to business worth $S650 million ($US478 million) for various sectors hit by the pandemic restrictions, including restaurants and food stalls, retail and cinemas. Taxi and private hire car drivers will receive financial assistance. Tenants of state-owned commercial properties will have a two-week rental waiver, with an equivalent cash payout to private tenants.

Among those hardest hit, however, are hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who live in crowded purpose-built dormitories. Last year, these dormitories experienced some of the worst outbreaks. Foreign workers received little or no assistance. A quarter of the new cases yesterday were in dormitories, even though workers living there make up only about 5 percent of the citys population.

Proponents of the criminal policy of herd immunity have seized on Singapore as an example to push for opening up and living with Covid once high vaccination rates have been achieved.

In late June, Anthony Bergin, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, argued that Singapore, with its high vaccination rates, low case numbers and easing of restrictions, offered a model for Australian governments to end lockdownsa policy stridently demanded by big business.

The Singapore approach is appropriate, strong and versatile, Bergin declared. The goal should be to ensure everyone is fully vaccinated, with boosters as required, with a vaccine variant that works against whatever virus variant is cock of the walk at the time. This is the familiar ground we see with seasonal variation in the flu vaccine. Then carry on as normal.

The US-based business-oriented website CNBC cited proponents of herd immunity in Singapore who argued that the current COVID surge might even be beneficial as most cases were mild. For these people, infection will not have any short-term or long-term consequence to their health, but may additionally trigger a natural immune response which reduces the chance of subsequent infection, Teo Yik-Ying of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health said.

In reality, the surge in Singapore is further evidence that only a strategy of eradication, which requires not only vaccination but stringent public health restrictions, can prevent the spread of the coronavirus. COVID-19 is not like the flu and is continuing to evolve into potentially more deadly and transmissible variants, which may or may not respond to vaccines.

The advocates of opening up simply dismiss the tragic consequences of their policy. In Singapore, while the numbers of daily cases and deaths remain low compared to the United States, Europe, Brazil or India, they have been rising rapidly over the past month, with no indication of being brought under control in the near future.
Around 90,000 health employees from more than 1,000 hospitals, including in the war-ravaged North and East, walked out for five hours across Sri Lanka on Monday to oppose the governments decision to slash the pandemic-related 7,500-rupee ($US37) monthly allowance paid over the past three months.

Among other major demands of the health workers were special leave for those with higher workloads caused by the COVID-19 disaster, safe transport to and from their workplaces and proper provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Health workers held a nationwide lunchtime protest on September 22 over the same issues.

Nurses picketing at Gampola Hospital (Credit: WSWS)

Nurses, paramedics, midwives, public health inspectors, attendants and office staff joined Mondays strike, defying the draconian essential services law imposed by President Gotabhaya Rajapakse to ban strikes by almost all state sector employees.

Under the essential services order, harsh punishments, including lengthy jail terms and heavy fines, can be imposed on any workers involved in industrial action or inducing or inciting such action. On August 30, Rajapakse also proclaimed a state of emergencyon the pretext of dealing with shortages of essential food items, including rice and sugarwhich can be extended to ban strikes and to sack and arrest workers.

Health workers from Kayts Hospital protesting in Jaffna (Credit: WSWS)

The strike was called by the Health Sector Union Collective (HSUC), a loose alliance of 44 health sector unions, including the Government Nurse Officers Union (GNOU), Medical Laboratory Technologists Alliance, Janaraja Health Employees Union and the All Ceylon Health Workers Union, led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) and the Public Service United Nurses Union (PSUNU) did not participate in the strike. Both unions helped bring the Rajapakse government to power. However, their members rejected the decision and joined other workers in lunchtime protests, demonstrating growing support for a united struggle.

Feigning concern for the problems of health workers, GNOU leader Saman Ratnapriya told a news conference the government had slashed the 7,500 rupees allowance that health workers had been granted to bear additional transport costs because no public transport was functioning during the coronavirus lockdown.

Demonstrators outside the National Hospital in Colombo (Credit: WSWS)

Ratnapriya spoke as if he had just woken up from a coma. The struggle of health workers began on June 11, demanding a special allowance equal to 78 percent of the basic salary. As the union leaders have done repeatedly, they betrayed that struggle, accepting the governments proposal of just 7,500 rupees and for only three months.

In fact, workers fought back because the unions accepted the governments reduced allowance. In June and July, thousands of health employees launched powerful protests and other actions, demanding special allowances, salary increases and improved health safety measures. Demonstrations were held on June 4 and 11, involving 20,000 and 50,000 health employees respectively.

More than 30,000 nurses held a two-day sick note campaign on July 12. Three days later, on July 5, over 25,000 supplementary medicine and paramedical services employees began an indefinite strike. The health unions shut down these actions, accepting a series of bogus government promises.

The unions only called last weeks protest and Mondays strike because of rising anger among health workers over dangerous and worsening conditions in state sector health facilities due to the pandemic.

Although no official figures have been published, at least 6,000 health employees have been infected so far and several have died. Infections among their family members are increasing too, and some have also died.

For most hospital wards, only one third of the required PPE is being provided. Health workers are forced to reuse dressings again and again after washing. The lack of transport facilities during the governments limited lockdown has forced them to spend between 500 and 750 rupees daily on transport.

Although the conditions of all workers are dire, the government continues to reject the demands of workers in every sector, citing the countrys economic crisis.

Strike action by 250,000 teachers, who are demanding higher pay, has entered its third month. The repression being prepared by the government against the teachers is a warning to all workers, including health workers. Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara has threatened that the teachers strike will be suppressed in a manner that we defeated terrorism, effectively labelling striking teachers as terrorists.

A section of the nurses' picket at Gampola Hospital (Credit: WSWS)

Deputy Director General of Health Services Hemantha Herath expressed the ruling classs hostility to the health workers struggle. He accused the workers of being responsible for the resurgence of the coronavirus. We are at a time where the pandemic has been brought under control to some extent, he said. The last time we saw that this control collapsed with union actions. Both the organisers and the participants must act responsibly to prevent such a situation happening again.

Members of the Health Workers Action Committee (HWAC), established under the political initiative and guidance of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka, intervened among striking health workers at Kandy National hospital, Gampola base hospital and Maharagama cancer hospital, distributing a statement entitled, Health workers! Let us take the struggle for demands into our hands!

A Kandy hospital clinical worker said the unions had not taken any action except announcing the strike, and the workers themselves had begun the struggle. I am against stopping the struggles from time to time. We can no longer allow trade unions to make decisions behind our backs.

A PSUNU member nurse who did not participate in the stoppage at Gampola hospital said she agreed with the strikes demands and wanted to join, but hesitated because the union leadership could oppose that.

The HWAC statement said workers throughout the world are finding that their basic demands cannot be won by exerting pressure on governments, as promoted by the unions. Instead, governments are increasingly imposing the burden of the economic crisis, escalated by the pandemic, and moving toward dictatorial forms of rule.

Under these conditions, taking our struggle forward requires a political program to challenge bourgeois governments and the capitalist system. Unions, which are tightly tied to the capitalist system, are completely hostile to such a struggle

Therefore, we, health workers must establish independent action committees at hospitals and other health institutes. We must take the struggle into our hands through such committees in which decisions are taken through democratic discussions among members.

This struggle, which must be organised within the health service, cutting across divisions of various categories, must be brought to all sections of the working class who are hit by the heavy cost of living and the pandemic. Especially, the health workers struggle must be united with the ongoing teachers struggle.

The HWAC invites all workers in the health sector and all other sectors, to form such action committees at their workplaces. We must build a network of those committees. We fight to build an International Workers Alliance of Rank of File Committees, joining with action committees of workers in other countries.
The resistance against the murderous herd immunity policy is growing. Lisa Diazs call for a school strike on October 1 in the UK is also meeting with a great response in Germany. Many parents, teachers and students are planning actions and calling for support for the strike.

Mother Simone Becker wrote on Facebook: Parents! Do it here in Germany like the parents in the UK and the USA. Dont put up with the contamination of your children any longer! Should your children ask you in 10 years: Mum, Dad, why cant I do the job xy? What will you answer then? Child, you had COVID-19 and since then you are unfortunately not as fit in the head as you were before? A corona infection attacks the brain!

Peggy, the mother of a severely disabled adult son and a school-aged child with asthma, supported Lisas call by tweeting, Its very important!!!! We should join this! For the protection of OUR children! #parentsstrike on 01/10/2021!

Twitter user Kaze wrote: Lisas appeal is particularly important right now: for 1.5 years weve used incidence as a benchmark for proportionality of interventions. Now theyve replaced incidence of infection with incidence of ICU bed occupancy.

This was justified by the fact that vaccination is now available. This ignores the fact that a part of the population (U12 [under 12s] or for medical reasons) cannot be vaccinated! Especially in the case of U12, it is still known thatso farthey only make up a small proportion of intensive care bed occupancy but can very well fall ill with the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2. Long-term consequences of this are already emerging. In comparison with other known viruses of the same type, however, further serious consequences could occur!

And right now, the incidence among children has reached a disturbingly high level especially compared to last year, when the adult environment was not yet protected by vaccination.

Karina, a member of Safe Education Action Committee Network, wrote: Dear Parents, set an example. No child deserves to be pre-sick in middle age for compulsory education. Children have had to show consideration for the elderly, but the economy shows no consideration for them. There are no adequate tests, no masks and no air filters, but there is an unsustainable compulsory presence [at schools] and still and especially a few months before vaccination becomes possible.

Nobody, really nobody should send their child to school unvaccinated. And if all those who can somehow do so for a few days, it might help a lot of people. Especially their own children. Yes, theyre less likely to die, but they deserve to stay healthy. Almost every kid with only mild symptoms has arterial damage afterwardsno school is worth that. None. Especially since in Western industrialized nations it should probably be a no-brainer to teach online. Protection for children, that is your duty, and no state has the right to take that care away from you.

Numerous students also support Lisas call.

Laura, a student in Saxony-Anhalt, sent the following statement to the WSWS: The threat of Delta brings a new situation, with young people and children now facing great hardship. As a student, I am aware that I and all my friends are even more threatened by Delta. But instead of taking seriously the high numbers of hospitalized people that already exist in other countries, all schools are being opened and children are being exposed to the dangers of infection and spread without protection. We must oppose these measures and make it clear that we do not want contagion in schools!

Tamino, a 12th grade student from Baden-Wurttemberg, stated in a solidarity video: I support Lisas call for a school strike. Here in Germany, too, the incidence among students is already in the triple digits. In all federal states, schools have already been opened and protective measures are being systematically dismantled. These include masks, mandatory quarantine and even corona tests.

Year 12 student Tamino supports the call for the October 1st school strike (Subtitles in English)

Representatives of all major parties have already declared that they will rule out further school closures. The mitigation strategythat is, the attempt to contain the pandemic with masks and vaccinationhas proven its bankruptcy internationally with the rising infection figures. To end the pandemic, a strategy of eradication is necessary. But this strategy will not be implemented by the major parties or the unions. That is why students, teachers and parents must take the fight for safe education into their own hands. As Lisa did in her strike call.

Florian, another pupil from Baden-Wurttemberg, said: I fully support the call to strike. As a student myself, I am confronted with the threat to my health every day. I think its not just me, but thousands of students across Germany and millions worldwide. So far, no party in the Bundestag has shown any interest in protecting us, and that will not change now. It really is a necessity that we students, our teachers and our parents take matters into our own hands. We have nothing more to expect from the federal parliamentary parties, and we no longer do. If we want to make a difference now, we need to do it now, because no one else will but us.

Marvin, a pupil from the city of Coburg, wrote: The school strike called by Lisa Diaz in the UK on 1 October is an important sign that there is great opposition to the murderous global opening policies. It shows that not everyone blindly values the health of the economy over the health and lives of students. The contagion policy is irresponsible, and only if large sections of the working class consistently unite and oppose it can anything change. Thats why I support this and future school strikes of this kind and call on everyone to do the same.

Other statements of support reached us from educators. One teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote: As a teacher and mother, I support the school strike because I strongly condemn the fact that our children are being exposed in schools without protection to infection with a neurotropic virus, the long-term effects of which are as yet unresearched, just weeks before a vaccine is approved for U12 year olds.

And Anna, a primary school teacher in Hesse, sent this appeal: Join the global school strike this Friday, October 1. Show those in power that you will not and cannot simply accept the infection of your children. There are many of us! Of that I am firmly convinced.
The ordeal faced by 39 miners who were stranded deep underground for two days at Vales Totten mine in northern Ontario appears to be nearing its end. As of Tuesday evening, 35 of the 39 miners had been rescued and returned safely to the surface. Representatives of the Brazilian-based mining giant have said that the remaining four will soon be joining them.

An incident occurred in the mines shaft shortly after the beginning of a 7:00 a.m. shift Sunday that put the mines conveyance system out of operation. The 39 miners underground immediately went to refuge stations.

Underground miners in Sudbury (Source: Vale Media)

Kyle Arcand, who made it safely to the surface Tuesday morning, told CBC it had been a trying two days. There's a lot of anxiety, right? Because you don't know exactly when youre going to come out, or how long youre going to be down there.

According to a company statement, Vale was in regular contact with the miners during the more than 30 hours that elapsed before the first miners could begin their ascent to the surface. Medical supplies were delivered underground to some of the workers by rescue workers using ladders. There were reportedly no injuries among the trapped miners.

The Totten mine, which won a regional safety award from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum just five months ago, is located some 43 kilometres west of Sudbury, northern Ontarios largest city, and employs about 200 people. Nickel, copper, and other precious metals are extracted there.

An internal Vale memo leaked to sudbury.com revealed that the incident was caused by a scoop bucket, which detached from the conveyance system and became caught in the shaft. The company considered two options to return the miners to the surface: one involving the use of secondary egress ladders, and the other deploying a hoist.

Speaking to sudbury.com Monday evening before the rescue commenced, a relative of one of the miners explained that the trapped miners would have to climb secondary egress ladders for 2,500 feet (762 meters) before being brought back to the surface in a cage. She added that two trapped miners would make the perilous ascent at a time, that they would be accompanied by rescue workers throughout, and would have the opportunity to rest at a landing every 100 feet.

Its really nerve-wracking to know that theyre underground, and they have no food, she continued. They havent eaten since yesterday. (Mine rescue) brought them protein bars and candy bars for food. The conditions there are not great. Theyre sleeping in boardroom chairs.

This ordeal for the miners and their loved ones comes at a time when the highly profitable Vale is doing all that it can to maintain production at full tilt at its huge Sudbury-area operations to take advantage of high prices for nickel and other precious metals. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Vale kept its Sudbury operations running without interruption thanks to the connivance of the United Steelworkers union. In spring 2020, USW Local 6500 agreed to a one-year lengthening of the miners collective agreement to ensure the mines remained open. The extension amounted to a pay freeze for the miners.

Miners then waged a bitter two-month strike this summer to oppose Vales concession demands, which included a real-terms wage cut and the elimination of health care benefits for retirees. The strike only took place because rank-and-file workers rebelled against the pro-corporate USW, voting down a USW-recommended tentative agreement by a 70 percent margin. The USW, which controls hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, followed this up by starving strikers on the picket lines with meagre strike pay of C$375 per week.

The miners determined struggle forced Vale to remove some of its most aggressive concessions demands, including the elimination of health care benefits for new hires. The company worked behind the scenes with the union to bring the strike to an end on the basis of an understanding that it could reap major profits by returning to full operations under conditions of booming commodity prices and lucrative contracts for the coming years with the burgeoning electric vehicle sector.

While miners have suffered gruelling work schedules and dangerous conditions, Vale is drowning in cash. Its 2020 global revenue amounted to some $40 billion, with close to $5 billion in net profits. Nonetheless, Vale still managed to obtain $67 million in government handouts during the pandemic under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, a program ostensibly designed to protect workers jobs.

This unbridled money-making bonanza has produced mounting anger among miners and the local community. As a relative of a miner said of Vale in a comment to the World Socialist Web Site during the strike, Wait. ... Didnt you guys take billions of $$ during COVID? Were your top executives given large bonuses? If the answer is yes to both of these, I dare say you have no legs to stand on. Treat your employees with the dignity and respect they deserve.

This state of affairs would have been unthinkable without the USWs crucial role in facilitating the enforcement of massive, historically unprecedented concessions in the wake of the 2009-10 year-long strike. These included the introduction of the hated multitier wage system and a huge expansion of low-wage, contract labour. It is significant to note in this regard that only 30 of the 39 miners involved in the latest incident are USW members, an indication that a large portion of the workforce is made up of nonunion, contract workers.

The USWs collaboration with Vale management has produced a steady undermining of miners wages and benefits, and a corresponding deterioration in workplace safety. On Monday, as the 39 miners remained stranded underground, a fine of $120,000 was imposed by a Sudbury court on DMC Mining Service, a contractor that employs workers at Vales Sudbury operations. The fine related to the injury of a worker due to falling rocks at Vales Copper Cliff South project. The court concluded that DMC failed to take account of the danger of falling rocks triggered by vibrations from underground drilling.

Three miners employed by Vale died at the companys Sudbury facilities between 2011 and 2012. The outcry following their deaths caused the Ontario government to order a review of mining safety procedures in January 2014.

According to government figures, in 2020 there were 3.88 injuries for every 100 workers employed in Ontarios mines.
London bus driver David OSullivan, sacked for defending his colleagues right to a safe workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, has sent a message of support for Lisa Diazs call for a school strike this Friday. OSullivan is currently waging a campaign for his reinstatement, in a test case for the rights of workers everywhere. He told the World Socialist Web Site:

I fully endorse the call by Lisa Diaz for a school strike this Friday October 1. Lisas call speaks for all of us, not only those of us who have children going to school but all who refuse to see children used in a herd immunity experiment that has already killed more than 160,000 people across the UK.

David O'Sullivan (WSWS media)

We have been told ad nauseum that schools are safe and that children are healthy enough to withstand COVID-19. Lisa and other parents are fighting to expose the terrible truththat 59,000 children were infected with COVID-19 in the first weeks of the new school year.

The fact that 88 children have died from COVID-19 as a result of the Johnson governments reckless school reopening policy gives Fridays parents strike an enormous importance. Not a single major party is opposing the governments policy of deliberately infecting children. The Labour Party and the teaching unions support keeping schools open at any cost, so that parents can be sent to work to make money for the corporations and the rich.

As a bus driver who ferries children to and from school every day, I know the risks of keeping schools open. When schools returned last September, limits on the number of children boarding school buses were lifted. Our vehicles had to be filled to the maximum. We were told that children were safe and could not spread the disease.

The outcome was a disaster, with more London bus workers dying in the second wave of the pandemic than the first69 of my colleagues are dead. We cannot accept this. Scientists have shown it is possible to eradicate COVID-19. It is up to workers to take the necessary collective action, based on science, to achieve this outcome.

In January 2021, as infections spread at Cricklewood, London bus garage, I sought to alert my co-workers and inform them of their rights to a safe workplace under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act. As a parent myself, with my oldest daughter having a heart condition making her potentially more susceptible to COVID, I was victimised and sacked with the support of Unite the union. This only shows that we have to unite together and create new organisations that are prepared to fight.

It is clear the pandemic is not just a medical emergency. It requires a political solution that can only be provided by the mass entry of the working class into struggle. Fridays school strike deserves the support of workers in every country and as a member of the London Bus Rank-and-File Committee I support your strike call as a life-saving act and a courageous stand.

***

Other workers have spoken to the WSWS to express their own solidarity with the October 1 strike.

Christopher Sully, a caretaker, told reporters, I work within an accommodation environment at a well-known university carrying out maintenance for the student residents daily.

I, as well as my colleague, have to work in a building containing 200+ students as well as staff. Throughout the entire pandemic the building has not had a trained Health and Safety officer on site.

And all mitigating measures regarding the safe movement of staff and students that had been implemented at 'the height' of the pandemic have been removed. So there is no longer a one-way system for the flow of people coming in or out of the building, canteen areas have been restored to full capacity and there is not one person on site to implement rules on distancing or mask wearing. Token measures are in place. For example, signage asking people to be responsible and hand gel dispensers being made available.

It is not a safe environment for the full reopening of this residential building, with tight corridors and small lifts that have had the one person only warning signs removed.

I am in full support of the actions that Lisa Diaz is calling for as the cases of children being struck down with COVID are frightening.

It is immoral. What sort of society do we live in that places children, students and workers lives at risk of the pandemic. Particularly in education, it is left up to us, front line staff, even if I am not considered as such, to work with what safety measures we can implement. Increasingly the authorities within the university campus turn a blind eye and work from the safety of their own home.

Lisa Diazs statement is powerful and should be urgently acted on as children and students, just like workers like me, are at the sharp end of the governments policy of herd immunity. Education is very important, but this is done though an environment of information, truth, science and knowledge, not the suppression of science and the knowledge of what is taking place in relation to the pandemic. We need the truth, and we need more Lisa Diazs.

Helena, a civil servant and parent, said, I wholeheartedly support Lisa Diazs call to action. I hope that by giving parents the opportunity to demonstrate their opposition to this governments disgraceful lack of COVID safety in schools, leaders will begin to take this issue seriously.

Helena with her daughter Cora

Mohammed, from Wakefield, said he thought Lisas call for a parents strike was a great inspiration and must go ahead. We must go forward and carry out these strikes.

The other day I was telling my family in Pakistan not to send their kids to school as they will get COVID. This has to be stopped.

It's genocide what is being carried outthe governments are carrying out mass murder, they don't care about the working class. They are thinking of their own profits.

I don't care what people think and I am going to say to parents and schools what I want to say. Online and the media are full of lies. The only thing that speaks the truth is the WSWS.

A lot of parents listen to what I am saying. My grandkids go to school, and I have been on a Parents Teachers Association board for 15 years and talk to a lot of parents in the area whose kids go to schools, and they believe in what I say. They were initially taken in by the lies that kids cant get it, but in Wakefield there have been increases in cases among children, their parents and teachers.

Not all teachers will listen to me, but some are saying, AJ what you are saying is the truth. People are scared about the fines for non-attendance. I say if we can get people together, we can push them back.

Council leaders don't listen and are more concerned about the government. They have tried to get me to stand for the council as I speak up for people. The only message I believe is the message of the WSWS.

In schools, with the easing of the lockdown, no one wears a mask so the virus is spreading in schools. The Delta variant is airborne so there should have been no easing of restrictions. They are just trying to get rid of us and our voices. Lisa's not afraid to say what is and neither am I. People have to know the truth and something must be done.
The Tennessee Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee stands in solidarity with parents striking this Friday, October 1, against unsafe conditions in schools in the United Kingdom amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Parents and teachers all over the world must join together to end the unsafe reopening of schools and demand the return to virtual learning until COVID-19 is eradicated globally.

Third grade at Warner Arts Magnet Elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee on August 20, 2021. (AP Photo/John Partipilo)

Since the end of July 2021, when schools began to reopen in Tennessee and throughout the southern United States, COVID-19 cases and deaths have skyrocketed to levels exceeding the highs of the 2020-21 winter surge. Once again, hospitals are struggling with the volume of new patientstwice what it was in the winterwith many patients younger and healthier.

As schools in the South reopened without any mitigation measures whatsoever, as has been the case in schools throughout England under the right-wing Boris Johnson administration, it was only a matter of weeks before some schools had to close down due to the numbers of teachers and students who had become sick with COVID-19. At least 12 educators in Tennessee have died from COVID-19 since the reopening of schools, while the number of school-aged children killed by the virus has doubled in that time.

Districts in Tennessee are not tracking COVID-19 cases this fall, claiming everything is back to normal. As in the UK, with no reliable data from the state, parents have taken it upon themselves to do contact tracing in Facebook groups in an effort to provide some information about the levels of the virus in their schools.

The accuracy of COVID-19 data provided by school districts in Tennessee was always in doubt, as officials have hidden behind a willful misreading of the Family Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In an effort to obfuscate the actual COVID-19 case counts in schools, districts falsely claim that sharing case numbers in schools is a violation of student privacy. However, section 34 CFR  99.31(a)(10) of FERPA clearly allows an emergency exception to privacy when it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals.

While the ruling class and the mainstream media claim we are living in a post-pandemic world, the 2,000 Americans dying from COVID-19 every day prove the contrary, that we are still in the midst of a catastrophic emergency. Lies and gas-lighting about COVID-19 in schools must end, and accurate data on outbreaks in schools must be made available to the public so that parents and teachers can make informed decisions about their safety.

Opposition to the criminal school policies of the ruling elite is growing. Recently, parents of special needs children in Shelby-Memphis County, Williamson-Nashville County, and most recently in Knox-Knoxville County sued the state to overturn Republican Governor Bill Lees executive order that allows parents to opt out of school masking requirements. They correctly claim that Lees ban violates Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which guarantees access to inclusive education and reasonable accommodations to enable inclusiveness for children with disabilities. The federal judge in the Knox County case ruled that mask mandates are a reasonable accommodation to allow special needs children to participate to their fullest in an educational setting.

As Governor Lee fights the judgments in Shelby and Knox Counties in court, fascistic elements have already forced the closure of Knox County Schools on Monday, September 27, when the district was to begin requiring everyone in schools to wear a mask.

On Sunday, September 26, an estimated 130 parents and community members gathered in a Knox County park to protest the upholding of the mask mandate. One speaker, a local business owner with ties to the John Birch Society and The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP), called on parents to ...bring Knox County Schools to a screeching halt! TCAPP is a right-wing extremist organization founded in Spokane, Washington, which was directly involved in the January 6 coup attempt in Washington D.C. Speakers at the Sunday meeting in Knox County had organized groups to go to Washington D.C. and participate in Trumps Stop the Steal rally which led to the assault on the Capitol.

Administrators and teachers are preparing for parents to send their mask-less children to school. A letter circulated widely in fascistic anti-masking groups on social media, advancing numerous inchoate justifications for defying the court order to mask. Parents are being advised to wait at the door during drop-off for written acknowledgment that their child will be marked absent for not wearing a mask. Some parents are saying they will refuse to pick up their children from school when they are called because their child will not wear a mask. If in-person instruction is best, as many of these parents also claim, one has to wonder how this level of disruption will allow for any significant instruction to take place in this highly politicized and reactionary atmosphere.

While fascistic actors are loud and dangerous, they are outnumbered by the working class who overwhelmingly desire to end the pandemic and have the might to do so. The October 1 UK school strike, called for by British parent Lisa Diaz, is one of many harbingers of the growing strength of the working class. The ruling elites have decided that there is no such thing as too many dead children, parents, teachers, and loved ones, as long as those who survive are generating profits for them. But as workers at Volvo, Nabisco, Warrior Met Coal, Dana, and IASTE in the United States; NSW Rail in Australia; daycare workers in Quebec; and parents in the UK are proving, the working class has the power to end the cruel and murderous pandemic policies of the elites. We must join our efforts and demand the eradication of the COVID-19 pandemic and an end to the inhumane system that puts profits before people.

The courage that Lisa Diaz has shown to protect her children and all children is applauded and supported by us all. We wish and hope the October 1 action attracts millions. The members of our Tennessee Rank and File Committee wish the best in your efforts. We will follow them closely and share the reporting of your struggle as widely as we can. We stand shoulder to shoulder with you. Your fight is our fight.
With the reopening of schools across the United States, there has been an explosion of outbreaks of COVID-19, and the Southwest is no exception. Rather than implement shutdowns and remote learning, school districts are plowing ahead with either homicidal herd immunity policies or so-called mitigation measures. Meanwhile, teachers and staff have quit in droves amid a disturbing trend of concealing needed information on COVID-19 from the public.

Elementary school students on the first day of classes in Richardson, Texas, August 17, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

In Arizona, only 30 percent of the states 215 school districts provide COVID-19 dashboards, and just one county health department out of 15 in the state, Pima County, publicly monitors active COVID-19 cases by district. There is no comprehensive and transparent picture of where the virus is being contracted.

A ban on mask mandates inserted into the Arizona state budget by the Republican-majority state legislature with the approval of the states Republican governor, Doug Ducey, has been challenged in court. A recent poll shows 57 percent opposition to it among Arizona residents. Ducey has said that there is no need to revisit the issue and it is scheduled to take effect September 29.

Ducey plans to bribe schools to obey the ban by granting them funding that will be denied to school districts that do not comply. Tucson Unified School District, which has a mask mandate and whose infection rate has been about half of that of another non-mandated district in Pima County, plans to defy the ban, though most other districts are likely to cave.

As in the rest of the US, Arizona has lost teachers and staff to infections, deaths and resignations, causing a scramble to fill vacancies. The Cartwright District in Phoenix raised the daily pay rate for subs to $200, almost twice the statewide average, and another district now offers a $3,100 bonus for those who work a certain number of hours. No experience or education outside of a high school diploma is required. Districts are having to revise or cancel bus routes due to the shortage of drivers.

Nevada, with a Democratic governor and legislature, is pursuing a mitigation approach which is entirely unable to prevent infections. Following the early August reopening of schools, some were forced to resume distance learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks, only to resume in-person instruction by the end of the month. Predictably, cases grew, and on September 21, state agency Nevada Health Response issued a statement calling for mask mandates in all counties from September 24-30. This will do little to stop or slow the spread of infections.

Meanwhile, bus service has been spotty or nonexistent for various districts. Clark County School District, which covers Las Vegas, is short about 240 drivers, and sometimes students must wait hours for their bus. Top pay is $19.98 an hour and drivers work split shifts, sometimes as few as 30 hours a week. With the district facing a shortage of staff and teachers, substitute teachers are offered a $1,000 stipend for working 15 days per quarter. Washoe County, which includes Reno, offers a $10 a day bonus for subs teaching in the midst of the pandemic.

Utah instituted a law for the 2021-22 school year forbidding schools from changing to virtual learning in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak without the approval of Governor Spencer Cox, the President of the State Senate, the State Speaker of the House, all Republicans, as well as the State Superintendent of Education. The legislature also banned schools from imposing mask mandates, with the governor claiming, masks are not as effective as most of the pro-mask crowd are arguing.

Yet another law, called Test to Stay, requires schools with 1,500 students or more to test all students for COVID-19 only when two percent of the student body tests positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days. For those with fewer than 1,500 students, 30 students must test positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days to trigger the testing of the entire student body. By September 17, over 650 students had tested positive, nearly half of whom were between five and 10 years of age. After one month of school, the number of COVID-19-positive students, teachers and others at schools was 6,200.

New Mexico has more than 1,000 openings for public school teachers for 2021-22. School districts are trying to lure teachers, substitutes, educational assistants, bus drivers and other staff with various incentives. Santa Fe Public Schools has held two job fairs recently, and New Mexico school districts are using federal pandemic dollars to attract teaching assistants, who currently earn around $25,000 a year, into teaching.

On September 15, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham again extended, this time until October 15, the indoor mask mandate that her office had put into effect August 20 after 109 schools in the state reported COVID-19 cases following the statewide reopenings. The order also requires all school workers in public, private or charter schools who are not fully vaccinated or who are unwilling to provide proof of vaccination to their respective supervisors or provide proof of a COVID-19 test on a weekly basis.

Across Texas, school districts have experienced shortages of teachers as the danger of COVID-19 in the schools receives a minimal response due to the herd immunity policies of the states governor and legislature. Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, reported 700 unfilled teacher slots at the start of the year, more than seven times higher than its average of less than 100 vacancies in previous years.

As the number of COVID-19 cases at Texas schools continues to grow52,000 among students and over 13,000 among staff since the school year beganteachers have experienced burnout, stress, overwork and fear from the reckless policy of keeping schools operating at all costs. And, as in other states, accurate and up-to-date information is getting harder to find.

These concerns are shown on Facebook and other social media platforms.

A Fort Worth teacher recently complained, There are kids missing in my class every day. I dont know if theyre quarantining or if theyre sick. I could have kids that are supposed to be in quarantine but arent. I have no idea. There is no testing, no reporting, no transparency, no support. Im retiring after this year. Ive made sacrifices for the last eighteen months and Im done. [This] shit is taking years off my life. Theres been nothing normal about any of this.

Another teacher from Irving Independent School District posted, I did not think things could be worse than last year. But they [the administration] are clearly covering up how bad things are. They arent going to get better. Were just expected to take it. I dont know how much longer I can do this.

Others have resigned, unwilling to endure the thankless grind, with one posting, I resigned today and cited COVID and my anxiety about that as well as wanting to home school my son. Im not sure if SBEC [State Board for Educator Certification] will suspend my certification, but it would be nice to find a remote position. I used to love my job so much and still love teaching. Im sad, but everything is too overwhelming now. Life is too short to be unhappy and consumed by stress.

Another responded, Resigned at the end of the summer to take care of my mother. Educators do so much, and beyond, that we put ourselves last. This past year taught me that the State & the district could care less. We need to put ourselves and our families first. You're doing the right thing.

One teacher expressed her anger and frustration with the harassment and pressure she faces at her school, saying, So, someone who has decades in education, my 5th year as SPED [special education], COVID shutting down schools, wreaking havoc why am I getting such horrible (and numerous) evaluations? I'm not teacher of the year but I know I dont deserve what Im getting. Ive been so happy til now. There's a freakin shortage of teachers, they want to drive away the ones who are risking their lives, putting up with the reading academy BS, etc.?

The teacher asked, Kick me while I'm down, wont ya? Why do they keep making this so hard? I honestly don't have a clue how to handle how I feel.

The stonewalling and lack of transparency of districts regarding student cases prompted another teacher to ask, What are some of the protocols your districts have in place? No testing, no masks, no communication with teachers or students about possible exposure or even if a child has tested positive in your room. Had eight out, now only have two out positive. Only found out because I asked the nurse.

A colleague replied, Yes, I was disgusted when I got a call from my nieces school asking why she wasnt in school. I told them that in the last few days 5 of the family members had tested positive I was told she needed to be in school. I repeated it all again assuming she hadnt heard me and [went] on to say she cant taste so she likely has it. She told me again bring her to school or shes truant. Shes 6, she cant be vaccinated and hearing that woman tell me to take her in left me disgusted. I didnt take her in. She came back positive later that day.

The anger of teachers must find expression in the formation of rank-and-file committees in opposition to the dangerous policies of both big-business parties. There is growing opposition to the homicidal school reopenings internationally, which has found powerful expression in the school strike set to take place in the UK and other countries this Friday, October 1. All those who wish to organize similar strikes and protests should sign up today to join and build a rank-and-file committee in your district or state.
This is the second in a series of articles devoted to the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (September 9-18). The first part was posted September 21.

As part of a general trend, the Toronto film festival and other such events have become officially mesmerized in recent years by identity politics.

Social inequality, accelerated and amplified by a horrific pandemic, dominates every corner of the globe and a handful of conglomerates and billionaires relentlessly strengthens its grip on economic life. However, to a certain comfortably off, aspiring social layer, the question of questions involves race and gender. In effect, de facto quotas along these lines have increasingly been established.

The Toronto festival has launched various initiatives aimed, it asserts, at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in film. Share Her Journey, begun in 2017, is a campaign and commitment to address gender parity and championing women in front of and behind the camera. Festival organizers envision it as part of a global movement  dedicated to building frameworks, empowering creators, and forging paths for women to succeed as storytellers who help shape our cultural landscape.

This year the festival announced Every Story, a fund to support and celebrate films under-represented voices and audiences. It is intended to create opportunities for equity-seeking creators. A press release explained that 76 of this years Festival selections were either created or co-created by cisgender or transgender women, or non-binary or two-spirit filmmakers. Seventy-five percent of Industry Conference speakers identify as Black, Indigenous, or a person of colour. This is the beginning of a journey to highlight the stories that may have previously been untold and address the reasons for their erasure. We cannot be the only ones to find this type of language insufferable.

One of the three primary pillars of this program, along with celebrating diverse storytellers and audiences; and creating opportunities for creators who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, is said to be challenging the status quo.

The establishment of racial and gender goals does nothing to challenge the status quo. The film festival itself is very much part of the status quo, its officialdom enmeshed in that wing of the Ontario and Canadian establishment that promotes identity politics, racial, ethnic and gender divisions, as part of its strategy for remaining in power.

The great barrier making it possible for some stories to be told while others go untold remains, above all, social class. The lives and problems of the vast majority of laboring, suffering humanity arouse little interest in leading industry circles, and nothing about the various film festival initiatives will alteror are intended to alterthat situation.

Filmmakers worldwide feel these pressures as well. Some respond to the present crisis of society in a narrow, self-centered manner, and thus disqualify themselves from the ranks of serious artistic figures. There are more than enough identity politics-obsessed films to go around, if one seeks them out. Other writers and directors look beyond their noses at the general state of society and consider the dilemmas of those whose conditions are far worse, and in some cases tragically worse, than their own.

We can only mention here briefly a number of films that were, to one degree or another, more interesting and substantial. About some we will probably have need to write in greater detail in the future.

In The Box (directed by Venezuelan-born Lorenzo Vigas) from Mexico, a teenager, Hatzin (Hatzin Navarrete), travels north to the state of Chihuahua to collect the remains of his father, who died in a mining accident. On the street, Hatzin spots a man he believes to be his supposedly deceased father and begins to dog the latters tracks. Eventually, Mario (Hernan Mendoza), who claims the boy is mistaken, hires the persistent Hatzin as his assistant.

The Box

Mario works for the management of various maquiladoras and other factories recruiting workers from villages and towns. In every location, Marios other helper recites the same spiel, something like this: Were at war  were at war with the fucking Chinese. Chinese women and girls, he tells the crowd, have tiny hands.  What happens if theyre faster than us? We lose our jobs. Are we going to let them take our jobs? Mario and his crew deliver busloads of desperate workers to the gates of giant plants.

Hatzin discovers that Mario is cheating the workers in various ways. One girl, Laura Morales, speaks up. She complains that the factory is making her and the rest work 14 hours instead of the promised 12. Laura confronts Hatzin with the fact that the workers were actually charged for their bus trip to the factory, again, contrary to what was promised them. Mario shouts at her for riling people up. Then, Laura goes missing. Her mother, who comes looking for the girl, is threatened with a note: If you go back to the police, well kill the rest of your family. At first an enthusiastic and adept apprentice, Hatzin develops a conscience.

The Box is not flawless, at times a little drab, but Vigas places his finger squarely on a vital matter.

Clio Barnard from the UK has directed several interesting films, including The Selfish Giant (2013). Set in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Ali & Ava is a love story based on people Barnard got to know through making her previous films. Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a British-Pakistani working class landlord obsessed with hip hop and prone to dancing energetically on the roof of his car. Ava (Claire Rushbrook) is an Irish-born teacher and single mother of five, living on a tough housing estate. The film documents their developing relationship, which encounters a number of obstacles, including family members and their different tastes in music.

Ali & Ava

It started with the characters of Ali and Ava, and a question, says Barnard. What would happen if you took melodrama as a genre and applied it to a social-realist version of Bradford thats based on real people? Its an opportunity to think about what it means to be part of a community. Theres a lot of kindness, generosity and support in Bradford and I wanted to see that writ large on the big screen. Ali & Ava is a generous, warmhearted work.

As though he were responding to some of the issues raised above, Akhtar, a wonderful performer, explains that Ali & Ava has at its center the idea of giving a space and a voice to people or a type of person that is ordinarily overlooked and not really seen. And allowing those people to have a very intimate connection with each other.

The Odd-Job Men (Neus Ballus) follows a trio of plumbers over the course of a week in BarcelonaPep (Pep Sarra), about to retire, Valero (Valero Escolar), his long-time co-worker, and Mohamed (Mohamed Mellali), a Moroccan immigrant on a week-long trial at the small firm. From the start, the loquacious and opinionated Valero takes exception to almost everything Mohamed does, and apparently harbors resentment against him as a North African immigrant.

The Odd-Job Men

The drama, centering on Mohameds efforts to make the job permanent, in the face of Valeros constant carping and opposition, is a relatively low-key affair, but has an authentic quality. The director explains that her father was a plumber and the film presumably benefits from some of his experiences.

At one point, Mohamed explains in a voice-over, These days, money is all that matters. Those who have most, want it all.

Compartment No. 6 (Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen) is a slight work, but it has certain charms. On the way to Murmansk in the Arctic Circle to see the Kanozero Petroglyphs, a middle class Finnish graduate student, Laura (Seidi Haarla), finds herself trapped in a train compartment with a rough-and-tumble, young Russian guy, Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov), reporting for work at a mine in the region. Ljoha is a patriot, Russia is a great country  We beat the Nazis  we went to the moon. He polishes off a bottle of vodka with dispatch.

The pair find out something about each other during the course of the trip. Ljoha makes a valiant effort to enable Laura to reach the 10,000-year-old rock art, officially impossible during wintertime. The director explains that the film is about roles that keep people disconnected. The two performers do well.

Unclenching the Fists, directed by Kira Kovalenko, is set in Mizur, a former mining town in North Ossetia, a Russian republic in the North Caucasus. A girl, along with her two brothers, attempts to break away from a well-intentioned, but authoritarian father.

Unclenching the Fists

The films production notes comment that the films title is a reference to Marco Bellocchios debut, Fists in the Pocket (1965)  Kira Kovalenko also mentions earlier Italian neorealist films, such as the work of Vittorio de Sica, among her favorites. Kovalenko jokingly refers to her film as belonging to the school of Caucasian neorealism. In fact, the drama becomes somewhat overwrought and murky, but the bleak social and psychological conditions are unforgettable.

Drunken Birds (Serbian-Canadian director Ivan Grbovic) concerns itself with seasonal migrant laborers working in rural Quebec. Willy (Jorge Antonio Guerrero), a Mexican drug-cartel worker, fell in love with his bosss wife, Marlena (Yoshira Escarrega). Each takes a different escape route, but both end up in Canada. Various dramassome more convincing than othersplay themselves out, among the workers and within the family of the farms owners.

Grbovics film, along with Nanni Morettis Three Floors (an otherwise uninspiring film about three middle-class families), is mostly notable for criticizing in passing the #MeToo contention that all women should be believed.

Australian director Philip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American, 2002) has created a taut, well-constructed film, Lakewood, about a high school shooting in the US (although shot in North Bay, Ontario). Naomi Watts is the mother of a troubled teenager desperately trying to make her way to the locked-down school. Watts is thoroughly convincing and the suspense is genuine, but the film sheds no light whatsoever on the phenomenon of mass shootings.

French filmmaker Laurent Cantet has made a number of noteworthy and provocative films, including Human Resources (1999), Time Out (2001), The Class (2008) and The Workshop (2017). Arthur Rambo, although it raises more questions than it suggests answers for, is another.

Arthur Rambo

The central figure, Karim D (Rabah Nait Oufella), of Maghreb descent, has written a bookbased on his immigrant mothers life and strugglesthat takes literary Paris by storm. He also becomes a hero to young people. At the height of the acclaim, news reports emerge indicating that Karim D has been active on social media under the name Arthur Rambo, spitting out vicious anti-Semitic and homophobic messages. His world comes apart. His publishers cancel the further printing of his book, his friends turn their backs on him. His mother chastises him, Here, we dont think that way.

Karims explanation is a weak one. The foul tweets were a provocation, a crazy way to test the limits. He agrees to a television interview, which will be widely followed. He asserts that the more outrageous his outpouring became, the more it was followed. Who did he write for? The guys in the neighborhood.

Later, Karims brother confusedly defends Arthur Rambo and his messages: Arthur Rambo is us. It is a reaction to how the French treat us  We dont bow our heads.

Such things are possible in the present circumstances. They speak, above all, to the bankruptcy and worthlessness of the French left, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the far left, who have nothing to say to the immigrant youth, who are parties of bourgeois order, who have helped create a political vacuum in which social backwardness and disorientation breed.

As we noted recently, Polish filmmaking has discovered the new bourgeoisie that has come into being since the restoration of capitalism in 1989-91. Aga Woszczynskas Silent Land follows an attractive, wealthy Polish couple on vacation in Sardinia. Their rented house has a pool, but it is not functioning properly. Their landlord hires a young Arab man, probably undocumented, to fix the problem.

Silent Land

As we learn later, the young man falls into the pool, hitting his head and drowning. This takes place in full view of the couple, who do nothing, except to place a phone call to the landlord. The police question the husband and wife, who first lie about what they did. When closed circuit television footage reveals their inaction, a police official asks, Why didnt you help? It was hopeless. You waited in the house.  You didnt check to see if the man was dead  Did you realize you could have saved him? The tragic episode, understandably, strains the couples relationship. The husband defends himself to his wifethere was nothing to be done  He wasnt even legal here.

Woszczynska told an interviewer that her film was about the condition of European thirty-somethings, their emotional isolation, moral confusion, and disintegration of social norms and bonds. Silent Land is a film about the collapse of a relationship, but on a wider scale it is about something more important, which concerns me, about the collapse of the system of values in contemporary Europe, the indifference to our current reality, and social lethargy.

Ultimately, Silent Land is a tale about alienation not only from each other but also from the world. Its about conformity and passivity, in which the need for safety and convenience is a strategy of survival.

Flee (from Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen) is an animated film about a man, Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym), who fled Afghanistan as a child, in the 1990s. Amins family ended up in Moscow when the US-backed Mujahedeen guerillas took control after the departure of Soviet troops. His hair-raising account of his familys attempts to make their way to Scandinavia with the aid of human smugglers is moving and disturbing.

Also disturbing is Sundown, Mexican director Michel Francos latest film, about a wealthy Briton, Neil Bennett (played by Tim Roth), on vacation in Acapulco, who breaks ties with his family and thoroughly abandons his old life, bit by bit. The film is ambiguous about Bennetts motives. Is he disgusted with his familys money, which comes from the slaughter of animals, his previously lavish lifestyle, his relatives? He signs away his interest in the family business without a hesitation. He descends the social scale. His alienated state takes on an intensely aggressive character. The film is interesting, well-told, but enigmatic. Is this the sundown of an entire social order? Perhaps thats whats meant, but that order is anything but accepting and passive about its passing away.

To be continued
Several days after Keaira Marsenburg came forward with the story of her victimization with the collusion of the United Auto Workers union, workers at Danas Toledo Driveline plant are coming forward to describe horrific working conditions inside the plant.

This place is like a jail or a prison. Ive never been to jail or prison but Ill tell you what, if its anything like this place I dont ever want to go, one worker said.

A worker drives a forklift. (Photo: Toyota Material Handling EU)

The details from Toledo are emerging as negotiations are believed to have been restarted this week between the UAW, the United Steelworkers and Dana. Although a USW memo at the Dana plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana claimed that talks over local contracts at UAW plants were to have begun Monday and continue through Friday, the UAW has not issued any public statement confirming this. Workers at the plant in St. Clair, Michigan reported Monday that UAW bargaining committee members were still in their plant, having not left for any talks.

This only underscores that what is taking place, under cover of a total information blackout, are not negotiations between two adversarial parties, but strategy sessions between Dana management and the pro-company unions. Their aim is to formulate a plan to ram through a sellout deal which was rejected by Dana workers earlier this month by a 90 percent margin, and to drag out the talks long enough to buy Dana time to complete the model year changeover, when the Dana workers' position is at its most powerful.

This shows the need for workers to take the initiative into their own hands by building the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee (DWRFC) to share information, discuss their own strategy to defeat the union-backed sellout and to build lines of support and communication with workers across the country and the world. To join the DWRFC, email them at danawrfc@gmail.com or text to (248) 6020936.

Worker injured in forklift accident

On September 27, a worker on first shift at the Dana Toledo Driveline plant was severely injured when a forklift accidentally ran him over, crushing his foot. The worker, an older male who has not yet been publicly identified, was reportedly rushed to the hospital and may have had a portion of his leg amputated.

Theyre making these forklift drivers do way too much, way more than what theyre supposed to be doing, and its just dangerous, a worker said. Theyre trying to stockpile so much stuff in case of a strike that theres literally no room to even walk in there.

They want you moving quick. And when youre moving quick like that, theres no time for errors. I had a guy almost hit me because theres no horn, no nothing. He was in a hurry because he was behind. Where there should be two forklifts theres only one, and if you get backed up they write you up. They got that point system in here and its just a joke. Its one of the main reasons Dana has such a high turnover rate.

Its so unorganized, another Dana worker told the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter. I feel for the driver, too. Forklift drivers have it really hard in that plant. They are constantly changing the schedule, always running out of parts, and the drivers end up having to hurry to keep the line going. Its too cramped in there and stuff like this is bound to happen when theres no protocol in place.

Another worker reported that Sunday night, just before the forklift accident, a worker on third shift sustained a severe head wound on the line and had to go to the hospital to get stitches.

COVID outbreak

Workers are also reporting a major surge in COVID-positive cases in the plant, which are not officially tracked or reported by the UAW or Dana, Inc. There are no running tallies of positive COVID-19 cases, and the only way that workers are able to find out about whether they have been near a sick person is through direct contact with each other.

I dont know whats going on, but apparently an entire line was out recently because everyone is sick with COVID, one worker said.

Dana knows people are getting sick, but theyre hushing it up to keep us on that line, another said. According to workers, a supervisor who was COVID-positive continued to report to work without getting tested in spite of having symptoms, almost certainly infecting other employees. The worker said, What I dont understand is, supervisors are salaried employees, so theres no reason for them to be at work [if they are sick]. This supervisor was wearing a mask but it was all pulled down past their chin so it wasnt even doing anything. I had to stop and think to myself, Are they trying to get us sick? Is this person purposely trying to infect me?

Another worker said, A supervisor came into work super sick, gasping for air, and tried to say he just had bronchitis. He wasnt worried about COVID because he had his shots. But my wife had her shots and she still got it, so hes missing the point. Its everywhere in that plant. On every shift theres probably 50-60 people who have it, or are calling in because theyre sick. Or, their points are up so theyre coming in because once you have six points youre out the door.

The supervisor just sat there and told everybody, Well, you wouldnt have to worry about it if you would have just got your shots. But then even he himself tested positive for it. He said he didnt stay home because, Whats the matter with America is that its too easy for people to call off work.

Threats and intimidation, no union protection

One worker said the plant lacks basic safety protocol and that workers who speak up are threatened for their jobs. If you say something they tell you, Shut up or youll be written up. Theyre very aggressive. Just yesterday a worker got accused of being drunk on the job, basically because one of the supervisors had it out for him. Called him off the machine in front of everybody, and come to find outhe wasnt even drunk! It was just because they got into an argument and they were trying to get him fired. It was terrible.

Its very prejudiced here. Im not surprised that young lady lost her job, he said, referring to Keaira Marsenburg. When they got it out for you, man, theyre gonna get you. And as soon as you start talking about the union or the contract they will do whatever they can to get you out the door.

He explained that many new employees are deliberately misinformed by the company about their rights in the plant, and that the UAW does nothing to fight for the workers.

A lot of people are brand new and dont know the rules, so people were coming to me because my whole family is union, so I know the rules. I had advised one of my coworkers not to talk to the supervisor about something without a union rep present. Next day they came to me and said, Next time you cause an outburst like that were gonna write you up. You dont speak about the union on company property. And I said what do you mean, outburst? And Im paying union dues, even though I havent even had a union rep on our shift for like four months now.

Then theyre telling the new people they cant vote, even though they can, and they say if you wanna talk about the union you talk about it on your own time at home.

We were excited when ... I got hired at Dana. We thought things would finally start looking up for us. And come to find out, thats not the way it works at all here. I left a decent job because I was promised the world, they promised me $40 an hour here, but I maxed out at $17.30.

He stressed the need for workers to get involved in building the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee. Ive wanted a rank-and-file committee here at Toledo. This place cannot treat people like this and keep getting away with it. And the union does nothing for you. So why even pay them?
Ian, a bus driver with First Eastern Counties Ltd, and a member of the London Bus Rank-and-File Committee, sent the following statement to the World Socialist Web Site in support of the call for a school strike tomorrow, October 1, issued by parent and SafeEdForAll (Safe Education for All) member Lisa Diaz last week.

I am in support of Lisas cause. For far too long misinformation has been allowed to ride rampant. Even our own government has been exposed by the Good Law Project for misrepresenting the truth to suit their own endsthe cronyism around the contracts awarded to the private sector during the pandemic for testing equipment such as [private testing company] Abingdon Health.

As a parent I do not want my child taking part in the Johnson governments herd immunity experiment. All parents should be behind Lisa. No more gaslighting, no more threats by education officials. Every parent has the right to protect their child. Solidarity to all parents trying to protect their families!

My attitude is that we could have eradicated the pandemic by now, science can be used to beat this thing, I think a lot of people agree. I read this in the British Medical Journal [BMJ]:

As proof of concept for COVID-19 eradication, several countries and jurisdictions have achieved elimination without vaccination, using new and established public health and social measures (PHSMs) (e.g., border control, physical distancing, mask wearing, testing and contact tracing supported by genome sequencing).

You cannot live with the pandemic. It will only get worse, and they are condemning people to death and long-term illness. It was summed up by [Prime Minister Boris] Johnson in his comment, Let the bodies pile high. That is what is happening.

As a bus driver, we are being exposed more to the virus and the return of schools and colleges is adding to this risk. I carry college students on my bus and around 80 percent are not wearing masks as it is no longer mandatory. This means I risk getting it and bringing home to my family, the students are at risk and the teachersits a knock-on effect. If you only leave home to go to work you can only be catching it at work or on the way to and from there.

I worked largely throughout the pandemic with a period of furlough where I lost 20 percent of my wages. On top of this, the union Unite agreed to new terms and conditions which us drivers have not seen the contents of, but I know for a fact that I am working longer for less money. I have encouraged my colleagues to think for themselves and consider an alternative.

The fight against the victimisation of [London bus driver] David OSullivan and the action called for October 1 against unsafe schools go hand in hand. Him winning his case will expose the maddening agenda of money and profits over everything else and how capitalism is crippling society. They only want kids in school so that their parents are back at work.

Workers are being burned out and what for? To make the millionaires into billionaires. They do not do anything for us. Living costs are going up and life gets even harder.

Lisa was spot on about the Labour Party and trade unions. They are another form of cronyism. The Labour Party has not represented the working man since the eighties and the trade unions have made their bed with the employers a long time ago. There should be a special place in hell for them.

Working with the London Bus Rank-and-File Committee has really opened my eyes and now I can use that to educate others. This needs to be international, what happens in any part of the world affects us all. The technology is there for us to communicate and organise, we are far more interconnected. Weve seen it with bus drivers in New Zealand and Australia taking action against COVID and to defend their rights. We need to think collectively not in a singular way.
A fuel shortage has left drivers queuing for miles at garages nationwide in Britain, amid warnings of a devastating impact on industry and the already overwhelmed National Health Service (NHS).

Such scenes epitomise the post-Brexit crisis wracking the Britains Conservative government. They come after weeks in which the public have been hit with shortages of basic items in supermarkets, with UK supply chains hit due to Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, and an unprecedented shortage of long-haul lorry drivers.

The latest crisis was sparked by an announcement last week by BP, which operates 1,200 BP branded petrol stations nationwide, that it would be necessary to temporarily close a small number due to a lack of lorry drivers to supply them.

Cars queuing up a petrol station in Bournemouth, England, on the first day of the fuel shortage crisis. September 24, 2021 (WSWS Media)

Long queues started to build up outside fuel stations, fearing that supplies would soon run out. On Friday forecourt petrol sales were already up 180 percent and by Sunday the Petrol Retailers Association said that between 50 and 85 percent of all independent service stations nationwide were empty. On Monday, most of the UK 8,000 petrol stations had been drained of fuel.

By Tuesday, Royal College of Nursing England director Patricia Marquis warned that some nursing staff had told management they would be unable to get to work this week because of queues for petrol and empty stations. The BBC reported that one junior doctor in London, went to 17 petrol stations after work on Monday in search of fuelbut wasn't able to get any.

The Guardian reported Tuesday that it had learned that several cancer patients due to attend appointments this week at University College hospital (UCLH), one of Londons largest hospitals, have been told they will have to be rescheduled. A spokesperson for the hospital said it was necessary due to complications with its non-emergency patient transport provision due to the national fuel supply.

Despite reassurance by Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government and after carrying out 18 measures to get the crisis under control, including placing military drivers on standby, drivers were still queuing for fuel.

Sealed off petrol pumps with a sign reading "No Petrol" at a garage in Bournemouth on September 28, 2021 (WSWS Media)

On Sunday evening, as the crisis worsened, the government was forced to exempt the entire energy industry from the 1998 Competition Act in order that companies could legally share basic data and prioritise deliveries to areas where fuel was needed most.

This occurred as it was revealed that one of the UKs six oil refineries, which collectively supply about 85 percent of UK fuel demand, is threatened with imminent bankruptcy due to an unpaid tax bill. The Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port supplies about a sixth of Britains road fuel. Run by two billionaire brothers, Ruia and Ravi Shashi, through their company Essar Oil UK, it is pleading poverty after taking advantage of one of the Johnson governments big business pandemic bailout measures. Under the Value Added Tax deferral scheme they were able to benefit to the tune of 356 million.

In an emergency meeting with Cabinet ministers and senior government officials Monday, Johnson requested the army be put on standby to fill fuel stations under a contingency plans known as Operation Escalin. It is unclear that this would do much to stem the crisis, given that the Ministry of Defence could only supply around 150 qualified army tanker drivers on short notice to deliver fuel (75 now and another 75 if needed), with another 150 military personnel on hand in a support role. Additional military forces, if they are available, require specialised training.

The Tory government, delirious on visions of a Global Britain bestriding the world and boasting that a substantial portion of its armed forces would be away from May for six months on its provocative mission to the South China Sea, has ignored for months the implications of the staggering shortage of HGV drivers in Britain. The UK is estimated to be short of more than 100,000 lorry drivers, meaning that much of basic industry and a supply network, much of it integrated into complex just in time production operations, has seized up.

The shortage has been exacerbated by Brexit, with an estimated 25,000 drivers returning to Europe since 2016. The pandemic has also intensified the crisis, with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) cancelling 30,000 HGV license tests last year.

The government is now offering temporary visas to 5,000 foreign fuel tanker and food lorry drivers, and with the profitable Christmas period of trading threatened with being massively disrupted, to 5,500 foreign-based poultry workers. It is also attempting to bring back around a million existing HGV drivers into the industry, under conditions in which many have left due to the intolerable working conditions and low pay for what is a highly skilled job. Plans were also announced to train 4,000 new HGV drivers under conditions in which there is now a backlog of 50,000 lorry drivers waiting to take their tests.

The government is not simply planning to enlist army personnel as truck drivers, but also to break a potential strike of DVSA test examiners who voted for industrial action last Friday in protest at DVSA plans to increase the number of tests from 2,000 a day pre-COVID to 4,000.

The pro-government Daily Telegraph cited a road haulage industry insider who said, There has been talk of bringing in the Army to drive fuel tankers, but the simplest solution would be to deploy the Army to the DVLA to sort out the applications.

The crisis of rule in a country which becomes more dysfunctional by the day is epitomised by the ever more frequent calls being made for the army, down to just 82,000 full-time personnel, to take over everything from building temporary field hospitals at the height of the pandemic last year, to currently helping run chronically under pressure ambulance services in Wales and Scotland. This was lampooned by the Times in a cartoon Tuesday under the caption reading Panic Governing with Johnson at his desk, having no other solution, screaming out, Bring In The Army!

Social tensions are at breaking point and this can only be intensified with around a million workers being forced off the government-backed furlough scheme in a matter of days and going back into the labour marketthreatening unpresented social dislocation. This is at the same time as the 20 weekly uplift given during the pandemic to millions of Universal Credit welfare recipients, including many of the lowest paid workers, will also end.

The institutions of the capitalist class and media are not mincing their words as to the implications of the threatened catastrophe. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, in a speech to the Society of Professional Economists, made an analogy to the Biblical plague, asking, When are the locusts due to arrive?'

Daily Mail City Editor Alex Brummer commented Tuesday, We live in perilous times and Bailey, who is not heard that often, is sounding the alarm.

The Financial Times was scathing of Johnson, using his own franglais insult directed against President Macron for complaining about the AUKUS military pact. Its editorial was headlined, Memo to Boris Johnson: prenez un grip. It noted, First came gaps on supermarket shelves, then soaring energy bills. Now petrol stations are running out of fuel; the army is on standby to help out. Less than two weeks ago, Boris Johnsons cabinet reshuffle was intended to be a relaunch for the post-Covid era. Instead, his team seems increasingly to be buffeted by events but not in control.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHI) - We now know when a Vigo County casino license is expected to be granted.

The Indiana Gaming Commission held a meeting on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

Gaming Commission Executive Director Greg Small said the commission should select Vigo County's casino application winner on November 17.

Small said four good prospects applied for the license, and the process should be very competitive.

LINK | See plans for all four here

Those applicants are Churchill Downs, Full House Resorts, Premier Gaming Group, and Hard Rock.

The application process reopened after the gaming commission denied a license renewal to Lucy Luck Gaming.

Lucy Luck is still awaiting an outcome to an appeal.
VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Vermillion county was one of the recipients of Indiana's STOP Violence Against Women Grant.

This grant gives over three million dollars to 53 counties and organizations across the state. Vermillion County received $70,807 and will use that money to fund a part-time prosecutor and investigator.

This duo will work specifically with sexual assault and domestic violence crimes.

The STOP grant has been allowing this team to work since 2016, and officials believe that having people dedicated to investigating these crimes, has encouraged others to come forward with their stories.

"We have seen an increase in the number of sexual assault cases, but a lot of that comes down to this program. We have dedicated people. We follow these cases from the very beginning," said Kerri Burke, the Vermillion County Victim Advocate.

Vermillion County will also run a campaign in local high schools that brings awareness to some of the warning signs of dating violence.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama health officials are urging schools to continue requiring masks despite a decline in COVID-19 cases in the state, which has one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates and worst death rates.

The state department of public health said Tuesday nearly 23% of COVID infections in Alabama are among children up to the age of 17. As of Monday, at least 30 children were hospitalized for the disease, and three were on ventilators.

Consistent and correct mask use in schools has helped reduce the number of cases of COVID-19, helped schools remain open to in-person learning in Alabama, and helped prevent the consequences of this serious disease, the department said in a news release.

The release cited studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found masks were critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Alabama left masking decisions to local officials, resulting in a patchwork of rules that vary in districts just a few miles apart. While Birmingham city schools require face masks, nearby Vestavia Hills dropped its mandate and made face masks optional last week. Shelby County has said it will quit requiring facial coverings at the end of the month.

Alabama has had 14,155 deaths related to COVID-19, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. The death count is the 16th highest in the country overall and the fourth highest per capita at nearly 290 deaths per 100,000 people.

Health officials attribute much of the problem to Alabama's vaccination rate, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks worst in the Southeast and among the lowest in the nation. Roughly 42% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has decreased by 1,397 a decrease of about 36%, and hospitalizations have fallen below 1,500 after reaching nearly 2,900 on Sept. 1.

Even with the improvement, Alabama still ranked 10th nationally for the rate of new cases over the past week. There were 785 new cases per 100,000 people in Alabama over the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins.
HOULKA, Miss. (WTVA) - Sixteen-year-old Haley Thomas' family is asking the public for help in finding her.

Toni Cooper last saw her daughter on July 25 at approximately 2 a.m. She hugged her mother and said, "I love you." She then went back into her room.

Haley Thomas disappeared in July 2021. Haley Thomas disappeared in July 2021.

When Cooper woke up several hours later, she yelled Thomas' name but didn't get an answer. Her daughter was nowhere to be found.

She was gone. Everything in her room, but her bed, dresser and TV was gone, Cooper said.

Cooper called Thomas' aunt Lisa Turley for help. The two tried to get in contact with Thomas, but her phone was deactivated and her computer was wiped clean.

Turley said she cant believe the girl she helped raised is gone.

I need to know shes OK," Turley said. "That shes safe, shes got somewhere to lay her head, got something to eat. Not knowing is killing me."

Houlka Police Chief Phillip Smith said officers tracked down every lead for months but Thomas disappeared without a trace.

Related - Information still sought into disappearance of Houlka teen

Smith recently called the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for extra help. They believe Thomas could be a victim of human trafficking.

We just want to get Haley home, and any help will be thoroughly appreciated, Smith said.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Houlka Police Department or the Chickasaw County Sheriff's Department.
Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears, is claiming the man nominated to replace him is not qualified to serve as a conservator of the pop star's estate, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles on Monday.

Britney and her attorney recently nominated John Zabel, a certified public accountant, to replace her father should Jamie Spears step down or be removed from the arrangement. Her father vowed to step down when the "time is right" and said the conservatorship should be terminated soon  something his legal team repeated on Monday.

"There is no need for a temporary conservator because there is no vacancy in the position of conservator," Jamie's attorneys wrote. "Mr. Spears continues to serve faithfully as Conservator of the Estate, as he has done for the past thirteen years. Mr. Spears has not and should not be suspended, especially since the Conservatorship should soon be terminated."

Jamie's attorney said Zabel is not a "licensed professional fiduciary" and does not have the background or experience it takes to manage a $60 million conservatorship. The attorney also claimed Zabel was "scammed" out of $1 million of his own funds in a real estate scheme in 2008.

"This is not a situation where a layperson could step in and learn on the job, as it appears Mr. Zabel would have to do," the filing reads. "Therefore, it would not be in the best interests of the Conservatee for the Court."

Zabel and Britney's attorney did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment. Both parties will be back in court on Wednesday afternoon.

In a separate petition, Jamie's attorney requested the judge presiding over the case, LA Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny, immediately focus on the request to end the conservatorship and have both sides attend a mandatory settlement or private mediation where all of Britney's pending petitions could be settled.

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"The last thing this Court or this Conservatee needs or wants would be extended and expensive litigation over pending or final accounts and fee petitions," the filing reads. "There may be some issues to resolve, but despite the unfounded arguments of Conservatee's new counsel, Mr. Spears does not believe that they are numerous or complicated. If the parties were directed to attend a Mandatory Settlement Conference, or in the alternative a private mediation, and everyone would act in good faith, Mr. Spears believes that all pending issues could be resolved."

Jamie Spears in 2012 and Britney Spears in 2019. / Credit: AP

Britney has spent several years trying to oust her father from his role as conservator. In an explosive June testimony, she called the conservatorship "abusive," saying she felt minimized and her father controlled everything she did.

Recent allegations from the New York Times claim that Jamie was responsible for illegally bugging his daughter's home and personal cellphones to record and monitor her private conversations, including those about the conservatorship. Britney's counsel asked the court to investigate the claims, calling the alleged surveillance "unfathomable" and saying it showed Jamie should be removed from his role as soon as possible.

Jamie's attorneys maintain there is no reason to replace him, saying all the evidence against him is flawed and inadmissible. They also claimed probate investigators have not discovered wrongdoing over the 13 years he served as a conservator.

"It is worth noting that for thirteen years, during the entire course of this conservatorship, probate investigators have conducted regular and recurring investigations based on interviews with numerous individuals, including medical professionals," Monday's filing reads.

"In all that time, to the best of Mr. Spears' knowledge and belief, not a single medical professional nor the report of a single probate investigator has recommended that Mr. Spears' presence as Conservator was harming Ms. Spears or that he should be replaced as Conservator of the Estate."

Progressive Democrats push back on bipartisan infrastructure bill

Montana hospital overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients amid another surge

Epik data breach exposes people linked to far-right extremist groups
Its a critical time in Congress as lawmakers juggle the threat of a government shutdown, economic turmoil and the fate of President Joe Bidens agenda. And no one has any idea what will happen.

Lawmakers are scrambling to fund the government before the Sept. 30 deadline. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress the agency will run out of cash by Oct. 18, at which point the country will stop being able to pay its bills, Social Security and veterans benefits will be at risk of serious delay, and the already fragile economy will likely take a downturn.

Republicans are refusing to vote to raise the debt ceiling by mid-October, ostensibly to protest government spending, even though they added trillions to the deficit during the Trump administration. Democrats technically have the ability to raise it on their own through the reconciliation process but say the procedural maneuver is just too tricky and would derail the legislative calendar  which is very likely why Republicans are refusing to help out.

Meanwhile, the entirety of the Biden agenda is seemingly on the brink of crashing down. Conservative Democrats refuse to move negotiations forward on a reconciliation bill unless the House sends a bipartisan infrastructure bill to Bidens desk. But progressive Democrats refuse to back the bipartisan infrastructure bill until theres meaningful progress on the reconciliation bill, which is meant to advance some of the most important aspects of Bidens agenda, from climate proposals to policies like paid leave.

Trust among the Democratic ranks has been slowly unraveling for months as conservative Democrats show just how far they are from the agenda Biden campaigned and won on. And progressives, who are suddenly aligned with the president and, for the most part, the partys leadership, dont believe their moderate colleagues will negotiate in good faith.

Look, I understand, all of us are frustrated about this, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters Wednesday. We are working on the bill.  Were going to do the best that we can do.

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) leave the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as Congress juggles several high-stakes bills. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)

Republicans leave Democrats to deal with the debt alone.

Congress is facing some major deadlines. One is on Sept. 30, when funding to operate the federal government lapses. Democratic leadership wants to extend funding at current levels through Dec. 3, and so far it looks like they will do so.

The Senate has plans to pass a spending bill, with some additional funds for hurricane relief and Afghan refugees, within the next 24 hours. Republicans more or less seem to be on board.

But Congress has another deadline to meet that Republicans want nothing to do with: The Treasury Department says it will run out of cash to pay the nations bills by mid-October.

Congress has had to raise the debt ceiling more than 90 times over the course of history, including three times under Trump, in order to allow the Treasury Department to borrow money to pay the debts incurred from past legislation.

Senate Republicans objected to a House-passed bill this week that would have both funded the government through December and also averted the United States defaulting on its debt holdings. They also objected to an attempt from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to raise the debt ceiling on its own.

Its not that congressional Republicans want the country to default; they want to make Democrats deal with the debt ceiling, and they want to make it as hard as possible for them to do so. To go it alone, Democrats would have to do it through the reconciliation process, a budget maneuver that allows Democrats to pass a bill with only a simple majority.

There is no chance, no chance the Republican conference will go out of our way to help Democrats conserve their time and energy, so they can resume ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said.

Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), right, are refusing to vote to raise the debt ceiling. (Photo: MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images)

Democrats already have plans for a reconciliation bill  one thats supposed to make much of the Biden agenda a reality, from climate proposals to health care, education and worker reforms. Earlier this summer they passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that set up the framework to pass such a legislative package  the Build Back Better Act.

To include the debt ceiling, however, theyd have to amend their budget framework. Its unclear how long that would take. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said its possible, though not preferred, Democrats will have to do this. But in the Senate, Democrats are less sure. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called it a nonstarter this week.

Amending the budget resolution would open up the process to delay tactics from Republicans. It wouldnt be easy, and it would put a hard Oct. 18 deadline on the reconciliation process.

That raises another problem for Democrats: They cant actually agree to what the Build Back Better Act actually is.

The reconciliation bill is in a crisis of its own.

Its hard to imagine Democrats coming to an agreement on a reconciliation bill within the next three weeks or so. They have already spent weeks in negotiations  and have succeeded in not actually negotiating anything at all.

Theyre stuck. And no one seems to know how to get unstuck.

The problem with negotiations around the reconciliation bill begins with a disagreement over whether to begin negotiations around the reconciliation bill.

Its a drama that goes back several months, when Democratic leadership announced a two-track legislative strategy to pass the Biden agenda. One track was the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which would tackle the roads, bridges and ports kind of infrastructure Democrats and Republicans could agree on. The other track was a partisan reconciliation bill, which would address the many social welfare and climate policies Democrats have been campaigning on for decades.

Progressive Democrats werent happy with the results of the bipartisan infrastructure bill  negotiated primarily by conservatives and moderates in their party  but their leadership told them the other track would answer a lot of their demands. In June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave public assurances: She said she wouldnt bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill up for a vote until the Senate passed the reconciliation bill.

But conservative Democrats didnt want to start negotiating the reconciliation package until the infrastructure bill was on the presidents desk. Slim Democratic majorities in both chambers made their protest all the more politically powerful.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) says House progressives will not vote to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill without meaningful progress on reconciliation. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)

And so Pelosi began walking back her promise to progressives, scheduling a vote on the infrastructure bill for Sept. 30, which the most progressive House members said amounted to an act of betrayal.

Let me be clear: bringing the so-called bipartisan infrastructure plan to a vote without the #BuildBackBetter Act at the same time is a betrayal, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted Tuesday. We will hold the line and vote it down.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) who chairs the congressional progressive caucus, vowed progressives would vote the bipartisan infrastructure bill down.

We have been clear that our members have to deliver the entirety of the presidents agenda, and frankly we have 96% of all the Democrats in the House and the Senate who agree with us that were ready to go forward with the bill as its written, the Build Back Better Agenda and the infrastructure bill, Jayapal said on CNN this week.

On Wednesday, the eve of the scheduled House infrastructure vote, Pelosi changed her tune again: The vote would only be held if there was some legislative language out of the Senate on the reconciliation bill that could give progressives assurances that Democrats could proceed in good faith on reconciliation.

One problem: Theres no legislative text. And lawmakers are nowhere close to that either.

That wont happen, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters Wednesday. All we need to do is pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, sit down, and start negotiating in good faith. Thats it.

In other words, back to square one.

What bill?

Repeatedly asked Wednesday to give an update on what is in the reconciliation bill, Sanders, visibly frustrated by the line of questioning, finally said: What bill?

His comments summed up the chaos of the moment.

One version is what the White House has proposed, with the backing of Democratic leadership and progressives: a $3.5 trillion package that includes a paid leave program, subsidies for electric vehicles, a national child care program, funding for affordable housing, an extension to the boosted child tax credit, expanded benefits for Medicare recipients and much more.

But conservative Democrats have made it increasingly clear they are not comfortable with that size of that package. Its actually not even clear if they are comfortable with starting negotiations.

After a meeting at the White House last week, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who co-chairs the moderate Blue Dog Caucus, said she didnt think Democrats should be prioritizing new programs, which would rule out many major Biden proposals.

My preference is to work through programs that we already know work, that the infrastructure currently exists and that we are able to measure the impact on the American people, Murphy said, though she added she is open to some new policies like paid family leave.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is one of two Democratic senators with major issues with the Build Back Better agenda. (Photo: STEFANI REYNOLDS via Getty Images)

In the Senate, the dissension is coming mainly from two senators: Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who for the last week have been in constant meetings with White House aides and Biden himself.

Few in the Senate know exactly where those two senators stand on a reconciliation bill. Its been reported that Sinema, who largely doesnt speak to the press, wants the overall package to be less than a third of the size that Biden has proposed.

Manchin, meanwhile, has expressed frustration not only with the overall size, but also with specific policies. Hes wary of provisions that would eliminate fossil fuels, he wants to means-test more programs, and even suggested adding work requirements to the child tax credit.

In a scathing statement Wednesday, the West Virginia senator called the proposed new spending fiscal insanity, emphasizing that every program in the reconciliation bill should be means-tested, targeting the neediest families.

The White House has largely taken over negotiations with the two senators.

Its a very fluid situation with them and well know when the White House said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), trailing off. Were all talking.

Sanders, meanwhile, spent the day tempering expectations on when this will all get done.

This is not some small, little piece of legislation, Sanders said. This is six or seven major pieces of legislation, any one of which in a given year would be seen to be very consequential.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Steven Van Zandts kitchen looks exactly as you might expect from a guy whose everyday attire includes head scarves and printed shirts.

The black-and-white-striped walls and purple velvet couch with gold trim set in the background of the room in his New York home are the epitome of Zany Rock Star Living. But while Van Zandt has always embraced his colorful persona, hes also a laser-focused professional, whether sharing syllables at a mic with Bruce Springsteen, shrugging and mugging as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, fronting his Disciples of Soul band or steering his syndicated radio show, Little Stevens Underground Garage (he also programs the Underground Garage and Outlaw Country channels on SiriusXM).

Steven Van Zandt is known for his tenure in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, but his memoir expounds on his colorful background.

Van Zandts new memoir, Unrequited Infatuations, out now, is a rollicking read that spans his Italian-American upbringing, the dive bar days with Springsteen, his ill-timed departure from the E Street Band, his commitment to illuminating the horrors of apartheid, reuniting with Springsteen and his surprising third act as an actor.

In a freewheeling Zoom call, Van Zandt, 70, talked about working on his memoir during quarantine  he started it 10 years ago, but struggled with finding an ending  his loyalty to Springsteen and why he believes The Rolling Stones are doing the right thing by carrying on without Charlie Watts.

Q: You tell the story  which Im not sure a lot of people realized  about how you created the character of Silvio Dante on The Sopranos. Did you have any input for John Magaro, who is playing the role in The Many Saints of Newark?

Van Zandt: He did it all on his own. He didnt need me. He had 86 episodes (of The Sopranos) to look at! Hes a terrific actor. I saw an early cut of the film and its great.

"Extraordinary": Elvis Costello praises Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show

Related video: Bruce Springsteen's manager settles 'Thunder Road' lyric debate

Q: Youre such a vivid storyteller. Did you have anyone assisting with writing the book, or is this all you?

Story continues

Van Zandt: My editor, Ben Greenman, really helped to keep me on the path. Even though it starts off as a music book, I didnt want it to be that. By the second half of the book, it becomes an odyssey. I wanted it to be a detective novel: you dont know what is coming next because I didnt know myself. I wanted to write every word and I explained to the publisher, the way Im going to be sure this is in my voice is that Im going to picture doing the audiobook and Im going to write it that way. Its not going to be grammatically correct, but if you read it the way Im going write it, you will hear my voice.

Steven Van Zandt talks Bruce Springsteen, solo career,

Q: Did you have Bruce read it before finalizing?

Van Zandt: Yes. I said, if theres anything you disagree with or remember different, I will take it out immediately because I didnt want a journalist blindsiding him and saying, Stevie said this in his book and you said this in yours. I have no sense of time. You want the encyclopedia of our lives, Im not the guy. Im gonna tell you what I remember and the way I remember. In the end, I wanted to keep the Bruce stuff to a minimum, but he ended up being in there more than I expected because hes been such a big part of my life.

Springsteen reflects: 20 years after 9/11 and 'The Rising'

Q: You write a lot about being at peace with the way destiny shook out as your career went along. But is there still a part of you that regrets leaving the E Street Band in 84, just before the Born in the U.S.A. tour?

Van Zandt: Totally. Forever. That will never go away. My life ended. I committed suicide for all intents and purposes and you do have to die to be reborn. That was the end of my life, which occurred to me as I was flying down to South Africa (to research apartheid). Then my Voice of America (album) comes out and I didnt know Bruce was going to call the album Born in the U.S.A. and have the same red, white and blue and flags. ... At that point I was like, oh, I blew it. I blew my life. A couple of things happen when that occurs; you lose all fear. All of a sudden Im going to dangerous places thinking whats the worst that can happen? They gonna kill me? OK, Im ready to go. You tend to suddenly do things in a more committed way, that life is over so whatever is left, I really have to make it count.

Steven Van Zandt hopes to return to the stage with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in 2022, but is also planning a return to TV.

Q: You mention in the book about going to see The Rolling Stones perform Sticky Fingers in 2015 and talking to Charlie Watts about it. What do you think about the band continuing on, since obviously they can never be the same without him?

Van Zandt: No, theyre not, and they werent the same after Brian Jones or Mick Taylor or Bill Wyman. They were huge parts of the band and people underestimate Bills enormous musical role in that band. So yeah, it will be a different Rolling Stones  like were a different E Street Band  but I agree that they should continue. As long as Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) are there, its the Stones. In the end you want them to continue because the music is bigger than any individual. But Charlie will certainly be missed.

Q: Will we see you on an arena stage next year with the E Street Band?

Van Zandt: Who the hell knows with whats going on? Its very hard to plan anything. Im going to give Bruce first priority and Ill be there with him if he decides to go. If not, Im going to try to get back on TV. I miss it. Id consider going back to Lilyhammer if Netflix wanted to. The show doubled its audience during quarantine. We were the first new (original) show on Netflix (in 2012) and on my first promo tour I had to explain to people what Netflix was (laughs). Its such as strange and wondrous world.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steven Van Zandt talks Springsteen, 'The Sopranos' in new memoir
Were licensed for 226 beds and yesterday morning, I think for the first time ever, our morning census actually exceeded that number. We had 229 patients in the hospital, said Dr. Marty Brueggemann, chief medical officer at Memorial Hospital.
Gergely Gulyas, the prime ministers chief of staff, paid tribute to renowned architect Imre Makovecz, a main proponent of organic architecture in Hungary.

Addressing the convention of the Hungarian Arts Academy (MMA), marking the 10th anniversary of his death, he said: Makoveczs oeuvre is a fundamental value of our nation, adding that Makovecz had been committed to and fought to set up the MMA.



He highlighted among Makoveczs designs the Hungarian pavilion at Expo92 in Seville, the campus of the Pazmany Peter Catholic University and houses built in Hungarian villages hit by the red sludge disaster in 2010.



Makovecz was famous for standing by things that seemed lost if he believed they were worthy of support, Gulyas said.





MTI Photo: Tamas Kovacs
Lucknow: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met various people, including doctors and health workers here Wednesday, and praised them for their efforts during the pandemic.

Ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Priyanka Gandhi is on a five-day visit in Lucknow to review and discuss the party's preparedness for the polls.

On the third day of her visit Wednesday, she continued her meetings with senior party leaders to discuss the strategy for the polls, Pankaj Srivastava, vice chairman of the Media and Communication Department of the UP Congress Committee, told media.

She will continue meetings at Kaul house with party office bearers.

During meetings on Tuesday, the party's general secretary had discussions relating to setting up "war rooms" at district levels to receive feedback from the ground so as to take prompt decisions on emergent issues as part of the election strategy.

She also discussed the route for the party's proposed 'Pratigya Yatra'.

The party leaders also discussed the booth management strategy considered important for the polls, party officials said.

This is her second visit this month after September 13, when she stayed in the state for five days.

The Congress party had fought the 2017 UP polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

The grand old party had managed to win just seven of the 114 contested seats with a vote share of 6.25 percent.

This time, the Congress party has announced that it would fight the 2022 polls without aligning with any big political party.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the trailer release of the much-awaited film, 'Sardar Udham', Amazon Prime Video has dropped a new poster of the film. It shows Vicky Kaushal in the titular role of Udham Singh - a revolutionary who showed unmatched bravery to avenge the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.

Taking to social media, Vicky Kaushal shared: With a racing mind and a clear vision He came. He saw. He conquered in their own territory. The journey of #SardarUdham begins. Trailer out tomorrow.

Watch #SardarUdhamOnPrime, Oct. 16 only on @primevideoin

A few days back, Sardar Udham biopic's teaser was released and it received a warm reception from fans and industry friends. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan also showered praises on filmmaker Shoojir Sircar, wishing the best for him.

Directed by Shoojit Sircar, Sardar Udham will premiere on Amazon Prime Video this Dussehra on October 16, 2021. The trailer of this highly-anticipated film will be dropped tomorrow.
New Delhi: Gold is currently trading at Rs 10,000 lower than its record highs on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), offering a wonderful opportunity to investors planning to invest in the yellow metal in the festive season. In such a situation, brands such as Tanishq and Kalyan Jewellers are offering customers an opportunity to invest in gold at just Rs 100, but with a catch.

Customers can now buy gold worth just Rs 100 from Tanishq and Kalyan Jewellers via the Digital Gold Platform. The demand for gold is expected to surge in the festive season.

Therefore, other brands such as PC Jewelers Ltd. and Senco Gold & Diamonds have also started offering digital gold for as low as Rs 100.

Brands have also partnered with other third-party firms to sell gold digitally. However, such investments can be made only online, presenting an opportunity to invest in digital gold, instead of physical gold.

Customers can visit the official website and mobile apps of the jewellers to purchase gold online. They can also request the delivery of gold as soon as they have bought at least one gram of gold.

Currently, gold is trading with a hike of Rs 264 on Wednesday at about Rs Rs 45,123 per 10 gram in the national capital Delhi. On Tuesday, gold was trading at about Rs 44,859 per 10 grams. Also Read: Leaked! Google Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro prices are out ahead of launch: Check price, features

"Gold prices pared some of the previous losses on Wednesday after falling to seven-week lows," according to HDFC Securities, Senior Analyst (Commodities), Tapan Patel told PTI. Also Read: PM Poshan scheme gets Cabinets approval: 10 important things you need to know

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New Delhi: The South Delhi restaurant which had made news last week after it allegedly denied entry to a woman dressed in a saree was issued a closure notice by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. As per SDMC officials, a closure notice was issued to the Aquila Restaurant located at Ansal Plaza in Andrews Ganj for operating without a valid licence.

The closure notice states that during a check on September 21, the public health inspector found that the facility is running without a health trade licence and under unhygienic conditions. Also, encroachment of public land by the eatery was flagged.

"The public health inspector again inspected the site and found that the trade is running under the same condition. You are directed to close the trade within 48 hours of the receipt of this notice failing which suitable action including sealing will be taken without assigning further notice," the SDMC notice read.

The owner informed that operations to the restaurant has been shut following the civic body's order.

Last week, a woman had posted a small clip on social media in which she was allegedly denied entry into the south Delhi restaurant because she was wearing a saree. The woman had also posted the video of her argument with the restaurant staff, alongside a couple of pictures of herself in the saree.

She uploaded the video on Facebook with the caption, "Listen to this video carefully as there is a restaurant in Delhi where Saree is not considered a smart outfit"."After that many excuses were given against the saree but I was not allowed to sit in the restaurant because Indian paridhan saree is not a smart outfit in our India, Bharat, Hindustan."

Further, she said in a country like India where saree is a traditional dress but yet in some parts of the country it is not considered a smart outfit. "I ask the ministers, Delhi Police and NCW to give me a concrete definition of 'smart outfit' so that I can stop wearing saree," she said.

The restaurant, Aquila later claimed that the incident was "misrepresented". It said in an Instagram post that the restaurant is a home grown brand that believes in honouring the Indian community and has always welcomed their guests in all dress codes from modern to traditional. "We believe in utmost transparency and are hence attaching snippets of people who have visited our restaurant in a traditional dress code previously," added the restaurant in the statement.

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New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched the `Deshbhakti Curriculum` in all the Delhi government schools with an aim to instil patriotism among school students.

During its launch, Delhi Chief Minister said the Deshbhakti Curriculum will prove to be a milestone in India`s progress journey, which will inculcate patriotism in children from a tender age, thereby making them true patriots who will stay true to their country by staying true to their jobs.

"With this curriculum, we will not just produce doctors, engineers, lawyers and other professionals, but we will produce a patriot doctor, a patriot engineer and a patriot lawyer, who will put their country first. They will no longer be driven by the money factor. Instead, they will do what is best for their nation and countrymen," Kejriwal said while launching the Deshbhakti Curriculum at the Chhatrasal Stadium in the presence of hundreds of Delhi government school teachers and students.

HISTORIC DAY FOR INDIA #DeshBhaktiCurriculum Launched by CM @ArvindKejriwal & Dy CM @msisodia! Now students of Delhi Schools will be prepared to fulfil their responsibilities & contribute towards the nation's progress! pic.twitter.com/xRREFQW8bX  AAP (@AamAadmiParty) September 28, 2021

What is Deshbhakti Curriculum?

-Deshbhakti Curriculum, introduced by the AAP government in all Delhi government schools aims to instill patriotism among school students.

-Starting the class with five minutes of "deshbahkti dhyan", maintaining "deshbhakti diary", Flag Day activity and exploring why "India is glorious but still not developed" will be the main features of the Delhi government's ambitious patriotism curriculum.

-The curriculum for classes nursery to 12, which was launched at a mega event at Chattrasal stadium, will not have any textbooks.

-As part of the curriculum, 40-minute classes will be conducted every day for classes six to eight and twice a week for classes nine to 12.

-Each class will begin with a five-minute activity called 'deshbhakti dhyan. During the mediation, students will chant the lines 'I bow before my country and I respect Bharat Mata' through their minds."

-The children will then be asked to take a vow to honour their country and preserve its respect.

-In the end, the students will be asked to think of five people who they consider patriots and thank them in their minds.

-The students will be asked to maintain a new notebook or diary as "deshbhakti diary" which will be a reflective journal to document learnings, thoughts and feelings along the journey of the Deshbhakti Curriculum and will have notes related to the homework.

-The topics include taking responsibility towards the country and its progress, constructive criticism, respect for and harmonious coexistence with others, critically thinking about issues confronting the country, comprehensive conception of patriotism, linking patriotism to the lived realities and everyday actions of students and working for the country's development with pride and honesty.

-Some of the chapters under the Deshbhakti Curriculum are: 'My India is glorious but why not developed', 'Deshbhakti: My country my pride', 'Who is a Deshbhakt' and 'India of my dreams'.

-Facilitator's handbooks have been designed for three cohorts -- nursery to class five; classes six to eight and classes nine to 12 -- and these will be used to inculcate patriotism among the students through simple activities.

-The facilitator's handbooks for two cohorts -- classes six to eight and nine to 12 -- and 100 stories of freedom fighters and patriots were also unveiled at the launch event by CM Arvind Kejriwal.

-As part of the homework activities, students will ask the key question of the chapter to three people older than them- one from their family and two outside of their family. The activity is intended to help children to seek views and opinions of people around them -- adults and acquaintances.

-This will encourage them to listen to different views and thoughts of the people around them about the country, enhance the expanse of discussion and broaden student perspective.

When was Deshbhakti Curriculum announced?

The chief minister had announced the plan for Deshbhakti Curriculum on the 73rd Independence Day celebrations in 2019. The curriculum has been prepared by Delhi government school teachers, with inputs from NGO partners and experts.

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New Delhi: The Delhi government is expected to take a call on permitting Ramlilas during the Dussehra festival and reopening of schools for junior classes in a crucial meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

Office bearers of some prominent Ramlila organising committees in the city had met Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday and urged him that the curb imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic be lifted.

The DDMA, in its previous order, had banned all kinds of religious, political, cultural and social gatherings because of the pandemic. The issues of allowing Ramlila and reopening schools for junior classes are likely to be discussed in the meeting of the DDMA for a final call, official sources said.

Arjun Kumar, the secretary of Luv Kush Ram Leela Committee, one of the oldest in the city, said, "A delegation met the LG seeking approval for holding Ramlila. We are hopeful that the permission will be granted by the DDMA."

All schools for classes nine to 12 had reopened in Delhi from September 1 following the improvement in the Covid situation in the city. Many private schools have demanded the Delhi government allow students from classes six to eight to physically attend school claiming the Covid situation has improved significantly in the city.

A DDMA-constituted panel has recommended phase-wise reopening of schools in the national capital. It had recommended reopening schools for classes nine to 12 from September 1 and for classes six to eight from September 8.

The DDMA order issued earlier this month, listing various prohibited and allowed activities under phased reopening from Covid-caused lockdown, will expire on midnight of September 30.

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New Delhi: In a landmark decision, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, September 29, gave its nod to the rollout of the 'PM POSHAN in Schools' scheme - a school meal programme that aims to provide hot cooked meals to students in elementary classes in government and government-aided schools across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) took the step in a meeting on Wednesday, along with several other key economic decisions aimed at bolstering Indias economic and social development.

Here are the top 10 most important things to know about the PM Poshan scheme

1. PM POSHAN scheme will provide mid-day meals to students of more than 11.2 lakh government and government-aided schools.

2. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said that the scheme will run for five years, from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

3. About Rs 1.31 lakh crores will be spent on the scheme, Thakur added.

4. Central government will fund Rs 54,061.73 crores.

5. The scheme is launched with a financial outlay of Rs 31,733.17 crore from the state governments and union territory administrations.

6. Additionally, the Central government will also incur the additional cost of grains, which would be about Rs 45,000 crore.

7. The PM POSHAN scheme will provide hot meals to school students in classes 1 to 8th.

8. More than 11.80 crore students are expected to benefit from the scheme.

9. PM POSHAN scheme was previously named Mid-Day meal scheme. Also Read: Leaked! Google Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro prices are out ahead of launch: Check price, features

10. People from different communities will be encouraged to cook meals to encourage Tithi Bhojan. Also Read: iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro deliveries get delayed, heres why Apple is lagging

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New Delhi: Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story fame actor Pratik Gandhi has opened up about his financial struggles in an interview. The actor revealed that his wife suffered from a brain tumor, his father had cancer and there came a time when his family became homeless. Pratik however says he did not lose hope despite all the adversities.

Financial trouble, financial crisis, medical trouble, I've seen it all. But I never experienced a moment of breakdown or self-doubt, somehow. I'm the kind of person, the moment I see issues, I tend to think about the solutions. And that's how my mind is trained, the actor told Bollywood Bubble.

He further added, I guess everybody goes through this. There were some medical emergencies at home, be it my wife's brain tumour operation, my father's cancer. Eventually we lost him in 2018. Buying a house in Mumbai is a big deal. Even after a decade of being in Mumbai, there was a time when we didn't have a house, suddenly the whole family was homeless.

Pratik also shared that it was a tough decision to switch to acting when you have a family to support. You struggle at that time, you manoeuver yourself, your emotions, and the whole family. And when you have a full-fledged family and you decide to quit your stable job and get into something like this, that is another struggle.

Pratik Gandhi got overnight fame after featuring in the hit web series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. The actor will be seen appearing in a special episode of Amitabh Bachchan hosted Kaun Banega Crorepati. The actor also has the film Bhavai, Amazon miniTV short film Shimmy, and Disney+ Hotstar's Six Suspects in his kitty.
New Delhi: Hollywood star Salma Hayek, who is gearing up for the release of her Marvel superhero movie, 'Eternals', admitted she didn't originally envision herself in the role.

According to People magazine, Hayek told a magazine that she was surprised to book the part of Ajak, described by the outlet as "the leader of a group of immortal superbeings" in the upcoming Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)-directed film.

Hayek said, "I was shocked to get that role in my 50s. I felt a sense of gratitude and excitement, not only for this but for what it meant about the possibilities for the future."

Oscar-winner Zhao told the outlet that Hayek is a great fit for the role of Ajak, whom she described as "the leader," adding, "She is full of wisdom and very perceptive -- a mother figure to all the Eternals."

While Marvel fans will have to wait until November 5 to see Hayek bring Ajak to life on the big screen, the actor did spill a few details about her character to another magazine.

"Chloe decided to tackle the concept of leadership from the perspective of motherhood," she said, adding, "I'm not a mother. I'm an alien. I can't have kids.

"However, my character used to be a man in the comics, now it's a woman. So instead of just changing the gender, I proposed to [Zhao] to really bring something that is very specific to womanhood."

Hayek, who celebrated her 55th birthday earlier this month, opened up about her perspective on ageing, telling, "Growing old, to me, has to do with repetition."

"Something gets old when you've done it for a long time," she said, before adding, "If you're always changing, if you're always curious, how can you be old? You're someone new today."

Hayek marked her birthday this year with a tropical getaway, where she posted a photo of herself on Instagram with the caption, "Happy 55th birthday to me, looking forward to new adventures #grateful."
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will embark on a two-day trip to Punjab during which he will make "big" announcements, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said on Tuesday (September 28).

Kejriwal will visit Ludhiana on Wednesday and hold a meeting with traders there, the party said on Twitter.

"Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will go on a two-day Punjab tour. He will visit Ludhiana tomorrow and meet traders. Kejriwal will hold a press conference on September 30. Will make big announcements in it," the AAP said in a tweet in Hindi.

AAP's Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha also said that Kejriwal will make big announcements.

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi Sh. @ArvindKejriwal will be on a two day visit to Punjab, starting tomorrow.

Stay tuned for big announcements!  Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) September 28, 2021

"Chief Minister of Delhi @ArvindKejriwal will be on a two day visit to Punjab, starting tomorrow. Stay tuned for big announcements," he tweeted.

The Punjab assembly elections are due early next year.

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New Delhi: BJP has slammed Congress for inducting former JNU student and CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar into the party, saying it has become an "obvious choice" for those involved in anti-India activities.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia on Tuesday said that the anti-India Congress was an obvious choice for people like Kanhaiya Kumar whose ideology matches theirs.

Commenting on the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar joining the Congress, Bhatia said, "Congress is the natural first choice of any person, be it Kanhaiya Kumar or anyone else, with an anti-India ideology. The reason is simple: today, the Congress party, its leadership and ideology are synonyms with anti-India politics."

           ,     

         "   "

   

"       "  Gaurav Bhatia   (@gauravbh) September 28, 2021

"Thus, Congress welcomes leaders like him who are known to support those who chant the slogan of Bharat tere tukde honge, and also extends support to those who support terrorist like Afzal Guru," he added.

Recalling Kumar`s controversial statement about the men of the ''Indian Army raping the women in Kashmir'', Bhatia said, "It hurts the sentiments of Indians. Every Indian is proud of the Army for the supreme sacrifices they make for the integrity and unity of the country. When a leader makes such a derogatory remark, there is only one place where he seeks refuge--the Indian National Congress."

Looks like the Grand Old Party is negotiating for a second hand Air Conditioner! But, will it work now? pic.twitter.com/nBuw8bZ6Jv  BJYM (@BJYM) September 28, 2021

BJP national youth wing secretary Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga also slammed Congress for inducting CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar into the party.

It was Kaniya Kumar who had earlier spoken of breaking India. Dialogues like Bharat tere tukde honge and Afzal tere armano ko manzil taak pochayenge were heard from Kanhaiya. He also claimed that Indian army rapes and today Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are standing with garland to welcome him in the party, Bagga said.

on Kanhaiya Kumar Joining pic.twitter.com/STE3bKitPN  Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) September 28, 2021

It may be noted that after Kanhaiya Kumar on Tuesday formally said that he has joined the country's "oldest and most democratic" party because he and many youngsters like him feel that the nation cannot survive without saving the Congress.

In a veiled attack at the BJP, Kumar said, "I am joining Congress because I feel that an ideology is trying to ruin the values, culture, history, and future of this country... Crores of youngsters feel that this country can't be saved without saving Congress."

Addressing a press conference after joining the party, Kumar also said, "I am joining Congress because it's not just a party, it's an idea. It's the country's oldest and most democratic party, and I am emphasising on 'democratic'...Not just me, many think that country can't survive without Congress."

Kumar said that if the Congress is saved, the aspirations of many people along with the oneness of Mahatma Gandhi, the courage of Bhagat Singh and BR Ambedkar's idea of equality will be protected.

"Congress party is like a big ship, if it's saved, I believe many people's aspirations, Mahatma Gandhi's oneness, Bhagat Singh's courage and BR Ambedkar's idea of equality will be protected too. This is why I have joined the party," Kanhaiya Kumar said.

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New Delhi: Former Goa Chief Minister and Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro is all set to join Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress (TMC) along with three others on Wednesday (September 29).

Former Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar, Sahitya Akademi awardee N Shivdas and environmentalist Rajendra Shivaji Kakodkar will also join TMC today, ANI reported.

Faleiro, who has served two terms as Chief Minister of Goa, on Monday tendered his resignation as an MLA to the Speaker of Goa Assembly. Addressing a press conference in Panaji following his resignation, the ex-Goa CM said, "Mamata Banerjee has fought and succeeded in stopping Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from entering Bengal. She symbolises woman empowerment - she can bring the country back on the track of development and progress."

Before quitting, Faleiro served as the Chairman of the Election Coordination Committee for Goa Assembly polls and was All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of North-Eastern states.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao had told ANI that Faleiro has resigned from the primary membership of the party as well. His resignation becomes significant as Goa will witness elections next year.

Faleiro is the second big name who left Congress to join TMC in recent days. Earlier in August, former Congress MP from Assam`s Silchar and ex-president of All India Mahila Congress, Sushmita Dev joined the TMC. She is now assigned to look after TMC`s affairs in Tripura. A few days back, Sushmita Dev was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.

Many BJP leaders have also recently left the party to join TMC since Banerjees resounding victory in West Bengal Assembly polls in May this year. Former union minister Babul Supriyo, BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and three BJP MLAs have recently switched over to TMC.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The schools in the national capital are all set to open for classes from nursery to 8 after the festive season, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said in its meeting on Wednesday. This a step take by Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government in its endeavour to restart schools in the national capital in a phased manner. The DDMA informed that schools will have to follow COVID-19 protocol strictly.

In the meeting chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal, it was decided that the COVID situation in the city is "good" and so with precautions schools can be allowed to be reopened. The officials of Delhi Police and district administration have been directed to ensure strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour, sources told PTI.

Presently, schools for classes 9 to 12 have reopened with 50% capacity. Other guidelines included staggered entry, sanitisation, socially distance seating arrangement.

Also, directions were given to ensure that gatherings that take place during the festive season are strictly in compliance with the laid down SOPs, including no standing crowds, separate entry and exit points, appropriate social distancing for seating, and no activities (fares, stalls, swings) that attract crowds.

Festivals like Ramleela, Dussehra and Durga Puja were allowed but with promise of maintiaining standard operating procedures (SOPs) like social distancing and wearing masks in place.

At present the schools in the state have reopened for classes 9 to 12. Earlier, while reopening schools for senior classes, DDMA had allowed schools to work only in 50% capacity. Other guidelines included staggered entry, sanitisation, socially distance seating arrangement.

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New Delhi: Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh met Home Minister Amit Shah today. The meeting lasted for 50 minutes. In politics, a lot can change in 50 minutes. This meeting could very well shape the future of Punjab politics.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (September 29) discussed the significance of Captains meeting with Amit Shah, what it could mean for Punjab, where elections are due next year.

There is political speculation that Amarinder Singh may join the BJP and become the chief ministerial face in Punjab's assembly elections. However, the real strategy probably would be that simple. If Singh joins BJP, becomes a minister in the central government, or becomes the chief ministerial face of BJP, then just like Sidhu, he would look like an opportunist desperate for power.

That's why the BJP wants to work on Singh's image first and portray him as the strongest representative of the farmers of Punjab. He could be made to mediate in talks with the farmers. Perhaps that is why in this meeting, Singh and Shah had a long discussion on the issue of farmers' agitation and minimum support price for crops.

If Amarinder Singh talks to the farmers, perhaps the farmers would listen and withdraw the agitation.

Singh comes from the Jat Sikh community, which accounts for 14 to 18 percent of the total population in Punjab. Most of the landowner farmers in Punjab also come from this community. A major portion of the protesting farmers also belongs to this community. Therefore, Singh would be suited for this role.

In the 2017 Legislative Assembly elections, Singh single-handedly led the Congress to victory in 77 out of 117 seats (about 65 percent) in Punjab. While both BJP and Akali Dal together could win only 18 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party won 20 seats.

However, Singh was then 74 years old and now he is 79 years old. That's why some believe he has three options at this point in time:

First, Singh could join BJP and the party contests the Punjab elections under his leadership.

Second, he could form his own regional party in Punjab and forge a pre or post-poll alliance with the BJP.

Third, he could join BJP and the party makes him a minister at the Centre. For example, he could be made the agriculture minister.

But BJP will not make any haste in this matter. First, Singh will likely be entrusted with the task of mediating between the farmers and the government and then a decision could be taken to include him in the BJP.

Amarinder Singh, 79, is playing a test match of politics, while 57-year-old Navjot Singh Sidhu believes that he has got the wicket of Captain in 20-20 style. Meanwhile, the Gandhi family was thinking that they had claimed the wickets of both on a single delivery. However, in reality, it is the Gandhi family that lost their wicket here. After this development, the Gandhi familys hold on the Congress party has weakened further. But the Gandhi family is like the batter who is not ready to leave the crease even after getting out. They are still looking to the third umpire hoping they will be declared Not Out.

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Gorakhpur (UP): A case of murder has been registered against six policemen in connection with the death of a Kanpur-based businessman in Gorakhpur, officials said on Wednesday (September 29). Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath talked to the victim's wife, Meenakshi Gupta, on Tuesday night and extended his condolences while the state government announced Rs 10 lakh as financial assistance for the family.

CM Yogi Adityanath will be meeting the family members (of the businessman who died during a raid at a hotel in Gorakhpur on Monday) during his visit to Kanpur tomorrow: Kanpur DM Vishakh Aiyar pic.twitter.com/1R2WQQEq58  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 29, 2021

Meanwhile, the opposition attacked the BJP government over the incident, with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleging that the UP Police is "soft" on criminal and "brutal" with common people. The BSP and the SP too flayed the government over the law and order.

Manish Gupta (36) died in a Gorakhpur hotel during a police raid. He was staying along with two friends in the hotel. Police had earlier denied the charge and said he received a head injury after he fell on the ground as he was drunk.

Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada said a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against six policemen and a hunt has been launched to nab them. The policemen booked for murder include J N Singh, Sub-Inspector Vijay Yadav and Phalmandi police post in-charge Akshay Mishra, Gorakhpur DM Vijay Kiran Anand said. The authorities had suspended the policemen, including the Ramgarhtal SHO, on Tuesday and handed over the probe to the superintendent of police (city).

Meenakshi Gupta alleged that her husband died after police thrashed him. The wife of the deceased had refused to accept her husband's body after the post-mortem examination, insisting on first registering a case against the policemen. However, the family members took the body and left for Kanpur around 1 am on Tuesday night, Anand said.

Reacting to the incident, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "The state of jungle law is such under this government that police are soft on criminals and behave barbarously with common people."

Priyanka also talked to family members of the victim over the phone, expressing grief and assuring them of help in ensuring justice, party sources said.

BSP supremo Mayawati also said the incident exposed tall claims over law and order. "The barbaric act against three businessmen during a raid in a hotel in the CM's home district is very said and shameful," she said in a tweet. "The state government should provide justice to every victim's family and ensure that such incidents do not happen again," she added.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav too on Tuesday had said the incident was the result of the "encounter culture" of the state government. "Those involved should face trial and those who pushed the state on the path of violence should resign," he said in a tweet.

According to police, during a checking on Monday (September 27) night, the Ramgarhtal Police found that three people were staying on an ID of one Chandan Saini of Mahadeva Bazar in the Sikriganj area of Gorakhpur. On getting suspicious, they went to the room where Manish Gupta was with his two friends, Pradeep Chauhan and Hari Chauhan of Gurgaon. Police said while they were questioning the trio, Manish Gupta fell on the ground as he was drunk and suffered a head injury.

He was taken to BRD Medical College where he died during treatment, police claimed.

Also read: Sensational Zee News sting! BIG revelations around Mahant Narendra Giri's death

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New Delhi: Congress leader Navjot Singh has been given an ultimatum of two days to reconsider his decision to resign as the partys Punjab chief.

According to sources, the party high command has asked Sidhu to make a final call within the given time, after which it would appoint a new state chief of the party.

The sources also said that senior leader Sunil Jakhar is one of the frontrunners for the post. He is also the favoured choice of former CM Amarinder Singh who resigned under pressure from the high command.

Meanwhile, Singh met Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi fueling speculations of him joining the BJP.

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New Delhi: Hours after the shocking resignation of Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday (September 28, 2021) said that he is a 'misguided' missile that doesn't know where to go. Badal alleged that Sidhu first destroyed former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh by becoming state Congress president and then 'wiped' out his party.

Speaking to media persons, the SAD chief said, "I had earlier said that Navjot Singh Sidhu is a misguided missile that does not know where it will go or will kill whom. He first destroyed Captain Amarinder Singh by becoming Punjab Congress president. Then, wiped out his party."

"Even I had warned about the kind of person Sidhu is. Every kid in Punjab knows that. He is an egoistic man. If Punjab is to be saved then I request Sidhu Sahib to go to Mumbai," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sidhu tendered his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi after being appointed to the post for over two months. He was appointed as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) on July 23 amid a tussle with Captain Amarinder Singh.

"The collapse of a man's character stems from the compromise corner, I can never compromise on Punjab`s future and the agenda for the welfare of Punjab. Therefore, I hereby resign as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Will continue to serve the Congress," Sidhu said in his resignation letter.

A series of resignations poured in after Sidhu's resignation. A minister and three Congress leaders, considered close to Sidhu, stepped down from their posts. Punjab Cabinet Minister Razia Sultana resigned from her ministerial post in 'solidarity' with Sidhu, while Gautam Seth resigned as General Secretary (in-charge training) of Punjab Congress and Yoginder Dhingra resigned as General Secretary of the party's state unit. State party treasurer Gulzar Inder Chahal also stepped down from his post.

Captain Amarinder Singh also hit out at Sidhu and said that he is not a stable man and not fit for the border state of Punjab.

"I told you so he is not a stable man and not fit for the border state of Punjab," the Punjab Congress veteran tweeted shortly after Sidhu's resignation.

I told you sohe is not a stable man and not fit for the border state of punjab.  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) September 28, 2021

While talking to Zee News, Singh said that Sidhu is 'anti-national' and projected senior leader Sunil Jakhar as a good choice for taking the role of the partys state president.

"Navjot Singh Sidhu is anti-national," Singh said.

"I will be happy if Sunil Jakhar is made state Congress chief," he added.

Calling Sidhu unfit to lead Congress in Punjab, Amarinder said that he was glad that he resigned from the state chief post.

Meanwhile, speculations are rife that Singh is going to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the former Punjab CM arrived in the national capital on Tuesday.

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The controversy surrounding the death of Mahant Narendra Giri shows no signs of abating. In a sting operation conducted by Zee News, BJP leader Sushil Mishra and SP leader Indu Prakash Mishra, who were close to the Mahant, made some big claims.

Sushil Mishra said that Mahant was not a person who would die by suicide on the basis of some picture. The sting operation showed him claiming that there must be a CD involved, which is likely to be the reason behind his death. Sushil said that police might have the CD and the content of the CD must have driven Mahant to his death. Sushil added that he was 101% sure it was suicide.

Mahant Narendra Giri

Indu Prakash Mishra, in the sting operation, said that while he and Sushil Mishra were mediators, the argument between Anand Giri and Mahant Giri was resolved behind closed doors, and therefore the content of their conversation are not known. He said that it was Mahant who initiated the resolution of the argument and that it was Sushil Mishra who made the now-famous video which showed Anand Giri seeking forgiveness of the Mahant.

A dispute over a piece of land has been reported to be one of the main causes of discord between the two. Mahant was allegedly asking Anand to return the land that he had taken on lease.

Dr UB Yadav, the doctor of the Mahant, said in the same operation that Mahant had bad knees which needed to be replaced. Also he claimed that five hours prior to his death, he was with the Mahant, who didn't look as distressed as a man who was contemplating suicide is expected to be.

We need to tell our readers once again that these were a part of a sting operation of Zee News, and not formal interviews given to the channel.

CBI investigation into his death and 'suicide note' is a must, Ram Vilas Vedanti later told the channel.

Also watch: Zee Sting: Biggest secret of Mahant Narendra Giri's death on Zee News

Mahant Narendra Giri, who was the president of Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad, allegedly committed suicide on September 20. Narendra Giri was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in Shri Baghambari Gaddi under the Geoge Town police station area.

In his suicide note, the deceased had named the three, accusing them of mentally harassing him, following which the police had lodged an FIR under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code on charges of abetting the suicide.

The Uttar Pradesh police had arrested Anand Giri and Adya Tiwari the very next day on September 21 after the Akhara Parishad chief was found dead in his room.

The third accused and Tiwari's son Sandeep was arrested on September 22 and all three of them were remanded to judicial custody after their arrests.

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Panaji: The Shiv Sena would contest 22 seats in the Goa Assembly elections due in February next year, party leader Sanjay Raut said on Wednesday.

He was talking to reporters on his arrival at the Dabolim airport in Goa, where he was given a warm welcome by local Shiv Sena leaders and functionaries led by party's state unit chief Jitest Kamat.

Raut's visit to the state is aimed at taking stock of the party's preparedness for the upcoming polls.

"Goa and Maharashtra share an emotional relationship. The way Sena is ruling Maharashtra, it will rule Goa as well," the party's Rajya Sabha member said

The Shiv Sena will contest 22 seats in Goa Assembly election, he added.

At present, the Sena does not have even a single legislator in the 40-member House in Goa. The party had fought the 2017 election in alliance with other political outfits, like the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), but failed to win any seat. The Sena had fielded candidates from three seats, but could not open its account.

The Congress had won the highest 17 seats, restricting the BJP to 13 in the last polls. However, surprising the Congress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and formed government under the leadership of senior leader Manohar Parrikar.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already thrown its hat in the ring ahead of the polls, with the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announcing free power up to 300 units per month and 80 per cent jobs for locals if his party is voted to power during his recent visit to Panaji.

On Saturday, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O'Brien had told PTI that the party will be contesting the upcoming Assembly polls and they were in touch with several local leaders.

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Chennai: The top officials of the Forest Department at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), Tamil Nadu, said an injured 6-month old male tiger cub has been rescued successfully and is recovering well at a treatment facility. Forest staff had spotted the lone cub wandering by the private tea estates in the Valparai area. It was a rare sight given how cubs are not spotted without their mother and siblings.

Since the time of its spotting two days ago, forest staff had been tracking the weak-appearing cub, until they lost track of it owing to heavy rains and poor visibility. Anticipating the need for capturing and treating the animal, the Forest department, under the guidance of Tamil Nadu Chief Wildlife Warden Dr. Shekhar Kumar Niraj readied a team of vets and equipment required for the operation.

Field Director and Conservator of Forest, ATR, Ramasubramaian told Zee Media that the cub was initially spotted about two days ago by forest staff on routine rounds, following which the animal was being tracked. However, heavy rains and poor visibility hampered their work.

We had a team of vets from Tirunelveli, technical experts and the Panchayat head, in accordance with the National Tiger Conservation Authority Guidelines for capture. Cages and tranquilizer darts were also kept ready and we formed four teams and we spent hours combing the area where the tiger cub was spotted. Later, we understood from tea estate workers that the cub had entered and taken refuge in an abandoned building in their premises Field Director and Conservator of Forest, Ramasubramaian told Zee Media.

6-month old, injured male tiger cub captured by TN forest dept in Anaimalai Tiger reserve(ATR). Cub bore injuries caused by porcupine Officials say, cub has been provided treatment, fed milk&meat and is doing well ATR is home to 25tigers, forest dept looking for cub's family pic.twitter.com/zmPW7vPYIi  Sidharth M.P (@sdhrthmp) September 29, 2021

After the mammoth effort of 150 personnel in clearing the bushes and conducting searches, amid the heavy rain, it was late on Tuesday night that the tiger cub was captured. Owing to its weak condition and the risks involved in tranquilizing, the forest department staff and experts caught the tiger cub in a net, covered its eyes and face(to prevent aggressive behavior or attacks) and move the caged cub to the treatment facility in Rottikadai, nearly 10kms from the spot of capture in Valparai.

Examination by vets revealed that the cub bore injuries caused by porcupine quills and the tigers fecal matter indicated that the cub had eaten a porcupine. Besides dressing the wounds, the vets treated the animal with antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medicines and fed the animal, which was suspected to be starving owing to its injuries. Responding to the treatment and care, the cub also consumed the meat and milk that was offered.

The decision to release the cub or keep it under captivity is to be taken by the NTCA and the Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu, after the cub completes close to a week under observation Ramasubramanian added. Asked about the whereabouts of the cubs mother and siblings, he replied that Forest staff are looking into whether the cub was abandoned or got lost from its family. The Anamalai tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu is home to about 25 tigers and the region where the cub was captured is home to anywhere between 7-10 tigers. The ATR spans across parts of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Dindigul districts of Tamil Nadu.

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New Delhi: Hours after senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal questioned the high command over the recent turmoil in Punjab and the exodus of several leaders across the country, party workers staged a protest outside his residence in Delhi.

Congress leader Ajay Maken hit out at Sibal reminding him that it was Sonia Gandhi who ensured he became a Union Minister during the UPA regime. He said Sibal should not degrade the organisation that gave them an identity.

Sonia Gandhi ji had ensured that Kapil Sibal becomes a minister in Union Cabinet despite not having organizational background. Everyone in the party is being heard. Want to tell Mr Sibal and others that they shouldn't degrade the organization that gave them an identity, Maken was quoted as saying by ANI.

Earlier today, Sibal addressed the media demanding urgent steps by the party to save the party.

We are not Jee Huzoor 23. It is very clear. We will keep talking. We will continue to reiterate our demands, said Sibal.

In our party, there is no president so we don't know who is taking these decisions. We know and yet we don't know, he said in an indirect reference to the Gandhi family.

Sibal further appealed to the party members to work together to strengthen the party. He even urged those who have left the party to come back.

Every Congressman of the country should think as to how the party can be strengthened. Those who have left should come back because Congress alone can save this republic, he said.

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KABUL/NEW DELHI: The Taliban regime has written a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) urging it to resume commercial flights to Afghanistan.

According to reports, the letter to the DGCA has been written by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is believed to be reviewing the Taliban governments letter at the moment. The DGCA had suspended all commercial flight operations to Kabul post-August 15 takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan writes to DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to resume commercial flights to Afghanistan (Kabul). Letter under review by Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). India had stopped all commercial flight operations to Kabul post 15 Aug. pic.twitter.com/8LO96j6EkK  ANI (@ANI) September 29, 2021

It may be noted that the Directorate General of Central Aviation (DGCA) has extended the ban on scheduled international commercial flights till October 31, considering the Covid-19 scenario.

In a notification issued on Tuesday, the DGCA, however, said, "This restriction will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the regulator."

The aviation regulator added that scheduled international flights might be allowed on selected routes on a case-to-case basis.

The Central government had banned the operation of international flights on March 23 last year to contain and control the spread of Covid-19.

Flight restrictions, however, were later eased under an air bubble arrangement with certain countries. India has formed air bubble pacts with about 25 countries.

The country has been operating Vande Bharat flights to many countries over the past one year.

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New Delhi: Reacting to the ongoing Punjab Congress crisis, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra on Wednesday (September 29) slammed the Congress party saying that the party has become a synonym for instability. Addressing the media, Patra said that the political situation in Punjab is really worrisome.

"Since Punjab is a border state, the political stability is very essential there in terms of national security. But the whole of India is seeing that Congress has become a synonym for instability now," he stated. "It is a surprise that when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were rejoicing over making a big strategic move in Punjab and had gone for a holiday, things went haywire in Punjab. It is not hidden from anyone that Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and Sidhu are not on the same page. Both of them are having a battle of ambitions," he added.

The BJP spokesperson further alleged that the Congress party has been threatening media to divert their attention from the ongoing crisis in Punjab. "The way Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tweeted that anyone in the media raising questions on Rahul Gandhi will not be spared is against the freedom of expression," he stated. Mocking 'politics of love' preached by Rahul Gandhi earlier in the parliament, he said, "What kind of politics is this where you threaten a female journalist? I would like to ask Sonia Gandhi that being a woman, does she think this is justified."

Navjot Singh Sidhu, reportedly upset over the bureaucratic setup and his commands not being followed after Cabinet expansion in Punjab, tendered his resignation as Punjab Congress chief on Tuesday. This comes as a big blow to the Congress high command that was hoping to resolve the turmoil in the Congress unit of Punjab ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.

Further slamming Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on Veer Savarkar demarcating India to just a map, the BJP spokesperson said that Congress is a 'tukde-tukde' gang that colludes with the enemies. Patra said, "Rahul Gandhi gave a speech in Wayanad and said that he does not believe in India's borders. I want to ask him that if he does not believe in the border, then what does he believe in?"

He added, "Then what should we infer when your leader Navjot Singh Sidhu went and hugged Bajwa (Pakistan army chief)? You do not believe in borders and hug enemies. Congress is a 'tukde-tukde' gang," he added.

Earlier in the day, during an event at Mallapuram in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi said that people like Veer Savarkar demarcate India to a geography unlike him who believes India is constituted by its people. "They take a pen, draw a map and say this is India. They say India is a territory, we say India is people, relationships," he stated.

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New Delhi: A day after fresh drama in Punjab following Navjot Singh Sidhus resignation, Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday (September 29) targeted the party high command over the lack of leadership.

He is one of the 23 leaders (G-23) who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi demanding organisational reforms in the party and a full-time President. Sibal said he would continue to raise those demands.

We are not Jee Huzoor 23. It is very clear. We will keep talking. We will continue to reiterate our demands, Sibal was quoted as saying by ANI.

In our party, there is no president so we don't know who is taking these decisions. We know and yet we don't know, he said in an indirect reference to the Gandhi family.

He took a dig at the recent decisions taken by the party leadership, particularly in the context of infighting in the border state of Punjab.

We (leaders of G-23) are not the ones who will leave the party and go anywhere else. It is ironic. Those who were close to them (party leadership) have left and those whom they don't consider to be close to them are still standing with them, Sibal said.

A border state (Punjab) where this is happening to Congress party means what? It is an advantage to ISI and Pakistan. We know the history of Punjab and the rise of extremism there... Congress should ensure that they remain united, he added.

Sibal further appealed to the party members to work together to strengthen the party. He even urged those who have left the party to come back.

Every Congressman of the country should think as to how the party can be strengthened. Those who have left should come back because Congress alone can save this republic, he said.

Sibal informed media that one of the senior party leaders would write a letter to Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi demanding urgent CWC meeting in view of the ongoing crisis.

I believe that one of my senior colleagues has perhaps written or is about to write to Congress president to immediately convene a CWC so that a dialogue can take place as to why we are in this state, Sibal said.

As it turned out, Ghulam Nabi Azad wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi demanding CWC meet.

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New Delhi: In order to meet the immediate requirement of experienced personnel for Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation for the Pune Metro Rail Project, the Maha Metro has announced bumper vacancies. Applications have been invited from candidates having experience in metro rail, railways, railway PSUs, government organizations, PSUs and metro-related infrastructure and industries.

They can apply for these vacancies on a contract or deputation basis.

Maha Metro Recruitment: Name of posts and number of vacancies

1. Additional Chief Project Manager (Signal) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 53

Pay scale - Rs.1,00,000  2,60,000

2. Senior Deputy General Manager (Electrical & Mechanical) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 48

Pay scale - Rs. 80,000  2,20,000

3. Deputy General Manager (Safety, Training & Coordination) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 45

Pay scale - Rs 70,000  2,00,000

4. Assistant Manager (System Analyst - BIM & SAP) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 35

Pay scale - Rs. 50,000  1,60,000

5. Senior Station Controller / Traffic Controller / Depot Controller / Train Operator Signal, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) --

Number of vacancies - 23

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years, SC / ST  45 years

Pay scale - Rs. 40,000  1,25,000

6. Senior Section Engineer (Track) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 46,000  1,45,000

7. Senior Section Engineer (Traction) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 46,000  1,45,000

8. Senior Section Engineer (MEP) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 46,000  1,45,000

9. Section Engineer (IT) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs.40,000  1,25,000

10. Junior Engineer (Signal & Telecom) --

Number of vacancies - 03

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

11. Junior Engineer (Traction) --

Number of vacancies - 11

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years, SC  45 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

12. Junior Engineer (MEP/AC & Refrigeration / Plumbing) --

Number of vacancies - 01

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

13. Junior Engineer (Civil / Track) --

Number of vacancies - 03

Age limit - 40

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000



14. Senior Technician (Traction) --

Number of vacancies - 12

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years, SC / ST  45 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

15. Senior Technician (MEP) --

Number of vacancies - 05

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

16. Senior Technician (Mason) --

Number of vacancies - 05

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

17. Senior Technician (Signal & Telecom) --

Number of vacancies - 09

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

18. Senior Technician (Fitter) --

Number of vacancies - 12

Age limit - UR  40 years, OBC  43 years, SC / ST  45 years

Pay scale - Rs. 33,000  1,00,000

19. Account Assistant (Finance) --

Number of vacancies - 04

Age limit - UR  32 years, OBC  35 years, SC  37 years

Pay scale - Rs. 25,000 80,000

Maha Metro Recruitment: Last date

Interested candidates can apply till October 14, 2021 (up to 6 PM).

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New Delhi: Now Karnataka is mulling to bring an anti-Conversion Bill in the state Assembly. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said his government is considering introducing the bill which will forbid forceful religious conversions.

"We are contemplating bringing an Anti-Conversion law," ANI quoted the Karnataka CM as saying.

Responding to the allegations of forced conversions in Yadgir, Bommai said, "There are complaints of forced conversions in the state. There is serious thought on formulating a law to regulate it completely.

In another incident, Byadarahalli police are probing an alleged forceful religious conversion case. In a building owned by one Narayanaswamy, as many as 20 children were forced to participate in prayers. Based on the complaint, the police have issued a notice to Narayanaswamy, IANS reported.

A few days back, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra also said that the government is deliberating to bring anti-conversation law in the state, adding they are referring to other states` laws."We are planning to bring a bill (anti-conversion bill). Some states have already brought the anti-conversion bill. We will study them and we will bring that bill," Jnanendra had said.

The issue gained prominence after Hosadurga BJP MLA Goolihatti Shekar claimed on the floor of the House that Christian missionaries had got his mother converted.

Earlier, BJP ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat passed anti-conversion laws. In April this year, Gujarat Vidhan Sabha had passed the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2021 introducing more stringent punishment against forced religious conversions through marriage. The Yogi Adityanath government passed the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act last year.

(With agency inputs)

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Thane: A doctor and a nurse have been suspended after a man was administered an anti-rabies medicine instead of COVID-19 vaccine at a medical centre in Maharashtra's Thane district, said reports on Wednesday.

Local resident Rajkumar Yadav went to the civic-run medical centre in Kalwa area here on Monday to get a jab against the coronavirus infection.

He stood in a wrong queue and after being vaccinated, he was informed that he was administered the vaccine against rabies, a spokesperson of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) told reporters on Tuesday.

The man panicked, but he is fine and has no complications, the official said.

He later complained to authorities and based on a preliminary enquiry, a woman doctor, who was in-charge of the medical centre, and a nurse were placed under suspension for the goof-up, the official said.

The medical centre, located in a slum colony of Kalwa, provides vaccination against various diseases to people in the area.

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New Delhi: Former Pepsi Co CEO, Indra Nooyi showered praises on Amitabh Bachchan's granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda for her superlative business acumen. During a panel discussion on Mojo Story, she even revealed about not knowing at first who Navya was.

Proud mommy Shweta Bachchan Nanda took to her Instagram handle and shared a video snippet with a caption: Thats my little girl, in conversation with her absolute idol !! An absolute dream come true for her, and no greater joy for a mother than to see her daughter realise her dreams. @navyananda youve been manifesting this forever I am unbelievably proud of you PS- ofcourse I put up the bits about my kid - but the whole interview is an example of FEMALE FIERCENESS going to post the link on my story do watch

During a panel discussion on Mojo Story, Indra Nooyi said, Navya, I've got to tell you, when I agreed to mentor these four girls who were running Aara Health, their proposition was a terrific proposition. And it's a proposition that suited the Indian zeitgeist I just loved what the four were doing; dedicated, hard-working.

We just hear Navya talk, and am listening to her talk, at that young age and to be so poised, and so articulate and just sound so professional, it says to me that women have come a long way. People like Navya are going to emerge in the world scene in a profound sense and we are all going to be looking at them and saying how proud we are," Indra can be heard saying in the video.

Adding more, former Pepsi Co CEO said, What I loved is after every meeting, writing action items, following up, coming back to me about the progress they've made. I had no idea who Navya Nanda was when I was mentoring her. I just saw her as this extraordinary businessperson, but very young. And I'm thinking to myself, I wish I had her maturity when I was her age. I didn't.

For the unversed, megastar Amitabh Bachchan's granddaughter, Navya Naveli Nanda turned entrepreneur from a young age. When people were assuming her to join the glamour world of Bollywood, she rather talked about the importance of mental health through her venture Aara Health.

Aara Health is an organisation co-founded by Navya along with Mallika Sahney, Pragya Saboo and Ahilya Mehta in 2020. Navya graduated from Sevenoaks School in Kent, London along with Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan.

She pursued digital technology at Fordham University in New York.

On Aara Health page's Instagram account, often Navya along with her co-founder friends discuss various issues and earlier talked about mental health, mansplaining among others.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal stated that his party's Chief Ministerial candidate will be someone Punjab can be proud of. The AAP leader is expected to make major announcements ahead of Punjab's Assembly elections scheduled for next year, the party said.

"We've said again and again that we will give you such a CM face that all of you will be proud, Punjab will be proud. We're holding a detailed press conference tomorrow," Kejriwal was quoted as saying by ANI.

We've said again & again that we'll give you such a CM face that all of you will be proud, Punjab will be proud. We're holding a detailed press conference tomorrow: AAP national convener & Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in Mohali, when asked about CM face of his party for Punjab polls pic.twitter.com/JGldVi8GL8  ANI (@ANI) September 29, 2021

Also, the political situation in the state is highly volatile with Captain Amarinder Singh resigning and Charanjit Singh Channi taking oath as the new CM less than two weeks ago.

Kejiwral, during his two-day visit to the state, raked up a number of issues. He congratulated Channi on becoming CM but alleged that the latter inducted tainted ministers in his cabinet. The AAP leader requested Channi to take action against them.

To a question on the desecration issue, he said, "People of Punjab are upset over Bargari (sacrilege) case. Mastermind of the case, I don't need to say who he's, didn't get any punishment so far. Channi sahab should read Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh's report, he'll find the names. They can be arrested within 24 hours."

On Tuesday, Kejriwal told reporters, "The AAP government in Punjab will provide up to 300 units of free electricity to each family." He said if voted to power, AAP will also waive arrears of domestic consumers.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal will visit Ludhiana on Wednesday and hold a meeting with traders. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will go on a two-day Punjab tour. He will visit Ludhiana tomorrow and meet traders. Kejriwal will hold a press conference on September 30. Will make big announcements in it," a tweet on AAP's official page read.

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NEW DELHI: The Congress high command has refused to accept Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation as Punjab unit chief and directed the state party leaders and MLAs to resolve the issue on their own. News agency ANI, quoting sources from Congress, has reported that the Congress top brass has asked the party's state unit to resolve all issues at its own level first.

Confirming the same, Congress MLA Bawa Henry said that Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu`s resignation from his post has not been accepted by the high command and the matter will be resolved soon.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjeet Singh Channi has convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet as more and more ministers resigned in support of Sidhu.

On Tuesday, MLAs Pargat Singh and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring met Sidhu at his residence in Patiala and convinced him to reconsider his decision. "There are some minor issues that arose out of some misunderstandings and will be resolved tomorrow," Warring told reporters while leaving Sidhu`s residence.

Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira too informed that they have urged Sidhu to withdraw his resignation. He (Navjot Singh Sidhu) had taken a stand against corruption in Punjab. If his suggestions are not paid heed to, he would not want to be a speechless president. We urge him to withdraw his resignation and request the high command to redress his grievances," said Khaira.

In a dramatic turn of events in Punjab, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had tendered his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday afternoon. "The collapse of a man`s character stems from the compromise corner, I can never compromise on Punjab`s future and the agenda for the welfare of Punjab. Therefore, I hereby resign as the President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Will continue to serve the Congress," Sidhu said in his resignation letter.

Sidhu's resignation as the chief of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee plunged the party into a fresh crisis just months ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Sidhu quit the post shortly after the allocation of portfolios to the members of the new state Cabinet. In a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said he will continue to serve the party.

Sidhu had taken over as the state party chief in July amid a leadership tussle with Captain Amarinder Singh, who stepped down as CM 10 days back while accusing the high command of humiliating him.

Amarinder Singh, who had called Sidhu dangerous" and anti-national", and said he will pit a strong candidate against him to ensure that he doesnt become the chief minister, was quick to react. I told you so he is not a stable man not fit for the border state of Punjab," the former CM tweeted.

Sidhu's resignation had a snowball effect as several ministers resigned from their posts after he submitted his letter. Punjab Cabinet Minister Razia Sultana resigned from her ministerial post in "solidarity" with Sidhu. While Gautam Seth resigned as General Secretary (in-charge training) of Punjab Congress, Yoginder Dhingra resigned as General Secretary of the party`s state unit. State party treasurer Gulzar Inder Chahal also stepped down from his post.

Sidhu`s resignation came just before former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh`s visit to the national capital, who was visiting Delhi after he resigned on September 18.

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New Delhi: South star Jayasurya's 100th film 'Sunny' has been lauded by viewers and critics alike since the time of its release on Amazon Prime Video. Thanks to its gripping narrative, slick direction and path-breaking performance by the actor, this Ranjith Sankar directorial continues to make waves.

Taking its success run ahead, the film has been selected at two prestigious international film festivals  Calella Film Festival 2021 (October 1-October 9, 2021), Spain, and Dhaka International Film Festival 2022 (January 15-January 23, 2022). Along with being the only Indian film to be screened at Calella Film Festival, the movie has also made it to the competition section in both festivals.





Sharing his excitement on the films selection, writer and director Ranjith Sankar added, Its very exciting that our film is being screened at film festivals, especially in a European festival like Calella. When we made Sunny, we showed it to a few people in the festival circuit in India and they felt that the film has a universal appeal and suggested we give it a shot. Thats how we applied at Calella. Sunny is selected in the competition section and is the only Indian film in the Calella Film Festival right now. The festival has been screening very good films for the past five-six years and its a very proud moment for Team Sunny that we have got an opportunity to showcase it in front of an international audience. Sunny is also going to be screened at the Dhaka International Film Festival. It has been selected for screening at the Asian Competition section. We are very happy and really looking forward to the experiences.





Written and directed by Ranjith Sankar, Sunny features seasoned Malayalam star Jayasurya in the lead. The successful suspense drama marks a great milestone for Jayasurya as it is his 100th film, as an actor.

Sunny is streaming now in India and across 240 countries and territories on Amazon Prime Video.
New Delhi: Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been leaked ahead of the launch of the much-awaited smartphones in October 2021. The Pixel 6 range is going to be Googles latest smartphone range that will take on flagship products of brands such as Apple, Samsung and OnePlus, among others.

Google Pixel 6, which is seen as a rival to the recently launched iPhone 13 range, is expected to be launched with a starting price tag of 649 (roughly Rs 56,200).

On the other hand, the Pixel 6 Pro could launch at a starting price of 899 (roughly 77,800), according to a report by 9to5 Google.

Prices of the Google Pixel 6 range are slightly higher than the rates leaked last year. In Europe, the smartphone was priced at about 629 (around Rs 54,400).

A few days ago, a Pixel 6 hands-on video had also surfaced over the internet, as the tech giant aims to create hype around its launch. The video teaser suggests that the device could launch with thin bezels and a hole punch cut out.

Moreover, Google has also announced that the smartphones will be powered by the new Tensor chipsets that are expected to be way more powerful than the chipsets currently powering the Pixel range.

As of now, the tech giant hasnt revealed any date for the launch event of the Pixel 6 range. However, reports suggest that the event could be held on October 19, with devices going on sale starting from October 28, 2021. Also Read: iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro deliveries get delayed, heres why Apple is lagging

However, while nothing is conclusive as of now, one thing is quite sure that the upcoming range isnt coming to India anytime soon. So, Indians will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the Google Pixel 6 smartphone. Also Read: SBI alert! SBI Wecare deposit scheme extended till 31st March 2022, check details here
NEW DELHI: Noted seer Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj of Tapasvi Chavani has demanded that India be declared a Hindu Rashtra by October  the day of Mahatma Gandhis birth anniversary.

The revered seer has also threatened that he will take a Jal samadhi if his demands are not met.

I demand that India should be declared a Hindu Rashtra by October 2 or else I'll take Jal Samadhi in river Sarayu, Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj said in Ayodhya, according to ANI.

Ayodhya | I demand that India should be declared a Hindu Rashtra by Oct 2 or else I'll take Jal Samadhi in river Sarayu. And Centre should terminate nationality of Muslims & Christians: Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj (28.09) pic.twitter.com/QMAIkd6tLZ  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 29, 2021

The influential saint also demanded the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to terminate the nationality of Muslims and Christians living in India.

Paramhans Acharya has earlier undertaken a 15-day long fast unto death over the issue. The seer broke his fast only after getting assurance from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The saint community of Ayodhya has said that it will hold a 'Hindu Sanatan Dharma Sansad' in support of the demands made by the seer.

Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj had once challenged Dwarka Sharada Peeth Pramukh Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand over 'muhurat' of Ram Mandir bhoomi poojan in Ayodhya. He even slammed Swaroopanand by terming him as the 'sycophant' of Congress.

The controversial remarks from the seer have come at a time when all top political parties have begun preparing for the crucial assembly elections to be scheduled to be held in Uttar Pradesh in 2022.

It may be noted that several other influential seers have in past made similar demands.

Earlier, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Samajwadi Party had raised questions on the land purchased by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya, the seers had rejected the allegations against the trust and threatened to file a Rs 1000 crore defamation suit against both parties.

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Kolkata: By-elections to Bhabanipur seat, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting, and two other constituencies will be held on Thursday amid tight security and measures to tackle rain, officials said.

The by-elections will be held in south Kolkata's Bhabanipur, besides Jangipur and Samserganj seats in Murshidabad district.

A total of 72 companies of central forces have been deployed in the three constituencies, of which 35 were sent to Bhabanipur alone. Three personnel will man each of the 287 booths at the 97 polling centres in Bhabanipur, an election official said.

The Election Commission has asked the Irrigation Department to be on alert owing to inclement weather conditions and all polling stations were directed to keep pumps ready to drain out floodwaters.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed within 200 metres of the polling centres.

Kolkata Police, which will be in charge of security outside the booths in Bhabanipur, has already set up pickets across 38 locations in the constituency, a police officer said.

There will be heavy deployment of forces, including quick response teams, in Bhabanipur. Security has also been heightened in Jangipur and Samserganj seats.

Votes polled on Thursday will be counted on October 3. Banerjee will fight BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal, and CPI(M)'s Srijib Biswas in Bhabanipur.
WASHINGTON: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Tuesday that the Afghan army`s sudden collapse caught the Pentagon "by surprise," as military leaders confronted a contentious Senate hearing about how and why America lost its longest war.

Republican lawmakers accused President Joe Biden of lying about recommendations from his military that some troops should be kept in Afghanistan. Even Biden`s Democrats expressed frustration with a chaotic withdrawal that left U.S. troops dead and American citizens behind.

Biden`s approval ratings have been badly damaged by last month`s spectacular collapse of the two-decade war effort, with painful images of Afghans clinging desperately to a U.S. military plane as they tried to escape Taliban rule.

Thirteen U.S. troops also died in an August 26 suicide bombing trying to safeguard the evacuation effort that, ultimately, relied on support from the militant Islamist Taliban, a long-time U.S. foe.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Frank McKenzie of U.S. Central Command also acknowledged being caught off-guard by the speed of the Taliban takeover and collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

It was their first public congressional testimony since the Taliban won the war in August.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away  in many cases without firing a shot  took us all by surprise," Austin, a former four-star general who served in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"It would be dishonest to claim otherwise."

McKenzie and Milley testified that they had believed it would have been best to keep a minimum of 2,500 troops in the country. In an August interview, Biden denied his commanders had recommended that, saying: "No. No one said that to me that I can recall."

Republican Senator Joni Ernst said Biden`s decision to keep former President Donald Trump`s unconditional withdrawal agreement with the Taliban had squandered U.S. sacrifices for what he thought would be "a cheap political victory."

"The loss of our service members, and abandonment of Americans and Afghan allies last month was an unforced, disgraceful humiliation that didn`t have to happen," Ernst said.

Senator James Inhofe, the panel`s top Republican, described it as a "horror of the president`s own making."

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Biden`s military experts had provided "a range of viewpoints" about Afghanistan, and that Biden believed leaving troops there would "mean war with the Taliban."

Milley, the top U.S. military officer, noted military warnings since late 2020 that an accelerated, unconditional withdrawal could precipitate the collapse of the Afghan military and government.

"That was a year ago. My assessment remained consistent throughout," Milley said.

`WHY DON`T YOU RESIGN?`

Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked Milley why, if everything he said was true, he didn`t resign his position.

Milley pushed back strongly, saying a U.S. president does not have to agree with the advice of his generals. "This country doesn`t want generals figuring out what orders we are going to accept and do or not. That`s not our job," Milley said.

Austin, Milley and senators - many of whom oversaw the war effort for years - seemed full of questions about what went wrong, citing failures to appreciate the impact of corruption and damaged morale in the ranks.

"There`s a series of strategic lessons to be learned," Milley said.

Democrats faulted Republicans for blaming Biden, who has been president since January, for everything that went wrong during the 20 years U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan, including under Trump.

"Anyone who says the last few months were a failure, but everything before that was great, clearly hasn`t been paying attention," Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said.

Much of the hearing was devoted to Republicans` questions about Milley`s interviews with Bob Woodward and other reporters for books on the chaotic last months the former president was in the White House.

Austin praised U.S. personnel who helped airlift 124,000 people out of the country.

But Milley acknowledged that while the evacuation effort was a logistical accomplishment, the withdrawal was a "strategic defeat" that left the Taliban back in power.

He warned the Taliban "remains a terrorist organization" that has not broken ties with al Qaeda.

A reconstituted al Qaeda in Afghanistan with aspirations to attack the United States was "a very real possibility" - perhaps in as little as a year, he said.

That warning is likely to unsettle lawmakers, who are skeptical of the Pentagon`s ability to quickly respond to al Qaeda and Islamic State threats.

Austin defended plans to address future counterterrorism threats from overseas after a botched drone strike killed 10 Afghan civilians last month.

"Over-the-horizon operations are difficult but absolutely possible. And the intelligence that supports them comes from a variety of sources, not just U.S. boots on the ground," Austin said.
Kabul: The Taliban regime has warned the United States not to operate its drones over Afghan airspace and asked it to follow obligations to prevent negative consequences.

According to a Sputnik report, the Taliban have called the US move a breach of national security. The Taliban`s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid asked all countries and Washington to act in accordance with mutual obligations.

He also emphasised that acting on obligations would prevent negative consequences. "We call on all countries, especially the United States, to act in accordance with mutual obligations ... to prevent any negative consequences," he said in a tweet, according to Sputnik.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan last month and announced its interim government earlier in September.

The US troops left Afghanistan on August 31 under the previously agreed Doha deal with the Taliban last year.

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